MDcatV

lol. your podium shot is on my facebook feed! have fun with the old guy who rode away, he just moved from my area to yours. his wife won the women's race, she's my team mate. they're great bicycle racers and even better people.

mattm

Ha small world! Yeah he's a nice guy, I talked to to him a bit after the race.

Good to hear someone has the podium pic, the guy with my phone couldn't operate it in time to get a snap..

rideaz

Wut? He's fired!

Congrats on another good result!!

globecanvas

16th place, 8th in the NY state medals competition. The winner was an 8-time national champion.


Overall a very positive experience. Masters racing is the best, smooth and fast and confident. There was a lot of contact, bumping and pushing, but all completely under control and confident -- sort of like the whole pack collectively organizing itself, rather than guys shoving through gaps. There was literally no yelling, just occasional conversation. And it was a real confidence builder to be right there with the big boys at the finish.

gsteinb

urban legend? I don't see anything to indicate that at all.

globecanvas

I count 6 here including 2013, and here it says he won 7 national championships prior to 2013.

I'm not the guy's publicist though, if it turns out that's bunk, then that's fine.

gsteinb

Oh. I saw different results that had his teammate winning.

globecanvas

His teammate won the 35+, combined field. The two of them were off the front. BS won the 45+ and overall.

ips0803

Lol, sounds like it didn't take either of them very long to introduce themselves out there in CA.

They are good people, miss riding with them.

Matt, you're in the podium with the Squadra kit? Good race.

ShutUpLegs

Brownstown RR
Cat 1/2/3 - 8th in Cat 3's

First road race for me as a cat 3, which was supposed to be 10 laps on a 5 mile rolling loop. I wasn't so worried about the distance, just making sure I stayed hydrated and fueled to not crash in the last 2 laps.

Race started out at a gentle pace and a group of 5 went up the road. Half way through lap 2 and the motobike neutralizes us to let the 45+ masters pass. We get going again and they gave the break 20 seconds. The break sprinted at the restart and the group just got up to speed gently. Before we knew it the break had almost a minute gap. With 6 to go, myseld and a couple other went to the front to help real in the break and by the time we came around to the start/finish with 5 to go we were within 7 seconds, but we got neutralized again due to a crash in the first corner. So we sat around for 15-20 minutes until we got restarted and the official says the break will get a 15" advantage! We tried to protest saying there was no way, but he wasn't listening. And to make things worse because of the time wait they were cutting it down to 3 more laps instead of the 5 we had.

The break gets restarted and as we are waiting I notice one of the Cat 1 racers track standing getting ready to go. As soon as the wistle blows we are full gas. My legs were hurting from the sudden effort, but we were determined to not let the break stay away. I put in a dig with 1 to go, but we were quickly caught and 2 miles from the finish we caught the break. 400 meters from the finish and there is a crash in the middle of the group and I had to hit the brakes to avoid it. Sprinted to catch back on then sprinted again for the finish. Finished 11th or 12th overall and 8th in the 3's.

mattm

fired indeed! he was all "matt what's your password?!" while we were doing the podium. i even yelled it out but it wasn't in time lol.. guess he didn't know you can just swipe up.

anyway thanks - it was a fun race, and was glad not to let teammates down too much. if I'd only waited longer to sprint! or sprinted better..

MDcatV

^I cant figure out how to get the podium pic off of fb to send to you via a bikeforums pm, so if you want to friend me to access just send a PM, I don't want to send out my name on the board because I'm afraid jsutkeepspinning will track me down when he moves to DC in the fall .

mattm

Thanks, but no big deal - I can live without the podium pic.

The ones I really cherish is when I'm on top!

Wylde06

twss

grolby

Right, Fitchburg 3/4.

What a crazy weekend, culminating in the marquee (and worst-attended, oddly) event of the Longsjo crit series. It started off with a guy causing me to fall over while we were rolling out for staging. Probably partly my fault, but a guy suddenly stopped right in front of me, I was overbalanced on my clipped-in side, and down I went. This is relevant because I landed on my right side and bent my RD hanger, so my shifting was effed before the race even started. The shifting issues were super-distracting, eventually I found myself a gear that was (barely) acceptable for the uphill home stretch and downhill back stretch and just left it there. 53x16, by the way.

My legs were feeling a bit better than the day before, but I let the shifting issues take my head out of the game, and that let me get a bit sketched out by some of the iffy riding I saw around me. Which didn't help my own smoothness, argh. At one point late in the race, I got caught up behind a crash. I saw the bars tangle up ahead of me and was on the brakes before the guy even hit the ground, which allowed me to stay upright even though I had to come to a full stop (I actually hit the shoes of the guy on the deck with my front wheel). We were only 100 meters or so from no longer having a free lap (6 to go), so I was able to get back in and finish the race. Not much else to say about the result though.

Now that I'm done with that, it's time for a break! It's been a real roller coaster of a season and I was never in very good shape, mentally or physically. So I'm rebuilding for 'cross season at this point. Still, I'm glad I finally got to race Fitchburg, actually liked the course quite a bit. I will probably be back next year, hopefully with some better legs and a lot more confidence.

hack

Davis 4th of July Crit.

E3 Pack finish out of like 30 or so.

Not a lot to report, I raced super passive. Tried one last ditch effort on the last lap and had a guy situp in front of me on turn 5 of 6. Great.

Overall, today was a bloodbath. Lots of crashes in pretty much every field. It's a technical course and there isn't a lot of space to move up, so people may have been taking some extra risk to improve position. There were a couple of 300m straight sections, but both were into the wind and it seemed people opted to make moves through corners.

mattm

Davis crit.. went down hard.

luck has run out!!

UmneyDurak

Almost went down in CAT4. Some Religy or whatever team tried somewhat unsafe pass, and took out a guy he was trying to pass. That almost took me out. On next lap I saw him pulling out and shouted that he caused that crash. I think he started to swear at me. Whatever.

Anyway top end is gone. Was third wheel going in to final lap, but with half to go just couldn't hang on. Finished just outside of 10. I guess I'll use the races to work on it.

I loved the course thought, because it is technical. Going in to turn 2 is a nice place to pass, and in to 4 before 5.

hack

Bummer...I thought I saw your bike (I'm neurotic with equipment) being wheeled around and not by you during the race you were supposed to be in. Cracked? I think there were about 3-4 more crashes in the P12 in the last 10 minutes of the race.

Heal up, but it sounds like you'll be out for a while.

hack

Heard a lot of yelling and profanity in your race and then a guy rode through a front lawn for no apparent reason. Seemed to be a bit of a mess.

UmneyDurak

Really? lol.
Was he wearing a CAL jersey?

Hmm haven't heard too much profanity, just the usual safety guy. "Hold your line" blah, blah, blah.
Some guy got annoyed with me because "I dived a corner after passing on outside." Except I was just following a nice curving arch, and a guy in front of me, and there was enough room on inside to squeeze a car through. People can be so dramatic.

caloso

Davis 45+. Helped a teammate by letting him get into a three man break, then I and some teammates sat on the front a bit. So, I basically won it for him, right? Anywho.... I normally am pretty smug about my safer masters fields, but today there were two crashes right in front of me I miraculously avoided. One guy went over his bars into a wall of haybales. Needed to ride a skid fixie-hipster-style on that one. Probably halved the life of my race tubulars but somehow managed to stay upright.

hack

Yeah, I had my back turned so I didn't see who it was from or to whom it was directed, but there were some angry mother f bombs and references to talking after the race. This was over near turn 5.

UmneyDurak

Well no one talked to me after the race, so I guess it wasn't at me. lol.
Oh if it was the CAL guy that rode in to someones lawn, he just recently upgraded form 5s. I talked to him briefly before the race.

mattm

thx man. not sure how the bike is doing, but i broke my collarbone, 5 ribs, and some bones in my spine.. worst part was it took 40 mins for the ambulance to get called!

not a fun day no doubt. coulda been worse, but coulda been a lot better too!