TMonk

bravo!

furiousferret

Great work out there!

Ygduf

who? I'm blanking.

Ygduf

It was OTF day yesterday.

35+ I was off for ~20min at 360w before a chase caught me, then I flatted out with 5 laps to go. Teammate took the W tho, so all was good.


Then in the p12 I countered an early move with one other. He sat when the pack got close and I doubled down, only to be caught by a strong kid with 4 to go. Held on through some serious mental anguish for 2nd place, about 10s up on 3rd. Essentially 53 minutes solo in my second race. Total terminal power curve time.

gsteinb

Jared H

Hermes

Kudos to all racing. Fudgy: Which race?

Ygduf

just red kites

TMonk

balleur

Hermes

I reviewed the SCNCA and NCNCA racing calendars and they look anemic for racing. I find it hard to believe that I long for a Tempest Fugit ITT in Castro Valley. Fortunately, we have two LAVRA track Time Trials and Track Worlds left this year plus a Fiesta time trial.

mattm

Latest updates from me:

1) lost a race I won last year (Suisun Crit). But form is getting better, I felt good in the race and was able to bridge solo across a ~10" gap to avoid missing The Split. Won a ($5) prime, but lost the finish.. got confused coming in to 1 to go, thought it was 2 to go.. which on that course (~1 minute laps) is way too late. Came in 9th, meh. Next year..

2) won a training crit last night in San Jose. Given I haven't won **** this season so far, I'll take it! Lots of attacks, in the final I went from about 60 seconds out and held it - was trying to lead out a teammate but he sat up and nobody close the gap. Almost puked at the end.

rubiksoval

Wed night race. After getting my bike off the car and rolling through the parking lot 15 minutes before race start I noticed my rear tubular was about 40 psi after pumping it up 2 hours before. I didn't have a spare wheel so I went to the car and put half a bottle of Stan's in it, rolled around for 3-4 minutes, thought it was fine, and went to the start line just planning on taking a free lap with a neutral wheel if it went squishy again.

10 minutes into the race, made the four man break, and we started getting close to lapping the field. I thought it was getting squishy again... As soon as we lapped up I pulled off to change it and take a free lap, only to discover it was just as firm as it was at the start. But now the race was 20 seconds up the road and I couldn't catch them. So then the field caught back up a few laps later and I was back on the field's lap. Ending up splitting and I got into the front split and then got away again with two others with three laps to go.

Could have won that race three times over, but I lost it because I was dumb and didn't just take a neutral wheel from the get go and instead let my imagination run wild. Yay.

wktmeow

damn! You should have read my race report from Dana point. Imaginary flats are the worst flats.

furiousferret

Is that because of your form or more because of your role? It seems like you've been working for others more this season.

Radish_legs

I already posted the vid. A crit. Make the winning break. As I was in this break, I was wondering what my proper strategy should be. Break of 5. The two strongest were cat 1s on the same team. Then a very strong cat 3 (who had won the state crit champ as cat 4 earlier in the season, and has only gotten better since then), then masters ride who is pretty strong. I probably would have been best not taking pulls. But then I then would risk being attacked to drop me. So I pulled through, but didn't go very hard. But as it was, after 15 minutes or so, the Cat 1s started attacking. I figured overall it was better to be viewed as a "good citizen" in this weeknight crit, then to do what would be strategically best (not take any pulls) esp when the likelihood was very high that I would be dropped or finish off the podium no matter what. The strong guy on our team knew I was in over my head and tried to get the team to control the break, but they didn't have the horses to do it. Teammates were nice to me after, they viewed it as a good learning experience for me to be in the break, no matter that I got dropped. I certainly didn't plan to be in the break, and I had talked with the team leader before the race about what I could do to help him. But as turned out, he felt like crap that day and didn't have any legs.

mattm

The crap form has led to the role as a helper this season, which in turn means no real results to speak of. But it wasn't pre-ordained, it just became obvious after a few months.

When it's evident who has a better shot at the win, it's pretty natural. Fwiw he's (our winner this year, #1 in the p1/2 BAR that I won last year) helped me out a few times in the past, but in the last few seasons we've been about equal or he's been better, like this year.

Funny enough when I was on great form last year nobody was really around to help that much! Three races won from breaks, one from a field sprint, rest of the podiums were from solo wheel surfing. Oh well, so it goes.

We're all friends on the team so it's all good.

Ttoc6

State TT champs. Not my best day on the TT bike. Power was good but I was slow. The jr national champ that was 1 minute behind me caught me in about 10 minutes on his road bike, came in front then couldn't keep pace on the downhill. Sowe went back and forth a few times then I lok back and he was sitting behind me (about 2 bike lengtsh) just drafting. I never thought I would get angry at someone in a TT. I guess the efforts I was putting out were enough to drop him, because at some point I no longer saw his shadow and he dissapeared. Maybe he cracked or had a mechanical, but i didn't talk with him afterwards. And I didn't protest because results weren't affected.

So I ended up 2nd out of 3 with a time slower than predicted and my body is toast. Had a few small mechanical things I could blame it on, but my lack of training on the TT bike is the reason why I couldn't win.

mattm

San Ardo RR. Last year I was 4th.

This year, I cramped so hard with 2k to go. I literally couldn't pedal for 90 seconds.. damn. And it was a great scenario in theory; pro bro crashed out, local hotshot sprinter kid was working for someone else, me just sitting in.

Not doing proper training really screws up your racing results, who knew!

HR was 10 bpm above what it was last year (no power from last year), but the power wasn't really that much.. on paper, the race was "easy." Just haven't done that many hilly-ish RRs this year I guess (and haven't done enough long rides).

Hermes

Track race at Velo Sports Center - LAVRA timed events. I did the 2k pursuit with one of the best times I have had in the last 6 years. I was 0.5 seconds off of a PR. I may have another 2 seconds or so of aero improvement available with some tweaking. Currently, I am not running my optimized position due to last year/s ham/glute injury. My leg is much better but it does not like to be stretched too much so if I go too low (seat to bar drop), it hurts. So I am staying above the pain threshold. It felt great today.

I had a very good start which felt easy and my black line control was good. I ramped up the speed on the last lap. I am also running 4 gear inches higher than I used to race pursuit. I do not have a problem starting and the larger gear slows my spin so it is a bit more efficient.

Heathpack 

UmneyDurak

San Ardo RR

Plan was to get teammate in to a break. We had 4 people, including me. On first lap through rollers people were launching attacks to see who has legs, and warm up. About 3/5 in in when my teammate was brought in I attacked. Look back and field is 30s behind. Said screw it and dug in. At some point had at least a minute on the field. They caught me on rollers. Teammates kept attacking. I stayed near the front covering breaks. On backside teammate attacked again and got a gap with another rider. Continued covering the breaks, but legs were almost gone. Two other teammates moved to the front. At beginning of third lap, legs just gave out. Finished third lap, but was barely staying on a bike. Could barely maintain 200w, had chest tightness, and legs were cramping. Probably combination of heat and not eating enough. :/

chiggy

Been cycling for 3 months, 1st race, but with a competitive running background.

I did a small 100k road race, flat to rolling with a few punchy hills here and there. On the starting line I stuck out like sore thumb with my cheap bike, mtb pedals and shoes, etc. We got rolling slowly, but picked up and split the field on a "climb" at mile 10. The course flattened out and got windy, things slowed, and we tootled along except for some small attacks after every turn. The attacks and wind culled the group down to 20 or so by halfway. I tried to stay in the back and out of everyone's way, but occasionally rotated to the front for a brief pull when I got bored.

Mile 25 I learn that there has been one guy soloing off the front for nearly the whole race. He was out of sight for a long time thanks to our slow pace.

Mile 35 the one guy I know attacks hard just before a section of rolling hills. Without thinking it through I jumped up and followed him out. Nobody else responded and we found ourselves with a 20s gap, so we decided to try to bridge to the guy off the front. Unfortunately we had a little too much headwind and not enough fitness. The pack decided we were worth chasing and we were caught in less than 10 min (but I like to think they had to work for it). We caught the guy off the front shortly after.

Mile 40, a veteran racer gives me some advice. "Good instincts, fairly predictable in a group, but a little squirrely, get some rollers and look around more before making a move".

I managed to stay in the lead group as things got hillier and more intense, and really I felt better than expected... except for a flutter in both hamstrings that gave me a feeling of foreboding. Sure enough at mile 51 my left hamstring cramped bad at the top of a hard hill sprint. I had to coast down standing with a straight leg as the group rode away. I limped in but held my position for 10th. In the end I had fun and I learned some things. Will do it again.

Ygduf

san ardo, hilly. what a world.

mattm

I said "hilly-ish", gimme a break!

mattm

Sounds like a great first race - keep it up!

hack

Raced Winters.

Super fun course. Punchy climbs (~11-12 min stair step) and a sketchball descent surrounded by valley farm and winding roads. The race offered a 30+ 1234 field as a carry over/catch all group when the race used to sell out the other fields. We have a couple guys that haven't aged up to 35+ yet and the team jumped in so we could race together. Decent turnout with 28 in the field, considering road racing appears near death. Our team and one other had 6 each, another team had 5, and a couple other teams had 3.

Early break of 3 goes up the road and the field settled into an easy tempo the first time over the climb. Teams with big numbers each had a rider in the field and cover some haymaker attacks from Matt and Fudgy's teammates. Break was pulled back near the top of the climb on lap 2 after a total mess got sorted at the base. The 35s caught us and we caught the 4s and all three groups rolled into the climb together. The 35s neutralized themselves and separated the fields. All good again.

Break caught, more attacks and a couple moves get a handful of seconds up the road, but nothing was sticking. I started to cramp terribly on the third time up the climb. Had to come to a standing stop, straighten the legs, and get back on the group. One of our guys jumped away with the other strong rider just before this happened and I spent the rest of the climb fighting off cramps. Made it over with a reduced group and we now had a teammate up the road and 3 in the field of 8.

At 2k to go, the riders up the road are out of sight and I'm still battling cramps. Figure I have nothing to offer in the field sprint and just set a controlling tempo to ~350-400m. Tried to jump for a leadout and my legs just locked up. Completely immobile and losing control of the bike I tried to steer out of the way. Luckily no one fell victim to that disaster. Teammate a couple wheels back thought i had a seizure. Never had cramps that bad ... terrible stuff.

Up the road, teammate got out foxed and took 2nd. Other teammates went 1-2 in the field sprint for net 3rd and 4th while I limped in for 10th.

Fun race, highly recommended, and hope it's back next year.