chado445510

Congrats to you and your girlfriend! That's a great performance. Now you can reap the benefits of sponsorship!

TMonk

thanks!

jameskpolk

It was indeed. Please pass along my thanks for his work in the break.

cheers

Aerodee80

He only credited it as a "race experience" when you place at a mixed 4/5 race. Its not about ignoring the rule book, its his discretion and thats allowed.

JohnKScott

Back after some time off!

Nashville Cyclist Criterium Series. 7/20/2011 - Cat 5

Worst race of the year for me. Backside of peak, very hot weather (I don't do well in heat), lack of real intensity for 3 weeks and a blisteringly fast first lap (compared to other races on same course) combined to shoot me out the back after two laps. Couldn't catch back on. Got pulled (first time ever) before I was lapped. That didn't make me happy, but the lapping was inevitable. 29th of 31. Not happy about it but not entirely surprised.

Will be hitting this race again tomorrow night. Many of the same negatives will apply and I'm training through this race to build for a few weeks down the road. Should be interesting to see what happens.

TMonk

zitter

hey TMonk, will I see you at Torrance?

sdgrannygear

Let me guess, it was greg aden that denied you? anyway, too bad cbr doesn't have more of a presence down in sd, they actually place riders where they belong.

TMonk

^
I haven't been denied anything yet, as I haven't submitted my request.

TMonk

Yes, and I'm gonna be hunting for more points. By the way things are sounding, Ontario might net me ZERO points instead of 7, which puts me from 17 to 10....

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH

TMonk

No, it wasn't cbr.

I won at Dominguez the last time I raced there too but I was well aware that I wasn't getting any points there.

Including Dominguez I've won the last 3 field sprints I've participated in, earning me 3 W's.

zitter

i haven't raced since barrio logan haha, i hope i do much better this time and don't get caught behind crashes

Aerodee80

Yes its Mr Aden. He granted me upgrade anyway since I did enough races to be CAT III instead of upgrading me with upgrade points. Ill see you both at Torrance TMonk and Zitter.


Btw I did both Sisquoc and San Marcos CAT III over the weekend. I rode hard outside of my comfort zone and didn't quit. I had underestimated the difficultly, yet prepared enough to survive.

16th at Sisquoc (my first CAT III RR race) after being caught by the peloton at the last 2-3miles when I made an attempt to chase down the break away. I was expecting attacks at the climb instead I was nearly caught off guard when the big guys attacked at the flats. When guys took a break before the last climb..I ran away to catch the breakaway with another rider. Which we didnt suceed since the break was able to join another race and not having enough gas to make it thru.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/101259681


Somewhere midpack at San Marcos..again chased when the peloton starting to break up and I fizzled at the last lap. My 50min NP was equal to my 20min FTP that I definitely put alot of work on it.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/101556978

efficiency

You should get at least 5 points for Ontario. The rulebook states that in a mixed category race, the field size is the number of starters in your category or higher. If there are at least 21 Cat 4 guys starting the Ontario 4/5 race, then you get 5 points for winning.

https://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=580

I do not believe the upgrade coordinator is allowed to completely discount the Ontario results because it is a mixed category race.

TMonk

This is what I was thinking as well, which puts me within reach (points-wise) this weekend.

I'll see.

Creakyknees

Plano TX Tuesday nighter B (3/4) crit. Yesterday was my teammate's birthday and he's won this race before so we were all for him. I covered some early moves and ended up getting a nice gap with 2 other guys. Then 2 more bridged up, dragging birthday boy along and we have a nice break of 6 with a good mix of jerseys. I took a $25 prime at 1 to go, missed the counter as they went by me, chased the last lap, managed to catch the tail of the line and get a short breather then pass a few guys for third. Birthday boy was 2nd, barely lost the sprint to ZC, newly crowned Junior Men 15 - 16 Match Sprint National Champ. Good rides all around.

So, the part I still can't figure out. In the early break there were three of us. All of us are on teams with good support back in the field. One guy did not want to work. So I asked him, wtf? But it was windy and I couldn't really understand his reply, so we race on. But I figured, I don't like wheelsuckers in a break, especially a 3 man break, so I started gapping him, attacking, the usual. He got a bit mad about that, called me a ******bag. I replied, I know I'm a ******bag but I still don't understand why you won't work.

Anyway, he was nowhere in the final. After the race / cooldown I talked to his teammate who explained, wheelsucker is a poor sprinter so he wanted to save his energy to attack the break late in the race.

I still don't get it... if you can't sprint, breaks are your best shot at placings, so why not work to make sure it succeeds, then attack late? By wheelsucking, all he did was cause a good break to start screwing around. If the others hadn't bridged I know we would've been caught.

And hey I understand if you want to sit in, no hard feelings, that's racing, but don't get mad when I implement the only appropriate tactical response, which is to start ****ing with you, hard.

brianappleby

that. He had many options, and the "wheelsuck and attack late" one obviously didn't work. Good on you for not letting it work. This sport rewards douchiness plenty already.

wens

Do you make a cameo in here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57OpMDJB_Qc

Aerodee80

Yes thats me. Im the guy in white top black bibs with the Sworks bike.

JohnKScott

NashvilleCyclist.com Criterium Series - 7/27/2011 - Cat 5

After getting pulled last week I wasn't really expecting much this week figuring that one week back on HIIT wasn't really going to change things much. Well what a difference a week makes! I'm not saying one week back on intensity was the fix. I'm thinking there was just something off last week. I was feeling a bit lethargic. I may have been fighting off a bug or something.

16th of 29 (non junior) starters. I'll call it a near pack finish. 100ish degrees at race time. I was hanging with the pack well. I had to dig a few times to stay attached but I managed and was able to sit in and recover ever so slightly. Even made it up to mid back and on the wheel of my teammate (who won) for some of the race. There was a lot sketchiness going on it seemed. The corner diving and brake grabbing seemed to be running rampant. I had to grab brake a few times from racers changing their lines suddenly and dodge the 3 junior racers and lapped riders a few times. But I got through it fine.

With 2.5 laps to go as I'm looking ahead into the corner some dude a couple wheels ahead of me starts smoking his rear wheel going into the corner. Not once, but twice. I'm thinking WTF? I saw no real reason for it. Of course he lost control and took out 2 others. I was able to avoid. Slowed to a crawl and picked my way through it. Started to try to chase back on and seemed to be making progress to latch back on. Then poof - off they go. Lead by my teammate who took the win. Good for him. Rolled in just behind the pack by maybe 20 seconds or so.

I was very pleased with this race. I am convinced had the crash not happened I would have easily finished with the pack. I would have loved to try to grab my teammates wheel (he's super strong) and see if I could have rolled in with him. I would have either finished better than I did or blown up spectacularly. Looking at the numbers afterward it is very apparent that I raced smarter this time. Speed was up 1.3 mph from my best race to date (on 6/29) while average and normalized power were lower. Getting better at this.

The numbers:

Entire workout (214 watts):
Duration: 25:12 (30:00)
Work: 324 kJ
TSS: 37.8 (intensity factor 0.958)
Norm Power: 225
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: 3.95%
Pa:HR: 3.72%
Distance: 10.156 mi
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Elevation Loss: 10 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-4 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 795 214 watts
Heart Rate: 149 180 176 bpm
Cadence: 20 117 93 rpm
Speed: 5.7 28.6 24.2 mph
Pace 2:06 10:37 2:29 min/mi
Altitude: 453 467 460 ft
Crank Torque: 0 798 191 lb-in
Temperature: 102.2 105.8 104.0 Fahrenheit

tombailey

Shenandoah TT, 40k, cat4.

11 mile false flat (with a couple of downhills and a couple of slightly steeper sections), turnaround, go back down then divert up a 1.5-2km climb, then rejoin the original course. Not a good course for a big guy like me. Just about managed the false flat but the "climb" killed me and i limped home. Probably last or close to last in about 1:05. I'll never complain about the mental pain of a pancake flat tt again. Good workout though. No PM today so had to do what I could with dulled-by training-with-power PE and a HR that probably wasn't too helpful given the heat.

jsutkeepspining

lakewood crit. 3rd/2nd in the cat5 field combined with the juniors.

cat 4: was going really strong, then some dumbass ran into a guy who ran into me which made me run into another guy. i now have tire burn all over my leg/back/armpit yes my armpit. you ever tried to put on deodorant with road rash/tire burn on your armpit?


fun fact the cat 5 race was actually faster than the cat 4 race.

shovelhd

I was due to have a crappy race day, and today was it.

Norwell Circuit Race, M45+, mid 80's, wind not a factor. 27th. This race is run in a local neighborhood with a rolling close, so there is no yellow line rule. The course features a hill finish with a short 6% grade after a slow right-hander. I had the previous two days completely off. Warmups didn't go well but that's not always an indicator. The pace wasn't super fast but it was sketchy in the beginning and there were a lot of surges. There was some really stupid stuff going on out there. After several near misses, I'm set up for a right-hander on the inside line and the guy half a bike in front of me, too far away to tap, starts to chop me off. I give a quick "ho", he stops the chop, and then proceeds to lecture me about how much room there was (6" to the dirt) and to calm down. OK bud. I sat in a lot as all breaks got chased down. The sprint windup was really sketchy and I was not right at the front, so I deserved this placing.

Same race, M35+. 32nd. This one started about 15 minutes after the last one. It was a much cleaner race overall, and it felt faster, but I hung in there. On the last lap a break of 8 was away. I took a clean line out of a corner and bridged, but they weren't working. The field caught about a minute later. Coming into the final corner before the hill I was in the top 10 with a little bit left, on the preferred left side. Then the guy in front of me decided to shift into his little ring and throw his chain. Dude, this is not a little ring hill. I was blocked on the right side so I got to watch about 20 riders go by. At that point I was done and rolled across the line.

This race showed me that not only do I need to work on my climbing, I need to work on strength. Friel says that Masters should do weight work at least once per week during the season. I need to consider that.

mollusk

+1

This ain't no Sunday club ride where you can be the hero by pulling everybody around all day.

mollusk

**** happens, except we can't say **** on BF.