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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.

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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.

6/2010:  UPDATE… SOLD!

I am looking to sell my 2008 Felt FC.

• size: 58cm
• shifters: SRAM Red
• derailleurs:  SRAM Red
• brakesets: SRAM Red
• chain:  Shimano Ultegra (only 2 weeks old)
• cassette:  SRAM Rival/Force cassette 11-23
• crankset: SRAM Red (new!, took off my Trek Madone, only ridden 65 miles)
• wheelset:  Velomax ?? wheels (nothing special, just something to complete the package).
• handlebar/stem: FSA aluminum.

I have a price in mind, will disclose to interested parties upon request.

I did a bunch of work in the garage today after the ride and pulled out my Trek for some photos (was shooting my Felt anyway, see next post).

After a great ride today where I tested the bike out, I planned to move my SRM over to my new Trek Madone today.  Since I didn’t see anything concrete on installation (and the bearing set ordered from SRM didn’t have any instructions), I decided to blog a step-by-step.

Step 1.  Removed SRAM Red crank and pulled the SRAM GXP bearings (I had to use my bearing puller to pull them out, so much for pushing in/out easily).

Step 2) Got FSA bearings ready

Step 3) Pressed in bearings.  I needed to improvise a rig using my Enduro bearing press and a front wheel quick release.  It worked well to push the bearings in on both sides in steps (close quick release, open, tighten nut, repeat).  Did not require much pressure, but more than just pushing in.

Result:  drive side

Result: non-drive

I was surprised that the bearings ended up being so recessed in the frame… but it all came together okay.  Metal cover is drive side, wave washer on non-drive side.

Step 4) After verifying all was fine, I took it apart again and setup the magnet.  Since the Madone doesn’t have a bottom bracket cable bridge to put the SRM magnet under, I just taped a magnet on the chainstay.

Step 5) Re-installed the crank and bolt on the non-drive side.

Post Script (3/14/10 17:20)…. I didn’t check to see if the crank was free spinning (as it should be with new ceramic bearings)… I rode it today and checked it after… not so much.  My teammate Rick has the same crankset/bike combo, he put a wave washer on both sides.  I did that and it seems better.  I will have to ride it and then check it again to be sure, but it seems good.

We are now a two Madone household.

By special request, here is the procedure for exporting a file from MapMyRide.com to the courses folder of a Garmin 705.  It is pretty straight forward, just need to know what to do.

The following is done using Firefox on a Mac, it is basically the same on a PC.

(1) Find your route…  and open it from the list (or make it new)

(2) Find the “ROUTES” menu when in map view.

(3) Open ROUTE menu… Select: “Save to GARMIN/CRS”

(4) Enter target speed (just guess, not that important) and select TCX file format. Hit “SAVE CRS” button even though you are downloading a “TCX” file.

(5) Save the file to you computer (somewhere where you can find it)

(6) Move this file to your Garmin mounted as a drive on your computer.  Under GARMIN/COURSES folder.

When you startup your Garmin 705, the course should be available in the Courses menu (under the main menu item “Training”).

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The course will be highlighted purple on your map screen(s) for you to follow.  When in a course, a few more screens are added to the rotation.  The speed selected will the constant speed “rabbit” that will go 18 mph all the time (or whatever speed you select): that is up/down hills and through traffic lights.  It is sometimes interesting to chase him and try to run him down on a long ride (the Garmin will show how far ahead/behind you are).   I also think that history files can be used as courses, but I haven’t tried that.  I normally use this feature for new routes and when I am riding out of town.

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.