gsteinb

like what?

shovelhd

You know, wise guy.

Creatre

He obviously meant aero helmets. Aero helmets + 5" power = win.

Ygduf

6'3" with a 6'9" wingspan! Terrible leverage for everything but rock climbing and having a pro saddle-stem drop.

Ygduf

Thanks. I haven't. I may eventually if I get frustrated enough.

Part of it was that I let myself get gamed a bit. I let my fear of being caught in the last corner get the better of me and did a little more work than I should have, and the guy jumped right when I preferred him to pull through. He did it right, I did it poorly. Experience will help a little, hopefully the work I'm putting in will pay off a little. (it has in that I'm getting nearer to my peak numbers in races. some muscle memory is there now, just no muscle.)

Have just adopted a maximize strength/minimize weakness philosophy. Is still working alright.

waterrockets 

Very true. I was thinking more along the lines of correcting "not having a sprint" than how to win a bunch sprint though. I'm pretty horrible in the bunch sprint stuff, but I can seemingly win at will from a break of 5, because of the 5" and 1' power (assuming the 5 go under the 1km banner all together).

JohnKScott

Great racing and reports guys and gals! Enjoyed the reading.

rkwaki

WTF does this mean?

rkwaki

And no knuckles...
They have all been rubbed off from dragging on the ground.

gsteinb

Calm down, mouth breather.

rideaz

Looks like he would be a great swimmer!

rkwaki

You know my thoughts on stupidity...

thechemist

Your fat?


edit: welcome back

TexMac

That's Tyler Phinney'ish build

bmcphx

It means in my experience stocky dudes are hard to beat in crits.

aaronmcd

Red Kite Crit yesterday. Same course; flat, wide and windy with a sweeping curve and 3 right hand turns.

Cat 4, close to getting 3rd, ended up 18/25

A couple guys went off the front early but never got too far away so I sat in and waited. They were brought back with a few laps to go.
2 to go a guy took off, then I took off. Field caught us in half lap or so, I sat near the front. Last lap, 2nd corner another guy takes off and so do I. I can't catch him, but I did get a big gap on the field. A third guy attacks the field and passes me and I can't latch on - he hovers between me and guy in the lead. I held off until the final corner and then the field caught and mostly passed me - I had no sprint left. The guy in the lead got caught just before the line. Maybe could have ended better if I hadn't gone for the move at 2 to go.

Cat 3/4, close to getting top 3, ended up with 28/40

Fast race (26.2 mph average). Mid race there is a break up the road with maybe 4 guys. Mike's Bikes team comes to the front and starts pulling like mad to bring them back. So when the break is caught and a Mikes guy goes with the counter, I move out to bridge. We stay away for several minutes, then the field is catching us and the breakmates relax. Split second decision - I keep pushing moderately hard and get another gap. Maybe 3 laps to go. A second guy flies by me and I jump on his wheel, then a third joins us. Second Guy gets things organized, yelling that the field isn't organized and we can stay away. This guy is REALLY strong - I'm not getting ANY recovery when he is pulling. I pull through when I have to because, well, 3 to go and there are only 3 of us. One to go, it's my turn but I can't pull through. Third Guy comes around on the right and Second Guy yells to get on his wheel. I can't. Second Guy jumps and gets on the wheel and I keep chugging away as hard as I can in no mans land, staying fairly close to the break. The field is getting closer... one guy from the field comes by me on the back stretch. The field catches me at the final corner. Again. No sprint left, again. The lead guy in the break was caught just before the line, again.

Second Guy apologizes after the race for yelling at me to get on Third Guy's wheel... I'm just like, it's a race with one lap to go and you want to win it dude. Yell all you want.

Last 10 minutes, NP = 104%. Entire race AP = 290 watts!

Really frustrated from being so close to placing twice in one day with nothing to show for it. But on the plus side I tried new things that had a real chance of success, and perhaps it could have gone better if it weren't for the strong headwind on the stretch before the final corner.

hack

The crits are fun and you can usually jump into at least two races a day if you're a 4 or better. I doubt I'll make the trip down for one of the TTs, Circuit Races, or Road Races (maybe the RRs we'll see). Do they ever give out anything other than wine? Heard some folks whining about wine being the only prizes offered up. I think there is cash for the omnium, but nothing (cash, gear, etc) for the individual races?

rkwaki

It's a good think you work in a science based field
I think just for that I will physically, mentally and emotionally crush you when I ride with you...

UmneyDurak

They had at least a straight away at some point. With 8 or so to go they had 19s gap. With 7 to go they sat up and gap was reduced to 3 seconds. At which point people started to bridge and over sudden they had 5 people with 10second gap again. Unfortunately some of the people who bridged didn't want to work, and people who did were tired, so we got caught with 3 to go. I was a bit surprised by that, because previously no one really wanted to work to catch them and SF squad guys would get to the front every chance they got to block.

rkwaki

And your comment implied that they are not in shape....
Just saying...

tetonrider

he no like coaches/coaching.

nice reports on the racing! i enjoyed them, even the tl/dr versions.

waterrockets 

Well, I'm not a coached rider either, but I have found tremendous value in getting a coaching "checkup" of sorts by spending a few weeks with a coach plus a handful of very targeted discussions about race limiters, and changes to training. I'm sure it depends a lot on the coach and the athlete. Since I coach myself as a hobby, I'm more in tune with "symptoms" of my performance than a lot of riders. My coach is a bit of an outlier too. Not that he's all that much more effective than the average coach, but he and I mesh well.

To shovel (and gsteinb)'s earlier points though, there's more to this than fitness, form, and power.

aaronmcd

Photos by Katie Truong.

I'm sitting on Mike's Bikes while they work to bring back a break:


I go with the counter:


Looks like we are caught...


But 3 of us get away again and almost pull it off. It looks like I'm always pulling but it's just where I happen to be for the photos.


"Second Guy" is the dude in the back of the above photo with the aero helmet. He was in the original break Mike's was chasing down as well. And the sprint shot shows he almost held it (I'm somewhere like 28 guys back):

bmcphx

They don't look like they are in shape, k.

jsutkeepspining

Meh the guys who win crits here are the same ones who win road races. Being super skinny is cool and all, but you have to be good to actually do anything.