my weekly race log

Nice work dude, did Germaine Burton win it? He's the son of the owner of de vere cycles in norbury and looks like quite the prospect, 15 I think and won a fair few of the crystal palace crits (and one of the hill climbs last year)

No, he wasn't in it, but he won the Bec CC Hill Climb (on Titsey Hill, which I think is just inside the M25) in the afternoon:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/530407/burton-scorches-bec-hill-climb.html

I got 60th place out of 103 starters :-)

that's really impressive, hat!

Monsal Head climb this weekend too, I cycled that when I was 16 and nearly died. Hills are not my friend (though we are steadily becoming acquaintances)

Nie work NBS, that's awesome! You're living the dream.

That sounds awful, but great job.

On the contrary, you have to down a pint of Guiness before you can start

Might have a chance of finishing then.

Thanks, all. Not terribly flattering professional photo:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/catfordresized.jpg

That's a brilliant photo!! You are a fucking MAN.

I AM A TIGER

*effete wrist gesture* rowr

End of season wrap-up:

This was my first full season racing, and also my first year on a proper team. My goal was to learn as much as I could from my mentors and to continue learning what my strengths are (still learning apparently haha). I mainly raced in a selfless support role which was a bit of a transition from last year where I was focused on selfishly racing for results and upgrading through the ranks.

March:
+My first crit of the year had a hairpin in it and was one of the most stacked 1/2/3 fields I'd race with all year*, I got crashed out of the hairpin about midway.
+My first road race I tried to lead out my teammate from too far out but we got passed by another train on the run in. He held on for 10th out of 88.
+*The arguably next most stacked field was my next road race where I got dropped after 5miles at 30.3mph. DNF'd. Pain.

April:
+Did a circuit race, got my teammate in the break and then I got top 5 in the field sprint. Felt like I was getting stronger.
+The next weekend I did three races across four days:
-First was a crit, got 5th after missing the break of 4. My first field sprint win of the year in a pretty high profile race, 3 of the guys who beat me were cat 2s by May.
-Next was the circuit race (held on the Laguna Seca race track), puked a couple times. Teammates were up the road in top 5-10. Miserable race.
-Last was another crit, felt like ass the entire race until one lap to go, I moved up from the back to the top 7 with 500m to go, but then went backwards up the final climb. Horrible.
+The week after I did a small crit in insanely windy conditions on a hilarious boomerang shaped course. Missed the break but went off solo and spent the last half of the race in no man's land, got 4th.

May:
+I did a bunch of boring office park crits and realized that I hate them.
+I think I like downtown crits run by good promoters better.
+Really my worst results of the year were in May.
+But then I went to LA and won a boring office park crit so who knows. Forced a breakaway, then attacked the breakaway. <= my mantra for 2012, seems to work?

June:
+Did 2 crits:
-One was a flat office park ordeal, finished just outside the top 10.
-The other one was an 8 corner downtown crit on a hill, finished just outside the top 10 but I did mucho work to bring a dangerous break back and get my teammate on the podium.

July:
+July 4th was my largest crit of the year, almost 100 entrants. Started in horrible position due to taking a warmup lap only to find the whole field staged already. Spent the first 12 laps getting to the front, and then I went off the front but got reeled in a couple laps later. The end of this race got messy but I got a top 10. Our governing body has an algorithm that rates your races based on the level of talent that you outperformed and those that outperformed you and interestingly this was my best performance of the year (on paper).
+Did a big 4 corner crit the next weekend to help get my teammate on the podium, he got 4th, I rolled in from the leadout 15th out of 55.
+Worst crit of the year a couple weeks later: I get in the break with 4 other guys, 2 of whom are friends of mine. We get a 20 second gap but these guys are not relenting and my pulls are not up to their standards so they keep attacking our break and each other, even with like 10 laps to go. I get shit out the back and roll back to the pack to find my teammates not pleased with my effort for the day. Feeling awful, I sit in for a couple laps and then take the front and go into crazy TT mode to pull these fuckers back. We get them in our sights and another one of my teammates takes over while I go pick up our sprinter from the lounge at the back and just while we're going into 3 corners to go, I jump up and start my sprint (uphill section), my back wheel gets taken out and then I go down, taking a few people down including a teammate. Teammate has broken elbow and broken frame. Just a shit race all in all. I ended up in the ER with a deep gash into my elbow, pretty gory shit.

August:
+Did a night crit. Sketchy as fuck, potholes and grooved road that is dangerous in full daylight. Broke my saddle. Got 4th and a prime, and got a super cool photo taken.
+Next crit was a 4 corner downtown crit that my teammate was keen on winning. I told him we'd take control of the race with 4 to go and get him to the last 2 corners in the lead. We almost executed perfectly, he got 4th in a super close race. 2 juniors who finished 1-2 catted up after the race. The guy who got 3rd is a total sandbagger (he won the previous race, wtf! like 5 mins before this race started).
+Did my first road race since March, the Masters State Championships. The big attack was made halfway and guess what happened, I didn't make the selection. My teammate did and he got 4th. I did nothing to help him, he's just a super strong guy.

September/October:
+Got tangled up in a bunch of crits that I did well in last year, just bad luck of being in the wrong spot in the wrong time. Sitting top 10 and some shit goes down that you just can't avoid. I can't really beat myself up over that, it's just disappointing because I'd like to continue that success. There is always next year though.
+Did a couple circuits where I top 10'd pretty easily without doing too much. Missed the break in both cases (this sandbagger solo'd!!! to win both races) but a good way too finish off the year and test my legs on some climbs and the final sprint.

Next year, I think I'm going to race less and try to focus on races that suit my riding style, helping out teammates where I can.

6 top 10s, 5 top 5s and a win. 2 crashes.

scary good

Finally, the final, final, final race of the season yesterday: my club's annual hill climb. I've finished second for the last two years, narrowing the gap to the guy who always finishes first from about 19 seconds to 14 seconds. Yesterday we had a much bigger field than normal as loads riders from other clubs turned up, so I came 6th out of 24:
http://leavalleycc.co.uk/hctt11.html
However, out of my club (which is what counts for the medals!) I came second, again, to the same guy who always wins. He's not in best health at the moment and went slower than normal. I was about 4 seconds slower than last year, but was only 5 seconds behind him.

it's yours next year then. now put the 2nd place medals on the rail for the train. :)

Tuesday Night Racing started up again at my local velodrome. Rode around for fitness, without trying too much in the burnout paceline warmup and the 10 lap snowball races, then executed what was tactically my best spring ever in the 35 lap points race. Followed the right wheels at the right time and came around the guy leading out the sprint at the right time (middle of turn 4) to take full points at the line. Ended up 4th overall in that race. Stoked.

yr in Cali yes?

awesome.

Raced the Barrio Logan grand prix, a crit that our club promotes annually. It's also the (California) state crit championship for the juniors, so a lot of them came out. I raced the cat 4 race. The course is .8 miles per lap, with 8 turns (6 right, 2 left), so you are always cornering and you hardly have space to move up. I missed clipping in and got a slow start at the beginning, and even though I had no trouble riding around the back, every time I would try and move up 4 or 5 places on either of the short short straightaways, I'd lose them to kamakazi cornering on the next turn or two. I finally resigned myself to rolling in at the back, and at that point was able to give myself a gap before each corner and ride the last 4 laps without hardly touching the brakes. My 3 or 4 hours of training a week just isn't cutting it.

Strava recording: http://app.strava.com/rides/7953382

Tomorrow I am racing the Dana Point grand prix, in the ur-orange county suburb or Dana Point. That race is on the National Criterium Calender, and has a $15,000 purse for the pro race, so it's always super high-profile and well attended. I think the 4's field (which rolls off at 7:55am! fuck!) has 135 guys signed up for it already. I have the fear.

you haven't happened to encounter Team Pegasus or my friend C4le have you? he is a tiny monster, just 4th or 5th in the st4gecoach 400. also an excellent dude in general.

I do in fact know that dude. Raced with him on the velodrome last night, then drank a beer with him at the post-race pizza joint session. He can crank it up, and is indeed a bro.

Pic from last nights track race. Here's me bridging up to an early (ill fated) break in
the 5mile scratch race:

http://i.imgur.com/rN8MW.jpg

Nice picture

I did a 10-mile time trial yesterday, for the first time in 2 years. It was a bit gusty, but mostly a crosswind. This was on a fast course (one of the 'dragstrip' dual carriageways), but I hate riding them - it just seems suicidal to have juggernauts going past at 70mph. I did it in 24.27 (about 24.5mph), which is 17 seconds slower than my PB. The winner (Michael Hutchinson, who wins just about every national championship every year) broke the course record for a staggering 18.10.

Did CO state champ 40k. Super fast course. Flat, only light breeze, a fairly smooth set of traffic free farm roads. Only goal was to break an hour, got it done 58:15 or so. I couldn't have given an ounce more effort, yet it still felt almost easy at the same time til the last 2 km.

I came in second to last out of 29 in my category. Adjusting attitude with wine, it's working out pretty great, really. Someone gotta be second to last. After the tryhards and cheaters.

http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/darraghmac/7ntuar6theu4f891

are you building up for the ride you mentioned in july?

Yeah, but without doin the actual event, just the training runs the group has organised. This was ok, not cycled 40k in a long time but once the loooong hill was over it was great, as top speed of 75kmh attests to

A woman in my race on the velodrome last night crashed hard and is in the ICU with a slim-to-none prognosis for survival. It's a really tight-knit group there at the track, we're all shaken up. I did not see how the crash happened, which I'm thankful for. Be safe out there, take care of each other.

that sounds horrendous, sorry to hear that

yeah, i'm very sad to hear of that, take care man.

Jesus

She passed. It is crazy to think I was right there riding beside her moments before her end. Tough.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/06/news/fatal-velodrome-accident-shocks-san-diego-racing-community_291588

sorry to hear it, that's awful.

ugh, that's terrible, heard about it from a buddy of mine (c4le), too.

It was karaoke night at the velodrome last night. Sang "head on" by jamc and "True" by Spandau Ballet in my skinsuit, came in 3 in the combined field points race. Stoked.

Had my best win ever on the track, the 6 mile (29 lap) scratch race finale in the 'B' Class, last Tuesday night.

I was feeling absolutely terrible all night long and had no motivation or ambition for the race, so I sat on the back taking tickets for the first 20 laps. Breaks went and I just sucked wheels while stronger dudes closed them down. With 9 to go I started feeling OK and noticed the work otherwise was being shared, so I stopped skipping pulls and started moving up. On the second to last lap I was 4th wheel, behind a big, strong guy that I knew would go early. On the back straight, the leader pulled up track, leaving me 3rd wheel as we crossed the line for the final (333meter) lap.

The new leader started his sprint just before the line, big guy in front of me held 2nd place untill the back straight, and pulled even with the leader in turn 3. Between turn 3 and 4 I made my move, and we were three wide through turn 4, with the original leader fading hard. I was worried that I was too far on the outer perimeter of the track, but big guy faded too, and my position near the top of the track let me accelerate downhill on the finishing stretch, and I crossed the finish line in a comfortable first place. I was really worried that one of a few guys in the field who have been riding very strong lately would come around me at the line, but they were nowhere close, probably victims of chasing down early breaks.

It was hard to believe I had won the thing at first, as I really didn't feel that tapped out. Ironically, I think my low expectations allowed me to go all in on one strategy (hang out in the back) and to stick with it, without getting antsy and changing my plan mid-race. Lucky for me none of the attacks stuck, and I am now the San Diego Velodrome Class B Scratch Race Champion of 2013. Wierd!

that's awesome.

great work!

First crit in 7 years. Yikes that was terrifying. With two to go, sitting 12 back, I got shoulder to shoulder with someone going into a right hander. No one went down fortunately. Total pack fodder finish for me.

Yeah, I think to do well in those situations you have to somehow not care about crashing. I care quite a lot about not crashing.

It was probly not the best race for me to drop into after 7 yrs, it was a .8 mi figure eight with a couple of single widecorners. All those accelerations. we still were over 27 mph by my clock, which felt fast to me.

the last time i had on opportunity to race cx nats was 98 but i wasn't racing that year much, so i didn't. this year it's in boulder. i haven't raced a cx race since this. and i haven't trained for it this year, but my condition is good.

so today i got my license reinstated and i'm doing cyclocross national championships 45+.

usacycling has a "finish projection" feature on their website that projects that i will finish tied for last place. my goal is now to officially finish not tied for last, which will involve not getting pulled. i think it's not possible for me not to get pulled, but that is my goal.

idgi - does pulled have a different meaning in cx or something?

i'm using it to mean that the ref tells you to get off the course as a lapped rider, it's pretty common slang ime, but ? yeah, i don't mean like drafting if that's what you're thinking.

they don't always pull lapped riders, so perhaps i could finish a lap or two down- but they can if they feel there's liable to be interference.

first race back, turkey cross, formatted like a training race, a/b/c. i did b's, started at the back really easy, pretty much stayed right there afaict, probly passed 4 or 5 along the way. i've never enjoyed a first lap so much, everyone was all "after you," "no, i'm good you go," "ok, thanks," "yeah right on."

my gorilla tubeless set up worked very well, no burps. i ran a lot of pressure because i still don't totally trust it, probly 37 front 39 rear. i can say this, 39 rear tubeless is like 35 or 36 with regular tubed clinchers, the tire is way more supple. i was surprised how much more.

raced the boulder cx cat 35+. 9 deg F at start, but warmed up to 8 deg by the finish. it was dicey as fuck: off-camber ruts, frozen beach sand chicanes, and compacted parking lot ice. i finished...last! but i finished. not too bummed, after i went down suddenly (and hard) about 1/3 off the way through, it was just skills practice, with later interruptions by riders from an earlier start lapping me. i've not been lapped since about 1995, so i'd forgotten- once that starts, it's just endless pull-overs to stay out of the way. ran tubeless at 34/32 ish, would have been much better lower i think.

Sounds horrible, tbh. I would hate to be cycling, never mind off road racing, in those temperatures.

fun, but i think i got last again >:| when i arrived it was mid 20s, but bright sun with rapid warming. the race course went from sticky hard ice to slick wet ice as we went along, so of course i crashed again in one of the chicanes. i tried a little harder at the start, so i wasn't all the way at the back, and was mostly able to hold that spot, til i went down. need to ice my left knee and hip now.