Masters NorCal District TT Championships 20k out and back with a cone turnaround and L shaped course Cat 1,2,3,4,5 M65-69 4th of 5. Missed the podium by 6 seconds. Start holder did not let go at the start and I almost fell over to the right. She caught me and I restarted again. She dropped a female racer on the deck and messed up a couple more.

Basically rode the entire race breathing hard. After I crossed the finish line, I coughed for about two hours - like track hack on steroids. However, that is how it is at higher altitude (5000 feet) for me since I train and race at sea level. My lungs take a beating. I knew if I was not breathing hard, I was not getting the job done. My power was down but not as much as some past years.

The pavement was poor to fair with rough asphalt (course) and bumps at highway expansion joints. IMO, the course over 20K was 45 seconds slower than the old course.

Thanks Craig Huffman for showing up and taking some great pics. Photo by Craig Hoffman.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...psv4sstq6r.jpg

Congrats to all for some great racing. Keep it up!!!

Nice, @Hermes. Six seconds, that's irritating!

I had a totally weird experience with my held start too. The starter was holding me way tilted to the right, I had to lean way to the left for fear if I sat on the center of the bike she would have dropped me trying to support the weight of both me & the bike.

I said, "Hey you're holding me way tilted off to the right!"

She blew me off, "Don't worry honey, I'm not gonna drop you, just stay calm". Totally patronizing and reading what you wrote now I learn she actually *had* dropped someone already & then needed to restart you.

Well at least I know it wasn't just me being new. It was totally distracting, to be arguing with the holder at the start like that. I've got a number of other things to get done in that last 20 sec- get clipped in, get my pedals where I want them, get my Garmin started. Arguing with the holder is not something I've got tons of time for.

Too bad we barely saw you guys at Loyalton. Hopefully you guys had fun & enjoyed hanging with Mrs @Hermes' teammates. I actually met a few people and had a pretty nice time. Everyone I meet at these things always seems friendly & chatty, I guess maybe because we have stuff in common to talk about- bikes, the course, warmup routines, how the race went, etc. Nice crowd.

That is so lame about the holder. I saw a post on Sarals' facebook from the woman who was dropped. that's unforgivable.

@Heathpack Racing is so focused and consumes me. I have two racers to prep for racing including yours truly. There is little time for anything other than prep, warmup and race.

We are not supposed to criticize promoters or other support organizations in public forums and just be grateful that we have any races to attend. I am always grateful to promoters, USAC and volunteers for promoting and running races. However, it should be clear to anyone that at championship events, we should have the best officials and promoter plus experienced volunteers. There is no excuse for dropping an experienced racer on the ground and USAC should have immediately reacted and offered a restart.

My take away over the years is not to take this stuff too seriously and there is a certain amount of luck involved even in time trials. In addition, I had to go out first since the start list was alphabetical and the 3rd place finisher was right behind me. Switch places and we may have a different outcome - race of truth...maybe, maybe not. Quantitatively, I was higher ranked by USAC than he and I should have stated second to last based upon points. Even if the point system is BS, it is still better than alphabetical.

We all spend a lot of resources in time and money to prepare and attend races. But we have to accept whatever bad luck or poor organization, training of volunteers or officiating we get at that day. And we see this even in pro sports (but way less) where one bad officiating call gives the championship to a team or individual. I can accept the human aspect of everyone trying their best and some things go against me. It seems like lately, I have had more than my fair share.

No worries, @Hermes. I travel with my own soigneur, I don't do anything but ride my bike & chat people up. So I have a different experience than you do at these races. It's actually hard to hurt my feelings with stuff like that, I'm pretty much always ok with doing my own thing in life. When I was a little kid, I was exasperating to my parents because they'd try to punish me by sending me to my room but I never cared too much if they did. I was as content by myself in my room as I was with everyone else in the rest of the house. Whatever was fine by me. I still feel that way about most things in life, bikes included.

So my comments were really more along the lines of "wish we all had more time to hang" than "explain yourself".

As far as the starts go, my thing was a distraction but not that big of a deal. Yours was worse. Getting totally dropped- yikes, total bummer. Plus I'm so clueless about bikes, I wouldn't even be able to troubleshoot my own bike if something like that happened.

Not sure what you are talking about with the start order? I actually have no idea how they normally determine it or why one start position would be advantageous over another. ???

Im still in the phase of things where when things go awry, I halfway am ok with it on account of trying to experience everything that can possibly go wrong while my expectations are still low & I'm flying under the radar. Somehow it doesn't really annoy me. Yet. I could see that it could totally become annoying though, if I get to the point where I realistically expect to win.

Good attitude Hermes. As officials we do everything we can to get it 100% right but sometimes we can't. Nature of the beast. The best we can do is make it fair for everyone. If it was my decision I would have offered a restart at the end of the line.

That's a rough way to start a race, @Hermes. I'm sorry to hear of it. Well done getting it done.

@LAJ, so....

....how did it go, relative to the BIL?

BIL 8th, I was 9th. I picked his wheel, but had little left for anything. Since end of year points are an object, I was chasing the guy in second relentlessly, and it worked. He finished 12th, and 3rd in season points was 11th. I am doing all I can to minimize the damage in these crits, and it's working.

I am supposed to tell you.... I did make BIL go wide in the final corner with 1 or 2 to go, as I swung in slightly late, and did a bit of rubbing. I was too concerned with the fellow to my inside, as it was getting crazy. Big apologies to him.

But, enough of that, I am interested in your day!

Getting it done, yet again. I love it.

BIL will forgive you, I'm sure. You just owe now him a little racing favor down the road at some point, that's all.

We had a great time today, what a beautiful ride & just really great people to ride with. I wrote a little thing up in the Training Camp thread. The only thing that would have made it better is if you had ridden as well. Well, that and maybe air that contains a little more oxygen. :)

Parker Crit 9/23

.8 mile super fast triangle shaped 4-ish corner course, with a tiny little rise on the backside, which means a downhill finish. Garmin said 109 degrees, weather said 102, and there was no shade. I did find a gazebo looking thing in a park that my teammate and I warmed up in.

Started slightly mellow, which is good, because I had to do a slight rear brake adjustment. It was on after the third lap though. I was keeping an eye on Scott, who rides for the same team as BIL, and word on the street is they are all riding for him, and the end of season point thing (Rocky Mountain Road Cup), if possible. I had two teammates in the race, and one was gunning for the win. On our warm up, strategy was I'm covering all the breaks, as Scott was for sure going to be in one. I can take credit for putting silly thoughts like that in his head... So, the fourth lap in, there he went. He got a decent jump, and it took me nearly half a lap to get on his wheel. We had a good gap for about 3-ish laps, then a fellow that is strong on my old team didn't like it, and pulled the field back in. Either way, I was there to stay on Scott's wheel, and/or keep tabs on the front for my teammate.

They sent another fellow, and there I was again, but no real gap or effort expended. And again.... Pulled up next to Scott, and simply said, "So this is how it's going to be. Looks like a hard day ahead". A couple laps later, another off the front with one from the big team and another team. Hung with them, no real work involved, but the pace was still high and hard. Another one of their guys went off, but I knew him, and could hide in the pack, as his fitness was good for a lap, maybe. Then my other teammate went of on a flier, which was good. We needed to keep the pace high and tire out the team. They were stinking up the front the whole race, and were doing a good job trying to control it. Just a lot of work.

Next to last lap, I worked up to near the front, as I thought Scott was there, and Blair certainly was (3rd in points), and hung with them. Pace slowed slightly, and got swarmed. It was quite a mess, actually, and that's where BIL was forced wide, as an inside guy was sketchy, and I was distracted for a split second, which could have been bad. That, and I need to go wide to give him a little extra room. But, while the pace was slowed for that bit, the teammate worked up, because that slight slowing was what we actually counted on. I worked my way up towards the front on the finish straight as the last lap started and I didn't know if my teammate was on my wheel, but I was hopeful. Before the last two corners, he did pass just on the outside of me, so I'm optimistic.

I was spent. (IF.94) I was happy to finish where I did, and I think the pace was high enough that it hurt my fellow points competitors. Oh. Yeah. My teammate won. Well deserved, as he's been in the hunt in these crits this year, and he did a great job executing a plan. @rapwithtom gave him some very pointed advice, and he listened. My other teammate and I helped make the boys cry, and my winning teammate took the bit, and ran with it.

Except for the heat, it sounds like really fun racing! Good tactics, good rivalries, and great success! Congrats!

That was a real can of worms. Because she was a 55+ racer and the Women's Committee had targeted this race as one of the 55+ Series, she came to me to vent and for help. The whole story is pretty involved, I won't go into it. I'm also reluctant to say much about it publicly because I'm on a committee of the NCNCA. The Reno club puts on a good show 99% of the time, too, but this time round there were volunteers working in positions where they perhaps shouldn't have been?

Boy, I'll go with that! Very fine job of execution, I just LOVE reading about tactics, especially when they're well done! You Colorado folks do that sort of thing really well. Congratulations!!!

Likely. I've done that race for a decade and it's always been well done; they have that drill down. But the club does have turnover and sometimes you end up with sending a more experienced volunteer somewhere where you need them more.

Tri Cities Crit 55+ 1/2/3. 3/18

This race was combined with the 45's which makes it fast. In fact the average speed was the fastest of the day according to my teammate. First 15 minutes or so I rode near the front to cover any 55's that might sneak off with the 45's. After it became pretty apparent that some big team presence and the speed was going to stilfe any breaks, I sat in and waited for the bunch sprint.

Unfortunately the laps cars here are somewhat off the course and they made no verbal announcements (or I didn't hear them) so when I noticed things were going pretty briskly and a lot of one team was on the front I looked over and thought I saw 3 to go, was blocked from confirming this with two to go, and, not wanting to move too early, had to scramble from way back when the bell rang.

Went around a lot of the field, weaved through dying ducks and lead out folks, avoided my old teammate banging into another rider, went between two more dying lead out guys, and ended up just behind 1 & 2 in the 55's.

Had great legs. Got a bottle of wine and a good workout. Winner is one of my teammates for the team pursuit at Track Nats so good to see he's going well.

Did the 35+ after. Rode like an attacking fool for 40 minutes then pulled out to avoid any nonsense at the end. Got to help Fudgy bridge up to a break at one point.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=528410

Great racing, @LAJ & @Racer Ex! :)

Very nice, Racer Ex!

I'm no expert by any means, but I sort of had a decent time when they combined our field with the 40+ guys.

Thanks Folks!

Boy. This place looks different.

Great job, Ex!

No wisecracks about the guy who podiumed with a seeing-eye dog?

It's his therapy dog for when he doesn't win.

I have two of those. :)

Did you say hi to Steve (RD) for me?

Great job!!!

CCCX #7, Master Women 55+ Cat 1/2/3, Seaside Bayview Course, July 2, 2016
Teammates: Four of us in all

This was a Women's Series race for the M55+ women. We had two riders in the top three of the season standings and this was a clear chance to move them up. After discussions among ourselves and with our team coach, we decided to use two riders (me and Norma) early to set the pace, and hopefully allow our team leaders good positioning in the peloton and and enough energy savings to finish the race in the top three.

The course is a 2.4 mile dogbone, on excellent pavement. The road is wide and smooth, with many rollers, and some of those rollers are significant. There were 180 degree turnarounds at each end of the course. The wind was out of the northwest, in our face outbound, at 10 to 15 MPH. The temperature was 64 degrees at race start. Almost ideal conditions.

I warmed up on the road, and frankly, I over did it. I have issues gauging the intensity of my warmup on the road, and that was true yesterday. That would come to haunt me during the race.

The field was not large, there were just nine of us all told. In the field, besides we four PenVelo women, were five other riders, two on another team (CA), and two from another category. Seven of us in total were contesting the MW55+ race.

We rolled off at the whistle, and I went to the front. I set a good pace, nothing wimpy slow, but hopefully not too hard. I felt really good, and lead the peloton around the course for more than a lap, which was way too long, and I was going a whole lot harder than I thought. I was exuberant and I let that energy overcome me. When I finally rolled off the front, we were starting up a roller, and I found I didn't have the energy to catch back on. I didn't blow up, I bonked! I was plain out of gas. It took me a few moments to realize that (the pain I felt was clearly not a blow, it was a bonk), and I shot a desperate gel as soon as I could. It took several minutes, but the gel finally did it's work and I got some recovery and rebuilt some energy. I saw that Norma had gone off the back, and I felt I could reach her, so I set about trying to bridge to her. Alas, she was a "bridge too far", and that wind and those rollers were conspiring against me. I slowed down, not a huge amount, but enough to where I was maintaining pace with her and not closing. I would have to go harder than I could at the time to maintain the high pace I needed to catch her.

I'd done my work, I felt satisfied with that, even though I'd have preferred to do more. If I'd been smarter, I could have.

The peloton caught me just prior to the final turn on the last lap. I latched back on and stayed with them, but off the back, so I wouldn't affect the outcome. In the turn, one of riders went down, but she was far enough ahead of me to where her crash wasn't an issue for me. I asked her if she was okay as I went by, she indicated she was, and that she needed to finish. She didn't pass me going up that roller to the finish, but I was lap down on her and ended up finishing seventh in my age group.

My two team mates who needed to finish in the top three finished first and third, respectively, with a CA rider second. That was a relief, they had made the podium! I was elated! I didn't do anything substantial to affect the outcome, although I really felt, for the first time, that I had been part of a team effort. That was very gratifying!

I worked harder in this race than I had in quite some time. I really put forth an honest effort, it was important to me to help my team and to show them I could be of help, in spite of the tiny matchbox my decomposing body has these days!

Earlier in the day, I was there in support of Racer Ex/Coach, and I was privileged and thrilled to see him win his M 55+ race in the field sprint. I got the fist bump from him I had hoped to! He got to meet my dogs, as well. It was their first bike race, and they enjoyed it (lots of new smells!).

It was quite a race, a good way to start the month. I feel it today, I'm tired and sore (the bonk), but I am thrilled I was able to be a team rider.