my weekly race log

4 laps--it was raining pretty hard

final breakaway was me and 4 others--i sprinted too early in a huge gear and cost myself a better placing. learned my lesson for next time. 3 of the 5 were BRITISH. i think we were too friendly by the end of the race and not strategic enough. we started to enjoy each others company ;)

spring series race in central park, didn't rank cause i got caught up in crash.

lycra ripped on my tights and skinned knee, bike is perfectly fine...

looking forward to next weekend

5th is a good result

we started to enjoy each others company

ha thats only for when youre otb

1st place ;)

had a solo move on the last lap and stayed away for a couple of minutes from the field, they caught up to me, but i stayed up at the front (4th or 5th wheel) until the crunch. had a nice lead out for the sprint and held it for like 500m. RESPECT!

nice!

what a sport

Woohoo! Nice work cutty. Did anyone take photos?

there should be some posted on velocitynation.com eventually, i'll be sure to post some

ha, i almost started a thread about vanity event photos a while ago

plz post pics

high five broski

http://www.teamorganicnyc.com/TOAG/04_05_08/_MG_3830.jpg

WIN FACE

good job cuttye.

sexy

Congrats!

http://www.performancelabshc.com/pages.php?id=233

I ARE IMPRESSIVE AND AGGRESSIVE

nice dude!

5th place. tried to take a solo win a la cancellara and got caught 20m from the line :/

How many were racing in total? Unlucky fella. Is there some kind of ongoing points total?

there were over 30 racers in my field

no ongoing, but as long as my name keeps showing up in the placings, i am happy.

my first out of town road race, the jiminy peak road race

8th place ;)

and i am now a cat 4

good job

omg i used to ski there when i was a kiddo. is it still a ski hill?

yes the race was on the roads around the ski resort

should have attacked a little later on the final climb to the finish. have to get better at choosing my final wheel and holding back until he's busted a nut...

also i had never seen the fricken course. next sunday is bear mountain, more hilly.

I don't really understand this category stuff, but congrats!

4th place at the bear mountain road race. check out my race number:

Cat 4 Men, 56 miles, 89 starters

1. 412 Andrew Walsh
2. 500 Adam Zimmerman
3. 468 Colin Prensky, CRCA/Sanchez Metro
4. 420 M4tthew Cuttl3r, CRCA/Affinity Cycles
5. 422 Louis Donato, GS Park Ridge/Cyclesport

DUDE YOU'RE GOOD AT THIS CYCLING THING!

ha. my fitness is pretty great and i'm learning more tactics with every race i enter. this race i did exactly what i said i'd do upthread:

should have attacked a little later on the final climb to the finish. have to get better at choosing my final wheel and holding back until he's busted a nut...

i had a great position at the finish for a downhill sprint--if the rider to the right of me didn't bang into my rear derailleur right before the finish (i thought my chain had dropped, had no idea what the sound was) i would have maybe even been able to go around the guy in front of me and place in the top 3.

great result

good job!

Congrats! Was teh rear mech ok?

rear derailleur bent a little, rear derailleur cable shredded in the back. all better now. dude apologized profusely afterwards.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2336/2488103782_400191990d.jpg?v=0
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2043/2488102232_4c1f2546e6.jpg?v=0
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2357/2487285861_e3e3cb43b6.jpg?v=0

rear shot just so you can see my 420 hee hee

k wtf, ive never seen a race with the numbers in the middle of the back unless you have a bike tag

is that for the refs to get u for yellow line?

for riders behind u to cuss u out?

i think it is yellow line, yes. last week had mid of the back too.

raced my first criterium today--20x1 mile loop. averaged around 24 mph and maxed out at 36 mph on the flats!

i had second wheel coming up on the final lap. managed to get pinned in the pack and decided it's not worth my well-being to sprint for 10th so i must have placed somewhere in the top 20 pack finish. the hills are where i belong.

cutty serious question do you like the movie "breaking away"?

cuz i love it but didnt that kid hit like 60 mph on the interstate or something? seemed kinda impossible to me

American Flyers is the fucking shit tho.

he was drafting on a truck, it's possible

speed record not drafting

record drafting

love that cog:

http://www.canosoarus.com/08LSRbicycle/Bicycle%20Images/Doug%20138Bk.JPG

love those jeans.

OMG wear cycle clips srsly, that is a fatality waiting to happen.

thats some iconic shit

since thats not actually john howard as i assumed, i'll revoke "iconic" and replace with "v. cool"

American Flyers is the fucking shit tho.

-- wilter, Sunday, May 18, 2008 10:40 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

yeah i saw a few minutes of this the other night on tv, it looks awesome

INTRODUCING:

THE AMERICAN NATIONAL TEAM!!!

THE SOVIET NATIONAL TEAM, FEATURING OLYMPIC GOLD METALIST SERGEI OLBRAKOV!!!

AND FINALLY, THE 7-11 TEAM!!

wow i always thot af sucked. i really like breaking away tho, i guess because it was not about bike racing, but showed how loving to race a bike can make you really mental

oh yeah, and the beard lolz at russian guy in af!

respect to steve tesich tho for getting two bike race movies produced

i forgot to mention that the 7-11 team is not only not the scrappy underdogs we're all pulling for but in fact their main rivals & the bad guys

underdogs were like dave's chop shop team or something

http://www.velocityresults.net/images/810.jpg

5th place in lou maltese memorial road race (#114)

22nd in union vale 3/4 road race :(

check the finishing climb elevation in this PDF:

http://www.pawlingcycle.com/UnionVale_Road-Race_2008.pdf

fitchburg-longsjo classic stage race this week. 4 DAYS.

http://www.longsjo.com/Longsjo_Home.html

congrats on the 5th spot. That's a superb pic, I love those reverse-bullet-time finishing line shots.

i get that as 1.5 miles at 8-9%. ouch. given the length, itd probly be easy to go out too hard on that finale.

plus racing a climb is so much more intense than just riding one. half the time coming down from finish i'd be like- "i dont even remember this"

srsly it was soul crushing. hurt lockering. i was pedaling and not moving anywhere. some guys were just frozen at the base of the climb, screaming.

this is after 56.5 miles of pretty intense racing

Hey Cutty, in that photo, who came 2nd??

(congrats btw!)

yellow/blue came in 1st and 2nd

2 upgrade points away from cat 3-dom

because of best all around rider and team competition my team had me remain a 4 until i had well over req'd 25 points- i think i was in the 60s by late july. association has wisely discontinued this competition in 4s. even more ridiculous thing was i finished second to a teammate!

time trial - 7th place
road race - 15th place
circuit race - 20th place
criterium - 10th place

8th overall in the GC

currently ranked 11th in the country and 3rd in new york state. putting my cat 3 upgrade in today, let's see if it works.

plz easy. good racing.

This is fantastic, cutty. I've just been reading about Paul Kimmage's amateur riding career prior to turning pro in France and it gives me some idea of what your races must be like (though the bit about checking each other's shorts for actual syringes full of drugs is presumably a little outdated).

i was gonna ask about that - do tons of dudes dope? and what does '11th in the country' mean (i mean obv its awesome but 11th amongst whom?)

beware obsessive masters guys in midlife crisis who are doctors or are tight with doctors

i never heard of anyone doping in mid level amateurs. if you have to dope to reach elite amateur, or even domestic pro imo, you should really really rethink yr life at a fundamental level.

it means out of all the cat 4s in the US, i am ranked 11th:

https://www.usacycling.org/rankings/?org=USCF&sex=M&disc=RR&cat=04

you should all read tim krabbe's "the rider" for a dose of the amateur cycling mind!

11 out of 3,500+ sounds pretty impressive to me! How does the points system work?

no colorado, no legitimacy :)

i never heard of anyone doping in mid level amateurs. if you have to dope to reach elite amateur, or even domestic pro imo, you should really really rethink yr life at a fundamental level.

-- Hunt3r

yeah i was asking because i know even in HS & low-level college tons of kids (thinking football + baseball mostly here) get pretty deep into that sorta stuff even though they have nothing to gain from it career-wise because hey, they want to win & the pros do it

points are based on results and the weight of the races (how many riders in the field, length of the course, etc)

hey cutty, this might be an impossible question, but how quickly do you think you'd have completed today's Tour de France time trial?

ha, no idea. minutes less for sure. all i can say is some people in the pro/1/2 field had worse times than me at fitchburg...

awesome work cutty. :-D

MAN, I WLD HAVE DEF BEAT VALVERDE'S TIME!............ON FIXED GEAR, WITH ONE FLAT TIRE.

IM JUST SAYIN

tour of the hilltowns:

http://www.nohobikeclub.org/2007_profile.pdf

race number was 420 again.

coming out of that first climb massive climb, the field was completely shattered and there were 9 of us. we quickly formed up a pace line and started working pretty efficiently, echelon style.

after about a half-hour we were caught by 10 or so riders who were chasing since the climb. not a peep from the rest of the field, really. it got a little disorganized.

coming into that last climb, someone attacked (i learned later he was an ex-pro hockey player) and i jumped on his wheel right away because it looked right. a couple of minutes later someone was on my wheel... and everyone else was gone. we stayed away all the way up the last climb.

the guy who attacked was huge and obviously was going to have a nice sprint. the other guy was smaller than me. as we're chatting away i find out it's hockey players first cat 4 race. well then that means he really hasn't had a chance to learn how to time a sprint right, does he? he came into the last turn to finish line first, i accelerated out of his draft the second he stood up and hammered my way to victory.

it was my first cat 4 WIN and now a cat 3 is me! yesssssss

that is badass, i fucking hate hockey players

how do you manage to keep drawing 420???

i would like to thank jah but i think it has do with my last name starting with a CU which generally will put me in that area if they are distributing numbers alphabetically.

hockey player i outsprinted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Weinrich

You rock cutty.

do they even have hockey in england? it's a sport where big guys beat each other up with sticks.

great!

The following request to change your USCF category has been approved and processed by USA Cycling:
mattcuttler - 2008-07-26 19:44
Member: M4tt Cuttl3r
License: Road Racer
Request to change category from Cat 4 to Cat 3

Rock. Are you going to find Cat 3 more competitive or will you glide on up to Cat 2?

i plan on hanging in cat 3 for a while i think... it will be more competitive. it might be very possible for me to upgrade to cat 2 by next season but then i definitely will not be competitive because i am a lawyer with a full time job, not some 21 year guy training 3 hours a day during the week...

i raced the green mountain stage race (http://www.gmsr.info) this weekend in vermont. 4 days of racing.

i didn't do too well in the prologue TT. my time was decent but it was pretty tight and i was placed at 35th.

stage 1 consisted of two 29 mile loops. mostly flat with some rollers. very fast race. i went for a solo move with 10k (6 miles) to go. and it stuck! i hit the finish line with 4 SECONDS on the pack. this put me in to 21st place in the GC.

http://www.velocityresults.net/images/873.jpg

stage 2 was the road race. 75 miles, three insane climbs, the last one being appalachian gap which hit 22% grade in the final kilometer. i bridged up to a break before the final climbs started. then i made the 5-6 riders in the break work their asses off to the base of the climb. i held on to 4th place. this put me in 4th place in the GC!!!

however, stage 3, the criterium, SUCKED. i had a call out and was at the front at the start, but i got shelled really quickly. it was hard and there was no way i could get back on. i got pulled from the crit because of the time cut. i hate crits. therfore my GC standing went down to 28.

however, i still held on to 3rd place in the overall points competition. and i really can't be upset with a stage win and 4th place in one of the hardest climbing races i've ever done!

podium pics (with race moustache) to follow as soon as they are available.

Woah, radical spokes dude!

cutty that is bitchin'

awesome

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=790&l=d82a5&id=306500098

also:

http://www.photoblog.com/thevermonter/2008/09/04/2008-gmsr--stage-2-cat-3-finish.html

great snaps!

bah, facebook.

James Dean, James Dean, seen you on the silver screen.

Can I gatecrash this thread, cutty?

My big comeback today: first race of any kind since 1991, and first road race since 1989. Did the 4th cat race at Hog Hill circuit, which is basically 40 minutes of racing plus one lap. There were about 35 of us. There's a nasty 1-in-9 climb up to the finishing straight every lap and today there was a vicious headwind for large parts of the course. The opening was fast: my best lap time when I came here to practice on my own was 3:48, my first lap today was 3:24. The field soon split up into a leading group of about 10, a chasing group of about 7, and a whole string of chasers getting stretched out (which included me, towards the front). I spent most of the race in all sorts of pain: even though there were people around me, we all seemed to have 5 second gaps between us, and most of the time I just couldn't close down the gap to get on a wheel. I was expecting to get lapped at any point, but the leaders seemed to be taking forever to appear. They eventually caught me with 1.5 laps to go (for them, technically 2.5 for me, but obviously you don't actually do that extra one at the end) and I managed to sit in with them this time. Even though the pace was higher it was much easier taking shelter. I'm not sure how many I beat in the end (probably about 6 or 7, including one person who I lapped right near the end) as I don't think they do any placings outside the top ten. It was torture, but I quite heartened by the fact that the winners only took about 3.5 mins out of me over 40 mins - that doesn't seem an unbridgeable gap (but it'll take a few more months to get there).

awesome!

Official report now in: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/roa/EventReports2009/20090131_EastLondonVelo_Winter.asp
Apparently I was 22nd out of 30 finishers.

this is rly great and congrats but i hope yr summer events are full cuz racin in January is sorta nutty.

I was hoping to do it again this weekend coming, but London is about 6 inches under snow at the moment and that really would be nutty to race in.

now hunt3r needs to make his comeback

Just phoned up and found out that the circuit is closed because it's covered in ice, so no race today. What an anti-climax. The snow's all gone from London now, so I thought it'd be OK, but this was the course earlier in the week:
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/MultimediaFiles/20090206_REDBRIDGE_SNOW.JPG

Back in action again today. The weather was a lot better than last time (warmer, sunnier, less windy) and the field in my race was bigger (about 45). I'd set myself three golden rules for this one: 1) be bold when cornering, don't just slacken off, you've got just as much right to your space as anyone else; 2) fight as hard as you can to stay with the bunch - it might kill you, but it's still easier than riding round on your own; 3) if / when you do get dropped, sit up and wait for someone else (dropped before you) to catch you and then work together. I managed to stick right in the middle of the bunch for the first couple of laps - it was a bit hair-raising as it was breakneck pace (averaging 24 mph, but descending at 37) with people jockeying for position all the time and constant concertina-ing as you sprint to close down a gap and then free wheel as it all comes together. On the climb at the end of the second lap I had a rush of blood to the head: from near the back of the bunch I moved wide right and then launched myself right off the front. I crossed the line clear on my own, but got caught within 30 seconds and then found myself sinking back through the field. I lost contact with the bunch on the fourth lap, had a lap or so on my own, then eventually found other people to work with (a couple from behind, but mostly people from up ahead who had either been shed off the bunch after me or who were getting lapped). The bunch lapped me with 1.5 laps to go. Don't know my position yet, but it felt better than last time.

my first race of the season is tomorrow AM. just a central park race, but exciting nonetheless. it's my first time racing with a full team, i'll have 8 other teammates in the pro/1/2/3 field.

bona fortuna. they do not have p123 races here. weeellll, one of the weeknight training races allows 3s to race with "A's", so i guess thats sorta the same thing.

how do i shot racing team

win some races and make a name for yourself. the teams will come to you.

well?

well?

(thing is, there's at least a handful of med students who'd be interested in racing....including one ex-racer who spent a year in belgium. i know teams in chicago that just started up as a group of buddies wearing the same kit, and cheering for each other at races.)

my team got 3rd.

there was a crash early on coming into the second lap. we all avoided it, but that's when the break formed. one of our guys was in it.

our rival team is probably the best nyc racing team, we didn't know they had two men in the break. we should have bridged a guy across at some point to increase the chances of winning. the confusion of the crash didn't really give us a chance to size it up properly.

i was at the front mostly chasing down attacks from other teams, with 4-5 other teammates also controlling the race with me. my teammate took 3rd in a sprint from a 7 man break, which is a success for us. this is an entire club series that lasts all summer so we're after the team cup.

i really was putting myself in the red to make it a good training race. i'm not a huge threat in these central park races because i'm basically racing against the best local riders NYC has to offer.

but it was shitloads of fun and i totally forgot how much i love to race!

so do you want to start road racing gbx?

How did you get on Cutty? (ah, xpost, you've answered that now!)

I did my third race of the season today. I tried to get a good start so that I could position myself nearer the front of the bunch (in the hope I could stay in it for longer this time) - unfortunately I got such a good start that I left everyone else behind and had to ride on my own for the first lap until I got caught. This wasn't the plan at all and just knackered me. I lost contact on the third lap and raced with the also-rans for the remainder. With half a lap to go I got savage cramp in my right calf that just wouldn't go. I tried to complete the race pedalling with my left foot only (and my right leg sticking out straight), but couldn't get up the hill like that. I tried to walk it, but my calf didn't like that either. Eventually I managed to spin up in my bottom gear, but I'm hobbling around now. Hopefully this is just a short term effect.

What kind of temperature is it in New York now, by the way?

what was the field size cutty?

65 degrees fahrenheit today. field size was around 80 i'd say.

Woo-hoo! Due to my foolishly quick start yesterday I'm right at the front in the first photo that they took of the race yesterday. Fame at last!

http://www.cycleweb.co.uk/newsite/gallery.htm
(San Fairy Ann Spring Crits 2 09 seniors)

http://www.cycleweb.co.uk/newsite/albums/sffa092y/IMG_9066001.sized.jpg

loooool

wanna see him shoulder that (tho it looks like hes got road shoes going there)

i mostly want to race CX and track, but would def like to try a road race sometime.

the problem with cx is that the fastest guy almost always wins. same with xc.

start racing then, gbx. don't worry about a team yet! track is not a team sport anyway.

I got savage cramp in my right calf that just wouldn't go.... I'm hobbling around now. Hopefully this is just a short term effect.

Still limping around now more than three days later. I must have actually strained it. I can't see myself riding at all for a couple of weeks at least and I don't think I'll be racing again for quite a while :-(

Bad cramp hurts a fair bit for days, but you'll be fine soon, I promise. Quicker than you expect.

Hope so. How are your ribs coming along?

Not bad - every day they're improving. Today is going to be my first day without pain relief - feeling pretty fine so far. Thinking of cycling to work (gingerly and slowly) tomorrow.

Funnily enough I woke in the middle of the night with a fierce cramp in my thigh - wonder if that's going to hurt for a while?

raced a crit. no moves were getting away. sat up for the field sprint, no thanks.

fun though, and a great workout.

my first big road race is saturday--
http://tourofthebattenkill.com/

my team is a favorite for the cat 3 race, one of the three of us can definitely get on the podium, i think

that website hurts my eyes

just dug up the minnesota racing calendar, btw

think i might enter.....a crit??

wait, is this on unibet?

kill em.

what is unibet? floyd landis is racing the tour of the battenkill!

gbx, did you buy a license?

figured i'd just get a one-day? i mean, i doubt i'll do more than one or two

k. not all races do one-days so be sure to check. and be careful. a cat 5 crit is not where i would have my first bike race.

h'mmmm....road race, maybe? i think there are like a bazillion more crits than there are day races, tho? also a lot of TTs, now that i look

also thinking i'll have to get this, huh: http://unattachedrider.com/current.htm

you are in illinois, correct?

http://www.bikereg.com/events/?et=1&rg=4

nope! i'm up in minnesota now, for med school.

should be plenty of road races in minnesota broski

i will look~~

wow there are none

http://www.bikereg.com/events/Default.asp?et=1&rg=MN&ns=&ne=15&btnGo.x=9&btnGo.y=19

http://mcf.net/calendar/

there's a handful of RRs, but it's like all crits all summer

Twenty years ago this exact weekend, aged 15, I did my first ever time trial, 10 miles in 29.00 on a 'dragstrip' course (i.e. on a flat, straight dual carriageway with cars and juggernauts thundering past at 70mph or more and nightmarish dangerous sliproads joining from the left). A week later I did another, this time on a 'sporting' course (i.e. on relatively minor twisting and undulating roads without much traffic) and got a 29.49. I know this because fortunateley I kept a race diary. By the end of the 1989 season I'd got my PB down to 28.00 and by the end of the 1990 season it was 27.15. Then I gave up for half my life.

Today was the first time trial of my belated comeback, by freakish coincidence on the same sporting course where I did my second ever time trial, and I managed a 29.00, by another freakish coincidence the exact same time I got 20 years ago on the dragstrip. I'm pretty pleased with that (although, obviously, I was at the wrong end of the results board - I think I managed to beat five people out of about forty-five). There was a headwind for the first 5.5 miles and I thought I was going to fail to get under 30 mins (which was my target), but then I was able to hammer it on the return. My target for the season is to try to get back up to the standard of my old PB, but that will be tricky as I'm going to restrict myself to sporting courses (as I think it's a bit mental to ride on roads which are virtually motorways).

One crucial difference between 1989 and 2009: every other competitor had tri-bars (apart from me) and most of them had low-profile bikes with disc wheels and aero helmets and stuff. I just had my normal road bike. Maybe I should get some tri-bars? I've never ridden with any, so I don't know what it's like. I certainly won't be bothering with the other stuff (partly because I'm much more interested in road racing than time trailing, but mostly because I don't have thousands of pounds to fritter away on such things). I was also the only rider without shaved legs, but that's a whole other issue.

Oh, and I had the humiliating experience of being caught and instantly passed and quickly left behind by my minute-man after just 1.5 miles (he eventually finished third in just under 23 mins).

CUTTY

HEY CUTTY

hey!

so my team won the cat 3 race. teammate kyl3 p3pp0 got 1st and I was right behind him in 5th. the race was brutal, kind of like a paris-roubaix. no cobbles, but a significant portion of the race was packed dirt, gravel, rocks, raging downhills and general craziness. our 3rd teammate in the field crashed pretty bad and ended up with a concussion (helmet cracked) in the hospital.

here's the course profile:

http://i44.tinypic.com/2dlqf11.png

i really started drilling it at the halfway point, 40 miles in, with a rider i know to be strong and capable of working pretty hard. we totally broke the field apart and the chase was on for us. i almost went off the road on a dirt descent at one point and totally fell off my bike at another. didn't lose any momentum and chased back on. i was feeling 100%.

around the 50 mile point i looked behind me and my teammate had caught up to us, leaving 7 of us in the lead group. we stayed away for the rest of the race. my teammate is definitely the better sprinter and i decided i would not contest the sprint to ensure we would win--i offered up the lead out to him. but the finish was confusing (we should have checked it out before hand) and it came sooner than we expected. 3 guys surged and my teammate came up on the left and passed them all at the line.

it was totally fucking PRO, my fist in the air in 5th place while my teammate wins. no other team had 2 guys in the break, we were the favorites, totally marked, and we still won the race.

we had stayed upstate the night before at another teammate's place. i texted him yesterday morning "wake up we have a race to win" and then we did exactly that.

it's moments like these where all the training is worth it. my team is awesome and we've already won 3 races in 2009. very psyched for this season. i'll post vanity pics if i get any!

also with yesterday's 5th place i am five upgrade points away from my cat 2 upgrade

excellent

awesome!!!

that's great. I was kind of excited just reading that

nice!

wait, what's the deal with cat3 "green" and "blue"?

they split the cat 3 and 4 fields into two separate fields because the race was so in demand. it's probably better though, because a 200 person field would have been a total clusterfuck.

that's great. I was kind of excited just reading that

OTM. Sounds amazing!

my team's website is live, check it!

http://www.jonathanadlerracing.com

here's someone else's race report from the same race:

http://blue-mondays.blogspot.com/2009/04/little-more-battenkill.html

This is a series of three dirt rollers. Taken individually, none of these would be much of a challenge, but the combination of the three of them proved tough to handle. Matt Cutler, of Adler, came to he front and put the hammer down. I jumped on his wheel with a few others following along. I pulled through a few times, but Cutler definitely did most of the work, dropping nearly everybody left in the field.

braggin!

hey, i didn't write it!

Cutty, your team website is pretty great! Also, tell me more about this Laurel girl.

she dates another teammate, you letch! ;)

Haha! Do you all take it in turns to ride behind her in a chain gang? (Yes I am being horribly sexist but I bet you do)

what are you implying sir?

http://bicycling.com/blogs/alloverthemap/2009/04/20/in-the-eye-of-the-battenkill/

Cutty what are the photos (that aren't showing up)on ur team's site's blog of? It doesn't sound good.

there arent any real photos of the crash as far as i know. my teammate was involved in the crash in the video on the bicycling.com blog above.

"Climbing halfway across Meeting House Cuttler and I lead the charge, the field shatters behind"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_t51SYgxZ3Xw/Se_l0mTF9DI/AAAAAAAACNU/qOB2HUuL1qE/s1600-h/IMG_0291.JPG

this weekend, the tour de ephrata:

http://allthatisgoodmaps.googlepages.com/gmTdEphrata.html

racing the p/1/2/3

:/

So how did it go? Did you shatter any fields?

i did not shatter anything. got dropped from the road race.

it was pretty much the best of the best elite teams in the northeast in the p/1/2/3 race. great experience. i've got the fitness but not the tactics to hang in these races yet. i'll just keep racing them.

best result of the weekend was getting 10th in the TTT (out of 20 teams).

Another ten-mile time trial yesterday, on the same course as a fortnight ago. Smashed my previous time and got 28.17, finishing 61st out of 80, which is progress.

awesome!

Another time trial, this time (rather oddly) 10.2 miles. The extra 0.2 miles is just so that the timekeepers can be based in a layby instead of on a tiny grass verge at the side of the road. This means the course isn't really going to attract people who are only interested in getting the perfect '10' (or '25' or '50' or whatever) - the course is too long and it's another 'sporting' (i.e. not flat and fast) one.

I managed 28.32, with an average speed that equates to 27.58 for 10 miles. I'm pretty pleased with that: I'm getting faster every time I race. Great weather today - warm and sunny - but there was a tailwind on the way out which turned into a vicious headwind on the return. Somehow I didn't realise this until the turn, despite the fact that I did the first half at 24mph, which is hugely better than I've ever managed over the full distance.

in action
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3397/3559798425_157def37d3.jpg

gs bagnpump!

I live in fear of punctures. It'd be a long walk back to the HQ in cleats.

are your legs shaved! kudos!

i did the rapha gentlemen's race today. 120 miles. one of the most "epic" (lol) rides i've ever done. there should be a big expose up on the rapha site with photos and video soon, i'll post.

are your legs shaved! kudos!

No, it just looks that way in the photo because it was so sunny (so no kudos). Did my second Tuesday evening time trial on the Hog Hill circuit tonight: a slight improvement (I got 28.40 this week and 28.53 last week, both weeks I came bang in the middle of the field, 14th out of about 30). I seem to be better at climbing than most, but can't grind it out on the flat like some people do.

you should work on your aero position

get some clip on aero bars

I would do, but I've got the wrong type of handlebars: they're not round, they're kind of flattened.

Actually, maybe I could?
I've got these bars: http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article/mps/uan/2291
They're actually round for about an inch either side of where the stem clamps onto the middle of the bars - is that enough space to mount clip-ons onto? I've got the computer mounted there at the moment, but I could probably move that somewhere else (not sure where).

Maybe I could use these?
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Profile_T2_Plus_Clip_On_Aero_Bar_Extension/5360020749/
They're two individual extensions (instead of a one-piece job), so presumably they could be fitted really close to the clamp.

yup

spectated at the st paul crit last night, will spectate again at the uptown crit (block from my house!) tomorrow

first bike race i have actually watched, v v fast, but i didn't know who was who or really what the hell was going on. the only local contender blew it and went down HARD in the final turn, with like 50 yards of sprinting to go

showed up shortly after the women's race, fitness chix evvvvvvvvvvvverywhere

Did that 10.2-mile time trial again on Saturday and took 20 seconds off my previous time. Average speed now up to 21.7mph.

Very happy. Did that 10.2 mile time trial again (it's a monthly series) and knocked nearly a minute off my time doing my fastest race ever: 27.19 at 22.4mph (which gives an actual 10-mile time of 26.47, nearly 30 seconds faster than my PB from way back in 1990). Those aero bars have definitely made a difference.

I'm racing again tomorrow morning, doing my first 25-mile time trial since 1991.

faster and faster

i'm gonna get so bad at bikes when i'm in africa

when i'm in africa

wait, waht?!!

goin to africa, brb

lol

What a weekend! Despite the far from ideal preparation (racing yesterday and only getting four hours sleep on the floor (for reasons I won't bother going into) before getting up at 5.45am for my 8.10am start from Chelmsford) I managed to smash through a near-two-decade old personal best for the second day running. My old PB for 25 miles was 1:12.57, today I did 1:10.45 (21.2mph) even with a savage crosswind. I even won the handicap competition and had to stick around for a prize presentation. Then I went home and watched the Contador-Wiggins show. I really must get some sleep soon.

Holy crap that's fantastic!!

Unbelievable today! As a one-off I entered a 10-mile time trial on one of the faster courses (which means taking your life into your hands on a dual carriageway with cars and lorries steaming past at 70mph and slip roads and giant roundabouts to contend with) and knocked nearly three minutes off my PB. I did it in 24:24 (average speed 24.6mph), so much faster than anything else I've ever done that it's on another planet.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2336/2488103782_400191990d.jpg?v=0

XD @ 420

haha. 420 is lucky.

After a summer of time trialling, the aero bars have come off and I returned to road racing (or circuit racing, to be more accurate) this weekend. Got my best result ever*: I finished 7th (from 20 finishers, not sure how many starters, plus there were also 7 women simultaneously doing a separate race and I beat all of them).

This was a very short race (just over half an hour) and we set off at an insane speed. I did the first two laps at well over 24mph, which is crazy considering the 1-in-8 hill you have to climb every lap. I was determined not to get dropped by the bunch this time (and certainly not to get lapped), but within three laps there was no bunch to speak of: the whole field had been blasted to pieces. There was a group of about five ahead of me and then I was in a 'chasing' group of four behind them and everyone else had disappeared miles behind us. I say 'chasing', because we weren't chasing, just losing ground on them (as our pace settled down to a more manageable 21.5mph). For a while they were a tantalising 50 yards or so ahead of us, but there wasn't much I could do: I was sat in second place in a line of four and frankly needed to stay on that wheel - if I'd launched myself and bridged across I would have blown up as soon as I made contact and then ended up in a worse position. I suppose we could have worked together to chase, but I think we were all already at or above our limits anyway - there was no sharing the work: the strongest bloke stayed on the front nearly all the time, I sat in second most of the time, and two others sat behind me.

At some point I blasted up the hill and shook off two of our group and then went with the strong man (and still let him do 90% of the work!). Then we caught two riders who had been dropped from the leading group and raced around aiming for fifth place. I was nearly dying for the last three laps - my heart seemed to be beating at 900bpm and I couldn't get enough air. Several times I lost contact and then dug in and sprinted back up to the wheel in front and then tried to recover once I was on the back of the line again. The finishing line is at the top of the 1-in-8 hill, so it wasn't a 'normal' sprint. The strongman had dropped the rest of our group on the final lap, so there were three of us going for 6th place. I lost contact with the guy in front, then the guy behind me came flying off my wheel and disappeared, but then I kicked as hard as I could and caught and passed the guy who had been in front of me. Then I spent about three minutes lying on the ground waiting for my heart to recover.

Next week (on bank holiday Monday) I'm doing another one, but twice the distance and with 3rd cat riders (I'm 4th cat) - I doubt I'll even finish, but hopefully it will be a good learning experience.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/londoncyclesport/3849119350/
This is me shaking it up a bit on the hill about halfway through the race (I went on the inside of the bend, where the climb is steepest, but it's over more quickly, so if you go hard the suffering is over sooner).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/londoncyclesport/3849119350/sizes/m/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/londoncyclesport/3849119350/sizes/m/
Maybe this will work

Is that image showing? It isn't for me. On the rather small off-chance anyone wants to see some more photos, I've found some more professional ones:
Grimly determinedly staying seated on the climb when everyone else got out the saddle
Giving up on that approach in a world of pain later on
Half-dead on the left just after crossing the line
Some old bloke winning a marrow for coming last

plus there were also 7 women simultaneously doing a separate race and I beat all of them

lol

this is all awesome. very psyched with all the racing you've been doing!

yeah great job

im super jealz that they don't have that style of racing anywhere in a 90 minute radius of where I live.

we're spoiled here in NYC with central park and prospect park being minutes away.

most weekends in the summer you have to choose which race you'd rather do

no there's racing here but it's all like hella stage racing and huge fields.

i would enjoy a smaller field and a 40-60 mile distance, not 100-150 miles elbow to elbow.

also!!!! reasonable climbs instead of fucking crippling sadistic walls.

no cat 4 race would be 100-150 miles!

what i'm saying about the park races is they are short and fast. circuit racing more than road racing.

most 4s races are sub 1 hr crits or 45-65 mi circuit races in CO.

at least thats my recollection

Yes, in Britain hardly any road races are more than 100 miles. The elite events for the top amateurs and the domestic pros (i.e. the ones riding for low-budget British teams and racing mostly in this country) are usually about 80 miles or so. For 3rd or 4th cats it would be about 35-60 miles on the open road, or crits of a minimum of 40 mins to a maximum of 1 hour + 5 laps (so probably between 15 and 30 miles). The only time you'd get something as long as 150 miles (if ever) would be in the Tour of Britain, which is mostly for the continental pros.

Personally, I've never raced more than 25 miles, and the furthest I've ridden is 85 miles, so a 150-mile race doesn't even bear contemplating.

You get sportives that are a lot longer, but of course, a sportive isn't a race :)

my races average around 75-80 miles these days.

(in the pro/1/2 field)

Mark - I'm doing a 100-mile sportive in late September - not sure if this was a good idea!
http://www.essexsportive.com/

Cutty - how are you finding it (racing at that level)?

it's really difficult. but i'm having more fun than ever. no longer is there the stress of getting more upgrade points and moving up in the ranks--so the races are generally more enjoyable for me.

on the other hand, i'm racing against the strongest elite racers in the northeast. everyone is as strong as me, most are stronger. so i pretty much just hold on tight and pray i don't get dropped.

i haven't really been posting about my racing in the p/1/2s because it's mostly uneventful. i've had some top 20 finishes, i've gotten into some early breakaways (the field is usually likely to let a new cat 2 like me go off the front for a while), and i've gotten dropped.

but i'm racing with the big boys and that's most of the fun. i'm a 30 year old lawyer, yknow?

i'm curious how i will do next year with another winter of training under my belt.

Jamie, I may possibly be doing that one - I have a (female, very powerful) friend who lives in Essex and if she can deal with the hills we might be entering. After the Black Mountains I am rather less scared of hills! (NB this lack of fear gradually dissipates so by late September I'll be bricking it again)

Well, keep in touch and we could end up riding together (at least for part of it). I'm supposed to be doing with an Australian bloke from my cycling club, but he hasn't entered yet and I haven't heard from him for a fortnight - I think he might be doing some event in the Pyrenees at the moment.

By the way - I don't think there'll be any hills on that sportive to be even remotely worried about.

but i'm racing with the big boys and that's most of the fun. i'm a 30 year old lawyer, yknow?

^^^ this is a good attitude

yeah, thanks. it's a personal accomplishment for me to have gotten this far in only two seasons of racing. and i'm not burnt out yet. i love the sport and i love being fit and fast!

Next week (on bank holiday Monday) I'm doing another one, but twice the distance and with 3rd cat riders (I'm 4th cat) - I doubt I'll even finish, but hopefully it will be a good learning experience.

Ouch. Well, it was a good learning experience, I suppose. Very hard: this was the furthest I've raced (50km/31 miles), in easily the biggest field (68 starters), against 3rd cat riders for the first time. Unlike the 4th cat races I've done, which tend to get splintered into several groups, this basically stayed together as one big bunch most of the time (with a group of 4 or 5 off the front for a while). The pace was very fast for me (over 24mph), but I managed to keep myself in the bunch (albeit very near to or actually at the back nearly all the time) for the first 5 laps (1 lap = 2km). This often involved sprinting hard just to keep in touch and then suddenly everyone would all squash together and slow down for no apparent reason.

On the 6th lap a gap opened and even when I sprinted I just couldn't close it. The bunch pulled away from me on the hill and I was left to ride the next 6 or 7 laps on my own (which I did at a much gentler pace). The only rider behind me was so far behind (one or two minutes) that there didn't seem much point waiting for him. Eventually the bunch lapped me and I upped my pace and got back into the middle of them. This time I stuck with them for about three laps before getting spat out the back. I pootled around a bit more and eventually they lapped me a second time. Again, I sprinted as hard as I could and kept with them for a lap and a half before I just couldn't hack it.

Then came THE FOOLISH INCIDENT. I had a look at my computer on the main descent (I was on my own again) to check my speed (I normally try to force myself to hit 35mph before I start freewheeling) and saw I'd done just under 25 miles. I wondered how my time would compare to my 25-mile time trial, so I pressed the button on the computer to get to the right display. Then I looked up and realised I was just about to run out of road (there was a 180-degree bend, but I was still going forwards at about 30mph). I braked, skidded, then went off the road and tumbled over and over into a load of thistles.

I was cut up, with a fair bit of blood on my right leg, but nothing serious. I'm sore now in various places (both knees took a whack), but nothing's broken. Amazingly, the bike seemed to be more or less OK as well (only the handlebars had been knocked out of line). After about 30 seconds I got back on the bike and tried to finish the race. I managed another lap and a half with blood all over me and thistles covering my back and hanging from my gloves, but then my legs started to cramp up. There was only one more lap to go (if you're lapped you finish when the leaders finish), but I decided against continuing - I'd done enough damage already.

OH NO. sometimes after you crash, your adrenaline is so high you can catch back on.

lesson learned though, right?! don't look at your computer in a race!

!!!!!

lesson learned though, right?! don't look at your computer in a race!

B-b-but I was on my own - what could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, lesson learned alright.

84 mile road race, got 7th. my best result so far in the elite peloton. upgrade points towards my cat 1 ;)

Excellent!
I've been ill and had to miss my race yesterday - couldn't even ride to the end of my street.

i'm climbing really really well right now. seems the same thing is happening to me that happened last year, my peak fitness happens in august-september after the entire season is nearly over!

cutty how long did it take you to go from guy with a bike to cat 1???

i won't be cat 1 until next season at least. still a 2.

i started racing march 2008. just finished my second season. however, i started structured training september 2007 before i had ever even entered a race.

Did another 25-mile time trial today and smashed my PB *again*. Previous best: 1 hr 10m 45s, today: 1 hr 7m 7s (average speed 22.3mph). I'm amazed at the progress I've made this season - it's going to take a bit of getting used to next year when presumably my times won't keep tumbling down.

This should be the off-season, but my club had its annual hill climb championship today. I managed to get 2nd place (out of 11), which I'm pretty pleased at. The bloke in first was 20 seconds better than my time, so I was nowhere near beating him, but I was only 3 seconds ahead of 3rd place so my desperate final sprint was worth it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/captainzep/4086279513/sizes/m/

why the fuck can't I post images that show any more?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2647/4086279513_6d63f365da.jpg

^ouch!!!

oh and nice work!!

I don't think it's really 20%, despite what the graphic says. There's a warning sign at the side of the road saying 1 in 8.

20% is like a repeated golf club strike in the nuts.

Fucking hell dude! You are SO GOOD at this bike-racing stuff! Chapeaux!

cheers :-)

Back in action: my first race of the season. It was an hour-long 4th cat circuit race at Hog Hill, this time going clockwise (instead of anti-clockwise). There was a dusting of snow around earlier in the morning, but they did their best to clear the circuit of ice before we started. They had to cone off one section and there were some dangerous puddles around, but it was just about OK.

In many ways it was my most comfortable road race so far: I was able to sit in the bunch fairly easily and the pace actually seemed quite slow. I mean, obviously it hurt a bit, but nothing like as much as previous races have done. I was biding my time and actually fantasising about making an attack on the hill with a lap to go. Eventually the sign went up saying five laps to go and I thought 'right - this is where the action starts'. Ten seconds later the riders I was following overshot a bend on the descent and went off the road. I couldn't help but follow them off. We just about managed to avoid falling over on the icy grass and then got back onto the road, but by this time the bunch was about 20 seconds ahead of us. I said "Let's work together to get back on" but half a lap later I realised I'd just dropped them. I chased hard but didn't make any headway on that gap, and evetually as the atacks started flying towards the end they upped their pace and got even further away.

So, a bit frustrating because I could have done much better without a bit of bad luck, but I'm optimistic about the next time.

but half a lap later I realised I'd just dropped them

haha, awesome!

That is brilliant NBS! Unlucky but I bet you came away feeling strong.

that's great. blows my mind that britishers are actually racing in mid winter.

made crit debut tonight after work in 34deg celsius heat on "the hardest crit course in melbourne". mixed it up for a while but the heat and the climbing that took up half the lap took their toll and i dropped out before the finish. think i might try the flat course another club runs on weekends next, that's probably more my thing i reckon.

AWESOME!!

Good luck, haitch.

Back at Hog Hill again for another hour-long race. No ice this morning, so the field was a bit bigger in my 4th cat race (I think 38 riders, compared to 27 last week). I didn't crash / go off the road this week. At one point (on the main climb) my chain came off when I tried to put it in the small ring - fortunately I was able to get it back on without stopping just by moving the derailleur back and forwards. We did 17 laps (about 21.5 miles) and I stuck with the bunch (whittled down to about 20 riders) virtually the entire way. I started off at or near the front of the bunch. On the second or third lap a break formed ahead of me of about five or six riders - everyone else seemed content to let it go, so I dug in and bridged across to it, only to find that it all came together as all I'd done was tow the bunch with him. After that I found myself lurking towards the back of the group most of the time, mostly because I'm still nervous about taking tight bends at high speed surrounded by riders. I lost contact after the climb with three laps to go, but teamed up with another rider and spent two minutes absolutely hammering it until we got back on. Then I lost contact again with one-and-a-half laps to go when the pace really hotted up. The bunch fragmented ahead of me and I could see the finish (the finish line is at the top of the climb) being contested by about six or seven riders about 300 metres ahead of me, while the rest of us straggled in in ones or twos. I had a 'sprint' of sorts against another rider, but to be honest both my legs were cramping up and I was relieved it was over. Anyway - I'm very pleased with that - it's the longest I've been in the action (15.5 out of 17 laps) and the closest I've come to finishing with the winner (probably about 45 seconds down).

today was STUPOR BOWL!!!!!!!

you did the right thing bu trying to bridge, but never bridge if people are on your wheel. make sure your jump/acceleration is timed so no one is with you next time.

Did my last race of the Hog Hill winter series today (there's one more round to go, but I won't be in London for it). The field was much smaller this week (23, down from 40), partly due to the weather - it was actually snowing while I was warming up and in the middle of the race there were hailstones. We used the 'Alpine' slalom section today (a three-hairpin bend descent) - the first time I've raced on it. As usual I tended to take these corners slower than most and drifted towards the back. However, I was feeling alright and worked my way up the field on the other bits: I actually led the bunch up the hill at the end of the first and second laps.

However, the hammer came down on the fifth lap and I found myself disappearing off the back. The field got smashed to pieces: a lead group of about seven opened up a gap, one or two riders in no man's land behind them, a second group of about five, then a whole series of individuals who had been shelled out. I worked my way up through the ranks of the shelled out - I was hoping I could get a third group to form so we could chase our way back to the second group, but unfortunately (with one exception) everyone I managed to catch just got left behind and/or retired. The exception was one man who I spent several laps chasing: he kept dropping me on the Alpine bit and then I'd spend two minutes chasing furiously before catching him before the climb, only for him to drop me again on the Alpine bit. I thought it would have made more sense for us to work together, but perhaps he'd already given up any hope of catching the second group and just wanted to protect his position.

By looking at landmarks at the side of the road and the time on my computer I was able to work out the time gaps. With 40-minutes gone (of one hour) I was more than 2 minutes behind the leading group and about a minute behind the second group. There was no way I was going to catch the second group, with or without the other rider just ahead of me, so I just focused on chasing him down. Then at the bottom of the climb I realised I had a puncture. I hadn't heard anything, but before I knew it I was riding on the rim. I didn't have a spare so I had to retire - very annoying. The man I'd been chasing-catching-losing-chasing-catching-losing for half the race got lapped by the leaders with about two laps to go and retired, so I guess that's what my fate would have been.

Actually, I've just seen the official results and it would appear EVERYONE (including the second group) got lapped apart from the leading group of seven riders. Weird: last week there were more than 25 of us still together at the front after 50 minutes, this week only 7 people were in contention after just 15 minutes. The guy who finished second is some kind of wonderkid 15-year-old.

Back in action at Hog Hill again today: a bit warmer, but there's been so much rain that there were dangerous muddle puddles around the course. There were at least two photographers there, so hopefully I'll be able to get a picture of my mud-splattered suffering Roubaix-style.

An attack went on the very first lap and the field just got broken into pieces within five minutes. I found myself in my familiar position: desperately chasing the chasers on my own. A group of four had broken away, there was another group of about seven chasing them, and then individuals like me hopelessly tearing after them (there were plenty behind me even at this early stage). As with the last race, I managed to work my way up through the field, but annoyingly the riders I managed to catch just went backwards once I got them when what I really wanted was someone to work with.

Eventually I teamed up with another guy, and then a few laps later we caught one of his team mates too and worked as a group of three. It was very complicated out there - we weren't really sure whether the people we were passing had been ahead of us, or if we were just lapping them, and then at some point the leading group of four came round and lapped us, so the commisaires must have had a tricky job keeping track of things.

On the last lap we caught a group of four at the bottom of the hill and I threw everything I had into a savage attack and sprinted off up the hill then soloed to the line. Technically it wasn't worth it (I haven't got the results yet, but it probably meant I finished 16th instead of 18th or something insignificant like that), but it made me feel pretty good! That's the first time I've managed to do that - normally I'm on the verge of hideous cramps by the last two or three laps.

Some photos:
Another rider and me looking surprisingly cheerful up the hill on an early lap
My group of three with one lap to go
The winner amusingly snatching victory by a centimetre while the guy in blue celebrates too soon

looks fun. how big is the hill in hog hill?

Not huge, by any means. You probably climb about 20 to 25 metres over a distance of 200 to 300 metres, but it's at its steepest (1 in 8) just before the top so you really have to slow down and change down the gears. It's the kind of hill you ride up once and think 'that wasn't so bad', but when you have to get up it at race pace 17 or 18 times an hour it really takes it out of you.

do you get out of the saddle and powerclimb?

I try to stay in the saddle and spin up, but more often than not I end up out of the saddle with a face of pain.

on a climb like that you should be out of the saddle as soon as the climb starts. it'll get you up the climb faster and you won't have to make the slow transition from sitting and spinning to powerclimb mode. try that next time.

Noted. That's what I did on my FINAL SAVAGE ATTACK (which was ultimately a bit pointless, as they didn't bother to give placings outside of the top ten), but I think if I did that every lap I wouldn't last very long.

don't SPRINT uphill. but get out of the saddle and pedal at a lower cadence, stronger cadence. focus on pulling the pedals up in the rotation just as much as pushing down.

is it less economical to get out of saddle? i do both, but i tend to go out of saddle when i'm:

(a) tired
(b) need to get blood flowing to lower legs
(c) ass is sore
(d) more than likely all of the above

ALSO: what are your hand positions on climbs?

I struggle between on the hoods where my chest feels a little bit constricted versus on the horizontal part between the drops/adjacent to the stem (what's the name for this part of bars?) where I can breathe better but feel like I'm losing torque.

imo whether it's less economical or not depends on the type of rider you are and terrain. on a climb like hog hill, the way NBS describes it, i would think it's more economical to dance on the pedals all the way up the short climb. you'd never do a long climb like that, you'd sit, spin, and settle into your threshold climbing pace. this climb seems more like a 30-second max (or less?) effort you have to keep repeating each lap.

horizontal part between the drops/adjacent to the stem

ona long winding climb i'd use that part of the bar. and on a short powerclimb i'd either be in the drops or the hoods.

haha, i asked you this same question last year on IM and you said the same thing now that i remember.

fricken pay attention shasta

imo it _is_ a little less efficient to stand but it gets out a lot of power and allows you to respond to cover gaps a little better. on a short 12% you almost surely will want to stand to hold your position esp in a big group, and if youre gonna stand anyway, get up at the bottom.

steve, those are ime called the bartops or tops, and for long climbs thats where u usually wanna be. not sure about torque.

my first race is in central park this saturday

and if youre gonna stand anyway, get up at the bottom

that's the most important part... if you know you keep standing by the end you aren't putting out enough power to hold your position. yes, it is less economical if that means it's going to HURT more, but you will be able to move quicker, and won't get caught up in trying to stand mid climb when the guy in front of your accelerates.

good luck on sat

f this TT shit, get back into the peloton!

thot they were called the "flats"

ill bring my shoecovers bruv

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races08/lbl08/preview-stroch.jpg

stand going up this esp during lbl imo

other thoughts for NBS: considering this is the course you race on mostly, it wouldn't hurt to show up to hog hill on a training day and do some hill repeats out of the saddle on the climb.

Yeah, I did that in January. I wasn't working on position that time, but on gearing. I tried climbing the hill as fast as I could three times in a row with various different gearings (low from the start, high until it hurt and then changing down, etc.) to see if there was a magic combination - all three times were between 46 and 49 seconds (I probably underestimated the distance upthread) and all three times hurt and left me gasping so I didn't really get anything conclusive from that. I also practised hitting the various bends at different angles and speeds, trying to work out what was safe (but obviously it's a bit different when you've got people around you).

thinking about breaking the crit routine with something that gbx would appreciate:

http://www.wolfpackhustle.com/viewStory.php?storyId=593

dunno if i could race worth a damn at 4am!

I know it's not the same at all, but when I did my 24-hour relay race last summer, I did sessions at approx 9pm, midnight, 3.30am and 6.30am. Because I was able to pace myself quite well, I was able to keep largely consistent times up, with increasing fatigue making a small but obvious difference. What I discovered was my 9pm, 3am and 6am speeds/times were roughly consistent; but my midnight stint was almost 10% slower than the others for no apparent reason. So for me at least it seems that's when my circadian rhythms really didn't want to be riding.

that looks pretty fun. is that approved by the marathon promoter? cause if it is, they're the best. if its not, id think theyd be looking to shut that right down.

if u wonder where all the fattey masters are in co, they tting. jfc, this thing nearly sold out in 30 mins, then crashed the reg system due to overload.

http://recordracer.com/eventreg/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=74

i should promote a tt series on sunday mornings somewhere out in egypt if theres this much demand.

even if 1/3 of the entrants are no fee juniors, which i doubt, they're taking in over 50k.

The first signs of spring coming and bringing the worst winter ever to an end were there today. I was able to race without overshoes and wearing fingerless mitts instead of thick gloves (although I still had tights on and two long-sleeve tops on under my race top).

I did a lumpy 25-mile time trial in 1:09:32, which is my second-fastest time, so not bad for this stage of the season (although, some way off my PB). Pretty pleased with it really, as it was very windy today, and on Saturday I was dying of a hangover and wondering if I would be able to ride.

Rebecca Romero (gold-medal winner at the Beijing Olympics for the pursuit, and silver-medal winner in the Olympics before that in rowing) was in the same race as me - I saw her coming towards the finish just after I started. She got just under the hour, beating all the other women, and all but five or six of the men. They've removed the pursuit from the track programme in the Olympics, so she's trying to reinvent herself as a time trialist. Good luck to her.

my teammate won the red hook crit:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/03/news/in-brooklyn-unifying-machines-and-a-win-for-a-russian-bike-messenger_108837

a lapped rider crash splitting the winning break would really piss me off. i guess thats all in the game there

From BSNYC

The Red Hook Criterium also illustrates yet another handy use for time. In addition to using it to enforce parking rules and to determine winners, you can also use it to "curate" your participants. Starting a bike race at 11:00pm (as they did with the Red Hook race) ensures that your race will be mostly free from uptight roadies, who become cranky and begin to panic if they are not in bed by 9:30pm. Conversely, beginning races at 6:30am (which is when most sanctioned local races start) ensures that your event will not include the sorts of people who race in t-shirts and beards

I'm pre-entered into a race on Saturday, but I'm currently off work and stuffed full of antibiotics and paracetamol with tonsilitis. I haven't ridden since last Wednesday and I've been in a world of pain since Saturday. With any luck I'll feel better by the weekend, but I don't know if it would be that sensible to do the race.

You never know, an involuntary taper could work in your favo(u)r?

Actually, the more I think about it, the more common sense tells me to give it a miss. You've got to be 100% fit and healthy to race. With a weakened immune system I'd probably just end up getting even more ill.

yeah, i agree, but see how you feel considering you are pre-reg'd

I skipped that race (9 days ago) in the end: I still wasn't well enough to ride, never mind race. So, I was back in action today, for another circuit race at Hog Hill. I wore shorts for the first time this season, but it was actually still a bit cold and very, very windy. The race was for 1 hour plus 3 laps, so a bit longer than the other road races I've done this season.

I managed to stay in the bunch for 4 or 5 laps then got gapped. I fought hard to get back to the wheel of the rider in front, but by the time I'd caught him he'd been dropped too. I thought we could work together to get back on, but he was spent and just disappeared behind. Then I spent about five minutes riding as hard as I could trying to get back on, but all I could do was hold the gap at about 6 or 7 seconds. Really frustrating: I kept hoping they'd ease up at a bend, but it just didn't happen, and the sections in a headwind felt like I was riding into a hurricane. Eventually the gap started to widen and the game was up.

I'd been racing less than 20 minutes by this stage (so only about a quarter of the race) so that was a bit dispiriting. I knew there were six riders behind me, the closest about 30 seconds back, so I just freewheeled for a while and waited for him as I really didn't fancy riding the rest of the race on my own. We worked together and then eventually we picked up a third rider. We got lapped, but to be honest it was just a training ride (for us) by that stage. I was almost completely gone towards the end and got dropped by my two companions on the final lap before chasing them down at the foot of the final hill. I tried an attack with about 150m (up a 1-in-8 hill) but went too soon and got caught and passed. Meh.

A couple of photos:
Me sitting in that much sought after spot near the back of the bunch early on -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/londoncyclesport/4496470212/sizes/o/
And then suffering up the climb fifteen minutes later an agonising 6 seconds behind the bunch -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/londoncyclesport/4495833351/sizes/o/

tour of the battenkill, so horrible:

http://i42.tinypic.com/2lxxvzl.png

jesus christ. cutty how'd you go?

56/100

my handlebars kept slipping all race so i couldn't really relax--on the dirt and gravel sections everytime i hit a hole it was scary as shit. wasn't climbing as well as i did on this course last year. 82 miles, 8 dirt sections, whew...

not sure if this will work:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/29638435

that one crit i was in a while back, one of the brifters came loose - does NOT inspire a great deal of confidence

so i feel u on this one

cutty ur post inspired a garmin purchase today. if only it could give me fitness cure my deep seated fear of winning.

My road race ~debut~ report:

25mph gusts, torrential rain (1.5 inches alone during the 2+ hours when I was out on the course).

I was beyond soaked... like, no shit, rain was so sideways in the crosswind I had a raindrop score a direct hit to my EARDRUM. *splat* That was an odd first time sensation.

But really, so much fun. All morning long, the fields were completely shattered (including my heat from the first 1/4 mile, the moto judge was laughing and told us "well, you've already got 100 yards on them").

But because of the utter shattering of fields and people wearing (multiple!) jackets over their numbers (except at the finish where numbers had to be displayed) it was hard to tell placement. I heard I got 5th (from my teammate who finished 3rd), then I heard 10th, then I heard 6th (from my teammate who finished we think 3 places behind me)... but I have no idea, it was crazy just to finish without crashing. Results should be official tomorrow.

My heat was 100 riders, 45 mile (2 laps x 22.5), mostly rollers with a few 5 minute uphill efforts, very cruel uphill start/finish on some poorly maintained country roads.

100 REGISTERED riders, I think the starter said there were 75 bodies present at the start.

just found this on google blog search, pretty entertaining:
http://ctscycling.blogspot.com/2010/04/spring-hill-two-rock-road-race-report.html

HARDMAN SHASTA!!

what is the strategy on dirt racing? do you take a couple psi out of the front/back? dudes clip one leg out on the dirt descents?

wow nice ride shasta. knew u would tho.

awww thx dawg. actually thought of U as i solo'd in the last 18 miles ("damn i could use some TT bars right abt now" he wondered aloud to himself in the gale force thunderstorm and howling winds...)

do you know your result yet?!

No results have been submitted for this event.
Please check with the event organizer to see if results are available.

what is the strategy on dirt racing? do you take a couple psi out of the front/back? dudes clip one leg out on the dirt descents?

― ✌.✰|ʘ‿ʘ|✰.✌ (Steve Shasta), Monday, April 12, 2010 3:25 PM (Yesterday)/

low tire pressure helps, i was rolling on hutchinson intensive tubeless tires at 90/100 psi

besically you just try to relax and watch for holes--the dirt is packed pretty hard. hard to breathe after the race because you inhale so much dirt dust.

my thing was to stay all the way to the front esp esp at surface transitions. in a way everyone trying to get to the front just makes it sketchier tho.

i took 1:20 off my tt this week. that meant the 60 y/o tt god who starts 1:20 behind me didn't pass me this time.

ok, he still totally caught me, but like a minute later. u_u

haha... is this guy an early retiree with all the time/$$$ on his hands to get as aero as possible?

nice work, so it's same course over a multiweek series? with same start order?

he races masters for my old team, and he's pretty damn fast. when he goes by...he is sorta small, very low, flat and fluid. leipheimeresque. he woulda placed 5th in the small 14 racer p-1-2 field.

thanks. welp, i figured that w/out any intervals or intensity training id be like, maybe a midpack 4? this week i rode like a top 20% 4, so...victory, bitches!

(lolz i finished 2nd to last in my 35+ cat 3 last week. i blew up like space shuttle challenger. in my aero as fuck aerohelmet, mind you.)

lets make animated movie about the tt scene, it is perfect for that type of takedown.

it doesn't make sense to have categories in TT does it? i understand for crits/road/track where you interact with other racers but does category just regulate distance of TT? school me.

we r all specail, we r all winners

fat masters want as many age groups and cats as possible. then they wanna move down one and win.

jake and the fat mantis official results:

time: 02:13
distance: 45.7 miles
avg speed: 20.5mph (max 42.9mph)
elevation gain: 3,104 feet
power: 263W (max 505W)
place: 7th out of 75 starters (only 43 finishers!)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2775/4521216074_3fe6d80ff4.jpg

great job mushroom head

excellent result. was that your first ever road race?

yes! the hell of the north (bay)

Back in action again today. This was my sixth road race (or 'circuit race', I suppose) this year and the for the first time the weather was unambiguously good: no puddles, no ice, no hailstones, no driving rain, no gale force winds, just lovely spring sunshine (filtered through volcanic ash, naturally). Also, this race was just 45 minutes long (compared to my last one which was an hour plus three laps, so about 50% longer). I was happy about both of these things.

The field was the biggest I've been in this year (either 47 or 48 riders). I managed to stick with the bunch almost the entire way this time, which was good. The lack of wind meant the pace was pretty high and Hog Hill is a very technical course (lots of ups and downs and very tight bends) which made for some hairy moments. For example, there's a right hand bend shortly after a descent which you normally hit at about 26mph, today we were going 33mph into it and I saw someone overshoot it and do a bit of involuntary cyclocross. Also there were some nervous riders drifting all over the place and several people whose chains came off, causing a lot of sudden braking.

I don't have the official results yet, but I would guess I was about 30th. There must have been about 30 of us still in the bunch nearing the end and nobody out ahead of us (there were two or three attempts at breakaways, but nothing lasted long). With three laps to go I didn't feel I had any kind of sprint left in my legs and I was in my usual position hanging onto the back of the bunch, so I thought I would try to force my way to the front and try a do-or-die effort on the climb. I didn't expect it to work, but I thought it would be better to try something and fail than to hang on for an unspectacular back-of-the-bunch finish. However, forcing my way up the bunch proved too tricky - I got about two thirds of the way but then got blocked. Shortly after that, on the climb, there was a crash in front of me. I managed to avoid the rider who hit the deck, but I lost contact. I spent the penultimate lap chasing hard about 20 metres off the back, but got slaughtered on the final lap and must have been about a minute behind the winner in the end. I caught and overtook three riders on the final climb, but I think they were probably already lapped.

Distance: 17.5 miles, Average Speed: 22.6mph (so the winner probably did 23mph)

last week- race lightning/hailed out
this week- filing response briefs instead

missing races, costing me $$$$ fuk

lolz @ lawyers

I was supposed to be doing a 25-mile time trial today, but there had been so much rain over the past 24 hours that part of the course was flooded and the event was nearly cancelled. The organisers managed to change it to a 10-mile time trial instead. The course is a slow one (I rode it twice last year and my fastest time was 28.17, nearly four minutes slower than my PB of 24.24 on a faster course) even at the best of times, and today was far from the best of times: cold (temperature down from over 20C/70F a few days ago to below 10C/50F), windy and very wet. Consequently loads of people didn't even turn up.

I was no.28 and rode over to the start and saw no.17 seemingly waiting to go so I figured I had at least 11 minutes to continue warming up. I went and warmed up for another 7 minutes (it was too cold to be standing around waiting by the start) and then turned up at the start only to find I'd missed my start by 30 seconds. It turns out that no.17 had had a puncture and didn't actually take part, so I'd picked the wrong person to base my start time on. Fortunately as so many people had dropped out I only had to wait 3 minutes until I was allowed to take the place of a non-starter.

There was a strong headwind for the outbound section and it was as much as I could do to keep my average speed at 20mph. I caught and passed my two-minute man before the turn and never saw another rider ahead or behind after that. The return was faster and I managed to finish in 27.54, a new best for that course. However, I won't officially be given that time as I'll be penalised for missing my start.

getting routed:

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

YAY!

FATTANTE

no shoe covers?

do not own. i have those little pi toe warmer covers though, they might help me do aero. i also need to get my elbows in a couple inches, but my shoulders don't like narrow.

ok so i was back to second last this week and im a little puzzled on that. i like to hope that the 30mph wind maybe was not quite so bad for the early starters?

killer pic of pain cave performance!

killer pic of complete melanin depletion. long winter, cold spring

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/ttchart.jpg

$1.67 per second!

ok so i kinda love that chart

i am stupid, can someone explain yaw to me? is it the angle of wind toward the rider?

i think it's the force trying to rotate you/bike around the z axis

shasta that's what i understand it as

like that zipp disc that generates negative drag or whatever when the wind hits it at a certain angle

yaw rly? kudos thx. also pls2link to zipp disc with neg drag coeff pls.

yo dont believe the chart.

yaw is the sound of wind tunnel charlatans tryna suck money outta your wallet with a twenty foot prop

also i have very hard time believing a rear 3 spoke is faster than a disc

k thx bye, gotta go buy some shoe covers now, i could jump up to third last with that shit

In the center of the aero "sweet spot" – a wind angle of 12 to 18 degrees – the Zipp Sub-9 was the first wheel ever to produce forward lift

note the warning that advises to use with caution on most of the latest TT frames, lolll

New PB today: ten mile time trial in 24.10 (average speed 24.8mph).

Had to give up today 35 minutes into a 50-minute circuit race: the weather was just appalling, strong gusty wind and torrential rain. It wasn't the fact that my clothes felt like I'd jumped into a muddy river or that my eyes and mouth were full of gritty water - I just didn't feel safe at all. I couldn't even see where I was going at times and felt sure I was going to bring someone down - I just couldn't handle the bike at the kind of speed that was needed. A very annoying waste of time.

NB+S: That sounds like my first road race... nasty, hope I never have to ride noless race in those conditions ever again.

I did my first TT today. 10 miles out and back... downhill then uphill. I thought I gave it my all but I only averaged 24mph which felt pretty slow compared to how fast I normally ride that road.

I passed 2 dudes on TT bikes with full skinsuit, shoe covers, disc wheels... felt awesome... until a dude with the craziest sounding wheels passed me at mile 6... I tried to go with him but he was just too aero for me and would pull away everytime the road flattened ever so slightly. He had a hell of a kick too.

i got 3rd... got who beat me by 3 seconds is cat1 :-O

(merckx btw)

Steve: was that 10 miles out and 10 miles back or 10 miles in total? Do you have a time trial bike / were you using clip-ons / just a road bike?

The story of my race in pictures:
The leaders all seem to have kept their sunglasses on. I thought this was a bad idea as it would like driving through the rain without windscreen wipers. However, I ended up virtually blinded, so I guess these guys knew what they were doing.
http://www.londoncyclesport.com/index.php?option=com_phocagallery&view=detail&catid=300:rapcon2201034s&id=25015:rapcon3&tmpl=component&Itemid=79#
Me near the back and virtually obscured by spray
http://www.londoncyclesport.com/index.php?option=com_phocagallery&view=detail&catid=300:rapcon2201034s&id=25017:rapcon5&tmpl=component&Itemid=79

barf! that looks very very wet indeed; I hate riding in the wind & rain

is there a thread on here where u chronicle ur getting (back?) into racing nb&s?

haha it's probably this one eh? d'oh

Hmmm. I can't see those pictures, so I'll just post links.
Leaders with sunglasses on
Me near the back and drowning
Alone, soaked through and thoroughly pissed off
What I felt like doing
Rain easing off and with a companion, but bunch more than a minute ahead (see top right)
Leading two riders up the hill, but battling a sense of futility as the bunch move ever further away

I gave up shortly after that. The shiny road surface in this photo gives an idea of what it was like, but going down a hill at well over 30mph with a tight right hand bend at the bottom, in a bunch, in the wind, without being able to see a fucking thing. Not my idea of fun.

xpost - cozen - yeah, this one I'd imagine, probably need to jump upthread to about January 2009.

NB+S one thing i learned from riding in those conditions is to remove your seat post and hang your bike upside down.... you'd be surprised how much water leaks into the frame via spray. frame water is not good for the bottom bracket imho.

my TT was 10 miles... 5 miles out downhill and 5 miles back uphill. I competed in the Merckx division which stipulates no TT bike, no TT bars, no clip-ons, no aero helmet, etc. i was riding in my usual get up.

Thanks for the heads up, Steve. I just took the seat post out and turned the bike upside down and a load of dirty water came out. Then I turned it the right way up, but I could still hear water swooshing around inside, so I turned it upside down and another lot came out. I repeated this about ten times - I can't believe how much water was in there. I still think there's some in there somewhere, but I can't see to get it out. When I turn the bike upside down some water seems to be leaking out of the forks - is this possible?

I hung my bike up in three different positions: from the steerer tube, from the bb, and from the rear triangle... about 10 mins in each position and that seemed to do the trick.

your fork catches probably most of the spray from the roostertails off the guys in front of you... you may have a soggy head set at this point... it should come out in time but if not, run it by the shop.

pix from my first TT:

start: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4052/4652372911_f944ab4dcc.jpg start (close): http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4652377171_0f672d8a2f.jpg finish: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4652376419_9881f4dd5c.jpg

please note: total lactic arrest/oxygen debt at finish.

24 mph non aero is quick, but your placing speaks for itself obv

lol you can't "go" with someone in a TT!

nice result though!

riding the edge of the box in a tt is classic where im from

haha, cutty i meant i "responded" and attempted to match speeds with the guy, i did not jump on his wheel or anything.

Hunt3r: how do you best keep yourself from "daydreaming"/lapses from max sustained efforts? also what is the "edge of the box"?

Sp here's what sucks about my TT result and kinda what i'm beating myself up about:

The course is 10 miles, 5 miles downhill out then 5 miles uphill back. For the uphill (let's just call it a positive grade, it's only 1% net grade). A couple weeks ago I rode that uphill portion of the course as part of a 60 mile ride. My avg speed was 22.6mph, avg heart rate was 149bpm, avg watts were 329W. I was riding solo tempo, certainly not pushing it, just keeping in a steady zone 3, not conscious of this part of the course.

So when I raced on Saturday, my effort over the same leg was 22.3mph, avg heart rate was 171bpm, avg watts were 313W.

Now I know that there could be differences in wind/conditions but let's be real, I should have at least GAINED a couple MPH by exerting myself from Z3 to Z5 right? Halp.

get on yr job imo

shasta thats weird about your z5 power drop. on the bright side 313 watts is great, and you'll go back to 330+ im sure.

so im quitting iltrmb until the earliest of: i attempt the imogene pass run in september, injury forces me back to the bike, or some remarkable bike-thing happens that i cant resist talking about.

take care and have fun!

im a runner now, you two wheeled fucking menaces :-p

:0

whattttttttttt???

when come back pls2bring disc wheels.

Another race again tonight. This time I was on a circuit I've never raced on before. It's used as a test track by Ford: I was kind of expecting it to be like a motor racing circuit with broad sweeping flat corners, but it wasn't really like that. The central section was basically a two-way road with just a white line separating the two directions, while at either end there were giant bends with very steep banking, more like a velodrome track. The banking switched over halfway through each bend, so it was impossible to avoid it: if you rode low on the first bit then you would forced high on the next bit.

There was a very strong wind from east-to-west, which meant the home straight leading up to the finish line was actually the slowest bit of the circuit. This made it very difficult for any breaks to go clear. At first I lurked near the back while I got used to the circuit and especially to riding on the steep banking (which I'd never done before). After about 15 minutes I decided to move up through the bunch to get a better position, but instead ended zooming off the front. A break formed around me and stayed clear for about a lap before getting reeled in - I couldn't have stayed in the break for much longer anyway, it was too hard work. About ten minutes later I did more or less the same thing, with more or less the same result.

After that I decided to conserve my energy so rode near the back of the bunch again and avoided any sapping digs. When the bell went for the final lap I was very near the back. I was planning to attack on the climb again, but this time I got boxed in. The last lap was fast and I was desperately trying to move up on the left hand side, but it was very difficult as the gaps just weren't there a lot of the time. There was a big bunch sprint for the line and I was somewhere in the middle (maybe 20th or 25th out of 40 or 50? no results yet) - next time I'll make sure I'm in a good position going into the final lap.

We did 24 miles at 23mph.

Photo

The thought of a bunch sprint in amateur racing - and being in the middle thereof - fills me with horror!

[LONG]
And now something from the "Bad Ideas in Amateur Cycling" file....

Fat Mantis "Steve Shasta" decides to enter a Hill Climb Time Trial.

The course is only 10km and ascends midway up Mt . Diablo (2nd tallest mountain in the Bay Area) approx 1,750 feet of climbing, most of which occurs in the last 5 miles of the race. I'd wager to say that 2/3rds of the vertical climbing occurs in the last 5k. So it's like a steadily increasing incline with quite a few switchbacks.

In retrospect, this was really silly for me to race this event. I had done this course twice previously on pretty low-effort rides... once in 38 minutes and once in 35 minutes. Last year a sub-33 time would get you in the top 10 for my category... ehhhh?

Race day: hot. Almost 90 degrees mid-morning in the shade. Gusts of dry wind that would prove beneficial as they provided mostly tail winds on long flatter stretches.

Had an average warmup but felt a little unsettled. My 30 second man was a guy who I know is pretty fast, and I was the 30s man for my most competitive teammate. Bah... Mouth was sticky, poured water over my head at the starting platform.

Take off hard, too hard. My max HR is 190... I'm at 184 on the flats. Pushing high 20mph over rollers. Get up the first 1k feet without incident. Laboring. I can see riders up ahead on the turns of the ridge. Next thing I know, my 30s man teammate has caught me. around the 5im mark He's in a compact with a 27 and is really spinning. I'm out of gears on some of the steep pitches but can maintain with short bursts.

After I'm passed, there are riders EVERYWHERE. Passing rider who are shattered, it's really hot due to the tailwind, dudes are riding like zombies, not holding their lines. My eyes are stinging. I dump more water over my head and a little in my dry, sticky mouth. HR is still in the high 180s. The course flattens out a little before the final 6 switchbacks and as much as I want to enjoy the less steep sections, I have to dig deep to push... try to keep my mph over 15 to carry my momentum into the bends.

The switchback curves are really steep with some relief on the straights, I'm gear shifting like crazy, pick off a few more guys who are taking bad lines up the mountain. On the last hairpin 2 riders ahead of me go wide to take advantage of the easier grade and to catch more of the tailwind. Sweet strategy guys but I just want to finish. I take the crazy steep inside route and pass them easily. I've got half-mile to go and I am really hurting. 27 minutes of near-max HR has made my legs unresponsive, I can't see cuz of the stinging sweat, my heart is in my head, throat sore from gasping. I know that this is a max effort for me, I don't think I've ever submitted my body to such a test before. I am in the saddle, driving from the hips, just trying to keep the pedals going as fast as possible. I hit the 200m to go sign and I stand up but it doesn't feel as powerful as back in the saddle and driving the pistons. I cross the line with absolutely nothing left.

So considering I gave probably my hardest concentrated effort ever, I'd see it in the results right? Wrong. My teammate who I'm pretty on par with on most rides beat me by 1:45. My time was 30:50, which is about 12mph/330Wavg for 30mins. 18th place in the lowest category! Ned Overend (remember him?) beat me by like 7 minutes. 2 guys beat the course record so it was definitely a fast day.

And so comes the day when the Fat Mantis decides never to do a HC TT ever again. Leave that to the spindly mantis folks and their 25 inch waists.

legendary hardman

Judging from this photo I managed to claim third spot in the women's race on Saturday:
http://londoncyclesport.com/Assets/LondonCycleSport+Digital+Assets/rapcon20103gall.jpg
Unfortunately I was actually in the men's race.

haha, great pic.

uh... so... more Race Report time. I'll try to keep it short... er, med length.

47 miles = 1.67 laps of a 27 mile loop. almost all false flats except for 2x400ft bumps that come in rapid succession and then a 1000ft hill climb averaging 8%... the second time around you finish at the summit of the climb.

Being short on climbing skills (=fat mantis), I tried to push the pace as much as possible before the hill but this was a huge mistake as the lead pack (50 of about 75 starters) just launched up the climb at a pace that was far beyond my fitness... so I stayed in my comfort zone (95% of max HR) for the 8:30 minutes (my PR by 90 secs up this hill btw). This left me with two options after reaching the summit: (a) head back to the parking lot and call it a day or (b) solo all the way back to the lead group. I chose (b) and via some sort of miracle, I caught the pack right around the start of lap 2 (solo'd 10 miles at around 24mph, mostly downhill grade but with headwind).

Once I caught back on, I was a little more humbled not to push the pace... until about 7 miles to go, realizing that there's no way I could outclimb these guys and we're just pootling along at 22mph just recovering for the final climb, Fat Mantis Steve Shasta decides to uncork another TT effort. I have my HRM broadcasting in large type on my computer and I keep my head down and figure I can push it to about 95% and still have something for the final climb so I just mash until I get up to 95% of max and then peak over my shoulder....

Instead of the 4 abreast and 12 deep pack going 22mph, there is now a single file line of 50 riders going 25mph. I have accomplished little in the grand scheme. So I sit back up and drift back to mid-pack and decide to recover with everyone else. Final climb, I decide to throw HR to the wind and ascend nimbly (not fast enough to blow up) and then to slowly pick off whoever I can. With about 500m to go, I have a guy on my wheel breathing harder than me (an impressive feat tbh) and then a guy with a kit I don't like who keeps getting out of the saddle and attacking, putting 3-5m on me and then when he sits down, I'm back on his wheel. I'm a sitter (unless it gets real steep), so I'm content to just spin and drive through the hips, keeping the cadence as high as possible yet still pushing enough watts to get me ~10mph up a climb of this difficulty.

Guy with ugly kit ends up attacking one last time about 100m to go but I realize it's too early. I go with him rather then let him take his 5m and as soon as he lets up a little I go past him and aim for the 2 guys about 15m ahead of us. I fall short of catching them, but I drop ugly kit and heavy breather at least.

Final result: 27th out of 75 starters, 63 finishers, 1:17 back from first place. Not great, but I have been training very hard with no taper and this course was definitely not suited best to my Fat Mantis ability. It was also a mixed field, combining my level with the one above so I'm curious to see how I fared out of just my category.

Lessons learned:
(a) stop registering for these damn hilly races. It's hard enough being a Fat Mantis; being Pack Fodder is just insult to injury.
(b) never give up. I had a dark moment where I considered calling it a day but I powered back to the leaders and ended up beating ~1/2 the guys who dropped me on the climb on the first go-around.
(c) when you see a Ritte Team Rider with their dope-ass sexy bikes and kits, make sure you beat them. That felt good. It is nice to have a cool-looking bike and kit, but it is also nice to have good training and fitness level to back it up iykwim.

Good work. The most important thing is beating the guy with the ugly kit.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4720096060_3c517101ca_b.jpg

I go past him and aim for the 2 guys about 15m ahead of us. I fall short of catching them, but I drop ugly kit and heavy breather at least.

ugly kit is obscured in this pic, heavy breather in the neon green kit fading in the background.

is that duck phillips in the lead?

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).

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. ;-)

california lol

usacycling.org /= california iirc

READ YOUR RULEBOOK

dude, colorado left usacycling years ago, its a socialist ponzi scheme

(i did look at aca's rulebook and policybook, they are silent on this issue afaict at a glance)

the only races that i know of that do not count toward upgrade points are TTs (non mass-start) and Hill Climbs that are less than [x] miles long (I think where x=10 miles for 4/5s and 15 miles for 1/2/3s).

age group sub-categorization like juniors, u23, elite, masters (35,45,55) is extremely common in all races i've been involved in.

Q: what is colorado's governing body of pro-am cycling? i meant to ask but forgotteth.

just amateur- american cycling association, formerly bicycle racing assoc of colorado (brac). brac was the regional arm of the feds, but the feds pulled some bs on the staff here and broke away. last i heard reunification was the plan.

(that is, brac broke with usacycling obv)

Final race of the season (apart from my club's hill climb championship in November) this morning, yet another 25-mile time trial. The prospects didn't look good: it was pouring with rain last night and supposed to continue with more of the same today, plus (same as last time) I had a mild cold. However, I decided to go ahead with it and was glad I did as the race took place in a rare window without rain. Lots of other people didn't fancy it, though: more than 20 out of 55 didn't even start.

There was a strong wind from the south and this course basically goes south-to-north for 12.3 miles, then north-to-south for 12.7 miles. I was flying on the outbound leg, averaging 26.6mph as I went through the first village after just under 3 miles. I was startled to be caught and passed by my minute man at this point: I've since calculated he was averaging 31.6mph at this point. He went on to win the event comfortably by about 3 minutes with a time of 54-something.

I got to the roundabout for the turn with an average speed of 26.2mph - far in excess of anything I could realistically expect to achieve (my PB for this distance is about 22.7mph). As I turned at the roundabout it was like hitting a brick wall. I couldn't believe how difficult it was. I couldn't get any kind of rhythm going and just struggled to keep going. At one point I had to abandon the tri-bars and go onto the hoods, get out of the saddle, and kick to go at just 14mph, and this was on the flat! I eventually ground my way in with a time of 1:07:42, meaning my average speed for the return leg was just 19.3mph (nearly 7mph slower than the outbound leg!).

I wasn't very happy with that as it was a good minute-and-a-half slower than the PB I set on the same course just a few weeks ago, but when I got back to the HQ I found out that everyone had suffered. I ended up coming 3rd in the handicap competition, so it turns out that getting that close to your PB was some kind of achievement after all.

Chapeau. Headwinds are a bitch - 19mph sounds amazing considering (in string headwinds I tend to have a 16 on my speedometer even if I'm really pushing it).

The final, final race of the season this morning: my club's hill climb championship. Last year I got 2nd place (out of 11) with 2.52, well behind the winner who got 2.31. This year I closed the gap a bit and got 2nd again (this time out of 15) with 2.41 - the same guy won it again with a time of about 2.26. I'm really happy with that performance - I think I got it just right and did as well as I possibly could. I went hard right from the start, putting it in the big ring for the flatter sections, and just let adrenalin carry me up the final gruesome section while I gasped like a dying man.

DNF
DNF
DNF
DNF
DNF

Launched 600W on a false flat for ~60seconds trying to maim this fucking whippet who kept attacking on the rollers and ended up kamikazing myself to the point where I seized up on lap 5 of 6.

Whippet's attacks on every ascent on lap 1 shredded our field of 20 down to 10. My stupid attack pared it down to 7... I was the last to abandon. 6 finished. Teammate got 4th. Whippet 5th.

I need to exercize a teensy bit more patience and strategery in the future imho.

what sort of wattage were you putting out to keep up w/ the whippet??

I was around 220W for the ride, but lots of 0s on the descents. My interval training has been pretty absent. Need to get on that.

Remarkably, the attack was captured on film:
http://www.argentumimago.com/Sport/2011/CCCX2011RoadCircuit01/15652630_oZHFn/#1173006609_tRNqk

It was pouring rain btw.

good pain cave face!

I'm racing in my first real-deal Crit tomorrow: http://socalreg.com/schedule.asp?race=Red+Trolley

I've participated in club races which usually draw about 80 guys from teams all around town and usually go at a pretty fast pace (last one averaged 26mph for an hour) but this is the first one with a number and cash prizes and points up for grab.

I'm in the 4/5 field. Have been feeling really good on the bike lately, and set a PR up one of my benchmark climbs (torrey pines) without really even noticing I was trying so I am kind of hyped. BUT, the weather has been so damn nice here lately (San Diego) that I'm sure everybody else has also been riding like mad and is feeling equally strong. Excited and nervous and fully prepared for humiliation. Can't wait.

Also I bought a skinsuit from a teammate lol.

Won a sprint prime, blew up, rolled in with the field. So much fun.