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June 01, 2005
Le Challenge
Matt arrived in 81st place out of 371 finishers doing the long loop of the Challenge du Dauphiné Libéré as a race last Saturday, riding the 180 km in 6:09:03 chip time, 6:10:47 from the start. If you check that site out, you'll notice they did 8 cols, so Matt's avg. speed of 29.3 kph (18.2 mph) including drink stops is less than 5 kph (3 mph) slower than the guy who won (and who probably had people handing him water bottles).
Matt said he had two primary difficulties. First, he got stuck behind many, many other riders starting out, so couldn't draft on people going his speed. Second, he experienced unexplained but sharp foot pain 2:30 into the ride until the end. It was bad enough that it prevented him from riding as hard as he normally would.
He says he's not quite as light as he'd like to be for his power output, and that makes a difference on the uphills. He seems to make up for it however on the downhills where he corners much more efficiently than other riders, thanks to his background in off road cycling. With 8 cols and a couple thousand meters of climbing, good technique makes a difference.
All in all, it looks like he had a pretty good ride for a guy who spends so much of his time hunched over a keyboard.
Posted by Mark at June 1, 2005 09:30 PM