The lead riders were setting a blazing pace. I was able to close that gap not too long after the neutral roll out and made it to the lead group of riders. There was some rotating and sharing the workload among the front riders, but it was not too organized. I could see that I was having to ride at threshold to hold on, so I did my best just to sit on.
Through the first hour, my Intensity factor was about 1.04. This was quite unstainable for a 4.5-5-hour event, and I ended up getting blown out the back on a climb.
I was expecting a group to go hard for most of the event and I am not surprised that a group of riders went out this hard right away. Looking back, I should have stuck to the front and not let so many people pass me initially during the “neutral” roll out.
Check out my blog for the full details
https://jaylocycling.com/border-wars-2023-gravel-race-report/
