mattm

Yes.

The hardest part about practice sprinting (high speed or otherwise) is finding a safe place where you can put you head down and not generally worry about a car coming out of a driveway/etc. I've found a few places that are perfect - downhill to get up to speed (at least 30 mph), then a slight uphill with no driveways on the right. Even better is a downhill leading to flat, where you can really spin it out.

It probably speaks more to how bad I am at testing, and on top of that crits are like NP-busters. Regardless of the actual value, they were almost always the same for me.

I don't think I said that, but who knows. But attacks like what I did to win Suisun are definitely not anything close to steady-state. It's all-out for 10 or so seconds, attack out of each corner, sit, shift down, attack to the line. If I had a power tap you'd see like three actual sprints in that 35-seconds or whatever. But I don't practice that type of sprint besides doing it in races.

Fwiw even if I hadn't done the solo/early attack thing, field sprints are pretty much like that. Sprint in to position, sprint in to the final corner, sprint to the line.

10-12 for "on" weeks, 4-6 for "off" weeks. Was more last year but haven't been able to ride as much this year mostly due to work.

Doge

I assume you are out of the saddle sprinting.
Do you shift gears while standing?

mattm

Definitely out of the saddle while sprinting. But I wasn't out of the saddle the whole time in this attack.

As for shifting gears while standing, no - never. I could in theory but if I'm standing I'm ripping at the bars too much to be able to change. Moreso I haven't needed to yet.

Doge

Di2 invented the Sprinter buttons for that.

I found using electronic shifters (MAVIC Mectronic) that I could go longer, wind up and as my legs got fatigued, could shift up and had another 5 seconds or so. I thought it a huge advantage over cables.

Later I suggested that to junior and he does that all the time now with the Di2 buttons.

mattm

That's great, but I don't need them (so far).

I've never lost a sprint because I couldn't shift while standing.

I've lost many many sprints for many other reasons, but not that one.

Doge

I was wondering. It mattered more for me as I got older I lost RPM - and went to longer cranks.

Sounds like you're not loosing many sprints for any reasons lately. :-)

mattm

I tried to record the RR today, but given the GoPro's battery life it was tricky. I'd turn it on at random points, then turn it off, but eventually I got confused as to whether it was on or off (and it's hard to check while you're riding). So it ran out of battery about two minutes before the finish, which was the best part of course. Not even sure it's worth making a video for.

Anyone have tips for doing RR videos? I guess I should have just waited until the last hour, then turned it on..

mattm

Giro di SF 2017.

Tried to do the same thing I did at Suisun (attack early), and I did - but it was too little too late..

Ygduf

sweaty palms in the last minute there. damn. and who crashed after the finish?

mattm

Yeah, it was exciting!

Some Dolce Vida guy was the one who forgot to turn after the race was over. He wasn't hurt, just embarrassed.

hack

Awesome video and solid finish.

Willie's celebration in Bryan Larsen's video is pretty cool. So much excitement.

mattm

Yeah. Especially since he (somehow??) hadn't won a race yet this year, winning that is a big one.

I had a nice celebration planned out, but alas I didn't get to use it..

wktmeow

What's with the one Dolce rider elbowing his teammate in Bryan's video at 13:50ish? Seems like the race was a bit crashy this year. SJBC friend of mine broke the cranks I gave him in the crash at 10 laps to go ;o;

Ygduf

lol at the crash after the finish in Bryan's video too.

UmneyDurak

That orange cone at 0:39 lying by the barrier is the result of someone in E3 riding in to it and causing a pile up few laps in.

mattm

This guy has some good videos:


Can you imagine that race being held in the US?! Me either.

Guys would file suit even before signing up.. one lane, unprotected barriers on both sides, plus the unprotected road furniture. Makes me realize how wide/safe most crit courses are here.

Also they have a "party" section of the course, with disco lights and stuff!

PepeM

Two hours long too. Ouch.

Ttoc6

how tf do you move up in a race like that.. So cool though. I'd like to get the opportunity to race over in Europe at some point.

furiousferret

You can get quite creative with a bike course when you have free healthcare.

UmneyDurak

Wait was that a speed bump right after disco section?

mattm

yeah they seem to race over a lot of those

PepeM

There was one before too, wasn't there?

carpediemracing 

Not mine. @mike868y is in here, leading out the field in the last lap, his teammate smokes the field for the sprint (behind a solo rider). New Haven GP, Cat 3-4.

mike868y

thanks for posting aki! solo rider went early and while he's real strong I did *not* expect him to be able to hold that. first 5 laps were absolutely nuts. I'm at the point where getting dropped in cat 3 crits is not really something I worry about but I really thought I was in trouble at the beginning of that race. Once things settled I tried multiple times to bridge but didn't have the horsepower and the field was too excited. teammate (cameraman) and I had discussed what to do if it comes to a sprint and we executed perfectly. pretty great night of racing.

Doge

This is a race video right? Indulge me as I was going through some old stuff lately.
I wished they were as concerned about PED testing. That was about an 85" gear - that is all he could push, and easy to see it was not going to be over. But we do roll-outs!

At the time, turns out this was the only age 8 licensed road rider in the USA. There was a computer glitch that allowed it for cx. It was reported and fixed. Daniel snuck through - legally of course, and when asked if the license needed to be revoked they said let him race.