Chapel Crit #2

Busy day today. Dentist appointment in the morning. Work. Stop in at Bike Authority to have my right shifter sent back to Shimano for a warranty repair (the brake lever return spring cracked), finally, head to Akron for the Chapel Crit.

A group of 23 turned out for the "B" race including several Stark Velo guys, the Westlake Regulars, Rick, Gwenn, John, and Jason, who I haven't seen for a while. Robert Sroka also raced. Some "A" field riders, like Chris and Rudy did the "B" race warmup/rolling coach thing again.

My legs felt good, but mentally, I was pretty flat and tired. I thought I would just ease into the race, unfortunately, other riders had other plans. Soon after the start, Jason attacked on the back stretch and opened a pretty good gap. I thought he might be warming up and just taking a flyer, so I didn't react.

Pretty soon his solo move became a group of all the stronger riders in the field, and the gap started to open. If I'd been more attentive, I would have tried to jump across. Instead, I just waited for someone else to close the gap that was still manageable. The cross wind made it difficult, though.

Finally, I woke up a little and tried to pace us back together, but didn't make any dent in the gap.

We had a bunch sprint for the second group. I basically TT'ed to the line and got 8th or 9th.

Not a great performance. I was too passive through the race and had a tendency to take it easy on certain sections of the course which actually caused me to do more work overall. But, at least I managed to finish with a group. It was also a lot of fun. That course is great.

The last couple weeks has been all short jumpy races. I think it's time to get out and do some longer rides down into the valley with some good climbs. No racing this weekend, so I plan to really pile on the miles and see how my body responds.

Chippewa RR May 16, 2010

Thanks to Al Dottore, CRC managed to schedule the Chippewa Creek Road Race for May 16th, 2010.

I'll post updates about our planning from time to time.

Westlake #9

I went for a ride Monday and felt pretty strong, and I felt pretty good today, so I decided to head out to Westlake to race for the sixth time in a week.

When I got there a new rider was parked in my normal spot. Not a big deal, but it's only happened a couple times in the past three seasons, and I'm a little rain-man-like when it comes to my pre-race ritual.

I go through my normal bike prep. Air in the tires, check the wheels. My rear brake feels sticky. Probably a bad cable. As I'm riding through the lot, my computer is all wonky. The reported speed hops all over the place. Oh well, it's probably not gonna be a banner night for me.

We get started. I'm about 6th wheel. On the first lap, Matt Weeks whips up the speed for the whole lap. Jeez! My computer wasn't working, but it felt like 30 mph. Ok, I survived. Next Brian Batke gets on the front and does the same thing. No rest for the wicked. I'm still fine, though. Next, somebody in a Lake Effect jersey attacks. I think it's Matt again. The field picks up the pace. I'm feeling good enough that I contemplate getting on the front to shut the gap down, but I just want to survive.

Some other riders who had been working start pouring through the field like a waterfall. I get caught behind, and slide back. #!@#$%!. Ok, so I'll hang out on the back for a while and try to move forward later.

Somebody opened the throttle again for a whole 30 mph lap. I have to get out of the saddle a couple of times just to close gaps.

Gaak. 40 minutes of that was too much for me and a bunch of other riders who slipped off the back on Ranney Parkway. I wore the HR monitor, so I can see I averaged 180 bpm on that lap. Theoretically, I should be able to handle that, but not today.

The main difference between a Cat IV race, or the Westlake "B" race and the "A" race is that the speed is just unrelenting. In a Cat IV race, someone might get on the front and pour it on for a minute or two, but then there will be a rest before the next big effort.

TOTV Final Day

I didn't know Youngstown is so close to Chardon. I drove out 322 East to Route 11 and South to downtown Youngstown in about 1 hour for the downtown Sunday morning crit.

The Cat V race was running by the time I was dressed and signed in, so there wasn't much chance to check out the course. I rode around a little on the sidewalks and got the general sense of it. Closed course, totally flat, wide turns, minimal wind. The pavement on the back stretch of the course was the only concern. In places, it made the concrete of the Westlake course look smooth.

The Cat V race was over in the blink of an eye, and we lined up immediately. I went to the front from the starting whistle and rode an easy tempo through the first couple of turns.

The race was pretty smooth. A couple of riders attempted to get away, but the field shut them down immediately. I held position really well and just waited for the officials to switch from a timed race to 5 laps to go. I moved up to the front with Chris and we were in an ideal position.

As the laps counted down to zero, Dave Thornton (Team 53x11) took a flyer on the back stretch. The field reeled him in with two laps to go and started to slow way down since nobody wanted to work prior to the sprint. Just as he was getting caught, I began my move up toward the front, and was overtaking riders really quickly.

I decided to really go for it. In the best case, I get away and race to victory. In the worst case, I blow up after a long pull, but string the field out and prevent attacks from other riders, and maybe Chris can get a good result. Also, I hate the rolling trackstand finishes to races. It's dangerous and it drives me crazy.

I blasted along and dug pretty deep to make it to the start finish line at the head of the race. It was probably about 2 mph too hard to try to make it the whole way, or about 30 seconds too long for me to recover. I popped, watched the field go by in a haze, then just rolled around for the last lap.

There was a crash and Chris got caught behind, so we didn't get a good result, but we both stayed off the ground and did a pretty good race as a two man team. The rider who crashed was taken away in an ambulance, but didn't appear to be seriously injured. Hopefully he'll recover quickly.

Chris placed 10th in the GC on the strength of his win in the day 1 TT and strong showing in the RR.

Many thanks to the organizers, volunteers, and officials. This was a fantastic event. I hope it's on again next year. If it is, I'll definitely find a centrally located hotel and spend the weekend in the Valley.

Amazing Stats

Carbon Racing has managed to get me thinking about CO2, so at least in my case, their mission is accomplished.

The geological history of the Earth is mind blowing stuff.

The history of the gallons of gas we nonchalantly burn in our cars is told in this article.

A staggering 98 tons of prehistoric, buried plant material – that's 196,000 pounds – is required to produce each gallon of gasoline we burn in our cars

TOTV Day 1

Stage 1 TT

Up at 4:30AM, on the road by 5:30AM, to Mastropietro's Winery in Berlin Center, Ohio by about 7:30AM.

Great setting. Green, breeze, quiet, nice views of the vineyards, a pristine setting. Mmmmm coffee.

Parking lot staging area. Maruts, Srokas, Scott Gartman doing Mercxx style, too. Maybe a TT bike next season. Jim Behrens with the Jittery Joe's crew. Hey! Chris with the family.

Mmmmm coffee. Quick warm up. Start times flying up. 227! That's me. Line up. Heart Rate already at 119 just standing there. 5,4,3,2,1!

Wow HR holding steady at 182! I'm getting it all out on the lumpy fast course.

Finished 11th out of 20 some riders. Beat several riders on TT bikes. The time they recorded seems 1 minute fast. I probably did 14:30 based on my measurement, but was scored at 13:32.

Chris won! Feeling pretty good during lunch.

Stage 2 Canfield Crit

Ride the warm up. Great! nice closed course right downtown. Oops, they decided to switch the direction of the course. Uh-oh. The long drag into the wind is gonna hurt instead of help bunch up the group on a steeper climb.

Hot at the start. Struggling in the heat this year. Dousing myself with water seems to help.

Holding position pretty well, but riding the brakes a little too much on the downhill section. Need to work on that and passing slower riders instead of braking.

Uh oh. Heat really bothering me. More water over the head. Another couple laps a small group drifts off the back on the long uphill. Ugh. The elastic snaps and I'm going backward. Blew up a little. Maybe the field will slow and I can chase back. 5 laps left. I close the gap a little on the next lap, but I'm done with about 3 to go and just want to finish.

Done.

Chapel Crit #1

Thursday night I drove down to Akron for the Chapel Crit. Thankfully, the drive was a breeze. I had plenty of time to get ready, sign in, and warm up.

The course is around a parking lot, so it's closed to traffic and is pretty safe. There are several turns in only 0.6 miles including 90 degree turns and sweeping high speed turns. There are some ripples in the pavement that threw my wheels around a little bit during the race. Several Westlake regulars turned up to race in the "B" field including John V, Rick B, and Gwenn. Chris Riccardi rode the "B" field as warm-up for his race and coached us during the race.

Last year I really struggled during this race. I would hang in for about 20 minutes, then blow up. My goal for this first outing was to just finish in the field. I was actually pretty nervous.

We had a sane start. I was able to clip in and get into a good position. There were several attacks during the first few laps. Rick and John were aggressive as were a couple Stark Velo guys.

That lasted for a while, but nobody seemed to have the power to stay away for long. I was under a little pressure, but never felt like I was going to slip off the back. In spite of that, I wasn't really holding position in the field.

There was a lot of complaining and jaw boning during the race. I think the physical and mental stress of racing brings out the bitchiness of people.

Chris gave quite a few good pointers during the race. If I jumped out of the corner onto the long straight, I could carry my speed and pass lots of guys. Pretty obvious, no doubt, but having someone point it out during the race made it really clear. I followed his advice and moved up.

By the last 10 laps, I had a good feel for the course and was riding efficiently. I started to think about the sprint. I'd move up on the last lap and start winding it up through the last turn.

The bell rang, we went around the course and I started moving up, the two lead riders overcooked one of the harder turns, and instead of just riding off the pavement onto the nice grass with hard packed dirt, they decided to asphalt surf. Frames clattered, tires blew, wheels rattled.

Everyone paused for a second, then everyone jumped. I was in good position. But got pretty passive. I misjudged the sprint. Since the finish is on a slight downhill, it starts from way out. I waited too long, then realized my mistake but it was too late. I finished mid pack. John V. won and Rick B took third even after being aggressive through the whole race.

I'm looking forward to next Thursday. I think I can get a better result.