Here’s my race report for the 155 -
But seriously, it got really, really hot for a while. My plan was to make hay early before the heat and then hope I could get with good groups. That worked out well. The first 30 minutes were neutral with a moment of silence for Mo at the low water crossing, but I still had ~225 NP trying to stay near the front. The next 30 minutes was typical gravel race start with sorting out of the groups. I had NP of about 275 for that stretch and was able to stay with the the lead group without going into the red much. Then we hit the “loco” climb and the lead group splintered into multiple groups. I ended up with a group of ~20 that was riding smooth and settled in for a long day. Lots of attrition from the heat and my power dropped like a rock as we got into the heat of the day. There were a few hours where it was just about survival. I was fortunate to only ride by myself for ~10 miles and ended up riding with 2 other guys in my age group for the last ~3 hours. Finished 7th out of 33 starters in the 50-59 age group. My finish time of 9:25 was longer than I expected, but I don’t think I could have executed much better and I was happy just to finish.