Sommando

HMF, your video was a great learning tool for me (thanks shovel!) but the last part (your yelling as the group catches you) made me feel terrible. I'm hoping there's a second video soon where you make it all the way in! It'd be like a Hollywood movie, where the star fails horribly at first, but then, with some great theme music, and against all odds, succeeds at last.

carpediemracing 

How to navigate through a field. All the instructors in this clip are BFers.

zitter

last 10 minutes of my crit this past weekend in Santa Barbara

last couple minutes are me on the front leading out my teammate who took 2nd

jwible

Bike content at :56. This accent should give you folks up North seizures. Cat IV race at Albany. Two of the "football players" on my team. My teammate gets the field sprint and my shoulder gets a cameo.

mollusk

That looked like a minuscule field. A little rain kept everyone away?

mollusk

Kind of like Rocky II?

(insert "barfing" emoticon)

jwible

22 finished. Not sure how many lined up at the start. Toronado watches and warnings plus solid rain kept it small. The next day I think there were around 60 there for the road race.

mollusk

Looked like a fun race.

I prefer races in the rain. I don't mind getting wet and I'll even start long solo training rides in the rain, so I'm not freaked by the wet.

shovelhd

You live in The Duh. Try rain, sleet, freezing rain, hail and snow for 65 miles.

zitter

and here's the first 33 minutes of the race


you can probably tell from both the videos that I was playing the domestique roll, chasing breaks, covering attacks, leading out, moving teammates up, etc. (also threw in some attacks to work the field a bit)

mollusk

I used to live in Champaign-Urbana, IL, and bike commuted all winter way back in the 1970's. Even when it was -20 F. My insulated hiking boots did not fit into my toeclips, BTW. That was COLD!

And believe it or not we did have a team ride in our part of The Duh where it snowed on us a couple of years ago. That was "cool", or should I say "cold". I think that only three of us were stupid enough to show up for that ride.

agoodale

A few videos from our Tour de Murrieta Crit last Saturday. It's a fairly technical 6 turn course with a long sprint. The contrast between the 2 videos made me chuckle

Cat 2 - Justin Williams winning the field sprint. Break of 3 up the road.

Cat 5

colobrio

First 5, middle 2, and last 5 laps. In Denver's City Park, March 18, 2012.


https://vimeo.com/38820784

AzTallRider

Interesting contrast between your video, and the videos CDR posts, and that contrast is very instructional. You rarely see the empty space in front of CDRs front wheel that you see often in front of yours. In other words, you can definitely hide better, even when moving up. And IMO, you burned a lot of energy when you were feeling strong early (easy to get sucked into that!), and it cost you later. In the final laps, you had chances to really move up when the pack slowed, but you only used those to get towards the middle of the pack, then you drifted back as the pack re-accelerated (that's bad), ending up missing the split. Had you moved way up when things slowed, chances are you would have made the split, and could have used your strength (looks like you were one of the stronger riders) in the sprint.

As someone still low on the learning curve, I offer this critique in large part to test my understanding.

Nate552

First race with a cam this past weekend. I wanted a small camera (the aeroweenie in me won't let me strap a Go Pro on my bike) so I went with a Tachyon OpsHD. It's designed to mount on guns, so it's quite small. You can see it on my stem in this pic.



Unfortunately, my powertap cpu was in the scene, I'll have to correct that. But for those curious about quality, here's a short clip of me contesting a hot spot time bonus on a hill.
Don't forget to switch to HD settings in youtube.

.be&hd=1

colobrio

This is largely spot on, and the explanation largely is nerves. I was timid at the top of the course where the jockeying took place for position heading into the big round about. Then I scrubbed to much speed approaching the big roundabout, letting a gap open. I took the roundabout well, but that just closed the gap instead setting me up to spring forward coming out of it. As a result, through the middle of the race I had to close a lot of little gaps, which left me cooked by the last few laps. I got the barcam largely for the education, and its paying dividends - I knew all this during the race, but didn't appreciate how bad it was until I watched it. So much of crit riding is positioning and confidence, and with 14 years between crits, it's going to take me a little while to get that back. Luckily I have SDC's videos to help guide my way!

AzTallRider

It's that "Crit Mojo" thing. Our Tuesday night Underground Crit is helping me a lot with all those factors: close quarters, cornering lines, knowing when you can keep pedaling, hiding, moving up, avoiding gaps. Being in a field that includes the P-1-2 guys is a real help, even though I'm usually off somewhere hacking my lungs up afterwards. But, as a result, the difference in my cornering this season is profound. I used to have a big tendency to brake before a corner - now I'm usually just diving in, pushing, and looking for room to move up. Closing gaps after corners is great way to use yourself up.

Forza

Independence Valley Road Race, Rochester, WA

Little first person action from Michigan Hill climb today. I clearly needed to be a little further up front hitting the base of this thing. Spent way to much from the power bank passing and getting around bodies. Would have / should have been used up front. My first clue should have been the sound of crashing carbon in the neutral start...not kidding.

Check out the great save by the guy who went into the ditch on the beginning of the descent. Camera's battery lost contact on the descent and this is all I got.

notwist

great vid. is it ever sunny in WA? from viewing a couple of your vids, it seems WA is a dreary place!

crapweasel

It got sunny on lap 2 .

Looks like you were there with the front group Forza; too bad you couldn't stick with it. I was surprised to see you at the bottom of the descent, honestly. I spent *way* too much time on this one guy's wheel on the climb, figuring I was far enough up front to maintain contact with the mountain goats on the descent. I was wrong.

Forza

Of course. We frequently have a "marine layer" of cloud/fog in the AM during the Spring/Summer at the 250-1500ft level. It was actually a very beautiful day yesterday...video proof before we started ascending...


I should have been further up to start...I spent too much time and power working my way up past traffic. I aggravated my IT band and was hurting a little yesterday and was feeling the crud coming on...I had been taking Zicam since the night before, hoping to rid it. Good job yesterday.

jabbahop

at least you were moving forward. When it is my video, I am the one going backward through the pack!

Debusama

In March it only makes a few cameo appearances, but gets better in late spring & summer, at least in my neck of the woods.

HMF

.be

kleinboogie

https://picasaweb.google.com/1163692...sCritMensCat4#

Lots more to come.