On Sunday, Apex showed up with a noticeably smaller, but not underpowered, contingent for the the Longbranch Road Race. Lyle, Steve, and I all carpooled down there in the battle/battered wagon. The weather was about 1,000 times more promising than Saturday at Glenwood – sunny and mid-fifties. Warming up on the course, I remarked to Steve that this was about the best weather one could conceive of for cycling.
Overall, only 38 guys started compared to the 80 or so the day before. The smaller field on the Longbranch course was nice – generally resulting in smoother riding. We were to race 5 laps, unlike last year which was 6 laps for the State Championship Road Race. It’s too bad Glenwood was used for the champs this year and not Longbranch because this is definitely a more challenging course. Most legs in the field were a little tired with the exception of only a few guys not racing the day before.
The first lap was fairly unremarkable. At the start of the second lap, cresting the rise after the start/finish, I rolled off the front. It was exactly the same spot as the year before and exactly the same things happened (for a while anyway). The significant exception was that there were 4 laps to go until the finish this time (not just three). I road conservatively out there waiting for others but no one came and all the while my gap kept growing. My legs weren’t fresh so I really was questioning the intelligence of this decision but I kept on plugging away in low zone 4 / high zone 3.
By the end of lap 2, the field was out of site. By the end of lap 3, I had two minutes on the field. The sun was shining, my bike was humming and things were going well. My third time solo up the steep climb (in the middle of lap 4), I totally came apart. I had been eating plenty but I had just too much racing in my legs since Thursday night at Seward. To top it off, my fancy SRAM Red front derailleur derailed itself in some bizarre way so I was rubbing some serious chain while in the small ring. I couldn’t figure out how to fix it and the noise only added to my delirium. Over the top, I was happy to shift into the big ring again and tried to regain some composer and time while running through the back half of the course.
Going through the start finish again, I looked back and saw the field closing. Two guys were bridging up to me and caught up on the rise past the finish. To my amusement, they started barking orders at me on where to sit and when to pull through. Sure, kid, whatever. I’ve just been off the front for over 30 miles. I’ll get right on that. They were lousy company, so I drifted back to the field bracing myself to be ejected out the back. I hung in for about a mile in the surprising reduced field, got a few back slaps and then slipped off the back. So, I finished the race solo again, but on the wrong side of the field.
Meanwhile, I learned that Steve had gotten sick and pulled out after the first lap. Lyle was sitting in the field conserving his strength. There was some chasing going on which aided in my demise but I think a big part of it was just me being a bit too tired. What I know about the rest of the race comes from Lyle. Going through the feed zone hill the last time, a Second Ascent guy jumped the field. Everyone hesitated, he got a gap, and then took it all the way to the finish. Importantly, that guy didn’t race the day before so he had fresh legs. It’s only 4k from the feed zone and a super fast finish favoring a small group of riders so it was a good move. Lyle was determined not to pull the field (again) so sat in. He sprinted across the line in 4th for another solid finish. That guy is on a roll.
So I learned something about Longbranch yesterday. It was a useful data point. I can hold off the 3s field for 3 laps but 4 laps is just one too many.
After the race, I went out and had one and half hamburgers and a couple of bowls of ice cream. I’m looking forward to a few easy days of recovery and then one more road race on Saturday before a few week break in weekend racing.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Glenwood Cat 4 Report
I guess it is up to me to report on the cat 4 race, since I was the only one to make it there. I’ll keep it a little shorter than Scott. In summary, it was raining at the start of the race, there was one crash in the middle of the race, and it was raining harder at the end of the race. It was a frustrating race. That pretty much sums it up.
I’ll throw in a few details for anyone who is interested. I started at the very back of the pack because I was thinking the race started at 9:30 until I checked at about 8:50 and had to scramble to get to the line. I’m not sure on the exact number of racers, but seemed like a pretty big field. I’ll guess it was about 65-70. It was very dicey going with lots surges and hard braking. The pace wasn’t particularly fast, so it was hard to move anywhere. It stretched out a bit a few times and I tried to move up, but just as I would start moving up it would slow down and bunch up and I’d have to hit the brakes to avoid hitting the pile in front of me. After a few tries, and my glasses getting increasingly foggy, I adjusted my goal to finish the race and avoid any crashes. I just rode the back of the pack for a good part of the race. One the 3nd lap there was a crash, which I was able to avoid and it provided an opportunity to move up in the pack. Shortly there after, I moved near the front. There were two teams with two guys near the front and I started marking a pair of guys, okay I admit I was following two guys from wines. One of them seemed to be doing some work at the front while the other guy just sat in, so I figured they might be trying to set him up. My plan was to sit on his wheel until they made the move. (I turned out to be wrong as the guy I was following faded at the end). I was in about 8th position going into the last sharp right turn before heading towards the finishing stretch. The smart thing to do would have been to move to the front at the corner. I was on the inside and there was a clear path, but after concentrating on just staying out of trouble for the whole race, it didn’t register in my brain what was coming up after the corner. I hesitated and some other riders moved up. It got strung out after the corner, but then bunched back up before the descent. I was boxed in, so it was too late to get into position for the final sprint. I knew it was going to get clogged up on the hill and decided not to charge into the mess with little chance of finishing in the top 10, so I held my position behind the guy in front of me and finished in the middle of the pack. All in all a frustrating day.
I’ll throw in a few details for anyone who is interested. I started at the very back of the pack because I was thinking the race started at 9:30 until I checked at about 8:50 and had to scramble to get to the line. I’m not sure on the exact number of racers, but seemed like a pretty big field. I’ll guess it was about 65-70. It was very dicey going with lots surges and hard braking. The pace wasn’t particularly fast, so it was hard to move anywhere. It stretched out a bit a few times and I tried to move up, but just as I would start moving up it would slow down and bunch up and I’d have to hit the brakes to avoid hitting the pile in front of me. After a few tries, and my glasses getting increasingly foggy, I adjusted my goal to finish the race and avoid any crashes. I just rode the back of the pack for a good part of the race. One the 3nd lap there was a crash, which I was able to avoid and it provided an opportunity to move up in the pack. Shortly there after, I moved near the front. There were two teams with two guys near the front and I started marking a pair of guys, okay I admit I was following two guys from wines. One of them seemed to be doing some work at the front while the other guy just sat in, so I figured they might be trying to set him up. My plan was to sit on his wheel until they made the move. (I turned out to be wrong as the guy I was following faded at the end). I was in about 8th position going into the last sharp right turn before heading towards the finishing stretch. The smart thing to do would have been to move to the front at the corner. I was on the inside and there was a clear path, but after concentrating on just staying out of trouble for the whole race, it didn’t register in my brain what was coming up after the corner. I hesitated and some other riders moved up. It got strung out after the corner, but then bunched back up before the descent. I was boxed in, so it was too late to get into position for the final sprint. I knew it was going to get clogged up on the hill and decided not to charge into the mess with little chance of finishing in the top 10, so I held my position behind the guy in front of me and finished in the middle of the pack. All in all a frustrating day.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Glenwood State RR Cat 3 2009 Race Report
I'll keep this a bit more brief than the last report partly because I'll be eating a smaller breakfast today. And again, this will just be what I remember ...I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot.
Well, it was some shit weather! But at least it wasn't cold. There were 81 starters in the 3's for the 70 miles. Apex had me, Lyle, Ben, Alex, Bernie and John B.
It was just dumping as we rolled out. My glasses immediately fogged up so I just took them off. And as a result, I'm still rubbing sand and grit out on my eyes this morning.
Most of us Apexers rolled out about mid pack and as a result didn't make the first big break of the day. It looked to be a group of about 10-12 with every major team represented, except us. They got a pretty decent gap before Lyle and I were able to work our way to the front. We started working to pull it back but weren't getting much help from anyone else. Lyle too his customary 1 mile pull and then I'd do a little work. Eventually a strong guy from UW came and helped. A Second Ascent guy tried to bridge up and helped fire up a bit more chasing. Eventually the break came back. It was early to be chasing breaks but it seemed entirely plausible that that particular group could have gotten several minutes on us and the race would have been over.
Sometime early in the 2nd lap Alex came to the front and launched a wicked counter attack. After that, he pretty much marked or closed down everything that tried to get away without us. He did a great job of managing the front of the field while Lyle and I took a break. I'd move up every so often and do a little work after Alex had chased something down but he did a great job by himself up there. By the 3rd lap I had yet to see Ben at all, so I thought perhaps he'd had a mechanical and wasn't even in the race anymore. But soon he popped up near the front and started attacking. He got away several times with pretty good combinations of riders but nothing stuck because he's a marked rider. So if he would get out there with a 2 or 3 other guys then people would start trying to bridge up. That would slowly create a string of riders that would bring the whole pack up. More than once this Hagens guy would chase down a break with his own teammate in it. It happened at least twice, maybe three times. I wouldn't have minded but it helped bring back a break with Ben in it. I can't recall the chronology exactly but Ben instigated at least 3 breaks in the last couple of laps. They were all well timed but for various reasons didn't stay away.
Anyhow, nothing was really sticking. With about a lap to go Recycled sent a guy off the front and he got a huge gap and seemed to be holding it. They had guys on the front setting a false tempo and nobody was chasing. So I went up and worked as long as I could to bring him back. Once the gap had shrunk enough, people started helping a bit and he was brought back.
Things seemed to stay together until the last time up the steep hill about 4-5 miles before the finish and then Recycled guy and a Starbucks guy got off the front. They got a gap pretty quickly while people recovered from the hill. And nobody chased! They just let it slip away. And I say 'they' because neither Lyle or I could get to the front. People were just dawdling and the road was jammed. Finally after a few miles we got to the front. I tried to encourage other teams to chase but everyone was just looking at each other. Lyle and I took a couple of turns but there was no way to pull it back without just perfectly setting up everyone else. In any case, Lyle and I were in front for about the last 1.5k. And Lyle basically pulled the for the last 1k while I sat behind him trying to wave other people through. I thought perhaps a last minute surge could bring the break back in the sprint. But nobody came around and Lyle was just stuck there. I decided to sprint for third so I dropped back a couple of wheels and was immediately boxed in while guys literally turned their heads and looked at each other... waiting for someone to go. I guess I shouldn't have let anyone past me and gone at 250 meters. But we probably lost about 5-10 mph at the bottom of the hill. I was way overgeared by the middle of the hill and could just barely turn over the pedals. I felt great but a couple of guys who chose the correct gear slipped by me in the last 20 meters. Alas! I ended up 9th, Lyle 18th and Alex 24th. Ben rolled in with the group having done a ton of work in breaks. Bernie and John lasted as long as they could in the race but are still honing their form.
As a side note, I think they need to open up both sides of the road at about 400meters. It's ridiculous to have only one lane open going into a downhill sweeping turn before the finishing climb. It totally clogs and slows the finish while also making it more dangerous.
It was unfortunate (for us anyway) that none of the other teams wanted to work to bring back the break when it really counted. But I have to say that Recycled rode a great race and deserved the win. They must have learned something after their experience at Vance Creek last week. All in all I think we rode a really good race considering we only had four of us out there for the whole race. We could have used a guy like Greg there at the end but I'm satisfied that we raced well, in spite of not-so-great results. Everyone did their work and contributed in useful ways. Personally, I had a great time racing yesterday. The race was interesting, frustrating, active, tactical and kinda hard at times... just like racing is supposed to be.
-Scott
Well, it was some shit weather! But at least it wasn't cold. There were 81 starters in the 3's for the 70 miles. Apex had me, Lyle, Ben, Alex, Bernie and John B.
It was just dumping as we rolled out. My glasses immediately fogged up so I just took them off. And as a result, I'm still rubbing sand and grit out on my eyes this morning.
Most of us Apexers rolled out about mid pack and as a result didn't make the first big break of the day. It looked to be a group of about 10-12 with every major team represented, except us. They got a pretty decent gap before Lyle and I were able to work our way to the front. We started working to pull it back but weren't getting much help from anyone else. Lyle too his customary 1 mile pull and then I'd do a little work. Eventually a strong guy from UW came and helped. A Second Ascent guy tried to bridge up and helped fire up a bit more chasing. Eventually the break came back. It was early to be chasing breaks but it seemed entirely plausible that that particular group could have gotten several minutes on us and the race would have been over.
Sometime early in the 2nd lap Alex came to the front and launched a wicked counter attack. After that, he pretty much marked or closed down everything that tried to get away without us. He did a great job of managing the front of the field while Lyle and I took a break. I'd move up every so often and do a little work after Alex had chased something down but he did a great job by himself up there. By the 3rd lap I had yet to see Ben at all, so I thought perhaps he'd had a mechanical and wasn't even in the race anymore. But soon he popped up near the front and started attacking. He got away several times with pretty good combinations of riders but nothing stuck because he's a marked rider. So if he would get out there with a 2 or 3 other guys then people would start trying to bridge up. That would slowly create a string of riders that would bring the whole pack up. More than once this Hagens guy would chase down a break with his own teammate in it. It happened at least twice, maybe three times. I wouldn't have minded but it helped bring back a break with Ben in it. I can't recall the chronology exactly but Ben instigated at least 3 breaks in the last couple of laps. They were all well timed but for various reasons didn't stay away.
Anyhow, nothing was really sticking. With about a lap to go Recycled sent a guy off the front and he got a huge gap and seemed to be holding it. They had guys on the front setting a false tempo and nobody was chasing. So I went up and worked as long as I could to bring him back. Once the gap had shrunk enough, people started helping a bit and he was brought back.
Things seemed to stay together until the last time up the steep hill about 4-5 miles before the finish and then Recycled guy and a Starbucks guy got off the front. They got a gap pretty quickly while people recovered from the hill. And nobody chased! They just let it slip away. And I say 'they' because neither Lyle or I could get to the front. People were just dawdling and the road was jammed. Finally after a few miles we got to the front. I tried to encourage other teams to chase but everyone was just looking at each other. Lyle and I took a couple of turns but there was no way to pull it back without just perfectly setting up everyone else. In any case, Lyle and I were in front for about the last 1.5k. And Lyle basically pulled the for the last 1k while I sat behind him trying to wave other people through. I thought perhaps a last minute surge could bring the break back in the sprint. But nobody came around and Lyle was just stuck there. I decided to sprint for third so I dropped back a couple of wheels and was immediately boxed in while guys literally turned their heads and looked at each other... waiting for someone to go. I guess I shouldn't have let anyone past me and gone at 250 meters. But we probably lost about 5-10 mph at the bottom of the hill. I was way overgeared by the middle of the hill and could just barely turn over the pedals. I felt great but a couple of guys who chose the correct gear slipped by me in the last 20 meters. Alas! I ended up 9th, Lyle 18th and Alex 24th. Ben rolled in with the group having done a ton of work in breaks. Bernie and John lasted as long as they could in the race but are still honing their form.
As a side note, I think they need to open up both sides of the road at about 400meters. It's ridiculous to have only one lane open going into a downhill sweeping turn before the finishing climb. It totally clogs and slows the finish while also making it more dangerous.
It was unfortunate (for us anyway) that none of the other teams wanted to work to bring back the break when it really counted. But I have to say that Recycled rode a great race and deserved the win. They must have learned something after their experience at Vance Creek last week. All in all I think we rode a really good race considering we only had four of us out there for the whole race. We could have used a guy like Greg there at the end but I'm satisfied that we raced well, in spite of not-so-great results. Everyone did their work and contributed in useful ways. Personally, I had a great time racing yesterday. The race was interesting, frustrating, active, tactical and kinda hard at times... just like racing is supposed to be.
-Scott
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Vance Creek Cat 3 2009 Race Report
Well, I guess it falls to me to write the Cat 3 race report for Vance Creek. As usual, I’m well aware that nobody has actually requested a race report, but why do you think I care? In any case, I’m eating my breakfast as I write, so it’s not entirely wasting my time.
About 72 of us (not all from Apex Racing, of course) lined up under the shadows of the nuclear cooling towers for the 80 mile race. We had me, Lyle, Ben, Olivier, SteveO, Greg and Jay. Not a bad team, if you were to ask me. I think maybe Recycled might have had similar numbers. We rolled out and within about 300 meters SteveO had a mechanical. I guess he thought those front skewers were merely ornamental because he didn’t bother closing it tight. Anyhow, it took him a few miles but he was able to chase back on. Although, he would break a spoke on the following lap and have to drop out altogether.
The first lap was nothing too difficult. There were a few surges and attacks but nothing really stuck. At the start of the second lap a break formed and I hopped on a wheel of a guy who was bridging up. It seemed early for a break to go away and stick, but you never know. And in any case, I like to pretend to be useful…occasionally. Soon we had about 6-8 guys from several different teams. It actually seemed like the sort of combination that could work well together and not get chased down right away. Not so. We were chased down with a few miles. Too early in the race, I guess. Later that lap a group of three got off the front and Greg launched after them. They already had a pretty good gap and were working well together otherwise Greg would have been able to bridge up. It was painful to watch him trapped up there in no-man’s land …but that just happens sometimes. Once it was clear that he was coming back to the main group, Ben launched a perfect counter attack near the bottom of the climb. He passed Greg and eventually caught the three-man group at the top of the hill. They stayed out there for some now unrecollectable(not a real word) length of time… that is to say, I don’t remember exactly. Btw, me not remembering people, events, time and distances and generally getting ‘facts’ wrong will be an ongoing theme in this report (and in my life.) And as usual, it will be written from my limited perspective. I’m sure the other guys probably performed numerous heroic deeds and maneuvers that I didn’t notice, have forgotten about or just ignored.
Anyhow, back to the race. Over the first 3 laps Ben was in a break as was Olivier. In fact, after Olivier’s break was brought back, I heard a guy tell his teammate that Olivier was really strong in the break. He seemed relieved that the break didn’t succeed, clearly fearing being dropped by Olivier. A few miles from the end of the 3rd lap my rear tire started to thumpthump. I thought it was going flat so I found Lyle in the group to ask him to have a look at it. He said the tire was fine (a blatant lie!) and that the thumping was probably just from the road surface. As we got near the top of the climb I started worrying that something was really wrong with my tire and that it might blow up on the fast descent. About 30 seconds later at the top of the hill, it blew up. I was relieved that it happened there at probably the slowest spot on the whole course. My wheel change was kinda slow so I probably lost about a minute. I didn’t really have much expectation that I could close that gap and get back with the pack. After a mile or two the wheel car caught up with me and tried to pace me back on. It was a nice idea but in my experience the drivers never let you actually get close enough to the car to get a proper draft. So, I almost blew myself up just trying to catch the wheel car. Just as I was convincing him to slow down, he had to pull over to help some other guy with a flat.
The pack seemed long gone by the time I reached the bottom of the hill but I figured I’d at least chase for one full lap. And I did. And it sucked. I slowly closed the gap and after that flat stretch past the farm roads I got within about 40 meters of the back of the pack… but I just could not close the distance. So I sat there so-dang-close for about 4 miles, at my limit. For me it was the pain cave that Herriott liked to talk about. Finally somebody crashed in the pack and the wheel car pulled up and said, “Here’s your chance, go!”. I tried to accelerate but not much happened except the pack accelerated. Finally I was able to close that last bit of distance and got back into the pack right at the bottom of the hill. I’m not sure how fast we went up the hill but I’d had no time to recover. I made it to the top just on the back of the group but then some smartass punched it across the flats on top and I came off the back. I just couldn’t imagine catching back on again after that. I was cooked so I pulled out.
I think the acceleration at the top of the hill was a response to Greg getting into another break. I think he went on the hill and eventually two other guys hooked up with him. I was sitting at the feed zone hill when they came around the next time and they still had a decent gap on the field. Apparently since Recycled didn’t have anyone in the break, they put all of their guys into chasing Greg. It was successful in both pulling back Greg (with 5k to go) but also in blowing up their entire team. So I think their best finisher ended up 32nd place. So, Greg set things up perfectly, basically destroying a whole team in the process. With Recycled out of the way and our guys being able to just sit in, both Lyle and Olivier were able to get in great position for the finish. It seems that a Lenovo guy jumped early and was able to open up a 20 meter gap and held it to the line. One Starbucks got in the gap but Lyle and Olivier were right there and finished strong in 3rd and 4th place. Jay rolled in with the group and Greg came in just a little ways back, smiling. All in all it was a great team effort, with great results. I think a win, one way or another is just around the corner.
About 72 of us (not all from Apex Racing, of course) lined up under the shadows of the nuclear cooling towers for the 80 mile race. We had me, Lyle, Ben, Olivier, SteveO, Greg and Jay. Not a bad team, if you were to ask me. I think maybe Recycled might have had similar numbers. We rolled out and within about 300 meters SteveO had a mechanical. I guess he thought those front skewers were merely ornamental because he didn’t bother closing it tight. Anyhow, it took him a few miles but he was able to chase back on. Although, he would break a spoke on the following lap and have to drop out altogether.
The first lap was nothing too difficult. There were a few surges and attacks but nothing really stuck. At the start of the second lap a break formed and I hopped on a wheel of a guy who was bridging up. It seemed early for a break to go away and stick, but you never know. And in any case, I like to pretend to be useful…occasionally. Soon we had about 6-8 guys from several different teams. It actually seemed like the sort of combination that could work well together and not get chased down right away. Not so. We were chased down with a few miles. Too early in the race, I guess. Later that lap a group of three got off the front and Greg launched after them. They already had a pretty good gap and were working well together otherwise Greg would have been able to bridge up. It was painful to watch him trapped up there in no-man’s land …but that just happens sometimes. Once it was clear that he was coming back to the main group, Ben launched a perfect counter attack near the bottom of the climb. He passed Greg and eventually caught the three-man group at the top of the hill. They stayed out there for some now unrecollectable(not a real word) length of time… that is to say, I don’t remember exactly. Btw, me not remembering people, events, time and distances and generally getting ‘facts’ wrong will be an ongoing theme in this report (and in my life.) And as usual, it will be written from my limited perspective. I’m sure the other guys probably performed numerous heroic deeds and maneuvers that I didn’t notice, have forgotten about or just ignored.
Anyhow, back to the race. Over the first 3 laps Ben was in a break as was Olivier. In fact, after Olivier’s break was brought back, I heard a guy tell his teammate that Olivier was really strong in the break. He seemed relieved that the break didn’t succeed, clearly fearing being dropped by Olivier. A few miles from the end of the 3rd lap my rear tire started to thumpthump. I thought it was going flat so I found Lyle in the group to ask him to have a look at it. He said the tire was fine (a blatant lie!) and that the thumping was probably just from the road surface. As we got near the top of the climb I started worrying that something was really wrong with my tire and that it might blow up on the fast descent. About 30 seconds later at the top of the hill, it blew up. I was relieved that it happened there at probably the slowest spot on the whole course. My wheel change was kinda slow so I probably lost about a minute. I didn’t really have much expectation that I could close that gap and get back with the pack. After a mile or two the wheel car caught up with me and tried to pace me back on. It was a nice idea but in my experience the drivers never let you actually get close enough to the car to get a proper draft. So, I almost blew myself up just trying to catch the wheel car. Just as I was convincing him to slow down, he had to pull over to help some other guy with a flat.
The pack seemed long gone by the time I reached the bottom of the hill but I figured I’d at least chase for one full lap. And I did. And it sucked. I slowly closed the gap and after that flat stretch past the farm roads I got within about 40 meters of the back of the pack… but I just could not close the distance. So I sat there so-dang-close for about 4 miles, at my limit. For me it was the pain cave that Herriott liked to talk about. Finally somebody crashed in the pack and the wheel car pulled up and said, “Here’s your chance, go!”. I tried to accelerate but not much happened except the pack accelerated. Finally I was able to close that last bit of distance and got back into the pack right at the bottom of the hill. I’m not sure how fast we went up the hill but I’d had no time to recover. I made it to the top just on the back of the group but then some smartass punched it across the flats on top and I came off the back. I just couldn’t imagine catching back on again after that. I was cooked so I pulled out.
I think the acceleration at the top of the hill was a response to Greg getting into another break. I think he went on the hill and eventually two other guys hooked up with him. I was sitting at the feed zone hill when they came around the next time and they still had a decent gap on the field. Apparently since Recycled didn’t have anyone in the break, they put all of their guys into chasing Greg. It was successful in both pulling back Greg (with 5k to go) but also in blowing up their entire team. So I think their best finisher ended up 32nd place. So, Greg set things up perfectly, basically destroying a whole team in the process. With Recycled out of the way and our guys being able to just sit in, both Lyle and Olivier were able to get in great position for the finish. It seems that a Lenovo guy jumped early and was able to open up a 20 meter gap and held it to the line. One Starbucks got in the gap but Lyle and Olivier were right there and finished strong in 3rd and 4th place. Jay rolled in with the group and Greg came in just a little ways back, smiling. All in all it was a great team effort, with great results. I think a win, one way or another is just around the corner.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Walla Walla Cat 3 Stage 3 2009 Race Report
I am feeling the guilt of not reporting so here is what happened atWalla Walla sunday RR.
The conditions were great to race: 75 to 80 degrees, clear sky andonly moderately windy.The first part of the race was relatively mellow with a few attacksand a couple of guys sticking to the front for just a few miles. As wearrived close to Walla Walla the pace increases as we were gettingmore exposed to the wind. Greg made an appearance to the front andstretched the pack even more as he took one “beast of a pull”.
As we arrived close to the hill on the back side 3 guys were up thefront from 3 teams: IJM, cucina and hagens. Greg took another strongpull and I knew that was for me. I decided to go for it as I had beenriding quite conservatively over the weekend. I launched an attack andbridged the breakaway, dragging another cucina guy with me. Therewere 5 of us now. As we went over the hill, it was clear that we werenot a great match as far as strength goes. That’s when the cucina guy,Matt, and I dropped the rest of the guys. With 50 miles to go, it mayseem like a mistake but the other guys were surely not moving fastenough!
The road going to Waitsburg was torture for the 2 of us with roughpavement and head wind. With a gap of 1min 30s, we knew we had a goodshot for the KOM but were quickly running out of steam. We agreed tosplit the prime and tempoed up the hill. As we made it through theline we decided to stop our effort and waited for the pack. It lookedvery lean and dispatched as it passed us but the pace slowed downdramatically after that. Perfect for recovering! I spotted Lyle, thenJay and Greg but no Ben, who I learned had been fatally isolated onthe backside downhill.
The decisive move happened before the feeding zone as 3 guys, amongwhich figured the stage and GC winner, a Whitman racer, took off. Thepack did not react and it took a while before the leader of the racestarted the chase (with no teammates). The pace picked up on thebackside before the hill; we were single-lined as suddenly a nastycrash occurred from the front of the pack. 2 guys were entangled onthe pavement and another 3 or 4 had to stop for mechanical issues.
As we got to the foot of the last hill, it was the usual mess ofeveryone trying to get positioned. The firework was initiated. As wetook that right turn 2 guys just in front of me went down for no otherreason than being hypoxic and brain dead. I blocked my rear wheel andthe guy behind me leaned on it but we both managed to stay upright.As the pace steadily accelerated a group of 30 guys, then 20 stayedtogether. In the last km several guys attacked and I could see Lylevery well positioned. I was happy my screaming legs could take me tothe line without too much damage and finished 19th about 15s behindthe leader of the group. From the breakaway, only the Whitman guysurvived with a 30s gap, which earned him 1st place on the GC. AsScott mentioned, Lyle had a great race and finished 6th! Greg and Jayfinished a bit later.
What a fun but draining weekend! There are surely good riders on theeastern part of the state! As Greg reported, it would have been niceto have a better start and loosing Steve was disappointing. But we didnot come back empty handed: tires, KOM and sprint prime, top 10finish. Very promising. I cannot wait for Vance creek on sunday!
Olivier
The conditions were great to race: 75 to 80 degrees, clear sky andonly moderately windy.The first part of the race was relatively mellow with a few attacksand a couple of guys sticking to the front for just a few miles. As wearrived close to Walla Walla the pace increases as we were gettingmore exposed to the wind. Greg made an appearance to the front andstretched the pack even more as he took one “beast of a pull”.
As we arrived close to the hill on the back side 3 guys were up thefront from 3 teams: IJM, cucina and hagens. Greg took another strongpull and I knew that was for me. I decided to go for it as I had beenriding quite conservatively over the weekend. I launched an attack andbridged the breakaway, dragging another cucina guy with me. Therewere 5 of us now. As we went over the hill, it was clear that we werenot a great match as far as strength goes. That’s when the cucina guy,Matt, and I dropped the rest of the guys. With 50 miles to go, it mayseem like a mistake but the other guys were surely not moving fastenough!
The road going to Waitsburg was torture for the 2 of us with roughpavement and head wind. With a gap of 1min 30s, we knew we had a goodshot for the KOM but were quickly running out of steam. We agreed tosplit the prime and tempoed up the hill. As we made it through theline we decided to stop our effort and waited for the pack. It lookedvery lean and dispatched as it passed us but the pace slowed downdramatically after that. Perfect for recovering! I spotted Lyle, thenJay and Greg but no Ben, who I learned had been fatally isolated onthe backside downhill.
The decisive move happened before the feeding zone as 3 guys, amongwhich figured the stage and GC winner, a Whitman racer, took off. Thepack did not react and it took a while before the leader of the racestarted the chase (with no teammates). The pace picked up on thebackside before the hill; we were single-lined as suddenly a nastycrash occurred from the front of the pack. 2 guys were entangled onthe pavement and another 3 or 4 had to stop for mechanical issues.
As we got to the foot of the last hill, it was the usual mess ofeveryone trying to get positioned. The firework was initiated. As wetook that right turn 2 guys just in front of me went down for no otherreason than being hypoxic and brain dead. I blocked my rear wheel andthe guy behind me leaned on it but we both managed to stay upright.As the pace steadily accelerated a group of 30 guys, then 20 stayedtogether. In the last km several guys attacked and I could see Lylevery well positioned. I was happy my screaming legs could take me tothe line without too much damage and finished 19th about 15s behindthe leader of the group. From the breakaway, only the Whitman guysurvived with a 30s gap, which earned him 1st place on the GC. AsScott mentioned, Lyle had a great race and finished 6th! Greg and Jayfinished a bit later.
What a fun but draining weekend! There are surely good riders on theeastern part of the state! As Greg reported, it would have been niceto have a better start and loosing Steve was disappointing. But we didnot come back empty handed: tires, KOM and sprint prime, top 10finish. Very promising. I cannot wait for Vance creek on sunday!
Olivier
Friday, April 17, 2009
Walla Walla Cat 3 Stage 1 2009 Race Report
We had 6 riders at Walla Walla. Jay, Ben Olivier, Steve, Lyle and myself. There was a field of 105 riders probably fewer than 1/2 from western Washington. There were teams from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Canada, Spokane and the tri-cities etc.
The first race was a little hectic at the start. The line at registration was long we didn’t get there early enough. The first I saw of most of the team was lining up for the race. Lyle was getting his numbers pinned on while the referee was giving her spiel. But the race started we were there. The 65 mile race had three climbs on each of 2 laps ( 700 ft over 7 miles, 400 ft over 3mi and 600 ft over 3 miles) and between the hills there was head wind. It took a while to realize we were on the first climb. It wasn’t that it was easy because it was starting to get very uncomfortable. But it was hard to recognize it as a hill since we were doing about >20mph. By the top I was way over threshold. This was the beginning of the end for me. The next 15 minutes was a succession of more climbing, chase into a strong headwind, serge hard to stay on wheel. POP.
So there I was alone in a headwind with 45 mile to the finish and only another 3000 feet of elevation gain in front of me. It was going to be hard to conserve for the next 2 days of racing.
Soon Steve caught me and we rode together. Steve said he was feeling bad. He took a neutral Bud Light feed in the feed zone and downed part of a beer. It seemed to give him a bit more go. Pete Banko caught and passed us say something like lets loose those suckers. It took Steve and I working together another 3 mile for us to catch Pete. The three of us rode for a long time. Eventually we started reeling people in we passed some, some stuck with us. We lost Steve. We passed Jay; He couldn’t hang on. The Banko express was going full steam. We finished with a group of about 15-20 in 60th place, 7 minutes behind the lead group of 38 riders.
It was a really hard humbling day. Olivier and Ben had stayed with the lead group. Lyle was 2:00 back he wasn’t feeling well either. Steve felt so bad he left after the first day.
-Greg
The first race was a little hectic at the start. The line at registration was long we didn’t get there early enough. The first I saw of most of the team was lining up for the race. Lyle was getting his numbers pinned on while the referee was giving her spiel. But the race started we were there. The 65 mile race had three climbs on each of 2 laps ( 700 ft over 7 miles, 400 ft over 3mi and 600 ft over 3 miles) and between the hills there was head wind. It took a while to realize we were on the first climb. It wasn’t that it was easy because it was starting to get very uncomfortable. But it was hard to recognize it as a hill since we were doing about >20mph. By the top I was way over threshold. This was the beginning of the end for me. The next 15 minutes was a succession of more climbing, chase into a strong headwind, serge hard to stay on wheel. POP.
So there I was alone in a headwind with 45 mile to the finish and only another 3000 feet of elevation gain in front of me. It was going to be hard to conserve for the next 2 days of racing.
Soon Steve caught me and we rode together. Steve said he was feeling bad. He took a neutral Bud Light feed in the feed zone and downed part of a beer. It seemed to give him a bit more go. Pete Banko caught and passed us say something like lets loose those suckers. It took Steve and I working together another 3 mile for us to catch Pete. The three of us rode for a long time. Eventually we started reeling people in we passed some, some stuck with us. We lost Steve. We passed Jay; He couldn’t hang on. The Banko express was going full steam. We finished with a group of about 15-20 in 60th place, 7 minutes behind the lead group of 38 riders.
It was a really hard humbling day. Olivier and Ben had stayed with the lead group. Lyle was 2:00 back he wasn’t feeling well either. Steve felt so bad he left after the first day.
-Greg
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Volunteer Park Cat 3 Race Report
Someone sent me a link to pics from the cat 3 race at Volunteer Park. There are tons of pictures here, maybe too many to wade through ...but if you were in that race, it's probable there are at least a couple of pictures of you: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gravitysalad/sets/72157616673792496/
The race itself was pretty good. Reports were that the avg speed was 26.3, so pretty fast. We had about 8 guys in the race and pretty much everyone contributed one way or another. Olivier was very active in the first part of the race, going in breaks and also taking a prime. Greg was busy at the front as usual. He had the power and poor judgment to take a prime for an ugly maroon colored t-shirt. He opted to skip the $100 prime because, you know, "mo' money, mo' problems". Ben however got in a break and beat out a Rad Racing guy for a $50 prime. He probably did that kid a favor as he would have likely just wasted the winnings on video games. Ben, being older and wiser, knows it is money best spent on drugs and strippers. Lyle and Steve both took strong pulls up front too.
For my part, I tried to stay in the top 10-15 as much as possible, hoping to be useful. I did my best to take a couple of turns on the front to pull back breaks. Nothing stayed away very long so the race came down to a sprint. Lyle and I were both in decent, but not great, position going into the last lap. But Lyle got pinched out in the bottleneck by the water tower and was forced towards the back. Jay was at the front nailing it down the hill to string things out so we could move around. It was the right thing to do. I felt really great the entire race but I should have been about 4-5 spots closer to the front on the last lap. Trying to move up on the hill before the sprint I got caught in some traffic behind guys who were fading. I can't make excuses though, I should have been in front of them already. I got around those guys after a small delay and did my best in the sprint but had too much ground to make up and ended up about 13th. It's frustrating to feel so good and not suffer in a race and still end up with poor results... but all in all our team had a solid, active race. Fun, no matter how you slice it.
Good luck to those of you racing Walla Walla this weekend. Scott
The race itself was pretty good. Reports were that the avg speed was 26.3, so pretty fast. We had about 8 guys in the race and pretty much everyone contributed one way or another. Olivier was very active in the first part of the race, going in breaks and also taking a prime. Greg was busy at the front as usual. He had the power and poor judgment to take a prime for an ugly maroon colored t-shirt. He opted to skip the $100 prime because, you know, "mo' money, mo' problems". Ben however got in a break and beat out a Rad Racing guy for a $50 prime. He probably did that kid a favor as he would have likely just wasted the winnings on video games. Ben, being older and wiser, knows it is money best spent on drugs and strippers. Lyle and Steve both took strong pulls up front too.
For my part, I tried to stay in the top 10-15 as much as possible, hoping to be useful. I did my best to take a couple of turns on the front to pull back breaks. Nothing stayed away very long so the race came down to a sprint. Lyle and I were both in decent, but not great, position going into the last lap. But Lyle got pinched out in the bottleneck by the water tower and was forced towards the back. Jay was at the front nailing it down the hill to string things out so we could move around. It was the right thing to do. I felt really great the entire race but I should have been about 4-5 spots closer to the front on the last lap. Trying to move up on the hill before the sprint I got caught in some traffic behind guys who were fading. I can't make excuses though, I should have been in front of them already. I got around those guys after a small delay and did my best in the sprint but had too much ground to make up and ended up about 13th. It's frustrating to feel so good and not suffer in a race and still end up with poor results... but all in all our team had a solid, active race. Fun, no matter how you slice it.
Good luck to those of you racing Walla Walla this weekend. Scott
Monday, March 30, 2009
Solvang Double Century 2009 Race Report
I know double century rides don’t fall into the normal purview of ApexRacing but I do know a lot of you were interested in how the eventturned out this year. Here it goes.
The event is timed start-to-finish including all stops and off thebike time. It rolls 193 miles over about 5-6k feet of climbing and thepromoters provide 5 rest stops throughout where we can refill ourbottles and get food. This year, the ride started and ended at theBuellton Marriott.
We started at 7:30 from Buellton with Alex, Kenneth Philbrick, and JimFisher (last two are friends from Oregon). After riding with thenon-timed start the previous two editions, Alex joined us for a fasttrip this year. It is a mass start of about 60 riders but the kind ofgroup riding that follows is pretty incoherent. The average groupbike handling skills on the ride are somewhere just above Cascade BikeClub and below Cat 5. It was great having Alex in the mix as anexperienced racer to smooth things out. A few tandems are mixed inthere and a whole bunch of people just hoping to suck wheel the wholeday also ride. The rest stops have the effect of breaking up thegroups into smaller chunks based on how fast you can get through them.
There is lots of great riding and scenery but I’ll stick to thehighlights with only a minor indulgence at the end. Leaving the secondrest stop (mile 87) we found ourselves with a slight gap to a coupleof other fast riders we had previously been riding with. We didn’tthink much of it and entered San Luis Obispo where we encountered thecurse of the stoplight. We hit every red light through town both ways.It was a little ridiculous. This amounted to anything from 3-5 minutesof time. It’s hard to say. Anyway, the guys off the front disappeared.In the meantime, the four of us did some nice riding. Everyone didtheir share of work with Big Ring pulling through strong, Fish makingus cry on the climbs and Philbrick hammering it anytime he was closeto the front.
At mile 110, Alex decided he’d better ease up so he could enjoy therest of his day. We were sorry to lose another engine, but Fish got tofront and took a monster pull. Alex spent the rest of the ridefreelancing from group to group and finished in 9hrs 20 minutes - asmoking time. He was also trading pulls with a tandem for a couple ofhours.
Rolling into the fourth rest stop, we caught sight of the leadersagain (three guys) just pulling out of the stop. This translates to afew minutes. The three of us restocked quickly and hit the roadlooking forward to massive tailwinds. The winds didn’t blow quite sohard this year but we still got a decent cruise in the upper 20s to30mph on the roads from Guadalupe to Santa Maria. Somewhere after thisstretch, we all got really tired. It was becoming increasingly toughto generate the power we needed to on the flats. For those of you atcamp, remember back to our Monday ride. This stretch was on Hwy 1 toHwy 135 to San Antonio Rd to Los Alamos. We didn’t have the punishingcross winds like we did for that ride but the tail winds weren’treally happening either. Good thing it was flat. On Hwy 1, bothKenneth and I offered to take a last strong pull or two for the threeof us so that the strongest guys could take off in pursuit of sologlory. That would have been fine except that we all wanted to by theguy offering up the last pull to launch the others. Hmm. Sounds likea tired bunch.
It seemed to take ages to get to the small hamlet of Los Alamos andthe last rest stop. We were all looking forward to a cold Coke to takeus over the top of Drum Canyon and back into Buellton. Coming intotown, we had our heads up the road scanning for the rest stop. Notonly did we see the stop, but we also saw the three leaders justslipping their bottles into their cages getting ready to roll.Kenneth immediately stood up on his pedals and jammed a few times onthe cranks. Instinctively, I followed. We looked at each other andhe said “It’s the only way.” Yeah. It was. There goes the Coke andthe refill of cold water I was looking forward to. Jim made a smartmove and made a quick stop.
It turns out we caught two of the guys off guard so for a littlewhile, Kenneth, myself, and Adam (a strong rider recently graduatedwith a master’s from UCSD) were rolling at the front. On the flanksof the climb I started to get him talking trying to slow him down. Itdidn’t really work. Kenneth drifted back as the climb kicked thefirst time. I stayed with the UCSD guy for a bit until he started togain ground on a few of the steep pitches. From that side, DrumCanyon is around a 3-mile, 800 foot climb averaging 6-7%. The gradegoes up at points to 10% or more. I had miniscule amounts of glycogenleft and could only do so much. I also had less than an inch of fluidin each of my bottles for the climb. It was now 80F and sunny. I wasmissing my Coke and rationing what little water was left to keep mymouth wet. Surprisingly, I also felt like I was riding in low zone 3.My heart rate monitor agreed. Adam crested the climb perhaps 20seconds or so in front of me. Looking back, I couldn’t see Kenneth oranyone else.
Now I had the descent to tackle. This is not an ordinary descent. Ifit were paved, it would be labeled as technical but as it mostly aseries of pavement patches, I’d describe it as teeth-shattering andbone-jarring. I knew I had to descend fast. Racing against yournumber one limiter is always an experience. Doing it exhausted andout of gas adds another level. While I didn’t gain any time, I lostat most a handful of seconds by the time we got off the descent. Alimited success.
It was now time for the canyon run out to the highway and the turntowards Buellton. I had noticed Adam was a bigger guy than me bymaybe 10 lbs. He also had 404 clincher wheels and some aerobars. I’dhave my work cut out for me to catch him on the 1-2% downhill run outto the highway. I kept looking over my shoulder hoping to see Kennethand Jim so we could motor in together and catch this guy. My plan,should I catch him alone, was to just sit on his wheel, make him dothe work, and allow Kenneth and Jim to come up to us. On one of myover-the-shoulder glances, I saw a guy in redish kit (not a friendly).About this time, I realized I’d probably have to finish on my own. Isaw Adam up the road gaining a little more time despite my efforts.
Reaching Hwy 246, the fan base showed up. This consisted of Jim’swife Heather and teammate Pete who had joined us for the week ofriding. Someone took a picture of me here. I’m very curious to seethe contorted look on my face. I asked for a time check to Kennethwhich I got a little later. It was upwards of 1 minute 45 seconds.It would definitely be a solo finish now. For the turn onto thehighway I was hoping for no traffic so I could roll the stop sign. Istill had to slow down some and the reacceleration that I coaxed outof my legs was accompanied by a painful yell. I think I discoveredwhat happens when you use lactic acid to contract your leg muscles(btw I know the physiology on this is all wrong).
There was one more little rise to get over and then a nice descentfollowed by about 5 miles of roll out into town. For the last fewmiles, I had nothing left. No more glycogen. No more water. I had alittle gel but no way or time to digest it. So, I focused on what Idid have (tip of the hat to indoor winter training sessions). Pedalstroke – even it out. Position – reach forward, get the back flat andrelax the hands. Tighten the core and pull the shoulders back.Breath. It worked so well that I succeeded in getting a little morepower and then seeing amorphous black blobs in my vision. I hadn’tremembered that as part of the scenery. Breath. Blink the eyes. Keeppedaling. Ok. That’s better.
In the end, I couldn’t close the gap but did hold off the other guysbehind. The organizers time to the minute, but the separation betweenme and first place was about 30 seconds. My time was 8hrs 50 minutesfor the ride which was 14 minutes faster than last year. Kenneth andJim came in together 2 minutes after me. In total, we had about 12-13minutes off the bike including all the stoplights. It definitelywould have been nice to have hit a few green ones. That could havebeen all the difference. Or it could have been the 400 miles ofriding in the previous week. Without it though, it wouldn’t betraining camp. Back for more next year.
http://www.planetultra.com/solvang/Results/2009results.htm
-Ben
The event is timed start-to-finish including all stops and off thebike time. It rolls 193 miles over about 5-6k feet of climbing and thepromoters provide 5 rest stops throughout where we can refill ourbottles and get food. This year, the ride started and ended at theBuellton Marriott.
We started at 7:30 from Buellton with Alex, Kenneth Philbrick, and JimFisher (last two are friends from Oregon). After riding with thenon-timed start the previous two editions, Alex joined us for a fasttrip this year. It is a mass start of about 60 riders but the kind ofgroup riding that follows is pretty incoherent. The average groupbike handling skills on the ride are somewhere just above Cascade BikeClub and below Cat 5. It was great having Alex in the mix as anexperienced racer to smooth things out. A few tandems are mixed inthere and a whole bunch of people just hoping to suck wheel the wholeday also ride. The rest stops have the effect of breaking up thegroups into smaller chunks based on how fast you can get through them.
There is lots of great riding and scenery but I’ll stick to thehighlights with only a minor indulgence at the end. Leaving the secondrest stop (mile 87) we found ourselves with a slight gap to a coupleof other fast riders we had previously been riding with. We didn’tthink much of it and entered San Luis Obispo where we encountered thecurse of the stoplight. We hit every red light through town both ways.It was a little ridiculous. This amounted to anything from 3-5 minutesof time. It’s hard to say. Anyway, the guys off the front disappeared.In the meantime, the four of us did some nice riding. Everyone didtheir share of work with Big Ring pulling through strong, Fish makingus cry on the climbs and Philbrick hammering it anytime he was closeto the front.
At mile 110, Alex decided he’d better ease up so he could enjoy therest of his day. We were sorry to lose another engine, but Fish got tofront and took a monster pull. Alex spent the rest of the ridefreelancing from group to group and finished in 9hrs 20 minutes - asmoking time. He was also trading pulls with a tandem for a couple ofhours.
Rolling into the fourth rest stop, we caught sight of the leadersagain (three guys) just pulling out of the stop. This translates to afew minutes. The three of us restocked quickly and hit the roadlooking forward to massive tailwinds. The winds didn’t blow quite sohard this year but we still got a decent cruise in the upper 20s to30mph on the roads from Guadalupe to Santa Maria. Somewhere after thisstretch, we all got really tired. It was becoming increasingly toughto generate the power we needed to on the flats. For those of you atcamp, remember back to our Monday ride. This stretch was on Hwy 1 toHwy 135 to San Antonio Rd to Los Alamos. We didn’t have the punishingcross winds like we did for that ride but the tail winds weren’treally happening either. Good thing it was flat. On Hwy 1, bothKenneth and I offered to take a last strong pull or two for the threeof us so that the strongest guys could take off in pursuit of sologlory. That would have been fine except that we all wanted to by theguy offering up the last pull to launch the others. Hmm. Sounds likea tired bunch.
It seemed to take ages to get to the small hamlet of Los Alamos andthe last rest stop. We were all looking forward to a cold Coke to takeus over the top of Drum Canyon and back into Buellton. Coming intotown, we had our heads up the road scanning for the rest stop. Notonly did we see the stop, but we also saw the three leaders justslipping their bottles into their cages getting ready to roll.Kenneth immediately stood up on his pedals and jammed a few times onthe cranks. Instinctively, I followed. We looked at each other andhe said “It’s the only way.” Yeah. It was. There goes the Coke andthe refill of cold water I was looking forward to. Jim made a smartmove and made a quick stop.
It turns out we caught two of the guys off guard so for a littlewhile, Kenneth, myself, and Adam (a strong rider recently graduatedwith a master’s from UCSD) were rolling at the front. On the flanksof the climb I started to get him talking trying to slow him down. Itdidn’t really work. Kenneth drifted back as the climb kicked thefirst time. I stayed with the UCSD guy for a bit until he started togain ground on a few of the steep pitches. From that side, DrumCanyon is around a 3-mile, 800 foot climb averaging 6-7%. The gradegoes up at points to 10% or more. I had miniscule amounts of glycogenleft and could only do so much. I also had less than an inch of fluidin each of my bottles for the climb. It was now 80F and sunny. I wasmissing my Coke and rationing what little water was left to keep mymouth wet. Surprisingly, I also felt like I was riding in low zone 3.My heart rate monitor agreed. Adam crested the climb perhaps 20seconds or so in front of me. Looking back, I couldn’t see Kenneth oranyone else.
Now I had the descent to tackle. This is not an ordinary descent. Ifit were paved, it would be labeled as technical but as it mostly aseries of pavement patches, I’d describe it as teeth-shattering andbone-jarring. I knew I had to descend fast. Racing against yournumber one limiter is always an experience. Doing it exhausted andout of gas adds another level. While I didn’t gain any time, I lostat most a handful of seconds by the time we got off the descent. Alimited success.
It was now time for the canyon run out to the highway and the turntowards Buellton. I had noticed Adam was a bigger guy than me bymaybe 10 lbs. He also had 404 clincher wheels and some aerobars. I’dhave my work cut out for me to catch him on the 1-2% downhill run outto the highway. I kept looking over my shoulder hoping to see Kennethand Jim so we could motor in together and catch this guy. My plan,should I catch him alone, was to just sit on his wheel, make him dothe work, and allow Kenneth and Jim to come up to us. On one of myover-the-shoulder glances, I saw a guy in redish kit (not a friendly).About this time, I realized I’d probably have to finish on my own. Isaw Adam up the road gaining a little more time despite my efforts.
Reaching Hwy 246, the fan base showed up. This consisted of Jim’swife Heather and teammate Pete who had joined us for the week ofriding. Someone took a picture of me here. I’m very curious to seethe contorted look on my face. I asked for a time check to Kennethwhich I got a little later. It was upwards of 1 minute 45 seconds.It would definitely be a solo finish now. For the turn onto thehighway I was hoping for no traffic so I could roll the stop sign. Istill had to slow down some and the reacceleration that I coaxed outof my legs was accompanied by a painful yell. I think I discoveredwhat happens when you use lactic acid to contract your leg muscles(btw I know the physiology on this is all wrong).
There was one more little rise to get over and then a nice descentfollowed by about 5 miles of roll out into town. For the last fewmiles, I had nothing left. No more glycogen. No more water. I had alittle gel but no way or time to digest it. So, I focused on what Idid have (tip of the hat to indoor winter training sessions). Pedalstroke – even it out. Position – reach forward, get the back flat andrelax the hands. Tighten the core and pull the shoulders back.Breath. It worked so well that I succeeded in getting a little morepower and then seeing amorphous black blobs in my vision. I hadn’tremembered that as part of the scenery. Breath. Blink the eyes. Keeppedaling. Ok. That’s better.
In the end, I couldn’t close the gap but did hold off the other guysbehind. The organizers time to the minute, but the separation betweenme and first place was about 30 seconds. My time was 8hrs 50 minutesfor the ride which was 14 minutes faster than last year. Kenneth andJim came in together 2 minutes after me. In total, we had about 12-13minutes off the bike including all the stoplights. It definitelywould have been nice to have hit a few green ones. That could havebeen all the difference. Or it could have been the 400 miles ofriding in the previous week. Without it though, it wouldn’t betraining camp. Back for more next year.
http://www.planetultra.com/solvang/Results/2009results.htm
-Ben
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Indepdence Valley C/D 2009 Race Report
The Masters C/D race was 2 laps, 39+/-miles, with 58 riders starting. Frankly, the weather was totally crapo; rain, wind, sleet, snow, upper 30s/low 40s. Coming out of the neutral start, I knew that the first hill would be coming right up, so I worked my way up, as to not get caught behind the masses, should somebody decide to fire it up from the start, which is what happened; one rider broke off, the pack content not to chase, as we knew it would be a long, punishing haul for anybody flying solo off the front. According to a friend of mine who races for Second Ascent, the fist hill was the end of the game for many, himself included. Going into the flatter section after climb one, a couple riders took off. One rider got cooked and was absorbed by the field. The other ultimately bridged the guy off the front; the two were never caught. Impressive! Heading towards climb two, lap one, I jockeyed my way to the front, knowing that we would be hitting it hard again. The field was likely thinned here again, but I couldn’t tell as my focus was forward. It was at this point that I was able to get with a group of guys to establish an organized paceline. FINALLY! We were working hard and making ground on the two off the front, but alas, there were those who were more content sucking wheel and not pulling through with the consistency of the rest.
Heading into lap 2, I knew that if anything was going to happen, it would be on the climbs, so I maintained position near the front, trying to conserve energy, being smart. As we started climb one, that pace increased and I found myself making the selection as the field split in two. A friend of mine from the Rocket Ride got dropped here. I was bummed, as I knew that he and I would work together coming into the finish. Now the group was down to around 15. The pace slowed after the climb, as we were all trying to quickly recover from the match that we all just lit. It was groupo compacto all the way to climb two. As expected, the climb was intense, and several attacks came, with nobody dancing away. At this point, I could feel my body cramping, due to the cold and wet; (There was snow along the roadside!) my jaw was nearly inoperable, my legs and my torso were on two different planets and my legs were cramping. I did my best to pedal smoothly, and stretch my legs to avoid further seizure.
Coming into the last couple miles, a few unsuccessful attacks went. I hung in there and worked my way to the front, knowing that the intensity was going to get greater. Knowing that my legs were not likely going to be my friend in a sprint, I positioned myself in front toward the center line, as to control the speed to a level my body could take and to block any would be attackers. This lasted for a little while and I was able to reserve some juice, but the attack came. I jumped, but my legs started to seize as the pack came around. At this point, it felt like I was pedaling squares. Somehow, I was able to hang on and get back in the mix going into the final 200 meters. Surprisingly, I was able to move up a few notches in the sprint, netting 8th place. Only 27 riders finished.
Following the race, we had to roll back 2.5 miles to the starting point, where I was delighted to have a set of dry, warm clothes and some food. LUXURY!
~Travis
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Mason Lake #3 Cat 3 Race Report
Well, I think there is some rule or divine intervention out there which always makes you race Mason Lake as your first race of the season. I tried to get around it this year but it kept coming back. Steve, Olivier, and I showed up to the course to find sunny skies and temperatures climbing into the low 50s. We got rock star parking but then found out the guy next to us had just broken his collarbone in the Cat 4 race (poor IJM guy). He was walking around the car with one shoulder obviously a few inches lower than the other. He was totally dazed. The best (and worst) part was one of his teammates who was way too excited at the opportunity to use the shoulder splint from his first-aid kit. Apparently, it was exciting that he got to use it (after having to read the instructions). I think the broken collarbone guy just wanted to the f- out of there and to the hospital. Being good and superstitious racers, the three of us all tried to ignore the goings-on next to us. Things got better when they left and Don showed up. On to the race. 5 laps in all. Some wind on the front stretch. We raced well and were in all the moves of any significance for the first 3.5 laps. In fact, Apex was one of the main aggressors in the race. It was great to finally get to stretch the legs for the first time this year. SteveO did excellent in his first race as a 3. He was off the front in a few groups a couple of times. It Olivier and I each had solo moves into the wind for while but no one came up to work with us. Cucina proceeded to chase down every break that they had a rider in. For the breaks without Cucina riders, I think they let those go. At 3.5 laps just before the fire station, First Rate setup a move from about 10 riders back in the field. I read it and followed them off the front. The one guy let go a massive acceleration. It was huge. I was ready and jumped but never got to his wheel. I was just a little too tired at this point. As it turns out, this is the move that stuck. He soloed in for the next 1.5 laps. Very impressive effort. First Rate had something like 8 guys in the race - by far the largest and strongest team. Carter had 3. IJM had a few. First Rate played their cards well and got a deserved win. They guy was strong and I think was well rested. We needed a few more Apex kits out there to really match their numbers. Regardless, it was well played and a good race up to that point. After that, First Rate blocked and many guys were too tired to work so the pace bogged down and the back stretch sucked. With a full week of riding ahead of me, I sat up before the sprint but it was f-ed up just like the Mstr's C/Ds. So, no places for Apex. That's coming. -Ben
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Sequim Master A/B 2009 Race Report
To add to Ben's report. I thought when the races were delayed that I wanted to stay and race. But Tonia informed me I wanted to go for a hike out on the spit, So Theo Tonia and I went out on the spit for couple hours. We came back and found the roads dry and people racing. Tonia was OK with me doing the 2:00 masters race, a non-shortened 4 laps 48 miles.
There were about 40 starters including Bob Wade, Tony Ogden we had ridden with once on our team ride. I knew these guys were strong. Pete was in there that was almost like having a teammate. But it was hard to find a strong team. Byrnes had 3 and second assent had a few.
At the end of the first lap as already getting anxious. I rolled off the front and caught someone dangling off the front we had a group of 3. But if was clear it wasn't going to work and we were soon caught by Tony. Later in the second lap just as we turned onto the long 5 mile straight road I saw Tony and Bob both accelerate after something. I followed, but when they eased I cruised by thinking maybe they'd get on my wheel. Instead a Second Ascent rider, Greg Carter, followed me. We soon bridged up to a pair that were off the front. We worked good together and built our lead to 20 to 30 seconds.
After staying away for a lap we lost one of our riders, a Cucina guy. But it was about this time we started to hear splits of 1:10 and 1:25. I guess the pack had given in.
On the last lap, I knew one guy was week, Bryce. He had gotten gapped on a riser on lap 3. The other guy Greg I wasn't sure about he was always steady but he took the shortest pulls he could get away with. Was he just recovering to beat me in the sprint, knowing that I would do more than my share of work until then? Or was he on the edge?
On the little climb before turning onto the long straight 5mi lead into the finish. I saw Bryce letting a gap open I rolled around strongly, not letting the pressure off. I thought we could shed Bryce here. I had thought about attacking them both here. But instead I thought I'll figure out what to do with Greg later. I didn't want Bryce to catch back on so I kept the pace up around the corner onto the 5 mi stretch. Looking back Greg wasn't on my wheel.
I went into TT mode thinking if he was chasing me he would be in the wind too. When I looked back I was completely clear. I put my head down and TT'd the last 5 miles to the finish.
I had put at least 1 minute on my breakaway partners in that last 5 miles and finished at least 2minutes up on the pack.
My first mass start win.
Greg
There were about 40 starters including Bob Wade, Tony Ogden we had ridden with once on our team ride. I knew these guys were strong. Pete was in there that was almost like having a teammate. But it was hard to find a strong team. Byrnes had 3 and second assent had a few.
At the end of the first lap as already getting anxious. I rolled off the front and caught someone dangling off the front we had a group of 3. But if was clear it wasn't going to work and we were soon caught by Tony. Later in the second lap just as we turned onto the long 5 mile straight road I saw Tony and Bob both accelerate after something. I followed, but when they eased I cruised by thinking maybe they'd get on my wheel. Instead a Second Ascent rider, Greg Carter, followed me. We soon bridged up to a pair that were off the front. We worked good together and built our lead to 20 to 30 seconds.
After staying away for a lap we lost one of our riders, a Cucina guy. But it was about this time we started to hear splits of 1:10 and 1:25. I guess the pack had given in.
On the last lap, I knew one guy was week, Bryce. He had gotten gapped on a riser on lap 3. The other guy Greg I wasn't sure about he was always steady but he took the shortest pulls he could get away with. Was he just recovering to beat me in the sprint, knowing that I would do more than my share of work until then? Or was he on the edge?
On the little climb before turning onto the long straight 5mi lead into the finish. I saw Bryce letting a gap open I rolled around strongly, not letting the pressure off. I thought we could shed Bryce here. I had thought about attacking them both here. But instead I thought I'll figure out what to do with Greg later. I didn't want Bryce to catch back on so I kept the pace up around the corner onto the 5 mi stretch. Looking back Greg wasn't on my wheel.
I went into TT mode thinking if he was chasing me he would be in the wind too. When I looked back I was completely clear. I put my head down and TT'd the last 5 miles to the finish.
I had put at least 1 minute on my breakaway partners in that last 5 miles and finished at least 2minutes up on the pack.
My first mass start win.
Greg
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