Tried to do a hard start for half a lap then settle in and recover. Power suggests I only really managed to to a “hard start” until the tight chicane in dogtown, I got more watts out on other laps without feeling as screwed up. The perception of raised effort lasts way longer than you’re actually outputting more power. Lap4 from 600-1400m was actually a harder effort NP* = 401 Watts than I did on Lap1 NP* = 393 Watts and it certainly didn’t feel like it. I guess the takeaway is the hard start is only worth it if it’s strategically helping with position or handling that you will not be able to make back up. Once I’m in front of anyone obviously slower than me it’d probably be best to just get stuck in to the sustainable effort and riding as smooth as possible.
The two biggest features in the power profile showing lap to lap variability were:
- @~1200m – the right hander coming off of privet lane through to U-turn which I did with relatively lower watts on Lap2 and Lap5. Lap2 was super quick, Lap5 (with a burped tyre) was rather slow. Lap 2 I just managed to carry a bunch of speed through that corner and it set me up through the whole next feature to keep saving watts. Might’ve gained back a whole bpm of HR just from steering that corner so well.
- @~2200m – the uphill chicane next to the bottling plant. There’s a low power penalty to getting stalled out and needing to foot dab or dismount to get started again, there’s also a high power penalty to losing your momentum and needing to stand up to hammer. I kinda forget which laps were which but I definitely made some errors there so it’s obvious there should be some pretty decent lap-to-lap variability there. The uphill corner is something I continue to struggle with in general relative to my peers, has been for a couple years I think.