Lol.

Way to follow your game plan. Even if it was annoying to do so. :)

LAVRA TT at Velo Sports Center. 500 meter time trial. Glad I was able to race and turned in a solid time. Went to the gym afterwards and did a leg strength workout which seemed easy. Video of race.

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@Hermes, totally jealous of that serene, open, non-chaotic track. :)

Looking good out there.

Sweet! I look forward to trying some of those this summer.

How many tenths is good music worth?

I resemble that remark. And, sadly, and I hope that this does not surprise you, so do you. :)

Very cool, @Hermes. That looks painful.

Thanks @Heathpack. I just needed to remember the words of Mike Tyson. "Everyone has a plan til they get punched in the mouth." I got punched in the mouth, and carried through with my ill advised plan to the bitter end. I can ride a bike pretty fast, but the racing part seems to be a mystery to me.

I would never had said such a thing otherwise. Not surprising, but it's certainly a rude awakening.

You never know, right? if you had chased him, would you have dragged the pack with you? Then the result would be about the same. When he attacked, could you get on his wheel? With a tailwind, the draft effect is less pronounced, so going long is a better strategy than if there was a head wind.

My take is (not that I'm such an expert), you don't want to start the sprint early, but if someone starts the party, you gotta go or you'll be left out.

From experience - absolutely! And, from experience - they make a great leadout. I've won a race doing just that.

So true, @valygrl. It's weird. I was close to the front, this fellow hit it, and I know everyone saw him go. Normally, "they" are all over anyone that goes, but why not this time, is anyone's guess. I just didn't feel like pulling the field to the line yet again.

@LAJ, nice racing.
@valygrl. That dirt stretch intrigued me. I'm not saying I'd like to race such a course, but it sounded interesting. Thank heavens you avoided those crashes! Sometimes OTB can be a blessing. Great job!

Dang! Good job everyone!

Thanks for the comments. I do not hear anything except the beeping from the time. Even the Chiva Girls cheerleader tryouts, which are totally amazing, do not seem to matter...except after the race. The 500 sucks a lot of O2 out of the blood so one feels pretty gassed. IMO, it is predominantly a strength for the start and neuro muscular power for the 2nd lap.
@Heathpack That is the LAVRA racing scene during a race. Warmup can be bedlam and a total cluster due to the number of riders on the track and lack of VSC experience. I have rolled off the track because the traffic was just too dicey. The reality for LAVRA TTs is one can warmup on rollers / trainer and then go to the start and ride the pole lane the required amount of laps for the race.
@LAJ Keep u the good work.

@Hermes - I'm late to the party, BUT - you were flying!!!! Very, very impressive. The music was loud, but I can understand it not being intrusive. terrific job!!

The peloton is a mysterious creature and as predictable as when an atom of radium 288 will decay into radon.

Look it up.

Tough week. Mrs. Ex's mom passed away Monday, spent the week down with family. I guess there was a positive to having our NYC trip cancelled in that we didn't have to make arrangements to try to fly back.

Heading home Saturday stopped to do a circuit race in the foothills. Hungover from the night before and not really feeling anything but sad. But Nats is coming and I needed the race miles. Billed as "rolling" it was entirely up and down with 3-7 minute climbs and a 50 MPH descent. 4.5 miles and 800" of climbing per lap, 5 laps. Perfect for a fat hungover guy. Small field compared to the entry list, I think people saw the actual course and said "see ya".

Lap 2 I came off the front group of 4. Allergies had me breathing through a straw. Found myself riding solo chasing for the next 3 laps. Kept them in sight but couldn't get to them. 5th it was. Didn't stay for the podium.

My heartfelt condolences, Ex. Sad is expected!

Good job with that race considering the circumstances. Good on you for getting out there!! And finishing fifth? Terrific!!

@Racer Ex, so sorry about MIL Ex. Tough week. Agree though, that 5th ain't bad, considering the week you had.

I'm very sad to hear of your Mother in Law, Racer Ex. My condolences to you and your family.

Sorry for your loss racer ex. Very sad.

My thoughts are with the Ex family. So sorry to hear of your loss.

@Racer Ex, condolences to you and your wife. :(

@valygrl and @LAJ, glad to see you folks racing regularly and well. Personally, if I see dirt in the course description, I don't enter. :twitchy: Roads with a description of 'good' on a race flyer can often be bad in my book. No level of dirt is in my bike handling lexicon when it comes to road bikes.

Thank you all.

Racer Ex, I didn't ignore your words, but condolences were more important. Good stuff, as usual.

Cleave, this is a straight stretch, that was a bit squirrely, but not terrible. Power down, and let the front wheel take the lead, with not too much weight on it. The mudfest coming up? Not on a bet.

@Hermes, sorry I missed you and Velo Diva last week. I was in Seattle during the week and just didn't have the inspiration to race at the track on Saturday or Sunday.

I did race a week earlier (April 17th) at the L.A. Circuit Race. Mostly did it to represent my club who used to promote this race. About 5 years ago we had 6 racers in the Masters 45+ race. This year, I was the only member in any of the races. I did Masters 55+. Race went better than I expected. I hadn't done a weekend mass start race since Feb 21st so it almost felt like I was starting the season again. Slightly fewer big names in the field than usual but still enough former champions in the race.

I mostly sat in and while I felt comfortable, when I managed to peek at my HR, it was higher than expected. Of course, seeing that probably raised it even more. :p

With a few laps to go, there was a break of 4 and they were just holding a gap. I surfed some good wheels to the front and counter-attacked a chase that hadn't gotten far. My counter didn't get very far either but at least I tried (with a few others that joined me). We never caught them even though they were never more than 15 seconds in front of us. Good blocking by their teammates I guess. I actually sprinted and wasn't DFL. :D

This past Tuesday, I raced the mid-week TT at El Dorado Park. About 25 seconds faster than last time and about the same NP. Still way too low on the NP and too slow, instead of way too slow.

Going to give the 40 Km TT at Piru a shot this coming Saturday and still hoping to put together some kind of a team for district TTT.