2018 racing stories
06-03-18, 11:03 AM
#426
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Rosena Ranch 4's again. Fell off the back and just called it; nothing felt right today. I'm at the tail end of a block so a poor performance wasn't unexpected but not this poor. Sleeping 12 hours the day / night before should have been a sign that I shouldn't have even lined up. On to rest and hopefully some better results.
06-03-18, 02:24 PM
#427
**** that
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Successfully defended the State TT Championship today, Women’s 50-54 age group.
Beat the State RR Champion (who took second place) by 3.5 minutes.
Slow conditions today, not fun. Wind shift such that 75% of race was into the wind. Fortunately not much wind until the end. The final leg was hot, uphill, headwind. I was sitting on a really good time going into that leg, looked like I’d PR it. But then it all fell apart- cramping, hot, uncomfortable. I just wanted to sit up and break aero position but I figured if I was gonna have sucky power the least I could do is stay aero. So I stuck it out. Not the greatest time but everyone was slower today than last year, it was actually ok.
Teammate won the men’s 35-39, and friends won women’s 45-49, 55-59 and cat 4 races. Well done everybody.
Im gonna attempt to qualify for next years National Senior Games TTs on Tues and Wed. Aerotesting Wed at the track after the race. Then I head to the mountains on the new mtb to start deconstructing a 50k mtb fondo route that I’ll maybe make a stab at doing in September.
Beat the State RR Champion (who took second place) by 3.5 minutes.
Slow conditions today, not fun. Wind shift such that 75% of race was into the wind. Fortunately not much wind until the end. The final leg was hot, uphill, headwind. I was sitting on a really good time going into that leg, looked like I’d PR it. But then it all fell apart- cramping, hot, uncomfortable. I just wanted to sit up and break aero position but I figured if I was gonna have sucky power the least I could do is stay aero. So I stuck it out. Not the greatest time but everyone was slower today than last year, it was actually ok.
Teammate won the men’s 35-39, and friends won women’s 45-49, 55-59 and cat 4 races. Well done everybody.
Im gonna attempt to qualify for next years National Senior Games TTs on Tues and Wed. Aerotesting Wed at the track after the race. Then I head to the mountains on the new mtb to start deconstructing a 50k mtb fondo route that I’ll maybe make a stab at doing in September.
06-04-18, 01:10 PM
#428
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Giro di Coppi, Masters 45+ race, 4 laps 20K/lap. This is a road race with an interminable number of 1 to 2 minutes climbs and a couple of 45+ mph descents. After our 1st lap, we were re-routed onto other roads due to a crash in another field on one of the 40+ mph descents. We were going fast on the climbs and then would kind of lull, no real team tactics going on, so I went off the front for a while, it was mostly to drift one of the sharper climbs on the course and steady out the effort, but I had a 40" lead at one point. I havent raced much since 2015 so just attacking and rolling solo was kind of fun.
On our bell lap we were routed back onto the original course. On the first 40+ mph downhill, I'm not sure what happened, but I saw bodies and bikes flying everywhere and the noise of a big crash going down. I remember locking up my brakes and thinking "we're going really fast, this could be fatal" as I skidded through the first wave of crash, then I let off the brakes to keep from going down when the next wave of crash (those that had gone down first) left no routes through. Onto the pavement I went, hip first, then back, then back of head into bike with person attached to it. An abrupt 43 mph to 0 mph.
At least 15 to 20 people involved, bikes and bodies all over the road, pools of blood on the pavement, and a lot of groaning. At that point, the motos called in "mass casualties" and had every EMS in the area respond. Road closed, no one allowed in. I realized I was OK after laying on the ground for a while, and got up to see if I could help anyone and to look for friends. There were a couple people that had some obvious broken bones including one that appeared a compound fracture in his ankle, a couple of obvious shoulder separations/broken collarbones, and 2 injured/broken wrists, but shockingly (thankfully), mostly superficial road rash wounds (this is a 45+ masters race, nothing like a bunch of old men with torn clothes and assess hanging out, very unattractive). The incident was really well handled by the officials, race promoter and EMS. Multiple ambulances, fire trucks, and the mass casualty bus showed up. If you didnt need to go to hospital, you got a green wrist band; yellow if you needed to go to hospital, but not life threatening; red = emergency. I got a green.
It was about 90 minutes before I got back to my car. My phone was blown up with messages as the crash was on the news, and my wife heard about it.
All told, I have a moderate concussion and a lot of road rash, but given the circumstances, consider myself to be very fortunate. I've been told the other crash that caused re-routing of the race course was a young cat 4 racer and required a medevac, but I haven't heard other info. I hope he's OK.
Be safe.
On our bell lap we were routed back onto the original course. On the first 40+ mph downhill, I'm not sure what happened, but I saw bodies and bikes flying everywhere and the noise of a big crash going down. I remember locking up my brakes and thinking "we're going really fast, this could be fatal" as I skidded through the first wave of crash, then I let off the brakes to keep from going down when the next wave of crash (those that had gone down first) left no routes through. Onto the pavement I went, hip first, then back, then back of head into bike with person attached to it. An abrupt 43 mph to 0 mph.
At least 15 to 20 people involved, bikes and bodies all over the road, pools of blood on the pavement, and a lot of groaning. At that point, the motos called in "mass casualties" and had every EMS in the area respond. Road closed, no one allowed in. I realized I was OK after laying on the ground for a while, and got up to see if I could help anyone and to look for friends. There were a couple people that had some obvious broken bones including one that appeared a compound fracture in his ankle, a couple of obvious shoulder separations/broken collarbones, and 2 injured/broken wrists, but shockingly (thankfully), mostly superficial road rash wounds (this is a 45+ masters race, nothing like a bunch of old men with torn clothes and assess hanging out, very unattractive). The incident was really well handled by the officials, race promoter and EMS. Multiple ambulances, fire trucks, and the mass casualty bus showed up. If you didnt need to go to hospital, you got a green wrist band; yellow if you needed to go to hospital, but not life threatening; red = emergency. I got a green.
It was about 90 minutes before I got back to my car. My phone was blown up with messages as the crash was on the news, and my wife heard about it.
All told, I have a moderate concussion and a lot of road rash, but given the circumstances, consider myself to be very fortunate. I've been told the other crash that caused re-routing of the race course was a young cat 4 racer and required a medevac, but I haven't heard other info. I hope he's OK.
Be safe.
06-04-18, 06:04 PM
#431
fuggitivo solitario
Giro di Coppi, Masters 45+ race, 4 laps 20K/lap. This is a road race with an interminable number of 1 to 2 minutes climbs and a couple of 45+ mph descents. After our 1st lap, we were re-routed onto other roads due to a crash in another field on one of the 40+ mph descents. We were going fast on the climbs and then would kind of lull, no real team tactics going on, so I went off the front for a while, it was mostly to drift one of the sharper climbs on the course and steady out the effort, but I had a 40" lead at one point. I havent raced much since 2015 so just attacking and rolling solo was kind of fun.
On our bell lap we were routed back onto the original course. On the first 40+ mph downhill, I'm not sure what happened, but I saw bodies and bikes flying everywhere and the noise of a big crash going down. I remember locking up my brakes and thinking "we're going really fast, this could be fatal" as I skidded through the first wave of crash, then I let off the brakes to keep from going down when the next wave of crash (those that had gone down first) left no routes through. Onto the pavement I went, hip first, then back, then back of head into bike with person attached to it. An abrupt 43 mph to 0 mph.
At least 15 to 20 people involved, bikes and bodies all over the road, pools of blood on the pavement, and a lot of groaning. At that point, the motos called in "mass casualties" and had every EMS in the area respond. Road closed, no one allowed in. I realized I was OK after laying on the ground for a while, and got up to see if I could help anyone and to look for friends. There were a couple people that had some obvious broken bones including one that appeared a compound fracture in his ankle, a couple of obvious shoulder separations/broken collarbones, and 2 injured/broken wrists, but shockingly (thankfully), mostly superficial road rash wounds (this is a 45+ masters race, nothing like a bunch of old men with torn clothes and assess hanging out, very unattractive). The incident was really well handled by the officials, race promoter and EMS. Multiple ambulances, fire trucks, and the mass casualty bus showed up. If you didnt need to go to hospital, you got a green wrist band; yellow if you needed to go to hospital, but not life threatening; red = emergency. I got a green.
It was about 90 minutes before I got back to my car. My phone was blown up with messages as the crash was on the news, and my wife heard about it.
All told, I have a moderate concussion and a lot of road rash, but given the circumstances, consider myself to be very fortunate. I've been told the other crash that caused re-routing of the race course was a young cat 4 racer and required a medevac, but I haven't heard other info. I hope he's OK.
Be safe.
On our bell lap we were routed back onto the original course. On the first 40+ mph downhill, I'm not sure what happened, but I saw bodies and bikes flying everywhere and the noise of a big crash going down. I remember locking up my brakes and thinking "we're going really fast, this could be fatal" as I skidded through the first wave of crash, then I let off the brakes to keep from going down when the next wave of crash (those that had gone down first) left no routes through. Onto the pavement I went, hip first, then back, then back of head into bike with person attached to it. An abrupt 43 mph to 0 mph.
At least 15 to 20 people involved, bikes and bodies all over the road, pools of blood on the pavement, and a lot of groaning. At that point, the motos called in "mass casualties" and had every EMS in the area respond. Road closed, no one allowed in. I realized I was OK after laying on the ground for a while, and got up to see if I could help anyone and to look for friends. There were a couple people that had some obvious broken bones including one that appeared a compound fracture in his ankle, a couple of obvious shoulder separations/broken collarbones, and 2 injured/broken wrists, but shockingly (thankfully), mostly superficial road rash wounds (this is a 45+ masters race, nothing like a bunch of old men with torn clothes and assess hanging out, very unattractive). The incident was really well handled by the officials, race promoter and EMS. Multiple ambulances, fire trucks, and the mass casualty bus showed up. If you didnt need to go to hospital, you got a green wrist band; yellow if you needed to go to hospital, but not life threatening; red = emergency. I got a green.
It was about 90 minutes before I got back to my car. My phone was blown up with messages as the crash was on the news, and my wife heard about it.
All told, I have a moderate concussion and a lot of road rash, but given the circumstances, consider myself to be very fortunate. I've been told the other crash that caused re-routing of the race course was a young cat 4 racer and required a medevac, but I haven't heard other info. I hope he's OK.
Be safe.
I had a serious contemplation re: whether I wanted to continue with mass start racing. At first, I gave up racing hilly multi-corner crits, as I thought I'd be a danger to myself and others. At least back when I lived in DC, I had the relative safety of Hains, where I could train. After moving to NJ, I couldn't even find safe places to train and have been doing 95%+ of my training on Zwift since last summer. Throw in age, and all the sudden I'm just not that motivated to race mass start on the road anymore. I was so close to getting my Cat-2 upgrade when I left the DC area, but I just don't feel motivated anymore. The thing with that particular descent is that normally, there's nothing scary about it. The road (Old Hundred going northbound, if I surmised correctly), drops for about 0.4 miles at 6-7%, before hitting a valley and rising again. There are no turns, much less corners.
While I did it, it was so exhilarating, especially when I was able to stay away. But at some point, it just feels as if the entry fees are not worth it (both the risks encountered in training and in racing). I bought the full camera set-up for my bike, with the intention that should something untoward happens, there'd be at least some video evidence, but a 2-month lull due to injury made me realize what sort of a pyrrhic victory it would be if the evidence collected would ever become useful. I hope I will continue with ITTs and pick up MTB racing in the interim, though given the technical nature of MTB, I'm not so sure about how far i'd want to take it. If the bike racing's version of Alec Baldwin would like to indict me on the following, I'd be fine with it. To all you still participating in this wonderful sport, good luck and stay safe.
Last edited by echappist; 06-04-18 at 06:10 PM.
06-05-18, 06:31 AM
#433
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06-05-18, 06:33 AM
#434
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06-05-18, 06:39 AM
#435
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@MDcatV glad you're okay!
Oh f***. At least you are okay. Speedy recovery!
I had a serious contemplation re: whether I wanted to continue with mass start racing. At first, I gave up racing hilly multi-corner crits, as I thought I'd be a danger to myself and others. At least back when I lived in DC, I had the relative safety of Hains, where I could train. After moving to NJ, I couldn't even find safe places to train and have been doing 95%+ of my training on Zwift since last summer. Throw in age, and all the sudden I'm just not that motivated to race mass start on the road anymore. I was so close to getting my Cat-2 upgrade when I left the DC area, but I just don't feel motivated anymore. The thing with that particular descent is that normally, there's nothing scary about it. The road (Old Hundred going northbound, if I surmised correctly), drops for about 0.4 miles at 6-7%, before hitting a valley and rising again. There are no turns, much less corners.
While I did it, it was so exhilarating, especially when I was able to stay away. But at some point, it just feels as if the entry fees are not worth it (both the risks encountered in training and in racing). I bought the full camera set-up for my bike, with the intention that should something untoward happens, there'd be at least some video evidence, but a 2-month lull due to injury made me realize what sort of a pyrrhic victory it would be if the evidence collected would ever become useful. I hope I will continue with ITTs and pick up MTB racing in the interim, though given the technical nature of MTB, I'm not so sure about how far i'd want to take it. If the bike racing's version of Alec Baldwin would like to indict me on the following, I'd be fine with it. To all you still participating in this wonderful sport, good luck and stay safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emSV5DicTVw
I had a serious contemplation re: whether I wanted to continue with mass start racing. At first, I gave up racing hilly multi-corner crits, as I thought I'd be a danger to myself and others. At least back when I lived in DC, I had the relative safety of Hains, where I could train. After moving to NJ, I couldn't even find safe places to train and have been doing 95%+ of my training on Zwift since last summer. Throw in age, and all the sudden I'm just not that motivated to race mass start on the road anymore. I was so close to getting my Cat-2 upgrade when I left the DC area, but I just don't feel motivated anymore. The thing with that particular descent is that normally, there's nothing scary about it. The road (Old Hundred going northbound, if I surmised correctly), drops for about 0.4 miles at 6-7%, before hitting a valley and rising again. There are no turns, much less corners.
While I did it, it was so exhilarating, especially when I was able to stay away. But at some point, it just feels as if the entry fees are not worth it (both the risks encountered in training and in racing). I bought the full camera set-up for my bike, with the intention that should something untoward happens, there'd be at least some video evidence, but a 2-month lull due to injury made me realize what sort of a pyrrhic victory it would be if the evidence collected would ever become useful. I hope I will continue with ITTs and pick up MTB racing in the interim, though given the technical nature of MTB, I'm not so sure about how far i'd want to take it. If the bike racing's version of Alec Baldwin would like to indict me on the following, I'd be fine with it. To all you still participating in this wonderful sport, good luck and stay safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emSV5DicTVw
06-05-18, 07:56 AM
#436
out walking the earth
Last check the majority of folks who frequent this forum
don’t actually race. So not sure who the judgmental racers are.
don’t actually race. So not sure who the judgmental racers are.
06-05-18, 10:16 AM
#437
fuggitivo solitario
thanks FF!
hey @echappist! totally understand that thought process, i'm kind of there. at least you're good at ITTs, me on the other hand, I think I still owe you something from a lost ITT bet ... church creek circa 2015? :-)
hey @echappist! totally understand that thought process, i'm kind of there. at least you're good at ITTs, me on the other hand, I think I still owe you something from a lost ITT bet ... church creek circa 2015? :-)
Last edited by echappist; 06-05-18 at 11:16 AM.
06-05-18, 10:17 AM
#438
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I'm personally very forgiving toward new racers/non-racers, but experienced racers doing stupid **** does grind my gears.
06-05-18, 10:19 AM
#439
out walking the earth
A couple of cat fours sent me under the knife and ended my RR career. I told the guy I was with not to yell at them because things happen and it wouldn’t learn them nothing that way.
06-05-18, 02:14 PM
#441
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Giro di Coppi, Masters 45+ race, 4 laps 20K/lap. This is a road race with an interminable number of 1 to 2 minutes climbs and a couple of 45+ mph descents. After our 1st lap, we were re-routed onto other roads due to a crash in another field on one of the 40+ mph descents. We were going fast on the climbs and then would kind of lull, no real team tactics going on, so I went off the front for a while, it was mostly to drift one of the sharper climbs on the course and steady out the effort, but I had a 40" lead at one point. I havent raced much since 2015 so just attacking and rolling solo was kind of fun.
On our bell lap we were routed back onto the original course. On the first 40+ mph downhill, I'm not sure what happened, but I saw bodies and bikes flying everywhere and the noise of a big crash going down. I remember locking up my brakes and thinking "we're going really fast, this could be fatal" as I skidded through the first wave of crash, then I let off the brakes to keep from going down when the next wave of crash (those that had gone down first) left no routes through. Onto the pavement I went, hip first, then back, then back of head into bike with person attached to it. An abrupt 43 mph to 0 mph.
At least 15 to 20 people involved, bikes and bodies all over the road, pools of blood on the pavement, and a lot of groaning. At that point, the motos called in "mass casualties" and had every EMS in the area respond. Road closed, no one allowed in. I realized I was OK after laying on the ground for a while, and got up to see if I could help anyone and to look for friends. There were a couple people that had some obvious broken bones including one that appeared a compound fracture in his ankle, a couple of obvious shoulder separations/broken collarbones, and 2 injured/broken wrists, but shockingly (thankfully), mostly superficial road rash wounds (this is a 45+ masters race, nothing like a bunch of old men with torn clothes and assess hanging out, very unattractive). The incident was really well handled by the officials, race promoter and EMS. Multiple ambulances, fire trucks, and the mass casualty bus showed up. If you didnt need to go to hospital, you got a green wrist band; yellow if you needed to go to hospital, but not life threatening; red = emergency. I got a green.
It was about 90 minutes before I got back to my car. My phone was blown up with messages as the crash was on the news, and my wife heard about it.
All told, I have a moderate concussion and a lot of road rash, but given the circumstances, consider myself to be very fortunate. I've been told the other crash that caused re-routing of the race course was a young cat 4 racer and required a medevac, but I haven't heard other info. I hope he's OK.
Be safe.
On our bell lap we were routed back onto the original course. On the first 40+ mph downhill, I'm not sure what happened, but I saw bodies and bikes flying everywhere and the noise of a big crash going down. I remember locking up my brakes and thinking "we're going really fast, this could be fatal" as I skidded through the first wave of crash, then I let off the brakes to keep from going down when the next wave of crash (those that had gone down first) left no routes through. Onto the pavement I went, hip first, then back, then back of head into bike with person attached to it. An abrupt 43 mph to 0 mph.
At least 15 to 20 people involved, bikes and bodies all over the road, pools of blood on the pavement, and a lot of groaning. At that point, the motos called in "mass casualties" and had every EMS in the area respond. Road closed, no one allowed in. I realized I was OK after laying on the ground for a while, and got up to see if I could help anyone and to look for friends. There were a couple people that had some obvious broken bones including one that appeared a compound fracture in his ankle, a couple of obvious shoulder separations/broken collarbones, and 2 injured/broken wrists, but shockingly (thankfully), mostly superficial road rash wounds (this is a 45+ masters race, nothing like a bunch of old men with torn clothes and assess hanging out, very unattractive). The incident was really well handled by the officials, race promoter and EMS. Multiple ambulances, fire trucks, and the mass casualty bus showed up. If you didnt need to go to hospital, you got a green wrist band; yellow if you needed to go to hospital, but not life threatening; red = emergency. I got a green.
It was about 90 minutes before I got back to my car. My phone was blown up with messages as the crash was on the news, and my wife heard about it.
All told, I have a moderate concussion and a lot of road rash, but given the circumstances, consider myself to be very fortunate. I've been told the other crash that caused re-routing of the race course was a young cat 4 racer and required a medevac, but I haven't heard other info. I hope he's OK.
Be safe.
I was working the corner of Comus and Peachtree, that went from being a "manage crossing traffic" corner to "new right-hander" during the race. After hearing what happened in the 4/5, we were all just hoping to get everybody off course unharmed and call it a day. Then they reopened the full course, 1-to-go, and only half of the masters field rolled by - we were immediately thinking, "oh sh*t, another crash???" and one of the last guys through in the group confirmed.
Not a great day.
06-05-18, 04:05 PM
#442
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A couple of months ago, a woman at a TT suggested I race the National Senior Games qualifiers. My initial response was ‘what, I’m too young to do that.’ Nope, it’s for people 50 and up. My second response was ‘I can’t do that, I’ll be up in Tahoe acclimating to altitude (aka mountain biking) before the NoCal State TT’. Then that got cancelled and so did my trip. So suddenly I was free on a Tuesday morning to race a crazy short TT- it’s a little over 5K, two laps of a flat, closed 1.75ish mile course. Totally unique challenge for me, decided to do it.
I wasn’t sure how to approach it, settled on targeting a 110% effort.
Went really well, I would up getting it done at 113%. Average cadence 98. Even splits, I think within 2 seconds of each other (although my plan had been negative splits). HR right at threshold, max HR was truly my max HR, 60% of the time I was in HR zone 5. No lapses except that I planned on lap 2 to ease off slightly (“rest” at 106%) during a brief tailwind section before heading up into the wind at the end. That was a mistake, not of execution (I “rested” at 109%) but of planning, because I wound up in second place by 10 seconds and I think that planned rest was the 10 sec margin. I finished that final headwind section at almost 140%, so I don’t think I needed the micro-rest, I could have kept pushing.
Whatever, it was pretty well done for my first attempt at that distance. Will be interesting to talk to Ex to see his take on the gameplan. I’m happy with it though and really enjoyed the distance and the organizers, it was a very good vibe kind of race. Qualified me for the National Senior Games in June next year, I’m now planning on it. Another TT tomorrow, four laps. I still need to sit down and decide on a strategy for that one.
No one knows where the third place woman went, she was awol when they handed out the medals.
06-05-18, 07:59 PM
#444
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So glad to hear you're relatively ok!
I was working the corner of Comus and Peachtree, that went from being a "manage crossing traffic" corner to "new right-hander" during the race. After hearing what happened in the 4/5, we were all just hoping to get everybody off course unharmed and call it a day. Then they reopened the full course, 1-to-go, and only half of the masters field rolled by - we were immediately thinking, "oh sh*t, another crash???" and one of the last guys through in the group confirmed.
Not a great day.
I was working the corner of Comus and Peachtree, that went from being a "manage crossing traffic" corner to "new right-hander" during the race. After hearing what happened in the 4/5, we were all just hoping to get everybody off course unharmed and call it a day. Then they reopened the full course, 1-to-go, and only half of the masters field rolled by - we were immediately thinking, "oh sh*t, another crash???" and one of the last guys through in the group confirmed.
Not a great day.
06-05-18, 11:40 PM
#445
**** that
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Now now, I don't hate anyone.
@MDcatV sorry to hear about the crash. I hope you don't quit due to it!
It's a silly sport, but awesome when people keep going even though it's so silly. (and by "silly" I mean loads of danger for not much in return)
@MDcatV sorry to hear about the crash. I hope you don't quit due to it!
It's a silly sport, but awesome when people keep going even though it's so silly. (and by "silly" I mean loads of danger for not much in return)
06-06-18, 08:00 AM
#446
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Now now, I don't hate anyone.
@MDcatV sorry to hear about the crash. I hope you don't quit due to it!
It's a silly sport, but awesome when people keep going even though it's so silly. (and by "silly" I mean loads of danger for not much in return)
@MDcatV sorry to hear about the crash. I hope you don't quit due to it!
It's a silly sport, but awesome when people keep going even though it's so silly. (and by "silly" I mean loads of danger for not much in return)
i've had one foot out of the peleton for a few years due to kids getting older, but I'll keep one foot in :-)
06-07-18, 09:17 AM
#447
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Wednesday night crit. Sat for the first few laps. Did my patented 900 watt seated stealth attack after 10 minutes or so. Got away with one guy and we rolled it for 5-6 laps until two guys bridged up. Rolled some more. Two more guys bridged up. Rolled some more. Field chase cracked. Worked well together until 5 laps to go when the strongest dude just about broke us in half with some vicious, scathing attacks. Held on for dear life. Last lap the other guys started looking at each other. I was second wheel and the guy in front of me saw them look around and just buried it. I pulled through once, then he pulled through again. Then I sprinted and won. Yay for weeknight bike races.
06-07-18, 05:15 PM
#448
Has a magic bike
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 12,590
Bikes: 2018 Scott Spark, 2015 Fuji Norcom Straight, 2014 BMC GF01, 2013 Trek Madone
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Well these short little Senior Games TTs were very engaging, interesting to try to figure out how to race em. Yesterday was the four lap TT, 11.1km. I was a little hungover, targeted at little too low of a power number and then missed that by 2 watts. But I rode four little perfect negatively split laps: lap 1 was X seconds, laps 2 & 3 were X-minus-10 seconds and lap 4 was X-minus-14 seconds. Happy with that. Not as many people stayed for day 2, if you qualified on Day 1, strategically there was no reason to. So I won the women’s 50-54 race but there were only two of us in it.
Afterward we went to the track for a very productive aerotesting session. Interesting chitchat about aero stuff weaved into the testing. Great stuff.
So that ends my racing season. My goal events were NoCal and SoCal State TTs. NoCal was cancelled and I won SoCal, so mission accomplished. I also wanted to do well in the SoCal TT Series but for various reasons I never got much going with that: too much mtb fatigue early in the season, then sick, then changing the State TT dates leading to some misdirection in the training plan and rescheduled time off causing work stress, and then for a number of reasons I decided to change my position mid-season and that took some getting used to. But whatever.
I liked the short TTs so much that I think next year I’m going to focus on National Senior Games in June. Probably will use a bunch of local 20k TTs to prepare, starting Januaryish. Still will work the TT stuff of course (went more aggressive on the TT position after yesterday’s aerotest session, so gotta move forward with that) and I might not be able to resist a 20k TT this summer or fall. But tomorrow I’ll dip the toe back into mtb, gonna head up to the mountains to ride bits of a mtb fondo course I’m contemplating. Looking forward to a little break from the structure.
Ha, when my fitter saw the new mtb (had a question about the reach on that bike), his response was: Sweet. This is The Bike Everyone Wants Right Now. Fell into my lap, 2018 bike, used, with 120 miles on it.
Afterward we went to the track for a very productive aerotesting session. Interesting chitchat about aero stuff weaved into the testing. Great stuff.
So that ends my racing season. My goal events were NoCal and SoCal State TTs. NoCal was cancelled and I won SoCal, so mission accomplished. I also wanted to do well in the SoCal TT Series but for various reasons I never got much going with that: too much mtb fatigue early in the season, then sick, then changing the State TT dates leading to some misdirection in the training plan and rescheduled time off causing work stress, and then for a number of reasons I decided to change my position mid-season and that took some getting used to. But whatever.
I liked the short TTs so much that I think next year I’m going to focus on National Senior Games in June. Probably will use a bunch of local 20k TTs to prepare, starting Januaryish. Still will work the TT stuff of course (went more aggressive on the TT position after yesterday’s aerotest session, so gotta move forward with that) and I might not be able to resist a 20k TT this summer or fall. But tomorrow I’ll dip the toe back into mtb, gonna head up to the mountains to ride bits of a mtb fondo course I’m contemplating. Looking forward to a little break from the structure.
Ha, when my fitter saw the new mtb (had a question about the reach on that bike), his response was: Sweet. This is The Bike Everyone Wants Right Now. Fell into my lap, 2018 bike, used, with 120 miles on it.
06-07-18, 07:15 PM
#449
Cat 2
Well these short little Senior Games TTs were very engaging, interesting to try to figure out how to race em. Yesterday was the four lap TT, 11.1km. I was a little hungover, targeted at little too low of a power number and then missed that by 2 watts. But I rode four little perfect negatively split laps: lap 1 was X seconds, laps 2 & 3 were X-minus-10 seconds and lap 4 was X-minus-14 seconds. Happy with that. Not as many people stayed for day 2, if you qualified on Day 1, strategically there was no reason to. So I won the women’s 50-54 race but there were only two of us in it.
Afterward we went to the track for a very productive aerotesting session. Interesting chitchat about aero stuff weaved into the testing. Great stuff.
So that ends my racing season. My goal events were NoCal and SoCal State TTs. NoCal was cancelled and I won SoCal, so mission accomplished. I also wanted to do well in the SoCal TT Series but for various reasons I never got much going with that: too much mtb fatigue early in the season, then sick, then changing the State TT dates leading to some misdirection in the training plan and rescheduled time off causing work stress, and then for a number of reasons I decided to change my position mid-season and that took some getting used to. But whatever.
I liked the short TTs so much that I think next year I’m going to focus on National Senior Games in June. Probably will use a bunch of local 20k TTs to prepare, starting Januaryish. Still will work the TT stuff of course (went more aggressive on the TT position after yesterday’s aerotest session, so gotta move forward with that) and I might not be able to resist a 20k TT this summer or fall. But tomorrow I’ll dip the toe back into mtb, gonna head up to the mountains to ride bits of a mtb fondo course I’m contemplating. Looking forward to a little break from the structure.
Ha, when my fitter saw the new mtb (had a question about the reach on that bike), his response was: Sweet. This is The Bike Everyone Wants Right Now. Fell into my lap, 2018 bike, used, with 120 miles on it.
Afterward we went to the track for a very productive aerotesting session. Interesting chitchat about aero stuff weaved into the testing. Great stuff.
So that ends my racing season. My goal events were NoCal and SoCal State TTs. NoCal was cancelled and I won SoCal, so mission accomplished. I also wanted to do well in the SoCal TT Series but for various reasons I never got much going with that: too much mtb fatigue early in the season, then sick, then changing the State TT dates leading to some misdirection in the training plan and rescheduled time off causing work stress, and then for a number of reasons I decided to change my position mid-season and that took some getting used to. But whatever.
I liked the short TTs so much that I think next year I’m going to focus on National Senior Games in June. Probably will use a bunch of local 20k TTs to prepare, starting Januaryish. Still will work the TT stuff of course (went more aggressive on the TT position after yesterday’s aerotest session, so gotta move forward with that) and I might not be able to resist a 20k TT this summer or fall. But tomorrow I’ll dip the toe back into mtb, gonna head up to the mountains to ride bits of a mtb fondo course I’m contemplating. Looking forward to a little break from the structure.
Ha, when my fitter saw the new mtb (had a question about the reach on that bike), his response was: Sweet. This is The Bike Everyone Wants Right Now. Fell into my lap, 2018 bike, used, with 120 miles on it.
What mtb did you pick up?
06-07-18, 08:28 PM
#450
Has a magic bike
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 12,590
Bikes: 2018 Scott Spark, 2015 Fuji Norcom Straight, 2014 BMC GF01, 2013 Trek Madone
Mentioned: 699 Post(s)
Tagged: 1 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4456 Post(s)
Liked 425 Times
in
157 Posts
As to the mountain bike: I got a 2018 Scott Contessa Spark. Twenty two pound full-suspension mtb, 29er, 1x12. So far it’s a very sweet bike but I was keeping things under wraps a bit with the State TT on my horizon. Now I’m ready to ride the heck out of that thing.