A second little test!

Today is about the last really significant ride of the summer holiday training block, as we go back to Ballarat and work this week. It was a ride with the Hendry's Cycles group, an occasional training group for Cadel Evans when he is at home, and one that varies quite a bit in standard. The standard Hendry's ride is out from Ocean Grove to Torquay riding at a steady tempo (30 - 31 km/h average) and then the group splits into fast and slow in Torquay with the ride home essentially a race but with some co-operation in rolling turns. 12 months ago I wasn't always able to stay on for the trip home but in recent rides with the group I have found it a little less taxing. I have not ridden with the group this summer, so it was going to be a good test. Also, the level of the group can vary a little and and I had hoped it would be a strong group today so I could really get  feel for where I am in terms of condition.

Having yesterday ridden the 5 X 5' SE intervals on max resistance on the trainer and riding 53/14 before a 55 km group ride, I didn't feel exactly tapered for today! In any event, when I got there, the group was a strong one today and the outgoing pace was quite fast. Like the last test two weeks ago, I could feel the week's training in the burn in my legs when the road tilted up or the pace changed.

From the turnaround in Torquay, the pace was continuously very high, with about 10 or 11 rolling turns in the cross-wind at 38 to 44 km/h. During the course of the ride I was trying to do what my coach urges, which is to be the 'ticket collector', assessing the condition of everybody else, while also trying to bank a bit of energy each time I rolled to the front. On the rises of 13th Beach Rd, as some were finding it hard to roll over to do their turn, for the first time ever I found myself impatient for the pace to rise. My heart rate was down a little on similar rides from the past, and I felt much stronger than I have in this group previously.

Two or three of the riders were struggling in the final few kms and the group started to stretch and fracture a little. With about 1.5 km to the finish point, I sat at the back and called two riders through in front of me in order to change my position in the bunch and get behind the biggest rider. This also dropped my heart rate further prior to the 1 km final uphill drag before the sprint. At the top I was able to take advantage of a gap that opened up with relative ease and ride away from the group. Certainly it was a very small triumph but it did provide some positive reinforcement of the training program and some confidence that there is improvement occurring.

Some interesting measures from the ride are that both average cadence and average HR are down. The lower HR confirms how I felt when it was busy towards the end of the competitive part of the ride, so is not a surprise. The lower cadence is interesting though. Josh has expressed a view that I need to cadence lower generally and that lots of riders cannot ride like Armstrong, Evans, Basso etc and cadence very high. I have been endeavouring to stay between roughly 85 and 95 rpm. Previously on long rides, my average cadence would be 87-89 rpm and recently it has been in the 83 to 86 range, with today being 84 rpm average. I'm not really sure what to make of this but I suspect that time will tell.

So I will return to work boosted by my perceptions of improvements and changes made over the first 6 weeks of the program. Back at work, volume and time will drop but I will also get to measure improvement against known riders over known courses - and racing starts soon too!!