SteveM

Second Race of the Season. McDowell Mountain Circuit Race. This was my favorite race last year even, though course is harder for me. 1.6mi loop with a 0.6mi "climb"(1%ave some 4% spots).
I was nervous going in since my overall fitness is lower than last year due to back and knee issues. I did the SM50+ and MM40+ both cats 1-5. Both 40 min with a 30min break in between.
Both of these races, had some very strong riders in them and were hard efforts.


SM50+ was first. I started off with my usual race strategy, which is start in the front third of pack and do what I need to stay there. That lasted for about half the race then I just could not hold on anymore.
I rode 5 laps solo. I ended up being lapped by leaders and caught by the pack on the final stretch. I moved out of the way as to not impact their sprint. ended up 22(DFL finisher)/27. FWIW, I had many people say that was the
hardest 50+ race they have done. Sad part for me was that both the lap and "climb" times were not as fast as the Cat4 race I did last year and was able to stay in the pack then.


Second race MM40+. This one had even more heavy hitters in it. I was basically hanging on to the back for the first few laps, then pop. Did 5 more solo laps. I was passed by leaders then pack with a couple to go.
I and another rider were pulled right before my last lap due to event running behind time. Not sure whether they are giving me a place or DNF. Matters not DNF is better than a DNS, which I had considered.
Lap and "climb" times in this race were pretty much on par with my Cat4 race from last year.


All-in-all it was a beautiful day, I stayed upright with all skin in tact and got a great workout in. Hopefull I will have better fitness next year and have a better result.

revchuck 

Steve - Good report! BTW, what's "SM" in this context? I'm guessing you weren't referring to "S&M", though it sounded like the race might've been an exercise in that.

SteveM

@revchuck, Thanks. In the context of the guy who won it would be Super Man(100+ miles for day including 2 races). For the rest of us mere mortals it would be Senior Men. Senior Men's races usually include Cats 1-5. Masters Races are usually Cat's 1-4 or 1-3 in some events. This event allowed cat5's in the MM as well.

revchuck 

Steve - Got it, thanks. 100+ miles including two races, sheesh! Glad he doesn't race here.

shovelhd

Senior is usually 18-29 which is not Masters, hence the confusion. Another mistake I see is people racing Masters as a Cat5. There is no such thing. Masters is Cat1-4. That is age grouped Cat5.

Hermes

Nice SteveM.

Cleave

SteveM, IMHO being there and trying is 99% of the battle. Great job!

A bit late on my weekend race report.

Roger Millikan Memorial Criterium
Masters 55+ 1/2/3/4/5 & Masters 60+ 1/2/3/4
30th out of 32 finishers in 55+. 28 60+ guys finished in the combined field. I'm sure I beat at least one of them. This is NOT my favorite course but I figured I needed some race miles (racing is the best training) before Valley of the Sun. The organizers seem to alternate between two different courses that are very close to each other. Also, Roger Millikan was a friend and I was very happy to see his wife at the race.

No problems hanging in and I was generally able to stay in the first third of the pack. Ventured into the first 20 a couple of times but in the final laps melee I filtered towards the back and did not sprint for lower placings. Turns out one of the fast guys got hit from behind by someone (from what I heard) who was sprinting for a lower placing.

Masters 50+ 1/2/3/4
78th out of 82 finishers. Did my typical 2nd race for training and to keep two other teammates company. Started feeling tired towards the end but decided to gut it out. A few laps from the end I got caught on a bad line in turn 3 and hit the manhole cover bump. Held my line but got "freight trained" on both sides coming out of the corner. Was tail gunning after that and had to close some gaps with 2-to-go to keep from getting dropped and to keep from being DFL. Managed to stay on and roll across ahead of a couple of people.

Dalai

Impressive Cleave!

Last weekend I couldn't make our clubs regular Saturday afternoon track meet, so drove 1 1/4 hours east of Melbourne to a country track carnival held on the Sunday. We are blessed in Australia that nearly every country town has a velodrome of sorts, though the length and style can vary somewhat from the short and steep to the long and flat... The Bob Whitford track is one of the later; 500m of lightly bank ashphalt around the outside of an athletics track!



Fortunately we had a cool change the day prior, so although windy it wasn't hot!

Not a huge field (in fact the organiser was close to having to pull the pin due to the lack of entries) so first race of the day was a scratch race with all the seniors. Given the abilities ranging from the slow to U19 National Team sprint champion, the field split relatively early. So my concerns about the different abilities in close proximity was unfounded and I could just focus on the race at hand...

Riding well I unfortunately got rolled right on the line into forth and just out of the money. Next race I qualified for the A Keirin final but didn't have enough kick at the end; well out of the places I shut down and rolled over in last. Just out of the money again in the 1000m handicap, boxed in during the elimination and just couldn't squeeze through so out early there! The main event - 2000m Bob Whitford Memorial Handicap Wheelrace paid down to forth and you guessed it I came 5th.

One last race chance to take home some money was my favourite event, a 10km motorpace. Only way I'd have a chance with my slowly improving fitness was to go the bigger gears, so with 51*14 fitted I rolled slowly off the line. The pace gradually picked up though fluctuated greatly on each lap as the scooter suffered into the strong headwind coming into the finishing straight. Pace was on for the final laps, a number of riders were shed and to be honest I was chewing my stem just to hold the wheel in front in the last few laps. I was sitting 3rd wheel on the U19 champs wheel as the bike pulled off. I tried to catch him off guard down the back straight but he wasn't having a bar of this and kicked as well. When he did I just couldn't hang on, and although I did pass the front rider I myself got rolled and crossed the line in 3rd and in the money finally! Only enough to cover my entry, so not retiring from work just yet.

shovelhd

Beautiful women, beaches everywhere, and a velodrome in every town. I need to retire in Australia.

Hermes

For a moment, I thought you were describing SoCal.

Hermes

Cleave and Dalai, Liked the reports and effort. Winning money is excellent and contrasting bike racing to hookers where you never get your entry fee back.

happybday29475

Track newbie here. First post about track. I'm taking the classes at the new Boulder Valley Velodrome. Second class was today.

Since this is the race report thread:

Practice race: 8 laps of the 250m track. 6 other newbies. The 15 year old couldn't contain himself and attacked at lap 4. Two of us easily hopped on his wheel. When the kid faded the other dude happily took the lead. He faded and pulled up track and out of my way with 1 to go, like he thought he was leading me out. Thank you very much. I'm career 1 for 1 and thinking about retiring.

Standing starts 250m. 23.5". Totally fun. Yes I know the world record is 16" for 400m.

I started the day with some trepidation but finished it with a big grin.

Infinitely more fun than a hill climb and almost as much fun as CX. Hooked.

revchuck 

rwt - Good report! A win is a win. I wish a velodrome were closer to me; I'm mid-way between Houston and Baton Rouge, about three hours in either direction. If one were somewhat closer I'd be really interested.

Dalai

Upside all the above! I have 5 velodromes within 15km from home with two being 250m indoor timber tracks - though one is in a multi use venue and only used for World cups and a few other bigger races...

Downside is we have many of the most poisonous spiders, snakes and other creatures. Makes MTBing fun during summer where every stick on the path could be a tiger, brown or red belly black snake.

shovelhd

Yah but everybody carries a sawed-off so no worries.

AzTallRider

Would love to live in Queensland.

shovelhd

Awesome surfing, except for the sharks. #sawedoff

AzTallRider

One of the best trips I've taken was to photograph Tiger Sharks in the Coral Sea and Far North Barrier Great Reef, leaving from Cairns. Spectacular. Focus was turtle mating and nesting areas, like Raine Island. Didn't achieve my goal of getting a shot of a Tiger Shark eating mating sea turtles, but other than that, it was amazing. That trip is why I have a Tiger Shark tattoo on my arm. But my Tiger Shark story pales in comparison to what Ex can relate about getting personal with a Mako.

Hermes

Man.... I thought I was the only one who knew the Mako story.

LAJ

@SteveM, excellent report.

Very nice, @Cleave!

Very cool, @Dalai. @Hermes contrasting quip is excellent.

@rapwithtom dipping his toe in another discipline. Well done! Retirement is not an option.

Hitting myself on the head with a hammer is more fun than a hillclimb, to be honest.

sarals 

Nope. I was at lunch with Ex and AzT last year and heard the Mako story. And, some other amazing, I mean amazing, stories! I won't forget that lunch, ever.

nacler22

I don't suppose there were any loafers involved was there?

happybday29475

I'm the same. Colorado has a nice track in Colorado Springs, but that's 90 minutes from my house. For years, I was always interested, but never once made the trek. Now that the new track is 20 minutes from my house, it may well become a habit/addiction.

Also, interestingly to me, track racing casts a new light on road racing: it poignantly emphasizes that road races are races of attrition that take a long time, maybe hours, to play out...while track races take seconds or minutes or at the longest, maybe 20(?) minutes? Trackies call events lasting more than a few minutes "endurance events". Heh.

happybday29475

Me too. I've looked into it a bit, and it turns out that Aussies, while famously friendly, are also sort of NIMBYies...it's pretty tough/expensive for "mature" Amuricans to get a visa to permanently retire there. (This policy does, however, serve to increase the appeal of eligible Australian women!)

Hermes

No just a spear ***.