Ryan & Amanda Keefer's Personal Site: Cycling, Family, Tech, Music, Software & Game Reviews, etc.
// August 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Cycling
Hey all you fellow racers out there — this weekend has two central North Carolina speedway-based criteriums for your racing pleasure. The first is a makeup race in the Ace Speedway Series (tomorrow morning) and then my team (the Tri-Cyclists) is having their race this Sunday at the Orange County Speedway. Details on both races can be found at the links below:
// July 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // Cycling
Just a quick heads up for all the racers reading Keefer Madness— registration is now open on Active.com for the 2009 Tri-Cyclists Criterium at the Orange County Speedway August 16, 2009.
The day before, there will be another speedway-based race — a makeup race for the Ace Speedway race series in Altamahaw, NC.
View carolinaspeedwayseries.com
We hope to see you as a racer and/or spectator at both August NC criterium events.
// March 25th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap
So at the beginning of the year, I catted up from cat5 to cat4, and I’ve struggled a ton – not that cat5 racing was cake. Anyway, I raced my fourth race of this still very young season down in Winston Salem, and just totally struggled with no real excuse.
It’s not worth writing a race report, other than saying last night’s race was another embarrasing showing. It started out fast and within a few laps, I was spent. The pace was just too high for me to sustain. Granted, it was a combined 3/4 race, but still couldn’t fathom keeping the 28ish miles per hour pace for 45 minutes, and as the link below shows, I didn’t.
Cartting up has been a real shock to the system. It’s been embarrasing and mildly depressing. Between the wet, cold, shitty weather, work and life in general, I have put in fewer miles. That obviously has to change if I’m going to have any success in crit and road racing. It basically comes down on me fully and only — I need more races, more and better training and more miles. Period. I’ve got no excuses, other than my engine out there. I’m more than a little bummed, but hopefully I can transform that into some fuel and motivation for the coming weeks and months of training and racing.
// February 15th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Cycling, Personal Crap
So far, cat4 racing hasn’t been so nice for me. Granted, I knew this was coming – faster speeds and longer racing has put a strain on my athletic ability. Add to that the fact that in the past week, I’d only ridden one night due to work and everything else is throwing at me.
Now that the whining’s out of the way, on to the actual race report. Like last year, the Wolfpack Criterium in Raleigh, NC was met with dry, but cool weather. I found it tough keeping warm prior to the race, but as soon as the whistle blew, that totally went away.
// January 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Cycling, Local (Raleigh Durham), Personal Crap
The team I race with, the Tri-Cyclists is looking for a venue for a criterium. Traditionally, our annual race has been in the Meadowmont neighborhood just inside of the Chapel Hill town limits, and has been a local favorite to race, with its two hills and a very scenic neighborhood course and a wide slightly downhill finish. But early last year, Meadowmont installed large speed bumps/speed tables throughout our annual course, putting an end to that event and having us start to look for another place for our annual race.
My thought is that we should migrate our annual criterium just up the road here in North Carolina to Research Triangle Park (RTP) on a summer Saturday or Sunday for multiple reasons:
Minimal traffic on weekends
Plenty of available parking
Lots of opportunities for clear racing routes
Do any of you reading who work out in RTP have any suggestions for routes that would be feasible as a criterium site and/or have contacts
at your company about seeking out utilizing their roads/parking for a day on a summer weekend?
// September 27th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap
Doh! Busy day and night yesterday lead to a rare non-posting day at Keefer Madness. Oh well. I’ll get over it, if you all will.
I just got back from a little training ride around Research Triangle Park – great place to get some miles in on the weekends. It’s pretty much a ghost town on the weekends (which is why I’m also really wanting to get a criterium there in the 2009 season).
In a few hours, I’m packing up the car with my trusty cycling race checklist, and heading eastbound for my first overnight race trip, which also happens to be my final criterium of the 2008 season. I’m rooming with my partner in Cat5 crime, Greg and we’ll be right near the race in the am. It’s a little twenty lap race and then I’ll be back in Durham in time to have lunch with Amanda and Bongo. Wish me luck!
// September 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap
Crappy weather here in central North Carolina has brought my cycling season to an uneventful close. Tonight was supposed to be the final race in the Ace Speed Away series. As of last week’s race, I was in a distant second place for the “C” race category, with my teammate, Greg Smith in a very close third place. The race organizers have not posted the official final results, but it’s pretty safe to bet, I’ve got the silver trophy in the 2008 series. Pretty cool!
But, I really wish we had had the chance to go out with a bang tonight. I was hoping to get a medal of any of the three metal types tonight and end the season on a high note. But ironically, the wet rains have signaled the drying up of the race season here in NC, and it’s just a bit depressing. I guess it’s time to take a few days off and start the off-season training regiment.
// September 9th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Cycling, Personal Crap
Another Tuesday night, another Ace Speed Away “C” race under my belt on the oval out in Altamahaw, North Carolina.
Threats of rain (50% chance from 5pm to 9pm) kept some away from tonight’s race series. But the season’s winding down and Greg and I wanted to race and wanted to earn points for the series trophy.
We did. Several of us agreed that there were some tonight not worth chasing down if they broke away. They’d blow their load and end up getting gobbled up. Well, we misjudged an unknown racer and the dude ended up getting a lap on the field, which is a really impressive feat out at Ace’s oval track.
// September 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap
Just got home from racing another criterium out at Ace Speedway. I raced a pretty disappointing race. There were a field of 10 of us tonight, and I ended up on the front for most of the race. I felt great and was able to stay at that output all race. But I didn’t want to.
Multiple times, I tried to peel off the front by going high on the track. Out of all my crits out there, I never have spent so much time on the outside the track – everyone in pull. Others commented on that after the race. But regardless, I was frustrated at having to do so much work without help.
There were three prime laps. On the final of three, I planned on attacking right after the prime, but I had a good lead, and ended up sprinting for the prime (a t-shirt) and then continued a high output. At my biggest gap, I had close to half a lap ahead of the field, but at 9 laps to go, my solo effort was reeled back in. I stayed at the front till there was a single lap to go. The pace picked up, but I ended up finishing 9th of 10 riders – a disappointing finish.
Next time, I’m going to stop pedaling completely or even brake to get off the front. The two positives were winning my first sprint/prim lap and I’m at 2nd in the series overall. There’s another race Tuesday out there. I’ll do better then, and this weekend in Greensboro.
// August 5th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Cycling, Personal Crap
Tonight was my third trip out to Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, North Carolina for their Tuesday night criterium series. The first two resulted in fourth place finishes with a starting field of less than 10.
Tonight was a little different – with a bigger field and in the end, a slightly better result. At the start line, we had 18 racers, double the field of the previous race two weeks back. The sky looked about ominous and we heard some distant thunder early on in warmups, but it held off for all three races this evening.
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