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The 2013 Race Results Thread

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The 2013 Race Results Thread

Old 03-04-13, 07:12 AM
  #326  
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Originally Posted by zitter
UCSB collegiate mens A's - 5th/29

Fast, flat, D-shaped course (same as Mothballs for those in socal). 15 minutes in, I counter attacked after the break my teammate was in was brought back. I opened up a gap and looked back to see who would follow, and after about 15, 3 guys had joined me. They were the top 3 riders in our conference nationals omnium, so I knew there was firepower there and that I was probably the weakest link. We drilled it for several laps before a group of 5 bridged up and then I knew I would be fine with more people to share the work. We stayed away and caught the field with 3 laps to go and I started to move up for the sprint. With one to go, I jumped on the back of the two Cal Poly guys who were in the break and followed them through the last corner. We opened up the sprint and I finished second, but it turns out the officials forgot to turn the lap cards because they hadn't realized we lapped the field so on our technically last lap, they forgot to ring the bell and therefore we had one more lap to go after I had sat up. We had taken the corner which was just past the start/finish when I saw two guys from the break blow by us and I realized that we still had one more lap and that the sprint didn't count, so I quickly accelerated and stayed ahead of the field until after the last corner and got swallowed up in the field sprint, but I still finished ahead of some of my break mates to take 5th. Disappointing because I could have done better if I could have sprinted full power in the real finish, but I made some mistakes and now I've learned from them.

oooof. That blows
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Old 03-04-13, 09:19 AM
  #327  
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Little River Challenge this past Sunday. Closer than Lago so we got a group of guys to head up to Texarkana. Rockwall Cycling had some strong looking guys that we had raced against at Walburg there so we knew it would us vs them. Sure enough, they had decided to mark me (post race they told me). So our team kept sending guys up the road as they marked me. 2 of our guys got in a break, while I switched to false tempo, etc. Eventually our 2 guys ditched the other break guys. Last lap after we were sure we wouldn't catch our guys we started to worked to make life hard on the Rockwall team as they wanted the sprint finish. I attacked twice, they chased me, but it set up a nice counter attack from a teammate, who they let go. He gets 3rd. Then I win the group sprint for 4th. Not bad for the team.
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Old 03-04-13, 09:19 AM
  #328  
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Yea, that blows. So I guess there is no way for officials to really correct that:/
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Old 03-04-13, 09:21 AM
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Nice Job Nate. Group work like that sounds really fun to race with
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Old 03-04-13, 10:52 AM
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Merco Road Race - Cat 5 - 10/36, clubmate took 1st.

46mi course (2x23mi laps) - mostly flat with some small rollers. 1 'hill' and a bump before the flat finish. Rough pavement for ~1/4 of the lap. Wind from the North/Northwest.

My club mate, Jim,(for lack of a better title) and I have the same plan we always do: stay in the top 10, instigate a higher pace when it starts to slow down, try something at 10km, failing that, start attacking at 5km to go. Highly variable, obviously, but the front is the safest.

Pace starts out mediumish. At around mile 10, 2 riders go off the front - no one chases. Jim and I are doing well with positioning, there were a surprising number of solid wheels to follow and people weren't afraid to be at the front. I'm on the front pushing the pace after a slow corner and a rider comes up to me and chides me on doing too much work, and pulling the pack along. I shrug, Jim comes around and we go a little faster.

Not much happens for the first 30ish miles. We reel in the break at about mile 26. Impressive given the headwind on the backside of the course.

I focused a lot on wind management, and effortless surfing - taking advantage of slowdowns to jump spaces with no effort. I've done a fair amount of time at the front, but strategically - with a tailwind, when the pace wasn't break-neck, etc.

Lap two and we hit the back half of the course where the pavement is rough and rolling. People are starting to get tired. We hit the only 'hill' on the course. I take an open lane and jump 10+ spots with little effort. Jim is at the front instigating, but getting tired. I hammer down the back of the hill. There is a 90* left turn at the bottom and I get to the front right before it. I take it as fast as possible and Jim jumps on my wheel. 3km to go. I look back and Jim shouts "JANDRO GO". I go. I dig. I dig deeeep. We hit a roller. I dig deeper. 2km to go. I'm hurting. I give a another 200m of hard effort and I'm done. Vision hazy, I roll off and Jim shoots by, 5 guys on his wheel - I hope it was enough. A few more riders roll by - they look in bad shape, I find a gap and grab a wheel. I limp the last km to the finish, thinking I'm somewhere between 15 and 20 places back. I sit up for the final 100m. I let a rider go by.

I see Jim a was after the finish. He hugs me. He got first. I somehow managed 10th. I thought for sure I was going to be 17th if I was lucky. I guess I fail at counting.

Jim and I are starting a cycling/racing club and this was its first race and first win. Jim and I are out of the 5s and really excited for the 4s and our club.



Jim won a rock:

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Last edited by Jandro; 03-04-13 at 10:59 AM.
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Old 03-04-13, 10:56 AM
  #331  
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Well, I'm making a grand total of "NO" progress on my papers which are due tonight, so I may as well write a race report before I go to work.
if you don't care for lots of words, look for TL;DR bits.

Collegiate racing is fun, cheap, and as it turns out, quite different than USAC stuff I've done. Team omnium is the result everyone wants, so strategy plays out a bit differently.
My teammates are all all young, but one is fast and skinny, another is a good crit sprinter, and the other is a cat1 mtber - we've got tools to play with. I sketch out a quick strategy in which we try to get our climber up the road in a small group on the big climb, meanwhile the mtb guy and I cover anything that looks dangerous and if it comes back together on the descent or run-in, we aim for the 1k kicker the race ends on.

Race goes off - I try to tempt anyone interested in going up the road with me... no takers, not even one. I try a few times, but with no interest I choose not to go solo. Climber and I are at the front of the field riding tempo when we hit the climb - I ride tempo & the field starts thinning rapidly. a few little moves go 5-8" up the road, but fizzle out. bout 1/4 of the way up, the local team's fast looking guy makes a move, and I tell our guy to go with it. He jumps on with one other guy and the three of them go up the road. I ride false-tempo at the front of the field as the remaining field is in damage control.
By the time we reach the top, the leaders are out of sight - around 45" or so, and the chase group is down to three of us with on one else close.The leaders dropped one of the trio with about 4 miles to go, we picked him up and 2 miles to go, and now things are interesting. The original two chasers with me are trading turns, and I'm sitting on - feels scummy, but that's life.
We hit the 1K to go, & immediately start the steep kicker to finish the race. The other three start up it slowly, so I hit the jets, shoot away, and roll in with a big gap. Teammate got out-sprinted, but still a great result, we take over the team omnium standings.

TL;DR
RR: 3rd, with teammate 2nd.


TTT - after a few hours of rest, we talk strategy for the 4 man TTT. Teams go every 30", time is taken on the second racer, & program says it is a 10 mile course, ending on a small rise. We pre-ride the chunk that wasn't part of the RR course, then start warming up. Not having practiced together, the group was a bit dis-organized the first few miles, but it seems like all the other teams around us are blowing folks off really fast. With our rivals starting right in front of us, we had a great target and slowly reel them in around mile 6. We keep the 4 of us together until mile 6, then lose our third at mile 6.75. We are really flying and have passed a number of other teams. With it down to our climber and I, he's a bit nervous about the TT in general, but we get to the last section and are still rolling well. We get to where the line should have been - but it isn't there.
"Oh well, just a bit more of this rise and it'll show up" we think. The "slight rise" turns into a full on climb, and we still aren't there. We are now going through the wreckage of the first teams off, and the wheels are off everyone's wagon. We keep going, both of us spent but with no way to stop, so it goes. We keep riding, things have progressed to "quite unfortunate" at this point - and we finally hit the line... 4.3 miles up the climb. needless to say, our pre-race pacing hadn't taken that into account.
Results were posted 3 hours later, and we had fastest time of the day for all categories in the conference. Closest team in our category were our rivals at 2.5' back. Finding this out 3 hours later made the legs feel a bit better.

TL;DR
TTT: 1st, with team omnium solidly ours.

Crit - Sunday morning we line up for the 30' crit. Our sprinter really wants this as he hadn't been able to contribute much on the RR or TTT - so we work for him.
Collegiate crits are actually track-style points races - intermediate primes give crit-points in 5,3,2,1, & then more points at the finish. Highest point total for the race wins... this changes everything and I resolve to start like crits a whole lot more.
On a 'D' shaped course, it is cross or head wind for all but the first little turn after the S/F stretch, makes for a hard race. Happily, the road is wide and turns are incredibly simple - very little drama other than finding shelter & figuring out how to get the best shelter in the sprint. With the section right before the sprint being straight headwind, then L-to-R cross wind for the sprint, makes for a tricky leadout.
I cover everything that moves during the race, with the other two teammates in the mix. My legs really felt amazing - our climber is a hero and twice goes solo so I could have a rest.
With three primes in our races and then the finish, I've got bullets to spare. My lead-outs went quite well, Our sprinter picks up a 2nd and 3rd place in the first two primes - then I nailed the last one and we roll across for 1 & 2 place on the last prime.
Coming into the final sprint, I go really hard on the back stretch, string everything out, and get the first 5 riders a gap through the head-wind section. Sprinter gets 2nd on the line, and roll across in 3th for solid team omnium points.

TL;DR
Crit: 3rd, with teammate tied for 1st.

Weekend tally:
1st TTT, 3rd in RR, 3rd in crit
We took our category team omnium by a rather large margin.

Did my job, got teammates in positions to win their races while still podiuming.
My coach is happy, my legs will come back, and racing season is truly here.

Last edited by Hida Yanra; 03-04-13 at 10:59 AM.
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Old 03-04-13, 11:09 AM
  #332  
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Nice job Hida
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Old 03-04-13, 11:18 AM
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great work ian!!!
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Old 03-04-13, 11:47 AM
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awesome Hida! Congrats!!!
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Old 03-04-13, 11:49 AM
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Very well done Hida. Nice read.
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Old 03-04-13, 12:09 PM
  #336  
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Nice job, Jandro! (And now I realize I've been mentally mispronouncing your name. )

Way to go, Hida! That was awesome.
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Old 03-04-13, 12:11 PM
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Originally Posted by caloso
Nice job, Jandro! (And now I realize I've been mentally mispronouncing your name. )

Way to go, Hida! That was awesome.
Happens with me as well.

People often mispronounce rkwaki as:
His Majesty Rkwaki
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Old 03-04-13, 12:12 PM
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What a great report.
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Old 03-04-13, 01:01 PM
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Awesome report Ian, congrats on a great team race!
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Old 03-04-13, 01:09 PM
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Originally Posted by caloso
Nice job, Jandro! (And now I realize I've been mentally mispronouncing your name. )

Way to go, Hida! That was awesome.
Thanks! It was a really fun race. I felt strong the whole time, had good positioning in (well out of) the wind, and read the pack well. On to the 4s!

P.s. You're not the only one to go: "Oh, it's HAN-DRO!"
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Old 03-04-13, 01:48 PM
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Great reads!
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Old 03-04-13, 02:34 PM
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Originally Posted by Jandro

Christ. Eat a sandwich. The beard weight more than you do.
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Old 03-04-13, 03:07 PM
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Originally Posted by gsteinb
Christ. Eat a sandwich. The beard weight more than you do.
I'll take that as a compliment.
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Old 03-04-13, 03:18 PM
  #344  
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Originally Posted by Jandro
I'll take that as a compliment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-ZUuHXgQ8k

Written for you?
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Old 03-04-13, 03:20 PM
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Jandro, nice job. One little point: working on the front is "strategic" if and only if doing so contributes to a plan. It has nothing to do with where the wind is coming from. It all seemed to work out okay.

WTG, Hida, nice teamwork! That crit sounds like a very strange format. When I raced collegiate in the ECCC (2008), primes awarded omnium points 3 or 5 places deep, but it wasn't a point race - you won by crossing the finish line in first place. Maybe that's unique to your particular conference? Anyway, you might consider trying to like crits more, anyway - they're good fun!
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Old 03-04-13, 03:24 PM
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Personally, I think it would a lot of fun to do crits with track formats. I know that there was one in NorCal with a Win-and-Out format for the top five.
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Old 03-04-13, 04:50 PM
  #347  
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Win-and-out format is ok, but I hate points format* for crits.. keep it on the tarck!!

(* b/c lazy people like me can't just sit in and gamble on a field sprint.)
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Old 03-04-13, 05:40 PM
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Originally Posted by grolby
Jandro, nice job. One little point: working on the front is "strategic" if and only if doing so contributes to a plan. It has nothing to do with where the wind is coming from. It all seemed to work out okay.

WTG, Hida, nice teamwork! That crit sounds like a very strange format. When I raced collegiate in the ECCC (2008), primes awarded omnium points 3 or 5 places deep, but it wasn't a point race - you won by crossing the finish line in first place. Maybe that's unique to your particular conference? Anyway, you might consider trying to like crits more, anyway - they're good fun!
still the same way.

Hida, have you thought about doing track races? A friend of mine is a very strong sprinter and got popped off the back in a points-race style criterium before the second sprint.
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Old 03-04-13, 05:42 PM
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Hida races track.
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Old 03-04-13, 06:30 PM
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some more detailed reports from my races this last weekend hosted by UC Santa Barbara

RR: Pack finish

I was looking forward to this road race as I have done well in previous years, although they changed the course this year and made it longer. The course was basically half of the original course and half of the Cal Poly SLO road race so there was some familiar terrain and I was pretty sure I would be ok. The first lap started at a neutral pace, although the wind was strong so we were cruising around 30mph. About a third of the first lap in, a Cal Poly rider rolled off the front and a USC rider joined. We were content to let them go since we were only 5 miles into a 70 mile race. The first time gap we received was 40 seconds, so there was no pressure. A little while later we were told the gap had increased to 1:40, and then 2:40 and then 4 minutes. People began to get antsy as the gap continued to stay open so around the 3rd lap, people began to really push the pace and attack, and the cross winds had really picked up making it very difficult at some points. I was feeling pretty good most of the time sitting in the pack and following moves so I wasn't too worried. It was just me and Drew in the A's for UCSD so we were riding very conservatively. We worked with a couple other teams to chase and try to bring the break back, but, by the last lap, the gap was still north of 4 minutes so the pack basically gave up on catching it. The USC rider in the break had been dropped and was picked up by the pack so it was only the Cal Poly rider up the road. About a third of the way into the last lap, Drew and an SBCC rider rolled off the front with a couple others. Since the big teams were represented, there wasn't too hard of a chase, and nobody really expected it to stay away. Well, it did. Drew took 3rd place behind the SBCC rider who had played him pretending to be tired, but it was still super impressive considering it was his first A's race ever. Once Drew was in the break, I had no reason to work so I stayed in the pack and tried to conserve energy. Coming into the last time up the climb, I started to feel that familiar twitch and pang in my inner quads and I knew that I was in danger of cramping and that I was almost done. I've had problems in the past with cramping and I thought I had solved my problem in the past couple weeks with adjustments to my prerace and active race nutrition, but here I was in the danger zone again. I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the pack on the climb, so I went to the front and set my own pace just before we hit it and I was able to do the fade to back strategy (basically, start at the front of the group and slowly drift back at a slightly easier pace until the top and then catch onto the back of the group). I nearly popped off the back of the group, but I managed to claw my way back on during the descent. The descent was long enough that I had time to recover, but you never really recover 100% from cramps. I managed to move my way up to the front of the group coming into the sprint and had good positioning, but once I got out of the saddle to jump, my quads tightened up instantly and I knew that it was over for me even though I felt fine otherwise. The field blew by me on the uphill sprint finish and I rolled across the line in the back, but I didn't really care after I heard that Drew had taken 3rd place. It was a solid day of racing for us, riding 71 miles with 3200 feet of climbing in 3 hours. I didn't take it too hard because I knew I still had to work out some stuff out in my nutrition and training and that road races aren't my strong suit.



Crit: 5th

Here was another course I was familiar with. Flat, fast, D-shaped, 0.6 mile laps. About 15 minutes in, Drew attacked with a small group and gained a couple seconds ahead of the field, but it was quickly brought back. I decided to give it a go and counter attacked when I saw the front spread out and become disorganized. I didn't really think it would amount to much, but after about 10-15 seconds, O'Reilly, Tomlinson and Funk blew by me and I hopped onto their wheel. That was when I realized that it was serious as they're the top 3 riders in the conference. I knew that I was the weakest link in the group, but I was determined to do my fair share of work and hang with the break. We drilled it for maybe 5 or 6 laps before a group of 5 bridged up to us. I was relieved to have the extra help as I knew I would have been popped off the break otherwise. We all worked together and kept the gap open ahead of the field. It was definitely one of the hardest efforts I've ever done sticking in the break from the beginning, but I held on. With 4 laps to go, we lapped the field and integrated ourselves in. I could hear Coach Pat yelling at me to conserve energy so I did my best to recover and prepare for the sprint. With two to go, I mistakenly thought it was the last lap due to some confusion with the lap cards and hopped on the Cal Poly guys who were in the break with me and who also thought it was the last lap. I was second in the sprint behind the Cal Poly rider and we thought it was over and we had sat up to congratulate each other, but then O'Reilly and Tomlinson flew by us and I quickly realized we still had one more lap to go. I quickly accelerated as I still had a small gap ahead of the field and tried to get up to Tomlinson's wheel, but then the field caught me just before the last corner and I was swallowed up in the field sprint. I managed to sprint again and passed Tomlinson and Funk to take 5th. I felt so embarrassed and berated myself for being so stupid as to not realize it was the second to last lap instead of the last lap. I learned my lesson and now I know to always wait until I hear the bell. I was just too antsy and didn't pay close enough attention. Overall though, I was very happy with my performance as I now know that I can do well in a break situation and that 5th place out of 30 is still pretty good.

Last edited by zitter; 03-04-13 at 06:36 PM.
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