Woodcote Sunday Sportive
I did the Woodcote Sunday Sportive yesterday.
I think I was the only person there to do it on a tri bike so I felt a bit out of place. The weather was glorious. The 131k route well marked. Most of the route was good to ride with quite a few hills. Some of the steep downhills through narrow tree-lined, pot-holed, gravel-littered roads were a bit scary and so I would prefer a bit of a route change for next year.
The plan was to ride without power (I’ve “lost” the bike computer) and go quite a bit harder than ironman pace. I did. I averaged 31 kph for the first two hours. Then I slowed a bit. Then at 75k I ran out of water and the second aid station turned out to be at 110k. A long ride in the heat. Because I was going faster at the start I ate less than I wanted. Actually, that’s not true. Because I brought powerbars with me I ate less than I wanted to. Those things are horrid on a hot day, especially without water. So, I think I slowed because of the early pace, the lack of a powermeter to tell me I was slowing and the thirst/energy food.
I came home in 4 hours 52. 1 minute from “gold” standard. I spent 3 minutes at the second aid station drinking and less than one minute massaging my left quad up one of the hills. But I did not draft anyone because of the tri bike. I did have two “shadows” who drafted me for the first 70k (and which helped me go too fast to start with).