agoodale

I've seen that first hand as well. The 3s p*ssy foot around on the flats and then go ballistic on the climbs. Because they are fresher the times on the climbs are faster than many of the other fields. Most of the climbers in the 3s are future 1s & 2s anyway.

Ygduf

Similar times at Berkeley Hills as well. Fastest 3s lap was 4 minutes faster than our fastest p12 lap. But over the selective hard section, we were 10% faster. Meaning we actually gave them nearly 5 minutes in the 50-minutes of that lap which was outside the 3 climbs.

gsteinb

Other races are longer than the three races though?

shovelhd

In my experience Somerville is an anomaly. Everybody knows everybody and there is a ton of looking around. The race is so short (15 mi.) that tactics and the unusual course layout (paper clip) dictate the speeds. Compared to the other national calendar races I've done regularly (Chris Thater, Mayor's Cup) it is slow in terms of average speed. Boston is one of the fastest races all year, although it's M40+.

Ygduf

Yeah, but like 100mi vs. 80. At Hamilton the course is the same for all fields. It's just different tactically that I'm noticing. The average amplitude ends up being about the same, but the amplitude of the peak sections is higher.

Like AP is the same, but the NP is higher. More variability in the 2s vs. the 3s. Could also just be a result of guys being more selective about where/what they race. In the 3s I could compete in any race. In the p12 there are some courses for which I am just not the horse.

MDcatV

Collin - please fix your chin strap.

sincerely,
mabra google groups

carpediemracing 

Heh. No, I had absolutely no faith that the 3s would stay upright, and my fear was justified by the number of people I knew that ended up in the ER that day. I spent a huge amount of energy staying near the front. Ironically the last crash happened 3 wheels behind me at about 400m to go, when I was sitting 2nd wheel, so being up front wasn't enough, you really had to be in the inefficient first few riders to avoid all the crashes. Even so I was still caught behind a crash during the middle of that race. To quote what a friendly rival told me just before I lined up: "Stay up front, they'll be crashin' like fools in the 3s".

In the 2s I felt that it would be okay sitting in the field until the last lap and I gambled that I'd be okay that lap as well. Therefore I spent no energy trying to stay near the front. I got to the finish with just one crash that semi delayed me. Ultimately my gamble didn't pay off since I got caught behind a crash on the last lap before I could move up. I learned that after the crash that held me up there were at least two more in that lap.

mike868y

stories like these really make me wonder what the allure of somerville is.

shovelhd

NCC. They're special wins. Your name goes in the program every year.

mattm

Even for non-pro categories?

MDcatV

somerville has been around for a long time. we have a "racer emeritus" in our club who has won the big boy race at Somerville a bunch of times; he's always hounding me that our elite team doesn't go, but really, none of us wants to fight east coast memorial day traffic to try and get home to go to work the next day.

carpediemracing 

It's sort of like Paris Roubaix or something. History, prestigious. It's a massive, massive, massive race for us normal racers and it's a huge win for any domestic pro team. It used to be Cat 2 and above only, no younger Masters (35+), no 3s, but they expanded the fields. I raced it first as a M35+ (lasted 4 laps?), then a couple times as a 3 (5 laps? then a finish), then the one year I was a 2.

No one cares about Bethel. Somerville is the absolute opposite of the spectrum. For a flatland crit racer I don't think there's a more prestigious race. There might be more spectacular races, and some new ones are super prestigious (Athens comes to mind) but in the northeast...

shovelhd

It depends on the race but definitely for Chris Thater. Somerville goes way back. It used to be a three race series with Nutley and another place. Amateurs are just undercards at NCC and USA Crits races but is still a big win. It's not always the best racing, but it is almost always top notch fields.

MD there was at least one ABRT guy in my field. Somebody made the drive. Traffic wasn't bad at all on my way home. Heavy at times but moving.

MDcatV

^nice!

I know one of our developmental team guys went and did the cat 3 race, and Bobby Phillips (previously referenced racer emeritus) always goes up. Not sure who did the 45+ race, but know the other 2 didn't have to pack any kids lunches for this morning like I did :-).

shovelhd

Bobby lined up right behind me and got a call up (he stayed right where he was).

MDcatV

^nice. Bobby is the man, and the man can tell a loooooong story.

shovelhd

I bet he's fun at the post race party.

revchuck 

I was going to make a snide remark changing "undercards" to "cash cows" and thought better of it. Is the amateur payout proportionate to the entry fee, or are the amateurs' entry fees mainly used to up the pot for the pros?

tetonrider

my father, who is 70+ and knows nothing about racing (other than he apparently stalks me on USAC and that i've been in the hospital a few times this year!) knows about somerville. he actually sent me an article on it -- i have to admit i had not heard of it until a week or 2 ago.

carpediemracing 

I'm pretty sure that the relative income from the amateur races is pretty negligible relative to the costs of holding the race. I can't even begin to imagine how much it costs to run Somerville. Someone pays for it (the city/town?), there's a huge organization behind it (what race have you done that has its own brochure?), etc.

One Junior won a prime there. $50.

White Plains is coming up. Based on the costs of closing the streets alone they'd need to clear something like $5k/hour of racing time. That doesn't take into effect any extra costs like prize money, officials, announcer, event services, etc. It's not a national level race (which entails even more work - minimum prize list, much higher permit fees, a high minimum pretty-high-level official level and resulting higher pay, etc) so it doesn't have to be even more thought out.

shovelhd

TI can only speak for NCC races not USA crits, but in order to get your race on the national calendar you need to put up a minimum of $15k in prize money for the P/1 men and $7500 for the P/1/2 women, and you must have both of these fields. I'm also pretty sure you must have the money up front. NCC races never get cancelled due to poor turnout. The men's pro race at Thater was cancelled the day after I won there because of a hurricane.

Somerville paid $1500 over 20 places for the Masters. The rest of the fields were similar. It's old school payout. The race fee was $35 I believe which is low by today's standards. What I am seeing more and more of are races as fundraisers for clubs or causes. High entry fees with low payouts.

kleinboogie

2014 Dana Point Cat 3 & 4

collin2985

Deviated from my new strategy of leading out because the stretch before the final corner had a headwind... Probably should have just lead out anyways.

Grumpy McTrumpy

With regards to the Thater race mentioned, the money primarily comes from sponsors.

The Domestique

Everyone,



Whether or not you race criteriums, I hope that you will appreciate this POV shot with a total of five cameras. Two on the bike (actually three, because I forgot to turn on my bar cam), two on the course, and one on the quad-copter. It tells an interesting story, I hope worth getting you excited about riding and racing. Let me know what you think of both racing and video work.







Chris