Dropped like a bad habit... Does that make sense??

I rode in the Hot Rocks Bike Race this morning. 57 miles through Rockwall and surrounding counties.  My goal was to hit it hard enough at the start to not get dropped by the lead group.  I had to sprint out of the saddle for 10 minutes to hang on.  No Luck...dropped.  

I tried my best to recover before the next pack came along so I could hook on with them.  No Luck...dropped.   Trend?

The 3rd group came along and I finally was able to recover from the initial effort.  I hooked on to a good strong group of 8 riders that was very smart.  We organized very well and worked for 45 minutes to catch the 2nd group.  Success!!   Now we were one big group traveling along at a healthy pace. 

Trouble arose around mile 45 as I couldn't react to the group surges.  Dropped again....Dang!  I had to solo the final 12 miles into the finish.  Tough ride and definitely did not do as well as I hoped.  My legs just didn't have it today. 

Total: 57 miles

Time: 2 hours 43 minutes

Average Speed: 21 mph (Max 34.9)

Average Heart Rate: 158 bpm (Max 184)

Time to go take an ice bath care of Fate Grocery and their wonderful ice bags. 

Tomorrow my Crit Race starts @ 7am - Rockwall Technology Park.  Fantastic spectator opportunity.  "The Nascar of Cycling!"  There will be back to back races until 2pm.  The final race is the PRO race at 12:30pm   You don't want to miss that speed! 

Thanks for checking to see how my ride went today. More to come later.  

As my team likes to say, "It never gets easier, just faster"

Posted via web from Billy Self's posterous