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Where are your RR's?

Thanks everyone! State RR this weekend, finishes with a 7 mile climb...

Yeah! Share your pain!

I'll update later today.   Got 2 more that I need to post for. 

Alright so I need to update you guys with a few races:

Carl Dolan: http://app.strava.com/activities/48864189

2.1 mile loop around an office park with a single open right hand turn that hits a long down hill (1k from s/f line) which then hits the hill roughly 3-4% climb for about 400-500ms. Consisted of 8 laps of this 2.1 mile course

Started out near the front and from the Gun got to the front of the pack to pick up a decent pace.  Myself and another teammate controlled the pace for the first lap and a half or so.  On the second lap there was an attack on the right hand side and the pack let it go for a bit.  Knowing this rider wasn't one of the stronger riders he was quickly pulled back. 

Much of the race consisted of the group maintaining a consistent pace through the lap, bombing the downhill and then trying to hammer it up the uphill. This uphill is where some attacked tried to happen.  Myself and another teammate played duty to bridge the pack back.  Needless to say we both got a bit tired pulling a majority of the pack back.  

Near the middle lap 4 or 5 I made a small attack on the hill to just keep the pace up and see what would happen, since I came out of the downhill with a good bit of speed.  I redlined a bit, pulled to the right and watched the pack move by me at a consistent clip.  I thought my race was over at that point.  The pack started to slowly pull away and I dug pretty deep to pull back into the peloton in about 1/2 of a mile.  I recovered for the next two laps and began to make my way up to the front again.  

With about 2 to go the pace picked up considerably but I still wasn't in a good enough position to not have to hit my breaks going into the right hand turn.  (This is one thing I'm excited to not have happen in the Cat 4 races).  So I would loose a lot of speed as the rest of the pack infront of us kept up with a consistent pace.

Bell lap, pace picked up again, charged down the downhill and into the final sprint up the hill.  Of course as always guys tried to begin their sprint WAYYY too early and blew up.  We had a few teammates further up the hill and I just tried to dodge my way through the pack and sat up coming in around 25th (mid pack).  

All in all I was happy with my results but spent too much time up front and tried to do a bit too much work.  Lesson learned obviously that I can sit upfront a good bit and keep the pace of the faster guys but need to sit maybe 3-4 wheels back in order to get out of the wind.

Other race reports coming later.

Nice job finishing with the pack. When you're hurting, just doing that is an accomplishment!

It's hard to stay off the front sometimes, isn't it?

Race: All American Road Race (Cat 5) (Final Cat 5 race too!) (Insert Strava Link)

Course: 2x(8 mile loops)..yes only 16 miles (of roughly 200-300 ft of total climbing) and slight rolling hills

Goals: Being my last Cat 5 race and having 1-2 main sprinters the goal was to stay in the front and cover any attack for the race. As always keep the wheels down and have everyone get across the finish line safely.

Weather: Cool 40-45 and breezy (head wind on River Road). Much of the course is in the woods so protected from the wind until about 2.5-3 miles until the Finish. A few potholes and wet areas from the rain the night before

Set up:Giant TCR Composite, No arm warmers, tights and wool socks

Nutrition: 1 single bottle of water. Not much needed just to keep mouth from getting dry.

Race: Lined up to the front and headed out in the beginning in the front controlling the pace and making sure my team was able to stay near the front. After about .5 to a mile I slowed up to have more teams do work on the front. While staying in the first few guys people got a bit antsy with the slow pace and there was a slight attack up the right side, which I covered pretty well and pulled a majority of my team back up to.

Hit the turn into the wind and I make a small attack to the far left just to see if anyone would jump. I go for about 75-100 yards (at 75-80%) and turn around with no one on my wheel. So I sit up, get some water, catch my breath and wait for the pack to swarm me up. I didn’t want to be up front during this portion of the race so I decided to sit near the back. I come through the finish line seeing how the sprint would be with the wind.

Second lap was a bit of the same, sat near the back and had a few attacks with 4-5 miles left in the race. One attack really dropped a bit of the group and I noticed this when I was about 15^{th wheel of 20-25 guys and turn around to see the moto ref right behind us. A bit surprised I moved up to a better postion to not get dropped.}

We hit the wind again on the long straight turn and the pace dropped considerably. Wind was probably 15-20 now and people would try to attack up the side with no success. About .5 miles until the last turn into the finishing chute people got excited again and the pace picked up. I move up a bit and hit the last turn. Pace picks up again and people hit their sprints WAY too early as always. I move up about 8-10 spaces and try to hit that next gear. Don’t have it. Legs are a bit tired from being in the back during some of the later attacks. I head in at 16th place with teammates getting 1, 3, 6, 9, 11, and me 16. Some more guys behind that but got dropped on the attacks in the back.

All in all a good final race and was happy with my result. Wish I was a bit further in the front during the last attack to come into the final turn in a better positon.

Cat 4 upgrade was approved Monday and I have the Bunny Hop crit in a week and a half.

Whoah dude! Major Roadie foul! Legs ALWAYS naked before arms!

Nice racing, you did what you needed to do. Congrats on your upgrade!

Ha, legs always get cold first, and upper body always gets hot.  

Thanks!

Addison Racefest Road Race, Addison New York - May 4, 2013

Not a USAC sanctioned race, open, 30 miles with a 5 mile neutral rolling start

http://app.strava.com/activities/52333165

During the rolling start, there was a lot of jockeying for position but I managed to stay at the front with the members of my club. When we hit the official start, the pace picked up and quickly things got a little strung out. I found myself third from the front with two teammates in front of me. Not where I wanted to be but I knew that one of them wanted to go off the front from the start so the three of us pushed up the pace and got a gap, then I sagged back to the group to let him go and get a real gap. He got about a 3/4 mile gap on the field soloing. There was a slight but long climb after this and I stayed up near the front about 13 to 18 back as we started to reel him in.

He got some more ground on a small downhill coming into a 90 degree right hander that lead straight into the first real climb at mile 8. As we were coming up to the turn, the group realized my teammate was caught, I counterattacked on the inside got a decent gap, nailed the corner with minimal braking and attacked the climb. 4 went with me and 3 stuck with the break over the climb. We put decent distance between us and the main group. we extended our lead as 4 until about mile 16.5. I hadn't gotten a good reco of the course and didn't know it well. I stupidly did a bunch of work on a descent trying to run down one of the guys that went off the front on the main climb of the and got dropped by all three of them when I hit a punchy, short, steep hill at the bottom of the descent. I found myself in the wind, alone in no man's land in fourth, with no clue how far the peloton was from catching me for the next 11 or so miles.

Coming up on the finish at about mile 26 I saw a chasing group in the distance and I wasn't sure if I could outrun them. I decided to give it a mile and if they gained on me I would drop back and catch my legs for the sprint. I quickly became apparent that they were going to catch me well before the finish anyway, so I sat up and got on their train with 2 miles to go. I minimized my time at the front and recovered for a mile and a half before people started making moves. I wish I had a POV video of the finish because it happened so fast but I ended up skipping from wheel to wheel as moves were made for the sprint finish and with 30 yards to go I found myself set up well and I managed to win the field sprint by blasting through the gutter for 4th overall and 1st in my age group.  This was my first race of the year and the first time I've raced where I was conditioned enough to be competitive. so over all I was very happy with my result. I have a feeling with experience, and a proper reco of the course at my next race, things will be getting better.

Our club was hosting a 40k Team TT, but I used it as an opportunity to train as I have a HIM coming up and needed mileage so I planned to do the course twice.  Once starting about 10 minutes before the first team and I treated it like an ITT, then again just to get in mileage.  I would have raced as a team, but I wouldn't have been able to race twice and I didn't feel like crashing considering I would have been racing with guys I rarely ride with.

Course is pretty much pancake flat along the shore which is where the State 40k ITT championships will be held next month...so great practice.  Weather had some light rain on about 10 miles of the course, but there was almost no wind this morning where normally there's a 15-20 mph wind.

Started out conservatively and just tried to stay low.  Averaged 257 watts to the turnaround at 29:01.  Coming back there was just the slightest headwind.  Breathing was under control and legs never really felt like fading as I slowly applied more power.  Averaged 267 watts on the way back, including 286 the last 8 minutes and finished in 58:14 without digging too deep into the hurt locker.

Possibly could have pushed 7-10 watts higher if I tapered, but this was a training weekend and made sure to get my LR in yesterday.  Felt great to race slighly below the redline and finish with more power.  Too times in TTs I start way too hard, go over the red line early, and can never recover on the course.

First time under an hour, even though it was unofficial.  Should be able to make it official next month at the ITT 40k.

No one else is racing?

Just bad timing for me with races, nothing happening on days I have free, and all the good races are when I have 50 family things going on over the weekend.