Hermes

Congrats....Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.

Racer Ex 

That's a great way to break a Stingray in half

IBOHUNT

and the operative word, if I would have tried that, is "killed"
Regardless of who was in the video, props for even doing that stuff.

nacler22

Thanks, it's the most fun I've had on a bike since I was a kid.

Thanks as well. I'm kind of a tall fish, in a small pond.

Even your funny bone?

The trick is to close your eyes, and let the hands do all the work.

Yeah, it is a fun little clip, with a great sound track. Not sure if Dallas, or the promoter produced it.

nacler22

When I was a kid, I busted my Stingray right at the headtube/downtube junction. My dad was not amused; just couldn't understand why I had to jump my brand new bike. Being a child of the Depression, he saw fit to ensure there would be no more busted bikes. He had a welder add about three pounds of 4130, in what they figured would be the appropriate spots. Looked like hell, but I never bent it again.

I could have used "slayed", but that would have been to "rad" for an old man.

Racer Ex 

Too funny. I also broke a bunch of frames and my Dad had the same solution, only they added a gusset at the crank when I broke the bottom bracket from the seat tube.

valygrl

Tough weekend at the races - Superior Morgul Omnium, SW3.

Friday TT 8 miles, hilly: 14/19, didn't suffer hard enough, despite suffering a lot. If that makes any sense.

Hilly Circuit race: 9/19, pack finish. Put everything I had into this, so fairly happy with the result, despite no podium. Dropped on the last hill before the finish, somehow clawed back on in time to be there for the sprint, but let off the gas in horror as the woman-next-to-me's head bounced off the pavement. She was ok, if you count road rash all over your face as ok.

Morgul Bismark road race 14th/18. Dropped on the first climb of "the wall", chased on, dropped again on the first big roller, chased back on alone in an extended effort, clung desperately to the back of the pack for the rest of the lap, got dropped for real on the next trip up "the wall" rode alone for most of the lap then was caught near the finish by a group of 5 working together. Rolled in with them, didn't sprint against one gal in my race since she was a team mate. (the others were MW40+, started with us, we could race together, scored separately).

Not what I was hoping for, but an interesting study in thought control (or lack thereof).

LAJ

Very nice job, valygrl. Conditions were kind of cruddy all weekend long.

I know exactly what you mean, regarding the TT. I was 20th of 30?, and though I made some decent power on the hilly bits, my downhill power sucks eggs. I need to work on that. I thought this course would suit me, and I feel like I let myself down a bit.

Haystack next week. I know those roads well from my Brevet days. Lots of downhill....

Racer Ex 

10/10 rule for TT's. Set a target wattage, and never go above or below 10% of the mark, downhill, uphill or otherwise. Train like this, so it becomes second nature. You can actually lose a fair bit of time going downhill "lazy".

Valygrl, glad you didn't get caught up in the other racers crash!

globecanvas

Kermis 40+. I have some kind of sinus infection and was this close >||< to skipping the race, but "compromised" by deciding to race just one field instead of two.

Interesting race, a 1.6 mile dead-flat, windy loop with a couple of turns, a chicane, and a 180. Part of the course is super wide and part is narrow (like bike path narrow). The 180 is wide-to-narrow and had a tailwind coming out of it, so, an obvious place for field separation.

Four ringers in the field, and a course that is made for a break, very likely all of those guys would be in the move that stuck. I stayed near the front and followed every early move that had one of the ringers in it, but nothing was going to stay away unless it had all of them.

The pace was high, coming out of the 180 was a 5 second full sprint on every lap, and the headwind was deadly on the front stretch, so staying in position to go with the eventual move was no sleigh ride. I was clipping pedals all over the place trying to keep speed through the 180 and the hard narrow-to-wide left hander. About 20 minutes in, 3rd wheel coming through the 180, I clipped a pedal hard enough to skip the rear and make a ruckus that sounded like a crash. The guys ahead of me instantly drilled it. Just out of the 180, tailwind, narrow course, both guys were ringers, this was definitely the move. 5 seconds at 1k to get on and whee, me and two ringers (both former national champs, I think). Three other guys joined us, including the other two ringers, and we had 10 seconds on the field within a lap.

Unfortunately I was at the end of my rope and my health was heading to zero fast, with no power-ups available on the course. It's been clear to me this year that racing successfully is about having enough of a physical buffer to be able to spend mental energy, if that makes any sense. I had no physical buffer left, so it became hard to concentrate on holding wheels and cornering efficiently. I got gapped by two guys on the super headwindy front stretch and dragged the other three back, a hard 15 second effort entirely caused by lack of mental focus. Made it through the rest of that lap, but the next time into the headwind I got gapped again, this time off the back of the break, and that was it, my body just said "done". I think we had 15 seconds on the field at that point, but I had absolutely nothing left. I rolled off the course and went and got a waffle. I remember thinking at the time, this is not a choice my brain is making, this is a decision my body has made.

Looking at the numbers post facto, they were high but not out of control. While in the break, average speed 27.5, average power 110% of FTP. The separation was made and there were 6 guys. In a healthy state I believe could have kept that up for another 15 minutes. I don't think there's any universe where I would have placed higher than 5th, though.

The takeaway is: positive that I read the race right and made the all-star break. Negative that I got dropped, obviously, but the positive lesson is not to be an idiot and race when sick.


The moment of surrender, photo by BF user "ketchup." Break is just offscreen right. Field visible in the distance.

sarals 

Yesterday I completed a three day women's stage race, the Mariposa County Women's Stage Race. TT on Friday, hillclimb and circuit race Saturday, and a road race yesterday. 9500 feet of climbing, 128 miles. I made the podium, only because there were only three of us in my age category. I was a fish out of water, but I hung tough. Race report coming!

I also made Velonews:

Full Day for the Mariposa Women's Stage Race | NorCal Cycling News - Cycling and Racing in Northern California

LAJ

Excellent read, globecanvas. Sounded brutal, and nice job!

Look forward to the report, Sara!

LAJ

Thank you Racer Ex. There seems to be a certain discipline to this TT thing. Two steps forward, two steps back. I hope to improve on that.

valygrl

+1!

Thanks for the TT tip, RacerEx. Last year I rode the course with my coach the day before and that helped a lot. This year i recalled her comments about where to work hard and where to seek a little recovery, but forgot to focus on really pushing the whole time. It was such a short effort, 'recover' should have been LT, not tempo, and 'push hard' should have been over LT.

valygrl

I saw that VeloNews thing -very cool!!!

shovelhd

Valygrl, there's plenty of racing left in the season. You will bounce back.

Sara, you should frame that picture and paragraph. It's everything that you are about.

Racer Ex 

Globe, good job. I've been in some of those "all star breaks" over the years (one always comes to mind with an 2 x Olympian, a guy who had ridden all three grand tours, and two other guys with fancy sleeves) and you do what you can do, but always be careful not to overdo if you can avoid it. Reading the race and making the break(s) consistently put you at another level from most, having the courage to fail pays off over the long term.

Sara, that's awesome stuff.

happybday29475

fantastic race reports make this a terrific thread, y'all!

Sarals - good work! Flattering newspaper article & photo!

Valygrl - This was a tough weekend! It's oft said, and I too am experiencing, that some races it's like you have no chain, and other races it's like you have a headwind no matter which way you turn. The uniqueness of the weekend's courses mean that results here have little bearing on future results..

LAJ - Don't forget that this is your first race in a while, and you're coming in mid-season...most of your competitors have been enduring race suffering every weekend for 6 weekends in a row now...I'm guessing that's significant. Also, it was a pretty short TT (20'), with some turns, which favors fast twitchers...

GC - awesome sauce. It sounds like you did everything right, except get sick before the race. So, without that little bit of misfortune which was out of your control, you might very well have had an incredible race!

happybday29475

Morgul Omnium 50+/4's - 3rd


Fri TT:

After sitting on the fence, I decided to do the morgul omnium, instead of just the 2 mass start races. And if I was going to play in the omnium, I needed a TT bike, or at least some aerobars. Thursday night before the TT, I discovered that my handlebars are not actually round, but ovular, and therefore my newly purchased aerobars couldn't be mounted. After deciding to bail on the TT, and then going for a walk around the block, I discovered that immediately adjacent to the stem, the bars were actually round, and there was just enough room to mount the aero bars...OK, that would have to do...sub-optimal, but I was back in!

It rained lightly during the TT warm-up, but during the race the rain held off and the roads were dry and the winds were calm. My training buddy was first off, starting 80" before me...for most of the course I could see him, and he proved to be an excellent rabbit. My legs felt great, my thoughts were "this is fun!", and I stayed in the aero position the entire time. All of these surprised me. And all of this was caused by the fact that I was gradually gaining on my buddy - which also surprised me. On the short steep hill at the end, he sort of exploded, and that also was energizing to me. At the finish, I was crosseyed, but also knew that I'd just had a great ride. It turned out that I finished 2nd...and my pre-race expectations were maybe 15th.

This was the rare race that I'd managed to stay "in the zone" for an entire 20 minutes.


Saturday Circuit:
7pm Friday TT the night before meant that warming up on the trainer for my 8am start was painful. Even nominal wattage was tough.

The hilly course started uneventfully. Approaching a prime for omnium points I got a good leadout from an unwitting competitor...but was soon blown past by Steve. I tried to grab his wheel, but couldn't. Still a ways out, I settled in to get second for the prime...and then Bill blew past me. As a sprinter, I'm not used to this sort of nonsense! At least I got third and 2 points...

Note to the field: the eventual 3 podium places for the omnium were all totally blown at this point, trying to slit each other's throats...you all should have attacked us right then. But you didn't: you slowly caught up, offered us shelter and let us drink and rest. Thank you very much.

The next half hour was largely just resting up for the final sprint. As things wound up, I found myself poorly positioned, had to play catch-up, and only finished 5th.


Sunday RR:

3 15-mile hilly laps, ending in a 2' 10% hill. OK I'm not going to win a finish like that until well after hell freezes over. In the omnium points, I was sitting safely in 3rd; 1st and 2nd were out of reach, and I could only lose 3rd with a really disastrous result.

On this 3rd day of racing, I was pretty tired, and there's no way I was going long on this hilly and windy course. I'm pretty sure that everybody else summed up the situation similarly. I'm also pretty sure that Eddie Merckx would have attacked the hell out of this tired field, but he's not a 50-year old cat 4.

The result was that all three laps were embarasingly slow...and I was fine with it. I initiated a couple of half-hearted attacks, but without real intent (or capability), and nothing came close to getting away. With about 4' to go the pace picked up, and I was 1st or 2nd wheel until the bottom of the hill, at which point I back-slid to 7th, 4" off the winning pace. It was all sort of predictable, and not very exciting racing.


Result:
- 3rd in the Omnium
- 1st and 2nd place guys were both clearly stronger throughout the weekend
- TT beyond my wildest expectations
- Circuit race and road race that I didn't race all that well in, and also that I didn't particularly enjoy.
- The above two lines are a particularly unsettling reversal of the regular patterns of the universe.

shovelhd

Nice!

sarals 

Globe and Tom - awesome stuff! It sounds like we all left it out there last weekend. Tough racing, something to be proud of!

Racer Ex 

Niiiiiice.

Hermes

Congrats on some great racing.

sarals 

Mariposa Women's Stage Race - WM 55+

This race is the only all women's race on the calendar in the NCNCA. I've been told time and again how special it is, never mind that it is very grueling. It featured almost 10,000 feet of climbing in three days over four stages, and an aggregate mileage of almost 130. I would be way out of my element, too, not being a competitive climber. Nevertheless, I HAD to do it.

Day 1 Friday, Basso Bridge Time Trial

The time trial was held on a mostly flat course near the Turlock Road Race course. It was five miles out and back, ten miles total. 43 women were signed up for the stage race, three in my age group. Dusty, Lea and I were to go off last. Ex gave me some specific instructions for the warmup, as well as how to approach the race. I got lost on the way to the course, I drove right by the parking lot and didn't see it, so when I finally arrived I was a bit amped. However, I had enough time to settle down, prep the bike, sign in, and warmup. I did most of the warmup on the trainer, and when the air temperature started getting warm, I switched to the road. I timed my line up so my roll off would leave very little idle time. I hit it just about right. I knew most of the riders would be sub 30 minutes, something I had yet to accomplish. My best TT to date was around 35 minutes for 10 miles. I wanted to get close to that 30 minute mark.

I rolled off, settling in and keeping my power on target. I was feeling pretty good, nothing exceptional, but not in any sort of difficulty. That is until I hit the first short climb, which turned out to be steeper than I had anticipated (and I had looked at the profile). I noticed the riders coming the other way were flying so, yeah, this has to be steep. I came off the aerobars and went to the bullhorns, the only time I did that the whole way, and also went to the small ring. Once past that climb, the course continued to climb, but at 1 to 2%. However, there was a left quartering headwind, which made me happy that I chose my 48mm front wheel over my 80mm. Also, the bike, with it's new handlebars and 165mm crank, was feeling really good, and I felt like I was making power efficiently on it. I was also able to keep my cadence up, a really good thing! I staying in it pretty hard all the way to the turn around. I did a GOOD turn around, carrying speed until the last possible moment and then late braking and flipping the bike around the turn. Back down the course I had a tailwind, I was going slightly downhill, and I was hitting it hard. I reached the steep little climb section, which had an S-bend to the right in it, and I decided to stay on the aerobars through the turn (at around 35MPH). At the 1K to go sign, I was suffering but I dug deep and ramped it up. With 200 to go I dug for all I was worth and crossed the line. And almost puked!

The time I wanted - close to 30 minutes. The time I achieved - 29:27. My best EVER time trial! As it stood, we three 60+ ladies were less than 1:30 seconds apart. Dusty was first, Lea was second, I was third.

Day 2 Saturday, Groveland Hill Climb

Okay, I knew this would be hard. This climb was 6.9 miles with 2100 feet of elevation gain. The average gradient was 10%, with pitches right at 20%. The worst of it was the bottom 1/3, then it sort of "leveled out" with the grade being 6% to 8%, then at the top, the last 1K was 12%. I followed all of coaches instructions on recovery after the TT, but I did have to drive over an hour to get to the hotel after that race. I didn't sleep all that well, and then that morning I had my usual nervous stomach. When we all arrived at the parking area, it was 42 degrees, but warming quickly. The routine was to be a promenade from the parking area to the hillclimb, where we would descend the climb to the Toulomne Canyon, Wards Ferry Bridge (famous for it's graffiti), where the race would start. I was concerned I'd loose a warmup on the descent, but I didn't have an answer for that, so I did a normal ramped warmup on the trainer. When we all rolled off for the promenade, it was up hill to the descent. I did NOT feel at all good on that promenade, my HR was way too high considering the effort, and my legs didn't have much snap. I hoped I would settle down on the descent.

The descent was gnarly, steep with lots of hairpins. I was paying attention to the pavement, the turns, the pitches, etc. The group got to the Wards Ferry Bridge, and then we lined up for the start. We went off in waves, once again, with Dusty, Lea and me rolling off last. My plan was to try to stay close to the other two women, although I knew they were both very good climbers and it would be suicide if I tried to match their efforts. We started up the hill, and Dusty and Lea rolled away from me pretty quickly. I time trialed the climb, settling in to the pain cave and staying in it, snatching little bits of recovery on the few gradient changes that there were. The heat got to me several times (it had warmed to over 80 degrees on the climb), but I stayed in my zone. I was aware from time to time that there was a vehicle behind me, but I never once looked back. I was way out of my element, my body and legs were just screaming at me, but I never once thought of quitting. I was looking at the road, trying to take the path of least resistance, as well as trying to stay in the shade whenever I could. I was only carrying one water bottle, and I drank the whole thing on the climb. Someone asked me after the climb if I had noticed the beautiful wildflowers along the way. "There were flowers?" was my response.

I finally hit the line, and I was fried. That hill really zapped me, and it took me 65 minutes, 5 minutes longer than the next slowest woman. I was a good 15 minutes, or more, behind Lea and Dusty.

Greeley Hill Circuit Race

Two hours later I drove over to the next stage, a seven lap 6 mile circuit with 500 or so feet of climbing per lap. I followed recovery protocol closely - eating, rolling out, staying off of my feet. Even so, on the drive over, I was feeling pretty anemic, that over the top hillclimb had really taken it out of me. As had my PR TT the day before. I wasn't feeling good about the circuit race, but I knew I needed to keep my head right and I needed to stay with the other two gals. I used the promenade as the warmup, and as in the other stages, we rolled off in waves. We old ladies were last once again. The start was neutral to the top of a descent, when we were let go. It was a great descent, all of the elevation gained on the rest of the course was lost on this 2 mile smooth, mostly straight descent. The profile said the climb back up was mostly gradual, so I was confident I could stay with Dusty and Lea. And I did, for the first half of the first lap, when we hit an exposed section that had a 10 MPH headwind. Three riders don't make a peloton, and I needed a draft, and there wasn't one. After fighting for a few minutes to stay attached, I realized I was burning way too many precious matches, so I drifted off the back. On the third lap, my legs started to get crampy, even though I was hydrating and drinking my Perpetuem. So, I had to back down even more if I was to finish - and I HAD to finish. Most of gals in the race know who I am (which surprises me), and would give me encouragement - personal encouragement from many, each time a group rolled by. That went a long way to keeping me going, because my attitude was going to dark places from time to time. The finish line was at the top of a pretty good roller, steep it was, and when I finally rolled across for my finish, I was too cooked to even make it back to the parking area - I had to get a ride! But, I did it.

Day 3 Sunday, Bootjack Road Race

It took more than an hour to drive over to Mariposa, where this stage was held. We were to start at 9 AM, so it meant a 4:30 wakeup and out the door by 6 to make it over there with time to spare. The four of us sharing the cabin we had rented for the weekend caravaned over, and made it in plenty of time. I did a short warmup, and then almost forgot to sign in. My plan was to finish. Finish! Three laps, 13 miles per lap. 5000 feet of climbing total. Finish! If I could stay with Lea and Dusty, fine, but finish! I bargained an hour per lap, so I planned my nutrition and decided how to meter my efforts, and that would be decided by how I felt. In the warmup I felt pretty good, although there was no doubt that I was down on power. We were at 3200 feet elevation, and that played a role, but it was mostly the two hard days on the saddle that counted the most. Finish!


Once again, we rolled off in waves, we three (awesome) old ladies last. This course featured a great descent, 5 miles or so long. Two years ago a rider was killed on this descent in this very race, so we were neutral the first time down to keep our speed in check so we'd learn the road. After the descent was a right turn and the fun would start - going up! 1300 feet or more per lap. I was staying with Lea and Dusty fairly well, but once I started to feel really tested, I let them go. I had no dig, no stomp, no push, no punch, and I had 35 miles more to go with many feet to climb. There was valor in finishing, not in blowing up and riding back in the broom wagon, so I once again let them go.

On the last lap I started having lower back pain as well as issues with a muscle at the top of my left leg. If I went OTS and did a low cadence resistance effort, it would ease up, so I did a lot of that on that lap. When I crossed that line 3 hours and 14 minutes after I started, I felt like I had won. I pounded the handle bars and punched the air and let out a whoop - I had done it! I finished a HARD climbing stage race.

Except for my TT, my performance was less than respectable, but I earned new respect for the ladies I race with, young and old - especially the old ladies; Lea (who won our age group) and Dusty. I know my place among these fine athletes, and it's not quite at their level, but close. I did something completely counter to my strengths and experience, and it was the toughest test I've done to date. And I finished.

revchuck 

Awesome work, Sara! Great write up too!