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serious gaylord
Sep 16, 2007

what.
I was targeting the 12 hour TT this year but I think with my injury I just won't be fit enough to even bother with it.

Next year for me.

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jamal
Apr 15, 2003

I'll set the building on fire
Friday xc #3 tonight. As usual, I was there all day but had to set up most of the course solo as a couple of the regular guys couldn't make it right away. Just me and the mule and a lot of stakes and tape. And candy. I got there at 10 and then was down at the bottom with everything marked by 2, just as the course opened for racers. The way things work is that there's a mass start, but if you don't want to do that you can ride it alone or with friends whenever you want. Today we went at 6 so I had some time to kill, ate, went home for a bit because I forgot my garmin, tried to relax, and started wishing I'd just gone and gotten my race over with because the weather started to be not quite as good.

This was the top when I got up there doing setup



Kids start



They went at 430, and after that it started snowing. By the time we got up to the top of the course it was almost like a blizzard going on. Course went pretty much straight up to the very top trails and then right back down, over just one lap, so it was at least pretty short and you stayed warm until the very end.

I was a little far back at the start. Missed my pedal, had to put a foot down taking the wrong line trying to pass someone, but slowly closed in on Jake and got on his wheel near the top. We've been going back in forth in both real life and on zwift, but he got me pretty good last week. Plus it's a long way up, so I didn't try to make a move to pass him. I really should have though. I had a little left and then think I could have gotten some space on the descent. As it was we came out of the trees into the finish together and he got me at the line.

Last week was hot and I definitely appreciated the cooler air. Did the first part of the climb that was the same as last week a touch faster while feeling better and pacing myself to get all the way to the top. Then it was a PR down the descent, but like I said I think I had more in it (and haven't done that full ride down on my hei hei in a race situation).

at the top behind Jake





Post race festivities



free beer from big sky, food from burns st bistro, free drink coupons from dram shop. Plus the organizer gave me a sweet patagonia puffy because I work there.

The last finisher coming in, she started solo after everyone I think



Howard Grotts did it in about 30min, I haven't checked times or results but I think I was in the 36ish range. A number of people went earlier in the day so our mass start only had 6-7 cat 1/2s. Like I said I kind of wish I'd done that because I likely would have gone a bit faster, but it's more fun getting out there and actually racing other people.

Not quite an xc race bike but way way better than the old beat to poo poo hardtail going downhill

jamal fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Jun 7, 2021

TobinHatesYou
Aug 14, 2007

wacky cycling inflatable
tube man
Grasshopper Adventure Series // Huffmaster Hopper M30-39 (5th out of 58)

I had a custom Rock Lobster made last year. I barely rode it because it had a couple flaws and I was sadbrains thinking about it. A couple weeks ago my bud was like "do the next Grasshopper with me, idiot." It was a convincing argument so I signed up for the 30-39 age group with him (I'm 40.) I swapped out the 40mm WTB Nanos and put some 35mm Continental Terra Speeds on. I rode the bike once on the Palo Alto Noon Ride just to make sure everything was working. I ended up changing out the 120mm -7deg stem for a 110mm -17deg and everything felt good. In terms of race prep, the only concerns I had was hydration/nutrition during a 88mi 4800ft mixed tarmac/gravel race with one "feed station" where you can leave extra supplies. I ended up starting with two 26oz bottles with 9 scoops of Skratch Superfuel + 1g of beta-alanine each. I also carried a Hammer flask with ~6 gels worth as supplementary carbs in case the weather didn't call for drinking so much. At the feed I left a 50oz Camelbak just in case along with 22oz/26oz bottles of water ice and Superfuel. I also had another Hammer flask with caffeinated gel for the extra boost later in the race. As is customary, I pretty much wasn't able to sleep the night before the event.

- Raced hard from the start, the front group went from 50+ to about 18 in the first gravel sector.
- Got in a 3-man break on the next paved section and it quickly became a 2-man break. Over the next 10 miles, we lost sight of the chasers and picked up a straggler from the pro men's start for a while. He got dropped at the base of the first climb.
- I lost my temp riding buddy's wheel 2/3rds up the first and longest climb of the day where the average gradient is about 11%.
- Another climber type dropped the chase group, caught me and passed me before hitting the top.
- I took the descent medium-fast and reached the feed zone in what I thought was 3rd position.
- I loaded up on 2x 26oz bottles of Superfuel, a 22oz bottle of water ice to cool my core and also as extra hydration, plus the caffeinated gel flask.
- I rode off solo, occasionally picking up people who used me as a draft, but they weren't able to share the workload. I dropped them all and took on the next gravel climb solo.
- Near the top, the 40-49 wave's leaders had caught me. Initially I latched onto the two who were gapping everyone else on the climb, but decided to take it easy because the rest of their group wasn't far behind. I knew it would all come back together on the descent.
- Once we crested the hill, I was able to just sit on the back of the 40-49 group and had a nice, easy 20 miles, relatively speaking...at that point everyone was cooperative and we had become a mass of multiple starting waves, including some of the pro women and 20-29s.
- We absorbed climber dude into the blob.
- On the final climb of the day, there was more fine dirt / sand over the hardpack and I nearly ate poo poo rounding one corner, my rear first skipped on way, then I powered through it and it skipped in the other direction as I overcorrected. I lost momentum and could not reattach to the group.
- I also could not get a good feel for the following gravel descent. It had lots of corners and the same fine dirt / sand...it felt super sketchy, and I also have zero experience with gravel.
- I took it easy because I had like 15 minutes on the next fastest 30-39 by that point.
- Even the next flat gravel section was extremely sketch. There were times where my wheels would just sink into the loose stuff and I'd lose 2-3mph instantly with no warning.
- I ended up sitting behind some huge guy through the last gravel rollers until his drivetrain suidieded and I was off solo again.
- The last 8 miles or so were all paved and against the wind, it felt infinitely better than the gravel and I just set the cruise control to about 4w/kg and went into TT mode. I passed like a dozen people from various starting waves in those final 25min.

I finished the 88mi 4800ft course in 4h43m at 3.3w/kg avg, 3.75w/kg normalized. 5th officially, 4th among people who actually started in the correct wave.

Conclusion:
I don't know if I'd call it fun. I need to learn how to descend the really loose gravel bits. I excelled on the flat stuff, the harder packed dirt descent and of course the tarmac. I correctly followed an attack and contributed immediately, guaranteeing me a decent finish. The next closest guy finished 13 minutes back. It was fun because I have the fitness to go cover attacks, help make them work and then ride tempo basically forever.

Found me at the starting line:


Found me in the last 13mi:


Bike:


Strava:

TobinHatesYou fucked around with this message at 04:13 on May 24, 2021

kimbo305
Jun 9, 2007

actually, yeah, I am a little mad

TobinHatesYou posted:

occasionally picking up people who used me as a draft, but they weren't able to share the workload. I dropped them all
:yeshaha:

quote:

I need to learn how to descend the really loose gravel bits.
Was it just loose and not bumpy/rocky?
How much do you think could be helped from a different tread, and would that cancel out in the asphalt parts?

TobinHatesYou
Aug 14, 2007

wacky cycling inflatable
tube man

kimbo305 posted:


Was it just loose and not bumpy/rocky?
How much do you think could be helped from a different tread, and would that cancel out in the asphalt parts?

It was just loose and did not fit my definition of bumpy.

The narrower tires may have helped establish my initial breakaway, but I would have been totally fine keeping up in groups with chunkier tires. It's hard to say if I would have gotten a better result. The narrow tires ensured me 4th/5th place. Fatter, knobbier tires at best would have improved my finish by one spot.

bicievino
Feb 5, 2015

Love this race report.

How did you feel your hydration/nutrition plan worked out? Anything you'd change?

TobinHatesYou
Aug 14, 2007

wacky cycling inflatable
tube man

bicievino posted:

Love this race report.

How did you feel your hydration/nutrition plan worked out? Anything you'd change?

It was spot-on. I had enough hydration that I didn't need to be stingy. The gel flask was mostly insurance in case I dropped a bottle and lost about 500kcal/120g worth of carbs in doing so.

In the second half of the race, the additional bottle of solid ice was nice for its cooling effect and thawed sufficiently in my jersey pocket. The caffeine boost was also nice, but I only took two gulps of it because the Superfuel was working so well.

Standard disclaimer that I am accustomed to getting carbs from the bottle and already know that I can subsist entirely on gels without gutrot.

MrL_JaKiri
Sep 23, 2003

A bracing glass of carrot juice!
Another wednesday, another 10 miler. First one on my TT bike rather than a road bike - although I've felt crummy all day, so my power was a good 25-30W down on what I'd expect, which means I didn't actually get a course PB (a car getting in the way on the turn didn't help either). I'm sure my position was pretty crap too.

Finished 9th overall out of 40 or so.

However, one down - many to go.

rngd in the womb
Oct 13, 2009

Yam Slacker

tylertfb posted:

Do Barrio Logan GP June 26th if you’re in SoCal

I've got that on my calendar, so I'm thinking about it. I'll probably decide late next month. I'm a little reluctant to be doing crits mostly because I've been training for BWR and waiting for that since 2019 now so it'd suck to get injured in a cat4 crash before that. But maybe I'll just throw caution to the wind, I dunno. :shrug:

bicievino
Feb 5, 2015

Bike racing with frens is so loving great. I'm over the goddamn moon.

MrL_JaKiri
Sep 23, 2003

A bracing glass of carrot juice!
First ever dual carriageway TT!

Ominous signs were had when I was picking up my number, as the chat at race control was them working out which of the early riders was being taken away in an ambulance*. Weather conditions were good, though - nice and sunny, very little wind, great visibility.

Like the other day had difficulty getting power out - looking at my shadow, I think it's because my front end is too low impacting the hip angle and also making it difficult to get my head in the right position. Must have put it back in the wrong place when I was fiddling with the headset. Finish time was 33 dead for the 15, which I think was a bit up on my minute man but honestly difficult to tell. Saw nobody around me the whole way.

Lots of lovely kit on show, too - guy in front of me had corima wheels on his old edition P5, and they were just absolutely gorgeous.

*This later turned out to be because he fell off his bike on his own, rather than due to a car.

bicievino
Feb 5, 2015

MrL_JaKiri posted:

First ever dual carriageway TT!

Ominous signs were had when I was picking up my number, as the chat at race control was them working out which of the early riders was being taken away in an ambulance*. Weather conditions were good, though - nice and sunny, very little wind, great visibility.

Like the other day had difficulty getting power out - looking at my shadow, I think it's because my front end is too low impacting the hip angle and also making it difficult to get my head in the right position. Must have put it back in the wrong place when I was fiddling with the headset. Finish time was 33 dead for the 15, which I think was a bit up on my minute man but honestly difficult to tell. Saw nobody around me the whole way.

Lots of lovely kit on show, too - guy in front of me had corima wheels on his old edition P5, and they were just absolutely gorgeous.

*This later turned out to be because he fell off his bike on his own, rather than due to a car.

I love reading about the UK TT scene, but this aspect of it has always seemed a bit odd to me.

Hope you get the position stuff sorted.

MrL_JaKiri
Sep 23, 2003

A bracing glass of carrot juice!

bicievino posted:

I love reading about the UK TT scene, but this aspect of it has always seemed a bit odd to me.

Honestly, the normal road TTs are much more dodgy for close passes etc.

It was notable that my power output jumped by like 40W when I went onto the base bar for the kick into the turns

Literally Lewis Hamilton
Feb 22, 2005



I did a bike race up to 10,500ft and drat did it do a number on my power. The descents though were the stuff of beauty.

kimbo305
Jun 9, 2007

actually, yeah, I am a little mad
I don't think there's anything like seeing the road plunge down into a valley ahead of you and not having any cars going either way.

bicievino
Feb 5, 2015

It was season kickoff weekend for us at the Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome here in scenic Redmond, Washington.

Friday Night was a more sprinter-themed program: a short points race, keirin, and scratch.
My team is more on the sprintery end of things - we've had four folks in the 1/2s, one in the 3's and also the son of one guy racing juniors.
I normally go for the points races, but my legs were feeling rough, and I am always pretty marked in a points race, so I didn't manage to make much happen. Got countered hard on the second sprint and let a break get away, rolled in for 6th, just out of omnium points.
We had a reasonable amount of time so I decided to get goofy and throw a big gear on for the keirin - not as big as one of my teammates who went 57x14, but one tooth off which is still huge for me (especially since I haven't been in the gym since the pandemic started).
My teammy in the 3's won his heat tidily https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=5214s.
And then my teammy in the 1/2's heat 1 won his heat even more dramatically https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=5466s.
And then my teammy in heat 2 made a big move from the back draw to take his heat, too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=5773s.
After that I really felt obligated to follow suit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=6068s


For the final we all made pretty good draws, and managed to go 1/2/3 (with me bringing up 3rd by a whisker). Super fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=7818s

Last race of the night was a 20 lap scratch - not too long, but plenty long with a lot of big efforts in the legs.
For whatever reason I was feeling better than I had all night, though, and decided to just race spicy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=10408s
Any time I got to the front or folks started slowing down I surged it to make the folks sitting on big gears hurt. Super fun way to race, but I was too gassed to cover the winning move with 3 to go - fortunately a teammate was in there so I didn't feel bad looking around. Sat in and forced one of the fastest finishers into leading me out, then came around in the last 15m for second, enough to get 2nd in the nightly overall. My big sprinter teammate's keirin win was enough to put him in 3rd.


Wrapped up the night with shakes and burgers at a 50's style drive-in spot (pandemic friendly dining!), because we ain't roadies.

----

Saturday morning was timetrials and a sprint tourney, but I was too fried from how late I got home (whoops) to bother.
My big pursuity teammate crushed his 4k, though, going sub 5min for the first time on a windy day with heavy legs, and my sprinter buds clocked up the two fastest 200m times in the tourney.

--

Saturday evening was an International Omnium (Scratch, Tempo, Elimination, Points Race, with points scored in the first 3 and added to what you earn in the final points race for the overall decider).
I love this event - it's such a good mix of different flavors of tactical racing, and you have to be extra aware of who is watching who, who thinks they can make up enough to win, or who is just trying to consolidate their current spot. Sadly they don't run it for masters, so I don't get many opportunities to do it.
Still feeling pretty frazzled, I decided to try to race a bit smarter instead of pure spice - didn't want to write any checks I couldn't cash.
I figured the Scratch would be raced fast, but it's too short for anyone to let a break go. I was right, and instead of kissing wind I rode mid pack, let the right people drop in front of me, and then forced them to close down moves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5DBfDgEs7E&t=739s.
The tempo gives one point to the leader each lap around - nothing for second. I got pretty worried in the first few sprints of the tempo - I kept getting used and missing out on the one point on the line. Without really intending to, me and one other fellow got off the front. We worked together a bit and then I rode in alone - with only one point on the line the field was too busy looking at eachother to dig deep and pull me back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5DBfDgEs7E&t=3803s

That race was "good luck" because the osprey that nests in our floodlights hit me square on. Oof!
I felt pretty gassed in the elimination - couldn't hold the front, got dangerously close to an early elimination in the box, and had to get a little aggressive to push out of the box because I didn't have the energy to back all the way out and come around. Worse, I screwed up and wore my aero helmet which I can't hear well in - total brainfart, and got pipped for fourth when I thought there was still one more person back. OH WELL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5DBfDgEs7E&t=6253s
A brief moment of foolishness.
I went in to the Points race leading by 1 point, with another fast guy 3 points behind. This is where the tactics get turned up to 11, because folks in 5th or 6th would need to lap the field in order to be in contention, so I could let them up the road without worrying too much. That's the theory, at least. With only 1 point lead it was pretty hot right from the get-go. I didn't end up securing a healthier margin until 10 to go. After the penultimate sprint, though, I had a 3 point lead - with 10, 6, 4, 2 on the line, as long as my nemesis didn't win the final and I finished right behind him, I had it sewn up. Luckily for me, three folks went up the road, I locked myself onto my only opponent's wheel, and shrugged. Didn't end up taking him on the line, but I didn't need to. Zero wasted energy, taking the Omnium by 1 point.

Time
Aug 1, 2011

It Was All A Dream

bicievino posted:

It was season kickoff weekend for us at the Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome here in scenic Redmond, Washington.

Friday Night was a more sprinter-themed program: a short points race, keirin, and scratch.
My team is more on the sprintery end of things - we've had four folks in the 1/2s, one in the 3's and also the son of one guy racing juniors.
I normally go for the points races, but my legs were feeling rough, and I am always pretty marked in a points race, so I didn't manage to make much happen. Got countered hard on the second sprint and let a break get away, rolled in for 6th, just out of omnium points.
We had a reasonable amount of time so I decided to get goofy and throw a big gear on for the keirin - not as big as one of my teammates who went 57x14, but one tooth off which is still huge for me (especially since I haven't been in the gym since the pandemic started).
My teammy in the 3's won his heat tidily https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=5214s.
And then my teammy in the 1/2's heat 1 won his heat even more dramatically https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=5466s.
And then my teammy in heat 2 made a big move from the back draw to take his heat, too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=5773s.
After that I really felt obligated to follow suit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=6068s


For the final we all made pretty good draws, and managed to go 1/2/3 (with me bringing up 3rd by a whisker). Super fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=7818s

Last race of the night was a 20 lap scratch - not too long, but plenty long with a lot of big efforts in the legs.
For whatever reason I was feeling better than I had all night, though, and decided to just race spicy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFu2J81m4&t=10408s
Any time I got to the front or folks started slowing down I surged it to make the folks sitting on big gears hurt. Super fun way to race, but I was too gassed to cover the winning move with 3 to go - fortunately a teammate was in there so I didn't feel bad looking around. Sat in and forced one of the fastest finishers into leading me out, then came around in the last 15m for second, enough to get 2nd in the nightly overall. My big sprinter teammate's keirin win was enough to put him in 3rd.


Wrapped up the night with shakes and burgers at a 50's style drive-in spot (pandemic friendly dining!), because we ain't roadies.

----

Saturday morning was timetrials and a sprint tourney, but I was too fried from how late I got home (whoops) to bother.
My big pursuity teammate crushed his 4k, though, going sub 5min for the first time on a windy day with heavy legs, and my sprinter buds clocked up the two fastest 200m times in the tourney.

--

Saturday evening was an International Omnium (Scratch, Tempo, Elimination, Points Race, with points scored in the first 3 and added to what you earn in the final points race for the overall decider).
I love this event - it's such a good mix of different flavors of tactical racing, and you have to be extra aware of who is watching who, who thinks they can make up enough to win, or who is just trying to consolidate their current spot. Sadly they don't run it for masters, so I don't get many opportunities to do it.
Still feeling pretty frazzled, I decided to try to race a bit smarter instead of pure spice - didn't want to write any checks I couldn't cash.
I figured the Scratch would be raced fast, but it's too short for anyone to let a break go. I was right, and instead of kissing wind I rode mid pack, let the right people drop in front of me, and then forced them to close down moves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5DBfDgEs7E&t=739s.
The tempo gives one point to the leader each lap around - nothing for second. I got pretty worried in the first few sprints of the tempo - I kept getting used and missing out on the one point on the line. Without really intending to, me and one other fellow got off the front. We worked together a bit and then I rode in alone - with only one point on the line the field was too busy looking at eachother to dig deep and pull me back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5DBfDgEs7E&t=3803s

That race was "good luck" because the osprey that nests in our floodlights hit me square on. Oof!
I felt pretty gassed in the elimination - couldn't hold the front, got dangerously close to an early elimination in the box, and had to get a little aggressive to push out of the box because I didn't have the energy to back all the way out and come around. Worse, I screwed up and wore my aero helmet which I can't hear well in - total brainfart, and got pipped for fourth when I thought there was still one more person back. OH WELL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5DBfDgEs7E&t=6253s
A brief moment of foolishness.
I went in to the Points race leading by 1 point, with another fast guy 3 points behind. This is where the tactics get turned up to 11, because folks in 5th or 6th would need to lap the field in order to be in contention, so I could let them up the road without worrying too much. That's the theory, at least. With only 1 point lead it was pretty hot right from the get-go. I didn't end up securing a healthier margin until 10 to go. After the penultimate sprint, though, I had a 3 point lead - with 10, 6, 4, 2 on the line, as long as my nemesis didn't win the final and I finished right behind him, I had it sewn up. Luckily for me, three folks went up the road, I locked myself onto my only opponent's wheel, and shrugged. Didn't end up taking him on the line, but I didn't need to. Zero wasted energy, taking the Omnium by 1 point.


I love reading these, so much. Thanks!

serious gaylord
Sep 16, 2007

what.

bicievino posted:

I love reading about the UK TT scene, but this aspect of it has always seemed a bit odd to me.

Hope you get the position stuff sorted.

I'm genuinely perplexed it isn't as big in America.

Dual carriageway TT's are the fastest you will ever go on a bicycle on a flat road and much like Jakiri says, i've had much more dangerous incidents on normal roads during time trials than dualies. They're generally safer as there's an entire extra lane for cars to pass you however there is a greater risk of a catastrophic incident due to the speeds involved.

The fastest courses are being gradually phased out as increases in traffic mean that police forces are withholding permission or organisers feel its not worth the risk to run them. I've marshaled a dual carriageway TT and had to pick someone up who had chanced a roundabout because they didn't want to slow down and ended up in the back of the car in front and I've not raced on that course since and numbers in general have been down. It was the fastest course in the area and would always have a full field before that and instead you're getting 100 people turn up at Goodwood race circuit on a Wednesday evening.

I dunno, I think we're going to see a migration to closed circuits for the people that just want to ride head down as fast as they can and sporting courses for everyone else.

MrL_JaKiri
Sep 23, 2003

A bracing glass of carrot juice!
Aside from the guy who came off, there was a woman from my club who managed to miss the turn off the carriageway to the roundabout who then proceeded to carry on for another 8 miles (on a 15 mile TT, before the first turn) and merged onto a road cyclists are DEFINITELY not allowed to be on, before coming off it, going immediately back on and coming back the way she came. So uh yeah pay attention to the course

jamal
Apr 15, 2003

I'll set the building on fire
Oh yeah we had another friday XC race last week. This year all of our races are at the old closed down ski hill where the pro xc course is. The bottom half with the pro course is private property, while the top half was bought by a land trust who let us build a bunch of mtb trails. It's the only place around with bike only, downhill only trails (a whole two of them). Last week we rode the xc course and then cut over and up to the very top and then down for one lap. This week we bypassed most of the lower course and went straight up roads to get to the top. Then used flow trail into the xc descent which is the longest way down. 1200ft. 20ish min climb, then 10min descent. Two laps.

Because of the long descent with jumps it was hard to not want to ride the full suspension bike. But also with a steep road climb twice I wasn't looking forward to getting up there on it. Plus I never go into these completely fresh and rested. This week I did two workouts, a trail work day, and then was there all morning setting up the course. My "warm up" was also a bit excessive as I wanted to get a better handle on the descent. I hadn't ridden that upper trail since last fall and my first run down it on thursday's group pre-ride wasn't pretty. After two laps I was feeling a lot better though and even set a PR.

At the start I actually got my pedal which helps a lot. Being like 4th wheel instead of 10th goes a lot way in that start sprint and I was right on Toby's wheel. For about the first, uh, 6 minutes? Then he drifted away a bit but I felt alright and was pushing pretty hard. Then a junior came by me on his new fancy lightweight hardtail, but I beat Jake to the top and was not far behind Toby or Travis, the guys usually battling for the next spot behind Howard (not here), Ivan, and Dan. Plus another fast junior and a guy from out of town were just ahead. Then the hei hei and my practice laps got their chance to shine and I caught that guy plus the local junior on the descent. Jake was right behind me and about halfway up the climb on lap two got to my wheel and attacked. I stayed with him and he bobbled a bit on a tight uphill corner so I went by again, then the other guy passed us both. I stayed with Jake to the very last part of the climb that's really steep, and was dying, and he got some space on me. We both caught and passed that other guy but he got to the line about 20s ahead of me.

Edged out by Jake again, wishing I had a modern hardtail xc bike again. Pretty soon I'm going to try to get an order in with Orbea for an Alma with the hope of having one for next season. But I don't feel too bad about the climbing this week and am also pretty happy with being one of the fastest guys down the course. That was about the hardest I've pushed it in awhile and I had to lie down in the grass at the finish.

My fitness seems to be in a good spot and I have the state championship road race coming up this weekend. That will also be tough as I need to be out there early to put up signs and sweep corners. I won't make it up the climb with Ivan and Andrew and Dan but that does allow me to sit into the chase like at the gravel race a few weeks ago and be fresh for the return trip. Then another friday xc or two and the Butte 100 at the end of July. Fancy new wheels for the hei hei are supposedly going to be available this week as well but I'm not fully confident I'll actually be able to snag a set.

oh hey a picture appeared

jamal fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Jun 1, 2021

bicievino
Feb 5, 2015

It makes me crazy happy to be reading race reports.

Bike racing, y'all. :3:

tylertfb
Mar 3, 2004

Time.Space.Transmat.
Our (San Diego) track season opens tonight. Our track experience is about the polar opposite of the Seattle one in terms of organization (we race under ATRA regs rather than USAC, nobody is keeping track of Omnium points, etc etc) and my racing experience will be 180 from bicievino’s (news from the rear of the race!) But the vibe is very similar! Look for my report later

TobinHatesYou
Aug 14, 2007

wacky cycling inflatable
tube man
Race Report // Copperopolis

Lmao.

Fin.

e.pilot
Nov 20, 2011

sometimes maybe good
sometimes maybe shit
Copperopolis M35+ Cat5 42mi Death March to Victory:

It was hot.
It was bumpy.
I semi-inadvertently went for an early break trying to latch on to a work truck that had passed us (and failed miserably) a couple of miles before the big hill on the course. One other guy managed to hang on with me, and beat me up pretty good going up the hill, but fortunately that was all he had, he was pretty hopeless on the flats and descent, so I was able to rest a bit. Ripping down gravel hills around town prepared me well for the pavement adjacent road surface today, and I was able to break away hard and put a good gap between me and the other guy on the descent, unfortunately he managed to group up with a couple of juniors and caught back up to me midway up the hill on the second lap, then unfortunately for him he got a flat halfway up and I broke away again and got a huge lead and was able to get a much needed breather. Then somewhere around the flat back half where the pavement was okay at best the lead P12 group caught up to me and I was able to hide in their draft for a bit giving me an even bigger lead, until they dropped me like I wasn't moving on the little hill before the descent. I was extremely thankful for that lead towards the finish, as on the last 3mi or so of the last lap I started cramping up really bad, to the point I had to get off the bike for a few seconds and stretch things out, and I was able to take it much easier on the second lap's descent. I painfully grimaced my way through the last 1km across the line, my only remaining opponents the heat and my rapidly fading mental fortitude, for what will surely be an epic pain face in the photos from the finish line photographer.

I won't do this race again on a road bike, if I do it again at all.

e:

TobinHatesYou posted:

Race Report // Copperopolis

Lmao.

Fin.
this is the better writeup tbh

jamal
Apr 15, 2003

I'll set the building on fire
Another friday xc race last night. It's been hot all week and I've had a lot to do with the pro xc coming up next weekend and the amateur usac version today. Last monday and tuesday I went up to get some of the course straightened out which had a fun highlight of our utility truck deal dying at the very top of the mountain and me having to get it back down. Thankfully, being at the very top of the mountain means gravity was my friend so I only had to push it in like 3 places and got to the bottom before dark.

So anyway, friday we still had a good amount more setup to do like adding a shitload of course marking for today's races and getting started on the start/finish area, which is all lined with fencing and involved putting a lot of stakes and wood posts in the ground. Also we didn't get a new battery for the mule so I had to jump start it with my car and then leave it running every time someone needed to use it. Also it was hot out. I got there at about 930 and by about 3-4 we had things pretty well set up. My watch said I took 21k steps and walked 12mi. Race start was at 6 so I sat in a chair for a little bit and then got ready and didn't really warm up.

Low turnout I think because of today's races and the heat. I think there were less than 10 of us in 1-2. A fast junior went out hard off the bat and I kind of chased him a little and went harder than I wanted to and was 2nd guy out there behind him after the first lap. Then i started to be impacted by the error of my ways and started getting passed. First by Dan, who got there late and started late and is really fast, then this guy Kirby who's pretty good, then some of the masters- Cameron, the leader, and Phil, a teammate. Kenley, who had the same "worked on the course all day" handicap as me, was also back there. Kirby was gone but Phil and then Cameron got into the descent just in front of me. Phil's pretty fast downhill but Cameron is not, and I was on his wheel before the bridge crossing near the bottom, then he pulled away again on the start of lap 3 and caught up to Phil. And then I caught Phil and passed him near the top on the road, somewhat motivated because Kenley was still right there. I thought I had a good gap but Kenley got right up to me going into the descent and then we caught Cameron, who let us by. It's a bit uphill going into the finish and I just didn't have anything to stay with him.

So that was way harder than I wanted to go and I lost and I have a road race tomorrow. I get to set up the signs on the course tomorrow and put on trail work today. Rest has not really been a thing for me lately. Plus side my road bike is real shiny right now and ready to go after a bunch of maintenance.

here's a picture of me looking better than i felt

jamal fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Jun 6, 2021

Loving Africa Chaps
Dec 3, 2007


We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.

e.pilot posted:

Copperopolis M35+ Cat5 42mi Death March to Victory:

It was hot.
It was bumpy.
I semi-inadvertently went for an early break trying to latch on to a work truck that had passed us (and failed miserably) a couple of miles before the big hill on the course. One other guy managed to hang on with me, and beat me up pretty good going up the hill, but fortunately that was all he had, he was pretty hopeless on the flats and descent, so I was able to rest a bit. Ripping down gravel hills around town prepared me well for the pavement adjacent road surface today, and I was able to break away hard and put a good gap between me and the other guy on the descent, unfortunately he managed to group up with a couple of juniors and caught back up to me midway up the hill on the second lap, then unfortunately for him he got a flat halfway up and I broke away again and got a huge lead and was able to get a much needed breather. Then somewhere around the flat back half where the pavement was okay at best the lead P12 group caught up to me and I was able to hide in their draft for a bit giving me an even bigger lead, until they dropped me like I wasn't moving on the little hill before the descent. I was extremely thankful for that lead towards the finish, as on the last 3mi or so of the last lap I started cramping up really bad, to the point I had to get off the bike for a few seconds and stretch things out, and I was able to take it much easier on the second lap's descent. I painfully grimaced my way through the last 1km across the line, my only remaining opponents the heat and my rapidly fading mental fortitude, for what will surely be an epic pain face in the photos from the finish line photographer.

I won't do this race again on a road bike, if I do it again at all.

e:
this is the better writeup tbh

Nice work!!

jamal
Apr 15, 2003

I'll set the building on fire
Our, uh, like one road race that's all actually on pavement was today, and was also the state championship again. Kind of a lower turnout because some people went out to tour of walla walla, and also because it's montana and we hardly have any usac road races there was only one cat 1/2 so congrats Kevin on your third state championship in a row. The other fast guys were Ivan and Dan.

My hope for the day was for Ivan and Dan to get away on the climb allowing me to sit in while Kevin did most of the work chasing. But nope, Kevin made it over with those guys despite being pretty big. I hung onto them the longest and then waited up for the next two guys. No one else was even in sight at that point so we had a group of 3- me, Brian, and Eric. We didn't have the power to catch the leaders which included my teammate Ivan so I did actually work to stay ahead of everyone else. At the turn around we were 1:40 behind, 2:00 ahead of the next two, and everyone was pretty spread out in small groups. I was struggling but took my turns and hung on until the end, where I was beaten by both the other guys up the little climb to the finish. Lot of wondering if I'm fat and slow right now or just pretty fatigued from all the work I've been doing at races and on trails.

But great race by Brian, he was really strong today. Since he hadn't done a usac race since like 2017 he was apparently downgraded to cat 4 from 3. Then Ivan, who won, in a sprint with Kevin, is still a cat 3, so I did not repeat my cat 3 state championship, but did get 2nd and 6th overall which I can't complain about too much.

Now I need to actually get some rest and then start doing big weeks to get ready for the butte 100.

Bike was good, thankfully. I hadn't ridden it since trashing it at the last race which was a lot of dirt and mud, and finally got it back together wednesday night. New bottom bracket bearings, new chain, wheel true, freehub service, tires, brake cables, bar tape, and a really thorough cleaning. The lower headset bearing is not so great and clicks I think, but thanks cannondale for having a weird headset.



oh and a cat 3 podium picture



really thinking about getting a haircut. additional fun fact, 3rd place is the guy who crashed in our group at that last road race when he looked back at a bottle he dropped while we were going into a turn.

jamal fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Jun 9, 2021

Literally Lewis Hamilton
Feb 22, 2005



This is my third (3rd) P3 of the season. Always the bridesmaid!!!!



Also I might die. Barely rode on vacation and then back to racing is bad.

Literally Lewis Hamilton fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Jun 12, 2021

TobinHatesYou
Aug 14, 2007

wacky cycling inflatable
tube man
184bpm for 90min is :stonk:

Literally Lewis Hamilton
Feb 22, 2005



It sucked bigly but I wasn’t giving up.

bicievino
Feb 5, 2015

Congrats!!

What was the race?

Literally Lewis Hamilton
Feb 22, 2005



bicievino posted:

Congrats!!

What was the race?

Gravel race out in western PA. No huge climbs, but constantly up and down with basically no flat sections at all. Technically not very challenging. Some sections of loose gravel on top of hard pack made turns a little sketchy.


Today's trip report:

Men's 4/5 road race, ~30 miles. 51 starters. ~75F with a stiff 15mph wind out of the west, which made for a very fast tailwind finish. Open roads but with traffic control at intersections.

Absolute clusterfuck to start. Neutral rollout until we passed a certain street, which I'm honestly not even sure which one it was because the pace was still so absurdly low I thought we hadn't passed it. Lots of guys who are definitely unfamiliar with racing, and probably with even riding in a group. We had guys crossing the double yellow to move up, guys doing the pedal hard then brake combo, not holding anything remotely resembling a line, etc. I got to the start line a little late so I was right near the middle and was stuck in this mess for a bit, moving up a spot here or there as I could. Some guy in a full SS skinsuit with leg warmers, arm warmers, and what appeared to be some sort of aero turtle shell under his kit decided to go for a solo break, which lasted approximately half a mile until he was swallowed up; I never saw him again and he ended up 3rd last. Honestly think he would have been disqualified if he ended up anywhere near the top because he was constantly riding over the center line to move up early on, despite getting yelled at multiple times.

The ultimate winner took off solo after this, and the main group was insanely dysfunctional and consistently refused to do any work. I would rotate up to the front with the couple guys actually taking taking a turn and nobody would ever pull through. I looked down at one point and we were going up a slight "climb" doing like 14mph. As we were close to finishing the first lap, some folks missed the right hand turn and caused some chaos. Nobody went down and luckily no cars were in the oncoming lane because people were all over the place trying to avoid getting taken out. This actually had a positive result for me as it thinned out the herd a bit and broke up the shoulder to shoulder rolling roadblock. I was able to get up near the front of the group now and we picked up the pace. At the start of the 2nd (and final) lap, a guy went off from this group and had about 50m. I bridged up to him and nobody came with me. We wound up riding the entirety of the 2nd lap together, working well to keep the pace high. I had him on the only climb of any note on the course, but it comes early in the lap and I didn't think I had it in me to do a solo effort for the remaining part of the lap, which is mostly flat, into the wind, with one downhill section. We were able to put in a good gap on the main pack, ultimately winding up with nearly a minute.

With a few miles to go I had a slight panic moment when I saw a white helmet behind us fairly close, and thought we were getting caught. Neither of us are big dudes so I knew we'd lose out in a bunch sprint if we got caught. Luckily this helmet was just someone who had ridden down to the course to watch from a side road right after we passed, and they disappeared real fast. At the finish, the other guy opened up his sprint early, I think trying to catch me out since I had slowed the pace a bit since I could tell we weren't getting the leader and we weren't getting caught. I matched his pace and pulled through with just a few meters to go and got him on the line by maybe half a bike length with the throw.

One more race with points like this and I should be able to cat up to a 3 so I can avoid some of these huge fields with a lot of inexperienced riders. The 1/2/3 races nearby also tend to be longer, which is more attractive considering the driving distances to get there.

jamal
Apr 15, 2003

I'll set the building on fire
Last friday XC last night. Last week I didn't ride at all between work and the pro xc. A lot of setup work had to be done plus I spent one entire day building a short bit of new course which was pretty annoying but people seem to like it so that's cool. Then the race days were like 12 hours, but this week I actually got to go ride my bike a bunch finally. Our other main course setup guy wasn't going to be there so I got there a little early thinking I'd be doing everything alone, but Danny showed up which was nice. Which wasn't nice was the mule utility truck being dead after Shaun said he'd go hook up the battery charger. And also he had the keys so I couldn't even jump start it (usually they're locked in the race trailer). Turns out a subaru forester can make it up all the old ski hill roads and is actually more comfortable and has a/c and a radio and whatnot.

Format was a little different for the last one- "XC Enduro" so we had the start line up at the top of the mountain and the finish at the bottom in the usual start, with a little bit of traversing and climbing in the middle to make it about a 15min trip down. Start whenever you want after 2pm. Once I shuttled the dj to the top, I headed back down, got ready, rode up, and took my run. Man, turns out it's pretty hard to go as fast as possible on one downhill run and after I pulled myself off the ground at the finish I had to go into the walk in cooler and eat an ice cream. I had the fastest time so far and then just had to wait around and drink beer. Toby won, then Dan also got me by 30s or so. Dan raced with the pros at the xc and did fairly well, finishing on the lead lap in 29th out of like 65 from the back row. Anyway I held on for 3rd and also by virtue of participating at all the races got 3rd overall in the series. Kind of a nice surprise because I haven't been very happy with my performance this season, and also funny that my one podium was at the downhill race. Guess we know what this new bike is better at; maybe I should try an enduro. I have a gravel race in Helena next weekend so we'll see if that was mostly just fatigue from so much work at the races or if I'm actually fat and slow.

jamal fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Jun 20, 2021

Shadowhand00
Jan 23, 2006

Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.
Toilet Rascal
Can someone explain to me what’s happening with #critbeef? I don’t follow racing that closely but I’ve been watching a bit of L3gion crit videos so was curious.

vikingstrike
Sep 23, 2007

whats happening, captain

Shadowhand00 posted:

Can someone explain to me what’s happening with #critbeef? I don’t follow racing that closely but I’ve been watching a bit of L3gion crit videos so was curious.


https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3900029&pagenumber=167#post515603024

This is mostly correct except the guy who won the pro crit this year isn't a pro MTB guy and Travis never called Justin's championship fake.

Shadowhand00
Jan 23, 2006

Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.
Toilet Rascal

vikingstrike posted:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3900029&pagenumber=167#post515603024

This is mostly correct except the guy who won the pro crit this year isn't a pro MTB guy and Travis never called Justin's championship fake.

Thanks. It was slowly encroaching on multiple feeds over the weekend and I got very curious once I saw the shoving video.

jamal
Apr 15, 2003

I'll set the building on fire
Went to Helena yesterday to race some gravel. Also brought my mtb and booked a spot at this "mtb city" campground geared toward cyclists. It was $20 and a place to put a tent and park a car. I'd never ridden the trails over there but kept hearing good things. I was a little worried there wouldn't be anyone at the race as it's a new event and there was a bunch of other stuff going on this weekend so I didn't want to go all the way over there to just ride with like 6 people. There were at least like 30 or so so not terrible for a montana event and 5-6 other missoulians including Jake, from my other race reports, as well as Meg,. who just did unbound and is going to leadville i think and has a few cool medals at home. Other fast guys I recognized were the two juniors, Matt from kalispelll and that guy Nathan from the roubaix and bearmouth.

Course was an out and back over some hills, for 60mi and about 5500ft of climbing. We went right into a 1400ft climb at the start and I got myself right up there with Jake and the juniors because I didn't want to miss anything. My HR was pretty high pretty early and I was wondering if that was a bad sign or if we were just going fast. Well, I guess the latter because it was just Jake, me, and the two juniors, like 6mi into the race. As we're nearing the crest of the climb Jake goes sprinting away and I'm wondering what he's doing, then look down and see KOM and QOM written on the ground with arrows. So he won $40 there but at least bought me beers after.

Then a descent, some flattish ground and pavement over to the next climb, which we took pretty easy, then rolling, potholed terrain out to the turnaround. Max, one of the juniors, got our pace going pretty good out to the turnaround and then we actually stopped for water and snacks before heading back. We were basically the biggest group on the road with everyone else pretty much alone, so it wasn't hard to stay away. Still, at one point I was on the front and sort of took us through some potholes at like 40mph and then was like "oops I'll chill out a bit" and let Ian, the other junior and a local, lead us back to the smoother ground.

The race finished by going up that first climb the other way and finishing on the other side at the bottom. I thought things had not been super hard up to that but it was warm and lot of climbing and my avg hr for the ride was up there. My right leg started getting some unhappy twinges. Standing a litte and shifting forward a little helped, but then Ian went as we neared the top and I did not get with it. Neither did Jake. Max did, so it was the two of them and the two of us like 20-30s back over the top, taking turns but not really closing ground. Jake has been beating me in mtb races most of the time this year and especially that one time in a sprint so I was really trying to figure out how I was going to beat him. It was a headwind, so my thought was that he had to jump first and I had to get on his wheel and then come around. But then I was on the front and the finish line came out of nowhere and I got 3rd. we both laughed about that. A 1k and 200m sign and a better finish banner would have been kind of nice.

drat kids with their better fitness than I'll ever have



Actually getting a few results this season is nice, although it would have been better to make it over that hill. I probably didn't eat or drink enough and actually had good opportunity to do so. And I've only ridden that bike about 4 times and need to make a few fit tweaks, but overall it's pretty close.


Then it was off to set up camp, and then find some dinner



It's a pretty neat place, there's that big shelter there



Plus a deck, but most importantly showers and power and water and an actual indoor bathroom you can use, and even a washing machine. It's also near a lake and apparently people had been down there swimming before I got back. Only downside is the shitload of train horn noises from the nearby tracks.

For dinner, I took a somewhat circuitous 14mi, 1700ft mtb ride through some of the trails to downtown



I had part of some really disappointing slices of pizza, then ice cream, then on my way back decided I needed to eat more so it was, uh, burger king. Because hardees was closed.

Today I got out for a little bigger MTB ride, it was pretty good, and my lunch was better than last night's dinner, but it definitely will take more than that to figure that place out

This is the mt helena ridge trail, probably the most popular one there, plus i did the two main descents from it to the road.



It's nice not having to set up events, I'm definitely more rested and feeling better than I was a month ago, and just got in two good weeks of riding (last week was 300mi 19hr, 17k ft). Butte 100 is in less than a month so as long as I can kind of keep this going I should be in a decent spot. Also have some wheels coming for the hei hei this week, hoping I can track down an xo1 cassette too plus maybe one of them fancy new fox transfer SL posts, which might get the bike under 26lbs. And I should probably service the suspension.

Oh yeah beer

jamal fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Jun 29, 2021

MrL_JaKiri
Sep 23, 2003

A bracing glass of carrot juice!
No racing because of low level illness/being very busy, but done some upgrades:



A bit better than the "normal rubber band" solution



Just need to tidy up the cables

MrL_JaKiri fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Jun 30, 2021

bicievino
Feb 5, 2015

Those aerocoach bars are hot as gently caress.

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Literally Lewis Hamilton
Feb 22, 2005



I’ve just signed up for my first stage race. 4 mile TT and 45 minute crit day 1, then a 38 mile road race the second day. Should be fun.

I expect to produce a completely poo poo TT.

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