GirlAnachronism

Indeed!

I raced twice this weekend, once in the 45 degree rain. I didn't do anything special. So, pretty much as planned for the first races of the season.

Next week the plan of attack is to attack.

jwible

I applied bunny hopping on Sat. Got pushed wide by a college kid and went into a leaf covered wet driveway. Then into the grass next to the driveway, then jumped the single curb separating the properties, then into more grass, then onto a clean driveway and OTB.

The MC ref rode up to me laughing after that. I asked him to check my rear wheel as it felt odd. Then he paced me back on after I started to close the gap.

Out-The-Back

^^^^hahahahaha, that's awesome, nice job with the bike handling and not panicking. Cudos!

rkwaki

Man I would love to be a clinic instructor...

shovelhd

Not that kind of clinic.

rkwaki

Well Mr. Shovel, it appears we are going to have to do some intrusive testing, RTC hand me the gloves...

bostongarden

Did you see the sign "Don't feed the..."?

Jancouver

Murietta TT
The more races I do the more I realize how much I suck at bike racing and bike handling in general. The portion I spent on paved road was fine and the power was just slightly under what I was hoping for, well, the moment I hit the dirt rode, I was bouncing around like a fart in a mitten and the power dropped about 40W. Perhaps I should blame it on my wheels and tire pressure hahaha

Question: Not that it would make any difference but somehow the time from my Garmin is about 10sec better than what they posted. Not sure if Garmin 800 is reliable but anyone having any issues with Garmin being that much off on 12min ride?

JonnyHK 

Update on my last race.

Fallen rider out of ICU. Apparently doing very well and not as badly injured as feared.

efficiency

You should ride that mountain bike you have, and you'll get better.

echappist

that's good to hear

Jancouver

No kidding, I was just comparing my ride data on Strava and based on that, I lost about about a minute just on the dirt road section which is 1.2 miles. My power dropped from 360W to 314W

Blossom

My experiences with Crit racing have not been positive. My main complaint is that the races are too easy and they don't get broken up. After crashes in the turns, it winds up with 40 guys sprinting in a very tiny space.

So, I signed up for a circuit race that has some climbing. Not a huge amount of climbing, but I was hoping it would be enough to break up the pack.

The first lap or two was pretty fast. There were several people that were shelled off the first time up the climb and evidently there was a crash on the first descent. I was in the top 10 or 12 at that point and didn't see a thing. The descent was a little scary as there were off-camber turns and big boulders protected by hay bales on the way down.

After a couple of laps, a group of 4 guys from a Phoenix club got on the front and slowed the pace waaaayyy down. I wasn't so thrilled about the idea of ending up in a big skittish group descent on the final lap so I decided to attack.

That whittled the group down to about 6 or 7 and I enjoyed being on the front for the descent. As we came through the start/finish area, we had 1 lap to go and I had done my work so it was somebody else's turn. Another guy from Flagstaff took up the job of setting tempo.

The tempo was hard but not too bad. Towards the top the inevitable attack happened and a third Flagstaff cyclist who had avoided work the entire race was able to follow and I was about 50 ft back coming over the top of the climb. The rest of the group was nowhere to be seen. The attacker realized that he didn't get enough of a gap and if he started playing games into the finish, he would have to contend with 2 (or more). So he led down the circuit and into the finish where the third Flagstaffer handily came around and won.

I happily came in 3rd and was happy to have played a very nice part in getting a win. This was a fun race.

mattm

Sequim RR #1, 60 miles. 17th, damn. Top-10 streak over..

Big crash in the last 1k, made the split but couldn't move up far enough to do anything useful in the sprint.

Tavish

Matt what cat was it, and what team are you on? Normally there is always a gnarly crash in the end even though it is a long ass straight away

Homebrew01

Meant to pack a can of whoop-ass in my duffel-bag, but grabbed the suck-ass by mistake ...... d'oh

AzTallRider

Blossom, it sounds like we were at the same venue (South Mountain Classic?), but I was in the 55+.

A discombobulated morning had me lining up for the toughest hill climb in Phoenix with no warmup. Only 6 people decided to get up early and wear themselves out before the Circuit Race, and I was DFL.

My plan for the 30' CR (2 mi course) was to emulate Racer Ex, and attack, then keep attacking. I went off at the start, getting a gap as folks were still clipping in. One guy joined me right away, and 2 others reached us as we hit the climb. I finally looked back then, and saw we were away clean on a 4 man break. We dropped one the second time up, and then there were three of us - our team captain coached me at the S/F line as we went past: "Good position; now conserve!". I did, but was still dropped on the climb during the second to last lap. We were so far ahead, my position was never threatened as I pushed hard to the end. One of the guys was in the 65+ cat, and so my third position gave me a second in our cat.

First points ever!

crapweasel

Quoting myself from a year ago to highlight what a difference a year makes. Thought about this post today in the middle of the race when we were doing at *least* 30 and I was cruising. So obviously today was the same race, but in the 4s this time. Went off the front, moved around in the pack a lot, and generally tried to not be so scared to use some energy to get position. No real results (blocked in the sprint, huge crash, etc), but overall I accomplished what I wanted to for an early season race. Same place next week. Should be entertaining.

mattm

Cat 3, Recycled Cycles.

Everyone says Mason is a crashfest but it's really Sequim!!

Did you race?

plantrob

Second spring training crit (Fogelsville Cat 5s, field of about 25). I hoped to get away in a break, but wasn't sure how to make things play out that way. Turns out it just kind of happened - fifth lap, first sprint, two guys got a good gap on the group, easily took the first two sprint places, and sat up. I half-heartedly sprinted for third place, and kept on going. The guy who took the first sprint latched on, and to my surprise he readily took over when I pulled over. We worked together well for the rest of the race; I'd say we lapped the field, but I never really discerned a pack - it was all scattered about. I beat my co-escapee for the two remaining sprints (I needed a bike throw on the final lap), so that I could impress my kids with a shiny first-place trophy

Blossom

It was indeed the same venue.

Congratulations! These were my first points as well.

gsteinb

There was a race and results

keepamonte

Salty Cow Crit Masters 8/37
Tall Chief RR 6/30 something Both outside of Tulsa,OK. Second and third masters for me!

climber7

ok...just got back from the columbia/stevens ECCC weekend. grant's tomb crit at columbia on saturday and circuit race hosted by stevens somewhere out in NJ.

grant's tomb crit, cat 4: couple of teammates and i decided to double up on saturday and go for this in addition to the afternoon's collegiate B race. field was capped at 125 riders and it filled up. don't know how many started. anyway, it was freezing cold and really windy in the morning. race was supposed to start at 7:30 am; got delayed for half an hour because of cars parked on the course. got started ok. there was a crash a few laps into the race in front of one of my teammates, who endoed but emerged unhurt, took his free lap, and got back on his bike to finish the race. i was just trying to stay near the front. lots of sketchy riding, people yelling at each other, etc. with four laps to go, my other teammate flatted, so his race was over. an NYU rider got a little gap with 3.5 laps to go, and i tried to bridge but the field caught up within half a lap. race ended in a pack finish. didn't contest the sprint.

grant's tomb crit, collegiate B: six hours later, time to race again. weather much nicer now. this race was pretty uneventful (for me, at least). spent most of it in the pack. mikey attacked after the last prime and i tried to go with him, but didn't have enough of a jump and just dragged the field up. sorry, mikey. i tried to attack again on the uphill to the finish with a couple of laps to go, but just didn't have the legs and got caught pretty quickly (set my 1-second best power on the jump, though). stayed with the pack to the finish but was too far back and didn't bother sprinting. i had the wheel of the eventual third-place rider with about two-thirds of a lap to go, but i didn't have the legs to stay on it after an uphill turn.

stevens circuit race, men's B: beautiful weather, nice course, overall good race. four laps of a 6.2-mile course with no huge climbs but several short hills. didn't really get a full warm-up in and legs felt cold/tired at the start. that was fine until we got to the steepest hill on the first lap, at which point someone at the front decided to drop the hammer, resulting in my peak 1-minute power for the entire race. i still ended up a few meters off the back and had to chase back on. bad start. after that, i pretty much stayed with the pack for the entire race. by the middle of the last lap, there were maybe 20 guys left in the main group. no one off the front. UNH rider attacked with about half a lap to go, and i tried to bridge but the field just came along (again). lots of surges between there and the finish, and i stayed on until the last one, with less than a mile to go. legs were done at that point and i rolled in maybe 30 seconds after the winner. meh.

i couldn't ride for basically all of november and december, so i spent all of jan. and feb. working on endurance and a little threshold. almost zero interval work before the season started, so i'm kind of racing myself into shape. i can tell i have plenty of endurance, but i still can't handle all the accelerations; there were a bunch of efforts in today's race that put me at/over 500 watts for 20-30 seconds. that's a lot for me. i'm hoping that i'll get there as the season progresses.

echappist

dude, we should go break hunting for your home race and Penn State, especially the latter as tons of people will get dropped on the climbs