CG's Dalai. Nice BT Stealth

Healing thoughts for Colonelmom. Lots of ladies hitting the deck this year, what's up with that? Heal fast, CM!

Tom, fantastic!! Great racing. It seems to me you rode very smart. I don't think your fitness is an issue, that's for sure.

Daiai, terrific! Great photo, too!

Did I get the jersey? Nope.

Turlock Road Race, NCNCA Masters State Championship - Podium, 3rd.

Very small field, 5 total. 3 of us were 60-64, 2 were 65 and up. Warm to hot (82 degrees) and windy, 12 gusting 18 out of the NW. 23 miles, one lap. Here's my race.

After yakking about Social Security and Medicare while waiting for the whistle, the five of us rolled off and immediately started a fast paceline. I was feeling it, too, and I started to get a bit concerned about the amount of effort that I was using. However, I felt that as long as I could stay covered I'd be okay. I was just pulling through when we approached and rounded the first right turn, and I was in the wrong position. I had to scramble to get on after we rounded the turn, which was made harder by the fact that the group had made a pretty concerted acceleration off that corner. I was sort of dangling on the back (not where I wanted to be or feeling it like I did), when we hit the first "roller". This was a big one, and the grade was 8% or maybe better. I dug deep to stay attached going up, but the gal leading us up was a 24 hour endurance mountain bike racer, and that hill never slowed her down. The rest of the group stayed right with her, while I faded off the back. I got to the top, was full gas and max on heartrate, and no room left anywhere to bridge back up. So, old story, I watched them ride off and there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

The P 1/2's caught me not too long after that, and I tacked on to two stragglers off the back of that group for as long as I dared. That helped, and I got some recovery. I encountered a rider who had been shelled off of the 50-59 pack, thinking, good, someone to work with. After watching her for a few minutes, I decided I'd be better off alone, so I dropped her.

The course turned north on an arrow straight road that was dead into the wind and roller hell. I worked my butt off to remain respectable, and actually did pretty well (for me) through that section. I finally made the right turn towards the finish and crossed the line fifth in the group, but third in my age category. I backed into another podium.

Talking to the others after the race, I found out that the wind and the course had blown the group apart. The mountain bike gal won overall going away, two minutes or so ahead of everyone else. The gal from Reno won my age group. She's another endurance rider and she lives and trains at altitude. Second in my age group was a minute behind her.

Tough race for all!

Footnote:

These are not excuses, but observations, and some things I learned from talking to the other gals in my race afterwards. First, all of the other racers in my race had at least 20 years racing experience behind them. One had been racing continuously since she was 28, and she is now 65. All were life long athletes. All train at least 12 hours a week. All were smart and experienced, and very strong, definitely among the best in California in our age range. Me, I've been racing two full years, I'm in my third year. I've only been riding seriously for seven years. I've been an athlete for only seven years. I train only six hours a week.

Coach and I talked after the race. We agreed that I need to bump up my training time (I need more volume), so we're going to make that happen. I was clearly outclassed by all of the women in my race. I hung on, and that was all, I sure couldn't race with them. They're on another level entirely. I can get there, but it will take time and more work, and I'm up for that.

Never once did I think, while out on that course yesterday, all by myself, "why the **** am I doing this???!" Last year, I did - often. That's huge. I know I belong, and I know what I need to do.

Sara - Good race! You and I are in very much the same situation, and the only solution is to keep on keepin' on. :)

Thanks, Chuck! It was a HARD race, one of the hardest I've ever done, probably because I didn't give up on it. Keep on? Oh, yeah!

Very well done, @rapwithtom! I hadn't realized you wandered down there. Great stuff!

Holy cow, @Dalai Great finish to the season.

CX? Seriously? :) Do well.

You have to keep learning, Sara. It's a tough game, but between you and your coach, you'll grab the brass ring. Nice work!

Hey Sara, that was my week last week. I was a completely different rider this week. You will be, too.

Aetna New Britain M45+, low 30's, headwind sprint, 9th. After last week I was just looking for improvement. After a few laps I felt pretty good so I went with a few moves without the series leader that never stuck. I spent some energy marking him and shutting down a few of his moves. I also brought the field up to him twice. The sprint at the end was bizarre, with guys on the front sitting up 3x in the last kilometer. I wanted to try and lead gsteinb out but I could not get around the logjam. After the final turn the right side was open so I gunned it for the late leadout. Not really what I wanted to do but that's what was there. The good thing is that I felt great. Not on form, but not in the toilet either. I beat all of the M50+ guys, and at this point, that defines success.

Aetna New Britain P1/2/3, in the field. I was pretty tired after the first race but really wanted the work so I stuck it out. There were lots of breaks and attacks, some of which I was in but they weren't the right ones. Not that I belong in the right ones anyway. I focused on conserving energy, bike handling in close quarters, and staying away from the back. The bike handling of this field was much better than the Masters, which was refreshing. For the field sprint I just tried to go as hard as I could while staying out of the way. My legs were screaming when I jumped but that was the goal. I don't have results yet but I beat two of the strongest M50+ guys.

Awesome result and changed mindset too Sara. You do belong and will continue to make big improvements by training smart and racing smarter! :thumb:

Enjoying everyones race reports - great reading about the racing and scene over there!

Dalai, did I read your report correctly, did you win everything that day?

nice work shovel

Same to you.

meh. it's a simple sport. you cross the line first and your teammate's suffering is not in vein.

bringing reinforcements for round 4. gonna pull this rabbit out of the hat

http://prismreptilerobot.net/wp-cont...bullwinkle.jpg

I saw you shaking your head a couple of times in a "kids these days" way. I think most of it was the guy in the hockey helmet with the big elbows but I know I went wide and pushed you out on the bell lap at the turn where you were marshaling earlier. Sorry about that, I was trying to get onto the sheltered side to move up on the back stretch.

CX indeed. I like mixing it up - keeps things fresh and interesting.

Yes, though every year the numbers racing track at club level is getting less. :( Normally the points has been Elite only with Masters able to race with no separate category. Previous years I've managed a third and second in that behind ex pro Tom Leaper and some others including one who is racing the NRS (National Road Series). Unfortunately Tom was out this year after a big crash, plus there was an NRS race in Perth last weekend so ended up only having one U23 and one U19 club racer there plus a dozen masters on the day! At least the future is looking good with probably 40 juniors racing.

Still haven't been officially training, so down around 20% on max power from before last years crash! Will look at doing so once I get back from my 11 day 900km+ solo bikepacking trip (Adelaide to north of the Flinders ranges) along the Mawson trail I'm riding early May.

Jeff Cup RR, 35+/45+ 60 mi hilly RR, (10 mi laps, 6x). 2nd race this year, I was coming in with a hit to my confidence from last week where i was dropped out of a winning break, but know my legs are pretty good and this kind of race is more my thing. The race started pretty aggressively and I was without teammates to I had my marks and was going to be in moves that they were. Multiple times I was in good groups with separation from the pack but everyone was kind of looking at each other rather than working together so things kept coming back together. Other times, groups got up the road and were brought back.

With 2 to go, I was feeling good and the field was seeming pretty fresh so I was thinking last lap chaos or field sprint. I was sitting mid pack, put myself in proximity to a few guys who I thought to be among race favorites and conserving. Apparently, a group of 3 got off the front at that point. I didnt know it. big big error on my part. on the 2 to go lap several others leaked off the front, but my thinking was that these things have been brought back all day, and they never seemed to get that far out there so I sat tight. These "leakers" found each other, and I didnt appreciate the horsepower of that group. So now, there's like 11 people up the road, I thought that there were like 5 or 6. I also saw that one of the season long BAR contenders was in our group while his main competition was in front, so I thought he'd have his team chase. Error<s> compounded.

Going past the s/f line, which is also where the fz was, someone was shouting out 1 minute 25 seconds. I was like, no way, we can see the group in front (they were starting to pull away), they're way less than a minute. then someone from the team i thought would do some chasing told me that there were 3 in front of the group we could see and they were in it. ****. that means I read this thing all wrong. So, I went into "punish myself for missing the break mode" and attacked hard. Another guy (who'd been strong all day) came with me and we were rolling. We came to the one climb on the course, and crushed it. Over the top, a group of 4 including the guy I thought would win the race bridged to us and we went into hard breakaway mode with about 7 miles to the finish. We could see the group in front of us and kept drilling it, but some tired legs started prevailing and with about 2 k to go it became apparent we were gaining but running out of road so things became less cooperative and some of the guys started playing sprint games. I thought that kind of silly since we were going for 15th place or so, so I attacked when I hit the front and went as hard as I could. I provided a nice carrot to the 500M mark, then a nice leadout to the 400M mark where we could see the group in front of us crossing the line and my group started sprinting around me. I rolled across last out of that, but we successfully held off the main field.

Disappointing to have had good legs, but to have gotten the race read so wrong. I still dont know who won.

No issue at all with that, and on the bell lap, anything goes. It was about all the sitting up and braking and the guy that swept the front of the field. It's ok to do that but you have to get clear first.

Great stuff, everyone!

Shovel, I haven't been quite right since I got sick. Even so, there is a reason that people race for 20 years plus and keep going when they're 60+. They're really GOOD. I jumped into the deep end, but I know that now. Not going to deter me one bit.

Great attitude!

:thumb:

I asked the president of our LA, another Master's racer, when he started racing. He thought for a second, then replied, "During the Nixon Administration."

Wowzers. Those are the guys I like to ride with because you can observe a lot by just watching. ;)

Thanks for the write-up. I find these, as a new racer, very(!) informative.
Next time it's all you.