mattm

Won the Sky Express p1/2 crit last weekend! Nice to get my general seasonal goal ("win something") out of the way so early in the season. Sky Express is the Red Kite race but rebranded - different promoter, same course. Field was 40-something, pretty good for this race.

We had six guys, the biggest team, so the pressure was on us to win. And the pressure was on me to sprint at the end of the race if it came down to that.

Vegan Cyclist's new "Ride Bikes Bro" team was there with a new guy that recently won a local crit, so he was a guy to watch. He's a breakaway kind of guy so I was all over almost every one of his attacks.

Nothing got away (even though we & Ride Bikes wanted a break, it seemed) so it came down to more or less a field sprint. The fast guy from Ride Bikes was otf for the last lap by maybe 5 seconds, and I got a mini-leadout from a teammate in which we jumped a leadout train coming in to the penultimate corner. I had to brake going in to that corner and then we came out of it slow, and I was freaking out thinking we're about to get swarmed..

The guy was still solo otf so I figured it was either get swarmed and battle for 2nd, or go WAY EARLY (~600m to go) and see if I can catch the guy otf.

I went early and caught the guy at the last corner, then came around him for the win. Boom!

TMonk

bravo!

UmneyDurak

Nice, congrats!

Few weeks ago I got that goal completely unexpectedly. Was helping teammate in stage race. Last race was RR. I was attacking, and pushing the pace on ever roller and rise. It was pretty flat race overall. On last lap got to the front again and next thing I know have a gap. So just went for it. Figured there were still teammate to help him, and it would be nice to have someone on GC podium and win the race. At some point had 1min on the field. Crossed the line 10s before the field, and collapsed. Didn't even stay for GC podiums. Which was a mistake. Apparently the win propelled me to podium position somehow. Teammate in GC got a flat with 2km to go and DNFed.

cmh

Awesome job UD and MattM. Glad you both got a win in before racing shut down.

Cypress

Did a Zwift race last night, so figured I'd post here.

It was the 3R Volcano Flat Reverse 50k (A)

I had no clue what to expect for a race this long, and I'd only done one other B race that I just rode away from (no A category available). At the start it at LEAST 10 people were doing 8-10 W/kg. I assume this is to maybe create separation between the villains and the people that just want to "hang on". The first 30 seconds showed a NP of 507W for me, so it was about par for a crit. The first 10 miles were "brisk' and it settled down into somewhat of a groove. The pack was slowly being whittled down by little punches. Every tiny rise in the road saw dudes going for gold at 7 W/kg. I got caught sleeping on one of them while I was texting and didn't realize it until I was already being spit off the back, so a minute at FTP put me back into the pack quicker than I imagined.

Overall, I was getting mentally bored near the end. Staying in the pack was low tempo wattage with small kicks near FTP. Average watts for the whole race was 280W for 1:06:56 (4.1 W/kg), NP was 295W.

I'd never done a sprint in a Zwift race, so the finish was...something. I found myself at the front (because you can just ride "through" dudes) so I backed off the wattage in order to use the pack as an aero springboard. I still went WAY too early. I quickly ran out of gears on my bike, and you can see it in the power readout. You can see shifts followed by small wattage increases, then one final "let off" for a shift that never came, then the RPM's just keep climbing until death. Sprinting on rollers takes some practice, and I haven't done a ton of it. I had the highest 15s W/kg of the group at 13.9.

I ended up getting third on Zwift Power behind two Asian riders (surprise surprise).

hubcyclist

It's an interesting phenomenon, I know there's bad data all around the world, especially these days, but I've noticed in the past how folks from Asian countries have these crazy stats. Wonder how much is deliberate vs just not knowing proper calibration.

tobukog

I know that it's hard to believe that two riders from Asia could be better than someone from the States in a sprint finish. 3rd in a Zwift race is good.

furiousferret

A few times I've Strava stalked Zwifters and what they do on the Zwift doesn't compare with their Segment standings. I don't think many are being intentionally dishonest, more than likely the PM they own reads too high which is no fault of their own. There's also some talent out there as well....

Also, tactics in Zwift are different than on the real roads; you rarely can get solo separation. It usually needs to be 3 to gap a group, and coordinating that can be hard. I have no sprint, and I've tried everything to break free in the last few km's. It just doesn't happen; the collective pack is almost impossible to beat. Really the best thing to do if you are a strong rider with no sprint is just to keep making people work and hope they crack. Hurt them on the hills, pick it up if there's a gap, just make them put in more kj's. Sometimes I'll just go as hard as I can for the last 5 minutes; If its a pack of 10 maybe 3 fall off and 3 are too tired to contest.

I'm probably going to race tonight, after 4:30 pst. Legs feel good, maybe the Tour for All thingy at 5:10.

UmneyDurak

I jumped in to few B races and placed top 10 in all, but it's same thing. Basically starts above FTP, settles to FTP with some spikes, and sprint at the end. It kind of closer to doing TT than actual crit or road racing.

JLTD

We raced this weekend in Utah! No USAC sanction, but permitted through the county and insured independently. COVID questionnaire and temperature checks at check-in. Limited field sizes (30 per group) and many groups filled almost immediately when registration opened.

Racing was fast, lots of pent up demand and aggression I guess! Pretty much full out from the gun to the finish in the P/1/2 group. 5.7 mile circuit with 350 feet of elevation gain each lap, we did 8 laps for 45 miles and 2600 feet (2 hour scheduled, went 1:50). It was great to get out and race again.

Break never could get established, just too many fresh legs I believe. Attrition (and heat, it was 90-95 which is not normal for May here) took the group to about 12 midway through the second to last lap. Early in the final lap a solo attack got a nice gap and the subsequent chase (and catch at the top of the final climb) had it down to 8 guys for the finish.

Last corner was 200 from the line...it was tight, dirty and kinda sketchy. Eventual winner sprinted for the corner, made it through (on the dirt) and held it on the uphill drag to the finish. And no, that person was not me. Cameron Hoffman, some here likely know him. Good move by a really good racer.

Pretty cool drone footage of the finish.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?t=4&v=2406220343008965

Wylde06

4.5 mile Merckx TT last night. The (delayed) start of our club racing. A poll went out to all members a week or 2 ago asking who wanted to race and something like 86% percent of people said yes..so we did the most socially distant form of it.

~88 degrees and a 20mph sw wind, which happened to be a headwind...usually. The road we used was actually pretty sheltered from it, even though we should have had a direct headwind the whole time. Normally after everyone signs in a start order is determined based on how fast people usually are, but this time we just started in the order we signed in, with 1 minute between riders. I was 13th

Rode to the start as my warmup, felt not great, and when it was my turn to go I was hoping for at least 15 minutes considering the wind. Ended up with a 12:56 and averaged about 246. Power was about where I hoped it to be (this is the longest effort ive done all year) and the pacing was actually pretty decent now that im looking at the power graph. No clue what place that put me in, but likely in the bottom half, which im not too worried about.

Missed my clip in and smoked my ankle on my pedal. Luckily I wear tall socks so I didnt slice open my ankle, but it still cut the skin a little and its kind of sore this morning to the touch.

I would be ok if we just did time trials for now. I need these kinds of efforts and will now plan on doing 10+ minute intervals...because even though a 4.5 mile TT is terrible, I was glad to be out there again and of course want to do better next time

JLTD

We raced again here in UT a couple weeks ago. USAC sanctioned this time, and with no racing pretty much anywhere a handful of pro's showed up who'd been in the area training. Quinn Simmons and Kevin Vermaerke, couple others as well. 50 mile road race, basically flat, only about 1500 feet. Two laps around the 25 mile course. Took about 30-45 mins of pretty hard racing but eventually a break of 8 got up the road, Vermaerke was in there along with a Hincapie guy and some of the better local dudes. Simmons flatted trying to come across, he would have got there I'm sure. Break stayed out with a small gap, Vermaerke got away solo in the last few miles for the win. I was second. Fun to have those young pros there, everyone was motivated to show up and not let them crush us (lol), made for a fast day, 27.5 mph avg.

Cypress

Raced a 117-mile Fondo TT and won. Raced a gravel race and won. Racing another gravel race this weekend and probably won't win. The promoter is expecting some sort of grand battle between Stafano Barberi and I.

Pic from the top of the final climb during the gravel race compliments of Harry Apelbaum Studios:

Hermes

Congrats and great pic. Looking good is the best. Do not forget to credit photographer if you know who it was.

Cypress

Edited. Thanks!

cmh

Congrats Cypress. Tough stuff.

furiousferret

Great job Cypress!

TMonk

ballin!

Doge

Cypress showed it, but the change came a lot faster than I expected - re Fondos. I'm wondering why we need Category racing anymore. Fondos and just race/rides are doing well.

I'm seeing more excitement over riders betting against each other at Como than I have for a long time in road races. Don't get me wrong, the professional sport is all about formal racing with rules and officials, but for those that don't make a living at it the Fondos and put-the-money-in-the-hat rides are doing very well. I prefer that.

Yep

Did my first UK hill climb yesterday. (top 10 overall) They're a big deal (in a normal season) over here and mostly take place in September and October. This one was a 2:30 minute effort by the winner, and that's not really unusual, so if thought there was a lot of hassle in logistics for a 45 minute crit, this would make your head explode. The varying gradients and durations really make these interesting. A short one, like I did, might almost suit pure sprinters, where some are 10 or 12 minute efforts and completely different power profile.