Bike Forums - The 2013 Race Results Thread

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Seaside Bayview Circuit Race 2/3's.

6th. (out of only 19 or something weak, everyone is at Merco)

Guy trickled otf in the first lap (of 7 laps I think) and I figured he'd come back, based on talk I'd heard previous to the race (it's windy out and breaks were getting swallowed up in previous races).

Only he never did come back.

It seemed like the whole field was blocking, nobody really wanted to do any work at all so I went to the front a lot to up the pace. It wasn't until the last few laps that guys decided to actually start racing, and coming in to the last lap at the turn-around a few guys attacked and I tried to go with but didn't have the legs at that point. Still, we dropped the rest of the field at least.

Coulda done better, coulda done worse. But the training is at least paying off.

frostbite TT - first USAC race of the colorado season.

i cat'd up to 2 over the winter so this was my first 35+ open race. had pretty good results in 3 and 35+3 TTs last year, and knew i was probably top third in 35+ open going in. but i'm way behind my normal schedule so i didnt really know what to expect today, but i just got really motivated and excited about racing this morning and everything went well and felt good as i was packing and cleaning my bike and warming up.

hit the line to a stiff crosswind, and missed my clip in, like a tool. finally got in and got up to speed and cruised along at a good clip till the turnaround which i took really clumsily, but got back up to speed well on the backside.

i ended up 3rd in 35+, only 4 sec off 2nd and 20 sec off 1st. avg 27.7mph. 10th fastest time of the whole day and much better showing against some of my benchmark peers than i'm used to.

without a doubt, i lost a chunk of time at the start and turnaround and i have no one to blame myself as i havent spent any time this season on my finesse. but i certainly will now.

i was really really surprised by how well i did, and how much i improved. i was pretty sure i'd be way off form from getting started so late. so i guess this is promising. i'm really motivated the get my weight to the right place and make sure i nail my training plan and i could be on the right track for a my main season goal, which is a state TT podium.

now i gotta get my climbing legs back. i was doing great last summer but i'm worthless right now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by badhat (Post 15337705)

Nice!

I did a race. I got shelled, it sucked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by badhat (Post 15337705)

Good work - but you had to clip in for a TT? WTF is up with that? Nobody holding bikes at the start?

Quote:

Originally Posted by badhat (Post 15337705)

frostbite TT - first USAC race of the colorado season.

< blah blah blah did really well without training blah blah blah>

i hate you.

Little River Challenge Road Race, Cat 4/5

4 flat 12 mile laps. Only my second race, and my first road race. Got dropped in the crit I did a couple weeks ago, so my goal was just to finish with the field. Small field of 18 or 19 riders.

Very cold at the start. Below freezing for sure. There was ice on top of the roadside ditches throughout the race. Anyway, most of the race was little more than a coffee cruise. 21-22 mph or so, with some brief hard surges of 30+. It basically went: someone would roll off the front halfheartedly, no one would chase, and he'd come back in. My riding buddy and I noticed the pattern, and decided we'd try to make a break right after one of the hard surges. We didn't get very far. Ok, so no more breaks.

Field stayed together to the end, which I'm actually glad for. Since I got dropped in my first race, this was my first chance to experience a field sprint. I decided not to start really sprinting until the last possible moment, maybe 50-75m or so, and I think this was a good strategy. People who started sprinting at the 200m mark were starting to fade, and I made up 10 spots or so in the last 50 meters. I didn't hang around to see official results, but I think I finished 4th or 5th.

tl;dr Raced, didn't get dropped, put in a good sprint. Was fun.

Lago vista counterclockwise has to be the hardest course in Texas.. Oh my god. Finished 8th, spent most of the race thinking I'd get dropped. There were some insane performances by some 3s today. The guy who won a bunch of the early season race attacked all race long then finally road away on the last lap. Absolute beast. It's what I aspire to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnybutts (Post 15339429)

That's a great result out there. There's usually a pretty solid bunch scramble into the finish, but missing much of the pack. Nice work.

That is a tough course, but I like it.

lots of good reports. Keep it up guys. Especially enjoyed the reports where the break succeeded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Creatre (Post 15337167)

Greenville Spring Training Series Week 4 - Race 1

River Falls RR - Cat 3 (~5th/~35?)
- Course today is a 5.7 mile loop we do 9 times (~50 miles). Has a .6 mile 6% climb at the start/finish. Today my goal was to get as many omnium points as possible and make sure 3rd doesn't. I was sitting in 2nd for the 4 week omnium, and only 1 point out of first. It's cold and windy again today. We start and we start out pretty slow again. The first couple laps are people attacking, we gulf them up, then we slow down, then repeat the process.

The first few times up the climb we went at a solid pace and I just stayed up near the front of the group to make sure nothing got off the front. My legs felt like crap because I did a makeshift 5 day rest week and haven't had any intensity since last weekend. I wasn't supposed to race this weekend, but wanted to go for the Omnium win, so cut the rest week short. About halfway through the race, we hit the climb and I hammer out a solid pace. I string us all out in a serious way, and drop off a good bit of the back of the group. Mission accomplished for this lap (harder the race, easier for the strong people). I start seeing some strong moves go off the front, and I try to get in a few of them. I'm starting to notice I'm being marked in a serious way. The leader of the omnium has 3 teammates and he is sitting right on my wheel, with his teammates there playing back up. So, in other words, I'm not making it into any moves. I decide with a few laps to go to try to bridge up to a group off the front on the climb. I get a great gap on the climb, hammer it down the hill, but didn't drag along anyone with me and didn't want to get stuck in no mans land. Eventually some people get up to me, and I try to get us to rotate because the group is splintered, but no one is willing tow work (still marking me). Ho hum.

The last couple of laps there was a lot of attacking and people were starting to get some solid gaps. The peloton was basically stuck to my wheel and I was soft pedaling at 150w for like half a lap at one point. I did a lot of work in the last few laps, but I didn't want too many guys to get off the front. One group of 2 gets off the front, and they get a huge lead. At this point I consider them gone, and I was OK with 2 being gone. Another group of 2 get off the front and I start to get worried. Luckily, my nemesis (1st in omnium), has his team get on the front and they hammer it leading up to the climb. He launches about halfway up, and I followed. I didn't grab his wheel, (I didn't have the same punch he did) but was within 50m, and caught him on the downhill. One guy was also able to follow. We had a huge gap, and we went for it. Unfortunately, only me and the lone guy were able to rotate, first in the omnium was bummed I followed so wasn't willing to do any work. Whatever. I chat with the other guy and tell him to ignore him and lets just rotate. We are really going hard, my HR was in the upper 180s, lower 190s, and I didn't even want to know the power I was putting out. Even in the draft I was hurting because of the wind, and never could find quite the draft I wanted.

One guy bridged across about the middle of the lap. Luckily for me it was a friend of mine, and he really helped us survive (along with giving me a little bit of a breather). Finally we make contact with the 2 guys that were in between us and the 2 leaders. One of those guys blows up, and the other joins with us (we have 5 in the group now). We start rotating him in, and it looks like we might have a chance of surviving. We rotate well to the bottom of the climb, when my buddy does a strong pull. Someone shouts that the peloton is right behind us. We take a glance, and yup there they are, dunno how. Unfortunately my buddy blows up a little and can't keep the pace. The other guy in the break we caught blows up hard too, so it's just our little break of 3 left. I hit the pedal to the metal near the of the climb, and just do a 2min interval, praying I'll pop at least one of the guys with my hard pace but will allow us to survive over the peloton. I had popped the whole group a couple times on the climb, so I figured it had a chance. That strategy didn't quite work on these guys, they were too strong, and my pace after basically a threshold interval of 15mins was not quite enough. At the top of the climb, they sprinted around me and I was totally fried and let them go, and rolled in for 5th. (2 guys from my break that came around me, and the 2 guys that were in the break in front of us that survived).

Good news is the guy that was 1st in the omnium finished 4th, so only gained one point on me. Now I'm still in 2nd, only two points down. Still very much have a chance of grabbing the win in the last race tomorrow. 3rd place is 10 points behind me, so he'd have to win tomorrow and I'd have to be outside the top 10. I think I should have at least 2nd secured. Looking forward to the last race tomorrow!

Nice work Creatre!

Quote:

Originally Posted by valygrl (Post 15338720)

i hate you.

ahahaha

lets be clear, i commute 25 miles a day 5-6 days a week very week all year so i am always at least kinda training.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AzTallRider (Post 15338619)

Good work - but you had to clip in for a TT? WTF is up with that? Nobody holding bikes at the start?

yeah its a fairly low rent event.

Bethel Spring Series. It was cold and windy, but that's really redundant for Bethel. I helped out with the Cat 5 clinic, then marshaled turn two for two races.

M45+: Fast, until the break got solidly away. Then it was a frigid Sunday stroll. Still, I was pack fodder.

3/4: Made it until about ten to go or so, and then exploded. Note to self: eat lunch next week.

It was cool riding with my new team (I now race with CDR). My wife and in-laws brought our new addition (only five and a half weeks old!) to meet everyone.

Mason Lake 1, cat 5

Mason lake is a two event series that kicks off racing in the Northwest, and is typically cold, wet, and nasty. Laps around the lake or rolling terrain with no climbs to speak of. Today we got lucky, race started at about 40 and overcast, and ended at about 45 with the sun trying to break through. Cat 5's were to do 3 laps of the lake, 36 miles total. It was capped at 50 riders, but a long waitlist meant they took extras and split it odds and evens. I was even with our group being 30 or so riders. We took off, with no one really trying to push the pace. First lap in the books and it felt like a warm up with an average pace around 22 or so. Second lap came and a coupe people tried to get off of the front, and a couple surges brought them back every time. Pace kicked up finally, and it felt like the race finally started. Some sketchy riding, haphazard attacks, and randoms at the front filled laps 2 and 3 until we hit the home stretch with about 6 miles to go. The pace kicked up again and strung out the field, and I started moving up from about mid pack to the front 5-8 wheels. Over the next couple miles I moved up, and just after the 1 k to go I was sitting 4th behind a guy who had been looking strong all day. We hit the 200m to go and he jumped so I went with him. I was giving it everything but couldn't close the bike length or so gap, and spun it out through the finish like. 2nd place. Not too bad, survived my first road race and got a decent result out of the deal.

TLDR: fairly boring race, field sprint, I got 2nd

Nice! Mason is a fun course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattm (Post 15340202)

Nice! Mason is a fun course.

You shut your mouth. That pavement is terrible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattm (Post 15340202)

Nice! Mason is a fun course.

Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by crapweasel (Post 15340765)

You shut your mouth. That pavement is terrible.

There were a couple sketchy spots but I didn't think it was too bad. Maybe Im just used to the garbage roads around here

Quote:

Originally Posted by waterrockets (Post 15339634)

That's a great result out there. There's usually a pretty solid bunch scramble into the finish, but missing much of the pack. Nice work.

That is a tough course, but I like it.

i talked with EDR before the race.

Went 1 km out this time in the field sprint. 2 people came around me. Very tough course. Love it. Whomever places earns it. Field of 80 shredded to ~22 (breaks + "peloton") by the end. As I'm now classifying myself as a "strong" rider, you can't really ask for more than that....

Quote:

Originally Posted by misterwaterfall (Post 15340860)

Thanks!

There were a couple sketchy spots but I didn't think it was too bad. Maybe Im just used to the garbage roads around here

It's more the terrible chipseal that rattles your teeth out and wears you down.

Quote:

Originally Posted by crapweasel (Post 15340942)

It's more the terrible chipseal that rattles your teeth out and wears you down.

But the sprint is fun!

I did Mason Lake #1 today as well. It was my first time racing. I was in the Odds group.

A little confusion at the line up, and I wound up at the back on the inside to start. Shortly after the race was underway there was an open lane along the yellow line and I moved up to the front 3rd of the pack. Somehow I drifted to the back of the pack again and there was no where to go.

On a gradual uphill on the long straight-ish stretch, I was downshifting towards the big-big cross chain, and somehow dropped my chain to the inside. No clue how that even happens. After that I was off the back and trying my best to catch up, but it wasn't happening. This was less than 15min into the race and I was pretty demoralized. Until I started passing other people OTB, I thought it might be a one lap day for me.

Near the end of the first lap there was a crash in the pack, and later I joined up with a guy who got a little tangled up in that, along with another guy who had flatted. We worked pretty hard together to try and make up for lost time, but still finished about 8 minutes behind the pack. 27th of 34 starters, 29 finishers. Not DFL at least... I will try again next weekend.

Wawawai TT and Hill Climb, Cat 5

I went for it and entered both events. TT was as I suspected, tailwind out and headwind back. Out was fun, back just hurt. Finished last in the cat 4/5 field (13th). Hill climb was better, set a PR for the climb and finished 13th out of 16.

In the end I'm happy with my results, I accomplished my goals and enjoyed my first races. Looking for a road race and/or crit to enter next and get dropped from.

UCSB collegiate mens A's - 5th/29

Fast, flat, D-shaped course (same as Mothballs for those in socal). 15 minutes in, I counter attacked after the break my teammate was in was brought back. I opened up a gap and looked back to see who would follow, and after about 15 seconds, 3 guys had joined me. They were the top 3 riders in our conference nationals omnium, so I knew there was firepower there and that I was probably the weakest link. We drilled it for several laps before a group of 5 bridged up and then I knew I would be fine with more people to share the work. We stayed away and caught the field with 3 laps to go and I started to move up for the sprint. With one to go, I jumped on the back of the two Cal Poly guys who were in the break and followed them through the last corner. We opened up the sprint and I finished second, but it turns out the officials forgot to turn the lap cards because they hadn't realized we lapped the field so on our technically last lap, they forgot to ring the bell and therefore we had one more lap to go after I had sat up. We had taken the corner which was just past the start/finish when I saw two guys from the break blow by us and I realized that we still had one more lap and that the sprint didn't count, so I quickly accelerated and stayed ahead of the field until after the last corner and got swallowed up in the field sprint, but I still finished ahead of some of my break mates to take 5th. Disappointing because I could have done better if I could have sprinted full power in the real finish, but I made some mistakes and now I've learned from them.