mike868y

That course was fun and a lot safer than I expected. They do need to open up the whole road, though. Yellow line rule doesn't work out there. I had a blast. Was fruitlessly aggressive in the 3s. Finished the p123 and actually felt decent. Tokeneke tomorrow is going to hurt, that's for sure.

mattm

Dunnigan Hills RR p/1/2's, 84 miles.

8 AM start, had to get up at 4:30 and roll out by 5 to get to the start in time, ugh..

It was mostly flat, with some rolling hills, and while not super windy, the wind did play a factor.

The first and only crash was about a mile in, on the first turn while we were still neutralized - who knows what happened but guys went down, luckily I didn't.

Early on a group of 5 or 6 big-names rolled off the front, of course everyone assuming they wouldn't last. Only one team really doing any work to bring them back, and some teams (cough, SF Squadra, cough) with nobody up the road inexplicably not helping the chase. I wasn't helping the chase since I was on my own and just looking to survive.

Nothing exciting happened until attacks started about 40 miles in, when some guys started to try to get off the front. Followed a few of those attacks, bridged to a group of 10+ that looked promising, but it all came back together.

About 60 miles in I was feeling fine, sitting in the pack that had pretty much let the break go, and chatting. A few minutes later we're strung out single file in a crosswind, everyone looking for shelter that was nowhere to be found. Gaps are forming, and before I know it one is forming in front of me and I just can't close it. ****. Watched the pack roll away and threw in the towel.

Rolled in the last 20 or so miles with another straggler, it was great to have company.

Cracked my (newly replaced) 404 rim on a pothole, that was somehow in the middle of the road. Most of the potholes on this course were on the right, but somehow I found one in the middle.. it's a tiny crack that only covers the braking surface, but probably not something I can ignore. Icing on the cake and probably the universe trying to tell me I should've skipped this RR and just done the Suisun crit today instead.

edit: wow I ended up 38th out of 59, and was one away from DFL.. lots of DNFs.

Ygduf

If you join up with SquadraSF with me we can teach them how to race.

Sucks to add the financial injury to the insult of going out to Dunnigan. Can't say I didn't tell you the race and course sucked, but I'm still bummed it turned out like that for you.

mattm

Too late, I pretty much sealed the deal with Leopard-Sapporo yesterday after the race.

We can be frenemies next year!! =]

Ygduf

I haven't agreed to anything yet for sure...

tell them to email me!

revchuck 

mattm - bummer about the wheel.

save10

+1

save10

Dunningan Hills RR (86 miles)

Cat 3. Result 20's/65 (pack).

I spent the first 40 miles putting myself in breakaways or closely watching attacks. Nothing stuck. So I assumed that nothing was gonna stick like every other time I've done this race. Then with about 30 to go another break goes and suddenly the moto calls out '1:30 to the break' and nobody is chasing. And there is the winning break and I was sitting in the pack deciding between my two flavors of GU gel. The omni-present Squadra had a guy in the move and apparently they were at the front blocking alot which has getting some people pissed. I didnt care either way because I race unattached and I was sitting at the back stewing about missing the break. The only thing i was mad about was not being in the winning move. The final sprint for 'sixth' was cat 5 skechy so i found the safest spot i could and rolled in with everyone else.

*Side note - apparently 5 or 6 guys including one of the podium winners was DQ'd because a race judge caught them peeing on the side of the road after the race. I saw the official standings today at the crit with names crossed off and the burly, bearded judge who DQ'd them told me himself. So we'll see what happens there. I don know if the DQ'd podium guy knows or not. I didnt know any of those guys so whatever.

Susuin Criterium M 3/4

7th/40? (+prime)

I decided that I was gonna make my own race happen after yesterday. I attacked on the second lap and took a prime ($10). Was joined by another guy and we had a little go for few laps before getting caught. I kept myself in the first 5 wheels for pretty much the whole race. The Squarda Borg had like 10 guys in the race so everytime one of them attacked I moved with them. I either bridged to or chased down 5 breaks in that race. I was really hoping one of those moves would stick but nothing organized quickly enough. Despite all that work I was still in a reasonable place going into the final straight. But my 950W sprint is just good enough to lose 10 meters on the people that go really go fast. So I got 7th.

I felt alot better about crit than the RR. Its my 5th straight top 10 in a crit (well a crit that i finished) so thats good. hopefully I can unlock that last lap puzzle in the next few races.

MDcatV

tour of millersburg.

TT: good - I was nearly a minutes faster than last year; bad - last year was really, really slow. 19 y.o. kid won it.

crit: brutal. less than half the field finished, i was not among that half. scott zwisanski won it.

road race: felt great, half way in got caught behind a crash on a KOM. we were catching a break, sprinting for KOM, and team w #s was putting in a big attack. perfect storm for not getting back on. zwisanski was in the crash, as were 2 other gc guys so i'm not sure how that played into the next several miles, but i was going 35+ mph and going cross eyed and losing ground. scott and a group came around me, i had unfortunately panicked and put too much effort into trying to catch back on and after a few minutes couldnt hold the wheel of the scott z group and at that point knew it was game over. I did a 5 min max for the year after that crash. disappointing because i felt like i was on a good day and i really like this rr, but that's racing. scott z. won the race and gc, very impressive. teammate got into the final selection and took 6th, which is a nice result.

Racer Ex 

I thought you were all about the Open Pros?

Sucks. FWIW the HED stuff seems to take more abuse without breaking. The generic Chinese stuff is really tough.

I'm not sure how you can DQ anyone for peeing anywhere around Dunnigan, that whole place is pretty much a toilet.

Grumpy McTrumpy

the pothole that broke my fork did basically no damage to the HED 90, other than flattening the tubular

hack

Similar experience on my end, generally miserable. Only crash was turning right to run parallel 505 to the north, a couple of guys wanted to keep on heading west and were knocked over by the mass of the pack.

We were cruising along at a decent rate and as I was finishing a light pull up a mild hill and starting drop to catch the back of the pack there was an attack. I tried to jump back on the back, but crested the mild hill right into a headwind and gap grew from a few seconds to too many seconds pretty quickly. Managed to catch a few other dropees and we worked together to flats and joined up with some other cast off hodge podged groups. My hamstrings were getting lit up and I started hurting with about 20 miles to go. Was happy to limp it in.

Due to the hamstring pain, I was really hesitant to head down to Suisun for a crit, but figured worst case is I get dropped. So, my only goal was to not get dropped. It ended up being a pretty fast race (by my standard) and I enjoyed it immensely. Hung in with the group and finished with the pack. Success.

I hung around and watched through the P12 race and there were a few crashed throughout the day with a pretty big one in the P12 race. Some guys left in slings. There was some confusion/lack of attentiveness on the officials part and there were times they forgot to flip lap cards and then pulled the peloton with 4 laps to go citing their inability to close the gap in time. Quite a few of the guys weren't happy as they didn't know how many laps were left.

Otherwise, cool event on a lil course.

zitter

3rd place today at the Torrance crit. came out of the last corner a couple wheels too far back and had to make it up in the long sprint. pretty big headwind helped me out a bit since I was able to slingshot around people

mike868y

tokeneke was hard. i've done this race twice in the 4s and never made it a full lap with the group. today in the 3s i made it to the base of the finishing climb on the third and final lap. ended up getting popped and finishing just off the back of that group for 24th, but the improvement from years past is more important to me than the result.

just a couple more relatively low key races left this season! hard to believe.

shovelhd

Do the 2/3 in Boston. You know you want to.

island rider

+1 but only 2 laps for me. I found it harder than either day in the catskills.

mike868y

Which race? Mayors cup? Ill be back at school before then. Ccns kermise then topsfield then it's back to the land of pleasant living.

shovelhd

Bummer. Good luck with everything.

mattm

still am; but i've had the zipps for two seasons now and enjoy racing on them - racing is still hard on the them but the pics look better!

i probably would have pinch-flatted with a clincher (a guy in front of me did) anyway..

lolol

tetonrider

bummer. curious--what tire size and pressure...and what's your weight?

also generally heavier for a given depth--maybe a bit more resistant to this sort of thing?

(i have HED and zipp wheels, for full disclosure.)

mattm

23's, it was a bit low on pressure actually which didnt help.. i'm 155#.

and my favorite color is blue.

echappist

Mikey, did the pack stay together until the last lap or did things start blowing up earlier?

ovoleg

Cat 4 Road race over the weekend. Ohio State Road Racing Championships...

It was a nice 10 mile loop(3 laps) with non-technical corners and one hill(maybe 100 ft climb?). There was some chip/seal/rocks on one stretch(lol really) but it was fine.

I stayed up toward the the front the whole race pretty much not doing any work. I just rotated through the front and conserved energy over the rollers/hills/surges. A few attacks would go up the road but the whole field just kept chasing it down so it didn't look like anything was going to stick.

An attack went off on the final lap so I jumped HARD to get into the break of 5 guys. Rode in the break for about 2-5 miles but it fizzled out as the whole field chased us HARD. In the last lap I moved up from about 1/3 of the way from the back to 2nd wheel. Then another good friend came up and joined me. I was riding 3rd wheel into the final sprint corner when as soon as we turned I twisted my foot really hard because I got excited for the sprint and unclipped...UGH. I clipped in instantly but it was like a freight train behind me and I couldn't get back into it to sprint it out. Epic lesson learned. Oh well.

The funniest thing was some Italian dude who kept bumping and leaning on me. He was trying to take my wheel but I didn't want to give it up going into the rock section. He bumped me once, I just bumped him back. He bumps me again and I elbow him off. Then he leans on me so I told him "Dude stop serious". Then he leans on me again, so I just lean on him hard to get him off me. He flips out and starts yelling "OMG ARE YOU CRAZY". Dude I told you to stop leaning on me...if you can't ride in the wind then drop back I don't have to give you my wheel.

TLDR: Accidentally unclipped as I turned into the final corner for the sprint and got passed like a freight train. Lesson learned not to twist too much and get too excited.

I took the video wtih my ContourRoam2. I'll upload it when I get home and get a chance to edit it a bit.

mike868y

a couple of guys went otf and people obviously went otb but it mostly stayed together.

McTufferton

MO State Crit.

Masters 30+/35+ combined but scored separately. 2nd by a tire width. I had a teammate bury himself on the last lap, but ultimately fizzled a bit too early, dropping me off on the front about 600m before the line. I've got a long sprint so I went full gas but someone came around me in a drag-race and pipped me at the line.

P/1/2. The goal was to keep it together for our sprinter; with a lot help from other teams, it did. Teammate got 5th behind Brad Huff, Devin Clark and a couple other guys. Huff took it by half a wheel. I had nothing after my earlier race and hung on to the back of the pack.

"Meh" all around.