Frequency 650

I have been racing… just no updates as of late. My teammates have been killing the TT’s and crits.

Union City – March 20,21 (Cat 3 + Masters)
TT – 17:55 time, 7.54 miles, 25.2 avg mph – we were placed by age group including Pros so no idea on placement.
Crit – 23rd – average legs, first crit of the year always hurts
Road Race – 17th, 71.6 miles – good tough race, 8 riders up the road, lots of work in this race

Roswell – April 25 – (Cat 3/4)
Crit – 10th, Great race, lost spots with 3 laps to go and a crash in the final turn, couldn’t move up

Sandy Springs – May 2 (Cat 3)
Crit – 16th, missed the break

Gainesville – May 15,16 (Cat 3 + Masters)
TT – 29:04, 12.51 miles, 25.8 avg mph – 8th (happy with this but still can’t push the power on the TT bike)
Crit – 24th – great legs, wrong spot at the end of the race with no room to sprint
Road Race – DNF – felt great, got into the first break, got a flat tire at the end of the 2nd lap (of 3)

Beautiful frames… I want one some day.
http://www.renovobikes.com/

That race was harder than expected. Road bike skills in the dirt OK but need some work. Good thing that race is once a year.

50 miles, 4 loops, 2 miles of dirt road. Cold at the start, overdresses. Hot by second lap. Overheating by the 4th lap. Had the beater bike and training wheels which made the race even harder. Learned the dirt was like running on sand. Hard pack and a half a dozen soft sliding sections. And a lot of riders can’t control their bikes. Had “delusions of grandeur” on the 3rd lap and went to the front after the hills to push the pace in the wind and onto the dirt road with the idea that maybe the front group would split down to 15 or so riders, blew up toward the end of the road and had to chase back on. On the 4th loop, I was at the back of the lead pack coming out of the dirt road and got gapped. Chased with 2 other riders, only one helped. Got within 50 yards of the field right before the finish. Had to watch the sprint from just off the back. I wanted to sprint against the masters racers but… didn’t happen.

25th of 60 or so starters. Good test of the legs on how far to push them. This was a C race and pushed the legs hard all week. Lots of time with the heart rate over 180. Union City next week.

2.5-3 hours South of Atlanta. 4:40 am wake-up. Went down with Matt Hurst who was racing his first ever bike race at 9am. Our race was at 11. Met my teammate Steve H. down there. The rest of the team was in River Falls racing on Sat. and Tim pulled out a win with a lot of help from the team.

From the start one or two guys were going off the front every 5 minutes for the entire race. Sometimes we would chase them down, other times the peleton would let them go for a while first. Steve and I made a half a dozen attempts to go but the peleton always chased. At some point 4 guys were away from somewhere before the half way mark (of the 61 mile race) one at a time . Tried to organize a chase a few times as they were only 40 seconds up the road and had pulled back 20 seconds on them when the peleton had a good pace but could never get more than 2 or 3 people to work together to and reel them in. Guys were happy to wait and attach us but not help reel in the breakaway. We picked up one rider but 3 stayed away. In the final stretch, I was 2nd wheel with the guy I wanted to follow out for the sprint. Steve was on the other side of the road so as no one else could come by. The pace slowed as no one wants to lead a sprint out. The rider I expected to jump early didn’t leave as the pace picked up so I jumped on Steve’s wheel as we passed the 1k to go. Yellow line rule in effect until 200 meters… nope. Everyone jumped at about 500 meters (entire road). I went from right behind the first line of 3 guys to 6 or 7 guys back instantly, ran some of them down and finished 4th in the group sprint. 7th on the day. Pay out through 10th so I got my registration money back. Ya! 1 crash out on course and one at the finish.

Good day on the bike. Legs didn’t have much spring in them until the last 20 miles for some reason. Flat course at a good pace, 24.1 mph avg speed for the day. Some wind but not decisive. I was able to do a lot of work at the end, stay in the front and still sprint at the end. Fitness is looking good going into the season. I’m down to 161 lbs which helps and putting out more power than last year. Hoping I can continue with the top 10 results or better this season. Not racing Perry next weekend but Union City Omni in 2 weeks. One of my favorite races as I won the State Road Race Championship there 2 years ago as a Cat4.

The Copenhagen Wheel Project – http://senseable.mit.edu/copenhagenwheel/

I haven’t been posting training updates but I have been riding. Still have the power class 2 days a week through March. Took 4th in the Tundra Time Trial, masters 35+ a week ago. Still need some work but good day on the bike. Just finished a 16 hour training week. Trying to get ready for the start of the race season. Looking forward to seeing everyone out riding again… other than my “friends” on the Airport ride.

I will be participating in 24 Hours of Booty, a fundraising event for national and local cancer initiatives. 24 Hours of Booty is The Official 24 Hour Cycling Event of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. 24 Hours of Booty is proud to support the Lance Armstrong Foundation as its national recipient. I hope to put in 200+ miles over the 24 hour event. Join me if you can. The more the better. Even if riding a bike really “isn’t your thing”, it’s for a good cause and will be a lot of fun. Or, if you can, please help support me. I know times are hard for everyone right now but even a little bit helps bring us closer to a cure.

My donation page is here:
http://www.24hoursofbooty.org/site/TR/Bike/General?px=1229221&pg=personal&fr_id=1111

With some assistence by Cervelo, some pretty amazing wheelchair development – a fully adjustable, modular wheelchair with fully customizable suspension – the only one of its kind in the world.

http://www.marvelwheelchairs.com/category/news

2009 Zipp 808 clincher w/ powertap wireless hub ANT+ - the wheel is in perfect condition and works great. Very fast. Selling it because I need a better crit wheel and power in a training wheel.

First race of next year. Registration is now open. New course. Get to it!

Now that’s a fast (motor)bike – http://seven-streamliner.com/

The winter power class at The Training Zone started tonight. 8 of us suffering. Test time. Different than last year. We ramped power up at 2 min. intervals starting with 150 watts and increased 25 watts each time until you explode. Similar to a VO2 Max test. I quit about 1 min into 350 watts.

Been looking forward to this ride. 67 miles for me 63 or so with the group. 22.8 avg mph today. Nice and quick. Probably 60+ people at the start. Smaller than last year’s first ride.

Perfect weather yesterday. This is the first year I’ve had riding legs and figured out my nutrition for a ride this long so I set a few goals for myself. First to stay with the front group over Neal’s gap. I was just off the back of the 1st chase group. Looked like the front group was about 30 people and the chase group had about 12 people. I caught back on, on the decent. Helped pull somebody else back on as well, who says he owes me a beer when we caught back on the group (though I didn’t see him after the ride..hummmm). It was great having help pull through the valley over to Jack’s gap. Again I was just off the back over the top. Chased again but was about 150 short of the group before the start of Unicoi. (Decent too short.) By the time I got to Hogpen my legs were blown. My avg speed to this point was 19.1 mph. Lungs were great but legs said I’m done. I kept looking down thinking there’s no way I’m in my 27, it’s too hard to turn the pedals over. Slowest climb EVER up Hogpen. I stopped at the first stop (which I said I would never do) to get some water and let the blood drain out of my legs + stretch. Had some cramping but pounded some water and it went away. Got to the top and stopped again to hit the bathroom, grab a little food and some more water. On the decent my chain came off and wrapped around my crank arm and was rubbing on my rear rim. Had a small heart attach, stopped and spent a lot more time than I wanted fixing the chain but thankfully still with a working bike and no other issues. Both hands now black with grease would get all over the Aaron’s white kit, my bar tape and everything else I touched for the rest of the day. Hooked up with a small group to help pull back over to wolfpen gap. Started eating more and felt good from the top of wolf to the end. My goal was to finish in under 6 hours. I had a 6:08 ride time but 6:19 overall time with the 2 stops and chain issue. A great ride day for me especially since I’m not a climber. I should have eaten more (1/2 cliff bar, 2 crackers and 5 gels. 2 orange slices and some grapes) but never felt like I was going to bonk. No sickness and I could eat after the ride – WOOHOO. Thats a feat in-and-of itself. Stats – 11,332 feet of climbing, 162 avg hr, 16.92 avg mph, 47.3 max speed (not taking the risks these days). A great end to the season.

Results are posted HERE - 96th place of 1000 timed finishers… sweet. I’m guessing close to 1800 people rode or attempted the full ride. Timing chips were optional.

On a very sad note, one of my teammates Mick was hit by a car yesterday while riding his bike and is in critical condition. Thank you to everyone that helped and his family in their time of need. Our thoughts are with him.

Holy hell that was a different kind of fun. Maybe 80 to 100 riders at the start, down to about 30 after 5 miles. Dry roads and now rain for the first 1.5 hours… then rain on and off. Most riders opted for the 60 mile loop. Shortly after it ended up Roy Simmons – Outspoken/Strenflex some young RBM rider and myself. I thought the ride was rolling hills. It was for the first 60. They saved most of the climbing for mile 60 to 85, ouch. After 75 miles I had to just sit on as I didn’t have the legs to work as much as the other 2. RBM guy blew up at 90 miles. I didn’t have much more. We slowed down and finished together after suffering in the rain all day. The 3 of us finished in 4:40 with 103 miles. I swear my kit was white when I started.

Then drove straight to the mall to do some shopping with the family.

http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Family-Lifestyle/8-Brilliant-Bicycle-Concepts.html

Yesterday, Lars Boom is about the finish the stage, 20 minutes ahead of the peleton but only 1 minute ahead of the next rider. The commentator says, “Lars has time to go through the McDonald’s drive-through on the left there if he wants… but it looks like he’s going to head straight for the finish”.

Thank GOD! In a hissy about the price Comcast (owner of Versus) wanted to charge Direct TV to broadcast the channel, DTV stopped broadcasting this month when the contract expired… SUX – one of the only channels I watch, the only channel that had cycling. Tour de France and most of the classics are now gone – BUT, they picked up Universal Sports which has MORE coverage as of now. I watched the Giro on my laptop wired to the TV on there. They are also broadcasting La Vuelta (tour of Spain) the last grand tour of the year. So far, awesome! Haven’t watched Stage 12 (today) yet but now I can TIVO it! and not watching LOW res versions. It’s on 604 if you have Direct TV. (plus lots of other sports all day long)

This post was for the ride last Monday on Labor Day. My 3rd Centry in 9 days. No kick in the legs but the numbers say I was doing the same amount of work as the first two. I’m taking the recap written by David Hicks:

“Great ride. Hilly. Nice temperatures. A smaller century – but still well supported.

Started out with the usual throng of freds doing all sorts of stupid things. Soon the paceline started and the group was whittled right down. I think around mile 60 I turned to Marc and said “it’s going to be just the 2 of us by the end”. I was close – we had 1 other chap, a hairy-legged fellow who was quite fit. The last 10 miles had slimmed us down from 6 to the final 3.

Not a fast century, by any means; 4:40. Certainly not ever a sub-4 candidate – it’s just too hilly.

We were caught by the Sundayride group at one point. Rode with them until one of their riders had a mechanical. Never saw them again.

Beautiful roads. The only exception being Hwy 92 – it was busy. Directions were pretty good, especially if you were paying attention.”

Stats… 4:40 time, 21.8 mph, 5926 feet of climbing, 149 avg hr, 213 avg watts, 242 norm power

101.13 miles. 4:26 front group (minus 4). 22.8 avg pace. 5593 ft of climbing. Perfect weather, misty rain on and off all day. Mark Lininberg and little Mark left alone 10 minutes before the start and finished about 10 or 12 minutes before us. (sick) Spotted Tucker Bob on the ride. Roy set the pace after 35 miles and took what few riders we had down to about 14 soon after. Roy and Terry O’Tool left our group with 45 miles to go and we never saw them again. The group we had stayed strong to the end and everyone worked together (mostly). No where to hide ment LOTS of work. (214 avg watts – 238 Normalized power) I felt slugish at the start but got stronger at the end of the ride. Lots of food, drinks and music after the ride. MACC puts on a great event. Tons of volunteers to help with everything. Even had bottles of water in hand for us at some of the corners on the course though I didn’t need it. Only used 2 1/4 bottles all day.