Battenkill race report

We had near perfect preparation for this race. We drove halfway up the night before and stayed at William's country house in Millbrook. As soon as we arrived at the house we unloaded the bikes and went for an hour long ride with a few hard efforts thrown in for good measure. William cooked up a delicious country dinner with roasted chicken, pasta, vegetables, and three philosopher's ale while Dave and I worked on our bikes.

The race itself was dusty, steep, hot, and hard. During the race I let a full waterbottle slip out of my hand at 22 miles. I kept going -- but maybe should have turned around to get pick it up. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to catch back on to the group if I did. Later, at 45 miles into the race, I was dehydrated with no fluid left.

Analytically reviewing the powertap data it becomes obvious what happened.

The first 47 miles (two+ hours) of the race show heart rate average of 162bpm and watts/kilo 2.75.


But the last 7 miles of the race average heartrate of 139bpm and watts/kilo 1.77. This is hitting a wall. Pathetic!


I was able to trade some electrolyte pills for a few swips of water at around the 50 mile mark, but at this point it was already too late.

The lesson learned is that when things go wrong, figure out a way to fix the mistake before the critical moment.

Maybe I should have started trying to broker a deal for water as soon as I dropped the bottle... before getting thirsty!