Ttoc6

Chico stage 1. 60 minute around a rolling race track. The weather held up nice, no rain and sun, just a little Chilly. Embro and arm warmers weather.

Lots of people all over the place in the race. Crash first corner. Goal was to just finish same time. Crash last corner on the sprint and I avoided it and sprinted to safety.

Was able to move up just fine and tailgunning was pretty easy. Looks good for the road race tomorrow too.

Ygduf

technical course like that with some pop in your legs that you showed you could have made that move 3-4 laps earlier, actually completed the bridge, and would have had time to make the guy you towed for that last lap actually work a little.

Radish_legs

Yes, lesson learned. Waited too long. It hurt a little to make that big effort, and come away with nothing. But I had fun and it was my first time on a technical course, so a completely different thing for me in terms of tactics and how it felt on the legs. All those short, sharp digs to stay in line, and move up, and trying to move up w/o spending too much effort.

burnthesheep

Just a little local fun TT action yesterday. Saw some cool bikes and met some nice folks.

About 7.5mi and 350ft with turnaround came to right at 24mph. Given the wind and hill, there’s hope for a sub 24min 10mi this summer.

Super windy. For a noob like me, like dangerous windy in the skis. I lived. Was fun.

rubiksoval

In 15 years of bike racing I have never, ever heard anyone refer to aero bars as skis.

And then while watching radishlegs video I clicked on the world track championships 1km race link on the right side and 30 secs in the commentator said he "tucked into his skis"...

Funny how words pop up like that.

On a semi-related note; from a standing start, the dude I watched did 1 km in 1 minute. Wonder what kind of power that was. Wow.

rubiksoval

That was an impressive bridge. You've got some good power.

Ttoc6

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/baader-meinhof-phenomenon.htm

rubiksoval

That's pretty cool.

burnthesheep

Ha!

I bet I got it from watching the same stuff. I was watching the 1km time trial the other day.

Someone claimed on Bikeradar forums the 1min avg is under 1000w. I couldn’t believe that. It has to be monstrous. I bet they do 2000’s off the start and probably 1500 to 2000 the first half of the distance.

Makes me want ti create a local segment starting from a cul de sac where you can’t roll the start and see how long it takes me.

I bet starting in a 50t and small cog it would take me 2 minutes. Or more.

One minute from a dead stop is mind blowing strong.

I think some “GCN science “ is in store. Especially since I have the aero bars on the bike now.

Ttoc6

Be careful sprinting on aerobars. That's how I broke my first bone. Pulling up on the extensions while pushing power makes for a bad time. Not saying don't do it, just be careful.

Doge

In 2016 (so long ago) I was building at least 3 TT bikes for team riders (had to drill SHIV for Di2). The extensions we called straight or "ski pole". Ski pole being curved up. Why those are ski poles and the straight ones are not, I didn't ask. My son having used the straight, now the poles said he was going skiing for riding the TT bike.

topflightpro

The 1km TT is brutal. Did you see the post event video? Where guys had to carry him off the bike because he couldn't stand on his own, and then they just laid him on the ground to recover?

tetonrider

IME "on the skis" is a UK think, though i've certainly heard it elsewhere.

"Ski bend" extensions is a common descriptor for the specific aerobar shape that is straight with one upward kink (usually 30-60 degrees) at the end, that sort of looks like a ski tip from the side.

Straight extensions are literally straight.

Then there are lots of variations where curved shapes are introduced (J-bends, S-bends, etc.).

ntnyln

First races of the year today; Did the 45+ and 3/4 (40 min after first race) of the Tour de Tysons crit in McLean, VA. The course is a 3 corner and one sweeping bend course. Laps range from 2:30-2:45. One side has a 3% down hill and the other has the matching 3% uphill section that flattens out at about 200m for the turn to the finish straight.

Other than it was freaking cold (started snowing near the end of the second race) and there was a grand canyon like gully in the middle of the bottom of the course that sent a few to the hospital, the races were pretty uneventful. It's hard to get away on this course in general and with it being the first race on the calendar, everyone was spending more time figuring out what kind of shape they were in than they were attacking. The key to the race is where you are at the bottom of the last climb towards the finish. If you have to make up ground on the climb, you are toast for the sprint at the top. There was a little shuffle around the grand canyon on the last lap and I lost a few places at the wrong time and finished 6/34 in the 45+. The 3/4 was so quick after and the temp was dropping so I just spent the race shaking the rust off of my moving through the pack skills and granered an uninspiring pack finish. edit: results just posted 14/59 in 3/4.

spectastic

cat 123 race. 80 miler. small field. attacks started happening 30 miles in. I countered, and 4 other guys broke free and followed. we stayed away and worked really well. we caught the solo break, who was winded. But we formed up, and got a few minute gap on the field. eventually, people started getting tired, so me and another guy attacked up the hill, and got a nice big gap on the break. We worked well really well together too. Too bad he dropped the chain on final lap, and I finished solo. got the win.

furiousferret

Friggin awesome!


and to think if I didn't suggest those handlebars you'd still be struggling at the back...

tetonrider

congrats, dude!

ntnyln

Awesome!

wktmeow

Nicely done! You update your points counter in the signature yet?

spectastic

yep. that's the first thing i do when i get home hehe

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thanks fellas

aaronmcd

Spectastic that is awesome win again I'm jelly!

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I sat out Chico cuz I didn't feel like a long weekend just for one awesome road race. Instead I did the grasshopper "race". Ted King was there and many other much better climbers. Lined up and rolled out near the front.

First hill and I hang on for a bit then drop back then go super slow cuz its way too steep for 34/28. Hit the descent and guys are timid right and left. Passing people just to try and form up with a chase group. Even once it flattened out, I could see a group forming ahead and had to come around guys who for some odd reason didn't know what was going on or something. Multiple times I would pass someone, starting at a low speed so they could latch on, and they didn't. W.T.F.

Anyway, finally give a big push just as the chase is forming and we are 7 chasing. We are flying and I feel good. But there were 2 versions of this ride - the one with gravel and a creek crossing which I would like to do but don't have the bike for, and the version I did with a few extra miles but pavement. 2 of us did this one. The other guy with me was strong but really didn't know much about trading pulls or bending elbows. Oh well, he was a nice dude. We joined up with the leaders out of the gravel, Ted King and Craig fast mikes bike dude and 2 others. On a climb. We hung on for several minutes when they were keeping a civilized pace, but then it got ridonkulously steep and I came off.

Eventually caught up with my new buddy again and we rode through rain and rough roads. Came out into the sun on a beautiful wide open fast twisty descent that rivals my favorite descents of all time. Rode down beautiful highway one in the sun, then a chase group came by on a little riser and I managed to latch on and my buddy didn't make it.

They were rotating bit I pulled through but was really feeling tired and just wanted to have a good ride by this point. We eventually reached the last left turn to a big climb. Again, a ridiculously steep climb. These climbs were all so steep that I never even came close to good power numbers cuz I'm mashing 50 rpms and destroying my knees. Anyway, slogged up at unknown dead power meter numbers. The women's winner past me halfway up and kept a 20 second gap. I pushed it as hard as I mentally could and held off other dudes for a decent but not awesome finish.

They had a keg but I was so burned out that I couldn't even drink a beer. Had a bag of chips and a drink and rode back with a few others. But there was a climb on the way back. And the "few others" were a couple guys from the lead group plus a fast climber cat 1 who didn't even race and was just hanging out. I tried to power up the climb, blew up, stopped, gasped for 5+ minutes trying not to lose my measly nutrition, and slowly mosied my way back to the car.

Awesome race/ride! I prefer this to any p12 climbing race because I actually have some guys to ride with after the climbers drop us lol. I may move over to the dark side...

Doge

CO collegiate racing is healthy. Real healthy. Junior was on a two day race trip in Ft Collins and raced the RR yesterday. He skipped the crit today as he was sick (really nothing to do with my observation). But that collegiate RR had the riders. The big boys were in collegiate As. This is a bit weird to me. I guess it is a school spirit thing, but in SoCal, collegiate As are not where the action is.
Just a regional observation I'm sharing.

mattm

did you get a finisher’s medal?

Radish_legs

Thanks for the encouragement. I like to think that I'm slightly stronger this year than last year, but I'm not sure. Results haven't shown yet. And I keep feeling like my sprinting power is going down every year. But the season has just started. We'll see if I get enough points to upgrade to 3.

mattm

Chico Stage race, pro/1: failure.

It was one of those weekends that made me doubt whether or not my training is good enough, whether or not I should continue with this sport, and if I should just sell my bike! Luckily my gf & team mates talked me off the ledge lol. Still, it was tough on the ego.

Stage 1, circuit race. 90 minutes on a race car track, no real climbing but exposed to the wind. Surfed wheels and tried to stay out of the wind. With 4 ~1-mile laps to go, I ended up on the back, got gapped in a headwind and couldn't close it. Got pulled but placed (not DFL, others had popped before me). I don't get dropped in races often, unless they're p/1 races.. But VoS was p/1 and I did fine, who knows.

Watched Justin Williams win the race from a late break. He's on another level, even from the pros there.

Stage 2, 90 mile RR. Was doing fine, then about 40 miles in my bike started making a high-pitched kind of squealing sound.. WTF. I filtered to the back to figure out what was going on, wondering if I should get a new wheel or what. I was racing on some really old Ksyriums bc the Zipps were in the shop.. turns out the rear hub is basically shot, and 60% of the time I coasted it would make that sound!

Hit the 4-mile gravel section on the back of the pack, got gapped, and never caught back up. Finished the rest of the race, but it sucked.

Anyway I blame it on inconsistent training, a hard race, and that blown hub wasn't helping me go any faster!!

DNS'd the TT & crit the next day, which was tough to do bc I love crits, I like the course too. I could have gotten another wheel and soldiered on, but didn't want to race a big crit like that on a borrowed wheel I didn't trust.

On top of all those excuses, my injured finger hasn't really healed up properly, so doing another crit with it didn't sound as appealing.

So, I'm not quitting the sport, but I will take a week or two off to finally let my finger heal, and get back in the game soon!