my weekly race log

Today's my birthday and I sensibly started celebrating it this morning by doing a time trial. It was on the same 10.2-mile course which I rode 3 times last season - not a fast course, and quite lumpy (if not actually hilly as such - you can stay in the big ring the whole way round, but get slowed down to about 15mph on some sections). My best previous time was 27.19 (22.4mph), so noticeably slower than my ten-mile PB on a flatter course.

I got a new track pump so I made sure the tyres were right up to 120psi before I started warming up. Unfortunately I somehow managed to catch my hand in the locking mechanism, so I had to ride with a bleeding palm and blood blister, but never mind. I set off incredibly fast, averaging 25mph for the first 4 miles. By the turn (after a long drag) my average was about 24mph and by now I had a couple of distant riders in my sights.

The return leg had a slight headwind, but I wasn't focusing on speed, just on trying to reel in the two riders. First, after about 6 miles, I caught and passed one of my clubmates (not the fastest guy, it must be said) for three minutes. Then I gradually started gaining on my minute man. It was painful progress: every time he went past a landmark I'd count the gap between us. First 19, then 16, then 12... Eventually, after having him in sight for about 3 miles, I came past and dropped him. He was on a proper time trial bike with rear disc wheel, so that felt very satisfying. The worst of the 'hills' are in the final mile so I was beginning to feel a bit ragged by then, but I gave it everything.

I knocked more than a minute off my course best, time 26.12, average speed 23.4mph. And then at the results board the organisers gave me a birthday card and a bottle of wine. Nice.

*very polite but enthusiastic applause*

well done NB+S!!!

LONGGGGGGGG:

With temperatures peaking at 110F Saturday and cooling to a mere 101F
today, the brutal heat became a massive factor for the purportedly
"unchallenging" stage profiles of the Ch1co Stage Race.

I registered in the Masters 35+ 4/5 Category. Not because I like to
pick on old people, but more because the Cat5 field was really small
(~10 riders) whereas the Masters 35+ 4/5 was the largest (36 riders)
and also offered a pretty large ca$h money purse to top 10 placement
in the GC. Boo-ya.

Saturday was the P4skenta Road Race, a 44 mile loop through the dry
rolling hills about an hour northeast of Ch1co. Yeehaw. Pretty
awesome to see both Mt. Shasta and Mt. Lassen's snow covered peaks on
the horizon despite the triple digit temps. Our heat only had to do
the lap once and I'd heard from several sources that the course was
flat and fast. Which it was, for the first 25 miles. One rider who
will remain nameless (5t3v3n W00 - Th1rd Pill@r) was wearing arm
warmers (uh...?) and then when reaching for food from his jersey
pocket, dislodged his point and shoot camera (UHHHHHHHHH?) and it fell
to the ground, then bounced into my VIRGIN BRAND NEW* REYNOLDS ATTACK
wheel (*well I got it for $175 off craigslist, 2 years old, ok
condition). What.the.frak. I assumed that the cat4 masters were
wisened zen-masters, apparently not true.

At mile 23 the smooth pavement turned to cracks and potholes and then
threw in some dipsy-doo rollers. Someone (me) attacked during the
first set of rollers and split the field in half. Ouch. At mile 35
the road gave way to 10km of "gravel", which was the same false flat
uphill rollers, but this time with squirrelly dirt and loose rocks
which sent riders who weren't on the front unexpectedly sideways with
very little warning. Tension! At this point in time I had gone
through both of my 24oz. water bottles filled with ~93 degree cytomax
(YUM!) and my mouth was parched. Not fun. Once the gravel section
ended with only a few miles to go, our group of 12 surged up
the final short climb. Well all except me. Have you ever bonked?
Dizzy, cross-eyed with no legs? Burping up hot cytomax mixed with
stomach acid? Weaving all over the road until you actually roll off
the road into a ditch? Oh you have too? Nevermind then. There I was
three miles to go, in my granny gear, whimpering for my mommy until
suddenly.... Could it be a neutral feed zone on the horizon? Yes! A
bottle in my mouth and a bottle over my head = me back in business.
Finished 12th but lost a critical 4 minutes to the stage winner, and
about 3 minutes on the other 10 riders ahead of me.

Today (am): Agu4s Fri4s Time Trial (for the record, there are no
agu4s fri4s anywhere near this forsaken wasteland). Flat 10 mile out
and back. Triple digit weather, even at 10:58am. I borrowed [DUTCHMAN]'s
trainer and [CLIMBA]'s clip-on aero bars. Both of those guys are
awesome by the way. I managed to place 6th (0:52 behind the leader)
but only one guy who beat me in the RR placed higher in the TT. O_o

Today (pm): Downtown Ch1co Criterium. I'll be honest with you guys:
I had pretty much "checked out" at this point. I was fried, my legs
ACHED, the weather was miserable (I promise I won't ever complain
about the fog again). I totally lagged getting from the hotel to the
race until oh only 20 mins before the start time and then realized in
my laziness I had forgot to take the aero-bars off my bike. Ruh roh.
Obviously my "No-Fail 45min Crit Warmup" on [DUTCHMAN]'s trainer was out of
the question, instead I opted for a half-assed lap around the block
and then sat under a tree with some ice water and some Missy
"Misdemeanor" Elliott. Work it!

The 45 min race goes off. The pace is a brisk ~25-26mph. The
downtown tarmac sticks to the wheels. Oh, I've never done a crit race
before so I'm all over the place. Bad lines, poor handling, etc. If
you've ridden with me you know what I'm talking about. Hey who wants
to do Giro di SF with me lolz. Typical dudes doing attacks off the
front for chances at lackluster lower category primes, blah blah.
About 20 laps in the pace slows to 22-23mph and I find myself near the
front, when suddenly a hometown rider (Sierra Nevada jersey, pretty
unmistakable) blasts by me. I grab his wheel and we do a lap gaining
about 5-10 seconds on the field. After the lap he sits up and I'm
like "sup dude, let's work together..." and he's all "i'll try, i was
just going for a glory lap" and i'm like all "..."

So I decide to just put my head down and mash to see what happens and
the next thing I hear the announcer say "5 laps to go, and 5t3v3 5ha5t@ has opened up a 30 second gap". nowai. On one of the u-turns I
peak a look and I see the pack indeed about 30secs back. I start
doing OCD math internal monologue in my head: "In order to catch me
they need to make up 6 seconds a lap which over a course of 0.6 miles
equates to roughly an incremental velocity differential of..." and
then I just shut up and started mashing harder. My max HR is 185bpm.
I finished at 191bpm for a 9 lap solo break win. Primes collected:
5sec time bonus prime and Giro Semi Compact sunglasses. Finished 18
seconds up on the group sprint which earned a 20sec time bonus as
well.

Not sure what the GC final standings were, I had to book it back to SF
but I'm definitely happy the way things turned out.

When you least expect it and are least prepared, crazy things can happen.

Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.

congrats!

THE FIRST WIN? KUDOS!

Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.

also lol

I assumed that the cat4 masters were
wisened zen-masters

why would you think this?

Definitely inspiring me, I'm down 2 kg and well on my way from obese mantis to fat mantis status, aiming to at least do the kiddie pool cat 5 at the washington boulevard oval before the summer is out.

(slowly reading through the Nutrition Nazis thread and will be putting a proper plan into effect once I get my house move sorted)

Holy shit, Shasta, that's fantastic!

PODIUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCKIN A! SHASTY!!

Did you do a Fat Mantis fistpump when you crossed the finish line solo?

PRO TRIP: you say PODIUM when you AREN'T the winner...

nasty shasty, what will this newfound success do for your wakeboarding career

well done

went out and did boring training ride this morning in the cold, so inspired was i by this tale

worst salute evar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIZzzZzwYzE

you won the race. but you failed at winning. ;)

<3

dude srsly at least a weak fist pump or something christ

ohai let me recap 4 U:

2 day stage race (3 races) in 103-110F weather.

9 lap SOLO breakaway averaging 25.5mph through a tight crit course (six 90 degree turns in <1km).

that last effort to the finish line is 32mph (yeah i know looks slow compared to Cav but my data says 32.3mph/191bpm/338W).

i finished 1 second ahead of the guy behind me in the GC. so u tell me bro: what's cooler, a salute or dropping a position in the GC?

;-P

a salute!

bah, h8 u

Pain and suffering. 64 miles of a moon crater course profile featuring a 3.7 mile, 1800 foot climb at mile 17 but the worst was that miles 11-32 were, how do I put this... honest to god THE WORST ROADS imaginable. I know that there is a current trend in cycling races for "{x}-Roubaix" style races but this was unbelievable garbage. New Deal-era roads that haven't been paved since. Potholes EVERYWHERE.. sometimes potholes in the middle of giant potholes. Washed out pie crust "roads" with long sections of deep sand and loose gravel in the corners. Washboard-style kidney abuse. Basically my back feels like it was jackhammered for 3 hours. I tried to stay loose but too much time in the drops made the last hour intensely painful with lower back cramps (cue Jens: "shut up back!")

The first 11 miles were uneventful and then once we hit the first rough patch of road, there were quite a few surges and attacks, but not without a cascade of bottle ejections littering the road. The climb begins slowly and I didn't have the ambition to stay with the leaders (2 teammates in the mix) so I let the lead group of 15 climbers get away up the road. I was in no man's land until about 5 mins before the climb really starts and was caught by a group of 3 riders, 2 of which wanted to work together and the other one went up the road. I almost went down in a really deep sandy section as my front wheel had a hard time going straight through the slop. With 2 teammates up ahead I had no reason to work particularly hard once I was caught so my pulls were very modest. With about 5 mins left in the climb we were caught by the Masters 35+ 1/2/3, led by a guy I train with on Tuesdays. He looked marvelous and we chatted a bit while he made his move, on his way to solo-ing the entire race for an amazing victory. I crested the hill and began my Fat Mantis style TT attack to break away from the guys who caught me who were themselves on the verge of getting caught by the main pack of our race.

Within minutes I had caught one of my teammates who was having mechanical problems with his chattering headset/front fork which made his descents really sketchy as it had rattled loose and would begin an oscillating wobble at speeds in excess of 35mph. He sent me ahead to try and help our leader, who within minutes I see on the side of the road with a flat and with no wheel vehicle in sight he was helpless. I offered my wheel but he waved me on, although I did envy him in the shade with a beautiful view of the sunflower-laden fields and longhorn steers grazing nearby while I was getting pounded into submission by the unrelenting potholes and washboard road.

Here I found myself in a familiar position: no man's land in pursuit of the lead pack and fearing the chase behind me. I'd see a rider here and there and slowly make my way up behind them to check their race number to see if they were in my race or not and then make my move around them accordingly. I ended up catching 2 guys who were dropped by the leaders and they wanted to work together up the last two short climbs. That's fine with me because I can't climb and I was looking forward to the final 25 miles of the race: roads of fresh smooth tarmac, a long fast non-technical descent and a tailwind all the way in to the finish line.

The final short ascents were not too bad and we had a neutral water feedzone at the crest of the final one. I had brought 4 bottles with me (2 in my jersey) and I had gone through 3 of them thus far. I took 2 neutral waters on board which made a lot of the pain go away. I started pullng towards 2 more riders from our race at the summit and then I turned on the Fat Mantis TT afterburners hitting 50mph on the descent and then 27-32mph on the false flat descent with tailwind. There was a group of riders ahead but they were pacelining and I could not seem to make any ground up on them. I could ~feel~ the presence of a chase group on my heels but couldn't see them so I just did my best to just maintain high speed, stay aero, and look for stragglers up road I could pick off. There were a few including one whippet/mantis from my race who I surprised with a 31mph blast-by just to make sure he didn't come along for the ride.

Ended up 8th of 28 with quite a few DNFs due to the course conditions. A couple bad falls and some crabon casualties spotted along the way as well. Kinda satisfied with my result as this is really not a Fat Mantis friendly course but wish I could have had a teammate or two at the end to keep the pace high.

That course sounds mental. Perhaps they should liven it up a bit more by spreading tacks on the road and throwing half-bricks at passing riders.

I offered my wheel but he waved me on, although I did envy him in the shade with a beautiful view of the sunflower-laden fields and longhorn steers grazing nearby while I was getting pounded into submission by the unrelenting potholes and washboard road.

^^ haha :)

pretty zen imo

shasty u r makin me want to go racing

BIKE RACING!!!!

unamerican

My second time at the Dunton circuit:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3883667

In my first race there (6 weeks ago) I made the mistake of being near the back of the bunch when the bell rang for the last lap (2.7km/1.7miles). I fought hard to work my way through the pack, but the gaps weren't really there and I ended up 26th out of 46 (about 40 of whom were in the bunch sprint).

This time round I told myself to make sure I was well-positioned towards the end. Last time round there was a strong wind from east-to-west which meant you could attack on the 'hill' (more of a lump, to be honest) and then speed away down a slight descent with a tailwind on the backstraight. This time round was completely the opposite: a strong wind from west-to-east, which meant there was a tailwind for the home straight, but a hideous headwind after the climb.

The headwind was so strong that no breaks stood a chance. It didn't stop people going, but no group ever got more than about 100 metres advantage and it inevitably came back together time after time on the backstraight. I just bided my time, no attacks this time round, and if I noticed I was getting too far back in the bunch I would work my way up towards the front on the tailwind section.

When I guessed there were about ten minutes to go I decided it was time to get in place. I jumped up on the outside, even though it was into the headwind, and slotted in behind a couple of riders who were slightly clear at the front. I was still sitting there in third place as we passed the finish line and they rang the bell – excellent – I was exactly where I wanted to be.

We had to pass a lapped rider on the climb and I moved up into second place. I stayed on the first guy's wheel in the headwind section and kept looking round to see if anyone was going to come past us: nobody did. As we reached the loop at the top and started to turn into a crosswind I came past into first place and started to wind up the pace. There was just over a kilometre to go.

With about 800m to go two riders came flying past me – I got out of the saddle and gave it what I could to go after them. I slowly started to reel in the second of them, but with 500m to go a pack of riders came roaring past on my left. I couldn’t respond immediately as the rider I’d been chasing seemed to have blown and was going too slow, but I couldn’t come out to get past him. With 400m to go we were on the home straight, but the whole pack (of ten or fifteen riders) had come past me. By the time I’d accelerated up to top speed I was about ten bike lengths behind and couldn’t close the gap at all. Gah! I beat some people who were some distance back, but in terms of the bunch sprint I went from first to last in the space of about 30 seconds.

Average speed: 23mph, Time: just under 1 hour.

damn! what a riveting report. i like your style!

the only thing (in my very limited experience) i would change (and again this totally depends on your style of riding) is to hold off attacking in pure head/tailwinds. Ideally, attack on a pure cross wind and stay on the extreme leeward side so nobody can get a solid draft off of you. YMMV on this. I defer to Cutty/Hunt3r obviously.

(which you did so wtf am i on about?)

Well I love *both* your race reports. Group hug!

Yay - group hug!

I don't even know if I have much of a sprint because in most races I've been dropped before it gets to that stage. Theoretically, I think I'm better suited to an uphill finish. Anyway, I think I'm slowly learning: first time round I left it too late and couldn't fight my way through, this time round I went too early and didn't have enough left when they came past me. Next time round....?

lol group hug

My third race in five days this morning. Tuesday evening was the final 10-mile time trial on the Hog Hill circuit - equalled my PB for the course. Thursday evening was the road race on the Dunton circuit (upthread). This morning was supposed to be a two-up time trial on the lumpy 10.2 mile course.

A frantic start to the day: up at half past six for a bath because our shower broke yesterday, quick breakfast and then just about to set off for the 30-mile drive to the race HQ when I remember I've forgotten to put my clip-on tri-bars back on (removed for Thursday's road race). Some desperate allen key action and then a high speed drive only to arrive at the race HQ and find out that my partner had pulled out due to illness.

They said I could ride it individually, but technically my result wouldn't count as part of the individual event. I was in two minds as to whether to bother - the temperature was horribly low for July, the sky was filling with black clouds, and there was a swirling wind all around. I was running late and had a five-mile ride to get to the start, so I just decided I might as well do it seeing as I'd come that far.

There were a pair of women off two minutes in front of me, a pair of men off two minutes behind me, and a fast pair off two minutes behind them. I was expecting both pairs after me to catch me, so I decided I would try to match their pace once they did that, even if it hurt a lot. Obviously I wouldn't be allowed to ride in their slipstream, but I thought I would try to hold them at 20 yards.

I went out hard and fast, thinking there was a tailwind for the first section and wanting to take advantage of it (and hoping adrenalin would take care of the return leg). I reached the turn at just under 24mph and could see that I'd narrowed the gap on the pair in front of me to about a minute, while the pair behind me didn't seem to have made any impression.

The road twists and turns and goes up and down, so I kept losing sight of the pair in front, but bit-by-bit I was reeling them in on a five-mile pursuit. I was burying myself now and if they hadn't been there as a carrot I don't think I could have motivated myself to keep up that pace. I finally came past them just as we crested the final hill about 300 yards from the finish line - nice!

When I left there was only one result missing on the results board (for the fast pair four minutes after me), but I'd beaten all the other pairs on my own. Not bad.

lol nice work

My 2nd crit, very early this morning. Simply: I didn't race smart. Spent wayyyy too much time out front. Two unsuccessful breakaway attacks @ 20min (solo) & 22min (two-man counter on the catch). The course was not technical at all but had a couple easy rollers. I was not paying attention to the lap countdown and by the time I realized it was bell lap I was in a very poor position and had to spend most of my remaining energy chasing down the field sprint leadout trains to no avail. Estimated place: top 1/3rd but out of the top 10.

stats:
13.1 miles
25.1 mph
avg 254W
avg hr 164bpm

holy cow NB+S, solo TT machine.

To be fair, there weren't that many pairs in the two-up.

Criterium weekend part 2:

Today's course was much more fast despite being technical and more rolling. This one ringer broke away in lap 2 (after almost crashing after digging a pedal on turn 1) and stayed away for the remainder, impressive*. 26mph average over tight, technical rollers for 40 mins soloing is pretty crazy. I put in some attempts at bridging and attacking across but was unsuccessful and nobody wanted to work or were already redlining and just content to hang on.

(*This guy has won every race he's competed in but doesn't seem to be in any hurry to upgrade (spaces his races out 6-8 weeks). In fact, in the Hill Climb TT I raced in upthread, his time (despite being in a high category) would have placed in the top 5 pro 1/2 race including one ex-world champion and one current top US domestique.)

So when it looked like it was a race for 2nd I stayed in top 6 all race and attacked a couple times to try to thin out the selection in the final laps. I took 2nd in the field sprint (3rd overall). 40+ starters, only 17 finished (course marshalls pulled riders when they were dropped). We almost caught the lead guy (8 seconds) but he may have sat up when he felt comfortable with the winning advantage.

I felt MUCH better than yesterday. I actually got some sleep compared to the night previous and was way more relaxed and loose about things pre-race. I am realizing that the more pressure I put on myself the shittier my results are and when the winning move is made, I have trouble responding or keeping my wits about positioning and patience (too little or too much). Today was much faster, a far stronger field, way more challenging course and I had a podium finish. Something to be learned there imo.

Good stuff

This was pretty telling:
Distance 15.8 mi
Elapsed Time 00:39:33
Average Speed 24.8 mph
Max Speed 39.2 mph
Average Watts 256
Average Heart Rate172 bpm = 90% of max!

256!

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_TK68x0VtXks/TEOKA8IpFBI/AAAAAAAAKtE/EOb_UPUPGKQ/s912/IMG_4353.JPG

what is in your bottle?!

why is that man's face in yr butt

they're obviously cresting up the arse corner

hey cuttles, q for you: did you by any chance hear about (or even see??) a bad crash in a recent prospect park masters' race? an acquaintance of mine was swapping paint with some other dude and i guess the guy got pissed and ~unclipped~ and ~kicked~ B----, causing a huge pileup which left B with a bunch of broken rips, a punctured lung, and i think a broken collarbone?

anyway, he is unhappy about it

Did the craziest race tonight. My club's annual road race (i.e. only members of the club can take part) was supposed to be held on the Hog Hill circuit, but apparently the booking got mucked up, so we ended up using the most bizarre circuit instead. It was in the grounds of a school and was presumably built for kids to practice riding a bike safely. It was only 0.3 miles long and had 8 bends in it: most of them literally straight-edged right-angles rather than actual curves. This included a chicane section which had two right-angled bends right after each other. The reason it was so weird is because it was squeezed around the perimeter of a small playing field and tennis courts. It was also very narrow, just about wide enough for a car (but it wouldn't be able to get round the right-angled bends). In theory you could ride three abreast at maximum, but you would have to be going extremely slowly: in reality it was single file 95% of the time.

There were about 15 to 20 riders taking part with a wide range of levels. Seeing as the lap times were less than a minute, and it was impossible to ride alongside someone (apart from two very brief sections), this meant it disintegrated into random chaos in a very short space of time. People were being lapped in next to no time, then double-lapped, then triple-lapped, then god knows what. I did approximately 60 laps, there must be people who did at least ten less than that. It was very difficult to tell who you were competing with because you couldn't work out if someone was on the same lap as you or not.

The circuit was extremely technical and I found it difficult from the off. The leaders started to open a gap which I found impossible to close down because there were so few sections where you could actually pedal for any length of time, and even then if you built up too much speed you would inevitably crash on the corner. For a while I was in a 'bunch' (make that 'single file line') of four, possibly contesting fourth place, but who really knew? It was very difficult to work my way to the front of this group, not least because there were so many lapped riders to deal with which made it very sketchy. I gradually got braver (i.e. avoided touching the brakes except on the chicane) despite the fact it was raining for the second half of the race.

Me and another guy were battling for (fourth? fifth?) with a few laps to go. There were a couple of stragglers up ahead of us who we were catching right on the finishing straight: this was one of the few sections where you had a few seconds to try to get past someone before hitting a tight right followed immediately by a tight left. I started to sprint past them on the right - almost simultaneously the guy with me shouted to them 'on your left' as he tried to come past on the other side. Bad move - there simply wasn't space for that. I reached the bend first and heard a crash behind me. I glanced around half a lap later and there was nobody there: all three of them had been taken out.

Not really my kind of circuit.

I'm doing one more road race on Thursday (my third attempt at Dunton: this time I won't be at the back or at the front when the sprint starts winding up, I'll try to be bang in the middle), then taking a month off racing and just enjoying August and doing a few longer rides if I get the time.

holy shite was there someone counting laps? that seems like one of those races that just finishing in one piece is considered a success.

They had spotters shouting out the numbers as we went over the finish line for each lap and presumably somebody was writing it all down, but how they made sense of it I have no idea. They only told us the top three positions, so I don't know if they could work out the rest.

It wasn't really *that* tough physically, it was just very demanding from a bike handling point of view (and bike handling is where I'm not a viking).