So far got two early birds out of the way and 4/10 upgrade points
Early bird crit #1 - Really fast pace considering the road was still very wet, we averaged 24.1. Almost every corner was a crawl followed by a hard sprint and the pace was raised significantly at 3 to go. A teammate tried a break that lasted maybe 2 laps, while I just surfed the pack. There was one crash that I didn’t see, took out 3 people. Word is someone slipped up on the botts’ dots, which isn’t surprising since they’re really tall and move your bike around when they’re wet. Got stuck behind a slow wheel on the very last corner but took the wheel of someone else that took me back to the front group. No official placings for this race but I crossed the line at around 10th. Sprints were discouraged.
Early bird cirt #2 - Slow start, and a lot less sketch feeling than the first one. My tactic has been to be a lazy bastard, so I stayed on a wheel 95% of the time. I kept my head up this time and managed to keep myself in the front 20 or so riders (exactly 50 in the field). Corners were taken a lot faster with less accelerations, and the overall pace was a little bit lower than last week strangely, so I felt pretty relaxed the whole time. Then on the 2nd to last lap, on a big wide open sweeper, riders start falling over like dominoes from the center. Grabbed a fist full of brake and swerved into the gutter just barely getting past someone’s downed bike. Put on the gas to get back to the rest of the pack, which is now only about 15 people, and pushed it to the last corner only to have the race neutralized and ended early.
gonna miss #3, but got #4 and #5 coming up and also the snelling road race.
also tried out a leopard demo bike today. it felt pretty nice, kinda considering getting one since we have a team discount
i raced the last week. i did an hour of power on the MUP before my race and then tried to jump in. i got popped after 3 laps. tomorrow i start doing some real work for speed, so hopefully i will have a little gas come VOS in a few weeks.
oddly stoked for this season. i have some leftover fitness from last year but thats about it.
got some health issues to sort though so no real expectations. probably “buy” my cat 3 upgrade.
buncha new races that fit my strengths on the schedule, medium length races with gravel and punchy climbs
giving up the PT for this season, i’ll get back into that when i can train properly
So I am very much wanting to get some racing in this season. Does anyone know of good fastish group rides I can get in on for some training for my first cat 5 races?
Do you have any Roadie friends? Pester them. There are a lot of rides, but most of them are gonna be weird if you don’t know any of them. If you’re fine with strangers, check bike shop websites for ride schedules. River city has a lot of regular rides that leave from there on the weekends.
The only weekly shop ride my shop does is 7am Wed mornings which is a little rough for me. A few of us go out every Sunday most weeks, but times vary since we usually set it up the day before at work.
Nah, no roadie friends. I’ll hit up some shop websites,I’m sure I can find some rides that coincide well with my days off .thanks for the heads up, I’ll check RC
if you just want company on moderately paced road rides, orc and i do quite a bit of that stuff, ~65 to ~450 miles at a time. no intervals or any of that bullshit, lots of steady rolling at 15-19mph (or sometimes much less) and sometimes stopping to take pictures.
Thanks for the offer! I very well may take you up on that sometime. I wanted to find some 25 to 40 mile stuff at a quick pace to get up to race speed. Intervals and stuff. Maybe I will look at joining a club? Kevin, the guy who organizes the Portland velo stuff, came into the shop a few weeks back and I was talking to him.sounds like they have a bunch of racers. I just dont know where to start really.
Finally back on the bike after not riding these last 4 months, which puts me on the bike for 3 of the last 10 months due to Crash x Abroad collabo. Did my first real ride yesterday (71mi, 2800ft) in the gusting wind. Got beat by two of my housemates (both now Cat 3) up all the climbs, when 4 months ago I was smoking them up any slope. First climb I felt like a lead weight, couldn’t even get my legs spinning at all. Second climb 20 miles later was a lot better (plus way steeper) so hopefully my body will remember what this is. But kinda nerve racking since at this point it’s looking like I’m supposed to be the designated climber for the season. Also bummed it’s so cold out (29* most mornings) when I have free time before classes MWF.
Local race rides started last week, so tuesday I’ll see how quickly I esplode there, and first race race is gonna be our Cal Aggie Crit (which anyone near the Sac area should come to, pretty dang fun crit course imo) on the 26th (i’ll be reg-ing peeps the first half of the day, if you come out come say hey). Beyond that, first collegiate race is 28 days away, so next 4 weeks is getting my muscles used to riding a bike again, and hoping I still have some sort of power in my legs. 4 months ago I was able to control 4’s races and was basically counting down the days until my 3’s upgrade, but now I’m afraid I’ll get immediately shelled out of a B’s race.
Any tips (besides getting time in on the saddle) for getting the body used to riding after going a long time not riding/not training?
Our team camp is MLK weekend, and that along with our Intersquad 10mi time trial in 3 weeks should prove really interesting, especially for finding out where my power is at once my body stops completely freaking out.
But regardless of all that, I am so gosh darn pumped to get to race my bike this year!
First races are Poor College Kids RR and Mothballs crit the last weekend of the month. They are good testers to make sure I’m where I need to be and generally be ready for VoS.
I’m going to be doing some sort of ride pretty much every weekday at around 8:30 or 9ish, I think. Probably between 90 minutes and 2ish hours. Sometimes intervals. I’m not super fast, but I’m not super slow either.
I need to figure out what races I’m doing in Portland as well, so if anyone has any recommendations, lay 'em on me.