merckx89

So anyone who raced Murrieta this weekend, let's see those reports.

Chucklehead

oops, sorry. posted in the other thread. i saw your name up there in (oops! spoiler removed by poster). good work! turns out you have a sprint after all? or did you have a break? i wasn't there when the race ended.

murrieta day 1

so.. the main difference i'm seeing between 4's and 5's is that in 4's there are way more riders who are there just to get in the way. i'm sorry, but that was just ridiculous. braking into the three wide open corners, then everyone trying to jam into narrowest corner at the same time. then we have all of the guys who get pushed back on the straights trying to roll around all of the panic brakers in the corners, only to get pushed back again. EVERY LAP. madness!

THEN, on the last lap, you have the guys in the back boxing you in just so you have to sprint past them on the finishing straight for 30th+ place!

GAAAAH!!!

i've never yelled so much or dropped so many f-bombs during a race.

"$H!T OR GET OFF THE POT!!"

"GET OFF YOUR F'KING BRAKES!!!"

"HOLD YOUR LINE, PACMAN! YOU CHOSE TO RIDE THE DOTS. EAT 'EM!"


incredibly frustrating day. now watch me get shelled in the road race tomorrow

OC Roadie

Welcome to Cat 4 racing

merckx89

So, i just got home from what was supposed to be a recovery ride after the crit this morning. Since im unfamiliar with the area, I, of course, got lost and what was supposed to be an hour in zone 1-2 turned into 2 hours of threshold trying to beat the sun going down. Tomorrow is not looking so fun now. I'll post a race report after the circuit race tomorrow.

Chucklehead

today was a huge improvement over yesterday. the circuit course was so much fun with the rolling terrain along the back stretch. for most of the race i felt like i was in for another bad finish because it was so hard to move up in the pack and the yo-yo'ing was starting to take its toll on me. but as time went on, i guess people just ran out of gas or something, because it was suddenly very easy to move forward on the last lap. i started my sprint a little late and had to weave through a lot of the same folks who had boxed me in on the last lap of the crit yesterday. they were easy pickin's today(take that, B!TCHES!!!), and i crossed in 16th to improve to 18th overall in the 100 rider field for the two days. i'm satisfied with that result considering how i felt after yesterday's lamity.

congrats to vireo and merckx89(no spoilters!) for their great results as well. once they get into the 4's i'll be finishing a couple places lower every week

special thanks to brandy for the video to prove that i finished where i did instead of the initial posting of 70+!!!
she saved the day for a lot of guys in the cat 5 race and me in the 4's.

merckx89

Long I know, I dont expect many to read it but it helps me see where I made mistakes.
Let me start with a HUGE thanks to brandy, who pretty much saved the 5's race from destruction. (more on that later). So I arrived friday night at 10:00ish PM and stayed at a friend of a friends house. He was out there today in the 55+ and came in 12 overall I think. Very nice gentleman and i would like to say thank you to him again (not sure if he's on here).
Race Report:
Stage 1: Crit Got there early, had time to get a number and on the trainer with more than an hour before my race. Sweet, it's nice to have the race 5 minutes from where your staying. Got a good 45 min warm up and rode the course a few times before we started. Looked to be an ok course. Two 400 meter straights, and two 150-200 meter straights, of which one was the finish. First corner had a slight dip in it, which didn't seem to be too bad when warming up at 21-22 ish. Rest of the corners were prefect. Line up and a few minutes later the gun goes off and the pain is on. Actually the first half of the race wasn't all that bad, other than finding out that the first corner for the first few laps was much different at speed and having a few near crashes there., one guy went off the front and we just kinda pegged him at about 20 seconds and he sat out there for about 3-4 laps before we brought him back in. The rest of the race went something like this: someone attacks, a few chase, guy is caught, pace slows down to 20, repeat ad naseum.
From a spectators view it probably looked like a very safe race, realistically, it was a horrible field, countless near crashes, even at the front. One guy, coming around corner 4, somehow skipped his rear wheel up about a foot and over about a foot and a half, clipped a pedal upon coming back down and somehow kept it upright, most amazing save i've ever seen on a bike ( i was on his wheel during this event just praying that he wouldn't go down). Very boring and slow race for the most part, until the last few laps that is. All of a sudden everyone who was sitting in all race comes to the front to have some fun, or at least tries to. Some idiot starts his sprint about half way through the lap with about 500 meters left, maybe a little more. So the field starts their sprint, most cat 5's cant sprint for 500 meters. 90% of the field dies with about 300 to go. I've just been sitting on a wheel until now, and I launch mine. 45 excruciatingly painful seconds later, the guy who managed to get on my wheel nips me at the line. 2nd place overall, not bad.

"Recovery ride" which i described in an earlier post
Stage 2: Circuit race (basically another crit with a few rollers)
The night before I had written the leaders numbers down and raced with them so I would know who to watch out for. Funny thing is both of the other top 3 had done the same. We start out, and I notice it's much colder today (damn time change). My fingers near froze off in the first few laps and it was the first race I kept arm warmers on for the majority of it. The same guy (oron I later learned his name is) went off the front, and the field seemed good with letting him sit out there for a few laps. Every tim he would start to gain time, I would launch an attack, to which the other higher up in GC would respond and when the field caught me, I would sit up and roll back in. What happened though was that for the next 5 minutes or so the pace would pick up and we would bring Oron a little closer. We caught him at lap 3 again i think. The rest of the race again was very boring, with the same basic tactics as yesterday. Chase anything that goes off the front, then sit up. Other than the one complete ***** who moved over into my line and braked in front of me twice when i tried to launch an attack and had nowhere to go.
Last lap the pace picks up again and coming into the final corners the three leaders of the overall are all in the top 5-10. The final spring i take wide following Oron's wheel and try to dip inside to come around but get boxed in and ended up in 5th. The winner was the guy in 3rd overall so he moved up into 1st and i moved down to 3rd.
Now comes the best part. They had started the 4's 5 minutes ahead of us because they thought that they would be faster, well it turns out we almost caught them and the officials didn't have time to reload the finishing film for our race. We got to try to figure out who came in where by a few spectators with cameras ( again thank to Brandy). most places weren't that hard, but one guy managed to squeak in into 3rd, which I'm not sure if he was in (not saying anything, just bringing that up). The two positions that were unclear though were 4th and 5th. Mine and Oron's. Take a guess how that was decided... anyone.. do I hear coin flip. yea a coin flip, of which i lost and moved to 5th. Only later did i find out from my coach that there actually is a way that the results in those situation are supposed to be decided, but the results had already been finalized. Oh well, next time.
On a happier note, the top 5 did receive very nice trophies ( the first one I've stuck around for), and i think I might now be able to convince the officials to let me upgrade after LA circuit race with my finishes so far.
Oh and a new FTP and 5min power. 5W/Kg, and 5.92 W/Kg respectively. Now all I need to work on is my sprint.

Chucklehead

i doubt the video camera issue had anything to do with the proximity of the 5's to the 4's since the 4's still had another lap to go at that point.

congrats again on the results for the weekend. you're going to leave a lot of racers disappointed in your charge through the ranks.

merckx89

Mmm, okay then it was just incompetent officials. That's a little harsh, but it was a combination of a few things.

Chucklehead

no, you're right. they're there to do a job so they should be prepared and do it right. today was the second time i've had to protest a result this year and it's getting a little old. i'm not upset about the fact that i was blocked from view of the camera. what bugged the hell out of me was that they just abritrarily credited me with a 75th place finish or whatever it was. i mean really... did they actually see someone with my number finish back that far?

cngillmore

4's crit- jumped off the front about 25 minutes into the race... stayed away solo for about a lap and a half which was good enough to win a prime which consisted of very nice easton bars a bike pump and three pairs of sox. But sickness in conjunction with bad allergies and asthma and a hard effort with out a real warm up did me in... My quads turned into lead and I tried to sit in near the back but it turned into a yo-yo fest, I got gapped and then just decided to turn it in.

Circuit race- was in a brake with three to go- was moving along alright but some of the guys weren't too familiar with the concept of pulling through so we got caught on last turn coming into the last lap- I tried to stay near the front and hold on to a decent position but got swarmed, boxed in, and had no real desire to get tangled up sprinting for 15th so sat up.

All in all A good race all things considered. The bars that I won are selling on Ebay for over a Hundo so at least I paid for my races.

congrats to chuckle and merckx It sounds like you guys both had one hell of a weekend. Keep up the good work.

Chucklehead

to be totally honest, my weekend wasn't all that great. it was only a success in my mind because i felt a little bit of redemption after yesterday's crit. i knew i wasn't THAT slow
it sounds like you were more productive than me. heck, at least you walked out with some goods and a decent break attempt. nice job on the prime.

merckx89

yea that's a great prime. I'm surprised that no one in the field responded, that's not something that's just given away. Ya gotta love the guys that jump on any break, but won't work at all.

Brandy

Cat V Finish...



Cat IV Finish...

cngillmore

I rolled off the front before they announced the prime and had a pretty good gap already when I came accross the line and heard the bell. I was thinking in my head what a horrible time to be off the front was because I knew they would chase. I dug pretty deep and after turn 3 I finally looked back expecting to see them right there and to my surprise I still had a small little gap- 2 guys made the jump and caught my wheel at about 200 to go- I thought for sure the one sitting third wheel would come around so I jumped just a tad early and gapped 2nd wheel just enough to hang on... then right out the back. (well not right out the back, but soon enough.

Crash716

Sounds like you guys had a good time all in all....wish i could have been there....hopefully my bike will be back soon...so bummed...

jsigone

congrats to everyone that raced and places, looked like it was great weather and not much winds if any at all.

Vireo

Thank you Chucklehead and congrats on Top 20.

Yes Brandy always seems to come through in some amazing ways.

So I finally got a Top 10 in a race. I had been nipping at it with the previous Crits (11th Roger Millikan, 12th Anger Management the day after a 10:46 Butterfield Double) and this time it worked out. Oh and the lunge across the line meant the difference between top 10 and top 20.

I knew I was going to have a good day on Sunday because my pre-race leg opener on Saturday went well. I did a 30 miler and went up Newport Coast in 7:21 from the base at PCH to Pelican (new PR). On the way home I did 5 sprints all over 900watts. I haven't hit 900w (150 lbs) on any of my previous Crits. Ok ok so these aren't big numbers but as an Ultra cyclist I am all slowtwitch now and there just aren't that many opportunities (read necessity) to SPRINT or climb at or above threshold.


I followed good wheels all day and stayed in the top 10 of the group and watched every break. Merckx89 everytime you jumped I went with you. I would have worked with you but the field always bridged. BTW, who was that knucklehead that kept attacking with a couple of laps to go? Did he even finish in the top 20?






Me on the right side lunging for the line.

Crash716

Congrats bro....wish i could have been there with ya...

feels good doesn't it!!!

Vireo

yes if felt great. Now I need to work on getting top 5 like you and Chuckles

Brandy

Jason from a five year old's vantage point. The following pics are courtesy of the kid.

voltman

Chuckles needs his own kit.

Brandy

Hey, it's an improvement from looking totally unattached. A step in the right direction.

BTW...next year everyone I know needs to be on a team with a bright green kit. It is SO HARD to try to spot the people I'm looking for with all of the black, red, white and blue out there. I don't think I found Jason until his race had three laps to go. Actually, I think that one of the kids spotted him before I did.

Crash716

I offered him a spot on our team....he was like nah...i am too cool to race for beans...get it....Cosmos Coffee....get it, get it, eh, eh?

voltman

Maybe we should be lime green next year.

TRAVISD

This was my forth race for the Cat 5's. It was a good race for myself. Went to the front a few times and did my share. Somehow found myself at the back at about half way, just took my time moving up. Than on the last lap stayed in the top 15 for what I thought was about a 10-13 place finish. In Vireo's finish line pic I am the helmet right above his. Watched Brandy's video an saw myself at 13th, then saw the results an they had me as 15th, oh well. Overall a good weekend of racing.