jsutkeepspining

same race as wens, except i had the joy of a busted bb. large amount of watts to move at a very slow pace. bb finally siezed up about an hour in. dnf

vandalarchitect

WSU Citizens Road Race Cat 4/5 - 1st place. My first road race and second race event, the other being a TT and Hill Climb back in March.

Course is a 23.5 mile loop with two good climbs. The first is at about mile 6. It's short but pretty steep then you head downhill (into 20-30 mph winds today) until the halfway mark at which point you head up the second 1.2 mile climb. After that you have the wind at your back over some rolling hills back to the start.

We only had a handful of riders show up for the citizens race. The race official made the call to shorten the race from 2 laps to 1. My strategy was to just hang on and see if I could finish with the group. I don't consider myself a strong climber and I was expecting to get dropped on the climbs. With such a small field finding shelter for the first half of the race was tough. No one wanted to stick their nose in the wind for very long and the pace was pretty slow.

For climbs I was going to try to hit them first and then if I fell back a little I should be able to catch the end of the group and recover. Over the first climb I was just riding what I felt was a good steady tempo that wouldn't put me too far into the red. I got to the top and looked back and saw I had a gap. Surprised the crap out of me. I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep the gap into the headwind so I sat up on the descent and let two other riders catch up. We had a good gap and I thought we would be able to work together and make it stick. Again, no one wanted to work that much but we maintained the gap to the next climb.

Again, I wanted to hit the climb first in case I lost some ground, but this time I decided to give it a little extra and see what I could do. I crest the top and see that I've got around a 20 second gap and so I push it down the other side. With the wind at my back I wasn't too worried about being able to stay away the 11-12 miles left and when I looked back a little while later I saw it was just one other rider with the officials car behind him. Now I knew I could make it solo the rest of the way because he didn't have anyone to work with to pull me back. And even if he was strong enough to reel me in ... I figured I could ease up enough to recover and either attack when he caught me, or save some energy sitting on his wheel and see what happened in the sprint.

He kept coming and got within 15 seconds or so at one point but I was able to dig deep and stay away to solo across the line.

I did get a little worried about the win about 5 miles from the finish when I botched a downshift on my FD and then couldn't get it into the big ring because it had twisted the FD out of alignment. About a mile of furious spinning later I got it into the big ring (finally) and just left it there for the rest of the race. I knew if I wasn't able to get it into the big ring there was no way I could stay away, and certainly no way I'd be able to beat him in a sprint.

TL;DR version: First road race, surprised myself on the climbs, soloed 11 miles for the win.

jsutkeepspining

valley rr-1/2/3 3rd place. Not much to say, got into a break of 9 that soon became 8. rode around like that for 30 miles or so and sprinted. Had a poor sprint and landed 3rd. 303 watts for a bit over 1.5 hours. I'm not in shape, but im not completely out of shape either.

JandersUF

Wells Ave B race, 8th of ?35?, also got a $$ prime. Boston Road Club donated all proceeds to the BostonOne fund, so most of us also donated our cash prizes, which was nice.

tl;dr below

Been sick (again; having an baby that goes to daycare has killed me the past 5 months), just getting over another cold. Cold this AM, running late, no time to warmup. But the fitness is coming around.

After the first prime, a couple guys dangled off the front. Eventually it was one guy who had a solid 15 seconds. The packed lined out to reel him in, and I was about 5th wheel. Eventually came to the front, took a hard 20 second pull... he only had maybe 10 bike lengths at this point. And the bell rings for a prime. Hrmph. Front of the pack, about to pull off having finished my pull. The lone rider put a dig in to stay away. I sat up a bit and waited, and someone came flying by from back in the field. I jumped to get on his wheel, but he had a big speed differential, and I was only barely in his draft 3 lengths back as we flew around the corner. On the back stretch he slowly reeled the lone flyer in, I slowly reeled him in, and a 4th rider bridged up. I let him slot in 3rd.

Coming into the turn before the finishing straight, the original rider away was visibly gassed. The second rider put in a big seated effort to get away, but the other 2 of us stuck behind him. There was a strong, cold headwind at that point, so I wanted to stay sheltered as long as possible. Then the guy in front of me jumps from 300m. HARD. I stick with him, HR just maxed, and jumped around at 100m to go. Or I tried. It took about 90m to get around him in that damned headwind. But I took the prime.


Then I spent 10 laps wheezing and coughing and basically hanging on to the back of the pack. Moved up to 10th with 2 to go, but was still wheezy. Chose horrible wheels in the sprint (who sits up after 2 hard pedal strokes? I found 3 of those guys!). I really need to get up into the top 5 or so coming into the final, and not trying to follow wheels from 10-15th.

echappist

thanks for all the reports! quite a few good results out there

wens

Same race, except upgrade didn't show up so 4/5/masters. Spent a good portion of the race terrified of people with poor handling skills on a nonselective course with a centerline rule and some bad pavement. Had a crash happen in front of me and to the right, pushed someone away from my bars with a forearm/elbow during this process and pretty much completely stopped. Went and hung out near the front mostly, to avoid stupidity.

Tried a kilo. The last 200m or so of that are one of the more painful experiences in my life, i'm pretty sure I could barely ride in a straight line. Guy who won the sprint passed me but had separation from the field, beat getting swarmed by about a bike length for 2nd.

jsutkeepspining

wens' attempt was far cooler than anyhting i did. I just rode around in circles.

shovelhd

wens, you are hitting it, man. Gonna be upgrade time soon.

shovelhd

Nice job, punk.

ovoleg

I saw you finish, legit sprint...You guys were sprinting from WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY back.

I did bleh, got caught behind the crash and spent the next 1.5 laps chasing at FTP to get back to the group, picked up a couple of noobs along the way that didn't want to do any work and when they would get to the front they would slow down. Never caught the group but raced the sh8t out of 30th place!

wens

The following request to change your Road category has been approved and processed by USA Cycling:
- 2013-04-20 11:40
Member:
License: Road Racer
Request to change category from Cat 4 to Cat 3

Creatre

Nice, grats!

jsutkeepspining

aussie launched a hellasious sprint from way back and we were all forced to go early (lucky for me because it's the only way for me to do anything other than get dropped hardcore in a sprint at high speed). For a kid who hasn't ridden hard in a long time i can deal with 3rd for now. In a month i dn't want to lose.

shovelhd

Congratulations, wens.

Tyrell

Hell yes! Way to go!

Jandro 

Sea Otter Circuit Race. Cat 4. 45/64

TL;DR: bruised ribs and allergies = dropped on lap 5, finished at the back.

I crashed last weekend resulting in 2 bruised ribs, one of which has a small fracture, then got hit with bad allergies during the week. Needless to say, I wasn't on form. I withdrew from Friday's road race, but was determined to do the circuit race.

Medium to large field, my first cat 4 race. I knew from the first time going up the hill that the name of the game was hold on for as long as possible and that there was a high possibility of not finishing at all. OTS hurt and I couldn't manage to get deep breaths without pain. Stayed in the pack and focused on wind management and 'surfing' without breaking. To my surprise, I managed to stay in the top 20ish for 5 laps and even had some (very) brief time at the front after easily pedaling on the protected side of the group with a tailwind.

On lap 5, up the main hill, I was unceremoniously dropped and spend the rest of the race trying to catch back on to the main group. I got within 10 seconds a couple times, but just couldn't do it alone in the headwind on the back stretches of the course. Halfway through lap 6, I dropped my cain on the hill and at that point all hope of connecting was gone. SRAM neutral support was right behind and got me moving again. I exhausted the last of my reserves and caught some stragglers that had also been dropped. At one point I looked back and saw 4 people behind me, none of whom were interested in taking pulls. One of them even said "sorry man, I'm cooked, I couldn't take a pull if I tried." I shrugged, said no problem and continued on, thinking I was going to get pulled before the end. I didn't and finished the race a couple minutes behind the main field (that ended in a bunch sprint). I was extremely surprised I wasn't DFL/DNF.

wens

Thanks!

vandalarchitect

Thanks, felt great! Already looking forward to the next race.

theblackbullet

Raced cat 5 at the sunny king criterium on Saturday. In my 3 other road races, I've waited for a field sprint and that has worked somewhat well, but this race I wanted to try something different. I went off the front solo with about 9 laps to go. lol They struggled to get anything organized and I was able to hold a 15 second lead for the rest of the race for first.

thechemist

Nice Job! I was able to watch most of those races live streaming and it looked like a great event. I had several teammates there

shovelhd

There is nothing like winning at an NCC event. Congratulations.

Tyrell

I like it! Congrats!!

Andy Somnifac 

Meh. Lined up a couple of times this weekend. Felt I positioned myself well, and could move around as needed during the bulk of the race. Poor positioning at the end bit me in the ass again.

JohnKScott

Awesome! Congrats!

dnuzzomueller

Wells Ave B (3/4): Started the fun at the 2nd lap when a Shaklee (Drink Mix) Prime was called. I launched off for a full lap lone ride and took it. Seperation to the main was about 5-10 secs. Rode out front for a while hoping that someone would bridge and I could get a break going. Continued for another lap like that finally a break of like 6 guys bridged up. Lo and behold they basically had strung out the field on the way up and dragged the rest of the field up to my wheel. I slot into the top 10 and continue taking a few pulls at the front of the field. See 3 guys begin to go for a breakaway, decide to join them and jump off the front and join in. We got about half a lap before they die and go back to the field. Alone again riding OTF. Another money prime is called (That always makes people actually work, wahooo money). So I just keep riding (I kicked it up a notch).

Then A local Big-FTP Cat 3 shoots past me near the end and snipes me for the money prime. He drops back to the pack. ride alone, another money prime, he comes up again, deciding not to just let him draft me I sit-up and make him go around me if he wants the prime. I sit on his wheel until we are near the finish and just as I get ready to come around I see two sprinters shoot past. No way to beat them but I decide they may make good breakaway partners (I am a moron, I always think that. "Hey those sprinters are OTF with me, maybe I can get them to work in a break?" Hah. No.). So After their sprint I ride up to them, antagonize them and get them to get on my wheel for a break, half a lap later I am alone.

Finally something good happens. Big-FTP guy bridges up to me with one of his teammates (His teammate is also the guy who was in my break at Battenkill). We get a legit breakaway rolling. Not much to say there. I win the half-way sprint, one of my teammates tried to bridge up and caught onto the break but he got shelled. We rode as 3 for another 7 laps (started the break at 17 to go) till Big-FTP's teammate ends up getting shelled. We ride together agreeing to split primes.

Finally on the bell lap, just as Big-FTP finishes his pull on the finishing/ starting straight (So we were just finishing up second to last lap and we were crossing the line for the bell lap) which happened to be brutally windy I decide to make my move. Put down the rest of my power and by the time I look back after corner 2, Big-FTP is nowhere in sight (We had also been informed that we had 50 seconds on the main field during the 2nd to last lap so at this point it was in the bag). I crossed alone.

Almost made the mistake of raising my hands and getting DQed though, good thing I know Chris (Organizer).