Nate552

Nice! You're so close to taking a win! Glad you had fun.

ZeCanon

EDR, great job man! Sounds like two great races

mollusk

I did an ITT today Eddy-style. The course was an out and back a bit short of 10 miles. The winds coming back were a headwind at 18 mph with gusts to 30 mph. I averaged about 19 mph coming back. That hurt like hell. I should have gone harder going out, but I was trying to keep something in reserve.

After the coast down I noticed that I had sprung the rear wheel free from the dropouts on one side and my rear wheel was rubbing on the chain stay and the brakes were rubbing. I have no idea when that happened, but it suspect it was late in the ride or even after the finish of the race.

ldesfor1@ithaca

indoor time trial, computrainer style.

took 1st in my heat = 24 Harpoon Beerz

3rd on the day = podium?

1st LTP test in 5 months = priceless? (makes me very optimistic that I'll be seeing FTP @ 400w by May. that would be a firggin dream come true!)

either way it was F U N!!!

great to be in the pain cave again... i've missed my cave.

mollusk

Very nice. Probably my favorite that I can get at the local grocery store. For some reason they don't store it in the cooler, but out on the shelves.

robncircus

Boulevard Road Race. 45 degrees and raining (bear in mind I'm in So Cal). Started off great. Good starting positon and felt good one the bike considering the weather. About 1 miles in the first crash happened witha crossed wheel. Fortunately, it was behind me. We got through about mile 8 of the opening descent. Then I said "oh, S**t". Front tire flatted. I pulled over and figured I'd wait for the SAG vehicle to come through. 20 minutes later, no SAG vehicle . So, I hitched a ride from a local student (and MTN biker) the 8 miles back to the start. Overall a crappy day and a crappy outcome. But I get to race tomorrow!

Rob

umd

I double flatted last year at a catttle guard right at the base of the cliimb. I'll bet you flatted at the same place...

dolophonic

Damn man that is bad luck...its a long drive,at least you got race tomorrow.

loreley

Boulevard RR today, weather was somewhat "epic," with hail and whatnot. I was told I finished 6/7/8th in the 5s, but I'm not believing that till I see the results.

KendallF

Team Time Trial today; first time I've ever done that. It was a blast! At least, after I finished drooling and snotting on myself it was a blast. It was stupidly windy (see Mollusk's report above). We had a good ride and came in 3rd in the 3/4/5s, with a 30:40 for 13 miles, average speed 26 mph.

robncircus

Didn't even make it that far hah. A teammate double flatted there though. The lack of SAG is interesting considering the weather this race brings. Now I have to do it again next year so I can say I finished.

El Diablo Rojo

Thanks and I did have a great time...last three races have really really been fun...I'm feeling good for the first time in long long time and Ex's advice has finally started to sink in!

Yeah the Cat 4 race really was a matter of just a little bad luck having to hit the binders right at the exit of the final turn made the difference. The race itself was perfect though...Two weeks and I get another shot!

My 15 year old teammate got second in the C4 race...the kid weighs all of about 100lbs. Afterward we are all standing around offering congrats to the winner and he says "man I can taste my breakfast....biscuits, gravy and sausage" We all look at him like are you kidding me...

El Diablo Rojo

Man that sucks..long drive in crummy weather and to have it end with a flat! That SAG issue is something I'd take up with the promoters...that race gets a huge turnout every year..they can afford to have wheel truck.

ldesfor1@ithaca

Chapeau, EDR!!

txvintage

Well done EDR!

mollusk

Last night I fell asleep very early because I was so toasted from a time trial. I woke up today very sore and stiff, but had a crit at 2:00. Everything hurt trying to warm up. I wish that I was 20 again instead of 55.

I lined up and started and hung on for half of the race, but got eventually got gapped over and over again at the wrong end of the race and ended up OTB. No big deal.

Last night I installed the "tools of ignorance" (Profile Design T2+ aerobars and bullhorns, PD brake levers, DuraAce "barend" shifters) on my old steel Lemond that will be my dedicated TT bike. I have a Zefel frame pump that I can put on it to complete the Waterrockets TT bike build. I will ride that torture device one day per week up to and including the State TT championships in late May.

waterrockets 

Driveway Crit today, the long course. 2.1 mile laps, with a steep chicane designed after the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. One sweeping turnaround, and two more flat chicanes. Fairly big Cat 3 field, probably 80 or so.

Short story: won the $50 Gambler's Prime going into the last lap, and the gamble didn't pay off... somewhere in the top 50. Looked like about 30 riders DNFd, as I'm sure the accordion at the back was brutal.

Long story:
I got out of the car and rolled to the line with no warmup. For some reason, I just didn't feel like warming up today. Well, listening to my body, I lined up cold. It was maybe 45F out, and there was a long time staging, so I was starting to get the chills. Not good, but at least the shivering was warming me up. I generally do well with little warmup anyway.

I was staged in the first row, and we started really hard. Of course the legs were protesting a bit, but they came through it ok. I remembered reading that there was a $50 prime on the first lap. I saw a pair go off to get it, and I took chase from a kilo out. Ran them down and kept going. They managed to get my wheel, but I won the lap (which later turned out not to be a prime lap). Oh well.

So we worked together for a few minutes and weren't gaining any distance, so the other two sat up. I attacked from there to hold my gap. A guy bridged and immediately asked me to take a pull. Umm, can't. Caught.

Took a couple laps to recover from that effort. The pack was pretty skittish, as this was the first technical race of the season, where people are really leaning on each other in some of the corners.

Then I just monitored the top 20 and quickly realized that no long breaks were going to stick today. There were two well staffed teams (ATT and Tenzing), plus a couple teams with some strong pairs. I was solo today. Ok, I'll wait until the last couple laps and see...

Well, people were skittish enough to make me a little concerned for the finish if we were still together. We were bunching up pretty frequently, and that's always a risk. I decided to go for the 2nd-last lap prime, called the Gambler's Prime and make that one stick for the final 2 miles. It's a long way, but if the two big teams didn't organize, I might be able to stick it. I should be able to hold 450W for that time, and that's got to be worth something.

Well, with about 800m to go in the 2nd-last lap, there were two off the front. I launched and immediately heard three guys scream "COVER THAT ONE! NOW! ON THE LEFT!" F-ing great. I'm totally marked. I decided to go all out and see if I could kill their will-power by continuing to open a gap. I flew past the breakaway like they were going backwards, shot up the chicane, and got down low, going 100%. Finally, 100m out, I looked back, and I had a 75m gap. Not bad, but the pack was strung out and gapping -- someone was chasing hard.

Now I'm screwed. I've got the $50, but I put too much into the gap to be able to fight off the chase I saw. I stayed low and hoped they'd sit up, if there was only one willing chaser. Nope, multiple chasers nailed me 300m after the line.

Snag the back of the pack and see if I can get my legs back. Nope, I'm done.

Oh well, off the front or off the back, right?

$50 is something anyway. I saw glimmers of form in there too...

waterrockets 

SalsaPodio

2 mile TT on Kreitler 4.5 Rollers with the Headwind unit and a flywheel. Finished in 5:49.0 which is a 10 second improvement from two weeks ago at the last roller race. Average Power = 400 watts. Got 1st in Cat 5

bostongarden

WR - I say congrats on the $50! 45 degrees, eek (now I know that I am a wimp).

kudude

what do you weigh?

El Diablo Rojo

Good work buddy...sounds like you are getting some of your old legs back...to bad you J couldn't have tag teamed and worked the field a bit. Did you get your Fuji?

We need a new rule for the 33..every 'watt' post should be in w/kg...

waterrockets 

The Fuji did not come. The teammate who was bringing it got sick. He'll take it back to the shop.

My move next...

mollusk

w/kg is important in climbing and acceleration in a vacuum.

watts x "racing IQ"/kg^(2/3) is probably a better metric for flattish racing.

mollusk

No balls = no babies.