Posted by Its time for Virtual racing again. Its cold, races are getting cancelled across the board and Fulgaz is providing a decent replacements. This time around i decided to do something much shorter than VRAW 🙂 My legs still hurt just thinking about that race. So this race is part of the Revolve 24h and hosted by Fulgaz. It consist of all 6 Tracks, about 100 miles with 7155 feet of climbing.
Stage 1
Although it was just one lap, it was a painful one. Some rollers with decent amount of climbing. In fact there was categorized climb on this track.
Feeling fresh and stupid enough, I pushed the tempo. The catch for tracking the standings was that one can race the 6h event during the main 24h event timeframe. Therefore, the stats were only as good as of the time I finished it. Someone else can technically start after me and better my time. Some pretty solid racers were lined up and I knew it wasnt going to be easy. To name a few – VRAW winner Simon Potter, Jasmin Muller, Felipe Matos, Jenn Orr plus many more. At the end of stage one I finished averaging 240 Watts and taking 6th in the GC. How much longer can i hold this up for i though? Not long I am sure. . . Simon eventually did not finish and likely to technical difficulties. While still racing, he was always on the top part of the standings.
Stage 2
Stage two was 8 Laps on the Monaco circuit. Thats great and all, except its a short track with one punchy climb, meaning id have to climb that 8 times. Strava profile is deceiving and those small bumps were really sharp in the Fulgaz interface. They felt sharp on my legs too.
I had to ease out the gas a bit so I dont hit a wall. There is going to be no recovery time , its a 6h race. So i tried to settle into a nice pace and not go super hard up the climb. I felt a little better, was hydrating, eating as I should and felt confident. For now. My power was still a bit high to sustain for super long time but i know i can manage it for few hours without slowing me down much later on.
I finished this stage with 217 Watts average and that was good to move up one spot to the 5th overall on the GC. Although after stage one i was only behind two to three minutes to the 3 racers ahead of me, the gap was now increasing. I wasnt even paying as much attention to it and the names ahead of me. You know, racing as good as I can was my sole focus.
Stage 3
We were now on the famous Silverstone and spinning around like a fidget spinner 5 times on almost flat as a pancake course. Great ,this is my specialty. Just concentrating on consistent power and nice cadence.
Nothing interesting other than thoughts like – ” I am getting sick of this indoor trainer and my legs still hurt” .
Even though this was so far the longest stage and I was a bit slower, it was my fastest due to the elevation profile. I was perfectly paced and that yielded 201 Watts and over 21 Mph average speed. I was a happy kid.
To no surprise, I was stuck on 5th in the GS. Still 3 to 4 minutes behind N Turner but now falling behind Jasmin Muller to about 11 minutes. That’s a lot.
Stage 4
Laguna Seca, Laguna Seca , what have you done to me. This was by far the hardest stage. Fulgaz didnt disappoint again on the toughness score 🙂 10 Laps around this circuit , the longest stage and nearly 1/3 of the total climbing, just great. By this time i was feeling the pain.
At least i can relax for like 5 seconds on each downhill. Yea, i am loosing a little bit of speed but option two is blowing up like a balloon. Not today. As i finished the first 3 or 4 Laps , I realized that this is pretty much the king stage. Its either going to make me or break me. If I was in pain, then everyone else must be feeling it to. Or not 🙂 So I made sure I ate regularly, I rehydrated and pushed on as hard and consistent as I can in hopes of opening a gap behind me in the standings and closing up on the top guys.
My power was still dropping but 180 Watts was not too bad. Two more stages to go at least.
After the stage , I moved up again a spot to 4th Overall. Not by being super strong , but because Simon Potter was no longer racing. I then actually started paying attention to the standings and realized D Churchill was now 2 minutes down on me. He made up another minute on me on this stage alone.
Stage 5
N Turner and 3rd overall was just 3 minutes ahead of me and D Churchill 2 minutes behind. This is getting interesting. How about doing some work on this stage i thought. This stage was just 3 but long Laps on the Bend GT Circuit. Not much of climbing and up the road i went.
I was rocking some music and just digging deep to maintain decent power and tempo. I cant get dropped now. My power was exactly the same as the previous stage so at least i wasn’t fading any longer. I was feeling a little better and just eager to get this silliness over with. Feeling better means not allowing the power to decrease more. Not really worrying about increasing it at this moment 🙂
4th place here and still feeling solid about my chances. Maintaining the separation between me and the racer behind me. Same 7 minutes difference between me and N Turner
Stage 6
Finally, sprint to the finish line and not as hilly here. A little slower but the goal was to sustain my position rather than go for full effort and loose it all. Mission accomplished
Finished 4th this final stage and gained another 5.5 minutes on the chaser. Success. 10 minutes behind 2nd Overall male but that was too much to make up for. I gave it my best effort
At the end of the race, I was able to secure 3rd amongst all males and 4th overall. Could have gone better , but also worse. I am thankful. Next is the World 24h TT on Fulgaz mid January
Stoychev Ultracycling 
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