Ken Woods Memorial RR Results and Discussion Thread
 

I want to hear reports, I'll get mine up eventually when I can stop laughing.

I'll start then. The junior race was fun, and we went out with the cat 4 women and 35+. Early on a few of us got in front of that pack. We turned and hit a 25mph cross wind, was little faster than we thought but we laughed it off. Took turns in the wind. Continues that way until we had to turn into the wind. It picked up a little too and I think at that point we maxed out at 15mph and took really short pulls in our pack of four. More wind and then we got it at our backs, there was a nice downhill too and we hit 40mph without pedaling, wanted to go faster but couldn't make it past the junior without crossing the yellow line. Wind carried us and finished third in my junior age group. The wind was so much fun, like climbing a steel hill on a flat.

nice, but what made you laugh so hard? d;

The wind made the race so much fun. I get a kick of being thrown around like that.

I actually laughed out loud when I remembered I had a triple on the last hill.

It was like waking up on a Saturday, getting ready for work, and then realizing that you could go back to bed.

Damn that was some wind.

Pictures up! http://www.skinnyski.com/

Short version: Team had two top 5 finishes

That wind was something else (30-40mph gusts). We had multiple crashes. I don't believe I've ever had to cycle that tilted in order to go in a straight line before.

My biggest mistake was getting out of bed. Damn, as bike racing goes, that was awful. I DNF due to a bib issue I'd rather not talk about. But hey I had my fleeting moment of glory when two miles into it I turn around and EVERYONE was 1/2 mile or so back. I was cruising at 36mph and had a HR of 140. Then I was caught, cleaned, and hung up to dry.

Call out you pic numbers on Skinnyski!

I'm still looking, but have to get to Excelsior.
#75 set 1. Into the wind and on the edge.
#87 set 2. Done and cooked.

Ah, you are one of the few with a yellow bike like me so I have definitely seen your bike around...also have seen a yellow Trek. I am not on SS as I was pretty well hidden in the pack when they took the pics.

Say Hi next time, I don't bite.
Congrats on your stellar results! You clearly didn't get spit out the back.

BHR you there?

I apparently only get spit out the back in crits!

Going to Marty? Gonna fess up in public with your results?

"Hangs head in shame"
When I heard from teammates that they cancelled the early races I wussed out, and decided to do inside home projects instead. My race was supposed to be 62 miles and I just couldn't get excited about racing in snow with 25mph constant wind and gusts about 38mph.
I must admit I was a bit ticked at myself for not sucking it up. Oh well I just counted my races and I have around 30 rr's, crits, and tt's that I am planning on doing.

I don't get the hard man award that you all earned this weekend. Good on you all for sucking it up!

I'm planning on going to Marty.

I am planning on it.... 2nd place...I must have seen Youngin in that small pack that escaped after we turned the first corner.


I guess I should post my ride report. This was my first RR of the season and I had done 2 crits prior and have been spit off the back each time and do my own person TT. This was the only race I did last year and got 32nd out of 34. A teammate and I got up at the crack of dawn to travel down there and it seemed like it was going to be okay but then the freezing rain started. They told us around 9am that there was ice so all waves were delayed until 11:30am.

Didn't really know what to do or where to go so we decided to camp out in the car and take a nap which ended up being a good idea. It had also started sleeting/snowing which was a 'great' boost but we were already here so it was time to suffer. We both are winter commuters so I think secretly, we knew it would suck but we had both been through worse (except for that wind...). I wasn't exactly sure what to wear, especially on the feet, and ended up going with Seal Skinz with a toe bed warmer. My feet were warm the entire time and I will likely repeat this combo this weekend if the weather is looking as bad as it seems too already.

The race took off pretty briskly as we had the tailwind. As soon as we rounded the corner, people were being blown all over the place. Somehow, I didn't go into the ditch and managed to get behind someone. I think 3 juniors were off the front by this point and the pack was split into two. I jumped the gap to get up to the first pack and then eventually the pack reformed and stuck together for most of the race. There were two crashes, one which involved juniors and another where someone behind me hit the pavement. I don't really know what was happening behind me as I was in the front two rows for most of the race. I think everyone just wanted to stick together and suffer it out.

I almost slid off toward the end because people were single filing it when I think we should have had an echelon in the northbound section. I managed to squeeze in next to someone in order to shelter from the wind because I was really hurting at that point. The hill at the end exploded the pack again and I don't remember too much from this section. A lot of people took off and I knew I wasn't going to be able to turn a big gear so I geared down and opted to spin. I ended up passing almost everyone up the hill which I think was from keeping a steady pace. I credit the two weeks of crit training for helping my LT because I stayed around HR 182 the entire time and didn't feel sick. Once I crested I tried to speed up as fast as possible because there is that false flat with the mini-climb.

Looking at the results, I didn't realize that things were so close together as I didn't look back once I got up the hill. I just wanted to get back to the car as soon as possible!

Average: 15.8mph, max: 40.8mph