The Fond du Lac Grand prix yesterday was another great race that I managed to mess up at the end. Let’s start with the positive, though. I was in several breaks and even attacked once to start a break. I rode well at the front for the entire race before blowing the last lap. There was a really cool health fair for the kids where they got free entry into the Children’s Museum after first having fun outside with the police, firefighters, pirate ship bouncy obstacle course, and more.
Now back to the racing – this is definitely amazing training and experience, but it is unfortunate how expensive this trip is turning out to be with a $52 entry free for yesterday’s race and coming away with nothing. Maybe I can make up for it today with the Downer’s Grove race in Milwaukee having $10,000 worth of primes up for grabs. Surely I can find my way to the front for one or two of them! I was first in the field (five man break up the road) across the finish line at the start of the last lap. Two riders attacked coming out of turn #1, and I tried to chase and close the gap to them, but I didn’t make it so I was still leading the field now in 8th position on the road (5-man break, 2 guys dangling just ahead) heading into turn #3 when the surge for the finishing sprint started. I was expecting it, so I ramped up my own speed but still got passed by about 5 or 6 people heading into turn #3. Then I got passed by a few more people going through the final turn. Then in the final sprint I was passed by 7 or 8 more people including one right on the finish line even though my speed at the finish was 35mph. Everyone else must have been sprinting at 37-40mph. To summarize, I lost 20 positions on the last lap including 18 positions between turn #3 and the finish — finishing out of the money and out of the points. Here is all my data from Strava (my iBike broke during the race as the front cover fell off – I’m guessing that repeated days of pro racing at 30+ mph on Wisconsin bumpy, cracked roads places a lot of stress on the iBike)
Strava heartrate and speed data
Map of the race and warm-up. I found some good hills east of town.
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