Expert advice on gear ratios needed for an amateur!

[Frosty]

1 hour ago, Emazing said:

looking at the elevation profile, I can see it was the Ride for Sight.

It’s a fast start, mostly descending for the first 40km, before the rolling elevation starts, the wind in your face, the extra warm temperatures and any fatigue from over doing it in the perceivable easy start.

If you are chasing the groups, and burning matches, it’s very easy to fall apart in the second half.

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, Emazing said:

 

You appear to have started really hard an then blew spectacularly. 
too high a cadence could be a factor but it appears that you just rode too hard from the start. 
your gearing range doesn’t seem to be too  much of a factor but that’s just based on the max speed you could ride .

 

what is your age? You have heart rates zones set very high

Edited February 19 by DieselnDust

[DJuice]

Don`t think the heart rate zones is correct.

With those zones the blowout should not have happened.

[Martin PJ]

For a fast race you need a road bike. I used to battle with 50/11 on one bike, also 53/12 on another in normal races just keeping up. I think you did pretty well to do 42 km in an hour.

[Emazing]

1 hour ago, Koos Likkewaan 2 said:

I am no expert on this, but this is my takeaway from all the stats provided

1) With your gear ratio, 42km/h ave. is only an average cadence of 84. Not terribly fast, so can be managed if you are fit.

2) The info provided shows a fairly low heart rate and only zone 2 & 3. Was this a training ride, or the actual race you are referring to ? Not seeing a reason to pop with these.

3) Have you ever considered that, like me, you might have fast twitching muscles and just not build for long endurance efforts at high intensity ?

I can do efforts on the gravel bike at 45km/h average (42 x 10) for about 20 minutes then I am done, but this is due to me being a "sprinter" and not a "long distance" type.

Yip crossed my mind. I’m going to do two things and that is a proper Road Bike and other thing is to go out slow and hammer the last half 

[Emazing]

7 minutes ago, Martin PJ said:

For a fast race you need a road bike. I used to battle with 50/11 on one bike, also 53/12 on another in normal races just keeping up. I think you did pretty well to do 42 km in an hour.

Yes, I’m pretty fit and I’m able to do 82 100 km without much stress. It may be my gears. 

[Emazing]

31 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

You appear to have started really hard an then blew spectacularly. 
too high a cadence could be a factor but it appears that you just rode too hard from the start. 
your gearing range doesn’t seem to be too  much of a factor but that’s just based on the max speed you could ride .

 

what is your age? You have heart rates zones set very high

60 years old. I was working hard but managed my pace. I will try a proper road bike this weekend and see what’s the story. 
also the front wheel was binding and I suspect that was also a issue see clips 

[droo]

1 hour ago, DieselnDust said:

You appear to have started really hard an then blew spectacularly. 
too high a cadence could be a factor but it appears that you just rode too hard from the start. 
your gearing range doesn’t seem to be too  much of a factor but that’s just based on the max speed you could ride .

 

what is your age? You have heart rates zones set very high

Zones look ok if he's using the LTHR model, but it's the 2 hours in zone 3+ at the start of a close to 5 hour ride that did it I reckon... I'd guess tailwind for the first half of the ride so nowhere to hide in the bunch and burned matches holding on.

OP - it's not your gearing. 

[Frosty]

Also, how much did you eat and drink while out riding? 

[Emazing]

3 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Also, how much did you eat and drink while out riding? 

I did eat well but the tell tell sign of the high Candace now that I think back is how my legs were burning and “legs sweating”  😓 yip I was thinking to my self I did not know legs can sweat “

[Mountain Bru]

7 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Also, how much did you eat and drink while out riding? 

This 👆

No amount of gearing is gonna help you if the tank is empty. General advice is to eat between 60g to 80g of carbs per hour during a ride. If you're just drinking water, that means eating at least 3 of those green Farbars every hour, for the entire race. 

My guess is that you probably went out a bit too hard, but then didn't eat nearly enough, and then went pop (we've all been there). At high intensity, it's hard to eat and drink enough, and this is made even harder if you're in an unfamiliar group and are also worrying about not crashing. Your gut might also not be used to absorbing fuel while your HR is high. 

Best advice I think is to train your fuelling by reading the labels of your bars, gels, and drinks, and making sure you're getting at least 60g of carbs an hour on every training ride. 

And then.... Just enter gravel races and forget about keeping up with the roadies. Much more enjoyable experience 👌. 

[NicholasT]

The elevation profile of the Ride for Sight race is not terribly unlike the Ride Joburg 94.7, albeit Ride for Sight is about half the elevation. What I mean to say is in the first 40ish k’s of Ride Joburg your average cyclist has an “almost” elite riders average kph, and then you hit Kyalami and everything you’ve just achieved goes out the window. 
 

I suspect that (like many of us have done and some still do) you got caught up in all the excitement and latched onto a bunch you could never really hang with and burnt all your matches before the real work was about to start. 
 

The key is to be able to see and feel your zones and limits and ride within that. Please don’t see this as condescending or something of that sort. It’s just the opinion of someone who has had your experience 1 too many times. 

Edited February 19 by NicholasT

[ChrisF]

1 hour ago, Emazing said:

Yip crossed my mind. I’m going to do two things and that is a proper Road Bike and other thing is to go out slow and hammer the last half 

 

You may notice the serious riders rock up early, then do a few km before the event, thus warming up the muscles and ready to GO at the gun.

 

At Winelands I was DROPPED at the start !!  Took me 5km to get my rythm ...

 

2 weeks later I did 99er, cycling from home to the start.  8km in the legs before the start I was able to hang with the bunch (for a while at least)

 

A 42-11 combination will never be able to keep up when the bunch picks up speed !

[ChrisF]

8 minutes ago, NicholasT said:

The elevation profile of the Ride for Sight race is not terribly unlike the Ride Joburg 94.7, albeit Ride for Sight is about half the elevation. What I mean to say is in the first 40ish k’s of Ride Joburg your average cyclist has an “almost” elite riders average kph, and then you hit Kyalami and everything you’ve just achieved goes out the window. 
 

I suspect that (like many of us have done and some still do) you got caught up in all the excitement and latched onto a bunch you could never really hang with and burnt all your matches before the real work was about to start. 
 

The key is to be able to see and feel your zones and limits and ride within that. Please don’t see this as condescending or something of that sort. It’s just the opinion of someone who has had your experience 1 too many times. 

 

We have all paid these school fees at some point or another

 

SO easy to get caught up in the moment ....

 

Burning too many matches too early ....

 

Forgetting to drink ....

 

Forgetting to eat .....

 

@Emazing best wishes on your next race. 

 

 

PS - Your Garmin should have a function to set an alarm to remind you to eat, and another to remind you to drink.

[Emazing]

20 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

This 👆

No amount of gearing is gonna help you if the tank is empty. General advice is to eat between 60g to 80g of carbs per hour during a ride. If you're just drinking water, that means eating at least 3 of those green Farbars every hour, for the entire race. 

My guess is that you probably went out a bit too hard, but then didn't eat nearly enough, and then went pop (we've all been there). At high intensity, it's hard to eat and drink enough, and this is made even harder if you're in an unfamiliar group and are also worrying about not crashing. Your gut might also not be used to absorbing fuel while your HR is high. 

Best advice I think is to train your fuelling by reading the labels of your bars, gels, and drinks, and making sure you're getting at least 60g of carbs an hour on every training ride. 

And then.... Just enter gravel races and forget about keeping up with the roadies. Much more enjoyable experience 👌. 

hahah,   you could be right! 

[Emazing]

3 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

We have all paid these school fees at some point or another

 

SO easy to get caught up in the moment ....

 

Burning too many matches too early ....

 

Forgetting to drink ....

 

Forgetting to eat .....

 

@Emazing best wishes on your next race. 

 

 

PS - Your Garmin should have a function to set an alarm to remind you to eat, and another to remind you to drink.

I ate well and drank well.  I still think not was high cadence. lets see this weekend normal road bike.