(or, Mechanical Man)
We’ll keep this short and sweet. Seven laps to go, my chain breaks(!) coming out of turn four. This makes it difficult to pedal the bicycle.
I am now 3 for 6 (.500) as far as completing races. I hope I get this average up a bit.
Posted on 22 April 2009
Finally, some nice weather for a race. The invivodata team actually had some numbers here, with four of us in the start grid. We didn’t have much of a plan, besides John perhaps getting into a breakway. I was still feeling the lingering effects of a chest cold, so I didn’t have high hopes to be much of a factor. Right away I put myself behind the proverbial eight-ball when my cleat disengaged from my pedal on the first short climb, and I had to chase like mad to get back with the main group. I managed to recover before the first real climb, though. The pace evened out, and the climb didn’t feel bad at all. I spent most of the lap near Stuart and John, near the front. The pace on the descent was uneven, as usual. John attempted a flyer during the second lap (I think), but I had drifted toward the back, so I wasn’t going to contribute much to the effort by blocking. He was reeled in, and while a Pro Bikes rider kept us honest on the climb, there was some serious lollygagging on the back half of the course.
At some point, another break went. I wrote it off initially, but near the end of the lap, I was at the front, chasing with John, Stuart, and Ben Stephens. The break was pulled back, and I found myself near the back, having not pushed back into the pace line. There appeared to be a few half-hearted escape attempts on the climb, but nothing stuck. The fifth time up the climb didn’t feel very good at all, though I didn’t position. As we approached the final climb on lap six, things got quick at the front, and the group (which was probably 20 or so) was shattered. A group of four went (including Stuart), with another group of four or five behind. I struggled to stick with the back of this group, but remained in touch. Until the top. Everyone else pushed it hard, and my legs threw out of the anchor and I went backwards. I tried to bridge back on the rollers, but that wasn’t happening. The climb had decimated the group enough that no one passed me, but I finished probably 20-30 seconds behind the group, which came together before the finish.
I’m not terribly disappointed, given that I didn’t feel great at the start. I need to spend more time near the front, as I could have provided some support when John or Stuart went up the road. As I’ve said before, I’m still lacking any sort of pop in my legs. This will be my last race, outside of the Oval, until the Oakmont crit in June, so I have plenty of time to do intervals, I think.
Posted on 19 April 2009
 |
| From Random Stuff |
That’s our new car. Yes, it’s a van. Yes, we all can sleep in it. No, we don’t drive around with the top extended like that.
The Focus will be sold, hopefully this week (though I will, however, take advantage of our brief stay in the land of two car families by actually driving to the Mingo Creek race tomorrow).
Posted on 18 April 2009
Another fine spring evening–windy, cloudy, cool, drizzly. Another 20 or so riders showed up, with Iron City missing two of their motors, which could be Good Thing for the rest of us. The pace was reasonable at first, with a couple of different people going off the front at various points, but the group was never terribly interested in reeling them back. Later, a small group slipped away, and this seemed to animate the pack a bit, and, just like last week, people were caught being inattentive and the pack completely splintered, which led to a few high efforts to bridge to the main chase group. Shortly thereafter, the break was caught, and though another Iron City rider sped off, the pack didn’t accelerate hard, instead simply cranking the pace up a notch or two.
With about 8 laps to go, I noticed the bike felt a bit loose in the corners. At first I thought it was rear tire slipping a bit, but then realized I must be slowly losing air. I kept going, sitting near the back. With three laps to go, turn two felt downright frightening, and I looked to see that the tire was definitely deflating. Deciding that 20th place in a training race was not worth the chance of rolling a tire in a corner at 28mph, I pulled up and watched the finishing laps while I replaced the tube. Oh well. Next week. I am 2 for 4 as far as actually finishing a race goes. I need to work on that percentage a bit.
Tonight felt pretty good, which actually surprised me since I’ve been fighting a chest cold for a week. My legs still have absolutely no pop in them when I’m trying to work in the wind. Hopefully more intervals will help that, lest I spend most of the year as pack fodder.
Posted on 15 April 2009
There’s been quite the kerfuffle on the BOB mailing list over the cost of Rivendell‘s two newest, Taiwanese-built framesets, the Sam Hillborne and the Betty Foy. The comments are a mix of outrage (how can they charge so much for a factory-made bike!) to cult-ish defense (Rivendell is doing you a favor by selling these amazing frames for only $1000!). Now, Grant Petersen is a smart fellow, and I’ve found his writing on practical cycling to be quite useful. I think the Atlantis is a great idea. I also find their prices on many items to be rather high, but, then again, I’m not their target market (white males 40-50 with a whole lotta disposable income). That said, if someone has the money to purchase a Riv (complete with $250 saddlebag), more power to them.
My own contribution to the conversation was to point out that Rivendell prices the Taiwanese frames at a point that their market would bear. There was long a rumor that Riv would produce “cheap” Taiwanese-made frames in 2009, so I’m guessing that many Riv regulars emailed Grant and said “hey, I’d buy one of those–I need a grocery-getter,” and Grant did what good marketers/business owners do, and he figured out what price he could ask for his product, sell it, and put food on his table. Now, many of the Riv defenders took some offense to this, seemingly shocked to think that Grant was running a business and not a public service to the bicycle world. Some pointed to this post by Grant to say “See! It’s not about the market!” but I say this was Grant again doing what business owners do–asking his customers to pay for something that they’ve ordered. What chafed me a bit was this sense that Rivendell was doing the cycling world a great service by selling the Hillborne and Foy for $1000, and those companies selling lugged Taiwanese made frames (like Soma) for less were clearly doing something dodgy in order to sell a frame so “cheaply.”
What’s most interesting to me about the whole Rivendell “cult” is the criticism they often level at racers or go-fast riders–that they’ve been somehow duped by the big, bad bicycle companies, trained to spend lots of money on equipment they don’t really need. What these folks forget is that Grant is a master marketer himself, and he’s convinced people to purchase several bikes that serve essentially the same function (that is, is an Atlantis really all that different from a Hilsen or a Bombadil?). I’m not trying to say Grant is evil–he clearly enjoys designing interesting bicycles, and he wants people to ride them, but how is that any different than what Cannondale or Cervelo is doing? I think the middle ground is much more stable here–I giggle at the guy at the Cat 4/5 race with $1500 carbon wheels and $3000 SRM Powermeter as much as I giggle at the guy on the BOB list who one of every Rivendell production frame, plus a Curt Goodrich custom. But, I’m not really judging them, either, because clearly they have the income to burn, so more power to them.
Posted on 14 April 2009
Paris-Roubaix, the queen of the spring classics, runs tomorrow. I won’t venture a guess at who may win, though I think Tom Boonen has the best chance of making his luck and pulling off the win. I will, however, list a few guys who I would like to see win tomorrow:
Posted on 11 April 2009
My intention was to race in Morgantown this weekend, but a chest cold seems to have gotten the best of me. The thought of dragging myself over 3500+ feet of climbing over nearly 50 miles just doesn’t sound like fun at the moment. Oh well. Secretly, I may be a bit relieved. Hopefully I have enough time to recover for next Wednesday.
Posted on 10 April 2009
Wednesday night? Yes, Wednesday night. I’ve moved up to the B (3/4) races. This was, in part, a scheduling decision, as Tuesday evening would be filled with Sebastien’s soccer games, but I was also interested in seeing how these races felt. Certainly, I have a far better chance of doing well at the C races, but sitting around the Oval until 7:00 is a bit of drag, and it’s nice to know my entire evening isn’t blown.
Anyway.
21 guys lined up to race. A handful were other C race converts, which made me feel a bit more comfortable. I settled in to the back of the grid, assuming (correctly) that I would likely spend most of the race hanging out at the back. The pace was quick, I think, compared to the C races, and much more consistent. There seemed to always be someone off the front, which meant lots of chasing by the group, and lots of accelerations. At one point, the field was completely shattered, and it took a rather hard effort for me to regain the front group. In the end, a group of four got away and stayed away, thanks to some nifty blocking by the Iron City Bikes folks. I went with the group during the acceleration on the last lap, and managed to get 11th place, which doesn’t seem too terrible for my first B race. I probably could have picked up a few places had I taken my effort a bit more seriously.
Given that Iron City and UPMC had half the riders in the field, I suspect the duels during points season will be between these two, but it seems plausible for our team to latch a few breakaways, especially if both teams are represented. I’m looking forward to working with John when he returns from California.
Posted on 9 April 2009
Slightly better weather than last weekend (uppers 40s and sunny at the start, with temps quickly rising) brought out the crowds this weekend–51 riders in the 4/5 race. I caught a ride from Stuart, thus avoiding a 25 mile warm up for a 27 mile race. I felt pretty terrible on our first warm up lap, but the second felt much better. I was essentially treating this as a “training” race, knowing that I probably didn’t have the legs yet to do anything other than sit in, and I was hoping to have enough legs to at least stick with the pack throughout the race. Meager goals, indeed.
The start was reasonable, and the pace didn’t climb much on the first climb up Sundust Road. I settled near the back of the main group, looking for opportunities to move up, lest I miss a selection. The first run up Sundust did its usual job of splintering the group, and we were quickly whittled down to 20-25 riders. The pace didn’t climb much on the subsequent laps, but the group was fairly twitchy, and the speed was inconsistent, especially on the downhill rollers on the back half of the course. This made for lots of bumping and braking. This was due at least in part to a rather loose interpretation of the yellow-line rule that governs the race (that is, don’t cross the yellow line)–many riders who backed off the pace a bit on the climb would bomb down the rollers, pass on the left, and settle back into the group. I found this frustrating, as I worked hard to move to the front on the climb, only to see our smaller group swallowed up again lap after lap (that said, none of us were pushing the pace on the rollers, either).
It seemed there was always someone dangling off the front, but it was never more than one or two guys, and within a lap, the group swallowed it up. With two laps to go, I watched Ben Stephens move up on the approach to Sundust, and I thought “here goes the move.” For most people, this would mean grabbing Ben’s wheel and following him. For me, I just shrugged and thought “eh, someone will catch him.” Off he went. The pace climbed on Sundust this time, and it hurt, really, for the first time during the race. Ben seemed to be gone, however, with a few others. A small group of us lost contact with the main group, then we pinned it a bit, and within a mile caught back on. The group didn’t work hard on the rollers, and the break gained a bit.
Heading into the last lap, the pace picked up again, and the hill hurt even more. I stayed with the group, though, but the pace was still inconsistent on the rollers. What the heck? Isn’t that the break up ahead? Once on the last stretch of road before the finish, I gunned it, figuring I could at least try and drag the group further along. The worked a bit, and the pace increased. I pulled off and was swallowed by the group, and was nearly run over in the process. We caught the group before the finish (which I watched from the back of the pack), but apparently this wasn’t the break. A wasted effort, apparently, to catch them. Live and learn.
Anyway, a good race, I think, for early in the season. I’m looking forward to riding with (most) of the team at the last Mingo race in two weeks.
Posted on 5 April 2009
This is not conducive to a good race result:
 |
| From Bikes |
I dropped my chain on the second climb. I quickly shifted it back on to the chainring, but apparently DESTROYED my front derailleur in the process. Six months of waiting, 30 minutes of warming up in the cold rain, five minutes of racing. Sweet.
I scooted back to the start/finish, then scooted back to the parking lot. Great way to start the season.
It should also be noted that I was rather cavalier in my pronouncement that I would clear the bar I set last year. Clearly, finishing the race was too great a goal…
Posted on 29 March 2009