carpediemracing 

I thought it was 100 BF, 90 back. Was 100 BF about $3?

Of course, I got shelled so quickly most of the promoters just gave me the full entry fee back. I gave them back their numbers too.

Cat 3s - two separate incidents on opposite sides of the road.

- Left side - guy rode another right into the deep mud.

-Right side, totally separate incident, but happened at the same time, just 10 feet away - two guys going at it, one finally ran into the other, veered off course, crashed in the mud. The crasher catches up with the other guy (whose derailleur got trashed and therefore stopped), throws his bike at him, and after the derailleur guy ran away, stomps on the derailleur guy's bike. There's some fisticuffs at the official's stand area when they meet up again. Not sure of ultimate result. Weird though, and very tense.

P123s - apparently a crash in the last lap, but as a spectator I didn't see it.

Nate552

Great job by you and the team!! Congrats!

botto 

the pay $3, get $2 back equation is what i remember.

i was thinking about those days yesterday. i'm assuming you also got a bucket, a bottle of water, and a towel (so you could wash after the race) with your number?

yesterdays race didn't have a strip to change/shower. instead they had a tent and portapotties. very un-dutch.

therefore, they gave everyone a bottle of water with their number. i drank mine.

TheMudder

Great Northern Stage Race
Whitefish Montana

Venue: Heavenly.
Weather: Sunny and hot but breezy enough to stay cool.
Race attendance: sadly, there were only 17 pre reg'd cat 4/5's but that went up to mid to upper 20's by race time which was fine.

This was our newly reunited team(cat 3's) from the 80's 90's getting it going again after many years off and re licensing to 4's and 5's as older fellas. Second race together of the season.

Stage 1 Criterium
We have a pretty strong teammate who has been doing triathlons during our hiatus while the rest of us lifted 12 oz bottles...
He was a little nervous about riding with a pack after all these years.....so he decided not to.

he was already 50 meters OTF by the first turn and by the time the rest of the field figured out a guy was off the front we were half a lap around. We all slipped in to our old habits regardless for some of our fitness levels. The 4/5 field was all but helpless as far as working together especially with the 3 of us soft pedaling through the occasional corner. by midway we were down to 3 of us total, teammate was OTF from 17 sec to 30 sec and finished OTF while I just sat in the pack across the line not risking any monkey business. (spent last month on crutches and am feeling mortal these days)

Stage 2 11.4 mile rolling and curvy TT

Fore mentioned Teammate stomped the TT as expected giving himself a good minute plus cushion in 1st GC
I was the big surprise, at least to myself. With my new TT aero helmet and clip ons I finished in 7th place with an average of 24+ MPH. (one guy who only did the TT was 2nd so I really got 6th for stage racers) I was REALLY happy with myself

Stage 3 60 mile Circuit Race
Flat with a few rollers and some good crosswinds.
The team was to work for me as I was in 6th place 4 sec out of 5th, 6 sec out of 4th and less than 30 out of 3rd.

Well, nobody was getting away. so I got 2 seconds on a time bonus sprint....we all escaped some seriously squirrelly riders....it was a long day for me...last lap i started a little cramping, two teammates began the lead out with 4 miles to go...no one could come around...I was sitting perfectly in 4th...popped out just a little earlyand was only able to grab 3rd which gave me enough time BUT the guys in front of me had also gotten a few time bonuses.

It was a great weekend. I'm way more happy than frustrated.

1st Overall GC for the team and 6th overall GC for me.
This is fun
Thank you Great Northern Cycles in Whitefish!!

..thanks for reading

carpediemracing 

Maybe Belgium was different. If I ever got offered a bucket, towel, and water, I didn't know about it. I also changed in the car, because I didn't know about the changing bar until the last race or so.

We also trained in the road, avoided the bike path usually.

I suppose if we weren't "cyclists" we'd have gotten ticketed many times over.

Heh. Drinking the hand water, so to speak.

Dutch kids (U23) raced New Britain and New London this weekend. I forgot all my Dutch so I asked the Dutch coach what to yell. 'GGggarrr'

Um, what?

They won New Britain. They got demolished at New London.

cdr

Cleave

Hello TheMudder,

Good report and sounds like a great way to "ease" back into the sport. Glad to hear that you had fun.

TheMudder

thanks man. there's some good photos here: https://arrivee.blogspot.com/2010/06/whitefish-pics.html ..for those who have time to kill and give a snot. Whitefish is so cool.

Racer Ex 

Oklahoma City in June is not.

Very nice report

Grumpy McTrumpy

repost from my email...WARNING long etc...



Cheers to all!

(follows is a reprint of a long winded race report that I made.... Ignore if necessary)


Here's a view from the 35+....



Day One, Road Race, 55 miles. As the good doctor mentioned, he got pissed on with rain, badly. There was much concern about this at the house where I was staying since my host (Gary Steinberg) was thinking of doing the race, even though on May 1 he had a crash which resulted in 3 broken ribs, one broken collarbone and a punctured lung.

He showed up at the last minute with his bike. Wow.

It did not rain on us. The 35+ and 45+ were combined so Pete, Dave and myself were in the same field, which numbered 40 to 50 riders at the start. I slotted in in midpack and settled down for the neutral rollout. Once up the first rise it was game on and the tempo picked up a bit. Feeling frisky I put in the first attack of the day, giving a moderate effort and sailing OTF for a few miles. I look over my shoulder, nothing. It's just me and the pace car. I think "cool" and put my head down for some more TTing. (This was not a real move, but more of a warm-up and eventual practice for the day when I have the strength to do this sort of thing to actually win a race). One guy bridges. He's flying and I have to surge to grab his wheel. A second guy slots in behind me and We are three. Pulls are traded for a few minutes, but when they stop pulling through I look over my shoulder and the field (which was nonexistent a few minutes ago) is all welded back together. I sit up and stretch, letting them envelop me.

Three was the magic number that day. If one guy went OTF, or even two, there was no reaction. As soon as a third joined in, the surge was dramatic, instant and violent. The pack was not willing to take chances with three out there.

This course is deceptive. There are no major climbs until you get to the end of the lap at around mile 20 or so, but it is literally all up and down. (Apparently someone from the race had a Garmin which told him that 55 miles equalled 6000 feet of climbing) That one kicker hill was a beast though. I remembered it from last year. On lap one I hung in there. Gary dropped off the back. His ribs hurt too much to handle that kind of heavy breathing. Dave hung tough on the steep part, but the real pain comes later, when the grade gets "easy" but the locomotive keeps getting faster and faster, until you are flying through the feedzone in your 39x14 or big ring, still going uphill and trying to ignore the pain signals that are literally overwhelming. The experienced racers know this and they keep accelerating until well after the feedzone and it drops people on every lap. Dave didn't make it.

Now the field is smaller. Fast forward to the second time up the hill and I am hitting the base of the climb near the back of the pack. BIG MISTAKE. A small gap at the top and I am off the back. Nothing left in the tank and I am thinking I will be alone for the rest of the race. My luck changes when another rider comes by and I grab his wheel. We TT our butts off for a few miles, chasing the pack which is strung out until, thankfully, they stop surging. We actually had to slow down to keep from shooting past them! I am back in the field. Whew.

I think that surge was a chase attempt to catch the (eventually winning) break of two that went. They would not be caught. From that point on I was safely within the peloton, and on lap three I hit the climb in the front. It made a huge difference and I stayed right in there until the top. No problem at all except for the enormous pain in my legs. (as it turned out I came close to setting 5 minute power records on each ascent, only Hollenbeck's lap one was harder)

There are less than twenty of us left at this point. We make a final left turn to head back to Wilmington and a few more guys are off in no man's land between us and the break. Pete gets tired of people not chasing and assumes the lead role, pulling us all the way back to town. I was second wheel going in to Whiteface, trying my best to conserve energy but knowing that something wasn't quite right. Once we make the turn onto Whiteface, I followed the first move, slotting in but the legs just didn't cooperate. I glanced at the power meter. crap. I am putting out way below what I was averaging on the whole one-hour mountain climb last month, and I feel like I am at the limit already. This is not a good sign. I give up on racing and just ride to finish at this point. The field goes ahead. I click down to my smallest gear and struggle to turn over the pedals.

Finished in 2:38 for 13th place in the 35+. Once I crossed the line and stopped I knew what the problem was. Le Bonk.

Vision got narrow and dark and I could no longer feel my extremities. Pete helped keep me from falling over and Gary was there too. I'm not sure how long I had to just lean over the bike until I could move again, but it seemed long.

My mistake: doing an afternoon race on breakfast only. Please note.

(I did eat all of my gels and most of my liquid, but it wasn't nearly enough)


Day two, criterium....

After a very large pasta dinner and lousy sleep I woke up feeling reasonably decent, but the legs were not really there for the warmup. This time I made sure to have a sandwich before the crit, but I think yesterday pretty much fried me. I prayed that the race would not start at ludicrous speed. Prayers were not answered and the field went off like a rocket ship. I missed my clipin and slotted in last wheel, again. (Frak I suck at this)

It was brutal. being in the back made it far worse as I had to close gaps at every corner. They strung out single file at the S/F line for the next two laps as some hammers were trying to break the field immediately. I was one of the first casualties and lost contact. I wasn't going to give up on this race though and decided to TT for the rest of the day if necessary. Picked up a few riders and we worked together for a while. Once the main field came around I jumped on with them, although my companions were too tired to make the accelerations. This race had completely exploded, with no group larger than five surviving. Lapped riders, people off the front, off the back, middle groups etc. I just jumped in whatever group I could find and sometimes did work to help out Dave when he was there. I found myself in the main field near the end of the race (albeit down a lap, so I had to stay in the back per regulations) and Pete was right in there. They had caught the guy OTF and had a good shot at winning this thing...

I let them go with two laps left and got my finish. Pete was second in the 45+, nearly beating Andy Ruiz at the line. He got a silver medal and some money as well.

I was 8th in the 35+, and, to my surprise, ended up with the bronze medal. (I guess most of them were from other states or countries or planets or something). I'm not really sure how I feel about getting lapped in a race and still getting a medal. Especially when Dave finished in front of me without getting lapped and had nothing to show for it.

Speshul.


although I will say this.


If I had given up and pulled myself then I sure wouldn't have gotten squat. Little engine that sorta could.

Some day I am going to have an engine that will let me be the windshield. Today I was the bug.



AW

Ygduf

I neglected to also mention that the 18th-19th-20th is our conference season opening at Stanford, where I work and am required to be on those days.

But, what are these VP races? And, while it's totally noob, maybe you'll humor me; where do you all find the race listings for an area? Is it all on bikereg or whatever?

kudude

infamous VP races listed here:
https://www.velopromo.com/

however EVERYTHING is on
www.ncnca.org/road

If you haven't seen this site yet, it'll be quite an eye-opener for area races

aham23

Sherman Park Crit this past Saturday. they had two 5 races, so i did two races.

first one, rode well and near the front. i was ready to make a move. however, i missed the one to go bell and had no idea the race was over. i never got my sprint on. mid pack finish. i blame the damn lady near the start/finish who rang her big arse cow bell every time around. or maybe not.

second one, rode well and near the front, but a bit too much on the inside out of the draft and in the wind. led a couple laps. payed attention this time and caught the one to go. tried to get my sprint on coming out of the last turn as i sat top ten. i left my sprint at home though. mid pack finish.

this was the least technical crit i have done all year. a complete oval where brakes should not be needed. i was involved in some bumping and grinding in race one. in race two i had a wheel near the front as things started to heat up. i am pretty sure it was my wheel and told the guy to my right as much. he hit me anyway. i thought his front skewer was going to rip apart my PSIMET hoops. next i think our bars hooked. he gave me the bump, i didnt panic, bounced off a guy shooting up the left (inside) and back into him. this sent him him off course. not sure if he went totally down or not.

that is 13 starts as a 5. my 4 upgrade is approved. now i go on vacation for 8 days. that should help my form a lot......

later.

kudude

glad you stayed up, but it's never your wheel, especially if you thought it was your wheel because you said something

Ygduf

Patterson RR looks like the next best option for me...

CrimsonKarter21

I wasn't racing, but I thought it needed to be said;

At a kermesse yesterday, a well-known animator and doper won with a decent gap between second place.
Instead of cheering for the "winner," the fans, in-mass booed at him, and screamed "doper!". The second place rider, a younger kid about my age, got all of the cheers.

This is the first time I ever heard of the booing at a local race, I'm well aware of the fans at Leige- Bastogne-Liege this year, but on a local level?

The riders over here are all sick of this guy going to the races and bullying others into paying him to win, him and his team are beginning to be flicked by the clean riders.

aham23

at the time i thought it was my wheel because i was two inches off it. in retrospect, i think it was my wheel because he crashed and i didnt.

all jokes aside, no one was hurt, which is most important. i am still learning about racing and this was a good weekend of just that. later.

grolby

It's Cat 5. Let 'em have the wheel if they want it that bad.

Kris Flatlander

Wish I could've been there, but alas I'm only in MT for the school year (out in DC for the summer). Looks like it was a great race as always. How did Frykman and Curry (two GAS-Intrinsik guys in the orange kits, one's huge and the other's got a beard haha) do in the 1/2/3 race?

TheKillerPenguin

Wilmington-Whiteface, 3/4's. Felt great physically, messed up tactically. Should have been with the winning break, but sat up after we got a gap because it hurt and I figured they'd get reeled back in quickly (wrong). Did the same thing on lap 2 with another move that went ( on the one major climb on the course that Grumpy mentioned). On the finishing climb I attacked at the bottom and held a gap to 1k to go, then was caught by a couple of 3 person groups. In short, I was dumb and shot myself in the foot multiple times.

TheMudder

Mr. and Mrs. Frykman both won their respective TT's. Not sure how they finished overall. ...wait, here: https://www.runwhitefish.org/Results/2010GNGC

GirlAnachronism

Tuesday Night at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. They were supposed to have a separate women's race last night, but only three of us showed up, and for some reason they had us 'race' anyways. My teammate had to do an LT test, so we promptly dropped the other girl and I sat on her wheel for a few laps. I practiced giving her a leadout at the end, but she unfortunately did not point at her jersey and put her hands in the air when she crossed the line after our epic 'race,' which I thought would have been hilarious.

Jumped into the men's 3/4 race, hung out in the back for a while before getting gapped on a corner, then did some more leadout practice. Bummer that there weren't more women there, but it ended up being a really fun night goofing around with my friend, and I got a little workout in too.

echappist

good to hear. you doing skyscraper?

GirlAnachronism

Nope, doing Housatonic Hills instead. Might go watch Harlem if we're back in time, though.

How ya feelin?

mike868y

Which field are you racing at HH? I'll be there.

echappist

Thanks for asking. The sutures will be taken out tomorrow. Noggin still feels a bit numb though i don't feel dizzy. Hopefully i'll be riding by this time next week.

Mike and Kate, good luck at Housatonic.