|
MrL_JaKiri posted:For the 15 miler: basically the same story except I threw up 10 miles in Pacing a 15-miler sounds awful. How far over threshold do you aim?
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2022 17:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 06:48 |
|
|
bicievino posted:Pacing a 15-miler sounds awful. How far over threshold do you aim? Not sure of my FTP on the TT bike, so went out doing what I'd do for a 10 miler and did my best to hang on. That's the scientific approach.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2022 17:47
|
|
|
MrL_JaKiri posted:For the 15 miler: basically the same story except I threw up 10 miles in Great plan to lose weight before the climb. bicievino posted:Pacing a 15-miler sounds awful. How far over threshold do you aim? The national circuit TT championship is an 11.4 mile course. Everyone gets it wrong.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2022 18:40
|
|
|
serious gaylord posted:Great plan to lose weight before the climb. Is it the same circuit every year? That's kinda rad. Also, lol, is throwing up mid-way negative splitting your weight?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2022 19:22
|
|
|
bicievino posted:Is it the same circuit every year? That's kinda rad. Its been at Thruxton for like 7-8 nears now I think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AkYewIJ89A Its on a race track around an airfield and is always blowing an absolute gale. Also you have to remember to count your laps right and pull into the pits on the last lap for the finish otherwise you get DQ'd. This happens a lot more than you'd expect.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2022 21:51
|
|
|
serious gaylord posted:Its been at Thruxton for like 7-8 nears now I think. poo poo, I literally lost count in my *kilo* at nationals last year. In my defense, my home track is a 400m and nationals was on a 333m, but I still felt pretty dumb thinking I was finished with another half-lap to go. No oxygen wasted on brain cells.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2022 22:25
|
|
|
My first TT since injury was meant to be tomorrow but after successfully dodging the rona for 2 years it finally got me. I'd even cleaned the bike and everything.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2022 12:17
|
|
|
Did a 3 day gravel event, the Montana Gravel Challenge. But also I worked at it and did all the course marking and stuff so that made everything quite a bit harder. Day one was a 15mi out and back TT, on dirt. But pretty smooth dirt so I took the road bike with some fresh tubeless GP5000s. I started last after working all day, and then immediately got a pinch flat on the first descent on the roughest part of the course. It sealed but I had to stop and add air, which was made more complicated due to my skin suit with no pockets. Thankfully I did bring a tube and co2, but strapped to my saddle rails so I had to unwrap everything and get the co2 out and then wrap it all back up since I couldn't just shove it all in a pocket. The other days I did keep a co2 and a plug kit handy in my pocket. So that put me a solid 3-4 min off the top of the leaderboard and I didn't particularly feel that great, but looking at the strava segments along the course I was 2nd to the top of the first hill and then tied for 3rd on part of the return so that made me feel slightly better. 15/40 with the flat, I probably would have been in the top 5 otherwise. Then after cleaning up and rearranging course signs I went home and got everything ready for the next day and barely got any sleep. Day 2 was the longest one and the most complicated course, making a ~55mi loop and going down this rough dirt road along the river. I was pretty worried about this section and decided the 40mm vittoria terreno zero slicks weren't the right idea after my experiences getting little cuts on basically nothing the week before. I went with my G-one Rs, and then put in vittoria inserts and that new fancy silca sealant. I didn't get a flat, but also couldn't hang with the lead group and got dropped on the 2nd short climb on the dirt road section. I got into the next group and we just kept going by people with flats and losing people. I hit some poo poo really hard at high speed and the inserts seemed to do the job. I managed to get 11th out of 50 guys in the "competitive" category (there was also recreation class), but felt pretty bad the whole time and then had to wait around for sweep and set up the Sunday course. I went home exhausted and feeling terrible and kind of decided to not even race the 3rd day but was home early enough to lay on the couch for awhile, get everything organized the next day, and then sleep for like 8 hours almost probably. Vs about 4 the night before. So I felt a little better the next morning and did race. This time we did our traditional "road" circuit out there, which is part dirt. But it's still more of a road race so I took that bike and once I got through the rough part that caused friday's flat in the huge bunch going really fast I was happy to be on it. Not a very exciting race, 4 10 mile laps plus the lead in with a little climb on dirt at the end of each one. But we kept a group of 20+ together and I was not all that interested in trying to get a break going and just kind of chilled out. Too far back at the base of the final climb and watch the sprint go away, wound up 8th? But didn't feel quite as lovely as saturday and then we were cleaned up and out of there fairly early in the day. So yeah anyway I'm tired and working at these things means I'm not exactly "racing." Plus I feel like after a pretty good start to the season over the winter on zwift I haven't been doing poo poo to train for the last month or two. Two weeks we have our first friday XC race out of 6 and then a road race that weekend. jamal fucked around with this message at 15:38 on May 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2022 22:54
|
|
|
Won my first gravel race, albeit my age group. Did the race with two friends in my age group and another 1 age group higher. We actually arrived early for a change and got on the 2nd row. This year it’s a mass start and there were 520 riders registered so it’s an absolute nightmare if you want to be competitive and get stuck in the back since it basically goes up a hill right away. I was with two friends into the first climb and it was super sketchy as always. A lot of people going backward while people were trying to move around them on the right hand side of the road. Someone must have spotted the cop car ahead closing off the intersection so a bunch of guys went over the double yellow and tried to move up that way which only contributed to the general chaos as it’s a hard left turn. I was with the lead group through the first climb and descent. The second climb is a KOM with some money on the line but I didn’t want to blow myself up early so I stayed with the pack when two guys went for it. This climb was a sustained 15%+ and it was going fine for me until someone started doing a paper boy type ascent and we bumped. I put a foot down and then was stuck trying to run up the hill to keep pace. I managed to remount on a slightly less steep section and get back moving. Passed a handful of people on the descent and caught up with a huge (6’4”+) dude doing a solid tempo. From there it was me and the mountain of a man trading pulls for 10 miles or so. I was doing sub-200w in his draft and 300w+ to do an equitable pull so when a group of 4 finally caught us I wasn’t too unhappy. Every other person in our 6 man group was 6’+ and a big dude so we were moving quick on the flats and downhill and I could recover to a degree on the climbs. One guy dropped a chain and came back which looked like it hurt a ton. About 2/3 of the way a teammate of a guy in our group bridged up right at the base of a climb and he looked wrecked. The existing teammate immediately turned on the gas but the new guy told him out loud right next to me that he had just done a 10 minute effort to catch and needed to recover. Naturally I attacked hard and we immediately dropped him, never to be seen again. Group stayed together the rest of the way to the final climb, the aptly named Big Hill Road and I, as the smallest dude in the group, played my only card and hit the gas. Two guys couldn’t go and went out the back, and I had a little gap on the other 3. We hit the final descent into the finish and it’s awful. -15%, loose rock, huge ruts and potholes. You just really point the bike downhill and hope for the best because there isn’t a single line that won’t turn to complete poo poo at some point. Two guys go past me when I’m trying to not crash and die and I’m burning every match to get their wheel. I can see one guy behind me but he’s not really getting closer. Finally catch the two guys about 50m before the finish but I’ve got absolutely nothing left for the sprint. Beat last years time by 20 minutes which is the biggest achievement. Felt really good on fueling and pacing strategy. Definitely got me pumped for racing this year.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2022 01:00
|
|
|
Racing bikes is good. 
TobinHatesYou fucked around with this message at 05:58 on May 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
May 5, 2022 05:46
|
|
|
Look at them flowing locks. Hot.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2022 08:35
|
|
|
Busy week last week. Our friday night XC series started and we had a road race. Monday and tuesday I had to build part of a new connector to the finish line since our flyover got torn down by the city. The nice easy part through the grass was scratched out by some high school kids and then Shaun was like "hey can you finish this?" So yeah I spent two days cutting out roots and making a little berm transition from the old trail to the new one. I probably need to widen it out and cut it a little lower before the pro xc but it rides fairly well as is. Also I bought an axe.  (and that rogue HR70) So that got done, then I did some riding afterward both days and got some video for the new pro xc course descent, which uses one of our new trails. Need to re-do one with the chest mount and also go faster. I got a good run in and then there was a blotch of some sort on the lens so I only have handlebar view of before i finished the trail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6rFvzH1zug With that done I worked a few days and coached some kids and went on a few rides and then it was back to marshall all day friday to set up the race course and then race. Well, two race courses because there's a cat 3/party class/kids race that is shorter and doesn't do the last part of that descent through the steep switchbacks. It looks fairly tame on the video but scares me a bit every time. Especially the bottom. So anyway I spent my warmup up sort of riding but also moving course tape around and then off we went. Dan set the pace and we had a small group right away. Like 10 of us in the first 5 minutes and then I'm not there anymore, Ben and Jake are a bit ahead of me, Ian is behind me. Ian passes me at the top of the first lap and then I can see him and Robert for awhile together and then Ian leaves Rob behind too. I was a little disappointed to not be able to hang with Ben but he's having a pretty good year and did win that crit awhile back. But also my HR wouldn't go over 160 until I got to the top of the first lap. Which, is like maybe just getting to the start of Z4. So fatigue from the week and course setup and no warmup I suppose. Next 2 laps I actually felt better and 3rd lap was reasonably ok. I caught Robert at the end of the descent and raced him down the dual slalom, but couldn't get by him on the finish straight. Also I bought a new helmet and glasses  Bike is lighter than it's ever been but still feels a bit sluggish on those climbs, especially if I leave the suspension open, and the fit 4 is more annoying to reach down and unlock. It kind of sticks due to hydraulic pressure on the mechanism I suppose. The 2.35 racing ray/ralph combo seems to roll and grip well enough but are heavier and narrower than listed and expensive. I think I'll go back to vittorias or try aspens or thunder berts or some other really light and flimsy tire. Still trying to get an XC hardtail, ideally an orbea alma but that new cannondale is another option and then maybe some treks later this year. https://www.strava.com/activities/7138360018 This is getting long enough and I'm tired so road race recap tomorrow or something. jamal fucked around with this message at 04:26 on May 29, 2022 |
|
#
?
May 17, 2022 05:37
|
|
|
thunder burt’s are hilarious until you go careening off the trail
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2022 06:28
|
|
|
  
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2022 07:19
|
|
|
great pictures friends! (especially that one from the patio (?) with the red and white stripes is crazy good)jamal posted:
looking forward to this. also, Tobin, I want your bike 
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2022 07:33
|
|
|
After friday XC I don't get to just chill out, drink a beer and go home. because there's a bunch of race poo poo every where and tape and stakes blocking off parts of public trails, although I leave a pass through in most spots and try to be pretty minimal with the marking. So after changing I got in the mule and went driving around to clean up. Ben thought I looked hilarious and stopped me to take a picture. So that turned into a bit of a late night then i worked the next day and had to do laundry and go for a quick spin and get all my poo poo and the road signs sorted out. Sunday morning I went and put up all the signs and set up the turnaround and swept some rocks off the descent and spraypainted a couple potholes then got to the start area a little after 10. Race start 11. Registered, changed, had some snacks, and it was time to go. No warmup, but I feel like that's less important in a 3hr road race. 64mi (well, 62 something because we started and finished slightly farther away from where I started counting), and oh poo poo there are a lot of people for a montana road race- like 50 in the men's field but all cats started together. Some fast guys. Andrew. rides for team california but is from here. Gabe, rides for aevolo. Ian, who won that gravel race last year and is also riding for a real team. Max, winner of butte 100. Jake and Ben and Dan. Kevin, 3 time state champ. Some msu racers, a fast guy from the flathead. gently caress me how am I ever going to make it over the climb with these guys? The course this time did the 15mi rolling frontage road first, then climb, descent down other side a bit before turnaround, and back. We always do the climb section but the order changes a bit. One year it was frontage road out and back first, then climb out and back, with finish being like a mile from the bottom. The climb being so early in the race makes me a bit nervous. Last year it was early and the field was small and my whole day was suffering with 2 other guys. Andrew went off the front before the climb and then Gabe didn't hammer it and gently caress us all up so I was able to stick with the lead group and about 10 of us made it over. We still went pretty fast and I got the kom on the strava segment so that's fun. I felt actually good. Friday 160bpm was basically me dying, I was doing that at the start of the steep part of the climb thinking "this isn't so bad." Then I hit 175 at the top which is actually into my Z5. The way down the other side is basically false flat and we were flying with a slight tailwind. Like 30+ to the turnaround and then we saw Andrew was right there and the fast guys started pedaling hard. "What in the gently caress?" is going through my mind. This is unsustainable. Jake and Dan get popped. Ben, their team mate, ignores them. Me, Ben, and another guy are dangling and I give up. They keep chasing, get on, and then I get with Dan and Jake and we're riding a more reasonable pace. Group catches Andrew, slows down a bit, we get closer, then they start attacking the steeper rise to the top. That drops a few more guys off the group including Ben which is good since we're the only cat 3s up here and it's state champs. The lead group is the 5 really fast guys - Gabe, Ian, Andrew, Kevin, Max, then there are 6 of us together on the way back along the frontage road. There's a headwind, and some rollers that you can consider actual climbs, but no one is really trying to do much. Dan sets a solid pace up one of the bigger ones and Ben starts making bad noises, so then Jake and Dan are going a little easier, Ben is skipping pulls and sitting on my wheel and this reminds me to save something for the finish. I'm telling Dan and Jake they should attack the other two guys but Ben is like "please don't." So I really should have been more aggressive here. I guess I just wasn't all that confident after Friday night and was happy enough to be in that group and have made it over the climb. So instead of attacking and trying to drop Ben or something along those lines we all just went to the sprint together and he beat me, because of course, he's actually a pretty good sprinter and won that last crit. So 2nd again. Hilariously everyone else in our group was a 4/5 because it's montana road racing. No pictures of racing that I've found but here's a podium picture  https://www.strava.com/activities/7149139145 jamal fucked around with this message at 06:20 on May 18, 2022 |
|
#
?
May 17, 2022 17:56
|
|
|
First night of pre-season track racing in the books for 2022. I'm less fit than I've been since coming back to racing in 2017. I was burnt out from nationals last year, and then work and life have conspired to keep me from building any sort of consistency all spring. Despite that, either my legs just have enough years of racing in them, or my competitors are dealing with similar challenges, because overall things went alright. It was a short, sprintier sort of night, so nothing to really test my endurance, but I was able to be in the top 3 in all the sprints, so that feels good. My trend of continuing to become an ever-more-stretched out corgi each season has continued. In 2018 I raced on my 54cm Colnago (which I raced all through my junior years waay back in the day). Reach from bb to bars (not headtube): 488mm  In 2019 I picked up a used chinacarb track frame (won my first two national titles with this fit): reach from bb to bars: 545mm  In 2021 I got back on the track bike and felt cramped. Convinced myself I "needed" a Pinarello MAAT because it was the longest reach frame available. With the included barstem: reach from bb to bars: 552mm. Not much longer nominally, but with the "hoods" on the barstem I gained another 5cm in effective reach, so 602mm.  In 2022 I got back on the track bike and felt cramped again. What the heck?! Borrowed a set of bars with a similar 'hoods' shape, added a 140mm stem. Feels good. Loooong, but good. Reach from bb to bars: 591mm, Reach from bb to hoods: 641mm Still need to play with options on various modern track bars, here - have a new one on order and a couple I can borrow to play with before locking things in. Total change (doesn't account for extra reach on the 'hoods'): 
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2022 16:24
|
|
|
Friday XC 2. Oh, maybe not. Forecast for this afternoon was cold and rain and maybe thunderstorms. I figured it was too cold for t-storms and went about my course setup starting at about noon. A guy is nice enough to let us borrow his utility truck, a kawasaki mule. It has some sort of an electrical drain/charging problem that I need to figure out because if you don't put it on the trickle charger it will die after about a day and a half of use. I barely made it down from setup and our medical people and course marshalls use it during the race so I was expecting to have to drive up there and jump start it to get them back down (but I didn't). Here it is in it's natural environment  All I need is that thing, stakes, tape, a hammer, snacks, and diet coke and you'll have a race course. I got things set up before 4 and the kids, party class, and cat 3 race starts at 4:30. We have a different course for them which goes back on itself at the bottom so I had to move tape around during the race. I got changed and all ready to race and rode "sweep." adjusting the course as I went and also getting in some sort of a warm up. Last week I did not really get to warm up which is not ideal in a race that starts in an uphill sprint. It was still dry and actually kind of sunny but I put on rain pants, shoe covers, and a good jacket because I only brought one kit and wanted it to be dryish for the race start and some unpleasant looking clouds seemed to be approaching. Pretty much right away I run into a crying child walking himself down, so I got him to the bottom and then went back up. I see some other kid who has given up and is coming down the road and he gets the speed wobbles and almost eats poo poo as I'm yelling at him "BRAKES!" but he pulls it together. I catch the last two people out there, a lady with her son, and send them on a shortcut down. Then it starts snowing on me. Or maybe sleeting is the better term. My garmin says it was 37f. I'm hearing on the radio that someone crashed and we're not sure where so I do a little looking and talk to some course marshalls but she turned up at the bottom and was fine. I head to where the 6pm race course splits and goes down the harder descent, wait for the last racers in the rain, adjust all the tape, and head back to the bottom. I went down the A descent and it was getting slippery. Drop pressure to 19f/21r, for normal trail riding I do 21/23. Take off my mostly waterproof cycling jacket that is completely soaked and exchange it for gore-tex and change gloves. I brought a lot of gloves and socks and also real boots plus my regular shoes and another jacket to possibly race in. I'm still mostly dry at least and we all stand around under tents and awnings waiting for the start. But it's cold as gently caress, raining hard, and snowing at the top, so we cancelled it. After about 45min the rain let up a bit so I changed and then went and cleaned all the poo poo up. It wasn't all that nice at the top of the course.  Racing in that would have sucked and probably would have trashed my chain and brake pads and rotors so maybe it's for the best. Probably going to helena to race on Sunday, the weather forecast is better. jamal fucked around with this message at 05:29 on May 21, 2022 |
|
#
?
May 21, 2022 05:04
|
|
|
Oh hi it's me again because I went to a race today. Scratchgravel XC in Helena, mt, the first mtb race I ever did. I seem to go about every 4 years. That was 2014 and the last time i went was 2018. It's uh... not an exciting course, with a whole bunch of doubletrack. But it's out in the open and south facing and so it's good for an early season race and also beginners. At the same time, while being non-technical, you hit pretty insane speeds on the old roads out there. My max speed appears to have been 40.4mph and I was tucked going into a loose hairpin and then braking as hard as I could at the last minute. The first lap I kind of missed that turn... Start was up a steep, loose doubletrack that is only about 4 people wide. The kids lined up on the front row then it was us old guys behind them. Max gets a gap in like the first 50 yards then it's Sean on our jr team and I think another kid from Butte, then me, some guy I don't know, Matt and Joel from Kalispell, Alan from bozeman, and I'm not sure who else. I think 1/2 men and women and masters all started together. You're on this mostly uphill rolling double track for the first 2-3min and then you hit steep, short climb to the high point of the course. At this point things are already strung out. I'm no longer on any wheels and there's a pretty big gap behind me. There's a short singletrack descent with a huge, high speed g-out that the hei hei handled nicely, little singletrack climb, the insanely fast road descent, climb back up to where you were, go across a road that's generally downhill and also fast, do a little singletrack out and back, then back over to the finish on road. After missing that fast turn and then not being exactly sure where I was going through two intersections on the road across, Matt caught me and I let him by at the turn and then he got a little gap on me. My first lap of 4 was like 22:30. Matt was a little ahead of me, Alan and Joel were back there somewhere, and it stayed that way for another hour until the end. Except one of the jrs up front had some sort of an issue and stopped for awhile and then finished slowly and the guy I didn't know apparently took some wrong turns and was DQ'd. Max won, then Sean and Matt, making me 4th. If I hadn't hosed up on the first lap maybe I could have stuck with Matt but he was going pretty quick out there. Hei Hei was too much bike and I didn't like lugging that extra 5lbs and squishy suspension around. I felt like the suspension was closed most of the lap and a hardtail on really flimsy tires would have been ideal. Dear orbea or cannondale or trek please get me a bike. I was reasonably fresh going into this one and actually maintained a highish heartrate and laps 2-4 were almost identical times although I eased off a bit at the end because no one was around me. Drank one bottle with about 150-200cal of tailwind but was pretty much out on the last lap, but I didn't feel like picking my 2nd bottle up off the ground. Also had maybe 6-7 shot blocks and a gel, and some candy before the start. So probably enough calories but maybe a little more water would have been nice. Also despite complaining about my bike my laps were mostly faster than last time when I only did 3, and I was pretty fast in 2018. jamal fucked around with this message at 05:06 on May 28, 2022 |
|
#
?
May 23, 2022 04:12
|
|
|
The cycling gods smiled on me in the crit today. Guy 2 riders forward in the pack lost a bottle and it hit the ground and span to the perfect angle for me to hop it. I've never shat my pants so hard in a race before, I had guys both sides and at least 15 right behind me. Would have been absolute carnage.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2022 22:03
|
|
|
Minor recovery setback: the small fall I had in Feb caused some more longer lasting damage to the deep layers of skin by my hip, and a little reservoir of blood formed and this week it got infected. Swelled up like a balloon in like 30 minutes, really impressive. Got put on IV antibiotics and now I've got 3 kinds of antibiotic tablets to take for a week and should make a full recovery rather than, uh, nasty things happening. At first I thought it was bursitis or something which would have kept me out for ages, so hurray I guess? Picture after a couple of days of the IV stuff:  (Edited areas because a) hospital wristband with basically all of my personal info and b) this underwear leaves little to the imagination and this isn't that kind of thread, but feel free to enjoy my tan lines) MrL_JaKiri fucked around with this message at 12:21 on May 27, 2022 |
|
#
?
May 27, 2022 12:13
|
|
|
MrL_JaKiri posted:Minor recovery setback: the small fall I had in Feb caused some more longer lasting damage to the deep layers of skin by my hip, and a little reservoir of blood formed and this week it got infected. Swelled up like a balloon in like 30 minutes, really impressive. Got put on IV antibiotics and now I've got 3 kinds of antibiotic tablets to take for a week and should make a full recovery rather than, uh, nasty things happening. At first I thought it was bursitis or something which would have kept me out for ages, so hurray I guess? Ouch. I had a similar thing happen after a fall directly on my right hip while riding Whistler, had a couple inches of swelling the rest of the summer and super painful TI band. Glad they didn't have to go in and drain that for you.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2022 16:35
|
|
|
VelociBacon posted:Ouch. I had a similar thing happen after a fall directly on my right hip while riding Whistler, had a couple inches of swelling the rest of the summer and super painful TI band. Glad they didn't have to go in and drain that for you. They may have to go in to drain it and repair the blood vessels, I'll find out next week
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2022 16:48
|
|
|
Three races recently and wound up going 3rd, 2nd, and today got the 1st. 1st race, Baitin the Shark: First race was gravel, 54 miles and 5600’. Pretty weird start as it was not staggered and you were immediately going downhill. The organizer had some local guys running across the entire front row to keep it somewhat civilized but it was still just shy of pure chaos. Lead group formed up pretty quick of 6 guys until one guy went solo at 10 miles in and we never saw him again. He’s super strong so nobody even bothered to chase. We kept it together until about 35 miles in and another guy I know launched on a super steep climb. He’s probably 120lbs and I couldn’t keep his wheel, so he dropped me and another guy, taking 2 guys from another team with him. I worked with the guy who got dropped and we were “racing” for 5th and 6th, mostly just keeping up the pace to not get caught. We came ripping down a hill and saw the guy who had taken off before with a broken wheel. Go a couple miles up the road and see another one of the guys with a puncture. Podium was back on the table, so I put as much hurt on the other guy as I could and managed to pull out 30 seconds. Overcooked a descent and had to put a foot down but still managed to keep it up and moving forward, and snagged a totally undeserved third. Have to be there to have a chance to win it I guess. 2nd race, Whisky Rebellion: Another gravel race but boy howdy I hosed up on signing up for this. It’s billed as 125 miles but wound up being a bit more with 15,000’ of climbing. It was also 90f in PA during May, which was way out of the norm, and barely any cover. The terrain is a mix of decent gravel and beat up oil/gas roads with a little pavement sprinkled in. Being PA, there’s no long climbs so it’s just constant up and down on steep gravel. Garmin said 26 climbs when I loaded the route. For the 125 it’s 3 loops that all circle back to the start/finish which is a blessing for bottle swaps. Started off at 7:30am while it was still reasonably cool. 7 man group on the first loop whittled down pretty quick to 4 guys, all super strong. One guy finished pretty high up at CX nats in the elite category. I had a puncture about 5 miles into the course which sealed up, but I definitely knew I was low on air after. We stopped at the aid stations and start/finish to refill and keep it pretty civilized since it was so long and so hot. After the first loop I put air in the tire that punctured and found I was pushing a 40c tire for 45 miles on 15 PSI, which definitely made me burn more matches and hurt me later on. 25 miles to go CX nats guy takes off and I’m trying to follow, but I’m completely cooked and it’s not happening. I distance the other two guys and resigned myself to just riding a sustainable pace with the expectation I’d get caught eventually. Every time I put down power the cramps were starting, my hands were destroyed, and I just wanted off the bike. Ran out of water with 9 miles to go and seriously contemplated scratching but figured sitting outside waiting for SAG was probably worse than just finishing. Rolled through 4 minutes down on 1st and 4 minutes up on 3rd. The organizers wound up pulling so many people off the course because how long it was taking with the heat; only 5 people finished out of 25ish starters. This is a one and done for me, one of the most painful days I’ve had in a long time. 3rd race, Iron Horse: One of my favorites, a one way race from Durango to Silverton over 2 mountain passes at 10k+ elevation, about 45 miles and 5,500’. Highway is closed so you get to absolutely rip the descents which is bucket list tier stuff imo. This year was a little different as we had a big group for quite awhile on the flat section. Couple guys tried solo fliers but very difficult to make it stick and there were some big guys who wouldn’t let it get too far up the road and just let them dangle until they gave up. Once we hit the first uphill part, not even the mountain passes, guys started flying out the back. This is nearly 10 miles at somewhere around 5%, levels out for a little bit, and then you start the first mountain pass. By the time we arrived at the base the group had been slimmed down to about 8 guys. First pass is about 5 miles and 1,900’ of climbing. I sat 3rd or 4th wheel and felt really good with the pace. By the time we hit the summit it was down to about 4 of us. Ripped the descent, mostly staying behind the bigger guys. The descent essentially slams you right into the base of the second pass. One guy put in a dig and got a little up the road but didn’t hold it so I caught up along with another guy from a different age group. We traded turns setting the pace for the 4 mile climb and put time into the guy from my age group, had a decent gap cresting the summit. Alternated drafting and pulling on some flat sections and kept the gap out. Ripping down a mountain descent into town under a red flag warning on with 50mm deep wheels was pretty bad, got battered and had the front wheel yanked all around. Hit the final half mile down the main street in town with hundreds screaming and ringing the cowbell is a great experience. Got it by about 30 seconds, fuckin pumped for the first win of the year. Crushed a post ride beer and a small pizza, then had to get a coffee because I was about to fall asleep. Bikes are good 
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2022 02:56
|
|
|
Did you use the same setup for the two gravel races? What tires?
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2022 04:31
|
|
|
Good posts, congrats on the W! My racing season has started off with much more of a whimper. No serious focus to my training since September, and yet still getting marked like last year made the first couple nights of track a bit frustrating. Excuses, excuses, but it's never gratifying to be hit in the face with how far the form has actually slipped. Still managing to eek out some reasonable results, but I'm having to get both lucky and go really deep for it. Did manage to win our opening night Madison cup race, in a fun RIDE group jersey. https://www.instagram.com/p/CeHH6HcpY4q/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2022 13:29
|
|
|
kimbo305 posted:Did you use the same setup for the two gravel races? What tires? I did. Donnelly Strada USH WC in 700x40. Really liking this tire, it’s somewhat similar to the Pathfinders.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2022 14:00
|
|
|
Friday night right now means XC, or, maybe not. After the 2nd week was rained out we had last week off too because of the long weekend. This week was something a little different, an event called the Mullet, which we've had a few times now. You get a partner, one person climbs to the top of the mountain, and the other descends. Results are done by overall time with a scale factor for the downhill. There's a start gate for the way down and the runs are spaced out but the uphill is a mass start race to the top. With a Le Mans start for some reason. In previous iterations there were party and business classes, along with male, female, coed categories. Party class meant you had to drink a beer before you could cross the finish mats, but we stopped doing that. Anyhow, I got there a little early because the setup involved a bit more work. I got the downhill finish chute built in the grass above the lodge while I waited for our timing guy to show up. Then we both went up to the top. We needed a finish line and timing mat for the uphill riders, and then there were two downhill options because the main downhill course is actually pretty hard and scary and there are kids and stuff so there's B descent that goes down a different trail but everyone needed to cross the same start mat. And then the mats had to be cordoned off so that no one went near them waiting to go. Then I brought Cory back down and went around marking the rest of the courses. I was done with that at about 4. Being called the mullet, there's a bit of a costume theme and an award for "best style." I haven't gotten a haircut since the before times so this seemed like a good opportunity. I planned to go to an actual haircut place but apparently you can't just walk into cost cutters at 10am on a friday because it was a 3 hour wait. So I sent Andy a text and he brought clippers and shaved the sides of my head in the parking lot before the race start. I didn't even really get a chance to look at it until I got home but I knew it looked good because he was apologizing the whole time. I also had a sweet molson canadian tank top and some short shorts and my blue mirrored 100%s and a pretty greasy moustache. I'm counting like 120 total teams which made the lemans start pretty hectic. But I made it to my bike, had a clean remount after a little bit of shouldering and bumping into other racers, and was top 10 at the bottom of the climb. I could see Dan, the juniors, Rob, Toby ahead of me, you know, the usual fast guys. The route up was fairly round about, taking most of the pro xc course up and around, then some road climb, a bit of a traverse, a trail climb, then road to the very top, which gets annoyingly steep at the end. Kory went by me and as usual was pedaling harder than I could handle. Jake also came by but I jumped on his wheel. Myke, on a gravel bike passed us as did some other guy I didn't know. Jake had spent a week in Minnesota drinking beer or something and was a little off, and I got by him when we hit the road and almost caught unknown guy by the top. I think I was 9th. Huge crowd up there, what with all the uphill finishers arriving and another 100 people still waiting for their turn to descend. I went to the bottom to go and keep an eye on things and then some thunderstorms rolled in. We were all huddled in the lodge, Shaun sent the last 20 or so riders down together, and we waited it out. Things cleared up and no one got struck by lightning and the party got back going. Band, beer, food trucks, etc. Except my wallet was in my car which I loaned to the medical people to drive up the course because the mule battery died. I think they were glad to have it on the drive back down in a thunderstorm. So I didn't really eat except for a hot dog from Andy, who had brought a grill and a whole mechanic setup and tent as well from our shop. Started cleaning up the base, awards started, and realized I had to get over there and take off my rain gear for the style contest, which was a crowd-based judgement deal. I think taking off my hat and cracking a beer one handed at the same time put me over the top and I won that contest which is cool because I get my name on a trophy, and also have a real terrible haircut that I'll probably keep for the pro xc next week. I'm sure Ryan Standish will love it. Then our team got maybe 5th, but maybe 6-7th overall. There were some issues with people not checking in and a few lost timing chips so results were not completely accurate last I checked. jamal fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Jun 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2022 16:31
|
|
|
Cool writeup, also post the haircut!
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2022 03:35
|
|
|
Seeing surprisingly few pictures out so far. I had my phone with and took a couple at the start.  and found a few on strava  yeah I'm in this one. Arthur I think was voted 2nd in the style contest and then he and Sean won overall 
jamal fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Jun 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2022 04:32
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2022 21:49
|
|
|
Missoula XC- I'm tired and my feet hurt and I didn't even race my bike. Two years ago I was race director of the missoula xc but it got cancelled and that was probably for the best because I wasn't really sure what I was doing. Then a friend of mine who previously managed the cycling house decided to start his own shop selling skis and bikes and also running events and he took over basically everything in town because no one really wanted to keep doing them. MTB missoula had previously done the pro XC and the local xc series and then a few different guys have done cyclocross and road races over the years but yeah now it's all done by MTCX and Shaun hired me to help with all the races and such. Which I think I've probably covered in this thread so yeah anyway all last week was getting things set up for the pro XC. Which takes a little more work than the friday night beer league being a UCI event and all. Last year we just did pro and UCI 17-18 JR races but this year we did all the amateur and other age groups too. Short track and two different XC courses. I took the whole week off from the bike shop and went out there monday to do a few things. It rained, I put some tape up on the course. Tuesday was nicer and I got a little more done after picking up a few things I needed. Wed was a shorter day due to a MTB clinic which was fun, we had some local guys coaching as well as myself and Caleb Swartz, plus Ryan Standish and Evelyn Dong. I wound up pretty much solo with a guy who was very new to mountain bikes and we made it around the mountain and hopefully he learned some things. Thursday was track walk with the officials. I had gone a little lighter on the tape and needed to add a bit, but at least that got me a little better idea of what the uci wants to see out there. They like arrows, which I did not know and will incorporate into my future course markings. Our official seems like a serious european dude at first but he's actually pretty nice and lives in Bozeman and works at a bike shop. Also make sure you give the officials snacks. Friday was short track, starting at like noon with u12 and then going through the age groups. locals raced right between the UCI jrs and pros. I had my bike with and had even gotten my terrible mullet cleaned up to a slightly less but still terrible mullet and still have the greasy moustache and swapped tires and everything but was so tired and it was so rainy and muddy that I skipped it. Our new short track course goes on the dual slalom we built for collegiate nats a few years ago which is fun, although I'd like to make the lap a little longer. I think we'll have access to a bit of new area over on that side so I have some ideas for next year assuming I'm still doing this. Ben had a pretty solid race and got 2nd, to some guy from out of town that also won cat 1 xc saturday. Everyone was pretty dirty  Jake did not want a gummy bear  Then the pros raced. Riley Amos and Hannah Otto won, which was fairly expected. We had Caleb and Dan in there as locals, and also I suppose Payson sort of counts. And Ivy did the women's short track race but after a pre-ride of the new XC course last week she wasn't very into it. The usac official was mad when she took a beer handup but the UCI guy didn't care at all.    Also there was a bear up the gully from the course but he was small and minding his own business. After all the races I needed to go finish getting the Saturday course ready, which meant going all the way to the top of the mountain and closing off all the trails that had been open to the public. I even printed out little signs and maps and posted on the internet about it. There was one section that needed quite a bit of stakes and tape so I turned the mule off while I did that, and then it didn't start. But I think it's just the shifter cables need adjustment because wiggling the shiftier a bit fixed it (it has to be in neutral). i added a fan kill switch last week because when it gets warm the fan just runs continuously after you turn it off and kills the battery. I also keep it on a trickle charger when not in use, and didn't have to jump start it once this year. So I got down just as it was getting dark and everyone had already left. Went home, showered, went to bed. Got there shortly after 7am Saturday, first race at 9am, cat 1 men, which I was signed up for, but then I didn't even bring my bike. Cat 1 did the pro course, other categories and u16 groups did a shorter lap that is the old pro course. I tried a fast lap tues night after a day of setup and put down a 29min lap, which I think was in the ballpark of the faster guys although the slippery conditions probably slowed things down. Original plan was 3 for all cat 1s, we shortened them to 2 which I think everyone was happy about. I was a little surprised the pro laps weren't faster, I expected 22ish min but Riley Amos's fastest one was 23:30 and most were in the 26-27min range. Lap counts were 4 for pro men, 3 for women, 3 for uci jr boys, 2 for girls.  Doing that then working the rest of the day really would have sucked but I still was missing out a bit. Cat 1 women had a pretty small field and I decided I wanted to go wander around the course a bit before the UCI races started to make sure all the tape was still there and see what the trail conditions were like. It pretty much stopped raining by the time I got out to the far side of the course and the trails were actually in pretty decent shape. Occasional slick spots and puddles but things drain fairly well and we don't get that deep sticky mud up there. We had a few locals plus two kids in the UCI JR race- Sean, Elliot, Max who I've mentioned plus a couple more. I don't think any of them got a clean start but Max was in the top 20 and then Sean and Elliot moved forward all race from the back row. But then Elliot double flatted. 82 total in that race. I think Elsa was 11th in jr girls, then I had to take over course marshall/medical personnel wrangling while Sean did the TV broadcast so I sat in the announcer booth with two radios, ate snacks, and occasionally provided color commentary with Ivy, Meg, and Jenna. Riley and Hanna also won the XC races with pretty solid leads. I think Caleb was 6-7th. Dan was behind a crash at the start and then got pulled but with that long of a lap we shortened the window to make sure the women started on time because they were the live tv event.  After the women's race I decided I didn't want to go swap things to Sunday's course that night and I was convinced to go out for a beer. I was tired and dirty and needed to sleep but it was still fun and I went to bed later than I should have. Sunday was busy but fairly uneventful. I had to get up there and move the course tape for the first race at 9am but it's a shorter and simpler course with shorter races of mostly kids. Ellen had a good ride in 15-16 for 5th and then locals also won the u12 boys and girls and 13-14 girls. Myla is still 14 I think but raced 15-16 and got maybe 10th? A couple of the 15-16 boys crashed and had to drop out but I don't think there were any real injuries all week plus no one got lost.   Then there was a lot of poo poo to clean up. Most of the people who said they were going to help somehow disappeared and were busy with other stuff except for one of the Dads who has a bakery and makes much of the snacks and food for us. That loving plastic fencing is such a pain in the rear end to roll up and also it was raining again. I also had to go drive around and clean up some tape but mostly only took down what was at trail junctions and such since we still have friday night racing up there. I think I got home by 10. Today I did nothing. My feet hurt and my watch says I walked over 20 miles like every day last week and I haven't ridden a bike since wednesday. jamal fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Jun 14, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2022 05:15
|
|
|
Another Friday, another XC. This time at a different place with some of the steepest, roughest, and funnest trails in town. After some annoyance with getting ahold of Shaun on whether or not he had enough stuff in his trailer to get set up and then finding out no and then driving across town and back we were all there setting up. Anyway, since the FS nixed my fun giant lap that went everywhere the course was pretty straightforward with like 2 turns and I got a bunch of stakes and tape and arrows in my ski backpack and went and got things marked by bike. Then go to take a lap in the kids race as kind of a marshall/sweep type person and get to the top, get into the descent, and braking into the first turn over some moto whoops, BANG, something loud happened and oh my shock is spraying fluid out of the adjuster knob. So yeah that's like 3 in a row now that I didn't get to race and after the last week of barely riding I feel fat and slow although a rest week is kind of what i needed. Just not, like, 2 rest weeks. So I better get my poo poo together and start riding my bike because I signed up for that stupid butte race again and then might go do another long one in canada like a week later. So I wonder if I'll have a working bike for next week or not. Guessing only if I can find another shock that fits. Lukily shop owner has 3 hei hei floating around his household so I could probably borrow a shock for a day. Took a few pictures on the funnest part of the course at least. Very few people taking the straight line over the rocks I like though   Koby took the real fun line though 
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2022 15:57
|
|
|
I always forget about this thread. Colorado TT state championships were last weekend, it was a moderately hot one, I went through almost all of my two aero bottles on a 40k. They were launching us every 30 seconds, I caught my 30 second guy and passed him, then he surged back to pass me, lost steam, and I passed him again, I was just chugging along targeting 280-300w or so, he did this maybe half a dozen times I wanted to be like bruv I already closed a 30 second gap on you, all you’re gonna do is blow yourself up this isn’t a road race. Shocker, he blew up hard and I never saw him again around the halfway point. New TT bike absolutely rips compared to TTrash. Managed 26.7mph@260w and won Cat4 mens with a 40k PR of 53:55. Was repping trashkit since it’s my best fitting skinsuit lol.  
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2022 20:53
|
|
|
e.pilot posted:New TT bike absolutely rips compared to TTrash. Was the rest of equipment/conditions same enough to let you estimate time saved over the 40k?
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 00:25
|
|
|
kimbo305 posted:Was the rest of equipment/conditions same enough to let you estimate time saved over the 40k? somewhat, my best on TTrash was 27.1mph@370w for a 20k, which was at 60ft elevation vs 5000ft, but that’s not enough to make up for 0.5mph faster at 110w less
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 00:35
|
|
|
I haven't posted much in this thread this year. I was burnt out hard after nationals last year, and then started a new job that wrecked my work life balance. I figured out relatively early on that I wasn't going to be able to go back and try to defend any titles at masters nationals, which took the rest of the wind out of my sails with regards to training. I'm less fit than I have been since 2017, which was the year I came back to racing after a 15-year hiatus. That said, I'm doing my darndest to embrace the "just have fun, no pressure, race bikes it's cool" mindset. It's going mostly okay. I still had a lot of FOMO last week as my friends won jerseys, but I'm also having fun not doing any intervals besides suicide pulls on the front of the pack here at home. I'm happy that our racing scene up here is deep enough that I can still get opportunities on to race my heart out and not be dropped, despite not having quite the same focus in training. Anyway, this meandering post brought to you by having a few beers on an empty stomach post race. Bike racing is fun and good, and we should all do more of it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2022 06:46
|
|
|
Finally I got to do a race. Pro XC week was really long and I felt like poo poo for awhile after that and barely got to ride for like a week and a half and the weather has been lovely. I felt like I had finally gotten a pretty good run of consistent volume and some good intensity going into it and then even though I wad due for a rest week it's hard to say if barely sleeping and walking a whole shitload for a week is actually rest. Plus between event work and work at the shop I've been getting like one day a week off and have been a little tired and irritable and not riding as much as I'd like and not confident in my fitness. Anyway, after missing 3 races in a row I did a race last night. Earlier this year we had those crits as part of a 4 race series, and now after a break we're at 3 and 4. This time short wed night road races, on part of the same course where we had that last road race. Just the first frontage road part out and back for about 30 miles total. Turnout was a little low, I guess because it's on a weekday, but I kind of expected a little more people. I think we still had 12-15 in the experienced men's race. Tailwind at the start meant all the attacks were going pretty much right off the bat. Cory went, then Evan, then andrew was off the front, then Ben and Cory which I definitely had to chase, then I made a counter attack at some point, then Ben attacked again and was a little ahead going into the last and biggest roller before the turnaround. I was doing the work to close the gap and my HR was through the roof and I'm thinking "oh poo poo this is going to really hurt." I clawed him back and then looked back to see there were only four of us with Brian and Jake being the other two. We got a nice hard but fair rotation going on to the turnaround and all the way back and things were pretty uneventful because we are all used to riding together, fairly even , and the headwind sucked. I had a few spots where I was thinking of attacking, and then just didn't. And then Jake led out Ben, and Ben won the sprint because of course he did and then Brian beat me also so I got 3rd. Last friday xc tomorrow night, my course is fairly ridiculous and goes on every trail up there and sort of has to cross itself once to do that. Then I could go up to kalispell to race saturday but I think making it up there for like a 9am start after racing and then hanging out and then cleaning stuff up friday night is going to make that unlikely. But ideally I get a couple of big rides in and then next weekend Jake wants to go do something dumb like we did on the 4th last year so that should all should get me in a better spot at butte. Also looks like turnaround is going to be fairly quick on the shock at fox so that was nice to hear. jamal fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Jun 25, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2022 03:50
|
|
|
Two races in a week. But I'm probably not going to make it to kalispell tomorrow morning. For our last Friday XC race the course was called "literally every trail at marshall" and I wound up with an 8.5mi, 2k foot one lap course. With as elaborate as things were I got there a bit earlier to setup and then was interrupted by some rainstorms and then went down and had lunch and then back up there. the cat 3/party/kids race at 430 was on a different and shorter lap so I had to have that ready to go and then ride sweep and then change the course to the later race. Some of those kids definitely need a parent riding with them but anyway I got up there and moved things the way they needed to be and also got in a warm up so that was good. Race started and I was sitting 5th behind Elliot, Toby, Dan, and Rob for about the first 4 minutes. We hit the top of the steep part and I thought I was pedaling just as hard as i had been and they all just kind of rode away so there I was with no one really right behind me anymore either. Well poo poo my heartrate is pretty high but I feel good so lets see how things go. Man it's a long way to the top. After getting up there it was halfway down the "new trail area," then back all the way up where the course crossed itself, then down another trail, across to a different one, back up another, and then down to the bottom. It seems to have taken me 53 minutes and I think the guys in front of me got farther away and also I built a bigger gap on Cory, Steve, and Myke who I could see behind me on the first climb up. It seems very few people got lost and my course was well received so that was good. After that "rest week" I've actually been able to get the HR up there and maintain it so yeah those are good. 167 avg for the ride which broke down to 38min in threshold and 5 above it. Plus PRs on start road section, xc climb and, most of the descents. Not bad after the hard road ride tuesday then wednesday's race and doing all the setup, I was actually thinking "I could probably be pedaling harder right now" a lot of the time, but I wasn't catching anyone and no one was catching me and I still pedaled pretty hard so I guess it was fine. Butte is only like a month away now so I should try to get in a few more big weeks and also not crash and hurt myself like last year. https://www.strava.com/activities/7363318095  I decided to go with the new floral print jersey we're selling at the shop instead of team kit. People seemed to like it. jamal fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Jul 3, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2022 06:44
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 06:48 |
|
|
bicievino posted:I haven't posted much in this thread this year. I got back into Crit racing this year. I'm old, fat and putting out power numbers from 2016 but I'm having a fun time and I think thats what matters. I've never been up at the point end like you so I can't speak for that but I think you've got a very good mindset about this.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2022 12:59
|
|