hack

Jumped into a local TT today in Esparto. 16 miles. Flat. Hot. Minimal wind.

Morning started off poorly before leaving home when I saw that my disc was flat and wouldn't hold air. Boo, but I have a backup deep wheel (80mm). Put that on and headed out. My field 35+123 had some decent TT talent and thankfully local super super star TT guys (Metcalfe and Phipps) elected to race the P12 or 45+ (Metcalfe did both the P12 and 45+).

All in all a decent effort for me considering I haven't been on the TT bike much this year. Power numbers were on target for the first half, but started to fade for the second half. Considering the length of the TT and time I've spent in that position, it wasn't too unexpected.

Ended up 3rd in the 35+ with a 34:57, missed 2nd by 5s. 35+ winner (Ygduf 's teammate) had a super ride with the fastest time on the day. Maybe the rear disc would have helped me gain those missing seconds to take second, but who knows. Maybe I should have just gone harder. Oh well.

Ygduf

is phipps' time a typo? holy hell

hack

USAC results looks like what he came in with today. Strava, too. It was hot and the 45's went out when it was even hotter.

Ygduf

ok - the pic I saw had him uh, much faster. I must have misread it.

dz_nuzz

I guess I got my last little confidence boost for the season, got away with winning the last local crit I will be doing and managed to lap the field by the end. Was a surprisingly tactical race. Everything started off going nuts and I eventually got away with a 3 man move with 25 laps to go (of 35). 3 man became 2 man, rode with a guy I know who is a friend but is also a better sprinter than me until 10 laps to go. At that point we were about 20 seconds off the back of the field and I knew that if we bridged together he would most likely beat me in the sprint.

So I played a mean game of refusing to complete the bridge, making him work and constantly launching attacks. Eventually I got away and left him in no man's land at 8 to go and I finished bridging to the field with 2 to go.

Next up is the big one: GMSR where it will be a win if I get to the top 20 for GC.

mattm

**** yeah! well played.

ntnyln

Nicely played!

mattm

won the SJBC training crit tonight, surprisingly. A few heavy hitters there, short race tonight (45 mins), meant nothing got away. Not that I didn’t try!

We went slow the last lap, then got a nice leadout to the bottom of the hill, looooong sprint (45 secs) to the top where the finish was tonight, caught two guys otf, won it. Things are looking good for this weekend, but it won’t be as easy to win a real race!

UmneyDurak

Seemed like every time there was a break people would just sat up and get caught.

mattm

That's because all the breaks were chased down I think. Too many fresh legs, not enough time to get away.

When the race is 20 laps, the first 10 laps are used to wear everyone down and establish the break. When the race is just 10 laps, it's much harder.

UmneyDurak

Good point.

Ttoc6

West Mountain Road race. 104 Miles, ~2000 ft elevation. 2nd out of 10? Flat, and hot.



The 3s was an odd race. I flatted and chased back on the first lap through a pothole section. Z5 Dude rolled off the front on the start of lap 2 right after we had agreed to stop for a nature break soon. We never got that nature break and I had to pee for 75 miles. Chased and had him within a 30 seconds when a team sbr guy that had been doing a lot of the work flatted. We eased up to let him come back and the solo break gained about a minute and a half. Start of 3rd lap a team cicada rider jumped, came back to us and jumped again to never be seen again. 4th lap we got told 2 minutes to the breakaway. I didn't want to race for third so I followed another z5 guy that rolled off the front. Another z5 guy jumped across. We caught their teammate (surprisingly) and found out the other guy (cicada) had taken a wrong turn and dropped out. Suddenly our gap was 3 minutes and 3 guys. Me +2 team z5. I stopped working and sat in the middle of the two of them closing down attacks to keep it together. Felt real good and had planned to counter after an attack at about 1k. That never came so I jumped at 500m. The guy who I thought was toast came around me by about a half a wheel to win. I was 2nd.

Frustrating to be so close to a win, but I guess when you end up out gunned, 2nd isnt too bad.


This pretty much concludes my racing season. One more crit on the UT calendar, but I'm going to chill into it. No hard training, maybe a group ride or two, but mostly just getting comfortable on the cross bike and doing a bit of mountain biking. Maybe some hiking, maybe some running.

aaronmcd

104 miles with 10 guys has gotta be brutal.

I raced the Red Kite omnium finale in 110 degrees mainly to hold my omnium lead and collect my $150 in bike shop bucks and a Castelli red kite kit.

I brought a cooler full of ice and raced with 2 ice socks and 3 iced water bottles. All the bottles had about a half inch of hot water at the finish of the 50 minute crit!

I was marked AF in this race. I had the pack strung out on my wheel almost every time I tried to bridge or attack.

Eventually the strong dude in the race for away with 2 others and everyone was twiddling their thumbs. I had bridged every other time and the pack chased. This time I didnt bridge and the pack let them go. Dammit.

Finally went all in with 2 to go (2 minute laps). They were chasing a bit but I think the heat got to them. One guy sprinted up to me at the bell, passed me, and sat on my wheel the last lap. Another guy sprinted from the pack and passed us both at the line but I narrowly beat the other guy when he accidentally sat up early. 5th place on the day. 1st in the omnium!

hack

Ouch and congrats!

mattm

good work man!

mattm

Did the Red Kite as well, p1/2. 2nd, damn.

Hot af, car said 115 when I parked.

It's the kind of air that's hot in your lungs.. yuck. But surround yourself with enough ice packs and spray enough water on yourself and it's manageable.

Our p/1/2 race was one of the smaller of the day, maybe 10 at the start. After a few laps it was filtered down to 6-7 of us. I was mostly riding for a team mate trying to overtake the omnium by marking another guy and stopping him from getting points primes. We failed at that, oh well.

Eventually I ended up 'otf' with three others, minus my teammate. An older masters guy, a younger masters guy (who won the 35+ earlier in the day), and the omnium leader. I mostly sat on, but pulled through some, followed attacks, put in my own attacks.

But I was overconfident in the finish, I think that's why I lost. I mean is it wrong to assume the guy who had already raced/won would be tired?? I guess he sat on more. Last lap the older masters guy attacked and got a gap, omnium leader sat up, I closed the gap down. Younger masters guy attacked just about as soon as we caught, and I just couldn't come around him. ****.

One of those small races where I felt like I should have won it, but oh well. Its weird because it's easier to screw those races up because you think you can relax a little sometimes, and you could be wrong.

Experience points in the bank!

rubiksoval

Did the first two nights of Gateway Cup PRTs. Some UHC guys, some Rally guys, Arapahoe guys, Gateway Harley Guys, SC guys, the normal midwest hitters. First night was 60 minutes. 118 guys I think. Averaged 30.5. Blew up the last two laps when we started averaging 34. Mind-boggling fast. Don't think I've blown up in a race this year until then. Barely hung on to the back of the field for 60th or whatever. UHC won.

Day two, more of the same. 134 guys. Averaged 30.5 for 75 minutes. Surfed top 30 pretty easily for the first 60 minutes. It was easy until it wasn't, and then it was insane. UHC, Rally, and Arapahoe were all trying to lead out the last few laps and the last lap blew to hell. We averaged 35 for the last 2.5 miles. About 40 guys left in the front to sprint it out. It was so fast again I blew up trying to hold spots on the last lap. Couldn't even stand to sprint. Rolled in for 27th. I hit 48 mph plus a few times, and it was a decently flat course. Yikes. UHC went 1,2.

Some good points, some not so good points. Aerobically I'm sucking right now. WKO4 puts my mFTP at 308 versus 345 from earlier in the year. CTL is like 73. Just haven't trained the last two months. In the neuromuscular department I'm way better than I've ever been and can do repeated seated accelerations to 700+ watts all night long, which is a new development this year and I'm not getting dropped from just not being able to pedal like I have in the past. If I can add that to my early season aerobic fitness, I feel I'll be close. I think I know exactly what I need to do for next year and I'm planning on hitting a lot of the SE PRT and Crit Weeks Series stuff in March and April. Every year is just hopefully adding another piece to the puzzle.

For now the season's done. Lots of ups and downs this year. Finished up with a 57.85 crit ranking, just scraping into the top 100 for the moment. Will probably drop after the weekend, though.

mattm

Jeez man, that's crazy fast! Time for some motorpacing it sounds like.

Saw one of Ryan's vids from that race, looked like... exciting stuff.

rubiksoval

Ha, yeah. I'm on his wheel at 3:10 on the Day 2 Francis Park race (white helmet, gray kit with white sleeves). Too bad I didn't stick to it.

hack

Masters State/District Crit Championships. Ugh ... 8th/15.

Tiny field (15 ... wtf??) and hot (but not 115 hot) weather made for a pretty rough race. Goal was probably the same as most everyone else's ... follow Coble. A lot of early attacks trimmed the field down to about 10 after 15 minutes of racing. While fudgy was off the front, I missed a move and couldn't get across. Damn. 4 up the road, 4 in our little chase group, and few gone off the back.

Our group was resigned to getting a workout in and putted along. With 4 to go, the lead group came into view and we kicked up the pace. With 1 to go, the lead group was nearly stopped on the backside playing "who would go first". I was fried and would get 8th no matter what, so I hammered as long as I could to get our chase group across. Too little too late though and the best they could get was 4th.

Ygduf

I made sure they only took a podium pic 3 deep for those dorks sprinting 30s after the race was over. /petty

hack

3 deep is good. Amain and I called it quits at corner 3, didn't see much after that. Looked like you all were still too far gone.

caloso

30-something in the 50-55. Tried to do what I could for my teammate, he made the right move with 5 to go and held on for 3rd.

My son finished 5th in the 13-14 juniors race. He did great, especially since he's hardly ridden since soccer practice started this summer.

aaronmcd

Did the longest crit in the history of Aaron's race career today. Giro di San Francisco. The P12 group did 55 laps for 40 miles.

Ive only don't this crit once in cat 3 or 4 or something. Its a bigger crit in the area. Not as big as San Rafael, but over 50 starters and I was a bit worried about hanging on.

L shaped course with rough pavement, a track crossing in corner 2, a small hill that surprisingly turned out to be kinda nice instead of super hard, and some recessed metal covers to avoid or hop. The city buildings seemed to shelter against most of the wind, but I still did the electric slide a lot to get the optimal line and speed through corners.

Lined up at the front as I try to do for harder crits. Stayed mid pack as the first 5 or 10 laps were pretty fast but manageable. It was so much easier near the back and I had almost zero chance of hanging in a breakaway so I surfed mid-back much of the race.

One moment mid race, easy, nothing special, I find myself moving up to the front, round a corner and see half the pack up the road building a gap! Matt is also back here and he takes off. Then I take off after him. A lap of chasing brings us to the back just before the little hill, so it takes me a couple laps to recover. Then a threatening break starts forming without us, and I don't wanna bridge cuz Ill die, so I just go to the front and pull hard which is a big deal for me with my piddly FTP lol. Of course as soon as I'm close everyone sprints forward leaving me dangling on the back again

Anyway I recover and hamg out mid-back but watch double careful for freaking gaps! Then a loud crashing sound to my left and we swerve right. Then in the last turn the guy in front of me, his bike is rattling so I go around him and suddenly hear another crash from his direction just as I passed. We were neutralized and restarted at the line with 10 to go. 10 laps was enough that it wasn't all out chaos and guys could get their bearings and choose their position.

I haven't taken part in bunch sprints this year because I am no sprinter, but the few laps leading up to it are SUPER fun. Close, dangerous, everyone trying to be in the perfect spot, one guy literally elbowed a guy hard enough that he was pushed a couple feet to the left. Mattm says that's p12 racing but I thought that was a dick move. I seen videos with lesser infractions (but worse outcomes) and a hundred comments calling for a suspension.

Found myself near the front with a couple laps to go but no teams were organized and I couldn't figure out how to stay there, nor how to help mattm cuz it was too far for a one man leadout and it was hectic AF. So I got shuffled back a bit and sprinted for 22nd while Matt sprinted for 5th. Idk how he gets such a good position. Practice I guess. Also a sprinter must be a different personality - when I'm off the front, or even in no mans land my brain just turns on the turbo and keeps reminding me to focus and not give up. But for some reason in a bunch sprint my brain doesn't see anything I could lose so there is no automatic "fight for my life" instinct like there is in a break.

Super fun race though, super fun final laps.

mattm

SF Giro p/1/2 - 5th!

I say "5th!" because it's a big local race (60 riders), and the best I've done there. 5th at the Red Kite this weekend with 10 people in it would've been worse than last.

Anyway kind of a weird race this year - no big team representation, so there was a lot of disorganization. And a few crashes - one of which stopped the race with 10 to go, which sucked. I was up front when it happened, and it gave a bunch of guys who were probably tired a chance to rest. I think the result would've been the same, and they had to do it (rider down in the exit of a corner), but damn.

I executed my plan (jumped the leadout trains in to the final two corners), but not with enough speed so I ended up leading out the sprinters. Lucky for me we still do five-deep podiums out here in the Wild West, so I got to get up there with the usual local heavy hitters.

More BAR points (I'm in 1st), more Cal Cup points (must be close to first, no idea where the standings are posted), and some cash to boot!