G3 Race 2 - Guthrie to Crescent and back

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G3 race two took us a little north from Guthrie to Crescent and back to Guthrie. The course contained a few more hills and was around 65miles in length.

My Race 

We started at 8am and rolled as a group for the first 4.5ish miles. This was because there was a one lane section of highway over the Cimarron river which was traffic light controlled. 

Waiting to go

It was a long wait

After we eventually got a green light we cruised a little more pavement then turned into a headwind section on more pavement before we hit the gravel. Not long after hitting the gravel I was dropped.... :) 

Bye bye

Yep not fast enough

So long lead riders

I probably could have worked a little harder to try and keep up with the front group but for once I did the smart thing and let them go. This was a really good decision on my part as it meant I didn't cramp up for the race and had power through the whole race. 

After the front group had gone we formed a nice group on the road and the miles were flying by...

Enjoying the smooth dirt

Sun finally came out

Oh no back to showers

The pace was good probably due to the tail wind really :) and we were working well together. a couple of faster riders passed us not long after this and a couple of the group jumped on their wheels and left our group. Oh well we were still doing great. We were now at the far north of the course where there was a little mud followed by a long section into a headwind on a soft road. 

No walking but it could have been much worse

Woo hoo headwinds

Jeremy and I split the work on this section, I was very thankful to have a teammate and strong rider with me it made a huge difference to my workload. 

Drafting Jeremy

After we turned off this road we were into Crescent and our aid station. We stopped and filled up bottles then headed out of town. There were four of us together at this point. Jeremy and I were doing most of the work into the wind but its all good training right? 

Next up was the hilly section of the course. I actually got to see what climbpro on my Garmin Edge 530 looks like. It is a great tool . 

Climbpro

Real life view when not staring at the screen. :)

We conquered two of the three climbs before hitting the pavement section again, we had caught up with a couple of riders on this part so four became 6 as we rode the headwind paved hill. Jeremy and I once again took turns to pull the group along. 

Oh highway miles :(

Getting a tow from Jeremy. 

After this long section (or so it felt) of highway we hit the dirt again. 

Smiles again on the dirt. 

We then dropped down a closed to vehicles road and crossed a bridge before climbing up on the final climbpro climb of the day. The course was definitely more technical for around a mile. I tried to video it but alas my phone wouldn't start recording. We went in as 6 people and came out as Jeremy and I, mountain bike skills pay off I guess. :) 

Here we go

It got way more fun further on the trail. 

We were now 53miles in and I was loving it. We repeated a little bit of the previous course, stopped at the aid station after the field section and were informed that we were probably top 20. At this news Jeremy and I decided to get going before the people following us caught up. We headed out down the farm track and onto the pavement for a mile before getting back on dirt. At this point, Jackie and Gabriel caught back up to us. We cruised the dirt, crushed the pavement section then enjoyed the last dirt into town. Back to civilisation and obviously we got stopped at the traffic light after the hill. We waited and waited then Jeremy jumped the red whilst the rest of us waited. We finally got a green and finished off the ride. 4hrs 18min and an average speed of 15.1MPH. I'm super happy with that as I felt way better at the end of the ride than I did a the end of  race 1.  

The Strava