shovelhd

There's no money at Nats.

Racer Ex 

USAC is a joke when it comes to enforcement. Yes, sometimes they check tandems, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they enforce UCI standards ( in this case it sounds lime the old standard), sometimes they don't. Sometimes they let obviously non compliant stuff through day of.

In some cases they let non compliant frames with compliant positions through. One guy I know has set several National records on a non compliant frame.

How you doing today Shovel?

Cleave

@shovelhd, glad to hear the procedure went well. Positive thoughts on the recovery going even better.
@Hermes, saw another posting elsewhere about the registration, parking, and bike check being farked. My first year at Bend was similar. Second year was better. I think local officials need to build (there are plans for building one on either the UCI or USAC web site) or buy a jig and bring it to local TTs as an FYI for competitors. Officials had one at a track TT last year and the official gave advice to people who "failed" -- no enforcement at a local race.
@Racer Ex, I guess you're completely out of SoCal. Did you hear about Big M at the Cajon Pass Circuit Race? It was comical and amazing at the same time.

Racer Ex 

I didn't. Do tell...

Hermes

The problem with the jig and USAC, IMO, is training and variance from the official UCI rules. UCI rules are "generally" pretty clear but allow some flexibility to the commissionaire who does the inspection as well as the head commissionaire. Since many racers have complained about the UCI rules making their equipment unrideable and their position uncomfortable, USAC, IMO, are attempting to relax the standards. USAC did that at Masters Track Nationals and Masters Road Nationals by publishing rules on the event website that stated what they were going to check.

The problem was that the USAC official doing the "courtesy" day before racing starts bike check did not get the memo. So he enforced stricter rules and many racers were out of compliance but would be okay according to the published rules for the race.

Since I am sitting with time to kill waiting for a plane, I will expound.

For example, I ride a "medium" sized frame for a TT or pursuit bike and can ride a medium/large frame. However, if I ride a UCI compliant bike, I could ride Cleave's Shiv since I am limited to a maximum of 80 cm from the centerline of the crank axel to the tip of the aerobar (this assumes I get a morphological exemption). If I exceed 75 cm then my saddle must be 5 cm behind the centerline of the crank. Morphological exemptions are available for shorter riders to allow them to have a seat that is less than 5 cm of set back but then the aerobar cannot exceed 75 cm. Effectively, UCI compliance says we all ride around the same size bikes with slight variation in stem length.

So when one sees big bikes with long aerobars, one knows they are out of compliance.

Last year, UCI made another change. They used to measure from bolt that bolts on the aerobar shifters and not the end of the lever when it is extended parallel to the ground. This year, they changed it to the end of the shifters. I met a racer who filed down his shift levers.

More insanity...Lucky for us, that the UCI and USAC is keeping tabs on the shifter advantage. However, for stuff that really matters....that is another story.

This year at track nationals USAC decided to run two ups for the 500 meters. On a 400 meter track, that meant that 1/2 the racers would race 100 meters with the wind at a their back and 1/2 would race 100 meters more into the wind with all racing 400 meters around the track. Yours truly, had the wind in his face. At the racer meeting we complained about the running of two ups for the 500. In a communique that evening, USAC decided that if the wind was less than 5 mph they would run two ups. For our group, according to the officials, it was less than 5 mph but rest assured, we felt the wind on the into the wind leg.

As a former track and field guy, I cannot imagine doing two ups on the broad jump or the hurdles with one group running into a 4 mph wind and the other having it at their back. But USAC thinks this is fair. So USAC, keep up the good work on making sure that the shifters are properly filed and saddles correctly placed. Into the wind or the wind at your back as long as it is less than 5 mph does not make any difference..... Right.

Hermes

As a further note. This year road nationals time trials was run on Antelope Island. It is a great cycling area with a somewhat challenging course with wind but not too terribly technical to make it unsafe. However, there are free roaming bison. On my wife's starting kilometer, she was confronted with a bison crossing the road and had to veer out around it and miss an oncoming rider on the fastest part of the course. Closed road except for bison. God I love this sport.

sarals 

Bison have bull horns. I can see where they're allowed on the course.

Hermes, I'm glad to hear that one came out okay. I'll bet MEA was not terribly amused!

shovelhd

That's not in the rulebook.

valygrl

ugh. i heard about the bison runaround. I wish I knew everyone's real name so I could see how you all did.

i'm at masters nats too - didn't do the TT, i'm doing the RR & the crit. My friend lost her TT by .06 seconds. heartbreaking.

i haven't been around here much... been racing steamboat (i had a bad race) and traveling. shovel, hope you are on the road to recovery. sara - sound like you had a great last race of the season, congrats! ex - ugh, moving, so much effort, recover well. chuck - upgrade, nice!!

everyone i forgot - sorry!

Hermes

VG, Good luck in the RR and Crit. The buzz that we picked up on the RR course is that it is technically very difficult on the descent and dangerous. My wife only does TTs so we are at the airport on the way home.

merlinextraligh

They didn't even look at our tandem. My bet is the seat to bb for the captain is pushing the limit.

We finished 5th. Hilly course didn't favor us, but we were reasonbly competitive so we were happy with the effort.

Hermes

Congrats Merlin and great effort. Tough course and wind.

shovelhd

Hey you got a medal, didn't you?

valygrl

Thanks Hermes. I pre rode the course today, the tricky bit is the descent in the middle of the climb, where Teton mentioned someone hit the jersey barriers. It's a beautiful course, I'm looking forward to it, though the suffering will be epic.

sarals 

Valygrl, good luck! I know you'll crush it.

revchuck 

+1!

Now that the season's over, I'm going to do some herd thinning. I'm going to swap groupsets between the CAAD9 (currently 6600 Ultegra) and the Ironman (currently 4500 Tiagra which was the CAAD9's original equipment) and sell the CAAD9, plus sell the '97 Bianchi Trofeo. Tentative plans are to get a Stages Ultegra crankarm for the Look and then a lighter wheelset, with the Open Pro/Powertap wheelset going onto the Allez full time. Then again, I might try to scrounge a used SRM instead. Lots of time to look around!

sarals 

Silly Season!

I'm going another direction. The CAAD 10 will be up for sale shortly, it's being replaced by a Specialized Venge. The Venge comes with decent wheels (some say "excellent"), Rovel 60MM carbon models, and is otherwise well appointed as is, so I won't be doing much to it, other than perhaps changing the saddle and stem. Because it's a SRAM Force 11 speed, I won't be able to easily swap the PT wheel on to it, not without swapping cassettes around. That's kind of a pain. So, the Look 566 will be the full time training/road race bike. I also use the PT wheel on the Felt B16, putting an American Wheelbuilders clamshell on it for races. I just scored a SRAM 80MM front wheel for the TT bike to use SOMETIMES, usually it gets the Corima 48MM carbon front wheel. I train on it with an Easton EA90 Aero on the front.

I've also been thinking about the races I want to target next year. I now have a very good idea of what I SHOULD be doing as far as races go, and one thing is for certain - there will be much fewer races with the kids. That means probably less races overall, but it is what it is. I will be doing more ITT's, even though I suck at them, but I don't care, I like doing them! I also really like flat crits, but flat is one thing, the course has to meet some other requirements, too. I really enjoyed the Madera Stage Race, so that's probably in. And, even though I won't do well in it at all, I'll likely do the Mariposa Stage Race, because it's a women's only event, and my fellow 60+ gals will be in it. It gets high marks for fun from everyone I talk to about it. And, the RD is a really nice fella! Of course, there are the senior events, and hopefully Huntsman, and maybe the Nationals at Minneapolis. And, you'd better believe I'll be doing the NCNCA District races again.

Racer Ex 

I am hopefully putting on an extra 200 pounds of Gorilla next year.

Have some fun challenges on the coaching front.

shovelhd

Missed this. I'm doing OK. It will be several weeks before we know if the procedure was a success. The day after the surgery pressures had not dropped so they used a burping procedure to lower it. This means they shove either their finger or a stick in your eye and manipulate the site to express the fluid. I saw stars for a few minutes. Vision is getting a little clearer although I am not ready to drive yet. I have been working from home. Since I'm not riding regularly, a lot of little aches and pains are setting in, but that is expected. Next week we should start blasting the stitches away with a laser to adjust the eye pressure. We need to get the pressure and vision stabilized before I can start riding again, even easy on the trainer. That's the most frustrating part. There's no way of knowing when I can ride again, even just an easy spin. But so it goes. I just want to be on the right side of the 85% success rate.

This is the good part. The surgical site is under my eyelid.

merlinextraligh

Hermes

Reviewing the TT times from Nats, the mixed 110+ winners rocked that course with a 47:58 beating the men's 110+ winners by 16 seconds and the captain of the men's team is a teammate that has won over 70 national championships in road, track and CX. I need some of the Ogden water.

Another surprise was the couple from Palo Alto who placed 2nd with a 50:03. Neither of the racers have any current results showing on USAC.

merlinextraligh

The team that won was flying.

Our time was mediocre at best. Took some solace that we would have been 2nd Men's 110, and 4th Mixed 90.

shovelhd

merlin, really nice!!!

sarals 

Merlin, nicely done! Those medals have to feel really good!

sarals 

Shovel....that doesn't look as bad as I had thought it would, but... Any pain?