CX Race 9: Power Cross

Final race of the 2010 season! It was our coldest race of the season - upper 30's and windy, but the sun was shining. The shining sun did not mean there was no mud. The course started in the park driveway and then turned us into a large flat field. It looked like it should be a power section, but was supper wet and soupy. That soupy with water became soupy with mud as the laps passed. From there we had a dry power section that led into a super steep climb with barriers placed smack dab in the middle. We had a couple of zigs and zags at the top before we had a rough fast down hill into an almost 180 turn a small climb, another descent, a jump off the lip of a driveway we crossed, some turns into a second set of barriers, followed by some road before we went back into that soupy mess that was the lower field. The laps felt long, but that was because there was little rest due to the mud. Those with only one bike were definitely not firing on all gears in their later laps. those who had two bikes were doing bike swaps every lap and they didn't get quite the resistance training the rest of us got.

When they started the master's men and open women the lap counter showed something absurd like 9 laps. Half of those lined up were ready to pull out right there before the start whistle blew saying there was no way their bodies or bikes could handle 9 laps. We were assured that after our first lap the lap cards would be adjusted, and right they were. The lead ladies only did 5 laps. I managed not to get lapped by any women. they did get the results wrong. LiLynn actually finished in front of me - they missed her on one lap. LiLynn and I were riding together for most of the race. The results have me down as 4th but I should be down in 5th.

Results are at Bike Reg.

CX Race 8: Dave Panella Memorial Cross

The Dave Panella Memorial race took us back to Greene for another weekend of cross racing. This time at a park rather than a school. The whole course was out in the open in fields with a couple of parking lot crossings. Not a lot of elevation loss/gain this week. I found that made it more difficult for for me to keep up with those in front of me. After the main races, there was a fun relay with 2 person teams. Our team mates were randomly assigned and we were left to decide between us who would ride the first leg and who would do the seconds leg. I rode first leg. Each leg involved doing one lap of the course. I did my one lap and then had to down a cup of beer, jump rope 10 times, and then tag off to my partner. She then drank a beer, jumped rope, and rode a lap. There were only two jump ropes for the 10 or so teams to share so some folks opted to do push-ups instead. It really looked funny with folks in full on bike kit jumping rope and doing push-ups with empty beer cups around them on the grass and a few people on bikes. Pictures were posted all over Facebook.

Results of the "serious" racing are at Bike Reg.com

Some video footage of the men's A race is on YouTube. I have also posted video from several other cross races as well, including Syracuse Grand Prix, and Red Cross.

CX Race 7: Greene Cross

Greene cross was held at a school in Greene, NY. The course featured a lot of grassy riding including some great off camber and side hill turns, some teeth rattling fast riding through the woods, a nice run-up in the forest, and one of those super hypnotic and surprisingly difficult to ride spirals. The spirals were tough to ride because the course was marked with little surveyor flags and I found it difficult to see the path while riding. The effect looked really fun when watching other fields go through it though.

Results are up at Bike Reg.com.

Marsha and Pat Kapinus took lots of pictures and posted them here at shutterfly. You can click on the "view album" link from this site and see the pictures without creating an account.

CX Race 6: Chenango Forks CROSSFire

Despite somewhat sore arms from RedCross I got up Sunday morning ready for more fun with the bike... but first I had to clean the darned thing since it was super covered with mud. KrossFire was a friendly low key event hosted by Marsha and Pat Kapinus on their property. There were a few places where riders had a choice - over some good muddy whoops or through a zigzag, and over the barriers or through a different zig zag. There was also one spot where we could go over a second set of barriers or take the sew saws over them. There was also a fun tree hug inducing set of muddy tight turns through the trees, a climb that got harder each lap due to increased mud, and some tough riding through soggy grass. Unlike Saturday, there were several section where you could just power through rather than the constant state of transition we had on Saturday. The highlight of the race was the amazing potluck after the race.

Results are up at BikeReg.com.

CX Races 5: Red Cross 2.0

Ouch!

Super physical course that was almost all transition. For me that translated into very technical. The warm up lapped kicked my butt and held some surprises - the uphill whoops had a pedal smacking risk if your pedal stroke was mistimed, the tunnel was full of mud - quite the surprise on the warm up lap, the flat whoops were really tough to maintain velocity on without getting air on the first two and pedaling through the rest. The run up was a good challenge, the "big downhill" was super scary and the loss of momentum on the way up the other side was quite the stomach flip-flopper.

Ruth and I entered the 35+ masters race which we started with the masters men. In the race I must have taken every line through every technical-to-me section of the course. They all seemed to be the wrong lines. Despite one lap in which I seemed to have completely forgotten to how to ride a bike, I managed to keep the rubber side down.

Approximately 10 minutes after I finished the 35+ race, the open women took off. I had time to run to the rest room and poke a bunch of mud out of the brakes and fork and get started again. The second race was no easier than the first though the course had dried out a bit. That made some of the snottier spots easier to ride but the thicker mud dried up more; making the ruts harder to deal with.

It was a tough day of racing, but probably good for me. By the end of the second race the "big downhill" with it's short steep climb afterwards was starting to make me feel a bit motion sick. I stayed for the open men's race afterwards and took some video footage. That is posted on YouTube.

Jim Danvers was out and he got me in shot 4445. Jim's pictures are at Jim Danvers Photography.

Links to the results are up at the FLCC webpage.

Quick Trip to MT

No race this weekend. Instead I was off to Bozeman to photograph a wedding and see a few of my Bozeman friends. I had thought about trying to do a local Bozeman race, and Bill even offered to scare me up a bike to use. Unfortunately (or is that fortunately?) the race overlapped with the wedding by about half an hour, so no racing. It was nice to have a weekend off the bike.

I arrived in Bozeman late Friday night and Saturday was taken up with wedding set up and photography and post party clean up. Sunday was a lazy day with Laurie. I provided comments from the peanut gallery as Laurie did a cabinet cleanup and reorganization. We then went for a nice walk on the Sourdough Trail. Supper on the 31st was with Laurie and the Rognlie clan. An amazing meal and lots of fun watching Matt and the girls transform themselves for Halloween. After supper Laurie and I stopped in for a quick visit with Mollie and Tyler.

Monday I convinced Laurie to play hookie from work and we went to Yellowstone. Not a spectacular wildlife day, but we did have a couple of firsts for me in the park. The first first was we actually went for a hike rather than just staying in the pull out parking lots. It was nice to get off the road and it felt like we were the only people in the park with the tourist season over. The other first happened on the walk when we were challenged and then followed by a lone bull bison. We were well over the "do not approach within" distance outlined by the park, but I laughed at the bull as he rolled in a dust bath with his skinny legs waving in the air and both Laurie and I were wearing red. Either way, we were discussing whether we should go past him on the trail or go off trail to get around him when we decided to move a little further down the trail to see where the trail actually went with regards to the dust wallow when he turned towards us and did a short charge, halving the distance between us. We immediately headed off trail (a park no-no) and headed for some sparse tree cover. As we moved away from our friend the bull, he started walking after us. Happily he was just ambling in our wake rather than renewing his charge. We elected to circle a long way back to the trail and head back towards the car. We made it back with no harm done and continued on to Cook City before turning around and heading back to Bozeman. That night Jared and Anna took me to dinner.

Tuesday morning I got up early and met Bill for coffee/breakfast at Rockford before I headed back to the airport for the long trip home. I spent my airport and plane time working on the following week's Bio lecture and grading exams.

CX Race 4: Syracuse Grand Prix

Jeremy, Jack, and I loaded up and headed out of Ithaca at 8:30 AM along with several pieces of apple pie and a bin full of cookies. After a bit of confusion with the construction at the 81/690W interchange we got to Long Branch Park, the venue for the day's muddy fun.

We arrived just after 10 and had time to pick up our numbers, get dressed and take in a lap or two for warm up and course recon. Hrm. Not that many tight turns and only 2 or three at a time. Lots of strait aways. Two mud pits. Long muddy strait away leading into a very soggy and slow grassy stretch leading into a hill with some pitch to it and some sand with a couple turns thrown in the mix.A side hill with s turns. A few sections of gravel. A whoop de whoop that you could get air off of. Looked like a tough course and a tough group of women to face off with.

On my first trip around I found some of the lines, had trouble with some, and found the side hill s turns rather terrifying.I couldn't ride the sandy hill the first time through, but I did manage it the second practice trip. Second time around David talked me through those same s turns and showed me a line through the muck and later while i was getting nervous at the start, explained a good line for the climb. Then it was time to go.

A group of 7 immediately gapped the rest of us... then there was me... and a bit behind me was the rest of the field. No man's land. Well at least that meant I didn't have to worry about bottle necks. At least until about half way through the first lap when I caught up to a few folks on the climb. Despite being around others, I was still able to get up the hill and ride the line I wanted. After that I slowly started passing some of the men and then one of the women. Eventually I passed several more women and a few of the men looked familiar. At this point I was pretty sure a couple of the men and women I had passed were riders I was lapping. Unfortunately (or should that be fortunately?) the lead men lapped me on my 5th lap - the lead guy was on his final lap when he caught me just before the mud pits. That meant I was also on my last lap. I am not sure where the 2nd guy lapped me - I was trying to focus on what was going on in front of me rather than what was coming around me from behind. The third place guy caught me at the bottom of the hill though. I was a little bummed about finding out half what through the lap I though was my second to last lap that I was really on my last lap. I had been closing in slowly but surely on some more women - women I was pretty sure I was catching rather than lapping and I was confident that barring any surprises I would have passed at least one of them with an additional lap. I managed a 5th out of 11 women in the open category and 7th out of 15 if you include the 4 women who raced in the masters category but started at the same time as the open women.

I found the course a challenge. The side hill S was not as tough as I had been afraid it would be. I was even OK on the passes where the left foot was on the downhill side. The side hill pass by the tree was a little awkward, but I managed that as well. The big soupy double track at the bottom of the course wasn't bad along the left most side in the trees and the soup along the lake was slow but ridable along a number of lines and I passed people there almost every lap. I did have trouble with mud pits each time and it wasn't until I finished and was on a warm down lap that I realized through the middle of the puddle was the least squirrelly route through. You learn something every race I guess.

I started catching men who started a minute before me early and steadily passing more as the race went on, and being in a position late in the race of catching women and lapping women. The twisty nature of the course also made for short sight lines and difficulty in knowing where the folks in front of me were. I was expecting the men to lap me at some point, but I had no idea they were bearing down on me when I did get passed. All this not knowing where I was during the race, or what was happening around the next bend made me realize that for a mid to back field rider like me it is best to focus energy on getting around that next bend, or over the rough terrain in front of me rather than on worrying over where how many riders are ahead or behind. I realized that for me the best mindset to be in was that for a time trial. Using the riders ahead as rabbits to help keep the intensity high, but focusing on the moving forward, on getting over the terrain ten feet in front of me.

I took several short video clips of the open men who raced after my race ended. I strung those clips together into a single 10 minute video which I posted on YouTube.

Results are up on the Onondaga Cycling Club website and at BikeReg.com.

CX Race 3: SwanDrome

10/10/10 so a 10th place might be the "win" for the day.

Lots of cycling going on in NY State and PA this weekend and it seems like all the heavy hitters headed into Pennsylvania for Iron Cross. I opted for a weekend at home and chose to do SwanDrome Cross. With the venue not even 3 miles from home, how could I not. I expected a small field given the number of people who were doing Iron Cross, but perhaps with the heavy hitters gone those of us who are mere mortals at the sport felt more comfortable coming out to play. At what by all accounts was a small local event, we had a 12 women!!! What a great turn out! Several of the women were giving cross a go for the first time as well.

The first timers and the rest of us chose a perfect day to play. It was sunny, the trees were absolutely on fire in their fall finery, and the course was long and challenging, though not as muddy as feared given the mid week rains. That is, of course, not to say that there was no mud on the course.

The day kicked off with two kids races - one for the youngest youngsters - those with push bikes and bikes with tiny wheels. They did an impressive loop around the house and the pond. A very impressive showing by those little ones. The second kids race doubled the fun and did two laps of the little race. It was an exciting finish with first and second place neck in neck coming into the line. The winner took the honors by less than a wheel.

After the youngsters had their fun it was time for the "adults" to duke it out. The men took off and the women were told that when there was a "reasonable gap" in the men's field we would be set loose - instantly mingling with the men's field and allowing a single lap counter to take care of both races. The first 6 guys came into site with a decent gap behind them. That gaps seemed to shrink as they took the sag around the pond, and it appeared perilously small when we were told to join the mix. The guys who all of a sudden found themselves having to make their way through a gaggle of gals seemed to take it in stride and with good cheer.

The course started in some wet grass and then went onto a double track in the woods, where we slalomed around some logs, made a few turns and climbed up a short hill. Then it was back down the hill on a mix of double track and single track, up the other side of the hill and into the border of the lawn and the woods where we did a series of zig zags before diving back into the woods, down a short steep pitch and back up to the field after a short piece of single track. Once back up on field level we went around some fields, including some down hill and one bumpy and wet uphill with a single barrier at the top where it was tough to get enough momentum for a quick remount. Then it was into a zig zag, around an off camber turn that meant swimming in the pond if you didn't make it, and around the pond. From the pond we hopped on the gravel driveway came into a 180, faced off with a double barrier, did another 180 and were on the start line.

Right from the gun, three of us emerged from the front of the pack with LiLynn up front then me in second for a short time and Sarah behind me until she found a good place to pass. Starting lap three all three of us were right together. Somewhere in there Sarah snuck by LiLynn, but we were pretty tight. That is until I utterly flubbed the remount of the single barrier. I had very little momentum and when I "jumped" back on the bike, my foot completely missed the pedal. With no forward momentum on the slight up and bumpy ground I had to put a foot down again and essentially started from a dead stop... with Sarah and LiLynn long gone in front of me. I lost a little more time to the two of them on each of the remaining 3 laps as I just could not get that remount down. Happily I was not as much of a disaster on getting back on the bike at the double barrier in the start finish area - where all the spectators were hanging out. My effort was good for a 3/12, about a minute behind Sarah and LiLynn who stayed together the whole race. The men lapped those two just meters before the end of their 6th lap. We were initially told we would be doing 7 laps, but in cross when you get lapped you do fewer laps since the race is run for a certain amount of time rather than for a specified distance. Since the men lapped Sarah and LiLynn just before they (the men finished), the two women were told they were done when just seconds later they finished their 6th lap. LiLynn had been planning to attack Sarah on the 7th lap and go for a win. As it was, Sarah managed the win. I was pretty much in no man's land so all of a sudden finding myself done didn't affect my race at all. Fourth place was about a minute behind me.

A fun day on a tough course. A huge thanks to Glenn and Marcia Swan for hosting the race.

CX Race 2: CX Brewery Ommegang

One week and two practices after my first attempt at cross at Buck Hill I gave it another go at the Ommegang Brewery on October 3rd. The weather was sunny and warm (in the sun) and the course was tacky and fast by the time my race ("Elite" women) came along. Elite being place inside those quotation marks because the field was for all the women's USAC categories.

The course started in a super wide grassy field then headed into a series of super tight turns that lead into a short bit of single track and a climb that in some years is a run-up. Immediately after climbing that hill we dropped back down into a zigzag and then a strait away into a tight s curve at the bottom of another hill. We descended that one as soon as we crested it and went into a section of 180's that ended with an off camber left hander with a double barrier immediately after the turn. The barriers were on a slight side hill. Just past the barrier was another turn that took us through the beer tent, around a bend and back through the start.

The women's race was supposed to be 45 minutes. I was focused on the people and terrain in front of me and never once looked up at the lap counters... I just kept riding until the officials told me I was done. Luckily Jeff Poulin was not of a mind to send me out for extra laps.

Often times races head into a tight section of course pretty soon after the start, so a fast start is pretty important. The less time you spend bottle necked and trying to get around people the more time you have to ride hard at your own speed. Knowing I am not very strong in the "technical" parts of 'cross, I am hesitant to go for a front line start, plus I don't have the sprint for it. I had a pretty timid start at Ommegang - probably one of the last 2 or 3 around the first bend. They started the single speeders 30 seconds to a minute behind us and the juniors just behind them. Despite my slow start I still went into the curves in a tight line. The single speed men and a couple of juniors started coming past us in that section, creating quite the chaotic scene to ride through. I survived the first lap and even passed a person or two, and then systematically started chasing down individuals in front of me. I managed to pass at least one person on each lap and even snuck back past a few of the juniors and single speed guys who barreled on by in the first 1/2 mile. My effort was good enough for a 12/23.

Official results are posted at BikeReg.com. There were several folks out taking pictures on race day and pictures of me in various poses of ineptitude can be found online. Wrekkers77 posted his photos on flicker. I think I am only in the one of all the women at the start. Most of these pictures look to be of the Elite men.

Mark Williams also posted some 400 pictures from the race. Pictures from the women, single speed and juniors start at #176. I am in pictures 187, 188, 221, 269.

CX Race 1: Buck Hill

Well...

1) road strength does not translate into 'cross ability - but I knew that

2) practicing on one's own does not translate to races

Practicing mounts and dismounts (a weakness I knew I needed to work on) on Wednesday I floundered mightily at both. On Friday i seemed to be doing worse on both. On Saturday I felt like I was getting both down, though I was making more progress with the remounting than the dismounting.

Lots to think about with a dismount... Move hand position off hoods and onto bar near center, swing right leg around, move right hand to top tube, weight right hand, step through or around, unclip left foot, and be running... all timed just right so you don't trip over the barriers. Remounting seems to have fewer things to think about... set bike down (don't drop it), get up to speed (though in theory since you got off at a run and you ran over the barriers or up the run-up, you are already at speed), take a stride with the left foot, extend your arms (bringing the saddle even with the hips), launch off that left foot, and land on the saddle with the feet in the pedals.

On Saturday it was taking a lot of concentration to remember to move the left hand onto the bars near the stem, and to not only move the left hand to the top tube, but to actually weight that hand. Jumping on just seemed a bit like a leap of faith. The key was to have enough momentum so when I got on and did not find the pedals I did not immediately fall off again before I had a chance to look for the pedals. Just, taking that leap of faith is a lot harder when you are moving at more than a crawl. That same commitment issue that stumps me on logs when mountain biking.

Anyway... back to Saturday... it felt like I was getting the re-mounting down while practicing on Saturday, but I was still having trouble hitting the steps in the right order on the dismount, and some issues getting that left foot unclipped. But that was Saturday.

Today.. race day... hrmm.

I got out there in time to watch the junior/masters race. They all seemed to be able to do what they needed to with getting on and off the bike. After their race, we had 45 minutes to pre-ride the course before our race began. The course started down a slight hill on a grass double track - rough mowed, that led into a slight climb with a triple barrier - so sprint at the start and then dismount - yikes!. at the top of the hill was a very twisty section - lots of tight turns, some up hills some on flat, all of it felt a little off camber. That took us into another double track that was really rough and onto a paved road for a bit. After that 90 degree turn onto a gravel road and a slight climb. That took us onto another wide double track with roots, a few whoop-de-whoops, a couple tight turns and two logs that I needed to dismount for. That took us back to a grassy double track with a few jogs to add length and slow the pace before heading back through the barriers. The finish was at the end of the twisty-turns above the barriers.

On the first lap I deliberately but myself at the back going into the barriers as I didn't want to cause a wreck should I fail to unclip the left foot. Unfortunately that put me behind someone who could not get either foot clipped back in on the tight winding section and the whole field rode away right there. I don't think I would have managed to stay with them for the whole race, and I don't think it affected the outcome, but it would have been nice to ride with people in sight for a little longer. I passed the poor person with the pedal woes, just before the paved road and stayed ahead through the first pass through the woods (rooty section with whoop-de-whoops and two logs) and right up to the barriers.

She had trouble with the pedals on the second lap as well but was able to ride through them this time and from then on she slowly crept away from me since she was doing the tight twisty sections faster than I was and was getting on the bike a lot faster too. Which brings me to the transitions on and off the bike... Dismounting I utterly failed to remember to move my hands on the bars and I can't pin point a single time I recall moving the right hand to the top tube... but i had no trouble unclipping the left foot. Getting on the bike however - I did not manage to do it at above a stand still a single time and had a lot of trouble finding the pedals (though not clipping in once my feet found them). After the second or third lap I spent the rest of the race thinking about the guys who were lapping me - thinking about staying out of their way. They all gave me fair warning they were coming and a few even took the rougher line by me. Unfortunately most of them passed me in sections I was not too comfortable and my response (from way back when I was mtb racing) was to move to the side and slow up to let them by where the passing, or as the case may be, the being passed, was easier.

I should have been thinking to the front on on my riding, but I couldn't shift the mind to that from 'worrying' about what was going on behind me. The lead three guys passed me twice during the race, and I think all of them passed me once. I did not get lapped by the lead woman, so I was able to do the full number of laps. I think the two ladies behind me did get lapped and were pulled one lap shy of the full complement.

A pretty lackluster performance on my part. but not quite DFL.

Photographers Jim Danvers and Peter Ozolins were out on the course. Peter caught me looking terrified at several spots on the course. Peter's photos can be found at Zenfolio.

Race 17: Apple festival citizens race

After at least two weekends off of racing it was back to the start line for the final road race of the year. Applefest is a well run and fairly small citizen's race in Montrose PA. The last two weekends involved some road riding and some mountain bike riding and some photography, and lots of work (it takes forever to put together 2 hour lectures from scratch every week!!!) but no racing.

There were two races, one a 13 mile loop for new racers and the other a 26 mile loop for those with annual licenses. Everyone on the 26 mile loop started together. Weather was a perfect apple day which is fitting for an apple festival: cool in the shade, warm in the sun, puffy white clouds dotting the sky.

We lined up shortly before 10:15 on 9/11/10 to get our race instructions. Stay to the right of the yellow line, arrows in red on road, watch the shoulder since they are rough, lead car, moto, sag truck, 3 KOM/QOM sprints, cash prizes for setting new records.

The start was a bit of a descent leading into the first climb. Things were controlled down the hill and then heated up on the climb and the pack of 44 riders broke apart. I was in the second group on the road as we crested the climb. We rode together over the next group of rolling hills and then at a crucial right hand turn there were some crossed signals. All of us went strait (down a hill) where we should have turned right. As bad luck would have it I did not turn around quite as quickly as the bulk of the group and lost contact with them climbing and into the head wind after the turn.

Eventually, after 4 windy miles on my own I was caught by a couple of other riders and four of us (three guys and I) worked together from the top of the first K/QOM until the final climb to the finish, at which point we separated a bit. I had no idea if there was a woman in the first group on the road or how close anyone behind us was, so I just focused on sticking with my little group.

It turns out there were no women in front of me so I managed to take home the QOM jersey (a nice off the rack jersey that the organizes had embroidered with "applefest 2010 QOM") and the first place prize money. The second place woman was around two minutes back, with the three other finishers spread out behind her. A 6th rider had started but did not finish - I am not sure what happened with her.

Although there was only one other FLCC rider there (whose dad cheered for me at each K/QOM), a whole slew of TVC riders came to race. One of them was celebrating his birthday so after the race we all had lunch together and then shared the pie I had backed for the birthday boy. It was a great way to end a low key and fun day as well as a tough road season.

'Cross season in NYS opened on the 12 with a race in Clinton NY. I did not attend due to the lack of 'cross tires and 'cross sensible shoes. However, tires are on the way, the bike is getting tuned up, and shoes have been purchased. In theory if the bike is ready in time, I can race him this weekend. However, having been mesmerized and taken in by a pair of Sidi shoes, I will be all set up to race, but won't be able to afford the entry fees. Ah ... such is life... maybe family will go for me paying race entry fees instead of finding birthday gifts for them... after all it will leave them with the peace of mind that I am off sliding around slick courses in cold wet conditions on inadequate equipment rather than getting into trouble at home....

Race ... oh wait... didn't race last weekend

Wow... this was my first weekend with no race or other major road trip on the schedule.

My body is not quite sure how to deal with it. Did have a nice ride Saturday afternoon - over new to me backroads that parallel well known busy roads. My route (Ithaca to Endicott) worked pretty well with only about 3 miles of dirt. Looking at the map again I think I could get rid of 2/3 of that dirt if I wanted to. Not that the dirt sections were in any way unridable. They were fine - I am just still running some super light race tires that won't last very long if I insist on taking them over gravel.

Sunday was a lovely lazy day spent watching the rain. I have to be careful lest I awaken the couch potato in me too much...

I need to do some major tire shopping - need to get a new set for the commuter, the studded tires could stand to be replaced before the snow flies, the mountain bike tires are looking rather tired, I have no 'cross tires, and to save the super light race tires for racing, I ought to get a good set of training tires for the race bike.

I know what I want for training tires and commuter tires (Conti Gator Skins) but it has been so long since I have regularly worn out mtb tires that I don't know what is what anymore, and the whole 'cross tire thing is brand new to me. I have always run fairly narrow tires on the mtb and think I'd like to keep that going.

Thoughts?

Race 16: Capital Region Road Race

Well.

It was a beautiful day and quite a fun course, some gradual climbing, some steep climbing, a bunch of flattish terrain that was too fast for a compact drive train, and some pretty safe downhills (well safe if you were not in a 3/4 or a 4/5 field).

I had a great ride on that pretty course, but that did not translate into a good race. In fact it was pathetic from a race stand point. They started all the women together which meant we actually had a reasonable pack on the line. With a three mile almost entirely climbing neutral section we should have had plenty of room to work out the dynamic for this pack, but with a pace car that seemed to surge and slow, it was pretty squirrelly in the neutral zone and at least one person crashed. The crash made the pack antsy and as soon as racing began the ladies at the front took off like rockets in an attempt to shell the beginner riders. I was not positioned well in the neutral zone, so I was playing catch up and dangling the first part of the race. I hung on until after we dropped most of the new racers, but then fell off. I worked with a group of 3 others to try to catch back on, but I spun out on the back stretch and did not dig deep enough to stick with my little group. So I ended up in no man's land and switched mental focus to steady endurance (it should have been TT, but I didn't feel like working that hard) and rode over half the distance alone.

My position was DFL for the 1/2 group, but ahead of most of the 3's and many of the 4's, and all of the Master's women. Results were done by Atwood Racing Services and are posted at fastalracing.com and bikereg.com.

There was at least one photographer out there shooting the race and his pictures are posted at Base Twelve Photos. You want to click on the link for "Capital Region Road Race 2010" and look for photos 111, and 349. Incidentally this photographer was also at Tour of the Battenkill and happened to shoot my field. If you click on the "Tour of the Battenkill 2010-Women's Pro" link, I am in picture 12.

Lost the element of surprise

This week was another TVC race week. I joined TVC so can now ride with them, just in time for the last couple of races of the series...

This week the element of surprise was gone. Well at least for the TVC regulars with regards to my riding. For me, not knowing any of their courses, I still got some surprises. This week they did the hilliest course of their Tuesday race courses - the Binghamton Empire State Games loop plus a little horseshoe on Gardner Rd. It starts with a 2.5 (or is it 3?) mile climb up Pennsylvania Ave, descends a little bit and then climbs up some more before a long descent and a few more fairly substantial climbs before a fast hilltop finish. Andrew W. gave a brief run down of the turns (all right handers) before the start and I was only sort of listening...

We all headed out en masse. The first little bit is neutral - to get through a stop sign, but from the start it is climbing. I started a bit back in the group, but as racing started and Dave Y came around me, he tapped my hip. To me that meant "I'm taking off now follow if you can". He probably meant it as "I'm taking off now, see you at the finish". I slotted in on his wheel and just focused on it. Trying to keep the gap small. I was having trouble finding a comfortable gear, and was spinning more than I am used to but I managed to hang on until the top where it flattened out a bit. I shifted a bit early and had trouble getting on top of my gear and waved the rider behind me, Andrew W. around while I floundered. I was able to slot back in behind Andrew W. and hung on on that first descent to the first right hander. That pretty much set us up for the second climb. I lost contact with Dave Y. and John H. after the first pitch. When Andrew W, Chris J. and a rider who's name I didn't catch came around me shortly there after I hung on for a few meters but then fell off them too... leaving me alone and feeling "lost ... lost ... lost [in a crowd]".

Happily the next intersection option was at a T intersection and then the next one I saw cars slowing for what looked like bikes in the distance so I went that way (a slight right at a Y intersection). The turn onto 26 was also at a T. At this point I didn't remember what Andrew had said was next so I slowed a bit - giving up on catching the trio in front of me. A group of 3 (two local riders, and fellow Ithaca rider Dave H.) caught me. We rotated through until the turn onto Gardner when we lost one of the locals. Near the false summit broad left hand sweep on Gardner we saw the trio in front again and although we tried like mad, we just couldn't catch them. The three of us pushed each other - not quite working together but definitely keeping the pace honest to the finish. The other local rider lost steam on the finish hill and I tried super hard to catch Dave H. but he held me off with ease.

It was good for 7th overall (one better than last week). I am bummed I let myself drop off the trio in front of me on the second climb. If I had dug a little deeper and held on... Last week I was coming off of three hard days of racing a week after 4 hard days of racing and managed to hang. This week I came off of several days completely off the bike, but also three nights of less than 4 hours of sleep a night. Tired muscles attuned to racing vs rested muscles but tired body... I have to say the first wins out for feeling better.

Thanks again to the TVC group for welcoming me again and bearing with me on a very warm and humid evening. That was a great course and a lot of fun to ride. Legs are tired today. :-)

A quick trip to the 14th Century

As seems typical this summer, my first racefree weekend in a bit was not actually a weekend of rest. It was a weekend of driving, catching up with my closer-than-a-sibling friend, little sleep, and middle-evil imersion.

Dawn has been active in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) for a very long time and has been attending one of the SCA's largest events for nearly as long. I have had a standing invite to Pennsic War for at least 5 years now - and likely much longer. This was the first year where my location and my work schedule allowed a trip to Pennsic.

Pennsic war is a two week event with week 1 being dedicated to set up and week 2 being dedicated to the war. I never understood the need for 1 week of set up until I witnessed the results of set up week. People are in households and kingdoms. Households tend to camp together and some of the larger households have very intricate camps with amazing front gates accompanied by super ornate and ornately appointed pavillions. There are also a lot of vendors at Pennsic, with wares from jewlery to period leather goods, to armour, to weaponry, to books, to clothing. Those folks need to set up their shops as well as their camps. Along with the vendors and the camping, there are classes (from dancing to mucic to illuminating manuscripts to fighting styles) and tournaments, and battles, and parties. Lots and lots of parties. People also tend to come to Pennsic year after year (this year was Pennsic War 39) so there is a fair bit of searching for a shady spot to sit and catch up with folks you haven't seen for a year.

I arrived Friday afternoon of setup week and we immediately did a food run to town for some Gray Gargoyles camp supplies. Then Dawn set me up in the 14th century peasant dress she made for me for this occaision (including insect themed ribbon on the sleeves :-D ). The rest of Friday was taken up by wandering through the whole site in an utter daze, followed by some food and then the evening wander to Vlad's - a camp Dawn has told me a lot about. To bed at 2 or so, and cursed with a clock that wakes me up early these days... so up by 6:30 on Saturday. Saturday we wandered through the vendors a bit, and I met a huge number of Dawn's SCA friends. Lots of walking, lots of gawking, lots of looking utterly dazed by the sheer scale of it all. Another late night followed by my internal alarm clock waking me super early. Sunday was opening ceremonies where everyone was in their period finest and war was declared. That evening we watched The battle of the 30, supporting the Earl whose household Dawn belongs to. Monday it was up and on the road early for a 6 hour drive back home to pick up my freshly tuned Madone and do a day's work in one afternoon.

Race recovery

I took Monday mostly off and then at Dave's behest and with the generosity of my folks letting me use the car I decided to head to Owego for the TVC Halsey Valley Rd RR Tuesday night. As a guest rider who did not know the course and coming off two hard weekends of racing, I felt a bit unsure about how it would go and if i should bring my phone so I could navigate back to the car should I find myself riding alone. I ultimately decided to leave the phone in the car and hope for the best. I signed up for the A group since four of my ESG Central team mates were also riding A. Off we went. I managed to make the first split (I think it happened within the first few miles) and found myself cruising along in a group of 9 - three ESG team mates, 5 folks I didn't know and me. The pace was pretty steady and pretty fast. I had to hold on or risk getting utterly lost. There were repeated attacks that were chased down by the rest of the field. I did my small part to help close a few down and the 9 of us finished together. 25 miles in just a hair over an hour. I had a blast on a fun course with a great group of people.

Today the legs feel it though.

The Madone is in for some professional TLC ... can't remember the last time I didn't have her home overnight...

No riding planned this weekend. Instead it is off to Pennsic War to be be dressed in 14th century 'garb' by a good friend and to take photos of the event. Dawn has been going to Pennsic for years and has invited me along most of those years. This year I am finally able to make it and Dawn went all out and made me a wool tunic and a dress to wear while there. Should be good times.

Race 15: Tour of the Catskills Stage 2

I woke up Sunday with a headache and feeling a bit low after coughing on and off all night. I decided to start despite feeling less than stellar. I was nervous for the climb up Platte Cove Rd as was most of the women's field. While we were warming up and staging gear ratios seemed to be the only thing the women were talking about. I was also a little bit nervous because I had only seen the last 12 mile of the course and a 10 mile stretch in the middle that we had ridden the day before (a section of 23 into Windham, and the climb out and that long downhill that worried me in Saturday's race). With the exception of a few courses where we did multiple laps, I have at least driven the whole loop before racing it.

The course started off fairly flat and we climbed to KOM1 within 7 miles of the start before descending down to Rt 23 for some false flat rollers into Windham, the climb out and the crazy long descent. This time we made a right off of 23 for a bunch of flat with a few rollers that took us through a super fast (almost down hill) feed zone. After the feed zone was more of the same until mile 45 when we hit the climb on Platte Cove Rd. From the top of the climb in held a few more rollers and a fast descent into a flat finish at mile 56 ish.

The women’s race was odd. We started out fairly slow, but things heated up for KOM 1 when we were still 8km out. I stuck with the main group most of the way and then ended at the top in the second group on the road but we worked together and bridged before the end of the downhill (I barely hung on on the descent). Being back in the field things got more comfortable until we reached the town of Windham. The other groups on the road bridged back up for the most part but they had to push for longer so I am glad I extended myself a little to stick with that second group.

As soon as we crossed what had been Saturday’s finish line, a major attack went off and the pace skyrocketed. It is a gentle climb out of Windham and we hammered it. Things then went into surge and slow mode and people attacked and then things settled and then attacked again. The second major attack came at the beginning of that same long downhill we did the day before. Having ridden it once I was a little more comfortable – hanging 1 – 2 bike lengths back. After that descent we went into rolling terrain for 20 miles and things settled in pretty steady...

Until the feed zone. The feed zone was in a flat and fast spot so it was a bit chaotic in the field going through there. I just moved to the yellow line and stayed there. While half the field was still in the feed zone someone on the front attacked and we went tearing out of there. However, literally 20 seconds later, once we were around a bend the women on the front stopped for a pee break – nearly causing a wreck in the back. I don’t know why they attacked out of the feed just to stop around the bend. I guess someone really had to go. The whole field was stopped (lead car stopped so we all had to).

After we got rolling again things were steady until mile 40. The climb up Platte Cove Rd (Devils Kitchen, 2 miles or so of average 11% grade with some pitches up to 23%) started at 45, but it seems no one really knew where it started. The whole peloton got really nervous. Can't really describe the feeling. There were subtle changes in the demeanor of the riders. We slowed a little. The women started talking a bit more with each other. People started moving around in the pack a little - though not in a way that obviously said they were positioning themselves near the front.

The climb was tough, but I just kept it steady and didn’t worry about anyone else. I had put on my 12-27 and was wondering if that was an easy enough gear. It was. I climbed out of the back of the pack and was pretty steadily passing men and women all the way up. My HR stayed under control, my breathing regular, the legs weren’t burning Yes, I know that means I could have and probably should have gone harder, but I was enjoying the climb. At one particularly steep switch back I must have looked like I was smiling because one of the many many people lining the sides of the road told me to stop smiling and keep riding. The only black mark on the climb was a van driver ignored the road closed and kept stopping in the middle of the road (pretty much directly in front of me) because the riders in front of the van were going slowly and many were getting off to walk. That forced me to the sides of the road where the pavement wasn’t nice and on some of the switchbacks I couldn’t choose the part of the road with the easier pitch. The van kept leap frogging with me and it was making me crabby.

Anyway I stayed on the bike all the way up. Caught someone at the top and another woman caught us and the three of us worked together the last 10 miles of rollers into the finish. Landis was at the race and in the second group of Pro/1/2 men on the road. His pack caught my little group about 400 meters from the finish causing a little confusion in our sprint, but I got to finish with Floyd. Yay or something and stuff. Anyway I managed a 29^th on the stage (out f 48 starters and it only lists 44 finishers), and a 29^th on the GC. Not great results but I had fun, learned a lot, and managed not to get dropped on the big descent!

Results are posted at the Anthem Sports website and at BikeReg.com

Race 15: Tour of the Catskills Stage 1

The Catskills Epic Road Race:

Took a while to clear the lungs Saturday morning, but they felt many time better than the night before. A quiet night's sleep also made Saturday a rosier day that I might have guessed it would be given how I felt Friday night. The day got better at sign in when I saw the results for the first time: my painful, lung busting 9:02 minute effort was good for 23/52 starters and 51 finishers.

The course: Start at the Windham Mountain Ski Lodge and neutral down off the mountain and through the town of Windham. Then it was gently climbing (a few small dips along the way) for 6 or so miles before the first big descent. Driving the course, this descent made me whimper - long, sort of steep in sections, a few curves, variable pavement, and a hard left at the bottom. After that it was rolling for several miles until the climb up to KOM1. That climb went on for a while and then it was down and rolling into the feed zone and rolling and up into KOM2. From KOM2 it was a screaming (ok whimpering for me) downhill with a sharp S curve at the top down to Rt 23. The last 10 miles on Rt 23 were flattish to false flat rolling into a bit of a headwind for what looked to be the potential for a super fast sprint finish. I knew my first key spot would be not to get dropped on that first long downhill. Having been dropped on hills like that before, I was a little concerned. Knowing some of the ladies in the field, I also knew that between 5 and 3 km to go to the first KOM there would likely be an attack and I made sure I knew the landmarks leading up to that spot.

I contrived to hang on on that first long downhill. We did drop a couple of women there, and I was dangling on the back with one to two bike lengths of open road between me and the person in front of me. Not great, but that is a gap I am fairly certain I can close if I need to (provided I am paying enough attention to know it needs to be closed at a given time). I hung with pretty easily after that – drifting to the back of the pack on the downhills and moving back up towards mid-pack on any climb. The first big climb was several miles long with varying pitches, but steepest right off the bat and then again near the top. I focused on keeping a steady pace and a smooth cadence and stayed with the field as the riders started dropping. There was a surge at 5km to KOM and I hung with. At 3km to KOM the expected major attack came and I was dangling and then off. It was curvy in there and by the time I came over KOM 1 I couldn’t see the two women who came off just before I did. Looking back there was no one in sight. Mile 27 out of 52 and alone in no man's land. Crap. There is nothing quite like the sinking feeling you get a you watch the gap grow to the point where the race caravan pulls around you and leaves you 'unprotected'. Don't get a flat now! I found out later that 20 women had been shelled before I got dropped, but I just knew that there was a large pack ahead and some off the back behind.

At least I got to take the short steep down hills at a comfortable pace to me and I didn't have to worry about drifting into somone's line or someone drifting into mine. I pushed KOM 2 just because I didn’t want to lose too much time in teh GC - not that I was in contention for anything, but it is the priciple of the matter and the fact that if you finished too far back on stage 1, you would not be allowed to start stage 2. I do have to admit though that there were times in there where my thoughts went towards "if I got dropped this early today, tomorrow is going to be an even longer TT so maybe it would be a good thing to be time cut". At the top of KOM 2 there were a couple guys on facny motor cycles (tricycles where the two wheels were in the front and only one in the back) and I did offer to trade with them. They just laughed at me and told me to keep it going. As soon as I hit 23 I put it into time trial mode and hammered the final 10 mils wondering if I would be outside the time cut to start on Sunday since apart from a sturggling junion I had seen no one on a bike for 15 miles. The false flat rollers felt completely un-flat and the wind felt pretty strong, but I just put my head down, cranked up to cadence in a big gear and powered it home. I started passing single riders and pairs of riders from the masters field at this point. Having those riders in front of me as rabbits was a huge help. I was hoping to catch one of the other women who had fallen off, so I would have someone to work with, but they were all guys, so as per USAC rules I had to pass them in a reasonable distance and keep on keeping on alone. The field must have slowed down along that stretch because I managed to almost bridge on those 10 miles. I finished in sight of the peloton 37 seconds back. I was shocked by that and by the group of 6 or 7 women who finished together about a minute behind me. There is no way riding alone into a headwind I should have been able to stay away from a group of 6 had they been working together. I managed 31st out of 51. Not great but at least I didn't lose gobs of time and I didn't have to find the snap for a sprint at the finish. I was a little concerned that I had burned up too many matches in my 25 miles of solo riding, but I have noticed that I recover fairly well and hoped that this would not be an exception.

After the race it was time to eat and then I toured the key part of Sunday's race (Platte Cove Rd - the famed and much hyped Devil's Kitchen climb) with several members of the Ommegang Team. The cars were not happy climbing that road, and the nerves for Sunday began to tingle. Once we got back to Hunter from that I went to soak in the river with Dave - the cold water felt really good on the legs and at ESGs I credit soaking after the ITT and the RR with how good the legs felt there. We sat in the river for near an hour - until we got cold. Then Dave went off to a team mates house and I went back to Windham for some supper (greek salad followed by steak and potatos and broccoli) before heading back to my hotel. At the hotel I changed my cassetter from the 12/25 that was on there to the 12/27 I had brought specifically for this race. I took the bike around the parking lot a few times to make sure she was shifting OK and then turned out the light for some much needed sleep.

Race 15: Tour of the Catskills Prologue

Well...

2 mile uphill time trial.

Expected a bit over 8 minutes of complete hell.

I was utterly ready to go for it when we arrived at 10:30 ... however ... my start wasn't until 4:44:30. (I arrived early, because my carpool included a rider with a 12:04:00 start).

I am not good at 'sit around a wait'.

I spent too much time standing up and walking around.

I spent too much time in the sun.

I did not put on sun screen early enough.

I allowed myself to get too nervous.

My focus was minimal.

When it came down to an hour to go I got on the bike and took her for a spin up and out of the town the TT was staged from. Up I went and down and down and down and then back up and to the staging area for yet another bathroom break and more water to drink and then back out of town in a different directions and then paranoid about a missed start back to staging 20 minutes early and just stood there in the sun.

The legs had no snap in the warm up - despite a few hard out of the saddle climbing efforts and some high cadence efforts. I felt great on Wednesday. I felt good commuting on Monday and Tuesday and Thursday. Not in my warm up on Friday though.

And not in my race.

I had a stable and balanced held start. Accelerated the 20 yards to the 90 degree right turn and tried to kick it up that steep pitch. I felt like I was going about 2 miles and hour. The heart rate went up and I kept it there but the legs felt filled with lead. I crossed the line at 9 minutes exactly by my computer. I have no idea how that stacked up in the 54 strong women's field. Maybe not last but not likely in the top half of the field.

They routed us back to the parking area via a different set of roads and that turned out to be a pretty good warm down - except my chest hurt like crazy and about 10 minutes into the warm down I started coughing and barely stopped long enough to catch occasional breaths for at least 15 minutes after that. Still coughing now about 6 hours later.

I guess I worked hard, but I am a little bummed that I had no spark in the legs.

Saturday is a new day, and based on the course (we drove it today) it will be a tough one.

Bed time.

Race 14: Empire State Games: day 4 team time trial

It really isn't all that often one has the chance to compete in a team time trial. The smoothest way to ride one is to practice with your teammates a fair bit so everyone is comfortable with each other and riding close on a wheel while stretched out in an aero position. (There is a reason aero bars are not permitted in mass start events!)

Our Central coach, Andrew Ross, arranged for a team time trial practice before the games. Most of the team was able to make it out, and we all went in one big group. The advantage of a large group is more rest. The disadvantage is we varied widely in strength and comfort riding close on wheels and that made it very difficult to ride smoothly. But we got the chance to see how it felt.

Satruday after the crit we had a team meeting and talked a bit about the TTT - and the men were divied up into their two teams. Poor guys had it rough - most regions fielded 10 men and thus had two teams of 5. We only had 8 and thus we could either field one 5 man team that was equal in numbers and one 3 man team (at a huge disadvantage in the numbers game but also dangerous should one man have a mechanical because for the men the clock stopped after the 3rd rider crossed the line). Or, we could field two teams four. They decided two teams of 4 was the safest and strongest bet. For the women there were no decisions to make - we had a full compliment with three of us and the clock stopped on the second rider. We did discuss some strategy for how to play it because Vanessa and I were fairly equally matched on flats and Heather was newer to the sport and was really nervous about riding fast in a tight paceline.

Sunday morning we got out there fairly early and the three of us ladies decided to work on our paceline technique and try out different speeds. Our goal was to ride at Heather's threshold for as long as she could hold on and then have the remaining two kick it up as high as we could go for the whatever distance was left of the 20 or so miles. We did our "slow" work on a side road and our "at speed" work on the course, working in a few turns to get the feel of those when trying to keep our line tight. The course was pretty much hot dog shaped - two parallel roads with several connectors. We went up one, crossed to the other on the connector and back down the other. We started in the middle of the hotdog, and did two complete laps so we had 4 turns to maneuver. The turns felt a bit tighter than the curves on a 400 meter track, but not quite as tight as on a 200 meter track. On a regular bike it was possible to peddal through the turns. Time trial bikes handle differently though and feel much less stable in the curves. We finished our warm up and found the start with 5 - 10 minutes to spare. The men started half a lap away from the finish (and women's start) and were doing 3.5 laps to our 2. The first women's team to start (Adirondack) was going to go off a minute after the last men's B team went by the finish.

Adirondack went off. Then NY. We were the 3rd out of 4 teams to start (Western only had one woman, and Hudson Valley didn't have any). We were glad to be done waiting - the nerves are always worst while waiting and they tend to decrease dramatically as soon as the pedals start turning. We had a smooth gradual increase in pace that allowed everyone to clip in and line up according to our preplanned order. Then it was head down and ride. We negotiated the first turn and were coming back into the headwind at mile 6 or so. Heather was feeling the strain and was debating when to pull out and say "Go!" when we passed someone at the side of the road in a Central jersey with what looked like a bloody face. I couldn't tell who it was (didn't see his bike) but it was definitely one of our guys. That sobered all of us up and Heather decided that she could not focus on riding close on someone's wheel while in areo bars after seeing that when she was so winded, so she told us to go for it. Heather kept riding in case one of us had a mechanical and her time would be needed to stop the clock. Vanessa and I continued to put our heads down and do the work. We all three of us left everything out on that course. Vanessa and I kicked it up to 30 for the flat spint across the line and we finished right together.

The Adirondack coach saw us out there riding and he told us he was hurting just watching us bury ourselves out there. He gave us kudos for putting so much effort in. Despite that effort, we were 20 seconds out of first place and took the silver. Adirondack had a great team this year and really cleaned up.

20 seconds!!! Over just 22 miles!!! Aaaargh!! So close and yet so far. As is typical with these things you spend way too much post race energy trying to determine just where those 20 seconds could have been made up. In our case I think it was the corners. We were coasting in and out of them and had we been able to pedal out and not lose quite as much momentum on them we could have made up that time. However, if we had pushed the envelope too much in those corners, a fall would have been a lot slower than coasting in and out. Everywhere else on the course we were really giving it our all.

Results are up at the Empire State Games website.

I have found several photographs of the cycling events they are at:

Drew Zinck Photography

Py's digital trail and road eyes

FlickRiver and

Terry Wherry

Race 14: Empire State Games: day 3 the dreaded crit

My fear of crits is alive and well. Nerves started building Friday night and all morning Saturday. David didn't need the jaws of life to extract me from his truck the way Chris did at GMSR, but he did get the evil eye more than once when being kind and supportive. Sorry Dave - really, I wasn't giving you a dirty look every time I rode by... I was just giving the crit in general a dirty look....

Anyway. As has become my pre-crit routine, after getting to the venue I walked the course, taking note of corner 1 being very close to the start line, corner 2 was up hill so should be safe, corner three was from a narrow road onto a wide road with a tail wind. Corner 4 looked like the place for the spatula brigade, and was the corner with the pit on it. That corner went from super wide road onto very narrow road, a grate on the inside, a little gravel on the outside and about a city block from the start/finish line. A fairly strait forward square course. All left turns.

I attempted to warm up on the trainer and it wasn't happening. I did a lap of the course. that wasn't so bad. At 15mph the corners were quite tame.Then it was hurry up and wait for the masters group before us to finish.

After they finished we got sent around for two laps while they waited for the next lead car to show up. Once the car was in place we were given our instructions: This was being scored as a points race using track racing scoring. Every 5 laps around the 0.8 mile course there would be a sprint for points. Points went 4 deep. If a rider lapped the field they got 20 points. If the field lapped a rider, they got -20 points. A lapped rider getting lapped a second time would be pulled. A lapped rider was eligible to compete in sprint points again in the next sprint lap after they got lapped. Free lap for incidents up until the second to last sprint lap. Any incidents after that the rider would be pulled but keep their points. As we found out later (though was not clear from pre-race instructions) on the final lap (the final sprint) over all place was also important as points were somehow awarded all the way down, rather than just to the top four as with the other sprints. After that confusing crash course in track scoring, we were sent on our way.

I tried to sit 4th or 5th wheel back but found there were a few ladies who drifted laterally in places that made no sense. I got pinched against curbs. I got run over rough spots. I decided I didn't want any part of that so after 6 laps (after the first sprint where since I was technically in a great lead out spot I should have managed a point or two, but where I was 6th) I took the front and pushed hard... for way too many laps. Sprint two came up and I started increasing my speed right out of corner 3 and continued to increase through corner 4 and tried like mad to hold the other ladies off for the points. I managed 4th and 1 point for my team. Whoo hoo! I moved off the front at that point and into the pack for a lap or two but again lost patience with the slowing and weaving going on "back there" and took the front again. Heck. I won a point the last time... So I led for what was I think 3 laps, into the sprint again. Everything according to plan increasing pace out of turn three and keeping it high into turn four... when someone came around and then cut my line and I went inside. AJ, one of the Central pit guys says it looked like my back wheel hit the grate on turn four, came off the ground and then came down a little sideways to the direction of travel leading to a skid. All I know is the bike was skidding and I was thinking "I hope they have their spatulas" and then I was going forward again and people were sprinting and I hit it... but came in 5th by just a fraction of a bike. I lost my nerve a bit after that and hung out mid field/ on the back... seeing a few moves I should have made, seeing some moves others should have made. Just wanting the race to be done. The last 10 laps were pretty uneventful. I failed to give it my all in the sprint on the last lap since I knew I was not in contention for 1 - 4 and maybe lost a place or two and the associated finish points due to that.

I survived.

My overall place in the crit was 6th.

Race 14: Empire State Games: day 2 road race

After a poor nights sleep (thank you hormone swamped teen aged girls!) we got up bright and early to head to breakfast and then the course. The road race course looked great for me when we pre-drove it - well great except for the super fast descent - that just looked scary. Again we got there with plenty of time to get ready and warm up despite me missing our exit and taking us the long slow way around.

Having time to warm up and warming up are two different things. I did head up the road a bit and then back down, but not far enough to actually get a warm up out of it. I was uncharacteristically nervous about the race too. I guess I was feeling pressure. On Thursday, the central women carried the combined team for points and I didn't want to let either my female or male team mates down with a lackluster race.

As it turns out, I had both a good and a frustrating race. We ended up doing 4.25 laps of a 10 mile loop. So we finished at the top of a big hill (1.5 mile climb) and we started a mile or two shy of it. From other races, I knew my lady to mark - Jenny Ives. She is a stronger rider than I am but also a wicked smart rider. My hope was to stick with her.

From the start to the first hill my team mate was on the front. On the climb I moved up to warn her not to pull too much and let others work. She promptly fell in behind me and I ended up setting pace. Not my plan but it did mean I got to ride the hill at a super comfy pace for me. I was not breathing hard, my legs were not feeling stressed at all, and my hear rate was not too high. Jenny glued herself to my wheel. I kept the bike in the big ring and right there probably psychologically scored against several riders.

Anyway, at the top I looked back and saw i'd split the field in two. 7 in my group (two central, two Adirondack, two Long Island, and 1 Western. I liked that split. (There are 6 regions and each region can field up to 10 men and 3 women.) From the top we had some descending and flat terrain and a lot of wind before a hard right up a fairly short but steep gut buster of a climb.

Jenny went for it on that climb on lap 1 and after a false start or two being blocked by two other riders I grabbed her wheel. At the top we had 10 bike lengths and we looked at each other and said "let's work it!". We drilled it from then on, and we stuck together for 3 full laps from that point. At the same spot on the last lap (5 miles from the finish) she punched it and I couldn't hang. From the top of the pitch it was false flat up and then a screaming descent and then a little flat before that 1.5 mile climb to the finish. With Jenny I hit 50 (she was sitting up for me a little) on the downhill.

My last lap, after Jenny had dropped me, I topped out at 47. At the bottom when it started to level out I felt and heard that I had a rear flat! With 3 miles to go! When Jenny and I went, the wheel car did not go with us. I kept riding and at each corner I asked the marshalls to send up a wheel car if they saw one. I slowed a little, but kept pushing since I had no idea what our gap to the rest of the riders was. The wheel car came up when I had 0.5 miles to go and I said I would keep my momentum and ride it out over a wheel chamge from a non- cycling volunteer. I doubt I would have made up enough time on Jenny to win had I not had a flat and I finished 2.5 minutes behind her and 4.75 minutes ahead of 3rd.

They are scoring this as an omnium, so how far back on Jenny I was won't end up mattering. It was a bit frustrating not to have the wheel car, but if I were to be able to choose my flat in a race, this is the one I would take because it did not change the outcome at all, and the rim is OK. Riding the wheel on a totally flat tire chewed the tire up a bit, but that tire was done anyway - I've ridden and raced on it since early April. New tires were put on that night (I had brought a brand new pair with me just in case). My pretty blue and white and black bike now has matching blue walled tires instead of the "ugly" yellow ones. I kind of miss the yellow ones though... Go figure.

We parked next to a bend in a river and after the race the four of us who swam in Lake Erie the day before took cold dip in the river. My legs felt really good on Friday - almost as if I hadn't raced on Thursday. I figured the cold water would help with recovery for Saturday's Crit.