This past Saturday, for the first time in a long time I raced a mass start event. Sure it was the weekly RMR series and no biggie, but since I can count on one hand the number of mass start races I have done in the past 1-2 seasons, it might have been a bigger to me…
So with some aprehension (and excitment) that I rolled out solo to the RMR.
The huge puddle on the back side of the course looked COLD and I was happy to learn that we were racing inside the (nascar for the non-locals) oval.
I told myself, like my last post, that the goal was to finish with the group… but (IMHO) the oval makes that easier.
I sat on the line, saying out loud, don’ t attack, sit in, finish.
And for about 37 minutes, that worked well. Then with two riders off the front, and two more getting reeled back in by Dru, the inner demon’s exposed themselves and bam! I was gone. I spent 3 minutes in no man’s land. Put about half a lap on the field, never caught the riders in the front. I pulled the plug in an effort to get a decent sprint in on the line (and with hopes that they would pull it back together after wrapping me up – which didn’t happen).
I got a little boxed in at the finish and don’t have the killer sprint instinct honed as of yet, but it felt good, and starting a year with a ~15th place is good for so much time off.
Numbers matched feeling – 258w Pnorm for the 45 minutes which explains why it felt easy.
Tack on the hour there and the return makes for a nice 3:06 ride time and 207TSS.
Let’s see if this sat goes as well as last sat…I probably will have a bit more fire in the belly for the finish if so…
-g