mike868y

bear mountain cat 3 - 2nd

honestly spent the first three laps thinking i was going to get dropped. it was a rough week with finals and and i think the cold (40ish?) and rain was getting to me. there were a few moves but nothing terribly threatening and everyone got brought back. last lap up the climb was hard but i managed to make the selection. i hit the last notable "climb" before the finish way too close to the back and our group started to detonate a bit. almost went OTB but BARELY managed to close the gap. thankfully got back in the group, timed the sprint surprisingly well (I think everyone went too early?) and managed to win the field sprint for 2nd (one guy soloed OTF of the group at a few k to go). surprised and pretty damn happy about it.

miyata man

Nice result there Mikey!

revchuck 

Way to go, @mike686y!

aaronmcd

Awesome!
But... is this a road race, crit, circuit race? How long? How many/how long laps? How long is a "climb"? And also important is field size.
Totally need more info

TMonk

Nice race Mikey! True grit there.

I agree with @aaronmcd: let's get more deets!

TMonk

San Luis Rey Road Race cat 3 - (approx.) 20/40

Despite a dislike for the course and a lack of team participation, I chose to race SLR today. It was essentially $60 for a training ride, but it was a good training ride and I feel like I should support the racing community in San Diego, which has been dismal lately.

I had been at work all morning prior (desk work) and in a good groove, so I worked until the last minute really. I was still pinning a jersey at ~15 minutes before the start, but calm.

I got dropped on climb 3 out of 4. Technically on lap 2 as well, but me and another rider TT'd on together before the turnaround. On that lap I was poised too far back going up Lilac, and some detonated riders left me with a ~6 or 7s gap to close. Great.

The next time up the climb I got dropped for real. Someone attacked and many (including yours truly) didn't have it. Another rider and I who didn't get severely dropped rode the last full lap (~12 mi.) together behind the field. I took it waaaay easy the last way up and even got passed by two more stragglers but didn't really care today.

Many people got shredded each climb (including the first) and so it will still good for a half-way place in the standings. It was more aggressive this year than in years past, which is good.

Ultimately, it was a nice ride in beautiful weather, and I feel good about my participation. My club (SDBC) had high attendance in elite (1/2) and lower (4/5) categories today and so it was fun to hang out with everybody for a bit after.

mike868y

hah, sorry guys. it's a road race, 4*15ish mile laps. starts with a massive descent then immediately 180s up a shallow 10 minute climb. then descends a bit and there are a few rollers on the backside of the course and finishes in a fast slightly downhill sprint. i think there were like 45 starters? something like 60 pre reg'd but a lot of guys bailed thanks to the 40 degree rain. i had done this exact same course a few weeks ago as a collegiate race. i'd like to think chasing cat 2s up the climb for 5 laps made the pace in the 3s for 4 laps more manageable.

https://www.strava.com/activities/985003782

notwist

congrats! yesterday was definitely one for the flahutes

globecanvas

Bear Mountain isn't *that* shallow. The whole thing is like 3 miles @ 4% but there's a good 1.5 miles of 7-10% in there. It's a great result Mikey!

Wylde06

I never thought I would disappointed with 7th place, but after today's race I'm kind of disappointed with 7th place..

rubiksoval

Had our state crit champs yesterday. Only 26 guys in the field and we had 5 of them, so from the get go we get a guy solo up the road. About 15-20 minutes in it starts getting thinned out and breaking up a bit and I leap through the field and end up jumping across to our guy off the front, closely followed by another guy towing a teammate. Soon two more guys came up (including a Crit Life guy...best team name ever) and we had 15 secs with the six strongest guys in the race all in the break. Should have been nice, but since we had the numbers they didn't want to have a go. I rolled it hard with one of my guys for a lap or two but the three other guys decided they didn't want to work. After they'd skip pulls or roll through easy my teammate that was off the front from the beginning jumped again and the guys just sat up.

Field caught the five of us. A few laps later, one guy kind of sneakily rolled off the front and made contact with my guy who was seemingly dangling 10 secs up the road, then the field got silly doing the attack and then sit and then attack and then sit and before we knew it with 3 laps to go they had carved out 20 secs and we were racing for third.

So my guy dropped the other guy at the end and soloed in, and my other teammate started drilling it for a leadout. I got his wheel and a kamikaze guy ran straight into me on the second to last turn so I jumped earlier than planned to get back past him in case he decided to fall over or something in the last turn, but in doing so I had to sprint full out and I hit the last turn without even feathering the brakes and ended up on the sidewalk. Stupid move on my part! Jumped off the sidewalk (over a grate!) still going 27 or so and started to sprint again but got passed by the crit life guy. Held on for fourth and 3rd cat 1, so we kept the jersey and had another podium party.

I've gotten two silvers and two bronzes in the last four state crit champs, and in this particular crit have had two 3rds and two 4ths in the last four years. Just can't seem to put it all together for that top spot... Maybe next year! Fun day.

rubiksoval

Great work!

TheKillerPenguin

Mikey is more BAMF than I am. Bear Mtn in the cat 2's, DNF

It was cold, and wet, and I couldn't feel my arms or hands when I pulled myself, and it took half an hour before I was warm enough to start shivering. We were scheduled for 5 laps of 15 miles of the course Mikey was talking about, and I did 4. I did a ton of work to keep warm, tried to get away a lot, went OTF for a while in the 3rd lap but the combo of headwind and big puffy cold weather gear made it not such a great idea. But it kept me warm!

We started with 25 guys and by the time I pulled myself we were down to 11 or 12? I was with the front group when we got the bell lap, but they continued on down the hill to the climb and I turned right into the parking lot instead. If I wasn't so worried about making sure I'm 100% healthy again I probably would've stayed in because I'd love to start raking in upgrade points, but with an eye on the rest of the season going hypothermic didn't seem like a great idea considering I have been off and on sick for like 2 months now.

Best NP number I've ever seen for the duration though! And my legs felt really, really great. And my breathing was good! So I think I can start getting down to the biznass.

grolby

You're pretty good at sprints. Nice job!

mattm

Nice work Mikey.

mattm

great race report, nice work

Ygduf

that's a good race. good job. I've had similar races where I placed well after feeling like garbage for the first half. Sometimes not giving in or giving up pays off.

globecanvas

So pro!

aaronmcd

We won the baby masters (30-34) district championships on Saturday. For a while it was only 3 of us registered (it's not a hotly contested category). Then 4 of my old teammates who are cat 3 on a different team now registered. 2 others showed up as well. Probably also cat 3.

13 laps of a very windy course with false flats, a series of painful rolling hills, and a fast fun descent.

Teammate J1 was confident in beating the competition and wanted to keep it fast, keep the pressure on the other team. So we started, I drifted back as J1 attacked, came up and countered when the pace started to go down. Old teammate Y and I went off the front.

We weren't yet sure what we wanted, but kept the pace up enough to build a little gap, test the waters, see what happens. Random extra dude from another team is bridging up solo and I'm like wtf this is dumb. So as soon as he latches on I attack hard and Y comes with and other guy can't do it. A lap later I see both my teammates J1 and J2 bridging up with R on the other team. Perfect. 3 vs 2.

The 3 of us drill it for a couple laps to make sure no one else will catch back on while Y and R sit on. Then we start attacking.

Once, J1 attacks and the other 3 follow and I didn't make it. R looks back and sees me off the back and pulls hard for a lap to keep me off while I chase hard for a lap to keep him working. I get back on and no one counters. Fine, I can help with a bit of recovery.

J2 keeps the pace high on the rollers, J1 and I take turns attacking here and there. R covers everything. Seems like half the race was me or J1 up the road with R, just waiting to go back to the group. Attck, slow, attack, slow.

Finally, after most of the race, I attack, Y follows. We are off the front, I attack again, he follows. We sit up get caught, J2 counters up the finishing kicker, dropping me and Y, leaving it 2 on 1. That's better. Y was just sitting on and now the race is up the road. We both ride around slowly while I joke around telling him he better chase cuz his teammate won't win 2 on 1.

He doesn't take the bait and I'm tired as hell and wanna try and get 4th so I keep attacking him but he follows everything and narrowly beats me in the sprint.

Up the road, J2 had R on his wheel coming into the finishing kicker and starts the leadout early. R has to go early or slow up, and J1 gets on his wheel and comes around for the win! [edit: JK that's what the write up said about the finish, but the video shows it's not really that early. J1 and R go simultaneously and J1 got a better jump.]

I got 260 TSS in the 2:45 race. Yeah it was hard!

Wylde06

3 mile time trials are awful.

Ttoc6

Stage 1: Mutual of Enumclaw Stage race. 10k, flat Merckx TT.

Well. Didn't go quite as expected. Averaged 305 Watts, got a time somewhere around 15 minutes. Was hoping to average around 320W. I did, however, manage to hold the IAB position that @Doge was giving me advice on for the entire race. So that's good. Defitely went out too hard. Average power for first half was like 315 and second half like 300. Wish I could have pulled the splits closer together. I also noticed that it felt like I was not able to get back up to speed after the one roller. Speed before was 25.7 mph speed after was 25.0 or so. Not as big a discrepancy as I thought, but hmmm. Something to work on.

I tend to "like" TTing even if I'm not that great at it. I just haven't owned a TT bike in a long time and there really aren't enough opportuniteis to race tt's in Washington. Maybe there will be more in Utah.

Stage 2 is the crit tonight. 1 hour downtown. Will try to get an update for that posted after I get back. For now, it's feet up and rest time.

aaronmcd

0.7 mph slower seems to me small enough that a very slight almost imperceptible grade or wind change could cause it. Still if that were the case the opposite power split may have been better. But prob not more than a few seconds.

Doge

Good you could hold it.
What Watts is a hands on hoods position do you see? Are you much lower in the IAB?

mattm

Those are my favorite TTs, if I had to pick one - all out!

mattm

Modesto crit p/1/2/3 - it was hot. Super hot. Well not that hot for the central valley, only like 96 or something, but a little shock to the system.

The ice I had under my jersey melted quickly, as did my stamina. First 30 mins were active, break trying to get established but nothing got away.

The counter to a move I was in stuck, and that was it. At least we didn't get lapped I guess?