FallsApart

Rad! Good stuff, .pj. I've worked late on the past 4 thursdays (no joke... it's absurd) so i've been missing out on the Sewards... I'm hoping to get out to the Cascadia stuff and more races in General as summer approaches. This is a busy time when you work with students...

Yellowbeard

First race today. Got my ass handed to me, predictably. Hoped to line up near the front of the pack but missed the boat and started at the very back. Lasted 20 minutes, jumped back in (training crit) lasted almost another 20 minutes before getting a side cramp and dropping out permanently, shortly before the last 5 laps started.

Brings back thoughts of how little I was willing to suffer in track & field events, that's still me now, but unlike running, I can't wait to do it again.

Grumpy McTrumpy

hillfest race tonight. 6th.

set a new 10-minute power record just maintaining pace on climb #1: 4.7 w/kg

climb #2 didn't go quite so well.

climb #3 got me dropped by the guy who placed 5th.

the last hill to the finish I said "what the heck" and sprinted for the training. Surprisingly I still had a bit of pop. 10.5 w/kg for 30 sec.

bostongarden

Well done Grumpy.

mattm

+1

So you were in the points I guess?

Racer Ex 

Good job Grumps!

Did our local TNW crit. Like 10 guys from the big P1/2 team in the race. Got in 5 breaks, none of which stuck. You can guess the rest. Did do a lap and 1/2 at the front with 5 to go and pulled down the gap to the break; I'd rather do that than try to sprint for 5th or whatever. Blew up. Gonna download the file in the morning. 3 or 4 crits and a road race this weekend.

.PJ

Some gels would be nice And it would be cool to meet some BF people. BTW, what's the drop policy for the crits? I was looking at the 2009 results for the Ballard crit and saw that over half the people DNF

Yeah it's getting around crunch time, finals in 2 weeks for UW. Making it to the Woodinville or Fremont crits this weekend?

forrest_m

my experience is that for the in-city crits, the officials are pretty aggressive about pulling people who are out of contention, i.e. more than half a lap OTB. because of the fast downhill corner and the variable pavement, the race seems to create a lot of big gaps in the lower cats, thus the large number of non-finishers. plus, at ballard, there are so many drunks wandering around the course that random groups of racers way OTB are more of a hazard than usual.

I'm going to be working hard to avoid that train to otbackistan myself, i'm flying back from europe the day before so I'll be fighting jet lag plus the two weeks of minimal training...

Grumpy McTrumpy

tuesday night points yes. those are redeemable for M&Ms at the conclusion of the season

fastonflats

Anyone race Barry Wolfe (Woodland Hills CA) before? Wondering where the attack points are seeing as there is a short sprint to the finish out of turn 4...

rjg001

Tuesday Night training crit last night. C race with the other Cat 5 and one day folks. This was my 6th crit. My last crit was the first one I'd finished without getting dropped or lapped.

I went in with low expectations as my legs were wasted from a hilly road race on Sunday (not worth posting about LOL). My goal was just further work on positioning and handling.

With about three laps to go there are two riders that appear to be ten or more seconds off the front, and then I'm with another fifteen or so riders in the field. I'm still feeling ok and although I'm near the back of this group, I'm keeping up without killing myself.

Its bell lap and we aren't catching the two in front, so those in the field are battling for third. The course is mostly sweeping turns (its on the street in a park) with the exception of turn two - riders go downhill into a somewhat sharp left turn and then uphill before the course levels out on its way to the line. I decide that I am going to use the climb to move up in position and get on the wheel of someone in front and suck that wheel until its time to sprint.

We turn uphill and my plan is working quite well - I'm moving up on the side right past the field. However, I went a bit faster than I anticipated and ended up in the front. I didn't real feel like I could readily slow, drift back behind someone, jump again to keep up and then sprint. So I just turn it on with about 200 m to go and go as hard as I can to the line. I've got some folks riding my wheel now - contrary to plan - and two of them manage to just barely cross the line in front of me. I think to myself that I'll be fine with 5th.

Turns out that those two riders "off the front" were actually off the back. I was in front sprinting for first there at the end, and in the process gave a good lead out to the two people that beat me. Nonetheless, I ended up with 3rd and am extremely happy with that.

AlexTaylor

Another Club 10 TT tonight
Started being coached 6 weeks ago.
My club 10 mile TT time has improved by exactly 2 mins in this time!
Power up by 40 watts, this PB was by 20 seconds.
Came 1st in Handicap points, 4th overall and chuffed to freakin' bits.

mollusk

That is a HUGE improvement! Big congrats!

AlexTaylor

Cheers!

Hoping for a sub 24min soon on the same course. (It is a rolling course, if it was flat I'd be doing 22mins now...)

My nutrition change has helped a lot too...

FallsApart

Yea, I'm looking at the fremont course - looks like a flat version of seward with that gnarly turn coming onto canal street. MattM or Hida, have you guys done this crit? Is it super crashy?

Hida Yanra

there hasn't been a fremont race since the late 90s (according to the business owners around there)

I've been down to pre-ride it a few times since I live right by it.
The course is flat and faaaast. The one extended turn is a sweeper, one pothole in T3 is the only piece of road I'd worry about, and it isn't that big....

there's little to no elevation gain, so it will be a massive power course.
I'd expect it to be fast, but there aren't many reasons to crash. The road is wide, T3 is really wide, all should be good as far as I'm concerned.

caloso

Thanks to the Thomas the Tank Engine books, I know that chuffed = proud. And well you should be. Well done!

mattm

At Ballard last year the biggest crash happened on the back straightaway - who needs a reason to crash? Granted, the other 3 were in corners..

If it's wet things could change but yeah I'm looking forward to these two; Woodinville has a little climb in it I think, should be fun too.

johnybutts

I raced tonight...

10 minutes into a 30 minute warmup race, I crashed because some idiot can't stay on the road, so when he went off, and tried to come back on, the lip at the road's edge brought him and 5 other people down.

10 minutes of racing had:
AP:280
NP:352
speed: 26.5 mph.

I attacked from the gun... again. only stayed away for 3 minutes though. One person came with me, he was weak.

So I ran across the crit course, changed both my wheels, hopped back in. Attacked. stayed off for another 3-4 minutes, a strong guy thought he had bridged, but pretty much just brought the pack with him.

I gave up and went OTB. end of story.

waterrockets 

Sorry to hear about the crash. Hope you're not too worse for wear and the wheels aren't a loss.

waterrockets 

Sorry to hear about the crash. Hope you're not too worse for wear and the wheels aren't a loss.

johnybutts

big ole bruise on my quad it the worst of it. I'll swing the wheels by the shop tonight/tomorrow.

KDTX

Well......I raced my second crit last night (same race as JB above)......Was tailgunning JB (my teamate) and ended up crashing into him and the first guy that went down. Then had about 3 more crash into me.....

I attempted to restart but front wheel was toast. Severly bent spoke and wheel too crooked to rotate without brake rubbing. My other carnage included a scraped up elbow, big bruise on left hip, small bruise on lower left leg, bar tape trashed, big black rub marks (from someones tire) on my white frame....

Overall, no big deal with "my first crash"....I was a little mad because my overall goal was to finish with the main pack for my second race. I was feeling great and was in the top 25% of riders while I was in.

Looking forward to the next race!!!!

Note to self: Have wheels in the wheel pit! even if they old/not race wheels....I really wanted to get back in and it was a wheels in/wheels out race.

johnybutts

I'm pretty sure you'd have lasted just fine, the hard parts were over. And lesson learned about the wheels. You never expect to have to use them, but when you do need them it's nice they're there.

I noticed last night when I was showering, I have a bruise in the shape of a tire on my butt and back like someone rolled over me.. The bruising on my quad hasn't started yet, I'm pretty sure that means it'll be bad.

KDTX

look for the Conti 4000 tread...if so, then it was me!

Yeah, my bruising hasn't turned purple yet either....

Another interesting "Race" observation. I am always amazed at the speeds. In training, it seems like I am tapped out when when rolling along at 23-24mph....but then while racing, every time I look down I see 27-28 mph + and still feel like there is more left in the tank. Starting to understand how the "race into shape" thing works.