Circuito de Evesham Report and Photos

Sunday was Greentree counter-clockwise. Same fast guys from yesterday including this guy in this kit. Winning break of 11 was away relatively early (though not as early as I expected). Officials cut 6 laps from our race to prevent break from lapping us (break's laps not cut). Very disappointed to see lap cards go from 9 to 2. Plus side: got to see a local Cat 2 win.

On a somewhat humorous note, about 20 minutes into the race, I tried to bridge to the group up the road. I only managed to get within 7-8 seconds. About halfway through my attempt, I heard "Up up up!" from behind me. Dominique Rollin went flying by me on his way to the break. I was not able to latch on to his wheel.

Heart House-CADV Grand Prix Report and Photos

The course was a flat 1-mile loop with 6 turns. Very windy. A group of 7 lapped the field. A second group locked up 8th through 13th. I finished 16th. Less than half the field finished.

Cargas Crit Report

On Sunday, I drove out to Lancaster County for the Cargas Criterium.

Although it was overcast, rainy and drizzly in Philly, the sun was out only 40-50 miles to the west. Registration is about as smooth as it gets at Cargas plus they have indoor bathrooms. It's a very well organized race.

About 45 guys lined up for my race. The 1-mile course has two 90-degree left-hand turns and two very gentle lefts on the backstretch; there was a moderately strong headwind just before the left turn back to the start/finish. The start/finish is at the top of a hill that climbed 20 feet per lap.

A break got away early and hovered 20-25 seconds in front of the field for about half of the race. Multiple attacks went as soon as the break was caught. Pretty quickly there were a handful of guys up the road - in 2 groups. I was feeling pretty, well, bad - not awful, but quite sluggish. I was wondering whether it was a good idea to do two races during the weekend when I was a little sick during the week. My morale did not improve when my second water bottle ejected itself from its cage on a very minor bump.

The pace was 'steady hard' most of the time. Occasionally, the pace would bump up to 'brutal hard.' During these bursts (generally no longer than 3/4 of a lap) the gap to the break would drop dramatically - from out of sight (~45+ seconds) to just 15 seconds. But they stayed away.

I conserved as much energy as possible until 4 laps to go. I saw 3 guys attacking on the left side of the road up the hill. I jumped out of the pack on the right-hand side of the road and joined them. One lap later, a 5th guy bridged up to us.

We nearly caught the second group on the road (it was very hard); more surprising was the gap we put on the pack - it was huge as they must have sat up. With one lap to go, I led the group into corner one and saw that a very large pick-up truck was on the course. In a brief moment of distraction, I lost the wheels of the group. I nearly rejoined them on the downhill tailwind section but couldn't make contact.

I rolled across the line alone, behind my chase group but in front of the field for 14th.

Phoenixville Crit Report

On Saturday, I made the short drive out to Phoenixville for the Phoenixville Criterium. Kudos to the high school student who promoted the race for a class project!

For the P/1/2/3 race, the field was small, maybe 20 guys. After a lot of morning rain, the roads threatened to dry out until a 30-second downpour just before we started. The course was a 4-corner crit - with a rather large hill. My Garmin says it was about 50 feet in elevation change per lap. It doesn't sound bad on paper but the short 0.75 mile lap made for a tough course.

Within just a few laps, the field broke into multiple small groups, the hill and wet roads made it quite hard. I found myself in no-man's-land - ahead of the shattered field but behind two lead groups. About half-way through the race, I was lapped by the lead group of two. They bombed down the hill and into corner 3 faster than I needed to since I wasn't going for the win. I backed off and was soon lapped by the chase group of 5.

I stayed with this group until about a half-lap to go. In the last 7-8 laps, we were lapped by the leaders. And we lapped several riders in the last 3-4 laps. It was kind of strange to be down 2 laps on a couple of guys in the group; down 1 lap on 5 guys; and up 1 lap on 2-3 guys. I knew I was the only person on my lap in the group, so I played it safe in the final 1/2 lap while the leader riders fought it out for the win and 3rd.

I was pleasantly surprised to place 8th on the day.

BoB Rodale Fitness Park Crit Report

On Sunday, I did the BoB Rodale Fitness Park Crit.

The weather yesterday was excellent, mostly sunny and a little warmer than Saturday. The races were running a little bit behind so I got to see the last 12 laps of the Men's Cat 4 race. The sky grew slightly cloudy in the last 5 laps of the Cat 4 race. I saw my teammate place in the top-10 while avoiding a frightening crash. It looked like there was some contact between two riders; one guy got way too tense, unclipped and went right off the course into the grass and performed a not-so-graceful endo about 1 foot in front of a small child. He appeared to go right over the boy. Mostly. The child was wearing a helmet; he might have emerged with a tire mark on the helmet. No one was hurt.

As we lined up, the sky darkened a bit. I took my sunglasses off and tucked them into my helmet. About 2 seconds after the unnecessarily loud starting pistol went off, a light rain started. The pace was pretty mellow as the field exercised appropriate caution on the possibly slick roads. Only a half-lap into the race the skies opened with a very hard downpour. Bummer.

I don't love racing in the rain but I don't dread it. Heck, I've won a crit in the rain. But this was different - I could feel my wheels slipping a little bit on each bend. It was only 30 seconds later when the first few guys went down. Then 30 seconds after that another group slid out on the gentle right-hand turn into the hill. Just a little bit into lap 2, another group went down (same corner as crash #1).

The downpour was brief but it resulted in chaos. Half of the field was in the pit taking a free lap. The other half was spread out over the course. I stayed in with the hope that the roads would dry out and racing would be 'relatively' safe. I called it a day when the rain started up again and my rear wheel slid out (in crash #1 corner) and I somehow recovered but went off the course and into the grass. According to my Garmin data, I was going faster than I realized at the time so I'm glad I didn't hit the pavement. My warm-up was twice as long as my race.

I've never heard so many guys use the word "ice" to describe the conditions.

I wish I knew more about the rules on neutralizing a race to do unsafe conditions. If it were up to me, the race would have neutralized. The silver lining: Thank God it rained during the P/1/2 race. It if rained 10 minutes earlier, the Cat 4's would have finished in those conditions.

New Bethlehem Crit Report

I did the New Bethlehem Crit on Saturday.

In the P/1/2 race we did 42 laps for a total of about 35 miles. The pace was pretty fast from the start. There were a lot of attacks. As usual, most of the attacks in the first 10-20 minutes didn't stick. But eventually 3 guys got away (a group of 2 and a solo rider). It's been difficult to predict which moves might stick.

I lost a full bottle about 30 minutes into the race when I went over the bumpy patches in corner 2. With about 15 laps to go, I set off in pursuit (solo) of the rider dangling ~20 seconds in front of the field. I got to within about 10 seconds but just couldn't close the gap. I let off the gas a bit with the hope that a small group would jump out of the field to join me. But the entire field was in pursuit and I was caught with 10 or 11 laps to go. I stayed out of the wind for the next few laps and kept my eyes open for a good chance to go again in the final few laps.

With about 4.5 laps to go, the situation was right (though a bit earlier than I wanted to go). It had been very hard for a few laps and we just caught someone who had been off the front). I jumped out of the field and bridged to the rider in 5th (or maybe 6th position). We built up a little bit of a gap as the field hesitated. I was feeling somewhat fresher than expected but I was cramping a bit (right calf and left quad) thanks to the ejected bottle earlier in the race. We nearly stayed away for the finish but we got caught by a small group of 6 or 7 with a little less than a 1/2 lap to go (the time gaps are rarely included in results here (as opposed to New England) so I'm not certain how many guys were up the road when we finished). I placed 12th on the day.

I'm happy with my race but I've now tasted a top-10 so I'm a little hungry.

New Bethlehem Crit Photos

Some photos of the Women's 30+ and the P/1/2 plus a dog here.

New Kit - 2009

I'm cheerful on the inside.

Bound Brook Crit Photos

Some photos of the Men's 3/4, Masters 35+ and P/1/2 race here.

Daniel Harwi Crit at Lower Providence

Some photos of the Women's 1/2/3 race here.

New Kit Debut

I'm riding for Team Independence. It's a welcome change to ride for a local team with some great guys.

More photos here and here.

Farmersville Race Report

The 2009 season has officially begun. This weekend, I did the Farmersville Road Race in Lancaster, PA.

Weather
The weather in March can be hit or miss. We got lucky on Saturday. It was dry, a little cool (low 40s) and slightly overcast. There was no wind, which was quite a surprise given the consistently windy conditions in Lancaster County last spring. The sun came out during the race and warmed things up. I was probably slightly overdressed by the end of the race.

The Course
In the P/1/2/3 race, we did 16 laps of a gently rolling (all big ring) 3.1 mile loop for about 50 miles.

The Race
There were only 40-45 riders on the line. It's difficult to know what to expect in the first few races of the season. The winter here has been mild with little snow, especially compared with Boston! (See snowfall totals.) So it was likely that a lot of guys have been putting in big miles over the last couple of months. This was also my first race as a newly upgraded Cat 2.

The pace was surprisingly mellow at the start. This allowed a group of 3 to roll off the front and gain 15-20 seconds on the first lap. About halfway through the second lap, two riders at the front of the field turned left instead of staying on the course with a right-hand turn. This was surprising because:
- This wasn't the first lap
- The signs were really good
- There was a break up the road (within sight)

The break gained some time over the field during this brief disruption. Over the next 10+ laps, the pace remained relatively moderate with only short bursts of high speed. These bursts appeared to be the Artemis team disrupting any chase since their guy was now alone up the road.

With 6 or 7 laps to go, a second Artemis rider got a gap and hoovered about 20 seconds ahead of us. With 5 laps to go, I briefly (and foolishly) tried to bridge to the Artemis rider just up the road. I got about halfway across but couldn't make contact. I was away for only 3/4 of a lap. Shortly after I got caught, the field drilled it; we were single file for about a lap. This was unpleasant timing for me.

Unfortunately, I don't know how the finish went because I crossed the finish line alone, probably DFL. With a lap-and-a-half to go, there was a crash right in front of me. Only thanks to some unknown divine being did I manage to stay upright. I wish my 3-second deceleration with only my front wheel touching the pavement was caught on film. Sadly, I had to come to a complete stop and was unable to rejoin the field.

Miscellaneous notes on room for improvement in 2009:
- There was no finishing camera. Not a big deal with a small field with an uphill finish but it'd be nice to have some basic technology tools.
- The USCF (USAC?) official was standing directly in front of the lap cards (100% blockage) for at least 75% of the laps.

I rode my bike today

After a break from structured training and a break from my bike altogether, I've started training again. The weather is not cooperating. We've been very lucky here in the inner Philly suburbs. There's no snow on the ground and it's been warm enough to ride comfortably. Until this week.

It was cold today, about 21 degrees, but sunny and not very windy. So it didn't feel very cold. I kept the ride short - no need to burn through all the winter training enthusiasm bank in early January. It's still going to be cold on Saturday when I'll be on a quasi-endurance ride.

There's snow in the forecast for Sunday. Good thing I finally have a winter bike with fenders this year!

Next... some neat features and quirks of the Garmin Edge 305.

Road: 02

It was quite satisfying to receive my 2009 racing license this week.

Mercer Cup Photos: Flickr Slideshow

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Flickr set is here.

Mercer Cup Photos Preview

Day two.

It was muddy.



Very muddy.



More coming...

1987 Tour de France Stage

I stumbled on this Youtube video of the 1987 Tour de France stage to La Plagne.

Back in 1987, I was newly hooked on cycling. I watched the weekly hour-long Tour broadcasts on CBS. (I think it was on CBS. Solobreak would be able to confirm.)

This stage was probably the most dramatic stage of an exciting Tour. The '87 Tour holds the record for most yellow jerseys worn. Sadly, it's under appreciated in the US.

This is one of the last days in the mountains. The yellow jersey was on the shoulders of the climber Pedro Delgado. But he didn't have enough of a lead over the strong time trialist Stephen Roche who sat in 2nd on GC. Delgado had to put time into Roche on the stage. Otherwise, Roche was favored to take the lead in the final TT.

Notice how un-skinny Delgado looks by today's standards.

This clip has more of the stage with obligatory 1980's TdF music.


This clip covers on the end of the stage with Phil and Paul in real time.


I get goosebumps watching.

Wissahickon Photos are up

Cat 1/2/3 Master Men, Elite Women and Elite Men are here.

A bit more Wiss

Wissahickon 'Cross Photo Preview

More coming...

Considering a new HRM...

Now that the racing season is behind me, I can focus on some ground work for next season. First up: A heart rate monitor upgrade.

There are a lot of power lines in my area. This really disrupts my Polar 720 heart rate monitor.



Last year, I had occasional interference that I could fix with a modest touch of error correction. The above sample ride shows how much of the ride has radically skewed heart rate, cadence and speed.

I'm considering the Garmin 305 but wanted to check with you, on the other side of the tubes. Who has an enthusiastic endorsement of a heart rate monitor that isn't affected by power lines?

I'd love to splurge and get the 705 with an ANT+ enabled power meter. But the extra money won't make be a more successful racer and it better spent on gas and entry fees.

Yuasa Battery Criterium Report

I did the Yuasa Battery Right from the Start Criterium yesterday. Yuasa would likely be my final race of the year. As race day approached, I focused on getting a good result to wrap-up a mediocre season. It wasn't a bad year, all things considered - moving to Philly and two crashes (only one of which was interesting), but I had hoped to improve on last year's results.

The course was a rectangle with four left-hand 90-degree corners. The start-finish on Montrose Ave was gently downhill (with a slight headwind). Only 20 meters after the start/finish the course turned left and went up uphill. The hill was moderately steep but brief. We then turned left again on to the backstretch, the first half was a false flat, the second half was gently downhill into turn three. We flew in to corner four after a rapid decent.

From what I gather, the course is much safer this year thanks to two simple changes. First, the start/finish used to be after what is now turn one. This tight corner apparently led to some crashes approaching the finish. Second, at the end of the race, we would ride straight through turn one, giving the field plenty of road to safely slow down.

Although it was mid-September, it was hot and humid: it was in the mid-80s with a dew point in the mid-70s. I pre-registered for both the 3/4 and the 1/2/3 race so I kept my warm-up short given the heat and humidity. Before the race, I chatted with a familiar face from New England, a nice guy from the Cyclonauts Team in western Mass.

We did 35 laps for 25 miles. There were about 40-45 Cat. 3/4 riders lined up at the start for a piece of the $1,000 prize list. The pace was fairly high for most of the race. I suffered a bit in the first 20 minutes as I completed my warm-up. After 30 minutes or so, I began to feel like I had good legs; On several laps, I was disappointed when the pace slowed on the false flat. But it was still too early to try to get away.

Just before going through the start/finish with three laps to go, I moved up on the inside. The field seemed to slow and I rolled off the front and into corner one. I punched it up the hill and was quickly out of sight (the backstretch arched slightly so I only needed 10-15 seconds stay out of view). Two or three guys tried to bridge up to me but were caught. I'm sure this helped me since the field probably sat up slightly upon each catch.

Unlike last year at the Great Falls Crit in Maine the laps seemed to fly by this year. I could only vaguely hear people cheering. I kept my lead steady until about 1/2 lap to go. The field started to close the gap. With just 200 meters to go, I could see the sprint winding up behind me. I didn't have any time or energy for a salute other than a right hand pump in the air. I probably finished only 5-7 seconds ahead of the field. It's always nice to get a win.

I had only 15-20 minutes until the 1/2/3 race started so I headed back to the car for a Gu and some new bottles. My stomach was unusually upset from the intensity of my effort so I could only down 1/2 the Gu and a few sips of water.

As I lined up at the back of the 1/2/3 race, The official joked with me: "Are you all warmed-up now?"

The announcer told that that Bobby Lea had just come back from representing the US at the Beijing Olympics. Given the number of Rite-Aid riders, how my legs and stomach felt, I was rapidly downgrading my goal for the 1/2/3 race.

I lasted two laps. I cramped badly going up the hill the second time so I called it a day.

And it was a very, very good day.

P.S. I caught the end of the Red Sox game on TBS when I got home.