Dan333SP

I never contribute to this thread because my races are mostly unremarkable (wow, another 12th in a 4/5 field!), but I thought I'd share that I got my first win tonight! 4/5 "B" race at the local weekly crit, smaller field than usual (~35), and they'd asked a few of the faster guys to move up to the A field to change things up in B. Point of the story was that I've had a run of 4 consecutive 5th place finishes and all 4 of the guys ahead of me chose to race the other field (I was asked to, but I had a night class right after so couldn't). Without those 4 guys, I thought I'd have a real shot for once and tried to avoid working too hard to chase early breaks. I told myself I'd try a solo attack with 2 laps to go but I got boxed in at the point I wanted to go, so I waited. Good thing, because the last lap shuffle before the final corner got me into 3rd wheel and gave me a dandy lead out to take the lead going around the outside of the final fast bend and hold it to the line. Great feeling to look to my side with a few feet to go and realize no one was going to come around me for once.

I know it was just a training race and my competition was somewhat weaker than normal, but it was a nice boost before my wedding next weekend and will possibly be my last race of the year. Next year I'll do the A field and get slaughtered by Ben King's dad and little brother. Gonna be eye opening.

echappist

Well done

mattm

nice dan!!

mattm

SJBC training crit, last one of the season.

I lost this time.

Good training though! I went hard a bunch.

carpediemracing 

I like stories like this. Congrats!

My teammates SOC won three in a row in the Bs a little while back. He has now won an A race, something I haven't really done (I won a rain shortened race, I gambled on the race ending shortly after it started and raced accordingly). He's accomplished other things that I've never done also, all in a few years.

shovelhd

Congrats on the win and the wedding.

revchuck 

+1!

ttusomeone

Great job!

Dan333SP

Thanks guys. It was also exactly one year since my first race (at the same venue), I've done about 20 collegiate and USAC races since then but only started getting top 5s in the last month, so I guess I've been doing something right but I think it's really just being smarter about positioning, I felt like I was in better shape when I started racing because I had more time to train. All the advice you guys give here about strategy helped!

misterwaterfall

Last race of the year last night. Nothing too crazy to report, but I think it was my 50th race of the year counting training races and TT's. Not too shabby for my first season

mattm

Nice - when I lived there that was about the amount of racing I did, and only skipped a few races.

Keep it up and you'll only get stronger!

Ygduf

50 is so many races. I can't comprehend it.

Creatre

I did 23 race days my first year, 32 race days last year, and 20 race days so far this year. These are days, so not including multiple races a day. I'll probably have another 6 race days by the end of this year. I missed a lot from my injury, I took basically 3 months away from racing.

50 is a solid number.

mattm

I'll hit about 80 for this year. (including training races)

It's why I moved to CA!!

aaronmcd

Does racing the old guy on the commuter on my way to work count as a training race? Haha

tetonrider

nice. it helps to race frequently, especially at first. i'm sure you have learned a ton!

tetonrider

congratulations!!

shovelhd

I normally do about 45 but the crash cost me a bunch this year, and I am older than just about all of you suckers.

misterwaterfall

Doing as many as possible definitely shortened the learning curve. All of those lessons will pay dividends in the future

hack

80?!?!?! I'm happy hitting 15 this year. Granted my first race was late may, but still...80?!?!?

mattm

i'm an addict.

also, being new to the area i wanted to see which races i like etc.

next year i'll tone it down a bit, train more and race a tad less. quality over quantity and all that.

mattm

at 66 for the year, with about 10 more to go.

so not quite 80, closer to 75.

KDTX

Hotter Than Hell Hundred, Wichita Falls TX

Saturday, 62 mile M35+ 4/5 road race: Crashed at the 1k to go sign with a handful of others. I am ok, just a little sore. I think 2 guys got totted off in the ambulance. I was in the main field and probably would have had a top ten finish. I was pissed as this would have been my first RR to finish with the field. HHH is a little flatter and I am a sprinter (not a climber if you know what I am saying ). Rolled in 55th (still beat a few guys).

Sunday M35+ 4/5 Crit: As I said, I am a sprinter....5th!

Our team cleaned house pretty well. We took 3rd and 5th in the RR. 3rd, 5th and 8th in the crit. My two teamates took 2nd and 3rd overall in the omnium. With my 5th place crit finish, I took 10th in the omnium.

Great weekend and looking forward to the RR next year!

dnuzzomueller

Green Mountain Stage Race: Stage 1 TT 5.6 miles

14th of 68

My first time trial. A little disappointed with the result but I am assuming that I can improve from here. I hit my target wattages pretty well but I feel like I could have done a bit more. I was about 45-55 seconds off the leader and apparently if I had gone 5 seconds faster I would have beaten like 9 other guys. Time trial started with a climb that went on for about 2 miles. It was on this climb I passed my 30 second man. Then you take a left and start rolling down a bunch of rollers. It was here that I saw ahead of me both my 1:00 and 1:30 guy. They had been leap frogging eachother for a while as I gained on them. The last 1km is a real kicker though. Basically it is a 14% dip in the road that you then need to climb back out of. It was at this point I rolled up on the two guys and I passed one of them and was about 3-4 seconds off the back of the other guy as we crossed the line. Overall time was 15:11

I was hoping to do alot better but seeing as it was my first TT I will try and cut myself some slack, I certainly felt like I could have cranked out some more power there.

Creatre

Still sounds like a good result! Good job!!