TMonk

Inaugural Fiesta Island Time Trial, 1/29/23

1st out of 7 in 35+ division, fourth fastest time on the day. I rode the 20k in 27:32. Slow day out there, pretty cold and windy. Nearest competition was 14s off, so it was a close race. I am the smallest guy on the podium for sure (5'9" 145lbs), but I'm crouching in the photo a bit.

spdntrxi

congrats... all #2 had to do was shave = aero. j/k nice win

TMonk

Valley of the Sun Stage Race report, Men’s 35+ field, 3/33 overall GC

3/17 – 3/19/2023






Time Trial: 5th place

This year featured a new course, which suited me well, as it was shorter, more technical and “punchier”. It’s a 10 mile “L” shape, with a few little dips/rollers and some patches of rough road. All three turns were a bit sharp/narrow and demanded respect. I’m glad that I pre-road the course with a teammate on our way into town.

During the event, I felt pretty good, and more-or-less hit my power targets. The course and the wind made pacing a bit tricky, which again probably worked in my favor. I caught and passed three riders on the course, which kept me motivated. I was seeing 33-34 MPH on the final leg with the tailwind, which kept things fun while I was hurting.

I was hoping for a top 10, and was quite pleased with my placing when I found out I was in 5th overall. 3rd and 4th were within reaching distance as well, but 1st and 2nd (Turbo Racing) were a minute or more ahead. Those riders would go on to finish 1st and 2nd in both subsequent stages.

To be honest, the big surprise was that I finished ahead of a teammate in the TT by a few seconds. He is a big, powerful rider who has had some aero optimization, and usually finishes faster than me in TT’s, and probably would have on the old course. I came to VoS mentally prepared to ride in support of him and maybe go for a stage in the RR or crit, but that’s not the way the cards fell this time. I feel proud of my mental and physical execution in this tactical time trial.




Road Race, 4th place

The race organizers combined our field with the Master’s 45+ field for the subsequent two stages. Watching numbers and navigating GC seemed manageable in a field of under 40, but challenging in a field of about 80 riders. Still, I felt relaxed and prepared to defend my 5th position in GC, which was worth some quantity of my cat 1 upgrade points.

On the way out to the race, I found myself envisioning a race-winning move on the final climb, which I recognized as good psychology. The course shape is a 16-mile triangle, with each lap ending on an ~8 minute big-ring climb that just tapers forever into a false flat by the finish line; it’s a real strongman’s finish. I wanted to wait until the final kilometer to make my attack and play it cool, since I’ve seen so many riders go too early and blow up in this race.

The race was fairly uneventful for me, and I did manage to stay towards the front for most of it. I wasn’t afraid to ride sweet spot for a minute (or three) on the front to stay out of trouble. On lap two, I crossed the line second on the “KOM” climb earning a few bonus seconds.

The final climb played out somewhat smoothly. Some riders on domestique duty took solid pulls for the opening minutes, which kept things nice and tidy for me at the front. With a couple KM to go, the lead in GC attacked and established a gap, and a couple of 35+ riders and several 45+ riders went with. I did not respond to the attack, which I later regretted

I attacked myself in the final KM as planned, and got clear. It was enough to establish my gap on 3rd and 4th in GC, who were already dropped by then. Unfortunately, my teammate adjacent to me in GC also fell back a bit, as did the other two riders on SDBC.

It took them more than a few hours to update the online results, but back at the Air BnB, we all felt enthusiastic about me moving up in GC. The vibe felt somewhat celebratory, but I still had to survive the criterium without incident.




Criterium: pack finish

My primary goals in the criterium were to finish in the pack, and make sure any break attempts from 4th and 5th in GC were marked. A secondary goal was to set up a teammate for a sprint finish, if he felt up for it once the lap cards went up.

I stayed near the front, and also wasn’t afraid to ride around threshold pace to stay out of trouble for a minute or two of the 30 minute race. The race was so short, it almost felt strategic to get low and keep the clock ticking away on the front. Bummer that they don’t let you race a second criterium at stage races, would have been fun to race the Cat 2 later. I would have raced more aggressively in that one.

My teammate shouted “No” at me several wheels back as we neared the finish, so for me it meant time to drift back. A threatening breakaway was “out of the cards” at that point (pun intended), and riders started to get a bit aggressive for the finish. I’ve grown to really dislike this part of criterium racing as I’ve aged, but I do have a decent kick, and can mix it up if I need to.




Post-Mortem

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with my performance, from the first race onward. I did feel like a good result was possible, however, I was not entirely confident in it. As always, it sort of depends on who shows up, and of course your athletic performance. I do not have a history of placing highly at this race, and as previously mentioned, I thought the most likely outcome was that I would have placed a bit lower in the TT. I certainly did not expect to ride faster than my teammate. 1st and 2nd in GC were on a higher level but turns out I was the ‘best of the rest’ this year.

The TT is such a cool discipline. I feel inspired to do some testing, get faster, and kick up my progression in the spirit of continual improvement.

I had an equally great time off the bike, as we had a great crew with five SDBC riders in total, and an Air BnB with stacked amenities and individual bedrooms. What a contrast to my intercollegiate beginnings! On that note, a highlight of the non-spandex-clad portion of the weekend was joining a teammate (and his family) to watch ASU win a close ice hockey match against Linwood. It was a high-scoring, exciting game. These kids are quite good. I found the facility quite impressive as well (Mullett arena).

I’m enthusiastic to ride this high of confidence into my next block of training, in preparation for my final established goals of the season: Tour de Murrieta and the San Luis Rey Road Race, during the first two weekends of April. Coach wants me to polarize and focus on only zone-5/VO2 max (puke…) and steady z2. Queue the “Rocky” training montage.

After that – I’ll be decompressing and riding for fun! This means more group rides, and track! Gotta love track. I’ll likely put in another block of strict training in the summer for some late season goals (TBD).

Thanks for reading! Let’s go SDBC Men’s Team 2023!!!

Hermes

TMonk Congrats on a fabulous stage race. VOS is a big time race that gets a large draw. So being the best of the rest is like "huge". And you have been working on your TT and riding at the velodrome. It does not surprise me that you did well. Yeah I admit that comment is after the fact but you put in a lot of time on the TT bike and you race TT at Fiesta. Fiesta offers those that use it to train TT a competitive advantage, IMO, It is hard to find a course where one can go full power for 40km or whatever distance you want.

TMonk

Thanks Hermes! Yes with all of the TT work and endurance riding, I do feel like I prepared well for the race.

RCMoeur 

I dropped by the Valley of the Sun Criterium on Sunday briefly - wrote about it in the "Where Did You Ride Today?" thread in C&V.

Snapped a photo of a Cat 4 pack prime:



Also noticed the RWGPS heatmap was looking a bit convoluted that day.



It's been a long time since I held a racing license, but being at a race at the State Capitol reminded me of racing against Roy Knickman in the Phoenix Criterium in the early 80s on a similar course. (OK, I was only in the same race because they threw Cat 1-4 and Pro all together into a single race, and Mr. Knickman lapped me before the halfway point, but I can legitimately say I raced against him.)

TMonk

Very cool, thanks for sharing RCMoeur

TMonk

2023 Tour de Murrieta Criterium, Masters 35/45+ combined 1-3: 1st place




I attacked about 20 minutes into the 50 minute race, and drew out the other two riders in the image. The guy on my right (Methods to Winning) wasn't worth a whole lot, and it was mainly me and the other guy driving the break. The MtW rider had Charon Smith and Rahsaan Bahati back in the field, so I wasn't sure if he was sagging the break, or if he just didn't have it. Turns out it was the latter, but either way, like I got it, that's bike racing.

Our break was always tenuous and hovered around the 10s mark the whole race. I was hurting for sure at the end of my pulls, but by the time it was my turn again, my HR had come down, and I was ready to dig into the pedals some more. At one point, nat. champ and local hitter Phil Tintsman had a teammate launch him in a bridge attempt and he got within 75 or so meters, but didn't make it, we were a little too fast. Reports from teammates behind LMK that it was more of an attack/bridge attempt vibe back there instead of taking hard turns, which certainly helped us. A crash around turn 3 with ~10 to go helped disrupt things in the field and our gap ballooned close to 20s. The directors let the race go on, but just made the field go wide around that corner. Didn't slow us down at all.

I wasn't sure we had it until we were into the last lap. I took a hero pull going into the bell lap, thinking I'd rather get third than get caught, and that would be my last turn. I was so cooked and didn't think I'd have much of a sprint, but somehow I had more snap than the other riders. It helped that I exited the last corner (~500 m) out in third wheel.

Super stoked that I was able roll this break ahead of a field so deep with quality and talent. Looking forward to the upcoming April races and enjoying this good form that I have!

Hermes

TMonk Wow, that was a fantastic result and superb strategy. Congratulations.

Radish_legs

I had my first bad crash ever in the A crit tonight. Last lap. Right before the penultimate turn. I had no chance, don't know why I didn't sit up. Guy in the front looks back (I'm told), then drifts as he does, takes someone out. And as I'm coming I try to brake and go hard left, but there is someone to my left. And the original crasher then puts his legs out. I hit his legs and do a superman. I'm really lucky I'm in one piece. Just a little bit of road rash, no torn kit, and no orthopedics. At least 3 guys in the crash broke their bikes. Me? I have a cheap alum allez. I think it's fine. Video later. This would have been the first crit I actually finished, but it was not to be.

TMonk

Sorry to hear that Radish_legs. Boo on the rider that looks back on the last lap and drifts! That doesn't sound like A-level riding to me.

Radish_legs

Thanks TMonk.
My camera capturing the crash, then my friend's camera (i'm only available in the rearview in his video). Then a video on strava showing in detailed fashion how the crash occurred.


https://www.strava.com/activities/88...uSO66t6h_C_AlQ

TMonk

Bit of a late reply here, but I got 3rd at the master's SCNCA champ road race on April 8th, Not happy about it though. I dropped the ball mentally and somehow let a break of 5 get up the road. At first it was just one (or up to) two riders at a time launching, next thing I know they are working smoothly and have a minute. Super frustrating. Only one significant team (ispeed racing) and they had a super slugger make the first attack (Brian McCulloch, recently retired pro) so my first mistake was not recognizing that and joining one of the bridge attempts. I had the legs to be in the break and race for the win too. Brian was scored separately (40+), no way I would have beat him on that final climb, but maybe I could have beat the other two 35+ guys in the break.

I also "won" the Boulevard road race last weekend as well. I use quotations since I was actually third on the road, but first 35+ guy. I was limited mostly by heat management and not fitness (as we all were) and TBH it felt more like surviving than winning. Ill throw a post up later with a few more words on how the race went. Very, very hard, ~5k elevation in 66 miles with 90+ degree temps on half of the course.

TMonk

2023 Boulevard Road Race, 4/29/23. Category 1-3 35/40+, race together, scored separate. 1st/5 in the 35, 3rd out of 12 total. Turns out a hard, climb heavy road race in remote San Diego county doesn't draw a big crowd! (too bad)



The course has a 22 mile lap with about 1,800' of elevation in the second half of each lap. The start/finish is at the top of the climb. The climb has a stair-step profile that never exceeds 7% for extended periods, but wears you down after a while. There is an intersection with a right-hand turn about halfway through the climb where the wind became a tailwind, and the temperatures reached a "cool" mid/high 80's. The bottom of the climb was 91-92 F, and the heat certainly played a major factor in the race for all.

The first lap was fairly tame. One the first half of the climb, my heart rate was a bit higher than I'd like, which I chalked up to nerves, but later attributed to the extreme heat. In the second half, I did some pulling on the climb at ~350 or so (~5.3 w/kg for me) for the last kilometer to stretch things out. A friend (Adam) in the 40+ race attacked over the top and I joined him. It was fairly short lived, but given the lack of cooperation on lap 1, seemed like a good idea.

On the second (penultimate) lap, the eventual race winner (a 40+ racer) made a huge attack in the second half of the climb, and only Adam and I were able to join. I told him that I'd work once my HR went down a bit, which never really happened. It was hot as hell and this guy also just didn't slow down.... he was very fit. He had me riding at threshold on his wheel for nearly 10 minutes, which did not do great things to my HR in that heat. I eventually had to just let the wheel go, as did Adam. Adam seemed to be doing better than me in the heat, but recognized that he would get to the next climb much faster with me, so he shepherded me over the final 2k, where my HR was at threshold, but my power was low z4.

On the first half of the last lap, Adam and I worked well together and surely put more time into the field. At one point the race official told us the leader was 40 s up, there was a lone chaser 4 minutes behind, and a group of 5-6 a couple minutes behind that. Wow.

At the start of the final 11 miles climb, I let the wheel go instantly and was on my own. I knew that I had a podium or even a win in the bag, and that I had minutes up on any sort of chase, but man was it awful. I could not make more than z3 power without my HR getting dangerously close to threshold. On the short mini descents my HR would come back down, but in that heat, as soon as I started digging, my HR was just not doing great things. At one point, I saw a rider from the P/1/2 field standing on the side of the road and cooling off under a tree.

I was pretty mentally dejected and just wanted it to be over with TBH. If I was out of podium placing at the time, my motivation would have been low and I would have been in a fairly dark place mentally. I was out of water. Towards the end of the final climb, I actually was able to see the first chaser on the road who was starting to gain on me, but fortunately I had enough breathing room to cross the line without having to hammer. To be honest, hammering probably would have been dangerous at that point due to my heat exhaustion.

So in retrospect, yeah it kinda felt more like surviving than winning. I was dropped from the front of the race and had 1-2 minutes between me and adjacent finishers. My performance on the day was more limited by heat management than it was by my physical fitness, but I suppose that was the case for all racers that weren't exceptionally heat-adapted. I do think that the best rider on the day won. If it was cooler, maybe Adam and I could have stayed with him over the top, which means the race would have played out on the final climb. If he did that again, I'm not sure I would have been able to match it, and maybe I would have raced for second overall vs Adam, but still win the 35+ age group. So, really it wouldn't have been that different, it just would have felt more like a race, than like a survival slog lol.

Fortunately for me, the field was just large enough (5 starters in 35+) for me to collect several more points towards my cat 1 upgrade. I am now quite close, and will be focused on earning that final point by the end of my road season.

procrit

Not road bike, but I raced a MTB race, first one, and ended up second in my age group and overall 2nd fastest time in my category (3). I had to start way back because they let all the series points holders start first, so it took about 6-7 mins of jockeying for position to get to the front. One guy was WAY ahead of me by the time I made it to the front of the main bunch, so I just went full gas in hopes of catching him. I dropped the rest of the group, and within 10 mins caught the leader. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a safe place to pass in the tight single track so I tried to save some energy for the final 400m of open section. Unfortunately I crashed with about 6-7 mins to go (dumb mistake on my part) and I burned a big match catching back up so when it was time to drop the hammer it was all I could do to stay on his wheel. It’s been well over a decade since I’ve raced and my fitness is pretty poor, but it was fun to mix it up! I just started riding mountain bikes pretty recently, and definitely will be doing more races in the future.

Finish line sprint:

TMonk

nice result! MTB can be very hard, and very fun!

procrit

It is, and I appreciate the bike handling skills some of these guys have.

TMonk

5/2027 JKC Memorial Hunte Parkway circuit race: 1st / 11 in the 35+ age group, 3 / 26 overall.



Same situation as Boulvard, third overall, but first in my age group (35+). The 40/45+ age groups in SCNCA are seriously deep, with some national and pro-level talent, and some very skilled/savvy racing.

In the first third of the (36 mile) race, there was a split in the field after some surges on the hill on course. Unfortunately, it was a bit too big to get any cooperative rotation on he front for very long. I tried real hard to get something to go in this race, as did a few other racers, be we just couldn't.
Fast fwd with ~2 (of 11?) laps to go, and I'm starting to feel a bit cooked; so I enter a more reactionary mode.. At ~2 to go, multiple national TT champ Karl launches (40+ age group), and I'm like "nope, not for me thanks." I was slightly OTF and hurting, and he passed me with a head full of steam on a tailwind stretch. He's a big, strong dude.

Another strong 40+ local launches, who held it for second. Fortunately, I had the best sprint from the reduced group (somehow). I was sorta led out perfectly for it, which is nice.

SCNCA district TTT yesterday then Barrio Logan GP (my club's race), and outside of that. I'm all wrapped up with USAC road for the year.

Radish_legs

This year I’m playing a support role on our crit team. Besides the team founder, I was the only one on the team last year (won two crits in 2 weeks without a teammate). This year we picked up a very strong rider, the team founder has started racing again, we added 2 other really strong riders (one was briefly a pro in Europe) and the other used to run a team of fairly accomplished conti-types. Anyway, I’m in a situation where everyone on the team is more experienced than me. So it’s fun to be racing with smart racers. And we’re all in it to race for the team, and not be selfish. In the last race I was marking a visiting former masters national champion. That was fun. My marking was successful and despite the fact that he was the strongest guy in the race, he finished off the back.

TMonk

nice work Radish_legs that's how it's done!!!

TMonk

Barrio Logan GP 6/11/23, 3rd out of a breakaway of 4 that I started with an attack < 10 min into a 50 min race. Very, very hard! I flatted at ~6 to go and sorta trudged back to the S/F area, since I assumed that I would have to be started in the field. But, they put me back in the break!

I knew I should have attacked Spencer in the final laps, probably multiple times if needed. Did not make sense going into a sprint with him. Second place is former Mexican National Champ Rigo Meza.

Still, I'm happy to have executed well on my plan. As the final race of the day, I knew it would be the second race for many racers (not me today), so I wanted to take 'em early. Secondly, I wanted to draw out Spencer and hopefully Rigo to drive a move. Boxes checked. The flat kinda psyched me out a bit since my training wheels are super slow, so I wasn't feeling too confident. I regret not attacking the break anyway, but overall I feel great about the race and my find USAC race of the season.

Hermes

TMonk Props on a great racing season and Bario Logan results.

Radish_legs

Last crit of the Tuesday Night Crit (TurboVelo) tomorrow. 6th and final series, 4th out of 4 races in this series. And we are tied on points at 18, but we have the tiebreaker. And there is another team with two riders right behind (so they have 2 cards to play). This is in the Masters Crit. So everything coming down to who has the legs and more importantly, who is smart and work together well as a team. Again, my job is to support the team leader, and be the first leadout guy in the final sprint if there is one. Last week, we made up 6 points in the final sprint (I never would have predicted that). So I was glad to have played a role in that.

TMonk

GL Radish_legs, let us know how it goes.

Radish_legs

I flatted with 3.5 laps to go. After I pulled back the break from one of the leaders. So no leadout from me at the end. Our leader was confused and thought that there was a break of 7 up the road (there was no break up the road). Sprint finish, the favored sprinter won. However if we get 2nd, we win the series. The other guy beat our guy by half a wheel, so our guy got 3rd. The guy who got 2nd (who was tied on points) won the series. And mostly because our lead guy made poor decisions at the end because he was confused. Frustrating! But that's racing.