Race day. Py decided "last day" to join George and Karl for the Turkey Hill Classics Road Race in Lancaster, PA -- CAT 3/4. Early start from home leaving at about 4:45 for a good 4:30 hours travel -- meeting with George and Karl at LIE P&R exit 49 to car pool. Getting there with plenty of time to sign in and setup. Looking like a very nice day and good setting. Everything went smoothly looking for a good race. Little road exploration and warm up -- getting ready.
A little hope the longer race, 9 laps of 11.8km, in a little hilly setting may turn out doable just fine for Py... got destroyed soon. 1st lap was going fine, but he noticed running for quite a bit in and beyond his red zone way too long, basically at every turn accelerating more of less full gas -- that will not work for 9 laps, he knew by the beginning of lap 2 already. He did not found a good spot to hide and did not managed to get up far enough to avoid the amplified bungee effects of speed changes in front starting already form about the 2nd half of the pack of about 100 riders. With lap 2 on this more "ultra" Criterium like setup featuring in particular eight 90 degree turns per lap + climbs including one short but 20% wall and a nice set of fun rolling hills he got stick with a few riders at the wall, few seconds delays and the pack to off. Chasing like speedy down this hill with nearly 50mph flying no solo way faster around those turns was fun but used up all his short term reserved. Actually on the long strait of the end of every lap he caught up to the field but lost contact soon again at the next climb or turn -- nothing left and no a tiny chance of recovery near the end of the just too open end of the pack. And he could not manage to hang on for longer. And saw the field taking of with start of lap 3 :-(
However, he did gave up and proceeded and turned the remaining of a short lasting 2 lap race into a still great training ride on closed roads and finished with 8 laps -- one down on his field, because they he got lapped towards the end.
And never the last -- some footage of lap No. 1 to review:
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