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2021 race stories

Old 07-25-21, 03:11 PM
  #101  
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Originally Posted by himespau
Ooph, your teammate dive bombed you to win the sprint?
Yeah, he did a bit, but I'm over it now. He's a young guy and still learning. I was fairly pissed at the time though.
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Old 07-26-21, 12:30 PM
  #102  
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Even with the Intelligentsia Cup for the last week I took some time for myself and jetted out from our South Chicago road race and made it to the northside (1:30 through downtown Chicago at the end of the workday in traffic) to race the Madison at the track. While I am not at race form it was nice to be able to fit into the madison jersey and for once not always be the slow guy. My prom date (we call it the prom here) is my good friend and riding buddy. He was a cat 2 on the road and track for a lot of his life then life kind of got in the way. He's on a lot of meds that limit his HR and he's not in his ideal form but he still rides like a 2 in brief moments of glory that tend to leave me stranded and scratching my head.

We had a lot of fun. Not the story everyone here wants but *shrug*. Nice to see mass start racing return. I'm the non-bearded one if you were wondering.

EDIT: Officially we came in 5th. ...and yes there were 5 teams.


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Old 07-27-21, 07:37 AM
  #103  
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I'm looking for advice. I've got a couple of crits coming up where I'd like to finish top 5, and I've got the fitness to do so. When I've got good position going into the last corner, that kind of finish has been pretty well assured. Where I've had success is either jumping before and trying to take it all the way in, or pulling on the front from half a lap to go and jumping on the first guy to come around right before the finish. When I've tried to surf wheels it's been 50/50 on getting swamped.

Is the tactic of taking the front, even if it means eating wind, the only foolproof one to guarantee good position, or maybe there's another trick?
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Old 07-28-21, 08:04 AM
  #104  
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Originally Posted by Psimet2001
Even with the Intelligentsia Cup for the last week I took some time for myself and jetted out from our South Chicago road race and made it to the northside (1:30 through downtown Chicago at the end of the workday in traffic) to race the Madison at the track. While I am not at race form it was nice to be able to fit into the madison jersey and for once not always be the slow guy. My prom date (we call it the prom here) is my good friend and riding buddy. He was a cat 2 on the road and track for a lot of his life then life kind of got in the way. He's on a lot of meds that limit his HR and he's not in his ideal form but he still rides like a 2 in brief moments of glory that tend to leave me stranded and scratching my head.

We had a lot of fun. Not the story everyone here wants but *shrug*. Nice to see mass start racing return. I'm the non-bearded one if you were wondering.

EDIT: Officially we came in 5th. ...and yes there were 5 teams.


Dude, you look great! And you got 5th! That's all anyone needs to know lol.
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Old 07-28-21, 08:20 AM
  #105  
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Sort of a summary of my race season so far.

If I start a crit, I get shelled in 6-8 minutes if it's an A race (p123). Granted, some of the guys doing the race went and did the midwest P12 races, but still, it's pretty humbling.

I did one masters race, made it 20km to the sprint, and got 2nd of 3. Two races in one, 20 and 40k. You chose one, and if you chose 20k you had to pull out after 20k. I figured few would choose 20k so I chose that, plus I would struggle to get to 20k. I was right, only 3 raised their hands, and I struggled to move up, something I can normally do fine.

Raced track two days so far. I'm fast for 500m but slow for anything else. Got shelled and lapped in all the mass start races I did, which is fine. No sprints or 500m TT yet.

Last night it was started to drip rain on the way over so I quickly got ready, didn't bother changing wheels (I put a disc on with a 14T so that's what was on there - I had another wheel with a 15T but didn't bother changing to it. I was a bit overgeared for the regular stuff but it was fun to do big launches.

So in the Miss and Out, first race, I launched pretty hard. Detonated after a few laps. Looked across the track, just about a half lap lead. So they'd close it in a lap or two, because I was crawling. A lap or two later they're still about half a lap down, not quite. So whatever, I kept pedaling at 19 mph or whatever until they caught me. I swung up the track to let them pass and got eliminated.

After the race I learned why they took so long to catch me. I attacked pretty hard, meaning simply to sit off the front and let the others do the shenanigans for the sprints (sprinting every other lap kills me). What I didn't know if that if you're half a lap up in the Miss and Out you're now "half a lap BEHIND" the group and you're dead last so you get eliminated. So when I rocketed away everyone chased for a lap or so but realized it wasn't coming back. So they conferred briefly and decided to slow so I'd get my half lap advantage, which I was rapidly getting. Well, just before I was half a lap ahead I blew up and slowed from 30ish to 20ish. They thought I saw them sit up and slowed, so they slowed even more. And I was just dying, trying to not be too wobbly or whatever, and so I was going slower and slower and slower. Finally, after a few laps of 18 mph chicken, they decided they needed to get going because they were dealing with an elimination every other lap from their group. It took them a couple laps to close to gap.

After the race one guy said I was about 2 feet from behind more than half a lap ahead, and they thought for sure I'd be eliminated, but I never gained more than that. haha.

Second race was a scratch race "with a prime". Drops falling more frequently so def a rain out coming soon. When they rang the bell for the prime (2nd lap?) I launched, did a lap at about 30ish, took the prime, eased hard. Next lap a guy bridged. "We have a gap, go!" I was like, no way man, I'm cooked. Then the skies opened up, pouring rain about 3 laps later, race and night was called. Prime was a bike thing the official made at camp with the kids, which is now in my trophy book case.

picture of prime prize here: https://www.strava.com/activities/5697830836/overview

If you look at analysis, I did a medium jump as soon as I got on the track just to see if the 51x14 was rideable, then a slightly harder one to see if I could do a 200m without spinning out (I could but I wasn't good, something isn't right when I'm sprinting). Then the peak-decline curves are the two races.
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Old 07-28-21, 10:32 AM
  #106  
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I gotta remember that half a lap up and use it to encourage the rest of the field not to chase the inevitable rabbit at the start each time.
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Old 07-28-21, 02:18 PM
  #107  
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Originally Posted by Yep
I'm looking for advice. I've got a couple of crits coming up where I'd like to finish top 5, and I've got the fitness to do so. When I've got good position going into the last corner, that kind of finish has been pretty well assured. Where I've had success is either jumping before and trying to take it all the way in, or pulling on the front from half a lap to go and jumping on the first guy to come around right before the finish. When I've tried to surf wheels it's been 50/50 on getting swamped.

Is the tactic of taking the front, even if it means eating wind, the only foolproof one to guarantee good position, or maybe there's another trick?
So when you get swamped, does it imply that your jump isn't as good as the winners? Because to me that's what it implies, that when certain people launch you can't beat them. Which is fine - Cav was slower than Van Aert during the Tour (that one stage where VA got second it's very clear Cav is slower, and I'm a huge Cav fan). I can't find a clip but VA is much, much faster at the finish. It just means you need to figure out how to neutralize their better jump.

If that's the case, here's a bunch of ways to take the edge of a sprinter's legs: Sprinter della Casa: How to - Beat a Sprinter

If you know your power curve, see if there's a bump somewhere further out than, say, 20s. Maybe your 60s power is good, like 800w (that would be crazy good). If you can do a big move a minute out, and just do a minute effort, that may be enough to break the elastic and solo in. A lot of sprinters won't follow a move so early because they'll wait for the actual leadout jump, which might be 30 seconds from the line, and even that seems really far. A proper sprint lasts typically under 10s in a Tour stage, and a "long" Tour sprint is about 18 seconds. For me, definitely a grassroots sprinter, I'm good for about 14-16 seconds when I'm fit, 18-19s when I'm on fire, and 6-8s when I'm not good.

Having said all that, if you can go from half a lap out and "jump on the guy that goes by you" then it implies you have a lot of fitness / aerobic capacity. It might be that you need to ally with someone to go with you (you can trade turns, picking the sacrificial lamb based on your strengths and weaknesses). A friend and teammate that typically led me out was good for pursuit type efforts, 4-5-6 minutes. In most races I'd try to launch him up to the break (so I'd do an almost-sprint and try to bring him clear of the field so he could bridge the rest), and at the end of the race if I nodded I was good to go then he'd try and lead me out for the finish. In this race I launch him but I told him I wasn't good so he did his own sprint:
. Launch is about 9:55 into the clip - I only closed about 10s of the gap so left him about 15s to close. 10s is about what a solo rider can bridge, and he got within a few seconds of the break but never bridged.

In this race a racer goes early, I'm in the perfect position to follow (I was meaning to move up anyway so mentally I had an effort all ready to go). I ended up doing 30s of effort and won the race.
At about 11:30 we're maybe 3/4 lap/mile to go. I never broke 1000w in that finish, and barely broke 900w. I did about 600w avg for 30s, which is not huge. I just climbed off the trainer and I'd done 765w for 35s in an admittedly hard effort.

Finally, a leadout. So one thing about sprinters is that they need to be okay enough to sprint. If you redline them then it's very hard for them to recover or sprint. In this race I was pretty redlined going into the last lap, HR was in the 165 range and going up. I hit 168 bpm going into the leadout. However, during the 35 mph leadout, my HR dropped from 168 to 163. 163 is a sprintable HR for me, 168 I feel like my heart's in my throat. So I did a big sprint, long, not super powerful (1100w peak?) but sustained for a while.
5:45 is 2 to go. So I'm surfing, trying to stay near the front, not making efforts when they won't give me a return, and when I decide to go, I go relatively hard. Then my (alternate leadout) teammate finds me, after the primary one (SOC) couldn't get up to me.

hope this helps. If it's off base, like your power curve is way different, some stuff may not apply. but it'll get you thinking.
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Old 07-29-21, 04:26 AM
  #108  
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Originally Posted by carpediemracing
So when you get swamped, does it imply that your jump isn't as good as the winners? Because to me that's what it implies, that when certain people launch you can't beat them. Which is fine - Cav was slower than Van Aert during the Tour (that one stage where VA got second it's very clear Cav is slower, and I'm a huge Cav fan). I can't find a clip but VA is much, much faster at the finish. It just means you need to figure out how to neutralize their better jump.

If that's the case, here's a bunch of ways to take the edge of a sprinter's legs: Sprinter della Casa: How to - Beat a Sprinter

If you know your power curve, see if there's a bump somewhere further out than, say, 20s. Maybe your 60s power is good, like 800w (that would be crazy good). If you can do a big move a minute out, and just do a minute effort, that may be enough to break the elastic and solo in. A lot of sprinters won't follow a move so early because they'll wait for the actual leadout jump, which might be 30 seconds from the line, and even that seems really far. A proper sprint lasts typically under 10s in a Tour stage, and a "long" Tour sprint is about 18 seconds. For me, definitely a grassroots sprinter, I'm good for about 14-16 seconds when I'm fit, 18-19s when I'm on fire, and 6-8s when I'm not good.

Having said all that, if you can go from half a lap out and "jump on the guy that goes by you" then it implies you have a lot of fitness / aerobic capacity. It might be that you need to ally with someone to go with you (you can trade turns, picking the sacrificial lamb based on your strengths and weaknesses). A friend and teammate that typically led me out was good for pursuit type efforts, 4-5-6 minutes. In most races I'd try to launch him up to the break (so I'd do an almost-sprint and try to bring him clear of the field so he could bridge the rest), and at the end of the race if I nodded I was good to go then he'd try and lead me out for the finish. In this race I launch him but I told him I wasn't good so he did his own sprint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxtdxGeB_Cw. Launch is about 9:55 into the clip - I only closed about 10s of the gap so left him about 15s to close. 10s is about what a solo rider can bridge, and he got within a few seconds of the break but never bridged.

In this race a racer goes early, I'm in the perfect position to follow (I was meaning to move up anyway so mentally I had an effort all ready to go). I ended up doing 30s of effort and won the race. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbg4YluM6HE At about 11:30 we're maybe 3/4 lap/mile to go. I never broke 1000w in that finish, and barely broke 900w. I did about 600w avg for 30s, which is not huge. I just climbed off the trainer and I'd done 765w for 35s in an admittedly hard effort.

Finally, a leadout. So one thing about sprinters is that they need to be okay enough to sprint. If you redline them then it's very hard for them to recover or sprint. In this race I was pretty redlined going into the last lap, HR was in the 165 range and going up. I hit 168 bpm going into the leadout. However, during the 35 mph leadout, my HR dropped from 168 to 163. 163 is a sprintable HR for me, 168 I feel like my heart's in my throat. So I did a big sprint, long, not super powerful (1100w peak?) but sustained for a while. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqrPW4FWyQg 5:45 is 2 to go. So I'm surfing, trying to stay near the front, not making efforts when they won't give me a return, and when I decide to go, I go relatively hard. Then my (alternate leadout) teammate finds me, after the primary one (SOC) couldn't get up to me.

hope this helps. If it's off base, like your power curve is way different, some stuff may not apply. but it'll get you thinking.
Yeah, getting swamped was more about before the sprint. There's a rise, then a sweeper to the left and than another hard left and probably 80 meters to the line. Where I would get swamped is before that last turn where I'm then sprinting from 10th wheel. When I led out for a part of the last lap, I wasn't really pulling hard, it's just that no one really wants to be in the wind, so maybe that's the way to go, as it at least puts me up front when I want to be. To be fair, I haven't really tried the half lap attack (sprint?), so maybe I'll give that a go in one of the races tonight.
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Old 07-29-21, 10:54 AM
  #109  
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Video from my crit, where I frustratingly let myself be in the wind more than I should lol but I’m overall happy that I was pretty smooth and not sprinting out of the turns, I might be decent if I did more than one crit once in a blue moon even prepandemic

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Old 07-29-21, 04:25 PM
  #110  
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Meh. 7th and 8th in my crits tonight. Each a field of 15. I'm a lot older than most of the other guys, and anything top 10 is pretty hotly contested, but those are really just rationalisations. I'm only 8 points off cat 2 now, but I was hoping to move up with a bang instead of a grind. Two more crits next Thursday and RR (!) on Saturday. I think I'll skip the crits, and if I don't pick up what I need in the RR, it'll be back to #critlife. All that griping aside, I've really been enjoying the racing, and happy to have it.
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Old 07-30-21, 09:51 PM
  #111  
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Originally Posted by Yep
Yeah, getting swamped was more about before the sprint. There's a rise, then a sweeper to the left and than another hard left and probably 80 meters to the line. Where I would get swamped is before that last turn where I'm then sprinting from 10th wheel. When I led out for a part of the last lap, I wasn't really pulling hard, it's just that no one really wants to be in the wind, so maybe that's the way to go, as it at least puts me up front when I want to be. To be fair, I haven't really tried the half lap attack (sprint?), so maybe I'll give that a go in one of the races tonight.
80m to line means you have to be first into that hard left. Which means the sweeper to the hard left is critical. Which means that you have to be rocketing over the rise. Always work backwards from the finish.

Depending on length of rise, remember that accelerating on a hill is much harder than accelerating on the flat. So if you can launch just before you hit the rise then it'll be harder to follow you. That's only useful if you can go from the bottom of the rise to the finish.

Another thing you can do is to get to the front before the left corner, lead into it from the left curb - the "wrong" side. (This is sort of an advanced move, like don't do this in a novice field because everyone will overshoot the corner and crash.) This way everyone has to slow to make it through the turn, accentuating the already significant accordion effect. If you have any semblance of a jump you should be able to get to the line.

If you do that kind of move (force a big slow down in the last turn) make sure you're able to shift from the drops. You'll want to shift into a lower gear as you corner, then bang hard through the gears as you accelerate. A lower gear jump might buy you 2-3 bike lengths, which would give you the sprint.
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Old 07-31-21, 02:37 PM
  #112  
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Argyle TT 45+ today in WV. It was the WV State Champs, but I'm not from WV. When I did this one is 2019, I had lost a physics battle on a tricky turn when I was test riding the course the week before, so I was really slow. It also happened that the guy who won the 45+ was on the form of his life and had the fastest time for the entire day
and was 3:17 faster than me. Today, I wasn't feeling the love at the start but settled in. The course is a rolling course with a few more turns than the last one and I need to improve cadence/power management on the rollers. I finished 1:28 faster today than 2019 and he slowed down a bit, but still beat me by 50 seconds. Could have been a few seconds less, but I got caught behind a car on the fastest section of the course and had to hit my brakes. One of those good days, but not so good days but happy to be racing again.

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Old 08-01-21, 08:15 AM
  #113  
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Originally Posted by carpediemracing
Sort of a summary of my race season so far.

If I start a crit, I get shelled in 6-8 minutes if it's an A race (p123). Granted, some of the guys doing the race went and did the midwest P12 races, but still, it's pretty humbling.

I did one masters race, made it 20km to the sprint, and got 2nd of 3. Two races in one, 20 and 40k. You chose one, and if you chose 20k you had to pull out after 20k. I figured few would choose 20k so I chose that, plus I would struggle to get to 20k. I was right, only 3 raised their hands, and I struggled to move up, something I can normally do fine.

Raced track two days so far. I'm fast for 500m but slow for anything else. Got shelled and lapped in all the mass start races I did, which is fine. No sprints or 500m TT yet.

Last night it was started to drip rain on the way over so I quickly got ready, didn't bother changing wheels (I put a disc on with a 14T so that's what was on there - I had another wheel with a 15T but didn't bother changing to it. I was a bit overgeared for the regular stuff but it was fun to do big launches.

So in the Miss and Out, first race, I launched pretty hard. Detonated after a few laps. Looked across the track, just about a half lap lead. So they'd close it in a lap or two, because I was crawling. A lap or two later they're still about half a lap down, not quite. So whatever, I kept pedaling at 19 mph or whatever until they caught me. I swung up the track to let them pass and got eliminated.

After the race I learned why they took so long to catch me. I attacked pretty hard, meaning simply to sit off the front and let the others do the shenanigans for the sprints (sprinting every other lap kills me). What I didn't know if that if you're half a lap up in the Miss and Out you're now "half a lap BEHIND" the group and you're dead last so you get eliminated. So when I rocketed away everyone chased for a lap or so but realized it wasn't coming back. So they conferred briefly and decided to slow so I'd get my half lap advantage, which I was rapidly getting. Well, just before I was half a lap ahead I blew up and slowed from 30ish to 20ish. They thought I saw them sit up and slowed, so they slowed even more. And I was just dying, trying to not be too wobbly or whatever, and so I was going slower and slower and slower. Finally, after a few laps of 18 mph chicken, they decided they needed to get going because they were dealing with an elimination every other lap from their group. It took them a couple laps to close to gap.

After the race one guy said I was about 2 feet from behind more than half a lap ahead, and they thought for sure I'd be eliminated, but I never gained more than that. haha.

Second race was a scratch race "with a prime". Drops falling more frequently so def a rain out coming soon. When they rang the bell for the prime (2nd lap?) I launched, did a lap at about 30ish, took the prime, eased hard. Next lap a guy bridged. "We have a gap, go!" I was like, no way man, I'm cooked. Then the skies opened up, pouring rain about 3 laps later, race and night was called. Prime was a bike thing the official made at camp with the kids, which is now in my trophy book case.

picture of prime prize here: https://www.strava.com/activities/5697830836/overview

If you look at analysis, I did a medium jump as soon as I got on the track just to see if the 51x14 was rideable, then a slightly harder one to see if I could do a 200m without spinning out (I could but I wasn't good, something isn't right when I'm sprinting). Then the peak-decline curves are the two races.

I'm not sure what they were telling you, but I've never heard this rule in a miss and out. A half lap up should be a half lap up. A hard attack in a miss and out almost never works because the field always has an incentive to chase and will always ride above tempo. If you want to stay out of the sprints, the best strategy for a miss and out is to ride the front and pull the pack, accelerating on the back straight whenever you begin to feel pressure coming over the top.
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Old 08-06-21, 11:09 AM
  #114  
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Velodrome again last night. Small fields so they ran 3's with 4's. Normally not a problem but when there are about 3-4 guys in the 3's that should be 2's it makes for a spicy night.

Haven't had that deep lung cleaning crit/cross hack in a while but found it last night.

Forgot I had a powermeter on the track bike still as I hate power anymore. Was reminded why I hate power when my file uploaded. *womp womp*. Luckily there weren't any real jumps just hard accelerations but it's still depressing to barely break 1k watts at the track.

Thinking I will keep this up for a while because it's a nice way to get another ride in during the week and I can mix in as much intensity as I want.

Not last in any of the races last night... because one guy didn't show and they kept him in the results.
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Old 08-07-21, 02:03 PM
  #115  
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No good stories. Raced for the first time in 7 years. Just looking for a pack finish to get back in the swing of things. Reasonably fast race, especially when you factor in cat 4s apparently still can't not brake going into corners nor not take them 4-5 wide.

Coast. Coast. Coast. Brake. Corner. Sprint. Repeat for 45 minutes.

Goal accomplished though.

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Old 08-09-21, 10:07 AM
  #116  
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Originally Posted by Andy Somnifac
<snip>cat 4s apparently still can't not brake going into corners nor not take them 4-5 wide.
Had to read that a few times. "wait....they always brake"
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Old 08-09-21, 01:12 PM
  #117  
Andy Somnifac 
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Originally Posted by Psimet2001
"wait....they always brake"
Yep. Course was roughly 4 corner'ish, w/ one side being a short block long. I barely put in any pedal strokes on that side and still had to brake most laps...



At least in the TT the next day I was able to keep a nice steady rhythm. I may not have been the fastest, but after 7 years out of it, I was still just dipping my toe back into it.
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Old 08-10-21, 01:22 PM
  #118  
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Finally got to do a road race this weekend. It was a 3/4 with about 65 starters, including 15 women of, I think, open cats. Mostly flat and non-technical loop of 4.3 miles that did 12 or 13 times (55 miles total).

The wind actually made this a pretty spicy affair. I knew some of the competition, one of whom was a guy who races as a 3/4 but went on to win and set a national course record (Scotland) on a 100 mile TT. Roughly 3/4s of the way in, he and some others were moving off the front and as some of them burned off his wheel, I bridged up. Half a lap later, struggling to hold TT guy's wheel, 3 others either started pulling through (and I was just so crossed eyed I didn't see them) or they bridged back up. At any rate, group of 5 was more selection than breakaway at this point.

We then proceeded to catch a break of 2 up the road which previously looked like it was destined to stay away; more reason (as if you need it) to always hang in there. As a group of 7 we now kept working, but is was SOOOO surge-y. The guys were much stronger than they were smooth, or some of them were intentionally putting the hurt on. I stayed in the break for a lap and a half and then got dropped. At various times I was sitting on, and it wasn't a particular attack that dropped me.

I was happy to make the move, and I think the other guys were all cat 2 (or greater) in waiting. Also happy that I really went for it. Pretty disappointed that I didn't find a way to hang in. I could have sat on and shook my head, but I didn't. I couldn't hang with the field as they came through later, so that at least makes me think I was properly cooked.
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Old 08-20-21, 04:29 PM
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Originally Posted by Andy Somnifac
Yep. Course was roughly 4 corner'ish, w/ one side being a short block long. I barely put in any pedal strokes on that side and still had to brake most laps...

Looks normal. I had to go back and look but here's a crit cadence from me from back in the day...


It's quite honestly what I love about crits. I have a large anaerobic capacity but really low aerobic capacity. So I am on and off the gas a ton. Slam it then recover. Repeat 1,000 times.
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Old 08-20-21, 04:33 PM
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Raced at the velodrome again last night. I feel better and more comfortable each week. Performance is still atrocious. Especially with there being such a low turnout that they have been running 3's and 4's together. I'd downgrade if I could but even the 5's have state masters road champions in there... because everyone has to start somewhere.

Quite honestly I don't know how we keep a single person racing who isn't already trained to near their max potential for their first race or is simply a physical specimen.

Anyway we got 5th or 6th in the state Madison championships. Depends on whether there was 5 or 6 teams.
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Old 08-23-21, 02:40 AM
  #121  
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After my RR on the 7th of Aug, I wasn't able to do our team RR and a crit I was up for was cancelled. It's looking dicey for my cat 2 upgrade at this point, but I'm going to try and set that aside. I've had another good year of riding and racing, and felt strong through a lot of it. Doesn't mean I can't go for it again next year, and as a 3, I'll have more options for racing anyway.

I'm going to focus on having fun and getting a good result in each race as it comes next year.
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Old 08-26-21, 10:59 AM
  #122  
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Originally Posted by Psimet2001
Raced at the velodrome again last night. I feel better and more comfortable each week. Performance is still atrocious. Especially with there being such a low turnout that they have been running 3's and 4's together. I'd downgrade if I could but even the 5's have state masters road champions in there... because everyone has to start somewhere.


Quite honestly I don't know how we keep a single person racing who isn't already trained to near their max potential for their first race or is simply a physical specimen.


Anyway we got 5th or 6th in the state Madison championships. Depends on whether there was 5 or 6 teams.

As someone who started racing at 40, I can relate to what you are saying about wanting to keep racing when you get you butt kicked all of the time. For me, what keeps me coming back is that I actually improve even though it doesn't show in the results. I went 2 for 3 for not getting dropped this year, with one of the races being a ToAD race. At my age and stage in my race career, that is like winning to me.

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Old 08-29-21, 04:34 AM
  #123  
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Final TT of the year yesterday. I was right to be a little concerned about the race but not because of my taper, but about the weather. The heat index put the temp up in the upper 90's. Flat, fast 40k TT. The day was a little hectic getting started and I was having trouble getting my head into it but once I got going it was all good. I was about 22 seconds up on my PR at about 32k and then the wheels just feel off. I bled 45 seconds over the last 8k. Good enough for my second-best time (23 seconds off) and third on the day. In talking with others, you either had a good day or the power wasn't there. A good learning experience and I wrapped up the 45+ Time Trial Series overall, so while I will complain, I really shouldn't.
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Old 08-29-21, 07:47 AM
  #124  
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Originally Posted by ntnyln
Final TT of the year yesterday. I was right to be a little concerned about the race but not because of my taper, but about the weather. The heat index put the temp up in the upper 90's. Flat, fast 40k TT. The day was a little hectic getting started and I was having trouble getting my head into it but once I got going it was all good. I was about 22 seconds up on my PR at about 32k and then the wheels just feel off. I bled 45 seconds over the last 8k. Good enough for my second-best time (23 seconds off) and third on the day. In talking with others, you either had a good day or the power wasn't there. A good learning experience and I wrapped up the 45+ Time Trial Series overall, so while I will complain, I really shouldn't.
Congrats on the series overall!
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Old 08-29-21, 06:51 PM
  #125  
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ntnyln Props on the series and race. From 1995 to 2001, we lived in NW DC. The heat and humidity were difficult at times and we would cycle and run very early in the morning.

At least you were able to race. We had no TT racing here.
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