hack

Cherry Pie Crit ... 35+ 123, DNF

Post crash showers hurt more than crashing. Fun technical course. I think 10 turns with a 180 and a roundabout. Field was small (25??) but many strong riders in there.

By the end of lap 4 I think we were down to 17 riders. Break of 3 got up the road around minute 20 and the pace slowed enough where I could recover. Plan was to jump out of the roundabout for a bridge attempt. Carried too much speed through it and lost the front wheel. Stupid mistake.

Regained my wits, but the rear hanger was nearly in the spokes. Game over.

Road rash isn’t too terrible though.

mattm

@hack that sucks! I hate that course, and especially that roundabout..

Glad it's just road rash, and hopefully just a der. hanger that's busted.

I would have been there, but had to work. And was tired from VoS.

hack

Skinsuit died ... that was the biggest heart breaker.

TMonk

Bummer @hack

mattm

Ugh, that really sucks! Hate when that happens.

Psimet2001 

On the subsets of groups within our team structure that race more towards the faster categories we make some allowances in the sponsorship budgets to help offset clothing replacement for just this reason.

I remember long ago during Super Week one year how Recursive was making a list of all of the gear he went through that week. Expensive week but then again he was the guy that hit the guy who stood up in this video....(he's in the blue jersey)

Trigger warning....

Psimet2001 

Just braved the USA Cycling electronic structure to file permits for my 3 crits this season. 3/5 of the Illinois Cup this year if accepted. No on to apply for a State Championship an permit one of the cross races.

Oh - and I ran (un-opposed) for Illinois Cycling Association president. Yay. So that's my "accomplishment" for this year.

Headed to Detroit this weekend to visit the new velodrome and hopefully race.

Wylde06

I need to try and get up there soon. Never been on a track before..but it looks like a lot of fun

mattm

quite the spectacle.

also, is it just me or were cat 3’s older back then?

like how high school year books from the 80’s have dudes with full mustaches in them.

Enthalpic

"I get older, they stay the same age."

Ygduf

alright alright alright

aaronmcd

Its been quite a while since I've crashed. Still having bad luck with the road races it seems. And the 1/2 field seems to have forgotten how to ride bikes.

Snelling. 7 laps at 12 or so miles each. 8mph winds and a few dinky rollers and many turns.

We start with the legendary neutral rollout. Legendary cuz its like 3 miles of bunching up and braking swerving vs climbing a roller at 450w. The moto doesn't seem to understand how pedal bikes work lol. Anyway, dude says something about being stuck at the back and I tell him that's where ill be staying for the first half.

Lap 1. 30 mph for much of it. Yeah, I'll chill near the back for a while. Corners... No one remembers how. Brakes. Weird lines. We hit the legendary bumpy bridge. Teeth rattle, bottles fly, riders randomly swerve into each other and crash. I narrowly dodge a downed rider and think I'm in the clear when I'm suddenly heading straight for another guy on the pavement. I leap off over his bike and let my bike hit him. Grab my bike, hop on, get the chain back on and sprint. Look back, other dude is coming and he is strong so I ease up and we go together.

For several miles we (he mostly) chase with the pack in sight 30-45 seconds up the road. We fade, catch a couple other riders off the back. Pack rides off into the midday sun, and I catch a bee in my hand as I try to drink. I smash it on my leg.

I ride around with a few guys for a couple more laps and call it quits after 50 miles. I figure I got 180 TSS in 2 hours, may as well save some for a ride tomorrow. And avoid another lap of the the legendary Snelling bees.

Ygduf

Reset the counter! Nice job not getting hurt. I bet you landed on your hair.

I have a head cold but figured since the team was going out to race I should support them and do Snelling as well. Mostly a friend offered to pick me up at my house at 5AM and that's such a huge favor to turn down...

Anyway, the race in 35+ 123 featured, I dunno, 10 national champions? I carpooled with 2 of them. Lots of guys, 60+ in the field. Our race was 5 laps of the 12-mile course on bumpy-ass farm roads, sandy corners and a dilapidated bridge that populates the hospitals.

We had only one crash in the neutral rollout, which was no-consequence and hilarious. I was shouting at guys about how it happens every year and was like "here it comes!" then 2 seconds later screeeech...

My race started at 08:10 when it was 32f. Freezing cold, but not tooooo tooo bad except that my zip-bootie came unzipped and was threatening to go into my chainring. ****ing with that until I got it tucked away with numb fingers got me filtered all the way to the back (as usual) counter to my plan of really doing it this year and staying up front and being aggressive.

Thankfully my team is good and found their way into the first couple break attempts. I finally got to the front just in time to go with the first real break of the day, from the start of lap 2 to about halfway through lap 3 we had 6 guys (all the right teams) and I was working my ass off, stupidly not realizing that Peets didn't like their guy in the break and was chasing us down.

At the catch the usual flurry of counters goes and I was determined to stay forward and be in whatever goddamn move stuck this year. Finally about the end of lap 3 a good attack goes and I do a 30-second bridge effort to just barely get the back of the 6 dudes. I pulled one across, so we had 8. 4 of us had been in the first move, but we had the right teams and we had 2 Touchstone riders and 2 Peets riders and I felt safe this one was staying clear.

Here's the new me, though, this year. I said "I'm tired, I'm not working." and sat on the back of this break, tenaciously refusing to pull through and weathering dirty looks for the next 80 minutes. lol - I literally did not see the front except for one moment where the weaker Peets dudes were struggling at the back and there was a slight gap in the downwind. I shot through and pushed it for a second to shed them, but no one else was feeling that so I went back to resting on the back.

Anyway, about 3 miles from the finish the final climby bits are passing and the 8 are getting antsy. I'm mentally preparing for about 5th, knowing I can beat a couple of these dudes, but even fresh I'm not going to win a protracted uphill sprint. That's when the marked Strongman makes his surge, thankfully I'd been moving forward on the hill so I could slide backwards because when Strongman goes, Peets rider and Touchstone rider get tangled, crashing, taking out 1 peets, both touchstone riders, and the ThirstyBear rep from the break. Even on the far left I barely avoid the crash, leaving the road into some soft sand. Thankfully my anal pucker popped the bike back onto the road and in the 30s 100% sprint I had left got me in contact with the front 2 who had been unaffected by the crash. It also shelled the remaining Peets rider.

On the run-in to the finish, now just 3 of us, I weathered a few more harry eyeballs and refused to pull. I was bundling all my courage and effort for one heroic, do-them-dirty-like-that sprint. Then we turned the corner, 200m from the line and there was a crash ahead of us from a different field. By the time we got through that mess we were 50m from the line and I got my ass handed to me in the sprint, as usual.

But hey, I rode super aggressive until in the break, was in the right place when misfortune struck and took my 3rd place gladly. Not exactly how I wanted to get a podium, but that's racing.

After the race I talked to the guys in the break and there were some gripes about how I rode. I explained to them that I've been in 30-40-50 breaks the past few years where I busted my ass and then got left at the sprint to collect my 4th-5th-6th place, and I wasn't going to work in a break of 8 guys to get 8th place when I have teammates behind. They deserve better than that finish. Work as hard as you like, nobody says "thanks for the effort" and pushes you across the line.

People seemed soothed by my willingness to actually talk about it, and I have a ton of equity built up with all these dudes. I'll bury myself in a break of 3, but 8 was just too big, especially with 2 teams with 2 guys.

ntnyln

Nicely done! Way to stick to your guns and ride your race. It had to be hard in that group.

rubiksoval

Great reports! Enjoy reading through this thread. Six more very long weeks until my first race. Ughhhh.

TMonk

+1 nice reports fellas, and good racing!

mattm

This is great!

I think that's the exact right strategy given the makeup of the break you were in. Otherwise they would just use & abuse you (and not even say "thanks" lol)

tetonrider

I liked reading that. Smart riding.

Psimet2001 

We hit the new Lexus Velodrome in Detroit. Good time. Interesting track. Not as difficult to ride as many imply. My son was the only one to pile in and it was indeed because he was going too slow on the corners. "I feel like I was an eraser and the track was a piece of paper".

We stayed and watched racing that night. watching a 6 team 100 lap madison was fun. There were a lot of spectators. I hope they keep the momentum up.

ShutUpLegs

This is some great insight and something I will definitely take into my racing season this year.

furiousferret

Googled it, that place looks really nice. Is the exterior / roof a fabric?

Ygduf

glad to hear. I definitely sacrificed some results for being more-liked.

I'm not sure it's the wrong trade-off either way, but it was fun to play a different card/character for a day.

tetonrider

you also have to be pretty freaking strong to be in that position -- and strong just to hang onto a break with that power!

Psimet2001 

It's an inflatable dome.

Hermes

Word.