aaronmcd

You need to start doing the entire race w one leg to level the playing field.

furiousferret

Great work @rideaz!

Ygduf

It's going to feel great!

aaronmcd

Got to the races early, watched the E4 race. Our guy won by a several seconds after a teammate gave a 600-700w leadout from turn 2 almost to turn 4, gapping off the rest of the field. It's crazy how one guy gets the win, but it can't happen without awesome teammates.

furiousferret

Or someone else's really bad teammates...

rideaz

I wouldn't say it felt "great" but I was able to win both my Masters women and P123 races today.

revchuck 

Dayum, @rideaz!

aaronmcd

Red Kite crits

Cat 3/4, 18/60
Lined up at the front, went hard at the whistle, got a break of 5 and a 15 second gap within a couple laps. But a couple of the guys were clearly a good bit stronger than me and kept wanting to up the pace when I was redlined. We slowed a tad, one guy attacked a 5 man break 8 minutes in, wtf. He attacks again a few laps later and drops one guy. Around minute 18 I fall off, a few minutes later a third guy comes back to the pack. I'm recovering, the pace is a bit surgey just keeping the break in sight and under control (finally caught last lap). Per usual, except for 2 weekends ago, I can't get a good position and finish 18th, but I could have just been fried from the break effort. It felt terrible.

2/3, we did pretty bad for 9 guys in a field of 53. Early break went and I was the only one near the front, so I spent like a lap and a half bridging. A couple guys bridged separately and we were maybe 7. I managed my energy a bit better than last race, but we kept getting trickle ups from the pack. At first it was great, a couple guys bridged with a teammate, but then a few more here and there and there were too many of us, at least 15. The attacks started, refusals to pull, and then we were caught.

I followed stuff when I could, recovered when teammates could. Nothing stuck. A few laps to go the attacks stop and the pace slows to maybe 25 or so. We can't seem to get it together. Last lap I see a couple teammates on the left side and think I'll see if I can pull them up, but I thought that at the same time everyone else in the race had the same idea.

Team only managed 6th place. I ended up smack in the middle.

guttertech

San Tan Crits

M30+ 9th place
A three-man break took off on the second lap. I thought "that's awfully early." I realized pretty soon that it was going to stay away. Then I debated for a couple laps whether to try to bridge. I tried. Put about 20 seconds on the field and got stuck in no-man's land for a while. The field slowly reeled me in, a couple dudes launched a second effort to bridge and they eventually made it across. My teammate was one of those so I shut it down and hung with the pack. I should have been way more decisive and tried to bridge earlier. Teammate on podium though, so that was rad!

3/4 - pack finish
Legs basically dead from dumb bridge effort earlier. Nothing got away, so this one came down to the sprint. Didn't have a whole lot of gas left when it was go time so yeah.

2/3 - lol (pack finish)
Sat in, considered some lifestyle changes in between hard surges, and cramped up during the sprint. Finished near the back of the pack.

Hungry Dog Crit, Cat 3 - 5th place
Showed up today hoping to redeem myself a little bit. Raced a ton smarter, tried to go with a couple moves but we got brought back pretty quickly. Felt surprisingly GREAT in the last few laps, so when the screws started turning with about a half lap to go, I took off. Let two guys slot in front of me before the final corner, saw daylight and felt like I had the right position to win. Stood up to sprint and CLUNKCLUNKCLUNK - my bike shifted itself down to my 11 and wouldn't come back up. I must have come in pedaling at 45rpm. Actually surprised I only lost a couple positions. It turned out my derailleur cable slipped mid-sprint - bad timing I guess. Still fun.

Ygduf

Red Kites m123/e23

Prime in m123, zilch in e23. Lots of right turns and 2 pack finishes. Didn't feel great today. Dunno, just didn't have it beyond like 45s. Get a gap, immediately die. First race of the season meant big fields and guys eager to chase. No breaks stuck in either of my races.

aaronmcd

That 2/3 race was the fastest race I've done, 27.65 including cool down. We were in a break attempt once, sorry I was opening those gaps! Was dying and thought you had infinite power as usual lol. I wasn't in the best shape today either, I cooked myself more times than I can count today!

aaronmcd

Also, that bridge at the beginning of the race I was doing almost 30 solo for well over a lap and took forever to close it down. It was insane compared with E4 races! I almost missed turn 3 I was so far in the red hahaha

mattm

once again, very nice!!!

save10

Red Kite Crits.

35+3/4
14/75

75 guys for this race?! i wanted to get in a breakaway but it was too fast (i almost felt it was harder than the m123 race) and field was too eager to chase and no one got away. Plan B was to find a fast finisher and poach off him. 5 laps left and i find my guy. I'm locked on him and no one is getting me off this wheel. mid pack to 7th wheel with one lap to go. I'm thinking this is really good and he has teammates to lead him out. But on the third corner he/we got fully swamped. I was able to escape and latch onto another strong wheel. now 5th wheel out of the final corner and looking really good. But in my line were two guys that tried an early attack and were blown. i had to check up and coast the final 30 meters. many passed me. maybe podium, possibly points, certainly top 10 all out in the final few seconds.

35+123s
didnt crash/70

just wanted to not make an ass of myself. 6 laps to go i was still alive so i wanted to see if i could repeat the results of the previous race. I moved up to 4 or 5th wheel. Fudgy was up there. The lead group dug, i followed but my legs were not going to last the rest of the race. i was going to be a liability up there so i swung out and found a place father back. Then with 2 laps to go a couple of guys racing for 60th got all Cat5ish and crashed. I avoided it easily enough but had to unclip and go off through the cones. I road the final lap by myself...kinda 'chasing' but mostly eating an energy bar i had in my pocket. the energy bar was just okay.

Ygduf

too easy!

mattm

Red Kite p/1/2, 9th.

Missed the break, dammit.

Got in a few moves, nothing stuck. Of course the one that stuck was the one none of us were in.. dammit.

Everyone was so busy marking Holloway (Natl crit champ), and letting him bring it back (he tried), that it just got away.

Teammate that was in the 2/3's just before our race gave me a nice leadout, but I didn't fight hard enough for the wheel and two guys snuck in. 4th in the field sprint.

At least my chain didn't drop this time!

aaronmcd

And at least you didn't stick your front wheel in a bad place and fly over your handlebars like that other guy after the sprint.

rideaz

Nice work at red kite you guys!!

McTufferton

Our race season finally started yesterday with Froze Toes RR, P/1/2. Teammate got the win. I rolled in otb after cramping in the final few miles when it counted. Not happy with my result but very pleased with the teamwork and the end result.

nokia8860

Red Kite Crit
M35+ 3/4
To low to print/76

Holy smokes these guys were moving. As soon as the whistle blew it was 27mp/h door to door and I found myself out back. Whatever happened to parading about most of the time then only kicking it up the last few laps?

Visions of placing top 20 quickly went out the door and I just wanted to hang on for dear life.

I figured I might as well try for a prime, so on the first prime I went for it after the 1st turn and lead it into the 2nd. At that point I thought, hey I may just win something after all and at that point half the guys blew right by me like I was coasting.

For the remainder of the race I could hear the motorcycle behind me but I refused to give up. I wanted to drink but didn't have enough energy to take my hand off the bar and reach for the bottle. I gave it everything just to not loose the group.

At the final lap the pace shot up even more and I willed my legs to keep on going to cross the line. Which I eventually did.

Totally out of my league but it felt good to push myself.

cyclingtolose

Awesome work over the weekend!

cyclingtolose

Hungry Dog Crit. Did my first race where I did 2 in a day, had a great time. Have had the nasty head cold/congestion/chest/sore throat crap that has been going around for the last 5 days, but wanted to get the starts in anyway.

Cat 5
I felt pretty good, was a small field of about 15 riders, so the attacks were few and far between. One was able to get about a half lap gap, but once everyone decided to pull it back, it was over once he got his prime. Things got amped up with 5 to go, and I made a mental plan of when to attack on the last lap, with 2 to go they called a Prime lap, which really screwed things up a bit for me, I put myself on the wheel of a guy who had already won a prime, hoping that he wouldn't go for another one this close to the finish, but of course he decided to and I left that wheel and switched for the last lap. Started last lap at about 8th position, move up on the back straight and hit it hard into the corner, made the mistake of not sticking to a wheel which started my sprint too early. Went from 3rd to 5th in that last sprint, still felt like it was a good result for me, where I am and how I was feeling starting the day.

Cat 4/5
This was a much larger field of 35 or so, so the pace was definitely picked up. I was not sure where I was at physically with the cold and so I sat off the back for the first half or so of the race, making sure that nothing got away that I would need to work for, nothing really did and so I just continued to sit. I was red lining a bit on the prime laps, but not so much that I was dropping off. With 5 laps to go, I started to make my move to get up into the front of the pack, placed myself about 4th wheel, then again they rung the prime with 3 to go and things blew up for me, went from sitting in the front to sitting in the back as the wheels I followed dropped further and further in the group. On the last lap I was placed too far back to have much of a chance of doing anything, I tried to come up the outside, but so did everyone else, pushed me out and had to break before the corner and sprint. I still pushed it after that and ended up 25/35. Not terrible and was some more great experience before moving down to 4 at the end of this season. I was really glad I did 2 races, I thought that I would feel worse then I did, legs felt great, but my lungs were killing. Will definitely continue doing multiple races a day now for the Crits.

SoCAlAD8

CBR Daylight Savings Time Race 3/8/15

Cat 5: Finished 6th. Sat top 10 most of the race and on the final lap battled it out in the sprint and crossed the line 6th. (Almost full field ~70 riders)

Cat 4/5: Finished 27th. This race was just 30 minutes after the Cat 5 race and I wasn't feeling like putting in a big effort. Sat in and got my 8th finish towards my upgrade to Cat 4! woohoo!! (full field, 75 riders)

cyclingtolose

Nice work!

SoCAlAD8

Thank you. I'm excited to upgrade, it'll be nice to feel like you're racing for more than a pat on the back... haha. I guess everybody has to pay their dues right? Either way, it's fun and that's all that matters.