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MrL_JaKiri posted:New FTP day Motherfuck
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Sep 20, 2020 22:21
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, up to 370
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TobinHatesYou posted:Let's just make tracks really, really, really long straight lines. Can there be a turnaround at the end of the line?
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Oct 8, 2020 11:59
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 How much do you weigh again?
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Dec 9, 2020 16:03
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Pinning numbers on my skinsuit when I don’t have a teammate is a pain. Anyone used the racedots on a bike?
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May 8, 2021 18:37
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I did a bike race up to 10,500ft and drat did it do a number on my power. The descents though were the stuff of beauty.
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May 30, 2021 18:39
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This is my third (3rd) P3 of the season. Always the bridesmaid!!!! Also I might die. Barely rode on vacation and then back to racing is bad. Literally Lewis Hamilton fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Jun 12, 2021 |
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Jun 12, 2021 20:27
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It sucked bigly but I wasn’t giving up.
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Jun 12, 2021 23:59
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bicievino posted:Congrats!! Gravel race out in western PA. No huge climbs, but constantly up and down with basically no flat sections at all. Technically not very challenging. Some sections of loose gravel on top of hard pack made turns a little sketchy. Today's trip report: Men's 4/5 road race, ~30 miles. 51 starters. ~75F with a stiff 15mph wind out of the west, which made for a very fast tailwind finish. Open roads but with traffic control at intersections. Absolute clusterfuck to start. Neutral rollout until we passed a certain street, which I'm honestly not even sure which one it was because the pace was still so absurdly low I thought we hadn't passed it. Lots of guys who are definitely unfamiliar with racing, and probably with even riding in a group. We had guys crossing the double yellow to move up, guys doing the pedal hard then brake combo, not holding anything remotely resembling a line, etc. I got to the start line a little late so I was right near the middle and was stuck in this mess for a bit, moving up a spot here or there as I could. Some guy in a full SS skinsuit with leg warmers, arm warmers, and what appeared to be some sort of aero turtle shell under his kit decided to go for a solo break, which lasted approximately half a mile until he was swallowed up; I never saw him again and he ended up 3rd last. Honestly think he would have been disqualified if he ended up anywhere near the top because he was constantly riding over the center line to move up early on, despite getting yelled at multiple times. The ultimate winner took off solo after this, and the main group was insanely dysfunctional and consistently refused to do any work. I would rotate up to the front with the couple guys actually taking taking a turn and nobody would ever pull through. I looked down at one point and we were going up a slight "climb" doing like 14mph. As we were close to finishing the first lap, some folks missed the right hand turn and caused some chaos. Nobody went down and luckily no cars were in the oncoming lane because people were all over the place trying to avoid getting taken out. This actually had a positive result for me as it thinned out the herd a bit and broke up the shoulder to shoulder rolling roadblock. I was able to get up near the front of the group now and we picked up the pace. At the start of the 2nd (and final) lap, a guy went off from this group and had about 50m. I bridged up to him and nobody came with me. We wound up riding the entirety of the 2nd lap together, working well to keep the pace high. I had him on the only climb of any note on the course, but it comes early in the lap and I didn't think I had it in me to do a solo effort for the remaining part of the lap, which is mostly flat, into the wind, with one downhill section. We were able to put in a good gap on the main pack, ultimately winding up with nearly a minute. With a few miles to go I had a slight panic moment when I saw a white helmet behind us fairly close, and thought we were getting caught. Neither of us are big dudes so I knew we'd lose out in a bunch sprint if we got caught. Luckily this helmet was just someone who had ridden down to the course to watch from a side road right after we passed, and they disappeared real fast. At the finish, the other guy opened up his sprint early, I think trying to catch me out since I had slowed the pace a bit since I could tell we weren't getting the leader and we weren't getting caught. I matched his pace and pulled through with just a few meters to go and got him on the line by maybe half a bike length with the throw. One more race with points like this and I should be able to cat up to a 3 so I can avoid some of these huge fields with a lot of inexperienced riders. The 1/2/3 races nearby also tend to be longer, which is more attractive considering the driving distances to get there.
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Jun 19, 2021 21:29
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I’ve just signed up for my first stage race. 4 mile TT and 45 minute crit day 1, then a 38 mile road race the second day. Should be fun. I expect to produce a completely poo poo TT.
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Jun 30, 2021 17:09
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MrL_JaKiri posted:Road bike TT or TT-TT? Either way shouldn't be much more than 8 minutes or so. Road bike only. No aero bars, 90mm deep wheels at the maximum.
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Jun 30, 2021 18:22
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I love local racing. Huge field in the “expert” category. It’s essentially just an open field with a “citizen” class for more of the group ride folks. Typical stuff to start - half wheeling, bad lines, big concertina effect every turn. 6 man break went from the first “climb” on the course that stuck to the end with about 5 minutes on the field. I tried to give my teammate a wheel to get him up to the break when it first kicked off but he couldn’t hold my wheel and I never saw him again. The finish is almost negligent. You’re on a major road, downhill, doing around 30-35mph, then it does a 90 degree right then an immediate 90 degree left over potholes and a sewer grate on to very narrow side streets. The finish line is even more narrow because they’re using running timing and the massive cord covers on the ground almost bucked off the winner because nobody realized how big they were until after he went over since the timing wasn’t even set up until after we started. I stayed at the finish line and yelled at the finishers about it; a couple others almost ate poo poo. Oh and the timing didn’t even work because nobody else in the break registered a time so it shows me as winning by several minutes over the field. Some of these events are just a disaster waiting to happen. Not doing this one again unless they change this finish. Literally Lewis Hamilton fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Jul 4, 2021 |
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Jul 4, 2021 16:28
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~70 mile road race in about 80f. I’d like 3 bottles of mix, one per hour roughly. It will loop around for multiple laps, so I can toss a bottle as needed. What’s the move here? Two on the bike and one in the jersey pocket to start? Or just hydrate up right before and go with 2 and some solid food/gel flask?
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Jul 12, 2021 17:09
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Thanks friends.
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Jul 12, 2021 20:52
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Man, so close. Raced 3/4 today because it was the 76 mile, 11 lap option and if I’m driving to do a race, may as well make it the longer option. 4/5 was 35 miles. Combined 1/2/3, 3/4, Women’s, and Men’s Masters field. Wound up going with a guy racing 1/2/3 and we got into a 2 man break for about 50 something miles. Wound up lapping at least a dozen people. I was sure we could hold it to the end trading pulls but he blew up on the 2nd to last lap on the only “climb” on the course. I went solo but the course is quite flat and not really suited to my 135lb body. Greatly diminished peloton came up on me near the start/finish just before the we started the last lap but they seemed to sit up so I tried another dig and managed to get the lead back up. They finally got back with about 1.5 miles to go on the last lap, but they let up as soon as they caught me, so I was able to push and latch on the back. Snagged 3rd in the sprint which was surprising since there were some big guys in there and I was, and am, absolutely smoked. Good day of racing bikes.
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Jul 19, 2021 00:59
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I rode a training crit last week with a guy who was getting on podiums out in SoCal with the Legion guys and my god did he put on a beat down. The field was absolutely shattered. I didn’t feel good prior to the race and riding the 20 miles to the crit was a bad idea, but I almost got lapped in a 45 minute crit.
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Jul 20, 2021 12:36
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3 crashes in the men’s 4/5. One guy crashed, used the free lap, crashed again. One guy dislocated his hip in the men’s masters and took an ambulance ride. Women’s race stopped and cancelled due to a crash and another ambulance ride. All this on am oval with no corners. Buffalo is out for blood today. Pretty sketched out about tomorrow which is more technical n that it has actual turns, is completely flat, and it’s supposed to rain the entire time. Might pull the plug.
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Jul 31, 2021 21:47
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Finished my road season (maybe?) by doing a 40 mile, 3,200ft course. 4 laps, with the 1st and the 4th being the same while the 2nd and 3rd were each different. Marshalls directed you each time at the turns which was surprisingly well done considering there were 3 different race distances going. Each lap had a sprint prime and a KOM prime for $10 each. Roads were wet to start, rain started again on the 2nd lap, wrath of god rain for the 3rd lap which subsided on the 4th, and stopped by the finish. The first lap two guys got on the front and seemed happy to pull nearly the whole time, although they pulled off before every prime for some reason. On the start of the 2nd lap a 16 year old kid attacked hard up the one big climb, so my two teammates and I went with him. He blew up about 3/4 up the climb and I looked back to see a decent gap already. My teammates and I hooked up and did a TTT for the remaining 30ish miles, collecting every prime. Nobody wanted to do a full gas sprint in the wet so we rolled 3 wide across the finish line and only found out who won at the podium. Exact same recorded time for everyone in the end. Very wholesome way to end the season. 
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Sep 6, 2021 17:13
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VelociBacon posted:That's not what you were telling me, didn't you just spend like $2k and have it custom tailored to you and everything? 
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Sep 15, 2021 17:08
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https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/deceuninck-quickstep-select-sam-bennett-for-kampioenschap-van-vlaanderen/ Lol. Lmao.
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Sep 15, 2021 17:39
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I did Dirty Water 500 this weekend and James Ebert won it, and looks like he won Iowa Wind and Rock, too. Dude’s a monster. Crumps - what does SCR stand for on the results? Scratch?
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Sep 20, 2021 12:20
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 I had signed up for this race last year, however I bailed due to COVID. This year I was lucky enough to have a friend who is insane enough to tackle this with me, which made the long stretches of road tolerable, as well as providing a degree of safety for the really gnarly descents. Day before: I started off by riding my bike to get a rental car from the airport. Drove it across the state and dropped it off at the Huntington Tri-State Airport, one of the tiniest ones around. We re-assembled the bikes in the airport parking lot and set off, secure in the knowledge we didn’t have a car and were 5 hours away from our families if we DNF’d. We had to ride the long way to find a bridge across the Ohio river that wasn’t a 1 lane, 55mph bridge, so it took us 18 miles to go approximately 5 as the crow flies. We arrived 5 minutes late to the mandatory rider’s meeting, but luckily nothing critical was missed. We hitched a ride with another buddy who had a car there so we were able to get back to our hotel a little quicker. I was in bed at 9pm and fell asleep pretty quick. Race day: Waking up at 3:30am to crush some pop-tarts and coffee, we rode the 5 miles to the start. Dipped my rear tire into the river. At 5am the race begun with 46 starters, and a neutral rollout until the first turn a few miles later. After that turn, drafting was still allowed until we hit gravel, which was about 20 miles into the race, but you were free to attack. My buddy and I got on the front and set a decent clip, and by the time we hit the gravel we had thinned the herd down to about 8 riders. At this point no drafting is allowed, but it didn’t matter because the course was immediately into a 20%+ climb on grade 4 gravel. It was here that I was worried I was undertired with Donnelly Strada USH WC 700x40s, but we managed to make it up the hill. My easiest gear combo was 28x36 and I was definitely glad to have it. We kept up a good pace of around 16mph for the first 50 miles, and stopped at a gas station to refill bottles. During this brief pit stop we got passed by some riders, so we were sitting in 6th or so. I wasn’t sure how these guys were going to manage without stopping for water until the 100 mile checkpoint and it turns out it did some of them in later. We got back on and continued at a solid clip. We managed to pass those riders along the way and arrived at the first checkpoint just 15 minutes after 3rd. I knew 1st was likely out of reach since the guy had 35 minutes on us already. We pressed on to our next water stop, which was about 60 miles away, at mile ~160. It was getting really warm, almost 90F. We came out of a climb to a flat stretch to find a guy with his bike upside down trying to fix it near mile 150. His RD cable had blown up and he doesn’t have a spare. Neither of us do either. We make sure he’s good and roll on. Back on the podium for at least one of us. I’m out of water as we roll into our water stop. My core temp is up, and I’m not doing great. We got to our stop only to find a sign saying they’re closed due to staffing. We had called earlier in the week to make sure they’d be there. We tried their hose out back and got nothing. Tried a small commercial building across the street, nothing. If we didn’t find water soon it’s likely we’re going to DNF or have to backtrack awhile to a grocery store. I pulled out my phone and found a sports bar a few miles off course that said it was open, so we decided to give it a shot. We start heading down the road only to run into a tiny grocery store. It’s not on google maps, it’s not online anywhere. As far as I can tell it doesn’t exist so I may have hallucinated the whole thing. I fill 3 bottles and crush the rest of the water. I check the tracker again and it shows someone has passed us. I curse, and get back on the bike. Now we’re pressing on to around 205 miles, where the next mandatory checkpoint is located. We arrived a little after 8, so it’s almost completely dark. We’re told that we’re in 3rd and 4th so nobody had actually passed us at the grocery store. I’m stripped down to my bibs laying in the grass. I can feel the water sloshing in me, and I’m so tired of sweet foods. They’ve got nothing but Untapped maple syrup products at the checkpoint. I’m yelling at myself for not bringing enough salty food. Luckily it’s beginning to cool so it’s back on the bike and into the final third of the course. The final third starts off great. You do a little climbing and then are greeted with sweeping paved roads for about 10 miles. Home stretch you think. The worst is behind us, just have to power through to the finish. Wrong. As you roll into the Mohican/Glenmont area it is a succession of nut punch after nut punch routed by someone with exacting knowledge of the worst roads in the area. Every climb is steep as poo poo gravel, the roads are destroyed and you’re trying to do it in the dark. There’s deep sand, huge rocks and off camber poo poo so the descents are super slow and all that energy you burned going uphill is lost through your brakes. I had to walk my bike twice because I couldn’t get any traction. 60 miles to the next checkpoint took us 5.5 hours, and that was with about 10 miles of nice paved road coming into the checkpoint. We had set a course marker telling us when the worst of the climbing was over and I couldn’t have been more relieved when I saw it popup. The last check point is at the bike shop putting this on. They were open at 2am when we arrived. Same story on the nutrition front, nothing but sweet foods. I’m debating hitting the bar across the street to see if they have anything, but it’s packed with drunk college kids and I’m not looking to deal with that. I’m also looking around the store to see if they have a vest, which they don’t. It’s now around 60 and dropping and I’m wearing just bibs and a jersey. I’m a moron. We’re at mile 265ish and I know it’s the now really the home stretch so I tell myself to toughen up. It’s essentially flat/downhill with a couple short punchy climbs, I can do this. Spoiler: I get to mile 280 and I’m completely falling apart. The water is just not getting processed by my body, it’s sloshing and I’m nauseous. I can barely fathom eating any food, let alone anything sweet. I check my Garmin and there’s a course point for a gas station. I asked my buddy if this place was added because it’s 24 hours, and he said confirmed it was. I’ve never been happier than in that moment, it was like Christmas. We start talking about getting hot dogs, loaded with relish, maybe a slice of pizza? Definitely some coffee. It keeps us occupied for the 5 miles or so to the gas station. It’s open. There’s no hot food, but there is hot coffee, and a big bag of cheetohs with my name on them. I eat the entire thing and pound a coffee in the parking lot. My buddy gives me his spare jersey to layer over mine. I’m immediately revitalized. We get back on the bike and we’re into the final miles. There’s a couple of sadistic flashes like the short 18% climb with just a couple miles to go but it’s otherwise uneventful enough. We rolled in just before 6am. It wasn’t quite the sub-24 hours we had aimed to do, but we held on to 3rd and 4th. 1st place was the guy who won Iowa Wind and Rock this year and appears to be a general monster. Dipped my tire into the lake to finish the course. Rode a few miles to get breakfast and ordered two breakfasts, and ate them both. 46 Starters/2 DNS 20 Finishers/26 DNF Chased by a lot of dogs, saw what we think was a black bear, and a ton of other critters. Not sure I’ll do it again next year but if not I’m volunteering for the finish line and I’m bringing a big rear end cooler of PBR and grilling some hot dogs for the finishers. Nobody should have to end a ride like that without a beer.
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Sep 21, 2021 21:25
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Track racing sounds like such a riot. Great work. I love to read the trip reports.
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Sep 24, 2021 13:21
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I won my first race of the year and it only took until mid October. No call ups today but got on the front row. 2nd wheel coming into the hole shot with a 16 year old guy leading. We had some driving rain with the wind so I was happy to get a little advantage from being out of the wind. A couple minutes in and we had a big gap. I was losing time on some of the really gnarly muddy sections with my MXP tires but consistently catching up quick on any of the flat sections. I went around him a few times on the flats and he’d immediately go into the red to get back around me, so I did this a few times and stepped it up on the last lap to get him really working hard at threshold. Last lap we rolled through a baseball field infield and were about 60 yards from the finish when I saw him kind of catch a rut and do a little wobble so I launched my sprint. Came around him with a bike length or so. 2 minutes to third. God I love muddy cyclocross. The course was super wet when I was out there but dried out a bit for tear down. Wish I had taken more pictures.    Buddies bike. Wound up using mine as a pit bike.
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Oct 17, 2021 00:22
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kimbo305 posted:Is that chain off the ring in prep for washing? I think he dropped it due to the mud and then used my bike in the pit. The cranks feel like you’re churning peanut butter once the chain was back on.
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Oct 17, 2021 02:39
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Are USAC mandatory upgrades initiated by USAC or is it a “you must request an upgrade at x points/wins” sort of thing? Went from CX 5 to 4 and then got the mandatory upgrade points as a 4 that require me to go to 3 this season. There’s only the championship race left so ideally I’d like to finish this season as a 4.
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Nov 1, 2021 13:01
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Thanks. I figured that was still the case but wasn’t sure if USAC got their act together a bit more when they rolled out the changes to upgrades last year.
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Nov 1, 2021 15:24
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I’m just now realizing this Howard mentioned is probably Howard Grotts. I’m very smart. Dude is a beast.
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Nov 5, 2021 22:20
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jamal posted:Yeah. It's been kind of surreal showing up at the local xc and cx races this year and lining up next to him. Although Sam Schultz used to show up to them too. I wonder if Caleb Schwartz will show up to next week's race. He appears to be in town for a bit. I do love seeing a random pro rock up to CX races. We had a Skyline guy show up to the opening race of the season, he got 2nd but was 3 minutes down from a local guy. Never came back. Wild stuff.
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Nov 6, 2021 19:06
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jamal posted:Yeah. It's been kind of surreal showing up at the local xc and cx races this year and lining up next to him. Although Sam Schultz used to show up to them too. I wonder if Caleb Schwartz will show up to next week's race. He appears to be in town for a bit. Just saw Caleb is at nats for mens elite and even featured under the dark horse section of “who to watch”. Hope he does well! I have a friend there for Saturday’s SS.
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Dec 10, 2021 15:04
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I don’t know jack poo poo about tubs but I just got an ultra light wheelset for dirt cheap. Anyone have recommendations for 22-23mm, almost exclusively for racing? Light weight is the key.
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Feb 23, 2022 15:39
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bicievino posted:Where do you want to land in the durability scale? Hill climb (~7 miles) is the first priority, I’d probably also use it for some road races with significant climbing so no free lap. Sounds like the Veloflex Protour Race and Vittoria Corsas would be a good starting point then?
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Feb 23, 2022 16:57
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Those are great shots. Nice work on the podium.
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Mar 19, 2022 23:32
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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.
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May 4, 2022 01:00
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Look at them flowing locks. Hot.
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May 5, 2022 08:35
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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 
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May 29, 2022 02:56
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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.
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May 29, 2022 14:00
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Join us https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3900029&perpage=40&noseen=1&pagenumber=381
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Jul 21, 2022 14:28
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TobinHatesYou posted:I won the most prestigious crit in NorCal. In the western US maybe. I hope it’s Alviso, I’d even say it’s the prestigious race period
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Aug 10, 2022 18:12
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BIKE RACING IS BACK (for me) The MTB group decided to make a gravel race this year as the opener. 50 miles, 6k ft. Mostly gravel with some pavement and singletrack mixed in. Part of the course is on private property so you can’t pre-ride those sections, and they’re of course the worst parts. I also rolled the dice on racing with new Terra Speeds with 0 experience riding on them but they turned out alright. March in the Midwest means weather can be whatever and today it delivered with 26f, snow, and 15mph+ winds. Probably a layer too heavy but at least I was able to vent my vest on the climbs. There’s a climb right after the neutral rollout ends and I was feeling pretty good so I went to the front and rode a decent pace. Not sure if the group thought it was doomed but wound up with only 1 other guy, and another bridged up a little bit later. The 3 of us rode for the first 30 miles together, 2 of us on gravel and the other on a hardtail. The first mtb section was definitely my weakest spot, the 40c Terra Speeds did alright but it was pretty rocky and was all on the downhill. I was able to close up the gap after the mtb sections but didn’t want to give them a wheel to draft on the gravel and then lose time and have to catch after some more singletrack. Around 20 miles to go there’s a pretty good climb so I put in an attack and managed to get clear. I knew we had one more singletrack section but I wasn’t sure how long, how technical it would be, or if it was uphill or down so I wanted to have a little time to play with, and be in front in case I got caught. It turned out to be relatively short and the easiest of all so I don’t think I shipped too much time, but I stayed on the gas. Kept looking over my shoulder expecting to see someone or a group barreling down on me but it never came and eventually started to feel like it might stick when I hit the final 3 miles which is pavement. Rolled in around 3h17m and the next guys at 3h29m and 3h31m. Felt pretty good afterward so think I got my fueling dialed. As a sweaty mess I started getting absolutely frozen a few minutes after ending. Definitely could have used some sort of indoor changing situation rather than me stripping down under a towel. Next up is another gravel race tomorrow. Legs feel ok now but who knows how they’ll feel when I line up. Bike racing is good as hell y’all.
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Mar 18, 2023 23:16
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VelociBacon posted:Was this the kind of thing that you could ride on a gravel bike? Good work, sounds exhausting! Yeah, it was all rideable on a gravel bike, but a bigger volume tire would have been better. Then again it’d be slower elsewhere so it’s all compromises somewhere along the line. Really happy with the Terra Speeds though.
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Mar 19, 2023 00:30
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