The difference in cornering between 1/2/3's & 4's

check this out - differences in skill level when cornering in a pack

Sample shot of Cat 1/2/3's cornering:





And now...the way Cat 4's corner as a group:







Notice the huge differences in CROSS WHEELS and the general level of relaxation.

Stuffed Pasta

Dang, Igda is becoming quite the Chef. Stuffed pasta shells with all sorts of yummy things for dinner tonight.

I know the reason why it's called "The Race of Truth"

photo courtesy of Amy Jones


Well, the Church Creek TT didn't go quite as I planned. I was happy to take first place in the Cat 4's (by 1 second..yikes..way too close), but I just didn't have the mental focus I needed during the second half to put together a strong time. Legs were fine. At the halfway point, I was on track for ~55 minute time. Second half, not so good. I stopped the clock at 57:23.

I won't be pleased until I go 54-55 min on that course. So, I guess that only means I'll be back in the fall. The good news is that I know now what I need to do to hit those times. And it isn't all about power. I'm not sure where I heard the term mental FTP, but that's really what the 40k is all about.

Thanks ABRT for putting this event on.

here's the bike all dolled up Friday night

RSR update

Igda finally downloaded her photos from her photo camera and she had this little gem recorded which she forgot about. I wasn't hallucinating as bad as I thought. The official was ringing the crap out of that bell which I thought was the prime, but he didn't get on the loudspeaker until after I had already past. I don't feel like a complete idiot now...well maybe just a little. I'm just tired of reading about all these 4's who are whining about their placing in this first race. I can't tell but I probably had 8-10 seconds on the field. I wasn't about to kill myself for a prime.

Church Creek TT course

I'm going over to Cambridge Maryland on Saturday to do my first ever 40k time trial event. I'm looking forward to see what I can do there. I honestly don't know but I'd be thrilled with something in the 54-55 minute range. At the very least, I'll set a benchmark to improve upon. Here's the course (flat & fast..if the wind doesn't rear its ugly head):

Ride Sally Ride show time

This was my first chance to get a sneak peak at what goes on behind the scenes at a bike race. Everything was totally dialed in and smooth. RP did an excellent job lining everything and everybody up. Dave and Gus also provided excellent communication and organization. We had a ton of volunteers so nothing went unmanned throughout the day. Impressive! I also really enjoyed meeting more teammates and shooting the breeze throughout the day. It was a long day, but very rewarding.

**I must throw in here that my wife, Igda, was a huge help the entire day. Somehow I suckered her into coming...and she actually did. Once I got her up to speed on the registration process, she just took over. Between her, Peggy and Roger, everything was covered. Since there were enough chef's already in the kitchen, it gave me time to just generally goof off. Well, not really, but it was a huge benefit to have her there. Thanks for the support, babe!

Personally, I was a little caught out by the number of incidents throughout some of the races. It's always unfortunate to see/hear about a wreck during a race. The first thoughts are always, "I hope everyone is ok!" Fortunately, although there were some very serious incidents, it appears non were life threatening. For those that may be reading this, word is that the young Mr King that was seriously injured during the cat 4 race is going to be ok. It sounds like he has a strong fighting spirit and we hope to see him back on the bike soon. Very good news! I'm sure this won't have any effect on future races, but I really do hope racers in the upper categories that were racing on Saturday realize that we all need to look out for each other regardless of team or affiliation. There's no reason for us to take unnecessary risks. Be consistent and predictable!

Here's my race report for the Cat 4 race:
Hmm, what to say? First 4 only race. A lot of 4’s still ride like 5’s. Not sure why people love to overlap wheels. Such is life.

Now for a little more detail. Although I’d been up early and was standing for most of the time before the race, my legs felt amazingly well during warm-up…really well. Darn, no excuses there.

The overriding goal of the race for the team was to get some practice working together, maintain an offensive presence the entire race and get a good workout. We divided up: Gould/Callahan, Pheister/Dineen, Warner/Flanagan, Sharpe volunteered to tailgun. Each duo would take turns rotating, either attacking or bridging to anything up the road. A move shouldn’t be up the road without one of us in it and most likely will/should be initiated by one of us.

(NOTE: In hindsight, one thing we didn’t discuss was how to win the race. Yes, we had some other objectives which were more important to future races, but I’ve given some thought about this. On many crit courses, a 4 race will come down to a sprint. We should have a plan for this. Heck, it could probably be the same plan for every race. The Big Red Train will rear its head soon I’m sure. We’ll get that worked out.)

Although we all lined up at the back, it wasn’t all that difficult to get up front. We planned on taking the first 5 laps pretty easy anyhow. Everyone did a great job getting up front and being on the offensive. I love the fact that our red uniforms stand out. It makes finding people super easy. Although I will admit, there are about 4 of us that are close to the same size, and in the heat of the battle, I wasn’t sure who was who at times.

Things were going well until the bad wreck at turn 2 with about ~21 to go. I was just in front of it and I know exactly why it happened because for the first time in my racing I yelled at the guy who was about to cause chaos. I was near the outside coming out of the turn and this rider one up in front of me on the inside decides to just slide/push/wtf his way over to the outside for no apparent reason. I was seeing this all play out. He was pinching the guy to my left into me and me into the guy on the outside who was close to the curb. I just blurted out “HEY!!!” REALLY loud. It wasn’t “hold your line” which would have made more sense, but it appeared to be effective because the rider stopped coming over, saving a bunch of us from disaster. It just didn’t save everyone. The damage had been done by the guy’s initial move as I’m sure he caused others behind to lose control. Then I heard the crashing noise from behind. On the next lap, I saw Adam was caught up in it but was up and walking.
photos courtesy of Jim Wilson






Then things got a little weird. I will admit, I thought they were going to neutralize once I saw the ambulance. But we did still have half the road open after turn 2, and it wasn’t a problem getting through that turn especially now that everyone should have known by now not go too wide. Ok, race keeps going. What to do? Keep racing.

I see Gould throw out a good attack. He’s caught but he’s pushing hard enough to keep it single file with about 8 guys strung out behind him. Go time. I came up the right side from about 10-12 deep and hit the gas as I approached the front. I had a good head of steam. I didn’t look back for some time because I knew nobody was going to be able to match that move. They’d have to try to reel me back. Once I got off, I just tried to keep it pegged for as long as I could. I will gladly admit that I had some serious “tunnel vision” going on. I was working hard and focused. I completely missed the IMPORTANT, unexpected change to the race lap counter as I passed the start/finish line with what I believe was a healthy gap. I remember hearing the bell ringing and seeing 17 on the lap counter, but I just figured it was a prime lap since we hadn’t had one. There was lots of yelling, but it wasn’t registering. Now that I’ve had time to replay it in my head, I do sort of remember someone saying 1 to go, but I figured that person doesn’t understand what a prime lap is. How did we go from 17 to 1?


I just kept my head down pushing a slightly above threshold effort. Before turn 3, I looked back and the entire pack was definitely gaining on me. I thought, wow, they really want this prime. After turn 3, I decided I wasn’t going to burn my entire matchbook sprinting for the prime, so I started to sit up. I also figured that this would be a good opportunity for one of the others to attack. I’ll get back in and get recovered so I can go again later. Then I noticed everyone sitting up after the finish line just a little too casual, like the race was over or something. Wait, it was! I totally missed that the officials decided to shorten the race. Ok, I will admit. Initially, I was a pretty upset. Pretty sure I could have kept the lead. But honestly, once it sunk in, I was a little more upset with myself for not paying attention. Things like this do happen and you have to learn to deal with it. It was an important lesson.

1st part of Race:
Duration: 23:45
Work: 444 kJ
TSS: 41.4 (intensity factor 1.023)
Norm Power: 353
VI: 1.13
Distance: 10.539 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1052 311 watts
Cadence: 31 141 96 rpm
Speed: 5.8 34.4 26.7 mph

Attack:
Duration: 3:27
Work: 86 kJ
TSS: 9.6 (intensity factor 1.291)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 1.55 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1052 414 watts
Cadence: 52 124 100 rpm
Speed: 22 32.6 27.0 mph



It was sort of funny. When we finally started our cool down, we headed down to turn 2 where the road was blocked off. Flanagan and I discussed doing a 20 min threshold effort, but then they were calling us back. Crazy! But cool by me. We ride back to the start- get lined up and we’re off. The officials put 10 laps up and it is game on.

I gradually worked back up toward the front just trying to get my legs back to feeling normal. I still felt pretty good. I don’t know if it was Flanagan or Callahan that put in a good aggressive move. Then Dan put in a nice acceleration and had a small group off the front. With 3 to go, I was comfortable in the top 10 and stayed there.
photo courtesy of Jim Wilson




With 1 to go I saw Flanagan coming hard up the right side at the start/finish line out of the corner of my eye and made a bee line to get on his wheel before the 1st turn. After the turn, I yelled to him, “Michael, I’m on your wheel!” He kept the gas on through turn 2 and midway up the back stretch. I never did look behind me but knew things were probably strung out. In hindsight, it would have been perfect if someone from our team was on my wheel. I could tell Flanagan was losing a little steam so I had to make a decision…either go for it and see what happens and/or most likely carry the entire field to the finish. Maybe one of our guys is close enough to seal the deal if I can’t. I was worried I’d get swarmed at Turn 3 and get boxed in. My initial mistake was probably thinking that turn 3 was closer than it was. I probably should have turned to cheerleader and barked encouragement to Flanagan to get us through turn 3. I’m not so sure others were too inclined to take over the lead. He still had the pace pretty high. I peeled off Michael’s wheel hard to the left and just went for it. I knew I was in trouble shortly after turn 3 when I saw a few riders coming by on my right. I just tried to push all the way to the finish on the inside which netted fifth. Ah, well. It was fun racing aggressively with the guys. I also enjoyed that I was able to do my first race with Flanagan. Who knew he was going to give me a good lead out! It's good to see Flanagan have the fire back. It was his first race since winning the Turkey Day 3/4 race at the end of last year. Another 3-4 weeks of training and that guy is going to be ready to destroy it. Thanks, Michael! I’ll need to repay that in the future.

Race Restart:
Duration: 13:44
Work: 264 kJ
TSS: 25 (intensity factor 1.045)
Norm Power: 361
VI: 1.13
Distance: 6.235 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1135 320 watts
Cadence: 40 141 94 rpm
Speed: 10.4 34.5 27.2 mph

Finishing move:
Duration: 0:37
Work: 26 kJ
TSS: 4.3 (intensity factor 2.068)
Norm Power: n/a
Distance: 0.316 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1135 703 watts
Cadence: 90 116 108 rpm
Speed: 27.8 31.7 30.8 mph

Running from the Guillotine

Race: Clarendon Cup M35+
Result: Collapsed Lung & DNF (pulled on lap ~lap 15)
Cost Per Lap: $40 entry / 15 laps of 40 completed = $2.67/lap…sweet

All freakin’ week I’m pumped up to really suffer during this race, but c’mon Warner, starting nearly dead last didn’t quite get things started off on the right foot and it definitely wasn’t part of the plan. Yep, even after ALL of the warnings from the team about not being in the porto-john 15 minutes beforehand, I managed to screw this up.

Just to relieve any morning stress I went ahead and picked up my race number Friday evening. This gave me plenty of time to get to the race venue and get in a solid 45 minute warm-up. When I arrived, the course was already blocked off so I jumped out there and started hitting laps. I TRIED to mentally mark the sketchy areas in the road, but honestly there were so many that I switched to just trying to mentally mark the particular sections of the course I needed to really stay alert during. They did use some temporary asphalt filler on the really bad spots which was nice. I hit the turns at speed during warm-up and felt pretty darn comfortable. After I gained enough confidence in my ability to roll through the corners fast, I hit out off the course to get in a few more prolonged efforts to really get the blood pumping. My legs felt pretty darn good. Unfortunately, my PT on my Open Pro wheel is on the fritz so I didn’t have power during the race. Not that it really matters in the race, but it would have been nice to see the number afterward. I wasn’t about to throw on my 808 PT on this course.

It was just a little before 8 a.m. when the race director announced that staging would begin at 8:05. Cool. I’ll jump into the porto-john. I roll around on the course to the staging area and low and behold EVERYONE is ALREADY there. WTF. It’s not even 8:05 and I’m already last into the staging area for the 8:15 start. Great. I’m not making this mistake again! In technical crits, the first part of the race is really about getting staged as close to the front as possible. Screw the last 10 minutes of the warm-up. Getting staged correctly is more important in these fast races. They start announcing the call-ups and for some reason I’m not called up. I’m totally bewildered ;- ). The race doesn’t actually go until about 8:20.

I was a little nervous my “Custer warm-up as if my life depends on it” routine was all for not. I was mentally preparing myself to just start passing as many people as possible from the gun until I was about to puke. The gun went off. I clicked in flawlessly and I was sprinting to the first turn passing as many riders as I could. I just focused on being as aggressive as I could without endangering myself or anyone else. I was amazed at how many folks I was passing through a couple of the turns, especially the last one into the finishing stretch. I was easily moving 4-6 spots up every lap on that turn. I felt totally comfortable and rarely even had to touch the brakes. I kept my eyes focused through the turns which I think really helped…good advice guys! My warm-up seemed spot on as my legs were good from the get go unlike BikeJam.

Honestly, I lost total recognition of what lap we were on after number one. I was deep in the pain cave. I felt like I was doing Tabata intervals for the first 15 minutes. Interestingly enough, my lungs felt more on fire than my legs.

I knew the race would eventually whittle down to 20-25 guys. That meant I needed to pass about 50-60 guys to get where I needed to be to make the right side of the split. Well, I didn’t make it. I don’t know which lap it was, but the splits happened and I was now in a group of about 15 riders. Unlike BikeJam, I decided to try and stay at the front of this group and do as much work at the front as possible. I also wanted to get as much practice moving around the group as possible. I realized it was all about getting the workout in at this point since I knew my time out on the course was going to be limited. We made it 15 laps (~23 minutes) before the official gave the cut-throat signal and blew the whistle. Game over. I pulled off course with the others in my group.

Seriously, once I stopped, I realized my lungs were about to incinerate. I was like what the heck? I coughed up phlegm over the course of the next few hours. Interesting. I didn’t feel like I had any chest congestion before the race but now I do. It did make me feel better to know I gave it 100%. I did hit that point in the race where I considered throwing in the towel from the pain, but I’m happy I pushed through it. I gained a TON of confidence in my ability to handle my bike through a technical course. In some ways, I felt like a leaped to another level in that regard. That was the first really “technical” crit I’ve done. I also feel like I’ve reached the point where I can generate some repeated out of the saddle sprinting and feel comfortable doing it.

The winner, Pete Cannell, put in an impressive performance to say the least.

Here’s a link to some cool video of the race:
M35+ race