bostongarden

I love that photo as a teaser (not wishing for any carnage, but, since you have the video...). Glad you came out of it unscathed. Sure, disappointing with respect to how you felt, significance of race, etc. But, something to be said for making it through without pain and ready to race again immediately. Sheesh, to your left, right, in front and behind, sounds like you dodged several bullets!!

waterrockets 

Looks like the start of a human caterpillar.

forrest_m

Nice job, Matt! I was sorry to miss this for the first time in three years. If you're not a marked man in seattle crits by now, you should be...

STP

Today was day two. Due to a last minute move, the course today was set up in the large parking lot of an arena north of town. That meant hot pavement, no shade and no relief from the 15-20 mph southwest wind. It was easily in the low to mid 90's at my 12:30 p.m. start time. The field was eighteen strong today. We had a nice, slow neutral first lap where everyone really stayed together. The race was 25 minutes plus three laps. I was pretty well hydrated and I ate well last night and this morning. I took one water bottle with me on the crit and only needed to go through about half.

After about three or four laps at a moderate pace, we dropped half the field and the main pack was around ten strong. Ten minutes or so in, and after the first preem, one guy made a solo break and stayed out the rest of the time. Due to the nature of the beginners group, there was never any organized pursuit so it was on for second and third only. I stayed up near the top of the field occasionally pulling through the wind so as not to be a wuss but I was also careful not to become fodder. There were plenty of guys there from yesterday so I guess you could say I was a "known factor."

There was one guy that took a slider in a right hand, off camber, downhill, wind-at-the-back turn, but everyone else kept the rubber side down (although another fella dug a pedal into the asphalt in another turn and about crapped out). I added a goal to yesterday's efforts: don't cross the line with energy to spare. In the last lap, no one jumped but the pace quickened dramatically. I heard a lot of wheezing so I took advantage of those fellas and moved up again in place. At the end, I pushed through two more guys an ended up with a sixth place. I'm very satisfied.

These two days have been a lot of fun and I can't wait until my next crit weekend at the end of the month! Cheers.

wens

Mcdonald's tri state crit, 5's

Also posted the other place.

I'm tired of being a 5, so I made a long drive so I can upgrade after next weekend. For a flat, 30 minute 4 corner crit. Course was right downtown, at least 4 lanes wide everywhere, not technical at all, and had only a gentle breeze, so I figured it would come down to a field sprint. My plan for the day was to keep attacking until I went otf or otb for good, even though I didn't think I'd get anywhere.

Started and slotted in 3rd wheel or so, stayed in the top 6 wheels for the first few laps until it settled down, then threw in a speculative attack. Looked back and had a gap, so settled into tt mode to wait until I got brought back. A few laps later I see someone behind me, assume I've been caught, then look more closely to see he bridged solo. Stayed away with him for another few laps until we got caught slotted back in near the front to recover, and decided I was going to try to go again after the prime.

The prime came sooner than I expected, and I was still feeling the effects of my foray off the front, so I held off. Looked back a little while later when I was sitting 5th wheel and only saw one guy behind me. Did a bit of a double take trying to figure out how we lost that much of the field on this course. Had 3 guys from the same team in the group of 6, then 3 guys in there alone (including yours truly). Sat on as much as I could, covered when one of the teammates went and the other 2 guys didn't look like they were going to bring it back, and decided I was going to take a shot at a kilo attack.

After the lap cards came out one of the 3 guys attacked, I got into his wheel, then started to get a little worried about getting ridden off his wheel. Fortunately he died, it came back together, we rolled around until 2 to go, i tried to get to the outside going into the last corner, planning to attack and gutter people. Got caught w/ 2 guys outside of me, oops. Blew that. Jumped as hard as I could on the left side, flew through the corner, took the next corner, looked back and saw I still had a gap. Drilled it as hard as I could hurting like crazy. Made it to the line solo, so:

Creakyknees

Winner winner chicken dinner! Nice.

tallmantim

Ughhh.

A long day in the saddle; much of it dealing with heavy winds.

The ride down to the race was OK, clocking up 90km on the way down, wolfing down some food and then getting ready for the start of the handicap. I was “privileged” to be on the chopping block. This is a curious group, which I took to be a form of entertainment for the organisers – you have two minutes time on the strongest guys racing and the smallest field – starting with 7 but with one dropping back to the scratch bunch immediately.

We rolled turns anyway to do our best to keep good time, but were caught by the “scratchies” after 21km. When we were caught we integrated with the slightly larger scratch bunch and started rolling turns with them. With the strong winds there was no-where to hide, and I knew intellectually that I would be better off in the wind continuing to roll turns to get at least some shelter, but I was pretty cooked, electing to sit on the back for some time, mechanically calling out to the racers in front of me that were rotating, “up... up... up...”.

We caught some stragglers, then a group, two. There were groups and cars caught in traffic jams struggling up the two rises on the course, but we simply motored up them. We passed some more groups and were starting to get some other riders integrate with the scratch bunch as we’d go past – I made an effort to move up the now stretched bunch closer to the front.

We caught one of the (I think) C grade bunches at the corner about 8km from the finish, and it was chaos – the bunch was wide so we went past in single file, but with riders from the group sprinting into the line, meaning I was now even further back and needing to make up space. One of the riders lets a gap open and I push across, another gap opens and I push across again. We are going about 60km/h with the wind behind us and when another gap opens I am broken – unable to bridge and feeling wrecked.

I limped home with my tail between my legs, being passed by several groups and without the mental or physical capacity to jump on with them.

Getting back to base, I ate some more and then got ready to head off again, riding home with Glen. Heading down Seven Mile road, Glen was literally blown off the road and was close to getting a refreshing swim in the culvert. Turning onto Ballarto road, we were now riding into the teeth of the wind. Glen continued to ride strong, but I was struggling and we stopped off for some refreshments and a short break in Cardinia.

I was close to pulling the pin in Cranbourne, but again Glen kept me going and I had recovered to at least some degree from a combination of Coke and licorice at our rest stop.

I got home after over 8 hours of ride time on the bike and feeling tired but otherwise OK, having burnt through nearly 7000 Calories.

Thanks to SVCC, the organisers and volunteers for putting on a great event. I highly recommend the handicap races to anyone – it makes for a very interesting race.

Stats:

Race before I was dropped:
Duration: 1:33:12
Work: 1898 kJ
TSS: 140.9 (intensity factor 0.952)
Norm Power: 352
VI: 1.04
Pw:HR: 5.38%
Pa:HR: 3.81%
Distance: 64.084 km
Elevation Gain: 69 m
Elevation Loss: 64 m
Grade: 0.0 % (3 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1119 340 watts
Heart Rate: 117 180 165 bpm
Cadence: 19 122 87 rpm
Speed: 9.3 59.5 41.3 kph
Pace 1:01 6:27 1:27 min/km
Altitude: 24 66 38 m
Crank Torque: 0 203.2 37.2 N-m
Temperature: 13 15 14.3 Celsius

bostongarden

Wens!!! Sweet effort.

STP, well done!

mattm

Thanks everyone for the congrats! I still can't believe it, good thing there's photo evidence!

Thanks guys - sorry to hear you had a rough race! Ballard has a history of being brutal. I heard there was like 8 different crashes in your race?! Ouch.. hope you guys aren't hurting too much.

tallmantim

That is an awesome pic. Well done in the race anyways guys!

Forza

Nah..I'm good...went out and hammered today

Thanks!

Here is a pic from a photographer's angle...I am in the very top right of the image in red/black/white kit..this is what went down behind me and to my left...



Isn't that just a disturbing movie?

Video has been posted in the Race Video Thread in this Forum!

shovelhd

Congratulations, wens! Way to blast out of the 5's.

miwoodar

Congrats on the wins guys. It's really cool to check in and find so many good reports. TMT, I can't believe you got dropped with watts like that. Forza, I can't wait to check out the video when I get home today.

I did two crits this weekend (races 9 and 10...7 and 8 on the year). Two tight courses. Went down twice. Ouch.

Won the first one (first win in 35+3's). Thanks for teammates for keeping the peloton in check while my breakmate and I built a gap. I was disappointed to see him fizzle after a few laps though. Unsure of what to do I buried it and was able to finish out the final ~15 minutes solo.

Took 10th in the 2nd (SM3's). I almost bridged to the forming break but couldn't close the final 25 meters. The chase group had two guys who did a really good job shutting down all moves. It was really frustrating. It's the first time I've ever raced against a hard defense before. Kudos to them for ensuring the successful break though. My pedal broke during the Saturday race (Carbon RXS - the nose broke off!)....I installed some new pedals that evening....then couldn't click in as I watched the peloton ride away from me at the line. The race started with a 5 minute TT before I was able to latch onto the draft.

I have a question regarding shutting down the chase. I was on the front. 2nd man was always from a team with a guy in the break. They did a really good job securing this position again and again. The scenario is this, I've gone to the front, driven the pace for a bit, nobody has come around and the guy behind me won't let me pull off. I whipped from the far right side of the road (20 feet wide) to the far left then back to the far right and he wouldn't let me go. I eventually had to sit completely up slowing to less than 20mph before somebody decided to come around and force him to take a new wheel. Can anyone comment on this (my situation and/or his)? Could I have done something different?

fordfasterr

BBPA cat 3 in Stuart Criterium (Sunday).

Finished 7th. I felt good with a 39.9 mph for 4th in the field sprint (I came in from too far back on the last corner).

ridethecliche

I've heard about having your head up your own ass, but that's a little ridiculous.

miwoodar

If you're responding to my question, please treat me like a total noob to cycling (this would have been my last race as a cat 5 anywhere else). I can't tell if you're saying that I'm ridiculous for diving from side to side like that or if he's ridiculous for following me. I know the folks at the end of the whip had to be saying WTF!??? Should I have just sat up rather than try to pull off? This seems even more dangerous as it would have forced everyone behind to slam on the brakes.

echappist

congrats on the solo effort. love to hear stories like that.

what they did was textbook blocking, but a form that could earn a lot of enmity in subsequent races. I've done similarly d**chy moves in the past, and thank goodness no one was smart enough to figure it out. What they should do is let you pull off, go to the front, and soft pedal until someone decides enough is enough and passes him.

not sure what you could have done in that situation though. They had a whole team blocking whereas you seemed like the only one smart enough to figure out what they were doing, and no one else seems interested in helping with the chase. It's tough. If you had more people interested in the chase, you drill it and stretch everyone single file, and if he decides to follow you when you pull off, someone else begins pulling. If he decides to soft pedal, the next person in line just shuffles past him.

in any case, trying to block or chase singlehandedly is not pleasant.

GirlAnachronism

In RTC's defense (crazy, I know) I believe he was referring to the above photo of one dude with his head apparently buried in another dude's ass. And not in a good way.

miwoodar

I think it's time for another cup of coffee for me. Thanks for helping me put two-and-two together.

shovelhd

miwoodar, there's nothing douchy about what that rider did. You did not have to make dangerous moves to shake him. Next time, once you figure out that he's blocking, sit up, filter back into the group, rest, and do it again. If he follows another attack that you think will stick, go with it even if the wheelsucker is on board. With some help, one of you can gap him off.

One thing you will learn the easy way or the hard way. You might be able to ride away from Cat5's, but unless you're a wunderkind or a doper, it's going to be harder for you to do that as you progress up the ladder. Knowing how to sense a break that will stick, taking advantage of other teams teamwork, being patient, all are things you will have to learn to do well in the upper categories.

Good luck.

ridethecliche

True love.

Flash

Not to poke fun at this guy's predicament -- looks like a face-meets-asphalt moment, hope he came out ok -- but one can't help but notice where his saddle is and where his face appears to be be, everything in line. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Crash716

is there really a good way to have your head buried in another man's ass?

GirlAnachronism

Depends on the man...

echappist

Tmi