Thanks guys for the congrats.

I lived in Portland a million years ago, before I started racing, so I had to look up the series. It looks like a blast! I'll put it on the bucket list if I'm ever back in the States, and near enough, in the summer.

The fun thing is the race usually has a good crowd watching and cheering, so a great vibe. The crowd is mostly family, friends and racers in other categories but many folks bring a picnic out and enjoy an evening of bike racing.

Doubled up on 3/4 crits tonight. While it can get a little boring, having a purpose-built bike racing circuit is pretty amazing. Bigger field in the first one and a group of 4 got away almost from the gun. I had a teammate in the move and the other 3 have teammates in the field too. Anyway, racing behind was pretty negative and it ended up being a really boring and sort of sketchy race. There was a nasty crash late in the race. Sprinted for 12th. Meh.

2nd one was maybe 20 starters vs 40 in the 1st, and it was really animated. Teammate and I were really active, as were other folks. Ultimately came down to me sprinting to be first through a couple of tight left handers before maybe 75m to the finish. Got through first but couldn't hold it to the line. I started my first sprint to 'win' the corners way too early. 4th.

"Vista Crits" informal race series last night. Like 6th or so place. There were about 5 other hitters that showed up that finished on the same lap as me, most of the field was two or so laps down by the end. Tough rectangle course with a big ring hill (<20 MPH), 6+ w/kg every lap.

The beginning was just following series of attacks to seed our front group and soften everyone up. At some point before midway, there was a lull at the front and I had some good momentum so I sent it up the outside and got clear. Local masters legend bridges up to me, and we're trading 1 lap pulls, which lasted for about 15 minutes. At some point we were out of sight, which really surprised me given how strong some of the other riders were behind us. They must have not been cooperating very well.

So that didn't last and we all got back together for the final stretches of the race. Lots of attacks, but nothing sticked, including another one by me with 2 laps to go on the hill. That lasted about 1.5 laps, but I got swarmed and passed by the front group with 2 corners to go. I was kinda dying anyway and it would have sucked to have to sprint up the hill to stay ahead after more than a full lap solo, so I was secretly relieved.

Good racing! Sorta my last hurrah b4 I switch to training for my SNV mountaineering trip. I'll continue to do track on Tuesdays while I still have bike fitness for another month or so, but I will be trading some bike workouts for loaded hikes and jogging now.

TMonk Sounds like a fun race. Was it Thurlow?

Doug "Dougie" Pomeranz. Great guy. Just turned 60 too! Crazy that he can hang with the local studs. I hope that I'm just still riding at his age, let alone able to hang with local pros and elites.

Weekly crit series again last night. Got 10th and 11th in the 2 races. The version they ran tonight had 2 basically 180s, so lots of sprinting, which is not my fave.

I’m sitting on 22 points (of 40) now for my cat 2, after getting 1 more from the 10th place. There are 4 more weeks of this series and then the plan is to have another 6 week series following. With COVID and the vagaries of attendance, I’d like to get it out of the way by the end of this series, in case the last one doesn’t happen.

Further complicating things is that there are some groovy 3/4 road races that might actually happen, that I’d cat out of, but I guess they don’t call it the Ultimate Cat (3) for nothing.

Local raceway circuit race Tuesday (PIR), P123, 20 laps (~38 miles), 15th place of ~70 starters. We had a couple ex world tour riders plus a pretty big field of most of the local fast guys so I knew it would be a fast race and some splits/breaks were likely. I was super happy to make the major break of the day (about 15 riders, that grew to about 20 in the end), and eventually help a teammate stay away from that group in a lead break of 3, and another take 5th from the rest of the big break. I came in 15th, quite spent.

cmh That was an excellent result and solid team work. Racing is always about who shows up (and doesn’t) but it sounds like a tough field.

2 years later...A race report! We really haven't had much mass start racing here, I think yesterday was the first crit/circuit race we've had outside of the USA Crit series race down in Arlington. No matter, we have TT's and I love TTing because I can't handle my bike worth a damn. We have a flat, fast 40k TT that is normally held 2x year and today was the first. I won the 45+ last time it was run in 2019, but my times were still just better than average (54:01/27.6 mph.) I went into this one with a goal to finally break into the 53' range and based on the registrants (there are a couple of guys who have won the 1/2/3's that occasionally race the 45+,) win.

After fretting about high temps and possible thunderstorms, the weather turned out to be perfect for TTing. I was the last in my group to go off and had a lot of carrots. I passed over half the field during the run. I paced almost perfectly thanks to BBS and ended up winning with a 52:59/28.1 mph. The course was super-fast today, and everyone was setting PB's. It felt so good to compete against people again. Zwift racing doesn't do it for me.

Congrats ntnyln ! That is a great ride with a fast time! Looks like you just hit your 53' goal too haha. Any pics of you in full flight during the race?

Thanks! I saw a few photogs on the course, so I'll post pics as soon as they come out.

ntnyln Fantastic win and result.

Great result ntnyln!

Hammer Crit in Portland on Saturday, 0.7 mile, wide roads, non-technical 3 corner course.

Masters 35+, Cat 123 race, 45 min - We had 8 guys of ~40 in the field, so we should have won ... but our best sprinter for this age group is good, but definitely not a pure sprinter, and he felt lousy during the race. Our team did try everything we could to get a break to stick, but it came down to a field sprint and I took 12th, with the best on our team taking 6th. My legs felt good and I had a blast attacking and going with attacks for the first and last thirds of the race, and sat in to recover the middle third.

Open P123 race, 115 min - My team took 1st and 2nd, but I was packfill. About 1/2 way through the race a break of 2 went, one being on my team, and another 10 laps later or so another teammate went with an attack that bridged up making it 5 in the break. They lapped the field with 1.5 laps to go and my teammates took 1st and 2nd of the 5 from the break. I had the legs and pack skill to move up near the front, but not to patrol any attacks once my teammates were off the front. I did manage to hold an OK position going into the finish thinking I may be in the running for top 12, but lost several places in the sprint and came in 17th of ~50 starters. This race felt really fast the entire time, but my average speed was ~27.5mph, so it really wasn't that fast for a P123 crit (it was basically the same average speed as the 35+ crit).

My team promoted this race, so it was an early start to set up barriers, and before and between my races I spent a lot of time standing in the sun marshalling corners. It was a great day at the races and our team raised $3500 for the team's charity (Edwards Center). I definitely ended the day thoroughly exhausted.

TMonk A couple of pics from the TT
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1a2374b308.jpg
Photos: Ted Morgan Photography
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a86c58da5f.jpg
Photos: Ted Morgan Photography

nice, looks fast as hell.

ntnyln As a self-appointed expert on everything fast, that is a very fast setup and body morphology. Good grief, what is not to like. Perfect back and head position. I watched the TT stages of the TdF and you would be at the top of the leader board vis a vis set up and weight. Many of the world tour riders have poor setups. Granted, they are fast in mph but they could be better.

Hermes Thanks! It's taken over 3 years (including COVID time) to get into that position. I had fits that bookend COVID and spent the time in between focusing on the parts of my body that seemed to be holding me back. Funny you mention body morphology, because both my fitter and the promoter from the TT last weekend have said that if you just looked at me [off the bike], you wouldn't think I would be any good at this.

Man, looks great. I'd really like to get a TT setup and give it a try, but I a) have spent way too much on bikes in the last 18 months and b) have no where to put a TT bike.

Did 2 more crits this Thursday, with 2 teammates in each one. I was sort of active in the first, but nothing stuck. As we came into the finish, what was an ok position turned into swamp city in the blink of an eye and I finished 13th.

In the second race, I had two good digs off the front, and while no one wanted to join, there was at least one person willing to go to the front and drag me back. This time at the finish I deliberately went to front early in the last lap and folks were happy to sit on my wheel. With 400 to go, and before the last corner, someone came around and jumped on his wheel. Came in 5th, but going in 1st or 2nd, is the only way I'm getting top 5, as my sprint's not great.

My buddy (teammate 1) was 4th in the first race and 3rd in the 2nd one. Other teammate won the 2nd one (he dive bombed me hard in the last corner, which was seriously suspect) and got his cat 2, so cool way to upgrade.

Ooph, your teammate dive bombed you to win the sprint?

I raced today! Finished 24th in a pack finish, otherwise just tried to hang and find where to save energy. I had an IF of 0.93 for 50mins, good effort, kind of wish I had did the following 3/4 race as well to see how I could handle. Now I’ve got too much energy to spare and wish I could go do a long ride lol

Yep Have you had chatted with your team mate to figure out what he was doing?