This post is going to be super short because it was such a painful race on Saturday. I could let the negativity drag on and on and name some people some dirty names, but in the end it was entirely my doing and simply bike racing.
Yadda Yadda Mount Tabor, won a massage prime didn't have the brains for the final sprint.
Franz Bakery Crit - Broke Away about 5 laps in and rode with my last year's Franz Bakery arch nemesis from Bikesale. Crashed on the final corner after a pedalstrike. Field passed me as I ran my bike across the finish line. Bike is ok, got some wounds, still won $45, but it hurts mentally more than anything.
Pringle Creek - almost crashed after a pedalstrike on the other side and had very poor sprint tactics.
Bought the following book (if you have an ad-blocker you may not see the following):
Monday, June 27, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
On the Verge
This past week, I have felt like I'm nearly at the point where I feel like I know enough about what I'm doing in a bike race that if I play it all right, I can win. And this week's update has enough material for being on par with the year's longest stage race for me (plus two weekly races as well!).
Tuesday at PIR
I made it out to PIR, and all was kinda normal until after the 2nd hot spot. I was still struggling to position with the main field, but followed some wheels to stay up front and before we knew it, there was about a 9-man breakaway. I didn't think it would last long since it was PIR, but held on nonetheless. The pace was brutal and we eventually shed it down to 6 riders. I was saving it all up for the final sprint so didn't contest for any hot spots. When the final lap came around there was a bit of cat and mouse. The winner made an epic jump at the overhead walkway (maybe 500 meters out). The rest started going hard on the left, so I latched on after being on the right side and made a good enough sprint at the end for 2nd place in that sprint, but 4th overall due to the hot spots. I was very satisfied since I had excellent timing on my jump for 2nd.
Here's two sprint photos: at about 50m and just after.
Wednesday at Tabor
Tabor was a different story. It was my first time doing the course and I was really trying to figure out where to hit the gas pedal. Should I try to break away? Should I hit it at the bottom of the hill or maybe the 2nd-to-last wind? I couldn't quite figure it out and got close, but never got a prime and was altogether dropped on the last climb. Inside I was kind of laughing at myself thinking that my tactics are so off that it's kind of funny.
Thursday
Today was kind of a prep day for Elkhorn. I did my ride a bit later in the evening and then decided that not only would I pack everything the night before, but I would also clean my room since I couldn't find everything anyways. So I ended up getting to bed at 2am, but with a clean room I am really on a roll towards being more organized.
Elkhorn Stage 1
Now before one even does the Elkhorn Stage Race, one has to actually make arrangements to get there. Sure I could just zipcar it and then book my own hotel room, but if I did that every race I'd be broke. Furthermore, I get to meet some interesting characters to pass the time on the 300+ mile journey to Baker City.
I scored a ride with a masters racer and woke up at 5am to get ready to catch my ride at 6am. I somewhat slept in the car all the way until about where I-84 leaves the Columbia. Then I drove the rest of the way. The scenery was gorgeous.
The first stage was a 75 miler with a good climb in the middle followed by what appeared to be some easier hills. A break made a jump at 7 miles in. I did some fake attacks and just dangled myself off the front a few times but then gotscolded advised by Ted from Audi that I should just chill out and wait until the climb like the climber I was. I considered this for a moment. Was I really a climber, could I hang with the climbers? I had also considered what Erik from Recycled was able to pull off on day 3 of Mt Hood. This was the guy who broke away with me on day 1 and then exploded on the climb. However, he hung right up there with the climbers on the final day and he wasn't all that lighter than me. Furthermore, after last week's performance of dropping riders after hills, I did wonder if I could in fact hang with the climbers.
So I just sat in and made it over the top with the climbing field. The hill wasn't drastically steep and my heart rate was only just above my threshold, which come to think of it - I don't really know what my threshold hr is. Anyways, we had dropped most of the field and then we didn't really work much after this. I'm used to breaking away and trying maintain breaks so I was getting a bit flustered with how slow these climbers were going after the climb and descent was over. Nonetheless, I still sat in knowing that there were some kind of hills remaining before the finish. The last set of hills were sort of a mirage - it always appeared that whatever hill we were going up was going to be the last, but this continued for like 10-15 miles. Again, I stuck with the lead group.
The finish was perfect for me and I should have won it. It was slightly downhill and after all the previous climbs, I was one of the more powerful guys left. The finish line was visible for a while, but still far away. I picked the wheel that got 2nd place, but if I had been where that guy was I would've won the sprint. Instead I got 3rd. My mistake was not having enough perception of where the finish line was.
After this, we all rode back to town. I had arranged to share a hotel room with none other than OBRA-celebrity Jake Hansen. At the time of writing this blog post, he is on the front page of the OBRA website and the Oregon Cup leader:
Jake is quite possibly the sweetest racer I've yet to meet despite his intimidating race record. He says he's a part-time caretaker, part-time youth worker and of course part-time bike racer. He's featured often over at this blog about his team Word-RCB.
Saturday
As usual I wasn't looking forward to getting my ass whooped in the time trial, but gave it a go anyways. I did better than normal finishing 17th. In this race in particular I was noticing that my heart rate was nowhere close to the heart rate I observed climbing up the hills yesterday for the duration of the TT. I think I've got to work on truly trying to kill myself to get a better time.
The crit was really successful for me. The previous three races were cancelled due to rain on the abnormally slippery course, but it was dry enough for the 3s to race. Since I hadn't a clue yesterday where the finish line was, I warmed up on the course and practiced sprinting for the line from a few different places to gauge how I felt. This helped me a lot. I knew exactly where in the field I wanted to be coming up on these primes. For two primes I was in that sweet spot and then busted out two awesome sprints that earned me $50 and a $10 gift certificate to an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. I was more stoked about the breakfast buffet prize. The second prime was with 3 laps to go and a dangerous move by 3rd in GC went off the prime sprint. I was really gassed and could not chase that. The field did and barely caught it. In the final sprint we were going really fast to begin with and I couldn't pull out a better result than 6th.
After the race, Jake cooked up some mean spaghetti and pasta. It was well needed and both of us jammed it down because tomorrow we'd need it.
Dooley Mountain
Today's race was something to be intimidated about. 102 miles with a 8 mile hilltop finish. And with the way Baker City was surrounded by snowy mountains, it seemed as though it would make for a good challenge. Jake and I biked over to Sumpter Junction to redeem our prime gift certificates for an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. We ate with a bunch of people from the Ironclad team which were the only other bike racers there, surprisingly.
At the race, the entire team of Bob's bikes broke away at about 6 miles into the race. The rest of the field concluded that that move was ridiculous and proceeded to ride at paces that got my heart rate down into zone 1. We would push it up the hills, but by the time we hit mile 45, our support car said the break had 10 minutes on us! At this point, only a few people were trying to chase and basically Vergari set the pace nearly all the way to the final climb. On the way there, I tried a number of futile breakaway attempts and it was just laughable each time I went. I don't know if I ever became a rabbit for the peleton to chase, but it seemed kind of ridiculous in hindsight.
As we neared the climb, my rear wheel really started acting up. I knew it was slightly untrue so was sort of ignoring other people advising me that my wheel was messed up - something always seems to be a bit wrong with my bike, so it's cool I thought. Just before the climb I was fumbling around trying to feed myself and got dropped and then my rear wheel really became a problem. I couldn't tell what was wrong. It seemed like I had broken a spoke, but there wasn't any broken-spoke clanging around on the wheel. Eventually I got off the bike, adjusted the rear brake to the maximum gap and the wheel was still rubbing both sides! Finally, I was able to bring myself to request another wheel from the masters field that was passing me and that helped, but at a point that was too late in time. Once I got back to Baker City I identified the problem:
Well, that damned wheel cost me the race and my GC position of 8th went down into the 20s. I really wanted to see what I could've done on that final climb. And after that drama, I'm kind of in a limbo on the verge of upgrading to Cat 2. I'm wondering if I've got what it takes to compete directly with pros. However, I'm also wondering that if I don't keep challenging myself that I may not learn as quickly as I want.
Getting Home
After this, the final process of getting home begun. I had biked back to Baker City with Jake and another guy (this was another 18 miles of riding after the 102). I went straight to Safeway and loaded up on some rich chocolate milk, perrier, two bowls of deli pasta, but then realized my wallet was back in my jeans in my suitcase.
I biked back to the high school where everyone was packing up. My ride wasn't headed back for a while, so I decided to take a shower while I could. I was hungry and wanting to go back to Safeway as soon as possible. Once we got all our stuff jammed into the car, we drove over to Safeway, but this time the Baker City Safeway was SLAMMED with customers. There were at least 12 people including 5 of us bike racers. They could barely handle the crowd and I was growing impatient nearly yanking my chocolate milk back out of the checkout line as each clerk had to not only check out the items of each people, but also catch up on the daily lives of the locals in line. When my credit card finally processed I grabbed the chocolate milk and started chugging it right beside the checkout stand. aaaaahhh. But I didn't chug the whole thing at once - gotta pace myself.
After having satisfied my immediate hunger we got back on the road and begun to discuss our race stories. I felt a little bad about having such a focused desire on my chocolate milk that I was kind of ignoring the circumstances of my driving buddy. Turns out he had won his race and category! That was really cool, and I learned more about this guy - turns out he used to ride with David Millar over in Hong Kong before David went pro. We made excellent time and got back to Portland before 10pm!
Monday
On Monday, I worked as usual and then when I got home at about 7pm I was tired and took a little nap. However, I woke up at 1am and decided that I still needed more sleep and finally got up again at 7am.
And beyond...
Well, now that I've finished mygrand moderate tour of three stage races over three weekends plus weekly races I've got a rest week where I may race as many as 3 days. I'm looking forward to the Franz Bakery crit on Saturday. It's got an awesome corkscrew set of corners and gives $5 for the winner of each lap. Should be fun! And this time, there is no traveling required, the Franz crit is in Portland and then there's another race on Sunday that I may or may not do in Salem which is close enough.
Tuesday at PIR
I made it out to PIR, and all was kinda normal until after the 2nd hot spot. I was still struggling to position with the main field, but followed some wheels to stay up front and before we knew it, there was about a 9-man breakaway. I didn't think it would last long since it was PIR, but held on nonetheless. The pace was brutal and we eventually shed it down to 6 riders. I was saving it all up for the final sprint so didn't contest for any hot spots. When the final lap came around there was a bit of cat and mouse. The winner made an epic jump at the overhead walkway (maybe 500 meters out). The rest started going hard on the left, so I latched on after being on the right side and made a good enough sprint at the end for 2nd place in that sprint, but 4th overall due to the hot spots. I was very satisfied since I had excellent timing on my jump for 2nd.
Here's two sprint photos: at about 50m and just after.
Wednesday at Tabor
Tabor was a different story. It was my first time doing the course and I was really trying to figure out where to hit the gas pedal. Should I try to break away? Should I hit it at the bottom of the hill or maybe the 2nd-to-last wind? I couldn't quite figure it out and got close, but never got a prime and was altogether dropped on the last climb. Inside I was kind of laughing at myself thinking that my tactics are so off that it's kind of funny.
Thursday
Today was kind of a prep day for Elkhorn. I did my ride a bit later in the evening and then decided that not only would I pack everything the night before, but I would also clean my room since I couldn't find everything anyways. So I ended up getting to bed at 2am, but with a clean room I am really on a roll towards being more organized.
Elkhorn Stage 1
Now before one even does the Elkhorn Stage Race, one has to actually make arrangements to get there. Sure I could just zipcar it and then book my own hotel room, but if I did that every race I'd be broke. Furthermore, I get to meet some interesting characters to pass the time on the 300+ mile journey to Baker City.
I scored a ride with a masters racer and woke up at 5am to get ready to catch my ride at 6am. I somewhat slept in the car all the way until about where I-84 leaves the Columbia. Then I drove the rest of the way. The scenery was gorgeous.
The first stage was a 75 miler with a good climb in the middle followed by what appeared to be some easier hills. A break made a jump at 7 miles in. I did some fake attacks and just dangled myself off the front a few times but then got
So I just sat in and made it over the top with the climbing field. The hill wasn't drastically steep and my heart rate was only just above my threshold, which come to think of it - I don't really know what my threshold hr is. Anyways, we had dropped most of the field and then we didn't really work much after this. I'm used to breaking away and trying maintain breaks so I was getting a bit flustered with how slow these climbers were going after the climb and descent was over. Nonetheless, I still sat in knowing that there were some kind of hills remaining before the finish. The last set of hills were sort of a mirage - it always appeared that whatever hill we were going up was going to be the last, but this continued for like 10-15 miles. Again, I stuck with the lead group.
The finish was perfect for me and I should have won it. It was slightly downhill and after all the previous climbs, I was one of the more powerful guys left. The finish line was visible for a while, but still far away. I picked the wheel that got 2nd place, but if I had been where that guy was I would've won the sprint. Instead I got 3rd. My mistake was not having enough perception of where the finish line was.
After this, we all rode back to town. I had arranged to share a hotel room with none other than OBRA-celebrity Jake Hansen. At the time of writing this blog post, he is on the front page of the OBRA website and the Oregon Cup leader:
Jake is quite possibly the sweetest racer I've yet to meet despite his intimidating race record. He says he's a part-time caretaker, part-time youth worker and of course part-time bike racer. He's featured often over at this blog about his team Word-RCB.
Saturday
As usual I wasn't looking forward to getting my ass whooped in the time trial, but gave it a go anyways. I did better than normal finishing 17th. In this race in particular I was noticing that my heart rate was nowhere close to the heart rate I observed climbing up the hills yesterday for the duration of the TT. I think I've got to work on truly trying to kill myself to get a better time.
The crit was really successful for me. The previous three races were cancelled due to rain on the abnormally slippery course, but it was dry enough for the 3s to race. Since I hadn't a clue yesterday where the finish line was, I warmed up on the course and practiced sprinting for the line from a few different places to gauge how I felt. This helped me a lot. I knew exactly where in the field I wanted to be coming up on these primes. For two primes I was in that sweet spot and then busted out two awesome sprints that earned me $50 and a $10 gift certificate to an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. I was more stoked about the breakfast buffet prize. The second prime was with 3 laps to go and a dangerous move by 3rd in GC went off the prime sprint. I was really gassed and could not chase that. The field did and barely caught it. In the final sprint we were going really fast to begin with and I couldn't pull out a better result than 6th.
After the race, Jake cooked up some mean spaghetti and pasta. It was well needed and both of us jammed it down because tomorrow we'd need it.
Dooley Mountain
Today's race was something to be intimidated about. 102 miles with a 8 mile hilltop finish. And with the way Baker City was surrounded by snowy mountains, it seemed as though it would make for a good challenge. Jake and I biked over to Sumpter Junction to redeem our prime gift certificates for an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. We ate with a bunch of people from the Ironclad team which were the only other bike racers there, surprisingly.
At the race, the entire team of Bob's bikes broke away at about 6 miles into the race. The rest of the field concluded that that move was ridiculous and proceeded to ride at paces that got my heart rate down into zone 1. We would push it up the hills, but by the time we hit mile 45, our support car said the break had 10 minutes on us! At this point, only a few people were trying to chase and basically Vergari set the pace nearly all the way to the final climb. On the way there, I tried a number of futile breakaway attempts and it was just laughable each time I went. I don't know if I ever became a rabbit for the peleton to chase, but it seemed kind of ridiculous in hindsight.
As we neared the climb, my rear wheel really started acting up. I knew it was slightly untrue so was sort of ignoring other people advising me that my wheel was messed up - something always seems to be a bit wrong with my bike, so it's cool I thought. Just before the climb I was fumbling around trying to feed myself and got dropped and then my rear wheel really became a problem. I couldn't tell what was wrong. It seemed like I had broken a spoke, but there wasn't any broken-spoke clanging around on the wheel. Eventually I got off the bike, adjusted the rear brake to the maximum gap and the wheel was still rubbing both sides! Finally, I was able to bring myself to request another wheel from the masters field that was passing me and that helped, but at a point that was too late in time. Once I got back to Baker City I identified the problem:
Well, that damned wheel cost me the race and my GC position of 8th went down into the 20s. I really wanted to see what I could've done on that final climb. And after that drama, I'm kind of in a limbo on the verge of upgrading to Cat 2. I'm wondering if I've got what it takes to compete directly with pros. However, I'm also wondering that if I don't keep challenging myself that I may not learn as quickly as I want.
Getting Home
After this, the final process of getting home begun. I had biked back to Baker City with Jake and another guy (this was another 18 miles of riding after the 102). I went straight to Safeway and loaded up on some rich chocolate milk, perrier, two bowls of deli pasta, but then realized my wallet was back in my jeans in my suitcase.
I biked back to the high school where everyone was packing up. My ride wasn't headed back for a while, so I decided to take a shower while I could. I was hungry and wanting to go back to Safeway as soon as possible. Once we got all our stuff jammed into the car, we drove over to Safeway, but this time the Baker City Safeway was SLAMMED with customers. There were at least 12 people including 5 of us bike racers. They could barely handle the crowd and I was growing impatient nearly yanking my chocolate milk back out of the checkout line as each clerk had to not only check out the items of each people, but also catch up on the daily lives of the locals in line. When my credit card finally processed I grabbed the chocolate milk and started chugging it right beside the checkout stand. aaaaahhh. But I didn't chug the whole thing at once - gotta pace myself.
After having satisfied my immediate hunger we got back on the road and begun to discuss our race stories. I felt a little bad about having such a focused desire on my chocolate milk that I was kind of ignoring the circumstances of my driving buddy. Turns out he had won his race and category! That was really cool, and I learned more about this guy - turns out he used to ride with David Millar over in Hong Kong before David went pro. We made excellent time and got back to Portland before 10pm!
Monday
On Monday, I worked as usual and then when I got home at about 7pm I was tired and took a little nap. However, I woke up at 1am and decided that I still needed more sleep and finally got up again at 7am.
And beyond...
Well, now that I've finished my
Monday, June 13, 2011
Well, that went well
This past weekend was the Capitol Stage Race. Clearly, the race organizers had designed it especially for guys like me. There were long road races, no epic climbs, a very short time trial and the event was low-profile enough to keep the Canadians and other hot-shot racers away. Also, it was close to Tacoma which made lodging at Hotel Karly an option.
Thursday
I trained it up on Thursday afternoon just in time to join a ladies night Fight Club where the dudes of us hammered it off to Steilacoom and back. I may have exerted myself a bit too much, but it was fun to go on a fight club ride again.
Friday
I headed out to the boonies of Olympia for stage 1: a 70 mile road race. It was an interesting course: one decent puncher and then a whole lot of flat or false flats. Some breaks were breaking away, but none sticking. That is not until the final lap (each lap is 10 miles) when a bunch of us finally got it together and ended up putting a minute on the field. In the sprint, it was really only a 3 person sprint since two guys were just in it for GC. So I ended up picking the best and winning wheel, but just didn't have the last bit to get around it. Still though, a 2nd place finish was great.
Also, I got to meet another fellow racer that also blogs about his adventures over at the Billy Goat Chronicles. Sean was a real nice dude, I've raced with him a few times and now he's riding with the 2s, which is nice because that's one less threat in the 3s field for me! He also produced some water (that I begged for due to being unprepared) from his RACESHIP!! I don't know what all else is inside there (trauma center? rocket boosters?), but holy smokes this is the proper way to roll to a bike race.
Saturday
The morning had a time trial which had the start times change twice. Once from the original tech guide, then again from the times posted online last night. I ended up warming up a half-hour early. Still though, I went out there and rode hard on my bike equipped with a front Zipp wheel that Scott let me borrow. Thanks! I ended up getting 20th, but only losing 40 seconds in GC holding it solidly in 5th place.
I hung out with an Olympia friend and killed some time before the crit. I was warming up on the crit course and was a bit scared for a little bit because they had stopped the warmups earlier than I had expected and thus I wasn't right on the line at the start. Lucky for me though, there were call-ups for the top 5 in GC. The race seemed to be going really well for me - I got a time prime and was generally staying at the front. But then I just started losing wheels and didn't make a good enough effort to get back so I ended up off the back in the field sprint.
However, I did fare better than two other GC leaders. The race leader got dropped! Within the first few laps! And then 4th place in GC crashed hard on the final sprint. He'll be all right, but that still sucks.
Sunday
Now before we get into the racing, I made it over to Dean Burke's neighborhood breakfast. I had some delicious eggs and hashbrowns, saw some friends and chilled out. Thanks! That was nice.
OK, on to racing!
Today was the day to make it or break it in the stage. It was a 90 mile race of mostly flat, but then some hills in two other popular courses in the area. Olympia Ortho now had the GC leader so a whole lot of protecting that leader was to be expected. The second guy in GC was 2 seconds behind and then there was me 20 seconds back followed by 4th place at 34 seconds back.
We had a smaller field than before and also the pro/1/2 women were riding with us. I have to say, these women were stealing my nice wheels like pros! Did they know who I was? Anywho, basically nothing happened and the pace was super easy, like zone 2 easy. With all the protection and inability of enough serious to stick, I knew that I had to try to make the field crack on the hills. At a little past the halfway point, there was a decent hill. A climber dude broke off hard from the field. I almost went with him, but had to feed at that point. Once we got to the top I noticed that Olympia had lost it's support and since the medium break wasn't doing anything they caught right back on.
Olympia was having a blast of a race. Right after the feed one of their guys was taunting others. He had two cages and tri cages for a total of 4 water bottles. He asked some guys "hey anybody want some water?" and then he proceeded to dump it out on the road as we were racing. I thought it was hilarious. However, they got their share of pain since hillclimber dude had put two minutes on the field, so the water-dumping taunter then had to bust his nuts to chase down hillclimber dude which he eventually did.
I was waiting for the next series of hills at about the 75 and 85 mile mark and they weren't long enough! The second to last hill, about 8 of us broke off, but then the field got it back together. The last chance of the race was the final hill where 5 of us got away with a good margin from the field. Unfortunately it was the GC leader, 2nd place, me, 4th place in GC and 7th place in GC that were in this break. So of course every one of us except for the GC leader wanted to gap the rest of us in the 4 miles to the finish. It was attack and cat and mouse and attack and cat and mouse and then the chase group swallowed us up since we weren't cooperating with each other at all. Someone from the chase won the sprint so GC didn't change.
Kudos to Olympia for playing all your cards right and winning on your home turf. Well done. So I ended up 3rd overall. I concluded that I could have played it better by having a $5,000 time trial bike since I was only 20 seconds back in GC. And with my performance this weekend I may or may not be close to having points to upgrade to the 2s. But I don't want to know if I do yet. I don't want to do Elkhorn as a 2 just yet.
On the way home, I had a crappy recovery as in not eating a crap-ton of food. I only had some bars and a measly plate of pasta. As I'm writing this, I'm eating another batch of pasta at 1am and I think it's not going to be enough either.
Thursday
I trained it up on Thursday afternoon just in time to join a ladies night Fight Club where the dudes of us hammered it off to Steilacoom and back. I may have exerted myself a bit too much, but it was fun to go on a fight club ride again.
Friday
I headed out to the boonies of Olympia for stage 1: a 70 mile road race. It was an interesting course: one decent puncher and then a whole lot of flat or false flats. Some breaks were breaking away, but none sticking. That is not until the final lap (each lap is 10 miles) when a bunch of us finally got it together and ended up putting a minute on the field. In the sprint, it was really only a 3 person sprint since two guys were just in it for GC. So I ended up picking the best and winning wheel, but just didn't have the last bit to get around it. Still though, a 2nd place finish was great.
Also, I got to meet another fellow racer that also blogs about his adventures over at the Billy Goat Chronicles. Sean was a real nice dude, I've raced with him a few times and now he's riding with the 2s, which is nice because that's one less threat in the 3s field for me! He also produced some water (that I begged for due to being unprepared) from his RACESHIP!! I don't know what all else is inside there (trauma center? rocket boosters?), but holy smokes this is the proper way to roll to a bike race.
Saturday
The morning had a time trial which had the start times change twice. Once from the original tech guide, then again from the times posted online last night. I ended up warming up a half-hour early. Still though, I went out there and rode hard on my bike equipped with a front Zipp wheel that Scott let me borrow. Thanks! I ended up getting 20th, but only losing 40 seconds in GC holding it solidly in 5th place.
I hung out with an Olympia friend and killed some time before the crit. I was warming up on the crit course and was a bit scared for a little bit because they had stopped the warmups earlier than I had expected and thus I wasn't right on the line at the start. Lucky for me though, there were call-ups for the top 5 in GC. The race seemed to be going really well for me - I got a time prime and was generally staying at the front. But then I just started losing wheels and didn't make a good enough effort to get back so I ended up off the back in the field sprint.
However, I did fare better than two other GC leaders. The race leader got dropped! Within the first few laps! And then 4th place in GC crashed hard on the final sprint. He'll be all right, but that still sucks.
Sunday
Now before we get into the racing, I made it over to Dean Burke's neighborhood breakfast. I had some delicious eggs and hashbrowns, saw some friends and chilled out. Thanks! That was nice.
OK, on to racing!
Today was the day to make it or break it in the stage. It was a 90 mile race of mostly flat, but then some hills in two other popular courses in the area. Olympia Ortho now had the GC leader so a whole lot of protecting that leader was to be expected. The second guy in GC was 2 seconds behind and then there was me 20 seconds back followed by 4th place at 34 seconds back.
We had a smaller field than before and also the pro/1/2 women were riding with us. I have to say, these women were stealing my nice wheels like pros! Did they know who I was? Anywho, basically nothing happened and the pace was super easy, like zone 2 easy. With all the protection and inability of enough serious to stick, I knew that I had to try to make the field crack on the hills. At a little past the halfway point, there was a decent hill. A climber dude broke off hard from the field. I almost went with him, but had to feed at that point. Once we got to the top I noticed that Olympia had lost it's support and since the medium break wasn't doing anything they caught right back on.
Olympia was having a blast of a race. Right after the feed one of their guys was taunting others. He had two cages and tri cages for a total of 4 water bottles. He asked some guys "hey anybody want some water?" and then he proceeded to dump it out on the road as we were racing. I thought it was hilarious. However, they got their share of pain since hillclimber dude had put two minutes on the field, so the water-dumping taunter then had to bust his nuts to chase down hillclimber dude which he eventually did.
I was waiting for the next series of hills at about the 75 and 85 mile mark and they weren't long enough! The second to last hill, about 8 of us broke off, but then the field got it back together. The last chance of the race was the final hill where 5 of us got away with a good margin from the field. Unfortunately it was the GC leader, 2nd place, me, 4th place in GC and 7th place in GC that were in this break. So of course every one of us except for the GC leader wanted to gap the rest of us in the 4 miles to the finish. It was attack and cat and mouse and attack and cat and mouse and then the chase group swallowed us up since we weren't cooperating with each other at all. Someone from the chase won the sprint so GC didn't change.
Kudos to Olympia for playing all your cards right and winning on your home turf. Well done. So I ended up 3rd overall. I concluded that I could have played it better by having a $5,000 time trial bike since I was only 20 seconds back in GC. And with my performance this weekend I may or may not be close to having points to upgrade to the 2s. But I don't want to know if I do yet. I don't want to do Elkhorn as a 2 just yet.
On the way home, I had a crappy recovery as in not eating a crap-ton of food. I only had some bars and a measly plate of pasta. As I'm writing this, I'm eating another batch of pasta at 1am and I think it's not going to be enough either.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I don't quit
But then again, sometimes I get myself into trouble by just trying.
Moving
I have finally moved and hope to take care of the last mess I made while moving into my new place. The move was the worst and most unprepared I have ever done. The highlight of it for sure was the first move of the day. I drove into the loading dock with a pickup Zipcar loaded with 4 of my bikes. I then go check in with the front desk to say that I'm beginning to move and am informed that the building policy forbids bicycles anywhere except in the bicycle storage area which is completely full.
Now some people argue that I should've known this beforehand, but I present you this counterpoint: ARE YOU SERIOUS? What kind of building prohibits bringing bicycles up to your unit? Common sense should prevail. And in this case, this outlandishly strict bicycle policy (remember, this building is in downtown Portland) has met an abnormally fervent bicycler. I am raising a big stink about this to the HOA and hope the policy gets changed.
Over the Memorial Day moving weekend I pretty much had a meltdown in my old apartment. I was supposed to go on a 3 hour ride, but felt so overwhelmed and stressed so I layed down for a bit, and then lay on the garbage strewn floor and cried out "I donwannaridemabiikee noooo!" It was very pathetic. I was like a dog eating its vomit or an abused girlfriend staying with her abusive partner or in my case my disgusting life-sucking apartment. But on Monday I forced myself to get my move done and I did. Everything was out except for my race bike which didn't have a home.
Last week
Tuesday PIR came up and I had moved every last item out of the old apartment. And this time I left my new place at 5pm, got to PIR with plenty time to spare. It was an interesting race with a fair number of riders visiting the area specifically for Mt Hood. An early break formed which normally never gets away, but once we all saw that it would, I was able to work myself into a chase break and although I didn't have the sprinter skills it was good enough for 15th - the first time I've cracked the top 20 at PIR.
On Wednesday, my race bike still didn't have a home and I was ready. I was ready to drop $5,000 for a van to store my bikes in. All the things I hate about having a car I was willing to put aside for the sake of bicycle racing. My Dad spurned me on to give it one last shot to find somewhere else to put my bikes and also my roommate with his BMW and his friend with her Mercedes make much better fits for the garage than a beater van would. On Thursday this lady with PBOT that rents out bicycle lockers finally got back to me and hooked me up with a bike locker right across the street that costs $50 for 3 months. I could've gotten 2 lockers, but by having to take off the wheels of my race bike it will force me to clean my bike after every ride which is something I need to be doing.
And one more random thing about why the new condo is great is that there is a 24 hour fitness right across the street which will be great for weight training in the off-season.
Mt Hood Cycling Classic
At the advice of my coach I decided not to be a quitting wussy and race in the Mt Hood Cycling Classic. It was a great decision to do so, it was the funnest race weekend I think I've had all year and I didn't even get a podium.
Friday:
Friday was a 56 miler with a big climb in the later half of the race. Before the big climb there was more than just a few miles, so I tried my Wenatchee strategy again. I attacked just before the Rowena descent and eventually a Recycled rider bridged up to me. On the flats going back towards The Dalles, the Recycled guy was absolutely hammering taking 20 seconds pulls and resting only about 2 seconds on my wheel. At some point I realized he thought we were nearing the finish of the race (the course passes the finish line one time) and indeed he sprinted for the line. All I could do is say "you're not done!" and try to maintain a break. The hillclimb came and it was long. The climbers caught me about halfway up. I stayed with them as best as I could, but got dropped on the last mile of the climb and could literally see the pack begin their descent with no chase group in sight. Eventually a chase group caught up to me, but we were only able to get within 1:30 of the climber kids. I ended up 20th and had a fun race with the gorgeous scenery.
Saturday:
Time Trials can suck it. I did absolutely horrible in the TT. A number of things make me bad:
1. I don't have a TT Bike
2. I don't have a Disc
3. I don't have a skinsuit
4. I am borrowing a really small TT helmet that I believe cuts off blood circulation to my head.
This got me to thinking that if I was willing to drop $5,000 on a van, I have got to be willing to drop $5,000 on a TT setup. I therefore made a promise to myself: I will have a full TT setup before Eugene which I will then win by 3 minutes. Back at Mt Hood/Adams though, I got 51st and dropped 9 places in GC. Uggh. But, again the TT race had something great to make up for it: Good things to look at: Mt. Adams and Pro Women Cyclists!
The crit was coming up later in the evening and in the meantime I got to chill over at a house that one of my teammate's friends owns. It had a great view of the river and was 3 blocks from the crit. Most people I had talked to about the crit had warned me that it was super sketchy and/or a crash-fest. After having done the Wenatchee Crit in super sketchy and rainy conditions I need something really crazy to get me nervous. Something like a bridge with a metal grate or maybe a 30 foot cliff on the outside edge of a corner. The hood river crit had none of these, was dry and sunny. I thought Walla Walla was a sketchier crit course. Anywho, the crit has happened like a lot of other crits I have done which seems to be a maximal effort for 40 minutes. I can't even tell when the primes are usually because I'm so gassed. But with 3 to go, I latched onto a great wheel that ultimately set me up for 9th place. Still not good enough for prize money, but a top 10 is always satisfactory.
Sunday:
I honestly can say that I don't care if I'm a crappy climber, I love climbing and the ensuing descending. We had a 70 mile course with three major climbs. The Recycled guy jokingly told me I should go from the gun. Little did he know, that was exactly what I was going to do. The pack kept me within sight for a while, but once we got into orchard country I joined a 3 man break. At the very bottom of the hill the race officials had a lapse of course awareness and turned us around once only to realize that the direction we were going the first time was actually correct. The officials still gave us our break before starting the field and our 3 man break turned 4 man break made it to the top of the first climb before the rest of the climbers caught us. The next climb I got dropped and began the inevitable joyride back to the finish.
I don't think I have ever had more food and water in a race than in this one. I drank 2 water bottles with heed, ate 4 gels (including one I begged for from another rider), 2 packages of power energy blocks, 3.5 neutral water bottles, 1 plastic water bottle from the com car, 0.5 bottles of gatorade from the illegal feed zone (I regret throwing the rest away) and still felt like I could or should have eaten more. The final descent was amazing - I was all by myself and just cruised down at about a 35mph average down this paved logging road. I managed to catch and pass a few other 3s on the final climb and ended up 21st.
This next weekend is the Capitol Stage Race and it is perfect for me. Two longish road races with no epic climbs, a technical crit and a really short 3 mile time trial that includes a turnaround. Oh and then Elkhorn is the weekend after that. I'm stage crazy this month.
Moving
I have finally moved and hope to take care of the last mess I made while moving into my new place. The move was the worst and most unprepared I have ever done. The highlight of it for sure was the first move of the day. I drove into the loading dock with a pickup Zipcar loaded with 4 of my bikes. I then go check in with the front desk to say that I'm beginning to move and am informed that the building policy forbids bicycles anywhere except in the bicycle storage area which is completely full.
Now some people argue that I should've known this beforehand, but I present you this counterpoint: ARE YOU SERIOUS? What kind of building prohibits bringing bicycles up to your unit? Common sense should prevail. And in this case, this outlandishly strict bicycle policy (remember, this building is in downtown Portland) has met an abnormally fervent bicycler. I am raising a big stink about this to the HOA and hope the policy gets changed.
Over the Memorial Day moving weekend I pretty much had a meltdown in my old apartment. I was supposed to go on a 3 hour ride, but felt so overwhelmed and stressed so I layed down for a bit, and then lay on the garbage strewn floor and cried out "I donwannaridemabiikee noooo!" It was very pathetic. I was like a dog eating its vomit or an abused girlfriend staying with her abusive partner or in my case my disgusting life-sucking apartment. But on Monday I forced myself to get my move done and I did. Everything was out except for my race bike which didn't have a home.
Last week
Tuesday PIR came up and I had moved every last item out of the old apartment. And this time I left my new place at 5pm, got to PIR with plenty time to spare. It was an interesting race with a fair number of riders visiting the area specifically for Mt Hood. An early break formed which normally never gets away, but once we all saw that it would, I was able to work myself into a chase break and although I didn't have the sprinter skills it was good enough for 15th - the first time I've cracked the top 20 at PIR.
On Wednesday, my race bike still didn't have a home and I was ready. I was ready to drop $5,000 for a van to store my bikes in. All the things I hate about having a car I was willing to put aside for the sake of bicycle racing. My Dad spurned me on to give it one last shot to find somewhere else to put my bikes and also my roommate with his BMW and his friend with her Mercedes make much better fits for the garage than a beater van would. On Thursday this lady with PBOT that rents out bicycle lockers finally got back to me and hooked me up with a bike locker right across the street that costs $50 for 3 months. I could've gotten 2 lockers, but by having to take off the wheels of my race bike it will force me to clean my bike after every ride which is something I need to be doing.
And one more random thing about why the new condo is great is that there is a 24 hour fitness right across the street which will be great for weight training in the off-season.
Mt Hood Cycling Classic
At the advice of my coach I decided not to be a quitting wussy and race in the Mt Hood Cycling Classic. It was a great decision to do so, it was the funnest race weekend I think I've had all year and I didn't even get a podium.
Friday:
Friday was a 56 miler with a big climb in the later half of the race. Before the big climb there was more than just a few miles, so I tried my Wenatchee strategy again. I attacked just before the Rowena descent and eventually a Recycled rider bridged up to me. On the flats going back towards The Dalles, the Recycled guy was absolutely hammering taking 20 seconds pulls and resting only about 2 seconds on my wheel. At some point I realized he thought we were nearing the finish of the race (the course passes the finish line one time) and indeed he sprinted for the line. All I could do is say "you're not done!" and try to maintain a break. The hillclimb came and it was long. The climbers caught me about halfway up. I stayed with them as best as I could, but got dropped on the last mile of the climb and could literally see the pack begin their descent with no chase group in sight. Eventually a chase group caught up to me, but we were only able to get within 1:30 of the climber kids. I ended up 20th and had a fun race with the gorgeous scenery.
Saturday:
Time Trials can suck it. I did absolutely horrible in the TT. A number of things make me bad:
1. I don't have a TT Bike
2. I don't have a Disc
3. I don't have a skinsuit
4. I am borrowing a really small TT helmet that I believe cuts off blood circulation to my head.
This got me to thinking that if I was willing to drop $5,000 on a van, I have got to be willing to drop $5,000 on a TT setup. I therefore made a promise to myself: I will have a full TT setup before Eugene which I will then win by 3 minutes. Back at Mt Hood/Adams though, I got 51st and dropped 9 places in GC. Uggh. But, again the TT race had something great to make up for it: Good things to look at: Mt. Adams and Pro Women Cyclists!
The crit was coming up later in the evening and in the meantime I got to chill over at a house that one of my teammate's friends owns. It had a great view of the river and was 3 blocks from the crit. Most people I had talked to about the crit had warned me that it was super sketchy and/or a crash-fest. After having done the Wenatchee Crit in super sketchy and rainy conditions I need something really crazy to get me nervous. Something like a bridge with a metal grate or maybe a 30 foot cliff on the outside edge of a corner. The hood river crit had none of these, was dry and sunny. I thought Walla Walla was a sketchier crit course. Anywho, the crit has happened like a lot of other crits I have done which seems to be a maximal effort for 40 minutes. I can't even tell when the primes are usually because I'm so gassed. But with 3 to go, I latched onto a great wheel that ultimately set me up for 9th place. Still not good enough for prize money, but a top 10 is always satisfactory.
Sunday:
I honestly can say that I don't care if I'm a crappy climber, I love climbing and the ensuing descending. We had a 70 mile course with three major climbs. The Recycled guy jokingly told me I should go from the gun. Little did he know, that was exactly what I was going to do. The pack kept me within sight for a while, but once we got into orchard country I joined a 3 man break. At the very bottom of the hill the race officials had a lapse of course awareness and turned us around once only to realize that the direction we were going the first time was actually correct. The officials still gave us our break before starting the field and our 3 man break turned 4 man break made it to the top of the first climb before the rest of the climbers caught us. The next climb I got dropped and began the inevitable joyride back to the finish.
I don't think I have ever had more food and water in a race than in this one. I drank 2 water bottles with heed, ate 4 gels (including one I begged for from another rider), 2 packages of power energy blocks, 3.5 neutral water bottles, 1 plastic water bottle from the com car, 0.5 bottles of gatorade from the illegal feed zone (I regret throwing the rest away) and still felt like I could or should have eaten more. The final descent was amazing - I was all by myself and just cruised down at about a 35mph average down this paved logging road. I managed to catch and pass a few other 3s on the final climb and ended up 21st.
This next weekend is the Capitol Stage Race and it is perfect for me. Two longish road races with no epic climbs, a technical crit and a really short 3 mile time trial that includes a turnaround. Oh and then Elkhorn is the weekend after that. I'm stage crazy this month.
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