Raced in a regional crit last Saturday and it very nearly went to plan, then it didn’t!
Final corner, five of us, I was just lining up on my wheel of choice and felt strong as we exited, then the rider literally ground to a halt! Not sure how I missed him. After that it was all done for me. Swamped and I finished in the bunch.
Positives we:
50 minutes at just under 27MPH average.
Took a couple of pulls and didn’t feel shattered
Closed two breaks and could have closed a third but I didn’t want to burn all of my matches.
Utilised the ‘extra pedal stroke’ into the corner that came out of Pete’s analysis of @Nate_Pearson race and boy does it make a REAL difference!
You looked great in the pack at speed at the Early Birds, @bobmac! You should definitely try some more races. I’m a climber, too, and found that The Bump race in Livermore was well suited to that strength with a finish at the top of a climb. I think there’s another race there this summer.
Also, another TR user got 4th in that Early Bird race.
Sumatanga Cat 3/4 Road Race - I placed 2nd and my mate got 1st. Both of us have been using TR for a few months now. Very happy this far with my training. I am still a Cat 4.
@fidracer Thanks! You were a GREAT wheel to follow, David! I actually took advantage of it twice during the race. Congrats on your 5th place finish, particularly after having done the early one as well!
Currently I’m looking at a few hilly road races - Sea Otter, Mt Hamilton, Pescadero (our club runs it), and Patterson Pass. More investigating and thinking to do. How about you?
One plus…that my husband got some awesome shots of me during my last race. It was dry when we started, but about 40 minutes in it started to really come down!
Snelling this Saturday for sure. Maybe Merced crit on Sunday—still thinking about that one. Probably Red Kite crit in early March. I haven’t planned much beyond that yet.
Ended up 3rd in Cat 1 Enduro, which I’m happy with. The first stage was on a portion of the DH track and I tied with the winner’s time.
Sunday’s DH went really well, I hit 95% of all my lines and pedaled my heart out. Ended up 4th in Cat 1 and within striking distance of 2nd and 3rd so I’m happy with that. There was also a chainless DH race that was a lot of fun, there were a few uphill sections that I had to Strider-bike up. I’m excited to get back down there soon.
I suffered a collapsed lung immediately prior to, or during, the TT. Didn’t know what was going on during the race other than that I couldn’t breathe well and was hyperventilating at my target power. Dropped the power substantially and suffered through to finish in the top 20 in the TT.
Started the road race but had the same issue - still not diagnosed. Couldn’t work hard but could sit in. Got dropped around mile 75 and just rode it in easy for a DNF. Completely baffled as to what was wrong with me.
Thus I was both pleased to have a good explanation and annoyed at the seriousness of the condition when x-rays definitively showed a partially collapsed right lung. Very frustrating to train and have good fitness and then a seemingly completely random injury (didn’t fall or suffer any other impacts) fully derail my peak fitness and main A race for the first half of the year
Got my first race of 2019 on Sunday. A 25mile TT, first TT race since 2017 so see if got any better! Forecast looks ok and hoping for PB! Will report back!
I made a comeback from my pitiful performance in the past two races! Today was a climber’s paradise sort of race, with 37 miles and just under 4500ft of climbing. I don’t feel I’m a climber at all, but my team puts this race on the list for our contract, so I begrudgingly went. And surprised myself with first place in the 3/4 category! Aaaaaand my teammate and I went 1, 2!
The first lap of climbing was hell and considered just dropping off the back. But on the second lap I quickly realized these women didn’t have repeatability, so on the third climb I just pushed hard and the field was narrowed down to 6. I looked around and just had this feeling I would win. Thanks TR for kicking my a** indoors. It’s paying off!
PS. Thank you @Nate_Pearson for the embro cream suggestion. I bought some yesterday (trialed it last night) then doused the legs in it this morning. It really helped. Here’s to us both getting first in our respective road race!
