These past few midsummer nights have gone dreamless, due I suppose to lack of good solid sleep. My bedroom upstairs doesn't have AC, despite not being a problem until now, the past few nights were uncomfortable. Saturday we had a 90k road race out in Monson which started at 8:10 am. The Mighty KL raced with us in the Master 45+ men, as there was no women's race for her at this event. We got there at the last minute, but made the start, unlike a few other BOBs...
Master 45+ races always feature breakaways, and this one was no exception. Tom Officer (CYBC-Richard Sachs) and I believe Bill Thompson (Bethel) went clear on the long grade up US 20 into Brimfield, less than 15k into the race. Going with this one never crossed my mind, as the long uphill stretch that comes at 50k down would surely be where the race was made. Not too many others were interested in the duo either. They got two or three minutes clear, but KL, of all people, was up front doing some pacemaking for our group. Duano and I hung out at the back trying to keep Garabed in the race, as he was a bit sick and struggling. We pushed him and encouraged him for a while, but the wheel van driver was getting antsy and wanted to come around us, so we had to abandon him. It felt like we were clinging to a liferaft, fighting to keep him alive, but then we gave up and let him sink under, watching him drown. Sorry dude.
Not long after that, the course turns mostly downhill, and it was shady too, so despite the forecast heat, I was very comfortable. No real chase was underway, but we were moving fast. When we approached the long climb, which goes past the finish, I was too far back in the group. On the initial slope, I banzaied up the bumpy pavement on the right hand side of the road, making rapid progress toward the front. KL followed suit. The road levels off for a while before turning upward again where the finish line is, so I tucked into the group. The original break of two was not far ahead, and a few riders, including Pearce for BOB, had started to move across to them. I could not go at this point, as I needed a breather after moving up. On the steeper pitch, I jumped out ahead, and Norton told me from the sidelines it was twenty seconds to the now-regrouped break of six riders. Being on my limit, and only about five seconds clear of the bunch, I sat up after getting a fresh bottle from Michelle Hurley in the feed zone. Thanks Michelle!
The rest of the way up the stairstep climb, the pace was pretty civilized. The wheel van roared by us near the top, indicating they thought the break was at least a minute up. Our group was around 35 riders by the time we turned back onto Route 32 to do the loop again. We eased way up as most teams were represented in the break, with only CCB-Evil Empire missing the move. Apparently the break also got some assistance from groups of riders who had been dropped from the Cat 2/3 and Master 35 races which started ahead of us. When our wheel van came upon one such group, he thought it was the break and so he stopped and waited for us to come by, creating much confusion as we too momentarily thought that we had caught them, but no such luck.
Coming around the Connecticut portion of the course and heading back toward Monson, about 10K from the finish climb, we saw Pearce at the side of the road with a flat. Only Timmy Shea and I were still in for BOB, with the others all having lost contact on the climb. Tom Cormier also got stung in the tongue by a bee, so it really wasn't his day. Now that Timmy and I no longer had a man in the break, we had to do something. It was really too late to chase, as if we did we'd be blown for the finish climb, so Timmy slipped off the front with Tommy Mannion (CCB), while I just surfed wheels up front. They got out of sight, maybe a minute ahead by the start of the finish climb.
There is a pretty sharp turn on to the finish road, and normally all hell breaks loose about a half mile out as riders fight for position. For some reason though, I was able to lead into the turn totally unmolested, taking the best line and carrying speed into the hill. This was a surprise, but since I found myself a good fifteen bike lengths out in front of the group, I figured I may as well commit, and made an attack up the first steep portion. Approaching the level spot, Timmy was just ahead, struggling. Mannion had dropped him and he was way up the road at this point. Going by Timmy, he told me "good gap" so I big-ringed it over the false flat, rapidly closing in on Mannion. At 300 meters to go, I looked back and knew I would stay ahead of the charging field, so I gunned it by Tommy right where it gets steep again and he could not respond. I easily made it to the line ahead of the field sprint for 6th. Tommy got swallowed and newly crowned 50+ National Criterium champion Paul Curley took 7th in his brand-new stars and stripes skinsuit.
Another master race, another missed break, another "best of the rest" finish. The day's take of $55 brought my 2006 winnings total up to a whopping $345, maybe my third best year ever. Not sure about this week coming up. Concord and Bow are two great races, but I'm on call next Saturday night, and now my car is all f'd up too, further complicating my simple peasant life for the week. I'll have to see how it goes. After a very easy ride Sunday, my legs are feeling quite good right now. July had only 36 hours total on the bike, but with 7 hours of sub-LT (zone 4, 150 bpm) or above, in contrast to May and June's 40/6 totals. Hopefully I can get some rest and still rebuild in late August for an assault on the Green Mountain and Bob Beal stage races in September. Thanks for reading.
since 2006
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Friday, July 28, 2006
You can ride it if you like.
Will we be changing the spelling of his name to Floid? I can't be the first person to think of that. I wasn't rooting for him during the Tour, I'm not sure why, but I am now. This testosterone test has always been one that seems a bit flawed. Naturally, the freaks with high testosterone tend to be good athletes. We'll have to wait and see. At least the pressure will still be on to get doping out of the sport; hopefully it will return to being more of a sport than a business.
This week I've been very tired. After WMSR, Cronoman and I did an easy ride around Feltslave's neighborhood, getting soaked in a frog-swallowing deluge mid ride. The relief from the heat and humidity was welcome. More rain on Saturday, and general malaise on Sunday led to two more days off the bike. Come Monday, I still didn't feel like riding, but I managed a slo-mo spin around the 'hood just to keep rigor mortis from setting in. Tuesday, the desire to train still had not returned, so another dusk ride, only slightly more spirited than Monday's had to suffice. Wednesday I worked from home and was itching to ride, but by the time the evening rolled around my legs were sore and once again I was feeling burned out. I got on the bike and headed up the road at 7 pm, deciding to force the issue with a beginner style zone 3 ride, trying to keep up a high average speed. I managed to do 33k in an hour without ever digging too hard, and this seemed to wake me up a bit.
Thursday I wasn't sure about going to the TT. The Monson road race is Saturday morning at 8, and I wasn't too keen on killing myself just 40 hours prior. The day was warm, and I went down with the road bike to ride it cannibal, just so I could support the event. After working until 5:30, and due to a light turnout of only a dozen riders or so, my warmup ended up being all of eight minutes in zone two. Not so thorough. I figured I'd just ride it at LT, about 5-8 bpm lower than normal, and see where my time fell. On the line though, Graham Garber was starting two minutes behind me, and with a slight tailwind I knew I'd really have to motor to avoid being caught. No such luck. My lack of warmup held down my HR even though I wasn't exactly soft pedaling. My only real compromise was to go all the way to the 16 cog on the two rises. Still managing to keep my HR average down at 163, Graham flew by me with a few k to go, on his way to a course record 16:03, or so I heard. I'm not sure, because by the time I cooled down and turned back to the finish, they were all gone, so I don't know my official time. My Polar shows 18:13, not bad, only 7 seconds slower than my last cannibal ride, but I though my watch said 18:21 last night, so I'll need to wait until they publish results.
So there you have it Ge. Not much thoughtfullness in this post, but I'll try to do better over the weekend. Thanks for reading.
This week I've been very tired. After WMSR, Cronoman and I did an easy ride around Feltslave's neighborhood, getting soaked in a frog-swallowing deluge mid ride. The relief from the heat and humidity was welcome. More rain on Saturday, and general malaise on Sunday led to two more days off the bike. Come Monday, I still didn't feel like riding, but I managed a slo-mo spin around the 'hood just to keep rigor mortis from setting in. Tuesday, the desire to train still had not returned, so another dusk ride, only slightly more spirited than Monday's had to suffice. Wednesday I worked from home and was itching to ride, but by the time the evening rolled around my legs were sore and once again I was feeling burned out. I got on the bike and headed up the road at 7 pm, deciding to force the issue with a beginner style zone 3 ride, trying to keep up a high average speed. I managed to do 33k in an hour without ever digging too hard, and this seemed to wake me up a bit.
Thursday I wasn't sure about going to the TT. The Monson road race is Saturday morning at 8, and I wasn't too keen on killing myself just 40 hours prior. The day was warm, and I went down with the road bike to ride it cannibal, just so I could support the event. After working until 5:30, and due to a light turnout of only a dozen riders or so, my warmup ended up being all of eight minutes in zone two. Not so thorough. I figured I'd just ride it at LT, about 5-8 bpm lower than normal, and see where my time fell. On the line though, Graham Garber was starting two minutes behind me, and with a slight tailwind I knew I'd really have to motor to avoid being caught. No such luck. My lack of warmup held down my HR even though I wasn't exactly soft pedaling. My only real compromise was to go all the way to the 16 cog on the two rises. Still managing to keep my HR average down at 163, Graham flew by me with a few k to go, on his way to a course record 16:03, or so I heard. I'm not sure, because by the time I cooled down and turned back to the finish, they were all gone, so I don't know my official time. My Polar shows 18:13, not bad, only 7 seconds slower than my last cannibal ride, but I though my watch said 18:21 last night, so I'll need to wait until they publish results.
So there you have it Ge. Not much thoughtfullness in this post, but I'll try to do better over the weekend. Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Pressure
You can pick the song of your choice for this one. Is that redundant? If you pick, then choice is implied, right? I'm not really sure, but half a paragraph in we already have an "I'm" and some "it" subjects. It's early.
During the tour this year, once again we heard a lot about the weight of the leader's jersey. During Armstrong's seven year reign as Tour champion, the maillot jaune did not appear to be so heavy, but there wasn't too much "normal" about the entire period of LA dominance. The leader of Postal/Discovery seemed to thrive under the pressure and spotlight.
For the rest of us though, pressure comes in different ways, from different directions, with different effects. Pressure can manifest itself as hours or days of anxiety leading up to a big event, as a fleeting second of success or failure at the crucial instant during a sprint finish, or as thousands of other possible scenarios in between. Maybe pressure is your motivator, or maybe it's your downfall. But it's there.
We have already heard that Landis forgot to eat and bonked terribly during stage 16, and in fact he was not wearing the leader's jersey at the time. However, just a minute or two down, he was the odds on favorite to win the Tour, and the pressure was certainly on when he wilted during the climb to La Toussuire. Now you could argue that the pressure on him was greater on the next day, but being written off at ten minutes down, I think he had nothing to lose and much less pressure when he bid farewell to the other contenders and went on to have the ride of his life, rivaling the rides of everyone elses lives too. Coincidence? I don't think so.
The support of a team in the quest for cycling glory is something we all dream about, but with that support also comes pressure. Could you handle it? Sure, sharing success is not too difficult, but should you fail, the leader must take the fall, even if the team support was not all that it might be. On the other side, if we're in the support role, if we're not careful to avoid applying to much pressure on our leader, we aren't being so supportive after all.
Maybe you don't even have a team. Maybe you compete as an individual. That doesn't mean you don't have pressure. You might be your own source of pressure. Pressure to meet training goals, pressure to achieve race results, pressure to become something. I read several athlete's blogs. One theme in their writings, usually underlying, is that their public statements of athletic goals and intents puts a pressure on these bloggers to live up to their blogs. I know I've mentioned this before, but the Landis performance, my WMSR experience, and the blogger factors make me feel this is worth revisiting. Spelling out your goals and dreams may provide the motivation some of us need to persist with training, which is good. For others, it can be bad.
At work, as when I was back in school, I often do my best work when under the pressure of tight deadlines. My focus gets better and I boil down the problems and produce solutions. In racing and training though, I don't seem to enjoy pressure so much. We hear a lot about how pressure can be a problem in youth sports. In adult sports, the pressure may be more internal than external, but it's there, and some athletes lose out because of it. Lose out on fun, lose out on results, and in the case of those who push on while injured, lose out on health. Managing pressure and motivating forces will help you achieve your goals, but more importantly help keep you healthy and happy, and more fun to be with for the others in your life. Remembering why you participate in athletics in the first place is a good first step to take for managing pressure. If it's not fun, why do it? Thanks for reading.
During the tour this year, once again we heard a lot about the weight of the leader's jersey. During Armstrong's seven year reign as Tour champion, the maillot jaune did not appear to be so heavy, but there wasn't too much "normal" about the entire period of LA dominance. The leader of Postal/Discovery seemed to thrive under the pressure and spotlight.
For the rest of us though, pressure comes in different ways, from different directions, with different effects. Pressure can manifest itself as hours or days of anxiety leading up to a big event, as a fleeting second of success or failure at the crucial instant during a sprint finish, or as thousands of other possible scenarios in between. Maybe pressure is your motivator, or maybe it's your downfall. But it's there.
We have already heard that Landis forgot to eat and bonked terribly during stage 16, and in fact he was not wearing the leader's jersey at the time. However, just a minute or two down, he was the odds on favorite to win the Tour, and the pressure was certainly on when he wilted during the climb to La Toussuire. Now you could argue that the pressure on him was greater on the next day, but being written off at ten minutes down, I think he had nothing to lose and much less pressure when he bid farewell to the other contenders and went on to have the ride of his life, rivaling the rides of everyone elses lives too. Coincidence? I don't think so.
The support of a team in the quest for cycling glory is something we all dream about, but with that support also comes pressure. Could you handle it? Sure, sharing success is not too difficult, but should you fail, the leader must take the fall, even if the team support was not all that it might be. On the other side, if we're in the support role, if we're not careful to avoid applying to much pressure on our leader, we aren't being so supportive after all.
Maybe you don't even have a team. Maybe you compete as an individual. That doesn't mean you don't have pressure. You might be your own source of pressure. Pressure to meet training goals, pressure to achieve race results, pressure to become something. I read several athlete's blogs. One theme in their writings, usually underlying, is that their public statements of athletic goals and intents puts a pressure on these bloggers to live up to their blogs. I know I've mentioned this before, but the Landis performance, my WMSR experience, and the blogger factors make me feel this is worth revisiting. Spelling out your goals and dreams may provide the motivation some of us need to persist with training, which is good. For others, it can be bad.
At work, as when I was back in school, I often do my best work when under the pressure of tight deadlines. My focus gets better and I boil down the problems and produce solutions. In racing and training though, I don't seem to enjoy pressure so much. We hear a lot about how pressure can be a problem in youth sports. In adult sports, the pressure may be more internal than external, but it's there, and some athletes lose out because of it. Lose out on fun, lose out on results, and in the case of those who push on while injured, lose out on health. Managing pressure and motivating forces will help you achieve your goals, but more importantly help keep you healthy and happy, and more fun to be with for the others in your life. Remembering why you participate in athletics in the first place is a good first step to take for managing pressure. If it's not fun, why do it? Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Girls on film
Well, not really, but as promised, here are some crappy pictures from the track. These are the Cat 2/3 race, taken as we awaited the start of the masters. Duano, Garabed, and the Cronoman take it all in from the backstretch pit entrance/competitor's urinal.
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Sunday, July 23, 2006
WMSR - Stage 3 - Points Race
My goals going into the 2006 WMSR were to race hard and have fun. At the TT maybe I should have raced a little harder, but at least we succeeded in having fun before the race, escaping the broiling heat by ripping on each other under the tent. The Cronoman obviously needs to work on lowering his body fat. I mean, check out the lack of definition in his flabby calves. By the way, the TT was not raced in the dark. Even BOB is not that crazy. The photos just came out that way because it was dusk and the photographer was using a flash.
At the circuit race, I may have raced a little too hard, and not so intelligently, but having vowed to have fun as a team whether kicking ass or getting our asses kicked, once again we could claim success. The race was a classic Workingman's experience. Check out the photo finish shots.
The third and final stage, the world famous Star Speedway points race, always proves to be the highlight of the event, and this year was no exception. After working a full and productive day, I headed up to the Cronoman's. He had prepared a pot of fresh coffee to help keep us awake for our race's post-bedtime start. Of course, I use half and half in mine, and he didn't have any, so a shot of Bailey's had to do. Nothing like a little buzz to calm the nerves before an elbow-to-elbow race. We arrived at the track just after 8 pm, as the Cat 4 event was winding down. We signed in, writing some sophmoric comments to our competitors on the sheet, did some handshaking, and kitted up. Dick Ring had come out of retirement to announce the event, and Big Joey G and Tommy Young had their hands on microphones too. Joey of course gave his fellow BOBers plenty of speaker time, but few were able to decipher more than a word or two of Tommy's Scottish brogue.
I forgot to pack my trainer, so Marro went and swiped one from the mutant winner of the Cat 4 race Ryan Kelly. One of his mates said we could borrow it, but the poor guy freaked when he came back to his pit and found it missing. At least he was a good sport about it when I returned it. Our scheduled 9 pm start was delayed by repeated carnage in the Cat 2/3 race, with one competitor transported via ambulance to the local NH animal hospital with a concussion.
We finally got out on the track at around 9:30, with a light mist in the air threatening rain. Ranger Rusnak was our highest place GC guy in 5th, with me back in 7th. Poor Ranger had everyone on the team trying to give him advice, but sprinting for points every five laps on a bumpy quarter mile track in the dark is not for everyone, and the pressure from the team wasn't making him any more comfortable. Ranger is more of a road race breakaway guy. I'm not exactly a field sprinter either, but I've been through this ritual numerous times before, and being free from the burdensome pressure of team leadership, I still had the luxury of being placed high enough to ride my own race. I would help Ranger if possible, but also try to score some points myself.
The gun went off and allez we go. I led the first lap just to get comfy, and then eased back to let the top GC contenders start killing each other in the sprints. Ruane had his Sunapee squad leading him out, and the anticipated battle royal went just as expected, with Patrick taking first in most of the sprints, and Donnie Mills second. Duano and the Cronoman took turns trying to setup the Ranger, but he was getting boxed in and elbowed out left and right, and realistically taking sprints from guys like Ruane, Mills, and Munroe was out of his league.
After the fourth sprint, with 59 of 80 laps left to go, the leaders eased, opening up the inside line, and I took off. Quickly establishing a gap, I found my rhythm and spun the 14 cog around the bottom of the track at over 45 kph for the two minutes it took to get to the 55 to go sprint, putting myself on the board with the five first place sprint points before retreating to the comfort of the bunch. I sat back for a bit, anticipating the leaders going for broke at the double-points halfway sprint. However, Postie represented BOB in a four man move that went off a few laps prior to 40 to go, and this group ended up taking the halfway points before the big guns sent their teams to the fore, subsequently placing the escapees under arrest.
Perhaps not wanting to chance any more such incidents, as well as watching each other, the top four on GC, Ruane, Mills, Munroe, and Morse went off the front soon thereafter. Seeing Sammy up there, resplendent in his pink leader's jersey, I launched off in pursuit, catching the quartet within about a half a lap. With all major teams now represented, the field shut down and we motored away. I drove the break at first, missing out on the sprint for points. With the group now just over a half a lap up on the field, and those guys more interested in each other than me, I bid them farewell and soloed off. Within three laps, I was almost ten seconds ahead of the breakaway, and just a few behind the tail end of the pack, where Duano was waiting. I yelled to him not to drop back, ensuring that I would not make contact before the next points sprint. Once I took first in the "sprint" I quickly moved across, taking my 20 bonus points for lapping the field. Duano immediately took me right through the bunch and back to the front, where we proceeded to drill the pace for all we were worth. The rest of the breakaway was almost on too, but we weren't about to make it easy for them. Sammy told me later it wasn't... :o)
Our pacemaking kept it single file until the next points sprint, but not knowing how close the others were to making it back up front, I went for the sprint too early and got beat by three others, only garnering one point in that one. After sitting the next two out, I attacked at six laps to go, and only one rider came around me for the sprint, so I got three more points. This left me cooked for the double points final, and I crawled across to finish. As usual, this race was a fucking blast. By this time of night, the BOBers from the lower cats were sufficiently beered up to have done some great cheering, and the whole experience of racing in the dark is totally surreal anyway, making everything seem even faster (actually, this photo is of the Cronoman helping to shut down the field while our break was away. Notice all the riders looking across the track to check our progress).
When the sprint points were tallied up, I had 34, the same number as Tyler Munroe, but since I had two firsts to his one, I was awarded third on the stage behind Ruane and Mills. This moved me up to 5th on GC, unfortunately displacing Ranger, who went pointless and fell to 8th. The best news was the everyone had a blast, even more so than in years past. The excitement and adrenaline produced by this race has to be experienced to be described. Sammy Morse (Bike Link), a very experienced competitor, graciously accepted his demotion to second place by Ruane's amazing three nights of riding (3rd TT, 1st Circuit Race, 1st Points Race), and commented that the points race was "the most intense thing we do all year, including cyclocross." The competition was fierce, but in the masters there was also the friendly comradery you get in stage races. It made me feel good to have my best ride of the year in this event. I am glad that I got to share it with my awesome teammates, and all my clubmates who made the event possible as well. Thanks for reading.
At the circuit race, I may have raced a little too hard, and not so intelligently, but having vowed to have fun as a team whether kicking ass or getting our asses kicked, once again we could claim success. The race was a classic Workingman's experience. Check out the photo finish shots.
The third and final stage, the world famous Star Speedway points race, always proves to be the highlight of the event, and this year was no exception. After working a full and productive day, I headed up to the Cronoman's. He had prepared a pot of fresh coffee to help keep us awake for our race's post-bedtime start. Of course, I use half and half in mine, and he didn't have any, so a shot of Bailey's had to do. Nothing like a little buzz to calm the nerves before an elbow-to-elbow race. We arrived at the track just after 8 pm, as the Cat 4 event was winding down. We signed in, writing some sophmoric comments to our competitors on the sheet, did some handshaking, and kitted up. Dick Ring had come out of retirement to announce the event, and Big Joey G and Tommy Young had their hands on microphones too. Joey of course gave his fellow BOBers plenty of speaker time, but few were able to decipher more than a word or two of Tommy's Scottish brogue.
I forgot to pack my trainer, so Marro went and swiped one from the mutant winner of the Cat 4 race Ryan Kelly. One of his mates said we could borrow it, but the poor guy freaked when he came back to his pit and found it missing. At least he was a good sport about it when I returned it. Our scheduled 9 pm start was delayed by repeated carnage in the Cat 2/3 race, with one competitor transported via ambulance to the local NH animal hospital with a concussion.
We finally got out on the track at around 9:30, with a light mist in the air threatening rain. Ranger Rusnak was our highest place GC guy in 5th, with me back in 7th. Poor Ranger had everyone on the team trying to give him advice, but sprinting for points every five laps on a bumpy quarter mile track in the dark is not for everyone, and the pressure from the team wasn't making him any more comfortable. Ranger is more of a road race breakaway guy. I'm not exactly a field sprinter either, but I've been through this ritual numerous times before, and being free from the burdensome pressure of team leadership, I still had the luxury of being placed high enough to ride my own race. I would help Ranger if possible, but also try to score some points myself.
The gun went off and allez we go. I led the first lap just to get comfy, and then eased back to let the top GC contenders start killing each other in the sprints. Ruane had his Sunapee squad leading him out, and the anticipated battle royal went just as expected, with Patrick taking first in most of the sprints, and Donnie Mills second. Duano and the Cronoman took turns trying to setup the Ranger, but he was getting boxed in and elbowed out left and right, and realistically taking sprints from guys like Ruane, Mills, and Munroe was out of his league.
After the fourth sprint, with 59 of 80 laps left to go, the leaders eased, opening up the inside line, and I took off. Quickly establishing a gap, I found my rhythm and spun the 14 cog around the bottom of the track at over 45 kph for the two minutes it took to get to the 55 to go sprint, putting myself on the board with the five first place sprint points before retreating to the comfort of the bunch. I sat back for a bit, anticipating the leaders going for broke at the double-points halfway sprint. However, Postie represented BOB in a four man move that went off a few laps prior to 40 to go, and this group ended up taking the halfway points before the big guns sent their teams to the fore, subsequently placing the escapees under arrest.
Perhaps not wanting to chance any more such incidents, as well as watching each other, the top four on GC, Ruane, Mills, Munroe, and Morse went off the front soon thereafter. Seeing Sammy up there, resplendent in his pink leader's jersey, I launched off in pursuit, catching the quartet within about a half a lap. With all major teams now represented, the field shut down and we motored away. I drove the break at first, missing out on the sprint for points. With the group now just over a half a lap up on the field, and those guys more interested in each other than me, I bid them farewell and soloed off. Within three laps, I was almost ten seconds ahead of the breakaway, and just a few behind the tail end of the pack, where Duano was waiting. I yelled to him not to drop back, ensuring that I would not make contact before the next points sprint. Once I took first in the "sprint" I quickly moved across, taking my 20 bonus points for lapping the field. Duano immediately took me right through the bunch and back to the front, where we proceeded to drill the pace for all we were worth. The rest of the breakaway was almost on too, but we weren't about to make it easy for them. Sammy told me later it wasn't... :o)
Our pacemaking kept it single file until the next points sprint, but not knowing how close the others were to making it back up front, I went for the sprint too early and got beat by three others, only garnering one point in that one. After sitting the next two out, I attacked at six laps to go, and only one rider came around me for the sprint, so I got three more points. This left me cooked for the double points final, and I crawled across to finish. As usual, this race was a fucking blast. By this time of night, the BOBers from the lower cats were sufficiently beered up to have done some great cheering, and the whole experience of racing in the dark is totally surreal anyway, making everything seem even faster (actually, this photo is of the Cronoman helping to shut down the field while our break was away. Notice all the riders looking across the track to check our progress).
When the sprint points were tallied up, I had 34, the same number as Tyler Munroe, but since I had two firsts to his one, I was awarded third on the stage behind Ruane and Mills. This moved me up to 5th on GC, unfortunately displacing Ranger, who went pointless and fell to 8th. The best news was the everyone had a blast, even more so than in years past. The excitement and adrenaline produced by this race has to be experienced to be described. Sammy Morse (Bike Link), a very experienced competitor, graciously accepted his demotion to second place by Ruane's amazing three nights of riding (3rd TT, 1st Circuit Race, 1st Points Race), and commented that the points race was "the most intense thing we do all year, including cyclocross." The competition was fierce, but in the masters there was also the friendly comradery you get in stage races. It made me feel good to have my best ride of the year in this event. I am glad that I got to share it with my awesome teammates, and all my clubmates who made the event possible as well. Thanks for reading.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
If you believe...
July 20, 1969, way back when I was a lad of eight...
This is my 100th post! Woo-hoo!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
WMSR - Stage 2 - Circuit Race
Tonight was the "queen stage" of the WMSR, the Amesbury Circuit Race. The masters field would be doing five laps of an 8.8 mile circuit, sort of an extended version of the TT course. We had a KOM sprint for cash on the top of the hill every lap to make it interesting, then the plunge down the descent into town before cranking through the 90 degree right hander, with the finish line only about 300 meters or so from the turn.
Traffic was abominable tonight. I left my house at 3:15 and the eighty mile drive took me over two hours. I got ready quickly though, and made the start no problem. As many riders come up through Boston, several were in the same boat. We started off pretty slowly, which was strange for the WMSR. So slowly in fact, that on lap two the Cat 4 pack caught us, and we were neutralized while they overtook our pack. Of course, as always, they slowed down after that and after our KOM sprint we soon caught them, and this time we went by them and the pace of our race was more than enough so that we never saw them again. On narrow roads without police escorts, it was a little hairy. Just ask KL, she was driving our pace car, which happened to be my car that I bought from her. Got it?
There wasn't as much attacking as normal, probably due to us not offering GC points for the KOM this year. Plus, since Bike Link had dominated the TT, they had no reason to attack. Their closest rival, Patrick Ruane from Sunapee is a great sprinter, so he and his powerful squadra were also content to keep it together. The other top GC contenders did not have strong teams for this event, (Donnie Mills is Cat 1 from FiordaFrutta, but he was the only one here, as most of his mates are too young, and Tyler Munroe CCB-Evil Empire didn't have all of his support riders either). Then there was us.
After the re-passing of the Cat 4 pack, I took one for the host team by just going to the front and drilling it for several k's, drawing us away. Shortly after that, a promising break did form with Tyler, Donnie, Tobi Schultze (Bike Link) and Charlie Bedard (Sunapee), and the Cronoman bridged across before it got too far along. Since every team was represented, no hard chase ensued, but Bike Link did not have their GC guys in there, so they were on the front keeping it close. The Cronoman realized it was futile when the breakaways started attacking each other on the hill, so he put up the flag and me and John Diehl went to the front as he came back, and the three of us brought the gap down to about 10 seconds. We wanted to leave them out there to get cooked if possible, but I guess we brought the pack too close as they soon all sat up and came back.
On the last lap we had a pretty good BOB train going. I went to the front on the first descent (that leads to the "big" climb) and surfed from Charlie Bedard to Colman O'Connor's(Bike Link) wheels before beginning the climb. On the false flat there was an increase in pace for the KOM sprint, but I was going well and hit the descent second. At this point I kind of botched it, as I didn't realize that Duano was in tow the whole time. We were bombing down the hill with 1K to go, and I was getting cooked, so I eased. At this point some riders came around and Duane yelled to me to try and get going to keep us from getting boxed in. We're doing 65 kph down the bumpy hill and the bikes were getting pretty wide because there were a lot of elbows and jockeying for position. If I'd have known Duano was there I could have totally spent myself drawing it out into the corner. As it was we bounced through there, but Ranger Rusnak got through on the outside just behind the Bike Link train, and Duano got a little chopped on the inside, losing some momentum. I went through behind Duane, way inside, losing some speed but staying safe. The sprint wound up right away, Duano got 7th, Ranger got 9th, and I got 11th, not what we wanted, but we all got points.
Going into tommorow, Ranger's 7th and 9th have put him in the money, 5th on GC. My 8th and 11th have me 7th on GC, one spot out of a payday. Ranger is in a pretty good spot as not too many fast people are in a position to overtake him, other than Shultze in 6th, and me in 7th. The other guys ahead of us are not too vulnerable, so it will be very difficult for me to move into the money without pushing Ranger out. Either way, at least it will be in the team. So tommorow night will not be so much about racing for money as it will for pride, and trying to preserve or improve my GC spot, as well as Ranger's. The points race is nuts, but I've done it enough times to not be afraid of it. I know what to do... Thanks for reading, maybe tommorow night I'll get some (crappy) pictures.
Traffic was abominable tonight. I left my house at 3:15 and the eighty mile drive took me over two hours. I got ready quickly though, and made the start no problem. As many riders come up through Boston, several were in the same boat. We started off pretty slowly, which was strange for the WMSR. So slowly in fact, that on lap two the Cat 4 pack caught us, and we were neutralized while they overtook our pack. Of course, as always, they slowed down after that and after our KOM sprint we soon caught them, and this time we went by them and the pace of our race was more than enough so that we never saw them again. On narrow roads without police escorts, it was a little hairy. Just ask KL, she was driving our pace car, which happened to be my car that I bought from her. Got it?
There wasn't as much attacking as normal, probably due to us not offering GC points for the KOM this year. Plus, since Bike Link had dominated the TT, they had no reason to attack. Their closest rival, Patrick Ruane from Sunapee is a great sprinter, so he and his powerful squadra were also content to keep it together. The other top GC contenders did not have strong teams for this event, (Donnie Mills is Cat 1 from FiordaFrutta, but he was the only one here, as most of his mates are too young, and Tyler Munroe CCB-Evil Empire didn't have all of his support riders either). Then there was us.
After the re-passing of the Cat 4 pack, I took one for the host team by just going to the front and drilling it for several k's, drawing us away. Shortly after that, a promising break did form with Tyler, Donnie, Tobi Schultze (Bike Link) and Charlie Bedard (Sunapee), and the Cronoman bridged across before it got too far along. Since every team was represented, no hard chase ensued, but Bike Link did not have their GC guys in there, so they were on the front keeping it close. The Cronoman realized it was futile when the breakaways started attacking each other on the hill, so he put up the flag and me and John Diehl went to the front as he came back, and the three of us brought the gap down to about 10 seconds. We wanted to leave them out there to get cooked if possible, but I guess we brought the pack too close as they soon all sat up and came back.
On the last lap we had a pretty good BOB train going. I went to the front on the first descent (that leads to the "big" climb) and surfed from Charlie Bedard to Colman O'Connor's(Bike Link) wheels before beginning the climb. On the false flat there was an increase in pace for the KOM sprint, but I was going well and hit the descent second. At this point I kind of botched it, as I didn't realize that Duano was in tow the whole time. We were bombing down the hill with 1K to go, and I was getting cooked, so I eased. At this point some riders came around and Duane yelled to me to try and get going to keep us from getting boxed in. We're doing 65 kph down the bumpy hill and the bikes were getting pretty wide because there were a lot of elbows and jockeying for position. If I'd have known Duano was there I could have totally spent myself drawing it out into the corner. As it was we bounced through there, but Ranger Rusnak got through on the outside just behind the Bike Link train, and Duano got a little chopped on the inside, losing some momentum. I went through behind Duane, way inside, losing some speed but staying safe. The sprint wound up right away, Duano got 7th, Ranger got 9th, and I got 11th, not what we wanted, but we all got points.
Going into tommorow, Ranger's 7th and 9th have put him in the money, 5th on GC. My 8th and 11th have me 7th on GC, one spot out of a payday. Ranger is in a pretty good spot as not too many fast people are in a position to overtake him, other than Shultze in 6th, and me in 7th. The other guys ahead of us are not too vulnerable, so it will be very difficult for me to move into the money without pushing Ranger out. Either way, at least it will be in the team. So tommorow night will not be so much about racing for money as it will for pride, and trying to preserve or improve my GC spot, as well as Ranger's. The points race is nuts, but I've done it enough times to not be afraid of it. I know what to do... Thanks for reading, maybe tommorow night I'll get some (crappy) pictures.
WMSR - Stage 1 - Time Trial
This will be quick, as time is short today. Last night was the TT. The good news is the cold front that blew through about thirty minutes before our starts did not bring any thunderstorms with it, and the stage was completed for all riders. This was extra good because we had already spent a few hours huddled under the tent to escape the broiling sun and 90+ degree temps. This was not a lot of fun, especially "warming" up on the trainer.
The bad news, which is not that bad, is that I did not have the ride of my life. My time of 15:13 (26.02 mph) was four seconds faster than last year, but this was primarily due to the start and finish locations being changed, which shortened the course by thirty meters or so. In essence, I rode the same speed, despite having better form. Several technical mistakes hurt my time. I definetly did not nail the corners like last year, and I may have respected the rises on the course too much as well, as I felt I downshifted too soon for a couple of them. My performance was only good enough for 8th place in the Master's field, a whopping 37 seconds off the winning time of 14:36, posted by none other than Sammy Morse (there's that name again...).
The Bike Link guys laid waste, taking three out of the top four spots and putting five of their six guys in the top twelve. Sunapee put their best rider in third, so they will be a very active squad tonight. Best BOB was Ranger Rusnak, who was 7th, six-tenths of a second ahead of me. The Cronoman took 15th.
The goal tonight is to race hard and have fun. Thanks to Dave L for posting some pictures of the start. The camera added about twenty pounds to me. I will have to have Dave get some more tonight to prove that I am not really the fat load you see in that photo! Thanks for reading.
The bad news, which is not that bad, is that I did not have the ride of my life. My time of 15:13 (26.02 mph) was four seconds faster than last year, but this was primarily due to the start and finish locations being changed, which shortened the course by thirty meters or so. In essence, I rode the same speed, despite having better form. Several technical mistakes hurt my time. I definetly did not nail the corners like last year, and I may have respected the rises on the course too much as well, as I felt I downshifted too soon for a couple of them. My performance was only good enough for 8th place in the Master's field, a whopping 37 seconds off the winning time of 14:36, posted by none other than Sammy Morse (there's that name again...).
The Bike Link guys laid waste, taking three out of the top four spots and putting five of their six guys in the top twelve. Sunapee put their best rider in third, so they will be a very active squad tonight. Best BOB was Ranger Rusnak, who was 7th, six-tenths of a second ahead of me. The Cronoman took 15th.
The goal tonight is to race hard and have fun. Thanks to Dave L for posting some pictures of the start. The camera added about twenty pounds to me. I will have to have Dave get some more tonight to prove that I am not really the fat load you see in that photo! Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Everybody's doing their time
The WMSR, aka Trois Jour de Amesbury, is finally here. Tonight we have the TT on tap, and a 100% chance of strong thunderstoms predicted to be breaking the 90+ degree heat. The officials tend to freak out when lightning strikes, so hopefully they won't make a rash decision and call the stage. With 200 riders registered, even with 30 second start intervals we can't afford any delays if we're all to get all the racers in before dark. Keep your fingers crossed.
Physically, I feel ready. Last night I took the TT bike out with junky wheels for a 45 minute ride around town. My quads were a bit tight and sore from Sunday's efforts, so I'm glad I went. I should be fine tonight. Racing a short, intense event brings its own special pressures, as there isn't much room for mistakes. While not as bad as a kilo or a 100 meter dash or something, this race will be over in fifteen minutes (hopefully!). I checked over last year's data, and I only had heart rate and elevation because I had thrown together the TT rig the days before. My 15:17 got me fifth in the masters. Three of the four who finished ahead of me are pre-regged for this year, along with some new faces who rode very well at Fitchburg, and some of the usual suspects who may have been behind me last year, but are more than capable of coming up big tonight. Yeah, I know, every second counts. The weather could be a big factor too, as the course is technical. That's racing.
Time for me to get moving now. In an almost true Workingman's spirit, despite my living 75 miles away, I'm working a half day today, and a full day on Thursday. I'm going to see if my drop-damaged camera will cooperate and try to produce a photo essay of the experience for you. There may be a few big days at the Tour this week, but the REAL action is in Amesbury! To quote the slogans: Life is not a spectator sport. Get out there. Just do it Thanks for reading.
Physically, I feel ready. Last night I took the TT bike out with junky wheels for a 45 minute ride around town. My quads were a bit tight and sore from Sunday's efforts, so I'm glad I went. I should be fine tonight. Racing a short, intense event brings its own special pressures, as there isn't much room for mistakes. While not as bad as a kilo or a 100 meter dash or something, this race will be over in fifteen minutes (hopefully!). I checked over last year's data, and I only had heart rate and elevation because I had thrown together the TT rig the days before. My 15:17 got me fifth in the masters. Three of the four who finished ahead of me are pre-regged for this year, along with some new faces who rode very well at Fitchburg, and some of the usual suspects who may have been behind me last year, but are more than capable of coming up big tonight. Yeah, I know, every second counts. The weather could be a big factor too, as the course is technical. That's racing.
Time for me to get moving now. In an almost true Workingman's spirit, despite my living 75 miles away, I'm working a half day today, and a full day on Thursday. I'm going to see if my drop-damaged camera will cooperate and try to produce a photo essay of the experience for you. There may be a few big days at the Tour this week, but the REAL action is in Amesbury! To quote the slogans: Life is not a spectator sport. Get out there. Just do it Thanks for reading.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Take me to the river
Fall River that is. I don't know why they call it Fall River. There is a river that flows into the ocean there, but it's the Taunton River, so who knows where the Fall comes from. The Sunday morning radio blues show was playing all songs with river themes on my drive down, so I'm running with it.
Just like last week, the race was fairly local, so I left at the last minute. I got out of registration at 9:50 for my 10 am start. They were a few minutes late and after pinning my number up and squeezing into the skinsuit, I managed to get in one lap of the mile long industrial park course before heading to the line. A dissappointing field of only 19 riders comprised the 45+ race. I had one teammate, Johnny C, just back from 5th place in the 50+ race at criterium nationals, and there were two CCBs, and about six Gearworx riders. With a small field like this, you know the race is going to bust up quickly, so despite being outnumbered, Johnny and I immediately went on the offensive and started attacking on the first lap. There was a lot of feeling out, as nobody was going 100% because you had to save something to chase the inevitable counters.
I covered a few moves, then Johnny went with a dangerous looking counter. Of course, John's a former NHL player with a ferocious sprint (and he is pretty big dude too), so most riders are not too keen about having him along in a breakaway. His move got brought back, and Bob Bisson (Gearworx) countered, and I was right on him. The rest of the Gearworx team was apparently content to let us go, and we quickly took fifteen seconds or so lead. We got a bell for a tire prime, and I decided to take it, so I ditched him on the hill, took the prime and kept going. And going. There was still about fifteen laps (of twenty) left in the race, but I figured the worst thing that could happen is that those guys would have to work, and bring Johnny up to me. I ended up getting a nice solo going, and got another prime which turned out to be some sort of miniature bike light. With about ten to go, I was getting tired, and I could see a chase coming after me. I kept going, as it was only two guys, and so I made them work for a little bit. At nine to go, I sat up and let them get me, so that I would be able to recover a little.
Turns out it was Joe Rano (Gearworx) and Gene Petrella (CCB-Evil Empire), no surprise as these are two of the top-ranked 45+ riders in New England. Great. So I skip a few pulls initially, but then I start working, but apparently not hard enough for these two, and they start giving me a bunch of shit. Now, I guess I just saw the situation differently than them, as here we were with like 7 laps to go, and there is no way the rest of the race is coming back to us, so I'm not quite sure why they wanted to keep pacing it up. Furthermore, Rano was pulling for about a nanosecond before moving over and flicking the elbow, so even though I may not have been driving it with all I had, at least I was pulling for a few hundred meters at a time.
Well, they decided to gang up on me, and they started with the old alternating attacks routine. I'm not stupid, so I closed each one down as quickly as possible, and countered their head games with a few comments of my own. Personally, I would rather shut up and ride, and let my actions do the talking, but some guys just have to turn every breakaway into a psych session. We were getting down to less than five laps to go, and I know that once we get to the end they'll expect an attack, so I pull through real strong, and make like I have seen the light and now I'm gonna be Mr. Cooperation. I move off just before the base of the course's only hill (which is by no means a monster, rise is more like it) and Rano pulls through strongly. Then I jump him up the right side. Petrella is on me like a laser, but I put my head down and keep going and now Rano is gone. Cool.
So now I start playing good cop with Petrella, telling him I wanted to work with him all along, and that I just didn't want to give a Gearworx guy an armchair ride to the finish. So we're cool. I do more than my share of the work, but I'm still saving something for the last lap. Unfortunately, no matter what I save it won't be enough, because Gene is a classy rider and when I made my move the last time up the hill, I did get a small gap, but coming through the last turn I could hear him back there clicking up the gears and he closed it down and in the sprint he pulled out a few bike lengths on me by the time we hit the line.
Oh well. Second place is the first loser. I got $50 cash, the tire and the light for my efforts. I'm not sure what Johnny got, because he immediately jumped in the 35+ race too. I rolled around for a while and got some liquids back in me. I don't think this was too taxing, as I had only a short drive home before getting some quality food to eat and more rest and recovery in the AC. I'd have rather just sat in a larger field and maybe made one brief, strong move at the end, but this was OK, I think. Thanks for reading!
Just like last week, the race was fairly local, so I left at the last minute. I got out of registration at 9:50 for my 10 am start. They were a few minutes late and after pinning my number up and squeezing into the skinsuit, I managed to get in one lap of the mile long industrial park course before heading to the line. A dissappointing field of only 19 riders comprised the 45+ race. I had one teammate, Johnny C, just back from 5th place in the 50+ race at criterium nationals, and there were two CCBs, and about six Gearworx riders. With a small field like this, you know the race is going to bust up quickly, so despite being outnumbered, Johnny and I immediately went on the offensive and started attacking on the first lap. There was a lot of feeling out, as nobody was going 100% because you had to save something to chase the inevitable counters.
I covered a few moves, then Johnny went with a dangerous looking counter. Of course, John's a former NHL player with a ferocious sprint (and he is pretty big dude too), so most riders are not too keen about having him along in a breakaway. His move got brought back, and Bob Bisson (Gearworx) countered, and I was right on him. The rest of the Gearworx team was apparently content to let us go, and we quickly took fifteen seconds or so lead. We got a bell for a tire prime, and I decided to take it, so I ditched him on the hill, took the prime and kept going. And going. There was still about fifteen laps (of twenty) left in the race, but I figured the worst thing that could happen is that those guys would have to work, and bring Johnny up to me. I ended up getting a nice solo going, and got another prime which turned out to be some sort of miniature bike light. With about ten to go, I was getting tired, and I could see a chase coming after me. I kept going, as it was only two guys, and so I made them work for a little bit. At nine to go, I sat up and let them get me, so that I would be able to recover a little.
Turns out it was Joe Rano (Gearworx) and Gene Petrella (CCB-Evil Empire), no surprise as these are two of the top-ranked 45+ riders in New England. Great. So I skip a few pulls initially, but then I start working, but apparently not hard enough for these two, and they start giving me a bunch of shit. Now, I guess I just saw the situation differently than them, as here we were with like 7 laps to go, and there is no way the rest of the race is coming back to us, so I'm not quite sure why they wanted to keep pacing it up. Furthermore, Rano was pulling for about a nanosecond before moving over and flicking the elbow, so even though I may not have been driving it with all I had, at least I was pulling for a few hundred meters at a time.
Well, they decided to gang up on me, and they started with the old alternating attacks routine. I'm not stupid, so I closed each one down as quickly as possible, and countered their head games with a few comments of my own. Personally, I would rather shut up and ride, and let my actions do the talking, but some guys just have to turn every breakaway into a psych session. We were getting down to less than five laps to go, and I know that once we get to the end they'll expect an attack, so I pull through real strong, and make like I have seen the light and now I'm gonna be Mr. Cooperation. I move off just before the base of the course's only hill (which is by no means a monster, rise is more like it) and Rano pulls through strongly. Then I jump him up the right side. Petrella is on me like a laser, but I put my head down and keep going and now Rano is gone. Cool.
So now I start playing good cop with Petrella, telling him I wanted to work with him all along, and that I just didn't want to give a Gearworx guy an armchair ride to the finish. So we're cool. I do more than my share of the work, but I'm still saving something for the last lap. Unfortunately, no matter what I save it won't be enough, because Gene is a classy rider and when I made my move the last time up the hill, I did get a small gap, but coming through the last turn I could hear him back there clicking up the gears and he closed it down and in the sprint he pulled out a few bike lengths on me by the time we hit the line.
Oh well. Second place is the first loser. I got $50 cash, the tire and the light for my efforts. I'm not sure what Johnny got, because he immediately jumped in the 35+ race too. I rolled around for a while and got some liquids back in me. I don't think this was too taxing, as I had only a short drive home before getting some quality food to eat and more rest and recovery in the AC. I'd have rather just sat in a larger field and maybe made one brief, strong move at the end, but this was OK, I think. Thanks for reading!
Saturday, July 15, 2006
You let your heart go too fast
Is this post going to be about doctoring your spin to obtain a nice smooth, fast pedal stroke? No. Is this going to be a confession about botching my taper, getting carried away, and riding too hard this week? I hope not. Will this all wrap around making excuses for riding Big Blue this morning 16 seconds slower than two weeks ago, even though I am supposed to be primed and ready for a peak right now? Maybe. Not wanting to let my confidence wane just days before the big dance, I'm going to need to put a positive spin on where I am right now, and where I might be going in the days ahead.
Why do I even make a big deal about the Workingman's Stage Race anyway? While certainly not the biggest race in the New England, this was important to me even before I joined the host club, the Misfit Toys of Team BOB, three years ago. This year's event marks the 20th annual edition of the weeknight stage race, thought to be the only night time stage race in the free world. The race format has always been the same, a TT on Tuesday night, a circuit race on Wednesday night, and a track style points race criterium on a local speedway Thursday night. Omnium scoring is used, rather than timed GC, as the splits are usually small or non-existent in the mass start races. This race was started by a bunch of blue collar guys who were just starting up their own bike shop, construction and landscaping businesses, and could not afford to shut things down for an extended weekend to race at Fitchburg, Killington, Altoona, or any of the other big stage races. Hence "The Workingman's" was born. The focus has remained on the Masters and lower categories, with no race for pro's or Cat 1s who don't hold "real" jobs.
The venues have changed over the years, but the circuit race is still cool, and usually ends up being a battle royal of the local teams. The points race is a story unto itself. In the master's we generally end up starting at around 9:30 pm, under the lights at Star Speedway. If you've never done 80 laps on an oily, bumpy, semi-banked quarter mile car track, under the lights, with shadows of the pack flashing by on all sides, making you dizzy as you sprint for points every five laps against a bloodthirsty herd of similarly insane racers who are just as sleep deprived as you by this point, you don't know what your are missing. There's nothing like it. Yet as exciting as all this can be, the reason I love this race is all about the TT.
Time trials are known as "the race of truth" because the normally overriding strategic factors of bike racing, drafting and teamwork, are absent. A TT means you and your bike around the course, against the clock, no excuses. The 40k district TT used to be a really big deal. Everyone just rode their regular race bike, and breaking the hour was considered a major accomplishment; a right of passage which only the better riders achieved. Unfortunately, these days, with so much expensive special equipment available, TT's tell as much truth about your disposable income as they do your riding ability. This fact has all but killed the district TT, as many of the better riders simply do not go anymore. To find the best competition, you have to go to a stage race.
There are only a few stage races around here with TT's. Fitchburg has one, but being a national-calibre event, talent is attracted from all over the country. The TT course at the FSR is pretty much a straight shot, a test for sure, but not too exciting. Enter the Workingmans... As a local/regional race, we don't get riders flying in from all over, but New England is pretty stacked with talent, and the competition is serious. Several of the masters who compete every year have medaled at Nationals. All the people we race with all year long are there for a TT showdown. You need to do well in the TT to have a chance on GC, so everyone has to bring their best.
The course is very special. Currently, the 11k parcours has all the elements of a prologue at the Tour: a long straight, fast start road, a hairpin turn onto several k's of twisting country lane, more tight corners that require braking and skill, a corkscrew descent, rollers, and another fast turn leading into a tough short climb. This takes you to a nasty false flat, and onward down a straight 65 kph descent into town, where another fast 90 degree corner awaits to take you onto the flat finishing stretch. Equipment helps here, but this is not an autobahn, and you have to be smooth and aggressive. There just are not too many races like this, and that is why I love it. It doesn't hurt that I tend to do pretty well here. Adorning my wall in the living room is a leader's jersey that I got for winning this 19 years ago. I lost it the next night though... In 1997 I got 9th in the TT, but then in a bizarre coup against much bigger teams, almost stole the race the following nights, ending up with my best ever GC place of 2nd. Three years ago when I returned to racing, I still managed 9th in the TT on the new course, even though at that time I was still sporting some major gut cleavage. Last year I did a great ride and got 5th behind the fastest riders in New England. So this one means a lot to me, and now you know why.
My work schedule only allows for a single peak season anyway. I need to make the most of available daylight, and that means the summertime. My form has been great the past two weeks, and I've aimed to bring it all to the max on Tuesday night in the TT. Of course, this is a balancing act. I'm struggling with just how much hard riding to do versus staying fresh and ready to attack the course at the appointed hour. Everything has been going great, and that's what scares me. Have I peaked too soon? Saturday morning I headed over to Big Blue to do a climbing test, finishing up the hill in 5:02, 16 seconds slower than two weeks ago. Don't despair though, as this time the gate was closed, so I needed to do a complete standing start. Last time I rolled the entrance and hit the "start" button on the timer at about 15 kph. This messed up my strategy, as hitting the first time check about five seconds off the pace, I panicked a little and really stepped on it. By the second time check, where the road flattens (to a mere 8%) just after the guardrail, I was back on pace, but on the edge of blowing up. I needed to slow down and take an easier gear to recover a bit, losing several seconds, and still didn't finish nearly as strong as last time. Discouraging, but reflecting on the effort, I've assured myself that this had more to do with execution than a reduction in form. As well, I had two full water bottles and a spare with me this time, meaning an extra two kg, thus requiring around 9-10 watts more average power. So this effort was nearly equal to the last time; my form still right on track. Convinced? Good, so am I, really...
One other thing, I went and made this gmap of the Big Blue climb. The good news is this shows the vertical as 133 meters over the 1405 meter distance, so maybe the average grade is actually a bit greater than 9%. My Polar generally shows around 120 meters gain, and this week only 115, but these things are not as accurate as the GPS data from gmap, so I'll believe them.
On the bright side, word has just come through that Jens "my problems are the smallest" Voigt has won stage 13 of the Tour. If you haven't seen Jens in the Overcoming DVD yet, try to watch it; you will be a Voigt fan afterwards if you're not already.
I'm finally finishing up this post now, on Sunday morning. I have to decide what to do. There's a crit down in Fall River, only 25 miles away, and the Master 45 race starts at 10. I'm unsure whether or not this will be too much for my peaking plan, but I'm leaning toward going right now, because I may as well not waste good form, and the promoters are the same group that puts on the Rehoboth TT, and I want to support them. Here's hoping you're having a great weekend too, stay out of the broiling sun, and stay on top of that gear. Thanks for reading.
Why do I even make a big deal about the Workingman's Stage Race anyway? While certainly not the biggest race in the New England, this was important to me even before I joined the host club, the Misfit Toys of Team BOB, three years ago. This year's event marks the 20th annual edition of the weeknight stage race, thought to be the only night time stage race in the free world. The race format has always been the same, a TT on Tuesday night, a circuit race on Wednesday night, and a track style points race criterium on a local speedway Thursday night. Omnium scoring is used, rather than timed GC, as the splits are usually small or non-existent in the mass start races. This race was started by a bunch of blue collar guys who were just starting up their own bike shop, construction and landscaping businesses, and could not afford to shut things down for an extended weekend to race at Fitchburg, Killington, Altoona, or any of the other big stage races. Hence "The Workingman's" was born. The focus has remained on the Masters and lower categories, with no race for pro's or Cat 1s who don't hold "real" jobs.
The venues have changed over the years, but the circuit race is still cool, and usually ends up being a battle royal of the local teams. The points race is a story unto itself. In the master's we generally end up starting at around 9:30 pm, under the lights at Star Speedway. If you've never done 80 laps on an oily, bumpy, semi-banked quarter mile car track, under the lights, with shadows of the pack flashing by on all sides, making you dizzy as you sprint for points every five laps against a bloodthirsty herd of similarly insane racers who are just as sleep deprived as you by this point, you don't know what your are missing. There's nothing like it. Yet as exciting as all this can be, the reason I love this race is all about the TT.
Time trials are known as "the race of truth" because the normally overriding strategic factors of bike racing, drafting and teamwork, are absent. A TT means you and your bike around the course, against the clock, no excuses. The 40k district TT used to be a really big deal. Everyone just rode their regular race bike, and breaking the hour was considered a major accomplishment; a right of passage which only the better riders achieved. Unfortunately, these days, with so much expensive special equipment available, TT's tell as much truth about your disposable income as they do your riding ability. This fact has all but killed the district TT, as many of the better riders simply do not go anymore. To find the best competition, you have to go to a stage race.
There are only a few stage races around here with TT's. Fitchburg has one, but being a national-calibre event, talent is attracted from all over the country. The TT course at the FSR is pretty much a straight shot, a test for sure, but not too exciting. Enter the Workingmans... As a local/regional race, we don't get riders flying in from all over, but New England is pretty stacked with talent, and the competition is serious. Several of the masters who compete every year have medaled at Nationals. All the people we race with all year long are there for a TT showdown. You need to do well in the TT to have a chance on GC, so everyone has to bring their best.
The course is very special. Currently, the 11k parcours has all the elements of a prologue at the Tour: a long straight, fast start road, a hairpin turn onto several k's of twisting country lane, more tight corners that require braking and skill, a corkscrew descent, rollers, and another fast turn leading into a tough short climb. This takes you to a nasty false flat, and onward down a straight 65 kph descent into town, where another fast 90 degree corner awaits to take you onto the flat finishing stretch. Equipment helps here, but this is not an autobahn, and you have to be smooth and aggressive. There just are not too many races like this, and that is why I love it. It doesn't hurt that I tend to do pretty well here. Adorning my wall in the living room is a leader's jersey that I got for winning this 19 years ago. I lost it the next night though... In 1997 I got 9th in the TT, but then in a bizarre coup against much bigger teams, almost stole the race the following nights, ending up with my best ever GC place of 2nd. Three years ago when I returned to racing, I still managed 9th in the TT on the new course, even though at that time I was still sporting some major gut cleavage. Last year I did a great ride and got 5th behind the fastest riders in New England. So this one means a lot to me, and now you know why.
My work schedule only allows for a single peak season anyway. I need to make the most of available daylight, and that means the summertime. My form has been great the past two weeks, and I've aimed to bring it all to the max on Tuesday night in the TT. Of course, this is a balancing act. I'm struggling with just how much hard riding to do versus staying fresh and ready to attack the course at the appointed hour. Everything has been going great, and that's what scares me. Have I peaked too soon? Saturday morning I headed over to Big Blue to do a climbing test, finishing up the hill in 5:02, 16 seconds slower than two weeks ago. Don't despair though, as this time the gate was closed, so I needed to do a complete standing start. Last time I rolled the entrance and hit the "start" button on the timer at about 15 kph. This messed up my strategy, as hitting the first time check about five seconds off the pace, I panicked a little and really stepped on it. By the second time check, where the road flattens (to a mere 8%) just after the guardrail, I was back on pace, but on the edge of blowing up. I needed to slow down and take an easier gear to recover a bit, losing several seconds, and still didn't finish nearly as strong as last time. Discouraging, but reflecting on the effort, I've assured myself that this had more to do with execution than a reduction in form. As well, I had two full water bottles and a spare with me this time, meaning an extra two kg, thus requiring around 9-10 watts more average power. So this effort was nearly equal to the last time; my form still right on track. Convinced? Good, so am I, really...
One other thing, I went and made this gmap of the Big Blue climb. The good news is this shows the vertical as 133 meters over the 1405 meter distance, so maybe the average grade is actually a bit greater than 9%. My Polar generally shows around 120 meters gain, and this week only 115, but these things are not as accurate as the GPS data from gmap, so I'll believe them.
On the bright side, word has just come through that Jens "my problems are the smallest" Voigt has won stage 13 of the Tour. If you haven't seen Jens in the Overcoming DVD yet, try to watch it; you will be a Voigt fan afterwards if you're not already.
I'm finally finishing up this post now, on Sunday morning. I have to decide what to do. There's a crit down in Fall River, only 25 miles away, and the Master 45 race starts at 10. I'm unsure whether or not this will be too much for my peaking plan, but I'm leaning toward going right now, because I may as well not waste good form, and the promoters are the same group that puts on the Rehoboth TT, and I want to support them. Here's hoping you're having a great weekend too, stay out of the broiling sun, and stay on top of that gear. Thanks for reading.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Back on the streets again
No tower, but we're talking power. What the hell, it's all the rage. Last night The Cronoman and JWR4 made the trek down from NH to attend the Rehoboth TT. Due to the typical nightmare traffic, and some circuituitous directions, they got there pretty late and had little time to warmup, let alone preview the course. I got there late late as well, and only warmed up by riding the TT bike for the eight minutes it took to get to the start. Once the lineup was established, I was able to do another ten minutes, some at LT pace, before heading to the line. My HR seemed to be elevating quite easily, see notes on tapering further down.
Yesterday Gewilli emailed me some power tap files from the fastest guy at the TT. Two weeks ago, when I rode my TT bike to a 16:59, this guy rode his full-aero rig to a blazing 16:06, averaging 380 watts for the duration. He is about my size, but his setup surpasses mine in terms of swoopiness (aero helmet and frame, better front wheel, etc). Using the tools at analyticcycling.com, I estimated that my ride would have required ~320 watts average to produce my speed on the TT bike. This calculation also seemed to correlate pretty well with the 18:05 I rode cannibal style last week (basically, I used .5 and .6 respectively for frontal area on the power calculator).
This week, the conditions may not have been as favorable. The temps were cooler, and possibly we had a mild headwind, but not much. The Cronoman is also exactly my size, and he rides similar wheels. He has a powertap wheel converted to a disc with shrinkable PVC, and it is slicker than it sounds. He sports an aero frame (GT Blade), but with his slam-back seatpost position, I am guessing we are roughly equal in terms of aerodynamics. He posted a 17:29 last night, averaging 323 watts. I rode a 17:28, which I think I can safely assume required about the same power.
So my estimates of the prior rides were not too far off. Maybe I put out 330 or so, as I think both rides were better than last night. Since the WMSR TT lay only five days away, I avoided digging too deep both mentally and physically. I experimented by starting a bit easier, staying in the 14 cog until a bit past halfway. The graphing showed that even though my cadence may have been a bit better, my speed suffered, yet my HR was about the same. For the last 5k I went to the 13 cog and hoped for a strong finish, but I never really got on top of the gear and felt like I was running out of gas at the end. My speed over this portion of the course was no better than last time sans aero equipment. Oh well.
Back to the taper. From June 10 to July 4th, I had 45+ hours on the bike in 24 days. I don't have the numbers right here in front of me, but there was a total of around six hours at 150 bpm (the bottom of zone 4, or sub-LT for me) and above, which works out to roughly 15 minutes/day average. Since July 5, I have only 6:15 on the bike (in 9 days), and 2:15 of it is at 150 bpm or above, and much of that was in zones 5C, 5B, and 5A. This is due to the total time being made up of two TT's, a real crit (Attleboro), and a training crit (Wompatuck). So, during my taper period, I got in the same 15 minutes/day average intensity as during my build, but basically eliminated 75% of the lower intensity time, replacing it with couch time. We will see how this works out next week. Last night I felt like maybe I didn't have a lot of reserve strength, but Tuesday night was pretty hard, so with only one day rest that was understandable. Since ceasing the running a month ago, my bike legs are much better in general, and my speed has improved.
I intend to follow Friel's "Race Period" advice and primarily just race, with one additional high intensity workout focusing on my strength (speed endurance) for the next month or so. I got a great massage Wednesday night, so right now I feel healthy, fresh, and fast. Here's hoping that it works... Thanks for reading.
Yesterday Gewilli emailed me some power tap files from the fastest guy at the TT. Two weeks ago, when I rode my TT bike to a 16:59, this guy rode his full-aero rig to a blazing 16:06, averaging 380 watts for the duration. He is about my size, but his setup surpasses mine in terms of swoopiness (aero helmet and frame, better front wheel, etc). Using the tools at analyticcycling.com, I estimated that my ride would have required ~320 watts average to produce my speed on the TT bike. This calculation also seemed to correlate pretty well with the 18:05 I rode cannibal style last week (basically, I used .5 and .6 respectively for frontal area on the power calculator).
This week, the conditions may not have been as favorable. The temps were cooler, and possibly we had a mild headwind, but not much. The Cronoman is also exactly my size, and he rides similar wheels. He has a powertap wheel converted to a disc with shrinkable PVC, and it is slicker than it sounds. He sports an aero frame (GT Blade), but with his slam-back seatpost position, I am guessing we are roughly equal in terms of aerodynamics. He posted a 17:29 last night, averaging 323 watts. I rode a 17:28, which I think I can safely assume required about the same power.
So my estimates of the prior rides were not too far off. Maybe I put out 330 or so, as I think both rides were better than last night. Since the WMSR TT lay only five days away, I avoided digging too deep both mentally and physically. I experimented by starting a bit easier, staying in the 14 cog until a bit past halfway. The graphing showed that even though my cadence may have been a bit better, my speed suffered, yet my HR was about the same. For the last 5k I went to the 13 cog and hoped for a strong finish, but I never really got on top of the gear and felt like I was running out of gas at the end. My speed over this portion of the course was no better than last time sans aero equipment. Oh well.
Back to the taper. From June 10 to July 4th, I had 45+ hours on the bike in 24 days. I don't have the numbers right here in front of me, but there was a total of around six hours at 150 bpm (the bottom of zone 4, or sub-LT for me) and above, which works out to roughly 15 minutes/day average. Since July 5, I have only 6:15 on the bike (in 9 days), and 2:15 of it is at 150 bpm or above, and much of that was in zones 5C, 5B, and 5A. This is due to the total time being made up of two TT's, a real crit (Attleboro), and a training crit (Wompatuck). So, during my taper period, I got in the same 15 minutes/day average intensity as during my build, but basically eliminated 75% of the lower intensity time, replacing it with couch time. We will see how this works out next week. Last night I felt like maybe I didn't have a lot of reserve strength, but Tuesday night was pretty hard, so with only one day rest that was understandable. Since ceasing the running a month ago, my bike legs are much better in general, and my speed has improved.
I intend to follow Friel's "Race Period" advice and primarily just race, with one additional high intensity workout focusing on my strength (speed endurance) for the next month or so. I got a great massage Wednesday night, so right now I feel healthy, fresh, and fast. Here's hoping that it works... Thanks for reading.
Drivers Wanted
Team BOB is still looking to recruit pace car drivers for the circuit race stage of the Workingman's Stage Race, next Wednesday night July 19. We need competent driver's who can report to Amesbury at 5 PM. You will be done by 8 PM. Please contact us if you might be able to commit to this. This is the best seat in the house! Bring a spotter if you like. Thanks!
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Above the influence
OK, I've abandoned my earlier attempt at a post because it was turning into another boring editorial. You've been spared. The short version is that the Tour is not the only bike race in the world, despite the perception of the general public. Nationals are going on right now, but does anyone really know it?
Last night at Wompatuck, the turnout was very light, only around 19 riders. All the Juniors and Espoirs were down at Nats in PA, but we still raced. The group was largely cooperative, more or less a paceline like a training ride, averaging 42 kph. Not as fast as usual, but in the small, single file group it was tough. With a few laps to go, it slowed a bit in anticipation of the sprint. No attacks. With one to go I checked out the last 200 meters. The right side of the road had less pine needles than the left, and some wind was actually making it through the trees for a change. I decided to sprint late, and on the right. With 600 meters to go I was about seventh wheel and we were moving pretty well. Former Cincinatti Bengals linebacker Skip "Muscles in his Shit" Foley wound it up. One or two riders fell out of line as the pace increased. At 200 meters to go, Sammy Morse jumped up the inside, and I immediately pulled out to the right. With the finish coming into view, I almost got pushed into the woods as I came around the line on the outside. With 100m to go, it was just me and Sammy, and he had a half bike length. Somehow, my sprint delivered and in the 52x12 I edged him out at the finish. We only hit 55 kph, which would not be nearly enough on a "normal" Tuesday night, but since this was only my second Tuesday night win ever, and first in over ten years, I'll take it. I needed the $10 too. :o)
Last weekend was a different story. Resting after Attleboro, I headed up to Belmont to pick up a Gary Fisher 24" wheel mountain bike off of craiglist for my nephew. The bike was like new, 32 friggin pounds (for a 67 pound kid), but it had gripshift, nice wheels with red anodized hubs, nice brakes, 27 speeds, etc, all for just $100. Sunday I brought it down to his home at the Wareham housing project. Regular readers will remember that earlier in the year I had hooked up my bro and his girlfriend with bikes, as they are a car-free family, so now the whole entourage can ride to the kid's soccer and little league games. Jonny's old 20" wheel mtb was getting a bit small, so the new bike was a welcome addition.
Bringing some tools, I had the other bikes out in the parking lot to make some adjustments for them. Well, this project is the 'hood if there ever was one, and within minutes I had about a dozen kids circled around asking for service on their ghetto bikes. It was pretty cool actually, as at least they are out riding around and raising hell instead of sitting in their apartments playing video games. I centered some brakes, adjusted some seats, lubed some chains, and tried to true a few wheels. I also found my niece has already nearly outgrown the Trek 220 I got her last year... Almost time for a full size bike. We wrapped it up with a ride down to Swift's Beach, and a cruise around all the cottages, many of which were newly rebuilt on pyles after the last hurricane. Now that's a sea level ride!
Seeing all the low-income kids cruising around the project on their bikes was inspiring. I'm happy to be able to provide my niece and nephew with nicer than average bikes, and I hope they stick with it. Many of the other kids won't, and they will be tempted by car ownership or just not getting out and riding when they get old enough to leave the neighborhood. That's too bad. While I have your attention, head on over to Bikes Not Bombs to read about a non-profit group that is doing something about the situation. Their mission statement does a much better job of spelling out what they do than I could, so please just take a minute to read it. These people are the real deal, and going in to their urban bike shop/youth training center I have seen first hand what a great job they do. BNB is currently trying to raise funds to not only continue their everyday mission, but also to relocate to a new headquarters after being displaced from the old one. Please consider supporting this worthy endeavor. Thanks for reading!
Last night at Wompatuck, the turnout was very light, only around 19 riders. All the Juniors and Espoirs were down at Nats in PA, but we still raced. The group was largely cooperative, more or less a paceline like a training ride, averaging 42 kph. Not as fast as usual, but in the small, single file group it was tough. With a few laps to go, it slowed a bit in anticipation of the sprint. No attacks. With one to go I checked out the last 200 meters. The right side of the road had less pine needles than the left, and some wind was actually making it through the trees for a change. I decided to sprint late, and on the right. With 600 meters to go I was about seventh wheel and we were moving pretty well. Former Cincinatti Bengals linebacker Skip "Muscles in his Shit" Foley wound it up. One or two riders fell out of line as the pace increased. At 200 meters to go, Sammy Morse jumped up the inside, and I immediately pulled out to the right. With the finish coming into view, I almost got pushed into the woods as I came around the line on the outside. With 100m to go, it was just me and Sammy, and he had a half bike length. Somehow, my sprint delivered and in the 52x12 I edged him out at the finish. We only hit 55 kph, which would not be nearly enough on a "normal" Tuesday night, but since this was only my second Tuesday night win ever, and first in over ten years, I'll take it. I needed the $10 too. :o)
Last weekend was a different story. Resting after Attleboro, I headed up to Belmont to pick up a Gary Fisher 24" wheel mountain bike off of craiglist for my nephew. The bike was like new, 32 friggin pounds (for a 67 pound kid), but it had gripshift, nice wheels with red anodized hubs, nice brakes, 27 speeds, etc, all for just $100. Sunday I brought it down to his home at the Wareham housing project. Regular readers will remember that earlier in the year I had hooked up my bro and his girlfriend with bikes, as they are a car-free family, so now the whole entourage can ride to the kid's soccer and little league games. Jonny's old 20" wheel mtb was getting a bit small, so the new bike was a welcome addition.
Bringing some tools, I had the other bikes out in the parking lot to make some adjustments for them. Well, this project is the 'hood if there ever was one, and within minutes I had about a dozen kids circled around asking for service on their ghetto bikes. It was pretty cool actually, as at least they are out riding around and raising hell instead of sitting in their apartments playing video games. I centered some brakes, adjusted some seats, lubed some chains, and tried to true a few wheels. I also found my niece has already nearly outgrown the Trek 220 I got her last year... Almost time for a full size bike. We wrapped it up with a ride down to Swift's Beach, and a cruise around all the cottages, many of which were newly rebuilt on pyles after the last hurricane. Now that's a sea level ride!
Seeing all the low-income kids cruising around the project on their bikes was inspiring. I'm happy to be able to provide my niece and nephew with nicer than average bikes, and I hope they stick with it. Many of the other kids won't, and they will be tempted by car ownership or just not getting out and riding when they get old enough to leave the neighborhood. That's too bad. While I have your attention, head on over to Bikes Not Bombs to read about a non-profit group that is doing something about the situation. Their mission statement does a much better job of spelling out what they do than I could, so please just take a minute to read it. These people are the real deal, and going in to their urban bike shop/youth training center I have seen first hand what a great job they do. BNB is currently trying to raise funds to not only continue their everyday mission, but also to relocate to a new headquarters after being displaced from the old one. Please consider supporting this worthy endeavor. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, July 9, 2006
Round and round
Two people on a tandem just rode by the crib. My street gets quite a bit of cycling traffic on the weekends. This morning I'm just hanging out and relaxing, enjoying the fact that, with my training now in taper mode, the pressure to make the most out of each weekend day has ceased for the time being. Soon I'll head out for a short ride just to loosen up and get the blood flowing.
Yesterday there was a criterium in Attleboro, just a few towns over from here. The course is a short 1k loop with a small rise on one side, just after the start/finish. The turns are a litte tight, but not too bad. Since I'm tapering, the 30 lap 45+ race provided just the right duration of high-intensity work for me. Sixty-five riders were registered. There is quite a range of abilities in this group. The top twenty guys are all deadly serious, with a few who just race, and don't even hold jobs. The bottom twenty guys, well, these are the guys with guts that show a lack of training time, and with lots of grey hair adorning their faces. Sorry Ge, but bike racers are just not supposed to have any. I can barely keep from laughing when I find myself riding along side some dude with an "Orange County Choppers" moustache...
One danger when the race venue sits nearby is taking it too easy in the morning, and of course I must plead guilty. In the past I've ridden to this race, but it takes almost an hour, so if you throw the race on top of that and then ride home, that would make a three hour day, which went against my plan. I therefore drove over, and didn't get registered until about 9:15, with a start time of 9:35. My "warm up" consisted of riding to the start, and then mercifully they gave us a chance to ride three laps of course preview before calling the race to the line. Not ideal for such a short, intense event, but I was OK.
The race started very slowly. I've not raced too many crits since being a master, and this just wasn't like what I remembered from the 3's. Part of it had to do with the variation in abilities. The greybeards and fatties were content to hang at the back, so you didn't have them trying to steal your position. Our plan was to keep it together for Duano in the sprint. Knowing that I had great form right now, I thought I could probably go in a break and do well, but I owe some service to the team after Stafford, and I also was not keen on getting in a long break. Working to keep the field grouppo compacto would give me just the right amount of work for the day.
One little break went early. I moved up in case I had to chase, but it came back by itself. I took a flyer just so that I could get the feel of the corners at top speed. In crits, this is always a good idea, because you want to know the limits before you get to the front at the end, with the race on the line. I banzaied the course for a lap, had a small gap, and lo and behold they rang the bell for a $20 cash prime. Well, one more lap wouldn't kill me, so I kept my head down and soloed the additional kilometer required to pocket the double sawbuck, before sitting up and going back to the peloton.
I surfed the front a bit, then a move with our friends Rano (Gearworx) and Munroe (CCB-Evil Empire) went. Easily bridging onto them, I just sat on, letting them rotate amongst themselves. The field was not far behind, and these two quickly became disheartened and we were absorbed. Retreating a bit for rest, it did not take long for me to see another move, this one more dangerous looking, head off the front sans a BOB. About six guys were up there, a few CCBs in the mix, and they powered away to a ten second lead. The Cronoman and Timmy were up front and kept the group moving for a bit, and I headed up there too. Taking the front, I made a strong two lap effort and brought them group back just as we hit the top of the rise. Of course, a counter when instantly, and to my dismay, rider after riding came through, and no red and yellow... This looked deadly, and I verbalized my opinion, but we were all out of place.
This group gained a straightaway lead before the Cronoman and I think a Bethel started to bridge. Not what I had in mind, and to me it looked like too big of a gap. They chased for two laps but never made it more than halfway across. As they came back, Duano had to hit the front himself to limit the damage. Not good. I was now recovered so I got up there and once again went into locomotive mode. The officials had left lapped riders on the tight course, so that made it interesting. I found out later that my effort had taken us single file and what remained of the main field had split when some riders got gapped going through the lappers. This effort brought me total confirmation of my form, as after two laps on the front at 45+ kph the escapados were back in the fold! A Bike Link guy went right away, and with the race now down to five laps to go, Curley (Gearworx) jumped across the gap, but just sat on the guy.
My plan was to try and catch them on the last lap. Curley would still be tough, because he wasn't doing anything up there. I thought I had it all worked out, and still had gas in the tank when we took the bell at one to go with the duo just about 50 meters ahead of us. But, someone from CCB panicked and they swarmed around me and closed the gap on the rise. I got shuffled back and heard Duano yell to let him in, so I eased. Duano came around sixth wheel with two turns to go, with me getting pushed back out of the top ten. When it wound up going into the final straight, I wasn't totally gassed so I figured I may as well sprint. In the 12, I held my position, maybe taking one or two riders. My max speed was only 58 kph (around 36 mph) which is still better than last year. I got 13th and Duano only got 6th. Curley won...
Cooling down, I was kind of pissed because I knew this was a waste of good form and effort, but since this was all part of the taper, things weren't really so bad. Hearing lots of talk about how fast the race was made me feel good, because for me it was easy. Later I found my HR numbers were pretty high, with over ten minutes in the red zone. That is an excellent sign, as my recovery was very fast and I never felt like I was in trouble, even though I was obviously going full gas. I cut my cooldown off after twenty minutes and headed home without remembering to pick up my prime. Dohhh!
Yesterday there was a criterium in Attleboro, just a few towns over from here. The course is a short 1k loop with a small rise on one side, just after the start/finish. The turns are a litte tight, but not too bad. Since I'm tapering, the 30 lap 45+ race provided just the right duration of high-intensity work for me. Sixty-five riders were registered. There is quite a range of abilities in this group. The top twenty guys are all deadly serious, with a few who just race, and don't even hold jobs. The bottom twenty guys, well, these are the guys with guts that show a lack of training time, and with lots of grey hair adorning their faces. Sorry Ge, but bike racers are just not supposed to have any. I can barely keep from laughing when I find myself riding along side some dude with an "Orange County Choppers" moustache...
One danger when the race venue sits nearby is taking it too easy in the morning, and of course I must plead guilty. In the past I've ridden to this race, but it takes almost an hour, so if you throw the race on top of that and then ride home, that would make a three hour day, which went against my plan. I therefore drove over, and didn't get registered until about 9:15, with a start time of 9:35. My "warm up" consisted of riding to the start, and then mercifully they gave us a chance to ride three laps of course preview before calling the race to the line. Not ideal for such a short, intense event, but I was OK.
The race started very slowly. I've not raced too many crits since being a master, and this just wasn't like what I remembered from the 3's. Part of it had to do with the variation in abilities. The greybeards and fatties were content to hang at the back, so you didn't have them trying to steal your position. Our plan was to keep it together for Duano in the sprint. Knowing that I had great form right now, I thought I could probably go in a break and do well, but I owe some service to the team after Stafford, and I also was not keen on getting in a long break. Working to keep the field grouppo compacto would give me just the right amount of work for the day.
One little break went early. I moved up in case I had to chase, but it came back by itself. I took a flyer just so that I could get the feel of the corners at top speed. In crits, this is always a good idea, because you want to know the limits before you get to the front at the end, with the race on the line. I banzaied the course for a lap, had a small gap, and lo and behold they rang the bell for a $20 cash prime. Well, one more lap wouldn't kill me, so I kept my head down and soloed the additional kilometer required to pocket the double sawbuck, before sitting up and going back to the peloton.
I surfed the front a bit, then a move with our friends Rano (Gearworx) and Munroe (CCB-Evil Empire) went. Easily bridging onto them, I just sat on, letting them rotate amongst themselves. The field was not far behind, and these two quickly became disheartened and we were absorbed. Retreating a bit for rest, it did not take long for me to see another move, this one more dangerous looking, head off the front sans a BOB. About six guys were up there, a few CCBs in the mix, and they powered away to a ten second lead. The Cronoman and Timmy were up front and kept the group moving for a bit, and I headed up there too. Taking the front, I made a strong two lap effort and brought them group back just as we hit the top of the rise. Of course, a counter when instantly, and to my dismay, rider after riding came through, and no red and yellow... This looked deadly, and I verbalized my opinion, but we were all out of place.
This group gained a straightaway lead before the Cronoman and I think a Bethel started to bridge. Not what I had in mind, and to me it looked like too big of a gap. They chased for two laps but never made it more than halfway across. As they came back, Duano had to hit the front himself to limit the damage. Not good. I was now recovered so I got up there and once again went into locomotive mode. The officials had left lapped riders on the tight course, so that made it interesting. I found out later that my effort had taken us single file and what remained of the main field had split when some riders got gapped going through the lappers. This effort brought me total confirmation of my form, as after two laps on the front at 45+ kph the escapados were back in the fold! A Bike Link guy went right away, and with the race now down to five laps to go, Curley (Gearworx) jumped across the gap, but just sat on the guy.
My plan was to try and catch them on the last lap. Curley would still be tough, because he wasn't doing anything up there. I thought I had it all worked out, and still had gas in the tank when we took the bell at one to go with the duo just about 50 meters ahead of us. But, someone from CCB panicked and they swarmed around me and closed the gap on the rise. I got shuffled back and heard Duano yell to let him in, so I eased. Duano came around sixth wheel with two turns to go, with me getting pushed back out of the top ten. When it wound up going into the final straight, I wasn't totally gassed so I figured I may as well sprint. In the 12, I held my position, maybe taking one or two riders. My max speed was only 58 kph (around 36 mph) which is still better than last year. I got 13th and Duano only got 6th. Curley won...
Cooling down, I was kind of pissed because I knew this was a waste of good form and effort, but since this was all part of the taper, things weren't really so bad. Hearing lots of talk about how fast the race was made me feel good, because for me it was easy. Later I found my HR numbers were pretty high, with over ten minutes in the red zone. That is an excellent sign, as my recovery was very fast and I never felt like I was in trouble, even though I was obviously going full gas. I cut my cooldown off after twenty minutes and headed home without remembering to pick up my prime. Dohhh!
Friday, July 7, 2006
Stranded in the jungle as he can be
Last night I rode the Bikeworks Rehoboth 8 mile TT again, but this time I went Cannibal, as in no aero equipment. So cannibal, in fact, that since I forgot to pack a cycling jersey, I wore a white Supergo base layer over my bibs, and took the road bike out just the way it sat from the weekend, with 32 round spoke Mavic Classics wheels and 12/27 cassette. Special preparation consisted of checking the pressure in the 700x25 Conti front and Michelin Megamium rear training tires.
The night was nearly perfect for a fast TT. There was a bit of humidity, but no wind and temp in the high seventies. After an unusually productive day at work (the South Park office is free from the normal distractions up in Westwood), I got to the lot a bit late, and only warmed up for the ten minutes it took to ride to the start. Even as a cannibal, Bob seeded me near the end of the strong turnout of over twenty riders, providing me with an additional sixteen minutes of warmup time after the start lineup was established. I did a four minute effort at sub LT, a bit of spinning, a bit of lugging, then two minutes hard, and spun back to the line.
Since I am currently trying to taper into the WMSR, I was a bit apprehensive about even doing the TT at all. My plan was to ride cannibal just so I could get in a good effort, but not dig too deep trying to beat last week's time of 16:59 on the TT bike. Based on last year's 40K TT at Colebrook, where I rode just under a 39 kph average, I estimated that a time of 19:03 (40 kph) would be feasible on this course. The additional 124 seconds from last week would represent a reduction in speed of around 11%. This left me wondering, as last week I rode nearly the entire course in a 53x13. Going all the way to my 52x15 on the road bike would mean a speed reduction of over 15% (if maintaining roughly the same cadence). Trying to turn the 14 would mean that I would have to go quite a bit faster than 40 kph. I decided to try to push the 14 cog and see how it went.
To my surprise, pushing the 14 sans aero equipment proved to be possible. There was less wind (as in none) compared to last week, and I found myself rolling down the intial few k's at 43-44 kph without pushing too hard. Through the flattest part in the middle of the course, I held steady, usually seeing 41 kph on the Polar. Going by the Route 118 split, roughly halfway, I glanced at my watch, noting that only 9:10 had elapsed so far. Holy shit, I'm flying. I bogged down a little bit on the course's only two tiny rises around the 8k mark, taking the 15 cog on the first one, but still sinking to 35 kph, ditto on the second one, but I quickly went to the 13, stood up a bit, hammered and stretched, then sat down and immediately took the 14 again. This seemed to work, and I hit the bumpier, predominantly slight downhill final 5 k back over 40 kph. Just as experienced last week, the finish seemingly took forever to come into view, but with no wind and no rises on this section of the course, I maintained decent speed all the way to the line, stopping the clock at 18:06 (~42 kph)! Wow. My average HR was only 164, as the first few k's I kept it just under LT, and the last few I was flirting with the red zone, just over 170.
Riding without the disc, skinsuit, or aerobars, I was shocked to have only lost 5 sec/km over last week. I'm not sure what to think. This was a good ride, and the lack of wind was probably a big help. Maybe last week's ride wasn't as good as I thought at the time. No matter though, I am very excited about my form. Now it is time to see if I can do something with it. Thanks for reading.
The night was nearly perfect for a fast TT. There was a bit of humidity, but no wind and temp in the high seventies. After an unusually productive day at work (the South Park office is free from the normal distractions up in Westwood), I got to the lot a bit late, and only warmed up for the ten minutes it took to ride to the start. Even as a cannibal, Bob seeded me near the end of the strong turnout of over twenty riders, providing me with an additional sixteen minutes of warmup time after the start lineup was established. I did a four minute effort at sub LT, a bit of spinning, a bit of lugging, then two minutes hard, and spun back to the line.
Since I am currently trying to taper into the WMSR, I was a bit apprehensive about even doing the TT at all. My plan was to ride cannibal just so I could get in a good effort, but not dig too deep trying to beat last week's time of 16:59 on the TT bike. Based on last year's 40K TT at Colebrook, where I rode just under a 39 kph average, I estimated that a time of 19:03 (40 kph) would be feasible on this course. The additional 124 seconds from last week would represent a reduction in speed of around 11%. This left me wondering, as last week I rode nearly the entire course in a 53x13. Going all the way to my 52x15 on the road bike would mean a speed reduction of over 15% (if maintaining roughly the same cadence). Trying to turn the 14 would mean that I would have to go quite a bit faster than 40 kph. I decided to try to push the 14 cog and see how it went.
To my surprise, pushing the 14 sans aero equipment proved to be possible. There was less wind (as in none) compared to last week, and I found myself rolling down the intial few k's at 43-44 kph without pushing too hard. Through the flattest part in the middle of the course, I held steady, usually seeing 41 kph on the Polar. Going by the Route 118 split, roughly halfway, I glanced at my watch, noting that only 9:10 had elapsed so far. Holy shit, I'm flying. I bogged down a little bit on the course's only two tiny rises around the 8k mark, taking the 15 cog on the first one, but still sinking to 35 kph, ditto on the second one, but I quickly went to the 13, stood up a bit, hammered and stretched, then sat down and immediately took the 14 again. This seemed to work, and I hit the bumpier, predominantly slight downhill final 5 k back over 40 kph. Just as experienced last week, the finish seemingly took forever to come into view, but with no wind and no rises on this section of the course, I maintained decent speed all the way to the line, stopping the clock at 18:06 (~42 kph)! Wow. My average HR was only 164, as the first few k's I kept it just under LT, and the last few I was flirting with the red zone, just over 170.
Riding without the disc, skinsuit, or aerobars, I was shocked to have only lost 5 sec/km over last week. I'm not sure what to think. This was a good ride, and the lack of wind was probably a big help. Maybe last week's ride wasn't as good as I thought at the time. No matter though, I am very excited about my form. Now it is time to see if I can do something with it. Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Where do we go now?
As the Good Witch of the North said, it's best if you start at the beginning. I'll do just that, and see what I can work in along the way. Schloogeys? Anyone who saw the OLN tour coverage on Sunday night might have caught Bobke's sidebar on the Belgian faithful. In case you missed it, here is the link: Select video 09. OLN's producers must have been having acid flashbacks to Wide World of Sports when they hired Trautwig, but at least Bobke can be unpredictable, if not informative or engaging. I think it was Wide World of Sports where we first got to see Bobke's "intestinal distress" episode when he rode for 7-11. Funny though, they don't list "first athlete to take a dump at the roadside on national TV" in his bio. Later on, Bobke's post-competition rise to prominence was fueled by the potty stories he used to write in Velo News. Back in the bad old days before the 'net, if you wanted to read something funny about cycling, that was pretty much it. Nowadays, there are lots of us who are trying to do it, but Bobke was a pioneer.
Ironically, he who says "Tour DAY France" in an all too obvious attempt to get all the anal-retentive cycling fans (which is about 90% of you) worked up, used to have "don't call me Bob-KEY" as his tagline. The correct pronuciation is "Boob-ka," and make sure you say it like a Eurodog with nice short syllables. So now we have Trautwig calling him Bob-Key. Maybe he just got tired of trying to correct people and finally capitulated. If you see him, ask him to demo the "Boobka Strut" for you. I'll bet you'll get some schwag in the deal.
So how did I manage to watch OLN if I don't have cable, and KL doesn't even have a TV? Good question. Fortunately, her in-your-home animal care side business had us with our feet up in a stylin' mountain top villa complete with plush couch and Direct TV for Tuesday night. Sorry to say, but since my camera's woes are well-documented, you know I couldn't come up with photographic evidence of Jurassic Dog, the 100+ pound behemoth of a Malamute who was our host. Starbuck (his name) seems friendly enough, but he has that crazed/confused look in his eye, and despite getting along with nearly all four-legged animals, having this guy stare at me and howl was a bit unnerving. We will get pictures sooner or later.
Backing up to my last post takes us all the way back to Friday. I'm still not sure what to think of this whole doping thing. One way or the other, I don't think we are hearing too much of the truth. Are we supposed to believe that all these guys, bitter rivals from a half dozen different teams, all went to the same doctor, not knowing about the others? I mean, if the word was out that Fuentes was the go-to doc, wouldn't SOMEBODY have blown the whistle? Or did they, and that is how they got caught? Over the weekend, McQuaid reportedly came out and basically admitted the testing is a joke. At least that it what he wants us to believe. Either most of these accusations are bullshit, or this thing runs deep, very deep.
Training. Friday wrapped up the first six months of the year. My 3.5 hour ride wasn't as hard as I had planned, but it still brought me up to 189 hours on the bike for the year. Add to that 30 hours of running, and contrast my 220 hour YTD total with 2005's 178+11=189 and we see that my volume is up by 15%. This year I have a lot more competitions included too, and I know I have had higher quality at lower HR numbers due to increased fitness. All good news.
The weekend wrapped up my longest and biggest build of the season, with three straight weeks of around 13 hours each on the bike. Saturday morning, eager to test myself, I rushed over to Big Blue Hill on my way to Fitchburg. Pressed for time, I warmed up quickly with a few efforts on Royall Street, right in front of Reebok World Headquarters. Once I was ready, I headed to the access road. The gate was open, so I got a bit more of a rolling start than usual, and up I went. Knowing I would only make one pass today, this was all out. Using the 38T ring and the 17-19-21 and 24, I made good steady progress, hitting the "flat spot" at 1:06, and then the end of the guardrail at 3:06. The top just didn't seem as steep as usual, and I even sat most of the way over "the hump." Sprinting for the line, I stopped the clock at 4:46, breaking my all time PR by 2 seconds! BTW, the previous PR stood for over 12 years. Yes, the pavement is better now, I had a rolling start, and the new bike is about five pounds lighter than what I rode before, but fuck, I'm 45! Something is working.
I took my victory and blasted up to Nashua, picked up KL, and headed to Wachusett for the queen stage of the FSR. Working the feed zone is far more stressful than racing yourself. KL and I both knew this race was her best chance to do something big at this National Race Calendar event, and with the Pro/Elite women facing six laps of the hilly 11 mile circuit before taking on the Wachusett summit road, feeding would be crucial. Dropping her and her stuff off at the start area, I headed up to the feed zone where The Cronoman had already staked our claim to prime real estate and setup his tent. International playboy/fashion photographer Rich Bertone joined us, and later on Duano, Big Joe, several others, and even the one and only "Voice of New England Bicycle Racing" Dick Ring hung out with us while Rich wowed them with blackberry photos of his supermodel friends from the cover of the Italian edition of Vogue.
The feeding was pretty uneventful, with KL about as calm and efficient in the feedzone as a rider can be. Some photographer kneeled down behind me and tripped me as I naturally moved to my right while handing off a bottle, but his complete silence in the face of my subsequent verbal tirade quelled my urge to beat the daylights out of him on the spot. He went elsewhere to take his photos, and I retreated to the tent to cool off. Repeat, this feeding is WAY more stressful than racing. I handed up the bomb bottle of Red Bull on lap 5, and stayed in the feed zone for lap 6 just in case. KL roared through, but the main pack was still about forty riders strong as they headed to the access road up Wachusett. Lacking the vehicle credentials to follow the group, I had no choice but to just head back to the main lot and wait. After what seemed like an eternity, KL rode back down with news that she had taken an outstanding 8th on the stage, the first New England rider, just 27 seconds down to the race winner, World and Olympic champion Sarah Ulmer! We found out later this moved her into 13th on GC, in the money. Just one more day...
Sunday, the women's crit didn't start until 3 pm. This left me with a bit more training time than Saturday. I rode up to Well's Ave for the Boston Road Club Training Series. With a nice tailwind on the the twenty mile ride to Newton, my 10:20 arrival had me just missing the start of the combined A/B event. I jumped in with 34 laps (of 40) to go. I saw Michelle and said hello, then bridged to a few breaks and did several other hard efforts before pulling myself out with two laps remaining. Late arrivals aren't allowed to sprint for prizes anyway, but I just wanted to beat the line at the Shaklee tent for some free post-race recovery drink. The ride home was, of course, into the wind. Yeah, not so fast, and it was pretty warm by that time of day too, so I stopped at District Convenience in Dedham Square for some more liquids. Unlike the typical Quik-eee Mart, this place had a nice hardwood floor, and I carefully danced across so as not to scratch it up with my cleats. The exchange at checkout went something like this:
Apu (not his real name, at least I don't think...): "You have the speshull sneeekarh, for the bicycle?"
Me: "Huh?"
Apu (more clearly this time): "You have the speshull sneeekarh, for the bicycle?"
Me: "Oh yeah, these, yeah, I do."
Apu: "How much is the cost?"
Me: "Six hundred dollars" (hey, they're custom made Rocket 7's)
Apu: "Oh my."
It made my day, that's for sure. I really needed the Gatorade too, although this "X-Factor" crap is even sweeter and more candy-like that the already over-sweetened and under-electrolyted regular flavor. By the time I got home, it was after 1 pm, so it took some hustling to recover, get packed up, and in the car on the way to Fitchburg. Making every light on Route 2 except the last one, I rolled into town and got onto the course about two laps into it. The crowds were WAY down this year, but it was pretty exciting nonetheless. KL rode great and not only preserved her GC spot with a solid pack finish, she actually moved up to 10th overall, well into the prize money, and the first Cat 2. Sweet end to the race and weekend proper.
Mostly relaxation and just a recovery spin made up our Monday in the Lakes Region at the KL North Training Center. Tuesday we headed out explore some roads near Newfound Lake. We found a good one that connects over to our usual River Road training route. There were about five miles of well packed dirt road in the middle of it, but either end had a nice paved climb, as the road traverses a range of small mountains dividing Bristol from Ashland. We then tried Bridgewater Hill Road, finding a 500 meter stretch of 15% grade before it turns to dirt. We'll be taking Duano over to that one in the future for sure.
So that wraps up the wrap up. I've got almost 45 hours on the bike in the past 24 days, so today is off and the taper begins. Tommorow night I plan to head over to the Rehoboth TT again, but I'll bring the road bike and do it Cannibal to see how that works out. Saturday there is a crit right over in nearby Attleboro, a tight course, can be hairy, but I should probably take the plunge. We'll see. Thanks for reading.
Ironically, he who says "Tour DAY France" in an all too obvious attempt to get all the anal-retentive cycling fans (which is about 90% of you) worked up, used to have "don't call me Bob-KEY" as his tagline. The correct pronuciation is "Boob-ka," and make sure you say it like a Eurodog with nice short syllables. So now we have Trautwig calling him Bob-Key. Maybe he just got tired of trying to correct people and finally capitulated. If you see him, ask him to demo the "Boobka Strut" for you. I'll bet you'll get some schwag in the deal.
So how did I manage to watch OLN if I don't have cable, and KL doesn't even have a TV? Good question. Fortunately, her in-your-home animal care side business had us with our feet up in a stylin' mountain top villa complete with plush couch and Direct TV for Tuesday night. Sorry to say, but since my camera's woes are well-documented, you know I couldn't come up with photographic evidence of Jurassic Dog, the 100+ pound behemoth of a Malamute who was our host. Starbuck (his name) seems friendly enough, but he has that crazed/confused look in his eye, and despite getting along with nearly all four-legged animals, having this guy stare at me and howl was a bit unnerving. We will get pictures sooner or later.
Backing up to my last post takes us all the way back to Friday. I'm still not sure what to think of this whole doping thing. One way or the other, I don't think we are hearing too much of the truth. Are we supposed to believe that all these guys, bitter rivals from a half dozen different teams, all went to the same doctor, not knowing about the others? I mean, if the word was out that Fuentes was the go-to doc, wouldn't SOMEBODY have blown the whistle? Or did they, and that is how they got caught? Over the weekend, McQuaid reportedly came out and basically admitted the testing is a joke. At least that it what he wants us to believe. Either most of these accusations are bullshit, or this thing runs deep, very deep.
Training. Friday wrapped up the first six months of the year. My 3.5 hour ride wasn't as hard as I had planned, but it still brought me up to 189 hours on the bike for the year. Add to that 30 hours of running, and contrast my 220 hour YTD total with 2005's 178+11=189 and we see that my volume is up by 15%. This year I have a lot more competitions included too, and I know I have had higher quality at lower HR numbers due to increased fitness. All good news.
The weekend wrapped up my longest and biggest build of the season, with three straight weeks of around 13 hours each on the bike. Saturday morning, eager to test myself, I rushed over to Big Blue Hill on my way to Fitchburg. Pressed for time, I warmed up quickly with a few efforts on Royall Street, right in front of Reebok World Headquarters. Once I was ready, I headed to the access road. The gate was open, so I got a bit more of a rolling start than usual, and up I went. Knowing I would only make one pass today, this was all out. Using the 38T ring and the 17-19-21 and 24, I made good steady progress, hitting the "flat spot" at 1:06, and then the end of the guardrail at 3:06. The top just didn't seem as steep as usual, and I even sat most of the way over "the hump." Sprinting for the line, I stopped the clock at 4:46, breaking my all time PR by 2 seconds! BTW, the previous PR stood for over 12 years. Yes, the pavement is better now, I had a rolling start, and the new bike is about five pounds lighter than what I rode before, but fuck, I'm 45! Something is working.
I took my victory and blasted up to Nashua, picked up KL, and headed to Wachusett for the queen stage of the FSR. Working the feed zone is far more stressful than racing yourself. KL and I both knew this race was her best chance to do something big at this National Race Calendar event, and with the Pro/Elite women facing six laps of the hilly 11 mile circuit before taking on the Wachusett summit road, feeding would be crucial. Dropping her and her stuff off at the start area, I headed up to the feed zone where The Cronoman had already staked our claim to prime real estate and setup his tent. International playboy/fashion photographer Rich Bertone joined us, and later on Duano, Big Joe, several others, and even the one and only "Voice of New England Bicycle Racing" Dick Ring hung out with us while Rich wowed them with blackberry photos of his supermodel friends from the cover of the Italian edition of Vogue.
The feeding was pretty uneventful, with KL about as calm and efficient in the feedzone as a rider can be. Some photographer kneeled down behind me and tripped me as I naturally moved to my right while handing off a bottle, but his complete silence in the face of my subsequent verbal tirade quelled my urge to beat the daylights out of him on the spot. He went elsewhere to take his photos, and I retreated to the tent to cool off. Repeat, this feeding is WAY more stressful than racing. I handed up the bomb bottle of Red Bull on lap 5, and stayed in the feed zone for lap 6 just in case. KL roared through, but the main pack was still about forty riders strong as they headed to the access road up Wachusett. Lacking the vehicle credentials to follow the group, I had no choice but to just head back to the main lot and wait. After what seemed like an eternity, KL rode back down with news that she had taken an outstanding 8th on the stage, the first New England rider, just 27 seconds down to the race winner, World and Olympic champion Sarah Ulmer! We found out later this moved her into 13th on GC, in the money. Just one more day...
Sunday, the women's crit didn't start until 3 pm. This left me with a bit more training time than Saturday. I rode up to Well's Ave for the Boston Road Club Training Series. With a nice tailwind on the the twenty mile ride to Newton, my 10:20 arrival had me just missing the start of the combined A/B event. I jumped in with 34 laps (of 40) to go. I saw Michelle and said hello, then bridged to a few breaks and did several other hard efforts before pulling myself out with two laps remaining. Late arrivals aren't allowed to sprint for prizes anyway, but I just wanted to beat the line at the Shaklee tent for some free post-race recovery drink. The ride home was, of course, into the wind. Yeah, not so fast, and it was pretty warm by that time of day too, so I stopped at District Convenience in Dedham Square for some more liquids. Unlike the typical Quik-eee Mart, this place had a nice hardwood floor, and I carefully danced across so as not to scratch it up with my cleats. The exchange at checkout went something like this:
Apu (not his real name, at least I don't think...): "You have the speshull sneeekarh, for the bicycle?"
Me: "Huh?"
Apu (more clearly this time): "You have the speshull sneeekarh, for the bicycle?"
Me: "Oh yeah, these, yeah, I do."
Apu: "How much is the cost?"
Me: "Six hundred dollars" (hey, they're custom made Rocket 7's)
Apu: "Oh my."
It made my day, that's for sure. I really needed the Gatorade too, although this "X-Factor" crap is even sweeter and more candy-like that the already over-sweetened and under-electrolyted regular flavor. By the time I got home, it was after 1 pm, so it took some hustling to recover, get packed up, and in the car on the way to Fitchburg. Making every light on Route 2 except the last one, I rolled into town and got onto the course about two laps into it. The crowds were WAY down this year, but it was pretty exciting nonetheless. KL rode great and not only preserved her GC spot with a solid pack finish, she actually moved up to 10th overall, well into the prize money, and the first Cat 2. Sweet end to the race and weekend proper.
Mostly relaxation and just a recovery spin made up our Monday in the Lakes Region at the KL North Training Center. Tuesday we headed out explore some roads near Newfound Lake. We found a good one that connects over to our usual River Road training route. There were about five miles of well packed dirt road in the middle of it, but either end had a nice paved climb, as the road traverses a range of small mountains dividing Bristol from Ashland. We then tried Bridgewater Hill Road, finding a 500 meter stretch of 15% grade before it turns to dirt. We'll be taking Duano over to that one in the future for sure.
So that wraps up the wrap up. I've got almost 45 hours on the bike in the past 24 days, so today is off and the taper begins. Tommorow night I plan to head over to the Rehoboth TT again, but I'll bring the road bike and do it Cannibal to see how that works out. Saturday there is a crit right over in nearby Attleboro, a tight course, can be hairy, but I should probably take the plunge. We'll see. Thanks for reading.
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
Or two, or three, or four. The long weekend, despite being full of activities, gave me a string of almost computer-free days, as well as some nice relaxation at the KL North training facility. Of course, before that there was training, more training, a long day in the feedzone at FSR, still more training, a mad dash to the crit, and of course more training both days up north. Somehow, some way, the whole thing was quite relaxing.
All this will require a more extensive update later. For now, congrats to Gewilli for stringing together a few great consecutive training days of his own, Pam, Dan, and Jorge for their Ironman finishes over in Germany, and of course KL for her 10th place on G.C. in the Pro/Elite NRC women's FSR.
Other topics to write about later:
Thanks for reading!
All this will require a more extensive update later. For now, congrats to Gewilli for stringing together a few great consecutive training days of his own, Pam, Dan, and Jorge for their Ironman finishes over in Germany, and of course KL for her 10th place on G.C. in the Pro/Elite NRC women's FSR.
Other topics to write about later:
- Schloogeys
- Dumbest expression of the year
- Feedzone Jamboree at FSR
- My all-time PR on Big Blue, set Saturday
- Moron Doping (not related to last item)
- Time trials
- 2006 - The first 6 months training update
- Great roads found near Newfound Lake (newfound training roads)
- Jurassic Dog
- Other stuff
Thanks for reading!
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