J.Lockdown

So who will be there riding? I will be in the Cat 4 men later in the day, might come and watch some of the earlier ones.

Also any comments on the course based on last years races, as I wont be able to check out the course till day of race.

dmb2786

i was thinking about it. maybe i'll see if i can register day of? probably wont. i'll be doing the dawg days or whatev sunday. cat4

MDcatV

I'm heading out of town and will miss it, too bad because it's a fun crit that is in parkland/swanky residential neighborhood. most categories do end in a field sprint. Cat 4 definitely will.

turn 2 is an off camber tricky turn that you have to slow down for, I think it causes fields to stay together because 1 rider cant get through it any faster than 30 can. lots of crashes there. it's a place where you can lose the race, but not win it, take it with patience. the rest of the course is pretty simple, no need to touch the brakes after the tricky turn, although some do. finish is ever so slightly up hill.

I've tried to get away on that course with other strong riders, and finished also ran. Last year I sat in and finished 2nd because I was on the wrong wheel last lap.

aicabsolut

They changed the course this year according to the map, so the freaky turn isn't in it. It's in the same neighborhood, just slightly different route. It also looks to be right-handed this year, and I'm guessing the finish will be slightly more uphill (approaching that turn from the other direction), but the map and description isn't too clear. I really liked that turn. Oh well.

I'll be there bright and early again this year. Maybe I won't get cut off in the final turn this time. I also took a gamble in the gambler's prime and didn't have the punch left to recover from being cut off by someone who had no sprint.

J.Lockdown

I will be there also on sunday, decided to line up 2 races for the weekend. Figure I might as well do all the local (closer then PA and some parts of VA) races before they are all gone for the season.

heads up!

I'm not following on how a tricky turn can't be taken faster by a one or two riders vs. a pack. If there's lots of slowing down and crashing, that seems like a perfect place to get some distance.

aicabsolut

Because that turn required a speed of something like 15mph and no pedaling through, and then there was a bit of a downhill afterwards, so everyone is going from nothing to 30+ right away. Plus, because the turn itself was downhill, you regain a lot of speed instantly, before you start pedaling. So, even if the pack gets down to 10mph, the accordion snaps back pretty quickly.


The course this year was a lot simpler, but Reston-like difficult. That headwind on the long finishing straight was rough.

FatguyRacer

Funny how the rain waited for the Cat 4 race. Again.

RudeSiggy

Yeah, that sucked.

The good thing was if you so much as kept things upright, you were guaranteed a decent result. I think there were 16 finishers in the main group with only a handful of other finishers straggling.

Took 4th. One of the toughest races I've done because my biggest opponent was my lack of confidence in those slippery corners. Burnt a lot of matches bridging my own gaps. I probably dropped half the field because they, too, had to bridge my gaps. Good strategy, right? At least I kept things upright, unlike many racers...

dmb2786

So there's no thread about the Dawg days race or whatever it's called, but I drove up to DC and got lost. missed the race. im going to stick to closer races until the end of the season. im signed up for lost river, but i'm thinking about skipping it.

heads up!

Hey man, sorry to hear. My club was co-promoter of Dawg Days. Was there anything we could have done directions-wise to have gotten you there without difficulty?

heads up!

Hagerstown was tough stuff. Made it into two breaks, both of them pretty promising. Teammates in the pack said the chase was brutal which made me feel a little better. Best I could do was top 10 in the pack sprint, which is about where I am in any Cat 3 drag race these days.

gwchem

About the Dawg Days. Where were you coming from, dmb? For us DC folks, this race was about as easy a drive off the major highways as possible. Two turns from the beltway, one from Route 50.

Hagerstown was a nasty cat 4 race. My two month layoff showed, and I was dropped 15 or 20 minutes in. Dawg Days went much more smoothly.

aicabsolut

I was aggressive through the corners, but couldn't attack hard enough anywhere. The headwind would get me on the finishing straight. We'd get bunched up going into the tight left-right combo if I didn't drill it approaching the left (no one else ever did), so things would re-shuffle, and by the final turn, I'd be stuck closing someone's gap for them again and again. So, I got more aggressive in the turns and stopped taking breaks to sit in. The pace got pedestrian at the start of the final lap, so I took off. It would've been nice if I'd had a teammate to lead out, I guess. I couldn't hang once I hit the wind for what turned into a really long sprint. Waaay too long for me.

Sunday, I raced a lot smarter throughout, even though it was exceedingly boring. I only took pulls in the tailwind or downhill. I worked on moving around the pack. I got some vegan prime cookies (or cupcakes, thanks to the prime sponsor) on one of the primes to try to anticipate what the final sprint would be like. The ending was a lot more like Saturday than it was for the prime, so once again, I ran out of gas and was highly unsuccessful at wheel surfing.

It appears that I need more Thursday nights at Hains and a much longer match to do well in these races. Too bad my shoulder usually gives out by about sprint number 4 when I practice them. I wanted to give the Open race a try on Sunday afternoon, but upon taking some warmup laps after spending all day out in the heat, my legs informed me that they were done for the weekend.

RudeSiggy

Regarding Hains for anyone here. It is much safer after the freds and triathletes either leave or get dropped... 6:30 PM or later usually. It is a motley group, so it can be dangerous with runners, roller-bladers, and tunnel-visioned novice triathletes riding aero-bars at 16mph all over the road.

That being said, the regulars on the ride are a fun group of 'gents and I think it's great for training you to race. Why? Because if you can survive the mayhem of the sprints each week, a Cat 4 or 5 race will be safer and slower. This is high risk training that cooperates with the laws of darwinism. I hear the noon ride at hains is much faster and more disciplined. They'll literally kick you out of the group if you're a nuisance there, so behave.

RudeSiggy

Jim Wilson has some great pics up - https://images.jamesrwilson.com/p223461556

FatguyRacer

It is. I prefer the Nooner, even though I've gotten a right proper kicking from the Battley and DC Velo hammers the couple i've times i've been so far. I have been out with you guys once on the 6 pm ride and it wasnt bad the time I went, but it was noticably safer on the noon ride. There are fewer outside distractions/obstacles on the loop.

The propblem with the noon ride is that it's too short.