A resounding "meh" at the end of the race summed it up. Erich and I headed the three hours south to Greenville for the Donaldson Center Road Race. The course was, for the most part, flat with a few minor rollers about midway through the loop. After all is said and done, the race ended up being a fast group ride on some new roads with people I didn't know. There was much whining and gnashing of teeth in the peloton about the surging and slowing of the pack, but the tissue for their tears could have been sitting on the front.
There were two semi-exciting points in the race. On lap one, right after the rough crossing of the railroad tracks, the whole left side of the peloton collapsed and dropped back. I happened to be on the right side, so I found myself in front. Erich makes a very small target in the peloton, so I figured that I had just missed him somewhere in the confusion. Lo and behold, he's off the front?!?!?! ALONE! INTO THE HEADWIND! ON THE FIRST LAP! So, seeing this, I had in my mind to block for a while so that maybe he could go past the crowd at the start finish in a solo break...how cool? The guy next to me realized that I was slowing to about 17mph and looked over, he said something to the effect of, "you need to pull through." My response was a big crap-eating-grin. He looked at my kit, then up at E and matched my grin. He yelled over his shoulder, someone needs to get ahead of this guy, that's his teammate up the road. I blocked for as long as I could, but eventually the pack caught E.
Excitement point number two was when big ol' George Hincapie himself in the pro race lapped us. Our race was briefly neutralized for his breakaway to pass us. He was rocking along at about 30ish mph, breathing through his nose. I think I even saw him yawn as he slid by. Humbling to say the least.
The finish was entirely uneventful, basically a mass pack finish with no real sprint, just a strong surge. Neither Erich nor myself were interested in getting tangled up sprinting from the pack and risk not being able to continue our training for our ultimate goal: Battenkill.
Result: 34th of 64...lame.
Avg HR: 175
Max HR: 202
Avg speed: 23.2mph
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