theREEDeffect

This weekend, we took 4 of our 6-man crew for the first race with our newly assembled Cat 4 team. It was the City of Wylie (Texas) Winter Criterium, which was 40 minutes around a half-mile 4-turn course. We made a good presence at the front at all times, always having at least one many covering potentially dangerous breaks. With 4 laps to go, we assembled our lead-out train near the front. With 2 to go, we wicked up the pace and strung it out. Our starting lead-out man held a strong pace until we had only half a lap to go. I was the second lead-out man and promptly took over, slightly upping the pace toward the finish line. I dropped off our final two guys at the line to see that only one man in the field was able to hang on. We finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th -- not a bad way to start the season.

beatlebee 

nice teamwork Reedeffect!

johnybutts

DOMINATION!! Love it!

Beaker

Guess I'm late to the party but that pretty much sums up my first race of the year at the Early Bird Road Race in Patterson, except with "ice covered pavement" subbing for "soft grass". Still managed to bring it in for 12/21 after losing a couple of minutes picking myself up and working out how nuts it would be to keep going on an obviously frosty/icy out n back course in January. Kept it steady and smooth and waved goodbye to cat 5.

beatlebee 

Second Crit:

Men’s Cat 5 field of 50.

I felt like crap all week. No energy, over eating, and wanted to write the race off frankly. But I knew that like all things: this too shall pass.
So:
Got there late and warmed up 35 minutes. I think I prefer more like at least 50 for a short crit.
I was in the front 5 (mostly 3rd position) for about 85% of the race. I pulled one lap and then dropped back to about 15th spot.
Tight course, good pavement, one slightly off camber turn with a narrow lane afterwards that caused a crash in the second lap in my race and I saw another later in the Cat 4 race. (mental note for next year)
Today my goal (other than to just show up)was to be closer to the front for the last lap and I did just that. I was in the top 8 or so coming into the last turn.
Sprint time. Well not so much for me at least. I wasn’t even in the drops during the sprint which I didnt realize until after the race. Wrong gear as well, I think. Should have been one cog lower to spin more. Knowledge is power.
A cat 3 teammate told me to be right at the front during the last 1 or half lap with my strong steady power. (??)
I finished 9th place out of 50. Hell I am super happy with that!

Question: when I am sprinting my rear tire loses traction sometimes. I read this in another recent post. I am wondering if my stem could be shorter as it is longer than my non-crit bike and I have the saddle forward to compensate for this. We are only talking 10 or 20 mm though. (Cant remember) Would this shift my body back more to prevent this? I feel like I want to be out over the front of the bike while sprinting though.

Thanks!

waterrockets 

Tour of New Braunfels Omloop Circuit today. 40+... 10th. Race was tougher than it should have been. I played off the front a bit. Ended up in a bunch sprint, and I screwed that up.

Moving your weight around is going after the symptom, and not the cause. For the rear wheel to come off the ground, your body has to pull it up. For that to happen, you have to jump up, and that likely is caused by pedaling too long into the downstroke. Since your foot can't continue downward, your hips go upward, initiating the "jump."

I'd say to smooth out your stroke.

mattm

Fort Ord Circuit Race 2/3's, Monterey, CA.

I lost.. loved the course though!!

Jandro 

Knights Ferry Road Race. Men's Cat 5 < 35

Started a little late, ~5 minute after the Cat 4 group and ~1 minute after the women's race passes by on the way to their finish. We start off slowly, neutralizing ourselves to let the women's race finish without interference. Continue to the first turnaround, still at a slow pace - no one wants to pick it up.

1st turn around; tailwind. Pace ramps up a bit. Road flattens out, pace settles down. Teams at the front are treating it like a group ride; lots of braking and surging. Nothing of note for the first full leg.

2nd turn around, headwind. Solo break goes off the front, no one follows. Still lots of slowing/coasting going on. Not sure what's going on at the front - get to the top of rollers and people just turn off, coasting down the back side. Two friends (Jim and Zach) go off the front. No one follows. They are away for 8-9 miles. We catch them a bit before the

3rd turn around. Pace is slow. I realize the guy at the front is the teammate of the solo break (still up the road a fair ways). I organize with friends/allies and we head to the front to pick up the pace. Rotating paceline of 4 of us, driving the peloton. We pick up a few people in the rotation, but they are sloppy, some don't pull through, or aren't smooth with their turn. I spend a couple miles on the front pushing the pace. We catch the break right before the

4th (final) turnaround. Back to the headwind. People are getting fatigued/even more sloppy. We catch up to the Cat 4 group and pass them as they neutralize themselves. Another friend (Ryan) and I are chatting. He has good legs and takes off on a break. One guy follows him - no one else wants to chase. We pick up the pace a bit. Still lots of slowing/sloppiness. Crash. I'm behind it and thread the needle to come out unscathed. Pack is shaken up a bit but continues on. We hit the half way mark where there is a railroad crossing. Crash #2; it happens behind me. Jim takes off, Zach follows, I begin to follow but get boxed in. By the time I manage to get clear, there is a gap that I try really hard to bridge - it doesn't work (headwind/no gas after pulling).

I remember some feedback y'all gave me and turn off the gas, letting the pack come up behind me. I sit at the front, driving the pace just hard enough that no one wants to come around and work, but not fast enough so as to reel in my friends. It works for a good 3-4 minutes before they peloton gets savvy and comes around me. Jim and Zach are away.

Pace picks up and starts to chase. 2 riders attack off the front (same team of guys who soloed off the front earlier after turn around 3).

2km to go and I see someone attack. 4 wheels follow, I jump on as 5th. We pass Zach (he popped, Jim carried on).

1km to go and we hit the beginning of the uphill sprint finish.

500m to go. I get OOTS and start to dig. I dig deep.

200m to go. I see the two team riders in front of me, I give it absolutely everything to try and catch them. I don't.

Across the finish ~10m from the two team riders, brain hazy, legs are lead. I look back, closest guy is 30m behind. I get 6th. Ryan gets 1st, Jim gets 2nd. Zach gets 15th.

beatlebee 

Thank you waterrockets. I will work on that.

rkwaki

I will agree with wr on this, work on pedal stroke. Remember an efficient pedal stroke does not go up and down it goes out and down. I'll try to think about how to explain this better.

sarals 

You must like climbing! Keith designed a tough course in that one.

mattm

I meant more the scenery.. being new to the area I enjoy seeing new places.

The climbs were harder than expected though, and ruined my race! =]

jsutkeepspining

fatty

sarals 

Oh, yeah!

I train out there sometimes, I live only three miles from there. I'm glad you liked it, come back down for the next one!

mattm

Tell me about it!!

jsutkeepspining

pretty soon im going to go back to eating everything in sight, race at 170, get a strong sprint and become a sprinter. **** this dieting thing

beatlebee 

Thank you. Ive got a really good pedal stroke while seated but not sprinting obviously. I was feeling it out today.

johnybutts

Tour of new braunfels 3s. Field stacked 75 deep supposedly 60 miles. 2x 30 mi loops.

First half rolling, but net climbing. Second half rolling, but net descent.First 10 mi I was dying but eventually my legs opened up. The goal was: don't do anything n the first lap, wait for a break with slipstream dev kids to go on the second lap.Well, a couple got away and stayed away on the first lap. Plan now destroyed, second plan: experiment try to get off the front. Halfway through second lap, I jumped. Got about 10 seconds on the field and stalled there. I was in my iab being very aero. Eventually I couldn't hold it and got swallowed.

I was absolutely astounded at how quickly I recovered.. Like 1 min later I was back to normal ready to go again. The key to this race was that with a big field you get stuck in position - narrow roads.

So, although I was ready to go again, I didn't get the chance until about 6km to go. 4 of us jumped and got a gap. Two guys just died during their pulls... Myself and the other jumped Around and kept going, but were caught not too long after

The finish was a **** show. No open road and about 40 survivors jockeying for position. I made a big effort at 1200m to go, then a guy came around and knocked my handlebars out from me. Kept it up, rolled in 15th.

I was never in trouble. Lgs felt amazing. I concentrated on doing as little work as I could. Happy. Bottomline: I need more experience off the front.

Monkeyclaw

U of A Crit
Cat 4 - 4th place. 1st out of the last two corners, but wrong gear for the sprint. Oops.
Masters 40+ - In a break of 8, we lapped the field with about 1/3 of the race to go. Lots of confusion on the last lap, and I didn't try to contest the finish. I don't know the protocol on something like this. Does the break just join up with the group? With a break that big, should the rest of the field get pulled? I was just happy to hang with the big boys. 8th.

grwoolf

Tour of New Braunfels 4/5's. 1 loop of a little under 30 miles. A field of 65 guys with several I know who are very strong. With such a short race and the strong guys in the field, I figured it would be fast.
The pace was brutal from the start on the hilly section and the field was shredded early. A group of 7 got away (around mile 11 or 12 I think). A teammate and I were in a chase group of 4 that was off the back of the lead group.

Our group of 4 chased hard for what seemed like forever, but probably wan't that long. We made it within 100 feet of the lead group, but could not close the gap. The group of 7 were gone for the day and they earned their results (they ended up passing the masters open field and I heard they averaged over 25mph).

We had 3 more join our group and we chased for a while longer, but our chase quickly turned into survival to hold off the field. We eventually got organized into a nice 7 man rotating pace line. It was a hard fast run to the finish on River Road, an absolute blast and very painful at times. With a couple miles to go, we realized the field was not going to catch us and everyone starting resting for the finish. Knowing the finish was uphill, I tried an attack about 2k out, but I didn't have the legs and it didn't last long. My teammate rolled in 11th and I was 13th. 2 races this year, both 13th place. My number today was 313. There's something going on here.

My fitness is down from last year and I needed it today if I wanted to stay with that lead group. The course was hillier than I was expecting, but I think the problem was more about the pace than the grade.

HMF

Tour of New Braunfels, Cat 3

Recap video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDgkC...ature=youtu.be

Dolamite02

Solid racing this weekend at the Tour of New Braunfels. Course was an Om-Loop, 2.1 mi, with one kinda steep descent, and one 90* turn, slight uphill finish. Came in looking for an early season check-in, early in the race, I identified the folks to stay away from, and took note of the wind direction (albeit however slight).

I'm terrible with race tactics. I understand them, but don't execute well at all, whether that's keeping myself protected, or expending the right energy at the right time. This weekend, I was on it. I stayed in at the front for almost the full duration, and was comfortable moving in, out, and around the peloton. Throughout the race, I was smooth and consistent with my riding, stayed protected nearly the full time, only slipping into the wind when necessary. There were a couple folks that were sketchy: stabbing at their brakes, not holding lines, bumping folks for no reason. When my bars were pushed into another rider's thigh, I was never ruffled, just leaned back into the rider that ran into me as he pulled off.

For the entirety of the race, I never approached the red zone for effort, but I can say that I was too timid in the end. In the closing kilometer, folks were not holding smooth lines, and were instead surging into every gap that they could, all with thoughts of sprinting glory. I made a couple gaps, and let them slip in the closing meters which probably cost me 10 spots in the few feet of space. ultimately, I finished 21 of 49 finishers.

I wasn't concerned about placing, but wanted to assess where I was for handling and general ability. That said, I felt great. Definitely looking forward to the coming season of racing.

waterrockets 

Nice work... sucks about the position changes at the end. I just saw you get passed by too many folks in there. Right when the pace let up in your race and the riders started coming around is where I launched the kilo in the 3s when I won it in 2009 (it was very close to that big steel gate on the left).

I tried to get that going again this year, in the 40+, but the guys at the front had the same idea (I was 6th wheel at that point). I went again at 500m, but we were already going too fast for me to get separation.

HMF

Thanks man. Yea if there was something I was lacking this weekend it was aggressiveness. The Sunday race was the same, but narrow roads made it even more difficult. First races of the new season... I'll get it back

johnybutts

Hating these work filters. Can't load your vid HMF. Were you the guy I was screaming at at the end of the race? No harm no foul if you were.