And back to racing

Or should I say, back to HSP dominating to Oregon racing scene?

Well, I don't really have much to say except that I think I should try sprinting more often since it is kind of important. Over at PIR I got in a break and then went all out for a hot spot and only Beardsley and Trevor Spahr were able in the mood to hold onto my wheel so I got a point at PIR which is always an accomplishment for me. When the sprint came I wasn't going to get top 10 so I didn't really sprint, but then Christian Tresser, Eddie and Byron all flew by me and ending up getting like 3 or 5 points. I think I could've sprinted for maybe 3 points based on my position, so next time I ought to do that.

Over at Rainier there was a lot of waiting around once all of us figured out where the corners were since the organizers thought it would be a more challenging race if the flaggers didn't point in the direction we should go or even be at their corner to stop traffic the first lap. Also, poor Sam Schartz managed to get in a breakaway that nobody else noticed that then took a 2 minute long wrong turn. So anyways after that, breaks weren't sticking left and right so it was a field sprint where HSP could very well have gotten the entire podium if it weren't for them having just a two person squad. I was trying to get onto Klipper's wheel, but when that wasn't going to pan out I tried my luck elsewhere and ended up 10th which is satisfactory enough for me.

Next up is Mt. Hood which I am now happy that I signed up for since the other two competing Oregon races were cancelled. Klipper says my goal is to hang on and I would concur. Then I'm not doing Baker City, but instead visiting family. Then I'm doing the High Desert Omnium Road Race and maybe also the St Honore Crit, sucks that they're scheduled the same weekend. And then the whole damn Northwest has a scheduling problem of doing the following 4 awesome races during the same July 12-13 weekend: Montinore (actually not that important, but it is Oregon Cup), Redmond Derby Days, Boise Twilight and BC Superweek (well they at least put Gastown on the 10th, so I guess that's ok). I may need to rent a Zipjet for that weekend.

Finally some rest

Finally some rest!  Sheesh, that was 4 weekends of racing in a row.  Time for a recap.

Mutual of Enumclaw

Logistics

Rented a zipcar and headed up Friday night.  Was hosted by the Barta's!  I knew Rian back from my Tacoma Bike days and he graciously let me crash in his guest bedroom in Puyallup.  His wife cooked up some delicious rice and chicken for dinner and the kids behaved very well.  Thanks again Barta family!

I also got to see the other lone Guinness Cycling Team rider that ever does stage races in the Northwest: Todd Gallaher.  We had lunch at the best Thai restaurant in Enumclaw.  He gave some inspiring words of wisdom as always.  Here is a gem of his regarding the Canadians:

Time Trial

Well, I still haven't mastered the time trial, but keep improving.  My coach wanted me to break 13, but I ended up at 13:30 which was good enough for 25th/82.  It was also a bit faster than last year's time of 14:32.  Next year I guess I'll hit 12:30.

Crit

That had to have been the fastest crit I have ever done.  Right away I was nearly slipping down and sprinting out of every single corner just to keep up.  Especially after all the crashes.

Ultimately, I got pulled with about 18 minutes left.  That kinda sucked, but man it was a fast frickin race.  And I've got numbers to back up my claim!  That there is an average speed of 29.5 mph for an 8 corner crit.  Ridiculous.

After the race, I found out why I was nearly slipping out of each turn.  Time for some new tires - first time I've had to replace tubies due to wear.

Road Race

Strategy: hold on for as long as possible.  And I did so by making sure I was very close to the front before each climb.  The last three times up the climb I got dropped, but since I was sinking through the field it wasn't so bad and I managed to catch up each time.  On the 2nd to last lap I actually attempted a breakaway/bridge attempt on the road right before the climb.  As I was off the front I was kind of telling myself: "you're going to regret this".  And I sure did as they caught me right at the base of the climb.  That was about it really for me in this race.  The Canadians really showed us who was boss.

A big thanks to Amara at Wheels in Focus for all of the pictures!

PIR

As you may have noticed in all the Enumclaw pics, it didn't rain at any of the stages.  Therefore, when it was the first legitimate downpour of the year at PIR I thought I had better put in my crappy weather racing time.  There might have been 20 total 1/2/3 riders there.  My strategy was attack until there were so few people left that I'd have a good chance of getting top 5 if not a solo win.  Unfortunately it came down to 7 or so of us on the final lap.  Beardsley won as always, followed by Bedford and I shoulda gotten 3rd, but wasn't smart enough of a sprinter so I tied my all-time best result at PIR of 4th.  Yay?

Ski to Sea

Friday I took the Bolt Bus up to Seattle.  First time in a while taking a bus and it sure has its plusses of being able to take my TT bike (no disassembly required), 2 more wheels and my big red suitcase nonstop to Seattle all for about $25.  It doesn't beat the nice legroom and ability to walk around on Amtrak Cascades, but that isn't really worth $59 to me.

I have done Ski to Sea perhaps 3 times before, but I always used to do the XC Ski leg on a team organized by my frat bro's high school friend David Couvrette.  I stayed up at David Couvrette's place on Friday night and did an awesome TT ride from Kenmore to Golden Gardens to my sister's place and then outrunning a rain cloud down Lake City Way in the bus lane back to Kenmore.  Was great to be back in Seattle.

But we all headed north the next day.  Typically the Couvrettes put together a mix of very competitive athletes and some people of the kind who just came back from a 10 month trip to Asia and Africa with very little exercise and haven't skied in like years, but are going to do the XC Ski leg.  This year I was one of the big time hitters on the team and I was going to pre-ride the whole 42 mile course while our XC skier taught himself how to skate ski that day (chuckle chuckle chuckle).

The pre-ride was rainy, but I felt good about the course if not slightly sketched out by taking all those downhill corners at 40 mph without pedaling in the rain.  The weather forecast was somewhat optimistic for less rain the next day...  not!!

I had a brain malfunction and decided that I should not try to find some place dry to hangout since I had to leave my stuff for our runner to pickup at a certain spot.  I warmed up in my wool dress coat and fleece jacket and skinsuit.  By the time I was done warming up I was completely wet before the race even started.  Our runner came in and then I began passing every single rider on the road ahead of me.  It was so frickin cold at elevation, but it became somewhat tolerable as I descended.  I was really hoping to find someone to pace off of, but I was passing everyone very fast, I even passed a few pacelines.  I got right around the time I wanted of 1:30, but compared to all the other racer names I have heard of I was kind of at the bottom of that list.  Oh well, I'll take it.

PIR

A break got away from the big group and I was in it, but I didn't body check some Wooly Mammoth rider when he took Kyle Medlin's wheel from me, so I totally botched the sprint and ended up 10th overall.

Capitol Stage Race

Logistics

I was not feeling in the best mood going into this weekend.  I was mentally tired - both from a frustrating work project and racing again.  And then the night before I was going to glue the tire, but I didn't have the right valve extender.  Then the previous Zipcar user didn't return the Zipcar so I had to go get another one somewhere else.  And I had to do my bike workouts too which I didn't do very well I think.  I finally headed out at 9pm.

Luckily I had arranged to stay at my great aunt's place in Olympia which had an excellent guest bedroom.

TT 5k Sprint

I got in a pretty good warmup and felt good about my ride.  Comparing to 2011 when I last did the race I improved from 8:00 to 7:15.  Yeah, pretty good.  My Mom and Dad came over to watch me race, so of course, my Dad took tons of pictures:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Crit

The crit was pretty close to a disaster for me.  Something was very wrong with my rear wheel.  It felt like it was rubbing on the brakes, but it totally wasn't.  I think something is wrong with the bearings.  I got pulled only 25 minutes in.

Road Race

In the morning, I knew I wasn't feeling very mentally well, so I tried to do something about it.  Fortunately for me, one of my most favorite TV shows SpongeBob SquarePants was playing on a channel that was doing "SpongeBob's best wins" showing all winning-themed SpongeBob shows.  That helped me put this whole bike racing thing in perspective and sent me off in a good mood to the race.

I had to be very careful to discipline myself to not do any stupid stuff since the 90 mile race doesn't really start until mile 65 when there are 3 decent sized hills that the peleton goes crazy on.  The rest is flat - basically.  A big break that I guess didn't have any HB guys in it got away at mile 9.  Then HB sat on the front keeping the pace good all the way until mile 65 just as expected. 

I hung on on the first two hillclimbs then attempted a few breakaways, but then I'm not quite sure what his tactics were, but Steve Fisher was always going on solo rampages so no solid break formed.  On the last hillclimb Max 'Missle' O'Neal went KOM hunting and got a good gap.  Colin Gibson made a good effort to bridge up and then I did as well with about 3 miles to go but then the field was led back up by HPC. 

For whatever reason I was doing ok with maneuvering thru the cluster of the field sprint and managed to get 13th out of 27ish in the field sprint which I think is fairly decent for me.

Rest Week!

Yep, a whole week off the bike!  I'm currently mulling over whether to do Mt Hood especially now that it has been announced that it's the last one ever... but $175 entry fee, I dunno.

Racing Anonymous

Sorry to all my loyal followers for not having a blog post in a while.  I'm not angry at you, it's just that I've been racing and racing and racing some more.

A real brief recap:

Did Mutual of Enumclaw, the Canadians kicked my butt again and I liked it.
Did PIR in the pouring rain and tied my best ever finish place of 4th.  Ugh.
Did Ski to Sea in probably just as bad conditions.
Did PIR and made the break but got a crappy finish from that break.  Stupid PIR.

I will attempt to have a more exciting recap of each race weekend shortly.  I'm doing Capitol Stage Race this weekend and then I've got my mid-season week off the bike which I am really looking forward to!

I had it in me

That was a fun fun fun weekend.

Saturday:

I took the MAX out to Hillsboro and attempted to partly crash the Oregon Cycling Challenge, which had a ride of 400 miles that if finished qualified the cyclist for Race Across America.  But I was out to crash the 60 mile ride which just went up Bald Peak and then back via Spring Hill.  I rode for a little bit with some riders who were actually able to do a good pace up the hill, but then I did 15 minute z3 interval and was gone. I then did a z4 up Bell Rd and then took a wrong turn a few times, tried to draft this group of Porsches out for a day drive and then finally found Scholls Ferry and rode back.  I would've taken some pics, but I no longer have a memory card in my phone and there is some melted remnants of a power bar on the camera glass anyways.

Banana Belt 2:

I had to convince Klipper to commit to giving me a ride despite the forecast suggesting the small possibility of rain.  He came over nonetheless and we drove over arguing discussing about whether one should use the directions a promoter gives you to get to a race or just put in an address into the nearest navigation-enabled device you have.

I didn't quite know how I would feel in the race, seems like the Oregon races are hard to read sometimes, but I wouldn't try breaks too early and try to have good positioning for hills.  I guess I tried a lot of breakaways, but mainly after lap 3.  There were a few good ones including one where it was Zach Winter (he's now on Planet X) and myself.  My rear derailleur was skipping all over the place in the critical range that was needed for the hill sprint, so I was sort of resigned to a so-so finish, but decided to stick it out. 

On the final lap there was a fair amount of action on the backstretch and there was a 2-man break of Rapha and HPC up the road.  It seemed like Bedford was covering a lot of stuff at the front and that a lot of people were tired, so on the last riser before the long flat I decided it would be best to try to be in a break so I'd get last in the break due to the failing derailleur.  I attacked and the derailleur skipped two or three times until I could finally mash without issue and then I was off.  I almost didn't catch the break on the last big hill, but convinced myself to dig deep and finally caught them.

There was a fair amount of cat and mouse going on with the HPC guy who at the time I thought was Trevor Spahr trying to drop us more than a couple times, but I could always catch up.  HPC tried once more to drop us about 200 meters before the wall, but I chased it down and then waited.  Rapha guy took off close to the bottom and I waited while we took the right hand side up the hill.  Right after the worst of the pavement, HPC sort of jumped, but I really kicked it up and passed HPC quickly... and then I passed Rapha... and then I had to shift down for the finish... and with a stroke of very good luck I shifted and the rear derailleur skipped into the perfect gear for the finish... but then I heard a guy coming up hard on the left... and I heard a woman yelling "C'MON STEVEN!!!"... but the gear I was going in was solid... I mashed it through the line before any other wheel and threw my fist in the air with a big smile.

HAHA!

The previous week, it seemed like there was a common theme going on where there were situations happening to me that would've elicited this response from onlookers:


As noted in my Walla Walla post, I discovered that one of my cleat screws was missing and thus tried to fix it in the morning, but had to go to Athlete's Lounge to get the correct screws and then ended up finally getting to work at 11:30.  At PIR it was a rather dull race for me since I still couldn't figure ou that close to the front is the better place to be for a sprint.


On Thursday, I did some 3 minute hillclimbs up upper hall drive.  On the 2nd climb, my left cleat was extremely loose between the shoe and the first apparatus of the cleat.  And this lady in regular clothes with commuter bike with a pannier bag on her bike climbed up the hill just 20ish seconds slower than me, which made me feel not very fast.

Then, when I went to pick up my bag that I had left behind a power box.  But it was gone.  I then biked around the area and found the wallet that was in my bag on the ground by a street kid and got that back.  Then I saw my bag on the bench and got that back.  Then I saw my U-Lock in the hands of another street kid and also my keys in his hands which I convinced him to give back.  But, I was still missing my employee badge, drivers license, phone and $40.  I called the cops which arrived about a minute too late.




At least I had a few encounters with other strangers the rest of the weekend that made up for that bad experience.  On Friday night, my frat bro, Gianpaolo came down for two nights.  On Saturday night I borrowed another longboard from Peter and we skateboarded through Ladds, across the river on Hawthorne and then down the garage until security kicked us out.  Then Sunday night to Tuesday night I hosted my first couchsurfer Charles who had a bunch of fun in town.

Right, so back to race day Saturday at Eugene.  Continuing with the random strangers, I carpooled with an OBRA listserv dude down there who then stayed for the weekend.  And on the way back I picked up a craigslist rideshare gal and drove her as far as Salem and made back most of my stolen wallet money.  But the race definitely had a tone of HAHA to it.  HAHA first off to all the riders who flatted.  I rode 25c tires and had no problems and was doing great the first 2 laps.  On lap 3 there were some breakaway attempts and such, but no dice so I stayed at the back.  Then going into the gravel I started slowly riding off the front and then kept going and before I knew it I was about a mile ahead of the field.

I tried to maintain a maintainable pace, but there was plenty of looking back over my shoulder.  I stayed out there the rest of that lap and hoped I could pull off something at the end.  The next time up the hill I was trying to conserve some energy and sort of went through some traffic of the women's field.  Once I got on the backstretch the gap was not enough for my comfort but I knew I should save something for the rollers.  I thought that if I made it through the final curve with a gap I'd have a chance.

Except Rob English seeked his revenge and caught me at 1k, then another Eugene guy gave a kamakazie sprint and then the rest of the field passed me and I ended up 21st, just one place out of Oregon Cup points.  After the finish I had to do a cool down partly cause I was at threshold for the past 45 minutes and partly cause I was pissed off at the peleton.  I rode until I didn't want to yell at anyone and then I turned back.

At least this week has been a rest week, so I've got a little break.

Tour of Wishy Washiness

Well another edition of the Tour of Walla Walla is in the bag. This one was just good, not great.  I have typically done well at this race.  Last year I won the final stage and got 6th GC as a Cat 3.  And the year before that I was newly a Cat 3 and got 6th on the final stage.  This year would be tougher for sure since I'd be doing it as a Cat 2.

Waitsburg

This year it was 4 times up the hill. First time was neutral as always. The p12 field got the whole road which was pretty cool. On lap 2 I bridged up with Ian Mensher to a break which shortly thereafter got caught. I made sure I was towards the front before each time up the hill and managed to hold on. The final climb was just holding on as best I could, but I managed to get the time of the first group which was great.  My Mom and Dad came down and watched the stage and took a bunch of pictures.



The pack going up the hill.


At the finish, barely holding onto the back of the first group.


Chowing down on Mom's applesauce after the race.

TT

I had ridden my TT bike exactly once since Eugene back in August. And that one time was on the Thursday before the race. I had had it stored upside down in one of my bike lockers that wasn't under a garage so it got wet in there. When I pulled it out it had a spiderweb and spider crawling over the handlebars. Anyways, I had hoped to ride somewhere under 20 minutes but got 21:03. I may have gone out too hard, not quite sure.





Logistics

This year I departed from my usual arrangement of sharing half a bed with some random racer I just met that day and stayed at a host house where me and my carpool buddy got our own bedrooms.  That was nice.  My parents headed home, so I got no pics of the rest of the weekend for ya.


The Crit

This crit ranks as one of the scariest crits I know. I had a great start, except then I decided to chase Trevor Spahr I believe for a $60 prime still on the first lap where we both got caught on the backside. I think I did one more breakaway attempt and then I was done and in damage control mode. 30 minutes to go and I was anxiously looking at the clock to see it count down to 0. The final lap I had to sprint to stay up with the lead group which stretched nearly single file seemingly all the way to the final corner.  That night we went back to the host house and I stayed up way too late watching a Quentin Tarantino movie.

Kellogg Hollow

It was the final race and I had to try some kind of breakaway, it's just what I do.  I sat in except for positioning for the climbs.  On lap 2 I tried twice to get away and stayed off the front for a bit the second time I tried, but nobody joined me and that was that.  Then I got a little bit of a cramp and knew it was damage control time again.  On lap 3, Hagens Berman lined up and set a pace that dropped a lot of people including me.  I was in a decent sized chase group which got whittled down even further.  And that was that.

Post-race thoughts

Well, I ended up 37th GC out of 120ish riders.  On the one hand, that isn't such a bad result.  I was able to mainly stay with the lead group each race which is good.  On day one I bridged up to a break with Ian Mensher - the same Ian Mensher that utterly crushed me in the Time Trial at Wenatchee just 2 years ago.  Now I'm at that level, heck I even finshed a few groups ahead of Ian on the final stage.  Another cool thing was that my TT time would've been good enough for 2nd place in Cat 3.  But on the other hand I got dropped on the final day and was just barely hanging on in the rest of the races.  My TT time was wayyy back in the 1/2s.  So I dunno I kinda feel like pack fodder at times in the 1/2s but then again I'm hanging within the p12 pack.  Well, we'll see what happens next.

Oh I do know one thing, I'm feeling a little more disciplined now.  I started doing my core and stretching again which I have been not doing nearly enough at all.  And another thing, just this morning I looked at my speedplay cleats and noticed a screw was missing.  I had actually brought replacement cleats to Walla Walla, but if I had tried to replace them there, I would've been screwed since I didn't have the right length of screws for the replacements.  And one last final thought, I resolve to never ever watch a Quentin Tarantino movie again because it is the same worthless never-happens-in-real-life waste of time plot of an outcast vigilante who goes to fight some despicable nemesis but the vigilante has to kill at least 100 people in the process.  No value is added to my life by watching those movies.  No more.

I'm having fun, right?

Well, I figured I fire off a quick post since I'll probably do another one for Walla Walla which is this weekend.  After my last smack-talking post prior to Independence Valley I just wasn't in the mood for another post.

IVRR

When the winning break gets away 5 miles into the race and you're not in it, that's a bummer.  And when you're trying to make moves to get a chase break started and they aren't succeeding that is frustrating.  And then it is just downright not fun when someone else chases you down just to yell at you for riding your bike hard.  Fine, my tactics weren't the best and I really shoulda just tried to form an alliance with Porcella, Soraz and Team O to actually chase that break down.  But I really don't like getting yelled at and that set me in a bad mood for the entire next week.

Rest Week

So yeah, the next week was a rest week and I even chose not to race Vance Creek which I've done well at before.  Sigh.

King's Valley

The week leading up to this my coach decided that I shouldn't have a life besides riding my bike after work and that is what happened sort of.  4 hard days in a row and I nearly fell asleep at my church group just to go do 4 zone 5 hillclimbs afterwards.  But I didn't feel miserable which was strange.  One thing that kinda sounded nice was that my coach also suggested that I just call it a season after Walla Walla which gave me some hope that I may have a life again.  Actually if I had more time, I'm not sure if I'd have a life again since I'd probably sit behind a computer screen and code on personal projects most of the time.

Anyways, I was fairly happy to go down to King's Valley with some teammates.  Dave drove Joe, Mike and I down there.  Our race strategy was to watch out for Rob English and some other guy who I wouldn't have know.  So I stayed at the front a lot and chased down English about 30 times or so. 

Oh wait, before that actually there was a beer prime on lap 1.  At the corner to the finish road most of the pack forgot to turn, but I didn't and took the front of the pack.  A small break of 3 masters got away and then I jumped and passed those guys, but they eventually caught up to me and then like 4 others bridged up too, but it didn't look like there were serious threats.  I maintained a good spot going up the hill and timed my sprint perfectly and picked up that beer prime.  First prize winnings of the year!

 

So yeah, the rest of the race was a lot of chasing down English and then holding back while Joe and Dave both got in breaks.  When the finish hill came I didn't fare too well in all the traffic and was top 20.  Meh.

And onwards

Sunday I did Logie trail intervals and on the 3rd interval there were 5 rabbits with bike gallery kits which really helped me up the wattage!

Today I did PIR, gave Byron a good leadout for a hot spot and then kamikazeed on the final lap with Nate Gibson.

I'm thinking in the races that I don't get yelled at or the course isn't dangerous I generally have a good time, but all this training and not enough sleep sometimes makes my workouts a real chore.  I'm thinking next year I either need a break from all the training of racing or to find workout buddies or some other source of motivation or both.

See y'all at Walla Walla.