Friday, August 12, 2016
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Stampede
So the run up to the Custer Stampede was pretty typical...meaning i lost a chainring bolt and therefore bent a chain-ring on my pre-ride. Spent about three hours trying to match up a chain to my only other gearing choice: a slightly too high 42x18. So I had Dan bring me a new chain to the race prior to which Dave and I were able to set it up on that gear successfully.
Warm up ride revealed my Garmin to be completely dead. Grabbed a charger from a friend and charged it up to all of about 17%. More on that later.
Gun goes off and and I and my giant gearing find ourselves in the lead. My genius plan at this point is to go as fast as I can to see if I can get away, cuz c'est la vie, you never know, right? Well this all went to pot on the first freaking real corner. My back end started coming around so I stick my foot down to stop it but it stopped me. I went (Garmin telemetry showed later) from 19mph to zero. So I and my now aching left foot are in like 11th place. Brilliant. Every other rider can see the douche who crashed out of the lead.
With the lead group escaping, I am trapped behind three slower riders from my own class with no good passing opportunities. I finally make it around them to get up to about 6th place, but the leaders are not even in sight. Second lap has me slowing significantly just because its hard to push when there's nobody in sight. I decide to draft off a geared rider and save energy, during which time I am passed by another singlespeeder. Drat, now the chase is on for all of about 5 min when I spin out again and lose this lower geared rider through Granny's Garden. I figure my day is over at this point I'll be settling for a 7th place, but I keep pushing because you never know right?
Then I start catching glimpses of him and really start pushing it. I catch him fairly easily and draft him all the way into the finishing straight. I go all out to the finish but its just not enough. By the time I got that big gear wound out it was too late. Bad tactics on my part. I waited too long. Fail.
When the race is over, its time to find a hospital. I was searching all over for my car key. Finally I just walked up to my car and saw it in the ignition. Brilliant, the ignition has been on for the last three hours.
My foot isnt broken, just strained badly. It'll be weeks before I can walk normally again, but about two days until I can ride without pain, so who cares.
Warm up ride revealed my Garmin to be completely dead. Grabbed a charger from a friend and charged it up to all of about 17%. More on that later.
Gun goes off and and I and my giant gearing find ourselves in the lead. My genius plan at this point is to go as fast as I can to see if I can get away, cuz c'est la vie, you never know, right? Well this all went to pot on the first freaking real corner. My back end started coming around so I stick my foot down to stop it but it stopped me. I went (Garmin telemetry showed later) from 19mph to zero. So I and my now aching left foot are in like 11th place. Brilliant. Every other rider can see the douche who crashed out of the lead.
With the lead group escaping, I am trapped behind three slower riders from my own class with no good passing opportunities. I finally make it around them to get up to about 6th place, but the leaders are not even in sight. Second lap has me slowing significantly just because its hard to push when there's nobody in sight. I decide to draft off a geared rider and save energy, during which time I am passed by another singlespeeder. Drat, now the chase is on for all of about 5 min when I spin out again and lose this lower geared rider through Granny's Garden. I figure my day is over at this point I'll be settling for a 7th place, but I keep pushing because you never know right?
Then I start catching glimpses of him and really start pushing it. I catch him fairly easily and draft him all the way into the finishing straight. I go all out to the finish but its just not enough. By the time I got that big gear wound out it was too late. Bad tactics on my part. I waited too long. Fail.
When the race is over, its time to find a hospital. I was searching all over for my car key. Finally I just walked up to my car and saw it in the ignition. Brilliant, the ignition has been on for the last three hours.
My foot isnt broken, just strained badly. It'll be weeks before I can walk normally again, but about two days until I can ride without pain, so who cares.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Yankee Springs 2012: You NEVER leave your wing-man
So I made it to Yankee Springs.
Beautiful day, and with the recent rain, it should be a fast one. I was so nervous beforehand I couldn't finish my breakfast.
Went out for a very truncated pre-ride with my teammates, the course is super fast, much smoother than I've ever seen it before.
I got out of the gate, and settled into a comfortable, yet fast, pace, around 178 bpm, just trying to stay smooth. Basic strategy was to not completely kill myself on the straights, but really go for it on any techy section. I was killing it on the downhills, and flying around curves. Took a drink from my bottle at the wrong moment and dropped it. Great, a half lap without fluids. Good thing Dan T was supposed to save me with another bottle following lap one, except I totally missed it. Checked my Garmin to see a 52 min first lap. Fastest I've ever done, and a shock. It all felt very slow, remember, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. So I'm having a great race so far but I'm going to have 1.5 laps without fluids of any kind. Good thing I'm not hungry. Except that I am. Very hungry.
Then, the unexpected happened, I see Dan standing over by the guardrail. Seems he booked it about two miles just to hand me my bottle. After the race, he gives me the quote of the day: "You NEVER leave your wing-man."
Stayed steady on lap 2. Found myself in no-man's land. No one anywhere near me. Hard to push when there's no one to catch or run away from. Sigh. Started running out of energy due to hunger, but I kept on it anyway. A gel would have been great, but I'm not that smart. Ran it over 20 mph at the finish.
Finished in 18th place in Expert/Elite SingleSpeed at 1:47 & change. Solid result. Great start to the season. I'm very happy with it.
Beautiful day, and with the recent rain, it should be a fast one. I was so nervous beforehand I couldn't finish my breakfast.
Went out for a very truncated pre-ride with my teammates, the course is super fast, much smoother than I've ever seen it before.
I got out of the gate, and settled into a comfortable, yet fast, pace, around 178 bpm, just trying to stay smooth. Basic strategy was to not completely kill myself on the straights, but really go for it on any techy section. I was killing it on the downhills, and flying around curves. Took a drink from my bottle at the wrong moment and dropped it. Great, a half lap without fluids. Good thing Dan T was supposed to save me with another bottle following lap one, except I totally missed it. Checked my Garmin to see a 52 min first lap. Fastest I've ever done, and a shock. It all felt very slow, remember, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. So I'm having a great race so far but I'm going to have 1.5 laps without fluids of any kind. Good thing I'm not hungry. Except that I am. Very hungry.
Then, the unexpected happened, I see Dan standing over by the guardrail. Seems he booked it about two miles just to hand me my bottle. After the race, he gives me the quote of the day: "You NEVER leave your wing-man."
Stayed steady on lap 2. Found myself in no-man's land. No one anywhere near me. Hard to push when there's no one to catch or run away from. Sigh. Started running out of energy due to hunger, but I kept on it anyway. A gel would have been great, but I'm not that smart. Ran it over 20 mph at the finish.
Finished in 18th place in Expert/Elite SingleSpeed at 1:47 & change. Solid result. Great start to the season. I'm very happy with it.
Just a few years ago, I was just killing myself to do this course under an hour on a geared bike, my old Gary Fisher, let alone two laps at well under an hour each.
Garmin file:
Monday, April 16, 2012
People who should call their passes better
I have never, ever, ever, ever failed to move over for a fellow racer who called his/her pass. Ever.
"This rider had decent aerobic abilities, but poor technical skills. As Tom's caught up to him to pass on an open wide hill, this other rider stood up, moved over and blocked the pass. Mind you this is a 19-29 year old blocking the pass of a faster 35+ guy."
...and I'm supposed to know what class he's in? Maybe "Tom" should call his pass and then attempt to pass when he has the speed to do so. As I recall, he didn't exactly blow me off the trail with his blinding speed. I remember pulling away from him following that. I'll be happy to move, but if you need me to slow down for you, then you suck at racing and need to be better about calling passes when you have the speed.
You're entitled to your own opinions, but I'd like to see you ride gears at Stony with a rigid fork. Pretty easy on a Softail.
So I am stuck behind this guy in the waning moments of the final lap, concerned that #2 was closing on my quick. I made my final move on the last set of rolling hills before the finish. I stood and passed on the first incline, and didn't give up until the final grassy climb before the singletrack leading to the finish.
Like I said, call your passes. If you'd asked I would let you go. I clearly recall you saying you were ok with following me in the final lap, when i asked if you wanted to pass. Something like "we're not racing each other anyway." Now its something totally different. Liar. You sat on my wheel letting me do the work for like 10 min then went blasting around me. Now you're so proud of your astonishing move. Lame
I felt pretty good dropping this character at the end, however, I know I still need to improve my endurance. I crossed the line with a decent 30 gap on the guy, who I was not even racing, and 40 seconds on the second place in my group. "On the final lap, my pace began to slow, and "Poor Passee" caught back up to me. I made a move around him at the same spot as the previous lap. I was doing pretty good, but then my rear tire slid out yet again. I should really do something about that.
How about you work your technical skills, there Tomac?
How about next time someone completely destroys your entire race by not listening to the commands you dont give out you man up and say all this to his face. Instead of slamming him with your lies and posting my picture for the world to see.
"This rider had decent aerobic abilities, but poor technical skills. As Tom's caught up to him to pass on an open wide hill, this other rider stood up, moved over and blocked the pass. Mind you this is a 19-29 year old blocking the pass of a faster 35+ guy."
...and I'm supposed to know what class he's in? Maybe "Tom" should call his pass and then attempt to pass when he has the speed to do so. As I recall, he didn't exactly blow me off the trail with his blinding speed. I remember pulling away from him following that. I'll be happy to move, but if you need me to slow down for you, then you suck at racing and need to be better about calling passes when you have the speed.
You're entitled to your own opinions, but I'd like to see you ride gears at Stony with a rigid fork. Pretty easy on a Softail.
So I am stuck behind this guy in the waning moments of the final lap, concerned that #2 was closing on my quick. I made my final move on the last set of rolling hills before the finish. I stood and passed on the first incline, and didn't give up until the final grassy climb before the singletrack leading to the finish.
Like I said, call your passes. If you'd asked I would let you go. I clearly recall you saying you were ok with following me in the final lap, when i asked if you wanted to pass. Something like "we're not racing each other anyway." Now its something totally different. Liar. You sat on my wheel letting me do the work for like 10 min then went blasting around me. Now you're so proud of your astonishing move. Lame
I felt pretty good dropping this character at the end, however, I know I still need to improve my endurance. I crossed the line with a decent 30 gap on the guy, who I was not even racing, and 40 seconds on the second place in my group. "On the final lap, my pace began to slow, and "Poor Passee" caught back up to me. I made a move around him at the same spot as the previous lap. I was doing pretty good, but then my rear tire slid out yet again. I should really do something about that.
How about you work your technical skills, there Tomac?
How about next time someone completely destroys your entire race by not listening to the commands you dont give out you man up and say all this to his face. Instead of slamming him with your lies and posting my picture for the world to see.
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