Benphyr shows ZSUN the way
- Thread starter trplay
- Start date
benphyr
Guru-me-not
Thanks @trplay.
It looks from the stats like I lead them around the course but in reality I pulled whoever was falling off the back up to the group again. I think that is my calling in Herd-life - keeping the tail attached to the gecko. I would say they were less organized rotationally than the Killer Bees usually are but very similar to the Herd mentality of don't drop a rider unless they insist and in the last km or two if there are a strong batch of riders they may get sent. It was a good race and it was pretty neat to see how a different team rolls. And there was some very good coaching going on. I feel like I learned a lot from this visit.
Stream-of-consciousness-Ride-Report:
We were decimated by the first hills. Right off the bat someone didn't make it out of the gate with the rest and by the time anyone noticed we were going downhill fast and couldn't stop. Then when she caught up (the weakest rider, no less) the uphill was beginning from a virtual stop. Can you say BRUTAL!? We regrouped near the top of that climb but as often happens in real life the stronger riders were completely recovered while the tail was running on fumes so the two lightest and myself immediately started falling off but this time one of the more experienced riders started coaching on the merits of the super tuck. Unfortunately, it was too late for that hill but I think we all were able to get a little relief on lap two. The lap two Bactrian camel two hump killer hills took their toll and slowed us down with struggles on both of them but only minor break up of the team which pulled together much quicker this time and took off for the flat lands. The lightest member pleaded mercy (I think at the lap two hills) and sent us to catch up. The other rider mostly dragged me back to the Magnetars. Once it flattened out we were able to pull together and blob for a good long while with the captain calling out a couple pulls and then recovery then a couple pulls again. This allowed me to barely hang on until I got a bit of recovery. Somewhere along the way one of the stronger riders cadence sensor died so his avatar coasted the rest of the way with incredible power considering the amount of leg movement! And he said that his results would probably not count so we would need to ignore him at the end when getting 4th rider across the line. With maybe four km to go the pace increased to what I thought would start dropping off some riders but amazingly there were two light riders that stepped up, hung on for dear life and made it to the end all together miraculously setting new personal power records in the process. As the pace increased I migrated towards the front trying to keep those behind me with me as much as possible and filling the gaps and trying to take a pull or two. The two stronger riders didn't seem to need much help and only took short breaks. As seems to be a trend I was unable to pull forward to pull near the end but had a significant kick that put me across the line first. Jason will probably say that I have more to give earlier in the race - I think he is right but I am having difficulty tapping into it
. Someday soon perhaps.
It looks from the stats like I lead them around the course but in reality I pulled whoever was falling off the back up to the group again. I think that is my calling in Herd-life - keeping the tail attached to the gecko. I would say they were less organized rotationally than the Killer Bees usually are but very similar to the Herd mentality of don't drop a rider unless they insist and in the last km or two if there are a strong batch of riders they may get sent. It was a good race and it was pretty neat to see how a different team rolls. And there was some very good coaching going on. I feel like I learned a lot from this visit.
Stream-of-consciousness-Ride-Report:
We were decimated by the first hills. Right off the bat someone didn't make it out of the gate with the rest and by the time anyone noticed we were going downhill fast and couldn't stop. Then when she caught up (the weakest rider, no less) the uphill was beginning from a virtual stop. Can you say BRUTAL!? We regrouped near the top of that climb but as often happens in real life the stronger riders were completely recovered while the tail was running on fumes so the two lightest and myself immediately started falling off but this time one of the more experienced riders started coaching on the merits of the super tuck. Unfortunately, it was too late for that hill but I think we all were able to get a little relief on lap two. The lap two Bactrian camel two hump killer hills took their toll and slowed us down with struggles on both of them but only minor break up of the team which pulled together much quicker this time and took off for the flat lands. The lightest member pleaded mercy (I think at the lap two hills) and sent us to catch up. The other rider mostly dragged me back to the Magnetars. Once it flattened out we were able to pull together and blob for a good long while with the captain calling out a couple pulls and then recovery then a couple pulls again. This allowed me to barely hang on until I got a bit of recovery. Somewhere along the way one of the stronger riders cadence sensor died so his avatar coasted the rest of the way with incredible power considering the amount of leg movement! And he said that his results would probably not count so we would need to ignore him at the end when getting 4th rider across the line. With maybe four km to go the pace increased to what I thought would start dropping off some riders but amazingly there were two light riders that stepped up, hung on for dear life and made it to the end all together miraculously setting new personal power records in the process. As the pace increased I migrated towards the front trying to keep those behind me with me as much as possible and filling the gaps and trying to take a pull or two. The two stronger riders didn't seem to need much help and only took short breaks. As seems to be a trend I was unable to pull forward to pull near the end but had a significant kick that put me across the line first. Jason will probably say that I have more to give earlier in the race - I think he is right but I am having difficulty tapping into it
. Someday soon perhaps.
