Beaker

rydaddy pointed out a great link to some photos from the event, and it looks like they used the end of the U30 Cat 5 race to tee up the shooting positions for the juniors. They caught me at the front of the 3 man train I ended up in after the crash



Rest of the pics and video are here

https://casadelane.smugmug.com/Racing...erium-Training

silentben

^^ sweet picture! Are you going to do more of the early birds?

Beaker

I hope so, it was awesome fun and didn't require an all-day pass.

7bmwm3gtr

So to all the Early Bird Critters...Can one of you guys explain the Early Bird Criterium...like is there an actual race for places, points, and prizes?Thanks.Btw Saturday the 9th...Rode 78 miles via tour de peninsula route from my house. Going up King's Mountain, i saw Matt Johnson in a Garmin Slipstream outfit with a Garmin Team Felt. I was either behind him or next to him for about 10 minutes until he passed me. He wasn't spinning up too fast though.

Beaker

Here's everything you need to know:

https://www.velopromo.com/ebcr-ent.htm

No points until the final race, if you're even part way interested give it a go, in just the one clinic and one race I learned a lot of good bike handling info. Having the opportunity to ride fast (for me) in a pack while being able to ride with the mentors was great.

rydaddy

One thing to point out - as a Cat 5 you get points based on experience, not results. 1 mass start race = 1 point (you don't have to finish the race). At the EB's it's 2 points per clinic/training race. To upgrade and become a 4, you need 10 total points. I have a couple friends that went to all 5 EB's last year and became 4's in a month.

So here's a shot of me at turn 1 last Sunday...



If you watch the video, my 8 seconds of fame comes at the 3:45 mark...

JourneyLightly

All the races count toward upgrade points for a Cat 5-->4 upgrade. The final EB will have placings and count toward upgrade points for all Cats, but there are no prizes or podium.

BenRidin

Tried to get in some miles and some climbs. Friday did a nice jaunt on Mines out to the Junction. Turned into a 48 miler. Today was a Diablo climb mixed w/ some others for 50.

With the storm coming, it'll be rollers & the erg for awhile. Ugh.

BR

tprevost

Did a short ride on some rollers today before the rain comes Haven't been on the bike in a month because my dad has been in the hospital ... but he's better now so I'll be able to squeeze a few rides in!

Beaker

37miles and 3900ft with RoboCheme up Wildcat, Shasta then the delicious Vollmer Peak, before looping down Shepherd Canyon back up Tunnel then down Pinehurst for the fast dash through Canyon.

Here's the view to Diablo before the stupid 20% part up Vollmer:




The blanket of fog beyond the Oakland/Berkeley ridge was impressive. Riding to the east of the hills was chilly and sometimes foggy, riding to the west was like a mild spring day.

obiwan kenobi

Nice ride out Del Puetro Canyon road https://connect.garmin.com/activity/22495574

Beaker

That looks like a fun ride - nice steady uphill grade that you can keep going at a pace over a good distance. Yum.

jonathanb715

We had some of the TnT folks out on the House of Pain route through Livermore. Just shy of 50 miles of flat but fun riding. Very foggy! House of Pain does not refer to the difficulty of the route - in 50 miles we had 1,800 feet of climbing. It refers to how fast the pace is of the real House of Pain group ride.

Having the real HOP pack come by is always an impressive sight. They caught us on Collier Canyon and just went by like a train. There must have been 40 of them, and the gradual grade/low traffic/4 mile climb on Collier Canyon really lets them let loose.

FYI,if anyone is interested the HOP group meets each Saturday at the Rudgear Rd park and ride just south of Walnut Creek. They roll at 9 sharp. The pace is NOT relaxed. I haven't tried to ride with them, but from what I hear this is the opposite of a no-drop ride - it's an all out hammer fest and the marginal riders just hang on for as long as they can and then ride back on their own once dropped. It's not a club ride or anything organized like that - this is just a group of racers that have gotten together each Saturday and done this ride for a while. More and more people joined, so now it has a life of it's own.

JB

MarkoPolo

Met up with Bikingshearer and Bigbossman Saturday morning for a shortish ride. Starting next to Stoneridge, we rolled out onto Foothill Road to Sunol, down Niles Canyon and up and over Palomares. Saw lots of other cyclists getting in a ride before the coming monsoons. Oddly enough they all seemed to be passing us.

28 miles, 1850 ft of climbing, lots of good conversation and a nice italian sausage sandwich at Amici's to end the day.

F4UX3/2

Actually I remember you, you were the only one out there with a pump on your frame. I didn't see a men's cat 5 30 and under gallery on that link though.

Anyway I went back out today for both the skills and crit I thought it was much better this time, especially because there was no crash.

gpelpel

uhhh... uhhh... a pump for racing?

Anyway I am very impressed Richard. Doing the San Bruno TT was already pretty good, but getting yourself into a crit with all the frenzy that occur in this type of race is pretty gutsy, pump or no pump!

Beaker

Actually it was a metal rod filled with concrete, a NCNCA mandated weight penalty for old farts who try to sneak into U30 races

(OK, mea culpa, I didn't have enough time to loose it between the end of our clinic session and lining up for the start.)

I was bummed not to be there today; good job on getting another EB in. I'll be there next Sunday, not sure if I'm going U30 or 30-44 yet.

<<< Moth to a flame, Georges. I'm so screwed.

Red Rider

Cgallagh and I suited up in our rain gear and went out for a 31-miler, a Winters Loop w/a few extra miles just for grins. Happy to report that we were more wet from perspiration than from precipitation.

ahmose

Yesterday, i rode about 70 miles. I figured i should do some longish (for me) ride before the rain forecasted for all this week.
I took Edgewood to Canada Rd., then Old La Honda to Skyline to Highway 9 (i love the descent). https://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=veipltfopkqnfyzu
The weather was not great, it was windy, foggy and there was some rain on skyline.
This was my longest ride to date and in retrospect i probably should've done the climbs towards the beginning of the ride as opposed to having them at around 40 miles into the ride.

jonathanb715

I don't know - people should be really careful about cutting you off or anything stupid like that if you're racing with a pump! I was looking for the right clip from Breaking Away, this is the best I can do - starting about minute 2:15:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLZxk1qccI4

JB

rydaddy

Friday - 40 miles solo, from home to Lake Solano and back.

Sunday - 60 miles with a 4 other DBC racers. Davis to Cantelow and back. Rain wasn't too bad. It was a lot of fun... I think my face was the least muddy.

DiabloScott

Not video, but check out my little production:

LINK

BenRidin

I love the Tube Socks they're wearing. Very cool.

Thinking I should try to revive that trend.

jonathanb715

Sandbagger!

JB

Beaker

Early Bird crit #4 today. Lined up with offtheback, and met up with F4UX3/2 and shiz702. Very nice to meet more BF'rs in person and ended up riding along side them in the pack several times.

Pre-race clinic was excellent again - covering attacks and counterattacks, so since we were encouraged to practice this during the race, I put in a ridiculous move ~2/3rds of the way through. I was getting tired of being in the middle to the back of the peleton and launched off the front. It actually felt pretty good, but when no-one else was taking the bait, I got to enjoy letting myself getting swallowed by the pack.

Anyhow, this weeks race very different to my last one, noticably slower pace and found myself thinking less about how to survive and more about what moves to make, how to move up. I did put in a little sprint for the line and pulled back an imaginary place or two vs a couple of non-sprinting individuals. Huge grins, great fun. And no crashes or rain