saratoga

Good to meet you too. One of your teammates- a guy on a white Look- was next to me staged at the start and we were making fun of the 4 rider that everyone thought was finishing who came hauling ass through a 3' gap in the middle of the field... and kept going!

I'm still on the fence about next Sat. I definitely want to ride the 3 crit because that course is one of my favorites, but chances are I'll be trashed if I ride the RR on Sat. 35+ isn't an option (and won't be for another 3 years unfortunately). The field for the RR was huge last year.

waterrockets 

Ok, so making connections with faces and BF handles, that was you on the C'dale who had a nice jab about my Madone?

That hesitation gap is key for me. I thought I felt someone come out with me, but then I realized I had the initial gap going. I think it takes someone knowing ahead of time that they are going to go with me, and committing to it whenever it happens. I know my training partners can hold me in intervals when we're "starting at the next fire hydrant," so it has to be the hesitation and surprise that gets me the real estate. I also try to swerve out of the pack pretty far as well to put any chasers into the wind during the launch.

Regarding that finale, there will only be a couple places that change hands from the bottom of the hill to the finish unless someone is blown. You have to be near the front shortly after the big turnaround, and for sure at the bottom of The Corkscrew. I usually jump sometime between the turnaround and the optional/shortcut/turnaround thing before The Corkscrew.

fordfasterr

Race # 4, result was 8th place (ouch), however I managed to retain 3rd place overall for the series, and averaged the best power so far, 303 watts and max of 1270 for the final sprint (into the wind), where I came around 5 people real fast...

rydaddy

Your theory is spot-on from what I've witnessed.

Thanks. Aside from a destroyed set of Williams 30s, both were unharmed and raced the master's 4/5 later in the day. One of them took 5th... actually 4th due to the winner DQ'ing for flipping the bird at the finish . He now has enough points to upgrade to 3's.

roy5000x2

I wish I could put out number like that....

Creakyknees

Yep, and yep on the positioning. I tried to move up the outside during the last lap, on that same section where you had jumped... made it about halfway to the front before having to grab a wheel.

ZeCanon

Our very own Mr. Cedric Bosch pulled a top 5 in the cat 3 Valley of the Sun today. esammuli was 12th in the TT yesterday. Just checkin' up on some of my own teammates and recognized the names.

Well done guys

waterrockets 

Reports?

umd

Flat tire today about miles from the finish. Took about a minute to get a wheel and get going again. Chased for a few minutes and was gaining ground but it was too close to the end and there was not enough time. I did pass one guy, so I was DFL-1, although it seems about 1/3 of the field was DNF.

There was a crash at one point when I was on the front. I heard the crunchy-crunch behind me. Later found out it was a friend of mine. Sucks.

andre nickatina

First road race of the year today: rode the 2 laps (52 miles) then got crashed out in the uphill sprint finish in the cat 3's. Domino effect in front of me caused by someone either overlapping wheels or overshifted into too high of a gear. I'd say 10+ people went down, including another teammate behind.

DrWJODonnell

Full report here but nutshell version is I attacked, attacked, attacked, attacked, soloed away, and was caught 200 meters from teh finish before being rammed from behind. This might be the same race as Andre's above (mine was cat 3). For what it is worth, I was going slowly up the climb on the far right, exhausted, and someone sprinted into me from behind. Why, I don't know because they would have been sprinting for 40th or 50th place. Anyhow, I hope everyone was ok.

andre nickatina

Yep, men's cat 3's for me so same race as you. I probably saw you off the front - couldn't do a whole lot as a result of being boxed in for 90% of the race with the riding 5 abreast thing and very little real strung-out surges.

robncircus

Roger Milikran(sp?) Crit today. Started well and was feeling much better than last week. Ended up near the back because the guy in front of me couldn't clip in (so I got to watch everyone pass by). We get 3 laps in and BAM there's a crash. Right in front of me. So, I had to grab the brakes and come to a complete stop (actually had to unclip). So, I tried my best to catch the group but to no avail. I was dropped. Good news is I held them off from lapping me, didn't crash, and got #8 done!

Rob

Brian Ratliff

I was Cherry Pie as well; cat 3. I ended up spending much of the second lap helping to reel in DrWJODonnell, for the benefit of a teammate. During his last attack I was on the front to keep the gap in check. Looks like I succeeded . Unfortunately, my teammate got held up in the crash with the guy right in front of him going down. I didn't see the crash as I was off the back by that time, but I did see some of the aftermath. The rumors are someone unclipped or something. From my point of view, I was trailing the pack by about 2 or 300m and they were going away from me, and suddenly it was like the follow car was almost in my lap for no apparent reason.

My Race Report.

Deanoldo

I was at Cherry Pie too, but I'm old and slow and raced the 40+ 4/5. I was in second rounding the turn to the finish and since I'm also not a climber, I ended up 9th. You could tell it was the first race of the season. It was squirl central in my race. I'm really surprised no one went down. Guys were swerving around while reaching for water bottles, I had a guy come up behind me and tangle his bars up with mine. I managed to get that undone pretty quickly, so there were no issues except he was kind of freaked out by it. Saw one guy swing out in a turn while another cut in and they met somewhere in between, I'm not sure how they stayed upright.... I was just thankful to make it to the finish in one piece...

Dean

Colonelmom

Wolfpack classic, women's open... sitting exaclty where I wanted... about 7 wheel.... got total of 1 mile in.. hit a huge Pot hole, flatted my race was over...

Flatballer

Damn. Sorry to hear that. That course was in much better shape when we first picked it. The snowplows destroyed it. We cold-patched and filled in what we could, but I guess we didn't get it all.

umd

There was a crash in my cat 3 road race today. 40 to 0 in one second. I ran/hopped over a guy who went down and then was struck from behind and swept the bike out from under me. That poor guy was in really bad shape, unconscious for a while and blood all over the road. but I did see him get up eventually.

Colonelmom

I drove it last night it looked like a really fun course.... you cannot control the weather.. just glad I wasn't running my carbon wheels.. I'll be back next year...

Jancouver

Roger Millikan 5B
Finished mid pack ...
Slow and short race compare to Red Trolley last week ...

As always, some unexpected braking and close situations during this race, but no crashes, so I'm just happy to survive another Cat 5 race

Cat 4 meter .... 50%

Blaireau

Exactly the same thing happened to my friend Christian. Same event, just cat 4/5 men. One mile = one flat due to huge potholes.... He seemed relatively good-natured about it though. And yes, as FB says, the course was way worse before the organizers fixed it.

bostongarden

Colonelmom - sorry to hear that.
umd - jeepers, creepers, glad to hear you sound ok.
Jancouver - glad you stayed up.

umd

Thanks, ok enough to subject myself to a crit tomorrow...

I looked more carefully at my data (more zoomed in) and my speed peaked right before the accident at 40 and my cadence/power went to 0, looks like I slowed down over a few seconds to 30 then the speed abruptly dropped to about 15 then a few seconds later 0. The whole thing from 0 power to 0 speed was 9 seconds, looks like about 3 seconds from realization of impending crash to first inpact with the guy on the ground, then a few seconds later the final blow from behind that took me out.

Further discussion with others involved/nearby cleared up a bit about what happened. The two guys in front hooked bars and took each other out. One apparently drifted over, either to avoid something or because he turned to look back. I don't think the guys that was seriously hurt was one of those two, but that isn't clear to me. I was close to the front, maybe about 10th or so.

captnfantastic

Rodger Millikin 4's. finished pretty far back. Feeling pretty good seeing as I've only been seriously training for two weeks (illness riddled winter). Glad I could keep up it was a fun day almost no crashes all day. pro 1-2 race was odd, group of four lapped the field and held off the chase group from catching the field. Must have been fun for the officials to work out the actual finishing order.

challaday

I raced in the 40+ 4/5 race too and I agree with you about squirrelly. If I'm thinking right, I was right behind you when your bar tangle happened, probably about 2-3 wheels back. I'm in the opposite position of you, and I climb fairly well. I didn't scout the course prior, so I had no idea when I went around the right hand turn at the finish that this was "the hill" because I really assumed it would be steeper and longer. So I took the corner in about 15th and ended up 6th. I would have preferred to have been in about 5-10th going around the corner. Live and learn.