tetonrider

Rode in the 3s. Turned out to be a long, long drive (something like 17h of actual car time), but I was psyched to race and hopeful that would be true for everyone else.

my first outdoor ride since November was the Friday TT. I was totally prepared and had a solid ride--equipment was ready, was mentally focused, nailed my pacing, HR was pegged....but my power was down by just about 10% vs what I have done for similar durations, on the rollers, alone, at 6,300 elevation. Still scratching my head on that one. Was like 14th or something...the top 5 were very strong. And poof! There went my GC chances.

i was fired up for the RR...lots of wind and five times over a climb. Tis was my first group ride ao i was extra attentive to my pack handling as i didnt want to be thatguy.Our field, too, was neutralized to allow a pro break and then the field pass just after the fourth time over the climb when a selection had been made. All riders caught back on and the last lap became a parade to the climb. Oh we'll, it's going to be a shoot-out. Hope everyone grout their guns. I took 4th. Had to pull out into the wind earlier than I preferred to get around a fading rider. #1 won it by a wheel but the margin was tight for 2-3-4. Just didn't have that turbo boost. I shouldn't expect it as I can't do a full horsepower sprint on the trainer.

crit was really fun, lots of turns. I felt solid all race but got swarmed on the back half of the last lap and dropped from 5th to 20th. I knew I had to be 5th or so going into the 2nd to last turn. Finished 15th or so...unremarkable.

I was very psyched to feel both strong and confident with my handling. I was lucky to be riding outside in amazing weather, much less racing, in February. This is a real jump on the season for me and gave me exactly what I needed--a good way to see how I stack up against he competition with a race that draws riders for many states, and many who have been racing already in 2013 and may never have stopped riding outdoors. Gives me something to go on for the next few months of indoor training when I emerge again for my bigger goals.

i recommend this race. The scenery is unremarkable (the TT was like an indoor workout done outside!), but something about the race organization and the racers themselves is amazing.

tetonrider

PS Funny story from the pro crit. There was a late break that looks like it might stick by only the narrowest of margins.

With a few laps to go one rider remained. 3 laps to go, then 2. The rider in the break turns the final corner in the 2nd to last lap and....starts sprinting out of the saddle the 250m to the line.

The announcer says, "uh oh. Des he think that this is the last lap?"

Sure enough, he crosses the line and does the victory salute, only to be swarmed and passed by the pack.

Cant imagine how bad that must have felt. Quite a range of emotions must have been felt within a span of 5 seconds. D'oh!

mattm

Copperopolis circuit race p/1/2.

Teh suck.

AzTallRider

Great job... way to crush the TT. I was watching the 4 race, and meant to look for you afterwards, but bugged out. Congratulations on a strong weekend.

AzTallRider

It was a clinic - then another show of strength in the crit.

echappist

hmm, they have yet to post the results for the crit...

hank0604

Had my first race yesterday, a 25 minute crit on a rather simple (.75 mile loop, 4 right turns and two long straights) circuit. Not first, not last. I did get dropped from the main pack and finished about 1/4 lap behind with a group of 3 other dropees that formed up.

Looking back, I think I was dropped due to poor strategy rather than poor conditioning (although the peloton's pace was about as high as I could maintain). One of the straights was straight downwind, and the other straight upwind. I tried to use the downwind section to recover, and overestimated my ability to catch back on coming into the wind. Lesson learned. Looking forward to the next one.

waterrockets 

Congrats on the first race!

You do have to be careful with a tailwind. You're not getting as much of a draft benefit, so your effort is closer to those at the front. If they slow down, then you can recover, but if not, you can't. In a headwind, if you're paying attention, you can recover much better. If it's windy, then it's also probably really gusty, so try to figure out if the wind is more frequent from one side than they other. Then you can overlap on the other side, but do a lot of overlap, so you'll have accidental hip-to-forearm contact instead of accidental wheel to wheel. You can tuck in pretty tight and really feel the advantages, even though you're almost next to the guy.

revchuck 

Monroe?

Hermes

Yeah those moto refs are pretty good at spotting that behavior.

hank0604

Yeah, did you make it up there? I saw a lot of Lake Charles guys there.

revchuck 

Nope - I ride with those guys on the weekends, and was going to race with them this year, but I haven't been able to get it together due to other stuff. I need to check the results to see how they did.

Racer Ex 

VOS Stage Race Report

Sorry I missed the BF guys. Would have liked to check out Teton's Shiv.

TT: I stunk it up for 11[SUP]th[/SUP]. New bike, new position, old legs. Only 20w better than my three hour RR effort.

Winner was 1:18 ahead of me, we have my teammates Marvin in 6[SUP]th[/SUP] and Greg in 10[SUP]th[/SUP]. Tough conditions factored in, the wind died down for the later starters and if you went out at the wrong time you got a headwind on the out leg and no tailwind coming back. I went out at the wrong time. Not that I would have sucked much less.

Note: Later in the race communique I was scolded for, verbatim, “flirting with the draft”. I passed 4 people with a at least 3-4 MPH on a 6 foot wide shoulder during the TT, never got passed, so near as I can tell someone’s girlfriend is named draft and this happened after the race. I don’t remember her, but I forgot my lawn chair at the RR so that’s not surprising. I hope she was pretty and of age.

Road Race: Louie (GC leader) had 2 teammates (including 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] place on GC) but I figured if we kept firing we could get something away then our guys in the field would be able to counter when the break got caught. Wear them down, hope for the best.


It was a little disconcerting to greet the morning with a 15-20 MPH wind. The course is a triangle which meant we’d be going head, cross, and then tail to the finish. 16 miles laps, 64 miles total which meant 4 times up the 3k climb. Consensus was that with the wind we’d need a group of at least 5-6 guys to make it stick minimum.

Attacks started from the gun, 4.5 miles in (data provided by SRM, the Powermeter of the Pros (I get $1 off service every time I write that somewhere)) Marvin is out with another couple riders and they sit up. Louie sits up, the peleton sits up, so I launch up. 50 seconds later (data from SRM, the Powermeter of Champions) I catch them then go right to the front to start stretching the gap.

We start rotating and I start checking numbers on the other two riders. We’re good to go. We have two guys who have teammates to help block, we’ll find out how strong they are later. We hit the crosswind leg and end up sitting behind the “moto” VW Microbus when we stall out behind the 3’s and traffic in the crosswind section. Things clear out when we make the turn for the first shot up the hill, get back on the gas, and blow one of the guys out the back.

We’re the 3 Musketeers (Tres Hombres?) now, with 53 miles of racing left. Nose to the grindstone and all of that. We get to work.

We would get “distance” checks from the VW guy, and at one point the field, which was slowly dissolving because of the wind, closed to 20 seconds. My two cents to Marvin and our break mate Matt was “when they show up, they show up”.

We make a deal with Matt to let him win, but to help Marvin to the finish and let him have the KOM bonus seconds. I figure Marvin’s going to win the crit (10s time bonus) and with the gap we have, the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] place time bonus (6s), and the KOM bonus (3s) he’s our team’s best bet on GC.

We keep working. It hurts. In the crosswind section we have oncoming big rigs blowing us across the road, we’re hammering to hold 22 MPH downhill into the headwind, and it’s starting to get warm.

3[SUP]rd[/SUP] time over the hill Marvin’s big sprinter build finally starts cry uncle. I tell Matt to let Marvin sit in and I’ll cover as much as I can.

Last lap.

We hit the crosswind section and I knew that this was going to be the make or break. Get Marvin to the tailwind, let Matt take him up the hill. According to the SRM (SRM, the Powermeter of Champions) the last 5 miles of the cross wind had me pulling for a minute plus at 290-310w, resting for 20s behind Matt, then repeating. We’re a full MPH faster than the first three times on this leg. I really want us to win this thing. I’m hoping Marvin can get some recovery but know it’s tough being that big in the wind.

Hit the corner and drop the guys off with the wind at their back. I’m pretty wasted from the last pull and when Matt hits the gas I get gapped. Recover a bit and I’m keeping them at around 100m. Part way up the hill I see a huge cloud of black smoke and Marvin comes off Matt’s wheel. He looks back, says something to Marvin, then turns and heads up the hill.

I shout encouragement to Marvin, and eventually catch him. He digs incredibly deep and paces on my wheel for several minutes, then comes off. On this part of the climb there’s not much I can do to help so I keep going.

An aside: I’ve only thrown up once after a race, and that was at a TT in Texas where 20,000 people showed up to watch some guy named Lance, who was starting 4 guys behind me. I have my pride. He didn’t catch me and I made it past most of the finish line crowd before making a deposit into the bushes.

I nearly threw up twice during that climb.

Cross the line for 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] place. Marvin, all heart and completely wasted comes in 17 seconds behind me for 3rd. We put a minute on Louie, who comes across with 2 other riders. That’s all that’s left of the chase group. Looking at the results, the rest of the field was strung across the landscape.

12 out of 54 starters riders quit and last place came in 50 minutes after the winner. All my teammates make it to the line. My finish time is 2:44. 2:31 of that was in the break.

I move to 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] on GC. Marvin is 4[SUP]th[/SUP].

Crit: So after destroying ourselves after the road race we figured on me surfing to protect GC, and the rest of the guys helping Marvin do his thing. Not a fan of the course, two years prior I double flatted right before a tweeker rode his MTB across the course and took out 3 guys. Sketchy.

So: We controlled the race, took most of the primes, and at the end Marvin made it look easy for the "W".

I held third on GC; with the time bonus Marvin finished 1 second behind me for 4[SUP]th[/SUP]. Our break mate Matt took a well deserved 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] by 7 seconds over me and Louie held on to the win.

Great teamwork. I feel I let folks down a bit with my TT but hope to get that fixed.

rkwaki

Great show of teamwork Ex and a great result as well.
Do you SRM or Powertap?


Bwahahahaha

shovelhd

Nice work, Ex.

waterrockets 

Great report, Ex. Nice riding and strategery.

jsutkeepspining

Nice job old man! You're making me proud!

Creatre

Greenville Sprint Training Series Week 2 Fork Shoals RR - Cat 3/4 - 6th/~60 - Combined us with the 4s because of weather. It was cold, and cold. Oh, and it also snowed some. Luckily we finished before the real snow came in and we just had a few flurries during the race. A few attacks went, but for the most part we stuck together. I tried bridging to a break that was fading to reinforce and get it moving again about 1/3 of the way through the race, but no dice. I played the follow the wheel and don't die in the final corner at 200m to go game, and came away with a 6th. I was in 3rd at one point in the sprint, but my 700w sprint wasn't moving me along quite fast enough. Thanks to David (dcurran on here I think) for the huge leadout the last 1k or so, he's really the only reason our whole group didn't die in the final corner. That corner is about as sketch and fast as it gets for a RR. Donaldson Center RR - 8th/~35? - Wind and cold. More wind than cold. Nothing was going the first few laps, the wind was just eating everyone after they were out there about 5 minutes. We let one break stick out there for a little while. I then proceeded to bring it back with one guy as I was getting worried they would sneak away (out of sight/out of mind). Which, is exactly how the winning break stayed away. Somehow I missed the move, there was like 2 or 3 guys up the road. I wasn't worried about them, they would get destroyed by the wind on the last lap and we would be fine. Well, somehow some strong guys bridged up and they ended up 7 man strong, and held off our group. I dunno how I missed the bridgers, I was in the top 10 most of the race looking to get in a strong break, guess I was sitting there picking my nose or something. Anyways, didn't want to sprint it out for 8th, so my teammate did a hard pull on with about 3k to go, and then I launched on a solo attack. Figured why not. Caught the tailwind section on a small climb with 2k to go and did 6.5w/kg for 3min to finish 8th by myself. Got $10 out of it and a good interval.

Creatre

I keep forgetting this stupid proxy at work doesn't keep my formatting when I post. Sorry about the epic paragraph.

rkwaki

Good job this weekend. I saw that the fields weren't all that big (I think only one of our guys went down).

Creatre

Yeah weather was subpar (mid 30s + snow Saturday, upper 30s + wind Sunday), so numbers were a bit lower this weekend.

beatlebee 

Great reports. Thanks guys.

sarals 

Nope!

sarals 

Ex, fantastic job, congratulations!

zitter

USC collegiate crit this past Sunday - 3rd place

breakaway of 3 went around 25 minutes in which included the 2 strongest riders in the conference (one used to ride for bissell and optum and the other is a domestic pro and current conference leader). third rider was dropped from the break a couple laps later and the break stayed away the whole time and lapped the field near the end since we gave up on chasing it. i attacked with 6 to go and stayed away with one other and then attacked him with 1 to go and dropped him. soloed to the finish for 3rd about 20 seconds ahead of the field