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.