Ttoc6

RMR weekend USAC crit. Win!

Raced this the last 3 weekends I've been home. First one I went off the front and had the win in the bag until the last lap when I flatted. Second one I didn't play right and sprinted to 4th or 5th. Today I attacked in the tailwind at minute 7 of a 45 minute race, got a gap with another dude. Dropped him. Someone else came across and we worked very well together for the next 30 minutes to roll the break to the finish line. Super messy with (double..triple..) lapped riders in the way and the A group passing us and then getting in the way for the final lap. Regardless I had to put in one huge effort to keep the breakaway from getting caught. Super happy with how I played the race to my strengths since I basically just rode my breakaway companion off my wheel in the headwind so I didn't have to try with my meager sprint in the tailwind finish.

Check out the W' graph. That looks just about right even if my power wasn't the best I've ever done.
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Radish_legs

Very nice Ttoc6.

I'm noticing a pattern here. 33 racers win races.

Ttoc6

Here's another pattern. People race well on the tail end of rest weeks. Like holy ****, all my best results ever come when I don't think I have enough work in my legs from the week leading up. I've done one "hard" ride (more like a light tempo) this week and other than that not gone above 200 Watts for the other 3 hours I trained.

Radish_legs

both times I won were when I was tired and had ridden really hard the day before. I don't think it's BECAUSE I did that, merely just luck. As in you never win a race you didn't enter.

ntnyln

Congrats @Ttoc6

wktmeow

Nice job @Ttoc6!

mattm

nice work!!

wktmeow

Not so great results at San Dimas this weekend.

Got to the TT a bit late and didn't have a proper warmup - power was not where I wanted it to be, time was only 1 sec faster than last year. Wasn't expecting to be competitive but would have liked to go a bit better.

The road race was super hard. Pro-triathlete that rode a ridiculous time in the hill climb TT was determined to not let anything go, and a bunch of strong guys kept attacking, so it was strung out and very hard a lot of the time. We shelled the better part of the field by the end. Teammate was OTF for the last lap and got caught 50m before the finish. I was supposed to sweep up the sprint, but I got gapped a bit over the last time up heckler's hill, thought I caught back on, but then the guys on the back of the pack sat up in front of me and I didn't catch it early enough to go again and latch on. 15 guys ended up coming through for the sprint, from 69 starters. Those odds would have been in my favor had I been up there.

Crit started off really well for me. I was at the front of the field for most of it, and was cornering and positioning really well. Got swarmed a bit at 2 to go, but clawed my way back up to top 8 or so, was a couple wheels back from my teammate. The final corner was taken 2-wide, and my teammate was on the inside and took too tight of a line and slid out. I didn't have room to dive inside it and had to veer outside and unclip, so again no sprint for me.

Overall fairly happy with how I raced it. I've been on a 2nd base-building period recently, doing weights and big gear stuff, so my top end was not quite there. Could have done better with hydration and eating in the RR, and should not have let myself get swarmed in the crit so I could have been 1st or 2nd through the last corner. Still, last year I never even saw the front of the group and had a really tough time moving up through the corners, so it's a marked improvement over that.

Bikeracer123

Well......what an awesome weekend of racing, Saturday’s crit was a short tight downtown course and was super fast and fun. Frankly Andreu was the commentator which was really cool to. Any way I attempted an to attack about midway through but didn’t get to far. I waited to late to move back up to the front for the finish so finished mid pack.

Hermes

Velo Sports Center LAVRA Time Trials - Kilo: 4 laps of the 250 meter indoor track from a standing start racing as fast as possible.

This was my first competitive Kilo 1:21 PR. We had 15 starters (all ages and genders) but no posted results yet. Video by wife. You cannot see it in the video but on the last lap an 800 pound gorilla came out of nowhere and jumped on my back. I did not ride in the most aero position since I decided to trade off a little more power versus aero and focused more on keeping my head turtled.

The back story on why I raced the kilo versus the 500 meters is that UCI is considering changing the masters race length at Worlds this year and all men will race the kilo versus the 500 meters. The Kilo is a better race for me although much harder and I have not been training for it per se.

I broke a 10 year 1 minute power record by 30 watts and set a new all time high heart rate by 5 beats per minute - 186. There goes my excuse that elites' hearts can beat faster than old guys due to aging. Maybe UCI has something in making the change assuming they do not kill us off.

topflightpro

Nice job Hermes.

The kilo is the most painful race I've ever done.

Radish_legs

absolute carnage in the Tour of Corsicana stage race this past weekend in Texas. I didn't participate.

There were bad crashes in most categories. One of my teammates broke his collarbone and hip (and had to undergo hip replacement). In the road race for 35 4/5.

I was reading an account of a rider who went down with a bad concussion, and the EMS was so overwhelmed it took an hour to get to him.

Bad crash in the last lap of the P/1/2 night crit. Bad crash among the women's RR. A crash in the 50+ RR took out almost half the field.

ntnyln

Nicely done @Hermes!

Ttoc6

I've always wondered what power numbers look like for such short events. Would you mind to give us a range? You don't have to say your number if you don't want.

Also, I could see the pain on that last lap.. IDK what it was, but something in your form changed. I can only imagine how much it takes to hold on and maintain position. Looking back I think I did a 1k tt my first day on the track. Borrowed drop bar bike, time was a 1.35. Don't remember that much about that particular race. I do have a garmin track for the 4k pursuit I did the same day where I borrowed some aerobars and went 6.12. I remember how much that race hurt! It just felt like it kept going..

I miss racing on the track..

Heathpack 

@Hermes, dude. Nicely done.

Hermes

I thought my legs were going to explode on the last lap when the 800 pound gorilla jumped on my back.

Thanks

I had pretty good execution on that ride meaning, I had a solid start going down track, rode the black line and I rode in a straight line and constant radius in the turns. Small changes in direction especially in the turns scrub speed and the black line is the shortest route around the track. The faster one goes the more small mistakes add up to significant time and squanders power.

Generally, I negative split my pursuit but I positive split this kilo. I rode as hard as I could from the start and just tried to hang on. My power started out very high and then looked like Niagara Falls.

Thanks, I sure hope UCI does not change our race to the kilo and the 4k. God help us if they do.

Heathpack 

???

You said the longer races favor you. So it’s good for you if they switch to the longer races right? Who cares if it sucks? You have a better chance of a medal. Which is the goal after all.

Embrace how much it sucks and know you can get it done whereas the chaff is getting weeded out by the idea of it.

<Haha I have a 40k TT coming up, not having ridden a 40k in almost a year. Can you tell I’m psyching myself up for it? >

Hermes

I ran the 400 meters in track and field as a kid. So 1 minute max efforts match my starting capability and physiology. In training, I did a lot of puke intervals for that race. As a kid, it is not so bad and at that time, I had amazing recovery. Kids do not know any better.

Fast forward to today, kilo men do a lot of puke intervals - Hoy, McClean and etc.. Some of the training is get on the stationary Wattbike with a bucket next to you. And once in shape, the race itself is always evil. I was sick for a couple of hours after Sunday's race.

I am not so sure that I want that training protocol and the event is in October. I have only been training for the 500 for 10 years and I will have maybe a couple of competitive kilo races under my belt by the time of the event. It is totally nuts.

I hope UCI does not change the race lengths. Although if history is any teacher, the kilo was eliminated from the Olympics along with other races that ruined the chances for Hoy and others. So these guys are definitely capable of making dramatic changes.

gsteinb

Counterpoint, perhaps- 50 year olds do 2kmpursuits, which is an entirely different event than 4K. Different athletes really, as if us old cripple old folks would die doing longer distances. I sort of think the distances should of be etched in Stone. 1k too hard? Go slower.

Heathpack 

In SoCal, for some reason women at age 56 have to compete in a State Championship TT event called Supermasters which is shorter than the typical 40K (I think its 20K?). Men move to Supermasters at a later age, 66 yo if I recall.

Struck me as pretty strange to imagine a 56 year old woman can't ride an hour max effort on her bike.

rankin116

Solid man, congrats!!

wjclint

My Race Story (Probably too Long, But I Won GC So . . . )

Take away for me - having a plan and following it can actually work sometimes.

2018 Tour of Corsicana (Texas), 35+ 4/5. The race is a time-based stage race, with time bonuses for placings and at various hot spots, with a 4.6 mile time trial Saturday morning, a Saturday afternoon crit, and a Sunday road race. I’m not on a team so I’m working for me.

My goal Saturday was to do really well in the time trial (very specific, I know), enough to get on the GC podium that would be five deep, and then hold that time until the end. When I crossed the finish line on the time trial I felt like my pacing sucked, and looking at my power file later it did suck and in fact I was coasting a little bit at times on the down-hills (yes coasting in a time trial that is less than five miles). The first half I went harder than the second half which is the opposite of what I planned. I ended 9th and forty-two seconds off the lead which was not bad but not what I wanted.

My goal in the crit had been, and remained, just to finish with the pack. There was one rider off the front with a good gap at the end, but nothing too bad. At the end I moved up to 7th in the GC about forty seconds back. I did get a flat and had a hike to the pit to get a neutral wheel, and there was a crash near the end that I had to lock up my brakes for and get around. However, it seemed a quite uneventful crit otherwise.

I put a lot of mental time into thinking about what to do for the road race (it’s fun to fantasize about winning). My plan was literally to try to get into anything, at any time, that looked like it might be an attempt at a break and to try to initiate a break a few times. Finishing with the pack would do nothing for my position so being in a break was the only way to do anything. Better to blow up than just sit in. For the most part that is exactly what I did, although I didn’t chase one guy, but only because I was blocked in and we caught him anyway so it worked out. A little over an hour into what should be about a two-hour race, I had just taken a pull at the front and decided to take a little dig off the front which ended up establishing a three-man break. Never imagined a little dig off the front would even get a gap but I thought it might entice someone to go. Our first time check from the motorcycle I think he said thirty-five seconds and we lost our third guy. Second time check was forty-five seconds and then ninety for the next where it stayed.

The other guy in the break and I worked well together for the rest of the race. I had a camera on and looking back I did more work than him, but I would never have stayed away on my own. He easily took first in the race at the line but we kept most of our gap which put me in first for GC with the final gap in the road race being about one minute ten seconds. The whole plan almost got crushed by a dog: It's fun winning, and more fun since I initiated the break.

Surfer3287

Lake Louisa Circuit Race Series in Clermont, FL started yesterday. I raced the B race (3/4/5). Tried to initiate a few breaks and chased down a few more. Generally sprayed watts all over the place and had a good time overall. I'll definitely try to conserve a little energy next week and either try for a late solo break (since I couldn't get anyone to really work with me earlier in the race) or just start the sprint from way out. Clermont is "hilly" for Florida, and as an uphill drag to the finish it favors my light-er weight.

rubiksoval

Some good racing going on! Nice work, fellas! Keep it rolling.

spectastic

you held 420W average for an hour?? how big are you?