caloso

congrats, fudgy.

rideaz

Well done, great race report! I think I will do TBC rather than VOS next year!

rideaz

Congrats!!!

Creatre

Or both!

I did both when I was a cat5. Good times! Good races!

merlinextraligh

Velobrew Time Trial Series, week 2. First (and only) tandem. 14'58" for 6.4 miles, or 25.6mph.

JohnKScott

I once again enjoyed reading the successes and the working through trials and tribulations this week. Thanks for posting. Congrats to those who did well (a lot of that) and keep on pushing to those who are having some struggles.

cmh

Well done fudgy!

HMF

3/4 Crit at the Driveway last night. 15 minutes in I see a break up the road that looks promising, so I get to the front and get ready to go. I jumped hard at the bottom of an incline and was able to latch on to the back of the break. I suffered there for another 4 laps, about 10 minutes, and had to throw in the towel. I'm pretty bummed about it today because they made it all the way to the end. This is really only my 3rd race of the season and I don't have time for a lot of hard group rides, so I guess I should take this as a good sign, but I keep questioning whether I could have really stayed on. I feel have good training, I just gotta work on the mental game now. I got some video, so I'll get that up in the next few days.

J_Boogie

I was invited by some friends to come out to this. I may show this week.

Tyrell

Nice job recognizing the promising break and making it up there! I'll be making my DW debut next week in the 3/4. Introduce yourself if you're there and see me. Violet Crown kit.

hyperlitenerd

Took first at the woodbridge time trial this morning in the cat 3/4 field. More importantly I took over a minute my time from last year! I was not fresh for this race at all, at the end of my 7th week of my training plan. My power was about the same as last year, but my position and pacing was much better. Haza!

beatlebee 

Ill take what I can get, 3rd.

revchuck 

hyperlitenerd and robabeatle - great job!

guttertech

Faster Grand Prix - cat 4
3rd place


I won this race as a 5 back in October and really like the course. There's a hairpin right-turn and later two hard rights before the straightaway to the line. A break got formed early in the race, forcing another rider and I to bridge up. After we bridged, he attacked hard on the uphill after the hairpin and I followed - pretty soon the two of us had a sizeable gap on the field.


We kept this up for a few laps, but it was getting hard just being the two of us, and I eventually saw him drift back when I got up front to take a pull. I gave it a half-hearted effort and then fell back myself.


The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I found myself in not so great position on the backside of the course but jumped with two others and we sailed in for the finish.


Pretty happy that I worked as hard as I did, failed to stick a break, but still got on the podium. And...upgrade points!

aaronmcd

Off The Front Omnium - Granville Homes Circuit Race & Ventana Wall ITT
Cat 4, 6/32 and 6/33

Circuit: 1.9 mile loop w/ 130' of climbing per lap. 60 minutes, no corners.
~32 started, most were dropped. I got a good position on the descent before the finish, followed a guy who attacked early, got a great leadout and botched it. Didn't go soon enough and when I saw guys sprinting past it was too late to make up the ground. 6th place.

The guy who edged me out last weekend on the sprint for 6th won 3 out 4 primes (first 3 laps were primes, and he was in a 2 man break for those 3 laps) and he won the race, taking home 3 new tires and a box of clif bars.

TT: 2k climb. First half gradual, 2nd half steep.
Not much strategy. Accelerated pretty hard, cut back to relatively low RPE for the gradual climb and dialed it up on the real climb. Stood up to finish. Gasped for breath for a while while some girl took pictures of me in pain.
6th place, 4:27
First place dude took it by 10 seconds with 4:03!!

hack

Paskenta Road Race - Chico Stage Race, Cat 4 15th

36 of us started and I think we only lost 4 on the way. This was part of a stage race and this road race was more or less a buy in into the crit tomorrow for me. I had a teammate in the field that I was going to try to shelter as this course would have been great for him. It is a 45 mile loop with about 2500 feet gain. We start off flat to downhill, go through some rollers, then climb back to the finish. Note that the climb back includes a 4 mile section of gravel. My intention was to shelter my teammate from the wind (strong winds today) up through most of the rollers. He's a junior and strong, but doesn't always race smart. He decided to bolt about 3 miles into the race into a headwind solo. He held about a 30-second gap for 7 or 8 miles, but got resorbed and was "tired"...

Once he was resorbed we turned south and had a strong tailwind and stronger folks started pushing the pace. I hung around near the front (5th wheel) and by the time we reached the rollers I turned back to see that not only was my teammate gone, but a good portion of the, too. My teammate and I weren't banking on our plan too much, so I wasn't going to wait for him and then not be able to pull him back up to the lead group. So, I pushed on.

Around mile 25 and in the middle of the rollers, a break started to form and they were not going to be caught. I fell in with the second chase group that became a chase trio as we dropped some folks. Our trio eventually caught up with another trio that dropped of the first chase group around mile 30. We started a nice rotating paceline and pushed on (amazing how that happens without any communication).

We worked as a group for about 7 to 8 miles until we hit the gravel at mile 38. Now, climbing in loose gravel with a road bike was a new experience for me, but I consulted some folks and their suggestions were to use as much gear as possible and steer with the hips. I used this approach and after a mile or so looked back to get someone to pull through as I had been up there for a few minutes only to see that my group was quite a ways back. So, I pressed on. Got through the gravel, climbed the last hill and descended to the finish passing one or two folks on the way.

One thing I neglected to do until about a mile before the gravel was take on any nutrition. I ate two GUs and I think that helped me push on through. Otherwise, interestingly painful course and a decent race for me.

I think Jandro's team/club mate won the race. There was a pretty strong group of 5 or so that are all on the cusp of getting their last upgrade points.

hack

well done!

hyperlitenerd

Nicely Done! I wish I could be there! I hear the gravel is extra loose this year!

hack

Thanks. That was my first trip through the gravel and it seemed pretty loose. I did the best I could to stay in the ruts (car and bike), but there were some particularly loose/squirrely sections. Descending on the gravel was pretty sketchy, too. Rough course, but enjoyable at the same time.

globecanvas

Bethel. Cold today! Had a nice chat with shovelhd and CDR, both of whom are normal, friendly people.

Finished 6th of 50ish in the cat 4 race, I had a clear line to the finish but was timid and overgeared. One place out of the money and (I think) 1 point shy of my 3 upgrade.

Currently watching gsteinb and shovelhd abuse the masters field, then I'll do the 3/4 race.

Fun day so far! A well run event.

Gramercy

Cat 5 - Central Park NYC spring series. 20th or so out of 50. 3rd race, first time I didn't get dropped. It was awesome.

At mile 5 out of 18 or so, people were content to take it easy and on a slight downhill since I was in 4th or 5th I decided to jump and start a break. Well 10 seconds in, I look back and it seems like the whole group slowed down on purpose. So I sat up and soft pedaled for what seemed like a minute or so until I got back into the pack. Overall most people just stayed in the pack, only a few got dropped.

1.5 miles left, someone jumps and I get on his wheel, but there's only two of us. I can't pull in a 2 man break for 4 minutes and beat a pack of 50, so we get swallowed up pretty quickly. It comes down to a final sprint and I'm in the middle and there is a pileup in the front. A few people go down, I get around the men down and finish towards the front. I don't know the exact position right now but I'm guessing 20th. Could be higher. Afterwards some guys were angry and playing the blame game, which seems pretty typical from the few races I've attended.

merlinextraligh

Cool. It's very casual. Good training opportunity.

gsteinb

We all had to work a bit harder for it, but notched another win.

revchuck 

Y'all have quite the machine going up there!

guttertech

Hungry Dog Crit cat 4
1/31

Hungry Dog Crit cat 4/5
5/40ish


Lots of attacks today. I found myself in a few would-be breaks that got caught almost immediately in the 4 race. Coming into the last lap, I found a wheel I knew was strong and followed it, attacking hard just before the last corner. Took it hot and sprinted in for the win with a sizable gap.


The 4/5 race felt harder (though my NP was 30 watts lower, probably just fatigue from racing all weekend). Definitely a ton sketchier. I planned to not try to get in any breaks knowing that everything had been getting chased down all day. Found myself in not-so-great position on the last lap, but still tried to attack before the last corner. Was gaining on the top 4 in the sprint pretty quickly but just ran out of room. Still, points!