my weekly race log

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.