Race Report: Bear Mountain

By the numbers:
56.0 miles in about 2h48min - averaging 20.0 MPH
No useful HR data. No power data.

Overall:
I went down in a crash, and was unable to make up 40 seconds to catch a fast moving pack. The fact that other people can't ride their bikes shouldn't be my problem.

The only good thing about this race is that Jane was there, and that really helped. I was feeling fine, and with the Flash Point FP60 wheels on the Specialized Roubaix, I was moving effortlessly. I was climbing well, and doing fine, until some moron went down and took me and another guy with him. My options were: go down, or swerve hard left and take more people down. I'm fine, and the bike is fine, but the race was not a good demonstration of my capabilities as a result.

I finished the race, albeit with less food and water than I would have liked, a depressing 8 minutes and 25 seconds behind the race winner. This gave me 37th place, of 89 starters and 59 finishers. The lead group had 19 finishers. I won the minor field sprint between the other 4 people in my finishing group. In the effort to bridge, I passed many of those people who had been dropped by the pack's hard pace up the major climb. They were broken, not willing to work or to even try.

I'd like to think that I'm capable of catching the pack, after being dropped. A power meter would have really helped me to pace myself consistently up the hill. There's a science to knowing how hard to push yourself. As an example, if the pack is going 24 MPH, and you're 30 seconds behind, then going 26 MPH, it would take a while to get back on. 30 seconds at 24 MPH is 0.2 miles, which would take you 27.2 seconds to travel at 26 MPH. Going 26 alone is substantially harder than going 24 in a pack.