LAJ

Thank you, @Heathpack! Not easy, and not everyone is doing all three days. But I think I'm OK in that regard.

Racer Ex 

FIFY.

Good luck at the 3 Days!

LAJ

Well done, @Racer Ex, and thank you!

If I make it through the 3 Days, I'll be signing up for the Mount Evans **** *****. Sometimes I wonder if I have **** for brains.

shovelhd

Nice shots, Ex, Sara, and HP.

sarals 

@LAJ, nice work!! You sound as if you have a similar "always fatigued from work" lifestyle to mine. Not the best lead in to a hard race. Good luck next week!!

happybday29475

Longmont Crit 50/Open

3rd race of my comeback season. The first two circuit races I got shelled immediately on the first hill of each race. This race was a crit, my forte, and flat. OK not entirely flat, and with some headwind, but at least no Colorado-style mountains in the course.

I stayed on for about 3 laps.

Firstly, while my power numbers are getting close to where they were last season, I don't have much "sharp end" or "race fitness"; the repeated accelerations killed me. While disappointing, that's OK and not entirely surprising. As this is usually a forte, it's sort of interesting to be on the "getting softened up" side of accelerations. Please, not again! lol.

More alarmingly, my cornering sucked. I noticed that every corner a gap would open in front of me. That pissed me off! But it's also understandable: it's mid-to late season for these guys, and they've been cornering at speed for months, and this is basically my first time in a year. So fine.

After getting shelled, I was mad about this...so I resolved to ride the rest of the race by myself, at speed, practicing corners. I was much, much better by the end of the race. And, my solo lap times weren't entirely in a different universe than those of the field.

So, while the outcome wasn't as good as I hoped, there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Also, the contrast from last year is notable...last year I was on top of the world! This year, I'm having to crawl out of a deep pit...

I'm miles away from the guys that are winning...but I'll be up to pack fodder pretty soon.

For those counting, it's been 6 months of hard work to get back to (almost) the level I was at a year ago.

Heathpack 

@rapwithtom, I thought you were officially retired?!

Welcome back and kudos on working your way through it all, back towards where you were. Frustrating I'm sure to lose so much after one wee surgery. But that's life. Sometimes you're on top and sometimes your not. Coming back to it, if you decide its worth it, is pretty cool too.

sarals 

@rapwithtom, welcome back! It's the pits, loosing what you had. But, I have confidence you'll get back to form. Soon!

happybday29475

lol well I didn't shave my legs or use my race wheels. #hedging

Thank you. I'm not frustrated. It's life. I do think it's interesting that it took 6 months of hard work to (almost) get back.

LAJ

Thumbs up, @rapwithtom!

Six months, two years, who's counting. Getting back is the key, and you'll be in the crit mix in no time!

Heathpack 

I'm not sure I fully approve of this lack of commitment.

Racer Ex 

That was the 8w that would have kept you on.

Ali did not look all that terrific his first return fight. It took him a few years to get the belt back.



Keep hitting the speed bag

Dalai

It will come rapwithtom. You know what to do, just takes time.

LAJ

3 Days of Salida. Thought it was an Omnium, then it wasn't. Either way, it was my first out of town race, and it was a blast.

Ranger Full-o-NeilPryde's.



Got to Salida way early, and thankfully, I was able to check in before my TT. That helped a lot, and I was able to change and get there with time to warm up. When on the trainer, I set my Garmin to start recording at the start button, and keep going at each lap press. I forgot to take it off, so it started recording at the press of the button, and not at the start of movement. I was chasing a mythical number since it recorded about 40 seconds of 0 watts, trying to hit a target that I was unsure of, and went out way too hard. 6th.

The crit on Saturday was at 9:15 am, and was mixed with the 40+4's, so it was a decent sized field. The course is a figure 8 on a rough surface, with one of the 8 loops longer than the other one. Counter-clockwise with a downhill finish, with the long rise on G street, and the two corners being the decider.



The race prior was late to finish, so I continued to ride around a bit. As it was finishing, I got in position to get on the course, and picked the wrong bunch to get on course with, so I was in about the third row. Of course, the guy ahead couldn't clip in, so by the time I got around I must have been next to last.... Lap 2, I saw the leaders enter turn 2 before I hit turn one. Strung out and fast. I think I was behind the fellow that won the TT the previous day, and he told me how he didn't like crits because his bike handling wasn't great. Boy howdy.... Took a couple corners to get around him, and the gap was there. Made it up, and started picking them off one by one. There were 4 primes, and after the first one, I dreaded hearing them call for another. Made the lap fast, and that meant more folks off the back, and more gaps to make up. At one point, teammate Mark pulled up as I was about ready to throw in the towel, and said "C'mon Lloyd"

That's all it took. Went with him in my sights for a lap, and the motivation hit hard. Started picking them off again, dodged some very squirelly riders, a wreck and a near wreck, and by the time I made it into around the top 15, and the folks I usually race with, I saw 38 minutes had passed. Time flies when we're having fun! I was pretty wiped by then, and was just doing what I could to maintain position without doing more damage to myself. Laps counted down, and with one to go, it was time to go. With my newfound happiness around the folks that I was able to regain from last week's crit, I went to town. I think I passed 4 guys in my Cat up the hill, took the 2nd to last corner at warp, and realized I only had one more corner to go, and elation hit. Put it down, finished, and was pretty happy with how I raced.

Since it was a mixed field, I was pretty sure I had a decent finish, but when I punched my number into the printout computer, it spit out a 3rd place. WTF. This is a crit. I don't podium in knife fights. This wasn't a rain race, it wasn't an easy course, and I took a podium in a bike slingers race. Happy as a little clam, and next to Morgul, this one was the best.

State RR Championship. 5th. Legs felt great, and I was ready to go. Unfortunately, so were 4 others ahead of me. This is an up, then a down. The downhill has a nice little sharp dirt corner in it, and it was hot. 33 miles, 3K climbing.



The fellows I needed to keep an eye on went at lap 3, and I'm lucky I could see them because they're so tiny. Sort of kidding, but this big fat fatty was wiped out at the end of this thing. I covered that, and then the eventual winner took off at lap 4 again. At this point, there were 8 of us, and that just ripped us all apart. I could see the folks I need to catch, but that just wasn't in the cards. The fellow behind me was on form too, as he won the hill climb the previous week, so damage control was on high. Maintained. Not the result I wanted, but it was fun weekend nonetheless.

With my results this weekend, I'm pretty sure I nailed the Road Cup, so the State battle was lost, but pretty sure the war was won.

Oh. And.

"Lloyd

You have surpassed the required number of points for a mandatory upgrade from 4-3 on the Road
Both your BRAC and USAC profiles have been updated. If you have already pre-registered for upcoming events, please contact the promoter and inform them you need to be switched to your new category.
Congrats!"

Hermes

NCNCA Masters District State Track Championships - Gold: 500 meter time trial 65-69 - 1 of 3, Gold: 4k Team Pursuit 35+ 1 of 1 and Gold: team sprint 65+ 1 of 2.

I was only planning on racing the 500 meters. My training for the last couple of weeks had been on my road bike and TT bike with the week leading up to the event doing some made up track drills on Fiesta Island San Diego on my backup road bike plus upper body gym work. There may be something to this.

I have been racing the 500 for 9 years and this is the first time I have won and I had a guy age up into my category. That was easy.

I was invited to team sprint and the 4k team pursuit. I was not so sure of the 4k team pursuit with the 35+ guys. So I made a deal. I would ride it with them but do the first kilo solo leading out and then pull off leaving the remaining 3 riders to do 3k on their own. One must finish with 3 men. There are advantages with this technique since every time there is an exchange, the team loses a bike length. So during my initial laps, we gained distance over other teams due to not exchanging. And this is a classic technique to allow a more sprint oriented rider to ride team pursuit at a faster pace with stronger endurance riders.

Team sprint was with a couple of my racing friends however, one of them in not that confident with his start and he was in a bigger gear. So the plan was for me not to do a full power standing start but more like 90% for the first 50 meters and then maintain constant acceleration until I pulled off after lap one. This actually worked and we looked pretty good.

500 Podium without silver medalist



Team Sprint Podium



Team Pursuit - less one racer

Heathpack 

Nice weekend, @LAJ! Swwweeet sauce with the upgrade too (I guess).

Hermes

@LAJ. Amazing weekend.

Heathpack 

Kudos, @ Hermes. Way to collect some bling and then more bling just because you're there and might as well....

LAJ

Thank you @Heathpack! Putting it off long enough, I suppose. Back to the getting my teeth kicked in part of the equation. But, I get to race with @rapwithtom again! Actually, this worked out OK, as I feel I got a major part of my confidence back.

LAJ

Thank you, @Hermes!

Speaking of amazing weekends, yours hit that mark quite well! Great stuff.

Racer Ex 

@Hermes, congrats on a great weekend champ. You beat Moses by 31 years to the promised land. And the .07 margin on the 500 had to feel good.

@LAJ, after all that racing and winning the Cup, and the mandatory upgrade, this one's for you:

revchuck 

Way to go, Hermes and LAJ!

happybday29475

+1 - congrats to both, those are some impressive results!

Hermes, I've been racing at the track recently...it's like a whole different sport...As I totally suck at Standing 500's, I have huge respect for those that are good at them...great job!

LAJ nice work! You've had a dominating season! It's great to see your success after all of your hard work!

shovelhd

Wow. What a great job you two.

Racer Ex 

NCNCA Masters District State Track Championships: G,G, and S. 55-59 or 55+ on everything.

Skipped the mass start events on Saturday; figured I'd give my finger another day to heal and rest up a bit more. 4 hour drive down to Mrs' Ex dad's place Saturday, hour drive Sunday to the track.

Hellyer is a low banked 333, outdoors, so you need to take the wind into account on gearing and wheel choice.

2K: The nastiest event in cycling IMHO. Hurts a lot longer than the kilo, miss the pacing by a little and you either go slow or blow a giant gasket. And pacing it in the wind is really hard.

Wind was flapping the flag pretty good before the start of the event, so I dropped a gear down from my normal 2K choice, and left the tri spoke on the front. As more folks took runs the wind died down a bit more, and I made careful watch of one of the women competitors who was riding a faster but much harder to handle (in the wind) 5 spoke. She stuck her line. Swapped over the the 5 spoke, left the gearing alone.

55's had the deepest field in most events...riding the top of the bell curve. 4 other nats champs in the field, think we had 10 or so guys total.

Kind of uncharted territory with the layoff and anti biotics, so I went out careful. Just try to get on the podium.

Hearing my splits I knew I was right on our target. Felt good.

Ramped it up a touch. Bell lap I buried it.

2:34. Good time for this track and the conditions. Ended up winning by 0.9s and being the "all comers" fast 2k time of the day against a lot of top notch folks. Got some nice comments on how I rode, which felt good. You can really hack this event up.

Also felt good that 2, 3, & 4 spots in my age group were my team pursuit partners.

55+ 3k Team Pursuit: Flat out smoked it. We put this team together as a "sum of all parts" thing, all super solid guys, mellow without a lot of ego. We've been doing a lot of practice heading into Nationals, ironing out kinks, playing with different strategies. Been paying off. We made a few tiny mistakes but ended up at 3:40. Given that we all rode a 2k prior, posting up that time in the wind was very promising, faster than the winning time for any comparable Nats.

Fast 3k of the day. 14s faster than the team that won last year, which I was on. I kicked my younger butt

55+ Team Sprint: Same guys as last year when we won. 2nd place team from '15 acquired a freshly minted 55 killer, so we had our work cut out for us. Faulted on our first start, went out slow to avoid the DQ and got shellacked by 2s. Winning team rode phenomenally well, posting fast TS time of the day. They might topple the 800 pound gorilla team at Nats. I hope so, I like those guys.

Drove the hour back to Dad's, picked up Ridley, and 4 more hours landed me home. Moved a yard and change of gravel today.

It's all glamour.

Really had fun. Caught up with a lot of old friends (it's a master's event, so everyone is old), executed well and my finger didn't fall off. Ridely sporting her bling. Nats coming up.