I've had a couple days to reflect on Sunday's annual race up Tantalus, so here's how it all went down, or should I say UP!
For once, I got to sleep at a reasonable hour on Saturday night, waking up at 445am on Sunday morning. After a few pre-Tantalus rituals, I grabbed the bike and headed over to the race. It rained for most of the previous week, and Sunday morning was no different. Too much wind, and way more rain that I'd like.
It's been a few years since I put any focus into cracking the course record. In 2006 I knocked out an 18:29 on stage 2 of the Boca Stage Race, but that result never appeared to get any recognition. Last year I think I'd only ridden up Tantalus two or three times before race day. This year I made a concerted effort to get there a lot more, training on a 20+ lb bike, then switching to a sub 14lb Scott Addict R1 for race day. Everything went as planned in training... Form on the up, and not overtrained or burnt out going into the race. In the previous two weeks I'd ridden the whole course twice splitting it into two sectors, and the combined time for those was in the 18:45 range. With those kind of rides I was expecting to crack 18mins on race day.
I got to the race, picked up my race number, threw on my jacket, then went for a ride up the first 1/3 of the course. I rolled down to the start, rode around a bit more, got my number pinned on, then lined up at 7am.
Riding at 400w, I was passing all my time checks 10-15sec ahead of where I was at in training. By the time I got to the intersection onto Tantalus Dr. I was at about 3:35. Everything was going to plan all the way beyond the half way point even though I was holding back a little. I'd been in the same position in a previous year at the race, then blew up at 12mins, so I chose to ride a little more conservatively this time, with the plan of finishing strong. On the upper 1/3 of the course the corners are tighter and with the rain and wind I couldn't rail around them like I was in training, and that dropped my avg power by about 20w. I made it to the bridge / trailhead at the top in 16:25 and figured I had about 2 mins to get my arse to the finish line! From there to the finish was pretty miserable, unloading whatever I had left in my legs, going around the final turn within an inch of the edge of the asphalt... Close to losing it, but I stayed upright, pressing the SRM as I crossed the line. Time?... 18:34. 2 seconds off the record.
The complete SRM file from my ride.
Photo :Copyright © 2010 Colin Cross. All Rights Reserved. www.hawaiiracephotos.com
