"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Race #8 - Deer Park - Mt Sterling, Ohio

This day started out differently than most race days. I was actually able to sleep in until 6:30. This was sort of ruined by the fact that the time changed the same day which actually stripped the extra hour of sleep right out from under me.

When I got out of bed I basicly felt like crap. My shoulder was bothering me, my knees were bothering me and most noticeably my quads were trying to cramp up. I was very tempted to just go back to bed, I already knew this wasn't going to be a good day. I went ahead and got up, wished the wife a happy birthday and then started getting ready. I fixed my oatmeal, made my egg sandwiches for the road and then waited for my co-horts to show up, Amy and Billy.

We load up the car and get started. Other than the bird that committed suicide on the grill of the car (leaving feathers on Amy's new bike) it was a pretty uneventful drive, we didn't even get lost this time. We arrived at the race around 10:20 and registered before the line formed.

About this time we also noticed that it was nowhere close to the 70 degrees the genius weather people had predicted. It was closer to 45 or 50. That wasn't good since I had packed rather light for this trip. Luckily I did accidentally pack my leg warmers, I'm not sure why but I did. I also had some cool primal wear arm warmers that I was able to bum from Billy. He also hooked me up with a base layer. In the future I will remember how much better it is to overpack than underpack.

Anyway, on to the race. I was a bit nervous this time since this was my first race with the Cat 4's. I wasn't real sure what to expect. I just lined up towards the back. I wanted to stay safe, I've heard way too many stories about the new guy "thinking" he was fast and either getting dropped or causing a huge crash. I didn't want to be that guy.

I didn't have any teammates in this race but I did have some friends that I have met over the past few weeks who were very helpful and friendly. This race consisted of four 12 mile laps, total of 47 miles (first lap was a mile shorter than the rest). The first three laps I just stayed at the back out of trouble and trying to keep an eye on the other racers to see who was who. On the fourth lap I started trying to move up a little. It seemed like I would spend ten minutes working my way up then within a minute I was right back at the rear of the pack. I spent a lot of time trying to work my way into the group but it just wasn't going to happen. That is until a member of the 7 Hills racing let me in. If he hadn't done that I'm sure I would have drifted right back to the rear.

With about three miles to go things started getting a little hectic. At one point I had two riders from one team decide to squeeze me a little. One on each side of me and they both came in on me with their knees hitting my hands which were on the hoods, that was a little exciting. Other than that it was a pretty sane race. About 1/2 mile to go everyone kind of got in position, I wasn't one of them. It seemed like I couldn't do much of anything. I finally got behind the Saturn of Dayton team and just hoped they would clear the way since there was around ten of them. About that time everyone took off. I went as well but a bit too late. I didn't catch a wheel so I was on my own.

I believe I may have ended up with a top 20, I won't know for sure until the results are posted. Overall I consider it a success. I didn't crash, I didn't bonk, I didn't cause any crashes and I didn't come in last. For my first race with the cat 4's I can live with that. Hopefully things do get better though.

Can't wait until next week.

Cool - how much faster were the Cat 4's vs. the Cat 5's you raced in prior? You notice any difference in tactics or attitudes of the other riders?

Can't wait until next week.
Me either...I am loving your in depth race reports...keep them coming.

One thing of note (and I made a post earlier about this that got lost in this crappy server some place) it seems like there are plenty of lessons to be learned for newish racers...like you with the underpacking. One I learned from a racer at the PSU cycling event this weekend was always have a replacement for that replaceable derailleur hanger. Most bikes have one specific to their brand and if there isn't a local shop that carries your bike you are screwed if you bend yours.

Sounds like a solid race man, and I'll echo the question regarding percieved differences between the 4 and 5 fields.

Hey LowCel, do you think you had a "bad" race because of the way you felt earlier, or was the 4 race just more difficult?

I was there for the 5 race. I'll try to post a report later tonight.

I just read my post again, I'm in no way making excuses for my performance based on the way I felt in the morning. I felt alright during the race, just not spectacular. The intensity was a little higher in this race, not a whole lot. We averaged 22 mph for 47 miles, I was told the 5's averaged about 20.5 or so for 35 miles. Not a huge difference. What I noticed most was that the racers seemed much more aggressive in the fours. That is my biggest downfall, I'm not aggressive enough. I need to work more on that, it seems like bullying your way around is sort of important.

Well just to keep this in mind, generally as categories increase, average speed doesn't jump too too much (maybe from 3 to 2/1 even then, I've only noticed big jumps when NRC guys are apparent). Its the attacks. When the hammer goes down at a higher level they are faster, harder and more often. If you can find there's an interesting power comparison of Adam Hodges Myerson [pro] and a masters rider over the same course, the wattage averages are relatively similar, but the maxes, and the number of times Myerson maxes are very different. Just need more intervals ;)

Interesting....My average speed was over 22 mph. It was a steady pace, but nobody was really working to drop people.

Here's my report:

I haven't raced for a couple weeks and school has been frustrating me lately, so I was ready to go. I got there pretty early and got a good warmup in. I usually quit warming up at least 20 minutes before the race, but the parking lot was so big and empty that a lot of us just kept doing laps up until start time. Of course when you're a 5 none of that matters because you have to stand around for a while anyway, but it made me feel good at the time. I think I was lined up next to your friend, Billy. I didn't talk to him (he was talking to someone else), but he seemed like a nice guy.

Anyway, we did 3 laps, and the first 2 were pretty uneventful. The pace was steady and nobody was attacking. I felt a sprint coming, but I didn't really want that to happen. The one hill the course had was sort of stuck in the middle, so it wasn't really a factor. I did notice that people were taking a little bit of time to recover after the hill though, so I decided that I'd attack after the hill on the last lap and try to get some people to come with me so we could drop a few people who were tired from the hill. Basically I wanted to spark a break. Well, I wasn't in good enough position for that, but not much later I was towards the front and I figured what the heck, I'd go anyway. Maybe I'd spark a break anyway. Well, people chased, and I'm not sure how many came with me. All I saw was the tire behind my back wheel, and whoever was back there wasn't interested in coming up and taking a pull, so I just gave up on the idea because it was windy and it wasn't smart to be up front like that.

That was a pretty dumb move, but I still had plenty of time to recover. I had a hard time fighting myself back into the peloton, so I pretty much wasted that position I gained on the hill. No big deal, though. I worked myself back towards the front in time for the final stretch.

Here's where things get dumber. I completely misjudged where the finish was. At what I thought was something like 1k to go some guy attacked and was building up a nice gap, so I went and grabbed his wheel thinking I'd suck it until I could see the line. Well, it turns out that the finish was way too far away, and somehow I ended up at the front around the real 1k mark. I didn't want to be up front because that would pretty much set me up to be the leadout man, so I slowed down. Nobody wanted to come around, which was a good move on their part. Eventually I slowed enough that people went around. Yet again I had a hard time getting back in the peloton in good position, though. I was probably in the 15-20 range at that point. That's when the guys towards the front took off, and I was ready for it, so I followed. At this point I was probably in the top 10 range. Then the sprint came and I felt pretty good, but I wasn't in good enough position to fight for top 5. I have a feeling I was in the top 10, but my attention was focused to my left, so I may have missed some guys on the right.

Overall it was sort of a mixed bag. On the bad side, I made some dumb moves and I really need to work on my cornering. On the good side, I recovered well from those mistakes. Also, this was my first sprint finish (so far I've either been in failed breaks, missed the important break, or too far back in the peloton to worry about it) and I was a little surprised that I wasn't blown away by the sprint. I'm not a sprinter by any stretch of the imagination. Then again, it's just Cat 5 and maybe people were having a bad day. Back on the bad side, the fact that I wasn't totally overwhelmed by the sprint means that my mistakes look even dumber in hindsight. Instead of trying to start a break I should have used my good position and saved my energy.

I should learn from this, but I have a love affair with breaks.

EDIT: Results are posted. I ended up with 7th place.

Sounds like the races were pretty similar. I was just going by an average speed for the 5's that someone told me at the finish. Not even sure who it was. The results have me listed as finishing 22nd, guess I didn't make top 20 afterall. :( There's always next time.

turns out i was right behind you with 8th. Fun race, Finally a flat one. I was pretty warn out from malibar farms the day before. I think i averaged 22.5 over the race. At one point the guys up front had us going 30+ when we were in the tailwind; seemed to filter the pack out. Just glad i made it the whole race without a flat.

Sounds like a solid race man, and I'll echo the question regarding percieved differences between the 4 and 5 fields.

I drove a wheel truck for a few road races here in Florida a couple weeks ago. It's a great position from which to observe tactics and the ebbs and flows of racing, but most significantly a great position to compare average and max speeds. Here's what I observed:

1. Masters 55+: average cruising speed 24 mph. Sometimes ebbing to 20 mph, sometimes spiking to 27 mph.

2. Cat. 4: average cruising speed 26 mph. Sometimes ebbing to 23 mph, sometimes spiking to 30 mph.

3. Pro/1/2: average cruising speed 31 mph. Sometimes ebbing to 26 mph, sometimes spiking to 39 mph.

This was a flat course, 7 mile lap, with 2 sharp corners. 75 degrees. 8--12 mph winds.

Bob

I did the cat 5 race and it was a blast! We averaged around 22.6. The course was pretty nice until we hit that road with holes in it.This was my first race with OVR and I liked how they used the transponders to get more accurate results. Overall it was a great race and the weather wasn't to bad when it started to warm up a bit.


snoboard2 are you on savage hill?

I check this forum weekly and was rewarded this week with an especially interesting episode in the saga of LowCel. LowCel, I hope you keep up these race reports over the entire season!

When I was reading LowCel's description of the CAT 4 race and DXchulo account of the CAT 5 race, it made me wonder what the PowerTap files for the two races would look like. There was at least one PowerTap hub in the CAT 5 race. How about the CAT 4 race? Anybody willing to post his files?

If we could look at the PowerTap files for the two races I think it would be interesting to look at the break that DXchulo initiated at the top of the hill in the 3rd lap of the CAT5 race. DXchulo, you called this a "dumb move", but I recall this as the decisive point in the race. When you stepped up the pace after we topped the hill substantial gaps were opening up between riders ahead of me. It looked like at any moment I was going to have to swing out to pass tiring riders and it was going to take a major effort that I might not have in me to reattach to the front group of riders that you were pulling. So, your so called "dumb move" created one of the most memorable moments in the race for me. If a few riders had joined your effort to keep the pace high then…………………............. DXchulo, thinking about the quote in your signature file, it is this part of the race that lives on and keeps playing over and over in my head and I bet yours too. Isn't riding great??

So it would be neat to see a PowerTap file to see if this was the toughest surge of the race and to see how the duration and power requirements of this surge compared with the duration and power requirements of the surges that LowCel encountered in the CAT 4 race.

Thanks LowCel and DXchulo for the race reports. I'm looking forward to riding in and reading about the next episode!

Now I really wish I would have kept my powertap on the bike for this race. I don't think the deep Spinergy wheels really helped me in this race anyway.

As for the race reports there may not be any for a little while. I'm thinking about taking a weekend or two off before mountain bike season begins. The first race is April 23 and I haven't spent nearly enough time on my mountain bikes this year, only three rides. I think that taking a small break from racing will help me out as well.

What I was refering to:
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/rechung/wattage/

As for the race reports there may not be any for a little while. I'm thinking about taking a weekend or two off before mountain bike season begins. The first race is April 23 and I haven't spent nearly enough time on my mountain bikes this year, only three rides. I think that taking a small break from racing will help me out as well.

Aw man....hopefully you miss it and figure out you like road racing better :D

Aw man....hopefully you miss it and figure out you like road racing better :D

Honestly don't see that happening. Never know though. I really enjoy road racing but I enjoy mountain bike racing quite a bit more. It's much less stressful. On top of that in mountain biking the strongest rider generally wins.

Honestly don't see that happening. Never know though. I really enjoy road racing but I enjoy mountain bike racing quite a bit more. It's much less stressful. On top of that in mountain biking the strongest rider generally wins.

Yeah, pretty much. I like mountain biking and all, but I just happen to suck at it.....I always seem to look where I DON'T want to go, and well, ya know what happens then.....