Anyone else race Lowell over the weekend? I pre-rode the course the weekend before, solo, and had my ass handed to me. I went out too hard on the initial climbs and there was a nasty headwind out of the West. I watched my speed drop 4-5 miles per hour at the same power once I turned into the wind... pretty demoralizing.
Fast forward to Saturday and I had probably the best race of my career! My placing wasn’t great, but I don’t have a lot of control over that. I rode with a buddy for the first 12 miles, picked up a third rider after the short course split, and kept adding them as we went. At one point the lady in front was doing less than 100w so I pulled ahead on a downhill and picked up the pace. I looked back a couple of miles later and could only see one guy. I assumed it was my buddy so I cranked it up slightly to see if we could create a gap. It wasn’t my buddy so I dropped him and rode solo for a couple of miles. Eventually a lady bridges up to me and I told her to tuck in and we would make sure she beat all the ladies we were riding with. I ended up time trialing the last 7-8 miles and beat my time from the previous week by 24 minutes. Oddly enough I actually put out more power during the race so it wasn’t a draft effect. Overall an awesome race in okay conditions (for the time of year). It felt great to end the season on a high note and I’m already looking forward to next year. I ended up 7th in my AG in the long course gravel series... and I’ve heard rumor of an ultra distance series next year.
One last thing... this was my second outdoor ride on the new Warbird and it was flat out amazing. I rolled Teravail Ramparts (650x47) on a pair of Velocity Blunt SS and couldn’t be believe how well they worked considering the tires almost look like road slicks.
I did race the Lowell 50 long course also. It was disappointing that it misted and drizzled for almost the entire race, but the roads stayed in decent shape since it was not raining hard. Glad to hear you had a great race on your new steed - I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Warbird. I rode a Crux with 38c Trigger tires and that was enough tire since the Lowell course does not include any seasonal roads. It seems what makes or breaks your Lowell race is the first and last several miles due to all the climbing. If you get dropped on the climbs early or late in the race it usually means you’re going to be riding alone! I was a part of what (I think) was the chase group for 48 of the 50 miles and the group worked together well. Unfortunately I lost my chain on some stutter bumps about 2 miles from the finish and ended up getting dropped. As it turns out, most of the riders in this chase group were in my AG (50+) and the results showed that the top half of the AG were only separated by a minute or so. Anyway, it was a great time and inspite of a mid AG finish I was able to hang onto 3rd in my AG for the MGR series. All in all, a great season and am looking forward to the 2019 MGRS!
That's a nice ride and congrats on the gravel series! You were way ahead of me... I'm not strong enough to hang with those lead packs yet but hopefully next year I can start to. My biggest obstacle is probably the excess weight I carry up the hills. At a race like Lowell or Barry it's a killer from the get go with that long climb or the Three Sisters... that selection gets made pretty damn quick. I think you beat me by over 20 minutes!
