Team Bicycle Trip

Berkeley Hills Road Race, 55+ Cat 4

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:32:00 +0000

By Bob Montague

Sunday was the Berkeley Hills Road Race. I did this race a couple of years ago, but I think I was in the 35+ 4/5 race. The race takes place on an 18 mile loop around the San Pablo Reservoir, north of Orinda. It is defined by three category 4 climbs known as the "3 bears", none of which is particularly steep. They vary in length from "baby bear" to "papa bear". And the race finishes at the top of "papa bear" on the third trip up the climbs for my category. The climbs are substantial enough that I had not planned on entering this race. I got dropped pretty hard in my first time at Berkeley Hills and I didn't really want to relive that experience. When I saw the promoter had included a 55+ cat 4 race this year, I knew I had to reconsider. I continue to search for opportunities to compete, and this seemed like it could be one that might give me a chance to place.

As race day approached, I found myself very affected by seasonal allergies, to the point that it was affecting my ability to breath somewhat. I debated how to proceed and decided that the race would be good for clearing out my lungs. I didn't have a carpool, so I headed out on my own. Google says it takes 1 hour and 54 minutes to get there from my house, but at 4:30 in the morning it was more like 1 hour and 30 minutes. I picked up my race number and sat in the car to stay warm. I tried to call my Mom back in North Carolina, but there was no service for my droid.

Our race went off right on time with what I would guess to be about 30 guys. I talked to a guy who was in the 45 4/5 race right before mine and he asked if I knew Enrique. I said that I didn't, but that I knew of him. Apparently he lives near the course and this fellow rides with him on a regular basis (this is Symantec Enrique for interested parties).

I am getting sort of used to setting the pace when I race in a 4/5 field. It surprises me that so many guys will come out to race and then be content to just sit in and wait for the finishing sprint. Everyone can't be a sprinter, but it seems to be the way of the 4/5 races. It isn't like I'm attacking the field, but at the least I expect the ride to be as hard as the Sunday group ride out of Aptos. To make that happen, I have to go to the front and set the pace until others begin to share the load. I'm actually ok with that because I'm starting to see more and more that my role, at least for now, is to be an animator of my races. I am a strong rider, but I am not strong enough to get away from a motivated group. I am also not a sprinter, but I have enough power to provide a pretty good lead out. My goal in this race was to try and get away after going over the climbs the second time. However, another strong guy had the same idea and tried it on the first lap. I bridged up to him and offered to work with him. We had a small gap and both began to work to sustain it. There was another group of racers a small gap ahead of us, and we agreed that if we could get around them, we might be able to lose the rest of our group. We went hard and got around that group just as we were going up a short rise that was not one of the categorized climbs. I was thinking that we might be gapping our group in the confusion, but then I began to see the race numbers of our group and knew that we had been run down.

From that point, I sat in until we were back around and climbing the bears again. While the pace up the climbs didn't seem huge, I soon realized that lots of our group was being dropped and I was having to work very hard to hang on to the tail end of the lead group. As we passed the start / finish line with 1 lap to go, I was the last of 7 to make it into the lead break. Although the group worked hard to establish that gap over the climbs, they soon became comfortable at a pace that I suspected would get us caught. I tried various methods to make this point, including suggestion, cajoling and attacking. None of it worked until the strong guy I had gotten away with on the first lap, bridged up to us. From that point, the 8 of us began a rotating pace line that assured that we would not be caught by any other chasers. At this point, I began to think in earnest about the finish and what my best strategy would be for it. I knew that of the 7 of us up the climbs on the 2nd lap, I was the most challenged. I also knew that the prizes for this race only went 6 deep. I figured I ought to be able to beat the guy who had been dropped on the 2nd lap to the line, but I did not have a good solution for the rest of them. I decided to resolve to do my best and let the chips fall where they may.

I had a guy picked for the win, as he had been first and easily over the climbs the first two trips up. I began to work to stay on his wheel and get ready for the assault. We went over the first two of the three and things were going pretty much as I expected. The last time up papa was going to hurt all of us and I was resolved to do my best. On the descent leading up to that climb, I attacked. I put everything I could into it, but they ran me down in pretty short order. So short, that I had a little bit of time to recover before we began the final climb. These are the times that I race for. In my mind's eye, I can see myself climbing that last hill at the same pace as the guy in front, just preparing to launch my sprint when that line finally comes into view. The reality is that I was going all out and getting gapped by most of the group. As I expected, the one guy was already off the back and out of it, but there still were 6 in front of me. I didn't give up, but I couldn't see how I could beat any of them. This is a fairly long finishing climb, so I had lots of time to ponder. As I continued to grind, I began to get a sense of cramping in my hamstrings. I came up out of the saddle to give those muscles a chance to stretch. It was then that I realized that I wasn't the lone ranger. None of us was flying up that hill, and at least two others were having some issues with their legs. I stayed out of the saddle and found a rhythm. I passed one of our group and was gaining on the guy I had picked for the win as we crossed the line. 6th place and in the prizes! Stoked!!

I think Steve Heaton's jersey says, "Train the mind, and the body will follow". That was crystal clear in the finish of this race.

Tuesday Night Racing, Hellyer Park Velodrome, 5/1/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:39:00 +0000

By Dennis Pedersen

I was getting over the flu and a crash that spoiled my races at the Santa Cruz and Sea Otter Classic Criteriums. So, even though I needed to get up at 3:00AM on Wednesday morning, I decided to do some track racing at Hellyer's velodrome on Tuesday night. I've really appreciated the new Cat 3/4 races they now offer too. Hey, live life, carpe diem and all that!

First we lined up along the rail for a 12-lap points race (sprints every fourth lap). Though I was somewhat marked in this race, often finding myself slowly drifting to the front while others watched, I was able to get two 2nds and a 3rd for 3rd overall, behind Stefan and Andrew, a fun Junior on SJBC.

Next; a 20-lap scratch race. Right off the bat I took a pull to speed things up, but nobody was willing to pull through. So I ended up staying at the front, but high on the track, so I could use the banking to accelerate downhill to catch any attackers. None came until John, a Junior on Specialized, flew off the front below me... I refused to chase, given how marked I was, so everybody just continued to follow me around high on the track, with Andrew glued to my wheel the whole race. Stefan mocked him jokingly, but Andrew was not amused like I was! This went on a while until John was a half-lap ahead. Then a few guys took pulls so I joined in and the gap came down to about a quarter-lap. Finally, with 2 laps to go, people woke up and a few of us caught John. Stefan took a strong 1st; I took 2nd by jumping past Andrew at the line.

In our 30-lap points race (sprints every fifth lap), John and I talked about trying a break, and got Andrew to join us. I was worried we'd blow up so I took the first pull, keeping the pace under 300W. But that wasn't hard enough so the pack stayed mostly together. Eventually I was able to go off the front with Andrew briefly, and took a 1st in our sprint, but I gapped him the next time we tried so I held back... that's when John took off. He took the last two sprints while we sat up. Stefan joked about Andrew following me again to the point where tempers flared a bit. I got a few more points along the way so I didn't do too badly with 3rd overall. But we had to soothe some ruffled feathers afterward. I like these guys, so keeping the peace is good.

Once again I succeeded in accomplishing my main goal: to have fun! Plus won a few minor victories to boot.

Wente Vineyards Road Race 55+ 1/2/3 4/28/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Langley) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:52:00 +0000

Wente Warriors: Scott, Jim & Joe (Bob had to leave)

2012 Wente Vineyards Road Race
by Jim Langley

Wente is turning out to be one of my favorite races and yesterday's was my best performance there yet with a 3rd in the 55+ 1/2/3s thanks to help from my super-strong teammate Joe Platin. It was a spectacular day, sunny, about 70 degrees and only mild winds.

Small field, casual start
Our field rolled out with about 28 riders for the 4 laps around the course. Because the lap count doesn't start until you cross the start/finish at the top of the big climb, we actually had to do that tough stretch that seems to go up so far it meets the sky, a brutal 5 times. Wente is also perhaps the longest race of the year for us at around 65 miles.

Fortunately, the first and second laps were pretty mellow with only a few guys testing their legs and no real gaps opening. The third lap saw a much fiercer group attack the climb and it took a major effort to hang on. But we started lap four with most of the group intact and Joe and I still riding strong.

At the front the 4th time up the climb
Expecting major attacks from the sizable Morgan Stanley team, riding for Steve Archer who has won about every race he's entered this year and a few Webcor guys supporting Kevin Susco who has also been dominant - and went solo for the win at Sea Otter, Joe and I set a fast pace up the climb and well past the start/finish. I was out front, which was probably a mistake but it did seem to stop any attacks.

So, the group was still together on the fast descent to the valley floor and the Morgan Stanleys moved to the front to try to open a gap before we hit the rollers down there. Joe and I scrambled to hang on the back and not get gapped through the corners.

One crash but only one guy went down
Earlier a Taleo guy had ridden off the road in these same corners on the descent and broken his collarbone. The strange thing about Wente is that you have mostly open roads, but they let other cyclists use them. So, you'll come tearing around a corner and you'll almost run smack into a tourist stopped in the road enjoying the view. We still don't know what took out the Taleo rider.

Ready, set, go!
When we got to the bottom of the descent and took the hard right to start the rolling section with only about 12 miles to the finishing line, we saw Steve Archer and Kevin Susco make a little move off the front. It's only a gradual uphill there, not steep at all. And you've just come down the long hill and should have had some decent rest.

But there's something difficult there. It doesn't look very steep but it hurts and you can't gain ground. So, with just a little attack, Steve and Kevin opened a gap on the group. I was right next to Joe because we had expected it and moved to the front behind Steve and Kevin but already they had a 50-yard gap. I didn't want to get gapped any more than that and Joe seemed to be waiting for me, so I gunned it and tried to accelerate and latch onto the leaders.

They're gone
It was a hard effort but all it did was keep them from expanding their lead. I decided to look back and see where Joe was and was amazed that he had already dropped back to the group and that I was now well out in No Man's Land. I decided I had to chase and chase hard and catch the leaders who were trading pulls.

At first I couldn't close the gap at all. They seemed to be pulling away with their tight pacelining. But, I know I can time trial with almost anyone and I didn't think they'd want to go too hard for fear of giving the other guy the advantage on the long climb.

Joe helps me out by blocking
Also, I knew that Joe was blocking behind me so it would be hard for the chase group to catch me. That gave me confidence and I put my head down and worked as hard as I could. I could see them and I knew I was matching their pace after a while. That meant I could close the distance if I could increase my speed so I punished my legs and kept aero and focused on reeling them in. It took about 5 miles but I caught them at the top of the last steep climb before you go down onto the flats that lead past the road the race starts on.

I probably should have sat behind them and rested at that point, but I was so happy to actually chase them down - and to be riding with the guys who keep winning every race by riding off the front - that I went right past them and took a long, hard pull. They were very surprised to see me. But we started rotating perfectly and kept that up until the sharp right turn that starts the long uphill drag to the finish line.

Thanks guys!
I was pretty beat-up by this point. The chase had worn my legs out and trading pulls with Steve and Kevin was not very smart in terms of recovery. I knew they were going to attack at the bottom and the race would be decided right there. And, I also knew I didn't have the legs to go with them. But they did something really cool then. Just before going for it, they both said, 'great job chasing us down, Jim.'

Then they took off and I got dropped again. I tried to match their pace but couldn't and had to find my own tempo or risk blowing up. It was a struggle keeping any kind of effort up the hill and I was worried all the way to the line that the group would overtake me from behind. But I made it and it was about 30 seconds before the 4th place guy came across.

All in all, it was one of my best finishes in quite a while. I still have a ways to go to compete with the likes of champions like Steve Archer and Kevin Susco, but I was finally with them late in a race and had a chance. If I had made a few different choices out there, who knows what might have been possible? Thanks for the awesome support Joe.

PS: Wente has to be one of the best races of the year. They have more age groups than anyone; they have the nicest course with the best course marshals; they gave prizes down to 8th place in every race(!); and they actually give real prizes: for 3rd, I got a pound of Starbucks coffee, $15, a nice T-shirt, a water bottle, 2 wine-tasting coupons and a bottle of wine.

PSS: Hat's off to Scott Martin who took an awesome 4th place in the 55+ 4/5s which had almost 60 riders in it. And great job by Bob Montague in that race, too, who took 9th. Also Dan Perry took 4th in the 35+ 4s race. Way to go, Dan!

Velodrome Challenge Qualifier, 4/8/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:09:00 +0000

By Dennis Pedersen

One of the Hellyer track season's biggest events will be NCVA's "Hellyer Velodrome Challenge," on July 6th to 8th. This three-day event of oval-track racing requires competitors to qualify, in any one of several Sunday qualifying races, before they can enter. I thought (mistakenly, it turns out) that they will have races for we Cat 3/4 racers, but the Challenge races will all be Cat 1/2/3, so if I want to race in July I'll need to place in the 1/2/3 qualifiers at some point. Yikes!

I drove over alone, on a gorgeous Easter Sunday, with my Felt TK2 on my car's roof-rack. I'd figured out how to mount the bike up there even with the rear disk-wheel in place, so that saves me the time of swapping to my spoked rear wheel during transport. I had also been told how to set and calibrate the PowerTap hub on the disk-wheel so I could get some useful power data after the race. So many people have asked me about things like average speed that I have included some of that info here (for reference, I was using 48x14 gears, or about 90.6-inch road gain, and keep in mind some of the numbers, especially the "cadence" RPM, aren't that accurate).

Our first race was a two-heat "kierin" race, in which we five riders were lined up behind a line, held upright while clipped into the pedals on our bikes by assistants, before having to power forward to grab the draft of the pace motorcycle, driven by veteran Peter Bohls. We were given 6 laps total, with Peter pulling off the track after 4.5 laps after which we'd have to fight it out on our own. The first two finishers would qualify for the second heat.

In the first kierin heat I only managed to get into fourth place behind the motorcycle (in spite of starting from the fifth spot, high on the track), so I knew I'd have to act early to make up the four bike lengths ahead of me. A few seconds before Peter pulled off I went around the leaders and hammered forward, while they were still blocked by his motorcycle (and me!). I then kept my head down as hard as I could for the last 1.5 laps for 1st. I was followed by Zach, who had tried to get me to slow down, as we had a huge lead, to save some energy for the next heat, but the wind noise prevented me from hearing him clearly.

Max 35.26 MPH at 138 RPM, 798W. Average 25.3 MPH. Total time about 3:10 minutes.

We then got a short break before the second kierin heat, in which I was third wheel behind the motorcycle after starting in the lowest spot (in the sprinter's lane). This time I started my attack just slightly later, since I had less ground to make up, but all I managed was to lead out Zach and Bernard, who both came around me yielding me just 3rd place.

Max 35.95 MPH at 141 RPM, 881W. Average 27.86 MPH. Total time about 2:55 minutes.

We then lined up on the rail for our 15-lap "scratch" race. I ended up in 3rd for this one. I was marked heavily by other riders and spent a lot of time at the front awaiting attacks by the others that never came. So I attacked with about 2 laps to go, then sat up when I saw my gap wasn't as big as I wanted. I then drafted a bit, but wasn't able to come around the two leaders.

Max 33.95 MPH at 138 RPM, 990W. Average 23.72 MPH. Total time about 9 minutes.

Next up was our "points" race, which was delayed by a crash in the 1/2/3 field with an ambulance visit for the guy who went down. [I found out later it was Allen Vugrincic who was admitted to the hospital with some broken ribs, scapula, collarbone and a collapsed lung. Man.] We would race for 20 laps, with points awarded for our finish in every fifth lap. So, every fifth lap we attacked, and the rest of the time we tried to recover... while trying to prevent the rest from recovering too much! I grabbed 1st in the first sprint, then got boxed in for 4th in the next sprint, then took another 1st. For the finish I was so heavily marked by everybody that I was slowly leading the whole pack around, on the stayer's line, for two laps! No attacks came! OK, fine; I went all-out with about two laps remaining, but all I did was perform another lead-out for the rest, giving me zero points for my 5th place. So, I ended up with 11 points, for 2nd place behind Zach.

Max 35.26 MPH at 133 RPM, 807W. Average 23.33 MPH. Total time about 12:23 minutes.

Finally we remaining seven riders lined up for a short "miss-and-out" race (the last rider in every other lap is pulled). I have learned so much about track tactics, and I was able to use that to grab 4th in this race, but I was too tired to stay with the three guys who fought it out to the end.

Max 30.14 MPH at 114 RPM, 617W. Average 18.23 MPH. Total time about 8:53 minutes.

One take-away of the power data is that the maximum power requirements aren't all that high for these mass-start races. I can routinely hit much higher peak power than the above results show, but it's very hard to do that after many laps of fast riding and attacks.

The gorgeous weather and smart racing really made this day enjoyable, in spite of the ambulance visit. Dinner with friends at the Crow's Nest was the perfect finish!

Lost Hills Road Race, 3/31/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:30:00 +0000

By Eddy Price

"Eddy, you have to wake up, it's 4:15 a.m. and you told Jim Moran you would meet him at 4:30 in Aptos to drive him to a bike race at Lost Hills... remember" my wife shouted in my ear very early Saturday morning as I lay in a deep sleep. It took a few seconds for my brain to process what she had said.

Then I remembered, Jim Moran, my good friend, personal training client and new member of our club-team and I were driving to the Lost Hills Road Race near Bakersfield. Our race started at 9:00 am, it was a three-hour drive, so we had to leave Aptos at 4:30 a.m. to get there by 7:30 a.m. and I had promised to drive Jim in my truck.

I hate early mornings. Normally I wake up between 8:00 and 8:30 am and I stay in bed until I can't keep my eyes closed anymore, which might be up to 45 minutes, or around 9:15 a.m., but 12 to 15 times a year I awake very early in the morning, long before the sun rises, to drive several hours to compete in a bike race in some distant part of Northern California.

My alarm, set for 3:30 a.m. either hadn't gone off or I had slept right through it, but within ten minutes I had dressed, gulped down a cup of coffee, made one cup for the road, inhaled a bowl of oatmeal, packed my cycling clothes, and loaded the truck, arriving only four minutes late in Aptos where Jim and I had arranged to meet.

This was to be Jim Morans first road race and I had been on the lookout for flat road races as a gentle introduction to the sport. I didn't want Jim's first experience to be next week's race at Copperopolis, where the road is flat and smooth for only 50 yards before the route turns left, enters the "pave" and tackles an eleven hundred foot climb.

Jim called me three years ago to start a weight-training program, spotting my name on our team's website and finding my phone number in the yellow pages under my personal training ad. Jim was turning 60 soon and wanted to get in better shape, so his birthday present to himself was six months of personal training sessions with me at my studio in Aptos. We progressed from the gym to weekly training sessions on the bike and last year Jim took the plunge, reading everything he could on training (Chris Carmichael's book was our Bible), watching everything he could find about cycling on YouTube, purchasing a new Cervelo bicycle, competing in the Swanton Time Trial Series and, the final step every male takes towards being a competitive cyclist, shaving his legs.

We arrived at Lost Hills at 7:35 a.m. There was no rain, but it was very windy. Because of the low turnout, they combined the 45+ Cat 4, 45+ Cat 5, Women, and Open Cat 5 together, which amounted to about 30 riders total. The course was a four-corner, 27-mile rectangle around the oil fields of Lost Hills on dead flat roads with very long uninterrupted stretches, as far as you could see, and a four-mile section of dirt road directly into a 30 mile per hour headwind thrown in for good measure.

The race started very fast with a nasty wind from the left. Naturally, the riders at the front stayed as far to the right as possible, so that those behind wouldn't have much shelter from the wind. The only place where I felt a tiny bit of protection from the 30-mile per hour wind was as far to the right as I could possibly ride, so that is where I tried to stay. The problem was the road had zero shoulder and a rough "edge" and frequently I would end up in the dirt for a few seconds, putting my cross skills to the test, but endangering no one because I was riding in last place. The other problem was that every one wanted to ride to the right of the rider in front of them and with 30 riders, this wasn't possible.

I was riding in last place, suffering like a dog and wondering why in the heck I thought this would be an easy introduction to road racing. I rode at the back for the first four miles until I had to start to close gaps that would open in front of me. The third time this happened, I got "mad," not at the rider opening the gap, he was doing the best he could, I became mad at myself for not being more proactive.

So, I moved left of the group all the way to the center-line and motored up to the front of the group, settling in to forth place. Funny thing, the wind was no worse riding to the left of the group than riding as directly behind the group. Near the front, the draft wasn't any better, but at least I wouldn't have to come around the rider in front of me when he cracked and fell off the pace-line.

I eventually cracked right before the 9-mile tailwind section of the course. At that point there were only four riders in front of me. I kept them in sight until we turned right, hitting 36 miles per hour aided by a wind of equal speed. The headwind leg of the course began with a three-mile section of dirt road, dropping my speed to 10 miles per hour and the four in front of me pulled away slowly.

When I crossed the finish line with one lap still to go, I almost quit. The wind was at its strongest, I was riding 8 miles per hour pedaling a 34 x 23 gear combination and wasn't sure I could manage another lap. Thankfully, the wind died down to a relatively calm 20 miles per hour and I started to feel better. I held 5th place the whole second lap, riding 68 miles in 3 hours 15 minutes. I was so tired that I was barely able to ride the three miles back to my car from the finish line. I even had to close one eye because I was seeing double and it wouldn't go away.

Jim Moran finished only ten minutes behind me, placing a fine 7th in the 45+ Cat 5 race. It was remarkable considering he was gapped within the first few miles, but he rode strongly, eventually catching a rider from Oakland and they rode together for quite some time. Jim even had the smarts to wait for him several times because he knew they could make much better time working together, but eventually he rode away from him.

I purposely didn't enter the 55+, thinking it was too hard a category, but I would have won because there was only one rider in the group and he finished behind me. Still, 5th place is my highest ranking in several years, and along with my 6th place the week before at the Salinas Criterium, it means that I won two tee shirts on two consecutive weekends. All that pain and suffering for two tee shirts. Yes, I know it sounds crazy and maybe it is, but it keeps me sane.

Ed Price

Copperopolis Road Race 55+, 4/7/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:17:00 +0000

By Bob Montague

Saturday was the race I had targeted as my most important race of the season. I really like the course, and I was hoping to do well. Ed and I carpooled up together and met up with Jim Langley and John Schaup. Ed had signed up for the 45+ [category] 4 race, and the rest of us were in the 55+ open field. Our race was stacked with all of the biggest names in our age group in Northern California. The headliners were Rob Anderson, Mark Caldwell, Steve Archer, Kevin Susco and our own Jim Langley. I also expected to see Chris Cerutti, but he was still recovering from illness. Still, we started with near, if not at our limit of 50 guys at the line.

The pace started off brisk and the initial piece of roadway going down to the feed zone hill is poor at best. I was already at the back of the group on the way down and I realized that would not do if I was going to have any chance of getting up the hill with the leaders. I moved up to the row behind Jim. I know that I can’t out-climb him, but I was hoping to be able to hang on his wheel up the climb. As soon as the feed zone arrived, Rob Anderson set the pace. He is an interesting racer in that he does not have a really big top end. However, when he gets a gap, there are few in our group who can both bridge that gap and then maintain his pace. On this day, he opened that gap with 4 others (Caldwell, Archer, Susco and a guy named George Smith). At the top of the climb, I was maybe 5 seconds off of Jim and he was 15-20 seconds off of this lead group. Jim and I regrouped with 8-10 others and we began to chase. I used the first few moments to recover as Jim was leading our chase group. I realized that our chase was not going to be fast enough to reel the lead group back and I moved to the front. I also wanted to give Jim the chance to sit in with the group. I raced with Anderson at Topsport and I felt that our group could chase them down if we worked together and chased hard. Only one other guy in our group was willing or able to chase as hard as we needed to to bring back the leaders. Jim told me he had hurt himself too much on the climb and perhaps others were in the same circumstance. I worked hard to drive the pace and for the remainder of the first lap, our gap behind the lead group remained about the same. By the time we reached the top of the second climb, it had become clear that we did not have the will to chase down the leaders.

From this point our task changed from one of chasing to one of preparing for the last lap and finish. I could tell that I was as strong as anyone in our group. I went off the front at the finish line at the end of the first lap and stayed away to the bottom of the hill before the feed zone hill. The second time up the main climb was easier than the first. In the group ahead of us, Susco had flatted and George had thrown his chain and dropped back to us. I was trying to think about how to position myself to help Jim at the finish, but he told me that he still could not recover from the first time up the climb. I was feeling good and driving the pace of our group, but I knew there were some better sprinters than me. Kevin Willits and Joe Lemieux along with Marc Hamlin as well as others. I expect that I was the least experienced racer in our group. That probably contributed to my placing at the finish. I did not try to get a gap on the last climb, but in retrospect, I think I should have. Still, a few guys, including Jim, got gapped. I was in front going over the top and everyone hammered the descent pretty hard. I was feeling good and wanted to make my best effort going to the line. I was hoping to go with Willits and when he started his move, so did I. Unfortunately, I got crowded to the edge of the road and had to scrub speed to stay on the road. I tried to reload, but everyone had passed me by and were heading for the line by the time I was able to go again. At that point, I went as hard as I could and passed 2 guys right before the line. I finished 11th and Jim came in at 15th. I would have been happier if I had been able to finish stronger, but I was really thrilled to be able to finish with the caliber of racers that I did cross the line with!

Novice Track Racing, Cat 3/4/5, 4/1/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:07:00 +0000

By Dennis Pedersen

This was my second track race of the year, once again part of Michael Wesley's new Novice Racing series designed to give beginning and intermediate-level track racers a place to have fun without having to race with the Pros in the usual 1/2/3 fields. I'd really enjoyed the first race, in March, so I was happy to head over to Hellyer Park in San Jose for some racing on their banked-oval velodrome, especially with the clear weather.

This time I was able to use the disc-covered wheel I bought from teammate Ken Sato (for a very reasonable price... thanks again, Ken!). It even has a power-meter hub, so I can check my actual power output on the track now, just as I do during my countless intervals workouts.

We started off with individual flying-200m runs. And again I had trouble with the front wheel shimmying wildly whenever I went to 100%. I basically had to back off and ended up with a mediocre 13.24-second time (I think that's about 33.8 MPH). My personal best is 12.47 seconds, so I was much slower. Definitely something I need to work on some more. The 10-MPH wind was not helping either, though.

We then had a 15-lap scratch race which I won by, like last time, taking a 2-lap "flyer" by myself. Interestingly, when I checked my power output later on, I found that I'd set new personal records for my 30-second, 1-minute and 5-minute average power. I guess I'll have to check the calibration of the new hub and make sure it isn't lying!

We then ran our individual standing-start 500m runs. Cathy Morgan held us firmly upright, clipped into our pedals, we got the countdown, and then strained all-out to get up to speed and hold it as high as possible. I got a 40.4-second time, which seemed OK to me (I think about the 3rd or 4th fastest rider), though my power definitely dropped toward the end. A good time is for 500m is 38-39 seconds, so now I have something to compare against for future efforts.

Lastly, Michael had us do a quick "unknown distance" race, which was simply a matter of racing until we heard the bell, then sprinting for the finish line. Well, we didn't know how long it would be, so Stefan Eberle went off the front right away, gambling the race would be short. I held back, figuring it might be a bit longer, but then decided the others were too slow so I started bridging up to Stefan. I wasn't convinced I could catch Stefan, though, and still be fresh for a sprint, so I backed off and worked with two chasers. We were closing the gap a little, but then the bell rang and I knew it was too late. I still got 2nd though.

All-in-all a very fun day of racing, and I learned some more lessons. The next Novice race is on April 15th, with my favorite "match sprints"... but I'll miss it due to the Santa Cruz Classic Criterium that same day. Oh well.

Now where are those notes on how to "stomp-test" a power meter...

Topsport Stage Race, 55+

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:41:00 +0000

By Bob Montague

I haven’t written any race reports this year. I may start to try and do a better job of it going forward. This report concerns the Topsport Stage Race, a somewhat poorly attended event for masters racers, that I did in the 45+ cat 4 two years ago. That time I finished 3rd of maybe 15 entrants and it was then and remains my highest finish in any race. That finish motivated me to enter again this year, but this time I entered the 55+ open race.
The weather report for Saturday said to stay at home, but I headed out to Copperopolis anyway. I was already a little intimidated because the road race course had been changed from the first time I had done the race. The description said it was a bit hilly, not my strong suit. I also checked the preregistrations and was surprised to see the entrance of Rob Anderson, the current 55 -59 world TT champion, as well as reigning 55 – 59 national road race champion. There were some other strong entrants, including Kevin Willits and two others from the Sierra Nevada Team. My hopes of possibly having a chance to win were dimmed considerably, but I set out determined to do my best and let the chips fall where they might.

I reached the location for the RR and the rain hadn’t arrived yet. The wind was already howling and I could see that the earlier fields were being blown apart. I wasn’t too concerned with the wind, but I could see that it would be raining by the time our race went off. Indeed, it was pouring and very windy at race time. I had been able to change into my kit before the rain came, but it started before I began to warm up. It was hard to get warm and I don’t think I really accomplished it before heading to the line. Once there, I was surprised to learn that the officials were offering options to the fields. We could choose to do the whole race, one lap only, or we could choose to skip the whole thing and all get the same time. I would have probably chosen to do the whole race, but I didn’t feel right saying so when most of the others seemed reticent. The start line was in about the middle of the course and Anderson suggested that we do the out and back leg at a group speed and then decide if we wanted to complete the whole first lap. Everyone seemed to feel that to be a reasonable idea and we were agreed. The official was considering stopping the race all together because there had been some instances of hypothermia in the early fields and a few in our group (predominantly me) were already shivering. I told the official that I would be fine, but that I simply needed to get moving. And so, we were off.

Anderson led us out and stayed at the front setting a high but not uncomfortable pace. I believe that we all stayed together during the out and back leg, but there were a few surges. No one made any mention of quitting as we returned past the start line, so the assumption was that we would do a one lap race. A number of riders launched attacks during the race, but none could stay away. I thought to use a tactic that I have seen Steve Heaton use on several occasions. I attacked multiple times. Each time the field chased me down and I would recover, only to attack again. I probably attacked on 4 separate occasions, the last as we approached the finishing hills. I was unable to get away for long, and I had burned too many matches to figure in the sprint. Indeed, I was assessed an 8 second gap because I couldn’t hang on the back of the finishing sprint. I was not unhappy that I had chosen to attack so much, but I was a bit dejected that I finished last among the group. I was surprised to see in the results that a couple of guys had been shelled from the pack, so at least I was not in overall last place. Still, I was considering throwing my bike in the car and heading home. On returning to the car, I realized that I was very cold and that I needed to get changed and warm as soon as possible. I started my car and turned the heat up as high as I could, but I was unable to recover my body heat until I got to Angels Camp and checked into my room with a long hot shower. Nasty conditions for a bike race, but I consider myself a mudder.

I ate at the only decent restaurant in Angels Camp, an Italian place called Caruscos. It was pretty good and I ran into a few other cyclists there. I didn’t stay out late because I wanted to be rested for the Circuit Race and TT on Sunday.

The circuit race was held on the same course as two years ago, but they went in the opposite direction. I think the course is a little easier in the direction we went this year, but I can’t be sure. I again chose to try and attack on several occasions in the circuit race and again found myself to be unsuccessful. Once again, I didn’t have anything left in the tank for the finishing sprint and was next to last at the line and lost another 3 seconds to the leaders. At this point, I was in 9th place overall and 21 seconds behind the leader and 11 seconds behind those who didn’t have any time bonus from the road race. I admit, I was more than a little dejected and again considered packing it in. I decided instead that I would just have to kill it in the TT.

This is where the story takes a bit of a turn, and it’s funny how the turn in a tale can sometimes follow a different than expected path. I didn’t ride my best TT, but I rode pretty well, and it was partly the choices of others that decided things. I had borrowed wheels from Ben Jacques-Mayne, but I decided not to ride them because this was a very bumpy course and those wheels have fairly worn 19mm tubular on them. Also, I found that I was having some issue with the cassette for the gears on the disc wheel. Instead, I chose to ride my new Enve wheels. My only problem was that the gearing on the cassette was a bit iffy on this rear wheel too. I couldn’t get it adjusted right before the start, and while it was shifting alright, I couldn’t get it to shift into the 12. I had to settle for what I had because there was no time to fix it. I would just have to hope I wouldn’t need it.

At the starting line, it was both impressive and intimidating to be lining up with a guy wearing the stripes of the World Champion. I am grateful that he chooses to enter races that I can also enter. I do not have the abilities that he has, but that does not change the fact that it is an honor to have the opportunity to line up against the world champion. I watched him go off and waited my turn. I got a clean start and began to fight my way into the headwinds that persisted throughout the outbound leg. I passed my 30 second man within a couple of minutes and decided to dial it back a bit. I felt that I was going out too hard and I didn’t want to blow up before the finish. Turns out that with the winds and my gearing, I should have just continued to kill myself on the outbound leg. As I approached the turnaround, I think I saw the Champ coming the other way about 3 minutes before I reached the turnaround. Considering that was the gap between us at the start, he appeared to already have a 3 minute lead on me in the TT. Still, I kept my head down and worked hard into the turn. My 1 minute man was far ahead of me at the turn, but I had my 90 second and 2 minute men in my sites. I began to ramp up the effort to chase them down. Unfortunately, because of the tailwind and my goofy gearing, I was spinning out on the downhill sections at around 40 mph. It took me until the last ¼ of the race to recognize that I had to work with what I had. At that point I spun up to my maximum speed on the downhills and then recovered until the road turned up. Then I had more energy to hammer up the uphills. Using this technique, I passed my 90 second man before the line and was only about 10 seconds behind my 2 minute man. I felt I had ridden this TT as well as I could given the limitations.

Still, it was at about this time that I realized that I had not seen any of the Sierra Nevada Team out on the course. Going into the TT they held 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the overall standings in our race. Turns out, they had missed the start. As a group, they failed to check their start times for the TT. Two of their team chose not to ride the TT, and the one who did ride it was assessed a penalty that left him out of the standings. That moved me from 9th to 6th place without having to do anything. My TT finish moved me up to 4th in the TT and 4th overall in the race. That was good enough for a podium finish as there were awards to the top 5. Stay in the race! You never know what might happen!!

Ride report: 2012 Mega-Monster Enduro 102mile TTT

noreply@blogger.com (Nils) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:21:00 +0000

Starring Mark Edwards, Jim Langley, and Nils Tikkanen as Team Honey Badger Express

Team Honey Badger Express, in fine form. Photos courtesy of Bill Bushnell

What possessed us to do a 102-mile team time trial? Insanity? Sheer masochism? The prospect of breaking the course record? All of the above?

Whatever the reason, Mark, Jim, and I took this faux-race very seriously, with Mark and Jim crunching their power profile numbers and figuring out what target power would be best for 4+ hours. Their plan was to keep an eye on those numbers and yell at me (who races without any data aside from a stopwatch) if I was going too hard. We were all in pretty good shape for February, and were really hoping for a time close to 4:30:00. Heck, Jim and I even bought Camelbaks specifically so we could have a decent supply of water.

Sounds good, right? Well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans...

Firstly, the 10%-chance-of-rain forecast could have been more accurately described as "well, it's going to rain more or less during your entire race."

Secondly, Jim's rear tire blew out. Luckily, he managed to save it and not go down on his not-inexpensive Cervelo P2. He would later discover that he inadvertently glued on a 170g tubular (read: track race day tire). It's a wonder the thing didn't flat when you looked at it.

It also turns out that long-tail aero helmets and Camelbaks play together about as nicely as a nastyass honey badger and a cobra.

Thirdly...well, thirdly, the last 30 miles were hard. This sums it up:

How much longer will this go on?

Holy crap, Jim's in the van and he says we've only a few miles to go! Oh happiness!

We ended up finishing the race in 04:37:04, which broke the previous course record by almost 15 minutes. Being a shameless geek, I recorded the whole thing with My Tracks and posted it to Strava.

Overall, it was an unforgettable experience, and I can't to return next year to attempt to break the solo course record!

2012 Madera Stage Race Report 55+

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Langley) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 05:57:00 +0000

Jim Langley, John Schaupp, Bob Montague

A Bike Trip Symantec Team Victory (well, partly)
55+ers Bob, John and Jim nearly get 'er done
by Jim Langley

Bob Montague and I have done the Madera Stage Race three times now so I've probably blabbed too much about it already. We think it's one of the season's top races and a super fun way to spend a weekend on bikes and around other two-wheeled gladiators. It only took a couple of emails to convince John Schaupp of that, and he signed up and joined us.

This year's event was held March 10 and 11 under sunny skies, right where this race has always taken place, in the laid-back cow town of Madera. We stayed at the official race hotel, the Hampton Inn.

Heading out Saturday a.m.

3 races / 2 days
On Saturday we had a 20-mile 4-corner flat criterium somewhere in downtown Madera at 11:30. Then we hightailed it to Sharon, about 20 minutes outside Madera, past a giant women's prison and out into orchard-lined, traffic-free straight roads perfect for racing the ticker in the time trial.

Sunday morning we then drove a bit further away to the road race course, not too far from that prison. But with strikingly different terrain than the time trial course - fields decorated with jagged boulders and sheep, gently rolling hills, wide-open stretches with stiff head and cross winds, and the funnest rollercoaster hills ever coming in to the finish line.

Leave a little room for John!

Our plan
We came up with a simple strategy for each of the races but we had no idea if it would work. It was based on what's worked in the past, though, so we knew we had a chance - depending on what our competition had planned for us, of course.

We had no idea going into the race though, that the Chris Black name on the preregistered list, was THE Chris Black of Morgan Stanley who I had seen ride himself onto the podium at Nationals in Bend, Oregon last summer and who had just become eligible to race in our group.

Registration and criterium location

John takes 5th in the crit
In the criterium yesterday morning, the racing was aggressive with several of the larger teams and stronger fastmen making moves and trying to get away. But we all worked and kept it together. A lot of guys were correctly trying to save their legs since if you ride a fast TT in the afternoon you'll gain more time than you could in the crit.

Our plan was to try to get our designated sprinter, John Schaupp, the win. So, we took turns making sure we were protected and close to the front and on the last lap I gunned it, got to the front with John on my wheel and led him through the last corner.

I thought it was a good leadout but I ran out of gas a little early and as John blasted around and off my wheel, some of the other guys counterattacked and John had to battle instead of having a short ride to the line. He hung tough and took 5th. No time bonus for us (the first three got bonuses). But it was exactly what we wanted to try and we were happy it had almost worked.

The sun sets on us after the TT

Every man for himself
Then yesterday afternoon, we headed out for our 4:30 start in the time trial. We got there early enough to fine-tune our race rigs and warm up. I had brought an aero helmet and clip-ons for John since he only had his road bike. Bob, same as last year, had borrowed Ben-Jacques Maynes' incredible Easton disc rear wheel and deep-dish front. I was on a full TT bike for the first time and hoping to ride a top time.

Warming the engine, TT bike ready

After murdering ourselves on the windy, bumpy 10-mile time trial - John getting stung in the leg by one of the thousands of honeybees returning to their hives that surround the orchards, we hung around and waited for the results. We felt like we'd paced ourselves well and hid ridden good times so we were a little unhappy to find out that Chris Black had taken a minute and half out of me.

I now sat in 6th overall and Bob was in 10th. The good news is we both went faster than last years, Bob by 4 seconds and I chopped more than a minute off my time. John rode strong but was at a disadvantage on a non-aero bike with road wheels fighting the wind down there.

Bob ready to rock & roll

Hammer hammered the time trial
It was nice seeing Jack Kelso, Lloyd Rath, Richard Shields and Larry Wolff of Team Hammer Nutrition riding so strong. I believe Jack and Larry took 3rd and 4th. Great riding guys!

After spending so much time at the TT that the sun had almost set, we headed into town for a quality meal at the Vineyard restaurant. Highly recommended but be sure to make reservations, and I'd say skip the dessert.

Road race teamwork
At dinner, back at the hotel and at breakfast Sunday morning we discussed what to do in the 51-mile, 3-lap road race. We expected the bigger teams to attack from the gun to try to isolate the yellow jersey Chris Black and try to tire him out. But, though there were some minor accelerations, no one put in a real dig until Bob rocketed off the front as if one of those time trial bees had stung him.

Up with the sun for the road race

Yeah, Bob!
It was the perfect move. Unexpected, powerful and timed just right. Almost immediately the Team Bike Trip colors were a quarter of a mile up the road and the race was on. Eventually three riders bridged up to Bob and their little group put the pressure on, while John and I were able to sit in the pack riding wheels and hiding from the wind. Chris had no choice but to take the lead and tow the pack up the long, wide-open roads into the wind.

Superman Chris Black responds with class
It was impressive seeing him work so hard and keep the pace so high mile after mile - a group of four trading pulls up the road versus just him. The few times other riders went to the front or Chris dropped back to rest, John went to the front and started blocking forcing him to have to jump ahead and reset the pace back to catch mode. Great tactics by John and exactly what we had talked about doing..

The view from our parking spot

It took Chris an entire lap, but he finally pulled Bob back with a series of about six 20-pedal 400-watt accelerations that hurt some of the guys drafting him. He made the catch on the Paris-Roubaix section of the course that's famous for how rough it is (makes Copperopolis look tame) and where every inch has to be earned because the broken pavement, bumps, holes and worse will stop you cold if you don't keep stomping too big a gear and torquing your handlebars not to get bounced into the ditch. Lots of flat tires and jettisoned bottles here and all kinds of chain chatter plus the machine-gun rat, tat, tat, tat, tat of STI lever vibrations.

John's turn!
With Bob back in the fold, and right on cue, John shot from a few riders back and attacked Chris - and then did it again. Both times Chris quickly closed the gap. I could see that they were explosive jumps from John leaving him shattered and it sure looked to me like Chris was starting to get a little tired.

My turn
Our plan was going exactly how we expected. The only part missing was the other teams attacking Chris. But with Bob having taken the race into his own hands for an entire lap and now John using the last of his reserves to put in his digs, it was pretty obvious that no one would - or could attack again unless it was me. So, after waiting for a few seconds to see if any other teams had any strength left, and not seeing anyone jumping, I took off as hard as I could.

A lot of people don't like this terrible section of road, but I love it because it's all about powering in too big a gear and trying to ride over the tops of the bumps kind of like cyclocross that was my favorite racing for several seasons way back when. So, while it was a painful attack I put in, it was also kind of fun. Yet it was equal parts awesome and depressing how Chris' shadow appeared next to me on the road. As soon as I saw it I stopped pedaling hoping he wouldn't counterattack me because he might have gapped me.

Could he possibly be tiring?
He must have been getting tired because he sat on me rather than jump me. And as soon as I recovered I jumped again and tried to go harder for longer. When I sat down, I knew he wasn't on my wheel but I didn't want to look back. Then, probably three seconds later, he was back. Impressive and enough to make me realize I wasn't going to be breaking away from him out on the open road.

We then started trading pulls and got caught by San Jose Bike Club's David Stockwell and Kevin Willitts from Team Bicycles Plus/Sierra Nevada and together we increased our gap all the way around lap three. Later I learned from Bob and John that the attacks John and I put in had blown up the remaining group and there weren't enough guys to work together to pull us back.

Our little group off the front rode a nice, tight echelon and covered the final 15 miles efficiently. I wasn't sure who would be the strongest if it came down to a sprint, but I was determined to wait as long as possible and not let anyone sit on my wheel and come around at the end.

My favorite finish
I mentioned the rollercoaster hills leading to the finish line. The refs' and scorers' table sits at the top of the 4th (maybe 5th) steep little hill in a row with deep valleys between. You've just come off this miserable beat-up old road and the pavement over these highs and lows is glass-smooth. Plus there's a ripping tailwind.

Refueling on the way home

Live for the hills
I was in front coming into the first hill and I just stood and powered over it without even shifting, rear tire slipping from the effort - probably on a 53/15. It killed my legs but I knew if I could get a gap I could coast down the other side and recover.

I shot a glance back and was relieved to see I'd already opened a pretty sizable lead. So I repeated the explode-up, rest-down riding and crossed the line alone to win the road race for the third time in three tries. I still can't quite believe it.

Click to zoom!

In the overall results (left) I finished second to Chris the winner.

Thank you Bob and John for working so hard for me and being such awesome teammates! And a tip of the helmet to Chris Black for riding like the champion he is. Kudos to Larry Wolff and Jack Kelso and SJBC's Jonathan Sek and David Stockwell who rode so tough and all you other great 55+ers. See you next time!

Racing Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff Drake) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:50:00 +0000

By Geoff Drake

It's funny that I make my living in social media and writing but never seem to have the time to do a blog story. Anyway, I've been lucky enough to do a few events this year, so I thought it might be time for an update.

I'm racing mountain bikes again for the first time in three years. I've been third twice, mostly recently behind my former teammate, Steve Heaton; and Eric Squires. These guys are hella fast! I think I'm the series leader at this point, but since I'll miss the next two due to book signings, so much for that!

Meredith and I did the 64-mile version of the LKHC Mega-Enduro time trial, on the tandem. I kept promising her that it wouldn't rain, but of course it did, nonstop. But she was a trooper. I think we were third in that distance category, even though my awesome teammates (Mark, Nils and Jim) smoked our time and they were doing the 102-mile version! They set a record in 4:37.

And I was fourth at the CCCX road race March 4. Clark Foy went off the front early. I saw him go and went after him. I was half way across, by myself, when I looked back and decided the field was going to absorb us both. I was hurting, going straight into a headwind. But I should have dug deeper and kept going, because Clark stayed away and won solo!

I recovered for a lap, then just started attacking, because I hate field sprints. Eventually I got away with three others, including our former teammate, Russ, who eventually dropped back, and Kevin Susko, the eventual 55-plus winner. I decided I could take this small group in the sprint for second...wrong! I should have attacked on the last hill and tried to get away. Dennis Pederson did a great job in the race, helping monitor things at the front. He had won some events at the track just a day earlier.

Nonetheless, I guess fourth is okay (not third, as it appears in this picture), and I felt good. Fun to be racing again!

(Thanks Bill Bushnell for the tandem photo.)

Novice Track Racing, Cat 3/4/5, 3/3/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:52:00 +0000

By Dennis Pedersen

This year the NCVA is offering a new series of weekend "novice races" that cater mostly to juniors and beginners... but also with races for old guys like me. The first one was last Saturday. I hadn't raced on the oval track since last Fall, so I was looking forward to racing at Hellyer Park's velodrome again.

First up were our timed flying-200-meter individual time trials. I was one of the last up and managed a 13.08-second run. Not my best (which is 12.48). I sometimes have a wobble in the steering during these maximum efforts, and that happened this time. But it seemed everybody else was a bit slow too, perhaps because of the wind, so I ended up well placed; I think 3rd or 4th.

This was followed by a 12-lap "scratch race." They ended up shifting us Masters away from the planned race, with juniors and women, and into the open-age Category 3/4/5 race. That ended up being fine with me, since I was able to jump with 1.5 laps remaining and solo to 1st place. Woo-hoo! As a sprinter it's usually better for me to wait until we have maybe a half-lap remaining... but I knew guys like Andreas Vogel could probably out-sprint me at that distance, hence my decision to jump much sooner. (Video on FaceBook.)

Then we did some cool standing-start-500-meter individual time trials. I'd never done one of these before, though it's the same concept as the 1-kilometer I did back in 2007. Michael Wesley was our "holder" and did a great job of holding me while I was clipped into both pedals, on my bike, at the ready on the track. They even had a very Pro-sounding starting audio signal. I actually had the best start of the day, but faded a bit toward the end. Anthony Borba consoled me by saying the wind picked up during my run. Even so, I think I got 3rd fastest time.

Last up was our Cat 3/4/5 15-lap "points race." I won the first sprint, on lap 5, giving me 5 points. But I got boxed in on the second sprint, on lap 10, for zero points. For the final sprint I again managed to take the win, giving me a total of 10 points. But "Scott," from Chico Corsa, had managed two 2nds, plus a 1st, giving him 11 points. So, I got 2nd place. (Video on YouTube.)

As always, I had a great time and was really happy I made it to this race. I'm looking forward to the rest of the track-racing season!

Ed Price Patterson Road Race (Early Bird Road Race)

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 01:54:00 +0000

By Ed Price

After six or seven minutes on the "main climb", with no end in sight and suffering in my 34 x 23, I started to regret the hard pace I set from the bottom and wondered why I believed Bob in the first place. With no formal group training rides these last four months, a lack of fitness and an excess of body fat, my teammate and good friend, Bob Montague encouraged me to enter the Early Bird Road Race in Patterson last Saturday because it wasn't a difficult course, a route he described as "relatively flat on the way out with a short six or seven minute climb at the turnaround and downhill most of the way back".

I know time can be compressed when recalling periods of suffering from past events. After the race I realized that I had just read a research journal article that morning that suggested that we perform selective editing of our memories of stressful times as a coping mechanism, but the oxygen concentrations of the blood in my brain were too low to think of that during the race.

A perfect example of this selective memory editing is the fact that every time (16 in total) I finish the Copperopolis road race, I swear I will never ride it again, but after ten months of "selective memory editing", I sign up for another year, thinking to myself that it wasn't that bad, the climb isn't too long or too steep, and the roads aren't that rough, only to realize once the race gets underway that indeed, the climb is very long, very steep and the roads are some of the roughest in the state.

Bob's strategy was to get away with a small group about 3 miles from the start of the big climb, arrive at the bottom with a minute lead and try and crest the climb with the leaders of the main chase group, knowing it would be hard for his breakaway companions to stay away all the way back to the finish line with most of the strongest riders chasing.

My job was to block, "clog the front" and set a false tempo at the head of the chase group once Bob "flew the coup". Unfortunately, the 35 mile per hour headwind all the way out put a damper on Bob's strategy.

The relatively flat route out the way out that Bob described didn't seem that flat to me. I watched as my altimeter flashed out the numbers; 150 feet at the start, then we slowly climbed up and up and up, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100, 1200 feet. Maybe we already passed the "big climb" but I knew that the mileage told otherwise. The course was 22 miles out and we were only at mile 18, so the "big climb" was still ahead of us.

The headwind was terrific, blowing directly into the group, making it difficult to hold the wheel in front but keeping the group together for it was impossible for anyone to gain more than a few yards on the peleton.

The road surface was littered with large and deep pot holes and lots and lots of rocks, gravel, pebbles, small rocks, medium size rocks, large rocks and even some small boulders. There were numerous flats in my race and I saw many riders alongside the road, some waiting for help, others walking their bike and a few changing their own flat.

When my Garmin's altimeter read 13%, I knew we were finally on the big climb but my mileage showed we still had almost three miles to go. I should have known right then and there this couldn't be a six or seven minute climb because three miles in six minutes is 30 miles per hour and my speed was down to 8 miles per hour.

Low arterial oxygen concentrations in the brain prevented me from performing a quick and relatively easy mathematically calculation; "8 miles is to 60 minutes as 3 miles is to X minutes", and then solve for X.". If I had done that calculation, I would have realized that the climb was going to take 22 and a half minutes, assuming I could keep up the same pace I was currently at, which it turned out, I could not.

The top six or seven riders pushed the pace when the climb started to get steep and I was right behind the second chase group of 12 to 13 for quite some time, but I began to lose contact after 10 to 12 minutes and found myself in "no mans land". Where was the top? Still one more mile to go. Where was Bob to give him a piece of my mind? Coming up behind me but I was breathing so hard that I could barely utter a single word when he caught me. Where was my 27 cog? It was at home, not on my bike where it belonged!

Bob and I reached the summit (2250 feet) within a second of each other and then plunged down the windy, rain soaked, muddy, pot holed and rocky descent. I am a pretty good descender but the conditions were about as dangerous as it gets, and then to top it off, it started to rain.

Twice I took turns all the way to within a foot of the road's end, in the other lane and with one foot clicked out of the pedal because I didn't want to lean my bicycle. Bob got away from me on the downhill after my second missed turn and then I got stuck behind a rider we had caught.

By the time I freed myself from the slow descender, Bob was already 30 yards up the road with two or three other riders. There was nothing I could do about the gap, it stayed at 30 yards for quite some time and finally, I watched as Bob and his group ride away from me.

Eventually three other riders caught me and we flew back to the finish line, it was mostly downhill and there was a very strong tailwind. It took over 90 minutes to ride out but less than 35 minutes to ride back.

My front tire blew out on a rock with four miles remaining and I watched as my three companions rode away from me. Rather than lose five minutes changing a flat, I rode on the rim to the finish, placing 27th. Bob was a fine 17th place.

All in all I was happy with my performance, with a lower gear on the back, a bit easier pace at the beginning of the "big climb" and no flat tire, I might have placed a bit higher but that's bike racing.

I don't fault Bob for his description of the race course, although he said afterwards he "forgot" about the 1200 feet of climbing to reach the 1000 foot "big climb" and the last time the "big" climb did seem like six or seven minutes, but obviously he was mistaken.

Even though I knew my race fitness was poor, I thought the race would either "give me a kick in the bottom" to jump-start a hard training program or it would discourage me from even trying. Fortunately the former, not the latter occurred, and I am now in the mood for some structured and hard riding.

Next race? Cantua Creek for sure (February 18th) and maybe the Central Coast Circuit race a week before (2/11).

Ed Price

Cherry Pie Criterium, 45+ 1/2/3, Napa, 2/5/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:39:00 +0000

By Dennis Pedersen

This race ended up pretty much the same for me as it did last year; chasing down breaks that got shut down, then watching the winning break recede into the distance. That isn't to say I didn't have fun, I sure did, but the race also demonstrated why having teammates in a race is so much better than racing solo.

I really love technical criteriums, and the finish on this 1-mile course is slightly uphill, with about 20-30 seconds of climbing, while the rest of the course is flat. Perfect for me! The problem is that we make that climb about 18 times, and the many turns (about 9 turns, including a hard U-turn at the top of the climb) open up gaps in the pack of riders, so we end up working pretty hard before we start the last climb. And these courses often encourage guys to breakaway off the front, rather than drafting and resting for the final sprint. That happened last year, when a two-man break got away and they took 1st and 2nd.

Margaret and I drove up on Saturday and had a nice dinner before hitting the hay at the official race hotel, Meritage Resort at Napa—a very nice place that we'd definitely recommend. It was so nice being able to visit their brunch buffet and suit up in our hotel room (by the way, the new Voler skinsuits have an awesome fit). The hotel was right on the course, so we just walked to the start line. It was a bit of a shocker to write "51" as my race age at registration though!

Me at the front, trying to form a break out of the U-turn.

The weather was a perfect 64 degrees as our 50-man field lined up for the start. I spotted the usual Championship stripes on the sleeves of many guys, but was also happy to see my friends Rob and Chris, from LGBRC, lined up after a long break from racing. Our race was to be 40 minutes.

I moved forward after the first lap to look for breaks. My hope was that I'd be able to join in with a few others from the bigger teams and stay away from the main pack so I could just sprint from a small group and have a good chance at a podium finish. One break formed before I could catch them, so I helped pull at the front a bit. After they got caught I tried to encourage more breaks, but nobody took the "bait." The best chance I had was when Hunter Ziesing (Echelon) and Max Mack (Health is Wealth) plus a guy from team Gnarlube (I think) took off and I bridged up to them before the gap got too big. But Hunter kept looking over his shoulder and soon sat up. I kept pulling for a bit, hoping somebody would join me, but without success.

The break descending as we start the climb.

After resting from one of my many attempts at forming or joining breaks I saw that guys from Team Specialized and Gnarlube were blocking. Clearly a break had formed while I was gasping for air and soon enough I could spot a 3-man break as they descended after the U-turn at the top of the hill. Darn, just what I had feared. I was able to partially ID them, thanks in part to the announcer (none other than Bruce Hildebrand), as Craig Roemer, "Jens" (Hillen, of Gnarlube) and a Team Bicycles Plus guy (Rodney Spradlin). And... that's how they finished the race.

Rob pips me!

When I could tell that there were no real efforts to chase them down, I decided to try a last-lap "flyer" by myself, in the hopes of finishing 4th. On the penultimate climb I pedaled hard out of the right-left chicane before the climb, got to top of the hill alone and through the U-turn with a sizable gap, then looked back to see how hard I was being chased down; rather hard, it turned out. I stayed away for 1/4 lap before they caught me, after which I simply tried to recover as near the front as I could. This netted me 17th place. My friend Rob squeezed past me just before the finish, which made me chuckle (as much as one can chuckle while almost vomiting from effort!).

Margaret took the great photos you see here; she has real talent! And after the race we visited the very excellent Patz & Hall tasting "Salon," right inside the race course, where Margaret promptly bought 8 bottles of premium wine and signed us up for their wine club—I would say she won my race!

San Bruno Hillclimb Jan 1, 2012 55+ 1/2/3 & 4/5

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Langley) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:44:00 +0000

San Bruno Hillclimb Race Report 1/1/2012
55+ 1/2/3s and 55+ 4/5s
by Jim Langley

Leading it out (David Cheung photo)

On maybe the most beautiful morning we've ever had for the traditional road-season kickoff event, Scott Martin, Joe Platin and I piled in my van and headed over the hill to test our early season fitness on the +/- 18-minutes of pain that is the San Bruno Hillclimb.

I think Scott and I have done it about seven times or more each, so we're really good at avoiding the alcohol, goodies and late bedtime on New Year's Eve. I don't think Joe has done it as often but he had a great race last year nabbing second, and this year was to be his first time in the 55+ 1/2/3 racing with me. (He's coming off a broken elbow so he's just finding his form again.)

For Scott, this was his first race in the 55+ 4/5s and Coach Mark, Joe and I had high expectations and urged him to ride aggressively. Plus, Scott and I have been following Mark's new-and-improved training program and felt fit and ready to race.

I had also upgraded my race bike to Bontrager's 2012 Aeolus 3 D3 carbon aero tubular wheels, dropping its weight from 16.4 to 15.2 pounds! These are the newest carbon aero wheels, which according to the company's wind-tunnel testing are some of the fastest ever made. Just soft pedaling around my neighborhood testing the featherweight hoops, I could feel the lightness and get-up-and-go, and equally important, I knew they'd help with the wind at the top of the mountain too.

First number of 2012

Even though we left Santa Cruz at 7:15, we ended up a little late, so it was a firedrill getting the numbers pinned, setting up the trainers, putting in our full warm-ups and rolling over to the starting-line staging on time.

Scott flatting on his trainer(!) didn't help. But we lined up in time for the 10:05 a.m. mass start - with each category going off at minute intervals. From the parking situation it seemed like a packed event this year, but from the racers lined up waiting for the start, it was clear that the turnout wasn't as large as it has been in the past.

Joe and I went off in one of the first groups. There were only nine guys lined up, which was a surprise. We had expected some day-of-race signups with the incredible weather, but nope.

Still as you know, how many racers are in your race doesn't matter as much as what racers are in it. And, ours was stacked, with last year's winner, Steve Archer; the Everest Challenge winner; a former 45+ all-star that Coach Mark had told us to watch out for (in his first 55+ race); and other guys who had beat us up pretty good all last season.

San Bruno starts with an uphill dragstrip - a wide-open 2-lane road, about a quarter mile at a steady 10%. So when the official starts you, you rocket out of the side street, turn left and are immediately looking up this ramp into the sky.

Go Joe! (David Cheung photo)

Checking the pre-race signups, I was concerned that Webcor had 3 strongmen in our group and I told Coach Mark that I thought they would attack from the starting line and then trade accelerations to weaken us right from the get-go.

With this in mind, on the starting line I was looking at how they were lined up and I noticed that the 3 of them were on the far right, together, and most telling, that one of them had his chain on the 53.

So, sure enough, they start our race and that guy just stands, punches it and blasts off up the hill - probably a 100% effort. We responded right away and got on his wheel and he sat up. At which point, his teammate shot away on the left and we had to match his acceleration.

We shut that down and the other guy went again. But thankfully after that, everything settled down and we pretty much rode as a solid, fast group pushing it hard all the way to the entrance to the park about halfway up the 3.5-mile climb.

I keep coming back to this race because there's something epic about the start and how you have to dig so hard not to get dropped. Then, as you crest the first pitch, the grade mellows a touch and if you're fit, you recover and find your climbing rhythm. After that, you're flying up this hill with the other top guys and it's a magic feeling going so fast up the mountain.

1/2/3 results

During that magic section of the climb Joe and I were together, and from what I could tell, he was feeling as good as I was. But then, as we reached the right turn taking us down and into the state park, one of the Webcor guys attacked again and raced down into the park taking the long way (but faster route) around the entry hut on the wrong side of the road.

I was in second and I stayed to the right because the officials told us to stay in the right lane. So, the Webcor guy opened a gap with his greater speed taking the faster line. Steve was behind me with Joe, and Steve took the faster route too, while Joe did what I did, staying right.

Joe told me that having Steve going so fast around the booth and zooming past him, unnerved him a little - made him remember his bad crash and he hesitated for a second or two. That stretch of road is very bumpy and there are poles and potholes to avoid so racers taking sketchy lines makes it feel more dangerous. I can see why it distracted Joe.

4/5 results

I knew I couldn't let them gap me. So I matched Steve's acceleration and we quickly reeled George (the Webcor guy) back to us. But Joe got gapped and couldn't close the distance, which was a problem because at this point the wind and grade kicked up significantly.

After that point my memory isn't as clear as it needs to be if I'm going to start winning tight, tactical races like this. I know that George, Steve and I were together and that we took turns surging and testing each other and we tried different sides of the road and different positioning to try to hide from the wind and get any advantage. As we got closer to the top, I was looking for the power poles that are the sign that you're close to sprinting distance.

Last year Steve had been in front and had just ridden away from me and Mac Carey (Mac wasn't there this year). I didn't want Steve dictating the pace to the top. And, I had a feeling that George had done so many attacks at the bottom that he might be a little tired now. So, I pushed a little harder and found myself in front (top photo). Immediately I could feel the wind pushing me back and hurting my legs more than they were hurting when I was drafting.

But I thought I was close to the finish. I thought it was right around the corner. There were lots of racers coming down the hill and that made me think that. And we were past the power poles too and that meant it was somewhere just ahead.

Second & First (me and Steve Archer)

I also thought that I had opened a small gap and that I had no choice but to play my card and go for it. So instead of hesitating and letting whoever was back there come up on me and trying to play cat & mouse with them, I just gave it everything fighting that wind.

For maybe 10 seconds I thought I was going to win the race. I could see the finish, people were hollering, I couldn't hear anyone behind and I thought I had the power and speed to finish it off. But, I had been in the wind too long and Steve had been smarter again and came around for the win.

Joe took a strong 5th, just behind Steve, me, Kevin Susco and George Smith. That's some great riding by Joe for his first 1/2/3 55+ event and coming off a tough injury.

Scott had a great performance, too, taking 5th in the packed 4/5 55+ race, which started with 25-30 riders. He said that 2 guys escaped at the bottom and he had to fight the wind alone a lot of the way up the mountain or he might have been able to do even better.

Team Bicycle Trip also had John Bonnet in the 45+ 1/2/3 who took a strong 9th place. It was nice to see John again. We used to ride together when he was with the Apple City Wheelmen in the 1980s and he looks as fit as ever.

Overall, it's a fine start to the 2012 season for Team Bicycle Trip/Symantec! See you at the races,
Jim

Bike MS: Waves to Wine Ride

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:52:00 +0000

By Dennis Pedersen

I love doing fund-raising rides, since it allows me to use my love of cycling to give back to the community. But I usually only do the ADA's Tour de Cure ride every year, since I don't want to ask too much of my family, friends, co-workers and teammates. This year my wife was out of town the weekend of the National MS Society's Bike MS: Waves to Wine Ride though, so that persuaded me to add it to my schedule... am I glad I did!

Me by the Golden Gate.

Like the Tour de Cure, we can raise money by e-mail, cash, online and through a Facebook app. On this ride the money goes toward fighting multiple sclerosis, a debilitating disease of the central nervous system. I deliberately kept my goal low and just wanted to meet the $350 minimum... thanks to you generous folks I had no problem with that and ended up raising $490! And I joined as a member of the HP team, named "HP Tackles MS." The HP team was huge: 56 people! I must admit my competitive nature is challenged by this and I intend to learn how to make the 2012 HP Tour de Cure team bigger than ever (please sign up here!)!

Unlike the Tour de Cure, the Bike MS ride is held over two days: 100 miles on Saturday (see map), 75 miles on Sunday (see map) for the longest route. The Saturday ride started in San Francisco, ending in Rohnert Park. On Sunday we rode a huge loop that ended back in Rohnert Park. I found it very complicated to pack everything I'd need and plan out the many tiny details that would ensure my bike, changes of clothes, gear etc. all ended up where I needed it at the various stops. The organizers picked up our overnight luggage in San Francisco and shipped it to Rohnert Park where we could pick it up that evening, then also shuttled us to various local motels for our well-earned sleep after the Saturday ride. Meanwhile they stored our bikes overnight. Then they shipped it all back to San Francisco Sunday evening for us to collect after we were all done with the ride.

John and Kiersten at the Laguna stop.

We were spectacularly lucky with the gorgeous weather. Just a few clouds along the coast with mild temperatures. The HP team met before the 7:00AM start for a quick photo and we rode along the Embarcadero and over the Golden gate Bridge. I rode a lot with Bill Rainey and Hans Zeller through San Francisco and north on HWY 1. But at Stinson Beach I connected with my friend Rai and teammate Alida, both doing the long route. I am amazed at how they stepped up to such a major challenge! I'm used to long rides, but even I was a bit hesitant at riding so much on consecutive days.

I was mostly riding a moderate pace, but also wanted to get in a few long intervals, so after Stinson Beach I hammered pretty hard to the next stop, at Point Reyes Station (partly motivated by a fast guy from Nevada who flew by us!). Then the three of us rode together toward the rest stop at Laguna District School, built in 1906. Did I mention I ate a lot of food at every stop? I always do, and that really helps keep my energy up.

After we looped around on some inland roads (Marshall-Petaluma Road was great) we eventually ended up on Tomales Bay where we had a sumptuous lunch by Nick's Cove. And then the last stretch took us through tiny Valley Ford, Bloomfield and across the finishing line in Rohnert Park, to thunderous applause from the many volunteers.

The Saturday party, with our huge HP presence.

It so happened that our dinner and party was at the former HP "Santa Rosa" site in Rohnert Park. It was a ton of fun hangin' with the HP homies, and the food was quite good. I skipped the beer and wine though, to be safe. I also tried to pick up some pointers on how to run a big team like this so I could apply it to the Tour de Cure team in 2012. Afterward the shuttle bus took me to Day's Inn where I took a nice shower and collapsed into bed (it was nice enough for me, but I am not picky). And the next morning, at 5:45, they picked me up again for the drive back to the event site for a nice burrito breakfast (with good coffee!) in the pre-dawn darkness and another 7:00AM start. By complete chance I met up with my friend Craig and his wife, so we had a chance to catch up on news over tasty food.

The Sunday ride started out cold, but as the sun rose we warmed up nicely. Once again I was able to ride with other HP teammates including our Captain, Kiersten Regelin, and Michael Randazzo, who rides in spite of having MS and inspires a bunch of great guys to ride with him as a true team. He also blew us all away by raising $9,979.96! How cool. It was also cool seeing how so many HP employees were willing to push themselves so hard for such a great cause. Rai ended up with tendonitis after the ride, and had to ice his knee. Josh Jensen, one of our four captains, rode super well and was great company too; his wife Bethany has MS so it's very personal for him.

We arrived again in Rohnert Park, spent but in great spirits. I was ready for the massage I signed up for and the next party! This time I used my drink tickets to enjoy wine and beer, with my steak dinner. I was kind of sad that it all had to end, but I sure loved doing it. Thanks again everybody!

2011 USA Masters National Road Championships

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Langley) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 19:23:00 +0000

USA MASTERS NATIONAL ROAD CHAMPIONSHIPS RACE REPORT

Time Trial, Criterium and Road Race (55-59 group)

By Jim Langley

No disrespect to Colonel Sanders, the Louisville Slugger and Kentucky bourbon, but in my opinion, Bend, Oregon is a much better venue for the USA Masters National Road Championships than Louisville, Kentucky.

Jim Gentes out on Bend's sweet roads

Where in Louisville you hardly saw any racers - because they were all hanging out inside air-conditioned buildings and cars - in Bend they were everywhere, all 800 of them. While I soft pedaled around the race courses on Bend's wonderful roads, entire teams of masters from around the country passed me. And all week long, racers were hanging out at the many coffee shops and cafes in town.

I stayed at the Super 8 Motel in Bend, which is where the USA mechanics were, too - their tent standing proudly all week in the parking lot. But, 5-minutes away, at Summit High School, which was the start/finish for the time trail and road race, a lot of racers set up camp in their RVs and Sprinter vans.

This meant that no matter what time your race was, there were plenty of other cyclists around. And, there was no need to drive a long way for the races as you had to in Louisville where the TT was held 20 miles away from the road race. So overall, at this Nationals you really felt like you were part of something big and important versus at Louisville where only at the races did you have that feeling.

The 2009 and 2010 Nationals

Even with those drawbacks, Mark Edwards and I had a grand time racing in Louisville in the 2009 and 2010 Nationals. But the oppressive heat and humidity put us at a significant disadvantage. Also, the road race course, with its short, gradual climbs and endless corners, was more like a crit course than a true road race and didn't suit the way we train and race in NorCal.

In 2009 we competed in the road race and the time trial, but we only did the TT for fun. Mark had his Felt clock-beater, but it was so new he hadn't yet trained on it, or even dialed in the position. I just slapped some clip-on aero bars on my road bike and raced that.

We knew we'd get killed in the TT, but it was still an exciting race and something we talked about doing again. We didn't manage to get it together to race it last year and only did the road race. But, this year, we were good to go for the road race and time trial. And I decided to sign up for the crit, too.

Vanagons, ho!

Ready to race

Unfortunately, Mark wasn't able to race the Nationals this year and I couldn't convince anyone else to, either. So I ended up making the 11-hour drive to Bend alone with only my bikes, trainer, tools, spare wheels and over-stuffed cooler for company.

Fortunately, Mark had given me a new training program way back in September, I had followed it to the letter, and I was more ready to race than ever before. Mark had also provided a pacing strategy for the time trial and even a trainer warm-up routine he guaranteed would have me riding my best right from the starting gun in all three races. Thanks Mark!

Here are some details on the three races and notes on how it went up there that I hope are helpful for anyone planning on racing next year. I'm happy to answer any questions about the race courses and Bend, too, so just ask me.

I hope we can take a larger team for 2012 because it's a beautiful location and I'm sure we would have some top finishers in the different age groups and races. But an even better reason is that I know you'll love the racing in Bend and even just being there.

Race reports

I raced in the 55-59 age group. Our time trail was 16 miles long, the crit was 34 laps for 25 miles and the road race was three time around an 18-mile loop for 54 miles. There were about 37 guys entered in the TT, 65 in the crit and 71 in the road race.

Tandems time trial too!

Time Trial: Wednesday, August 31 - Start/Finish: Summit HS

After racing the Madera Stage Race time trial in March on a road bike with aero bars and posting a lousy time, even though my watt meter showed that I had ridden perfect pace, I decided I had to get a proper time trial bike and bought one.

Next Coach Mark dialed in my training to help me develop the power to actually race in the aero position. And, the next thing you know I set three PRs at the Swanton time trial and then the Canada time trial, just weeks before Nationals.

So, even though we had not gone very fast at the 2009 Nationals in the time trial, Mark felt that I had a chance to go a lot better in Bend and predicted that if I rode my best I had a shot at a top-10 finish. Understand that the Nationals attracts all the time trail specialists. Some don't even race in the other races. They just try to win the National title.

The Bend Nationals TT course is actually perfect for me. It starts with a five-mile gradual climb. It's so gentle at first I didn't feel much and had to focus to stick with Mark's plan, which called for holding back for the first three minutes. I had ridden the course and driven it several times. So I knew exactly where to hit the gas and go into full-on time trial mode.

1-hour wait for bike checks!

The climb is only about 3% for the first 3 miles, then there's about a mile that kicks up steeper, maybe 5%, and it took focusing not to go too hard there. Over the top, there's a downhill stretch leading to the turnaround.

After that, you climb the slight rise you came down to the turnaround and then there's about a five-mile descent back down the climb, followed by a fun five-mile lollipop-shaped circuit with rolling hills, and back to the start/finish.

The descent is a little bumpy so it's not easy to find the fastest line, but I probably averaged close to 40mph (I don't have a computer on my TT bike) and caught one of the strong guys from NorCal who left over a minute ahead of me, by the right turn that takes you onto the final five-mile section.

Note that they use 30-second starts at the Natz, so there's a good chance you'll overtake someone. The tandems are the only ones that get to start at minute intervals. Tandems also don't start on the ramp, but use a standing start just in front of it. Watching them start, I heard awful noises from the two riders about breaking the chain and cassette cogs as they powered away from the start house.

Don't be late for your start!

On the final 5-mile lollipop section there are some tricky turns. As I warmed up on my trainer next to my van in the high-school parking lot, a couple of racers rolled back to their cars in torn skin suits and with road rash and said that they had crashed in the corners from trying to stay on their aero bars and losing control.

That made me nervous. But we had trained a lot on the Swanton course and I was determined to stay on the bars knowing that even a few seconds would make a big difference on Bend's mostly fast pavement and the rolling final miles.

How this decision played out was actually kind of funny. Here I come into the worst turn at about 35mph. The course marshal is so sure I'm going to crash that he's jumping up and down, waving his flag and yelling 'slow down, slow down!' If I had looked at him too long I would have crashed for sure. So I just focused on the right line and blasted through the turn. It was obviously way faster than braking because I almost overtook the guy ahead right there. He had gotten on his base bars and hit the stoppers.

I killed myself on the three rollers before the finish. There was a pretty good crowd along that stretch, hollering as we passed and that was motivating. But, I could hear announcer Dave Towle, and he wasn't saying anything about me, so I knew I hadn't cracked the top five. He would have known because I was one of the last riders to start.

10th place

It turned out that I finished 10th, exactly what Coach Mark predicted. I was hoping for better. But 10th is the best I've ever done at Nationals, and as usual, the top guys were all very accomplished racers, so I am getting closer. I averaged 24.59mph.

Surprisingly, Rob Anderson, who we thought would win, was 4th. Dave Zimbleman, who everyone seemed to know (he's a regular at the Cascade Classic race in Bend that uses the same courses), won, with a significantly faster time.

Some riders were worried about the thinner air (elevation around 3,600 feet). Others thought the smoke in the air from nearby fires would cause problems. But, I didn't have any trouble. And, it was a comfortable temperature during all of the races too.

I have already reserved a spot in the new UCSC wind tunnel to determine what I need to do to go two minutes faster on that course so I can get on the podium next year. Joking!

Criterium: Friday, September 2 - Start/Finish: Downtown Bend

My first day in Bend I drove over to check out the TT course, where I ran into Richard Shields who races for Hammer Nutrition in the 65-70 group, though he looks about 35 and goes as fast too.

After comparing notes on the TT course, Richard took me over to the crit circuit, which was just around the corner in a new part of Bend. That was nice, but it turned out that that's where the 65-70 group raced, but not my group. The 55-59s would race on the downtown Bend course.

I didn't realize this until the night before the race when Jim Gentes, who was racing in the 50+ - the crit after mine - texted me to make sure I didn't go to the wrong course in the morning.

It was actually great news, because the other course was far more dangerous. We heard about broken hips and collarbones and people being carted off to the hospital and I was worried about our huge pack making it safely around the tight, narrow course.

The downtown Bend course is almost a no-brainer: four corners and two 400-yard straightaways and almost dead flat save for a light riser at the top of the course. It was like if they closed off Pacific Avenue and Front Street in Santa Cruz and let us race the wrong way down Pacific and finish on Front Street by Lulu Carpenter's. Here's a video I took showing the 50-54 group tearing down the back straight (an impressive race won by Bubba Melcher who kept attacking and blew the race apart).

I knew what would happen on a course like this and tried to start on the front row. The only problem is that at Nationals they do call-ups and only the favorites get to line-up in front. So, I had to start in the third row and when the race started I came out of the first corner fighting for about 35th place in a long single line, the entire pack strung out from the speed.

This went on for the first 10 laps or so, blasting around the corners, all strung out on the straights, no chance to move up anywhere because it was just too crazy-fast. About halfway through it slowed a bit and started bunching up after the corners because teammates were blocking for the few riders that had opened a slight gap.

About then, I noticed that several NorCal riders were near the front and I tried going up into the wind thinking that they might work with me to pull back the guys out front, but nobody was in the mood. So, in the end, Bill Watkins, who was strong enough to get off the front, won the race going away and the rest of us sprinted for the podium spots.

You had to come out of the last corner in the front to have any chance of sprinting for the podium. I botched that when, going into that little uphill off-camber corner, a guy locked up his wheels and slid wildly across the road almost taking half the pack down.

The finishing stretch

I managed to move up a little after exiting the turn on the long drag strip to the finish but there was no way I could pass all the guys that had positioned themselves better and got the jump. I finished 22nd with the same time as everyone else.

I was impressed with Mark Caldwell, who had come out of the last corner not too far ahead of me and with his superior speed and moves somehow managed to move up down the straight and take fifth and get on the podium. Mark hadn't been at the Nats in Louisville and I wondered how one of NorCal's best would have fared. Now I knew.

I should have paid better attention to how the crit developed because it demonstrated one of the rules I'm starting to learn about Nationals (Districts, too). That rule says that in major events, racers race for themselves and they likely won't cooperate with you or anyone else. They will cooperate with teammates, of course, but it's rare that there are many coordinated teams out there in the 55+, though that was the case the first time I raced in the road race in Louisville.

The road race start/finish

Road Race: Sunday, September 4 - Start/Finish: Summit HS

I was so tired Saturday afternoon I was concerned. It had been two days since the crit and four days since the time trial. And both events had been short, only a total of 41 miles. Plus the riding I'd done on the off days was pretty mellow, just cruising around the race courses easy.

The fatigue could have been nerves. I was so shaky at the start of the TT that Steve Palladino, who I had only met a few weeks back at the Canada time trial actually asked me if I was okay. And Richard Shields tried to settle me down telling me to relax. I felt a little better at the start of the crit but the large pack and fast start I knew was coming kept me on edge.

So, on Saturday afternoon, feeling wiped out, I went back to the fine Super 8 Hotel, turned on the TV, lay down on the bed and stayed there the rest of the day to bring my legs back to life and calm my nerves.

T minus 90 min. to start time

I got to the start/finish on Sunday with plenty of time to double-check my bike, get my bottles ready, suit up and do Mark's trainer warm-up. Ours was the first group to start so as I pedaled away I watched the USA Cycling guys setup the start/finish area and listened to announcer Dave Towle warm-up the crowd milling around waiting for the start.

We were going off at 8 a.m. It was a nice Santa Cruz-like 60 degrees. As I was warming up Chris and Sam Cerruti and Evan Kapel came over to say hi. It was great to see some other locals ready to race with me.

Speaking of locals, I got really lucky in the road race. A guy came over after the crit and introduced himself as former Santa Cruz cyclist Jim Holmes, and offered to be in the feed zone in the road race to hand me up water. This was a huge help because, even though it wasn't going to be too hot that early in the morning, the mountain air dries you out and being able to get more bottles was essential. Jim saved the day. It was also great to have Sam Cerruti in the feed zone. He was handing up bottles to his dad but he gave a shout out to me on every lap and that was cool.

The top of the Archie Briggs climb

The road race is a relatively easy loop, It starts with a long downhill, maybe 4 miles. Then there's a small bump before more flat and down roads. The first real climb comes at around 11 miles. It's about a 7 or 8% grade for maybe a mile with the feed zone at the top. After that it's more flat and down with a couple of bumps.

Then you drop into a little canyon on Archie Briggs Road and at the bottom run into a wall. John Novitsky's Garmin said it was a 16% grade. I counted about 85 pedal strokes to cover the steep part. After that, it flattens out and then there are 2 small risers before you crest the top and head downhill. It's about 5K to the finish from there on the last lap.

The race started with a neutralized rolling promenade through the first two roundabouts. Then there's a left turn and we picked up speed fast as the road heads downhill. It made for a terrifying first few miles.

Everyone was using deep-dish carbon aero wheels, sew-ups pumped to max pressure for the countertop-smooth Bend pavement. Riders wanted badly to be in front and guys were moving forward like we were in the crit again. I refused to get bumped or intimidated and stuck in the second row, but the high speed and jostling, aggressive moves were scary and I had trouble riding straight, my front end speed wobbling due to the tension in my arms and neck.

They also gave us a rolling road closure and when the guys realized they could use the entire road everyone started moving far left and far right clipping every corner. While it was fun (like we were racing in the Tour of CA or something), the locals must have missed the memo on the closure because we came around a left sweeper and there was a double-wide pickup smack in the middle of the lane. The guy on the motorcycle leading the race barely missed crashing into the truck and I don't know how the racers behind him didn't crash. It was all I could do to move right without hitting the guys next to me.

Super-smooth roads = high speeds

Once out on the course, things settled down. We hit the two climbs on lap 1 so hard my legs burned badly. That worried me, so I rolled off the front a little on lap 2 before the second and steeper climb, and they let me open a small gap. I started the wall in the lead and was able to slip slide through the pack over the top. Even with the killer pace on the climbs, there were about 35 riders of the starting pack of 65 or so still together starting lap 3.

On the third lap, we passed the fast downhill section and over the first bump and I had moved forward and was next to Wayne Stetina, who has something like 14 national championships to his credit. I said hi and told him who I was. Wayne works for Shimano and knows me as a cycling journalist, not a racer. He said something like, 'Yeah, I know it's you, Jim, and you're riding great." That was cool. Note that Wayne had basically ridden away from us at the last two Nationals, so actually still being with him so late in the race was a big change for me.

Results by timing chips

Shortly after that exchange, multi-time USA cyclocross champ Paul Curly took a flyer and everybody let him go. I heard Wayne say to no on in particular, "That's a good move." And, without giving it much thought, I just took off and chased Paul down. It took a little work to catch him but I didn't think it was too much. And I went right past him and took a hard pull to let him know I was there to help.

We traded pulls like this for a few miles. I realized right away that I picked a questionable guy to try to break away with. Not that Paul can't win a race (he ended up taking third). But he's not very tall and I didn't get much draft behind him.

Also, it didn't seem like his pulls were intended to keep us off the front. That was okay with me. I figured that he was the champ here and the least I could do is take some good pulls and try to make the break succeed. So I took hard pulls on the small rollers on that section of road and after a little while we had opened a 30-second gap according to the motorcycle guys who came up and left the pack behind.

The hard pulls cost me, though, and when we got to the first real climb on lap 3, I was toast and told Paul as much. He said to just find a rhythm, that it wasn't about the hill. But, only seconds later, Rob Anderson caught us, pack in tow, and they then attacked the hill apparently trying to get rid of us. That almost worked. But, as the last of the pack passed me, I managed to get on a wheel and hang on and get back in with the group.

Funny race number, huh?

Unfortunately, while I was struggling not to get dropped, I wasn't watching what was happening in the front. And it was at that moment, disguised by the feed zone and confident that the starch had been taking out of the leaders after chasing down my and Paul's breakaway, that Dave Zimbleman (the same guy who dominated the time trial, and who just won the 2011 World Masters Road Race in Belgium last week), snuck away on the side of the road. I never saw him and had no idea that he had gone up the road. He ended up staying away and winning the race by a good margin.

Meanwhile, we all stuck together and finished in a field sprint. I almost got dropped again on the steeper climb on Archie Briggs Road and was toward the back of the bunch all the way to the sprint trying to move up. Steve Palladino who had helped me before the time trial, helped me again coming into the sprint. He rallied a few of us that were coming unglued by taking monster pulls and closing the gap to the front group. I tried to help with a couple pulls of my own.

We couldn't get to the front on the narrow roads and two roundabouts leading to the long finishing straightaway sprint, though. And, when the road finally opened up it was just go as hard as you can as long as you can to try to move up a few places. I managed to keep passing guys and finished 19th.

I finished 19th in the field sprint

The guys that took the podium spots were top sprinters. I never could have beaten them even if I was near them. For example, Bob Downs, who placed in both the criterium and road race with his awesome speed. So, reflecting on how the race unfolded, my attempt to make a breakaway work was a sensible thing to try, even if it didn't work.

The mistake was going with THAT breakaway, as Dave demonstrated. Another rule to remember: the winning breakaway will likely go late in the race, after earlier breakaways have been reeled in and everyone is too tired to chase.

All in all, it was an epic week of racing and my best Nationals yet. I'm proud to have finally cracked the top 10, and to have finished in the field sprint for the podium spots in both the criterium and road race.

After the road race, one of the guys came up to me and commented that if there was a most-aggressive racer award I should get it. So, I was at least one of the guys who tried to make something happen in the race, and that's a lot better than getting dropped like in 2009 and 2010. I'm going to keep working and trying to get on the podium next year, or the next, or…. I hope you teammates can join me in Bend in 2012.

[Track] Friday Night Racing 2011/9/9

noreply@blogger.com (Nils) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:14:00 +0000

9/9 was the last Friday night of track racing in 2011, and it was a blast. Between the PG-13 commentary by Michael Hernandez and the free food and beer, Friday nights always draw out a big crowd on beautiful summer evenings in Hellyer Park. Here's how it went down:

Fact 1: When Anthony Borba tells you to not initiate a break in the scratch race, you initiate a break in the scratch race. With a few laps to go, it was just me and Mario Hernandez from Audi. On the final lap, Mario started pulling up in Turn 1 and I went for it hard down the sprinters lane and caught him off guard. Win 1.

Fact 2: Points races are hard, but with careful attention, they are winnable. Unless you're superhuman, trying to win every points lap (every five or ten laps, with points going 5-3-2-1 to the first four riders across the line) is going to result in dead legs. I was careful to keep track of my points vs. Mario's, and while Mario won the final lap, I ended the race with the most points. Win 2.

Fact 3: Whoever made the Win and Out is a sadist. It's 15 laps, followed by a bell on each successive lap for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on. The nasty part is that if you commit your effort for first place and it doesn't work out, then you're unlikely to have the legs for any decent place. Our 3/4s race was very slow for the first 12 laps, with nobody wanting to take a premature risk. Mario went with 3 laps before the first bell. I had him marked and quickly made the bridge (I think the sudden surge from slow to very fast caught many legs off guard.) On the final bell lap, I came around uptrack hard and hoped to god that I would have the legs to hold everyone off. Thankfully, I did, and the (very tense) race was over. Win 3.

Fact 4: Track makes me make crazy faces.

Fact 5:Track is crack.

Match Sprints at Hellyer Park Velodrome, 8/27/11

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:55:00 +0000

By Dennis Pedersen

This year the NCVA has held several Sprint For A Wish Series match sprint events. I raced my first event earlier this year and had a blast. I am getting to love the mix of brute power and tactics so typical of match sprints!

Nils and I carpooled to San Jose on a gorgeous, warm afternoon with highs in the mid-80s. A nice relief from Santa Cruz's drizzly mornings. Like usual, we first signed up, then warmed up for the timed 200-meter runs they use to "seed" us into groups, by speed. Last time I used 48x14 gears (also known as 90.1 gear-inches per the gearing calculator here) for this and liked it. I later tried that gearing for some mass-start races, and decided it was a better choice than the lower 48x15 (84.4 gear-inches) for them too.

The 200m runs sound easy, just cover 200m as fast as possible, but they are actually pretty tricky, and it's hard to time our efforts just right. It seems it's best to ride high along the outer railing of the track, accelerate exiting turn 4 into turn 1, and increase to 100% power just before we hit the start of the timed section in the exit from turn 2. Then angle down the banking into the inside edge of the track at the entrance to turn 3 and just try to maintain as much of that speed as possible out of turn 4 and across the finish line. It's hard to get the timing just right, and we try to study the approach that experienced racers take. It seems like there is more than one right way.

There was a light wind, so I didn't think any of us would set any new records for our 200m times... was I wrong! Nils improved to 12.48 seconds, and I improved to 12.66 seconds (from 13.08)! Even that put us both in the "B" group this time (the "A" riders were in the low 12s, with one guy even breaking into the 11s!).

Match sprints are usually just two guys on the track, the first one to cross the finish line wins. You might think we'd just sprint from the very start of each match. But... because of the tactical nature of racing, it usually ends up with a cat-and-mouse game between the two guys as each tries to time his attack for the maximum benefit and to avoid giving the other guy the advantage of a draft to follow. Each match would be just two 335m-laps, 670m total. I switched back to my 84.4-inch gearing for these, because the lower gearing really helps me "jump" from the low speeds we start at.

My first sprint was against Stefan Eberle, who I know well from the Tuesday night track races. I decided I preferred to let him take the lead and we slowly rode off after the whistle blew. We mostly just rode along, slowly, while watching each other. That's harder for the guy in the front though, which is one reason I wanted to follow him. On the second (last) lap he occasionally swooped down the banking a bit, as if to attack, only to swoop back up. That's done to make predicting his moves harder, but I maintained my position well. With about 250m to go I jumped 100% down from turn 2's banking and opened up a big gap ahead of him, watching him carefully to ensure he didn't pass me. He did approach me, but I beat him to the finish line. It's best to not go faster than you need to, so as to conserve energy for the following matches.

Next up was Alex (Alto Velo). I started ahead of him, but by forcing the pace a bit high, riding ahead of him and then up to the rail and backpedaling, I was able to get behind him. He then tried really hard to force me to lose my position behind him. Several times we almost did "track stands" (the Hellyer rules don't allow that; these races are slow enough already!). I then jumped from turn 2 as before, and took another win.

I was then matched against Tim Lydon (San Jose Bike Club), who I remember took 3rd at the State Criterium Championships the Sunday before. He also proved to be very crafty, swooping and sometimes almost stopping in order to get me out front. But I stayed firmly behind him, until turn 2 on the last lap when he slowed abruptly and started to bump into my right side from the banking above me. I held firm even though my handlebars vibrated from the impact, then jumped 100% for my sprint. But... I barely held him off for the win. My 84.4-inch gearing is woefully low against fast finishers like him. This may all sound scary, but we both agreed it was great fun!

Next was Judd. After simply leading me along for the first lap he then accelerated to a very high constant speed that I couldn't match... my cadence was so high I couldn't possibly spin the pedals any faster! I thought I might have been able to hold his wheel if I had used taller gearing, but I'm still not sure I could have ever passed him. He's fast, and a former State Champion. Oh well, can't win them all.

My last sprint was against Nils. He thought it would be really fun while I was a bit nervous at trying to beat such a fast, young guy. I finally decided to switch to my 90.1-inch gearing as a test... am I glad I did! He led the way, swooping and slowing at times, but I maintained my place behind him. And, once again in turn 2, I was able to time my jump perfectly: Just as he swooped up and looked over his right shoulder, I jumped down to his left and opened a big gap that he couldn't close. That taller gearing is really useful!

Man, I sure had fun. I haven't seen official results yet, but I know I did well. And I learned some more about tactics and gear choices to use in match sprints. One thing I did after these matches (in addition to retiring my 15-tooth sprocket!) was to buy new carbon handlebars, because the front-end of my bike shimmied frighteningly in hard sprints. I look forward to the next sprint event, on September 10th. I hope to see you there!

Embrunman Triathlon Race Report 8/15/2011

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Langley) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:43:00 +0000

Hautes-Alpes, France August 15, 2011
by Benoit Pelczar

Preparation
Having spent many months of August vacationing in the area in my youth, I was aware of the Embrunman Ironman-distance triathlon way before I started thinking about possibly doing it one day.

To try and understand the particularity of this race, I rode the bike course 2 years ago, over 2 days and on a rental bike. I rode the smaller loop of the figure 8 course one day and the bigger one the next day. I finished exhausted and with a total riding time of about 9 hours. What I learned from this was that renting a bike was not a satisfactory option (heavy and ill fitted) and that the course was to be taken seriously.

With a trip in France planned for the summer of 2011, I had intended to start preparing for the race about a year in advance, with a shift to a gradual bike focus over the winter. It turns out that I overraced during the summer and was sick from mid-August through mid-December. Once recovered, I started to train again, playing by ear and relying on the option to sign up a few weeks before the race if my preparation was going well.

In January, I started to seek the hills on each single bike ride, gradually increasing the total amount of climbing. This culminated with over 40 hours in July and 50,000' gain. My training was heavily weighted on the bike, by design, keeping the run work around half-marathon distance until a late push to the marathon one.

My swim training was minimal, not by choice but by necessity after a couple setbacks such as a sick family member in March and a self inflicted bike fall on Memorial Day which resulted in stitches on lip and finger as well as chipped teeth and a dead nerve needing root canal treatment one month later. Coincidentally, my load of business trips increased by about 50%. I did not panic and kept trying to get ready, though, as I trusted I could swim the distance, maybe slowly, but in an economical way which would not drain me too much for the rest of the day.

Having recovered from the bike fall and trusting I could prepare myself to take on the challenge, I registered for the race at the end of June.

Logistically, since renting a bike did not work out, I looked at shipping my bike to the race destination, to avoid having to carry it through airports and in a rental car. The quoted cost of about $400 each way made me look for an alternative and I bought a Pika Packworks bag.

I flew to France the first week of August, headed North for a family reunion before driving back South and reaching Embrun 6 days before the race.

Race

I got to the transition area at 5 am, relaxed and feeling ready for the challenge ahead.

There was a small line getting into transition. No big deal, I thought and started chatting with my neighbors. The line was not moving fast, though. Pretty soon, the women were cutting through, worried about missing their earlier start.

By 5:20 am, the line started to move fast, after they stopped taking racers' signature. I was still strangely relaxed. I organized my area, pumped my tires, found my dad to give him my pump and was ready to go by 5:50 am.

My daughter and 2 nephews had raced the kids race the day before and they had lined them up in the transition area before having them gather on the beach for the actual start.

I was in queue, in the transition area, waiting to be allowed on the beach when I heard a "start" signal. Surprised, I asked my neighbor "that's not the actual start, is it?". Sure, it was. Oh well, it was a long day ahead anyway, so I calmly waited my turn to get in the water and started swimming.

Earlier during the week I had had the hardest time escorting my fish-daughter in the water as she was training for her own race, before putting my wetsuit and having a bad swim, in contrast to the great swim I had had earlier in the English Channel. That bad swim dropped my confidence a bit but I waved it off as not being used to the elevation yet and stretching to keep up with my daughter.

The first buoy of 5 was easy to spot and I swam relaxed. The rest of course was tougher to navigate after that in the dark but I did an OK job, aiming for the Morgon peak out and the transition lights back. I understood my confusion a bit better on the second lap once I realized there were more buoys than the 5 described in the pre-race meeting. No problem since I was there to race the course and not a map on a slide.

I managed to find calm enough water, except for a swimmer with a very wide stroke whose right hand smacked me in the face. On both laps, at the same location, I felt hot in my wetsuit, made a mental note of it and wondered whether it was a sign of things to come.

I got out of the water, had a calm transition and got on my bike. I had no idea of my time as my stop watch died before the start, until I asked a racer if he had a split, which made me then estimate I had a 1:15 swim and a 5' transition.

My heart rate was elevated for the first 20 minutes out, despite my efforts to calm myself, but surely due to the excitement of the race and the 2000' climb right out of transition. It is not until the start of the downhill back into Embrun I realized I had been moving very fast. I instantaneously lowered my target HR but it had little impact on my downhill speed. I passed Les Crots after riding for only 1:30 while it had taken me 1:45 earlier in the week at my target pace. That difference freaked me out and I made sure to ride extra easy from that point on. I was hoping to see my supporter crew of family and friends but figured they had probably missed me due to my unexpected fast pace.

I was trying to drink a little more than planned due to my hot feeling in the swim while staying on my eating plan and was moving at a satisfactory pace and low heart rate until we started the Izoard climb where it became more difficult to do so while maintaining forward motion.

I made sure I did not come close to my red zone, stopped eating but started on the Coke I had grabbed at the bottom. I made it at the top by 12:05, right on my estimated pace and rewarded myself with sitting at a picnic table to eat the treats I had dropped in my support bag.

I had really enjoyed the descent 2 years ago and did again this time, despite getting cold through the unprotected parts of my legs. I focused on drinking and eating plenty, bracing myself for the rest of the course. By 1 pm, I starting having negative thoughts so I refocused on eating and drinking, which helped. By close to 2 pm, I finally saw my family, lined up by Champcella on the steepest section of the whole course. They had been there early enough to watch the leaders.

It really gave me a boost to see them. I was wondering whether they would try and follow me and wondered when I would see them next. At the same time I was bracing myself for the last climb (Chalvet) which I had found difficult both 2 years ago and again this week when pre-riding it. To my surprise, I found a second wind and did not suffer too much that time.

After the last fast, twisty and gravelly downhill, I was back in transition by 3:40 pm where I was greeted by my family again. I took my time to get ready and started to run, my favorite event.

I moved well for about 5 km before hitting a wall. I was unsure what was happening as my HR was low and decided it had to be the heat. Strangely I never recognized it on the bike, but my Garmin could not lie, reading above 90F. It is only then I realized it had not even occurred to me to train for a hot run. Well, it was late to prepare so now I had to deal with it.

One of my goals was to run the whole marathon and I threw it quickly out of the window, making a deal to walk up and run the flats and downs. That lasted only so long before I started to walk even flat sections.

I then forgot about any type of time goal, calculated I could finish within the time limits even walking at 6 km/h and focused on making sure I would not get pulled for medical reasons. One motivation was to not leave unfinished business and save the option to not race that course again. I was trying to drink a lot and eat a little.

By the 25 km I vomited the little food I had, after which I limited my calorie intake even more. I found my running legs at seemingly random intervals before losing them again without notice. I distracted myself talking to racers around me, who had a story strangely similar to mine, and playing with volunteers or spectators.

By 9 pm I had 4 km to go and was walking with a gentleman hoping to break 15:30. I had a click and decided I wanted to finish with as much light as possible (the sun had just set) and started running at a good pace. The barn effect must have worked as I crossed the line elated, with family members in tow - once I realized it was encouraged by the organizers - around 9:20 pm.

I thought I was done but not quite. I gathered my gear only to stand for 20’ in line to get out of transition and exchanging the chip for a 10 Euro bill. People were falling like flies around me and I was starting to get dizzy myself by the time I rejoined my family.

I sat down on the ground while they were getting organized to leave when they surprised me with a Champagne shower which was the perfect conclusion of a day of racing amongst family, friends and fellow endurance athletes.

NCNCA Masters State Criterium Championships, 50-54

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis the Mennis) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:38:00 +0000

By Dennis Pedersen

I've never raced the State Criterium Championships before, or been to Clovis, just north of Fresno, or been to a race with "Medical Control." I was able to check all of those things off my "bucket list" this weekend. While I was not excited about the 3-hour-long drive alone, I was happy to escape the chilly drizzle in Santa Cruz for a bit. This was my first year in the 50-54 age group, so I figured it was as good a year as any to try to win a coveted California State Championship jersey.

When I arrived in quaint Old Town Clovis I got to see John Schaupp race in the 55-59 field, and former teammate Amy Russo stand on the top of the podium for the Women's 45-49 race! Congratulations!

The flat course had 8 turns through a nice older downtown neighborhood, with clean, smooth pavement. A slight wind kept temperatures comfortable in the mid-70s. The announcer was none other than Bruce Hildenbrand. I warmed up a bit and ate a gel, feeling very relaxed and strong (thanks in part to advice from our team coaches!).

At the start line we counted just 17 riders in our field. I figured that would make for a safer, more fun race. On the other hand, most of them were guys with a legitimate chance of doing well, not just novices. Our race started a few minutes late, about 11:15, and was to go for 45 minutes.

When they blew the whistle we all clipped in and I was third wheel, right on World Champion Larry Nolan's wheel (Team Specialized Racing Masters). That's always a nice start! But he soon tired of being followed around and pulled out of the line and dropped back. The guy in front of me (I think from Team Bicycles Plus/Sierra Nevada) pulled for a couple of laps. Nobody came around, but he seemed happy to pull.

Then came our first attack: A rider in a black/red/yellow kit I didn't recognize jumped hard into turn 3 and soon had a nice gap on us, maybe 15 seconds, that he held for a few laps. Pretty impressive actually. But we soon caught him, thanks in part to me taking a hard 1-lap pull. I always debate whether I should pull, but I almost always end up deciding I should, in the interest of keeping the pace high and the race safe (worked; no crashes, in any of the races all day!).

After we caught that guy Larry jumped in the same place, into turn 3. Everybody reacted instantly and it started to feel like a real race! He didn't pull for too long though, and I really think it was just his idea of a hard tempo pace to string the pack out, not an attempt to escape us. Because after a few turns he looked back to see if anybody would pull through; they didn't. So, the pace relaxed again.

A few guys took pulls, as did I again, but it was clear most guys just wanted to conserve energy for the last lap. Smart, but boring. I think others started to feel the same way because then a guy from Safeway, I think Jonathan Laine, jumped ahead and gapped us for a little but was caught after a hard effort. Same went for the black/red/yellow jersey guy when he again attacked. Larry tried to speed things up again and when he was done pulling he even made an exaggerated sweeping gesture to get others to pull through. He said to me, "Dennis, nobody else wants to pull," which I took as a compliment to my humble efforts. Neither of us had teammates so it was incumbent on us to shape the race as best we could, though it is always frustrating when team riders don't appear to be making the same effort as we solo riders. That's just the way things are, it seems.

I was gasping a bit at times, but still felt good. I was really hoping the 8-turn course and small field would equalize things a bit for the guys just trying to rest at the back, since our pace would be smoother at the front and our draft would be weaker than in a big field, but I know I burned more energy than most of them did. Even so, with just a handful of laps remaining I was able to repsond to the increasing pace and even dared to hope I could be fresh enough for a strong sprint.

We were now hyper-alert, and a very hard attack from a Davis Bike Club rider was caught, barely. I was happy I could breathe for a bit at that point! Then Jess Raphael (VOS) really jumped with 1/2 lap to go... yikes! I'm not sure it helped his teammate, but I saw an opportunity to execute my own plan: I had decided early on that I wanted to start my sprint rather early, maybe 300m from the finish line, so I could avoid being squeezed against the curbs in the last turns and pushed back. And that's where Jess ran out of steam. As I flew through turn 7 I went hard around him and did a seated sprint into turn 8. I remained seated and spun fast toward the finish line ahead, with maybe a 20- to 30-foot gap, keeping close to the left barriers to deny any draft from the headwind slightly from the right. I really thought I might soon own a California Champion's jersey!

But early sprints are always risky and with just 50m to go several guys flew by me on my right side, while my lungs heaved for oxygen. Darn. I was hoping for a podium finish at least; while I think I counted 5 guys ahead of me I actually took 5th, per the official results. Sadly, while the podium had 5 steps on it, they only gave awards to the top 3: Steven Giles (VOS), Larry Nolan and Tim Lydon (San Jose Bike Club). I applauded them anyway, while hoping for a better result next time.

It took a long time before my breathing returned to normal; I really did give it all I had. I tried my best and finished honorably, proud that I had animated the race as best I could while still finishing well. And the 3-hour drive home was nice and relaxing, with beautiful views.

District State Championship RR 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Heater) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:56:00 +0000

District State Championship Road Race 2011

Steve Heaton 45-49

~ Two Man Flyer ~

I was rested and ready to battle for victory against some of the strongest guys in my category. I took a sunny 10min nap in my hammock right before I left for the race that day. I knew without a doubt my fitness was good. Earlier in the week and the prior week I did a couple tests to see what level of power I was producing. My FTP, VO2 and Sprint results showed high output holding peak fitness from 2 months ago.

This year’s Championship race was held in Monterey offering me home course advantage. I have won a few races here making it more likely for me to do well. The beauty of District Championships is the course changes over the years to accommodate riders throughout the district. It effectively levels the playing field for everyone to have a chance at a Championship title. Some years altitude friendly riders have the advantage other year’s skinny frail climbers and finally this year power riders like myself. The CCCX race series is held on the same course runs from Jan 30 ends Oct 1. I’m leading the series overall with two races remaining.

The race almost always ends up with a breakaway. I wasn’t going to let any sizeable group go up the road without me in it.

Ding Dong the race is on……………………….. Literally it was on from the start!

Immediate attack and five riders go up the road. With five teams represented I noticed at least one super strong guy and I couldn’t just sit back and watch them roll out of sight. So I kept the pace high and would attack at 90% with lots of body language to see if I could light a spark under the belly of the beast. With one lap down and nothing from the pack I threw down a serious 110% attack and bridged up to the breakaway by myself.

No one is going to escape me today!

Upon arrival I noticed one guy pulling mostly and the others hanging on desperately. I recovered from my attack to bridge up, looked back and we had a decisive gap. I decided to see what we can make of it since we now have 6 teams represented.

By the end of the second lap it’s just me and Dirk?

I usually only mention my teammates names because my race reports are about me and how I experienced the race including teammates but this guy (Dirk) and I ended up riding like teammates.

I Said to Dirk “it’s just us.” He just kept on pushing the pace and I synced up. The pace felt like we only had one lap remaining but in reality it was the beginning of many to come. Next thing I know we have 8 laps to go with 40mins down and 1h20mins of racing remaining. I’m thinking this is a huge effort so far with two times as much required to finish it. Between the two of us we had just two teammates in the pack that could do any potential blocking. The odds of us two holding off the peloton was highly unlikely. We charged forward like two horses on a race track going round and round full speed ahead.

The daunting challenge ahead seemed endless with the amount of time required to pull off the two man flyer. I focused on hydration and food intake to make sure I wouldn’t fall apart late in the race. To give you an idea of how hard I had to ride, I would pull at 90-100% efforts between 30sec and 2min with recover efforts at 75-90%. For those of you with power L4/5 – L3/4 with very little at 75%/L3. Even on the down hills we would literally sprint into the downhill and sling shot past each other over and over. It was a crazy fast pace but it’s what it takes to hold off the pack especially with a Championship title on the line.

After 1hr 30min (9laps into it) our lead stayed around 1min 30secs. With 4 laps to go the official car came up to us and said a chase group of 10 guys is charging hard after you. With 3 laps to go on the long straight I could just start to see them. Dirk could tell I was getting nervous and said if we still have a good gap with two laps to go we can take this race. I put my head down and proceeded to hammer it out.

Two laps and I can see the chase on the long straight away getting closer. I’m really feeling the pressure to not slow and push through the pain. We held our pace pretty well but with 10 hungry rested and strong guys chasing with less than two laps remaining it wasn’t looking good. As we came into the finish stretch with one lap remaining I looked back and the chase is charging really hard with 15sec gap to us.

Turn on the volume

We hammered it out on the long flat section in hopes they would hesitate looking at each other but then I knew it was over. I eased up and let Dirk set the pace on the stretch of road he liked pulling. With about half lap to go (5mins to finish) on the first riser they sprinted past in order to drop us and that they did. I attempted to go with but didn’t have it. As I watched them roll away I said to myself “YOU HAVE ONE LAST CHANCE – NOW OR NEVER”. Don’t let the last two hours of hard fought effort turn to nothing.

I stood up again and went all out like my life depended on it. I felt if I could catch them and recover before the start of the climbing section I have a chance. Then if I make the first climb the rest are rollers into a strong headwind and no one will want to be in front and the pace might slow enough for me to recover before finish sprint.

I was able to catch them and did make the climb. I was so elated and now feeling like I had a shot at a good finish. As we approach the final turn to start our sprint I’m about five back and would rather be first or second back but couldn’t power my way into that position. We jump for the line and I don’t have the power in my legs to sprint past these guys but I held my position and beat half the group for 5th place.

Me on the left coming to the line and pretty much sums up the experience as I approached the line. A blur...........

After the race I felt like a million bucks with my adrenaline still pumping. I put everything I had into it and ended up on the podium. I could have been conservative and not go in a two man flyer the entire race since the odds were against us pulling it off (I was fully aware of it at the time). I could of sat in the pack and responded to others and most likely would have ended the race in the final group or pack sprint with fresher legs and placed better than 5th. I made a choice to push myself beyond what I thought was possible. I challenged my own perceptions of my ability and believed in myself without hesitation. You can’t put a placing on that! Talk about putting it all on the line? Dirk and I held off the pack the entire race! It required a chase group of 10 guys some of the strongest competitors in the race to real us in with half lap to go.

What an exciting day of racing!

2011 Masters Districts State Championship - 55-59 Mens

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Langley) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 05:18:00 +0000

Finally, A Podium Spot At Districts
By Jim Langley

Late Sunday start = small group

The ironic thing about this year's District Championships is that I almost didn't enter it. I've gotten so used to the long trek to Markleeville to race at elevation, that having the venue changed to our popular CCCX circuit race course at Fort Ord seemed all wrong.

More a weekend crit than a championship road race
There would be no major climbs; nice, thick sea-level air; and surely no skinny Nevada fastmen. Plus, with a high chance of a bunch sprint finish, it seems more like a criterium than a road race worthy of district's status.

But worst, my race was to be the last of the day, starting at 4:50 Sunday afternoon. Talk about messing up my training for Nationals!

Home field advantage
But then two things convinced me to register. Bob Montague, who was such a big help at the Madera Road Race emailed saying he wanted to ride for me. And a little later Steve Heaton told me I'd be crazy not to enter since it's essentially our home course and we've all done so well there in the circuit races, and because I'm in peak form. Excellent points.

Then Kem Akol let me know he was signing up, making 3 strong Bike Trip/Symantec double-nickel teammates (as it turned out we had one of the largest teams in our group). And finally Coach Mark decided to enter the 50+ and offered to drive. Be sure to check out the iPhone video at the bottom showing his group flying down the descent (Geoff and Matt are in the pack too).

Rob Anderson tearing our legs off - Bob looking strong

Rob does his thing
As for our 55+ race, if you enlarge the photo on the right and look at Masters State, National and World Champion Rob Anderson's grimace (he's the guy in front in Specialized red), it pretty much sums up how our race went.

The official blew his whistle to start us, Rob was kind enough to let our small group (about 23 riders) click into our pedals, and then he hit his electric shifter, and a higher gear, and punched it - flat out.

Grab a wheel and hang on
We went from a let's-warm-up-a-little 15mph to a quad-cramping 30mph in about 20 pedal strokes, and we stayed at that speed for about 4 minutes before Rob had to take a breather. Then, about a minute later he did the same thing.

This exact pattern repeated for the first 6 laps, at which point there were only 7 of us left in the lead group, a nice chase group of 7 or 8, more than a minute back, and a few solo riders left. The rest had abandoned to race another day.

A helpful headwind
Luckily for me, it's not so easy to breakaway on the CCCX course. There are a series of rollers on the backside of the course but there's a headwind there that means all you have to do is hide behind someone and not get gapped and it's unlikely whoever is trying to drop you in front will be able to generate the watts to do it, since you're working nowhere near as hard as they are.

Mark wins! Rob is second. Steve takes third.

This worked great for me through the 7th lap and I felt pretty good when we came to the backside of the course where it's relatively flat. While I may have felt good, in retrospect I think I must have gone a little brain dead because as Rob sat up, I decided to attack myself. Why should he have all the fun?

Dumb move
I was able to open a small gap but Rob chased me down pretty quickly. I rested a bit and then jumped again with Mark Caldwell pulling me back this time.

I knew what would happen next: Rob punched it again trying to shake me. I was okay until we hit the rollers and there, my legs, softened now from my attacks, just gave out and I got dropped.

I recovered really fast though and managed to chase and actually catch the group (they had slowed to a crawl), but when they realized I was back on, Rob went again and I got dropped for good.

Down but not out
I ended up time trialing in, dropping one guy who was dogging me, staying ahead of the chase group behind me and taking the last podium spot. It's my best districts finish ever and by far the closest I have ever been to Rob Anderson.

Rob, Mark Caldwell and Steve Palladino came into the sprint together and went 2, 1, 3. Jonathan Sek must have been dropped like me and time trialed in for 4th. A spectator told me that Mark was much faster to the line than Rob. I wish I had been there.

I'll wrap this up with a special thanks to John Schaupp, who had a big win in the 55+ at Dunnigan Hills on Saturday. Instead of kicking back, recovering at home, he was out on the course cheering us on and handing up bottles. Thanks, John and congrats!

Mtn Bike Nationals 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Heater) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:56:00 +0000

Cat 1 45-49 XC

Looking for lady luck!

The race was held on Mt. Baldy, the nation’s oldest ski resort mountain. At the foot of the Mtn looking up the face is when the pain of what’s in store became all so real. The trails are some of the most fun single track I have ever been on. Ripping, rolling, twisting, banking turns, trees to dodge and tight switchbacks. The climb though is brutal and it’s virtually impossible not to go anaerobic and blow up quickly (for me anyway.) It’s an 18min single track with little to no passing. It starts out steep with loose rock and root step up and overs (repeated interval format).

Once you make it through then it’s just steady hard climbing until you reach the final 7mins on fire road to the top. At that point you have to go all out to secure position because its one of the only places you can pass.

Leaving the single track to finish off the climb on to the fire road.

Once over the top it’s a long downhill to the finish line.

Let it fly

My favorite section – hit this at speed catching the lip to launch 8ft out and 3ft down into the left banking turn up over and down. Soooooo much fun!

Getting close to bottom - Watch out for the switchback or you might end up on the direct route to the bottom.

Last drop in to disappering trail before finish "Rock Wall"

Side view of disappering trail on Rock Wall

Michele and I arrived 10 days ahead for me to acclimate since I typically have a difficult time at altitude. I pre-road the race course actual distance four times before in order to get to know all the challenging sections. I was monitoring food intake before and during along with hydration. Paid attention to how much time I needed to warm up before going hard on course. I wanted to be sure and have my tire pressure, shock pressure and handling skills dialed for the descent. The climb was about knowing how much effort to dose at what time. I would adjust my efforts to handle the technical, rocky, rooty and loose ascent. By knowing the trail and my ability I could be more confident and comfortable under pressure in the race. Knowing around the next corner comes a little relief or get ready to really suffer can make all the difference in the heat of battle. At the bottom of the Mtn we did a loop around the ski lodge area where they man made a rock garden like the rock wall but this was a 50 meter boulder field that was impossible to find a clean line and seemed to just thrash not only the bike but my body.

The hight of these rocks 4-10 inches and scattered no way around them.

As the week went by my plan was to slowly adjust to the altitude by riding easy first day on road followed by a day on course followed by recovery day or two then back on course. Each time I rode the course I would go a bit harder working my way up to race pace. Three days before race was to be my last hard day. Followed by a day off then an easy pre-ride on the lower section to work out the kinks on the two rock garden sections and how I would position for the start of the race. Every other pre-ride was brutally hard and would cripple me for a day. By the fifth day two times on course I was so discouraged I wanted to go home. The altitude was so intense every time up the climb. It’s like doing stair step technical intervals about 20-30sec VO2 max + efforts with no recovery for 15mins and half lung capacity. I would blow up on just about every effort and have to stop or come to a crawl and try to recover. Usually for me it’s my legs that give out not my lungs so this was very frustrating to know I’m not pushing myself to my limits. The climb was 20-24mins overall times two laps. Once to the top it’s all downhill to the finish making it all the more important to let it all out holding nothing back.

I was doing all the right things to adjust to altitude. Not eating much sugar, no alcohol, higher carbs, lots of fluids to stay hydrated, not pushing myself too hard too soon and plenty of rest. After the fifth day I decided I needed some relief from all the structure, planning and commitment I give to cycling. I went with what I tell my clients about training. All the best plans and structure don’t mean anything if you’re not mentally comfortable. So I drank wine, did a couple pints of ice cream and had a couple steaks over the last five days leading up to the race. I needed comfort foods to help keep me calm and relaxed.

My last pre-ride went really well (day 7) and I was feeling like I might have turned the corner. The next day I was really tired but felt I would flush it out the day before the race on my final pre-ride and I did. I went from feeling helpless to OK and ready to race.

I practiced every step of the race. I did a simulation pre-race warm up the day before. I have a 10min downhill ride to the race venue and it would be 42deg so I didn’t want to arrive cold and stiff. I wrote out a checklist on when I would wake up and times when I would need to do something (take supplement, coffee, purge, dress, shower, warm up, and depart). I had my road bike set-up on a stationary trainer in garage to do a 25mins warm up then charge down the hill to the course with enough time to do the first prologue climb and rock garden. This would also allow me to figure out what to wear. By the end of my pre-ride on Friday I was confident I had done everything I could to be ready for this race. In my final bike prep I decided to up the air pressure in my rear tire by 4psi and 1psi in the front due to the speeds I knew I would be entering the rock garden. I was worried about a rear flat.

~ Race day ~

I woke up motivated and feeling good about the day ahead. I followed the schedule I planned out leading up to the race. Once on the start line I felt a little flat. I have felt this feeling many times before. My body seems to not let me push as hard on warm up knowing I’m about to go ballistic off the line for the duration of the race.

Final mental prep

Chatting with friend B-4 race.

Ding – ding and the race is on…………

I immediately took the lead into the first section of trail.

Incase you didn't see me I'm the guy lighting it up on the far right.

The race is on!!!

Rounding the lodge past start/finish headed to the "Rock Garden"

Through the rock garden and into the long single track climb lined with waves of riders as far as the eye can see. Like a heard of elk making their way up a mtn. so the situation is no line to pass and everyone is standing waiting to walk.

People are yelling “go go” or “let me pass” like there is anywhere for anyone to go? After a few minutes I hear guys forging up the trail passing others. I decided I must start passing on the hillside whenever possible. After 10mins of this crap it thins a little and back on bike. By the time I reach the top I’m in a top position. The descent is so much fun. The best way to describe it would be like riding a roller coaster. Once at the bottom its one lap to go and one more time up the climb. Now that it’s thinned out I’m able to ride without interruptions and passing is allowed if you can.

Once off the single track and on the fire road climb (7mins) to the top I asked myself?

Am I hurting enough? The answer is NO so I crank up the cadence and search for bigger gears until I'm over the top.

Now for the final descent to the finish and it looks like top five (after further video analysis between 3-5^th place).

I decided I was going to let it all hang out because you never know what’s going to happen on the descent and might catch guys with mechanicals or guys who can’t descend fast. I went ballistic on the fire road descent (like riding on marbles) hair raising speed. Threaded the needle to the single track and was feeling confident on a top placing at Nationals. About three turns into it I washed out in a turn and almost crashed at high speed on a narrow trail (I yelled out haaaahhh in total fear).

I remained calm and kept riding by slowing down while thinking of what to do. Final 3mi to the bottom on a narrow technical and twisty trail with racers wanting to pass full throttle.

I went “ALL IN” I didn’t bring anything to fix a flat thinking I had pre-rode four times and had tire pressure dialed. This was a climber’s course and me being a bigger guy on a heaver bike I decided to reduce all weight possible since I rarely ever flat in a race. Plus I knew if I flatted my chances of holding whatever position I was in would be gone. Well, it wasn’t in the cards and a bad luck day. I quickly remembered that the tires have a tight grip on the rim and decided to ride it to the finish. I slowly increased my speed until I found my limit to be able to control the bike. I also had to listen for riders coming up on me and slam on my brakes and lean over into the hillside to let them pass without holding them back. I got a lot of acknowledgments from guys for riding it out. It seemed like it took forever to descend. I ran down the rock wall jumped on my bike and sprinted the last 200 meters to the finish line.

I was devistated at the time to say the least. turn on volume and listen to announcer

It wasn’t in the cards for me on this day. I did everything I could do to be prepared physically, mentally and with my equipment. If I get to go next year the only thing I would do different would be to add 3psi to front tire. Everything else went as planned. This has been the year of bad luck with my equipment in one way or another. I have never in 20yrs had so much bad luck in races. On the flip side I have 7 wins + 4 podiums so even though my two peak events didn’t go as planned my season has been a success to date. My motivation is still high even though my season has reached its peak. I have a few more events to do to cap off the season and I’m looking forward to redeeming myself. Shit happens in races and how we overcome the obstacles is what makes us better prepared for future events. This was just a day in time that didn’t go as planned. Once again I never gave up and finished 17th (not last).

Heater

District Points Race, 2011 45-49, Sunday, July 10th,

noreply@blogger.com (Ken) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:46:00 +0000

About 80 degrees with a light breeze. I was feeling like my form was good but new the others would be fast and better sprinters. With a 50X15 gear and every mass start legal piece of aero equipment I lined up for a 60 lap points race with sprints every 10 laps (5, 3, 2, 1 for 1^st thought 4^th place). Riders that lap the field get 20 points for lapping the field (plus get to split the points for the sprints while they are off the front). My race only had 5 preregistered, it turns out that 2 of the preregistered riders decided to skip the race and I was the only day of registration rider. Since there were so few preregistered, I did look up their results and saw that one of the riders in the 40-45 group, David Albrecht was a Cat 1 on the road who had recently won a road race ahead of a bunch of the super fast guys including Chris Stastny, Cal Giant, who won a stage at Mt. Hood about a week later. So I guessed, correctly, that he would be the one to watch. At the start of the race they didn’t have a role call for the riders in the different age divisions (the 30-34, 35-40, 40-44 and 45-49 age groups were combined) and we weren’t wearing numbers based on our age categories- so I really didn’t know who I was racing or how many.

Suffice it to say David Albrecht lapped the field and I was not able to stay with him. My end result 2^nd.