Velocity Cycling

Stations of the Cross or Fiesta Grande Omnium

2009-04-11T19:06:00.002-05:00

(*Author's Note: This post has many sacrilegious statements. If you're a strong believer in literal interpretations of the Bible, you will be offended by this post. FYI.)

Good Friday

April 10, 2009 was Good Friday. It was a good Friday for me because I got the day off. It's also the day that the Catholic church memorializes the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Two days later he is purported to have resurrected. There's a been a lot written about Jesus Christ and his resurrection, and you'll find none of that here. If you're looking for more, I suggest you visit our good friends at http://www.wikipedia.org/.

Anyway, Friday was the first stage of the Fiesta Grande Omnium. An Omnium is a stage race where riders are alloted points for their placings in the various stages. Unlike stage races, a rider does not have to finish any of the stages. He or she can pick and choose from the various stages if he or she chooses. I chose to do the whole enchilada which entailed a time trial (TT) on Friday, a criterium on Saturday, and a road races on Sunday.

In his book Jesus, Elvis and Coca Cola, Kinky Friedman said that he and Jesus had a lot in common. They were both Jewish, and they both traveled around the country annoying people with things they said.

I'm not Jewish, and I've been told, however, I've annoyed a lot of people by things I've said. So I've got that going for me. Like a lot of Westerners and Gentiles, I have a lot more in common with the Buddha in terms of up bringing.

Friday: TT

As I said I had Friday off, so I slept in. My time trial start was not until 6 30 pm, so I felt no sense of urgency to get down to San Antonio to get ready for the time trial. I lolled around the house, I switched out cassettes on my bikes, and I put my carbon brake pads on my TT bike.

I left the house at 3:30 thinking I would have ample time to get to the start, pick-up my number, and warm-up.

I was wrong.

For some reason Good Friday meant bad traffic. There was a big hold up in Selma and Schertz which delayed my arrival to the TT start to about 5:15. I still needed to sign in, and sign a waiver and collect my number. There was a long line for registration, so I spent 20 minutes on line to get my number. I also found out my start time moved up to 6:01.

Great!

I hustled, and got my stuff together and set up the trainer for my warm-up. The course was on the Ft. Sam Houston, and was supposed to be closed. It was a really nice 5 mile loop with a bunch of turns to keep it interesting. Unfortunately, I didn't get to pre-ride the course because I was late, and the first rider went off at 5:30. I got over to the start line at 5:55, and got in line.

There was a start ramp, I got rolled up to. Again, I picked too big a gear and when it was my time to go, I almost fell over. I got a good fast moving start, and was settling into a groove when I a saw a bus turn on to the course. I started to get nervous because I had no idea where the course was, and I was afraid I missed a turn. I saw my 30 second man in front of me, so I kept on going, and eventually I saw signs pointing the way.

At about mile 1.5, I was passed by a fellow rider. I was relieved in a way because I knew I was on the right course, then I heard a terrible sound, and I felt something give way beneath me. I looked between my legs, and my seat was gone. I passed through the intersection, and the police officer directing traffic asked me what happened, and I shouted, "I lost my seat!"

I was down wind, and moving at a pretty good clip. At that point, I started thinking about bailing out of the TT. I couldn't sit down after all. I stood up pedaling for a few minutes, and I thought, Well, I came all this way, I might as well finish. So I kept on rolling down the course without a seat.

Prior to the race, I joked with Velocity Cycling club members that like Jesus, I would get "crucifried" on the Friday. It turns out I was a prophet of sorts. I got passed by a couple of other riders, and none commented on the absent seat. I rolled through the start finish standing up, and again nobody seemed to notice the absent seat.

During the second loop, I started to get tired especially into the wind. I started wondering how this latest happening would bode for the rest of my race. Back in February I did a spin class which involved a lot of standing intervals, and I was sore for days afterwards. Would this event so affect me?

I finished the TT with a time of 28:45. I managed to average 20 mph, standing up! Lord, knows how I would have done if I actually got to sit down. I ended up with 30th place.

After the race, I inspected my bike. At first I thought my seat post had broken, and it turns out my seat go loose and fell off . I drove back to the intersection to find my seat. I thanked the police officer for collecting my seat for me. Here's a pic of my bike in the aftermath.

Will I inspire a new religion where lone seat posts will be the icon? Only time will tell.

Criterium

On Saturday, I drove back down to San Antonio for my next station of the cross for the Fiesta Grande Omnium. The criterium. The race was at the San Antonio Police Academy's driving course. It was a .78 mile course with a few sharp turns. The race was for 45 minutes. It was overcast and windy. Learning from my previous experience, I got down to the race start early and had a good warm-up. I was sad to see a few folks I've raced with at the Thursday Night criterium were in my race. I knew then that it wasn't going to be an easy race.

The wind was coming in from the Northwest, so we had a tailwind on part of the course, and a headwind for most of the course.

The pace was pretty quick for the first 10 minutes or so, and I was feeling okay, and I managed to improve my position a couple of times in the tailwind and hairpin turn sections. For the middle section of the race the pace settled into something a bit more manageable. With 2 laps to go, I fell off the back, and could not keep the pace. The group sped up significantly. I wasn't too surprised because I've been racing the Thursday Night criteriums which are only 30 minutes, and I had pretty much raced my limit. There was a big pack sprint, and I ended up coming in 29th. Not bad considering I've been only back for a month or so.

Easter-No Resurrection Here
Two days after Jesus was crucified it is reported that he rose from the dead. After two stages of the Fiesta Grande, I was in 30th and 29th. Not a great showing.

The next day was the the 48 mile road race. The morning started with rain and heavy winds which gave way to clear blue skies and lots of wind.

The course was pretty challenging with lots of hills. I managed to stay with the pack for the first part of the first loop. On the first significant hill my heart rate spiked to 190, and I fell off the back. I chased the pack for a while, and then packed it in for a DNF (Did Not Finish).

It was a pretty tough race, and I'm way out of shape.

I'm still pretty tired from my exertions, and I know I'm well underway for getting back into shape.

Thanks for reading.

Lots of Fun Between Your Legs

2009-02-01T14:07:00.005-06:00

What's Been Cooking

Hi, everybody, Robert Dole Velocity President here. We've been cooking up all kinds of good stuff here at Velocity Cycling, and I'm here to tell y'all all about it. First off, earlier this month Daniel, Frank, Bob, Stanton, and I got together for dinner to plan out a training series and some talk about our upcoming retreat. That's Frank's hands working over the pork shoulder he roasted in his BBQ. It was a really good meal, and we had a pleasant time visiting with Stanton and his wife Susie. (Might I add that the Lubriderm pictured in the above photo really does work. Frank does have seriously senisitive hands.)

The plan is this: we will have a training event once month until April. These events are open to all Velocity, Inc. members. Recently, we've been getting some negative feedback that we are an elite (elitist) cycling club. "We're all about the races," some folks say. To be honest a small number of us actually race. I will race a few races this year, but we welcome all comers. Mainly we seek folks who enjoy riding bikes as much as we do. Other clubs whose focus is primarily racing the large majority of members race. Not so with Velocity Cycling.

We call ourselves a developmental cycling club. We are about supporting and imparting skills that promote safe riding in groups. Most of us are on the purposeful side of bike riding; however, none of us takes ourselves very seriously.

Today was the first in our training series. We held it in the parking lot of Bowie High School in lovely South Austin. Today's drills were about bike handling. Stanton created a course in the parking lot which included slalom courses and a small obstacle. The goal was to practice, at speed, riding in a group through the various obstacles. We also practiced cornering. It was fantastic practice, and really help me see areas I need to work on bike handling. Afterwards we headed over to the Veloway to ride there. It was a great time, and there was a lot of laughing during the day. Here's a pic from this morning:

Do these people look like threats to the peleton? I don't think so. Mainly because our strongest rider was at a race this morning.

So if you been thinking about joining, join in. Part with your 30.00, and you too can enjoy our training series.

Thanks for reading. Ride safe.

Miles of DisComfort

2009-01-24T23:31:00.005-06:00

Today was another mountain bike marathon race, in Comfort, Texas. Unlike the Excruciation Exam, this race was all on trails, but at 56 miles, it was a bit shorter. Since I had to be back in Austin to go to the Texas A&M vs. UT basketball game, I opted for the shorter 26 mile half-marathon.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The loyal reader will know that I have experienced cramping issues on long mountain bike races. We discussed this at our last Velocity Cycling club meeting, and it was determined that I wasn't eating enough protein for breakfast. I decided to add some peanut butter and waffles to my cereal regimen.

That didn't seem to help, because on the way to Comfort, my quads started cramping up as I drove through Dripping Springs, so I turned around and went home.

Well...

Ok...

Maybe not.

The truth is that Friday night I decided that I really didn't want to wake up at 5:30am to drive two hours to pay $45 to ride in 40-degree weather, so I turned off my alarm.

I woke up at about the time the race was starting.

Aaaaaahhhhhh.....

Unfortunately, the game didn't turn out too well, either.

2009 Excruciation Exam: Out for Revenge

2009-01-05T13:43:00.012-06:00

After the hurt that Excruciation Exam put on me last year, I was intent on extracting my revenge this year.

Maybe next year.

This year was a lot like last year, except:

I had no mechanical issues
I made use of a lesson I learned last year.

I guess that spending two weeks on the couch in my sister's basement, getting caught up on Burn Notice reruns, is not a good training program prior to a race such as this.

I returned home the evening before the race, and when I went upstairs, my right knee started making noises. I've had knee problems before, but not like this, this was odd. Just a popping at the top of the kneecap. I then got on my mountain bike to ride down the street to the mailbox, and the knee was fine. The bike, however, developed its own issue; there was a hitch in the crank with every rotation. I thought that the cranks had come loose, as they had before, but that was not the case this time. When I put the bike up on the work stand to lube the chain, I found that the bottom pivot bold was sticking out about a quarter inch on each side. At least that problem was easily fixed.

The knee issue persisted through the next morning.

I woke up at 4am for the race, and got to the race site at Warda by 6:30am, in plenty of time for the 7:20am start. As I limped up to registration to get my number plate, Susan saw me and said, "You're back this year!" She was probably thinking, "Oh, man, it's going to be another long day for us!"

I then found John and Maureen, and handed my cooler of food and drink to Maureen to take to Rocky Hill Ranch for me (Thanks, Maureen!). We caught up with Richie at the riders' meeting.

No Lemans start this year, as we started on the bikes, and rode a bit through an empty field to thin the herd. As we got to the front pond, two guys were already off of their bikes. I later learned that one of them had broken his shoulder, and he hadn't even gotten into the woods, yet! Better right after the start than right before the end, though, I guess.

As we entered the woods, John was right in front of me, and Richie was right behind me. We were the Three Velociteers!

Let me take a few moments to talk about Richie. Richie is one of my heroes. He's the nicest, most unassuming guy you'd ever want to meet (anyone nicer and more unassuming would just be annoying), but he's an animal on the bike. This race was his 5th time on a mountain bike, the third time on a trail (excluding the Dirt Derby), the second time on a rideable trail (excluding City Park, which was his first ride on the bike), and his first time on the Warda trails. Richie and I rode at Rocky Hill Ranch the weekend before Christmas, and he was amazing. I missed the turn to Kara's Way, and we ended up on Black Trac, a black diamond trail. When we got to the Grind, I realized that this trail was taking us to the beginning (i.e. the wrong way), so I stopped. All Richie said was, "That was kinda scary." He didn't hesitate to double back on Black Trac, though. I was leading most of the way since I "knew" the trails, and I was going at an easy pace, keeping Richie in sight behind me (and I like going at an easy pace). When I would falter, and Richie would get in front, the pace would go up. I was doing all I could do just to keep Richie in sight ahead of me. At one point, I came around a corner, and Richie was getting up off the ground; evidently, he was so far ahead, he had time to take a nap!

Ok, back to the Exam...

The first 4 mile loop at Bluff Creek Ranch are pretty straight forward, lots of twists and turns with rooty creek crossings. There were a few short straights, and I tried to take a quick drink out of the Camelbak when we hit those. I was concentrating on my drinking and eating during this race, since improper hydration did me in during the Tour das Hugel (1 bottle in the first 38-mile loop).

The three of us were still together as we hit the field and headed to the more technical sections of the trail system. First up was Gas Pass, which is a steep downhill concrete path with speed bumps and low branches overhead. It's a bit daunting, especially the first time down, and this was Richie's first time down. Here's a video that I found on youtube, showing what Gas Pass looks like:

As we approached, I told Richie to give me some room ahead of him, to keep his weight back, and to go easy on the front brake. The concrete had been covered with dirt, so it wasn't as slick, nor as scary, as it usually is, but it was still steep. We all made it down safely.

After Gas Pass was another straight stretch, and another drinking opportunity, then a short climb, and on to Mule Trace, which is another descent, but not as straight as Gas Pass. This section had recently been redone, with bermed hairpin turns to give it a bit of a bobsled run feel. On the first turn, John got off his bike, telling us that he had a mechanical (his tire had lost air) and for us to go on, so we did. We made it through the rest of the course without incident, and waited for John at the exit of Bluff Creek Ranch, the beginning of the road portion of the race to go to Rocky Hill Ranch.

As we waited, we waved to the racers as they rode past us, and I drank and ate a Cliff Bar. After about 10 minutes, I looked at my clock and decided that it was going to be tight for us to make it to Rocky Hill and do the two ten-mile laps by the 1pm cut-off time, so we should head out. I knew that John would be faster than us on the trails, so wasn't too worried about him.

As we started out on our 28-mile trek to Rocky Hill Ranch, I had to ask Richie to slow down a bit, as my heart rate was quickly getting into the red, and I didn't want to burn myself out early. We finally settled to a good pace, and passed most of the people that we had waved to earlier. Some of those folks joined our pace line, so we had a bit of help. I made it a point to drink early and often here, and also drank out of my bottle of Accelerade (my Camelbak contained only water).

Ten miles into this portion of the race, I felt the twinges of a cramp in my left calf. Not already! This was a bit disheartening, but I continued on, trying to stretch when I could, and altering my pedal stroke a bit to relieve some of the cramping.

When we got to the checkpoint, I filled my Camelbak, ate another Clif Bar, and stretched some more, then we got back on the bikes to finish the last several miles to Rocky Hill.

Upon arriving at Rocky Hill, we checked in, then I went to find Maureen and my cooler. I changed out the bottle of Accelerade with a new one (I made a point to finish the first one on the road), and ate a half of a peanut butter and honey sandwich. Maureen said that John had called, and he was still a ways away. Richie and I headed into the trails.

It was about 10:15am, which gave us just under 3 hours to finish the two laps. It took us right at 3 hours to do the 20 miles the week before Christmas, when we pre-rode the course, so I was worried.

The tough part about the trails at Rocky Hill Ranch is that you do a lot of climbing at the beginning, then it's not too bad once you're on top. We were going ok, I was leading, and I missed a turn and crashed softly. I pointed out the turn to Richie and Corey, the guy behind him, then re-mounted and followed them. We eventually got to the big climb, and on our way up Richie, then Corey, dismounted. I was able to make it up just a little bit past Richie, then decided that it would be easier to walk the rest of the way, as well. We all got back on our bikes at the top, and headed on, with me in the rear.

The next trail was Kara's Way, a fun, twisty trail without much topography. On one turn, I dabbed with my left foot, and the calf immediately turned itself in one big knot. This was an actual cramp, not just a twinge like I had gotten on the road. It took me a while to just get my foot back onto the pedal so that I could work the cramp out.

The funny thing about cramps, at least for me, is that they usually don't hit me while I'm pedaling, but when I put a foot down, like I did when I dabbed. At the end of Kara's way was a jeep trail, and across the Jeep trail was the next bit of trail, called Off the Lip. There are a number of creek crossings on this trail, so I decided to stop and assess the situation, because I didn't want to continue on if I was going to be cramping the whole way. I did not want a repeat of what happened last year, especially since I didn't think I'd be able to make the cutoff, if I had to ride about 17 miles with cramps. I would've been very upset if I had suffered that much and not been allowed to finish the race.

My decision was made about 0.03 nanoseconds after I got off of my bike, as my left calf and both quads just seized right up on me. I leaned back against a tree while my muscles did their thing. When the party in my legs settled down, I got back on my bike and headed down the jeep road, for an early exit. I still had to ride through some of the trails, but I rode easily, and didn't have any more problems on my way back to where Maureen was waiting.

When I got there, Richie had not yet come out of the woods, which wasn't too much of a surprise, since I had cut off about 15 miles of trail (heh), but John had not yet made it to Rocky Hill. He showed up not too long after that, though, refueled, and headed off onto the trail.

Richie finished his first lap at 11:30am, which meant he did it in 1:15 and had an hour and a half to do his second lap, giving him some leeway. Much to my chagrin, he, too, had decided that he had had enough fun for the day. Of course, I completely understood.

I was hanging around, waiting to get a ride back to Warda in John and Maureen's van, but Richie decided to ride back. Since it was all road, and only 21 miles, I decided to join him. We just took it easy; I took most of the pulls this time, since Richie had pulled me just about the whole way on the first road leg, and I was quite a bit more rested. The Endurolytes that Maureen gave me seemed to be doing their job, as I was no longer having cramping issues.

We had half-jokingly discussed whether or not we were going to complete the final 4-mile loop at Bluff Creek Ranch, but when we finally got to the driveway, I asked Richie if he still wanted to do it. With no hesitation, he replied, "No." Heh.

Richie packed up and left, I had a burger, and John and Maureen showed up a bit later.

Merry Christmas from Velocity Cycling

2008-12-11T22:25:00.000-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Tour das Hugel 2008

2008-11-17T15:53:00.007-06:00

As told by the Little Voice in My Head:

It wasn't that cold (not as cold as Sunday, certainly), and a base layer/arm and leg warmers were plenty (as well as jersey and shorts, of course). The only time I noticed the wind was when it was trying to blow me into traffic along some of the open stretches of Bee Caves Road.

The hills did catch me by surprise, though.

I saw >20% numbers on my GPS many times. Twice along Terrace Mountain.

The first loop (38 miles) went pretty well. I stopped, got another bottle, ate a PB&J sandwich, traded out my full-finger gloves for fair-weather gloves, and my leg warmers for knee warmers. Then I headed out with Greg and some other BSS folks. I was feeling ok, but was determined to ride my own pace, instead of keeping up with a pack, and told Greg to not worry about me if I got dropped, even though our current pace was currently pretty relaxed.

All was going well until we got to Smoky Valley Trail. I had ridden this street, at night, a couple of weeks before, and had no trouble getting up it. Of course, I didn't have 50 miles in my legs at the time, and it was dark, so I couldn't see just how steep it really was. When we got into the wall portion of the climb, I felt a pretty good twinge in my right quad, and decided to stop while I could still unclip. The rest of the group zig-zagged their way to the top.

I walked.

I looked at my GPS to get the grade (I seem to remember seeing 26% last year, but wasn't sure), but I wasn't walking fast enough for it to register.

I re-mounted my bike when I got back onto Ladera Norte, and rode up the final hill there. Daniel has proof:

I rode on to Mesa, then over to Spicewood Springs. I saw my group turning left at the Spicewood Springs light, but I caught the red. When the light changed and I turned left, I again felt my right quad trying to cramp up on me as I ascended the slight rise. Coasing down to the light at 360, I caught my group, but did not want to go around the car that was between us, as there was already a bunch of bikes in front. The light changed, the front group of bikes went, and the light turned red before the car could go. I decided to take the time it would take until the next green light to stretch out my quads. As I did so, my hamstring tried to cramp up on me.

I then decided that when the light turned green, I would turn left, down 360, instead going straight to follow the course up Bluegrass. I then enjoyed the tailwind to the finish line at Zilker.

Since I was cramping before I even had half of the miles in, I decided to hang it up while I could still get back to my car. I don't see the value of "sufferfests."

The astute reader may have noticed that I only replaced one bottle at the 38-mile point (end of the first loop). That's because that's all I drank. The cool weather made me slack in my drinking.

I still had a good time.

Tour das Hugel 2008

2008-11-17T15:43:00.000-06:00

As told by John Howell:

Tour Das Hugel: Frank Irwin and I were the only Velocitites to show up for the ride. You were all smart to stay home!!

The ride was COLD, WINDY, and surprisingly HILLY. The cold and wind were no surprise because the local meteorologists predicted the cold front. And the ride description warned us of the hills. However, I was surprised that the route went through neighborhoods I'd ridden many times before and yet the ride organizers found hills that wisely avoided before. I don't know the % grade for some of the steeper pitches, but I'd guess they were in the neighborhood of 20-25%. I abandoned the ride at the 38 mile mark. Frank continued well into the second loop before coming to his senses. Looking forward to next year.

Enough about Saturday.

The real ride report is about Sunday afternoon's ride down Shoal Creek. I was cruising down Shoal Creek at about 44th street when I passed a rather tall young man with his lady friend. He called out to me by name and I suddenly realized it was Tom Hall and his wife out for a Sunday afternoon ride. We continued our cruise down Shoal Creek for a few blocks in a rather brisk fall afternoon.

Belterra Cat 5 Race Report

2008-04-01T09:54:00.003-06:00

Hyperlink to the race report

Results on TXBRA

Retreat Stage III

2008-03-30T23:59:00.000-06:00

Hello, and welcome to today's coverage of Stage III of the Velocity Stage Race,er, Retreat. Yesterday saw a resurgence of Daniel "Thursday Night Crit" Norton, but the day went The Prez, Robert Dole. While earlier in the day, Daniel and Tom succumbed to the temptation of downhill and downwind, including sucerssfully chasing down The Prez who had gone off on a 40 mph flyer, a second attack by the Prez put them properly in their place. At the end of the day, Tom, Michael, and Frank proved themselves to be the only sane ones in the bunch while Robert and Daniel fought it out over a stupid mailbox.

The neutral start of Stage III was delayed an hour by inclement weather, so the rollout left the parking lot at 9:00am. All riders received a 1 hour 30 minute penalty while receiving assistance from the team cars, and their lack of effort resulted in their arriving at the race start somewhat stiff and lethargic. Regardless, the plan for a civilized warmup was quickly tossed into the waste bin and the riders were heading uphill immediately.
The two old geezers really stunk it up, as Frank and Robert rode effortlessly away up the 11% grade heading west out of Vanderpool on the first leg of today's stage. Tom was able to close the gap some on the occasional downhill, but Frank and Robert were definitely the strong climbers on this day.

A mishap with the follow car brought all the riders together for a quick "en mass" push, and Tom took advantage of the confusion that followed to jump on his bike and head uphill. He was quickly caught by Frank, who took the lead to the top. After a few rollers, the descent began in earnest (just west of Mt Idy) no, wait, that's a different joke, and Tom took the lead. About halfway down, the road turned to packed caliche, but Tom found a pace that allowed his Titanium Terror to float over the bulldozer tracks, and was first to reach Leaky. It was his last first of the day until the pie eating contest in Utopia. Just hold your horses; I'll get to that.

Frank was second off the mountain, followed by Robert and Michael. Robert summed the experience up with a few well chosen words, something to the effect of, "that sucked." He was ready to get the buzz out of his hands and the tension out of his neck, and took off onthe second leg of today's stage, heading south into a moderate breeze and slight mist. Frank, Tom and Michael followed in a comfortable paceline, with Daniel doing double duty as navigator and team photographer. The road paralled the river and as such, was mostly downhill, fairly dry and best of all, paved, and soon the peloton arrived at leg three, the turn towards Utopia.

Robert was waiting at the turn, and he and Frank headed east, quickly outdistancing Tom and Michael. The road was now running acrosos the grain of the creeks, so there were numerous rollers, but with pretty scenery and pleasant company, this leg passed very pleasantly for Tom and Michael, while the young hammerhead @!!%??'s er, Frank and Robert, pulled away. The mist turned to rain from time to time, but it wasn't too cold, and mostly served to keep the riders cool.

Frank and Robert made the turn at Utopia and put the hammer down, effectively denying the now fast-closing peleton any chance at the top two podium spots. Their run to the finish was one that will be spoken of in hushed tones for years/weeks/days/hours/for a little while anyway, and was the perfect way to display their strong legs, sweaty muscled torsos, dripping young (does it seem hot in here to you?) anyway , a wonderful last fast dash, even if the road at that speed was, according to Frank's carefully though out appraisal, "crappy"

In Utopia the peleton (Tom and Michel) took advantage of the opportunity to address their need for a "natural break" and a water bottle re-fill, and Michael immediately spotted the best place in town to accomplish both: the local cafe aka the local color cafe, which happened to be the site of the first annual Velocity Inc Pie Eating Contest. Upon entering the cafe, the riders quickly engaged the locals in witty repartee. Local: "Isn't it pretty wet to be riding bicycles?" Riders (in unison) "Yes".

The contest began with Michael making an ill-advised selection of pecan pie, which though very tasty, put him immedately at a disadvantage, contest- wise. Tom wisely chose chocolate meringue, which he was able to suck down in the incredible time of .0005 seconds, and won the contest handily. His prize was the opportunity to observe more members of the local color contingent, consisting mainly of 3 loud and yet very well fed young ladies, one of whom sported what was perhaps a second-tier though still noteworthy plumber's butt, while Michael sullenly trudged his defeated way through pecan pie and hot coffee. When asked for a comment regarding his victory, Tom replied, "next year I'll be the one to get the pecan pie and the seat facing the window"

The contest over, the victory won and lost, Michael and Tom headed north on leg 4 of today's stage. A tailwind and their concern over delaying the post-stage activities of the first and second-place finishers put wings under their wheels, and they finished the last leg at an average speed of 32 mph. Whaddaya mean bull****??? Were you there? Were you clocking them? Then SHUT UP!

The option of driving out to pick up the now-flying non-winners had been offered to the early finishers, but they chose instead to sit on the porch at the store and stuff barbecue sandwiches with extra sauce down their gluttonous maws while savoring their impressive victory. So after Tom and Michael approached the finish line and were finally able to bring their speed down to something more manageable, they turned into the parking lot, dismounted, and were rewarded with their own barbecue sandwiches. After a short rest on the porch, the team loaded the team cars and drove back to the start of today's stage. All that was left was to pack up and head home. .

So that's it. Another stage wrapped up, and the end of this year's Velocity Inc. Stage Retreat. I would like to thank Mike at U-BarU for his hospitality, his cooking at all hours of the day and night, his post-ride soup and lasagna, and his enthusiasm. I would like to thank Michael West for getting the whole endeavor off the ground. Thanks to Daniel Norton for driving, photographing, and in concert with Robert Dole, his computer wizardry. Thanks to Robert for his experiments involving pancakes and maple syrup and is his insightful reports to the group regarding the results, and thanks to Tom for his judicious and timely employment of the toilet plunger (no connection between the last two items is intended, and if you believe that you're really not paying attention any more, are you.) And thanks to Frank for laughing at Tom's stupid jokes and making some of his own and being a really strong rider and retreat steadifier, and for helping those Chinese women get their money out of the country by sending each of them $5,000.00 and his bank account number.

We'll see you all next year.
.

Velocity Retreat Stage II: Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

2008-03-29T17:23:00.013-06:00

It was a spirited ride on rolling terrain with an alternating brisk head and tail wind. Today was notable for the additon of a new rider to the Velocity peleton, Daniel Norton. There wasn't much change in GC though at one point Michael taunted us with the leaders' wind breaker (la veste verte) wadded up in his back pocket. He led a mighty chase to the finale on Thrill Hill where
Frank collected yet more KOM points.

Daniel pretended to the Sprint competition when he lead a solo sprint to the FM sign in the first 6 miles of the ride; however, Daniel succumbed to my sprinting prowess in the Mailbox Sprint near the finale. This sprint was notable as Daniel was pulling the peleton before the sprint gauntlet was thrown.

Today's Results:

Race leader, Vest Vert holder: Michael West

King of the Mountains: Frank Irwin

Sprinter Points: Robert Dole

Best Young Rider-on his Gold TT bike: Tom Hall

Most Aggressive Rider: Daniel Norton

Tomorrow holds the promise of drama and a potential shake up in the various contests as the Velocity peloton heads to the Massif Central of Texas and rides the Queen Stage out of Vanderpool.

(More photos)

Velocity Retreat Stage I: Kerrvile, Ingram, Hunt

2008-03-29T17:10:00.007-06:00

Weather: overcast, cool, misty in the morning.

Front came through at lunchtime, increasing the wind and decreasing the mist and temperature.

Distance: 83.42 miles

Climbing: 4031 feet

Avg speed: Who really cares?

Leader's Windbreaker (Vest Vert): Michael

Green Jersey (sprinting): Robert

Polka Dot Jersey (climbing): Frank

White Jersey (best young rider): Tom

(More photos)

Fayetteville Stage Race

2008-03-18T23:24:00.007-06:00

I woke up at 4am on Saturday to drive to Fayetteville (TX) for the Fayetteville Stage Race. For the Masters 35+ Cat 4/5 group I was in, this consisted of a 46-mile road race Saturday morning, a 6.6-mile time trial Saturday afternoon, and a 49-mile road race Sunday morning. I arrived at the race venue much earlier than I had expected, so I grabbed about 20 minutes of snooze.

I pinned on my numbers, warmed up on my rollers, and headed over to the starting line, where I found Richie. We discussed whether or not the Tegaderm wound dressings in our goody bags were an omen.

Stage 1

This morning's race was 2 laps of a 22-mile circuit. There was only one hill of any significance; its grade maxed out at 10%, but it wasn't very long. The first lap was pretty uneventful. There were about 70 in our group, and the roads along the rear of the course were pretty narrow, so I tried to stay near the front of the pack. At one point on this narrow section, I was struggling to stay to the right of the centerline of the road, to avoid getting penalized. The winds were coming from the right, so people were trying to stay to the left of each other, to hide from the wind. The guy on my right was just about on the centerline (which meant I was just about over the centerline), and there was no one to his right. I also noticed that the right side of the road was pretty clear, so I slowed a bit, moved over to the right side of the road, and was able to gain several positions before nestling back into the safety of the pack.

Going up the hill at the beginning of the second lap, Richie is to my left. I notice that he and I are the only riders still seated, everyone else is out of the saddle. I tell him that Robert would be proud of us. Just at that point, the guy in front of me slows suddenly, and I have to pretty much go off the right side of the road to get around him. I had to get out of the saddle to manage this maneuver (sorry, Robert), but don't have a problem. The pace picks up right after the top of the hill, as a group attempts to break away. I'm able to stay with them, as is the rest of the pack.

Or so I think. It's really hard to see what's going on behind, so if 20 guys get shelled off by this acceleration, I don't know it. The important thing is that I am not one of them. :-)

Things soon settle down, and Richie is again to my left. Just for fun, I tell him, in a voice loud enough for others to hear, "Hey! I haven't crashed,yet! This may be a record for me!" I'm hoping that this will convince the other riders to give me some room. Heh.

Then I consider that may have jinxed myself...

Not too long after this thought, the two guys I'm riding between veer in toward each other, pinching me off. I make contact with one of them, but we all stay upright. Not too long after that, I get tangled up with a rider on my right, and we lean into each other for a while before we are able to separate. Again, no damage.

We get into a headwind section, about 15 miles from the end, and two Team TBi guys are on the front of the pack, and I'm in third position. They keep looking back, for someone to get in front on front of them, but I had better things to do at the time, like enjoy their draft. We were going less than 14 mph at the time. A third TBi guy comes to the front, and the three of them are pulling us along for a bit. Then the third TBi guy heads up the road, gapping us by about 20 yards. The original two TBi guys stay on the front, still going slow.

Although it seems early for someone to be trying a move like this, I think that maybe the two TBi guys are blocking for their teammate, so that he can attempt a breakaway. I wonder if they'll also be block for the two of us, so I take off and bridge up to their buddy, before he gets too far away. When I catch him, I look over my shoulder and see that his buddies suck at blocking. :-D I had just pulled the entire peloton up to him. Oh, well...

I did get stuck pulling the pack for a short while after that, but I certainly wasn't working hard.

About 4 miles from the finish, we hit another hill, which I didn't remember from the first lap. This isn't as big as the earlier hill, but my legs may beg to differ that point, as they decided that they had had enough. I quickly got spit out the back of the pack, and I also had to dodge a guy whose chain had come off. After cresting the hill, I did all I could to catch the disappearing pack, but we were still heading into the wind, and my heartrate is in the red. After a couple of times of almost running off the road, I decide to just let them go, figuring that at least I'll beat the chain-dropping guy.

Or maybe not, as the chain-dropping guy soon catches me, suggesting that we work together so that the other guy behind us doesn't catch up. I tell him that we're only about a half mile from the finish, and he heads on. I then see that the other guy is gaining on me, and decide to not let him, so I go as hard as I can to the finish, my legs cramping about a hundred yards from the line.
I'm able to hold him off, finishing in 46th place, about 2 minutes behind the pack.

I have lunch with Richie and his wife Emily, then hang out with Tom (who was racing in a different category) while we wait for...

Stage 2

I was going to warm up on my rollers, as I did in the morning, but the rear roller seems to have warped as it sat in the bed of my truck, so I readied the time trial bike and hit the road. I'm still pretty tired from the morning's race, and I can't get my heartrate up into the 173-175 range, where I'll want it in the time trial. After about 20 minutes, I head to the start line.

The guy who's supposed to start 30 seconds in front of me doesn't show up, so I don't have anyone to chase. I'll just have to try to stay ahead of the guy who starts 30 seconds (and 60 seconds, and 90 seconds...) behind me. Last year, I was passed by the time I got to the turn at 2.5 miles, and later by one or two other riders. My goal for this time trial is to not let Richie beat me like he did last year (by almost 2 minutes!), since he's on his road bike, and I'm on my "lo-tech" time trial bike.

My time comes up, and I start. My heartrate goes right up to 175 and stays there:

I get to the first turn, and I haven't been passed yet! I look behind me and don't even see anyone gaining, so I'm feeling pretty good. I'm probably geared a bit too high for the hills, but I manage to get up them okay. I get to the 4.5-mile turn, still having not been passed. Only two more miles to go, and the end won't come fast enough. Under a half mile to go, and I look behind, and see someone approaching! He does pass me, but doesn't get to the line too far ahead of me, so he only beat me by 32 seconds. My average speed for this time trial is 21.1mph, which was also my average for the morning's road race.

Richie completed the course 12 seconds faster than I did.

Grrrrrr...

Stage 3

Sunday's 49-mile road race isn't until 11:20am, so I can sleep in until 7am. I wake up, still tired, and re-check the schedule, halfway hoping that I misread the schedule and it's an 8:30am start, and I can then go back to bed, but no such luck.

I get to Fayetteville at about 10:30am, unload the bike, and go out on the road to warm up. I get to the starting line, and the group is much smaller than yesterday (about 20 fewer). The wind is blowing hard, and I'm not looking forward to it.

The race starts, and it's not too bad at the beginning. I've decided to stay farther in the back of the pack today, to better stay out of the wind. This works for awhile, and I have a chance to chat with the guy who started behind me (and passed me) in yesterday's time trial. Nice guy.

We get to the hill at 5 miles. Last year, after cresting this hill, I had difficulty in getting my chain back onto the big ring, and could not keep the pace as the pack accelerated, and watched them go off into the wind. I was in no mood to chase them in the wind for 45 miles, so I just turned around and went home.

Today, however, the front derailleur works fine, and I'm able to stay with the pack after the hill. It's still hard work, though, going into the wind, and we eventually get strung out, making it more difficult to find solace from the wind. Finally, after about 8 miles, I can no longer hold on, and I drift back from the front half of the pack. Eventually, the rest of the pack comes around me to catch back up.

Well, I lasted a little bit longer this year, but now my plan is to ride to the feed zone, to see if Richie needs my bottle when he comes around on his second lap. The pack is much smaller as they come by on their second lap, and Richie is still there, looking pretty good. He waves off the bottle. I head to the finish line to watch the end of the race.

As the pack nears the finish line, a couple of riders on the left side go down as the sprint begins. The winner has a couple of seconds on the pack. I can't see Richie. Wait! There he is! Can he do it? Oh, he just misses out on getting 3rd place, but 4th is still quite impressive, and it goes well with his 8th-place finish from Saturday's road race.

It wasn't a great weekend for me, results-wise, but I improved over last year, in every event, so I was happy with that.

Next up: Fort Davis Stage race.

La Primavera: Well, I didn't miss a turn

2008-03-02T21:39:00.015-06:00

At last year's edition of this race, I got spit out the back of the pack on the long, steady climb at the beginning of the first lap. I then proceeded to miss a right hand turn, helped only by the yells of riders behind me, but not the corner marshal. On the second lap, I was determined to not miss the turn again, so I turned when I saw the corner marshal sitting in their chair. When I got to the end of that road, I saw the start/finish line to my left, and the rest of the course to my right. I had turned too early and cut off half of the course. Disgusted, I finished the lap and quit the race.

My goal this year was to not get lost on the 4.4 mile course. Tom, my teammate who had the misfortune of following me through last year's mishaps, suggested that it may be a good plan to stay with the pack, so that I don't get lost. This sounded like a good strategy. For some reason, Tom decided to not participate in the race this year.

My sister Patti was in town for her granddaughter's birthday, so I picked her up on my way to the race. We got there in plenty of time for me to register and warm up. Since there were no racers yet on the course, I chose to ride the course instead of my rollers. This was the first time I had ridden these roads since last year's ill-fated race, and I wanted to make sure I knew where to turn. I finished my 30-minute warmup and had 5 minutes left until the start of my Cat 5A race.

My goal for the race is quickly achieved as I arrive at the top of the initial climb near the front of the pack. In fact, it seems that most of the 40-odd rider pack also achieves this goal. We spread out a bit as we headed down the 40+mph hill, which was a good thing, because I saw the bike of one rider ahead and to my right go into a furious high-speed wobble. Not only was the front wheel vibrating left to right like crazy, but the back wheel was also in serious distress. Somehow, he managed to pull it out and not crash, though I don't remember seeing him again.

Here's the finish of the first lap, courtesy of Patti (who also supplied the photo at the top of this entry):

The second lap goes pretty well. The pace seems to pick up a bit near the top of the long opening climb, but I'm able to hold on, still near the front of the pack. I do have one brief scary moment when the guy in front of me throws his bike backward as he gets out of the saddle. I'm able to avoid hitting him, and I now have a second rider to be wary of. I hear someone mention that the pack is starting to break up behind us. Things are looking pretty good, but it's still early.

Lap three sees the pack blown apart on the initial climb. I can no longer hang on, but I'm not alone and I manage to get into a small grupetto. As we're going down the hill before the lap's finishing climb, we can see deer crossing the road, from left to right, on the climb. There are women on the right side of the road, waving at the deer and yelling at us to slow down. I can see that there are more deer coming from the left as we begin the climb, but feel confident that I can navigate through them. However, the rest of the grupetto starts to slow, so I choose to do the same, and touch my brakes. I suddenly feel someone run into my rear wheel, and then hear him pay the price for doing so, as he goes down.

Aaaaargh.

Lap four is uneventful, as I pretty much ride it by myself. I do hear Richie call out to me and spot him as he drives in for his later race. After I finish the fourth lap, and ride through the parking area to begin the fifth and final lap, I look for Richie to see if he'd like to finish the race for me, but to no avail. As I shift down from my big ring for the last helping of long climb casserole, the chain comes off, and I can't get it back on using the derailleur, so I decide that this would be a good time for a short break. The Masters 35+ peloton passes as I'm putting my chain back on, and the two kids acting as corner marshal there refuse my offer to finish the race for me, so I soldier on.

I soon hear someone behind me, and as he comes beside me, I see that it's another Cat 5 rider. "Oh, I didn't realize there was anyone left behind me," I say.

"Yeah, there are a few back there. Some who had flats and stuff," he replied.

"And the guy who ran into my back wheel on lap 3 and crashed," I added.

He asked me if the rider was wearing the same Power Pedal jersey that he was wearing, and I reminded him that the rider was behind me, so I didn't see him.

We continued on for the rest of the lap, and as we got near the end, I was on his wheel, and he kept looking back at me. "Don't worry," I said, "I'm not going to try to outsprint you for 25th place." "Aw, it's all fun," he replied. Staying true to my word, however, I let him finish ahead of me.

Ok, I couldn't keep up with him on the finishing climb, but shhhhhhh!

I did, however, end up in 25th place. :-)

Epilogue:
As I was waiting for the results to be posted, Vic, the Power Pedal rider, found me and told me that it was his teammate that crashed behind me, but that he was ok. I later found him and told him that I was sorry that he went down, and he had no hard feelings. Those Power Pedal guys seem like a class act, and I look forward to riding with them at Fayetteville in two weeks.

PURE AUSTIN Pace Bend Road Race

2008-02-24T23:13:00.007-06:00

When I unloaded the bike for hill repeats on Thursday night,
I noticed that my front tire was a bit low. After hill repeats,
it was low again. I patched the tube and pulled the bit of
glass out of the tire on Friday, but the tire was low on
Saturday morning. So, I decided to go against popular
wisdom and change both my front tire and tube the night
before the race. I thought about changing the back tire
and tube, but decided to not tempt fate. This Quick Stick
that I won at Warda works great for both taking tires off
and putting them on. Even new tires, which usually give
me problems on these rims. No swears were heard.

My Cat 4/5 35+ race was scheduled to get underway at 9:55am,
so I thought that if I left my house by 8am, that would give me
plenty of time to get there, pick up my packet, and warm up.

I left my house at 8:20am, and didn't take into account that I'd
be riding behind a pack of cyclists on the race course to get
to the parking area, where I arrived at about 9:30am. At least
I got a chance to see the course, since I haven't ridden out
there before.

I parked near Richie, who was warming up on his trainer. My
warmup consisted of running up to registration and back. At
least there wasn't a line. After pinning on my numbers, and
getting ready, I had about 15 minutes before the start, so
decided to pull out the rollers and get about 5 minutes of
warmup in, for whatever that would be worth, but the grass
was too tall. Heh.

As I was about to head to the line, a woman came up and
asked me if I thought that "they" would have a compressor
so that she could air up her car tire, which had gone flat. I
have an electric pump in the truck, so I lent it to her, and
asked her to put it into the bed of the truck when she was
done. I was hoping that I'd get some good karma for that...

And that brings us to the start of the race. Finally...

Richie and I line up together, and I tell him that, just like
last time, my goal was to stay with him, since he finishes
well. I take a Cliff Shot and drink a half bottle of water.
There was no roll-call this time, just "Go!"

The first lap goes well, the course is really nice, and people
have a tendency to stay on the right side of the road even
though we have the entire roadway to use (no center-line
rule). There are two hard right turns on the course, and
a couple of guys near the front took the first one too hot,
and ended up going straight (from the inside of the turn!).
Luckily, no one crashed, they just ended up off the road
for a bit. I was surprised by the speed of the pack down
the finishing straight, which was slightly downhill, since
it was just the first lap. It's not like there were primes,
or anything...

Not much exciting happened on the second lap.

As we're starting on our third lap, I'm starting to wonder
if this racing stuff is really for me, as I'm starting to get
tired. Luckily, those thought quickly left my head. The
bit of rest that I was getting at that point helped, too. :)

Going up the second hill on the this lap, I'm in the pack,
on the right side. Suddenly, I hear a "Pisssshhhhhh-
pish-pish-pish-pish." I take a quick assessment and
realize that it's coming from the bike on my right. Whew!
The rider of that bike soon sounded like me at Rocky
Hill. :-)

At the top of this hill, Richie gets into a breakaway with
about 5 other guys, but it doesn't last too long, unfortunately.

Flashback to Thursday...

During hill repeats, my knee started to bother me, so I
decided to quit after my third repeat (I was going to stop
after 2, but Kirk talked me into another). I was going to
take it pretty easy, though. David James started his
fourth repeat a bit after Tom and I started our third, and
I told Tom that we'd be David's rabbit. David proved me
right as he came up on us just as we're beginning the
last step of the hill. He worked a lot harder to catch
me than I did to get to that point, so I had some energy
left, and was able to re-pass David before the top. (I
must've forgotten about my knee :-} ).

What's the point of all this, you may be asking. Well,
I thought that a good strategy for today's race would be
to go out a mile or so before the last hill, then rest on
the hill and let the pack catch up to me. I planned on
doing this for laps 3 and 4, if I could get away with it,
so that they would let me go on lap 5, assuming that
they would catch me on the hill again, but I would not
rest on the hill, and try to take it in a breakaway.

Best laid plans. Mice. Men.

However, I did do a version of this on the 4th lap,
though not necessarily on purpose. Leading up to
the hill, I was riding in 4th position. The guy on the
front decided to attack the hill, but I elected to let
those 3 go. Unfortunately, no one else did.

Oops.

By the top of the hill, I heard the chase motorcycle
on my wheel. I looked back and saw no one else.
I am able to hang onto the back of the pack, though.

We finally start the fifth and final lap, and I'm able
to get some rest here. I also use my small chain
ring for just about the whole lap, but am still able
to stay in the pack. I work my back up to the front
of the pack, and find Richie. We're near the
front when we hit the last hill, and some guy in
front of me swerves, making me touch my brakes.
When this happened in Bryan a couple years ago,
I lost momentum and got spit out the back. Today,
however, I picked a wheel that wasn't swerving, and
hung onto it, making it to the top of the hill in pretty
good position. Richie and I were in the top ten. All
that's left is a hard right turn and a slight downhill
finish.

Going into the turn, I'm on Richie's right hip, but I
have to scrub off speed since I'm trying to take it
too sharp. I should have faded out to the left as
Richie and the rest of the group did. I picked it
back up and sprinted as hard as I could for the
finish, even though there were others passing me.
I was able to nip one guy at the finish, and ended
up in 19th place, which I was quite happy with.
Richie ended up 9th.

What I was even happier with was that I had a
few opportunities to let negative thoughts rule me,
which has been a problem in the past. I worked
hard up to the very end.

Now if I could just work on setting up my turns
better....

Epilogue: As I was getting ready to leave, I saw a
note under my windshield. It was from the woman
to whom I had lent my pump. She thanked me for
it and said she hoped I had a good race. She
signed it, "A Single Mother with children on a
camping trip."

But no phone number. :-( Harrumph!

Talon Trails Excruciation Exam

2008-02-24T22:45:00.003-06:00

This is a report of a race I did in January:

The Talon Trails Excruciation Exam was a race which utilized the trails at Bluff Creek Ranch in Warda, the trails at Rocky Hill Ranch in Smithville, and the paved and dirt roads in between. We traveled 30 miles on trails and 50 miles on roads.

The Excruciation Exam was, in a word, excruciating.

Other than giving birth, this has got to have been the hardest thing I can remember doing.

Oh. Wait...

Ok, this was the hardest thing I can remember doing, making the Tour das Hugel ("100 miles of Austin's most painful hills") look like a ride around my living room.

I knew things were going to be rough when, during the pre-race riders' meeting, I look down and saw that I was already bleeding. The sharp part of my rear quick release skewer had grazed the dry skin of my leg and pierced it.

*sigh*

John and I had decided that we'd ride together, he'd lead on the trails, and I'd lead on the road. The race started with a Lemans-style start, where we ran to a tree and back before mounting our bikes. The most difficult part of this was dodging the cow patties, which we managed to do quite admirably.

The first 6-mile lap through the Bluff Creek Ranch trails went smoothly. John and I were pacing ourselves (my whole goal of this thing was to finish, not necessarily finish well), and we got to the road about 40 minutes later. The weather was cool and misty, with a little bit of wind in our face. We managed to paceline with 1-3 other folks on the 28-mile ride to Rocky Hill Ranch. I learned to not breathe through my mouth when drafting someone on dirt roads, however, or I'd end up with a mouth full of, well, dirt. However, I later found that the extra minerals may have done me some good.

As we rolled into the RHR checkpoint, I hit the "Lap" button on my GPS, so that I could keep separate tracks of the road and trail portions, but the GPS hung on me. It must've been the moisture. Just a minor annoyance, as I wouldn't know how far I had to go on the future legs.

As we started out for the RHR trails, I noticed that my front tire was a bit low. I thought that would probably be helpful for the trail, and I would put more air in it before hitting the road again. Just before we get into the trail, I see Bob (whom I know from the Brazos Valley Mtb Assoc.) taking photos. Hi, Bob! Not too much farther along, I see Joel (also from the BVMBA), also taking pictures. I chat with Joel for a bit while John takes care of some mechanical issue on his bike.

I think that Joel put some bad Ju-Ju on me, because once John and I got started again, my rear derailleur went out of tune. I just couldn't get it to shift right, no matter how much I fiddled with the barrel adjuster. I could only use 2-3 of my rear cogs, so I ended up using my front derailleur as much as, if not more ,than, my rear. Needless to say, this put me in a bit of a foul mood.

But wait! That's not all! Tell them what else we have in store, Johnny!

That's right! We've also got cramps! Cramps in muscles that we didn't even know existed! Off the bike? Voluntarily or not? Have another cramp! One cramp's not enough? If you call now, you'll get a special bonus of cramps in both right quad and right hamstring at the same time! Operators are standing by!

Man, oh, man, that was pain that I haven't experienced before, not even when I broke my arm. With cramps on both sides of my leg, I couldn't move my leg at all. Swear words were not enough. It was primal scream time. After standing there for several minutes, the cramps finally went away. John came back to check up on me, and gave me a couple of Tums that he carries for just such occasions.

The Tums helped.

For about 10 minutes.

Then muscles that hadn't yet cramped decided to take their turn. I finally convinced John to go ahead, and told him that I was planning on bailing if I ever got out of the woods. I then just granny-geared it out of there.

Going up? Granny gear.

Level? Granny gear.

Down? Coast.

I just walked over anything that looked the least bit technical, and went up, as well as extended climbs.

When I got to the ditch called The Grind, I saw roots on the left side of the entry, and leaves on the right. Not knowing what was under the leaves, I decided to just send my bike down ahead of me. It didn't pick a very good line, because I slipped and fell down, myself, when I followed it on foot.

About the only good thing that happened for me at RHR was that John suggested that I fill my water bottle at one of the water stops, as my camelbak ran out before I got out of the woods.

When I finally exited the woods (queue angelic music here) John was sitting in a chair, waiting for me. I told him that I was done, and that he should go ahead and finish the race. So he left.

I had an hour before the "gate" at RHR shut, so I sat and ate and drank while Susan and Maureen gave me words of encouragement. After about 25 minutes, I decided that it was mostly tailwind on the roads back to Warda, and then it was only 3 miles of trails once I got there, and I didn't want John to be the last person in the race, since he had waited for me, so I pumped up my tires for the road and rolled out.

The road to Warda was pretty uneventful, except that there was more side wind and less tailwind than I expected. My rear derailleur starts working properly again, so things are starting to look up.

I finally get to Warda, and now all I have left is the short trail! I let some of the air out of my back tire, but the front has lost some air on it's own. No worry, as I only have 3 more miles. I'm taking it easy, and things are going pretty well.

Oh, ye of little faith...

About halfway through the trail, my front tire gets very low. I take out my pump and put more air in it. I continue on. After about another 100 yards, the tire is completely flat. I have a tube, but neither the energy nor the patience to put it in, so I decide to just walk it out, and that's what I do.

As I walk to the finish line, John, Maureen, Ryan, Susan, Duane, Ted, and a few others are there, applauding. I think that they're just glad that they can finally go home, as I was the last finisher.

I was just glad to be done with it all.

I guess DFL is better than DNF. 9:21:02. That gives me a time to beat next year.

Next year?

Hmmmm....

Hopefully, next year I won't leave the NUUN tablets in the truck.

Chappell Hill Report

2007-09-09T16:34:00.000-05:00

Today's race captain, David James, did Velocity proud, finishing towards the front of his first Cat 4 road race after 62 sweltering miles. As for me, I showed up, was dropped a quarter through the race and switched roles to feed zone support. There were at least 70 at the start. (I'm told that 80 started the 45+ race and the Cat 5 hit its ruled limit of 50 riders over a week ago, which is why I cat'd up.)

David got miscued and thought there would be neutral water at the feed zone and showed up to the start with only one bottle. It was easy going before we reached the circuit and the most challenging part was staying alert and ready to hit the brakes. Every few minutes a strong puller would swing off the front and drop the speed of the pack by several mph, making everybody behind the leaders hit the brakes. As I was starting to drag early on in the race I swapped with David my larger bottle for his smaller one. I'm satisfied I was max'd out as I was being dropped. It's a slow fade of only 1-2 mph, they seem so close ahead, drawing away ever so slowly, but drawing away nonetheless.

I was waiting ready at the feed zone at the end of the second lap of the circuit, and David heard me yelling "Velocity" but he wasn't expecting me and was on the far side of the pack. I hadn't seen him that loop but I caught him the next time around, he grateful to get his full bottle back. (I had already rehydrated with a kind cold offering from the Sugar Cycles team support.) At that end of the last circuit a breakaway of about a half-dozen riders had a two-minute gap on the main pack, which had no hope of closing it in the remaining 13 miles. By David's report, approaching the finish, another breakaway of another half-dozen or so riders split off and finished off the top 10. David led the remaining pack across the finish line.

I ambled back, passing tired, dehydrated racers and as I passed them I felt obligated to let them know that I was actually 24 miles behind them (having rested two laps in the feed zone).

All in all, a fine race day. I'm much happier to have raced than to not have raced.

13 Hours on a Barstool: AT&T Crit Report

2007-06-18T17:34:00.000-05:00

On Saturday 6/16 instead of any form of exercise all I did was sit on a bar stool, and watch bike racing. The next morning my calves felt like they were on the verge of cramping. It was strange having that sensation since the closest I came to my bike in the preceding 3 days was passing it in the garage.

Here's how the day unfolded.

Raining Again

The original plan was for Michael to come to my house at 0730 AM, and we were going to ride down to the 2nd St District and watch Daniel race with the Cat 5's, and then hang around until 0930 and watch Gerry ride with the Masters 45+, 55+, and 65+. Gerry was the only 65+ racer, so it would be basically a 50 minute victory lap.

Alas, all of this was not to be on account of the sound of thunder that awakened me from my pre-AT&T crit slumber at 0430. When I awoke for real, at 0630 it was coming down steadily and the roads were very wet. Michael showed at my place at 0715, and he and I drove downtown for coffee and bike racing. I let him borrow a pair of my citizen shorts, and I put on my Velocity jersey, and wore a pair of citizen shorts as well. Even though I wasn't going to be riding, I thought it was important to show some "club love" for the home team.

We arrived at the Start/Finish line at 0730, and got some coffee and breakfast tacos. We pulled up some bar stools and got ready to spectate. We found out then the that the two Cat 5 races has been combined for "safety reasons" on account of the rain. As a result instead of 20 racing in each race, there were now 40 Cat 5's racing.

Enter the Guppy Hunter

Frank showed up at 0800. He had been threatening to ride from So. Dallas to the race, but the rain put him in the Dodge truck. He found a bar stool, and we all got ready to watch some Velocity smack down. In reality, Michael and I went to the turn #1 to watch what we thought would be the inevitable crash of the Cat 5 race. Daniel was in the peleton respledent in his Velocity kit. Here's a photo of him negotiating turn #1 at some point in the race:

Daniel looked good, and reported later that on account of the wet road conditions the peleton never really got its rhythm together. Daniel looked good as he finished. He didn't crash, and he lived to race another day.

Where's Gerry?

At 0900 there was no sign of Gerry King our Velocity 65+ representative. I got on the phone, and reached him at Casa de King wherein he informed me "I've broken too many bones to risk racing on wet streets." Fair enough. I asked him if he was planning to come on down to spectate, and he demurred. Since I really didn't have a whole lot else to do, I got some more coffee from Jo's and settled in to my bar stool for some Master's racing action. Here's photo of Michael and Frank enjoying the downtown spectacle:

Working the magic of my cell phone, I reached John Howell at Casa de Howell, and harrassed him and his lovely wife to come down and join the rest of us non-racers. Luckily they obliged. The Master's race was quite exciting. Greg Hall from Violet Crown and 3 other Master's racers got into a break and stayed away. Greg's team did a great job neutralizing any attempt to bring the break back. Meanwhile John and Maureen ordered breakfast. Watching and cheering all that racing made me really hungry, so I helped myself as Frank "the Guppy Hunter" Irwin offered a distraction. Who is that man in the shades? Crusty, is that you?

During the race Phil Sladek had the tell-tale sign of a crash, torn shorts. Unfortunately, that would not be the only pair of torn shorts we'd see. There was a crash in every single race. Quite a few were in turn #1.

Sun-up to Sun Down

I wish I could say the rest of the day was more interesting. What the day consisted of was Frank, Michael, and I sitting on bar stools, ogling women, eating, and taking pictures.

It was a great day.

Probably the most exciting race was the Women's Cat 3/4 race, naturally.

At the finish, a rider from Violet Crown offered up an intense sprint for the line with Violet Crown taking the victory and Lori Barnet from Velossimo taking a close 2nd.

Throughout the day as I coughed down homemade potato chips and coffee, I never had a regret about not racing. This was especially true when I watched the Cat 4 race, and a rider from Wooly Mammoth limped across the line.

Michael had said that the Wooly rider had run into a barrier on one of the straights.

The other dramatic crash was in Turn #4 right before the finishing straight in the Cat 3 race. There was a literal pile-up of bikes and bodies sliding into the hay bales.

Pro Time

The pro race started at 7 15. Toyota United, AEG Toshiba, Health Net A& F Development Squad, and some other pro teams were represented along with usual pro suspects: Team Hotel San Jose, Team AT&T, and Bike Barn. The race had about 100 riders, and they literally tore up the course. Their bike handling was superb, and they made it all look really easy. Here's a photo of Frank Pip from Health Net on one of the circuits. He eventually got 2nd:

Another notable rider was Kristian House who rides for the Navigators. He apparently spent his formative cycling years in Austin, and then went to England and became a pro. He was quite impressive as well. I heard somewhere that the pros averaged about 27 mph around the .5 mile circuit. Very impressive.

There was a 3 man break during the latter half of the race containing a rider whose name escapes me, Sean Sullivan from Toyota United, and local yokel Phil Wikoff. With one lap to go, Sean had a 7 second gap on the field, but the escapees were caught in the final turn when Cuban Frank Treviaso took the sprint. It was a really awesome race, and if you missed it be sure to get out there next year.

Season Finale

2007-06-17T21:07:00.000-05:00

The cycling season has another four months remaining, so it's just Spring that ends on Thursday and it will be the first Thursday in a while that I won't be racing. Rehearsals for A Skull in Connemara begin tomorrow.

My AT&T Crit performance was a little disappointing, but I am not discouraged. There were originally two Cat 5 races scheduled. The 30-minute race scheduled for 7:30 am was combined with my race at 8:15 am. The rain had stopped, but the course remained wet. The saving grace was that the more water that ended up on me meant less on the road. From the start it was a half block to (left) turn #1 and we all approached the turn gingerly and, to my surprise, no one fell. After the turn, we sprinted up the slight incline two blocks, then slowed for (left) turn #2. At least one person took it too wide and managed to stop before the curb. Keeping in mind, with Cat 5s it could be somebody's first race, so I'm particular leery of riders I don't know or who aren't clearly in control. Turn # 3 is the easiest, allowing for a wide approach and a wide exit. The main pack doesn't seem to understand this, takes it narrow, slows down, then sprints back out. Right before turn #4, two steel plates cover the ideal turn line, so we avoid that, but then it's impossible to avoid the two manhole covers in the approach and another manhole cover 12 inches from the inside of the corner. You either take the closest line, or if that's obstructed by other riders, you have to take it wide, but the turn is from a four-line road into a two lane road and curbs abound. Then it's a sprint again.

So the race consisted of the series Sprint, Slow, Turn, Sprint, Slow, Turn, Sprint, Slow, Turn &c &c. I'm strong enough now to stay within the draft of a pack ( i.e. "suck wheel"), but I can't keep up with the leaders, so after about 15 minutes of this, I fall out. At least two people have taken spills (one got right back in) and the refs are pulling people getting lapped. I wasn't pulled, but probably only because they knew me and perhaps they knew that I am very experienced in getting lapped and equally experienced at staying out of the way. So I finished, I think about two laps behind the lead pack and 1-1/2 laps behind the second pack. Later that day I was asked if it was fun. It was fun, but more in a "satisfying" way than an "enjoying the experience" way. Happily for subsequent racers, the course remained dry the rest of the day.

What was fun in an "enjoying the experience" way was watching races while volunteering as a corner marshal. Most fun was when I was at turn #1 during the pro race last night. Fans were crowded around and I had to keep people from crossing on the far side of a blind corner. When the racers came by, it wasn't a puff of wind, it was a breeze that lasted several seconds after they passed. They were flying! I could hear the prime announcement and watch them pick up the pace. I had my stopwatch with me and I could track the speed of each lap and the gap between the break away and the main pack. When the pack wasn't passing, I was letting people cross and pouncing on anyone who attempted right before the pack arrived. It was all very thrilling to watch.

I showed up this morning at The Driveway to volunteer and the day was a washout. The pro race had less than 20, and I think half of them were still hungover from a night of partying. The combination of following the Downtown Crit, Father's Day and a risky weather forecast contributed to the problem and my race was canceled. David James showed up, so we took the opportunity to just ride the course. I probably wasn't ready to race, anyway, having spent the entire previous day either racing or on my feet, so I was happier just to be able to go on a ride with a teammate.

Last week I stripped my carbon/steel frame and "added lightness" to it with a brand-new group I bought on eBay, and transfered the old group to another steel frame of identical geometry (another eBay purchase). So my racing bike was sweeter than ever for these races. I'll be sporting the new cherry-red Lemond for training rides and living-room-trainer rides. I plan on spending the rest of this evening completing its assembly. I'll have four bikes (the others are a fixie and a touring/commuting bike), so I'll be shipping my son's bike to him in Upstate NY to free up some room.

I'll see what training I can get in. Saturdays from 10am - 2 pm I'll be in rehearsals, so my big weekly ride will likely be Sunday mornings. I plan on a "bumper crop" racing season in September/October.

Thursday Night Crits

2007-06-01T14:34:00.000-05:00

They're like clockwork, every week, but each week's crit has its own unique characteristics and flavor. Last night three Velocity teammates raced in the 35+ 4/5 race along with two other categories that totaled over 50 riders. Robert Pillmore helped officiate all the races.

Being such a short race of only 25 mins, I'm told it has a faster pace than the earlier 3/4 race that lasts 45 minutes. After signing up for my race I saw David James replacing his front wheel. He showed me that its hub had broken earlier during the 3/4 race (which was still ongoing). It was an Ultegra hub and without cross lacing, and it's not designed or warranted for that. (I think they've relaxed that on some newer hubs).

He flatted during last week's race, so was particularly frustrated. But he was ready in plenty of time for our race. I mentioned a few posts back about 13-y/o (14?) Avery Visser and last night at the start I joked that I would be staying on her wheel. I knew from previous races that she'd stay with the main pack throughout.

In fact, I had it as my goal to stay with the main pack myself, so I was really only half joking. A Cat 3 buddy from work, Bob McGhee, offered some tips and unwittingly asked me to make it my goal stay with the pack last night. The back-and-forth turns tend to stretch out the pack, but it seemed like a faster start last night, and my power meter reported that we were fastest in the second 0.8-mile lap, averaging 26 mph. It was never "easy" but I never felt like I was going to completely collapse. I wasn't looking back and was trying to allow no more than about 10 riders in front of me, but it felt a lot more stretched out that usual, it started to bunch up and slow down around the 4th lap, but a couple of laps later at the last turn before the straightaway a woman went down, she sliding across the asphalt left, her bike sliding right and me somehow slipping in between.

I later learned it was Avery, ahead of me, of course, possibly going down from complications of a lapped rider. There's a left-right switch right before then and it's a particularly problematic spot for passing a lapped rider. I understand that Avery was not seriously injured, but did suffer some road rash and bruises. I had nightmares after seeing my own son go down when he was 15 and he barely had a scrape, so I'm particularly thinking about Avery and her folks today. I imagine she's experiencing a lot of delayed-onset pain.

The 5-lap card comes out and I'm still strong -- I'm actually going to make it!

At two laps to go, I fall back from the lead group of about a dozen riders when they ramp up for the finish, but fortunately both teammates are still in it. I finished about 75 yards behind them and while not exactly with the lead pack, it was a stretched out race, there are 35 or so behind me, so I'm feeling pretty good about my best finish ever and my fastest 25 minutes on flat ground. Being lapped is a distant memory.

Right now I'm still debating getting up early for the June 16th downtown crit and racing in one of the 30-minute Cat 5 races, else sleeping in and racing the 50-minute 4/5 race in the early afternoon. I'm leaning towards the shorter race that I'm more accustomed to. It just occurred to me that I could try both! :-)

May 26th Velocity Ride:Rain Will Not Slow Us

2007-05-26T17:21:00.000-05:00

Morning Regrets

I awoke hoping it was raining. Daniel and I made a back-up plan to ride trainers while watching the Giro.

I made it over to CDT (Casa De Truxillo:Stanton's House) at 0710 and hooked up with James. I was hoping Jen M. and Richie Howell would be there; alas, we were solo.

Spill(s)

When we got to Bannister and Ben White, I called Daniel who informed me that we were a half hour early. Up until then, the ride was largely uneventful. When James and I were on the off-camber turn before St. Elmo a thought occurred to me that the roads were slick and one of us could fall. Was it intuition? Or was it PTSD from my spill at the Thursday Night Crit?

As soon as the thoughts of spillage crossed my synapses into the oblivion where thoughts go, James took a spill and skinned up his right knee real good.

Here Comes Richie

At Slaughter and So. 1st, I was happy to see Richie Howell pulling up on Slaughter. We rode down So. 1st together and watched as Daniel sped by in his vehicle. We arrived at the school at 0800-ish. David Van Newkirk showed resplendent in his Cicle C jersey.

We kicked around the school parking lot for a few minutes. We rolled down So. 1st a bit hoping to see more Circle C-ers. We saw only Danskiners. As we rolled back toward the school, I saw the bruise-colored skies spewing pockets of liquid in the distance.

It didn't look good.

When we rolled through the school parking lot, Bob Pillmore greeted us with a report of his first of 3 anticipated flats.

Where Do We Go From Here?

It seemed like a good idea...at the time. We were going to ride south to San Marcos, so if it rained, we could turn around and have the wind at our backs.

The rain started to fall as we got on San Antonio Rd. Bob said something about how it was breaking up.

It was.

The clouds were breaking up into little pieces of rain.

Paging Noah...

By the time we were halfway down Old San Antone Rd it was full on deluge time. Mrs. Noah, line up the animals!

Slop. Grit. Slop. Rooster tails. It wasn't pretty. And to top it all off, we were HAULING ASS! We were averaging 20 mph on OST (Old San Antone) Rd. As all of my faithful readers and riders know, averaging 20 mph on OST is barely remarkable. But it is when the Lord is unzipping his pants and taking a nature break on your face.

We're Breaking Up

By the time we got to Buda David and Bob Pillmore turned off. Bob said something about the wisdom of riding into the rain. I was heading for Bill Miller’s BBQ for shelter and maybe some ribs.

We stood under the awning about 5 minutes thinking about our options. Richie voiced a desire to keep on keeping on. What was the worst that would happen: we would get wet.

I hope you only had one flat for the day, Bob.

The Adventure Begins

James appealed to the angels of our slower nature stating that going 20 mph in the rain was not really a good idea. We agreed. Then James hauled ass down the road into Buda and the rain.

We eschewed 2770 and the cement trucks for the more scenic Cole Spgs Rd and 1626. We were having fun, spraying each other with road spray. Then as we ventured on to 1626, Daniel got his flat. We stood around in the rain and lost every BTU that was inside of us. At that point wisdom said to turn it around. We listened.

Now we hauled ass back through Buda and up OST. It was awesome, dramatic. We were the hard men of the South, and we were the only knuckleheaded cyclists we saw.

When we made it back to the school, the rain had let up. Daniel headed out in his car, and Richie road with James and me to Dittmar on So. 1st. The humidity grew thicker, and by the time we got to my house, the streets were largely dry.

It was an awesome ride!

I Want a Velodrome!

2007-05-21T17:37:00.000-05:00

I want a velodrome! Nearby, that is.

Last month I posted a message on the TXBRA road racing forum to see if any other Austin racers wanted to join me in the monthly "development class" at the Superdrome in Frisco (north of Dallas). Jennifer Joy (35+ Cat 4 Woman) and Nick Lewis (30+ Cat 3, itching for Cat 2) confirmed. Jen did more MTB'ing last year, is getting into road racing this year and did her first crit on Thursday at The Driveway. Nick lives in New Braunfels, so he alternates weekly between the Driveway Crit and the crit in New Braunfels in addition to competing in most of the state-level road races.

I set three alarms and so awoke on time at 4:00 am Saturday morning and we were rolling from my apartment on time at 5:00 am. With a fast-food sit-down breakfast en route we arrived at the Superdrome just as the the door was being unlocked to distribute the stable of track bikes. Bikes used on the track have three critical requirements: 1) they're fixed-gear (the pedals only stop when the rear wheel is stopped), 2) brakes are not allowed and 3) the bottom bracket is higher than on a road bike, to allow steeper banking (at slow speeds). Also, a track bike generally has shorter crank arms (by 5-10 mm, again, for steeper banking) and a shorter wheel base.

Barry started up with a brief history of the Superdrome. They're always in need of donations to maintain the wooden track. It was originally constructed to have a tent-like covering, but that was never installed, so the wood and its paint is subject to the rain, ice, snow and blistering heat. There were a few chips of laminate layer missing from some of the plywood panels. The banking of the track is 44 degrees at the center of each turn and\n17 degrees at the center of the straightaways. There is no curve to\nthe banking: it's the same at the top as at the bottom. The innermost lane is at the same height all the way around the track. The higher lanes, however, require climbs into each turn and descents out of them. So in addition to being longer around the lap, the outer lanes require extra work around the turns.

Next, Barry walked us over to the track to see the various lines. The innermost line (the black "pole line") is where the 250 meters of the track is measured. It's the inside of the sprinters lane which is where you want to be to cover the least distance in one lap.

On our bikes we rode a few minutes in the concrete infield, learning how to mount, start and stop with pedals that are always turning, then Barry lead us onto the "apron," the flat concrete ring just inside the sprinters lane and technically not part of the racing portion of the track. Without warning, he led us a couple of feet onto the banked part of the track and we followed him around, slowly, at about 12 mph. Our bikes remained perpendicular to the earth and 44 degrees against the banked turns, so I was nervous about going so slowly. I felt that Barry was going slowly for those afraid of going faster, but it helped me gained a sense of just how slowly you can actually go without slipping. We picked up a little bit more speed and he led us halfway up the track for a couple more laps. Finally, we went to the top and tapped the rail on the straightway and followed that line to the top of the track, not going more than about 15 mph. Pretty spooky and I was ready to pick up some speed.

The banking of the track is 44 degrees at the center of each turn and 17 degrees at the center of the straightaways. There is no curve to the banking: it's the same at the top as at the bottom. The innermost lane is at the same height all the way around the track. The higher lanes, however, require climbs into each turn and descents out of them. So in addition to being longer around the lap, the outer lanes require extra work around the turns.

Next, Barry walked us over to the track to see the various lines. The innermost line (the black "pole line") is where the 250 meters of the track is measured. It's the inside of the sprinters lane which is where you want to be to cover the least distance in one lap.

On our bikes we rode a few minutes in the concrete infield, learning how to mount, start and stop with pedals that are always turning, then Barry lead us onto the "apron," the flat concrete ring just inside the sprinters lane and technically not part of the racing portion of the track. Without warning, he led us a couple of feet onto the banked part of the track and we followed him around, slowly, at about 12 mph. Our bikes remained perpendicular to the earth and 44 degrees against the banked turns, so I was nervous about going so slowly. I felt that Barry was going slowly for those afraid of going faster, but it helped me gained a sense of just how slowly you can actually go without slipping. We picked up a little bit more speed and he led us halfway up the track for a couple more laps. Finally, we went to the top and tapped the rail on the straightway and followed that line to the top of the track, not going more than about 15 mph. Pretty spooky and I was ready to pick up some speed.

So I'm glad I brought the stopwatch for the open riding that followed. I and a couple of other guys practiced 200-meter sprints. The starting line is halfway through the first turn. To get maximum speed for the sprint, you build up speed before the turn at the outermost part of the lane and at the start of the curve, you then "dive bomb" across all lanes and down to the start line at the sprinters lane. The bikes were set up for easy pedaling, so we would spin out pretty quickly, but we had some fun. I did my best of \n14.04 s (31.87 mph) on the first attempt. In a later attempt just before the "dive bomb" I slammed against the high wall, got some "wall rash" and a bloody knuckle and I left a tire scuff on the wall (but I didn't scratch the sprint). I'm bringing a bigger chain ring next trip. :-)

Then we did some races. The rides start on the straightaway all in a row hanging on to the rail. To start, everyone starts rolling a neutral lap and gets together in a pack. The first race was a "scratch race," simply a fixed number of laps (9 in our case). As with road racing, time doesn't matter, so racers often sandbag at the start. I was having none of that, so led out relatively easily, but keeping some pressure on. At the end, I was just behind the #2 racer, so I slowly started accelerating about 3/4 lap before the finish and pulled up and outside of the far turn. It was more work climbing the turn, but I could be slightly behind him at the end of the turn and take advantage of the height and surprise him by coming down in the last few meters. And that almost worked. I came in third by only a couple of inches (the line "ref" said he would not have been able to tell, had he not lined up his eyes on the line).

So I'm glad I brought the stopwatch for the open riding that followed. I and a couple of other guys practiced 200-meter sprints. The starting line is halfway through the first turn. To get maximum speed for the sprint, you build up speed before the turn at the outermost part of the lane and at the start of the curve, you then "dive bomb" across all lanes and down to the start line at the sprinters lane. The bikes were set up for easy pedaling, so we would spin out pretty quickly, but we had some fun. I did my best of 14.04 s (31.87 mph) on the first attempt. In a later attempt just before the "dive bomb" I slammed against the high wall, got some "wall rash" and a bloody knuckle and I left a tire scuff on the wall (but I didn't scratch the sprint). I'm bringing a bigger chain ring next trip. :-)

Then we did some races. The rides start on the straightaway all in a row hanging on to the rail. To start, everyone starts rolling a neutral lap and gets together in a pack. The first race was a "scratch race," simply a fixed number of laps (9 in our case). As with road racing, time doesn't matter, so racers often sandbag at the start. I was having none of that, so led out relatively easily, but keeping some pressure on. At the end, I was just behind the #2 racer, so I slowly started accelerating about 3/4 lap before the finish and pulled up and outside of the far turn. It was more work climbing the turn, but I could be slightly behind him at the end of the turn and take advantage of the height and surprise him by coming down in the last few meters. And that almost worked. I came in third by only a couple of inches (the line "ref" said he would not have been able to tell, had he not lined up his eyes on the line). The "Miss & Out" is a little more interesting. You start out riding a few laps and then after so many laps (4 in our case), the ref starts removing the last rider on each lap. This keeps someone from drafting behind the entire pack during the entire race. So, of course, my strategy was to draft behind the entire pack during the entire race, *except* at the lap line, when I would sprint ahead, overtaking the lap loser. :-) When the field is whittled down to three racers, the final lap determines final places.

We Austinites had considered hanging around for the open riding session, but all the riding in class and the early start was enough. Afterwards we toured through the Richardson Bike Mart, mouths agape at the size of the place, had lunch and drove back. A long and very satisfying day.

More information is at www.superdrome.com. If you decide to take the devo class, one tip not mentioned is to measure your road bike fit dimensions, so when you get the track bike you can more easily adjust it to match your fit. Also, in addition to bringing your own pedals and shoes and helmet, you might also consider bringing your own saddle.

Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/danorton/200705MaySuperdromeDevoClass

The Armadillo Hill Country Classic: Club Love or Following Frank

2007-05-14T07:57:00.001-05:00

The Start

There were six of us at the Armadillo Hill Country Classic start. Four of the six of us were showing our “club love” by adorning our club kit so proudly. For other reasons, Daniel and Dane chose to where differing accoutrements. The other four of us were full on Velocity kit including gold socks.

The stated goal by me and others was 105 miles at Zone 2, or “cruising for chicks” speed as Daniel put it. Naturally, at the start there were the requisite Violet Crown folks among other weekend warriors with the exception of Stephan Schwartz, local Ironman luminary.

Zone 2 Anyone?

We started off slow enough, and as we got to the hills out of town the pace quickened. I was in Zone 2 for about 15 minutes. In short order the Zone 2 became Zone 3 and 4 and a bit of Zone 5. Greg Hall from Violet Crown was pushing the pace as was Stephan Schwartz. “I thought this was supposed to be Zone 2?” Frank queried me several times, and then his voice echoed off into the distance as the lead group separated from the line of folks heading out of Liberty Hill.

At the top of a downhill section, I pulled up along side Mr. Schwartz. “Why don’t you get in front of him?” I heard Tom Hall call out. “Okay, I’ll work,” he said as he bombed down the decent to the creek bed. At around New Hope cemetery, I started getting a cramp in my left calf, and I started to back off. I didn’t want to kill myself like I did last year (See “A Deeper Shade of Fried”). I went to the back of the group and was dismayed to find only Tom there. I asked Tom where everybody went, and he told me we dropped them about 15 minutes ago. I let him know about the cramp, and he held back with me. We kept up a nice pace taking pulls until we got to Bertram. He wanted to wait for Dane, and I wanted to wait for Frank and Daniel, so we went to the rest stop.

Mistaken Identity

Tom and I were grazing at the rest stop and I hear “Hi there, John Howell!” I turn to see Preston Tyree addressing Tom Hall. Tom corrected him and acknowledged that the moustache and the outfit must have been the source of confusion. I was quick to get on the pickles because I figured it would be a crampy day. We saw some folks roll to the stop who we thought would be with Frank. David, a real strong rider and someone I’ve been leaning on to join Velocity, told me that Frank passed up the stop, and was “about a minute ahead on the road.” David had broken my heart recently because he told me all of this as he wore a Violet Crown jersey. He got away this time. Tom and I decided we would go out and try to find Frank.

Chasing Frank

Tom and I go back out on to the road and start taking pulls, blowing and going to try and catch Frank. It turns out David’s Violet Crown jersey was doing all the talking because we were averaging 20 mph, and there was no sign of Frank anywhere. Up in the distance we see a lone rider and figure it’s Frank. When we catch the lone rider it turns out to be “Thursday Night Hill Ride” Greg. He’s not wearing a Velocity kit, but we hope he will be soon. Tom, Greg, and I and this guy wearing winter apparel settle into a groove in the hopes of finding Frank. At the third rest stop, Tom turns off, and Greg and I soldier on in our quest for Frank. I was so toasted at the stop; I suggested we wait for Frank because usually when I ride Frank that is my condition. Not today. On we went toward Burnet. We found some other folk and got into a group and took pulls up to Burnet. Seeing Frank at the Burnet rest stop was our reward. We all greeted each other. I was sad to hear that Frank was noodling along the road the whole way, and here I was a puddle of sweat and pre-cramps.

Enter Jennifer

Jennifer is a really strong rider. I met her last year at the “Members Only” ACA century last year. She was riding a Madone 5.5, and has long blond hair. She was also wearing Spd Sandals. She also dropped us all like a rock. At the Armadillo she had the Madone and the blond hair, but new cycling shoes. She also had really bad allergies. When Frank and I saw Jennifer saddling up and getting ready to go, we forgot about everybody else at the stop, and decided to ride with her.

Running on…Running on Empty

It turned out Frank had met Jennifer on previous Armadillo rides, so we rolled on toward Lake Victor into the head wind. At this point as in last year, I was pretty much toast. I had learned last year that eating a bunch of cookies would not help my cause, so I stuck to the performance food, pickles, and water. As I mentioned before, Jennifer’s allergies were terrible. Her nose was running, and her eyes were watery. Snot hung from her nose repeatedly. As we pressed on, we shared stories, philosophies, and turns at the front. As the afternoon got hotter, I spent less time at the front, and more time following Frank. I was most worried about the hills on the return and was not relishing a total quad lock-up that seemed imminent.

Following Frank

Like most centuries I’ve done before there is a region of pain and suffering I endure between mile 70 and 80. I feel terrible, and I attribute it to the fact that I don’t tend to do many training rides over 70 miles as I don’t have races over 50 miles long, generally. Additionally, with the heat, the air dried out, and my lungs began to feel tight and inflamed. Great. I continued following Frank the whole way back. I was lucky that there was no serious crampage, but I was glad when the 106.5 mile ride was over.

Proselytizing

I don’t know about other Velocity members, but I do know that when I go to events like the Armadillo and the Thursday Night Crits, I chat up Velocity as much as possible, and wish to make the club as accessible as possible. Frequently, I’ll run into former members who didn’t know we were still around. I find that there is a lot of interest in our developmental cycling club, and I feel that folks like Frank and Daniel are excellent ambassadors of our cycling club.

Brazos Senior Games Report by Tom Hall

2007-05-07T07:52:00.000-05:00

Gerry and I did the 40K today (Sunday) with four laps.

The day was warm and we had a strong south wind. The 50+ and 55+men and women started together, and then everyone else a few minutes later. Everyone seemed to know everyone else, except me, of couse. A couple of guys were from Richardson Bike mart. One was on the team time trial team you chased home last year. He said you about killed them single-handedly. I didn't realize it at the time but Mickey ???, their big gun, dropped out about 3 km from the finish of the TTT.

Anyway, we took off and everyone behaved pretty well the first lap. We were riding single-file, with Gerry next to last and I last. The leaders pushed it pretty hard on the second sharp turn, and both of us had to accelerate to catch back on, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. I was having flashbacks to the Fayetteville race, when I again was last in line and got dropped when the guy in front of me couldn't stay with one of the accordion-effect accelerations after a corner. So I moved up in the pack when I got a chance.

On the second lap, one of the 65+ guys attacked, and four of us 60+ guys went with him. Gerry was in the bunch that got caught out, so I was on my own. I think I now have a greater appreciation for Custer's situation. I was riding wtih a guy named Wally.

At the end of the second lap, I got a chance to try something that may never happen again. I got a feed! Or at least a water bottle. My feed zone chick was my wife Susan, who was along because we were coming back from Galveston. It worked just like it was supposed to; she held it up and I grabbed it. Pretty cool. She said for her it was like holding a cigarette in her mouth while I shot it out with a pistol. We also passed the 50+ bunch on the second lap.

Three 50+ guys passed us on the third lap, and then slowed down, so we were drafting them. I was on Wally's wheel at the end of the third lap, and he kept looking back at me and moving closer and closer to the shoulder so I couldn't get a draft off him, until he was riding about 4" from the edge of the pavement. Then one of the guys went around him on the left and he forgot about me because he had to chase the other guy down.

The first half of the fourth lap was uneventful, but the second half, people quit taking their pulls and started jockeying for position. On the bottom of the long hill on the back side, one guy attacked, but his jump was non-existent and I could stay in the saddle and still stay on his wheel. Toward the top of the hill, he attacked again, with the same result, so we stayed in the same order until halfway up the last rise before the right turn to the finish. Gerry and Stanton had worked out a plan for me since I have no sprint, so I gave it a shot. I jumped and dug for the turn, and was leading at the start of the straightaway. At that point the flaw in the plan (or, rather, in my conditioning) appeared. I didn't have the legs to hold my lead, and everyone came around me. I was fourth in my age group and last of 5 in the lead bunch. My second completed race and my first finish in the lead bunch.

Wally won.

Gerry finished with the second bunch, and won his age group.

West Texas By the Numbers: Hammerfest Race Report

2007-04-22T16:04:00.000-05:00

Here's how my week has been.

Monday: Feel sluggish and out of sorts. Allergies. Do 2x Mesa with Frank and Stanton.

Tuesday: Feel sluggish and out of sorts. Night sweats. Rainy day. No Tuesday night TT for me.

Wednesday: Night sweats. Raw sore throat all day. Do a spirited ride with Frank and Daniel. Feel like crap at the end of the ride. Stop on the way home to by sugar free popsicles for my throat. Don't really work.

Thursday: Night sweats. Feel crappy. It's a rest day. I rest.

Friday: Night sweats. Bad frog in my throat. Really, really sore throat, sneezing, and teary eyed I leave for Ft Davis at 7 am. At 0930 I receive a call from Frank saying that he and Gerry won't make it. Friday I pick up my packet, do a warm-up, feel crappy. I meet up wtih David James who pledges fidelity to Velocity for a place to crash. He even claims Velocity on his license. We eat in Alpine. I wonder several times if I should go to a hospital because my throat hurts so bad. I've been eating Chloraseptic strips like candy. When we get back to the hotel, I Google the symptoms of strep throat and determine that I don't have them. I start having a dry, unproductive cough.

Saturday: No night sweats. I wake up and my throat feels "better". I eat a real breakfast because my start isn't until 1113 for the TT. I drive down to the TT start and take pics of David warming up and his TT start. I go back to the hotel, do a decent enough warm up. Feel like a zombie and go through the motions of getting ready for the TT. I'm not particularly jazzed about the new Zipp wheels I'm riding. By now the wind is a stiff 25 to 35 MPH gust out of the SW. Head wind all the way out and quartering tailwind coming back.

Oh, by the way,I'm number 801, and I'm first in my Category. I start off feeling halfway decent and start pushing a big gear. I make the turn and keep on. About half way up the road to the turn around I start to falter, and burp up some breakfast. I made a point to drink several times because that was an issue last year.

No matter.

Shortly thereafter 805 and 806 pass me. I cannot respond. I can't get my heart rate up. I start having negative self talk and try to shake it off. The wind is oppressive. I finally hobble to the turn around and glance back and there's another rider gaining on me. He passes me in short order. I'm spinning back to the finish avg 30 mph while grinding out 9 miles previously at 17 mph avg. I feel terrible.Then 2 more riders pass me up. This is a low point. I end up getting 14th in the TT with a time of 46 and some change. No good.I go back to the hotel, shower, change, put on my numbers for the next race. I get some food and wolf it down, and attempt to take a nap.

I begin to feel worse.

I intend on doing the hill climb and then cashing in my chips. As the afternoon wears on this seems less and less like a good idea. I call Stanton who counsels me to bag it which I do gladly.

I go down to the start of the hill climb and take some pics of David starting. I then drive to the Observatory and hike up Mt Locke. I get to see the Cat 3 finish and every other finish. It was very interesting watching the finish from the stand point of spectator. Everybody struggles up that hill, and they look terrible doing it. I cheered folks, and then snapped pics and got some film of David James' finish.

As I watched my race finish, I was shocked at who won, and a bit disappointed because I could have done pretty well if I wasn't sick. David and I went to the Spaghetti dinner, and we both won prizes in the raffle.

The folks are great hear and the scenery is spectacular.Sunday: I will sleep in. I may do a light spin. David is borrowing another jersey and my race wheels. He's facing 74 miles of some of the toughest roads in Texas with some really fast company. He's going to need the support.This event is so well put together and a lot of fun, and I recommend it to anyone.

Thursday Night Crit Race Report: 3/28/97

2007-03-30T07:01:00.001-06:00

First off, it was drizzly and overcast with a 8 to 10 mph wind from the SE creating a head and tail wind depending on where you were in the course. There was about 12 to 15 racing in a combined field of Cat 5's and 35+ 4/5's. There were also 2 women, Pamela Leblanc included in the race.

Pamela will be writing about her exploits soon I guess. (To end the suspense she got lapped several times during the race). The other woman was named Betty and she rode for Austin Flyers. I don't know what it says about me, but I was looking at her as a potential competitor--maybe it was the skinsuit.

She got dropped in the 2nd lap.

The Cat 5's consisted mainly of a bunch of UT Cycling guys. The 35+ 4/5's were myself the incomprable Daniel Norton of Velocity, Inc. and a smattering of unattached folks. The first lap started off pretty liesurely. A guy from UT Cycling went off the front-ish which means he was cruising off the front adn there wasn't much interest in him. On the 2nd lap I believe he got a flat. On the third or 4th lap in the turn going into the finishing straight, I came up the middle with an attack and got a small gap on the bunch. I glanced back and there was a rider from UT named Tony who was in last week's race. "Let's go!" I shouted to him and unlike any other time I was in a break of any kind, he glanced back and went for it.

Tony and I took turns off the front several laps creating a sizable gap with the main field and lapping Pamela LeBlanc a few times as well.
The only threat was a Cat 5 guy who caught on wiht 6 laps to go. Before he caught on, Tony noticed him and mentioned that the other rider "seemed to be taking it easy." I figured I had 35+ 4/5 in the bag, so I said, "He's first to your second unless we stay away." When we came to the finishing straight, the other rider called out "I'm on!" at which point Tony stepped on the gas and we dropped him.

Tony and stayed together until there were 2 laps to go wherein he really threw down and I had couldn't hang on. He was about 50 yards up the way the whole way. He soloed to a Cat 5 and overall victory and I sewed up 35+ 4/5.

There were puddles on the course during the race and Kenny Hill the title sponsor of the race was so kind to be sweeping them off the course during the race.

The crit was loads of fun and a real confidence builder. Afterwards when Daniel and I were watching the Cat 1,2's, I wondered aloud how Gerry King would fair in the 35+ 4/5's given his Cipollini-esque sprint.

Perhaps I'll find out some day.....

Pain a Plenty or Hurting in Fayetteville

2007-03-19T11:08:00.000-06:00

This was my first attempt at Fayetteville. Last year's attempt was averted by
my brother's nuptials at which I was best man.

This race is a fast race. This race is a hard race. The other thing I'm
pondering is that last year as a Cat 5, I got to ponder the depths of
humiliation in my first few races and to really think I'm old and talentless.
Then like I pheonix I got some pretty good results and realized that I'm just
an average roadie with a ways to go.

Funny how things don't change because this year is starting out the same way, and
I would think that I would have the wisdom to know the difference.

Saturday night after the first RR in which I came in near the bottom, I
thought a lot about being 40 years old and getting dropped by the pack in the
first lap. I enjoyed the TT and did halfway decent getting 24th.

SUnday's RR was about survival, and I hung with the pack in the first lap and
fell off. Falling off meant falling off with the really strong headwind that
would have killed me if it weren't for the chase group I ended up with. I
finished a tad better in that race and since so many people bagged it, I
ended up being someting like 30th on GC. I cramped like you wouldn't believe
in the second RR. The biggest lesson in the second RR was perseverence. I
thought several times about cashing in my chips, and collecting a DNF. The
funny thing is a lot of people did and as a result of "hanging on" I got a
sort of good result.

The best thing about getting my ass handed to me at this race was the company
I kept. It was sooo great having lunch with the Velocity crew Daniel, Frank, and Tom after the first stage and then dinner after the TT. The comradarie really made this
race.

Additionally, I was working hard to recruite Ritchie Howell who is 38 and who finished in the top 20 GC. Ritchie says he's on for Hammerfest as am I and some other Velocity folks.

Bring the Pain

2007-03-13T14:26:00.000-06:00

The racing season has started and Velocity's members have been representing at Walburg and Lago Vista. Since most of us are neophytes, we're still learning the ropes and feeling the price of admission for racing USCF races in central Texas: humiliation.

We've not done too well so far, and we're showing up.

The next big thing for the club is that a group of us will be racing in the 35+ Cat 4/5's at the Fayetteville Stage Race.

Stay tuned for future reports!

Presidential Briefing

2007-01-29T15:16:00.000-06:00

Hi, all,

Welcome to the Velocity Cycling blog! I'm Robert Dole, and I am the President of Velocity Cycling club. I am also a newly minted Cat 4 racer.

We have a lot of exciting things happening with Velocity this year. First off, our new cycling kits are in, and they look great. Also we are in the planning stages of putting on a USCF race. The current race plan is a hill climb up Big View in the Riverplace Subdivision. Please check our calendar for information about meetings, rides, and other excitement.

Also a big thank you to Daniel Norton for putting this blog together as well as resurrecting the Velocity website!

Best,
Robert