"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - 39.06 seconds of pure joy...

No, I'm not talking about my first love experience. I'm talking about today's Wake County Speedway Class C criterium. Coming out of (not into) turn 4 some guy apparently decided to hit the brakes (???) and took out about 10 people in his wake. I was able to slow down enough that I thought I'd avoid the carnage but in the end I could not avoid it and went down. I was fine but the big chainring was bent and so my day was done.

There was another accident later in this same spot so maybe the guy hit his brakes due to slippage or something. The "Crash 5s" lived up to their reputation today, although it looked from the sidelines like a great race other than the crashes. A couple of guys lapped the field and there would have been plenty of opportunities to work a break with Snuffleupagus and/or others today. Bummer.

The numbers (ha ha ha):

Time: 39.06 seconds
Distance: 0.205 miles
Ave power: 288 watts
Ave speed: 19.8 mph

At least I can laugh about it, I guess. And it counts just as much as a win toward being able to race in Masters events ;)

Noah, if you read this I'd love to know what your power/speed numbers were during your attempted solo bridge. Man o man I would have loved to help out with that. Those FSC guys irritate me for some reason.

--Steve

Noah, if you read this I'd love to know what your power/speed numbers were during your attempted solo bridge. Man o man I would have loved to help out with that. Those FSC guys irritate me for some reason.

--Steve

Hey man, I'm not exactly sure where I tried that bridge :lol: I could see the back of the field, but I was at the point where I was so knackered that I had to back it off.

If I'm picking the right segment of data it was about 11 minutes at 323 av watts, 24.7mph avs, 175bpm avg.

Sorry about your crash. Are you feeling alright? That race was freakin' brutal. There were a ton of crashes in the 4/5 race.

Dude, those are some impressive numbers. Can you upload the graph? :D

Sorry to hear about your crash, though, and I'm glad it was just a chainring. You'll live to fight another day. :beer:

Man sketchiness abounds these days! Here's to you at least leaving unscathed!

Are you feeling alright?

Yeah, I'm fine. One very small scrape on the forearm is all.

--Steve

sucks to hear you were not able to finish the race today, hopes for the greenvile series?

I should have stayed with that early break but I thought they were going to get caught so I sat up and joined the field, big mistake, seeing how they ended up lapping the field.

Can anbody confirm that there were cat 3s in the c race? a teamate of mine talked to someone in the corwd who raced last week who said theyre were cat 3s in the c race.

Can anbody confirm that there were cat 3s in the c race? a teamate of mine talked to someone in the corwd who raced last week who said theyre were cat 3s in the c race.

Dunno - here is a shapshot of the results, see if you recognize any names:

Can anbody confirm that there were cat 3s in the c race? a teamate of mine talked to someone in the corwd who raced last week who said theyre were cat 3s in the c race.

^^Stuff like that is one of the main reasons I was happy to upgrade to the 4's.

^^Stuff like that is one of the main reasons I was happy to upgrade to the 4's.

I get that. But let me ask you this... I noticed that the Trade Zone series has a "Beginner 5" race and a 3-4-5 race. What's up with that? Can a Cat5 guy race in both or is the Beginner 5 only for first time guys? And if the Beginning 5 race is only for first timers, what exactly is the advantage to upgrading to a 4? You're still in a huge field with guys anywhere from 3s who will soon be 2s to Cat 5 guys who are in only their 2nd race ever. That seems freaking CRAZY.

--Steve

I get that. But let me ask you this... I noticed that the Trade Zone series has a "Beginner 5" race and a 3-4-5 race. What's up with that? Can a Cat5 guy race in both or is the Beginner 5 only for first time guys? And if the Beginning 5 race is only for first timers, what exactly is the advantage to upgrading to a 4? You're still in a huge field with guys anywhere from 3s who will soon be 2s to Cat 5 guys who are in only their 2nd race ever. That seems freaking CRAZY.

--Steve

Yeah, I'm not 100% sure how that works. I can only assume that the pack will split itself, and the true squirrels will be quickly weeded out. I didn't do the Tradezone series last year, so we'll see. It's not known for its carnage or anything...

So if I understand the description and results correctly, two FSC guys lapped the field ...

... and then the newbie cat5 (Keith) decided to beat the pretty young junior (Kord) for the win.

Hmm .... maybe it was all cool between them, but it does make me wonder ...

Edit: sucks about the crash. IMHE, that *is* one difference in crashes b/w the 5s and 3/4s. I don't see the kind of multi-bike pileups in the 4s or 3s like would happen occasionally in the 5s.