Crash716

i am just gonna say for me

waterrockets 

Grumpy McTrumpy

the other day at thursday night's race I was in this predicament (first wheel, second rider would not pull through. My way of dealing with it was to stand up, and make a really big and obvious show of attacking from the first position.

Since I knew that some of the riders behind me were likely to do the pavlovian "chase anything that looks attackish" I just made it look very much so. I did not have to go far before the surge enveloped me and I could sit back in.

JohnKScott

Great reports folks. Congrats on the wins and great efforts! Glad no one was seriously inured & that pic of the ensuing wreck is awesome. Toodling over to watch the video now. Can't help myself...

heppm01

Handy tip - thanks for sharing!

ridethecliche

And the head?

waterrockets 

JohnKScott

Fat Boy

Fat Boy

P.S. Don't click on that....anyone.

kindablue

bostongarden

Has this become the Race Report Twitter Feed thread?

BTSyndrome

Very nice and accurate race report STP. Nice job.
I'm kick'n myself for not being able to get downtown and watch the Sat. race.
I didn't know how they would set up that course on Sun.
With that many turns and short straightaways it definitely was different.
That single off the front was extending 2 to 3 sec. a lap over the field in the last 5 laps.
He wont be a 5 for long.
Do you ride with the Tue/Thursdays Eastside ride or hit up WNW?
Living on the West side I don't get over to the East side much.

STP

Sometimes with the east side folks, but not often. I'm usually doing my own thing on the weekends. As for Wednesday Night Worlds, I go when I can but I'm not there every week. It's good training, but not really for crits, in my opinion. It's better for road racing since it's a ten mile loop. I'm am, however, looking forward to the Tuesday night Time Trial series that starts next week. I'm hoping to make as many of those as possible just for something new to try. I like variety in my training.

BTSyndrome

If you ever see a red, black, and grey Cervelo S1 w/ a not fat but heavier rider out and about named Matt, stop by and say HI. I mostly just solo it West of town, that way I can just ride from the house.

carpediemracing 

Last night's Tues Night Worlds. Some of the strong leg breakers showed up, attacked a gazillion times, but enough guys wanted it to come down to a field sprint that no one got away. Saved it all for one jump, moved up hard at the bell, jumped early, bridged to a late break dangling off front, then followed teammate almost to the line. He won, the promoter got second, I rolled in third. Friend and former college teammate got fourth. Nice, tough, and safe racing. 1st, 2nd, 4th were from the break, so they rode really well.

Last week I sprinted in the 39T due to shifting problems. This week my quick fix was to lock the front derailleur on the 53T.

I joked with someone before the race that I'm 7 days stronger than last week. Training makes you weaker, i.e. fatigue. Resting makes you strong, i.e. recovery. I didn't ride since last week's Tues Night Worlds.

This may be the first race to get Youtubed this year, just because it has some cool stuff in it and it's easy to see a story. I have a few other projects but they're all kind of in limbo, no real stories or, in one case, about 8-10 hours of video to go through for one clip (and I don't know how to end the story yet).

bostongarden

Nice cdr!!

shovelhd

A podium is a podium, cdr. Nice work.

agoodale

Race report + questions

Have you ever finished a race where you, your teammates, and others in the lead pack did not know a break had got away? The devil is in the details so please read...

Majestic Upgrade Series - Cat 3 - 45 mins.
Course: .5 miles, 7 turns, very narrow & technical course circling the interior perimeter of this parking lot. 15-20mph crosswind.


After checking out the course we knew that the race would get strung out quickly and probably break apart so our plan was to get out front early and stay there. That's exactly what we did. The 3 of us pulled the first 4 laps & then the attacks started and I settled into around 12th wheel while my teammate stayed in the top 5. It was a brutal pace and the "S" turns at the north end were giving me and others trouble. Our 3rd teammate dropped out and the field was down to 14 after 15 laps.

Attacks had been going off the front the entire time but never more than 2 guys would get out and they would eventually get reeled in. On the 15th lap we were about to catch one of these 2 man breaks when one of the attackers crashed. My teammate was right there and I was no more than 1-2 seconds back. Of course what remained of the field accelerated hard but we all came back together. At least that's what we saw...

By the time it was 2 to go attrition had narrowed the field down to 6. My teammate and I were confirming our plans when the announcer states "lead group 1 lap to go, lead group this is the bell lap!" WTF? We go around for our 2nd to last lap and when I cross the start/finish a group of three riders sprint past me. WTF again! Our 6 finish the race and my teammate gets 3rd me 6th (that's whole different story).

When we roll around back to the start/finish we find out that supposedly there was a 3 man break ahead of us since lap 15 (out of 35). The three of them are celebrating and we were in shock. We protest but the officials are adamant that there was a break. So I ended up 9th, my teammate 6th.

It's over and done with but we're still trying to figure out how this group got away without us and others seeing it. It's hard to believe that sometime near lap 15 they jumped out so far ahead that we couldn't see them on this wide open parking lot course. Plus, the three of them were able to lap us on such a short technical course where it was difficult to go much faster than our group already was.

We have our theories as to what happened but I'm curious if anyone else has had a similar incident or can shed some light on the subject.

miwoodar

Bummer agoodale. You guys don't have a moto? Everyone on the sidelines saw the break but you guys didn't?

Looks like a fun route.

Your story reminds me of this...https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...bout-the-break

shovelhd

Are you suggesting that they pulled a Rosie Ruiz?

Flat, technical courses favor the break.

agoodale

I'll preface all my further comments by stating that it's entirely possible we f'd up. I even congratulated the winners after the race (right before I filed the protest ) What we're trying to figure out is how 3 guys in white kits escaped and got such a huge lead we couldn't see them ahead of us.

Something along those lines. One theory is that intentionally or unintentionally someone attacked and then joined up with some guys OTB. On such a short course it wouldn't be hard for the scorekeepers to get confused.

No moto. Yes, it was a fun & very challenging race. It was also the first ever race for this club & was very low budget and disorganized. Since I know how race planning goes I'm willing to cut them some slack until they get the hang of it.

It was late so there weren't many people on the sidelines. Plus I think the announcer was calling them the lead so the crowd just went with it. I'm trying to get some more info from people that were there.

Yes, I remember that thread. My teammate and I have a good amount of experience between us and have a good handle on dealing with attacks in a race. Our group was definitely NOT acting like there was a 3 man break up the road. There was no slow down were a break might get away. There wasn't any blocking or false pace being set by their teammates. If a 4th of the riders attack a race there is normally going to be some reaction from the field (and that reaction would have included one of us!). Plus even if they get away they would have slowly crawled away 10 to 20 yards at a time. They wouldn't have been out of view.

Of course going back to my first point I'm happy to admit we f'd up if I can get a reasonable explanation.

Creakyknees

Plano (Dallas) Tuesday nighter last night.

I deployed my new stem cap thermometer:


According to which, it was 106F at the start.

Funny thing about racing in the heat, it's a different game. Guys will blow up or sit up unexpectedly; everybody is hot, sluggish, speeds are lower but gaps are harder to close. I call it "racing in slow motion".

The course is flat and open, there was only a slight crosswind so after some initial attacks it didn't look like a break would stick. Then the heat effect kicked in. A small gap opened about 15th wheel... and nobody closed it. I was sitting about 20th just watching this unfold. We had a good sprinter up there who I saw look back, then hit the front and drill it. I was just pulling a high tempo and contemplating jumping across (One team had too many jerseys in there for my comfort, but heat was getting to me, too) when our other sprinter comes flying by.. so I said "cool!"

Then I finally looked behind me... and the pack was gone... shredded. We went from 40+ starters to the less than 20 in like 2 laps. I didn't even realize it but instead of doing tempo at the front of the pack, I was now OTB with stragglers behind.

****. <---- I said a bad word at this point.

So I settled into TT mode, found a few other guys to work with and after 5 laps of real effort that I would have preferred to avoid, made contact with the "break" which wasn't really a break. That group ended up sprinting for 2nd after one guy solo'd the last few laps... again nobody was willing/able to chase.

Weirdness... not the way you'd expect that race to play out, under normal conditions... but that's the heat fer ya.

JohnKScott

hahaha...had to google it. Awesome. Interesting few posts.

Congrats CDR!

Cleave

Hi agoodale,

I remember looking at the flier for this race and the first thing that turned me off was the poor grammar.

The course description sounded interesting: "1.2 miles, flat with 14 corners and good pavement and technical." I guess there was also a bit of a problem with truth in advertising.

I presume they had a proper USAC official or officials. If so then it is what it is because, after all, officials are humans too. Not sure what the point structure is per race but hopefully you were still in the points. Remember, for this kind of series, only the series final results count for upgrade points.

Good luck in the future. The real course looks gnarly.