Pedalling Squares

Esparto TT, August 24, 2003

Description:
The course is 18 miles, sort of a goofy out and back, where the finish is about 2.5 miles up the road from where you start. The middle of the course is hilly, but all big ring stuff. When Patrick and I surveyed the course, it wasn't windy.

My set up was just my LandShark with clip-ons, a Zipp 440 tubular on the front and a Zipp 404 tubular on the rear. Not nearly as fancy as some of the punk-ass juniors with their Cervelos and Zipp dimpled discs. Oh well, it's not the machine, it's the motor, right?

How it went down:
I got a shorter warmup than I would have liked because of the way they did the start times, but oh well. I got to the start line, took a moment to collect myself. They give me the 5 count and soon I was off. I assumed the position and resolved to take this like a man. I quickly rolled up to 30 mph and soon heard my HR monitor beeping at me, telling me I was over 170 bpm - that was a good thing. I decided to ignore the cyclocomputer for a moment and just settle into a good rhythm. I did that and looked down - still 30 mph! Cool. I caught my minute man at about the 6 mile point, so that was good. Then I caught my 2 minute man a few miles later in the hills. I did a horrible turn-around and started back. There was definitely a little headwind now and with the hills it felt really slow.

I lost focus a few times here and let my HR dip a little low. But I was also really trying to hammer the hills and not lose any time so I needed some rest. So I crested the last of those, took a sip of water, reassummed the position and motored on. First I was going 20, then 22, then 24, 25 and stabilized there with about 4 miles to go. After coming up over the overpass, I knew I had less than 2 to go, so I ramped it up to 27. I could see the finish. I jammed it down into the 53x12 to make it look good when I crossed the line.

There was some confusion about whether or not that was the finish line. They had actually goofed up the pro1/2 field and they ended up riding 3 miles further than everyone else. So anyway, when they finally posted the times, they had my finish mixed up with my 2 minute man. So they switched us, but then they had me finishing in 38 minutes - way too fast. So then I drove out to the finish tent in BFE to rectify the problem with the officials. The only explanation they could give was that they must have inverted a "6" when it should have been a "9". Pretty accurate way of timing, huh? So when they changed that, they had me at 41:42, which sounded about right. I forgot to check my time at the finish because it wasn't clear to me that it was actually the finish.

Anyway, there were lots of protests, but when the dust settled, I got 2nd by 0.8 seconds. I guess I should have rubbed Vaughn's head beforehand for good luck - he got a bronze by the same margin over the 4th place guy in the District TT. Oh well, I collected my VeloPromo T-shirt (black with yellow and pink - yuck!) and $40 (2nd place at Leesville was only worth $15!) and got the hell out.

Do you remember me?

Stats:
Avg HR: 173 bpm
Avg Speed: 26.1 mph

Winters Road Race, August 23, 2003

Description:
Mostly a flat race. There are a few rollers and one steep climbing section that has some flat mixed in. Then there's a descent with a high pucker factor. The climb is about 10 miles from the descent - enough to regroup in most cases. For the sprint, they let us use the whole road for about the last 500 meters.

We did 3 laps and it's a 24 mile loop - for 72 miles. It was also pretty hot - in the 80-90's for most of the day.

How it went down:
So it was just Patrick and me today. None of the other little Sharp's girls could make it. Oh well. We would press on without them. Unless a break gets away on this course, the climb doesn't really cause that much of a selection. There is just too much road after it for regrouping. But I still thought I might try something - maybe on the second or third lap.

We had a big field of about 70 riders. There was one attack late in the first lap of about 6-8 guys. Patrick spotted me near the front and decided to try to bridge since he knew I'd be there to watch things. I think they were moving pretty good or Patrick bit off more than he could chew - it took him awhile to get there. By the time he did, there were all sorts of little ones and twosies also trying to bridge so we quickly came back together. I can't think of anything else memorable from the first lap.

Things got interesting on the second lap. Pat Caurant asked the group to slow for a nature break. So we cruised along for a long time, while he whizzed and then caught back on with his teammate and a few others. So once he caught on, some dude and my buddy Peter Krogh attacked. It worked well, because the group was content to continue to cruise as if still waiting up for someone. But then the 4's caught us. How embarrassing! It was a total mess because now we had two large groups merging and remerging together. We (the 3's) did a good job of moving over and letting them through, but it was still a complete clusterfuck. I was worried that with a break up the road, and the mass of people that we might lose track and some 3's might escape with some of the 4's and we would never know until the results were posted.

So when we got to where the climb started, before the feed zone, I moved to the front. I was checking numbers the whole way up to see who was sitting where. There was no way I was going to try to get a feed on this lap - just way too many people and I didn't want to risk a silly crash. So I moved through the whole group and could see Peter and his breakaway buddy just up ahead. They were hurtin' on the climb. More importantly, I was now at the front (or very near it) of the large combined Cat 3/4 mess.

So, since I wanted to force a selection as much as possible, I set a hard tempo to put the pressure on. As we crested a I let a few guys pass - I like to follow wheels on this descent rather than lead it out. So the usual thing happened - we got to the bottom with about 8 guys and little gap. We worked for a little while, but the group caught on. Damn.

Patrick rolled up to me and said he was still feeling pretty good. I told him I was going to try again on the last lap to cause a selection. I don't want to sprint with 40 guys if I don't have to. Besides, I felt great on the last climb. He thought it would break up some more so maybe it would just be 20 guys. I still wanted that last time up to be hard for everyone (sorry Patrick!). I thought that was my best chance.

Somewhere on the third lap, Pat Caurant's teammate Chad got away. He's a great motor, but I didn't think he would do well on the climb after being away by himself. So as we neared the climbing part, I found myself way too far back and started moving up. No matter how well or poorly you climb, it's always good to start the climb at the front. So I start moving up on the narrow, winding lead up to the feed zone. And I saw that Pat C had a little gap. At first I was worried, so I just kept accelerating right on past the group and bridged up to him. But, he was cooked when I caught him, so I kept on.

Now I had opened up a decent gap. I wasn't really thinking that I could stay away solo, but maybe break things up a little. So I marched on. I caught a DBC guy, but he was wasted. Then I caught Chad, asked him how he felt, and well, he wasn't going to be worth much either. I was getting a little tired and the group was hammering away behind me, so I eased up slightly and rode a hard tempo. The group caught me and I reapplied the pressure. I heard fumbling for gears behind me so that was good. We came over the top with about 6-8 of us, but the same thing happened by the time we got to the bottom. I didn't see how big the group was, but it wasn't the 6-8 or even 20 or so I was hoping for. A sprint finish was in order. But, I did see Patrick, so hopefully we could coordinate something for me.

I think we had about 8-10 miles from the bottom of the climb to the finish. But the road is somewhat narrow and it can be tough to move up. So I just decided to stay near the front for the rest of the race. If it meant I had to be in the wind some, oh well. I was hoping Patrick was feeling well enough to come and help me out, but I didn't see him near the front. As expected, the pace gradually increased as we got closer. Lots of little and some big attacks to drive the pace up. I covered a few attacks - again, just to keep myself in the top 10 positions. I even threw down my own little mock attack a few miles from the finish. It worked really well - the group caught me, I sat up, and now I was at the front of the group spinning easy with a great view of things.

I can sprint ok as long as I have room to operate and don't have to duke it out with the pure sprinters. Vaughn and Rob saw my sprinting prowess (ahem) last weekend. Right guys? You know what I'm talking about. Pettachi's got nothing on me. Anywho, despite having a large field, I was confident I could place in the top 10 barring any funny business in the final 200m.

I never saw the 1K sign, but I knew we were pretty close. I wasn't sure where Patrick was, but it was too late to set anything up now. I had to look for a wheel to carry me to 200 meters and then try to launch it from there. So as the excitement started a little after 1K and the left side opened up nicely. It was the windy side, but it would have to do. Besides, a Maguire guy volunteered his wheel as he moved in front of me. So I jumped on it and used it for all it was worth. He petered out a little early, and I cranked it up as best I could, but could only manage 8th place. No t-shirt, but good enough for some Cal Cup points. Patrick was pretty close behind and got 14th.

Stats:
Avg HR: 153