Filling in the (HUGE) Gaps - 2012 Wrap Up

Been quite a while since I threw anything up here so I figured I'd give a go at slapping together, in (few) words and (lots of) pictures, a rough summary of what I've done since April. I'm piecing this together through a combination of a review of my cycling log and the photos taken.

TIP: Little Things Mean A Lot

Noob bike racers (like me) have SO much to learn. If they're lucky, they'll be friendly with one or more racing veterans who'll take pity on them and teach them not only what it takes to be fast and safe on the racecourse but also take the time to clue them into the little things that, taken together, can make a huge difference.

Sure, these are things you could Google or read about in Friel or simply ask about, but who has the presence of mind on race day to think of them?

Sometimes they keep you from looking just like the doofus you might imagine you are.

So, I take this opportunity to give thanks to anyone who has ever taken me aside and said, "Uh, um, not like that, like THIS." Just some of the help I've received in the past year:

• What gear I should be in at the start of a crit.
• How to warmup before a race.
• How to carry my cross bike on long portages.
• How to manage watts on long climbs.
• The list goes on and on...

Last year, as I was prepping for my second road race, a teammate came up to me and told me I did not have enough pins holding my number to my jersey.

I was ready to snap back with, "What? Four isn't enough?" when I remembered the annoying flapping sound of my number oscillating in the wind during the PREVIOUS race.

Thanks, dude.

17th Annual Sterling Classic Road Race - May 7, 2011

The Sterling Classic has been hosted by my club, The Minuteman Road Club for 17 years and this year marked the second time I competed in the Cat 5 35+ field. Since Battenkill, I made a few trips out to the race course to remind my legs what they would be getting into going up the start/finish along Meeetinghouse Hill Road.

I also engaged in various religious, non-religious and black arts rituals in an effort to prevent a repeat of last year's horrendous weather. As in the case with Battenkill, the week leading up to Saturday had me so busy with work and personal commitments that my "taper" was dangerously close to a "full stop", training-wise. I found myself still packing up the car and cooler well past 11 pm Friday night.

Head hits pillow, eyes close, alarm goes off.  :: sigh ::

The forecast was looking very good with temps to be in the 50's and 60's with a fairly low chance of rain.

Coffee and oatmeal made and eaten, I headed out to Sterling. After a drive around the course, I head to the staging area at the school, check in with Ian R who gave the volunteers their last minute instructions. I'd be marshaling later after my race.

Pin on my number, set up the bike and start warming up along the roads near the school. Easy pedaling with a few jumps here and there to wake up the type II muscles... knowing that they would get a much more intense stirring when the race began.

Silly bike: even though I gave it a very complete tune up a few days earlier, my drive train was making an annoying clicking sound that I could not pin down. I decided that it would either be lost in the noise of the pack or could work to my advantage, letting others think I was more of a noob/fred/doofus than I really am.

Before I knew it, 8:35 rolled around and it was time for my field to assemble. Jorge H, our former club president call myself and fellow club members John R and Doran A to the front of the field and took our picture.

Yeah, we're all smiles NOW.

The pace car rolled and we started heading into town.

The driver of the pace car kept us honest by going less than 20 mph and I maintained my position at the front all the way in. My race-induced tunnel vision was fully engaged as I was completely unaware of anyone to either side of me. Looking down at my computer showed my HR already starting to climb, surely due to some anxiety about what was soon to happen.

My plan: stay with the main group and not do any ill-advised breaks for the lead like I did last year. If I found myself near the front at the end, unleash myself upon Meetinghouse Hill like no tomorrow and deal with the consequences later.

On the way up to the start, I made one more incantation to "race my race" and not freak out at the beginning if anyone took off on the hill. Up we went, the dozen or so people along the way cheered and I remained in front as the race began.

No wincing, cramping or heavy breathing. Yet.

I let a few people slip by me on MHH and as expected, regained position as we continued under the 190 overpass. Nothing much to report on lap one except that at one point on Route 12, an unattached rider got a few yards ahead of the rest of us and wove his bike back and forth across the road.

Taunting? Showing off? Just feeling good? Beats me. My thought was either he was a ringer or a douche, maybe both.

For the rest of the first lap, I was variously pulling or in the top 10 wheels. Coming back around to MHH, again I lost a few places on the way up but gained them back on the next climb and after. I felt calm and reasonably strong.

When we turned from Rowley to Heywood on lap 2, I did a little seated acceleration just to keep the others on their toes, the pace was THAT leisurely at that point. The course takes a little descent right after the turn so I didn't sacrifice any matches. I got pretty far ahead and somebody who caught my wheel asked if I was serious. I barely had time to shake my head "no" when the pack swallowed us back up on the next incline.

When we got onto the newly paved North Row Road, I was maybe 3 rows back when I heard the dreaded crunch and "UGH!" and "Watch out!" that's concurrent with somebody going down. Hyper alert for the possibility of the tangle being in my path, I saw John R going by to the left of the yellow line, on his ass with his bike laid out before him. And then I heard another crunch as somehow, somebody else was across the yellow line and hit his bike.

At that instant, said to myself, "Now, it's up to YOU!" and felt as if John crashing out of the race passed on some additional "mana" and responsibility to me. I became more resolute in concentrating on my game plan.

This time, along Rte. 12, a different unattached rider had the lead position with me as second wheel. After a minute pulling or so, he began drifting to one side then then other, looking for me (or someone else) to take over. I let him know the futility in this and advised him to instead, hold a straight line and just slow down until somebody got sick of going so slow.

That somebody was me.

But I didn't pick up the pace that much and as we passed Dunkin Donuts and began the gradual climb back into town, others grew impatient with MY pace and I let them by. Somewhere along this section, I realized that John R had miraculously rejoined the race. Woot!

Once again, I drifted back through the pack up MHH but this time,  just as I was regaining contact with the group as we turned onto Heywood, two guys were 30-40 yards up the road with no one seeming to care.

Following the example set by my Cat 4 team mates in races earlier this season, I saw a chance to help John. As I passed him, I said something like, "latch on" or "let's go get 'em" and I turned on the gas. Later, somebody else confessed that he grabbed my wheel before John did but I assumed John (and a bunch of others) followed suit. I hammered hard for a good long minute until we swallowed up the break.

Could they have sustained the break? A more prudent mind would likely have said "no" but as I found out watching the 4's later on, you ignore a break at your peril: a solo break early in their race maintained a 1 minute lead for many laps all the way to victory. And you never know if you got a ringer in your field when you are racing the 5's.

Soon after that, John had a near miss at a SECOND crash on North Row. Meanwhile, even though I fired off a bunch of bullets catching the break, the peloton graciously resumed it's pokey pace, allowing me to recover once again.

We hit Rte. 12 at a reasonably fast clip, me taking a fairly wide line just in case a squirrely noob-bot lost his nerve on the turn. The pace continued to slowly increase and when we got to the DD's this time, the race was finally ON. Of course, this was the moment my quads decided to hint that they'd had enough, but I was able to continue to feather on the power without upsetting them into total crampage.

Unfortunately, others in the field were feeling a bit better than I was and soon enough, dribs and drabs of them began passing me as we rounded the turn past the fire station at the bottom of MHH. I had to stop this erosion of my postion in the race, but I knew if I got out of the saddle on the hill, I'd be a knotted mess of cramped muscle on the ground.

Meanwhile, John was ahead, in a pitched battle up the hill to the finish and was beat there by Mr. Swervy Pants from early in the race, who later confessed that he was a former Cat 2 racer returning to the sport after many years. That's two 2nd place finishes for John in a row, the last one being at Blue Hills.

For my part, I progressively shifted to easier and easier gears while ramping up my cadence. This seemed to the way to go as I reeled in three of the guys that had just passed me and, breathing as hard as I ever have in my life, wheeled across in 16th.

It's a wonder I didn't grind my teeth down to little stumps.

Turns out, I matched the climb time I recorded on the way up the first time, when my legs were "fresh". Go figure.

Afterwards, I got some constructive criticism from John R regarding the amount of time I spent on the front. I don't know, I wasn't working that hard when I was up there and yes, even if I wasn't working very hard, everyone else behind me had it easier. Could less time up front have left me with more joules for the finish?

Interesting footnote - while rooting around on Colin Reuter's road-results.com, I stumbled upon this happenstance: I finished one place ahead of the SAME GUY I beat by one place in this race last year:

(click for easier viewing)

This year, the ride back to the staging area at the school was much more pleasurable and after a quick change and repacking my bike in the car, I was headed back up to Meetinghouse Hill Road. Of course I brought my camera along and got photos of the mens 4's before I went on duty as marshal above the start/finish and later, the mens 3's, and both the pro 1/2 men's and pro 1/2/3 women's races (many more photos here):

Race Report: Minuteman Cross, Cat 4 35/45+ - Lancaster, MA

With not much of a warmup (sigh) because I was running around the course photographing the open Cat 4 race, I lined up 6th row, which was closer to the front than I thought I'd be with only one other cycocross race under my belt. Did my best on the first lap to just maintain position, passing some people on that first big climb then being passed later on in the turny bits of the course.

Somewhere in lap 2, Mark Van Lier passed by me (from starting in row 8) and I gave chase. Tried keeping him in sight the rest of the race. Played cat-and-mouse with Sweeney for a while too.

Full gallery of the Cyclocrossracing.com/Minuteman Road Club CX Race

Lap 3, as I exited the last barn turn and approached the copse of trees by the bleachers, I snagged my left brake handle in the tape, stretching out 6 ft or so diagonally across the track - dang stuff broke so easy in the wind but wouldn't when I got caught in it. It slowed some BikeBarn guy down a half-second while I cursed a blue streak and finally freed myself.

Had to do a half dozen foot-plants on turns but was glad I had the instinct to do so, woulda definitely bit it in a few cases if I didn't.

I can hardly remember going up and over the flyover, I guess it wasn't an issue for me.

Last lap, I tried to stick with Scott but couldn't, Van Liere was out of sight but I had some guy on my tail so he would have to do for me to have any last acts of heroism. As we left the corner field before the finishing straight, he was actually breathing louder than I was, so I began to hit the gas. He matched my every move, likely tucked in behind me tight to stay out of the wind.

I kept shifting up and going faster and still I could hear his huffing and puffing behind me and as I hit the line, I practiced throwing my bars "just in case" but I don't think he was coming around.

Result: 34th of 76 overall and 17th of 40 in the 45+.

I'm very pleased with how I did. My ankle/foot did not pose a problem (but did need a bag of ice when I got home) and each lap was faster than the one before (9:19, 9:09, 9:08 and 9:06). My only self-criticism was that even though my remounts went without a hitch, I did flop my ass down on the seat really hard every time - I'm lucky that the barriers were in the forgiving wood chips.

Later, when the results were up, I did not find myself on the print-out so I pestered JD between races and he reviewed the tape, found me and even complemented me on the throw.

The rest of the day, I spent taking shots of the rest of the action. I took so many shots, it required quite a few man-hours of editing to create the gallery I posted online.

Providence Cyclocross Festival - Day 1 - October 9, 2010

A beautiful Saturday morning greeted New England 'crossers as they competed on Day 1 of the Providence Cyclocross Festival. I was signed up to race but I was still feeling cautious about my ankle which left me free to photograph the goings on.

Fellow Minuteman Road Club member, John Smith bought himself an upgrade to Cat 3 over the weekend by winning the Cat 4 35/45+ on both days. Chris Pare took 3rd on day 2 in that category.

Doug Kennedy also had a great weekend, placing 4th and 7th on each day. He bumped up to Cat 2 as a result.

I covered the Cat 4, Cat 4 35/45+, Cat 3/4 Women and the U15 Juniors (1-4). Full gallery here.

Competitors make their way past the Temple of Music in Roger Williams Park.

Michael Weiler descends in Roger Williams Park.

Todd Savage leads fellow Minuteman team member John Smith up at the start of the 35/45+ heat on Saturday.

A victorious John Smith (Minuteman) as he wins the Cat 4 35+.

Nutmeg Classic Criterium - June 12, 2010

Alternate title: "4 Hours of Driving, 16 Minutes of Racing"

Pre-race: Arrived at Walnut Hll Park in New Britain, CT for the Nutmeg Classic Criterium at about 8:15 a.m. rested but not quite ready after an extremely busy week of work, including a couple of all-nighters. As I wandered about looking for where to park, I saw fellow MRC'ers, Bill T and Rob F warming up and they told me where to go. Got parked, registered and on my bike by about 8:30 and started doing loops on the neighborhood roads adjacent to the course.

Newbie racer lesson learned: use 8 safety pins, not 4 to attach your number to your jersey: with 4 pins, the flapping of my number was sure to drive me batty during the race. My Minuteman Road Club teammate, Stefan, also showed me a better way to pin the number on as well.

After lowering my coefficient of drag, I resumed my warmup. Every lap around, I got a view of Stefan jamming to who-knows-what on his iPod as he warmed up on his trainer. Couldn't tell if he was singing out loud...

As we rolled up to the start of the 4/5 Masters 30+, the 4's race was just finishing and about 10 riders from the front, mid-pack, two guys crashed HARD 10 yards from the finish line. Hate to see that right before you start your own race.

Stefan got a good slot at the front and I was right behind him. I was feeling pretty confident despite the lack of training this week. We started off pretty briskly and I set to the task of looking for some good wheels to hang onto. I had this big truck of a guy in front of me for a while but then found myself inside and in the wind (which Stefan came up behind me to alert me to, thx!). Got in the draft of some heavily tattooed guy who looked pretty strong and hung with him for laps 2-3.

Lap 4, I'm finally feeling pretty settled in, maybe just ahead of mid-pack. There were already a couple of half-hearted "breaks" and I noticed this one African-American guy who I remembered from the Thompson Raceway bike race last year and thought, "HE's who I should stick with".

After we came around the long, sweeping left that leads to the start/finish straight, I was on the outside and accelerating when I heard that sickening sound of bicycles tangling/crashing. Looking ahead and a little to the left of me, I saw the blur of cyclists going down and thought I would be able to squeeze through between them and the curb, about 18" to my right.

Sadly, their momentum took one of the bikes directly in front of me and I hit it, went over the bars (letting out a stream of expletives as I "flew") then down pretty hard. In that instant, I prepared for the next guy behind me to run me over - luckily, this never happened. I grabbed the top tube of my bike and dragged it and myself off the course and sat down in the grass to triage myself.

A little road rash here and there but my left shoulder was hurting pretty bad. One of the other two guys who didn't resume racing was still on the course with little birdies flying around his head (it turns out, he did split his helmet nearly in half). The third guy was on the side holding his RIGHT shoulder. I think two others crashed but tried to rejoin the race.

The on-site doctor thought I might have a slight dislocation but recommended I get an x-ray at the conveniently located Central Connecticut New Britain General Hospital: 3/4 of mile away on the other side of the race course, visible from where I crashed.

I hung out with an ice bag on my shoulder as Stefan, Bill and Rob finished and then Stefan drove me over to the ER. Outcome of ER visit: AC Joint Sprain, Motrin and Vicodin (whee!). I'm definitely going to visit my primary doc asap to get his opinion as I think something is definitely going on worse than a mere "sprain".

Bike triage: as far as I can tell, my bike survived unscathed. I fully expected a twisted up front wheel but everything seems fine. No head contact and my kit has no tears. The surprise happened when I walked back to my car after the crash and went to take off my bike shoes: the little release lever on the ratchety strap on my right shoe had been completely torn off. No matter how I tried to get it to release by prying at it with a screwdriver, I could not get it to release - so I reluctantly cut it off with my pocket knife.

At a clinic I participated in this spring, the lead teacher told us, "There are two kinds of bicycle racers: those that have crashed and those that will." I am now a member of the former group.

4:47 PM UPDATE: A little online research and comparison to my x-ray makes me think I've got a Type II AC Separation, but hey, I'm no expert. I'm waiting for a call from a sports doctor my primary physician recommended.

Race Report: 16th Annual Sterling Classic Road Race Cat 5 35+

Saturday 2010/05/08

Distance: 24 miles

Time: 1:15:50

Average speed: 19 mph

Weather: ungodly

Rolled out from the school in a steady rain. Whatever warmup I had done beforehand was sapped out of me on the way over to the start. As we climbed up Rowley under 190, I dropped my chain -DOH! I was able to get it back on without stopping but lost many places doing so. So I started picking my way forward through the pack, avoiding a considerable number of wobbly cyclists as we wound up and down the rollers on Heywood and North Row. At one point, I managed to pull off my sunglasses and traded the fog and droplets obscuring my vision for dirt and crud going directly into my eyes. Meanwhile, I was gulping down mouthfuls of water thrown at me by the rooster tail peeling off the wheel in front of me.

Managed to work my way the front 1/2 of the pack on the way to where Rte. 12 passes under 190, when I thought I heard Doran say something like "When is somebody going to do something?" (asked him later, it wasn't him). I was talking to John R the other day about possibly being a "rabbit" to tease some riders into expending energy early in the race.

Well, moments later, I was near the front of the pack, so I opened it up a bit on that long descent on Rte 12. I kept it at 28 mph as far up the incline on 12 back towards downtown as I could but started to fade and the pack finally passed me by. Doran later told me no one took the bait, making me the only one to expend energy early in the race.

I spent the first half of lap 2 on my own, trying to determine whether or not I could make it through 3 laps. At the midway point of lap 2, on Rte. 12, I didn't feel as spent as I did earlier so I started the hunt for people I could catch and pass. There were two guys up ahead that I started to reel in until I got to the start/finish when they pulled away and then three more people passed me.

So, me and these 5 other guys bringing up the rear had our own little race for 30th place during the final lap. Every time there was an incline, they would catch and pass me, but over the top, they would sit up and I would pass them again and get a lead on the descents. I got a really good lead the last time down route 12.

When we hit Rte. 12 for the last time, I was able to stay ahead of the others until a slow-moving Cadillac appeared right at the turn onto the finishing climb. The cop there frantically waved him on as I shouted, "GO! GO!" I was right on his bumper when he finally hit the gas and got out of the way. The other cyclists caught up to me at this point and I was sure they would pass me. I lost all sense of self and became only lungs, legs and bicycle for the next 100 yards. Of those 3, only my bike was in good working order.

The cheering section on the way up was a great help and somehow I managed to stay ahead of the others. 30th place!

The rain really came on at that point, cold faucet only, for the ride back to the school. It was a miserable two miles. When I finally made it to my car and tried to dismount, both quads were threatening to lock up forever. I looked down and they were somewhere between blue and purple in color. Took the better part of an hour to stop shivering! Hypothermia? Maybe.

Summary: I wish I'd paid attention to how much energy I was saving while still with the pack, I'm sure I would have finished with them despite the grinding start/finish hill. Two races, in each, I pulled an ill-advised move that ended up putting me well behind. Here's hoping I stay smart in the next race...

Full results

Wells Avenue training criterium 5/2/2010

Damn, I hate having to compose a blog post TWICE: after an hour of writing, Ecto (the app I use) only published the first line and lost everything else. This version is a bit briefer than the original, I may pad it with more detail later.

--

Did the "C" race on Sunday. Short version: I did not podium but did not crash or get dropped.

Longer version:

I got a lot of really good advice, wisdom and lore from Alan H, Michael C, Rich M, Bruce and others beforehand. I didn't sleep well the night before but was surprisingly calm once I got out of bed.

When called to the start, I found myself in the 4th row next to teammate, John R - he was on the inside and I was one row outside of him. At the start, everyone clipped in without incident and the pack slowly came up to speed.

I felt like I did a great job of looking for steady riders to draft in the early laps and stayed in the middle or to the front of the pack the whole time. Only gripe was that I migrated to the outside and kept finding a particular manhole cover on the back stretch that is slightly below the road surface.

I felt like I was working pretty hard but also felt like I had power in reserve, if needed. We were averaging 24 mph as we sped around. I observed that John was in a much better position, ranging from just in front of me (but still on the inside) to the very front of the pack.

A car turning off the course compressed the pack at one point and John, in a moment of inattention, lapped wheels with someone in front of him and nearly went down right in front of me but made a great recovery without affecting anyone.

A few laps in, as we approached turn 1, a rider up ahead of me pulled the left side crank right off his BB! There he was, coasting straight ahead, holding his left leg up with the pedal and crank dangling from his cleat. Lucky for all of us, he was on the outside and caused no trauma to the pack.

Prime lap (lap 7 of 17): on the backstretch another car was on the road, so we went "neutral" and I mistakenly assumed the VERY NEXT lap would be the prime (as that was how the race official described it should happen). Coming round the final turn into the straight, I found myself 2nd wheel and figured, why waste the opportunity. I managed a sprint and got out front but just before the line, the guy I was sprinting against shouted that it was NOT the prime lap... and at that moment, they rang the bell announcing the prime.

I think it was on that lap that somebody went down hard (heard the yelling/crash/helmet-on-pavement). He lay there until the end of the race until an ambulance came and took him away.

Bleh. Matches burned. Spent the rest of the race hanging onto the back of the pack, getting gapped by a few bike lengths occasionally but able to sprint back up and latch on.

On the final sprint, another rider took a dive. It was rumored that he bounced along the granite curb as he went down... OUCH! He was treated and was able to get himself home.

Conclusion: I'm very happy with how I did, I learned much and will definitely it again!

(Hehe, when I went to post a link to this on Facebook, the Captcha system wanted me to type in these words: "involved imperil")

Sunday Random Bike Pic

Vintage Cycling Photo: Track Bike, originally uploaded by rusto.

Gender Equality is Goal of UCI Proposals - But There's a Hitch

I didn't know that in the Beijing Olympics last year, there were seven track events for men and only three for women. It's admirable that the UCI is trying to even up the opportunities for gold for men and women track cyclists.

UCI president Pat McQuaid... described track cycling’s current medal bias for men as “way out of line.”

But this positive move does not come without it's cost, it would "likely would deny American phenom Taylor Phinney a chance to compete in his specialty event" (individual pursuit). Phinney hopes his Twitter campaign to raise awareness of the problem will save the event, saying that losing the pursuit "would be devastating".

Cyclo-cross: It's Impact on the Land... and the Public

A cyclocross event to be held in West Seattle had it's permit by the Parks Department shortly before race day has put a spotlight on not only the environmental impact of the racing itself, but how communication between cycling advocates and the larger community needs to improve.

Read the comments below this post to get a glimpse of not only how members of the same community can have different ideas about how public property should be used, but the varying ways in which both sides get their points across. I'm sure you've seen a similar dynamic elsewhere.

Meanwhile, it would be prudent for race organizers to plan ahead for such trouble by taking the time to produce documents like this one (PDF) that they can present to permitting agencies and the public to show how limited the damage from hosting a CX race would be as well as having in place a post-race restoration plan which might include donations to maintenance funds and having volunteers actively participate in restoration.

As cycling's presence on the public scene continues to increase, we have to be sure that the public at large gets the right impression of who we are and what we do.

Northampton Cyclocross 2009 - Day 1

Excerpts from Saturday morning's heats of the 19th Annual Cycle-Smart International/Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross:

I've uploaded all the of the shots that made the cut to this web gallery.

I got fixated with photographing the participants traversing barriers, ignoring good action elsewhere on the course. It didn't help that I had my 9 year-old in tow - my attention was half on keeping her entertained, informed of what was going on and making sure she was warm enough.

Looking forward to seeing what More Bacon at Double Hop produces from tomorrow's races.

POLL: Do you prefer the Picasa slide show (above) or Flickr embedded slide show (below)?

TD Bank Mayor's Cup - Boston on the race map!

Goals for the Fall

This is what I hope to accomplish this fall, before the really cold stuff drives me indoors:

• CRW fall century, September 20th - Two weeks away. I really enjoyed this ride last year, even though I was totally spent at the end. My hope is that there will be a few MRC members doing the ride as well.

• Major Taylor Century, October 4th - I'm looking forward to exploring some new riding routes in the Blackstone Valley, Eastern CT and Rhode Island.

• Jamestown Classic, October 12th - This would be the my second ever road race. The first was a crit, circa 1987 in CT. Participation will depend more on being able to escape family duties on a holiday (Columbus Day) than fitness/experience concerns.

• Sadly, the Wompatuck training series has already ended and the Wells Ave. series has only two more sessions, neither of which I can make. I'm targeting both for next year.

• Get out to some cyclocross events with my camera.

About Face

Distance: 35.3 mi.

Time: 1:47:10

Avg. Speed: 19.75 mph

July mileage total: 180 mi.

Weather: 67-74º, 74-45% humdity, wind C - ESE5, sunny with some clouds

Needed a change of scenery today but didn't feel like stumbling around establishing a totally new route so I rode my "U" route in opposite direction that I have every time before today. I also wanted to take it kind of easy as I hope to do 78 miles with some MRC folks tomorrow morning - it's only 7 days until the CRW C2C ride and I've only a couple longer rides under my belt so far this year.

It was below 50º overnight so I took my time getting on the road, leaving the house at 9:45 when the temperature finally hit the mid-60's. I got right to riding the route, using the early miles to West Concord as my warmup. Once I got across Rte. 2, I started pushing a bit harder but not too much.

Riding up Lowell Road/Concord Street past the Middlesex School is always an exercise in concentration for me: it's such a gradual slope up that it's easy to slow down much more than the incline warrants. I was able to keep my speed at or above 20 mph the whole way.

Rounding the corner onto 225 west presented me with those three hills that dog me when I ride this route clockwise but on the backside of each, none of them were much trouble as they slope much more gently to the east. I was in that little corner of Westford where 225 and 110 meet before I knew it.

Riding out of Littleton Center back down to Foster Street was a nice change from the way I usually ride it: the road condition is much better on the southbound side. I got my comeuppance when I actually turned onto Foster, I was presented with a minefield of freshly patched pot holes. I was able to dodge the pot holes themselves but cars had already loosened up the patches, strewing loose asphalt all over the place. Little black bits where flinging themselves up, making a sort of experimental music composition as they pinged off my downtube and chainstays.

Newton Street is a treat to ride in a southerly direction, the grade down is slight enough to give you the illusion you are cranking out at 25 mph by leg power alone. At this point, the sun was fully out and the temperature was in the mid-70's (according to my cyclocomputer, it was 80) but it felt much cooler as the humidity was low and my perspiration evaporated as soon as it made contact with my jersey.

The rest of the ride, I poked along, not pushing terribly hard - I had to remind myself that I needed to save some juice for tomorrow morning. More importantly, I seemed to have synchronized how I felt with how well I was riding - quite different from yesterday's experience.

[ RACING ]

A recurring train of thought through many of these recent rides is the idea of doing some racing next season. At the MRC Twilight Criterium a few weeks ago, a fellow club member did some gentle arm twisting to get me to race that day but I demurred, claiming that I wasn't ready and that I would race next year. Well that was half true: I wasn't ready.

At the time, I just said what I said to get him off my back but I've been wondering if I could manage my fitness level well the rest of this year, over the winter and get some training that might allow me to start next year with some of the Wells Ave. crit series.

I'm quite leery of pack racing at the entry level: you never know who you are riding with. One dumb-ass mistake by some noob (that includes me) could totally trash bike and rider. As a freelance photographer, my financial buffer against disaster is rather thin - I need to be ambulatory all the time or I'm out of business. And right now I can't afford to replace a destroyed bike.

Photos from MRC's 2009 Twilight Criterium to Benefit Cystic Fibrosis

A selection of the many photos I took Saturday at the crit in Thompson, CT. You can see more here. If you're interested in buying prints or a high res file, there's an email link at the web gallery.

Catching Up

Eked out a couple of nice days for mini-vacation on Thursday and Friday although my daughter capped it by barfing in the hallway at 2 a.m. which cut sleep time to about 3 1/2 hours before I had to wake and head to CT for the MRC Twilight Crit. to Benefit Cystic Fibrosis.

The day at the races was enjoyable enough for a) not racing b) only actually seeing 3 of the races. The weather was about the best we've had around here all month. Sunny, dry, not much wind. I spent the morning with Bill P and Gary S of the MRC at the entry gate, having people sign a liability waiver required by the track.

When the juniors prepared to race, I left the gate, grabbed my camera and headed for the track. Next thing I know, I've squeezed off 1000 frames over the course of 3 races: the juniors, women's 3/4 and the men's 3/4 (I could be wrong about the class on this one). I wish I could have stayed longer (more MRC members raced later) but had to go at 4 p.m. I'll have some of the photos on my flickr page by tomorrow afternoon.