Orwell/Lucan/Usher/UCD/Tiernans league race 8/4/10

Nietzschean

Well that was very different to any open race i've been in, only 1 guy who was annoying(and boy did people yell at him ) and mostly much better behaved cyclists. Though people not putting the welly in was frustrating!


Nice job to the breakaway from the limit group staying away... what gap did they have at the end does anyone know?


The commute/race back to tallaght was far harder, those usher guy's really didn't want to give up the lead

Edit::

Started off with a grand 20km commute out, at a nice 24km/hr avg pace out through tallaght. Managed to keep from doing my usual race to the start line by running into some other Orwell folks who I followed out to keep it somewhat controlled. Got a little cold before it all started, but wasn't there nearly as long as a good few of the others so was quite thankful for that(just jersey with no arm warmers needed today which was nice).
Race started off grand, felt a bit sore when we got going from weekends muscle issue's, and HR was up in the 190's for the first while. Probably not helped by the constant acceleration and breaking(it seemed the pace would vary wildy when the up and overs happened as different people set different paces). After we turned off the main road got up near the front and stayed there for the rest of the race really, some of the descents were full of gravel and speeds on the drags was all over the place, so it seemed safer to be up there for easier overtaking/clearer lines.

When we re-hit the N81 went out the front for a bit and tried to get the speed up, which a few others responded with and for the next few km's of up and down's we didn't really dip much under 40(i'll work out the avg later). It got hit by a few people moving up the outside and were unable to sustain the pace, i ended off the front accidentally when the person ahead of me dropped their speed hugely when they moved over. This happened again to Tom, myself and another guy later on, but we were taken in soon after by semi-scratch, just before turning off the N81 so at least that seemed to keep the pace much higher which was nice.

After that i mostly attempted to avoid the familar-from-open-races bunching up when an oncoming car would force people on the wrong side of the road, and ended up drifting a bit back through the semi-scratch people not wanting to go down on the gravel(was a crash behind me i think on the right hand turn over the gravel). Once we hit the first of part of the drag which turned out to be heading towards the finished i got a bit bored so pushed up and moved to the front....just as soon as i'd settled back in the sprinting kicked in for the finish(much to my surprise). ended up somewhere in 10 - 20 of the group, but was all for nothing anyway with the limit break away staying off as we learned at the finish.

montac

I'd say the gap was in or around 1 minute at the end. That was enjoyable!

Nietzschean

montac wrote: »

I'd say the gap was in or around 1 minute at the end. That was enjoyable!

nice, 1 minute was a decent gap to keep, when we turned back onto the N81 we were told the limit had 1:30 on us. So we didn't take much off that

Caroline_ie

I broke away from the back again after 15km ... dammit will I ever stop confusing my right from my left and my front from my back!!! But I finished it woooooooo!!!!

Good work out - well done to godihatethehils for grabbing all the girls points

DirkVoodoo

Caroline_ie wrote: »

Good work out - well done to godihatethehils for grabbing all the girls points

Damn, those should have been my points!

EDIT: @Neetch: how was the road surface?

levitronix

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Damn, those should have been my points!

you should of turned up then !!

zzzzzzzz

montac wrote: »

I'd say the gap was in or around 1 minute at the end. That was enjoyable!

Well done!

DirkVoodoo

levitronix wrote: »

you should of turned up then !!

I know, I know. I got home at 4pm and had to deal with something. I can't go into it really, too many expletives, but it was 5:15 when I had it all sorted out and I wasn't even changed or had the bike looked at, which would have been maybe another 20 minutes and at that stage it was looking a bit iffy.

Lumen

montac wrote: »

I'd say the gap was in or around 1 minute at the end. That was enjoyable!

Did you win it?

Chips Lovell

Well done to Levitronix and Montac for placing in the top six. And to godihatedhills who was the first woman home.

Nietzschean

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Damn, those should have been my points!

EDIT: @Neetch: how was the road surface?

For the most part grand, one descent was pretty bad near the bottom, and most of the corners were very gravelly which really killed the pace approaching them. Didn't see anyone taking corners at full speed. Oddly enough most of the pot holes and poor surface seemed to be on the N81, i guess cause we were to the side, on the back roads we were further out so didn't matter as much.

Nietzschean

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I know, I know. I got home at 4pm and had to deal with something. I can't go into it really, too many expletives, but it was 5:15 when I had it all sorted out and I wasn't even changed or had the bike looked at, which would have been maybe another 20 minutes and at that stage it was looking a bit iffy.

5:15? i was just out of work then... i had to go home and get ready and head and i still made it!

Chips Lovell

Five Orwell riders in the top six.

montac

Lumen wrote: »

Did you win it?

Nope. 6th.

Beasty

Nietzschean wrote: »

5:15? i was just out of work then... i had to go home and get ready and head and i still made it!

...but you didn't have to wash your hair and put the make-up on:D

blorg

It was a very impressive, fast finish from the breakaway bunch (I was marshalling.) Just from looking at it I presumed that scratch had caught up and were taking all the placings. Some people will be moving up from limit I suspect Well done to Patrick on the win which was achieved in some style.

levitronix

blorg wrote: »

It was a very impressive, fast finish from the breakaway bunch (I was marshalling.) Just from looking at it I presumed that scratch had caught up and were taking all the placings. Some people will be moving up from limit I suspect Well done to Patrick on the win which was achieved in some style.

He looked the strongest all the way round think everyone tried to mark him but not everyone knew where the finish was

blorg

levitronix wrote: »

He looked the strongest all the way round think everyone tried to mark him but not everyone knew where the finish was

He didn't know himself

Well done yourself on the placing.

Nietzschean

wasn't he in an open race? very strong to be in limit, sounds like he'll be departing quickly


i doubt montac will be far behind, 6th and strong performance in the open race @ clonard... we'll have more company in semi-limit,

have to kick Tom up to semi-scratch to make space?

blorg

Nietzschean wrote: »

wasn't he in an open race? very strong to be in limit, sounds like he'll be departing quickly

Yes, he has done a few I think including Navan with me. He was very strong in that doing a lot of work up front but I think he burnt himself out and got dropped just towards the end... had he finished in the bunch the powers that be would have started him in semi-limit tonight. It is a fair bet he is out of limit now anyway.

zzzzzzzz

I'm not sure if this link will work:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=115736318442473&ref=mf

zzzzzzzz

and the bunch

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=115736318442473&ref=mf#!/video/video.php?v=115742495108522&ref=mf

Nietzschean

For anyone interested in my stats for the race...

Max HR : 202
Average HR : 190
Average Speed: 39km/hr

Portion on the N81, second time around

Took : 6:33
Average HR : 194
Average Speed : 41km/hr
Max HR : 199bpm

Figures for the first time are somewhat useless for comparason(average speed is 1km/hr slower, hr is 189... the std dev if my app would do it would be much larger, about a 1/3 of it was done ~36km/hr and a 1/3 at 44km/hr)

Compared to the previous lap upon leaving the N81 we were 40seconds faster in the second lap over 10mins having been caught by the other groups, seems nearly all of this was in higher descending speeds(average speed's for the 10 mins were 39 vs 43).

blorg

You should have gone faster.

blorg

In seriousness though those speeds are very high for semi-limit, especially at the start of the year. A lot of new talent starting this year. The scratch riders came in looking in some amount of pain from the chase and needed a few seconds before they could even talk.

Limit were given a pretty generous head start but it is still up to them to defend it, and that the limit break certainly did tonight.

The UCD guy I was marshalling with is starting racing this year. He won't be in limit long either. We went up to the finish after the bunches cleared our corner. I nearly had a coronary.

Chips Lovell

You take pictures blorg?

Diarmuid

That was fun. Managed to get from the back of the bunch to the front on the last climb and was on the first wheel (of the second bunch) at the start of the sprint. However legs didn't have enough and finished about 7th of the main bunch. Must work on the uphill sprint, I think that finish suits me
edit:
I was late to the start so the spin out wasn't exactly just a warm up!

blorg

el tonto wrote: »

You take pictures blorg?

I'll have a look tomorrow. With the light fading and a compact camera on auto I think they are all a blurry mess to be honest.

madrichie

Anyone got a map of the Brittas loop? I don't live too far from there (well, Naas) but don't recognise the finish line in the video clips.

Nietzschean

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/ie/brittas/622127065247549386

Lumen

39kph in semi-limit? That blows away the idea that the club league is going to be more relaxed than open racing - it's the same speed as the (flat) A4 race at Bohermeen.

How many were riding in total?

montac

Not sure if I'm using my Garmin properly (forgot to Stop the thing until approx 5 mins after finishing!), but it's showing my average moving speed at 36.6kph - this is nearly 3kph slower than the Neitzchean's average in the Semi Limit. So, either my info is wrong, or it was just enough speed for the break to fend off the rest of the bunch.

Time: 52:53
Moving Time:47:34
Distance: 29.02km
Avg Speed: 32.9
Avg Moving Speed 36.6
Max Speed: 54.4
Avg HR: 158
Max HR: 181
Avg Cadence: 86

zzzzzzzz

My average was just under 40kph in semi-scratch.

Although I was a bit slow to stop it after the finish so it might have been slightly higher.

Nietzschean

montac wrote: »

Not sure if I'm using my Garmin properly (forgot to Stop the thing until approx 5 mins after finishing!)

tends to be easier to to take the tracks however you recorded them and pop them into some desktop software and edit them from there(use sport tracks on windows myself, took yesterday's to-from + race as one event and split it into 3)


@Lumen no idea of total numbers... its different to open racing in that maintaining a speed like that is much easier because pretty much everyone who's able to is willing to take a turn at the front.

blorg

montac wrote: »

Not sure if I'm using my Garmin properly (forgot to Stop the thing until approx 5 mins after finishing!), but it's showing my average moving speed at 36.6kph - this is nearly 3kph slower than the Neitzchean's average in the Semi Limit. So, either my info is wrong, or it was just enough speed for the break to fend off the rest of the bunch.

Avg Speed: 32.9
Avg Moving Speed 36.6

Limit had a very good head start on semi-limit, more than they had on the subsequent groups. The 32.9 you mentioned to me at the finish wouldn't have made sense but I see that includes when you were stopped. 36.6km/h would sound right and be just slightly on the high side of what was expected from limit (36km/h.)

@Lumen- no-one ever said the club league was more relaxed than open racing, the races are just shorter. The limit group is slower but semi-limit up is probably into A4 territory.

Chips Lovell

Stats for me:

Avg Speed: 38.6kph (not sure why it was slower than Nietzhean since we were in the same group, but I turned off my computer a while after the finish)
Avg HR: 180
Max Race HR: 191
My Max HR: 193
Avg Cad: 93
Max Cad: 120

I'd agree that it was easier to truck along at that pace than in an open race, since everyone was working for most of the race. If anything we were going too slow on the long flat sections.

Doing a few open races definitely helps for the league I think. Racing over the longer distances means you've got better stamina for staying with the pace.

niceonetom

I enjoyed that race a lot. It's a much more civilised affair than the open races so far with equitable pace lines forming and persisting for most of the race - if anything it was a bit too civilised in that we, the semi-limits, would have been a bit faster if we hadn't had so many keen to keep the pace at a level that would keep the group big. A selection at some point might have meant the limits would have been caught, though by the sounds of it, they worked very well together so I may not have happened anyway. So, Lumen, it is more relaxed, but that does not equate to slower.

I briefly thought I'd actually come third in this I didn't know that 6 had stayed away and that there was nothing left to compete for, but neither did any of the people I was sprinting against so I'm still pretty pleased that I managed to get up there near the end. Bit disappointed when I turned around back to the line and found that it was all for naught, it's still nice to know that that finish suits me. (new MaxHR achieved I think!)

Any photos surfaced yet? I was at the front on the finishline the first time around and I made an extra special effort re: raceface.

Congratulations to montac, levitronix and 'hills. The Orwell/Boards nexus is kicking serious ass (though if I were one of the other clubs I'd be asking questions about Orwell packing the limit group so many obvious ringers ).

Chips Lovell

I thought you rode a great race Tom. You did plenty of work to keep the paceline moving and got yourself nicely positioned for the finish. It bodes well for the future.

Lumen

niceonetom wrote: »

The Orwell/Boards nexus is kicking serious ass (though if I were one of the other clubs I'd be asking questions about Orwell packing the limit group so many obvious ringers ).

Yeah, but we had a pre-season club race which resulted in several promotions so I think due diligence was done...

...although I was quite surprised at Patrick being in limit.

niceonetom

Lumen wrote: »

Yeah, but we had a pre-season club race which resulted in several promotions so I think due diligence was done...

...although I was quite surprised at Patrick being in limit.

I'm refusing to infer what would have happened last night had I not gone and done that pseudo race shake down that passes for my only win.

Lumen

niceonetom wrote: »

I'm refusing to infer what would have happened last night had I not gone and done that pseudo race shake down that passes for my only win.

You would have cast around for a wheel to suck, found none, and finished in the bunch.

only messing

Nietzschean

niceonetom wrote: »

I'm refusing to infer what would have happened last night had I not gone and done that pseudo race shake down that passes for my only win.

hehe, you'd have been upgraded based on your performance in the open races anyway alas, if you had sat on your tod instead of racing till now who knows

blorg

I see placings 1,2,3 and 4 from last night are bumped up to semi-limit.

Patrick Conlon leads the league with godihatethehills leading the ladies league.

Also well done to montac who with 6th last night is on second place in the league overall. I am right behind in third myself due to the power of marshalling. Well joint third... with 40 other people.

montac

blorg wrote: »

I see placings 1,2,3 and 4 from last night are bumped up to semi-limit.

Patrick Conlon leads the league with godihatethehills leading the ladies league.

Also well done to montac who with 6th last night is on second place in the league overall. I am right behind in third myself due to the power of marshalling. Well joint third... with 40 other people.

So, I haven't been bumped up to Semi-Limit?
(don't know why I'm drawing attention to that, if it is the case...)

blorg

montac wrote: »

So, I haven't been bumped up to Semi-Limit?
(don't know why I'm drawing attention to that, if it is the case...)

No, you are safe... for now. With 1,2,3,4 safely out of your way you had better win the next one. Maybe sandbag in next week's TT and look like you are going to die; there are only 8-7-6 points in any case for that one... That will leave you safe for the next road race. I predict a UCD victory in the limit TT if the triathlete I was marshalling with is allowed start in that group

montac

blorg wrote: »

No, you are safe... for now. With 1,2,3,4 safely out of your way you had better win the next one. Maybe sandbag in next week's TT and look like you are going to die; there are only 8-7-6 points in any case for that one... That will leave you safe for the next road race. I predict a UCD victory in the limit TT if the triathlete I was marshalling with is allowed start in that group

No pressure then...

Chips Lovell

blorg wrote: »

Maybe sandbag in next week's TT and look like you are going to die; there are only 8-7-6 points in any case for that one... That will leave you safe for the next road race.

On the other hand, with a lot of strong riders already bumped out of the limit group he could have a chance of scoring points in the TT if went for it. I always think that TT's and DMS races are the best chance for picking up points in the lower groups since you're racing against only your own category.

blorg

el tonto wrote: »

On the other hand, with a lot of strong riders already bumped out of the limit group he could have a chance of scoring points in the TT if went for it. I always think that TT's and DMS races are the best chance for picking up points in the lower groups since you're racing against only your own category.

This is true, and turnout tends to be low in the TTs below semi-scratch (where there are a fair few dedicated testers.) It was tongue-in-cheek to an extent; I would give it my best in any race. To be honest even if you win the limit TT you could well avoid promotion- but winning a road race feels a hell of a lot better than winning a TT IMO (and there are more points for it too!)

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

I predict a UCD victory in the limit TT if the triathlete I was marshalling with is allowed start in that group

It wasn't Ian Richardson by any chance?

blorg

Lumen wrote: »

It wasn't Ian Richardson by any chance?

Yes, it was. You have duathloned against him before I think? In any case if he is in limit you won't be competing against him; the semi-limit TT I won last year there was a better time posted in limit.

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

Yes, it was. You have duathloned against him before I think? In any case if he is in limit you won't be competing against him; the semi-limit TT I won last year there was a better time posted in limit.

Ha ha. Yes, he won the first Phoenix Park newbie duathlon in some style. He is not slow! Totally not Limit material, but in fairness claims to have only recently started cycling. He would totally kick my arse, so I'm glad he's in Limit for now.