El Diablo Rojo

Just a beautiful day here in central Texas, blue sky's and temps in mid 60's. I did my second cat 4 race today in a field of 100 with a very strong field of the best cat 4's in the neighborhood. We were the first race of the day and the temps were still in the high 30s when we rolled off. This is great course with little time to recover the pressure was on from the start. The UT cycling team started had 5-7 guys in the bunch and were lighting off attacks what seemed like every 5 minutes. As soon as we caught one guy they would send another and another, this went on for about 40 miles. Still the pace hard but steady and I managed to stay in the top 10 for the majority of the race. On the last lap things really heated up and I put myself on the wheel of a guy named Chris Tricky. Chris is one of the better 4's out there and will soon be beating up on the 3's. At about 200 meters I jumped on another wheel that I knew belonged to a good sprinter, unfortunately he didn't have it today and I had to swing out around him and re-initiate my sprint. By the time I got spun up again I crossed the line in 8th in a bunch sprint. I'm pretty happy as everyone in front of me was under the age of 30 (I'm 45) and the top two were still in college! I know now that I can hang with the fast 4's but I think I'm going to start doing more 45 masters races. Next week is Lago Vista and I'll be in the 4's as a support rider for one of my teammates and I'll do the 45+ race on Sunday for myself. So far this season is going well, 3rd at Tour of New Braunfels and 8th at Pace Bend!

To the fellow BF'er that I talked to briefly during the race, sorry we didn't have more time are you going to be at Lago?

branman1986

Way to kick some ass, DR

I'm getting excited reading all these race reports...I've got my first real race of the season this weekend. I hope I can get past this cold I've been fighting

El Diablo Rojo

Thanks! I'm pretty stoked, thing are going well and I should be in really good form for Ft Davis in April. Good luck this weekend, hope you kick the cold and let us know how thing turn out!

Vinokurtov

Way to start the season!

mike9903

Way to go EDR, I was there today and it was a blast. I opted for the 11:30 Cat 5 race today, and the weather was perfect (even though it did warm up a lot). I was excited to apply what I had learned in my first race and see if I could do better than the crappy 46th place in my first race.

I had two goals in this race, place better than 46th and attack of the front at least once, I accomplished both! I ended up placing 15th and attacked off the front on the last lap just to make some people hurt. I attacked on the hill right before the hard left hand turn, but no one came with. I was easy top 10 when it came to the sprint and even had the wheel that everyone told me to watch for, I just had nothing left to sprint, I guess I know what I need to work on now!

I had a blast and I am looking forward to more races as the season continues.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that we averaged 22 mph and I had a max of 41 mph, how did this compare to the Cat 4 race?

El Diablo Rojo

Great job Mike, good work and a nice improvement from New Braunfels. Especially since this course was much more difficult that NB.

I have no idea what our ave speed was since I don't race with a computer. I know I should but I tend to actually look at it and find it distracting.

El Diablo Rojo

Thanks Vino. Next year I hope to have the start that your having now, you are just killin' it!

GuitarWizard

Turn it upside down.

El Diablo Rojo

What I need to do is just put some tape over it so I can't see the display. Although it will add precious grams to the overall weight of my bike

waterrockets 

Great work EDR and Mike. It really was a perfect day out there. EDR, I saw that 4s field go by when I was warming up, and it seemed like you were flying.

Someone around the finish was saying the 4s were running at 28mph on the 5th lap. Dunno how accurate that is -- sounds more like a crit speed. At any rate, it looked really fast from the roadside.

Sorry about your sprint luck. That happened to me at Walburg back in 2002 O_o

dl613

rockets and Diablo-Good report guys and good job, I missed PB but raced Walburg yesterday.

How's the Lago Vista race? I've never been down there.

Thanks.

jeffst

Hello. It was good to meet you. Good race report - the UT boys had the race under control but couldn't get anyone away. Two of their guys were off at one point and I tried to bridge. Got 3/4 of the way there when the Peloton swallowed me up. That course is just too fast, hills to small and no wind to break it up.

Right after we spoke on the last lap my hammie cramped, think we had ~ 2 miles to go. Dropped to the back of the pack (but in front of the chase car) and fortunately I was able to stretch it out and get back on. Now w/ 60+ guys in front of me I wasn't going to do anything stupid. But in the last 1/2 mile or so as we started up the false flat guys started to fall off the back and I was able to keep moving up. Finished just behind you at #11.

FYI we averaged 24mph over the 44 miles.

And, yes, I will be at Lago on Sunday in the 4s.

El Diablo Rojo

Lago is much different than PB or Wallburg. Basically you've got about a 1.7 mile climb at about 5% ave gradient. Then you make a right turn and make a fast descent that is broken up with some really annoying rollers. Just before the finish is a steep little 50m climb then about 100m to the finish. The descent can be a bit dangerous if you are not used to hitting 50mph+ in a group. A couple of years back a cat 5 hit a deer and was air lifted out.

El Diablo Rojo

Jeff great recovery, my buddies watching the race reported that they were pulling guys every lap. I've heard from a couple of people that our race was one of the fastest of the day, that last lap was fast for sure. I'll be in the 45+ race on Sunday (4's on Sat) so I'll email you my cell number. Call me when you get to Lago and we'll meet up.

dl613

Thanks EDR! I'll be sure to scout the descent and be sure to watch out for deer. Ouch!

El Diablo Rojo

I don't really feel it's necessary to pre ride most courses, Lago is an exception. If you aren't prepared for the climb and get shelled off the back it's a hard course to chase on.

jeffst

Lago was my first ever race last year and I arrived early enough to pre-ride it before the first race of the morning. And I did see a deer. But the long hill on the back wasn't what caught my attention. It was that descent on the front of the course!

El Diablo Rojo

Yeah those little stabbing rollers on the descent hurt me way more than the climb, I hate those suckers!

peterm5365

I was in the same field but you did better than me. About halfway through the second lap I got a nasty stich in my side and couldn't take a deep breath without pain. I pretty much sat up and watched everyone ride off. My team had a pretty rough day with three people sent to the hospital and another with some nasty road rash. It was a great day for racing though.

mike9903

About 3/4 throught the first lap I was thinking to myself that I did not think I was going to make it, thought for sure I was going to get dropped. After lap two I knew I was going to at least finish with the group and knew if i stayed close to the front I would do alright. Was your teammate the guy who went down in the Cat 5C race, I heard that he broke his coller bone.

What team you racing with? Jersey color?

peterm5365

I was actually doing fine the first lap. I thought it was relatively easy until the last stretch, that's about when the stitch hit me. Yeah, we had one guy go down in the 5c, but i think there were two crashes. He went to the hospital, but everything came out well, just some road rash. We had two people in the 35+ go down, one with a broken hip and the other I haven't heard an update on.

El Diablo Rojo

35+ crash was pretty nasty, lot's banged up riders and broken bikes. Are with Southwest Cyclesport? I know Steve SC was involved in that crash, I spoke with him afterwards, he had mangled front wheel and some road rash.

We had a guy bite it hard in the 4s race. He got pushed into a cactus plant, wasn't pretty.

peterm5365

No, I'm with at&t-tbs. Was steve the one that taco'ed that zipp wheel?

El Diablo Rojo

No he busted a couple of spokes on Ksyriums. That 404 was wasted! Was it your guy that went to the hospital?

Did you do the pre ride last Sunday? I was there if you did, 360 Cycleworks kit on the blue CAAD8.

peterm5365

We had three go to the hospital, two from the 35+ and one from the 5c. No, I missed the preride, but I heard you guys were going to be out there.