Tripleshot Cycling

Tripleshot hosted our first VCL and it was a great success!

9 in C, 31 in B, 18 in A. C's did 15 min, A's and B's did 30 min. Racing was full on. Nice to see a flat course in the VCL for a change, some different faces at the front of the race. Racing was full bore. A race averaged 44 km/h.

Everything went well, and even the sun co-operated. Thanks to all those who came out and helped, and to those who raced.

Race stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/86561223
Fastest lap 36 seconds / 49.1 km/h
Only one lap under 40 km/h

Excellent job hosting the race everyone! Another good showing by all TSC. The B race was fast, steady and clean (other than a few not holding their line). Most of us kept to the middle/front for the majority which was good to make sure a break didn't get too far away. Peter did a great job off the front for quite a while early on. Kevin, Gav, Brad, Geoff and Peter had great position pretty much the whole race with Quentin, Hugh and I not far back but it ended up being just far enough and too many bodies to get around come the last few laps. The team worked really well together. Everyone stuck to the plan and Kevin and I avoided a throat beating from Peter by staying out of the wind and not pulling. A really good learning experience and a great set up for the Windsor Park Crit on Sunday. Looking forward to the next one at Western.

This one goes to the top of my list for VCL's.

Roland wrote: Fastest lap 36 seconds / 59.1 km/h
Only one lap under 40 km/h

fastest lap 49.1km/h?

Yeah, that was tons of fun. I really enjoyed how everyone in the A race was taking turns launching pointless attacks and counterattacks and riding off the front. Others were just staying out of the wind to hang with the pack, but lots of guys were willing to put their nose in the wind, with noone taking it too seriously. We were also really using the full width of the track, which was novel, when you're used to a single road lane in most VCL races.

I felt pretty comfortable out there the whole race, and took my turns on the front.
I overcooked myself with 2 laps to go after I hesitated too long when Adam and Tyler (I think is was) jumped, then I decided to try to bridge up a little too late. Ended up doing nothing more than pulling the pack up, then when they accelerated again with 1/2 a lap to go, I was gassed.

Josh.E wrote:

Roland wrote: fastest lap 49.1km/h?

Oops, yeah 49.1...

Videos are up
http://www.youtube.com/user/jeremymerickson

Thanks to Roland, Chris, Al, Eric, Lister, Jeremy, Josh, Ryan and anyone else I've missed for putting on a great race last night. You sure made all of us tripleshotters look good. We had a great turnout for the VCL races as well as 20 or so for the high school race - pretty good.

wonger wrote:Thanks to Roland, Chris, Al, Eric, Lister, Jeremy, Josh, Ryan and anyone else I've missed for putting on a great race last night.

+1

That was a well organized race and so much fun; can't wait to do it again!

http://www.duanebc.com/raceresults2011/ ... sults.html

results and photos are up

Does anybody else who didn't wear sunglasses have sore eyes today? I wonder what got flung into my eyes.

Roland wrote:Does anybody else who didn't wear sunglasses have sore eyes today? I wonder what got flung into my eyes.

That's what you get for riding in the pack durring a race, you should have just gotten the wholeshot and stayed out front - like mike lawless, or use my technique of riding so far off the back of the pack it feels like youre actually in front of them

Roland wrote:Does anybody else who didn't wear sunglasses have sore eyes today? I wonder what got flung into my eyes.

I wore glasses so my eyes were okay but I was covered in grit after that. Did anyone else feel like they were in a video game? My neck and shoulders are so sore today due to the absolute death grip I had on my bars for the whole race. I was afraid to look anywhere but right in front of me - don't know what I would have done with a water bottle as there was no way I would reach for it.

Totally felt like I was in a video game or watching a sufferfest video on my trainer. Total tunnel vision following a moose. I swear I heard someone in the first corner yell "shake and bake baby" from Talladega Nights, as I was glued to Gavin for 25 minutes and 5 laps. It was a really fun race, not too taxing, following a well laid out plan and managed to not get punched in the throat If you google the winners name you see he is a nation level sprinter WTF? Now we know... hopefully he'll show up at Mt Newton there is no way that guy can haul those legs up a hill.

Thanks to the whole TS crew who put on the race. It was really well organized and way better venue than I thought it would be.

Positive comments:

1. It was GREAT to talk about a plan in advance and then to have everyone execute it. It was really cool to be able to redefine "winning" as achieving specific goals (that werent results/outcome based).

2. great job by Moose leading Kevin around and great job Kevin for sticking like glue!

3. Great job by TSC overall. 3 in the top 10 including that sly #38 who had a superstar like race.

4. We cant thank Lister and his merry band of volunteers enough for putting the race on for us. Seriously if you havent actually said thanks you really should. It takes a lot to organize a race and it is too often a thankless job. They sacrificed their race so that we could so the very least we can do is say thanks.

"other" comments:

1. thumbs down to sandbaggers. Sorry guys you should be racing A.

2. NEVER, EVER, EVER get your pep talk / race instructions from Roland. He isnt right in the head and will lead you into believing that repeated pointless attacks are "good" (I cant wait for the next one!)

Plawless wrote: 2. NEVER, EVER, EVER get your pep talk / race instructions from Roland. He isnt right in the head and will lead you into believing that repeated pointless attacks are "good" (I cant wait for the next one!)

But your attacks WERE good. The sponsors were quite pleased with all the screen time in the video, plus, how good of a workout did you get?
Pointless attacks and counterattacks are what made the A race fun and fast. I suppose it really depends on if you are approaching these as training races or not.

Any garmin stats for the B race?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/86681945


Also, here are some splits from SportTracks:

# time speed HR
1 0:54 33.4 150
2 0:42 42.4 177
3 0:48 37.3 171
4 0:43 41.1 173
5 0:43 41.3 175
6 0:45 39.5 173
7 0:42 42.5 181
8 0:43 41.8 183
9 0:46 38.4 176
10 0:44 41.0 173
11 0:40 44.4 180
12 0:40 44.2 184
13 0:41 43.2 188
14 0:46 38.6 182
15 0:43 41.7 178
16 0:45 39.8 175
17 0:41 43.8 179
18 0:44 40.5 181
19 0:44 40.5 186
20 0:45 39.6 180
21 0:45 39.7 170
22 0:46 38.7 167
23 0:47 38.1 168
24 0:42 42.2 170
25 0:43 41.7 186
26 0:42 42.0 191
27 0:43 41.9 188
28 0:44 40.9 179
29 0:42 42.6 179
30 0:42 42.1 181
31 0:46 39.0 180
32 0:45 40.0 181
33 0:48 37.5 174
34 0:47 38.1 172
35 0:47 37.6 169
36 0:44 40.5 172
37 0:41 43.4 183
38 0:43 41.1 183
39 0:45 39.5 179
40 0:45 39.9 176
41 0:44 40.2 168
42 0:40 44.9 183
43 0:40 44.3 191
44 0:43 41.7 190
45 0:39 46.0 193
46 0:34 48.4 195

Just because an attack doesn't lead to a victory or even a chance of victory, it doesn't mean the attack is pointless. Attacking for the sake of attacking is pointless, and should be avoided, however there are lots of reasons to attack.

A hard first lap attack can cause the group to separate, leaving stronger riders in the chase pack, causing them to either be dropped or waste energy bridging up. It also puts you in a good position through the first few corners.

Attacks can be used to draw out other riders, make them expose their strengths and weaknesses.

Or they can be used to learn about yourself, to see how hard you can push yourself.

Or they can be used for training, nothing is more motivating than a pack chasing you down. And then to test your recovery as you jump back in the group.

Before every attack, have a goal, and then afterwards evaluate if it was successful or not. Recover, make adjustments to your plan and then attack again. There is nothing to be learned sitting in the pack. "If you dont try and win every race, you're just practicing losing." An attack may have less than a 1% chance of success, but not attacking is a guaranteed loss.

Roland wrote:Just because an attack doesn't lead to a victory or even a chance of victory, it doesn't mean the attack is pointless. Attacking for the sake of attacking is pointless, and should be avoided, however there are lots of reasons to attack.

A hard first lap attack can cause the group to separate, leaving stronger riders in the chase pack, causing them to either be dropped or waste energy bridging up. It also puts you in a good position through the first few corners.

Attacks can be used to draw out other riders, make them expose their strengths and weaknesses.

Or they can be used to learn about yourself, to see how hard you can push yourself.

Or they can be used for training, nothing is more motivating than a pack chasing you down. And then to test your recovery as you jump back in the group.

Before every attack, have a goal, and then afterwards evaluate if it was successful or not. Recover, make adjustments to your plan and then attack again. There is nothing to be learned sitting in the pack. "If you dont try and win every race, you're just practicing losing." An attack may have less than a 1% chance of success, but not attacking is a guaranteed loss.

Forgot to thank Peter for a great strategy, pointless attacks , lead out and overall race.

B Stats

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/86563672

This one has the lap data...

Kevin F wrote:If you google the winners name you see he is a nation level sprinter WTF? Now we know... hopefully he'll show up at Mt Newton there is no way that guy can haul those legs up a hill.

No, Matt rides hills too. But he's been recorded putting out [edit: an unnatural number of] watts in the past - a fact the marshalls may be interested in when considering who to yank up into A.