mattm

weird, i'm the opposite.

shovelhd

Tied, but I guarantee it, you will win.

I like small fields when I have the upper hand, which isn't often, but when it is, it's all good.

mattm

Ha thx!

I'm not in a hurry, but it's definitely something I'd like to say I did when I'm older.

And racing the Cascade Pro/1 crit would be amazing! (if I could make it that far in the stage race w/out getting cut)

teetopkram

Great job, very impressive to ride and stay away like that. I thought hardest part of the race was the restart after they stopped/neutralized us for several minutes, legs didn't want to respond after that!

veloboy971

How did it end up for you? I finished 8th prob last spot in money lol. I took it aggressive from the start but couldn't get away so sat in for a good bit. Hit a bump with about 7 laps to go and broke my pedal spring...unclipped a few times and got a bit spooked. Tried a few attacks with 3 to go but still couldn't get away so sat in for the sprint. Got a teammate in top 5 however so at least team was on podium!

veloboy971

Thanks dude! I think we would have been in dire straights if we had anything less than the gap we had. It took a couple minutes for the legs to start rolling well again and we killed it the last lap for sure. Last time I was off the front when a race got neutralized we got caught a couple miles later - granted we only had 40 seconds that time but still...

pjcampbell

Had a good result yesterday. I did the Mad River Valley ski mountaineering race - We start with a technical (icy mogul field) 2 mile 19% climb with 9 pound weights on each foot in the form of skis boots bindings and skins. A few miles of rolling terrain at 3500' on the ridge of the Long Trail.... a nice icy mogul diamond descent and finally another 1000 ft climb . With all of the ups and downs, the course ends up being 3700 ft in 10 miles. I came in 2nd in the amateur division, 15 minutes behind the winner.

What I can't get over is the Pro division winners - doing this in under 2 hours with 4700 ft of climbing. Hard to compare to road racing because the gain doesn't sound that big, there is a ton of resistance compared to road cycling. More like climbing on a mountain bike with big tires. Here is me at the start yesterday



Here is the big climb of the day. Took me 55 with a lot of tripping and falling on steep ice with the winner doing it in 35... 1000+ VAM. Crazy

https://www.strava.com/activities/115537637#2550036387

ovoleg

did you wear your cycling kit? haha nice job man!!

pjcampbell

I wore my jersey yeah... it was 30F out which in terms of this type of activity is Hot! There was no shortage of dudes wearing randonee suits though, basically a long sleeved, long legged skinsuit.

rkwaki

Nice job all y'all.
Velo, about time... Way to go.

veloboy971

Thanks rk!!!

JohnKScott

Enjoyed reading the reports. Lot's of great racing!

waterrockets 

Congrats VeloBoy!

Gramercy

First race this morning! I was so nervous I didn't sleep much. I got there 45 minutes ahead to register/put on my cloth number that I have for the whole season. There were 4 different groups. Cat 3, 4, 5, and then women's 3/4. 50 in cat 3, 35 in cat 4, and only 12 in my group, cat 5. Temps at the start at 6:45am (thankfully I live a half mile from the start so I don't have to commute to the race) were under 20 degrees. I found out that my body doesn't function well at that cold of a temperature. So our group of 12 rolls off and we're all bunched together. For a mile it's smooth sailing. Someone picks up the pace and 2 get dropped. Then around mile 5, we're on flat ground, and for some reason the person in the front of our semi-neat double paceline jumps. The gap grows and one guy yells out "Don't let that guy get away!" - which pisses me off.


Everyone takes off and the group of now 7 people form and I start trailing, and now I'm squarely in the wind. Before I know it, the gap is 5 seconds and I'm by myself. For the next mile and change, about 3 minutes, I put my head down and push as hard as I can. After 3 minutes the gap is between 5 and 8 seconds and I just can't bridge the gap by myself. As I start to slow down, someone else that got dropped catches up to me, so I get on his wheel but he's content just to keep an average speed of 18mph. So I've pretty much lost the race at this point, it's 18 degrees, I'm freezing, so I decide just to practice staying on this guys wheel for 10 miles, then for the last few I get some energy back and ride hard to the finish.

As there was only a group of 12 guys, why did this person in the front of the pack pick up the pace? Why didn't everyone just decide to stick together for the 20 mile race and then sprint at the end? I understand if the field was 75 and people wanted to separate. But jumping at mile 5? I would have left the guy alone and tried to get people to not chase after him, but I was about 6th in the group of 8 so I had no choice. It was very humbling, and I'm excited for next week to do better. I hope I can get some exercise in this week (probably no biking since it's going to be cold and snowy) but maybe I can run stairs or go to the gym. Now the goal is just to not get dropped. I am certain I can get a pack finish if I can react to these moves, but once I'm in the open I'm not strong enough to bridge a gap.

Ygduf

Congrats on racing, but really?

Why would everyone want to do nothing and stay together and sprint at the end? Small group = less advantage in sitting in, and an opportunity for the stronger riders to string it out and ride away or spring against fewer people.

It's a race, right.

Gramercy

The guy was clearly stronger; do you think his intention was to split up the group and drop all of the slower riders, or would someone ever make a move and try to finish the last 15 miles by themselves? When someone jumps, do people always follow for fear of being the odd man out? I figured that if someone wanted to jump, others should let him go and tire himself out by riding alone. It makes sense to me in theory, it just didn't work out that way. It seemed that people just scrambled to not let him go. His jump was significant, I'm sure he hit almost 30mph in his move when we were probably just doing about 21mph or so.

Clearly if only one other person joined him, I figured the group of 5 or 6 of us could work together and catch them as we have more shelter. I understand that he didn't want everyone together for the whole race so a weaker person could potentially jump at the end and win the race, but I don't see what the motivation was at that point. In the end, everyone stayed to the end until a final uphill sprint, so I don't know if his plan worked.

ovoleg

I'm not sure I understand the question. If I could drop your group at mile 0.25 I would attack and drop you all.

Man I did some a non-USAC race around August of last year and I attacked like 15 times to no avail. I actually attacked right as we rolled off and the whole field chased me down. Literally 5 seconds into the race of a 40 mile RR. I got 2nd in that race out of like 20 but crap that other dude that was strong just kept pulling everyone up to me instead of jumping with me. I even told him to jump with me and he goes, "I don't know how"...u w0t! just hold my wheel or you attack and I'll block then bridge up. Nope. Eventually I managed to hit one of the hills so hard that we destroyed everyone's motivation to hold on and it was just 5 of us to the finish.

Good job on your first race though!

Ygduf

I think it's being overthought.

You got popped, you said in the first post. But now everyone was together at the end?

If the guy's been riding a bit, 20 miles is not that far. I've been in longer breaks on the lunchtime group ride.

Wesley36

This will do a much better job of answering your questions. You are asking tactical questions, and the short answer is, for the most part, "it depends". This will give you enough of a foundation to start working through the variables to consider in crafting a race strategy.

happybday29475

Good reco.

Also: if the guy did something to annoy you, and pop you off, wasn't it by definition a good thing for him to do?

He attacked, it had very good consequences for him; I would expect him to try that at the next race too. Tip: if you're strong enough, find his wheel and stay on it.

ShutUpLegs

A rider's motivation is to win the race and to do that each rider has a different strategy that they feel will give them the best chance based on their own strengths. In a race that short with a small group I would have done the same. The less people at the finish the better your chances. Although one thing you will learn about bike racing is that the race never goes the way you want it to and you have to ready to make split decisions that could decide the outcome of the race, ie do I go with this attack or do I wait and hope they get brought back by the group. That's bike racing and what makes it so fun because it is unpredictable. Good advice above on the book, get it read it, then read it again. Race often and you'll develop over time.

beatlebee 

Tumacacori RR:

My new gloves are pretty nice!

gsteinb

aaronmcd

Flatted in lap 4/5 at Ft Ord Circuit Race.
It was a fun course too, with a bunch of rollers and a fast descent before the turn/slight rise to the finish. I think I could have done alright in that one. I watched the group come down the final descent and there was plenty of room to move up. Ugh.

happybday29475

congrats, gsteinb...how about a blow-by-blow?