2019 Race/Event Results Thread

Did RideLondon 100 yesterday, managed to snag myself a slot in the first wave, finished in the middle of the second group with a time of 3:57. They don’t publish placings but pretty sure it was top 50 (out of 25,000!) based on our group having ~20 riders and the one ahead having ~30 (confirmed by friends and family who were spectating and counting). Teeny bit disappointed I couldn’t hang onto the first group as we were still in touch on Box Hill which was the last significant climb, and they were still in sight on the descent so thought we might be able to bring it back together, but they had some strong riders plus our group was a little disorganised (or knackered!) and they pulled away on the 30 miles back into London to finish about 4 minutes clear. But I had a pretty nightmarish week leading into the event, and if you’d offered me a sub-4 hour time beforehand I’d have bitten your hand off, so overall absolutely delighted. Was also able to finish strongly doing some good pulls in that last 30 miles (partly motivated because my average speed was hovering right around 25.0-25.1mph and I didn’t want it dropping to 24.9 for a 4:00:xx finish time!).

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Opted to race Master’s Open in a classic this weekend; crit Saturday, RR Sunday. In both cases, had the opportunity to earn upgrade points (whereas Cat 5 races wouldn’t). Fields had guys rated up to at least Cat 2 and a lot of experience on the local course, so definitely a step up in competition. In addition, two teams were players, one had six and one had five members, so that was a new dynamic I hadn’t dealt with in the 5s.

Crit was going well. Both teams got someone in a break, and I bridged up to the first chase group of four. They shut any kind of chase down, and essentially I was on my own (unaffiliated), with three members from one team there. I was more or less content to try to ride as smart as I could, then see if I could shake loose for a run at the podium, but dropped my chain (the course was super sketchy) with less than four to go, so that was that. Fixed it and finished on the lead lap, and not in last, so there’s that.

Road race saw one team bring six and one only three. Being unaffiliated and not from the area, I didn’t coordinate with the smaller team, so when two guys from the large team got away early, the small team didn’t have the firepower to bring it back. By the time the couple of strong unaffiliated guys got organized, it was probably too late. A couple of other guys attacked the second lap, one ended up staying away but we brought the rest back. I did a lot of work to do that, fired one attack late that gapped the field but couldn’t hold it, and just rolled across with the main field.

In the end, that was races 9 and 10, so I accomplished the season mission and can upgrade to Cat 4. I believe someone on here said “the goal of Cat 5 is to survive without crashing.” I did that, so… cool!

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Mt. Washington Auto Road Hill Climb was up today. Absolutely horrible sleep, but nailed everything else. Set out to hold around 300w, ended up right about there. Held 285 avg, 291np, and a time of 1:13:53 to make the ‘Top Notch’ group for next year, and good for 18th place in my division and 47th overall. As always, pacing was key, and didn’t go out too too hard. Went out a little fast to get ahead of the group so I wasn’t fighting for position on the switch backs and held a good pace. Weather turned around the 5000’ point and turned windy and cloudy, headwind wasn’t very nice, but the cool temps (mid 50’s) and wind was very welcome to help cool off. Had to power through the headwind for a bit, but didn’t effect my speed too much, guess that’ll happen when you’re only going 6mph! Overall an excellent race, and gotta thank the TR team for that! Super stoked to get after it again next year!

https://www.trainerroad.com/career/pcort/rides/60856617-the-rockpile

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I presume Hayden McCormick won’t be posting in here after his Tour of Utah snafu…

(Oh wait, that was yesterday’s stage! :woozy_face:)

nice work! a few guys I know and follow locally did it today as well, one guy got 1:18 and 2nd in the clydes and another 5th overall

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well I just did the hardest ride of my life. I rode in the Gravel Worlds and it was a mixed bag. First half of the race was solid and pretty close to putting my within my goal, but the 2nd half was rough and my legs just weren’t producing power. I’m going to assume it’s nutrition related, even though I was regularly consuming carbs, but the relentless little climbs might have done a number on me as well. All in all I’m glad I did it, would love to be better. oh, and it was just 425 tss and 5500kj of work, overall IF was 0.65, short of my 0.75 goal (although the first 4 hours I did have 0.75). DId it in just over 10hrs, took advantage of some rest stops, one for myself and one to get a riding companion some more water, so my moving time was 9hrs48min

Unlike road races, I got a finishing patch and a neat t-shirt for my trouble!

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Joined @pcort at Mount Washington. It was his first trip up the Rockpile but my third. My goal – and the focus of my training for 12 months – was to get under the 80 minute Top Notch cutoff. Last year I needed 93 minutes and change so my work was cut out. Shaving 13 minutes off a 7.5 mile course at 12 percent avg grade is a big ask.

My approach was to simultaneously work the power and weight sides of the equation. I managed to drop almost 28 pounds off my 2018 weight while adding 20-30 watts of power, thanks to Trainer Road. But this mountain is no joke. There are no flat spots. It will hurt you and you need to keep going anyway. My stretch goal was 1:15:00 and my splits were right on the money all the way up, even as a brutal headwind hit above the tree line.

On a steep hairpin at mile 6 I stood and felt my left calf grab…but saved the cramp by a whisker in a quick change of position. Guy in front of me was not so fortunate. He had to dismount. This told me my muscles were gonna give out before my heart today. Coming up the 22 percent wall in the last 50 yards, I couldn’t stand. Every muscle in both legs was on the cusp of seizing up. I do not know how I got up it. But somehow I did and fist bumped my son just before crossing the finish at 1:15:03. Top Notch with room to spare!

I was exactly 18 minutes faster than last year. A huge improvement. A big, big moment for me and the culmination of my whole training year.

I finished 8th in my age group, 56th overall. Couldn’t be happier. Photo is me and @pcort – who KILLED it. Trainer Road was well represented today!

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Raced my first Expert/Cat 1 XCO today after moving up from Sport/Cat 2. Wasn’t expecting much, but was surprised to get 6th! I was a mere 0:40 seconds behind 4th place. More importantly, I beat my two frienemys who also moved up to Expert Cat with me.

Started the race setting PBs from 0:49-2:01 :grimacing:. Not the smartest way to start a race, but luckily I was able to recover and not blow up.

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Congrats to both of you @pcort and @Bthoffma! I moved from Boston in '97 and started cycling after moving to CA. On visits back east, I have since thought doing the Tin Mountain climb (isn’t that what they call it?). It looks like you had relatively good weather - from what I have read, it can get really cold and really windy. Congrats again for a great ride!

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Mount Washington is notoriously unpredictable but yes, the weather was pretty favorable. It was partly cloudy and warm at the bottom. We took a pretty good blast of wind in the last couple miles when we lost the tree cover and entered the clouds but it could have been much worse. The climb is unforgettable - you should do it at a least once.

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29th out of 87 at my last park circuit race this season. Happy with that, especially since it was the fastest race (average 27 mph) I’ve ever done.

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Had my “A” event a couple of weeks ago – a 60 mile road race in Northern Michigan with 3000+ feet of climbing in the form of short, but steep, hills. Many of them…

I finished 13th overall out of 121, and 3rd in my age group (40-49) - this is easily my best result in this race, and I was super pumped :metal:

Last year I finished 58th overall and 21st in my age group in the same event…

It’s hard to reorient myself around a new goal right now because I was just so thrilled with the result here – but I’ll regroup and figure some other trivial milestone to hit.

This marks my 1 year anniversary with TrainerRoad. I signed up immediately after the 2018 version of this race. As a masters athlete, my experience with TR has been two-steps-forward/one-step-back. But overall, it has changed my training, my fitness, my knowledge base, and now…my results.

My goal for the next year it to find a way to cross the finish line first in a race…probably won’t be my “A” event, but there’s gotta be one out there that a racer with a ~300 FTP and 4W/kg can manage to win. We’ll see!

Good luck to all of you!

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Nice. Did Steamboat Gravel yesterday. That was a blast. 1,500 people, amazing aid stations, water bottle and hat at the finish. Everyone was treated like a pro. So much more fun than a road race.

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Entered my first TT post achillies surgery part of a Duathalon. Thankfully I had a runner.

19.1k with a cross wind from the water. On a very short course, 2km per lap with a technical section more like a criterium.

Instead of my TT bike I rode out on the roadie. It was a slow day, avg 34, finished with the 3rd fastest time. And 6th overall after the run.

I hit a 2019 20min PB and a
10min PB and 2nd best 10 and 20min All Time.

@Jonathan is it possible I can hit 350 FTP by Nationals in 5 weeks? Which was kind of my goal.

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Hadn’t raced in a couple of months so decided to blow out the cobwebs and go down to the local A grade crit yesterday.
Pace was pretty high for the first 15minutes with a few guys and myself making sure nothing got away. Once those guys were tired and the pace dropped I did a bit of soft attack to see if the bunch would let me get a gap. They gave me about 5 seconds and from there I started to ride hard. I think realized this and they started to chase but at that point I probably had about 15 seconds. I continued to do the only thing I know how to do, engage the diesel engine and get aero. With 20mins to go I was a little over half a lap up and the bunch was tiring, I kept chasing and managed to lap them with 3 laps remaining.
Decided to empty the tank and attacked to get another couple laps solo for the win. Solo breakaway is by far my favourite way to race.
Also, hunger flatted so bad on the way home and even 160w felt terrible :joy:

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First race back IRL since surgery in March. It’s my favourite course 63kms lumpy, fast, windy. Cross rail wind. Handicapped race.
3rd scratch
8 riders in group
We discussed rolling turns until we drop riders then track turns. After 4K it was track turns. With riders not rolling. I was rolling through at 300w fairly easily pulling hard. My training has been for a 30min TT and a 45min crit. Not a 90min watt fest. Dropped at 40k, 27k solo.
Consumed two bottles
1 with BetaFuel
1 with SiS tabs
3 Gels
It was a hard race to resume RR again…next race is a 33km RR with a 4K technical dirt section.

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Final race of my season today. Behind Bars Circuit Crit.

I went into this race knowing that I was going to ‘just race stupid’ and see what happens. Took three solo efforts off the front. No one was interested and I knew I couldn’t do all of the work myself so I shut them all down. Still, it felt good to make everyone else chase, if only for a few laps :rofl:

Finished in 8th place so overall, I’m happy with how this race went :+1:

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So had my big race (duathalon) for end of season yesterday and…Well quite a day! Short story - I raced well but unfortunately right towards end of bike leg some poor guy had heart attack and big crash. I wasn’t involved but not nice. Air ambulance etc all involved and race abandoned. Apparantly in bad way (obviously) but made it to hospital and currently being treated, which is good.

I raced well and was in 14th (of 300 racers with quite few GB age groupers judging by plenty of TeamGB kits!) when abandoned. Puts all in perspective and not nice. We were all stopped on last bike lap and had to walk bikes back round track. They then told people could do 2nd run if they wanted so gave it a go but nobody’s heart really was in it to be honest on 2nd run.

Did 12:15 for first run (2 miles) and was on for bike (9.3 miles) in just over 23 mins. 2nd run (same 2 mile course as 1st run) was 12:35.

Now 2 weeks of off season chill then back on it for next year!!!

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Google Photos

Just got this little stash from my club TT awards evening. On the way to the 10mile TT championship we listened to a TR podcast about mental toughness. It’s what helped me dig deep.

Started a 2020 thread since we are in 2020!

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