shovelhd

Sounds like Exeter. Heal up.

furiousferret

x2!

shovelhd

@canuckbelle congrats on the jersey. Risks win championships.

TMonk

+1! Nice job champ!

rideaz

Huge congrats!!

FFJ

Crashed out at the Maltese Classic in Central Park yesterday. I was riding at the front of the group, right against the line for the rec lane (so no one could come around me on the inside without having to go in the rec lane). A non-CRCA rider got pushed into the rec lane behind me and instead of dropping back until he could get out of the rec lane, he decided to ride up to the front. As he was passing me we bumped. I was completely caught off guard (bc, at least in the CRCA club races, no one is foolish enough to try to pass in the rec lane) and couldn't keep it upright. Nothing broken but some nasty road rash and chewed up equipment.

The crash ended a nice streak of 4 top 5s, so I guess I was due.

gsteinb

You could just as easily say 'I did four park races, so was due for a crash.'

FFJ

Four open park races. The CRCA club races tend to be very safe. The open races are a whole different story, and I typically skip them completely.

grolby

Fitchburg! If yesterday I went out with a bang, today it was with a whimper. It was wet. Very wet. I don't even remember the last time I raced a crit in the rain. That wasn't a huge factor, but it didn't help. I had some major visibility problems in the first few laps and had to take off my glasses. Even eating wheel spray, I could see far better without them than with them. Go figure. Almost got myself dropped taking them off, though.

It was a nervous peloton and there were some crashes. I avoided them this time around. Never really felt strong, and that's not good because this is a hard course with lots of pedaling on the long uphill front stretch. Making matters worse, we had a pretty consistent tailwind up that stretch. To make a long story short, my goals shifted during the race from "get to the front and race," to "hang out and wait for the last few laps" to "just hang on until the end" to "don't get yourself pulled from the race." I finally got unhitched for good around three to go, managed to TT my way to the finish. It's been a tough three days. Good fun, for the most part, though I admit a lot of today was just gritting it out to finish. Literally, given all the sand in my teeth, blech. I wouldn't have forgiven myself for not starting this race after the way things finished in Worcester.

gsteinb

I don't really consider the club races. I was thinking PP and CP races.

furiousferret

Ontario 4/5 30+
15th out of 40

Going into the 2nd to last corner I was 2nd wheel and decided to let some guys by, but it was too scattered for that to work. Thought he was a leadout (he had 4 teammates) but took the win, and I ended up sucking too much wind and fell off. Poor racing on my part. Didn't realize I blew it until I rewatched the video. I'm going to go throw something now, preferably inexpensive but large. However, I suppose when you take a wheel to the face and don't go down its a good day (I think it was a wheel, may have been a bodypart).

Even though this is my 2nd year racing, I'm still doing dumb stuff because certain situations are still new to me.

TheKillerPenguin

Dude it's my 10th year racing and I'm still two-wheel 'tarded. Chin up, you'll get it.

grolby

Oh believe me, you don't really run out of dumb things you can do. This is my 8th season racing, and I still suck at it.

An anecdote I forgot about racing in Worcester yesterday: the roads on that course are very bumpy. Lap one was like the Great Water Bottle Massacre of 2015. One of them popped open just so, and I basically got a faceful of Skratch. Ugh.

aaronmcd

Burlingame Crit, start, immediate left, right, left u turn, right-left chicane, a fairly wide but weird and difficult left-left to the finish straight. Lined up at the front (everyone lined up 10 minutes early). Still back to 15th or so by the u turn. Sprinting out of turns twice per short lap, slowly dying. Lost contact 15 minutes in (almost half the field had already popped). Caught back at the u turn, lost it again. TTd around off the back losing a steady 2 seconds per lap until I was finally pulled ~5 or 6 laps later. Holy balls, that's a tough race. One sandbagger waited for the wheelset prime, took it and then happily drifted off the back satisfied. And then they told him he had to finish to get the prime. But they let him get lapped and stay in.

Ygduf

burligame crit - 35s 123 and p12.

rode the struggle bus pretty hard today. Aaron's description of the course is accurate. Sprint, turn, sprint, turn, sprint, turn. I made it to the front for a bit in the 35s and it was better, but then I lost clipped my pedal and started to lose my nerve and was at the back about instantly. Hard training rides.


That zone that's 2:26, that's the one I prefer.

hack

Burlingame as well.

E3, 16th of 50 or so. Brutal race and hard from the whistle. Technical course and a lot of guys seemed to leave their bike handling skills at home today. I saw one guy crash solo at least twice and maybe even a third time. I was in there to help a teammate, but he didn't need me and our other teammate popped off early. I just tried to sit in with the front group knowing I was doing the 35+ 3/4 race immediately after. Even working as minimally as possibly was causing pain. Stuck it out and started moving into better position with 5 to go. A crash in the 180 with 3 to go derailed that effort and I rolled in with the field. Teammate got 2nd which was awesome.

35+ 3/4. DNF. Got crashed out on the last lap. No damage and was able to unclip and land on my feet before hitting the deck. Took it easy in this one and slowly made way up the field getting into a great spot with a couple to go. So much easier to move up in this race than the 3s race. With one to go a guy tried to dive the first turn, got pinched, made contact with the guy next to him and it all fell apart from there. He went with the stiff locked out arm approach, wobbled hard and took himself and the other guy out. I went between them but got clipped by another guy that was a victim of the lateral domino effect. I was pissed, legs felt great, positioned well, and plop...here's a big turd.

All in all ... Handling skills were mia. Tons of hard braking into turns, sketchtastic lines into the 180, guys diving, guys sprinting around you before turns just to hit the brakes.

Harlan

Your description fits my experience of the men 4/5 race perfectly. It was a rough day to be out there. Really wet, sprinting out of the last corner each lap, taking all the corners really easy whether I wanted to or not. The field was mostly shattered with 5 to go. You should have seen how many people were letting air out of their tires at the starting line. One of the race mangers went around feeling tires and making comments with how much to take out. I was like dude, don't touch my bike. I run my pressure at 87 on 23mm rims and went 85 today.

furiousferret

Glad you're okay @hack, those tight races can be brutal when a couple guys don't know how to corner.

hack

Thx ... was a pretty crashy day and I think both the women's and men's P12 races were neutralized at some point. Saw @save10 take a spill, too. He looked ok when we talked after the race.

shovelhd

I'm glad everyone is ok.

Enthalpic

Ouch, but probably a very good training effect.

Ygduf

in the 2 races I did I witnessed like 7 crashes? One big enough to stop the p12 race for a few minutes. One, toward the end of the p12 race where a guy was pinched then leaning right, then left, then eventually crashed. Took like 15 seconds for him to finally lose it, through the s turn off the sweeper.

long story short, that course is not what I would deem "super safe"

that's what I told myself as I lined up for p12.

hack

Not safe, but it was fun. More enjoyable than a basic square. Kept the mind occupied.

Ygduf

I rather like the squares as it lets me my mind be occupied by racing, not not-crashing. I also enjoy races where I have a chance to do well; go figure.

hack

double true