Analytics....because I was curious

My season has been all over the map. I barely rode the first half of the year. Then I decided to dust off the bike and throw my hat back into the ring for some races in the second half. That alone has been quite the roller coaster of events. I have finished DFL in my last 3 races and the fourth race back was a DNF. This was after a 3rd and a 2nd. So.....I got curious. There are some factors that come into play for sure....and I thought I would put them down on the internet for history....or to waste time....or for those actually interested. Here goes...

Sweat Shaker was my first race of 2016. I had a solid race...but started with a DFL and I was almost 25 minutes behind the leader.

Treetops was brutal. I did take a solid 3rd place.....out of 3 racers. I was a solid 1:16:03 behind the winner and was actually lapped at the start of my 3rd lap of 4. ugh. So another DFL.

TK Lawless was a bit better. I did muster a 2nd place out of 3. I raced Sport Open because there is no Clyde class in the NIMBA Series. So I raced against people that could be mid to back of the pack Expert racers. I was a respectable 29:45 behind the winner.

Big M was awful for me. I got a DNF, but on that one lap that I did finish I was already 20:41 behind the eventual winner.

Glacial Hills was better. While I still mustered a DFL, by over 37 minutes) I was actually feeling pretty good at this event.

Maybury TT was brutal with the humidity. Add that on top of the local guys destroying me and I got crushed by over 20 minutes and ended DFL again.

Addison Oaks was my last race. While I still took last place I felt pretty good about my race. Then I realized that I was 30 minutes behind the leader and I started to look into things a bit closer.

So, with the short reviews above.....here are my finishes

8/8

3/3

2/3

DNF

8/8

12/12

8/8

Big picture, a Second, Third, and three top 10 finishes can be chalked up a solid season. But that isn't the point because all but one race was DFL. Still, a DFL is greater than sitting on the couch.

I dug a little deeper and looked at my average speeds at each event. Here are the speeds by race from fastest to slowest:

1. Addison Oaks

2. Glacial Hills

3. Maybury TT

4. Sweat Shaker

5. Big M

6. TK Lawless

7. Treetops

There are a few things about this that surprise me and a few that don't.

#7 Treetops. This being my slowest race wasn't shocking due to the amount of climbing.

#6 TK Lawless. This was a bit of a surprise because the course is flatter. It is however very twisty. It had also rained the night before the race and the course was slick.

#5 Big M. Again, not really surprise due to the climbing. But I was surprised that it was faster than the Lawless race.

#4 Sweat Shaker. Pretty solid to land right in the middle. I love the course and it suits my riding style. This being the first race, I believe it landed right where it should have.

#3 Maybury TT. If the humidity was lower I would have expected this to be higher in the order. Still, another course suited to my style of riding. Probably slower due to some tighter areas.

#2 Glacial Hills. This is the most surprising of the group. This was not a flat course. Yet I managed to pull my 2nd fastest average speed (at a race) here. I did love the course and it was a lot of fun to ride. Just shocked that it landed as #2

#1 Addison Oaks. No surprise here at all. Flatter and wide open course. I loved riding here again and I was comfortable for most of the race.

An item of note as well is that my average speeds were going up the more I raced. Meaning, I was getting stronger every day and have the data to prove it. There is more to all of this....studying numbers and boring people to death. I like the numbers. I like to see what is happening....I like to see if things make sense. I like to see if there is improvement. It isn't for everyone, but without some data to go off I don't know how I would improve.