sarals 

Shovel, Cleave, Vance, Ex - great day of racing for you guys!

Shovel, I didn't know you did road races - I thought they were just for slow people

Ex - good luck tomorrow!!!

gsteinb

Crashed in my 45+ with two to go. Tangled bars. List skin in finger tips bummed. Was sure to win.
Stuck around for the 35. Late break gave me second from the field sprint got me fourth.

revchuck 

Glad to hear you got out of the crash with just skinned fingertips, and good job on the finish in the 35 race!

Allegheny Jet

Great racing once again everyone!

I raced a local circuit race on Sat. The 35+ and 45+ fields race together and scored seperately. We had a guy in an early break and I spent the first half of the race near the front riding tempo. (My Z4). With 7 laps to go there was a prime and all hell broke loose. One of our teams'35+ riders and two others went for the prime then the started pulling through. That ended the break and I went off the back over the next lap. We ended up taking 1 and 3 in the 45+ in spite of what our team mate did.

Cleave

AJ, I really do hate it when teammates do dumb things and yet the result is good. Kind of says that it's OK to chase down a teammate because the team will win anyway. Also, you have to stop racing with those young guys.

Cleave

Had the pleasure of racing with Hermes and Velo Diva in a 3 Km team pursuit. Third time that I've ever done one and I've enjoyed every one of them. I did a 2 Km individual pursuit after and I did my usual go too hard at the start routine. The last two laps my legs felt like lead and it felt like I was crawling. It was my slowest 2 Km IP ever on that track. Racer Ex tried to make me feel better by saying it felt like a slow day. Somewhat surprisingly, I saw VanceMac out there too. (There, I did it. I blew his cover.)

sarals 

Excellent, Cleave, excellent!

Ex, when are we going to get the race report from the road race (with Thurlow and the other gods)?

VanceMac

Yes, my deep cover that I go to the track occasionally. Ha. I thought all three of us did pretty well considering we all had a road race the day before. What's next on the Cleave Race Calendar?

shovelhd

Heal up. buddy. See you at Orchard Beach.

gsteinb

thanks. spun the rollers this morning. I don't feel too bad. some aches and pains, but crap I usually have aches and pains on monday anyway.

valygrl

Dupe from the 33

Deer Trail SW4, 7th/24 finishers

tl;dr: I'm an idiot (because i didn't stick to plan, and not sticking to it was the beginning of the end for the podium)

Same place as last year, very different race. I was in the lead pack most of the race. Weird race, it started out VERY slow and then a few people, me included sped it up a bit. My goal before the race was to try to be patient and not launch anything, thinking I was not the strong one in the group, but rather follow wheels and save myself to go with the break when it happened. Well, the break never happened, and I totally failed in my mission to stay out of the wind. I attacked several times in the first hour or so, hoping either to make it harder and whittle the pack down, or even better maybe someone would go with me, but ever time I did it i found myself danging out in front of the pack by myself, and sat up. Maybe I should have committed to staying out there longer, hoping someone would bridge? At one point, 2 strong women had a small gap on the field, I bridged and said 'we have a gap do you want to work together' and they said 'oh we have a gap? yes' but then didn't really work very hard and we got caught.

Eventually I ran out of matches and fell off the pack on a climb, and then TT'd in the rest of the way, passing one of the other gals who was dropped on the same hill as me on the way.

7th, 2 minutes back.

So, someone tell me how to start a break?

sarals 

Valygrl, great report! Strong work, strong ride - you're obviously fit and strong. I can't comment on tactics, but from you said, they seemed solid enough, but maybe not quite nuanced enough. The podium will come, no question there. Excellent race, girl!

sarals 

Gary, I thought that was just me...

Glad you're okay.

Racer Ex 

Go OTF and hope someone comes up or make a deal with someone before the race to take a flyer together...

Racer Ex 

Saturday San Luis Rey RR: 4 laps on what what's an out and back course starting on top of a hill. 2.5 mile climb on the return leg then a short flat/down run in to the finish. Plan was for me and a teammate to be the protected riders and for everyone else to either shake things up or not let others shake things up. A lot of attacking and chasing. Third time up the hill I could tell I wasn't on a good day and we had a lot of people still with us, so I let our other "A" rider know my legs weren't great and went to work attacking. Several short breaks got shut down (you could here the alarm bells) until another teammate took off solo.

What I figured would happen happened and Thurlow and another super strong rider took off at the turn around. I waited for a clear shot then took off after them, figuring we'd have a nice 2 on 1/1. I was closing in nicely when they saw me coming and Thurlow came around and drilled it hard and I started to lose ground. At that point I knew I wasn't going to make it. Big M saw this and came to the front and shut down the break; while we had a guy up there he was going to get blown out and we wanted to have a shot at the win. I slipped back in near the front of the field.

When the catch was made I countered and got a pretty nice gap. I had been out for 6 minutes (SRM data helps my lactic infused memory) when another rider joined me at the base of the climb. We got caught with around 1.2 miles to go, but the chase fried a bunch of the big dawgs including I was told Thurlow. Unfortunately our "A" guy slipped up and didn't chuck it into the big ring at the top of the hill and got blown out in the sprint. Oh well. I strolled in at the back.

Pretty hard day looking at the file, some big numbers going up the climb.

Sunday I did the Team Sprint with Vance and big "M" (needs work), the 500m (stinker), the 3 man 3k Team Pursuit with Vance and "M" (shows great potential, we went 3:40 at much less than full gas) the 2k (decent, think I won), and the 4k (ouch, won against MEA and the guy who always enters this and never shows up).

My legs are sore.

gsteinb

One of a smattering of higher priority team races. 110 bodies. All watching me on the sprint. I was watching one guy and he ground the lead out down. No one took charge. Second. Lost the chess match when someone got the jump on me. Bummed, but it's a five race series so I'm positioned good.

AzTallRider

Beats getting fired, and is a finish most of us wouldn't be bummed about, so way to go.

Cleave

gsteinb, since when has being the marked guy in a race stopped you from winning? As AzTR noted, 2nd would be the highlight of my year.

tl;dr: Speaking of second, that's what I got at today's L.A. Sheriff's Athletic Association TT. My teammate beat me.



The course was the last 4.1 miles of the San Gabriel River bike trail (MUP). It wasn't closed for the race and when my teammate and I rode the course to warm up, it was obvious that there was going to be a lot of people on the trail enjoying the good weather that's supposed to end today. For those of you who have never seen a SoCal river, they are kind of amazing. The original rivers have been lined with cement to serve as flood control channels instead of being rivers with native habitats. All of the major rivers also have paved MUPs. Some of these paths are over 30 miles long from end-to-end.

Maybe I was making excuses before the race (OK, I was), but I said to my teammate that I was going to have a hard time doing an all out TT with all of these people out there. Also, my teammate (who works for the Sheriff's as a photographer) and I were the only "racers" in this event. There was another guy on a TT bike and some other triathlete kind of guy on a road bike. A couple of real Sheriffs were on mountain bikes. Just to repeat a prior post, I was doing this because my teammate (and friend) asked me to go. It really was a bit embarrassing to be at this event with my TT bike and TT wheels.

The race was run better than some local USAC TTs. We had this weird timing device that had a self adhesive so that it could attach to your helmet. It seemed to work well.

The course was slightly uphill on the way out and I was regularly yelling, "On your left." Also the turnaround was just the width of the MUP so there was no way to get turned around without coming to almost a complete standstill -- unless you were on a mountain bike, then you could go off on the dirt on either side of the path. Heading back I was flying and then going through an underpass with a slight left-hand bend, there was this guy pulling a kid trailer and the trailer was halfway into my lane. After a handful of brakes and almost running out of path on my right, I definitely lost a little impetus to go fast to the finish.

So my teammate and I were 1st and 2nd in the Grand Master category (50+) and we had the two fastest times of the day. No real surprise there. He beat me by about 30 seconds. I figured that I should have gone under 20 minutes but I missed that by 57 seconds. I'm pretty sure that with a closed path I would have achieved my modest goal.

Regardless, it was a nice event and everyone was very friendly and supportive of each other. A bit like the Senior Games.

caloso

I can do you one better. I got second AND I crashed.

Golden State Race Series, E3 crit. Our 19-year old soon to be Cat 2 was in a 3 man break but they got caught with about 3/4 of a lap to go. Everyone lets up. And one guy goes from way out. I happened to be moving up on the windward side hoping to take a teammate to the front, but he misses my wheel so now I am on the front chasing the escapee. I have a gap, it's probably 5-600 m to the line. Holy crap, it's go or no go. I decide to put my head down and go.

When I get to the last corner I realize I am not going to catch the winner; the only question now is whether I am going to be able to hold off the pack. I put my head down and beg my legs to turn over. That line doesn't seem to be getting any closer. I get out of the saddle and sprint. I am seeing stars.

I cross the line and in my peripheral vision I see a wheel. Oh man, did I just get pipped a place? I sit up, then I feel a body shoulder brush mine. As he goes by, I feel myself falling and I go down hard on my right side. Broken helmet, torn kit, broken RD hanger, and lots of road rash, but I held on to second.

I don't know if I came off my line after crossing or whether the guy veered into me. I think it may have been partially my fault when I relaxed and sat up after crossing.

Well, in any event, it's my best result of the season. He'll, it's my best result since turning 3. And I will have the 19 year old riding for me tomorrow.

chasm54

Three second places? very nice. Heal up, Caloso, and make sure the 19 year-old gives you everything he's got.

gsteinb

I know you're winky facing, but there's probably a learning situation here. It wasn't really that I was marked that was the issue, but that I'm much better sprinting from speed. If we come in at 30+ not many guys are coming around me once I jump. This slowed down. The reason it slowed down was the most aggressive guy in the race, another NJ 1 got himself stuck up front (being too aggressive). I wasn't helping him get out of it, as I figured if anyone might beat me there it was him. So he rotted in the two hole, while the guy on the front died and began the lose steam.

Part of the issue is my team was largely MIA. I'm not really sure why but most of the guys were lost in the 110 man field. My one teammate who worked the pointy end with me the whole race simply misunderstood something. My best bud rides on another team, and usually he's my personal lead out guy. But in this situation he had a full contingent in the race and was obligated to be a team player (he helps run the very large team and coaches their 4s and 5s). I got that, but didn't communicate it to my teammate. So my teammate came up in the last couple of Ks, saw my buddy was there and backed off. So when the lead out slowed down, and the sprint became tactical it put me in probably one of the few situations I lose that bunch sprint. It was old west, center of the street, high noon. The other guy drew first and I took one in the chest.

Despite sprinting for every KOM and Sprint jersey point in the race, and riding most of it sitting in the two hole aggressive NJ 1 walked away with nothing. I was sorta surprised by that. Not chasing the intermediate stuff, from my vantage point I thought he was collecting jerseys on the road.

revchuck 

+1! Caloso, hope your backup bike works as well as the primary, or at least that you were able to put your hands on the spare RD hanger. I know I've got one...somewhere...

VanceMac

Good stuff, Coloso, Gstein, and Cleave!

Friday Night Racing, typical omnium, great turnout. Coming off a down week, I felt a bit sluggish... or maybe just the case of an old man trying to keep up with some explosive teenagers. No matter, omniums are always fun. Miss-n-Out: 3rd. Scratch: 5th. Points: not sure, took one of four sprints.

shovelhd

Crashed. Hospital. Shoulder. Hoping it is not broken. Don't think so but gotta check. Other guy is not good. Came around him in the right and he swerved into me. I bumped him with my left arm and he freaked. Hooked bars. Could not extract. Landed on my right shoulder in the grass. Only the second lap. Dammit.

chasm54

Oh, ****. Hope it turns out to be minor, Shovel.