Race Report: 2012 Carl Dolan Circuit Race

Warmed-up. Started race. Wrecked. Woke up eight hours later in a hospital.

If you want to know more, such as the long list of thank yous that are required and the road ahead, continue to read.

To state that the Carl Dolan circuit race was a blur would be an understatement. Now I know, the race was over two weeks ago, but bear with me for a few minutes and you’ll understand why it's taken two weeks to do the race report.

It was 15 April, a beautiful morning, and I headed up to the race to watch the women's race and then prepare for my race at around one o'clock. I learned that another one of my team members, Don, was also racing, so I was excited. After watching the women’s race, I started thinking about little strategy and then broke out the trainer and set the bike up. After a solid 40 min. of warm-up, I was ready to go.

My closest 120 friends and I rolled up to the line and got prepared. The race started, and I remember the guy in front of me having a hard time getting clipped in, which provided some initial excitement. I quickly got around him, moved to the front, and then pulled for the first couple laps. The course was nice and fast and it seemed as if it was going to be a decent 21 miles in the saddle. I stay toward the front for the first 30 min., I was doing well, and that's as much as I remember. So I guess I will have to repeat what others told me.

Thank You to…..

Apparently there was a fairly large crash, approximately 20 of us. My understanding is that I took the worst of the crash. I was evacuated to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The next thing I remember is about seven hours later. I was unconscious for about 20 minutes and in and out of it for the next several hours. Apparently, during the seven hours, there were many people who came to my aid and also who facilitated phone calls and other support. Some of which I may not know occurred but will always be grateful. To Andy, Chris, Sunny, Alex, and Dana who helped not only at this site but also at the hospital I'm eternally grateful. To Jim and Bill, and other members of the US Military Cycling Team that made phone calls and other items I'm equally grateful. To the Bike Doctor Doc at the scene and the EMTs who rendered aid, thank you. To the pink-clad Team B of Shock/Trauma who scanned my head, Xrayed 100% of my body, and took care of both me and the friends who were with me at the hospital, thanks. For the rest of MABRA, that sent texts, email, phone calls, flowers, each meant so very much, thank you so much.

Bike status

As of right now the bike is still recuperating at Freshbikes in Arlington. It does appear as if 50% of the campy shifting mechanism is destroyed, and that the frame has seen its better days.

Equipment status

Skin suit, destroyed. Lazer Helmet, faithfully did its job, but destroyed. Glasses, not to be left out, destroyed. Even my heart rate strap somehow found its demise underneath the skilled hands of a paramedic who instead of unsnapping it decided a good pair scissors would work instead. So basically the only thing that I had on that survived was a pair of socks. Funny enough, given the above equipment status, showing up at shock trauma in only a pair socks left quite an impression on the nurses.


Body status

There was some initial concern with the amount of time that I was knocked out but I can report the hardhead is still hard. The road rashes healing fairly well, and now I have a nice blue cast on my left arm covering the pins that are holding together my thumb.

Prognosis

I was given permission by the doctor to get back on the trainer. Lazer helmet and skinsuit will have to be reordered from the team. Freshbikes will help get the Cannondale back on the road. The cast will be on my thumb for about three weeks and then it will be exchanged for a brace for week. By that time all road rash will be raceable, the thumb will be good, and I'll be back at the line for Bike Jam / Kelly Cup.

Race Report: 2012 First Annual Red Wing Park Shamrock Criterium

Well I headed down south of DC to the Virginia Beach area for the First Annual Red Wing Park Shamrock Criterium.  I hopped in the Cat 3/4 race noticing on bikereg that about 40 had signed up.  Quickly flipping over to road-results race predictor to see how I was to do, I saw a pretty promising 15th.   Noticed my buddy Alex Rapavi was going to be in the race, so I figured I would know at least one. 

I arrived at Red Wing Park with plenty of time to get warmed up and look over the course.  The weather was cool and clear, around 55 degrees, and the course was flat with four turns and one straight with a head wind.

For those who follow this blog, it is odvious that one of my week points is getting in a good warm-up.  So this race I wanted to really try and do everything by the book.  So here is my warm-up:

20 min easy in the small ring-start to break a little sweat
10 min tempo pace, build to sustained threshold by the end of the last minute
2-3 min easy recovery spin
2-5 min at sustained threshold
3-5min easy recovery spin
1-2 min hard VO2/anaerobic threshold pace
3-5 min easy
30 sec spinups to max RPM, easy gear
3-5 min easy—GO RACE!id a really good warm-up and had timed things about right, went to throw on my race wheels and for some reason my rear wheel hub was seized, hastily put the training wheel back on and rolled to the line.  I knew that I was screwed because I now had a 13-28 rear cassette in a crit.  The other negative was now I was lining up dead last.

With that said, I did a really good warm-up and had timed things about right, went to throw on my race wheels and for some reason my rear wheel hub was seized, hastily put the training wheel back on and rolled to the line.  I knew that I was screwed because I now had a 13-28 rear cassette in a crit.  The other negative was now I was lining up dead last.


Race started off very quick!  The first 10 minutes the average speed was just over 27 mph, then settled down to 25.  I was tail gunning trying to move forward but there were only two long straights so I would move up as far as I could not to dive the left hand corners.  A break went off the front about lap 2, 4 guys, but I was so far back there was nothing that I could do.

I stayed about top ten for the next 25 minutes and decided with about 6 laps to go, to get all the way to the front and see if I could make anything happen. I got away a little but the head wind dropped my speed down enough for the group to catch back on.  With 4 to go the breakaway crashed, taking out three of the four.  The single was far enough off the front that we could not catch him.  The last lap I got a little out of position and came into the final straight sitting about 17th.  I could not gain on the ones in front nor get caught by the ones behind and crossed the finish line in 18th.  

Post-race headed out with Alex and Dana and did another 2 hours.  All in all a good race, poor luck in the beginning and tactical failure at the end.  Funny side note, on our post-race ride we stopped at Schlotzsky's for lunch.  With my US Military kit on, a little guy about 5 years old, told his mom that he thought I was Captain America, guess I am going to have to get a warm-up cape.

   

Good decisions:  placement in the peloton

Bad decisions:  warming up on my non-race wheels.  Not staying 100% focused on the last 2 laps, I need to start "racing" the last two laps, get in position and just go for it.

Overall finish:  18th.

Fitness is coming together should be ready for Jefferson Cup, my first "A" race.

Next race:  Smackdown Criterium on Saturday and Dismal Dash TT on Sunday.  Check road-results perdictor to see how I am suppose to do.

Race Report: Fork Shoals Road Race

This week I traveled down to Traveler’s Rest South Carolina to get in a few days of serious climbing, like 21K by the week’s end.  Several of us decided to head over to the Greenville Spring Training Series and hop in the Fork Shoals Road Race.  So I through my hat into the CAT4 race with about 90 others, including Mike Gurtzweiler who traveled down from DC with me.

After doing a little research on Strava and Mapmyride, it looked as if the course was three 14.5 mile loops.  Two climbs per lap with one climb about .5 miles at 3.1%.  The weather was cool and clear but had a pretty solid cross wind.

The night before we set around and discussed possible race strategies, sit in, go off the front etc.  I had pretty much decided that I wanted to mix this race up a little and not be pack fodder.

The race started off fairly tame, I had just come off of climbing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Basically had 15 hours and 18k of climbing under the legs and felt pretty taxed.  So I had little expectation for the race.  I was there for training purposes.

The field had LOTS of juniors so I moved forward fairly quickly; I did not want to get caught up with them.  I sat in for the first 10-15 minutes still deciding what to do.  Did I want to just sit there and be field fodder or do something more exciting?  I looked back at the race in Florida and decided that I should just go to the front, keep covering breaks until either I popped or the finish line appeared. 

I did not "attack" the field but I did pull a lot.  I talked to a few guys in the main field and they knew other US Military Cycling Members so, against all good judgment, felt that I should represent the kit, so I moved forward.  I even had one guy talk about the magazine article from a few weeks ago, so that sealed the deal, forward I went.  I sat on the front for close to 30 miles (pulled the entire second lap, no change of positioning).  The one section with the cross wind, I absolutely buried myself trying to split the pack.  Post race, I had SEVERAL riders come up and make statements like, 15 more seconds and the whole back end would have just shattered.

The last lap I knew that I was going to have trouble with the hill.  It was 3.1% over about .5 miles, should have been a minute and a half climb.  I went off the front to get down as fast as I could but being a poor descender I did not gain as much ground as I needed to.  In hindsight, I should have attacked before the descent to gain more ground to give myself time to crawl up the other side.  I did still average 340w on the climb but floated through the pace and out the back.  I chased for 10 miles, could see the group but could not get back on.  While part to the peloton and pulling my normalized power was 296w and average power 239w.  Post-pop, NP was 272 and average was 253w.  I worked harder alone for 43 minutes then I did earlier so I know my fitness was pretty good. I did have a little help in the last five miles, a rider for Krystal out of Tennessee, Larry Russell.  Mike did the right thing a set in finishing 20^th.  I was happy to hear that Clayton Burke from the Junior Flyers that rotated though the front a few times with me ended up 2^nd.  Last kudos goes out to Veloshine and RTO riders, they seemed to be the only ones that shared the work on the first two laps.  Possible that several others did on the third, but I wouldn’t know, Larry and I were doing a two man team time trial. 

Given that I planned on staying up front and not just being field fodder I am very happy with the race.  I was not looking to win nor gain points on this one.  As far as representing, I had a hellava a lot more people commenting and photo ops being up front then in the back.  Hopefully some of those will appear on the internet over the next couple of days.

   

Good decisions:  not just sitting in;

Bad decisions:  just not sitting in; trying to break apart the field

Overall finish:  65th.  Missed the field finish by 1 minute and 24 seconds.  If this was NASCAR the sponsors would have been happy, crossed finish line in front of the crowd, twice in 1st and one in 65th.

Overall fitness was not an issue, climbing and weight was!!!

Race Report: Race for Humanity Road Race, San Antonio Florida

First and foremost, I was a little apprehensive of the race on Saturday due to a couple of competing factors.  First, my knee had shown a great deal of weakness the week before and second, I was not confident of my fitness for an early season road race.  Lastly, I knew that my form would be in the cellar because of a solid week of long rides.

The race plan as a group was fairly simple.  I would cover as many of the early race attacks as I could and if by some chance was still in the pack toward the end, move forward and support Kurt and Sam with the final sprint.  Knowing that my fitness was not at the highest level possible, mainly due to 12 hours of training miles a week and not really being out on the road due to short days of sunlight and long work hours, I figured that I would just continue to counter attacks until I was shot off the back.

The course was 51 miles in length constructed over 3 laps of undulating hills.  None of the hills could be considered very steep or long, but with the possibility of a head wind would be tragic if one was stuck out time trialing off the back, a prophetic fear that I had from the beginning.

One of the coolest things happened at the beginning of the race.  The entire 3/4 US Military Cycling Team was given a call up.  As we moved forward, you could hear the claps of several of the 82 riders.  Not something that I had experienced before, so pretty cool.

Call-ups before the race

The first attack came within minutes of the gun.  Peggy had planned on taking either the first or second attack, so off the front she went.   Once the second attack occurred, Kurt went off with it, as I watched Peggy slowly move back into the pack.  Once that attack was reeled back in, other took off.  Sam and Kurt gently prodded by elevating their voices and telling me it was my turn.  The hope of finishing in the pack evaporated and out of the saddle I went.  Due to the hesitation, and desire to just sit in, I felt the first of many matches being lit.  I was able to get up to the group and latch on.  Slowly we got sucked back in and a pattern began to develop.  I would see Peggy go flying by; get reeled in; then my turn.  The last break that I got involved in started out with 10.  Once up the road, the group of 10 broke into two groups of 5, so off I went with the front group.  Finally, it was just me and a rider from USF.  Looking back at my power file, USF and I were out in the wind for 20 minutes.  My first hour of the race, my normalized power was over 355w.  

This time my passing back through the peloton was at the worst moment, on a climb.  I went from the front, to the middle, and shuttled off the back, destine for day of time trialing.  Fortunately for me, unfortunately for the team, two other USMil riders had met the same fate.  I hopped on with them and two other riders.  The five of us worked together until I could no longer keep a wheel.  My knee was on fire; backward I went again.  At this point I did not know if I was dead last, bottom third, nothing.

I did come across another group of riders, including USF from earlier, and began working with them, but it became evident that they all had popped and could not do much.  I connect with a rider and we began working together upping our speed.  After thirty minutes or so, I came upon the 2 USMil riders, but they were done for the day, and we just passed through them and continued.  About 17 miles left, the other rider looked at me and in Spanish said, “me acaban”, loosely “I am finished”.  I pulled away and time trialed to the finish line.

Overall, I am happy with my finish.  I wish that my fitness had been better so that I could have accomplished more for the team and my personally.  I think I was 27^th in the 4s and 58^th overall.  I found some solace in the comment of one of my teammates who post race said that I had “done exactly what I was suppose to”, well with the exception of being with the team on the finish line. 

Not the finish that I wanted but a great end to an incredible week of riding and racing with my new teammates.

US Military Cycling Team Camp: Day 5

As I stated last night, the time trial went pretty good for me, so I am happy with the results.  The one negative?  I now have to go into WKO+ and adjust my FTP and then do the same on the Computrainer, my tempo workouts in the BTC just got harder.

Friday morning we went for a leisure ride out the Suncoast Trail, the same one that we have each day, but found an spur to go out and look around Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park.  It was an absolute blast, just pedaling around, chatting and taking in the scenery.  We even came upon some wildlife and stopped for a petting and photo op with a snapping turtle.  As bad as that sounds, fortunately, no lost digits.  So basically it was 30ish mile ride over a couple of hours.  Very enjoyable pace.

Post ride consisted of the norm, back to the hotel, lunch, nap, get the bike ready for the next ride.  Today we were going to get to do something t special, we loaded up and went out to MacDill AFB to ride with the local “lunchtime” riders.  With our twenty and their twenty, we had a fairly sizable group to go riding around the base.  Between the 300 miles we had put in during the week and the race weekend coming up, we were all quit content with just doing another easy afternoon ride.  I will say, showing up on base, all kitted up and going for a ride with the ‘locals’ was really cool.  Doug from FRS was also on site and setup at tent, so upon return, we all hung out until time to roll back to the hotel.

Approach of "retreat," the instantaneous transition from cyclists to Soldiers. It's not what we do, it's who we are.

Once back to the hotel, another shower and it was time for dinner.  Spending a few years on different teams, I was use to the normal “team” meeting to talk race strategies and whatnot.  Bill started us out and then Sean took over.  I will admit I have never been in a meeting like that.  30 minutes and I learned more about racing then in the last 10 years for riding.  We then broke into our selective squads and talked specifically about our race.

Since there wasn’t a women’s race, Peggy a strong CAT 2, was going to drop in with us.  Thus giving us seven riders in the 3/4 race.  The plan was fairly basic, Peggy was going to either cover or initiate the first break.  I was going to cover the second, Don and Mark to follow suit.  Kurt was going to be the lead-out for Sam, and if the opportunity arose, Brad was going to try to get in break and make it stick.

I came back to the room nervous.  I am suppose to cover the attacks, hmmm… will my fitness allow for such early race match burning???  Will I be relegated to time trialing by the end of the race????