Philly Phyler day 2

The good weather continued, and even got a bit better for the criterium on Sunday. Initially, I wasn't really looking forward to a short four corner crit, but it ended up being much more fun then I expected.

After sleeping in, I arrived at the race barely 20 minutes before the start, and got a quick warm up in.

As usual, I staged at the back of the field, and started off at the very back. After two laps, I realized that the accordian effect back there was brutal, and after braking through the turns, there was some fast accelerations afterwards. One guy was yelling at another for breaking in the turns, but in the middle and back of the field, that was the only way for everyone to get through safely. I decided to move up to the front, and found that the riding was way easier up there. In the top 5-10, I could take smooth lines through the turns, no need for braking, and maintain a steady speed on the exit.

It is the accelerations that wear you out, not the speed.

One guy was off the front, and I took a few turns pulling until I suddenly saw the pace car in front of us. I never saw him come back to the field, and afterwards I heard that he crashed out.

I focused on staying near the front on the final laps, and came through the final turn in 8th. At speed, I felt my rear wheel bouncing across some of the chop in the pavement, but no real issues.

The sprint for the win was close, with Colombia taking it.



I think I actually really like crits.

Philly Phlyer day 1

I still can't believe the awesome weather we had for both days this weekend. Especially because this morning it snowed.

I headed down to Philly with 5 other Lehigh cyclists Saturday morning early for the TTT. Rob and Tom were doing the intro TTT, and Pat and I were doing the Bs. For never having ridden before as a pair, and for Pat's first collegiate race, we did pretty well. Our main goal was to keep rotating smoothly.

The circuit race was fun, I really like that course. Some long straight fast sections, some tighter sections with a roundabout near the finish, and a little hill at the turn around. Somewhere in the very beginning a rider got away, and it wasn't until after the race that I found out who it was. I asked around in the field, but it seems that no one else knew either. Turns out it was Aaron Snyder. At first I wasn't concerned, I figured that the long straight windy sections would bring back a solo effort, but after two laps when the gap had grown to almost a minute, some of us started trying to organize the chasing effort.

We never really got organized, we'd have a few good pulls, and then things would fall apart and the pace would slow again. I took a few turns at the front, mostly on the hill sections, but after 3 laps when it didn't look like we were going to bring him back, I decided to sit in more and wait until the end. There were a few more attacks, hoping to take advantage of an unorganized field, but nothing really got far.

Coming down the downhill after the S/F line, I found myself at the front leading the way past the hay bales. That was probably a good place to be as somewhere behind me I heard the sound of bikes and crunching hay bales. I'm not sure what happened, and I didn't look back.

Positioning for the finish was going to be tricky, there was a 90 degree right hand turn into a single lane climb with hay bales on the left, followed by a short false flat, and then the 3/4 of a roundabout into the finishing straight. Before the turn up the last hill, I found myself several rows back, and I was sure I'd get totally boxed in on the climb if I stayed there. I used a big effort to try and get near the front before the climb started, but it was probably too much of an effort too late. I had a decent position by the top, but then I lost a bunch of spots before the roundabout, and had nothing for any sprint at the end. I rolled in at the back of a relatively small group of a dozen or so. In hindsight, I would have been better off getting to the front sooner, but I don't know how I could have gotten any where without swarming the yellow line. It would have been worth hitting the wind on the straight section just to be in position for the climb without having to accelerate there.







Still, another good day of racing, and a crit to look forward to tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent hanging out in Philly with my friend Sheila, drinking tea, going to this crazy sculpture garden place, and eating awesome Ethiopian food.

Nepal video (part 1)

So here is my very first attempt at video editing, any thoughts for improving would be appreciated.

March series

After the cancellation of Stevens, it was time to quickly find another option for Sunday. Fortunately, just nearby is the March series by Lehighwheelmen.

Brandon and I headed over, I signed up for the A and B race, but unfortunately he had to do the cat 5 race because of his new license.

I rolled up to the B start behind Bob and recognized several national champions, track stars, former Olympians, and the like. I had to clarify that this was, indeed, the start of the B race. Yikes.

Somewhere in the middle of the race, a break was gone, but a sprint was coming up. I couldn't remember how many people were in the break, but I thought that there was a reasonable chance that there might be a point still left for the field. I went, but got passed before the line. So unless the break only had 2 people in it, no points for me. I really should pay more attention and have better general race awareness.

Similar thing happened in the A race, I'm following some guys wheel, and another guy comes around me and asks me what I'm waiting for. He obviously wanted me to pull through earlier. I look back and realize we're in a group of about 6-8 with a good gap behind us. The race is just shredding apart. So I start rotating through and trying to help out. We weren't flowing very smoothly, about half of us were trying to set up a rotating double pace line (probably the best option for the number we had), but others were taking longer hard pulls that strung us out single file. I'm guilty of trying to do both at different times. It was such a short course, that the double pace line was tough to keep rotating through the turns.

I have no idea how many groups were ahead of us, or behind us, all I know is that we got lapped twice by the leaders. Wow, they were flying.

But good racing, got to pay more attention, though.

Training -> Eating

Great ride yesterday with Jeff and Greg. Did the Lehigh Valley tour of what's what of climbing with 5 stiff climbs, including Bougher Hill and Haupts Bridge. Each one has its own method for destroying legs.



Bougher Hill starts off steeply, and then just doesn't let up.



Then what I think might be the hardest climb I know of, Haupts Bridge Rd. It starts off steeply, and then towards the top you get this steep kick and then a deceptive leveling off, where you think it should be easier, but it isn't. It is just only 5%. By the end, I don't think I could have pedaled downhill.

After 50 miles or so, I was really looking forward to the burrito I knew was waiting for me at home.

Crit update

So check out the finish photo from the crit on Saturday for the B race. Of particular note is the jean shorts guy in 2nd place.

Rutgers Scarlet Scurry Day #2

Link for 2012 race.

More rain today, but this time it wasn't letting up. Brandon and I arrived in New Jersey ready for another day of racing. Devin had given us a car tarp, considering the rain, so I starting working on setting it up, while Brandon went off to warm up.

However, my attempts at raising the tarp did not go well. I had parked at a corner of the lot, near the grass, so I could stake down the tarp. The rain was really coming down, and a stiff wind was blowing off of the nearby lake. Every time I managed to get the tarp 90% up, a big gust would tear it back down. For about 20 minutes, I wrestled with stakes, poles, cords, and tarp in the wind and rain, but all I managed to do was coat the mess in a combination of motor oil in the parking lot, and duck poop from the grass. Somehow I had chosen a spot next to the Exxon Valdez of car lots, and the entire area was covered in piles of duck poop. Apparently, I was at the low end of the parking lot, and all the runoff was flowing around my car. Finally, when a gust picked up the entire mess and launched a tent stake across the lot into a parked car, I gave up and shoved the soaked, oily, stinky duck poop mess into a bag in the trunk of my car. Egh.

Brandon leading the chase in the splintered C race:




The course was tough, slightly under a mile, with a 3-4% grade on the back side. Nothing super steep, but after a dozen laps, it really starts to hurt. Brandon had a good race, earning points on every sprint lap, I believe. One really strong rider got a way and stayed away in the C race, and swept up most of the first place points.




Fortunately the rain let up for the B race, and the breeze wasn't too bad. Because of the points format, I think some guys decided to go all out for the first 2 sprint laps, they were very fast. Scoring at least one point was critical to placing ahead of the majority of the field, which probably wouldn't score. I sat back for these first ones, hoping that I could hang on and that the later sprint laps would be easier as the legs wore down. Maybe some of those that managed to get points on the first few laps, would not contest the later points.



I managed to get to the start of the climb in good position, one guy was a few seconds ahead of the field, so only 3-2-1 points were up for grabs. I got passed half way up, and then shortly after, another guy. I was charging pretty hard, and didn't have much more to give, but I was totally invested at this point. The difference between scoring, and not scoring, would have a big impact on placing because of the points system. Two guys were coming up fast, and I only barely managed to stay ahead at the line for a single point. After that I breathed a little easier, scoring that single point was important.

Only sprint point:



The last few laps were very tough. I didn't have much left, I was starting to get sloppy on the bike and pedaling squares. I started switching to the small ring and going high cadence which I think got me up a little more efficiently.

The single point was good enough for 9th overall, satisfied to make the top 10 again. Awesome race, tons of fun, and a good challenging course.

Best bike of the race: Really cool bright purple frame, every time he went by, I couldn't help but stare.

Best quote heard from the sidelines: You're riding Dura-Ace, you can get up that hill!

Now I'm spending the evening cleaning road grime out of the nooks and crannies of my bike. Shower time, the dirt gave me a bad looking uni-brow.

Rutgers Scarlet Scurry Day #1

Link for 2012 race.

2011 road racing has officially begun with the first collegiate race of the year. I decided to jump into the Bs, as they are supposedly equivalent to 3/4 racing and that sounded like it would be good experience.

I was not super thrilled about getting up at 4 am in the cold and dark to drive out to New Jersey, especially when the weather was threatening to rain. When we got to the TT course, the roads were soaked and kept spitting more rain. But, in one of those miraculous events, just as the first riders were hitting the course, the clouds rolled out, and the warm sun dried the roads quickly.

From Lehigh, we had 3 car loads of people and bikes. A pretty good turnout I thought, but some other teams like F&M had 30+, spread throughout the categories.

Brandon on his way to 3rd in the C2 division:



A 2 mile flat TT is not exactly my forte, but I wanted to see what I could do. There is no way to get "comfortable" for that kind of effort, I was all over the bike, in the drops, on the hoods, in the "invisible aero bars", but it was really tough hitting a good consistent effort level. With a full aero cockpit, I've been able to hold 24+ mph for 10 miles, but struggled today at only 23.5 average over 2 miles. I think the aero stuff really does make a huge difference, plus I'm not quite where I was at the end of the season last year. I do like the fact that collegiate doesn't allow any aero equipment, it really levels the playing field. Good enough for 22 out of 41, and for this event, I'm happy with that.

Eric did some big turns at the front of the C2 crit and helped Brandon out for more points:



For the crit I started with moderate goals, work on positioning and sprinting, the two most important things for a flat four corner crit. The race started off pretty fast, and combined with the high winds that afternoon, finding shelter was crucial. I started off in the back, like usual, but the accordian affect there was brutal, I had to almost sprint out of every corner to stay in the field. Fortunately the front finishing straight was sheltered from wind by the stadium, and the downwind leg had a slight uphill which made moving up very easy. The road was wide, and I could get just about as far up in the field as I wanted. Riding in the top 10-15 was much smoother and easier then sitting at the back.

Early in the race, one rider got a relatively large gap solo off the front, and soon after we came through and the bell rang for an intermediate sprint. I had no intention of going for it, planning on just saving myself for the final sprint. But one by one, the riders in front of me pulled off to the escape the wind, and on the final turn I found myself 3-4 wheels back. What the heck, I have to go for it now, the positioning was perfect. I started accelerating and got past them relatively easily, I was moderately surprised, as I'm generally not a sprinter in any regard, whatsoever. It may have been a bit easier, as the solo guy was still gone and picked up the first place points, so there was less motivation in the field to scrap for 2nd place points.

Fortunately, the pace eased up after this, and I sat in for a while to recover. It was a short race, though, only 45 minutes, so nobody was waiting around and a fair number of attacks went constantly. First race, everyone wants to test their legs out. F&M was very active and constantly sending people off the front. Several others in the field seemed to be very worried about these solo moves, and kept trying to organize more chase effort. Considering the massive winds, I didn't think anyone had a ghost of a chance solo, so I did my personal duty and neatly followed wheels.

Patience, maybe I'm finally learning....

As expected, everything came together with 5 to go. The pace ramped up, and I concentrated on just trying to maintain a good position. I came into the final upwind stretch a little further back then I wanted, but I really wanted to stay sheltered for that stretch of the course. I felt really good coming out of the final turn, and started passing way on the right side, but everyone went wide, and I ran out of road between the field and the cones. I sat up too early, as I definitely think I had more sprint left. I think I probably managed top 10, but I haven't seen the results yet.

So a very satisfying race, the Collegiate Bs actually felt easier then most Cat 4 crits I've done. I think the course, with wind, and small hill really helped in that regard.

The weirdest part of the race was some guy, who for the last 3 laps of the race, kept yelling to everyone asking how many laps were left, and if it was time to sprint yet. Every time we came around, he apparently forgot to check the lap cards. Every time....

Oh, and the guy with the faded denim bike shorts. Those were, surreal.

Tomorrow is points race in the rain, this will be interesting.