Dash for glory - almost....

My third and last race at Thruxton yesterday. Following experience of the first 2 races I had a plan, of sorts. Part 1 was to shirk work and stay away from the lead, Part 2 was to then make a long break for home to make the most of my "good" 5 minute power and avoid having to battle out a sprint.

Weather was foggy and a bit chilly. But not too windy (though as ever a bit of a stiff breeze on second half of course.

The race started slowly and early pace was very comfortable. As it picked up a few guys tried forlorn efforts at a break but no joy. Daftly, despite best plans I ended up doing a bit of work at the head to catch up a couple of times.

Trace above and lap stats below tell the story

Lap 1 6:05 160W/206NW 126>144bpm 86rpm 35.9kph

Lap 2 5:14 144W/197NW 127>144bpm 84rpm 38.8kph

Lap 3 5:14 180W/208NW 137>154bpm 82rpm 38.7kph

Lap 4: 5:19 204W/252NW 142>157bpm 80rpm 38.0kph

Lap 5: 5:14 262W/297NW 151>161bpm 83rpm 38.3kph

Lap 6: 5:19 281W/316NW 152>167bpm 87rpm 38.2kph

Lap 7: 5:00 270W/000NW 156>165bpm 88rpm 40.4kph

Lap 8: 5:10 289W/311NW 159>168bpm 87rpm 39.3kph

Lap 9: 5:19 221W/245NW 152>165bpm 87rpm 37.6kph

Lap 10: 5:10 252W/270NW 154>162bpm 85rpm 39.5kph

Lap 11: 4:55 338W/000NW 168>173bpm 89rpm 41.5kph

Early laps very low effort, but some harder laps following as I took lead. Partly because its fun, but also trying to stretch field out a bit and check out course.

On final lap I pushed a bit, expecting to stretch field out again. Turning round I found I had escaped and had a large gap. So I put head down and headed for finish. On fast downhill section it felt as if gap had widened and I had (premature) visions of crossing the line solo. But on final drag up to finish I turned round and saw rest of field bearing down on me. Slumped a bit then but rallied and made effort to finish, albeit without and placing.

Looking back at the stats not too surprising that I had not kept away. Break was earned with not too much difficulty, just 40s at 465W. But after then I was pushing 345W which is high but not high enough to escape a full group.

Will learn from this, either breaking later or break then ease down then try to jump off group after catch.

Still all very good fun and definitely something I want to do more of next year.