Hmmmm

Not sure what to call this post. Just another race report with some other things.

There was a long road race out in Deer Trail on Saturday that I wanted to do, but after a long week at work and a long Friday at work, I decided a good nights sleep was a better plan. The race venue was about an hours drive, and with a 8:45 start time, I decided to bag it. I went out for a moderate paced road ride instead. I got in about 3 hours.

Today was another crit at Stazio. Can't beat those at $15 a pop. I'll start with the drive out. I was on 36 (not THE 36. I'm not in Cali.), which is the highway from Denver to Boulder. I was cruising along at a solid speed in the right hand line when another Subaru wagon comes flying by me in the fast lane. I'm guessing she was going about 90. Well, she had a lovely little "PEACE" bumper sticker on her car. There was a pickem up truck pulling a trailer in the fast lane too. He should have been in the slow lane, but Ms. PEACE flys up on his ass and tailgates him. Mr. Pickem Up doesn't get over, so Ms. PEACE goes around him in the right lane and does the ol cut him off short. Cracks me up. I guess she temporarily thought her bumper sticker said "INSTIGATE." Typical neo-hippie from Boulder kind of crap. Do as what is the recent cool thing to do, not as I do. No offense to you other Boulderites.

So, I'll keep the race report short. After racing the 3s last weekend (I got shelled. I need to learn how to stay out of the wind), I can definitely tell the difference in the skill level. A lot of the 4s can't ride a straight line to save their lives. A few them like to come straight across wheels right to their side. I peeled of to the side of the group a few times today because of what looked like a potential accidents in the making.

The legs felt decent today, and I had decided after the first crit I did this year, I was going to attack a couple of times in the remaining crits. Especially at the Stazio ones because of the nice little hill in the course. With 7 laps to go, I decided to attack going over the top of the hill, but I got stuck inside the group where I couldn't really make a move. Eventually we were down to 5 laps and a couple of guys were pushing the pace up the hill. I found myself in a good position to go, so I powered it over the top. I got a decent gap, but when things flatten out, my power isn't quite as good. I got caught at the finish line right before the turn back up the hill. Again guys were pushing the pace up the hill, but I was a little tired. I figured the rest of the group had wound it up a little to catch up to me and maybe were suffering up the hill too. I said to hell with it and attacked again. Same thing. Got a decent gap only to be caught at around the finish line again. Damn the guys going for the primes (Prime: An award given for the rider to reach a certain point mid-race in a sprint. Pronounced "preem." French.) It was only Go Fast fellas. By that point, I think I had decided that I had waited too long to attack, so I just sat in. On 2 (or maybe 3) laps to go, I hear a loud POW behind me and look back to see a guy and his bike in the air parallel to the ground. I'm guessing he didn't land upright because I heard a few crunching sounds after that. 4 or 5 guys in front of the wreck attacked after that. I don't know what I think of that, but I kind of maintained my pace and stayed with them. I may have accelerated a bit to stay with them. By the last lap there were about 20 or so guys back together anyway. So it's a bunch of guys coming into the last turn which opens up into a very flat straightaway with about 300-400 meters to the finish. I'm on the left side and I see a fairly big fellow in front of me. I'm thinking, "sweet, I'll sit on his wheel to get a good draft for the sprint." Well the big guy never really opens it up. I see the kid from the Roubaix open it up and get away. I start to go, then I see big Steve put on a massive acceleration and he flys by the kid. I'm going, but I don't see anyway of catching the kid or Steve. I was hurting like hell, but then,I saw 2 wheels out of the corner of my right eye. That made me dig a little deeper and I was able to hold them off for another 3rd place.

So this time I had the confidence in my legs, but I still missed out. I was afraid of going too soon on the sprint. I guess I'm still learning this road thing. I guess you need to learn who to get behind, but sometimes you don't have too much choice in the matter. I'm sad to report that there was no 6 pack of beer as a prize this time.

After the race, I decided I needed to get some more climbing in my legs to get ready for my season (mountain biking), so I headed over to Flagstaff. I forgot how steep that fucker is. It starts steep and gets steeper. I think the last time I did it was on my mountain bike for the Super Walker loop a couple of years ago. The grades weren't kind to me on the road bike, and I was running a 39x27. I resisted the temptation to do switchbacks across the road at it's steepest parts.

I've got another little story to tell, but this is a pretty long post as it is. Maybe I'll post it during the week. Check out the pics below.

Gotta love this sign. It's not one you see very often unless you live in Boulder.

I'm putting this on here because this was two days (April 24th) after an 80 degree day here in Denver. The weather here always amazes me. I've been here 7+ years. One would think I would have it figured it out by now.

Latest Listenings

Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Margot and The Nuclear So and So's - The Dust of Retreat.
S.O.F.T - S.O.F.T. ep
Loose Fur - Born Again in the USA
Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Show Your Bones

A couple of discs that have been out for a while that I just started listening to:
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema - I've been meaning to pick this one up for a while and got it with my emusic.com subscription a couple of months ago. It grow on me with every listen. Oh yeah, and Neko Case is a member of this band. Completely different from her solo stuff.

Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway

Yes, emusic gives me more music than I could ever listen to. In fact, I've noticed that I don't study a CD quite as much as I used to, but that is something I'll have to work on. If you are interested in joining, let me know and I'll send you an invite.

Back in Action

Well, I have my computer back. The AC outlet or whatever the hell it's called broke. Luckily, according to the computer geeks, "it's a common thing," with my particular type of laptop, so it was on Toshiba's tab and not mine.

Not much has been going on. Things seem to be falling apart left and right. One notable item is my PowerTap. I've had problems with that thing from the get go. It caused the namesake of this blog (that isn't really its fault, but it was definitely involved). I bought a full wheel from Cycleops, and it has never been true. The connection points on the handlebar mount sunk into the base of the mount. That messed up my power readings. I've had two cadence sensors fray without abusing them, and most recently I had to replace the axle and freehub body. I don't know if that is so much their fault or lack of maintenance, but I've got a set of Ksyrium that needed much less attention. After those items were replaced, the hub stopped transmitting power, so now a very key training tool is on it's way to Wisconsin to be looked at by the cheese heads.

When that thing works it's great, but it has been a pain in my ass on more than one occasion. I'll let you know if Cycleops does good by me.

The Tour de Georgia passed through a couple of my old "home towns" in the last few days. The ITT finished in Chattanooga yesterday, which, is where I went to college. Today's stage started in Dalton (it's funny to see top level pros riding the streets I used to "cruise") and passed through Chatsworth. Chatsworth is the home of the Murray County Indians, my other alma mater. I've never ridden my bike up and down the roads of the TT or the climbs of today's stage, but I've driven up them many a time. I can tell you that those guys aren't exaggerating when they talk about how difficult the TT course was. The first climb of today's stage was Ft. Mountain. Home of the Cohutta Lodge and location of my 10 year reunion a couple of years ago. Back when I was a kid . . . . So that is my connection to one of the biggest races in the US.

So below are some pictures of me and C-Dawg's trip to Fruita last weekend. Fun trip. Lots of ridin, chillin, and drinkin. Well, I don't know about a lot of drinking, but more than I've had lately.

Mmmm, Singletrack. I think this is Steve's loop. Didn't do it this year, but it's fun.




It was cloudy all day on Saturday and snowing at the higher elevations. Colorado rocks!

From the top of Mack Ridge about to head down. Super sweet trail.
Looking down on the Kokopelli trail.


The Frontside trail over on the 18 road side.

Zippity do-da

Zippity ay.
Joe's Ridge

Recovery drink.

No, this isn't a gay bar. It's a truck stop. Well, I guess that could be pretty close to a gay bar. If you have driven 70 on the east side of Palisade, you have seen this. It always makes me chuckle.

Out of Commission

The home computer is being repaired. I'll try to get some pics from Fruita up when I get it back.

Fruita

Off to Fruita tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have some pics up this weekend.

Word is Saul Raisin is doing better, but still has a long way to go. As a fellow North Georgia boy, I've been following his career pretty closely. In fact, in the first mountain bike race I ever participated in, Saul was a young 16 year old racing expert. I'm sure he kicked my ass. Hell, I think everyone kicked my ass that day. Get back on that bike soon Saul!

7 Steps to . . .

a successful bike race. Or at least one of great suffering.

1) Go to Nuggets (or your local professional sports team) game 2 nights before race. Stay out a minimum of 2 hours past normal bed time.

2) Do not clean bike the day before race as normal.

3) Do not eat adequately the night before the race.

4) Do drive the equivalent mileage of Denver to Boulder and back.

5) Do stay on your feet while you and a friend repair minor bike issue.

6) Do stay too long socializing at aforementioned friend's house.

7) Do go to bed 30 minutes after normal bed time, but just lay there and not go to sleep until 4 hours before you have to get up for your race.

If you follow my patented steps, YOU TOO can have a (semi-)successful race. For additional information on how to follow these steps, please send $19.99 to . . . .

So these are all the things I decided to do before the Boulder Roubaix this past Saturday. For those not in the know, no, this isn't a race from Boulder to Roubaix, France. That would take a paddle boat. I don't have one.

It is the Colorado version of the great spring classic Paris-Roubaix. Or the Queen of The Classics as it is called. No cobblestones on the Boulder version, but it is 75% dirt roads. Some of that is smooth, some washboard, some gravel, and some potholes. At times, the latter 3 are mixed together.

I almost bailed on the race due to the lack of sleep, but since I'm a cheap bastard and the reason for the trip to Boulder the night before was to pre-register, I decided I was going to at least make it a day of solid mental training. Mental training it was because I was tired, and my legs were more tired.

I decided my plan was just to get far enough to the front to be safe and see if I could stick there for the race. 5 laps of 8.6 miles. Not a huge distance, but definitely enough when you are already tired to start. So anyway, the game plan worked for about 5 minutes, but then all of a sudden, I found myself looking at about 40 asses in front of me. In case you are wondering, this is NOT a good thing in a race with rough roads, sketchy riders, and flying water bottles.

I eventually got myself back into a safer position, but every lap I was thinking, "man, I'm spent. There is no way I'm going to be able to stay with this front group another lap." As the race went on, the front group whittled down. On the last lap, I was still with the front group, barely. The pace was picking up, and again I was thinking, see above. As we were headed for the fairly steep rollers, I was thinking, "this is the end." It wasn't. Right after the last turn, there is a small rise. I though, "I'm never going to be able to stay with this acceleration." Well, I was still there after the acceleration, barely. There were about 20 guys left in the last section of about 500-1000 meters. Don't take my word on that because I'm not good at estimating the number in groups or the distance from point A to point B. Because of the increase in speed, everyone was lined up single file, and again, I was barely hanging on to the back. My goal at the point was just a top 20. With about 300-400m to go, I told myself, "just suck it up. You only have a minute or two left of suffering." So I start to drop the chain down the cassette and accelerate. Much to my surprise, I start passing guys. Goal: top 15. I pass a few more guys. Goal top 10. A guy attacks to the left, but at that point I didn't have the angle on him, so I go right. I accelerate a little more, and I'm on the second place guys wheel, and from what I can tell I got a solid gap on everyone else. At this point, first place was pretty much gone, I decided to pass 2nd place and I got past him freely. I still sprinted it out, but I guess another guy (a very young one), had caught my wheel at some point. He nipped me right at the line, so I took 3rd.

All in all a good day. Boulder Beer was there giving out free beer, so a Mojo IPA was my post-race recovery drink. My 3rd place prize was a sixer of Pass Time Ale. Beer is as good as gold in my book, so it was almost bike being a pro on this day.


Here is an action shot. That is me in the red, white, and blue. Just a guess, but I'm thinking the guy in front was suffering more than me. I picked up this picture here.

Here is the prize.

F#&@ing Wind

I'm here to declare the wind as my mortal enemy. I hate the mofo. I curse it not under my breath, but out loud. Very much out loud.

Koppenberg

The Koppenberg is a notorious climb in The Tour of Flanders/Ronde van Vlaanderen. It has a maximum grade of 25%. I did the Koppenberg Circuit race this past weekend. It's a local race that is on a 3.5 mile circuit with 50% of that being dirt roads. It gets its name from the a similar but not nearly as notorious climb in the race. I think it's maximum grade is only about 17%, not nearly as long, and is made of dirt, not cobbles. The races are held on the same day. Rumor has it that Tom Boonen is afraid of the one here in Colorado.

Of course, here in Colorado the few weeks/months, there hasn't been such a thing as a completely perfect weather day. If it's nice and sunny outside, you can betcha bottom dollar it's going to be windy, and windy it was. Just in case the climb wasn't tough enough, "they" decided to point the wind in the direction that would provide a head wind while climbing. Perfect. I would say it added about 3% to the climb, or so I would like to think.

The race went ok for me. I didn't feel horrible, but I could tell I was at the end of my 2nd period of intensity training. The legs didn't have quite the snap they've had in previous races or rides.

I learned the biggest lesson of this race last year. Get to the front fast. The race starts well before the whistle when jockeying for start line position. I was able to get to the front of the line, and get a good start. I stayed with the front group for most of the race. It was probably about 30 guys (out of 85+ starters) for the first lap, but throughout the race was whittled down. I started having some trouble on the 2nd lap. After the top of the climb, there is a long flat section of dirt road that has a nasty cross to head wind. I was staying toward the back of the group to find shelter from the wind. I saw a guy attack hard over to the left side of the road and decided I would try to get up to him and see what happens. Well in that process, I managed to find a nice stretch of washboard (it is exactly what it sounds like) that slowed me up a lot and isolated me in the wind. I busted my ass to get back up to the group which I finally did on a downhill paved section.

I was able to recover a little on the dirt road section. I made a move to the front of the group for the big climb, but about 1/3 of the way up I found myself in the rut on the left side. I had to get off my bike and run the rest of the hill. By that time, the front group was way too far gone. I got close to them with the help of some other guys, but spent too much energy doing so. The good thing was that I was still able to attack and try to bridge some gaps with that not so fresh feeling (yes that was intentional, ha ha).

I ended up 17th out of 85 finishers. The top 15 finished pretty much together. Without the falter on the hill, I may have been with them. I was a little disappointed, but it was a fun race nonetheless.

The Superior, CO version on the Koppenberg. It's not over at the top of this picture. It goes up for a few more feet after that.

The real deal. These are shots by Graham Watson, and I picked them up here. These pictures were taken several years ago, but from what I can tell, the thing is still just as difficult. Every year it's in the Tour of Flanders, top level PRO cyclists have to hoof it up the thing. You've gotta love Belgium. I drank some Belgium beer on Sunday just to make sure I got the full effect.