2012 cycling race report thread (Page 2)

cthoops - 2012-03-13 9:00 PM Sorry, I was actually being sarcastic with my comment about the pack going by. I didn't mean to make it sound like I really thought they didn't care. I was trying (and obviously failing) to convey that the pack didn't let it affect their race while I proceeded to make a total rookie mistake by slowing down. Again, sorry for the poor choice of words. And thanks for the explanation of why it's better to just keep going, eyes forward, when someone goes down. It makes perfect sense. I obviously have a ton to learn.

Very true, it's always the first reaction to turn around when you hear a crash behind you but that's always a good way to cause another one, just stay focused and you can always scream at the officials, marshals as you go by that there is a rider down if they don't already know it.

It's great to see people racing! I love reading the reports, whether the results are great or not so great I'm sorry to hear about the tragedy at Bethel over the weekend though.

I did my first race as a 4 this weekend. It was the 3/4 at the Old Pueblo Grand Prix Crit in Tucson, a .6 mile flat course with 4 turns. High winds (20-25+ MPH) and a bumpy first turn onto a narrower street didn't help. I started out fast with the lead group. Anyone who messed around trying to clip in was immediately dropped. By the 2nd lap we had a gap and by the 4th lap around 1/2 the field had already been pulled from the race. The leaders were hammering and I couldn't get any rest or find a spot to hide. I could only hang on until around the 6th lap. I went OTB and joined up with another group of guys for a couple of laps until we were pulled. Fewer than 15 people actually finished the race, w/ a guy soloing off the front for the last half. I was given credit for 22nd/56.

My RR on Sunday was cancelled due to the weather that was messing up the region. Probably a good thing, as it was nasty out.

Congrats on the 4 upgrade!!!

I had started a race report, but bailed on it, i really was not in the mood to write.

basically another fast race and field sprint, i attacked with two to go, then did a lead out for my sprinter that finished 2nd.  I am now a domestique for him, which i am fine with, he helped me in the past.  We averaged 25mph for the race.  My team also took first and second in the p123 race.  the 3/4 race was neutralized and results will not be given, which is the correct call, considering the tragedy.

I am finding it really hard to want to go race this weekend, especially since i am racing the 4 and 3-4, Markus was a good friend and great competitor, he will be missed in the peloton fer sure.

Rudy, I picked up bits and pieces on what happened from your FB page, really sorry to hear about that happening.

Sooooo, another week, another field finish, another leadout, lol.

My season has not had me see results that i want, so with our actual sprinter on the top of his game this spring, i have decided to work for him and see if we can't get him to podium the overall, if not win it. The 4 field was small, only 41 riders, i knew that a break would work, jst a matter of when it would work, race started off fast, with the series leader taking off from the gun, yellow jersey and all....i was like...Huh???  Ok, so we go a few laps, attacks atart immediately, i saw on go that i liked and jumped hard and bridged, we went a lap or 3 and were reeled back in, another attack or two, then a bell rings, so i wanted the prime, line it up, get to the front, jump at 400 meters, gapped the field, and a buddy picks me at the line by half wheel, arrrgghhh, lol.  It was good fun busting his balls later, turns out that the official did not ring "the" bell, someone in the infield had one, we raced for nothing, lol. The USAC official was like "i was wondering why you guys were charging up the hill like it was the last lap".  Good laughs, at about lap or so a big break formed, and it had my other 2 teammates in it, so i could not bridge, so i sat in and made sure it would stay away, after 5-6 laps, the break just exploded up the road, no idea why, it never shoulda happened, it shoulda stayed away forever, 2 guys went off the front of it, the rest strung out and we picked them up, both of my guys were part of the attrition, so i grabbed both and made sure they did not get gapped or dropped, which also prohibited me from trying to reach the break, where i wanted to be. The race goes on, the two are not getting caught, 2 laps to go and my lead out man gets in front of me and we are side by side with the race leaders team, he starts pulling too hard and i tell him, ease up, do not lead, say next to them, all of a sudden, my buddy who clipped me at the line goes whizzing by and pulls right in front of my buddy, get on!!!!!  So he leads us to the base of the hill, my buddy pulls me over the hill, they both peel off, my sprinter is on my back wheel and it is time for me to earn my keep, i take off with sprinter in tow for 2/3 of the lap as hard as i can go, we are at about 28mph single file for about 10-12 deep all lined up, as we get to the bottom of the hill, i peel left and get out of the way, my sprinter hesitates, then goes, he gets 2nd in the field sprint, 4th overall, the series leader clipped him at the line, and the 2 man break stayed away. What did happen though is we erased a 20 second gap in the last lap,the winner finished 3 secs ahead or so, and 2nd place just nipped the sprinters. Even though i am not getting the results i want, i am getting some decent work towards my 2 half irons in June, so not all is lost.

Anyone else racing???

No racing for me last 2 weekends, Spring break vacation and easter, back at it this weekend.

I can pretty much write my RR now.

First try at 35+ (thought it was 3/4 35+, but it's 1/2/3/4 35+)

Pace was super high.  Got popped on the last lap, etc, etc....

Alright, so what a windy and cool night.

First and foremost I was late for the first race.  Had to get so many things on and just didn't get an early start to get over there (7 mile ride to get there), but at least it got me warmed up for the race.

Race #1 - 15 laps A's and B's separated.  Since I was late, I hoped onto the back with about 11-12 laps to go so only missed a few laps.  Jumped on and found my friend Jay (6'8" and great to draft off of).  Sat at the back to get a feel for racing again and just get my HR up and legs stretched out.  Wind was out of the NNW so each time we hit it, I just tucked in behind either Jay or this other big guy and took advantage of it.  And it worked.  I felt great.  We weren't flyng by any stretch of the imagination, but we were at least going.  One guy kept trying to go off the front, and occassionally someone would follow, but the train kept on at a steady pace and we always drew them back in.  Last lap, I was sitting in 4th coming into the final turn but missed my opportunity.  Wound up getting 7th but maxed my MPH at 29.5.  Didn't really max out on that one as much as I probably could have.  Felt good to stick with the pack the entire time though. 

Race #2 - Pursuit A's to catch the B's over 15 laps.  The B's basically had almost an entire lap head start and it was the A's job to catch us.  So of course, working as a team was the best bet.  That didn't happen.  Lots of new guys and one kept pulling WAY too hard for the rest of us.  We just couldn't get a good pace line going.  So with about 7 laps to go, we completely blew up.  I got spat out the back and was caught in the next lap.  In hindsight, should have tried to hop onto the back of the A's as they flew by but I was breathing hard.  Anyway, just kind of time trialed it alone until the last 1.5 laps when I hopped onto the wheel of two guys that I think might have actually lapped me from the B's, (the A's lapped me again not but 3 laps after they lapped me the first time).  Figured I might as well at least try to finish strong and sprint it out for pride.  The guy on the front pulled to the left and I stayed with the second guy as we hit the second to last straight away with a nice tail wind.  I matched his gear changes and sucked his tail all the way into the last turn.  He geared down one more time and was out of the saddle.  He started to pull away when I geared down 2x and really started to mash.  Took me all of about 3-4 turns of the crank to catch him and start to pull away.  Head was down and really giving it everything I had.  Fortunately, I happened to catch something out of the corner of my eye and it was two others coasting in.  I had to pull up quickly and out of the way which threw me off.  BUT I still beat him and felt I could have easily thrown down a few more MPH.  As it was I only hit 28.5.  Crossed the line and the guy hollered "Nice pull".  That felt good.

So first Tuesday night in the books.  May or may not be out next week since I've got a tri on the 22nd and don't want to tempt fate the week of a race.  I REALLY need to get a power meter.  Would LOVE to have known the power output, not only throughout the race but the difference between the two sprints.

Rode home the 7 miles to cool down and the lovely wife had a glass of wine waiting when I got home.

Life is good.

LOL!

There was actually a pretty good size group out there.  I think bout 30 overall and fairly evenly split between the A's and B's. 

Let me know when you are going to come down and I'll make certain I make it. 

Carl Dolan Circuit race 35+ Open

When I registered I thought it was a 3/4 35+ didn't realize it was open, so when I found that out I figured I was in for some serious pain.

Surprisingly it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought.  This was my first masters race, upgraded to a 4 at the end of last year and the first 2 races this year have been 4/5 races. 

This was a pretty straightforward race, slight downhill or flat for a good portion of the race, one 90 degree right hand turn then 1k to the finish with a big ring climb until about 300M, a lot of guys last year blew themselves up sprinting from the corner so the trick if you're fast is to be near the front, grab a fast wheel and then come around when that guy burns himself out.

My goal for today was pure survival since I had no idea what to expect.  There were 80+ guys registered and it looked like most of them were there.  I mainly just tried to stay in the middle of the pack and hang with the surges.  There was some wind out today, didn't feel a breath of it in the group but when you got on either side of the group it was noticeable.

Nothing really to report on until the last lap, I figured the pace was going to pick up and at one point it actually slowed down, this was maybe 400M before the turn, I found myself going forward while everyone slowed, well my brain didn't kick in so my legs did, burned up some precious energy in the wind which I should have saved for for sprint after the last turn.  Made it through the last turn fine then the hammer was dropped and I didn't have anything left so flew out the back quickly and limped home for a few seconds off the back of the main pack.

Had I just stayed in with the group I would have had a mid pack finish probably, but each race is a good lesson, I'm only in my second full season of bike racing so there is a lot to learn. 

I did like the fact that there were almost no brake check's like you get in the 5 and 4/5 races in this race, we were able to rail the 90 degree corner at full speed.  For a 53 minute race we avg'd just shy of 26 mph.  LOL, my AHR was Z5, 42 minutes in my max HR zone.

So race number two of the season was in Poolesville, MD for the All American Road Race.  I was racing the Cat 5 race so early early in the AM I had to be out there.  Left the house around 6ish and arrived around 7am for an 8 pm start.  

This obviously allowed plenty of time for the pot-o-john stops and also a little warm up on the course.  

Ended up meeting up with a bunch of the other guys on the team to do a quick out and back warm up lap.  Lined up around 7:50 and got ready to go.  We had about 8 guys lined up in a group of 50 total. I lined up near the front and shot off at the gun.

The course is an 8 mile loop of two laps with rolling hills.  

Near the beginning of the race about 2-3 miles into it a Coppi guy went off and attacked.  We left him in our sights and let him kill himself out there.  About 6 miles into the race we got into a good rotation with the team members moving up to the front working together very well.  At this point people got VERY antsy and started attacking over the "yellow" line.  The refs made them move back very quickly and 

Coming around to the finish we got a feeling of how far the finish line was from the last turn.  About 400 yards from the last turn and a short little up hill was the finishing line on a nice flat surface.

Lap two happens and we hit the last straight away until the final turn.  I see an opening on the far right side and some fresh pavement.  I go for it and come up to the front and attack a bit.  My heart rate rises really quick and I keep going, thinking someone else would come with me and help.  I couldn't keep the pace and fell back.  But sorta just got lost off the back of the group.  I couldn't recover fast enough to get back with the group and just tried to keep the pace.  

I ended up hitting the last turn and passed one guy who had mechanical issues on the last turn.  Came in 31 out of 50. Gassed and feeling like a I gave it my all I was very happy.  Mad at myself for attacking a bit too early from the last turn.  

Final results haven't been posted yet so I haven't seen how the rest of the team did but excited to see how everything rounds out.  

Next races is in a few weeks and should have different results.  Make sure I just sit in and attack later.  Work in training to get my LTH HR higher and be able to maintain a higher pace for longer.

Thanks for reading. 

Nice race, CJ. Another notch in the belt, another finish rubber-side-down. There's a cat 5 victory. 

Nice work.

Nice racing CJ. Live and learn! Cat 5 is a great time to experiment too.

I raced the AZ State RR championship this weekend as a cat 4. It's 64 miles with big rollers, 4K feet of climbing and a final 7 mile category 2 climb to the finish. I had 3 teammates in the group, with the plan to get one of them on the podium. One teammate dropped his chain early in the race on a roller and couldn't catch back on. The rest of us stuck together until the final climb. I was dropped part-way through the climb, didn't have the legs. Very frustrating, as I felt so much stronger a couple of weeks ago. That's racing though. Finished 29/54. My teammates finished 5th and 6th, so that was good.

Isn't it a bit early to already be having the State RR championships?

Ugh, 7 mile climb, that sounds fun.  Legs do seem to turn on you at the worst moment. 

Tuesday night race

By far the best night of racing for me yet.

Race #1

Got there a bit late again (durn clip on bars, forgot to take them off so had to strip them quickly at home and take off).  Hopped onto the first race (15 laps) with about 10-11 laps to go so didn't miss too much.  From what I heard, when I dropped in, was that they set out at a blistering pace right from the get go which dropped a few off the back (running2far was one of them).  Anyway, tucked in and just decided to sit within the pack the entire first race just to get my legs going and really warm up (as if the 7 mile ride over wasn't a warm up enough).  Was sitting in about 4-5th place going into the last turn when a few guys came flying by on both sides.  Hopped out of the saddle, geared down a few and started to really crank it.  Passed a few going accross the line but wound up around 8-9th still.  On the cool down, one of the guys commented "I heard you huffing and puffing behind me and next thing I know you are 10-20 feet beyond me in just 2 or 3 pedal strokes.  NICE FINISH!"  This is from one of the older (not necessarily in age but in time in the team) members.  Nice ego boost.

Race #2

The next race was 25 laps with an intermediate sprint somewhere in the middle.  Fortunately, we took off quite a bit slower on this one that the first.  Which was good for me.  I need to get my legs going and it is harder for me when we jump right into the screaming pace.  But in reality, that only lasted about 1-2 laps and then the pace really picked up.  So much so, we actually caught the A's about 7-8 laps in.  They called for us to slow a bit and let the A's do their intermediate sprint which broke us up a bit and we knew that within a few laps we would be sprinting too.  I kept tucked into the front 1/2 to 1/3 of the pack and even pulled for a half lap or so a couple of times, but just didn't stay out there long.  Really tried to work on strategy.  And then it happened.  We crossed the line and the bell went off and I was in 2nd.  Made the turn, and next thing I know, I'm at the front of the pack.  What the hell, I think, I can feel Tommy (one of our newer guys and works at the LBS.  This was also only his 3rd race) on my wheel.  We are a similar build but he is just a bit slimmer.  I think, hell, maybe I can pull him and see if I can sling shot him into the sprint.  So I REALLY lay the hammer down.  We are hitting about 26-27 even before the sprint starts.  I cut in sharp on the last corner and get quickly passed on both sides.  Tommy goes for it to and I figure I might as well make a go of it.  Once again, gear down, out of the saddle and get the pistons pumping.  Tommy doesn't have it and I wind up flying by him to pull 6th or 7th but never really got up to max speed. 

The pack had splintered a bit because of the sprint but got back together fairly quickly within the next 1/2 lap.  Only about 10 laps to go and the pace calms down a bit into the 22-23 mph range (I can't believe I'm saying that is calm).  But there I am again, in the pack.  Everyone once in a while, I'm at the back for a lap or so but once my legs get back under me, I start taking corners tighter and move up.  One guy (in green) who is quite strong keeps jumping off the front and others go with, but never more than 4-5 and we always, as a pack, bring them back in.  One time, he and another take off, so two of us go with.  But nobody in that little pack wants to pull (neither do I) and they always get swallowed back up.  This time, I don't want to be in the front going into the last turn.  I want to see what kind of pull I have.  Daryl and the green guy are off the front with 2 to go, but start to get pulled back in.  I'm in 4th when we finally hit the last turn.  This time, I wait a bit too long before I gear it down and start hauling.  Still, I popped it out at about 32mph (could have been faster) and caught and passed the 3rd place guy with 20-30 meters to go so had a good bike length on him.  I couldn't believe it.  Long race of the night and I'm up there.  If it were a real race, I would have been on the podium.

Now I know that this is a training night.  But it is also a great indication of the shape I'm in as well as how I'm starting to really understand the strategy behind crits.  I felt great.   I feel great today.  Not sore.  Not wiped out.  I am arguably in the best shape of my life. 

As an aside, I took off early and missed some nastiness.  Sounds as if there was a pretty bad wreck in the final turn of the sprint.  Guy's front tire blew and he went down and took another with him.  Daryl (guy that went down) broke his ankle in two places and is going through surgery today and the other guy that went with him broke his clavicle and has surgery later in the week.  It is a shame the night ended like that but it is racing after all.

Good to meet you again running2far.  Hope to see you at at more of them.  They start to get longer and more interesting as the days get longer and we have longer to race.  They mix it up.  Have pursuits, REALLY long races (50 minutes plus 5 laps), etc.  Bring your friends, if they can make it.  The more the merrier.

2012 is going to be a good year.

PS. I almost forgot, I'm now a Cat 4.  Got my upgrade with last nights race so will get to contribute to the IL Cup race on Sunday. 

Congrats!