My experience with stage races is recovery btw races is pretty good, so I would race the first two all out. If be conservative on the first 20 miles of the last race bc blowing up half way through is a good way to lose.

I had a long drawn out response to this... but it really comes down to if you want to try to win the overall or 1 of the stages. If you want to win the overall then you should be pushing the pace every time and have a firm idea of where you can gain the most time on each course.... power plan for that.

If you just want to win 1 of the stages that best suits your abilities... then targeting that one with max effort and using the others as training days or prep rides.


Sounds like a lot of fun honestly. plenty of time to recover between them if you go in fresh.

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COROS Sports Science

Probably looking to do well overall rather than win a stage. I'm using this as part of a cycling block. I'm really going to focus on getting outside of my triathlon/duathlon approach and race these at higher efforts, but don't want to completely suck it up on the final stage.

If you're in great 40k shape.. then pacing for the stages would probably resemble something along the lines of.

Stage 1: 100% FTP
Stage 2: 105-110% FTP
Stage 3: 92% FTP.


Those are generalized though. go look at your power curve and your past 90 days of training. That will show you what you can do for those efforts. If well rested, you should be able to have strong races at each.


Best of luck

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COROS Sports Science

The likelihood of someone maintaining 105-110% FTP for a 8 mile TT with 1800 foot gain (and per OP, a consistent grade) is slim to none. Either that person is an extreme outlier or FTP is estimated way too low. That uphill TT is likely a ~30 minute effort.

As I noted.. those were generalized and the OP should look at their data to get a good idea of what they should be targeting.

If their FTP is truly 1 hour though...and lets say they can hold 250 watts for 1 hour. Then holding 262.5 watts for 30 minutes may not be a reach.

Hard to know though without all the details.

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COROS Sports Science

I was intrigued so I looked up the race -- looks pretty unique/cool!

I don't have much to add to what's been said. If you're reasonably fit -- road race fit -- I think you can just go for it on all three stages and not worry about it. Stage 1 looks a bit technical, so I would think that one through a bit. On stage 3 I'd go close to 100% on the out leg (all uphill) and then back off a bit on the return (all downhill) to whatever it feels like I can do.

If not for the ROTD tomorrow in Brownsville ... I'd be racing the DRVTT. From what I understand, talking with those that have raced it ... the hills are not the big issue, it's the wind!

Due to the wind, I've heard of some switching to their road bikes and or very shallow wheels, so something to be aware of.

The climbs are not that steep, so steady pace on them, however they can be very twisty roads and the descents can be technical, especially with the wind.

As far as pacing goes ... Go as fast as you can hold for each race :-) ... If you are using a power meter for pacing, I'd suggest trying to stay in the 90% - 95% of FTP range for each race. Between the hard pace, wind and climbing, your legs will be plenty tired at that pace and going harder could blow you up during the long final day stage.

if you have the course profile can you try bestbikesplit.com?

We'll, when you forget you computer mount, it makes monitoring power difficult! Put it in my top tube storage to record stage 1 and ended up right at FTP from feel. I was able to set it in the holder so I could see it for the uphill and averaged 110%. Today I had an easier time holding higher watts on the ups. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Curious how it went.

I was pretty happy, all things considered. First off my small cold turned into a full-fledged sinus infection Friday afternoon and left me with some pretty bad headaches. I pretty much blew it out all over the roads on Saturday-but got some pressure relief.
Saturday: FTP is 285. Averaged 281 watts for the 26-mile stage 1 all on feel, couldn't see my computer since I forgot my mount and stashed it in my X-Lab pouch..
Stage 2 went really well. Most guys went with a road bike set up for the climb, I went TT and stayed down except to get on roof of the gears a couple of times. I was able to set my computer in the pouch in a way that I could see it and used it to help keep pressure on the pedals. Averaged 311 ways for 8 miles. Super-happy that I was able to recover and race that well.
Sunday: I woke up with a horrible sinus headache and could not break the pressure-tried everything. The 23-mile out had a few climbing sections and I was able to push those, but could not keep my head in the game or break my sinus pressure. Averaged 261 up. Toward the top I felt a strong enough cross-tailwind that I sat up a few times, but didn't realize how strong they were until I turned around. Hardest winds I've ever raced in! I've never sat up so much on a downhill on my TT bike. Most of us were riding the yellow to keep from getting blown off the road. Didn't even grab my water bottle on the way down. I pretty much mailed it in ending up averaging 238 in the end.
We all got smoked by Daniel Lincoln. Dude can bike, not just run! Can't wait to go back next year. Beautiful country and great vibe.