Piece of Cake, it was not...

The graph on the power tap software tells the story. A flurry of activity for the first 13 minutes. Then a line. For an hour.

As a racer, up till now I've been pretty cautious. Stay with the pack. Bring back breaks that look threatening. Maybe attempt a break myself, but always well within my abilities and always pretty short. I've never raced in a way where I just put my head down and went off the front. Till today.

The day was clear, mostly, but pretty windy. A flag near the start was just on the verge of sticking straight out, which according to my father's old rule of thumb (he used to be an Airforce Pararescueman, which means he jumped out of airplanes with a parachute) means the wind is blowing at about 25-30mph up where the flag is atop the flagpole.

The field isn't huge, maybe 40 racers, and the start is casual enough. The course is arranged in such a way that most of the roads have cross winds of one sort or another. This means that there isn't that much shelter. The Piece of Cake is (in)famous for having narrow roads, which doesn't help anything.

It is a typical Cat4 field, which means that everyone is trying to hide, so the pace is pretty slow. A couple of us go up the front to try to make things work a little smoother. I am echeloning with a few other riders, and dealing with the fact that only a few riders want to work, but many people want to take shelter in the echelon.

Pretty soon, I find myself at the front, so I start pushing the pedals a bit harder to up the pace a bit. My intent wasn't to go off the front (we were only about 10 minutes into the race!), but off the front I drifted. Seeing this, I had a decision. I could sit up, let the pace fall, or just start going harder and see where that took me. I decided on the latter. I dumped a couple of gears and accelerated, then, seeing 500W, took it down a notch and let it sit at about 300W. I know from training that this is a pace that I can definitely hold for an hour, and probably longer. I still had 5/6ths of the race to go!

I kind of expected for the pack to start behaving like a Cat4 pack and bring me back in a couple minutes. That's typical. But I look back and they aren't gaining on me. So I put my head down, forearms on the bar tops, and concentrated on making 300W display on my powertap readout.

I look back again, and they are now a bit further behind. The wind is at my back.

I turn the corner and start going into a stiff head-cross wind. The pack is closer because they are still in the tailwind section, but not gaining after the corner.

I turn another corner straight into the teeth of the wind, and I decide to make the display read 315W. I reason that the pack will be less willing to chase hard into the wind (Cat4, nobody wants to pull, etc.).

Another corner and I hear my name and some cheering. Past the finish line. One lap down, two to go.

I am still holding 300W, pushing it up to 315W or so in the headwind sections. I am starting to feel my glutes complaining. I am not used to pushing this much power for this long with my forearms on the bar tops; back completely flat. Down at the bottom of the course, I take a peak behind and see a group of about 8-10 riders going off the front. They are hard charging, but I am not really losing any time to the much diminished main group. I figure this is in my favor as the big guns are probably in the chase group. Once they bridge, I'll be part of a select group with enough firepower to take it to the line.

I am off the front for 1 hour, 3 minutes when the chase group bridges up to me. Perfect, I think to myself. Then I see how dysfunctional this group is. Gaps opening up everywhere. Nobody knows how to echelon into a crosswind. Some big motors are what is keeping it away, but there is no way a 3/4 cooked person like me can keep closing gaps in the group and keep pace.

I fall off. The main group catches me. Yay! I'm safe. I can hide for a little while, get my legs back under me and contest the finish as others in the group do the work of bringing back the lead group I've fallen out of. It's not to be. Crosswinds and narrow roads kill any thought of shelter. Echelons form and break away, always right in front of me, exposing me. I keep pushing the "GO" button to close the gap. I try falling back a little, but the pack is thin. I've promised to lead out one of my teammates. I close a gap or two with him on my wheel, but eventually, we change places. I'm on his wheel. And dying.

I remember an interview I read somewhere of a pro who described racing in Belgium. Knowing that there isn't anyone behind you. Seeing that there isn't a spot to fit into at the end of the last echelon. Watching them ride away from you, the gap getting bigger and bigger and there's nothing you can do about it; you're in the wind, they're not. Now, instead of just remembering the article, I am experiencing it first hand. 10 miles to go in the race, I hit the "GO" button once again, but I don't get the response I want; a drag chute deploys instead and I am officially off the back. With no motivation and the race out of reach, I can only get the display on my power meter to read 200W.

51 miles, 2 hours, 20 minutes. Of that, I spent 1 hour off the front and 35 minutes off the back. I was only part of the peloton for 45 minutes. Certainly a record for me. There is a silver lining though. I know, for sure now, that my FTP is well over 300W, and the 330W assumption that I've been using (I've never formally tested myself), is right about right.