revchuck 

+1!

Doge

UCI Pros have to sit it out a bit before being allowed to race masters. So Jens, if he were a USA citizen, could not race masters this year.

Ygduf

I'm overreacting from seeing Ben Jaques Maynes on TV and then on the podium of like my first 5 p12 races.

Enthalpic

We have medals for all cats plus masters in 10 year age groups; but only Cat 1/2 gets a jersey.

tetonrider

you're on fire. congrats. your recent results should be a huge boost to confidence rolling into battenkill this weekend. that, and the sprint shifters, of course! ;-)

congrats @carpediemracing, too. awesome that you have reinvented your training in ways you didn't think possible, and it sounds like that was a pretty phenomenal finish to a race.

globecanvas

So. This is Finkraft's home field, they had 4-5 guys there. They always execute well and they did it by the book, attack, counter, counter, counter. On about the 4th counter their super slippery TT guy went. I thought, that's the one, and went with. It was 4-5 of us but a sloppy group. We stayed away for a couple of laps, then got caught by another 4-5 guys.

I said to Slippery, "let's go again!" I have always wanted to say that. We went again, this time 4 guys: Slippery, Big Sprinty, Junior, and me. This was 20 minutes into the race. Everybody worked, there was support behind us, time dilated, and 40 minutes later, we could see the back of the field ahead of us. It's a long course, so we probably had more than 2 minutes on them.

With about 5 to go, Sprinty and Junior started taking shorter and shorter pulls. I think Junior was dying, and Sprinty looked like he was dying, but I didn't trust him.

The bell lap was a 4-way match sprint, everybody softpedaling and looking at everyone else like the last scene of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. I figured I could beat Slippery and Junior in a sprint, but I didn't know what to do about Sprinty. If I went early, Slippery would catch me; if I waited for Sprinty to go, he'd win. Sprinty surprised me by going early, at about 300m. We got him back at about 200m and he looked like he was blown, but he was playing possum and kicked again from 100m for the win. Kudos to him for gamesmanship.

I think this was the most fun I've ever had in a bike race. Even though I got 2nd, it's so much better to be outsmarted than to be outmuscled.

tetonrider

i only know this because Olheiser (beast!), but he was racing & dominating at masters nationals in the 30-34 field (back when they had that) and then 35-39. he got on a pro team (think it was comp cyclist) and could not compete at masters nationals that year. he then dropped off that team or maybe it was the year that team went away and raced for CashCall, which i think was pro but somehow at a different tier. anyway, that year he raced elite nationals (as a 1) and masters.

he's on a team with a buddy of mine now, so i think he cannot race masters nationals.

anyway, for US pros it seems that the restriction is only if one is a pro in the *current* year.

i was kinda hoping that horner wouldn't get a contract this year....so he'd show up to masters cats in my category and kick some @$$.

tetonrider

i think that's exactly what makes racing so interesting. rarely does pure muscle win--and it also means that even if one is not the strongest guy at the starting line there is a chance, a scenario where they might win.

globecanvas

Those things are awesome. Although it took me a couple of races to get to where I would actually remember I had them!


... oh, and I'm planning to suck at Battenkill. I've done 9 races this year and the longest one was 1:15. And I'm getting chubby, as we crit racers do.

Doge

For Nationals https://s3.amazonaws.com/USACWeb/for...quirements.pdf

gsteinb

nice job GC.

globecanvas

0.94 IF for 1:10. But I see NP was 20 watts less than Mr. Slippery, who is smaller than me. I must be slipperier! Or my PM is way off.

shovelhd

I was the outlier who advised you to do a taper week before Battenkill and not do this race. There is so much value in adding confidence and honing race craft, though, and you got that in spades. Outstanding job all around.

Hermes

Congrats on your results. Maybe Slippery's PM is off. Or maybe you rode in tighter formation than he did. Of course, if your PM is not an SRM... it is way off.

shovelhd

If you are using Strava to draw conclusions on power, it's off.

Hermes

I was wondering how he knew Slippery's power profile for the race.

globecanvas

Guys, I'm not dumb. The other guy had an SRM and Strava shows your actual power data if you set it that way. Power data for both rides is up for anyone to see. Some people might think that's giving away some kind of advantage, but I personally don't, if anything I'm sort of proud of how little power I make.

TheKillerPenguin

Certainly hasn't stopped you from placing in front of me in literally every single crit we've done together...yeh bastd.

globecanvas

What I lack in power, I make up for in yellow line violations.

Hermes

I am liking this...a reverse e-wang contest.

gsteinb

aren't you using a stages? Seems silly to bother drawing conclusions on absolute power to another rider. His or your power meter could be miscalibrated. They certainly aren't calibrated to each other.

harolddelaney

at what point in a racer's career is it necessary to drop the whole oh gee golly self deprecating modesty thing? cat 3? cat 2

like at what point is it cool to be like "yeah, i'm pretty ****** awesome". because guys who do the golly gee act when they're actually pretty good is kinda stupid

globecanvas

Also, TKP, I know you're just joking around, but for the benefit of our listening audience, I have yet to see you try to win. When you do, the road will be littered with blown off doors and broken souls.

hack

Nice, efficiency contest. I once did a 60 min 2/3 crit with an NP of 141 watts. Keep in mind I'm 6'3" and was probably 195 at the time. That was around the time we decided my Quarq was toast.

TheKillerPenguin

lol, up to this point I've just been learning, taking stock, and getting my head right. We'll see what the fates have in store for me now.