topflightpro

This is quite accurate. We have a winter series and a summer mid-week series on a banked oval track. The races are cancelled if it is wet.

misterwaterfall

Drag strips yes, road course no. I've raced a couple thousand miles in the rain on a couple different car tracks without issue.

cmh

+1 I've raced a lot in the rain at the Portland International Raceway without issue.

caloso

That's because it rains every other day in PDX. The oil doesn't get a chance to build up.

KingShakes

They had equipment to clear the snow, which is why I thought it would go on, but the ice couldn't be dealt with.

misterwaterfall

Oiling down a road course is fairly uncommon and usually dealt with pretty quick as if they leave it more people are going into the wall/grass/sand/whatever. Ovals and circle tracks are probably a bit different sense the quality of cars running can be pretty suspect and the safety regs seem a bit looser.

topflightpro

The oval we use is mostly used by amateurs in old Fox-body Mustangs. They are loud and fast, and not pretty to look at.

I took my car out on the track once. I got up to about 65 on the straights, slower on the curves. I didn't want to push it too hard for fear of losing traction and hitting the wall (I was on old summer performance tires in the winter.) It's amazing how much smaller the .4 mile oval feels in a car compared to a bicycle. After about three laps, I was starting to feel nauseated. I'm not sure how guys actually race and go really fast out there.

Doge

National Champions - Junior TTT Bib 33, sitting in 1st now. I expect that to change as they are riding against 3 pro teams and 4 Cat 1 teams - that have the big gears.



Live timing: Live-Timing.com | Race | ski race results, sports results, USSA, FIS, and Race The Gates live timing

TheKillerPenguin

Brinkerhoff #2 : caught up in a crash 18 miles in but kept it upright somehow, but in a moment of weakness hung around for a couple minutes to make sure a dude that was pretty banged up was OK. Then decided to chase because **** it, I was already there. Did tempo to the finish, assuming I was dfl but that's better than dnf! I don't think I've ever worked so hard finishing last haha


I did help the winning break establish it's gap at least, @dznuzz was up there so a couple of us took turns disrupting chase stuff and doing false tempo until they had a minute on us. So at least I wasn't entirely useless.

On to the next one!

topflightpro

Congrats Doge. I had several friends drive down for the masters TTTs.

Doge

Thank you for noticing. I know not that competitive from a numbers side, but they did go fast.


Off topic, but maybe interesting to racing.
USAC did something different here and I think there *may* (real low chance) be a future in this race format.

They ran everyone in the same event.

IMO if USAC had 8-10 categories with equipment based on category and let everyone compete - kids (over 14), women, men and then just give awards accordingly, that would save a lot of promoter money and generate more excitement.

So at this event:
Best Pros - 1st
Best Cat 1 - 4th
Best Juniors - 6th
Best Masters M 35 - 7th
Best ....

RRs and Crits could be done the same way. Cat 8s have 52X16 gears (men women and 14+ juniors race together), Cat 4s plus all get the same gears stuff - just an idea. As it is now it is not really a fair event. But I at least like what they did here putting all on the road near the same time.

It is clean and takes something like a TTT where 3 and 4 teams enter and makes it more fun. While I wish the same equipment was allowed I was watching as the Cat 1 men did and didn't beat them.

You may be aware many women's fields are 1 to 15 riders. This format offers more better competition.

grolby

Rasputitsa gravel race, northern Vermont. 40.5 miles, 4000 feet of climbing. We got lucky and it was balmy and mostly dry.

Totally bananas Gran Fondo start. I had dudes on fat bikes chopping my wheel to gain spots on the neutral section. Craziness. I didn't fight too hard for spots at this point, cause it seemed super dumb. With the first turn onto dirt, the race was on and the leaders were flying. The usual burn-off. I tried not to die on the descents, burned a few matches on the climbs and made contact with the lead group about six miles in as the pace eased a bit. Then we hit the first moderate climb and it was clear my tenure in the lead group would be very temporary. So I eased off, let the second group catch me, and rode with them. This group was basically right on my speed. I was climbing great. It turned out to be the descents that finished me off. Coming off the biggest climb, the descent was very rutted and bouncy. My lower back was shot at this point, which made it impossible for me to go fast on the descents. Descending on gravel is very physical; you need a working core to control your bike at speed. So I got dropped on the ruts, was really far back on the screaming fast gravel descent that followed. Still almost made it back to my group on the following climbs, but cracked and couldn't quite connect. Dug in and came in only two minutes behind them. 29th. Totally psyched with that result. I figured beforehand, based on how stacked this field was, that top 30 would be a great result. And there you go. It's too bad I lost contact on the descents of all places, but 1) no way I was going to take a serious chance on wiping out and ending my season at a damn gravel race 2) core strength is a weakness I can work on 3) holy crap, so much better to lose going downhill than up. I'm climbing better than ever right now. It'll be interesting to see what happens at Quabbin next weekend.

hack

We're getting more and more gravel races/events, but it has been hard to justify "trying" one for the $125+ entry fee. I suspect there are others that are lower in cost, but I haven't searched too extensively yet.

grolby

Huh. The two on my schedule for the year are about $60 each. I guess everything is more expensive in California.

hack

The bigger one in NorCal is the "lost and found gravel grinder" and it is $125 for early reg. We have a series with some 6 events (Super Pro Gravel Gauntlet) that are $100.

Although, I did just find another series (grasshopper) that looks similar (70-90 miles with gobs of climbing) and they run around $60 per event. So ... I guess we do have them at a more reasonable cost.

PepeM

Saturday: Collegiate C RR (first road race ever.) 16/22

Two laps of a ~20.5 mile loop. Two short, nasty climbs (probably half a mile long, one averaging ~10% and the other ~8%) at mile 3 and 10, with another shorter but also steep one in between them. Started easy until we hit the first climb. Group stayed together, with two attacking on the top before the descent. They didn't gain much but were still apart. One more bridged to them right before the second hill. On the second hill it all broke up. A few dropped, a few off the front. I stayed with a group of maybe ten, which turned out to be the 'main' group. We got a paceline going for the rest of the first lap and caught up to two other small groups, although I think there were still a few off the front. When we hit the first hill the second time around, then it really blew to pieces. I managed to make it to the top together with one other rider and we chased a group of three that was ahead of us. Caught up with them right at the start of the second hill, but by then I had nothing left. Grinded my way up the hill at 40rpms (wishing for a granny gear) but couldn't really hold on to anyone so I went on my own for the rest of the race. Could see three other lonely riders up the road and I gained some ground on them but never caught them. Last five miles were pretty windy. All in all it was pretty brutal but quite enjoyable.

Sunday: Collegiate C Crit. Dropped

Started at the back, never moved up. Knew I had to but didn't do so for the first few laps. Then after a while I couldn't even if I wanted. Eventually the accordion effect and having to go around dropping riders got the best of me and off the back I went after about twenty minutes. Got pulled after a few more laps. Course looked simple but the two corners were actually pretty fun. Oh, two guys collided in front of me at some point but stayed upright luckily. I had to swerve to avoid them and play catch up yet again. Lesson learned, next time I'll avoid the back like the plague.

carpediemracing 

+1

I remember some incredible slides at Limerock back in the day. That last rainy one, not so much, I think stuff was all gone by the time we hit the track, plus it was raining so hard I couldn't see anything.

I had massive problems at a track starting with a T in Michigan. Motorcycle track I think. Maybe it wasn't a T. Monroe? No, I Googled it. Waterford. It wasn't super rainy, just wet. I think that makes it worse.

I couldn't tell you if it was oil or what, these tracks were just slick as slick.

globecanvas

This morning I was chatting with somebody else in that race who was complaining about "some red team" disrupting the front of the field. Then I saw CBRC's photo and I put two and two together.

grolby

Mystic Velo Crit, aka Ninigret 2, 3/4. Raced really hard. Like, ridiculously hard. Tried many times to form a break, or bridge to one. Didn't work too great. Either the peloton was just too strong or guys who made the initial break wouldn't pull through effectively. Got yelled at at one point for "pulling through too hard." But I was like geez, don't you guys get it? If you want to get a gap established, you have to go REALLY HARD for a while. S'how it works.

Anyway. Bridged to a small move on a prime lap, coming up on 7 to go. But the field is right behind me, and as I reach them the two guys still up there start sprinting for the prime. For once I decline to burn a match to get on the wheel, figuring the field is right there, they're tired and they'll sit up after the line. And of course they dig in and that's the winning move. Bike racing. Sheesh. I figured I would get eaten alive in the field sprint, so I used my last bullet on a do-or-die bridge effort at 1.5 laps to go. It wasn't a good bullet, so I died. Didn't even try to latch onto the field for the bell lap and rolled in way behind.

I'm pretty frustrated about it, cause I'm really strong right now. As in, strong enough that I don't even know how to race with all this fitness. And I wonder if I should've raced more conservatively. On the other hand, we (me, Mikey and our teammate) got to spend a whole race making people sad and I was one different decision away from the podium. And hey, our other guy got 2nd in the field sprint, so that's pretty cool.

TheKillerPenguin

I wish I could grow a mustache, because I would definitely be twirling it villainously.

dz_nuzz

Haterz gonna hate....?

Funny story about that race was that one of our teammates was trying to bridge to us up in the break and I thought it was someone else (I never actually saw him) so I put my head down and did my best to put the nails in the coffin of "A single chaser, 30 seconds back". I find out later is was our TT guy who ended up riding 35 miles by himself for 4th place.

hack

Good ole Red Kite. Ran down for a couple crits on hot day (85+).

Squoval course with a cross/head wind finish.

35+ 3/4: 1st of 53.
Two guys rolled off the front about 20 minutes into the race. The gap jumped to 15s pretty quickly and the field seemed ok with it. I jumped across solo in the cross/head wind section. We kept working, but were tired. Our break was joined a few laps later by a second chase group of 4. Maybe too big to work, but we kept on. The break stuck and I took the sprint for the win.

35+ 123. 16th of 67.
I did 0 in this race. I didn't hydrate much between races and I was pretty wrecked. NP was loooow, but RPE was close to a million. Was thrilled when the break rolled away and pace eased. I was not thrilled when the break started to fail and the pace surged to bring them back.

spdntrxi

congrats Chris !

shovelhd

Nice win.

hack