my weekly race log

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).

my handling still needs mucho improvement. i'm hoping to take a clinic this winter to get it together.

just saw this:

what is in your bottle?!

― alberto cat6ador (cozen), Tuesday, July 20, 2010 2:26 PM (1 week ago)

http://www.hammernutrition.com/products/perpetuem.pp.html
caffe latte, looks kinda like chocomilk

My final road race of the season (probably - will do a few time trials in September, though) tonight and it couldn't have been more different from Tuesday's madness.

I was back on the Dunton test circuit. My previous two races there were both at 23mph, in the first I came 26th out of 46 (with 41 of us in the sprint) having been poorly positioned on the final lap, in the second I was much better positioned, but went far too soon and had the whole bunch come past me while I finished 20th out of 21.

Tonight was a bigger field (maybe 35? 40?). The pace was higher right from the start (we ended up averaging 24mph and did 26 miles) and quite a few riders were shelled out the back and repeatedly lapped. I spent most of the race doing an invisible man impersonation: largely sitting bang in the middle of the bunch, ignoring any attacks on the assumption they would get swept up, ignoring any primes, just doing as much as I could to avoid riding doing any more work than I had to. Every now and then I would sprint up to the front of the bunch if I felt I'd slipped to far back, but that was about it. It was kind of hypnotic just endlessly staring at back wheels and jockeying for position.

I made sure I came towards the front after about 50 minutes, but this time I didn't allow myself to get stuck right at the front and I tried to sit in about 8th place. The pace surged after the bell and I was gasping a bit and my legs were getting tired (two races and 110 miles in the last 48 hours), but I was determined not to let the elastic snap. For the whole of the last lap I kept on the left because that's where I wanted to be, left and high up on the banking, as we came out of the final bend. It worked and I was able to open up my sprint from there without getting boxed in (although I ended up on the extreme right hand side of the road as I fought to find gaps).

I won't know the official result until they e-mail me in a few days' time, but I would guess somewhere between 10th and 15th. Anyway, I'm pleased with it.

44 miles of flatness (~1200 feet of "climbing"). I thought this was a race I could get in a break and win so what did I do: 8 attacks off the front. Longest time spent away was about 30 seconds. I realized it was gonna come down to a bunch sprint at the end so I sat in for the last 10 miles and finished 11th out 47 in the field sprint. Frustrating that you can lose 10 places in <1 second, not that I'm much of a sprinter anyway.

Mixed feelings: In retrospect, I should have just sat in and just conserved until the final 700m and put in a 25-30 second effort and finished top 3. But I wonder if one of my attacks could have got away and I could have avoided the sprint altogether in the break... you can't win if you don't try.

Meh.

In retrospect, I should have just sat in and just conserved until the final 700m and put in a 25-30 second effort and finished top 3.

WAKEBOARDING

THINK ABOUT IT

state criterium championships, going for glory:
http://erikakali.smugmug.com/Sports/Vacaville-Gran-Prix-82910/IMG5153/988330522_tEDnj-L-1.jpg

:-{}

no shoecovers, no credibility :)

Haha, I considered it. :o) Didn't want to be one of "those guys" in the end.

Kinda disappointed in my overall result (20/100+) but I did pick up a ca$h prime on this breakaway (I stayed away for 2.5 miles/6 minutes). I am going to work on sprinting next year as mine is not up to snuff. It's either that or take up pursuit on the track, but the nearest velodrome is an hours drive away.

Back in action today after 5 weeks off racing. I did a 25-mile time trial and got a PB (1:06:19, 22.6mph) knocking about a minute off my previous best for the distance and about three minutes off my previous course best. It was a smallish field (22 starters) as it was an association event (only open to riders from a few clubs). I was off no.6 and was absolutely flying on the outbound leg: I caught and passed four riders within the first ten miles and reached the turn with an average speed of 25mph. I had been entertaining the notion that my month off racing had somehow given me superhuman powers, but as soon I came off the roundabout at the halfway point I hit the headwind and realised why I had been going so well. The return leg was a horrible slog with me struggling to stay above 20mph a lot of the time. I caught and passed the only other rider left ahead of me after about 17 miles and was then caught and passed myself by the eventual winner (who did about 1:00:30 - not especially fast, so either a sign of the weakened field or the effect of the wind). I just about managed to keep cramp at bay and I was very glad to see the finish line. I was 6th out of 22.

sat did two circuit races on a rolling 4.3 mile loop near Monterey.

(1) about 9 miles into the first race, my rear derailleur cable snaps. I consider DNF but my teammate convinces me i can still compete with 2 gears (36/50x11). somehow i end up in a 2-man break with 11 miles to go and we almost stay away but get caught 50m from the finish. i sit up for 21st place. #frustrating #fail

(2) nobody at the race has a spare cable so i figure I am okay with my 36/50x11. 2 miles into this race, me and the same guy from the first race and my teammate who flatted in the first race get in a break and stay away! well, they stayed away, I could only hang for 17 miles as I couldn't push the 11 tooth cog fast enough on the climbs to really help with the break so I bid them farewell and recovered and tailgunned until the finish, where I got 8th in the field sprint, 10th overall. most importantly, my teammate got the win, but top 10 with a major mechanical is okay by me. also I won a pretty nice ($50!) bottle of champagne on one of the lap primes. pic (zoom in to see the 60 second gap we had on the peloton lurking in the far distance): http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/4960266367_4c2debbd66_b.jpg

mon i did 2 crits, the only race in SF proper this entire year which is pretty lame, there were 2-3 races in city limits as recently as 2008. The course was a technical six corner L shaped lap with a 30 foot half-block "bump" between corners 3&4.

(1) Raced pretty well, probably did too much work in the last 33% of the race. I was in perfect position (3rd wheel on final corner before longggg 2 block sprint) but a guy dove the corner and pushed me all the way to the outside, almost into the curb. That pretty much was the race for me. Hung on to 11th. Teammates told me I need to lean hard and push back next time. #frustrating

(2) Didn't really warm up so the first half was tough (avg pace was 26mph vs. 25mph of the first race). Tried to race much smarter until the breaks started going off the front about halfway in. I had seen a couple breaks work in earlier races so I figured it was in my best interest to either bridge to join them, or bridge the peloton back up. None of the breaks ended up sticking and I remarkably still had some gas in the tank with the end of the race looming. I stayed 5th wheel from 5 to 2 laps to go then moved up to 2nd wheel with a racer who I knew was not a sprint threat so I figured he was down for a brutal 28-29mph final 1-1.5km to thin out the field which is exactly what he launched into 2 laps to go. We worked together until the final lap where I took the front and just buried myself trying to get away and stay away. I got caught at the finish line with absolutely nothing left (listen to the announcer really pouring salt in my wounds). Podium finish but again #frustrating to come up short so close to the line. gah...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InqBn_-VLt0

Great stuff

amazing, shasta

NB&S, if you can take a month off and then still PR by 3mins despite a massively positive split I think your fitness is still there and never went away. If bike time is at a premium, have you considered an indoor trainer or rollers?

Thanks cozzy!

If I had space I would definitely get a turbo trainer. But I don't, so I won't.

This past weekend was a three stage Omnium (like a stage race but points-placing based rather than time-based).

First stage was a 10.7 mile out&back time trial that was flat and fast EXCEPT for the three short&steep power rollers that pop up in the first and last quarters of the race. My goal was 27mph average but these little spikes threw a monkeywrench into my plans, a sort of forced sprint interval sets that were sure to knock me out of my rhythm. I finished with 26.2mph which was good enough for 5th out of 63. I don't have a dedicated TT bike so I just have clip-on aero bars for my road bike which was in stark contrast to much of the TT bike/wheel porn that was out there.

Second stage was a 45 minute criterium that was kidney bean shaped (fast, un-technical) 0.7 mile lap but they did offer 5 sets of primes on random laps featuring points. Because I was in 5th I was hoping to move up a little in the GC I went OTF about 30 minutes in when the paced slowed to try and gobble up 2-4 points but as luck would have it, the 3 laps that I was away there were no primes announced. I got caught, recovered and then ended up 7th in the field sprint. It was a photo-finish with about 2m separating 2nd-12th. Very tough job for the judges to pick everyone out. Now I realize why it's an omnium as time was a little irrelevant on a course like this. Also, I *really* need to work on my sprint for next year. I am very confident with my endurance and my 1km-15km sustained power but my sprint is really lacking. I placed high enough to move up to 4th in the GC.

The third (and Queen) stage was a gorgeous 1.3 mile circuit that crossed 2 bridges above this beautiful historic river (the area the race took place in was near to where gold was discovered in California in the late 1840s, which figures large in western USA history). This course was very technical: 2x180 degree hairpins, a few short climbs, and a couple tricky chicanes. Before the race they announced the top 5 in the GC so that you could make sure you marked everyone who you haven't already. They put a leaders jersey on the leader which made a nice target for those who had their sights on the podium. There were a few attempts at breakaways but nothing stuck. Being stuck in the back of the pack around the hairpins was not only stressful but was way more of a whiplash/taxing effect so it made more sense to be in the top 10-20. Put in a little more effort but have less to worry about imho. So it came down to 2 laps to go and it was just a chess match at this point. The pace was high enough that we had shed about 1/3 of the field but since I was in 4th I figured it was my race to lose anyway so with 2 laps to go I moved to the front and looked behind me and it was (pre-race GC rankings) 4th (me) -3-2-1 - gap - field. haha oh well, I led us around through the bell lap and then came the attacks on the backside. 2nd and 3rd make the big moves and 1st and I sit in on their wheels. We hit the last hairpin 2-3-1-4 and then one last corner and then 400m of straightaway for the sprint. We are going all out and spread out wide trying to get an advantage. 2nd and 3rd pull away and I try to edge out 1st but he hangs on by 1-2cm (I protested and saw the photo). Insanely close finish yet again. Also my weak-ass sprint coming up short (common theme recurring).

We all bro down after the race even despite 1st and 2nd place changing hands. 4th place in the GC (me) even gets "podium" distinction and finishes in the ca$h money prize purse so I can't be that disappointed. So me and 3rd place are pretty new to the racing game (both of us started racing this summer) but 1st and 2nd guiltily admit that they are sandbagging, ie racing in an intermediate category despite having more than enough upgrade points to move up. Real quickly: USACycling states that after earning 20 points you are eligible to upgrade to the next category, but at 30 points you are "automatically" upgraded to the next category. So 1st place admits that he had (prior to the race) 48 upgrade points which caused even 2nd place (38 points) to shake his damn head. So lessons learned: sandbaggery abounds. Callin' you fulez out on your weak-ass victories.

that is a great weekend of racing for you though, congrats.

take it as a moral victory imo

well, moral 2nd

How many points have you got now Steve?

13 but I just upgraded three weeks ago. I ~might~ have enough to upgrade by the end of the season (4 more races).

I have 13 now. I had 9 going into this omnium race.

I have a bad back (caused by some DIY yesterday to try and solve my bike storage problems) and am starting to go down with the same cold that my daughter is suffering from. I'm entered for a 25-mile time trial (starting in less than two hours' time) which I really shouldn't do. I went out and rode 4 miles earlier to see if I was in any kind of shape to do it, and I didn't feel incapable of doing it, so I've decided to go ahead. Whether I still feel like that after more than an hour crouched over tri-bars pushing it as hard as I can remains to be seen. Probably a mistake...

Get out there and kill it young man!

...I'm feeling pretty rough now, but dosed up on paracetamol I managed to do it. This was on a similar course to the one a fortnight ago: about 15 miles of it overlaps with that course, but it starts and finishes about 4 miles further north and has a couple of extra loops. There wasn't much of a wind this time and it seemed to be coming from the north (so good for the return leg). I got to the turn with an average speed of 22.6mph which was bang on target for my existing PB. However, I was flagging a bit on the return leg - either the wind wasn't as strong or wasn't in the direction I'd thought, or my body was telling me it really shouldn't be racing. I finished in 1-6-50 (22.4mph), my second fastest time and 17 seconds faster than I managed in the same event last year.

2 criterium races in downtown O@kl@nd today:

1st race was open to all ages which means they stick the juniors in with us. This is sad to say but I was DOMINATED in the sprint by a 14 year old boy. That just sucks to write no matter how you try to paint it. Now, I will concede that he is rated #1 in the nation for 15 and under but it still was humiliating. He's taller than me I think (I'm 6'2"), watch out for this kid. I tried to "turn the screw" and just lay down the gas pedal for the last 3 laps but I was not able to shed the sprinters. I took 3rd. The race for 2-3-4 was really close, like two feet. But I got on the podium which was my goal: to podium in all the major bay area (SF, Berkeley and Oak) downtown crits.

2nd race was open to my age group (lol u old) but this is also the biggest field of the day so don't even trip. the pace is a little faster 25mph over a technical course (hourglass shape, 8 corners including one chicane into a sharp near hairpin). I found myself at the front after the last prime of the race and the pace slowed before one of the two inclines on the course so I just carried my momentum up and over and checked and I had a surprisingly hueg gap. 4 laps to go so I'm committed to the win so I just bury myself (95% of max HR for ~8 minutes) and try to hang on. The last couple laps are torture. Gasping for air, legs burning with lactic acid, struggling to stay aero and keep the speed up.

2 laps to go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqOEHBD8aOk

Finish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOlutRJeEXk

I am ready to fall asleep now tbh, but it was great to just get out there and ~ride~.

so sexy

greatness

chapeau sir!

TIME TO UPGRADE!

you cant get points from a masters race, can you?

maybe not at your age, but at my age you can. ;-)