Tough handicap race today, one of the biggest events on the calendar, had a big lot of riders from the next town over racing.
I was off +34 minutes from the first rider in a small group. We rolled out fairly easy, got caught by the +35 after only 5km, we lost 15 seconds when we had to wait for a car right at the start!
Stuck with them and we had a group of ten approx after dropping 4-6 riders. Swapped off OK for the next 30km. Then lost a few more riders on the return steep climb, we picked up a few passengers from earlier groups who then started to try and do turns and ended up coming through too quick and breaking our rhythm up, one guy had a word and they then just sat on which was ok. We picked off a few straggler riders over the next 10km who we managed to blow past quick.
Hilltop finish where we dropped the guys sitting on, halfway up is a small descent, I got mixed up with someone we were passing at the top and it cost me 10-20m on the group.
Made it to the top 20 seconds down on the guys I had been riding with, we picked up 5th, 9th and 10th, I rolled over about 13th, got pipped on the line by the fastest rider of the day from scratch.
61km, 1000m elevation, average power 271w, weighted average 290w.
Max speed 83.2kmh and 884w power.
I found that I was struggling to do turns on the flat a little without putting too much effort it, but then I wasn't the quickest on the climbs either! Managed to hold my own and went 10 minutes faster than I did last year!