Saturday was the flat Tour d’Worcester. No wind and no real climbs. I marked several attacks but otherwise took it relatively easy until just before the dirt-road section.

We didn’t know what to expect with the dirt, but I realised it was coming when Francois rode off the front. Shortly thereafter the road kicked up a bit and I thought I’d take the opportunity to string the bunch out a bit. I carried it through the first quarter of the dirt before my legs gave in on me and all the contenders came flying past. 9 riders got away whilst I managed to hook in with a chasing group consisting of most of the rest.

With only Paul from our team in the group of 9, we didn’t fancy his chances, so we proceeded to chase. We tried to get the group working nicely, but a few individuals spoiled the chase by coming through too hard. Then we had the marshalls that tried to stop us to let through some slower groups. WTF!?

In the end we finished less than 100m from the lead group. Paul went on a flyer with 3km to go, but was caught with 100m to the line, leaving Shaun Le Roux to take the race and the yellow jersey.

My numbers for the race were ok, especially considering my heavy training week. We rode for another hour afterwards and my week ended up just short of 800TSS, which is my biggest week in a long time.

We’re going to have to try something a little different next week if we want to get Paul ahead of Shaun.

Comparative power stats from Peter at http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pvzhpTQNrhxbyrtpVXSkUEg&gid=1

Fitness & form are strange things. After recently having 3 weeks off the bike, even a 2 hour easy ride was resulting in sore legs. Three weeks later it feels like some leg strength is returning.

I took it real easy my first week back – only 319TSS for the week, then 473TSS and 484TSS for the next two. I really didn’t want to overdo it and need a rest week so early. Those 3 weeks have served as a bit of a base, and after feeling absolutely horrible with no power last Sunday, this week I’ve been feeling stronger and stronger.

Tuesday I did a 2.5 hour ride at 0.73IF, giving me 130TSS. Yesterday was shorter and harder – 1:20 at 0.82IF giving 91TSS. That included one 15min L4 interval. Its been a long time since I did one of those. Today I started out conservatively at L1/L2 then gradually ramped it up for 2:16 at 0.83IF, giving a nice 155TSS. NP for the ride was 234w, which is more like it!

Saturday is Worcester League (98km), so I’ll probably rest tomorrow and hope that the good legs last until then. The plan is then to do an hour after the race, and another 3.5 hours on Sunday, which should give the CTL a serious kick up the bum (currently 57).

Its no nice seeing CTL on an upward trajectory :)

As a beginning to the training I need to do for next year’s Sani2C, I rode the 35km route at Lourensford yesterday. The rain was threatening but luckily it stayed dry the whole ride. I’m a bit stiff since its the first time on the MTB since May. I only managed 4th after 3 youngsters went a bit too hard for me up the initial climbs, before I was warmed up. Still waiting for the results to see how far behind them I finished. I received a gap of about 4mins just past half way.

Legs were pretty stiff this morning and I grovelled on my training ride today, which did not escape the rain. It was wet, cold and altogether miserable.