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I have now race down in Brookhaven four years in a row. It has continued to serve as a good yardstick as I rebuilt from the “traveling” years and then bult on top of that. Here is a summary.

2006: Cat 4

• Stage 1 (RR): 28th/29 2:37:20 +34:57 (broke a pedal at the end of lap 1, need to get another and rode it out solo after 20 minutes of asking around)
• Stage 2 (TT): 21th /28 9:56 (8:58 winner)
• Stage 3 (CR): 24th/26 43:53 (s.t. as field)
• G.C.: 26th/26 +35:52

2007: Cat 4

• Stage 1 (RR): 13th/37 2:34:00 (s.t. as field)
• Stage 2 (TT): 25th/35 9:55 (8:57 winner)
• Stage 3 (CR): 17th/33 41:45 (s.t. as field)
• G.C.: 20th/32 3:25:40 (+1:19)

2008: Cat 1/2/3 (Cat 3)

• Stage x (Crit): canceled
• Stage 1 (RR): 33rd/79 3:14:36 (s.t. as field)
• Stage 2 (TT): 58th/78 8:55 (7:44 winner)
• Stage 3 (CR): 50th/74 1:20:09 (s.t. as field)
• G.C.: 47th/74 +3:46 (7th Cat 3)

2009: Cat 1/2/3 (Cat 3)

• Stage 1 (Crit): 45th/74 59:24 (s.t. as field)
• Stage 2 (RR): 26th/62 3:06:29 (s.t. as field)
• Stage 3 (TT): 37th/61 8:55 (7:44 winner)
• Stage 4 (CR): 37th/45 1:25:00 (+3:38 to field, pulled @ 50 minutes)
• G.C.: 29th/45 +5:37 (2nd Cat 3)

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After work, I went out for a short ride on my TT bike. I was about 5 miles from the house, when I stopped to look at my seat, since something didn’t feel right… The seatpost had slid down about an inch from where it should be… On Saturday, my legs were tired during the time trial, but something did feel a bit off and that I couldn’t generate power.. I wonder how much better I would have run if I had the seat up where it needed to be… Probably only 10 seconds or so, but maybe more?

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Also, I did some research and laid out what I plan to do for the rest of the season. Some new to me, but most are races that I have done in the past and want to do again.

• April 25-26:
• May 2-3:
• May 9-10:
• May 16-17: Rocky Mount SR [LAMBRA]
• May 23-24: West Feliciana SR [LAMBRA]
• May 29-31: Tulsa Tough
• June 6-7:
• June 13-14: Tour de Louisiane [LAMBRA]
• June 20-21:
• June 27-28: Smith & Nephew Gran Prix [TBRA]
• July 4-5: Oxford Weekend [LAMBRA]
• July 11-12:
• July 18-19:
• July 25-26:
• August 1-2: Allanti Classic [TBRA]
• August 8-9:
• August 15-16: Cuba-Meridian [LAMBRA]
• August 22-23: Oak Ridge [TBRA]
  
• August 29-30: River Gorge [TBRA]
• September 5-6:
• September 12: Pepper Place (Birmingham)

Last night I left the TT venue thinking that I rode an okay time trial and that I just might be able to come out favorably on a multi-way (18-way) tie for 10th place overall. My TT ended up putting me near the bottom of that at 27th overall, but … the first place in the cat 3 bonus competition. So all I had to do was finish the circuit race with the field probably…. easy, right? I did it last year, why not?

After watching the end of the womens race and the category 4 race (my photos linked here and some from MV racer Michael Carpenter … here), it was time to warmup. Surprisingly, I felt pretty good. I knew that I had raced, to be sure, but much better than before the TT yesterday afternoon. The weather, which had been off and on raining even seemed to be coming around. So we lined up at the start line and did the usual LAMBRA roll call. And then it started to rain. First lightly, then heavy, then back to light.

And then we started. Due to this rain, the field was taking the corners uber-conservative and then killing it out of each of the two “technical” corners (not really that bad, but the only ones that involved downhill speed and 90-degree turns). This meant, that 2-3 times a lap, I would go from not pedaling/braking to a short 700W burst… nice. Thankfully after 20 minutes of that, the rain stopped and the roads dried out. This meant we could corner sensibly, but also the attacks were harder to compensate. By 30-35 minutes in after advancing at least 6 places from the back, I found myself at the back as people disappeared behind me. My time was coming up..

At 37 minutes in, they rang the hot spot time bonus prime bell and I knew I might be in trouble. It proved itself out when on the backstretch, I was barely there and then up the grade to the finish, I was gapped… After turns 1-2 I was into the wind alone 10 yards of the pace. That was it. I rode 2 or 3 more laps and then I was pulled. Crap. After I stopped I looked at the field, one of my Cat 3 competitors was still in it. There went 1st place in the Cat 3 bonus (99% sure I am in that at 2nd place, didn’t wait around for results, results posted online don’t have categories).

So, all in all, it was a good weekend. It served to prove to myself that I can make it as a Cat 2 at least in races without a ton of climbing anyway. It also should put me in pretty good standing in LAMBRA points, not sure if I will pursue that or not. I do have Tour de Louisaine on my calender, but last year there wasn’t enough Cat 3′s to make points. Who knows, if I get enough of the right type of successes, I might upgrade by then anyway.

Frogge took photos of the Cat 1/2/3 circuit race.

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Post Script. I looked at the final standings and if I could have finished with the group in the circuit race, it would have put me at +1:56 in the G.C. or 21st place, just out of the money….(ended up +5:37, lost 3:38 to the field in the circuit race), not that staying with them would have easy if I would have cleared 40 minutes… the pace looked pretty brutal.

This morning, the rain stayed away and for the most part no break stayed away for long. I ended up finishing with the main field with a solo rider off the front by a little bit and a small group of riders just ahead of the main field.

This morning, I found out looking at the results from Friday night that I was one of only 3 category 3 riders to finish with the field in the crit. My placing was a bit worse than I estimated, and at this point I even forgot what they placed me as (I want to say 45th).

This evening will be the key event to dictate my final G.C. placing (assuming I don’t get dropped in the circuit race). The time trial historically, despite being only 4 miles long pretty much sets the G.C. ranking at the end since for most part, most of the riders finish with the same time in the crit, road race, and the circuit race.

Tonight was the first stage of the Mississippi Gran Prix. About 75 lined up to race the new 6-corner course. On the pre-ride, it was clear that it was a fast course. The group didn’t disappoint.

I started back row so I spent the first 20 minutes moving up and covering gaps that people were leaving as they popped. I was able to settle in somewhat as it got dark and continued to move up as the field reduced in number. I would guess 40 finished and I was somewhere around 30th.

Here are some stats to tell the story.

• Time: 59:44
• Distance: 27.1 miles
• Speed: 26.6 mph
• Avg power: 344W (although I left it on “smart record” from when my SRM was off the bike… so the data metrics are a bit messed up). NP = 331W (this due to the smart recording–does not make any sense)
• Laps were about 0.7 mile (39 laps?)

Tomorrow is the 75 mile RR and the 4 mile TT. Both are likely to involve some rain. I am glad the rain stayed away tonight, in the dry the course was actually a pretty fun course… The pace was bit stout, but I made it.

In the end, three were off the front (as I found out from MV teammates watching the race, I wasn’t close enough to the front to see that develop). Given the talent in the field, I am not ashamed. I am continueing to progress, maybe I can be a position to work the front of the race next year as a Cat 2. For now, I will just keep on working on it.

After tearing it down a few times on Saturday without much success (based on some quick runs up and down the street that evening). The primary problem was when in the big ring (53) and higher gears (53×11, 53×12, 53×13, etc). Since those are pretty much half of time trialing for me, it would pretty much be useless.

On the way home from work, I remember that several times I had read that having the wheel magnet on the back wheel was against recommendations. I had put it there so I could do the trainer test (which was ill-fated as I later read). I clipped it off and put it back on the front fork for the Tuesday night RB’s ride. I was running a bit late, so I met the small group coming out of the parking lot. Of the group, a good portion of the group was aboard TT rigs… My plans were to pretty much take it easy, maybe do an effort.

On the way up to the shop the reading seemed to be more accurate, staying in the 250-300W range heading into the wind. On the ride, I did some bridging efforts in the 400W range and they felt correct. I did a short 1.5 minute blast and saw some numbers over 550W, again – they seemed correct. Although this is not a definitive test (I would need to borrow a PT to do that), I think I can work with it.

The two good sources that I found that helped are:

• Power Meter review (good explanation of technology)
• NY Velocity article (installation photos and tip to have the sensor touching the chain when in the 39×11)

On the Felt (my road bike), I expect to get the replacement SRM non-drive crank arm tomorrow. Today, I received a pair of cranks that I wanted to get for some other projects. I found these both on closeout. The first, is a pretty ho-hum FSA Gossimer crank from All3Sports. The other one is a pretty sweet FSA K-Force Light crank off Bonktown.

Indy has two distinct sides….

Calm. A good booger.

But attempt to touch his hind feet when being held and….

I suppose that is what it looks like if you are a vermin down in a hole….

Since my SRM/ FSA crank is out of commission, I put Andrea’s SRAM Red crank on my bike… it had here old Speedplays on there (X5′s), so I decided to give them a go on the Trinity ride this morning.

I was a bit put off by the range of motion, a bit disconcerting to say the least. The big issue is that I apparently have a pretty big toe-in bias on when not hemmed in (like using Speedplays). Unless I was thinking about it, I would end up with my right foot tilted inward 15 degrees or more…. At least 3-4 times on the ride, I unexpectately found the release point… I triained myself to not do that, but ended up pretty much not trusting them anymore. It meant when the attacks started happening fast and furious going back from Galloway, I didn’t follow. I didn’t want to clip out at a bad time.

I already put the Keo’s back on my bike. I checked my cleat position on my Keo cleats, they are basically setup to be neutral or even heals in. I use the red cleats (9 degrees).

Now onto the real problem, I have had problems with the non-drive crank arm wobbling and making noise. I figured it was a result of the BB creaking or a loose connection at the splines, so I redid that last weekend. Today, it seemed to be worse. I almost forgot about it after I figured out the 11t shifting issue, but after I took things apart, something seemed a bit off when pulling the bolt on the non-drive side.

[FSA K-Force crank non-drive side. Aluminum insert is loose in the carbon arm]

I put the drive arm back on to verify… sure enough, the metal insert was loose. When installed the amount of play results in a side-to-side movement of about 2-3 mm at the pedal end of the crank. The paint / coating has flaked off and the insert visibily moves about 0.2-0.3 mm. … I will do some checking around at local bike shops to see if I can get a compatibile part temporaly to put together my SRM again. For now, I have the Red crank (172,5 mm) installed. I might install Andrea’s SRM (also 172.5) for MSGP if I can’t get it straight by next weekend.

After today’s ride, I had two main problems to address. I have not been able to use my 11 tooth sprocket (it tends to skip to the 12t). No amount of adjusting of limits and cables fixed it. I had been thinking it was due to the Wipperman Connex link in my DA chain. To test out a theory, I switched out wheels putting my 11-26t equipped race wheel… No problems with 11t skipping. So it wasn’t the chain/master link.

I decided to take apart the cassette and clean it and reseat it. That is when I noticed an odd stamping on the 11t sprocket: “9s”. Checking some other cassettes, they all said “10s”. I am not sure how I got a SRAM 9-speed 11t, but there it was.

[SRAM 1070 10 speed cassette with 9 speed 11t]

[normal 1070 cassette before I cleaned it]

My original plan was to race this weekend down in Birmingham at the Ride to Live. The race is a good race, etc., but this week just wore me out, rather stay home and continue to ride / build volume. I have the day off, so I plan to do a night 3-day block before starting backing off a bit for the 3-day/4-stage race down at Brookhaven (Mississippi Gran Prix).

Last weekend, I did the normal double (modified). Instead of the Trinity Ride, I did Ride in Spring (75 miles) and followed that with the Outdoors ride extended (to/from Cordova). My ride plans for the rides were pretty simple. Saturday was pulling as much as I could stand. On Sunday, I did much the same, but instead tried to stay around 105 rpm. The Outdoors group was a pretty lively, so it ended up being pretty tough especially after working off the front. So, for the first time in a long time, I couldn’t hold the group over the hill midway out to the store. Looking back at the file, the numbers for that section were pretty stout and given the deep hole I was digging over the weekend, I just popped.

After finishing the ride on Sunday, I was exhausted. The metrics in WKO+ aggreed. CTL (chronic) has been steadily building (42 rolling average of TSS) to 93 TSS/day. ATL (acute or 7-day) peaked at 130.7 TSS/day, leaving me at a -37.7 TSS/day on Training Stress Balance (TSB). This week has been busy at work, so I didn’t have as much training time this week. Monday was an off day to a meeting after work, Tuesday was a short moderate ride (Bikes Plus shop ride), Wednesday was an hour at the Farms on my Ridley X-Fire with Andrea, and Thursday night I broke out the TT rig (first ride with my new straight up seat post). I am still pretty tired, but I plan to put in a nice volume block this weekend. (TSB has recoved to -7 as of yesterday).

The ride last night was good. I moved my seat up and forward and switched to the cutout version of the Profile Design saddle (Andrea wasn’t using it). Setting up the Kuota seatpost (only option given the seat tube/clamp shape) is a real pain. It requires the use of both a allen key and a 8mm open end wrench. I was glad I didn’t have to make a field adjustment. I got it correct the first time.

The Polar WIND power however was messing up big time. I did a few short time trial efforts to see how it was to push hard in the new position. The position was good and allowed me to be a on the saddle a bit more with my shoulders down and my back flat (using shadows as a reference). When I pushed hard up into the 300W+ range (based on perception), the numbers on the Polar would drop down to 200W or even under. Clearly there is a problem with the chain line over the sensor in the big ring (which is where TT’ing is done 90%+ of the time). I am not sure what I will do at this point, but I might try to reposition the chain tension sensor further back on the chain stay. Hope I can get it to work better in the gear combinations I plan on using for time trialing so I can use for it pacing on longer TT’s and for training.