mattm

Raced Cat's Hill p1/2 crit - or tried to anyway. It's got a 20% climb each lap, so so hard. Finished it last year, but not this year... raced this one four times, finished it once...

Blackdays

It was good seeing at least one Squadra dude in a sea of H24 and TMB.

rankin116

Oh man, that was you?! I was in front of you when it happened, sounded like an explosion. Glad you're ok. Word after the race was that you supermanned over the curb and slid into the grass like Pete Rose.

My races ended up the same way they have at that course so far: dropped. That little hill is deceptively hard, looking at the file last night it's basically 600+ watt 30s interval up that and the false flat every lap and it just wears me down.

mike868y

thanks, matt. this whole "enjoying crits" thing is a weird experience and I'm not sure how to feel about it

i feel like you also are probably much stronger (in the "ability to push a big gear" aspect, not just bike fitness) than me. i have weak little legs and I think I get faster acceleration with a higher cadence. it's definitely something worth working on/refining though.

crazyarm07

That's a scary accurate description of the crash. Just had some cuts and bruises. I actually thought about getting up and making a sad, futile attempt to chase before I noticed my front wheel was missing 3-4 spokes.

globecanvas

Orchard Beach, 7th or so. Weather Channel had 5 guys so the race was a matter of choosing which of their breaks to go with. I picked the 2nd, the 3rd one stuck.

The already short race got shortened more due to weather. I guess once Weather Channel had the break established they called HQ for a little meteorological support.

carpediemracing 

First, if you're spinning before the sprint, you really need to shift up AS you jump. I shift on my "jump downstroke", i.e. my thumb pushes the shift button down (Campy) as my right foot comes over the top of the pedal stroke. Ideally the chain shifts when my foot is around 2 o'clock, like max power.

Ideally you should have some acceleration headroom. When you are driving your car you don't redline it and then get ready to accelerate. You get into your best torque/HP range, rev it hard, and shift so that you end up in your best torque/HP range after you shift. Likewise, on the bike, you want to be lower than your ideal sprinting cadence because you need some room to accelerate.

Everyone has some pretty narrow window of optimal rpm for power. It might be a 4 or 8 rpm range. Go below that and you start to bog down. Go above that and, except when extremely fresh, your applied power falls off pretty dramatically - if you sprint at 280 rpm you're going to be using massive amounts of energy just to move your legs around (BMX riders will do 2000w peak, 1000w sustained, but they're doing 200 rpm and not going anywhere near the 45 mph they'd hit on a road bike). You need to know that target sprint cadence range.

If you have a power meter I'd go and do some "friendly/kind sprints", meaning sprints where you build up speed on a slight downhill and you have a tailwind. Ideally you'd have a 200m flat section that you hit at lead out speeds, like 32-34 mph (or faster). Punch it for the sprint. Do it in different gears and check your power files after. I used to tell people that if you're doing almost 35 mph going into the sprint (off a slight downhill so you're still fresh because you're not doing too much work) you should be able to jump and break 40 mph on the flat bit, 42 mph if going well.

(The higher speed is important because the bike handles differently at higher speeds. You want to get used to sprinting the bike at 40 mph, not at 30 mph).

I found my best peak power hit around 110 rpm (on 175 cranks), and if I got below 90 rpm I lost power pretty quickly. I'd been sprinting at much lower rpm for a while, as low as 70-75 rpm (overgeared up the hill at Bethel). I saw a huge spike in power as soon as I started jumping when at faster cadences, we're talking like +300w sustained for the sprint.

Once you start to feel like you're spinning out (which isn't that much higher, it might be 120 rpm or lower), shift up. I used to sprint on shorter 167.5 cranks at 125-130 rpm, based on my top speeds. On 175s it was 110 rpm max (53x11). On 170s it'll be something closer to 120 rpm although I don't think I'll be able to turn the 53x11 on 170s anymore (I have yet to ride them outside since I've put them on since late 2015); I'm guessing 115 rpm in a 53x12.

What you should feel is that as you are sprinting and accelerating that you're starting to spin out. Then you shift up and it resets your sprinting cadence and you do it again.

The fresher you are the faster you can pedal. If you're tired you start dropping out of that higher cadence stuff - it's just not possible. This is why I was pedaling so slowly in some sprints, because I was exhausted. It doesn't have to be a bad result - when I won at New Britain at the Series I finished the last 10 seconds "sprinting" at 86-88 rpm in the 53x11. I was blown and just trying to get to the line. Up until that point I was doing 100-110 rpm in mostly the 53x12. My cadence dropped when I came out of the last turn (90 rpm after the coast through the last turn).

aaronmcd

My hamstrings are in so much pain I can barely sit down and stand up. Red Kite crit, 3/4 and 2/3

3/4 had 6 teammates. I was saving energy mostly, but still covering anything that looked dangerous, and the ocassional attack whenever the pace lulled and it seemed right. Lots of wind out, but it came down to a field sprint. Lined up 4 teammates behind me and found the other 2 with 3 minutes to go.

We took off, me second on the train. But by the time I pulled off chaos had ensued behind me - someone had (stupidly) pushed in behind me, and pushed back out but only 2 teammates were on my wheel and I couldn't see our sprinter. We were too far out for 2 guys anyway. I drifted off the back. Learned later that the other 3 had managed to get back together and weren't too far off the train (I must have been cross eyed when I drifted back), but the chaos hurt our chances. Sprinter ended up 5th.

2/3 the wind had picked up, and I pictured a large break or field split. We had 6 guys, but only a few of us had the legs to do anything. I patrolled 10th ish wheel most of the race, anticipating surges and making sure we had representation in the moves when I couldn't follow. But then 3 guys got away and almost before we knew what hit us they were almost out of sight.

Many chase groups formed and reformed, but we were all together at the 3 to go lull. 2 guys took advantage and slipped away, then a teammate took off with maybe 4 minutes to go. He held off the rest of us by a couple seconds, and I managed to slip up the downwind side on the second to last stretch and take 2nd of the pack.

8th overall may not be great, but 1st cat 3 across and 2nd in a sprint is good for confidence for a definite non-sprinter.

mattm

Red Kite 35+ 1/2/3's - 2nd.

Got on the wheel of the 45-49 national crit champ in the last few turns; should have jumped early to beat him to the last corner, but it was too fast. 2nd will have to do! He had like 10 team mates, I had one.

Did the p1/2 an hour later - didn't make the winning move, but two team mates did. Hard to watch them ride away, but being tired helped. Won field sprint, but really wish I'd been in the break.

This is the problem with two races in a day - one of them usually sucks. But it was good training!

UmneyDurak

Yeah that guys was doing umm interesting things entire 3/4 race. I think he started the chain reaction that cause a crash on back straight.

For 2/3 I think people started to smell the roses with like 6 to go. I enjoyed 2/3 way more then 3/4. Even thought it was tougher.

Kind of looking forward to pro/1/2/3 next Saturday.

dz_nuzz

Did Wells Ave A/B. Made an early attack on Lap 1. Two guys sort of came with me but blew half a lap later. I ended up riding the whole race solo hanging out 40-50 seconds in front of the field. Twas nice to get a win this year even if it was just at Wells Ave. I did get some hot sauce, beer, muffins, jelly beans, body balm and some moolah out of the effort. Still trying to decide if the pain was quite worth it.

gsteinb

you get a longer race wednesdsay night at kissena

mattm

Nice!

Quite the prize list too.

dz_nuzz

Thanks! Yeah, Wells ave is known for giving away some interesting prizes. These have included: Socks, Homemade Jelly, Muffins, Cookies, Beer, Drink Mix, Watermelons, mangoes and coconuts.

Congrats on a pretty good double race there. I can only say, I would not survive two races like that very well.

grolby

Dang, wish I'd turned up. I wouldn't have joined your break (or I would been blown off as well), but would've been happy to heckle you after the race.

mattm

SJBC training crit tonight. 14 laps or 28 miles of racing.

Went otf a bunch, two of us eventually got away. Three more bridged up.

Attacked the group about 800m to the finish (before turn 3), but it was about 10m too early apparently.. 2nd. Good training though as always.

canuckbelle

Won the Women's P123 today...but there were just two of us. They shortened our race to 30min. I took off from the whistle and lapped her in 20min. Tomorrow we agreed to do the state championship race with the Cat 4 men.

Andy STi

Nice job! Too bad about no other women showing up.

canuckbelle

Thanks. *shrug* My coach told me to do my 20min FTP test today if I felt good. So that's pretty much what I did. Went from the gun, drilled it for 20min (and left just enough to not blow up). We confirmed my 265w FTP

Andy STi

Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race in Enumclaw, WA

Time trial at 9:47 this morning and crit at 6:50 tonight - boring day! Raining all weekend, wet TT and it looks like a nice wet 8 turn crit later. RR tomorrow in the wet shouldn't be a big deal.

UmneyDurak

Did Modesto pro/1/2/3. On Thursday started to feel sick. Friday just felt like ****. Saturday felt somewhat better so decided to do it, already pre-regged. Hey why let 45 bucks go to waste? Break went off pretty soon, with people trying to bridge to it. Once it was away things calmed down. I later learned two people crashed out due to a pedestrian. WTF?

Anyway just sat in and practiced cornering and staying on the wheel. Mentally just wasn't there to contest anything. I love the course, just wish I didn't get sick right before the race. Followed @mattm (#62 right?) wheel for few laps. That was a good wheel to be on.

Doge

35e SPIE Internationale Junioren Driedaagse (Axel,NL) 194 starters.

aaronmcd

Modesto Road Race, E3
72 miles, 80 turns, 8 laps, pancake flat and some light wind but nothing like last year.

What happens when an innocent probe attack on mile 5ish turns into an an early break of 3 but unsure about it sticking? Flounder a minute off the front for 80 minutes, get caught by the 2 teams not in our break, watch solo and double riders go up the road at random times while no one else in the pack wants to work. Even tried to sneak off myself several times, but I guess only the other guys were allowed. Eventually 9 guys were up the road on various parts of the course. Fun race, but weird.

I don't think I raced all that stupidly, but it definitely was a dumb-racing result!

grolby

Wells Ave A/B. I haven't raced road in almost a month and wanted to get something in before KSR. I didn't feel great thanks to allergies - oh yeah btw I have spring allergies, which has been part of my problem for the last month and which I should've figured out years ago but didn't cause they're too mild to bother me much when I'm not riding. Anyway, I didn't feel super frisky, so I figured I'd mostly sit in and go for a few primes and the final sprint. Turns out when I race a little more patiently I'm surprisingly not useless in a sprint. Won the first prime for some Mike & Ike, came second in a cash prime later cause I left it too late. Managed about 10th in the final sprint thanks to a little bit of bravery when fighting for position on the last couple laps. I'm usually a bit too much of a wimp about that, but I held my ground at a couple moments and it paid off. I didn't have enough left to really do any better, but 10th on 699 W for 15 seconds works for me. Surprised to see now how hard this race was (.97 IF for 1:08). Not because it didn't feel hard, but because I felt so crappy I assumed my power would be way down. Seems once this allergy nonsense clears up my fitness won't be as bad as I'd feared.

mattm

Yeah that was me. Forgot you were gonna be there, say hi next time!

Also, I can't believe that break went first lap right? I thought for sure they'd come back.. at least I had a team mate up there - up until he got crashed out by an old guy with a cane crossing the road.. his bike was broken in the incident, but he was fine. And the pedestrian didn't get touched so that's at least good.