gsteinb

after a hard winter and on going winter that the conditions in upstate NY are bad shouldn't be much of a news story. next year the roads might be fine. they have been in the past.

that said, I'm never doing it.

globecanvas

dz_nuzz, I'm sorry you had such a bad day. I know a lot of strong guys had their race end at mile 12.

Obviously we had different experiences, but I loved the conditions. Any race that rewards positioning and bike handling over pure watts is a good race for me.

My teammate, a CX cat 2, podiumed in dz_nuzz's race. Eager to see how another teammate, an elite CX racer, does in today's P/1 race.

MDcatV

yesterday was a **** show. 80 mi. RR, pretty flat, super windy but a nice day. we rolled out neutral for about 3 miles, then started racing. very narrow roads with a centerline rule. positioned well, then I swerved around someone over centerline right in front of a moto and got relegated. my fault. so from top 15-ish to around 80th, then there was a crash. i was behind it, teammate was in it, group is gone into a 20 mph head wind. teammate got up, we were within 10 seconds of the group but couldnt get there and things started going the other direction. DNF, but at least i'm fresh today!

saw chappy out there, he was rockin' the columbia u kit!

revchuck 

Nutzo - Still, you'll be able to tell stories about it, so it wasn't a total loss.

JandersUF

BKill Cat4D, almost DFL

I should have made that decision. Got sick about a week ago (just a cold), seemed to shake it. Drove out to NY with a buddy for Battenkill, prerode about 20 miles of the course and felt OK. I'm 180lb and better with 3-5min power, so my expectations for a great finish were low, but I thought I could power through the first few climbs and have an OK race.

We went to dinner, and suddely I'm feverish, chills, nauseated, can't eat, start coughing. Basically wake up 12 times that night coughing and with chills. Get up in the AM, force a banana down, and slow-roll 10miles with my buddy as a warmup. I started to feel OK, so I started the race.

First flatish mud section is the consistency of peanut butter. People are sliding sideways, hipchecking, I'm up in the grass for 50m to dodge the carnage. Then at mile 15 or so there is the first steep hill. My body does NOT respond well to this. I'm immediately wheezing, redline, HR way over typical numbers, but spinning hard and holding onto the back of the pack. Then somone mid-pack falls in the mud, and like dominoes 15 people go down, and now 25 of us are forced to jog the final 50m of the hill.

I red line it running up the hill 'cross style, have a coughing fit, puke, and am basically off the back. I then had the worst 3 hours on the bike I've ever had in my life. Chills, shakes, nausea, coughing if I got over FTP, yadayadayada. Slower than any training ride I've gone on in many years. I came in well over an hour after my leaders. Somehow not last, but very close.

That said the course was very cool, the organization was great, the volunteers were lovely (I had the time to thank them at most intersections ). Made a couple friends in off-the-back-istan...

moral of the story = dont be an idiot and race when you are sick. i.e. don't be an idiot.

valygrl

Urgh, JandersUF, that sounds awful. Congrats to everyone who raced battenkill, it sounds so epic.

revchuck 

+1, both to JandersUF and everyone else who raced!

valygrl

Louisville Crit SW4, 12/34.

Had a great race until the last half lap, stayed in position in the lead pack top 2-7ish for the entire race, we lapped the rest of the field 2-3 times. Last lap the finish is about a 1/3 mile uphill, I was just destroyed on the last lap and made a mental error, started my sprint really early and faded, rolled in last of the lead pack.

Ygduf

Sasha? Bigger dude?

echappist

aww thanks.

i did the same race with MDcatV. Coach's order was to do the 1/2/3 race for training, and the goals were a) don't crash and b) hang in there with the big boys for as long as possible.

Check on both, and as it was my first race of the season, got some of my racing bearings back. The wind was brutal, and it took me a few laps to learn where to hide. I was nowhere near the action and didn't even know that a break went, though i think i did catch glimpses of MDCatV's super strong teammate bridging up to the winning break.

One day i hope to do something similar
+1
surprising just how many people don't follow this very helpful advice. No idea why people think that you'll recover sooner when you are putting more stress on yourself when you are already sick.

Hope you have a speedy recovery

UmneyDurak

Well he was big, but I think when they asked him what his name was it was something other then Alexander or Sasha. He said he was doing a post doc. You can see him in a video I posted in the vid section.

gsteinb

Another race a other win. My team ride line rock stars today.
Batting something like .670
Inspired by GC my wife is making a bacon chocolate pecan pie.

It's on

globecanvas

I am proud of this legacy.

gsteinb

Wow. iPhone butchered that post. Glad you could decipher it.

ips0803

Anyone have a link to Battenkill results for today?

Hearing rumors some locals had a really good day.

gsteinb

don't appear to be posted yet

echappist

giles won the 35+

gsteinb

Velocity Results: Tour of the Battenkill Sunday - Cambridge, NY

save10

so are we gonna find out more about the bacon/chocolate pie?

jsutkeepspining

Zanesfield 1/2:

11/maybe 30 something?

I was alone for the race, and there were 7 Netherlands rubber co (old panther) and other strong teams. I spent most of the first hour in breaks, but unfortunately the winning break went right after my last break attempt was caught (panther just took turns sending two guys otf. A winning break could have been any, so i was cautious). The first hour was very hard (350 watt normalized), and so i spent the rest of the race basically just trying not to get dropped, and ended up doing okayish, but pretty ****ty compared to what i wanted to do. C'est la vie.

Inquisitor.

Rock Hill Bicycle Club Classic - Cat 5, Crit 4th, AM RR 2nd, PM RR 5th


Saturday Crit - 4th Place

The Crit on Saturday was supposed to be 13x 1.2 mile laps. It was a technical 8 corner race with perfect pavement. We were a little late to start because of the Juniors races. The first breakaway was caught within a couple laps, and was countered by a 2 man breakaway that stuck. I did the majority of the work in a 5 man chase with 2 guys that refused to work, and 2 that weren't quite strong enough to be effective on the front. As much as it frustrated me to pull the leeches around I had a solid gap on the pack, and I was slowly closing in on the break. On the 11th lap, I did a 3/4 lap pull hoping that getting within striking distance of the break would encourage the others to pull, and if it didn't work I'd have 2 laps for my legs to recover. As we crossed the line on the 11th lap, they announced, "1 lap to go," cutting 1 lap off the original distance. I pulled just hard enough to keep he field from catching us, and caught the 2nd man in the break who had gotten popped off by the leader. I rotated off the front with 2 corners to the finish, hoping to recover a little before the sprint for 2nd. The final corner was 200m from the line with an uphill finish. Unfortunately, I had only recovered enough to match the speed of the 2 guys who had been sitting on the back of my chase. I think if I had just stayed on the front, I could have held them off to take 2nd. Oh well, I have to learn somehow. It would have been nice if they had announced that they were shortening the race at the start rather than waiting till the final lap.


Sunday AM RR - 2nd Place

It was a 32 mile course with rolling hills and 2 moderately difficult climbs at 11 and 13 miles. I ignored the early attacks because the terrain was too easy to make a selection until the 2 real climbs. I went off the front on the downhills prior to the climbs so I could ride my own pace and drift back if needed on the up hills. I hit 45 mph on the downhills, got a 3-5 second gap on the pack, and my momentum carried me about half way up the climbs. Apparently, I hit the 2nd climb hard enough to create a 15 man breakaway. Some of the guys obviously had no experience in a pace line, so I was barking out orders to smooth things out and widen the gap on the field. At one point the motorcycle ref said we had a 2 minute gap, then things started to fall apart. Half of our group stopped working. 2-3 guys and I put in a couple sharp/hard pulls, and we were able to cut some of the dead weight. We were able to bring the gap back up to 55 seconds. However, there was one guy that had been sitting on the back the entire time and refused to work. I moved to the back and told him, "I know you're saving all your energy for the finish, and I don't care if you don't do any work, but if you keep stalling out the pace line, we're going to get caught." Our little talk was enough to get him to pull through twice, and put me in a better position to keep an eye on him because I knew he had fresh legs. With 3 miles to go, the leech attacked, and I was barely able to get on his with another strong guy who had been doing a lot of work in the break. I had to dig really deep just to hang on because of all of the work I had done on the front to make the breakaway successful. When the leech pulled off the front, I told him to leave the other guy on the front and tire himself out. Little did he know, I was at my limit, and any attack would have dropped me. Karma can be funny. The leech took the lead through the final corner and into the final downhill straight which ensured his victory... And then he turned right, and off the course. The hard worker and I coasted in for 1st and 2nd. I had done a ton of work to make the breakaway stick, and I was very satisfied with the result.


Sunday PM RR - 5th Place

It was the same course as before, but with a smaller group than the morning race. My legs were pretty spent from the first race, but I decided to ride hard and treat it like a training ride. The early attacks went nowhere as usual, then I moved to the front and proceeded to pull about 20 of the 32 miles. The pack was content to let me work, and all attacks stopped. I was happy to pull because I didn't have much burst power left and I could cruise along at about 70% of FTP. My plan for the finish was to attack on a small hill half a mile from the line if my legs felt good. My legs didn't feel good. I decided to sprint about 50m from the final corner, and try to hold the lead to the line. Unfortunately, my calves started cramping as soon as I jumped, and a few guys countered and came around me. I was able to hold on and take 5th. Overall, it was a great weekend with some good experience gained.

revchuck 

Solid, Inquisitor!

tetonrider

+1! much more important than any bike racing.

bmcphx

nice weekend!

shovelhd

No kidding. Great consistency.