valygrl

NIce LAJ. I missed the racing last weekend, was in CA for work. Next weekend should be fun.

LAJ

Thanks valygrl. Stay healthy, and don't let anyone breathe on you.

shovelhd

It was beat the rain at The Rent training race night. We beat the rain, but I got crushed. A few laps in I found myself OTF with four others and a Cal Giant pro. I lasted two laps and was the first to drop when we were going 29mph into a 20mph headwind. A few laps later, and he was alone. He would lap me twice. I fell back into the field but of course everyone was attacking to try and catch him. I held my ground for a while, then went OTF with a few others. Took some good pulls, tried to recover but couldn't and went through the field and OTB. The field would lap me with 5 to go. I thought about pulling the plug but just decided to finish and sit up in the sprint.

revchuck 

Holy eff. That hurts to just read!

shovelhd

It was insane. I'm small and pretty aero and it took 750w just to hang on the back. The rest of the race was 600-650w every 15 seconds or so.

AzTallRider

You are a monster, Shovel.

shovelhd

My plan was to mark one of Aki's teammates, a Cat1 M40+, and he went with the pro. What I am finding with these races is that if the break is reasonable I can get a good workout but if it's crazy I blow up early and just riding around in the field isn't a good workout. Three weeks ago I was the aggressor. Last night I was the bug.

LAJ

Insane for sure. Well done, shovelhd.

IBOHUNT

Ouch! That's all beast mode.

sarals 

Holy crap. Okay, I know have the picture of exactly how strong you are. Forgive me if I EVER thought I could compare my performance to yours. My best sprint is 730 watts - I can do that maybe three times in an hour. Or, 600 - 650 watts could happen three times in an hour, and then someone would be calling 911. You ARE a beast!

sarals 

Here are the results for the 5/21 PCSD TT I did. Better time than I thought, but still near the bottom. I have a way to go, and I know that. I'm fine with that, and I'm fine with improving. Interesting are the "notes". "Steep" position (doh!) and "non-aero" front wheel (doh!). Like an aero front wheel was going to help.

Hermes

I would not last very long at 750 watts but spiky power is not that uncommon in fast races. At the track, a rotating pace line behind the motor will generate 500 watt plus surges with each rotation.

Here is a power profile from <gasp> a Cat 5 crit I did in 2010 where I was 9th of 50. There are a lot of power spikes above 600 watts and a lot depends on gearing at the time. At higher cadences, the power spikes are less but if I am in a bigger gear and have to put in a couple of hard pedal strokes, the power will spike. Also, I think SRM's are better at picking up high power spikes and I think it has to do with the technology and sampling rate. And of course wind changes everything and makes a race harder and if the speed is fast, the power is going to spike a lot. I see that at the track motor pacing on a windy day.

ShovelHD, Nice racing as always and you are the bomb. Keep it up!

shovelhd

It shows you just how strong a domestic pro is. He is getting ready for Nature Valley. What I think about is the 12-15 guys that were able to spit me off the back at the 30 minute point. It is a wake up call. I'm significantly older than them. Still, I don't want to be "that guy" who just gets in the way.

Thank you all for your kind words.

sarals 

I doubt you'll ever be "that guy". You are welcome, Shovel!

shovelhd

Oh yes I will. It's only a matter of time. Nice work on the TT Sara.

revchuck 

Sara - Looks like you're in the same ballpark as other women your age. Nice result!

Hermes

What is interesting is that technology may save you from that fate but WADA will not let you use it. I was born about 20 years too early to get the benefit of what future medical technology will yield. You are sort of in the middle and you may make it.

My wife is the drug development global queen and the stuff that is in the pipeline and new concepts are totally amazing. The problem is time. It takes immense amounts of time to prove efficacy and safety. The kids being born today may see extended life span with excellent quality of life.

Cleave

Hi all, thanks for the kind words about my TTT performance (or lack thereof ).

LAJ, nice job with your weekend races. I need to be fairly psyched to fight people for wheels. Out here and probably in Colorado, unless you're one of the strong guys, there are a bunch of Cat 3 types who are fighting to stay near the front, but not at the front. Unlike some of them, I really do have to go to work on Monday, so my inner voice will often say, "If it's that important to you..."

Good luck and race hard in your upcoming 55+ race.

sarals, nice result and interesting result sheet. I've never seen a promoter list the equipment and position of racers on the results sheet. I don't understand the 'position' descriptions as they only list steep and neutral. Is there a third descriptor for position?

Also, I saw that my "buddy" (Leonard) Harvey Nitz was in the race. I guess he's starting to race again.

shovelhd, it must have been a tough field and some really big efforts by you because I don't recall you ever writing about being OTB -- even in a mid-week race. 29 MPH into a 20 MPH headwind is crazy.

shovelhd

White Plains Criterium, M55+/M60+, hot, sunny, 5th place. I was up with the sun to head down to Westchester for one of my favorite races, a tight half mile downtown criterium with nice crowds. Warmups didn't go well but the power seemed to be there. There were a couple of guys that I knew would be aggressive, and they did not disappoint. I couldn't let either of them get away without me with them. We did get gaps several times but one of the M60+ riders kept dragging the field back up to us. We really needed a third rider. So it came down to the sprint and I just screwed up. I wasn't in the right position with 2 to go and I didn't fight hard enough to get there. I could make a ton of excuses but I won't. I just screwed up.

P/1/2/3, finished in the field. I was in no mood to crush myself so I rode around in the field with a few people I trusted. Got a good workout and enjoyed myself.

IBOHUNT

Hermes

ShovelHD, Yawza Yawza Yawza.

valygrl

Nice, shovel!

valygrl

Sonic Boom MW45+ 3rd/11 - but that doesn't tell the real story. I was dropped.

We raced with the MW 35+, 23 of us total. This was CO masters crit champs. L shaped course, with the final corner downhill to uphill, medium to narrow with 2 brick cross walks and some marked broken pavement. Uphill finish, uphill 2nd leg, then slightnly down, chicane, and a down hill into the nasty last corner.

The two races before mine had ambulance-requiring crashes in the last corner and I went into it scared and lacking confidence. I left too much space in that corner every time and had to chase back on every time. Made the initial split, but got spit out after the 2nd prime ramped the pace up and I couldn't keep doing the repeated accelarations. I was joined OTB with an ex team mate, we worked together the remainder of the race, gained some ground at one point (the pack must have sat up) and then re-lost it. She tried to shake me on the last uphill but I managed to stick to her, I had a sprint plan in place, but as we rounded the second to last corner we saw the marshals waving us to slow down - big crash on the exit of the last corner (where all the other ones had been). So my exTeamie and I ended up 2nd/3rd, 1st was in the crash but managed to get up and get to the finish line before us. I didn't even sprint, I was looking for downed-teamies.

Yuck.

revchuck 

shovel - Great result, even if not perfect.

valygrl - Heckuva way to podium, I know it's not the way you wanted to. Hope the other ladies were just scraped up a bit. 12 taken out by the crash, more than half the field?

valygrl

8 went down, 4 got up and finished. One went in the ambulance with a broken collarbone. The rest were walking around, I saw some road rash and some bandaged fingers. One gal got run over by another and had tire burn on her back and shoulder.

Definitely not how I want to podium, hope that goes without saying.