Jersey Devil RR 2012 - "Col du Skillman"

Living in Eastern PA is a very good thing for cycling: good training roads, and many of the ECCC races are only 1-2 hours from here. Compared to the schools in New Hampshire and Vermont, we've got it good down here. The Princeton Jersey Devil RR was only about an hours drive, and we sent a full 2 carloads with 7 Lehigh cyclists.

It turned out to be one of those days that went well for everyone, check out the full report here.

Cycling is a funny thing, so many times I've done relatively well when I didn't expect to, and totally biffed any good results in races or courses I thought I had a decent shot at. Last summer was a perfect example. I don't know if high expectations are bad thing for good race results, or, on the contrary, having no expectations frees one to just race. Probably both.

Either way, I've had very little actual expectations coming into these collegiate A races, knowing they're a fair bit higher level then the Cat 4 races I was doing through last year. My goals are not to place well, but rather try and become a better bike racer. With this thinking, I'd rather be racing at the highest level that I can qualify for.

So far it's been some of the hardest racing I've ever done, more fun, and a better experience.

Anyway, I watched Molly, Brandon, and Eric race well, got myself good and caffeinated (coffee, coffee, coffee!), and staged myself for the A race. The forecast called for a chance of rain, and we got a few drops here and their, but fortunately it stayed clear.

Based on the course profile, I had expected the climb to be tougher, but like everyone who had raced already was saying, it really wasn't a very steep or long climb. How hard it is, however, is very relative to how fast you go up the climb, and I definitely hit it a couple of times just about pinned. It wasn't enough to break up the field, but 8 laps takes it's toll in repetition.

As expected, some of the best and strongest got away in a break that mortals like myself could do nothing about. Unfortunately, some of the regular names like Adam Bry, Wyatt Stoup, and others DNF'd. It looks like Adam and another guy tangled on the climb, and maybe some MIT teammates waited to try and pace him back to the group. Good teammates, but either they didn't make it, or didn't attempt it.

I spent basically the first 7 laps just sitting at the back, trying to ride efficiently. The climb really stretched things out, and the descent highlighted my poor descending skills. The back of the field was probably a good place for me to be.

On the final lap, as we were mostly still together, I expected things to get very aggressive setting up the final sprint. I moved up to the top 7 spots on the climb, a Pitt rider attacked and looked strong, so I made a few rotations to help bring him back. Cresting the final series of inclines, I was still near the front of the field, however, by the time I got to the bottom of the descent, I was at the very back once again.

At this point, I felt like I was out of contention, the faster guys were now at the front again. I rolled down the flat, straight section of the course, just sitting at the back of the pack. Some West Point guys tried to attack, but nothing was going anywhere. The paced started to ramp up before the final turn, and the struggle for positioning began.

There is a gentle "S" turn after the last corner, before the finishing straight where we get full use of both lanes. Swinging through there, the field fanned out, spreading it's proverbial wings as everyone tried to move up on the outside. As holes appeared, I just played the patient opportunist and slid forward, filling gaps.



It was like the seas parted, and the red carpet rolled out. When the West Point guys in front opened up, I had a clear open line down the very center and followed their wheels out the front of the congestion. I got a little too ambitious when I tried to come around one too early, hit a lot of wind, and couldn't move up further, but managed to hold onto 5th for the field sprint, 9th overall.

I really wish I had kept the video camera on for that race, it was certainly a sprint worth watching. Anyway, I'm definitely happy with that result. Race Predictor had me at 32nd.

Next up, PSU, I absolutely love that course.

Philly Phlyer Crit

This unbelievable weather continues, and we had 60s-70s with sun, awesome for March, and perfect for a crit. Continuing my string of screw ups for the weekend, I pinned my number on the wrong side, and didn't realize it until it was too late. Ah well, on this course, with this field, it was just going to be a matter of hanging on as long as possible anyway. Three weeks in, time to get my act together.

After a neutral lap, we were off in earnest. Like usual, I staged myself towards the rear, and spent the first few laps tail-gunning. I quickly realized that was a bad idea on this course, as the the pace was really high, the accordioning around the turns was really tough, and as riders were popping, I was trying to close gaps. Ouch.

I was too cross eyed to know when it happened, but at one point a break went, and I popped off the main group. I figured I was done at that point, but soon drifted back to a sizeable chase group. We were definitely out of contention, but at least it was a group to ride with. Back here, it was a completely different race, felt like the pace was half as fast. I took some turns at the front, it was definitely much easier and faster riding a clean line through the turns. With a couple to go, the lead pace car came through, and we got over to let the leaders through. I think that technically we were allowed to mix it up as lapped riders, but I had no interest getting into a group that I didn't belong.

Coming into the final lap, we still had a small group going, and I was hoping to at least get a chance to sprint it out, if even for only twenty-umpteenth place. However, approaching the final turn, more riders came through to lap us, and I considered my race pretty much neutralized, so just rode it in.

I still felt like I had a bunch left for a sprint, but not going to happen when you're lapped.

Oh, and I did charge my camera today, but apparently didn't hit start. Oh well, next time.

Philly Phlyer circuit race

This was the 3rd time I've done this course, first time was as a 5 back in 2009, I think. Last year I did the collegiate "B" race, and went to early, faded on the roundabout, and lost a few spots on the final sprint when I had nothing left. The finish was nervous and positioning was aggressive on the final incline, so I was curious to see what the A race would be like this year.

We started just easy, but the climbs were brisk, and the field was slowly whittling down. I heard one nasty crash off to my right near the gutter along River Dr, probably a victim of a sewer drain. Then on the next lap I got caught behind some crash on the climb near the hay bales, I was far enough back that I managed to scoot around cleanly, and then chase hard, but that probably ended a few races.

I tried out the $40 "keychain camera" from some Chinese eBay seller, and for it's cost, it looks pretty good. This one is the 808 #16 version. One minor drawback is that the battery lasts only about 40 minutes, but a more significant issue is that the cheap CMOS sensor uses a rolling shutter, so you can get some bad motion induced artifacts. Anything with vibration looks just awful. I decided to try and get the camera mounted as securely as possible with a bit of dense rubber, and try out some of the post processing options to remove camera shake. Some of the more advanced tools can even compensate for a rolling shutter by applying a different transformation to different parts of the frame. I tried a plugin for Transcode and it seems to work pretty well. You can really see it working in on the final climb when I'm rocking the bike. Edited with Kdenlive.

Here is the video. I originally had a much better soundtrack picked out, but my M83 selection caused the video to be blocked in the US. So instead I substituted some bad, royalty free beats. Apologies. Anyway:



The finish was much more reserved then the B race was last year, although when the top guy went, the rest of us were left to just drag race for the final few points.

Frozen Toed Season Opener Day 2: Rutgers Crit 2012

The A field is definitely a pretty significant jump up from the B field. My plan for the crit was to try and conserve as much as possible, and try to avoid getting behind any big breaks in the field. Step one was to stage well, but then I blew that by completely missing my pedal, and utterly failing to clip in. A couple of attacks, 2 guys got away for a while, but eventually everything came back. I could move up on the back climb, but would invariably slip back on the descent. Several times I let gaps open, and had to find faster wheels to follow down the hill.

Two big changes from last year: not a points race, and the S/F was moved to the front straight, after the descent, not so good for me, it would make for a very fast sprint. There was a near collision at the start of the climb one lap, and things got a little pinched by the curb before that first turn, but mostly good racing.

With two to go, I knew I needed to at least try and move up, but got boxed in on the inside of the climb, and the final lap was so fast, it was all I could do to just hang on. Got behind some gaps on the descent, and finished at the back. At least I didn't flat, and managed to hang on for the duration of the 60 minutes.

Another big difference in the A field is the average cost of their bikes, holy crap. I looked around once and saw a Super Record 11 group, at least one electronic group, several power taps, and lots of expensive carbon fiber. The collective cost of the bikes in the A group must be quite staggering. I also noticed another guy with the same KCNC brakes (in black), don't see those too often.

May skip the crit next weekend, but I'll probably do the RR. Sort of surprised all the distances are so short, though.

Rutgers TT & Circuit Race 2012

Apparently there is some very popular site by the same name as I used to call this blog. So much for me thinking I had a clever and original title, forgive my blogging faux pas. Anyway, no more attempts to be witty, I'll just call this "thing" L&L for now. Besides, maybe that will be harder to google, but probably not.

Road cycling season is finally underway, what better way to start then with a 2.2 mile TT. After moving up to collegiate As, I knew I'd get blown away in this event, nonetheless, I still wanted to see if I could go any faster then last year. It's hard to compare times, because they added a section at the top of the course, maybe I was few seconds faster, but not much.

The road race I was much more looking forward to. The dreary, drizzling rain from the morning was slowly fading out, and the dark clouds began to drift away. Almost on perfect cue, while we were all staged and minutes before the start, the sun broke out and we had blue skies for the rest of the day. I love it when that happens.

I was hoping to start off the 65 miles with a parade lap, but that didn't happen. There were some good attacks, and the field got really stretched out, but basically stuck together. The third lap felt particularly tough, for a while I was in a very delicate position, totally at my limit to just hang on. I looked up once and noticed several big buzzards circling around, with any extra effort, they'll be picking at my carcass for sure. Finally, two big groups got away, one with about 10, and another slightly smaller. Suddenly, the pace really relaxed. I think we all realized that the points were up the road. We still had a group of about 10, but we mostly just soft pedaled the 4th lap. A few of us tried to organize some basic rotation, but there was not a lot of motivation.

About halfway up the long straight climb on the 5th lap, I suddenly felt my front rim bottom out, and I was involuntarily out of the race. That first section of road had some really nasty potholes, and it definitely sent a bunch of people walking back with flats.

It was disappointing to flat out of the race, with only about 10 miles left, especially as I starting to feel much better again and recovered from lap 3. Just riding that group in to the finish would have put me in the top half of the field, but can't change what happened, and many others had the same problem.

Tomorrow is another day, and another race.