Ladera Ranch Grand Prix(photos)

there was a girl racing in men's cat 3 yesterday

 

I just uploaded 78 pictures of the grand prix to my website: www.crankoc.com! ENJOY! :wave:

 

No sarcasm, I love our smaller fields--yesterday was a pretty good size at around 18. You know who's wheel is good, who to watch out for, when to attack and how much is needed to get/stay up in the field. There is a bit more work though.

I've riden with the men, Master's 50+ at Ontario. It was nice to be in a big field, better drafting and moving around the field was a bit different. I started in the back and moved up to midpack without much effort--kinda cool. Plus, they held their lines REALLY well. Great experience.

The Ontario race is set up perfectly, the Masters is right after the women's, so you can jump right in. I don't like doing it before my race--I'm fragile and don't want to blow up.

The girl who was in the Cat 3s was Erica from LaGrange, talk about an animal! She puts the hurt on the guys at ElDo. She's wicked fast, strong, steady and just overall talented!

 

Walked over from my house with my wife and 2 daughters. It was my first time spectating any type of a bike race. We only watched the semi Pro guys and had a great time. My oldest (2.5 yrs old) would not stop clapping for them every time they went by us. Made my day to see how excited she was! Congrats to everyone who raced! :clap: Looking forward to next year.

 

Hated it, pulled out after 3 laps. To dangerous in Cat4. people braking in weird spots(turn 2) and rubbing in t1 and t3. Some courses aren't for everyone I guess. on a positive note I brought the single speed and left immediately after our 8am race and hit up Aliso Woods.

 

Ladera Ranch Grand Prix - photos

Here are some of the pics I took at the race...

http://dreamscapeimages.photobiz.com/cart/event_select.cfm?eventID=222397

 

awesome pics! i think i saw you out there taking pictures (just guessing from you camera angles).

I also took some pictures, they're at www.crankoc.com :beer:

 

uhmm... now that you mentioned it, i did noticed a LOT of "pissed off" riders walking around that day... roadies can be such Prima donna's sometimes (not at all directed towards you heith)... #-o

 

Month old roadie wants to know how a gran prix race works.
how many laps? is there climbing and does qualifying dictate where you start?

Thanks.

 

You can start where ever you want, you pretty line up where you think you belong.

Laps depends on class and most course are flatter than flat (assuming it's a crit)!

For the Ladera Grand Prix the course was .7 miles. Beginners (cat 5) did 25 laps while Pro Cat 1 did 90 laps.

 

More pics of the races at: http://www.ericfoltz.photoreflect.com

 

Maybe the picture is deceiving, but that course looks NARROW!

 

The series of pictures 168-179 is classic. You captured everything from "Oh, #$%!..This hurts!" to "Oh, @#$!...I'm going to get hit!". At least the guy in the Dewalt kit had a nice landing spot.

 

Keep in mind, the course is in a residential street and only taking up one direction of traffic (aka, 2 lines).

Turn 1 - Wide entering the turn but narrow on the exit (2 lane street on a one lane strret)

Turn 2 - Really wide (you can take the left turn lane which makes entering the corner 3 lanes and exit 2 lanes)

Turn 3 - Behind those barriers that you see is a roundabout, this turn was NARROW

Turn 4 - Dont completely remember but I think it was a 1 lane road on a 2 lane wide (so narrow entering and wide exit).

 

Thanks! Nice website - I added you as a favorite.

 

Generally speaking, a Grand Prix is supposed to be more like a Circuit race than a crit. Whereas a crit course is usually less than a mile in length, the GP/Circuit is longer, but not as long as a road race (I think most are less then 2mi).

There isn't a set lap/distance in the GP/Crits, it is done by time. The officials will make an estimate based on lap times to give you a count down, from either 5 or 3 laps to go (so you know when to sprint for the finish).

There isn't a qualifying round for the start, you line up where you can.

As for elevation, it depends on the course. Most are flat, then you have San Marcos....

The nice thing about the crits is that most are in business park areas where you have the entire road closed off for the race.

Road races will usually only give you one side and have a strict center line rule (if you cross, you're DQ'd)--this is even on roads that don't have a center line, as the roads are usually still open to traffic.

The downside is that it can be narrow, even a 4-corner course translates to more than 80 turns if you do 20 laps (as most are), which gives more opportunities for crashes. Yet, most crashes are on straights where people fatigue and pay less attention.

But, those have just been my observations, I could be wrong.

 

Narrow is okay if everyone is on the same page like in this example. Everyone is riding single file, holding their lines and maximizing their corner speed.

The lower categories will see all that open space and try to fill it. If you look at where those guys are exiting the turn, you'll see that there is really only one fast line around there. But in a cat 5, 4 or even 3 race, someone (okay, more like a big ass group) will try and fill that gap on the left and end up getting pinched off or forcing the riders to the right to make an adjustment. Either way, the speed will be reduced, and everyone behind will have to start feathering the brakes while the leaders get away.

 

That's a really big IF! You are absolutely right about filling the holes in the lower categories. It's so sketchy sometimes...er...a lot of the time.

 

It's OK, I was being a little sissy that day. Just at the end of the season with nothing really left to fight for so I decided it wasn't worth it.. If it were the beginning of the season with the adrenaline pumping I would have stayed in and rubbed elbows but here at the end, knowing Aliso Woods was waiting, I just puss'd. I also noticed yesterday when I was descending GMR I was being a overly conservative, again. Maybe I'm just getting old... or burnt

Hey those are nice pics by the way.

 

The best place to get your feet wet would be the Ontario GP. It's super wide and super safe even in the Cat5's(which is scary sometimes). You should come out this Sunday and do the Cat4/5. Last race of the season. This will also give you an idea of what to wok on for next year. Mtn bikers usually adapt to crits very well 'cause of the natural under threshold to short VO2 max interval like training.

No climbing in crits, usually more so in road races. Crits are like the Nascar of bike racing. Bunch of left turns(or right) lots of crashes, lots of touching.
GP's are crits with a couple turns going the other way.