As it turns out, I completed yesterday's time trial in 7:12 which was good enough for 21st place (out of ~30) The times in my age group ranged from 6:06 to about 7:50. Since I did this full "cannibal" I'm not being too hard on myself for failing to break the 7 minute barrier (my goal was to beat 7:30). I nearly caught my 30 second man and the guy behind me made up only 7 seconds on me. Finishing one place out of the points was frustrating; would a disk or clip-on bars make such a big difference? I think maybe 15-20 seconds, at best. I resolve to find out next September.
Today's criterium went fairly well. I was nervous, stressed and pissed off at the start- our toddler "Reis" (yes it's pronounced "race") has a mild fever and was miserable from the moment he awoke. Of course my wife wasn't too happy about my refusal to stay home, and they came along. Understandably, no one was smiling... We raced in tandem with the 30-34 field, starting about a minute apart. As predicted by one of the 35s at the start, we caught and passed the 30-34 field. THAT was a little bit hairy. Two riders got away and stayed away until the end. I was put into difficulty quite a few times, but stayed very close to the front- it's so easy to get gapped at Ninigret and then blow your wad closing the gap while fully exposed to the wind.. 24 riders finished the crit, and I gave it everything in the tank to get 12th and bag 9 points... good enough for 18th overall. People were crazy stupid on that final sweeping bend, and a few of us had to squeeze the brakes and/or swerve to avoid hitting the deck.
In the road race yesterday (I know I'm out of order here) I felt pretty good, especially on the rollers at Kings Factory Road. On the last two laps I was very active and went with a few moves which were reeled in quickly. On the final lap I drilled it up the hills at the very front, maybe to force some kind of selection, but did little but string the field out a little bit. The final sprint came way too soon because I was trying to both move up and shake the red-line effort of the hills. Sprinted my ass off for a disappointing 17th place finish, and 4 points.
Great event, beautiful weather, well organized and safe venue. Had lots of fun and made a few new friends, including Gewilli from the Providence Bike team. Didn't get to meet FnFoley but spied his results today- 3rd overall! I'm envious but inspired to get better, especially at sprint positioning and time trialing.
I've added a Flickr account with all of the pictures my dear wife took of the 35-39 crit. Check them out.
America's #1 Balance Bike Destination
America's #1 Balance Bike Destination
5 comments:
Hey Murat -
Thanks. I was 3rd in the crit, but only 8th overall.
Anyway, I ran your TT time through the calculator at analyticcycling.com. If I use .7m2 frontal area, your avg speed of 11.1 m/s calcs out to ~340 watts. If I plug this back in with .6 m2 frontal, you save 19 seconds. Get it down to .5 m2 frontal and you save around 40 seconds. I used this calculator on my cannibal versus TT numbers from Rehoboth and concluded the difference to be around .1 m2 frontal area, but of course these are just very rough estimates. However, I still think it is safe to say that aerobars, TT helmet, and zippy wheels would save you a minimum of 20 seconds over this distance, probably more.
Good job.
Thanks Dave for crunching the numbers. One other thing which I believe hurt me is the recent discovery that my new Look 486 bike has 170mm cranks! I've been using 172.5 ever since I first raced, almost 20 years ago. For this reason, I had trouble turning the gear over and ended up shifting down one too many times and spinning it out.. I am not a good time trialist.. To wit, this is the first time since 1989 that I've tried one! My best 10 mile TT as a junior was about 23 minutes, with a borrowed disk and cowhorns. A shorter tt favors me, which is the only reason I didn't end up DFL... My legs are built for all-or-nothing output, and I've been working on changing that. Do you believe my avg HR was 182?? I completely emptied the tank, in too small a gear, with cranks that are too short for a TT. Again, many thanks for the information.
I don't know, last week you rode 100 miles in just over 5 hours. That is not easy. I think you are probably a better TTist than you think. Switching to shorter cranks might not be bad for a short TT, but if you've been on 172.5 for years, I'm sure it messed you up. I use 175, but I ride 170's on the track, because you only have one gear and it helps enable me to get my rpms up over 130.
Everyone's HR is different. I averaged 167 in the TT. These days my max is about 177, depending on the heat. I probably would have been able to average 169-170 if we didn't have the RR in the morning. I consider my LT to be about 160, so in longer TT's I look to average about 165. It was fun though and it is always good to be able to do the same TT's year after year to see how you hold up. This one is not quite as good of a benchmark because it is one way (wind factor) and it comes late in the season so it is hard to always be at peak form. We'll see you at Rehoboth next year, right?
Rehoboth? What's that? Kidding...
Not unless I have the toys.
I don't mind the 170s for crits, I think they help, with both sprinting and with cornering.
But if I build a TT bike, I may put 175's on there and see how they feel. Good job this weekend- and I hope you fell better.
Hey, I rode Rehoboth cannibal half the time I went. I lost a little over a minute from my best TT/aero time. It's a good way to do a long interval. I learned a lot and developed a more compact position on the road bike for trying to go solo.
Feeling better today too, thanks!
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