After coming home from the CB retreat. I was revved up and looking forward to going to Sebring. In the coming months I was preoccupied with other things. I could train about 6 hours a week. Mostly done on the weekends. This was not one of my more disciplined efforts.
I looked at ways to improve my V20 bike speed. I considered a longer chain stay and a race case and a body suit to clean up the aerodynamics. All of which never materialized. I decided that the chain stay would raise my feet too much. The race case was on backorder. The white body suit I purchased was a little too small and too sheer. Just too reveling.
The items I was able to purchase were some latex tubes and a faster helmet. I also trimmed my handlebar ends about 1.5”. I don’t know how much it helped, I’m sure it didn’t hurt.
I also planned to use a drink mix called Flow Formula. I used it in a 4 hr. dress rehearsal and finished strong with a sprint finish. A little gassed up too.
A few days before the ride, the weather forecast was made to order. I have wilted in past events when the temps go north of 85. This forecast was to be 75 and low winds.
With the weather forecast looking favorable, I planned to ride less conservative.
On our way through Georgia, we had met up with super Zwifters Hardy and Connie. AKA
@trplay and Miss Daisy. They were nice enough to treat us to Chic-fla. We had a real nice dinner stop visiting with them.
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Race day
This race was full of surprises. In the evening the 24hour riders could not use the track. They had to ride outside the track in the office park. The other item that changed was in the morning we took a different path to the track and that made uncertain game plans for swapping water bottles prior to leaving the track. I guess they did this last year without me.
6:30 came and we were off. We entered the track at turn 7 and rode the 3 laps. Being a recovering gearhead, I like riding on the track. At the close of the first lap, I had it wound up on the straight leading to 7. I dove into the turn hit the apex just right, maybe a little fast. Pucker factor was a little high going through, I relaxed when I saw I had track instead of grass ahead of me.
After 2 ½ laps on the track Larry caught me. I was a little surprised because I expected him to be ahead of me with the leaders. Exiting the track, he pulled away from me, but he was not more than 100 yards ahead. For the next 4 miles I slowly reeled him in. I wasn’t sure what was going on. Larry is on a different level that myself. He rode behind me for the next 30 minutes. When he came to the first stop with his wife Gayle. I didn’t see him again.
Along the route to the turnaround I was regularly pursuing and overtaking riders. I caught up with Daryl Hanger. For just a minute I rode with him. He commented how cold he was. My hands were cool, and my feet were cold. I knew they would thaw later in the day, so I was not concerned.
Going around the lake my Elemnt alerted me of a low battery. My power pedals battery was running low. After a while my avg. wattage was stuck on 189 watts.
With an out and back course, it is nice to see the riders ahead or behind you. I would often “Woop!” as I passed another in the tribe.
On the way back through the orange groves, my stomach was becoming a little upset. I passed a port-a-let and thought, that looked appealing, but I was in race mode. A couple miles later I had to stop. I dropped a deuce in someone’s front yard, wooded, front yard. I felt better but not perfect.
The weatherman got the temps right, but the wind speed was a miss. The wind was unforgiving on my way to Lorida. It’s a seemingly endless 10mile stretch of open road that you were fighting a head wind.
I made it back to the track, feeling like I had ridden 100 miles. I crossed the line at a mystery time. For some reason they omitted the digital time clock. According to Strava, I finished the century around 4:30. I then proceeded to take a pit stop, unload water bottles and change the battery on my pedal.
The 11 miles loops were challenging this year. I found the one hill on the route difficult because there was a headwind at the bottom of the hill. No running start. I was fading fast. Each lap I would lose about 10 watts of power. My stomach was getting gassed up and sore. I didn’t like crossing the railroad tracks. After 2 ½ laps Larry caught up with me. He told me that he was tired from making up time after his 20-minute bike swap. Read his report for the details. I commented to him,” just 6 hours to go” that was a depressing thought. My stomach was sore and uncomfortable to ride. I was halfway into the event and my energy was in a free fall.
After about 5 laps I thought I needed to make a change. My last lap my average wattage was 120. Even when I was pushing a little to climb a little rise, I could get up to 160 watts. Mentally I felt like I was telling my legs to do 240W. There was something lost in translation from my head to the pedals. I got off the bike in the pits and laid on the ground to alleviate some pressure. After an hour stop, I recovered enough to get the wheels turning again. I made 2 more laps and wanted a break again. I was starting to count the time till the 3-mile loop opened. I didn’t want to climb the baby hill on the 11 mile loop again. After sitting in the pits for a while, I never really recovered. I was panting while sitting in the lawn chair. I didn’t think I was ready to hop on the bike again, so I decided to throw in the towel at 194 miles. My wife and I packed up all our gear and headed to the hotel.
I gently pedaled down the bike course in my tennis shoes, thinking I was heading for the hotel. When I made it to the turn heading to the hotel, they had just began directing riders to the 3-mile loop. Now I felt fine. I thought I would finish out the day with 3 additional laps. I finished the day at 206 miles. Not my best showing, but hard fought.
Sunday morning, I had breakfast at the hotel with Jeffrey and Jane Ritter. What a treat. Good food and good conversation. If you have a chance, meet them for dinner. They are good folk.
It was great seeing all the tribe that attended. Really good showing. Many riders set personal records that day.
Take away from this ride: Green leaves work better than brown ones. Flow formula was not good for rides longer than 4 hours. Need to experiment with other fuels.
I go to Sebring for the competition. I come back home with fond memories of reconnecting with others in the tribe.
