roadcx.net

I am writing this from the Chicago airport awaiting my (delayed) flight to Shanghai.  I am going over there on a whirlwind trip, spending half of my time in a van driving to another city.   I optimistically bought workout clothes in my jam packed carry-on, but with the delay, pretty much lost my chance to do anything tonight (unless I can’t sleep when I get there).

I get back late on Thursday which should set me up nicely for Marx – Bensdorf team camp (note the change, I guess it is now M-B, not M&B).  It will be down in Oxford next weekend.  I probably will be a wreck, but I’ll get it done.

Last night, Andrea and I ventured out to Flying Saucer where we couldn’t get anyone to join us (what’s a little ice?).  We joined the U.F.O. beer club.  All it will take is 197 more beers (each) to get our plates on the wall.  (It’ll probably take us a while to get that:  with 3 beers / night max and considering we only go 2-3 x’s /month…  Sounds a lot like 2 years.)

Andrea and I headed east to Dahlonega, Georgia for the 2nd annual Southern X.  This year, the date had to be rescheduled due to impassible roads on the original date two weeks ago, the new date fortunately allowed me to go (couldn’t make the first date).  The weather was a damp 45F or so, probably colder up at the high points of the course.

This year’s course was completely different than last years, but featured the same type of terrain.  Starting out at Camp Wahsega, we did a cyclocross loop before heading out onto the gravel roads for 49 miles or so.  I came out of the Camp probably in 9th or 10th spot, with a 50 foot gap to the group.  I was unable to close it and had to watch the group pull away from me as we climbed up and down the smaller hills that proceeded the first main climb.  I managed to pull back one rider going up the climbs and was passed by a mountain bike going up the steeper sections of the climbs.

The problem that I had with the climbs was primarily gearing (and maybe some fitness).  My spare road compact crank, Andrea was using and I didn’t really have time to pull one off my other cyclocross bike before we left on the trip.  I was forced to walk part of the hill when the grade pitched up to 10% or so.  Generally I was able to keep my speed about the same as what I was muscling over (~4 mph) in my low gear (39×26).  The soft muddy gravel made the normally rideable grades (on the road) impossible to manage.

On the first long descent after the first main climb, I repassed the mountain biker who was stopped on the side of the road.  He must have not been stopped long because he was right behind me at the end of the descent as we turned onto the pavement.

The pavement section was about 10 miles long with a short section of gravel joining the two stretches.  The first part of the pavement was downhill or downwind and I rolling at 25-30 mph for the first 2 miles so.   Hills and wind slowed down the rest of the pavement, but I managed to pull back in a rider that flatted out of the lead group.  We rode the last section of the pavement a few miles and several miles of the gravel together.   It was on this gravel section that I ate my two gels (really needed to eat more, but didn’t bring anything else).  Towards the end of the 2nd largest climb, I couldn’t hold his pace and he rode away from me.  So I back to riding alone with no one in sight.

After another kick in the teeth hill, I started the final long descent back to the Camp.  Early parts were rocky and washboard, it sounded like my bike was falling apart..  It turned out that I lost the lower cage bolt on seat tube bottle cage and the top on was loose.  Before realizing this, I was passed with authority by the Applegates riding a mountain tandem down the hill.

As I entered the Camp property I pitched off my seat tube bottle (to keep the bottle from flopping around) and rode to the dreaded run up.  Like last year, the cyclocross loop was modified on the return to include a long run up and some singletrack.  The run was longer, by a lot.  It was scramble up a steep embankment followed by a long power line section.  At the power line section, you could see minutes up the course due to the slow speeds and ahead were the rider I was riding with earlier and the mountain tandem…  By the time I got to the top, I was wondering how we would get back down.  The answer was a winding descending singletrack.  Most of it was fine, had to get over 5 logs or so (my legs were pissed by this point) and around a slippery hairpin switchback.  My tires didn’t want to hookup, so I did a half crash there with out actually falling.  By then I could see Andrea coming behind me.  I pretty much tried to get out of her way when we hit the bridge, but my hamstring suddenly cramped, so it was pretty retarded…  Anyway, she passed me and I just rode it on in for 8th.  Andrea took 1st in Open Women.

Even better than the race (which was really hard actually), was the cabin that Namrita & Eddie setup near the Camp.  In total we had about 10 people staying there.  Between the microbrew (thanks, Dave), the hot tub, and the good company it was a great weekend.  The cabin represented a good portion of the top riders in the race with 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th in Open Men and 1st, 4th, and 7th in Open Women.   The mix of the worlds of (endurance) mountain biking and road cycling made for a great evening.

The weekend was a good way to kick off my real training for the 2010 road season.  I have been riding, but nothing this intense or this long (at least not often).  It is also a great capstone to my cyclocross season (which effectively ended back in mid-November).  I plan on making No. 3….just need to put a 34 tooth up front and eat more.

I rode the early morning Peddler ride today.  I normally use my old headlight with a rebuilt battery pack.  It had been a month or more since I had done the ride (and used my headlight).

When I tried to switch it on, it didn’t light up.  It normally is pretty reliable.  This was all before the ride, so I stopped to check the connection… then I noticed heat building up on my back.  I pulled out the battery pack from my jersey pocket…  it was smoking.    Obviously it shorted out and was overheating.  I carried the battery back to the car and set it on the curb (carrying it like a dead rat by the tail / cord).   I pulled out the cord and one of the 5 cells out and left it a safe distance from my car and did the ride.

When I got back (~1 hour later), it had cooled off (probably discharged completely).  I am not sure what the exact mode of failure was, but somehow the light shorted.  I started only when I tried to turn on the light, so it is likely that it is a bad switch in the light assembly (and not my rebuilt battery pack).  I plan to troubleshoot it further, but I suspect the light will be thrown out.

Daytripped Columbia CX#3 today with Andrea, our dog Turbo (our JRT was left at home), our CX bikes, a Trek Madone for Jeremy (he got one of the team bikes-delivered to a shop in Memphis), and Andrea’s Blue frame from a few seasons ago (she sold it)….

Weather was much better than two weeks ago, much warmer.  Able to wear only a base layer and a skinsuit with arm/knee warmers.  Andrea’s race (2nd race of the day), was still in the dry for most part.  As usual she won the W1/2/3 and beat a good chunk of the men in the combined CX3 – Masters 35/45+ – Womens field.

Just after her race, during the short 10-15 break between the races, it started to rain… cold, cold rain.  I ended up re-donning the knee warmers (had took them off getting ready for the race) and keeping the vest on.  We had a small race in CX1/2, just Jeremy C. and Dustin.  Adding to that were two singlespeeders that started just behind and would race for less time.

Maybe it was the cold, the rain, or whatever, but I wasn’t ready to go when the word go was spoken.  I was gapped off the line still fumbling with my Garmin (which I didn’t stop and reset for the race) and wondering how I was going to get my vest off.

I ended up riding the first lap with the vest on and tried to pull back Jeremy and Dustin, but was unable to close the distance and they started to walk away from me on the course.  I manage to pull off the vest (turned out to be more ackward than I thought, probably the rain soaking it.)

The 2nd time up the run up, I felt like I might be doing something and maybe pulling them back…  that thought didn’t last long as the gaps were clearly increasing, meaning that I was riding my own race for 3rd.  I focused on riding the laps as good as I could especially trying to improve my speed through the increasingly slippery turns.  In the end, Jeremy took the win, followed by Dustin 30-40 seconds back (I think), and by me 2 minutes behind him.

Not a great race for me..  Bad start notwithstanding (vest, etc), those guys just rode away from me.  It would have been interesting to see how long I could hang, but it didn’t work out that way.

Next weekend, I am headed back to No. Georgia with Andrea for the rescheduled Southern X.  Because the date was changed, I am now able to make it and so I bought a registration from a rider that couldn’t make the new dates.  My fitness is much like it was last year, so I have very little expectations other than it promises to be a good training day in the saddle.

On the way back to Memphis, we plan to hit the finale of the Cross the Way series.  No TBAR points on offer, but there is a few bucks and it should be a good race in any case.   This will be last race of my 2009-2010 cyclocross campaign.  I have a work trip planned leaving the weekend of the Tennessee State Championships, so I won’t be able to race it (it is the extreme far eastern end of Tennessee as well).

After that, the road training begins in earnest with Marx & Bensdorf team camp and other road training rides leading up to Rouge Roubaix in early March.

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Here are some random photos of the CX4 and some of the CX3/M35+/W123 race.

Andrea and I daytripped up to Columbia for the Saturday installment of the Columbia Cyclocross (weekend 1).  Temperatures were cold (26-28F), but at least it was sunny out in the open field (and the wind never really picked up).

It had been 6 weeks since I had even thought about cyclocross and it showed… I didn’t really warmup before the race and my remounts were a bit choppy.  In any case, the race was only Travis Book and I in CX1/2.  He was rocking the one cog, but that usually doesn’t matter much for him (unless there is a long uphill or something).

The course started off on the pavement going downhill and looping back through a picnic parking loop to a big drop off the pavement.  My lack of warmup had me about 10 feet behind him but holding on and coming back to him.  Over the 6 closely spaced landscape timbers (dismount), I tried to get back on the saddle quickly and burped out all the air out of my rear wheel.  Since it was over a mile back to my pit bike, I rode the flat while all the single speeders passed me (they started ~30 seconds later than the CX1/2).  Got my other bike and yelled to Andrea to change out my rear wheel (with a tubed tire).  I rode my backup bike one lap and repassed some of the singlespeeders.  Back at the pit I took back my A-bike with a tubed rear wheel and the front tubeless wheel.  Rode a good lap on my A-bike and started my fourth lap.

I went hard down the pavement and looped back up to the off-pavement transition.  The drop off the asphalt was probably 8″ or so to a short flat section down to an ackward upward turn up the hill.  I must have hit it harder or torqued the tire wrong, but as I pushed up out of the ditch I burped out the front wheel.   So I shouldered my bike and started running…  It ended up being about 1.2 miles of running back to the start finish line to retake back my backup bike.   By then, Travis lapped me and the single speeders were finishing up (they only did 30 minutes).

I rode the next lap pretty hard out of pride mostly and completed two more that weren’t as fast.  Really disappointed that the race played out like that, it probably would have been a good showdown between Travis and I looking at the lap times we both turned out.

I don’t know if this is my last ‘cross race of the year, but I definitely not going to use my Dura Ace road tubeless wheels with Bulldog tires… They were loose going on and came off pretty easily under pressure.  I am sure the cold didn’t help things, but the way they burped, I don’t think the sealant would have stopped that.

Here are the lap times I posted up:

1. 9:17 (rode flat for 2/3 of the lap)
2. 7:49 (ran to pits, and rode B-bike the rest)
3. 6:59 (back to A-bike)
4. 14:09 (ran most of the lap after front tire)
5. 6:58
6. 7:40
7. 7:37

Travis did most of his laps in the 6:55-7:10 range.  I am sure we would had a good race.