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It probably was crazy to think I would be alright racing a fast criterium (Elite cat 3 crit at Downers Grove) with 7 days off the bike and a 18 hour journey with jet lag. Things started out okay and I was moving up but the hill took its toll after 15 minutes. I started to move back and was gapped up the finish grade and had to cover a few times. A few laps of this and I couldn’t do it anymore. Dropped. I am pretty disappointed despite all the reasons why I shouldn’t be. I was hoping that I could at least hold on.

Andrea had a better day on Saturday, taking 25th in the non champ race (P/1/2 women). The big event was a lot longer and faster and she wasn’t able to hang with the group. All-in-all, it was an exercise in humility, for me it is that you cannot race a big race with the wrong leadup and for her, a reminder of the gap between her and the top level pros. Not an unmanageable gap, but something that will take some time.

I took a bunch of photos of the women’s elite race and cut it down to 120 or so… here is the album.

As previous mentioned, I am out in Estonia this week (in the cold rain, as it were) for a work trip.  I am flying back to Memphis this Saturday…  So far, so good.  Just a normal trip (I have made over 30 of them in the last several years).

Go back a few days, Andrea gets a message from her team manager that he wants her to do Downers Grove / US Crit championship.  This is a huge deal, this is the race that Tina Pic has won 7 of the last 8 years or something like that.  Now Andrea doesn’t expect to win, but a top 20 placing (or even a field finish) would be a victory for her.

Now, I usually fly back from Estonia via Chicago (on Scandinavian Airlines) which would have been perfect, but this time I am flying back on Northwest right to Memphis.  I did some fare shopping and came up with a good price to fly up there to watch.  She is racing both Saturday and Sunday, but I can get up there Saturday night to see the race big event on Sunday.

Then, I get to thinking… she is driving up… and she could bring my bike.  And there is a cat 3 race at 10am on Sunday.  So in the end I made the maybe foolish choice to race the next morning after flying back from Europe.  The good news it that it is in the morning…  in the late afternoon will be the problem.

So to recap.
Saturday:

7am (eastern european time) to 4:50 pm (Memphis time) fly via Amsterdam to Memphis
drop off back at my car in the parking lot… or put it in left luggage if time is short.
6:35 pm (Memphis) to 8:20 pm (Chicago).

Sunday:

10am, race the Cat 3 crit championship in Downers Grove
noon, watch Andrea tough it out against the best crit women in the country
after that…watch the pro men?

oh, and drive back at some point… not sure on those details yet.  So this whole thing will cap off a pretty crazy week.

Did I mention that I have been off my bike since last Saturday (the morning before I left)….?  Although I have been running some…

Another hot day on the blacktop. I think it was a bit cooler than than last years parking lot crit, but nevertheless, it was hot. I didn’t have the legs I wanted, but managed to stay towards the front most of the race and even jumped pretty hard one time (and not so hard a few other times). I thought there was more time left, but when I saw the 3-laps-to-go card, I knew I was doomed. I made it about 3/4 of a lap out there before getting caught (see photo below…why am I smiling?).

I plan to put up some more photos, but here are some random ones to get you started.

During the races, a guy scaled the Gateway Bridge (visible in the background of the photo above). Andrea blogged it well, so I will leave it alone.

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I have linked the photo library. These were taken with the B-camera, so they are less than great, but here they are….

Hot… and tough. The Cat 3 road race was 4 laps of hilly 15 mile course. The way the laps were run, we got to do the finishing climb 4x before the final time. I spent a good portion of the race near the front and some time off the front, but also found myself in trouble a couple of times. The worse time was on the 3rd lap? where I slid to the back due to some attacks at the front. On dropping back, my teammate Aaron Parker was also in trouble,… we paced back to the field and caught on when the field slowed. That was pretty much the entire race, people would attack and the responses would get weaker and weaker and the general speed would drop.

In the end, there was a small group of 4 about 20-30 seconds off the front and 3 of us in the field behind (Bryan Marshall, Aaron, and myself). On the finishing rollers, M&B rider Bryant Funston jumped hard and several were able to follow (including Aaron). I was not able to… Unfortunately, Aaron couldn’t hold on and locked up going up the steep pitch after the feed zone area (about 1 mile to go). I ended up passing him, but couldn’t manage better than 15th place. Bryan and Aaron finished a few places back in 17th & 18th. What a tough day.

Later on, we had a rolling to flat 10 mile TT to contest. My legs felt bad and I only managed about a 25:50 (self-timed). I have no idea where that puts me, but I would guess about mid-field…although the TT was only contested by those that are more serious about it (about half the field).

Photo from Bart Nave photography. Visit his site for more thumbnails…

Tomorrow is the blacktop parking lot crit at Titans stadium. It promises to be hot at the 1 pm start time….

Back-to-back weekends over in Lebanon (Tennessee). This weekend is the Tennessee state road race (Cat 3 = 60 miles) plus an omnium that adds a 10 mile TT and a 50 minute criterium. The road course is a new course, but all the reports that I have seen is that it is fairly hilly 15 mile loop.

The plan (for Andrea and I) is to leave out of Memphis this morning (took the day off work) and drive out to Nashville to pre-ride the course this afternoon. It will be good to get a look at the hills and the landmarks even before we do the first lap. It might be possible that something will go on the first lap and stay away taking the race.

Tuesday, I went out and did the usual pre-race ride at Bikes Plus. This ride is a slower pace ride overall, but always features some long lead-out type sprints. The bike-handling of some of the group members is less than the best, so I tend to like to do the lead-out or attack. Most of the time, I don’t even really contest the sprint because I have led the group out at 30 mph+ for a while by the time we come to the final yards. Near the end of the ride, I decided to jump early on Winchester Road (west-bound) as we rode towards the Nike factory. I did a hard effort to separate and drilled it up the long gradients. The group was chasing and by the time we got to the last pitch they were getting to the point they were 100 feet back. In the end, only Aaron Parker jumped out and around me before the turn. He came by me like I was standing still. At least I confirmed (to myself) that I am ready for this weekend.

One thing I did notice this week is that my legs were still feeling bad on my TT bike. On Wednesday, I went out for my usual 23-24 mile loop (Cordova out through Country Woods, Fletcher Trace, Davies to Kingsridge, Canada to Monroe, Chambers-Chapel to Sumac, Airline/Reed-Hooker, Four Winds, Windcliff, Latting to Pisgah, new neighborhood to Far Rd, Macon, etc…) This loop is up and down after Canada road and allows some fast and some good long grades. By the time I got to Four Winds, I stopped in the heat (it was probably about 100F) and raised my seat about 1/2″. What a difference that made. I think the issue is that I tend to ride on the nose of my saddle which means my effective seat height is lower than if I rode in the middle of the saddle. This field adjustment gave my legs the needed extension. I will see if this helps on Saturday (10 mile TT). I wish I would have picked this up last Saturday for the State TT, my legs felt really stuffed up…the issue might have been ridding without full leg extension.

Well, I failed to meet my time goal for the state TT…but for good reason. The course was a lot harder than I imagined it would be. For the 40 km out-and-back course, we ended up doing just over a 1000 feet of climbing. The longest flat stretch of road was probably only about 0.5 mile long. (See profile below for what it looked like.)

I ended up running a 61:10 which was good enough for a 5th of 9 cat 3’s. The winner ran in the 57’s, which was my original goal. My legs were so sore all week leading up to the race, I guess from the last two weeks of training, so I will take this result.

The funniest thing is that on the start which was uphill, I was under-geared (53×19, I think) so I popped a wheelie and had to unclip to recover, but the hills were the real reason for my time, not a couple seconds lost at the start. The eventual winner started 30 seconds behind me and passed me 2.5 miles in. He would be the last to overtake me thankfully. At the end, I started passing the later starting Cat IV’s and was held up a little by one (there was a car that waiting behind them to pass as I approached… this probably only meant a few seconds delay).

Next weekend is the Allanti RR/TT + crit. The road race is the Tennessee state RR, so I hope to do well on the course. The course looks to be just a rolling as the terrain of the TT (the start is only about 10 miles away).

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Bill Parsons took some photos at the State TT, here are two that I got of me…

Well, I am less than 24 hours away from my first serious run at a 40 km time trial. Although I don’t expect to win (cat 3), I hope that I can post a respectable time much less than an hour (which I have never done). Most of the reasons why I never have had to do with fitness/conditioning, lack of interest (in TT), and lack of equipment.

2001 Maryland / D20 Sr. TT

• Bike: Trek 1200 with old Scott clip-ons. Regular wheels. Skinsuit, regular helmet.
• 40 km. I think I ran about 60-61 minutes for 9th place.

2004 Tennessee State TT

• Bike: Trek 5200 with old Scott clip-ons. Regular wheels. Regular team kit, reg. helmet.
• 40 km (short), 63:55 (missed start by about 3 minutes!) ~61 actual, <24 mph average.

2007 Tennessee state time trial

• Bike: Kuota Kebel / Force (road setup) with clip-on bars.
• Wheels: Zero 038 carbon wheels
• Helmet: standard road (Bell Sweep)
• Kit: road (bibs and jersey)
• Result: 24.1 mph over 17.3 miles (30 km). (43:02) 5th/5 in 30-39, would have been 8th/9 in Cat 3 last year.
• Condition: felt I never could turn over pedals, legs were stiff.

Tomorrow (2008 Tennessee State TT)

• Bike: Kuota Kebel / Force (TT setup)
• Wheels: Zero 038 carbon front, Zipp 900 disc
• Helmet: Rudy Project TT helmet/visor
• Kit: skinsuit
• Goal: 26 mph over 24.86 miles. (57:36) [have averaged 25mph this year on a 21 mile TT several hours after mountain climb road stage at Tour of Arkansas]
• Condition: we’ll see, but legs are feeling stiff this week (after a tough weekend). Rode TT bike moderate/easy on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Which looks faster?

versus

I am also expecting Andrea to run a hot time trial.  She has a legitimate shot at winning the Tennessee State time trial for Cat 1-3 women.  She has a new bike (maybe too new-she rode it for the first time yesterday) and, like me,  is much faster at all her time trials this year.   The defending champ (K. Sass) beat her by 3:35 on a 30 km course.   I would expect a similar performance out of Kirsten, we’ll see how much improved Andrea is this year (both equipment and power).  Also of note, is the return of Lori Jug to Tennessee (also on Team Kenda Tire), who ran similar times to Kirsten in the past (2005).  I predict it will be close.

Well, it has been a while since I have posted up anything, but it has been a busy time since I got back. Work had a bunch of things going on & visitors, etc. And my training has entered a higher volume phase. The last two weeks I have logged about 15 hours each week with 273 and 252 miles for the last two (Monday to Sunday) weeks. The plan was to get some volume in before doing a couple of races.

Next weekend is the Tennessee state TT. This will be my 2nd long time trial on my Kuota Kebel TT rig. The first was the day 1 afternoon TT at Tour of Arkansas (22 miles), but this was only hours after the Mt. Magazine road race stage. The state TT (40 km) will be by itself, so it will be a good test. I was able to average 25 mph at ToA, so I should be sub-60 if the distance is a true 40 km.

The next week (August 2nd-3rd) is the Tenn. state RR (Allanti RR). The course is a new one this year that looks to be slightly easier in terms of hills, but I haven’t looked it at too hard. The weekend includes at 10 mile TT and a Sunday parking lot crit (uses the large parking lot at Titan’s stadium).

After those weekend, I will be headed to Estonia for a work trip, so I will miss the Meridian / Cuba challenge down in Mississippi / Alabama. I am coming back about a week before River Gorge / BMW Omnium in Chattanooga. I think I can carry most of my fitness through my 10 day trip if I pick up running and maybe finding a rental bike to ride some. After the BMW Omnium, I will probably race out a Oak Ridge (September 6th/7th) and then do the Pepper Place crit (Sept 13th). The Pepper Place crit has picked up a common sponsor (Smith & Nephew), so this race went from a race I was going to do to one that I am really going to do. They even set it up to allow a Cat 3 to double up doing both the Cat 3 and the Cat 1/2/3 race.

Today was a good cap to long hot weekend. Andrea and I joined a large group at RB’s on Saturday to do the B-ride (easier pace, but more like the A ride of this description), to knock out a total of nearly 88 miles in the heat. We didn’t roll back to my apt until almost 2 pm. Today, it was the usual… from Germantown to the Outdoor’s ride and back (70+ miles).

After getting back and eating lunch, we went out to catch the end of the Trek factory demo at Herb Parsons. They had all sorts of bikes there (including road), but we went to ride some full suspension bikes. Both of us had never ridden a suspension bike, let alone a full suspension. I took out an aluminum Gary Fisher 29′er, while Andrea road a pricey Trek carbon bike. We both pretty much don’t know what we are doing out there, but at least these bikes are pretty forgiving.  I might have to reconsider my plan about getting a fixed gear bike and instead get a mountain bike for winter training.

Another race in the bag. Our race criterium is basically flat with three non-technical corners (the other “corner” is a bend in the road). The race started out reasonably fast, with a few early attacks…all were brought back.

I wanted to try to jump and I managed to find a chance about 25 minutes in. I shot to the left and accelerated around the wide-laned backside of the course. Stealing glances back, I could see only one with me, in red. As we turned the corner to the finishing stretch, I pulled aside to let him pull through. It turned out to be an OKC rider. We had a pretty good jump and traded pulls for two laps (photo below is from after one lap).

By the point where I made the jump, looking back I could see M&B riders at the front pulling back only 30-40 feet back…so we sat up for the closure which was iminent. Back in the field, I continued the never ending process of moving up as the field would surge all over the road, slow down, and then repeat. With 3 to go, they put up a good prime (Rudy Project glasses) and two guys up the road looked catchable, so I jumped again on the back side of the course. I had pretty much the field with me (albeit strung out) as we turned the corner… the “catchable” guys ahead we obviously thinking about the glasses, so they were still to far out.. reabsorbed.

The next couple of laps we sped up quite a bit (as is usual). As we did, the skill of various riders in the corners become painfully apparent (I was too far back as well after losing ground on a surge). Anyway, the field lined out and I ended up strung out going into the last corner into the headwind sprint. There was easily 20 ahead, so I didn’t sprint all the way… I was done.

I am still not where I need to be in terms of criteriums, but I am getting better.  I am really happy with the jumps I was able to do.  I still have a ways to go…and I haven’t really done anything specific on this yet.

This weekend turned out alright, but I am glad to take a few weeks off from racing. I probably will return to Huntsville (one of my favorite crits) in the later part of July, but other wise it is back to a bit of endurance riding and then transitioning to some intensity in 2 weeks. I want to recuperate a bit before tackling the last half of the season (and subsequent ‘cross season).

As for photos, Andrea shot the photos above and the rest of the Cat 3 photos. I shot some of the Womens race, the Cat 4, and few other photos from other races.

[Women] [Cat 4] [Cat 3] [Jrs / Cat5 / M50-60]

Today was our club’s race (Smith & Nephew / Marx & Bensdorf Gran Prix). As usual, I raced Cat 3, but today was joined by the entire contigent of Cat 3’s for Memphis Velo (Aaron, Bryan, David, Jarrett, and John). The road race had a better turn out that in years past…with about 30 starting the race. During the course of the race, there we a few attacks during the first and part of the second lap, but none stuck. I attacked the corner-hill on the long-course connector and got a good sized gap for a 2 miles or so… a group of 6 caught me, but I had overdone it so I couldn’t hang. I had to drop back to the pack and everyone was collected after a mile or so. The effort put me in the back to rest for a while, so I missed the key break which occurred not too long after.

Initially we didn’t chase very hard (or at all), which in retrospect we should have done that work to pull back the break. Later on the third lap, we did do some pulls on the front, but the damage was done, we were now racing for 5th. About 1/2 mile from the finish we were moving along at pretty good clip jammed across the road 4-5 wide when there was some commotion on the right side of the field…. the chain reaction took out about 8 riders including David and Aaron. Bryan and I managed to get through on the left side and finished up probably 11th & 13th in the road race. I know it was a bit of a shock to both Bryan and I when we saw (and in his case felt) riders go down and our placings reflect this break in concentration.

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In the afternoon, the CD Smith Rd time trial was held. The forecast rain stayed away, which was good given the narrow two-lane road turn-around that is part of the course. I self-timed an 8:40-8:42 (official time was 8:40) which is somewhat better than the 9:18 that I ran last year. My TT placing was 10th of the 28 cat3’s.

Here are some photos Mark Allen took of me:

[at about 100 feet]                      [and after 3.7 miles]