Uthai Thani king of Sang Kraeng
First race since my semi- retirement (from work) and its burning hot. The temperature hit 39 degrees on my way to the race & the app says it feels like 43. Seems like the definition of insanity to be starting at 4:30 in the afternoon in such heat. The rationale is that we’re finishing on the Sang Kraeng climb up to Uthai Thani temple snd the lookout is allegedly spectacular at sunset.
Retirement has been good. I’m training more and hitting some PB numbers that I haven’t seen in years. My booming confidence took a dent on Thursday when the youngsters dropped me on the local petrol station smash fest.
Got a lift out to Uthai Thani & the flags are really blowing in the strong wind. Arrived to find the stadium empty which made me think it was going to be an easy race. Around 35 riders eventually turned up including all the strong Nakhon Sawan boys.
We started with 5km down a fast straight road & it was immediately obvious that around 10 of us were up for a hard race. I pushed on the small uphill rise to try reduce the hangers on before we turned into the smaller roads but they clung on.
Into the skinny roads and the attacks started. Usually just 1-2 guys and rarely getting more than 50m in the wind. But it required constant attention to make sure none of the riders bridged into something dangerous. I stayed in the top 3 places throughout & did too much work.
At Km 20, we hit the bendy road which was a bit dodgy with sand and holes. I got involved in a break and we managed to lose maybe 10 riders. After the break got caught, Dennis H appeared on the front of the bunch on his TT bike & pulled the group for a few fast KM. As far as I know, he was just there for fun but it was a bit weird!
One of the NS boys got off the front & no-one seemed keen to chase so I bridged over to him. He looked fucked so I pushed on myself. I quickly realised that the wind was too strong and there was no way I could make the 20km alone to the end. But no-one behind was closing the gap and i had a few hundred metres. I sat in zone 2 and cruised along trying not to expend too much. I was put there for 7km before the pack caught me. In retrospect, i wonder what would gave happened if I’d pushed it.
I got into another break about 5km later & this one gad real potential as all 3 of us were in different categories. The much reduced bunch caught us with about 10km to go. From then in there were 8 of us. Constant attacks that didn’t stick and every one looking fucked!
I had nothing left and almost got dropped on a few of the attacks. I took it up the hill into Uthai Thani in first snd was passed by most of the group over the summit.
8 of us cane onto the Sang Kraeng temple climb together. There was an attack by the Y1RS dude at the bottom and i had nothing and just let it go. I crawled up that climb but did pass 1 guy from my category. Id guess i was 5th overall.
Good fun race but crazy hot. My Zwift numbers look great but real world performance is not aligned. Either the local kids are super strong or my power meter is off.
150 bhat for a great day out with a few drinks thrown in. 38.5 average to the climbs & then 37 for the whole race.
Its my 20th Wedding Anniversary so I immediately left and headed home for dinner. Received a frosty reception…evening races on a major family occasion are a risk 😃