shovelhd

I've heard stories about that race, none of them good.

Racer Ex 

It's Sara's Christmas bonus generator.

sarals 

?

Racer Ex 

Life flights are common at that race.

Hermes

I have not done Copperopolis but I did the Topsport Stage Race where the road race uses some of the same roads. Not exactly the same as riding the cobblestones of Europe, but the rough roads add a dimension to the race and a potential differentiator for racers. I remember riding in the dirt next to the road because the pavement was so bad. I do think the rough roads favor the bigger more power cyclists.

chasm54

It is absolutely freezing here, with >20 mph winds straight from Siberia. In a way I'm fortunate, because we have less snow here than in most parts of the country. But boy, I'm tired of it. Still, riding on rollers is good for me, right?

AzTallRider

Keep saying that... over and over... with feeling.

gsteinb

I honestly have no earthly idea, other than assuming it's something linked to how dashingly handsome and awesome I am.

chasm54

Sorry to disappoint you, but it is Igor the Eagle, and is the Sheldon Brown Memorial/Service award. I suppose it's possible that your dashing handsomeness was at some point regarded as your principal contribution to the forum, but you know what they say in the 41. Pics or it didn't happen.

gsteinb

Huh. I got an award?

Racer Ex 

Looks like Copperopolis is on. Weather clear for the morning.

chasm54

Long before my time, but it seems to have started here.

Edit. Sorry, I forgot we were in the racing/training thread. Back on topic

AzTallRider

Looks like good training for Battenkill. Are you doing anything to soften the ride?

Cleave

I always wanted to do that race, but then I didn't.

Cleave

My training has been very erratic since Valley of the Sun and for some reason my weight jumped up to winter levels. As mentioned earlier, my initial diagnosis of track hack after the team pursuit was wrong and I probably had some kind of low level of bronchitis. By Saturday I felt pretty reasonable and I did an easy pace, but not easy, solo 85 mile ride. Sunday with the club was 25 miles down the coast to Laguna Beach and back. Going out was harder than I wanted but coming back was real easy because our sprinter pulled his hamstring and glutes on one side during one of the hill sprints. We always bring back our dead.

Tuesday Night Worlds tonight (my first race of any kind with a power meter), commute to work tomorrow, track on Thursday, and Palos Verdes hill climb TT on Saturday. Then I'm off the bike for a few days as my youngest decided at the last minute that he wanted to go to Philadelphia and NYC to look at some colleges that accepted him. (Actually one accepted him and he hasn't heard from the other yet.) Thankfully, frequent flier miles worked for this trip.

District championship TTs (individual and team) in May and district championship RR the first weekend in June are my next targets. Hopefully I can pull myself and my training together for those.

Racer Ex 

Battenkill is off the table.

For Whopperopolis I'll run my tubeless Ultegra wheels with some new Fusion 3's on there.

gsteinb

That's how I feel about Battenkill.

Hermes

I did not do much this weekend except a leg opener on Saturday and then race two 500 meters and 2K pursuit on Sunday. Monday, I was off the bike but went to the gym for leg work and core.

Today, was a long track workout. I arrived at 8AM for the motor warmup with the sprinters and left at 12PM. It was a gorgeous day with sunny skies and temps in the low 60s with little wind.

During the motor warmup, I had the opportunity to ride behind one of the Stanford sprinters. I am very critical of racers' form and technique but this guy was perfection. He had perfect posture, effortless pedal stroke, no gaps on the wheel in front, rode in a perfect line through the turns and had perfect position (up track slightly) from the wheel in front. As the speed increased, his form held perfectly. And he was the fastest guy on the track today.

I talked with him afterwords and complimented him on being a perfect wheel to follow. He has been racing for 8 years. He probably started when he was 10 12 years old.

I like to do workouts at the track that I cannot easily do on my road bikes. So I did some standing starts, efforts with the motor and some work with the sprinters. Fun day at the track.

sarals 

I had thought I was going to do Relagado this past Sunday, but after I took the time off, I decided not to. I heard from one of my team mates who DID do it, and OMG...it sounded like Copperopolis. Especially bad was the one mile plus (as he put it) 2 inch deep gravel road with rail road tracks at the end. He said "lots of flats, lots of crashes". I'm glad I stayed home!

Ex, lets hope no one sees me at Copperopolis - I'm working this weekend.

34 miles on the CAAD 10 this morning. Fit is off. That will be taken care of tomorrow. The bike does exist - see my thread!

shovelhd

shovelhd

+1

shovelhd

Over unders today. Mostly under. I was the shyte. Garbaggio.

revchuck 

Combined intervals again today - three of six minute climbing repeats (LT+) seguing into 12 minutes at tempo, six minutes RBI. Because of where I ride, the CR part were with the wind (12-14 mph worth) and most of the tempo parts were into the wind. I had no problem with the CR parts, could've gone longer no problem, but when I dropped the 30+ watts down into tempo, I had a heck of a time. Part of it was the turnaround that messed up my average watts for the tempo part, and part of it might have been psychological due to the wind. 1:41, 135 TSS, .89 IF.

Racer Ex 

Yeah , I know. But I've kind of got this weird malaise going right now. I've neglected so much stuff over the last few years with all the moves and I've been traveling so much that while I'm certainly not shelving racing, I've got a certain level of inconvenience/effort after which I start to question whether some things are worth taking on vs. staying at home or at least close to home.

I could probably do well at Battenkill. On the other hand I'd be away from home for an extended period and dealing with a lot of logistics for a one day race where I might flat or get stuck behind some wobbler at mile one. No teammates to hang out with, cross country flight, Etc.

The NSG should be fun and track Nats is a good target, Might have big M coming out.

shovelhd

You got that right. We are gonna have a blast.