MUCKERS Vietnam Race 1 of 6. 01/06/23
Rouvy Route Used : Mui Dinh Ninh Thuan | Vietnam 14.29 miles | 672 ft climbing
Route 1 from the Vietnam Challenge and Race 1 in my Vietnam 6 race championship
35 Registered | 22 finishers | 4 DNF | 9 DNS
TOP 10 PLACES ARE ALL FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD!! TRULLY A GLOBAL RACE!!!
Finally the long been scheduled Vietnam Races are here, and, we have them all scheduled for the next 6 Thursday nights! 14 miles and “only” 672 ft of climbing will make this a great race to get this series on the way! Route starts with a nice long flat section to get yourself warmed up and settled down in a “hopefully” decent pack and then see what happens when those climbs just put that extra pressure on the legs……
“JoseCostaRonda” came home in first place with a very impressive 27.07mph average and over 1 minute and 46 seconds in front of 2nd place. This rider gives out some impressive stats, but for someone this good, where’s the HR data??? Get a strap and lets see next time 😉. “Tuden” led a 3 way battle for the next positions with “adampel” claiming the bronze just in front of the very strong “karel_sousek” who had to settle for 4th.
5th, and the top Muckers Worldwide rider came “MikeHagen” who looked to have big gaps in front and behind, with 6th place “R4-404-SALVATORE-CARUSO” looking to have the same situation with being in a bit of no mans land as well.
7th an 8th was between 2 Muckers Worldwide riders with “Andy_UP” just beating “DonJulio” with Spanish rider “chorus” just 15 seconds behind in 9th.
We then had a 3 way battle for 10th between an American, and Englishman and A German rider! Sounds like the start of a joke but it was no joke and the American “basak.oztan” who had the last laugh and got the final mention for a well deserved 10th place
cheers to you all for jumping on this race, hope you had a great time and see you again soon!
I’m trailing a New points scheme for this challenge to try and award consistency a little bit better than the last few championships have. I wasn’t happy with the last place rider only getting 1 point for actually finishing the race, so I’ll see if this new structure is better after the 6th race.
Link to the 2nd race in this mini championship is below and is the same time next week!
https://my.rouvy.com/onlinerace/live/122671
| # | Category | User | Points | Team | time | GAP | AV.mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Men |  JoseCostaRonda | 100 | G. D. A Ronda | 0:31:40.8 | 27.07 | |
| 2 | Men |  Tuden | 96 | Flø Garage Cycling | 0:33:27.5 | 0:01:46.7 | 25.63 |
| 3 | Men |  adampel | 93 | Team Adam-Chris | 0:33:33.1 | 0:01:52.3 | 25.56 |
| 4 | Men |  karel_sousek | 90 | CK Vinohradské Šlapky | 0:33:33.8 | 0:01:52.9 | 25.55 |
| 5 | Men |  MikeHagen | 88 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:35:34.8 | 0:03:53.9 | 24.1 |
| 6 | Men |  R4-404-SALVATORE-CARUSO | 86 | TEAM ADR AMICI DEI RULLI | 0:35:53.7 | 0:04:12.8 | 23.89 |
| 7 | Men |  Andy_UP | 84 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:37:19.3 | 0:05:38.5 | 22.98 |
| 8 | Men |  DonJulio | 82 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:37:35.5 | 0:05:54.6 | 22.81 |
| 9 | Men |  chorus | 80 | 0:37:50.5 | 0:06:09.7 | 22.66 | |
| 10 | Men |  basak.oztan | 78 | Team Clydesdales | 0:38:21.8 | 0:06:40.1 | 22.35 |
| 11 | Men | Mucker1974 | 76 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:38:22.9 | 0:06:42.4 | 22.34 |
| 12 | Men |  Mick_Michel | 74 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:38:24.4 | 0:06:43.6 | 22.33 |
| 13 | Men | Squalo_delle_Alpi | 72 | Shark Attack | 0:38:56.6 | 0:07:15.8 | 22.02 |
| 14 | Men | Ryanio-Bianchi | 70 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:39:41.9 | 0:08:01.2 | 21.6 |
| 15 | Men | kin_kwan | 68 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:39:57.2 | 0:08:16.4 | 21.46 |
| 16 | Men | ColinEmerson | 66 | GRC | 0:42:08.6 | 0:10:27.7 | 20.35 |
| 17 | Men |  nennex | 64 | 0:43:21.8 | 0:11:41.0 | 19.77 | |
| 18 | Men | UncleE64 | 62 | 0:43:59.5 | 0:12:18.6 | 19.49 | |
| 19 | Men | Swifty | 60 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:45:51.2 | 0:14:10.4 | 18.7 |
| 20 | Men | kylofski | 58 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:45:54.8 | 0:14:13.1 | 18.68 |
| 21 | Men | robbiedoo | 56 | Eastbourne Rovers CC | 0:45:55.3 | 0:14:14.4 | 18.67 |
| 22 | Men | S.Ludford | 54 | Muckers Worldwide | 0:50:43.7 | 0:19:02.9 | 16.9 |
| dnf | Men |  boreenhunter | 4 | dnf | – | ||
| dnf | Men | EK1972Correze | 3 | VC Auriac en Xaintrie | dnf | – | |
| dnf | Men | guest237 | 2 | dnf | – | ||
| dnf | Men | Juanfrii | 1 | dnf | – |
11th tonight! set off strong to try and get into a decent pack and soon i was with UncleE, Basak, robbiedoo, chorus and ryanio!! Obviously I’ve set off too hard 😂 but I pretend I belong just to see what happens. We settle in and I am just trying my best to stay on someone’s wheel and we end up as a pack of three, me, basak and uncleE. next come the little climbs and i just do everything i can to stay with Basak and we pull clear. we catch up to Mick who then jumped on with us and we had this 3 rider battle all the way to the end. Basak claiming 10th ( which he totally deserved for basically pulling me the whole way as i only ever took to the front whenever i accidently kept a bit too much power on when he dropped off ) buti just got the better of Mike in our own little sprint. Special mention to 13th place who i was watching the whole way and at first looked to be joining us but we just kept him out of the draft! sorry Squalo but i wasn’t dropping basaks wheel tonight! cracking race.
Was a good race, I was with solid group for the first 3 or 4 miles but after smashing the pedals for 3 days in a row the legs didn’t have there usual va va voom so I slowly dropped away from Muckers ( Neil’s ) group and was then cycling hans solo. Kim Kwan was chasing me down for the last couple of miles and made sure I kept on the gas. Good race and good ride all. Cheers
you had the better of me on fresh legs Tuesday but i took advantage tonight. i had a recovery day yesterday so maybe that’s why i was better than expected tonight? you should have waited for Kim, drafted him then had a nice sprint at the end! have some fun Mucker 😉
After I finished I came back in to watch how others were doing. I saw you were ahead of Basak coming to the line. But he pushed some pretty serious power to get ahead, so no shame there on you! Looks like you did great.
Cheers Mike, if I’d have known you were watching I’d have tried harder and popped a wheelie over the line 😂. I honestly think that was the only time basak actually put some effort in but he really did drag me along the whole route so i didn’t really want to finish in front of him, but I did want to stay in front of MIke so that finish was perfect.
After riding outside earlier in the day I decided to spin easy and zone 2 this one. Without knowing my plans a couple of riders lost a little time trying to help me and were probably wondering why I was hanging back, apologies guys. I have to say, sometimes when you are riding hard in the pack you are not aware of the spirit of support and cooperation in the lower positions at the tail end of the race. I witnessed that tonight from a few riders and it’s every bit enjoyable as being top 10 … No, I lie … Nothing is as enjoyable as a top 10.
lol, its the thought that counts Mucker, but, joking aside, its good to see you actually use a race event as and how you needed to. If your body is saying rest/recover, then just do it, it still counts towards the challenge if you finish the race!? you’ll be better for it as well for the next time you want to race!
Nice race guys, I tried to catch up with your trio ( Michel, Neil and Basak) but I always lost something in the downhill… in the next challenge the Shark will try to bite your butt 🤣
i could see you gaining and gaining but luckily i could draft and recover on the downhills behind the strong basak and keep that gap to you until it actually started to increase! you would have had me if i’d have been dropped! cheers for commenting and hopefully see you on another race soon.
That was a very hard, fast start. Two km in, I’m thinking that today I have no legs, this is too hard, and the leading five are getting away. But they were pushing 6 – 7 W/kg! No wonder. So I waited for Lo Salvatore ’cause I wasn’t inclined to ride by myself. We passed EK1972Correze about 6 km in, no response when we went by. Lo was suddenly 70 m behind at one point, Rouvy glitch?, so I waited again. Now I’m thinking about the finish; no way do I want to sprint, so I plan to attack on the last hill about 2 km before the end. But Lo has been falling back on the little upgrades, though still strong on the flats and downhills. Is he playing wolf, trying to mislead me? So I surged on a little hill about 4 km to go, just to see his response. Well, he wasn’t faking and I got away there. That was a fun race.
This was a lot of fun Neil. I’ve done a lot of races lately, most were solo TTs. Empty field, gaps form right away. Finally a race I had a lot of fun. Pancake flat for the first couple miles, you know what’s coming right away. Front group pushed big w/kg’s, I’m like….uh…better to wait a little. Then saw your name nearby and there the fun part started. I don’t think we lost draft any part of the route. Thanks to Mick, he also pulled the bunch for a good while on the roller coasters. Good cooperation! Eventually the sprint with four digit watts finish. Felt great!! 10th overall.
I’ve been doing JR mode + VP drafting since March, my PB for this route was 3.5 minutes faster with the same w/kg; you get the fastest times that way but you can’t replace the feeling of a good competitive race! See you guys on the next one!
Now that the 250W barrier is smashed, 260W next!! Let’s go Neil
Hello everyone, nice race last night. People started fast on the flat and I tried to survive on the wheel of a small group, we collaborated well (Don Julio, Robbiedo…) and soon we were separating. At the end I caught DonJulio again, but my legs were dead (I came from another race at 19h) so in the last climbs I said goodbye. Finally ninth, I didn’t expect it because I was quite tired.
Another great race! Some nice Canada is represented on top 10. Well done Mike!!!!
A late start for me as I found out I had a broken chain 10 mins before the race. I was doing a chasing game and I was able to pass a few rider. Too bad the climb is a bit short and won’t able to catch Ryan and Neil’s group. Nevertheless, great work out for me.
The evening route is not usually my favorite discipline. But of course I drive it anyway 😉 I was well aware that even though the route was short, it would be very intense. And it was too🥵 Adam Pel, Karel Šousek, Jose Costa and I quickly got to the front. But before long it was clear that Jose Costa had not come to play around. He was making really big watts, but I tried to hang on as long as I could. Jose and I quickly got a small gap to Adam and Karel. But when Jose increased to 9-10 W/Kg I had to let go and he sailed away. The distance down to the pursuers was now a few hundred meters and I was alone. That distance proved to be enough to last all the way to the finish line, although Adam and Karel got quite close at the end. fun and hard race👍👍
Jumped on the bike to do my 8-minute warm-up, ready for tonight’s ride, and realized my Wahoo HR battery had gone. For the next 8 minutes, I was running around my house asking everyone to look for a flat 2032 battery. On the 7th minute, my wife, who knows where everything is, found one. Sorted, I jumped onto the race with no warm-up and 40 seconds late. Everyone had already gone. So, I put a bit of effort into catching up with Swifty and saw that S. Ludford was there too. I decided to use this ride as a casual ride and push Swifty a little. S. Ludford said he was doing a Zone 2 ride, so we pushed on. We rode the entire route together. I pushed a little on every hill, and Swifty came with me. I even saw a few 4.0 w/kg from him. Well done, Swifty, considering you were a non-cyclist just 18 months ago. Muckers together!
Sorry forgot to mention Robbiedoo must have had technical problems because he was playing catchup to. He caught Swifty and I and rode with us for the last 4 miles. Thanks Robbiedoo.
Short route, I should be able to go in red all the way. Just the way I like it. So I started of strong to get in at least second group. First group sailed away like they all were pulled by cars, 2fast4me. So got in a nice group with legedary names (for me) like DonJulio, Robbiedoo and Chorus. All riders that beat me like bully’s before. But, short route, all red, I kept in the draft. On one of the first little climbs, robbiedoo went hard. I stayed in the wheel and the others dropped. We got a gap of about 200m and suddenly robbiedoo was gone, must have lost internet. Now I was on my own with DonJulio chasing me. He dropped me on tuesday, and about all other races we did together before, so I was in serious trouble. Still I tried and pushed on, going as hard as I can for the last half of the race. Letting him catchup was no option, his sprint is too strong and somehow, we never work well together. Kept him at about 200m untill the last climb. Went all in on the climb and when I reached the top, I still had a nice gap and I noticed DonJulio was finally giving up the chase. Felt like a victory! Sweeeeet.
Once again I started the race with too much enthusiasm and tried to keep up with one of the the lead groups. I wasn’t surprised when I realised that I couldn’t keep the pace. For the next couple of races I will have to rethink my strategy and try to approach them at a slower pace. I wasted too much energy in the first few minutes. Later I joined a group with ‘Mucker1974’ and ‘basan.oztan’ and took a short break. I wanted to contribute to the lead of the group, but ‘Basan’ kept taking the lead. He had a great race! We stayed together throughout the race. But on the last climb I had to let go. On the descent I gave my all for a top 10 position, but ‘Basan’ and ‘Neil’ were too strong. I ended up in 12th place. Even with an average power of 282 watts it wasn’t enough for a top 10 finish. Phew…
Cheers, Mick_Michel
Great job Michael. Looks like you’re on the heavier side of the scale like me. Those numbers usually don’t mean much. I call us the harmless-300s. Unfortunately we need to be in 400s to be able to keep up with that front group. not happening. 😉 So i did that mistake a lot, thinking this time I could keep up with the front, but usually paid badly once the heart rate hit 180s in first 5 minutes. pacing myself more lately or try not to exceed my threshold too much. It was a good overall race. Thanks for working with us on the rollers. It was a lot of fun.
Absolutely right, unfortunately a few pounds too many on the scale. But is it worth a first place to give up the delicious ice cream, cake and all the other stuff? 😋
“Harmless-300s”, that’s good, got to keep that in mind 😂.
See you next time…
If I was 18 yrs old with an ambition to get a pro cycling contract, sure I’d have tried my best to drop to 150lbs. I’m just too old to give up those chocolate chip cookies. lol.