well, @Itsmattbb is joining my road team. pretty stoked to have someone to suffer with in the P12s.
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Not sure how I missed this thread in the past, but yay racing! My one year retirement was pretty well timed I’d say.
There’s a bunch of stuff in the summer/early fall on the calendar now, hoping with the vaccine roll-out those can all happen safely.
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Alfie has something on the calendar in April… that seems a little optimistic considering his track record.
I’m considering racing this year. How do I do it without a college club guy telling me where to show up and do things.
Buy a USAC license and the look on the USAC events page or your local association for Ohio/surrounding areas. I can imagine there’s lots of stuff in a 3 hour radius.
These folx are the biggest club team in your area. Do their Ault Park series, it’s good.
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definitely join a club in your area. if one of them offers some kind of learn-to-race events, do those too.
even if not, it’s easier and more fun to pick up race-specific skill with a group than alone.
Lined up today for a nice little crit. 80ish person field. Ended up 15th after having to stop my sprint, brake, and change my line around somebody that was going like 20mph in the middle of the pack. @Itsmattbb threw a chain at like 3 to go, that was a bummer. Had 2 cat1s that never really liked crits come down with me and they actually enjoyed themselves, but they weren’t ready for the surges/repeated high power output. Kinda was on my own for the last few laps. Couple more races and they’ll be ready. Super fun day, though. Around 29.5mph for 75 min and like 325w np.
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A bummer indeed, I was actually feeling decent. I was able to spend a little bit of time off the front, though none of the moves I went with lasted more than half a lap. I need to find me some more watts still. Still sub 200w avg power, like 230 normalized, although not doing the last few laps means it probably would have been a little higher had I finished.
Sore and tired today, slept like a gd log.
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Nothing lasted at all. I think I was in a move that lasted a whole lap. Looks like Jeff pulled out a little before halfway. He’s a motor, but doesn’t know when to turn it on or off. Tate and Tyrel just need more high-intensity, I think. Tate pulled back something at like 3 to go and then disappeared. I really think I would have had something if I had one guy bringing me up though the field before the last corner.
Guess that would have been my job, dammit Shimano.
I train on that bike and hardly ever get chain drop, esp not when just sitting in the big ring!
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I’m telling you, this one right here. The second bolt essentially holds the pivot in place.
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Guess I wasn’t the only one to drop my chain this weekend. After watching this I don’t feel quite so bad about it though
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Everyone is feeling like 2006 Olympics Kristin Armstrong this weekend.
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That was heartbreaking
watching all of the racing over the weekend makes me want to do it again
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I raced Barrio Logan yesterday, the last road racing event in San Diego AFAIK. Figure 8 course. The p12 field only had about 30 guys show up. A few strong local guys, including Butcherbox and CS Velo and some others. Hard from the gun and had a hard time getting confident in the corners, felt like I was taking them fast but kept losing a bike length or two. I was nervous about pedaling through some of them as I’ve had some bad pedal strikes here before, but turns out I had to at least try.
Felt a little more comfortable after a bit and went for an attack during a lull in the action, got a gap really quickly and after 3/4 of a lap a socal cycling guy bridged up to me. When it was his turn to pull, he looked back and slowed down because he thought it was doomed already. One more bridged up with speed but because the socal guy slowed I didn’t have the gas to get back up to speed. Dropped back into the field to recover, and and a couple laps later the final selection of 8 guys went without me and I just sat in for the rest and worked on cornering. Last lap a guy in the chase group struck a pedal with 2 corners to go and went over the bars. I was on my way up to get ready for the sprint but ended up scrubbing speed and rolled in like 22nd or something. Some friends came by and the wife and kid came out since the venue was only 15 mins from home.
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Raced twice yesterday at the Laverne grand prix. Great course near Brackett air field (shares part of the San Dimas road race finishing stretch)
2/3, had 3 cat 3 teammates with me that were all fairly strong. Our plan was to be on the offense and not get caught chasing back breaks. We didn’t feel as confident in a bunch sprint. Early on, I followed a really strong rider who was pulling back everything and stringing the field out. After a bit of this, he caught a break and the front sat up, I was a bit tired from welding things at the front, but I looked back and saw a teammate not far behind so I signaled to him to counter attack. He went and a small group formed and they stayed out there for a good while but eventually came back. Another teammate countered, he came back and I went with what turned out to be 5 to go. Stayed solo for a little over a lap but got caught too, then Aleks (just rode BWR in 7:30 after getting 3 flats so I know he’s strong af) went with 3.5 to go. I was convinced he was gone for good but after we crossed 1 to go he was moving a lot slower and the field got him. Turns out he thought he had 1 less lap remaining and paced it too hot, d’oh! I didn’t have enough left to sprint
Then we did the p123, I felt like crap and made some cornering mistakes and mostly just feeling like I’m not fit enough to matter. Rolled in with the pack sort of, small split formed with a couple corners to go and I was behind it. It’s clear my inconsistent 5-10 hrs/wk of varying structure is not doing me any favors. Ive got some kick when I need it but I cannot recover worth a damn between efforts. I’m kind of getting discouraged, thinking of taking a little break and doing some weights with some easy spinning for a bit.
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Did a fixed gear crit yesterday. Got 3rd. Paid $10 entry, walked away with $145.
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