Sorry for the false advertising; there’ll be no willy talk past the blog title, but you’ll sympathize if you’re a male cyclist. It was frigid out there today!
I’ve only got 5 more days till the race and, since I’ve been scrutinizing the statistics of riders from past races, I wanted to go out today and push a bit more than usual just to see if I am totally in over my head with this racing thing. Here are the stats from today:
Distance – 53 km
Elevation Gain – 444 m
Average Speed – 28.3 kph
The average speed looks reasonable and I think I’d be happy to have something similar this Saturday. Just one thing though, the distance of the race is 20 km more and, more crucially maybe, the vertical distance is probably more than double what I did today. I’m hoping that gravity works both ways and will favor my extra few kg on the descents!
The Vicious Cycle 
Goodness, I feel faint! Over your average speed, I mean! Not sure I could average that downhill these days.
Will have to do some looking up on races around here. Usually start a bit later in the year I think.
Hope it warms up for you – no fun riding when it’s freezing.
Amitiés, Steph
I’m watching the forecast carefully. Still 5 days off, but it looks to be warming up a bit. I’m still thawing out from today…
That’s a good average, no worries! And since you’re going to hang with a group of riders (at least until the first raise, er….climb), you’ll save energy. That’s actually one of the coolest things about the races: you just hang with a group and try to find your place, and then you look at your speedometer and find you’re cruising at 35km/h while hardly pushing. Enjoy!
40 degrees in Melbourne on Sunday. 40 yesterday. 40 today. Delightful cycling weather!
Well, it IS summer there…but is 40 ‘delightful’? I had a long-ass day in WA a few years back and it was 42. No delight that day, I can tell you!
Bon chance!
Merci, Steve!