Wind and hills, hills and a crap load of racers.
There were approximately 75++ racers lined up, I got situated at the back. I wasn't too worried because most races start slow on the first few laps and I usually sneak up to the front right away.
The race started and everyone took off, the front line really took off the middle group sat there like a bunch of stumblebums. I could tell right away that this wasn't going to go well, it was going to be really easy to fall off the back and a lot of people were already starting too and it was only the first half of the first lap. It was mayhem, I tried to fight through everyone but the front group was already 200 yards out. I caught Matt and Jason on a hill climb but they weren't feeling too hot and I jumped passed them. I ended up riding by myself for quite awhile chasing down as many riders as I could. I passed more than 30 riders and finally caught a guy from Cuttin' Crew. We worked together for the rest of the race taking turns pulling and chasing down other stragglers. We ended up getting lapped by the pack on the 2nd to last lap. We caught another Cuttin' Crew guy and I thought I was in for trouble that they were going to work together and pass me up, I decided to drop the hammer and start my sprint early up the final hill. It was worth it, I got the jump on them and held them off barely to the line. Overall it wasn't a good day, tactically I made bad decisions by starting towards the end. This assumption made me lose, I was feeling physically strong otherwise.
Never again.
P.S.
Jason and Matt eventually revealed to me that they were worried about my pre-race training tactics the night before. They thought that since I was drinking from a bucket and dancing at Mad Planet until all hours of the morning that this would some how effect my racing abilities. Boy were they wrong. They are both now going to incorporate Mad Planet training into their regiments as well
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Great Dane Criterium #2
Jason and I planned on racing the Cat. 5 race which was only 20 minutes long and then doing the Cat. 4 race which was 35 minutes. We got there late and quickly registered for the Cat. 5 race, we then found out that they would not let us do both races. We were told that we could then go get official Cat. 4 upgrades from an official. We quickly ran over and got little "4" stickers on our licenses, the only downside was that we weren't allowed to then do the Cat. 5 race as well.
So we then found ourselves with an hour to warm-up and get ready. The temperature reached near 75F and sunny, it was beautiful. There were approximately 40 people in our race, Cat. 4 racers only. The course was clockwise with two hill climbs, a downhill, and a flat into the wind. I got lined up in the front row and the race started off slowly, I sat up front for the first few laps and then decided to sit in.
For some stupid reason I kept falling to the back of the pack. Every now and then I would fall off by 10 ft and would have to work to get back in. This kept happening through-out the whole race, and I am not sure why necessarily. I wasn't extremely tired, just one of those days really....
I stayed attached to pack for the whole race and hung until the last half lap and everyone took off and I missed the jump. A lot of other riders also missed the jump and fell off the back as well. I started my final sprint early and passed a bunch of riders, and was chasing down the pack. I saw that Jason fell off the back as well, I set my sights on him. I kicked it hard and snuck passed him with only 3 feet to go before the line. Overall it was strange race, since there weren't any new racers in the pack everyone stayed safe and fairly quiet. It was a good race to be a part of, the pace was fast and I should have payed better attention through-out the race.
So we then found ourselves with an hour to warm-up and get ready. The temperature reached near 75F and sunny, it was beautiful. There were approximately 40 people in our race, Cat. 4 racers only. The course was clockwise with two hill climbs, a downhill, and a flat into the wind. I got lined up in the front row and the race started off slowly, I sat up front for the first few laps and then decided to sit in.
For some stupid reason I kept falling to the back of the pack. Every now and then I would fall off by 10 ft and would have to work to get back in. This kept happening through-out the whole race, and I am not sure why necessarily. I wasn't extremely tired, just one of those days really....
I stayed attached to pack for the whole race and hung until the last half lap and everyone took off and I missed the jump. A lot of other riders also missed the jump and fell off the back as well. I started my final sprint early and passed a bunch of riders, and was chasing down the pack. I saw that Jason fell off the back as well, I set my sights on him. I kicked it hard and snuck passed him with only 3 feet to go before the line. Overall it was strange race, since there weren't any new racers in the pack everyone stayed safe and fairly quiet. It was a good race to be a part of, the pace was fast and I should have payed better attention through-out the race.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Menomonee Falls
Saturday was an early start and drive out to Menomonee Falls park. This criterium planned by Team Trocadero was to race around the park roads, a 1.9 mile loop that was all flat with one 90 degree turn and all the others were gentle left turns. Jason, teal, and I rolled up and found to our surprise Ben VC, Henry, Chris, and Andrew. We were all excited to have 7 Pegasi racing in this course.
There was a lot of pre-race talk of various tactics, the plan we settled on was on lap three to lead a Pega-break-away and hope for the best. Everyone got lined up for the start, just a bit under 60 riders. Some familiar faces/bike/jerseys were there. The race got off to a decent start no-one trying anything crazy but the speed was high. The usual new kids went off in a sprint ahead of the pack and burned themselves out never to be seen again.
The first few laps were fairly uneventful, nothing crazy was happening just yet. Towards the end of the second lap, I jumped near the front and got a good position to hopefully set something up for the planned third lap. After we crossed the line and started the third lap the pace picked up a little. I then jumped and took off with Chris, Henry, and a few others in pursuit. I was really pushing it averaging 28.5 mph and much to my own dismay the pack was still only 20 ft behind and not falling back any further, we tried this for about a mile and then decided to sit-up and just sit in with the pack. Nothing was going to get away today.
The pace stayed high through-out the rest of the race, the pack stayed together the entire way and no-one got out ahead. As we were heading into the last lap, I was sitting in the middle of the pack conserving energy to hopefully sprint it out at the end.
Through-out the race I had been taking note of what corners were generally more open to hopefully bridge up to the front on. Since the course was counter clockwise the right side of the pack tended to be a little more open than the left. I decided to move out to the right to hopefully work up to the front to get into a good final position for the end. I began to move out and decided to sit right behind Jason. I sat there for about a minute and then yelled something to the effect of "The right side will open up and I'll take it." Meaning I wanted him to let me in and I wanted him to jump on my wheel to lead us up to the front and set up for the end. There was a misunderstanding and he thought I meant that I wanted him to stay there. I ended up getting stuck out of the far right side and got pinched off on the final turn going into the final sprint because of it. I kicked out the sprint and passed a few guys to finish ride behind a group of Pegasi. We took 24th-28th, Henry got 5th, Chris pinch flatted his wheel and Ben's body disagreed with him but still fought out a good finish.
For a generally smooth, safe turning course there was a lot of squirrlyness from various riders. There were maybe only a handful of BAD riders that were just scary to be around. A lot of people were getting pushed off the side of course onto the gravel or grass and some people would purposely ride through the grass. I learned the importance of clear communication between teammates.
Chris and Henry leading the pack around the corner.
Jason training for cyclocross season
Kind of hilarious crash from the Cat 3 race, towards the end you see their bikes are somehow stuck together... Everyone walked away with only minor road rash.
EDIT:: Matt wanted me to mention that I ran him off the road at one point and made him go cyclocross style. This wasn't entirely my fault, all the people next to me, swung hard and I had to go that way too, I had less than 1 inch of pavement left myself and to Matt's demise he was next to me.
There was a lot of pre-race talk of various tactics, the plan we settled on was on lap three to lead a Pega-break-away and hope for the best. Everyone got lined up for the start, just a bit under 60 riders. Some familiar faces/bike/jerseys were there. The race got off to a decent start no-one trying anything crazy but the speed was high. The usual new kids went off in a sprint ahead of the pack and burned themselves out never to be seen again.
The first few laps were fairly uneventful, nothing crazy was happening just yet. Towards the end of the second lap, I jumped near the front and got a good position to hopefully set something up for the planned third lap. After we crossed the line and started the third lap the pace picked up a little. I then jumped and took off with Chris, Henry, and a few others in pursuit. I was really pushing it averaging 28.5 mph and much to my own dismay the pack was still only 20 ft behind and not falling back any further, we tried this for about a mile and then decided to sit-up and just sit in with the pack. Nothing was going to get away today.
The pace stayed high through-out the rest of the race, the pack stayed together the entire way and no-one got out ahead. As we were heading into the last lap, I was sitting in the middle of the pack conserving energy to hopefully sprint it out at the end.
Through-out the race I had been taking note of what corners were generally more open to hopefully bridge up to the front on. Since the course was counter clockwise the right side of the pack tended to be a little more open than the left. I decided to move out to the right to hopefully work up to the front to get into a good final position for the end. I began to move out and decided to sit right behind Jason. I sat there for about a minute and then yelled something to the effect of "The right side will open up and I'll take it." Meaning I wanted him to let me in and I wanted him to jump on my wheel to lead us up to the front and set up for the end. There was a misunderstanding and he thought I meant that I wanted him to stay there. I ended up getting stuck out of the far right side and got pinched off on the final turn going into the final sprint because of it. I kicked out the sprint and passed a few guys to finish ride behind a group of Pegasi. We took 24th-28th, Henry got 5th, Chris pinch flatted his wheel and Ben's body disagreed with him but still fought out a good finish.
For a generally smooth, safe turning course there was a lot of squirrlyness from various riders. There were maybe only a handful of BAD riders that were just scary to be around. A lot of people were getting pushed off the side of course onto the gravel or grass and some people would purposely ride through the grass. I learned the importance of clear communication between teammates.
Chris and Henry leading the pack around the corner.
Jason training for cyclocross season
Kind of hilarious crash from the Cat 3 race, towards the end you see their bikes are somehow stuck together... Everyone walked away with only minor road rash.
EDIT:: Matt wanted me to mention that I ran him off the road at one point and made him go cyclocross style. This wasn't entirely my fault, all the people next to me, swung hard and I had to go that way too, I had less than 1 inch of pavement left myself and to Matt's demise he was next to me.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
SUPER CRITERIUM
Today was the most beautiful weather that has been seen around these parts in a long time. The drive to South Beloit, Illinois was a nice one filled with sunshine and 64 degrees. Jason and I rolled up to Blackhawk Farms Raceway and were nicely greeted by the organizers. We found parking next to fellow Pegasi Ben, Aaron, and Henry who were already starting to spin for their warm-ups.
Jason and I got registered and then joined in the spinning warm-up, we both were feeling pretty good and the sunshine helped. We were able to get one lap in before the start of the race. Since it is a motorcycle race course all the corners are wide and high speed, the course was incredibly smooth with only a few ripples in spots.
Everyone lined up; the field was maxed out at 75 people. I got lined up near the front right where I wanted to be. We rolled out at a fairly quick pace and everyone quickly filed into position. Since this was a training criterium there were a lot of new racers and they were scary. On the first lap there was already a pretty bad crash. Everyone was braking heavily around each corner and then bumping off each other constantly.
A group of four people jumped off the front very quickly and were distancing the peloton, I saw this happening and knew that some of the riders in the break were strong and could make it stick. I jumped hard and caught them pretty quickly but as I got up to them they all sat up and decided to drop back into the peloton. It seemed like nothing was going to stick this day, people were just to squirrly. There were two primes but no-one really seemed too interested in winning the pack of powerade. There were more many more crashes that happened through-out the race and some of them were quite bad. The closest I came to crashing was when someone dropped a water bottle and the guy from Cuttin Crew next to me hit it hard and exploded it all over the place and almost went down. As we were approaching the final turns to head into the finish I was sitting in a good position right behind Jason. We were about 20th or so and I was planning on doing a really strong lead-out with Jason on my tail and sling-shot him up. As we were heading into the second to the last turn the guy next to cut in really sharp and pushed me off the course onto the side. I ended up losing about 20 possessions because of it. I was pretty upset by this and tried to make it up in the final spring I ended up finishing 35th right with Ben VC and right behind Jason and Aaron.
Congratulations go to Henry for getting 3rd place!! Over all it turned out to be a strong showing from the Pega-crew. We weren't able to really work together to make anything happen but overall everyone made a really strong showing. Afterwards we hung out for awhile with the people from Pegasus, Half-Acre, and a few others to watch the other races. The hard part about racing is that it is hard to get pictures, here are a few pictures I grabbed from the Cat 3 race, it kind of sums up the days worth of crashing.
Jason and I got registered and then joined in the spinning warm-up, we both were feeling pretty good and the sunshine helped. We were able to get one lap in before the start of the race. Since it is a motorcycle race course all the corners are wide and high speed, the course was incredibly smooth with only a few ripples in spots.
Everyone lined up; the field was maxed out at 75 people. I got lined up near the front right where I wanted to be. We rolled out at a fairly quick pace and everyone quickly filed into position. Since this was a training criterium there were a lot of new racers and they were scary. On the first lap there was already a pretty bad crash. Everyone was braking heavily around each corner and then bumping off each other constantly.
A group of four people jumped off the front very quickly and were distancing the peloton, I saw this happening and knew that some of the riders in the break were strong and could make it stick. I jumped hard and caught them pretty quickly but as I got up to them they all sat up and decided to drop back into the peloton. It seemed like nothing was going to stick this day, people were just to squirrly. There were two primes but no-one really seemed too interested in winning the pack of powerade. There were more many more crashes that happened through-out the race and some of them were quite bad. The closest I came to crashing was when someone dropped a water bottle and the guy from Cuttin Crew next to me hit it hard and exploded it all over the place and almost went down. As we were approaching the final turns to head into the finish I was sitting in a good position right behind Jason. We were about 20th or so and I was planning on doing a really strong lead-out with Jason on my tail and sling-shot him up. As we were heading into the second to the last turn the guy next to cut in really sharp and pushed me off the course onto the side. I ended up losing about 20 possessions because of it. I was pretty upset by this and tried to make it up in the final spring I ended up finishing 35th right with Ben VC and right behind Jason and Aaron.
Congratulations go to Henry for getting 3rd place!! Over all it turned out to be a strong showing from the Pega-crew. We weren't able to really work together to make anything happen but overall everyone made a really strong showing. Afterwards we hung out for awhile with the people from Pegasus, Half-Acre, and a few others to watch the other races. The hard part about racing is that it is hard to get pictures, here are a few pictures I grabbed from the Cat 3 race, it kind of sums up the days worth of crashing.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Training
Twice a week Jason and I have been doing interval type training. Tuesday nights are devoted to sprintervals along Lincoln Memorial drive, we start at the Art Museum and do 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off all the way until the top of the hill near Kenwood blvd. This usually get pretty brutal towards the end; the 30 second recovery goes by fast. We have been doing these for a number of weeks and I feel like it has made me a lot stronger of a rider. I feel that my body is able to recover more quickly than it ever has.
On Thursday nights we have been hitting the hills, basically soft pedaling to all the hills along Lincoln Memorial and hitting all of them as hard as we can (sometimes standing and sometimes spinning). This tends to take more out of me than the Tuesday night sprints, since I am a bit larger it takes a lot of energy to carry myself up the hill. Recently I switched to a FSA SLK compact crankset and am never going back. The 5o tooth chainring in the front is perfect for my high cadence styles. The 34 tooth inner ring is really small though and I might replace it with a 36 tooth.
This Saturday is the kick-off to the Wisconsin Road Series in Sheboygan, it is the Evergreen Criterium which is listed as a 1 mile loop with a steep finish......hopefully training pays off.
On Thursday nights we have been hitting the hills, basically soft pedaling to all the hills along Lincoln Memorial and hitting all of them as hard as we can (sometimes standing and sometimes spinning). This tends to take more out of me than the Tuesday night sprints, since I am a bit larger it takes a lot of energy to carry myself up the hill. Recently I switched to a FSA SLK compact crankset and am never going back. The 5o tooth chainring in the front is perfect for my high cadence styles. The 34 tooth inner ring is really small though and I might replace it with a 36 tooth.
This Saturday is the kick-off to the Wisconsin Road Series in Sheboygan, it is the Evergreen Criterium which is listed as a 1 mile loop with a steep finish......hopefully training pays off.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)