TechnicalCycling

Track racing on 6/25/2010

2010-06-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

Went out to the track last night - it was too nice outside not to go. 70's, sunny at times, and no rain. Nice.

Three events on the night - Keirin, 15 lap scratch, 8x5 points race.

The Keirin sucked, as usual. I seriously do not understand how to ride this event well. I started 3rd on the motor, which was perfect, then Galen rode up the side, and I let him in. He's a great person to ride behind, and thought it was a good idea. Unfortunately, Jame was in the heat as well (didn't pay enough attention), so Galen let him in, and now I was 5th wheel, which is less great. When the motor pulled off, I let myself get too boxed in, didn't swing wide enough around, and had to drop back to the very back and come around the outside. Stupid. On the plus side, I was able to come back in contact with the top 3 even with this stupid move, so that bodes well for sprinting in the future. I needed to either 1) get smart and not get boxed in 2) be okay with pushing my way through a crowd. Bah.

15 lap scratch was next. Keller Rohrback had 3 guys in the field (Jame, Ian, Galen), so they were active the whole time. Not a ton to say here - lots of breaks went, I followed lots of them, did a lot of work (including a pull hard enough to kill a breakaway I was in - whoops), and everything came back together with 2 to go. Jame went hard, Zach Jones followed, and I hesitated. Stupid, but I attacked to try and catch them and dangled out in front of the field until the end, finishing 3rd. Even though I sort of messed the race up, I still got my first top 5 in the 1/2's, which was my goal for the year. It's nice to have the last real goal I had ticked off. On a side note, this was easily the fastest/hardest 15 lap scratch I've done. Lots of attacking and pace changes.

Finally, there was the 8x5 points. I was a bit tired after the 15 lap scratch, and worried that I wouldn't really be able to contest anything. My plan was to just sit in and see how I felt for the first half. 2 of the 3 Keller guys attacked in the beginning, and a very, very dangerous group of 6 got off the front of the 20 person field. Way to dangerous to just let it go, so I did some work to try and bring it back, while keeping an eye on the last Keller guy in the field (Jame). After 10 laps, Josh (Recycled) put in a hard pull, and the break slowed from the sprint, which caused Jame to try and bridge. There was no way it was coming back together with 3 Keller guys in the break, so I jumped too (though 10 feet behind, so I didn't really get to draft my way up). Once Jame and I made it to the group, Jame attacked nearly immediately and I went with him. We went pretty hard (and I think the break was tired), and got a 100m gap pretty quickly. For the next 28-ish laps, we worked together, except on sprint laps when I just let Jame have the points to keep the pace steady. At about 15 laps, I thought maybe we could lap the field. At 10 laps to go, it looked like we hadn't made any progress, so I started upping the pace. I think the field got tired (and people dropped off - probably only 10 finished, total). Eventually we did manage to catch the field, and I surprised myself by having the legs to still lead out the last lap. I was pretty excited to finish second, and even more excited to lap the field. I had never seen that actually happen in a non-madison before, and I certainly didn't think I could do that (especially in a break of 2, albeit with a really strong 2nd guy). This was the validation I needed after crit racing has been going so poorly for me - feels good to finish near the front of a race again (I'm going to have to get used to it happening a lot less often in the 1/2's).

Joe Barr

2010-05-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

After racing at the track the night before, I wasn't expecting too much out of this race. It was close by though, with some hills (apparently), so I felt like I really should go.

Don't feel like recapping much of this - I felt terrible, terrible, terrible for the first 3 (of 7 laps). I didn't feel comfortable riding in a pack at all - perhaps due to the sidewinds. I surfed the back pretty much the whole race, and had trouble riding close enough to the last rider to get any draft. Not sure what was going on with me - just felt sketchy. To make matters worse, I was tired, so being in the wind was really hurting me. Just not good.

Last 3 laps felt much better, however. I was at least 5-6 guys from the back (which meant I was at least riding in the pack), and felt better. I was in this race mostly for training, so I didn't mind too much, but was surprised I felt so sketchy.

Highlight of the race was seeing Westley Richards at the back with one lap to go, then noticing later that he finished second. How he moved up that fast and still had energy for the sprint is a mystery to me.

Track - May 7th

2010-05-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was the first night of racing at the velodrome for 2010. It's considered "preseason" racing, but quite a few people showed up (30-ish) in the Men's A field. I was just happy to be back out racing on the track. Road racing is a good kind of tough, but nowhere near as fun as track racing. Plus, I don't get bored in track races.

First up was the 15 lap scratch - I told Josh before the race that my main goal was to try to actually do something in at least 2 races each night. It doesn't have to work out, it doesn't have to be smart, but I'm not going to just hop on the train for 3 races and sit in. So about 5 laps into this race, a JD and Brian from Hagens put in a little attack, and I jumped on it immediately. It wasn't particularly fast though, and the field was right there, so I attacked again from the front. This time, I created a little separation, and I kept the pace high for a lap or two, when Brian attacked the small group of 5 that had split from the field. So I chased him down, started the sprint, and found out that I didn't really have anything left in the tank. Totally fine with that - I did a ton of work, and got my first top 5 in a 1/2 race. Pretty happy with how aggressive I'd been - it's the first track race where I really made things happen, and ended up with an okay result.

15 lap scratch - 4th

Next up was the tempo miss and out. It's like a normal miss-and-out race where the last rider across the line is eliminated, but the first two across the line also get points. Once 5 riders are left, there's one more lap for points (like all the others), and the rider out of the last 5 with the most points wins. Basically, it's a miss-and-out, but fast. Usually, I barely try on these, since I invariably find myself in a bad spot and get eliminated. With the higher speed of this race though, there were opportunities to move up, and I started to understand how to box people in so they'd get eliminated. Somehow, I managed to stay in until the final 5 with Josh. I was so happy just to get to that point that I hadn't considered that I hadn't been accumulating any points, so I ended up in 4th or 5th. Still, I made it to the end of a 30 rider field, which I'm thrilled about.

Tempo Miss and Out - 4th or 5th

Last up was the 30 lap scratch. Not much to tell here - I followed moves, stayed near-ish the front, and was generally tired from doing tons of work in the scratch and miss-and-out. Definitely not used to how tough track racing is yet. Ended up something like 5-7th-ish, which is totally fine, but I don't have the same jump some of the other guys have right now. That's a bummer - something to work on.

30 lap scratch - 7th-ish

I ended up feeling a lot more confident from racing. I've been reading and hearing about super strong guys (Benny, Russell, etc) for a couple years now, and I'm blown away that I'm actually competing against them (and doing okay!).

Michelob Ultra Circuit Race

2010-05-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

After getting my my Cat 2 upgrade, I had to skip out on Vance Creek (would've just been too long of a day), so I made the Michelob Ultra circuit race in Glenwood my first race in the 1/2 field.

I didn't really know what to expect from this at all - didn't know if I'd get dropped, hang in okay, crash out, take corners too slowly, or whatever. It seems like such a big jump from the Cat 3 race to the 1/2's that I didn't know what to expect.

I managed to make myself nervous enough that I figured I should just hang out at the back for the first few laps, which turned out to feel pretty fast. Not sure if they were actually fast or not, but I was wondering how I'd feel around the 8th lap if the pace kept up. Part of the problem was that people were getting popped, and I had to come around gaps to get back to the field. At 28-30, this ends up tough-ish for me right now. After 3 laps, however, I started to feel quite a bit better. I noticed that I seemed to be hurting up the small climbs a lot less than most of the people around me, which is a good sign, and I was able to move up pretty easily.

I really enjoyed the race - people where way, way more aggressive in trying to take spots, jump around folks, etc, but better bike handlers too. I felt very comfortable fitness-wise, and am pretty eager to mix it up in the upcoming races, at least a little bit. Everything about the race went pretty well for me, except the finishing sprint.

With 1K to go, I was near the back, and knew I didn't really have any shot at getting to the front in time, but I felt pretty fresh and wanted to at least put in a little kick for fun. Unfortunately, I decided to go up the wide, smooth shoulder, where we a guy the peloton just caught was going about 20 mph (we were going a bit over 40). I had to stand, grab two fistfuls of brake, and swerve to narrowly avoid missing him. Another guy jumped in front of me and cut me off when I was going about 5 mph faster than him. Fistfuls of brake again, and I shut it down to stay upright. So I'm still a bit nervous about field sprints, but I do think I can at least be up there, given that my problem was running into the back of other racers. I'm sure it's a totally different game in the top 10 though.

Upgrade!

2010-04-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

During the Tour of Walla Walla, I put in for my Cat 2 upgrade on the road.

Today, I found out it got approved. I'm very, very excited. I've been working at this for about 2 full years now, and it's finally paid off (for some definition of paid off - I'm probably going to get spanked in the 1/2's for a while).

I'm feeling a surprising sense of accomplishment from upgrading. I know it's not a big deal, and the 1/2's are more than a little step up, but it was something that I really did have to work on (spent 2008 figuring out how to race a bit, 2009 learning how to actually ride real distance without dying), and it turned out pretty successfully for me (ended up with 44 points, 25 required, 40 for a mandatory upgrade).

Not sure when my first 1/2 race will be, but I'm looking forward to it. Road racing goals for the year - check. Hopefully track goes as well.

Walla Walla - Stage 4 (Waitsburg Road Race)

2010-04-19T06:59:00.001-07:00

The night before the last stage, I was sitting in 2nd on the GC, 50 seconds behind the leader, and 4 seconds ahead of two riders, 17 seconds in front of another. The course has 2 climbs - one small, 60 second climb and a larger, 2-3 mile climb with a hilltop finish. I didn't think I could take 50 seconds off of the leader, but I knew I definitely could lose 4 seconds from time bonuses or the final climb.

Unfortunately, the night before the race didn't go so well. Couldn't keep any food in, and my back was pretty worked over in general (I've been having problems in races with this). I was thinking I was 50-50 to even finish the stage, let alone keep my place on the GC, especially over a 75 mile road race. I decided to try and start anyway, and downed about 1/2 bottle of Pepto Bismol before the start. Hadn't ever had Pepto before - seemed to work pretty well, surprisingly.

The race started simply enough - with headwinds, and 75 miles, no one was really interested in putting the hammer down, and a group of 3 rolled away. Everything was slow, slow, slow, except the descents, where everyone feels like Superman and wants to go fast.

I had quite a bit of trouble moving up on the descents (lost a lot of places descending), but there was a spot about 3/4 of the way through the lap where the highway opened up, and there was a 3 foot shoulder. I was feeling strong, so I shot up the side to the front of the field and put myself at the front for the first time up the climb. Not sure why the field never got swarmed there, as it was super easy to move up. Perhaps the wind was strong-ish?

First time up the climb was awesome - we had AJ, Andrew Howell, and Adam K (I think - I may have gotten one of those wrong) on the front, and 3 leaders out taking up the time bonuses. It felt pretty awesome to have the team really controlling the race, and to be sitting right in back of a controlling train. Fun. About 20% from the top of the climb, people started coming around, but the goal was just to get over the top in the front, and let the breakaway take the time bonuses away.

I did a better job of keeping places on the descent. Managed to reach out and snatch a Starbucks bottle away from someone thinking it was neutral water in the feed zone. Whoops. Got shuffled back a bit too far again, and moved up in the exact same position. I was able to stay at the front again, and Adam K, Nick Adsero, and AJ kept me in the very front, as Fanatik came to the front to drive up the pace. I kept thinking we were going to get swarmed, and kept myself 4th wheel (right behind Nick Adsero). Nick managed to put me in perfect position going into the climb (3rd wheel), and led out for a bit before pulling off. I had about 70% of the climb left, and I was right where I wanted to be, feeling okay. A few people drove a pretty hard pace until about 500m to go, when the real attacks started. I was able to keep myself at the front, but so did 3rd and 4th on the overall (who started 4s back from me, with 10, 6, and 4 seconds available as time bonuses at the line). Finally, at 150m to go, 3rd on the GC put in a big attack, and 4th went with him. I realized a bit too late that I had messed up, and should've attacked earlier, rather than trying to accelerate with guys who weigh 30 lbs less than me.

I sprinted as best I could, and managed to beat one of them, but not the other (he had a great uphill sprint - super fast finish for him), for third on the stage (someone else had gone early on the climb, and I missed catching him by a 1/2 second. That meant I fell to 3rd on the general classification, but given my last week of sickness (lost 11 lbs in 1 week - ouch), and being sick the night before, I've got to be happy with that. The team did fantastic - they got me right where I needed to be when I need to be there. Best teamwork I saw from any team all weekend.

After the race, I waited around for the results, and had to file my first USCF protest to get them corrected (someone accidentally added a few guys on the GC ahead of me in the results). They got sorted eventually, and I headed home.

I was pretty happy with the weekend as a whole - had a decent time trial and road race, but I'm still feeling apprehensive about P/1/2 crits.

I did, however, earn my mandatory upgrade to 1/2's (I have 44 pts now, 40 pts is a mandatory upgrade), so it's sink or swim time.

Here's a photo of the sprint finish. Looks like I put myself in bad position. I missed catching the guy in orange by about 1/2 second, and didn't quite catch the Hagens Berman rider.
Race file here.

Walla Walla Crit

2010-04-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

After finding out I was 2nd on the GC, I was rather nervous about the crit. I know some pretty decent road racers who got pulled last year, and I wanted to be sure I didn't lose any time. The last crit I've done was Kirkland, 2009, and I crashed (not badly, but bad enough to remember). It's too bad, because before I went down, I was cornering really well. Since then, I just haven't been able to get around corners as fast as I should be able to.

The course was actually pretty cool - two very long straights, then a bunch of short-ish turns exposed to the wind. If I had been more confident cornering, I'll bet it could've been a pretty good course for me.

Fortunately, for this crit, I had a bunch of help. Nick Adsero took it upon himself to guide me through the crit, moving me up, watching to be sure I wasn't drifting back behind splits, etc. Basically, the whole thing ended up feeling pretty safe, since I knew that between the two of us we wouldn't get caught on the wrong end of a split. AJ came up in the second half and moved us up a bunch of places on the wide open course, and I was generally able to stay in the top half most of the time with help. Just couldn't shake the nerves in the corners when we were diving in 4 wide. I'm sure Nick got frustrated since moving up in crits (and on corners) is super easy for him, but he decided to help me keep my GC place on the day, which I definitely appreciated.

I ended up feeling very comfortable effort-wise - the crit didn't feel hard at all, at least not with help.

Afterwards, I really focused on eating as much as possible to prepare for the upcoming road race. I also found out that whole teams almost got eliminated by former pro rider Ian McKissick. There was a 20% time cut in the TT (if you're more than 20% slower than 1st, you're done). 6 of 8 Cucina Fresca guys got cut, along with a lot of other good riders... yikes.

I also hung around to watch the Pro/1/2 race, which I guess I'll be doing pretty soon now. I'm definitely way intimidated to being doing crits with them. Really don't know yet how I'll handle that sort of speed. Probably not very well until I get a bit more comfortable.

Race file here (didn't get the whole thing recorded, unfortunately).

TT Update

2010-04-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

Guess I did better on the TT than I thought - ended up 2nd in the Cat 3's (40s behind 1st place though, who also won the day before).

Very happy with that result - there are a lot of guys in the 3's that I've always thought were a lot stronger than me, and I'm choosing to take this as confirmation that my training (and just raw time on the bike) has moved me further along than I feared.

On to go after the next demon - crits. Hoping to just stay with the field tonight.

Walla Walla- Time Trial

2010-04-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

Next up at Walla-Walla is the time trial. It's about 10 miles, with a hill from about 3.5-5 miles, then a downhill to the finish, with a small kicker at the end. The TT was pretty close to our hotel, so I just rode over easy. Turns out, I had waited to long to leave, so I only had 5 minutes warmup and some front derailleur fiddling before I got underway.

Not a ton to say about time trials - I felt very, very bad on this one, and the first 3 miles were really tough for me. Once I hit the hill, I started to feel a little bit better, and the downhill was a great recovery. Last 3 miles were brutal for me though, and I was really dying. Ended up with a 21:07 (not sure what place yet), which is certainly alright for how badly I felt. The biggest bummer to me was how well I think I could've done on this course if I had felt good. It should have been a pretty good one for me, where I should've made up tons of time on the climb. Ah well. All in all, not a terrible race, but certainly not a good one either.

A good picture.

Race data here: http://tpks.ws/Hme7

Walla Walla - Stage 1

2010-04-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

I drove up to Walla-Walla Friday morning with plenty of time for the first race, a 68-mile road race with 5000 feet of climbing. Weather was wonderful - 68 degrees, with a moderate amount of wind. Too nice not to be on a bike. A full field of 100 riders meant there was a lot of moving around in the field. A headwind meant lots of starting and stopping. Together, it made for a nervous race.

In the first 5 miles, I got a flat. There's a 20% time cut on this race, and all I could think of was my whole weekend and 10 hours of driving out the window in the first 20 minutes. The wheel change was pretty fast though, and I was able to get back on after 5-10 minutes of chasing. Then I looked down, and noticed that the guy who changed my wheel didn't get the front skewer closed. Didn't really want to bomb down descents at 45+ MPH w/ a front skewer open, so I had to stop again, fix the skewer, and chase again. Not a great way to start the weekend.

First lap, I was feeling pretty sick to my stomach and couldn't really eat. I knew it would come back to haunt me later, but there wasn't a lot I could do about it. Felt really strong on the climbs, where things broke up a little bit. The downhills were so long that pretty much everything came back together.

Between the first and second laps, a few guys drilled it on the flats, and really started to break up the race a bit. People fell off the pace, and I was a bit too far back, and had to close gaps around people. Then we hit the climbs, and people just exploded. I was way, way too far back, and had literally 75m to make up to the front group on the first climb. That's a lot of distance, and took a lot of effort.

On the second climb, something similar happened - 50-75 m to make up again, which really took it out of me. It was all wasted though, since everything came back together on the descents, even a lot of folks that I flew by at 8-10mph. Bummer.

Unfortunately, the finish was a downhill sprint where I got swarmed 5 miles out. Things were slow, and the field was packed all across the road. I couldn't figure out a way to move up, so I just came in with the field.

Pretty disappointing, but I did finish with the front group, even though I felt terrible from not eating.

Race data here.

Ravensdale Road Race

2010-03-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

The day didn't start out very well, as I woke up with a surprisingly painful case of patellar tendonitis. I've never had that before, so I was a bit surprised. Didn't hurt too much to pedal though, so I decided to race anyway.

Ravensdale is only 40 minutes away, so I felt like I had to go. Forecast was for rain, but it started off sunny and nice. Also got to race with Erik Turner again, whom I used to race with at Penn State. Good times.

The race was pretty fun - there were some wide roads, and a couple of small climbs (big ring). As we started, I felt pretty bad - my legs felt heavy, and I wasn't climbing as easily as I was the day before. I just hung around the back for the first lap (the race was 2 laps of 30 miles apiece) or so, trying to feel better. The race developed just like I had hoped it would - Adam K got off the front with another rider, Wes, from Starbucks (I broke away with him for the win at the state championships last year). I thought they could hold a gap (Adam is really strong), so we went to the front to disrupt the chasing, and soon they were out of sight. I hung around the back for the next 1/2 lap, and a lot of people fell off the pace on one of the climbs (there was a windy section afterwards that made it difficult to catch back on).

I started to move to the front at this point, because I was starting to get worried about a last minute breakaway. Good thing too, because attacks started coming constantly in the last 10 miles. And by constantly, I mean every 1/2 mile for the last 10 miles. A few moves got a decent way up the road, and I chased quite a few down. Then Mike Brown got off the front with another guy for 30 seconds, and I got in a lot of chases to help him stay off the front. And then the rain started to come down reasonably hard.

After a while, it looked like the move wasn't going to stay away, so I moved to the front, and did a lot of work to stay there. Stayed near the front on the climb to the finish, and ended up on the front. Not where I wanted to be, but I set a tempo paced, and hoped that I'd still have enough for the finish. About 800m from the line, we caught the breakaway, and a couple of people jumped early. I didn't go, since the sprint was so long. So I waited on the front, and no one came around. 500 to go, still nobody coming around. At 400m, 2 people came around, and I couldn't wait anymore. I felt like I was going slow, and kept expecting to get swarmed. I must not have been though, since no one came around after that.
I jumped on the early fliers' wheels, and at 150m to go, I went as hard as I could. I caught all but one of them, and would've caught the other with 30-40m more to go, I think.

Turns out, I should've gone early, but I didn't think they'd be able to hold it to the line. 2nd's not a bad result though, and I've got all the upgrade points I need for my Cat 2 upgrade (not sure if/when I'll take it though), which is exciting, and I was able to get into another sprint. I'm starting to feel pretty good about tougher sprints at least. Fun. Unfortunately, I don't have a good sense of when things are hard for other riders. This sprint felt ridiculously slow/easy, but no one came around, so they must've been at least a bit tired. If I had known that I was feeling that good comparatively, I would've known to go early. Not sure how I'll figure that out, but I definitely need to get smarter in the finishes.

Race data here

Independence Valley Road Race

2010-03-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

This was the first race this year where the weather was nice enough to race in just shorts and a short sleeve jersey. It's hard not to enjoy a race when the weather is this nice.

IVRR is a pretty flat course, with a 2k hill and a 1k hill, neither of which are too hard. Not really enough to drop the big sprinters, without a serious attack.

At the beginning of the race, an Apex and Second Ascent guy rolled off the front. The field just let them go, and they didn't come back. Bummer that 1st and 2nd rolled off so early, without serious challenge.

The rest of the day was quite a bit of fun - felt pretty comfortable moving up in the field, felt great on the climbs, and put in a few small feeler attacks.

The last time up the big climb, a Hagens rider put in an attack, and I went with him. We ended up gapping the rest of the field, and picked up another couple from an earlier break. We worked together okay, but I ended up gapping them on the descent. It just wasn't going to work out - the location just wasn't going to work. The chasers were getting a bit tired, however, so I knew something would roll out - sure enough, it did, but we weren't in it. Looks like the right place to attack was the crosswinds. Ah well - I'm learning a bit.

I was totally boxed in in the sprint - it was super slow, and rather dangerous, so I didn't try to force it.

All in all, I got in a great day of racing, but I'm a bit bummed I missed out on the two important moves of the day.

Race data here.

Mason Lake #3

2010-03-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

Not a fun race. I flatted (as did 6-10 other people, in nearly the same spot) about 5 miles in, got a slow wheel change, and started off trying to close a 60-90 second gap.

I didn't even get close, and pulled the plug after 2 laps. Pretty frustrating - the race unfolded nearly exactly how I hoped it would, with a small-ish (32 starters) sprint finish at the end for 2nd place, but I wasn't around to contest it. Ah well - I'll have to try my luck at IVRR and Ravensdale-Cumberland this weekend.

2010 - Mason Lake #1

2010-03-09T20:26:00.001-08:00

(photo by Bethanie Stallman)

2010's first race was, predictably, Mason Lake. It's usually the first race series of the year, and one of the best attended (jokingly referred to as the Mason Lake World Championships). Sort of odd, considering there are no prizes, but everyone's usually ready to put their winter training to good use. Plus, it's the first chance everyone has to gauge where they stand relative to everyone else at the start of the year.

The downside is that it's usually a pretty sketchy experience. The final 1k has a sharp downhill, slightly narrowing roads, and a sweeping 90 degree turn. In previous years, I've just ridden this race to get in some early racing miles. This means I've ridden at the back since I've been too nervous to move myself up, and missed taking part in the sprint entirely.

This year, I had only one goal: don't ride at the back, ever. I shouldn't be back there and I'm fast enough to be at the front. There's really no excuse not to learn to throw my weight around a bit and hold my position in the top third. So as the race go underway, I took the first opportunity I had to move to the top 10, and waited for a bit for the race to develop. I didn't particularly want to be in a long breakaway, and I had a couple of teammates who were probably better suited to it than me.

A couple of people got off the front in the second lap (of 5), and Eric Peterson and Mike Brown attempted to bridge up. The gap was a little bit big however, and they came back to the group. There wasn't much to do at that point but sit and wait for the field to come back together for the sprint.

On the last lap, the break was predictably caught, and the field started to set up for the sprint. Unfortunately, something sort of weird happened - the field slowed up enough that the four riders in the break stayed at or near the front. This, coupled with the fact that no one wanted to use up energy before the sprint (no one who could put down a serious attack, at least) meant that the last lap was really, really slow. When the pace slows down that much, it fans out across the road and no one can move up. It also means that people have a chance to recover, and fancy their chances in a sprint. Together, it means that the front of the race is slow, the back of the pack is fast, and there's nowhere for the middle to go as everyone tries to get into the same spot.

This is the part of the race where I usually lose spots, but this time, I held my ground as people bounced of me (annoying, but not an issue), my handlebars (a bit dicey), and the people riding next to me. Things stayed pretty slow until 1K to go, when the first few guys hit the gas. Folks ran right into the back of riders going slow, and our field had the biggest pileup I've heard about in the Cat 3's. 15-25 people went down right behind me, and the top 20-ish made it through. I felt very calm, strong, and ready to go - I had to keep myself from starting the sprint too early, since I felt so good.

With about 250m to go, a huge guy (6'6?) wound up his sprint, and I got on his wheel. Unfortunately, his sprint ended at 50m later, and I was a bit stuck. There wasn't really enough distance for me to tuck back in and wait, but 200m at Mason Lake is a long, long way for me to sprint. Didn't have much choice though, so I wound it up and went. When I looked back at 100m, I thought I had gapped everyone, but JD Fette (fast, fast kid) was behind me, and almost came around at the end.

I was pretty excited about this win - it was the first time I've been able to mix it up at the front of a really jostling group, and my first participation in a bunch sprint. Really looking forward to seeing if I can get myself into the front for another - it feels like I should have a pretty strong shot to take some of these if I'm near the front with 175 to go.

Also found out that I had easily enough points to upgrade to Cat 2 for 12 hours, until I lost my points from 2009 Tour de Dung #1 (USCF upgrade points disappear after 12 months). Ha.

Results

Track Cycling Recap

2009-07-29T20:14:00.000-07:00

I never did recap how track cycling went over the summer -

Short version: I raced a lot after Leah was born, and even though it was the only racing I was really doing at the time, and I managed to upgrade into the 2's.

Longer version: I really loved track racing. Moving up from the 4's was a little dicey at times, but all in all, track racing feels very safe to me. No brakes and higher speeds means a safer-feeling race. I tried to get in breaks all the time, and it often worked out pretty well. I managed to do reasonably well in the 3's, won the omnium on a few nights, and got a mandatory upgrade after the FSA Grand Prix.

Racing in the 1/2's was a different story. Lots of fun, but I was in way over my head. I'll be interested to see how things go this year with a bit of actual training and racing past April. I can't just expect to ride baseline fitness in those races - too many fast guys.

Getting started with track

2009-06-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

Just started out at the track - did the first few intro to racing nights, and got upgraded.

Did a few Cat 4 races (http://velodrome.org/mva/node/64?results=night&id=6, http://velodrome.org/mva/node/64?results=night&id=8, http://velodrome.org/mva/node/64?results=night&id=9), and did pretty well, so I got to move up to Friday night (the big show).

It's a big jump from not having ever ridden on the track to the Cat 3 races on the velodrome for me. First Friday night was a big leap for me - I felt pretty good in the scratch race, but got boxed in. I got boxed in during the miss-and-out and was third to be eliminated. Last race of the night was a points race - I felt good, and tried to get in a breakaway. Unfortunately, I wasn't even close to getting away, so I just toasted myself for the finale sprint.

All in all, a pretty disappointing first Friday night, but I was pretty excited to be able to upgrade so quickly.

Here's a picture of thee points race:

Longbranch Road Race

2009-05-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

I hadn’t planned on racing Sunday, but since I won on Sat, I felt obligated to show up and try to defend my lead in the omnium. There were a lot fewer people in this race (about 38), so I knew who I needed to watch. The course featured two hills - a long, steep, 39x27 hill (2-3 minutes), and a shorter, rolling 39x25 near the end. Not enough to really split the field, but by the end, we were down to 20 of the 38. I was feeling pretty tired during this race (not having ridden much for the last couple weeks), but AJ was fantastic in chasing people down.

Last couple laps, I led the field up the major climbs as a way to stay near the front, and was feeling okay (but not great). AJ was around to lead me through the field, and lead out the sprint, which meant that I was actually in a good position for once.
I knew the Lenovo guy I was watching for the omnium was stronger than me, so in the sprint, I watched him closely. Unfortunately, I tried to come around him in the sprint on the right, where there were inexplicably a couple of women’s riders. I don’t know if we were just passing their field, or if they happened to finish at the same time somehow, or what, but in either event I almost ran one of them off the road, and had to sit up and try to sprint again. It was my fault, I should’ve been looking further up the road, but they were going so much slower that it all happened very quickly. Managed to stay upright, managed to start sprinting again, and ended up 6th. I was a bit peeved, since the finish suited me so well (I love uphill sprints), but it was enough to take the omnium for the weekend.

Big thanks to AJ and Smoothie for showing up on Sun and sacrificing for me to take the omnium - it was actually sort of important to me, and I’m thrilled it worked out.

Anyone know where there are pictures? Never did find any for either day.

Glenwood Road Race

2009-05-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

This was my first real race since Leah was born, and my goal on the line was just to finish. On a wet and rainy day, with 80+ in the field, I figured I’d be stuck in the back with no hopes of moving up (I really need to work on my pack positioning skills). Fortunately, I was able to line up at the front of the race, and once we got rolling, I managed to stay in the front 15 for the first lap, covering some attacks and blocking for a few of ours that got a bit up the road. I was feeling generally good, even though it was raining, and started to feel comfortable at the front again. Of course, I got shuffled to the back for laps 2 thru 4, and had great deal of trouble moving up. I started to feel nervous racing again (lots of brake-fistfuls on some of the mini-descents), and was just hoping to make it through the race without touching wheels. Brian got shuffled to the back when he missed a turn (thanks corner marshals!), and started ranting excitedly about how we need to be at the front. Weirdly, this is what I needed to hear to make moving up through the field sound like something I actually wanted to do. I made it about 1/2 way up, when I got stuck again. Fortunately, Randy launched an attack and the field stretched out just enough for me to move all the way to the front.

Since there were only about 6 miles left to go, and Randy’s attack had come back, I went to the front to try to string it out for AJ in the finale. I pulled hard by myself on the front of the field for about 2 miles, and then we went around a left hand turn up a small riser (53x23), and I ended up pulling away from the field a bit. A Starbucks guy came with me, and I decided to just keep pulling for a bit to make some other teams chase. We only had about 5-10 seconds, then all of a sudden the elastic snapped, and we had about 400 yards. We were sharing pulls evenly, and I was doing my best not to get over-excited, since the finish suited me precisely (200m uphill drag). With 1K to go, I knew Recycled had it locked, and sure enough, on the finishing straight, I was able to knock it out by a comfortable margin. I was really thrilled to be in a break this way, in such a big race - Wes (from Starbucks) and I took pretty even pulls, and really cooperated all the way to the line. It was great to have such positive racing, and I think Wes and I were both thrilled that something stayed away.

It was great for the team to get our first USCF win in the Cat 3 field this year in an important race. It was great for my form to finally start coming around (along with my confidence racing/positioning, etc). I’ve felt reasonably strong all year, but I haven’t been able to put myself near the front of races where it would really make a difference. It worked out this time though, and all the Recycled guys really controlled the race for the first 5 laps. It’s great to ride with a fantastic team - we had lots of ways to win, and it felt like we were in the hunt all day.

Green Valley TT

2009-04-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well, this was at least a chance to redeem myself after Carnation. Since I just had a new baby, I’ll make this one short - I was demoralized by the course, and just didn’t feel super strong. My goal power was around 350W, and I only hit 335W. However, it’s better than the 324 last week. I widened my aero bars and was actually able to breathe, I just didn’t feel like I had strong legs.

Ended up 4th, which was pretty disappointing - 1 place out of “prizes”. Hopefully my form will start to come around this year...

Carnation TT #1

2009-03-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

First time trial of the year. Also the first time I’ve ridden my TT bike this year. Probably should’ve adjusted to this a bit more before racing, but oh well.

On the drive over to Carnation, I noticed a number of cars with snow on their windshields. Seemed sort of odd, since it was raining, and about 37 degrees. Once I got over the mountain to Carnation, however, there was enough snow on the ground to make me pretty nervous driving. The race, of course, wasn’t going off with good coat of slush on the ground, so it ended up being delayed by an hour. Unfortunately, this meant I got about an hour and a half of warmup, which is a bit much for me. I was also the second person to go off - which also sucks.

Eventually, the race did start, I got lined up, got a decent start, then noticed my powermeter wasn’t reading anything. Unfortunately, when I switch from training to race wheels, my Edge 705 doesn’t switch powermeters, so pedaled at what I thought was about 80% of LT while I ran through the menus for about 30 seconds to pick up the new powermeter. Once it came on, I noticed that I was at about 380W, which was a lot more than I wanted to be at in the first 3 minutes. Weirdly, I just couldn’t make myself back off the throttle, and ended up going waaaay too hard for the first 5 minutes or so (I’ve consistently had a problem with this, especially running). I did catch my 30 second guy at about 5-10 minutes out, which meant that I had nothing else to chase for the whole race, especially since there wasn’t a 30 second guy behind me (Adam Kaufman, also on Recycled, started a minute back).

After I calmed down, I started to settle in and chew up road (literally - I really hope that was mud and not cowpies). It took me a bit to figure out not to ride in the standing water channels on the road, but once I did, the cold wasn’t bad at all. Ended up catching the only guy in front of me, not getting caught by anyone, but having way worse power than I was hoping for (I was at about 326, and I was hoping for 350 - that’s a really big gap). Not sure what the deal was - I wasn’t breathing hard at all, I just couldn’t push my heart rate up and my legs felt dead.

I did notice that after the race I had some of the worst asthma I’ve ever had (maybe from the cold) - I was a little worried that I wouldn’t make it back to the car, and I was having a really hard time getting a half breath in. It’s possible that didn’t help the TT, and may explain why I wasn’t breathing very hard (couldn’t!) - then again, maybe not.

All in all, pretty disappointing - I was hoping to really burn this one up, and I ended up limping in instead.

Tour de Dung #2

2009-03-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

After yesterday’s race, I was expecting to be pretty tired for Tour de Dung #2. And I was.

Our team had about 9 guys at the race, so my plan was to sit in for the first couple of 6 laps, and then hope my legs came around a bit.

In short, I didn’t really factor into this race at all. Pretty disappointing, mostly because I wasn’t aggressive enough at the end (a break went that I could’ve covered, but didn’t), didn’t position myself well for the sprint, and didn’t really set myself up to put the hammer down on the field. Also a bit disappointing that I seemed to be a bit underpowered today, compared to guys like the FRM rider that pulled us back into the field.

My teammates did a great job today though - covered a lot of breaks, pulled back the main break of the day, and factored in nearly every move (except the winning one, sadly). I think we’ll be pretty strong for the year, we just have to get a bit smarter about strategy and not miss out on the bigger moves (maybe let some smaller, doomed ones go?).

Mason Lake #3

2009-03-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

If nothing else, the weather for this race was a LOT better than last week. Unfortunately, this means a lot more racers (I think about 75?). It was a very fast race for me - people were attacking pretty constantly. In the last few races, when I’ve been in difficulty, people have been falling off the pace. This was not the case this week though - I don’t know if that’s the size of the pack and the fact that the race is relatively easy terrain-wise.

In any event, I did a ton of work on laps 2,3, and 4 of the race - in lots of little attacks (that everyone chased down really, really quickly). One of my teammates got up the road for a little dig, but every break was getting chased down hard. I felt like we were going hard the whole time, which worried me a bit - I was really hoping to be significantly stronger than most of the field and earn an upgrade quickly, but that’s not how I felt today.

Unfortunately, in the finale, I lot my place in the front of the field, and got shuffled to the back. Somehow, a First Rate Mortgage guy got off the front of a really fast race and stayed away solo for the win. There were so many people, and the pace was so slow in the last lap that there was really no way to move up (5 across the road for the whole lap), and I wasn’t a factor in the sprint at all. Definitely disappointing.

Power file here.

Tour de Dung #1

2009-03-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

After Mason Lake #1 looked to be a crash-fest (forecast was rainy, with winds > 25mph - turned out to be sunny and great), I drug myself out to Tour de Dung for my first Pacific NW race.

Turned out, Pacific NW courses tend to not have a lot of corners, which I really, really appreciate. The race was delayed for a bit due to snow, but by the time the race rolled around, the course was only a bit wet, and pretty warm.

I covered attacks for the first lap or so, and at some point in the second lap, a single guy from Lenovo got away. There were only about 35 people in the field, and between 12 and 14 of the riders in the field were from Wines of Washington. So when he got away with about 30-ish miles to go, everyone was sort of looking to them to chase. For some reason, they didn’t, at all. The Lenovo rider continued to gain time over the rest of the race, and the rest of the field just sat in and waited for the sprint.

At the end, Randy and I were at the back of the pack with 200m to go. Randy moved up along the gutter in a hurry, and we took 1st and 2nd in the field sprint (2nd and 3rd overall). In other words, Randy is fantastic moving up in a pack.

All in all, it ended up being an extremely easy race. I never really felt like I worked very hard at any point in the race - I really wish I had seen the Lenovo rider go so I could get in some hard miles out front with him.

Mason Lake #2

2009-03-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

On the drive down to Mason Lake, it was raining quite a bit, constantly. At about 40 degrees, I knew it wasn’t going to be a super-fun race. Plus, racing out here without teammates sort of sucks. Teams in the NW actually employ useful tactics, and being alone against a field composed of about 30% First Rate Mortgage riders is a pretty tough billing.

I was also trying out my new carbon wheels with Zipp brake pads. Unfortunately, I was having a few problems with them that distracted me for the whole race. First, the braking sort of sucked. Maybe this was just the downpour, but when I touched them lightly, they just made a small scraping sound and nothing happened. When I really locked them up, I got sort of halfway decent stopping power, but certainly not what I’m used to. Is this normal? I’d actually really like to know, and I don’t have much experience with it. Also, something was making noise in my wheels, even without pedaling. Pretty annoying. Finally, the powertap rear hub wasn’t working at all, so I got no useful power data, which is really a shame.

In any event, I was feeling pretty timid about my brakes, so I hung out at the back for the first 3 laps. Nothing really went, but I did lose feeling in my hands by the start of the second (of 5 laps). This became a problem around lap 4, when I stopped being able to reliably shift because my hands were so numb. This has never happened to me with 2009 Campag stuff, as the levers are very distinct (unlike Shimano) and easy to shift independently. I was pretty seriously considering pulling out because I was worried about frostbite after I hadn’t been able to feel anything in them for about an hour.

The last lap, I moved from the back to the front for a few miles. I didn’t mean to be at the front, but I wanted to move up, and there wasn’t a good spot to slot in out of the wind, so I soft pedaled on the front for a while. Eventually, some folks came around and I got to sit in again. With about 10 miles to go, I went sort of hard on a hill, and ended up with about a 20-30 second gap. Since there were no First Rate Mortgage guys with me, I sat up and waited. And waited. And waited. I was getting very seriously impatient with the race at this point (seriously bored, wet, numb hands). So I just put my head down and forged on for about 10-15 minutes. I thought there were only 4 miles left, and thought after a couple of miles that I might seriously hold them off. Unfortunately, there were about 7 miles to go, so I got caught with about 4 left. I moved myself back on to the front, and with a kilometer to go, someone got about a 40 meter gap. Since I was still feeling great (I’m pretty surprised about that, actually - a solo attack with a couple miles of recovery should have tired me out), I stupidly jumped on it. The guy I caught peeled off immediately, and I ended up leading out the field from 400-200 meters. At 200 to go, a bunch of people came around, and I ended up sprinting from the saddle for 8th. 400 meters is definitely too long for me in a sprint right now - I hope to improve that a great deal as the season goes on.

All in all, I was a bit mad at myself for being so stupid tactically - I was just so bored, felt pretty good, and just wanted to do anything to liven up the race and take my mind off of my freezing hands. I actually had to have someone else help me get my car unlocked, since I couldn’t work my hands. Warming up my hands after the race was one of the most painful things I’ve been through in the last couple years, oddly enough - 20 minutes of pretty intense pain. I won’t be wearing those gloves again below 50 degrees anytime soon.

Recycled Cycles Training Camp #2

2009-03-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

This was the Whidbey island training camp - also my first time riding a ferry that I remember (pretty fun, actually).

Turns out Whidbey island isn’t flat at all. It ended up being the first fairly long ride day that I actually felt good at the end. I did a lot of bridging up to attacks instead of riding at the front, which was a great workout, but not very good for reinforcing good riding habits. All in all, it was a great day, I was toast at the end, and I got a chance to put in a good dig with Tim Ellis (he’s strong).

Check out the ride here on my TrainingPeaks profile for the elevation, speed, etc. Unfortunately, my PowerTap wheel build was bad, so it was back at Neuvation getting fixed (seems great now).

Longbranch Road Race

2009-03-05T18:19:00.000-08:00