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Here are some photos I snapped on the Saturday preride…  Ft. Adams Pond Road (2nd gravel section).

Well, I didn’t win Category 3, far from it in fact.  I ended up 8th, which given my (lack of) training in the last month or so, it does not surprise me.  The race was fairly fast, but all the new talent that came to the race didn’t seem to make it that much faster.  Next year, if the payout improves, some with return with one under their belt.  The good news is that my teammate Will, ended up defending the Cat 3 win for Memphis.  He is riding strong and clearly earned it in every way.

The race started out like last years.  First, the US61 “neutral roll out”  where improving your position is the name of the game.  Two riders crossed up in front of me at a pavement transition (US61 through St. Francisville is still under construction 1 year later, no visible progress).  When we turned off the main highway, I was maybe like 2/3 of the way back or so.  I would move up and slide back from the middle to the back over the course of the 25 miles to the first gravel.  The narrow back roads that make up a good part of the first part of the race were pretty much edge to edge despite not having a rolling enclosure.  This time it didn’t result in any close calls in the 4-5 cars to meet us coming the other way (riders just moved over nicely this year).

Hitting the gravel, I was again about 2/3 the way back and used the first part of the gravel to improve my position as some riders stalled and generally failed at riding the gravel.  The condition of the road was generally good, with not much deep gravel for the most part.  I moved up pretty much constantly until maybe 4 miles in and finally found my equilibrium, which was about 50 yards behind the main field.  I got in a small group that was closing the gap, but as I pulled through, I sunk down in some deep stuff (maybe mile 6 of 8?) and couldn’t bridge the gap to the main field.

I came out of the gravel section with a single 1/2 rider and we traded pulls for a few miles (and steadily lost ground to the field), until we were caught by small group.  We worked together (although I will admit I wasn’t giving it my all since I wasn’t going to pull these guys up to 2 of my teammates in the field.)  We made the catch at the Woodville feed zone and it was a nice ride all the way to Fort Adams.  At this point, the field was the front of the race.  As we approached Ft. Adams, there were some surges as racers tried to move up to set up for the 2nd gravel section.  Bryant Funston (M-B, cat2) was a few rows ahead of me and Will Stoffel (M-B, cat 3) was a few more ahead.  Things were looking good.  My shoulders and legs felt tight and I was generally pretty tired, but I hoped that I could make it alright.

As a group we made good pace through the trailer park neighborhood, the sketch bridge, and the sketcher potholed road to the base of the first important climb of the race.  The field was stretched in front of me as we approached the deep sand half way up.  Riders were stalled in all over, so I did the only sensible thing, I dismounted, ran through the sand/gravel (hoping my Speedplays would work after that punishment) and remounted just on the other side.  All of this went reseasonably well.  The next part (the rest of the climb) didn’t.  I went backwards and left the 2nd gravel section well of the field and with another rider (Greg Casals/ MetroMoto).  We traded pulls and were joined by Frank Moak (Herring) after 5 miles or so.  The three of us entered the 3rd gravel together.  All of us clearly not feeling it today (all 3 of us are better than the pulls we made to the Tunica gravel).

On the big and steep first hill, the gravel this year had a bunch of eroded pockets in it and I was unable to ride it in my 39×28 (last year it did it in my 39×26).  After trotting through the steepest part, I remounted and continued on the climb through the rest.  Frank stayed ahead and Greg behind and after a while, I realized I was alone (Frank climbed off at the end of the gravel).  I exited the gravel solo (like last year) and caught a Herring rider and we worked together (although he wasn’t racing for money as a 1/2 out of the money, so I did most of the work).

With a few to go, I cramped up bad on my left leg (calfs and top quad).  I laid up and drank some of my bottle and was able to continue.  We ended up getting caught by two others and when we turned up the finishing hill, they sprinted up the hill as I just rode it out (all of them were 1 and 2’s) and I didn’t want to revisit the cramping episode.

So this effort put me as the 8th place Cat 3.  I rolled in in 4:54, which was worse that my last year’s time (4:44?).  My power numbers were lower… I am sure it was a combination of the free ride from Woodville to Ft Adams and lower fitness.  Hopefully this race will springboard my fitness…daylight savings time and better weather await.

My wife (still sounds strange to say/type even after 3 months), didn’t have a great either.  We are both looking forward to the turn around…  maybe we can race well into June this year.

Andrea and I are on the way down to Rouge Roubaix now.  Team car is right behind us heading down to the course.  We will not have a huge contingent at the race (1/2/3 race will just be Bryant, Will, and myself), the rest are racing solo (although John will be racing 40+ masters with Andrea’s women’s field).  The start list for this year promises to be at least as hard core as last year when a relentless tempo by Metro VW strung out the field to and through the first gravel.

Last year, I fell off 5 miles or so into the gravel 2-wheel drifting in a corner and losing contact.  Ended up in a chase group and was going well in when I was forced on a bad line in the 2nd gravel and went down.  I recovered and managed to catch back some, but still ended up 24th overall in the A-race (1st cat 3).

This year, the Cat 3 has a separate prize list with a $500 check for the top spot, so I expect it will be a bit harder to repeat.  You might be wondering why I didn’t upgrade based on that, but if you look at the rest of my season, I was a category 3 racer with okay to good results.  I have no qualms about trying to defend my Cat 3 win this year.  I should get the results to put together my upgrade to Cat 2 later this spring, I just don’t have it yet.

I feel pretty good, but I not going as well as I was last year at this time due to work travel (China twice in a month!) and generally bad weather this winter.  That is okay, since the season is still young..  It will just take me pulling out something out of the air to make it happen again at Rouge this year.

Here is my first pass schedule for 2010…  will be kept up to date on the page “2010 road season”

February

• 2/27: Marx-Bensdorf Training Race (Arlington, Tn.) [TBRA]

March

• 3/7: Rouge Roubaix (St. Francisville, La.)  [LAMBRA]
• 3/20: Hell of the South (Berlin, Tn.) [TBRA]
• 3/27-3/28: Tour de Tuscaloosa (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)

April

• 4/9-4/11: Mississippi Gran Prix (Brookhaven, Miss.) [LAMBRA]
• 4/25-4/26: Tour le Fleur (Jackson, Miss.) [LAMBRA]  maybe..

May

• 5/1: Sumner Co RR (White House, Tn.) [TBRA] or Syllamo’s Revenge (Mountain View, Ark.)
• 5/8-5/9: Joe Martin Stage Race (Fayetteville, Ark.)
• 5/15-5/16: Highland Rim Classic / State RR (McMinnville, Tn.) [TBRA]
• 5/29-5/30: West Feliciana Classic (St. Francisville, La.) [LAMBRA]

June

• 6/6: State Crit (Johnson City, Tn.) [TBRA]
• 6/12-6/13: Tour de Louisiane (New Orleans, La.) [LAMBRA]
• 6/19-6/20:  Smith & Nephew / Marx-Bensdorf Gran Prix (Memphis, Tn.) [TBRA]

July

August

• 8/22-8/23: Meridian – Cuba Challenge (Meridian, Miss. / Cuba, Ala.) [LAMBRA]
• 8/28-8/29: River Gorge Omnium (Chattanooga, Tn.) [TBRA]

Time Trial…

I decided to leave my TT rig (road bike conversion) at home and see if I could get similar results with my road bike. I brought along my clip-on aerobars, my disc wheel, and my aero helmet. To make it as close as possible to my TT position, I lowered my stem by 20mm and reversed my Thomson set back seat post to get over the BB better.

The course is the same course that I have done the last two years, so I had some basis for comparison. The course is rolling at first with a 1/2 mile hill near 1 mile out. After that it is all downhill (or flat). Since I was using my road frame, I had my SRM to see if the power numbers that I have been seeing on my Polar WIND power sensor make any sense.

After warming up, I lined up to get ready for my start time. I was happy with my start and the first part of the hill climb… I slowed down more than I cared for over the top, but was putting out good wattage numbers. Going down the descent, I pretty much spun out (definitely missing my bar end shifters from my TT bike). I held it pretty well together over the dam and down towards the picnic area.

As I approached the final curves, the sun was in my eyes and there was a group of about 20 people walking along the road (walking back to the parking area). They were well clear of my path, but at 30+ mph in the flickering light, it caused me to hit the brakes a little into that final part. This is probably what caused me to roll a time a little bit worse than last year. I ended up with a 9:02 compared to a 8:55. It is probable that there was more of a headwind as well. In any case, the 9th place it gave me was pretty disappointing. Road bike 0, TT bike 1.

Criterium….

The Cat 3 crit wasn’t until the afternoon on Sunday. The weather was pretty mild and the rain chances forecast never materialized. For the Chattanooga course with the bricks in the corner of Market and 13th Street, that is a very good thing. In the morning, I converted my road bike back for criterium action. The way the cables are setup, I have to remove my front brake caliper to get the stem over the steerer tube. This small thing would prove to be an important detail during my race….

The River Gorge criterium is a pretty wide open flat course. The wind and high speed cornering pretty much do the damage on the field. Matt and I warmed up riding all over and around downtown Chattanooga. In general, I felt pretty good going into the crit. As normal, there were a few pair of fresh legs at the start, but I figured it would not be that big of a deal.

Lined up front row, got a good start and settled in about 10 back into the first turns. As we hit the first corners as a big blob, a little braking was needed to stay off the wheels in front. I noticed that I was basically bottoming out and my brake caliper quick release was open. Down the long straightaway, I closed the front one as the field surged. Going with them felt a bit tough, but I thought it was just the previous day’s climbing coming back to haunt.

Surge, cover, repeat…. The criterium proceded as a normal late season crit does, with everyone trying to beat the field into submission. Matt jumped off the front of the field and got a few people to go with. I surged up to the front and took the lead for a half of a lap to assist in developing a gap. On the long straightaway on the back side, the field surged around me and I found myself gasping for the back of the field. Unfortunately, it was the start of a vicious circle of at the back, off the back, back to the pack that meant that I was doing a lot of work, but not getting anywhere. Occassionally, I would find the opportunity and move up, but the surges would send me back to the back.

After the half-way point, I found myself off the back and chasing for 2 laps+. It about killed me, but I made it back. A break of 8 had established in the interem and the race was pretty quick. I ended up last in the field sprint (23rd overall). After the race, I was thinking how could my fitness be that bad? It didn’t make any sense…

When I got back to the car, I picked up my bike to take off the front wheel to put it in the car. When I did that I noticed that the wheel didn’t move. I gave it a spin… it only went about a 1/4 turn before stopping. Nice. Hard race made even harder by a split second decision on lap 1.

I ended up with an average speed of 26.0 mph and a NP right at my FTP. (IF = 0.997). Hard race, bad result. Now it is time to lay low and gear up for the 2nd season… CYCLOCROSS! I plan to race mostly in October/November this year.

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I took a bunch of photos of the Cat 4 crit, but unfortunately, the first 100+ are trash since I had the camera on the wrong mode…. Here are the good ones…

Lined up with about 30 others for the Category 3 River Gorge RR. For the first time, the Cat 3’s were split out from the P/1/2 so we had race that we could be competitive in. The course is a 60 mile loop featuring two marquee climbs of several miles plus a handful of other smaller hills spread out over the distance.

Even during the neutral roll-out, the attacks started (although that one wasn’t too serious). On the first part of the course, the races heads down US Hwy 11. A few miles into the race a break was established with 8 in it and they started to build up a lead. Seeing this develop, I decided to try to bridge up to this break a few miles before the first hill. I rolled out pretty hard and quickly started to make progress towards catching the break. A mile or so after it, I was joined by another coming up from the field and we worked together to the short hill leading to the first KOM spot (no prize in our race, but it was marked just the same). I continued to push hard up the hill and soon after that I was alone. By the time I got to the KOM spot, I was within 15-20 seconds of the catch (according to the time check) After the KOM, the course heads downward down a twisty road. Even though I rode this section hard, I lost time to the break (time check was 20 seconds+ at the turn near Whiteside). At this point, the going got tougher for a lone rider trying to catch since it was lightly rolling and into a head wind. By the time I got down to Nickajack Lake, the moto told me 1:20…. I didn’t get a time check to the field, but they looked to be about 1:30-2 minutes back when I looked across the lake as I went over I-24 hwy.

Up and over Ladd mtn and down the other side to the wide open part (again into a head wind) meant that I was bleeding time all the way to New Hope. At the turn towards Sand Mtn, I heard over 2 minutes and I suspected that the field was also closer than before, so I figured that I could at least get up Sand a bit before the field passed me.

About a 1/3 of the way up, the front of the field passed me (Barrett first)… I tried to stay with him and the others I dropped back, but ended up falling back to about mid-field. Over the top, I got into a good working group over the top and down the descent. We picked up a rider falling off the leaders over Ladd and continued the chase back to the Lake. As we approached US41-64-72, the leaders (by this time consolidated) were just ahead. At the base of the US41 stair steps, I jumped ahead since our group had slowed a bit and the lead group was just ahead (in distance, not in time). When I was about 2/3 of the way to the group, a portion of our chase group came by and we reintegrated just before the top. Going over the top, I was pretty gassed, but managed to hold on and planned to rest as much as I could before the final climb.

Down in the low parts of the road (along the river), Barrett (Cumberland Transit) jumped up the road and quickly built a lead. Everyone must have been as tired as I because we never mounted a serious chase (and we never caught him). I started the Raccoon Mountain finishing climb with the group but couldn’t stay with the lead 6 (2nd-7th on the road). Matt was just ahead of me and by halfway up I closed to him and we worked together for a while pacing each other. By the final part, I felt like I could maybe catch the back of the splintered group and I rode away from Matt at the end. I didn’t catch anyone unfortunately and we finished 8th and 9th I am pretty happy with the result, of course, I wanted it to be a top 5. Given our lack of hill work in Memphis, we did alright.

During my solo work and on both of the climbs, I demonstrated an average power in line with my FTP. I finished the 3 hour race with a normalized power right at my FTP. Confirmation of what I already knew…. I worked hard today.

When I registered for the omnium, I signed up for the Masters 30+ crit in addition to the Cat 3 crit since it was only $10 additional. I figured I could get used to the course at speed. The M30+ field started off quick and really didn’t let up. Pretty early in the race a sizable break went and got out of sight after a few laps. This left the rest of the field to fight it out for the low places (I want to say 8 or so was in the break).

The sprint for 9th (or whatever it was), I ended up about mid-field which probably meant 20th. I didn’t see the crit results (I only saw an omnium sheet). At the bottom of the course there were a group of fans that were clearly enjoying themselves.

Right after the Masters crit, the cat 4 lined up. Todd and Michael got in the break and Todd took the win…

After the Cat 4’s were done, Matt and I raced the Cat 3 crit. After the celebrating the night before, I figured I would try to lay low, but dangerous riders kept jumping off the front.

I bridged up to a break that failed and probably once or twice tried to start one (so much for laying low). My positioning wasn’t great heading up the hill and I ended up in 20th. With my 2nd place RR, 11th TT it was good enough for 9th in the omnium. Sort of a disappointing end, but ended up coming home with quite a bit of cash. Matt rolled a 2nd place TT and a top 10 in the crit to get a 6th in the omnium. Not the pair of top 5’s we were hoping, but a pair of top 10’s will work as well.

To cap it off, Andrea completed her sweep of her omnium by soloing away in her criterium.

Next up is the River Gorge / BMW Omnium in Chattanooga. By coincidence it is the last day of my former office / plant there, so I am going over a bit early for the last day.

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Photos from the crit: Masters 30/40+ | Cat 4 | Cat 3 | Women 1/2/3

After a few hours after picking up Andrea from her road race victory, Andrea and I headed to the other side of Oak Ridge to race the 8 mile TT held within the secure area of Oak Ridge labs (or whatever it is called). Unfortunately, the TT was running an hour behind…. At least I didn’t start warming up early since I knew about the time shift. While we were waiting, I got the opportunity to try out one of the handcyclists’ bikes. It was a a bit different than I expect. Those things are hard to turn (granted I was trying to turn a tight circle in the parking lot). I ended up “cheating” using my feet to move it around. I didn’t want to run into anything trying to get turned around. (The guy that we talked to used to ride a regular bike, but was partially paralyzed after getting hit by a car on a training ride.)

The course is the same mostly flat course (1-2% false flats) as last year. Since the road is closed to normal traffic, your first look at it is your race. I started off pretty well and quickly settled into a rhythm that I felt I could maintain for the duration (last year with fresh legs, I rolled a 19:10). The wattage shown by my Polar CS600 WIND power meter (which is a pain to deal with, but when it works gives workable numbers) were under target wattage on the outbound leg (looking down occasionally). When I downloaded the file, the numbers were close to target (maybe even a bit high IMHO). Anyway, I left it all out on course… To get a self timed 19:06 (official time was 19:08).

The results were emailed out later that night and I found that my effort was good for 11^th out of ~20 riders. Not terrible, but worse than I expected given my perceived effort and Polar data. What it does tell me (along with several similar experiences with LAMBRA stage race TT’s) that my road bike conversion TT bike needs to be changed out. It is not so much the frame aerodynamics, which are not too bad on my Kebel, but it is the position that I am not able to obtain. Just not low enough. Looks like I will need to get a frame this winter and stop messing with the half-measures that clearly aren’t working. The road bike conversion has got me through two seasons as an incremental step above clip-on aerobars. This bike has taught me a bit about what I want and need in terms of geometry which I can use to pick out a frame for the 2010 road campaign. One more race on the Kebel (Chattanooga BMW Omnium next weekend).

After the TT, nearly the whole Memphis Velo team in attendance converged on Big Ed’s pizza in Oak Ridge. Our table put down 5 large pizzas and I am not sure how many pitchers of beer. It was a celebration of a good day of racing and teamwork. My Cat 3 state jersey, (Andrea’s Woman 1/2/3 jersey), and Todd’s 3^rd place finish in the road race were probably as good as we have had it team (although Andrea is not a current MV’er, but you know what I mean).

The next morning came up quick and unfortunately, due to timing we didn’t get mobilized fast enough to catch the handcyclists criterium….

(rest of post will have to wait, this is all I could get written in the car before I had to take over driving.) Time to go to bed….

Galleries from the Sunday crit are up:

• Masters 30/40+
• Cat 4
• Cat 3
• Women 1/2/3

I felt a little sleepy this morning, but otherwise good. I wasn’t sure how this course would race as a Category 3 only of 30 or so (last year it was combined with the P/1/2 field due to small field size. So we (Matt and I) started off on our 66 mile Tennessee State Road Race in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

With only two of us, I thought it better to let the team-vs-team dynamic play out on this rolling course. And it did, with all breaks coming back during the first two laps.

On the start of the 3rd and final lap, there was a small group of 4 riders up the road, but in sight. Barrett Krei (Cumberland Transit) was sort of caught out in no-mans land in between. At the front, Brent Mahan (Nashville Cyclist) was trying to pull back in Barrett at least, but all were sort of stuck. I moved up from about 4-5 wheel and took over for Brent and pulled back in Barrett. I think Carr (maybe another?) countered … I pulled part of way up and I am pretty sure Brent finished it off. Groupo compacto. Two more started pushing a gap soon thereafter and stayed just out in front of the field.

On one of the larger rollers in the lead-in to the big hill, one of the two riders fell off leaving just one up the road. I pushed hard up the hill and reached him. When I looked back, we now had a gap and so we went. I honestly thought that it would just get us over the hills leaving us to get caught on the relatively wide open highway.

Starting at 20 miles to go, we traded pulls. We worked well together, he paced up the hills and I drove the pace on the flats and downhills. We stayed away those final miles to end maintaining a minute gap whenever we heard time checks (which stopped in the final miles for some reason). At the end he stuck on my rear wheel and with the pack closing I didn’t want to play too many games. He came around me before the finish, so I got 2nd. However, he was an out of stater so I am the 2009 Tennessee Cat 3 road race champion.

It has been a long time since my previous state win (2001 Maryland Cat 4 road race). It would have been better to win the race, but I will take the jersey. We rode hard for it.

I got my crankset back from SRM this morning. I installed it and then rode up and down the street. Clearly enough testing before the state RR.

The construction of this iteration of the FSA / SRM crank seems to be better in terms of the non-drive splines. It also seems to be much lighter than what I sent off to SRM a few weeks back.

This weekend is the Oak Ridge Fall Velo Classic. The road race on Saturday is the Tennessee State RR. It is a fairly hilly course, so I am glad I got my SRM back…..