mattm

Sounds hardcore, you scored some htfu points it sounds like!! Nice job on finishing at least.

mattm

Land Park Crit, did the Masters 1/2/3's and P/1/2's.

The 1/2's race went better, but I didn't win either of them. Good training though.

crapweasel

I could see myself making the same decision, which means it's probably the wrong one . But I'm not a breakaway guy, so there's a confidence factor there. They say don't give up until you get caught (even if they've got you within 50m). Good lesson to learn, even if it's first hand.

Racer Ex 

Your body will tell you when it's had enough; it'll stop. Otherwise you're just letting your fear get in the way.

caloso

Land Park Crit. Did the 45+, nothing interesting. Did the e3 race an hour later. Won a prime and was moving up to take my teammate to the front when a guy slid out in the last hard left and took out four or five of us. No blood, no breakage, at least for me. Oh well that's bike racing. On the plus side, my son won the kids race.

mattm

Sucks man, sorry to hear - but congrats to your kid!

caloso

What do you think of our crazy chicanes?

mattm

The course would be pretty (actually, really) boring without them.. it makes it an interesting course, especially since they're so close to the end.

I just hate how guys would move up in the tailwind section and then jam inside on the first hard left-hander.. a few close calls in my races but nobody went down.

Racer Ex 

I always find Land Park a little weird. Can't explain it. BTW my teammate won the 45's.

Glad you're OK.

caloso

In the old days it was just the big boring loop. Like NASCAR, but with more crashes.

misterwaterfall

Thanks for the words of wisdom guys. Definitely a lesson learned. I just pulled my data and for the hour and 30 min race i averaged my FTP. Sweet.

misterwaterfall

double postage

johnybutts

Fayetteville stage race

16th rr2, pretty sure I'll be 9th GC. I'm happy with it. Still haven't got a single stage/race result. Gotta keep working on it

rpeterson

Thanks, next race I think I'm gonna try to hold position at the front a little better and try a sprint finish. The races have been fairly safe so it seems like a good time to try these things out.

ShutUpLegs

Strasburg Road Race Cat 4/5, 15th

Well this was the first road race of the season in our area. 30 degrees and snow/sleet. 5 laps on a rolling 5.5 mile loop with 2 kickers. I had one other teammate with me in a group of about 60-70. Place myself top 10 right off the bat and on the first kicker I drop my chain as soon as we hit the first kicker. I pulled off to the side and tried to remain calm. I lost about 20-25 seconds to the main group and had to TT myself back to the group. About 3 miles later right before the end of lap one I made contact and tried to find some wheels to get back up to the front. The next 3 laps were uneventful as no one wanted to try anything (road were getting wet). On the last lap we hit the first kicker and accelerated over the top and opened up a gap on the decent. It was me, my teammate ad 3 others. We didn't have a big gap, but we had a very strong group of riders. We rotated through about 3 times and then one of the break mates decided he didn't want to do anything and we stalled out. The group caught us and we rolled on. Less than a mile from the finish I was right behind my teammate in about 5th position. The finish had a slight downhill "S" turn right before it so I knew if I could go early and come through there 1st or 2nd I could hold that position pretty easily. A rider came up on the right and really started leaning and bumping hard into me. There was definitely room to his right so it was not like he was getting pitched to the curb/edge of road. He kept leaning harder and I stuck my elbow out to keep distance. He then got very squirrely and lost control and crashed right beside me. Both my feet came unclipped and I managed to stay upright. I clipped back in as quick as possible and sprinted to catch back up. I caught back up right at the "S" turn and there was no one else me (i think the crash took out a lot of the field). I decided no sense in sprinting for 1 or 2 spots and soft pedaled across for 15th. MY teammate ended up taking the win, so it was a good day for our team!

Homebrew01

I participated in a race.

jsutkeepspining

i did not

beatlebee 

Tucson Bicycle Classic 3 day Stage Race Lowly 5s:

Friday TT: nothing special but certainly in contention

Saturday RR: Lollygagging the whole ride. End of first 20 mile lap: riders down. Start of second lap riders down including me. Someone today told me that the guy in front of me was brake checking constantly. I should not have been behind him. Live and learn. Soloed most of the second lap TT style. Out of contention.

Sunday Circuit Race: 2nd lap of 5 on a hilly windy course a break forms. Im in the group left behind. 50 m, 60 m, I jump the gap and bridge. We hold off the rest of the field for the remaining time. Apparently at this time a guy went off the front of the break...3rd lap was a sprint lap giving time bonuses to 3 places. I have no horse in this race anymore so I ask my teammate if the yellow jersey holder is from CO, for some reason I believed it so. He didn’t know. I cruise to the front and ask, he says yes. 1 K to the line and I tell him to grab my wheel, I am going to lead him out to get the bonus, he shrugs and says okay. I jump and we thin the field out. I went a tad too early (maybe not) and I dropped off while the leader thrust towards the line. I burnt a match and had to struggle to get back to the field. The leader got a bonus. (Nice!) I rolled up and let him know that I’ll be in CO this summer and hope to see him out at the races. ; ) Pulled a fair bit, more than most in the group. Last lap had ten of us in the field, many off the back. 500m to go and a big guy jumps. My teammate tells me to grab that wheel and I got in third position. Big guy drops, me and another start the sprint with others chasing. I felt good in my sprint other than a shifting error. (Went down two instead of one, cost me a place for sure.) I cross the line second. Turns out that guy off the front finished 30 s ago. WTF?? I had no idea he was even out there.

I won a t-shirt.

Fat Boy

Raced today. Nothing special except unclipping during the sprint. Kept it upright, so there's that. I think I'm going to go back to a Shimano pedal. Lollipop pedals are just a little too easy to twist out of.

slynkie

Tour de Kirche (Bethel) - cat 4

Won. Cherry popped. Never thought it'd come from a field sprint..


Thanks to SDC and all the volunteers!

mattm

congrats!

johnybutts

Congrats!!

gsteinb

I never pulled out of one, but I didn't keep them on long enough to find out.

grwoolf

3rd place in the GC, despite a flat in the first 10 miles. It was my first stage race, I really like not getting penalized for my lack of sprint. Breezy at the start, I knew the field would get blown apart at some point.

Before the race, we worked out some strategy with the other Austin team, they had a guy sitting 3rd ( 2 seconds / 1 spot ahead of me in GC). He's a better climber than me and neither of us has a prayer at getting time bonuses in a sprint, so we decided to get the teams working together. Plan was to get him 1st and me (and/or my teammate, sitting 6th) on the podium. The guys sitting 1&2 in the GC had over 20 seconds on us, so we needed a break-away, preferably one that didn't include either of them. Tall order, they both had some strong teammates.

My teammate and one guy from the other team went early and caused some chasing by one of the leaders team, but it was early. Still on lap 1 (right after the break was caught), I got a flat. I thought my day was done, but figured I'd TT it back and see what happens. The pace must have been pretty slow because I got back on early in lap 2. I had some help drafting the wheel truck, but it was still my biggest effort of the day. I sat in for the next lap, I couldn't have chased anything if I needed to, but stayed near the front "looking" like I was ready to chase.

Last lap and I was back a bit, pace dropped and it seemed like a goot time to take a flyer up the side. At the same time, my teammate launched the leader on the other Austin team and the guy sitting in second place jumped as well. I got his wheel just as I was coming up the side and got a free ride to across a short gap. About 10 of us got a gap with about 4 guys willing/able to work. Race leader did not make the split. We kept a gap for a while and got caught by a chase group of another 10 guys. Still no race leader. The ~20 of us put about 10 minutes on the main field during the last lap, it was a painful effort and nobody knew how far back the leader was.

On the GC, I ended up 2 seconds back in 3rd and the 4th place guy was only 1 second behind me. I knew he had a decent sprint and he got 3rd place in the RR sprint today, he ended up making up 6 of the 7 or 8 seconds he needed to grab 3rd overall.

A great weekend of racing, I'm marking this one as my "A" race for next year. I think I've got at least 30-45 seconds of improvement I can make in the TT, maybe more. On a side note, I ended up wearing a skin suit in the race today thinking it might help if I ended up alone in the wind. It certainly didn't hurt when I had to TT back from the flat. I might make the skin suit a habit when it's not hot out, not much downside except looking like a dork in a skin suit.

plantrob

Another Sunday, another local spring crit series attempt. Raced both races again. Since I have no shot at winning any kind of sprint in that field full of pure sprinters, I spent a lot of time up front chasing after breaks. Turns out you can get lucky that way - in the first race, with five (half-mile) laps to, two guys got a 15-second lead. The peloton was doing nothing, so I got to the front and took a hard pull for most of a lap. At least that's what I thought I did. When I "swung off", nobody was there. Oh. Four laps to go. So I buried myself, and the peloton never tried too hard. Had to semi-sprint on the last lap to hold third place. Which isn't as good as it sounds, in a points race, but I'll take it.