Racer Ex 

You really need a smoke machine for this post for full effect.

sarals 

It happens to me all of the time. Combined fields, always. Racing with the kids, always. I'm an old biddie, so I post here!

Cleave

Wow, a lot of good and hard racing this past weekend and glad to see racers of both sexes racing hard. Colonelmom, Racer Ex, valygrl, gsteinb, shovelhd, and LAJ nice work! It's obvious that Master 40+ and beyond is the new something younger. For all of you newbs in this sub forum, when I started racing as a Junior, Veterans started at 40+ and I couldn't believe that guys and very few gals could still ride at that age. All of you are proving the teenage Cleave wrong.

Cleave

Raced on Saturday morning on the Palos Verdes peninsula. 10 Km Hill climb TT with about a 1 Km descent in the middle. Thought I was going well. I wasn't. 50 sec slower than last year and last year I missed my target time by over 1 minute. Small consolation was finishing 3rd in 55+ -- just a couple of seconds behind 2nd. 1st was about 4 minutes faster. Rode with my teammate, who beat me by about 40 seconds, and her husband after the race. A fun day overall but I am decidedly slower in time trials this year. Help Mr. Wizard!

AzTallRider

"El Tour Crit", part of a big festival for both Bike Week (Motorcycles) and El Tour de Mesa, a big charity ride (crash fest) tomorrow. First time they've had a real race as part of it. Cat 3-4. Figure 8 course of .9 miles. Wide open and flat.

I do a few laps before the cat 5, then get on the trainer for a proper warmup while they race. Line up with 62 of my best and most expert 3 and 4 buddies, and we're off. Second corner and I find myself drifting a little. Next corner and I'm thinking "Dude! Get it together." Next corner and I'm looking at my wheels. Big sweeper to the final stretch and I'm almost in the barriers.

i get the hell off the course and off the bike... First lap flat. No wheels in the pit.

Gah!

shovelhd

Omg

AzTallRider

$40/lap, but I got a free glass and a water bottle.

shovelhd

VanceMac

Omnium:

• Win-N-Out. Shut out. Boxed in, couldn't get free. Frustrating.
  
• Points (32/8). Got a first and a second out of the first three sprints, but was fried and couldn't close it out in the final sprint. Frustrating.
  
• Scratch (20). Orchestrated 2 friends to try taking a lap. Told them to line up 1-2 on the rail, and go from the gun. Worked perfectly. And it even took the pack a couple laps to figure out I was blocking, and then, even when they came around, only one would come around... so that person would pull off, and I was in front again, blocking. That happened maybe 5 times! Unfortunately, the duo didn't have enough juice left to pull it off. We caught them at the halfway mark (10). With a little over 3 to go, it was a little early to jump but I was coming down from high in turn 4, which gave me some speed and I went for it. Had a good gap, but that's a long run... nipped by a threesome at the line. Frustrating.

Despite the theme, it was a gas.

happybday29475

That does sound like a gas! Well done.

sarals 

+1 on that, Vance!

sarals 

Race Report, CCCX Circuit 04/06/13 - 4 laps, 4.3 miles per lap.

I got home just minutes ago - I'm still putting all this together in my head.

I rode out to the course plus a few miles to add up to a good warmup. For some reason, the race director decided to divide the groups today, even though the combined field would not have been very large. The W4 field was eight or nine, and we went off at a pretty high pace. I aggressively moved up to fourth or fifth wheel, and covered an attack that happened at the bottom of the first climb. I was third wheel when we neared the top of the climb, because I attacked. My thinking was that I needed to try to gap the field on this climb and recover on the short descent to the rollers, because the group would definitely be better than me on those climbs. It didn't work - I semi blew, got gapped, and then watched the group (of five) ride off. They didn't get that far out in front, but I couldn't close up on them.

There was a strong headwind on the rollers. Every time I'd get a rhythm going I'd be blasted by a gust of wind and loose my momentum. That was frustrating, but - I saw where I could put it to work for me to get away from two other gals that I had been going back and forth with for the the entire race. One of those two gals popped, and I passed her and didn't see her again.

On the last lap, I closed up on the remaining rider on the first climb, staying with her to the top. She put in an effort on the false flat after the top and gapped me, but I felt I could make it up on the descent and the right hander at the bottom of the rollers. I did just that, and passed that gal so fast that it surprised me. I worked hard to stay in front of her on the rollers, even though I thought it was too early to do that. I was right, she made it up and passed me back. I sat in and recovered, watched how she dealt with the wind and the short descents between the rollers, and decided it would be all or nothing on the last short roller before the last right hand turn and following descent. Because she would let her speed drop on the flats, I felt strongly that I could put her away on that last roller. I closed up on her at the base of it, came OTS and drilled it - just threw it down, and passed her. I kept the power on through the next corner so I could carry a good speed into the descent. The last turn prior to the finish is a slight climb, and the finish itself is on a roller (they all are, aren't they?). I buried myself to stay in front of that woman, and I did it. I did it! Oh, didn't make the podium, but I had small victory of my own!

The Cannondale was impeccable. Smooth, responsive, I don't think it did anything out of sorts the whole race. I was comfortable on it, and I got to where I was flinging it around with total confidence. It didn't beat me up, and even with the 50mm wheels the wind wasn't an issue as far as handling. It was sure footed as could be. I love that bike!

Learning point - I came away with one big thing just yelling at me - riding relaxed. I never did relax and find a rhythm in this race. If I could do that - would do that - I'd do a lot better. I'm thinking that comes with time. There's going to be plenty of that.

Man, this stuff is fun!

Hermes

Vance, nice racing. Your writeup does not due justice how difficult executing that sequence of races is and how taxing it is on the racer at the speed of the races. Your results looked excellent in the Omnium.

nacler22

Nice going Sara and Vmac, I"m with the both of you on the fun wagon.



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Barking Spider
My last race as a Cat 2
2nd Pl.

Marked a guy that was looking real strong and hadn't seen before. Last lap, the rain came, and the "fun" began. Everyone was hike-a-bike for about forever. With about 2 miles to go, I had gapped the mark, and was able to get on the bike for brief stretches before chain-suck and mud balls would force a heavy cleaning, and some light swearing. Rode the last 3/4 mile, and crossed the line ~30" in front of second...... I thought. The rain had fubar'ed the timing for a bunch of us, ( Judge was attending to several hypothermia cases ) and the winner had apparently passed me in the hike-a-bike clustermuck.

I gotta parrot VanceMac on this one, win, lose, or draw, it was a GAS.

VanceMac

Thanks everyone. Good racing Sara; glad you are liking the CAAD 10. Bummer AZ... your luck is going to turn soon. Nacler, my Scalpel twin is suffering neglect... criminal, I know.


Video of that race: https://youtu.be/er9o7w2zxO8

nacler22

[QUOTE=VanceMac;15478818]Thanks everyone. Good racing Sara; glad you are liking the CAAD 10. Bummer AZ... your luck is going to turn soon. Nacler, my Scalpel twin is suffering neglect... criminal, I know.

I don't blame you a bit. If I had access to a track, my Scalpel would languish; at least until I'd obtained my highest level of incompetence. Then I'd be trying BMX racing.


Oh,and Sara,

I'm super glad that you're digging the X. Wanna bet who's weighs more?

sarals 

[QUOTE=nacler22;15478932]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VanceMac

Thanks everyone. Good racing Sara; glad you are liking the CAAD 10. Bummer AZ... your luck is going to turn soon.

That's easy! Mine!!!

nacler, your photos are WHY I don't ride off road!!!! Yuk!!!!!

sarals 

Nacler, that's one LONG seat tube!

nacler22

6'4"
All legs and arms.

I chose a Lg frame instead of an XL for handling, so it looks a little goofy.

sarals 

No, not so goofy. My old M500, which is too small, has a similarly proportioned seat tube.

nacler22

Tools, not Jewels.

Cleave

AzTR, bad luck. Your luck has to change soon.
VanceMac, glad the fun factor is still high.
sarals, sounds like a big effort which is most important and glad that you were able to meter it out at the end to do what you planned. Making those kinds of in-race decisions are important to learn.
nacler22, 6' 4"! That's a lot of arms and legs to squeeze on to a large frame. Thanks for the reminder of why, in my old age, I'm a dry weather, pavement sports kind of guy.

Today, Rosena Ranch II Circuit Race. This time they ran the course counter-clockwise. It's not a huge change since the course goes up one side of a multi-lane road and back down the other. The course did feel a bit different though.

I made a couple of efforts in the Masters 55+/60+ race. Followed the eventual 60+ leader on an attack. We didn't get very far. Finishing up the next-to-last lap I had a lot of momentum on the downhill leading into the finishing climb. I was thinking that I shouldn't waste the speed by applying the brakes so I jumped on it. Opened a gap but no one was with me. Relaxed on the climb until they caught me.

Was on the totally wrong wheel on the uphill field sprint (no one got away today). By the time I got around him there wasn't much distance to the line but I started passing people. I think I passed four guys in the last 10 meters. Ended up 12th in the 55+.

Had over 1-1/2 hours until the Cat 3 race. Everything felt fine in my abbreviated warm up. First lap and I felt blah. Speed was a bit faster than 55+ race but not a lot. After the first turnaround on the second lap I couldn't accelerate hard enough to stay attached. Kept riding around hoping they'd pull me. I got lapped (3.75 mile lap) just before the field got 2 to go. I kept going (DFL > DNF) and the Chief Referee put me out of my misery while the field was on their last lap. Guess I got $10 (extra race fee) worth of training out of it.

Not overly disappointed considering the travel, eating, and lack of training this past week. At least my first race was reasonable.

BTW shovelhd, Mr. Hoffenberg won the 55+ race AND the 45+ race. This is less than three weeks after his (former) dog bit his face is a pretty nasty way. He healed quickly and well and obviously didn't miss a step.

revchuck 

All - Sounds like this has been a big weekend so far! I'm soaking the info in - and it does help this noob.

sarals 

Cleave, no matter what you do in a race, you exude fun. It is so inspiring and refreshing to see you enjoy racing as much as you do. Good results, too! You monster!

Chuck, I'm a noob, too. I usually prove it!

shovelhd

Hoffenberg is a monster. I wish him well healing up from that injury.

Great work everyone.