Yep

Cow Country Classic 1/2/3s. 87 miles. 14 or 15 in the field.

This was my first race as a three (5 of us in the field). Also my first "A" race. It's a flattish 40 mile out and back from the start and then the rest is a loop. Lollipop-ish.

About 5 miles after the out and back you hit a climb that is about 8:30m, and has the rep of always creating a separation or consuming the early break. For us it was the separation. The 5 strongest 1/2s were quickly OTF. I had to brake check in the scramble at the base of the climb but right away it was just the 6 six of us. At that point I was thinking, 'sweet armchair ride for 1st in the 3s and maybe more...'. The strongest climber of the 6 us surged and then surged again. Both times I responded and that coupled with my out of the saddle to bridge up left me in no-mans-land 2/3s of the way up the climb. Stupid.

As I crested two other 3s came up to me; one who worried me and one who didn't. Miraculously, another 3, who worried me the most caught us on the next set of rollers. A couple of my breakmates were apparently intent on catching the leaders, and by 65 or 70 miles in we had. My right leg started cramping pretty badly...

The last 20 is rolling, but each "roll" is at least a K, so you're into climbing mode, more than power over mode. With 3 or 4 hills to go the attacks started. This course is long but not outrageous in overall gain; the first 40 is pretty flat. What I learned on Sunday though is that what makes these 1/2 races really difficult is that at mile 80 someone will launch the same kind of blistering attack you might see in crit, and the counters are relentless after that.

Finally it was down to four 1/2s in the lead and a third -ironically the best climber, but without teammates- ,myself and the last 3 to bridge up on the initial climb in a chasing group of 3. I had only to drop this last 3 and maybe even the other 1/2. On the last 1km hill before a 5 mile descent into town I stood up to give it everything just into the bottom of the climb and my legs seized for real. Instead of dishing it out I was suddenly scrambling not to get dropped, just tossing my body weight from side to side to keep something pushing the pedals down. Over the top and down a long, fast 5 miles we spun out the legs as our 1/2 tried in vain to catch the others. With 300 to go we passed him and having spun out my legs I thought I was ready.

Wrong. At 150 I got up when he did and went all Tin Man again. At least 200w below a jump I might expect and 500w below an average 5s. I lost by half a wheel, so clearly had I not been so blocked... woulda, coulda, shoulda. Oh well. 6th overall and 2nd in the 3s.

Hida Yanra

1) isn't it always though? feels like it should be straightforward w/ numbers- but not everyone that gets counted counts.

2) I'll leave this here

Ygduf

And my ride to work is 4.2 miles...

There's a level of commitment I have, and there are definitely things beyond that. Driving and spending entire evenings at Hellyer would be sweet if I didn't work full time and have a wife who already puts up with a ton of bike-time & energy draw.

shovelhd

Give up a group hammerfest ride.

gsteinb

there's probably nothing fudgy could possibly do that would be better for the weakest part of his racing than go to the track.

mattm

Hellyer is a huge time commitment (5:30 to about 9:30 if you include driving to/from), compared to 5:30 to 7:30 or so for the afternoon group rides on Wednesdays..

I'm making the tradeoff, but am also dropping the Tuesday night training crits to balance things out. And I can see how not everyone can swing it.

The track would help, sure - and I've suggested the same to fudgy. But he could probably do some workouts in front of his house or on a trainer that would help a sprint too.

Ygduf

If my sprint gets too good I'll want to sit in and be another boring racer. Who wants that!?

I mean, I've already caved and started racing crits.

Andy STi

Rcaed track twice a week for many years. All my time spent at Northbrook, Kenosha and Indy has been invaluable.

Ygduf

I do those at lunchtime, though. They are literally zero time commitment. I ride in, work at 7:30, 90 minutes lunch ride (+/- some wiggle room), ride home 5pm, home at 5:20 to do dog chores, grocery shopping, life stuff, right.

Anyway, I upgraded, hit that new level of competition, started doing crits to help with pack skills/foot speed/drafting instinct, etc.

Track looks fun, I think it would be good for me, but unless they build one close or I retire soon, it's too much time.

rankin116

Lunch time group rides? What weird world do you live in? That sounds awesome.

hack

Stanford has $$ and some land. Start a movement

shovelhd

I didn't realize that all of them were midday rides. My mistake. So you'd have to give up a long midweek ride. Two completely different foci.

mattm

california

Ygduf

waterrockets 

There are several in Austin too.

Ygduf

Norcal and Austin, from what I can tell, are very similar places.

waterrockets 

Unfortunately, we're much closer to Texas though.

Ygduf

Lots of our races are in the central valley, which is indistinguishable from rural Texas, anyway. If anything it's uglier.

aaronmcd

Holy smokes. I just looked at the Texas racing website. Are there really sanctioned races on weekdays?

waterrockets 

With hundred-rider sold-out fields.

I relate it to the CA, FL, and TX domination of track and field and football. Looooong training seasons and lots of people.

shovelhd

We have midweek criteriums out here, but they don't have free beer, and they don't take credit cards. #gottalovetejas

mike868y

why do people still give fudgy advice he doesn't ask for? he's clearly very content in his racing and training methods an progression. doing everything you can do to be the best you can be isn't up everyone's alley. i'd rather do training that i find enjoyable and not progress quite as quickly in the sport versus sacrifice all that to take racing super serious.

gsteinb

So we can get you to whine about it?

furiousferret

A few months ago my supervisor told me there were complaints that I was spending my lunches at the gym. If I didn't have such a sweet retirement I'd quit and go work where I can ride at lunch (no showers, in the ghetto, etc).

mattm

So the rule is you have to spend your lunch hour eating lunch??