I won a thing! E4 Davis 4th of July Crit
Attacked just after ~1.5 to go and held it to the line while everyone looked at each other.
so rad! such an awesome effort.
That’s awesome! Congrats!
Very excellent! Seems like this was a long time coming, fun that you got it there! That course is curvy enough it can be hard to get a concerted chase nailed down, plus usually a crash fest (and/or exploding tube fest when it gets above 100).
Currently waffling on when/where I want to jump back into Nor Cal racing. I currently have no top end nor 3+ hr rr fitness so hesitant to sign up for a big rr or fast crit. Might try my hand at a 2/3 red kite or wait until Annadel XC as I apparently can still outclimb most people on a mtb.
Hoping I’ll have some semblance of form come fall so I can shake it up during cross season and maybe do a few collegiate XC races.
Thanks guys! S ostoked.
[quote=Roundabout]Very excellent! Seems like this was a long time coming, fun that you got it there! That course is curvy enough it can be hard to get a concerted chase nailed down, plus usually a crash fest (and/or exploding tube fest when it gets above 100).
Currently waffling on when/where I want to jump back into Nor Cal racing. I currently have no top end nor 3+ hr rr fitness so hesitant to sign up for a big rr or fast crit. Might try my hand at a 2/3 red kite or wait until Annadel XC as I apparently can still outclimb most people on a mtb.
Hoping I’ll have some semblance of form come fall so I can shake it up during cross season and maybe do a few collegiate XC races.[/quote]
I loved the course! First time racing it but hopefully not the lsat. The 2nd corner especially, the inside line is really nicely cambered for taking it fast, I got a gap there a few lap just by taking a few pedal strokes through it. I did almost eat it through corner 1 on one of the laps, my chain dropped from big to small ring on a bump while I was pedaling and threw off my balance mid corner, rear wheel hopped 1-2 feet, scared the crap outa me.
I’m skipping the red kite this weekend, but I’ll be up at Colavita GP after that! Also there’s ‘The Bump’ circuit race coming up. It uses part of the Wente course and finishes on a short, steep kicker that follows some gradually rising rollers, if that’s your sorta thing.
HY! thanks for sharing the video
should I buy these for crits?
$273 for the set, 82mm/101mm
$273 is like “what’s wrong with them?” pricing… All I can tell from the specs page I found was they’re pretty heavy for tubulars, 1900g? Also 10spd shimano, unless you plan to use a campy cassette for 11 speed. Still, cheaper than even a good deal on older used zipp 808s… Might be worth a shot, Craigslist or eBay if they’re crap? Wonder if they’re really flexy or something
hell no. not when you can get alloy wheels that weight a pound less.
incidentally, i have reclaimed the leader’s jersey at the tuesday races.
1 Like
I have 900 gram madfibers… they’re only aero if you have a 45 mile per hour cross wind.
Just got a set of HED 9’s off ebay.
I’m super stoked for a big crit in 10 days, I’ve never put the pressure of targeting a race on myself before. I’ve been 100% on training, nutrition, sleep, and dialing in my gear. Have a coach, watching every youtube video I can… racing practice crits a few times a week. These wheels are the little cherry on top hopefully.
Threshold is at ~290w, sprint is like 2000w max, 1000w 10 sec.
Hopefully it’s good enough for the damn cat 4 and I’ll get my upgrade soon.
there’s 1000w between your 1s and 10s power?
whoa.
there’s like a 100w difference between mine… (like 1000w max vs almost 900w 10s power).
Is that repeatable? Might just be a PM spike. Mine has read 2000+ on bumpy roads before, but my real peak is somewhere in the high 1200s, and is only slightly higher than my best 5s which is slightly higher than 15s etc
I’ve only trained sprints once this year 
Need to do more work on them, maybe that will bring the 10-15s up a bit in relation?
I can hit 1800w all the time, I’ve only seen 2k twice this year. It could be a spike, but the power curve on the 2k sprints look real.
That’s massive. I guess I have more of a long sprint then, my best 15s this year is 1041w. Though, I haven’t really gotten close to that in any races. Hit 1233w for 4 seconds going for a prime on Monday though 
Anyway, I’m definitely discovering that I still need to get better at knowing when to apply the power. My coach has been making me go 1-3 minutes out, to beat the concept of committing to a move into my head. Usually when I wait around for a sprint I end up being passive/indecisive and not really doing anything useful, so I guess the idea is that if I learn to go super early, then I won’t be afraid of going for it when I start doing shorter finishes again. I’m getting way better at knowing when to screw over other riders with an effort, that’s for sure. Attacking when it’s hard and not when its easy has been a huge revelation to me. With my power profile, I’ve never had trouble opening a gap, but holding one has always been a problem. It’s a lot easier to do when you pick a time where no one will want to chase.
Unfortunately, almost everyone in the e4 fields thinks they are a sprinter now, and the pace often doesn’t ever get very hard. Also, turnouts are super shitty this year. Last few years I raced hardly any fields under 30 people, with many closer to 50. Now, we’re lucky if 20 people show up to a crit. Sucks 
Dmoto, are you hitting that in races?
Just curious. Sprint power is only useful when you can hit it at the end of an effort.
I’d think an 1800w sprint would be winning the PIR 3/4s race. 1800w is pretty big no matter what it means in w/kg, but 5-10s power is probably a lot more relevant.
[quote=aerobear]Dmoto, are you hitting that in races?
Just curious. Sprint power is only useful when you can hit it at the end of an effort. [/quote]
That has been my problem. I’d been doing WAY too much work in the races and would have decent power at the end, but not great. Sometimes, I was too fried to get out of the saddle and would just come in with the group. I’d been using the PIR races to bury myself in efforts and attacks. For the rest of the season I’m going to sit in the group and spend as much time coasting as possible. Should make a huge difference in the final lap.
it’s good to make it hard, but yeah, sounds like you could benefit from just sitting in and going for the sprints for some races.
the track is great for that too, esp since the groups are smaller, races are shorter with way more sprints (points races w/ sprints every 5 laps), and you wont get beat up on by teams with lead out trains - so its not a disadvantage to race solo. of course, you need a tarck bike for that though…
I really need to get out to alpenrose.
Sometimes you fall off
Came out with some road rash, broken helmet, barfly, bottle cage, scratched saddle, tweaked shifter, and somehow broke the quick release tab on my front brake caliper. Coulda been worse, other guy broke his collarbone