Thursday evening, racing and then soaking rain

I'll just link to my team's site for this one.

We got completely soaked on the 30 mile ride home, but by the time we reached the George Washington Bridge the rain had let up. With frequent flashes of lightening across the sky and ominous looking storm clouds, Manhattan was at her most beautiful, blushing pink and looking very Gotham City.

Finished 7th.

Sweating it out at floyd bennett field

Eric M. and I were the only Kissenas at Floyd in the 3/4 today. I'm presuming Eric had a technical issue, I didn't see him after.

It was a frustrating race. The now familiar tactic of not bridging to a team mates break seemed to come in spades - three teams had a guy in the 4 man break. I think at least one of each BVF, Deno's WW, and Merril Lynch.

Funny thing. Without Charlie I. yelling at me to know that the break is happening, I didn't even realize there was a break until someone shouted from the sideline about a two minute gap. Quite a few riders were surprised by this information. I thought I was keeping an eye on a specific rider's wheel but it turns out that the rider I thought I was looking at has a body double who rides the same brand of bike for the same team.

Each time someone would attack they'd blow up after 30 seconds. One team (slope sports) seemed particularly good at sprinting to the front... then bringing the pace down to a crawl.

All in all a very sweaty and humid race with lots of hard efforts that went nowhere. My bottle cage snapped mid race then almost fell into my rear wheel. I picked it out carefully while still on the bike then threw it into the end-zone.

Finished somewhere around 13-15th.

Harlem Skyscraper Race

Took 6th place in this crit today.

I wanted to impress my dad who came up to watch the race so I went for the first preem. I almost had it, and a DC guy sucked my wheel to the line then took it by 1/2 a wheel or less.

I learned that to be competitive in a sprint I need to roll it out in a gear that is h-e-a-v-y, maybe starting as low as 75 or 80rpm. When I do get passed I feel like I'm spun out. The times when I have been able to hold guys off and win are when I feel that I can still spin a little faster.

And I got photographed... More pics online at velocitynation.

Long flat burn

I raced the rockleigh criterium last night.

The back side of the course feels like racing in a friend's driveway - full of potholes, debris, and random garden objects. I put in several attacks but in the end was passed by guys with a much faster and more powerful sprint than me.

Here's a link to all of the courses and races mapped with my Garmin 305 GPS unit. On the map, criteriums show up as many many red lines over the same route over and over.

Sunday morning race at prospect park

Category 4 - 31 miles - 82 starters.

It's not easy racing at 6:30am. Especially when bedtime is never earlier than 1am and usually closer to 2am. It means leaving the house at 5:45am in order to get to the race in time.
Today's race was fun and fast but my head really wasn't in it. I had no problem staying at the front. At the end, I poured on the power a little too soon, and ended at an imaginary finish line -- 100 yards ahead of the real finish line. Once I realized my mistake I decided to coast into the finish. A good workout, nothing more.
The difference between finishing mid-pack and finishing "in the money" appears to be mostly MENTAL. One must be prepared to win.

Two third place races at the velodrome!

I skipped Floyd Bennet field on Tuesday night because of work and having spent all weekend building an ikea kitchen extension.

On Wednesday I raced at Kissena and finished 3rd in the Men's B for both races.

Point a Lap description: Points for first place every lap, then extra points for the top 2 finishers in the final lap. 8 laps total.

I tried to take points in the 3rd lap but may have missed by 1/2 a wheel. In the final lap I was behind someone from DC Racing when his team-mate took off. Then I thought I heard him shout, "Go! Go! Go! I've got you I'm blocking!" Since I was behind him this had the opposite effect he wished for, serving as my motivation and cue to go around the guy who thought he was blocking.

9 lap Scratch race description: rolling start scratch race.

For the next race, the DC guys seemed to use the same tactic as before albeit less obviously. It may have worked for them as I got third and may have been able to take second with a little teamwork. Alas no team mates in my category.

"A" feature description: 15 laps scratch race.

I was invited to race in the men's A feature race for the first time. It was fun. There seems to be a bit more strategy and risk here than in the B races. I remember being envious of the B racers who got to ride in the A feature last year, now I am in that position. Neat!

Somehow two third place finishes in two races put me in 4th place for the night, because a single first place finish is worth more than double the points as 3rd place.

More race reports...

Since I'm a category 4 road racer now, I don't need to keep track of my races. The only way to upgrade from category 4 to category 3 is by winning races and getting points. Not so easy.

Anyway I thought I'd post these reports for posterity. I raced the Bear Mtn. road race on 5/13. The first climb is a 10-15 minute hill. My result was 31 minutes behind the winner, 65th of 95 starters. I finished but got dropped from the lead group towards the end of the first climb. Ughh.

Before that gloriously miserable experience, I did two races at Floyd Bennett Field. In my first race at FBF as cat4, I pushed myself too hard and got a cramp on the 7th lap. In the next race I landed a flat tire immediately after the start. So I was getting my ass kicked for 3 weeks in a row. Ouch!

So I decided to edit my goals. For the Floyd Bennett Field races my original goal was to place in the top 10. My new goal is to finish the race. A week ago I raced with this goal in mind, and satisfactorily achieved success! It wasn't easy, but I got there. Last night I decided to keep the same goal, and I finished strongly, a little better than the week before.

It is a lot of fun racing. More fun than just about anything else worth doing. I'm learning just how deep I can reach inside, hunker down and ride fast even when it hurts. Although I don't know if I'll have a chance of winning a race in this category, I can see the opportunity coming closer.

Weekly midweek race report

I raced all weekend (two days) at Kissena velodrome's "opening weekend". Placed 4th overall in my category. Niki took third, I was happy to see him get a medal especially since his parents were there to support him on Sunday! Overall it was a fun time: the chariot race and the match sprint were my favorite events. Simple, short, and incredibly focused.

Andrew L. took photos on Sunday and posted them on his web site. I am the one wearing the blue/white helmet and Kissena jersey.





On Tuesday I raced again at Floyd Bennett Field. It was a combined 3/4 race. Mike Berk kept the pace high from the beginning by pulling the entire first lap. Sometime around the second or third lap, Mike and two others managed a breakaway. They were brought back, then got away again. The pace was very fast, hitting between 32/33mph on the flat. I did a lot of pulling to bring them back the first time, then after they got away the second time I got a leg cramp. It was in the 7th lap and I had to retire. This might be a fit issue or a sodium issue, since it did not feel like maximum exertion.

Battenkill Roubaix

Battenkill, the purported 'enfer du nord'. From the beginning it was a very well organized start, in a small town overtaken by cyclists.

I rode the first 3 miles of the race at a high cadence to warm up. The country roads were hardpack clay with a light coating of mushy stuff on top, like a chocolate bar starting to melt. The middle of the road had lots of potholes at the beginning and it was harrowing to see 150lb guys bouncing high on their stiff aluminum bikes. Nobody went down. This was my first master's race (age 30+, cat1-4) and I noticed that most of the riders had good bike handling skills.

At the first steep climb 25 or so of the riders passed me on the way up, much my surprise and chagrin I dropped back from a comfortable position in the top 1/3 to the bottom 1/2. This little introduction made me realize what was in store for me had nothing to do with the great hill repeats I've done in central park. 'Where did these guys find so much power?' I thought to myself. As I'm usually relatively strong in the hills, I rationalized that the legs needed more warm up time. As it turns out that was just an excuse. The hills were brutal and I was dropped on the second or third steep climb. A guy named Craig and me rode together for a while. I think I was pulling. After a while, the leaders of the Cat3 race caught up to us. We rode with them for many miles - always hanging off the back on paved roads and clay. Then I was dropped again in on a very steep hill. I didn't even bother trying to catch up. This was about 1/2 way through the race (about 30/57 miles) when my front quads were starting to cramp up. At one point I pushed the bike up the remainder of a hill. I'm not sure what happened to Craig... I finished the race mostly on my own, a sort of extended time trial.

It was also my first racing wearing the Kissena club jersey. A few racers seemed happy to see it and shouted out comeon Kissena!

Personal health notes. Drank two full bottles of accelerade, then stopped to fill up a third bottle with water and drank it all. Ate a bag of raisins and a cliff bar when I started to feel weak at around the 40 mile mark. Need one full bottle of fluid every 20 miles to be safe. Leg cramps arrived with plenty of warning.

My first category 3/4 race

Sunday 3/25 was my birthday and my first race of the season. It was my first race as a newly minted category 4 rider and more than twice as long as any of my previous races. 34 miles of racing (instead of a measly 14 miles). The racing didn't even start until the 4th lap.

It was a lot of fun since my only goal for the race was to gauge my abilities and not get dropped. I sat in the front 1/2 most of the race.

I put in a strong effort at together with 5-10 strong men up grand-army hill (in lap 6?) and the pack strung out quite a bit - but when I blew up I got gobbled by the pack. I think we were going over 20mph up the hill.

I recovered mid-pack, and felt fine by the time we approached 15th street. It was very windy there and the smart thing to do was ride on the right-hand-side and to avoid the strong cross wind.

It was easy to spot the winning break... 4 strong riders who sat in and never attacked until they were ready to go all in. By the time they passed the guys riding on the front they must have been going quite a bit faster, and the element of surprise combined with speed made it impossible for anybody riding on the front to catch them.

I ran out of liquids and started to feel a little crampy. Next time I should make sure to hydrate the night before. Also my hands got numb. Not a bad start... Battenkill is in two weeks.