cycling in seattle

I Won The Ballard Crit - Again!!

2011-08-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

Last year I won my first race ever, The Ballard Crit, Category 4/5's.

This year I won my second race ever, The Ballard Crit Cat 3's!!

After upgrading last year, being hit by a car in December, and getting dropped in my first races this year, it was an extremely rough start to the season.

But with determination and training the legs came back around, and I could tell that fitness was close to where it was before.

The Race

Rob & I rode down from Capitol Hill, taking our time and not wanting to waste an ounce of effort. We got to Ballard with tons of time to spare, and watched some of the earlier races and got ready for ours. Changed into my skinsuit in an alley, talked with the team, warmed up, and tried not to let the nerves take over. It is the Ballard Crit after all..

We rolled around on side streets for 10 minutes as a warm-up, pretty weak - but I felt nice and loose and ready to race! After some decent results at Seward Park lately I figured I could do something useful in this race, and had the team riding for me so I was really hoping to make their work worth it.

We (Recycled Cycles/Raleigh Racing) had five guys in the cat 3 race: me, Spoonie, Steve, Jeff, and Nick. So with four of them putting in work so that I could rest in the pack, it was great fun watching Steven win primes, Spoonie go off the front and attack for a few laps, Steve attacking at will, etc. All of that was in hopes that our competitors would then have to chase down those attacks and primes. Make them work that much harder. (and if the attacks stuck, then it was still a win for the team)

In the cat 3's the main difference is that teams try to work together, and actually get stuff done more often. Trying to organize a team in a crit is tough, but with team mates ready to sacrifice their race for yours, it does work out.

Spoonie & Steve on the front, stringing it out: (that means we're going fast)

With about 3 or 4 laps to go, I got on the front and was concerned that we'd lost control of the race; if we ever had control is of course debatable, but now was the time that it really mattered. I'd been resting up the whole race, so I had a little to spare even though I was saving most of it for the end.

Two to go, and I'm still on the front, trying to keep the pace up - but not going fast enough. Don't want anyone to come around, unless it was a team mate..

Luckily a team mate came to the rescue - Spoonie got on the front and strung it out, with me sitting 5th wheel ready to pounce! Ideally I would have been right on his wheel, but that might have been too predictable in the end.

What you can't see in any of the photos or video of the race is how I won it - we held the formation above on the back straight, which had a tailwind leading into the 3rd corner. And since it was a tailwind my plan all along was to attack in this section on the last lap, knowing that the strong tailwind would make it so that nobody had much of a draft, and that we'd all have to work the same. (meaning if someone is behind you, they aren't getting much draft from you)

As we straightened out from corner two, I was in 5th wheel and happy that Spoonie was keeping the pace up - must've been around 30 mph at least, though I didn't use any data during this race so I have no idea!

I got the feeling everyone was just waiting for the exit of corner four to start the sprint, but I decided to start it a bit earlier. I saw an opening, had speed on those in front of me, and jumped as hard as I could. It was a race-winning sprint and I put everything into it. I had to.

The tricky part is that I had to hold everyone off out of corner 4 to the line.. slightly uphill and in to a slight headwind.

Leading the pack out of corner 4 on the last lap - I felt like I had a bigger gap than what appears here, but it was just enough.

A team mate on the sidelines got a great shot of me coming out of turn 4, gunning for the line:

Eventually the guys on my wheel start to fan out to come around.. my legs are on fire.. want to give up but it's not time just yet..

But they can't come around!!
[photos from wheelsinfocus.com]

Yup. I did it again! I could only half believe it after it happened, and all I could do was let out a "FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YEAH!!!!!"

Video of the race:

Second Ascent Criteriumnt Twilight Cat 3 Men-Ballard , Washington 2011 from RideITLikeUstoleIT!!! on Vimeo.

For my troubles I got $80 cash and a set of SRAM S40 wheels! And of course bragging rights for the next year..

We won the Ballard Crit!!!

First Race of the Season

2011-02-26T10:39:00.001-08:00

And I'm at home. Actually the Frostbite TT is delayed today, if not canceled; it's all white up north around Everett and snowing lightly down here in Seattle.

Unfortunately, either way the race isn't really an option for me. I've been off the bike since December. Not by choice however.. up to the end of Demeber I was commuting about daily, and getting in 13-16 hours a week.

Training for the 2011 season, getting ready to hit the ground running in the 3's. With 2 points carried over from last year I was ready to get some more.

But then..

The sad fact is that many drivers still don't look for bikes, much less see us. And they are apparently in a hurry.

A driver pulled out in front of me on a training ride, and with no time to stop I ran into the car.. long story short I haven't been able to ride for about two months now, recovery has been slower than I would have liked.

So here I sit, thinking about how Mason Lake (road race) is coming up on March 6th, and I'm still in pain now and then from the accident.. And the first Sequim road race is on the 12th.

Dammit.

It's not like the Mason/Sequim races were all that important, but it would have been nice to get out there with everyone else and put my training to use. Walla Walla is still an "A" race for me, and I really hope to make it there. But there's no rush.

Until the doctors give me official clearance to return to the racing, the main focus is still on recovery.

Be careful out there! And expect to see me in the peloton later this season.

Notes From Winter Training

2010-12-01T20:05:00.000-08:00

Well technically it's not "winter" yet, but it seems close enough.

I got to ride in big snowflakes through the north end last week, which made me feel like Andy Hampsten on the Gavia, barely able to see through the thick whiteness of it all. Except the snow in Seattle wasn't sticking, so it made for a nice little ride.

(The ride was around the north end of Lake Washington - a nice hilly route including 5th Ave through Northgate/etc (hills), Juanita Hill, east side hills including the "col d'bellevue", that short-but-steep section leading towards I-90 off Main street.)

Start of Base Training

In other news, training for the 2011 race season is well under way! "Base" training (e.g. endurance-zone riding). A big part of my training plan is the commute to Redmond, about 17 miles over I-90 & Mercer Island, through Bellevue, or as I now call it the Belly of the Beast.

Base 1, Week 1: 10 hours - commuting & a team ride on the weekend
Base 1, Week 2: 13 hours - commuting & a team ride
Base 1, Week 3: 16 hours! (probably the most I've ever done in terms of actual training)
Base 1, Week 4: rest - just two rides on the weekend for a total of 6-7 hours

The pattern seen in Base 1 (three weeks of work, one rest week) continues in Base 2 and beyond, and after those two blocks I move on to the "Build" period - two more blocks of four weeks each, then it's time to shred some legs!

As a side-note, it's not just endurance rides I'm doing in this Base period, but also some "speedwork", such as spin-ups or low-gear sprints. I've been getting in the 34x25 gear and spinning out in excess of 160 rpm - the PT reported 218 rpm the other day but that seems crazy. By 180 rpm or so I'm bouncing on the seat, it probably looks interesting to anyone watching.

2011!

While the training hours can get tedious, and cold, I just try to think more about the upcoming 2011 race season in March.. it's not that far away right? Just 89 days away..

RCR Meet the Team Ride: This Weekend!

2010-09-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

This Saturday is the Recycled Cycles/Raleigh Racing's Meet the Team ride! Come on out if you want to ask all those questions that you didn't get a chance during the races, since it's hard to talk while doing 25+ mph.

The team blog hasn't been updated in a while, but it was an active season of road racing for us in Cats 3-5, with wins in every category. And hopefully some 2's next year..

Cross is in full swing, with a lot of blue & gold RCR jerseys gettin' dirty in the mud. And though we have some great deals from our sponsors, you don't want to join a team just for discounts - it's the people that matter, and it helps if they actually show up to race. We race.

We'll be meeting at Pert's in Leschi at 9:30 AM, leaving around 10 for a chatty ride around the south end of the lake.

Our official blurb from the WSBA mailing list:

This Saturday, September 25th is Recycled Cycles Racing's Meet the Team
ride. Please arrive by 9:30am at Pert's Deli in Leschi for a casual and
informative no-drop group outing. Please utilize fenders if it looks like
rain, bring supplies for changing a flat, and throw a couple of bucks in
your pocket for a cup of coffee.

Since its inception 13 years ago, the Recycled Cycles Racing team has
emphasized rider development by encouraging racers to fulfill their
potential. This relationship promotes the sport of cycling and demonstrates
our commitment to teamwork and to the cycling community. For the 2011
season, we are developing a women's RCR team. We support grassroots racing
programs, local race promotion, helmet safety, cycling organizations such as
USAC, Washington State Bicycle Association (WSBA), IMBA, NORBA, and
affiliate associations. We're seeking committed cat 4/5 racers, both men and
women, who want to learn the in's and out's of racing with the goal of
upgrading by season's end. We also seek cat 3 racers who are looking for a
tight-knit group of friends to ride and race with.  We support Road, Cross
and Track racing, and have a developing mountain contingent.

See you there!

Seward Park Season Ender

2010-09-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

[this race was 8/29/2010, still catching up]

I've been racing at Seward on Thursdays all year, about 15 times in total this year I think. The 6 PM race is a Cat 3/4's race, so it's pretty competitive. But it's only 45 minutes so not a super long race. Today [8/29] was a Cat 3-only race, 60 minutes long.

The rumor was that last year they had a $5 prime every lap, which would be... interesting. Then I heard $1 per lap, which would still make the race pretty fast, and also hopefully burn out a lot of contenders for the finish. Turns out we just had the usual 3-4 primes, I was kind of glad they didn't do the prime-per-lap thing.

The Race

Not a very big crowd, as it turns out not everyone actually like racing at Seward?! This was seriously news to me that some in the local peloton think Seward is 'boring', 'sucks', etc - don't tell anyone, but my theory is they happen to 'suck' at racing Seward..

So with only 34 riders in the pack we set off. Some people spectating, and the announcer was calling out prime winners and stuff. And of course bad music blaring that I never hear during the race, luckily.

There were attacks, of course, but I've never seen a break actually stick at Seward in the 3's or 4's, so I wasn't too concerned. Though I should have been concerned, since I'd heard they have in the past and indeed that was what happened this time around too.

Eric on my team set off some initial attacks, as usual, but was brought back every time. A WWU guy (turns out he's actually Bikesale?) went off the front and never came back, I don't even remember him sneaking away!

Before too long there were 3-4 off the front, with up to a 45-second lead on us. Not wanting to sprint for 4th I tried to bridge once, towards the end of the race, but it was all for not. The closest we got was about 25 seconds, if only we had more time we could have brought them back.

Fast forward to the last few laps, and I'm sitting on the front trying to chase. Since I didn't know WWU guy was actually Bikesale (so I heard) it makes sense none of the Bikesale guys wanted to chase. And everyone else seemed content to let me do the work..

On the last lap were shifting positions and I rode up next to Josh, a strong team mate, and said, "Let's go!", as in, get on my wheel, I'll lead you to the final sprint. But he said, "No man, I don't have it today.." OK. Plan B. Me.

My team mate Mike was up there too (he always is, super strong), and he had me on his wheel, heading for the front of the pack. We came down the hill, and as we came up the backside he was leading me up the right side of the pack.

In a split second he was squeezed to the outside/left, along with 3-4 other riders, and this gave me a small hole to shoot through. And shot through it I did..

In the sprint for the 140-degree turn, I came into it so damn fast I almost hit the curb on exit! But I came out of it in 4th, and spun hard as I could to hold it. At first scared people were about to come around, but then confident I had it.

My first top 5 in the 3s! More importantly my first Cat 3 points! Two down, 23 to go!! Huge thanks to the team for riding great as usual, and for a bunch of other cat 3 racers for coming out to have fun in the sun.

The sprint for 4th:

More photos on wheelsinfocus.com.

A great video of the race can be found on vimeo.

Unfortunately this meant the end of the season for me, as cross is too..... obscure for me at this point. It's all about road for me!

Though cross is entertaining to watch, that's for sure. We went out to Starcrossed this weekend and Kira got some great shots of a bunch of the 3-4 PM racers.

Carnation Circuit Race: Attack!!

2010-09-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

[catching up on the last few races of the season]

A few weeks ago was the final race in the three-race circuit series, a flat 4-mile loop out in the fields of Carnation. Views of the Cascades, scattered clouds, and about 66F - what more could you ask for?

Oh, about 54 other cat 3's to race against, that's what.

Ride to the ride

Took the bus from downtown to Redmond, just to save time and not have to leave super early like the ride to the Gig Harbor race a few weeks ago. From Redmond I rode Novelty Hill Road out to Snoqualmie Valley Rd which was part of the race course. Some hills but nothing too bad, and some nice views along the way.

The ride was slow and pleasant. Didn't get there in time to see the end of the 4/5's race, but saw all the usual suspects after the race. Jeff won again, that seems to be a repeating theme in that field!

The Race

I had four other Recycled Cycles team mates in this Cat 3 race, and one of our guys, Eric, loves to attack. And he did so just after the lead car sped up, ending our short neutral rollout. I used to be kind of nervous when the neutral rollout would end and the pack would speed up at once, but now I'm more excited and ready for the race to play out. And hopefully have an effect on the outcome..

The backstretch of this course was a narrow one-lane farm road, but we had had the center-line rule, so (in theory) you can't move up on the left side since cars might be coming the other way. But people still did it anyway..

It was a decent size field of 54 riders, enough to pack a lane and make it really hard to move up. For some reason I started in the back with a few of our guys, while two of our guys started up front. I should have just started up front, but instead had to slowly work my way up in the turns and the sprint.

Last year I had a really hard time hanging on when we came down the final straightaway, especially when at the back. Almost got dropped.. but this year I made sure not to be on the back there, and at least have a wheel to hang onto while coming through there.

That section was much easier for me this year, I didn't feel like the elastic was going to be snapped for me even during the sprint lap. So while I was trying to move up, Eric was still putting on attacks, one after another, I loved watching that!

Mid-way through the race or so, our field was neutralized and we had to come to a stop on the finish stretch, there had been a crash in the final sprint of the women's race. When we were re-started we passed some riders still down from the spill, I saw some skinned elbows, torn kits, ouch.

Later that lap we were stopped again, this time while sprinting out of a corner on the backstretch. They were still clearing riders from the road and had to bring in an ambulance..

The refs said they were shortening the race, and that there would be one to go after this, when there would normally be two to go. Shortly after they changed their mind, and re-started us, the race was back on.

I was sliding back somewhat during this lap, just not paying attention, and Carl on my team reminded me I should probably move up if I wanted to contest the finish at all. Good point! We moved up through the pack but there wasn't much space at all.

On the backstretch where everyone broke the rules and left the left side to move up, I did the same and hopped into 20th wheel or so, a decent position for the sprint.

It was pretty windy, with what felt like a cross-wind on the backstretch, and a headwind on the finish straight. I didn't want to be on the front of the pack coming out of the last turn..

Attack

On the last lap, the pack was all together and I was about 20th wheel, thinking about how the sprint was too long for me, 300-400m, so I needed to approach it another way. I gained some speed and came up the side of the pack, and lit up an attack. Went all out and held it for about a minute, then just tried to ride it out to the finish with one mile to go..

I went over the bridge with a decent gap, but I hadn't looked back yet, it was too early, though I could tell from the silence behind me.

Came around the penultimate turn hard, hoping to build on my lead. With an attack like this you can't commit 90%, you've got to give it everything. All or nothing. Gave a quick look back and the pack looked small!!! I was surprised. Maybe I'd caught them off guard and this was the winning move?!

Two riders warming up for the 1/2's race cheered me on as I hammered towards the final turn, off the front. 500 meters from the line and the race is mine.

It was starting to hurt if it didn't already, and looking at the data I spent about 2 minutes at 194 bpm (heart rate).. and averaged 28 mph for this last mile.

Came around the last turn, into the final straight, 300 meters to go, and the race is mine!!! (maybe, maybe, I'm hoping)

The headwind is evident as ever and my legs are turning into slush. Burning slush. Looking down I'm doing about 30 mph, giving it all I've got, but I know that's not enough to hold off the pack, which surely must be gaining by now.

A quick look back and I see a First Rate Mortgage kit on the left, damn. Up until that point I thought the race was mine, guess I got ahead of myself!

200 meters from the line, and 35th place is now mine. But it was one of my best Cat 3 finishes, even if my worst result so far. In some of the photos you can barely see me in the background, just hoping not to get hit by riders coming around me, wondering where my legs went.

Maybe next time I should go with 1km to go instead of 1 mile.. it was a great race though.

Post-Race

Hung out with some team mates after the race, checked out results, and got ready for the ride back.

I went back to Redmond via Union Hill road, took it really slow since my legs were kind of tired and there was a race tomorrow, the last of the season: The Seward Park Season-Ender.

Gig Harbor Circuit Race+ 2010

2010-08-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

The main goal for this race last Saturday was to survive. Last year, I survived up to the last lap, then I got dropped. Came in outside the rolling enclosure that race, first time ever in my race career to come in to the silence of off the back.

In addition to surviving the race, I wanted to get in some extra miles in addition to the ~30 mile event. So I rode from Capitol Hill to the Fauntleroy ferry, then from Southworth to the race start in Gig Harbor. About 32 miles extra each way, not much, but the ferry adds a ton of time to the round trip!

The 3's race was at 11 am but I had to leave way early to catch the 7:30 ferry, since the 8:30 ferry would be cutting it close, with the 22 mile ride from Southworth to the race. And of course there are short but steep hills out there on the peninsula. Luckily most of them were steeper downhill on the way there, with a few big "rollers" too.

Got to the race a way earlier than I wanted to, but it was better than getting there too late. Was going up to the start when the 4/5's pack came shooting by in the opposite direction, with a few familiar faces in there.

Got registered and went back to watch the end of the 4/5's race. Was yelled at by the officials when crossing the road, even though the pack was a good 500 meters up the road, but that's their job I guess. But dammit I wanted to see the final sprint!

As the sprint became more clear, I saw a Second Ascent rider in blue/white leading the pack with a nice gap and good speed. As he gets nearer I see it's my friend Rob!! I give him a good shout and am really glad I'm filming this at this point.

The pack is extremely strung out behind them, and later we learn there was a crash at 1k to go.. yikes. No wonder they're all spread out..

And then Chad from Hagens rolls up with a broken handlebar, and blood splattered on his white shoe. Looked like his fingers hit the road and took some of the grinding on chipseal, damn.. and there I was sitting with no gloves at all (lost a pair and have been lazy about replacing them), really wishing I had some long-fingered gloves to use.. oh well.

Chatted with Rob, the race winner, and JC from my team, along with a few others after the race. Can't wait until they're in the 3's...

The Race

Suffering all around, on a nice summer day - 39 Cat 3's doing 7 laps:

(source)

I had two team mates in the race, but I told them up front my plan was just to survive, I had no intentions of going off the front or doing anything spectacular, due to last year's failure on this course.

And it felt weird to watch Eric P. go off the front about 4-5 times in the first two laps of our race, and not be able to try a counter-attack.. but it was great watching him put on a display of aggressiveness while it lasted (he ended up having to DNF due to a plastic bag getting in his rear derailleur of all things).

The hill on the backside near the 1k sign was still there, and still hard, but it did seem a tad easier this year. Was it the 18 lb bike instead of the 22 lb bike? Or the fact that I'm probably 5-10 lbs lighter as well since last year.. or all the training over the winter/sprint/summer? Perhaps all of the above.

But it wasn't easy by any means. I soldiered up it n the 53x25, and once the 53x23 for some reason, holding my spot in the pack or sometimes drifting backwards a bit. Only 45 seconds or a minute of suffering, but oh did it hurt. And it flattens out a bit at the top, then has one last up before you get over the top. Ouch. Would have been some good pictures from there..

On the first few laps a small dog (chihuahuah?) was running out of a driveway on the left, and yapping at our heels from about two inches away... that was interesting. People were yelling "DOG!! DOG!!" and swerving to the right a bit, pinching others on the right. Quite the scene.

But the dog was at least smart enough not to cross the center-line and dive into the pack.. but I figured if it came down to it I could bunny-hop it. Luckily it didn't come to that..

Besides the dog the race was pretty normal. There were attacks, and more attacks, and I watched them all with no response. Not the way I usually like to race but I just wanted to save energy, not waste it.

The downhill was fun, but a little scary - we must have been doing 40-45 mph in the pack, taking a wide right turn and just hoping the guy next to your doesn't decide to move into you, or randomly crash, which would take you out. And people are depending on you to keep a straight line as well, to not do anything drastic. Lots of trust, and it all worked out. Even with little divots/potholes on the left side that could really wake you up.

On the backside I realized that last year I hammered up the little riser before the flat section to the bigger climb, wasting energy. This year I took it only as hard as I needed to, no harder.

The final bell lap came, and it was time to lay it on the line. I was glad to still be in the race, and not be totally red-lining, though I was definitely close. On the climb near the end I was sliding backwards, and eventually found the wheel-car on my wheel, e.g. I was at the back of the pack! No!

So I made an effort to move up, and did. But there were still 15 people ahead of me and a lot of ground to make up.. the 1k-to-go sign came and went, and I didn't have enough gas in the tank to really get up front and have a go at 4th place (at this point there were two guys up the road, and one bridging to them).

The 200-meters-to-go sign came, and I'm in a pack, but too far back to really do anything useful. 20th place... oops, I kind of let that one slip by, wasn't up front like I should have been, guess I was more gassed than I thought. But it was fun..

The Ride Back

Was slow.. took about three hours (including stops) instead of the two it took to get out there. And it was hot. Like 95-degrees hot, which is a lot for the Seattle area! And it seemed much steeper going north on Crescent Way, one section had to be 15-20% for a good 1/4 mile.. good times.

But I made it. 97 miles total. What a day.

Skagit Flats Cat 3 Circuit Race - Breaking Away

2010-08-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I made it up to Silvana with three team mates, for the 1st in the Lake Wa Velo Circuit Race series. The first of a three-race circuit race series.

Last year I did horribly in circuit races, coming in 49th at Gig Harbor, and 45th at Carnation.. some of my worst placings all year! At Gig Harbor I remember finishing outside of the "rolling enclosure" of the race, getting dropped on the last time up the hill - not something I want to repeat this year.

I didn't make it to the Skagit Flats race last year, so this was a new race for me. All I knew about it was a few keywords: flat, fast, windy, crappy roads, crash-marred finish. What else could a budding Cat 3 ask for?

On the way up we planned the race a bit, and my "role" was to stay up front, cover breaks, and generally ride for Josh, our sprinter who's also a new Cat 3. He's a 2 on the track, and has been killing sprints so it made sense for him to be "the guy" for this race.

We made it out to the farmland of Silvana, and found a parking spot in the gravel lot in front of the old grain silo. It had been wet all morning but was drying up.

While getting ready in the parking lot, Rob, a 4 from Second Ascent, came by and said he crashed out! Sounds like there was one problematic corner, that took someone out in every lap of every field so far... yikes. Rob was OK, luckily, but it was nice to have the warning about this corner.

But luckily it dried up by the time we raced at 11 AM.

The Race

After an OK warmup of riding around the country roads, we lined up in a small-ish field of 35 riders. Only my 5th Cat 3 race, but already some of the faces of other competitors are becoming familiar.

We'd been warned many, many times about "the corner" where everyone was crashing, but it was drying up and never was a factor.

The course was on flat farm roads, and even featured a few squeezes when we went under a few railroad trestles, complete with big wooden posts and a tight space to get everyone through.

The wind was out, to be sure, and some decided to spend the next hour+ in the comfort of the pack, others like me, decided to go for better odds in the sprint and go off the front.

On the front, part of my role was to cover breakaways that looked promising - so that at least someone from the team would have a chance of winning should the break stay up the road.

Josh, the guy we were riding for, decided to take a few flyers, looking very strong - probably just getting warmed up. He upgraded to the 3's a few months before me, and is a great team mate to have since we're almost always riding well together, finishing pretty close to each other.

Eventually it was my turn to cover a break, and was sitting about 10th wheel when I saw the two riders up the road, about 200m ahead. I turned on the gas and stayed in the saddle, just riding by everyone on the front not with a race-winning sprint like I usually try, but just enough to do 30 mph instead of the 25 they were doing.

After 30 seconds of hammering, not looking back at all, and just focused on the group ahead, I found their wheels. They were working well and taking short pulls, a good sign.

One of them was Jennifer Wheeler, a super strong Cat 1 Hagens-Berman racer who was using our race as a warmup for her later Women's 1/2/3's race, the other from Second Ascent, I think. I was hurting once I made it, and sat on for a bit and announced that I was here, let's do it, etc.

The speed was good, doing 27-28 mph pretty well, taking super short pulls. We made it about a lap (6 miles) before a strong UW guy bridged up, but by this point I was hurting a lot and already skipping pulls again. Not because I wanted to get an advantage on anyone, but because I just couldn't sprint through every 30 seconds for that long. After all it was only the 3rd lap or so out of 5.

Jennifer said after a while that we needed someone from Team X, a big team not represented in the break, I think it was IJM perhaps. If they weren't in the break, they would chase us down, was the thinking - and she was right. I was hurting too much to think much about strategy at that point, so it was good someone was.

We got brought back in eventually, and it was kind of nice to do a leisurely 20-25 mph instead of the grueling 27+ we were pushing out in the wind.

Not too long after there was a sprint lap coming up (for series points), and I was sitting about halfway down the pack. Carl, a guy on my team who is also more experienced than me, said I probably wanted to be further up for the break that will inevitably go after the sprint. He was right, so I moved up to 10th wheel or so and got ready. Here we go again..

Holding on to the group of 4-5 that were going for the points was enough to establish a small gap coming through "the turn" and the straight section through the finish. Sure enough, once the sprint was complete, a group of 2-3 went.

We had a good group of 3-4 for a little while, but the organization wasn't as good as before, and we only stayed out there for maybe half a lap if I remember correctly.

The final lap eventually came, and we were chasing one guy off the front. As we came up to the final turn we were back in a big group, jockeying for position for the final sprint. I was sitting 20th wheel or so, and made a move up the side of the pack and slotted into 5th wheel, though looking back I wish I'd been more like 10th coming out of the turn, it's a long 300-400 meter sprint..

We lit up the sprint and I see the pack of 5-6 ahead, but I don't have enough to hold any wheels and start to slip backwards. We had maybe a small gap on the rest of the pack but before too long I'm getting swamped and am ready for it to be over, and roll in knowing I'm out of the top 6 (for upgrade points), damn. I hate those long sprints like that.

Ended up 11th, Josh got 8th. A lot of work for no real result for me or the team, but it was fun! And a great workout.

Photos

Josh coming into The Corner, with a nice gap on the field:

A sequence of the final sprint:

The buy in yellow (bikesale.com) and the guy in white (NWCC) are Mike & Ryan, both new 3's. And killing it. And killing my legs..

It was a pretty close sprint, but Mike took it - nice job!

Of course, I don't think anyone in the top 6 spent any time in the wind at all during the race, which was the winning strategy of the day. But sometimes, the break sticks.. and when it does, I want to be there!

Photos from wheelsinfocus.com.

Derby Days Cat 3 Crit 2010

2010-07-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

The 70th annual Derby Days criterium out in Redmond is the longest running bike race in America! Yes this was the race last year that featured a mountain bike in the 4/5's crit. I heard this year a cruiser of some sort showed up for the Cat 5 race this year... yet another reason I'm glad to be in the 3's. I think it's great that people want to start racing, I just don't want to race with them in their first few races!

In the Cat 3's you actually have to try pretty hard to maintain position, nothing comes for free. In the 4's I felt stronger than a lot of the pack, and could just about choose my position and hold it pretty easily. But in 3's crits you lose positions that much faster, and the sprints are that much harder. It's like everybody is at least as strong as me or stronger. At least it feels that way.

My race wasn't until 5:15, but I left the house at about 2 PM to ride out early and see the end of the Men's Cat 4 race, in which at least one Recycled Cycles team mate was riding in. I stupidly decided to take the bus from Montlake, barely missed the 545, and had to wait 25 minutes for another bus to come.. it was late. Lucky for me the race was running late too.

Got there late, but in time to see the last two laps of the 4's race. I heard the announcer say "Second Ascent has been on the front of this race a lot, let's see what happens now." Was hoping my friend Rob on Second Ascent might place well, but when they came around the final time I didn't see any blue/white plaid up front, just yellow (bikesale.com) and orange/white (Byrne/Invent). The guy who won has got to be a 3 soon.. I've seen him win three or four races this year!

With $300 up for 1st place in our 3's race, and payouts for top 5, I had heard people might "do dumb shit" for the win.. but what else is new. People will take risks for a bag of tubes if you put them on a bike in front of a crowd.. bring it on!

The Race

Even though I'd gotten to the race so early, I ended up at the staging area in the center of the venue later than most, so was at the back of 50 guys jockeying for position for the lineup. But it was wide enough that everyone spread out, and I got in the second row. Looking back I should have just gone out to the side to get a front spot, but gambled on the guy in front of me being able to clip in.

When I started racing last year I used to be so shaky, almost dreading the starting whistle or gun shot as much as I was looking forward to getting the race on. But now I feel much calmer, and am excited to get rolling, a much better feeling.

Phil shot the start gun and we were off, though the guy in front of me couldn't get clipped in (of course). 50 minutes to catch up though, after starting in 40th place it felt like.. I don't remember if there were many attacks at first but Randy from Arrivee was riding aggressively as usual, and went on an attack or a prime or something. Later on a guy from UW won a few primes by a good deal, and Blake from Cucina was off the front for a while too. Impressive for what felt like a pretty fast race - Cat 3 crits are definitely more animated than 4/5 crits too, which makes it fun.

I just worked on positioning in the pack and eventually moved up on the outside out of turn three, one of the few places on this course that it was pretty easy to do so. Pulled the pack for 3/4 of a lap; was hoping to have my team name called out by the announcer (success) and maybe getting my name mentioned too (fail). After all, my mom was in the crowd so I wanted to put on a decent show!

With 10 minutes to go, I still felt good and was mid-pack at worst, even moving up on the back stretch in the gutter once. Another time I found myself in the gutter when trying to pass Mark from Starbucks on the inside of corner three. When I did that I heard a young spectator standing there say "Whoa!" as I probably came closer to them than expected. I love the gutter.

With 3 laps to go I was sitting in great position, 3rd wheel. I should have just stayed there....

But they'd just announced a $50 prime and I was surprised nobody had jumped yet coming out of turn one, given all the earlier attacks. I guess the smart thing to do here would be to ignore the prime, as it would be hard to recover in time for the finish..

Coming out of corner two, I was thinking well if nobody else is gonna take this money, then I will. So I gave it a kick and left the pack, and entered turn three first. But after taking a few more hard strokes I started to feel gassed already (not good), and could see someone on my wheel (uh oh). All of a sudden I saw why it was a bad idea to go for this prime. I let up and succumbed to the IJM guys behind me, one of them taking the prime.

Two laps to go, but recovery time. Damn. I found myself in 10th place or worse, and by the time we came around the penultimate corner we'd been swamped by riders on the outside, and now I'm 25th or so. I can see the spots slipping away..

The final corner comes, but I'm watching a bunch of guys sprint up the road, and from the sound of the screaming announcer and crowd, I really wished I was up front to see the close sprint. Instead I'm putting in a dig to at least pass a few guys in the back, ended up 19th out of 52. Could be better, could be worse.

Randy won it, nice job man!

Success

In the end it was a fun experience, and having my mom finally watch me do this crazy hobby was great too. No crashes in the 3's race, though there were a few close calls from sketchy guys, but nothing too scary.

Much thanks to the organizers and everyone for keeping this race going! I'll definitely be back next year for this one.

Rest?

The Bellingham Stage Race is next weekend, but I'm thinking of skipping it and taking a week or two off from racing. This amateur racing is tough stuff!

Thinking of doing a little ride with my old randonneur friends on the 24th, though I really wish that ride started within riding distance.. I haven't done a ride over 80 miles this year, unlike last year when I was doing 200-600k's, and riding to Ramrod.. all that stuff was fun but it took so much time!

Still, the nature of a long ride against the clock, without the need to keep a specific pace, is alluring. Sounds relaxing even..

Speaking of long rides, good luck to all those doing the STP this weekend!

Notes from Seward Park: June/July 2010

2010-07-09T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last three weeks at Seward have been great - no rain, nice temps, and decent fields. Good clean racing in the city.

6/10/2010 - 3/4's 6 PM race

For some reason* I was hurting like it was my first race all over again in this one. After 20 or 30 minutes I wanted to pull out, but pride and the thought of posting about being dropped kept me in there, but barely.

During the race a team mate Chris asked me how I was feeling, and I said shitty, real shitty. He thought I was joking but I was in the red zone like it was a year ago and I'd just started racing.

*my theory on the poor performance was that I'd been slacking/resting that week, and the charts in WKO even reflected this, with my TSB reacing a high of +20 on that day (meaning fitness was low).

6/17/2010 - 3/4's race

This was an animated race for me, as fitness was back up and I was feeling good. Went for one of the first primes, was first up the little hill, but then Jeff (strong unattached cat 5) and Mark (strong cat 3) were on my wheel. Actually Jeff had come around me, and I was now sitting on his wheel. I got to take a two-second rest in his draft, and as the line was approaching I went around him, with flashbacks to the velodrome and calculated sprints.

The only thing was that Mark was on my wheel, and waited to jump around me when I went. Duh. We went head to head for the preme, and he just barely beat me out - which in itself is progress for me from last year. Close...

We had a gap on the pack at this point but were obviously hurting, so we coasted and sipped our water, waiting for the pack.

On the next preme lap, I went from the bottom of the hill (or before) and this time nobody was on my wheel, and I was able to take it! First preme won at Seward, won a water bottle, some Nuun tablets, and $10. Raced for free!

6/24/2010 - 3/4's race

Started off hard in this one, hammered on the front for the first two laps, and was already hurting by then. Just got my Cat 3 upgrade sticker, it was official! That probably made me push a little harder, just for fun.

A preme came a lap or two later, and I went for it at the bottom of the hill (going clockwise this time), but nobody even tried to go with me. What's up with that? I kept on hammering, not worried too much that nobody chased.

10 seconds later I saw why nobody was going with me - there was a rider way up the road! He had snuck off the front at some point, and was about to beat me out for this preme. This made me push that much harder, and while he was blowing up I was accelerating, I could tell it was gonna be close but I just kept pushing harder and harder.

I passed him maybe 10 feet from the line, much to his dismay, and to the delight of spectators and myself. Another preme!! Just goes to show you should never give up.

Now I was really hurting, even though it was only 11 minutes or so into the race.. the pack caught back up and I filtered through it, still huffing and puffing, still recovering. Then I found myself on the back, then I found myself off the back.

It all happened so fast, and before I knew it it was silence all around me, and the 10-meter gap from me to the pack seemed insurmountable. Legs on fire, lungs gasping. Dammit! And this was at the bottom of the hill too..

I let the peloton go on the uphill, and settled into a nice 6 mph pace up the hill. At the top Randy asked if I crashed out but I said no it was the preme, it did me in! For the first time in racing for a year at Seward, I had to pull out and take a lap or two off. Never thought it would happen, but I guess I dropped myself!

Got back in and just sat in the pack, not going for any premes since I'd pulled out of the race already. (but you're allowed to jump back in at Seward) When the final sprint came an automatic response happened and I found myself sprinting and in the top 10. Love sprinting up that hill going clockwise!

Raced for free!

7/1/2010 - 3/4's race

An aggressive race for me, trying to get in almost all the breaks, but when I'd get there usually I was too cooked to do anything useful besides sit on the back. And then we'd get caught anyway...

Team mate JC is back in action after a month or so off, good to see him back in it! He was active in this race as well. Other team mate, Mike, was giving me advice about tactics in the race: if you're on the front, then you need to chase down breaks or bridge attempts. True, but it's tough on a course like this, which isn't quite a criterium but not quite a circuit race or road race either. It's just a loop with one turn. and a climb each lap.

Being a 3 now team tactics are coming up more, and we always theoretically want someone in the break if there is one, if not initiating the break. The problem is that so many of them fail, so it's tough to which ones are worth covering and which ones aren't. Part of what will eventually make that easier is knowing who's who in the peloton.

This race was interesting because they always have four prime laps, usually about 10 laps in and then interspersed throughout the race. People are expecting this format, so they switched it up a bit this time. 25 laps in total, and with 15 to go people are already getting antsy for a prime. At 10 to go people are already yelling at the race organizer to ring the bell! Nothing but silence.

5 to go, and finally the bell goes off. Four preme laps in a row, then the finish lap?! If you're not super strong you've got to pick one of those to go for. I picked the finish, but it was tough just hanging on with all the prime surges, much less the setup for the final lap.

Came in the top 15 in this one, nothing special. But it was fun.

7/8/2010 - 1/2/3's race

Was at work too long so didn't make it back to the hill in time for the 6 PM Cat 3/4's race. So I opted to finally try my hand in the 1/2/3's race at 7 PM, the "A" race on the weekly schedule.

Got there with a few minutes to spare, and chatted with team mate Ian who had just done the 5:30 4/5's race, then the 6 pm 3/4's race too! He'll be a Cat 3 before too long, I'm sure. Another team mate, Eric, who's a 3 as well, was there for the 1/2/3's race. Cool, a team mate in the race!

I recognized some of the guys lining up as Cat 1's, ex-pros, even WSBA #1 was there, David Richter. I'm probably every Cat 1's nightmare: just upgraded to the 3's and already looking to mix it up with the big kids.

For the most part the peloton just looked older, more tan, and nicer equipment than the other races. And they go faster too, with breaks forming usually on the first lap. 1 hour race instead of the 45 minutes of the 6 PM race.

Goals: hang on, hang on, hang on.

From the start there was indeed a break of some kind being attempted, and the pack was strung out all the way down the hill. In the 3/4's race the peloton will usually bunch up at the very bottom of the hill, but in this race you had to work to catch back on, the pack not bunching up until almost 100m later.

The first 15 minutes of this race were the most painful, and I found myself drifting from the middle to the back, and struggling to hold a wheel on the downhill. Guess people were chasing a break, so the pack was strung out for a while.

On the steep-but-short uphill I felt strong enough, and could keep up pretty easily. Cool. But it was that downhill that was the most challenging in this race.

At about 30 minutes in the peloton slowed down a bit, and I got a chance to rest. We slowed so much a guy in the pack yells, "Everyone's getting tiiiired!" in a teasing way and jumps out for an attack. Nice.

We sped back up, and this time I found myself back in the middle, closer to the race itself and not struggling to hang on. Eventually moved up so much that I found myself trying to bridge to the break, trying to hang on Richter's wheel! He was being marked by a K-R guy, who already had someone in the break. On the uphill all of a sudden I didn't feel so strong, but fought to hold a wheel. Was overheating. Ouch.

Held on for a lap I think, but the pack caught us eventually. The break never came back.

The rest of the race was a blur, it was just a lot of hammering after the turn, and getting a nice aero tuck on the downhill. Some aero wheels would probably help... but Open Pros will do for now.

With 5 laps to go, I was excited thinking to myself that I did it! I hung on, finished my first 1/2/3's race.

Was not in a great position on the final lap, but still gave it my all on the uphill before the slightly uphill sprint to the line. Yeah, I was sprinting for 20th, sue me. One guy yelled "It's over!!" as I flew by, and he was right: the break had stuck, all 6 guys collecting the only spots that matter at the finish, and everything after that was pointless.

He's probably done this race 300 times, but this being my first 1/2/3 race I at least wanted to beat out some other 3's I recognized. Came in on the back of the first finish group after the break, I think about 20th-25th. Success!

Joe Matava Cat 3's Crit 2010

2010-07-08T22:01:00.000-07:00

Last year this was my 2nd "real" crit (besides Seward Park), got 11th, and was of course super happy with that result.

A fun 4-corner course with the start on a downhill, two left turns leading to an uphill backstretch, two more lefts and then the downhill to the finish. Classic crit format. In Burien.

The Ride Down to Burien

Unlike last year, when I was racing the 4/5's and had to get up super early to ride down in time to register, this year the 3's were racing until 12 PM or so, giving me plenty of time to rest, and take my time on the way down. I averaged about 13 mph down there.

I still left around 9:30-ish, hoping to catch some of the racing and was afraid the 3's field would sell out, as it supposedly did last year. Overcast and a little windy, but not too bad. Took Delridge to Ambaum to get down there, much to the delight of a few drivers.

Watched some good racing from the juniors, the women's 1/2 field, and rode around with Mark from Starbucks, Karl from Keller-Rohrbach, and Mike(?) from Garage, all nice guys but we'd be racing against each other soon. We rode in circles in a closed off block, an OK warm-up but I need to start bringing a trainer to races..

The Race

Upon signing up for the 3's race, a woman at the registration table said "Cat 3 means you're good! I learned that this morning." I laughed and said well I'm getting there, but enjoyed the idea that I'm something special. Works for me!

Took a few practice laps and lined up in the back, but there were only 35 or so other racers, and only a few rows of people. The Capitol Crit a few weeks ago was fun, but with so few riders and a tougher course it didn't have the feel of a straight-forward criterium, something I've gotten pretty good at. So this was my first bigger 3's crit.

The pack:

We started and a strong team mate Josh, who just upgraded to the 3's a couple of months ago, set off some early fireworks and launched an attack from the whistle, in our 45 minute race. Sweet.

I sat back and watched as he hammered in the distance, actually building quite the lead for a few laps:

He came back into the pack after a while, but it was a good effort. I'm still a little timid about attacking in a 3's race, but I'm getting there. And crits are so fast that I don't feel like I can last very long anyway..

I ignored all the premes, even though some were $10, $20, or $50, saving energy for the final sprint. Not ready to try for premes and the win or top 5 placing, not yet anyway.

Even so, at one point there was a break of 3 or so up the road, and I attacked the peloton from 3rd wheel coming down the straigh-away finish. A little camera time, if you will.

Later in the race Jordan took off on an attack for a preme and held off for a few laps, and Josh was out there again, if I remember correctly. Damn those kids are strong! Jordan he won $60 in the race too! Nice man..

There were more attacks here and there, but we were all together for the final few laps at least. And that's when people really started competing for the corners, and I had to back off a bit coming into the first corner on the last lap, there just wasn't any room, and people were getting way frisky (e.g. swerving a lot).

I remember at the time thinking, "Well there goes placing in the top 10.." as I watched 10 more people swarm around me. Sometimes you just know when you've given up spots that will cost you in the end.

In the 2nd corner a UW guy slid out, Jordan said he ran over the guy's bike! (and kept going)

Then in the 3rd corner, I'm sitting 10 wheels back or so, and a guy up ahead all of a sudden bucks his back wheel up a foot off the ground, and I'm thinking, "Yup, he's screwed!" But not a second later, my own pedal lightly touched the ground... maybe a little too early to gloat.

Coming out of the last corner I was about 15th, and looked up to see the riders fanned across the road. Well, maybe I can gain a few spots here? There are cash payouts for top 10 after all..

The Field Sprint

Hard to tell who's going to take it from about 150m out:

I put in a good dig but coming from 15th I was gunning for 10th at best. Actually passed a few guys that sat up near the line, or just couldn't hold their sprint long enough. Ended up 11th. (Just like last year no less!)

Patrick from Second Ascent took the win in the end, he was actually in the big crash in the Boston Harbor Circuit Race a few weeks ago. Helluva recovery! Good for him:

Photos from Wheelsinfocus.com.

The Ride Back

Ride back was slow, and traffic was heavier at 3 PM. But it felt great to have done decent in the crit, and kept it upright, ready to race again.

Next up: Derby Days in Redmond! $300 up for grabs for 1st place..

Hello Cat 3! (Capitol Crit & Boston Harbor CR)

2010-06-29T22:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend marked my entrance into the Cat 3 field in Wa bike racing. (Cat 1 is the highest amateur category in the US, and you start out as a 5 and move up from there - rules are here)

Well you have to jump into a new category at some point, and this was my chance. No reason in waiting until the end of the season to upgrade, I had the points, and upgrading was in fact the point of racing in the first place. When I first started watching local races a few years ago, the Cat 3's seemed so sleek, so slim, and so fast. They were half-way to pro for all I knew.

Fast forward a few years later, and they don't look so tough any more. (Well, a few of them still do!) And now I'm one of them!

The Capitol Crit Cat 3's, 50 minutes - Saturday 6/26/2010

It was a rush to make the ~1 hour drive down, and we left a tad late and got stuck in traffic... it was a close call, but there was no way I was going to forfeit the race just from being late. I'd rather get dropped from a race than be late to it!

Anyway we made it down with minutes to spare, 10 to be exact, barely enough time to sign up, do a lap, and line up. Upon lining up I noticed the pack was tiny... wtf? I thought this was a big annual race (at least, I think it used to be), but the word on the street is everyone is burned out from the racing season and taking a break. Or something. Screw that, at least a few of us showed up!

The course is interesting, right in front of Olympia's capitol dome, a slight uphill, some snaking turns, broken up pavement, and a little uphill sprint finish.

Only 15 racers, but it'll have to do. I didn't have a goal of getting a good placing for upgrade points, just wanted to hang on and see how it went. They say Cat 3 races aren't actually that much faster, just longer, smoother, and more animated.

And indeed, from the gun, attacks went up the road. I figured they were all doomed, as it was so early in the race! But after a while they were still out there, and guys were bridging up, or trying to. I thought about going as well, but was already at >180 bpm and didn't want to get dropped from my first Cat 3 race.

More people were going up the road, and it was all I could do but watch. At first the gap was around 10-20 seconds - a manageable gap so early in the race. I was this close to jumping on a wheel to try to bridge as well, but held back so as to not overdo it. Just hang on, see how it goes.

After a few more minutes the gap had grown to 30 seconds, then 40. And somehow 4-5 others had made it up there, leaving 10 or less of us behind! The race announcer even threatened to pull us towards the end, if we didn't close down some of the gap. And here I was thinking they were they break and we were the race, but maybe they were the race and we had been reduced to a chase group?

I also had no idea which teams had guys up the road, meaning I wasn't sure who was trying to "block" the chase and who was trying. Looking back it seems obvious, but at the time it was confusing.

But no way I'm getting pulled in my first Cat 3 race! So I got on the front a few times, though it hurt a good deal, and pulled. Or tried to. When I did so, it sent the heart rate way up (e.g. over 190) and I had to back off... ugh. There's just nowhere to hide in a group of 7-10 riders on a windy-ish day.

There were points where I thought I was going to have to pull myself (read: get dropped), but I kept on pushing. That's the name of the game, keep pushing on, don't give up. The finish is out there somewhere. (This idea works well in the rando world too)

Finally I look over to see they've stopped the count-down clock and switched to the lap count. 10 laps to go. I can handle that, just hang on..

5 to go. Still in there. Time to start thinking about the finish, and my positioning in the "pack." With 1 to go, I tried to get in the top 3-4, and did so.

Coming out of the final turn, there were 3 guys ahead of me. One took the turn a bit wide, so I passed him on the inside. Then he finished his wide turn, while sprinting and apparently looking down, and came back into the lane, where I was. Luckily I was ahead of him by enough that his wheel just hit my frame (or something), and I cringed a little, waiting to hear that sound. (of bikes & people hitting the ground)

After the dust settled I'd gotten 3rd in the "field sprint," for 8th overall. Not too shabby for my first Cat 3 race!

On the cool down lap the guy that almost ran into me came up and said, "You did this and that, yada yada yada..." and I replied, "hey file a complaint with the officials, I held my line!"

Later after we'd cooled down a bit I said I was sorry, even though I'm still pretty sure I was going straight at that point, and he came to the right into me.

Had I made a crazy move in that last 50-100 meters, the USAC officials would have relegated me or DQ'd me, or something. That's what they look for, it's part of their job. But nope, there I was in the results, scored as 8th, proof enough for me that I didn't do anything wrong in the sprint besides lose. Maybe next time I'll just yell during the whole sprint so people that aren't paying attention will at least know what's around them...

Boston Harbor Circuit Race - Cat 3, Sunday 6/27/2010

6 laps of 6 miles each, on rolling hills north of Olympia. Not very long of a race, but it'll do. Last year I had a rough time with the circuit races, placing 30th or worse in all of them. Dunno what it was about them, but they always hurt, bad.

Having survived the crit the day before, I had a little more confidence coming into this one. Plus I was gonna have some team mates in the race! They say team tactics don't really start until the 3's, so I was excited to see what the talk is all about.

And I was glad to see 50 or so other Cat 3's show up, so we had a decent field. Cool. Too bad we all had to be packed into one tiny lane... there isn't a ton of space to move up in these types of races!

Anyway we set off and did a 1/2 mile neutral lap, where people jockey for position for when the race really starts. We went down the hill, a sweeping right turn, then a slight uphill. The race was on.

In a big pack like this you can stay protected, and dare I say relax a bit! Instead of the 182 bpm I averaged for the whole 50 minutes of Saturday's crit (yes, ouch!), I looked down to see 130-150. Ahh, this is like a group ride around the lake!

Well, only for so long. In the first lap the attacks started, and there were many. Adam on RCR went off the front, but was reeled in. Groups of 2-4 would try, and maybe last 1/2 lap, but get pulled back in.

About halfway through a group of 4-5 was up the road maybe by 50m, and it looked promising. I was on my team mate Mike's wheel, and was going to try to bridge if he didn't, but he did. And once he did I tried my hand at "blocking," so I got on the front and went slow. But I didn't do it right, it was way too obvious, and a guy behind us (there was another guy from another team blocking as well) yelled, "C'mon guys, there's blocking and then there's blocking."

So I scooted over and let him through, he just wanted to bridge up. Maybe that was the last of the big teams would bridge up and the pack would be happy with the combination of riders up the road, and let them go. Which I'd be happy with since Mike was up there.

Of course you don't want to chase down your own team mate in a break-away, so once people starting amping up the pace I just let them do their thing. No need to break wind for anyone and make it easier for them to catch my guy up there!

The group got brought back though, and we were only about halfway through. Still plenty of racing left.

Later in the race I joked with Josh, "Hey man when are you going off the front?!" And he replied, in a serious voice, "Soon." Sure enough, within minutes he was heading up front, getting ready to make a move. In the beginning of the last lap he moved up the right side of the pack and rocketed off the front, solo.

By the time we hit the right turn leading to the first big-ish downhill, only maybe 30 seconds later, he had what seemed like a huge gap. "Fuck yeah, go Josh!" I yelled with glee. But 5-6 miles can be a long time when you're trying to average 25 mph or so, solo.

He stayed off the front for almost the whole lap, getting caught on the slow riser leading up to the 2nd biggish downhill. It was a great attack though, I enjoyed watching it. I thought about countering once he was caught but figured it would be a suicide mission.

So I waited for the field sprint, along with everyone else. The last mile features a little climb, then a flat/almost-downhill section leading to the finish line. Alex had told me this race usually ends in a big field sprint with a big crash, so I was up front to hope to avoid the chaos. Mike, a team mate who's been racing for 10 years or more, also advised me to stay in the top 15, at least, for the finish.

I was fearing the sprint in fact, not because of crashes, but because of the hill that led up to it. Lucky for me most others seemed to have the same thoughts, and the whole pack took it (relatively) easy from the 1k mark at the top of the hill to the 200-meter mark. A breather at the end of the race, last thing I would have expected! (Looking back, that would be the time to attack, though it's tough given the previous hill)

Anyway we hit the 200-meter sign, and everyone went at the same time. From 30 mph to 35 mph, and then....

CRASH, BANG, BOOM!

Right in front of me guys started falling. At 35 mph no less... bikes and bodies flying, and that sound. Quite the view I had, that's for sure. Went left around the carnage, ran over a bunch of shattered plastic (sunglasses perhaps?), and saw a bike with big aero wheels cartwheeling towards me from the right.

Ok, that was close! After making it around the crash I pretty much sat up, given someone had already won and the top 6 was spoken for, the results didn't matter anymore. What mattered was that I made it out unscathed! Pretty sure I came in about 20th, but never saw the results so it's hard to say.

After the race we talked to Sean, one of the guys who went down. Shoulder had a quarter-size hole in it, but worse was that his back was covered in road rash, as if he'd been clawed by a dragon. Ouch.

Patrick, a nice guy I'd just met the day before, also got caught up in the "action" and looked about the same, if not worse.

At least they were walking around, but will certainly need to take a few weeks off to recover. Could've been me, it was so close.. but hey that's racing.

You don't get rewarded without taking some risks.

All in all it was a great weekend of racing! Next up is the Joe Matava crit on the 4th, one I did last year. Can't wait! Let's see if I can avoid the carnage... with more confidence I hope to start animating a bit more in these Cat 3 races. Time will tell.

Tacoma Crit 2010: Cascadia Crit Series Finale

2010-06-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

(so yeah this is about two weeks late, but here you go - enjoy! Coming up next are Cat 3 reports from the Capitol Crit & Boston Harbor Circuit, so stay tuned)

A few Saturdays ago was the last race of the Cascadia Crit Series, and I went into it in 1st place, wearing the Leader's #1 number. A little pressure, but not much since I had a good deal of points ahead of 2nd place, and was feeling good. And I can corner like a mofo, which is what crits are mostly about.

A few shots from the scene:

View from the beer garden:

The Race

After 20-30 minutes on the trainer, we did a few practice laps with other racers. The 4/5's were going first so they were still setting up the course when we got there, and at one point they put a big red inflatable banner across the course, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I thought it must be a joke. Only 20-25 feet across, I imagined parts of our peloton bouncing off the inflated thingy and causing epic crashes..

Luckily they thought twice about the plan and put the red inflatable rainbow thingy off to the side, where it belonged. There were enough turtles in the road to look out for without having to worry about that monstrosity.

Anyway we got to the race and did call-ups, I got to get called out as 1st place overall once again. Not something I could get tired of, I must admit...

We got off on the first lap and I put in a good effort (looking at power data, the peak 5-sec/30-sec/1-minute/5-minute/etc for the whole race!) from the gun, hoping to hit the pack hard and soften if up for Kyle, who was gunning for a spot on the top 3 podium, sitting in 4th place.

One junior from Rad Racing and I somehow ended up with a gap between us and the pack on the first lap - not the plan, but for my last 4's race why not? I just needed to get another top 15 or so and I'd keep 1st in the bag.

But once you're out there alone (or with one other you can barely hang on with, in this case) you realize how hard it is to maintain that. I can only do 190 beats per minute for so long..

We got reeled in before too long, maybe a lap or two out there, but it was fun. I guess the warm-up was good, because I jumped right back in the pack when we got caught and got ready to snatch up points premes if they came along (on Kyle's behalf, I didn't really need them).

Sure enough a points preme came along and I got 2nd in it, enough to get 3 more points.

The pack was a little.. squirrelly at times, if you will, and while there were a few close calls on the slower backside (4-5% uphill), I think there was only one minor crash in the race. I came through a few gaps that weren't very big, but luckily kept it upright.

In the final lap I sat back a bit and watched Kyle move up and take 3rd, I got 7th. Success! Kyle moved up to 2nd on the podium, and also got some more points towards his 3's upgrade.

Winnings

As a reward for holding on to 1st place overall I got showered with all kinds of gifts. A trophy (pictured below), a wheelset (seriously!), a leader's jersey, and $125. Never thought I'd get anything but a challenge from racing, but it's been that and then some I guess.

1st overall leaders' jersey!

A cool trophy from the Chihuly institute:

More photos

AJ & other rider off the front in the 3's race:

The pace car for the 1/2's:

More photos on flickr, as usual.

Thanks to Rob from the ride down, and to everyone for racing & not crashing too much, as well as to RT and the whole Cascadia Crits crew for putting on such a great series. Looking forward to next year's edition!

Goodbye Cat 4, it's been fun. Hope to see some of you guys up in the 3's soon!

Brad Lewis Memorial Criterium 2010

2010-06-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the Brad Lewis/Boat Street Crit, the annual race held in the U-district in front of Recycled Cycles. The 5th race in the Cascadia Crit Series, and I had a pretty solid lead in the 4/5's.

As a part of the RCR team I worked the race all day, helping set up before-hand, sweeping the corners, etc (starting at 6 AM!). Also worked registration later in the day, and enjoyed a great day of racing - even though it rained a little.. but it was some great urban racing.

The Cat 4/5's start, with a few of us in blue n' gold up front. Kyle & I got the call-up so we got nice spots up front.

Heading into the first corner, a little uphill into a one-lane section. That's Adam on the front, in 2nd place overall, a strong dude:

Another shot of the first corner:

Heading into the second corner:

Second corner:

The 3rd corner:

Leading the pack through the finish straight - notice the big cracks in the road, love it:

Leading again, a little further down the road:

(thanks to JC for taking those photos during my race)

At another point, attacking and/or going for a prime:

(thanks to Todd for taking that photo)

As you can see from the photos I spent a good deal of time of the front of the pack, perhaps too much. But with my 26 points I actually didn't want the points you get from winning, which would force a mandatory upgrade (at least in theory) so I sat up on the last lap and let everyone duke it out. I still came in 7th overall, so I guess I sprinted but I made sure to do it from 10th place or so, not from the front of the pack. Seems silly now to try not to win, but with one more race left in the series I didn't want the five points you'd get from winning this race.

After our race the women's 4's race went on, and then the 3's race - usually the 3's are thrown in with the p/1/2's, but they at least got their own race. Unfortunately not many women showed up due to the rain most likely, but I thought it was great the organizer at least did that for once.

The 1/2 women raced as well, along with the Cat 3's, juniors, and the kid's race. Eventually it was time for the p/1/2's. I was working the registration booth when many of these racers sign up and I can attest that they seemed mostly human, quite surprisingly.

Video of the 1/2's going through the second corner, chasing a breakaway most likely.

The 80 minute p/1/2 race was certainly more animated than our race was, with a breakaway of five or so off the front for one half of the race, then a different set of 4-5 off the front for quite a while. In the end there were two off the front (I if recall correctly) who got to sprint for the win together.

It was a great day of racing, watching racing, and working the race. Glad I finally got to do this race!! Thanks to Recycled Cycles and the Cascadia Crit Series for putting it on. Already looking forward to next year.

Tomorrow is the Tacoma Twilight Crit, looking forward to it! I'll be in the money no doubt tomorrow, and should be able to hold on to 1st place overall. Then it's time to move up to the Cat 3's!

Ballard Criterium 2010: First Win!!

2010-06-07T00:21:00.001-07:00

The Ballard Twilight Crit has been on my calendar since last year, as an "A" race. That meant my whole training plan (when I had one anyway) was centered around this race. It's the atmosphere there that made it great to race there, and probably makes it an "A" race on most people's calendars too.

Getting 13th in the 4/5's last year, after about a month of racing, I figured I could at least do better this time around as a Cat 4, after about a year of racing.

And going into this one I was the overall leader in the Cascadia Crit series 4/5's, even though I hadn't actually won any of the races (placings were 4th, 5th, 3rd - being consistent was paying off, along with the fact that the top guy dropped out after Seward).

In fact I hadn't won any races up to this point - and isn't that why one gets into racing, to win? Getting fitter & faster is fun too, but winning is the ultimate goal.

Getting Ready

Kira & I drove over to Ballard and parked close to the course, behind a building where others were parked (we figured it was safe to park there, but nope we got a ticket after all!) I didn't have to worry about getting into the race like at Seward, I was pre-registered and just had to sign in. Plenty of time.

Warmed up under our team tent, a Cat 3 let me use his trainer for a few minutes, sweet. And in fact it was for only a few minutes; after getting signed in, waiting in the porta-potty line, etc, there were only about 20 minutes until our race time!

Riding the trainer was so much better than my warmup for Ballard last year: rolling around the streets east of the course, just riding back and forth on the .5 mile stretch before Fred Meyer. I don't ever use the trainer we have at home, since I like riding outside, but for something like this it was a great way to get the heart rate up and get sweaty. I've always heard you should be a little sweaty when you get to the line, and even though the warm-up was only about 10 minutes long it was enough.

Got to take one or two practice laps of the course, and it was familiar from last year, though there was cardboard held down by duct tape over some 2x4" cracks in the pavement in corner one, and a set of hay bails blocking the apex of turn two, which was a little different.

The Race

One of the great things about being on the overall podium in the Cascadia Crit series is the "call ups" you get to do before the race. Once everyone is lined up they call up the top five people in reverse order, so I got to go last. It gives you some recognition and also gives you a good starting spot.

The whole pack of 75 lined up and ready to go - but only one can come out on top:

After some announcements from the official we were sent off, and I was excited! I used to almost dread the start whistles of these big crits, now I can't wait for them. Another chance for points, another chance for a win. Another chance for fun, and to gain more experience racing.

Got lined up in the first 10 or so riders in the first turn, and loved how much more smooth this race is from the front of the pack than from the back, where I raced it last year. Last year I felt like I really had to dig to maintain contact coming out of turn two, but this year we were coasting into a nice fast backstretch with a tailwind, and not having to jam it at all.

It felt a lot easier than last year overall, though the average speed came out to about the same. Guess I've just gotten stronger. Actually I know I've gotten stronger, I can see it in the training numbers and more importantly results. I was just surprised how different this race felt this year.

Before the race the announcer explained premes to the crowd, and said that "racers can used them to gauge the sprint and get a feel for it" or something along those lines, something I'd never thought of. I always thought of premes as a waste of energy or for those who were super strong, if they could win a preme and then take the race too. So I usually ignored them.

But this time when a points preme came up, I was on the front and went for it. Just kept the pace high and led the pack out (from what I remember). It seemed easy, was nobody else going for it or what I thought? Only 5 points to add to the ~800 I already had in the omnium, but for me it was more about figuring out that sprint. And winning that preme probably gave me the courage/confidence to really go for the final sprint (something I never thought I'd win).

Other premes came and went and I just made sure not to drift too far back, stayed in the top 20 pretty much the whole time. Some people like to ride the race from the back, and "tailgun" it, but it seems to me that just sets you up to have to deal with gaps, crashes, and the accordion effect. F that.

The Crash

About half way through the race we come into the finish straight and we're being waved around a First Rate Mortgage racer lying on the ground in the middle of the course near the finish line. Doesn't look good.

Next lap we come through and there are more people waving at us, and at first we're getting ready to go around the injured rider again but soon realized they wanted us stop completely. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to stop a crit, but it was done pretty smoothly. The officials had the chasing pack stay about 20 feet behind our lead pack, as the field had split into two groups at this point.

They had an ambulance come and take the guy away. Heard later he was knocked out at first, probably broke his collarbone and might have separated his shoulder as well. Along with a concussion, as his helmet was supposedly smashed as well. On the one hand that's a scary image, but I guess that's what helmets are for..

I heard about three different versions of how/why he crashed, ranging from he was along and went down out of nowhere, to the version where a lapped rider took him out on accident. Either way it didn't look good but he was conscious and gave a thumbs-up on the way out.

Hope he's doing alright - anyone have updates on his condition?

Race Restart

The officials set 15 minutes on the clock, and restarted us. I looked around and the front line was almost the same as when we started, lots of points leaders: Dave Z., Chad, Adam, Rob, and me.

After a little while they switched from time to 8 laps to go, and the countdown began. A Lenovo guy went off the front, but couldn't get much distance. Pretty hard to go off the front in a flat crit like that, but he lasted a lap or two I think.

With about three laps to go the pack was back together and my team mate Kyle came around the front and started to light it up. I could see what was happening (he was leading me out for the win!) immediately, so I jumped on his wheel. This was the time that would decide the winner, I figured.

One guy in an orange or red kit was between Kyle & I, but on the backstretch he dropped out, couldn't hold the pace. I could barely hold the pace myself but yelled "GO!!!" at Kyle, making sure he kept the gas on. We were doing close to 30 mph, or maybe more, and it was all I could do to hang on. I could only hope our high speeds were stringing out the pack, and setting everything up for a win.

Looking at the photos, the pack sure was strung out! Perfect.

This effort hurt, a lot, but I knew that there were only minutes left in the race. Time to empty the tank.

One lap to go, and it's still Kyle & I on the front, and he's turning the screws as they say. In the back of my head I'm just hoping we can hang on to this, and see what happens coming out of the last corner.

Sure enough we come into the final turn 1st & 2nd, and as we get into the finish straightaway I'm hoping people don't start swarming around us. Wasn't sure how much of a gap we had on the field, if any, but I know my sprint isn't award-winning so it was going to take a little gap to get me to the line.

Switched all the way to 53x12, and ground out the sprint up the slight uphill towards the line. Felt hugely over-geared and as if I was doing 60 rpms, but just held the gas as much as I could. Nobody was coming around yet!

I could hear the announcer calling the sprint and my name, and it certainly helped as motivation. Since Kyle is so fast I was almost afraid I wasn't going to be able to come around him, but slowly gained ground on him and finished with space between us, his hands in the air in celebration of our team's win.

(as a side note, I promise to buy these photos!)

(from the GCRacing FinishLynx camera)

Thanks a billion, Kyle! Couldn't have done it without your leadout. Team work in the 4/5's, who would have thought?

After crossing the line I closed me eyes and thought "HolyshitIcan'tbelieveIjustwonBallard!!!!!", then sat up and gave my victory salute: arms down but slightly out to the side, as if I were ascending into the sky at that very moment. I like to think of it as my "Cat 3 birth" in fact, as it give me the points I need to upgrade to the 3's!

After the race we did a cool-down lap I got to give a little interview over loudspeaker, that was pretty surreal.

If all this description of the race isn't enough for you, someone from the Bikesale.com team made a great video of the 4/5's race! (and a bunch of the other races too)

Race #4: Second Ascent Ballard Twilight Criterium Men Cat4/5 2010 from David Hose on Vimeo.

Won a Thompson seatpost & stem, along with some more free socks (I'm starting to get a collection of these). And of course bragging rights for the next year..

The other thing I got from the race was seven upgrade points, giving me 26 total! Since you only need 20 points to get to the Cat 3's I can upgrade now, something I thought would take years. (Some never get out of the 4/5's at all) I became a Cat 4 back in March, so it's taken about three months, I can't believe it. I think the whole "build/base/peak/race" training plan has worked out well! (7-12 hours per week these days, for the record, as I've been asked a lot about this lately)

Since I want to finish out the Cascadia Crit series as the 4/5's points leader by doing the Tacoma Twilight Crit next weekend, I'm going to be a "sandbagger" for that one race and stay a 4 for now. $125 goes to the overall winner in our category and I want that person to be me!

A message to Rob, Ian, Chad, Dave Z, Tim, Kyle, Jed, Adam, and everyone else I know in the 4's: get your asses up the 3's soon! I'm gonna need the company. But I'm looking forward to longer races that start later in the day, and "Cat 3" certainly has a nice ring to it..

From what I keep hearing it's not that much faster in the 3's, it's just that the surges are faster and the fields are deeper, and of course the races are longer (crits are one hour, road races are 60-90 miles). The worst it can do is make me faster.. also looking forward to racing with Jordan R., Mark, and Jordan L. that I've raced with previously. See you guys soon!

Stats

Ballard Crit 2010 (minus stoppage time)
Duration: 31:10 (38:18)
Work: 463 kJ
TSS: 51 (intensity factor 0.991)
Norm Power: 287w
VI: 1.16
Distance: 13.071 mi
Elevation Gain: 855 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1004 247 watts
Heart Rate: 121 198 182 bpm
Cadence: 16 121 81 rpm
Speed: 0 37? 25.1 mph (a tad faster than last year I think)
Crank Torque: 0 1695 243 lb-in

Thanks to all the volunteers & the Second Ascent team/shop for putting on this awesome race, and all my friends (Liz/Dennis, John, Rachel) that came out to race or watch! And of course to Kira for coming out and cheering me on. I'm so glad you were all there to see it.

Cascadia Crit Series: Leader!

2010-06-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

I was sitting 2nd place overall in the Cascadia Crit Series coming into the Seward Park race yesterday before this race. The third race out of six, Seward is a course I've done about 25 times since last season, so nothing new, but a big crowd and lots of motivated riders ready to tear it up.

I've been racing the 6 PM race there this year (the 3/4's field) which has provided extra challenge, so I was hoping doing a 4/5 field would be a tad easier. Maybe, but not by much!

The Race

Team mates Kyle & Chris were there, and Chris even went on a flier during the race, hoping to draw Counterbalance guy into a failed break, or something. Kyle later did the same later on, trying to wear out those eager to win from a break. And the whole time, I just sat up front and watched with glee.

As the final laps came around I made sure not to leave the top 10, but that was easier said than done, and coming into the final downhill I was probably about 15th. As we got to the flat-ish section the pack was together, waiting for someone to pounce. If nobody pounced most would happily cruise up to the top of the hill, and then light up the sprint.

But I've raced here enough times to know that the ones that win the sprint start before the climb, to get a gap on the field. A guy led me up the left side of the pack and then pulled off, and that's when I took my chance. I pounced. Already red-lining but the finish line is close, so I emptied the tank.

As I took the soft left on to the climb, I looked down and though to myslef, "Holy shit! I'm in first, and nobody has come around yet! I won finally!"

But it was too early to celebrate, and not long after cresting the hill at least one guy had already jumped beyond me, and I could hear others behind. The rest is kind of a blur but one more guy snuk around me towards the line, and I just held on the gas up to the line. Here are the three of us sprinting around the bend towards the line. (Note: I didn't coast in the sprint like I used to, that's for sure!)

Congrats to Jeff that took the win, he also beat me out in one of the points premes and is obviously strong. I looked around to see how Aaron on Counterbalance did, since he was 1st overall and leading me in points. Nowhere to be seen?? Later on someone said he had to pull out due to a mechanical issue or something. Sucks! Not the way I wanted to get on top of the overall podium but that's racing I guess.

On to the podium, where the top 5 in the race got $20 cash. Then the overall podium, and guess who's on top? Me!

In addition to a nice pair of socks and a water bottle & nuun tablets, I was also presented with a Leader's number to wear in the next race! Pretty sweet:

But it's not over yet, there's still Ballard & the Brad Lewis Crit to contend with this weekend!

Here we go...

Woodinville & Fremont Crits 2010

2010-05-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday - Woodinville 4/5 Crit

The first crit in the 6-race Cascadia Crit Series.

Rode 20 miles to the start up the Burke-Gilman, but got there way too early so it wasn't the best warm-up. Got there with 45 minutes or an hour until the race, so the course wasn't even all the way set up yet. Signed in and said hi to a few familiar faces: Rob, Alan, Chad, Tim, and even met a guy from the East Coast here for the race! I wonder how racing out here compares to over there..

Took a few practice laps in the wet, and got a feel for the course. 3 corners, almost flat. The word on the street was some man-hole cover and (slick) crosswalks in a few of the turns - and indeed they were there but weren't really a factor. The third/final turn kind of pinched from three lanes to two, so that made things interesting. And a gazillion white "turtles" in the middle of the lanes to boot.

Lined up in the front row for the first time, which I actually didn't like; our bars were so close it seemed like we were doomed to crash in the first few feet. Luckily I got off the line faster than most of those around me, or close enough, so it wasn't too chaotic.

Avoided all the turtles & man-hole covers in the corners, and generally just tried to stay in the top 20 from the get go. There were some prime laps, but the only ones I cared about were the (omnium) points primes - 5, 3, and 1 points for the top three on that lap.

We stayed together until the prime attacks came, and a Counterbalance guy eventually got off the front, and stayed out there solo! A few guys including me tried to bridge at one point, but couldn't hack it... he was generally unknown to the peloton, and we all thought he'd just come back. Never did.

Went for a omnium points prime and squeezed out one point from it. I think on that one I attacked before the third turn and got a little gap going into the third turn. Held off all but one Bikesale guy who came around me for 2nd place for points.

That gave me a good feel for just how long the final sprint was, and how fast I could go. Time to set up for the finish! And ignore any other primes that came along, no matter how tempting they might be.

The course was nice and wide, so when you wanted to move up you pretty much could, except for the final straight that was only two lanes wide and not so much space. But still enough to move around. I would essentially drift backwards over a few laps, then move up after the 1st turn on the inside before the next turn. Slight uphill there and people went pretty slow on that section.

It was at least 300m and slightly downhill from the 3rd corner to the finish, so I felt like I had no chance with a field sprint out of the corner... and also didn't want to fight for the apex of the turn with about 20 other people - I wanted to enter that final turn solo. The Counterbalance guy was somehow still off the front solo! He had at least a half-lap on us and was eventually out of sight.

On the last lap I lit up my sprint in an all-out 1k-attack of sorts, in between the 1st & 2nd turns. Didn't look back, just concentrated on going as hard as I could.. on the next leg of the course, which was felt slightly downhill, I already felt like I wanted to give up but didn't hear anyone behind me so I coasted for two seconds and kept on grinding.

And sure enough I went through that turn alone, though I figured guys were closing in from behind. I felt like I wanted to go into it much faster but since it was wet I just did the best I could.

So at this point I'm already turning myself inside-out, and the 300m+ sprint was about to start.. two guys came around me about 100m from the line, and I was just waiting for the rest of the field to come around.

But as you can see in the photo below we had a decent gap! Came in for 4th place.

An image of the power output for that last minute or so - as you can see there was an initial jump (at 1000+ watts), another little one after the next corner, and then another sprint after the final corner.
(yellow = power, red = heart rate, orange/brown = elevation, blue = speed)

4th place, lots of omnium points, 3 upgrade points, and my first real winnings in a race: $35 gift certificate to a bike shop!! I might just frame it.

Huge thanks to Rob for giving me a ride home after the race! Even though I brought another kit for the way back my shoes were soaked and I really didn't feel like doing the BG Trail again. Gotta save energy for tomorrow's race..

Sunday - Fremont Crit Cat 4/5's

Another 3-corner affair, but flatter and on "city streets" in Fremont (read: cracked pavement, some nice gaps, reflectors, man-hole covers, etc). When I got up early in the morning it was sunny and I thought this was going to be a more comfortable affair.

But by the time I rolled out towards the race there was a light drizzle. So be it.

Got there with enough time to sign in and do a few warm-up laps. The race was right next to the outdoor movie theater & close to the Fremont Market, a great setting for a crit.

The first turn was indeed interesting, kind of like the 130-degree turn at Seward Park. The back stretch was long-ish, and featured some nice old/wet leaves or something in the right lane that looked nice and slippery.

Turn two had a manhole cover and led to a hugely-cracked short stretch that led to the final turn and a short sprint to the finish line. Cool.

More familiar faces & got to chat with the Counterbalance guy that won our crit the day before. Congratulated him on holding us all off, and he said he was surprised by it! Also said it put the hurt on his legs and when I asked him if he was going again he laughed and said probably not. I told him I'd be on his wheel if he went this time..

Kyle & Ian were there and we lined up together in the third row or so. I joked about how not many in the field will clip in well and how we'd have to dodge lots of them, and sure enough it seemed like most guys were still fiddling with their cleat while I was ready to get it on. (I'm using Speedplays, very easy to get into, no need to look)

Eventually we got up to speed and hit the first turn. I was probably in the back half of the pack at this point (out of 60 or so starters), and just hung on for a while to see how the course was and figure out where to move up.

After a few laps I made a little jump up the right side on the backstretch (ironically where all the dirt/leaves/slippery stuff was), and slotted into the top 10 or so.

Pulled for a lap or two, and when on the front I made sure not to push too hard, since people will always come around when you start going too slow. I used to hammer once on the front, which is OK to do sometimes, but can be a big waste of energy sometimes too.

A points prime lap came and I found myself going for it, and getting 3rd in it for one point. Not surprisingly it was the Counterbalance guy and Dave Z that beat me out for 1st. Seemed like not long after that the announcer said it was time for another prime and I wasn't quite recovered yet from the last one, so I shook my head in mock disgust. The announcer saw this and said "Even if you shake your head!" or something, kinda funny.

I let people go for that one and just hung on, losing spots but knowing it would cool down a bit after the prime was over. Sure enough we came back together and I found my spot back in the top 5 or so.

At one point I attacked coming through the final straight, and held it for a bit, and the Counterbalance guy bridged up. But I could barely hold his wheel, and knew I just didn't have the legs to stay off the front at that speed. Had to drop back to the pack.

Soon after Ian, another strong guy on my team, went off the front in one of his favorite moves: attacking.

Later on in the race the Couterbalance guy was off the front with Kyle, a strong youngin' on my team. They stayed out there for a while, but they eventually came back. It seemed like the Coutnerbalance guy was stronger than all of us, and was in every break attempt.

Towards the end of the race it seems like I heard about three crashes behind us in corner one, that's where most of the action was.

In the final few laps I was in decent position (top 5 or so), and when the final lap came I was setting up for something good. (weren't we all?)

But coming into turn two, a hothead came up on the inside (yelling "INSIDE!!!" as if that really makes a difference..) and jammed our three or four-person paceline to the outside, causing commotion and yelling/cursing. Coming up on the inside out of nowhere in a turn is a common tactic that commonly causes crashes.

Coming out of that turn the guy in front of me started get really bad speed-wobble, so bad he even unclipped and I figured the race was over and we're going down. Dammit. Somehow he save it(!!!) and I came around him, but had to slow down if not brake a bit, ruining any chances of a top three in this one.

Coming out of the last turn the race winners were far up ahead, but I wanted to at least get some upgrade points out of all this. So I put in my best effort, and just barely passed Adam from Arrivee before the line. It felt like a good effort but I was but I was sprinting for 5th instead of 1st. Got 5th, not bad but not what it should have been...

Kyle from my team won it! He just barely beat out the Counterbalance guy at the line: (click for sequence)

So now I sit 2nd overall in the Omnium points standings! Won some socks, my second-ever item won from bike racing. I'll call that progress... next step, cash!

Oh and 5th earned me two more upgrade points, so that's five for the weekend and 15 overall - if my calculations are correct. Cat 3 used to seem like next-to-pro, but it's starting to seem less intimidating. I always thought it would take me years to get there, but it looks like I should be able to get there by the season's end or early next year. The upgrade will probably send me to the back of the pack, but I'm thinking racing with faster/better racers can only make me faster/better.

Before I do upgrade I'd like to get a win though! Let's see if I can do that at Seward on Thursday, Ballard on Saturday, or Boat Street on Sunday.

(photos by wheelsinfocus)

Coming Soon To A Corner Near You: 2010 Cascadia Crit Series

2010-05-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

Starting this weekend is a 6-race Criterium series centered on Seattle. What else can I say but, YES!!

In years past most of these races already existed but were run separately and in different times of the year. The Brad Lewis Memorial Crit was in April last year (I think) and it rained a ton, turnout was low. But holding them in late May/early June should yield much better turnout.. (though nobody would be surprised if it does rain on at least one or two of these races - indeed it's wet here on the morning of the Woodinville crit)

These races are also being run as an Omnium, so you can accrue points be doing each race and placing well. I'm hoping for some omnium points and upgrade points during this series - so many points for the taking! Even some cash in a few of our Cat 4 races. But more than cash, I'd like to add to my 10 points (out of 20) on the we to the Cat 3 upgrade.

Anyway here are some notes about each race in the series:

Race #1: Woodinville Twilight Crit, Saturday May 29th 2010

Wide, fast and flat .8 mile, 3 corner course with approximately 15 ft of elevation per lap. Surface is good to excellent blacktop with some traffic marking turtles. Race will run clockwise on the course.

From looking at the course map & description I feel like this isn't a nasty tight crit that I excel in - sounds like a open & flat course, wide sweeping turn in lieu of turn 4 and a looong sprint from the last corner - not my kinda course . But I can't wait to do kick off this series in a few hours!

Race #2: Fremont Twilight Criterium, Sunday May 30th

Fremont Criterium is a 3 corner fast criterium. Direction will be counter clockwise. See map for more details.

This one seems more up my alley - what I imagine/hope are broken up roads, and there are two tight turns, ahh yes, this is where those of us without huge power/speed, but better handling skills, can succeed. I hope.

Race #3: Seward Park Classic, Thursday June 3rd

Located inside the Seward Park this .8 mile of a loop features smooth wide roads with one 140 degree turn and a hill approx. 200 meters long. Course direction will depend on weather day of event.

A classic indeed - in my 1+ year of racing I've done this course almost 40 times! I just hope we go clock-wise, when I seem to do better. We'll see.

Emerald Sprints, Friday June 6th

400 meters of roller racing: flat, fast and one gear!!

If (Cascadia Crit) racers can beat someone in a roller race, the next three races are free! Or if you can beat out a racer, you get $$$! I'll probably just rest though.

Race #4: Ballard Twilight Crit, Saturday June 5th

1 Kilometer - 4 corner Criterium course on city streets. On a slight side hill.

To be honest this is one of my "A" (e.g. priority) races, something that's been in my mind since racing it last year. Broken and/or uneven pavement, four 90-degree turns, this is one I want to do well at. Should be able to do better than last year's 13th placing.. then again a lot of luck goes into finishing a race like that (89 starters, 29 finishers last year!)

Race #5: Brad Lewis Memorial/Boat Street Crit, Sunday June 6th

A 3 corner technical criterium located near the University of Washington. The course distance is approximately 1K and goes in a clockwise direction. Racers will be starting on N.E. Boat St turning right onto N.E. Pacific St then turning right onto Brooklyn Ave N.E. before making their way back to thr start/finish line.

This is one I've wanted to do since about 2004, even before I started racing. I've gone and watched it a few times, including in 2008, and it's always a blast to watch. The laps are pretty quick and you get to see lots of action.

The 2010 BLMC is also the race my team (Recycled Cycles) is putting on, so I get to volunteer in my first race! Actually kind of excited to get a chance to "give back" to the racing community, as well as looking forward to doing the 4/5's race without much of a warm-up.

Race #6: Tacoma Twilight Crit, Saturday June 12th

This is an exciting 8 corner course going in a counter clockwise direction. See course map for details!

A little further outside of town, but the end of the series and eight corners?! I'll try to be there, sounds like a blast.

So yeah, crit season is here and now's your chance to get in on the action! In the words of former president Bush: "Bring it on."

See you on the road!

Wenatchee Omnium 2010: First Podium!

2010-05-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

The Wenatchee Omnium had been on my calendar for a few months, and since it was a relatively big regional event I made it an "A" race, e.g. one that I targeted specifically. Besides planning to crush souls there I also trained for it by building up in the weeks leading to it and then tapering off a bit in the last few days before it.

I figured an overall win was out of my reach since the TT isn't my strongest race, and I'm not so hot racing up a 5-mile climb either. But I figured I could squeeze some points out of the criterium by getting a top 6 in it.

Saturday AM: 9 mile Time Trial

Josh & I had ridden the out-and-back TT course the day before, which was great so we could see just what we had in store, given it wasn't completely flat, but instead featured some rolling hills. And wind. He pointed out the tailwind on the way out and how it's apparently always like that around here.. while this makes for a fun out-leg, the return trip is a bit slower..

A shot of the road out to the TT:

It was about 10 miles outside of town, and since Josh's Cat 3 race wasn't until way later in the day, I just rode out to the start for a good warm-up. It was a perfect day, not too hot, and sure enough the same wind out of the west was there.

Got to the start with plenty of time, and went to the parking lot to find Todd & JC, along with other team mates. After some chit chat I went back out on to Malaga-Alcoa Hwy and got in an OK warm-up, but I've really not been giving them enough attention, especially when it comes to TT's.

Noting that it was close to start time for me (9:18) I somehow got there with about a minute to spare, jumping in front of the line of riders waiting to go off. Just in time, that'll get the heart pumping!

After an OK start I was off, not having any power data since the batteries were out and I'd yet to replace them, just going off of heart rate. I felt pretty good on the way out, and kept the HR around 171 or so, though looking back I should have paced harder on the way out given the downhill-ishness of the course and the tailwind.

I had my 30-second man in sight, and was gaining on him as I went. As we came to the turn-around cone at 4.5 miles I was perhaps only a few bike-lengths behind him! But as we turned around the headwind and uphill slopes hit and I no longer felt like I was putting in good time. In fact, I wasn't! Whether or not pacing was good on the way out, I just couldn't push hard enough to gain on my guy without red-lining. Probably due to bad aero (only using clip-ons) and not enough (functional) threshold.

In the end I lost contact with the 30 second guy and was never passed, passed a few others, which pretty much says it was an average TT. It was. 23:51 or something for 25th place... lots of room for improvement there! (the winner in Cat 4 was 21-minutes and some change)

Saturday PM: 25-minute Criterium

For me this was the real chance for points and maybe even a win. Our hotel was a few blocks from the downtown crit course so I got a chance to check out the Cat 5 race, and get a feel for the course which I hadn't seen before.

The marshal at corner 2 said he'd specifically requested that corner since it's "where all the action is" - and by action he meant crashes! I could see why, it was all cracked with two sewage-covers with nice big tire-size holes in them. One guy at the corner, who was apparently also one of the race organizers, was giving me tips on how to come through tight in the corner - which was not what we were watching the 5's do. They were taking a slower, perhaps safer, outside line that sent you over the same cracks anyway. Something to think about when I raced later at 4:25 or so.

Here's a few shots of corner 2 so you can get a feel:

And a shot of the broken-up pavement & manhole covers...

Actually the races were running behind, which made me think I had more time than I did to warm up, which put me at the back of the pack. Lined up next to a team mate JC, and we joked about how bad our TT times were, and I told him that's OK, this is the race for us! He's also pretty good at crits and I was happy to have him in the race.

The whistle was blown and we were off - well, some of us were. A few rows up at least one guy couldn't clip in, and was stuck looking down at their feet, fumbling to clip in. The opposite of a good start in a crit, but I've gotten pretty good at going around them at the start of crits.

Settled into the middle of the pack or so, and got a feel for the course. The 5% downhill leading into corner 2 gave you plenty of speed to just jam over all the cracks and stuff, but boy did our bikes make some interesting noises there! It took confidence in your equipment and cornering ability to make it over that corner without slowing each lap.

In fact that nasty corner was where I made up the most ground each time, taking the inside line just as the organizer had earlier suggested. Then on the (also rough) back stretch we would jam at a good 27-30 mph, hitting the 3rd turn into a 5% uphill that had its share of cracks in it.

Coming up the hill on the backside into corner 4 my rear wheel was skipping around almost every time, looking bad I should have just stayed seated there. And I liked taking the outside line there, instead of jamming up the inside and coming into the turn slower.

After the uphill and fourth corner, it was on to the home stretch, a slight 1% uphill grade. I just hung on for the first few laps, since my warm-up wasn't quite good enough and the start of this race hurt more than it should have.

After recovering a little, I decided it was time to move up - only 25 minutes of racing to be done here, so there wasn't a ton of time to set up for the end. So about halfway through the race I used the wide-open home stretch to jump and move up to the top 10 of the pack. Looking back this little effort was enough to set up for the later podium, and without it I would have had to work harder later or come in 10th place.

Now in the top 10 I even found my way to the pointy end of the race a few times, leading our pack through the finish straight. When that happened I would make sure not to do too much work, since there was a headwind there and there was no point in doing a bunch of work to make us all faster for that little stretch. Sometimes it felt ridiculously slow at the front, but I reminded myself it was about me resting and being in a good spot, not looking strong.

The last five or so laps came, and I just maintained my spot in the top 5-10. One guy tried to get a break-away going, or something, but nobody wanted (or could) go with him.

One lap to go, and we're all still together. Turn three comes, and I'm in the top five! In pain and at or above 185 bpm, but I remind myself there's less than a minute left, how bad could it be? Turn four comes, the final turn, and it's time for the straight-away. The home stretch!

The announcer was yelling of course but I didn't hear anything, it was all I could do to keep the pedals turning and just shoot for the line. Passed one or two guys (I think) on the way to the line, and saw the guy in front of me let up a bit, but it was too late.

But I came in 3rd in the end! Yay for me, all this training and racing finally paid off, though it wasn't a win.. that's next on the radar, and well within reach I think.

Was sitting 5th overall GC after the TT/Crit, but knew the RR the next day was gonna be tough.

Sunday AM: 44-mile Road Race

Oh boy, what to say here? There was a five-mile climb (5.5% avg. grade) and I got dropped going up it the first time (we were only doing two laps). Great views, but dammit it hurt going up! Pretty fun going down, but could only get up to 45 mph or so, no real super speeds on the way down. Rode with some stragglers and chatted a bit, finished the ride to not get a DNF (don't have any so far).

Came in 34th (out of 55?) overall somehow, minutes behind the finishers.. not my day, that's for sure!

But was happy with the crit placing the day before, so not too big a let down, or even a surprise.

Came in 10th overall GC.

Photos & Videos

http://genesbmx.t35.com/05-15-2010/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n40fJRxZ4uI&feature=related
http://sports.webshots.com/album/577691781Pjazzg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabikr/sets/72157623953160161/ - my photos from the crit & on the way to the TT, some videos too.

(sorry for getting this post out a week late, I've been lazy!)

Getting Ready for the Wenatchee Omnium

2010-05-13T00:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend is another multi-day race, the Wenatchee Omnium. I like the multi-day races since I hope I have a little advantage in the recovery from day-to-day riding given my randonneur background. (And future - I promise I'll see some of you SiR's at some point this summer!)

Stage Race vs Omnium?

Glad you asked. A stage race is ranked off of accumulated time (like le Tour or Giro), whereas an omnium is done from points. And you have to finish all stages within 20% of the winner's time in a stage race, whereas you don't even have to do all of the events in an omnium.

And to make things even more confusing, this race is labeled the "Wenatchee Valley Velo Omnium Stage Race 2010" - anyway this is an omnium we're doing. You get points for each start, and points also go 10-deep for each race.

Here's what the schedule looks like:

Saturday

9 mile morning TT - I hate TT's, though I know I need to get better at 'em if I have any plans to compete in the 3's. And if I get better at TTing, perhaps that would make me better at break-aways too?

25 min afternoon criterium - I guess you could say if any of the basic formats of road bike racing (TT, crit, road race) this is the one I excel at. Shooting for at least a top 5 like at Walla Walla.

Sunday
44 mi RR - normally I go into a road race thinking there's no good reason I shouldn't be in the top 10, if not better, at the end of it. But when the road turns upwards for an extended period of time, the outlook changes a bit. (I can climb, but not that great at it)

I mean take a look at the road race route/profile! (click the "Show Elevation" checkbox in the upper-right of the map) That's about five miles of sustained climbing, 5-7% grades. Ugh.

Oh and a 15% grade kicker for 100 meters! This is gonna be.... a challenge.

Hopefully in the end I'll have a good story to tell though, stay tuned.

Ravensdale/Joe Bar Road Race 2010

2010-05-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

We were only doing five 9-mile laps in this "Joe Bar/Native Plant Road Race", and the plan was to attack on the beginning of the last lap. (And then win of course)

Started in the back, and stayed there for the first two laps, watched a group of 5-6 go up the road briefly but they came back. The course wasn't as hilly as billed I thought, but a big pothole (4x2') on the right side of the road on the backside of the course surprised a few riders each lap, causing a few flats and more than a few surprises.

It was hard to move up, with 68 starters and some sections with no shoulder, just one country lane. Last lap comes and just as I'm about to attack we get neutralized (p/1/2 break passing), damn.. then on the other side of the course we got neutralized, again, as the p/1/2 pack passed us.

On The Edge

In the last few miles of the race I was trying to move up (as most of us were) and got stuck on the left side, just (barely) to the right of the yellow line - which is actually two yellow lines, with reflectors on each side, dividing the lanes of the road. The "yellow line rule" was in effect, meaning you can't cross the line or else you will be DQ'd. Only exception to that is if you have to go around a wreck, or if it's the last 200m of the race.

So I was kind of riding on the reflectors more or less, but not on the line or to the left of the reflectors. I knew it was close to being a violation of the rule, and every once in a while I'd be pushed out over the line - but there was nowhere to go, it wasn't exactly easy to hold this position, and there was nowhere to go. So I stuck it out, bouncing over reflectors and just waiting for the final sprint.

Crash

A crash happened just in front of me and to the right - someone later said the guy just kind of leaned into the rider next to him, and that they both went down. And then some people next to them went down, and I came really close to getting taken out myself. It seems so random, like you can be taken out at any time.. but then again there are usually some "sketchy" riders that I just try to stay in front of.

Anyway after that I had to chase a little bit, only for a 10 seconds or so, but the last thing I wanted to do right before the uphill-ish last 1k to the finish was to chase. After coming out of the last (hard) corner, there was a bigger gap than I was expecting, as who ever was in front probably jammed it right out of the turn while I didn't even get through it until a second or two later. That can be a long two seconds!

Caught up to the group at the base of the finish climb and looked forward to see more people up there than I'd expected, maybe about 30. So much for the plans, now just charge on and see if I can squeeze out a top 10 from this, or more who knows. Maintained contact on the climb, which was a stair-step of sorts, and thought more about attacking. I can't sprint all that well, so that might have to be the way to go for me to get a win.

After the first step of the climb the group seemed to take a collective breath and slowed up a bit, and I did too. Resting before the final sprint. I thought about initiating the jump there, but I was already at 187 bpm or so (95% Max HR), and the thought of going hard from that point for a minute plus was not appealing. So I rested as well, and hit the 200m sign in the pack. Here we go again... a field sprint, though there were only 20 or so of us at this point, we'd thinned out a good deal since the beginning.

Lit up a sprint with the pack, though the legs were cooked from previous efforts, and I probably only got off a few revolutions before I had to sit down and grind it out from there. It was kind of crowded (I should have jumped in the other lane, duh) and I had to ease off in the last 100m and pretty much give up, it wasn't worth pushing on for what I thought was 10th place, but I ended up coming in 18th overall. Not bad considering 68 starters, but not a win or even a top 10, I'll just have to chalk it up to decent training and another race without a DNF.

Lesson learned: next time, attack before you think you need to attack! Or if you get neutralized, attack shortly after that. And get further up before the sprint, no point in trying to pick your way through a crowd of riders.

Data

Joe Bar/Market Street RR Cat 4:
Duration: 1:59:08
Work: 1267 kJ
TSS: 132.5 (intensity factor 0.817)
Norm Power: 237
VI: 1.34
Distance: 47.014 mi
Elevation Gain: 3600 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 989 177 watts
Heart Rate: 119 192 158 bpm
Cadence: 17 128 75 rpm
Speed: 0.9 65.2 23.6 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1744 196 lb-in

Final 1.1 miles (341 watts/187bpm) - "why didn't I just go faster?"
Duration: 2:56
Work: 60 kJ
TSS: 8 (intensity factor 1.282)
Distance: 1.135 mi
Elevation Gain: 170 ft
Grade: 2.4 % (143 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 740 341 watts
Heart Rate: 170 193 187 bpm
Cadence: 38 114 79 rpm
Speed: 2.8 32 23.4 mph
Crank Torque: 0 791 375 lb-in

Photos

Found some photos from the early morning races and some of the afternoon races as well, though not many of our pack: on SmugMug. I was hiding in the pack pretty much all day so not expecting any great shots from this one..

Note: thanks to the vast resources of Recycled Cycles Racing, I was able to acquire a Raleigh Supercourse frame for a nice price. Rolling again! Might repair the other Raleigh later, we'll see.

Michelob Ultra Circuit Race 2010: First Crash

2010-05-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

I was signed up for a class out at the track, but rain was threatening and I felt like doing this race instead.. a circuit race out across The Sound, in Glenwood, Wa. (initial confusion offered by Google put this near Mt. Rainier, way far away! Luckily it was just a drive out to the Port Orchard area)

Seven of us loaded in the Recycled Cycles Van and headed south to drive around The Sound via the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Cool temps, gray skies & little sprinkles on the way down reminded us this isn't SoCal, but then the sky returned to its dry gray and we were reminded this is indeed racing in the Pacific Northwest. Rain or shine, let's do it.

The Course

The course started off on a slight downhill, leading to an easy right turn and then we started the undulations. Just as the profile showed, there was plenty of ups and downs here, but nothing lasting longer than 30 seconds or so. "A course for punchy riders" I think the flyer said, and I thought that sounded good for me and my riding style. Looking back I'm not even sure what "punchy" means, and whatever it is I need to train my punchyness..

But for some reason circuit races just aren't my thing. I can hang in long and slow(er) road races, and short and blazing-fast crits. But the circuit race is somewhere in between, you basically go fast for an hour and a half or so, the laps going by quickly and the speed not letting up all that much. My worst placings last year was definitely at the late-summer circuit races, usually it was the top-end speed coming through the finish that would almost drop me, putting me at 35th place or worse.

The Race

Short neutral rollout and then we were off to a nice pace. Most everyone was smooth, with a few notable exceptions (in fact even a "repeat offender" from Vance Creek!), and the riding was nice until we got on the short but steep-ish climbs. Not that I really wanted to climb all that fast, but we would just jam into the backs of riders slowing in front of us, and have to climb at a crawl it felt. Shouldn't be surprising, as this is the way the pack-dynamic works - those in the front slow down as they hit the hill, but still in the draft you end up having to brake to not hit their wheels.

Trying to Get Away

About 20 minutes into the race we were on the backside on the slight 2-3% uphill, doing what felt like a ridiculously slow pace all of a sudden, I think it was 16-17 mph. So I worked up the left side, and put in a dig to make separation, my new favorite past time in bike racing. It was early in the race, probably too early, but this is a great test of how the legs feel. And people will generally let you go since it's a doomed mission 95% of the time anyway..

Sure enough, while the pace seemed "ridiculously slow" while in the pack, it was taking 190 bpm (my max is 196-200 bpm, mind you) to stay off the front, and all of a sudden being in the pack felt like a better idea.

Looked back, had a gap, rested a bit, but the HR wasn't going down. Yikes, not a good sign for the longevity of the solo break.. get back in the pack! Tried to go once more on a different lap in about the same spot, but just couldn't hold it.

Team mate Ian went off the front once or twice, and Jason did too. I wanted to go again but didn't have the legs, and I actually cramped a bit on the 2nd to last lap, that sucked. Was just hanging on for the finish towards the end, really didn't feel like I had anything to offer at the end.

The Crash!

The last lap came, and there was still one rider pretty far up the road, and given my position in the pack and his big gap, I'd pretty much given up on the catch, just wanted to see what happened in the sprint for 2nd place.. well a lot happened.

We took the last corner, jammed it and got ready for the slightly downhill, the pack speeding up to at least 35 mph I'm sure, getting ready for the sprint. We were close to the 1k to go sign, or maybe just past it, and with thoughts focused on the field sprint ahead all of a sudden there was commotion in the pack ahead, and a big crash, right in front of me.

Slammed on the brakes, skidding, fishtailing a little.. I remember at least one bike on its side in front of me, and just not wanting to run over it or its rider, who was also on the ground, sliding. For a split second I thought I'd saved it once again, but ran out of space and before I knew it my front wheel was swept out from under me, and I too was on the ground. I think I landed on a bike or two, not sure.

The next thought was "am I gonna get hit next?!" and I glanced up to see people slamming on their brakes, but somehow nobody fell on me. Then I thought, "Wow, it finally happened."

Actually my first thought was probably "DAMMIT." The top 12 or so missed the crash, but just about everyone behind that was either on the ground or having to go around the mayhem. And given a few sketchy riders I witnessed during the whole race, I wasn't too surprised it happened. Even more motivation to get to the Cat 3's, where I don't think a big stupid crash would happen like this.

In the end I really have only myself to blame for being a Cat 4 and not being in a winning position (top 10) in the last 1k of the race anyway.

Looking at the Garmin data, I think I was only stationary for about five seconds, then I got rolling again! Felt longer, I guess everything does at 180+ bpm.. didn't notice the gash on my shin, the big hole in my bibs on my hip, or the small blood spot on my elbow, I just wanted to finish this damn thing.

After crossing the line I saw Rob from Second Ascent puking on the other side of the road - what a race! I love the carnage. He was on the front a ton during the race, and stayed up there to stay out of trouble and come in somewhere around top 10. That's what I should've been doing..

The Results

Somehow came in for 25th (out of 80+ total in the 4/5's field, lots of DNFs though) overall, which was surprising given I was on the ground.

The Raleigh Prestige got a big ol' gash on the top tube, you can see the carbon weave and it's soft to the touch.. sounds like it's repairable but I'm not sure I want to race on a carbon frame I repaired.. (I can even hear it shearing just by grabbing the seat & bars, not good)

Looking to get my hands on another Raleigh and get back out there, Ravensdale road race this weekend, then Wenatchee the weekend after! Gotta get them points and get up to the Cat 3's.

Vance Creek Road Race 2010

2010-04-26T11:21:00.001-07:00

Staging for this race is at the terminated* Satsop nuke plant, quite the scene to get you motivated to ignite your legs for some solid NW road racing. 53 miles for the Masters 30+ 4/5's (read: old and beginners - yikes!)

Took some pics before the race (click for larger):

More pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabikr/sets/72157623932930286/. Video of the Cat 3 winner coming in after 80 miles - solo no less!

Found some better photos of the Women's 1/2 race, Men's Cat 3, Men's Masters 30+ 4/5, and Men's 1/2 race.

The Race

Pre-race instructions included the note that "For some reason this [Masters 30+ Cat 4/5] field has had the most crashes this year - people moving into spaces that don't exist, etc. Keep it safe, fellas."

While I seem to always hear that Masters fields are "smoother & safer," this note from the race director was not a good sign. And indeed, there was a lot of sketchyness, but in the end I don't think anyone ever went down in this race.

We started on a downhill and there wasn't much of a neutral rollout, we just dove right into it. I don't mind descending in the pack, even at speeds close to 50 mph, but when you spot someone up ahead who is wobbly or "sketchy" doing that speed, all you can do is hope nothing bad happens. A crash that happens right in front of you can be really tough to avoid. And with gravel on the shoulder, it would be all too easy to take the wrong line and go down on it. Plenty of opportunities for mis-haps, but we came out in one piece.

We were doing four 13-mile loops, so we got plenty of time to see the course, and scope out the finishing climb. On the flat & windy section on the backside of the course, we were on a tiny farm road (smelled like farms too!) that was just about one lane wide.

First time through I was mid-pack and we hit a little patch of gravel, and I saw a guy's bike fishtail a bit, he'd hit the brakes.. lots of yelling & jostling up ahead... "Ugh, here we go," I thought.. sometimes I long for the velodrome, where you have no brakes and can't do stupid stuff like that. (no gravel there either)

The way people were yelling "GRAVEL!" and swerving all over the place, I thought it was a real patch of missing road - but on the second time through, I could see it was just a small island of gravel, not that big of a deal. But somehow enough to scare half the field half to death in the first 20 minutes of the race! Nerves I suppose.

The pace through the farm area the first time around seemed ridiculously slow, like 17-19 mph on flat, but it was windy and I wasn't up front so I didn't care too much. Nobody was off the front, so there was no rush I guess.

I was just trying to keep track of what speeds the pack was doing where, to get an idea of what I needed to do if/when I went off the front.

We got back to the finish climb, which was rolling hills then led to a 1km or so 3-5% grade, followed by a short 10%+ kicker leading to a false flat where the finish line was. Then some winding roads next to the Development Park, then back to the downhill. It was a day for the big ring indeed.

Break-away attempt

On the second lap there were two riders off the front, but not too far, attempting to get away. They looked pretty good, like this might be "the winning move", and I was in good position (about 10 wheels back) so I shot up the right side of the road, full sprint/1000+ watts/30+ mph, and bridged up to them. While bridging a guy from the red/black team (Olympia Orthopedics) was also bridging, at first sitting on my wheel, but I waved him through.

I think there was already one of his guys in the break, and maybe he was trying to just sit on my wheel and screw up my chances of staying in the break? (Covering the attack as they say)

We got up to the two other guys, and started hammering, but then I got caught in that damn catch-22 of bridging: I just red-lined bridging up here, and you want me to pull through?!! Doing 30 mph and getting your turn to pull, when close to red-lining, is not the best feeling. So I would just pull through, but weakly.

Just do what I could, even a weak pull was better than nothing. Then when I felt like resting, I just wouldn't pull through, even if they were verbally protesting. What do I care? It seemed like the Orthopedics guy was taking really short pulls right in front of me, leaving gaps, etc - all the classic tactics.

I've read in racing tactics books that if you want to lose a rider from the break, you get them on your wheel then open gaps between you and the wheel in front - then close then gap, and immediately pull off - making your "target" work harder than they should have to. Or maybe these two "Masters" were just that much stronger than me, and I was outclassed. But I felt like I was being worked over! Like they were teaming up on me... probably not but it felt that way.

We worked as much as we could together, but once on the flat & windy section, pulling through was tough. Really tough. Looking back the pack was catching up, but we still had a gap. 20-miles to go, hmmm. Chances not looking good. The original guy in the break was trying to coach us (or at least me) on. I'm saying I'm done, he says, "Let's just go at 80%, no need to give up completely."

While possibly true, I knew that he wasn't racing with my interests in mind. He just wanted an easier ride to the finish line.. Can't blame him, that's racing. I would do the same with a weaker rider with me in a break, no doubt. It's racing.

Before too long the pack caught up, our break only lasted a few miles. All the better though, I was ready for some recovery. Back in the shelter of the peloton, took some more sips of water, ate a gel. Now the plan turned into sit in and wait.

The Rest of the Race

A the beginning of the last lap, things sped up a bit as expected. On the flat/windy/farmy section one rider, guy I met but can't remember his name, went off the front in a well-time attack about 10k before the finish. He looked pretty strong, but if I had to guess I would say a lot of guys just let him go since he was unattached. Then by the time you realize he's got a nice gap, it's too big to bridge up to and you just have to see what happens..

Josh - strong team mate of mine who is about to be a Cat 3 - saw the opportunity and went for it. I heard grumbles of "they'll come back." from the pack, but it was hard to say. Would they? I knew I would come back if I tried, but hopefully Josh was fresher.

Casting Doubt

I think Byrne/Invent had one guy in the break at one point as well, but he came back to the pack before too long. Then his team was trying to organize a chase (their "leader" was yelling at someone to attack, but to no avail - I felt like asking him "why don't you attack?!"), but there was doubt in their minds, I could sense it.

I heard someone from Byrne (or maybe the red/black team, also with big numbers in this race) lament on the big gap opening between us and the break, and how they were about to hit a tailwind.

So I chimed in with "Oh yeah they're so far up there - we're racing for 3rd now! It's over guys, sorry." Just trying to put even more doubt in their minds. Hoping they would just give up the chase and settle for something other than a "W".

We could still see the break, but they were doing a decent speed, apparently faster than us. They were working harder than I was, this much I knew. The finish climb was coming up, so I suppose everyone in the pack was just hoping they'd come back as a result.

Since I had a team mate up in the break, I just made sure not do any work bringing us up to them, and sprinkled in a little trash-talk for good measure. Just sit in and wait to see if we caught them - and if so, go. Another option would have been to go up front and "block", but I wasn't ready to physically get in the way, just mentally.

We got on the final long-ish climb, and I was up front, perhaps 5th wheel. Nothing too grueling, we were all "saving up" for that final climb, though some teams were still giving chase, but still nothing serious. Even so, my previous break-away effort was wearing on me, I didn't have much left in the tank.

Final 1k

Once we got to the 1km-to-go sign the pace picked up, and I was maybe 10th wheel now, getting above 180 bpm (when it starts to hurt for me) and thinking about how I can't believe it's about to get steeper, then we're going to sprint! Looking up the line of bikes, that 15-20 feet seemed like too far a gap to close, when going uphill.

Just tried to use as little energy as possible, and match the pace.

I was holding good position, but the win was out of the question anyway, I figured. Still, points were up for grabs for 1st-9th places, so don't give up yet. People will fizzle on the final kick, and I was counting on passing a few of them when that happened.

Final Sprint

Near the right turn which is the steep kicker and the 200m sprint point, an unattached guy(?) came up the left side, going faster than our little paceline. Dammit! Just when I think I'm saving up for the final sprint, I have to go earlier than I wanted to - isn't that always the case?

I should have been able to respond, but felt somewhat out of gas (looking back, only took on one gel during the race + Cytomax, not a huge amount of calories) and just couldn't do it. Hold position, don't go too far backwards, was all I could think.

We hit the short/steep climb in the final 200m, and a new Cat 4 on Recycled Cycles, Erin, was in front of me looking strong - I figured Josh had already finished 1st or 2nd, but was hoping for at least another RCR in the top 10. Erin's gears started popping like metallic popcorn, at exactly the wrong time. I had visions of having to put a foot down and walk this section, but I was barely able to squeeze around him and continue my "sprint."

There were a few people up the road, and Jordan was on the left spectating, yelling at me to finish the sprint, which really did help. Well if someone was watching then I at least had to come in strong!

So I got a second wind, too bad there was only about 40m to go - one guy was about to cross the line, but I gave it all I had, and just barely beat him out for 9th. Just as he was looking over his shoulder no less - sorry bud, I needed that point!

Josh got 2nd, which gave him the points needed to upgrade to the 3's. I think their break was caught at the line after all - still, helluva show by Recycled Cycles Racing!

Still not sure if Masters races count for USAC upgrades (I've heard it both ways, but nothing official), but hopefully they do count, and I got one more point! That gives me 6 out of 20 towards the Cat 3 upgrade (and 4/10 top tens).

Huge thanks to Jordan for the ride down there! And of course thanks to the organizers for making it happen. It was a great race.

"Thursday Night World Championships" - Seward Park 4/22/2010

2010-04-22T23:28:00.001-07:00

The biggest and baddest names in Category 3 & 4 WSBA racing showed up for the 6 PM race today. I heard someone in the pack say, "there's something in the air tonight" and he was right - most of us failed at meeting goals the previous week at Walla Walla most likely, and felt a refreshed sense of urgency to get That Win.

The air was cool, a little too much since I was only in shorts and a jersey - left the door in a hurry and didn't bring a jacket or anything - but that thought was soon washed away with the warmth of 170+ beats-per-minute of the heart.

The Race

We got to go clockwise, which I hadn't done since last year - I had a love/hate relationship with this direction - the climb sometimes felt harder going this way, since it's longer but less steep - but I seem to place better this way too. I think it's because we're sprinting on a 4-5% grade at the end - and if you start out the wind-up/sprint behind others, you're in the draft and can build up some nice speed. Tonight was no different.

The race started off pretty quick, the first few laps hurt, a little reminder of the big turnout tonight (50?), and the fact that this isn't the beginner's 4/5's race at 5:30 anymore. (Ok, so we're not the p/1/2/3 7 PM race either.. somewhere in between)

There were four other Recycled Cycles guys in the pack, all Cat 3s - wasn't sure what their plan was but I was mostly just gonna stay out of their way, and try to keep up. After all it's only been about a year since I started racing at all, and they've been doing this for years.

On a prime lap I thought I had a decent position to move up for it, and went to the left around the big group and shot up towards on guy close off the front, but didn't see that there was already a break of three that had a bigger gap up the road (including a team mate I think). Oops. You're not supposed to chase your own team mates, but at least it's just a training race so it's not a big deal.

Sprint

The group came back together, and 15 laps & 30 minutes later it was time for the final few laps. I had decent position near the front and the pack was speeding up people jostling for the top few positions. I didn't want to be up on the front, and couldn't really get up there in time anyway - was about 15 riders back at the bottom of the hill, and wound up the sprint to shoot up through a few people who had gone early for That Win. I could see the sprint pretty well, and could see three other RCR riders (Mike, Pauh, Adam?) in front of me - four team mates in the top 10, not bad! Ex-RCR rider Randy took the win, he's a strong guy for sure.

In the end I came in for 7th or 8th place - though points for the summer series are only given to the top 6. Still, I'm really happy with that placing in a pretty strong field. Good racing!

Next up: Vance Creek Road Race

Oh yeah, Tim: you were asking about cadence during the race? I'm impressed you can think/talk during a race like that! Anyway feel free to post that question here, I can't remember what it was.

Tour of Walla Walla 2010: The Data

2010-04-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

So my gigantic post about ToWW covered the story-side of the racing, but not the data. The Powertap Pro+ I have is kind of like a flight data recorder - every second's data is stored for later analysis, telling the good and bad.

You might ask, what good does that do me? Some might say "all you need to do is go faster than everyone else." Yeah, yeah...

With all this speed/power/heart rate/cadence data I can see what race-level efforts (like sprints, breakaways, painful climbs) looked like in terms of actual power output. Taking that, I can try to repeat those efforts in order to get better at them. Repeat them until they feel easier.

This is my first season of relatively structured training, and so far it's been going well. You don't need a power-measuring device to do structured training, but it's nice to have.

I peaked just before the Walla Walla stage race, and even rested for three days (no riding!) before the event to make sure I was fresh for it. I think the training approach worked pretty well overall, and felt great going into the event.

Walla Walla Time Trial: 9.3 miles - 38th place

In the graph below you can see how the power was harder on the way up, lower on the way down. Looking back I wish I'd saved more for the downhill, but it's easy to say now. Power was actually decent (when I wasn't coasting on the downhill), but my aero-ness (e.g. frontal area) needs to be worked on no doubt.
ToWW TT: 277w/284w:
Duration: 23:55
Work: 397 kJ
TSS: 38.3 (intensity factor 0.98)
Norm Power: 284w
Distance: 9.309 mi
Elevation Gain: 618 ft
Elevation Loss: 675 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 885 277 watts
Heart Rate: 147 189 177 bpm
Cadence: 30 125 86 rpm
Speed: 3.7 ? 22.? mph
Crank Torque: 0 875 272 lb-in

The first half of the TT broken out - 306 watt average for almost 12 minutes! More than I usually do, I probably need to start training around this wattage more.

TT part 1 - 306w:
Duration: 11:55
Work: 219 kJ
TSS: 22.4 (intensity factor 1.062)
Norm Power: 308w
Distance: 3.862 mi
Elevation Gain: 501 ft
Elevation Loss: 78 ft
Grade: 2.1 % (424 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 885 306 watts
Heart Rate: 146 189 181 bpm
Cadence: 30 125 89 rpm
Speed: 2.3 33.7 19.4 mph
Crank Torque: 0 696 293 lb-in

(compared to the Frostbite TT I at least didn't go too hard at the beginning, but as you can see pacing still wasn't all that smooth. Kind of feeling around for a good zone I guess)

Then the second part of the TT, mostly downhill. Didn't have the legs or lungs to really spin out the 53x12 going down, and was recovering for the first minute or so of the downhill.

Then when the guy passed me, I sped up a bit, a second-wind spurred by the motivation of being chased and caught.

TT part 2 - 246w/256w - 27.1 mph:
Duration: 12:03
Work: 178 kJ
TSS: 15.7 (intensity factor 0.883)
Norm Power: 256w
Distance: 5.457 mi
Elevation Gain: 118 ft
Elevation Loss: 598 ft
Grade: -1.7 % (-480 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 640 246 watts
Heart Rate: 165 186 174 bpm
Cadence: 36 103 83 rpm
Speed: 3.9 41.6 27.1 mph
Crank Torque: 0 875 251 lb-in

Overall I think for next year (and this years other TTs) I need to work on spending time in those zones - simulating/practicing the TT position and all. Lots of work needs to be done here.

Walla Walla Cat 4 Crit - 25 minutes - 5th place

Now this was a race I was fairly confident about, and just wanted a top 6 for upgrade points. Of course 90-something other Cat 4's had the exact same idea I'm sure.

It was really short - scheduled for 25 minutes, but I think we only got 23 in. Is that even long enough to count towards a USAC upgrade?! I hope so..

Cat 4 Walla Walla crit!
Duration: 23:05
Work: 355 kJ
TSS: 35.1 (intensity factor 0.955)
Norm Power: 277w
Distance: 10.058 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1045 256 watts
Heart Rate: 114 206 182 bpm
Cadence: 24 137 83 rpm
Speed: 0.9 36.3 26.1 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1793 224 lb-in

Here's the power/speed graph from the crit, with a little smoothing. Nothing special but you can see how it gets speedier towards the end.

Cat 4 crit - 5th place:

Below is the last 3 or so minutes of the crit, no smoothing - as you can see, lots of bursts above threshold, and lots of coasting. The usual for my crits, unless you're on or off the front.

Not the best example of a sprint, but good enough for 5th. Jordan said he saw me coasting (again!) and thought he could catch me, which he almost did. Dammit, no more coasting in the last few meters!

Waitsburg Cat 4 Road Race - 58 miles - 14th place (~40 secs behind winner)

Looking at the data for the road race, no wonder I got bored in the first 9 miles of it. Some stats:

before breakaway (incl. neutral rollout, big downhill): 72w average (130 watts Normalized Power)!
the break was 259 watts average (281w NP) for ~40 minutes
after the break was 160 watts average, 221 watts NP
overall: 175 watts average (2.62 watts/kg), 236w (3.54 w/kg)

Waitsburg Cat 4 RR - 14th place
Duration: 2:35:00
Work: 1628 kJ
TSS: 170.7 (intensity factor 0.813)
Norm Power: 236w
Distance: 57.547 mi
Elevation Gain: 4482 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1053 175 watts
Heart Rate: 91 190 149 bpm
Cadence: 16 129 74 rpm
Speed: 0 43.4 22.2 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1694 189 lb-in

ToWW Men's Cat 4 Road Race - 14th place:(the highlighted section is my breakaway - note how the red line (heart rate) and yellow line (power) go up and stay pretty steady there..)

breaking away?! 259w/281w:
Duration: 35:23
Work: 551 kJ
TSS: 55.5 (intensity factor 0.97)
Norm Power: 281w
Distance: 12.85 mi
Elevation Gain: 1066 ft
Elevation Loss: 774 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1053 259 watts
Heart Rate: 107 190 170 bpm
Cadence: 28 106 82 rpm
Speed: 1.6 42 21.7 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1694 262 lb-in

Failed breakaway, caught on climb - the horizontal line is 171 bpm, my "Lactate Threshold Heart Rate" - when I'm above that for long, it hurts. And boy did it hurt once I got caught on the climb (non-highlighted part) - you can see the HR going way above threshold there. Ouch.

And going out with a bang, here's the final 5k or so of the Cat 4 RR, including the big climb...

uphill finish 309w/309w:
Duration: 7:41
Work: 142 kJ
TSS: 14.6 (intensity factor 1.067)
Norm Power: 309w
Distance: 1.793 mi
Elevation Gain: 533 ft
Grade: 5.6 % (527 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 131 797 309 watts
Heart Rate: 160 187 182 bpm
Cadence: 60 89 75 rpm
Speed: 1.5 22.7 14.0 mph
Crank Torque: 136 910 352 lb-in

(yellow=power, blue=speed, orange/brown=elevation, green=cadence)

You can actually see the exact moment on the climb where I cracked, right at about 2:46:00 - that's where I sat down, looked back and saw a gap on the rest of the pack, and just tried to defend my 14th spot for no good reason. Couldn't keep going hard to maintain contact with the leaders.

Hopefully given enough training, I can be one of those leaders next year.

Tour of Walla Walla 2010: 3 races, 2 days, in the Big Ring

2010-04-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

The Tour of Walla Walla stage race - apparently a big deal in Northwest racing, though I'd never heard of it until last year when I started racing. All the big teams from WA/OR/ID/Canada send people (8 per team per Category max) to this race, as there is some serious money up for grabs - over $10,000 in cash overall.

And with over 90 Cat 4's alone, the races were sure to be challenging and risky - just what we came here for.

What's a Stage Race?

In cycling, a stage race is when you compete in a number of events over a number of consecutive days, and a leader emerges based on finishing times. The overall leader is the "General Contender" or GC rider.

And besides adding up your cumulative time, you also have to deal with "time cuts" - if you are more than 20% behind the GC leader in your Category, then you are pulled from the whole over race. Of course, nobody wants that but it happens. And depending on how fast the winner was, it could happen all too easily if you did really bad in the TT.

The most famous stage races being the Tour de France and the Giro - so instead of a few weeks of racing, us Cat 4's just did two days worth. The 3's were doing four days with a 75-mile RR, while the 1/2's did four days with a 95-mile RR. Wow.

My race schedule:

Saturday 9:10 AM Walla Walla TT start - 9.3 mile course, with a little climb in the middle. I'm not a fan of TTs, but your "GC" position pretty much hangs off of this.. so I wanted to do well of course, but didn't have any aspirations of really cracking the top 10 at all.
Saturday 4:05 AM 25-minute Walla Walla Criterium (with photos) - .59 mile course (I think this is the one we did, the "old" course), 6 turns, my kind of race. 25 minutes is not very long for Cat 4's, so it was going to be a fast race for sure. I'm not a sprinter but I can hold position up front and seem to be able to pass a lot of people in corners (e.g. handling). And with all those turns, positioning would be key (it always is in crits anyway, but in a technical one like this especially)
Sunday 8:05 AM 58-mile Waitsburg Road Race - featuring a 3km-long climb finish on a steady 5% grade. But like I've been saying a lot lately, "I used to think I was a good climber, then I started racing." That finish was sure to hurt, and we were actually start the race on it (neutral, ~8 mph), then going to do it during the race was well (on the short loop), at the start of the second lap, then do the "long loop", then of course the finish after 56 miles..
Local race lore says that Cat 5's have been popped off the back of that neutral climb start! Ouch.

The great thing about stage races it that it awards consistency rather than specialization. There may be people who can TT really well, or sprint really well, or do road races really well, but can you do all three better than you competitors?

I didn't have plans on taking the overall GC, I'm more concerned about points for the Cat 3 upgrade. (have 3 out of 20 needed so far) I knew I wasn't going to do all that well in the TT, but that I had a fighting chance at points in the crit & road race. (top 6 needed in the crit, top 9 in the road race - no points available from TTs for the 4->3 upgrade)

With my randonneuring background I hoped that recovery - key in a multi-day race - would be to my advantage.

Stage 1: Saturday Time Trial

After failing hard at the Frostbite TT earlier this year, I wanted to at least not get cut from the overall race.. I thought the winner would be closer to 20 minutes, so I would need to get in under 24:00.

You don't have to have a dedicated TT bike for this event, though it certainly helps. And many in the 4/5's are rocking nice TT bikes with aero wheels, TT helments, the whole deal. I just threw my clip-on aero bars on the Raleigh (w/ Open Pros), scooted the seat forward, put on some "aero" booties, and got ready to suffer. The TT is really about how long can you sustain the pain, right? Can you meter it out correctly, or will you fizzle too soon? Or not go hard enough?

I figured I needed to put in a good dig on the uphill section, but that I needed something for the way down. You can't just coast down in a race like this, you've got keep pushing, and sometimes that can be harder than pushing hard uphill (in terms of power). You've really got to spin fast in order to get much power when doing over 30 mph.. but I know that my strength, if anything, is on the uphill, so I would put in my work there, and hope for the best after that. Perhaps a bad plan but it was enough to get me through the race.

Got in a decent 30 minute warm-up rolling around up and down a local road near the start at the community college, though I wish I'd just brought the trainer I never use (was too lazy to pack it). I had put on some Conti "Supersonic" tires that are light and thin for the crit, but forgot I'd have to use them in the TT too. They weren't super worn but the trade-off is of course puncture protection - get a flat in the TT and it's over. But by the time my start rolled around, I'd forgotten about any tire worries, it was all about pacing and suffering.

The First Rate Mortgage guy in front of me looked strong and had some decent aero gear, so he was a good "carrot" to chase. Each rider starts 30 seconds apart, so you at least have someone to go after (unless you started first), and have someone chasing you - both great motivators.

I tried to get off to an easy start, and save something for the hill. We drove the course the night before, and got an idea of the layout/grade, but the hill of course seemed more looming when I saw the climb in the daylight, on the bike, in the race, heart pumping hard. My carrot was just in front, perhaps 30 meters up the road.

Overtaking can be tricky though - you don't want to have to do some hard acceleration to get around the carrot, since that will cook you and you'll slow down as soon as you pass, and probably get passed. I just kept it in the big ring, cross-chained at 53x25, and jammed up the hill out of the saddle. It hurt.

Passed the guy, tried to say something like "I hate TTs, this hurts!" but I doubt he heard it through my heavy breathing and drooling. Kept turning over the pedals, even though the pain was growing, and knew that I could have some sense of recovery - if only a little - on the downhill side.

As I crested the hill I felt the hurt from that hard climb, and was just happy to be over the top - the rest was downhill or flat from here, in theory. The only problem was that I needed to recover, and probably coasted too much (a running theme lately) here and there. Felt like I was spinning out the 53x12 and that just might have been the case, especially when tired.

After a minute or two I heard the sound of a bike behind me - oh no! My laziness had come back to bite me, and I was now being caught by someone, maybe the guy I'd passed earlier? Nope, this was someone that started behind me somewhere, and was in a full aero setup with a good, low, position. I was doing 30-something and he flew past me! Better aero, obviously good fitness, and probably perhaps 55x11 to boot.

But this put a new wind in my sails, and once again I had someone to chase. Of course you can't draft in a TT like this, but you can give chase after they've passed you. But he was gaining distance on me and getting smaller and smaller. The 3k sign came, I think it was, and all of a sudden I look back to see the First Rate Mortgage guy closing in. Dammit! Pacing had failed, because now I was going too slow. But again good motivation to keep on pushing.

The last 500m had a little riser, but I hit it hard (or tried to), took the right turn at 200 meters to go, and gave it really all I could. For some reason all those seconds I lost while resting/costing/being lazy during the TT all of a sudden mattered to me, the results sheet with split-second differences flashing in my mind. It hurt but I put in a sprint and came in decently fast.

But in the end my time was 23:55 (22.57 mph average) - 38th place out of 82 riders. Not too hot. Pacing is definitely something I need to work on, along with the aero position, and of course overall strength endurance. A pretty low bar I should be able to raise next year..

The winner did a time of 21:04, a good 30 seconds in front of 2nd place! (25.6 mph avg)

Saturday Walla Walla Cat 4 25-minute Crit

So with the flat technical course, 80-something Cat 4's (you could call us beginners), I was expecting a huge crashfest like the Ballard Crit was last year. Rolled around local streets with Josh, a good sprinter on our team, and got ready for a what promised to be a snappy race. Set in downtown Walla Walla, with lots of spectators, there was a little pressure too.

Since it was only 25 minutes long we all knew that the contenders in the race were really going to make it hurt for everyone else. (In the 4's, this is plenty of time to do so)

The lineup was funny - after the Women's 4's race was done, the officials said, "Cat 4 men, take a practice lap!" But instead all 80 guys except me did a 10-foot sprint/run for the start line. I was actually looking forward to seeing the course, as I had no idea what it really looked like yet - but the pre-race for the line caught me off guard. Talked to a Cycle-U guy (was it Jed?) that said he and a few others really did take a warm-up lap, and ended up lining up at the back of the pack.

Here's the pack, getting ready for the race in downtown Walla Walla:

Unlike a road race, starting position in a crit can matter a lot, depending on how good you are at moving up in a fast and tight race. Some people don't have the speed, some don't have confidence, some don't have either. Also, you have to be able to clip into your pedals quickly in a crit; you'll find that at least 30% of the field in any race can't actually do this. Many are found looking down and fumbling with their pedals while everyone else is sprinting away.

Josh & I started in the back, but really only one or two rows back, I wasn't too worried. I've gotten pretty good getting into my Speedplays quickly, so when we started I passed probably 30 people in the first 10 seconds.

Here's a shot of the 4's rolling out - GO GO GO!!

We got up to speed and got ready for the first turn, and 90-degree right. Nice and quick, you could really dive around it with a good line. The turns came so quick that you were barely getting upright out of one before you were entering another. And somehow I seem to have some kind of magical cornering skill, where I can pretty much pass people at will on the corners.

Once I got up to the top 10-15 of the race, I just tried to hang on to that position.

Here's the front end of the pack, with me hiding a little further back - checking out how much time was left - easier to look to the left and see the big clock than the tiny one on my handlebars.

Closing a gap at some point after a prime, I think - the great Raleigh Prestige under me, transferring power to the road efficiently:
(disclaimer on bike fit - I forgot to put the seat back in normal position, it was jammed way forward after the TT earlier in the day)

A helping push from a team mate? Sometimes that's all it takes to stay in the race.

Josh was really strong, and at one point about half way through the race he got on the front and strung it out. (e.g. went fast, turning a "pack" into a huge paceline) - in the end this would be crucial to our placing in many ways - he's got good handling skills and was taking great lines through the corners, allowing those of us just behind him to ride nice and smooth.

The less braking you do, the less work you have to do to get back up to speed, and the less gaps you have to close. Resting is key, as it always is.

The primes in this race were cool - helmet for 1st place, cash for 2nd, etc - but I as usual ignored them. You might get bragging rights and even cash from primes, but you don't get upgrade points from them and that's all I'm after here.

In the last 5-10 laps we sat in the top 5 positions or so, Josh and I pretty much sitting pretty and waiting to pounce out of the last corner. In a race like this with not much space between corners, we knew that the final placings would be more or less the same as it was coming out of the last corner (or last few in this crit).

When the last lap came I expected more fireworks, but we just held the quick pace and since it was fast enough nobody could, or wanted to, come around. For some reason it didn't feel like a final sprint - I think I was confused since I felt somewhat rested - and when the final turn, we all stood up and gave it our best.

Sure enough, our positions more or less held, and I came in for 5th place! Josh got 4th right in front of me, and Jordan almost passed me (as I was coasting a bit once again in a sprint, no lie), coming in for 6th. I must be "aiming" my bike throw for the line and am just quitting to early - hopefully a little racing on the velodrome this summer will help iron out my inefficient sprint.

Still, even without a great sprint, I was able to place well based mostly on bike handling skills combined with some power. Sweet. Points!! (this gave me two more, so now I should have 5 out of the 20 required)

Sunday Waitsburg 58-mile Road Race

This was the "big one" for us - 58 miles and a decent amount of climbing (we did two loops: short, long) after a day of racing.

The neutral rollup on the big hill wasn't too bad, and at 8 or so mph I wasn't hurting at all, just chatting and it was a good warm-up. Which I needed, since I didn't get there with enough time to really get one in.

It was nice to be able to get a feel for the climb without having to race it just yet - and I chatted with a guy who said this was his local "training hill" and was gunning for a win today. Nathan Banner(?) I think his name was - younger guy, but apparently plenty strong. Lots of strong juniors in the 3/4/5's this year for sure, always impressive. (I see now he won the Cat 5 GC here last year, and also has an mtb/cross background)

After we got over the climb the race was on, and we sped it up a good deal. A nice downhill followed by some flats. I started in the middle of the pack or so, and decided to move up after a few minutes of cruising. The pace was pretty easy and I wanted to scope out who was up front today.

The pace seemed pretty relaxed and I sat about 10th wheel, and decided in a split second that I was gonna attack. The guy to my left gave some space, and it allowed me to get out into the open, but still about 5-10 riders back from the front, and got out of the saddle and wound up a decent sprint (1000-something watts for 5 seconds) to get away.

Off The Front - My First Real Breakaway

So I went - at first the plan was to do a "fake" jump, just enough to get people to chase and animate the race a little. But before I knew it I was in the middle of "real" jump, and saw 1000+ watts flash on the screen. So yeah I gave it my all, and combination of factors allowed me to get some distance on the pack:

I'm a generally unknown rider in the peloton, almost 3 minutes behind GC
I went only 9 miles into a 58 mile hilly race - this was probably the equivalent of the no-name French riders way back on GC in the TdF breaking away from the gun on a 200 km road race. Maybe get a little camera-time for the sponsors, get your name known - and who knows, sometimes these things work!
I had good enough speed to get off the front - looking back I held 28.x mph for a minute, way faster than usual! When I got away it was on a 1-2% downhill and there must've been a tailwind.

So based on all those factors I found myself pegging it, laying it all down, way early in the race. The phrase, "you never know unless you go" came to mind a bunch. Put in some good work and didn't look back for minutes, got into the zone.

The moto referee came up beside me, to my surprise, giving me a time check! Cool, my first time check this must mean I'm doing it right. "25 seconds, and no response from the pack." Only a few minutes into my solo effort and the pain was there but manageable, and getting time checks helped a ton with motivation, and just knowing what was going on with the race.

It was just me, a lead car, and sometimes the moto ref, surrounded by brown and green fields, and blue skies, riding over rolling hills. Kinda surreal. Just kept looking down at my faux-pro white booties and telling the legs to keep on going, let's see what happens. Don't give up until they catch you, that's the only way this will work. Don't look back, it doesn't matter how close they are, just keep chugging. And don't think about how long to go..

Moto guy came up and the time check was "35-second gap, still no attacks." I gave him a thumbs up and kept pressing on. Wow, my gap was growing!

There was a medium-size hill along the way, and I really had to jam up it, but felt like the 16-ish mph I was doing wouldn't match the pack's 18-20.. but I kept going, to see if I could make it over the top. I did! The downhill was fast at 35+ mph, but I figured the pack would be doing a good 40 mph here.. but I kept going.

To my surprise the pack was still a small blob behind me a few minutes later.

I then went into a cycle of pedaling hard for a minute, sitting up, looking back, giving up, then getting a 3rd or 4th wind and attacking my own attack, as they say.

The pain would kick in again, and I'd sit up. There were 3-4 times were I literally sat up, stretched, took some sips of water, and looked around. Nobody bridging, pack not strung out, and they're still way back there. Then the moto guy would roll up and the time-check was still 45 seconds, and I told him I was done. But he said I was looking good and I might as well try, or something, and it was just enough motivation (combined with a little rest) to get back in the drops and start hammering again.

Then we took a few turns and entered what had to be Main Street in Waitsburg, with a few scattered buildings, people, and volunteers lining the street. Rolling through this little town with a lead car and a nice big gap felt just great - I think a little kid cheered me on, which was fun - and I hammered through the left/right corners, hoping my lines were going to be faster than most of the pack's.

And they might have been great lines, but the pack had closed a good deal of space coming out of town, and I looked back and thought I saw someone trying to bridge up. I slowed a tad and waved them up, but it was to no avail. (Or did I imagine that part?)

I knew the break was about to end, and the big 3km climb was coming up (this is only about 21 miles into the 58 mile race) - but I still wanted to give it my best, and I hit the climb solo, with the pack not too far behind.

Surviving the Climb?

When I started the 3km climb I had thoughts of just maybe making it over the top alone, or with a small group, and getting a nice gap back - you know, like how the pros do it!!

But my legs, heart, and lungs had had enough, and the pack consumed me. After about 38 minutes and 12-ish miles, my breakaway was done, but I couldn't rest just yet. Still 2.5 km to climb and a 36 more miles to go.

I tried to blend in about 10 wheels back, and the pack was getting a little strung out already. The usual characters were at the front, putting the hurt on the pack and me. At this point I wished I'd been caught before the climb, instead of on it, but that's just the way it happened.

Had to fight the hardest I've pushed it in a good while, and thanks to some encouragement (read: yelling) from a strong team mate Ian I was able to maintain contact, though he could tell I was hurting and going backwards.

Looking back I wish I'd just rested altogether once I was caught, and caught back on during the downhill. But instead I fought so fucking hard and stayed in the big ring the whole time, just looking forward to the 1 km mark where it gets slightly easier, and then the downhill. Besides the finish this was easily the hardest part of the race for me.

The Rest of the Waitsburg Race (big loop)

This was a really cool course, and we had something like 36 miles of it left. After the descent, I got a chance to eat a gel and recover in the pack. Ah, the draft, I was glad to be back.

The race wasn't over, and before long someone else attacked and got off the front (a grey kit, either IJM or an eastern-WA team) and the race was getting more animated.

The Crash

Unlike the crowded crit the day before, where there were no crashes, this race did involve a bad one. We were on a descent doing at least 30-35 mph, and all of a sudden a few rows up I hear strange noises and see a bike upside down in the air amongst a mix of other bikes.

Then there was a Cycle-U guy tumbling across the left lane - and it seemed like before he even stopped rolling I looked over and saw his torn kit and him wincing in pain. Not good. In addition to him 3-4 guys went down in the middle of the right lane - I was right next to them as it seemed like two of them piled up on top of someone already on the ground. More nasty sounds, including yelling.

Had to swerve to avoid it all, and then chase back on. Then something kind of cool happened - who ever was at the front slowed down a good deal, I guess to actually let people chase back on, which I think some might have done. Sometimes at the end of road races when there's a crash, the opposite happens - people attack.

But the Cycle-U guy broke his collarbone & separated his shoulder in the fall. Damn. I hope he can get back out there before too long. It was such a nice day before that, and then to be staring up at the blue sky in pain must be a really lonely feeling. (photo of the crash scene)

The Rest of the Race

Actually I don't recall too much after that, except getting into the last 5km or so when the pace really picked up. Coming back into Waitsburg we had a nice huge lane to move around on, and Ian made a great move, with me on his wheel, to move up the side of the pack and gain 10-20 spots in one fell swoop, doing 30+ to get around people already going pretty hard. Cool.

We hit the left/right turn and then the straight away that led to the final climb. The pace was speedy but we hung onto our positions, getting ready for the big climb ahead.

Final 3 km Climb

Was in the top 20 or so starting out on the climb, feeling alright but pretty taxed after a hard day or two of racing. Nobody went too early, we all knew the climb pretty well by now, but the pace was hard enough that I couldn't stay under 182 bpm or so, when I really start to hurt.

Maintained contact with this lead group for a little while, though I could tell there was no way I could match this pace the way whole up, much less the acceleration closer to the finish. Looked back and saw that we'd opened up a good 10-20 second gap on the rest of the pack. Selections were being made every moment, the pool of possible winners was getting smaller and smaller.

But I was one of those about to pop, and at least with the pressure of the rest of the pack all but gone at this point, I let up a little and let them duke it out. I was pretty much done, put a fork in me. Ian had been trying to "coach" me up the hill but this time I did the yelling, and told him to
go for it.

Except there was still 1.5 km or so to go, and the climbing wasn't over. I looked back and saw a Starbucks guy closing the gap, along with 1-2 other riders. I wanted to protect my "spot" in the back end of the front group, so I had to step on the gas a little. The race was already way up the road, I finished a good 40 seconds off the leaders for 14th place. Another top 25 but no points. Still, a good day of racing.

20th in the GC standings overall, which I was surprised with given my sub-average TT. Had I done a decent TT a top 10 GC standing might have been possible.. still, I did the best I could.

Data

Will post some stats later - I do remember that we averaged 26.1 mph in the crit! And something like 21-22 in the road race.

The fun average was off the charts.

Thanks to all the volunteers and organizers - it must take an army of flaggers, drivers, registration people, moto drivers, etc, to make an even like this happen. The Tour of Walla Walla isn't an NRC (National Race Calendar) event or anything, but for PNW racing I say it's pretty damn cool.

It was great racing with my team mates Todd, Ian, Kevin, Josh, Tyler, JC - as well as friendly competitors Jordan, Rob, Andrew, Dan, Nathan, Jed, Forrest, and anyone else I can't think of right now. Good racing out there!

Maybe by next year I can do the Cat 3 four-day stage race: 64-mile race with 5,000 ft of climbing, TT & 40 minute crit on Saturday, then 75-mile race with 5,000 ft of climbing. Not sure I can handle that but I've got plenty of time until I'm there..

Thanks to Kira for driving out there with me, and taking pictures! I couldn't have done any of it without you.

More Stories & Photos

Thoughts on ToWW from a team director
Race report from Cat 1 Lang Reynolds
Photos by IJM
Photos by Wheels in Focus
Cat 3 finish sprint at the Waitsburg RR
Any other photos? I swore I saw people taking shots of me in the solo break, those would be some cool shots to have..

Olympic View Road Race 2010

2010-04-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

Olympic View Road Race - Cat 4, 54 miles. A new race way out in Brady, Wa. (official link)

After coming close to points at the Volunteer Park Crit on Saturday, the hunt was still on. I had a ride down there, my legs weren't sore, and it wasn't supposed to rain. Why not go?

18 mile loop, rolling hills, awesome northwest country roads (read: chipseal), a hairpin turn at the bottom of a hill. Cool.

It was a little wet when we showed up, but eventually dried up and the sun came out. This was a longish race for us Cat 4's, and after not eating enough in the 61-mile Ravensdale race I knew I needed to eat right this time. (e.g. bring gel packs with you!!)

The Race

Forgot my garmin unit in the car, which made things interesting during the race. I'll be the first to admit I'm a slave to the numbers, and probably don't pedal more than 30 seconds without looking down at the stats sometimes during training.

But if anything racing without any data made me pay attention to the race that much more.. and felt like recovery was more natural without the power data - I wasn't thinking "just put out X watts for Y secs - I should be tired!"

In the pack it doesn't really matter what the stats are - you're doing the speed you need to, most likely resting and waiting for the finish. But there are times when the stats would be nice to have..

We Are Recycled Cycles, And We Race

On the first lap the pace wasn't where I thought it should be (well, without data I had no idea, it was just a feeling) so I got up front and led out the pack. We weren't chasing anyone, or winding up for the sprint, but the legs felt good and I wanted to establish Recycled Cycles (or maintain the image) as a team that earns their keep in the peloton. You won't see us hiding in the pack the whole time (like some teams I won't name), you'll see us pulling the pack, attacking, etc. Animating the race, hopefully.

Some teams just sit in for the finish, no matter what - essentially paying $25 for a Sunday group ride.. as the saying goes, "It's called racing, not waiting around for shit to happen!"

It wasn't a monster pull or anything, but enough to establish that yes we put in work at the front too.

Off the Front!

On the 2nd lap I was about 10 wheels back from the front, plenty of space was open on the left, and I went off the front - wound up enough speed to get a nice gap on the pack, for once. The trick is to build up speed before you pass the top 3-5 people leading the pack, who are the ones that will generally respond anyway. People still yell "attack on left!" and stuff but if they see you fly by fast enough there's no chance of catching on.

It was just before the curvy section of the course and I was hoping that I could use that to my advantage. I knew I wouldn't last (maybe the pack did too), but was hoping someone might bridge up and we could use this early attack to create a huge gap. Or something. Things like that seem so easy on paper, but once you're out there it's all different.

The lead car sped up and it was just me and the car, only silence behind. I'm off the front!! Cool. But it hurts... oh does it hurt. Pacing efforts like this was the only time I missed the data.

We passed a dropped rider from another race, and even though I was going really slow it felt neat to have him pull over and see only me & the car - makes you feel special, if only for a few seconds. Though I didn't feel like I was impressing him with my speed... I was starting to slow.

Waited a while to look back (they say don't look back, just keep pushing), and the pack looked small. Sweet, that's a good sign. After a minute or so later I looked back again and couldn't see the pack, though they were just around the bend I'm sure.. It was fun for a minute or two, but eventually the legs were burning and I slowed. Slowed waaay down and sat up, essentially. Took a sip of water and waited for the pack to catch. Game over, before it really started.

I was already blowing up when the small climb came. (but it's the biggest on this course) The pack caught me there, but I was able to get back in on 10th wheel or so and recover. Was probably only a few minutes-worth of an attack, but a nice little workout, and my longest attack to date.

And hopefully etched our team kits into the minds of our competitors. Was congratulated for the "nice try" as I came back into the pack - that made it all worth it.

Race Finish - Dicey!

Final lap came around, and since the road was so skinny near the end I made sure to be in the top 15 or so the whole lap. There were a few close calls (that's racing, I guess), but nobody crashed in the whole race.

There was a lot of jockeying for position in that last lap. When riding for two or so hours with a group, you start to notice certain people. People that are strong. People that are not. People that can ride in a straight line. And people that, for whatever reason, cannot seem to ride their bike straight!! There was one guy who seemed to be almost touching the wheel in front of him way too much. I was picturing us going down in a crash and me yelling, "I saw that coming, dammit!!" as we all went down.

But luckily said sketchy guy didn't go down, and nobody else did either. But I made sure to get in front of people like that when possible.

Was set up on the yellow (center) line waiting to pounce to the left in the field sprint at 1k to go, but was eating wind, and by the 200m sign I felt like I'd already been sprinting for 800 meters. Not good. Bikesale.com had at least two guys leading us out, at a high enough pace that nobody wanted to come around - that's how it's done. They took the win I believe..

A big nasty Cat 4 field sprint ensued but we stayed upright. Started it at about 15th wheel, not really a winning position.. I need to be in the top 3 or so to really have a chance at the podium I think.

When the 200m sign came I shot out to the left lane (as we're allowed to do), but so did a bunch of other people and I was still eating wind, if not more than before. Slight uphill grade for the sprint but I felt fast - too bad everyone else did too I guess. Almost got taken out at the line by a guy swinging to the left, and was almost pushed off the left side of the road, but kept it upright for a 14th place. Well, another top-20 in the books but not another win... still, a great day of racing! A really fun course, I'll be back next year for sure.

Also, congrats to my friend Rachel on Group Health that took the win in the women's Cat 4!! Her first win, well done!

Edit: found some photos from the race

From BikeHugger on flickr - from some of the races later in the day
Anyone know of other photos from this one? I saw a few people snapping photos during the Men's Cat 4 race..

Volunteer Park Crit 2010

2010-04-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the Volunteer Park Crit. I originally found out about this race a few years ago when we were randomly in the park on the same day and happened to see it. At the time I had no idea about what categories were what, who was who, etc, but it looked like fun and I had a road bike. That was the beginnings of me wanting to race. Took years to actually do it..

Back then I had dreams of dropping everyone in the race on my 1980's Miyata 312 with down-tube shifters (I wanted to be "that guy") - funny how things don't quite work out that way..

Then last year I watched it again, and was this close to jumping in - but advice from more experienced racers said that course (especially on a rainy day) was not the best course for your first criterium. With some interesting turns and a winding downhill/uphill section, I think that advice was right.

Anyway, it's a year later and I'm racing now. Time to see how I'll do at this local crit. I did OK at Ballard, Joe Matava, and Derby Days (well, top 20 anyway), so I seem to be better at crits than other races. I think a lot of it comes down to handling skills less than pure power or endurance - in a crit to save energy you want to use your brakes as little as possible. Going through corners in a tight pack without touching the brakes is scary at first, but slowing yourself down is a great way to get tired, quick. Coast through those corners instead and you'll have the energy needed to sprint out of said corner and get ahold of a wheel to follow.

Warming Up, Watching the 5's

Before the race Chris from Recyled Cycles, Jordan from Starbucks, and I rolled down to Interlaken Blvd to do a little warm-up climb. Chris had forgotten his helmet but scrounged one up just in time for our race. It happens.

We came back to see the Cat 5's still chuggin' along, and Kyle (also on Recycled Cycles/Raleigh Racing) was looking strong! On the final lap he attacked through the finish line (here's a shot of said attack), and coming around the last turn he was still in the lead. He finished well ahead of the pack on a solo breakaway! (photo) (His second win via a breakaway - look for this one in the 4's soon!)

The Cat 4 Crit

Here is the pack of 77 riders lining up. You can't see me because I'm in the back, not paying attention.

(from teampics)

Lined up at the back on accident, had both feet on the ground when the whistle blew... off to a bad start. And the first 50m lead to a big sweeping right turn followed by a quick left, which strung out the pack. So I started probably 50 riders back from where I needed to be.

Here's a shot of the initial squeeze leading into the turn around the tower:

(From teampics)

A shot of Recycled Cycles very own JC rounding the corner - looking good on his new Raleigh Team bike:

(From teampics)

Here are some riders coming through the little bend at the bottom of the hill. You can imagine how someone can easily be squeezed going through there in a pack...

(from teampics)

So I decided I needed to put in some work and get up to the top 20 in the next few laps. Done. The announcer said something about primes but I ignored all of them. While I'd love to take a prime one of these days (to win something) I knew I didn't have the stamina to try that and be there at the finish. (Unlike Jordan, who likes to win both in races!)

There was a comical situation coming through the final turn - a spectator, who must've known someone in the pack, kept yelling "MOVE UP!! MOVE UP DAMMIT!!" in our ears as we passed. And at this point we were all in the top 10, sitting pretty near the end of the race.

What is he talking about? After four or five laps of this same thing being yelled in our ear, I think someone yelled back at him, "Dude shut the fuck up!" once as we came through. The next time around, I think I heard "Good job guys!" from the spectator instead - hah. (Hard to tell who he was talking to, perhaps whoever it was really did need to move up - but if I had to guess they would have loved to have been able to move up. But they couldn't..)

A Little Crash Yields Opportunity

5 laps or so to go sitting in the top 20 when I see a gap on the left open on the 5% uphill and I'm taking it to gain positions. At the same time in the middle of the pack someone's rear derailleur gets caught up in someone else's spokes... not a good sound! Then I hear people crashing, and someone yelling "DON'T LOOK BACK!! GO! GO!"

Never did look back, since this put me in 3rd wheel with just a few laps to go. Pretty much perfect, at least it felt that way.

Here's a shot of us coming through the finish for the last lap (that's the chief referee indicating one to go)

(from teampics)

I remember now giving the wheel in front of me to Max, a strong junior on Bikesale.com. And come to think of it, giving that wheel away so close to the end of the race was like giving away a spot at the end... should have fought harder for that one.

Lost a few spots in the next few laps (some not on purpose) but coming out of the last turn I was way up in the top 10, and in good position for the slightly uphill 2-3% grade sprint. Just how I'd been visualizing this finish for the last few months.

Thing is, I can't sprint... ugh that seemed like a long 200 meters to the line, and though I passed a few I was just about coasting (in fact I did a bit, see video below) when we hit the line. Gave it a throw but to no avail - was 2/3rds of a wheel away from 6th! (saw the official photo finish afterwards)

Damn, one spot out of points for the Cat 3 upgrade, but a top 10 and a strong finish in a big local crit. Mission accomplished.

Here's a little sequence of our sprint finish! That's me on the left with those pretty white booties (sequence starting here)

And here's a video from the Cat 4 race! You can see me coasting a bit in the last few meters of the sprint - ugh, with 20/20 hindsight it's so easy to think "why didn't I push a little harder, pedal longer, etc?" The legs were dead, that's why!

Jordan took the win, nice job man... makes sense that he's almost a Cat 3 (or will be one soon)

Stats

Duration: 41:05
Work: 579 kJ
TSS: 68.4 (intensity factor 0.999)
Norm Power: 290
VI: 1.23
Distance: 16.827 mi
Elevation Gain: 1806 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 895 235 watts
Heart Rate: 121 197 174 bpm
Cadence: 22 145 82 rpm
Speed: 2.9 49.4 24.6 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1772 238 lb-in

Photos

Teampics is posting pics from all Cats - that's a lot of photos!
Tu was there getting shots of the Cat 4 Women's race
Thumbprint racing (IJM) was there taking pics of the race
More photos from the 4's & 5's races
Cool video compilation from our Cat 4 race. Including the sprint finish at about 5 minutes in - I'm on the left, with not even enough energy to pedal much in those last few meters..

4/13 update: more photos! Kira posted her pics from the races here - I love seeing the detailed suffering on people's faces!
Men's Cat 4/5 race
Women's Cat 4 race
Masters C/D race
Men's p/1/2 race
And I posted some photos (and video) I took later in the day with my little point-n-shoot:
Women's Cat 1/2/3 race
Men's p/1/2 race
Men's Cat 3 race
Masters A/B race
Update 2: Good lord there are a lot of photos from this race! Makes sense, it's a beautiful course..
Here are some more shots from most of the day's races by Shekinah Photography

Hopefully everyone can find great shot of themselves suffering during the race!!

Huge thanks to everyone for coming out and cheering us on, and to Cucina Fresca for putting on this race. A true Seattle classic. Can't wait for next year's edition..

Racing at Seward Park - 4/8/2010

2010-04-08T22:01:00.000-07:00

Seward Park 6 pm training crit (Cat 3/4's)

It's a good sign this race is feeling slightly easier every time. Racing against 3's was at first daunting, but for the most part they seem like 4's who've just been riding for a while, and are a tad faster. The pack is smoother, and tighter too - experienced racers joke about how the 5's ride with two feet between each rider, which feels close enough for those new to racing - but in this pack we're less than a foot from each other, sometimes less. Not much room for sketchy riders, and luckily I didn't see many.

My plan, if I even had one besides getting in a good workout, was to "sit in" and save my energy for the finish. Since I weigh 145-ish lbs these days I have perhaps a slight advantage over some on the uphill-ish sprint finish. "Sitting in" always sounds easy but there are no free rides in a race.

The plan was loosely defined, and I just went with the flow. There were four "prime" laps, where the first person across the line wins $10 & some Nuun tablets and a water bottle. Enough to get the race animated! But I planned on ignoring those.

A Cat 3 on our team went for the last prime, with about 3 laps to go. On the downhill section he had a nice lead on us, he actually looked small in the distance. Chris & I got on the front and tried to control the pace, e.g. slow it down a tad to let our guy get away for the prime, though we probably didn't do the best job of it. This is important stuff folks! Winning a prime is not just for the material benefits, it's the bragging rights we're all after. A noble pursuit indeed.

But on the uphill just before the finish we could see that our guy was running out of gas.. so Jordan jumped to go for it and I hopped on his wheel. We blew buy the blown RCR guy and I'm sitting second wheel cruising up to the line, in perfect position to come around for the prime! Or so I thought..

I probably thought about it too much, and just when I was about to make my move Jordan's team mate Mark came flying by the both of us, taking the prime. Good job Mark, well played.

Well, that was fun but now I had to recover at 185 beats-per-minute & 25 mph! Only two laps to go so I better recover quick. And you'd think you can just coast on the downhill, but it seemed like there was a nasty headwind there and you had to fight just to keep up with the rest of the pack. A few seconds of coasting here and there felt great, but I lost positions on the climb the next time around.

On the final lap I was in the top 20-30 (e.g. not placed great), the pack was really fluid, but I saw the guy that won last week (from Garage Racing) and marked his wheel. He was moving up through the pack so it seemed like a good wheel to be on. We got to the climb and started winding up, but it was so crowded there wasn't much space to move around.

Still, I passed a few gassed people and was making up decent ground - certainly not gunning for a win but at least better than last week, maybe a top 20. Just as we're cresting the hill I see commotion out of the corner of my eye and look over to the right to see Mark sliding on the ground, with another guy tangling with him.. Yikes!

Sounds like the guy was either getting lapped or was just gassed, and decided to pull off to the right when he heard the pack coming - without checking behind him.. So Mark was coming up the outside (where there was some space) and this guy just ran into him. For the record, the correct thing to do when you're ready to check out of the race is just ride in a straight line; people will find their way around you. Mark ended up with some road rash, but he seemed OK and his bike was still functional.

Came in somewhere around 20th. Racing with 3's is great training for the 4's crit at Volunteer Park on Saturday, I hope. Feeling good, had fun, what more can I ask for. It was great to see all the familiar faces and get to race on dry roads.

Race Stats/Data

Duration: 42:46 (missed first two laps)
Work: 613 kJ
TSS: 73.1 (intensity factor 1.013)
Norm Power: 294
VI: 1.23
Distance: 17.095 mi
Elevation Gain: 1886 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1090 239 watts
Heart Rate: 148 189 171 bpm
Cadence: 25 139 82 rpm
Speed: 1.6 55.8 24.0 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1654 232 lb-in

Recently raised FTP estimate to 290, I think it's about right.

Peak 5-sec was 1,038w - best I've done in the last few months - alas, only 15.8 w/kg or so.. gotta work on that. (Good enough to drop your local commuter, or myself last year, but not good enough to win a field sprint outright)

Training - The Big Picture

Here is my Performance Management Chart from the last few months. It's a visualization of the "training load" you've accumulated over time. When the yellow bars are down and the blue/purple lines are up, I'm putting in lots of miles and fitness ("form") should be there. And while like any other approximation it will never be an exact representation of where I'm at (how I feel) - it gives you an indicator, a reminder of where you've been, training-wise.

In roughly the middle of the graph you can see the big dip in yellow and the corresponding rise in the blue/purple lines - I believe that was my "Base 3" phase - four weeks of 10-15 hours per week of endurance riding.

If you have no idea what I'm saying understand this: I've been gearing up for the Volunteer Park Crit!! Ready to tear off some legs on Saturday.. been waiting years to do this one. (all this mumbo jumbo & graphs is from the WKO+ app, by the way)

Bike Links

In other news I've added two pages to the blog that offer links to all kinds of cool sites.

WSBA Racing Links - all the links you need to sign up & line up
Randonneuring Links - all the links you need to ride into the night, and beyond

If you have other sites you think should be on either of those pages, send me a note!

Seward Park Bike Racing 2010: Bring It On

2010-04-01T23:25:00.000-07:00

Today was the first edition of the Seward Park race, held weekly from now until April.

Last year I did Seward a good 15-20 times, all in the 5:30 PM race or the Cat 4/5's (beginners). The first race I barely hung on for a pack finish. Through the year, as I got stronger, I got a few top 10's, and one third place.

This year I initially planned to come back and do the 4/5 race again, to see if I could actually win it - but after thinking about it, and some prodding from others, I decided just to jump into the 3/4's race at 6 PM. 45 minutes instead of 25, and you get to race against more experienced (and in theory stronger) Cat 3's - guys who used to seem like pros compared to the 5's years ago. Now I get to line up next to them. The goal for now is to be one of them.

The Race

Lined up with some the other Recycled guys - Mike, Jason, Andrew, Busto, Pauh, and Chris - some of them I haven't raced with yet since they're 3's. Compared to how I used to feel (in a word, shaky) right before races last year, this year the jitters are gone.

The excitement is still there, but the nervousness is just about gone. And that's what I came here and paid money for, to train to get and more experienced stronger - not just to "have fun." I could stay in the 4/5's and shoot for that elusive win (not that it would be easy, but I'd have a better chance), but I figure racing in the 3/4's will be better training overall.

It had been raining off and on the whole day, but it was dry when we started. Still, I kept my booties on and wore a long-sleeve jersey in case it started pouring later. And boy did it rain later.

After a few words from Dave, the organizer of this series, we were off for a new season of competition. Most important note seemed to be to "stay out of the gutters - as you should in life," and don't stand/sprint if you find yourself on the outside in or near the gutter (wet mold). Which really sucks because the left/right sides on the little climb can be nice places to move up, considering it's hard to move up in the middle.

After a few laps I'd been riding so conservatively (since this was my first race with 3's) that I'd slid back further than I found comfortable. The pack of 50-60(?) would get strung out and small gaps would form on the downhill on the backside. Doesn't seem like it's enough distance to do much damage but closing a gap in a headwind when you're doing 35-40 mph can hurt. And it seemed like I'd come around the sweeping left on the downhill and see 200 feet of racers in front of me, with gaps everywhere.

Of course, the pack would usually bunch back up on the bottom of the downhill, but I still don't like to be anywhere but in the draft, in the peloton. So I decided to stop messing with the back of the race and move up.

On the Front

A prime came along, and somewhere in the ensuing chase I find myself on the front of the pack! Not what I wanted to do, especially on a windy day like today. Pulled the pack around for a lap, and just kept the pace reasonable - I used to tend to speed up too much when on the front, which is usually a waste of energy.

So instead of battling to get everyone off my wheel, I just kept my pace steady (and comfortable), and just waited for someone or a group to come around. People will get impatient and just come around if you want them to, I learned recently.

On the next lap I was second wheel for a little while, and at some points it seemed like a group of 5-6 of us was getting away from the pack, but it's hard to tell sometimes.

After about 5 minutes (a few laps) of hanging out of the front, and riding harder than I had the whole race, I started to feel the effects and found myself drifting back again. Which was ok, I'd shown my face at the front at least, now the goal was just to finish in the pack.

I remember seeing 9 laps to go (out of 22) and feeling like I wished the end was sooner, but the extra few laps (compared to the 15-laps 4/5's race) weren't too tough.

The rain started back up during the race, at first almost imperceptible but eventually big droplets and not to be ignored. I heard guys talking about dropping out if the rain kept up... which would make me more than happy to thin out the pack.

Before too long the rain was gone, though the roads still wet. That hard 140-degree turn at the top of the course was a little scary, but nobody went down. (This montage kept flashing through my mind)

The final bell lap came, and I didn't do anything differently (usually you will have already chosen a spot in the pack and will be battling for it, at a cost of course, the last few laps) and instead just rode it into the finish. Probably a good 30 riders back but in the pack, and not DFL. Mission accomplished.

Data

I like to think of the race data kind of like a flight data recorder. When I analyze races one of the things I'm looking for are trends, such as how my heart rate dips a bit towards the end of the race. Was that recovery from time spend at the front, or a mini-bonk? I'm guessing the latter.

Zooming in on the "Peak 5 minutes":

Entire workout (223 watts):
Duration: 42:53
Work: 577 kJ
TSS: 64.8 (intensity factor 0.952)
Norm Power: 276
VI: 1.23
Distance: 16.944 mi
Elevation Gain: 1885 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1051 224 watts
Heart Rate: 109 190 171 bpm
Cadence: 16 139 83 rpm
Speed: 2.3 56.3 23.7 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1622 213 lb-in

Looking forward to more editions of the "Thursday Night Worlds," aka Seward Park. And now that I know I can hang on with the 3/4's I should be a little more competitive next week. We'll see.

100 Miles of Racing: Independence Valley & Ravensdale-Cumberland

2010-03-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

It was a big weekend of racing, at least by my Cat 4 standards.

Summary: my legs are tired... but I'm loving racing more than ever! Read on for the details..

Saturday 3/27/10: Independence Valley Road Race - 38 miles

A bit of a drive, out to Rochester, WA (near Centralia) but the four of us piled into JC's pickup and headed out from Seattle at 8 AM. With the race not starting until 12-ish, we had time to get down there, stop for "food" on the way, and warm up a little. Jason & I in the Cat 4's, and Ian & Kyle in the Cat 5's, all ready to represent Recycled Cycles Racing in another early-season road race.

The Cat 4 Race

During our ~1 mile neutral rollout, the lead car pulled into a (gravel) driveway on the side of the road! So we're all doing 10 mph with no lead car and looking around, and eventually come to a stop. Wtf?!

They eventually backed out and came back up to us, and started leading us out again... well that was interesting, but of course it would only get better as the race went on.

From the course map/profile you could tell there were two ~5% climbs, but that profile is deceiving! It doesn't look so bad online, and when you start the climb it's gentle, but as you make a turn there is a wall in front of you! Not huge but a little daunting.. the climbs were about 3 minutes at 7% grade.

Advice from the more experienced racers on the team was to warm up very well, as many get dropped right there in the first 5 miles of the race. And I can see how.

50 Cat 4 riders in the pack at the start, but somewhere on the first lap I look back and the pack is much smaller than it should be. And I'm almost at the back. Must have shed at least 20 on the first climb alone.. one guy went off the front up the first climb (the harder one), and then on the downside a cat runs out in front of him! Then we're all yelling "CAT!! CAT!!" as it pauses briefly in the space between the break and the pack. It scooted across the road in time and all was good, but that was... interesting.

Accidental Bridging

Somewhere on the slight downhill/flat section on the first lap we're still chasing the solo break, and I accidentally roll off the front... or something. I thought I was easing everyone towards the break (it's not like I jumped) but all of a sudden I've got a gap. Then I decide to bridge up, and for a split second I'm thinking "Sweet! 30 mile break for the win.." Then I'm thinking "Wtf am I doing out here? No way I can do this!" But I rolled up to him nonetheless. He'd sat up, waiting for someone to come up and was probably happy for company, no matter who it was or how strong they were.

The tactics of racing really start when you get into break-aways, and sharing work in one. I knew he was stronger, I knew there were hills, and I knew our chances (well, mine at least) of staying away were limited. Was it worth it to go in the fist 10-ish miles of a 40 mile race?

Dude was trying to talk me into working with him, and coaching me on pulling through.. I felt cooked/winded, and I'm trying to tell him, "Nah man, I'm can't do it. The hills. No way." I sat up, couldn't hold his wheel anymore, but then someone else was bridging up, and I hopped on that wheel to get back to the break. It was a chance I couldn't pass up, even though the legs/lungs were screaming.

We got swamped within seconds, so we must have slowed too much or the pack decided to chase. Or maybe the pack was barely behind us - sometimes it can feel like you're way in front of the peloton, but don't realize how fast they can gain ground.

The second hill came and wasn't too bad, but I was close to the limit. Just push over and hope nobody attacks on the incline to string things out.

The hills started to hurt more on the second lap, and the speed was upping. One of my team mates was with four others in front on the hard climb and got some space off the front towards the top. What a heart-sinking feeling, still climbing hard and watching five riders go over the top with a gap... now you're having to chase and climb at the same time.. and dodge those who are (understandably) going backwards.

In the ensuing chase I got gapped off the back, but was able to chase back on during the downhill. Maybe some people were playing it safe and braking a little, but somehow I was passing people - maybe I was willing to risk it a little more.. I heard some did get dropped on the downhill after all.

The last 5 miles are here and I look around and there's only 20-25 of us, and start thinking about the upcoming bunch sprint. Max from Bikesale.com is here, and though he's a junior and maybe half my age, still a competitor to look out for. Dan from First Rate Mortgage is also in the mix, and I'm figuring if I'm feeling as fresh as I do, they must feel pretty good too.

Crash

A few miles from the finish guy in the middle of our mini-peloton touches a wheel (his front wheel touched the wheel in front of him) and is all of a sudden "laying it down," sliding on the chipseal, only two bike-lengths ahead of me, at about 28 mph.

It was a little miracle my team mate Chris and I didn't go down with him/others... After getting around it I looked back to see a team mate in the grass (Jason), just as he caught his front wheel and did an endo...

I slowed a bit, braced for impact from behind (there was none), and then went around the guy's bike on the ground. Thoughts of "wow that chip seal looks sharp" and "here we go" came to mind, but somehow things worked out and we rolled away. That's racing, I guess.

We had to chase a little to catch back on, but Chris and I were able to bridge the gap and get back in the race. I couldn't believe what had just happened. And Chris even had to calm me down a bit, and get me thinking about the upcoming sprint.

The Sprint

The 1 km sign came and we sped up a little, but nobody went. 200 meter sign and the road is open. I'm actually accelerating and passing people, for once!

But I had nowhere to go, 1st through 6th were spread out right in front of me. Ended up 7th place! Finally, a top 10 in the Cat 4's. That means 3 points (out of 20) towards my Cat 3 upgrade! (If I'm reading this correctly)

After the race we turned around and rode back towards the finish to check on Jason, and he was OK, though his rims were a little bent.

And then the Cat 5's had just finished, and we got news that Kyle (on our team) had taken the win! One of his crazy attacks paid off.. nice work! It'll be great to have him in the 4's..

Stats

IVRR Cat 4 (no rollout, cooldown):
Duration: 1:36:35
Work: 1197 kJ
TSS: 128.9 (intensity factor 0.895)
Norm Power: 255 (~3.8 w/kg)
VI: 1.23
Distance: 37.57 mi
Elevation Gain: 3230 ft
Elevation Loss: 3231 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-1 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 999 207 watts
Heart Rate: 115 184 159 bpm
Cadence: 18 145 84 rpm
Speed: 2.7 61.3 23.3 mph
Altitude: 120 502 231 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1603 202 lb-in

Race #2, Sunday 3/28/2010 - Ravensdale-Cumberland-Ravensdale Road Race - 61 miles

Waking up for the early 9 AM race, it was dark and raining. My legs weren't hurting, just a little sore from the race from the day before, and I had a ride to the race, so there was no excuse not to go. And I wanted more points!

Well, it was a tough race. The longest race I'd done was the 40-miler the day before. And that was also the hilliest race I'd ever done.

The race started off relatively heated, with attempted attacks stringing out the group as we chased to close down the gaps. Nobody was getting away that early. But people sure were trying, and it definitely took some work to reel some of them back in. And sometimes you'd be sitting 20th wheel and see five guys roll off the front, and think, "there goes the race."

Again the course profile was a little deceptive. It looks like only 2-3% grades the whole way, and it was for the most part. But there was one climb that was a mini-wall, well only 7% but it was a bit of a shock and I was drifting backwards on the climb more than I wanted to. Hurting more than I wanted to.

We were doing two laps fo the course, so that hill would of course come back into play.

Made up any lost ground on the downhill section, and then the pack slowed waaay down on the flat section with all the turns. Definitely a few of us that also raced yesterday, so perhaps some legs were tired.

One the route back towards Ravensdale on the first lap, we were chasing a solo break on a slight uphill. The pack seemed to slow and nobody was doing work, so I came up the side and raised the pace. Not an attack, but slow enough people would (hopefully) follow my wheel and we could bridge the gap that much sooner. Some people like to sit in the back of the pack and yell, "go faster!" (seriously, people do that!), but I figure it's up to me to make the race play out. Otherwise I paid $25 for a scenic group ride..

But it was probably more work than I should have been doing. On the second climb I was really in pain, the legs were screaming. I could really feel yesterday all of a sudden.. Soon after the downhill we were chasing and coming into a turn, but somehow a little too hot. I hear screeching brakes behind me, and hear a rider sliding out. Whoa. Barely made it out of that one..

Once we made the turn there was somehow another gap to be closed, and it was either close it or race over. I had to lay down a sprint worthy of the final 200m just to latch back on, and had that unfortunate feeling of legs of fire, but behind the pack with space to close. Resting is not an option. But again, what did I come out here for? To race dammit! So I chased as hard as I could and latched back on. Resting at 25 mph, ahh..

The roads on this course had a nice wide shoulder, unlike most of the other road races I've done so far. And the Apex guy who is strong, and has been attacking a good deal, played his hand excellently. He came screaming up the right side of the pack, moving from the back to the front, on the nice wide shoulder, on the slight uphill on the way back to Ravensdale. People yell stuff like "attack is coming," etc, but doing it like that is enough to catch the people in the front off guard, and that's really what matters.

His pace was enough to get a nice gap, and before too long a Bikesale guy left the pack and bridged up to him. So in the last 10 miles of the race, the guys are getting smaller and smaller, and there is no real organized chasing. Given that Bikesale had 5+ riders in the pack, I would hope they were doing their part to not chase..

The last 15 or so miles of this race were really tough for me. I was really sapped of energy, I knew I should have brought more than one gel for this race.. I was only drinking a green tea/honey mix, but besides the one gel before the race that was it. Not enough fuel for a 60 mile road race like this..

I found myself at the back of the pack, and was content sitting there. Phil from Lenovo, also in the race yesterday, was back there and we talked about how we were feeling it now for sure. At this point my goal was really just to finish with the pack.

The final 200 meter sign came (there was no 1km sign, to the confusion of many), and it was on 3% grade... and I had no legs. You try to stand up and go but nothing really happens. The pack leaves you, and I rolled in for 22nd (out of 32).. hurting and just glad to be done. Probably at 10 mph if not less.

I haven't felt that way during a bike ride since... last summer, when I was doing all those crazy rando rides! But I have to thank all those crazy rides for building some of the endurance I have these days.

Stats

R-C-R Cat 4 road race, no neutral/cooldown:
Duration: 2:30:06
Work: 1682 kJ
TSS: 174.9 (intensity factor 0.836)
Norm Power: 238
VI: 1.28
Distance: 59.044 mi
Elevation Gain: 4392 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 981 187 watts
Heart Rate: 105 182 151 bpm
Cadence: 26 155 83 rpm
Speed: 2.7 46.7 23.5 mph
Altitude: 644 953 816 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1725 183 lb-in

All in all it was a great weekend of racing. Huge thanks to JC for carting my ass around the Puget Sound!

Next race will be the Volunteer Park Criterium - this is one I've been waiting to do for years. April 10th, mark your calendars! After these long-ish road races a 40-minute crit sounds great..

Edit: Found some photos from this weekend's races!

Tour de Dung #2: Hello Cat 4

2010-03-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

The scene for the last 2010 installation of the annual "Tour de Dung", named after the nearby locality of Dungeness, closer to the more famous Sequim, Wa - with the Straight of Juan de Fuca to the north and the Olympic mountains to the south:

Compared to some of the pics I've seen of training crits in industrial parks on the east coast this is like riding in heaven. But we weren't here for the scenery, it was time to sweat.

The "Tour de Dung": a road race on a 12-mile loop with a few ups and downs, but nothing to really slow us down all that much. Nice and smooth and fast. Really fun racing, but a bit of a trek to get out there with the ferry and all.. still worth the trip even with a long day for a two-hour race.

I hitched a ride in the team van, along with a bunch of other Recycled Cycles racers - some in the Cat 3's, some in the 4's, and some in the 5's. Other RCR (Recycled Cycles Racing) people drove out separately.

My trusty Ciocc alongside the van:

This was my first race in a Cat 4-only field, and while I'd done Cat 4/5 crits & circuit races last year doing Sequim in both the 5's and the 4's allowed me to see the differences between how the two categories ride.

As you can imagine the 4's are a tad faster - but in addition the race is a bit faster, there are more breaks/attacks, and it's actually kind of smoother. Oh and you race longer, so one more lap or 12 more miles of racing in the 4's. I have no problem with that, it's more mileage for the money! Gotta say this was the fastest 48 miler I've ever done.

Took a few photos & videos throughout the day, and posted a few here.

The registration line was long but we had time:

The Race

After a quick change in the van (you can stand up in it!) I lined up with other 4's getting ready to get it on. Saw Rob M. from 2nd Ascent who also just recently upgraded. Didn't see Mark M who is about to upgrade to the 3's, but I knew he'd be here and gunning for another win.

Recycled had decent numbers in this race: Five in total! Three racers that have been 4's for a while now, and at least one of them is close to getting to the next category (based on wins/points), and then two brand-new 4's including me. The plan for this race was to just keep it together for the final sprint.

The race was off and the first thing I noticed was that there was no real 15-mph neutral rollout like in the 5's. The lead-moto just took off and we were gunning up the hill.. so much for a warm-up! Nothing too blistering but I was a bit surprised. Sometimes there are inconsistencies in local amateur racing like this (even in pro racing I'm sure), and it's just part of the game.

The weather was great, clear skies and a tad chilly. My new team kit was great - bib shorts, short sleeve jersey with just arm warmers felt perfect. Added the white "belgian booties" from Castelli for that Faux Pro look.

Looking back at the stats somehow the first (of four) 12-mile laps was one of our fastest! Everyone feels fresh in the beginning I guess, and thinks they'll muscle through the whole race. Then on the second lap things tone down a bit (e.g. 23 mph average instead of 24). A few riders went off the front, but nothing really threatening, and it all got reeled back.

It was tempting to try an attack of my own on the short-ish climbs, but I really just wanted to save it for the final 200 meters. Every time I get out in front of the wind off the front of the peloton after about 30 seconds I feel like I'm cycling through molten lava - the legs are burning and barely moving in slow motion. Must be a pacing thing, e.g. I'm jamming it too hard to make the separation and having nothing left to keep it up.

Maybe one day I'll perfect the solo attack... and since sprinting doesn't seem to be a natural talent of mine I might have to start thinking about The Attack a lot more. What it will probably take is a group of riders going up the road from different teams.

The race was relatively uneventful, and I just tried not to half-wheel too much (sometimes it seems like you can't fill a gap without doing it) and keep it smooth. The course is tight but the turns are wide enough that they're pretty safe.

After the left-turn-to-downhill-to-right-turn everyone mini-sprinted out of the turn, naturally; but somehow one guy was all of a sudden dancing on the asphalt, no longer clipped into the pedals and the bike's rear jumping around like a bronco. Must've done the "I'm a pro so I look down while I sprint" thing and probably turned the front wheel too much. Or something.

I rode by and yelled "nice save!" as he somehow kept it upright after all the scary stuff.

Final Wind-up

I made sure to stick in the upper 20 or so riders on the final lap, which might have been somewhat a waste of energy but moving up during a one-lane road race can be... challenging. So I prefer to stay up front and not have to battle through the pack when the time is right.

Two other team mates and I are up in the mix in the final wind-up (Josh had flatted out the last lap, Todd had done a lot of work on the front and was tired, I presume). Cool. Not exactly lined up for any kind of lead out, but at least most of us there in terms of not crashing out or blowing up.

Last weekend in the 5's race I ended up 10th in the sprint and felt like I could have done better if I'd gone to the outside (left) of the road, since the wind was coming from the right. But this time the wind felt more like it was coming from straight on... I'm not sure if anyone really likes sprinting into a headwind but I really hate it!

Even though the wind was different this time around I tried to line up like I wanted to for last time, I guess just to see if I could hold a position in the final 1 km. Well I held the position but that didn't really do me much good..

The 200-meter sign came and people starting winding up, a few started going full-on. Team mates and I were all seemingly in position for a top ten, if we could hold position to the line... Which I could not do. My sprint only lasted 150-meters, or something, because near the line Chris & I were swamped and lost what seemed like 10 spots in a split-second. Then I was still trying to at least overcome the bike in front of me, but couldn't do it.

I must have been too far up front initially, since I don't have enough power/speed to lead out the pack the whole way in the final drag race. Or something.

Anyway in the end I came out in 25th place, out of 60-something starters. No points, not one step closer to the Cat 3's, but another notch in the experience column. JC got 9th place, and Chris came in 21st, so RCR did pretty well overall.

I hear the winner has been training hard since last year and this was the first race he's won - congrats, Bart!!

After the Race

The Recycled Cycles Cat 5's were still racing and since we were all riding back together we stuck around and cheered them on. We heard over the radio that Kyle, a strong junior, was off the front of the 5's pack! When he came by we cheered him on, and were impressed with the distance he had on the peloton - later on he said it was reported at 1 minute 45 seconds - you couldn't even see the riders behind him, and were talking about how Joe Parkin said something like, "the best way to win is to be the only one in the picture." We were sure of an RCR victory, and it was only a matter of time before he came around again since it was now his final lap.

The field came by and didn't look like they were really chasing hard, so then we really thought it was in the bag. But we had to wait about 30 minutes to find out...

In the mean time we were invited into the GCRacing (FinishLynx cam) tent, to see our sprint photo finish.

In addition to the crazy finish-line camera they also have a cool computer setup - I believe this was the Cat 3's finish picture.

Some Cat 5's coming through:

Eventually the results from my race, the Cat 4's, were posted. The preliminary results included time splits, which I'd never seen before in a RR! (calc'd via the FinishLynx cam, each pixel represents some fraction of a second) - the top 25 riders all came in within one second - a small consolation:

More Cat 5's coming around.

The staging scene:

Eventually we heard over the official's radio that the lead car was coming around the final corner, so 1 km to go. Would we see Kyle crest the hill and approach the finish line solo as expected? It was not to be - the pack appeared instead, and Kyle wasn't in it! We were baffled but he said he just blew up eventually and they overtook him. Excellent try though! I think he had the best result out of all of us that day.

Video of the Cat 5 peloton coming through: pack #1, pack #2

Video of the Cat 5 finishes: pack #1, pack #2

Cat 4 Race Stats

Final (weak) sprint for 25th:
Duration: 0:25 seconds
Distance: 0.23 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 248 816 588 watts
Heart Rate: 182 188 184 bpm
Cadence: 99 116 109 rpm
Speed: 28.3 34.4 32.4 mph
Crank Torque: 207 682 454 lb-in

Looking at the speed & torque values, I feel like I was under-geared to really get the speed up.. and that I also needed to spin it up faster.

Only hit 34.4 mph max... no wonder I lost! I heard Bart, the guy from Starbucks who took the sprint, hit 37 to take the win.. gotta work on my sprint for sure. Or maybe I should forget about sprinting and just think about break-aways? Time will tell.

Stats for the entire workout - 24.2 mph average for almost 50 miles! I must admit that's the fastest long-ish ride I've ever done. And that's pretty slow as far as bike racing goes.. Now I really can't wait to do one of those 30-40 minute crits this summer!

Entire workout (183 watts):
Duration: 1:58:06
Work: 1296 kJ
TSS: 136.8 (intensity factor 0.834)
Norm Power: 238
VI: 1.3
Distance: 47.68 mi
Elevation Gain: 2861 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 995 183 watts
Heart Rate: 117 189 152 bpm
Cadence: 30 142 84 rpm
Speed: 3.4 49.4 24.2 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1774 175 lb-in

Peak 5min (293 watts) - last 5 minutes of the race - not wasted energy in the middle of the race - good.
Duration: 5:00
Work: 88 kJ
TSS: 11 (intensity factor 1.15)
Norm Power: 328
VI: 1.12
Distance: 2.138 mi
Elevation Gain: 162 ft
Elevation Loss: 152 ft
Grade: 0.1 % (10 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 925 293 watts
Heart Rate: 151 188 171 bpm
Cadence: 38 116 94 rpm
Speed: 5.5 34.4 25.6 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1199 268 lb-in

Peak 20min (229 watts) - the last 20 minutes of the race, so I at least got that part right:
Duration: 20:00
Work: 274 kJ
TSS: 29.6 (intensity factor 0.942)
Norm Power: 268
VI: 1.18
Distance: 8.317 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 925 228 watts
Heart Rate: 130 188 162 bpm
Cadence: 30 131 87 rpm
Speed: 3.7 48.3 24.9 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1271 220 lb-in

Thanks to all the volunteers & organizers for putting on this event! I'll certainly be back next year.

Tour de Dung #1: Goodbye Cat 5

2010-03-13T19:17:00.000-08:00

The scene near Sequim for the "Tour de Dung" #1 road race this Saturday:

Crisp late-winter/early-spring air, no rain, good turnout, nice views of the mountains (though I never saw them during the race - too many wheels to pay attention to), and nice wide roads. What a venue for racing!

This was my final Cat 5 race, so the goal was mostly to stay upright. Of course, a win wouldn't hurt, and like many others out there that day of course I felt like maybe this was my day for a "W"..

Confusion before the race

Waited in registration line for 20 minutes, then when I'm almost there they say "Cat 5 is full!"

And then they say, "We're running another Cat 5 field, but it's in about two hours."

****! We drove 2 hours out there, including a 40 minute ferry, and this is what happens?

Later on we hear "Odd-numbered Cat 5's are going first, Evens second, in 1 1/2 hours." Now that I can deal with, I lucked out..

The Odd-Numbered Cat 5 Race

So eventually I line up with another team mate, Kyle, who is pretty new to racing but pretty strong as well. A few words and we're off on the neutral rollout, which seemed to take forever. Guys up front were yelling and waving at the lead car to speed it up.. After a kilometer or so the car speeds up and we're on!

The pace was a bit higher than at Mason, which made since given the wider road and smaller pack. With only about 50 of us it wasn't super crowded, and even felt like a small pack at times. Some Cycle U guys (or was it just one) was setting the pace at the front a lot, along with an unattached guy. The unattached guy at the front seemed to pull forever, and pull hard, which was great for all of us resting up for the end of the race.

It was like having a team mate up front putting the hurt on the pack for you - totally sacrificing themselves for your glory. Except, they probably figured they were "racing strong" and "setting the pace" - which may be true, but those two things don't always win bike races. Sometimes racing smarts come into play and the smartest (e.g. the most rested) racer might win.

Before too long I moved up the side of the pack, and spotted another Recycled Cycled kit up ahead - rode up and introduced myself to another team mate in the pack. Cool, that makes three of us!

The course goes something like this: a little gentle climb that isn't too long, a turn, a little downhill, a turn, a longer uphill that's still gentle, some more turns, two steep-but-short "sprinters hills" and then a flat straight finish. Twelve mile loops.

Only three laps for us 5's, so this would be another roughly 1.5 hour race like Mason last week. Could I go for a breakaway, and go out with a bang in the 5's? If it wasn't for the wind I might have thought harder about it, but I was ok with just surfing the pack and basically waiting for the finish.

On the front? Sure.

Though I usually don't really spend much time on the 'business-end' of the peloton that often in races, I guess I got bored at some points in this race and decided to do just that. Cycle U was still setting a good pace up front, and I rode up front and started matching the pace and sometimes upping it slightly.

On the second lap Kyle, a strong new rider on our team, started slowly riding away from the pack on the longer uphill, and before too long had 10 meters or so on the field. An RCR attack, nice. Being used to racing unattached my first instinct is to chase, and at first I think I did speed up a little..

But I eventually settled in and watched Kyle ride away from us, getting smaller and smaller. Given his nice result at the TT a few weeks ago I figured he might have a chance to stay away. And stay away he did for a few minutes, but once we took a turn and got the nice tailwind we started gaining on him and swallowed him up. Nice try though!

One interesting thing about being on the front was how challenging it can be to get off the front! In a training ride or most other rides you just swing off when you're ready to rest. But when pedaling into a headwind with 52 people on your wheel, and nobody wants to work, swinging off may not be enough to shake them.

Apparently if the pack is comfortable with your pace they'll just swing with you and stay on your wheel. Once I swung off, thinking I was safely out of the way, and slowed down only to hear a bunch of people yelling "slowing!" behind me.. ooops, well at least I didn't hit the brakes or anything.. a learning experience though.

To 'break the elastic' I just sprinted off the front for about 10 seconds, and then sat up. Then the pack came around and I was able to get in 10th wheel, just where I wanted to be in order to rest but not be too far back. (But it sounds like next time I should just be more patient, and the pack will come around eventually)

Last Lap!

The last lap comes and we're all antsy, and the pace picks up. One rider took off somewhere in the last 5 miles or so, and I figured it was "too early" and the pack just let him go. So many times I've seen people go off the front only to be reeled back a minute later - hell it's been me a few times.. though this guy is holding a nice pace, and gaining ground on us.

Breaking Away?

The solo guy is way off the front, and I'm holding in decent position up front - and as we get in the last few miles I decide maybe this is my chance to bridge up to him? So I launch an attack off the front, though I didn't really give it everything.. I didn't want to blow up early so I was putting in about 90% of a true break effort, hoping I could somehow a) hold off the pack and b) not blow up.. but in reality I'm not sure anything besides a 100% break effort will work.

About three strokes into my "attack" I'm looking down at my burning legs and thinking "what the fuck am I doing??" They're on fire but I press on, just trying to keep the gas on. A quick look back and they look smaller than normal, cool.

Once out there alone in the wind you realize (yet again) how hard it is to go fast solo. Soon I let up and the pack was quick to come around, and fast too - it took quite an effort just to grab a wheel while recovering from my attack. What was probably only 20-30 seconds off the front felt like a micro-eternity.

I was just barely recovered when we hit the first hard riser, and those of us up front were standing and going all out - it seemed like a "selection" was being made. So I dug deep and found something and hung with them. We crested and the solo break is still up the road, fending us off.

Final Wind-up

The 1 km sign is here and now we see it's just a field sprint for 2nd place. The pack is fast and fluid, and I'm smack dab in the middle of the mix, just hoping nobody in front of me crashes for no good reason.

An unattached guy in red got DQ'd for going over the yellow (center) line near the end - ouch. It was weird having an official in a moving car next to us yelling at someone in the pack, and a tad distracting at about 30 mph, but those are the rules.

Bikesale.com (yellow/black kits) guys are out in full force with 4-5 guys up front. My team mate Erin seems to be a good sprinter and is in front of me. We're all poised, ready for the 200 meter sign and ready to sprint it out.

Going through my mind are "Cat 5 pack-sprint horror stories" so I'm just hoping it's a clean sprint and nobody does the "I'm a Pro looking-at-my-feet-while-sprinting" thing and ends up riding off the road (it happens).

The 200 meter sign is here, and.... nothing happens. !!!!

Someone behind me actually yells "GO!!!!!" and finally those up front open up. The sprint seemed to go by quickly and I felt like I was gaining ground on a few people next to me, but not close enough to the front. Crossed the line somewhere in the top 10 I figured, so I was happy. (Official result was 10th)

Prior to all the chaos at the end of the race I had a plan for the sprint - since the wind was coming out of the east, this meant a cross-wind from the right on the final sprint. So jumping from the right side of the road to the left, from the pack, and then shooting around the pack was my plan of attack. But in the end I was surrounded with nowhere to go.

Nice job to Alan from Bikesale.com for taking the win! It was a fun race. Now on to the 4's!

Photos

The Masters C/D field rolling out:

Cat 5's rolling out:

Cat 4's roll out:

Cat 4's rollout (part 2/3):

Cat 4's rollout (3/3) - look at all that RCR blue & gold!

Cat 5's rollout:

Cat 5's rollout (2/2):

Women's Cat 4 rolling out:

Men's Cat 4 peloton - with Mark M. from SCCA/Starbucks leading the charge. (He won the race! Nice job Mark! Can't wait to sprint against you...)

Second wheel in the Cat 5 peloton - loving every minute of it, except when the HR goes above 190 bpm or so.

The Women's Cat 4 field:

Finish Video

Check out the finish video from my Cat 5's race. If you look closely you can see me coming in for 10th! Nice job to the solo break away for holding us off!

Race Stats

Sequim Cat 5's race (no neutral rollout):
Duration: 1:33:27
Work: 1150 kJ
TSS: 120.7 (intensity factor 0.88)
Norm Power: 251
VI: 1.22
Distance: 34.918 mi
Elevation Gain: 2697 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1017 205 watts
Heart Rate: 98 189 165 bpm
Cadence: 31 146 87 rpm
Speed: 3.5 46.7 22.4 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1550 193 lb-in

Final windup/sprint:
Duration: 1:43
Distance: 0.786 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 941 330 watts
Heart Rate: 160 182 173 bpm
Cadence: 39 112 92 rpm
Speed: 15.5 37.4 27.5 mph

Other blogs/videos of this race:

A racer in the Men's Cat 4 race
Another writeup from Sequim
A writeup from the Cat 5 "evens" race
A racer in the Men's Cat 1/2 race - the best part is Todd (Herriot I presume?) doing a trackstand waiting for people to bridge up to him, during the race.

Thanks to Garage Racing for putting on the event, and to Kira for driving out there! Also thanks to Dungeness, WA for hosting us for the day. See you again on Saturday!

Mason Lake Road Race #1 2010: Now This Is PNW Racing!

2010-03-07T16:39:00.001-08:00

After my abysmal performance at the Frostbite TT last weekend, I was excited to get back into road racing (e.g. in a pack), and believe it or not I'm a huge fan of the risky business that is road racing. The constant flow inside the pack, the draft, the sound of crashes, I love it all.

And I'm proud to report that I placed much better in this race than the last! Though I didn't win, it was a top ten. **** yeah. Read on for all the details.

Pack Racing Dynamics

Cornering in a criterium reminds me of diving down a set of stairs on a skateboard - you have to fully commit or you'll never make it. And while cornering isn't so much an issue in road racing, riding/handling in a pack certainly is. And you have to commit at certain points in a road race or you'll never make it to the end. You have to know when to push hard, and when to go soft.

And on a course with rolling hills, a bunch of sketchy Cat 5's (me included), first race of the season - you can be there was a lot of braking, and a lot of yelling in the race. Oh if I had a dime for every time I heard or had to yell "slowing!"

Were there crashes? Indeed, three of them.

Pre-Race Thoughts

Mason Lake is a race I've wanted to do for years now, and this time I was finally taking the dive in.

I've ridden on these roads before, though in a much different setting: last year's Fleche (24-hour ride). I remembered the chip-seal and rolling terrain, and the cold morning too.

Lots of other people out for the first road race of the season - 85 starters in Cat 5! That many riders jammed into one tiny PNW-peninsula road probably makes for quite a long train. Well, at least before the first riders get shelled and then the inevitable crashes that will splinter the field.

The Race

Rob from Second Ascent and I started out in about the middle of the pack, and I knew it was going to be tough to move up, but that's all a part of the fun!

We rolled out for a neutral start, getting around a turn, doing about 1/4 mile, then the lead-car honked - the signal that the race was on. But I don't think anyone else heard it because we stayed at the slowest pace I've ever done in a race.. but since my plan was to just get to the end, I didn't really care.

Our Cat 5 pack was doing three laps, about 34 miles in total. Very short for a road race, but as beginners this felt like a long-ish race to me & I'm sure others. So we started off conservatively, though someone went off the front somewhere in the first few miles, and I just watched them up the road, dangling in the wind. It looked like they were working so hard, head down, back flat, upper body undulating with all the work their doing out there solo. But 3 miles into the race probably isn't the place to go....

They did stay out front for a while, maybe a lap, but were pulled back in eventually.

My plan was to play it conservatively, e.g. the opposite of how I raced at Gig Harbor last year. Just wanted to save energy, stay out of the wind, and save energy. Another RCR team-mate was in the pack, but we didn't get a chance to connect once we got going and then he flatted out.

Crashes!

Ah, the sound of carbon meeting chip-seal, welcome to road racing in the PNW! First crash happened just a few bikes up from me on the first lap, someone's tire blew out, and then a guy's doing a flip over the bars in front of me. I had to slam on the brakes and put a foot down while coming to a full stop. Damn!! That's obviously one of the last things you want to do in a race..

The next thing I thought of was, "I hope I don't get hit from behind," and though I heard a lot of braking and yelling, I didn't feel anything knocking me down. Sweet! Made sure there was room to go around the guy who had just rolled around on the ground, and finally got going again, somehow not all that far off from the leaders so I didn't have to chase much.

Someone said they saw that the guy who fell was laughing, so I was glad to hear he was at least OK and taking it in stride.

The second and third crashes I could only hear, and didn't even time to imagine or look back and see. After the race I did hear that they had to call an ambulance for a head injury - but someone said the guy's eyes were open so that's a good sign. Hope he's OK...

Yes, this is racing. Love it.

The Last Lap

The last lap finally comes and the pace picks up a bit. This is when the action starts for us. I've done some work to get up to the top 20 riders or so, and the field is going into the wind on a backstretch, getting stretched out into an echelon of sorts. I was stuck on the outside, in the wind, but eventually someone came around and shielded me. Ahhh...

With 5-6 miles to go, at the top of the big hill near the end, the first serious attack comes. We all chase, of course. Soon after two guys are kind of off the front, and I chase on. I hear one of them say "let's go!" (e.g this is our chance) so I latch on and see how far we can get. Surely the pack is right behind us but it's fun to be on the 'sharp end of the spear' once in a while.

We're holding good speed, and taking short turns, but it doesn't last long and people start to come around. Then I jump on another train - I think it was the BikeSale.com/Wines of Wa team that had four people together at the end (actually pretty impressive for Cat 5's).

Speed is picking up now, and looking back at the stats we hit at least 45 mph on one of the steep downhills. I remember screaming "no brakes!" hoping that we could jam down that hill as fast as possible.

At the bottom of the hill we shot by some riders like they were standing still - but it wasn't because I was stronger, I was just on the right wheel and essentially being sucked along in the draft. (And they'd also gone too early, in the wind, and were fading as a result)

Then the final straight-away appears, and I'm in the top 10. Excellent. Legs actually feel decent, as if I could sprint. (E.g. not on fire, which is usually the case at the end of a race for me)

Things are extremely fluid, and the 1-km-to-go sign appears. But I'm just waiting for the 200m mark to go, or even later since it was a slightly uphill sprint (~3% grade).

We finally all unleash and surge toward the line, and I try to jam in between two riders to eek out a top-5, since I could tell I was in contention for once. But it was too crowded and I had to ease off, nowhere to go. The final 5 minutes was a blast, especially the sprint - I think I yelled out "**** yeah!" during the sprint like one might do if they enjoyed a roller-coaster..

Ended up 7th overall, my best result yet!

Cat 5 Race Photos

Here is our Cat 5 field coming in for the finish.

That would be me in the blue Recycled Cycles Racing jersey behind the Rad Racing guy in red:
(Interesting that the pack started 85-strong, and ended up like what's pictured above - did we drop everyone just on that last fast stretch, or was that pack that thinned out just from the race itself?)

Looking behind the guy in the fore-ground in the shot below, you can (barely) see how the two riders on each side of me just barely edged out my wheel. Some may say a more aero rim would have gained me those few inches and thus two spots:
But I'm willing to believe if I'd played my cards right in the sprint (e.g. gone to the outside lane, where it wasn't crowded) my non-aero Open Pro could have sailed me to a victory, or closer at least.

More Photos

A shot of the pack from the Women's Cat 4 race:

And here's Jordan R. at the front of Men's Cat 4 race. He ended up third in the race, while his SCCA/Starbucks team-mate Mark got 4th - nice work guys! Can't wait to get into the 4's and chase your wheels.. (also congrats to Jordan L. who won the Men's 4 race and can now upgrade to the 3's - good luck!)

Kira took some shots of the Masters race as well, posted on her kirafoto site.

I'm so happy she was willing to drive all the way out there, and stand in the cold for a few hours! Sounds like it was really cold out there, as you can imagine standing around in the shade on an early March morning on the peninsula.. I think the temp was somewhere in the high 30's/low 40's? Anyway, thanks so much for coming out, Kira!! Couldn't have done this without you.

The Race by the Numbers

Lap 1: 20.8 mph avg, 152 watts, 150 bpm
Lap 2: 22.7 mph, 172 watts, 157 bpm
Lap 3: 23.0 mph, 208 watts, 164 bpm

mason #1 (w/o neutral rollout):

Duration: 1:28:56
Work: 934 kJ
TSS: 87.5 (intensity factor 0.768)
Norm Power: 219w
VI: 1.25
Distance: 33.108 mi
Elevation Gain: 2623 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 971 175 watts
Heart Rate: 114 187 156 bpm
Cadence: 31 132 83 rpm
Speed: 1.5 45.8 22.3 mph

This is the race (smoothed) graph from WKO+ - from it you can see how the energy required to keep up increased, and how it wasn't until the very end that the hammer really came down.

(blue=speed, yellow=power, white=elevation, red=heart rate)

What I Did Correctly

Stayed in the front third of the pack - keep out of most of the 'accordion effect'
Played it conservative - don't sit in the wind, and just conserve energy until you really need it. I've read that the strongest sprinter doesn't always win the sprint - sometimes it's more about who has the most energy left at the end of the race. Therefore even though I don't have the most powerful sprint, I'm at least strong enough to be there at the end of the race and still have some sort of kick left at the end.
Stayed upright - though I must admit I had to slam on the brakes a few times, due to people in front of me, and Rob reminded me at one point that I was half-wheeling someone. And there was an instance on the last lap where I touched my front wheel to someone's back wheel, with a little overlap. What a strange feeling when you want to lean one way but your bike won't go! You just have to let your body move independently of the bike in cases like that. But it was a close call, and I would have been run over by a bunch of riders had that happened...
Don't jump too early - while it was temping to go at 2-3 miles to go, I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet..

Room For Improvement

There's always room for improvement, especially when you didn't actually win the race. And though I'm very happy with this race result, I've made some notes on what to do better next time:

Save myself the trouble and just line up in the front of the pack; working your way through a pack on a one-lane road takes time!
Get ready to jump out of the pack in the sprint - I need to be move around the peloton in the end and try not to go up through a crowded field.
Don't jam into a gap - ease into it. I think this was why we kept having to slow and speed up - I hear the higher categories are much "smoother" in that sense.
Don't forget to put on my frame number..

Anyway I had a blast at the race, thanks to the organizers for putting the whole event on, and the Mason Lake neighborhood for letting us take over their roads for a day. Can't wait for next weekend..

Frostbite Time Trial 2010: The Truth Can Hurt

2010-03-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

They call the individual time trial the "race of truth" - I'm guessing that's because there's no draft to hide in or rocket out of, no pack-dynamics that might box you in at the sprint finish, etc. It's just you, your bike, the wind, and a stopwatch.

In the end there are many things to blame, but generally in an individual TT other racers is not one of those.

Pre-race

Woke up early, since my start time was 9:23 and we had to get there by 8:30 anyway to register. Tried to eat some two egg & cheese english muffin sandwiches, but I couldn't down the second one. Pre-race jitters were too much I guess.. this was the first race of the season after all, and my first race on the Recycled Cycles team!

I actually put some aero-bars on the Ciocc, and practiced a few times on them the week before the race. Honestly I should have spent more time on these, and worked on the aero-position more. At first it was a bit unsettling riding on Lake Wa Blvd with traffic, and settling into the aero-bars. Felt like I could easily topple over on a bump or something, but eventually you gain confidence and hopefully a little speed.

Race Goals:

Not keel over while riding aero-bars in front of anyone
Not get last in the Men's Cat 4/5
Don't start too hard
Do your own race (e.g. don't chase anyone, just pace)
Keep cadence high
Don't start too hard

My Race

Lined up in time, got up to the start where they had an official and a holder that would allow you to clip in from the start. The official reminded me, "I will count down from 5, DO NOT go on one!" Guess they've had issues with that..

I had done the Carnation TT a few years ago, so I was all too aware of the classic TT mistake - going too hard from the gun, and then blowing up before the finish. Usually in a TT you want to accomplish what is known as a "negative split," e.g. to do the second leg of the race faster than the first one. I wasn't really shooting for the negative split, I just wanted to pace correctly this time.

So the count-down starts, I go, and I'm off. It felt great after days & hours of preparation, practice, and visualization; the rubber was finally meeting the road. Whether or not my time would impress anyone, I had made it to the race, didn't forget anything, and pulled off without unclipping or keeling over. So far, so good.

I knew that the Cat 4 guy behind me, Kevin T. from Second Ascent, was pretty strong and that there was a good chance of him passing me. I had 30 seconds on him to start. But I was trying to "race my own race", and just try to do the best I could..

But I must've ignored the PowerTap for the first two minutes on the road, because looking back I was putting in around 400 watts for the first two minutes or so - nothing spectacular but also not anywhere close to "pacing." Argh! A few minutes in and I settle down, but I'm already feeling kind of cooked.

Three or so miles into the 9-mile event sure enough Kevin came by, and I actually gave him a cheer of encouragement. Might as well help a friend along since I'm just trying not to blow up before the finish.

Not too long after that I heard the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh of a disc wheel, and someone in a full skin-suit/aero-helmet/TT-bike setup came flying by, as if I was standing still. Hopefully that was one of the Cat 1's.. but all I could think of was "ignore all that, just keep it around 270 watts for now."

So I just tried to keep the pace steady, and look forward to the turn-around point at about 4.5 miles out on Lowell-Snohomish Road. Seemed to take longer than I wanted to get there... that was a long 4.5 miles!

Turnaround, to finish

Kevin was probably only 15-20m ahead of me at this point, but enough that I didn't really plan on catching him, but certainly wanted to keep him in sight. And I was kind of hoping I could just "go faster" on the second leg, which I did, but then again he did too. The way back had a slight tail wind and is has some ever-so-slightly-downhill sections. You can really get going on the way back.

I kept him in sight, but I was fading in the last few miles and he was gaining time on me.

There were a few times on the way back I actually coasted for a seconds, just to give the legs some relief the burn and to give the mind a change of pace. Somehow nobody else passed me in that time... definitely will be an easy place to improve for next year, in retrospect it was stupid but at the time I felt toasted.

Finally the 200m sign came up, and I started ramping up the speed/rpms. Stayed in the aero-tuck since the legs didn't really feel like they had enough left for a stand-up sprint anyway. A sense of relief rushed over me after finishing - first race out of the way, no mechanicals, no crashes. But it didn't feel like a fast ride..

And of course then you start thinking, "why didn't I just go faster. I could've pushed harder here, and there, and yada yada.." Oh well.

Post-Race Stats & Thoughts

The (smoothed) Speed/Cadence/Power graph:

- Placing: 52nd out of 64 entrants in the Men's Cat 4/5.. (time was 23:31, ouch)
- the Men's Cat 4/5 winner had a time of 19:59
- median was 22:26
- the Cat 1/Pro winner was 18:18 (!)
- Plenty of room for improvement for next year, hopefully I can shave at least a minute off that

Out leg: 21.8 mph, 277w
Back leg: 24.3 mph, 264w
Avg speed: 22.9 mph,
Avg power: 270w (4.12 w/kg)
Avg cadence: 99 rpm (close to the 100 rpm target)
Avg heart rate: 176 bpm

For next time

Though TT's aren't my focus, I will have to do them from time to time, especially at the Tour of Walla Walla stage race in April. So I will need to improve at them at some point...

What I'll change next time:

Scope out course more before-hand
Spend more time practicing the aero-position, getting used to the bars
Warm up for more than 20 minutes prior to your start
Bring a trainer to the start maybe
Pacing, pacing, pacing... this is the essence of the TT
And of course improve threshold, which is something any (competitive) cyclist should probably be working on

Photos

Kira was there and took some excellent photos of a lot of the racers: http://kirafoto.zenfolio.com/p993007259 - great shots, baby! Some highlighted photos:

Me, attempting to look aero, but feeling like crap
Kevin, the guy who started 30 seconds behind me and finish almost 30 seconds in front! He got 5th in the Retro division
This guy, who was truly "retro" with a full 70's outfit on

It was great seeing a bunch of old faces from last season - Chad, Kevin, Jordan, Jordan - it was a bit like returning to school after summer break. You could call it Washington University of Suffering.

Welcome back everyone!

Seattle bike routes on Twitter

2010-02-13T16:48:00.000-08:00

If you're on Twitter you should check out a new stream I created just for Seattle bike routes: http://twitter.com/seattlebikemaps (and if you're not on Twitter you can still browse the routes and click the links to the maps themselves).

Each tweet (or message for the Luddites out there) is a link to a bike map on veloroutes.org along with the route name and distance. Hopefully a useful tool for Seattle cyclists.

A note: since there are over 45,000 routes saved on veloroutes.org - and thousands of Seattle routes - it will take a while for the tweets to catch up. (Twitter limits you to 150 tweets a day) So if you follow this stream expect about 150 tweets a day.

Once the routes are caught up every time someone saves a route on veloroutes.org with "seattle" in the name/title/tags it will be automatically tweeted here. Just another way to spread Seattle bike routes with elevation data.

Working on Force: Steep Hill Repeats

2010-02-09T17:22:00.001-08:00

"Force" in cycling terms is the ability to overcome resistance. And I'm pretty sure this is one of my weaknesses, or "limiters"...

Today The Book called for "Steep Hills" e.g. doing repeats on a grade greater than 8% that take less than 2 minutes to climb - which isn't too hard to do around here in Seattle, even without going too far from Capitol Hill.

When seeking out really steep stuff I've always been a fan of those pitches off of Lake Washington Blvd, which has grades that are easily over 20%. Like Fullerton Ave's incline, which is about 16% for the first half, probably the whole thing (pretty short but sweet at about 2 mins to climb). [fullerton climb map]

Here's the elevation profile of this little climb (.1 miles total):

I did two sets with five climbs each (the descent counted as rest between each rep) - and each one averaged somewhere between 300 watts and 330 watts. (4.6 w/kg to 5.06 w/kg or 105% of FTP, for those keeping track). Or in human terms heart rate was was 175 bpm or more.

Each climb took somewhere between 1min 50sec and 2 mins flat. On some of them I saw the avg power for the climb at 299w near the end, and had to stand and sprint the last few meters to come in at 300 watts even. On some I finished closer to 330 watts. Not that it makes a huge difference, but 300+ was the goal for this workout. (My FTP is currently set to 285w, so this would be a 105+% workout)

Two people commented on my training during this session - comments like "that's some good training!" etc - but I can't really respond with both hands gripping the bars and at or above 175 beats per minute..

On the way back I did the 22% grade that is East Roy St on the east side of Capitol Hill. Ugh. A tad harder than Madison, if you can believe it. But at least the 22% part is only a block long.

More Importantly

Today was 50F with sun, and I was able to get by with only shorts! First time this year. Sure I was chilly at first, but once I warmed up it felt great.

Oh and the cherry blossoms on our street are starting to sprout those little pink flowers.. not that it will make the PNW any warmer, but it sure will look nicer!

Build 1, Week 1: Notes

2010-02-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

I'm currently in the first week of the first "Build block" in my training plan this year. According to Friel's "Training Bible" my schedule for this week should look something like this, for a total of 12.5 hours.

Monday: Cruise Intervals - went around the south end of Lake Wa, with three or four 10-12 minute intervals at ~100% of Threshold (FTP) along the way. Two hours total.
Tuesday: Endurance 2 (zone 2) - ended up doing 2.5 hours, another nice ride around the south end of Lake Wa, with an added detour around Mercer Island. I like to call that route the "double-U". First ride of 2010 with bare arms!!!!
Wednesday: off, though I did do 15 minutes of yoga using Wii Fit (still fluctuating at about 144.5 lbs btw!)
Thursday: "Jumps". Was supposed to do five sets of these but only got in four (down to Seward Park and back). A jump is 10-12 pedal strokes in a Zone5c "all-out" sprint, in which I essentially try to rip my pedals & handlebars off the bike. Each set consists of 4-5 jumps, with one minute rest between each effort, and five minutes of rest between each set. They were actually pretty taxing - but it feels nice to ratchet up the intensity after so much Base riding. One hour total.

Rest of the week:

Friday: Isolated leg drills, which I've never done before, or "Form sprints" (e.g. tuning your sprinting form but not going all out) - Form sprints sound like more fun to me
Saturday: Recycled Cycles team ride - we'll probably put in around 80 miles since the season is quickly approaching.
Sunday: An hour or two of "Active Recovery" - or maybe no riding at all, only time will tell.

In other news I signed up for the Tour of Walla Walla Cat 4 - Recycled will have 8 racers in Cat 4 and 8 in Cat 3 as well! It'll be great to do a stage race with a full team.

With a 100-rider field the Cat 4 Road Race & Crit, this will be interesting. I just hope it's nice and dry out there when we go in April.

Training for 2010: Base, Build, and Beyond

2010-02-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

(photo of a bird on Lake Washington, taken from the I-90 bike trail on the way to Mercer Island)

Well it's a new year so that means I've got to tell you how many km's I pedaled last year: in 2009 I rode about 11,000 km (~6,800 mi), for a total of about 460 hours. Seems like a lot for me, but is certainly less than a lot of people too. For reference I did about 12,000 km in 2008, but did less last year on purpose, since I started racing and doing a bit less of those huge rides.

2009 was a lot of fun - a good number of brevets completed (or attempted), and about 25 races for the season - but 2010 will be even better! In my future I'm seeing less of the "why am I out here?" thoughts and more of the "I hope I can hang on!" kind of thoughts. E.g., less long suffering rides in place for more suffering in a shorter time-span, e.g. racing.

Training

And this year (actually the last few months now) I'm doing a 'real' training plan, e.g. the Base/Build/Peak/Race/Rest "periodization" style of training, from the "Cyclist's Training Bible".

So what does this all mean? In summary it's basically a formula that goes like: create an endurance base, then build on that with more intensity, peaking at a specific time (hopefully during race season!). Last year was more like a plateau for me, with no real rest/work cycles and just general "riding."

So here's my training breakdown:

Base: not just "ride slow & long" but the endurance zone is actually slightly higher intensity than what I used to think it was. Think just under tempo, but certainly not "active recovery." In this Base period you work on Endurance, Force, Speed skill, and Muscular Endurance. There are three Base blocks in my plan, each consisting of three weeks of work and one rest week. (12 weeks total)
Build: time to sprinkle on some intensity, tone down duration, and work on Anaerobic Endurance & some limiters. I'm doing two Build blocks, each three weeks long with one rest week. In fact I'm starting Build 1, Week 1 today! Today calls for some "cruise intervals" - should be fun. (8 weeks total)
Peak: work on Anaerobic Endurance, Power, and a limiter. Hours are down from Base/Build but intensity is up.
Race: work on Speed Skills, Anaerobic Endurance, and of course race at least once a week or so.
Then you normally take a rest week after racing for a while, doing another Build block or two, and Peak again.

(Note: this is just a summary of the phases and also my understanding of them - you'll want to take a look at the training bible in order to get the real scoop on this stuff)

In racing team news the team rides from the shop on Saturdays have been fun, it's been great meeting the team and getting to know the other 4/5's I'll be racing with this year. I got an older RCR (Recycled Cycles Racing) winter jacket, as well as a jersey with the RCR blue & gold! Finally get to fly the colors of the team, and it feels good. Just got to remember not to flip anyone off while riding in it....

In more racing news I'm looking forward to the first Road race of the WA road season, Mason Lake #1 & probably the Sequim race the next day! At only 36 miles the Cat 5 Mason Lake will be relatively short, but sweet. Bring on the wet road races!! Oh and I'll most likely sign up for the Tour of Walla Walla, it will most likely be my first stage race.

About Those Brevets

With the race season approaching, the brevet season is also almost here too. While I'll probably do less brevets this year I do plan on doing a 200k-600k "Super Randonneur" series, as long as I can squeeze them in between life & racing.

And of course PBP is in Aug. 2011 so that's no that far off.. gotta keep the rando legs in order, as I still want to give PBP a shot.

Here's to a great year of riding! See ya on the road.

Seattle to Snoqualmie Falls And Back

2009-12-18T17:02:00.000-08:00

Today was a perfect mid-December riding day: 40-something degrees and wet roads but dry skies. So I headed out to Snoqualmie Falls to get some hours in for the Base training I'm trying to do in preparation for next year.

The profile above shows how there isn't a whole lot of flat on this ride (and that's just the way out).

Map:

[full map link]

The first sizable hill the climb up to Newport Way through Factoria, and the second one is Black Nugget Road in Issaquah, which is 15-20% grade.. then you swoop down for a nice country ride out to Highway 202 and a little climb up to the Falls.

Thought I saw that pro who rides for Garmin-Chipotle out on Fall City road, but I'm not sure if it's him (he does live in North Bend though). (On second thought it looks like he's in Europe, so it must've been an impersonator)

Thoughts on Training

2009 almost over, but prep for 2010 has already begun. This season I'm doing a "real" training plan, e.g. the Base/Build/Peak/Race formula as described in "The Training Bible" book by Friel.

So instead of "Just Riding Around" like I've done in years past, I'm shifting gears a bit and slowing things down for the Base period, and just getting miles in - not worrying about sprinting, 5-minute attacks - at least not yet. OK, so maybe that's kind of like "Just Riding Around/JRA" except that I'm making it a point to go slower, err not go too fast.

The idea is to start with lots of volume, but lower intensity - then as the season moves on you dial up the intensity but bring down the volume. Of course "how much" depends on your racing category/goals, so my "big" base weeks are really just 12-14 hours total. But that can be a lot of riding when you're not doing it all at once, like the randos do.

So this is my third week of "Base 2," e.g. the second block of Base. I'm looking forward to the rest week next week, then moving on to the "Build" period.

Hell Hath Frozen Over

I recently did something I thought I'd never, ever, do: lift weights. Well, sort of. As part of the training plan I'm supposed to do some weight-training like squats, lunges, etc. (Focusing on the legs & core of course, I'm not trying to "bulk up" by any means, and the last thing I want to do is add upper-body mass)

So instead of going down to 24 Hour Fitness, I just threw a bunch big of computer-science books (like this bad boy) into plastic bags and stopped when they totaled about 30 pounds. Not a lot but you feel it after 10 or so reps of squats/lunges.

So who ever said being a computer nerd won't make you strong? I'll show them...

Crashed On Ice Today.

2009-12-05T16:06:00.000-08:00

With a thick fog overnight combined with temps close to 30F, I should have left the Ciocc idle today. Some of the local roads here on Capitol Hill were visibly dusted with a little bit of "icing", and I saw a garbage truck slide a bit coming down the hill this morning - that should have been a sign.

So when I headed out at about 1 PM for a quick spin down to Seward Park and back, I figured that since the skies were now blue it was safe.

Coming down Madison St (a nice 15% grade) there was some moisture on the roads, and evidence the city had been out de-icing a bit on the major roads. Made it down Madison without slipping, took a few extremely slow turns on Lake Wa Blvd (like that one S curve), so by the time I made it down to Seward Park I had gained enough confidence to go at full speed since I hadn't seen any ice or frost (on the road at least) for 11 or 12 kilometers..

The Crash

I had just wound down a little sprint coming into Seward Park, as I usually try to go for the crosswalk near the sign for the park, just before you follow the road left to get to the park entrance. According to the Garmin I was doing about 20 mph when all of a sudden there was a patch of frost on the road in front of me, and though at first it seemed like I was riding through it successfully, before I knew it I was sliding on the ground and the world was turned sideways.

I probably made an interesting guttural sound as I hit the ground, and the crash was loud enough so that some bystanders asked if I was OK. Luckily I was, and the only visible damage on the bike was the bar-end had been scraped and pulled out a bit. Luckily the winter layers mostly protected me from road rash, though I did end up with a little strawberry on my left hip.

More Carnage

Only a minute or so after I hit the deck two cyclists approached and before I thought to warn them, one of them went down in the same patch I hit.. then 20 seconds later a guy in a UW kit slid out going the other direction seemingly just as he was asking if we were alright.

I tried to warn a bunch of other cyclists on the way back up Lake Wa Blvd, hopefully had better luck on the ice than we did. So did anyone else crash today?

Meeting The Team: Recycled Cycles Racing

2009-11-14T13:51:00.000-08:00

This morning I went to Leschi and met up with the Recycled Cycles Racing Team, for their annual "meet the team" ride. I raced last year (my first) unattached - but I'd like to take things to the next level, and part of that is surrounding myself with people that know more than me about racing. (And of course people that can go faster than me too!)

These "meet the team" rides are slow/social rides around the south end of the lake that allow you to meet people and get a feel for the team. (All the local teams hold them in Sept/Oct/Nov)

I decided on Recycled Cycles for a number of reasons, mostly team size, race turnout rates, headquarters location, and frequency of team rides. Oh and the kit is pretty sweet too. I have friends on a few local teams, including this one, so that was also a factor.

The Ride

After a few introductions at Pert's Deli in Leschi and a pre-ride talk, the group of 30 or so racers set off south on familiar roads towards Seward Park and beyond. A no-drop ride, though of course a few hotheads (including me) attacked a bit on that one little hill in Newcastle on the Lake Wa Loop.

I recognized one bike/rider in particular on the team, since he was rockin' down-tube shifters all last season (and sticking in until the end too). Though I forgot his name he'll be good company in the races next year for sure. And I was surprised to see a pair of full Honjos too - similar to SiR, this is a group that strongly encourages a fender/flap at least in the rear.

Talked to a few more guys on the squad, and they all seemed down to earth and eager to have new riders in the peloton. The team already has some strong 4/5's for sure - I witnessed some of them last year - and hopefully I can add to the mix next season.

Of course, I didn't see a ton of team tactics in the 4/5's last year, and in general "they" say you really don't see real tactics until the Cat 3's.. but still it will be good to ride with this group weekly - and get to know how they ride/race before we get into the mix.

What About The Big Rides? (brevets)

I'm sure everyone's on the edge of their seat to find out if this means I'm breaking up with big rides - rest assured I still plan on doing at least a brevet series (200k-600k) next year, and maybe the Cascade 1240k.

There are things I like about the rando rides: people, challenge, scenery, etc - and things I don't like: lack of sleep, and the feeling after about 20+ hours on the bike of "what the fuck am I doing out here?"

The nice thing about racing is that you can still get plenty of "challenge," just a different type of it - instead of trying to stay awake after 30+ hours on the bike, in racing the challenge might be clawing back onto a peloton going 28+ mph when you're already red-lining. Instead of an upset stomach from eating on the road for more than 24 hours, you might feel the burn of lactic acid being released in your thighs during a sprint - but you still push through it.

The same spirit of camaraderie and challenge is there - just in different form. So here's to the pursuit of challenge (or even fun), no matter what form you like it in.

I'll be sure to post pics of the full team kit (jersey, jacket, bib shorts, hat, socks, gloves) once I get my hands on it..

Random Rain Ride

2009-11-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been riding slow, on purpose. The idea is to build up "base" for next year, and add intensity when it's closer to the beginning of the 2010 season. (Also to shed a few pounds between now and then)

It's nice since all spring/summer I was trying to focus on sprinting and intervals, basically the stuff that makes you gasp for air and hope your heart isn't going to explode.

So instead of suffering on the bike, right now I'm just tooling around and taking in the scenery. Dusted off the Surly Pacer (with full fenders), it's the perfect tool for wet & windy PNW fall days.

And they say "train heavy, race light" anyway right?

I like when the roads are wet and the skies are dry - with the full fenders my feet stayed nice and toasty. Ahh, fall!

I haven't done any distance-type riding since the 600k back in September, been taking a break from that too. I figure next year will be busy enough will a full race calendar, in addition to attempting to qualify for PBP 2011. Ride on.

The Pista Rides Again

2009-10-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

The other day I decided to dust off my 2005 Bianchi Pista track bike, and slapped on a new chain/cog/chainring, bar tape, brake pads, pedals. Not that I'm sick of my wonderful Ciocc (road) bike, but I figure over the fall/winter months it won't hurt to switch it up a bit. I rode fixed on the road and the track a few years ago, but it's been a while since I've hit the road with only one gear and no coasting.

I used to run a 40x14 and skid a ton, but that's probably what killed my knees back then (77 gear inches, ouch on the uphills!), so now with a 49x19 (68") I can hit the hills with a little more speed. It's not a huge drop but definitely gives me more room on the hills, and forces me to spin even faster on the downhills.

A few photos. The fall colors are apparent, and with the rain and colder temps it's hard to mistake this time of year for anything else.

In the I-90 Tunnel:

As a side note, after years of suffering through winters with knickers, I finally bought some full-length tights. I was really missing out, the extra warmth is nice!

Track handlebars are more curvy than road bars, and without hoods to rest on you're usually either up top or in the drops. And as you can see I have a front brake for the oh-shit moments. But 99% of the time I'm either speeding up or slowing down using the legs. Downhills become a workout, it's definitely different.

Another great thing about fixed gear riding is that once you settle into a nice cadence, it's so smooth and you really do feel "one with the bike," as they say. Though honestly half the time the drivetrain is pedaling for you, e.g. on the upstroke. In fact many road riders/racers train on fixed gears to improve their pedaling 'form', but in fact I think it can make your stroke a little lazy, e.g. you might not be pulling up as much anymore. So I keep that in mind and try to apply force all the way around, to make sure I'm getting a good workout.

And the fixed definitely ~~helps~~ makes me spin! According to this nifty cadence calculator, at a peak speed of 47 km/h on my 49x19 gearing (68") I hit 154 rpm. Of course, that was for all of 30 seconds so there is still work to do, I'd like to be able to hold that for longer by the time next season rolls around. Last year in crit racing I had the gas to stay in the race until the end, but didn't have much to show for a sprint. Hopefully that will change in the coming months, and this bike is part of that plan.

>By the way, I'm not sure how anyone can ride a fixed for long distance rides! I recall Robert slaying a hilly (aren't they all?) 200k last year on his fixed gear.. and SiR extraordinaire Bob B. has been known to do some big rides on fixed gear as well. Hats off to you guys! When I did a two-day STP on this bike back in 2005 my knees were killing me on the second day. But maybe I'll break this out for a 100k populaire next year or something.

Another reason I brought out this bike was to get ready for some track racing out at Marymoor next year! I gave that a shot years ago, but back then I didn't have the endurance even for a 5-lap race. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do better next time around.

Gears or no gears, here's to a wet fall...

Climbing Hurricane Ridge

2009-09-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

I've been itching to do some more high-elevation riding, especially since the warm season is soon ending and I want to squeeze all I can out of the current nice weather. At first I was thinking of doing Snoqualmie Pass (starting from Seattle) for my "one last pass" ride of the season, but I've already done it a few times and though I was going to explore the backroads up it, I set my sights on something else, something new.

Hurricane Ridge - out on the Olympic Peninsula, this gem of a climb came on my radar last year when it was closed to cyclists due to washouts. 28km at about a 5% grade, what's not to love?

Though I've previously spoke of riding out to this climb - that was too much of an undertaking for what I had in mind, so Kira & I drove out to Port Angeles so I could start the climb fresh and we could meet up at the top. I'm really glad we did this, since from Kingston (or Bainbridge) I'd forgotten how hilly Highway 104 is! It had some serious climbs that looked painful on the way to a big climb. Huge thanks to Kira for taking me out here - we made a great day of it.

But on to the cycling. I started at the bottom visitors center, about 17 miles from the top. Didn't really warm-up, just hit the climb and made sure to stay in the little ring (39 tooth) at first - which was easy to do since it starts out at about a 6-7% grade for the first 8 km or so.

The road starts as worn chip-seal surrounded by greenery that would soon turn more sparse and more alpine.
While I was keeping the pace in the Tempo zone, I was also taking a little time to take in the scenery and capture a few shots like this. It was the perfect day for a climb in short sleeves - it might be a while before I get to do this again. (Snow is expected at the top on Monday!)

In the middle or so of the climb I felt that it was time to kick it into the big ring (53 teeth) and push it. The road wasn't as steep in the middle section of the climb, and I could feel it since the pedaling was getting easier. So I kicked it up a notch. Sometimes I can hit a "sweet spot" on climbs where a 53x23 gear feels just right, and keeps me going relatively fast. Towards the end I could see my heart rate start to rise and my legs start to get sore, but I kept on truckin' for the first hour at least to see if I could set a new personal record (see Data section below).

There are three small tunnels to go through, but they're short and traffic was light anyway.
I used a rear flashing light just in case.

After this the road gets pretty twisty and kicks up a bit (6% for the last few miles at least), and you start to see the views you've come to hope for. You can see the top of the road up to your left as you near the top, cars glistening in the sun light, but looking really high up too. I thought to myself, am I really going that high in this short of a distance? Ouch.

Right as I hit the one hour mark I let up, happy to have pushed hard for an hour, and took it easy the rest of the way. Enjoying the scenery, which is easy to forget to do sometimes if you zone out staring at your front wheel.

The scale of these views/climbs can be overwhelming sometimes but that's why I love it. I love the humbling feeling of looking over a mountain vista, up at a star-filled sky, or at an ocean view and thinking about how insignificant we are. Oh and it was a great workout too.

5,242 ft at the top Visitors Center at Hurricane Ridge. I bought a coffee mug as a souveneir.

A few more photos here, and Kira took some great shots of some wildlife there as well. (Thanks again for the ride!)

Data

Set a new peak one hour record. My previous best was back in April, 243 watts for one hour (was on a SiR winter training ride). The season of riding and racing has increased my capacity to turn the pedals harder for an hour, and this time I came out at 268 watts. Perhaps could have "scored" higher with more effort (HR average was just 156 bpm, max is 196). Anyway it's nice to see a noticeable increase in the data as a result in training.

Peak 60min (268 watts):
Duration: 1:00:00 (1:01:37)
Work: 966 kJ
TSS: 91.3 (intensity factor 0.955)
Norm Power: 272
Distance: 17.946 km
Elevation Gain: 991 m
Grade: 5.1 % (916 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 112 565 268 watts
Heart Rate: 93 175 156 bpm
Cadence: 16 87 64 rpm
Speed: 0.4 51.6 17.9 kph
Crank Torque: 0 169.9 40.8 N-m

Data for the full ride.

Entire workout (251 watts):
Duration: 1:40:34 (1:43:32)
Work: 1514 kJ
TSS: 137.8 (intensity factor 0.907)
Norm Power: 258
Distance: 27.624 km
Elevation Gain: 1659 m
Grade: 5.4 % (1477 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 565 251 watts
Heart Rate: 93 175 155 bpm
Cadence: 16 87 62 rpm
Speed: 0 51.6 16.5 kph
Crank Torque: 0 177.1 38.9 N-m

I definitely want to do this climb as part of a full ride next year! It'll be worth the slog out there.

SIR's Windy Ridge 600k 2009 - Another Great DNF

2009-09-14T08:28:00.001-07:00

Of course I went into this ride with a determination, or at least some kind of afterthought, that I really needed to complete this ride this year. It's a tough course, not just in terms of time/distance, but also in terms of terrain. (Check out the profile here) Four major climbs: Paradise, Windy Ridge, White Pass, Chinook Pass. And extra challenging this year also in terms of sleep deprivation what with the 9 PM start.

If this is rando school then this 600k brevet is certainly an advanced course, not for beginners. Even as an intermediate rando at some points I feel like I'm over my head a bit on this ride. This is truly advanced suffering. But like they say shoot for the stars and you just might hit the moon, right? (e.g. I always figure that even if I DNF these big rides they at least make for a good story & photo set)

This year at least my camera's batteries were fresh, so once the sun came up I had plenty of opportunities to take some shots.

The Ride

After some pre-ride notes from Jan, the group of about 11-12(?) of us set off From Enumclaw into a clear summer night. Nice and warm, no need for a jacket or leg warmers yet. Seemingly within meters of starting a few riders were already way up the road, their red rear lights getting smaller and smaller - for some reason it always seems like they're on a motor scooter since you can't see their feet moving, and they seem to move away so fast.

The group of about 10 of us congregated and settled into a nice speed - I have no idea what that speed was as I was saving my Garmin's (15-hour) battery for closer to the start of the Paradise climb. Night riding can be a drag sometimes (well, most of the time for me), but in a large (and fast-ish) group time seems to fly and if you aren't conversing maybe you can listen to others and generally enjoy the ride.

Somewhere before Eatonville Chris & I noticed that Robert wasn't in the pack anymore. (read his ride saga here) Had he suffered a flat? We had no idea but were hoping we'd see his light behind us catching up at some point. Looking back, I kind of wish we'd waited but in the rush of the first few hours I think we were happy to be sailing along in the group.

Then, a Disaster of Sorts

I forget which road it was on, but some time in the first two or three hours I hit a large pothole (the kind that seemingly grabs your front wheel for a moment) that sent my handlebar bag into the top of my Schmidt E6 front light, knocking the whole casing of the lamp onto the ground. I heard the sound of plastic hitting the ground just after the pothole, looked down and saw my front wheel in darkness, which was bad since the light normally partially lights up my front wheel.

So I cursed loudly and slow down, hoping to recover the light and get it back working. After all it was maybe 11 or 12 at this point, so we had a good deal of night riding remaining in (not to mention the second night of the ride). Once the lights were out, and the group had quickly gone up the road, I realized how utterly dark it was on this road. As I was turning around I saw a bright bike light up ahead, and was relieved to see Chris roll up asking if that was my light that fell off. Indeed it was.

I found the light casing, screwed it back into the mount and spun the wheel. Nothing. Shit. Then Chris asked a great question - do you have a spare bulb? I didn't think that the bulb had fallen out altogether. The advantage of riding with someone else (especially at night!) is that when your brain isn't really working maybe theirs is.

In fact I did have a spare bulb, even if in the rush of this little disaster I'd forgotten it was stuffed into my handlebar bag. I was more than relieved when slapping it in there and it did the trick. Nothing like the feeling of fixing something broken, especially when you're depending on it to move forward.

Only thing was that part of the plastic mount the E6 on had broke off, so it wasn't mounted quite as solidly as it used to be. It was jiggly but stayed in place. I rode for an hour or so with it pointed way too low, only maybe 20 feet of light in front of me when there should be 100+.. I was too impatient to mess with it since it was at least partially working and Chris' LED E3(?) more than made up for my lack of light.

The thing about this handlebar bag was that I usually don't use it on this bike just for this reason - it comes down too low for how I mount the E6. So this time I thought I'd be slick and tie it around my brake/shifter cables instead of the bars, thus raising it a few inches - though this stopped working as soon as the weight of the bag was pulled down onto the light by that damn pothole. So after fixing the light I flipped the handlebar bag over so that it sat on my stem - an odd-looking position but it was the best I could do to help the light stay in place. It got the job done.

(For what it's worth I also had a backup light, but it was a weak CatEye LED I use for commuting - a true last resort that I luckily never had to break out - not something I would have wanted to descend a pass with, for sure)

Moving On To Paradise

We passed through the tiny town of Elbe, which I've passed through quite a few times this summer on various rides, but never at night. Water supplies were fine (had 2.5 bottles on the ride, 1.5 left at this point maybe), so it didn't matter to us so Chris & I just pedaled through.

At the Rainier National Forest Entrance I decided to finally fix up my light which had been pointing too far down. Chris was nice enough to stop and wait while I fiddled with it. I was hoping Robert would still catch up to us but still he was not to be found. Eventually my light was pointing straight again, hooray, I could climb & descend the mountain with confidence.

Paradise Climb

I always enjoy this climb and was excited to do it again even though I wasn't expecting to see any scenery since it was so dark out. It never gets overly steep, and this year I felt a little quicker up the mountains than last year's version of this ride (last year was on the Surly Pacer, which weighs about 10 lbs more loaded, and more importantly isn't as stiff as the Ciocc).

At one point we turned a corner and were met with what seemed like a blast of furnace air. Weird. It felt like riding into 12-noon out of nowhere, but it didn't last long and the temp got back to the 50-ish it was before (I assume).

To my shock we bridged up to Dan Boxer soon after Longmire - he's a pretty amazing climber and usually drops me on climbs of length. Seemed like he was a little tired and was happy to have company. We stuck together and the three of us got to the summit before too long.

Oh, and on the way up we could see Mt. Rainier's peak in the moonlight! A sight I'll never forget.

The Ciocc atop Paradise (4,000+ft) at about 4 in the morning.

Dan took a 10-minute cat nap (Chris might have as well) up at the top, and another rando was up at this control (Barry?) sitting down and possibly also napping. After all it was 4 AM.. I was antsy to roll but at the same time didn't feel like descending into the night alone, most likely to have them catch up later anyway.

The four of us left eventually, and the descent down was a blast, albeit a bit risky at times I suppose. I led it out and was pushing it on some of the initial straight-aways, trying to spin out my 53x11 gear. Before too long there were three small lights behind me, off in the distance. Soon we hit the stop sign and they weren't too far behind me so we continued together.

Sometimes on a sharp turn my E6 lamp (which doesn't have the widest beam) didn't quite cover the whole road - so I was either going off of moonlight to see or maybe the riders' lights from behind. It was a rush though, I loved every second of it!

On To Packwood

After the descent we took a right on Highway 123 (Cayuse) and got a nice little downhill for the most part to Packwood. By this time it was starting to get way colder and I donned my leg warmers & long-fingered gloves. It seemed odd that it was getting coldest at sunrise or so but that's the way it was.

I had a breakfast "burrito" here at the store, and refilled my water bottles. So far, so good. I think we'd done about 100 miles at this point and while we weren't breaking records we were moving along.

This section on US-12 & a backroad we got to Randle the last place we could buy food or water for something like 90 miles. Next up was the climb up to Windy Ridge, just 30 miles away. Sometimes 30 miles can seem like an eternity, especially when the overall average speed approaches 12 mph not to mention this is a mountain climb.

Climb to Windy Ridge

In fact this portion of our ride encompassed the High Pass Challenge, a century+ put on by Cascade for the last few years that was my first intro into mountain climbing on a bicycle. Funny how things have progressed since then, though I still wouldn't say the HPC is an "easy" ride.

The difference with our approach to the Windy Ridge takes us up a slightly smaller & steeper road, FS-26. Leave it up to SIR to find an even more challenging route than the "Challenge."

I felt stronger here than last year, as I remember being dropped by our little group early in this climb then. I stopped for a photo-op/rest opportunity shortly after reaching FS-26, and let Dan and Chris go ahead. After that I felt invigorated and found myself climbing in the big ring (well, part of the time), hoping to catch back up to my companions before too long.

Eventually I caught them, though they'd taken their own break so that certainly helped.

Dan on FS-26, a Forest Service road heading up to FS-99 and Windy Ridge. It's got some nice kicks up towards the top, I think this was where they started.

Up towards the end of FS-26 it seems to just go straight and no more switch-backs to help you with the grade, the engineers decided 10%+ was OK for the last mile or two. Ouch, that section hurt with a 39x27 low gear, but I somehow made it. If nothing else a good workout in itself.

We got to a "control" where a lone volunteer had been sitting in the sun and signing brevet cards and handing out water all day. Though I had enough water to get by it was nice to munch on some chips and get some ice in my bottle. Huge thanks to John(?) that sat out there forever helping us out.

We started the ascent and were now in the blast zone, taking in all the scenery. Almost too much to take in at once: St. Helens crater in the distance, Rainier behind us, Adams and Hood over to the left. Wow. It just doesn't get much better than that.

The only thing I hate about this climb is that a) I can never tell where the end is, at least based off visual clues, e.g. all those turns look the same! and that b) there's a good deal of down along with the up, so on the way back you're not always descending. Ugh.

Finally, the Windy Ridge viewpoint! At about 12:00 PM we reached the viewpoint of the blast crater and Spirit Lake. Here's a shot of Dan & Chris taking in the scenery, and enjoying some off-bike time.

(As a side-note, I learned yesterday on my return visit here with Kira that there's a much better view of St. Helens at the viewpoint just before Windy Ridge - next time around I'll stop there for a photo op too)

We didn't take too long here and before too long were rolling again. We were well within the time limits and I felt decent, though was looking forward to some "real" (e.g. hot) food back in Packwood, which was hours away.

We went back to the mini-control and I had a Sprite that really hit the spot. Chips also hit the spot as did some pancake pieces that were offered. I'd been running off Clif Shot Blox/Gels, and some peanuts I bought in Packwood, but I didn't bring any real food and was depending on resources to fill in that void. Possibly a mistake but it's worked on other rides..

We set off and started the (annoying) descent/ascent back to US-12 and onward to Packwood. I actually felt pretty strong on US-12 heading back east and we had a nice tailwind so I geared it up and got it going - then a big truck came by and gave me an extra woosh, so I geared it up to 53x11 and got it really going. Only for a few seconds probably but it feels good to do that ~20 hours into a ride. Dropped my companions but I knew I'd see them again in Packwood which was only miles away.

Back in Packwood, I had two orders of mozzarella sticks, a piece of Dan's burrito - which hit the spot, but looking back I should have had more food here. Also, I probably shouldn't have doused the burrito scraps in "Taco Sauce" that ended up being spicy.. I like spicy but not on long rides.

I caught a case of the hiccups here in Packwood that lasted, off and on, all the way to the overnight control at Rimrock Lake which was something like 30 miles away. In fact the hiccups even re-surfaced a little the next day, weird. Rando rides do strange things to your stomach, this much I know.

Climbing White Pass

Leaving Packwood I started to feel less and less "good," and the ride started to be less and less "fun." Also, food/drink seemed less and less enticing. Uh oh. These are signs of either dehydration or inadequate fueling.. I probably should have had a real meal at some point along the way. I was thinking about calling it a day/night at the control if possible. The ironic thing is that Chris was feeling a bit ill up to this point and was saying the "D" word a lot, but I kept silent and hoped we'd both get past our ill feelings toward the ride at that moment.

On one hand this was "the big brevet" for me this year, but also I didn't feel a great sense of urgency to carry on for some reason. I'd already accomplished Super-Randonneur for this year so that wasn't an issue I guess.

Now climbing White Pass (4,500ft) at about 7 PM or so - the sun was setting and we were nearing the "overnight" control - the mile markers seemed to take forever to tick down, we "only" had 12 miles to the summit or something like that. Just a few 6% grade stretches for 2-4 miles and some slightly less steep stuff and we're home free. We'd covered about 370k (230 mi) at this point.

Chris said we were holding about 6 mph and I was happy with that, it was faster than it felt. It was a pace we could all live with, and we reached the summit at about the same time. It was getting darker and colder now, and Dan & Chris stopped to add some more layers for our descent to the cabin at Rimrock Lake.

I just wanted to get this section over with and only donned arm warmers for the descent, I didn't feel like digging out my jacket or leg warmers even though I might regret it. So I set off and told them I'd see them soon, most likely at the control.

An Early End

I made it to the overnight at about 8 PM and was extremely happy to be there but still not feeling good about the rest of the ride. We'd get maybe an hour of sleep and then need to set off or else be in danger of getting close to the control closing times. I felt like I needed about four hours of sleep in order to tackle Chinook at this point - things just weren't adding up to me finishing.

Would I be able to even stay there at the cabin? Since there's no SAG wagon, would Kira even be up for picking me up and taking me back to Seattle? How much would a taxi back to Seattle cost anyway?

Ryan generously offered chili, minestrone, cheese, water, all kinds of good stuff. Mostly at that point I just wanted plain water, which I hadn't had in hours since all of mine had Nuun-tablet flavor in it, which I was now sick of.

I picked at my chili and couldn't really get much of it down, and the hiccups were still off and on. I didn't feel necessarily sick but didn't feel like riding over a pass in an hour or so either. The options were clear: sleep for an hour, get up at about 11 PM and head up and over Chinook Pass in the night, or stay here, sleep in, and hope Kira would pick me up in the morning.

I was relieved when Ryan said I could stay there overnight no problem, and even more relieved when I called Kira and she agreed to pick me up the next day. Thanks baby! That was a huge favor). My ride was over and I couldn't have been happier, at the time. Though of course in the back of my mind I already knew I'd regret it, but oh well. It's just a bike ride.

When Ryan woke Dan & Chris up after their hour-long nap, I was soooo glad to be curled up in bad and able to just stay there.

My incomplete control card - a memento for motivation for next year.

The Next Day

Kira came and got me from Rimrock Lake pretty early in the morning, and since it was such a long drive I figured we might as well make the trip worth it for her and visit some of the local sights. We went back up over White Pass, stopped at the scenic overlooks and headed out to Windy Ridge.

Kira had never been there so we figured this was the time to do it! And even though I was there the day before it would be fun to visit Windy Ridge as a passenger and take in the sights. (She posted some cool photos from our mini day-trip here)

I kept thinking about how if I'd continued on I'd still be riding at that moment - which was hard to imagine after having slept in and now going on a road trip. The latest one could finish the ride was 1 PM Sunday morning, and had I continued on I'm sure I would have been close to that. It was more riding than I was ready to deal with I guess.

Chris said later that he and Dan took three "ditch naps" on the way up Chinook Pass, and got up to the top at about sunrise. Wow. Kudos to them (and everyone else that finished!) for being strong and sticking it out - I'm truly impressed. Hopefully I can join the club next year, but until then this will just have to be another one of my growing collection of epic DNFs.

From 35 Minutes to 35+ Hours, Again

2009-09-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

Once again it's time to switch gears a bit and set my goals to things much longer, and much slower, than the local races. A 600km brevet. (that's 372 miles in case you're wondering)

But not just any 600k - this is Jan Heine & Ryan Hamilton's "Mountain Pass 600k" - and the elevation profile says it all: (thanks to Robert for the pic)

The first "bump" there is the climb up to Paradise through the Rainier Natl. Forest, followed by the Windy Ridge climb, White Pass, and finally Chinook Pass. Holy shit.. of course part of this course won't be new to me, as Robert & I DNFd this ride last year partway through.. this year, finish!

It's gonna be great though. The weather looks like it'll be clear and fluctuating between 50-90 degrees.. perfect riding weather! The views will be epic, no doubt. So tonight at 9 PM we roll out, 9 people heading into the darkness. Can't wait.

Blackberry Crit 2009: A Wet One

2009-09-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday we headed to Bremerton on the 8:45 AM ferry, shooting for the 11 AM 4/5 race, to the tune of light rain. The last crit of the season, I was looking forward to it but also sad to see the season end.

Huge thanks to Kira coming to the event, and also for taking more great photos!

We took the ferry over, enjoying views like this of downtown Seattle: (click here for full photo detail)

The Race

I'd seen the course raced a few years ago, before I was bold enough to give this racing stuff a try. This year I was on the other side of the barriers, a competitor amongst 21 other hearty souls on a rainy day in September.

This is a classic criterium course, four 90-degree corners, but it wasn't quite flat - starting on a slight uphill, we took two quick lefts (featuring two manhole covers on the first turn) for the back straight-away, a wide section of decent road (with bumps and cracks though), a slight rise in the road leading to two more quick turns and a nice downhill leading to a slight uphill and the finish.

When it came time to line up at 11 AM, it was still raining pretty hard but we all dragged our bodies to the start - there was no line since the official said he didn't want to put down tape or paint on such a wet day, so a set of cones were used, though we joked that a big crack across the road could be used as the finish line.

After some opening notes from the official, our pack of Category 4/5 riders was unleashed onto the slick streets of Bremerton, and I quickly got in the first three riders of the pack, determined to stay up front for this race. I was sure there was going to be a crash or three, so I was hoping to stay out of trouble by staying up front (black/blue jersey):

The pack:

Mark, Off the Front:

Pack on wet corner:

With 10-15 minutes left in the race a few riders went up the road, attacking. Someone in the pack yelled "it's too early, let them go," and I stupidly followed the advice. It made sense to me - usually breakaways in a 4/5 crit don't stick, and there were still a few laps to go to the finish.

Whoever it was that went first probably sensed our slower-than-usual-rain-pace, and figured it was a good time to attack. Of course looking back I wish I'd tried to bridge up to it, but at the time it didn't seem like a good idea.

The breakaway, still away with about 2-3 to go:

Trying to stay up front-ish - and my arm warmers were now falling off but I didn't have time to fix 'em:

Alas, one rider (Karl Cunningham) in the break stuck it out all the way to the end - bravo!
As the final turn approached I was feeling the toll of the 2nd-to-last lap in which I'd dug a little too hard to get a good position for the last lap. Though I was still in a nice position coming into the final turn (4th wheel?), I lost a good 3-4 spots on the downhill, since I was gassed for part of the long sprint and got passed by a few riders.

Still, 10th place, my best placing for the season! Two more races to Category 4, though they won't happen until next March.

Coming in for 7th through 10th:

In the end, it was truly magical there weren't any crashes in this race! Though I know I had some minor sliding going on with the two manhole covers on two laps, and there was the usual occasional rumble of "hold your line!"

Full photo set here.

In other news, I'm getting ready for the quickly-approaching 600k on Friday. Looks like the weather will be great, I'm looking forward to this big ride.