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San Antonio RR/ Dade City crit (Florida)

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San Antonio RR/ Dade City crit (Florida)

Old 02-12-09, 08:07 AM
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San Antonio RR/ Dade City crit (Florida)

Feb 14-15, 2009

The RR is quite hilly and the crit is one of our most technical, so it's always a brutal weekend.

I missed the UF weekend due to sickness, but am healthy and strong again, so will be out there rallying my boys.

Make sure to stop by and say hello.
Will be doing the P12's and have a blue tent set up at the feed zone probably.
-- ASV Mike
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Old 02-12-09, 05:20 PM
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You going for the win or an assist?

School them, and don't forget to report back.
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Old 02-12-09, 05:24 PM
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Definitely in for Saturday, maybe in for Sunday. (Cat 4, Cycle-Logic)
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Old 02-12-09, 05:45 PM
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Originally Posted by wanders
You going for the win or an assist?
It's a team game. We'll have 8 of us. I'm the road captain, so teaching is my main priority, but I can guarantee personal results will follow here and there.
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Old 02-12-09, 08:41 PM
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I'm in for Saturday. Should be big fun.
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Old 02-13-09, 06:42 AM
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Originally Posted by Snap
I'm in for Saturday. Should be big fun.
W00t!

Now remember, when I say "keep hammering," listen to me.

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Old 02-13-09, 03:29 PM
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anyone doing masters 35+?
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Old 02-13-09, 03:44 PM
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Originally Posted by sleazy
anyone doing masters 35+?
Apparently a dozen MS-150 riders will be.
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Old 02-13-09, 05:47 PM
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Originally Posted by kensuf
W00t!

Now remember, when I say "keep hammering," listen to me.

Maybe you could explain in a little better next time.

Something like "Hey Andy, I'm about to attack and cause the winning break. You might want to come along."
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Old 02-13-09, 06:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Snap
Maybe you could explain in a little better next time.

Something like "Hey Andy, I'm about to attack and cause the winning break. You might want to come along."
You guys have to get hand signals. It's all about the hand signals.
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Old 02-14-09, 09:27 PM
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Wow, that sucked.

"I'm old, fat, slow, and I never want to be a cat2" -- kensuf to another team-mate on the phone on the drive home.
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Old 02-15-09, 10:04 AM
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Originally Posted by kensuf
Wow, that sucked.

"I'm old, fat, slow, and I never want to be a cat2" -- kensuf to another team-mate on the phone on the drive home.
which race did you do?
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Old 02-15-09, 02:34 PM
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Originally Posted by sleazy
which race did you do?
p/1/2/3. It was like leading lambs to the slaughter.
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Old 02-15-09, 04:43 PM
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Learned a few things.

The good: Upon examining the power data from the race, it looks like I made some good calls on where to work. The first two laps, I pushed it pretty decently up the two big hills (College and Ramsey?). There was a crosswind and I rode the centerline so no one could echelon behind me (hopefully making everyone else work as hard as me). I wasn't anywhere near the front on the third time up the hill, but looking at the data, I used about the same energy going up at the back of the pack. Pushing it at the front did exactly what I wanted it to do.

The bad: I don't have the legs to push the pace up the biggest hills two laps in a row. What was I thinking? I'm pretty sure the winning (solo) move went up the road immediately after the hills on the second lap, and I couldn't follow. I did a nice job inadvertently setting him up though. I've also got to work on sitting in more. I waste way too much energy. There's absolutely no reason why I should be riding at 95% for the entire duration of the first lap.

Had a great time. Skipped out on the crit today due to extreme laziness and fried legs.
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Old 02-15-09, 05:54 PM
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My race summary, or "Tales from the back side":

We started out with a pack of 115, mixed field, p/1/2/3. 1 mile into the start we were screaming down a descent at 45mph. YMCA and I are at the back chit-chatting and he mentioned something to me about how 3 years ago there was a bad crash at the bottom of that hill. As if on cue, a bunch of guys locked up their brakes and he had to go rolling around in the grass. He did catch back on, but it made for a great start to the day for everyone.

After the start of the first climb I sort of dangled on the back of the pack, letting a huge gap open up on the second descent knowing that once again we'd have a bunch up. Make the second climb, hook the right, then we're off with a wicked wind coming from the right. Guys were blowing the yellow line rule left and right, pissing off cars, and I'm just sort of hanging out at the back.

We hooked a right onto a twisty road, wind still screaming, the pace at this point picks up to the point where we're stretched single file at about 28 or 29 with that wicked wind still coming in the side. We came through an area where there's deep sand on both sides of the road and only about 5' of clearance, and sure enough a bunch of guys are laying down in the grass picking themselves up.

The pace was still high and I'm holding on for dear life. We hit the long climb at "College", and this is pretty much where I got sawed off along with about a dozen other stragglers. We organized a chase group, but two of the guys were convinced we could never get back on and that we should just continue to roll around to pick up our FPS points, and they refuse to drill it to make the jump back on.

The next 2 hours we spent rolling around in a pack ranging from as little as 4 to as many as 12. Most of us were just 3's, but we had a few cat2s in the initial group. We continued to pick up guys here and there, and dropping them here and there, as the day continued to wear on. There was one guy (Humberto) who wore a rock racing kit and would only take 3 second pulls but kept *****ing if we pulled less than 30 seconds, and myself and an Aerospace guy named Donald started getting annoyed with him. We colluded to try and drop him on a few climbs, but like a tenacious badger he kept hanging on to us.

Near the end of our second lap we were caught by the 5's. We decided to go ahead and just hang out in the 5's pack, near the back, and roll with them for a bit. But when we got close to three miles from the end of our third (and their final) lap, we agreed to drop back so we wouldn't get caught up in the excitement of a cat5 field sprint.

On our third lap the remaining cat2 destroyed a zip wheel by having a rear derailer take out all of the spokes. A part of me died right then. I hope he was picked up by a wheel truck.

A few miles after the destroyed tubbie, we picked up BF's own "Snap". He was ready to drop out, but I convinced him to finish the race with us. About a minute later I threw my chain on a climb, but managed to get it fixed and catch back on.

The ORC guy who had been with us decided to bail at the conclusion of lap 3, and so we were down to just four of us -- myself, Snap, Donald, and the Badger. I figured the Badger was going to try and sprint us for 30th, and I was getting more annoyed with him as time went on, so as we made our first descent and first climb of the last lap I started pushing a hard tempo to see if I could finally saw him off. Snap started taking a strong pull, and I let a few gaps open up between us and then jumped them in an effort to surge the badger. Finally, when we got to the second climb of the lap I attacked.

Now keep in mind, these are just Florida power climbs, and the longest hill of the day only took about 2 minutes to ascend, but the Badger was probably about 215-220lbs, and he looked weak on every climb. So I popped up the pace to the high 20s, visited anaerobia briefly, got some separation, and the minute we crested Donald countered. I had enough juice to jump on his wheel, but Snap and the Badger were gone.

Please also understand, I fully realize this was like Jerry's Kids beating up on each other. But, there were FPS points on the line, and this was a race, so although I like Snap a lot, I didn't feel too much remorse over it. I really only wanted to dispatch the Badger, but this made it a little easier for me.

Donald and I kept the pace high for 5-6 minutes, and when we finally eased up we saw the other two guys were probably close to 1/2 mile behind. We worked together in a nice smooth two man rotation until we picked up a cat2 who had gotten popped. We asked him if he wanted to roll with us, and he joined us but after a few minutes he dropped off.

Finally with about 6 miles to go, I decided to go ahead and attack Donald and leave him behind. We hit the longer hill (College), and I gunned it. Donald cramped, and dropped off. I continued on, just cruising at 23-24. I passed a few other cat3s who had also dropped off on the final two miles.

I finally rolled into the finish about 18 minutes after the main peloton. That's when I also found out I was the only guy from my team to finish the race -- the other four had abandoned.

As for those fabulous FPS points, I should be somewhere between 23rd and 25th for cat3's and somewhere in the 70s overall, but the preliminary results had me down a lap (even though I finished a minute or two before Humberto and Andy), we'll wait until next week to see the final results.
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Old 02-15-09, 09:00 PM
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That last lap was getting pretty miserable for me. I would have been out of the race if you a-holes didn't badger me into another lap.

Racing is racing. I didn't expect to roll around in some stupid shiny, happy group ride love fest. I would have dropped all you guys, if I wasn't too (rummaging around in the bag of excuses) I mean if my brake wasn't rubbing! Yea that's it the brake was rubbing.

If my brake wasn't rubbing I could have won (our little race in the back).
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Old 02-15-09, 09:18 PM
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Originally Posted by mikearena
Learned a few things.

There's absolutely no reason why I should be riding at 95% for the entire duration of the first lap.


Hello ... McFly
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Old 02-16-09, 01:29 PM
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Did both races. Saturday's road race felt surprisingly hot and I was pretty parched (as in: lips glued shut, and not enough saliva to even spit) by race end.

Left it all on the road Saturday and took the field sprint for a 4th place finish.

Had no legs left on Sunday, and although I positioned myself nicely going into the final turn for the sprint finish I didn't even have the legs to get out of my saddle and sprint. Another 4th place, but coulda/shoulda done better.

One more weekend of back-to-back races coming up and then a well-needed 3 week break from racing.

Bob
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