First we must settle the name issue. I know it was called Tour de Park City. You have to actually *go* to the place the ride is named from to earn its name. Sorry organizers.
Why did I race?
This was a "B" race for me: if it turned out, great; otherwise use it as a good training day. I can say it was both. It turned out to be a great race but of course I had hopes to earn better results. I am getting quite used to top ten results. I like top ten results. Most importantly, this is all part of the setup for my last "A" race of the season: LOTOJA.
Fitness
Once again I couldn't quite stick with the fast guys. What's nice this time is I have an excuse. Even a good one. Really. "It's by design".
Looking at my heart rate numbers and knowing I didn't stick with the fast guys usually kills me and makes me doubt this whole racing thing, but this time I am fine with it because I am at a relatively low fitness time in my training schedule. Joe Friel has a nice case study blog post on this. I believe Joe Friel. I know Rogers won't get it. Most people won't get it. Maybe someday they will. Or maybe I'm kidding myself and this is just another excuse.
Numbers don't lie. As you can see in the graph (or Garmin Connect) my heart rate never got to zone 5. Apparently I didn't work very hard at all. I felt like I worked pretty hard. My legs were quite unhappy. Maybe I shouldn't have raced at Snowbasin the previous Wednesday. Both events were a good portion of my Build training phase. I'm good with it.
Overall
15th out of 40ish racers. Nothing to be excited about.
Unless I step back and consider the whole race. The team did a great job with this race again. We set an early tempo then Adam went on a crazy 50 mile solo breakaway. Ryan and I did a good job letting Adam get away. As a matter of fact we still believe the pack completely forgot Adam existed. Could have been awesome. Ryan and I did great communicating and reminding each other of our tactics. We actually toyed with the group. Always fun.
Individually I can accept my results. I *should* have stuck with the lead group. I *should* have covered the attack on the climb. I got to within a 50ish feet of them near the top where #444 was able to bridge but I didn't. I *should* have. I actually did a nice job mentally pushing myself up the climb. I improved my mental toughness during this race and that is worth the price of admission for me. There is no way to replicate this race-level effort outside of a race. Those adversaries pushed me well and I was able to keep them close. I'm getting closer to staying right there with them.
I descended well, but I just can't compete with a pack of 12+ guys nor guys heavier than me. Featherweight curse. If only the race ended at the top of the climb.
So I got gapped at the top of the climb. I got caught by two Masters 35+ racers on the descent. Then the three of us got caught by a large group of Category 4 racers. Then pretty much tempo to the finish with a few failed attack attempts. I tried a final attack at mile 145 but just didn't have what it took to gap the group. I responded pretty well to the final sprint which I believe earned me 4th place out of the second group, probably thanx to a weird finish with a bunch of unexpected turns.
Two years
The first time I raced this event was a completely different story. This year I performed as a racer. Feels good.
