El Diablo Rojo

So today dawned with sunny sky's and warming temps and I was looking forward to safe and sucessful day on the bike. Stage two was a prologue style TT over the Canyon Lake dam. It's just amazingly beautiful back there and today's weather made it that much better. The stage starts at the bottom of the access road and climbs about 3/10th's of mile at around 6% to the top of the dam. From there we turned right and rode across the top of the dam, down onto the service roads with some quick corners then back up a short steep hill and across the dam to the finish. I was gunning for a top 10 but only managed 21st. Evans finished 15th, 12sec ahead of me and Dowe finished 25th about 10s down from me. Healy was a no show for the TT and the crit and Evans and Dowe had to bail on the crit as well. I was thinking of bailing myself when Healy called and gave me a pep talk. He said that I had a real chance at winning as I was riding pretty strong so I decided to do the crit solo.

I lined up for the crit which was held in the park next to the lake. It was a really great course with nice selective climb up to a quick off camber left that led onto the finishing straight. The back side had a nice downhill section that gave you a quick bit of recovery time, which I really needed on lap four. I had been near the front for the first three laps, keeping an eye on things and covering the attacks with ease, but as we finished lap four my legs really started to feel the TT effort. As we crossed the line I started to slip back and for a moment thought about packing it in. Right about then the pressure let up and was able to get up front again and sit in about 10th wheel for the rest of the lap. We came around for the final lap and things really hotted up. ITwo of the teams started to get organized. As we got about 500m from the up hill climb to the finishing straight they started to drill it. I grabbed the wheel of this 20 year old kid riding for the UT squad who looked like he was the strongest and as the 8 of us made the left hander at the top of the hill I found myself on his wheel in fourth. At 50m he popped and I had to come around him and initiate my sprint again. At the line I was about a half a wheel length in third, while second was maybe a tire width out of first. Another twenty meters and I would have had this one!

The winner was 19 years old the second place finisher was 22, so as a 45 year old fart I'm pretty damn satisfied!

I'd like to credit a few of the things that helped me get this result:

First those long base miles in winter
My time in the gym
My smooth pedal stroke
And of course Mr Build and Mr Taper.

I know none of the above training will ever get me kind of results of 600DA but I'll do my best with what I've got

DrPete 

Congrats, EDR, you old coot!

And "The Master" forwards this on to you to ponder...

El Diablo Rojo

Where are finding these gems!!! I just got emailed the overall results, I finished 10th overall in a field of 80.

TheKillerPenguin

wtg, Dr. Zaius

3rd in a crit takes muchos huevos grandes. I tend to just surf along cuz the aggression at the front scares the shizt out of me.

Great results for so early in the year. Makes me want to start build

DrPete 

www.engrish.com. Fun stuff.

El Diablo Rojo

Thanks guys, this was my first crit since 1992 and I was really nervous, especially since I didn't have any teammates. This weekend was a bit surreal for me, I kept expecting to get dropped. I figured at every crucial point in the race I'd find out that they had been just cruising along and now they'd show me what they had. Aside from lap four of the crit, every time there was an attack or an acceleration I was able to match it with out much effort. When we came on to the finish yesterday I really expected to get swamped. I was actually surprised to find myself going head to head with the other three, and then actually throwing down with them!

Couple of observations from the first race weekend of the year. Guys who try to bump you off a wheel on the first lap of a 50 mile race are tools. Why expend so much energy to get a place with so much racing left? 80 riders on a narrow country road with a yellow line rule is a recipe for disaster. This weekend had big wrecks in every cat from P1/2/3/ to cat 5. The big difference between the 5's and the 4's is that the 4's ride at a more consistent pace, much less of the fast slow fast stuff. I spent very little time on the very front in the wind, when I did I shut down the pace to like 17mph. What this did was keep me from using any energy and made someone else get on the front really quick to pick up the pace. I think it also gave the impression that I wasn't very strong.

Next race is on 2/26 at Pace Bend Park. It's circuit race that runs along the lake. Really great course with some nice selective areas.

merlinextraligh

Good work.

Snuffleupagus

Great job in the crit man. Keep up the good work

ra6991

"This weekend had big wrecks in every cat from P1/2/3/ to cat 5. The big difference between the 5's and the 4's is that the 4's ride at a more consistent pace, much less of the fast slow fast stuff. "


Thanks for the race report. I was also racing in TONB but raced cat 5. I just joined this forum today so I could add a bit to your report. (That reason and our txbra site is a bit hostile and pretty non supportive of most everyone) I agree with the cat 5 riding at a non-consistant pace especially the crit but I dont recall any crashes in the cat5 RR or crit. I finished in the top 5 each race and for the most part the races/sprints were pretty decent. This is only my 3rd and 4th race so I am no expert on race analysis but I just wanted to give a tad bit of credit to the cat5 for not crashing on either race considering we has 50+ racers. The crit was either 25mph or 18mph not much consistency. We avg 23 for the crit. The RR was so slow that we got nutralized by the
P123 about 2/3 of the way through.
Thanks again for your report. Its always cool to hear it from someone elses point. Good luck and hope to see you at Walburg/Pace Bend.

Andy

El Diablo Rojo

Your crit went off after ours so I didn't know if you guys had had any issues. Yeah I get a kick out of the cat 5 slamming on TXBRA. Last year in 7 races I never saw a guy go down in the 5's. Yet in all the other cats guys are crashing left and right. Good job with the finishes, how did you like the TT course? I thought is was awesome.

I won't be at Wallburg but I'll definitely be at Pace Bend, it's my favorite one day race of the year!

mike9903

Great job for your 3rd place effort in the crit, good way to start the season. I was bummed that I was not able to make it out for the TT or Crit on Sunday, it turned out to be a much nicer day than Sat. There were no wrecks in the Cat 5 RR, but there were a few close calls, some idiot dropped a bottle in the middle of the pack and someone else jsut slammed on thier brakes on the backside of the course, I thought for sure that I was going down on both occasions.

I will be at Pace Bend for sure and maybe Walburg, I was happy with my first race effort, but I am looking to do much better in these next two races.

sverrefehn

Nice job EDR! Good things happen when you refuse to give up. In my best crit last year I worked too hard early, was fading about 15m off the back, worked hard to get back on and then worked my way up to finish 4th.
Hard to believe this was your first crit since '92.

El Diablo Rojo

Thanks, yeah not giving up can sometimes be the difference, ya' just gotta turn off that voice screaming in your head to stop torturing yourself! I quit racing in '92 and didn't start again till '05. I did three races in '05 and seven last year. This year is going to be my first full season and so far so good. To be perfectly honest I hate crits. I much prefer a RR where the racing isn't as hectic.

ra6991

[ how did you like the TT course? I thought is was awesome.

The TT course for great. I dont have a TT bike or aerobars so the 1K climb and some semi-technical turns in the middle help me make up for a not so aero postion on my bike. The weather and dam made for a super scenic ride. Not that I was able to enjoy the view until I was done but it was nice. I felt pretty good during the RR and Crit but I felt like puking during the TT. Foam and stuff coming from my mouth at the end. Really unpleasant.

You guys mention don't give up on the crit even if it looks bad. I totally agree. Going into the crit I was down 7 points for the overall classification and a buddy I was riding with said "ride hard, anything can happen." At the end the of the crit the overall leader got boxed in for the sprint and took 6th. I took 2nd by a few inches (some guy told me he saw the finish picture because of a protest) and I ending up with the overall by 2pts. Really fun racing.

peterm5365

Yeah, the TXBRA board is ridiculous. I guess that's what happens when you allow everyone to post anonymously. I wanted to do TofNB this year, but got way behind in training so I'm shooting for either Pace Bend or Lago Vista. What's the Pace Bend course like?

zimbo

NICE!

--Steve

El Diablo Rojo

+10000 that's great, what kind of merchandise did you score? I got 30 bucks for my finish yesterday, hey am I pro now?

DrPete 

Prize money is for wussy.

El Diablo Rojo

[QUOTE=peterm5365]Yeah, the TXBRA board is ridiculous. I guess that's what happens when you allow everyone to post anonymously. I wanted to do TofNB this year, but got way behind in training so I'm shooting for either Pace Bend or Lago Vista. What's the Pace Bend course like?[/QUOTE]

Pace Bend is the best one day race we have. It's just a great setting with great people. The course is pretty nice. The roads are in good condition and wide. Its a full closure so there is no yellow line rule. From the start it's slightly downhill to a med-tight right hander, then slightly downhill through a sweeping right turn. The course flattens out a bit with some minor up and down. Then you hit another downhill to a tight right hander and some easy rollers. Then the only hill which is short and just steep enough to hurt some guys. Over the top the finish line is about 200m away. What gets everyone is that they put to much effort to get over the hill then pop around 75-50m from the finish. It's a hard course to attack and stay away on though due to the downhills, the finish is very selective though.

mike9903

[QUOTE=El Diablo Rojo]I am pumped about this race, now that I have my first race done with I will no be able to rule the Cat 5's with that titanium fist!!!!!

I am thinking that I may go with the team to the Walburng race as well, do you know anything about that race?

El Diablo Rojo

[QUOTE=mike9903]Nope, never been. As a married guy with two small kids select my all weekend races carefully. I pretty much save that for the stage races, ToNB, Fayetteville and Ft Davis. The one exception is Lago, this year I'm doing the 4's on Saturday and 45+ on Sunday.

sverrefehn

Diablo, what made you decide to get back into racing after that long layoff?
You know, I've found that I like crits better. I usually do a good job of staying near the front and find that the accordion effect eventually creates a selection so the final sprinting field is smaller and more stretched out. In flat RR's, the field stays together and all that jockeying at the end of the race gets a little insane.

El Diablo Rojo

The reason I got back into it was two fold. First the cycling and racing scene in Austin is much better and friendlier that it was in SoCal. Back home the racers and even a lot of the rec riders had pretty bad attitudes. Here even fast fast guys are really cool and ready to lend a hand or offer advice. When 360 Cycleworks started their team in 05 they asked me if I wanted to join and I said yes. The other reason is I missed racing cars and for me this is pretty good replacement.

The crits here are better in the sense we don't run all of them on some half mile course in an industrial park. Most of what they call crits here are really circuit races run in a nice park setting near a lake. Back in LA it's the industrial parks with curbs and gutters.

The RR's around here usually are pretty hilly so we get a nice selection. ToNB had to run a different course this year and there were not any sections you could make a break stick. The locals really don't want the race and they are doing their best to make it go away.

sverrefehn

Yeah, the hilly RR's work very well with selection as well. We get a mix of hilly and flat around here. It wasn't until late in the season last year that I was able to make the selection on the hilly races but I never had enough left for the sprint. Now that I can hang in those races I like them better. There were waaay too many wrecks on the flat courses last year one of which took me out.

ra6991

, what kind of merchandise did you score? I got 30 bucks for my finish yesterday, hey am I pro now? [/QUOTE]

30bucks sounds pretty good. Thats just cool to get any cash.

2nd place in rr = box of odwalla bars and pr of socks
2nd place in TT=same as rr but XS socks-go figure, (present for wife)
2nd place in crit=pr of CSC socks and CSC tshirt
1st in GC = vetta bike computer with HR monitor-pretty nice but I dont have much use for a HR monitor. I dont know very much of the technical side (HR Zones etc) of training. I just enjoy riding hard with our local group and don't do a whole lot of solo rides unless I have to. I know I probably need to get the racing bible and study up of training plans and peaks and stuff but that just doesn't seem as much fun.

Glad to hear you took some cash home.
Andy