Staten Island Cyclocross

It was a lot of fun and a huge success!

Kudos to the organizers, the sausage and waffle makers, the DJ, and everyone who participated. I hope it returns next year, in multiples.

My bike got a little muddy.


Can anyone hold back a smile? We had fun sloshing around in the mud. My team mates were faster than me with their Gin and Trombones (gins and tromboneses?).

Get the full scoop at http://statencx.wordpress.com

Power : 2 or 3 lightbulbs worth

Depending on whether we're talking about 75 or 100 watt bulbs my spindly legs could power more than two of them... for an hour. It seems like such a waste of energy... but I'm still pleased to be producing more power than in 2007.

It looks like the sprint is the area most improved. I got the powermeter in August 2007, so the 2007 numbers are probably less than perfect, but I wouldn't say they're irrelevant.



Signed up for my first cyclocross race of 2008 coming up this Saturday. Haven't been riding much so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Fall Winter Summer Spring

Got back from Argentina recently and it's amazing what a good dose of red meat and hearty red wine can do for the spirit. It also didn't hurt that it was Spring instead of Autumn.

I'll post more bike related musings in a minute - but for now here's a few photos from a walk around the neighborhood.

8/29 - 9/1

The Green Mountain Stage Race 2008.

Friday, day 1. Prologue. 5.7 hilly miles.
Never got the feeling of going fast. Average heart rate 174. Could have rested a little better before the start instead of doing 5 and 8 minute intervals on Tuesday. Finished 31st.

Saturday, day 2. Circuit race. 65 miles.
We're doing two laps on this 30 mile circuit. There is a KOM competition on the first lap as well as a sprinter's competition.

KOM: I'm feeling good. Somehow I seized an easy opportunity. With 100m to go to the KOM there are two riders up the road and a third struggling in between. I am sitting 10 wheels back, but nobody is making any moves. We just watch him struggle. At 50 yards to go I find a hole and sprint up to take third. I have two points in the KOM competition, this is a bizarre surprise to me.

The KOM is followed by flats and a long descent. At the end of the descent is a sharp right turn and a straight line to the finish line / sprinter's competition.

Breakaway: After coming out of that sharp right turn I find myself 100 yards ahead of the field. This is interesting, so I pedal on at good pace and gain a few more yards on the field. I can hope that other riders will join me. After a little while, Robert Carmen bridges up and we start to work together. I think this is going to be a 2-3 mile break but the sprinter's points are much further away than I expected. Although we establish a good gap, I think we should have waited until the 5k mark. After riding the break for a few miles I ask Robert if he knows where the finish is? He says we have about 8 miles to go... 7 miles more than I expected! I should have dropped back at this point, but we had such a huge gap that we both press on with all the force we can muster. I feel we can make the gap insurmountable. With 250 yards to go our gap is worthless, only 10 yards, and it's over. No sprinter's points for Robert or me.

Lap two: Halfway through I drink all my fluids and start to feel crampy, another rider at the back notices this and kindly offers half a bottle. Finished 14th.

Day 3, Appalachian Gap. 75 miles.
No cramping!!! 4 bottles fluid.

• 2 big bottles: sustained energy
• 1 big & 1 regular plain water
• 4-6 electrolyte tabs
• Full flask of perpetuem gel

Our motopace stops the entire field for a pee break - that helps a lot since I really have to go.

Sprinter's competition: From 3k all the way to 1k a bunch of skinny non-sprinters are all battling for position. I try to stay away from them since it is a downhill sprint. At 1k, I am at the front, waiting. There is still a lone rider rider off the front. The yellow jersey passes on my left and I accelerate to take his wheel. I stay on the wheel for a second too long and another big dude flies past me at 200m. I jump... but but it is too late for 2nd place so I have 3rd.

I stay with the leaders all the way to the top of Baby Gap. I've decided to ride the Appgap at my own pace, but an error in judgement causes me to forget the long descent from babygap to appgap. The support vehicle passes me and they are screaming to catch back on! Mentally I decide the effort is not worth it and lose a few minutes riding alone to the start of Appgap.

Day 4, Criterium, 21 miles (34 laps)
The day starts out with an unpleasant surprise, a $35 penalty and retraction of my sprinter's points. The rule is cited as 4H9A (p.91 of the usac rulebook). Basically the motopace driver decided that when some rider behind me crossed the yellow line at 800m to go it was my fault -- I never crossed the yellow line and never had any physical contact with any other riders. Nor did I obstruct any other riders. It is the other rider's responsibility to mind the line and I did not do anything erratic. So I search for 20 minutes until I locate the chief referee and she is not much help. I didn't file a protest in writing before the start of day 4, and there is no chance to contest the penalty. I must pay the fine.

Once the race starts, I decide that the smartest strategy is to not contest any of the midrace sprints and save it for the finish. I drop my chain right before the neutral start, but the racing feels good. Towards the end there are 2-3 riders whom I'm consciously trying to avoid, they seem tired and erratic. At 7 laps to go I give a little jump up the hill to test the field. Nobody seems to have the legs to respond. I do it again with 4 to go and again nobody responds. I decide I must start riding at the front.

The crash: With two laps to go, I am 3rd wheel (I think). Unfortunately the GMBC rider in front of me cooks the turn pretty badly as I'm going around him and we smash into the hay bales. I start to get up and another rider comes slamming into my head. Ouch. I decide to curl up until everyone finishes piling up. Finally, when I can get up, I check my wheels and although both are out of true I release the brake adjusters and they spin. I spend what seems like an hour getting the chain back on. The free lap rule ended at 8 laps to go. I pass 3-4 riders and finish. I am disappointed. Finished 21st.

After the race I notice the carbon seatstay on my gorgeous Lemond is completely broken. I decide that racing cat4 sucks and I'd rather have my ass handed to me in the 30+ master's field (with former pro's all the way down to cat 4s) than do this type of race again. The 4b race is full of old beginners. Until my wrist stops aching, my roadrash heals, and I have a bike to ride, I may be a bit surly.

Staying motivated

When you have to wait 4 hours for a 15 lap scratch race at the velodrome...

When you have to wake up at 5:00am to race counterclockwise loops in a park...

When this is the motopace vehicle... life must be good!

I would race faster to catch up to it, look at all of those delicious donuts.

Remember to thank officials, referees, and marshals... without them a season of racing and results would be impossible.

photo credit velocitynation.com

Colors

A friend edited a picture and made this for me.

Here's the original.




Here's what he did to it. It looks fast with a neon-green helmet and purple kit.



And inspiration coming from fixedgearlondon.com.

Rest (not) and Track Racing

I decided to take a week off, attempting complete rest to let my body recover. I thought I might be able to go to the gym for a yoga or pilates (eek!) and get my mind away from the intensity of racing. Also I'm tired of wearing spandex.

At 4:45pm on Wednesday, after a rough day, I decided that the only way to cure what ails me would be to head to the velodrome. It was a difficult proposition since getting to there in time usually means leaving at 5pm. I also needed to switch out the reynolds road fork I'd installed for the crca timetrial (front brake required) in order to obtain the proper track geometry. Once that was ready, I scurried around looking for a clean team kit, and had to resort to the bottom of the laundry pile for a jersey, but I was ready and out the door by 5:30. I rode a little faster than usual and made it in time.

The first race was a win and out, timed my attack perfectly and hit the bank of turn 2 really nicely, establishing a huge gap between myself and the rest of the field. 51x15 felt great, almost too light. As I approached the finish line, the bell rang, and I realized that the sprint for winner would be on the next lap. Slowing down at this point was an ever bigger mistake than attacking too early, but that's exactly what I did, rolling in at 5th place.

The rest of the events went only a little better. I wasn't too focused. I'm done taking it easy and I hope I got enough rest. The New York State track championships are a week and half away, and the 154 mile Green Mountain Stage Race is the week after that.

Lesson: cut your losses.

Biting off another road-blogger's style I am posting a youtube video of a song... that's been in my head for the last two races.

3 race recap

The results are starting to come in, but I feel I should be doing more. I won a bunch of merchandise at a race in Pennsylvania on Sunday (8/3/08) by taking both preems. I misjudged the finishing sprint and got 19th overall at that race.

Wednesday (8/6/08) at the velodrome, I seemed to be following moves rather than making them. The key to my racing is knowing that I can break the will of the competition. Everyone looks strong until they crack. I've been good at waiting for opportunity to knock, but not at making the race go my way. This leads to occasional wins and consistent 3rd place. Need to attack and sustain. I also need to start sprinting much sooner, before the 200m line, not coming out of turn 4 with 50m to go.

Tuesday (8/5/08) I raced at Floyd Bennett field to get some tempo work as preparation for the velodrome. I was in a small break but it wasn't working out with 4 laps to go. Just as we were about to get reabsorbed someone was gracious enough to shout "Right!" as an Organic rider bridged up and shot past us. Seeing an opportunity, I jumped on his wheel. He pulled through the first corner, kept going for a little bit, then bonked. I was on my own with a big enough gap to stay at the front. Since my goal was tempo work, I settled in fast but not impossible pace and started thinking about the upcoming time trial (on the same course). I think I'll bring music for the TT. I stayed away for a lap on my own. On the long straight I hoped to get a bit of a draft off the pace vehicle but he drove off to my dismay and I stupidly stayed in the middle of the course where the entire field could see me. It would have been smarter to ride near the bushes and hope they would forget about about me.

Eloy was the first to attack when I was caught -- and for a brief moment I thought I'd grab his wheel as he passed, but I didn't have the jump. If anyone is still reading this, this is an awesome team move and should be the status quo. No matter how you slice it to have someone attack when the field's been working to catch a team mate is the right way to race. I floated to the back of the pack, recovered for a lap and worked my way back up to the front where I could see who was racing and who wasn't.

A couple of riders had been taunting and shadowing Jim Butler - especially during the second half of the race. James is a nice guy who just recently just started racing and has already won two races on this course. I might have made more of this opportunity, since they were just tiring each other out. Neither JB nor his taunters got top 5.

I calmly sucked wheels right up to the finish line for 7th. In hindsight I might have been able to sprint into some prize money and upgrade points. Or I might never have made it. I'll just say I came in 7th because I had a nice draft most of the time instead of being some punk's leadout rider.

I'll never know for sure.


To the left, blue and orange reflective helmet.

Field Sprint at Rockleigh

Finally won a field sprint at the Rockleigh criterium

Course description: 45 minute flat technical course, 6 turns. A big sewer grate on the first turn and a jolting stretch of pot-holes between turns 4-5.

Finished: 4th out of about 25 riders.

The Race: There were a few teams with a strong presence, westwood-velo, GS Park Ridge, and a new team aptly named retro-velo, plus a decent sprinter from WS United whom I know from racing and riding in the city.

Two preems were offered. I was in contention for both but I didn't get either one. On a breakaway with one other (westwood) rider when they rang the bell for the second preem. We were both tired but had 250 yards lead on the field the last time I looked back. I wasn't worried, and was amazed when two sprinters blasted by to take the preem at the line. I think this effort turned into an incidental boon for me. The other sprinters had lit and burned their biggest match, but I had a bit of energy left at the finish.

The Sprint: I wasn't feeling so great, and I wanted the sprint to be as short as possible. Just before the final turn, I was on the wheel of a guy who went early. He slowed down and I didn't come around since it was too soon. The field caught up. Coming up to the finishing stretch I stayed at the front. I didn't want to be at the front... but that's where I was, moderating the pace. I looked around to see who would jump. With 335 yards a retro-velo guy accelerates hard. He's on my left with 2-3 team mates on his wheel. I think to myself, we are too far from the line but I have no choice. I have to stay on the front and cut my losses now. I accelerate ahead of him and hold them off. With 100 yards to go to the finish line, I can feel other racers breathing down my neck. This adds the extra motivation/fear I need, and I take mental note there is nobody ahead of me. I'm on the front and I don't have to worry about anything but finishing! I put my head down and jam as hard as I can, shifting 1-2 more times, elbows out, ass on the saddle, low and aero, giving everything I have. I am surprised nobody has come around me yet but fear there is still a small chance, as the course is fairly wide. I throw my bike and win by a bike length. On a slightly uphill finish into the wind top speed was 35.5 mph.

I didn't raise my hands or do a silly victory dance. It would have been ridiculous since 3 other riders from a breakaway group finished ahead, leaving me the spoils of fourth place. My friend Mattio also raced. He got 6th overall, 3rd in the field sprint, and this was his first criterium race.

The entire ride from my apartment to the race and back was 70 miles.

Photos from the finish line camera are available.

Keeping track

This is just to remember what I've been doing for the week.

Monday: Master's track, 3rd on the omnium. Short sprints felt good, longer efforts did not. Mike W. really helped me a lot with the win and out.

Tuesday: Floyd bennett field, abandoned on lap 9/10 after going out on a flyer. Looking at the data from this lap, HR averaged 185 for 4 1/2 minutes. It's no wonder I couldn't take it any more. There was a two man break up the road for most of the race... and that's just the type of breakaway that gets me raving mad and chasing like a maniac. On the last lap I decided we weren't going to catch them and wouldn't have anything left for the sprint. Why suffer? Highlight was the ride home, 17.8 watts/kg for 5s racing a motorbike down flatbush ave.

Saturday: Brooklyn Grand Prix masters. Eloy told me he'd go off the front early, Joe looked good at the end, and I attacked once - but with an average speed of 26.5mph for 34 miles, nobody was getting away. I thought I might have a shot in the sprint but was about 15 feet too far back and boxed in with no room to jump or finish in the top 10. Finished 15th.

Saturday's lesson: There is no such thing as a sprint for 10th place.

Success!

.... has it's ups and downs.

Ups
Two days ago (Monday) I rode as if imbued with superhuman strength at the velodrome, although I felt a bit unsure how to wield this unexpected power.


Scored two wins and a second place for first place on the omnium.

What's changed? Looking over my road racing data, I was hitting 140-150 cadence in almost every road race. I wanted to start using more muscle strength. This is the reason for changes #1 and #2.

1> 49x15 instead of 47x15.
2> Moved the cleats back a bit for greater leverage (same as moving toes forward) .
3> Raised the saddle a bit.
4> Rode hard at Unionvale (the day before).
5> Rested for two days prior to Unionvale.
6> Felt relaxed.

The last thing, #6 is also important, riding relaxed helps efficiency. I was also mentally concentrating on efficiency. And steak tartare from les enfants terribles the night before.

Downs
Today (Wednesday) I was still feeling a little spent and only got one or two points at the velodrome. Meaning that I had only one sprint (matches to burn) per race, and then spent the rest of each race holding on for dear life. It was also harder to relax in a bigger field.

Unionvale 35+

This is a fun race, with a bit of turning, a bunch of hills, good organization, and best of all, close to NYC. The finishing climb averages 7.3%. It's 682 feet of elevation over 1.78 miles from the roundabout to the finish line. It starts out steep, but I was able to pick up some speed on the second half.

Elevation and route link for the last climb.
Map for the course not including the finishing hill.
[Click elevation profile to view the hills.]

Finished with the leaders at the base of the climb, then rode up at my own pace and lost a minute to the eventual winner.

It might have been smart to push the pace on the way to the climb or even try to break away, since nobody was chasing and everyone was just about equally well rested at the bottom of the hill. Or simply push harder at the base of the climb where the decisive split occurred.

15th place, 56 starters.

Floyd Bennett Field - flat course and flat tires

Flatted with 3 to go. Extracted a 1.5 inch long nail from my tire.

The wind was blowing capriciously. It seemed to hit hard on the back stretch where we almost always have a tailwind. Riders were tempting fate, riding close to the bushes, and often ducking to avoid shrubbery in hopes of getting a better draft. It was a perfect opportunity to ride in echelon, but as category 3 and 4 dudes (not european pros), this is unlikely.

Was in a promising break with schmalz, prinsloo, shusaku, and a couple of others. When one of Deno's sprinters bridged up I'm certain he didn't want the break to happen. Meaning this: his pulls were not 'Manly'.

Shusaku and i were pulling hard, some of the others in the break seemed willing to work as long as we were willing too keep at it. I have no clear picture of what happened after I flatted but found out the break got caught 1/2 lap later.

Again from what I heard, Prinsloo who rides for southafrica.net recovered for a bit and then solo'd for 1.5 laps to win it. Nice.

Flats suck. Headwinds are awesome.

Peak power numbers:
5s: 12.6 w/kg
30s: 7.8
5m: 4.1

Category 4 park race report

Today's cat4 park race was a crash-fest, no surprise. We had a big showing and I took smash-mouth Yack's wheel for the last 1/4 lap as he bussed it up to the front. I wasn't entirely confident how long he'd last since I'd heard him say he had nothing left going up the hill on the final lap.

BVF was well organized and their sprinter Alessandro took 1st, again.

Riding relaxed makes a huge difference. Two times I was so close to a crash that I'd say I was in it -- but I didn't hit the ground.

The first was at the bell for the final lap, I actually unclipped and put a foot down as I had to navigate the mess of bikes and limbs. The second time narrowly escaping disaster was less than one minute away from the finish. My sprint consisted of bridging back to the tail end of the leaders group then dredging across the finish line on a BVF wheel.

Finished 13th. Meh. Not crashing, awesome!

Power Numbers
Peak 5s: 13 w/kg
Peak 30: 7.8 w/kg
Entire race: 2.65/kg

Average speed: 25.4

Friday the 13th

It's been a horrible year for flats. I seem to get one every time I put on a new tire.

These are significant flat tires not just random punctures.

In the past 30 days, I ripped a tire on a curb (the curb was hidden under freshly mowed grass), tore the sidewall in some unknown way (on a new prorace3 tire), and just yesterday punctured a new Vittoria tubular over a small shard of glass riding out to a race in Rockleigh.

There was an explosive boom at the parking lot for Jiminy peak. That was when I discovered that Vittoria Corsa CX tires and Bontrager Race X Light wheels aren't compatible. They don't seem to share the same circumference.

Here's hoping that Friday the 13th changes everything.

Handlebars, stems, top tubes, and bike fit

Establishing the correct amount of reach and drop seems to be one of the more challenging aspect of proper bike fit.

For me, not enough reach means nether regions, hands, and fingers might go numb. Too much reach and the bike rides like a torture device for stretching out the back, neck, and shoulders.

I've not yet shelled out three hundred dollars for a professional bike fit, as much as I would like to do so. I have great respect and appreciation for some of the more in depth fit methods like wobble-naught, but for that same amount of money I can buy a lot of parts like stems and maybe a different saddle. Having parts on hand can be useful for experimenting, and I feel that bike fit can sometimes be a dynamic attribute.

Bike fit formulas seem at best an approximation of what works. After trying a number of the formulas I have always required small adjustments to make the fit work for me. I usually (always) carry an allen key when I ride and use it to make small adjustments. As a rule of thumb, adjustments are made in very small increments. The rule is as follows: adjust only 1/2 as much as seems necessary.

It would be easy to go on and on about the finer points of bike fit but there are many others with more knowledge and experience in this aspect of biomechanics than me.

Different handlebars have widely different dimensions. These dimensions are width, drop, and reach. For the most part width remains constant. A 38cm handlebar measures 38cm wide, and a 46cm handlebars measures 46cm wide even though some manufacturers measure from center to center and others measure from outside to outside. Still that's not the meat of the issue.

The meat of this post is that a bar with 4cm longer reach will make the bike feel 4cm longer in the cockpit and consequently should call for a shorter stem for the same feel while riding in the drops. A bar with 4cm more drop will require a few more spacers under the stem, or a different stem angle, etc, etc. This little calculator can help figure out stem length and angle. So if a bike feels like it almost fits, don't give up until trying a different set of handlebars.

Below is a table describing what has and hasn't fit me based on what I've been using. My bikes are
* 54cm Felt TK2. 53.5cm top tube
* 51cm Lemond. 53.2cm top tube
* 49cm Lemond. 51.5cm top virtual tube (too small for me)

Handlebar	Drop	Reach	Sum(TT+Stem+Reach)	Experience
DedaPista	173mm	109mm	734mm-752	Doesn't fit on Felt with 90mm stem or on 51cm Lemond with 110 stem. Too deep.
Nitto 123	170mm	108mm
3T Zepp XL	170mm	100mm	752mm	Feels a bit deep on lemond with 120mm -8 degree stem but is working ok for now.
Nitto 125	150mm	88mm	733mm	Fits pefectly on Felt with 110mm -6 stem and some spacers.
Ritchey WCS Logic	144mm	82mm	734mm	A bit too wide for me (42cm), but felt ok with 120mm -8 stem.
Ritchey Biomax II	130mm	75mm	733mm	Love these bars! Was very comfortable on 49cm Lemond with 140mm -6 stem but geometry and handling felt off. The width is 39 on the hoods and 41 at the drops. But it doesn't have enough drop on 51cm Lemond.

[Highlighted rows had good fit.]

It seems obvious. In addition to measuring the top tube and stem length, the handlebar should also be factored in for proper fit. I should probably try a shorter stem with the Zepp XL handlebars.

This leads me to offer one of my bike up for sale. It's a 49cm Lemond titanium bike. It's one hell of a ride, for a medium/small sized person. I'll accept any reasonable offer. :)

Tour de Parc

Not much to say, just writing my race reports so I can refer back to them later.

Molly came to watch the races. She described my race style as a cat chasing a feather. A good analogy but not exactly a compliment to my cycling prowess. In the masters race I chased everything and was always at the front... but not in the winning break.

Cat 4 race, no breakaways. Contested the prime but otherwise I rode conservatively. Final result: 8th place (in the money!).

Masters 35+. There was a break early on. We were caught. Then a few small attacks followed by the successful break that started at around the midway point of the race. At first I let it go, thinking they'd get brought back, but when a few other riders bridged I decided I really wanted to be in it. I buried myself for 3 minutes trying to catch up but couldn't quite make it. I had waited too long. I saw a strung out field gaining ground on my solo effort so I sat up. A few more times I tried to go with other guys to catch the break but alas, unsuccessfully.

Overall a great weekend for Kissena.


early in the cat4 race


small break, goes nowhere


a few more laps to go...


Sprint sprint sprint sprint, coming around the Setanta rider on my right


It was a close one

...Master's 35+

Working hard to catch the breakaway group, it never happened.

credit: These are Skip Straub's photos that he posted at velocitynation.

Two days in a row

I volunteered to help with race organization at Floyd Bennet Field. I got the 1/2/3 field. It was my first time doing this, I found it to be interesting and worthwhile, and a little nerve racking at the end.


Two days of racing/training...

Tuesday, road bikes at Floyd:
The FBF 3/4 race felt easy, but in the end I popped my sprint too soon for a finish in the top 15 not top 10. Need to approach it more like the track. It goes a little like this, Follow follow follow... hold it, 200 yards to go, that's half a lap, wait, wait, keep spinning, hold that wheel, not yet, set up, come around, cross eyes, 100 yards to go, don't blink or black out, just another 1/4 lap, still holding on, come out of the turn, 75 to go, wind it, 50 to go NOW! Except there may be some gear shifting involved.

Heart rate hit and briefly sustained 190, previous max seemd to be 185. I want to think it's due to the hard effort I put in on Saturday.

Wednesday, Kissena Velodrome:
My legs felt so dead on the way out that I stopped and almost turned around. I pulled out my phone and then realized that I had no obligations and nobody cared if I wasn't racing. I also knew I wouldn't be getting any competitive training for the rest of the week and I was already 1/2 way there. So after getting clobbered in the first race of the night (there are 4) I geared down from 49x15 to 47x15 and everything got a little better. Somehow this enabled me to qualify for the "A" series. It is fun/different racing with new team mates.

Bethlehem / Masters

These boys know how to handle their bikes. Many of them have been racing hard for years, some of them still competing at the Pro/1/2 level (results). They also know how wring the juice out of a lemon, and I was that lemon.

For most of the race I was near the front but not at the front. It's a little fuzzy but I think there was a split, twice. I remember riding hard with some fellows off the front and the loudspeakers announcing we had a 35 second lead over the main field. It felt great until somehow the field caught up to us.

Then there was another split. This happened at around 30 minutes into the 50 minute crit. I wasn't in it - but desperately wanted to be. We chased hard and there was some good blocking by a big guy with a team mate up the road. He would gap off the front, get others to chase him, then he'd slow the fuck down and so would everyone else.

The second break was brought back by a strong field in the final 2-3 laps. There was a (very) short breather and then the chaos started in earnest as riders battled, attacked, and jockied for their position. I imploded on the last lap from the intensity and the field came around me.

It was a very hard effort and the reward may be some super compensation along with fatigue. Average HR was 177 for 50 minute race, average speed was 25.9 mph.

What the hell do these damn numbers mean anyway? I want to kill my bike computer. I don't remember ever looking at it during the race anyway.

Lesson: It's more satisfying to race hard and loose by a mile than to race conservatively and "almost" win.

Floyd Bennet training race

Wooo, last night was fun.

It was the first night of races at historic Floyd Bennet Air Field. The category 3/4 race was 10 laps (just over 22 miles). The finish line moved to the east side of the airfield - where the roadway is only about 1/2 as wide as before.

I tried to get away once or twice but it didn't work out. The data makes it look like I attacked 7 times, but some of the attacks were defensive, not offensive attacks. I spent a lot of time at the front burning matches with a few other guys who don't like to piddle about at 21mph. We kept the pace fairly high but our average was only 25.3mph.

Busting my ass off the front trying to make something happen. (more on flickr)


The sprint was a bit crowded and fast even though we were headed into the wind. I wanted to contest the sprint but was in a poor position and didn't.


The day before (Monday) I did 10x1 minute sprints up the great hill in central park. I should have been more tired but going for a 35 minute light and easy ride in the morning really helped clear the fatigue.

Lesson learned: Racing fast is fun, but being patient (seems to) beget victory.

Power numbers:
Max: 16.02/kg
Max 5s: 14.68/kg
Max 30s: 7.76/kg
Max 1m: 5.85/kg

Jiminy Peak

Saturday 5/3 I raced at Jiminy Peak in Mass. There was a strong headwind on a long descent and breakaways were difficult. The weather was cold and damp in the high 40's / low 50's. The main characteristic of this race is a long gradual climb (4%) that dips for a moment and then becomes a steeper (7%) climb to the finish. My rear wheel flatted before the start so I raced on the powertap.

On each lap it felt like we were moving too slowly up the gradual climb. My team mate attacked once on this section - and came back - then I attacked - and came back.

On the steeper climb I nearly got dropped on each of the 3 laps in the circuit, the second lap being the worst.

I was able to chase down the group on the first and second laps… I passed lots of riders as I flew down the hill at 53.5 mph spinning out my 53x12. I eventually made my way to the front to learn that Dave was still attacking the group, but in the worst possible place. Into a headwind on a long descent! He and a few others dangled off the front for a few minutes but the pack had an easy time closing the gap sustaining about 28 or 29mph.

There’s not much to report from this race since I finished last of the second group across the finish line, about ½ way between first place and last place. I used the powertap numbers to pace myself on the final climb, it may have helped me to avoid popping and I passed a few riders who looked spent.

Lots of racers told this race is boring, or that they hated the course. Having raced it once I disagree. I didn’t love this race - but it wasn’t boring, bike racing never is. It wasn’t beautiful, and it didn’t have any sharp corners or long sweeping turns. But it was technical, a waiting game, much like some of the track races – pursuit comes to mind.

The patient riders are the ones who had the most strength to attack when it mattered.

Lessons learned: I could have conserved more energy, especially since I thought I might need more power than what I have available.

Or... if I was racing my strengths I might have tried to make the gradual climb more difficult for the other racers, instead of conserving energy.

Untitled

The blog is now linked from every page of the kissena.info website. This started as a simple personal journal: like an email to myself. I never expected anyone to link to this site or to have it represent anything in particular. But I did notice the traffic. And people started asking me about my "goals." How embarrassing, what if I don't succeed? I guess I can still blog about it.

A few more people will click away than did before. The rest of us can go out, get out on their bikes, and ride a little too fast at times. (Please be careful). It is Spring. The temperature is perfect even when it rains, the trees are in bloom, and the air has a certain weight to it that is delicious and nauseating.

Well maybe only in New York for that last bit.

Observing the race

This was my Yahoo horoscope today.

Let someone else be the superstar. Step back and allow other people to be the movers and shakers. Learn how to enjoy being in the background -- it's just as interesting and just as educational as being front and center. Give it a try. Do not confuse praise with respect. You can earn a lot more of the latter if you know when to pull back and slow down.

I'd forgotten about an important aspect of racing. I sat back and observed a few races last year (while I was in the race) and discovered that it's a good way to learn what's going on. It forced me to race calmly instead of being nervous about every move and chasing down too many attacks; that's my usual way of not winning races. I also noticed that the winners were not attacking throughout the race. Winners conserve energy as much as possible and burn it when it matters.

I'm not advocating being a wheel sucker. In order to make the most of it -- it's important to be confident and strong enough to move around in the field and see it from different perspectives. It takes just as much work to move up and down a field as it does to race hard. But the goal for the race is different.

On another note, we got 1st place in Team Sprints at the velodrome on Saturday. It was a near perfect start, and we beat a strong second place team by 2.2 seconds.

Battenkill race report

We had near perfect preparation for this race. We drove halfway up the night before and stayed at William's country house in Millbrook. As soon as we arrived at the house we unloaded the bikes and went for an hour long ride with a few hard efforts thrown in for good measure. William cooked up a delicious country dinner with roasted chicken, pasta, vegetables, and three philosopher's ale while Dave and I worked on our bikes.

The race itself was dusty, steep, hot, and hard. During the race I let a full waterbottle slip out of my hand at 22 miles. I kept going -- but maybe should have turned around to get pick it up. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to catch back on to the group if I did. Later, at 45 miles into the race, I was dehydrated with no fluid left.

Analytically reviewing the powertap data it becomes obvious what happened.

The first 47 miles (two+ hours) of the race show heart rate average of 162bpm and watts/kilo 2.75.


But the last 7 miles of the race average heartrate of 139bpm and watts/kilo 1.77. This is hitting a wall. Pathetic!


I was able to trade some electrolyte pills for a few swips of water at around the 50 mile mark, but at this point it was already too late.

The lesson learned is that when things go wrong, figure out a way to fix the mistake before the critical moment.

Maybe I should have started trying to broker a deal for water as soon as I dropped the bottle... before getting thirsty!

2008 Goals

The new season is starting so it's time to think about goals for 2008. I was a little under-ambitious with my 2007 goals and that's fine. It felt good to meet every goal. Goals are set in the spirit of this being a hobby not a career.

Here are ideas for 2008,

1. Do the river road hillclimb in under 5 and a 1/2 minutes.
2. Top 3 in a cat 3/4 race at Floyd Bennet Field
3. Get out to the track at least 6 times
4. Get out to Trexlertown at least once and compete
5. Top 5 in a master's 35+ road race
6. Win a field sprint
7. Do a timetrial
8. Upgrade to category 3 on the road and/or "A" on the track
9. Ride through the cyclocross season

I think I need to choose 3 or 4 of these goals.

Edited on 7/23/08 -> I think I will have a better season overall if I stop obsessing about getting a result at Floyd Bennett Field.

First Race of 2008 - Grant's Tomb

This seemed like it would be the perfect race for me - a late start time at 2:20pm in the afternoon, a couple of technical corners, and a nice high speed high-G sweeping downhill turn.


Fast!

I was probably overconfident coming into this race and didn't achieve a great result - 19th of 89 racers. But it was the first race of the year and a successful experiment.


Sneaky!

I was able to steal a couple of places by using with the outside line. In retrospect I was too far away from the front for the whole race.

The experiment was to sit in the race near the front, conserve energy, and wait patiently for the sprint. Because I was not close enough to the front I couldn't establish a clear line for myself coming into the finish; getting boxed in and shutdown just at the moment when full power was unleashed. Next time I'll need to be closer to the front with the racer leaders and also make sure there is a clear line in a no-holds barred sprint.


Ugly!

It was an intense and short race just 30 minutes long with some sketchy bumping and getting cutting off especially on the last laps - but but both wheels stayed on the ground. The cobwebs have been expelled from my lungs.

Luscious bicycles

I never cease to be amazed by the effort, innovation, and craftsmanship that people put into their bikes.

Lacking anything better to say about it, these are some of my recent favorites.


Chris Brooklyn's Brooklyn Machine Works


Innovative braking mechanism for fixed gear (from nahbs)



Asymetrical Landshark seat stays



Bayliss lugwork



Hampsten Tournesol



Combo chainstay protector and spoke carrier.



Alex's erotic bottom bracket (submitted by turd)