Hopkins crit - broken spoke

After debating between the 3/4 race and the 4/5 race, I decided to go with the 4/5 race. I'd heard about some scariness at the stockyards crit in that field, but hoped for the best. It would be nice to have a chance at making something happen, or at least not get pulled! That was not to be, but not because of getting dropped or crashing, fortunately.

To stay safe, I went straight to the front for the first two corners. On the back stretch I softpedaled into the wind, and got swooped up by the field before the second two corners, but everyone seemed to be riding safely, and I relaxed. Everything went well, and the old instincts were there, no worries, and I was having fun.

After a while I started moving back up again, and got out of the saddle to sprint up the left side in the straightaway to gain some position, when suddenly my foot pulled out of the pedal (again) and I dropped my chain. Later on I found out I had broken a spoke on the drive side of the back wheel, right in the middle! Not sure what caused what, but since I had ridden to Hopkins instead of driving (in which case I'd have spare wheels), my race was over.

I'm not too upset, though. I've got the mojo back, enough fitness to hang with the 4s at least, and most importantly, no crashes. There were a couple later on, though, but fortunately no one was hurt too seriously.

Of note, Birchwood was riding very well. Todd, Eric, Talib and Chris were all riding strong and well. Nice racing with you guys today! Thanks also to Freewheel Midtown for getting me rolling again, and an awesome espresso milkshake while I waited!

Road bike vs. time trial bike experiment

I decided to do an experiment at the Tuesday Night Time Trials yesterday. This course has a lot of rollers, so I can never get into a nice rhythm, and I can't get out of the saddle on the bigger hills because my knees hit to arm pads (or else I have to splay my knees to avoid them, which isn't good either). So I decided to try it on my road bike and see how I'd do.

My times have been pretty consistent, so the road bike should be the only factor that would vary things. I felt strong on the road bike, and certainly stronger on the big hills, when I could get out of the saddle and ride hard while giving the hamstrings a break too. By the end, I felt faster than I did on the TT bike. But the numbers told another story. On the TT bike, each race would be about .5 mph faster than the last as I've been slowly improving over the season. But on the road bike, in spite of feeling stronger, I was .2 mph slower than the last race. My rank against all the other riders reflected that too, also cancelling out any other factors.

Lesson learned: stick to the TT bike, and figure out a way to get those pads out of the way! There's room to move them forward, so my arms will be supported further up, but I don't think that will be much of a problem.

Northfield first crit race report

The always enjoyable Northfield July 4th crit ended up being the first since my crash last year. A combination of leeriness of crits plus lack of fitness was causing a cycle of fail that needed to be addressed by just getting out there and HTFU. The goal was not to crash, hang on as long as I could, and get the legs back. Mission accomplished. The 35+ race served as a warm-up, and as expected I got dropped quickly, but got the legs burning and heart racing like nothing else. After that, I lined up for the 3-4 race. This was also fast, as expected, with many known Cat 3 fasties in the field, including our own Skidsy. I hung on longer in this race, until they decided we were going too slow and threw out a prime. A few laps later and I was pulled. Only close call was pulling out of my pedal torquing up the hill, but I got it together safely with no harm done. Apparently there were a couple of crashes in my race, but I saw neither of them. Anyway, I'm back in the game, now I just need to get the fitness back! Looking forward to the stockyards crits and maybe Hopkins next weekend.

Haiku ode to espresso

I love espresso
Gets me going in the morn'
Soon I will be broke

Buzz

We have on our team a cyclist who goes by the nickname of Buzz. Buzz is deaf, and relies on hand signals and a good sense of his surroundings when out riding. This visual acuity has manifested itself in an absolutely amazing eye for photography. His sense of capturing a scene is truly astounding, and he's been at our State Fair Affair crit series these last two weeks taking pictures. Here are some of his favorite pictures, as well as complete sets from each of the races from Tuesday. Enjoy!








Women:


Men 1/2/3:


Men 5:


Men 3/4:

My State Fair crit pics

My camera kinda sucks. Haven't figured out a way to get the focus set for something that's not there (i.e. racers coming by at 30mph) and the camera is way to slow to focus as they zip past. But the blur effect looks sorta cool on its own, so here are a few.
I think those are Casper's legs.


Chris "I was not off the back, I was at the back" Smith.


Shana hanging with the boys.

Cyclocrosser Sue Butler wins at Mt. Hood

Remember Sue from Jingle Cross?

From Velonews' great coverage:

That’s when Butler, who said she’s using the race as training for the B.C. Bike Race June 27, decided the group wasn’t riding fast enough for her taste and decided to give it a go on her own with about 12 miles to go. Butler’s gap grew to as much as two minutes before attacks in the group, mostly by Goldtsein trying to dislodge Pitel, began eating away at her lead.

With the chasers closing quickly over the last steep, kilometer, Butler dug deep to hang on for the win by 29 seconds over Pitel, Gillian Moody (Total Restoration Cycling Team) and Alisha Welsh (PCIM). Goldstein crossed the line three seconds later with Teri Sheasby (Bend Bike’n’Hike) and Veloforma’s Melissa McWhirter.

“It was windy, and I was pulling anyways in the wind,” Butler said of her opportunistic move. “We were going so slow. So I was like, ‘I might as well go off the front.’ I can’t win the race, I might as well win a stage.”

Pitel is an interesting story too, racing for the local Sorella Forte team as a guest. More in Velonews' coverage.

St. Peter TT report

Cold. Wet. Forgot trainer. Bonk. Hypothermia. How was your day?

Massacre on Machinery Hill pics

From our awesome photographer Buzz:

Montreal World Cup

Wow. Break away in the first kilometer and hold the entire field off for 110 kilometers. Britain's Pooley claims solo World Cup win.

East Union Circuit Race

I was hot and cold about this race. End of May and I haven't done a 'real' race yet, but my fitness isn't what it should be. Of course if I'd been racing, the fitness would be better. Catch-22. I was going to race, since it would be a great first race for me, but fearing I'd just get dropped and not wanting to waste $30 and travelling to the sticks, I'd bailed in favor of a long fast ride. Turns out fate would have the ride cancelled, and so I decided to go for the race.

This was the definition of 'circuit race;' two laps of nine miles. Not quite a crit, and not quite a road race. Safer than a crit and not as long as road race. Perfect. If I got dropped, I wouldn't have far to go.

Being so short, I'd guessed that the pace would be high from the start, and so it was. As soon as the neutral rollout pulled away, it was on like Donkey Kong, and I was off the back. But I soon paired up with a Silver Cycling guy, and we worked hard to bridge up to a couple of Birchwood friends, and we worked very well together. We pushed each other, and were pretty evenly matched. If I'd have been off the back there's no way I would have worked this hard.

By the second lap I was pretty warmed up and taking some good pulls. As the headwind became a sidewind I could smell the finish, although I wasn't quite sure where it was. Fortunately the computer gave me an idea. As we turned into the finishing stretch with a tailwind, we were flying. With the finish line about 500 meters ahead I pulled to the front and hammered for the line. No matter that we were racing for not last, it felt good to stretch the legs.

A good effort, well worth the cost of entry, and a good time hanging out with the grupetto afterward. Verve even had burgers and brats aferward, and Eric had beer. What could be more perfect?

Thanks to Eric Thoerner, Mark Thacher and Russel Cadogan for motivating my ass, and to Paula Plant, Sarah Stratton and the rest of the Verve crew for putting on an awesome race!

Apple Duathlon race report

This race turned out to be kind of a big deal. It's a qualified for the 2009 ITU Duathlon Short Course World Championship, which is being held in the USA this year. Even looking at last year's results was intimidating. There would be no sandbagging this race! This was confirmed by the complete lack of hybrids with reflectors and mountain bikes with aero bars in the transition area.

These multisport events aren't cheap, so preparation is important. Sascha and I stayed in St. Cloud last night, and had a nice meal at the Granite City brew pub there. Early to bed, to be up at 5am the next morning, and I had everything planned out. As it turned out, this plan went perfectly. I delivered myself to the start line warmed up, fueled up and ready to do my best.

The run was fast from the start, and I was soon engulfed and left behind by a good chunk of people and left in no-man's land. Wow. Even running at a good tempo, probably good for sub 7 minute miles. Nevertheless, I kept my own rhythm and hoped to make up time on the bike. A smooth transition, and then out into a mild headwind. The only people I passed were slow people from the earlier waves, and still never saw anyone from my wave. Rather humbling. Then passed by the relay people (understandable), then women from the wave behind mine. Oof. I felt so slow, but kept up my tempo.

On the way back, I shifted my breathing pretty radically, from long deep breaths to short, almost hyperventilating breaths. I felt faster this way, and the breathing was similar to how I breathe in a crit, where it's more about aerobic power than muscle power. This may simply be due to switching from a headwind to a tailwind, but I'd consciously tried to pick up the pace at that point, so I'm not sure. Any TTers have any insight into this?

T2 had a little hiccup, as my cyclocross dismount was a bit more slippery on asphalt than dirt, but not a big deal. Second run was, predictably, awkward. Still in no man's land, so no one around me to push my pace. Took about 2K to get a rhythm, then picked it up toward the end.

However, when results were posted, my first run was faster than I'd ever run before, bike time was a respectable 20.1mph, and second run was respectable as well. Nevertheless, that was only good for 10th in my age group out of 23! This would have won my age group in the two other duathlons I've done. What a stacked field!

1st run 5K 20:48 (6:42) T1 1:09 bike 33K 1:01:06 (20.1) T2 1:11 2nd run 5K 24:07 (7:46) total 1:48:19

*Editorial*
So obviously I didn't "win" this race. According to a good chunk of the roadie types, that means I'm a "loser." The difference between this attitude and the multisport attitude came into stark relief during the awards. One of the race categories was for disabled; hand cycles, wheelchairs, etc. A wheelchair racer was still on the course, and as he was about to come in, we all went out to cheer him in. He was doing the 33K bike course in a (pretty sweet) wheelchair! Amazing. Really kind of puts things in perspective. There were also people in their 60s and 70s belting out some awesome times. Very inspiring.

No worries, though, I'm not turning into a tri-geek. Cyclocross is still my first love, and I have some circuit races, crits and TTs on the race schedule. I do like the duathlons though. Not keen on the swimming bit.

Pawlenty aiding terrorists

Studies have been showing that we are woefully unprepared for a bioterror attack, such as anthrax and the like. The American health care system forces hospitals, like airlines, to run with as many beds occupied as possible, with the fewest staff possible, working the longest hours with the least sleep possible to wring every bit of efficiency out of the system. Even so, the current economic crisis is forcing even more cutbacks in health care. Now, Pawlenty will be "unalotting" the $381 million in General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) grants designed to ease this crisis and job hemorrhaging, and vows to make even more cuts.

Hospitals are understaffed and overworked already. Imagine what would happen in the event of a bioterror attack.

But hey, those making over $1 million a year won't have a tax increase, we'll save 5 cents on alcholic drinks, and credit card companies gouging people with interest rates over 15% won't have to pay a surcharge. Let's protect the rich; who cares about veterans, senior citizens, and the mentally ill?

How not to design a pro jersey

From Pez: