echappist

FIFY. And to think that i used to swear by it until i saw the light.

SushiJoe

I don't have the knee cartilage for it. When I think about running, I'm like, "why?"

qeadzc

I'm racing my first season. The tips posted here are really helpful. Last week I decided to cat up and discovered that the collegiate C field is full of wheelsuckers and inconsistent riders. I've been thinking I should resort to playing legal but dirty the way the other riders have during the race (cutting in front and hitting brakes, breaking up someone else's paceline by cutting in the middle and hitting brakes, initiating working together but then not pulling when it is their turn, weaving all over the road). Is this just normal racing? What are some tactics to getting around this (these are now the fastest people in the field)? Should I just keep attacking? Should I just ride in front and hit my brakes and cause a crash? Ideally I'd like to ride faster but that is going to take a while. I'm so out of ideas...

shovelhd

Don't ride like an ass.

caloso

Do not hit the brakes.

qeadzc

Ugh. It is so tempting to be a jerk because I see it go very far.

shovelhd

Not for long.

qeadzc

Do they go away? There aren't enough people who ride well to create an allegiance to dump them. The wheelsuckers out number the decent riders by a high ratio.

wanders

The Collegiate A's and B's do.

caloso

Sometimes I think I should apply to get my masters or Ph.D. just so I can start racing collegiate C's.

wanders

With Wake, Pfeiffer, UNC, Duke, NCSU and Appalacian around here, I already feel like I'm racing collegiate about half of the time.

hshearer

Just curious, but typically how long after the race is finished are results posted/podiums? I was at one this weekend where it was a couple hours after the finish. That seemed kind of like a long time to wait around.

carpediemracing 

Crits, usually 10-15 minutes, depends on who's doing the scoring.

Time trials, maybe 15-30 minutes after the last rider finishes.

Road races, especially ones with long loops, possibly hours.

Remember, once the results go up, you have 15 minutes to protest any possible inaccuracies. After that it's final.

Santaria

So what's the difference between being a wheelsucker and just efficiently drafting midpack (when you don't have a team)?

shovelhd

Nobody gives a crap if you sit in the field all race and save it for the field sprint. That's what sprinters do. If the field does nothing to stop you, so be it. In a break, different story.

echappist

Collegiate C's ain't that bad. There are wheelsuckers (we all are), but you need to define what inconsistent riding is.

Regarding your list of litany

-Cutting in front and hitting the brakes: never saw it happen in C's (i race ECCC C1) unless if someone's actively blocking, of which yours truly is guilty. But that's team strategy to let the break up ahead succeed. If you don't like it, go around the guy to foil the blocking attempt.

-Breaking into someone's paceline. There's never a paceline per se unless you are in a breakaway situation. Otherwise it's just slotting in after moving up. You don't have to move, but you should also take safety into consideration when you prevent others from cutting. FWIW, you move up from the side and drift back down the middle. When moving up, get on someone else's wheel so you don't have to put in a large effort side blasting.

-Initiate working together and not pulling. In a breakaway, dump the guy after he doesn't pull through.

-Weaving all over the place. This does happen quite a bit. Stay up front and it'll happen less.


Now as for solutions

-Keep attacking. You can try, but people are too dumb to bridge and most often will drag the field up with them.

-Cause a crash. I know you are trying to be funny, but causing a crash is nothing to joke about.

-Instead, why don't you try to stay upfront. When you attack, attack decisively and try to get away. If a few people join you, then you got a breakaway that may work.

crapweasel

I'll assume this is the Cat5 question thread.

Do people run their brake pads a bit wider in crits? My first few races I've heard what I think is some brake rub when I'm fully leaned in the corner. Seems like it's my wheel deflecting just a bit (fairly new Psimet build), and I'm curious if this is typical.

qeadzc

Good solutions. Thanks for them. I've tried them and they work. The attacking is fun and front even better. Men must be different from women. lol I've raced several races and it's hit or miss. Sometimes there is a great group of people who know how to ride and it's fun. Then there are races that aren't as fun. A rider who placed top 5 in a weekend race said to me that sometimes you have to strategize and if lead your line into a pothole, then you can get an edge over an opponent and throw them off. I was like wtf?

Grumpy McTrumpy

think about the way the physics work on a bike in a turn.

crapweasel

At the risk of making myself look more ignorant - I'm not sure which point you're making. You're either saying all the forces cancel out so there should be no twisting force on the wheel, or just pointing out that there are side forces on the wheel in general (which seems obvious) so some wheel deflection is normal.

caloso

I do, but not for wheel deflection. I loosen them up so if I grab the lever too hard, I can't lock up the front wheel.

speks22

I'm a cat 5 and have done a bunch of crits and shorter road races (less then 25 miles) with no "semi-bonk" issues. But I did the lake sunapee road race in NH this past weekend. This was my first race of this length, 46 miles, just over two hours with some decent hillclimbs on the back stretch. I ended up 5th, but felt I could have done better if I had fueled better, but I understand that I still have a ton to learn! So my story and questions have to do with fueling/hydration, here is the scenario:

Just as a refererence, I'm a big guy, 6'3" 190lbs or so. Night before I did about 40 min on the trainer, relatively easy followed with some pasta and some veggies and a recovery smoothie. morning of had to get up around 5, ate a big bowl of oatmeal with some fruit. drive there takes 2 hours, when i started to get close i ate a banana. (also this whole time, sipping on water). I warm up for a half hour and about 15 min before the start had a gel. I brought 2 bottles in the race, one with water the other with a some watered down gatorade mix in it.

About 45 min into the race I ate some of a bar that I also brought. And i thought i was drinking enough. Now this whole time, except for the climbs obviously, I was doing alot of sitting in trying to conserve energy. I was feeling pretty good. Then on the first big climb of the second lap, somebody touched wheels and went down and the others at the front decided this would be a good time to break. So I went too, we were going along pretty well, get up the second climb two riders start to go off the front of the break and foolishly did not go right away, then decided i would try to bridge to them on the next downhill... and pretty much started to blow up. A bunch of people passed (the break ended up being a 4 man group). Really struggled up the next 2 climbs then worked with another guy to get back to the chase group, at this point I started to feel better and was able to recover and eventually win the field sprint for 5th.

Okay so if you made it through that long-winded story, thank you, I ended the race with still about a 1/3rd of the bar left and a bit left in each bottle.

I would like to know peoples fueling/hydration strategies, also what they use. I am fairly confident that had I fueled and hydrated better I would have been able to make the break.

Any insight/criticism you can provide is welcome, thanks!

shovelhd

You probably ate and drank plenty. It's a tough race, you got dropped, then killed yourself to chase. Next time, think about not going flat out in a solo chase once the gap gets too large to bridge. You most likely will not catch a group descending. Keep checking for other riders to form a group with and do a full-on chase with them.

speks22

That is definitely a possibility. And I probably should have done just that. Learning, learning learning.

Though I am still interested to hear others fueling/drinking habits.

SalsaPodio

I did an 80 mile road race last weekend. Ate a bagel with peanut butter for breakfast and some cereal. The during the race drank one bottle of water and a bite of a Clif bar. I felt fine.