The Race Reports Thread 2012

gattocattivo

that's a relief

DHTT

My experience at Isle Of Man Youth Tour and this weeks Cornish Series now on :-)

http://duncanheywood.blogspot.co.uk/

CakeLovinBeast

13/05/12: Shred Classic 2012 - Plymouth

I haven't raced in a fair few weeks, so I had some nerves approaching this one, not to mention that it was 2/3/4 race, so I was going to be mixing it up with the "proper" racers. The nerves manifested themselves early on during my warm-up, when I managed to misjudge a totally innoccuous corner and ended up body checking a steel fence and bruising my shoulder. Confidence knocked and arm aching, I slowly made my way back to the event area to sign on and check out the course.

It was basically a go-kart track for bikes. Set up on the top of Plymouth Hoe, the circuit was maybe 600m long. From the line, the home straight peeled off to the left slightly, before twisting into a not-quite 180 degree right-hander. From there the back straight ran completely straight before ending in an full 180 degree right-hander, back into the wind and back over the line again. We had a decent amount of time to practice and warm up on the track. The other four guys from Mid Devon were flying round, whilst I was still being quite tentative round the corners because of my earlier mishap. Having spectators all the way around the course was a little bit intimidating too - I was convinced they were spotting all of my mistakes and laughing at them! Eventually, after giving myself a bit of a talking to and taking a bit of time picking my lines, I was relatively happy, just in time to be called forward to the line.

I was called up for the first heat, a mixed group of just under 20 riders, for our briefing: 20 minute heats, primes at 5 and 10 minutes, no swearing, no kamikaze runs into the corners... I felt like a boxer at a prize fight. With that, the whistle went, we were off and there wasn't time to be nervous anymore. I went out quite hard, but was surprised (given the field) to find myself in the first 5 or 6 wheels. After the first couple of laps though, it was soon obvious that it wasn't a pace that I could sustain, and I started to lose places to people who'd gone off at a more sensible place. I was engaged in my own little battle somewhere around mid-pack where there was a group of maybe four of us trying to maintain position. Mid Devon clubmate Mark Dolan was tearing up the race, lapping us shortly after the first prime, with another Mid Devon rider, Tom Bayliss, not far behind. I was aware of a couple of punctures, and also someone with a shipped chain, but after the first few laps I didn't really know where I was in relation to any of the other people on the course - I only had eyes on the Yogi rider and another guy in Nike shorts just ahead of me.

Just over halfway into the race, after the 2nd prime, I'd passed one of the guys in my group and then got the elbow to take a turn. I passed on the back straight, managed a tight line through the bottom corner and then tried to put a bit of a dig in to string people out some more. I gained a couple of lengths, managed a good line through the top corner and then realised that I'd gone harder than I should. I started to retch down the back straight and had to back off to stop from hurling. I was soon passed again as I chased to get back onto the wheel of the Yogi rider who had passed me. I clawed the distance back and I sensed that the Yogi rider was tiring, along with the Cyclesport South Hams rider in front of him. The MC gave us a five minutes to go warning and it was time to grit my teeth and dig. With two minutes to go, I managed to pick a faster line than the Yogi guy through the top corner, and went through on the inside. I went hard down the back straight, but I could see his shadow behind me and I knew he was close. I managed to close on the South Hams guy through the bottom corner, levelled with him, only to see him pull away down the home straight as the last lap was called. Into the top bend I managed to grab another good line up the inside and the South Hams guy was really unlucky as there was a rider down on the outside and he had to yank on the brakes. Pushing hard all the way to the line I had no idea where I'd placed, but it turns out I was 9th, due to mechanicals and people retiring. I was through to the final!

Ultimately, after getting my breath back (I set a new PB heartrate of 190, a whole 4bpm faster than ever before!) and having a bit of a rest, my shoulder really started to give me grief. Moving it was painful and riding was vaguely hellish. Ultimately, despite wanting to carry on, I decided to bin it and retire from the final in time to give the organisers time to get another rider in. Disappointed not to finish, but ultimately pleased with how I managed to do.

greeny12

I haven't put a report up for a while, but here's a link to my latest, which is more a paean to Mr Sean Yates than anything.

http://cyclingapprentice.com/2012/05/21 ... of-giants/

One or two others further down the pages too...

CakeLovinBeast

East Devon Circuit Series - Race 1

The subtext to the title could well read, "A Lesson in Humility"...

Because I'm lacking in race fitness and because I enjoyed myself at the Shred Classic recently, I decided that an outing to Dunkeswell for some more crit racing would be just the job. It's a Go-Race series, so no points on offer, but I translated that to mean that I was in with a chance of a decent result. You know what they say about pride though...

We gathered on the line for the briefing, including a fairly strong warning against crossing lines through the corners, with a reminder that this might be some people's first race. We were set off for our race with the ladies (both of them!). It was my intention to ride hard from the start and coming through the first 180 degree bend out of the home straight I found myself 3rd or 4th wheel. I looked back and saw I had maybe 10 metres over the next rider behind, but also noticed that gaps were already opening in front.

Note to self #1: You go off too fast. EVERY time. Why not try pacing yourself for once?

I maintained position through a series of switchback corners, through the looping 180 back onto the home straight and then the young whippet at the front decided to drop the pace a bit. A bit of a bigger bunch came together and formed. Full of thoughts of glory (and lacking any sensible thoughts at all), I pushed up the outside and stole another place, into bend 1, hold a nice line, sprint out (well, what passes for a sprint in my tanker-like world anyway) and away we go again. This pattern maintains itself for maybe the first 3 or 4 laps. Ultimately my breathing, along with my heartrate, tell me that the effort I'm making is unsustainable and I start to drop out of the front group.

Note to self #2: When dropped, stop thrashing yourself solo, sit up and wait for a group.

I pummelled myself along in no-mans land for another lap or two, neither gaining on the front group, whilst the next group behind slowly reeled me in. I'd make up time by being able to pick any line I wanted through the corners, they pulled me back on the straights as I had no legs for sprinting out of the corners. Ultimately I was caught, and then passed, by the group of 4 or 5 behind me. I stuck myself on the back and clung on. My solo effort had drained me (not that I had much to begin with!) and I could feel myself slipping backwards still. Riders in front meant that I wasn't carrying as much speed through the corners; my sapped legs meant that accelerating out of them was becoming more difficult. A gap began to open, and I was on the wrong side of it - I was by myself again. I gritted my teeth and clung on, had a stern word with myself and clawed back the distance to the group, sitting on the back whilst I tried to muster some, ANY, energy. I held position for a while whilst also trying to decide what to do next.

One of the ladies went over on one of the corners and I had a good enough line to avoid the resulting slow-down with a couple of others, and we formed our own mini group, but before long we were caught by another couple. I wasn't riding brilliantly, but I felt OK and felt that my cornering was good. We settled into a rhythm with me stealing a place or two on the corners, but then lacking the pace/strength to maintain it down the straights. We kept leapfrogging each other in that way for most of the rest of the race, until the commissaire announced two laps to go. I stepped up the pace some, and found myself having to fight harder for a decent line into the corners. I kept moving up and coming into the final bend of the penultimate lap I was at the front of our little group. I had a bit of space behind, then carried too much speed into the last corner, and the back end of my bike slid away from me, accompanied by a nasty metallic sounding pinging. At first I thought I'd blown out or rolled my tyre off the rim, but a check showed that there was nothing obvious wrong. I stayed upright but whilst all of this had taken place I'd dropped maybe 5 or 6 places and my confidence had taken a knock. I had to sprint to rejoin the group, but found myself taking the corners more slowly in the final lap. I managed to overtake just one of the group before crossing the line, happy, yet disappointed with the ending.

Lessons have been learned... I'm making progress, albeit slowly. I feel like I'm OK in the bunch, but I'm lacking that bit of top end speed/power where it matters. I'm certainly more confident in my handling skills and also with my movement in the bunch now, but I really need to look at my pacing to see if I can hold back wherever possible to make sure that I don't empty myself from the start.

okgo

I did one of my most recent race last week which was enough to push me up a category, which was nice!

Got back to back races now for the coming weeks, looking forward to it.

robert-sb

CakeLovinBeast wrote:

East Devon Circuit Series - Race 1

The subtext to the title could well read, "A Lesson in Humility"...

It seems we were in the same race CLB !

I am part of a junior cycling club (as a parent) and we had a number of our youngsters up there for the youth races but having attended a BC coaching series there last year had always intended taking part in this series. My only other race since the course was Sept last year at Ilton where I was brought down so this was my first race this year. I was on my old Bianchi which is basically my commuter bike less lights and mudguards but carrying plenty of crap still from the winter roads.

As CLB says the young whippet leads us out for the first lap when I was in the bunch that caught him as they slowed up. For the next 8 or 9 laps it was a case of keeping up near the front of our bunch as the MDCC lad had ridden off and I think a couple of others were a little way behind him. One of the ladies made a move off the first turn and, thinking she looked to have good speed, I went with her. She misjudged the 4th turn and slid off with me right behind. I thought I was going to go over her or her bike but, luckily just as I was there her clips came out of the bike and I went through the middle. I managed to carry on without much delay but found myself in no mans land - too far from the group in front to make a serious break for it and too far from the group behind to wait for them to come through. After about a lap and a half the group caught me so I just about managed to get on the back again. This pretty much stayed as it was until the last lap.

Having practised on this course last year I was confident I was at least as quick if not quicker than most on the corners so as we exited turn 1 I put into plan a preplanned attack and executed the Jens Voight theory - I have no chance against these guys in a sprint and a 10% chance in an attack so, as 10% is better than 0%, go for it. I got past all but one as we came out of turn 3 and passed the last one just before turn 4. I then went hell for leather through the next 4 corners until I was in the back straight where I went as hard as I could. When I had the strength to look around there was a much bigger gap than I had expected. I kept going but was tying up. Next time I looked the gap was getting smaller so just dug in and fortunately managed to hold off the chasers. (Pic here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclingmrso/7250460370/sizes/o/in/set-72157629850230456/)

I'm not sure whether I was 4th or 5th but for a first race this year on a commuter bike was quite 'stoked' with that !

See you in 3 weeks CLB !

CakeLovinBeast

Robert,

Race results are up on the Dynamo website now, but quite well hidden. CLICKY. Depending on if you're Robert or Rob, you came in either 2nd or 5th. I was quite pleased to see that I've come in mid-pack - in 8th, though it seems that they've not included any of the youth riders who joined in on dispensation!

The MDCC whippet at the front is one of the Bayliss brothers, who are actually pretty good. One, if not both, are GB talent pool riders I believe.

robert-sb

Thanks CLB - 2nd it is then ! I know of the Bayliss brothers and wasn't beating myself up about having finished behind a 16yo ! Honest !

DHTT

Latest update :-)

http://duncanheywood.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... never.html

Spaniard

My second race - be gentle :-) http://noviceroadracer.blogspot.co.uk/

DHTT

My recent activity: http://duncanheywood.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... -tour.html

DHTT

Another day another race :-)

http://duncanheywood.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... l-day.html

CakeLovinBeast

Team Tor 2000 Circuit Series, round 3. Ilton, Somerset.

Before I even begin, let me start by sharing the notes that I made after reviewing the data from my last race. The key points were:

- You're bigger than most. Bend your elbows more - get aero!
- Don't go off too hard. Too many big efforts early on ruin chances of competing.
- Warm up properly.

With that in mind, learn from my fail:

I got to the airfield to find a bunch of people all standing around in the horizontal rain waiting for the chief comm's decision for a go/no-go. The wet wasn't so bad, but with winds gusting up to 40mph, it made for tricky handling. Eventually it was decided that we would race, on the proviso that nobody used deep section rims and that we acknowledged that it might be necessary to abandon mid-race. I dripped back to the car to get warm/ready.

There was the first mistake: struggling to get ready in the warm, dry, confines of the car, I spent too long faffing about and no time at all getting warmed up. I heard the comm's whistle to get people ready, so my warm up consisted of riding to the line. I noticed that there were only 14 4th cats riding, so my best chance of points yet. I was somehow quietly confident, despite having done next to no training (other than of a beer-related nature) over the last couple of weeks. Off we went...

Early pace was slow - the weather was brutal, moreso the wind than the rain. Turn one out of the finish straight took us into it and an impromptu echelon formed. Nobody really wanted to force the pace so it was a bit stop/start before we settled down. Down the back of the circuit we had more of a tail wind, so there was a chance to open up a bit. A couple of digs went in - no serious attempts at breaks, more shifts in pace as some of the stronger guys just tested people a little, but then we turned into the top section. Oh my lord, the wind! It was like riding down a wind tunnel - the pace dropped to (seemingly) snail-like and there was a scramble to try and find shelter. My un-warmed-up legs were already burning as I found myself stranded on the outside. Another corner, and it lessened, the pace picked up and I found myself at the front. Once there, I forgot everything, gave it some legs and found myself with a gap. I decided to give it a go, put a bigger dig in and found myself with maybe a 200m lead... Just before turning back into the wind! I sat up, waiting to be caught and trying to recover. It was a stupid effort to make and probably was what ruined any chances I had of being competitive.

Lap 2 was more of the same, though maybe slightly quicker. The wind out of turn 1 was difficult, but not as bad as the top of the course. Looking at the riders around me I thought that if anybody put a proper attempt at a break in here, there was every chance of it staying away. There were a couple of individual efforts, but for now the moves were being brought straight back. The rest of the lap was vanilla, but I was starting to struggle. Lap 3 saw more of the same and this time saw the pace pick up enough to start fracturing the bunch. I was slow in following the wheel in front, lost my shelter and found myself off the back. I thought of sitting up and abandoning, but a head count of the bunch showed me there were 11 riders in front and with a vanishing dream of points still in my mind, I bent the elbows, gritted my teeth and PLF'd. Somehow I managed to regain contact with the back of the pack before heading back into the wind tunnel.

By now I was spent. I had to hope for some respite in the bunch, but it wasn't forthcoming. I was moving backwards again and thoughts of abandonment again crossed my mind, just as the bell rang. I dropped out the back through turn 1, but decided to carry on solo, not being able to see anybody behind me, whilst praying (somewhat selfishly) for a puncture or two in the bunch ahead to allow me to steal a point that someone else deserved. It wasn't to be, and I rolled over in 12th, maybe 30 seconds down on the bunch, only to discover that the other 2 riders had already abandoned.

alwaysapleasure

Sounds interesting. I normally race these but am oop North at the minute and my team mates didn't make it down either. How many people in total raced? Was this the 4 only? Sounds pretty windy.

www.hamiltonwheelers.cc has a few write ups of recent races including the Bynea Tour of Carmarthenshire, including a video which highlights the conditions which I would describe as inclement at best.....

CakeLovinBeast wrote:

Team Tor 2000 Circuit Series, round 3. Ilton, Somerset.

Before I even begin, let me start by sharing the notes that I made after reviewing the data from my last race. The key points were:

- You're bigger than most. Bend your elbows more - get aero!
- Don't go off too hard. Too many big efforts early on ruin chances of competing.
- Warm up properly.

With that in mind, learn from my fail:

I got to the airfield to find a bunch of people all standing around in the horizontal rain waiting for the chief comm's decision for a go/no-go. The wet wasn't so bad, but with winds gusting up to 40mph, it made for tricky handling. Eventually it was decided that we would race, on the proviso that nobody used deep section rims and that we acknowledged that it might be necessary to abandon mid-race. I dripped back to the car to get warm/ready.

There was the first mistake: struggling to get ready in the warm, dry, confines of the car, I spent too long faffing about and no time at all getting warmed up. I heard the comm's whistle to get people ready, so my warm up consisted of riding to the line. I noticed that there were only 14 4th cats riding, so my best chance of points yet. I was somehow quietly confident, despite having done next to no training (other than of a beer-related nature) over the last couple of weeks. Off we went...

Early pace was slow - the weather was brutal, moreso the wind than the rain. Turn one out of the finish straight took us into it and an impromptu echelon formed. Nobody really wanted to force the pace so it was a bit stop/start before we settled down. Down the back of the circuit we had more of a tail wind, so there was a chance to open up a bit. A couple of digs went in - no serious attempts at breaks, more shifts in pace as some of the stronger guys just tested people a little, but then we turned into the top section. Oh my lord, the wind! It was like riding down a wind tunnel - the pace dropped to (seemingly) snail-like and there was a scramble to try and find shelter. My un-warmed-up legs were already burning as I found myself stranded on the outside. Another corner, and it lessened, the pace picked up and I found myself at the front. Once there, I forgot everything, gave it some legs and found myself with a gap. I decided to give it a go, put a bigger dig in and found myself with maybe a 200m lead... Just before turning back into the wind! I sat up, waiting to be caught and trying to recover. It was a stupid effort to make and probably was what ruined any chances I had of being competitive.

Lap 2 was more of the same, though maybe slightly quicker. The wind out of turn 1 was difficult, but not as bad as the top of the course. Looking at the riders around me I thought that if anybody put a proper attempt at a break in here, there was every chance of it staying away. There were a couple of individual efforts, but for now the moves were being brought straight back. The rest of the lap was vanilla, but I was starting to struggle. Lap 3 saw more of the same and this time saw the pace pick up enough to start fracturing the bunch. I was slow in following the wheel in front, lost my shelter and found myself off the back. I thought of sitting up and abandoning, but a head count of the bunch showed me there were 11 riders in front and with a vanishing dream of points still in my mind, I bent the elbows, gritted my teeth and PLF'd. Somehow I managed to regain contact with the back of the pack before heading back into the wind tunnel.

By now I was spent. I had to hope for some respite in the bunch, but it wasn't forthcoming. I was moving backwards again and thoughts of abandonment again crossed my mind, just as the bell rang. I dropped out the back through turn 1, but decided to carry on solo, not being able to see anybody behind me, whilst praying (somewhat selfishly) for a puncture or two in the bunch ahead to allow me to steal a point that someone else deserved. It wasn't to be, and I rolled over in 12th, maybe 30 seconds down on the bunch, only to discover that the other 2 riders had already abandoned.

CakeLovinBeast

alwaysapleasure wrote:

Sounds interesting. I normally race these but am oop North at the minute and my team mates didn't make it down either. How many people in total raced? Was this the 4 only? Sounds pretty windy.

Yup, my race was the 4ths only. 3rds and E/1/2 had slightly bigger fields (I think), but nothing too big. Results are here if you're interested:

http://www.velouk.net/2012/06/08/result ... it-series/

Spaniard

My latest effort at Oulton Park TLI race 12the June: http://noviceroadracer.blogspot.co.uk/

DHTT

First time trial of the year, and another circuit race.
http://duncanheywood.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... -west.html

Johnpsanderson

First crit of the year for me: http://meandthemountain.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/shame-and-suffering-in-suffolk/

alex1rob

Raced in the 4th cat race at Mallory park last night.

My first race so I was a little nervous, did a couple laps before the race and worked out there was a fair headwind half the lap so was going to bear that in mind during the race.

Lined up on the start probably a field of 30 riders, 20 laps of the 1.3 mile circuit.

Took it easy in the positioning for the first two laps, stayed on the edges of the bunch so as not to tread on any toes, cornering was OK, I had a couple guys come across my front wheel a few times but I could see it coming so knew to pull out before they came across.

As the laps clocked by I decided to try and slow down my accelerations as much as possible, the sharp hairpin after the hill caused the pace to slow, and from what I could see not many people were confident pedalling round this corner so I used this to my advantage to make a few places each lap by just keeping my foot in lightly round the bend to then descend through the chicane into the headwind, the bunch spread out each time we went down the hill and I began to coast down the hill as the pace would slow once we were onto the flat straight so I could make contact with the group. Started sticking to the inside for the most shelter from the wind. After doing the above I noticed my HR was falling significantly each lap at this point allowing good recovery of the legs.

One lap before the bell it tightened up, people were getting tetchy and keen to get at the front, I was about 10th at this time, we were riding very tightly together. Took the hairpin up the hill after the bell well and made a couple positions. Speed was increasing all the time and on coming up to the last hill straight to the line, the guys attacked and I went with them sitting 4th I was behind a guy giving it everything out of the saddle on his carbon frame/deep wheels, just as I went to kick the wheel I was following must have pulled too hard on the drops and went straight down in front of me, I had absolutely no where to go. Hit him at 27mph and went over the handlebars to land all on my right side. Gutted. No fracture, but a pretty badly sprained wrist, bikes ok.

In hindsight perhaps I shouldn't be behind someone that close to the line, he had been in front of me most of the race and I always tried to avoid him as he would brake through corners and it just wasn't needed at the speed we were doing.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy how the race went. Kept a low profile for my first race, up until the crash anyway!

http://app.strava.com/activities/11411171

Spaniard

More lessons learned - Stone wheelers summer road race: http://noviceroadracer.blogspot.co.uk/

DavidJB

Finally updated my blog. (see sig)

DavidJB

Spaniard wrote:

More lessons learned - Stone wheelers summer road race: http://noviceroadracer.blogspot.co.uk/

You only get dropped once and give up the chase before you're dying...We've all done it...that shame will drive you to push until you're legs explode next time!

DHTT

My weekend at the National Series, not very good results or luck but experience I guess. Has forced me to take stock and decide what I want to do for rest of season.

http://duncanheywood.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... eries.html

Johnpsanderson

DavidJB wrote:

Spaniard wrote:

More lessons learned - Stone wheelers summer road race: http://noviceroadracer.blogspot.co.uk/

You only get dropped once and give up the chase before you're dying...We've all done it...that shame will drive you to push until you're legs explode next time!

Although it sounds like you really did just sit up this time - i've always felt I could have tried harder if i've been dropped, regardless of the fact that i've invariably been at the absolute limit. It's amazing how quickly you forget the agony and start chastising yourself!

Johnpsanderson

Two races in two days - went surprisingly well considering. For me anyway, all the best to Graham from Southend Wheelers who picked up some fairly nasty injuries in last nights Ford CC Circuit races... Write ups at http://meandthemountain.wordpress.com/

Spaniard

High Peak Road Race: http://noviceroadracer.blogspot.co.uk/

jgsi

High Peak RR - 1/7/12
Some astounding performances considering the conditions.
I stopped 'racing' after the first lap and it became just a matter of survival and attrition until the finish.
Hardest of the season - the completely knackred factor reflected in the the fact that I lost the guts of 3 minutes over the final 2 miles to the chequered flag.

DHTT

Another race

http://duncanheywood.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... reath.html

indjke

Rode my best TT yesterday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/196825031 (race is lap 2)
btw totally group-race bike setup w/o any aero features. now thinking about clip-on bars, because it seems like I reached the speeds, when they can give a really noticeable boost.