dz_nuzz

Quabbin P12 - 6th

That was absolutely nuts. The first hour was like being kicked in the teeth repeatedly. Everyone knew it would either be "really easy" or "crazy". Yup, it was crazy. Nearly lost contact a few times when counters would go. Eventually, around mile 30 one CCB guy and another dude got OTF and CCB just shut the race down. After a few more ill-fated attempts at sneaking away I sat in till the point where I have habitually succeeded getting OTF before in this race.

Well apaprently the plan worked again, got away on this strange, narrow and shallow climb that leads into a long descent. Made it about 10 miles before a 2 man chase caught up. From there we rolled on together till we got caught at mile 95 by a 7 man chase lead by CCB and the rest of the heavy hitters in the field. Jumped into that, mercilessly sucked wheels and took advantage of the leadout into the finish. Ended up being only 7 of us in the sprint. Got 6/7 for 6th. I have no idea why I do that race. So much pain.

The thing that was the hardest was that we were told there would be neutral water on the motos. There wasn't. I was about to lose my mind when I realized that the lead moto had no water. Mentioned it to the promoter and he apologized and said he would look into it for next year.

mike868y

^nice work dan!

also quabbin'd but was in the 3s so my race was a more humane 60 miles (or 65 depending if you count the 5 mile neutral downhill). allegedly people at the front were attacking but with no teammates and there being like 10 really strong juniors/cross dudes who don't race a lot of road (including a guy who went to worlds this year)/pro triathletes I gambled on there being no break and chilled HARD at the back. moved up for what can sometimes be a set of decisive rollers a few miles from the finish. had good position coming into the final climb and was feeling good. lost the front group of 10ish guys at like 400m and lost a few spots after that. rolled in 15th. on the one hand wished I had held that wheel for a tad longer, on the other hand, the final climb was a 3' power record so I can't expect much more than that.

Yep

Two big laps of a 20 mile loop followed by 2.25 laps of 6 mile, and MUCH lumpier finishing circuit. 55 miles total.

Full field of 60ish and a fair number of teammates (maybe 7?), but not all of them primed to contribute. Many attacks, finally one stuck with 2 TT monsters. We never caught them and I ended up coming in 5th in the diminished bunch sprint (7th over the line. Turns out 1 of the break guys is a 2 and had previously registered, so his placing will probably go away, leaving me 6th).

I should have either forced the separations that I and some others were able to make on the tough finishing laps, or been more decisive in the sprint. Either way, failing was in not being committed enough. I've found that in chasing points (top 10s), I've had some success (4th, 6th, + 7th) out of 4 races, but definitely missed out on a single better result.

Doge

Think so. It did snow on them a bit.
Puppy got 6th in the RR. Posting video in the Video place.

grolby

I finally started a bike race this year! Just Wells Ave A/B, but it was nice to get out there and get a feel for things. To my somewhat amazement, foam rolling yesterday really did bring my knee around enough to let me ride. I'll have to stick with it. I was a bit late to the race, jumped in 3 or 4 laps in. Spent a few laps dispelling the "first race" nerves and getting a feel for how the CAAD10 handles in a race situation. After 5 seasons on the same bike, I'm used to it feeling a certain way, and the new bike is a bit different. But I settled in and mostly tried to sit in and stay out of trouble. It was fairly zippy for a Wells Ave race, nothing was getting away. So, field sprint. At bell lap, I was maybe 25 wheels back, being lackadaisical about moving up to save my legs and cause I don't want to get too aggro in my first race back. Moved up ten or so spots on the back stretch, again didn't try to force my way onto a wheel or position too aggressively, so I was maybe 12-15 spots back when the sprint started. But it's Wells, so a pretty wimpy sprint was still good for 8th, just behind @dz_nuzz. Who somehow still had the energy after 120 miles at Quabbin yesterday to spend the whole race trying to get away. Oof.

All in all, a nice start! A long way still to go, but it was nice to get out and race again. Myles Standish next weekend.

Wylde06

I would have been on a West Coast podium today, but I race in Ohio/Michigan and such a thing doesn't exist.

globecanvas

Lime Rock - 7th. Raced impatiently. Should have done much better. Ate wind in no man's land for half the race. I think it was a one hour power PR and nothing to show for it. Far fewer watts applied at smarter times would have won the race. Oh well, at least it was a good workout!

aaronmcd

Did Wente Vineyards Road Race. 5 laps with a few minutes steep 10 minutes in, followed by a few minutes gradual and then a few more minutes of climbing. Fun fast descent, more rolling hills, all sorts of terrain. Not much wind though, thank God since I spent most of the race off the back! 73 miles total, so not too bad. But it was really hot goin up the climb and my allergies were horrible as soon as I stopped riding!

Was hoping all the VO2 I always do would be enough to get me over the climbs. 400 watts was good enough to start the climb at the front and drift to the very back just in time for the flatter middle part. Just barely lost contact over the top, let another guy pull me back. That was my entire matchbook. It got hot and for some reason or another I couldn't do much vo2 power after that.

Coming around the flat section, a small group had 2 minutes on us and we still had 6 left in the field so I helped a couple teammates chase for a while, got to the climb again, did 450 watts for about a minute and was in off the backistan. Teammate that was dropped earlier, but is a much better climber caught up. He apparently can't climb at the start of a race. That's apparently the only time I can climb. We rode around and he and 2 guys we caught dropped me on the next climb. I chased hard for the rest of the lap but wasn't gonna catch them so turned it down to low tempo and finished solo.

spdntrxi

^ I think I saw you... I was solo riding opposite direction on Cross in the RCC kit. That race is is too tough my my weight/power ratio.

aaronmcd

Saw a few guys out riding opposite the course. Its too tough for my w/kg also! I basically just drive and pay to see how long I can last. I'll probably skip the next climbing race

UmneyDurak

Mt. Hamilton weekend is a stage race. You know you want to do it.

I think I saw you at the start area.

That race hurt, a lot.

mattm

Ha! Congrats on being on a podium if you were further west.

mattm

Sounds tough - kudos to you for even trying.

I tried that race in 2013, my first year in Cali.. I was laughing to myself that "damn these dudes are getting popped in the first 10 minutes!", then I got popped about a minute later.

Now I just can't see myself even trying that race anymore, sadly.

aaronmcd

Ha yeah the first few minutes seem so easy! I tell myself I'm gonna train anyway so may as well go out and see what happens. On the one hand I made it one lap so maybe with a crapton of training I could last longer... but otoh I may just not physically be capable of doing an all out effort multiple times. Over 73 miles. Or just not disciplined enough for the training that would require

wktmeow

Oh man, yea, I hated that course. Thought my weight and climbing was good when I tried it in the 4s, but could not match the surges up the climb at all and got popped on the 2nd lap.

Did Dana Point twice yesterday, played the role of packfill both times. It wasn't physically challenging, but the giant fields and narrow course made it tricky for me to move up. Never saw the front of the race at all, and just felt stuck in the washing machine sort of churning mid pack. Dodged a crash coming into 2 to go in the 30+ 3/4, and then got stuck behind people sitting up coming into the finish. Did the E2/3 as well, but an even bigger and more strung out field wasn't helping me. I think we had a full field of 100. Big pileup in the first 15 mins, followed by me losing my bottle, getting really thirsty, frustrated that I couldn't move up to do anything useful, so I pulled myself out with 5 to go. Lucky timing, that, because there was a crash on the next lap and then another coming into 1 to go.

NP was under 200W for both races.

mattm

Did the SJBC twilight crit last night - 10 laps for 20 miles total.

Won the A race, from the break - nice to finally get a W this season, even if it's in a training race with probably no other cat 1's at this one. But still, it wasn't easy.

Interesting ride down - there's been some flooding, and part of a bike trail was totally flooded over with a 30' stretch of 6" of water.. I didn't realize it was so deep until I was in it, and getting my shoes wet. Luckily it was about 90F out so my shoes dried out pretty quick.

The race itself was windy as always - I broke away in the headwind, got one to bridge up. We rode a few laps, he was tired so I pulled a lot. Another bridged up and went past, I jumped on his wheel. Same thing happened after a few laps (he blew up), and another bridged/went past, I jumped on his wheel and we held it to the end.

The ride back was in the dark, but mission accomplished!

dz_nuzz

Awww yeah, nice @mattm ! Breakaway fun!

scheibo

Nice! How many people usually come out to that crit? And is it like 50% SJBC riders or what?

mattm

@scheibo there were 20 in our A's group, 40 in the B's, 15 in the C's. (luckily all racing separately)

You should ride down with me!

scheibo

larger fields than i thought, not bad! the commute over to it looks pretty terrible though, and if i biked all the way over there i'd be more like to then just ride metcalf and quimby (yay climbing!) instead of doing some silly crit. maybe i'll join you one week. not a huge fan of all these night time rides (Egan/Valley Ride/SJBC Crits/Tres Altos etc) though, i have trouble sleeping if i exercise so late.

mattm

Thx - what's interesting is I think I actually try harder and do better in these training crits when I:

a) feel confident of my abilities over others in the race
b) am not afraid to blow up and DNF from trying too hard

So I probably end up racing better because I'm trying harder in these races. I should try harder in all my races!

UmneyDurak

It didn't rain in weeks. Wonder why it is still flooded.

How was traffic with that big warehouse they built?

mattm

There was a semi parked on the curb near the warehouse, where the finish line will be in about a month or so. Not too bad but we had to go around it.

One semi turned in to the warehouse parking lot during the race, but wasn't a big deal.

So no more cars than usual - and the guys that ride horses in the field next to the course were out as usual, showing off with dressage or whatever it is they do.

Ttoc6

Never got back to you (or saw you out there). I was racing for the University of Washington at the event. I was able to see myself in your crit video. Purple kit, black and orange helmet, stealth / matte carbon bike.

I had two pretty bad days. Really wasn't fit enough to compete. Got stuck on the wrong side of a gap up the climb for the first time and then struggled with the descent and the hard 120 degree corner. Ended up in the grass having to get off the bike and remount..
Group echeloned and was VERY close to catching back on but didn't quite make it. Rode the rest of the race hopping up and between groups basically alone.

Crit, ended up with a back row call up so I started about 10 feet off the back to get clipped in and moving before everyone else. Got caught behind the first crash of the day on lap 2 or 3 in the 2nd to last corner. Easily made it back to the group. Then I got caught behind a bigger crash in the hard corner. All the marshalls were telling us to slow down into the corner. Big gap opened and when the group is going almost 30mph, impossible to close back down on that. End of my day 8 minutes into the race. Rode for ~12 more minutes before getting pulled.

Overall a very cool event to attend, but my fitness wasn't there to compete with any of the dudes who showed up. Oh well, get back at it. Racing is just getting started locally.

rubiksoval

Sweet!