shovelhd

Nice job, valygrl.

McTufferton

Awesome!! Way to leave it all on the road.


Also well done. Sounds like a friggin' tough weekend of racing.

Jsiegs

Did Reston Town Center Grand Prix Cat 3/4 Sunday. This was a rough on for me, finished 20th.

This was my first race with 3s (I'm a new-ish 4) and it was a rather unpleasent welcoming. From the gun, it was fast, way faster than any race I've ever done. It was an 8 turn, 1.25km course so a bit technical, and that's what really got me. I got pushed to the back rather quickly and hung there as for the first few laps I didn't quite have the speed through the corners I needed. I got in trouble back there as people were yo-yoing off the back, especially on the uphill parts and I had to come around a lot of riders to stay with the pack, but then was then too drained to move up enough in the pack to get in front of those who were dropping off. I wasted a lot of energy back there closing multiple gaps. eventually, I did recover a bit and got in mid pack and got cornering at the speeds I needed. I even found myself near the front with 10 or so to go, and a rider about 15 sec off the front. Another rider jumped and I wanted to go with, but couldn't get around to get his wheel. I jumped a little later and briged up to him. Here I am coming up on him with the pack and two chasers in the background:


We grouped, reeled in the lead rider but then a too slow/too long pull by one rider let the pack catch us too. I guess they weren't in it to try to stay away like I was. That was my shot I figured as I am not much for field sprints. Sat in the front-ish for the last laps, but was overtaken by the rush to the front on the last lap. Finished 20th out of 35 or so in the field sprint, but the race started with closer to 60.

Creakyknees

Gee that sure sounds like a pretty damn nice "first race with the 3's" to me. You did very well!

McTufferton

Tour of Kansas City

Day 1 was a 1.3 mile crit/circuit with 8 turns, 2 uphill grinders and a third uphill "kick". Mid 90's and windy.

-3/4's: Race of attrition. 40 or so on the start line, quickly whittled down to 15 or so after a couple laps. We'd lose one or two off the back every lap until we settled in to a group of 8. Sprint finish, teammate 2nd, teammate 3rd, I took 4th.
-3: Much tougher race. More attacks and hotter temps. Sprint finish from group of 12. I took 2nd, teammates 7th and 8th.


Day 2 was a much shorter .7 mile four corner crit. 100+ degrees.

-3/4's: Very aggressive race. A lot of attacking and break attempts. A teammate got otf for a few laps and after a shuffle and re-deal, I got in a break with another St. Louis guy. With only two of us doing the work, we had to pull the plug after about 6 laps. Came down to a sprint finish with overcoooked legs. Teammate 2nd, teammate 6th, pack finish for me and another teammate.
-3's: Oddly enough, not as aggressive as the 3/4 race earlier. I think it was a combination of heat and tired legs. A Colavita rider casually rode off the front with 10 laps to go. No one thought anything of it until he was more than 20 seconds up the road and out of sight. Even then, there were only 4 of us willing to do any chasing. He stuck it ftw. The rest of us were left to sprint for second... I got 6th, teammate 11th, teammate 15th.

This race paid extremely well; so much so that after splitting the prize pot with the team we all covered race entry fees and hotel.

valygrl

Thanks - you made the right call, my category was delayed forever, I almost left myself!

mattm

Nice work - when's the upgrade? (you already have points right?)

Aerodee80

I thought you really got me, the guy I marked started his sprint (on my right). Toward the last half of the race, I started to cover some of the guys who are trying to run away. 5th is good enough despite putting alots of efforts before.

McTufferton

Thanks. I already have the points; working now to wrap up Missouri's BAR competition. It's tight between myself and an ex-teammate. If I've got it sewn up before end of the season, I'll upgrade prior to Gateway Cup which is our last big race of the season. The thought of lining up with the P/1/2 guys is daunting.

DocM

Berger Cat 3. I only took one bottle with me, which was a mistake. I was empty at 10 to go and had a hard time thinking of anything other than how thirsty I was getting. I finished somewhere in the middle, but I was at or off the front enough during the race that the announcer called out my name a couple of times so I met my goal.

carpediemracing 

I forgot to mention it after the race. I started with just one bottle too, but it was a Podium Ice with mostly ice and some water. At the end of the race I had some ice cold water left. I should have brought two but I lent my bottle out - SOC used my other bottle (similar fill). After the race I showed how cold the water was to Bryan.

I may be "gadgety" but I don't spend a lot of money on stuff I don't think is important, i.e. $4k frame or $300 bars. But I bought two Podium Ice bottles. At the rate I lend them out I may need to get more.

The Podium Chills are about half as effective. I don't think they're worth it. I use those bottles for Junior or as extras to lend out.

If I had two of them I'd have been cold at the end of the race, like I was at the end of some very hot race last year (Somerville? New Britain? I forget).

AzTallRider

I use the Camelbak "Big Chill" 25oz. bottles, loading them with as many ice cubes as will fit, then filling with cold water from the fridge. I've tried the polar version, but they don't accept the ice load as well. Temp's are rising here (110+ thiis week), and a bottle is lasting about 45' (that's witjhout dumping any on my head or body), so it's time to start carrying 2 for my hour commute rides. There is typically a tiny bit of ice left at the end of a bottle, which is perfect.

waterrockets 

Yep. I do the same, but I will freeze half a bottle for my 2nd bottle. Big Chills rock.

JohnKScott

That's ok. I have no depth in fitness and no bursts of speed.

DocM

I'll have to check that out. I think the bigger problem was that I started the race a little under-hydrated and got thirsty very quickly--cottonmouth for 10 laps!

JohnKScott

Nice job!

merlinextraligh

Awesome job!

JohnKScott

I bet they enjoyed it as well. Good memories being built!

JandersUF

Wells Ave C

I won a Muffin Prime (chocolate-chocolate-chip... it was my birthday!) and took 4th at the end.

tl;dr

Worked the overnight and came straight to the race. Didn't warm up much b/c they were running a D race, just a few laps around the parking lot and some seated small-ring "sprints." Started middle of the pack, and got a free ride up 3 laps in when someone got tired of being in the back. Rang the prime bell next lap, and I was sitting pretty about 5th wheel. As per routine, a couple guys jumped as soon as we came around turn 4 into the finishing straight (which is too far out...). I took their wheels as leadouts, and actually soft peddled behind them for 100m or so, waiting for someone to try and come by. I managed to take a couple looks behind, and when someone finally jumped from behind us, I took off and easily took the prime. Yummy Muffin.

I sat in, roughly 10th wheel, for a while. Moved up a little for the next two primes, which were both won by a guy in an OmegaPharma kit. He did the same thing I did... took a leadout from the first person to jump, and then came around them to win it. He had a nice burst.

Things got fast in the last few laps. I was sitting around 5th, but with 2 to go anyone with legs tried to get the front and we were swarmed. Speed picked up, and we got strung out single file, with lots of gaps forming. With 1 to go, I was right on the omega-pharma guy's wheel, about 8th or so. Someone took a 1000m flyer (real fast) coming through the first corner, and all organization was lost. Basically red-lined it around the back stretch, hopping a couple gaps. Came around the 4th turn in 5th, and managed to pass one guy to finish 4th. The flyer won by a bike length, with the next three of us all close together.

Last lap was 30.4mph on Strava... which was 18th fastest (out of 170 people) in history. Pretty quick for a C race, and only 7 seconds off the all time fastest lap.

veloboy971

U23 Nats Road Race

Race started out as expected with Bontrager-Livestrong, Chipotle, BMC, and CalGiant pushing the pace hard eventually forming a break on the first lap. Second lap, pace was a bit easier and about 1/3 of the way through, there was a hard pace up one of the hills with the guy on the front obviously trying to break free although he wasn't going to because he was in the wind himself. I made a move over the top of the hill and I was sure I'd be brought back in immediately, however I looked back and suddenly I had a huge gap. I rode hard for a few minutes and then dropped back the pace a lot when the moto informed me I had a minute on the field. There was still 3:30 up to the front break so I decided to keep it moderate pace as I wasn't going to be able to bridge that solo. By about 3/4 of the way through the second lap I heard my name yelled and it was Jimmy Schurman and another rider bridging up. I jumped on the back of them and worked with them. Just after the start/finish (w00t I got a Twitter mention!!!), the moto informed us that we had 1:30 on the field. The feed zone was in a different spot this year on a longer hill after the start/finish. Over the course of the ascent the gap dropped from 1:30 to 1 minute and then down to 40 seconds. We were being chased hard. Soon we looked back and the field was right on us, however there was a group of about 10 riders (Bontrager and BMC mostly) with a small gap. We jumped on the back of them and holy crap it was hard. There was a slight up hill and I was in z5 in the draft. I sat on the back of that group until the field caught us and then I drifted back to recover. Soon after the initial break got caught and another one of prob 10 riders went. I decided at this point to try my strategy from last year and sit in til more near the end.

On either the 4 or 5 lap (can't remember which), there was a field split in the feed zone. I unfortunately wasn't paying as much of attention as I should have (more focused on trying to get my bottle) and ended up in the back split. The gap wasn't super large (prob only 15-20 seconds) and on the next hill I attacked super hard and worked with 2 others to get up to the split. We then had a long downhill and thats when my bad luck hit. At the bottom of the next hill, the pace slowed to where I wanted my little ring. I went to downshift and ****. I dropped my chain. I tried shifting but it wouldn't budge and I had to get off and put it back on. At this point I was back to where I started, I was gassed, and no one in the group was motivated to do the chasing for me. I thought about trying to go again but by the time I felt like I could go again the gap was up to at least 45 seconds and was increasing pretty fast! I pretty much gave up at this point as there was close to no motivation in the group to chase it down.

Ended up 49. Definitely disappointed as I felt good and I'd wanted to do a lot better but sometimes the uncontrollable does happen!

shovelhd

Sounds like you were right in the thick of it until you dropped your chain. Sucks that happened at Nats. Great work. Be proud.

shovelhd

Happy Muffin Day. Do you have your ten in yet? If so, upgrade and move to the B's. You'll learn a lot more a lot faster. I should be there on Sunday.

JandersUF

I've got 7 races in this year. Technically I've done my 10, b/c I did 4 last year... but all of those were back-of-the-pack barely finishing. Of the 11, 7 are @ Wells Ave.

Anyway, I'm going to Wompatuck this week, and will put in for my upgrade in another week or two. I have already signed up for Norwell as a 5 (end of July) so I might email the promoter and see if I can bump up to the 3/4 race. I need to look for a team for next year... the lone wolf stuff is entertaining, but would be nice to have friendly wheels in a race.

ridethecliche

Dude. Every bike should have a chain catcher for that very reason!

veloboy971

Yep, it was toasty but I felt good. I'm happy I was able to get the shoutout on twitter and it gives me confidence that I can still mix it up with some of the best.

Remember, I'm from Florida, we aren't used to such things as shifting the chain ring during a race
I'm def getting one though as I don't want that to happen again.