Chicken Dinner Road Race Report

My goals for the Chicken Dinner Race were to ride aggressively and see if I could mix it up a little. I did ride more aggressively, but I did not mix it up--not at all. Instead I got dropped in the first serious attack. The Cat 4-5 race seems to be dominated by a small cadre of riders held together by the Broken Spoke team. These guys work together very well to break up the field with early attacks to drop off the weaklings. I don't think I'm a weakling, but my strength is more in endurance than in peak power. Until I can get my power output up to par, and without any teammates watching out for me, I just get shelled on these early attacks. Then I spend the rest of the race passing guys who wore themselves out hang on with the leaders. Today was no different, but I did finish closer to the leaders, an 8.5 minute gap rather than a 15+ minute one.

Today I kept the leaders in view for most of the race after dropping off, but could never bridge the gap. The frustrating part for me was that I could see the leaders climbing the hills, and except for that first attack, I'm 100% confident that I was climbing faster than them.

So my goal going forward is to put in focused work on building peak power. I have my heart rate monitor back in working order and set up on my bike, and I have a lactic threshold test scheduled for this Wednesday. I hope this and some sensible training will net me at least one good race this season.