jmikami

Masters 40+ 3/4/5 road race with 85 starters and rolling hills, slight wind - and a wordy race recap.

Position, position, position. I really need to remember this next time I do a road race with a lot of people. I have been spoiled at most of my races with plenty of room to pass, or smaller fields and usually am able to get into position more often than not. However a road race on roads with little to no gutter and centerline rules in effect with over 80 guys in a hilly race makes for position battles galore. Having a BMI of over 28 and being more of a road sprinter/track endurance type of rider did make for ideal conditions with a 1.5 to 2 mile climb to finish the race. Only good thing was that it was only a 3 or 4% grade.

The Kings Valley road race started out well for me as I was about mid pack and exactly where I wanted to be to start things out. Not right at the front, but where I could see it. I tend not to like to jump out of corners in races since most of the races I do the lost position or two of slacking off is made up by using one less acceleration and just rolling back when every hits their brakes 10 seconds later. Well today people were still hitting their brakes 10 seconds later, but a row or two of riders passed me during that time. So by the first time up the hill I was near the back and just rolled up the hill rounding out the main group over the top (2nd to last) and decided to stop fighting for position and just sit at the back for the next 20 mile lap. Only about 6 more guys caught on, but we could not have lost many as the pack was still large.

The second time up the main 2 mile climb, which would also serve as the finish on the 3rd lap, I decided to roll at my own tempo while starting from the back. This meant I crested the top with what looked like the same group that had to chase back on last time. We were less than 10 seconds from the last of the main group so we caught back pretty quick and now I needed to make a few choices of what to do with all the matches I figured I was saving. I had no teammates, nothing there, so either save it for the sprint, if it can be called that up a hill or make a break on the small hill 10 miles from the finish.

Well, first thing to do was get my butt off the back ... which I didn’t seem to want to do. The short but steeper hill at 10 miles to go was another tempo ride for me with a downhill tuck to make it back to the back of the group with no issues. Hmm, now it’s really time to move up ... a spot here and there and I was maybe 25th or 30th, back in the middle ... and for some reason felt ok with this. Struggling to keep my spot as riders came up on either side and try squeeze in is something I dread and the rolling hills and wind didn’t make it any easier. I should have been wasting a few matches to move up further and then just before the final climb I lost two spots when I missed a shift then the guys who passed me bumped and knocked me in the gravel and almost to the very back.

Bad timing, but bad position has a way of not handing you any favors either. I should not have been fighting for 25th if I was thinking of sprinting up the hill. I moved up a spot or two before the climb started then my last hope that group would narrow with an early strike vanished as the group just got more congested. I was in the gutter waiting for the 1 km sign where the road has a 4 foot shoulder when I saw an opening on the center line. Being stupid I drifted that way and just as I got there it was packed again, so at the 1k sign I went back to the other side to try and take the shoulder ... which was now full. Now just mad I try yelling at the guys in front to move over ... well they do ... into me. After two more sweeps of the road I finally spot an opening and have enough to pass what is left of the back group - but I never was able to actually sprint as most of my time was zigging and zagging. However the group split on the climb and around 10 guys were in the real sprint for top places ... while I was left with what happens to those who don’t fight harder and earlier for good position ... scraps. 9th place finish for me.

Who knows if spending energy on position would have zapped my legs further and killed my sprint anyways but I am mad at myself for not giving myself a chance. The whole point of the race for me was to test out if I could climb with the leaders, but I wasted all three chances to do it by not ever being in the right spot to do so. Kudos to those who did fight the good fight and stayed upfront the whole time, they earned their spot just the same as I tried to be too lazy and take advantage of them ... and I failed.

22.2 mph ave speed for 55 miles, 181 ave power, 259 NP.

ovoleg

No one here raced Sea Otter? grrr.

Good job still top 10 finish @jmikami

mattm

Thought about it, then saw that the "crit" course is on a race track and has two 180 turns in it.. that sounds like ****.

And the circuit race has something like 9k feet of climbing.. yeah no thanks! Maybe some day, but not this year. Some big names there for sure in the p/1/2's.

Ygduf

Sea Otter is a lot of noise for an OK race. I enjoyed the circuit race, but had family in town. Maybe next year in 35+. In p12 I'd be out of the race 15 minutes after it started.

jsutkeepspining

i remember seeing a video of the crit (or at least i think it was the crit), and the guy was dropped like 6 minutes into the race. It looked awful! Constantly jumping out of 180 degree corners while Bissell ttted on the front

tetonrider

hey--i know you earned the upgrade (which is awesome); did you get forced to move up?

only reason i ask is that i read things like this and think it is a bit unfortunate when people upgrade but then race less frequently. that's not meant for you specifically -- but i've heard it a bunch of times, people upgrading themselves away from racing.

sounds like you'll have more options when you hit 35+.

Ygduf

I had like 38 points. If they had a 2s race, it would be one thing. But it's more a Ps race, given the event.

I'm racing twice later today. 2/3 and p12. There's plenty of options.

Sea Otter also charges like $65/race and is a longer drive, inconvenient with the expo and bracelets and dirt parking. I didn't go last year, either.

gsteinb

Closed the series out with a win. Pro stuff. Team dragged the break back with about fifty meters to go.

mattm

Yeah I've seen that video too, and I think that guy just sucked at positioning and cornering. I'm sure the race was hard though.

mattm

Nice work, sandbagger. j/k

mattm

I've always heard about people upgrading and then not racing anymore b/c it's too hard (especially when becoming a 2) - but have never witnessed it.

From what I've seen, anyone who can win in the 3's and upgrade can at least hang in the 1/2's.

My theory is that people use this reasoning as an excuse for them to not be able to get out of the 3's - they "don't want to", because they want to keep racing. But anyone who earns the upgrade seems to do just fine once in the 1/2's.

Part of it could also be that people may have been used to being "a big deal" in the 3's, now they're just a no-name 2. Winning in the 1/2's is obviously harder, so people that are used to winning may get frustrated and quit.

No facts, just guessing.

jsutkeepspining

He did, but it still looks like a very hard race. Actually most race track races are hard due to how hilly a race track really is, especially when you have strong people in your race.

jsutkeepspining

I've seen it a few times with 4s who move up to the 3s in my area due to the fact that almost every race is a 1/2/3 race. Its a big jump when you move from a 4 field to a field filled with 10 cat 1s, 20 cat 2s, and like 5 new 3s who are in over their head for the first race (more so due to the mentality. Racing is faster, closer, and more aggressive. In a 4 race there are large gaps that no one worries about, in a 1/2/3 all of a sudden you're getting slammed into a completely different kind of race

tetonrider

not that many people are capable of actually winning a race, no matter the level. i wonder what % of upgrades from one level to the next occur without the rider having won a race? (i don't think it is necessary to win a race to upgrade by any means, but i do notice a trend among some friends and acquaintances who used every point they could scrounge up to upgrade, when they might have been better served in learning how to actually cross the line first.)

there's such a pressure to upgrade in this sport; the conversation begins pretty much after the first race someone enters as a cat 5 and it doesn't stop. i travel to lots of the bigger national events and have seen riders stop doing them because traveling 12+ hours to finish 59th loses is luster after a while. sometimes the idea of being a cat (n-1) is better than the reality.

again, everyone has their own opinions on the matter and reasons for racing, so there is no right answer.

revchuck 

ips0803

Saturday Chantilly CR M5

Started front row, believe it was 9 laps so pretty short. Surfed around the front third of the field for 4 laps (including dodging a guy on a lawnmower who didn't notice the rave) until I hear a crash AMD some force on my wheel a couple seconds later. Reasonably large crash I hear about later is from a kids gopro coming off its mount and him reacting to try and grab it. Eek.

Slot back in and sit on until 2 to go and I decide to try and get off the front on the only hill on the course and maintain the lead through the only fast turn onto the back stretch since the field was creeping its way around that turn all day. Stay away until a half lap to go, hopefully got some good photos...

Slot back in and roll through in the low teens

Sunday AM Carl Dolan M5

Race is a D shaped circuit with one fast right hander than a steep climb into the wind for the last 1k leading into the finish.

For once being early was nice as the temperature and wind were much more manageable than later in the day. Spend all of the race surfing around the top 10, taking advantage of the fast turn to save energy over the group.

One guy tries to solo the last 1/2 lap, he's caught, roll in with the lead pack in 13th.

Sunday PM Carl Dolan M4/5

After taking photos for friends most of the day in between the 8:45 and 2:15 races, time to suit up. I've never raced twice in a day let alone three times in a weekend so I conserved energy as much as possible. Sat in and saw a group of 8 or so up the road with 3 team mates in it, one of whom was the attempted solo from the morning. Bridge up and get one short pull in before the field brings us back with 3 to go.

Last lap a group of 6ish gets off the front and I don't have legs to bridge so I decide to sit in and let the field reel them back. Coming into the final you after the sharp turn I'm to the left of the field staying out of the crossword when I see and hear crashing to my right. Wave of people and bikes flows my way and I end up with a dude leaning on my right with my wheels against the curb, grinding my left pedal as we roll and have bikes bounce off of us.

Keep it upright and roll through in 16th to finish the weekend.

Oh, then the 1/2/3 race got stopped, then shortened because the finish line overhead sensors for the chip going got blown over into the road and clocked a spectator in the head. Blood everywhere, he got a free ambulance ride, race was shortened by 5 laps.

ips0803

Saw a familiar small white allez from in here under a guy in an expo kit also

JandersUF

Myles Standish Cat 4, scheduled for 4 laps of a 5.1 mile loop. Nearly closed road in a state forest (narrow, but no yellow line in effect). Some slight undulations and S-turns, but no actual hills and only one turn you really need to brake at all for (just before the final straight away).

90+ people line up for our field. A bit tight on the roads...

I drop chain from the start line. Just installed it yesterday, thought everything was adjusted well, but i was wrong. Chased back on, managed to drop 2x more in the first lap. At that point I decided to just surf at the back of the field and get a training ride in, so as not to be a hazard in the middle of the pack. We're going fast (25mph avg). The pack is about as sketchy as any I've ever been apart of... over breaking, swerving violently for minor potholes, etc. Lose at least two guys flying off the road 'cross style for no apparent reason.

At mile 9 there is a huge pile up in the middle of the pack for no apparent reason in a straight, slightly downhill run. At least 6 guys go down hard, another 6+ go down gently, and probably 10 more either tip over or land on the bodies-as-pillows. I was literally at the back of the field, and was the only guy with enough room to brake to a stop and not get involved.

As such, I start to pick my way through the carnage to chase back on, but notice my good friend in the field (who is also medical by trade) has crashed, appears fine, but is already tending to an open fracture of a forearm on another racer. There are at least two other guys who appear unconscious. As such I park my bike and play doctor for a bit. Aside from the arm fracture, there were a couple guys with at least moderate concussions and a significant soft tissue leg wound from a chainring. Looked like everyone would be fine, and the guys from the park service and the ambulance crews were fast and excellent.

By the time this was cleared we just made a quick ride to the car and went home. I heard they ran out race for 1 final lap about 30 minutes later, which featured an additional crash...

revchuck 

Dang, Janders, that sounds scary - glad you came through unscathed, and good on ya for helping out the hurt folks.

hack

RedKite Crit Series #2

The pitfalls of pre-reg. Signed up and then came down with sinus infection yesterday. I think if I hadn't already been in, I'd have skipped it. The course is a simple 1 mile square.

E4 - 13/39
Nothing special, tried to get a break to go, but ended up solo off the front for a lap and got pulled back. I didn't position my self well enough coming into the last turn to have any real chance at placing in the points. Started to get pinched going into the last turn and risk/reward wasn't really there for me. Sat up the last 200m. One thing that has really hit me in the past few races is that if I'm not finishing in the points (money doesn't count because it'd be like $10) I'll pretty much just sit up or coast it in.


E3/4 - Pack finish.
We actually had 4 teammates in this race, which is totally unusual. So, we talked a bit about planning and just agreed that we'd play things by ear and not really go into it with a set plan. One of our guys is a Jr and he is really strong, so we encouraged him to mix it up, be in breaks if they formed, etc. He did really well in that respect and he's going to be a very strong racer once he learns some racing smarts. I basically sat in until about 3 laps to go and moved up toward the front. With just under two laps to go a crash took out our Jr rider (bike is trashed, both seat stays and chain stays snapped), but didn't really break up the field. With 1 to go I moved up to the front with the plan of settling in around 5th wheel. That failed so I went to the front, put my head down, and pushed the pace for my teammate that was on my wheel. All was well and we were positioned pretty well just before the last turn at which point we got swarmed, my teammate was able to squeak through for a decent finish and I rolled it in.

Not too exciting of a day, but ultimately glad I came out regardless. Also chatted with #aaronmcd for a bit between races.

ovoleg

No plans to race today but I raced. Cat 4...It's time to upgrade out but I race like an absolute NOOB so I might be here awhile... 8/20 points forever >_>

Pre-Race: I was planning a long day in the saddle(3'ish hours) and was going to ride to the race, race, then ride home. I was planning on getting there a tad early so I didn't have to hammer from my house but as luck would have it I get a flat literally 1 mile from my house. After I fix it, I roll back to my house to get another tube, BOOM head out. At this point I'm kind of late so I start to put on the gas. Miraculously I get there on time but the registration line is SUPPPPER slow(I was in registration for 45mins!!!). I literally pinned my number while I was lined up at the end of the field(thanks dudes who helped me haha).
Race: Slow. I averaged like 200W, In the 2nd lap, a break went off and it looked promising so I jumped from the field and bridged up. Took a pull, swung off and the next guy started pulling at a slugs pace, then we yell for him to pull off, next guy pulls at a slugs pace. Why in the hell do you guys bother going for a break if you're gonna lag it? failure...


Then a prime went up and I wanted it so I sat pretty good going into the line and I saw a little kid jump on the right so I jumped out from the left and put the hammer down. I was dead certain he was going to die, but he held it together and I was tractoring up to him but waited too long to go for it and he got me at the line. After that I was blown up so I just sat in the field and recovered.
Last lap, final turn, I am going inside to try and get into a good spot to the finish, FAIL! The guy infront of me nearly tipped over and I had to come to a dead stop. I started sprinting to catch the field but I was like 80th at this point. I moved up as much as I could in that short stretch but the field was going full speed. I was in the top 20 and I saw the front sprint, went left and put the hammer down but was getting pushed pushed pushed to the outside and was about to hit the little island thing, let off the gas and just reeled it in. Oh well. I had fun, I didn't crash, and I was competitive. I aint even mad.

Funniest **** ever though: I'm riding behind this guy and he decides to raise his hand to wave or something at the audience and as he does that he veers left and hits some TRUCycling dude. The TRUCycling dude starts to fumble it and next thing I know he hits the deck. Absolutely astonishing. The whole field went berserk and starts yelling at the guy so I get the hell out of the way and hammer to the front to avoid the chaos.

Wesley36

Calabogie Road Race - O-Cup Race #1 - Masters 3, 48 starters - pack finish (but one upgrade point!)

11 laps on a car racing course, each lap was a bit more than 5 km. Rain in the forecast, temperature just a few degrees above freezing. When we started the track was wet, but it had already started to dry out by lap 3. We even had a bit of sun!

Given that I was coming into this race with slightly diminished fitness, and that dealing with pack dynamics was my biggest limiter last year, my goal was to try to work the pack as much as I could, and play around with position. In the first 5 laps I was able to move from the back-ish to the front 5, back, up, and back again. Most of my successful moving up was on the outside, and too often, I found myself eating wind and pushing a bit harder than I planned to. Tried moving up through the pack, had some success, and navigated some tight spots without any real problems or drama. If I was starting to feel like it was getting tight, I just made sure I had my elbows set wide, and held my line. That seemed to work reasonably well. That said, I kept getting (or least feeling) blocked in (ie in terms of forward progress), then I would end up moving to the side to move up. I am also rather pleased with the amount of coasting I did - quite a lot.

Anyhow, at around 8 laps I was feeling okay, it seemed like a good moment, so I attacked. Looking back at my data, I set a PR at 5, 10, and 20 s when I went on my little break - apparently I did successfully open up a gap. Before I got sick back in mid-Feb, I had done some of the TARWPM race winning intervals (30s sprint, 3 min at 105-110% FTP, 10 s sprint), they were hard, but doable. My hope was that, maybe, I could unleash one of those, then go from there. Nope, my fitness is not back to where it was.

After my 20 seconds of glory, I was having trouble settling into a hard pace, at around 45 s to a minute I peeked back, and the move had been covered - the pack was back on my wheel. So this attack died just as it started, but nonetheless, I think it bodes well. I was able to jump and create a gap, I just didn't have the fitness to back it up after that. Also, I had always assumed that I was not much of a sprinter, but that jump came midway through a race where I had been eating a lot of wind, and I came close to cracking 1K W (sorry, ewang, but maybe I should try the sprinting thing in future races). If I cracked that out in the last 200m instead of trying to create a break, the race could have ended very differently (if if if).

Anyhow, drifted back, on lap 11 I tried to move up hard a few times, but between eating too much wind while moving around, and then my failed jump, I just didn't have much in my legs left. Worked my way up through the pack, not much of a kick near the end brought me in at 20th place, which is good for one point, but mostly good for some race learnin'. A good race.

longe

That was incredibly ugly. I managed to roll through that first crash on the grass but I can't believe I did- everything Matrix'd out. I was the last one to pile up in that 2nd crash, people got messed up pretty good there, though nothing like the first. Would be nice to split the field and run two races because that was apparently too many. There was a TON of squirellyness and yelling way before that crash. It's hard to understand how that could've happened there- it was wide open. My theory is people weren't anticipating speed changes along those small rolling hills.

UmneyDurak

I did red Kite E4, and had to go to Oakland to pick up a hitch rack so no E3/4.

Anyway, night and day difference from last one. Legs felt good, seat bone and calf muscles were not in tremendous pain. Got pulled to couple of breaks, but no one was doing anything so just sat in at the back and we were caught shortly after. I am not about to expand energy if they can't even pull of a rotating pace line. With a two to go I got swapped, so said screw it moved in to the wind going in to the final lap and moved to the front to latch on to Alto Velo peeps. I think they were trying to put their sprinter to the line or something, but they went to soon. I could tell they were not going to make it, and final guy blew up shortly before the final corner. I did an OK sprint and ended up 6th, so not even one point. I know I should be happy because overall it was a huge progress from beginning of the season, but kind of bummed I am stuck at 10 points for a while now.

hack

Good work and def progress from your earlier race. Couldn't pick your kit out amongst the field to say hello. I was in a decent spot up until the last corner, but got swarmed big time. Decided against fighting hard for position. You also missed a couple of crashes in the 3/4 race, so be thankful for that.