Off the MAAP Tour – Stage 2

Course: Out and Back Again
Distance: 41km

It was warm outside, early evening and I could have ridden to a pub for a nice, cold beer. Instead I opted for a balls out Zwift race, sweating my tits off in the man cave. I’m mad.

When you have a day off in the week, races are thin on the ground during the day because most are at work I guess. I decided to have a snooze PM and ride early evening as the girlfriend was out for the night.

Found this ride. Its not billed as a race but we all know it is. 400+ in the pen started. I’d not ridden yesterday so my legs were fresh midweek for once and I could tell from the start as I rolled up to the front of the group quite easily. The pace was quite high and despite a lack of Zwift races recently I managed to surf the blob quite well with soft surges to keep me up front. Quite a few were keen to have a go so the pace was fast through the desert until we hit the first drag back into the forest. Its only 3% but a sustained effort here to roll up to a flyer stretched the group and split it. As we came off the descent and into the tunnel I could see the group trying to get back on but but they slowly went backwards. The group shed a few more as it was stretched again up the ramp out of the tunnel onto the dirt. It held together up and over and through the Italian Villas. The group exploded on the Volcano climb. I held 5-6w/kg for as along as I could but a small group of about a dozen went clear. I got caught in no mans land and was passed by a few riders as we neared the top. I’d gone a bit too deep and paid for it. I put in one last effort over the top and jumped on a couple of riders that caught me. We mopped another on the descent where I just rolled in the wheels and recovered until we hit the bottom. I got my legs back on the Volcano flat and put out a 5.5w/kg effort to roll up to a couple more riders that were about 8 secs ahead. We had a good little group now, all keen to do some work as we hit the foot of the last climb. I put in short, sharp jump to give me some rope which was enough over the first lip. We shed one of the group. The others rolled through and I jumped on the back again to get my breath. It was fast up to the arch. I rolled through and over the top for the descent to Ocean Boulevard. We were all together for the left-hander onto the dirt. As we hit the drag up over the bridge and through the forest again I sensed the others were waiting for the sprint a bit so I wound it up past the start pens. It stretched everyone and made for a fast finish. No one took it up until 400m to go. I opened the taps and tried to catch the flyer in front but I popped with about 150m to go and got caught by a couple of riders. My lack of racing was obvious.