They're certainly more relatable.

A big +1 from me on this!

Absolutely. He IS training. Just not so much on the bike. The weight routine has got 100% of his attention as does the other aerobic stuff.
There is politics (like everywhere here). Colonial sees him in the gym he gets kudos, same sees him on the road he's out bike riding again.

My point was only that time on bike is not so important for certain events. It is for others - he's not doing those.
I know training is OT from race stories and I know most here do not agree with my views/or see them as skewed (they are not that).

Back on topic, I just got this from a spectator (with the txt on the video).

Raced the Hammer Velo Crit last weekend, in the combined 40/50/60+ 123 field which had about 30 riders total (but scored separately). The course is a very non-technical 1km 'D' with 2 wide corners and a sweeping curve into the finishing straight. 40 min.

Despite being a non-technical, flat course, this race is often won from a break and I knew the handful of riders that were likely to be in the break. I went out with three different break attempts in the first half of the race, instigating one myself, and following two others, but none that stuck for even a lap. About mid race, as an attack I went with as getting caught, the break of 4 that would win the race went away, including one of my teammates. I could have jumped to the move, but I knew there would be a good chance of it all coming back together if I did. Also, I thought all 4 were in the 40+ group, so I watched it go (turns out there was a 50+ guy in the break). With 8 laps to go, the break was well off and not coming back so I attacked to get something else going. Nobody followed and I rode off the front alone for 4 laps before I was caught, then did my best to recover and did meh in the final sprint, coming in I think 10th overall (5th in the 50+). My teammate in the break won the 40+ and I think my early work helped set up the winning break so I'm glad about that. And, it was lots of fun.

Mt Tabor series race 3, 50+, 3rd place of 14 racers:
This is a very short race - 5 x 1.3 mile laps with 140ft climb each lap, start/finish is 2/3 of the way up the climb. Despite being very short, it is usually a very hard race. Lap 2 is a prime and my teammate goes to the front and takes it, just after the prime, the rider that won the first race of the series attacked. I tried to go with, but was a little late and couldn't catch him right away. One other rider went with me so we worked together for a lap, then he couldn't hold my wheel leaving one rider up the road, me, then the group with two to laps go. On the last lap downhill I caught the rider out front and hit it hard going by so he would have a hard time holding my wheel. I stayed out in front of him, but the field was closing in and two riders at the front of the field caught me before the finish. Much fun, but I wish these races were longer.

2019 National Senior Games, Albuquerque, W50-54, 1st of 12
 

Won it by 14 seconds. Raced pretty well but I think I could have gone harder. I had some tough training rides earlier in the week in which I really was crushed by the altitude, and this led me to be a little conservative. I think I’m starting to recover a little from being at altitude though, today is day 6 at 6000 ft. I felt pretty strong today and could have maybe pushed a few more watts.

But mostly it was well executed- very smooth power, pushed hard where I strategically intended to push hard, took a microrest where I intended to take a microrest, no technical glitches. I felt really well prepared, not really confident that I’d win it but confident that I was in a place where I could do as well as I was capable of. It wound up being my fastest ever 5K. Sweet.

I was pretty nervous going in, I had put a lot of eggs in this one basket this year. Today’s 5k and tomorrow’s 10k are my only real race goals for the year. Getting that gold medal today takes a lot of pressure off, whatever happens happens tomorrow.

Super nice to have coach here. Settled the nerves a little bit. He showed up at my start with some pearls of advice as to how to race the course (he’d raced earlier than me). I saw my 30 sec woman out there ahead of me, trying to do what he said. I still caught her though.

This is my first NSG and it’s a really nice venue and vibe. Kids at the start giving you fist bumps and wishing you well, announcer and start folks thanking you for coming and obviously trying to put you at ease.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ea37f4ce1.jpeg

Junior did his first 40KTT today and held 29 1/4 mph coming in 50:52. This was primarily shaking out the cobwebs and testing the setup while training through.
Position is quite low, and I don't know how much power is lost. We will likely test in the summer.
There were issues primarily around braking and drinking (no WB). Tough call to use a WB or not in a TT. For 40K yes. 30K?? Depends on weather.

Next Thurs is U23 ITT which is 30K. His comment was that the difference in distance was significant.

NO water for 40k imo. you can deal with thirst for an hour. Just drink lots night before.

Speaking of 40k.. I had state TT champs yeterday. New position on TT Bike and I've only ridden that bike outside like twice or three times in the last year, so wasn't expcting much. New position is super fast for little power so that was good, but my overal power was way down and I paced the course wrong, not realizing there was a tailwind for the first bit out. So it sucked. Got lucky to get third after so many mistakes. First place guy beat me last year by a bigger margin and second place guy is new to the state and a fast track to big things locally.

It can take a lot of time to tune a TT setup. More time if the rider is changing (age, side). The new bikes are more away from the riders, smaller and allow more air through.
The thing I have always liked about the TT is how the variables play against each other. I used to TT, my wife really got into it and then my son.
I have found nothing beats the clock on ideally the actual (generally not possible) course where the test will be. You could almost have a bike and setup per course, and weather.
It is the only thing that takes all variables into account, and does not tell you what each variable is, but the net result is average speed.
Rolling TTs with turns are the hardest to tune for.

@Doge, I really like time trialling as well. Just not many opportunities to race it where I live. One of the reasons I hate the concept of a merckx TT is how it takes so many of the variables out. Position, time on bike, balancing comfort over speed, wheel/tire choice.. All of it matters. I can't time trial at 300+ Watts like some of the guys I race against, but my body type lends itself well to a narrow front end setup. I'm a smaller rider weight wise, not the smallest but I have narrow shoulders and that benefits me greatly on the TT bike. Put me in a road bike TT and all that goes away.

I saw a post on slowtwitch recently that had the title "Racing is like taking exams." That meshed well with my thoughts that if you put in all the preparation for a TT, there are very few variables you can't control.

Tour of the hilltowns is 84 miles long and features 2x ascents of a 3.5mi @ 6% climb which always proves decisive, and many miles of windy heavily rolling terrain. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29183245

I got otf about 5min before the first ascent started which was nice because it meant I could ride my own pace instead of dealing with a surge at the bottom. I was feeling good and was in the group about 2/3rds of the way up when the decisive attack went, and I stood up and snapped a spoke. Because everything had blown up by that point I waited 2 minutes for a wheel then chased solo for the 60 miles to the finish. I kept good pace until the second time over the top of the big climb and came within 30 seconds of catching the group containing 9th - 14th but I started cramping sooooooo bad and my lower back hurt so much I couldn't get aero anymore, so I spent the last hour and a half crawling to the finish while my left thigh kept locking up and lost 7 minutes to em over that time.

3rd mechanical in a row! Something's gotta go right soon...

2019 National Senior Games, Women’s 50-54, 1st of 13, won by 50 seconds
 

My second of two races today and I felt really good. Won by a good margin, this was my fastest 10K time ever too.

We had a slight headwind uphill outbound leg and tailwind downhill return leg. Rode it technically very well again, really happy with it. Definitely based on HR data I could have ridden a little harder, but I still wasn’t sure where I sat re: recovery from the initial altitude hit. (Ans: I was recovering pretty well I think by day 7 at altitude.)

Done racing for a little bit, now I’m off to Santa Fe to mountain bike for a few days.

Pics of me coming into the finish today and of the Fuji twins in the backyard of our rental house in Albuquerque, that’s me and @Racer Ex wearing our bling.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ae6fc0786.jpeg


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...01e971e24.jpeg

@Heathpack and @Racer Ex - HELL YEAH!!!!!!

Grats @Heathpack! Way to kill it out there. @Racer_Ex needs to come back here, we're missing his expertise!

Outstanding!

Volunteer Park Crit in Seattle, 50+, 35min race on a 1k course with a hill every lap and no technical corners, 4th place. I was near the front from a lap in (with 25 racers on a non-technical course, 1/2 the pack is near the front) and made sure I was on the right side of any splits in the group. With 25 minutes to go, 3 guys that looked pretty strong got a decent gap so I jumped and bridged up to them. These 3 guys were quite a bit stronger than I and despite the fact that I did much less work than them, they dropped me with 4 laps to go (actually, I was dropped 3 times before that on the hill but chased back on the down hill). I managed to stay out in front of the pack solo for 4th place. I'm quite happy that I made the winning break and I definitely gave it all I had. Much fun.

Two races this week:
Tuesday PIR weeknight race. Flat course, 16, 2 mile laps. Strong wind with a tailwind finish. Maybe I was sore from the weekend, but it felt really hard. Pretty constant attacks and small, short lived breaks all race but it came down to a sprint. I joined in the pointy end to try to get in a break at two points during the race, but one I just ended up helping bring back (I couldn't separate from the pack), and the other we were reeled back in 1/2 a lap. Recovered enough to try to finish well, but wasn't able to get very good position and came in 12th of 54. There was a crash in the finish to the right of me near the other side of the pack. Hate hearing the crunch and seeing that out of the corner of my eye when we are moving almost 40 mph in a tailwind sprint. Amazingly (and thankfully) only one rider went down and he wasn't hurt badly.

Wednesday Mt. Tabor 50+. 3rd of 12 starters. 3 riders had a gap after the first prime, all I knew to be pretty strong and it didn't include the series leader (the race is part of a 7 race series), so I bridged to them went right by and drilled it to establish the break. The two of us in the running for the series (I'm was 4th, he was 3rd before Wednesday) worked to make sure we stayed ahead. The other two beat both of us in the sprint and I came in 3rd by literally a pixel width in the finish line camera image. That bumped me from 4th to tied for 2nd in the series.

Fun week.

U23 ITT did not work out so well. We flew in and got to hotel for bike check about 5:30PM before close @6:00 the evening before. Extensions were 1cm over. That messed with cables (too long to go into) and net result was no brakes. Bought new pads - kinda brakes. Equipment issues and no time to pre-ride. Next morning start was 7:48. Time was way off and significantly slower than last year when junior has been/is running better, but bigger. It was so far off we are not even going to see if a brake was rubbing. Left that day, flew to Denver. Flight was delayed and got to eat Ethiopian food with kid, left him in Denver. I'm sleep deprived and got home this AM.

Winner started 5th and came in 2nd and blew the doors off all other times. He is in contention for winning the PRO ITT next week.
I always enjoy these things. LUX team is totally dominate in juniors taking wins in 3 categories and sweeping podium in M17-18 ITT.

It's been a season. Upgrade to cat 4 in 2011, haven't moved vertically since, at least partially due to collegiate racing, but also due to confidence or lack thereof etc. This season I knew I was fit and set cat 3 as my goal. I've done 5 road races this year, won 2, and exceeded the points to upgrade. Was hoping to see cat 3 by the end of the summer, can't believe I made it happen in early June.

I attribute a lot of it to knowing I belong at the front of races and don't let people move by me like I used to.

That's super frustrating.

Garrison is on another level. I raced him a few times when he was coming up 2-3 years ago. Then he went to Canada last year and started really slaying. Yesterday was just absurd.

First Internet Bank swept the amateur nationals podium. Bassett apparently solo bridged up to them in the last few miles. I've raced against him for years. The nicest guy ever and absolutely and incredibly talented. A few years ago at the state crit I set up for the last corner to go for the win and he came on my inside with his bike nearly parallel to the ground. He wins nearly every time he shows up to a local race. And not be utter physical domination, which he's certainly capable of doing, but with true race savvy. He's the total package.

But that team has to be in the talk for the best team in America right now. Not just the best amateur team, but possibly THE best team. After Redlands, Joe Martin, and this... next week should be fun to watch at US Pro, too.

Some good riders in the south.

Well junior got to be his own bike mechanic on a real tricky bike, had military duty till late Tues, and starting 6:00AM Friday. There are about 10 or so excuses, totaled up about good for 2 min. The field was stronger than last year too. Next year there will be the decision to hang up the bike after college (much due to getting a pilot slot or not), or go all in as he gets 60 days off after graduation, do U23 everything and hang up the bike. It will be our last year to fund it and we will make it a family vacation - location depending. Like about every rider in the top 20 someone else was looking after the equipment and preparation. This is really too much for a single person to do well.

As to next week, I think Brandon has a Worlds U23 ITT spot set having done podium last year. Then I think it goes to U23 winner. I would not be surprised if Gage and Ian are actually faster by worlds and Brandon doing a WT (TdS) right now may make him tired. I think the pro winner, even if under 23 has no bearing on the worlds ITT selection, so I think Brandon and Ian got it.
Ian winning Pros would not surprise me - but he's not registered for ITT, only RR. George is very fast right now and was screaming last week in the CO State ITT.

On the different Race Story...USAFA '19 grad Lt. Simon is first for starter for U23 ITT, his first nats ITT.
Timing the start to the 1/2 min getting off warm-up changing wheels 3 min to go and the National Anthem plays.

I'll see if I can find a picture.



George Simpson is very fast right now. He was racing collegiate. Colby was ranked 1st for U23, finished way back and DNF on the RR, so wondering if sick.

It was a fondo, but it was timed....with medals. So it's a race....

100km flat fondo. Out with the wind, back with a 10-15mph headwind.
Mass start 100km and 200km fast guys starting together. Sat in and held my own with guys _much_ faster than me. Happy with that.
Once the 200km group broke off it was down to a group of like 15. Seven of which did zero work. I stayed no farther back than 5th wheel and did some work, but never more than felt comfortable.
Several attacks between 20 and 10ish miles to go. I dieseled a few of them back or jumped on a wheel that chased. Nothing stuck.
The last 5ish miles were fast but fairly tame. A big attack came at 1 mile to go which split the field, then imploded and everyone was back together until the end.

I was sitting 3-4th wheel, boxed in on the shoulder. Knew I was stuck if someone attacked on the outside.
The front two guys shifted just enough to the left that it opened a hole. I went hard. Pulled a pretty big gap on the field and was away solo into the final corner at about 340m to go.
Slightly misjudged a rut in the corner and ran a little wide, but had to scrub a ton of speed.
Recovered but was caught and swarmed with 50m to go.

8th overall, 3rd in my age group. 22.7mph average.

Pretty happy, tbh. I've never ridden 62 miles and had the sort of gas left for that sort of attack before. I'm usually smoked and out the back with a few miles to go when it ramps up.
I haven't "raced" in 3.5 years. This makes me want to find a road race again... too bad they pretty much don't exist here anymore.

Residence for state championships here in CO is not based on your team but rather your personal permanent residency with USAC. As Doge noted, all the big hitters were at Tulsa Tough that wknd, but still an impressive win for Daniel. It happens frequently here that a 2nd or 3rd place finish in a P12 state championship race yields the state jersey. It's a bit odd but a product of out of staters that train here, or in Willett's case, go to school here.

Turns out it is just flipping the address before the race. He did the ITT as a CO racer. IMO you only live in one state at a time and just to be cool you choose what state that is before you do the state championship/s.

There are no regrets at all, but I thought it was interesting. Both Daniel and I have a good idea of relative ability and potential. He made his choices.
U23 was not so good a result, but I personally think that is great time. I have a hard time relating to anyone that has not failed and see much more good coming from retrospect and what was learned than just dominating.

Trivia / FWIW stupid nothing to do with cycling except - USAC decided to go at length about tobacco use. They decided that to be a USAC cyclist your use of tobacco was based on your state (21 almost everywhere). The military kids (30 or so race) have it based on federal law (age 18). So USAC made up their own rules about lifestyle that determine eligibility to race having nothing to do with legal systems. For USAC legal (by location) tobacco use is reason for banning, illegal (by location) pot smoking isn't.





As far as that has nothing to do with racing - someone needs to tell USAC.

Thanks for the clarification. One other thing, Pros racing in CO state championship races are not eligible for the state jersey. 2018 state championships were awarded to the 2nd place finisher in the TT, crit, and RR. And George just crushed that state ITT as a CO resident, but he's a pro so again...

Good luck to Daniel. I've seen him out at a couple races. As someone in their late 40s, racing against the youngsters is not particularly enjoyable, but comes with the "perk" of being able to race two or three crits in a given day.