Ault Park #1 started with a whopping 2 warm up laps since I got there late. We had a felon holed up in an apartment on Winton Rd. that almost called for SWAT but we were able to get him out before it went that far.
So I started the B race a bit frazzled and no where near recovered from Monday's 74 mile sufferfest. I told Shannon I would work for him and we decided to forgo the 1st sprint to let things settle down and get a warm-up in. The 2nd sprint went pretty well, I tried to catch the lone guy off the front but my engine isn't quite there, I managed to get Shannon near the front for a respectable 3rd. We weren't planning on the 3rd sprint, but I thought, "Why not?" so off we went. I was near the front around the bottom with Shannon hot on my wheel, he took off and grabbed another 3rd while I held on for 4th.
I was totally shot at this point and dangled at the back for the next 4 laps, I even got separated but managed to fight back onto a wheel. When the last bell lap started, I started to make my way up the group and told Shannon I could get him to the front but wouldn't be able to lead out a sprint. The BioWheels guy (forgot his name) got on my wheel with Shannon on his as I got us to about 4-5th wheel around the bottom. I looked back and Shannon was right on my wheel so I stood up and went and eeked out another 4th while Shannon zoomed past for another 3rd.
It ended up being a pretty good night for Darkhorse but my night was only just beginning. I was on Ridge getting onto WB 562 when I rolled up on an accident. I noticed several people trying to get someone out of a Saturn that had been hit pretty hard. I then noticed a guy running across the interstate and try and stop a car and get in. The driver sped away and that's when I jumped out, grabbed my gun and radio and went after him. He went toward the woods, but was more stumbling and staggering by the time I got to him. I got him on the ground, where he lunged for a security guard's gun and fell flat on his face. He didn't move much after that until Norwood units arrived and got him into custody. Apparently he had shot his wife in the head then fled the wrong way onto the Lateral, hitting the lady in the Saturn who had to be taken out with a Hurst tool (Jaws of Life). She was conscious when they took her away, hopefully she will be ok. A couple of news links can be found here:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090527/NEWS0107/305270076/1055/NEWS/Woman+shot++suspect+crashes
and http://www.wcpo.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=33421@wcpo.dayport.com&navCatId=23
All in all, just another adrenaline filled day for KaiserHorse.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
...by that much!
Newmark crit, 4/5 race this past Sunday: we had the early (9am) slot, which was good because it was only gonna get hot 'n' muggy later. Almost 40 starters, light headwind on the backside, pancake flat. The course is a D, with the start/finish on the straight line. To recap: flat, two right turns, no wind to speak of.
I smelled a bunch sprint.
And we got it -- even with five or six early primes, no one really tried to stay away. I sat in, bided my time, noted the obvious sketchy riders, and before I knew it the lap cards for 6, 5, 4, and 3 to go had come and gone. My strategy, limited as it was, was this: Team Abundance had three guys in the race: two were working, and one (built like a sprinter), was laying low. From 6 to go I kept an eye on him, and from 3 to go I sat on or very near his wheel. Hang on 'til showtime, and hope I'm faster.
We came around the last corner, and I was right where I wanted to be: toward the left of the field, on the correct wheel, and with a good mental marker of when to jump. 'Breathe, don't go too soon, and you may have a shot,' I said to myself.
Only my guy didn't really jump.
So finally I did, kicking myself as I wound it up, moving past a few folks on my right, thinking 'you dummy, you're gonna get like eighth because you waited too long on one guy's wheel.'
Or maybe I'll get sixth.
Or fourth.
Or... hey! Look at that!
Second by half a wheel. To a guy fading fast, who'd jumped strong but early. (A Cyclesport rider who assured me after Germantown that he was upgrading before his next race. And didn't. I teased him after this race that he'd have no choice now: the win would force his upgrade.)
The kick was there Sunday, and it felt good -- let's hope it's still there tomorrow, and for the rest of the Ault Park series.
[Jeffrey's got pictures here. And be sure to check out Bret getting his prerace instructions from Chip here.]
I smelled a bunch sprint.
And we got it -- even with five or six early primes, no one really tried to stay away. I sat in, bided my time, noted the obvious sketchy riders, and before I knew it the lap cards for 6, 5, 4, and 3 to go had come and gone. My strategy, limited as it was, was this: Team Abundance had three guys in the race: two were working, and one (built like a sprinter), was laying low. From 6 to go I kept an eye on him, and from 3 to go I sat on or very near his wheel. Hang on 'til showtime, and hope I'm faster.
We came around the last corner, and I was right where I wanted to be: toward the left of the field, on the correct wheel, and with a good mental marker of when to jump. 'Breathe, don't go too soon, and you may have a shot,' I said to myself.
Only my guy didn't really jump.
So finally I did, kicking myself as I wound it up, moving past a few folks on my right, thinking 'you dummy, you're gonna get like eighth because you waited too long on one guy's wheel.'
Or maybe I'll get sixth.
Or fourth.
Or... hey! Look at that!
Second by half a wheel. To a guy fading fast, who'd jumped strong but early. (A Cyclesport rider who assured me after Germantown that he was upgrading before his next race. And didn't. I teased him after this race that he'd have no choice now: the win would force his upgrade.)
The kick was there Sunday, and it felt good -- let's hope it's still there tomorrow, and for the rest of the Ault Park series.
[Jeffrey's got pictures here. And be sure to check out Bret getting his prerace instructions from Chip here.]
Saturday, May 9, 2009
sometimes you eat the bear ...
... and sometimes the bear eats you. Today at the Germantown Circuit Race, the bear ate me.
I actually like this course: .6 mi (aka 1K), start/finish at the highest point, the course is 2/3 downhill (with a sweet 120 degree turn near the start of the long downhill) and 1/3 uphill. A strong-guy course, and in the 4s I've felt like I could hang in such situations.
But not today: I felt good at the start, hung front ten for a while, and then started having a bit of difficulty on the hill. I'd start out near the front, and sag back to the back. Catch up on the downhill, and do it again. Until about 8 (of 25) laps to go, when I disconnected on the hill and couldn't find the punch to get back. I popped -- hard. I got lapped with four to go (I did take a good dig up the hill since Ian Newcomb was off the front, and I wanted to give him a little encouragement), and pulled off since the official said they'd be pulling riders. Everyone goes by, I'm lamenting my day, and the official comes over and say he's stopped pulling riders, and if I don't want a DNF I should get going. So I do, and I finish.
The high point of my race was a front-row seat for the sweet bike-handling by the Team Hungry guy who had a tube blow in the sharp downhill curve. With a rear flat, downhill at over 26 mph, in a sharp curve, with riders on three sides, he overcorrected, caught it, wobbled a bit, and slipped nicely to the side of the road -- upright. Very sweet, especially since I would've been one of about ten riders at least affected by a crash right then.
'Nuff said.
Oh, except: sorry for talking you into this one, Bret, and even sorrier I got in your head before the 3s start.
I actually like this course: .6 mi (aka 1K), start/finish at the highest point, the course is 2/3 downhill (with a sweet 120 degree turn near the start of the long downhill) and 1/3 uphill. A strong-guy course, and in the 4s I've felt like I could hang in such situations.
But not today: I felt good at the start, hung front ten for a while, and then started having a bit of difficulty on the hill. I'd start out near the front, and sag back to the back. Catch up on the downhill, and do it again. Until about 8 (of 25) laps to go, when I disconnected on the hill and couldn't find the punch to get back. I popped -- hard. I got lapped with four to go (I did take a good dig up the hill since Ian Newcomb was off the front, and I wanted to give him a little encouragement), and pulled off since the official said they'd be pulling riders. Everyone goes by, I'm lamenting my day, and the official comes over and say he's stopped pulling riders, and if I don't want a DNF I should get going. So I do, and I finish.
The high point of my race was a front-row seat for the sweet bike-handling by the Team Hungry guy who had a tube blow in the sharp downhill curve. With a rear flat, downhill at over 26 mph, in a sharp curve, with riders on three sides, he overcorrected, caught it, wobbled a bit, and slipped nicely to the side of the road -- upright. Very sweet, especially since I would've been one of about ten riders at least affected by a crash right then.
'Nuff said.
Oh, except: sorry for talking you into this one, Bret, and even sorrier I got in your head before the 3s start.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Spring Valley RR: cat 4
First things first: I like this course. It's fast, and curvy, and not too windy, and the big hill is just on the cusp between a power rise and a sit-down-and-grind-it-out honest-to-goodness-climb. After that hill (and the ensuing false flat), the road levels out and even drops a bit, and suddenly there's the 200m to go sign and if it's your last lap it's time to wind up with whatever's left. The other significant hill really only becomes noticeable after two or three laps, when your legs get a little weary and you hit it and think "now where did this come from?"
The course is 9.2 miles (that's 14.8 km to you, Adam), and the 4s race was five laps. We rolled (climbed) to the start-finish line for staging, where a few key players were missing. Most notably, Dayton was down to five from their usual 10-12. But Abundance and Cyclesport had the usual suspects, and there were a number of solo racers who would be quite active during the race (from Team Hungry, Buckeye Cycling, National Engineering/COBC, Echelon, Justin from Jeni's Ice Cream, and Mark from Ohio Orthopedic/Moro). I mentally committed to not doing anything rash for at least two laps, and we were off.
And for two laps, I sat between 6th and 10th wheel, taking it easy as we cruised around the course. On the hill I stayed toward the front but didn't kill it. A few pairs went off the front, but I made no moves: it was early, and they were always missing a key component (in this case, a CycleSport or Abundance rider).
And then, at the top of the hill beginning the third lap, Rodney Roof from CycleSport drilled it -- hard. I hesitated, but then Ian Newcomb from Abundance went and I thought here we go -- time to race. We bridged up to Rodney with an Echelon rider (in his first cat 4 race after riding away solo from the 5s for a few weeks running) and started to swap turns. We got a good gap, and a decent rotation, and suddenly we had over a 100m gap. It held there for a while, and then just like that the field was out of sight.
And then we came up on the 3s. I happened to be pulling as we came up on them, and then the driver of our pace car was telling us to hold on, hold on, hold on until he could neutralize the 3s for us to get around. Hold on? We knew we had a good gap, but didn't know how much it was, and we needed to keep building it or at least maintain it: if we could get to the top of the hill and start the 4th lap still out front, we had good odds of being the top 4 finishers.
After what seemed like an eternity, we got to roll past the 3s and get back up to speed (the 4s stayed out front of them the rest of the day). We still felt pretty good, since we knew our 4s field would have to get past them to get near us. Apparently they had no similar holdup, though, because halfway up the hill we were reeled back in. So close. I think.
I left the fourth lap for others to duke it out and caught my breath. On the final lap, it got punchy again, and another CycleSport rider went off, again with the Echelon rider. As we got closer to the line, most folks were watching the winner of the past two races, Andrew Prickett (Dayton). We pretty much stuck him on the front: no one wanted to pull him up to the front of the field.
The finale started to play out before the sharp turn to the hill, when a Buckeye rider took a hard dig, and from there it was a full-on chase. We made it around the corner safely (I smelled burning carbon all day long in that turn), and I thought okay, one minute, maybe two, of excruciating pain to see what I've got. I big-ringed it up the hill, not getting passed (much), but not gaining on too many others. Ian, who's got a good kick and whose wheel I'd been watching, had a shifting problem, so I left him earlier than planned. Through my lactic haze, I saw young Jonathan Freter (Turner) scamper up in a gear I just didn't have. He caught the two breakaways before the line and won a well-earned victory. After the crest of the hill, I put it in gear and tried to sprint, but I'm not sure my butt left the saddle. I managed to pip Mark Farmer (Ohio Orthopedic/Moro) for 6th (sorry, Mark!), and then went about trying to stuff my lungs back into my body.
Oh, and because of a morning mechanical to my lighter rear wheel, I raced the PowerTap. So Chip, I've got some data. I'll spare you most of the boring details, but for the "sprint" I was putting out a whopping 496 watts, my speed was 51 kph (31.7 mph), and my heartrate at the line was 198. I looked like this. I'm beat.
The course is 9.2 miles (that's 14.8 km to you, Adam), and the 4s race was five laps. We rolled (climbed) to the start-finish line for staging, where a few key players were missing. Most notably, Dayton was down to five from their usual 10-12. But Abundance and Cyclesport had the usual suspects, and there were a number of solo racers who would be quite active during the race (from Team Hungry, Buckeye Cycling, National Engineering/COBC, Echelon, Justin from Jeni's Ice Cream, and Mark from Ohio Orthopedic/Moro). I mentally committed to not doing anything rash for at least two laps, and we were off.
And for two laps, I sat between 6th and 10th wheel, taking it easy as we cruised around the course. On the hill I stayed toward the front but didn't kill it. A few pairs went off the front, but I made no moves: it was early, and they were always missing a key component (in this case, a CycleSport or Abundance rider).
And then, at the top of the hill beginning the third lap, Rodney Roof from CycleSport drilled it -- hard. I hesitated, but then Ian Newcomb from Abundance went and I thought here we go -- time to race. We bridged up to Rodney with an Echelon rider (in his first cat 4 race after riding away solo from the 5s for a few weeks running) and started to swap turns. We got a good gap, and a decent rotation, and suddenly we had over a 100m gap. It held there for a while, and then just like that the field was out of sight.
And then we came up on the 3s. I happened to be pulling as we came up on them, and then the driver of our pace car was telling us to hold on, hold on, hold on until he could neutralize the 3s for us to get around. Hold on? We knew we had a good gap, but didn't know how much it was, and we needed to keep building it or at least maintain it: if we could get to the top of the hill and start the 4th lap still out front, we had good odds of being the top 4 finishers.
After what seemed like an eternity, we got to roll past the 3s and get back up to speed (the 4s stayed out front of them the rest of the day). We still felt pretty good, since we knew our 4s field would have to get past them to get near us. Apparently they had no similar holdup, though, because halfway up the hill we were reeled back in. So close. I think.
I left the fourth lap for others to duke it out and caught my breath. On the final lap, it got punchy again, and another CycleSport rider went off, again with the Echelon rider. As we got closer to the line, most folks were watching the winner of the past two races, Andrew Prickett (Dayton). We pretty much stuck him on the front: no one wanted to pull him up to the front of the field.
The finale started to play out before the sharp turn to the hill, when a Buckeye rider took a hard dig, and from there it was a full-on chase. We made it around the corner safely (I smelled burning carbon all day long in that turn), and I thought okay, one minute, maybe two, of excruciating pain to see what I've got. I big-ringed it up the hill, not getting passed (much), but not gaining on too many others. Ian, who's got a good kick and whose wheel I'd been watching, had a shifting problem, so I left him earlier than planned. Through my lactic haze, I saw young Jonathan Freter (Turner) scamper up in a gear I just didn't have. He caught the two breakaways before the line and won a well-earned victory. After the crest of the hill, I put it in gear and tried to sprint, but I'm not sure my butt left the saddle. I managed to pip Mark Farmer (Ohio Orthopedic/Moro) for 6th (sorry, Mark!), and then went about trying to stuff my lungs back into my body.
Oh, and because of a morning mechanical to my lighter rear wheel, I raced the PowerTap. So Chip, I've got some data. I'll spare you most of the boring details, but for the "sprint" I was putting out a whopping 496 watts, my speed was 51 kph (31.7 mph), and my heartrate at the line was 198. I looked like this. I'm beat.
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