roadcx.net

This is out of sequence, but on the way to the race, Andrea decided to take I-40 from Memphis to TN50 through Centerville to get over to Fayetteville.  All was well and good until the road was closed.  TDOT put up detour signs that were taking us way north with no updates.  Our GPS, was constantly telling us to turn right, so we did….  We diverted down a road called Hassell Creek Road.   The following gallery are a couple photos that I took as we picked our way down this small back road that clearly had extensive storm damage and flooding.  These photos are about 10% of what we saw.

So I decided to (another) mountain bike endurance event.   Why not take it up a notch and do DSG 12 hour solo?  We ended up getting a late start out of Memphis on Friday, but got there in time to set up camp and get a preride in.  Unfortunately my shifting in the largest several cogs was messing up.  The course (at least to me) is a middle ring course running up and down the cassette.  So this wouldn’t do.   As it was getting dark, I replaced the chain but it still wasn’t any better.  I decided to let it go and deal with it in the light of day (bike repairs by lantern light didn’t seem like a good idea given small parts and deep grass.)

In the morning, started looking at the bike some more and decided to add to the chain since it didn’t look right (using the 4 links I took out when I length matched it to the one I took off the evening before).  Still didn’t look right… The RD was hitting the chain stay when in the big cassette cogs.  No good.  I took out my new derailleur and started looking at it.  There is a small post near the bolt that attaches to the RD hanger.  It was not behind the hanger tab.  At least it looked better now and wasn’t hitting the frame.  Still couldn’t get it tweaked out.  Looking at in more detail, the pulley cage was a little twisted (probably from one or all of the 3 RD hanger tear-off events it has experienced).  So with a hour before race time I using a pit neighbors stand (pro category race winner’s pit was next to ours), I changed out the rear derailleur.  Seemed to be much better, couldn’t be sure given the limited time to stress test it..   I set my bike up in the start corral and walked down to the starting area for the LeMans style start.

After waiting around and getting ready for the start for a while, we were getting ready to go.  The shotgun start had a twist with guy coming over from the distance in full camo including face mask and a camo rifle.  He said something like “What are you guys doing here?” and fired off 2 or 3 shots into the air…. we were off.

Wasn’t feeling the run, so I probably was around mid-pack as we hit the field.  I really didn’t want to burn too many matches, just settle in for the long haul.  As expected, there were a few pinch points in the first section with a long stream of riders, but made it through them on foot when someone faltered ahead.  By the 3rd or 4th climb, things started to settle out.   I ended up being ahead and then behind Andrea a few times in the first parts of the course.  The final section was less technical and more power, so I managed to come in quicker (my plan was to do some crewing for Andrea, who was racing the Pro category with a shot a podium and sacrificing some time here and there since I wasn’t really racing this that seriously).

I waited at the pit and tried to get my stuff done before she got there.  She arrived a few minutes later and we started off the 2nd lap together.  Again we rode pretty much around each other until we got to a long climb near the final part of the course… I rode ahead to the finish.  This time, I looped back and told the race announcer that Andrea was coming and that it was her birthday.  She was a little surprised and we rode to our camp/pit area together.  Since I didn’t get a jump on stuff, she was able to get out of the pit quicker than I by a few minutes.  Added to that delay, I forgot my RFID bracelet (for the lap times) and had to divert off course after the field section to get it.  These few minutes would prove to make a difference.

The rain started for me just a little bit into the singletrack on the first steep hill.  The wet rocks were instantly too slick to ride up and the descents down the hill were a bit dicey.  I slipped out two times at least trying to hold control going down the trail.  It started to get a bit better as we made our way south on the trail.  The rain hit in a small area of the trail with parts of not seeing any rain at all.  The parts that did see the rain got bad.  As it started to dry, it turned from slippery light mud to tacky peanut butter.  Peanut butter that picked up every blade of grass or leaf.  Really there was only a 1 to 1.5 mile section or so that was pretty much hike-a-bike.  My rear tire picked up so much stuff, that I had to stop, roll the bike back, pull out a pound or so of debris (think grass+sticks+adobe mud).  Once past that section, the rest of the trail was great, and mosty rideable (save a few slippery sharp hills).

When I got back to the S/F, I found out that the race promoters had decided to run a shortened loop.  Everyone in a particular class need to do the same number of full laps and the short laps would start after that.  For Solo Amateur, that was 4 long laps.  So instead of taking a longer break (as was my plan), I decided to get this last longer loop out of the way before there was no traffic on it.  This section actually rode a lot better that it had during the short rainstorm, but I wasn’t going to miss this part (also the most technical).  Fortunately, the middle section that was unrideable the previous lap had firmed up and was getting to be faster all the time as riders established the lines.  After finishing out my final long lap, my plan was to wait for Andrea to come back from her short lap and take a bit of an extended break.

In that time, I changed out my kit, changed my shoes and socks (I was going back and forth between my two pair of shoes all race), and cleaned the drivetrain of my bike.  On the 3rd and 4th lap, my granny gear was unreachable (by then I wanted to use it a few times a lap).  There was so much mud trapped under the front derailleur that it simply wouldn’t move.  I got all that squared away and waited for Andrea.

She came back and I got her hydration pack setup for her next lap, and then left on my 5th lap.  I pretty much had decided it would be the last one I  would do.  Almost 8 hours in the saddle, and 8.5 hours since the start, it was time.   I didn’t want to dig myself too big of a hole so that I could use this week as a training week, not a laying about recovery week.  I actually rode the last lap pretty well and started to get a bit faster on the last section.   The middle part, I was stuck in some traffic and was missing some important shifts (user error) causing a bunch of walking up the steep rocky bits.  The end of the course featured nice roady climbs (either gravel roads or other pretty non-technical) and some good flowing singletrack.  When I got to the end, I felt I could do another, but I really thought it was enough.

When I got back to the pit, Andrea was back after completing her 6th lap (with a chain mechanical thrown in).  She ended up going out for a 7th while I started with a pulled pork sandwich and a beer to cap off the day.

Here is a small gallery of our camp-pit area post race.  It looks like a crime scene….

As for the results, I was about mid-pack with 5 laps in about 8 hours : 30 minutes which put me in 12th in solo amateur.  Andrea’s 7 laps put her in 4th lap in solo pro female.  I was glad I could spent the weekend with Andrea and really glad I didn’t go to McMinnville.  I am not a huge fan of that race anyway and they got some real foul weather during the road race and canceled the TT for at least some of the group due to hail.  The Cat 3 race came down to a sprint among a small group.  Dustin Greer won it.  I think I would be able to be in that group, but pretty sure I wouldn’t have won the sprint.  Great job Dustin!  (I wonder when I will get my 2009 RR championship jersey?)

I decided to race off road this weekend at Dirt, Sweat, and Gears.  Do I have any business attempting a 12-hour race solo?  Probably not.  I probably won’t race all 12-hours.  My reasoning is that if I am going to get wet (as McMinnville will likely be), I should get muddy as well.  Possibly really, really muddy.

The other factor is that Saturday is Andrea’s birthday and since she is racing (and taking it more seriously than I ever would), I should be there with her.   At least before and after the race anyway.  So, I may live to regret this, but even if only do a few laps (or less?) it is better overall event than Highland Rim.  Camping in the field and  hanging out with a few hundred mountain bikers (with a few roadies mixed  in) is a much better time .

I revised my May/June calender.  I need to reset and focus on having a good June:

May

• 5/1: Syllamo’s Revenge (Mountain View, Ark.)  77th
  
• 5/8-5/9: Joe Martin Stage Race (Fayetteville, Ark.)  Cat3/32nd G.C. +9:06  (26th TT, 36th RR, 34th Crit)
• 5/15:  Dirt, Sweat, and Gears (Fayetteville, TN)
• 5/15-5/16: Highland Rim Classic / State RR (McMinnville, Tn.) [TBRA]
• 5/29-5/30: West Feliciana Classic (St. Francisville, La.) [LAMBRA]

June

• 6/6: State Crit (Johnson City, Tn.) [TBRA] ??
• 6/12-6/13: Tour de Louisiane (New Orleans, La.) [LAMBRA]
• 6/19-6/20:  Smith & Nephew Gran Prix (Memphis, Tn.) [TBRA]
• 6/26: Avery Trace (Gainesboro, TN) [TBRA]
• 6/22 & 6/24: Tour of America’s Dairyland (Sheboygan and Greenbush, Wisc.) ??
• 6/25-6/27:  Superior Bike Fest (Marquette, Mich.) ??

I haven’t been in a while (since 2006), but wanted to give it another go before I do something crazy and earn an upgrade to Cat 2.

Anyway, the weekend started off pretty well.  I posted a 10:52 time up the hill which is light years ahead of my previous time of nearly 13 minutes.  Granted, I probably was 15# heavier back then, but… I’ll take it.  Unfortunately, this improvement only got me a 26th place of the 67 that started.  Teammate Aaron was only a few seconds and places back.

Later that afternoon, all I really wanted to do was take a nap.  Sometimes, that feeling really works for me and I roll a great race.  On Saturday, it meant I was there.  Just couldn’t get going and only managed to not get dropped up the hill the first time.  The second time, I was gapped and had to chase back for what was only a few miles, but felt like forever.  In the end, I escaped with a pack finish to preserve my 26th place.  The sprint was crazy with the course funneling down at the end and alot of snaking.  I was moving up with Aaron when the field slammed over.  Not wanting to be another JM road race statistic, we braked and tried again.  Aaron was able to move up, but only to 16th.  I was further back in 36th.  Really none of this mattered since it was a stage race.

The next day, the Cat 3 crit was late (4:10pm start), so all the Memphis people I knew including Aaron bailed.  We still had 50 or so at the start.  The weather turned from cold and windy, to moderately sunny with no rain (it was forecast for the late afternoon).  The course was slightly different with a few more corners (12 in total), but the main decider was the several block long upgrade through and beyond the start finish line.  Before the race, I wanted to take a lap and when I came around, I was lined up near the back.  As always the race started off with a bang (what crit doesn’t?)  Strung out, didn’t get up the hill the first time as fast and was soon in the position I was in for most of the race.  Just picking off people falling off.  For a while, I thought it was doing something, but all of us just ended up collecting up and riding out the rest of the crit as the chase group.  With 2-to-go, they pulled the plug on us and we were done.  Crit fail.  I am not rocking the crits this year.  It probably doesn’t help that they are all 1/2/3 or NRC weekend Cat 3 races, but nevertheless, I am not doing well.  Due to the crit, I fell to over nine minutes back (ouch!) and ended up 32nd G.C.

Generally, it all come down to weight (or more precisely power-to-weight).  Five pounds over where I was last year, it played out in several places.  I was happy with my power numbers (on track), but the speeds they generated were off.  By simple ratio, 5 less pounds would cut 20-25 seconds off the TT time, made the RR go easier, and might have kept with me the field in the crit.   I am not alone in these challenges, but there it is.  I am not fat by any normal sense, but for competitive cycling, extra pounds = poor results.

Next weekend is Highland Rim, but in general, I don’t like any part of that race.  I need to be convinced to do that race.  The road race has a hill, but then a long plateau and a finishing descent (state championship….really?).  The TT is another uphill TT (which I don’t hate, but it doesn’t save the weekend).  The crit has a nice off-camber corner that normally claims a few during the day.  I might just hang out at DSG and train while Andrea is racing.   Or I might have to go to China for work again…. I hope I can salvage something out of this season.

Syllamo’s Revenge… what a good name for this race.  While Andrea is pursuing and doing well in endurance mountain biking, this is the only one I plan to do this year.   The primary reason is that I have ridden these trails in total of 5-6 trail-days since last fall and Andrea’s parents have a place near Mountain View.

In the lead into the race, I was checking out my bike and found a seized non-drive side bearing (Deore XT).  I ran down to the local shop and picked up an LX BB and the crank was spinning freely again.  Another issue was the burping front tire that took me out of the race 2 weeks ago.  I replaced the Maxxis Crossmark with a new Ignitor.  It didn’t take a seal right away, but I did get it to set (non-tubeless rims w/ conversion kits).  Thursday evening, the tire had dropped down from 30 to about 15#, but I aired it up anyway and went for a ride on WRT/North trail.  It held up.  My skills, were pretty rusty, but I figured I would make due.

Andrea left a day earlier to her parent’s cabin, I drove over with Matt Friday afternoon.  The schedule was dictated by his last exam, but honestly I had so much stuff to do to get ready, I made him wait a little.  So we get up there around 6pm, have dinner and chill out for a while.  That is until the weather turned south…  Tornado and strong storm warnings drove us to the storm shelter (cabin isn’t really setup well for weathering a storm).  We had a weather radio and I could actually use my MiFi to my laptop to keep up with the passing of the storms.  A tornado was 20 miles away, or at least I think… The details are always pretty sketchy in those types of situations.  I know for sure that I didn’t see any damage until several hours into my drive back on Sunday (some houses ripped up near Wynne? on US64).  The rest of our part of the Memphis crew (Jay & Kat) showed up around 9.30 or so after driving through some pretty strong storms.  It was pretty late before we settled down and got our short night of sleep until our 4.15 am alarm.

We got up and got mobilized down to Blanchard Springs.  Packet pickup was quick and painless and we resolved to get our gear ready.  At some point, I decided that 30# was too much and that I would air-down and inflate to 25#.  No problem, right?  The rear was fine, but when I was opening the presta valve nut, I unthreaded the core.  All the air came out in an instant.  I tried to air it up real quick with the floor pump, no go.  I took the wheel off and held it up while Andrea pumped and it sealed…  Close call.  I rode it around and tried to burp it, but it seemed to be good.  Ready to race.

The race starts out in the campground and has a short (1/2 mile) flat pavement section before heading up a 1 mile+ gravel road climb to the singletrack.  I lined up a few rows back and moved up some on the pavement.  My plan was to climb within myself, but to get towards the front.  I think I hit the single track in the top 20 or 25 after passing a bunch of people.  I was really happy with my start.

The early single track went fairly well until I hit a rock or something and burped my rear tire.  I rode it for a while, maybe 1/2 mile before deciding to deal with it since it was affecting my handling.  So I stopped and decided to just top the tire up and hope it sealed.  It took a few minutes to get the inflator out and setup.  Since it was pretty early in the race, I had to watch about a million people pass by in the 5-6 minutes that I took me to take care of (probably actually 20 or so).    I got it rideable, but it still was a little low, but I decided to press on.

Fast forward to the green loop (probably around 15 miles in).  I was headed up one of the larger hills on the green loop and was feeling good.  I ended up catching back Matt (Andrea and he passed me on the first top-up stop).  Right as I was catching him, burp…  Again.  This time it was pretty much unrideable (<10#), so got out the inflator and hit it.  This time was smoother, got it inflated to ~30# in around 2 minutes stopped.  Back in business.   I elected to walk the rock gardens on the green trail given the slippery rocks.  I have ridden them in the past, but I figured I would be likely to make some mistakes during the race.

Starting on the orange trail descent, I wasn’t feeling it…  The slippery rocks and the higher seat position (more on that later) made me uncomfortable.  I did not bomb the descent at all.  That was okay, I was starting to recover and I was steadly re-passing people until…..  stick.  Syllamo claimed another RD hanger from me (3rd one for me).  I had brought two, and replacing it cost me another 10 minutes.  Back in business with some shifting issues (cable housing a bit worse for the wear after twisting around the hub).  This pretty much meant I could use the middle 4-5 gears on the cassette, nothing on the low or high end.  So that made me have to walk some pretty rideable parts of the orange, but I pressed on.  Feeling pretty good (albeit pissed) I was trucking along on a slight downgrade, when I hit a random rock and soon was flying through the air….  Endo #1.  Sat on the ground for a 30 seconds, walked for a few minutes, and rode slow for a while after that.

Was feeling okay by the blue trail first creek crossing…  followed a bunch of riders on the road, had to double back to the single track that is right after the creek.  Almost to the 2nd checkpoint, I snagged some bamboo on the way to the highway crossing to the trail head.  Endo #2.  This one was mostly annoying, didn’t really hurt that bad.

Get to the 2nd checkpoint (Hwy 5 trailhead) and decided it was time to eat.  Spent nearly 10 minutes at the checkpoint and started up the hill.  The climb up wasn’t too bad at first.  As it got steeper, I ran out of useable gears (granny gear would chain suck everytime I used it, so my options were pretty bare).  Walk.  The blue trail was a real low point for me (I know I am not alone in this).  My mechanical issues (shifting) and my tiredness meant I walked a good portion of that trail.  About halfway up the hill, I caught up with a mini-Memphis get together around a busted chain and a missing cleat bolt.  I ended up walking up with Forest and Daniel until the start of the gravel road section of the trail.

Once I hit the gravel road, I started to ride because I had the gears for it, and I wanted to get some miles under the wheels.  Started feeling better riding to the 3rd checkpoint before the start of the red loop.  Ate a little and had some Heed at the checkpoint and started off on the red loop.  I resolved to ride it reasonably fast to get it over with and see how hard I could go.  Was doing pretty well and kept a steady pace…  Somewhere along the trail, I misjudged (or didn’t see) part of a cut off log or stump and endo’ed again.  #3.  This one was relatively fast and my bike flew over me.  This crash I actually remember seeing the bike over me and hoping it wouldn’t land on me.  I didn’t know it then, but I had a small cut on my elbow that made a really dramatic blood/mud trail down my forearm (out of sight to me).

Towards the end of the red trail, I wished I would have checked the distance at the 3rd checkpoint since it seemed to go on forever.  I also started to cramp up.  Not having salt, I had to stop / walk and drink water or just back off a minute.  Fortunately, the cramping was just episodic and I was able to keep going.  The only good part of this trail is that I kept repassing people at a fairly good pace (1 every 1-2 minutes at times).    Near the end, I came up behind Matt.

We entered the 4th checkpoint (same as the 3rd checkpoint) together, but Matt got out of the parking lot quicker and bombed down the descent out of sight.  I recaught him on the hill and probably had a gap before the final descent.  I went down it pretty fast, but I didn’t really bomb it.  Matt did, and recaught me by the bottom and attacked on the road.  I saw that I responded to bring him close, but we ran out of pavement.  Coming into the parking lot to the finish, he got there first.

In the end, Matt and I finished a few minutes under 7 hours.  I ended up 77th.  Andrea was in the low 6 hour range (2nd women overall).  I had numerous cuts and scrapes from the falls and the sharp thorned vines that were everywhere.  Inspecting my bike after getting back to Memphis, the housing on the rear derailleur is all split.  It is amazing it shifted at all.

Given the amount of endo’s that I had and my general feeling of being uncomfortable, I need to make some changes.  I moved my seat up to 80 cm from 77-78cm to bring it more in-line with my road height of 83 cm.  I think it does help me with power on the climbs, but I feel like I am tipping over all the time going downhill.  Tonight, I flipped the stem over to bring my center of gravity up.  I might have to get a different stem, but I really believe having a 4-5 inch seat to bar might be part of the problem.

It definitely wasn’t my legs that were flat, since work had me skipping some workouts this week.  It was my tires.

Aaron Shafer Memorial RR / Sparta, TN.  Marx-Bensdorf Cycling Team fielded 4 in the 1/2/3 race.  Bryant, Jeremy, Will, and myself.  The field featured some good rollers, so the plan was get in a break if one were to develop.

photo from Rip Clayton’s FB.

The race started off reasonably fast, with different groups trying to make something stick.  Maybe a few miles into the race, Bryant jumped across to a Friend of the Smokies rider (Crowson?) and they started to work.  A few miles later, a CT rider (Krei) started to bridge.  I was on point, and started to cover, but didn’t want to drag all up to our man.  So the break was 3.  This left us back in the field to work to keep the break alive….  generally it went fairly well and we kept the break alive and disrupted the chase.  I think I was 2-3 wheel most of the time..   things were good.  At 45 miles or so in the 70 mile race, I flatted (rear).  Dropped back, took my wheel out of the truck, and changed it out…  Not the fastest (had trouble getting my wheel out), but otherwise not bad.  Gave chase for a while, but it wasn’t going to happen.  Ride it back…  Good news is that the course is beautiful and low traffic.  10 miles later, I see a teammate walking his bike.  It was Will, his chain self-destructed.  He told me the break was almost back when he had to stop due to the mechanical.  Crap…  Not looking good.  In the end, the break was caught and Will managed to get a ride back in a jacked up pickup truck.  No result.

That afternoon, I drove down to Fayetteville, where Andrea and Eric were heading over from Memphis.  The plan was to setup camp and pre-ride Crude XC.  I am glad I prerode (despite my tired legs), because I needed to relearn how to ride MTB.  (It had been 2 weeks since I had ridden.)   So the first part of the ride went bad, learned from it, and was ready to rock the next morning.

Crude XC / Fayetteville, TN.  Lined up with about 10 Cat 2 (sport) / 30-39 racers.  Got off to a decent start, entered the woods in 4th (long field section).

start line Cat2/30-39.  Photo by Eric Wardlaw.

By the 2nd hill on course, I was in 3rd, with small gaps to 2nd and 1st beyond.

2-3 minutes before the end of my race…  15 minutes in.  (photo: Eric)

All of that would be made moot by 17 minutes in, front flat.  Burped out front tubeless tire completely on a downhill where the trail crossed a road.  Cursing my luck, I proceeded to change out my tire (as the rest of my group and other later starting groups started to pass me).  Front skewer was so tight, I needed to use my hydration pack strap to pull it open (after spending a few minutes trying to find a worthy pry stick).  Pulled out the valve stem and put the tube in with Stan’s dripping everywhere…. All of that would be for nothing, since my inflater was missing part of the chuck…. I tried it anyway, didn’t work.  Blew CO2 out.  DNF.

Last week, my driver’s side window laid down on me, or more precisely, it wouldn’t go down more than a few inches.  I took apart my car door and figured out that the problem was a frayed cable.  I put it all back together and planned to leave the window up until I could get the part in.

The part arrived today and I installed it.  The window regulator (as it is called) operates a bit differently than I would have guessed.  It uses a steel cable, not unlike a brake cable on a bike.  The OEM part failed after 7 years…  it frayed where it connects with the window shuttle on the track.  Here are a few pics of the swap out.   If you do this, get out a phillips screw driver, a flathead, and a 10mm combination wrench (2003 Ford Escape XLT)

Overnight, I found myself way down the standing (due to Friday night’s misfire), but was looking forward to the flow of the circuit race.

Flow it did, I didn’t.  I quickly found myself at the back and was forced to brake and make up out of the corner.  In retrospect, I should have played it differently and buried myself to move up quicker, but that didn’t happen.

So, after a few laps, I was OTB.  Like the crit, I rode some hard laps hoping to get back on…that was not to happen as the field did not slack at all.  I caught, worked with, and left a few riders as I completed lap after lap (re-emphasizing that I screwed up in falling off).

When the moto came up behind, I setup to get back on the field.  After my solo work OTB, I was pretty much forced to be a back marker, moving up a handful of spots occasionally.  Somewhere in there the overnight GC lead, Mat Davis, got off with Herring Gas rider and they ended up lapping the field.  I rode it out with the field before dropping back in the run into the field sprint (since I was 1 more lap down than most of the field).   In the end, I probably got the 8th place Cat 3, Will took first in Cat 3 and 12th overall.  Due to the CR break, Bryant dropped down to finish in 4th place GC.  Overall a good weekend for the Marx – Bensdorf Cycling Team.  I was glad that I could resurrect some good work in the road race out of a otherwise underperform weekend personally.

This weekend, a few teammates and I plan to race a TBRA road race in Sparta.  After that, I plan to meet Andrea down in Fayetteville, Tn at Crude XC (mountain bike race).

Friday night…  feeling a little worn out, but otherwise good, I was looking forward to a having a good crit and going into the road race with several teammates in the mix.  The several teammates thing happened, I didn’t.  Wasn’t aggressive enough at the start and I was on the back by the end of the first lap hanging on.  It wasn’t too long before I was gapped off and my night was over.  I rode a few hot laps hoping to delay the catch (getting lapped), but was at the wrong place when I got caught…  (although there wasn’t too many good places on the course to catch back on).  In any case, I rode around in small groups as the field came by several times.  Bad show, indeed.

With my new found freedom from the tyranny of the G.C., I was free to ride the road race in support of Bryant and Will.  The first lap, I had some knee stiffness, and let that work its way out.  After that I was able to cover some move and start some, most all of which were not good for our team.  There were two riders off from Herring with another (he flatted back), we caught them near the start of the third lap.  With a few to go, I took a hard flyer to help keep the pace up, and was gone for 1 mile or so, getting caught on the hill.  I figured my day was done, but the field slowed and I came back (so much for the flyer accomplishing anything).  I rode up on the shoulder of the road to move up and ended up finishing with the field (my legs were pretty much on edge after my hard dig).  Will, Bryant, guest rider Travis, and myself finished with the field.

TT.  New course, shorter than previous years, but included a nice little kick at the end.  I stopped the clock at 6:34, which put me in my normal LAMBRA TT placing, a little back from mid-pack.  I was hoping that my saddle position would move me up relatively speaking, but my tired legs compared to everyone else’s tired legs, put me in my normal place.  The good news is that Bryant rolled the 3rd best time and ended the day in 3rd place in the G.C. (Will was also first in the Cat3, sub G.C.).

Circuit race.  …. next post, later…

Raced the 1/2/3 race again this year….  Didn’t survive the crit, which left me free to support my teammates in the RR.  In the end, Bryant ended up 4th, and Will probably 11th (1st cat 3?).  I will write up a full report later (probably after results are up on LAMBRA), but for here are some photos…

Circuit Race

• Cat 4/5
• Women
• Cat 3/4
• Cat 1/2/3 << LINK IS NOW FIXED