My second cat 4 race - another video for you guys to watch.

Heres my third race. The Fort Ritchiee Classic Criterium

Don't beat yourself up over lack of fitness or tactics. It's only your 3rd Cat4 race, so it's almost expected that you'll make as many bad calls as an average politician. Just go race and have fun. Race midweek if you can find some local crits and instead of always stressing on being "in the right place and the right time" just go with an alternate plan whether that be just to have fun, sit in and get some fast miles in and learn how to draft (this is probably the most important thing you can learn as you only need to hit the front once in a race to win it), or just ride with the intent of doing a bunch of intervals and making everyone else suffer until you go pop. The "being in the right place at the right time" thing... that comes with practice.

Good advice, thank you.

I think you have the wrong attitude for racing.

Most guys who go out to race are not there to work hard or to win. They are there to ride fast with guys they know. They have no reason to help you with your race plan.

If you want to race according to your plan, you need to bring friends to help you or make friends who are willing to help you.

Being critical of how others ride is not really good for making friends.

A big issue is that you are not strong enough to do what you want to in a race. Not just your 10 second power. Having friends in a race makes you 20-30% stronger.

But you will find your way.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by swampy1970 [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

The "being in the right place at the right time" thing... that comes with practice.

+1. Great artists don't set about to make great art. They make a lot of art and the masterpieces emerge.

And interval training during a race is a definitely a sinister way to have fun... i love it!

I think you are doing well for a rookie.

You look like you have some decent power and all that 'wasted' energy of going out front, pulling too long, chasing down guys, etc. is building strength and smarts you'll use in the future.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by CAMPYBOB [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

I think you are doing well for a rookie.

You look like you have some decent power and all that 'wasted' energy of going out front, pulling too long, chasing down guys, etc. is building strength and smarts you'll use in the future.

Yup, and yup. As you gain experience you'll also get way better at staying out of the wind and bridging gaps with more efficiency. Watching the vid there are so many places you are hemoraging energy and resources but that is all part of the learning curve.

Here's a video from the Lititz Criterium. Placed 11th which is my best so far.

You must be pretty local to me, I wasn't able to do Carl Dolan but I was at Fort Ritchie and chose ToPC over Lititz (but I was there last year)...I race for ABRT

Oh cool. I'm not on a team yet. I'm based out of Silver Spring.

edit, here it is, for some reason my post stopped working

I am not seeing this latest vid - tells me "an error has occured"... have tried on 2 separate PC's.

where is your camera hanging ? helmet ? tip of the saddle or seatpost ? stem ?

It's on top of the handlbars.

thanks for your post, nice to see road races from other countries

Be careful moving up the gutter when obstacles are present. Be prepared to put a shoulder into anyone trying to move you over. A kneecap into a tree or light pole can relocate it to mid-thigh.

Yeah, that's a life flight moment.

A challenge for you. Ride you next crit with the sole intention of staying in the bunch and not doing any pulls on the front until the last lap or two. If you find yourself on the front, hold the speed for 10 seconds and pull over. Spend all your time watching others. Are their a few teams trying to control the race? (Teams are a vague grouping of guys that believe they can control a bunch like the old US Postal Team but can't). Treat the race like a game of poker. Can you resist the urge to chase longer than the other guys? Cat 5 and a ton of Cat 4 guys seem addicted to the chase and sprint after guys with more urgency than an addict huffing on a crack pipe. If it seems like the other guys are making you chase folks look at them and say "nice day for a game of solidiers, eh?" If you do feel up for some fun at the end have a dig about 5 minutes from the finish. I noticed from the other videos that you probably couldn't beat a still shrink wrapped Barbie Doll in a sprint, so sitting and waiting for the sprint is useless if you want to win or at least have a try winning. If there are little hills on the course that the bunch hammers up and eases at the top or there's another section where, for whatever reason, the paces eases, give it full gas for about 20 seconds before contemplating looking back (in training - not in a race - get used to looking under your armpits. This is useful to see if there's anyone within 15 yards of your back wheel without becoming a human windsock and sitting up to look) - if there's not, settle into TT mode and prepare for a world of andrenaline fueled hurt. Chances are there will be someone close - if its the entire bunch, sit up and safely meander back to about 10th place. After about 40 second from the end of that past attack, go again. Full gas, see what happens except this time give it a full Hail Mary effort - nose on the stem, elbows in and give it your very best mini time trial you can muster. When you are that close to the finish it only takes a couple of guys from other clubs looking at each other - and they're all trying to be their team mates equivalent of a crack lead out guy - and you have a gap. It might not happen the first time, it might not happen the second. At the end of the day, what's the worst that can happen? You either do ride off into the sunset (slim chances but if you don't try....), you either get caught repeatedly and you ultimately get dropped or you lose your lunch at some point.

"you probably couldn't beat a still shrink wrapped Barbie Doll in a sprint"

[IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/frown.gif[/IMG][IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/ROTF.gif[/IMG]

Although its hard to hear that my sprint sucks maybe you're right. I've had 2 successful late breakaways.

Another one where I didn't win but I did well.

Planned to try a breakaway but didn't have the power. Still a good race.