sarals 

You said a mouthful, Cleave.....

AzTallRider

Spring GP - fast and flat .5 mile crit

M55+

tl;dr


That's TallWife's hand claiming the winnings.

Small turnout to this late addition to the schedule. I was planning to race 60+, but checked the wrong box, and ended up letting it stay that way because the reg folks were new and overwhelmed by the process. Race was combined 50+, 60+ and, get this, the juniors. Youngest was 50 years younger than the oldest. That was a non-issue, and they went OTB fairly quickly.

Getting a podium finish, and $20, was offset a bit by the fact that there were only three of us in 55+ , then another 4 in 60+. But I earned the placing. The other two were the VOS winner (K), and Mr. Sprinter that wins anytime we fail at the "anyone but him" tactic. I attacked frequently, chased breaks, and when K counter attacked after one of mine, I chose to follow the "anyone but the sprinter" mantra, and blocked for him. Game over. Sprinter pissed, etc. He unsurprisingly took me in the sprint after riding my wheel. I led a slow parade for many laps, had tried to ditch him, etc, and attacked the final lap, all to no avail.

M45+

Plan was to just hang on, but I found myself able to join in the fun. 60+ teammate attacked and was left to cook for several laps, which let us relax in the pack. Group eventually decided to heat it up, and the attacks began in earnest. The guys with dangerous break abilities were not allowed to demonstrate them for more than a few seconds. Finally though, a non-dangerous guy was out pretty far after a prime. Our true 45+ guy (Skeletor - my height and weighs 165) attacked hard to bridge, and was followed by a guy with team support. His teammate and I immediately went into block mode, and the 3 man break got a good gap, but you could tell they just weren't pushing it hard enough. Learned later that the first guy out there just didn't have it or wouldn't push hard enough, and he really slowed them down. Our guy thought of ditching him, but decided 3 was better than 2 given the firepower in the pack (K and Mr. Sprinter included). With 5 to go, the pack decided they had enough of our blocking, someone launched, and the chase was really on. That chase dropped me, and three other 60+ guys. We played cat and mouse for the final laps and sprinted for whatever place. I let my teammate do his thing unmolested, but made sure I nipped a guy at the line that was a teammate, but left us mid-season. Turns out the break was caught with 2 to go. Our guy did well in the sprint, finishing 4th.

Fun day. Small packs are weird.

sarals 

I just love your race reports!

I see the money went the right way.

LAJ

That picture says a lot, but so does your race report. Well done, AzTR!

Hermes

Cash is king. Well done.

Cleave

You showed her the money? That was your first mistake. Very nice racing AzTR.

AzTallRider

2014-05-25 Memorial Day GP; .7 mile; flat; wide road with great pavement; no tight corners; fast course

M60+, racing with the M55+

At the end of a recovery week, for where I am now I was ripping the pedals off, and just needed to figure out how to handle what I knew would be a small field. I was also trying a new nutritional approach to deal a lack of proper response to training, weakness at high intensity, and fading too quickly. I'll be starting a new thread on that particular subject.

I knew it would be hard to get away, and it was. It's a savvy group. Every attempt was quickly assessed, and either jumped on or slowly reeled in. I'm in the "jump on him" category, after a couple of strong (though ultimately not winning) breaks this season. At one point, I manage to bridge to a couple of guys with a bit of a gap, and screamed that we had the gap as I came up - didn't work. The pack had been activated and they quickly pulled us back. So it was coming down to a pack sprint, and I had a strategy in mind. Mr. Sprinter, who was racing 55+, was jumping early for the primes, and I decided my best chance was to jump with him, and ride his wheel to the line. At the same time, a team with 3 60+ guys in the race were setting up a train, with a (squirrely) ex-teammate of mine the planned beneficiary. So as we came around on the final lap, I was on the wheel of what was supposed to be the train, planning to jump it just before the sprinter did. That didn't pan out. The ex-teammate didn't get to his other guys wheels. I got out of position as someone fell off with the train kicking up the speed, and I ended up gapped, essentially trying to sprint from half a lap out. Total mess up on my part. 4th. Kicked myself a bit, but hey, I have another item to add to my long list of "how not to finish a crit."

I felt strong, however, and maintained that throughout. I was aware and watching, but just made a bad decision and let it get away.

M45+

5 of us in this one, including our captain/LBS owner/Cat1_Sprinter, and 'Woody', a guy who has been really tearing it up this year. I think he is a 2, but is always a threat in the P12 races and has won a number of the 45+ events. Really fast and sharp. This race was entirely different, and in some ways easier, because I just wanted to hang with the group and find a way to contribute - wasn't looking to animate it.There were the usual few breaks that were pulled back, and we had someone in each of them, so I helped block. For a brief moment, we were three abreast across the front. But folks tend to react to things like that. Eventually, what I knew was the light's out break got away. Woody was in it, along with someone from another strong team. No way they were being caught. I had to applaud Mr. Sprinter, who tried to bridge up maybe a third to half a lap. If he had made it, I would have given him a 'not worthy' bow, but he only got about half way before fading. Have to respect that attempt to win rather than race for 4th. A chase group did form, and was out there for quite awhile (with one of ours), before they languished. Our sprinter finally decided to bridge to get them more power, but that got the pack excited, and they were pulled back. After a bit, one of our guys did it again, and a 4 man chase group formed that lasted to the finish.

Sadly, with three laps to go, the squirrely ex-teammate I mentioned in the 60+ report, whom I had been careful around all day, slid out - hard - taking a couple of people with him. I was able to go inside of him with no traction problems. I think he just does so much bouncing in and out in the corners that he broke himself loose. Probably also was over-inflated. He is a shining example of why Shovel wants everyone to master (or at least get good at) their sport before racing in masters. Of course there was also a final turn crash in the C4's that argue the other side of that question. As he was going down, some advice from this board (Ex, I believe) flashed to mind. "Aim where they are, because they will be gone when you get there." So I didn't correct too much, and went right by the growing carnage. During the 2-to-go, I moved up to the front of the slowing pack. With one to go, as we hit the corner where the crash had happened, the guy leading the parade decided it was a bad time to do that, and got himself out of the way. That left our sprinter on the front. So I pulled around, got in front of him, and started slowly piling on the speed. He coached me as we headed around "Smooth... "now crank it up"... and finally "give it all you have". And I must say I did. I just kept accelerating until I couldn't go any faster, railed the corners, and pushed until I was screaming and the bike was wobbling. He finally jumped around just before the final corner (200m from corner to line), and won the pack sprint. When he went around me, I was doing 31.4 mph at the end of a 1' effort at an NP of 446w; AP of 424. That's a lot for me right now, at the end of the second race of the day, so I feel great about that contribution. He said it was the best lead out he's ever gotten, but by that I'm sure he meant that the execution was what he wanted: smooth, and fast enough for long enough to prevent anyone making an early jump to try and take away his sprint. I'm certain he's had faster lead outs. He got 8th. We had 4 in the top 10, and most importantly, the W.

I totally shut it down when he jumped, and got the heck out of the way, coasting to the finish. Was still mid-pack. Loved it.

Hermes

Azt

shovelhd

Sounds like fun.

Racer Ex 

Good job. Yes, I wrote that parroting something Eddie Lawson said in an interview after he missed a huge pile up.

IBOHUNT

sarals 

Great, great, GREAT!!! I LOVE reading your reports. You give such detail - and you do so well! AzT, congrats!!!

Hey, I'm looking forward to the nutrition thread. I still need help there.

Oncw again, congratulations!