wens

Morgantown road race 3/4. Trying to get a head start for the climb and failing makes the rest of the race awfully hurty. Got dropped, finished mid-pack-ish, good day of training.

thechemist

I forgot what your kit looked like, ran into grolby again but missed you. Nice work in your first race as a 2! Fouche Gap RR was simply amazing roads, not sure if this is typical of GBRA races but I will be back next year.


21 of 50
My race turned out well(this is race 2 for those keeping track). Cat5, sketchfest group ride for the first 38miles(total 43mi). I launched an attack about 10 miles in just to try it out and dangle in the wind a bit. It was pretty fun and I was reeled in fairly quickly. I didn't have a chance to preride the course and was anxious to see what the climb was like. I stayed in the top 10 for 90% of the ride as most of the pack was downright scary,twitchy to ride with. Locally, I do fairly well on our short steep nashville climbs so this was a good test for me. No breaks in the race and we all hit the climb at the same time as I sat about 10 back from front.

Climb was tough! Over a mile and a bit longer than anything I am used to around here but I learned from it and found a bit more about my strengths and weaknesses. I thought I ended up around 15th but a few more must have passed me on the climb and I landed at 21st.

grolby

Another report from Fouche Gap, cat 3. Beautiful, gently rolling course, 4 laps, 79 miles. I was fortunate to have my Atlanta-based teammate DF racing with me. A very odd race, as it went. A two man break went early, and despite Village Volkswagen being the biggest team in the race by a pretty fair margin, the peloton sat, thumbs firmly embedded in butts, while they built up a 2'20" lead in the first ten miles. Fortunately DF was able to gently social-engineer VW into starting to work, and we did a couple pulls once they were rolling but mostly let them handle it. The break was brought back near the end of the first lap, and then things got surge-y for a while. Lots of attacks, but nothing able to stick. There was no particular reason for this, just no real will to commit to an effort by most people. Even moves with the right mix of teams fizzled out before getting more than a small gap. I marked a bunch of moves that seemed promising, but nothing doing, and after the second lap, people got tired of even trying and pretty much cruised for a while. Which made it even more unlikely for anything to work.

DF had generously offered to work for me, and kept me really well-positioned all race. I felt light on my feet, was riding really strong, marking moves and doing some work when appropriate, and I felt like I had the measure of everyone there. But it's a long race, the longest I've ever done, and on the start of the final lap I felt my hamstring tendons twitching. It went away for a while, but started up again during the sketchy madhouse rush to get to front near the end of the lap (I'm proud to say that I did a great job of moving up in the field - it's actually easier in 3 than in the cat 4 races I did), so things were looking questionable. Sure enough, DF got me to a great position to start the final climb, but when the fireworks started, I just didn't have the legs anymore. Oh well! Across the line 35th out of 55.

Maybe we worked too hard, though I'm proud of how we raced - we raced positively, as much as a 2-man team can, in a field that wasn't interested. And I clearly just don't have the base for a race that long right now, anyway. 60 miles might have been a different story. That's just endurance, though. Otherwise, my form is great - I felt light, strong and fast, and my top-end speed is starting to show up. I'm really looking forward to trying these legs out in the crits. I think I'm going to be very good there. We'll see. I wouldn't have minded a higher finish, but I'm happy. I had fun, I finished safely, I rode well, it was a beautiful day. Sorry for the book, guys.

mattm

Congrats on the solid first race as a 2! Sounds like you will have fun in the 1/2's.

Hida Yanra

Collegiate Omnium Saturday:
RR: 2nd place in men's B, raced a smart race (not alway a given for me) on a really hard course. Some bad luck in the end made it a 2nd instead of 1st... but that's racing, can't be too down on missing 1st place when I snatched 2nd from the fire. It was a stacked field, and I'm very happy with it. Also, my first sprint success of the year - very, VERY happy about that. Legs are coming around.

TTT: 2nd in Men's A, the organizers moved our start times back an hour to give a 90' break between RR and TTT instead of 30', but then magically moved start times up by 25' right before start. Strange, and not conducive to a good warmup. We lost our first guy within the first mile, and the remaining three had to finish. That one hurt a whole lot - but I'm very proud of it. Contributed the whole way through, even with trashed legs, fast teammates, and a 9' warmup. Proud moment.

Virten

Did the 3/4 field at trooper brinkeroff memorial race yesterday for the first time. Early crash happened right in front of me during first lap. People crashing all around me and thought I wouldn't be able to stop right away since my front brakes needed to be adjusted and I was relying 99% on my rear brakes. I think having only the rear brakes made my braking much less abrupt and saved me from having people rear ending me. I get around the crash, joined a few to catch up to the pack, finish the first lap, I reach down for my bottle and nothing was there...Looked down and half my bottle cage snapped off from the crash. Had to race about 32 or so more miles w/o water. I was trying to look for my teammate to ask if I can have the other water bottle but turns out he was caught behind the crash too but wasn't able to catch the pack again. Didn't make the break but at least I tried working in a small chase group for almost an entire lap that ultimately failed to keep away and I finished near front of pack. Overall, I was satisfied with that since it's my longest race so far and being in a field mixed with some 3s.

My max hr before was 189bpm but this race, I had 191bpm. (Coolstorybro)

shovelhd

For some of us, riding off the front is not the exception.

Yep

+1. Original comment was pretty stupid. We have 4 mass start road races in my state this year. That doesn't leave a lot of upgrade points on the table.

badhat

bear creek lake TT men 35+ open:

i've been sick all week after a hard month at work, and wasnt really expecting much yesterday.

in the first place its a very short course, around 8 miles, which is not where i excel, second, its a very technical course, lotta really tight corners and curves and up and down, and it was crazy windy yesterday. the course is also the site of a popular midweek series in denver which means a LOT of the denver based racers would know the course well (unlike me), which would be a huge advantage on a day like that (short, techy, windy), so i didnt get my hopes up, despite a promising 3rd at my first open 35+ TT last month.

in fact, i made this race such a non issue in my head that i broke just about every race prep rule i have: shaved legs in the morning on race day, tried out a new pre race nutrition idea, didnt brother hauling my tool bag down to denver (just took my hex key set), did a fairly significant bike overhaul that morning, including overhauling my brakes to try to get rid of a horrible brake shriek with my carbon race wheels (no luck).

anyway i got down to bear creek in plenty of time and set up on the trainer i didnt really have the will to do any threshold or max effort warmups so just did about a half-hour of alternating between z2 and z4, high and low cadence, just to loosen up.

wind really whipped up by the start, with the start gate facing right into it. got a decent start and got up to ~>threshold quickly and comfortably, was able to stay there for most of the race- on a couple of technical descents i had to sit up a little and coast a little, and one short climb i hit the nitro (but stayed aero, passing guys who were climbing out of the saddle).

the finish line snuck up on me a little, so i didnt leave it on the course for the last few K like i try to, but felt decent about it otherwise. sadly no results posted on site, so i had no reference for the effort until bedtime. all i knew is i'd passed a few guys. no one passed me and a buddy of mine whos pretty formidable told me his garmin time and i'd been significantly faster.

results finally posted 10ish last night. i took the W. pretty pleased with that. it wasnt the most stacked field, but i did beat a couple of guys i regard as really strong masters stalwarts. so thats promising. Feeling pretty good about my TT fitness for the season. state podium seems potentially in grasp if i keep at it.

shovelhd

Surprise wins are great. Congrats.

Creakyknees

About 50 starters for the combined 40+ and 50+ yesterday at Murphy TX. Plenty of water puddles standing all around the stadium parking lot rectangle. One manhole cover in the racing line of turn 2 would prove problematic. Start was pretty fast, but the wide street led to a rider diving the inside of turn 2, remember the wet manhole cover. He took the bad inside line, panicked when he saw the manhole cover, chops my line to the far curb, we were maybe 6 back from the front, I slammed the brakes, and the repercussion a few riders back was the sound of snapping spokes, etc.

That's lap 1. Racing continued, there was a bit of wind and combined with the pace and attacks it was game on the entire race. 40 minutes, seemed like 40 eternities. We brought 8 guys to the start but there were a number of other teams and super strong racers, stronger than any of our guys. I decided to race negative, cover the likely attacks by the strongmen, and cooperate if it seemed feasible. Had a couple teammies doing the same, one of whom was in position to follow the strongest rider's attack. That guy is uber-strong, he towed my teammie around for 10 laps, with the field hovering maybe 50-100 meters back, lined out single file. Finally we get the bell for 1 to go and the sprinters start panicking and jumping. I'm not a very good sprinter so I just followed in, 7th. My other teammie, much better sprinter and a 2, got on the podium for 3rd.

Also, some tire damage. Should I change them out?

JandersUF

tl;dr version--> felt dead, then felt a bit better, moved up but then a pack finish.

Did Wells Ave B Training Crit today. 25 miles round an oval loop. My first race or fast group ride of the year. Worked the overnight and then drove over, which always saps a bit of my high end power. Way colder than I expected when I got there... didn't get much of a warm up in.

So no surprise that the first third of the race I was dead-leg, chilling in the back, muttering about lack of high end fitness and too much time doing sweet spot and threshold in winter. However, I noticed that my HR was way lower (10+ points) than typical for similar efforts last year.... hrm maybe i do have some fitness. Second third I moved around a bit more, still mostly tailgunned but started feeling more comfortable moving around, being next to people, etc. 5 to go I figured I might as well do something, so worked my up in lulls. With 3 to go I was sitting about 8th wheel, 2 to go a couple people got a small gap and I followed a wheel chasing, slotting into 4th. I waited too late as my chaser died in the wind, and we got swarmed and I got blocked in and fell back to 15th or so. This is where the race was lost.

So as we came through the final turned I gave a moderate effort and came whipping past people, moving up from 15th-->8th. I was hoping to catch onto someone's wheel that went early at 300m, get a bit of rest, and jump again at 150m. I saw an excellent target launching from about 4th/5th position, but as I accelerated to catch on some other guy sat up, cut me off, and threw his right hand up (as if he had a flat). Not sure if he had a flat or just had finished his leadout and was pulling off. Anyway, no where for me to go (up against the curb) so sat up and coasted in with the pack. My fault for being way out of position and hoping to come up on the curb side.

Interestingly, I had very similar NP/XP and average power to my last 2 Wells Ave of last season. I weigh about 5-10lb less today, which is nice. My average HR though was 14 beats less. Just one data point, but I hope it means I have a solid aerobic base right now... we'll see.

RoboIsGod

Fuji Sunshine Crit cat 3/4. 2nd place.

cat 2 here i come.

climber7

nice win, badhat.

creaky - i'd definitely change that tire based on the second pic.

janders - nice. if you're comparing HR, keep in mind it goes up with temperature...but it sounds like you felt better anyway.

Racer Ex 

Copperopolis RR:

Hida Yanra

I worked and set up the race for our sprinter, he took two of four points sprints and the final sprint.
Made a couple of bridges, two were longer than anything I'd ever done before. Kept the race strung out single file for long-ish periods of time, got two teammates into a group of 4 guys & gave them a gap with 1.5 laps to go. They made the gap stick, and our sprinter is pretty clinical at this point, he didn't miss.

Weekend tally for our team:
2nd RR (me), 2nd TTT, 1st & 4th in crit.
Team classification handily in the bag.
Collegiate racing is fun.

Number400

Salisbury RR. CAT5 40+ 4th place

A better race than Strasburg, two weeks ago. I took the front at the whistle to get through the first two tight corners then rotated around the front with one good long pull on the second lap. The pace was pretty quick and A big guy went off the front (a mistake I made last race), but it was a little headwindy and we pulled him back slowly. About halfway into the last lap there was some wheel overlap and rubbing between two riders off to my front left and it looked like the guy panicked and wobbled then crashed. He hit the side of my bike and knocked my rear wheel what felt like a foot off line but I did not panic and pedaled through it and credit my many hours on the rollers this winter with helping me make the accurate adjustments and avoid crashing. I had to stand and sprint a few pedal strokes to get back into the pocket but did not lose much time.

I was in a pretty good position through the last corner but we did not have the whole road available until just before the line. To cap it off, I noticed a stopped Semi in the oncoming lane right after the finish line. I was ready to sprint but was boxed in for a few seconds and when I got through, two guys got a 2 second gap and I ran out of road to challenge for third.

Overall, it was a good race and my uphill sprint was pretty fast and I had a good bit left. Next race, I will try to position myself to jump a little earlier but we were really, really screwed with no open road and a ****ing truck staring us in the face at the finish line.

shovelhd

I'll take my life over a win every time.

Racer Ex 

Congrats Badhat.

yakis

new guy posting to confirm this report - Hida kept things movin'.

incidentally that crit was my first in cat B - fun fun fun. finally, a crit where i actually had to stay in the drops the whole time.

TrekDen

Beautiful weather for that race!

MDcatV

guy who won is a member my team's cat 3 squad :-). it was his 1st race as a 3 (i think).

wens

Tell him to stop sandbagging and upgrade already*

That's a fun race. Might have been a little more fun if it wasn't my first race of the year, but it's still a really cool course.

jtwilson

Independence Valley RR. Rochester, WA. Cat 5.

2 laps around a 19.5mi course with a 2mi neutral rollout, followed immediately with one of two ~1mi climbs. I had been sick all week, and knew my climbing was weak, so I was dreading this race.

My starting position kind of sucked, which became worse as the neutral roll out was totally manic - surging to 24mph then everyone braking to 15mph, over and over. Never heard the horn for the race to start, and began the climb near the back. Not what I had planned.

The front of the pack pulled away up the climb [as expected]. Descended like a bat out of hell, hitting nearly 54mph, then commenced the formation of a chase group. Eventually we got a group of about 10 determined riders together. The course hit an open section, and the main pack could be seen about a minute up the road. We had a slight tailwind, and it was my turn to pull. I got overzealous and pulled too fast and too long, trying to close on the pack. As I rotated off the front, a guy told me not to blow myself up and just keep it steady. Sure enough, I didn't have the gas to latch back onto the paceline and was popped off the back.

Finished out the rest of the lap in TT mode, passing other single riders who were too slow to work with, eating the headwind portion solo. The second climb had helped disintegrate the main pack and chase group. I worked briefly with some of them, but they seemed totally cooked, and before long I was riding them off my wheel. On the first climb of the second lap, the Masters 4/5 group [which started 5min after us] was closing in on me. I descended with them, and wound up finishing the second lap working with a couple Masters and a couple from my group. Came in 41 of 60.

All in all it was a great experience, and in hindsight it was pretty enjoyable. I definitely could have finished a lot better if I didn't get so eager in the chase group. Attended an upgrade clinic the next day, bringing me 3 races away from cat 4.

tl;dr - jabroni status. dropped on the climb, never caught back up.

Hida Yanra

we'll get you up front in the rotation of Husky Hammers next weekend... it'll be grand