my weekly race log

I broke my previous PR of 195bpm with a 211bpm near-cardiac arrest effort to bridge up.

jaysus

Racing with the "pros" today, may the cycling gods have mercy on my legs. Zero expectations, I expect to be dropped at some point. Last time at this series 2 of the guys in the field attacked from the gun and shattered the field immediately. The winner (3 seasons as a European Continental pro, now on Verizon Wireless domestic squadra(?) is trying to get back over to Europe by winning all 5 races he's entered this season in California. He looks 15 but is barely U23 and can climb, sprint, solo, you name it:

http://www.velobios.com/riders.mountainkhaki2009.loader.htm

I'm waking up at 4:30 tomorrow to drive 1.5 hours to race a 25 minute crit in Brea, CA (I.e. featureless Orange county). I need to get out of the 5's

fortunately, crits do not require features, just corners, right? that's the shortest crit i've heard of. lay waste to opposition.

(this makes me remember my first race as a 5 in a rain/sleet mix in fruita, co- a 4+ hour drive each way, we stayed at a buddy's place in aspen the night before. on the positive, it was a 40 mi circuit race instead of a 25 min crit).

Took 4th in my race, the Cat5 30+ (they split cat 5s into two races, by age groups). I feel like I got the result as much from using my elbows (metaphorically, I didn't hit anybody...) as my legs. I guess that's crit racing though? Probably could have taken 2nd or 3rd if I timed the last part better, but the first place guy was a cut above. Still, super stoked.

What is Cat 5 - which country is this?

cat(egory) 5 --- entry level

in the US it goes up (well, down) to cat 1 and after that you're a PRO

just a way of stratifying ability

hence the "cat 6" thread --- cat6 = someone who doesn't race

shasta have you finished your post race glycogen recovery/massage/contrast bath? whahappen?

I SUCK SO HARD AND I HATE MY FUKKIN WEAK ASS FITNESS...

See you next Saturday.

are shasta and hunt3r having a showdown??

geography sez no, but lols shasta would shatter me into 100000000 pieces with such a quickness.

i was gonna make a lol old joek about you two and then i realized that you're both...masters

I have yet to race a Masters race this year fwiw.

The you in my previous post was directed at the corpse of my fitness past.

Huntr3, I wouldn't be so sure about that. You have a deep-conditioned base that I could only dream about at this point in my life.

took that base, beer batter dipped it, deep fried it, sprinkled with sugar, and nomnomnom

^worldwide mantis fave recipe afaik

i rode around casually w/shasta last friday. he wanted to pootle the day before his race to just get some lactic acid in his legs but also wanted to push himself and go at full speed a few times. i wanted to see if i could keep up. i was totally w/him for a while, and then i'd get tired, or my knee would start to hurt and he'd just ZOOOOM off into the sunset. it was pretty impressive.

7am crit (cat5 #@!&) in the rain out in El Centro, CA this morning. its actually a really cool course but I think I'll just roll easy and take upgrade point.

6th place, weaksauce finishing "sprint". Racing in the rain was really fun, though.

My next to last road race was a disaster, what more to say other than crashed, chain dropped 7x (drivetrain was shredded, just ask jaxon who witnessed it skipping and jumping under heavy load the day before), yet somehow salvaged a top 20 (out of 45+ racers) and successfully blocked for teammate who got 2nd. Not awful, but had to spend time, energy, money fixing a drivetrain that was shredded due to neglect more than anything else. Let this be a lesson for us all to learn. Clean your cassette and chain regularly! Replace cassette and chain after (x) miles, where x = ~7.5k/3k miles respectively, ymmv.

Today... I did my first tarck races with teh crabon tarck bikes on the velourdome.
Three Keirins:
#1) DQ = dangerous underneath pass with 300m to go.. dude could not hold his line in the sprinter's lane though. But bad move, I admit fault. NBD.
#2) 2nd place, tried to break solo with 500m upon the moto's exit, was spinning ~140rpm in my (rental's) 48x16, felt like a kid's bike bouncing along on the saddle, got pipped at line.
#3) Borrowed ~pro~ bike with 10 more gear inches than 48x16 rental, stayed patient til 200m then launched 2/3 lap long sprint. Official told me I "sure walked away with that one!" Not sure what that means exactly, but I'll take it.

Overall, feeling good on the tarck. It's been a long-ass time since I've rode teh fixie stylee and track handling is pretty intense at times. Lots of bumping/contact, violent accelerations, dedicated focus to stay 3cm behind the wheel in front of you. Felt smooth and confident in the races. I could see myself entering an omnium at some point this season.

TARCK RACRE!

niiiice. (dont get hurt)

sorta convinced that 10/11 spd is scheme to ensure that you MUST replace drivetrain often.

...and then you learn that dura-ace cassettes run about $250... thank god shimano is downmarket compatible.

what is the stereotype of the "track racer"? tbqh i see a lot of fat mantises in the masters ranks. does a gut act as a type of fairing?

So my purpose is clear working this weekend's stage race. Instructed to put minimal effort into TT, focus on chasing down breaks on marked riders in tomorrow's grand prix criterium, if it's a pack finish I am responsible for getting into the leadout train, preferably third (from the end). Same expectations Sunday which is the road race which will be interesting, flat but technical, supposed to be very fast. Team riding! yet I'm slow as fokk right now! Getting stronger but ehhh... Would like to see some results at any rate.

stage races in march. california, what a country!

San Dimas and Redlands coming up yo!

Yep. I'll at least be at one of the Redlands days for sure. Also wondering if I should sign up to volunteer at the Baldy stage of Tour of CA, or if I should just pick a good spot and watch the race.

San Dimas High School football rules!

Taking my brand new track bike (Masi Coltello) up to the ADT Velodrome in Carson CA for our club's workout / orientation day. This is where the track events at the 1984 Los Angeles olympics were held, and is a 45 degree banking, indoor, wooden track. I'm very excited! After that I'll be certified to sign up for race days there. Supposedly the distance from the top of the high banking down to the floor is 2 stories. Crazy.

Saturday, got crashed out in lap 34 of a 40 lap criterium with a sketchy profile (you can only guess where I got smashed up):
http://www.topsportcycling.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/downtown-grand-prix-course-map-v3.png

Feel okay with it, the pace was pretty sickening and I wasn't doing much for the team other than "patrolling" the mid to back of the strung out field. Got reinserted in the back of the field once the fireworks started going off and just called it a day. Hey why not another DNF?

Today, in much contrast to yesterday's sun and heat, was a chilly rain. 72 miles through rolling country manure soaked roads. Mmm dairy farms. We had a plan except our sprinter couldn't make it down for the race leaving us three non-sprinters to contend with a 80+ field of high octane muscleheads. Three of the steeper rollers came about 5miles in from the finish so my plan was to lead our strongest rider as close to the finish as I could from as far out as possible. I went through a bit of a suffer around mile 60 so it was odd a few miles later to get some life back into the legs and lungs. I took the front on the rollers (three sets of 40 second "stairs" if you will) and then hammered the descent with my dude on my wheel. I went straight into TT position telling him to tell me to ease up if it got too intense. I kept it around 27-28mph until 2km to go and then I took it to 28mph-29mph up the last false flat to the finish. I blew up with 300m to go and my teammate peeled around me and hung on for dear life as the sprinters came through. He took 8th (I went from first wheel to 41st wheel in a matter of 300m! lol) and we were modestly pleased considering we had very little options. It was my first time leading anyone out other than myself and I was stoked! Team racing is pretty dope imo.

Have my first multi-day event, the Tour of Murrietta omnium, coming up this weekend. It starts off with a 6.5km TT on friday, 2.5k of which is a 2% climb on an unpaved road. I'm actually happy about that, as it makes me not feel as bad for not having a TT bike. Saturday is a standard downtown crit and Sunday is a circuit race. I can't wait to see where I measure up.

video recon of the TT Course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B4VyJBGGTw

I'm in! Just received the start list and I'll be doing my first 'proper' road race (i.e. on the open road, not a closed circuit) in just over a fortnight's time. Just under 50 miles, nearly twice as far as any race I've done before. The (ten-mile) circuit passes within about 100 yards of the house where I grew up. I'm equally massively excited and terrified.

TT complete. I passed 2 people (riders were sent off at 30 second gaps ), almost washed my front wheel out around some of the dirt turns. The finish line was about 500M earlier than I expected so I finished with more in the tank than I'd have liked. I had to leave before results were posted but a teammate stuck around and said we all got in the top ten, so I hope I'm up there. One of our cat5's posted the top time, and its even faster than any of the 4s or 3s. Dude has won 3 races this year already, though.

Stage 2 of the Omnium, a 30 min crit, complete. Course was 6 corners (turn 4 a right, the rest lefts) around a downtown-ish course. Slight downhill on the back section (with all the turns) and uphill on the long finishing straight. Our goal was to keep our guy who got first in the TT out of trouble and deliver him to the end. The field was VERY nervous and very slow. I got frustrated with all the bad cornering and bunching up and moved to the front to pick up the pace through laps 7-10. Some people were shed off but everybody else was smarter than me and as soon a I pulled off the pace went right back down to turtle-like. On the final lap the pace picked up a tiny bit but the cornering got even more scary, I haired out and let myself get boxed out through all the turns on the back side and came around the final corner in something like 30th place. Passed enough people on the finishing straight to get back up to 15th or something. In the points for the omnium but who cares. Our #1 TT guy easily won the crit and has a wide lead over the rest of the field going into tomorrow's 35 mile circuit race. I'm pretty dissapointed with how I handled the race, as I easily had the fitness to be at the top of the field, and I'm big enough that I should have done more bossing-around rather than being bossed around, but somehow I got the fear in me and couldn't get over it. The other crits I've done have been nearly as sketchy and I felt a lot more comfortable/reckless in them and finished much better.

Well here's looking forward to tomorrow's RR. Racing.

How do I do crit racing?

Pittsburgh Downtown crit is coming up and I figured I would be worth a shot at not coming dead last. 30mins on a 0.8mile rectangle downtown. Not deal flat as it runs over two bridges, but close enough.

Any tips?

Ed - what are you like at cornering at high speed in a bunch? That's probably the single biggest thing to get the hang of. You can be as fit as fuck, but if you haven't got the technique it won't count for anything in a crit (assuming this really is a rectangular course).

My first race of the season this morning. A 25-mile time trial on a course I've ridden several times before. My PB for the course is 1:06:19, set last September, and my time in the same event this time last year was 1:09:32. I was supposed to be doing it as a two-up. My partner was the same guy I was supposed to do a two-up with back in June (but he dropped out at the last minute because his wife was ill) - he showed up today because he was determined not to let me down again, but admitted he'd had a chest infection for a month. While we were warming up it was clear he was still really ill - he had to stop at the side of the road and hack his guts up - so I told him there was no point him starting and he should go home to bed. So I did it solo. As always, there was a wind from the north, which meant I was assisted up to the turn and hampered on the way back.
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/leavalley25_13march11.jpg
You can see this clearly in the graph - never below 22mph on the outbound section, and almost never above it on the return, while my average speed slid steadily down from 27mph to 22mph. I finished with 1:07:42, which I'm happy enough with - I'm ahead of where I was this time last season, and I rode within myself today.

The young Sky pro rider Alex Dowsett was last man off in this event - apparently he said when he's not being used for real races, he'd rather do some local time trial than just go training as he gets a harder work out. I spoke to the guy who came 2nd today - he did 56.44, which is a very respectable time on such a slow course. Dowsett just ripped everything apart and set a staggering time of 49.40, smashing the course record to pieces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4vHiIAHTdg

Sunday was day 3 of the Tour of Murrieta Omnium. Cat 5 Circuit Race over a 3.5 mile long loop on flat to rolling terrain through a bunch of pastures and paddocks. Roughly rectangular, with 6 total corners, 2 rights on the long side of the course and then a right-right-left-right complex coming into the finish line. My team had people placed #'s 1 and 3 in overall points, and a guy in fifth, but in striking range of the podium. After my decent placing in day 1's time trial, I had a bad day on day 2's crit, finished outside of the points, and figured I'd be out of things, so I'd just do work for the team. Our #1 guy is strong enough to be a 2 already (his TT time would have put him 2nd place in that category) so the idea of having to 'do work' for him is kind of silly, but still, cat 5 races are for learning so there we go. From the start I was feeling well and sat on the front with another teammate who has been racing longer than I (but is lagging about getting his upgrade) and who gave me real good on-the-bike advice and calmed me down. We stayed within the top five of the field for the first couple of laps. Around lap two the kid who was sitting second on GC attempted to go up the road with two other guys, but my companion at the front jumped on their wheels while I pulled the rest of the group and picked up the pace a little bit. When the front group noticed my teammate was sitting in with them they were a little dispirited and I slowly brought the group back up to them within a half a lap. I got a head nod from my teammate in the break once they came back and a nice back-pat from our GC guy. About a lap later a different group of 4 tried the same thing and this time it was my turn to chase. I put my head down, made it up alongside at them and just looked over and they all kind of sighed and gave it up. Felt like a dick and super PRO at the same time. At that point I drifted back in the pack a few places to rest up and check things out. A few guys had fallen off the back but we were still mostly together. By lap 9 I was back up at the front with one teammate on my wheel and then the 3 guys we were trying to bring up in GC close behind. Before the final turn complex an attack went off and I jumped on. Finally we were fast enough and strung out enough to make it through all the finishing corner complex quickly, without touching brakes or any dumb cat 5 stuff like that. Two turns before the end our #1 GC guy came around our train and basically soloed away the last 500M to a huge victory. Nobody could hang with him but the fight was still on for 2nd. I was about 5th by this time and still hanging on when our GC guy who was in 3rd in overall points jumped right before the final corner and outkicked the #2 GC guy to take 2nd place on the stage and 2nd overall. Our 5th place guy finished somewhere behind me, I stayed strong enough to pass a couple of people who had also jumped around us but faded and came in 9th, which put me up to 6th overall in Ominum points. Our team finished the Omnium taking 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th (me) and 10th and 11th out of 50 entrants. We won a cool team classification trophy, as did our 4's team (in a much closer battle with a pretty well-stocked rival team), our 3's team and our 2's team. This is for a club (San Diego Bicycle Club) that only 2 years ago had hardly any people on the development team and was considered kind of a 'old guy century riders' club. I think our women finished really well this weekend too.

Racing like that as a team was really fun, and to be able to be that organized within the race was amazing. I was really pretty dissapointed with how I had raced on Saturday, but that one day on Sunday turned it all around.

strava data of the race:

http://app.strava.com/rides/345526#

Nice work. Cat 5 racing is really amazing because you have such a disparate level of talent in the field. You'll have like elite level MTB or Tri or Runners against people who have just started physical fitness riding. Some of my hardest races were cat 5 races because you're racing against guys who will soon end up in as 1/2s but are just trying to get their 10 races in. I found the 4 races to be a much easier and consistent category.

Did another 25-mile time trial this morning. Exactly the same course as last week, and very similar conditions (i.e. tailwind on the way out, headwind on the way back - last week I got to the turn at 24mph, this week at 24.2mph). Somehow I ended up going nearly a minute slower. Not happy abou that, especially as I've got my biggest ever race next weekend. Also, possibly foolishly, I wore shorts today for the first time this year (despite the temperature not being remotely condusive to it) and tried out some warm-up oil - now, many hours and a shower later, my legs are incredibly itchy.

was in perfect position for sprint finish in crit today, some dude wiped out my rear wheel and i hit the deck hard. 4 cracked ribs and fractured right clavicle. dammit :(

oh that sucks.

sorry to hear that SLP, speedy recovery wishes.

ouch ouch ouch

You poor bugger. Take care and recover quickly.

get well soon

Hope you recover well, SLP. Did it happen at Ontario?

Naus are you in LA proper? Thinking about racing memorial day weekend.

I'm in the IE, closer to Riverside than anything else.