rubiksoval

rubiksoval

Nice. Good to have a good race after a bad one. Helps a lot mentally.

And I always celebrate a good clipin myself. Funny the little things you think about but every once in a while I'll spend a good 5-6 secs trying to get my foot in and it feels like a genuine eternity. So always the first bit of relief to actually get going.

Costco hot dogs

Tour of Washington County Stage Race - M4/5

RR, 41 miles, rolling terrain with 3 short punchy climbs, uphill finish. So, I think there was some miscommunication as I went for/took the Sprinter's points, but they never showed up on the results. Anyhow, got a little crampy with 6-8 minutes to go, so I stayed with the pack and didn't try to contest the finish. 33rd place trying to save my legs. Finished a 29 seconds off the leader.

TT, short, only 10 miles, rolling but mostly flat, headwind out, tail/crosswind home. Merckx style, so IAB. Thought I'd be top 10, managed 1st. 2nd place was only 1 second off my time, but third was over a minute back, IIRC.

Crit, four corner with a left right chicane, one slight hill. After getting results in the TT, I really only had one rider I was marking; 2nd place in the TT. My mark took a soft attack at about 3 laps in, I bridged up and we worked together for a few laps. We chatted a bit and I decided I didn't need to blow myself up to lap the field, so I hung around in no-man's land at 30-40 seconds on the field and held it out until the finish for 2nd place.

GC - 2nd place overall

Very well run race!!!

mattm

I really want to do that race at some point, just because it's such a big deal.. but driving 3 hours each way for a crit I'd most surely get dropped in does not sound like fun.

Maybe I'll do it some day - I hope I try.

Good on you for giving it a shot and not giving up!

UmneyDurak

All you can eat buffet at casinos. Just saying.

therhodeo

Road race sunday. 28 Miles. Got 5th and was really happy since it was a really flat circuit and I don't feel like I'm much of a sprinter.

ntnyln

I was watching you guys while waiting to race the 3's. That was some great riding in some hot weather by both of you. It was funny listening to everyone trying to figure out the finish with the field between you two when the bell rang for the last lap.

Costco hot dogs

Apparently I ended up having to do an extra lap? Same thing happened to me at Ride Sally Ride... gapped the field, 1st dropped me and lapped the field, I rolled in all alone for second.

rubiksoval

Hyde Park Blast, Cincinnati, OH. 100 or so starters. $5000/25 deep. Got 15th. I guess 1-2 rolled away with six or seven laps to go and another 1-2 (can't see anything in the dark, another reason I hate night crits) and and then with 3 laps to go or so there were six guys up the road and a team with a guy in the move put two guys on the front to sit up at the top of the climb to bottleneck it and boom, game over.

So I think we were sprinting for seventh. I got up into fourth or fifth wheel with two laps to go and then got chopped and struggled to push back up. Managed to close it up on the hill but then it got strung out and people started gapping off on the down hill right turn to the finishing straight. Then we were doing 40 mph for the last 500m. I can't even stand up to sprint coming off that speed.

This is getting really frustrating not being able to close out the finish of a big race. And it's all just going for it and getting into position. I keep trying to be opportunistic about moving up in the finales and it's just stupid. I need to just start sprinting and get to the front and then see what happens from there. It's a mental game at this point.

Wylde06

Im too fat for that hill, as small as it is.

Raced the 4/5, and was fine for the first 4 or 5 laps, then I started falling back on the hill...would catch back on the downhill or in the start/finish straight...fall back a little further on the hill..close a bigger gap..fall back further..then I couldn't get back to the pack. Ended up getting pulled

Ttoc6

Ended up doing the unsanctioned stage race that i posted about a fwe weeks ago. First race here in Utah, at altitude. Missed the TT, but since this was a pretty unorganized event, it didn't matter.

Stage 2: The mountain stage. A roughly 20 mile stage with 3 big climbs.
Started out just shooting the **** with some people in the roll to the first climb. Realized being 10 wheels back in the pack of 40 was a bad idea when an old guy said it felt fast as we were rolling maybe 21 mph on flat in a paceline. Moved upto about 3rd wheel and went for an early attack on the flat because I felt like it. Ended up getting pointed the wrong way by a cop literally15 seconds later. Turned around, chased and never made contact back to the group before the climb where it promptly exploded. Still way off the pace, I tt'd the climbs and lost time on the descents. Ended up 7th overall, with an average of 5th best time on each of the climbs. Pretty sweet, and I guess the field was abit more competitive than I thought it would be going in.

Stage 3: The road race. 56 miles, flat until the last 10k. Again, focussedon staying up front. Marked the GC leader's attack about 10 miles in and ended up in a break of 5 that I thought would stick to the end. Apparently one guy was working for his wife, who was in the race brought back our breakaway at some point on the flat. (remember unsanctioned and disorganized, no seperated categories, just seperated results by M/W/ Kids). Not sure why he did, but his wife then got dropped from the group and all his work to bring us back was for nothing lol. Stuck in the group, stayed at the front. Bridged up to one other break that came back pretty quick/ Group went from 45 at start, to 10. Hit a highway and there was no one there to direct us anywhere. The leader had his phone nad was able to get us going the right way. At the base of the climb, gc leader rode away, one other went in front of me. I chased down the other guy right after the peak of a climb and we descend back down to the highway.

At this point it got confusing as ther ewas no race markers and we came up the finish line going the wrong way. No volunteers to point us anywhere. Other guy came back up to me and we rode across the line together. Turns out the race moved a bit quicker than expected and volunteers didn't get to their posts quick enough. where we started descending, we should have turned back up hill and gone up and around for another 2 miles. So 9 of us made the wrong turn and the leader went the right way. The group of 10 got together and we decided we would freeze results where we missed the turn. So I ended up 3rd. Not really competing for any prizes or anything, so it doesn't truly matter much, just wish we could have had a proper finishing duel.

Course was super fun and if there is more road races like this in the state I could see myself doing well. I like the kind of racing that favors a strong all around rider. Also, this gave me a great opportunity to meet some of the racers in the state. It obviously didn't attract a ton of talent due to it's new status, but still, met people and starting to get a feel for a few of the teams. Also it's the same weekend as baker city and the state TT champs.. So...

mattm

Burlingame crit p/1/2. Frustrating race, not sure where I ended up but it wasn't in the money or the winning break that lapped.

I was in the winning break that lapped - along with three other team mates (break of 8 maybe?). By the end of the race nobody from my team was in it... ouch.

My biggest mistake was trying to take a local pro cx guy off the back, and paying the price for it when he called my bluff, letting the gap grow really big, then attacking me. I got dropped a few laps later. He won.

revchuck 

Some days you eat the bear...

TheKillerPenguin

Played bikes in Syracuse. NYS road championship. Also...part of an omnium weekend?!?! Made for weird dynamics; some were chasing omnium points, some were chasing the jersey, wound up pretty weird tactically. The course is 3 26mi loops with a 3mi out and back from the start, totaling 85 miles and is generally quite windy. There is one climb that is ~6.5-7.5 minutes depending on how smoked you are, and it is followed up by rollers afterwards. I took 10th which I am not particularly happy about.

A break of 3 rolled from the gun and I didn't give it much thought given the length and the wind, but it was a really negative field and by the time a chase actually started at like mile 60 they had 6 minutes of advantage. The break stuck til the end, they still had 2 minutes at the finish. In that breakaway was a NY bro, so there went the jersey ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As far as my race goes, it was super super easy until it wasn't, which isn't really something that favors me as I tend to do better when things are consistently difficult as it seems to take some punch out of other guys legs. I avg'd ~145w for the first 20 miles, and then we hit the climb and I did 5.9 for ~6:45 and that was *just* enough to get me over the top with the leaders. We did the few miles of rollers with some speed, and then things were equally chill again until the second time up the climb and thru the rollers 20 or so miles later. The second time up the climb I decided to try climbing it at my own pace instead of following the punchy guys thinking maybe it would suit me better and save a match, but this resulted in me losing about 10 seconds by the top and it took a few miles to chase back on with some others, but all was well by then.

~60 miles and I was pretty annoyed at the negativity of the race dynamics. While the 3 man break was out of sight and out of mind, anyone else that tried anything was shut down as quickly as possible, and then there would be a lot of looking around and comments about how dumb the race was, at which point someone else would try to roll and it would get brought back immediately and more softpedaling would happen. I didn't want to have to go up the climb again with relatively fresh punchy bros, so I spent the next 8 or so miles doing what I could to get OTF. The area I was trying in was fairly flat with a cross tailwind, and I had limited time before we turned right into a cross headwind to make it work. I spent handfuls of time here and there with 5-10 seconds of advantage, but I was not allowed anything more and was paced back. Then as soon as I would be caught things would shut down again, and then it would go back to soft pedaling. While it did flick a bunch of guys out the back it didn't really get rid of anyone that would've been a threat, so I essentially spent energy for no reason. Then we hit the climb and I cracked a bit about half way up it and lost about 15 seconds by the top to 10 riders, and it was followed by a pretty fast tailwind descent, so I lost more time on the downhill than the uphill. There was still the initial break of 3 riders up the road, and 10 guys scattered about in front of me, and nobody in sight behind me, so I put my head down for the last half an hour and did what I could to get back to the front. I caught and passed 3 riders in the same position as me, which got me into the top 10.

All in all pretty frustrating, I wanted better and it feels like an under performance. I had a weird-ass charlie brown stress day on Saturday that I am pretty sure bled into my race somewhat, but I also think I need to recognize that my strength seems to be being able to dump lots of kj for long periods of time and try to play towards that better. Considering the negative dynamics of the field I'm just not quite sure what I could've done differently besides having joined the 85 mile suicide breakaway...but that seemed like a bad idea at the time.

It's more interesting to me to post the ****ty race reports than the good ones. On to the next one!

rubiksoval

Madeira Crit, Cincinnati. Another $5000/25 race, but only about 50 people for this one, but the three big teams all there who started things off early. 6 guys went off within the first lap. 2 laps later I set out across the 10 or so second gap and right as I was about to make contact I hit a turn and my front wheel slipped and I sat up, pulled just parallel to the curb but then carried right on into it and over onto the sidewalk. Scratched my wheel all up and my bars and my whole right side, again. Haven't crashed in a race in four years, and now crashed two weekends in a row on my right side. Ugh.

I got some new Michelin Power Comp tires because they're a touch lighter with a little better rolling resistance than my gp4000s, but they lack the same grip. I noticed it Sat. night in the 180 turn and again today. I might run about 5 psi less, and then switch them out before crit nats. I corner aggressively and these had me really hesitant for the rest of the day, which jacks up my psyche.

Anyway, took a free lap, sat in a few laps, jumped hard up to the front on a whim and sat second wheel, and then they called a $200 dollar prime so I sat there and jumped on the first person that jumped and then managed to snag that, so I was happy again. One guy went off with about 13 laps to go, stuck it to take a $500 prime with 10 to go, and then stuck the whole race. He took home $1850 in primes and prize money. That's the way to do it.

Another guy jumped on a lull with one to go and hung on, and I jumped hard coming out of the 180 but almost wrapped up bars with someone who swung out hard 3 wide for no reason at all and that caused for some delay so eventually rolled in 7th.

So a bit of road rash, and some scratched up bike stuff. I don't know how my legs feel. Dewpoint was in the 50-60s versus the 70+ it is here and will likely be at nationals on Friday. Could be a total bust. Kind of over it at this point. Feels like it's been a long season.

Currently ranked 32nd/108 in the crit predictor for Sunday. Last year they called up top 30 so looks like I'm going to just miss that. Blahhhh. Half a point away.

globecanvas

Bummer about the crash!


Generally speaking rolling resistance and grip are correlated, no?

TheKillerPenguin

You've never cornered hard on a gatorskin have you

rubiksoval

I don't know. I think a couple of things go into crr and maybe something different for grip. I don't think the Michelins are quite as wide (the gp4000s expand a bit more than most when inflated) and the tread has no grip grooves or whatever, just flat/solid. I thought they'd be fine, but there's some minute difference that I only notice when I have the bike laid completely over. It stutters for sure, where as the gp4000s seem to absorb more and maintain road contact. So maybe the slighter narrowness and pumping them up to the same psi is the issue. I'll run probably 95 f/r at our Wed night crit and see since it has two good 180s I like to take fast. If it's still jittery there I'll relegate them to training tires. Anything less than 95 psi and I seem to instantly flat (7 flats in races last year experimenting!).

rubiksoval

Hehhh. Like riding on bricks!

globecanvas

Fair point, but no I haven't! I never understood why anybody rides gatorskins, armadillos, etc. I use GP 4 seasons for winter tires and they aren't flat-proof but they are pretty close to it, and they ride fine.

TMonk

Raced twice at Ontario yesterday, nothing to write home about. In the first one (cat 3/4) I was in a 5-6 man break that stayed away for more than a few laps which was cool, but it wasn't fast enough. It didnt' feel hard. I lined it up and kept it hot when I'd hit the front but others seemed unwillling/unable. Really, I'm surprised that it lasted as long as it did - every time I rotated to the back I expected the field to be there.

The second one (3 only) just sucked, mostly due to the 98 degree temp. reading at the start of the race. I pulled out voluntarily, not even hurting really. A break of 5 lazily accelerated away and after a few laps it was clear that no one was willing to chase or help. My teammate and I each took a couple hard pulls, only to have it decelerate right after.

Plus I felt like crap - like my body was overheating even though riding in the field was super easy and not strenuous. It wasn't fun anymore so I DNF'd - with no regrets.

Overall it was a fun day and we had guys in many races. I probably got the most kick out of watching some up and coming (strong) 4's try their bike racing games out in a couple races. Cool thing about Ontario is that it has many interesting combined field and/or master's races - most racers will find opportunity to race multiple times.

revchuck 

FIFY.

Around here Gatorskins are the go-to tire for triathletes. An S-Works Shiv with current Zipp rear disc and front 808 shod with Gatorskins? Yup.

wktmeow

Maybe your legs were good yesterday, because looking at the data, we were averaging just shy of 28 up until we got caught in the e3/4, and a full mile an hour slower for the rest of the race. Kinda wishing I had committed to that one earlier on, as I think if we built up a bigger gap the field may have given up. I'm not used to going right from the gun though, so I wasn't sure how serious to take it. I was definitely saving a bit to get back into the field.

The second one was frustrating. Since the early break in the previous race didn't work, I didn't worry too much when a group rolled off a few minutes in. But sure enough, their gap grew, and no one wanted to race bikes. I tried pulling, I tried bridging. Every time I tried to pull, no one would work with me. The only time they seemed to want to work was when I was in a group with two others trying to bridge. THEN they chased us down. Sigh. Pretty sure the break came close to lapping us. Also the heat sucked, real bad. Garmin is showing an average of 107, max of 111.

I decided to do the P123 I'd signed up for as well. Practiced my cornering a bit, felt a lot more confident than the last two times, but 35 mins in I started having cold sweats and figured I didn't want heat stroke, so I pulled out. Avg temp 108, max of 115 in that one, woof. Hottest race I've ever done.

TMonk

Ya, screw that noise. Also maybe it was faster earlier but when I got that free ride to the break from the guy who bridged it didn't feel too fast.

EDIT: Also, Fiesta Island World Champs. 28 avg is somewhat common and I'm certainly one who doesn't shy away from driving it on the front in that ride. Come down and ride it already!

TheKillerPenguin

For me it was laziness. I flatted when it was about 20º and decided I needed a set of bombproof winter tires and my LBS only had Gatorskins. I've got one puncture flat on them in probably 10k worth of riding and it was a roofing staple. Also one pinch flat though I am convinced my teammates set me up for that one since I spent the better part of the morning making fun of them for running race tires on a training death march.