Dutch Jazz

Ah cool! In one of his videos showing the crit roads in Holland you can see what I meant by "klinkers", the ones in his video are actually in pretty good condition compared to what we rode on yesterday. I guess the English name would be brick roads?

Anyway he does seem to be racing pretty good. He seems to be riding for the "arch-enemy" team of the team I'm looking to be joining next season .

globecanvas

Kid's got a blog too: Omri Roden | Thinking out loud


There are more recent videos there, including one of a crash in Rotterdam (not the same one DJ got caught in, i think).

mattm

Awesome blog, love reading about Euro amateur racing!

Those roads look crazy small..

carpediemracing 

He recently joined that team, he was racing on his own I think for a bit. He just made a big change with position so we'll see what happens.

He talks about some nutty things. His brake levers are constantly jammed into other riders' thighs/glutes and he get shoved the same way all the time. He says after about 15 minutes things calm down (but there are crashes etc). Then it's just plain hard. I've never ridden in a group on cobbles/bricks/etc long enough for it to count but I have to imagine that rolling resistance on rough surfaces counts a lot towards overall efficiency.

aaronmcd

CCCX circuit race, E3/4

5 laps of a 4.3 mile loop, long gradual incline with cross wind, several short rollers with headwind and a short fast descent, wide u turn (full speed wide) to a short uphill finish. We started 35 minutes late due to a bad crash earlier in the day.

I lined up at the front, whistle blew and the adrenaline had already kicked in so I attacked and got a good gap (maybe a minute) by the end of the first lap. Halfway into the second lap I could see the pack behind me, but kept going hard. They almost caught me at the end of lap 2 so I eased up. I dangled off the front riding easy for several minutes. I debated going off solo again to see if someone would come with, so I fake attacked but no one was coming so I reintegrated with the pack. One guy in Specialized kit (don't know his name, but I see him at lots of races and he is pretty strong) was throwing down a few attacks per lap, went with one or two but nothing got away. Field sprint. SJBC guy attacks for a very long sprint and all 20-something of us hesitated. I went, holding back but no one came around me like I had hoped until it was too late. 8th or so. SJBC guy won.

Not a great finish, but very fun race!

aaronmcd

And looked over the data. is 102% for 57 minutes an NP buster?

First 20 minutes off the front at 107%.

Oh, and I set a 30 minute power PR.

waterrockets 

NP Buster is > 105%. There's a component to it where NP is a lot more than AP too (IF is high), but I can't remember what it is.

bostongarden

As long as there is no sustained heavy duty rain, I'll be back at The Driveway this week
Please say hi and let me draft lots; I'll be in a blue CCB kit with pink sleeves.

waterrockets 

Won't be there tonight, but have fun. Rain chances 50-75%. That track is a race track though, and the asphalt has more sand in it so it grips better in the rain. Good stuff.

Dutch Jazz

No results yet, bu a question to achieve them... Hopefully

I have this crit coming up length 1650 meters, or 1 mile, counter-clockwise with start/finish halfway of the straight:


So basically two hairpins. How would you guys approach them? Inside or outside?

I feel that inside might be very slow, although outside might be more risky in case of crashes.

It will be another race for non-license holders, so a mixture of noobs and veterans I guess. Last year they average just over 40kph...

waterrockets 

Depends.

The corners will create a huge accordion, so being far up in the pack is important unless you're an expert at tail-gunning and can trust that people aren't going to just fly off the back.

You might be better off choosing inside/outside depending on crosswinds. The acceleration out of a corner can be a lot better if you can do it in someone's crosswind draft, and you can draft closer in a crosswind.

Inside is less risk of being crashed out, but more acceleration. The speeds will be slow enough in the turn that crashes really shouldn't be too bad, and might be easy to maneuver around them. Get a feel for it, try both sides on each end of the course. See what works.

I don't see the start finish on that map, but it's likely that your position in the final turnaround will greatly impact finish order.

Good luck, have fun, and post up when you're done!

furiousferret

Lately I've preferred to stick to the outside where there is less chopping, braking, and traffic. Especially since there will be more inexperienced riders.

aaronmcd

Oakland Grand Prix, E4/5, 10th of 60ish
0.8 miles, 5 corners, a u turn (13 mph at the front) and a narrow, 145 degree right (20 mph at the front, God only knows how slow at the back)

Due to broken collarbone recently, as well as feeling great lately, plan was to ride off the front until a break formed and stay out of the mess at all costs. Well, I kept trying but nothing stuck. I sprinted at the whistle, stayed at the front the first lap and much of the next few, sprinting to and out of the 2 hairpins on the course hoping to create a break. It did, but the break was over 30 riders back so not much good. Stayed top 5 almost the entire race, mini attacks over and over and over, sometimes just sprinting til I hit speed out of the u turns, sometimes staying on the gas and really trying to get away, but always caught. Several crashes behind me, twice causing a nice small group off the front but the field chased like mad.

Anyway, I had great position 2nd to last lap. Kilo flyer by a teammate out of turn 2 and held it. I chased his chaser, 3rd position but neither of us could get on a wheel so I let a couple guys around me (really dumb move on that course - should have just made for the line like there's no tomorrow), but they then eased up letting more and so forth and I almost got engulfed in the pack and did get slowed down a bit, but managed to get out with like 6 seconds to go and squeeze out 10th place.

Hella fun, already getting me psyched for next year, but I am quite disappointed in making yet another dumb move at the end of a race.

UmneyDurak

You are preaching to the choir. lol. Yeah, nothing was getting away. I followed your attacks, couple others. Every time I look back before deciding whether to contribute, entire pack is caught us.

I'll post a video of last couple of laps in the next couple of days.

carpediemracing 

I added the "you need" for clarity but basically WR has it. Try both sides. What's probably more important is how far up you can stay in the field and how wide will the field be (2-3 wide or 10-12 wide?).

Typically the inside is the "move up side", meaning you fly up the inside, slam on the brakes, get around the turn, and go. It takes a lot of energy but you can move up a lot doing this move. I've gone from the back to the front of a 30-40 rider group doing this, and without causing any problems.

The outside is typically more efficient, less slowing, but others can get around you if they're willing to work a bit. When in a tactically less important part of the race it's probably better to be efficient and save some acceleration energy.

One thing is that if you're not planning on moving up on a given lap, and the guy in front of you isn't getting gapped off, don't use a lot of energy trying to pass one or two riders when accelerating out of the turns. The acceleration out of the turn is fatiguing, consistent, and repeated. You should stay on wheels as much as possible, stay sheltered, and make efforts only if you think it's necessary.

Instead you should gather yourself to move up a lot under braking, if that is possible, and spend a bit of energy before the turn both increasing and maintaining speed. Basically it's hard to pass someone while accelerating because you have a very high minimum level of power you need just to stay on the wheel. If everyone is accelerating at 800-1000w then you have to do 1200-1400w to pass just a few of them. On the other hand if everyone is braking then their power is zero watts, and if you do 500-800w you might move up 20 spots. It's much, much easier to pass someone under braking because it's about nerve, technique, and carrying speed, not about how good your jump is.

I've done well on courses with one hairpin by using this technique. However I've never done well on a true hot dog course.

Overall a hot dog course will have pretty high speeds on the long straights and a significant accordion effect coming out of the turns. I've only done a few of those kinds of races and really I think you need to be near the front. Even as a pretty good tail gunner it's too iffy at the back for me (typically because other riders let gaps go), and even if I get to the finish, it's hard to move up without using all of my reserves.

After the first few laps the field should sort of settle in. The riders in difficulty will be straggling, the front will sort of coalesce, and you should have a better idea of what to do.

I'm guessing that it won't be as important to be at the front for the middle of the race. Toward the end it'll be important, of course, but I imagine that things will be a bit more consistent/predictable in the middle portion of the race.

Of course I have no idea how racing is in Holland so it may be all out from the *** or something.

Doge

Where it is really confusing (to USCycling too as I've received different answers) is say you have 20 P1/2 riders - 10 Cat 2s. You finish 5th. A Cat 2 wins, a pro is 2nd, Cat 1s in 3,4th and you in 5th. How many points do you get?

Ygduf

that seems straight forward to me. there are 20 people cat 2 or better, placement is 5th, 2 points. your place is your place, the field size is all riders your cat or better.

hack

^that's the logic i'd use, but didn't look up the points table to confirm quantity (will assume fudgy is correct on the #'s).

beatlebee 

Finally pinned up this past Sunday for the Kitt Peak HC. Not many people out there, I think I made the podium.
Still waiting for the results to post.

*edit*:

I got first!!!!

shovelhd

It depends on the upgrade coordinator in your district. Some are more strict than others. Around here our Masters fields are some of the largest of the day and stacked with talent. For the points that she can sign off on, if you can get points in a field around here, that's good enough. Cat1 goes through Colorado.

bmcphx

Nice. Who was in your field? I planned to go this year but the accident changed my plans.

furiousferret

friggin awesome!

You didn't have any Cole Trickle Drive Through the Smoke moments?

mike868y

masters fields around here might as well be a second p12 race.

beatlebee 

No one, really. I hope you are healing up!

Thanks!

It is nice after all that has happened to me this year...

Ygduf

EC Day 1 - p12. I believe I was 7th of like 11?

three climbs, Southlake, Pine Flat, Southlake.

First southlake, stay with group. Lose 30 seconds at summit stopped, trying to put vest on. Had to have a volunteer zip it. Hands were frozen. Scary cold descent. Spot group about a minute ahead. Catch them in the flats.

Pine Flat - hang with group about 1/3 of the way up then they start exceeding my "this hurts too much" limitations. Ease up a bit. Make the turn about 90s down of the 7-8 guys. Descend down, less cold but still cold. Spot group on the return flats headed back to Southlake. Put my head down and catch them. Probably a bad idea. Hurt too much.

Southlake - immediately have elastic snapped. My effort started 10min earlier, and these guys also are super strong. Point nose at stem and grind out the 17 miles. Want to die mostly. Freezing cold above the 6k elevation sign, which is super sad because it means you have 4k more to go. Snow in earnest in final few steep k. Seriously final 2k probably took me 13-15min. Dying a thousand slow icy deaths.

Southlake 1:31, Pine Flat 46, Southlake 1:41

Hotfoot stayed away until the 6th hour. 91 Miles, 14k, 5:50 (including 5min stopped (stupidly) at the end of the neutral zone which occurred 3 miles into the climb. WTF) Only other stop was <1min ****ing with the frozen finger/zipper situation.

strava: Bike Ride Profile | 2014 EC Day 1 near Bishop | Times and Records | Strava
cool new all-time power curve