Yet another boring race report

Today was a mass start 60km race with almost 300 riders. Weather was a
balmy 10C, sun, and 15m/s winds out of the north. That's what the
weather pages say. Wind wasn't quite that bad, but it was still quite
windy.

Here is the profile:

http://tck.no/index.php?catID=72&catname=Baglerrunden

The first 2km are behind the lead car at a steady 30km/h as we are
escorted out of town. This is always bad, as the group bunches up and
as we pass stopped cars, it gets even more squished, and some folks
panic and there are crashes. I saw 2 crashes in the first 3km, and 2
guys hit me and bounced off. (Mass comes in handy sometimes!).

As you can see from the profile, there is an ascent right from the
start. With a 20km/h tailwind, this was super fast. Between the
crashes and the speed, I ended up on the wrong side of a gap at about
km 5. It looked like about 50 riders ahead. I tried jumping from one
wheel to the next as I weaved passed dropped guys, but I couldn't
close. At the top, I was with a group of about 8 riders, including 3
women who all had ridden my wheel the last km or so trying to close. 6
of us knew what we were doing, but 2 of the guys were clueless. We
tried to get an echelon rotation going (as the road had turned and now
we had a sidewind) but they kept screwing it up. It wasn't that they
didn't have the hang of it, they were totally oblivious to what we
were trying to do. Eventually one of the women told those guys to sit
back and watch and learn. Then the 6 of us got something going. I
happened to end up behind one of the women who had a very top-line
carbon fiber/Record bike, and some tights with very suggestive semi-
translucent side panels. I almost forgot I was in a bike race!

We rolled along like that for a while, but it was too slow. At km 15,
I took the lead up a steep hill lined with spectators. I figured I'd
set a good pace I was comfortable with so nobody would do something
dumb like zoom up it and then wait at the top for me so I could pull
them down the other side. At the top, I looked back. Oops. Where is
everyone? One guy was a few meters back, everyone else was gone. He
was pretty big too. I figured anyone we could drop on a steep hill not
even really trying would not be much use once the road turned into
the wind in a few km.

So he and I battled the headwinds, up and down the nasty little hills.
It was open farm country so no respite from the wind. Behind us a
couple hundred meters was saw a big group of 70 riders or so. We sat
up for a second, and looked at each other. At the same time, we said
"Let's try to hold them off!" With ****-eating grins we jumped into
the wind again. Several kilometers later, we still had a big gap. I
knew the road was going to turn in a bit for a while, and I figured
that if 70 clowns couldn't catch us in a mean headwind, there was no
way they would catch us in a tailwind. Soon the road turned and we had
about 5km with tailwind. 53x13 smoking, and the group was out of
sight.

At around km 35 on a steep section, I blew up and couldn't hold his
wheel. I yelled, but I don't know if he heard me or cared. I had zero
power. I eased off for about a minute or so, but I picked it up again
when I saw the group behind. Hell no! I'm not going to let them catch
me til the big hill at km 42! So I dropped the hammer again, and
really opened up on the fast descent. I could hear the group's escort
motorcycle right behind me. He didn't want to pass, and that gave me
motivation to keep up the pace. But 500m into the 2km hill at km 42,
some of the leaders of that group caught me. (5.5%, headwind, 20km/h,
110kg for those who want to do the math...) I sat on their wheel
almost to the top, but by then I was hurting, so about 15-20 guys had
passed me at the summit. And then these last punks all sat up! I had
to keep braking to weave my way through to the leaders. I got to the
front just as we caught my partner from earlier. "Howdy!" He and I
then stayed at the front and upped the pace. As we got closer, more
people started helping out, but I made a point of trying to be in the
front. The surface was very bad and I wanted a clear view of the holes
to avoid. The finish has a dangerous chicane, so I took it easy, and
lots of guys tried to sqeeze past, and I let them. I didn't care about
place 55 vs 65 (or maybe it was 155...), I cared about the time. No
official results yet, but I think I was about 6 minutes behind the
winning time of about 1:40.

That was fun. My legs hurt. Next week is 100km:

http://www.tender.no/hoydeprofil.htm

Joseph

On May 12, 12:34*pm, "
wrote:

6 of us knew what we were doing, but 2 of
the guys were clueless.

Racing has better numbers than rbr, I suppose.

Eventually one of the women told those guys to sit
back and watch and learn. Then the 6 of us got something going. I
happened to end up behind one of the women who had a very top-line
carbon fiber/Record bike, and some tights with very suggestive semi-
translucent side panels. I almost forgot I was in a bike race!

We rolled along like that for a while, but it was too slow.

Revisioning this last section would really make it interesting. Where
are the h^2 links?

---------------
You should have sat up and waited for that group of 70.

Thanks,
Koach

On May 12, 9:58*pm, SLAVE of THE STATE wrote:
On May 12, 12:34*pm, "

wrote:
6 of us knew what we were doing, but 2 of
the guys were clueless.

Racing has better numbers than rbr, I suppose.

rbr is apparently for men only. So we have to rule out the 4 women in
the group. That makes it 50-50. That sounds about right.


Eventually one of the women told those guys to sit
back and watch and learn. Then the 6 of us got something going. I
happened to end up behind one of the women who had a very top-line
carbon fiber/Record bike, and some tights with very suggestive semi-
translucent side panels. I almost forgot I was in a bike race!

We rolled along like that for a while, but it was too slow.

Revisioning this last section would really make it interesting. *Where
are the h^2 links?

Hey, maybe she is a lurker here. I don't want anyone to think
(realize?) I am a lecher. Suffice it to say that she is an extreme
outlier in the normative distribution of ugly/non-ugly people.

Here is more to feed your imagination:

http://www.campagnolosportswear.com/...105_carbon.jpg



---------------
You should have sat up and waited for that group of 70.

To make them feel better?

Joseph

Joseph...Not boring at all...This morning during MY ride a bunny came
running out of the bushes and lined up right in front of my wheel. He
(I'm assuming, I didn't check) ran like the proverbial bat outa hell
for about 10 yards, then decided to shear off left, so I ticked my
wheel right...AAAGGGGH, he changed his mind and came back right!! I
was reaching for the levers as an icy hand clutched my heart...then he
realized that left really was the ticket and before I could react, he
cut his angle left and went poof into the bushes.

See what I mean? That's as exciting as it gets for me, so reading
your race reports is a pure joy.
Good on ya, laddie,
ABS

On May 12, 7:44*pm, wrote:
Joseph...Not boring at all...This morning during MY ride a bunny came
running out of the bushes and lined up right in front of my wheel. He
(I'm assuming, I didn't check) ran like the proverbial bat outa hell
for about 10 yards, then decided to shear off left, so I ticked my
wheel right...AAAGGGGH, he changed his mind and came back right!! I
was reaching for the levers as an icy hand clutched my heart...then he
realized that left really was the ticket and before I could react, he
cut his angle left and went poof into the bushes.

See what I mean? *That's as exciting as it gets for me, so reading
your race reports is a pure joy.
Good on ya, laddie,
ABS

Was the rabbit's name Djamolidine Abdoujaparov?

Andre

In article
,
" wrote:

Today was a mass start 60km race with almost 300 riders. Weather was a
balmy 10C, sun, and 15m/s winds out of the north. That's what the
weather pages say. Wind wasn't quite that bad, but it was still quite
windy.

Here is the profile:

http://tck.no/index.php?catID=72&catname=Baglerrunden

300 riders, 1 category. Is this nominally a sportive-type ride, or a
true race?

If the latter, there's something wrong with the Norwegian organizers.

Good report, and I'm impressed by how much work you did and how well you
finished.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

On May 13, 4:12*am, Ryan Cousineau wrote:
In article
,

" wrote:
Today was a mass start 60km race with almost 300 riders. Weather was a
balmy 10C, sun, and 15m/s winds out of the north. That's what the
weather pages say. Wind wasn't quite that bad, but it was still quite
windy.

Here is the profile:

http://tck.no/index.php?catID=72&catname=Baglerrunden

300 riders, 1 category. Is this nominally a sportive-type ride, or a
true race?

It is nominatively a sportive-type ride, but in practice it is a race.
Numbers, mass start, timing, finish position, sprint finish, podium.

Results are out and 303 starters. I came in in 1:45 (shared 104th
spot, 3rd group), winners in 1:36. Same guys podiumed as the last few
races I wrote about.


If the latter, there's something wrong with the Norwegian organizers.

There is a problem. There is a conflict between the national
federation and the sportive organizers. "Real" racing from the
national federation is not very accesible due to no categories, so
more folks turn up for sportives which due to large feilds, break up
into de-facto categories. The federation is trying to force the
organizers to run things more like real races (which is what they
are), but not offering an alternative, nor looking at why more people
chose the sportives. Reminds me of UCI vs ASO. The federation saying,
"you have to do it our way", and the organizers saying, "sod off, all
you do is make rules. We run bike races."

They don't seem to be interested in depth, just focus on the few who
have managed to percolate to the top. They do things like make super
technical criterium races with steep hills. That would be fine if
there were lots of criteriums to spice things up. But there are only
3-4! Why put in a 20m climb on each of .7km lap? Or ITT's with 100m of
climbs. Not just bad for me, but makes a HUGE gap from the top to the
second teir, and this discourages participation.


Good report, and I'm impressed by how much work you did and how well you
finished.

Last year the lead car controlled the pace up the first hill, and
there was no tailwind there. If that had been the case this time, I
could have held on until the last big hill I think (last year I got
dropped on the hill where I parked the ladies). But overall, losing
only 10 seconds per km or so in a 2 man group to a large lead group
powered by guys who do 10km ITTs in 12.5 minutes is pretty satisfying.

Joseph

Ryan Cousineau wrote:

300 riders, 1 category. Is this nominally a sportive-type ride, or a
true race?

If the latter, there's something wrong with the Norwegian organizers.

http://www.itiming.com/raceresults/283-fh50_ovl07.pdf

485 entrants, 462 starters, everyone rides together. The timing
system sorts it all out by category at the end. It's the largest
road race in the area by far. They also run a TT, which also
draws hundreds of entrants.

The road race is known for being very hairy. The course has
corners where I swear you could DNA test the pavement and find
evidence of people sliding across.

Bob Schwartz