Saturday, July 31, 2010

Chicagoland Inline Marathon

Skating – Still a gentleman’s sport.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about Contador’s choice to not wait on Andy Schleck, who dropped a chain during this years’ TDF. I get both sides of the discussion. I get the whole “unwritten rule, show some respect, nobody wants to win on somebody else’s bad luck” argument. I also get the other side of it where Contador had to worry about his other rivals, and that it was ultimately Schleck’s fault. If he would have had a chain catcher like some of the other guys, he wouldn’t have had the mechanical issue.

Anyway, the situation has caused people to say that cycling is no longer a gentleman’s sport. While I don’t have further comments on that, I do have to say that speed skating, at least at the Chicagoland inline marathon, demonstrated that it still very much is. In fact, there were 3 distinct situations in the race where this was proven.

The race started off very fast. It was reminiscent of a Duluth race start. Justin Stelly was the one setting the pace I believe. Alex had a poor start. I don’t think he had his head in the game. He’s been skating really well lately so it’s not like he didn’t have the ability. It just kind of happened that he got stuck in the wrong spot at a very fast time and was bounced off the back of the main field early.

Roger Schneider, Olympic athlete and inline marathon world record holder, was moving up on the right side of the field in a narrow part of the course and caught skates with Olivier Jean (part of the Canadian gold medal Olympic short track team) and Olivier went down hard.

I’m sure Olivier is a really nice guy (and I was cheering for him at the Olympics), but for whatever reason, a few of us didn’t want to see him win. I guess it was just a form of nationalism. I’d rather see an American athlete win. We could have went on the attack when he hit the ground, but instead we steadied the pace and Olivier caught back on so we could try to beat him the right way, which I believe is the right thing to do.

Later on that first lap Olivier, Justin Stelly, and Marisio Garcia all missed a turn near the start finish line. Justin and Marisio were the top 2 overall in the stage race. Again, the rest of the field could have taken off and made the 3 work very hard to catch, but everyone knew it wasn’t right so the pack stood up.

This was pretty important to my race because it was the lull that helped Alex catch up. He’s not a quitter. He’ll go all out until he gets back on no matter how far back he gets. Before Alex was there, I couldn’t take a pull. If I did I’d basically be pulling the field away from Alex, and it was my job at this race to make sure Alex finished high enough up so that he could get 4th overall while I stayed in 3rd.

On the second lap the 3rd sign of sportsmanship came when Justin Stelly’s front wheel came loose. He was trying to tighten it with his thumb and other skaters would help hold him up and push him so that gaps didn’t open up. After a few miles he was able to get a wrench handed up and all the other favorites didn’t attack while he tightened his wheel on the go. For the 3rd time in one race I was really impressed at how polite people were skating.

That’s not to say the whole race was just boring, group hug. Sergio had a couple hard attacks. Justin spent the majority of the race up front holding the pace high. On the last two laps Olivier kept trying to get away but it wasn’t sticking.

I really would have liked to help a breakaway stick, but the “perfect” group never formed. Like I said before, I needed to get Alex to finish ahead of a few certain people. That meant if Alex wasn’t in the break then I wasn’t working. The other factor was that almost every move consisted of the fastest guys in the race that I was most worried about in the sprint. Even if one of the breaks would have stuck, the end result would have probably been the same.

In the second to last corner I got in a bad spot. I was in 6th place. I wanted to be about 3rd at that point, but an attack on the downhill messed up my plan. My next thought was to come from the back and start the sprint early and hope that it was a big enough surprise that I could hold most of the guys off. Unfortunately, the sprint started even earlier than I had planned on going. I was expecting about 200m to go. It started with over 500m to go coming out of the final turn. There was a gap in front of the guy I was following. I tried to go around him on the outside of a right hand bend but I didn’t have the speed to close the gap in front of us. I was able to pass him and so was Alex, which allowed us to keep our 3rd and 4th overall spots for the tour, but it was only good for a 5th and 6th in the marathon. We were reeling in Roger Schneider, but that gap was just too much to close. Justin ended up taking the win, which is awesome for the US. The top 4 spots were all taken by different countries (US, Colombia, Canada, Switzerland).

I’m really hoping that a similar group shows up to St Paul next weekend. It’s just a half marathon so I expect to pace to be fast. Outdoor nationals starts right afterwards, so I suspect a lot of the top US skaters won’t be there. I guess that means the pressure is really on the shoulders of Alex and I.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Chicagoland Inline Stage Race

340m sprint – There’s not much I can say about this 30 second race. We knew that the rain was imminent during the pre-race meeting. I had a horrible start (lack of practice) and other guys like Justin Stelly took off like a rocket. About 100m into the race the floodgates opened and the rain came pouring down. I was 5th going into the turn and passed 2 guys to take 3rd.

Circuit Race – Saturday seemed like it would be a complete washout too. The TT was postponed and they ran the circuit first. It was supposed to be a points race (sprint every lap) but they couldn’t put down the chip mat because of the rain so it was a straightup 10k. For Friday and Saturday I was on gold street fight wheels (MPC). When it comes to rain wheels, MPC is hard to top. The street fights aren’t a specific rain wheel but they do the job quite well and supposedly out perform the storm surge if things dry up. Two of the Canadian skaters must not have paid attention at the pre-race meeting because they sprinted every lap for prime points that didn’t exist. I didn’t mind since they were only hurting themselves. With two laps to go I tried to break away with Alex but we got separated. Justin Stelly flew past me like I was standing still. I assumed the rest of the group was there because he sat up right after he passed me, but they weren’t. By the time I realized we had such a gap it was too late. I tried to go again but knew it wasn’t going to work so I shut it down. I ended up 3rd in the sprint to Justin and Marisio…same result as the 340m race the night before.

TT – The course had to be changed because of the delay. The main road was already open to traffic. The directors ended up setting up a great course regardless. It had two 180 degree turns I wasn’t thrilled about, but everyone has to do the same course so it’s not like there is an advantage/disadvantage for anyone. You just have to accept what the circumstances give to you.

It was tough to decide whether to race with wet or dry wheels for the TT. The “hill” was still pretty damp and the sky was dark so I went with wet. Most of the other elite men made the same choice.

I took both corners like a big weenie. I hit them even faster during my warmup. I ended up 3rd again to Justin and Marisio. Justin slaughtered everyone. I think Marisio had me by about 3 seconds. It would have taken more than just better cornering for me to make up 3 seconds I think.

Sapulpa CritSapulpa Crit – This was the hottest race of the year for me. The announcer told us at the start that the temperature was over 100 degrees

This was the hottest race of the year for me. The announcer told us at the start that the temperature was over 100 degrees and the heat index was 114. Considering the weather, I actually felt pretty good throughout this race.

The course was a pretty simple 6 corner crit. All of the corners were wide open. One was slightly off camber but it was wide enough that you could take it with pretty good speed. The corners were in pretty good shape but one of the straightaways was loaded with cracks and potholes. Overall though, it was a good course, although not a decisive one for the race.

The deciding factor was the size and number of teams. There was one team (Tulsa Tough) that had 8 guys. The next largest team was a tie between ours and BOT with 2 riders each. Joey was sick, Brad was still resting, and Jeremy was in CO. Everyone else out there was riding solo.

I was really surprised at how some of the solo riders raced. It’s like they wanted Tulsa Tough to beat up on them. Everytime a Tulsa Tough guy would jump they would pull the whole field up to them. Another Tulsa guy would go and the same thing would happen. It happened over and over again.

Brian and I each got in some decent moves but nothing we were in was going to stick. I tried talking to a BOT guy to get something going. I told him when I was going to go and I told him he should come with me. He said smugly “are you sure about that?” I’m not sure what he meant by that, but I just laughed and said he can do whatever he wants. I jumped with him on my wheel. We got a big gap and I tried to get him to pull through. He came through but then took a weird outside line in the corner and basically sat up. I still don’t get the whole interaction. I don’t think he was too tired. I guess he just didn’t want to take a chance at winning.

When you are outnumbered that bad, it is impossible to get in every break. Eventually you’ll have to watch somebody get away. In the case of this race, I had to watch three get away.

With just a few laps to go I tried to get away again. Brian had a nice counter and was able to get away with Yanni. Brian was forced to do all the work and ended up 5th. I took 7th with a 2nd place finish in the field sprint.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Season Update

Tulsa Tough consisted of 3 crits. This is Oklahoma’s biggest cycling event and has the largest (100+) and fastest field that I’ll encounter all season. It pulls riders in from virtually the entire country.

Friday night was a testosterone filled crash fest. Everyone wanted to prove they were “Tulsa Tough” and some people tried to show us by taking horrible lines and riding sketchy. Jeremy had a good first half and he was being aggressive up in the top 5. I, on the other hand, raced like a big weenie. Obviously I wasn’t mentally ready to race because I felt great but just didn’t do anything. The good news about the night was that all of Team Undiscovered kept both wheels on the ground. We were joking around that we may have been the only team to not have a rider crash in that race.

Saturday was earlier and therefore slightly warmer. It still wasn’t too bad. Again, I didn’t really do anything to make the race, but I did keep my legs fresh and kept better positioning. In the last few laps I was steadily making it up towards the front. With 2 laps to go a few riders in front of me went really wide in a turn and were forced up onto the sidewalk. I had to bail onto sidewalk to avoid hitting them and lost about 50 spots.

Sunday’s course has a challenging climb each lap. That benefits my strengths a lot more than the flat crits of Friday and Saturday. The heat was definitely an issue, but the huge, drunk crowd at the top of the hill each lap kept my mind off the pain/fatigue. I really wanted to make a move early on the final lap because I knew I wouldn’t have a good sprint. Looking back, it was the move to make because a lot of guys were hurting. Plus, I rarely get results if I don’t take chances. Unfortunately, going along with the weenie theme of the weekend, I waited for the sprint. I didn’t get the great finish I wanted (27th), but when over 40 guys DNF a race, just finishing in the main field is an accomplishment.

The main takeaway from the weekend was that I needed more experience in big crits. I race fine when the field is controllable, but in a fast race of this size, with a great caliber of athletes, I get too skittish and stop racing. I’ll add that to the “lessons learned” for next season. I plan on doing some of the bigger Texas crits to try to get mentally prepared for Tulsa Tough. I was physically prepared this year, but that will only take you so far.

OKC Crit –

The organizers are trying to make this into a big event like Tulsa Tough. I think it has the potential, but Saturday’s course needs to go. The road condition was terrible and it was a boring course for the riders and spectators alike.

The weekend started off poorly for Brad, Brian and I. For the first time in each of our lives, we missed the start of the race. We were still on the course warming up. On one lap nobody was at the starting line. On the next lap everyone had already taken off. Fortunately we were only about 200m back and were able to work together to catch back on. Going anaerobic right from the gun will really take a beating on your performance though.

The race ended in my favorite manor…a field sprint (that is sarcasm) and I finished midpack yet again. I was still kind of in the same funk that I was in since Tulsa Tough. My fitness was good enough to hang in, but not good enough to give me the confidence I needed to win.

The next day was on a better course. It has nice wide corners and the laps are short enough to be spectator friendly. I was actually feeling a lot better this day than the rest of my recent races. With about two laps to go I found Joey and told him I’d give him a pull to the front so hopefully he’d stay fresh for the sprint. We got split up, but I ended up putting myself in prime position going into the final turn. A few guys divebombed the inside line (I never get tired of that) and the two guys in front of me both swung way wide. Evan (one of the guys that had to go wide) was able to recover and still get a decent finish but I lost a bunch of spots and ended up 13th. I know I didn’t have winning legs, but I think a top 5 would have been possible if the squirrels decided to sit in the back where they belong instead of slamming on the brakes in the last turn because they chose the idiot-line.

I didn’t have power data for the last few races because my powertap wasn’t working (user error). My training during the week didn’t consist of many hard efforts because most of the week was spent recovering from the racing. Going in to the state TT I really had no idea where my legs would be or what I was capable of.

To make matters worse, I did a hot and hilly 100k ride the day before the TT.

I kept an eye on my watts to make sure I wasn’t going over threshold, but that wasn’t a problem. I don’t think I could have gone over my normal threshold even if I tried! My bike was uncomfortable, I wasn’t well rested, and my performance was sucking. Those are all great things. I still broke the 1 hr mark for a 40k, but I knew that during my peak I would have been a few minutes faster. My power was between 40 and 50 less than what my FTP was. Needless to say, I wasn’t the state champ.

After my performance at the TT I decided to take some time off from the bike. Instead, I got a few running workouts in and some swimming, but nothing too stressful. After a week I was back on the bike. All of my efforts were aerobic. I was trying to get out of the funk I was in.

Did it work? It’s too early to tell. The Draper Duathlon weekend was all I’ve done since then. In the 3 weeks leading up to it I put in 18 miles of running over 5 workouts. In the 4 weeks before that I had only run once for 2 miles. Needless to say, my run wasn’t where it needed to be for a longcourse duathlon (10k run, 43 mile bike, 10k run). Plus, it was the national championship race so a lot of people came in from out of state to try and qualify for worlds.

The first run was really boring. I was just trying to stay aerobic, run smooth, and not waste energy. I lost an eternity on the leaders, but as far as Okies go I was still in decent position.

The first lap of the bike felt good. I was passing quite a few people, including the 2 guys I thought were leading my age group. I took a Hammer Gel as soon as I got up to speed and both of my bottles were filled with Heed. This presented a problem. My stomach didn’t react well to something…probably a mix of running 10k and consuming too many calories too quickly on the bike. I only had Heed with me to drink, so my choices were to keep drinking calories and upsetting my stomach or to cut back on fluid to see if the stomach comes around. I chose somewhere in the middle and started dehydrating AND had stomach issues.

After the first lap I should have ditched my heed bottles and grabbed water, but I didn’t. I just kept on trucking. My power was lower than my goal, but the PE was right where I wanted it. I didn’t know how my legs would react to that first 10k of running, so I didn’t really have a good idea of what type of power I should put out on the bike.

On the third and final bike lap I got out of the saddle for a second and my legs cramped. The cramps went away when I sat back down, but my hamstrings were getting really tight and I couldn’t stretch them. My saddle must be a little high, because as my legs tightened up I could tell I was having to really reach for each pedal stroke and it really threw me off my game. There was a guy whom I almost caught that was out of sight again. I was losing quite a bit of time quickly.

My legs felt awful on the second run. I don’t think it was from going too hard on the bike. I think it was from the dehydration and poor bike fit. I came off the bike in about 7th position I think. I had visions of becoming a national champion and told myself I just had to keep running. I told Trey Cone the same thing when I saw him walking. He was in front of me and was having a great race but the heat was catching up to him. A few minutes later, I couldn’t heed my own advice and walked a few seconds. I picked it up again, but shortly after the turnaround I was caught by Bryan Journey, a long-time friend of mine who is in my age group. Knowing I wasn’t leading my age group anymore made me walk a little more. The funny thing is, I never was in the lead. The guy in 2nd overall was in my age group and he was flying. I never had a chance.

Anyway, on the second lap I got to run with Martha for a little while. She was on her first. It was nice to have somebody to run with but eventually I had to pick it up a bit to keep the next guy in my age group from catching me. I was in rough shape at the finish. I limped up to the ice bath and got in for a few seconds to try and drop my core temp. I wanted to see Sarah finish so I started heading to the finish line. Things started getting blurry and I thought I might pass out, so I got somebody to walk over to the finish line with me to make sure I didn’t fall over.

I ended up 15th overall, 3rd place Oklahoman, and 3rd in my age group. For the training I did, I can’t complain. I qualified for worlds, but whether or not I go depends on the location.

The next morning was brutal. I didn’t know how I would do another duathlon. At the end of the weekend I was going to have run as many miles as I had in the last 3 months combined. My hamstrings were worse than anything. I had won the overall award for the on-road/off-road duathlon the year before, so I had to suck it up and defend.

Things started feeling a bit better when the race started. I got in the lead pack of runners and we almost immediately shaved the field down to 4 guys. I was pretty confident I would be the fastest on the mountain bike so there was no reason to try to push the pace, but it was a moot point anyway since after 1.5 miles I was almost completely gassed. The 4th place finisher from last year went to the front and dropped the hammer. He was gone in no time. I wasn’t worried about him at all. He did the same thing last year, but then he took an eternity in transition and was riding some cheap, old bike. He lost a ton of time on the bike and I was able to beat him, even though he was a great runner.

At the water station I stopped to get a drink and the other 2 guys kept going. They were gone too. For the last part of the run I just tried to limit my losses and hoped that I would quickly catch the three guys in front of me.

I caught one after about 5 minutes. The next one ended up taking a wrong turn. He realized it quickly and got back on the trail, but not before I was able to go through. Since I didn’t see him, I wasn’t sure which guy it was. I figured it was the fast runner/cheap bike guy.

When I came through after the first lap I asked a volunteer what position I was in and they said “2nd by 2 minutes.” 2 minutes? Mike was in site earlier that lap. If he put two minutes on me, he was flying.

On the next lap they told me I was in 2nd by 10 seconds. When I got onto the fire road I saw the leader and realized it was the fast runner. As I got closer I realized he was no longer on a hoopty bike. He wasn’t taking bad lines either. In fact, he was going fast! I sat on him for about 5 minutes and told him how strong he was riding. He told me he had been training for this race ever since last year. I don’t know why I expect myself to get better but don’t assume everyone else is making big improvements too.

I knew at this point he had the race won. His run was way too fast for me. I eventually made the pass to try and distance myself from 3rd place.

The second run was painful. It was hot and muggy in the trails. Luckily it was only a 5k and I was able to keep running. Chris (the fast runner) passed me in the first kilometer or so. I ran the rest solo and finished about a minute in front of 3rd. He was closing on me pretty quickly though. I was happy to have the fastest bike split of the day. I only did 3 or 4 rides on my mountain bike this summer and people kept talking about some expert class rider who was going to tear it up.

All-in-all it was a good weekend. It gave me a good vision of where I am now and what I need to do in order to reach my Redman goal in September. The two big things are my long run and my bike fit. My swim has actually been coming around pretty good.

This weekend I’ll be racing the Sapulpa crit. That will be a good indicator as to whether or not my base training these past few weeks has helped or hurt my overall fitness. The way I was skating last night, I’m pretty sure it has helped.

Monday, July 12, 2010

May

In the past few weeks I’ve had a couple people ask what happened to my blog. The honest answer is that it’s a lot more difficult to gather the motivation to write about races that don’t go well. The other reasons are that I’ve been more busy than normal at work and I really didn’t think many people read it anyway.

I decided to do a quick recap on the racing since Joe Martin, but first go over what went wrong.

I’m pretty well convinced that I started my taper way too early for Joe Martin. As I’ve mentioned before, I followed the Joe Friel Training Bible for this year’s training plan. The fourth week of any period is a recovery week. That was followed by my 2 week “peak” period in which I probably went too easy thinking it was supposed to be more of a “taper.” The week leading into the race I kept the duration down but the intensity up to try and open up my legs, but I never felt great. Basically, I put in 4 weeks of lower-than-normal duration and probably didn’t get in enough intensity. It left me flat for race day.

After Joe Martin I took some more time off due to all of the hard racing. That, coupled with the 4 weeks before Joe Martin caused a pretty extreme drop in my chronic training load graph. I was expecting my peak to last from Joe Martin to Tulsa Tough, but since I ended up peaking early (because of my early taper) that peak was long gone.

Sand Springs Crit – 5/23/10

This was my first race after Joe Martin. Jeremy got in an early break with some fast riders so I sat back and watched for a while. Park Place ended up shelling Jeremy and the rest of the breakaway. Brad Huff ended up bridging into the breakaway, so that put 2 Park Place Guys and Huff off the front and the rest of the field was together. The break lapped us with 2 laps to go, which meant our lap count was changed to 1 lap to go. Mark Trimble went with about ¾ of a lap remaining but I didn’t react quickly enough. I spent to rest of the lap dangling about a bike length behind him. I think I was too busy watching the lead group in front of us to see who would win and wasn’t focused enough on my own finish. Waddell came around me in the sprint, so I ended up 6th on the day. I didn’t necessarily feel slow that day, but my PE was pretty high and my power numbers sucked. My NP for the hour crit was 285. That type of PE usually came with 315-325 watt races, but I blamed it on the heat that day.

Windy 100 Crit and Road Race – 5/28 – 5/29

This event had a big purse and a relatively small turnout. The crit course was flat and fast, which is very good for Jeremy and Brian. Jeremy got into a 4 man breakaway Waddell (Park Place), Godsey (Kenda), and Leigh (Tulsa Tough). He did a lot of work and ended up 4th on the day. I felt pretty good on the final lap and was in good position. I was sitting on the guy who won the field sprint. Then things started getting sketchy in the second to last corner and I sat up. I guess I didn’t have that killer instinct in me or something.

The road race was 100k on a mostly flat course with a decent amount of wind. I was sitting 2nd wheel when the majority of the field took a left when we should have went right. Since I was up front at the time it meant that when we turned around I was all the way at the back. There was a pretty nasty crosswind in this section. The few who made the correct turn hit the gas and put the field in the gutter. Eventually there was a gap and our entire team was behind it. We all started working, and after what seemed like an eternity we were able to put the race back together…mostly. Matt and Chad of Park Place stayed off the front with one of the Kenda guys. They worked over the Kenda guy and we caught him. The two Kenda guys did nothing but whine and complain the rest of the race. Joey and Jeremy helped set tempo at the front. I was feeling the heat and wasn’t good for much. I tried to help, but it wasn’t worth getting dropped for…especially when I knew the outcome.

If our team would have worked our butts off to pull the breakaway back, as soon as we got within 200 yards Waddell would have bridged up to them and at least one of the Kenda buys probably would have gone with. Our guys would be exhausted from the chase and wouldn’t have had the legs to make it across. Instead of racing for 3rd we’d be racing for 5th at best.

I felt alright going into the sprint, but then we missed another turn. We ended up going through the finish line the opposite direction, but a few of us sprinted anyway. They said it didn’t count and lined us all up and had us do a lap of the crit course to determine our finishing position. In the meantime, two guys that had been off the back of our group took the correct turn and got the 3rd and 4th spot. Joey was 4th, so that worked for us. My legs were toast after that last sprint. I ended up 4th in the field sprint (8th OA).

The team made some decent cash that weekend, but in hindsight it would have been beneficial for our team to do the Texas crits instead. Tulsa Tough proved to me that I needed to race some bigger crits to get out of weenie-mode.

I’ll have some writeups from Tulsa Tough, OKC Crit, the state TT, and the draper duathlons later this week.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

4 days of racing at the Joe Martin Stage Race

Day 1 of the Joe Martin Stage race consists of an uphill time trial at Devil's Den state park in NW Arkansas. It's only 2.5 miles long, but it's a beast of a climb at 6.8% grade -- just shy of what Mt Scott is. I had a solid TT last year as a cat3 and I know that my fitness is at a higher level now, so I had big expectations for myself.

It's interesting to see how different people approach this TT. Some guys were on full TT rigs with disc wheels, deep fronts, aero helmets, etc. Some hammer from the saddle. Some hammer out of the saddle. Some try and make their bikes as light as possible by taking off unnecessary things like bottle cages. The officials were actually weighing bikes to make sure the pro riders were within the 6.8 kg minimum weight regulated by the UCI. That's the first time I had ever seen that! They said they were going to weigh the Cat 1/2 bikes too, but right after the last pro they packed up the scale and let the rest of the riders "run what was brung." I didn't have anything to worry about anyway. My bike is over 3 pounds more than the minimum.

I opted out of the aero gear. I thought about doing an aero helmet, but it was almost 90 degrees on Thursday and I knew I wouldn't be going fast enough to get a good breeze on me, so the lack of ventilation might cause me to overheat. It wasn't worth the 1-2 seconds of time saving. I was using a Reynolds DV46UL from a teammate (thanks Judson) for my front wheel to save a little weight. That was balanced out by using my powertap rear wheel which is quite heavy. I wanted the powertap on their so that I wouldn't go out too hard.

My game-plan was to hold my target wattage through the first mile and then re-assess things from there to see if I could go harder for the second half. My target wattage was a few watts higher than my peak 10 min wattage which was set Feb 28 in a hard road race. When my TT got started I made the dumbest mistake possible by talking myself into believing I could go harder. For the first mile I was about 30-40 watts over my target. Of course, this took its toll on me and my wattage dropped under my target for a few minutes. I started mentally preparing myself for the 1k to go sign where I was going to pick the pace up a bit. Unfortunately I had my PT CPU set to time instead of distance (I'm an idiot) and this year they opted out of a 1k to go sign. I didn't realize it until I saw the 200m to go sign. At that point I jumped out of the saddle and hammered through the finish line, but my time was nowhere close to what I wanted. In fact, it was even slower than last year. Interestingly enough, I nailed my goal wattage. I was hoping that weather conditions where just a little off and everyone would be slow, but Will Gault proved that the weather was just fine as he dominated the course and went faster than he did last year with less watts.

Looking at the results, I finished right around the same time as the guys who finished close to me in the TT last year. My wattage was what I was shooting for, so I really can't say it was a bad TT for me. It really just means that the level of competition is high -- higher than I expected for sure.

My time put me in the top half of the 99 man field, but it wasn't the top 15 I was hoping for. I knew there was a lot of racing left, but at the same time I was still pretty let down by the result.

Day 2 of the stage was was a 110 mile road race with a bunch of climbing and descending. This was the first road race I had ever done where we were allowed to ride on the whole road. Usually there is a "yellow line rule" and you have to stay on the right side, but this race had a "rolling enclosure" of troopers that were clearing a path for us. In a 99 man field, that's a big deal because otherwise it is very difficult to move up if you ever find yourself at the back of the pack.

Honestly, I was still feeling pretty let down by myself from the TT result. Our team didn't have a single guy in the top 40, so the plan was to try and get a breakaway established today and win back some time. I had never raced on this course before, but from what people were saying, it would stay together until we hit the 9 mile long climb up Mt Gaylor. At that point it would split in half.

Our team had already faced some bad luck this weekend. It all started with Brad forgetting to pack the casserole his wife cooked. That was followed by Brad missing his start time in the TT. The luck was then put in Jeremy's hands when his rear derailleur hanger broke the morning of this race. Luckily SRAM had a neutral bike that he could ride. It was a decent specialized tarmac. It's not a Storck, but it's not bad. The luck got worse once we started the race and Jeremy realized the headset was very loose. I don't know how he was able to brake or descend on a bike when the fork was wobbling around so bad.

The bad luck hit me around mile 30. We were going up the first of many tough climbs and I heard a bad pop from my right shifter and I lost all the tension as I swung the lever through. I run SRAM shifters, so the one lever changes to an easier or harder gear depending on how far you swing the lever through. Now it wouldn't shift to an easier gear. I found Joey and he felt it while we were riding and said he thought I snapped a cable. I grabbed the cable on my downtube and it was still taught. I gave it a tug and it shifted gears. He clicked it a few times to see what it felt like and that put me all the way down into my hardest cog in the rear. Then I tried it again and the shift lever broke off in my hand. Great.

I moved back to the official follow vehicle and asked if they had any more neutral bikes behind us, but he said the SRAM car was with the pro pack so they didn't have anything.

I'm not a quitter. I decided that even if I could only shift at the crankset I was still going to ride the next 80 miles and finish off the day. There is a "time cut" rule for our race, so any rider that doesn't finish a stage or takes longer than 115% of the winning time isn't allowed to ride the rest of the stages. I knew that I had to hang onto this group as long as possible in order to be allowed to finish off the weekend.

Joey, the bike genius of our team, told me to try loosening the barrel adjusters on my frame to add enough cable tension to bring it up a few cogs in the rear. I got it up to my 14. If it was a flat race, keeping it in the 14 would have been fine. Unfortunately there were fast sections where I was almost completely spun out of the 14 and climbs where the 14 wasn't nearly enough. On the steeper climbs I would hold the cable on my down tube with one hand to shift up a few gears and basically climb one-handed. It must have looked ridiculous. I made sure to move up near the front of the pack going into the climb because I figured I'd lose some time and end up in the back. It worked well up until mile 75 or so when we hit Mt Gaylor.

This is where I let my brain screw my body over. I kept wishing that the group would split on the climb and the lead group would go hammer by themselves and I would just sit in the chase group and get a pack finish so I could try again the next day.

I didn't have the "give it all you have to win the race" attitude I normally have. Sure enough, the group split about 3 or 4 guys in front of where I was. Instead of dropping the hammer and catching the front group I just sat there and watched everyone ride away. It's the worst feeling in racing to just watch a group ride away from you.

I was in a small group with Evan and few other guys at this point and the biggest group was behind us. We worked for a while and caught some other guys that got popped, but eventually we were swallowed up by the big group. With about 5-10 miles to go the pace really slowed down in a windy section. I think this was where our group lost the most time. Evan attacked with about 1k to go.

A lot of races give the same finishing time to big groups coming through the line, even if there are small gaps in the field. Last year, this race gave different times to people when there were pretty small gaps. Evan was just a few seconds ahead of me in the GC, so I didn't want him to get more time on me. I followed along with a few other guys, and then sprinted up the final climb in the only gear I had. The preliminary results had me gapping a good chunk of the field, but I guess people protested because by the next day all those time gaps were removed and I lost some more GC spots.

The results were really bad. They didn't even have the race winners right. Two of my teammates finished about 7-10 minutes behind me and Joey but the times showed that they came in with the lead group. Then the officials "fixed" it but put them 40 minutes slower than what they actually did. This caused them to initially be time cut on the time cut list (over 115% back from the race winner) but it was finally fixed the next day.

Even though I got dropped on the climb, I still had a good day. I proved to myself that I was tough. It really helped me get over the whole TT thing.

After the race I went to the SRAM support car to see if they had any extra shifters I could use. They told me they did and that it would be covered under warranty so the repair wouldn't cost me a thing. They told me to go back in an hour and a half and they would replace it for me. I did, and they told me this time to go back to my hotel, eat, shower, and then come back to their hotel and call them. I did this, but at that point it was 9:00 pm. I called them and he said "Now? It's way too late. Come to the USAC time trial in the morning and we'll do it then."

I couldn't argue because I was getting a free shifter, so I agreed. It was tough to sleep that night though. The next morning I drove 45 minutes to the TT site. Sure enough, they guy forgot the shifter. The other SRAM car had it. I had to drive back to Fayetteville and get it from the other guy. He was working on some bikes for the pro women. They started before I did, so they took priority. Finally, he put a brand new shifter on my bike at no cost. How cool is that!

Day 3

Everyone said day 3’s course is tougher than day 2, but I have to disagree. Other than one climb that we had to do 3 times, the course really isn’t that tough. There is a pretty sketchy right hand turn at the bottom of a steep hill. If you’re sitting in the back, which I was, you almost have to come to a complete stop to avoid running over the guys in front of you, and then you have to chase pretty hard to catch on again.

There were a few breakaway attempts, but nothing that got me too worried. One guy managed to stay off the front solo for about 70 miles I would guess. It was insane. We averaged 25mph and we weren’t catching him. I was hoping he would get the win because he deserved it with that effort.

I was ready to make a move on the big climb on the final lap. A group of about 6 or 7 of us put a gap on the main field. A guy flipped over his bars on the climb and blocked a good bit of the road, so I thought our break would have a good chance to establish itself. I was wrong. Everything came back together right after the feedzone.

As soon as the group got back together the big teams got back into chase mode. With just a few miles to go they caught the solo rider and everyone started moving around and getting anxious for the field sprint. I took a peak up the right side and could have moved up to the front on the overpass, but I honestly didn’t want any part of that sprint. The final section is kind of downhill and very fast, even with a headwind. Time bonuses are only given out to the top 3, and if you’ve seen my sprint you should realize that I wouldn’t be getting any of those. A top 10 finish just wasn’t worth the risk of eating asphalt at 40mph, especially when there would be plenty of asphalt to eat Sunday at the crit.

Day 4

If you’ve read any other blogs about Joe Martin this year, you already know that the crit course, which was already fast and technical, was made even more technical by adding some more turns. A few of the new turns are off camber, which basically means as you turn your bike gets sucked to the outside toward the curb. It’s pretty deceiving and you really need to watch your speed.

The other new turn is at the bottom of a hill and recently had a trench dug out and filled in right in the center of the turn. There was about a 2 foot wide smooth line through the turn and haybails were stacked going into the turn so that you couldn’t see the smooth line until you already commit.

I was just heading out onto the course for a warmup lap when one of the pro riders passed me holding his arm in that “I broke my collarbone” manor. That’s never what you want to see right before a race. When I finished my warmup lap I realized all of the other guys in my race were already on the line…20 minutes early. Instead of standing in the back I kept loose and used the restroom. When it was finally time to go I lined up on the outside and had a pretty decent start considering the circumstances.

I heard a wreck close behind me on the first lap. It was in the off-camber sketchy corner. Joey and Jeremy were behind the wreck so they got gapped. For the next few laps I moved up a couple positions when I could, but for some reason I eventually stopped moving up before I was in the position I needed to be in. I knew where to move up, and I knew I had to, but I didn’t. It didn’t feel like I was working all that hard, but then like a lightswitch my legs went out on the climb. About 30 seconds later I was fine, but I couldn’t catch up. I picked up a few stragglers and finished off the race. The lead group put a minute on us by the end of the race, but we never got caught by the big chase group.

I ended up 26th GC. That’s far away from my goal, but the level of competition was a lot higher than I expected. For the first big race for our team, I really can’t be disappointed. 3 of our guys finished in the top half of the field for the GC, even with all the bad luck we had. If nothing else, it was a great weekend of training and preparation for the Windy 100, Tulsa Tough, etc.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Bazaar Road Race

Bazaar Road Race –
The Bazaar Road Race was the day after I put in a long and hard effort at the Red Bud. Back-to-back days like this will get me prepared for Joe Martin…I hope.

If you haven’t done Bazaar, it’s a rather interesting layout in a rather uninteresting section of Kansas. There are more hills than you get in most of Kansas, but it’s not really a hilly race. Crosswinds are usually a big factor, but we had almost a direct headwind one direction and direct tailwind the other. The course goes south for about 15 miles and then you turn around a cone on a narrow 2-lane road. Then you ride about 23 miles north and turn around another cone, and then you finish where you started. Most races don’t have a cone turn-around.

Our team raced the race in accordance with what the flyer stated. It had the Men Cat1 and Cat2 starting at the same time as the Men Cat3, but the prize money and places were listed separately. Unfortunately, this is not how the event was scored. Instead, they paid out the top 5 overall and gave an additional bonus to any cat3 riders that were in the top 5. Prize money doesn’t really matter to me. It’s a nice bonus, but if we would have known how they were just doing overall placements we would have raced it a lot different and I think we would have had better results.

Anyway…on to the race:

Something wasn’t right from the start. I just had a bad feeling about something. It started when we were on the starting line. An old man came through on his tractor yelling at officials that we shouldn’t be blocking his road (we weren’t blocking it – he had plenty of room to drive through). This happened one other time at the Chicago Inline Marathon a few years ago. The old man came back and crashed into the metal scaffolding over the finish line. He knocked it over and it landed on a few skaters which sent them to the hospital.

Just as we started the tractor came barreling up behind us…well, as “barreling” as a big tractor can go I guess. I was in the back and saw him coming up behind and looked at the guy next to me and asked if he thought we were going to get run down. I really didn’t know the intent of the old man, but luckily he didn’t hit anyone.

None of the teams wanted to work into the headwind. I think we were all waiting to throw it down in the tailwind/crosswind section to try to blow the field up. So, we had about a 10 mile easy warm-up. Finally Tulsa Tough threw a couple attacks and Jay Blankenship got a pretty good gap on the field. He was going into the headwind, so I didn’t mind leaving him out there for a while. We were going so slow the masters group caught our before the first cone. Brian was in front of the masters group at the cone, so he had a big lead on our group coming out. You literally have to slow down to a near stop to turn that tight and then immediately accelerate up to almost 40mph with the tailwind. If you’re in the back going into that turn, you’re going to be down by 15 seconds coming out.

Since Brian still had a gap and Tulsa was off the front, Colavita had to do some work. Once they caught Brian and he got back on my wheel I got up front and pushed the pace for a minute or so. We had a group of 4 split off, but I don’t think the other guys realized it as they didn’t pull through with much gusto. We were really going fast. Ziegler ran out of gears (I don’t think he had an 11) so we actually had to slow up a tad to keep him from spinning out. Eventually the group of 4 became 6. Three of the six were Undiscovered (two cat 2s and a cat3), one was Jay from Tulsa tough (cat 1), one was a cat 3 from specs (my old skating teammate Ryan who now skates for Bont), and a cat3 from VeloTek.

We pushed the pace for a while and got a pretty solid gap. A few guys were skipping pulls and the rotation wasn’t very smooth, but we kept pulling away. The Velotek guy wasn’t pulling through so I let Ryan (specs) and Ziegler get a gap on me. We thought that the cat3s were scored separate, so that’s why we really didn’t mind seeing two 3s go up the road, especially when one was on our team. It was probably too early for me to start those kinds of moves, but the Velotek guy got the point and pulled the other two guys back.

We all started cooperating again for a little while, but then it got sloppy, guys were skipping pulls, and somehow we got pulled back. I should have been more aware, because the break was really ideal for our team. 3 of the 4 guys we brought with us were in the break of 6. There’s no way we should have lost that.

The break got caught and I was in bad position for about a second. At that moment, Brian and Jay went again with another Velotek 3.

I sat on colavita and waited for them to bridge/chase but it never happened. I tried a couple times but Ryan was on my wheel EVERY time I attacked. Again, since I thought the Cat3s were scored separately I didn’t want to pull Ryan along with me without a Cat3 from my team. Especially since I knew I had a good chance to outsprint the other cat1/2 guys in the field.

In the lead break, Brian kept attacking the cat 3 Velotek guy to drop him so that the cat 3 win (which didn’t actually exist) could go to our team. He and Jay were also keeping it pretty slow in hopes that either Jay’s teammate Cailean or I would bridge up.

We were getting to a longish climb with about 10 miles to go and I was ready to hit it hard, hoping that I could finally get away with Ziegler instead of Ryan. Colavita had just started pulling hard coming to the base of the climb when I heard a horrible noise.

I don’t know what came first, the sound of an explosion or the skidding car tires. It was immediately followed by yelling. I looked back and saw a red car in the ditch on the opposite side of the road. People were screaming that “he got hit.”

When something like that happens, it’s not about the race anymore. Local racers are a lot like family. We spend every weekend together. We train together during the week. It’s a tight community. Just about everyone turned around to make sure he was alright before anyone even mentioned the words “neutralize the race.” I kept praying that whoever got hit was ok.

It could have been a lot worse. When I got back there Jack was already sitting on the side of the road. He was banged up, but he was completely coherent and I didn’t see any serious bleeding. Luckily a couple people had cell phones and called 911. The response time was very quick, especially since the race in really in the middle of nowhere.

The girl that hit him was probably in her 20s. She was just standing there not saying a thing. I didn’t talk to her, but no I wish I would have just to see if she seemed intoxicated. From what I heard after the race, she almost ran down another pack of cyclists earlier and 911 was already called twice that day to report her driving recklessly on the race course.

It was horrible, but it could have been so much worse. She could have easily taken out the whole group or killed someone. I didn’t bother looking at Jack’s bike, but somebody said the whole rear triangle was smashed and his back wheel crushed. That was the explosion. If you’ve never heard carbon snap, it’s not a pretty sound.

Once everyone was ready to ride again we got back on the road. For a while Cailean and I just set a steady tempo at the front. Eventually we did start racing again. By this time, the breakaway had shelled the cat3 Velotek guy, but we were stopped for about 5 minutes, so even though they were riding easy there was no way we could have caught them.

Ziegler was between the 3 man break and the main field I was in. With 1 mile to go, Ryan Westrup got up front and picked up the pace. I should have followed him, but it was early to be sitting 2nd wheel. I got blocked in on the inside when the actual sprint started. I had to give up about 4 or 5 spots in order to get to a position where I could move up. I was only focused on the other cat1/2 guys in the field at first. Once I knew I had them, my focus was on winning the field sprint, just for the practice. Ryan (specs) is a great sprinter, and even though I just about caught him I couldn’t come around him. We did put some good distance on the rest of the field, so I was happy with the effort, even if he did beat me.

I thought I would be considered 3rd for the p/1/2 race, but since they scored everyone together it was 6th. Parks finished 2nd overall. Ziegler was 4th overall but 2nd for the Cat3s.

RPE was pretty high compared to my numbers. I’ll blame that on Redbud. I’m ready for an easy day on the TT bike today.

Fire Hill Crit #1

It’s already been a few days since Fire Hill so my memory of the specific events isn’t that great. Jeremy made a very early move. There were about 3 guys in the break if I remember correctly, but Jeremy rode them off and put a big gap on the field. Brian attacked the field and got a nice gap, but wasn’t able to get all the way up to Jeremy before the pack started chasing. I think DNA realized that we had two guys off the front so they really picked up the pace up front and reeled Brian back in. Somewhere around this time Mark Trimble crashed. He was able to get up and finish the race, but I heard yesterday that he had a pretty serious collarbone injury. Everyone from Undiscovered is praying that he has a quick and painless recovery.

There were a couple more attacks before the end of the race, but Jeremy kept putting time on the rest of the field. With two laps to go I was able to get off the front. I held onto it for 2nd place and Joey won the field sprint taking 3rd place. Team Undiscovered swept the podium.

NWA Spring Classic

As you move through the cycling categories, the dynamic of racing changes significantly. In the Category 5 races there is usually a substantial difference between the best guy and the average guy, so usually the most fit guy wins. You see that in the category 4s as well, but to a slightly lesser extent. There is usually a guy or two who can just ride away from the field. The rest of the guys all wait for the field sprint, and the best sprinter wins. In the 3's, the margin of difference between riders is quite a bit smaller. You typically (although there have been some exceptions in out region recently) don't see guys able to just ride away from everyone, because the entire field is comprised of pretty fit guys. To succeed as a 3 you need more of a total package of aerobic endurance, a decent sprint, and some intelligence.

Obviously I'm not an expert, but in my short time so far as a 2 I've picked up on some pretty obvious needs to succeed. First of all, 99% of the guys riding in the 2s are fit. It doesn't matter if you're the strongest guy that shows up that day, you're not going to just ride people off your wheel and win solo like you might see in some of the other races. What separates the guys who consistently finish well with the guys who don't seems to be experience and intelligence.

When it comes to experience, out team is simply outgunned. We've been racing guys with more years of racing than our entire 5 man squad combined. That doesn't mean we can't win or won't win. I think our day will come very soon. It means that we need to take every race as a learning experience and really watch the guys who are winning to see what makes them so good.

By our teams performance at North West Arkansas (NWA) Spring Classic, I think it was apparent to a lot of guys that we we've been doing just that. As a team, I think this was our best race yet. There were only 3 breakaways that ever had a chance.

The first one was a 4 man breakaway that Jeremy got in. It had representation from some strong teams, so it only left a few individuals to pull it back in. Unfortunately, those few individuals got organized and brought the break back.

A short time later, Jeremy dropped his chain before the climb. He is unbelievably strong on this course, so losing him would have been a really big loss. Fortunately he managed to get it back on and was able to chase his way back up to the field. I dropped back to make sure he would get up to the group if they decided to hammer it, but luckily it stayed slow long enough for him to get back in and recover.

The next breakaway got a little gap and nobody from our team got up there. Parks put in a great effort to bridge into the break with me on his wheel. That made it 2 Undiscovered riders, 2 Tulsa Tough Riders, a BMC Walmart rider, and a DNA rider. They were all guys that specialize in winning races from breakaways, so it was a great group to be in. Unfortunately Mercy and Park Place didn't have guys with us, so after approximately 7 or 8 miles they pulled us back.

At that point we were probably about 15 miles from the finish. Brian and I were completely spent from working in the breakaway. Jeremy was still in the front group, but he had to make a hard solo effort to catch on, so he was tired too. At the exact moment that the pack was the most tired it has been, the winning move was made. Two guys (one of them was the guy who smoked me in the TT the day prior) jumped and nobody reacted. I probably hesitated 1 second before I hit it. The pack didn't go with me. I was in no-mans land. I started to catch, but the two guys kicked it up one more gear and I just didn't have the legs to do anything. Two other guys and I tried to work together to bring the two of them back again, but it was no use.

Brian cramped on the final lap and had to pull out. On the final climb, Jeremy last a little time. I probably had about a 3 or 4 seconds gap to make up. I got it closed again. There were now 2 off the front and 10 in the lead group. Jeremy persevered and made it back up to our group. About 4 other guys did too. Jeremy wanted me on his wheel for the sprint, but I knew my legs were shot. Even with a perfect leadout I didn't think I'd be able to come around him. Instead, I got up front. He sat 3rd wheel. With about 1k to go I slowly started to pick up the pace. At 500m to go I was going to gun it and hopefully get Jeremy up within 150m to sprint for 3rd. Unfortunately, the attack came really early and hard from the back. MY legs didn't have one more jump in them, so I sat up and limped across the line in 17th. Jeremy got boxed in and ended up 16th.

It was the first race of the season where our cat2 team hasn't been in the top 10, but it wasn't really a defeat. These March races aren't about winning...even though we'd obviously love to win some. It's about building our fitness, building our team, and getting race experience. It wasn't an easy race. It was a race that pushed us all to our limit, and that's how we're going to get faster. We have a better feel for each other's strengths and weaknesses, so there will be plenty to work on before the next race

Sunday, March 28, 2010

OKC Velo TT

Saturday was my first TT of the season. This post will be short because there is only so much to talk about regarding the TT itself -- It was hard. I tried to go fast. There you go...there is the race report.

Instead of focusing on the race itself, I decided I'd write a bit about the preparation I go through for an event like this.

Last week I inherited Sarah's old Cervelo P2SL when she upgraded to a P3C. My first step was to get a baseline fit. I was able to get a decent fit on my stationary trainer, but the real test was to get it out on the road. It took me up until the night before the race to get a fit I actually liked, although I'm not in love with it. I need to find a longer stem before the next TT.

Most of my time trials this year will be in the 8-9 mile range, so comfort definitely matters less to me than aerodynamics and power. I used my powertap, a stopwatch, and some cool software to help me figure out what looks fast as opposed to what IS fast.

I didn't have a chance to do an all-out practice TT, so I really didn't know how to gauge my power for the event. I decided to shoot for 10% less than my 20 min power on my roadbike. I ended up going quite a bit harder than that, but it felt right to go that hard. That's good news for the bike fit. Apparently it's powerful.

I ended up 2nd in the p/1/2/3 division, which was good enough for the 3rd fastest solo time of the day. I owe a lot of that to the powertap. I know that if I didn't have a little yellow box telling me to take it easy for the first 5 minutes, I would have blown up early and limped across the line.

The downside is, first place murdered me. His name is Will Gault. He's a very talented rider, so the fact that he beat me doesn't phase me. The fact that he beat me as bad as he did means that I need to make some pretty major changes to my bike in order to come close to him. My power alone won't get me there.

Joey finished just a few seconds slower than me, so that put 2 of us on the p/1/2/3 podium. He looked great on his TT bike. He hasn't been on that bike very much either, so we both will have a lot of room to grow.

Les Banta won his division. If you haven't seen his Giant TT bike, you need to check it out. It looks awesome, and with his motor it moves fast! Ryan Ellis and Dustin Sallee put down great times in the largest division of the day.

Our women's team took the top 4 spots. Very impressive! They had the 2nd largest field of the day. Sarah took 2nd place at her first TT ever on her new bike.

Tomorrow I'll have a write-up for NWA Spring Classic. I'm too tired to type all that tonight.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Salt Creek

My legs were shot going into Salt Creek. The effort on Saturday tore me up pretty good. It seems like a pretty good sign that I need more miles in my legs before Joe Martin.

The field included virtually all the heavy hitters from Cow Skin, plus Brad Huff and a few other fresh faces. Seeing a great bike handler like Brad zig and zag through guys in the field before shooting off the front is quite an experience. There were a few early moves but nothing substantial. It appeared as though a lot of guys were just as tired after Cow Skin as I was.

I was never very comfortable on the downhill sweeping left turn. It was rough, covered in gravel, and fast. For the first few laps I moved to the back in order to stay out of everyone's way. The wind was blowing in such a way that any gap would almost automatically get closed up at the bottom and it was easy to move into better position at just about any part of the course.

I took a few solo digs to see if the field would counter attack and help get a few of our guys off the front, but it didn't work. Joey Mesa went on a solo move and got quite the gap on the field. I told the rest of the team that I would jump when Joey was caught and we would just keep trying to have a guy off the front until the winning break got away.

It never came to that. Brad Huff and some others attacked. Joey, who was a good distance up the road from the main field still, was ready for them and he got in their group. The main pack got pretty close to the break at one point, which is when I should have crossed the gap. I honestly was still thinking that the break would get caught and that effort would be wasted. Plus I don't know if I had the legs for it. I think a few other guys were able to bridge into Joey's group, but I missed out on all the opportunities for a free ride.

Joey did a great job. The break included at least 10 of the fastest guys in the race and they kept trying to shell each other the entire time. Eventually a group of 3 got away from the rest of the break. Joey ended up finishing strong. That is 3 top 10 finishes in the first 3 p/1/2 races of the season for Undiscovered.

A group of about 6 got away from our group. We were racing for spots outside of the money, which is actually pretty fun this time of year because you have nothing to lose. It's all just about gaining fitness and experience. Brad Cox got away in a group of 6 or so. With a lap and a half to go his rear tire started going flat. I tried to bridge to their breakaway, but got their just as the guys were shutting it down. I decided to keep my momentum going to see how long I could hold the group off, so I just went on by them on one of the short climbs. I got caught with a little over 1k to go. I hung on as long as I could, but the solo effort blew me up. I think I ended up about 6th in the field sprint.

Total Time - 1:29:34
Time Not Pedaling - 29 minutes
Average Power - 241
Normalized Power - 297

My next race will be NWA Spring Classic. It should be a good race for our team. After that I'll be staying local until Joe Martin. Between skating and cycling last year it felt like I was sleeping in hotels as often as I was sleeping at home. I love racing, but I hate being away from my wife every weekend. It looks like there are a couple new races on the calendar for Oklahoma this spring, so it looks like I'll be able to race without traveling as much as last season.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Cow Skin RR

The Cowskin Road Race takes place in Mannford, OK, a small town east of Tulsa. This race was a special one for our team, because this marked the first time that all 5 of our Category 2 racers were in a race together.

The quality of riders was strong. Tradewind Energy had 3 guys in the race, including former world champ Steve Tilfod and former Jelly Belly pro Brian Jensen. Park Place Lexus had at least 4 riders. Tulsa Tough had probably had the most riders in the field, but I’m not sure how many.

The first few laps were pretty tame. I hung out near that back while my 4 teammates patrolled the front to make sure we would have a guy in any early breakaway. The big teams were letting 2 guys hang just off the front. Brian tried to bridge up to their group, but the field didn’t let him go.

The details are a little blurry from here because things happened quickly, but I think Chad Cagle of Park Place Lexus was the first to attack. Brian Jenson jumped and I went with him, with Jason Waddell on my wheel. The four of us caught the break and kept pressing on. Our lead on the field was small for a while, but we were only going at about 80%. It was an ideal breakaway for me to be in because the two toughest teams were up there so if anybody was going to pull us back it would have to be Tulsa or BMC.

I didn’t understand it at the time, but Jason kept telling Chad to take it easy to see what the field would do. We could have opened up the gap, but Jason was set on holding our pace. Come to find out, I think he was waiting for another teammate to bridge, because a short time later his teammate and Steve Tilford made it into our field. Great thinking by the Park Place guys. Now they had the break stacked. These are the kinds of things I need to keep picking up on. It’s what makes for a strong team. I think knowledge is even more important than fitness in most cases. At this point, the hammer was dropped.

The breakaway situation went from ideal to frightening. When it was 4 guys I knew I could hang. Now Park Place had 3 guys in the break and Tradewind had 2. I was definitely the least experienced guy in the break, the only guy who didn’t have a teammate there, and possibly the weakest as well.

It didn’t take long for 2 of the Park Place guys to start barking at me. I never skipped a pull, but I was only pulling through at about 80% and was getting off the front as quickly as I could. I wasn’t getting in the way. I wasn’t slowing down the break. I was just “racing my race” as I was told to do by a member of the break earlier.

First they told me my pulls needed to be longer. I laughed to myself, because I knew there was nothing they could do to make me pull longer. Then the next time I got to the front and pulled off one of the guys reached up and started pushing me forward. I guess that’s one way to keep me up there longer.

About 2 minutes later the guy who was griping at me got caught up in the rear derailleur of the guy who was pushing me. We were probably doing between 35-40 mph but miraculously nobody went down. I’ve had a mishap in a breakaway before, and it really sucks. I don’t wish stuff like that upon anyone obviously, but at the same time it really helped my chances in the breakaway. Thank goodness nobody got hurt though. It seriously could have been bad. Now it was just Jensen and TIlford from Tradewind and then Waddell and I.

My favorite conversation in the race took place here:
Waddell: “Hey Steve. Give me a second” (Jason was skipping a pull to recover from a hard effort)
Tilford: “ For a minute I thought you meant second place. That would be quite the gift.”

I knew that the steady pace wouldn’t last long, and with 3 laps (15 miles) to go, Jenson jumped. I got on his wheel quick, but my legs were pretty heavy. He slowed down and then Tilford attacked. I just let him go. I knew that they would keep taking turns until I blew up, so I figured I would settle for 2nd at best. It was that or end up back in the chase pack. Well, Jenson attacked and got up to Tilford. I was back with Waddell. Now I was in place to get 3rd at best. Jason and I kept it smooth and just made sure we wouldn’t get caught. With about 1k to go I told Jason we should drag race it out for kicks. He gave me the inside line. We joked about how much it would suck to wreck each other in the last couple hundred meters. He jumped at 150m to go. I couldn’t match his acceleration and he pulled a couple bike lengths on me quick.

I ended up 4th. That’s two top 5s in my first two pro/1/2 races of the season. More importantly, I got some great power data to show me where I’m strong and weak so that I keep improving through the season. Jeremy and Joey came in with the main field. We were all stoked about how the team rode.

Power Info:
28 minutes were spent not pedaling
Normalized power for the entire race (2:42): 291
Avg watts – 264
2hr power – 276
25.5 minutes spend in the supra-max zone
Max speed – 43mph

Monday, March 1, 2010

Froze Toes 2010

I picked Froze Toes as my season opener for multiple reasons. The first reason was that I didn’t want to race any earlier than the last week of February. My speed skating season extends until the middle of November and I need a mental break from all the traveling. Reason number 2 was that I wanted to have a race in my legs before the Salty Cow Extravaganza, which falls on the first weekend in March this year. These two reasons alone narrowed my choices down to Lago Vista or Froze Toes.

If I chose Lago, Brian Parks would have been my only teammate in the race. If I chose Froze Toes I would have Brian Parks, Bryan Zieglar and to some extent Adam Miller, a very talented cyclist from MO that skates on the same inline team as me. He rides for a different team, but I still consider him an ally.

When we picked Froze Toes, we assumed that Lago Vista would be a P/1/2 race. My year is setup so that these early season races are nothing more than a gauge to see where my fitness level is. I have no desire to attempt going toe to toe with the Kelly Benefits team, or whichever domestic pros/peaked Cat 1 Texans show up. The outcome of the race would have told me what I already know – I’m not in peak form in February. If I was, I’d be worried.

I’ll admit, Lago became pretty tempting when I found out it was a 2/3 field. I think Undiscovered could have had a great finish if we played our cards right. In the end, debating our fitness level to what went on in Texas this weekend is all pointless because we chose Missouri instead, and we’ll get to compare stem sizes this weekend at the Salty Cow. I ride a 120. That's a joke...but in all seriousness, I feel as though some other members of my team are stronger than I am, and I'm really looking forward to racing with/working for them this season.

Froze Toes had a larger field than what I expected. We signed up an hour before registration closed, and 61 people had already signed up before us. Zieglar had to cancel at the last minute, so Brian the Shark Parks and I were the only two Undiscovered riders there.

One thing I enjoyed about racing in MO is that I really don’t know who is strong. In Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and Arkansas I know most of the people I need to watch. Here, I had to make judgment calls on appearance and bike handling skill…oh and colors. It was tough for Brad Huff to stay under the radar in his Jelly Belly kit, and nearly as hard to miss Andy Chocha wearing his Armed Forces team colors.

The first hour was full of sketchy riding. I can’t count how many near wrecks I saw. My money says a lot of those guys spent the winter on their trainers. I know when I ride my trainer for a week straight and go back out on the road it takes me a few minutes to get used to holding a straight line. That’s what about half the field looked like…but multiplied by 10.

I went up front for a short time to get away from the bad bike handling, but it was just as ugly up there. The course was flat and the guys up front weren’t letting anybody get away, so I hung out in the rear for a while and chatted it up with some other guys. Brian stayed close to the front and made sure nothing got too far up the road without one of us there. He went off the front for a little while to see how the legs felt. The field picked up the pace but nobody would shoot up to him, so he went back into the field knowing that his legs felt good for a move a bit later in the race.

Average power of the first hour was only 206 watts. I think the only time I had to get above threshold was when some guys up front put it in the gutter in a crosswind section. I had to move up in the wind in order to make sure I didn’t get caught behind a gap. That was the first effort, and the legs felt good.

About 25 miles into the race I was talking to the Cannondale rep for Oklahoma (he races out of MO) and he said this race never ends in a field sprint and will probably explode soon. At about mile 30 we hit some crosswind, and I’d say about 20 guys disappeared.

Brian was with the group at this point, but put a nasty gash in his tubular and had to pull out.

Shortly after, a group of 7 guys went up the road. The pack was working pretty hard to catch them, so I wasn’t too worried. Then I noticed the big guys up front starting to lose their motivation. Andy Chocha put his head down like he was done pulling and everyone kind of sat up. I knew that if something didn’t happen right now, we’d never see those 7 guys again.

Just as I thought that, I see this big guy (probably 6’2, 190+ lbs) from Pennsylvania come weaving through the field. I watched him attack off the front earlier in the race and the dude looked like a monster. I latched onto his wheel, jumped with him, and the two of us were clear. Eleven minutes later, after averaging 357 watts, we were in the break. There were a couple scary moments where the break started to pull away from us, but in the end we closed it. While we were bridging, one guy popped off the lead group, so including ourselves it was now an 8 man break with 20 miles or so to go

We worked together well for a while. With about 10 miles to go, David Henderson, last year’s winner, attacked the break. It all came back together and I pleaded that we work together a little while longer. We didn’t know our time gaps, so it was no time to get sloppy. One guy flatted so now the break was down to 7.

With about 4 miles to go, people stopped pulling. That’s about what I expected. Now up until this point, I was riding a really patient race. Usually I burn about 50 matches trying to get away, but in this race I kept my cool, watched the race unfold, and made the right moves at the right time to get myself to the end in the breakaway.

I threw all of that away with about 1.5 miles to go when I decided to jump. In retrospect it was a bad move, but at the time it seemed smart. I knew there were still strong guys in the main field, and I definitely didn’t want to get caught. The guys in the break looked pretty tired and I was feeling fresh. I opened the gap quick and then kept it smooth. I was holding back because I knew a counter would come. I planned on jumping on the back, but only two guys went. One was David Henderson and the other was from Velotek. The rest of the guys basically just watched 1st and 2nd go up the road, and with about 150m to go, two came around me. The last few minutes of the race were recorded with an on-bike camera and posted on youtube. My attack is around 4:00 into the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDduesY3nzQ&feature=player_embedded

All-in-all, I was happy with 5th place. With the quality of field that was there (and with the amount of sketchy riders) I would have been pleased with a pack finish as long as I didn’t crash, so 5th was fine. Looking at my numbers from my jump, it would be interesting to see how the sprint would have played out. My skating teammate took 9th. I think one guy went off solo between our break and the main field, and Adam won the field sprint.

It’s nice to have this power data to look back on. It’s interesting how the specific training I’ve been doing is so similar to these race efforts. This is my first cycling season with a training plan and scheduled workouts, and I can already tell that my fitness will be at a new level come May.

Total Time: 2:26
Average Speed: 25.5 (the first lap was SLOW)
Distance: 62 miles
Average Watts – 231, including rolling back to my car
Normalized power – 273, including rolling back to my car
Time Spent Coasting – 29 min! That’s 20% of the race!
Time Spent above threshold – 41:02