So, after 9 months of training, all those numbers, bike theft, bike breakage and all the rest here it is!
I am lying in bed in PMB with a cup of tea on the morning of the Masters' World Championships Road Race and pondering the journey completed to get to here, and of course the journey to come at 1 pm today as well. I have decided that I will post this before I leave for the race start, so there is no temptation for a revisionist approach to history in the light of the result!
The race will be very hard - that is one of the few things I can be certain of today. Phil Anderson was once quoted as saying that anybody can be a professional cyclist, you just have to be willing to suffer. While I'm not sure about that, I suspect that regardless of the result today, I might well find a new level of suffering! As we are racing with the age group below (45-49 years old), the pace will be very high at some stages at least, if not for it all.
The race course is flat for the first 7 km as we ride out of town until we reach the base of the first climb (about a 7 km, at 4-5% climb with a false flat in the middle). There has been some talk that the commissaires may make this section neutral (not raced) for safety reasons. While I hope so, as the roads out are very bad in this section and the bunch will be 90 riders, starting the race proper at the bottom of the climb will be uncomfortable as there is always someone who wants to race flat out from the gun, and I would rather that was on the flat - but it will be what it will be! After the first climb, there is a long (nearly 10 km) descent followed by a steady up hill drag punctuated by genuine, but shorter hills, to the half way point. There are a couple of descents but if I am off the back, they don't present opportunities to get back on as they are not technical or difficult enough that taking risks to go fast will make much difference to speed.
On the return trip (it is basically an out and back course), it is the reverse of the above; mostly slightly downhill with some short descents (so really fast) and then a nearly 10 km climb, where I think the final selection will take place, before we descend down into town and the finish, which will be a VERY fast descent indeed.
My two general strategies over the race will be to conserve, conserve, conserve energy at all times and to try to stick on the wheel of an Australian bloke called Michael Bonner. He came 12th, and very close behind, last year and is the only guy from the top 25 who is here this year. Both these require a lot of concentration, which is hard to do when breathing out your ears!
So, what are the goals? Well, it is complicated by being with the younger age group, but essentially as follows:
Firstly, to get to the false flat of the first climb 10 km in) with the front of the group (it should not have split too much at this stage, I don't think). If already dropped by the younger guys, get there with the front group of my age group (we wear different colour numbers).
Second, to get to the top of the first climb (14 km) as above
Third, so survive the descent without crashing - this is not an automatic assumption given the road quality, the speed humps and the rumble strips, which are placed at the bottom of the long descent and will cause people to drop drink bottles as we will hit them at 70-80 km/h.
Next, to get to the high point of the course with the group. By this point, there will have been splits in the group as the better guys will have attacked each other, so it is hard to say what "the group" will be. If it has not gone well, it might well be a case of suffering through the next 50 km in a small group off the back - not much fun in that!
For me, from here will be all about conserving to the bottom of the long climb. I have a small Coke to drink 10 mins prior to it as I think I will need to magnesium, to say nothing of the sugars and caffeine! I will need to go pretty deep on that climb, as that is where the fractures that haven't happened already will occur but wil hope to stay on the group I am with to the top.
The race down into town will be fun - super fast at 80+ km/h or so, with some technical stuff which might give opportunities to get back on if I have been dropped on the climb.
Once in town, jostling for position without working too hard in preparation for the finish. There are numerous tight turns and opportunities to make good position it the last 2 or 3 km and I am looking forward to that!
So, there it is, 2 hours 40 mins or so, all analysed and mapped out and with the potential to be turned absolutely upside down in 2 mins flat if something happens that I don't expect! I am certainly looking forward to it but not exactly relaxed, it would be true to say!
Carpe diem
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