Road Bike Racing - RMCC Championships

Just thought i'd get a thread started and anyone can add to it if they'd like. This morning was the crit for the RMCC Championship race, this afternoon the TTT and tomorrow the road race. Just thought i'd give a report on the B-Crit, as it was my race and my team for the TTT has spontaneously combusted so i only got to race once today. I got 6th place overall, which i was fairly happy with, although in retrospect i followed the wrong wheel goin' into the sprint and probably could have gotten up for 3rd otherwise, as first through 6th were separated by no more than 2 bike lengths. Was a .68 mile course with 7 turns, one particularly dangerous one in which a rider from UNC almost took people out numerous times by trying to pass into it. was pretty sketchy in that aspect, other than that the race was defined by lots of moves by CU riders off of the front and the heavy headwind in the back part of the course. But i finish off my first year of collegiate cycling as a freshman with one 8th place and one 6th place as my notable places in criteriums, can't be all too disappointed i guess. Tomorrow in the road race, 50ish hilly miles w/ roughly 1000 feet of climbing per lap (5), last chance to really go for it and i'm pumped! any advice?

I think a successful team strategy will help. The challenge, however, is getting the guys on your squad to abide by whatever strategy you work out. If anything, try to get a guy on your team up into the break when it happens... if you get two up there, tell the others to sit on the front of the main peloton and block. Just my two cents. If you happen to find yourself in a two-on-one in a small break, position your guys in front and behind him, then unleash a fury of attacks, having your trailing man follow him when he counters... once he catches back on, have the guy in the back unleash hell... repeat as necessary. If you're the "one" in a two-on-one, good luck :-)

If I were racing tomorrow out there, I'd think about going with one of the cadets when he attacks. They have the privilege of riding that course often, as the Academy is closed to folks w/out a militray ID (lame... don't get me started on that one). He's gonna likely know the key areas - a steep section, etc. - and might use that to his advantage.

Regardless of how it all unfolds... have fun, be safe, and good luck!

I agree with djpluv but it can be hard if you have very few or no team members like our B rider is.

forgot to say that sucks about the TTT. I would be pissed if my team screwed me over for getting double points.

wanted to add, it wasn't my teammates fault really, one crashed out of A-race who was in my TTT and two were sick. and i actually ride on base a lot b/c my dad is retired military, so i've got a good idea of where to move.

Any idea on any of the other results? How do the C-Crit go? We're looking for our man Adam (blue Allez). He's in second place to some guy from CU? If all went as planned he should have had a big red-headed guy, and a bigger guy with longer black hair helping out (and some others, but they aren't as noticeable.)

'fraid i missed the c-crit. But a quick word on the results from the b road race. I got 4th! despite my dumb efforts in the beginning of the race i was still able to pull of 4th place, about 30 seconds in back of a breakaway group of 3 and 2 minutes ahead of the main group. one of the hardest rides of my life staying clear solo. in the a-race a few guys from cu were in a break that lasted i believe to win, then two air force guys, then josh gewirtz from CC won the "bunch" sprint. in the b-road race it went CU, CU, CSU (some foreign sounding guy), then me. pretty good day overall!

I stood out there freezing my butt off this morning to watch the B race - a buddy and teammate of mine races collegiate, as well.

It must have been hell coming up that hill with the wind blowing right at you. If you had someone there to work with, I bet you would have caught the break... you were typically hanging around 45 seconds back from the leaders and you darn near rode that entire race by yourself. Super effort and a great finish!

oh... and those "A" guys... they were putting about 2 minutes on the peleton each lap... those guys were truckin'!

thanks man! Was definitely a tough day, but i'm pretty excited overall, really startin' to like these bike races. lol

'fraid i missed the c-crit. But a quick word on the results from the b road race. I got 4th! despite my dumb efforts in the beginning of the race i was still able to pull of 4th place, about 30 seconds in back of a breakaway group of 3 and 2 minutes ahead of the main group. one of the hardest rides of my life staying clear solo. in the a-race a few guys from cu were in a break that lasted i believe to win, then two air force guys, then josh gewirtz from CC won the "bunch" sprint. in the b-road race it went CU, CU, CSU (some foreign sounding guy), then me. pretty good day overall!

Nice. I think you're talking about John K. getting 3rd. He's not foreign, but he's partially deaf or something. He's a beast though. I have yet to see that guy train at all. I think its just a bunch of natural talent, I bet he's got a high VO2max. Seriously... I know he trains for mt biking, but i've never even heard of him coming out to a road training ride...

now i sound like some sort of ass, lol, sorry about that. definitely a strong rider though, even though he made a dick move attacking right after i'd been pulling up a huge hill. got a cramp and that's when i lost contact with the break.

Those blasted attacks always seem to come at inopportune times :p

You gonna be hitting the Wednesday Night Crit this week? Our team has been trying to get the word out so I'm hoping for a larger turnout.

think so, lol, see if i can convince them to let me race in the A crit despite my lack of mass starts, wasn't too much fun last time

I wasn't trying to make you look like an ass. It is what it is... it not like you spoke at length with him or you would have known. Anyway, I'm not hugely surprised at a lack of road racing etiquette from him.. He's a mt. biker primarily.

Hey I am that CU guy. The C-crit was a fun time. You CSU boys like to get out front and do alot of work and blow up the field. I like to see the teamwork from the C teamers, because it is rare. However, Mr. Fivehouse didn't even get in the top 12. I think he had some mechanical trouble.

Yeah, he crashed. You're Clay Albracht? How'd you do in the races? I'm assuming you got first in conference then, congratulations! A guy on my team (Ryan, the tall guy with black hair) was trying to tell me that it was going to be a piece of cake for Adam, and wouldn't listen to me when i told him Adam was going to have to beat you pretty handily in order to re-coupe those points. Ryan also said he would finish right behind Adam (at one point Ryan moved up to B's and then moved back down... He's maybe a bit of an elitist). I told him it might be different if he was working hard for Adam... He didn't believe me about that either! I wasn't there, and I wasn't at the C-Team planning meeting, but I'm pretty sure the plan was to attack A LOT, keep the pace up and work everyone down while keeping Adam fresh. He had just gotten pulled up to the front when he crashed from what I heard.... He got back up though and kept going.

That is me, I got 7th in the Crit and 2nd in the Road race. You are right #1 in conference points. Ryan talks a big game, If Adam made a showing in the Crit the final results would have been alot closer, I probably wouldnt have ended on top. Those double points for the Road race were killer. Your team had amazing organization. I wish CU had enough of a C team to make the effort that you fellas did. Your team did alot of work but didnt quite have the finnishing kick. In the Crit, after Adam crashed I managed to pass 2 CSU guys before finnishing. And in the road race I managed to slip by on the second to last climb, and noone countered. I would have to say you guys did most of the work before that, I was sitting pretty on Ryan's wheel with Adam on my side. Congrats on the season. Lets meet again next year in the Bs It will be alot different racing up there.

All this talk of strategy makes me cringe, lol. These two last races i was the only member of my team in them, in fact, i only rode in 4 races this year with teammates, one of which i pulled out of b/c of back spasms and another i crashed out of. lol. but never any team strategy. wonder if things'd pan out diff'tly for me. next year i'll be in a mines jersey though, and plan on racing A's. Look for me there

Nice. Yeah, hopefully I can ride enough in the summer to move up to being competitive in B's. Its a pretty big jump, but I have a feeling if I would have done more races I would have been much higher in the points. I was 13th overall at the end of the season. What hurt me was that I didn't race a lot. I only went to CU, CSU, and Mines. That was only 4 chances to get points (Mines had two days, obviously). I was hoping to do well at Wyoming to get some points and bring me up (all while working for Adam - who is graduating, btw). Right now we only have one B racer. Next year he will prob. be an A. That leaves a big hole. Hopefully next year in B's we'll have me, Ryan, Dave (another guy suffering from lack of races), Joel (again, another guy who was suffering from a lack of races - but he made up for it with those yummy double points at AFA), and hopefully Alex too.

Amen to riding enough in the summer to move up to B's, and have no more of a one man show in them. Sadly the beast is out of commision so hopefully after finals I will be back on the road riding my a** off.

just submitted my request to move to USCF cat 4, w00t!

So you gonna hit the "A" race tomorrow evening?

if they'll let me, and my schedule permits yeah, i hope to

my request hasn't been processed yet, but i'll bring the permission to ride that says it is pending, see what they say

sweet. hopefully the weather holds up and it isn't too windy this evening. this evening will be my last race for the month of May - getting married saturday and have a week of transition coming up and don't have anything planned until Sara Kay on the 4th of June.

well...not a terrible day at the races. felt pretty good throughout, despite 15 mile, uphill, into wind warmup, lol. very frustrating to lose my pedal at the end there though, would've loved to have a win over mari holden in the books, lol. honestly pretty confident i'd have had a shot at the win had the mishap not occurred, was feelin' pretty fresh, second wheel when the move went and i lost the pedal! AGH! lol, more races in the future i guess

You did well and I really thought you'd be right there for the finishing sprint. That would have been sweet to take Mari Holden at the line... shoot, just hangin' with her is impressive.

I was a bit overzealous thinking I could go out and effectively race both races - HA! That wind really worked me over in the first race... which i won (my very first win). I went off the front at the whistle and took one of the guys with me. We quickly lapped the remaining guys and suffered through that wind until sprinting for the finish. We rounded that that last turn and I was gone... i could hear the other guy still upshifting as I came out of the saddle and blasted towards the line.

After the finish I had a few minutes before the second race... the thought had crossed my mind to just have them take the $10 i paid for the second race and apply it to the next one i do in the future, but i ended up starting. Turned out to be more of a training ride for me :rolleyes: Next time I'm just doin' the "A" race... no more back-to-back races for me ;)

yeah, good work man, got a good workout in!

So how did it all end? I think nationals just wrapped up, correct?

umm...well the road race and crit are over, all i can tell you is that our (Colorado College) guys got 2,3 in the d II crit and the best placed cc guy was like 14th in the road race.