canuckbelle

North Star Grand Prix in MN. Final stage is today.

carpediemracing 

Thanks. Local pro was high on GC at some race, crashed out. I don't think it was that one.

Ygduf

I raced yesterday. Finished near the back, but contributed to a teammate ending up second. Racing at 90% or 95% for sure, but was able to cover breaks and make sure our sprinter didn't ever need to see the wind until he wanted to.

hack

Did a TT today, which makes no sense because I hate TTs. Was kind of experimenting with how well a bit more than tempo (~90%) effort while fully kitted out does against a field of TT guys. Also, teammate was wanting to do the race, so why not?

Ended up about where I had projected relative to the field and for a finishing time. 6th of 10 with 4 decent TT'ers.

The thing with TTs are that I know I could be competitive if I tried and trained for them ... but that means I'd have to train for them.

spdntrxi

Did same TT as Chris..
Had fun.. Need to work on TT position for sure. Ok on the rollers.. But lost 40s on the climb portion compared to my PR

hack

There was a car on the course in front of me on the descent ... they didn't know what to do, so they drove really slow. I didn't know the road well enough to go around them.

Duke of Kent

3rd of 15 pro men in my first race of the year, then 5th of 12 in the second, after running in 2nd/3rd, due to a crash on the last lap. Front wheel just washed out on a sandy corner, right before a very steep, short climb. Two guys came around me and I had to run up the hill, CX-style. Got 5-10 seconds ahead of me and they held it to the finish.

Next up: Local P/1/2 circuit races and crits, semi-local MTB races at 8,000ft+.

Doge

The most interesting thing about "Daniel's last race as a junior" circled below. I think that is inflated about 5 degrees, but that was Garmin in the sun reading. In the shade it was a bit over 102. I was feeding in the crit with cheif referee permission - 24mph hand-offs are new. Most the guys went throught 3-4 bottles in 75 min.
Daniel won the 44 mile 17-18 RR in a sprint Sat.
He won the 75 min P12 crit today in a sprint.
Both races were small, but the P12 had a handful of very fit guys. They did a few fliers, tried to survive and went for the sprint.

shovelhd

Today's winner in your field is a friend. That's supposed to be a tough crit.

canuckbelle

It's probably the hardest crit in the country. 20% climb every lap (and they start the race at the bottom, but the finish line is the top) and additional climbing afterwards before a big descent. We only had to do 25% to stay in the GC. So I did my 4.5 laps and made the cut. Pretty amazed I managed to finish the stage race considering Wednesday night's crash.

shovelhd

She was 6th at U23 Worlds, so don't feel too bad. Heal up.

spdntrxi

as I had a near death experience on that road a little further up a couple years ago.. I would not go around anyone . Not that I did ever anyways.

hack

I figure at most I lost 5-10s. Wasn't worth the risk and if I was seen, Carlos would probably have thrown me out for life.

jsk

Texas State Time Trial Championships
This was a big goal event for me this year. I've been working on my time-trialing quite a bit since doing my first 40k ITT at this event last year. After that I built up a TT bike and have been working on my fit/position as well as fitness and pacing.


35+ 4/5 ITT, 1st place
Course is out-and-back, and typical weather is to have at least some headwind on the first half and tailwind for the second; but this year the wind was unusual and it was a slight cross wind for most of the course. It was hard to tell on the outbound leg just how much the wind was factoring. I knew I was on track for a pretty good time as long as my pace didn't drop too much on the return leg. Once I made the turnaround my pace was holding up and the wind seemed to be a non-issue. I was a little conservative in the middle third because I new the last few miles had a hill and was mostly false flat to the finish. I really buried myself on the last rise and false flat coming into the finish, don't think I've ever suffered that much on the bike. I ended up coming a full 2:00 under my goal time (times were faster this year across the board due to the lack of headwinds, I guess). Going over the results it looks like I had the 7th fastest time of the day, and would have finished 2nd in the 40+ Master's Open.


35+ 4/5 Team TT, 1st place
The TTT didn't go quite as smoothly. Due to various issues our full team never got a chance to pactice together before race day, and it really showed. Atypical winds again, this time slight tailwind for the outbound leg and headwind for the return (thankfully not too heavy though). Right from the start our pacing wasn't as smooth as it should have been; speed was going up and down too much and before long the guy behind me was struggling (he was the one who hadn't been able to make any TTT practices, so we weren't really sure how he would be riding). He started getting gapped around 9 miles in even though I was holding back. We dropped him at the turnaround, should have done so sooner. After that, the three of us were working pretty well together for a while, actually keeping a better pace in the headwind than we had in the tailwind section with 4 riders. By mile 20 the third guy in the line was starting to overheat and had to sit on, so the last 5 miles or so it was just two of us taking pulls. In the end we ended up winning by just 2 seconds. This was my first TTT, I thought it was a lot of fun; definitely something to practice/improve on for next year.

Flatballer

Congrats on your two wins, that impressive.

I like TTT. One of the few medals I have is from a TTT (because, you know, when there's 5 teams you've got a good shot at a podium). It was fun.

mattm

Congrats to him

Doge

I was really hoping he'd get up there and race you before he retired. You seem to be winning a lot.

Racer Ex 

I was in there. He rode well...towed him part way up to a break at some point.

Took 3rd in the 55 1/2/3 race earlier in the day.

Big ups to Matt!

Ygduf

you were alone. I didn't go to you until you were half-way there, that's why when I got there I wanted you to come all the way across with me. More interested in racing next to people I like than being cutthroat and getting across alone.

Racer Ex 

Fog of war. I was tired at that point. I'm old. Etc.

Ygduf

yeah, I know. My teammate told me later that I brought 3-4 guys with me when I went to the last break attempt. When I was about halfway I checked and was alone, so sometime after that they caught me and I continued across, unaware that I was ****ing up. Oh well!

mattm

Last time I raced him, he rode me off his wheel!

Anyway is puppy really retiring? I bet he'll be back...

Doge

You're faster now :-) It will be 3-5 months after next Monday before he rides again.

Short answer - it depends.

Philosophy wax on...
Anyway there is a BIG difference between it being my sport and him the rider vs. it being his sport. Will I be hands off? - no, but he owns it now. It may be out of his system. Last year he was the 2nd longest racing junior (1st USAC race March 2007) in the USA, now by almost 2 years. So he has had his turn at it. There are some physio changes going on now, which makes it a bigger bummer to give up right now. Pretty clear (to me) door is not shut on making a wage cycling, just don't have the parent perspective that should be a priority. <23 is just too soon to know in cycling (Ask Froome). And cycling is not football, baseball or basketball. It is too big a risk for too little reward as a job. So if you can't be at the peak of the top of kids - find something else to do. Somewhat depressing, just also pretty clear.

However...
At the USAFA he must train a few hours a day at something, but will rarely get the 4+ hour blocks required for road racing - at his/your level. He will have 1 year U23 eligibility afterward. While at the Academy we are trying to line up track at the training center and see if that works for pursuit. If it does and if he want's it to be his sport post graduation, the deal can be very good. He can do active duty as an officer, training for an Olympic spot.

grolby

I managed to find time to race the 1/2/3 event at the inaugural Greenfield Crit. Came after a whole day of wrangling volunteers and marshaling and whatnot so I was already pretty cracked. Here's the report I posted on Facebook:

Yesterday I learned that promoter legs are totally a thing. I spent an hour tasting pizza in the back of my throat (and let's be honest, sometimes in the front of my throat) during the 1/2/3 race at Greenfield. Thought a few times that I was doomed. Managed to survive the Cat 3 Purge, somehow.

After racing like an idiot for the first 15 minutes and being totally useless through the corners, I spent 15-20 minutes groveling and trying not to die, got mad, got my head in the game and finally started cornering fast for the last third of the race, and found myself back in the first 10 wheels of the field with 12ish laps left. Not really sure how that happened, but it did.

At 10? 11? to go, I launched Preston's bridge attempt, and that made me tired so I sat up and returned to Scrublandia where I duly finished 37th of 40. 68 starters, though! Officially 7th Cat 3 which is pretty hilarious, since I was also the last Cat 3. If I could only START these fast crits with my head already on straight instead of taking half an hour to get it sorted out, I could actually be okay at them. Would also help not have spent all day coordinating race marshals, but that's an unusual circumstance.

In all seriousness, I'm proud to have finished the race, especially on less-than-fresh legs, and I'm pretty stoked on the course we wound up with. It was fast and legitimately challenging, at least at elite race pace. Negotiating those corners well took skill and bravery, and that's you want in a crit, right? Skill should matter. Pretty stoked for more crits this summer, and more editions of the Greenfield Crit in future years.

dz_nuzz

And you can remember that the next time you heckle me for not doing well at my own Cross race just because I "Should be good at that course"

On our own note: My team managed to snag 2nd in GC at Tour of Washington County in the P123. First day I managed to get our TT guy up the road into a major break where he took 2nd and 3rd was close to a minute back. We then had a decent TT with him placing 3rd and me 6th. Crazy thing was that the guy who was in 1st in GC ended up flatting during the TT which put my teammate in GC lead.

Sadly our crit game was not up to snuff. The team that had then lost the Jersey was Kelly Benefits, so it was four of us (Which became 3 after a very early crash) versus their 7 guys. They got the one guy up the road that could take GC back and he did just that. My teammate was both super happy and super bummed. I did everything I could for him during the crit, but it was pretty much me and him alone trying to watch everything. Oh well, at least it was a pretty awesome result.