Last nights Nashville Cyclist Crit had the largest Cat 4 field to date - 49 guys. That's a lot of guys on that short course. I knew with that many I didn't want to hang out in the field for very long. I was able to get to the front of the line at the start and stay within the top 10 for the first several laps. When they did the first prime, several guys attacked for it. One of which was the winner for the past several weeks. He got a good gap solo and I realized that was my chance to make something happen. I attacked hard and brought a few guys in me and also picked up the solo guy off front. We ended up forming a break of about seven. After several laps and seeing the main field start to blow apart, I realized the break was going to stick. I tried to keep the pace up and a couple guys dropped off.
Going into the last few laps, I was on the wheel of the guy I thought would win (and eventually did). He had a team mate with him and as the laps ticked by, I was waiting for some kind of attack from them. I got impatient with 3 to go and attacked to try and make something happen. I didn't get away and the winner was able to get in a good counterattack to drop me. Another guy went by a quarter lap later and a third guy shortly after. I was able to catch and pass that guy on the last lap with left me in the front of what was left of the break (I had no idea how many people were behind me). I just buried my head and pushed as hard as I could on the final lap. Coming to the finish line I could hear someone coming and tried as best I could to not let him by. He ended up getting me by half a wheel at the end. Still, I'm happy for 4th in a field of almost 50. Still need to work on tactics to try and get that win. More importantly, I could tell I was much more comfortable in the corners and am beginning to really like crit racing.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Johnson City Omnium
This past weekend was the Johnson City Omnium in, you guessed it, Johnson City TN. It was about a four and a half hour drive from home, and we left early Friday afternoon so it wouldn't be crazy late getting there (we also lost an hour going into Eastern Time Zone).
The road race Saturday morning was pretty short for the Cat 4s - 30 miles. However, it was pretty much all up hill and the last 7.5 miles consisted of a climb up Roan Mountain with a mountain top finish. From almost the very beginning of the race a group of 3 formed a breakaway. Knowing it was a long race with climbing, no one in the pelaton was overally concerned with chasing them down. Shortly after one guy dropped off the break and came back to the pack, with the second guy dropping off a few miles later. That left a solo rider out there. I remember someone tried to bridge up to him, but he quickly realized that wasn't going to work and came back. I took a couple turns up front trying to keep the pace up, but I didn't want to work overally hard because I assumed he wasn't going to solo the entire way. If he did, he deserved the win anyway. He was ultimately caught at the base of the last climb.
As soon as the climb started, the guys on the front quickly upped the pace. I realized quickly I was really going to have to bury myself to keep that pace and I had to decide if I wanted to do that and risk blowing up before the end of the race (I knew that group would slow a little but I didn't know how much or how soon), or let them go and settle into my own pace. Since there are no 7 mile climbs where I live, this is something I haven't been able to train for so I made the decision to keep my own pace. I quickly ended up on the front of the chase group and settled into to a pace I thought I could hold and even increase on the entire climb. The group behind me seemed to keep getting smaller and I would catch up to guys that had come off the initial group. About 4 or 5 miles into the climb there was a group of two at the lead, a group of three behind them, a group three behind them, and then me and another guy. The group of three in front of us was close enough where I thought we would catch them, and we did with about a mile to go. There were the typical 1K and 500M to go signs, and I was looking for a 300M or 100M sign to make my attack (I was sitting where I wanted towards the back of our five person group). To my surprise, we made a turn and I saw the finish line up ahead. At that point the people in front of me went and I wasn't able to overcome their jump in that short of distance. I ended up taking third in our group sprint, which gave me 8th overall. In a climbing race with 30 guys I'll take that result since the only people that come to this race are good climbers.
After waiting at the top of the mountain to see my team mate Kyle Taylor finish (who got 13th in a deep Pro/1/2 field), we made our way down the mountain and back to the hotel to rest before the TT later that afternoon. The TT was 3.5 miles long total, with a mile long uphill and then a descent before finishing with about a 2 mile flat. I paced myself well at the beginning and the uphill, but pushed myself too hard on the downhill trying to make up time which ended up costing me on the flat. I finished 4th out of 18, but missed 3rd by 1 second. I think I would have made that up with some better pacing...maybe.
On Sunday was the crit. It was a great course in downtown Johnson City, with seven turns. During warm-up I thought I wouldn't like the course because of the tight fast turns, but by the end I was having a blast. I was able to move through the pack and at one point tried to bridge up to a break, but I ended up just dragging the field with me. It ended up coming down to a field sprint and I was able to grab 6th out of 25 guys.
Overall in the omnium I was able to get 5th. I was happy with my results and was able to learn a lot - the only bummer is I finished one place out of the money in the TT and the Crit, and one place out of upgrade points in the road race and the crit.
The road race Saturday morning was pretty short for the Cat 4s - 30 miles. However, it was pretty much all up hill and the last 7.5 miles consisted of a climb up Roan Mountain with a mountain top finish. From almost the very beginning of the race a group of 3 formed a breakaway. Knowing it was a long race with climbing, no one in the pelaton was overally concerned with chasing them down. Shortly after one guy dropped off the break and came back to the pack, with the second guy dropping off a few miles later. That left a solo rider out there. I remember someone tried to bridge up to him, but he quickly realized that wasn't going to work and came back. I took a couple turns up front trying to keep the pace up, but I didn't want to work overally hard because I assumed he wasn't going to solo the entire way. If he did, he deserved the win anyway. He was ultimately caught at the base of the last climb.
As soon as the climb started, the guys on the front quickly upped the pace. I realized quickly I was really going to have to bury myself to keep that pace and I had to decide if I wanted to do that and risk blowing up before the end of the race (I knew that group would slow a little but I didn't know how much or how soon), or let them go and settle into my own pace. Since there are no 7 mile climbs where I live, this is something I haven't been able to train for so I made the decision to keep my own pace. I quickly ended up on the front of the chase group and settled into to a pace I thought I could hold and even increase on the entire climb. The group behind me seemed to keep getting smaller and I would catch up to guys that had come off the initial group. About 4 or 5 miles into the climb there was a group of two at the lead, a group of three behind them, a group three behind them, and then me and another guy. The group of three in front of us was close enough where I thought we would catch them, and we did with about a mile to go. There were the typical 1K and 500M to go signs, and I was looking for a 300M or 100M sign to make my attack (I was sitting where I wanted towards the back of our five person group). To my surprise, we made a turn and I saw the finish line up ahead. At that point the people in front of me went and I wasn't able to overcome their jump in that short of distance. I ended up taking third in our group sprint, which gave me 8th overall. In a climbing race with 30 guys I'll take that result since the only people that come to this race are good climbers.
After waiting at the top of the mountain to see my team mate Kyle Taylor finish (who got 13th in a deep Pro/1/2 field), we made our way down the mountain and back to the hotel to rest before the TT later that afternoon. The TT was 3.5 miles long total, with a mile long uphill and then a descent before finishing with about a 2 mile flat. I paced myself well at the beginning and the uphill, but pushed myself too hard on the downhill trying to make up time which ended up costing me on the flat. I finished 4th out of 18, but missed 3rd by 1 second. I think I would have made that up with some better pacing...maybe.
On Sunday was the crit. It was a great course in downtown Johnson City, with seven turns. During warm-up I thought I wouldn't like the course because of the tight fast turns, but by the end I was having a blast. I was able to move through the pack and at one point tried to bridge up to a break, but I ended up just dragging the field with me. It ended up coming down to a field sprint and I was able to grab 6th out of 25 guys.
Overall in the omnium I was able to get 5th. I was happy with my results and was able to learn a lot - the only bummer is I finished one place out of the money in the TT and the Crit, and one place out of upgrade points in the road race and the crit.
Rockabilly Gran Prix
It's been a little while since I've posted here. Since my last post I've done several races, both on-road and off-road. Lately I've been doing more road events in an effort to move out of the Cat 4s into Cat 3. My goal is to move up before the end of the season so I can do some Cat 3 races this year.
This past weekend was the Rockabilly Gran Prix in Jackson, TN. It consisted of a road race Saturday morning, TT Saturday evening, and crit Sunday. We drove down Friday night because Karah's race was early Saturday morning. Mine wasn't until noon so I had some time to wait around. It was overcast but the forecast was only calling for a chance of rain. The chance of rain turned into a downpour about an hour and a half before my race. It seemed to rain hard and then stop and it repeated this cycle every ten minutes or so.
Luckily it stopped raining when I needed to get ready and start my warm-up. There was about 40 guys in the field. Our race was four laps around an 11 mile loop. The first mile or so was a neutral start. The race was pretty calm the first lap. I started towards the back and was able to move up by the end of the lap. The craziness started at the first of the second lap.
Less than a mile in, a see and hear the ominous sounds of a crash happening directly in front of me, about 3 riders up. I'm on the far right of the road next to the shoulder, and that is where the crash is happening. I'm fortunately able to move to the left to avoid everyone crashing in front of me. I don't know how I made it through upright. The craziest part of the crash was someones rear wheel rolling past me down the road and then crossing in front of me before going into the other lane.
Someone at the front of the pack, after hearing the crash, attacked (which is pretty bush-league) - once he attacked even sped up to stay with him. I was fortunately able to accelerate and get on the back of what was a 10 or 15 person break. This group stayed together the rest of the race, but no one really got in a good rhythm of a pace line. One of the juniors seemed to want to attack every time he took a pull, which got annoying.
This was supposed to be a four lap race, but the official told us after we started our third lap that this would be the last. The real racing began at this point as everyone realized we had about 8 miles to the finish. Unfortunately, about a mile from the finish the official comes back up and says the race is cancelled and all the finish line officials were told to take cover because there was a tornado warning for the area. So we basically raced in the rain for over an hour and a half to not get a result.
The TT later that day was uneventful - I got 8th out of 18 - not bad but not as good as I had hoped.
The crit the next day was also pretty uneventful - I ended up getting 9th out of 28. I felt good throughout the race but wasn't nearly in the position I wanted to be on the last lap - that is definitely something I have to work on.
This past weekend was the Rockabilly Gran Prix in Jackson, TN. It consisted of a road race Saturday morning, TT Saturday evening, and crit Sunday. We drove down Friday night because Karah's race was early Saturday morning. Mine wasn't until noon so I had some time to wait around. It was overcast but the forecast was only calling for a chance of rain. The chance of rain turned into a downpour about an hour and a half before my race. It seemed to rain hard and then stop and it repeated this cycle every ten minutes or so.
Luckily it stopped raining when I needed to get ready and start my warm-up. There was about 40 guys in the field. Our race was four laps around an 11 mile loop. The first mile or so was a neutral start. The race was pretty calm the first lap. I started towards the back and was able to move up by the end of the lap. The craziness started at the first of the second lap.
Less than a mile in, a see and hear the ominous sounds of a crash happening directly in front of me, about 3 riders up. I'm on the far right of the road next to the shoulder, and that is where the crash is happening. I'm fortunately able to move to the left to avoid everyone crashing in front of me. I don't know how I made it through upright. The craziest part of the crash was someones rear wheel rolling past me down the road and then crossing in front of me before going into the other lane.
Someone at the front of the pack, after hearing the crash, attacked (which is pretty bush-league) - once he attacked even sped up to stay with him. I was fortunately able to accelerate and get on the back of what was a 10 or 15 person break. This group stayed together the rest of the race, but no one really got in a good rhythm of a pace line. One of the juniors seemed to want to attack every time he took a pull, which got annoying.
This was supposed to be a four lap race, but the official told us after we started our third lap that this would be the last. The real racing began at this point as everyone realized we had about 8 miles to the finish. Unfortunately, about a mile from the finish the official comes back up and says the race is cancelled and all the finish line officials were told to take cover because there was a tornado warning for the area. So we basically raced in the rain for over an hour and a half to not get a result.
The TT later that day was uneventful - I got 8th out of 18 - not bad but not as good as I had hoped.
The crit the next day was also pretty uneventful - I ended up getting 9th out of 28. I felt good throughout the race but wasn't nearly in the position I wanted to be on the last lap - that is definitely something I have to work on.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Booker T Race
Yesterday was the first race of the TBRA race series and it was held at Booker T Park in Chattanooga. This would be my first Cat 1 race in the 30-39 class, and I was expecting to have more people racing in my class than the Cat 1 19-29 class had last year. This race is always tough because it's on the weekend of the time change, so not only do you lose an hour going from Central to Eastern time, you also lose an hour due to the DST change.
I was really excited going into this race because my training has been going well and I had a strong showing at Snake Creek Gap TT, so I was interested to see how I stacked up against the other guys in the state. The morning started out fine except for when I was loading the bikes I tweaked a muscle in my back...I guess that's a sign I'm getting old. It was sore all morning but I ended up not noticing it at all during the race.
There were four other people in my class. Two of them I knew and the other two I hadn't seen before. My plan was to go into the woods second or third but that plan went out the window when I had trouble clipping in. I quickly found myself last with a three or four bike length gap to the next person. I dug deep through the field section and the first part of the woods and caught the fourth place guy. I rode behind him for a few minutes and was glad to be able to keep up. He was much faster than me last year so it showed me that I had improved. I could still see the leaders so I got passed him and set my sights on catching third place. After I caught him (another guy that was much faster than me last year) I rode behind him for a few minutes before getting by when I got a chance and set my sights on catching 2nd place. Towards the end of the first lap I still couldn't see the other two guys in front of me and fourth place was catching me. I don't know if I was slowing down or if he was speeding up. He caught me as we got close to the start/finish line and I decided at that point my strategy was going to be to ride behind him for the second lap and then see what happened on the third lap. I went into the woods behind him and stayed close. He opened a 10 to 15 foot gap on me though a fast tight section but I thought I could catch him in the next section where I felt really comfortable. Before that section was a jeep road descent that had a few rocks in it.
I was feeling good on the descent then I heard a weird noise coming from my bike. I quickly realized the sound was air coming out of my tire and I was hoping the Stan's sealant would fix it and I could keep going. I thought it had worked but could tell my tire was really low. I made a decision to stop and check it and it looked like it had sealed so I kept riding only to have to stop a few feet later because it was so low. I decided that it would save time to put some air in it using my pump rather than take the time to put a tube in it. I quickly pumped some air in it and took off only to hear the air start coming out again. I knew I had to put a tube in and I was losing time to the others in my class. As I started pulling my spare tube out the fourth guy place passed me so I knew I had to hurry. I went to unscrew the nut on the valve stem only to realize it was too tight. I then remembered that the day before I had some air leaking around the valve stem so I used some pliers to tighten it up (big mistake). I didn't have any pliers with me so I had to use the flat-head screwdriver on the multi-tool I carry to loosen it. Of course this took several minutes and at that time I decided there was no need to be in a big hurry. I took my time to change the flat and told myself I was going to finish by going as hard as I could and to see how many people I could pass. Most of the Cat 1 40 field along with the women had rode by while I was working on my bike.
I took off and felt strong for the next two laps and could tell I was going to reach my goal of a sub-2 hour race (at least ride time). When I finished I had a ride time of 1:53 but total time of 2:10 (man I was slow changing the tire). I still passed some of the people that had passed me while I was stopped. More importably I had some respectable first and third lap times. Of the 20 Cat 1s that were there (including the ones that raced the Pro/Open class), I had the 6th fastest first lap and 6th fastest third lap. At least I know now that I can hang with the Cat 1s - now I just have to not have mechanical problems in a race (and get better starts). This definitely energizes me to continue training hard and see where I can get by the end of the season.
I was really excited going into this race because my training has been going well and I had a strong showing at Snake Creek Gap TT, so I was interested to see how I stacked up against the other guys in the state. The morning started out fine except for when I was loading the bikes I tweaked a muscle in my back...I guess that's a sign I'm getting old. It was sore all morning but I ended up not noticing it at all during the race.
There were four other people in my class. Two of them I knew and the other two I hadn't seen before. My plan was to go into the woods second or third but that plan went out the window when I had trouble clipping in. I quickly found myself last with a three or four bike length gap to the next person. I dug deep through the field section and the first part of the woods and caught the fourth place guy. I rode behind him for a few minutes and was glad to be able to keep up. He was much faster than me last year so it showed me that I had improved. I could still see the leaders so I got passed him and set my sights on catching third place. After I caught him (another guy that was much faster than me last year) I rode behind him for a few minutes before getting by when I got a chance and set my sights on catching 2nd place. Towards the end of the first lap I still couldn't see the other two guys in front of me and fourth place was catching me. I don't know if I was slowing down or if he was speeding up. He caught me as we got close to the start/finish line and I decided at that point my strategy was going to be to ride behind him for the second lap and then see what happened on the third lap. I went into the woods behind him and stayed close. He opened a 10 to 15 foot gap on me though a fast tight section but I thought I could catch him in the next section where I felt really comfortable. Before that section was a jeep road descent that had a few rocks in it.
I was feeling good on the descent then I heard a weird noise coming from my bike. I quickly realized the sound was air coming out of my tire and I was hoping the Stan's sealant would fix it and I could keep going. I thought it had worked but could tell my tire was really low. I made a decision to stop and check it and it looked like it had sealed so I kept riding only to have to stop a few feet later because it was so low. I decided that it would save time to put some air in it using my pump rather than take the time to put a tube in it. I quickly pumped some air in it and took off only to hear the air start coming out again. I knew I had to put a tube in and I was losing time to the others in my class. As I started pulling my spare tube out the fourth guy place passed me so I knew I had to hurry. I went to unscrew the nut on the valve stem only to realize it was too tight. I then remembered that the day before I had some air leaking around the valve stem so I used some pliers to tighten it up (big mistake). I didn't have any pliers with me so I had to use the flat-head screwdriver on the multi-tool I carry to loosen it. Of course this took several minutes and at that time I decided there was no need to be in a big hurry. I took my time to change the flat and told myself I was going to finish by going as hard as I could and to see how many people I could pass. Most of the Cat 1 40 field along with the women had rode by while I was working on my bike.
I took off and felt strong for the next two laps and could tell I was going to reach my goal of a sub-2 hour race (at least ride time). When I finished I had a ride time of 1:53 but total time of 2:10 (man I was slow changing the tire). I still passed some of the people that had passed me while I was stopped. More importably I had some respectable first and third lap times. Of the 20 Cat 1s that were there (including the ones that raced the Pro/Open class), I had the 6th fastest first lap and 6th fastest third lap. At least I know now that I can hang with the Cat 1s - now I just have to not have mechanical problems in a race (and get better starts). This definitely energizes me to continue training hard and see where I can get by the end of the season.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Catching Up
So it's been a while since I've posted but I'm going to make an effort to keep this much more up to date. It's funny reading through my last post where I talk about the hardtail Stumpjumper and how I would take the trade off from weight and climbing ability with the roughness of decents. Boy was I wrong. Last September I build an Sworks Epic with an XT group and that bike is awesome. It's so much better on decents and rough stuff. I feel like I haven't lost anything climbing either.
I spent the entire winter training on it and the Snake Creek Gap Time Trial races were the first chance to test it. My best time last year was a 4:15 on my SS, so my first goal this year was to break 4 hours. I started off feeling good and really felt good the entire day. There were several times when I would get behind someone on the single track and not pass them as quickly as I should have which probably cost me some time, but I was using this as a pacing test. I was able to ride more of the rocks in the last section than I had before (all the rock practice at Oak Mountain really paid off) and I rolled across the finish line with a 3:45.
For February, I wanted to take at least 5 minutes off this time. I even went so far as to print out checkpoint times on what I would need to do to get a 3:30 (which I thought would probably be impossible). February started off very cold (my car said 17 degrees) and then is started snowing. I was still on pace at mile 19 or 20 to do a 3:38 but could tell I was getting tired. I then got a flat and knew any hope of beating the time was gone. With all the snow everywhere I just cruised into the finish.
I knew March would be my last chance to better the time and try to reach my goal of a top ten finish. Based on the January and February results I knew I had to get around 3:30 to do that. I started off strong and when I got to halfway I knew I was about 8 minutes ahead of my January time. At the last aid station I was 10 minutes up and knew as long as I didn't have any problems I was golden. I ended up taking a few more minutes off in the last section and finished with a 3:32 and 9th in my class (which had 96 people). I was beyond excited and can't wait to see how this race season goes. And about the bike, I can see the Epic definitely made me much more comfortable on the decents and overall on the trail and helped me get this time.
I spent the entire winter training on it and the Snake Creek Gap Time Trial races were the first chance to test it. My best time last year was a 4:15 on my SS, so my first goal this year was to break 4 hours. I started off feeling good and really felt good the entire day. There were several times when I would get behind someone on the single track and not pass them as quickly as I should have which probably cost me some time, but I was using this as a pacing test. I was able to ride more of the rocks in the last section than I had before (all the rock practice at Oak Mountain really paid off) and I rolled across the finish line with a 3:45.
For February, I wanted to take at least 5 minutes off this time. I even went so far as to print out checkpoint times on what I would need to do to get a 3:30 (which I thought would probably be impossible). February started off very cold (my car said 17 degrees) and then is started snowing. I was still on pace at mile 19 or 20 to do a 3:38 but could tell I was getting tired. I then got a flat and knew any hope of beating the time was gone. With all the snow everywhere I just cruised into the finish.
I knew March would be my last chance to better the time and try to reach my goal of a top ten finish. Based on the January and February results I knew I had to get around 3:30 to do that. I started off strong and when I got to halfway I knew I was about 8 minutes ahead of my January time. At the last aid station I was 10 minutes up and knew as long as I didn't have any problems I was golden. I ended up taking a few more minutes off in the last section and finished with a 3:32 and 9th in my class (which had 96 people). I was beyond excited and can't wait to see how this race season goes. And about the bike, I can see the Epic definitely made me much more comfortable on the decents and overall on the trail and helped me get this time.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
New Bike
I made the decision to switch from my full suspension Specialized Epic Expert to a hard tail (HT) Specialized S-works Stumpjumper. My first experience with a HT was my Niner single speed. After riding it I could tell I was more comfortable in the technical sections on a HT. That's what got me thinking about the switch. So I ordered the Stumpjumper last Tuesday and it came on on Thursday. Even though it could have been ready for me to take to the second Snake Creek race, there was no way my first ride on it was going to be at that place. So, on Sunday, I went out to Montgomery Bell for a couple hours with Karah (who was also on her brand new Specialized Fate) to give it a try. All I can say is it's awesome. The biggest difference I can notice is its climbing ability and responsiveness. As soon as you turn the pedals it takes off like a rocket. It's a little rougher on the descents and over roots, but this is something I'll get used to. I'll take the trade-off of it being a little rougher over the increased climbing ability any day. BTW - it weighed in at a little over 20 pounds with everything on it. Crazy.
Snake Creek Gap TT #2
With all the rain we had the week before this race, I knew it was going to be muddy. On top of that, they were calling for a 50% chance of rain during the race. We got lucky and it didn't rain during the race, but the course was definitely muddy. The first half had the most mud, and some of the sections were pretty challenging. I had heard the first creek crossing was going to be waist deep, but I was pleased to see it was ridable. Oh, did I mention that I decided to do this race on my single speed? This was my first race on a SS and I didn't know what to expect. It was different to say the least. It was challenging in spots (especially the climbs) and it was fun in others. There were some places where I had to walk either due to the mud, because someone on a geared bike was going too slow in front of me, or because I wanted to save energy for later in the race. I was glad to see that I was able to ride some of the rock sections that I walked in the first race. Due to the mud and being on the SS, my goal was to at least maintain the time I did in January. I was happy when I ended up beating my January time by almost 10 minutes with a 4:15. In March I plan to take my geared bike, and I'm really hoping to get my time under 4 hours. I'll have to work extra hard in February to try and make it happen.
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