roadcx.net

Mississippi Gran Prix stage race (Brookhaven, Mississippi)

What a tough weekend… I ended up finishing with the field in a fast circuit race finale for the Cat 123. I ended up 50th in the field of around 75 still in the race. My final overall g.c. placing was 47th and I was 7th in the Cat3 bonus. The Cat3 bonus was 8 deep, so I was in the money.

The circuit race was pretty fast but smooth to follow. About half-way through, I thought I was going to lose contact after I was shuffled to the back after some weird cornering (getting cut off, etc) caused me to brake at the top of the course… At the back the toughest part was the acceleration out of the corner at the bottom of the course since the field would bunch up (and brake) going into the corner and then rip up the slight gradient. There was about 3-4 laps where I had to resort to full-on sprint to stay in touch. Fortunately, it was short lived and I was able to move up and rest… The next 40 minutes went by a lot faster.

–

I took a lot of photos of the womens and then Cat 4 races. Andrea took photos of my race (Cat 1-2-3). I will post those up and link to the libaries as I add them.

• MSGP - Women’s circuit race (Ryan)
• MSGP - Cat 4 circuit race (Ryan)
• MSGP - Cat 123 circuit race (Andrea)

The weather that rained out the stage 1 crit, turned around for a good day of racing. It was probably 55F at the start warming up to around 65-70F at the end… The field was a big field (80 riders) for what was a narrow and at times bumpy course.

Right out of the gate, the speed ramped up pretty fast as we bombed down some bumpy roads at 40 mph.. The race was not too bad to stay with, but hard to stay up in the field. At least 5 times, I moved up in the field to the middle to maybe 25-30 back from the front, but would soon find myself near the back at group would surge up the other side or sometimes over the yellow line. The officials were pretty good about relegating yellow line infractions, but whenever the motos would be both up front, it would happen… oh well, it wasn’t that bad… We did 3 laps of 26 miles. I pretty much rode the first lap or two by trying to move up and finding myself near the back and repeating….

By the 3rd and final lap, I started to try to move up in the field (up the side of the road, which involved riding in a lot of gravel and bad pavement….). I was probably got up to about the top 30 and was still advancing as we ramped up speed for the final kilometer. The finish was slightly uphill and I was making pretty good progress… In the end, I had to dodge two riders sitting up and other people not getting up the hill as quick. In the end, I was 31st (63 finished with the field)… Not an awesome result, but hard fought. I was definitely happy with my ride today given the caliber of the field (mostly Cat 1 & 2s).

This afternoon is the 4 mile time trial. I hope to get a result in the top 50%, but that might be a tall order.

—

Update: I think I just broke 9:00 for the 3.8 mile TT (just over 25 mph). The course is basically flat, but has two slight rises near the start… My tired legs had me slowing down to about 20 mph at the top of the first one and running in the low-20’s for a bit after the second. My time last year was 9:55, although I we might have had wind to deal with (don’t remember). For me, it was basically calm when I rode the course. Earlier riders were reporting a slight tailwind, but it probably didn’t amount to much anyway. The biggest difference is of course that I have a dedicated TT bike… I am starting to get used to doing efforts on it, I plan to practice / ride my bike some in the coming weeks to get more used to it. It is a big change from my clip-on road bike position.

—

Update (Sunday morning). The results for the GC were posted up online last night. My RR finish was revised to 33rd place with 2 off the front and 64 in the field. In the TT, I posted a 8:55 which was good enough for 57th of the 78 that raced the TT. Not as high up as I hoped, but I pretty good within the Cat3’s. This race has a 8 deep cat 3 bonus ($500). At this point, I am 50th overall (+3:46) with 6 cat3’s ahead of me (and 3 more within 5 seconds behind me).

–

Sunday morning…. found that one of the times I had to brake hard, I skinned my tubular pretty bad….

With all the rain and tornado warnings down here in Brookhaven, Mississippi the twilight criterium was looking like it was going to interesting… As the 1-2-3 crit start time approached the promoters decided to scrub the crit (leaving the RR/TT tomorrow and circuit race on Sunday to decide the stage race). It would have been a fast, dangerous crit given the firepower that showed up here with the rain slicked streets. Oh, and 80 guys. I was prepared to give it a go, but it was probably better for my skin to skip it…

The road course is different this year, so tomorrow should be tough. It is forecast to be cool and calm, but the additional hills will make it harder to stay with the big boys. I hope I can report some good news tomorrow.

Earlier tonight I had my first experience riding a fixed gear bike and riding in a velodrome. All I have to say is how cool was that! Since I am in Atlanta this week, I arrange a opportunity to try out this sport at the Dick Lane Velodrome in East Point (southern Atlanta suburb). I wish I had a track a bit closer to Memphis to go ride on….

Brian leads some beginner classes, that he let me jump into to the middle of… After playing around with the track bike (they have new loaner bikes at the track), I got a feel for how a fixed gear bike works and I was zipping around the track in no time. It was a really cool night. As a part of the class, he gave a lot of good information about track etiquette and technique that really helped me understand how to ride the banks, etc.

Before I got a chance to ride around, there were a handful of juniors riding around as a part of the youth cycling program at the track… The photos show the concrete track which is set in a suburban Atlanta neighborhood. I took some photos using my Blackberry (not the best quality, but better than nothing).

In the end, it was a very cool experience… I hope to be able to get out to a track again to improve my skills and test myself. I will have to stick with the road for now….

Tonight, I met up with the Outback bikes/ Aaron Cycling group ride that winds through mid-town Atlanta. The course has about 30-40 turns and probably as many red lights & stopsigns, but it was probably a good ride for me tonight. Generally the pace was moderate with a few points where the speed picked up a little…

The route can be found linked off this site listing Atlanta group rides… The map is here. The ride was a bit crazy, but not bad considering all the turns and the stop signs… At least they didn’t run red lights!

Tomorrow night, I plan to visit the Dick Lane Velodrome after my training class to learn a bit about track racing. I never got down to the track when I lived in Chattanooga (or up to the one in Trexlertown when I lived in Maryland) and there is not really one close to Memphis. I think it will be an interesting experience to try it.

I went down from Chattanooga to mid-town Atlanta for a training class…. The class is at Georgia Tech which is only 1-2 miles from the Atlanta IKEA store… I stopped by to get some more storage baskets (I have a bunch I use for bike clothing, etc) and to get dinner. They always have a bunch of pretty good, basic food. Reminds me of the cafeterias that I have eaten at in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and several in Estonia….

And only $10 for all of that….

Andrea took some photos of me at the TT start and also of the Cat 3 crit (mostly of me, but others are in as well).

Here are two galleries of photos from the Womens ProAm crit (Cat 1-2-3) at Chattanooga on Saturday (4/12/08).

Went out to my old (2nd) hometown of Chattanooga to race Georgia Cup race. The time trial was my maden voyage (in a race situation) for my Kuota Kebel (TT modified), my Zipp 900 disc, and Rudy Project aero helmet. I probably didn’t warm up enough/properly and I never really got my legs going. I ended up with a time of 13:30 (leader was 12:03). It was good enough for 35th of 49.

[getting ready]

Later on, I lined up with a pretty big Cat 3 field for the downtown criterium. Started out okay and was starting to move up when I hit a road hazard on lap 3… another Tufo bites the dust. I rode it back to the pits, changed it out and rejoined at the back….

But at least I was still in it. As the race continued, I kept moving up a few places only to find myself at the back again… people were falling off. In the end I was 39th/41 in the field. There was 52 at the start according to the results. Ben Gabardi won the crit (Andrea said he just pulled off the front and took the victory).

Sunday Road race… the weather turned south dropping down to the mid-40’s but at least it did not rain. The Cat 3 race was a good long race of 68 miles with one main hill per lap. I didn’t do a head count, but there was probably close to 60 in this race as well on narrow roads. So I was in advancing mode the whole time. The first time up the hill, there were bodies everywhere … I had to steer around about 6 riders to stay with the field. The remainder of the first lap was nervous near the back, where I was. I didn’t see them go, but over the climb the first time 3 got away (2 would stick to the end). The field wasn’t in chase mode so it was very hot/cold.

I worked hard to move up to about 2/3 position in the field and over the climb/following descent I was able to get to the front 1/3. Did some work, tried to stay out of the wind the rest of the time (which was pretty strong / gusty with most of it being a cross-wind). Over the climb the 3rd time, I hit the base at the front and drilled the lower section. In the end I was swarmed by the top, but kept most of my field position. The last 10 miles to the finish I tried to stay near the front and was mostly successful against several attacks, etc. The lead in to the finish was downhill with about 1/2 mile of flat. Once the road opened up there were people going all sorts of speeds. I felt good, so I was picking my way forward in the sprint… I got 10th overall (2 off the front). I wanted to verify that result, but even after waiting for a while they hadn’t posted anything and were breaking camp.

I plan to try to put up some galleries in a seperate post. I am traveling, so it will be the scrolling gallery embedded in the post.

My car (Ford Escape) is now almost exactly 5 years old… I think I got it in May 2003.    Anyway, I rolled over 5-8’s today while driving to Chattanooga for the Georgia Cup race.

About an hour later, I picked up another stone chip on my windshield driving I-565 through Huntsville, Alabama….  The other one (upper) one I got while Andrea was driving my car coming back from the Pepper Crit last September (that one was on US78 in rural Mississippi)….