roadcx.net

Tonight at the end of the RB’s ride we had a little pileup / wreck
caused by a driver turning left in front of our paceline. We (8-9 or
us) were cruising up Memphis-Arlington approaching Seed Tick road on
Jeff’s wheel at about 25 mph. An east-bound little Nissan pickup
decides to try to turn left into his driveway into our path.
Fortunately, he stopped short (about 2/3 of the way into our lane).
Jeff swerved to miss him and road off road a bit trying to avoid
hitting the 4 or 5 concrete drainage pipes on the side of the
road….after avoiding these, he ran head on into a metal framed
mailbox and endo-ed over it. I was 2nd wheel. The rider behind me
and I were able to stay on the pavement. Pretty much all the rest
behind were piled up near the truck when I looked back. Most were
just a bit scraped up (including MV members Pat M. and Scott
B.). Unfortunately, Dennis K. went down a bit harder and was a
bit groggy at first. Scott and/or Pat could probably tell this part
better since I was making sure no one else was going to plow into the
group…. 911 was called, the police, an ambulance, and the SCFD
showed up in turn. Dennis was alert when the ambulance arrived,
but they boarded and collared him. I assume they took him to the
hospital. I had to leave to get back close to home before it got
really dark.

Most of the worst accidents that I have ever heard about involving
cars are of this sort. If the truck would have been moving faster or
not stopped all 8 or 9 of us would have plowed into the side of his
truck. The driver was in shock, he kept saying “I didn’t see them”,
etc. Although I suspect even if he were to have seen us, he might
have assumed that we were going much slower.

I wish I would have asked the sheriff if they were planning to cite
the driver since he was clearly wrong. I somehow doubt it….

Stay safe out there and keep your head up.

The 2007 Soto stage race is done. The road race went pretty well. The final results aren’t up on the website yet and I took some photos of the results sheets….

Results for the Memphis Velo-cat IV team.

• Aaron, 30th @ 1:19 [30th @ 5:40]
• Bryan, 33rd @ 1:31 [34th @ 7:34]
• Ryan, 54th @ 3:19 [57th @ 14:42]
• Mark, 71st @ 7:48 [78th @ 32:45]
• Todd, 80th @ 16:33 [80th @ 38:34]
• [84 finishers]

The race played out with most of the field staying together up to the base of the climb. My plan was stay towards the front which I did for the most part. Aaron, Bryan, and I stayed in the field that numbered about 60 at the bottom of the climb. We did not see any serious attacks along the way. Mark was in the chase group behind the field and Todd in the next group back.

To the base of the climb, sometimes it was a struggle to get over some short sharp hills and to chase back on after the long descent, but I stayed on. (For some reason, I was unusually cautious descending…so much that my brakes/rims heated up to the point that I started to get noticeable brake fade…which of course caused more braking.) Our race only had one crash (that I saw) in which a rider drove off the road into the ditch on the first part of the descent. He was off to my right, so I didn’t see the aftermath…I later heard that his bike pitched up into the road and then run over….ouch.

The main thing is that it was fun weekend. Although I didn’t do as well as I had hoped, it was a great weekend of racing with nearly perfect weather (no rain, low to mid 80’s). It could have only been made better if it was slightly cooler and if I had the legs to make the cuts in the crit and circuit race. It is funny that road race results nearly exactly match the placings in the final g.c. with most of the time gaps for earlier stages. The results posting efficiency was amazing. I know they paid a service, but it is very easy to get spoiled by this. Waiting 30 minutes for a handwritten number sheet will surely disappoint after getting full labeled stage and g.c. results in short time.
—

Spencer, Tennessee: stage 4 finish and town hall.

Here is my Polar data dump:

Here are the photos I took of some 3’s and master’s finishing [link]

SIt ended up being a short crit for me… instead of the 40 minutes, I was pulled at 15 minutes. The Cat IV field was about 100 strong and strung out immediately. I managed a descent start (clipping in, etc) but from the last row. I passed a bunch of people but after only 10 laps (15 minutes), I heard the whistle and was done. Fortunately, we had still had Bryan and Aaron in the field. They ended up in 33th and 35th place. I was marked down at 73rd at 4:53 back along with Mark at 83rd. Todd was pulled earlier, but was given a better placing by mistake (60th). 52 were given the same time (field).

The G.C. overnight going into the 4th stage (road race) looks like this:

• Aaron, 30th @ 4:16
• Bryan, 35th @ 5:20
• Ryan, 59th @ 11:20
• Todd, 88th @ 21:56*
• Mark, 91st @ 24:53

Todd will probably drop down when the results are revised. My goal of top 43 seems hard to crack. I need to get up the hill pretty well tomorrow to make that happen. After the big drop today, I don’t have much hope left for the g.c., hopefully we can do something to push Aaron and Bryan up a few places.

The race tomorrow is not that bad. It is rolling hills, a descent off the plateau, some more small hills, and then a 2-2.5 mile climb. Last year, the Cat 4 race was altogether at the base of the climb. I worked a bunch last year (attacking, etc) and climbing is not exactly my strength so I lost 3 minutes on the climb.

Below is a photo of the category III field race today. Here are the photos [link]….

Polar trends….

Day 2. This year the circuit race was move up to the 2nd stage and we got a bonus lap to make 3 laps for a total of 33 miles. The course is nearly never flat and the 100+ that started made that very interesting. Crash 1 occured about 20 feet after the start…I was able to get around it without too much trouble, but had to chase up the initial hill. There were a couple small crashes, a guy going off the road, etc on the first lap, but they didn’t bother me too much. By the time I got over the hill with the group the 2nd time around the field was definitely smaller, probably around 50 or so.

At about 20 miles (2 miles to the end of the 2nd lap), some riders crossed up or something and there was a mini-pileup at 30+ mph. I had to unclip, but was able to get around it pretty quickly. My teammate Bryan was driven off the road but he got up and going to rejoin me as I picked me way around fallen riders. Another teammate Aaron joined us for the chase. The front of the field was probably 1/4 mile up the road as we started the chase. We weren’t able to nail back the field, but caught some smaller groups through the start/finish line. The hill after the finish line but me in difficultly but fortunately Aaron and Bryan were able to hang. Bryan later dropped back to my group, which he stayed with over the big hill. I was off the group at this point and never rejoined. Anyway, the final scorecard for Memphis Velo looked like this:

• Aaron, 26th in the race @ 2:17 (32nd GC @ 4:16)
• Bryan, 39th in the race @ 3:27 (39th GC @ 5:20)
• Ryan (me), 45th in the race @ 4:06 (49th GC @ 6:28)
• Mark, 95th in the race @ 17:13 (95th GC @ 20:00)
• Todd, 96th in the race @ 17:34 (94th GC @ 19:55)

Aaron, Bryan, and I all advanced in the G.C. from yesterday. I am getting close to my goal of 1st page G.C. (43rd or better). I was so close to hanging on a few times. I am really happy about how I managed to get my 178# over the hills with the lighter guys for the most part. If I can stay on my training, I hope to have a good 2nd half of the season.
Here is my Polar dump:

Yesterday afternoon was the Edgar Soto stage race TT. I have never been a big fan of TT’s, never do that well in them. I guess the major problem I have is know how gauge the effort. Yesterday, I was handicaped from the start when my Polar speed sensor laid down on me. I had put a new battery in it recently and it was working fine, now it is acting up on a race weekend again. Anyway, it meant that I had to rely on landmarks to race the 7 mile time trial.

Outbound on the course is rolling and generally up. I hit the turn around barrel at about 9:30. I was looking for the 3k to go sign to start really powering it home, but missed it and only really powered home from the “1 k” sign. I ended up with an okay 18:23, which but me back at 83rd out of 110 finishers. That is about where I usually stack up in a Cat 4 time trial, but I was disappointed about my effort (I had too much left at the end).

As for my team, we all were in the bottom half of the standings with times of 17:53, 17:59, 18:22, 18:23 (me), 18:47, 18:55. We have our work cut out for us today, with our best man 1:44 back on the G.C.

Today is rolling circuit race. Last year I got gapped on the biggest climb and end up in a small group at bit off the pace. I hope we can keep most of our guys in the field this year.

The Edgar Soto Memorial stage race is this weekend, starting tomorrow. I think I am as ready as I can be. I rode a bunch of good miles this weekend to end up with about 230 miles for the week. After resting Monday, did the RB’s group ride. My plan was to lay down a couple of good attacks of about 2 minutes max. I did that, but the last one saw me out there working too long and I couldn’t hang up the long grade on Harrell road heading back in. Tonight I need to get out there and ride some on the TT bars…. I know I should have worked that in last week, but I suppose one night is better than nothing.

As for the race, my team (Memphis Velo) will be fielding 6 in the category 4 field. We will be one of the largest teams there, I hope we will be able to use it to our advantage. The 4 day format of the race plays to my strengths despite the hilly terrain. I am looking forward to the race, I think I am as ready as I can be.

My bike is finally all squared away. The seat and stem are adjusted. Bottom bracket creak is gone. Gametime.

Well, it has been a couple of days back. Jet lag is gone, but landing late on a Sunday always means I am playing catch up all week.

I have been able to get a couple rides in this week. Monday I only rode about 10 miles, still tired from the trip / day of work. Tuesday was a rainout, stayed late at work anyway. Wednesday, solo 35 miler, didn’t feel great. Tonight, hooked up the Memphis Hightailers ride out of BPAC. Large group as usual that quickly thinned to about 10. The windy conditions made the ride. Thinking I could ride out my bad legs, I was aggressive early and often into the wind. Unfortunately, the long grade up Larry Anderson Rd did me in. I did not have the legs to finish what I started on the first grades. That left me chasing the group of 5-6 up ahead for miles into the wind. Had some help after a while, but my legs were cooked so bad that I couldn’t even hold his wheel in a headwind. I ended up with 50 miles for the night (rode to the ride and back home). Hopefully I can turn things around this weekend with some longer rides and some rest.

Anyway, Edgar Soto stage race is only a week away now. I have some issues to work out with my new bike (Kuota Kebel) still. I still don’t have the bike adjusted exactly where I want. Saddle too low, handbars too high. Also, I have a really annoying creak in the crank/bottom bracket. The steerer tube is also almost 2″ above my stem, need to get that cut down. I hope I can get all of this squared away this weekend…otherwise my old Trek might make another race….

Well my trip is coming to an end, flying back to Memphis on Sunday. Paris was interesting and expensive…. It probably always was, but with the dollar seeking new depths ($1.35 ~ 1 euro), everything seems a bit more expensive….

Our stay at the Champs-Elysee Marriott was disappointing in the lack of amenities that were common at other capital city Marriotts (Berlin & Prague) that I have stayed at it… No lounge for breakfast, instead just a 22 euro-29 euro buffet on offer. I took a stroll to the local Brioche Doree to get some eats on the relative cheap…

On our last day, there was the military parade to remember the end of WWII. They celebrate this on the 8 of May. The Russians celebrated the 9th of May (Victory Day) in Estonia without event. I hope all the turmoil surrounding the bronze statue in Tallinn will just pass given the suitable relocation to the war cemetery. As for Russia’s reaction, I think / hope they will just get over it. I think it will be better for everyone.

After two nights on Les Champs, we moved on to the Explorer hotel for our assault on Disney. As always I hate traveling without a car because it always takes a bit of time to find the reasonable options to get provisions (I think they are hidden on purpose). The first night meant 6 euro drafts at the hotel…the second night we discovered the Casino market at the RER station by the Disney village. I was never so glad to pay 2 euro for a 1/2 litre of beer and soda….

As for the Euro Disney park, it was okay. I went on Space Mtn 2 and the Indiana Jones, Temple du Peril rides myself. The space mountain ride was mostly dark but it was a wild ride….I really like the fast pass system they have at the park. For both rides, when I returned at my appointed time (usually about an hour after getting the “fast pass”), the wait was mostly walking though the barriers and then waiting about 2 minutes maximum. Much better than the last time I went to a amusement park (it has been a long time…).

Upon arrival back in Tallinn, first we were surprised to get a brand new car from Sixt. I have gotten a low mileage car before for a rental and bought two new cars myself, but 17 km must be the lowest rental mileage car I have received….a nice new Avensis wagon (lots of pressure, any damage would be obviously from me)… also, on the drive back to Kohtla-Jarve, I finally saw one of the 9 (8?) Laane-Virumaa wind power stations operating. They have been working on these on the highway just inside the border of Laane-Virumaa (east side) for what seems like a year. Thursday was the first time I actually saw one in motion… I have seen now several articles on how foreign investment is trying to drive Estonia from the dirty oil shale (which they have) without increasing their dependence on their eastern neighbor’s natural gas….

[AVENSIS] [WINDPOWER]

The things that I face upon return to Memphis are two fold. One returning to work with the jet lag associated with a late Sunday return (always fun). Secondly, I have been off the bike for two weeks and have only been able to run 2 times during that time. My weight is in check, but I have less than two weeks to the Edgar Soto stage race Memorial Day weekend. I hope I can get back where I need to be for this 4-day stage race. I hope this trip will leave be rested and with a 1-1/2 weeks of riding I can come back on form. I guess I will see…….

Well a week has past and the only real lasting effect of the tension in Estonia seems to be the temporary ban on sales of alcohol in stores. You can still buy a drink in a bar or a restaurant, so it is not a total prohibition, just probably (?) a way to prevent over-indulgence on the (relatively) cheaper beer here. Most 1/2 liter bottles of local beer can be bought for as low as 7 eek up to about 11 eek (Estonian kroons, or crowns. 15.6 eek = 1 euro, currently 11.5 eek = $1.00.) The ban had been partially lifted, but not in the Russian dominant county of Ida-Virumaa (where I am right now). Anyway, it hasn’t been too much of a hardship, although one aspect I like about Estonia is trying the wide variety of Estonian, Russian, and other beers available. The selection is amazing, although all the beers are not….

With my week of work in the can, I now can move into my vacation mode. The plan is to go to Paris for a couple of days. We plan to stay somewhere luxurious first (burn up some Marriott points earned on the road) and then someplace that I can afford to pay my way at….

A snowy photo in Kohtla-Jarve from earlier in the week:

The way to K-J