MDcatV

2 races this weekend.

road race on saturday. brutal hot, hilly, P12 race. i worked for a team mate, after dragging him to a split we both missed on the 2nd to last lap, i got popped. found a working group, got into the race follow caravan of cars and worked through it to get back on. I was tapped and on the edge of craamping so i attacked before the last big climb hoping i could slip slide it, but about 100M from the top my legs locked up. i was convulsing like i got tazered. race was shattered, team mate finished somewhere around top 10, i finished, not sure where. i fell over after the finish line since i was cramping from my chin down.

today, M35+ age graded championship crit. great course, quasi technical, lots of hot wind. my team's sprinter was fresh since he didnt do the race above, i was not. 1st 10 laps or so were super hard, probably shed half the field. then things got harder with attack after attack. i opened up and was able to respond, unfortunately I had to chase down a former team mate who's still a regular training partner of mine, but he was a threat and when I jumped to bridge I had many cling ons so ended up being a welder. things came together with 3 to go so I pulled my sprinter into position, got on and drove. I was losing steam so he attacked from about 400 out with 2 tight turns, he got caught by a former olympian about 10 M from the line and took 2nd. I hung on for 8th or 9th.

good racing this weekend, i felt that i didnt make any efforts that didnt have a specific purpose, be it individual or for the betterment of a team mate. although the results for me fell short, I'll sleep well tonight.

bostongarden

MDCatV - Rock and roll!!!! Super!!!

substructure

I decided to write a little report from Saturday's race.
Cat 3.

One guy went on a solo attack early and stayed away for quite a while. But for the most part the 60 of us all stayed together until the first major climb about mile 22. Then it went to about 10 of us. From that point we couldn't organize a good rotation to stay away. It was a long downhill through twists and turns. So once we got to the climb to the finish there were probably 20-30 of us. I got the the top half of the group and slowly made my way up the climb - passing and getting passed. But made may way through most to get 8th overall.

I was extremely happy since I really didn't prepare for it much.

mollusk

But watch out for the next race. You might be riding your bike a lot for a while.

substructure

True. Recovery pace.

kensuf

pouring water over your head helps, but not a heck of a lot when the humidity is in the 90% range. if it's not evaporating, you're not cooling.

errodr

Spring City Race Weekend - Cat 5

Crit Finish: 6th, won a prime
RR Finish: 14th, lots of cramping

Tinton

Drove 3.5 hours to race.
Race canceled.

Nate552

Did a 20K ITT, and then after a 10 min rest did a 20K 2-man team TT on Saturday. Lead up to it was less than ideal. Friday evening I drove 7.5 hours to get home from a work commitment, packed, slept 3.5 hours, woke up, drove 3 hours, raced in 100 degree temps. Power was down 10%, bonked, overheated etc. 14th for the ITT, yesh. TTT? Who cares.

Racer Ex 

Weren't you guys in the top 3?

The heat coming of the newly sealed pavement was atrocious.

Nate552

Oh yeah, top 3 baby. That black pavement was like riding on a viking grill. By the time the TTT started my cleats were sticking to it.

ridethecliche

Good job everyone!

asmallsol

Tour de Burg Cat 3 race:

I did rather poor in the race the day before, mainly due to crappy position/sketchy riders so today I wanted revenge. Right from the gun, I attacked. Within a lap one other rider joined me and we stayed off for 2 more. We got caught.

I jumped back into the field and recovered. A prime was announced, and 3 people went off the front to claim it in the final corners. I bridge the gap right after the line and yell at them to "lets work, lets go". We worked together for like 3 laps, although half the guys were pretty gassed. We get cought.

A lap later, another prime was announced. In the last few corners, a guy attacks OTF. I bridge the gap, (again right after the line) and I yell at him to go. He was completely shot. For the next 6 or so laps, I do most of the pulling. It was freaking hot, and I found myself in the pain cave. The cold chills set in. A prime was announced. Coming to the line, I plead to the other guy not to be a dick and a let me have it and the sportsman that he was, does. Eventually I start getting gassed and our lead shrinks to nil with 5 laps to go.

As we get caught, one rider solos off the front, and the field never reacts. I sit in the field to recover. Last lap, I move towards the front. Coming out of the last corner, I jump on some guy who looked strong and tried to hold their wheel, pull around him, and finished 3rd in the field sprint, 4th overall. Overall, I was happy with my performance

mattm

Sounds like one helluva animated race to me - I like the attack-after-prime approach.

Nice work.

cmyke

Dear lordie. Glutton for punishment, eh?

Aerodee80

I was at Ontario GP yesterday and did two races.
It was hot all day, Ive never experience racing in this temperature.

CAT IV/V 30+
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/40967335
I placed 4th at Cat IV/V 30+ and my partner placed 3rd.

CAT IV/V
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/40967331
I dropped out of the last lap due to safety concerns. Guys were getting more nervous. I felt that its not worth the risk, plus the heat finally got me.

grolby

Agreed, humidity is a major challenge. I'm just saying that dumping water is way more effective than drinking it. The evidence that hydration actually reduces core temp is shaky at best. An examination of cases of heat exhaustion and heat stroke indicates that most victims were in fact drinking plenty of water. My experience, FWIW, bears that out. The lesson is, if you are experiencing symptoms of heat exhaustion, stop racing! Drinking more water is unlikely to help. Do what cmyke did: find a shady spot and cool down.

cmyke

Yep. The trick to cooling your body is evaporation, which doesn't happen when it's super hot and humid outside. Unless the ice in your bottles hasn't melted yet, it's impossible to cool down via drinking water/dumping warm water on one's head.

Still, it sucks to stop pedaling even when your legs want to continue

carpediemracing 

The key is the "ice hasn't melted yet" bit.

If you have ice water or even colder-water-than-your-body's-temperature, it's a transfer of heat energy (from you to the colder water) that helps cool you off. It's kind of like using a CO2 cartridge to cool off your fingers. The CO2 absorbs heat energy to turn into a gas, sucking it up from its surroundings. If you're holding said cartridge in your fingers as it empties out, you can injure them due to the semi-freezing they get. Air conditioners work the same way too (pressurize a gas into a liquid, then let it turn back into a gas - the second part sucks the heat energy out of the surroundings).

Dumping ice water on your head/neck really helps cool you down. If you start a one hour crit with 2 frozen bottles, you'll have relatively cool water available even after 3/4 of the race. If they're insulated bottles, you'll do even better (but I don't know by how much).

Alexi Grewal, in the 1984 Olympic RR, said that he was stalled in his efforts to bridge to Steve Bauer. He was overheated, tired, and wasn't able to make the final effort to bridge. Then, randomly, some woman threw a bucket of very cold water on him (and if you've ever seen the race on tape, you'll know there were very few spectators on the course - it was like watching a glorified, super long Tuesday evening crit in a development). He immediately felt better, drilled it, bridged to Bauer. Rest was history.

Race report:
Naugatuck Crit, Cat 3-4s. Teammate/friend seemed better suited for the course than me, and in some sprints we did the prior week, he beat me pretty good. I also coached him a bit on his sprint, using video to reinforce what I told him out on the road. I decided to work for him. Chased, pulled, bridged, and finally, at 1 to go, started pulling hard to try and keep things stretched out for teammate. I wanted to lead him out but couldn't find him. He didn't have great positioning but used what I taught him (reviewing his sprints) and got 13th.

Tues Night Worlds (Cat 1-2-3-4). Same teammate and I did this race. He wanted to work on his newly learned sprint skills. I was pretty tired and felt it a triumph that I even got on the bike. Also I wasn't feeling too good - I ate 9/16 of a large pizza about 3 hours before the race and still felt nauseous from that. Chased, pulled, bridged, etc. At what I thought was 2 to go I went up to teammate and yelled at him to let me pull (it looked like he was ready to make an effort). Started pulling, inadvertently starting a leadout. It was 2.5 laps to go when I started. Made it to 1 lap to go, the small field was apparently strung out pretty well. Teammate slotted in second wheel after I pulled off. He jumped from a long way out, led out sprint, used his newly learned sprinting technique and mental perseverance to win the sprint by a foot or so. His prior sprinting technique probably would have lost him the sprint by 10-20 feet (based on our guesstimates).

It sucks that the race calender is getting sparse. We're discussing driving 3-4 hours each way to do a crit in a few weeks.

cdr

tallmantim

Man - that sucks. Happy we have a good amount of year round racing to choose from here in Melbourne.

Thanks for all the effort you put into the race reports and videos - I have certainly used the info from your reports to make sure I am on the right side of the pack with cross winds etc to ensure I get as much cover as possible, and working on positioning.

mike868y

There are some fun road races coming up

carpediemracing 

Fun for who?

I may do Tokeneke as a tribute to a visitor. Probably Masters. I'll lead out our fearless leader to the bottom of the first climb, then do a 60 mile training ride with marshals at the turns. Or just ride home.

carpediemracing 

Glad someone is using that info

mike868y

I'm doing Hilltowns on Saturday and then Tokeneke and that is it for my season more or less. Unless I find something fun in MD, but I'm not sure how motivated I'll be to train/race during the first few weeks of school.

grolby

Did the Nashvillecyclist.com Wednesday crit. My first race in over a month, and only my third time on a bike in that time, not counting commuting (which is less than two miles each way). With that and a brand new fit - saddle lower and further back, stem flipped up - the plan was to sit in and see how I felt. But of course it was me, so when I found myself near the front and feeling better than I expected when a strong-looking attack went, I went ahead and bridged up. Yes, I'm an idiot.

It was a really good, strong move with four guys, well-coordinated and no slackers. By the time I snagged on, after about half a lap of chasing, we had a good ten seconds. Everyone was taking good, strong pulls, but the pack turned on the gas and dragged us back in a couple of laps. Way too early. Too bad that was the only really coordinated, dangerous move of the race!

As for me, I found myself on the back pretty soon after being caught. Between lack of fitness and getting stuck on a terrible wheel, I was never really able to recover. After chasing for a handful of laps, I blew for good and packed it in next time around at the S/F. I didn't care, I'm just so happy to be racing again. I'm also very happy with the new position. I feels like I will be much more powerful once I'm adapted and fit. And maybe it's just post-race euphoria, but I'm feeling optimistic about managing my knee. Ibuprofen doesn't do jack, but post-ride/race icing works wonders. We'll see how it goes.