If you have a look at the graph below, the race at Vanderbijl really got tough at about the halfway (40km) mark. For reference, it's the part in the middle of the very steep valley.
I lost the main bunch at about 6km. Legs were still sore from gym two days earlier, but there were also a lot of licensed riders stirring things up.
When a few runner ups finally caught me, they hadn't figured that the wind was blowing right to left, so riding behind each other hardly helped. A few kilometres later, on a steepish climb, all but two were blown away. We reorganised closer to halfway, and going over a bridge my (only) water bottle hopped out of its cage. I left it there, and did a quick stop to pick it up after the turn. I lost the group, and then started climbing all the way back up again. The group I was with weren't closing the gap, so I did a super hard effort - well a few, but one effort was REALLY hard (check out the blue spike and my hard rate). I got to about 5-7 metres with one guy tailing me. He wasn't much good, and we ended up losing them.
Then on another biggish climb at 60km we pushed again and finally caught them (a 20km chase for a group that I would have been with if I hadn't dropped my bottle!) Here's the crazy part. After 2 more kilometres I was so moeg I let them go and me and another dude rode out the last odd 15km. On the positive side, my HR average was 160bpm. That's just 2 lower than the excruciatingly tough ride I did in Bloem two months back (and that ride was just 60km). Here are the complete stats:
HR: 160 /173 max
Distance: 80km
Time: 2:24:55
Spped ave: 33.1km/h (crosswinds out and back, lots of alone riding, and a water bottle that wouldn't stay put...I can't think of any more excuses...)
Alt avg: 1428 (1386/1473)
Temp: 18 (15/23) Nice crisp weather
Ascent: 410m (Not as bad as it looks on the graph)
KCal: 2694 (hopefully lost 1 or 2 grams)
Got another race on Saturday. Still not using the Zipps...
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