getaklug

Tell us how you've been doing.

Yesterday (4/20) I did the Weld County Road Race, 1 mile of dirt followed by 13ish miles of road, we did two laps. I got fourth and my teammate got third, there was a long sprint and a photo finish between him and I for third, but he got it - was a good race.

Photo Credit: Tom Hootman

I'm on the white bike

jsutkeepspining

a dnf and a 3rd place in two different 1/2/3 races. Broken bb gave me the dnf. Came back to show that i might not be fast at the moment, but im not that slow. my 1 upgrade is really far off....

chocho13

A DNF today, in the last lap a guy cut me off making me crash. I was feeling great, not even tired at all, meaning my fitness isnt that bad haha

Skyline516

I wanted to race this weekend, but the Cat. 5 races fill so quickly in this region. Last week I did Carl Dolan and got 9th (I made a serious bridge and sat up for the end cause i thought my legs were done, stupid move, I could've gotten 3rd or 4th pretty easily) in Juniors and a pack finish in the 4/5s (my main objective was not to crash, so that worked out well).

sstang13

Dropped 20 km's into my race, felt amazing the whole time except for the 1-2 km that the pace was ramped up and I was just poorly positioned and got dropped. Rolled around for 3 more laps before I flatted and got a dnf.

chocho13

A little late here but in the Orchard Beach Crit that was on the 5th of May, i raced two races. In the first race which was a Cat5 race i got dropped 17 mins into the race. This happened mainly becuase the group accelerated right after the start and into the first turn the wind was so hard (9-10mph) and since i didnt stick with the group i slowly died out. I basically time trialed through those 17 mins because everyone was getting dropped little by little due the horrible wind. I tried to find a wheel to stick to but everyone just like gave up because it seemed hopeless to catch the main group. I tried to stay in there until the guy on the motorcycle guy pulled me. I wish i had started somewhere in the middle, i was last on he line because last minute my derailleur cable decided to lose tension and had to fix it about 2 mins before race start (nerve racking!) haha but other than that i learned alot about what to do with tough headwind and to pre-check my bike (stupid me).


The second race had 6 starters, it was the juniors race. There was these 3 guys that were on the same team, as i guessed it they attacked on the side where the headwind was 30 seconds into the race, i tried to hang on to their attack but my legs didn't give in. I slowly faded until i waited for another junior and we worked together until the 3 guys from the team catched up to us, they didn't pull us from the race even though we were lapped but we kept going, i was trying to at least finish the race. As the final lap approached the 3 guys from the team finished, i was on the wheel of this other junior, i was fading away and losing his wheel but idk where my legs got the power from but i started catching up, as we went around the sweeping corner into the finish line he was sure he was going to win, i was about maybe 100 feet away from him and i just dropped it into the big gear and sprinted to get 4th and sure enough i beat him on the line haha i heard him say "Ahh S#@!". Overall it was a good day, i ended up getting number 1 in my age group 15-16 but came in 4th but i should have been 3rd but since we got lapped everything got messed up. Nonetheless i had fun and cant wait till my next race!

biCYCLOTRON

6th place in the Milford Crit, I led the pack of about 10 for 3/4 of the first lap and then settled in the middle. 2nd at the end of the first.

carpediemracing 

You and your teammate should practice throwing your bike at the line. It's fun and it actually comes in handy. It needs to be instinctive though, something you do automatically at a finish line. One guy that read a bunch of stuff I wrote said he threw his bike at the line even though he'd soloed for the prior 5 or 10 laps.

Some of the mechanics:
https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...your-bike.html

Even if both your mom and dad were world class field sprinters it doesn't mean you automatically get it in your genes:
https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...ke-throws.html

Lew.

You all seem to be reporting road events, and I don't think this forum is restricted to road only?
Either way - here's my report from last night (7th of August). Worth pointing out, my local track is 458m, not 250m.
First race, 4 lap handicap. Two groups start from either end of the track (at the pursuit lines). Stronger riders (including myself) started half a lap down. We managed to work together really well and caught the group with half a lap to go. I was shot and was at the end of the paceline that caught, so I didn't even try and sprint for it. A guy from my handicapped group won.

Elimination -
I was first out. I was disappointed but oh well. I dived under the group but it wasn't enough. I've never been a good tactic rider.

Team Pursuit (6 laps) -
We didn't choose teams. My team had five, whilst the other team had four. Although, the organisers (our coaches), said that we were handicapped in that one of our riders was very weak compared to the other four.
A good pace is held for the first two laps, then our 'weak' rider pulls to the front, the pace is dropped significantly. The next rider managed to pull us back up to pace. Then I gave a strong pull, dropping our weakest rider (we were allowed to drop two riders). Skip forward to the last lap. I pulled into the first corner, with the other group in my sight (about 100m ahead). Even though we had won, we still practiced three riders 'sprinting' for the line together three a-breast. (Team Pursuit, now my new favourite event!).

16 lap with 8 lap sprint - I'm a youth rider, and our category was told to pull out at 8 laps.
We were given half a lap handicap - we should of had a lot more!
We held the handicap and pretty much team time trialled it to the finishing lap. I was on the front as we passed the line, so I thought why not and attacked. I made it stick until about 50m to the line, made for a nice sprint but I lost by about two wheel lengths.

Overall - Not bad for me, would have preferred more sprint events though.
Sorry for long post.