2011 Season is off to a Start

So I will start this one like I have done before... “been away for awhile but still have been riding”. I need to sit down and do some reflection on 2010 but for now 2011 is ready to start. I took the majority of December off an began building my plan for 2011. First off I selected a few “A” races and then a couple of good showing races, then the ones that I will be at for the purposes of flat out fun.

My “A” races this year will be Tour of Washington County and Nationals (crit and RR) in Bend, Oregon. For Cross Season this year, I am really excited about Worlds being in Louisville KY so that is going to be another goal.

So far this season, I have logged a ton of trainer / computrainer miles and few great rides out in Catlett VA. Racing buddy pointed out a great 50 mile loop, so i have been heading out there ion Sundays to ride. I figure this year I would follow the advice about “ride in a group, train alone”. Still looking around to find a few late winter / early spring camps. So afar I figure that I will head to South Carolina to do the Base Training Camp (Feb 24- 1 Mar), then follow it up with Veloworks in Austin, and then something out at Lost Barn / Raw Talent Ranch. I was hoping the team would be doing something this spring but it has been pretty quite on the home front.

Over the winter I have spent a ton of time working on continuing my coaching education and have signed on with Veloworks as a coach. I thought about heading down to Atlanta next week to get my Level 2 certification class out of the way, but with trying to go to several camps, finances start getting in the way. I will look to complete that one in the fall.

So that is where we stand today. First race is the 20th of Mar at Vint Hill, so we are looking at about 49 days and then the first big Road Race a week later. Last year i did fairly well at Jefferson Cup and would like to step it up and score a top fifteen.

Next update will be a followup review on the Book Racing Weight, Product - Saris Joule, and soon a Product review on RacerMates new software RacerMate One.

Race Report and Complaint Section - Ed Sander's Memorial Cyclocross Race

Post race beer and waffles.

Well, this will at least be an interesting race report. First and foremost, hats off to the promotors for Ed Sander’s Race, it was awesome. The venue is great, the course was a blast and thanks to Lily Pons for letting us have the race there. Nothing like post pace beer and waffles.

I entered the CAT 4 race and was ready to roll for the 9AM start, but like most 9AM starts, things get off a little slow. I am assuming that was the reason why our 40 minute race was shortened, but that is okay, I understand the issues. I had a decent spot for the start of the race and entered the hole shot around tenth, I gave a few positions up and then caught a few. Cross Results predicted that I should finish around 61st in the field of 100, but I ended up 24th. So yes, I am very happy about that.

Now the complaints. First, why is the CAT 4 race not considered within the MABRA series race? Second, what could be done about the sandbaggers??

So for the first complaint. I have spent the last hour of so reading the 2010/2011 USAC Rulebook I have seen nothing that would suggest that we could not participate in the series, any differently than the other 16 classes. Why can there not be an overall champion, why could we not track the series points? I find this to be a very interesting situation since the CAT 4 race is SOLD OUT every race. I am not asking for jerseys or grand prizes but you would think the crowd that filled every race would get something other than USAC upgrade points. Oh, without the series, doesn't the top five in the race get USAC points anyway? just sayin’. Maybe the concern is that the top position would be taken by the sandbaggers, well guess what? It already is. Which brings me to the second complaint, sandbaggers.

Unfortunately, upgrading from 4 to 3 does not have the same rules as the others. Basically, 10 qualifying races or 10 upgrade points, no mandatory upgrades. Unlike 3 to 2 and 2 to 1, we do not have the “win 2” CAT up clause. Hopefully this year will be a little better than last and with the addition of most of us looking at crossresults.com, peer pressure might kick in. I have a buddy of mine bitching about my upgrade. Yes I have exceeded my 10 races over the last three years, just verified on cross results, I am sitting at 20 races, 16 in the Midwest and 4 In the MidAtlantic, but my highest finish out here is 24th (Sunday). So I am not a threat to front and CAT 4 is probably where I should be, for now. But if you look at some of my fellow 4s in which they have equally as many races but have 3 wins or 12 of their races in the top 25% or well you get the point, race the 3/4s. Fine, you can say I am whining and instead of blogging I should be in the garage on the trainer spinning, but today is a recovery day, so I thought I should take a few minutes and speak my words, so to speak. Maybe each week I will have a sandbaggers list.... Would that help?

Race Report - Charm City Cross - Day 1

In order to get Charm City by a 7:30, get number and warmup, it required and early 5 AM wake up call. Not too bad but still a little early. I rolled into the Druid Hill Park, picked up my race number and went out for a warmup. The weather could not have been nicer.

Around 7:45 we all headed to the start line. The call up was based on registration, thus first to register got front row. I was sitting on the fourth row, which was really good for a pack of 125.

Start of the race was like all others, hard start, massive amount of riders trying to hit he hole shot. I entered in around the top 25 and held until the second lap. My first lap was around 8:15, not a bad 2.9 km lap.

I have to back up to a few weeks before. I had posted to some friends about tubulars and clinchers. After several emails and posts, I decided to go with a friends advice from Kansas. Ted Crisco, former teammate, sent me an hellava email laying out exactly what to get. But there was one line I really should have heeded to, don’t just use tape. Well, I bought the Mavic Reflexes from Excel Sport and had them “glue” them up. The sales rep said that Tufo tape was just as good as glue. Okay, Ted, I should have listened. Two weeks ago at the cross clinic I rolled the rear wheel and then went through Stu’s Glue the Belgium way from cyclocrossworld.com. I only did the back and did not pull the tire from the front. BIG MISTAKE.

Back to today, second lap, came hot into a corner and rolled the front tire and did an endo, pretty spectacular. So for 46 seconds, I flopped around on the ground, got up, finally got the chain back on, then had to unscrew the rear derailleur, then realized that the tire was off the rim. While all of this was happening, about 30 riders went flying by. After the crash, I slugged along, would make up a few spots and then loose a couple. The next three laps I maintained a fairly steady pace around 8:50 a lap. Hit the deck a few more times through the sand pit and on an off camber. Finally on the last lap, I rolled the tire once more and limped in for a finish. Ended up 70 out of 125 (105 finishers), not quit the 39th on the crossresults.com predictor.

So I going to shoot for the 39th for tomorrow. I have the clothes packed and ready to go for tomorrow, Oh, and a clincher for the front wheel.

2010 Cross Season - Day 1 - Cross Clinic Wrap Up

Well, the 2010 cross season is upon us and I am ready and willing to go. So far this year, in preparation, I have upgraded by Redline Conquest Pro to a Cannondale CAAD9 and have tricked it out with Mavic Reflex tubulars with Challenge Gripos mounted up. I have a few more additions that I am going to add but that will be for a later blog. For now, it is about my first weekend of cross, the 2010 Fulcrum Coaching and JBV Coaching Cross Clinic with Jeremy Powers, Dan Tille, Chris Mayhew, and Fatmarc Vanderbacon.

Day one, or I should say night one, was a social. Read all about it here on Bill’s Cyclocross Website In the Cross Hairs.

A little back ground, this begins my third season racing cross and my second Fulcrum Coaching and JBV Coaching Cyclocross Clinic. So I have enough knowledge to know what I am supposed to do but not the skill to put it all together yet. I should have been ready for the initial question given to all campers, “What do you expect to get out of the camp?”, but instead I attempted to be witty and said a few words about where I was from and how much cross I had raced. In retrospect, I should have simply stated that I wanted to have someone critique what I was doing. For me that would have been the honest answer, just watch me and dime me out for the stupid stuff that I am doing.

The day started out with introductions, as I alluded to up front, then we went on the skills. The remount, by far, is the hardest thing for me, either I don’t have faith in myself or I am just to lazy to do it, I don’t have the leap, all I got is a little hop. For those who have raced cross, you know what I am talking about. It is the half ass commitment of going airborne onto the saddle, instead I do a slow walk or just a leg straddle over the saddle and mount, not efficient at all.

After that we went on to additional skills like dismounting, barriers, off cambers, and starts. Each of these have its own challenges. The one thing that I always hate to hear, at the beginner levels is the term “personal preference”. What is always good about this camp is that JPow (and the rest) do not hesitate to say, “Do it this way”. I think this attitude is great, “personal preferences” come in long after the beginner and intermediate stage. I could not imagine going to my first guitar lesson and the instructor say, well finger positions are a personal preference. Yes, Jimi Hendrix later developed his own way of thumbing the G Chord but to start with, here is what you do. Experience allows you to make your own changes, but for now, this is step one. Hey, isn’t that what I am paying the money for, I can figure out personal preference in the local park. Enough of that, bottom-line this clinic tells you the things that work both at the amateur and professional level, and I like that.

For me, the clinic was a great success, I got to work out a few bugs on the Cannondale, got some great tips for the guys, some evaluation, though I would have liked a little more, and the basis for this years season. Now I am looking forward to two things, 2010 Cross and 2011 JBV Clinic. Thanks guys for a great weekend and best of luck to JPow in his upcoming year.

Race Report - 2010 Church Creek Time Trial #3

Good weather. I did not get the warmup that I should, I need to work on a little time manager. After the two hour drive, I did not realize that I had a 6 mile bike ride out to course start. So my warmup was a 19 minute slow pace ride to the start-line, instead of a fairly intense trainer warmup.

Once again no power numbers, but I think I will start using the PowerTap to get good numbers. I have a power tap on a 404 Zipp but I have been TTing on a 2005 Zipp Tubular Disc. Since I have been placing around 22nd, I don’t think that there will be that big of a time difference, whereas having power numbers might help in the post race analysis. Don’t get me wrong, the PT is more for post race then in race. I know there is an argument out there on power pacing but in my case I am not sure how well that would work.

On to the race. First, skin suits are not for the timid, especially at 203 lbs. But, hell, I have the rest of the equipment and if I could stay on course, it might help. One thing that I have noticed was that the skin suit feels much cooler than a standard kit.

Start of the race was good, I got my HR up pretty quick and set there for the next hour. Still have a little bit of a fit issue with the TT Bike, pressure in the manly area and a little pain behind the right knee. This really did not effect me much for the first 20k, but for the second 40k I had to adjust my sitting position and could no longer stay aero. So I worked as hard as I could from a more up right position. To get the same output for both half, I had to up my HR by about 4 bpm to get the same result.

This is basically the same issue that I had at Virginia Beach, so I have duplicated the pain, now I need to do something about it.

My biggest fubar of the day was at the 15k point, I had my head down, going the best I could looked up to see the police officer and flag men (no gender specific way) telling me to turn right. As I blew by them I had to go back and regroup . Got back on the course. It took a total of 21 seconds, oh well, my fault.

I ended up 23rd overall with a 1:02:4.36.