Creakyknees

!!!! NICE PODIUM !!!!

and some epic quotes that belong in BF sig files.

How often do you get to attack a guy who has a google suggestion for his name with his pro cycling team?

and... is that his undies showing in the podium pic? wtf that's definitely not pro

nosignature

Ontario Crit #2 (Dare to race whatever), Cat 4

Trying to simulate a stage race since my time to train is incredibly limited by long weeks I've been working lately, so I had hammered up a long climb yesterday and treated this race as training. Goal #1 was to work on positioning and staying at the front, which worked great until the last lap. A sprint train with the guy who'd won the previous race in the series moved up prior to the last corner with non-affiliated rider last in the line, and I jumped to get a free-lead out. Unfortunately, the non-team guy decided to soft pedal and then swing off as we hit the final corner, and I lost my momentum and was gapped off the train. Didn't have much speed coming out of the corner and got swarmed, so I was probably 40th as we started the sprint.

Since it was just training anyway (also a convenient rationale for being tactically dumb), I jumped into the wind and sprinted from way out, just to see how many people I could pass. Probably got myself top 25, but I didn't bother to stick around to find out. It was my fastest sprint on the course according to strava, so I'm pretty pleased. Didn't realize until ovoleg's post that there was a crash in our field. I noticed a split in the field behind me on the last lap but didn't think much of it. The winner put in a monster move, he gapped the field on the finishing straight and held it to the line.

aaronmcd

2 crits today: Merced & UCSC, cat 4

I think this is the difference between cat 5 & cat 4:
In cat 5, I could say "I want to be THERE. Exactly. And be there, no problem. In cat 4 I can be there if I want, but it costs a lot more.
In cat 5, I could plan out something like "be in top 10 starting last lap, move up on back stretch, follow whoever goes fast and then sprint". And it would work well enough to get good placing. In cat 4, I guess everyone has at least enough experience to have a similar plan, and we can't all be in the top 10 starting the last lap, etc.

Merced, 11/26
Flat, 3 corners and a loop through a narrow alley. The alley was the best part, every lap I just took a good line and passed 1 or 2 people. Plan was the usual be near the front, pass a few riders on the back stretch. Well, 2 to go everyone wanted the front so it didn't work out. Front stretch was 5 lanes wide so I figured that was my best chance to get in the wind and hammer passed everyone. Too bad everyone else tried the same thing. Well, I was at the back on the back stretch. Too narrow to move up. Last chance was the alley, so I turned on aggressive mode and passed 5+ in the alley. Just hammered hard through the last turn and sprinted for a close 11th. Practiced my bike throw (yes, for 11th place) and it worked. So I'm happy to know I won't forget to throw it when I really need to.

UCSC crit, pack finish.
Flat, wide smooth roads, sweeping turns. Diagonal headwind on 3rd and finishing straights. So the race went 20mph/30mph/20mph/30mph... etc. After a hectic first 20 minutes, I settled into a nice easy rhythm: Move up on outside at the back (tailwind), to be in shelter after the turn in the gutter, hide or follow people moving up into the wind, then repeat. Lots of room to move up so I waited until the backstretch. Guy was in the way so it took a few seconds but I got out and moved up purposely IN the wind where no one would be blocking me. Too bad I was still the sole guy inside on the final turn and had to brake and let a whole slew of guys past just to get through the corner. Sprinted anyway and passed maybe a dozen guys but still mid-pack. Oh and the I grip the bar too hard at the intense parts, causing my hands to start numbing and making it hard to shift. But this was the first time I actually COULDN'T shift so I was spinning out big time in the sprint for 18th or whatever.

mattm

Merced Crit 1/2's - finished towards the back, but the team was on the podium.

First crit with team mates! I've missed that feeling.. so nice to not need to follow every single attack. Still went with a lot though.

Interesting course - the 4th corner leads to a cement wall and narrows, basically a back alley. Wtf. Nobody crashed at least.

Still some work to do as far as coordinating with team mates but it's a good start.

Hard race too, it was something like 115 TSS for me (1:15 clock time).

save10

you did merced then drove to salinas? is you serious?

hack

Nice traveling. That was my plan for the day, but not feeling race ready yet and figured it'd be a waste of time and money.

Regarding the tactic for moving up and being top 10 starting last lap and being top 5 or so coming out of the last corner seems to be the game plan for quite a few folks. So, yeah, if that's the plan it will cost you a big amount of energy, but that's the cost to make the plan work.

aaronmcd

Yeah... Merced was over 2 hours away so I decided to hit up Salinas on the way back (a bit out of the way but not too far).

save10

Salinas crit
cat 3 (college races all day, then a few open categories at the end for old people)
results - i crossed the finish line

small field. 16? 4 of which were from my team. eventually one of our guys gets away in a two-man. our team covered any serious counter jumps and kept someone second or third wheel to break up the chase. finally the other racers kinda gave up. with about 6-7 laps to go the we got lapped by breakaway. I think the refs are supposed to call it at that point. but they let us keep going. we had 1st or 2nd in hand now so with 5 to go i jumped and got a gap. I took another guy with me and we drilled it for 5 laps and it hurt like hell. I exploded like the Hindenburg with 500 meters to go, but my breakaway mate was able to hang on for third.

Then this happened. I was just rolling to the finish line making sure the last rider had past me because i was seeing gray. and as i looked over my shoulder i steered my bike into the curb and crashed into the grass going about 10mph in plain view of every one standing there. Didnt hit my head, bike is fine, shoulder, collar bone are fine. But my upper L ribs hurt like hell. hopefully just a bad strain. no amount of ice will fix my ego though...that's long gone.

Good team race. happy i was able to a make a decisive race move even i couldnt quite close the deal, but i left it all out there. and the guy that got third is a friend on another team so i quite happy how it all worked out. except for the thing about crashing by myself, in front of the finish line, for no apparent reason. and the rib thing.

mattm

Ha that's awesome!

Creakyknees

Steve Tilford: ride 30 miles on gravel to the crit, attack into the winning break, win 3 of 4 points sprints and the race, ride home 30 miles on gravel, race again tomorrow. Racing Age: 54


https://stevetilford.com/2014/02/22/f...of-the-season/

ovoleg

which stage race are you doing?

I'm not sure I liked the course. Downhill finish, bleh, those damn reflectors everywhere and two huge bumps on the course. I would much rather race in Dominguez Hills personally.

I just sat up toward the end I was fairly pissed at myself for racing like a full moron. I had no chance of breaking the top 10, could of got top 20 but I'd have to go around a bunch of dudes that were blowing up and chance of crashing was high for nothing.

ovoleg

good job bro!

nosignature

I plan on doing San Dimas. Not really hopeful for my results, but I have a teammate who could potentially do well in the TT, and I kind of enjoy defending and covering moves without having to care for my own result.

ovoleg

Ah nice, I think that one is on my schedule too. See you there!

revchuck 

Way to go, FF!

thechemist

Solid racing guys!

mike868y

ftfy

robbyville

First race in over 20 yrs and first crit ever. team Integrity training series cat 5, beginners, etc. perfect course for a first timer field of only 30 or so .7 mile kidney shaped course and only 30 min. It was in a mall parking lot so wide enough and stretched out. Some pretty strong people who I can't believe were in this cat, maybe they were close to upgrading. Nervous about temps ended up changing 3 times between warm up and race to get the right mix (thanks coach for the suggestions of what to bring ).

Goals were simple, keep up and not come in last, I'm not used to riding in a group so also didn't want to do anything stupid. I hung out in the back for the first two laps, the main 4 guys went tearing ahead. Felt pretty good course was curvy but not difficult, by lap 5 I had passed at least 5 ppl and was not worried about crashing. I lost contact with the main group and started to freak out a bit but remembered all the stories I've read and races I've watched so by lap 10 I just kept on chugging and realized that I would catch up as the group seemed to be slowing, sure enough caught them by lap 12 (at which time we were lapped by the 3 leaders how embarrassing), passed a bunch more and finished mid pack.

overall extremely stoked, know how I will try to do things differently next week, and excited to have decided to race this year.

globecanvas

Look at these amateurs on the hoods in a crit. They should take a clinic.

caloso

Awesome!

furiousferret

Great work! After my first race its seems like a small field of 30 would be a pain since there are less wheels to jump on so if everyone's fitness isn't relatively close there are going to be a ton of gaps.

robbyville

thanks!

I think I would have been fine with more people as well, and definitely people got strung out quickly but it was a good way to quiet the nerves with a small group and to find my confidence. I have to admit though that my ego was boosted when I started to pass and would see the shadows of other riders on my wheel and then gone a few minutes later. Still I road quite a few laps open to the wind that next week I'm going to try and hang on and conserve throughout.

lsberrios1 

Good job Robby. I hate how the wind plays a huge part on crits. It's super hard to catch back on specially since the peloton is hammering 99% of the time so pulling @25mph+ on your own sucks. The problem of the big group is the more people the bigger the chances of a massive wreck taking you out..

grolby

30 isn't too bad, actually. It's when the field size drops below 20 that things start getting tough. In my best crit result last summer, we had something like 16 starters in the Cat 3 race, and it was BRUTAL in an aggressive race on a tough circuit, with so few wheels to follow when things got strung out. 4/16 doesn't sound particularly impressive (well, because it isn't), but with a small field in a hard and with me plummeting pretty hard off the back end of a peak, I was delighted to get that result.

If you're racing in an area where 30 racers is considered a small field, you're pretty fortunate, and as you get better it'll get easier to manage a race of that size.

ovoleg

I would rather race with 30 guys instead of 120!