rubiksoval

Anyone going?

173 in the RR, it looks. On a 5 mile loop, I can imagine lots and lots of people being pulled before getting lapped.

Might be some kind of craziness.

YMCA

5 mile loop with near 200 riders, sounds like the Belgie Kermis scene in April

spectastic

a road race held on a 5 mile loop? huh?

mattm

I wish I was fast enough for it to be worth it to travel there...

Too bad they didn't keep it in Truckee this year!

Ygduf

San Dimas RR is like a 7-mile loop, at least!

rkwaki

Was going but based on the way this season has gone, we switched entry to a teammate....
And no I haven't logged in for about a year

rubiksoval

They've had masters nats there a few times previously. Gotta be better than that massive debacle of a course from last year.

Crit field limit looks capped at 100.

Steve Tilford is reporting that they are moving the crit course to another park (Shawnee) due to large field numbers (duh?!) and they may let more people in. Who knows.

Shawnee Park looks to have an interior road loop with virtually no corners, so hopefully they include roads outside the park to at least make it a little technical.

rkwaki

They did move the course. I've raced in that park and they would need to move the finish line as it is a very dangerous sprint (I had to sit up in the sprint or eat a tree when trying to take the field sprint). Just a disappointment that a Nationals event has come to this type of course. I can assure you it won't be anything like that cluster at Masters Nationals.

rubiksoval

Thanks for the info. I still can't find any official mention of the course change, though. Where's the info. coming from? Are emails being sent out?

It's so ridiculous.

hack

I know some local folk were irked that they couldn't register because the field was capped at 100. It's kind of late in the game to change the course to accommodate more racers. I can't imagine too many guys are going to be lining up flights, hotels, etc, on a whim that the potential course changes can get them into the race.

topflightpro

With a 5- or 7-mile loop, I'm guessing that makes it a bit more difficult to run multiple fields at the same time?

And my wife is heading up there. She is working at the collegiate recruiting event for the juniors today.

rubiksoval

I think it's more to accommodate the 73 people registered in the road race that couldn't get in the crit.

Anyway, finally got an email this morning showing the course change. Not sure how many more people they will let in, but hopefully some people that were only going to get to race one race can now do two.

rubiksoval

No, just one field a race. RR is spread out over two days.

Going to be a tough one for the U23s. Elite RR is at 7am, so will probably be humid but not so blazingly hot. U23s go off after noon. I hear the course is pretty shaded, though.

hack

ahhh ... makes sense

rubiksoval

The Elite RR was heinous. A true sufferfest and race of attrition. So twisty and turny that you couldn't see more than 15 secs up the road save for one section outside the park and it was strung out for most of the race. No significant climbs, but four "hills" and constant undulations. Only one big turn (came to a standstill most laps) but tons of high speed sweepers.

I thought it was a pretty good road race course to separate the truly strong from the rest of us. I think the lead group finished with about 40 people out of the original 170+.

I got popped with 5 laps to go and rode around with a few more guys before we were pulled with 2 to go when Holloway (eventual winner) came up on us like a freight train.

My immediate thought afterwards was that it was like doing a 4 hour crit (my np numbers matched up like a few crits I've done this year), and I've since heard lots of other people saying something similar. There really was no reprieve at all like in most road races. Just on the gas for most of the race and once you got too far back you inevitably got popped off.

Finished up with a TSS of 335 for four hours. Clearly my lack of ever doing a race over three hours is woefully inadequate when racing at this level over 110 miles.

Overall a good experience and some new ideas to implement for the next go around. Doing national level races always resets the "what's actually good" bar, so glad I got to race.

Crit is tomorrow. Hoping it doesn't rain but the forecast isn't looking super promising.

TMonk

Nice racing @rubiksoval. I enjoyed the write-up too.

rankin116

Yeah man, that's awesome, must be a very cool experience.

I'm kinda confused about this whole race though. Since Holloway won, does he get to wear a jersey when he races? What if he's racing against Greg Daniel? How does that work?

Doge

Think this is it...(correct me f i'm wrong)
In any USAC amateur RR he wears the jersey.
As the cat 1 race is not a UCI race (it ranks below the U23 and 17-18) UCI/Internationally he would not wear the jersey. So Tour of CO, Tour of Utah - no jersey for Holloway.

But pretty cool all the same.

rankin116

Yeah, it's definitely cool.

And I'm just thinking of random chances, but what if he and G. Daniel both race in a local, non UCI road race? They're usually P/1/2 or something, so they're both eligible to race it, and both would be allowed to wear their jersey?

Again, not that it matters at all, I'm just curious.

Grumpy McTrumpy

There's probably some rule forbidding G. Daniel from racing some local race officially, so I guess he would probably wear day glo green instead.

hack

I think Holloway needs to get on a team first.
When Holloway was crit nat'l champ one of the local guys was also the U23 crit nat'l champ. They both rocked their nat'l kits when they faced off in the local crits. See Alex Chiu pic below:

Doge

don't follow G Daniel, but I believe he has a Pro UCI license. So he may not race local if that is the case.
Cat 1 national is "recreation". That Holloway may be just as good as pros in single day races is another thing. Some races, it is the team that is invited. Most races a UCI pro does, the team is invited. Then the team provides the roster of riders. So it is not so much about ability (of course that matters) but association/license.
Holloway is not in that group. Jeffery Curran is.

Doge

Chico 2015 allowed a junior NC to wear his NC kit in a senior race. While allowed by the referees, it was also against the rules.

hack

Rules or no rules, I think it'd be silly to not let a nat'l champ rock their kit (assuming the kit is for the discipline raced) at anything other than a UCI race..

Doge

Sure. My view is there shouldn't be a rule they choose not to enforce.

FWIW Redlands CR when asked the day before said Daniel could not where his TT kit as it was a junior one and Redlands was pro. So he wore shorts and jersey.