Course: Achterbahn
Distance: 47km
After the Velo Birmingham last weekend and trying to recover this week, I decided to do a Zwift race today to see how the legs were. A lack of racing recently has blunted my speed. That sharpness you get from the constant change of pace has been tempered which is fine as I’m trying to get miles in for next weekends 200 miler to Weston and back.
So today I went for a long race with plenty of climbing and on a course I’ve never done before in Innsbruck. I’ve never ridden up the climb in reverse before, or the rest of the course either.
65 riders started. It wasn’t too fast but as we hit the slopes of the first ascent the group immediately split. I couldn’t sustain the 5w/kg+ needed to go with the break. The race quickly split and I was in no-mans land for most of the climb. The leaders drifting away and a couple of chasers at about 15 secs behind me. I maintained over the top and on the descent despite easing back a bit and as we got back into Innsbruck I eased and the chasers caught me which I was glad of. I wanted to ride in a group and not do a 40km TT. As we climbed round the back to the top of the Innsbruckring section in reverse (I prefer it this way!) we dropped one of our trio which left me and a Japanese guy. We worked together back onto climb again but as the road hit the steeper 8%+ sections I seemed to gap him and then he would come back on the flatter bits. This played out until about halfway and then the elastic broke and I went clear. My legs felt better and I eeked out a few seconds all the way to the top and back down into Innsbruck again. At the top of the Innsbruckring climb I had about a minute which I maintained until I eased at the finish to roll in 4th on the leaderboard
