[Closed] 2018 Road Racing

Battling it out for pride in the points black hole tomorrow! I can't race again until mid Jan so I'm keen to keep my eye in.
There's only 16 pre-entered but hopefully a few more will brave it?
Forecast is good- overcast with light winds and plenty far above freezing to need any winter kit 😆

Goals for the year are 12 points perhaps with a win along the way??
Goals for tomorrow are just to test my fitness and find my current limiters to add a bit of focus to my training.

I still have outdoors aspiration but currently know I'm too slow and too fat to do anything other than get dropped too early to enjoy it.

If there's a thruxton series next year I'd like to try a race if I can get my fitness up and weight down. Hillingdon, not that bothered about.

Win a vets race, podium a national (Masters, LVRC, TLI)

Regain 2nd perhaps, not too fussed on this but will push on if things are heading in the right direction.

Taking some time off from racing due to a baby arriving soon. A bit jealous of the winter stuff you guys have but it's a bit too icy up here for any of that.

Did my first ever TTs (2x10miles) this year

Plan to do a few more of those and maybe at least 1 road race, prob thruxton as it's pretty close to me - see you there weeksy !

Nathb. Have a look at Southborough wheelers. I think they have a pretty active TT scene and lots of group rides setting out from the Velo house in Tun Wells.

Retain second cat at a rate of greater than one point per race would be nice. Not racing today as I've been wobbly all week. Back next week for the E12 points harvest 😀

Other TT objectives are to race the National 24hr, beat my 12hr (267mi) and contest the BBAR - which means racing a 50 and a 100. Oh and try not to finish last in every bunch sprint I've been in.

Oh and try not to finish last in every bunch sprint I've been in.

Get into a break with me, last place in the sprint is always mine!!

rollindoughnut
Nathb. Have a look at Southborough wheelers. I think they have a pretty active TT scene and lots of group rides setting out from the Velo house in Tun Wells.

Yeah I was stealing their GPX routes the other week 😆

Lucky Mocca and Tiffin consumed, nearly time to find my number and start warming up.

If there's a thruxton series next year I'd like to try a race

You do realise you cant ride your Ducati dont you???

I've been in the breaks. And then seen them from the rear. I think chicken legs here needs to hit the gym not the bike! And it didn't matter whether the race was a 3/4, 3, 2/3 or an E123, or our club Champs! The threshold stuff looks OK, but the power profile is definitely long-distance tester.

I’m just going to leave this here....

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Before the elbow gestapo start moaning, I was waiting for them to catch me back up 😆

Link to all the okay pics, the rest were terrible (water on lens): https://imgur.com/a/ZqlNu

For me this sums up CH’s journey:
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12 months ago this would have been the field about to lap him!!!!

P.s. Elbows bent:
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Cheers Nath! And thanks for coming.

Not much to say really. Sat on or near the front all race and followed most moves. Then I countered hard and got a big gap. And waited. And waited. I considered going on but didn't realise a) how far I'd got away and b) how slow the rest of the race would be.
Nothing much happened after that, just covered a few moves and tried once more but sat up when I realised I was towing everyone.
Dropped back purposefully from 2nd to about 5th with two to go and sprinted fairly well but not properly opened out and finished 8th.

It's funny how the guys tapping out 320w in warm up are not always the threat they appear. Riding standard was ok but I was pleased not to touch my brakes once!

314w weighted and 280 odd average so a good session.

I'm excited for 2018 now 🙂

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Opened the pipes a few times anyway 🙂

Ha:
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And that includes my last KISS race https://www.strava.com/activities/1278232183 !!

At least 4 months away from what will be my 2018 season! Winter training at the moment!

That's a fantastic effort! Next time, don't look back, press on until you either blow up or win!

Thank you TiRed! I am full of regret. HR was up there but I could have done a few more laps with hindsight. I was already weighing up the next move instead of going all out.

I thought FullGas did a great job- it was all pretty slick!

LVRC and perhaps some hilly BC races. Not going near any flat BC road races or crits after last years carnage!

I lost a safety pin somewhere which was costing me watts 😀

This was the big breakaway effort:

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Practically a TT position 😀

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Chuckling to Nath before I got caught:

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No fear up the inside:

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Thanks to Frankie Snell aged 14 for the pics 🙂

Don't regret, just learn for the next one. You have to be prepared to lose a race to win it. If more 4th Cats followed that maxim, the racing would be at a much higher level.

Should be back training this week and racing number two onwards.

Yeah, trying to draw on the positives, it was timed to perfection. Several guys had attacked and countered each other and everyone was in need of recovery. They were also not great through Brian's so that was where I went.
The guy with the orange socks had been the biggest threat but in that pic above you can see he was sitting in recovering.

It was just a bit scary out in front in the wind 😆

Something to beast myself with in training until Jan I guess 😀

Getting away is a big milestone. Now get used to it! Two riders is all it takes in 4th cat based on that outing, you'll get those 12 points this season.

@crosshair: how do you find those prime wheels? Are they clinchers or tubs you have? Thinking they may be tub wheelset of choice for cx if I can save enough before next season, seem outstanding value and tub wheelset about 1250g

Now disks are allowed I might give a couple of races a go next spring/ summer on cx bike as I don't think there will be enough xc races close to keep me interested

These are just clinchers ferals but I'm pleased with them. They were second hand and arrived nice and true. The hubs are great too- run for ages when spun compared to my Shimano ones.
Only downside is breaking performance but better pads should sort that. (I did order some but they sent normal ones by mistake and I haven't swapped them yet).

They are my first carbon wheels so not much to compare with mind you....

As CH was chuckling at me I was shouting to him (all be it not loud enough it appears) to get his head down and stick at threshold. He had a HUGE gap!

I'm thinking of getting some carbon disc clinchers for my commuter, that will no longer be used for commuting soon. As always I'll be looking to the East: [url= https://tinyurl.com/ydfk6owp ]CHINESE WHEELS[/url] (They're much cheaper via their app)

These threads always seem to depress me a little.

5w/kg ftp to get started in cat 4?

-_-

Cheers crosshair - I read hubs are novatech.

Nath, even though the crc are just rebadged Chinese (I assume) I'm too cautious too buy direct

I'd be too cautious to install an app from aliexpress! Probably paranoid though.

continuity - Member
These threads always seem to depress me a little.
5w/kg ftp to get started in cat 4?

(and I'd guess that a good sprint may be far more useful in flattish races - says the non-racer 😳 )

These threads always seem to depress me a little.

5w/kg ftp to get started in cat 4?

Doesn't seem likely. Depends on the course and your ability to race. My zwift ftp puts me at about 330W 4.5W/kg. I'm more than comfortable in a 3/4 able to chase down people and make decisive moves (I've won a race etc.) . Happy in a 2/3/4 but need to think a bit more about where I use my energy and can't just chase everything on my own.

To get round in a 3/4 you just need a bit of practice. You can hide in the bunch relatively easy if you know what you are doing and don't get in the wind too much. I'd have thought a good smart racer with 5w/kg would be looking to win 2/3/4s

@Continuity - where are you seeing 5w/kg in this thread? And depends how long for, doesn't it.

Am I missing something?

@continuity - No, I started at like 4.5w/kg in my first race, but that was without any proper training. I did turn up believing I had 5w/kg though as my turbo trainer had lied to me 😆

@ferrals - Just got to do research into the supplier, most of these companies are trying to make a brand in their own rights. I can speak from experience my customer service support with two different Chinese suppliers has been WAYY better than PlanetX 😆 Just avoid any company that is making knock offs, these are the ones that give the reputable ones a bad name. Easy to spot as they will have have Cervelo/Pinarello branded bikes in their store.

But yeah even at 4.5-5w/kg I couldn't race properly as didn't trust my fellow cyclists so was often out in the wind. CH made a term for this called "Nathing" haha. I got slightly more trusting as the season progressed though, I do have the ability to ride in a pack - TiRed tested this out on me the other day, but I trust him 😆

Continuity- w/kg has lots of flaws as a comparison. The Trainerroad podcast guys analogy is a good one so I'll bastardise it a bit- FTP is your entry fee to the party. But your shorter duration power profiles are your spending money at the bar 😉

You can sit in the bunch at less than 200w. Closest I've got to that was about 220w at Thruxton. Then you just need enough juice to follow the occasional burst.

Hillingdon Cat 4 attracts strong racers it seems to me- I've Strava stalked loads of people's races and 1300w (peak) sprints are regular occurrences.

I've made hard work of my first year I think. W/kg have gone from 3.2 to 3.7 and my 5s - 5min powers have gone through the roof. My biggest limiter I think was a stubborn refusal not to just sit in and bottling the Bunch sprints.
I always have to be at work the next day so every time I'm able to drive myself home is like ten points to me. But on the flip side, I've only been down once despite witnessing around 15 crashes.

It's almost impossible to quantify how well anyone will do from their stats alone. Just try it if you want- nobody cares how shit you are or aren't no matter how many 1500 word essays you write about it 😆

Oops.

Just been doing some 'shoulda woulda coulda' maths and my hunch is that I needed to ride at 106% ftp for 16minutes to have stayed away!
And my Normalised Power at that moment was already 105% ftp with a HR above Threshold.

Don't feel quite as bad now....

Edit- a lap later would have been TiRed's classic '6 laps to go' attack and the maths would have been way more in my favour.

I'm still a bit taken aback.

4.5w/kg untrained 20min ftp?

Thst's on a similar level to someone saying "I deadlift 250kg for reps untrained, y'know, I just went to the gym for the first time" It's in a similar ballpark. Or...I went to the climbing gym for the first time and flashed a f7b. Coggan's power tables puts 4.5w/kg in the top end Cat 2 territory, which is several years of training for most people.

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/06/just-how-good-are-male-pro-road-cyclists/

Another reference that puts it into perspective.

I guess what' I'm saying is when you say untrained a bit of me suspects what you're actually saying is "i've done a load of training but before my first structured training programme that is what I put out".

I'm very happy to be wrong and if you just put out 4.5w/kg casually knocking about as an unfit adult male you should be looking at a pro contract in a year or two - and moreover I wish you the very best of luck!

Apologies if that sounds too rude or cynical.

I started having ridden a bit but never trained at all properly at about 3w/kg and after 3 years am now at about 4.6w/kg.

Got my 3rd cat in my first season in crits and since then have been searching to do better in open road races.

So Continuity - I think/hope you're right, people don't just turn up with 4.5w/kg unless they're on their way to the top somewhat rapidly. You can sit in the bunch with a lot less for sure if it's not hilly. And you might have a big sprint at the end too.

And I'm sure people know this, but FTP and 20min power are very different things.

I'm sure Nath will reply in due course but I think you'll find Nath did little more than a few thousand miles unstructured road riding for a couple of years beforehand. Perhaps an odd flying lap of Richmond Park.
Getting his body fat down to such a low level probably helped too- he created the right physique.
But yes, as per his original thread, he pretty much had 4.5w/kg ftp off the bat. (336w for 20 mins @ 71kg if I remember rightly??)
And he's stubborn enough that I have no doubt he could have held 320 for 60 minutes had he wanted to 😆

You two sound like the bitter professor off of Good Will Hunting 😆

Nath talking about 4.5w/kg: