canuckbelle

Oh they were definitely a factor. I was just lucky enough to be going in at peak fitness for the year!

TheKillerPenguin

New Haven GP p/1/2...holy balls DNF

Bumped into @Hls2k6 before the race started and he cautioned that I will probably get my ass kicked and that it won't be fitness related, instead it will be getting used to how insane it all is. He was right.

Seriously cool venue. 4 corner, small hill, deceptively narrow at pace. While waiting to start I was talking to a pro dude next to me who I guess could tell I was green and said "don't **** up the start." I laughed because I thought he was joking around, so he said "no, seriously. don't **** it up. Stay near the front." There was the callup thing where they did the whole palmeres read off followed by an opera singer doing the national anthem. It wasn't until that singer started belting it out that I realized I was in way over my head.

So it really isn't the pace that's so crazy, it's how fargin aggressive it all is. I have never seen dudes divebomb turns the way they did tonight, and it was on a course that wasn't particularly well lit! I basically raced it like how I would race a 3 crit which meant I expected the initial few lap surge followed by letting the guys up front beat the snot out of each other while you conserve energy, but while I was doing that guys were making up insane ground around the corners and it meant I was tailgunning within a few laps. Then someone on one of the larger teams basically just stopped pedaling and gave up so all of a sudden there was like a 10 bike length gap that opened up that none of us behind him saw because we were single file. I lead the chase for a few laps full gas and scraped my pedal on the ground 2x, which is a first on my current bike which has a pretty high bottom bracket. After a bunch of laps of that nonsense my group of miscreants were pulled and @shovelhd (officiating the pit) gave me a knowing look that was somewhere between Morpheus' "Welcome to the real world" and some form of pity.

It was a rude slap in the face and cool as all hell. Pro crits are the purest form of racing that I've seen yet, and I'm really excited to wrap my head around the flow of it all.

shovelhd

I did feel bad for you but I'm glad you got a taste of it and that you want to do it again. Your line mate was right on the money. You're not going to get the call up so you have to fight for second row. Once the whistle blows you have to sprint flat out and go into a kilo effort just to stay in line. Follow the wheel in front of you implicitly. It's the opposite of lower category racing where you trust nobody. Fight to keep that wheel in front of you without opening a gap.

That race reminded me of the old days. Boston tomorrow is going to be boring compared to that. It was just pure insanity from the gun. An absolutely huge crowd, probably close to 20k. In the pits it was crazy busy from 5 laps in. Lots of funny business and riders trying to beat the game so I had a crash course in BS management. I did really well in a pressure cooker environment, got a ton of upgrade requirements signed off, gained some respect from the national level officials, and just had a great time. I want to be invited back. This race is going nowhere but up. Old school American crit racing at its finest. I'll post some pictures over the weekend.

TheKillerPenguin

Yeah, it's so alien compared to a lower cat crit, and I only even started feeling comfortable in those in like March so I recognize my learning curve is going to involve some ass kickings until I get it figured out. I'm just really digging how much there is to learn, it's an entirely different scene and I want to be good enough to deserve to be in it.

If New Haven is what the old days were like then they must have been fun.

shovelhd

You earned your right to be in it, now you need to set your mind back to Cat5 and learn how to race it. You know how to race to win and you know how to race to survive, but this is neither. It's just different. Spend some time to talk to mattm and fudgy and get their ideas. You could compare this somewhat to Dana Point or MBGP. I think what made this race special is that so many pro teams showed up but they were incomplete. Also there were at least two UCI European teams in the field (I had to card their mechanics in the pit). No team was able to play tactics so it was just pure balls out racing from start to finish. For the last half of the race they threw almost a prime every lap.

mike868y

sounds like an awesome event, wish I could have made it. good effort tkp, you're set up for a great friggin season next year. i am so so happy to see how awesome this weekend of new england bike racing is becoming. between this and "crit week," new england is pretty damn rad. i better start figuring out how to ride cries.

super excited for boston and hartford! put my little cassette on and everything.

canuckbelle

Cool story bro. No...seriously. Really cool! ^_^

mike868y

mayor's cup 2/3...so fun!

there's something rad about doing an NCC level race in your own city. i was on teammate duty today. felt better in my cornering/handling than I have in a long long time, which was really nice. did some effective work at the front, but blew my last match with like 7 or 8 to go and was relegated to tail gun duty until the end. our sprinter got into good position but there was a crash on the last lap that I guessed was just enough to ruin his pack position. happy with how i rode and a teammate mentioned that he hadn't see me ride a crit like that all year which was really pretty rad to hear.

hartford tomorrow! one more day of road racing this year and i've yet to good a good photo out of the season, dammit.

Hls2k6

You did really, really well. I was super impressed!

mike868y

CCAP hartford crit - fun course, technical with some rough pavement.

3/4 - frustrating. i had the eventual winner super marked. tried to go with all of his moves throughout the race. we were in a move i thought was pretty promising at one point but it got shut down. with 8 or 9 to go there was someone off the front and no one was chasing or pulling so I tried to bridge but think i really just towed the field up. that effort shattered me. tried to recover a bit and while i was the kid who won went solo. basically took a suicide pull with 4 to go but it was too little too late. still, i felt like my fitness and pack skills were much improved over earlier this season and it was fun to feel like part of the race.

edit - looked at the results for this race. so many DNFs (21/56 starters)! I don't remember too many big crashes, either. I guess it was a relatively fast race but I didn't think it has THAT hard.

2/3 - teammate duty. first couple of laps were all types of OH MY GOD MY LEGS, but i settled in and was actually able to see the front and do some productive stuff. score. with 13 or so to go there was a group with a gap and i got on the front and shut it down...that ruined me. with 5 or 6 to go the lights went out and i took up tailgunning duty. finished more or less with the pack but it took everything i had in me.

grolby

More cyclocross! White Park 3/4 on Saturday. I had a crummy start, which wasn't ideal because there was some serious firepower in this race, and it was technical. But it was soon rendered moot anyway, when I flatted my front tubular on a fast gravel descent early in the second lap. Luckily, I was going in a straight line when it happened, but navigating the switchbacks on my way to the pit was EXCITING, not in a good way, as I got passed by a lot of people. It took 40 seconds to execute the wheel change (I was careful not to panic and rush) and jumped back in with a lot of work to do. There was much passing of many people, after which I finished 18th out of 61 or so. Under the circumstances, I was actually quite okay with that result.

That evening, I glued up a brand new front tire and lined up the next day for Sucker Brook. Cat 3 only this time, except that they ran the Masters 40+ one minute ahead of our race. More on that at the end. I had a so-so start, didn't really lose any spots, but didn't gain any, either. My legs were mostly good but I felt that I didn't have much sprintiness. This course is usually an all-out power fest, but it was so dry and sandy this year that there was a surprisingly large technical element in places. I tried to stay calm through the twisty grass part of the course early, protect my position and not go too nuts trying to make spots. The second half of the course was more power sections with some brief single track and some sand, and I started to make up some spots. After that, there was a lot of passing people. I knew I was doing well, but it was not until I was running through the sand with 45 seconds left in the last lap that someone yelled at me that I was fighting for 2nd, 10" behind the leader. I remounted, got onto the pavement and finished... third as it turned out.

See, having all these masters racers falling back through our field posed some challenges. Obviously, they're more riders to get around. They also just made the race more confusing. It was hard to know where we were in the race. Most importantly from my perspective, they provided a handy visual shield for my competitor coming out out of the sand pit. I was remounting, and he slipped by on the other side of three masters riders, making the turn for home ahead of me without my even seeing that he had passed. I'm not mad at him or the masters riders, or really all that upset about my result, cause third is pretty great! But I think it's kind of a shame that the situation had an affect on the outcome of our race, and had I been fighting for the win I probably would have been much more upset. These things are difficult to manage, but the problems with running the Masters race one minute before the 3 race seem fairly obvious.

Still, I got a good result and I'm happy with my weekend. Now to glue ANOTHER new tubular (the threads on the rear tire are giving out. Sigh.), and start Holy Week on Wednesday with some under-the-lights racing.

Duke of Kent

I remember racing with Milram and Team Colombia track guys getting ready for the 2008 Olympics by doing SuperWeek crits in Chicago/Milwaukee. I remember watching one of those guys literally ride the (160 man) field off his wheel without actually attacking, then making it up to the lead group.

That **** was insane.

Duke of Kent

In other news, 3rd in STXC and 3rd in XC this weekend. Getting close to being the conference leader in points.

mattm

Oakland GP p/1/2 - was active, but definitely didn't win. 16th.

Dropped chain about 10 mins in, spent 30 seconds or so coasting and got it back on while still moving, chased for two laps and made it back on. I could've taken a fake free lap but I figured I don't want the officials thinking of me as the guy always pulling stunts in the pit (done it twice this year already!), and plus it was my fault for having stupid mechanical issues all season.

The field of 50+ whittled down to 25 or so by the end. Made the bridge just before what was that break that turned into the field got away.

Attacked with 4 or 5 to go when guys started looking around, got a few guys to go with, but one of them was from a team that always kills breaks so I wouldn't work anymore.. I think he really wanted to work but it was a "spite the face" kind of a moment I guess; I refuse to trust those guys.

Anyway, glad to finish the season in one piece, felt strong.

Our sprinter got 5th so it wasn't a total loss I guess.

shovelhd

Everybody's favorite whipping boy rode a tactically perfect race in a huge field for his first win.

mike868y

hah, 'twas a good night!

midnight ride of cx cat 4/5 - the first race of new england's famed "holy week." had a front row call up and it was a pretty watty course so I knew I had a shot at doing well. slotted into the top 10 at the start, picked a few guys off here and there throughout the first lap, and came around the first lap in a group of five. didn't really know if i should attack early or wait so I decided to see where the group was at and put a big effort in on the front stretch. that wittled the group down to me and one other guy. tempo'd another lap with the guy on my wheel and i started to worry about how to get rid of him. i'm not sure where but at some point i noticed there was a gap so i gunned it and got away. tempo'd the rest of the race and won solo. pretty awesome to finally get that monkey off my back, although i suspect soon it'll be upgrade time.

also did the 2/3/4 and blew up spectacularly after three laps. this whole doubling up in cross thing is...hard.

furiousferret

f' yeah! Congrats @mike868y









(the abbreviation of f' is frankly, if any mods are asking)

Ygduf

Congrats Mikey!!

revchuck 

Way to go, Mikey!

shovelhd

Congrats, Mikey. You got a good bit of airtime in your second race.

gsteinb

Congrats Mikey

globecanvas

Nice job mikey. Feels pretty awesome to win, doesn't it?

grolby

This was pretty awesome to watch. Fantastic win, well-deserved!

I raced the 2/3/4 at the same event and it was crazy-go-nuts. I spent most of the race with/dangling off the back of Tim Ratta and Josh Anthony. Geez those guys are fast. It was incredibly hard. I was slightly gapped heading into the final corner, unfortunately a lapped rider was in my line coming around the last tree and I lost a lot of exit speed along with my chance to contest the sprint for a podium spot. But that's part of the game* and it's only a minor frustration because I was 4th in a super stacked field. Of course Ratta proceeded to make us all feel bad about ourselves by noting that it was his second race of the night after placing second in the SS race. Heh. I seem to have accidentally peaked for Holy Week, which is pretty rad and I now have pretty high expectations heading into Gloucester this weekend.

By the way: Mikey's finish time in the 2/3/4, from the same number of laps, was only 22 seconds slower than his winning ride in the 4/5. And still would have been good enough for 3rd in that field. So, nice consistency, and also: GO HAADAAAHH!!


*although, seriously, if you're being lapped on the last lap in the final turns of the course, don't keep riding slowly off to the side, stop and put your foot down and wait.

mike868y

thanks everyone! yeah it feels good to finally win, although i'm excited to step up to the next level after providence.

grolby crushed the 2/3/4...wish I had been able to watch that. hell, our whole team crushed this event. three dudes in the top 10 in the elite race. f' yeah.

wrt my lap times, i was pacing myself pretty hard in the 4/5. once i got a gap i was more just trying to maintain the gap and not crash than continuing to push. honestly, one of the easier races i've done. can't believe my 2/3/4 time was that close though, i felt like i was crawling.

KingShakes

Chi Cross Cup - Caldwell Woods 4/5
First CX race ever. Course was moved to Labagh Woods down the street 2 days before the event due to heavy rains. Course ended up being a lot of tight turns and not much straightaway with the change in venue. Gnarly rutted downhill in the woods caused a crash in the single speed race which required an ambulance (ribs/punctured lung) and a restart of the race. Was staged 130ish of 141 riders. Finished 90th and was happy with passing that many riders in my first ride with how stacked up it was. Fun stuff and was gassed at the finish. I'm hooked for the rest of the season on the weekends I am in town. Great party and environment with plenty of heckling/big crowds for the 4/5 race. Everyone sticks around as it is the final race and a rite of passage around here it seems.