First Race win -- thanks PowerTap!

SolarEnergy

Great job Rob,

If you have a bit of time guys, tell us a bit about your respective races, I'd like to read about it.

frenchyge

Heh. I think the jury's still out on that one.

Certainly it feels good to be winning races, but I'm sure the competition will be working hard to catch up for the bigger races in the coming months. Personally I'm *still* doing threshold work, and still seeing progress, so I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

acoggan

As I recall, you wisely pointed out that the real story will be told later in the year.



That reminds me of something I was thinking about the other day: the more and more that I learn about what others are doing in terms of training, the more and more I'm thinking that many people waste much of their year just trying to build some basic fitness. That is, they spend months and months trying to tease/cajole/coax improvements out of themselves that could just as readily be accomplished in a much shorter period of time, w/o any significant downside.



Good for you!

frenchyge

Well, my goals for this year were a bit more lofty than just peaking for, and doing well in, a couple key races in June/July. I just got my first taste of racing last year (4 races, total) so this year's goals were really to train up to my potential, gain experience while advancing through the lower race categories, and *then* do well in a couple key races while competing at a higher level. If I make it to Cat 3 and just do 'okay' in the key races, the season will still be successful for me. I didn't feel I had the luxury of waiting until April to hammer through 2 months of training before the big races, but next year might be different.

whoawhoa

Basically, whatever I did, worked, and whatever my competition was doing wasn't as effective. I worked over a few guys pretty good that were hurting me as recently as last November.

Training wise, I think I need to go back and focus on AWC and maybe a little on sprinting as well too. Last weekend I got by on my high FT but I may not always be able to ride away like that.

whoawhoa

Shhh!

I'm trying to convince people I did SE work and stayed under "lactate threshold" all winter!

WarrenG

This is good. If you can do well early in the season without doing the kind of training that will burn you up in 2 months it's a good sign. Patience is important.

Here in NorCal where a person can ride every week of the year we always see some guys, especially in the lower categories who do lots of intensity in the winter so they can win races early in the season, but this approach has a price to pay later, and most are done by June. We call these people "Christmas Stars".

Chris410

Congrats...that first win is the best feeling isn't it?...go get more!!!

rob of the og

Hi Ric, it was the Legstretchers (Betty Pharoah Mem) 3/4 last Sunday. I've been riding that race for a few years without really getting close, but last week I just had a perfect day when my legs could do no wrong.

There was a pretty big field (about 50-60) but the pace at the start was very slow. After a few km going easy, I figured that I could get a group away or perhaps even go to the finish on my own, so I attacked - I went from a long way back so I could gradually get the speed up - and when I looked round I could hardly see the group and the race cars were dropping into the gap - so I was committed, only another ~85km to go!

The race is 3 laps of a lumpy rolling circuit. Because of road works they had to take a slightly extended circuit which blew my solo chances - right at the end of the lap the course diverted around the coast road which is very exposed to the wind and goes up and down a lot in quick succession. I had been trying to watch my PT and keep to about 285-290W which is a few % below my threshold - I figured this would be enough to make progress without getting too over-excited and blowing up early. But it was very difficult to maintain a steady level into the headwind and on short steep rises and falls, and I could feel myself slowing. Annoyingly a guy came up to me on the little drag up to the prime and nipped past just in time to take the money. He told me that there was a chase group coming, so we decided to wait.

The group came up and I was very relieved to see a team mate, Chris, was sat in at the back. We had 2 guys in the break of 6, and over a minute over the bunch. We just rode fairly comfortably for the next lap and a half. I was trying to bluff when I could and missed out a few turns complaining of the pain from my lone breakaway, but I was committed to the group and did do plenty of long turns. Chris and I chatted a bit about how to win, but he was tired and didn't fancy the climb to the finish, so I figured it was up to me.

The lap finishes with a long descent into a valley at Cowbridge, then 2 short climbs to get out the other side, another long descent, then, on the final lap, turns up a long steep climb from Ewenni. Just coming into the first descent the group suddenly slowed and I saw my chance to kick away. One other guy followed me and we belted down the descent and powered up the other side (watching the PT was irrelevant by now, this was time to give it everything) We started watching each other a bit coming through Ewenni village, neither really wanting to do too much before the long steep climb to the finish. We turned onto the climb side-by-side and rode most of the way up like that. I was just able to half-wheel him so that I was controlling the tempo, and I kept it high but constant (jumping around and changes of pace have always been a bit of a weak spot for me) At about 3/4 of the way up I could sense that he wasn't alongside anymore and by another 100m he had gone completely!

One of my friends was standing on the last corner before the finish and, from the way he was going mental, I could tell I had it in the bag. At that point I just put my head down and rolled up to the finish. I gave it a double-arm salute just before the line, but really it was too steep for that, so one arm punching the air had to do at the line itself. Happy days Chris came in a few minutes later for a comfortable 5th place.

Squint

I also won my first race of the season, a training crit. I've been messing with CP a bit due to the recent discussions and CP indicated that I have an AWC of >400 despite not doing any L5 or L6 work.

So today, instead of waiting for the sprint, I put in enough of an acceleration to get a good gap coming out of the last corner and then cruised the 1/3 mi to the S/F by several bike lengths and with energy to spare.

whoawhoa

No power #'s for me, so it may be pretty boring. In the RR, an attack went about 5 miles in. I jumped in, got it organized, pulled hard. Eventually ditched a couple of guys who were letting gaps open. Then I attacked a climb with about 5 miles to go. Pulled one guy along for a while before gapping him off towards the finish. Got a sweet victory salute in.

The TT, I just put my head down and drove it. I screwed up the turnaround bad bad bad, and probalby lost 10ish seconds there. I still won by a pretty solid margin. Would have been something like top 20 in the pro/1/2 race (strong field) and podiumed in the cat 3s.

BTW, this weekend hurt a little more. I raced up with the men and had tired legs from a tough week of training, including a 4 hour HAMMERfest thursday. I also had a hard time with short, hard efforts. Best result was 3rd in the TT, to emphasize that. Definitely time for some AWC work.

Question: Do you guys think that the power profile of most juniors tends to favor longer-duration efforts (relative to adults)?

morana

I have a few good results this year as well with 5 wins with the biggest being a 3 day stage race.............I attribute it to training with the pm...I have being concentrating on getting my threshold up in May it was 318 and now last night I was able to manage 340 so I am well chuffed. Thepictures are at
http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_1825.shtml
http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_1828.shtml
http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_1832.shtml

what a few months!!!!!

padawan

A win is a win - you've been training hard so keep crowing about your accomplishments! Congrats! I wish there were a few more race reports on the forum - they're always inspiring.

I look forward to the next win!

Sillyoldtwit

Fantastic! Well done Frenchy. I don't think I'll show my figures anymore, they're embarrassing compared to yours.

One thing though, you've inspired me to keep working on my FTP etc., because I know one day I will kick ass of people in my age group, except for my guide and mentor RD of course.

Best of luck in your next race. TYSON