Hellyer Friday Night 30 June

Elite 3
Teammates: Erik O, Steve M
Field: 12

Was grateful for the long sleeve skinsuit as the temperatures dipped into the 60's as the sun went down, had to put on an undershirt to keep from shivering. Big change from the 80's last week.

There was a little bit of excitement before the racing as one of the portable bike stands blew over with Dean, DanHolla, and Jim's bikes falling to the ground. Jim began his warm up and the damage to his bike became apparent on his last effort as his carbon fiber bars broke in two near one of the curves where the STI levers would go. Apparently the impact with the ground cracked it. Fortunately Jim did not go down but had to withdraw from the racing.

8 lap scratch:
T: 3:32
P: 352
S: 45.9
C: 110
H: 186
Attack at the gun, get the whole pack for a tail, pull up after 2 laps, Elliot goes in the next lap and we watch and wait. With three to go the whole pack eases up, and pulls up to the stayer's line or higher so I pull into the lane and attempt to bridge. With one and a half laps to go I ease up a bit so I can time my slingshot over Elliot, then Elliot unexpectedly gives up and swings up track with one to go. I was hoping I could get him to get on my wheel and hold off the pack but this throws a wrench into my tactics as I see his teammate Brian over my shoulder start a counterattack for the last lap on the home stretch. Doh. Oh well, at least got a decent effort in with a couple of attacks in 8 laps.

Miss and out:
T: 3:23
P: 343
S: 42.1
C: 100
H: 183
With 11 riders we will ride ten laps. This is a bit harder to do solo but what the heck, must go for it anyways. When we start going fast after the start, every one moves below the stayer's line, opening up half the track for passing, I accelerate over the top and see Matias in the lane and Steve M on his shoulder while I go over so I hope Steve can get on my shoulder and pin Matias there when they catch up. After four laps on the front I am dying, and find Matias in on my shoulder. Ooops. The next lap Matias ups the pace and I cannot match it so I find myself on his wheel after he pulls ahead and slots into the lane and I am boxed in - feeling somewhat relieved that I don't have to kill myself but then wishing I was not boxed in at the bottom of the track. I last two more laps and am the last rider pulled before we score points so a whole lot of work for no placing.


15 lap points race, sprint every 3:
T: 7:00
Pavg: 292
Pnorm: 306
S: 44.6
C: 106
H: 183
Since this will take about 7.5 minutes at about 30 seconds per lap, I decide to *not* attack on the first lap since I do am pretty sure that I can not hold off the pack for that long. I hope to score points in the later sprints. What happens is I find myself behind a long line of folks, feeling somewhat comfortable just sitting in and having trouble finding motivation to exert myself to move up with four riders a bit off the front, those four scoring all the points. Finally with six to go we catch them and other riders score points. At this point we slow a bit, I consider attacking then the pace picks up again. After the sprint at 3 laps we ease up signficantly and everyone in front of me pulls up past the stayer's line. Saved too much in the tank as I accelerate and pull away from the pack and stay about a half lap away for the last three laps. Winning a sprint is nice but with five sprints, I did not think it was enough to matter in the ranking but I got 4th in this race.

There was a crash in the keirin final where Don Langley and Gen Kogure appeared to touch handlebars and both went tumbling to the track, thankfully early in the event when the speeds are lower. Both got up under their own power but only Gen continued to race the keirin restart and the last event.

30 lap points race, cat 1/2/3, field 35:
T: 14:28
Pavg: 240
Pnorm: 250
S: 44.3
C: 105
H: 180
After witnessing the keirin crash and with 35 people in this particular race, decided to play this a bit conservatively and surf the back. They said they were probably not going to pull anybody but they should have, some people who were lapped multiple times were kind of careless and not looking when they were turning to get on what they thought was the back of the pack and hooking folks. Anyways, only felt I had to work a couple of times to stay in the group. There was an immediate separation at the start of the race and Larry Nolan was in the back group, and I could see him go to bridge, and amazingly, the people behind him did not react. The one thing I know about racing with Larry is that when if you are behind him when he goes, you go, or your race is over and that was pretty much the end of it for everyone in the second part of the pack. We eventually caught the main group but this was after Larry initiated a move to catch the break that lapped the field(edit, thanks for correction AJM). I think there were only about 25 people left at the end. I perceived this to be hard but the data shows it was not - have done much harder efforts in other races. It was definitely harder than the 40 lap scratch race last week. The first half of the race was easy after the split occurred and I was tempted to pull the second pack up to the first half of the field but the second half of the race was a bit more like TT pace, and still DanHolla, Steve P, AJM, and Brian were able to lap us in the second half of the race.

Placing: 7/12
Total riding time: 2:10
Total TSS: 171
Total NP:218

Hellyer Friday Night 23 June

Cat 3
Field:8
Teammates: Erik O.
M: 67kg
Michelin Pro race 2 Hed 3 front and back

Got to the track early, brought dinner and ate it, got in a good long warmup, almost threw up dinner while waiting for our first event. Went into this with a short day on Thursday with a few sprints for technique practice and a really long 225 TSS day with 60 minutes of L4 on Wednesday as a change of pace from previous ATL prior to Friday night track racing. I am not sure if this or a longer warmup or the two cups of coffee ( I am not going to sleep for a while...) was key to better performance.


8 Lap Win and Out:
Accelerated slowly at the whistle, and no one wanted to come with me. Quickly got a quarter lap and figured I would go for it. After a few more laps got up to half a lap and made it a goal to keep it there. Gio made a comment about the Deaf Games cyclists before the race - about how one should go much harder on the track than on the road when attacking, then soft pedal to recover, I tried to put this into action by going hard into the headwind section after turn 1 and before turn 4 and backing off a little bit on the other half of the course, keeping an eye on the group and keeping the gap at one half a lap. I thought Gio could not possibly be right but it worked so I was wrong. Amazingly there were only a few attacks from the group but nothing got organized so I was able to keep a gap and salute the crowd at the finish when I won.

Garrett Lau took this picture of me during the race:

Looks a lot like the blogger profile pic, sadly no pics of the finish line fist pumping.

T: 3:49
P: 352
H: 186
C: 103
S: 43.1 kph

Miss and out:
Since there were only eight of us, one only had to last 5 laps to get into the final 3. I thought I might be able to hold the front for at least that long. Started at the back of the group and when the whistle blew the pack went down to the stayer's line or lower so put in a big jump to pass over the top, looked back, and went to into the lane to lead the group around. Every single lap I was expecting to be passed, but was able to hold off everyone until it was down to Nick in the lead, Scott on his hip, and Alden in the lane and me. On the next lap, Alden was still in the bad spot and I was able to go over the top and past him to make into the final 3. Nick was still leading and Scott and I followed during the safe lap. On turn 4, Nick picked it up, then jumped really hard into the final lap. I did not even contest this and rolled in behind them, perhaps I should have tried, but have yet to beat Scott or Nick in a sprint of any kind.

Set a clear two minute power max average during the start and equalled my one minute max average on the road (thought I was holding something back, but good thing I wasn't), however here the power is stochastic, when I usually do L6 intervals on the road, I am holding power constant - probably need to mix it up during training, on the other hand motivation is always higher during races.
T: 3:32
P: 331
H: 189
C: 100
S: 42.1 kph

10 lap point a lap:
Mary said she wanted to play a bit during this race so I agreed to help. I jumped hard after the whistle and looked back and I had everyone on my wheel after a lap, then Jon jumped with Mary on his wheel. I stayed on her wheel and then they started sprinting for the points and since I really could not do anything for myself (only one point to the winner of each lap) or Mary from here I got out of the way and eased up and let the other folks try to bring them back - the sprint caused a 10 meter gap which is small but with the scoring of the race can make for interesting tactics where no one wants to do any work with riders off the front. I could see that Jon was not really cooperating with Mary and taking all the points but still not much I could do about it without bringing other riders with me as I shot a wad at the start of the race. Elliot then jumped hard enough that he was able to get up there, past the gap, and soon Jon and Elliot dropped Mary. Possibly I should have caught her quicker here and told her to rest but hesitated and took a few laps to catch up. Since most of the points were split between just two riders, final placings would be determined by order of finish on the last lap so I worked to pass Jon and finished just behind Erik O.
T: 4:29
P: 310
H: 184
C: 109
S: 45.8 kph

40 lap all hands scratch race:
23 riders P/1/2/3
Teammates: BB, Erik O.
I wasn't sure how I would fare in this race so set my goal pretty low of just finishing since they said they would pulled lapped riders. There were only a few times where I felt I had to work hard as I surfed the back of the pack to stay out of the way of the folks who would be contending for money as this was paying out four or five deep cash just for this race. Surprisingly McCook (who really must love the track because he drove back from Tour De Nez to race and I complain about the half hour drive in rush hour traffic) and DanHolla were back here for quite some time, too, and I could see some cat 3's working at the front of the pack. One time I got gapped and DanHolla was on my wheel so I worked a tiny bit so I could pull him up and not negatively affect his race. Dan and I talked a bit about our blogs and he wanted to try the SRM and I told him I wasn't racing on the track in August and I could rent it to him for that month. Towards the end I felt fresh and was thinking I should do something but with about 18 riders still left in the pack it was pretty hard to pass anyone without running into someone's butt. Should have attacked with about six or seven laps to go just to get a hard effort in as my output was not really that big, more like a L3 or low L4 effort - the 10 lap point a lap with just eight riders was faster. Next time! Need to learn to adjust goals on the fly. On the plus side, I met my initial goal. I think the order of finish was DanHolla, BB, Gio, McCook so staying at the back would have been a good strategy *until* the last half where I could not muster the courage to start moving up.
T: 17:55
Pavg: 201
Pnorm: 218
H: 177
C: 104
S: 43.9 kph

Finished 2/8 in the omnium. Felt good about doing well, but wished some of the other heavy hitters had shown up, the next day's race at Pescadero really doesn't seem like it would draw the same riders but perhaps some of the riders are also at Tour de Nez.

Hellyer Sprint Tournament

My warmup for this consisted of doing the LGBRC social ride/race up OLH and down 84 and back. Got outsprinted by our 15-16 district crit champ on Sand Hill, twice... But it did take him a good half minute to catch me on the bump on Sand Hill coming back.

22 riders did the 200 meter time trial. The temperature was 98 degrees at the start of festivities.

200 meter flying time trial
Power was low but time was good for me - 13.29 seconds. Tried to get the speed up to 52kph before I hit turn 2 but mistimed the effort a bit, found that with the high entry speed, had trouble turning the pedals over faster, may gear up next time just for the 200 or work more on my form/leg speed for the given effort.


Match Sprint versus Shawn Hatfield
A lot of feinting in the first lap where we did a track stand and continued playing until turn 2 of the last lap, I did a small jump and thought I held back (but still did 15w/kg) then Shawn committed to a real jump and that was how we finished. Mark Rodamaker kindly reminded me that I should stand when I jump from a slow speed - I ride so much on the road that my first instinct is to sit and spin to accelerate in all situations to save energy, not to go as fast as possible as soon as possible.

Match Sprint versus Gareth Spor
This played out the same way as the first one, lots of back and forth where Gareth was really good about moving behind me in the opposite direction of where I looked so I was unable to watch him the whole time, need to learn to look between my legs or under my arms. He jumped early in turn 4 of the first lap and I caught up by the back stretch, paused and then jumped again to pass and win.

Match Sprint versus Matias Elgart
Matias and I played a bit at charging at each other but never made contact. I made the mistake of playing a bit too long and letting Matias razor me at the rail when we were in turn 2 of the last lap and I could not jump enough to pass him and he dived in turn 3 and the distance between the initial jump and my response was the margin of victory.

Hellyer Friday Night 16 June

Race: Cat 3
Field: 14
Teammates: Erik O, Steve M
Did a little informal rolling resistance test and found that the Vredestein tires I have been using for the past two years were bad, only a little better than the cheap Ritchey Race Slick training tires I use on my road bike. Michelin pro race 2's were tremendously better, and the Vittoria Corsa Evo CX's a little better on top of that. 20-30 watts doesn't seem like a lot but I did much better this week with the good tires than last week with the poor tires.

Got to the track a bit early. This was really good because I quickly realized I left my wallet at home. My warmup consisted of driving home and driving back, got to the track with five minutes to spare. On the plus side I remembered the heart rate transmitter during my first visit to the track, unlike last week. Next as I was trying to set the zero offset I managed to change the recording rate to 10 seconds instead of 0.5 seconds. I gave up trying to figure out how to fix it and went into the first race, and figured out how to change it back after I got the butterflies out of my system during the first race. So the first race is not in the screenshot since the SRM downloads data that is recorded at different rates in different files and I did not feel like posting two screenshots.

Attacked early, got caught after two laps, George M went, I waited a bit and attempted a bridge, saw someone on my wheel after three laps so I eased up so I didn't pull them to George as we both use pretty much the same race strategy - attack and attack until you can't attack any more - why fight each other?, and when I saw the whole field there, just let them pass me and cruised in after the field.
10 lap win and out with 10 second recording interval
T: 5:08
S: 41.9
C: 99
Pavg: 290
Pnorm: 321
H: 186

Attacked at the gun and had Jared and Specialized for company pretty quickly. Got in a rhythm and we shared the first three sprints. After about five more laps I could see Elliot bridging. Was not pulling as much but also was not getting any sprint points, we stayed away until the end and managed to get fourth.
12 lap snowball
T: 5:47
S: 44.2
C: 106
Pavg: 303
Pnorm: 323
H: 191

George attacked early and another rider bridged up. I patrolled the front to prepare to jump on anyone's wheel that attempted to bridge up, kept the pace up a bit and no one wanted to work to chase them down for a while. After three laps of this someone finally upped the pace and I spent the rest of the race on Scott R's wheel except at one point, Specialized hooked me when I was behind him and in the sprinter's lane and he was above the sprinter's lane but I just went into the blue band to avoid any issues and he later apologized, no worries. On the last lap George was only about 50 meters ahead and Scott turned on the afterburners and started his move. I do not think he realized I was on his wheel as he gave up very early after turn four and with about 10 meters to go I pulled even but he was able to put in a micro sprint to take fourth with me fifth.

15 lap scratch
T: 6:42
S: 44.0
C: 105
Pavg: 245
Pnorm: 261
H: 186

A small group got away and I just followed wheels until 11 to go when my turn to pull what was left of the pack. I started upping the pace to see if we could get back into the race when behind me on the home stretch I heard the sound of wheel spokes breaking then the sound of bike on concrete. What I was told was someone permitted their front wheel to overlap slightly with someone elses rear wheel and when that rider in front moved a bit, it started taking out spokes in his front wheel, and he almost saved it but lost too many spokes and landed a bit hard on his knee and hip. He did not want an ambulance but I think we should have called one anyways given his difficulty in walking afterwards. Our race was neutralized and restarted after this - my legs didn't have a good start from the rail in them so I was dropped immediately and just did the 8 laps solo.
20 lap points race
before crash
T: 6:24
S: 43.8
C: 104
Pavg: 221
Pnorm: 225
H: 183
after pause for crash (solo off the back immediately. wah.)
T: 3:49
S: 41.7
C: 100
Pavg: 291
H: 181

For the evening I got in the equivalent of three vo2max intervals when I spent time off the front or off the back. No real sprint efforts except for the standing start restart of the points race. I possibly should have done more work in the scratch race at the end, and forced Scott to work more for his placing as that was purely an aerobic effort until our micro sprint, and next time I will go for more points in the snowball...

Hellyer Friday Night 9 June

Cat 3 omnium
Teammates: Eric, Steven

no placings
Thought I tried pretty hard during the races but after downloading the data I find that this was not that difficult for the most part, not pushing myself hard enough, my workout on Wednesday was harder than this, possibly because in a couple of races I gave up after being caught by the group. Got an L6 effort in the miss and out and the 5 lap scratch and a low duration/low output L5 effort in the 8 lap scratch, and a long duration/OK output L5 workout in the 15 lap points race for fifteen total minutes of racing.

Since I haven't been doing a lot of track racing this season prior to this, the biggest shock is the difficulty in starting from a slow speed to get up to a fast speed in a big gear. This is the biggest difference between racing with the A's or P123 field on Wednesday versus a 3 field, in the A field, the difficulty for me is in being able to just keep up by sucking wheel and spinning with accelerations from fast to faster.

A crash in the women's field put a damper on things as a rider was taken away in an ambulance. This happens more often on the road, but at the track almost every thing that happens is seen by the audience and racers so there is the impression that racing on the track is dangerous.

8 Lap scratch:
One rider attacked early. After a few laps, managed to get to the front and started working to pull him back with a few riders, but a couple of the riders were satisified to watch each other instead of going for first so we never caught up.
T: 3:15
Pavg: 319
C: 109
S: 45.8


Miss and out:
Got in the front in the lane as soon as the race started and led for four laps, and just lost it after that and was pulled. That was a little hard for a two minute effort for me but less than what I have done on the road, and should be higher since this was measured with a SRM versus a PowerTap.
T: 1:56
Pavg: 368
S: 44.3
C: 106

15 lap points race - sprint every five laps:
Rode on the front for four laps again, was gapped after the sprint, worked with Nick for the rest of the race at the back, catching up to the field a couple of times and losing contact at the end.
T: 7:30
Pavg: 272
Pnorm:284
S: 41.2
C: 98

5 lap scratch race:
Attacked at the start, got caught with two to go, gave up at that point, should have kept on going. First two minutes was *close* to my two minute max on my PowerTap equipped road bike, but again this should be higher on a SRM equipped bike...
T: 2:28
Pavg: 353
S: 42.1
C: 101

Dunlap Memorial TT

Very hot, light wind.
Flat course with some very gently rolling sections.

Field: Cat 4
Place: 7/18
Would have been 5/36 in the 35+ 4/5's. On the other hand, about half the Cat 4's were within one minute of me and the wind picked up a bit after I finished.

Used 51x15 gearing with Vittoria clincher/HED 60 in front with Michelin Pro Race 2, ghetto CH aero disk wheel in the back. At the half way point some of the electrical tape holding the rear wheel cover together came loose but it never came off fully. A few times it felt like the chain was trying to derail itself so will have to tension up the chain a bit more next time I use the bike as there is no way it's going back on during the race with a fixie.

Almost a minute faster than last year with a bit less wind this year than last year, but at least ten degrees hotter this year at 10:00 am. Did not ride the fixed gear nearly as much prior to this event as last year, went with the theory that time trial fitness is mainly aerobic fitness and only rode the fixed gear time trial bike once a week on recovery days as prep, doing most of the FTP type work on hills. Seemed to work OK. I'm not sure anything would prepare one for sitting an hour on the tip of the saddle, this started to hurt so much towards the end I found myself shifting back and forth to relieve the pressure.

Started last of eighteen riders. Caught the two folks who started in front of me but it took a really long time as our paces were pretty close, the first catch was after about twenty minutes ( and I could see him when I started) and the second one was in the last ten minutes, unfortunately at a corner so I had to slow significantly in order to not draft as we both went wide out of the corner. My pacing was a little off as I think I still had something left in the tank at the end, on the other hand, once I saw the 1 KM sign I kept thinking I'm almost done, almost done, the next sign should say 200 meters but it said 500 meters... Looking at the different sections of the course I went a bit too easy when I had the tailwind and just about right into a headwind except for the last section where I may have begun to fatigue.

Not sure how much of the improvement in time is due to the slightly higher power, which is within the precision of the measuring instrument and could be a wash, or slightly improved equipment. Used an aero LG Rocket helmet and a skinsuit this year versus the helmet with tape and the short sleeve jersey and shorts last year. The interesting thing about the Rocket is that (at least on me) it starts to whistle when I was going over 45kph. I think the only equipment improvements I can make at this point are shoe covers and a front wheel deeper than 60mm and a $1000 for a fitting session in a wind tunnel so I am going to have to work on fitness instead. :0

T: 50:41
D: 33.3 KM
C: 92
S: 39.5
H: 180
AP: 245
NP: 247

Wheels of Thunder Crit

total TSS 170
Very hot, with mild winds, a break from past years where the wind was a bigger factor. The back stretch had some smallish potholes that were painted. Skipped the first track racing night of the season as a change of pace from last two years. I felt better able to respond to changes in pace better without having to recover from track racing in twelve hours.


E 4 race
Teammates: Jun ( a few no shows )
Friendly rivals: Eric P
place:49/60

Talked a bit to Eric on the start line and he just wanted to use this as a warmup for the 35+ race. At one point we were behind a sketchy rider so I asked Eric to pass him and he pulled me for quite a ways.

Mostly sat on wheels until about six to go when in the last corner I could hear some contact between riders behind me and finally some bikes on pavement. One of the riders could not get up on his own for a few minutes, but the race continued so we had to ride around him, on the very next lap on the straight before this corner, the lead riders in our race had some more contact in front of me and a few of them went down. At this point the lap card and the announcer were disagreeing on the laps in the race. Made my way up to Jun with two to go ( I thought it was one ), looked around and did not see Eric and figured I could at least help Jun out to get to the front so I told him to get on my wheel. We made it there in one straight away but this new location in the pack confused him so he forgot his own plans for the race, he dropped off of me and I found myself off the front by a few seconds and getting the bell for the final lap. Doh. At this point I figured I would just stay out of the other folks' way so I pulled to one side and let everyone pass me and just finished the last lap.

Have a really high five minute NP for part of this race, it's about fifteen percent higher than the level I am doing VO2max intervals right now. Five minutes is sometimes used as a proxy for VO2max power. Maybe there's room for improvement there, although NP is just an approximation of the load and less accurate for short time intervals, in this instance, I am only pedaling half the time, and it's at the end of a forty minute race as opposed to a more even measure effort with a rest period beforehand.

Really need to try attacking two laps (about four to five minutes) from the finish and seeing if I can hold off the pack.

NP: 233
AP: 178
C: 74
S: 41.8


35+ 4/5 race
Teammates: Chris P ( a few no shows )
Friendly rivals: Eric P, Ray and Travis from Pen Velo, Rob E, Bob R, Adam and Dr. X from EMC.
place:way back in the field

Finally met fellow blogger X from EMC.

There was a bad wreck in the 35+ 123 race in the final sprint for 2nd, the winner of that race was about 100 meters off the front. This delayed the start of our race by about 30 minutes but they let us race the full distance.

The usual sketchiness of the 35+ 4/5 races was obvious even compared to the straight up 4's race, though there were no crashes, it seemed worse because we never upped the pace enough to drop many people so there were about forty people sprinting for second.


Eric said for most of these 35+ 4/5 races one good attack is enough for a good result for him so he was going to let me know and offered to pull me to the finish. I told him my legs didn't feel so great. So we discussed this as leisurely is possible over the next to last and the last lap, essentially telegraphing the strategy and it still worked. Eric won by a tiny bit, holding off the pack. I hit one of the aforementioned potholes while following Eric and was entering the next to last corner at 30+ mph and was not sure if my front tire was still holding air so I had to back off a bit. Felt a bit bad for slowing the people behind me ( didn't know they were there ), not trying to block as that seems kind of dangerous to me in this situation, and a little unsure of the front tire so I didn't bother sprinting at the end.

One time through the pothole section a rider directly in front of me hit it hard enough to clang his rim and the telltale hissing of a blown tube soon started. This came to my mind when I hit the same pothole hard enough to clang something and the visions of the prior 35+ 123 crash and the Memorial day last corner slide out on video came to mind.


NP: 202
AP: 172
C: 72
S: 40.1

Mt Hamilton RR

35+ 4/5 22/~45
Teammates:none ( did see Filip V, JVM, Mark D, Gene R, Steve M, Lisa, Daniel T and others in different fields)
Friendly rivals: Mark S from Pen Velo, Tom F from the topica wattage list, (initially forgot)X, John C and Bob R from EMC.

A little adventure to get to the start on the backside of Mt Hamilton, when doing it by a bike the road seems pretty wide but in the car I find myself hitting the botts dots all the time because it's only slightly wider than my car and this seems preferable to finding the edge of a 1000 foot drop. In the first competition of the day I am the second rider to arrive at the start at about 6:50 AM. I may have to leave later than 5:30 from home next time I do this, but by the time we start, the shoulders are filled with the cars of riders and some have to park pretty far away, so being a little early pays off. The odor of burning brakes fills the air at the start for most of the cars that descended the east side of Mt Hamilton.

We get two numbers, one for the officials, and one so CHP can identify folks who flaunt the law.

Put on two layers on top and arm warmers, knee warmers and a cap for some spinning around the start area and find my teeth chattering uncontrollably on the descents and almost comfortable on the climbs. Dumped the knee warmers for the start.

The starter warned us of a tricky left turn on the descent after the first climb and asked us to be neutral until after this. This did not work at all as a few people went off the front immediately on the first climb. Mark said his one teammate wanted to see how long he could stay away.


Mark's teammate ends up winning the race with the guy in second earning approximately his 40th upgrade point...

The first climb was like a short VO2max interval but not that hard ( I guess that was the neutral part) so I was able to maintain position near the front. The descent passed without incident although after the next climb I could hear someone applying their brakes hard behind me and getting closer and closer and prepared myself for some sort of collision but then I heard a clanging of bike on ground. Tom F was behind this fellow and said the poor guy's tire blew out. After this I was able to hang onto the group without incident to the feedzone. I think we only had fifteen racers left by then. Tom F thinks there was a breakaway off the front but I am pretty sure we caught him ( Mark's teammate) by the base of the climb. We roll through the feed zone before they are ready, but no matter, I brought one bottle and only drank half of it by the finish. There are two small bumps after the feedzone then the first long climb on the backside. I got dropped after the two bumps.

Not sure why I got dropped here. The NP for the race up to this point was only 240, perhaps it was mental, but then again we dropped about 30 guys by this point. I have a higher output than this for a longer period of time when doing long intervals so it's puzzling. Anyways, tried to do FTP up the hill, managed 244 for 11 minutes. This brought a few guys into view. Then a short descent followed. The next climb took six minutes at 244 again, I was gaining on a couple of folks, got within 50 meters but held back a bit, thinking I had them but after we started descending again I never saw them again till the end of the race some 18 miles later. I should have committed to catching them or blowing - at this point the course is mostly downhill or rolling. By the time I got to the finish, no one from my group caught me and I never caught anyone from my group either - the same result as the unofficial Steve Stewart Mt Hamilton challenge after that climb...

A bunch of cat 5's caught me on the descent ( mostly big guys ) but I could not work with them so I had to let them all go ahead.

Rode back to the start with Tom F and learned he's a surgeon so the main time he has available to train is spent indoors on the trainer. I was really impressed with his fitness (he lasted about four minutes with the group in the climb) given the limitation. Riding the trainer that much would drive me insane. He moved from Oregon where conditions are worse for free agent doctors and he had a choice of the Kaiser in Oakland or Modesto, he visited both and picked Modesto.

And he kicked my butt on the ride back, too! The last hill before the Isabel start takes about ten minutes going back, and only three or four coming out, I kept thinking we were done and getting my hopes crushed by yet another switchback.

M: 68 kg

Race only:
TSS: 147
NP: 223
AP: 185
T: 1:46:17

Whole ride:
TSS 295 - so the warmup + ride back was almost as much work as the race itself for me.

The weekly TSS is fairly high for me before this event even with the two days prior being light. Should taper more for better results but I enjoy just riding even more! The other thing I could do off the top of my head is increase the amount of time in intervals at FTP in one workout. The most I ordinarily would do is about 45 minutes so if I upped it to about an hour that would be at least similar to what this race required.

Stockton Waterfront Crit

Cool, intermittent showers, overcast, sort of like last year without the sun.

The forecast and weather radar did not look promising but I had preregistered so I really felt obligated to go no matter what. The course was changed from last year but the flyer was not fully updated. Fortunately my slight OCD made me check the flyer just before leaving and when I realized there were directions to two different locations, I wrote both down and headed out Stockton.

The course was an L with a very short distance between the right left right corners on the crook of the L. Otherwise the straightaways were so long it seemed doubtful anything would stick without a pretty big breakaway group.

The course setup was running a bit behind and the first race, cat 5, was started about 15 minutes late. I assumed they were going to start cutting down races to get back on schedule but this did not happen and things stayed late until there was a late crash in the 45/55 race which led to the 35+ 4/5 race being cut short by about five minutes.


Cat 4
~21/40
Teammates:none
Friendly rivals:Adam from EMC, Jason K from Tieni Duro
It was sprinkling at the start and the roads were pretty slick. I did not feel that comfortable at speed in the corners so I quickly found myself slipping from the front to the back. A few riders were always going off the front and the pack inexorably dragged them back. I kept getting gapped by one rider or another and having to bridge up. The race felt pretty hard but the data indicates it was not that hard, probably just a mental thing. The course dried out about 3/4 of the way through the race. With three to go, a rider in front totally blew and almost took out a teammate of his who asked him to ride steadier. After taking some extra care to get safely past this goober, there was a sizeable gap to the group. I found myself with about eight other folks, four of us got together and tried to get back into the race. After about half a lap we were not making up any ground so one of the guys went off solo to try to bridge. I went a short time later and held back a little which was a mistake because I did not make it up there, falling about 20 yards short. Sprinted for fun against one of the other guys off the back.


35+ 4/5
~10/50
Teammates:none
Friendly rivals:Adam again, John from EMC, Nakamura-san from Trumer
Course was dry at the start then it started sprinkling. Watched the end of the 45/55 race and Mark Patten won the sprint easily from his breakaway companions. He then jumped in our race. I followed him for a bit and he was a much better handler than the four guys leading the pack as they did not have a clue on how to properly setup for taking the apex of a corner. The first third of the race after this felt taxing but doable, then the next third felt really easy, then in the last third, the pace picked up every lap until the three to go when the pack slowed and no one wanted to pull. This was a bit dangerous because this permitted some guys who were poor handlers back into the pack - I think the first race they would have been dropped early. I started moving up, with two to go one unattached rider tried to attack but was brought back quickly and the field slowed down again. I was considering attacking myself by one to go, but we had now slowed so much the entire width of the course was filled during the apexes of the corners which worried me a bit. In the second to last corner I could see five riders abreast when the familiar sound of metal on asphalt and riders scattered everywhere. I had to slow to almost a complete stop to avoid some riders who had made contact and were still moving diagonally across the road and went past when it was safe. Now it was just a 300 meter race and about twenty(?) folks ahead of the crash had a huge head start. I think I passed about ten of them.

Berkeley Hills RR

35+ 4
Teammates: Mark Kurashige, Jim Werle
35/41
Conditions were chilly in arm warmers and vest at the start but soon heated up toasty conditions in the shade. From what I remember last time I did this race I got dropped on Bear Creek pretty quickly so I hoped to do better, but we had a longer flat run into this part of the course with the latest configuration. Felt pretty good and made it to the base of Mama Bear with the group. This hill only takes about three minutes with the group, unfortunately this was only good enough to best about ten guys and this left about thirty five in the main group. There was a scary encounter with a cow in the middle of the road just before Papa Bear where I had to slow significantly and our little groupetto had to hope the cow made no sudden moves. My right calf started getting a knot but I still felt really good otherwise. The descents after the finish hill were really fun, long sight distance and lots of shoulder so hitting 40+ mph was fun and fairly safe. About eight of us including Mark K worked for one lap after the descent so I decided just to have fun with this little race within the race and never felt in danger of getting dropped except for the bothersome calf. On the last lap on the little steep climb before San Pablo Dam road my right calf which had been quivering every now and then took the opportunity to seize up and I could not pedal any more so I had to stop for a minute. One of the course marshals was nice enough to get me a short massage but I had gotten gapped by the others and would not see them again until after the finish.

Cat's Hill Classic

teammates:Jim W, Gene R, George F.
friendly rivals:Juan O from Bianchi, Mark from PV
dnf/75
T:15:32
P:201
S:36.5kph


Set personal best on OLH by 40 seconds this week so felt somewhat confident. Did a practice run with about 15 laps earlier this week with the 11/23 cassette and felt comfortable doing it in the big ring with a 50 in front so planned on doing that during the race to eliminate any issues with dropped chains during downshifts on the front on the hill.

Did six laps with the group which is twice as many as I did last year but was feeling some side stitches during laps five and six. Saw George have a shifting issue on the hill during the fifth lap and would have gladly pushed him up as I was passing but he had to come to a complete stop and the difference in our speeds was too great. On the seventh lap, would have been doubled over in pain but was already bent over the bike. Gave up after climbing the hill a seventh time and was unable to pedal to keep up with the pack. Somewhat disappointing in that I did not have any leg or breathing issues when keeping up with the pack this year. I'm blaming the stomach issues on the free pizza I ate beforehand. :)

Mt Hamilton Challenge

Milpitas to CA 130 up and over Mt Hamilton to Lick Observatory to Livermore via Mines road, then back to Milpitas via Calaveras.

NP: 185
TSS: 428 - so it was the equivalent stress on my body of doing 4 one hour TT at my FTP in one day.
IF: 0.76

Wente RR 35+ 4/5

Teammates: Gene Ragan and Jim Werle
Overcast and cool
Used the 50x34 with the 12x25 cassette. Might use the 11x23 next time, felt like I was spun out with the tail wind at 60kph a few times with the 50x12.

The first major bump was the feedzone/finish hill and this took about five minutes at v02max. Then there is about three minutes at tempo then another four minute effort for the hills after the 580 overpass. Gapped with about ten other guys near the finish line atop the hill. Might have blown up here because the first minute plus is at L6 pace but I managed to get through the feed zone still with some folks. At least this was farther with the group than the last time I did this. Could see the remains of our group ahead across the 580 overpass about 50 meters ahead. Was gaining on them (in my mind...) when I dropped the chain on the uphill before the first downhill, took at least 20 seconds according to the data to get it all back together - got it on, got on bike, started pedaling, then it came off again, got off, repeat, probably didn't make too much of a difference, but the ten guys behind me passed me while I was doing this. Gritted my teeth and started time trialing and started catching guys on the hill after doing about one lap solo.
Caught about six of these guys over the next two laps, rode with one fellow back of the packer for our next to last lap as he clarified that it was our next to last lap and not our last lap as I mistakenly believed - doh. He fell back on the last lap and I caught about five other guys in my class before the finish. One of the guys did not want to work on the last lap and attacked me on the tight downhill corner with the hay bales, it was pretty easy to catch back up to him and leave him behind once we started going up again.

On the plus side I did not cramp - ate three Gu's, three Enduralytes and drank one bottle during the race. Probably could have gotten away with one bottle.

Wente RR
~69/75 (official results only go to 68...)
AP: 181
NP: 219
TSS: 210
IF: 0.89
T: 2:37:49
D: 76.73 km

Thursday Night Points Race, April 20

B Points race
Field: 13
Teammates: Daniel Tisdell

Conditions: Cold and the usual headwind in the back stretch. With the full sleeve skinsuit and an undershirt, my arms still felt cold, will need to wear arm warmers underneath the skinsuit next time.

P: 258
S: 23.8
H: 183
T: 40.0
C: 89

Hed 3 wheel in front and a Deep V in back with a CH Aero cover. Vredestein piste tires front and back at 100 PSI.
51x15 gearing to try something different from the 50x15 I used for most of last year. This was the first non sprint track race I have done in about six months. Not sure if the difficulty I had keep up was with the gearing or the adaption to racing on a fixed. We'll find out next week. My average speed seems pretty low for the effort. Wanted to use the race as a L4 workout and the average power is good for me for this length of time. Got spit out the back in about ten laps and worked with Joe, Jeff, and Mike for a long time. We got lapped about twice when we got 14 laps to go. I remember this because when the field passed us this time a couple of fellows in the lead group were overlapping wheels and one of them moved and the other fell in front of us. Mike went underneath and I went up track to slow down but the rider started walking up track so I had to slow more and yell at him repeatedly to stay. At this point I just wanted to finish without any more incidents so I just latched onto the field of five or six riders the next time they came past. With five to go I looked behind and did not see anyone while in turn three so felt content to just follow the last rider in the lead pack until the finish when the leaders started slowing down signficantly and going up track. I made a newbie mistake and did not look back when I followed the other riders (assuming we had dropped the other riders for good) and immediately felt someone elses axle in my rear wheel, although he should not have been overlapping my wheel at this point because we were down on laps and totally out of contention. Fortunately neither of us went down but I get to rebuild my rear wheel and buy a new wheel cover. :(

I calibrated the SRM a couple of weeks ago and zeroed it at the start of the racing so fairly confident in the accuracy. Higher power but lower speed than last years' data. Spending more time on the front of the chasing group, and almost coming to a stop for the first accident probably explains the higher average power and the lower speed.

Just put new spokes in the rear wheel and it seems fine. Possibly will just duct tape the cover back together. It appears the axle was on the cover for three rotations of the wheel, perhaps the cover keeping the front wheel out of there for a bit, and saving the other rider for a while.

Menlo Park Grand Prix

A 1 KM rectangular course. The two short straights were about 100 meters long. The start finish was about 200 meters from turn 4. There was a strong wind against the field in the backstretch and in between turns 3 and 4. Overcast and cool with intermittent showers. If it was crowded, position in turn 3 would dictate finish position.

I got in an accident descending OLH earlier this week and had a bit of road rash on my right knee and shoulder and on my backside. I had full mobility without pain from the accident while cycling but it hurt to move my right arm in certain ways - had trouble zipping up, putting on skinsuit, so would not be sprinting very aggressively. If I had not already preregistered I would have skipped this race but so it goes. Figured I would get in some speed work and avoid anything remotely sketchy.


35+ 4/5
Teammates: George (from Bakersfield!)
friendly rivals: John and Robert from EMC, Eric P from the city

Was raining immediately prior to this event then stopped for the duration. George said this was his first race back from his broken collarbone, so we would just play it by ear. Eric had the same issue, first crit since breaking collarbone at Giro di SF last year. Stayed near the front for the first 15 minutes. Small groups would go off the front and get absorbed. A group of five got about ten seconds so I thought I would try it once and moved up easily on the backstretch, by the time I caught up, the lead five had shattered and no one would work so I pulled into turn four, turned out to let the guy on my wheel do some work but he would not budge so I pulled about half of the front straight but still no help so I gave up and we were reabsorbed. Moved to the back of the pack where Eric was hanging out. We got lap cards at eleven or so to go. Started working on moving up, bit by bit. Got to about 25th position with two to go when a couple of riders slightly ahead appeared to lock handlebars on the right near the start/finish. Moved to the left when suddenly a bicycle came cartwheeling out of the crash towards the left and it was still going pretty fast by the time I got up to it so I had to brake with about one meter of room on my left. About 25 riders were ahead at this point. I put my head down and worked on bridging back up. A few riders ahead of me started giving up and swerving across the road so I had to brake a few times and I gave up about ten seconds short of the field in turn 3. The hardest thing about this race was that sometimes the leaders would lead the pack into a poor line on the right hand turn 3 that was way on the right side, so folks were getting all cluttered in the exit of the turn and braking a lot, and some folks adjusted their line for no reason whatsoever in the middle of the turn.

Ate half a bagel, drank one bottle of Gu O2 and took two Enduralyte capsules. Was able to make it through the second race with only a little cramp on my calves towards the end.
E4
Teammates: Shawn, Steven R, George (from Bakersfield!)
friendly rivals: John and Robert from EMC, Eric P from the city

Started raining after the first couple of laps and kept up for half the race. One rider went off the front immediately. Steven said he was more of a breakaway type of guy so I sat near the front for the first ten minutes, making sure nothing got too far away without us. Over the next twenty or so minutes, sat midpack, and could see Shawn, Steven R and George doing work near the front. A few sketchy moves combined with the rain caused me to give up some position so I found myself on the back with Eric again. With five to go we started moving up. A loud explosion happened behind us in turn four, someone had a blow out but thankfully not causing any crashes. With one to go I was back in 20th position. On the backside I prepared to move up in turn 3 to slot in behind Steven but several riders braked hard into this turn forcing a lot of close contact so I had to back off. Out of turn four I was ready to sprint but it was too crowded to move up so I did not get to sprint in either race. As we were cooling down, Eric had a front blowout on the backstretch, fortunately he was going very slowly so he was not hurt.

Santa Cruz Crit 35+ 4/5

Teammates: none, Mark Davis (with a sweet Ergomo Pro and the wife unit) in 3 and 35+ 123's.
Friendly rivals: Keith DeFiebre, Rob Evans from the wattage list(finally met).

6/32 - woohoo, finally got a T-shirt.

AC 420 wheel in front, standard PowerTap wheel in back, Michelin Pro Race 2 tires, 100 PSI, no bottles, 50/34 12/25.

Got up at 6:00, felt pretty good with a taper week, but my knee was sore from running a lot (more than I do for cyclocross practice...) during my day as an official at Sea Otter on Friday. The last two years I have done this race I got dropped after three or four laps so I wanted to improve on that and try to not work too much early. Got in a few practice laps at the start of each race while racers were staging for the first two races. I saw Dan Adkins pulled out of the three race and he said he was toast - had felt good and thought he would try an attack late but once he was brought back his legs did not feel so good and he got dropped from the pack. I would heed Dan's experience and not be too bold.

In the elite three race it appeared that the winner attacked near the bottom of the finish straight.

Tom Simonson was the starter and told us to do one final practice lap before staging. Turnout was only 32, perhaps due to the forecast of inclement weather - it was sunny and cool until I left Santa Cruz. Some strong folks who have accumulated almost 30 points in the 4's did not show up so that probably made the race easier than it could have been.

The start finish line is at the peak of a small hill. The course goes downhill for a long ways until there is a dogleg 150 turn to the right that is off camber. Then it goes downhill with some rough spots through a slight turn to the right then a 90 left with a short block until a 90 right, a 45 right, then uphill steep for a bit, a crest with a tiny bit of a downhill, then uphill again until 90 right on the front straightaway, steepest bit here for about 25 seconds, then a dip, then uphill again until the finish line.

The first four laps I stayed in the top three so I could try different speeds for the dogleg downhill off camber turn. The last time I tried to take it really tight but started pedaling too soon so lifted my rear wheel when I had a pedal strike on the inside so I was more cautious the rest of the race. Also, entering the turn I came from as far left as possible not only to get a good apex but to discourage anyone from coming up the gutter on my left where the pavement was rough and I had witnessed a few riders bobbling it early in the race.

It was possible to rest on the first uphill steep bit after the first crest if one was behind people until very close to the finish straight turn ( this was repaved two years ago so that in prior years the road was very rough and coasting did not get one very far back then), and on the finish straight when the course crested for a bit. What happened before the final straight turn is the guys in front would slow quite a bit for the steeper grade so if you were behind you had to brake a bit and lose some momentum as the field spread out and the road was narrow until the finish straight. On the finish straight steep bit I found myself staying seated and spinning the 50/23 while I noticed the most other folks standing and working hard so I thought I might have a good day. The weird thing is I never felt in trouble like I have in some flat crits. As the lap cards counted down I realized my initial goal of getting farther in the race than the last few attempts so now I reset my goals to placing. As everyone slowed down massively on the steep part of the front stretch and this did not feel difficult to me to move up through the field I thought I had a good chance. At two to go I moved from the back up a bit on the steep bit. With one to go, a Cyclesports fellow attacked hard at the very bottom of the hill. I was still only midpack by this point so I bided my time while other riders were slightly pushing the pace at the front and closing the gap. Once we started going up I started passing riders, and pedaling hard where we had coasted before, by the finish straight there were still ten folks ahead of me so I had to brake slightly again. We hit the steepest bit and I really wanted to just go for it but found myself boxed in, when I moved to get out, riders in front of me drifted over several times and I found my bars nearly inside someone elses a couple of times... Eventually I was able to work my way out with about 120 meters to go and started picking off the riders in front of me. I got sixth, missing fifth by a wheel. The guys in front were only a few bike lengths ahead so perhaps if I had gotten a better position or the guys in front of me had just turned a slightly different way...

S: 22.6
T: 29:18
D: 11.0
P: 202
C: 78
NP: 265
IF: 1.08
TSS: 57

The NP indicates this was the hardest half hour I have ever done even though I did not feel that spent except for the final sprint. I may need to up my L4 interval intensity because I have been assuming a FTP of 245 from the Monterey Circuit race in February and this data indicates either a FTP of about 255 or a high anerobic work component to the race effort.



Won $10 and a T-shirt. Doug Smith congratulated me and said "You're a pro now." Unfortunately if one includes all the costs I think I am still about $20,000 in the hole. :)

Hellyer Sprint Tournament

Teammates: Rick Adams, Rob Jensen, Gene Ragan
Friendly rivals: 38 other people...
Used the best cRR tire, Vredestein piste tire in the rear (wore out the current speedmax during the winter on the trainer and forgot to change the tire until I got to Hellyer) and one of the worst cRR tires, a Ritchey Speedmax in the front. Had the Velocity Deep rim training wheels with a CH Aero ghetto cover on the rear wheel. Since the wheel cover is meant to be used on a wheel with dish and track wheels do not have dish, I had to cut one side of the cover to fold the material over to change the angle of the cone and use a lot of electrical tape to make the cover sit flush with the spokes.

Flying 200 meter time trial
13.53

Actually tried to pace myself for a flying 200 meter with my powermeter. :)
My internal perceived exertion meter stinks. I kept it at L4 for the first two laps, ramped it up to L5 in the front straight, went to L6 in turn 1 and jumped a bit early in turn 2. This is my best time but only by 0.02 seconds so that's within the precision of hand timing. I am happy I was able to get a higher max peak for a few seconds for the flying 200 than in prior attempts but mistimed the jump a bit. Also, my effort in the match sprint was better but that could be because I jumped from 5mph versus 25mph with in the flying 200. 130 rpm seems kinda of tame for a max as well. I may have to try a slightly bigger gear, but on the other hand, not really doing a lot of L6 or L7 workouts right now which is my weakness.


This time was actually good enough to put me somewhere in the middle of the pack. The most surprising thing to me was that the range of gearing in was 78 to 98 gear inches for the fastest qualifiers - 13.1 and under.



Match Sprint versus Kevin Worley
Kevin was not looking back at me from the start, so I attacked entering turn one of the first lap, died in back stretch of last lap, Kevin blew past me quite easily as I was fading near the pursuit line in the backstretch. Hit 15.4 w/kg for 5 seconds during the initial acceleration which is my high for the year (even taking into account the SRM/PowerTap differences). This would make me a strong sprinter for a cat 4, unfortunately I am a cat 3 on the track so that puts me in the low end of the scale.

CCCX MTB #4

Category: 35-44 Beginner
6/17
Three laps of a 5.5 mile course. Many shallow hills. Never considered using the granny gear. The cyclocross bike perhaps could be optimal for this course. This is the fastest average speed I have ever done a mountain bike race and is faster than I do most cyclocross races. I think I am not allergic to poison oak as this course is notorious for that and I went off course multiple times and have no rashes to speak of yet.

Teammates: Mike Schaller in Sport
Friendly rivals: Curt Ferguson
The heart rate receiver in the PowerTap CPU is broken so no heart rate data.
Used semi-slicks in the rear and a cut down directional knobby in the front, 40psi each.
Total TSS warmup/cooldown/race:138
Race only
NP: 234
IF: 0.95
D: 16.9 miles
S: 14.7 mph
C: 78
First time to wear a skinsuit. These things make it awkward to go to the bathroom and the long sleeve arms are not quite as comfy as a good armwarmer. Plus with armwarmers I can always use multiple layers - may have to put a thin one on prior to the skinsuit if it's really cold, today I felt OK once we started racing but too cold at the start and after the race. Also for a race of this length, probably should consider going without any water or tools and just DNF if there is a mechanical as I took only a couple sips of water, mainly to wash out the mud.

Curt gave me a very helpful guided tour of the first mile of the course. We started uphill on pavement for about 3/4 of a mile then went offroad. Most of the hills are pretty short and take less than five minutes so my goal was to go up all of the hills at close to V02Max power and see what happened, I also wanted to do the track sprint tournament in the afternoon so I wanted to avoid going above that too much to save something for that later event. Curt took off like a rocket at the gun which is impressive considering he is the largest rider in the field. A group of seven of us worked hard to hold his wheel, separating us from the rest of the 18-34/35-44 beginners, after looking back and seeing a huge gap I noticed our speed was about 20mph going uphill. At one point on the hill I was having trouble keeping up and not going over VO2Max and still there was no one close behind me so I eased up a bit to go at my own pace. Since I have not ridden my mountain bike that fast since the one race I did last year, I was tentative in some of the turns and managed to biff almost every technical turn by braking too much, and had to accelerate hard out of them to keep up with the riders I was catching on the uphills. After a full lap, I finally caught back up to Curt and the riders that were with him. I tried to encourage him to go as hard as he had gone on the first lap but he was not up to it so I had to push hard to keep the pace up since a few people were on my tail and lost Curt on a short climb. A couple of riders stuck with me so we constantly traded position until it was just me and one other rider ( and the four others off the front). I attacked once on the second long paved climb since he had difficulty there the first lap but he came back to me on the following descent. He let me lead until the last hard short climb about a mile from the finish. He pushed it really hard and keeping up was forcing me into L6 so I eased up a bit. He stayed 20 meters ahead until the finishing stretch - this was a bit technical and downhill so it was hard to make up any ground here and I got within a couple of bike lengths by the end but that was it.

Alameda Crit

35+ 4/5 pack/75
Teammates:none
Friendly rivals: Mark Nakamura-san
The forecast called for 25-35 mph winds with gusts to 55 and rain. On the plus side, it did not start raining until midway through the second race I did. I chose to use the Hed 60 and this gave me a lot of trouble in a couple of the cross wind sections even with both hands in the drops during a few warm up laps. A few riders attacked at the gun so I just eased in behind them. Some folks did not want to keep this up and let a gap open up - at one point it was about 50 meters. I bridged up but when I checked under my arm, one of the teammates of the guys in the break had followed and dragged the rest of the field up to the break behind me... Since this had taken about nine laps I sat in and rested up for a bit. Managed to stay mid pack for a pretty long time which is good for me and only got to the back when we got the eight laps to go sign. Worked my way up to 20th by 2 laps to go, then there was a crash in the middle of the top 20 which required me to slow a lot. I was able to bridge up to the pack by 3/4 of a lap to go but that pretty much ended my race there. As we were cruising about 100 meters from the finish line I could see one of the leaders fall near the finish line with his bike falling away from him so we had to ease up to avoid the carnage.

M 68 kg

P 185
S 24.1
C 75
H 174
NP 209
IF 0.85



4 dnf/50
Teammates:David Porter
Friendly rivals: Kelyn, Elliot and Rory.

I had about fifteen minutes to get ready for the next race. I am not sure if it was the wind picking up or smaller field leading to less shelter or fatigue or dropping my ClifBar and unwillingness to eat it for nutrition or what but even when I was six inches behind the rider in front of me it felt like I was not getting a lot of relief from the wind. Steve Ryan's suggestion of echelon is what I should have been doing, doh. Since the field was much smaller it seems like it strung out right away and a lot of people got dropped each lap. I was not feeling so hot so when it started sprinkling and Tom Simonson announced that the halfway point had been reached, I decided to call it a day.

P 206
S 23.6
C 77
H 178
NP 222
IF 0.90

2006 Apple Pie Criterium

4/5
Results: 21/75
Teammates: David Porter
Conditions:chilly and foggy. Used knee warmers, arm warmers, cap and a jersey on top, still felt pretty cold but the warmup was bearable in a vest. During my warmup laps my glasses were covered in condensation on the outside and the inside of the lenses. The course was moist from the morning dew and fog but I was able to motor through the corners during the warmup on 100 psi without issue.
The heart rate data is intermittent so I just smoothed that for display here - the strap was a little loose on me. I had to rush at the start of the first race back to my car to put it on. Used Vittoria EVO clincher on the front and Michelin Pro Race 2 on the back.

Free snacks and drinks supplied by the promoter.

The chief referee asked for folks who had done the course before to lead us through the first two corners neutral. This was well intentioned but we probably would have required a skills course first to make the field safer. She did ask if this was anyone's first race and no one raised their hand. (I found out later several people were ashamed to admit this...) This course has a 300 meter finish straight with the line about 50 meters from the end with a 90 degree right hander that narrows a bit with a concrete divider, followed by a 90 degree right hander into a sweeping left and then another 90 degree right hander followed very shortly by a 90 degree right hander into a long meandering straight into the final 90 degree right hander. What typically happens here is that riders take lines during slower laps that lead to lots of riders with momentum to take them outside during faster laps trying to use the same outside, edge of the road line so they have to brake or hit the curbs. These riders bump and sometimes go down. Then on the meandering straight before the finish, the pack slows as no one wants to lead it out for nothing and the pack bunches up here, too. This happens when there are only 25-40 people in the field so it was much worse with the bigger field. I started the race in the middle of the pack and watched so many people changing their lines abruptly in the middle of corners that I lost count of who I should be avoiding. I started passing these people but at one point I was close to the front and really did not want to spend this much energy early so drifted to the back. By the halfway point there were three close calls with people bumping handlebars and leaning on each other for support near front of the pack. We got the signal that no more free laps would be given for mechanicals. Some guys were letting their front wheels overlap other riders wheels and this caused the first of three separate accidents. On the meandering stretch quite a few riders went down but there was room to pass on the right so the pack stayed together. Then on the finish straight with four or five laps to go as a chain reaction collision from midroad to the far left forced me to brake and come to a complete halt. This is the explanation for the drop in speed to zero near the end of the race. Another rider started the effort to bridge back up for half a lap and I took over from there and was able to catch back on by the start of the next lap. This left me a whole lap to rest for the final lap. I tried moving up but it wasn't safe to do so until the meandering straight. Here I jumped hard and immediately had to coast because I could see a problem ahead with the domino effect of rider after rider falling down, one particularly hard, on the middle of the road, spreading to the far left. I aimed for the open road but one rider panicked and locked up both wheels and slowed me down enough that a straggler from the accident out of control of his bike careened to the far right so I had to slow for him, too. Finally the road opened up but the lead riders were a good 50 meters up the road. I think in the last one minute I got four or five sprint efforts in due to all the rapid changes in pack composition and speed. A couple of riders were signed up for the 35+ 4/5 but backed out after the seriousness of the accidents ( possibly one broken hip and one broken elbow) and said "that was my first crit and I'm never doing another one"...

I think this is the most I have ever used my brakes in a criterium - the smell of melting brake pads was a common occurrence even with the moisture and cool temperature.

Postscript - reading another racer's report that he was in a crash because he did not anticipate the braking by the only five riders in front of them so he ran into them. Folks should probably eave a bigger cushion for safety when the road is wet as the yo-yo effect is magnified and to account for riders who do not ride in the rain very much and slow down more than is necessary.

P: 177 W
S: 24.9
H: ~150 (strap kept slipping - probably closer to 170
C: 77
T: 41:55




Had about an hour to recharge and watch the LGBRC juniors rock the house. Thanks for the pie, fellas. Gene was signed up but I did not seem him, perhaps he was sick like Jun. The sun finally came out so we got a dry course. Either due to the dryer course or the conservativeness of the old guys this race was notably safer. This time I stayed mid pack for most of the race. I did not think I had tried that hard during the first race (but the sprint workout in the last minute was much harder than I thought it was) so I wanted to try something different. So I forced myself to wait patiently until the last couple of laps. As with the first race, during the meandering straight, the right side was wide open for folks who wanted to burn a match and get to the front. At one point I felt a slight twinge in my calves - I should have used this as a signal to try the advice Stan Urban gave me to water them down but I forgot. There was not a way to get to the front and be lazy at the same time for the last five laps - no free ride here. On the next to last lap the pace slowed and gave me deja vu of the slowing during the prior race and the ensuing accident. I really wanted the race to be faster so it would be safer, plus laps only took about two minutes and I have been doing quite a bit of shorter intervals so this would fit in nicely. I jumped hard to get up to the front on the meandering straightaway. When I looked back I had about ten meters so I figured what the heck? As I motored through the last corner and down the finish straight my calves starting cramping up. Doh. I tried soft pedaling for a bit but it was no good so I led the pack through the first corner and the next straight and begged off and let the guys behind me know I was cramping. Jason was right behind me so that was cool. There was a slight hesitation here but still about twenty guys passed me through the next three corners. I recovered enough to hold that position but that was pretty much the end of the race for me. I was told there was a crash far behind me in the last corner when I was leading the pack. This was weird because I made sure to exit the corner with plenty of room to the left so the natural drift of the pack would be able to fill that safely. I also have to remember to hydrate better on two crit days - this happened to me last year and I can't believe I forgot to do a better job after the first crit. Oh well, the apple pie shared by BB and the other LGBRC juniors was delicious.
35+ 4/5
Results: 26/~60
Teammates: none
Friendly rivals: Jason D from slowtwitch.com forums, John C and Raymond from EMC
P:173
S:25.0
H:167
C:75
T:39:51



Postscript: Results are finally posted and I can't believe I did better in the 4/5 race in spite of the bridging effort. I lost 25 places in one lap in the 35+ 4/5 race, doh.

CCCX Fort Ord Circuit Race Feb 4, 2006

Field: 35+ 4/5 around 20/35
Teammates: None
East Garrison, Fort Ord

P: 184
NP: 246
IF:1.015(I think I need to adjust my FTP up a bit from 245)
S: 21.7
H: 176
T: 1:00:59
D: 22.0 miles
Used the bike with 50/34 in the front and 12/25 in the back with an AC 420 wheel with Michelin 2 Pro race tires in front and a Ritchey WCS tire in back. Supposedly the Michelin has among the best rolling resistance of any clincher and the Ritchey is among the worst with about 15-30 watts difference with just one wheel - I had neglected in my pre-race prep to change the tire and my other good wheel had an 11/23 cassette so the easiest thing to do was just use this wheel with the Ritchey tire. I had run out of good race tires and did not feel like swapping the good tires around. I considered using the bike with 53/39 in front but thought I might need the little gear to spin up the steep bumps. Compared to cyclocross racing, road racing requires one to wake up pretty dang early, the alternating drizzly and overcast skies had me considering turning around by Watsonville. On the plus side one doesn't have to spend more time cleaning up the bike than racing. It was pretty chilly so I had to wear knee warmers,arm warmers, and a cap. At the line I tried to avoid the bad habit of leading the pack around for the first lap so I managed to keep myself in check for half a lap. It took a few laps to sort things out and get used to the dynamics of the pack, plus it rained intermittently after the first lap, making things a bit exciting. The finish was on a long shallow grade and the short descent afterwards was followed by a sharp right. It was usually easy to goof off in back and catch up right here or the following dip, because the rise afterwards was so sharp that the people drafting and not in first had to brake to avoid hitting the people in front and no one really pushed the pace after the rise. A 150 dogleg right followed this rise with a really long descent with a 30 degree turn into a long slight rise and a wide 180 turn with another long gradual descent followed by a 90 left, very short rise, semi corkscrew descent, sharp short hill, right turn onto the finish straight. We had both lanes except on the long descent where cones marked off some serious potholes. Even after the first laps some not so smart folks insisted on attempting to pass without enough speed to make it past everyone before we got to the cones on the long descent. Then some other folks countersteered really heavily into the *30* degree turn. It was possible to use momentum from the downhill here to pass everyone or in the following descent after the 180. I think we did 8 1/2 laps( start was right before the slight rise and 180 turn). After the first two laps I just concentrated on staying with the pack through the areas I had to pedal hard, the rise before the start finish, tempo on the finish, pretty much sprint on the sharp hill, and sprint like mad to get into the draft on the big downhill. There were a couple of wrecks, one in the 150 dogleg where two riders went too hot and took each other out wide and got back in the race, and on the last lap up the sharp rise a rider went off course and managed to get back on course. I stayed with the pack until the last time up the finish area and just could not manage to hang on there. I could see the small pack dangling in front of me but didn't have the lungs/legs to catch back up so no sprint today. But I was happy with almost finishing with the group this early in the year on a hilly course. I spoke with one fellow and he said a rider was off the front solo for three laps and he could not close the gap by himself and came in second.
Afterwards, explored the roads around Fort Ord and managed to get lost and do parts of the Sea Otter XC (it rained the prior day so the sandy stuff was pretty firm) and the Sea Otter Road Race a couple of times ( the hard part on Barloy ).

Postscript: I just got this book :
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202057754&loc=106&sp=1
and was struck by one of the examples where a coach details analyzing race files to determine why someone was getting dropped. In that case the rider's cadence was going low with a wattage the rider probably could maintain. So they switched the rider's gearing around to a 12-27 cassette instead of the 11-23 and now the rider can keep up with their body's preferred cadence. After being stumped on why I got dropped on the penultimate lap I might have an answer - I may have downshifted too much or attempted to use the gears that worked for me on prior laps and forced myself to use too high of a cadence on a critical section of the course, causing me to lose contact with the field, as the wattage was well within what I had done on prior laps. Of course there's no knowing if I could have kept up with a higher gear but next time...

SCCCC Peak Season CX #3 Watsonville

Category:35+ B
Field: 8
Place: 6
Teammates: None
Friendly rivals: Travis in B's.
P:163
S:10.1
H:186
I had issues with my PowerTap harness from a little easy ride on Friday so I just swapped it out with a different one I had lying around. After I took off the defective one it worked fine, go figure. I thought the average power number was pretty anemic even considering the ten percent running not included. But then I checked the race data for when I did the same course in November when it was dry and that is about fifteen percent lower so at least I was able to push myself harder this time.
Rained the prior day and night so course was mucky. Not as much shoe sucking mud as last time, though. Those wimps at CX worlds had a much tidier course. :) I rode really hard for a bit with the outcasts from LGBRC on Saturday so wasn't sure how my legs would respond today. Set up the Kelly with Hutchinson 30mm 55 psi front and back and the Litespeed with the Ritchey 35mm Excavaders at 52 psi front and back. This felt good enough on my half lap reconnaisance of the course - did not feel like washing the bike any more before the race so warmed up on the ample pavement around the course. Since last week I forgot to put on the heart rate strap the first thing I did in my race prep was put on the heart rate strap.

This time we would be doing the big runup and it was a tough slog since there the mud was formed into little steps by prior races, yet still malleable to forming new ones or sliding away. At the start I tried to not go out super hard for a change and still managed to hold my position firmly at the back of the pack. The two SCCCC guys that I was duking it out with at the last race were with me for the first two laps. Most of the course was the same as the US GP of cross race in November. The mud made it much easier for me to make a decision on trying to ride or run tougher technical sections - I ran almost all of them. Probably due to this I had one of my better races on technical issues and did not crash once, yay!, as I was prepared to dismount every time I dismounted, plus it's surprising how much difference lower profile tires make in remounting. I also did not brake on the big descent - is that due to the slower speeds in the mud? The mud was very wet peanut butter like on the section parallel to the chain link fence, but at least it did not smell of a stable as the wet peanut butter mud next to the stables did. Instead of going all out on the runup and passing people like I did in November I took lots of tiny steps just to maintain position, like Darrel, and found I had a lot more for the on the bike portions of the race. One of the key technical sections was : a three foot high pile of leaves. At one point in the race a one of the SCCCC riders in front of me lost it there and blocked the rider behind him, I decided to run over high point instead of the race groove lower in the pile and never saw those riders again. No major issues with my frankenstein bike, some minor shifting problems but this was again due to all the space between the cogs and inside the chain links filling with mud. The Excavaders were pretty good for the mud slog - enough knobs for traction and they cleaned themselves pretty well once I got out of the muddy sections. After my 40 minute cleaning of the two bikes I rode the Litespeed on some of the flattest roads I have ever ridden in California and it felt like I was riding a new bike.

SCCCC Peak Season CX #2 Watsonville

Teammates - none
Friendly rivals - Paul in 35+B, Andrew in the 35+B (had mechanical so he missed the C's), David and Travis in the B's.

This time I remembered to check the weather report for Watsonville during the week and it rained so I switched to the 35mm Ritchey Excavaders with 50 psi in the rear and 55 psi in the front( these measure more like 30mm ). These worked pretty well - no clogging of the fork and only some minor issues in back near the bottom bracket. The tread seemed to collect a lot of mud which would come out on the long pavement sections but not sure what would be better - the traction provided by the tread was much needed during the mud bogs. Put on two layers on top with arm warmers and knee warmers to get comfortable. Rode a lap on the course and found the quality of mud this time to be different - sticky but not as tacky as last week and very stinky since it rained on Thursday and festered for three days. No big runup but the degradation of the soil made much of the course a grind in mud with many ruts to negotiate. Took off the knee warmers because they would get covered in mud anyways so it was going to be pointless to wear them. About 3/4 of the section by the chain link fence in past races was two to four inches deep in mud with fetid water pools and the same goes for the zig zag around the stables. A much different course than last week without the big run up. I forgot to put on my chest strap for the heart rate data. The Powertap stopped detecting data after three laps. Then it started working again for the last half lap. This happens at about the 50:30 mark. I think I am missing two laps of data. I put in a big sprint (for me) at the end because I saw someone on the course ahead of me on the final straight but he was just warming up. :(
I still need to work on not slowing down so much for a high speed dismount. The faucet on the building with the bathrooms is only hot water. Cleaning the bike afterward I found the chainrings/cogs/derraileurs jammed with mud and it looks like the pulleys are getting worn out from all the abrasion from the mud.

35+ B
7/10
P avg : 201
S: 12.2 ( this is close to accurate since I used smaller tires...)

SCCCC Peak CX #1 Watsonville

Sunny, cool enough for arm warmers, too hot for knee warmers, heavy rain on prior day

35+ B 7/11

Teammates: Michael Schaller in 35+B
Friendly rivals: Wayne in 45+B, David, Travis in B

Course ranged from pavement to rocky access road to tacky mud to clay mud. I had forgotten how bad the mud can get at Watsonville so had the really fat 42 Ritchey tires on the Litespeed and the 35 Ritchey tires on the Kelly and should have put narrower tires on the Litespeed. Oh well. The nice thing about the fat tires was that the slowly hardening mud would form ruts from prior laps so that the fatter tire rolled over these easily. When I had to switch bikes, the handling was noticeably trickier as one had to be careful to not deviate from the ruts as this required a lot of manhandling of the handlebars to maintain forward momentum, but at least the clean bike with skinny tires was about five pounds lighter. This course did not have the steeper long run up ala Surf City but it did have the run up from the creekside road. This got worse as our race went on such that if one rode all the way to the base of the run up one's tires got clogged with mud. It became better to just run from farther and farther out as the race went on, and this made an already long runup really painful. I had to swap bikes in the fourth lap so no power for the last lap. For some reason at first the chain would move from the big ring to the small ring, and then on the lap when I gave up on the bike, the chain would move from my small ring entirely off the crank which is visible in the noticeably lower surges in the recorded part of that lap. (When I cleaned my bike every place that could hold mud was mucky, the area between the chain rings and between the chainring and the crank arm and the area between the cogs in the rear and the rear derailleur pulleys were filled with mud.) This inability to pedal much was really bad because there were very few places where one would coast as the mud was so thick in places that one would stop moving if one could not pedal. On the plus side I only had minor issues with clipping in with the Candy Eggbeaters (had to step down harder to force the mud out) as others notably had to actually stop to get clipped in with other pedals. Also did not have a problem with mud buildup around the tires/frame/brakes until the lap when conditions changed so much on the runup that I rode too far in the leadup to it before I realized my mistake and had to spend 1/2 a lap just getting rid of that mud that collected in about twenty yards of riding. Cleaning both bikes and the shoes afterwards took about as long as the race, but at least they had running water for this.
M:71 kg
P:168
S:10.1
H:176

CCCX #6 Fort Ord, East Garrison 8 January 2006

Teammates: Dino and Bill in 45B, Mike in 35B, Darrel and Steve in 35A
Friendly competitors: Benoit, Murray and Mark in 35B, David in B's
15/20 ( I know I finished about one bike length behind Benoit and at least one rider dnf)
Course was in really good shape considering all the rain but it's sandy so it holds up really well. Fastest race this year for me which is odd considering it seemed somewhat hilly. The hills were really short so it was possible for me to get into a good rhythm, and the semi-corkscrew descent was a lot of fun. My dismount skills were a bit rusty. There were three logs of different sizes that were bunny hoppable but at the speed I would jump them it would have been faster to run.

M: 69kg
S: 13.0
Pavg:176
Pnorm:217
IF:0.90
HRavg:184

MTB ride for fun

Cast of Characters:Dino, Benoit, and Jun.

Woke up late and had to stuff the bike into the car and drive to the starting point to get there only a little late but my rush made me neglect to bring my camera. Luckily Jun showed up even later so I didn't feel so bad. :) Unluckily I managed to mangle my front derailleur so I could not get it out of the granny gear. So I rode the first couple of miles on the road spinning like a madman trying to keep up with everyone else. The other guys took a short break in Fremont Older and graciously gave me enough time to move the derailleur so I could use the middle.

I think my odometer and speed are about ten percent high - compared my speed data to Dino and Benoit and I realized I had the low profile slick on my MTB and I never bother to update the computer for any wheel size other than the one on my road bikes.

S avg 11.3 so probably 10.2 in reality
P avg 141
P norm 200
TSS 224 - I thought this felt really hard for a three hour ride
IF 0.85

Pilarcitos #3 Coyote Point

35+B
Teammates: Chris D, Darrel in 35A, Steve Stewart on sidelines watching
Friendly rivals: Cody and Jeremy in juniors, Curt, Greg, Murray in 35B, Alden, Travis and Gregg in C's.

It was about 35 degrees when I showed up so I wore two pairs of arm warmers, thick Sheila Moon knee warmers and a vest and was still a bit chilly during the four warmup laps.

Did a lap on the 40-12/25 bike with 32 mm tires and it felt fast but hard going in the second minor hill up to the road crossing so I switched to the 44/34-12/25 bike with 42mm tires ( but managed to just use the big ring for four of five laps...) Went out first with 38 PSI for a couple of laps and the noise of the tires rubbing on the long pavement sections reminded me of the worse rolling resistance, plus it would be faster to run more of the runup than relying on lower tire pressure to allow me to ride more so I upped the pressure to 42 PSI. Still not one flat during a race this year. I did mis shift one time to the small ring and threw the chain off during the hill before the long run up so I quit trying to shift the front after that.

I am such a klutz that while I was pinning on Alden's number I managed to fall over and spike myself in the butt with my STI lever and get a really large bruise as part of my warmup. This made it hurt every time I pedaled with my right leg. This hurts so much I am not sure if I am racing tomorrow.


Went out really hard and attempted to stay with the guys that I went into the first hill with and really blew hard on the second lap. At this point Greg passed me back and when I tried to sit on his wheel on the flats could not do anything so I had to do the long paved section solo. The short paved hill really killed my legs for the long runup that followed and this made it hard to get in to any sort of rhythm as I am usually stronger on the run. I had to spend the third *and* fourth lap sort of recovering then Jeremy and Cody passed me ( unusually not the first junior as an overzealous C forced Jeremy to crash into a curb) and finally Curt passed, and we had to slow on the fast downhill due to a hurt rider semi-blocking the double track. I was able to follow at a distance but doing the long flat sections solo was mentally taxing. Gregg passed me on the last time up the long runup but he was walking the barriers so I passed him back and he passed me a final time on the pavement at the top of the course. Seeing Gregg and Curt just ahead finally motivated me to push hard on the last lap but was able 20 meters short at the line and I felt like I had tried really hard for most of the race and didn't make any major technical mistakes after learning the course on the four warmup laps, just was slow. :)
P: 175
S: 11.9

CCCX #4 Prunedale 27 November

35+B
26/27
70 kg
Went with a bit lower pressure after reading the back and forth on tire pressures, about 38 front and back with the 42mm wide Ritcheys. Felt a bit wobbly in the rear on the paved hill but no pinch flats.
Teammates: Chris Pearson, Dino in 45+B, Chris D, Darrel B in 35A, Joe Fabris, Steve Stewart in 45A.
Friendly rivals: Andrew in juniors, Travis in C's, Murray and Erik in 35B/45B, Jason in the B's.


P: 159
S: 12.2

I felt like I was really slow but this was faster than I went at Surf City Watsonville or Clark Natwick and I still came in next to last! I think it was much easier to go faster here because the fields were smaller and there was plenty of room to pass. Got lapped on the last lap so I got to do one less lap than most of the other folks. I tried to not go too hard at the start and could not help myself and pulled off a typical crit start and sprinted for the heck of it at the end of the race since three B's had lapped me.

Clark Natwick CX at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

35+B
34/43 finishers
teammates - Michael Schaller in 35B's, Chris Daugherty and Darrel Brokeshoulder in 35A's, Joe Fabris in 45A

friendly rivals - (so many folks at this race I probably forgot someone) Mark and Murray, Curt Ferguson, Darryl Smith, Jeremy, Cody and Marcus in the juniors, Gregg in the C's, Alden and Channing in the B's, Cece's better half in 45B's, Eric in singlespeed, Ruben in 35A's. Finally saw Juan Ortiz, haven't seen him since the first race, his back went out during the second and he had to end his season.

I only bothered to bring one bike up, the Litespeed with the 42mm wide Zed front and rear and pumped up the tires to 40 psi again, cause it felt awfully hard and that pinch flat yesterday had to be a fluke, and I did not want to leave a bike unattended in a pit in the city. My legs were still sore from racing yesterday( and for only 30 minutes, too)so I considered not showing up but one of the benefits or drawbacks of preregistering is that one has already invested in the entry fee so it gives one additional motivation to show up and race. I felt better after we started, though.

Cool day, had to keep arm warmers and knee warmers on for the race, and almost needed another layer like a undershirt. Very long course, with lots and lots of singletrack, one set of barriers, one twenty yard long hill that was faster for me to run, loose soil in the corners that got looser as more people rode the course and lots of roots to knock your handlebars out from under you. Started off rubbing shoulders with Curt on one side and someone else on the other side. We all sprinted to the sharp right hand turn at the end of the raised running track so we could come to a complete stop and rush to get the hole shot on the next corner... The stuff that was fast and fun during the warmup was somewhat nerve wracking during the race, never sure if the guy in front of you was going to fall down or what during the technical sections or over a root, and then when they did having to either jump off and run or somehow stay on and manuever around them. It seemed like there were too many places to get stuck behind someone and not enough areas to pass them. On the first long pavement section I was behind Curt who was behind someone else who was getting weaker so I jumped, hoping Curt would come along but he didn't bite. Then after two laps or twenty minutes I blew up (hey, we only raced for about twenty minutes during the track racing nights) had to ease up and cut my losses on the third lap and hola, a guy in my race passed me in the beginning of the fourth and final lap so I had someone to race against again. So I passed him back before the single track and held him off and caught another guy with mechanical issues and a guy who crashed but the guy who crashed made a strong move to pass me in the last single track section and that's where we ended finishing. I didn't see anyone behind me so I eased up on the final straight and Gregg still managed to almost catch me at the end (his group started one minute after us). At least today I made different mistakes in different places each lap.

Surf City #3, Watsonville 19 November

35+ B's
P:146 average
S:11.3
22/23

Teammates: Chris Pearson and Michael Schaller, Dino in 45B, Steve Stewart and Joe Fabris in 45A, Chris Daugherty and Darrel Brokeshoulder in 35A
friendly rivals Mark in 35B, Eric in 45B, Curt in 35B, Jeremy and Joel in the junior Bs, Ruben in 35A

Rode a lap on the 40-12/25 bike and felt overgeared when trying to ride the climbs and switched to the 44/35-12/25 bike with 42mm tires and felt much better but with some tire slippage on the steep bits. Should have let more air out of the tires and adjusted my riding style but went with the 40 psi I put in beforehand.

Arm warmers and knee warmers necessary for the warmup, stripped down to shorts and jersey by race time. Showed up early enough to get in a couple of laps before the race started. Have to remember to not be so stubborn and to not listen to Chris' advice, especially when he is drunk. :) Kept making the same mistake every lap in the same places - trying to ride every hill. During the race I carried too much speed into the hills and hit or came close to hitting someone on each of the two smaller hills and on the second longest hill I fell over while trying to ride up it and on the long run up I rode up it partway then a guy walking swung his bike into my head to force me off and then as I ran past him I managed to get my handlebars entangled in his wheel... And that was just the first lap. On the small hill every time I either rode into or came very close to Curt or someone else. Each time I thought he was going to make but he lost traction at just the wrong time. :( Next race I am going to have to be more flexible and prepared to jump off and run, even if it hurts more. On my second trip up the big run up, Jeremy rode up, making it look easy. On the third time up, I fell down again and Mikey scampered past me. Maybe I should just commit to running it next time... On the last time, the smaller junior from Sacramento that Curt introduced to me passed both Curt and me on that big run up but we had the satisfaction of passing him back on the flats before the finish. I was able to draft off of Curt and pass someone else at the line for a little satisfaction but I think that is the most times I have fallen off of my cross bike in a race. Afterwards my front tire went flat - I had a pinch flat during the race but the Specialized Airlock innertube covered a 4mm long slash to make it a slow leak so it was rideable and I didn't really notice during the race. Then I took the spare bike to watch and cheer on the other racers and got two more flats, both in Specialized Airlock innertubes. The Airlock inner tubes work for quite a few small punctures but I pulled about thirty goathead thorns out of the front tire and eight goathead thorns out of the rear which was too much for them to handle. I was able to inflate the rear but the front was a lost cause. So next time, no riding off of the course for me at Watsonville.

After watching the elite men and women I felt better about falling off as both the elite women and men had riders near the front not cleaning several sections of the course their first time through.

FIAC National CX Championships, Watsonville

Woke up late, throat was scratchy, bed was warm, outside was freezing but mapquest said it was only fifty one minutes so I had to give it a go.





Teammates: Michael Schaller, someone else in the under 35 B's, Joe Fabris in the 45 A's. Steve Stewart and Chris Daugherty showed up and both decided not to race.
Friendly rivals: Mark from PenVelo, Curt Ferguson and son Jeremy in the juniors.


The course was mostly flat but not totally flat. One uphill runup took me twenty seconds and the bigger runup took about thirty seconds. Two barrier sections on flat parts of the course to force dismounts and one four foot wide set of stairs with eight steps to run up. Showed up an hour early and the laps were so long I only had time to do two slow warmup laps. Did a lap on the bike with the 35mm Ritchey SpeedMax and one lap on the bike with 42mm Ritchey Zed's mounted. At race speed it took me about ten minutes per lap.


S:12.8
P:149
Took it easy at the start and was almost last, right where I needed to be!, going in the first 180 and started picking off riders including Mike who went wide at the first 180 and was getting thrown around by the bumpy surface hidden by the grass. Caught some riders at the first barriers shortly after that. Then we went into the chicane in between a few shipping containers where I lost my nerve and had to brake, doh. Then a long grass section, barriers, 180 turn to a gravel rolling section, 180 turn to a gravel downhill, 90 turn on grass to uphill, barriers, twenty second run up, short gravel road to a loop of a rodeo arena on dirt to a short set of stairs!, sweeping left turn, then a sweeping downhill right turn onto grass, then uphill then 180 downhill, then a 90 left to the in and out around the stables to a zig zag until the thirty second runup with a six inch barrier at the bottom, then a longer grass section, 180 left then a last set of barriers, then sixty meters to the finish line. One really wanted to have company on the long flat section around the rodeo track. I was able catch then hang with Curt and the Steelman guy for the most of the first lap, lost them on a 180 downhill turn on gravel, then caught and passed them on the long run up, then they passed me back. The next lap I was able to ride with Curt again, this time for most of the rest of the lap, passing him on the run up. This time the Steelman fellow caught me after I passed the start finish and I could not reel him in, seeing him a short distance ahead. During this lap I thought my front wheel was losing air or something was loose - it was my headset, and this jostled the PowerTap CPU loose so this is why I only had 2.5 laps of the race recorded.

I did really well on the longer uphill runups as I was able to catch and pass folks but that probably killed my legs for a good time duration as it took quite a while to get up to speed after each of them.