Ygduf

New Year's Day and I already have my first very unsatisfying result on the books. I had 5-10s on Berkman for most of the 2nd half of the climb. He had a better finishing kick left than I did and while I got it back to half a bike length, I ran out of ground and missed the podium.

I blame asthma and being sick, and letting the slowest guy pull our group for the middle, flatter section of the climb. We gave up 15 seconds and everyone got rested for the 2nd half. Would have been better for me, in hindsight, to attack that section and make guys work for the full duration of the climb.

Woulda-shoulda-coulda; bike racing. Ended 4th of 7 in m35, and had I raced p12 my time would have put me at 5th of 11. Mid-pack all around. My annual reminder that 175lbs does not a 15-minute hillclimb winner make.

Hermes

January 1st Mount San Bruno Hill Climb
3.6 miles 6% grade
3rd of 6
Masters 65+1/2/3/4/5
Mass start format

This was my first individual road podium and my first race with my new team.

Yep

Well, FWIW, I watched #2 win Masters Nats this year, and he only beat you by 20ish seconds, so I wouldn't be too hard on yourself.

Ygduf

thanks. I'm not hard on myself. King of rationalizing!

I beat #1 in my field a month ago. 16minutes is short for a hillclimb; I get better as it gets longer. (I bet my wife agrees)

mattm

nice job to both you dudes!

even if the fields were bigger I bet you'd be near the top, fudgy. only guys that show up to those hill climbs are the ones that know they can climb!

tetonrider

yep--field size doesn't really matter. sure, it feels nice to beat a big field, but usually only a handful of guys are capable of the win. you're really only racing those guys anyway.

plus, like mattm said, the guys who would have been pack-fill stayed on the couch and said "it's january...i'm not in race-shape."

guessing you are not in top form, anyway.

tetonrider

good on ya for racing. it's far easier to stay at home and imagine the win vs lining up for 15, 16' of pain. for example, i'm eating ice cream.

@mattm's gotta make fun of you for racing masters...those guys suck! ;-)

whether you go with p12 or 35+, you're racing against guys who can finish. wins might become more rare, but they are also more meaningful.

this hanns, on my right? nice guy, strong racer.


bet things could have been flipped with you on top form. it'll be fun for you to chase these guys around...and inflict your share of pain.

tetonrider

congrats, hermes! great way to start 2015, eh?

hope you have many more.

(i know it's 65+, but please don't wear sandals + socks to your next podium... ;-) )

TMonk

yeah, I'm thinkin' barefoot for dat au naturale ​look.

Ygduf

Yep.

I beat him at flat TTs, a mercx TT, and at Thanksgiving on a 70 minute climb. At the off-season hillclimb series here he was pretty dominant on the hills. Would win or podium depending on which pro/to-be pro would show up. Beating Phipps in the final k as he did was super impressive. I might have been the only person who'd have bet on Hanns, having seen his recent climbs.

Working on him to race with us next year is one of my goals.

Hermes

Thanks Teton and Mattm. Sandals are the new après race recovery shoes.

tetonrider

word.

seems like he is one of your big (friendly) rivals. with low turnouts at some of those events, seems like racing on the same team might actually make things less exciting.

at least with the small field of talented riders on different teams, things are wide-open. i find that kind of racing to be more exciting. (it's also why i like the big stage races as there is never/rarely one big, local team to dominate.)

Ygduf

here it's usually teams. 4-5-6 different teams all fielding 3-4-5 guys. fill in the voids with random solo guys.

YMCA

first training crit of season on Jan 3
Had 9 of us in a 50 person field
put 3 in the winning break of 8
we got 2nd, 5th, etc...
I grabbed 11th from second group last sec
good start and confidence builder for this new squad
2015 starts early here in the sunshine state

aaronmcd

Early Bird Crit #1 , first race of the season.
E4, 45 minutes, 1.3 mile loop, 3 corner, flat and almost windless.

No upgrade points for the early bird races, too bad. 2nd of ~35

I attacked at the start, got a huge gap, 20 minutes later 2 guys joined me. A couple laps to go it was clear we were staying away so we started slowing down. I attacked a mile out, it was covered and I quickly eased up. From there we just slowed to a crawl swerving around the road like drunkards carefully watching each other lol. I took off about 20 seconds out, small dude passed me a few seconds later and then just hovered a couple meters ahead all the way to the line.

Ygduf

@aaronmcd you may want to save that for when it counts. if you get yourself marked in the EBs life will be harder at red kite/cccx/etc...

mattm

My favorite part of bike racing! Cat n mouse games.

Nice job on the break and almost winning.

mattm

Early Bird 1/2/3's. Flatted! (flatted just before the race, then 20 mins in)

Rode about 20 miles to get there, partially with @Ygduf and two other team mates.

Field was decent, maybe 30-35? Probably half were juniors. And at least 3/4 of those juniors do two annoying things:

1) rock their bikes back and forth excessively
2) ride sketchily

Given this was my first race since July when I got injured, it was great to get back out there and get in the mix (and especially not crash again!).

Also reminded me how hard real racing is. The "hard" local group rides are one thing, racing is of course on another level.

So. Many. Attacks!

I went with a few of them, but the Big Dog that kept going otf didn't seem to want help, and would sit up every time any of us tried to work with him.

I flatted and it took a while to change it (had to find the culprit piece of glass), then jumped back in. Sat on the back for a few laps and eventually went up front, figuring I'd go with moves but not "the win" since I'd sat out a few laps. Guy otf last few laps stayed away, I tried to chase but to no avail. Came in close to last, coasting, happy to be back at it!

tetonrider

sounds fun. cool that you took the risk w/ the early attack and it paid off.

hack

hate this so much and see it so much from the Jrs.

also, great to hear/read you're back racing (we were actually talking about your incident today during a team ride).

Hermes

Congrats to those participating in EBs.
@aaronmcd, Congrats on the results but I agree with Fudgy. Also, the EBs are about practicing the techniques learned in a racing situation versus riding away from the field.

aaronmcd

Yeah, I'll try to not ride away again in the early birds. I was a tad overeager to start the racing season haha. Sure I'll Practice something else next time

mattm

My vote is try as hard to win at every race you can, even training races. (in this case - with a team it may be different)

If you're strong enough to beat guys, it doesn't really matter that they're "marking" you or not..

Yep

+1. A win's a win.

YMCA

very agreed