Cleave, that's really great racing, especially considering NO warmup! Way to do it, my friend!

I love it.

Ran across this from LA Circuit 45+ last weekend. Ex, I believe that's Big Marv marking me?


J/K about the marking me part, obviously. :)

If you had been in the drops Big M would have gotten less of a draft. ;)

Cleave layin' down the hurt!!!!

shovelhd, that's not me, that's my teammate winning the race. Unfortunately people mix us up all of the time. :notamused:

It seems like when I'm doing well they call him Cleave and when he's doing well they call me Nelson. Of course, we don't look alike. ;)

Damn you Fox...I was going to cue this one up:

Hank Hill: So are you Chinese or Japanese?

Minh Souphanousinphone: No, we are Laotian.

Bill Dauterive: The ocean? What ocean?

Kahn Souphanousinphone: From Laos, stupid! It's a landlocked country in South East Asia between Vietnam and Thailand, population approximately 4.7 million!

Hank ponders this for a few seconds.


Hank Hill: So are you Chinese or Japanese?

Sorry, man. He's your size, that looks like your kit, no face shot, you have too many bikes to pinpoint, and you crushed it at that race. Take it as a compliment.

so, are we posting both here and in The 33? Here's a dupe from over there:

Weeknight crit,

SW4, 2nd/14

tl;dr: fitness is good, cornering and head-space need work

Crit, B-race, 30 minutes, they start SW4 with the 4/5 men but score separately, 14 in my field, another 23 in the men's field. They moved the venue for this race to a mall parking lot, the mall is being reconstructed and is basically empty. The course went from being a smooth one-corner loop on good pavement last year, to this year - 3 x 90 degree right turns and 2 x left hairpins, weaving around the parking lot, with random curbs, one giant wheel eating pothole. Last night's special features were water and gravel left over from Tuesday's snowstorm and one blob of dog poo. THis is supposed to be a training/development crit with mentors for the B race, but the course is more challenging than most of the "real" crit courses i've done.

Anyway, I was pretty jittery about the course conditions, especially those left hairpins (recall, left-turn-crash behind pedal-clip last year) and after the neutral rollout lap resolved to just get comfortable with the corners and features of the course, and not worry too much about doing well. I had 4 (!) team mates in the race, one was near me, two ahead. Lap 3 there was a crash in one of the hairpins, but I didn't see who it was. After a few laps the herd had thinned, I found myself in the lead women's group, did some work, attacked a little but it didn't work, got on a wheel, survived being gapped off at every hairpin and chasing back on, and took 2nd in the small group sprint.

Sadly, the crash turned out to be my team mate, an experienced crit racer with good handling skills, she had washed out in the corner, doesn't know exactly how - she hit her head pretty bad, hospital, CT, she's ok but it was a scare.

Valygrl, I'm sorry to hear about your team mate. CT is always the protocol with a possible "head". It's a good precaution. I'm glad she's okay! Congrats to you for riding smart and doing well on a tough course. You're obviously a savvy racer as well as a pretty decent bike handler. Major hugs!:thumb:

Not me! Those guys scare me. :eek:

Nice job valygrl. Our Tue. night worlds are on a smallish parking lot, with crap pavement, and corners around 4 ton/4' high, concrete light pole bases. I gave up on them. The last one I did, someone pinched me, and I rubbed one with my handlebars at ~26mph.

Hope your teammie heals up pronto.

Good job, valygrl.

Quabbin Classic Road Race M50+, 65 miles, in the field. This was my first A race of 2013 and I went into it with high expectations. Unfortunately they were just too high. I was a bit too aggressive at the start, but those moves I covered had high octane in it. I was pre hydrated, I drank and took gels the whole time. But 90 minutes into a 2:15 race, I was struggling on the hills. Once it flattened out a bit I got into two breaks with serious talent but we were reeled in. About two miles out I was up front ready for the surge. I responded to the first surge, then the second, but on the third, I blew, and ended up rolling across at the back.

All told it was a very tough, very disappointing day on the bike. I am headed to New York with my kid for a college visit tomorrow. Tonight, dinner, hot tub at the hotel, and a few beers.

Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug...sounds like you left it all out there, that's for sure.

valygrl, sounds like a less than desirable course. However, it also sounds like you made the most of it. Hate it when anyone crashes but more so when it's someone I know.

shovelhd, 65 miles in 2:15? That's farking fast! Trying to respond to three surges in a row would make most people blow. Sorry it didn't work out as planned. Recovery plan sounds great though.

San Luis Rey Road Race in Memory of Mark Reynolds, Master 55+/60+

Back in the good old days (1980s) I was able to do pretty well on this course. Since I started racing on it again in the early 2000s I've typically been dropped on the hill (3.1 miles, 415 feet) the first time up. This year I thought that I'd just sit at the back until the climb (once per lap) and see what happens. First time up no problem. :) Second time up, I got dropped near the top. Fortunately I got into a chase with three other guys and we caught the field before the turnaround at the far end of the course. Rested as much as possible up to the climb. Held on until 1 mile to go. Rolled in behind another small group that was OTB. Better and close. Unfortunately, we weren't playing horseshoes.

Saw Racer Ex and VanceMac there. BTW, Ex's teammates cleaned up in the 60+ race taking first through fourth.

3K, 3 person team pursuit with Hermes and Velo Diva and 2K individual pursuit on tap for tomorrow.

Oh, forgot to mention that the SRM PowerMeter seemed to work just fine except that the numbers are consistently low. Also, I hate to say this, but the front derailleur seems to shift better with the SRAM chain rings than it did with the Campy chain rings. :eek:

My first time on this course, and I liked it a lot. Enough climbing that the big linebacker types will have trouble, but not enough that it's a pure climber party. I did the 30+ 4/5. Kind of an oddball category, but it filled up with 75. 3 laps, 44 miles, climb at end of each lap.

First lap wasn't slow, but no one was going to get dropped at that pace. First climb started to shed a few people, but not too many. Lap two picked it up a bit, but still pretty reasonable in the draft. Second climb, it looked like we dropped a fair number. Going back down, the lead group was pretty small, but got caught by the pack, which wasn't much bigger.

Third lap picked up the pace again, but nothing crazy, as everyone conserved for the final climb. Unfortunately, at the turnaround, my right calf seized up, and I fell off the field about 100m. This was quite annoying, and I'll bring it up in another thread, because at this point I really hadn't done much work. I managed to push through it, and fortunately the field wasn't lighting it up so I caught back on. But I knew it was trouble. Sure enough, when we hit the final climb, the first time I stood out of the saddle, both quads and both calves cramped. Again, mystifying, since I was chomping at the bit... didn't feel fatigued otherwise, either aerobically or muscularly.

Fortunately, the rest of the way I just got "twinges"... and between those, I was making up ground. Toward the top of the hill, I noticed the lead group had disintegrated to about 20. I was too nervous to test out a full on sprint, but managed to pass a few more for 9th. If I had done 45+ (Ex's race, 59 miles) with those issues, I would have been spit out the back mercilessly. So, correct choice. :)

So VanceMac with cramps get 9th. Cleave being just plain slow gets 22nd. :cry:

BTW, VanceMac, how many races does this make for you this year? I'm counting at least four in the past three weeks. I think there's a bike racing monster in the works. Also hope that the Mrs. had a good race.

We did four laps so I don't want to hear any whining tomorrow.

Team rode great, ended up 4th and 6th. A lot big dogs had there tongues hanging at the end. I took a flyer on the last lap and got caught half way up the hill. Rolled in. It was a quick 60 something miles.

Great work Cleave and VanceMac. Ex, nice, and good luck tomorrow.

My race could not have gone in 2:15. That's insane with 5k of climbing. I'll have to recheck that.

shovelhd, I think one of my old college roommates, Keith Honda, was in your race today.

Sorry, I couldn't figure out a way to mention the cramps without sounding dooshy. It is truly bizarre though. During my several years of climbing/endurance focus, I never had a single cramp. Today, had my usual breakfast, and then pre-race had a banana and sweet potato... as well as some electrolyte powder in my bottle (even though there doesn't seem to be any solid evidence re: electrolytes and cramping). The only thing I can think of is not hydrating enough.

That's about 10, though mostly track. The plan was to be strictly track for the next month+ until Masters States, but I'm tempted by Punchbowl and that softie 40+ 4/5 category. The Mrs. did pretty well at LA Circuit last week, but she was a bit nervous for her first "road race". She ended up getting gapped on the climb and couldn't get back on. But she finished! She has Breathless Agony next weekend.

Missed this. Kudos for reporting it... after a disappointing day, I just want to forget everything. Have fun in NY.

I had to look him up but his name is familiar. Yes, he was in my field. He rides for CDR's team.