revchuck 

Cleave - I got the impression that these guys are TT specialists and might not do mass start races. I searched Clif's results on the USAC website and most of them were TTs with a few road races.

Racer Ex 

Both are primarily TT guys, or TTT or track timed events by choice.

If you have some talent in that direction it's not a bad way to go. While you can still crash in a TT it's a fair bit safer than mass start stuff, you can really focus your training, and your result reflects 98% what you put into it. No teams shutting you down or riding against you. No yelling or agro behavior. The variables are technical, not people generated.

Didn't surprise me that Tim had fast time. A lot of talent and dedication, and he's been going really well the last year; Clif started beating him from time to time and made him step up to another level. Most of the 1/2 kids who show up for a race like that are way behind on equipment and knowledge. There's a lot more to a TT than just riding hard.

I believe I recall one of them uttering the following quote:

"Crits are stupid".

There are times I find this accurate.

Hermes

Congrats Chuck on your first race of the season.

valygrl

First race of the year - Frostbite TT, 11.5 miles out and back on a highway frontage road up near Wyoming. This year the weather was fantastic, about 45 degrees and light wind at race time. SW3, 3rd/5.

Nice to be racing again.

revchuck 

shovelhd

Nice!!

Racer Ex 

Podium!

LAJ

Nicely done, valygrl!

LAJ

Same TT as valygrl.

Sun was definitely out, and I think the wind kicked up a bit when I raced. At least, that's my story. I didn't embarrass myself, and I didn't fall down on the turn-around, so it was like a win for me. This TT racing thing is kind of hard. 9/28 in the 50+4

Hermes

Congrats LAJ and VG. 45 degrees sounds cold to me.

revchuck 

Good job, LAJ!

nacler22

+1, and yeah, the weather is is so nice here, that 45 does sound a little chilly......................strange.

valygrl

Nice work LAJ! Yeah I heard the wind picked up.

45 and sunny is nice in contrast to the teens and snow we've had lately.

Heathpack 

Top ten in your first outing it pretty bad-ass, if you ask me.

shovelhd

Top ten.

LAJ

Thank you All!

It was rather eye opening, to say the least.

happybday29475

LAJ had enough oxygen to cheer me as he passed. Had he used his oxygen more wisely, he would have been even faster...and his was already a great result for a first TT.

Me, well, I didn't finish last, even though I was Eddie Merckxing it, so I'll call it a success.

revchuck 

Hell yeah!

LAJ

Thumbs up, @rapwithtom! You did great.

Believe me, at that point, oxygen was the last of my worries. I was worried about the folks riding away from me, and had more than a little trepidation about my legs. Once I didn't hear the wind, it kind of rejuvenated me. One of many worries, actually. After thinking about it, it all started with trusting the guy holding me and my bike up. So much was new.

Lookout next weekend?

Racer Ex 

Good job folks!

FWIW I have seen more than a couple people fall down right out of the gate...I always check with the holder to make sure they are ready, and watch how they handle the prior racers.

TT's are great learning experiences. Keeping focus, pacing, learning to ride through pain and doubt..."trial" might be the operative word. Do as many as you can, you'll never be the worse for it.

valygrl

Nice rapwithtom! Good to hear you are competing again.

sarals 

Fantastic, Valygrl! Congratulations on that podium!

sarals 

LAJ, Tom - wow!!! Great results! TT's are so freaking hard. Way to go!!!

sarals 

Madera Stage Race, WM35+ Open

I went into this race expecting to do well in the crit, to maybe do better than last year in the TT, and to who knows what in the RR. Honestly? I did not expect to finish the RR, because it's a tough course, we had to do 51 miles, and I seriously lack base and endurance.

The crit was the first event, on Saturday morning. There were seven in the field, three cat 2's (strong), and 4 cat 3's (also strong). I knew it was going to be tough to stay in, small fields are just so hard, but I expected to be able to. I did a total of an hour warmup, 38 minutes on the trainer, and the rest on the road. I made a faux pax, when I got to the line, I discovered that I didn't know right from left, and I had my number on the wrong side. After some head shaking and laughing, everyone thought it was okay, and I went with what I had. One of the 2's, Cami de Luca, was favored for GC, as was Heidi Littenberg and Yvonne Walbroehl (my teammate). Cami immediately launched into a punishing pace to try to shake the field, but we had it covered. The pace was so high that we were single file, and that actually made it a little easier to hold a wheel. On the third lap, Narda Roushdi went to the front to try to bring the pace down a little. Cami and her teammate sandwiched her and then punched it, and it was game on. We did the back straight at 27 MPH, passed the start/finish at close to that, and hit the first turn at around 24. There was a pavement imperfection, as in a bump, right at the apex of that turn, and guess who hit it - me. The nose of the saddle immediately dropped an inch or so, and I suddenly had no bike fit. I stayed on the wheel in front of me, but it was now a whole lot harder to do. I slowed a bit for the next turn, because I was afraid that (and expected) the saddle would drop even further, and I ended up OTB. I needed to finish the crit to move on, so I went into poor fit TT mode and finished seventh of seven.

That afternoon was the TT. I followed recovery protocol after the crit, stayed off the legs, rolled out and stretched, and felt okay when I lined up for my start. There was a swirling wind of 7 - 10 MPH, the temp was 74 (not bad), and there were bees everywhere (orchards). About a minute into my TT, I knew I was in trouble. The legs were heavy, unresponsive, and my HR was higher than it should have been. The road surface was quite rough, and by the end of the front straight, I was having trouble staying aero, my shoulders were hurting so much from the pounding. I was looking for a tailwind for some relief, and never got one. On the 1K to go stretch, I rode through a swarm of bees, and all I could do was hunker down, close my mouth and keep going. I did not get stung (unlike a lot of other people). My TT absolutely sucked, 35:20, just awful. I almost puked at the finish, so it wasn't as if I wasn't trying.

Today (Sunday) was the Daulton Road Race. This course is famous for the "pave" section, and it IS some kind of rough pavement! We were expected to do three laps, 51 miles total. My team mates and I had dinner together the night before to discuss the race, and I told the gals that I didn't expect I'd be much help. So, that's what they expected this morning. When I got out of bed, I felt really bad, achy, a little nauseous, and I thought OMG, I may not even start. We got to the venue, and I warmed up on the road. I was riding my trusty Look 566 with the Cosmic Carbone/IRC tubeless wheelset. I did a short climb as part of the warmup, and immediately noticed that the legs and body felt pretty good. We rolled off in a combined field with the Cat 4 women, I think there were six or seven of them, making the group fourteen or fifteen. We had a two or three mile neutral start, uphill. During that climb, I became aware that I felt not just good, but really good! We made the left turn onto the course, and Cami and her teammate once again upped the pace. We were single file, rolling along at 22 to 25. The gals at the front started a paceline, which I expected to take part in. I told Yvonne that I wanted to go to the front and do some work, but she shook her head "no" (I found out later that meant she didn't hear me!). We made the right turn onto the "pave" section, and weren't too far along it when a motoref came up and neutralized us for a men's race coming up on us. There was a bit confusion in our group about what to do, and the pecking order got shuffled a bit. At some point, we got going again, and that's when we hit the really bad pavement. I had not ridden on such a mess at the speeds at which we were traveling, and I found it took more effort on the rough stuff than it did on the smoother surface. Around then, three of the cat 4 women pushed their way into our group, and pushed me off the wheel I was on. I had drifted back slightly and left a gap (I was moving right trying to find smoother cobbles), and one of them took my wheel from me. I couldn't move left onto another wheel, because they had closed that up, and I ended up at the back of the peloton. I let another gap open, and had to bridge. My power was already high from the pounding, and it was hard to bridge up. I decided to go left and move up, and that turned out to be a mistake. I wasn't used to bike bouncing all over the place, and I was tentative about moving into the group, and I got winded, and ended up OTB again. I bridged one more time, but that kind of did it. Narda was OTB, and she came around me on my left and suggested we work our way back up. I missed her wheel, got gapped, and that was that. I dangled about 200 yards behind that group, across the rollers, across the finish, all the way to the feed zone. I just couldn't close. I was strong on the rollers, I even made up some ground on them, but I couldn't close up. I felt so good on that first lap, I decided to go around again to see if I could catch the group. I could not. We had dropped three or four of the Cat 4 women, and I halfway expected those (much) younger gals to bridge up to me, and I could have worked with them. I never saw them. When I got through the rough stretch and was approaching the rollers, my legs started reminding me that I had been working pretty hard, and coach's admonition to not be a hero and blow myself up was foremost in my mind, as well. If I could have worked with another rider, I would have finished the road race, but cooler heads prevailed, and I pulled the plug at lap two, living to fight another day.

I did not expect to have the legs I had today. I felt every bit as good as I did three weeks ago, before I got sick. I guess the intensity yesterday got things moving!

revchuck 

Good report, Sara, and good call on pulling out when you did. Even in CA, the season is still young. Glad I'm not the only one getting pounded to death by their TT bike. Definitely get that seatpost warrantied!