Wind and suffering were the name of the game for me at the Mad Cow Classic in Grand Junction last weekend. This year the race organizers made some fun changes. To start with, they added a hill climb at the Colorado National Monument on Saturday morning. I skipped it this year, but hopefully I can do it next year. Another change for this year was moving the criterium to Saturday and holding it at the Grand Junction Motor Speedway. The speedway is a go-kart track and a pretty cool place to have a race.
Showing posts with label mad cow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mad cow. Show all posts
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Mad Cow Classic
Christine and I went out to Grand Junction over the weekend to race the Mad Cow Classic. I do this race every year because it's such a nice course.
Executive summary:
I stayed with the lead group as we whittled down the group from 40-ish to under 10. I had a good race and I ended up finishing in 5th place.
Course description:
About 7 miles out, 3 laps around a mesa, then back to the start. Each lap is about 14 miles and 1200 feet of climbing. The lap starts with a long false flat, a long descent, and a short steep climb.
Summary:
About 30-40 riders lined up for the start. The group was Cat 3, Cat 4, and 35+ open. I'm a Cat 4, so racing with Cat 3's and Master's is a good challenge.
The race started a little quicker than it has previous years. One guy in a Wyoming jersey sat 20' off the front for a while. I don't think it was any sort of strategy, rather it was inexperience. He spent a lot of time with his nose in the wind the whole race (which is fitting for a guy from Wyoming). There was a cross wind on the way out, and I was having a hard time getting a good position. Five guys lined up in an echelon at the front of the group and I tried to start a second echelon, to no avail. I mostly ended up shielding guys, and they weren't interested in returning the favor. Eventually, I squeezed my way into a good position by just squeezing someone out. (My handle bars were in front of someone, ergo I'm going in front of you.) That's not a typical maneuver for me, and I'm trying to get better at taking the positions I want instead of waiting for them to open up.
We didn't go really hard up the first climb, but we dropped all but about 10 people (a handful actually caught up later). The first selection was big. At the top of the first climb a masters rider attacked. Following my pre-race strategy of going with attacks, I decided to bridge up to him. I bridged up to him cleanly, but the pack wasn't far behind and we were quickly caught. This guy made several attacks through the race. I think his plan was to put in some half-hearted attacks until the group got sick of chasing him.
Our first lap around the "loop" part of the race was pretty uneventful. We weren't soft-pedaling, but we weren't going all out either. I did my best to stay sheltered in the slight breeze, conserving as much energy as possible. We hit the big climb towards the end of the lap and it was hard but nobody really hammered it.
The false flat part of the loop was getting hard the second time around. My legs were feeling it for sure. I worked my way to the front before we started on the downhill portion because I really like to go through those high speed corners alone. I was trying to make sure I had access to the front of the group in case someone took off because this is exactly the spot of the race that someone soloed to the win last year. I got boxed in as I was eating a gel, and the masters rider attacked again. This time, it looked real. Once I got to a better position, I tried to get the group to chase. Nothing. They just sat there, willing to let this guy (who was clearly strong) get a gap. I tried two more times to initiate a chase. When that wasn't working, I tucked myself back into the group and chatted with some of the other guys. We decided that he shouldn't get any more of a gap, but we'd leave him hang until the false flat section of the course. I was happy that there was at least some organization and people willing to chase.
By now, we were on the big climb for the second time, and my pre-race plan was to attack here. I felt that there was enough organization among the stronger riders that attacking wouldn't be a good idea. I'd have to wait and maybe counter once we reeled in the guy off the front. We could see he was slowing down on the climb, so I was feeling confident that we would reel him in soon. Amazingly, this guy didn't make the turn for the final loop and instead headed back for the finish line. I'm not sure if he screwed up or what, but we were glad to see him go. His constant attacks were irritating. (Plus he majorly violated the yellow line rule on multiple occasions which is *not* cool. He got a good talking to about it on the road, and I wasn’t above trying to get him DQ’d.)
I contemplated launching an attack on the false flat, but it's so hard to get away there because people can see you for a long ways. I decided my best choice was to wait for the last climb up the big hill and try to create a break. Coming up to the climb, the wind had picked up and I did a good job "resting" by making sure that I wasn't in the wind. I wanted to at least be on the front of this climb to cover any moves or make one of my own.
On the way up, I could see two guys (teammates) making eye contact with each other, and I figured they had something in mind. It was those two guys and me up front. One guy accelerated, and his teammate immediately swerved over into me and guttered me. Totally lame move. If you're going to try to physically block someone, you need to at least be a little more discrete about it. The attack was quickly reeled in and (as expected) his teammate countered with another attack. He got a good gap and it was clear he was going to be trouble. The attacks at the top of the climb whittled down our group to just 6 - one guy was up the road and his teammate was in the chase group (an of course not chasing). That left 4 of us to chase, but one guy wasn't doing much. It was a little frustrating have to carry so much of the load, but none of us wanted to race for second place.
The lead guy was strong. He stayed away until about the last mile. (What a pro maneuver, catching the leader in the last mile.) I was pretty spent from all that work and I found myself in the back of our group of six as we came up to the line. Once people started to sprint, the guy in front of my broke his chain. I had to swerve around him, and it created a gap that I couldn't close. I don't know if I had the legs to take that sprint, but I would have like to have a better shot. Oh well, that's what I get for being in the back of that group. I still ended up finishing 5th, which is a really good result for me.
I'm pretty happy with this race. The cards were stacked against me: They paired the 4's with 3's and Masters. My legs felt pretty good and I was happy about how well all the climbing went. I was able to cover the speed surges. It's always easy to pick the winning move after the race. In this case, if I had gone with the guy after the last climb, I think the two of us could have stayed away and taken it to the line. I look forward to doing this race again next year.
Christine will post some "pictures" later.
Executive summary:
I stayed with the lead group as we whittled down the group from 40-ish to under 10. I had a good race and I ended up finishing in 5th place.
Course description:
About 7 miles out, 3 laps around a mesa, then back to the start. Each lap is about 14 miles and 1200 feet of climbing. The lap starts with a long false flat, a long descent, and a short steep climb.
Summary:
About 30-40 riders lined up for the start. The group was Cat 3, Cat 4, and 35+ open. I'm a Cat 4, so racing with Cat 3's and Master's is a good challenge.
The race started a little quicker than it has previous years. One guy in a Wyoming jersey sat 20' off the front for a while. I don't think it was any sort of strategy, rather it was inexperience. He spent a lot of time with his nose in the wind the whole race (which is fitting for a guy from Wyoming). There was a cross wind on the way out, and I was having a hard time getting a good position. Five guys lined up in an echelon at the front of the group and I tried to start a second echelon, to no avail. I mostly ended up shielding guys, and they weren't interested in returning the favor. Eventually, I squeezed my way into a good position by just squeezing someone out. (My handle bars were in front of someone, ergo I'm going in front of you.) That's not a typical maneuver for me, and I'm trying to get better at taking the positions I want instead of waiting for them to open up.
We didn't go really hard up the first climb, but we dropped all but about 10 people (a handful actually caught up later). The first selection was big. At the top of the first climb a masters rider attacked. Following my pre-race strategy of going with attacks, I decided to bridge up to him. I bridged up to him cleanly, but the pack wasn't far behind and we were quickly caught. This guy made several attacks through the race. I think his plan was to put in some half-hearted attacks until the group got sick of chasing him.
Our first lap around the "loop" part of the race was pretty uneventful. We weren't soft-pedaling, but we weren't going all out either. I did my best to stay sheltered in the slight breeze, conserving as much energy as possible. We hit the big climb towards the end of the lap and it was hard but nobody really hammered it.
The false flat part of the loop was getting hard the second time around. My legs were feeling it for sure. I worked my way to the front before we started on the downhill portion because I really like to go through those high speed corners alone. I was trying to make sure I had access to the front of the group in case someone took off because this is exactly the spot of the race that someone soloed to the win last year. I got boxed in as I was eating a gel, and the masters rider attacked again. This time, it looked real. Once I got to a better position, I tried to get the group to chase. Nothing. They just sat there, willing to let this guy (who was clearly strong) get a gap. I tried two more times to initiate a chase. When that wasn't working, I tucked myself back into the group and chatted with some of the other guys. We decided that he shouldn't get any more of a gap, but we'd leave him hang until the false flat section of the course. I was happy that there was at least some organization and people willing to chase.
By now, we were on the big climb for the second time, and my pre-race plan was to attack here. I felt that there was enough organization among the stronger riders that attacking wouldn't be a good idea. I'd have to wait and maybe counter once we reeled in the guy off the front. We could see he was slowing down on the climb, so I was feeling confident that we would reel him in soon. Amazingly, this guy didn't make the turn for the final loop and instead headed back for the finish line. I'm not sure if he screwed up or what, but we were glad to see him go. His constant attacks were irritating. (Plus he majorly violated the yellow line rule on multiple occasions which is *not* cool. He got a good talking to about it on the road, and I wasn’t above trying to get him DQ’d.)
I contemplated launching an attack on the false flat, but it's so hard to get away there because people can see you for a long ways. I decided my best choice was to wait for the last climb up the big hill and try to create a break. Coming up to the climb, the wind had picked up and I did a good job "resting" by making sure that I wasn't in the wind. I wanted to at least be on the front of this climb to cover any moves or make one of my own.
On the way up, I could see two guys (teammates) making eye contact with each other, and I figured they had something in mind. It was those two guys and me up front. One guy accelerated, and his teammate immediately swerved over into me and guttered me. Totally lame move. If you're going to try to physically block someone, you need to at least be a little more discrete about it. The attack was quickly reeled in and (as expected) his teammate countered with another attack. He got a good gap and it was clear he was going to be trouble. The attacks at the top of the climb whittled down our group to just 6 - one guy was up the road and his teammate was in the chase group (an of course not chasing). That left 4 of us to chase, but one guy wasn't doing much. It was a little frustrating have to carry so much of the load, but none of us wanted to race for second place.
The lead guy was strong. He stayed away until about the last mile. (What a pro maneuver, catching the leader in the last mile.) I was pretty spent from all that work and I found myself in the back of our group of six as we came up to the line. Once people started to sprint, the guy in front of my broke his chain. I had to swerve around him, and it created a gap that I couldn't close. I don't know if I had the legs to take that sprint, but I would have like to have a better shot. Oh well, that's what I get for being in the back of that group. I still ended up finishing 5th, which is a really good result for me.
I'm pretty happy with this race. The cards were stacked against me: They paired the 4's with 3's and Masters. My legs felt pretty good and I was happy about how well all the climbing went. I was able to cover the speed surges. It's always easy to pick the winning move after the race. In this case, if I had gone with the guy after the last climb, I think the two of us could have stayed away and taken it to the line. I look forward to doing this race again next year.
Christine will post some "pictures" later.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Mad Cow Race Report
What a great day for a race in Grand Junction. Clear blue skies and mild weather. Even with such a late start (11AM) we still managed to get to the race with only about a half hour to spare. Fortunately it's a long race and there's not too much need for a warm up because by the time I got all ready there was only 10 minutes before I needed to be on the start line.
The category grouping for the race was odd, to say the least. My group was cat 3, cat 4, and 35+ open. As a cat 4, this was certainly going to be a hard ride. The course starts off with few miles of 1-3% grade climbing before hitting some steeps. We started off at a civil pace, but of course someone had to push the pace and try to split up the group on the first big climb. It was a pretty serious effort, but I stuck with it and stayed with the lead group.
A little while after the long climb me made it to the loop part of the course which we would be doing 3 laps around. It starts out with a long set of rollers with virtually no downhill, then there's a nice long descent and half mile steep hill. After some more "gentle" climbing, you're back at the start of the loop.
The remains of the main field stayed together for the first trip through the rollers and then someone managed to get a large gap on the downhill section. When we hit the rollers at the start of lap 2 he was still away and another attacked to bridge up to him. I was sitting on the back just hanging on for dear life, but I'm surprised the guys on the front let him get away. He was clearly pretty strong, as was obvious by his frequent attempts to form a break on the first lap. He managed to bridge up to the first attacker and then drop him.
Our group wasn't all that fast on the long downhill section, which I found to be surprising. I think it was mostly the fact the nobody wanted to be on the front doing work. I got on the front to try to pick up the pace a bit, but clearly nobody was biting. The next time up the hill we lost a few people and I also got gapped a bit. I buried myself for a while and managed to reattach to the main group. By this time we were down to about 11 people. The last time through the rollers was pretty rough. There were some half hearted attacks, so the pace kept surging. I knew that if I could just keep in contact until the downhill I would have bought myself some more time as I could easily stay with the group in the downhill.
The final time up the steep hill we dropped a few more riders and I got gapped again. This time I couldn't make it back to the group. There was another guy with me and we worked our butts off together trying to reel them back in. We were probably within 20 feet once, and then someone attacked that field. Ugh! There was no way we could do it. One of the guys got popped off the lead group and we at least picked him up. I had been talking to him before the race, and we chatted some more as we rode.
It was nice to be in a small group of 3 on the descent off the mesa. There are some really tight corners, and they had some gravel. All three of us took it pretty conservative and safe. I wasn't going to sprint for the finish, and I told the guy I was chatting with that he should sprint it out with the third guy. He wasn't into it (in some ways it's kind of funny to sprint from something other than the podium). He told me to go for it, so I did. It was kind fun.
In the end, I got 8th place out of somewhere between 30 and 50 people. Anything other than winning this race was a disappointment for me, but it was a pretty good result. I was fighting an uphill battle from the get-go by getting grouped with cat 3's and the 35+ open guys. I'm very happy I was able to hang with obviously stronger racers until the very last efforts. There were a number of times where I really had to bury myself to stay with the group and I was happy that I could do it. In retrospect, I should have pushed harder on that steep hill to keep from getting gapped. I was never quite on my limit up that hill. I guess in my head I was thinking that if I redlined going up I wouldn't be able to hang on afterward.
I can't wait to come back and do the race again next year.
The category grouping for the race was odd, to say the least. My group was cat 3, cat 4, and 35+ open. As a cat 4, this was certainly going to be a hard ride. The course starts off with few miles of 1-3% grade climbing before hitting some steeps. We started off at a civil pace, but of course someone had to push the pace and try to split up the group on the first big climb. It was a pretty serious effort, but I stuck with it and stayed with the lead group.
A little while after the long climb me made it to the loop part of the course which we would be doing 3 laps around. It starts out with a long set of rollers with virtually no downhill, then there's a nice long descent and half mile steep hill. After some more "gentle" climbing, you're back at the start of the loop.
The remains of the main field stayed together for the first trip through the rollers and then someone managed to get a large gap on the downhill section. When we hit the rollers at the start of lap 2 he was still away and another attacked to bridge up to him. I was sitting on the back just hanging on for dear life, but I'm surprised the guys on the front let him get away. He was clearly pretty strong, as was obvious by his frequent attempts to form a break on the first lap. He managed to bridge up to the first attacker and then drop him.
Our group wasn't all that fast on the long downhill section, which I found to be surprising. I think it was mostly the fact the nobody wanted to be on the front doing work. I got on the front to try to pick up the pace a bit, but clearly nobody was biting. The next time up the hill we lost a few people and I also got gapped a bit. I buried myself for a while and managed to reattach to the main group. By this time we were down to about 11 people. The last time through the rollers was pretty rough. There were some half hearted attacks, so the pace kept surging. I knew that if I could just keep in contact until the downhill I would have bought myself some more time as I could easily stay with the group in the downhill.
The final time up the steep hill we dropped a few more riders and I got gapped again. This time I couldn't make it back to the group. There was another guy with me and we worked our butts off together trying to reel them back in. We were probably within 20 feet once, and then someone attacked that field. Ugh! There was no way we could do it. One of the guys got popped off the lead group and we at least picked him up. I had been talking to him before the race, and we chatted some more as we rode.
It was nice to be in a small group of 3 on the descent off the mesa. There are some really tight corners, and they had some gravel. All three of us took it pretty conservative and safe. I wasn't going to sprint for the finish, and I told the guy I was chatting with that he should sprint it out with the third guy. He wasn't into it (in some ways it's kind of funny to sprint from something other than the podium). He told me to go for it, so I did. It was kind fun.
In the end, I got 8th place out of somewhere between 30 and 50 people. Anything other than winning this race was a disappointment for me, but it was a pretty good result. I was fighting an uphill battle from the get-go by getting grouped with cat 3's and the 35+ open guys. I'm very happy I was able to hang with obviously stronger racers until the very last efforts. There were a number of times where I really had to bury myself to stay with the group and I was happy that I could do it. In retrospect, I should have pushed harder on that steep hill to keep from getting gapped. I was never quite on my limit up that hill. I guess in my head I was thinking that if I redlined going up I wouldn't be able to hang on afterward.
I can't wait to come back and do the race again next year.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Mad Cow Classic
Christine and I are leaving tomorrow morning for Grand Junction and the Mad Cow Classic road race. It's turned into a yearly tradition for as this will be our third year in a row. I've always had a good time doing the race, so this year I planned my training schedule around it. I'm in great shape right now, despite the lack of racing miles in my legs this year. The race organizer has also thrown me for a loop this year by screwing up the racing groups. Long story short, I'll be racing with cat 3's and the 35+ open group. Let me translate: The 3's are one category up from me. The 35+'s are generally former 1's and 2's who no longer have the time to train that much. In other words, it's going to be a pretty hard race against those guys. It's going to be awfully embarrassing for them when I beat them across the line. :)
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