The 100th Alp

Was excited for this when I finished my 50th within the first year. But, I got distracted at times with Academy, World's, and other goals. I even went a whole month without a climb! Now, this is not too monumental. A few guys have 200 and even 300. I'm not on a smart trainer either, so I'm not using tiny gears the whole way up. What really took the cake was about a week ago, I saw a 78 year old man does this route every day as his exercise. Daily!

I thought about a super light weight ride up the Alp but then it would be on private and I want others to see that this is something they can do too. I think I will tire of Ventoux soon. On the Alp, I always check my time at the turn at 10. That's the half-way point in time roughly. I judge my time based on that. With Ventoux, it's the time to the 9km stone or about half the time to the Reynard arch.

I've done a lot of workouts on the Alp. It means I'm in for over an hour and I won't back down. Only once recently, I remember being too tired to go past the first ten minutes. I actually felt guilt for turning around and quitting. But, I have had over-training issues before, so I have to let my body be the boss sometimes.

I rode the Alp at least 20 times picking one section to race all out. A lot of them were before the Tarmac bike too. I still hold a bunch of them. Dare I check? It just isn't my goal right now. For a time of several months, I held every single section record (because who else would be crazy enough to sprint each section one by one?)

Today is August 5th 2020. The Alp was released on March 29 2018. So. that's not even once a week but I made it. There will never be a Ventoux 100 or even 50 in my thinking. Officially, Ventoux will be released on August 10 but I have 5 already and probably a sixth this Sunday. 

For not being a climber, I have fallen in love with the Alp scenery and its 21 turns. Thanks Zwift and everyone who has followed my saga for a while. What's next? World's prep mostly. Less than 50 days to go. Serious training starts four weeks out. But doing a short time trial and then the Alp today are all part of the road to defend the title. Dig, dig, dig. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

QOM Paris Champs Elysees

I can't resist the temptation to grab a queen on a new route. So I jumped onto Paris through an event, quit and rode on my time trial bike. I did a fairly long warm up and aimed around a holdable 4 w/kg. I did a sprint on the mini climb and kept energy in reserve for the grind and the approach to the line. I finished with a 4.2 average for 9:41. Strava data

Now, I know a few things. 1 Very few people have aimed for this and 2, nobody with A cat wattage has attempted this yet. (I've never hit A cat wattage for 20 minutes though two years ago I came within a few watts) But, a win is a win. Sure somebody will beat this but not for a few weeks maybe. I just hope I pass the queen to a real top rider like a pro or something rather than a weight doper doing a speedy workout. But, that's Strava. For now, it will hold  and be part of my accolades.

So, for my next challenge, I'm thinking all ten worlds time trial. It might take a while to hit them all, especially Bologna with so few races. And I hate Innsbruck being so long. I don't even know what course is the orange jersey for France? I've only ridden Ventoux, skipped the other events. I will start where I left off in March with most already finished. I just need Crit City and France time trialed.

Dirt Stage 5 and 6

Stage 5 went pretty good. I was at the front for all of 8 laps and fell off for 9. I only lost a minute riding the last two laps solo. It was a fun race but having just won my first mixed race (well, I won a time trial but it had different start times so it isn't like winning a sprint). I sat in 5th place overall.

Stage 6 would see me start horribly, climb the volcano with a good time 8:30 and then basically just dead, like 180 watts instead of 230 watts. Legs were just useless as I climbed the reverse epic hill in a sprint to stay under 30 at 29:55. The finish line was just before the tower turn. Overall, I lost two places having lost 6 minutes and finishing dead last for the day. I finished 7th of 9 riders in the overall for all six weeks. I do not count the winner as he has had 4 races at the A level although technically, he qualified as a B with only one A performance and ZP rules are three. But, really once you qualify for A, switch. Officially, I was listed in 9th place which is good for as many people signed up for the first race. GC 6 Stages

But, I feel a bit burned out since last week. I really felt great week one. I think what was hard was mixing in short races with a much longer endurance race. Maybe old age is just getting me or the fact that I quit the gym permanently.(My husband is a high-risk for covid so I don't want to risk exposing myself and bring it it home.)

Looking forward to France this Saturday. I think I will quit the race and either just do a lap or if I feel my legs, I will climb Mont Ventoux all the way. I need to finish my Alp d' Huez. I'm at 94 ascents right now.

First Win!

I actually won a race. Of course, I've won several other races, big ones included, but this was a mixed race, or rather, I was the only girl among the guys. I thought I would be super proud but I am more of a bit surprised. It still hasn't sunk in yet, winning out of a field of 23. Most of the race was spent worrying that I would get dropped. I barely stayed on the tail at the opening gun. The only place I did good was on the second half of the hill, I would surge to the front and cross the prime line first.

I also had a time trial win but you don't know until its over as it wasn't a side by side time trial. So, knowing there was a 'leader' named "age 6" was off the front at almost 6 w/kg meant that our pack of ten were fighting for the sprint win. I couldn't afford to wait too long. Someone jumped at 600 or 700 to go and I knew that was too early. They faded and I passed them with 200 to go. I kept my power over 600 until I hit the line. I didn't want to get sniped at the line by coasting too early. In fact, I did 10 w/kg for 15 seconds. That's good for end of twenty minutes of racing. The pace wasn't as bad as some other races, thanks to not having any A's in the mix. All I can say is "Finally". This was what we tried to do at Team Fearless when it first started. But, the administrators went a different direction.

Looking at Sunday's race (which this was suppose to be prep for) I don't worry about how I will finish. I got this in the bag and that's better than finishing 6th in a six week major event race. I'll still give it my best shot. But today was 8 laps of Crit City and that is just over the 20 minute mark. Perfect. I will always remember this win.

DIRT Stage 4

Long and hard with two climbs in the middle. I ran it hard for the first 10 minutes, first five really hard. I stayed with the first group almost to the climb, lost the second group and stuck with the third over the climb for a second time. From there we strung along for a bit. I can't remember too much but I found myself staying with three or four riders going up the last climbs. I hit it hard on the last little hill before the downhill finish and put about 20 seconds into them. Once I was over the hill with a good gap, all I had to do was just keep my speed up till it flattened out. I finished fast and had my second fastest time. That despite two slow climbs but I needed to conserve a bit more energy. Not in as good of shape lately for endurance racing.

Next week should be much better if I can stick with the lead group in Crit City.

Today on Strava: race on strava

Dirt Stage 3

This was a tough course even though it was shorter at 25 km. I stayed with the front group until the climb, but that left 10 minutes or so to flounder up the hill. I only got passed by a few people. Of them, I surged past them at the end except for one person. So I finished fairly well although bleeding time the entire hill, losing like two minutes. I still had a good last minute up the hill.

Overall, I went from 13th to ninth but that's mostly because a few riders dropped out and one did A level. Sorry, but I don't care to include B riders who can race with A power, even if just once or twice. Maybe I should be glad that I never hit A power in my best race. Because that would hang over my head for several months (lol, my best was about two years ago i would say.)

Sorry this is posted late and just brief but I wasn't really happy with my climb at all. This week's race,  Stage 4 is even harder at 28km of ups and downs but sometimes the downhills give me just enough rest to keep going. Pump 8 here I come. Anybody else want to drop out?

DIRT Stage 2

Well, it went good for the lead in, I was right there, sweating bullets. The pace was brutal as expected with 5 A riders, several riding at 5 w/kg. Lap one and two were fine, but very fast. Last race we did 7:20 lap times, today was 7:02 and 7:04. I started to survive half a lap by falling off the back and popping right back on. I couldn't sustain it for the whole lap. Off at 33rd place.

I had a minute and a half gap, too small against a pack of 20 or so riders. They caught me on Horse Hill and I kept it in the draft. It was hard work. I tried to calm down and I was anxious and rearing to sprint. I sped up at 500 meters, hit hard at 300 and drafted two leaders. I managed a spurt at 150 at 11 w/kg and by 50 had nosed ahead. I WON! and by the narrowest of margins once again. Same opponents from last week too. 0.1 and 0.2 last week, 0.2 and 0.5 this week. Whew. Actually I'm amazed as I can't remember beating the guys in a sprint before last week's race. Usually I go too early

In the league, I would have been 10th last week as half the field (22nd officially) didn't return. This week I lost three spots to 13th (not counting one rider who did 4.2 w/kg the whole race. Although I guess he's locked into B status to be fair. He did 4.2 w/kg last week also.) Next week will show my weakness, a long flat before the hills. We'll try but I don't expect much as to results. Don't give up though. There's only 28 of us left