whoo boy. I had a feeling beforehand that the race would be pretty sketchy because it filled up beforehand on prereg, which generally doesn't happen. I think it was the fact that this was the first really nice weekend of the series. overall, there were lots of people not holding their lines, being very shaky, or being outright jerks, bumping and pushing. in my mind, that has no place in a stupid cat 5 race. i think the worst section was a fast left-right chicane, where everyone would jump from one side of the road to the other to get the 'best line'. oh well. as far as tactics go, a small break formed for a little bit on lap one. i bridged to it just in time for it to get shut down within a few minutes afterward. then there was a crash on lap two. i hope all those guys are alright. i think i heard afterwards that it was some of the guys pushing and leaning on each other. one guy leaned too far and just fell over. that crash pretty much split the field in two, with maybe 20 guys in front. although i was behind it, i was able to get through quick and bridge back to the group, though it did suck some energy out of me. i led on harlem hill 2nd lap, which i hear it hurt some people pretty good. lap 3 was the bell lap. i actually got a bit of a gap on HH, but couldn't really hold it, since it was downhill afterward. that got me brought to the back of the group, where i stayed until the sprint. i had a pretty good gap on the right hand side that i probably could have moved up in. i started to wind up and come up a few places, but then a guy a few bikelengths in front of me snapped his chain, with sparks and everything. at that point, i just sat up thinking it was a larger crash than it was. in my book, it's still a win for me, since this whole 5>4 thing is just experience. note that the data includes my warmup ride to the park.
Race Data:
Time: 00:46:15
Distance: 18.62 mi
Speed: 24.2 / 34.3 mph
Cadence: 99 / 136 rpm
HR: forgot my HRM strap. boo.
Very good. I bet that guy snapped his chain because he took it off to clean it. I hear those darn 11spd chains should never be taken off unless it's being replaced.
ReplyDeletepossible. i noticed it wasn't the connecting pin, at least. i don't bother to take my chain off to clean it, though. doesn't really seem worth the time.
ReplyDelete