roadcx.net

It definitely wasn’t my legs that were flat, since work had me skipping some workouts this week.  It was my tires.

Aaron Shafer Memorial RR / Sparta, TN.  Marx-Bensdorf Cycling Team fielded 4 in the 1/2/3 race.  Bryant, Jeremy, Will, and myself.  The field featured some good rollers, so the plan was get in a break if one were to develop.

photo from Rip Clayton’s FB.

The race started off reasonably fast, with different groups trying to make something stick.  Maybe a few miles into the race, Bryant jumped across to a Friend of the Smokies rider (Crowson?) and they started to work.  A few miles later, a CT rider (Krei) started to bridge.  I was on point, and started to cover, but didn’t want to drag all up to our man.  So the break was 3.  This left us back in the field to work to keep the break alive….  generally it went fairly well and we kept the break alive and disrupted the chase.  I think I was 2-3 wheel most of the time..   things were good.  At 45 miles or so in the 70 mile race, I flatted (rear).  Dropped back, took my wheel out of the truck, and changed it out…  Not the fastest (had trouble getting my wheel out), but otherwise not bad.  Gave chase for a while, but it wasn’t going to happen.  Ride it back…  Good news is that the course is beautiful and low traffic.  10 miles later, I see a teammate walking his bike.  It was Will, his chain self-destructed.  He told me the break was almost back when he had to stop due to the mechanical.  Crap…  Not looking good.  In the end, the break was caught and Will managed to get a ride back in a jacked up pickup truck.  No result.

That afternoon, I drove down to Fayetteville, where Andrea and Eric were heading over from Memphis.  The plan was to setup camp and pre-ride Crude XC.  I am glad I prerode (despite my tired legs), because I needed to relearn how to ride MTB.  (It had been 2 weeks since I had ridden.)   So the first part of the ride went bad, learned from it, and was ready to rock the next morning.

Crude XC / Fayetteville, TN.  Lined up with about 10 Cat 2 (sport) / 30-39 racers.  Got off to a decent start, entered the woods in 4th (long field section).

start line Cat2/30-39.  Photo by Eric Wardlaw.

By the 2nd hill on course, I was in 3rd, with small gaps to 2nd and 1st beyond.

2-3 minutes before the end of my race…  15 minutes in.  (photo: Eric)

All of that would be made moot by 17 minutes in, front flat.  Burped out front tubeless tire completely on a downhill where the trail crossed a road.  Cursing my luck, I proceeded to change out my tire (as the rest of my group and other later starting groups started to pass me).  Front skewer was so tight, I needed to use my hydration pack strap to pull it open (after spending a few minutes trying to find a worthy pry stick).  Pulled out the valve stem and put the tube in with Stan’s dripping everywhere…. All of that would be for nothing, since my inflater was missing part of the chuck…. I tried it anyway, didn’t work.  Blew CO2 out.  DNF.

Overnight, I found myself way down the standing (due to Friday night’s misfire), but was looking forward to the flow of the circuit race.

Flow it did, I didn’t.  I quickly found myself at the back and was forced to brake and make up out of the corner.  In retrospect, I should have played it differently and buried myself to move up quicker, but that didn’t happen.

So, after a few laps, I was OTB.  Like the crit, I rode some hard laps hoping to get back on…that was not to happen as the field did not slack at all.  I caught, worked with, and left a few riders as I completed lap after lap (re-emphasizing that I screwed up in falling off).

When the moto came up behind, I setup to get back on the field.  After my solo work OTB, I was pretty much forced to be a back marker, moving up a handful of spots occasionally.  Somewhere in there the overnight GC lead, Mat Davis, got off with Herring Gas rider and they ended up lapping the field.  I rode it out with the field before dropping back in the run into the field sprint (since I was 1 more lap down than most of the field).   In the end, I probably got the 8th place Cat 3, Will took first in Cat 3 and 12th overall.  Due to the CR break, Bryant dropped down to finish in 4th place GC.  Overall a good weekend for the Marx – Bensdorf Cycling Team.  I was glad that I could resurrect some good work in the road race out of a otherwise underperform weekend personally.

This weekend, a few teammates and I plan to race a TBRA road race in Sparta.  After that, I plan to meet Andrea down in Fayetteville, Tn at Crude XC (mountain bike race).

Friday night…  feeling a little worn out, but otherwise good, I was looking forward to a having a good crit and going into the road race with several teammates in the mix.  The several teammates thing happened, I didn’t.  Wasn’t aggressive enough at the start and I was on the back by the end of the first lap hanging on.  It wasn’t too long before I was gapped off and my night was over.  I rode a few hot laps hoping to delay the catch (getting lapped), but was at the wrong place when I got caught…  (although there wasn’t too many good places on the course to catch back on).  In any case, I rode around in small groups as the field came by several times.  Bad show, indeed.

With my new found freedom from the tyranny of the G.C., I was free to ride the road race in support of Bryant and Will.  The first lap, I had some knee stiffness, and let that work its way out.  After that I was able to cover some move and start some, most all of which were not good for our team.  There were two riders off from Herring with another (he flatted back), we caught them near the start of the third lap.  With a few to go, I took a hard flyer to help keep the pace up, and was gone for 1 mile or so, getting caught on the hill.  I figured my day was done, but the field slowed and I came back (so much for the flyer accomplishing anything).  I rode up on the shoulder of the road to move up and ended up finishing with the field (my legs were pretty much on edge after my hard dig).  Will, Bryant, guest rider Travis, and myself finished with the field.

TT.  New course, shorter than previous years, but included a nice little kick at the end.  I stopped the clock at 6:34, which put me in my normal LAMBRA TT placing, a little back from mid-pack.  I was hoping that my saddle position would move me up relatively speaking, but my tired legs compared to everyone else’s tired legs, put me in my normal place.  The good news is that Bryant rolled the 3rd best time and ended the day in 3rd place in the G.C. (Will was also first in the Cat3, sub G.C.).

Circuit race.  …. next post, later…

Raced the 1/2/3 race again this year….  Didn’t survive the crit, which left me free to support my teammates in the RR.  In the end, Bryant ended up 4th, and Will probably 11th (1st cat 3?).  I will write up a full report later (probably after results are up on LAMBRA), but for here are some photos…

Circuit Race

• Cat 4/5
• Women
• Cat 3/4
• Cat 1/2/3 << LINK IS NOW FIXED

The weather cleared and it turned out to be a nice day for the afternoon races at Tuscaloosa.  Started off with a biggish field (maybe 50?) of Cat 3′s.  I hung out near the back for most of the 1st lap as the field was pretty well packed across the road and nothing much was happening.  The rest of my team was closer to the front and I figured I would move up on the hill… and I did.   So at the start of the 2nd lap I was finally in a position to actually do something.  The Marx-Bensdorf cycling team was very active through the first lap and that continued onto the 2nd lap.

Going up the short sharp hill after the start/finish the 3rd time, I planned to apply some pressure, and was pretty surprised that only Todd Hickman (Memphis Velo) was anywhere close.  When he caught me and we worked together for a while.    A bit later in that same lap, somewhere after the mid-lap hill, David Jones (also MV) and 2 others caught on.  At this point, I wasn’t liking the situation…  two MV in the break with me and I had a bunch of teammates behind, including Will ready to go.  I skipped a few pulls and then starting working, but not too hard…in any case these guys were all over the place, lots of unneeded surging, etc..  In any case, we got caught at the base of the long hill (3rd time up).

I was at the front and just started up the climb, but somehow I started to walk out again…  David Jones came up and encouraged me to start going, but I wasn’t going to start a break again so soon after just coming back.  I just kept riding and found myself alone, so I changed my mind and decided to keep it up.  That part of the course is sort of fun alone, and going by the people at the park entrance and the start / finish is pretty cool (I enjoyed it last year also).  It wasn’t until the sharp hill mid-lap that the eventual winner caught me.  We worked together until the sharp down right hander where he bombed down and gapped me.  And I just couldn’t close it down.

So I rode alone with that other rider just ahead,…  it wasn’t until the middle of the 5th lap when David (again!) and 2 others caught me.  One was from Birmingham Bikes, other was from the Weber team (Florida).  We worked together to the base the hill with pack bearing down on us from a distance.  We all stayed close to each other until 2/3rd’s the way up when Birmingham got a small 10 second gap…  Through the S-turns, we pushed it and up the last small hill.  Near 1km to go, David jumped to start the sprint, but it was short lived.  A firetruck (from an earlier wreck)  started to pull into the road just ahead and we all backed off a second as the fire truck reversed out of the way, so now we were at 500-600m(?) to go.  Birmingham, DCJ, me, and Weber in a tight group…  David started to launch to the right and I followed him, Weber headed to the left… I came around David and held on, but Weber spun it up and took the 2nd place prize.  3rd.

Dale Sanford captured the moment…here is a small gallery of it.

Looking at my power file, I was definitely working hard (normalized power close to my threshold).  But there is absolutely no way this would have worked unless my teammates were looking out for me.  It was a really good weekend for us as a team, this season will just get better and better as we figure each other out.

I’ll put up the crit photos tonight.  Need to finish out the albums and push them up.  I didn’t bring my MacBook with me on this trip, so I didn’t get this done on the road.

Tuscaloosa’s downtown was under construction in several places this year, which combined with a festival in the huge parking lot by the course, made parking more an adventure…  Other than that, the event went well and the fields seemed slightly bigger this year.  My team (Marx-Bensdorf) and our related team (BPC) showed up in numbers for some good early season racing.  The women took charge of the Women’s 3/4 race and took the first two places.

In the Category 3 race, we had 4 of us (Aaron, Jeremy, Will, and myself).  The course starts off on the relatively flat finishing stretch, a sweeping right to a downhill that provides a ton of speed into the 2nd corner.  A long open section awaits (this year into a cross wind) to a short relatively steep hill, followed by a longer less steep grade with a cross wind from the other side…. up and around the corner, the top of the course is flat, but has two bumpy corners to the finish (especially the first).

Most of the earlier races were decimated by a hard pace (combined with winds) and sometimes punctuated by crashes (large fields for the courses, cross winds, etc).   We were all lined up and got off to a good start in the group and had 2-3 of us near the front almost the whole race….  The wind and hill created a weird dynamic were the field would string out and then suddenly bunch up (especially the steeper hill at the bottom of the course).  This meant that it was possible to move up towards the front on the uphill part of the course pretty easily.   A few laps in, Will had a gap with two others and it was looking promising given that Jeremy and I were up at the front controlling along with my former team (Memphis Velo since they had a man in there as well).    Before I got to the front, I had to sprint up to the group since I had to take evasive action to avoid a multi-rider crash coming out of the high speed turn off the downhill.  When the group came around to the near the center of the figure 8 course, we were told that the race was neutralized behind the moto, also neutralizing the break.  We did a lap behind the moto and were restarted rolling once the wreak had been cleared off the course, leaving us only 5 or 6 laps to go.

The race pretty much stayed together with one off at the end I believe.  The last time up the long grade, I attacked from the sheltered side and strung the field out (unfortunately they were on me by the top).  My hope to hold on to a decent position and maybe setup Will for a good position.  In that I was only partially successful in that Will got 8th in the sprint, and I ended up 17th (basically near the back of the remains of the group).  I would say that around 35 or so started, maybe more.   Although the results weren’t that great, I think we worked well together as team for the first crit of the year.

I took some photos of the Master 35+, some of the women 3/4.  At that point, I handed off the camera to some teammates and they helped me out with the Cat 4 and Cat3 races.  I also got some photos of the Cat 1/2 race although it was getting dark, so the quality is not the best.  I didn’t bring my MacBook with me this weekend, so the photo albums will have to wait.

–

Here are the galleries… I’ll link them as I put them up:

• [Women 3/4]
• [Men 4]
• [Men 3]
• [Men 1/2]

Andrea and I packed up the car and day-tripped the Hell of the South race yesterday.  Rolling out at 5am, we arrived around 8:30a and got registered and ready to race.  I did expect much coming into this weekend as I am still behind form, but decided to race to support the team and see what happened.

The race featured a 20 mile loop with 1 mile or so of gravel and miles of narrow, some times twisty chip and seal roads (read high rolling resistance).  The start had about 60 or so lined up in the cat 1/2/3 field of which we were five (Bryant Funston, Will Stoffel, Jeremy Nagoshiner, John MacLauchlin, and myself).  Although there was a center line rule declared, in practice it was difficult to enforce for most of the course given the nervousness of the field and the narrow roads.  The first miles were pretty crazy, both since there was a general downward slope and everyone’s desire to be near the front the first time we hit the gravel section at around 6-7 miles in.  Much like the first gravel in Rouge Roubaix, position would be important to make sure that you didn’t get strung out.  Unlike RR, the gravel section was not particularly hard or long.  It did prove to be somewhat decisive as we probably lost 10 or more the first time through…   The gravel section had two short hills and a sketchy downhill section to a turn…

Just ahead of the gravel the first time, the decisive break went…  Mike Olheiser (warp9), Sebastian Flaskamp (Krystal), and Dave Worth (NashvilleCyclist).    Bryant managed to bridge up to this break in the gravel which given the composition stood a good chance.

The field was strung out coming out of the gravel…  in pursuit of the break.  Unfortunately, Bryant wasn’t able to stay with the break and dropped back.  The break continued to build time lap after lap unsuccessfully attacks were launched, countered, and reeled in.  Of the guys left in the race, no one was capable of causing a separation.  Will was in the front of the race practically all the time.  John and myself were back and forth from the front to the back as the field surged.  We were involved with most of the action, but nothing went.  2nd and 3rd time through the gravel we only lost a few due to flat tires and maybe some due to the pace.  I was glad I stuck with my Bontrager Race Lite Hard Case tires despite how heavy they are.  It was nice knowing that I could run over nearly anything with much chance of a flat tire.  Besides being heavy, they are the fastest rolling tires and we weren’t exactly poking along, my average speed ended up being 23.7 mph.  Good training, right?  It also allowed me to take some off road lines to move up in the field without worry.  I spent a lot of time on the white line (if there was one).  At one point, I was riding along and came upon a pile of 1″ sticks in the shoulder…had not choice but to roll over them….

As the race wound down, we were all together trying to go for 4th place since the break was over 5 minutes up the road.

The run-in to the finish was generally up a slight grade (same grade that made the start fast).  Two managed to get a small gap, but in the end the sprinting field swamped them.  The slow pavement and the grade made it a long slog from 1k to go.  Some riders were sitting up on the narrow roads which added some unneeded drama.  I ended up the best result of the team, an unremarkable 16th, with Will and John a few places behind.   Not really anything to write home about, but a good dry run for the future.  It was good to be racing with a team, looking forward to a great season.

On the bright ride, Dale Sanford a newly minted cat 4 on the BPC team (affiliated with the M-B team) won the B-race (Cat 4′s + Women 1/2/3) by out sprinting the rest.   A great result, but anyone that has ridden with Dale lately should not be surprised.  The BPC team, in general, is coming out of the blocks strong and will be a team to watch in the Cat4 and Cat5 races.

Dale on top of the podium / bad photo quality sorry…phone camera.

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.