My Midwestern Flanders

Velocity A23 / Powertap SL+ wheelset for sale

2012-02-10T22:07:00.003-06:00

Hi All, I'm selling my Powertap wheel set. The Powertap is the SL+ model, 24 hole, and it's laced to a Velocity A23 rim. Along with this you get the matching front wheel, which is also an A23, and laced to a 20 hole C-4 hub. Selling this wheel set for $950

Full Speed Ahead

2012-02-08T18:38:00.002-06:00

Been Busy.... Been really busy. SC just commented on burning candles at both ends, must be going around for everyone. I haven't blogged much, here at least, but I've been posting and tweaking our team blog.

Twenty eleven is done... in the books, and for Colavita is was a good year. We finished off the CX season with two riders wining Kansas Best CX Rider awards. We also landed the Kansas Best CX Team award, awesome!

New for twenty twelve, I'm the commander in chief of this cycling war machine. Dan Oldehoeft has stepped down to focus more on Racing and Promoting (Manions, Colavita Cup), and I'll do my best to carry TCPC forward.

Training for 2012 has been ahead of schedule, we've got mother nature to thank for that, I suspect these early season races will be a touch faster. First race on the Calendar for me is Froze Toes, followed by The Perry Dam Series. I'm hoping to jump into the Spring fling Crit series too, but I'll likely miss the first couple races in preference for Road and Circuit racing.

Capitol Cup

2011-12-12T00:12:00.001-06:00

This weekend Topeka hosted two CX races at the Hummer Sports Park. I had never raced at this venue, but I remember Britton telling me, 1 year ago, that its' topology and course layout had my name on them. He was right, there are very few courses that would suit my abilities better (only Parkland's English landing park comes to mind).

Chuong was kind enough to allow me a front row position, thanks Chuong. The whistle blew and he squirted out of a very tiny gutter. Wow! no wonder he gave me the front row, dude was so crafty he didn't need it. The pole position was a little more contested than normal, but sticking to my mid season goal of going out strong, I nabbed the hole shot. At the first barrier I dismounted, and for some reason my cranks rotated backwards and the chain dropped. I kept my cool, fixed the chain and jumped back in... already 10 or so riders had passed, and I grabbed onto Adam Keck's wheel. I think seeing that Adam was immediately in front of me kept me calm about the situation, because I knew he'd be a strong contender for the overall win.

After the 2nd set of barriers, I kept very relaxed and calm on the run-up (normally I go ape $#^* in any running section because I'm not a proficient runner). Shortly after remounting Chuong's wheel washes out, and a gap forms, I jumped around and closed it down (mostly). That's one of my achilles heels, sometimes I think I've closed things down, but in reality I've still left a little too much space.

We got around to the paved sections, and I did manage to get things closed down, but it didn't take long for them to stretch out again. This was to be the day's rhythm. I'd loose some time on all parts of the course except the paved roads, and then hammer back any lost time. I did this all day long, but each lap left a small amount of space unclosed, and thus each lap I was getting distanced further and further from the leaders.

Despite not making the podium (which I never believed was a possibility), or the top 5 (which I've been hunting all season). I'm more pleased with the way I raced this event, then probably any other race I've done all year (road included). This race was very hard for me (effort wise), many times I was tempted to ease up, but I fought hard for my 6th place. I was also very level headed during the race, there were a number of minor incidents, and each time I remained very calm, and actually thought strategically about where I'd best make up any lost time. I'm still miles away from the fluidity and calmness seen in the likes of Coe, Britton, or Tilford, but it was a step in the right direction.

I won't be around during the remaining CX races, so this race ends my season. I'm sorry to see it end, but I had so much fun, onward and upward.

*Sorry no pictures. If I find any, I'll update the post.

Boss Cross 4 / MO State Champs

2011-12-05T22:46:00.001-06:00

SC once told me, "Everything after Jingle Cross is just bonus". I don't ever race Jingle Cross, because I have other things going on, but I get his point. Realistically, I think I peaked somewhere around Joules cross (or just after), and even though Sunflower HPT was my primary goal, I had already lost too much fitness to be exceptional.

With all the cross clinics and full weekend races, it's easy to get in plenty of threshold rides, but on the flip side, I get almost zero endurance miles. What I should have been doing (all season long) is including at least one 3hr ride each week, but as you can see from my training log I'm hardly getting any time in the saddle. Consequently, I have almost no endurance. I can hammer for a lap or two, and then I start slipping placings, because I just don't have the fitness to maintain it. The back seizes up, legs get heavy... so I settle into cruise control.

For all the excuses I'm making here, I still feel like I'm racing better than I did in '09, and while I moan about my lack of training, it could be worse. Britton probably hasn't done a 3hr ride since the first week of August, and somehow he's still turning out good races.

So how'd I do this weekend? Not great, but I had fun. KC rarely sees more than 2 muddy races per year, and we're normally racing in a dust bowl for half the season, and a frozen tundra for the other. Saturday's was good CX racing weather, raining, wet, muddy, sloppy. It was the kind of mud which made bike handling a little difficult, but didn't clog up the derailleurs, brakes...etc. The field size was small, disgustingly small (where the hell was everyone), if you missed saturday, you might well have missed the best race of the year. At the whistle I took off and established a the hole shot, and soon after I had stretched out a nice solid gap 50-75 yards. I held the lead for nearly a lap before SC and Bob C. came by me. I don't think I went too hard at the start, I just couldn't sustain my effort, and couldn't follow Adam. I slipped several more positions and finished 6th of 9

Sunday... UGH! I lined up knowing I was still pretty cooked from the day before, but that's really an understatement. I didn't recover at all over night. I was lined up last row. The whistle blew and I worked hard to jump through the pack. No sooner did I make the top 10, when I started to loose power. Not to mention I was burning up. I over dressed for this race, and so after one lap I was peeling layers off. I started to feel a little better after I took off my fleece jersey, but by this time the damage was done; I was in roughly 15th place. The Mud on Sunday was nasty, heavy, crazy thick paste. At one point I would have sworn my bike weight 45 lbs, I could barely pick it up over the barriers. After 3 laps I was hurting so bad, worse than any race I've ever done. While I've DNF'd many times in Road racing, I've never DNF'd a cross race, and I made a pact with myself to just finish, don't worry about the other racers, just finish. I crossed the line in 16th of 22 (though only 17 finished the race).

According to my Garmin, I stopped for a total of 5mins during this race to clean my bike (roughly 1min per lap). Next week I'll be racing in Topeka, it's another two day weekend, but I'll likely only pick one day.

Side note about the State Champ scheduling, not sure if it was just this year, or if it's been this way in years past, but you're never going to get full fields the day before a championship race. Both the MO and KS Championship races are on a Sunday, with a race the day before. If the scheduling was the flipped, having the Champs race on Saturday, you might get more people showing up Sunday to race for fun... but as it is, few people are going to burn themselves out the day before a championship. (just my two cents).

Calling all cyclists

2011-11-14T12:00:00.000-06:00

All year, I've had a suspicion that our fields, and overall attendance, have been shrinking. One can look at the total attendance for one race, or one category, and use it to make broad assumptions, but I decided to dig a little bit deeper, and see where we're hurting the most.

Using Crossresults.com, I tried to find a handful of races which have been long running staples in Kansas City. Initially, my goal was to mine data for 10 years, but I soon realized that crossresults.com doesn't go back that far. Alas, I had to settle for 4 years of data. Next, I needed to find races which have been running for 4 years, and I came up with the following;

BossCross 1
BossCross 2
BossCross 3
GrandPrix HPT
Boulevard Cup

Yes, I know, it's a small sample, but I couldn't find any more (pre-winter) races which had results for all four years. Finally, I had to decide upon which categories I was going to research. I'm a little disappointed here, as I probably should have just tracked all the categories, year over year, but instead I opted for a smaller sample, tracking only the core (read larger) categories. My hand was slightly forced here because we don't always run the same categories each year, sometimes they're omitted, sometimes they're grouped with others. I choose the following;

Men Open
Men 3's (which could also be 3/4)
Men 4's
Women Open
Women 4's (which could also be 3/4)
Men's Masters group 1 (this could be 40+ or 35+)
Men's Maters group 2 (this could be 45+ or 50+)

This first chart below, shows the number of racers per category, who've raced each year (note, this is just the 5 races selected above). With exception for Mens 3's, and Womens Open, we've taken a dip in every category this year, with Mens 4's being the largest. One might blame this on the rash of upgrades in the lower categories, but the math shows we've lost 69 CAT 4's, and gained 45 CAT 3's. I haven't gone to the trouble of determining how much of this is due to racers not showing up, and how much is due to racers not doubling up. Not wanting to make this choir my job, I'm going to just assume that the number of racers doubling up has remained relatively constant year over year.

Below is simply the total racers year over year. It's easy to see we've taken a small hit this year, about 10% fewer riders. Some of this might be due to the economic conditions (racing isn't cheep) however I'm worried this one year dip might turn into a multi-year trend.

With the largest drop in attendance being the CAT 4, it makes me think we're simply not doing our jobs of bringing in new riders to the sport. Cycling is many things, it's a sport, a hobby, and a fitness activity. I've always enjoyed riding my bicycles, but it wasn't until I started racing that I truly fell in love with cycling. For those of us who race, I need not explain myself here, I'm sure you feel the same way. I call upon everyone who happens to read this blog, think about why you cycle, why you race, and how you got started in racing. Share those stories with your friends. You might just encourage someone to give this sport a try, all the while finding another commonality between you and your friends.

Grand Prix HPT

2011-11-13T00:07:00.001-06:00

Breakfast = Bob's Redmill pancakes, Parisi Coffee
Lunch = D'Bronx Turkey Club, 2 Oatmeal cookies
Pre-race = 1/2 Peanut butter & Honey sandwich

So yeah... none of those guys are me, but that's ok. David (teammate on the right), took 3rd. My points for the series were enough to warrant me a front row call up (though I was already lined up on the front). I thought quite a bit about today's race, and decided I needed to take the hole shot. I'm not stupid, I know I'm not the fastest guy in the 3's, not even close, but I'm not going to win races, by riding another guys pace.

In the 3's it's not a terribly difficult task to win a hole shot, most guys would prefer to go in top 5, and let someone else set the tempo. HPT is a really fast race, and wanted to try and catch a few guys off guard. Whistle blew, I got clipped in quickly and jumped on it. Pretty much went out 100% for the first quarter of the race I held the lead until we came off the track and started over the first steps. At this point David passed, and I tried to hold his wheel. He was slipping away, but I kept the hammer down. Next James Summers popped by, I kept these guys close for another lap, but eventually they started to pull away, and I had slipped a couple more positions (riding 6th).

I think it was lap 3 that Britton passed me (he was racing single speed). There are a lot of demoralizing things that can happen in the course of a race, but few hit as hard as getting blown away by a guy riding a single geared bike. I should thank him though... because I fought hard to keep him close. I really didn't want to get beat by a single "single speeder" but I think the SS podium all finished ahead of me. Britton wasn't even going all out, I could see him pacing himself just hard enough to keep a 100 yard or so gap on the next single speeder... I think he might have been trying to carrot me along too.

I finished up in 6th, same place I was after 1.5 laps, so while I didn't win, my hard start seemed to put a few guys into the red, pretty much vacated the chase behind. It wasn't until the last half lap that I noticed Rick chasing hard. I picked up the pace again, and rode the finish out hard enough to keep him at bay.

Lessons Learnt

I need to work a bit more on holding my competitions wheel when I get passed. It's not really a problem in road, but I've always had a problem with this in CX.
I need to be taking the race to my competition more often, so I'll be looking for the hole shot from now on.

Post race treat = Dunkin Donuts coffee, and a Pumpkin donut.

Boulevard Cup

2011-11-06T22:34:00.000-06:00

Got beat today, no excuses, no regrets, just flat got beat.

I lined up 3rd row center, I busted through a gap and shot up the outside, made it to the top 8-10 for the hole shot. I worked my way up to 4th or 5th at one point, but felt pretty winded so I sat in and waited for my next move. Unfortunately I just couldn't follow the pace of leaders, and had to let them go after a lap. Throughout the race I fought back and forth with a handful of guys, and finished up 11th.

I really enjoyed having the extra competition this weekend, I'm not sure why we can't field 40+ riders every week in the 3/4's. HPT is next.

Lessons learnt this weekend.

Racing against 40+ riders is more fun than 20+
Remaining calm through adversity will lead to fewer mistakes
Don't be short sighted, you need to be thinking several turns ahead of where you are, know when to burn a match, and when to save it.

Stomach full of Anger

2011-11-05T19:12:00.000-05:00

When I look over today's results I can't help but think I could have done better. I've got a stomach full of anger (well not really), and tomorrow I vow to take my revenge. I beat myself today, and tomorrow I'm going to do it again, but this time, I'll come out on top... did you follow that one?

We had a big field today, (well bigger...) at 45 riders in the 3/4 race. The single speeders we're grouped in with us too. At the start they sent the single speeders, and then the 3/4's normally this wouldn't be a bad setup, but we pretty much raced into a hill for the first 3 mins of the race, so we caught the SS riders right at the first key point in the race, which created massive traffic. In hindsight, they should have flipped the start order (or allowed a full min gap).

I destroyed myself on the first hill assent, only to be caught in traffic and loose every advantage I gained on the hill. This was the first of many mistakes I made today. I washed out twice on the off-camber 180 turns, and got tied up in the tape a 3rd time. All of these mishaps were preventable. The biggest problem I've had this season, is my excitement. I get too eager to race with raw wattage, and I forget this is a finesse sport. If you watch the fastest guys on course, yes... they're generating lots of watts, but those watts aren't wasted, they're conserving energy in every turn or obstacle by picking good lines and maintaining momentum. Not me... I turn on the faucet and half goes right down the drain.

My goal tomorrow (besides a top 5 finish) is to race hard, but race smart.

Dreaming of a Double header

2011-11-03T22:41:00.001-05:00

Can't wait for the weekend....

It's the biggest CX weekend of the year in KC (360 cup, and Boulevard cup)
We've just had our first rain since August.
I've had the entire week off from work so I've slept a full nights rest every night.
Boulevard pale ale, Boulevard Wheat, Boulevard Pilsner (repeat cycle)

I'm actually not expecting to do exceptionally well this weekend, but I'm looking forward to the races. I've managed to miss the 360/boulevard weekend two years in a row, but not this time (fingers crossed, knock wood). Having the week off from work, I actually trained a bit more than usual, so I'm not going to be as rested as previous weeks, but thats ok. My goal was to ride lots this week. Race my ass off this weekend, and get myself ready for HPT the following week. I'll be competitive this weekend, but my real goal is HPT. Of all the races on the calendar, that's the one I'd like to win. I've kept a 46 tooth ring on my bike all year for the sole purpose of killing it around that track.

Boss Cross 3

2011-10-31T12:36:00.001-05:00

Photo courtesy Mark Breeding

I had a pretty good halloween weekend. My sister was in town visiting, we ate lots of good food, and Sunday she came out to Bosscross 3 to watch me and the team race. It was a pretty good day, save for the two injuries my teammates suffered. Brett has a broken bone and some possible tissue damage, and Andrew required 3 stitches in the chin. I really hope both of these guys heel up quickly.

I raced Category3, and lined up DFL, for those unclear on this term... it's "Dead F*@%ing Last" I was last row outside position. Normally I'm pretty good at swimming through the pack, but I guess my fish-like skills weren't with me, nevertheless I kept the pedals going around, and slowly picked my way through the field. I think at one point I was sitting about 7th or 8th, but I couldn't out fox or drop the Cowtown duo.

John was having a splendid day, and Rick seemed like he was reasonably strong too. When John first caught me, I worked with him for a bit, and at one point put in a small dig to test his legs, and he closed the gap quickly. The two of us then caught Rick, and I left the two cowtown boys pull me around. I was planning to sit on, until 2 to go, and then launch everything I had, but I didn't get that opportunity. about 3 or 4 to go we came upon the run up. I heard Rick and John announce to the lap traffic ahead they were riding the hill (basically giving warning to move aside). For some reason this psyched me out and caused me to switch my tactics slightly. instead of running the hill, and riding down the other side, I too road it, hopped the log, but then crashed on the 180 switchback. The two skilled cowtowner's dropped the hammer and off they went. I dumped everything I had into the last couple laps, but I just couldn't catch them. Good riding by both of them, they road that tricky run-up/log hop section every time, and make it look so easy. (the 180 on gravel was the hardest part). I finished up in 10th place.

Lessons learnt... I'll be starting in the front row two rows from now on. I don't care if I miss my warm-up, I'm not starting worse than second row for the rest of this year. CX is all about the start, and I know I can finish top 5 with a good start.

Cross-out Cancer & Joules Cross

2011-10-16T19:52:00.000-05:00

The fall season in KC doesn't get much better than we've had it lately, you certainly can't complain about the temperatures and ever present sunshine. The only thing that would make it better is a little rain. I don't know about you, but I'm a little tired of racing cross on two inches of powered dirt.

LAST WEEK (Cross out Cancer)

Last weekend I lined up for Cross out cancer, I started in the last row (or maybe next to last row), but thanks to a long straight starting line, I was able to move up to the top ten before the first turn. I had a mixed day at cross-out. On one hand I had decent legs, and was making quick work of the barriers, on the other my turning skills went to $@&!. So the area's where I normally put time into guys... they were actually gaining on me. I finished in 7th

THIS WEEK (Joules cross)

I didn't race Saturday, and while I thought this would keep me pretty fresh for Sunday, my plan backfired slightly because I ended up riding about 2.5 hours Saturday between my morning road ride, and then an impromptu afternoon mountain ride at Swope park trails.

Still, I thought, It can't be as bad running a relay leg in the KC Marathon, (like SC). I have some very talented riders on my team, and it may seem odd to outsiders, but we sometimes have more of a rivalry between our own teammates than with other guys in the race. It's not to the point that we work against one another, or put a teammate into the tape, but trash talking is fair game... and I talk me some trash, week after week, on SC. Normally he gets the better of me, but not today! Thanks to his Saturday participation in the marathon, along with a sticky rider on his wheel, I was able to hold him at bay and finish up in 6th place.

SC, thanks for always being a happy go lucky dude, a good teammate, and providing me with a goal... Oh, and I hope you liked the taste of dirt off my rear wheel, because I'll be serving you another portion at Boss Cross 3.

Boss Cross Une / Deux

2011-10-08T12:07:00.000-05:00

It's been a week since boss cross, and that week was largely spent recovering. My performance the first day was decent 8th of 26th, but it came at a price, as the second day I completely blew up. Its starting to be a bit of a pattern for me too. The weekend prior, Manions, I had a decent day-one, and then didn't have the gas to go as hard on day-two. The implosion at boss cross was far more severe. Probably because the course was 2x harder than Manions.

The BC Crew, always put on a nice race series, and their courses are some of my favorites, this year is no exception. Last weekends course, Barry-Platte park, was really really hard, and while it was a lot flatter than Manion's, there really isn't a recovery section, you've got to be full on the gas 100% of the time. At Manions, even though I'm not a climber, I was able to do well in this race because you're recovering for half the race (down hill sections).

Looking at the results, it seems I'm probably not the only person who imploded. I should have been dead last, because I pretty much walked through the sand, stopped three times to fix a dropped chain, and I rode at a tempo heart-rate for all but my first 4 laps. I think the combination of having a demanding course, 80 degree sun, 60 minute race duration, and being the 2nd full weekend of cross racing... just was too much for me at this point in the season. I left that race physically shattered.

Since Boss Cross, I've only been on my bike twice, once for a 40 min recovery ride, and again for 30 min Mock race (which I didn't actually complete the full 30 mins). I'm not sure this plan of resting was the best. I probably should have rode a bit more (in an easy gear). Tomorrow will be my test, either I'll suffer again, or be back in the top 10.

Pace lines in the wind

2011-09-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

Hi All. It's a little odd to talk about pace lines at a time of year when we've switched over to Cyclocross, however I came across a nice article on cycling tips that I wanted to share with everyone (complete with animations and video).

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2011/09/know-the-wind/

Once you're done learning how to pace line, you can switch gears back to cross, and watch "Behind the barriers"

"Behind The Barriers" Season II Episode 1 from Behind The Barriers on Vimeo.

Manion's CX - Day 2

2011-09-25T20:30:00.001-05:00

Wow! Over 1000ft of climbing in a cross race. Well, to be fair, that was two races (1hr 45min). Still, that is a lot of climbing for cyclocross, and I'm pleased with my performance (considering I'm not a climber).

I doubled up today, 3/4s then the Open.

3/4's
My start position was in the 3rd row (center), I told Casey Buta he better make a hole, or I was running him over (joking of course). He made that hole, and I jumped through, though I was still about 8th or so into the first turn. I was ok with this, because straight away I noticed my legs just didn't have any punch, they were tired. I passed a few guys, in this race, and lost a few spaces, and by the end I crossed the line in 11th. I remember after the first lap I was already talking to myself, "No way in hell I'm racing the Open after this", I said this to myself several times throughout the race.

Open
Maybe because I promised BK I would ride the open, maybe because I wanted to challenge myself, or maybe because I just wasn't thinking clearly... I lined up for the Open. It wasn't really a race (for me). I pretty much knew I wasn't going to pass a single person, and had little hope I was actually going to finish. The start wasn't all that fast (probably because I was only attempting to grab the last couple wheels). I kept reasonably close for the first lap, but really started to loose time after that. On lap two Andrew's front wheel washed out, and I partially ran over him. I jumped around and got going again, but he eventually caught me. On lap 3 he put in a big dig, passed me, but his third race of the day was taking its toll, and that explosion of power turned into an implosion. From here on out it was just me trying to limit the number of guys lapping me. There were three guys who finished ahead of me, but didn't lap me.

Out of 15 starters, I finished 12th, but to put this into perspective. Two guys didn't finish (they were 1st and 2nd place in the 3/4 race). The only other person I finished in front of, had raced 3 times in one day. So basically, I didn't really beat anyone who wasn't already destroyed by other races.

Manion's CX - Saturday

2011-09-24T23:02:00.003-05:00

I'm tired, you're tired, and their's another day of racing tomorrow. Let's keep this update short...

I raced the 3/4's today, 28 starters in the field.

LAP 1

I had a good start, my goal was to try and stay top 5 into the hole, and I was 2nd. I held Casey Buta's wheel as long as I could, but Manion's is way to hilly for that to last. I held 2nd for about 1/2 a lap, then let one guy past. I smacked my knee on my pedal while crossing Mr. Stitches (The ditch).

LAP 2

Barely remember this one, I think 1 or 2 more slipped past, so I'm in 4th or 5th now. Smacked my knee with my pedal on the Mr. Stitches again.

LAP 3

This was the hardest lap, my back was killing me (from the climbing), and I let two more past (my team mates). I fought back for a short while, but eventually andrew over took me again. The course had a natural barrier (large ditch), I, partially, fell on this lap, and smashed the bike to the ground (wheels down), this knocked the chain off, I still mounted and tried to drive it on, didn't work. I stopped fixed it, and let the last guy past me (now I'm in 8th)

LAP 4

A few guys fought to chase me down, by this time my back muscles are on fire, and I've got very little in the legs. I focused on smooth lines throughout the turns, and tried to use gravity to my advantage.

One last time I smacked my knee with my pedal, Son of a bitch!

Down a beer and ride hard

2011-09-21T22:56:00.000-05:00

It's been 2 months since rode a Lactate Threshold test (LTHR, or CP30 test). Cross practice was canceled tonight, so I figured why not today. There are probably three good reasons why I shouldn't have done this ride tonight, (1) I didn't get enough sleep last night, (2) I'm not rested, because I actually road 30 mins of threshold cross racing on Tuesday night, and finally (3) I had a beer about an hour before I decided go out and ride hard (must be cross season). Given all those excuses, I actually don't think the numbers would have changed any.

Tonight I rode 30 mins all out, but blinded myself from seeing the power and heart rate numbers on the computer. After the first 10 mins I hit my lap button, and then pressed it once again after another 20 mins. I can tell from the data I came out a little too hot, I think I was over reaching (trying to go too hard). I averaged 312 watts in that first 10 mins. In the second 20 mins I settled into a more sustainable pace, averaging 283 watts.

There are a half dozen or so methods one can use for calulating your functional threshold power (FTP) since I kind of botched the first 10 mins, I'll use Andrew Coggan's Method of substracting 5% from your 20 min effort.

283 watts * 0.05 = 14.15 watts

283 watts - 14.15 watts = 269 watts

So overal, my estimated FTP is up about 6.7 % from mid August. Unfortunatly I noticed something else in this data. My power to heart rate ratio had about -6.6% drift which means I need to spend some time on endurance. A well trained athlete shouldn't have more than -5% drift. My training the past two weeks has been pretty horrible, so it's understandable that I've lost a little endurance. There's no time for me to correct this deficiency before the weekend races, but hopefully I'll get back to normal training over the next few weeks.

See you all at Manion's this weekend.

Ready or Not...

2011-09-17T16:32:00.000-05:00

Kansas City's first cyclocross race, Manion's, is one week away. Seriously... one week away. Oh how time flies. Part of me (the emotional side) is super excited, but the other half (the rational side) is suddenly feeling under prepared. Cyclocross is quite possibly the most fun you can have racing a bicycle, period. The paradoxical thing about that last statement though, is its also one of the most physically challenging hours you'll spend pedaling a bike. Depending on your category, you will be riding flat out, full gas, from anywhere between 30 minutes and 1 hour. In one hour the air will sear your lungs, your legs will burn like your swimming in a bath of acid, your saliva will taste like tinfoil; and in spite of all this pain, you'll ride over the finish line with the biggest smile on your face, and look to double up on another race the same day.

This will be my third year of CX (though technically I was out my 2nd year with an injury). I remember my first year of racing, we must have trained for a month or more; running mini clinics and informal show -n- go races, before actually rolling up to our first 'real' CX race. What's more, we all had moderate racing form from all the Tuesday Night Criterium races we attended throughout the month of August. We were "race ready".

This year, things are different. During the spring and summer I focused more on road races, than criteriums (so I don't have an abundance of short hard races under my belt), not to mention the city of Lenexa (a KC suburb) canceled our right to race on Tuesday nights. As for cyclocross specific training, I think I've ridden on grass 4 times this year, and while the bike is ready (Focus Mares pictured above), I've got some question marks on my racing form. The great thing about cross though... the really great thing... is that all this preparedness, doesn't matter. While we all hope to race well, and we all wish to be fast, the bottom line... we just want to have fun.

I'm really hoping to see everyone out suffering with a smile next week. So grab your cross bike, your mountain bike, any bike you can put a slightly wider tire on, and come out to Manion's Auction house next Saturday and Sunday. (4411 North 67th Street, Kansas City, KS 66104). If you've never raced a bicycle, or cyclocross and want to get started post a comment here, and we'll get you into some practice sessions and races.

Need help preparing your bike for cyclocross? See Britton at Volker Bicycles.

Practices going on this week

Tuesday Night Universes - Roanoke Park
Wednesday Night CX Practice - Roanoke Park (best to message me or call Volker to see if this is a go)
Wednesday Night Boulevard Cyclocross Clinic
Thursday Night Joules Cross Clinic
Thursday Night CX Practice - Roanoke Park (not always a go, best to message me or call Volker bicycles)

Sneak Peak

So the Manion's course route is still not 100% decided. Our cross-course mastermind DanO is still working out the final plan, but this is kinda, sorta, maybe, what you'll see next week. It should be a lot of fun.

Strava not sympathizing with my pain

2011-09-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

Pretty much anyone who knows me, has heard me sing praises of strava.com. To put it lightly, I'm a fan. One thing this site does pretty well, is balance ease of use while showing you technical training data. You don't need a PhD in sports science to understand at a basic level how well your going. Recently Strava enhanced their site to add training features for power and heart rate meters. One such feature is their "suffer score". This is pretty simple, it's just, how bad you hurt during your ride. More than this though... it's acknowledgement, and sympathy. You finish your ride, shelled, plug in your Garmin, upload the data, in those few moments of processing, your hoping the site will agree with you and say, "yes, you kicked your own ass today, good job!"

Today I raced in the Benton Park Criterium (Gateway cup - day 4), it's the first crit I've raced in 2 full months. I'm not exactly in "crit" form right now, so the whole race I was pretty much on the rivet. Curiously, it is also the first time I've been able to upload race data to strava since the addition of these new features. So with bated breath I upload the data, thinking this would be the first time I recorded an "Epic" level.

No Love! Strava gave me no love, and no sympathy. In fact, quite the opposite, they laughed in my face. Granted, our Cat 4 race was only 29 mins long (a rather short duration), the intensity, I would think, should make up for this duration. As you can see from the HR Zone data, I spent 88% of the race at my threshold, 10% Anaerobic... how by god, is this a "leisurely" ride. Thanks for the sympathy Strava... I think I'll go cry myself to sleep tonight.

Manion's - 24 & 25 September

2011-08-25T11:15:00.001-05:00

Manion's CX race flyer is now posted.

Mondays are for climbing

2011-08-22T20:54:00.007-05:00

It was a super awesome day today, sunshine, mid 70s, moderate amount of wind, and lots of good riding. I climbed Rockton, Coal hill, Bailey settlement, Starr hill, Greenville pike, past bilgers rocks, and over grandview road. For a finale, I started up what I like to call the Lumber city leg breaker, but after 100 yds I turned around. I just wasn't ready for this one, so I cruised on home.

Spares

2011-08-21T22:43:00.004-05:00

I'm visiting family, and I've brought my bike with me to do a little riding around Pennsylvania. Well, to be exact, I've brought two bikes. The second being my cross bike, which I brought primarily as a spare - I didn't want to miss a day of riding due to a mechanical.

While I have the capacity to be a rather efficient packer, that skill seems to be lost on this trip, as a second bike isn't the only insurance I brought along. I also have a spare kits (3), spare shoes, spare tubes (4), spare sunglasses, spare wind breakers, spare chamois cream, and even spare pumps (if you count a floor pump and mini pump). It's as if I'm prepared for a three week grand tour.

I went out for a ride today, but with a forecast of rain, and legs which are cramped up from 1000mi of driving, I wasn't expecting much. After 10mi or so my legs loosen up enough that I starting thinking of extending my route, but just then it started to rain -scratch that pour. I forgot how chilly it can been when it rains here. I started my ride in 80+ degree temps, but this rain started to feel like icicles. It's at this moment I realized the one thing I forgot, the one thing I'd have killed for just then. Embrocation! Damn it was cold, I raced home and jumped straight into the shower.

Embrocation, Getcha some!

Power records

2011-08-10T21:30:00.003-05:00

I've had my power meter for roughly a month now, and the numbers are starting to take shape. I still haven't tried racing with it yet, and my knee still doesn't have ample strength to do a proper 30 second sprint, that being said here's where I stand today.

Kansas State Championship Road race

2011-08-07T23:00:00.013-05:00

Andrew and I made a decision late Saturday to Race the Kansas State Champs Road Race, in Arma, KS. We tried to rally a few others to come along, but heard remarks like, "I'm allergic to sunrises".

I don't know that I have an allergic reaction to the morning, but the morning and I... we're not friends, and we're not on speaking terms. In spite of this, Andrew and I departed at 6AM, and arrived in Arma around Eight. I had a short debate with myself over which wheelset I'd run. This was my first race since getting my power meter, and I thought hard about using it, but then decided against it because my tubulars are lighter and faster.

The race takes off at one of those awkward crawls, where you're going so slow it's hard to hold a straight line. Team Tailwind trys to take control of the front but the race still doesn't get going until in-a-tub, myself, and velotek come to the front and join him. We share pulls (if you can call them that, I probably wasn't turning 150 w). Mile by mile the race slowly gets quicker and quicker and once we turn onto Military ave, we finally reach what I'd call race tempo speed.

At the 9th mile, I hear a hissing sound, and my rear tire went flat, Damn it! I instantly began regretting that 5am wake up call, thinking my race was now over. I put my hand up, and pull to the side, looking back though the wheel vehicle was pulled over picking up water bottles. Two minutes later I get my wheel, but I'm loosing time, and I'm getting more and more nervous, which makes the install take forever, and causes me to rip my brake pad out. Also, because I was stupid enough to install the retaining screws, I can't reinstall the pad.

Finally, after what seems like 4 minutes, I get back on my bike. The wheel guy asks, "are we allowed to pace you back?". Truth... I didn't know, but I knew my race was over if he didn't, so I told him yes, and figured I'd alert the officials after the race and let them decide.

We're FLYING, maintaining speeds between 35-40, his mini van is the perfect pace vehicle, but after a mile or two it's starting to hurt. Pacing off a van can help you go fast, but wind or not, riding near 40 is really hard. It's made a little worse by the fact that we're starting to pass other race groups, (1/2's, then 3's). I think he wanted to make the pacing less obvious so he pulls ahead faster, and my speed drops. I ride the next mile or two about 15-50 feet off his bumper, not catching any draft, and now burning massive amounts of energy. We make the loop through town, and start riding back the other way, and still he's riding well off my front. It's like he's feeling guilty about the pacing, and now figures he can encourage me to catch the group on my own by riding just far enough away that I can't draft. This goes on for another mile, and finally I put in one last ditch effort out of the saddle sprinting, and I catch the draft. He paces again until I'm about 300 meters from the group; where I pull around and sprint one last time to the peloton.

I'm back, but I'm sick to my stomach. For the last 5miles I had been chasing at or above threshold, at this point all I can think about is hanging on to wheels, and thoughts of abandoning the race we're settling in now. I hang on through the start finish, and while I don't abandon, I'm still thinking my race is over. The chase effort completely wiped me out.

On the back side of lap two, I start to recover, and finally I feel like I might be able to finish OK. I wouldn't fare well in a sprint finish, so I stayed towards the front hoping I could catch the right break. Groups went off the front, but I never saw the right mix, so I never joined. Staying at the front, though, meant I needed to participate, a little, in pulling things back. We formed a constant rotating pace line and reeled in several breaks.

Just before the turnaround on the last lap, we're caught behind a train (the whole 4s field). About half the field starts peeing along the roadside (kind of funny, reminded me of a nature break in the pros). Then we all refilled bottles from a neighbors hose. After a 5min break we're back on the bike, but now everyone is aware of how badly they're hurting. Me personally, I feeling a lot of pain in my right foot. I have new road shoes, but didn't wear them because they still need breaking in. The foot is screaming, but I can ride on, and tried putting it out of mind.

We make the final turn through town and no one wants to ride, we're going like 15 mph, I knew this wasn't good.... Attacks we're coming. Bam! There's one. I didn't chase, instead left the work to others.

Attack, Attack, and Attack... over and over. Finally a group of three was allowed to get a small gap, but then once it was gone we put on the chase and started a continual rotation again. This sucked... because only about 5 of us would rotate. After about 10 times through, I sat up, and slotted in further back. If no one else was going to work, neither was I. Unfortunately this meant we had more attacks, and I followed them all until we got into the final mile, I slipped back, but was still attached.

We come to the final hill before the finish, and I start to psych myself up for the move. I shift into a bigger gear, move up a few spaces, and start climbing out of the saddle, but it's like I'm in reverse! My position is dropping by the micro second. Then I notice I've got goose bumps (and it's nearly 100 degrees). It's over, I'm at least 15 spaces down, I have no power left, and I think I've started into heat exhaustion.

I soft pedal in for 19th of 29. After the race I tell the officials about my pacing the wheel vehicle, and while they don't take any action on my placing, they say, "thanks for telling us, but don't do it again".

The worst part of the day, was coming back to KC and realizing I paid $35 to get my ass kicked in 100 degree temperatures for 70 miles, when I could have been riding in the coolest temperatures KC has seen since May.

Lessons learned:

I need to conserve a bit more than I do, I'm known for wasting too much in the early portions of the race. Put the effort in only when it pays.
I'm not a strong finisher. If I'm going to make the 3's I need to learn how to finish strong. There are a half dozen or more races this year, where I felt strong through 90% of the race, and for one reason or another failed to turn this into a top 10 or top 5 placing. Need to work on this before next season.
If you're going to ride tubulars, pay the extra dollars and ride good rubber, like Vittoria, Continental, or FMB's.

CP-30 Test

2011-07-13T23:03:00.014-05:00

Picked up a Cycle-ops power meter. Britton, of Volker Bicycles, laced it to a pair of Velocity A23's for me (sweet wheel set). I was under the weather recently, but now that my energy levels are returning, I thought it would be a good evening to try a CP-30 test (30 min critical power test). Joe Friel, uses this test to benchmark performance, and I though it would be a good way to kill two birds with one stone. First its, the recommended way to measure your lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR), and secondly you can use the power output from your 30 min interval to estimate your functional threshold power (FTP). Note the CP-30 must be done as an ITT, if you're going to use it to measure your LTHR, or estimate your FTP.

Since this is my first CP30 test, and probably the first time I've deliberately ridden a 30 minute ITT, I didn't have any reference values. Running this test a few more times will add accuracy, but to ensure I rode hard enough on my first attempt I simply road in the hardest gear I could maintain 95-100 rpm cadence. My LTHR came out as 167 bpm, and my CP-30 power output was 264w. According to Friel, you can take 95% of your CP-30 to estimate your CP-60, which is the same as FTP (264w * 0.95 = 250w).

Now that I have a baseline, it's time to get cranking.

Vive la Tour!

CX Races and Flyers

2011-07-04T14:30:00.006-05:00

I'm starting to get the itch for CX, so here are some race's and links

Road / CX Prep

7/23 Great Egyptian Omnium

7/24 Great Egyptian Omnium

7/31 Leave you for Dead - Grand Fondo

8/5 Tour of Elk Grove

8/6 Tour of Elk Grove

8/7 Tour of Elk Grove

8/6 Kansas State Crit Championship

8/7 Kansas State Road Championship

8/13 Iowa Cup crit

8/14 Missouri Criterium Championships
9/2 Gateway Cup

9/3 Gateway Cup

9/4 Gateway Cup

9/5 Gateway Cup

Cyclocross races

9/10 Nittany Lion Cross

9/17 Hermann

9/18 Hermann

9/21 Gateway

9/23 Buffalo Bill CX

9/25 Manion's CX

10/1 Boss Cross #1

10/2 Boss Cross #2

10/9 Cross out Cancer

10/15 Joules Cross

10/16 Joules Cross

10/22 Smithville CX Challenge

10/23 Smithville CX Challenge

10/30 Boss Cross #3

11/5 360 Cup

11/6 Boulevard Cup

11/12 Grand Prix HPT

11/13 Veterans Cross

11/19 De Stad Cup

11/20 De Stad Cup

11/26 Jingle Cross

11/27 Jingle Cross

12/3 Boss Cross #4

12/4 Bubba Cross

12/10 Capitol Cup

12/11 Capitol Cup

Tour of KC

2011-06-29T17:18:00.004-05:00

I love and hate this race series!

Love that it's local
Love that it's receives decent participation
Love that it's 3 days of racing
Hate that I often have bad performances
Hate that it's often a billion degrees
Hate that I often over dose my efforts in the begining portion of the race.

FRIDAY - Longview Criterium

I don't know what it is about this race, every year I tell myself, "this is my race" and every year I blow-up! I can't quite figure out why this race is so hard, but somehow it always ends up being the hardest race of the year. First lap was full of near misses in every turn, UGH! Drives me nuts when I have to grab a fist full of brakes in every turn, then gas it to the floor right afterwards. I spent one lap on the back, then shot off the front. I wasn't working hard up there, and wasn't trying to get away, I just wanted to get through the turns without the stop/go mess. Shortly after I went to the front and attack shot by with four or five riders. This made the whole field go crazy and the race was on. We dropped 1/3 of the field on lap 2, and a rider or two every lap after. I managed to last to what was more or less the last attack (selection of 10 riders), but the effort to catch this blew me up a lap latter (boom!). Rather than finish out the race, I pulled myself with roughly 5 to go.

Police Academy - Day 1

This was a new course, and for the most part it worked out well. Saturday's race for me however, wasn't successful. I flatted after 10 laps, and then lost a pedal 2 laps after my return. Too damn bad too, because I felt like 10 men after that flat tire. I've never used the pits during a race, and I have to say its a lot more of a bonus than I ever previously thought. I felt so rested, so ready to kill it after that flat tire.

The team had only 1 guy in the top 10, which wasn't ideal since we had 13 riders in the race.

Police Academy - Day 2

After two days of botched racing, I was looking for better days. Sunday the team as a whole raced much better. I was in an early break (by accident), my intention was to come to the front, ride a little tempo, then drift back and sit comfortably in 4th or 5th wheel. Somehow I managed to pull hard enough to get a small gap, and three riders came with me. We stayed out front for 2 or 3 laps, then rejoined the peloton.

Mid-way through the race a large breakaway formed. We had a couple guys in the break, so I didn't want to push our luck and attempt to bridge across. In hindsight it probably wouldn't have drawn anymore attention or reaction from the peloton. We're 4's, and most of the time we're racing our own race, not with a team strategy. So adding another colavita rider to the lead bunch probably wouldn't have raised an eyebrow in this race. Nevertheless we all sat back and road a even tempered race until 1.5 laps to go. At this point I knew we needed to get somewhat organized at the front, so Andrew, Robbie, and I came to the front. We road just fast enough to keep everyone at bay for the first 1/2 lap, then Andrew took the front and put in a dig, I passed him back because I wanted him to save anything he had for the sprint. I poured everything I had left into the road, and dropped him off right on the final hill. He sprinted in for 10th (no one got around him), but somehow ended up 11th.

Sunday we ended up with 4 riders in the top 10 (if you count Andrew's mistaken 11th). This was a much better result for us, but we'll be looking or an overall win this weekend at tour of lawrence.

Better late then never

2011-06-22T22:53:00.005-05:00

So Tulsa Tough was two weeks ago, and I'm finally getting around to my post. I won't stall with some boring recap of every minute detail, and cut right to the meat of the weekend. I beat SC twice! Ok, so the 2nd time was due to a mechanical, but I'm still counting it.

My results

Saturday = 38th of 88

Sunday = 34th of 66

Nothing to brag about (except of course beating SC).

Few pictures from the weekend.

All packed up.

Blur of riders in Friday's twilight crit

BK partaking in a "Recovery" beverage after Saturday's race.

Sweet treat after Saturday's race.

Madness on Crybaby hill.

Training hours

2011-05-30T21:35:00.007-05:00

I've had a few training goals that for one reason or another was never able to achieve.

Log 30+ hours of training in a month
Log 10+ hours of training for the week.

I always had an excuse for missing the target; injuries, work, equipment issues, weather, etc. Finally, with a little extra prioritization, I managed to check these two boxes off my list.

The extra carrot this month was Tulsa Tough. I've never raced in Tulsa, but It's been on my calendar as an "A" race since my knee surgery last year. Saturday will be my main goal, whereas Sunday is more of a mental / physical challenge, I don't really have the fitness to do well on Sunday's course.

The next two weeks are about tapering down my training so I come into Tulsa rested and race ready. I'm shifting my training to the schedule below.

Taper plan:

Tuesday - Lenexa crit

Wednesday - 60m easy spin

Thursday - 5 x 200m sprints, 60m spin

Friday - 3omin spin

Saturday - Race Wichita Crit

Sunday - 60m spin

Monday - 60m spin

Tuesday - Lenexa crit

Wednesday - 60m spin

Thursday - 5 x 200m sprints, 30m spin

Friday - 3 x 200m sprints, 30m spin

Tues Night Worlds / Brewery Ride

2011-05-24T22:11:00.006-05:00

Tuesday night worlds was canceled due to impending weather. As an alternative, SC, Aubs, Matt, and myself, all rode the 75th street brewery ride. It was the first time I'd ever ridden this group ride, and found it to be a nice alternative. The pace is quick, and if you want to ride with the faster groups you should stick close to the front, because stop signs and lights will split things up after a mile or two. The hills are attacked hard, and stop lights are jumped quickly, everywhere else, its a steady tempo between 20-25mph. The distance is only 15 miles, so it works well for those looking for a quick workout. Finish up with a beer and burger, or keep pedaling for more miles.

You can find the map in my ride history to the right (or the link above).

What is Snake Alley like?

2011-05-15T11:02:00.015-05:00

I've had questions from teammates asking what the Memorial day races in Iowa are like, particularly Snake Alley. I wasn't very competitive when I did these races a two years ago (and doubt that's changed). They're hard, and if you're not in good form, you'll be off the back. The competition in Iowa is good, you'll be up against a lot of riders you've never met before because these races draw from a wide area (MO, KS, IA, IL, NE, WI, MN).

Snake Alley always has a large appeal, due to the unique cobble/brick climb. While this climb is not very difficult, to do it once or twice, the real venom comes after half or three-quarters of the way through the race (when you're on attempt 4, 5, 6). This race is a criterium, and it's raced at criterium speeds and intensities, It just so happens to have a 100 ft climb in the middle of it (50 ft climb on the road, 50 ft on the snake). To win (or keep from getting pulled), you need to climb with the best, and then stay with everyone on the downhill and flat sections. There are no 'rest' sections of this race. You race up the hill, you race down the hill, and you race the flat portions of the course. (Think cyclocross, you're pedaling 100% of the race). If you're not with the first 5 or 10 over the top of the climb, it's going to be very difficult to catch back on the downhill. If you do get gapped, you must close it right away. Its hard to make up positions on the climb, so you need to do it on the down hill or flat portions of the race.

Below is a quick video I found on youtube from 2009, if you look closely you'll see S.V. and I. The opening seconds of the movie are really telling... count the seconds that tick by from the first man up the hill (0:17), till you see steve or I (0:41). The race probably hasn't been going for 60 seconds, and the lead man already has a 27 second lead. That's how quickly this race can be over.

Couple pictures from two years ago. Bk's always been a pretty good climber. Better than most of us. This first picture shows BK in the first couple laps. His form is good, he's light on the handle bars, and climbing in a seated position.

On the last two laps, he's out of the saddle, and in the drops, pulling hard for every ounce of leverage. After 10 laps, the snake bites hard! If you go to this race, bring your anti-venom, and a hunger to win.

Always looking for a change

2011-05-06T18:46:00.003-05:00

When it's summer we want winter, and vice versa. Seems like there is always something to look forward to... To keep everyone looking ahead, here is a great Neil Young song, Winterlong, performed by matt pond PA, off their EP Winter Songs.

Don't believe everything you read!

2011-05-01T17:54:00.003-05:00

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, but in preparing for the Joseph Sheehan road race, the picture I reviewed, didn't contain words like Hilly, or Leg burning. Having never raced 'Sheehan', I looked up the course on Mapmyride. If you follow this link it will show you a moderately rolling terrain, with very little hills, and a total elevation gain of 1306ft. WRONG! I missed recording the first 3-4 miles of today's race, and yet my garmin still recorded over 2300 ft.

So I'm not going to build any suspense here... I was beat, plain and simple. The temperature was chilly (52F). The race began with a 0.5 mi rolling neutral start, personally I like neutral starts, and think every road race should start this way, it's safer. Once the race began, the pace lifted and we charged up the first hill, this one hurt a bit, I'm getting older, and I can't go fast without a warm up. The first 10 miles were pretty easy, both pace and terrain, but shortly after the gravel (yes there was gravel), we got into a series of rollers. One after another, after another. I tried to use momentum to soften them up, but it's hard to yo-yo with the yellow line rule, you're either crossing the yellow, or riding in the gravelly road edge. Shortly after crossing the feed zone, I nearly dropped off the back, because I didn't see the pace increase. I fought back, but it burned another match. This happened a few more times, and around 26 or 28 miles in (at the turn around point) I surged with what I thought was the primary selection. The pace slowed down some, but the slight hill (about 2-3% just kept going and going). I started to drop off the back. I fought to keep the gap small (about 50m), but slowly they kept pulling away. As always I chased for about 5 miles, and then accepted defeat.

I just wasn't ready to race today. Some days you've got it, others you don't. Brian took 2nd today. A good placing for his first 4s race. I'm pretty confident he'll be a 3 before the seasons finished.

Mind says Go, but body says no!

2011-04-19T21:05:00.004-05:00

Raced Tuesday Night Worlds tonight

- Strike that!

I rode Tuesday Night Worlds tonight.

-Nope!

I attended in Tuesday Night Worlds tonight.

- Good enough!

Not a good race for me, I popped out the back three times. The first time it happened I thought... "I'm probably not warmed up enough.", but it happened again, and then again.

I'm sure there is a lesson to be learned from something I did in the last 72 hours, but I'm not sure what that might be. Possibility: I raced 50 miles on Sunday, and then didn't ride at all on Monday.

I'm skipping next Tuesday's crit, but I'll be doing the Joseph Sheehan Road race.

Sunflower Perry Roubaix

2011-04-17T21:00:00.009-05:00

Participation was limited (thanks to double booking with Bone Bender). In the 4's we had about 11 people line up. I didn't really notice the teams participating until the whistle blew, and then it became abundantly clear that Velotek out numbered everyone. Of the 11 participants, 6 were from GP Velotek. At the Whistle, they all took off like we were racing a Belgium Kermis, we hit the gravel the pace lifted, GP Velo smashed it across the entire 3 miles. It was probably a good tactic, to try and split the field on lap 1, but it failed.

When we hit the pavement, everyone sat up, and Velotek decided they didn't want to work, and looked to other "teams" to pull through... I put teams in "" because there really weren't any other teams, just a bunch of individuals. Since I did have one other teammate (Andy W), I felt obliged to spend a little time on the front riding tempo. I wasn't going to bury myself, but I also wasn't going to sit in a pack at 10mph waiting for a volunteer pull.

So we finish the first lap, and I'm gaped slightly, but not worried, because Velotek's Gravel grinder is behind me yet. I knew I could just pull myself back slowly and minimize the wasted energy. Then, speak of the devil, there goes the gravel grinder. I hop on his wheel, and he sits up, waiting for me to pull. He goes again, and I jump on his wheel again, and same thing happened. It was a strange behaviour, it's not like he was going to pull me up to a rider in the break, these guys were waiting (soft pedaling). Still he wouldn't pedal so long as I was on his wheel. I would have gladly shared pulls, but for some reason he thought I should pull him (or he should attack me). Racing can sometimes screw with your head, and I think maybe he just didn't realize what was going on up the road. As a jab back (maybe a bit of a prick move) I put in some sudo attack moves myself, though ultimately I didn't want to waste too much energy on this game.

So another run through the gravel, and like the first lap, GPV sat up and looked to everyone else. Again, Andy and I pulled some, just because it's silly to ride 10mph. Really we had no obligation to pull when we're outnumbered 6 - 2.

The race went on, and same thing happened lap after lap. Eventually attrition got the best of me, as I just can't climb well. At the end of lap 4 I stopped and talked to Brian for about 4-5 minutes, and then went up to tell the officials to pull me, but they urged me on, so I went out for one more lap. I finished 7th out of 11, but I probably could have salvaged a few more positions had I not wasted time talking to Brian. (sorry Brian, not saying you're a waste of time).

Andy W came away with the win, he was able to capitalize on the pack's unwillingness to ride at the front. Good Show Andy, I think I'll take a page from your book too, and just attack everytime the pace slows.

Apr 2011, Bazaar Road Race

2011-04-03T21:25:00.005-05:00

Any attempt I'll make below to characterize the wind at todays race will belie the true experience. I kid you not when I say they were the windiest conditions I've ever ridden a bicycle. The weather called for 35mph SSW winds, and for once, the forecast was right.

This race was the longest bike ride I'd taken all year, race flyer said 48 miles, but I clocked 46. I stayed reasonably sheltered for first 10 miles, but as we approached the first turn around the wind kept blowing harder, and harder. With no one willing to bury themselves, and our speed creeping at 7mph, I attacked across the gap and grouped up with the the leader (or what I thought was the leader). We worked together and distanced the the peloton a little further. After the turnaround the speed was incredible, it took almost no effort to ride 30mph, and at 39mph I was almost spun out. After 12 miles off the front the peloton caught us. (Max speed today 50mph)

I stayed near the front for nearly the entire race, only in the last 3 miles when the pack split, did I slip down a few places (finished 11th). I'm happy with my performance today, and looking forward to Perry Roubaix.

Brian L. rode a great race today, and came in 2nd (though that is only because we didn't realize someone else was off the front). Had the peloton known we'd have worked to pull him back.

Count down to Flanders

2011-04-01T17:20:00.000-05:00

Sunday is the day! Belgium Mania!

My picks...

Cancellara
Gilbert
Haussler

Fizik R3 shoes

2011-03-28T18:00:00.007-05:00

I awoke too late to attend Sunday's group ride (sorry guys). When I finally did crawl out of bed, I realized I missed Ghent-Wevelgem too, so the day wasn't starting good. Thankfully I found a replay of the race and watched it while cooking breakfast (eggs, and oatmeal). After sleeping till 11, watching racing till 2, and procrastination another hour, I set off on my sunday ride. I was excited because this would be my inaugural ride with the New Fizik shoes.

UPDATE:
I rode these shoes for several weeks, but ultimately had to trade them for something with a little less pronounced arch. I still maintain these shoes are amongst some of the best constructed shoes on the market, the medium-to-high arch support, however, is just a little much for my nearly flat feet. Several of my teammates still ride these shoes and really enjoy them.

Recommended enhancements: Fizik should reduce the overall arch height built into the shoe, and provide a customizable shoe insert similar to the Giro pro-light. The Fizik R1's do come with a heat moldable insert, but having used similar inserts in other shoes, I still prefer adjustably over heat moldable. One downside to heat moldable inserts... lets say you needed more arch support than already provided by your shoe, there is no easy way to build up the arch and mold it to a higher position. Likewise, if you needed varus or valgus adjustments, a heat moldable footbed isn't going to get the job done.

Below are my initial thoughts on the Fizik R3's....

Comfortable and secure - slipping the shoes on, my heel felt secure in the pocket, I never really noticed a "pocket" on any other road shoe. I like to buy shoes which fit a little on the snug side (toes almost touching the end), thankfully the R3's have a wide toe box so while I'm almost touching the ends of my toes, they are not pinched or crowded from a narrow toe box.
Stiffness - Wow! These shoes are stiff, I felt like my foot was pushing on a very solid platform. I used to ride Look cleats, and when switching to speedplays I felt like I lost some stiffness in my pedal platform. On the R3's, however, the speed plays felt stiffer than ever. My previous shoes are the Specialized BG pro (or whatever was the top line shoe two years ago), and the R3 are noticeably stiffer.
Arch support - when I first stood in the R3's, I noticed a very prominent arch. My initial thoughts (pre-ride) was maybe too much arch, since it almost feels like you're walking on golf balls. However once I got on the bike it was perfect. I've always had a tendency to curl my toes when I'm riding hard efforts. I never attributed the problem to shoe fit, and just assumed it was some quark that I had (kind of like Michael Jordan sticking his tongue out when dunking). Having the taller arch support appears to have cured my toe curling.
No Air holes on the sole - This always struck me as something odd for a shoe, why put an air hole on the foot bed, since all it ever lets in is rain water. The R3 is solid except for the cleat holes/slots.
Better shaped foot bed, I turned my old specialized shoes over, and looked at the cleat position and leather wear. I can see where my foot stretched wore the leather on the outside of the shoe. This appears to have happened due to poor lateral support on the specialized. The R3 has a slightly different shape on the bottom, the carbon foot bed of the fizik extends further to the outside of the foot, thus matching more closely the shape my specialized shoes were pushed into. The R3 has a lot more support on the outside heel and edge too, which should help keep my foot securely over the carbon sole.
About the only thing I liked better on the Specialized vs. the Fizik is the Boa system. While the R3's Velcro and ratchet straps are perfectly fine (and almost industry standard on every other brand). The Specialized Boa system does a really good job of evenly distributing the tightness across the entire foot.

PS: It snowed and rained during this first shoe ride too (I always seem to scratch, ding, or dirty something new). The instruction booklet recommended stuffing the shoes with newspaper to draw out the moisture... and it worked like a charm.

Perry Dam Race #3

2011-03-22T12:30:00.001-05:00

Recently I've been playing with several tools to analyze and compare my efforts on the bike (garmin training center, garmin connect, and Strava). Each offers pluses and minuses so I'm not sure which one I'd use if I could only pick one. One of the things I like about Strava is it lets you define segments and you can then compare multiple rides over that same segment of road. In comparing my perry Dam efforts, I can see increases in speed each week as I climbed the dreaded hill.

I felt like I raced harder this week compared with any of the previous weeks, and the data shows I'm right. Last week, my very best time for climbing the Perry hill was 2:23, however this week, I had 4 laps which were better. The best time this week was 2:00 flat. The Strava program will attempt to estimate wattage over your segments too, so my best average wattage for this climb is estimated at 367w. I'm be curious to know how accurate this estimate really was.

I stayed with the peloton for 4 laps this week (one more than last), however I didn't finish the final lap, it was just too windy to go it alone, plus I had enough. Its early in the season and I don't need to be pushing myself to the point of injury.

Perry Dam #2

2011-03-13T20:01:00.007-05:00

Round two of Perry Dam today. I feel like I raced a little harder today, and I managed to stick with the group for three laps this week (last time I was dropped after 1). This week I was also racing Carbon tubulars (for the first time ever). I liked them, they felt really stiff with good acceleration, especially when I jumped out of the saddle.

The Numbers....

- I finished 21 of 22 (almost the lantern rouge)

- My fastest lap this week was 33 seconds faster than last week. (13:58)

- My second best lap today was still faster than any lap the previous week.

- This week was 1 lap longer, but I only raced for 10 mins more, meaning I saved roughly four mins over the course of the race. It's likely the extra laps with the peloton, but we'll give some credit to the tubulars too (thanks BK).

2011 Perry Dam, Race #1

2011-03-06T19:52:00.002-06:00

I started in the very back. With the yellow line rule, I thought it might be difficult to get around 40 riders, and have good position for the climb. When the peloton turned with the tailwind, I saw my gap and shot straight to the front. I took the poll position, knowing it wouldn't take much energy to pull with the wind, if anything it would get me warmed up proper for the climb. I hit climb about 4th in line, and thought it would be enough cushion to keep me attached over the top, but in the final 60 m the last riders passed me, and I never did catch back on. My heart rate numbers tell me I should have had more power in the engine room, but I'm no expert. I'll probably race this again next week too.

2011 Spring Fling, Race #1

2011-03-05T18:00:00.001-06:00

Raced Spring fling #1 today, It's the first time I've competed in over 14 months. The weather was sunny, and while the day "looked" beautiful, it had to be one of the coldest races I've ever participated in. The mercury registered 38 degrees, but the "Feels Like" temp was 28.

Overall, good first outing. I felt solid in the pack, helped chase down one break, then sat in for the remainder. I could move myself around ok, but I can sense I'm in the bottom 3rd for overall fitness and speed, I'm not worried though, this should improve as the season progresses.

Up next Perry Dam race... I hate that hill.

More base miles...

2011-01-02T17:33:00.002-06:00

First ride of the new Year.

McCoys ride

2010-12-06T21:56:00.001-06:00

Small group tonight for the McCoy's ride.

Tis the season for the small ring

2010-12-05T17:17:00.003-06:00

While my teammates were out battling for KS state champ bragging rights, I opted for some base miles, kept it in the little ring all day.

CX Barriers

2010-11-20T13:21:00.001-06:00

New paint job on the Volker CX barriers, just in time for Manions part duex.

Location:Kansas City,United States

Over the top

2010-11-07T17:23:00.002-06:00

Went for a ride today... and for the first time, and many months I managed to stand out of the saddle and complete a few pedal strokes. The goal of pushing my foot over the top has seemed, at times like my own personal sisyphean endeavor, but no longer. The fat man is back!

Sunday GOTHR

2010-10-31T18:36:00.002-05:00

Sunday stroll... BK, Nathan, and I set out from the 39th street store for an easy 1hr GOTHR ride (Get Out The House). Pace was approximately 15mph, and Nathan was kind enough to share a post ride brew with us (thanks Nathan).

While cruising back home on SW Blvd, a teen and his girlfriend felt compared to scream "Get on the sidewalk" at BK and I. Why people feel obliged to do this... I'll never know. For one thing, the dude was not in our lane (nor was anyone behind us for that matter). Secondly, its not legal to ride on the sidewalk, nor is it safe. Finally it is legal for a cyclist to ride on the road, and while on a multi-lane rode we do not have to yield the lane. To all the haters I say, "get a CLUE!, then get a BIKE".

Manion's CX Race - Sunday 26 Sept

2010-09-24T16:37:00.005-05:00

Sunday, 26 September Come out to Manion's CX race.

Address:

4411 N 67th St, Kansas City, KS 66104-1078

Road to Recovery

2010-08-08T20:22:00.005-05:00

I've been out of commission for a good bit of this year, nagging knee pain in the early months, knee surgery in June, but I'm finally feeling well enough to begin training again. The last three weeks I've been riding alone, mostly because I lack the fitness, knee strength, or confidence to ride with others.

For the most part my rides have been slow (very slow), and the climbing has been kept to a minimum. Today, however, I unintentionally tested my abilities, by riding 50 miles and climbing 2300ft. I've spent close to 28 years of my life in central Pennsylvania, and I know the roads around here pretty well, but I guess my mental odometer was a little off. I set out with a plan to log about 30mi, but due to some miscalculations it was considerably longer. Despite bonking about 30mi in; it was a wonderful day. Because for the first time since my surgery, I can envision myself on a starting line again. Cross season... hear I come!

Today's route.

MapMyRide - clfd, grampian, luthersburg in Clearfield, PA

Tour de France - Stage 12 / 13

2010-07-16T21:59:00.002-05:00

Stage 12 Wrap-up

Wow, crazy fast pace today. Watching today's race from the sofa, you might not have realized the but today was fast, the average for the 210km was over 26 mph and I don't think there was a flat piece of road all day.

Contador gained back a few seconds, but possibly upset the stage win for Vino. Katusha's Rodriguez started the attack, and Contador followed, but it was actually Contador's acceleration that allowed the pair to catch Vino, and pass him just a few meters from the summit. Vino just didn't have enough to catch them on the run in to the line. He looked kind of pissed as he banged on his bars.

Stage 12 Predictions

I can't wait to see tomorrow's sprint finish, with Tyler Farrar and Renshaw out of the race, and tempers still flaring from Stage 11. I'd look for HTC to drive this one home big time. Garmin will want to contend, but I have a feeling moral is running low in the Garmin bus tonight, and they'll probably only have Dave Z and Julian Dean pair up for a two man run for the line (Zman riding lead out). The two of them will be no match for what I expect to be 7 man train from HTC. Cavendish will come up with the stage win, but the real fight will be Hushovd and Petacchi going for Green jersey rights. If Petacchi is not in Green tomorrow, I look for him to abandon the race.

Aside from my predictions, I rooting for Robbie McEwen to win, I've always liked the guy, and want to see him get a stage, especially since this could be his last tour.

Tour de France - Stage 11 predictions

2010-07-14T18:41:00.002-05:00

Stage 10 wrap up

Well today was the French holiday, Bastille day, and normally it's chalk full of Frenchie's out seeking a stage victory, but today only two Frenchmen were off the front, and neither could stay with the leaders all the way to the finish in Gap.

FDJ, can someone tell me what the hell these guys are doing in the tour... Granted they came up with a stage victory yesterday, but aside from that, they've not done crap this year. I realize FDJ is a french team, and by default, they're kind of expected to be in the tour de france, but seriously... they guys are lazy bastards. They almost never go in breaks, then don't compete in the mountains, they have not GC contenders, and they don't contest the sprints.... They're nothing but 'white noise' in the peloton. Vacansoleil would have been a far more deserving team, and two of their riders are Fantastic french cyclist (Feillu brothers).

Stage 11 Predictions

Well its a flat one... and I'm reasonably certain we'll be seeing a field sprint. Saxo Bank is not going to pull in the break, they could care less, and I don't blame them... so it will be up to Cervelo, HTC, Garmin, and Lampre to work on the front. At least one of those teams will try to put a guy in the break as an excuse to not do any work. My money is on Garmin, since it wouldn't be the first time they've pulled that stunt.

I'm going to split my prediction for tomorrow, I'd like to see Tyler Farrar get his first victory, but I'm fairly sure it will come down to Cavendish winning.

Tour de France - Stage 9 predections

2010-07-13T00:36:00.009-05:00

Ok, I've missed a few stages... Sorry, what can I say, it was the weekend, everyone needs a break. I'll skip this weekends wrap-up (I'm sure everyone knows what happend), and jump right to the predictions.

Has anyone looked at the stage profiles for the next 2wks? They're absolutely brutal; mountains, mountains, and more mountains. Discounting the ITT, and ride into Paris, I think we're looking at only two more flat stages.

Tomorrow's climbs are very long, but they're not crazy steep. Like Sunday, I'm expecting to see another big selection of favorites (10-20). The altitude will be high, but the weather should be fair (possible chance of showers). My thought is a good climber, but even better decender will win the stage (even though the decent is not very long). Using this logic, I'm ruling out Schleck, Wiggans, Menchov, Leipheimer. While none of those mentioned are horrible, they're not great either. Kreuziger, and Cadel, if I remember correctly, go down hill pretty good, and Sanchez I believe might be quicker than all... So Samuel Sanchez is my pick for the stage.

There is an outside chance that Lance will take advantage of his 13 min deficit, and go out in a break away. If he manages to get into a break, which I doubt he would, he'd almost be assured the win, since none of his break away companions would climb as well as he does. This, of course, would work against a successful break since no one would want to work with him, instead they'd sit on his wheel and expect him to pull the majority of the load.

There is one other reason I believe Lance might avoid a break away tomorrow. It would smell too much of Stage 17, 2006; Where Floyd landis (dopper) rode away in a solo break (over arduous mountains) to pull back nearly 6 minutes (of the 7+ mins) he had lost in the previous days stage.

PS: Floyd, I'm still waiting for my $10 to be returned.

TDF - Stage 5 / 6

2010-07-08T17:00:00.003-05:00

Stage 5 thoughts...

I'm undecided whether Boy Racer's win today will be good or bad for the future days of the tour. Phil and Paul were starting to forget Mr. Cavendish's name... in favor of Ale Jets, Farrar and others, when all of a sudden the 'lil engine that could' scored a win today. Fine... congratulations Cavendish, soak it up.

Stage 6 Predictions

I feel like a break away will succeed tomorrow, it's the last stage before the mountains, so lots of guys will thirsting after a stage win. The profile is mostly flat, except for two small climbs near the end, which could help a crafty rider gain a the few extra seconds needed to win.

Tomorrow could be anyone's day, meaning I don't have a clue who will win... so I'll guess and say It'll be Cofidis.

Track Team HTC

2010-07-08T07:09:00.002-05:00

Found an interesting web app over at Google. It lets you track Team HTC riders during the tour.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour/

TDF - Stage 4/ 5

2010-07-07T23:20:00.006-05:00

Stage 4 Thoughts...

What can I say, I loved every second of today's sprint finish. I don't hate Cavendish, but I'm not exactly a fan either. Last year the kid experienced a tremendous year -amazing number of wins! This year he's had what some people are calling a "slow start". Yes, he's not in the same condition he was last year, but I personally think the loss of Hincappie, Edvald Boasson Hagen, and, Thomas Lofkvist has weakened his team significantly, and caused guys like Renshaw to do more work. A great deal of his speed was due to the teams overall speed.

Lampre's tactics today during the final run in for the sprint were brilliant, whether they planed that fake attack, or whether Hondo made a random on the fly decision, it was pure genius, and worked to disrupt HTC's lead out train.

Stage 5 Predictions...

Tomorrow is going to be another flat day, which means the finish will more than likely be a field sprint. After today's performance by Petacchi it's hard not to pick him for a win on Thursday too, but I'm going to throw my support behind Tyler Farrar. He's still pretty banged up, but I'm betting a damaged Farrar, is still faster than Ale Jets.

TDF stage 3 / 4

2010-07-06T21:52:00.005-05:00

Stage 3 thoughts

It's a disappointment to see Frank Schleck out of the race. He looked strong this year, possibly stronger than Andy. I think it would have been a more exciting race, especially in the mountains, if Saxo Bank had two GC cards to play against Contador.

Cancellara... Dude looked like he was on a Monday recovery ride. How does he make that terrain look so easy. -it's a rhetorical question people, don't start with that motorized bike bull shit.

Cadel... This guy is having a fantastic year. Must have found Armstrong's lucky penny.

Armstrong... Bad break today, but it could have been far worse. Where were the other 8 team members? Popo was the only one near Lance and his gas tank was empty. The camera's dont show everything in a stage like this, but from what I saw... I'd give Radio Shack a C- for team work.

Stage 4 Predictions

I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised to see Chavanel go after yellow again, and Saxo would be half tempted to let him have it... But no, Columbia/HTC will capitalize on Farrar's broken wrist, pull back the break, and set Mark Cavendish up for the win.

TDF - Stage 2 / 3

2010-07-05T12:32:00.005-05:00

Stage 2 - Wrap up

Winner - Sylvain Chavanel

It will be interesting to see how the officials rule the time gaps on today's stage. As it stands now, Chavanel took the win with nearly a three minute lead, this was due in part to the peloton refusing to chase, once a crash (at 30k to go) took out half the field. Cancellara reached an agreement with the race officials to neutralize the sprint for 2nd place. This means everyone in the peloton receives the same time, and no points were awarded for 2nd -through 20th position.

What's not clear is whether riders who finished well behind the peloton, 20+ minutes in some cases, will have their time neutralized too. I suspect the neutralization will only impact the main peloton group, which means Christian Vandevelde's hope for a podium position is over. At 9 minutes back, he's better off loosing another 5 minutes and chasing the polka dot jersey.

Predictions for Stage 3

- the weather report for tomorrow is clear

- stage profile is mostly flat

- course crosses over 7 sectors of cobbled pavé

Tomorrow is going to be a dangerous day for all the big favorites. The cobbles are not the worst part of the race, it's the 5 km before the cobbles when everyone tries to get themselves into position at the front. Crashes will happen, and gaps will form on the pavé. Radio shack will be trying to split the race, but they won't waste the gasoline, if Astana is sitting on their wheel. I'd look for one tour favorite to loose time here, and all the other survive together. If it comes down to a sprint, look for Thor and Tyler to race for the line.

** UPDATE **

after seeing rider reports of the day, I think I'll need to revise my predictions for tomorrow. Farrar, is going to be seriously banged up tomorrow, if he continues, he'll need a day or two to get back to business. I still think Thor is a good bet, and my prime pick for a field sprint.

TDF - Stage 1 / 2

2010-07-04T23:02:00.004-05:00

Stage 1 finished with a crash fest, none of the favorites made it to the line thanks to 3 crashes within the final 2.5 km. Incident number 1 was Cavendish missing his turn, Number two was a mass pile up, and number three was Tyler Farrar and AG2R rider tangling bikes. Just like stage 4 of the Tour de Swiss, Alessandro Petacchi slipped past the carnage for a stage win. The dude has some serious luck on his side.

Stage 2 is going to be interesting, the press are calling it a mini liege bastogne liege. The 200km route has 6 categorized climbs, (3) 4's, and (3) 3's. The climbs are significant only because they are the first categorized climbs in the 2010 TDF, which means anyone looking to pull on the polka dot Jersey might hop off the front early. Vinokourov won the the 'real' liege bastongne liege race, but I don't think he'll be allowed off his leash. Instead, I'm looking for some Belgium riders, and maybe the dynamic duo from team Katusha (Ivanov, and Kolobnev). It's tough to say which Belgian(s) will go for the win. Stjin Devolder really needs to impress his current team, or else he'll be looking for a new one next year. Technically he's the team leader (ie: GC rider) for Quick Step, but obviously that's a joke, because he doesn't have a prayer at the top 20 overall GC spots. Quick-step will be in the break tomorrow, but it's anyone's guess as to who get's the the freedom to fly. It won't matter though... the break won't stick. It's going to be another field sprint, if Thor Hushovd can make it over the climbs, he's my pick for the final 100m.

Hooray for July!

2010-07-04T00:03:00.006-05:00

Well it's tour time, and today's prologue stage kicked off the best three weeks of the year. I stopped by the 18th street shop this morning, and we streamed the race, sipped coffee, and downed a Mexican breakfast. BK scoffed at my pick for the day's win (Tony Martin), "Ten guys will pass him by the days end". Well I guess we were both right. No, Tony didn't win, but the only man to go under his time, was the Swiss Bear.

The top ten for the 9.8 km prologue was fairly predictable. I knew Lance was a step above last year, and figured he'd show well, but a 4th place finish was 4 places higher than I would have predicted. Probably the only surprise was Contador loosing time to Lance on day 1. The time is negligible, but in my mind, I had Contador stamping out a good 10-20 seconds over LA -setting a tone for days to come. With the short distance, and wet roads it's hard to read much into 5 seconds, but I can't shake the feeling that Contador might have just shown a couple of bad cards, time will tell.

Stage 1 tomorrow. Who's going in the break? Easy picking... look at the bottom 25 riders from the prologue. At 187th, and 1:31 back, you can bet your ass Voeckler will be out front for a few kilometers. He'll be joined by Ivanov, Notcentini, De La Fuente, and two Footon riders. If the Break sticks it will be Ivanov taking the win, but Saxo-bank won't let that happen. It's more likely to come down to a sprint, with Tyler Farrar taking his first tour win. Cancellara has 28" over Farrar, he'll stay close, but not contest the sprint.

Exits

2010-06-28T00:38:00.006-05:00

Ever miss your exit? No, I'm not talking about highway off ramps, but rather that hard to pinpoint moment in the evening when leaving would have been perfection.

I went out for dinner Sunday evening. The place I chose typically has live entertainment (acoustic guitar) on Sunday's. Dinner was good, and I enjoyed a song or two along with a couple glasses of wine. On the way out the band started playing one of my favorite Ryan Adams songs. I paused... and instead of strutting out to some killer exit music; I walked to the bar and ordered a drink to hear out the end of the song. It seems that decision came at price. An extremely intoxicated dude (about 1 drink from Angry drunk), felt compelled to bend my ear about life choices... It kind spoiled the mood. Oh well, chalk this up to Lessons learned.

Here... Maybe you can pick up where I left off.

Ryan Adams - Come Pick Me Up.

Vélib' - Paris city bikes

2010-06-08T19:04:00.004-05:00

Paris has lots of city bicycles for rent (lots as in... 20,000 +) While this system is uber cool, it's not without it's flaws.

First of all, despite Velib's promise that bike stations are no more than 300 m apart, the bikes are not that easy to find. Not being a local (with access to cell phone apps), you could easily start walking in the wrong direction (2000, or 3000 meters in the wrong direction) before stumbling upon a station. While the bike stations are 300 meters apart, they're not always 300 meters down the same "main" blvd or ave. - Top Tip: look for metro stops since Velib is almost always present near these locations.

Secondly, the damn Bikes, and kiosks are brownish gray which makes them hard to spot from a block or two away. Can someone tell me why they're not bright red, or yellow. (hello Paris... Yellow jersey... yellow bikes, No?)

When you go to rent a bike, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE... check that it's in good working order. After punching in your subscriber number and PIN into the kiosk, it asks you to choose a bike (number). Once you choose a bike, and pull it out of the stand it's yours. If you discover moments later that it has a flat tire, Broken chain, Loose shift cable...etc, then you need to make a decision... if the bike is rideable, I suggest you hop on and go... the reason being, there is a "hold down" period once you return a bike (I think it's about 10 minutes), so if you pull a bike away from the rack, discover it's busted, then return it... You'll need to wait 10 minutes before renting again. For this reason check the following before choosing you bike number on the kiosk:

Seat position... a backwards turned seat means the bike is needing serviced choose another one. (NOTE: not everyone will turn the seat around on a broken bike)
Tires, for flats or punctures
Brake cables for functioning brakes
Seat clamp so that you can adjust to your position
Fenders... ensure they're not broken or impeding tire movement
Chain, ensure it's on the chain ring and sprocket.
Shift leaver

Three times today I rented a busted bike... you really need to check them over first!

Lastly, not all US credit cards will work in the machines. I tried two different visa cards, neither worked, I finally found success with an AMEX. Apparently, only visa cards with a micro chip will work in these machines. (American express cards do not have this same requirement)

Once you're over these small hurdles, the bike rentals are cool, and quite possibly the best mode of transportation in Paris. You might find the foreign street signs and traffic a little daunting at first, but soon you'll realize that Parisians have great respect for cyclist, and will often yield right away. The exception to this rule would be scooters... these guys think they're invincible, and will take all sorts of risks. Best piece of advice, pick a lane and hold your line... don't swerve, don't make sudden movements, and traffic will politely move around you.

Travel Bits

2010-06-05T13:25:00.009-05:00

Been traveling a bit, Flew into London last week for a meeting, and afterwards we killed off a few Pints at the Cricketers.

Then off the the shores of southern Portugal (Algarve Region)

While in Portugal, I manged to get in 80+ miles of riding...

Good Times!

Best race of 2010 - Giro d'talia

2010-05-26T13:20:00.002-05:00

The Giro has been one great race this year... I'm going out on a limb to say it will be the best race of the 2010 season. Check out the Service Course for an entertaining look back on the last 2.5 wks.

Open Letter to Floyd Landis

2010-05-20T17:07:00.005-05:00

Dear Floyd Landis,

In 2006, after your TDF victory and subsequent doping charges, I gave you $10 to aid your legal defense. I did this because you asked for help, and because you maintained your innocence. Using your Pennsylvania heritage (my home state) and Mennonite upbringing; you tugged at our heart strings and swindled us all.

Now that we all know you're a thieving cheat, and that you're no doubt going to be receiving a book deal ($$), from some slime-ball publisher, I think it's only fair that you return my $10.

Please send my $10 to Volker Bicycles, where I'll use it to by 10 powerbar's... the only 'dope' I need.

Regards,

Joe Anderson

Hurry up and wait

2010-02-27T13:00:00.000-06:00

I've been looking forward to the 2010 road season since probably June 2009. Somewhere between the Bazaar, KS race and the Tour of KC (part 1), I started wanting "Do-overs", and began looking forward to the next year; when I'd be racing with experience, a faster / lighter bike, and better fitness.

Unfortunately, I'll need to wait a bit longer. During early season training I started to notice knee pain (something completely new to me) and doctors diagnosed it as plica or plica syndrome. I'm not sure when I'll be able to return to racing, but I'm targeting late April's Sheehan race to be my first competition. Finger's crossed!

Adjusting to life off the bike has not been easy, I don't know what to do with myself. My living room is full of bikes, one in every corner. It's like they're staring at me or something... a constant reminder, every minute of every day, of what I could and should be doing -Riding!

People tell me I have great patience, but really I only have patience for other people. When it's patience for myself, for my wants, desires, and needs, I'm like a spoiled child in a candy store. On Thursday I had dinner at Po's Dumpling bar. After my meal the waitress brought over the check and fortune cookie. I threw the whole cookie in my mouth, forgetting to break it open first and pull out the paper strip. The message I pulled from my mouth sums up everything.

GOTHR Liberty, MO - 1st ride with power

2010-01-31T17:59:00.004-06:00

Bunch of us went out for a training ride/GOTHR (Get out the house ride) today. Beautiful day, and I think everyone had a great time. We even spent about 10-15 miles with a constant line rotation, a good skill to practice in the early season.

Garmin Connect -
Activity Details for GOTHR - Liberty 31JAN

I just discovered TrainingPeaks has a trial version of WKO+. I uploaded the training file from today's ride, and learned this program plots an enormous amount of data, most of which I don't have a clue about reading.

Below are my power numbers per unit of time. The first 3 intervals seem pretty good (I'm guessing), but it's hard to get an accurate reading on the others. For one, I don't know what a good 1min, 5min, 10min... should be, and two, this was (for the most part) a lower effort training ride. I deliberately sprinted a few times just to record some higher numbers.

5s - 1260w
10s - 1113w
20s - 786w
30s - 542w
1m - 411w
2m - 311w
5m - 293w
10m - 241w
20m - 206w
30m - 200w
60m - 184w

New Year, New Goals

2010-01-09T18:08:00.003-06:00

It's 2010 and according to the Mayan calendar, I've got two more years to go from fat cyclist to Paris Roubaix winner... after that all bets are off. Either the earth will implode, or Al Gore's electricity consumption will melt icebergs and flood us all. Good thing he's paid for the carbon offsets, because nothing keeps the air clean like money ;-)

Pro's say every good season starts with a list of goals. To kick my year off right, I've been working on a list, and by sharing it with everyone here, I'll either guarantee success or provide exact measurements of my failures.

Mileage: I know you're not really suppose to track mileage (it's more important to track training hrs), but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm looking for 5000 this year. (2k more than this year)
A WIN! I've had a podium (3rd) in Cyclocross and Road, but I want at least 1 outright win this year.
Break Away! I want to be in a successful break away. (don't care if it's alone or small group)
No DNF's from dropping off the back. I'll aim to finish each race with the group or ahead of the group.
Get into race shape, 175 lb or better by Velotek GP.

BossCross 4 - Series Complete

2009-12-06T11:24:00.005-06:00

Saturday was the fourth and final installment of the BossCross Cyclocross race series. I started the race in the front row, along with my teammate Nathan, a few SKC racers, and my competition Tyler S. Tyler was leading the series, Steve V. and I were tied for second (Friendly grudge match was on!), and Nathan and Adam were in fourth and fifth.

At the whistle there was an acceleration, but not an overly hard one (I was in my seat well before the hole shot). I had already made up my mind (before the race) not to take the lead, instead I would sit on Tyler's wheel and wait for his move. This plan was scrapped when I saw SKC walking away with a good lead. After half a lap, on a mountain bike no less, SKC had a substantial 100m+ lead. I have this mental thing where I can't let a mountain bike (which should be a slower bike) take the lead or pass without a challenge. When I saw that Tyler wasn't going to respond, I thought this might be an opportunity. I jumped across the gap bringing a couple riders with me. I stayed with them for nearly a half lap but then started to feel the inevitable cyclocross burn (lungs, legs, etc). This one and only move was essentially my last, as I ran out of gas and only had enough to hold on a decent position. Tyler passed me on lap 2 or 3, and I held on to 5th for the finish. I completed the BossCross series in 2nd place overall.

Steve V. had an unfortunate day, his wheel hit a hole, which sent him head over heels. He got up wearing a bicycle necklace, and after remounting, and putting on a good chase, he unknowing slipped off course, due to high winds (head down & cranking hard) and an already broken tape line, you were missed Steve... I could have used another carrot to chase.

Ten Points - Book Review

2009-11-28T11:40:00.014-06:00

I really have no business reviewing a book, those who know me well, know my yearly reading list can often be counted, easily, on a single hand. It's not that I don't like to read, because I do, but somehow I just never prioritize reading on my daily activities. Well... that and I have this mental association which equates reading with learning, and learning with Work/School. Nearly every time I start a new book, I have to rediscover that reading can also be entertainment. OK, so enough with me justifying my illiteracy.

Last evening I finished off Bill Strickland's, Ten Points. It's at the top of every cyclists, must read list. That being said it's not really a book about cycling. I love Strickland's articles in Bicycling, and his sitting-in blog. He has a way of making anything and everything beautiful and epic. Be it a lunch time ride, or a full euro sportive; you'll finish one of his writings, and without even thinking, start kitting up for your own journey.

Ten Points, tells the story of Strickland's quest to score 10 points during a season of criterium racing, a promise he made to his daughter. However, racing / cycling is only half the story, Bill has a very dark, and outright frightening past, which gets revealed along the way through repeated flash backs and comparisons between racing and enduring real physical and psychological pain.

It's a different read from his more notable blog entries, and magazine articles. This book is written for a broad audience, not just cyclists, so have some patience in the first few chapters, when he's adding extra explanations about things related to racing. My call for patience shouldn't be mis-interpreted as "this book is a slow starter", on the contrary, the book wastes no time in exposing Stickland's haunted past. Cycling, however, is an obscure sport, and while almost every American has ridden a bicycle in their life, only about 1% of us have ever raced one. Understandably it take a little explanation to bring the average Joe up to speed on a few terms.

I really enjoyed the book, and it gets better with each successive page. It's funny, it's dark, it's loving, and most of all... its a journey.

Missing posts

2009-11-28T11:23:00.006-06:00

I've missed a few race postings after Bosscross3, summaries below.

GrandPrix HPT: This was an awesome night race that took place at the Heartland Park Topeka race track. The course used almost the entire oval, the infield, and the surrounding grounds areas, which made for one of the most unique races on the calendar. The course was fast, very fast, I probably could have used a little taller gear on the oval. Though, all the gearing in the world wouldn't have kept me in contact with the leaders. Those two guys left us at the start and we never saw them again. Damn fast! I finished 7th

Veterans Cross: This race was held at St. Mary's in Levenworth, KS. I finished 11th on the day (Same placing as the last race held here) It's not my kind of race, too hilly, and don't yet have the fitness/conditioning to finish in the top 5 here (maybe next year).

Up next BossCross 4.

BossCross 3

2009-11-02T17:14:00.003-06:00

BossCross 3 took place in Platte Ridge Park. Conditions were good, sunny about 55 deg. The course was hilly, it had a couple of small sections with mud, not the soupy messy mud, but rather the sticky glue-like mud. Not much to say about this race, other than I didn't have the legs for a top 5. Finished 8th on the day. Steve V put in a nice attack early on in the race, and hung on for a 4th place finish. Good placing by Adam K and David N too.

Criss Cross - Levenworth, KS

2009-10-11T17:53:00.003-05:00

Saint Mary's University Park was the host of today's race. I really like the course, particularly the number of off camber dips and climbs, they kept things fresh. Overall, it was pretty hilly day in the saddle, not exactly my strong suit, but something I aim to get better at before next years road season. Weather.com placed the days high point at 40 degrees (with a "feels like" temp of 32), definitely didn't feel anywhere near 40. I never felt frigid on the bike, but standing around as a spectator, was brutal. It would have been nice to have a warmer jacket, and maybe koozie too (its hard to hold an ice cold beer without gloves).

In the Mens CAT4 race, I finished 11th of 49 (maybe 53) racers. I was hoping for a bit better finish, but I can't complain about 11th. I just need to work more on my climbing, and 30 second power intervals.

Great team performances by all today, most notably.

Dan O. placed 3rd

Jane A. finished 4th

BossCross 2 - Down but not out

2009-10-05T19:25:00.003-05:00

It's not everyday you get to watch the level of talent seen at this weekends Bosscross CX series. Watching the the top 10 riders in the Men's open race, was a humbling experience. The speed and power these guys produce is nothing short of impressive, even more so, is their grace in handling the bike. If I could come close to producing the same power, these guys would still drop me through ultra-smooth, tactical riding. I'm amazed at how effortless each and every turn is made by these CAT 1 riders. A tight S-bend turn, which nearly brings a CAT 3/4 rider to a complete stop (less than 1mph), will be navigated at 5 MPH by these racing magicians. At times, Joseph Schmalz looked like he had a 500 cc motorcycle engine strapped to his bike. Really fast!

I didn't have a great day, but it wasn't too bad either. After Saturday's 4th place finish I was feeling pretty confident. I lined up 3rd row on the inside. At the whistle I was able to get around a large group, but still sat roughly 10-12 back at the hole shot. Then on the first turn someone stumbled and I was in perfect position to jump through the gap. This moved me up to 5th or 6th. A rider in front of me wasn't looking very smooth through the turns, so I was anxious to get around him before the riverbank turn. When we hit the pavement, I added a little acceleration, hoping I might come out of the turn with enough speed to slip right past him. Just before we exited the roundabout my rear wheel broke loose and it hit the deck hard. Crap! My first race wreck, I guess I shouldn't have joked earlier in the week about never going down. I stood up and watched the entire field pass me by, taking personal inventory and making sure I was still ok. My left thumb was bleeding, my right palm ached something awful, and the road rash was starting to burn on my knees, aside from this I felt ok. I ran over and checked my bike... it didn't look so good. The chain was off, left shifter/brake was malfunctioning and twisted over 90 degrees, rear derailleur cable was snapped. I fussed with the chain for a few seconds (felt like 2 minutes), then re-entered the race, either last or damn near. Adrenaline helped for the first lap, I felt very little pain, and rode fairly strong. It was awkward riding with one brake and one gear, but in someway, It probably helped. When you ride a single speed, you don't have the luxury to shift down, so you're always looking ahead, and adding momentum to prepare for hills and turns. Each lap I was pulling back seconds and passing riders, and by race end I was 14th of 39. I'm happy to finish so well after going down. It could have very easily been a DNF, but all I keep hearing was Britton's words, "to win the series you need to finish every race".

After the race I noticed the end of my thumb had a rather large gash. Knowing of Steve V's hospital experiences, I certainly didn't want to wait 4 hours for stitches, and then find out later I was billed over $700 (despite having insurance). Instead I opted for a thorough cleaning, and then mended the tissue with super glue. I'm not sure how well this method will work, time will tell.

BossCross #1

2009-10-03T18:49:00.007-05:00

I was practicing on one of the more difficult sections of the course; a downhill run with a sharp sandy turn at the bottom. Eric S. grabs my attention, -"Hey man, your race is lining up; they're ready to start.".

I wheeled up to the start line with roughly 2 minutes to go. Although I missed the call-ups, I selected a spot up front because I knew my registration was one of the first 8. The whistle blows and it's me and one other guy going into the hole shot. At the last moment he grabs the brakes and shouts, "I don't know where I'm going", I smiled and took the lead. It was awkward being in the front. Only one other time have I ever lead a race, and it didn't workout so well. I didn't have a plan for racing at the front, and the only thought that came to mind was, "Get a gap". I kept thinking if I rode really hard for two laps, I might be able to time trial the remainder for a win.

I rode as hard as I could for the first two laps, but two racers were still within striking distance. Crossing through the start/finish, half shouting, half gasping -I cry out, "How many laps!" "How many more!". I was starting to die, and I desperately needed to know how much longer this suffering would go on. "Two to go" the officials shout back.

I eased up my pace, I'd never make two more laps at the rate I was burning energy. About 1/4 lap later I was passed and assumed the chase position. I held his wheel for another half lap, then was passed again. At this rate I'd be swallowed up by the field. I took a moment to recover, then focused all my energy to my pedal stroke. When exhaustion sets in, my form suffers horribly, "Round strokes, round strokes" I kept chanting. I needed every once of power I could muster. Before the race ended one more racer passed by me. I rolled across the line comfortably in 4th position. Well, comfortably might be over stating things. Yes, I had a nice lead on 5th position, however my body was not at all comfortable. Immediately upon finishing my head felt like it was going to explode, and I began coughing uncontrollably, it tasted metallic, like blood. I knew then I gave everything I had.

A friend asked if I was riding high after the race. I scoffed at first, a bit disappointed having lost the lead... but then realized what I had accomplished. For the first time in my life, I lead a race for multiple laps, and I made other racers suffer. That's pretty cool!

Missed a bunch of teammates and friends today... Didn't see Dan O, Jane, or the Black Sheep Cartel. Hope to see everyone on Sunday, BossCross #2

DeStad Cyclocross - Diamond Blackfan

2009-10-01T12:00:00.001-05:00

I'm a little late posting last week's results, and thus the memory's of that day are beginning to fade. To keep things short and sweet, I race two races. Masters 35+ (CAT 4), and CAT 3/4. I performed well in the Masters and turned out a podium finish, 3rd place. The second race (3/4) I went out well, but died after 1 lap, finished 29 out of 38.

Other notable things about the day....

- Course was great... suited me I think.

- Weather sucked... Sunny and hot, too warm for cross.

- Teammate Dan O. finished 3rd in 3/4 race.

Series 60CX - KC Cup

2009-09-20T23:00:00.002-05:00

In spite of the temperature being over 80 degrees, the trees still leafy and green, and not being able to find a spot of mud to save ones life. In spite of all this... It's Cyclocross Season! Today's KC Cup at Swope Park kicked things off with an interesting course that mixed the standard grass course with sections of pavement and single track. This being my first CX race, and not exactly knowing what to expect, I found myself starting a bit further back than desired. I started somewhere around 25Th. No matter though, I managed to work my way up and finished 13Th of 37 today, probably about the same placing I'd have held with a better start. Not a stellar finish, but satisfying for a first attempt.

Cross is, obviously, very different from road racing, the efforts are in someways more violent. Conservation of energy really doesn't factor into a cross race, its more or less all out, all the time. Your on the gas hard, and then grabbing a fist full (or two) of brake. Then its all gas again. The turns are crazy, some so tight that you're barely moving forward to get around them, while others you're taking a speeds which test the limits of friction, as you try to remain upright. Then there are the barriers... I watched two guys go down and eat shit as they misjudged their speed approaching the first set of barriers. In hindsight its kind of funny, but at the time you're just trying to get around them without becoming part of their misfortune. Speaking of eating shit, the paved sections of today's race were covered in horse dung. I was mentioning to the others how I kept trying to avoid the piles everywhere, Chuong on the other hand joked that it's better to hit them all, as it flings shit at your competitors.

I had a great time today, and can't wait till next week. Below are a couple photo's from the Men's Open Race, and Cat4's

Full Results http://360racing.org/results.html

Parkville: an untapped resource

2009-08-16T15:51:00.005-05:00

Recently, I've become bored with my typical training ride routine. Beyond boredom, I've noticed how many of my normal routes are not doing much to benefit my weak points, namely climbing. I've been hearing for sometime now that Parkville has great roads, and lots of climbs. Steve V, and I rode over to check them out today, and PVille did not disappoint. While I still need to fine tune a couple of routes to learn which roads to avoid, I can definitely see this area becoming my new playground. Lots more hills, and the climbs are longer. Below is the route we took today... Any future rides will probably try to avoid Tom Watson Rd, and/or Chouteau Trafficway, as they're higher traffic roads that seem unnecessary.

08/16/2009 Parkvile, MO
Find more Bike Rides in Kansas City, Missouri

Tour of KC - Part Deux

2009-08-13T20:11:00.007-05:00

This weekend was round two for the Tour of KC. The series was shortened this year. Rather than Racing Friday in KCK, Saturday on Cliff Drive, and Sunday in Overland Park. The Cliff Drive route was ex'd from the weekend schedule due to road construction.

I don't have any great placing to write about this weekend, not that I very frequently do. Saturday was a scorcher, I'm not sure how both the June and August Series' ended up on the hottest weekends of the year, but that's what happened. Heat index for saturday was said to be 108. I didn't have the stuff on this day, no way no how. So, with about 8 laps to go, and my body begging for mercy, I pulled myself from the race. Everything about this day was very reminiscent of the Longview Crit, especially in terms of pace, heat, and attrition.

Saturday, I probably didn't start out so great. I didn't get a good jump off the line, and started the first lap many places down. After a lap or two, gaps began to form. I fought to bridge or close each of the openings, and eventually came across a hole I couldn't sew up. I worked with a few riders, and solo'd a bit, however my efforts were squelched when the leaders lapped me at 2 to go. This happened right at the start/finish, so I was obviously pulled and received a DNP.

I'll be looking for one maybe two more races before CX. Sedalia is likely, Gateway Cup is questionable.

Cyclocross Stallion

2009-08-06T19:53:00.008-05:00

So cyclocross season is almost here, and my bike is ready. I wish I could take credit for this thing, but really all I did was say, "Yes" to Britton's suggestions.

Build by: Britton of Volker Bicycles

Pake C'Mute Frame, Ritchey Carbon fork, IRD cranks, Dura-ace BB, Sram 2010 Force Group, TRP Eurox brakes, Mavic Pro w/ Stans tubeless kit, Salsa Bell lap bars, Thompson Post. About the only thing I plan on changing out is the stem, probably go with a Ritchey or Thompson.

Turf Machine

2009-07-25T15:14:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow (sunday 26 July) is the Kansas Track Championship race. We don't exactly have a proper velodrome here in the KC area, so this race will be on a grass track. To my knowledge, this will be the first of many grass track races to come.

My before building up my cyclocross bike Volker bicycles has taken my Pake frame, and kit it out for the track.

No more expectations

2009-07-13T07:21:00.005-05:00

It seems like every time I place some sort of expectation on my results I end up falling well short on my abilities. This weekend I raced in the Tour de Susquehanna, a local race in my home town. It's a short 21 mile road race with a good mix of hills and flats. The race may be unsanctioned by USA Cycling, but its as well organized as any race I've ever attended, the only exception being the absence of a wheel truck.

The race has grown a bit over its short 4 year history, and this year's field was 90 riders. Ninety riders of all categories' and abilities makes you a little nervous at the start, but it actually wasn't as sketchy as I thought it could be. Most folk knew their ability level, and lined up accordingly. The race starts with a long 3 mile stair-step climb. the first 1.5 miles are relativity easy, but then the road pitches up for roughly .75 miles between 6-8%, the final bit of the climb levels off again to maybe 4%, but it still stings because you can't see it's end. I lost the front 20+ riders halfway up the steep section of the climb. I chased for 7 miles before a group of 7 riders caught me, I used them to catch a small pair of riders just up the road containing my friend James. Once we were all grouped up James peddled a good tempo on the final climb and shed a rider or two, then on the flat run into the finish he and I put in a couple of attacks to shed another. At the end it was about a group of 5. One guy got the jump on me with 250 to go. I thought I'd have him, but couldn't close the gap, still we both pulled strong through the finish. I was 25th on the day (1:02:39).

I'm disappointed I didn't hang with the group on the first climb. In the days leading up to the race I felt strong and felt like I could win. The expectations I placed on myself had an adverse effect, rather than rising to the occasion I crumpled. I was riding harder and faster all week, but when it came time to perform, my nerves kicked in and I suffered. Suffered on the climbs and the flats! Physically, I know my body was capable of riding faster, but on this day, I rode like it was an early season spring race. After the finish there was a free breakfast, it was all I could do to force down the food. My nerves still had my stomach tied in knots.

I don't know that I've ever had a great race, while I may have had decent, or OK performances, I've never felt great for any of them. I'm done trying to race for a placing, or what you'd traditionally call a "Good" finish. I'm done setting the expectation of a top 3, 5 or 10. For the rest of the year, I'm racing to ride as hard as I can. No matter what my placing, I want to feel like I raced as hard and fast as my body was capable of producing. Crossing the line in 1st or 50th, I want to look back and say "damn, I was riding fast today."

Feeling like 10 men

2009-07-05T21:39:00.004-05:00

I'm back in rural Pennsylvania, and I put in an averaged paced 35 miles, and I felt great. Today was probably the best I've felt on the bike in the last month. While I didn't ride too hard, I put in a couple of efforts that should have resulted in fatigue, but instead only whetted my appetite for more. I'm not exactly sure what caused this change in performance, but I suspect it was related to taking 4 days off. Taking days off seems to be a tricky science, I've noticed one or two days can make me feel sluggish, but longer breaks, 4 or 5 days, has made me feel like 10 men. I hope this feeling carries through the next week or two.

Tour of KC - Day 3 (Power and Light)

2009-06-28T20:04:00.003-05:00

It seems I don't quite have the fitness to consistently hang with the top 15-20 riders in my category. That's something I need to work on before the end of this year.

Today's race was a short half mile loop. The course didn't have any flat ground, you either went uphill or down. I actually liked the course, and found it to be more fun in practice, than it looked on paper. The hills weren't long or particularly steep, but hitting them over and over (roughly every 1 - 1.5 minutes) really took it out of you.

I started today's race near the back but quickly worked my way towards the front 3rd. I moved forward and back for the first 4-6 laps but started to loose power on the second, slightly steeper hill. I held the leaders within 60-100m for several more laps, but eventually the hills took there toll, and I started slipping ground further. I grouped up with the chase riders, and stayed with them throughout the remainder of the race. I found that I could corner a bit faster than most of the group, or maybe I just had less fear of crashing. I'd jump to the front going down the backstretch, dive bomb the two down hill turns, hold my position going up the first hill, then ultimately loose ground on the second hill. This went on for at least 10 laps, before the race officials pulled us at lap 20. I don't know how to rate my performance today... Physically I felt moderately strong, 7 or 8 out of 10, but mentally, I did not race smart. I burnt too much energy in area's where I should have just grabbed a wheel. This was a challenging course for me, and I should have been conserving energy for the first 10+ laps. Instead I was lighting matches left and right.

Couple weeks off from racing now... Going to ride some hills in PA, and get myself into better shape.

Tour of KC - Day 2 (Lee's Summit)

2009-06-28T01:03:00.002-05:00

Another race day, and another less than stellar finish. I wasn't feeling it before today's start, I spent about 30 minutes spinning at a varied pace and just didn't feel like I had all my power or stamina. This is rarely something new though. I almost never feel on my game pre-start. As a pre-race routine, I do what I can to open up the lungs and blood vessels prior to the whistle, but ultimately it's the race that gets me warmed up. I either hang on long enough through this warming period, or I a fall off pace, and find my legs during the chase. Today I got a little power back during the chase, but still not full speed. Just once I'd like to feel like a machine and go like hell, maybe tomorrow will be better. I think I'm going to warm up at a considerably higher intensity, see how that works.

I didn't have a placing for today, officials pulled about 15 or 20 of us just after the 7 laps to go.

Tour of KC - Day1 (Longview)

2009-06-26T22:16:00.005-05:00

Mother eFF'ing HOT!!! What else needs to be said?

Today's race was really hard, I don't care who you were, everybody suffered. The heat was oppressing, kind of like racing in a microwave oven while simultaneously sucking on the business end of a hair dryer. I think average pace was somewhere around 22 mph! For a Crit.... that's slow. I just couldn't get the job done today, finished 32 of 42. My hat goes off to Eric S. and David N. for their top 10 finishes, way to go guys! Time to drink some water and rest, tomorrow's another day!

Reconnoiter

2009-06-22T22:01:00.004-05:00

This weekend is the Tour of KC (Round 1), I've been eagerly awaiting this series for months now. For one, I figured my form would be coming along right about now, which it's OK, pretty good for me. Two, I thought it would be nice to race in our team's city, and have maybe a handful of spectators who weren't other CATs waiting their turn to race. Three, I thought the courses would probably suit me.

The June series will consists of three criteriums. Friday night is Longview, Saturday will take place in the quaint town of Lees Summit, then Sunday will be Downtown KC adjacent to the power & light district. After months of speculation over what the actual race courses would look like, we now finally have a race bible with the details. I have to say... it's not quite what I expected. The longview race has the longest loop of all three races. I had hoped this course would include a loop through the park area which had rolling hills and blind turns, perfect for breakaways, but instead we're on a course which is more like a stretched out figure 8, and portions of the course loop back onto itself. I will expect riders to get pulled from this race for safety reasons, and I don't know what the plan will be if a break does get off the front. Conceivably, a gap of more than 400 meters could put riders at risk of collision near the corner of Longview rd & Longview rd.

Tonight I rode a few laps around the Power and Light circuit. Despite the short course, hard 90 degree turns, and two hills, this will be a fast race. No one's going to break off the front, but I predict each lap will snap riders legs off the back. Look for selection of riders to be chosen in the first 5-10 laps. It's not going to be possible for a field of 50+ riders to stay in this race till the end. Think KS State Champ crit in Pittsburg... over half the field was shelled off the back in two laps. This course will favor someone who can corner well and is more of a power climber. The hills are not long, just 20 - 60 meters in length, but you'll need to almost sprint them to hang on for the initial selection. The key will be corning well so you can carry your momentum up the hills.

I see some challenges for myself in all three of these races, and I'm still aiming for a strong finish. Sunday's race will be the hardest, but I'm confident I'll be there in the end.

Course Maps and start times:

Friday - Longview

Cat 4's - 5:45

Cat 3's - 6:40

Saturday - Lees Summit

Cat 5's - 4:30

Cat 3's - 5:30

Cat 4's - 7:40

Sunday - Power & Light

Cat 3's - 10:30

Cat 4's - 1:00

Cat 5's - 1:50

New Weapons

2009-06-19T20:04:00.003-05:00

I finally decided on a set of Race wheels, picked them up from Volker today. I choose the Reynolds Solitudes. They may not be the fastest or lightest wheel out there, but they're aero, stiff, lighter than my current Open Pro's, and ultimately... I just felt confident on them. For the real icing on the cake, Britton mated them to Vittoria Open Corsa CX's and used latex tubes. To get the full experience, I was advised to dropped the pressure. I have to say the ride was superb, best I've experienced on my bike. I could feel the road, without really "feeling" the road, yet I still felt fast. Get 'em while supplies last :)

Route from Downtown KC to Longview and Lee's Summit

2009-06-15T17:00:00.001-05:00

Living in downtown KC, it is sometimes difficult to find long rides that don't traverse dangerous sections of roadway. This weekend, I found a decent ride from Kansas City to Lee's Summit (also passing by Longview). While some of the ride does cross multi-lane urban roads, the traffic volume is quite low, and I found the motorist in these area's to be quite friendly.

The mapped ride below is about 45 miles, but its quite easy to extend this out even further.

Map My Ride

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/mo/kansas-city/801124507654884485

Ouch!

2009-06-10T19:58:00.011-05:00

My crash-free streak is over! To my recollection, it had been over 10 years since I went down on a bike, but that good fortune came to a close during tonight's hill repeat workout. I was soft pedaling between my 6th and 7th interval, along Pershing Rd. My front wheel dropped into a metal expansion joint, causing it to quick slide out to the right, and me to fall like an industrial sized sack of potatoes. No major injuries though. I have some road rash on my elbow, and my right hand/wrist aches a bit when I try to grip things. Other than that, I appear to be OK. My initial examination of the bike appears to have only scraped up the left shift leaver.

UPDATED - 11 June

Site of the accident... Expansion joints directly in front of the IRS.

Kansas State Championship

2009-06-08T11:42:00.009-05:00

I don't live in Kansas, but the championship races are open to anyone. I decided to attended along with a number of my teammates. Five of us piled into the BK mini-van early saturday morning and made tracks for Pittsburg, KS.

Road Race

The race field was a little smaller than previous weekends, approximately 40 riders. We set out on a fairly easy pace, the wind was blowing hard and no one wanted to expend any extra energy in the early miles of the race, this suited me just fine because I hadn't warmed up prior to the start. After 15 or 20 minutes someone decided to go off the front, and the race was on. First lap was easy. The peloton chased, but not terribly hard. Each lap ended with a gentle hill (approx 3 or 4% grade) that went on for approximately 250 yards. Despite the slow pace, I've learned to put myself into good position on the hills, because I'm not the best climber. I started in the front third going up the hill and held my spot (for the most part). The only positions I gave up were to a small handful of riders who attacked. After the hill we made a loop around the school and started lap 2.

Lap two was much the same as lap one, the pace was quick, but not terribly fast. All attacks were short lived. As we approached the hill, I did not move up to the front. The effort required to stay with the group on the first lap was well within my abilities, and I didn't feel it was necessary to make up spots. This turned out to be a fatal miscalculation. The pace surged on the hill, and the peloton started to stretch out like a rubber band. Coming through the start finish the wind was fierce, and the gaps were beginning to form. After rounding the school, the elastic broke and I was on the wrong end. As we made the turn south (into the wind) Chase groups began to form, nearly half the field was now chasing so there were plenty of riders to pull everyone back. Steve V and I kept hopping from one group to the other trying to find the fastest one. Each of us were putting in hard, fast pulls, however others in the group were either unwilling or unable. Both of us would put in a hard pull, fall to the back of a 5 to 10 rider group, only to find ourselves coming to the front again to pull. It was kind of silly, and almost looked like we were attacking the chase group but really we just wanted to get things rolling. Eventually the group I was in attacked and we lost a handful of riders. We still had one rider (Not from the area) that was screwing up the flow. He couldn't hold a wheel or put in any strong pulls. I constantly found myself needing to close gaps this guy left open only seconds before it was my turn to pull at the front. I burned every match I had, then sat up and waited for Steve V. He convinced me to continue on, and we more or less rode the remaining 1.5 lap (21 miles) together. I could barely walk after stepping off the bike, my feet were killing me. I think I finished somewhere around 26th.

Crit

Despite having slept well (thanks to the hospitality of the Britton's family), I woke up sunday feeling tired. I poured a lot of effort into the previous day's RR, and I just wasn't fully recovered. It turned out many of the riders felt the same way. The crit took off moderately fast, I was having a hard time getting my engine started, and found myself just barely hanging onto the back of the group. It only took about 2 laps to drop half the field, I managed to hang on for approximately 10 or so laps, but slipped off pace when everyone surged for one of the primes. I rode my own pace for a couple of laps and hooked up with a velotek rider who helped me on a couple laps. After two laps with this gentleman, I was starting to recover and I noticed the lead group was only a quarter of a lap ahead. I debated in my mind whether I should try to jump across. The guy I was with didn't have anything left, so if I went it would have to be on my own. I didn't go... It's probably the only time during the whole weekend I didn't give all I had, and really my only regret. I finished around 11th or 12th.

I didn't have successful results at the RR or Crit, but I surprised myself in a couple of areas. Especially while in the chase group at Saturday's road race. I put in some strong efforts chasing, efforts I didn't realize I had in me. If I'd have raced a little smarter, I might have finished within the top 10 or 15.

Racing = Pain

2009-05-30T11:18:00.014-05:00

My only two readers are beginning to ask about my lack of blogging. It's been a week since our road trip to Burlington, and I probably have enough prospective on the weekend to write about it now.

It was hard!

No shit, you say. What race isn't? Since Cat'ing up to the 4's I've not had a lot of success. I don't know that I expected to win any 4's races this year. I did, however, expect to almost always be present in the peloton. I thought I'd be there getting stronger, be there to help teammates, and be there to test myself. It's not quite worked out like that.

My first few 4's races were marred with mechanicals or road carnage, and while I hadn't always been taken out of the race, I was most certainly left behind. I have a tremendous amount of respect for pro riders who can flat out, change a wheel, then chase back on @ 28-30+mph. Granted they may have a few cars to help along the way, but it still takes some seriously hard ridding.

Going into Iowa I was really desperate for respectable finish, I needed redemption, and I needed to know I belonged with the 4's. Friday's road race, answered my doubts, and I finished my first combined 3/4 race with the group and wearing a smile. I could have gotten upset for not putting myself closer to the front and testing myself in the sprint, but I was just happy to be there, happy to not be off the back.

Saturday was the Snake Alley Criterium, and while this may have been the primary reason for our team going to Iowa, I didn't have any personal goals or ambitions in this race. I was in it to have fun. This was a billy goat course. A race designed for the pure climber, with nerves of steel. You climbed a long steep curvy hill, then risked everything on a high speed decent, only to do it over again, and again, again...etc. I fell off the pace really quickly, but so did half the others, In the span of two laps this race was stretched out over a mile. You could hardly tell which end was the front and which was the back. After 4 laps the race officials pulled me off the course. I was still on the lead lap, and a bit disappointed since other riders, who I'd passed, weren't pulled. I couldn't get too upset though. I would have been overtaken by the leaders very soon, and I had absolutely no chance of placing anywhere near the top 20. It was fun though. I suffered on every peddle stroke, but it was a wonderful personal challenge, you could play games in your head and make each person in front of you a different challenge to overtake.

Sunday was Mellon City, this is the race that broke my spirit, the race that shut me up for the last week. I came into Mellon City still riding high from Friday's road race. Criteriums are probably more my thing because they're usually pretty flat, and require a little more bike handling ability. I wanted to do something in this race. I told myself I would work hard and try to place, I even told my teammates as much. The course wasn't exactly flat, it had a steady 4% climb that was probably close to 250 m long. Still, I thought my training had been good, and I was ready for this race. The whistle was blown and everyone took off, first turn was 100+ degree's to the left, then we raced (timidly) toward a speed bump. We all caught some air, and charged up the hill. I'm riding at the back, at this point, but didn't think much of it; sense this is where I had lined up to start. On the way up the hill, I'm slipping positions fast. At the top I'm disconnected a bit with a group of 3 or 4 riders. We made a series of hard turns 110 degrees right, and then 100 degrees left. The turns were scrubbing all my momentum, and the accelerations to stay on pace were brutal. We're now going back down hill again. I think, no worries, Ill catch the group, but then I realize I'm not catching my breath, let alone the group. I'm gasping like the wind was knocked out of me. I reach the bottom of the hill, finally have controlled breathing again, just in time to race up the hill again. I put in a small effort going up the hill, and I can't remember exactly, but I either gave up on this lap or the next. I kept thinking, What went wrong, what's wrong with me.

For days after this race, I was thinking of excuses to blame my performance on; Over training, illness, allergies, but ultimately I think it was due to an over inflated view of my own conditioning. Although I hadn't had much success in 4's racing, my training rides felt good. I had a subconscious sense that I could hang with my teammates, and other racers, without hurting too much. This race was hard, really hard, and I didn't think I should have been suffering that much, I thought something was wrong with me. Nothing was wrong, I just needed to suck it up more, and hurt more. My conditioning wasn't at the level I thought it was, but I should have been able to finish the race.

Iowa taught me a lot. Racing is hard, and with each day that I grow stronger, so does my competition. To win is going to hurt, breaking away will hurt, and sometimes just finishing a race will hurt.

Burlington Iowa road race

2009-05-22T23:02:00.004-05:00

Team Colavita / Parisi Coffee, has placed their stamp on Iowa. Tonight 5 of us (Matt, Dan, Steve, Britton, and myself) raced from Wapello to Burlington. The route was 33.3mi of flat terrain, and we averaged 26.6 mph. From the start, the race was plagued with jitters and wrecks. I saw one pile up throw a bike at least 7+ feet in the air. Once we cleared the neutral start (about 3 miles), the pace surged on and off from 20 to 33 mph and back again. Everyone was started according to their race number, and since the team hadn't pre-registered, this meant we were stuck at the back. Hanging on the back of a surging peloton requires a lot more work, and at times I felt like I was close to redlining. Eventually, after about 5 or 10 miles, I finally got a chance to move up. Throughout the race a few attacks went off the front, one or two included Dan O, but each attack was quickly reeled in. The finish was a little confusing to most of us, I for one hadn't realized we were at the finish until well after the sprint had started. Dan and Matt were up front with 500m to go. Dan barried himself leading out Matt, who then took it to the line for a 1st place finish. I finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. Congrats to Matt P for another great finish.

Giro d'talia Coverage

2009-05-12T19:23:00.004-05:00

So for those who haven't already heard the Giro d'talia does, in fact, have North American Television Coverage. Universal Sports acquired the broadcast rights in an eleventh hour negotiation, leaving cycling.tv in the cold. Universal's online coverage would appear to be live only, no on-demand downloads. If you're local to Kansas City, and have TimeWarrner Cable, you'll be slightly bummed out to learn this channel is not presently available, although I urge you to place a request with TWC as I suspect Universal Sports has a multi-year contract for this event. There is another coverage option available in the KC Metro area, you could add the TWC channel 184 (Radio Administration Italiano), better download rosetta stone first though, because this broadcast is in italian.

Universal Sports just changed their video player, in the last 24 hours. So you if you're having trouble viewing the content you may want to check their support page to be sure your browser and plugins are compatible.

Lastly if you're looking for alternative coverage options checkout steephill.tv, they have a comprehensive listing of coverages for broadcast, web video, and text update sites.

New fizik bar tape

2009-05-04T19:31:00.004-05:00

I just wrapped up some new fizik bar tape, and despite my child-like tape wrapping skills -it looks bad ass. This time I opted to show the red stripe, rather than wrap it under.

Up one day down another

2009-05-03T17:00:00.001-05:00

I felt really strong during Saturday's team ride, and that good feeling led to some bad habits. I didn't rehydrate, refuel, and and rest nearly as much as I should have, and ended up paying the price dearly on Sunday's ride.

Right from the start I was feeling bad, and it was taking a great deal of effort to hang on, even over flat terrain. Once the road turned upward, I was dropped... really dropped. I contemplated turning around, Especailly once I started getting chased by every dog in KCK. My mood was turning foul, because I've had some close calls with dogs while on bikes. I don't really blame the dog, It's not the dogs fault -doesn't know any better, so I hold most of my anger for it's neglectful owner. Pedaling on I could see Eric just up the road, he was having a little trouble too. I focused on catching him, and thought we might be able to rejoin the group together. He found his legs a little sooner than I, and caught the group on his own. I eventually joined up about a mile later.

At a stop-light I saw Britton was chewing on a power bar and I begged for a small piece. The desperation in my eyes must have been evident, because he handed over everything that was left. We rolled a few hundred meters up the road and stopped at a shell station. I refilled my bottles and my belly with lots of "flavored water" (inside joke), and we rolled on. The pace continued to be high, and the more fluids I drank the better I felt. Still my muscles ached from yesterday's hard efforts and I couldn't push too hard for too long.

We were over 30 miles upon our arrival back at Volker Bicycles. Everyone hung around a bit and talked about the day, our bikes, and what we had planned for the week. I had Britton (and Melissa) look over my bike, as it wasn't shifting properly. A frayed cable was found in the right shift lever, it it was fixed along with a leaking tube. I'm as good as new now :)

Saturday Latte Land ride

2009-05-02T16:23:00.003-05:00

Awoke before my alarm this morning, a rarity. Still, I manged to waste enough time getting ready and I had to ride extra hard to make the 9am start time on the Plaza. Arriving on the corner, It took me all of 30 seconds to notice Britton was carrying three bottles. Three bottles! This from a guy who normally shows up with a single bottle... and likely doesn't drink half. Questions on the days length and intensity we're welling in my head, especially since I had brought 1 bottle, and no snacks. My mind was eased when we learned the ride wasn't going to be 6 hours long :)

Todays route was nice; a slight departure from the normal Saturday ride, we ended up somewhere near Lee's Summit, MO (just east of Longview Lake). On the way home Britton raise the pace and allowed me to hang on his wheel. It was good training for a non-race weekend. A bit like motor pacing, because at times I was right at my limit. On blue river road we all took a pull at the front, this put me over the edge. When I dropped off the front; I fell back so fast I couldn't catch the tail. We regrouped a few hundred meters up the road, and peddled a easy pace home. About 40 miles in total today. I felt great, I don't have any metrics to compare my fitness against previous years, but my general feeling is good. I'd say I'm nearly stronger now than I was at any point last year. I'm excited to see where my fitness ends up.

My track bike is almost ready, I plan to start riding twice a day then. In the mornings I go out for an easy 30-45 minute ride on the track bike, then use the after work rides for my actual workouts. The slow morning rides should help bring myself down to fighting weight :)

Tuesday Night Crit

2009-04-29T23:22:00.003-05:00

Racing this weeks Tues Night Crit wasn't really at the forefront of my mind, but an email from Britton sparked some ambition, and I decided to go along. On the way out to Overland Park I was thinking of my game plan. Maybe I'd go off the front a few times or even contend the final sprint. We arrived and and kit'd up. I clip into my pedals and heard a snap, DAMN IT! I had just snapped the front bit off my Look cleat. Screw it, I thought, I'll race anyway. A group of us warmed up and I tested my pedal stroke with the busted cleat... It was a little awkward, but I thought it'd be alright.

The first lap is a netural start, and I was already having some trouble. My pedal stroke on my left leg was shortened signifficantly. I could push straight down, and pull back, but nothing else. My stroke was effectivly from 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock on my left side. I couldn't dare point my toes down, and certainly couldn't stand up.

After a few laps I came to the front, and pulled for a short distance. It wasn't too long after that I sat a lap out, I was still tired from the weekend, and this awkward pedal stoke was taking it's toll on my right leg. I jumped back in the race, and came to the front once again. This time just staying long enough to lift the pace. I drifted back caught my breath and on 2 laps to go I attempted to attack, but two things happened. One, my right leg about gave up, and two my left foot slipped, and I fell off the pedal. Having slipped off the pedal several times at key moments, I've probably scared the whole tues night peleton away from me for the next few weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if folks were saying, "Watch out for that Colavita rider, he doesnt know how to keep his feet clipped in", HA!

After the last slippage, I jumped out of the race and watched the team finish. I like the tuesday night crits, no pressure, no worries, just fun.

Previous Race Results

2009-04-27T22:14:00.000-05:00

3/07/2009 - Spring Fling #2, CAT5 35+, 9th place, 3 points
3/08/2009 - Perry Dam #1, CAT5 beginner, 6th place
3/14/2009 - Spring Fling #3, CAT5 35+, group finish
3/15/2009 - Perry Dam #2, CAT5 beginner, 7th
3/21/2009 - Spring Fling #4, CAT5 35+, 3rd place, 9 points
3/22/2009 - Perry Dam #3, CAT5 beginner, 7th
4/04/2009 - Spring Fling #6, CAT5 35+, 3 points
4/11/2009 - Spring Fling #1, CAT5 35+, 4th place
4/11/2009 - Spring Fling #1, CAT5 < 35 , group finish
4/18/2009 - Bazaar Road race, CAT4/5
4/21/2009 - Tuesday Night Crits, B-Race, group finish

VeloTek Grand Prix

2009-04-27T08:45:00.002-05:00

The Velotek Grand prix was a weekend of firsts for me. It was my first race as a CAT4, my first stage race, my first Time Trial, and my first road race over 50 miles. I felt all those firsts too, throughout my whole body.

Saturday began with the Time Trial, I received a lot of good advice from other team members about, how to warm up, breathing advice, where to exert the most effort, where to ease up and recover, overall effort levels, etc. I did my best to respect this advice, but its hard to focus on more than one thing in a new event. I went out hard, blew up a little, recovered, and then finished strong. My time was 4:20, not embarrassing, but not great either. Made me wish we could go best of 3.

The criterium was next, I psyched myself out a bit for this race by watching the 3's, and began to doubt my abilities. This doubt, combined with a poor warm-up made for a difficult start. Somewhere around lap eight I was run off the course into the gravel. I don't believe the move was intentional, and I recovered just fine. Eventually I found my legs and confidence and finished with the group.

Sunday, was a 58 mile road race. This worried me more than Saturday's crit. Hills are not my specialty and this course had plenty of them. Thankfully they were more like rollers, and none of exceeded a 1/2 mile in length. My warm up was deplorable... I think I spent all of 2.5 minutes spinning before lining up; the first 10 miles were tough as a result. Somewhere around mile 16 a crash took out my teammate, Steve V. Thankfully Steve did not suffer major injurys, however his bike was crippled with a broken derailleur hanger. This crash lowered the overall pace of the peloton which became very noticeable on the next downhill section.

A few miles from Steve's crash we began one of the larger/steeper climbs of the day, I shifted into my small chain ring and began pedaling quickly... too quicky, I thought! I looked down and saw my chain slipped. This couldn't have happened at a worse time. Cursing aloud, I pulled to the edge of the road. I lifted the chain onto my small ring, and spun the pedals with my hand it slipped again. I saw the pack racing away... Panicking I fixed the chain once more. I jump on my saddle, but my foot slipped. I fell; catching myself with a hand on the ground. I was even more concerned as the pack charges up the hill. It took me another 3 or 4 tries to get clipped in and start pedaling. By this time the last person had crested the hill, and I could no longer see the pack.

As I come over the hilltop, the wind hit me hard. I see the group at least 300m and maybe a 1/2 mile up the road. I know my chances of catching are slim, but it doesn't matter. The race to the finish line, the race for time... is over in my mind. My new race, is catching the group. I pushed hard, hard enough it took a group of 3 behind me almost 5 miles to close a few hundred meter gap. Once I was caught I folded into the group and took my turns pulling into the wind. We nearly finished the first 24 mile lap, and I began searching for motivation to push on for a second. It's really hard to pass up a car full of food, when you're hurting, and the race has passed you by. I found new motivation, remembering my mid-week emails to the 5's team encouraging everyone CAT up to the 4's... specifically citing the longer distance as a good reason. Damn, the permanence of email! I also envisioned all the fat calories I'd burn. As I passed the finish with one lap to go I waited at the top motioning to the others to come join me for a second lap. Two riders joined me, and the third abandoned. We made our way around the course, not really racing, more for ceremony. We even stopped once for a rider's emergency bathroom break. My teammates got a kick out of that... "What? You stopped and waited during a timed race". I think we finished a long time after the pack... not sure of the exact time, but but I'd estimate 30 minutes maybe an hour.

Despite my less than steller finish, I'm happy with my move to the 4's. This week was a learning experience, and above all -Fun!