"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Helmet Cam - Keith Berger Crit, Cat 3s, East Hartford CT, June 27, 2010

I put this here as well as the ride video thread because the feedback is a bit different.

Cat 3 crit, about 50+ riders (53?), 4 corner, flat, slight wind. Three teammates (me, two others). We had a plan, I got a bit too rigid in following it, and we screwed up. We wanted to work for Cliff, who led me out at the last Bethel and helped me win the Series that day. The other guy is SOC who helped me throughout Bethel. We seem to trade off working for one another.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCQSH8JPYiA
Text here (http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2010/07/racing-2010-keith-berger-crit-june-27.html).

For reference sake, here's the Bethel video where Cliff helps me out with a strong leadout under a lot of pressure:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqrPW4FWyQg

cdr

I hate to see you get no comments so. I liked the video since it is much better than the traditional race report. Which camera are you using? Also, you need the dashboard software interface to display power and speed with the video. Then we could know how much you were suffering on the bridge to the solo break.:D

For a still-green 4 these videos are extremely instructive, thanks for posting.

For a still-green 4 these videos are extremely instructive, thanks for posting.

qft. thanks.

Were those mini-aero bars?

Btw I hope you guys have a crit with broken up roads and hard corners - that kind of course could get boring quickly it seems..

Nice vid though.

Were those mini-aero bars?

Btw I hope you guys have a crit with broken up roads and hard corners - that kind of course could get boring quickly it seems..

Nice vid though.

I think they are called cane creek speed bars

Re: comments, lol. I must have missed the comments here. Thanks for the comments :)

Cane Creek Speed bars, yes.

Bumpy crits - Harlem, Somerville, Naugatuck (which is bumpy and has a hard corner). I haven't finished Naugatuck though. As far as courses go, I prefer ones that end on a hill or have a hill before a fast finish. This course isn't great for me.

I already spend a lot of time on the videos so I'm putting off Dashware and the like for now. Part of the reason is my "suffering" is another one's "easy effort". When I bridge I may be going hard, but my 250-300w monster pulls would be laughable to many. My HR is also low - if I'm at 170 I'm just dying.

cdr

I'm amazed at these and the other vids you've posted that so many guys spend so much time on the hoods. I've never really looked around while I'm racing to notice, I spend 95-98% of my time in the drops and I have a pretty significant drop.

I'm amazed at these and the other vids you've posted that so many guys spend so much time on the hoods. I've never really looked around while I'm racing to notice, I spend 95-98% of my time in the drops and I have a pretty significant drop.

I have to admit that I'm shocked at some of the riders also. Lots of hoods. I simply don't understand it. I didn't pay much attention to it in this particular race's footage since there were no real crashes. I did notice in a race where I had no cam (it got wet the day before and was still drying out) that a few guys insisted on using the hoods and it looked like the front end of their bikes weren't being weighted enough - they'd go wide in the corners consistently.

To be fair, I was also shocked at Andy Schleck's poor descending in the Tour. I watched a non-decisive stage on Versus and Schleck was on the hoods down the descent, couldn't corner to save his life, and basically revealed a huge weakness. Contador, who I think was behind him, descended much better.

Yesterday on a group ride a guy was kinda sorta in the IAB position, elbows wider than normal, his fingers wrapped around his STI gear housing. We were on a really narrow, really bumpy, kind of steep descent. I'm a pretty aggressive descender and I stayed in my drops (instead of doing an all out tuck). I especially stayed in the drops when I realized that this guy wasn't even on his hoods.

cdr

CDR, are the Cane Creek speed bars legal? It strikes me that if you are in the speed bars you expose the handlebars to hooking problems. Clip on aeorbars are not permitted in mass start races. Clearly, you would not use them in the pack but.... I could certainly see someone having them and using them in the pack through turns. I have a set on the tandem for my stoker for time trials. They would be a significant advantage for bridging or solo breakaways or for a more realistic scenerio finishing a road race after being blown off the back:D.

Great video!
I am very new to this (one training race/ride) and I find the comments very informative.
But until this week I wouldn't have understood much of it. Very nice.