Today I participated the Le Col Tour - Stage 1. The track was in the London Route. Total KM's was 29.9. I was in the Group B - not performance wise, but Group B was the shorter version of the race. Seeing how its in the middle of the day I use my break time to rack up some KM's on the trainer - Group B was about half the distance of Group A.
The race started much smoother for me than the previous events. Right off the go I was in the top 50 out of 200 plus riders. This was very surprising and exciting at the same time.
As the KM's racked up I managed to climb up through the ranks, at one point I was 24th! When you're in a pack thats a little larger, your position climbs and drops constantly.
Unforatunely, around 25 minutes into the race, I received a phone call. I use my phone to connect with Zwift. This way my Apple Watch can monitor my heart rate and its an easy connection. The bad part, as soon as the phone rang, it basically means you've stopped peddling on the game. I immediately declined the call but by the time the screen reappeared (we're talking 2-3 seconds max), My position dropped from high 20's to 59th!! Worse yet, I was out of the pack, which means I had no draft to keep me going with the other riders. From this point going forward it was a constant struggle to gain position. I managed to climb up to 48th but by the time the race was in the final KM's the pack behind me caught up and I was drained of power.
You'll see that I was in position 51 within the last 3KM's of the race. Just after this photo a group passed me, dropping my position to 62nd! It took all my power but on the last 2 KM I hammered through it and the last 200 meters I was in a full on sprint. This resulted in a position climb from 62 to 52nd!
I'm very happy with this result. My FTP increased to 237 Watts. I was really wanting to be in the top 50 but this is a pretty solid entry for me. Theres always stage 2!
Below are my Strava segments for the race.
B