my weekly race log

Also, it's a total pet peeve when race organizers call their district championships "The State Championships" (NCNCA is guilty of it as well). No, it is not a state championship.... NCNCA = NorCal/NorNevada district, SCNCA = SoCal/SoNevada district. The only state championships I know of is the North vs. South cyclocross smackdown.

I see people wearing CA state champs jerseys all the time, i guess there are doubles?

Yeah, but it's dumb imo. Either call it a district champ or have a proper state championship...

OR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZdOxeIWfXc

Meh. Bag of shite.

First road race on the open road. Longest race ever entered (just under 50 miles, the longest I'd ever done before was 31 miles). Highest quality field I'd ever been up against. On a 10-mile circuit which consisted entirely of roads I used to ride on when I was a teenager and which passed within 100 yards of the house I grew up in. It's fair to say I was well up for this one. I'd spent the two previous Wednesdays heading up to the course and training on it.

The clocks went forward last night and what with one thing and another I only got about four hours sleep, but that didn't have any bearing on my performance (just meant I was very tired when I got home afterwards). I was right at the back of the bunch on the start line (I'd thought there would five minutes post-briefing to warm up, so I was caught by surprise when people headed straight for the start line and got there after nearly everyone else). I'd been planning to move up through the bunch, but the pace was very high right from the off and it was more a question of holding position. I had a brief chat with a (much stonger and more experienced) clubmate when the familiar concertina effect kicked in and things slackened a bit. He said he was going to head forwards before the hill where people were likely to attack. I thought 'that sounds like a good idea'.

I worked my way past about three or four riders, but it was tricky as we were going full pelt on twisting and narrow country lanes. We went down a hill with a sharp bend at the bottom where a couple of oncoming cars had pulled to a stop and I had to ease off a bit. Immediately after that we hit the climb and I could see that a couple of riders had attacked off the front of the bunch. The pace went whoosh and I found a gap opening in front of me. The hill was followed by an annoying drag and I just couldn't close the gap. It opened to about 15 seconds and then the commissaire's car came past us and we were effectively abandoned. We hadn't even done 3 miles at this point!

I was so pissed off, but basically it was game over already. We were now on a fast section and the bunch were in full cry trying to chase down the break. I was going full gas but the gap was just steadily opening. There was a guy who was just sitting on my wheel so after a while I motioned him to come through - he did a bit of work but was clearly suffering. By about 7 miles we'd lost sight of the bunch altogether, but were chasing down another guy who'd been dropped. He gave up after one lap, but then had a change of heart and came back to us and straight past. I chased after him and caught him, but dropped the other guy. He then dropped me on the same climb I'd been dropped on before. I then spent about 7 miles chasing him as hard as I could, but only managing to keep the gap at 10 seconds the whole time - God knows why he didn't just ease off for a moment and let me work with him.

He then quit for good after two laps and I trundled back to the HQ to hand in my number and drive back to London in misery. Except I didn't, because there were a couple of other riders in the car park who had abandoned (punctures) who were talking about rejoining the race. I was pretty sure this wasn't allowed, but me and another guy rode back round the course very slowly waiting for the bunch to come along so that we could jump in behind the commissaire's car and get some training in. It turned out he'd been one of the attackers on the very first hill, but had punctured. Eventually the convoy came along and we leapt into action, going from a standing start to sprinting at 30mph to get up to the back of the cars. We followed for about 5 miles, then I lost contact again on another long drag. This time I really did call it a day.

The bunch finished the race at just over 25mph. I'd managed 23mph for the first lap and 22mph for the first two laps, but just didn't have what it takes on the climbs. I could have been better positioned coming into the first hill, but realistically I was going to go off the back on one of the climbs pretty early on.

(I did myself a very slight disservice above - having checked again it was actually 4 miles I lasted last week, not 3)

Back into action today, this time a 4th cat race at the Hillingdon circuit in west London for the first time. I like this circuit - it's about a mile long, not flat but without proper climbs (i.e. you can easily stay in the big ring the whole time) with a few tightish bends that aren't a problem because you don't hit them at such high speed as at the Hog Hill circuit (where the bends come after descents).

I finished somewhere in the middle of the bunch, I'm guessing about halfway back out of about 35 riders. As far as I know we all finished together, but there might have been one guy ahead of us on a lone break (he attacked about halfway through the race just at a moment when I was moving up on the outside, so I tried to chase him down but couldn't reach him and I don't recall him being reeled in). The average speed was 25mph, which is the fastest I've ever managed, but it didn't feel too bad: I mean, it felt like an effort, but I never felt in trouble.

My confidence was badly dented last weekend, so I needed this to get it back again. I kept telling myself in my head things to do: keep moving up when you can - if you just stay on a wheel you'll gradually move to the back; don't brake unless everyone else is - just copy the person in front and follow their line; as soon as any kind of gap opens to the wheel in front close it down immediately. The only tricky thing with moving up is you can't safely do it through the middle (well, you can, but it takes ages to find enough gaps) so you have to head out into the wind and charge up the outside - but when you get to the front you can't just muscle your way into the line so you're either left dangling to one side still in the wind, or doing a turn right at the front.

Photos:
Marking a move in one of the early laps
In the thick of it a few laps later
Sleeves up and nearer the back as the end approaches

Haven't posted in a while because my fitness was such shit and it was getting a little :-(

HOWEVER!!!!!11
About a week ago I must have been rummaging through my bike closet and actually *found my legs*. I had 2 really great back to back workouts leading into the weekend of a circuit that suits my fat-mantis lifestyle. The circuits were pretty short so I regged for 2: a 60 and 75 minute race.

The circuit was a long rolling 5.5 mile out and back but the turn-arounds were significant: the far-end was a tight/sort-sketchy u-turn at the bottom of a mild descent. The start/finish turn-around was an 8-corner "+"-sign shaped route through a downtown square that was almost like a technical crit. I had two teammates with me, all very different riders: a climber/2km TT guy, our GC guy (really strong right now) and my old, fat, slow ass. We were patient and on the hill after the u-turn with 1.5 laps to go, a group of 7 guys attacked and our GC guy was in there so my other teammate and I sat-in and looked to jump on any bridge attempts. The gap stayed around 8-10 seconds until the final lap when the 2 bigger teams that didn't have a man in the break started to get organized. My teammate and I jumped in the stretched-out paceline and when our turns came, we did some soft-pulls (22-23mph vs. 26-27mph) which was enough to get ID'd as blocking and allowed the break to stick. When it was apparent the break would stay away, I started moving up looking for the right wheels to get position on the field sprint. My sprint was pretty weak (took 5th/12th overall). Our guy got 3rd... his 4th podium of the year.

28.1 miles
24.6mph
avg pwr 287W (3s = 1155W, 1m = 538W, 10m = 362W)

Second race spelled trouble when 4 cars pulled up about an hour before the P1/2/3 race started and 10 guys from one of the stronger Bay Area teams rolled out. The punchy first lap saw 2 of the 10-man team launch an attack after going in very hot into the U-turn. There were a few bridge attacks but our P1 guy did not get in anything that stuck. I tried to launch one bridge effort for our guy (who is moving to Europe next week) but it just wasn't in the right spot, instead just a sea of green (big team) every time the race got interesting. There really was only one place to get away and it's on the hill after the U-turn and it was kinda sketchy. Our P1 was really impressive, always in the top 10 riders biding his time but there was just too much green presence. I felt bad, would have liked to send him off with a little bang. Oh well, the break of three stayed away. Kinda funny: the winner got DQ'd for a "F#CK YEAH" across the finish line but the judge eventually relegated him to 3rd. I launched a suicide attack with 2km to go that got shut down FAST... lol. I got some kudos for the bravado, but some lols at the response from the front. I guess my ass is THAT big, just too juicy to pass up that draft.

33.8 miles
25.0 mph
avg pwr 316W (3s = 1149W, 1m = 545W, 10m = 376W)

lots of watts, nice.

Back in action again today. We've been having fantastic sunny weather for the last few days. I bit the bullet and entered another 3rd & 4th cat race, so a higher quality field than last week, on a tougher circuit (Hog Hill, with its....hill) and a longer race. My track record going up against 3rd cats is rubbish, but today went better. I was able to stick in the bunch for 25 minutes and only lost contact because the guy whose wheel I was on let a gap open in front of him - by the time I realised he wasn't going to close it down it was too big for me to do anything about. The bunch fragmented a bit at this point: I ended up in a group of four, with another group of about six just ahead of us (that we never caught - they just stayed 10 seconds ahead for the rest of the race) and the bunch ahead of them very slowly easing away. Quite a few had been shelled out before me and we were constantly catching and passing people: I couldn't tell if we were lapping them or if they'd been dropped after us and then blown up. To confuse things further there was a sizeable women's race taking place simultaneously (they set them off maybe 30 seconds after us) - we lapped them fairly early on, and then they split into several groups so we would work for a while to chase down a group only to discover as they came within reach that it was another set of women who weren't in our race.

My legs were cramping badly after about 40 minutes or so: I had been big-ringing the climb (which is a drag followed by about 100 metres of 1-in-8) because there was a tailwind, but by this stage I was reduced to small ring and staying in the saddle. The leaders finally passed us after one hour - there were only two laps to go at this stage so I did one more as a warm-down then watched the finish.

Photo from when I was still just about hanging in there:
http://www.londoncyclesport.com/index.php?option=com_jphoto&view=image&id=3957:img-3115001&Itemid=79
(That group in the distance is probably the women's race - there can't have been that many men dropped at that stage)

I didn't race today (still nursing broken clavicle/ribs but there was a crit in town today that my team was out in force for. We had 20 guys in the 4s field. With a lap to go a junior pulled out of his pedal and laid it down, and about ten riders hit the deck hard. Our best guy made it past and won by about ten bike length in the Sprint. This guy has won every race he's entered but one this year, and he was third in that one.

Anyway, all this crashing kind of has me a little down. That is not why we race. That dumb pain just has no reason. And still all I want to do is ride and race. So emo.

today was "mead-roubaix," a new course forced by relocation of boulder-roubaix. there was concern about the section of dirt road at the bottom of a big hill. wanna see why? scroll the next 20 pics or so:

http://303photo.smugmug.com/2011-road-bike/Mead-Roubaix/afternoon-waves/16552246_LG7nV#1246977704_y2RkL

apparently, this happened in cat after cat, and got worse as the sectioned softened throughout the day.

Ugh, found out that one of my teammates that crashed yesterday cracked his pelvis. Fuck.

thats really terrible, a horrible aspect of the hobby.

i got asked to race a team tt this weekend- i registered as individual already. don't know these guys, no idea the ability/experience. my own experience is only one team tt, while well-trained, on a more familiar bike. i really don't need a cracked pelvis.

NB&S, I have a friend who is racing the Hog Hill in 3rd/4th categories of late... keep your eyes (ears?) out for a Yank.

I think he's racing for Cambridge... (White/red kit?)

Will keep my eyes/ears out. A quick scan of the results shows there was a guy called F3l1x B4rk3er riding for Cambridge in my last race.

the man changed the forecast for my first race tomorrow to rain/snow and 40 deg. FUCK that, aint racin in any bullshit. ~the joy of age and not really givin a fuck~

HARDMANG!

I have to contend with 40mph gusts this weekend. Good thing I am fat. And slow.

NB&S, my friend rides with Felix, he wears a black/baby blue kit from San Francisco, CA... not the official Cambridge Uni kit.

black/baby blue kit

PRO

SLP, I learned that racing = crashing.

The way I see it you either get lucky or get hurt, there is very little you can do do to avoid it.

Heal up, get on the trainer and come back stronger and faster.

(or in my case, fatter and slower).

PRO

― defying all the laws like a fat mantis riding (Hunt3r), Tuesday, April 12, 2011 3:08 PM (3 minutes ago)

yeah the 2010 kit looks not unlike the 2011 saxo kit tbqh. the club has been rocking this scheme since 2008 so don't even come with that. :-P

ha, and also i should never talk about style or clothing anywhere with anyone anywhere, really.

my 2011 kit is black (charcoal?), red and white... zzzzzzzzzz

i was flying for the first 200m, then i realized that my jersey (no skinsuit!) was unzipped about 7 inches. i couldnt get it zipped. right then i knew i was gonna lose many, many valuable seconds, and gave up. i couldnt leave it all on the road after that. cycling is so mental.

on the plus side, my shoe covers arrived in the mail today.
^^^^this is actually true. slaying bitches on saturday.

Lovin' the user name, Hunter!

Did the 4th cat race at Hog Hill today and got my best result so far. We started off with a field of 38, but judging from the results the bunch was whittled down to just 18 of us by the end. There were quite a lot of lapped riders and we nearly had a mass crash while trying to overtake one on a tight downhill bend.

I was able to stay in the bunch relatively comfortably (I mean, it was hard work, but not beyond me and easier than the 3rds/4ths race last weekend), kept making the effort to move up, and stuck my face in the wind at the front a few times for the sake of getting position. With just over two laps to go I tried a dig off the front as we approached the bottom of the climb. I was hoping two or three would come with me as there was no way I could hold everyone off for two laps, but I looked round at the top of the hill and I was on my own with a gap of maybe 5 seconds. Predictably enough I got reeled back in half a mile later. Then it got a bit cagey and I lurked in second place while everyone looked at each other. Then on the hill there was a big attack which I just couldn't go with and I found myself sinking rapidly back. I chased down the descent at 40mph to get back on and for the first time ever managed to take part in the sprint finish up the hill landing 13th place.

Next time round I think I'll finally get some points on my licence (i.e. finish in the top ten): I was only a handful of seconds away from first place and might well have got in the top ten today if I'd saved my legs instead of launching that doomed attack (but you've got to try it every now and then).

was living nervously at 47.8 mph, spun out in 54/11, on aerobars, while sitting on the nose. really glad i was not on the disc. it's not even much of a downhill, we had a 25-35mph tailwind for that leg. my goal was 40 mins (25mph), did 40:12, that made for an energetic final 500m while i thought i could make it. according to the official distance, that puts me over 25 mph still but barely.

i didn't place well, but i take some solace in the fact that im the only unattached rider in my category and the other riders are pretty into it.

oh, this years' course was 16.5 mi, so i missed.

quick insight into my recovery techniques. after the race, changed into regular riding gear, then i got a free 15 min massage from lmt at venue, who was xtra cuet. then, i
powered down a really nice free local ipa. then i headed out for a warm down up over old stage, about 700 feet of climbing maybe, about 45 mins w/ buddy. i felt great.

That is a great recovery imo!

And great results all around!

zirbel back from shortened suspension did like 32 minutes and beat second by 2 minutes. *fear*

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/photos/zirbel-to-race-tour-of-the-gila

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_2jSPp0oajLY/TarnqcZ4WoI/AAAAAAAAEcU/Nq6zzFqcYZ4/s400/Copy%20of%20DSC_9117.JPG

I raced two stages (as an amateur) of a 4 day pro stage race which is held at a very famous race track in the Central Californian coast.

The first stage was a 60 min crit... kind of out and back over a hump in the middle with two TIGHT s-curves at each end. Pretty technical and a little too much elevation then I'd prefer. 35 starters, pace was pretty brisk from the gun, a few breaks attempted but nothing stuck. With 2 laps to go the field is getting strung out and I'm top 15 when wheel #5 comes into the s-curve a little hot and kisses the pavement. Top 4 attack, leaving the rest of us (about 20) to avoid the carnage and chase. It wasn't in the cards so I stayed out of the wind until half a lap to go, then took the front and didn't let up. Won the pack sprint by about 3 bike lengths. Got top 5 which was my goal and was stoked. Would have preferred to take a shot at the whole field but crashes happen and you just have to accept that.

29.8 miles
24.3mph
avg pwr 278W (3s = 980W, 1m = 437W, 10m = 311W)

The second stage was just awful endless misery. It's the full 90 minute circuit of the famed racetrack which looks reasonably flat when you're looking at MotoGP or Racecar footage but 6% climb every 2.2 mile lap with a 9% kicker and then a cruel 3% false flat to the summit was beyond kryptonite for me. I barfed 3x, lost contact with the lead group after 7 laps (halfway) and finished in the grupetto. There were about 50 starters and I took 21st so you could imagine the attrition.

31.2 miles
21.5mph
avg pwr 297W (3s = 1139W, 1m = 468W, 10m = 361W)

Finished off the weekend with a long-running (41 years!) crit in a hippy college beach town about 90 minutes south of SF. Kind of a classic course: brake-squealing hairpin into a pot hole pocked descent and then a few tight chicanes/turns and back up a punchy power climb to the finish. There were about 50 starters and most of them were racing on fresh legs so I was hanging in "the sprinter's lounge" until 1 lap to go and then I put in a surprising move to go from 40th wheel to 5th... and then... the power climb. I had good position but call it fatigue, brain-fart, some other lame weak-ass excuse but I just popped on the hill about 300m from the line and got swallowed alive. Bad racing, probably suffered too much with the whip-lash compression that comes with tailgunning a technical course but whatever, I got a good workout at least. Kind of an oddly consistent race, 21 laps: fastest lap 25mph, slowest lap 24mph.

16.6 miles
24.5mph
avg pwr 296W (3s = 1064W, 1m = 428W, 10m = 317W)

One deece result, 2 caca placings in the hillier events... something to be gleaned here, not sure what it could be... hmmmmmmm......

Holy shit you're looking fit dude.

lol. i've not found a pic of me. zirbel's quads look like something off a racehorse, eh?

hahahhaha, i just clicked the image and missed the text above it. zirbel's riding clean again ya? O_o

http://www.sportifimages.com/BikeRacing2011/Haystack-Mtn-TT/1200-hrs/16645968_sjB8sW#1254919447_PSNK47g-M-LB

ah, here's one. as you can by lever position, that's a 54-11. that might never happen again, doing between 38 and 45 mph, i'm not sure where that was on nelson rd. starting to get my position dialed if i can get my elbows in a leeetle more and a saddle that does not basically rip my bits off after 20mins. and of course 10-15 lbs min, but uhhhhhhh.

losing 10-15 lbs is not the fatmantis way!

shasta did u enjoy the famous 'c0rkscr3w' section of the well-known circuit?

http://i.imgur.com/oPfKp.png

that's over 1/4 mile at 40-50mph... 14 times. :D

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/216427_10150168232662585_90969637584_6829111_6824360_n.jpg

yesssss

here's a vid of my teammate soloing off the front and me doing my job (tailgunning)... at the end I "drop" off an empty bottle with Mrs. Shasta:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMbYkD_VpnQ

saturday i had a _1.14 mi_ section at average 41.68 mph, max 45.2 mph. on a _separate_, earlier segment, the fastest .35 mi had an avg 44.17 mph, max 47.04 mph. ;)

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr222/Chass3ur/Haystack.jpg

wonder what zirbel did through that shit.
xpost

awesome pics shasta

The first stage was a 60 min crit... kind of out and back over a hump in the middle with two TIGHT s-curves at each end. Pretty technical and a little too much elevation then I'd prefer. 35 starters, pace was pretty brisk from the gun, a few breaks attempted but nothing stuck. With 2 laps to go the field is getting strung out and I'm top 15 when wheel #5 comes into the s-curve a little hot and kisses the pavement. Top 4 attack, leaving the rest of us (about 20) to avoid the carnage and chase. It wasn't in the cards so I stayed out of the wind until half a lap to go, then took the front and didn't let up. Won the pack sprint by about 3 bike lengths. Got top 5 which was my goal and was stoked. Would have preferred to take a shot at the whole field but crashes happen and you just have to accept that.

Our field was shattered (only ~1/2 starters finished), found this guy (who we lapped) who started filming the last 2 laps of our race (including the crash), you see me a couple times in varying degrees of form (bad then good), ha:

http://contour.com/stories/race-video-sea-otter-crit--2

as i crested the hill about 2/3 way through my tt last night i realized that blood was spattered all over my legs, my bars, my lower face and the front of my skinsuit. dramatic.

took 35 secs off my time, but most people were faster, so no change really.

uh....... why?

dunno, guess i had extra.