MUCKERS L’Etape tour Race 1 of 3. 16/05/23
Rouvy Route Used : L’Etape Czech Republic 2023 – Virtual | Stage 2 | 10.14 miles | 898 ft climbing
Route 2 from the L’Etape challenge
30 Registered | 19 Finishers | 1 DNF | 10 DNS
55 minutes after the first race of the night, we start the 2nd. Totally different challenge and championship from the first one but they both add up to a nice race mileage and climbing between them both so we had to have a double header night.
So even though this is the first race in my Mini L’Etape championship, we are using the shortest route from the challenge first (Route 2) so we can have this double race night. A different prospect from the first with a shorter distance but more climbing! Lets see how this one went:
Whos idea was it to run this hillier race after a flatter 18 mile first race!!???? oh yeah, mine! 🤦♂️ 20 riders on the start line with a mix of riders from the first race, and , fresh legged riders looking for the advantage.
“karel_sousek_drafting” showed his class by winning this by just over 20 seconds, having been on the first race as well! “Tuden” , who was also on the podium in the first race, claimed a very respectable 2nd place, with “Dok_PS” claiming 3rd for the fresh legged riders! 😉
A strong 4th place for “nielsbrynnum” who is very close to a podium finish soon, with “MikeHagen” claiming5th and the best Muckers Worldwide rider for the 2nd race in a row this evening! well done and thanks for leading the team tonight. Only a minute behind came the 2nd Mucker in the top 10 “Andy_UP” with a strong race to 6th, with the Spanish rider “Chorus” in 7th. (Are you not ready to be our first Spanish Muckers Worldwide team rider yet????)
8th and 9th came 2 more Muckers with “denny44” finishing just in front of “kylofski” on a route that suited the MWW co creator better than the first race!
And finally, 10th place to “kin_kwan” whos raced with us for ages now and i am always shocked isn’t a Mucker yet! I think it just shows how you feel you get to know these “avatars” the more you race with them or see there name miles away from you in the “not so” nearby list!
Thanks again for jumping on the race. Please feel free to join the team if you would like too, I just want to spread the word that’s all, that we are here, just racing and getting through the challenges together. Don’t forget we have the WhatsApp chat group as well so you can actually get to know what some of these riders you race against are actually like! Just message me your mobile number and I’ll add you to the group. you don’t have to chat, you can just read some of the nonsense we come up with, but if you need us, we will help any way we can.
Cheers.
| # | Category | User | Points | Team | Racetime | GAP | AV.MPH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Men |  karel_sousek_drafting | 50 | CK Vinohradske Slapky | 0:27:58.9 | 21.74 | |
| 2 | Men |  Tuden | 48 | Flø Garage Cycling | 0:28:19.2 | 0:00:20.3 | 21.48 |
| 3 | Men |  Dok_PS | 46 | 0:28:31.5 | 0:00:32.6 | 21.33 | |
| 4 | Men | nielsbrynnum | 44 | 0:28:39.6 | 0:00:40.6 | 21.23 | |
| 5 | Men |  MikeHagen | 42 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:28:41.5 | 0:00:42.5 | 21.21 |
| 6 | Men |  Andy_UP | 40 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:29:41.7 | 0:01:42.8 | 20.49 |
| 7 | Men |  chorus | 38 | 0:30:14.9 | 0:02:15.9 | 20.12 | |
| 8 | Men | denny44 | 36 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:30:30.3 | 0:02:31.4 | 19.95 |
| 9 | Men |  kylofski | 34 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:30:43.7 | 0:02:44.8 | 19.8 |
| 10 | Men | kin_kwan | 32 | 0:31:14.4 | 0:03:15.4 | 19.48 | |
| 11 | Men |  jvance | 30 | Stronten Honden | 0:31:19.6 | 0:03:20.7 | 19.42 |
| 12 | Men |  Lorenzino | 28 | 0:32:45.2 | 0:04:46.3 | 18.58 | |
| 13 | Men | Chak | 26 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:32:51.4 | 0:04:52.5 | 18.52 |
| 14 | Men |  Stocki22 | 24 | 0:33:37.5 | 0:05:38.6 | 18.09 | |
| 15 | Men | S.Ludford | 22 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:36:22.9 | 0:08:23.9 | 16.72 |
| 16 | Men | Mucker1974 | 20 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:36:27.7 | 0:08:28.7 | 16.69 |
| 17 | Men | josetxutxapeldun | 18 | bh | 0:36:57.5 | 0:08:58.1 | 16.47 |
| 18 | Men | jameswallrich | 16 | 0:37:11.9 | 0:09:12.9 | 16.36 | |
| 19 | Men | Chicama | 14 | 0:40:33.1 | 0:12:35.5 | 15 | |
| dnf | Men | TE73 | 0 | dnf | – |
The 2nd race in this L’Etape Mini Championship is on the 25th at 7pm (UK). Link Below:
NO LEGS!! 😂 Set off and was pretty much last straight away. didn’t want to zone 4 though and just wanted to get it finished as best i could! ended up riding with Ste and James for most of it, but then i just had to up my pace a bit on the last climb to just put something into the legs. overtook Jose, pulled a decent gap on james but obviously ste, being a fellow Mucker, wasn’t gonna let me go and he came over the top with me. I cooled down on the nice downhill to the line and was very happy to get off the bike. That was tough after that flat out first race, but its all good trainig! I hope……
Report for 2nd race up already? You are up late, Neil. But NO LEGS!! is absolutely right. Got mine back after a couple of kms, but the little rollers in first half took their toll and spread the field out. Rode with nielsbrynnum the second half. Tried an attack with 400 m to go, maybe he wouldn’t respond, but he did. Caught me with 200 m to go and I just sat up. Legs dead, totally caput, but, yeah, hopefully it’s good training.
I forgot to mention last week, but welcome to the team Mike. You will now be one of the top Muckers in each of the races. We have some really strong riders in our Team. Keep it up! 👏
Thanks for another excellent report! I had the advantage of the fresh legs. Barely made it to the top 10.
Was in the first group with Andy and Mike for 10 mins, but couldn’t hold the pace at the little rollers. Then Denny and I rode together (mostly Denny in front, lol) to try to close the gap to chorus, but I was in the red for too long and needed to slow down to get some rest. kylofski passed me during the last long hill as expected. Finally, I was able to hold the 50m advantage to jvance to the finish line.
I just joined the Muckers Worldwide!!! I can call you guys teammates now!!! Looking forward to riding with everyone!
Welcome Mucker
Welcome to the team!
The Rouvy App made strange things last night. The only rider I saw in the front group and I could draft with was MikeHagen… the others have been invisible… It’s difficult to race against transparent competitors. Sorry for not racing in the first race but 8pm is usually too early for my schedule. PS
Objective was just to finish and I was happy to ride at the rear, although even that was too fast for comfort. I was a bit isolated and realised if I caught ‘jameswallrich’ and ‘Mucker1974’ life would be a little easier for all of us. American ‘Chicama’ must have seen my ambitions for last place and had some sort of technical issue before continuing in the final position. ‘Mucker1974’ then went crazy and started to up the power, the elastic back to ‘jameswallrich’ snapped and was stretching to that point for me. Mucker passed ‘josetxutxapeldun’ so I dug deep and sat on the same riders wheel for ages for the sake of 2 watts saving. I kicked on as it was getting more comfortable to stand on some uphill sections which gradually brought me back and past my teammate, last place ambitions now destroyed we both rode easy to the finish line.
The second race of the evening was upon us, and this was more my type of race: a bit of hill climbing. I would have liked more hills, but I had to work with what I had. Off we went, and on the first mini hill, I caught up to ‘Chak,’ a fellow Muckers racer who’s very strong, and passed him. I think he was taking this ride easy. Next were ‘Lorenzino’ and ‘Jvance.’ They stayed with me on the flats/downhills until I reached the last climb. I could see I was catching ‘Kin_kwan,’ whom I’ve had a few good races with in the past. He was pushing hard on the hill, but I knew if I could maintain a 4.0 – 4.1 w/kg up this hill, I could catch him, which I did.
‘Denny44,’ what can I say? This guy is a very strong rider and a fellow Muckers Racer too. Could I catch him again? Nope, there just wasn’t enough hill left, and when we reached the top, he managed to pull away on the last flat bit. In the end, I did okay with 9th out of 19, but ‘Denny44,’ I’m coming for you!
First race was flat, so not for me. Joined the second race, hoping the fastest guys already had there fun and didn’t want to fly off as if they where chased by hungry predators. Also, there was a hill of 4km where they could battle it out and the best was always going to come on top. Those 2 things worked out well for me as I could follow the leading group over nice bumps I love to power over. I knew I could never follow these strong guys on the hill, and I was hoping the lead with the riders behind us was big enough to hold on for a nice 6th place. I had to give it all on the hill to keep chorus 200m behind me, as he was most of the time over 4w/kg. Very happy with the results and my avg power output.