UmneyDurak

Hey.
I am doing it tomorrow. Anyone have any experience with the course? Flier says it's a .07 mile loop. I hope thats a typo, lol.
It's a CAT4/5 combined field. I am very nervous about that. Last time I did CAT 4/5 I ended up with fractured wrist for the rest of the season. Come to think of it, it was about the same time frame....

Chucklehead

Big wreck in the last Ontario 4/5. Good luck.

Oh, and see you there!

redal

The mid season criterium at Ontario is always the 4 corner .7 mile loop. They move the S/F line and and use the lower half of the larger course. Turn 1 is where the grand prix course usually starts. It is a fast fun course. BTW it should be plenty hot for the afternoon races.

bigdraft

I just got back from doing the 50+ and it was 95 degrees when we started at 9:00. So imagine it's going to be a lot hotter later on. Have fun

UmneyDurak

You are not making me feel better. I am leaving my nice wheels at home.

merckx89

The heat is not encouraging.
Umney: the course isn't all that bad, it's the riders, but you get those in any race. I say what's the point of race wheels if you're not going to use them.

UmneyDurak

True.. Will think about it. It's more of a superstition also. Last time I did CAT 4/5 race I used the same wheels, it was May 17th, and I ended up with fractured wrist...

curiouskid55

Hopefully you rode safely since I wasn't there.

mkadam68

Rode the Master's 30+/4-5 at 11:35am. Don't know the temp, other than HOT!!

Then rode the cat 4/5 race at 2:55pm. Again...HOT!!

In between, around 12:30 or so, my car gauge is measuring 102 degrees and Ralph announces 103!! Maybe I'm a cool-weather racer as I could only finish in the pack and had nothing for the sprints/surges to the line in either race. Still having small coughing fits.

UmneyDurak

Yep. Stayed in top 10 for most of the race. No one seemed to have any desire to move to the front. Got 17th. Lost a wheel on the last corner, and ended up in that headwind.

Oh also when I came back from cool down ride I realized I forgot to take off my saddle bag for the race. So there I was on bling bling carbon bike, deep dish bling bling carbon tubulars, with a saddle bag. That must have looked hilarious. Non one said anything.... Going with my racing wheels was a correct choice. Some of the corners were umm interesting. I had few people cut the corners in so I ended up making them with someone just few inches on the outside. With tubulars I felt more confident.

Chucklehead

2nd in 30+ 4/5 and 7th in 4/5.
The 30+ race was a lot of fun. That was the longest, hardest sprint i've ever done and ALMOST got the winner at the line. Congrats to him, though. He's been stalking a victory for a while now and finally got it.

I had very little left in the tank for the sprint in the 4/5 race and lost about 4-5 spots in the last 100' or so. Apparently I had spent all of my sprint points in the first race. Either that or I didn't fuel right in the 2+ hours between.

Racing in that heat was torture. Halfway through the race, cold water and accelerade had become pee warm and wasn't much fun to drink. There were several points where I considered just throwing in the towel and going to my car for some ice water.

Don't feel bad. I've done two races this year with my pump still on my bike.

Crash716

hell....absolute hell...thought i had top 5 rapped up in the 30+ 4/5...a guy about 4 inches in front of me just slid out and crashed in the LAST corner...i ran him over for it ..i actually did...i stopped to make sure he was ok...i probably could have pulled out a top ten but it's a 4 race and wanted to make sure he was ok.

tried the 30+ 1,2,3,4's...SUCK..didn't have enough fuel in between and got cold chills about 20 minutes into it and they were calling temps over 100.

then the 3rd and final race was the 4/5...more suck...much more suck..they said it was 103. I spent the one and only match i had pulling back a break that probably would have been caught anywho. got boxed in on the 2nd to last corner and just said F it...by the end of the race i had stomach pains and cold chills (big signs of dehydration and heat exhaustion) and just didn't care...

i've had a string of bad luck lately... hopefully that all clears up by states.

Good job Jay on the 2nd and 7th...from now on out i am sticking on your wheel.


that is all.

merckx89

Well it seems like my bad luck streak is finally over. Went into the last corner 2nd wheel and just got passed by everyone. 8th place finish today with almost no sprint, but looked over and saw chuckles passing me and managed to hold onto the place behind him. Hot as hell as everyone else has said, went through 2 bottles in 45min. One of the lowest average powers for a crit I've ever had because of the damned head wind on the finish straight. Congrats to the guy who took a last lap flyer and managed to hold the field off, very impressive.

Last year I had the official actually come over and tell me to take off the bag for the crit on the start line, slightly embarrassing to say the least. Happens to everyone.

The gutters on the course are fine to take corners in, very little lip and people don't like to ride in them, so if you get squeezed on the inside just schooch over into those.

Chucklehead

I thought we decided it wasn't good to hang out in the back all race. Plan to spend a lot of time back there if you're gonna follow me

Actually, I was moving around a little more today, which is something I hadn't done in a while. I kept moving forward and probing the field to see how difficult it was going to be, then i'd try my best to settle somewhere in the top 10 to start the final lap.
In the 30+ I actually made kind of a banzai move up the inside going into turn 3 and hooked up with my teammate. He looked back and saw me coming, and I didn't want to take the corner from him, so I yelled "Take it, it's yours! GO GO GO!!!" and that's basically where the sprint started. Once we came around 4 it was nothing but clear road in front of us. I never even heard the crash behind me.

Cleave

Hi,

All of you who raced in that heat are maniacs -- but good job anyway.

tbrown524

Raced 30+ 4/5 and the 4/5... It was just too hot out there!! This was the first time my daughter has seen me race so I just wanted to finish with the pack.

No one will ever here me complain about racing at 7am!!! Nice and Cold!!!

Congrats to those that finished in the top 10.. The heat made this a difficult race.

A few pics the wife took...

Chucklehead

^^^ Do you ride a KHS?

tbrown524

Yep, I'm the fat guy on the KHS.

Chucklehead

Yeah, well.. For a "fat guy" you're as fast as half the guys there. Gonna have to say Hi next time I see you now that i'm starting to recognize you.

UmneyDurak

I don't know, don't think the heat was that bad... I mean it was bad enough that I decided to warm up just by riding around instead of on the trainer, but it wasn't the worst heat I raced in.
Speaking of photos. There were people taking photos on the corners with what looked like professional equipment, anyone know if they will be posted anywhere?

Chucklehead

I think what made the heat so hard to take for me was that I was doing morning rides wearing a vest and arm warmers less than a week ago. So to go from that to having to douse myself with water to keep my head from exploding was just kind of a shock to the system.

Pictures..
I'm gonna have to have a talk with some of these photogs who show up and leave everyone wondering where the hell they're supposed to find these pics they're taking. There's a very simple remedy for this.

Here's one guy, but I have no way of knowing whether he was there or not:
https://public.fotki.com/kennybz/bike_racing_photos/

redal

Another one of the photographers that was there posts links to his photos on socalcycling.com. His screen name on socal is Dano. He was talking to me during the 4/5 race right before I warmed up so I don't know if he shot any pictures of the 4/5 race.

Chucklehead

So, technically, you could be partly to blame if there are no pics of the 4/5's. Nice going!

Crankit37

What the H...I guess your teammates wheel isn't worth following?

Chucklehead

Oh, great. There's two of 'em now.