Lucarelli & Castaldi #7 Category 5 Prospect Park 8-5-2023

This is my 6th race of the season and ever. I finished my 11 week structured training program ("The time crunched cyclist") a week before this race.

I got 15th place out of 39 that entered. This is the best i've ever placed in a race.

Here are some interesting timestamps:

8:05 - my weak legs. I think this was an attempt to "sag" the climb - but man did i get taken out post-crest

15:48 - swerve gets people scared. The guy who almost got taken out said something like "well that woke me up" to which i responded "good morning!"

16:50 - Lap 3

17:27 - Edwin (#917) realizing that Hilltop racing (green jerseys) is slowing the field down and admonishing the field to take the front over from them. My heart rate doesn't tell the full story about how I feel at this point. He pushes pace and the field follows.

20:50 - field neutralized

22:40 - me attempting to make a joke on the neutral lap that no one found funny :)

32:20 - knowing Kyle's (Hilltop Racing - #923 - green jersey) raw power from prior races and having realized that he was slowing the field down, I was convinced that this pump was a fake pump...like he wanted people to think 19mph up the hill was a real effort. I was skeptical - especially when I saw people around me making moves. 

32:55 - is when I realized that I needed to put down an effort after the climb to make sure I didn't get dropped 

35:07 - I can feel myself getting dropped on the final lap

37:33 - people braking. I attribute this to cat5 growing pains 

41:00 - main field catches the guy (black bib+jersey+bike, left side of screen) who went off on his own to bring back the break. poor guy.

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Race stats
Average Speed (Including Neutral Lap) : 24.6mph
Average Power: 220w
Weighted: 249w
Max Power: 1700w - (this was a glitch - i think my actual max power was closer to 800something)

This is me on Strava:   / strava  
Weight - 160lbs (+2 from last race. been eating more)
Height - 5'11"
FTP - 242w
Bike: Sava R09 105 Groupset
About Me: I started riding a road bike in December 2022. I finished an 11 week structured training program from "The Time Crunched Cyclist" book about a week before this race in July 2023.


Post From Strava:
Good race. Weird race. We got neutralized for 1/2 of a lap bc we got too close to the field ahead of us (not sure if we were moving that fast or if they were moving that slow 😐)

My goals coming into this race were to hold on and to anticipate changes in pace.

In the race I was able to stay in the front for a good portion of the time and I would give myself a solid "B" for holding wheels and anticipating pace changes.

I hit 1700 watts in this race - 600 watts higher than anything I've ever put out before. Possibly a measurement error - possibly not. I calibrated my power meter this morning (EDIT! IT WAS MEASUREMENT ERROR - YOU CAN SEE THE SPIKE AT THE START OF THE RACE)

I was nervous about not being fully recovered from Thursday's Weis laps. I massage-gunned myself for a while at work on Friday, did some stretches, ate some extra protein and made sure my kids were in bed by 830 so that I could be in bed by 9. Got something close to 6hrs of sleep (this is my target).

I ate my normal breakfast (shredded wheat and fruit + black coffee - ~500 calories). I drank 10oz of Gatorade and ate a 100 calorie bar 2hrs later at the start of the race. I've never eaten at the start of a race like that before.

The race was weird bc of the long neutralization and bc Hilltop guys were playing defense for their guy in the break. I knew my legs didn't have it to catch the break. One guy tried to catch the break on his own - we caught back up with him at the end of the last lap.

There wasn't really a "sprint" at the end of the race. Like...we were riding fast, but I was maybe putting out 60-70% of what I had in the tank. The challenge was the fact that there wasn't a good way to get around people on that last leg without potentially causing an accident. Like...I actually hit the brakes on the last hill to avoid crashing into people who were probably gassed from trying to push pace early for the final lap. Such is life. We'll see how the next race goes.

I will upload full video of the race to YouTube probably tonight. Will make some clips for Strava in case there is anything interesting. Will definitely cut the 1700 watt clip to see if that is real or fake.

Full transparency - I skipped leg day this week because I was trying to recover from my 75 mile ride on Sunday. Maybe giving my legs some rest (from my moderate intensity leg day) had something to do with it? I don't know.

Edit: the safety pin put a huge hole in my jersey 😞