2010/05/22
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.
2010/05/19
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.
2010/05/17
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]
2010/05/16
2010/05/11
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...
2010/05/05
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")
2010/03/28
2010/02/27
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.
2010/02/21
Sunday Random Bike Pic
Bicycle Art - Downtown Portland, OR (Explored!!), originally uploaded by Brandon Christopher Warren.
2010/02/20
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)
--
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.
2010/01/31
2010/01/19
Shut Out of Harpoon B2B in Less Than 1 Minute!
That's right, I was awake and alert at 7 a.m this morning, fingers at the ready to hit "Reload" on the B2B registration page.
"CLICK"
Furiously, I typed in the required information on the page and hit "Submit". To my astonishment, the slots were all taken by the time my submission made it to the B2B server.
Now all I can do is hope I can snag someone else's slot for the ride.
2010/01/17
2009 Rehash - 2010 Goals Set
Got a 1 hour trainer session in yesterday and again today - this momentum will help me get caught up on the backlog of Heroes episodes I've collected since the fall. Felt pretty good, considering I hadn't been on the bike or trainer since early November. Sheesh.
Good news is my period of winter laziness was much shorter than last year - as long as I stick to it. Let's take a look back at 2009 and see how different it was from 2008:
- I bumped my total mileage up 9.5% from 2,640 miles to 2,889.
- My total "saddle time" was down 2%, largely due to the complete lack of indoor trainer sessions early in 2009 and the very late start of road work (May).
- For the same reason, I only logged 101 days with rides in '09 while in '08, I got in 112. Can't complain as most of those 101 days were on the road and not trainer sessions.
- Average monthly weight for the year was 172 vs. 2008's 177 lbs. (I'm starting 2010 at 169)
Things I'm happy about as I look back on 2009:
- Went from getting dropped to not only keeping up with the MRC Wednesday night crew but having a few very respectable performances.
- Rode 3 centuries during the year: Climb to the Clouds, Chatham-Provencetown and back, CRW Fall Century
- Regularly mixed in some good core body exercise as well as started to log a few running miles.
Disappointments:
- No Wells Ave. races
- Couldn't afford to buy a CX bike.
- Didn't enter any races
- Got sick in the late fall and stayed off the bike until new year
Ok, enough about the past - what about the coming year? How about a few goals?
- Complete the Harpoon B2B
- Centuries
- Mount Greylock
- Climb to the Clouds (set new PR)
- CRW Fall Century (set new PR)
- Enter 5 Wells Ave races (early season)
- Enter Sterling Classic
- Enter 5 Charlie Baker time trials
- Save pennies for a CX bike and race it in the fall
- Make running a regular part of weekly workouts
- Set PR's for 20 and 40 miles
Is that too many? I didn't want to make it too easy!
2009/12/27
Sunday Random Bike Pic
Matt on CBC, originally uploaded by andy_c.
2009/12/24
Merry Christmas!
UPDATE: This photo has been selected by Suburban Assault as a "Hump Day Pic of the Week". Thanks, dickdavid!
2009/12/23
Even Naked, You Must Ride With Protection
With a few months of basement-bound indoor training ahead, it warms my heart to find news articles like this one:
Two young men caught cycling with no clothes on have escaped charges of offensive behaviour, but received a warning to wear protective headgear.[via BBC News]Local policewoman Cathy Duder was unfazed when she came across the two nude men, both in their early 20s.
"They were more shocked than I was, trying to cover up their bits and pieces with their hands," she said.
...
Ms Duder issued them with a stern warning for not wearing helmets and then sent them directly home.
2009/12/20
2009/12/08
How Different My Childhood Would Have Been
Soak in this wonderful custom tricycle crafted by Sasha White, of Vanilla Bicycles . With a stainless steel front end, Phil Woods hub and a cherry rear deck with the Vanilla script inlaid in stainless steel.
[via Burstoid (some NSFW pics)]
2009/12/06
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