zitter

crash @33mph beginning the field sprint in the p12. didn't break anything, but have some nasty road rash up on my left side (might've slightly separated my shoulder, but we'll see). helmet was completely destroyed, but no signs of concussion luckily

gsteinb

Man in black went before turns 7 & 8. He hung on to win by a bike length or less. I needed a few more meters.

furiousferret

Ouch @zitter, I'm glad you're okay. Looks painful.

save10

hope the shoulder is okay.
FYI - that is a rad photo

furiousferret

Nice try, you got some big dudes in that pack. It looks like you lost to a former German National Champ, or some random guy. I'd go with the former.

gsteinb

random guy who races for Brian Walton's team.

abhirama

Are these from the hill climb tt you posted about on the other thread? If so, curious about the wheel choice.

Ygduf

It was 8.5 miles, first 5 were relatively flat, final 3 mi included stair-step climbing for like ~1000ft.

I did it twice. Once with the 90mm front and rear and the second time with 50mm (much lighter) wheels. 50mm was probably the better bet, but the wind was such on the 2nd run I was 45s slower with 99% the power.

Tyrell

Driveway 3/4 race this past Thursday. Initiated a late 2-man break that lasted for a couple prime laps until I fizzled out with 1 to go.

robbyville

Nothing like the suffering some of you exhibit on these pages, but a pic taken at this weekend's time trial in Shenandoah. I did the Eddie Merckx class but I later found out that there were some from a variety of categories in there not just 5's like myself. Photo by Shaun Galang

shovelhd

You're giving up an awful lot with that bike fit.

robbyville

Yeah, I think it's time for me to get re-fit. When I last had it done I was riding for pure comfort, not racing and I was 30lbs heavier. Still a few pounds to go but I'm a little more flexible and could probably handle losing a spacer and maybe going a little longer in the stem. Funny how things change, I was just thinking the other day how comfortable my feet were after shimming and cleat adjustments a little over a year ago and now my right foot is starting to bother me with hot spots, must be body changes.

I also have to send my frame back for a repair, maybe I can convince Trek to replace it with something a little more aggressive!

waterrockets 

I think a fit, with a race focus, would be a huge help. Maybe 20W at 25mph?

Cool shot though!

echappist

same race as robbyville; had craptastic legs, craptastic bike handling, and even more craptastic first 10-12 minutes. by results, i got blown away even by the 2nd and 3rd place finishers, but had a more respectable 2nd half of the race than i did first half. This was apparently posted on the Shenandoah Newz, and i don't know why they choose me except for the fact that i had a Tron skinsuit.

Aero experts are probably cringing at the fact that my head isn't further tilted down and that my skin suit is rather wrinkly

robbyville

Wow, I wouldn't have thought it would make that much of a difference. Curious though if I were to do that how I would feel on longer rides? I start my training for the Alpine Loop Fondo this week, it's 107 miles with over 12,000 ft of climbing and over 10 miles on gravel (all uphill)...

It is a good shot and I like the Tron skinsuit.

What was your final time?

shovelhd

I figured that was your situation. Kudos to you for losing the weight. Not everyone can handle the same amount of rotation so take it slow with the adjustments. Do them methodically one step at a time. You are on the right track. The other thing I would suggest is to drop the shifters a bit.

From your picture to a perfect fit could be 20w easy, but it could be less depending on your adaptation to the new position. It took me a year of practice to make power in the IAB for example, and I have a lot of racing miles in my legs.

echappist

slightly less than 54. bunch of cat-4's would have beaten me. i doubt i'd have been slower in the first half if i were on my road bike...

btw, going 20 mph on that course when you are coming off of an lay-off is pretty good. you must have set a few power records along the way

MDcatV

you did awesome chappy. you finished in front of a guy that regularly rolls sub 54s at church creek.

echappist

thanks Matt, but i think your teammate was having a bad day

regardless, a LOT to learn. for example, show up 2 hours before start time; pre ride the course if it's tricky, etc. also my bike handling is atrocious, and my coach insist that it's more Rasmussen like than Andy Schlock like (that hurts when i'm normally railing corners in crits...)

robbyville

Thanks for the compliment. I'm definitely designed for longer rides, I felt like I went as hard as I could but when I finished I felt fantastic, not like puking at all...

Wish I could have seen my power, as it stands now my meter decided to punk out (have a ticket in with Stages), so my high power is 100w

I'll definitely take the fit changes one step at a time, starting with lowering the shifters a bit and one of the smaller spacers.

thanks to all

robbyville

Out of my own curiosity do you think the refit with race focus would compromise my comfort on long rides or similar to my current, just need to acclimatize?

echappist

hard to tell; only way to know is try and find out. it would appear that you could make quite a bit of aerodynamic gains without sacrificing much in terms of comfort (though there's a selection bias from people suggesting this as we like to get aggressive in our positions), but only way to tell is to ride the new position and find out first hand

drop 5mm of spacers at a time and see how it feels and go from there

robbyville

True enough.

Hey not to sound to stalker-esque, but here's a good one of you!

https://cedarmeadestudios.smugmug.com...2014/i-W2vZ5Dp

echappist

not at all; much appreciated. was wondering how flat my back was, etc.

shovelhd

It depends. You may find that as you rotate your body forward more that your existing contact points aren't as comfortable anymore. You might like deeper bars or a flatter saddle. My fit is a compromise between racing and long ride comfort. My longest races are 3.5 hours so I have optimized for that as the maximum. When I go on rides longer than that, I start to get uncomfortable. That's ok, because I am trading that for comfort during racing. Not everyone has to do this, it's just been my experience.