The Sisquoc course is located in the rolling hills about an hour north of Santa Barbara and just south of San Luis Obispo. Aside from the feedzone location it's the same as the UCSB RR. It's a fast 11 mile loop with a few rollers, a long flat tailwind section, and a 3 minute climb that's just long enough to settle into a good rhythm. We would be doing 6 laps.

As expected the first 4 laps were relatively easy. I figured that nothing was going to stay away early, so I just sat midpack and let some of the more overzealous teams (read: La Grange) do all the chasing. The pace was all over the place for the first few laps as somebody would attack, the pack would respond, the break would be caught, and everybody would sit up until the next attack went. Aside from a few small jumps and accelerations I had a pretty easy going for the first 2 hours.

After hitting the hill on the 4th lap I knew that the field was starting to get a little less antsy and it was time to find the right move. Two guys got a decent gap at the beginning of the fifth lap, but I decided to wait. A few small accelerations on the rolling back portion shook up the field a bit and legs were definitely getting tired. Just after the feed zone two strong riders went off the front (along with an SC Velo rider covering for his teammate who was already up the road). I jumped hard, bridged and then hammered up the climb. We caught the two guys up the road, immediately dropped one and then started motoring. By the start/finish line we had a solid 45 second gap. We worked well together for for the next 8 miles until we dropped the second SC Velo rider on a long flat tailwind section.

We kept motoring through the rollers, past the feed zone and up the climb. Every so often I would get a small peak at the field way in the distance. It was a bit frustrating because we didn't have a motor ref or anybody yelling out the gap. Two of the guys would occasionally stop working and myself and a Cynergy rider would have to yell at them to pull through. In the end it came down to a four man sprint. I started out second wheel and in decent position but I had nothing left and ended up rolling in 4th. Despite the crappy sprint I'm extremely excited with the result. It's a great feeling to dupe the field and make the sprinters fight it out for 5th. It was a 59 man field, so I get 6 upgrade points.

Now I just need 19 more to get my Cat 2 upgrade...


Power geek numbers:

Race:
Duration: 2:40:39
Work: 1983 kJ
TSS: 196.1 (intensity factor 0.856)
Norm Power: 260
VI: 1.26
Distance: 64.336 mi

Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1090 206 watts
Heart Rate: 83 184 152 bpm
Cadence: 29 222 83 rpm
Speed: 9.1 44.9 24.0 mph


Breakaway:
Duration: 36:11
Work: 600 kJ
TSS: 55.3 (intensity factor 0.957)
Norm Power: 291
VI: 1.05
Distance: 14.376 mi

Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1004 276 watts
Heart Rate: 153 184 176 bpm
Cadence: 29 178 84 rpm
Speed: 11.5 41.1 23.8 mph

Labels: Eric, racing