https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H8VRg43-Nw
Dial in the teamwork and you'd have this—even a two-man team—sprinting at 400m, dropping sprinter off at 200m.

Might we next week: Make a plan on forum. Meet up before race, decide roles. Practice plan in warm up. Stick to the plan at all costs. Figure out what went right/wrong post-race. Improve-dominate-muffin $.

Heh, you can see the little bridge move I made up to Mr. "Whole Race Ahead" around the 14:40 mark right after the turn.  I wish he didn't give up or that the other guys bridging up to us about a minute later didn't drag the whole field up with them.

I raced the double on Saturday. In the first race, I was out there just to shake off the racing cobwebs. There were plenty of bozos sprinkled throughout the pack. One especially erratic rider's jersey was labeled "KARMA." He sure wasn't riding like he believed in it. I found myself in decent position at the end of the race. But when the moment came to put down the power it all felt weirdly unfamiliar, I hesitated, and then it was over. Cobwebs. In the video you can see Sebastian pull away from me (for 6th, nice!) and Sean catch me from behind. I knew I missed a good opportunity for a better finish by how much energy I had left afterwards. 17th in the bunch sprint, out of 63 finishers. 

David, apology accepted. I was just trying to compliment you, man, and celebrate putting the first race of 2017 on the books! Your criticism was good and valid. Your frustration would've made more sense in the moment if we had discussed our goals and a plan before the race. My complimenting you for racing at the front carried in it an expression of my wish to have done better at the same thing--I don't think that's hard to see. But I like that you have high standards. We'll get 'em next weekend. (And the weekend after that, and the weekend after that...)

In the second race the field covered the final stretch from the corner to the line four seconds faster. I came out of the corner in worse position than the first race but averaged a slightly faster 42.7 km/h to the line. I caught a cyclocross buddy, a burly and fast Verrazano guy named Masaharu Ito, in the sprint. Finished next to Sean, 19th place of 60 finishers. 

Oh seeing that guy go ahead was a familiar sight from cyclocross season. He's strong, but apparently not so strong that he can stay away a peloton of 60 on pavement. Maybe he was out front there just waiting for the holeshot??  

All:

Brendan was 22nd

JP was 33rd

 

Brendan,

Thanks for the video.  Interesting to see from your perspective.

I should have spoken with you more during the race.  Gotta get back to that.

Race notes:

I rolled up to registration as Scott Savory was looking for his number.  He was owed the #1 dossard as defending champ.  However, someone else took his number and signed for it.  he was pretty upset about it, so the officials gave him #1000.

The race was pretty hard from the start.  Attacks rolled off the line and didn’t let up for a while.

About 4:30 in, I attacked past you to get up to an attack.   Then someone went up to me.  You then picked up the pace to get up to the guy.  You should have let us go.  You didn’t have to stop pedaling, but you could have soft-pedaled some.  This forces others to chase, or you’re distracting them enough to let the gap grow. 

It would have saved you an effort and would have forced someone else to do the effort.

There are times when keeping the field together makes sense.  This was not one of those times.  It was a hard lap and making it harder might have helped us at the race.

at 6:58, I got into another move. It’s hard to tell what you were doing, but again, letting us go would have been beneficial. 

 at7:35, the eventual winner, Glenn Ferreira gets by you.   I think about 30 seconds later, he attacked with three others, riding past me and another guy who were several seconds ahead of the field.  

 I think by 8:44, the winning move has gone.  The field definitely isn’t chasing as they should have been.  You can see this as we’re fairly wide after a very attacky first 1.75 laps. 

 I think you were too far back after 8 minutes in.   There are gaps opening in front of you quite frequently.  I think you could stand to ride a bit closer to people ahead of you and make a more concerted effort to draft. 

 It’s interesting watching your video in that several people who made the second group in the race are back by you at the efforts to get a chase going were happening. 

 From about 10m to about 20m in, the fied ws on the verge of splitting in multiple pieces.  At 20m, there’s a rest for a minute or two, then the attacks resume.

 The second group got off with about 3 to go, perhaps a bit more.  Most of the people in it had been absent from the early efforts to get a second group going.  Considering the constant attacking, it’s surprising that it took so long for the second move to get off.

 With my final effort, I was originally thinking I’d be able to shelter you behind others for much of the final lap, until the final 200m.  However, the guys in front of me died a bit sooner than I expected.  So I then planned to ride as hard as I could, at least for the next mile, to the turn, to pick off the guys immediately ahead of us.  I should have told you at the turn to drop back a few places—you could have gone wide through the turn, left me a gap, and then slotted in 5 places back, which probably would have been better for you—but we didn’t talk about this ahead of time, or during the race, so no way you could have read my mind.  If the field had been deeper, a team might have tried to come by me towing their sprinter, but there weren’t enough people left for that.

I spoke with the winner before I headed home.  He said that he was feeling the burn on the first lap.  He believed (and with good reason--he won the collegiate tt nationals last year) that he has a higher threshold than much of the field, so that if he was feeling it, then the field probably couldn't keep up the pace for too long.  

 BTW, after the finish, I changed my baselayers, put on new gloves, new earwarmer, and rode home.  Didn’t get lost at all, but took one wrong turn.  It’s about 23 miles from B’Brook to Harlem. 

 

GregStreiff said:

I was getting fixed up to do a ride yesterday, when I noticed my back wheel (new Giant SLR 1s) have been rubbing against the frame / chain stays (perhaps partially explaining race day woes). I am using 23mm tires, so going skinnier won't work. I have the 2013 Cannondale Supersix Evo frame which worked fine w 23mm tires but on those crappy Mavic stock wheels, at least in terms of clearance.

I believe Cannondale widened the back stays to accommodate wider wheels and tires in 2014 (maybe it was 2015). Pretty bummed bc I don't want to run out and buy a new frame just to accommodate the wheels, although I would like to be using carbon wheels and 25mm tires. 

 

Greg,
     I don't think you have much rub.  Otherwise, the tire would have been destroyed.  

     I also have a 2012 CAAD10 and Zipp 303 Firecrest clinchers. I've been able to run 25mm tires, Cont' and Michelin, with space to spare.  

     I'd check dish first, then check to see if the wheel is in alignment when you've tightened the skewer.

Yeah Greg show us a picture of the rub in the gear and tech thread. I have a set of clinchers I might be able to lend you but 1) they're just as wide as your wheelset and 2) we'll take that up later. And not clog this beautiful post race poetry thread with tire talk 

moving to tech thread. whoops.

FYI, if you don't feel like braving Grant's Tomb crit, there's always this race on Saturday again.

this snow may put the Kay-Bosch on racing tomorrow

Reg'd for both 4/5 fields next weekend - anyone joining?

@SebastianVidal sadly I am away. But count me in for every other branchbrook race this season. 

Thinking about it, dependent on how well I recover from this cold.

i'm in the same boat as david, might very well do this saturday's

jim_nelson said:

My daughter and I are doing a week long trip on our tandem in southern France in the middle of April so I've decided not to race until we get back.

But with all your races reports and the photos, damn it's hard to not race bikes.

That sounds fantastic Jim!

Saturday, 3/18/17 is cancelled.
https://www.bikereg.com/branchbrook-park-spring-series-dst-tour

The majority of the riders signed up were moved over from the previous week, which was also cancelled.
I do hope this terrible weather doesn't make them rethink keeping this race series for next year.  Or perhaps they'll think about moving it by a few weeks.

Bruce van-Schalkwyk said:

Saturday, 3/18/17 is cancelled.
https://www.bikereg.com/branchbrook-park-spring-series-dst-tour

The majority of the riders signed up were moved over from the previous week, which was also cancelled.
I do hope this terrible weather doesn't make them rethink keeping this race series for next year.  Or perhaps they'll think about moving it by a few weeks.

A good call.

"Due to concerns about the weather" they say? The NWS Saturday forecast says "rain and snow likely...high near 42...chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation less than a half inch possible." And while the issue is not if but when the weather turns raw, it looks like the early morning will likely be dry. For this the Essex County Parks Department cancelled the race in 48 hours in advance? That seems premature. My guess is that the city is still digging itself out from the latest storm and the asphalt loop around Branch Brook Park just isn't a priority (not surprisingly--public works are criminally underfunded). I'm bummed about this cancellation. I wish they would have rescheduled for Sunday--partly sunny, 41F. Almost balmy!

Early season handling skills + precipitation + wet/icy course = broken collar bones

You know it's not that simple. 

Of course, and you can take away any or all portions of the left side of that equation and it could still result in broken collar bones!  But yeah, I've lost enough actual skin and teeth (and have seen others lose quite a bit more) to not want to take the elevated risk of racing under those conditions.

And I'm not too familiar from the race director's side of things, but I'm sure crashes and injuries aren't fun to deal with.  I don't hold it against them when they err on the side of safety.

It's March, there is so much racing left- don't get burned out, I know I did my first year of racing by July. My dream would be for terrible March racing months for a few years and maybe some of these races will get pushed back into more reasonable dates in July, August and early September when the when the racing seems to be sparse and the weather is much better. 

David Yang said:

Early season handling skills + precipitation + wet/icy course = broken collar bones

I seem to remember doing this race in the rain last year.  Think it was a bit warmer though.

That's why you're the Karl Malone of the club, JP.  The mailman always delivers.

And we have our first "that's what she said" of the season...

mugwump said:

David Yang said:

Early season handling skills + precipitation + wet/icy course = broken collar bones

I seem to remember doing this race in the rain last year.  Think it was a bit warmer though.

Pretty sure that was the one where I took my bike off my car....clipped in, rode 20 yards toward the registration table and a stick snapped my SRAM Force rear der. in half.  That der. was made of some crabon-composite crap....since replaced with a beefy Rival der. made of aluminum. 

JP's doppelganger
 

Daniel Oss, what a boss.

David Yang said:

That's why you're the Karl Malone of the club, JP.  The mailman always delivers.

Awww.

I changed my base layers and gloves, put on my rain jacket.  And rode home.

mi vida loca.

results preview: 3rd in 4/5 race #1