JohnKScott

Nashville Cyclist Criterium Series - Race 1

Short version:

1st crit ever
Avoided crash right in front of me on lap 1
Held on for 4 laps
Avoided another crash
Suffered
Got dropped
Got lapped
Not DFL
Smiled big when finished
Will be back

Long version:

This was the first installment of a 10 race series held throughout the summer put on by Nashville Cyclist . This was also my first crit, second race this season and third race ever. I went in a tad nervous as this course has 8 corners in just over .5 mile circuit. I was also a bit nervous because of my health issues of late and the lessened training schedule I have been on. Everything turned out fine on both counts! This course was pretty wide open so the cornering wasn’t that bad and I found that I was actually pretty decent in the corners and got quite comfortable. In fact, I was able to move up a little bit on some of the corners when the opportunity was available. Also, other than being a little gassed from a pretty much all out 20 minute effort which is expected, I felt great! Especially considering my avg heart rate for the 20+ minutes was 176 bpm with a peak of 182. I’ve NEVER seen numbers that high in training for that amount of time. Interesting. So, for the race…

The Cat 5 race was 20 minutes. The course was 8 turns and just about 900 meters or .55 miles. First lap turn 7 there was a crash right in front of me. I was able to react quickly and avoid it and catch back on to the main group shortly. It felt good to get that out of the way as it was one of my nervous factors. I think proved to myself my ability to navigate around these unfortunate incidences. I was able to hang with the main group through most of lap 4 where there was another crash. This one was also in front of me but not as close. Easily avoided. However I was already getting gassed and this is about where I lost contact with the main group. It wasn’t really the crash. I was in the process of getting gapped already.

I was hurting pretty bad at this point. My heart rate averaged 180 bpm from midway lap 1 through lap 4. For perspective, I think the highest heart rate I’ve seen in training is about 177 or 178 and that was fleeting. I was at 180+ for almost 5 minutes here! Something had to give and it was me. I had to recover a little (175 bpm for about 7 minutes if you can call that recovery LOL). While I was “recovering” I concentrated on taking smooth fast lines through corners and I was actually able to pick off a few people coming out of some of the corners as I was holding more speed through the corner. Somewhere in lap 9 at about 13 minutes in I was able to ramp things up again just a little. I was actually able to pick a couple people off on the head wind section on a couple laps. I also think this is where I got lapped by the main field. Not sure exactly when it happened in there but it happened. .

Season goals for remainder of this series.

1. Don’t get lapped

2. Finish with the main field

Stretch goal – Finish at the front of main field!

So, for the last 4 laps of the race I just gritted it out as hard as I could. I passed some. Got passed by others. Kept pressing in the corners and pushed in to the line as hard as I could (which looking at the data sounds kind of funny ). Made the corner after the finishing stretch, shifted into my small chain ring, sat up straight armed on the bars to hold myself up and breathe and took stock of the discomfort my body was feeling with a big grin on my face.

Update:

Finished 18 out of 29 starters and 22 finishers so not DFL and only 3 positions out of a series point!

I plan on going back.

Oh yeah, and some fartknocker made me grab a handful of brake TWICE as he swung from outside to inside and just about chopped my front wheel. TWICE. I also think he may have been the guy that caused the two crashes that took one of my teammates out.

grolby

Nashville Cyclist Crit Series, Race 1 - Cat 4.

Short: Raced hard, went fast, blew race apart, felt strong, stomach cramped, OTB. 9th from 29 starters.

Longer: We hit the line with thunder off in the distance. Storm is supposed to miss us to the east; if it doesn't, the pavement is safe. Okay. We go, and this one guy attacks it from the gun. I find myself third behind him as things get lined up right away and we're almost immediately dangling in front of the field. About a lap of this, and I'm thinking that this is stupid and pointless; there's no rotation, this guy is riding like he wants to keep going until he's over the line. Screw that. I drop off and settle back into the lined-out main group, a few wheels back. We bring the front two, and then one, back slowly over the next four laps or so. And the rain starts to fall. Okay.

So we're a few things in and this race is already insane. Well, I figure I'll contribute to the sickness. There's a wicked crosswind on the backstretch, coming off that thunderstorm to the east. Same lap that we pull that guy back, I pull to the left from fifth or sixth wheel, put it in the gutter and hammer. I look back as we pass the S/F and round Turn 1. Two guys, and after them, a nice gap. "C'mon, let's work!" I yell. "We've got a gap!" I pull off and flick an elbow.

Nothing. They sit there. WTF? So I churn away into Turn 3-4 and hit a wicked headwind. Still nothing from these clowns, and it's coming back; I can't do this alone. By the time we come around Turn 8, we're back. And they leave me on the front. No one tries to come around. Well, F these guys. If that's the way we're going to play, I'll make you pay for it. So I hold my position on the front. Around that third and fourth turn, a small gap opens behind me. I hit the headwind. I punch it. Is anyone going to come across? It's just a bit of rain and wind.

Nothing. Wimps.

They've got me by Turn 8 again, so I swing into fourth position and stay there for a while. It's the same two guys that came with me the first time, just motoring along at the front the whole time. They seem content to stay there forever. What is wrong with these idiots? The three strongest riders in the race, and they didn't want to work OTF. Okay.

The wet corners are pretty scary, but I'm hanging in there. The race is completely exploded by this point. Eight riders in this front group. I've got that anxious voice in my head, but I shush it. I'm doing fine. I might even be able to win this if I play it smart. But then it happens. My stomach starts to tighten up. I slip back a spot one lap. The next, I slip back more; by the end I'm dangling off the front group, by the S/F I'm totally gone. My legs feel fine, but my stomach refuses to expand and let me breathe. It feels like I've just done 200 sit-ups. I can't believe how slow I'm going. What just happened? 4 to go? Dammit.

Rider after rider seems to pass me. Looks like I went from front 3 to about 20th. Damn. After an eternity, I cross the line, sit up, gasping. That was awesome. And then it sucked. Turns out I got 9th. We exploded that race so badly that most of the riders that passed me after I got dropped were already a lap down. Yow.

I think the problem is the .5 cm I lowered my stem by a couple of weeks ago. It's a shame, since I feel better balanced for strong efforts in that position, but my core apparently isn't strong enough for that. Other than the late-race explosion, I'm pretty happy. I don't know that I've ever done a better race, tactically. I was aggressive, but with purpose; it felt good. I'm kicking my stem back up by 1/2 cm. I race again Sunday. Maybe it'll go better. I'm so excited that crit season is finally here in Nashville!

JohnKScott

^^^

You definitely earned the most aggressive racer award for the 4's. Nice job!

mike868y

I did my team's weekly TT series tonight...got my ass whooped.

A couple things I need to improve:
I warmed up well, but I put in hard efforts too close to the start of the TT without spinning my legs to "flush" them out. So I went to the line with some lactic acid already in my legs.

I need to work on pacing. I think using an hrm/pm will help with this.

I need to raise my FTP. After CTSR I am going to focus a lot of my training time on raising ftp as I believe it is one of my weaknesses right now.

Hida Yanra

did a 45' steady TT effort at RPE=8
did a 45' crit, did just fine. Took a dig OTF for a prime - (didn't make it)
rode the 60' home

excellent day's work for only having one +10' in three weeks.

Hida Yanra

this is wonderful to hear - keep up the perseverance, you are doing great!

Yep

Sounds like a nasty race. Was the pace the same on the 2nd and 3rd hills?

Grumpy McTrumpy

only one guy was able to make that pace on hill 2. the guy who went OTF and won. same guy who led the pack up hill 1. we only had 7 left by the time the ten minutes was up.

after hill 2 it was exploded into 1, 3, 2 and whoever was left behind me.

someone calculated this race as 120 feet per mile. it's a brute.

mattm

Didn't see ya after the race, but nice work out there!

If nothing else our team "animated" a good deal; your prime attempt, Adam & I were up the road for a few laps, then he went OTF of our break and I counter-attacked once he was caught, but could only hold it for one lap. Saw a lot of 190+ bpm readings during those attacks!

Struggled to maintain once I got caught but did, though I was confused about when the last lap was, and was stuck in the middle of the pack when the sprint happened - did they subtract laps during the race or something?? (someone said that afterwards)

When that race gets hard I just think about how it's a 3/4's race, and it can only help us in the 4/5 crits this summer..

Hida Yanra

nice work on the attacks! I saw you guys go up the road, but didn't see how it came back.
Yes - the lap cards got messed up between laps 9 through 7, there were laps that didn't get counted, and then laps that got skipped to make up for it.... messy stuff.
Old Carl took AJ to the front right after that laps got messed up and before they got fixed, so they shuffled back, confused & thinking there were still a bunch of laps to go - and then laps got skipped.... ah well.

I missed you after the race, looked around but didn't see you. I'll be out this weekend though

timster

This week at Greenbelt was just a rerun of last week. I finished 3rd again. The same 2 guys beat me again. I beat my previous best 1 minute power again.

Last week I set my best 1 minute power at 607w. This week I shattered that. 644w. Not sure where that came from, but I'm not going to complain.

45suited

Did a local 3/4 crit which kicks off the Somerville weekend here in NJ. It was slated for 20 miles but at like 14 miles in I hear the bell lap. I was looking at my Garmin the whole time, and was not even looking for lap cards yet. I wasn't even sure what was going on. After doing my fair share at the front, I was catching a bit of a breather and drifted back. Position wise for the little distance left and room to pass I was eff'd. I ended up finishing near the back of the field. Oh well, 3 more tries this weekend to make something happen.

This is my first year racing, so I realize I have a lot to learn, but out of the races I have done so far I have never seen such a discrepancy in the distance listed and the actual. The flyer does not indicate any time like 40 min +5, and the race was only like 35 min. That seems really short for anything but a 5 race.

grolby

Lesson learned. Better luck next time.

Depends. The weekly series here runs a 30 minute 4 race. 40 is pretty common for a 4 race. It's on the short side, but not unusually so.

Frunkin

7th at the Burlington-Wapello road race in the quad cities. Placing in the money isn't bad for the first race I've finished all year. Snake Alley tomorrow.

ILUVUK

Wapello-Burlington Road Race (Cat 5)

Pretty simple really as this was my first race. Course was 33 miles point to point on gently rolling hills. Group stayed together with a few attempted (but failed) breaks. Farm implements were our biggest problem or savior depending on whether or not you needed a breather (i did).

with one mile to go, the riders began positioning themselves for a sprint. I had no real chance to contest the coming sprint, but wanted to be in the top half of the 50 person field. two people in front of me touched wheels, one went down, and i ran over a front wheel. went down and of course got plenty of road rash. i wanted to finish the race, but I assume I pinch-flatted from crossing the other guy's wheel. bam, with one mile to go, race is over!

road rash or not, i had a phenomenal time and am looking forward to trying a criterium on monday if i can get my wheels trued in time.

wanders

High Point City Crits - Day 1

Have no business being in a Masters 35+/45+ race. Not to mention one with any kind of hill in it.

I forgot Carolina Masters had new kits this year.

Bob Dopolina 

TUAA TTT- Taichung Taiwan

Got spanked by two Continental Teams and the National team but avoided blowing chunks in the last 200m.

We finished 5th. 2 Minutes down on the winners.

Long version here.

ILUVUK

congrats! sounds like your race ended a little differently than mine. i'm planning on entering the QC crit on monday. i'm skipping snake alley and melon city.

CrimsonKarter21

Another kermesse in Merelbek, outside of Gent today. 150 riders showed up. 7km course, 15x. The last km was on a brick cobbled street with some washboarding on it.

I lined up with 10 minutes to go on the start line on the far right and I held onto the gates so I could be clipped in and push off quicker for the sprint-start.
Within 5 minutes, there were another 50 riders in front of me on the start line.... bastards....

We kicked off. I maxxed at 1370w in the 300m sprint for the hard right hander, and it was a nice little 4% descent into a headwind that we went down at 45mph with a bike path on the left hand side with cobbles between it and the road.

The first three laps were uneventful, basically just passing and being passed. The 4th lap, we go down the descent again and I followed a small group of riders on the bike path and moved up past the peloton.
My roommate Pete just attacked with another small group, I stood up and sprinted to join him, making sure I wasn't bringing the peloton.
The break was rediculous. At one point it looked like we were coming back, but we opened it up on the hill and opened up the gap... All I can say is that I saw "550w" a lot on my PowerTap.
A few laps of this and Pete (whom I consider in better form than me at this point) went off the back. 10 minutes later, I finished my pull at the front and couldn't sprint onto the back of the break. I chased in vain, but my legs felt a little sapped.

I came back to the peloton, rode for a lap and it started raining. By raining, I mean pouring. By pouring, I mean buckets.
Down the hill, guys were pulling off left and right. My glasses were hard to see through, but I didn't have the guts to take them off at 40mph in the rain. One guy was JRA in a straight line and was on his ass in a second.
I rode for another few km, passed my roommate Pete and Jesse, looked at them and they shook their heads. I wasn't about to race this alone, so I pulled with them.
Some belgian kid came by us and we were chatting about the weather, he said he had no brakes on his carbon wheels. I asked him if they worked at all, or just a little, he pulls his brake levers back to the bars and didn't lose speed. We had a good laugh.

We rode back home in the rain with our backpacks at 250w for an hour. Well, back to the same place tomorrow to race...

arexjay

Awesome, CK. I love reading these reports.

What category are you in/how does the category system work in Belgium?

Issaquatch

Woodinville Crit 4/5 race

A flat three-corner 0.8 mile course. The course was completely wet and there was a steady sprinkle of rain; there were lots of those "turtle" lane markers on the course and some very slippery manhole covers on two of the corners. 75 riders in the field.

My legs didn't feel great during warm up so I didn't have high hopes for the day. I hung with the main pack for the first 15 minutes and then let myself drift off the back. A grupetto of 10 riders formed not far behind the main field and we cruised along at a comfortable 24 MPH. About a lap after we formed, we were going around the second corner and a guy two riders in front of me took the corner in a wide outward sweeping arc that took out my friend's front wheel, who was right in front of me. I managed to veer around him to the left as he fell and just avoided the crash. Fortunately, he was okay -- just a little road rash. My race didn't last much longer -- with about 10 minutes left the race marshall pulled all 10 of us when we were 1/2 a lap behind the leaders. I think if I had been feeling better at the start I could have stayed with the main field. The guy who won the race was impressive -- he soloed off the front fairly early it seemed like, and stayed about 1/3 of a lap in front of the main field for most of the race. MattM was in the field and had a good result that I'm sure he'll report.

Looking back at the race I had a few thoughts:

1. A raced stupid the first few laps. I was out in the wind and riding on my hoods, when I should have been sitting on wheels and in the drops. I realized what I was doing on the third lap and fixed both those mistakes, but I wasted a lot of energy.
2. Racing in the rain is fun.
3. I'm getting a lot more comfortable riding in the pack. I felt fine moving around the field and had a much better sense of who/what was around me spacially. I think this was the first race where my tunnel vision went away and I was looking around and riding around comfortably.
4. This was my first race where I kept my average speed over 24MPH, so that felt good.

gbot

60k road race, out and back. My longest race to date by far. About 50 people in the cat 4-5 race.

Weather: wind and rain. Nasty. First 10 miles or so were rolling hills, I managed to stay well positioned in the pack and was able to move around a little. Nothing much was going on, a few solo breaks that quickly got shut down. I was content to stay about 10 back and wait for the big hills. I figured I should have some advantage there and would be able to keep with the front group if a split were to happen. I was wrong - it was all I could do to stay with the main group on the first big climb. About 10 dropped off but managed to make it back to the pack before the 2nd climb. I ended up near the back, and I was having a bite to eat at a critical moment - no course pre-ride meant I got caught off guard by a big twisty descent, and got caught behind some slower riders who were on their brakes pretty hard. By the time I got around them the pack was quickly disappearing. After the turnaround the 'main' dropped group caught us and I stayed in that group, near the front, until about half a mile to go. Figured I might as well try a move and managed to solo it in for 20th or so, well in front of the group.

Great learning experience, a LOT of suffering. Riding 60miles in the cold and rain sucks. Racing next weekend so hopefully I can apply some of what I learned.

mattm

Cascadia Crit Series #1: Woodinville 4/5 Crit, 75 dudes in light rain. Rode 20 miles to the start, but got there way too early so kind of wasted my warmup..

Lined up in the front row for the first time, which I actually didn't like; our bars were so close it seemed like we were doomed to crash in the first few feet, but luckily I got off the line faster than those around me. Avoided lots of turtles & man-hole covers in the corners, and generally just tried to stay in the top 20 from the get go.

We stayed together until the prime attacks came, and one guy eventually got off the front, and stayed out there solo! A few guys including me tried to bridge at one point, but couldn't hack it... he was generally unknown to the peloton, and we all thought he'd just come back. Never did.

Went for a omnium points prime (they went 3-deep) and squeezed out one point from it.

The course was nice and wide, so when you wanted to move up you pretty much could, except for the final straight that was only two lanes wide and not much space. I would essentially drift backwards over a few laps, then move up after the 1st turn on the inside before the 3rd turn. Slight uphill there and people went pretty slow on that section.

It was at least 300m and slightly downhill from the 3rd corner to the finish, so I felt like I had no chance with a field sprint out of the corner... so on the last lap I lit up my sprint in a 1k-attack of sorts, coming into the 2nd turn. Got a little gap and just tried to hold it, was first (besides the break) coming out of the last turn, but got passed by two guys coming into the straight.

Got 4th overall, lots of omnium points, 3 upgrade points, and my first real winnings in a race: $35 gift certificate to a bike shop!! If I wasn't broke right now I'd frame it.


Sounds like you learned a lot in the race, that's great! I learned it's really hard to see with one eye... the last few laps there was sweat/dirt/rain in my right eye and I couldn't rub it out, or I would rub it out and it would come back... wow that sucked.

Doing Fremont tomorrow?

Issaquatch

No. One race per weekend is all I can do -- need to spend time with my kids. I'll do Seward on Thursday if I can break from work in time. Then I'll see if I can fit Ballard in.

What was your average speed for the race? I'm curious how far off the pace I was.

bwunger

I was wondering if that might have been you Matt. We talked some after the race before you and your friend headed out. I was in the Red CycleU Team HPC kit and had on a red jacket when we were talking. I didn't put 2 and 2 together till now.

I felt pretty good for my first crit, second race. I basically was threatening to get dropped for almost the entire race. Seemed like everyone I'd try and draft was about to go OTB so I ended up closing gaps the whole race. I stayed on the outside most the race to keep my speed up through the corners. I kept watching guys sprint out of the corners on the inside and knew I wouldn't last long trying to do that. Worked pretty well for me. I basically finished with the pack, and got 32nd. Met my goal of not getting dropped and learning a bunch.

Issaquatch, I got 24.7 mph but I missed the first lap and included the cool down lap. I'd guess it was just a bit higher.

P.S. Got a photo of the podium. That's you on the left Matt? LOL at the "podium" girls.
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