I rode the course this morning and thought I'd pass on some info to those of you who may not be able to get out and ride the course or have never been here before.
The course is a 2.8 mile loop through a residential area. The yellow line rule is in effect..except for the final sprint (usually 200m out). Obviously for roads with no yellow line (there are some on this course) it's harder to enforce. You still have to stay to the right hand side of the road. It's hard for officials to enforce the "yellow line rule" when entering and exit turns, especially for roads that don't have yellow lines..because a rider can always maintain that they were forced into/onto the line by other riders. ALWAYS stay to the right hand side for SAFETY reasons...but be careful of storm sewer drains/grates. I whacked one last week during a race so hard I thought I broke my frame...let alone wheel.
There are 2 hills approximately 1/4 mile long with a 6% avg. grade each. The first hill is within the first 1/2 mile of the course. In order to maintain 20 mph up the hill I averaged 414w for 45 sec. The 2nd hill is about 1/2 mile from the finish line. The second hill I averaged 330w for 50 sec. to maintain 20 mph. The reason I didn't expend as much energy on the 2nd hill is because I had a max speed of 34 mph going into it- from the downhill that preceded it. I averaged 21 mph for the entire loop. I'm guessing the average speed for the race will be 24-25 mph.
So, wanna good interval workout this week, to prepare for the race and to simulate actual race conditions? Here it is. You want to do 9 intervals (simulating 9 laps of the race for 25 miles) of the following: 1 min. at L4, 1 min. at L5/L6, 5 min. at L3, 1 min. at L5/L6 and 1 min. at L4.
Good luck..and hope to see you at the race. I'll have a tent/canopy setup at 7:30 a.m. on top of the hill adjacent to the start line. Stop by and say hi. Coach Rob
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