Another fast crit, this time with a hill in it and a 3pm start time meant lots of heat coming off the road.
Today saw another 100 man field in Cat III. The start was delayed due to morning thunderstorms backing things up. I thought they were running 45 minutes behind. Ended up being only about 5 minutes… I heard the start of the prerace instructions and hustled to the start which was hard due to barricades. So I ended up nearly back row. My start was really bad with pedal issues (my biggest issue generally). So I spent the first 20 minutes moving up. Once at the front, I jumped with a half hearted break, but all was coming back on this course with this field.
The race was swarm, recover position, and repeat. In the end, it didn’t work out, so I ended up 33rd. The payout for these races are so good that these results are giving me great USA cycling points for whatever that is worth (yeah, last night was posted already).
Tomorrow’s race is supposed to be harder with a tougher hill. The heat and the hill took there toll today. Only two wrecks that I saw out there. Today only had 64 finishers, so it is getting where I like it. [Our average speed was a moderately quick 25.5 mph for the race...]
Andrea finished better today, she got into the money with a 19th. It was an NRC crit so that is great result.
I don’t have any photos of the Cat III (blame the schedule since my would-be photag was warming up for her race). I was able to get some photos of the Womens P-1-2 race [photos here].
[photo of the women's P12 field going up the slight grade...Polar said it was only 16 feet up @ 3%...so I guess wasn't much of a hill..we typically averaged 24 mph up it...]
Last night raced the Friday night crit at Tulsa Tough crits. In the Cat III race, we had a field of 100+ at the start so field position was important. I had a 2nd row start and got off the line quickly, but was lined out around 70th on the first lap due to dodging some bad starters on the front row. I basically spent the race moving up 5 at a time and avoiding crashes. I saw about 5 of them and had to make drastic moves to stay out of one with piles of riders in front of me.
At 5 laps to go the pace quickened and I was able to move up from mid field some, but ended up 38th of 76 finishers. Not a great result, but I felt good and was mostly constrained by nerve and circumstance. I have two more shots and I plan to get more aggressive the next two days.
Purse for the cat 3 races are 2 for Friday and Saturday and 3 thousand for Sunday all 20 deep so the compettion is tough. The cat 3 purse with the ominium bonus is more than our race for all categories.
Andrea’s race followed mine, so she was warming up. Here is the best of a couple of shots from a course-side trainer. I am in the pack under the banner.
Here are the photos that Andrea and I were able to take:
Took a look at last years results on USA cycling:
Lots of starters, only half were scored as finishing for most of the events… I am guessing those DNF’s are pulled riders. I am feeling good going into this weekend, so I should be able to stay out of the DNF category and maybe even get into the money (20 deep)!
After racing the previous three weekend, it has been good to stay back in Memphis this weekend. Next week is Tulsa Tough (3 one-hour crits). So this week, it was back to the usual local rides. Tuesday and Thursday did the RB’s – BPAC double which riding to/from is good for about 50 miles. Saturday, Andrea and I showed up at the RB’s B-ride. I decided to assemble my Ridley ‘cross bike and ride it with the Michelin Mud 2’s pumped up to 75 psig. The bike rolls fairly well at max inflation but makes a lot of noise… ;-P
Sunday, did the Germantown out-and-back from the Outdoors ride. A good group showed up including all the original Memphis Velo cat III team (newly upgraded III’s weren’t there). We didn’t drill it as a group too much, but we had some moments coming back in on N. Watkins and on Mud Island to the Auction Street bridge. On the way out to store I made a long pull through the woods and up the hill… sweeping down through the twisty woods with a group in tow is a good feeling. Lots of fun, too. I am feeling good in general and now have to start thinking how to setup for this weekend.
Here is the plan. Friday, get up and leave Memphis for Tulsa. Get there around 3pm (6-7 hour drive probably). My first race is that evening at 6:45pm. It looks like that one may only be 40 minutes given the schedule. Saturday looks to be about an hour at 3pm. Sunday is also about an hour at 10 to noon.
The way I see it I have two choices…. ride hard on Tuesday (GPAC?), take Wednesday off / easy (TT bike?), and the go short on Thursday with some short tune up efforts. The other plan would be ride easier on Tuesday (RB’s or even Bike’s Plus), take Wednesday off, and then do BPAC aggressively on Thursday. I have done both plans in the past with good success, I think. Since this weekend is a set of crits, I don’t think I have to worry too much about wearing myself out, but instead need to stay sharp. Weather might also play its hand in this since I think it is showing PM thunderstorms the next several days due to the humidity / temperature
After this weekend, I am taking Memorial Day off from racing and focusing on Tulsa Tough criteriums the weekend after (5/30 – 6/1/08).
I laid out the course on a map to show how cool an event this will be…
The registration list for the Cat III’s is already showing at 50… Probably will be close to the field limit of 100 by the time the races start…
My time yesterday put me 4th in the TT. Since most of the climbers, save one aren’t TT artists, that put me in 7th going into the crit. Overnight, Andrea was tied for 1st with one of her teammates in the overall.
Unfortunately, once again strength in numbers did me in in the crit. About 20 minutes into the race a break of 7 went that including all the teams. I happened to be nearer the back than the front when it went as I cycled through the pack. Earlier breaks were brought back and there were many surges. I was in the mix early on, but for most of the race it was my and some others jobs to pull and cover the breaks. After pulling through the corners I would look back and see 5 or 6 behind that had teammates in the break. I was trapped.
Like the road race the deck was heavily stacked against me with the dominance of a few teams. I am not sure where my exact place was in the crit, but I was probably around 13th. They had posted the overall showing that I dropped back to 12th (no crit points).
I am glad I came out here despite my final result. The weather was beautiful and staying at the lodge was a great experience. Andrea ended up 3rd with her teammate in 2nd after the 3rd placed rider took first in the crit.
Photos are up at: [Women] [Cat 3] [Cat P/1/2] <haven’t done the P/1/2 library yet.
Only 25 Cat 3’s lined up but you can bet all were climbers……
Road race starts on Mt. Magazine, descend down, loops around 61 miles, and finishes with a 5 mile climb back up the mountain.
I got into a break at about 10 miles and stayed away with several others (the composition changed over the course of the break) for about 15 miles. After the catch, attacks were popping off like crazy since the race was dominated by two northwest Arkansas teams, Accelerade and Tyson with probably 11-12 between them. Somewhere in there the magic break that included those teams went. I tried all sorts of things from bridging to chasing to organizing the rest (only a few seemed to even care), but in the end the field didn’t want it. The break had 5 minutes at base of the climb. Lots of rested legs meant I was pretty much screwed coming into the climb. I couldn’t hang with the group.and ended up riding up the climb with another guy conversational pace since our place was locked. I ended up 18th.
In the afternoon, only about 5 hours later, we had to race a 22 mile TT. The terrain for this is pretty much like the Sparta TN state TT course in that is moderately rolling. I ended up rolling a 49:44 (self timed) which is just under 25 mph (which was my target). I don’t know where that puts me, but I am happy with my run especially after this morning.
Tomorrow is a late afternoon crit in Van Buren. Hopefully I scored some points on the TT (top 10 gets points for ominum).
The cool thing about this weekend is the hotel. The Mt. Magazine lodge is nice. The hours between the RR and TT saw our room getting heavy use as most of Team Kenda were laying around recuperating. Andrea did well in the RR netting a 3rd place (albeit due to the two leaders going off course at the top…you gotta know the course..this one was not complicated). Her team is in pretty good shape, but a lot will depend on how they stacked up in the TT (don’t know at this point).
Andrea and I returned to Mt. Magazine today to compete in the Tour of Arkansas [I apologize for the video intro, they should allow you to link around it, but they don't...] which starts/finishes at the lodge on top tomorrow morning. Last time we were here (with Mark and Jarret), it was about 30F and gloomy… that was back in February. The course the route takes tomorrow will be somewhat familar since we rode Paris-Mt Magazine-Havana-Mt Mag – Paris last time… this time we will be starting on the mountain and going down to Paris and looping around to climb up from the Havana side (south side).
I booked a room at the lodge for tonight and I now realize I might have made a mistake in only booking one night… our crits are late (hers is the earliest at 11am), so I requested to stay another night…on the waiting list since they are full. Our room overlooks the valley below and the lodge is beautiful inside… sort of clean rustic look. It is $134/night, but I would gladly pay for another night it is so nice up here.
Andrea and I also rode around after we got here to remind ourselves of the last couple miles… It is a much better circumstance than last time when we were borderline hypothermic. I am glad we rode to loosen up the legs and to notice that my headset it loosening up as well! I tightened it after Brookhaven (about 3 weeks ago) and didn’t notice anything until today… I rode it the rain, maybe that had something to do with it? I took it back to the car and re-tightened it and it held well for the riding around that followed (albeit not that much). I will check it tonight to see if it is still good…
After riding up the last couple miles, we looped back to check out the overlook. We took some photos….
and after she knocked my bike over….
Raced the Cat 3 ominium at McMinnville (Highland Rim Cycling Classic).
RR: Just missed catching on the chase group, ended up coming in with the 2nd chase group for 25th. There was about 12 or so in that group.
TT: Rode a decent effort and got up the hill in 14:06 which was good enough for 18th (of 36). Andrea bettered me by 6 seconds… that is a little embarrassing…but not too bad since that is also true for 1/2 the Cat 3’s….
Crit: Never really found my groove in this technical crit. I was gapped off the back pretty quick and rode the course with a handful of others as I clawed back people popping off the field. I ended up 19th (only 17 of the 30 or so finished with the field).
The course has one corner in particular that drops away that I never felt comfortable on. I probably would have been better off running my clincher rims because the uneasiness taking corners and wind buffeting the rims didn’t help either… David Jones and John Schmidt finished with the field with David taking 7th.
Andrea and I took a lot of photos:
Andrea has been showing me “FAIL” pictures for a while and point out numerous “FAIL” circumstances in real life. I don’t know why I clicked on it, but this one was pretty funny.
I love the further description… “not very friendly”….
http://failblog.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/taxonomy-fail/
