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Old 05-21-19, 12:16 AM
  #201  
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Been a busy season of racing so far - 19 races in the books. Some ups, some downs, but that's racing.

Two weeks ago a teammate won his first p1/2 race, a big local one with a bunch of heavy-hitters there, it was wonderful. We wept.

On Saturday I won the Modesto Crit! Been too long - since Suisun crit in Aug 2017.. I'd been wondering if my glory days were over but I guess not. All the training/racing and sticking with it payed off.

As for the crit: it started raining 10 mins before the start, which was expected -- and unfortunate, given the plethora of reflectors on this course. It's always seemed sketchy because of those even when dry, but in the wet... those things are like ice!

Small field of 26 at least meant there wasn't a ton of jostling for position. We had four guys, another local team had four guys, then a smattering of others.

Early on there was a break of five including a teammate of mine, I followed a bridge attempt and jumped them when it faded. After a few minutes I made the bridge and we were off! We worked well together, except for me taking **** lines in some of the turns because of the damn reflectors.. ugh. After sliding out in a wet crit in Chicago last year I've been hesitant in the rain to say the least.

It was pouring rain at this point and my glasses were covered in rain and I could barely see anything, but decided that was better than being sprayed in the eyes.

Coming in to a few laps to go my teammate was on the front keeping it fast - even though we had a gap of 40+ seconds, it was better to keep things going rather than have random attacks to cover. I tossed the glasses, having had enough of not being able to see.

On the last lap I jumped our group about halfway through the figure-eight course, heading in to one of the sections of turns that I hated the most, but I figured it would be better to take my own lines, and also if I had a gap it'd be hard to close given all the turns.

Five turns later I was headed in to the final corner, about 150m from the line, and it didn't seem like anyone had caught up yet. Gave it a final kick and came across the line first! Boom. Screamed so loud I was hoarse for a few hours after lol.

Won some tires, cash, walnuts, and bragging rights. We all know it's all about the bragging rights!
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Old 05-21-19, 07:45 AM
  #202  
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bravo!
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Old 05-21-19, 10:25 AM
  #203  
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Well earned walnuts! Good job.
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Old 05-21-19, 04:05 PM
  #204  
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Race for your nuts!
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Old 05-21-19, 07:06 PM
  #205  
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La Ronde De Tahitenne 110k, 42 / 200+

I'm not sure what this event is; its kind of a Fondo, but the pointy end has some real talent including at least one former TDF pro and was televised in French Polynesia as their premiere 'race'. This is the first time I've done an event like this so I didn't know what to expect. Prior to the week, I had a decision to make; enjoy riding my bike on remote islands, or save my legs for this event. I chose the former and don't regret it. I may never ride on a small island with perfect roads, but there will always be racing.

-----------------------------------------

200+ of us started out together for the first 10k until we hit a 1k hill @ 6% and that split the group. As usual, I was stuck by myself between the fast and slow racers (because I suck at small surges like that) and settled into the frustratingly slow group of 100+, half of which didn't know how to ride and were crossing the center line (this is important for later). I also rode with Richard Virenque for a few kilos and got some TV airtime.

At the halfway mark 2 people tried to break free and I joined them. While we couldn't shake the peloton a small group of 8 were rotating at a good clip, and if someone came in and didn't help we'd yell at them.

While I was towing the group I heard a screech of metal in the background, and figured bikes were going down...I was wrong. A truck came from the left side skidding on 2 wheels, 10 feet (according to other riders) in front of me. I looked up and saw an undercarriage and decided to just stay on the brakes and pray it moves. It went off the road to the right. Happened too fast for me to be scared and rode on.

Eventually with 15k to go we were down to 5 people, and on the hill I was able shake all but one and came in at 42nd.

-----------------------------------------

While it felt good to almost single handedly obliterate a pack of 100 riders, I did feel that I could have pulled out a top 20; but really that wasn't enough to get the podium in my AG (I didn't have close to the talent of some of those guys) and with a week of buffets and no structured (but high TSS) riding I'm not going to cry about it.

After the finish a bunch of the riders came up and starting hugging me and talking to me in French (which is jibberish to me) and that felt pretty good. Not sure if that's a French thing or Fondo thing but different that SCNCA races fo sho.

Oh yeah, the Tahiti Police are supposed to call me about the crash today as a key witness. I'm already wondering what will happen if I get subpoena'ed.

Last edited by furiousferret; 05-21-19 at 07:10 PM.
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Old 05-21-19, 10:07 PM
  #206  
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@furiousferret sounds like a crazy race/ride all around!!

But a great experience. I saw your pics of the sunny islands on Strava and I'm still jealous.
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Old 05-22-19, 11:09 AM
  #207  
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Originally Posted by rubiksoval
Nice awareness of the tailwind and timing of the jump. Did that well. Keep knocking at the door and it'll open at some point!
Raced last night, B race (Cat 3/4) again. So last 2 times I race it, I was 2nd. This time 1st. My first time to win a B crit. It was my season goal to win this B crit. Bunch finish. Probably only two interesting things in the video. One is in the first 3 minutes or so when I got yelled at for how I was riding while marking a bridging attack to the 3 man breakaway (which contained a teammate). And then the last lap (bunch sprint after the breakaway was caught). I knew that if I kept at it, I would eventually win this crit, probably on one of those weeks where there is a low turnout and I am the best guy left. But it was more satisfying to win last night with a strong field, including 3 guys that had won the B crit this season. Including two straight up sprinters, and another very good all-around good-sprint guy as well. Also a good team effort (our team sometimes does bonehead stuff). Team went 1/2. Sprint practice has been paying off.

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Old 05-24-19, 10:39 PM
  #208  
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@furiousferret Congrats on the result and missing the incident. We did the race first and then the cruise. We have another trip planned next year Dubrovnik to Venice but no racing.

Do you miss the Tahitian drums? If you need it, I have a Tahitian drums play list.
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Old 05-25-19, 07:15 AM
  #209  
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@furiousferret, postrace subpoena is a classic
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Old 05-25-19, 12:02 PM
  #210  
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Originally Posted by Hermes
@furiousferret Congrats on the result and missing the incident. We did the race first and then the cruise. We have another trip planned next year Dubrovnik to Venice but no racing.

Do you miss the Tahitian drums? If you need it, I have a Tahitian drums play list.
I saw some drums at the Hilton, the Cruise Dinner, Pre Race, and a few other places, not sure if there was a specific one at the race I missed. Pre race I was forced to dance with one of the Tahitian ladies!

The Venice trip looks really nice, most of the Santana ones do. I'm not sure if we'll do another one, but they're tempting, especially the (spoiler alert) Australia / Tasmania one. As a couple still working, we only get one cool vacation a year and its a tight competition! My wife also gets free flights (points) to Costa Rica and Hawaii which we have yet to take advantage of.

Still a lot of people ask why go somewhere to just ride a bike, and imo if you're going to a place to see the countryside, there's no better way to do it.
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Old 05-25-19, 12:48 PM
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Originally Posted by furiousferret
I saw some drums at the Hilton, the Cruise Dinner, Pre Race, and a few other places, not sure if there was a specific one at the race I missed. Pre race I was forced to dance with one of the Tahitian ladies!

The Venice trip looks really nice, most of the Santana ones do. I'm not sure if we'll do another one, but they're tempting, especially the (spoiler alert) Australia / Tasmania one. As a couple still working, we only get one cool vacation a year and its a tight competition! My wife also gets free flights (points) to Costa Rica and Hawaii which we have yet to take advantage of.

Still a lot of people ask why go somewhere to just ride a bike, and imo if you're going to a place to see the countryside, there's no better way to do it.
The dance before the race probably cost you making the selection on the kilo power climb.

We have done several Santana tours and we have a love hate relationship with them. We finish one and decide it was fun but probably not do another one. Then we see a trip that is really interesting that we would be unable to do any other way for the value provided that includes cycling and boom. We sign up for another one.

My wife and I were discussing yesterday how tours do not make us stronger / faster. We get a lot of training stress and ahem, endurance but not speed. Training camps that generate a lot of fatigue seem to work and bump fitness. The only real training day we had on Tahiti, besides the race, was we rode around Moorea non stop tempo.
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Old 05-25-19, 07:38 PM
  #212  
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Originally Posted by Hermes
The dance before the race probably cost you making the selection on the kilo power climb.

We have done several Santana tours and we have a love hate relationship with them. We finish one and decide it was fun but probably not do another one. Then we see a trip that is really interesting that we would be unable to do any other way for the value provided that includes cycling and boom. We sign up for another one.

My wife and I were discussing yesterday how tours do not make us stronger / faster. We get a lot of training stress and ahem, endurance but not speed. Training camps that generate a lot of fatigue seem to work and bump fitness. The only real training day we had on Tahiti, besides the race, was we rode around Moorea non stop tempo.
I'll take any excuse I can get.

I booked a ton of TSS (700) during that trip but none was structured so I completely understand what you means about it not helping.
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Old 05-25-19, 10:59 PM
  #213  
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State champ crit. Big downhill, one easy 90degree corner after a punch of a climb, back downhill and a hard 200meter uphill drive to the finish line. Wind decided it wanted to show up today too.

Last year I crashed here and was sick during the race and had just an awful time. This year I had two teammates and was definitely able to play a role. Spent time off the front to tail gunning to closing dangerous moves.

Towards the end of the race all the strong guys that were left were launching haymakers. The pack was bringing them back but slower and slower each time. 2 laps to go and 3 guys slip off the front. I sit and hope pack brings it back to counter. Coming into the bell they've got 10 seconds or so. I have my one remaining teammate give me everything up the finishing punch and I launch. I bridge across very quick and go by everyone. As I go by the dudes look completely gassed. So its head down and go, no looking back. Pedal the downhill chicane, punch the uphill and corner. Glance over my shoulder and see one guy and pack not far. Head back down, full gas. Finishing climb is head cross. I tell myself to stay far left to block the move. Coming out of the corner into the last climb I left the door open and get out jumped by all 3 of the guys I had inadvertently towed. 4th place with the pack very close behind.

Winner was a jr from out of state who crashed first lap, got back in and still won. So I got to stand on the tree of shame and collect another bronze usac medal. Super happy with how the legs felt and the race played. Haven't had a chance to analyze data yet but all cylinders are definitely firing right now.

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Old 05-28-19, 10:56 AM
  #214  
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KSR P/1/2

Stage 1 is a very fast but unchallenging 18mi circuit featuring a fairly long draggy climb and wide open roads which we did 4x for 74 total miles. I pretty much aimed to pack surf to conserve energy for the next day, and also with the intent of trying a flyer with 1-2k to go if the opportunity presented itself, except I a broke a spoke just over the top of the 3rd KOM at like mile 50 and had to chase back on. It was kind of a bummer because I was stopped for about a minute, but neutral support was a real bro and paced me back at ludicrous speed and vo2 watts. On the last lap around mile 64 we caught another field near and over the top of the draggy climb and **** went absolutely bananas and was getting shredded, and at 10k to go, right when the elastic looked ready to snap entirely we got neutralized due to a house fire right next to the course - firetrucks meant the caravan wouldn't be able to get through. There was a breakaway with 1:10 on us at that point so the officials took the time gap where we were neutralized and gave the break that time advantage heading into the next stage. Everyone that got dropped was also awarded ST as the peloton, but the next day was hard enough that it didn't really matter. Teammate was in the break so he got that 1:10 bonus, and he also snagged the KOM jersey! I do not believe the stage had an official winner because of this. Hopefully everyone was OK in the fire!

Stage 2 is 75ish miles featuring a cornucopia of climbs ranging from draggy to steep to rolling uphill and a 20+ minute finishing climb slogfest that starts with 4k @ 8-9%, rolls for a bit, and then kicks back up to 5-6% for the last 2k. A break went away immediately after the neutral ended, got caught mid way up the first climb at mile 3, then powered away under the impetus of a Rally bro, my KOM teammate, and 8ish others. Over the top of the first climb it is a very fast rolling downhill lasting to the base of the KOM climb at mile 25, and the teams which missed out on the break sat on the front doing pace duty. The KOM climb starts with a 90+ degree right hand turn and is a fairly steep 4-5min section that is quite narrow so positioning is really key, and after that it rolls uphill for another 5k so you don't really get to rest if you fall behind. The p/1/2 field does it twice, so we makes a loop after cresting over the top and do it again, at which point you need to play the positioning game once more. The first time up the KOM climb I nailed the positioning and it was relatively relaxed and mellow overall. The second time up it I mistimed moving up by a few hundred meters and the front got absolutely swamped on both sides leaving no room to move up again. The group split towards the top of the steep section and because of where I was positioned I was never going to be able to respond in time before the road leveled out a bit so and the bros that made it in the split could start working together. The group I was in held them to 15ish seconds until 2k to go before the KOM at which point they really turned on the braaaaaap and disappeared. One of my teammates was in that front split but would eventually pop and filter back to us. The situation over the KOM was the break at 4min with I don't know how many people, chase 1 at 50seconds with like 15?, and chase 2 (us). I kept my nose out of the wind because I had a teammate burning many matches in our group, had another teammate that looked like he made the split and had also burned many matches, and the teammate in the break still.

We climbed over the feed zone climb and there were attacks that tailed guys off our group, then went up and over a dirt road climb and descent that was surprisingly smooth and unsketchy. After getting through that we hit a section that is a wide open 14mi false flat that is usually pretty fast and encourages organized chasing, but group cohesion broke down immediately and we soft pedaled while people took turns attacking each other. We went from being within 2 minutes of chase 1 to being 8 minutes behind by the time we hit the finishing climb at 10k to go. One of my teammates got fed up and refused to close gaps anymore, which caused a reaction that allowed a handful of guys to power away from us. My other teammate decided to attack solo a few minutes later because I think he was also pretty annoyed. I kinda figured since both my teammates had burned a ton of matches I should sit around picking my nose and save it for the finishing climb. Some other guys finally started a little bit of a rotation just to keep the staccato stuff from happening while I sat around annoyed at myself for not hitting the second KOM in a better position. Eventually my yolo solo teammate got caught, and 5 miles later we hit the climb and I did my effort from the base of it and pretty much powered away from everyone save a couple of canadian pro bros that I think were in a similar position to me. I wound up 26th on the day which is a bit of a bummer, but it's mostly my fault for screwing up the approach to KOM 2, and really there is no guarantee that I wouldn't have been popped being in chase 1. Such is life! My teammate kept the KOM jersey and was 9th on GC.

Stage 3 is a 10.5mi ITT which is a very gradual uphill, and this year into a headwind. It was my second ride on my TT bike and went about as well as once can expect given that lack of attention to detail. My power was quite good but my speed was pretty awful. Still, I moved up to 23rd on GC out of 75 and was the 2nd out of the Cat 2's (but I can't use that for upgrade points!). My teammate wound up 8th overall with the KOM jersey, which is pretty rad.

My goal was a top 20 so I'm a bit disappointed in myself, but there was a lot of good to come out of the weekend and it was fun.
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Old 05-28-19, 02:43 PM
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Glad you didn't catch on fire!
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Old 05-30-19, 10:46 AM
  #216  
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B race, third. Two of my teammates attacked repeatedly trying to initiate breaks. Finally one stuck. Two-man break. Bridging attempts failed. We got 2nd in the break. I won the field sprint. So 2nd and 3rd. I have now been 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 3rd in the last 4. I got dropped in the A about 10 minutes in, but ended up 7th, and attempted to bridge my teammate in the break to the 2 ahead when the break lapped "the field". But I ended up dropping him (he couldn't hang on). Teammate got 3rd.


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Old 06-02-19, 07:42 AM
  #217  
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Raced the dead Swede hundo gravel race yesterday. Course profile was incredibly deceiving. It looked like there was 5 mid sized climbs and that was it. The damn course was never flat Haha. Rolling for hours and hours with only maybe 10 miles of pavement over the entire thing

I ended up 7th and first age group. Missed the early break and worked with some dudes to pull it back over the first lap. First 45 minutes of the race were actually insane. So hard to blow the group up. Some in experienced people doing stupid **** on aero bars, but they all got dropped pretty quick. Ride the whole first lap together and work well as a team. Then it Got real spicy on the last climb of the first lap and I spent quite a bit of effort chasing and didnt have time to eat and drink like I needed to. When we hit the next climb we caught the solo breakaway guy and I did not have it. Popped off and rode it solo for the next 2 hours to get back to the start.

Last climb of the day I got a killer hamstring cramp and a couple of people passed me that were 40 mile racers (started 3 hours after us, which almost coincided perfectly with the end of our first lap). I was concerned until one of the guys that had passed me was in the hundred and had just drafted the 40 miler people for his entire 2nd lap. Chased, but no legs and he beat me.

Overall super fun and hard day. 385tss in 5 hours.y old college cycling pals that came out got 2nd and 3rd in the age group so we all got to share a podium together which is real fulfilling in it's own way.
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Old 06-02-19, 04:45 PM
  #218  
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Just did Cascade classic in 3/4. Was mostly there to support teammates and have fun.

The RR was meh. Stayed near the front tried few attacks, and mostly made sure nothing got away. As expected field was blown apart on dirt section. Which I can't ride worth a damn. Which was basically sand. Flatted right after dirt. Apparently there were two follow up cars, and my wheels were in the other one. Was given someone elses wheels. Which turned out to be my teammates. Oh yeah. They were doing "neutral support". Which meant giving out other people wheels.

Crit was super fun. After getting in to the groove I was having a lot of fun staying at/near the front. There was one crash. A junior got away and stayed away. Spoiler, he won all the stages. As I usually do screwed up on last 4 laps, and didn't move up with my teammates, got swamped, and then I couldn't. I had the legs, so could have been top 5 probably, but ended up in top 15.

Circuit race was crazy. One of the hardest races I have done. Field was blown up on lap 2. Some of those turns were scary AF. Would come out of nowhere and if you didn't scrub enough speed you are going in to someones front yard, head first, or barriers. People with disk brakes definitely had an advantage. With carbon rims, and "aero" front brake I had to start braking way earlier to scrub enough speed to make the turn.
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Old 06-03-19, 06:13 PM
  #219  
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I won a bike race.

By "won" I mean survived.

By "survived" I mean I didn't get dropped.

By "didn't get dropped" I mean I got dropped, but only on the last lap..

This was the Pescadero Road Race: 101 miles, ~8k feet of climbing. I've always avoided it because of the hills - which I've done in training - but was talked in to trying it at least once. Also figured it would be neat to do a course closer to what I watch the pros do on TV..

My goal was to at least make it over the first two climbs (4 mins then 3 mins, separated by a minute of descending - Stage Rd for the locals), then see how long I could survive on the "Haskins" climb, which is about 7.5 minutes (1.5 miles @ 7%).

Turns out I was able to stay in the group - not even gapped! - on the first time up Haskins. The break started before that, then the rest of the break went at the start of Haskins, and once it did we settled in to a reasonable pace. I was dying for sure but able to hang, much to my surprise.

The 2nd lap (out of 4) was a little easier on Stage Rd, but on Haskins someone attacked near the topped and I got gapped. I was able to chase back on a few miles later on the flat-ish section after the descent.

By the 3rd lap our pace was laughable - the break had 11 minutes on us - and everyone took a pee break just before Haskins. Me and one other kept going to get a head start on the climb, which of course they caught us on. Sadly I was really feeling it that time up, even at an "easy" pace at that point.

On the 4th and final lap people started racing again on Stage Rd and I got gapped, wasn't able to chase on. Finished, DFL.

So by "won" I meant I got DFL in a race, but exceeded my expectations!

My teammate started the break and got 4th, so that was cool too.
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Old 06-03-19, 07:47 PM
  #220  
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@mattm. Pescadero was my teams signature road race for the year and I had to volunteer and did not race it. That is a pretty bad excuse for not racing and the truth is the course is extremely difficult and not suited to my strengths. The racers who show up at registration look like they have not been fed in months. Pescadero is a climber’s course and 4 times up Haskins is just wrong for a sprinter even though I like climbing.

Over the years, I rode that course many times and it is a fun route but a 100 mile road race. Yikes.

Congrats on racing and finishing and supporting the race.
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Old 06-03-19, 08:37 PM
  #221  
wktmeow
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I've never done that race but always wanted to give it a shot. I should have done it as a 3. I probably wouldn't have survived that, either. Those roads are part of my favorite loop in the bay area!
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Old 06-05-19, 06:02 AM
  #222  
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I've been doing other riding this spring, so haven't been racing since March. This is my first season and last night was my 5th race, so still learning. It's a dead flat course with 4 turns, 5 laps of about 2+ miles each. The race started, and I had this momentary brain fart where I couldn't clip in. Once I got it, I moved to 4th wheel. There were 26 racers. I read in another thread the other day, "If you're not passing, you're being passed." That's largely true. For most of the first 3 laps, I hung around 3rd wheel. Other racers wanted me to go, but I'm a big guy, and I'm not down with being a wind break for the rest of the lead group. I wanted to ride conservatively but avoid being dropped. I shut down all the breaks for the first 3 laps, except one, but he went right into the wind with no support. He was reeled in pretty quickly. Then I realized that I shouldn't be shutting down the breaks all the time: Let's see what other people can do! Sure enough, they shut them down, and I got a free ride. There was a 4th lap sprint finish because some other dude couldn't count. On the 5th lap, one guy went with about 1/3 of a lap left, right into the wind. I let him go. The peloton went for him. I had to go. That racer got away and won. The rest of the pack went to the left to follow another rider. I took the inside, laid down some power on the final stretch (like 600+W from the corner), and got 3rd.

Overall, this was my most manageable race. I could think while I was riding, and I wasn't suffering trying to get on the back of the peloton. I felt like I had more gas in the tank at the end, but I also think that it was subdued because it was straight Cat 5. The last 3 have been 4/5, so harder with the more experienced guys in there. The podium finish feels good, too.
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Old 06-05-19, 08:49 AM
  #223  
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Last night B crit. Made bonehead move and didn't follow the two riders who were in winning break. I did a half-hearted solo bridge attempt, but gave up pretty quick and went back to the field. My teammate put in a last lap flyer. I was trying to win the bunch sprint. I went, closed quickly to my teammate off the front. I looked back, I had a huge gap, so I sat up, yelled at him to keep going, and let him take 3rd, while I took 4th. Got dropped in the A crit. Then was on the verge of cramping, so I quit. But I didn't get dropped with the first attack, and was with the lead guys for a fair bit of time. Letting my teammate get on the podium - he thanked me, which I think was the right thing for me to do, as I had four podiums in a row, he is a TT/breakaway guy and 50+, hard for him to get on the podium, good for team morale. 1minute video:

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Old 06-06-19, 11:09 AM
  #224  
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Hey everyone, new to this section of the forums as I just had my first race on Tuesday. It was a Cat. 5 crit here in NYC, held on an old airfield (wide open, flat, fairly easy corners, super windy, and horrible concrete that hasn't been updated in decades). Suffice to say it was a lot of fun (I was still buzzin a bit the next day, and was up early that morning), but now I have a bunch of questions.

First a quick summary: my primary goal was just to try and avoid finishing dead last (aside from those with mechanical issues), and then my secondary goal, if things were going well, was simply not to get dropped. I'm happy to say that I managed to achieve both goals, finishing 10th out of 26th finishers, and 8 seconds off the leader. I was right on the tail end of the lead group until the very last jump, which was a little sooner than I expected and it caught me out a little.

Also, I decided to do the race on my 1990 Basso PR, updated with a 10 speed Campagnolo Veloce/Centaur group. It's the bike I feel most comfortable on at the moment, so I figured that was best for the first race. In any case, despite its age it's still way more capable than I am. (For those that are curious, nobody gave me any looks or even commented, aside from one guy I came across riding in the street on the way to the race. Also, despite being comfortable with downtube shifters on some of my other old bikes, I would NOT have wanted to be reaching down to shift during the race).


So I guess most of my questions revolve around the draft. There were times in the race when I found myself unexpectedly moving toward the front, despite not trying to or making any particular effort to do so. Was it just coincidence? I realize this was a cat 5 race, so nobody should have much experience (although quite a few guys looked like they have been to some rodeos before), and maybe they just did realize certain things?

The course is essentially just four long straights connected by right hand turns, and the wind was coming almost directly from behind on the start/finish straight. One one of the other straights, where the wind was coming from the side (outside), I found that being on the inside of the pack was really comfortable (see pic). I was barely pushing, and when I did I was moving up past everyone. I guessed it was because of the side wind putting me in the most sheltered spot, even if nobody was directly in front of me?But why didn't anyone else try this? I was only in that spot the first time because I wanted a little clear road in front of me, to see the pavement and relax a little from the close-quarters drafting. But you would have thought the other guys would see me sliding up and try it as well, but none did for the entire race.

Another thing was the start finish straight (tail wind), where just about every lap I found myself alone on the outside and moving up toward the front with relative ease. Was this because the wind wasn't dead exactly behind us, but slightly from the side I was on? Was this because I was less "aero" than the others, and therefor getting more help from the wind? The culmination of this strange (to me) phenomenon was on the penultimate lap, when I was just chugging along and suddenly found that I was passing everyone with a lot of momentum. Each previous time I had stopped pedaling completely and slotted back in at the tail, but this time I said 'WTF' and went to the front... and immediately started turning in the wrong place (these are wide former airstrips, and all the turns look the same from a distance). A few people thankfully yelled something, and to my surprise when I gently swerved back toward the group, I was still in the front. That made me think it would be fun to lead into the real turn 1, which I did, at which point the headwind was really strong. So I let up and figured there was no need to burn energy since I would be caught anyway, and my only surprise then was that it took them longer than I expected to catch me, when I was alone and barely pushing at all.

So were guys just playing cat and mouse to setup for the last lap, allowing me to just ride by? I heard one guy complaining that he thought that was the finish, but I didn't see anyone sprinting out of the saddle and the group didn't pull away even for a little bit.

I guess it can be summed up as: why does it seem so (relatively) easy at times? Is it because we are cat 5 scrubs? Strange effects of side winds?


Below are a couple of pics. One to show that inside spot I was talking about (wind was more or less coming from the opposite side of the group), and the other to show my setup. I'd appreciate any and all feedback about my riding position, equipment... (yes, I realize I'm wearing a skater style helmet and $3 Home Depot glasses, but I honestly don't see how that was much of an aero penalty, and I just feel like that helmet is a little more secure (I'm used to full faced motorcycle helmets) and they didn't hold the Russians back in American Flyers):


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Old 06-06-19, 11:52 AM
  #225  
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Robertorolfo - welcome to bike racing, and to the forum. Congratulations on your first race - sounds like it went really well. Your equipment is just fine to start racing - don't worry about it or what others think. You are right that it isn't holding you back at this stage. Your helmet is likely just fine, but you should check that it is approved for bike racing. Requirements and standards for helmets differ by use and even though it might protect you just fine, it might not be approved by cycling.

Regarding all the other questions - It is easier to move up on the leeward side of the pack - nice job figuring this out on your own. Use that knowledge to your advantage. Sometimes in any bike race, and likely more so in a Cat 5 race, there are lulls where the rider on front doesn't want to work in the wind and slows to try to get other riders to do some work. This also is a time you can use to move up without working hard. And regarding being slightly off the front after you led into the last lap, that also is common. You are right, the pack probably thought you wouldn't survive out there and one strategy is just to let up, get back in the pack and do your best in the sprint. But don't be afraid to get aero and give it your all in that position. You will likely get caught and be tired for the sprint, but sometimes the pack will look at each other hoping someone else will bring you back for long enough for you to stay away to the finish. More than a few races have been won that way.

Keep at it and have fun.
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