Originally Posted by shovelhd (Post 16748708)

Booyah!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by AzTallRider (Post 16748413)

It's a great feeling to give a bit back, isn't it?

Originally Posted by globecanvas (Post 16748998)

Excellent podium form, way better than the usual lopsided flailing. Gymnast? Diver? Trapeze artist?

Originally Posted by sarals (Post 16747432)

Bay Area Senior Games, 5K ITT and 40K Road Race

This race featured very small fields, and the course was the CCCX course. Very, very hilly - not my forte. My plan was do one thing. Try to beat NH, the only other 60 - 64 woman there, in both the ITT and the RR. My team mate, HF, was there as well, and I had good odds she'd be the overall winner, and she was. She has become an exceptional rider. Me? I think I'm going backwards. I've ridden this course better than I did today.

5K ITT. This was my fifth time trial, ever. I had thought through the course, visualized what I thought I needed to do and where. I was nervous, as always, but reasonably confident I'd have a good ride. The warmup was to protocol (Ex's writeup), and went exactly to plan. I got to the line two minutes before my start, so I was warmed and ready when the countdown came. The start was not done with a holder, it was a road bike start, and then clip in. Nit wit me missed the clipin, smacked my left shin with the pedal (I do that to myself every few months whether I need to or not), and lost a few precious seconds there. I did get rolling and got up to speed smartly, accelerating to a good pace. I went up a gear higher than I thought I could sustain, felt the lactic start to burn, then changed down and spun up. I held that pace to the bottom of the first climb, and then didn't, as it seemed to me, loose all that much momentum on that hill. I even passed the rider who went off in front on me on that climb, and that felt good. A short descent follows that climb, and then there is a hard 90 right turn, and immediately following that turn are a series of ascending rollers, 8% average grade, but they are short. This morning, not only did I have to contend with the rollers, but there was a 15 MPH wind swirling around on them. I felt okay going up them, got right to the knife edge of blowing, but kept the balance teetering on that edge. I'd recover a tad on the flatter spots and then dive back into the pain cave on the next incline. Even so, my speed up those rollers wasn't what I wanted to see.. I hit on the top of the last roller of the first set (there are two sets), and as a result carried what I thought was good speed and momentum into the last roller. I was better on that hill, holding higher speed (I can't see my power, small numbers and I don't wear my glasses) all the way to the top. I spun up and tried hard to bury myself on the flat following that roller, and held 22 MPH all the way to the finish, which was on top of another roller. My time was 12:13 for 5K. NH, right behind me, beat me by 43 seconds. Room for a lot of improvement on my part.

40K RR. I rode my CAAD 10 for this race, and I decided to use my Cosmic Carbones with the IRC tubeless tires, which meant no power. I also had a 11t - 28 cassette on those wheels. I'd been training with a 12t - 25, so I was happy to have the lower gear if I needed it. I did a 20 minute warmup on the road, arriving at the line just three minutes from the whistle. Good timing again! The RD told us he was going to start the men and the five women together so we could work together in the wind (it was now up to 20 gusting 30 MPH). I spotted NH, and was determined to either hold her wheel, or have her hold mine. She and I had discussed the wind after the ITT that morning and agreed the best plan was to stick together. That was based on a five woman field, not 20 or so combined with the guys. When the whistle blew, that plan went right out the window. One of the guys drilled it right after we got up to speed, and away we went. I was thinking "what, we've got six laps of this in this wind, and someone wants to jack up the pace and try to blow this apart - all ready?" NH took off, and I went after her. My team mate was right in front of me, and we stayed attached to the guys. When we hit the bottom of the first climb, we were all together, and managed to stay that way to the steep section (8%). I shifted down, and the chain started jumping on the cog, so I shifted down again, and it caught, and then let go. I had to shift up twice to get it to reengage, and by the time it did, I'd lost the momentum I had and the pack. I in effect had seven speeds, with three missing or unreliable. I gambled on bridging up, even though I was certain I'd need the matches later on, but with the wind, I thought it was worth the effort. I couldn't reattach, though, they were descending by then, I wasn't making up ground on them. Ex and I talked about such a scenario yesterday, and he had suggested that I settle into a pace I knew I could sustain. I did just that. Two guys rode by, I tried to get their wheel, but they were having none of it. Nice of them. I did catch them on the next lap and returned the favor, not seeing them again for the rest of the race (ha). I don't know how things played out in front of me, but I found out that NH was dropped as well, and on the first lap, too - and if I could have stayed with her, we could have had a race. As it was, I was lapped by five men on my last lap, but I did get a second in my age group - by default.

My team mate really shone out there. She won the women's ITT outright, and only four men posted a (slightly) faster time. She was right around 10 minutes. In the road race, she stayed with the men's group for about two laps, and then diced it out with a persistent "new" woman rider was a track coach and marathoner (those people can get up hills, riders or not). She ended up winning the women's road race outright.

Only an okay day for me. I don't feel all that good about it, because my performance in the ITT was not up to par. The road race was sloppy, too, and a mechanical didn't help.

Two silver medals, but they don't feel earned.

Originally Posted by Hermes (Post 16747894)

Sara / AZT:beer::beer:

Originally Posted by shovelhd (Post 16756722)

The Rent training race, A field, 60 degrees, significant tailwind sprint, top ten. This is a race in the parking lot of a college football stadium. It used to be an old airfield, thus it is wide open and always windy, even in the dog days of summer. The race is usually dominated by Cat1's. My instructions were to "attack like it's your last race ever, then attack some more". Results really don't matter here so everybody treats it for what it is, a training race, so it is always one big attack fest. I was wearing my backup shoes because my main shoes have two broken Boas, and of course, I missed my clip in. Good thing I started up front. Went straight to the back. A devo rider took off at the ***. I spent the first lap or so getting to the front and then I attacked. Got caught. Attacked again. Got caught. Got a chase group together. Attacked the chase group. Fell back. There were two groups OTF and nobody worked together, it was just attack after attack. After a while my attacks got softer and I knew I wasn't getting away so I would attack, they'd get on my wheel, and we'd close on the chase group. After a few laps of that, with others chipping in, we caught the chase group right before the leaders lapped us. With 2 to go I put myself on one of the leaders' wheel and used him as a leadout, crossing the line in 5th but there were six up the road, and at least one was in front of me. So somewhere in the top ten. At least I think so. Doesn't matter anyway. This one was for the workout and that mission was accomplished.

Originally Posted by shovelhd (Post 16756722)

The Rent training race

Originally Posted by sarals (Post 16760136)

Shovel and CDR - "Like"!