Rear facing crit video

[umd1]

Some of you may have seen my videos from L'Etape du California. I've been running a video camera under my stem for a while, but have been experimenting with rigging up a rear-facing mount. I fnally got something passable, but I still have to work on making it more stable. These videos are from crit practice last night. There were various attempts at getting a break going, and I blew myself up out of the one that stuck and lapped the field. The 30-30 intervals in the morning didn't help my legs any.

This is the first few laps. Pace was on the slow side, Kim (Swam's) attacked coming into the second lap, and I was on Ken's wheel (Jelly Belly) as he set a pace which was closing the gap. Ken pulled off and I pulled through, getting a gap on the field with Taylor (NOW). He accelerated and I hesitated, losing his wheel. When the field got close again people started attacking; I waited for a gap and got on the train.



I was being too complacent in the field and missed the split ahead. Coming out of the 3rd corner I accelerated and powered down the s/f straight, catching the front group just as Mondo (Echelon) was coming off to gap me again. I went around him and got on the back of the group. Ken dropped back fron the front group to pull the rest of the field and towed them back up to us. He likes to try to keep things together...



A group of us got away, and my teammate Cookie (Platinum) bridged up. I took a pull and then toasted myself. They stayed away, and I fell back to the field. This is becoming a pattern that I need to fix.



The break lapped the field. You can see them just catching the rear as we come around the first corner on lap 27. About halfway through lap 28 they move up and Gary (Road Bike Action) gives Randy some grief for getting lapped.

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Seriously cool perspective on the race!

Thanks for capturing and sharing this stuff.

-Dave

 

[umd1]

This was the mount. I need to rig up something that clamps onto the post or saddle rails to make it more secure.

 

[umd1]

Another rear view from the group ride today. It was windy and it got blown apart a bit. Watch for the split at 2:00.

 

[pearl-drum-man]

That is really cool! Love the power meter display for reference as well! What crit level are these riders?

 

[umd1]

Originally Posted by pearl-drum-man .

That is really cool! Love the power meter display for reference as well! What crit level are these riders?

The crit practice videos are all levels, although most of the ones doing anything signficant are p/1/2. I'm just a 3, my teammate I was with in the "break fail" video is a 1, and except for one 3, everyone in the break that survived to lap the field is Pro, 1, or 2. Here is the data for it (note that there was a crash at the very end and everyone stopped to help, but I did not turn off the timer for several minutes, so the time and elapsed time are incorrect but the moving time and moving speed are correct).

 

[frenchyge]

Awww.... I was hoping to see video of someone sitting backwards on the handlebars of a fixie, racing a crit. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/redface.gif/img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif

 

[Phil85207]

Really great videos!! Gives a great view of what's going on. I wish I could afford one of those cameras. Of course I'm old and slow, so everything would look like it was in slow-motion-:0)