Masters Misc Race Report Thread
06-02-13, 09:55 AM
#976
Idiot Emeritus
Looking good, Vance! Thanks for that explanation - it was NOT long winded!
__________________
"Can you add a signature line please? The lack of words makes me think you are being held hostage and being told to be quiet"
"Can you add a signature line please? The lack of words makes me think you are being held hostage and being told to be quiet"
06-02-13, 10:08 AM
#977
Banned.
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Uncertain
Posts: 8,651
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times
in
2 Posts
Ridge Road race. Veterans categories C and D (50 - 59 age groups), 52 miles (5.5 laps of a 9.4m circuit), flattish, nice day. DNF
My first veterans race, and my first road race - so far I've just done Cat 4 crits and circuit races. I wasn't under any illusions that racing the old guys would be easier - I know a few of them and am well aware they can give me a merciless kicking any time they like - but the reality was interesting. Let's put it this way. When as a barely-competitive Cat 4 crit racer one finds oneself getting changed next to a multiple masters world champion, one suspects it may turn out to be a tough afternoon.
Actually, it wasn't that bad. Mr Rainbow Jersey is over 60, so at least I didn't have to contend with him. Very fast, though. Forty-something starters, and once I settled into the bunch I was comfortable enough in the wheels, managing to move up to near enough the head of the race to be able to respond to the attacks without getting gapped or finding myself vulnerable at the back. But the attacks were very frequent and by the third lap I was going pretty deep. Probably because of that I screwed up at a corner, taking too wide a line and getting passed by the half-dozen who were behind me. Gutted myself to get back on, just barely made it, but there was another surge virtually as I made contact and I went pop. Decided I didn't want to TT around the last two laps so rolled off the course back at the start line.
I learned a lot. Still not fit enough to compete with these guys, but getting there little by little, the margins are getting finer. And I was reasonably happy with how the race went, I could see what was going on, was able to move up from time to time, my head knew what I should be doing even if my legs weren't quite up to the job. Back for more in a couple of weeks.
My first veterans race, and my first road race - so far I've just done Cat 4 crits and circuit races. I wasn't under any illusions that racing the old guys would be easier - I know a few of them and am well aware they can give me a merciless kicking any time they like - but the reality was interesting. Let's put it this way. When as a barely-competitive Cat 4 crit racer one finds oneself getting changed next to a multiple masters world champion, one suspects it may turn out to be a tough afternoon.
Actually, it wasn't that bad. Mr Rainbow Jersey is over 60, so at least I didn't have to contend with him. Very fast, though. Forty-something starters, and once I settled into the bunch I was comfortable enough in the wheels, managing to move up to near enough the head of the race to be able to respond to the attacks without getting gapped or finding myself vulnerable at the back. But the attacks were very frequent and by the third lap I was going pretty deep. Probably because of that I screwed up at a corner, taking too wide a line and getting passed by the half-dozen who were behind me. Gutted myself to get back on, just barely made it, but there was another surge virtually as I made contact and I went pop. Decided I didn't want to TT around the last two laps so rolled off the course back at the start line.
I learned a lot. Still not fit enough to compete with these guys, but getting there little by little, the margins are getting finer. And I was reasonably happy with how the race went, I could see what was going on, was able to move up from time to time, my head knew what I should be doing even if my legs weren't quite up to the job. Back for more in a couple of weeks.
06-02-13, 10:19 AM
#978
I need speed
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 5,550
Bikes: Giant Propel, Cervelo P2
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time
in
1 Post
Sounds great, Chasm. Sometimes those surges just as you reattach aren't accidental. If I'm in the pack, and see people we've dropped coming up on us, I figure it's a great time to attack or drive the pace, as it's better to only have to drop someone once. It can also just be people in the pack realizing that since someone is reattaching, they've let the pace drop. So they pick it up at just the wrong time for those rejoining the group.
06-02-13, 12:55 PM
#979
meow
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Hint: check out my BF name
Posts: 5,831
Bikes: 2016 Parlee Altum, 2013 Cannondale Super Six Evo Hi Mod Di2 only, 2011 Cannondale Super Six, Dura Ace 7800, 2007 Cannondale System Six Dura Ace 7800, 1992 Bridgestone RB-1, MB-2, MB-3, MB-5
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Liked 3 Times
in
2 Posts
I've been busy, but, I have been finding some time to race. Last 3 Sunday races have been interesting:
Two weeks ago: I came, weather was gorgeous, race was cancelled, rode 65 miles with a few others who didn't see the cancellation notice.
Last week: I did hard intervals end of day Saturday believing that the race would be cancelled due to rain (this race is usually cancelled when the road is even just wet), I awoke, skies had cleared a bit, race was not cancelled, rode to the race, not enough people for A race, they did a combined (A & B) race and started a bit after usual B-race start time, jumped in at a bit before race was half-way done, rode for another hour after the race.
Today: I heard about race cancellation late last night, rode 60 miles with some teammates, wondering whether I'll break even on my season pass.
Two weeks ago: I came, weather was gorgeous, race was cancelled, rode 65 miles with a few others who didn't see the cancellation notice.
Last week: I did hard intervals end of day Saturday believing that the race would be cancelled due to rain (this race is usually cancelled when the road is even just wet), I awoke, skies had cleared a bit, race was not cancelled, rode to the race, not enough people for A race, they did a combined (A & B) race and started a bit after usual B-race start time, jumped in at a bit before race was half-way done, rode for another hour after the race.
Today: I heard about race cancellation late last night, rode 60 miles with some teammates, wondering whether I'll break even on my season pass.
06-02-13, 07:03 PM
#981
meow
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Hint: check out my BF name
Posts: 5,831
Bikes: 2016 Parlee Altum, 2013 Cannondale Super Six Evo Hi Mod Di2 only, 2011 Cannondale Super Six, Dura Ace 7800, 2007 Cannondale System Six Dura Ace 7800, 1992 Bridgestone RB-1, MB-2, MB-3, MB-5
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Liked 3 Times
in
2 Posts
06-03-13, 02:24 PM
#983
Senior Member
I'll just stick to getting spat off the back in 'regular' races...
06-03-13, 03:50 PM
#984
fuggitivo solitario
06-04-13, 03:48 PM
#986
Banned.
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Uncertain
Posts: 8,651
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times
in
2 Posts
Croft circuit race series. Open race, about 70 in the field. 16 laps of a 2.1 mile circuit. Pan-flat, plenty of wind.
Interesting format run by one of our more obscure cycling federations that is not affiliated to British Cycling. It's an open race, meaning that anyone from rank beginners to elites can - and do - enter, most of the serious riders treating it as a training race. And because the spread of ability is so wide, it's run as a handicap, with four groups starting at intervals.
Given there's a bunch of Cat 1s and 2s in the field I know I need all the help I can get so start in the slow group. It's not all that slow; a few don't really know what they're doing but there are enough of the rest of us to work together effectively and stay away long enough for one of us to take the first prime.
By the time the fast men catch us they have already swept up the rest of the field and I jump into what is now one big bunch that is absolutely hammering along. I'm going easier than before, though, tucked away in the draft with no question of having to do any work. However, just as I am getting optimistic about my being able to hang in, I make a mistake, allowing myself to be on the inside of the pack at a tightish left-hander. This is not somewhere I normally like to be and sure enough, I and a few others get cut up and have to cyclo-cross it on the grass for a while with drastic loss of momentum. I re-enter the action off the back off the bunch and though I sprint to try to get back on I have no help and it isn't happening, so am forced to regroup with three others and work together. Which we do; but (and this is a new experience for me) the other three aren't going as well as me and despite my doing longer turns than they can manage, we end up going slower than I feel I could handle with better help. Frustrating.
Another learning experience. So much to learn, and so important to stay awake! Could have done much better if I'd kept concentrating on where I needed to position myself on the course. C'est la guerre...
Interesting format run by one of our more obscure cycling federations that is not affiliated to British Cycling. It's an open race, meaning that anyone from rank beginners to elites can - and do - enter, most of the serious riders treating it as a training race. And because the spread of ability is so wide, it's run as a handicap, with four groups starting at intervals.
Given there's a bunch of Cat 1s and 2s in the field I know I need all the help I can get so start in the slow group. It's not all that slow; a few don't really know what they're doing but there are enough of the rest of us to work together effectively and stay away long enough for one of us to take the first prime.
By the time the fast men catch us they have already swept up the rest of the field and I jump into what is now one big bunch that is absolutely hammering along. I'm going easier than before, though, tucked away in the draft with no question of having to do any work. However, just as I am getting optimistic about my being able to hang in, I make a mistake, allowing myself to be on the inside of the pack at a tightish left-hander. This is not somewhere I normally like to be and sure enough, I and a few others get cut up and have to cyclo-cross it on the grass for a while with drastic loss of momentum. I re-enter the action off the back off the bunch and though I sprint to try to get back on I have no help and it isn't happening, so am forced to regroup with three others and work together. Which we do; but (and this is a new experience for me) the other three aren't going as well as me and despite my doing longer turns than they can manage, we end up going slower than I feel I could handle with better help. Frustrating.
Another learning experience. So much to learn, and so important to stay awake! Could have done much better if I'd kept concentrating on where I needed to position myself on the course. C'est la guerre...
06-04-13, 05:01 PM
#988
Banned.
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Uncertain
Posts: 8,651
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times
in
2 Posts
Yeah, except it was the guys immediately in front of me that were squeezed up and slowing, so it was riding into them, hitting the brakes, or taking to the grass. My fault, I was in a poor place.
06-05-13, 08:17 AM
#989
I need speed
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 5,550
Bikes: Giant Propel, Cervelo P2
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time
in
1 Post
Here is the short version, before I head off to work: We kicked some senior games butt. Ex and all his thralls medalled:
Ex: Overall winner and fastest time in the 5K TT; overall winner of the 40K Circuit Race
Sara: Second in age group in both the TT and CR. Was overlapped with the winner of the CR.
Cleave: Second in age group in the TT; First in age group in the CR and second overall.
AZ: First in age group and second fastest time in the TT (beating Cleave by 3.3 seconds
Second in age group and third overall in the CR.
You may be able to deduce that there was a breakaway.
Ex's hospitality knows no bounds, by the way. Great time Monday evening and yesterday, and I'm sure the butt-kicking will continue today as they do the 10K TT and 20K CR.
Ex: Overall winner and fastest time in the 5K TT; overall winner of the 40K Circuit Race
Sara: Second in age group in both the TT and CR. Was overlapped with the winner of the CR.
Cleave: Second in age group in the TT; First in age group in the CR and second overall.
AZ: First in age group and second fastest time in the TT (beating Cleave by 3.3 seconds
Second in age group and third overall in the CR.You may be able to deduce that there was a breakaway.
Ex's hospitality knows no bounds, by the way. Great time Monday evening and yesterday, and I'm sure the butt-kicking will continue today as they do the 10K TT and 20K CR.
06-05-13, 08:36 AM
#990
OMC
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: South Louisiana
Posts: 6,960
Bikes: Specialized Allez Sprint, Look 585, Specialized Allez Comp Race
Mentioned: 199 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 461 Post(s)
Liked 116 Times
in
49 Posts
Hell yeah! 
Y'all done good!!
ETA:
Y'all done good!!ETA:
__________________
Regards,
Chuck
Demain, on roule!
Regards,
Chuck
Demain, on roule!
Last edited by revchuck; 06-05-13 at 09:19 AM.
06-05-13, 09:24 AM
#992
Senior Member
Croft circuit race series. Open race, about 70 in the field. 16 laps of a 2.1 mile circuit. Pan-flat, plenty of wind.
Interesting format run by one of our more obscure cycling federations that is not affiliated to British Cycling. It's an open race, meaning that anyone from rank beginners to elites can - and do - enter, most of the serious riders treating it as a training race. And because the spread of ability is so wide, it's run as a handicap, with four groups starting at intervals.
Given there's a bunch of Cat 1s and 2s in the field I know I need all the help I can get so start in the slow group. It's not all that slow; a few don't really know what they're doing but there are enough of the rest of us to work together effectively and stay away long enough for one of us to take the first prime.
By the time the fast men catch us they have already swept up the rest of the field and I jump into what is now one big bunch that is absolutely hammering along. I'm going easier than before, though, tucked away in the draft with no question of having to do any work. However, just as I am getting optimistic about my being able to hang in, I make a mistake, allowing myself to be on the inside of the pack at a tightish left-hander. This is not somewhere I normally like to be and sure enough, I and a few others get cut up and have to cyclo-cross it on the grass for a while with drastic loss of momentum. I re-enter the action off the back off the bunch and though I sprint to try to get back on I have no help and it isn't happening, so am forced to regroup with three others and work together. Which we do; but (and this is a new experience for me) the other three aren't going as well as me and despite my doing longer turns than they can manage, we end up going slower than I feel I could handle with better help. Frustrating.
Another learning experience. So much to learn, and so important to stay awake! Could have done much better if I'd kept concentrating on where I needed to position myself on the course. C'est la guerre...
Interesting format run by one of our more obscure cycling federations that is not affiliated to British Cycling. It's an open race, meaning that anyone from rank beginners to elites can - and do - enter, most of the serious riders treating it as a training race. And because the spread of ability is so wide, it's run as a handicap, with four groups starting at intervals.
Given there's a bunch of Cat 1s and 2s in the field I know I need all the help I can get so start in the slow group. It's not all that slow; a few don't really know what they're doing but there are enough of the rest of us to work together effectively and stay away long enough for one of us to take the first prime.
By the time the fast men catch us they have already swept up the rest of the field and I jump into what is now one big bunch that is absolutely hammering along. I'm going easier than before, though, tucked away in the draft with no question of having to do any work. However, just as I am getting optimistic about my being able to hang in, I make a mistake, allowing myself to be on the inside of the pack at a tightish left-hander. This is not somewhere I normally like to be and sure enough, I and a few others get cut up and have to cyclo-cross it on the grass for a while with drastic loss of momentum. I re-enter the action off the back off the bunch and though I sprint to try to get back on I have no help and it isn't happening, so am forced to regroup with three others and work together. Which we do; but (and this is a new experience for me) the other three aren't going as well as me and despite my doing longer turns than they can manage, we end up going slower than I feel I could handle with better help. Frustrating.
Another learning experience. So much to learn, and so important to stay awake! Could have done much better if I'd kept concentrating on where I needed to position myself on the course. C'est la guerre...
06-05-13, 10:42 AM
#993
Resident Alien
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Location, location.
Posts: 13,089
Mentioned: 158 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 349 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 10 Times
in
6 Posts
The second in the RR was overall for her also...she got nipped in the sprint at the line after she and her nemesis left the field for dead.
06-05-13, 11:09 AM
#996
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Sacramento, California, USA
Posts: 40,865
Bikes: Specialized Tarmac, Canyon Exceed, Specialized Transition, Ellsworth Roots, Ridley Excalibur
Mentioned: 68 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2952 Post(s)
Liked 3,106 Times
in
1,417 Posts
Nice!
06-05-13, 11:34 AM
#999
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,128
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1341 Post(s)
Liked 2,483 Times
in
1,458 Posts
06-05-13, 07:35 PM
#1000
Old & Getting Older Racer
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 5,343
Bikes: Bicycle Transportation: 2022 Hyundai Kona Electric, 2019 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid
Mentioned: 62 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 41 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 8 Times
in
5 Posts
Hi,
Sara wanted me to post this photo:
What I learned from from this year's Pasadena Senior Games:
10. AzTR has the tallest TT bike that I've ever seen.
9. Sara smiles perpetually at bike races
8. The Tall Russian is shorter than AzTR
7. Racer Ex changes out of his cycling kit into street clothes faster than anyone else I know. (Maybe he should change his screen name to Clark Kent.)
6. Electrical tape isn't the best way to keep shift cable housing in the right place.
5. Time trialing while keeping pressure on your TT shift lever (to keep the chain from chattering on the cassette) is not helpful to your TT time. (See #6.)
4. If it weren't for bad luck AzTR would have no luck at all.
3. BF Masters are great fun in real life.
2. Doing a 10K time trial the day after killing yourself in a long breakaway sucks.
And, the #1 thing I learned at the 2013 Pasadena Senior Games was...
1. Hanging on to Racer Ex's rear wheel during a long breakaway is f'ing hard. (Actually, I already "knew" that, I just hadn't actually experienced it.)
Sara wanted me to post this photo:
What I learned from from this year's Pasadena Senior Games:
10. AzTR has the tallest TT bike that I've ever seen.
9. Sara smiles perpetually at bike races
8. The Tall Russian is shorter than AzTR
7. Racer Ex changes out of his cycling kit into street clothes faster than anyone else I know. (Maybe he should change his screen name to Clark Kent.)
6. Electrical tape isn't the best way to keep shift cable housing in the right place.
5. Time trialing while keeping pressure on your TT shift lever (to keep the chain from chattering on the cassette) is not helpful to your TT time. (See #6.)
4. If it weren't for bad luck AzTR would have no luck at all.
3. BF Masters are great fun in real life.
2. Doing a 10K time trial the day after killing yourself in a long breakaway sucks.
And, the #1 thing I learned at the 2013 Pasadena Senior Games was...
1. Hanging on to Racer Ex's rear wheel during a long breakaway is f'ing hard. (Actually, I already "knew" that, I just hadn't actually experienced it.)
__________________
Thanks.
Cleave
"Real men still wear pink."
Visit my blog at https://cleavesblant.wordpress.com/
Lightning Velo Cycling Club: https://www.lightningvelo.org/
Learn about our Green Dream Home at https://www.lawville.org/
Thanks.
Cleave
"Real men still wear pink."
Visit my blog at https://cleavesblant.wordpress.com/
Lightning Velo Cycling Club: https://www.lightningvelo.org/
Learn about our Green Dream Home at https://www.lawville.org/
Last edited by Cleave; 06-05-13 at 09:11 PM.