ravenmore

From Lago Vista today - my pics:









anyone else want to whine, b1tch, or moan?

(btw, that was at the finish)

jfmckenna

I only want to wine b1tch and moan about the snow here. It looks nice there aside from the pavement.

nice pics

ravenmore

btw, I saw her after the race. her hand was seriously jacked up.

El Diablo Rojo

Hey weren't you complaining about bruised butt this morning

ravenmore

piss off. I raced. Not well but at least I raced.

Ratfish

My kinda woman...nicely done.

patentcad

Way to hang in there baby. That is friggin tough.

esammuli

Pretty much the same thing that happened to me two weeks ago. Did a front flip 50 yards from the finish and landed in the bushes on the side of the road. All my adrenaline addled brain could think of was getting up and crossing the line. It took a few minutes to realize I was dripping blood.

Red Rider

Atta girl.

enjoi07

thats actually a really cool sequence to have. itd be cool to give em to her if you know how to contact her.

botto 

is that the same race where the infamous r-sys crash pics came from last year?

if so, what is it about that course that provokes so many crashes; or is this merely a case of too many crappy bike handlers in TX?

Exit.

What in God's name is the dude on the right of the second-last picture wearing? Are those some sort of flood-pants?

El Diablo Rojo

No and yes. No this is a different race, the infamous R-sys race was Pace Bend a normally safe venue. Last year the finish was set up on a very scetchy area hence the crash fest.

Yes there are some very bad bike handlers here, especially in the lower cats. I know of several guys who race in the 4/5's that cannot ride with no hands. I'm amazed that brake pads aren't in short supply here due to the amount some guys use them just going in a straight line. Texas is a place where I think you should have to require 10 top 10's to go from 5 to 4.

Having said that the Masters races I've done here have been smooth, fast, and without the ubiquitous 'hold your line' and other such yelling. Just a bunch of über fast dudes racing their bikes.

ravenmore

No different race. This is the Primavera at Lago Vista. The R-Sys pics as EDR mentioned were from Pace Bend. Couple cool things about Sundays race:

-Women's fields were HUGE. Much bigger than I've ever seen here before by more than double.
-Jen McRae raced and won the p12 women's race.
-Several pro sports photogs running around, and lots of photographers in general. It was insane how much camera gear was there. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the pics didn't show up on Velonews or something.

I haven't raced anywhere else so I can't speak to how it compares to other places in terms of the number of squirrels. Doesn't seem to bad to me. I had 2 very safe smooth races in the 4's this weekend. Seems like we get a lot of Tri guys who are strong as hell but not good at riding in a peloton. I have 2 friends that fit that bill. One has gotten better the other is staying in the 4's even though he has the points to move up because he wants to gain experience first.

botto 

judging from your pics, that's a wide and straight piece of pavement.

other than operator error, there is absolutely no reason why someone should go down on that kind of road.

mocella

I ended up being victimized by a downhill squirrel in the Sunday men's 4/5 race. Just before the 200m line (about where the women's crash pics above were taken actually), there's a bit of a downhill and I start to see some wobbles be a rider just ahead of me. He proceeded to more right across two riders' front wheels, causing the right-hand rider to go down hard - and directly in my path.

I managed to slow from 30mph to I think about 10mph in a few seconds, realized I was boxed to the left, and tried to hit the little bit of grass on the right side of the road. Thought I was going to clear the downed rider until his bike bounced right and took out my wheels. I landed pretty much on my helmet/forehead and my race was over.

That sucked, but as far as crashes go, not bad - bike was just fine, no rips in the kit, one scuff on my chin, and one cracked helmet. The worst part was knowing my wife was up the hill at the finish line and knowing she'd be freaking out when I didn't cross with the group on that lap and knowing the ambulance crew was heading down the hill...

ravenmore

oh, I'm sure this wreck was operator error. But in terms of racers overall I think its probably not too much worse than any other place.

ravenmore

case in point, Saturday had huge winds - like 30+ mph. the 4's peloton was bombing down a hill at roughly 50mph. At the bottom of the hill was a gully that was acting as a funnel for the wind. We went from no cross wind to getting hit with a 30mph crosswind in a flash - moved everyone sideways on the road a couple of feet. Lot of cussing, but no one so much as even bumped. I was impressed at the bike handling at that moment.

botto 

edr doesn't seem to agree.

waterrockets 

I miss Masters. Why did I get younger all of a sudden?

True, Lago isn't technical. The thing about the final mile is that it's a series of 200m climbs and descents that have you at 50mph going down, and 22mph going up (at say 500W). They're heading for a climb that looks just like the hill behind them.

So, there was probably a little bit of panic at 40+ right there when someone needed to get to the front because the finish was 300m away. This gal hit the deck going fast. I'm surprised no mangling shows up in the pics, other than the glove and number.

flaco

Surely the famous exploding R-sys wheel incident can't be attributed to bad bike handling? Or is there more to that story than spontaneous equipment failure?

waterrockets 

Yeah, something has to touch the spokes of the wheel. That R-Sys was skewered, IIRC. Most wheels will just lose a spoke and stay together, where R-Sys spokes are like "run for your lives!"

MDcatV

I doubt that cat 3/4/5 bike handling in TX is very different from Cat 3/4/5 bike handling anywhere else. it's sloppy as shet everywhere, and with all the 3s who've upgraded from the 25 pack finishes rule, it's gotten worse. bad bike handling is my main motivation to get the last few points I need to upgrade to Cat 2 early this year, that way it wont even be an option to enter a Cat 3/4 demolitioin derby.

too bad the gal in the photo sequence took a spill, but just because she's crying, let's not overate her "guts" vs. that of anyone else who takes a spill and gets back on.

Jynx

buttafuoco pants?

Racer Ex 

Pain grimace. I was there right after (one of our gals went down also in that race) and I didn't see a single tear, despite two pretty bad facial cuts.