grolby

Yeah, I know. Anyway point is there are more than three races left. But Blue Hills not happening is a bummer. Even though I wouldn't have been able to make it anyway.

Also, camps =/= races.

Harlan

Ah I recall now. No M4 at Mayor's or Yarmouth, Beverly and Witches are weekday so unless one leaves work early...

Obviously I'm in the minority here, mostly 123 racers here.

grolby

Fair enough. It's easy for me to shrug about it, because at this point there are more road races left in the season than I want to do. My schedule has a road race, a silly cross bike short track race and a gravel race, and then it's cross season.

globecanvas

Yeah, you lazy new englanders. Mengoni, Freedom Tour, Jersey Devil, Thater...

echappist

i'll be there!

interestingly enough, i'm still top 5 on the climb of the race

going over that damn hill 12-13 times on race day won't be fun

aaronmcd

Got in some super hard racing today at the long course circuit race.
4.3 mile loops with wind, false flats, finish hill, many rollers, fast descent, very fun course.

2/3 planned on conserving for P123 race. Still in figure out p12 racing mode and not looking for results just yet. I felt really damn good though, and unfortunately I missed the early break. 2 guys, thought it would come back. 2 groups of 2 tried to bridge, and I could have gone but "conserving". The front group was gaining on the break and I was scared they would stay away so I quickly chased down the other two, but dragged the field. Still felt good so 3 of us kept attacking but the big team with 2 in the break chased everything religiously. I died in the field sprint, came in 12th of 18. 1.11 IF for an hour yikes. Still felt fine though.

By the time the 123 race started I was hurting a bit, but it didn't get too crazy for a couple laps and I got to warm back up a bit. Then a flurry of attacks in the miles leading up to the start finish hill softened most of us and a group of 6 put the watts on the road on the 1 minute climb and escaped. I had a teammate up there though. Followed a strong dude over the rollers just drilling like mad but the break was faster. Managed to hang on to the finish, and even get a few attacks in. I knew I'd be off the back on the hill sprint so I found my remaining teammate and drilled it as far as I could to halfway up the climb and let everyone sprint it out. Teammate did well, 9th overall. Teammate in the break got the early jump and won! I wasn't last.

270 TSS for the 2 races

mattm

p1/2/3 with @aaronmcd & co. Made the break, thought "damn I should really win this, if that strong junior doesn't get the jump on me" - but he got the jump on me, and I didn't get 2nd.

Most disappointing 3rd place ever.. good problem to have I guess.

TMonk

nice racing guys

mattm

Colavita GP p/1/2/3. "p" because there was an actual pro there (from the Rally team).

Lots of attacks like usual, I went with a few, won a prime that I didn't know I'd won (was otf in a break, I guess we just rolled through).

Was on the winner's wheel after the final corner, but didn't have the legs to follow him.

Just glad I didn't crash before Cascade!!

notwist

same here
i come back from vacation a couple days before so probably turd legs but should be fun nonetheless!

dz_nuzz

Went to local crit. The A race ended up beng super small because all the real big dogs were off beating eachother up at Yarmouth and I didn't feel like driving up there this weekend.

Formed the break with three other guys, lapped the field, then managed to actually win the sprint (That is a first for me). I feel like I sort of skipped out on doing the hard race though. Then again I had been feeling burnt out the past couple of weeks and I want to focus on the Hilly stuff in the end of the season so perhaps a weekend of time to myself and some long efforts was better for me.

shovelhd

Did you win any muffins or mystery bottles?

dz_nuzz

Cookies, Shaklee, some monies, and split a (4) muffin Prime with the breakaway mates.

shovelhd

Lapping the field and winning at Wells is always special. Nice job. I remember when you started racing there as a C.

dz_nuzz

Thanks Chris lets see how I do next weekend at your race! I am legitimately excited for it. I am also terrified because something tells me that a whole bunch of heavy hitters are gonna sign up at the last minute.

Harlan

Nice job Nuzz.

There was actually a B and we were there. CB was there with 3 guys that knew what they were doing. After many tries a 2 man break went away and we never saw them again. I did take the intermediate sprint though, and 4th in the field. So gas money, and we marshaled so a break even kind of day. Then I went home and had a mini dehydration coma.

grolby

Seems we're always at Wells on different weeks, go figure. See you at Hilltowns?

dz_nuzz

Ah. Yeah we had a couple of guys in the B race.

I think we saw each other but have never put 2 and 2 together since I was marshaling your race over at the sports club.

I also was close to the dehydration coma. It was better on Sunday than Saturday, but things were still HOT.
@grolby Yes indeed!

Harlan

I saw a CB rider at the club but also didn't put it together. To make things even more difficult we are hoping to find new team(s) for next season. We can't exactly make any team outings due to geography though. So I might just go without.

jsk

Rocy Mount Stage Race Masters 40+

newish/small stage race in Shreveport. Fields were even smaller this year than last, not sure why. Only 8 racers in 40+ field, might have been more fun to race the larger cat 4 field.

Stage 1 TT - short, mostly flat, and fast. I put in a PR for average power over that duration, so felt pretty good. 3rd fastest time of the day, and 1st in my race with a 13s lead over 2nd.

Stage 2 Crit - different course from last year, two downtown blocks with substantial hill and headwind on the finishing stretch and a downhill tailwind on the back stretch leading into corner 3. 2nd place GC rider and his teammate took turns attacking until I couldn't respond (no one else was willing to chase), eventually got away and when two others bridged I wasn't recovered enough to follow. Eventually settled into chase mode working with one other rider to close gap. Brought it back to about 5 secs by the finish, but there were intermediate/finish bonus secs so I dropped into 2nd place by 6 secs, still up over 20 secs on 3rd so podium prospects looked good going into final stage.

Stage 3 RR - derailler hanger snapped during warmup. TT bike's hanger not compatible so I didn't have part for the repair even if I'd had time (which I didn't). Race over for me before it started, really frustrating especially given the travel expenses involved.

echappist

yikes, sorry to hear that. at least you had the legs.

i'll make a note and buy some hangers for my road bike.

mattm

Damn, sucks.

As for the crit - if 2nd's team mate was attacking, couldn't you ignore that and just follow 2nd place? Maybe I read your report wrong.

grolby

I recently had to replace the hanger for my bike. I ordered two so I would still have a spare ready just in case of disaster.

dz_nuzz

I actually keep a spare in my bag for this exact reason. It is sadly a lesson many of us learn the hard way.

I am surprised there was no neutral support ready to lend you a bike?

jsk

Yeah it never really occurred to me that one might need to keep spares around. Lesson learned. My TT bike actually came with a spare, I've already ordered an extra spare for my road bike.

Places 2-6 were pretty tightly spaced after the TT, so my thinking was I couldn't afford to let anyone get a way and build a significant gap. Plus the stage 1 results weren't posted until just before the crit started so I didn't really know who was who. But in hindsight I should have done things differently. I probably should have let one of them go sooner, so I would still be able to hop on when somebody attempted to bridge. By the time that happened I was too tired. This was definitely the hardest crit I've done before, big difference racing against 2's and 3's as opposed to 4's and 5's, even if it was a small field.

I've never seen a race with neutral bikes around here, some may have neutral wheel support but wheels in/wheels out is just as common.