Norwell Circuit Race - August 1, 2010

Did the Norwell Circuit Race yesterday, the first race back after crashing at the Nutmeg Classic in June.

I had my ups and downs: I was among or near the top 10 for nearly the whole race until the last time on Forest street when all the "sleepers" behind me woke up and got moving. If, as one of my MRC teammates reports, our race was split into two groups, it seemed like the whole front group engulfed me on the final climb which means I probably placed around 25th I'll update when the results are posted on BikeReg. [UPDATE: I placed 22nd, just behind team mate Scott Sweeny.]

The good:

• stayed near the front for most of the race (the sounds of the two crashes reverberated in my mind for a couple of laps)
• kept my wits about me when some numbskull wouldn't hold his line ON A STRAIGHTAWAY and I had to put my hand on his hip to let him know he was drifting into me. I was directly behind another guy, so no room at the inn for him, but the drifter kept coming and nearly pushed me into the cyclist to my left.
• there were a couple of instances where I got gapped a little by the few people in front of me but I was able to steadily regain contact without panicking

The bad:

• not enough warmup: the first time up Circuit Street sucked big time, shoulda done some short jumps to get the Type II muscles fully awake
• spent too much time in the first three laps out in the wind - not in the lead, maybe 5 wheels back but to the side, pulling a bunch of lunkheads behind me - I should have worked harder to find a slot where I could rest up a bit
• my rear brake was rubbing (sigh) on the Circuit Street climb when I got out of the saddle, I couldn't tell if it was really slowing me much but I chose to spin my way up instead (the good thing was, except for the last time up, I didn't lose any places doing so)
• absolutely nothing left for that last climb up Circuit Street, I struggled up as bike after bike surged by me

I'd be kidding myself if I thought I was doing very much more than hanging on by the skin of my teeth the whole race, but I'm proud of the fact that I did most of it towards the front of the pack and not tagging along in the back.

Looking ahead on my calendar, I don't see any opportunities for further road racing for me this year. I am planning on photographing the upcoming Grand Prix of Beverly and the Salem Witches Cup so watch out for the galleries that will result.

[UPDATE 8/11/2010: I totally forgot about the Jamestown Classic, on Oct. 11th, so I still have something to aim for this season!]

Sunday Random Bike Pic

Jul 15, originally uploaded by b_Ren0.

The Hidden Damage

So, all of a sudden, with one day to go before returning to racing (Norwell Circuit Race), right at the start of a 40-mile easy group ride, my front derailleur doesn't respond to my repeated flicks/click of the lever or even to tugging directly on the exposed part of the cable as it runs along the side of the bike's down-tube.

Hrm, I think to myself, this sucks.

Somehow or other, I managed to get the thing working again and get through the ride today with minimal shifting between chainrings.

Upon returning home, I take another look at my setup and remember that although my bike came out of last month's crash almost completely unscathed, the one obvious thing that happened was that the newly-installed FD cable housing that runs from the shifter to the barrel adjuster on the down-tube got a wee bit kinked. Well, it turns out a lot more happened to it than that.

Reluctant to do anything major to my drivetrain the day before a race but anxious about having a mechanical that would take me out of the running, I loosened up the cable locking nut and tried to thread the cable back through the housing. It took some effort to pull the housing away from the shifter and once I had it completely off, it was plainly evident what the problem was:

Whoah!

My guess is that as the bike and I tumbled over, the housing smacked the ground and drove the end right through the little plastic cap. The frayed end of the housing did no damage to the cable itself but was pressing on the side of the shifter, impairing it's proper functioning. it's a wonder that it worked for the last six weeks at all.

I had an extra set of cables and housings on hand, made the swap, adjusted the FD and the RD and things were ship-shape again.

Only thing left to do before tomorrow is get a good night's rest...

Sunday Random Bike Pic

2010 CRW Climb to the Clouds

MRC mate, Tony W, and I set out at 7:20 from CCHS and ambled our way towards Wawa, with the goal of maintaining 20-ish mph on the flats. We'd latch on to groups of various sizes along the way and move on – there was the usual mish-mash of folks who could hold a line and wobbly "freds" on fancy Cervelo's, Treks, etc.. It was hot, but dry, so we were never miserable due to the heat, but it was easy to forget to hydrate as I barely worked up a sweat the whole way.

I was loving the 12-27 cassette I picked up this week: that 27 tooth cog helped me spin up every ramp without a hitch. Mile Hill Road was still a load of work, but I never felt like I was going to plotz as I worked my way up.

At the visitor's center, we watered up, etc. and just as I was going to suggest to Tony that we go, Bruce, Jeff L and Brian (also of the MRC) roll up, providing a good excuse to extend the stop. It seemed like Bruce knew every other person there – he'd turn around and there'd be someone else he'd say "Hello" to.

Soon, we were underway again (Brian a little bit before we did, with the expectation we'd pass him later on).

The next leg is my favorite part of the ride with long, curving descents and high speeds winding back down the mountain, into Princeton and to the first official CRW rest stop. It was great doing the next 25 miles or so with a squad of friends. Before I knew it, we were at Berlin Orchards, the location of the 2nd rest stop.

Bruce and Jeff watered up quick and got going right away to finish up their metric. I was starting to get those "warning cramps" in my quads and hamstrings, so between glugs of water and chomps of pbj, I did a little stretching in the hopes that I'd get 25 more miles out of my legs before anything dramatic happened.

Tony and I got going again and made our way back into Harvard, up the last big climb of the day and into more familiar territory. Down Stow Road then left on Old Harvard. During this stretch, we reeled in a fairly large group of 12-15 guys who were keeping a pretty decent pace of 22-24 mph. In fact, it was just ONE cyclist setting the pace with everyone else benefitting from his effort. We must have logged 10 or so miles with him at the front almost the whole time.

When we finally crossed into West Concord and were less than 7 miles from the end, I got up out of the saddle to close a small gap that opened up with the guy in front of me. In that instant BOTH hamstrings cramped up solid - GAH! I got off the road and managed to dismount without aggravating the crampage as our ticket home faded away. Bleh.

A couple of minutes stretching and I was back on the bike with Tony providing a very welcome "tow" back to CCHS. For the 100 miles, I logged the bike time as 5 hours, 21 minutes with 5,810 ft of climb.

Song stuck in head: Friday I'm in Love - The Cure

Climb to the Clouds this Sunday

Had my training scheduled "just so" as this Sunday's CRW Climb to the Clouds Century loomed ahead. The plan was to ride hard Wednesday with the MRC as usual, spin for 90 minutes Thursday, do the MRC FMR (Friday Morning Ride - short but intense hill intervals) and "rest" on Saturday as I do 10 hours shilling tripods at a trade show.

So much for that plan. I picked up a gig today that kept me away from the bike and my wife's PT appointment Friday morning means I'm driving our daughter to camp then part two of today's gig starts soon after and continues into the afternoon.

I did manage to snag a 12-27 cassette, new chainrings and chain (all Ultegra) and a new tire at Landry's today, I'm hoping that 27-tooth cog helps some on Mile Hill Road.

So, the new plan is to get home quick after the shoot and do a 2 hour moderately paced ride before the sun goes down. When I get back from the trade show on Saturday, I'll do all the prep for Sunday morning: load my bike, gear and food in the car, mix up bug juice (and have extra powder dosed into baggies), lay out my kit, have a decent dinner and get to bed early.

The First Week Back

Well, it's the end of the first week back on the bike since the crash and I must say, I'm pleased. I've logged five rides of distances up to 63 miles totaling over 210 miles.

Did a decent job on the Wednesday night ride, though I faded pretty hard the last couple of miles. Managed a respectable sprint at the end of this week's Friday Morning Ride. Had a fantastic (and fast) ride out to Wachusett Mtn. (no summit) and back with former MRC member and current Spinx Team rider, Tom Ball and tri-guy Bob Crane. I topped all that off with a one hour run (longest ever for me) this morning with fellow MRC guys, Steve K and Jim L.

A little shoulder pain here and there but so far, my body is repairing itself admirably. My bike, on the other hand, needs serious attention: it's making all kinds of new sounds "down there". Tomorrow will be an easy ride and much time in the driveway doing a good tear-down/clean/lube/adjust.

Dang It All!

Got all geared up to ride at 6 a.m. this morning with some of the MRC guys and about 5 minutes before I had to leave the house, I remembered that I cut the adjustable strap on my right Specialized bike shoe when I crashed because the release had completely come off.

I rushed to the basement to take the SPD pedals off the old Bianchi (in hindsight, I should have just rode THAT bike) and then up to the garage to put them on the LeMond. Thing was, I simply could not remove the KEO's from the LeMond: my shoulder hurt pretty bad as I tried. If I want to get the pedals off, I'll have to remove the cranks, put them in a vise and get some extra leverage using my long torque wrench.

Very frustrating. Silly of me not to remember about the cut strap.

After some foot stomping and mild curses, I headed inside to look online to see if I could get replacement parts for the shoe. Specialized has the buckles in stock but no straps in black... why in heavens name would they not allow online shoppers to backorder parts that are out-of-stock is beyond me, especially since their current shoe line uses the same straps. There are no other online sources for the straps and buckles in the U.S.

I could order grey/white straps which might look a bit strange, but I held off since it's Sunday and who knows WHEN I'll actually get the parts. I'll check in w/Landry's later today. While a new pair of shoes would be tempting, I'd rather put the $$ into some Speedplays...

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Now, I'll tip-toe upstairs and change into shorts & t-shirt and try to adjust my attitude by running a few miles.

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UPDATE 8:00 a.m. - Felt like I could run 4 miles but my right calf started to hurt right as I finished one lap of 2 miles. And I still need to mow the lawn today.

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UPDATE 5:30 p.m. - Landry's came through again: got me a new strap and buckle for the damaged shoe. I was so happy, I bought some Speedplay Zeroes.

Tomorrow, back on the bike!

On Foot

Two weeks after the crash and I'm healing pretty well. Put the sling aside over the weekend and managed to get a couple of 2 mile runs in with no incident. Managed do the route at 7' 30" per mile pace. Shoulder movement has improved quite a bit but a photo assignment last Saturday revealed that if I go beyond my current range of motion, it hurts pretty bad.

Running out of Vicodan, which I've only been taking before bedtime, but I seem to be able to sleep through the night now without rolling over on the injured side and waking myself in extreme pain.

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6/22: I'm writing this from Baltimore Airport, waiting for a connecting flight to Louisville to visit the in-laws. Plotted out a nice two-mile loop in a residential neighborhood across the way from the hotel where we are staying and packed some running duds but, as we pulled into the airport parking lot in Manchester, NH, I realized that I did not pack my running shoes.

Crap!

The hotel is a stone's throw from a sprawling shopping mall, so I'll probably go buy a pair of shoes later today. I'm planning on returning to training on the bike when we get back home this weekend. It really sucks to get hurt just as I was nearing peak fitness and getting used to dicing it up in races.

Meanwhile, this past Saturday, two of my MRC teammates did very well in the Purgatory Road Race: Doug K won the Cat 5 35+ quite handily and Len E took 4th in a very strong Cat 4 35+ field. Great job, guys!

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6/26: Leaving KY in a couple of hours. Got some decent New Balance running shoes and a Timex Triathlon watch that has an HR strap, have done 3 runs of varying distances/speeds over fairly hilly terrain. Anxious to get home and get back on the bike tomorrow if the weather allows...

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.

Crash mars 37th Sunapee Road Race

Many fellow MRC Cat 5'ers were sitting in good position today when the crash occurred in the Cat 4 group ahead of them. Officials stopped the race to clear the injured, which took over an hour and ended things for the 5's. Our own Rob Follansbee evaded the carnage to take 9th in the 4's.

What next?

It's bad enough cyclists have to deal with inattentive drivers and the repercussions of fellow cyclists who ride without regard to safety (also note all the motorists who roll the stop signs), but now the haters are taking it to a new level by actively causing cycling accidents.

One of several crashes caused by tacks repeatedly thrown on racecourse:

Leonardtown Criterium Crash - Pro/1/2 Race from Bryan Vaughan on Vimeo.

Be sure and check out the comments in the Washington Post article, it never seems to take long for the "all cyclists are elitist/scofflaws" crowd to show up.

Video: Team Sky TT training outside Amsterdam

Watch for the water bottle tossed by a passing motorist at the team at 3:20. If you can't stand techno music, mute your sound now.

[via cyclinginquisition.com]

Sunday Random Bike Pic

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.

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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

, originally uploaded by Old Chum.

Train in Rain (and Snow)

Indoors, that is. After last weekend's tease, I re-sentenced myself to the basement trainer sessions and to finish up watching BSG season one. I did get out on Monday before descending back into the depths:

MONDAY 2010/02/22

Distance: 22.9 miles

Time: 1:17:25

Averge speed: 17.76 mph

Weather: 43-46º, 49-43% humidity, wind WNW 9 Gusts 16 to NE6

Started out much too hard and fast for this early in the season on my "CC" route which is pretty flat. Not much to report except that all the sand, frost heaves and potholes made for a more interesting ride. By the time I was coming back into Stow, I was "pre-cramping" in both calves so I shortened the ride by about 2 miles via some shortcuts back towards home.

Sunday Random Bike Pic

Bicycle Art - Downtown Portland, OR (Explored!!), originally uploaded by Brandon Christopher Warren.

Ah, The Great Outdoors

Distance: 38.2 miles

Time: 2:09:22

Avg. speed: 17.7 mph

Weather: 36-46º, 61-46% humidity, wind NW9-W12

Song stuck in head: Kitchen Girl (Old-time banjo song)

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So nice to do an outdoor ride this morning. Last one was way back in November.

Even though the thermometer gave a reading colder than I think I have ever rode in, it didn't seem so bad once I got going. But the pre-ride prep in the garage was pretty chilly, needing to pull my gloves off long enough to stretch my booties over my shoes and zip them up (I've moved them indoors for the time being).

As I rode to the meeting place for today's ride, I realized I had completely forgotten how to pair and reset my cyclocomputer - all the while being careful not to take a dive on the extremely well-sanded neighborhood streets along the way.

9 a.m. rendezvous with Smudger, Kyle, Ian, Bill P and Stefan at Stow Plaza and we set out a few minutes later, heading west along 117 to turn right on Harvard Road to meet up with Skip and head up into Harvard. We looped partway up Stow Road, went left on Westcott and pretty much ran the Wednesday night route in reverse all the way past Fruitlands and back to Harvard Center. We kept a pretty modest pace, just under 20 mph. I was keeping up with the group very well but all the while, my heart rate was higher than expected (about 160 bpm), which I chalked up to adrenaline.

From there, we took Littleton road out of Harvard and passed on climbing Pinnacle Road. As soon as we made that decision, I was partly hoping we DID go up Pinnacle: Littleton Road is a terrible gauntlet of frost heaves, pot holes and loose pavement. This wouldn't have been the first time I nearly shook all my fillings out. There really wasn't a good line along this stretch all the way into Littleton Station where the road condition finally improved.

We zig-zagged across the railroad tracks to pick up Harwood Ave. which we road to Nashoba Road and went around Nagog Pond. The pace picked up appreciably during this stretch, the short climbs along the way started to stretch our little group out a bit.

We rode a little way east on 119 then south on 27. I was starting to find myself fade little bit on the inclines at this point - I didn't feel tired but my legs just were giving me the horsepower needed to keep up. We then went west on Newtown Road, then picked up Arlington Street which we rode into West Acton and finally made our way back to the start along Central Ave., Martin Street and Red Acre Road.

With a two month jump on last year, things are looking good.