Steven Ludford says:

Normally I would test my ability to hold on to the front group for as long as possible on a flat route like this then end up too far ‘in the red’ before falling back down the field. Tonight I wanted a controlled steady pace from start to finish, I suggested a 3.0w/kg peloton to the Muckers but there were ‘no takers’ so I decided to see what would develop at the start.
Started at 3.0w/kg but there was always another rider just ahead so I pressed the pedals a little harder to avoid losing drafting options. I started with Jeff65, we hooked up with rouvy1bryon, then kylofski’s little group and suddenly we had a nice flowing bunch and I was quite comfortable. The next group ahead seemed to be pulling a similar pace and were 500ft/600ft away but I think our bunch could smell blood and gradually the gap very slowly reduced until we could see them. The group was now enormous and working very well together, I think I saw every rider hit the front at some point, some riders wanted to break up the group with hard attacks but that was no benefit to me so we let them dangle out front before they came back to the draft. So, with a slight group split near the end, it came to a mass sprint. I had spotted it was an uphill sprint, so I decided to ignore anyone coming past when they got ‘twitchy’ as the split banner appeared on screen, then I went hard at 700ft passing a number of fading riders before the line. I briefly thought I’d won our little sprint but fellow Mucker HalAir pipped me on the line. Only 5 ‘4-6’w/kg surges on my stats so my constant pace strategy was a success even if my overall power average was higher than planned.
Race stats: Age : 57, Weight : 95kg, IF=1.034
Averages : 161bpm, 295w, 3.10w/kg.

Jeff65 says:

Really enjoyed this ride, nice and flat to suit the heavier rider, pre race chat, Neil was going off at 4w, and Steven at a slower 3w, so the latter was a manageable pace for myself to maintain? Ended up in a fairly large group containing fellow Muckers Kyloski, Rouvybyron, S Ludford and many more,3w soon became 3.5w, so was on my upper limit keeping up ( apologies for my lack of work at the front), managed to reel several riders in, and we eventually caught the faster group including Neil, and so many familiar riders. Was feeling fairly comfortable at the rear of the large group, until I glitched 3 miles from the finish, and lost 285ft, which I couldn’t make up. Many thanks for all the time and effort to admin for organising these races 👍

Mike Hagen says:

Not quite my usual start, and it almost cost me! Fortunately some other stranglers came by and we worked our way onto the very big lead group. 16 in the group? I thought we’d all stay together on this very flat course right until the little ramp at the end. But the big guns had other plans; they throttled up on the small bump about 5 km in and left us pretenders behind. The group broke in half. Oh well, the pretenders were a nice group. There were two of the Mucker Vikings, Grochang and m-forby; Mucker Shark of the Alps was hanging in, that was good to see; Gure colleague KlausKinski was there, where I can keep an eye on him–he’s been very close to me the past few Thursdays; same with vcycling198; and MatthiasHeil was there. I’m always happy to see Matthias early, it usually means I’m doing well, and I imagine he’s happy to see me late, because it means *he’s* doing well. Both things were true this time, so it was a good race! Actually can’t remember much about the finish. Just put my head down and gave everything, second highest 2 min power of the year, and managed to get third in our little group. Pleased with that.