dunderhi

Ahh, you've reminded me of one of my favorite movie quotes:

Mr Kim: You are fired. Oh.
Korben Dallas: Well, at least I won lunch.
Mr. Kim: Good philosophy, see good in bad, I like.

carleton

Dude, you earned it. You could wear it whenever you want.

Do they really enforce the jersey rules?

dunderhi

I doubt there are jersey police in the amateur ranks, but I wouldn't feel right wearing a jersey in a class that already has a champ who earned a jersey that class. I guess I'm unsure about a Sr4 race, since the Sr champ is likely a Sr1 or 2. It my sound silly, but I also have an regional champ jersey that I only plan to wear once.

Stas87

I probably won't make it this Saturday. The 123 race in Branchbrook starts at 9, if I drive to kissena straight from the race I may just make it in time.

dunderhi

Okay, see ya next week. Given, Carleton's encouragement, I might try wearing my long sleeve Atlantic Regional jersey, so you may not have recognized me.

Good luck at Branchbrook.

VanceMac

I've been busy running the Tuesday Night Racing at the local outdoor track (Encino -- 6 races already, sorry winter-bound folks), so it was nice to finally be able to race myself as Friday Night Racing has started up at the indoor track (Carson). Full fields in cat 4, cat 5, ten in the Women, and thirteen in the 1/2/3. Omnium for 1/2/3 was on the shorter side, which is fine since I've been neglecting my endurance: Snowball (16), Miss-n-Out; Points (40/10).

Snowball. (https://youtu.be/OfD-WqCZhhA) I wish I had paid more attention when bridging up to grab the 4th lap, if I had known it was just one person on my wheel, I would have worked with him and found a way to grab a second lap somewhere, which would have given me 3rd place. Seems most of the time snowballs end up with two guys grabbing the bulk of the points, so 3rd is usually up for grabs -- and in this case, the racer who nabbed those first 3 laps (only 6 pts) got 3rd.

Miss-n-out. After that kilo effort above, I had severe track hack, and had fully planned to punt on this race. But when someone wanted to be pulled first more than I did, I took a flyer at the front. Couldn't quite pull it off, and missed points by a rider or two.

Points. Got field sprint at second sprint (1 rider off front). Then confusion set in as lap counter was all messed up. Was pretty toasted anyway, managed to finish on lead lap at least.

I really look forward to these early races, as they always take my fitness to another level. Although this year it's a bit backwards -- usually my endurance is topped off, and this series kicks my intensity into gear. I've read a bit about reverse periodization, but I don't think I will be able to rely on my endurance quite as much as I did the past couple years.

Stas87

How was Kissena today? Branchbrook was windy, field got shredded by the cross winds.

dunderhi

The wind was brutal. They split the 4 & 5 fields down to 7-8 riders each to keep it safe. I rode both Master and SR4 and did poorly in both classes. I just didn't have any top-end speed in my legs yesterday. The SR1-3 had sprint matches and that looked like fun. I heard they were considering doing match sprints for the Masters, but decided against it.

Unfortunately, I had a bit of an accident with a hedge trimmer today which landed me in the hospital to get some stitches. I don't think I'll get much, if any, training in this week, since I won't get the stitches out of my knee until Saturday. So next Sunday is now looking doubtful for me.

Dalai

Didn't anyone tell you gardening is dangerous! Heal fast dunderhi!

dunderhi

Thanks. Should I let Mrs. Dunderhi know she has all yardwork duties during racing season (Mar-Nov)? That'll go over well.

carleton

Heal up soon!

rndstr

Thanks for the videos! I started my track "career" at Encino and Carson while I spent an extended time in LA last year so I love seeing these videos. Such a great and vibrant cycling community. I miss it a lot and can't wait to be back.

And also kudos for organizing these races, wish we had more Amateur races here instead of Elite only.

i_am_death

[QUOTE=VanceMac;17692209]I've been busy running the Tuesday Night Racing at the local outdoor track (Encino -- 6 races already, sorry winter-bound folks), so it was nice to finally be able to race myself as Friday Night Racing has started up at the indoor track (Carson). Full fields in cat 4, cat 5, ten in the Women, and thirteen in the 1/2/3. Omnium for 1/2/3 was on the shorter side, which is fine since I've been neglecting my endurance: Snowball (16), Miss-n-Out; Points (40/10).

you looked great out there on friday Vance. This week will be even better

This is my first full race season, and snagged my first podium at the Tuesday Night Racing hosted at Encino last week in the B cat. 2nd place.
Friday night at Carson will be a different story...

dunderhi

Thanks. Today, I took only my second day off from riding since Thanksgiving. It was 80 degrees and sunny. It's going to be very long week.

carleton

Raced again tonight. Didn't win my Chariot heat (WTF?) Rode a big gear (that's my excuse). Got 2nd in my Keirin which felt like a kilo afterwards. I wish I would have passed out to not be conscious for the 45 minutes of nausea afterwards.

Kids, this is what happens when you slack off during the off-season and have to race your way into shape.

dunderhi

Slacker!


Just kidding. Feeling sick for 45 minutes - that must have been one heck of an extraordinary effort. Kudos on the ability/motivation to dig that deep.

carleton

Hahaha! Thanks.

aaronmcd

First track race ever last night! Probably 12-15 guys in the 5s. 335m track (Hellyer).

Scratch:
15 laps. Attacked at the start, reeled in 5 laps later and they ring the prime bell, dammit. Could have held out another lap, oh well. Sat in and waited. Sprinted but I was in 51x16 (only other gear I own is 51x14) so I didn't have a good jump. 5th.

Win and out:
5 laps then sprint. 3 guys got a good jump and I missed it so gave a hard effort to keep the gap small and pulled off. They stay away for the next lap, then last lap was for 3rd 4th and 5th but I didn't realize it, so when I didn't think I could get 3rd I sat behind 4th guys wheel like a dummy, no one else still in the game. So I got 5th again.

Points:
20 laps, points every 5. Attacked at the whistle again and pushed it this time for the first sprint. Eased back in and went for sprint 2, 3 of us squeezed tight together, tried to squeeze in close enough to take 2nd but not sure if I got it. Sprint 3, again I don't have the jump but I have the spin and was coming up fast, then one guy swerves across the whole track on the last straight and I was forced to ease up. 3rd. Sprint 4, winding up the outside out of turn 2, guy on the inside going much slower decides to move uptrack into me. Bump bars, stay upright, lose a bit of focus and take 3rd again. No results yet, prob got 3rd in points.

VanceMac

Round two of the FNR series. Big fields in four different categories. The 1/2/3 has had a nice influx of (really) fast youth, which is nice... no more fields of only 5-6 racers.

Motor-paced scratch. This was a bit of a mess. We are on the motor for an unannounced number of laps, and when it pulls off 2.5 to go. The only other (non-keirin) I've done like this, they gave 10 laps after the motor pulled off -- which is really how it should be, because with a full field (non-keirin size), if you are stuck back at 20th position when motor pulls off, you really have no shot in just 2.5 laps. More of an issue: the rule was 1 lap behind motor, pull off and rotate back. The very first rider didn't hear this part and stayed camped behind motor. As the officials were yelling at him, people mid-paceline got confused, got gapped hard, and half the field was out. They really should have re-started, but no big deal.

Scratch (40). Pretty standard, though overall pace never really let up given the number of big guns. Always someone attacking, and field did good job not letting anyone get away. I went with 2 of the fast kids early, hoping they would go for it, but we never had more than 1/3 lap. I finished just out of the points.

Points (40/10). I would love to see Points races of this distance be sprints every 5: more point opportunities, less recovery, etc. But at least with the field size there was none of the pulling up to blue line for a few laps after every sprint. Got first in one sprint, but I think that was all.

gtrob

Track provincials last weekend. Great turn out, its amazing seeing so many new faces but still having that small community feel where everyone is just a bunch of friends. Mostly...

Anyway, I got bumped into Elite at the last minute so had to ditch my master's team pursuit team. Im 31 and thought I could sneak into master A but have an elite license still that I've already used. Oh well. They still won with my replacement.


Kilo: For some reason its the only event I truly want to get faster at. I did a horrible 1:15.4 at Nationals in January and a 1:12.6 this weekend. Power data was 100w higher across the entire run. It was only 5th in Elite but it was a huge personal win with 3 months of hard track training. 6 months until Nationals again and hoping to find 1:10s. My opening lap is worth a second on its own...

Pursuit: Was pretty bummed I had to ride a 4k instead of 3k, I really didn't train for the longer distance mentally. I went out hard, was 2nd for the first km. Last 2km were awful, fell to 4th (but got a medal since one was american). Power was good though, right at 400w which was a PB.

Flying 200: first timed 200 at this track. I had done 100 of them in training with just personal data and was hitting 61-63kmh top speed so was hoping for 12.0. Went out pretty lazy and managed a 11.9 with much less than PB power for the 200. Came off much less sore than usual. I think with a proper warm up and my head more in the game an 11.7 could be there. Still happy, managed 6th in the sprint.

Sprint: I wanted to bow out since I had the 4k right in the middle, but it was going to screw things up so I went out for the show of it. The 5-8 race was pretty much the same, it was right after the 4k so I cared very little.

Scratch: Not going to comment too much since there is some background noise going on, but 20 guys, 9 of them on the same team, coach on the safety zone. You can imagine how it went...

Kierin: Way too early on way too nice of a day, so I slept in and went for a recovery ride instead lol


awesome exhausting weekend. Glad so many Americans came up, I think the sprint field was half from the US.

Velocirapture

Congrats on the PB's, Gtrob

taras0000

You didn't want to just sit in a watch from the the back?

aramis

Yeah I think I saw you out there last week. I started in the 5's end of last year and upgraded at the beginning of the year. You can use your time there to figure out what you are good at and what tactics work/don't work for you and learn how the races work. I still have a bunch to learn myself but it got easier after a few races for me. I don't think they posted the results on USAC for last week. This week had some bigger fields it seems.

myth001

Congrats Rob on all the racing and the medal.

Yes, it was an awesome weekend indeed. Though I was not so glad (j/k) to see so many Out-of-Ontario riders for the "Provincials". Isn't Provincials supposed to be for the citizens of the Province? Damn, I could hardly keep up with local heroes anyways, and now had even more to catch up to.
But seriously, it was lots of fun. Great turn out, especially for Ed Veal's Hour Record.

I sucked at my first attempts at Individual Pursuit, Sprint, 500m TT and Keirin. Got 14th out of ±22 riders in Scratch, while got lapped in the Points race. Keirin was fun, enjoyed it totally, and kept my last place safely in my hands every round. I would totally do it all over again.

I'm totally burnt out after so much racing, feel like going for a massage every day, but wife will suspect something if I do. LOL

aaronmcd

Fewer 5s this week, combined with juniors. I rode 51x16 again, spinning out again. But came within inches of the final sprint in points race, and took the sprint for 3rd in Win and Out. Attacked at 3 to go in scratch and lost (6th or 7th). But it's fun to try things out in no-pressure cat 5. In Win and Out a big guy attacked at the start, and kept the pace VERY fast for 2 laps losing several riders. Then he took 2nd 5 laps later.