Ygduf

good job. screwed by the points-by-starters table though.

first points for you?

furiousferret

Great job @aaronmcd

aaronmcd

Totally screwed by the table. 2 points, but one more starter and it'd have been 5 points. Now I have 5 points total.

nokia8860

Sorry about that. I ment I was in the race but different category.

hack

you'll have the rest in no time

guttertech

Avondale Crit cat 2/3
8th/42

First race this season and first race as a 3. I wanted to treat it as a fitness test and knew we had a bunch of fast 2s in the field. Not much in the way of breakways - a few guys went up the road a couple times but got reeled back in after 10 minutes or so. I did find myself in a small chase group but it was pretty clear that this race would come down to the sprint.

I surprisingly felt great and held good position until the bell lap when I got swarmed and just didn't react fast enough. Worked back up to get into the sprint but was gutted and finished eighth. No points, but the payout went 8 deep so I ate a burger on someone's dime. Bike racing is fun.

grolby

Nice job! If your version of "gutted" has you finishing 8th in a group sprint, that's not too bad; manage the sprint a bit better and you're probably looking at the top 5.

Easy for me to say, of course.

SteveM

WTG Guttertech!

Avondale was also my first race(s) of the season. Masters 50+ and SM 40+4/5. Rode the race I wanted to in both, in the end, just did not have the legs. Finished 12/13 basically with pack in 50+. In the 4/5 finished 14/33. Not a bad start to season for me considering I have been fighting back issues since last sping and a knee problem for the last month. I am looking forward more masters racing(have only done one before since I just started last year) and hopefully a steady improvement in fitness. We do race the same venue next month, so will be interested to see if I can do better.

aaronmcd

San Jose Bike Club Winter Series Road Race.

Same as before: Training handicap race. Groups 4&5 (not USAC categories) started first, 3s, 2s and 1s each had a ten minute gap to close. I started with the 1s with a 30 minute total handicap. We did 3 laps for a total of 47 miles, mostly rollers and flats, one steep 1:20 climb topping out 8-9 minutes from the 4% finish climb.

Race started super fast, with almost everyone rotating nicely. It never let up - 24.75 mph for 2 hours and over 2000 feet of climbing. Tons of attacks by many riders, but mostly by Scott Giles, current 40-44 national champ (road). All were shut down immediately and aggressively by the entire field. I put in my share of attempts with maybe 5 tries, hoping to get Mr aggressive to help. I timed them to correspond with a tired field/gaps in the field, but I was shut down every time, just like everyone else. Whenever the attacks were shut down, we would go right back to rotating to chase the other groups.

Halfway through the final lap we caught the 2s (all other groups had been splintered and caught at various times). With many of the 2s with us, it got pretty congested coming up on "the wall", and I failed to get a good spot near the front. To make matters worse, someone strung it out just before hitting the climb, putting me something like 20 bike lengths behind the front rider. That's a lot of distance to make up on a short climb. Most of the riders in front of me were way too slow on that last climb, and I had to slow, weave, accelerate, slow, weave again, accelerate again, etc. Still, I managed to get over the top with the second group - about a dozen guys, and only Scott and 2 others off the front in the lead group.

We were too close to the finish and there weren't enough guys willing to help with a real chase. I gave a pull and rotated around in hopes of getting guys to chase but it didn't work. Maybe light it up with an attack? I took off, got guys to chase, but when they caught me everyone slowed down again. Nope. Ok, time to focus on winning the field sprint.

Mike from SJBC was kind enough to give a nice long pull as I sat on his wheel. We were getting close. Mike was hugging the centerline and I knew if I was caught off guard for a second a string of guys could come up the center and box me in. I stayed right, almost in the center, just barely in Mike's draft. I heard/sensed a commotion, guys getting ready to move. I caught a glimpse of white Jersey behind me, starting to move up on the far right. I immediately took control of the center lane and slotted in behind white jersey as he pulled ahead, before anyone else could get in. He was going pretty hard, hard enough that no one else was coming around us... for a while...

Suddenly some one sprints past from behind, got a good jump on us. My mind races, "are we that close? We are already on the 4% hill... that's the last curve just ahead, then it's, how far? Too far for a sprint, surely. But with this grade the long sprint might work. Gotta go now!" All these thoughts take a fraction of a second, and I take off after him. I round the curve. I hear his teammates behind me shouting at him to keep going. I'm gaining. Right or left? Both open.. I pass on the right, look for the finish. Damn, it's far. Someone tries to come around me, at my rear wheel. Gotta keep it up, gotta crush his soul, it's the only way. I pull farther ahead. The line is still miles ahead. Then suddenly it's right there. Smash the cranks a few more times, check both sides, I've got it. Coast across. Legs refuse to move for a full minute, lungs refuse to inhale enough air. Can't even move the legs to get off the bike. Somehow I managed to stay upright until my body was functioning again. The entire sprint was only 30 seconds, but it felt like forever.

4th place.
Haven't won a sprint in a year, since the cat 5 early birds, and damn it's exciting.

115 minutes, 0.96 IF!
Chatted for a while, went out for another lap low Z2. I had planned on doing AWC repeats on that one climb, but was too spent. Hit it hard one time and rolled back to the car. Legs are still hurting.

aaronmcd

Guttertech nice! First race as a 3 with a bunch of 2s and still a respectable finish.

guttertech

Thanks! I was happy with the result.

shovelhd

Nice job aaronmcd and guttertech.

nokia8860

Nice recap and finish aaronmcd!

aaronmcd

Early Bird Crit #4
Wide, flat, long course.
Cat 4, 45 minutes, 3rd of ~28

Started pretty slow this week. About 10 minutes in I tested things out with the old roll off the front at 600 watts looking very casual but guys were on it. It would have to take a "real" attack today. Aggressive counter attack maybe 20 minutes in with a couple guys, couldn't get it to work and went back after a lap. One more try with 5 to go, but again we weren't working well. Chilled out in the pack for a bit. Moved up to a decent spot near the front by the last lap. Just after corner 3, maybe a minute from the line, a big guy takes off with a small guy on his wheel (different teams). I jump on as well, but I was a bit slow to respond and was a couple bike lengths back for a bit catching up. Big guy still going very hard, I wasn't even sure if I could sprint. We all waited for a short sprint, don't remember who took off first (maybe all at once) but the big guy held it to the line. I came within about a foot of 2nd place. Probably could have taken 2nd if I had sprinted a second earlier, 1st if I was quicker to get on the train. Gotta keep working on the last lap mental game.

mattm

Early Bird 1/2/3's - 3rd, won the field sprint.

From the *** a mentor guy (wearing orange vest) attacks hard, gets a gap and a few guys go. Wtf.

First of all mentors don't do the 1/2/3's race (at least not as a mentor), and second of all if they do they should be neutral! Mentor dude sits up after 30 seconds but basically established the winning break. Lol.

At least we had a guy up in said break; until, he came off in the last lap or so.

Up to that point @Ygduf & I just annoyed people by shutting down their attacks. An australian kid said I was being an "arsehole".

Last lap Fudgy & another teammate gave me a super leadout, took the field sprint by about a mile. Rode home in the sunset, good times.

Ygduf

^^

just for clarity when I let up matt and third teammate had about 5 bike lengths off the chasers. They held it to the end. I get like a share of team points or something right?

#upgradestruggles


the way it worked out, with the teammate falling out of the break so late in the race, was about the worse-case scenario. team still went 3rd and 4th. If he'd fallen off a lap earlier we'd have caught the 2 off the front. if he'd lasted in the break, he's a good sprinter and probably could have won. So be it. Practice racing. Ready to do it for real.

mattm

indeed.

hopefully in a real race he wouldn't do 100+ miles the day before!

nokia8860

Early Bird Crit #4
30+ 5 (somewhere in the middle of 55 I suppose)

My first every crit. Was part of the condensed clinic at the start to play catch up so I took today's race as a learning experience and what I've learned is that a) I'm slower than I was last week b) riding around the east bay the day before wasn't the best idea and c) I am a photo hog.

Wanted to get comfortable riding in the middle of the pack so I focused on that and boy did it feel close. No crashes or anything as we went around. But a few people up front lost count and thought the race was over when we still had one more lap to go that caused that whole bunch up in the front effect. (they did tell us not to do that at the start of the race)

I took this as an opportunity to come up from the left and place myself further up during the final go around.

No podium but I'm ok with that. Wasn't expecting to contest the sprint anyways.

aaronmcd

You can do under 30 and 30+ if you want to get two of your finishes in one day.Also I think most people ride on Saturday before the early birds so it's not that bad an idea.

spdntrxi

I did the clinic with ya , your on the pink bike right ?... no time for the crit (family stuff) I was riding the black&white Parlee.

ips0803

Get used to it for the rest of the year as everyone figures out the difference between "don't do any work" and "don't do any work without a purpose."

nokia8860

Yes I remember your bike as well. Name is Joey. I have every intention of being there this Sunday as well so hope to see you again!

Thank you for this! Being new things like this may be automatic for most but for me it's a goldmine of information.

ips0803

Well I guess reality is if you're racing solo in a 5s race, there are limited purposes available (get away, bridge, pack positioning at certain places in the field)

The more experienced guys probably have more to say.

furiousferret

I think until you can prove to do otherwise, the only tactic in a crit for a Cat 5 is to stay towards the front of the pack all race (which means fighting for position) and conserve energy for the final lap and just stay on wheels until the end.

YMCA

First "big" weekend of 2015 Florida season.
--35+ power climbing RR we took 1, 4, 6. I was 4th, but if my teammate hadn't won, I would have! I've won there before. Pretty dominant all day.
--50+ crit, I took 2nd from 3 man break. Ugh! Even the winner was surprised. Would liked to have won my first ever 50+ race. Team happy.
--35+ crit, field stacked with cat1's. I felt super and fast, but felt my age as well. We missed out on break that lapped field, Settled for 10th and 13th.

Next weekend a flat Sat CR (doubling 50 and 35+) and another power climb RR (50+ to win and then jump in 35+ to assist new guys).

Any other 33'ers on here race in FL right now?