Cleave

Glad to see @Colonelmom is back and is already going deep in a race. I try to stay away from that territory.
@gsteinb, I prefer to watch NRC guys.

AzTallRider

I'll ask @Colonelmom the question we all want to ask: Did you stop pedaling?

Colonelmom

I only changed my cadence to try and get water from my camelback
To my leg. I wear just the blather under my skin suit. Suck in a mouth full of water spit it on my leg. Did not work very well

Colonelmom

Anyone racing in NC early Sep. would like to meet some of ya'll

Allegheny Jet

I have to meet you sometime! You must race cross also, right?

sarals 

I wish! I'd love to meet you! Come out to California and race some next season - Senior Games, perhaps?

caloso

Rode Red Kite #5 to protect and escort my teammate who has the overall lead. Worked the front, marked his closest rivals, got him to the front and strung it out on the last lap. He took 5th and increased his overall lead slightly. It was awesome. I have so much more fun racing the team game.

sarals 

Nice work, Caluso! Congrats!!!

Allegheny Jet

In the $ twice this weekend. Won the Cat 3/4 Omnium last night and got a third in a Crit in PA today. After last night and a FUBAR three hour drive with just an 8 minute warmup I just didn't have legs who gave a crap.

revchuck 

Ice down the keg, AJ - we'll be right over to help you celebrate.

Allegheny Jet

That might also contributed to my malaise. The Velodeome does have a keg.

shovelhd

Nice job.

Allegheny Jet

Really? The beer/foam ratio is 1 to 1. I believe the perfect craft beer model
Would be + 80% beer and -20% foam. But then again it's a plastic water bottle.

AzTallRider

Great work, Jet.

I'll never forget my introduction to the proper way to watch kids sports. My stepchildren have attended Catholic schools, and in their grammar school days, the girl would be playing softball, and one of the boys baseball. As the season got underway, I kept noticing Dads with plastic cups of beer. Wondering where they could be coming from, given no bar in the immediate area, I asked. the response was "There is always a keg in the back room. Help yourself, and just contribute when we need a new one."

Okay then. Sitting around waiting for your kid's turn at bat improved tremendously.

Cleave

OK, so that's what's missing out here at the Velo Sports Center -- a kegerator!

If the organizer had a keg at the top of Mt. Baldy today it would have been a very ugly ride down the mountain.

Disappointing race today, Hotter 'N Hell Hillclimb at Mt. Baldy. I was confident that I would do much better this year than last after getting through the Mt. Whitney Stage Race last week. Unfortunately, I had an almost identical time. I wasn't last in 55+ because I did manage to catch and pass the race organizer who started 1:30 ahead of me, but other than that I was passed the whole way up the mountain by various younger, older, male, and female racers. Haven't seen the official results yet but I'm guessing I'm next-to-DFL.

Looking at my numbers, I don't think I could have gone much harder even though I wasn't shattered at the finish. Maybe it's been too long a season.

At least my knees are fine and I didn't cramp even though I was sweating my usual excessive salty amount. Also, it wasn't hotter 'n hell. It was just hot. My Garmin 500 showed an average temp of 91°F but it definitely wasn't that hot.

I'm going to skip tomorrow's criteriums in Ontario and do a longish club ride instead.

sarals 

Cleave - you skip a race? Let me read that again.....



AJ, wow....strong work, buddy! Love the keg, too. A long standing mystery has now been solved. I always wondered what that amber-colored liquid was in some rider's water bottles. NOW I know!! "I got to get me some o dat!"

VanceMac

Some days I think there is no hope for track racing. Everyone complains that there aren't enough racing/upgrade opportunities. A few of us from LA headed down to SD yesterday for the last of their Saturday Night Upgrade Omnium series. Total combined racers in cats 1-3: four. Argh. Even the two cat 4/5 omniums had to be condensed to one. It's been a fun "Year of Track" (over 30 race days so far), but next year will be back to more diversity for sure.

AzTallRider

Shame to hear that, Vance. At today's TT, folks were saying they got calls to please support it, as the sponsoring team had lost money on a downtown Tucson crit, and was hoping to make it up with the two TTs they do, which cost nothing to stage.

Meanwhile, over on the tri courses... heck, even my stepson is doing a sprint tri with some friends, using TallWife's hybrid - the bike I bought when I started commuting 4 years ago. They are running it reverse order, so no newbies die trying to run in the late morning heat.

On the heat front: near record levels. Yesterday was the hottest for that day since '92. Along with the wind, it made today's TT tough, but my real issue is just not being in shape, and i had to get the dust off the TT bike. Average power down 35w from the same race last year, and I was unable to summon my inner Colonelmom when the going got tough. I may have actually won, by default, as I saw the other guy pre-registered in my age group lining up when the 20K folks were starting. Quite a few did that, primarily because the 20K starts first, when it's cooler. I didn't wait to see the results, so I don't know my official time/place, but the time was a couple minutes slower than last year. I'm looking forward to getting back to being faster.

shovelhd

New England Criterium Championships M55+, 6th place. Mid seventies, cloudy and humid with a slight onshore breeze, tailwind sprint. Tough day at the office. I spoke to a local team who usually beats up on me beforehand to let them know I'd work with them to counter my nemesis. So from the get-go, we attacked, and attacked, and attacked some more. We were chased down every time and then we would counter again. The problem was that the only time I got clear I was with guys who could not help. They could hold my wheel but they'd be gassed. A lot of effort for nothing, while nemesis covers me and every strong guy I am working with. So it comes down to the inevitable field sprint. With 2 to go one of the guys I'm working with chops me hard in turn one and I lose a bunch of places avoiding a wreck. I spend some energy moving up on the sheltered side (why they didn't gutter the field is beyond me) and I'm in 6th or so going into the final lap. The sprint goes but I just didn't have enough left to do anything more than hold. Right as we were crossing the line, the guy who got 2nd and the guy who chopped me that got 4th somehow ran into each other and went down hard. Two riders, two ambulances. The last two laps were really sketchy.

I decided ahead of time not to do the M45+ back to back and take an hour break and do the M35+. I can't beat these guys in a sprint so I planned on sitting in for a bit, maybe go for a prime, and see if I could get away. Basically, after all that negative racing in the M55+, just go out and have some fun. I told CDR's teammate that if I had anything left that I'd work with them. I hung in for all of the early attacks. At some point a group got off the front while I was recovering. They started to gain time, so I laid down a hard effort to bridge with one guy on my wheel. I made it 3/4 of the way and pulled off. Then the guy attacks me like it's a prime sprint to try and finish the bridge my himself. He didn't make it. If he just would have worked with me we both would have. Some people just don't get it. So with 2 to go I see CDR hanging in there around mid pack and looking good. Now its time for some fun. So I take this lap to move us closer to the front. I use the wind as my helper. CDR gets it. He's with me the whole time. It's amazing how so many racers don't understand the basics. Anyway with 1 to go I get to the top 5 sitting on the sheltered side. About 500m out I hit the gas and string it all out. Coming into the sprint CDR comes around me with determination on his face and takes the field sprint for 12th. Absolutely worth it. The guy gives so much to the sport, it's great to be able to give something back.

VanceMac

Kind of surprising, given the category. Would you call this the exception or the rule, generally?

shovelhd

It's getting worse every week IMO. Earlier in the M35+ race a guy ran into the front wheel of the guy right in front of me. His wheel was strong enough to potato chip but not fail. If it had failed, they might have needed an ambulance for me.

AzTallRider

I think big races like that championship bring it out even more. When the state jersey is at stake, guys will take more risks.

AzTallRider

Does this kit make my butt look big?

Racer Ex 

We had obtuseness galore today. Car on the course (it's closed). Second race a bunch of the Cat 4's decided to pick their noses on the cool off lap, I was OTF and trying to avoid them when a truly careless person decided to ride from behind the announcer's booth across my path. 3 seconds difference and it would have been ugly.

I did not have a result, but we locked up Big M's 50+ series championship and tried to move our other guy up in the series points. He ended up 4th in both the 50 and the 45 points, but we gave it a try.

First race we wanted a break and got it. Second race I ended up with a 300w NP, OTF a bunch and it just seemed easy. I could breathe. Got a prime and did some good work, including killing the field for a lap. I'm happy with that.

Racer Ex 

That's just crazy talk.