tetonrider

because of my comments/questions on the sprint? nah....bad crashes happen here EVERY year. you think they would get the message on it, but maybe the promoter has no other options for the finish or racers keep paying.

the sprint was NBD for guys who didn't panic if there was some contact. (a few folks in the p12 field were clearly NOT comfortable with that and yet mixed it up anyway. sketch.)

TheKillerPenguin

P12 is next level pain but such a blast. I cracked SO hard then recovered a bit and became the ******* in the chase that pulls too hard then cracked and cramped on the final climb. Ksr is dope af

shovelhd

Great to meet up with you guys after the race. Today was uneventful. Still waiting to get out of here.

tetonrider

fun racing with you and dz_nuzz!

yeah--for sure. loved spending some time with you. thanks for the work you do!

tetonrider

so....longshot, but...

i'm here in killington, racing monday morning.

debating whether to:
1 - stay here and do a ride afterwards and maybe even tuesday, before packing my bikes and flying out of buffalo wednesday morning. (could also drive up north and ride a GMSR stage.) con = long way from buffalo.
2 - driving to lake placid and riding whiteface tuesday.
3 - finding some route or group ride somewhere in NY...like rochester or anywhere closer to buffalo.

i think augusta is just too far. it's not too far to drive TO, it's just too far from buffalo to be at 8pm tuesday night when i have to pack bikes and fly out wednesday morning.

open to any ideas/suggestions, or if anyone has some time to kill and wants to ride.

carpediemracing 

I thought I saw @island rider in a podium picture?

carpediemracing 

Plan on being at the Rent tonight, realistically will have to do the As due to earliest time of departure from home.

island rider

Ha, no. Facebook? If you were looking at Phil's feed you might have seen a pic of three guys in kits standing next to each other with me in the middle. I can assure you, when I get on a podium the world will know. That was up at Stafford. I was actually in a good spot until I drifted over a seam in the asphalt during the run up to the sprint. My back wheel slipped in the tar covering the seam and it caught me off guard. I went from like 8th on a good wheel to OTB in a matter of seconds.

carpediemracing 

Oh, bummer.

That was the picture, posted by Phil or maybe it was the third guy in the picture. My feed is such that as soon as I refresh I have no chance of finding anything again.

mike868y

[shameless plug] b2c2 (grolby and my team) is putting on a crit in greenfield, mass in a few weeks. relatively basic 4 corner crit but should be fun! great tune up for longsjo the next weekend. come hang out! equal M/W elite payouts because duh. https://www.bikereg.com/greenfield[/shameless plug]

grolby

Haha, the perils of going off the grid during a big stage race. Would you believe the place we were staying had no wifi? Also A MOUSE MAFIA but that is another story for another time.

shovelhd

The place that was provided for me had wifi and a heated pool. 103 degree pool. It was almost 90 degrees out. Quite refreshing. I liked that Jax place down the street. Locals joint with decent beer.

Harlan

So I'm seeing a 13mi ~1k elevation TT for Cielo. Seems a bit hilly. Is that bring a road bike category?

Also, anyone else thinking of doing the Nutmeg-Purgatory double?

globecanvas

I haven't done the current Cielo TT but I can report that the guys who won it did so on TT bikes, but said it was tougher (hillier) that it looks on paper. I think I'll be road biking it.

mike868y

i'm not a huge fan of supporting nutmeg given their wildly sexist payout scheme, but i'll be doing the 3 race then the 3 race at purgatory. as a CT native i feel obligated. it's a decent race and if you're in shape an hour long crit shouldn't leave you too fatigued going into purgatory\. in years past i've done the 3 and 123 at nutmeg then raced purgatory, but honestly that's a big much.

carpediemracing 

I hope to do the Nutmeg side of the pair. Course is 35 minutes away.

Rent Tues was a bit much for me, even the Bs. 170w avg and I was really struggling. A slew of stuff that needs to be corrected with me and the bike.

shovelhd

You need a -75 degree stem now?

Harlan

Zing!

We'll see if Nutmeg happens for us, it's like 2.5 hours. And we'd have to drive right by Purgatory to get there (only 1.5 hours). A w4 only field (for both races!) is appealing, doesn't happen often. Ken Harrod is women open with 3/4 scored separately.

carpediemracing 

Heh. I used one of my 3T 14 cm stems with my old bars, so +2 cm reach. Not good.

I'm so rusty at bike racing. Next time should be better.

I think the 175s are more my style also. Slower pedaling.

globecanvas

White Plains Sunday .. NY crit championships .. 90% chance of thunderstorms on a fast, manholey, road painty downtown course.

Only 15 registered in the 45+ so far.

On one hand, the last race I won was a rainy downtown crit. On the other hand, the last race I did in the rain with a small field, I couldn't make it onto the winning move on the second lap, and quit.

TheKillerPenguin

I was on the fence about it until I saw the weather. I will be skipping this one.

I was thinking about playing at Harvard on Saturday as well, but I'm still feeling KSR. So I think this will be a training weekend.

FFJ

What is the general consensus on how safe WP is for a crit? I have not heard any horror stories re: crashes in recent years, but I don't really travel in the crit circles much.

TheKillerPenguin

I did it a long time ago when it was the crit for the Empire State Games. It's fast and safe. Being the state championship course may change the safety part of it though, with guys taking more chances and stuff. It's definitely safer than Thater.

Harlan

Same, but I'm about to impulsively sign up because I need a mental win from the DNF last weekend. I did relatively well at Ken Harrod last year (one less lap though, in cat5) with not very much training. No crazy climbs suits me - like Standish. Is the strategy just hang with the pack until last lap, then take off over the "climb"/descent?

carpediemracing 

I can't speak for WP in the wet but I did it in the dry and it was hard for me. What's hard to tell is that there are two uphill turns, the second and fourth turns. Turn one is slight downhill and turn three is the whopper, big downhill.

To walk you through the course, S/F is on a slight rise which immediately goes to a slight downhill, 1 or 2%. Enough so I could coast into Turn 1.

Next straight is wide, fast, and smoother than when I did it since they repaved it.

Turn Two goes into a slight uphill. It's a pain of a bump because it's fast and over quickly. It disrupted any recovery for me. I'd have to ease pretty hard at the top in order to recover enough for the hill.

You sort of plod along to the downhill into Turn 3. That's fast and in the wet probably slippery. Super wide road at the bottom so it's not the sharpness, it's the leaning while it's wet. In the dry I would come up on others so quickly I had to brake. I spoke with a pretty strong guy who admitted he was pretty nervous in that turn. This was the same day I was wondering why everyone was going so slowly through it.

Wide flat straight, usually some effective wind because you're going 40 mph. Wide Turn Four into the uphill. In any other years I'd have been okay but the two times? I did the race the hill really killed me. Plus I had responsibilities outside of the racing (I was doing registration plus finish camera) so I stopped quickly one year.

If it's together you need to be top 5 coming out of the last turn. A good sprinter will pass some people but if a good sprinter leads it out then it'll be tough to beat him. I haven't seen the battle for the last turn but I imagine that being in the top 20 is important for the 3rd turn and then you need the right surge flying up the side on the fast section. I imagine being at or near the front at Turn 3 will see you swamped by Turn 4.