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