Originally Posted by
mattm
Nice!
Rad dude!
You should start working on getting on a team btw - even though it's kinda late, there's maybe still time. The last Early Bird has a "meet the teams" thing where you can talk to them etc. Find the one you like (based on people, kits, whatever) and pick it.
You're strong enough to have fun in this sport, but there's so much more to it than that an eventually you'll want team mates and people to learn from.
I think meet the teams is next week. I have a gym meet to coach in the morning, so I hope the teams are there all day. I have noticed that the Dolce Vita team works pretty well in the cat 5 30-44 race. All 3 weeks they ride near the front controlling the whole damn race, and have a good leadout/sprint. I was hoping to follow them in to the finish today, but I couldn't get to them in time. It's like Dolce Vita owns that race.
Originally Posted by
mattm
Early Bird crit p/1/2's.
2nd out of 15 or so.
Small field, I blame it on the silly game going on this afternoon..
Break of 4 of us got away with 30' to go, halfway through the race. Guy I had my eye on was waiting for his team (Squadra) to pull back the break, and when they did he went. So I went too and we worked well together. Eventually a 5th guy bridged up, and we rode away into the sunset.
Didn't feel all that hard since we rode really smoothly. Two guys were skipping pulls now and then, couldn't tell if they were really gassed or just faking it.. so with 3 to go I jumped to see who still anything in their legs, everyone latched on.
Last lap, games begin. Love it! Nobody wants to be on the front, etc. After turn 3 one kid jumped hard, I got on his wheel.. he held it hard around the last sweeper, still with ~250m to go.. I hesitated for a few seconds which I think cost me the race. I assumed we'd dropped the other guys, but by the time I started to really go around, Squadra dude was coming by me fast.. note to self, DON'T HOLD BACK IN THE SPRINT!!
So it goes, but it was a good workout!
Still, 2nd place isn't bad. Can't win em all. From my very small experience it seems like sprinting is ALL about timing (probably even more so without a team). Figure out who is in contention, where they all are, where you want to be at every moment, who is waiting to go and who is fading, and pick JUST the right time to go. This is all without a team, mind you... Is that what it's like from your perspective in the higher cats as well? Is it different with a team?
And good job Hack as well!