arai_speed

I feel like I'm going backwards! Had my first DFL in a local Cat 4 crit (CBR #5), a course I know well and have fun in.

I felt OK during most of the race but completely faded in the last few laps. My HR was pegged and I struggled with getting into a good position at the end and with 2 to go I got spit out the back.

Very disappointing.

mattm

Sucks man, heal the F up and get back out there.

Ttoc6

Broke your finger? A month from now you'll be second place at Paris Roubaix. Good luck with the recovery. Big block on the trainer and lots of rest. You'll be back smashing it soon, I'm sure.

gsteinb

Thanks peeps. I'll live vicariously through your results. Some nice stuff. Good job Rubi.

Rode a trainer for the first time in forever. Emotions are clearly a huge part of my success. They're really just better.

Ygduf

I had pictured you riding a trainer in my mind but I realize now you have been talking about rollers all this time. I'm not super attentive.

What's the prognosis on the thumb after surgery?

Ttoc6

Oh, he meant emotions like the rollers. I was trying to parse that sentence for too long. I settled on thinking he meant the emotions (feelings) he got from trying to race.

gsteinb

yeah, sorry folks. it is a hard to follow name. also typing one handed now

my normal riding set up


The feel is just better.Much easier to spend time on, uh, unless you have only one good hand.

doc says 4-6 weeks

furiousferret

I used to loathe trainers but Direct Drive trainers feel so much better than wheel on trainers.

rubiksoval

Exactly what I thought as well. E-motion rollers makes sense, now, though!

burnthesheep

Did the Charlotte Motor Speedway TT last night.

I feel that most people played by the spirit of not drafting to pass. I did my absolute best to keep people around me safe as I passed and also respect the concept of not drafting. However, triathletes. I'm sorry, but I really hope you were in the "recreation" division with your Cervelo P5X. That bike is absolutely 100% not even close to UCI legal. I saw a lot of triathlon stuff that wasn't close to UCI legal. The huge 6" wide aero profile bikes. I know it's meant to be inclusive, but I really really hope none of those were running in a USAC division.

The bad:
They dropped my timing chip separate from my velcro band. Like on the floor. I found it after the race after the guy asked for it and I didn't know what he was talking about. I've never used one, so just put the band on they gave me. I've no idea what one looks like. I asked how to use it, and they said "just put that on your leg". They ended up having to go by my written down start time and finish time. I find it hard to believe Strava is off by 13 seconds by theirs, but that might have cost me a win.

The hope:
If I practice more in the position, I have a crap load of power to find that some other folks likely don't. I'm down a whole 50w over what I could probably put out. Meaning, I should be able to get break into the 22's this year.

Results: Paper showed 2nd in class and 9th of 109 overall. I'll take it. Not sure how they do it because the lady next to me had like 48th of 89. I'll check online later.
Strava showed 23:36 vs their 23:49, perhaps the Strava segment doesn't count the standing start. But the chip thing pissed me off some. Avg. of 25.2mph or 25.5mph depending on the time you go by.

Oh, setup: clip-ons, skinsuit, Conti TT's, 50mm wheels, Giro Adv. 2 helmet, home-brewed position with minimal testing. No shoe covers, no triathlon bike stuff, normal socks, no disc wheel.

It was awesome to have a guy in the Merck division pass me, freaking awesome speed to just hammer over 26mph in the drops for 20min. Cool to see.

Ttoc6

Nice job, man. That's a solid time on an adapted road bike. Gotta love time trialling.

Fact about the uci-legal thing is it won't be enforced until you're racing at the tip top in this country. Some things people wont get away with (racing a p5x or andean), others it's just a given that people are going to exploit until they have to adapt (3:1 everywhere, reach/saddle pos exemption, compression gear).

Regarding drafting, once you are passing, its' the responsibility of the people you're passing to get out of your draft. This CAN be used to your advantage. you do still get a draft (albeit small) at 25m back.
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Heathpack 

@burnthesheep, Strava times IMO are always off from official times. Anyone can make a Strava segment, it doesn’t necessarily correlate with the actual start/finish of the race. And it depends on how you have your Garmin set up. Mine auto pauses so it does start until I get a little speed going, I miss the first few seconds of my TTs typically.

It’s normal/common to be down on power in your TT position (but still faster). Training in TT position can bring that power back. So if TTs are your priority, spend a lot of time in TT position, at least two workouts per week.

Congrats on a great showing for your race!

tetonrider

worth it to buy the fork mount for your inside rides?

gsteinb

jesus. 36 hours without sleep. I hadn't even thought of that. thanks.

aaronmcd

Better climbers showed up to Winchester this year. Its something like 22 miles and 3500 feet. I popped on the 2nd of 5 laps up the stair step finish area pushing 600 watts on the hill portions. Got passed by 3 other dropped guys just going into the climb again and had no chance of latching on. Should have rolled easy and waited for them but when I got detached they were so far back I didnt even know they were back there. Finished up off the back not quite last.

Hit the hour mark at 105.8 TSS. Race + warm up + cool down was 90 minutes at 98%

How the hell do these skinny dudes do it?!? My teammate won. I'm pretty sure he doesn't even feel the effect of hills lol. He told me WIND is harder for him than hills. That's just how small some of these dudes are!

Ttoc6

P1/2/3 Circuit race. Made the bridge to the group I thought would last. After I made it over, everyone sat up. Went to the back of the group to tail gun for a lap or two to recover and then suddenly everyone was sprinting for the line in the same lap. Apparently it was the last lap. Oops. Good tune up for my A race next weekend

TT was after the CR. Bad power, okay speed. We'll see how results turn out when they get released, but not expecting much.

Psimet2001 

First race of the year for me. We didn't take a financial bath. we ended up about $200 in the black on a $7000 budget. Wouldn't have happened without cutting payouts for everyone but Top men's and women's race - which we did a few years back.

As for me actually racing - I made it a few turns in on the first lap. Finished. Not DFL either. Don't really care.

Today received an email from another large team in the area about a rider who is refusing to come and race their race because they are no longer offering masters payouts. Considering those races take place in the city (Chicago) and city fees and cops and barricades end up being thousands more than what is ever brought in by sponsorship and entry fees - they made the choice to also eliminate payouts for anything other than the top men's and women's race. There were a lot of funny responses to this master's math, "It doesn't make sens - if you have a field of 40 and charge them $40 to enter then you have $1600. You can give the field $350 in prizes. I am sure you have some expenses associated with the race but it can't cost THAT much."..... HAHAHAHAHA

...and this folks is why we lose more and more races every year and there are fewer road licenses than ever right now.

Heathpack 

Fiesta Island 20K ITT, Women’s 1-5, 3rd of 3.

Sounds like a mediocre result, but I actually had a really good race. I was 1:24 out of first place but the woman who won is 30 years younger and two racing categories ahead of me, I’ll take it. A minute behind my racing nemesis, who took second place. But she’s a 1%er whereas I’m at best a 25%er. However my third place finish in W1-5 was still the 4th best time of the fifteen total women racing on TT bikes, most of whom are 10-25 years younger than me. So it was pretty ok.

But mostly, I raced it well. Have recently made some position changes, lost some power but it should be faster, I’ve just gotta rebuild a bit. Been doing a lot of position work and was sore and stiff much of the week, wasn’t sure where the chips would fall today.

Pleasantly surprised to feel on my game, was 6 seconds off my best time for the course, on 6 watts less power. Paced it well, almost hit my target lap times (so close!), VI = 1.0, stayed in the effort the whole time.

Gearing up for So and NoCal State TTs, feeling on track for those. Was planning on the Washington State TT as well, but we just cancelled that trip, one of the dogs has a medical issue we need to work through. Will sub a staycation and local 40K TT. Next race is now May 5.

spectastic

this is really pissing me off. I hit a bump on this rather sketchy course that resulted in my chain dropping off of the inner ring, and me having to get off the bike to get it back on. I was not shifting in the front. it was the force of the bump, combined with me trying to pedal that resulted the chain getting derailed, not really user error any more than it would've been if I had gotten a pinch flat from hitting a pot hole. when I roll to the pit, the official immediately denied me a free lap, assuming that the mishap was due to rider error, or poorly adjusted bike. I went to the mechanic later, and according to him, my inner limit screw was right where it should be. If we were climbing, and I was shifting to my small ring, and my chain drops, I wouldn't have complained. But this situation doesn't seem right. I ended up entering back in the race, and finished 5th, but they had me at 1 lap down, so my result didn't count. One of the officials, as well as other racers approached me saying that next time, I should say that I went down. I think I should've been allowed back in the race. what do you think?

gsteinb

you have to haven been involved in a crash (not stuck behind it) or flatted

mike868y

yeah dropping a chain is absolutely not grounds for a free lap.

rubiksoval

I understand the intent of the rule, but it's violated so flagrantly and so often that it's almost silly to not include any legitimate mishaps that are causing your race to be hampered so long as it's not due to your own lack of fitness or in the closing laps. A dropped chain is a mechanical just like a flat tire.

At 1:40 in to this video, there are multiple (if not a dozen) riders who do not even come close to going down who all go get a free lap. This is a big crit, but still, it happens all the time and onboard race videos are capturing it more often.

Psimet2001 

Sorry - i would have denied you a fee-lap as well. Not their fault you picked the wrong group. It's a mechanical. All mechanicals are basically your responsibility.

Get caught behind a wreck or have a flat. Yes people"take advantage" of it but being caught behind a wreck in a fast top race of the night and you're done for the day without the free lap so....do as they do in soccer and flop.

Psimet2001 

At Downer Ave I watched so many lay their bikes down (safely and behind the wreck) after the fact that it took the pits 5 or 6 laps to get everyone back into the race.

Thing is it was early in the race. If you're held up by the wreck you can take the lap. It's always up to the official's discretion.

Hermes

@Heathpack Good seeing you at Fiesta TT and well done race.

My wife and I raced our tandem in the Fiesta Island ITT 20K 30:19 in the tandem open division 2 of 2. The other tandem was a male/male with the stoker on Team USA. They knocked out at 26:XX.

We were one of the last racers out on the course with the Para cyclists ahead of us. Many of the para racers were on Team USA and happened to be in the area for a camp. We had a bunch of trikes go ahead of us and it took a long time to catch and pass them. The para cyclists were excellent racers.

Passing the para guys was uneventful other than it did slow us down just to make sure the timing of the pass and etc was safe and by the rules. And we had the last trike enter the finish area just ahead of us as we were closing and I had to slow down. Not complaining just a fact.

I was not even close to a best aero performance position. I need to get a new stem for the tandem - minus 35 degrees. The tandem is a Santana with clip on aerobars. Everything else is stock so nothing special for racing.

It was a fun race although we wanted to crack 30 minutes for the race...next time.