J Bravard
I missed the first two weeks, but I agree with Tyler that the Cat 5 group was organized and riding tight. They communicated well - telling the others when to rotate off the front and when to catch on in the back - and it really showed. When I dropped back to the Cat 4 group after three laps, there was no communication and the result was gaps opening at both the front and the back of the group. Minimizing these gaps (a challenge not only for Cat 4s, but for the 1/2s also) will produce a faster field. The strength of the two fields is a factor, but so is the organization.
One more week of paceline skill-building - we'll make sure the Cat 4 group gets some good help.
Keep up the good work -
John Bravard
Also - While I'm on the subject...when I saw the Women 1/2/3 field there were only 5 women and they were trying to rotate. In a group where everyone is working their hardest, it is more efficient to stay single file and take short, hard pulls that don't quickly accelerate the group, but also don't let the speed drop. Stronger riders can take longer pulls, while weaker riders can take shorter pulls - the key is to not drop the pace with a weaker rider taking a long, slow pull. Rotating a small group means that riders spend way more time in the wind - not efficient.
Again, it's all fun and practice and there is another week to try it.
Tyler S <ebonf-@hotmail.com> wrote:
This is a tough one. I'm a cat 5, and I'd say one of the big differences
between the '4' and '5' fields in the few races I've done isn't so much legs
as experience.
In the 3 races we've done so far, 2 of them the 5's have stayed away, even
increased our lead. We've had some great coaching (From John Bravard last
week, and Doug Ollerenshaw before that.). The main reason the Cat 4's
caught us, fast, in the 2nd race wasn't that the riders were so much
stronger or weaker on either side, but that the 5's weren't organized into a
solid paceline. Perhaps the clinic held (thanks!) helped, but things were
pretty tightly drilled. We knew how fast we needed to go: it was the first
week a significant number of the 5's got dropped from our own paceline.
Last week, by contrast, the 4's got their act together, we didn't, we got
caught almost immediately. If you look at the results from last week,
mostly the 4's dominated the end, too, even though the pack stayed mostly
together until the end. I think -- at least for me -- it came down to
tactics and experience, which is the difference between a 5 and a 4. I'm
new to this game; I don't know when to sprint and when to wait, whose wheel
to hold and for how long.
It's nice for me, as a novice, to try my skills against others in the same
boat, and I really enjoy the 'handicap' format because of the good RACING it
creates; we're all not just sitting on for 5 laps, waiting for the sprint.
The advantage the 4's have is that, if they'd like a 'chance,' they can join
the 'open' race, either on its own, or along with the 4/5 race for another
whole 5 bucks. 20 bucks for 20 laps or so of racing sounds like a good
deal. I'm guessing most of the 'fastest' of the 4's have been joining the
'open' race to test themselves against the 3's, 2's, and Big Bad Racer
Types.
In conclusion, the actual time of the split doesn't seem to have been the
deciding factor, unless the split last week was so short that the 5's
panicked and gave up.
A big thanks to the organizers for putting on some fun events. See you next
week!
--T
style='FONT-SIZE:11px;FONT-FAMILY:tahoma,sans-serif'>
---------------------------------
size=1>
From: Ken Morton <k7f-@yahoo.com>
Reply-To:
k7f-@yahoo.com
To: scmu-@aol.com,
ob-@topica.com
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] PIR Handicap
splits
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 11:05:38 -0700
(PDT)
The cat 5 men returned to the same form they
exhibited two weeks ago,
easily holding off the cat 4
men.
The cat 4 men had no chance, IMHO. Depite great coaching
by Casey Deck
(thank you!) we lost time on the first two laps. The
cat 5 field was
huge, compared to the (original) 8 cat 4 riders.
Candy had some cat 5's
come back to help, and shortened the split to
1:05 (I think) but it was
still to long of a split, again IMHO. I
dropped off after 3 laps (I'm
using Saturdays race as an excuse; no
legs) and rode the last 3 by
myself; I think I heard the final cat 4
group was down to 5 or 6
riders. Ouch.
My
understanding is that the only real difference between a cat 5 and
a
cat 4 is the number of starts you have made; there is _no_
performance
criteria to become (or move up to) a Cat 4.
Theoretically, and in fact,
many of the Cat 5 riders are as strong as
Cat 4 riders; they have just
not done 10 mass
starts.
Just my whiny next-morning ramblings. I'd like to see
the gap kept at
45 seconds or less, so we at least _feel_ like we
have a chance of
catching the
5's.
Ken
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