Mike's Bike Blog

We've fallen a bit behind on the race reports, so this will be a cumulative report.

Driveway Springs Fling Race Series photos:
Jack took 3rd place for the series, he only made 3 or 4 of the races in the series but scored enough points to hold onto 3rd place.

Cedar Park Kids Triathlon photos:
Jack was 11th in the 11-12 year old category
Ethan was 16th in the 9-10 year old category
Zeb was 15th in the 7-8 year old category. Zeb crashed 1/2 way through the bike course when he was attempting to pass a group of riders and hit a cone. He lost time while the volunteers tried to talk him into riding back in the truck with them and he just wanted them to put his chain back on. They got the chain on and he finished the ride then posted the 5th fastest run time.

Ranger Triathlon photos:
Jack - 3rd (11-12)
Ethan - 10th (9-10)
Zeb - 8th (7-8)
We learned a hard lesson on this one. Normally we stick around for the awards presentation even if the boys are out of contention for a trophy. However this time we saw the results and they had Jack at 4th and the awards weren't slated to start for another 30 to 45 minutes. Everyone wanted to get home for lunch so we headed home. When we got home I saw the results were already posted and someone in Jack's category must have not done the appropraite bike laps or run as Jack was now 3rd!

Saturday

The stage was set for an epic race and for some it probably was. You see the temperature at the 8am start was right around freezing and the clouds looked threatening. The start of the 35+ 4/5 race was with dry roads except for one puddle but that soon changed after lap 1 when the heavens opened and it started to rain. Our pace wasn't going to set any records before but once it started to rain everybody shut down. Then at the end of lap 1 it started to hail.

Now the weather was perfect for me. Even Joe Doyle, Team Lifesize, thought so as he mentioned it as we started on the long hill section. The problem was I was riding with 30 guys who don't spend much time in inclimate weather and it showed. When the course is run clockwise, like the Saturday race the hills aren't too much of a factor. However several riders had mechanicals of dropping their chains. I saw at least 4 guys drop their chains in different sections. Anyway, I didn't want to attack too much and not have enough for the finish in the event nothing stuck, so I rode near the front waiting for another team or someone else to attack. That never happened, we rode at such a mellow pace my ending average speed was 19.6 mph! We got lapped by the 40+ lead group that started 5 minutes before us and we even got passed by the lead 4/5 group that started 5 minutes after us.

Later in the race when I was about to attack we were neutralized when the 4/5s first came around us. I missed my opportunity when I hesitated, I should have went right after the neutralization and I might have gotten lucky when the second wave of 4/5ers came through and neutralized the field again. It was a missed opportunity.

As we came to the start/finish on our last lap the 40+ race was just crossing the line and finishing up their race. I saw that the 40+ guys were still on the road soft pedaling and their wheel truck was still on the road. I ceased the opportunity and attacked. I was hopping in the chaos of the 40+ field I would be able to zig zag through them and get away. It was good on paper but in the end everybody was way to fresh still from the mellow pace and at the start of the long hill everybody was right there with me. The gap I had hoped for was not there so I just readied for the inevitable sprint finish.

Once again I lost too much ground on the final decent for the final 200 meters and had to come from like 20th place but I finished 13th.

Break away attempt on the last lap

Sunday

For Sunday's race the course was run counterclockwise, so it's the same elevation but instead of a long steady climb the elevation is packed into shorter and steeper hills. The start temperature was right at freezing so that had a few guys staying in their cars and going home. The steeper hills bit quite a few people not in the right gear and they would just stop or drop their chain in an attempt to shift too much. The surprising thing was that even on lap 2 and 3 guys would be dropping chains or be in the wrong gear for the steep ascents as if they were surprised by the hills. Each time through the hills we'd lose a few guys. On lap 3 or 4 I'm in the middle of the pack on the right side when I notice that I'm boxed in. I'm right against the curb to my right a guy right in front of me, one right on my left and guys all around breathing very heavy. This worried me and no more did I get the thought materialized when a gap started to form and there was nothing I could do. The field splintered into 2, it took 15 seconds or more for me to get through the blockage. A couple guys attempted to go with me as I tried to bridge the gap but at the top of the hill I think I was all alone and I caught back to the main group as they were making the hard left turn and starting the long downhill. I made it but pretty much fired all my bullets in the process.

I surveyed the competitors in the field and saw that Jason Newman of Team Concept was talking with Oktay Demirdal of Violet Crown. This seemed to be a little more than idle chit chat. I didn't have to wait long as Jason and Oktay attacked. The first attack didn't go anywhere but Jason attacked again and got a little gap. I got on Reed Frank's (Team Concept) wheel as I figured Jason was setting Reed up for a counterattack.

On the second to last lap I was really feeling it and I wasn't able to meet the surge up the hill at the start finish that the field put out. This was the beginning of the end for me. I caught back on on the steep section momentarily but it was a fight to stay in contact. The rest of the race was the slow dismantling of me. Not only was I shelled but my Garmin had enough too and froze up and upon later inspection corrupted my ride file. I did pass some 4/5s that were still on the course and pulled them around for a bit. I didn't jump into their rotation as I didn't want to get dinged for working with a different race. As we came to the finish I let them sprint amongst themselves as the last thing I wanted to do was get taken out sprinting for no reason as we were all out of contention for anything but a high five for finishing.

The end result was 16th place, 2:53 behind the winner Reed. Once again I called the race winner. The next guy to finish after me was over 3 minutes behind me.

You might recall last year's Walburg Classic as I missed the winning breakaway group but instead of just sitting in I went for it at mile 30 and ended up placing 7th. This year's "Plan A" was to get into the winning breakaway. Plan B was to blow up trying to get away and to inflict as much punishment as I could in the process. During the week I talked to Enrique Varela (North West Cycling Club) and we hatched a plan after seeing which direction the wind would be coming from to attack right after the headwind into a crosswind.

The weather for Walburg is historically bad, it's usually raining with 30 mph winds. A couple years ago I had to actually stand up and sprint going downhill just to keep enough forward momentum going. This year it was just a bit overcast and the legendary wind was nowhere to be found.

From the start I tried to be in the front of the 75 guy pack yet it was still pretty touch and go. We'd get up to 21 mph then drop back to 18 so the yoyo was in effect. I was hugging the yellow line biding my time to move forward at the next opening when someone was trying to sneak around me on my left. I was already pretty close to the yellow line yet this guy wanted through. Typically in these situations the guy wanting through will put his hand out and touch your thigh or back to let you know he's there when it's a really tight squeeze.  Not this guy, he put his hand right on my ass and not just for a quick moment, it was there while he rode around me for a good 20 seconds. I wasn't sure if I should tip him or if I should receive the tip.

As we made the right hand turn out of the wind I came from about 20 guys back and hit the gas. Enrique was about 5th wheel back and saw me coming around and he jumped on along with 1 or 2 other guys. We started a rotation but with one guy that couldn't or wouldn't pull through anything faster than 23 mph it was futile as everyone was still right there with us. As we fell back into the pack Enrique said we should try again at the same spot I went last year.  I ended up pulling more than I should as nobody wanted to do any work and I didn't want to take my chances with the pack and their yo-yos and plus the groper was still there. The wind wasn't that bad so I stayed up front till mile 30 and I would unleash my attacks.

I guess you could say I was a marked man, I had a Team ALS-C3 in my draft the entire time. I attacked and he would just be right there, not pulling through just getting the free ride until everyone caught back on. So for the next 10 minutes I would try various attacks. I'd hit em on the hills, I hit em over and over but nobody wanted to pull through. I finally had enough of my shadow and wanted to make him suffer, I knew my day was done so I had to fall back to "Plan B" and make people know they were in a race. Between attacks my shadow would reach down for his bottle and as soon as he would raise it to his mouth I'd attack. I did this 3 or 4 times he'd go for a drink. That alone for me was worth the entry fee. I never did get away and in the end it was my undoing but "if you want to win, you must try" - Jens Voigt.

Into the wind the teams finally came up to the front to try and control it a bit. As we made the final right turn back into the crosswind the guy in the white Mellow Johnny's kit gave it a go and I grabbed his wheel, once again we didn't get any gap so I figured I'd recover as best I could for the final sprint. As we're coming down a small hill that then starts the rollers to the finish a guy upfront swerves and 2 others lock up their brakes and start fish tailing across the road in front of me. I slow up and lose all momentum and in the sprint to try and catch back on my last match fizzled out. I rode just off the back of the pack not being able to close the gap. At the end of the day I was 32nd. I didn't have any teammates in this race, they ended up racing the straight up cat 4 race, but I like to think I set them up for the Sunday race at Pacebend. I say this because out of the top 10 in the 35+ 4/5 race most raced either the Cat 4 or the 35+ 4/5 on Sunday but only 1 guy was able to repeat in the top 10 and only 2 others were able to squeak into the top 20. Congratulations to Enrique on placing 6th in our race and 19th on Sunday.

This was by far the most fun I've had racing, yes I've had better results but to be on the offensive and being aggressive was so much more enjoyable than sitting in and playing it safe.

This past weekend in Castroville, TX, just outside of San Antonio was the third running of the weekend races. Saturdays criterium is on a .7 mile jogging/bike path. The course is what I would consider flat with one small rise. The past 2 times they've held this event I've always pasted on it, it was just far enough of a drive that I couldn't justify the hotel expenses. However this time around under Holland Racing's direction they added a 10-14 year old 4/5 division to the mix. This category really seemed geared for the first time racers and the younger kids as the crit was 20 minutes and the road race on Sunday was 5 miles. This category was perfect for Jack and for Ethan to start his first USA Cycling race. So we packed up the family and headed over to San Antonio for a weekend of races.

The boys crit was scheduled to be the first race on Saturday however on Friday mother nature had other plans by snowing in Central Texas. Granted it had all melted by 4pm, the time we headed out, it was enough to warrant a change in schedule. Instead of having a 8:30 start the time was changed to 11am and all the juniors would start at the same time but be scored separately. One other change that was announced is that not only were they going to be running all juniors at the same time but the race would be 30 minutes. I was a little worried about Ethan and how'd he do with 10 extra minutes. Luckily their race was stopped around the 20 minute mark to get the kids off the course before the other juniors started to wind up their speed on the narrow course. In their category there were 2 other racers, Conner Herrington of King Racing Group and Marshall Petronilo Cyclelogic.

As the boys were getting ready to warm up Ethan came down with a migraine headache. We quickly gave him some medicine while Jack and I rode a few laps of the course before coming back to the car to pick up Ethan who was feeling much better.

The boys got off to a slow start as Conner and Marshall gunned it from the start. They didn't panic and quickly got into a groove and caught and passed Marshall. Jack was riding really good, but Ethan was having trouble shifting up to his big ring. So he spun the entire race at about 130 rpm as he couldn't shift down past his 14t either as they were blocked out. With 1 lap to go Jack was coming up to Ethan again and that was all the encouraging he needed and he pushed it even harder on the last lap as he lapped his brother. He wasn't too far behind the Conner the winner. Jack came in 2nd and Ethan 3rd.

Cat 4
My race was next as I was racing in the Cat 4. With about 10 minutes till the start I hopped on the open course to get a few laps in as warm up but as I came to the start/finish they were already lining up and I was already in the back. A position I didn't improve upon the entire race. For 50 minutes I was stuck in the back unable to improve my position much on the narrow course. There was really only 1 spot I would seem to make ground and that was on the 3rd corner. The pack would slow before the corner and go wide while I would not slow and take the inside corner and come out ahead but then would be sprinting into the wind. As soon as I would get ahead it would seem people in front were start to let a gap grow, especially into the wind section and fall off the back. That would leave me to catch back on. In all the jostling and bumps my Garmin rattled to the side of my stem so I couldn't see it, but I was so looking forward to downloading the data as it was 50 minutes of pure FTP riding. If I had to guess I had to average 300 watts. I ended up 21st. Even more disappointing was the fact that when I adjusted the Garmin it was off! I turned it on and it said the battery was low. It only captured 7 minutes of the 50 minute race, of those 7 minutes I was averaging 337 watts. Trevor Brooks 787 Racing won the race, but was later regulated to 5th place for not reporting to junior rollout. It was good to race with team mates, well I didn't race much with them as none of them were holding down the back of the pack with me, they were racing much smarter and were up at the front the entire time. The only time I rode near any of them was at the finish.

Sunday Road Race - Lambda, Lambda, Lambda
On Sunday first up was my Cat 4 race of 35 miles or 14 laps of the 2.5 mile course. In the race bible the profile for the course looked daunting with a monstrous hill at the finish and it was even described as a hill finish. I was worried for the boys, but when I checked it out on google earth I couldn't see what the profile was depicting. When we got to the venue we drove the course to get the lay of the land. The back side of the course was a slight incline but nothing the boys couldn't handle.

I felt good the entire time and was making a good effort to be up near the front. The only time I drifted back was on the 2nd to last lap when I was in the middle of the pack. We were coming up to the start/finish and the last lap when right in front of me was a huge pile up. I luckily was able to steer my way clear of the crash and I was able to catch onto the front group. It would appear that 1/2 the peloton was taken down either out or put so far back they weren't going to catch back on. That left about 15 to 20 of us to chase down a breakaway of 2 people. However we couldn't get organized. Trevor tried a couple times to get away but couldn't get away cleanly. In the end the chase fell a little short. In the end I placed 9th in the race.

The boys had a 5 mile race which was 2 laps of the course. Jack rode a good race but he was a little surprised to learn he took 3rd. He didn't realize one of the kids who lined up & started with the girls was actually in his race. As for Ethan when he came around for his 1st lap he was looking rough, but he finished strong in 5th. Ethan later said he got a headache on the first lap.

For the last couple years I've been somewhat intrigued by cyclocross, it combines dirt, mud and obstacles on modified road bikes. What's not to love about that! The only drawback is I don't own a cyclocross bike. The bikes are very similar to a road bike however the tires are a bit wider and have tread. The other big difference is the breaking system, cross bikes typically use cantilever breaks, the same break system of mountain bikes as it holds up better in mud and dirty conditions.

With Holland Racing putting on 2 cyclocross events this weekend I put a tweet on somewhat of a lark to see if anybody had a cross bike I could borrow on Sunday. Low-and-behold Glenn Garry emails me saying I could borrow his bike for the weekend. There was no backing out now.

I had minimal time to put any practice in, I rode it around the neighborhood with Zeb for about 5 miles one night and then on Saturday got out for 20 minutes of mount/dismount training and to get the general feel for shifting a SRAM drivetrain. My mountain bike shoes were airline baggage casualties from my trip to Washington state several years ago so I didn't have any SPD cleats. I did take a look at Jack's road shoes as they have SPD cleats but there was caked in limestone and other debris stuck in them that getting them off proved to be challenging. So I settled on putting on plastic clip-in platforms and wearing my running shoes. A decision I would soon come to regret.

Before my race there was a kids lap and I signed up all 3 boys for it. They got to ride an abbreviated version of the course. Jack liked it because he got muddy. Ethan was upset because he didn't get muddy enough and Zeb was happy he rode the whole thing without stopping. About 1/2 way through on one of the sharp turns Ethan started to edge in front of Jack for 3rd place and the battle was on. Jack quickly accelerated and cut Ethan off. Ethan had to come to a complete stop or run into his brother. The little gap was all Jack needed as he maneuvered through the rest of the course. He could have easily caught up to the other 2 boys that were ahead of him, but he was only there to beat his brothers.

Back to my race, what a spectacle the start of a cross race is. It's go time right from the start as guys try to get out in front to be in the lead. Joe Doyle had given me this heads up before hand but I found myself not having the acceleration I normally would when sprinting with cleats. At the first turn I was in the back and at the first sharp turn I had the guy on my left going wide and leaning into me and the guy on my right trying to go around us and leaning on me from the right. After the first switchbacks I was DFL! The race was long I knew if I settled into my own pace  knowing that I'd be seeing a few of the guys again. I would lose ground on the technical sections but quickly make it up on the straight sections. I wasn't that far back at this point. It wasn't until the 3rd of 4th lap where the distance became an issue when after the sand the rider in front of me went down and I had to stop to get around him. It was then at this point I really lost ground with the mid pack fodder. There was still a lot of racing left as the entire race was scheduled for 40 minutes. I kept working and passing a rider here and there for the rest of the race. I could tell I was probably the best condition person in the back of the race as guys were slowing down running through the sand and instead of mounting from a run they were stopping and catching their breath before getting on the bike.

Going without cleats was a very bad decision, not only did I not have the full pedal stroke at my disposal but little bumps would cause my feet to come off the pedals and at times the crank would swing back and hit me in the shin. I really need to work on my cornering skills. Cornering is my Achilles heel in crits and seems to have carried over to cross racing as well.

Are more cross races in my future? I would love to do more as there are a lot of aspects I could improve upon and I had a lot of fun. However not having a cross bike will limit my participation. For now I'll stick to road bikes. There were about 35 guys lined up at the starting line, 30 finished and I ended up 23rd.

More Photos Available

Yesterday I had a surprising tweet come through from @RoadMag:
"@RoadMag: Mike Wiland and Bruce A MacDonald you've won the Levi's Grand Fondo tickets!! Please contact us today"

My first though was "is that me?" So I emailed the contact person back to see as I do recall doing something for a contest or two recently. I went to the Road Magazine Facebook page and read the contest was for uploading a photo for a chance to win a free entry to the sold out Levi's Grand Fondo. This seemed like a contest I might had entered, but I didn't see the photo I thought I had uploaded, so I patiently waited to hear back.

In the meantime I started to check out the ride in detail and was disappointed to see the ride is on the same weekend as the Texas State Road Race championships but more importantly the same weekend as Scout Jam (Cub Scout Jamboree). The Scout Jam is something we can't miss as Jack has to camp out with a Boy Scout troop as a requirement for his Arrow of Light. Scout Jam is higher priority over the road race as I'll be missing the Saturday races and depending how it goes possibly the Sunday race as well, my fingers are crossed that I can make at least Sunday.

The only way I would be able to pull off getting to California on such short notice with my bike is if I could bum a ride with Lance on his private plane.  As it turns out there was a snafu with the contest as I got this email:

"Hey Mike, I think there was slight error... The entries were supposed to go
to someone that posted a photo.  No worries though, we'll make sure you win
something!  Our web guy is getting' fired!  Thanks for understanding."

So I was the right person just no golden ticket to Levi's Grand Fondo, probably for the best. I'm hoping they can hook me up with a 44cm road bike for Ethan, that'd be an adequate consolation prize.

Road Magazine help a guy out and support junior racing, I'm sure you guys can get me a smoke'n deal on a 44cm road bike. I bet Levi might even have one in his garage he can part with. As for firing the Web guy no need there I'm sure Neil Browne has caused much more public relation problems.

Jack and me headed down to Floresville, TX to partake in the 2010 edition of the Texas State Individual Time Trial (ITT) Championships. This was both of our first times to compete at this event. Jack was in the 10-12 year old division and I was signed up for the 35+ 4/5.

Jack was scheduled to roll out around 7am, so we had an early wake up call. We actually drove down to Spring Branch and stayed with a Cousin Angie so we only had an hour drive to Floresville from there.  For Jack his goal was to ride the 6 mile course and average 17 miles an hour.

On the ramp he did great, he was one of the few boys in his division to actually clip in before the start and roll down clipped in. The would either have only 1 foot clipped in or no feet clipped in. He thought the ramp was cool and got a kick out of it. He was off and I patiently waited for him, 21 minutes later he was on the horizon and finished in 21:29 and average 17.32mph!

Next year he'll need to average 20 mph to get to the podium, the winner averaged 21.97, 2nd: 19.89 and 3rd 19.8mph. He was happy with his result.

We had 2 1/2 hours till I rolled out at 11am, at 10 I unpacked my bike and got it set up. Art had loaned me his Mavic Carbone front wheel for a little added aerodynamics and I had a wheel cover for my Mavic OpenPro PowerTap equipped wheel. By 10:15 I was ready to start my warm up. As I started I quickly realized I was not getting any power readings. After fiddling with it a little bit there was no signal coming from the hub. A perfect time to have the batteries die!

All I could do was shrug it off, all my pacing was by watts and speed. Since I hadn't ever ridden the course I was going to be relying on the power a little more. Without it all I had to gauge myself on was speed. Going into the race I had 2 goals, to break an hour for the 40K and place in the top 10. I figured if I broke an hour it would be a given into the top 10.

I was slotted to roll 3rd from last, in fact I was suppose to be Enrique's 30 second rabbit, but due to a crash he wasn't able to compete. The person behind him didn't show either I don't think so I was left to run sweeper for the course. While watching the others roll out  I noticed the wind for the first time. During Jack's race there was hardly any wind, same with some of the earlier starts. Of course now that it was 11am not only did we get the heat but the wind too.

Finally it was my time to go and that I did. I tried to pace myself the best I could based on feel. After a few turns to get out of town I soon saw my 30 second carrot. I caught him a lot faster than I was expecting and blew past him. This worried me a little as I might be going to hard. One other thing I should mention is that the only thing I new of the course was that the promotor said there was about 300 feet of ascent for the 40K. Thus I was expecting a fairly flat course.

The further out of town I was getting the hills were rolling, nothing big, but more of them than I was expecting. Without knowing what was coming I didn't know if I should go hard up and have time to recover on a down hill. To complicate things the wind was kicking up and it wasn't a direct headwind, but a combination headwind and crosswind. As my speed started to plummet down from 26 mph. I made the decision to attack the hills and hope there was a downhill to recover.

Around mile 11 I caught my 1 minute guy and made the turn, looking at my average speed it had dipped down to 23 mph. I had hoped there would be a tailwind and in some cases there were but for the most part it was a crosswind. Not only that but when it would gust up it would catch my wheel cover and push me to the left so I was fighting a bit to stay straight. Now on the way back all those glorious downhills I used to catch my breath were now uphills. The course was relentless. I caught a few more riders and passed them but as I was making my way through town the 1 hour mark ticked off and I still had .6 miles to go. It was at this point it was the first time I could feel how tired my legs were. My speed was suffering and I was losing focus. I had to gather myself, if I didn't step up I was quickly loosing my second goal of a top 10 finish.

My final time was 1:01:44 with an average speed of 24.10 mph for a 7th place finish. Not bad, if I would have broken the 1 hour mark I would have placed second. I was expecting a time between 57:30 to 59:59. My first thought was not having the power data had cost me by not allowing me to pace myself. On reflecting I don't think not having the power data was the issue, but in all actuality not pre-riding the course was the biggest issue.

The highlight of the trip to Floreseville wasn't my 7th place finish, but after my race as Jack and me were walking back to the car he says to me, "This weekend has been so fun, it was better than being allowed to play the Wii all day, eat junk food and sit on the coach."

Jack's weekend wasn't over, on Sunday he and Ethan competed in the Inspire Kids to Tri here in Cedar Park. Jack finished 3rd in the 9-10 year old division. Ethan did great too, he finished 23rd in the same 9-10 year old division.

Check out some pictures we took of the ITT on Facebook.

This was the final race in the 1379 Kids Tri series for Jack and the 1st triathlon for Zeb and Ethan. Zeb competed in the 5-6 year old division and Ethan was in the 9-10 year old division with Jack. The Hill Country Tri also has a parent division as well where the parents time is added to the kids time to form a team. Initially the plan was for Jennifer to compete since she's been swimming and running on a consistent basis again since coming back from a lingering ITB injury.

Two weeks before the race she pulled a muscle in her shoulder and wasn't able to get into the pool and the possibility of competing wasn't looking good. I stepped in to save the day. In the 2 weeks leading up to the race I got into the pool twice just to make sure I could still float and I ran 1/2 mile that first week. I had hoped to get a little more training in but with birthday's and work deadlines I wasn't able to get more in, thus I was a bit worried, mainly for the swim.

The race was in Kyle, TX and had a 5:30am check-in time for a 7am start, thus we had a 3:00 am wake up call. We got marked, picked up chips and set up in the transition. It was here that I learned that Zeb's run was longer than what I had thought. The 5-6 year olds were running the same course as his brothers, a .6 mile run. I had thought it was a 600 meter run for some reason. Zeb was in the first wave of kids and did a good job on the swim and got through the transition and headed out on the bike for a 1/2 mile out and back. The first half is on a slight uphill.

He quickly returned and was onto the run. He started out like a firecracker. Jennifer yelled at him to slow down and pace himself as it looked like he would fizzle out at the pace he was setting. He crossed the finish line in 16:12.81, for a 4th place finish.

While Zeb was out on the running course I ran over to watch Jack enter the pool to start his race. He looked really strong in the swim and I could tell his endurance from swimming all summer had paid off. He improved his swim time and also improved his transition time as well. Both Jack and Ethan had to do 1 lap of the course which was 2.6 miles long. Jack road a personal best for any of the other Tri's he'd done, beating his speed by 2 mph.

With Jack out on the bike course and Zeb done it was Ethan's turn in his 1st triathlon. He got through the swim, not the fastest but that was to be expected as he just this summer passed through the Nitro swimming lessons and just got on the Nitro swim team. As he was getting on the bike course the volunteer wouldn't let him out on the course and fiddled with the straps to his helmet. I was surprised at this as beforehand I double checked the fit of his helmet. I had him bend over, there was no slippage and when he came back up it stayed in place. The chin strap looked good as well, there was a little clearance, about a finger and a half. Well the volunteer would grab it and pull it up and I guess he didn't like it so he messed with it for 2-3 minutes. In the end I don't think he made any adjustments before letting him proceed out onto the bike course. Once Ethan got through the bike course he was off on the run and onto completing his first triathlon!

There was 1 more wave of kids between me and my first triathlon. The time came way too fast, luckily I was seeded next to last so I figured I wouldn't have too many people passing me. There was only 1 other person behind me by the numbers, but there were a few other competitors that didn't feel comfortable with their starting position and moved to the back.

Finally the time of reckoning I got the go signal and took off and jumped into the water and started my swim. I actually caught and passed a few other swimmers. About 1/2 way through as I got to the end of a lane I needed to pass the person in front of me. She ducked under the lane line as I pushed off and attempted to streamline under the lane line to come out ahead of her in the other lane. I didn't quite make it and whacked my head pretty hard on the lane line. I finally made it through the swim, now I knew the likelihood of finishing the tri was at 98%.

I ran to my bike and started my transition to the bike. This included putting on socks and my bike shoes along with my number and helmet. As I was attempting to put on my socks my legs were wobbly. This made putting on my socks and shoes difficult.

As I got out onto the course I saw a guy in a Joe's Pro skin suit, I heard him telling someone that he had the fastest bike leg in last years race. I figured he would be a good rabbit. My plan was to average about 95% of my RunFar power, which is 107% of my FTP. The course had 2 roundabouts to negotiate which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but getting around them with other people weaving through the road I braked more than I would normally to get around them. After the first turnaround I caught and passed the Joe' s Pro rider. After the next turn around with my average power now at 110% of my FTP I decided I better hold back a little so I have something left for the run. On the 2nd and final lap the section with the roundabouts was pretty clear so I didn't have to slow up. I think I scared the volunteers as I entered the roundabouts at over 20 mph as I don't think most people carried that much speed thru.

Now all I had to do was run the 1.2 miles. The first .3 miles of course are on a slight grade. The first lap was the hardest, my legs didn't want to cooperate. When I returned to the start the boys were there to cheer me on and run with me. I turned around for the 2nd lap while the boys ran with me. Not sure if my legs finally opened up or it was the fact that the boys were watching that kept me going and not walking. The final bit the boys ran with me egging me on with the promise of shaved ice afterwards.

I got my shaved ice and we waited for the results to be posted and the awards ceremony. When results went up my overall wasn't that great and figured we were out of contention for a family award. I did place 4th in the bike, 1 minute and 20 some seconds behind Kevin Livingston. Not too shabby, but wish I wouldn't had held back. Upon looking back I don't think I could have ran any slower so I should have went harder on the bike.

When Zeb and me didn't win in the 5-6 year old parent category I figured Jack and I wouldn't win anything. I was totally surprised to hear our team being called for the 9-10 year old parent category for 3rd place.

Everybody had a good time and the boys are raring to do more races, me on the other hand I didn't get bit by the tri bug. I could see doing another family tri as they are short enough that I don't have to train for the swim or the run. If I was going to do a full on triathlon I wouldn't mind doing a relay where all I had to do was the bike portion.

This past Sunday saw me compete in the Fredericksburg Road Race for the first time. I'd heard good things about the course, that it was hilly and challenging. Oh and for the record it's not in Fredericksburg, but 23 miles outside of town in Doss. We had a full field in the 35+ 4/5 with 72 preregistered for the race. The course is billed as hilly with cattle guards and low water crossings and a rolling enclosure. So as long as you stayed between the follow car and the wheel truck you had the whole lane to race, which is good cause most of the roads were quite narrow.

I was looking forward to this race as it would be the first time to race with fellow Southwest Cycle Sport teammate Jeremy Humble. He's a very strong rider, last years State TT champion. The course was on a 22 mile loop and we were doing it 2 times so we'd get to enjoy the King of the Mountain (KOM) hill twice, but unfortunately in our race there was no KOM points like there was in the Pro 1/2 race. Our's was just for bragging rights I suppose. Of all the low water crossings there was 1 that had water and we got the warnings on it. As we got started we left at a mellow pace, even after the neutral roll out. Not sure what people were thinking, we might have had too many city boys up front because when we would come to a cattle guard we'd almost come to a stop. This was very nerve-racking as I heard someone say there were 31 cattle guards on the route. I didn't verify that number but I'd say that it is probably right.

As we hit the KOM I was still up near the front so I felt good at my positioning till I looked to see who was near me and noticed that I was boxed in by big guys. These were the guys that rushed up to the front in the hopes of not getting dropped by the time they slid off the back of the hill. I quickly shot through openings and got clear of them as not to slide down the KOM with them as they were shot out the back. The pace up the KOM wasn't bad at all. Near the top however, my back tire started to feel weighted down and spongey. At the top I asked the guy riding behind me if my tire was flat and he confirmed what I was afraid of, I was in the beginning stages of a flat.

Luckily there was neutral wheels as I didn't bring my backups as I don't have a usable cassette for them. I pulled to the side, sipped some water. Shifted to the 11 cog, looked back for the wheel truck. Took the rear wheel off, waited for what seemed like an eternity as the last of the clydesdales crested the KOM and the wheel truck finally got there. The tire change was real fast once they got there, but I was about 4 minutes down on the leaders as I found myself DFL.

I quickly caught the first group of clydesdales lumbering up the rollers as my goal now was to see if I could Time Trial my way back to the main group. I mean why let my good form go to waste. Which I should point out this was a B race for me, so I did do a mini taper for it, so I had high hopes on a good finish. I was flying in most cases hitting 28 or 29 mph and only the rollers would slow me down.  The nice thing about being solo was I didn't have to slow down for the cattle guards. On the first lap I passed a former Discovery Channel rider, but I blew by him and all I could make out was he was in a Team Discovery jersey. With 3 miles to go on the first lap was the big hazard on the course, the low water crossing with water. There was only about 2 inches of water in it, but we were warned it was fairly slick even though it had been scrubbed to get the algae off several times. As I flew down the hill leading up to it volunteers gave the universal sign to slow down by pushing their hands down. I could see one rider on the ground with officials around him. He wasn't getting up, I later heard that 1 rider was taken away by ambulance with a broken leg. There was quite a pileup when he went down. This wasn't my first water crossing so I knew what to expect as I went through it and more importantly how to pedal out when I had cleared the water.

On the 2nd time up the KOM  I caught and passed big George Hincapie in his full BMC kit. I wasn't attacking the KOM hill, I was going at a moderate pace, in fact I couldn't attack, it seemed whenever I'd stand to attack the cassette and chain would slip. Remember I'm not using my own wheel because of the wheel change so my chain and the cassette aren't use to each other. So all I could do was sit and spin my way up. I didn't seem to have any big issues when I was in the 53T and pushing the higher gears. That left only 1 other rider I needed to beat and that was either Chris Horner or Levi Leipheimer wearing their full Team Radio Shack kit. Low and behold off in the distance I could see 2 riders working together and one in a bright red kit. I suspected this was indeed the Radio Shack rider, one problem the 2 seemed to be working well together and I couldn't reel them in as quickly as I had hoped. It took awhile but I closed the gap and at the low water crossing I knew they were mine. Especially when the non Radio Shack rider got off his bike to walk through the water. And yet again there was a rider down in the water, well I suspect he went down, he might have just decided to take a break from the heat and humidity. I pass the Radio Shack rider on the hill coming out of the low water crossing, but I still can't stand and power up the hill. This lets him stay in contact with me on the final 3 miles.

When we make the left turn for the final approach to the finish, I now believe it was Levi as I think Chris is racing in Europe, so Levi passes me. I grab his wheel. He's pretty big and seems like he has a much better finishing sprint than I do. So my strategy is to get him to start his sprinter further out. With about 800 meters to go I act like I'm winding it up and pull to the outside and act like I'm going to go. He takes the bate and starts his sprint, I get back into his draft. With about 150 to go, I come out of his draft as he starts to slow and start my pounce. Only as I look up a truck pulling a horse trailer that has been stopped by the officials decides he's had enough and pulls around the cars stopped at the finish line and proceeds to take 1/2 of our lane! Since I was going on the outside this was directly in my path, not wanting to be a splatter on his bug guard I pulled up and moved over to the right. So I lost a spot to Levi Leipheimer, instead of 40th I got 41st out of 63 finishers.

My placing wasn't where I wanted it to be, but I had good legs and felt fine on my 41 mile solo effort. Next time I might have to try a solo effort again, but instead of going solo off the back I think I'll go solo off the front. The other great joy I had in the race was to see a steaming fresh cow patty in the middle of the road with bike tires through it. I saw a couple of these and especially the first one, really made my day as I pictured the peloton rolling through that. I wonder who got it worse the guy who rolled through it with his $2400 wheels or the rider directly behind him.

The Dillo has a special place in my heart, it was my first century ride and each year the family gets out for the Kids & Family ride (2009 report). It's a great value for $15 the entire family rides and gets the t-shirts and goodie bags. The only downside is that it's in Bertram, which is a little further than the regular start of Liberty Hill. This year it was going to be only Jack & Ethan accompanying me, Zeb had a soccer game so Jennifer would take him to his game while we rode.

Jack & Ethan at the start

We got to Bertram a little early, which was good as last year we were late because of Ethan's soccer game and rode alone. Getting out and getting the bikes ready the boys quickly realized it was much colder an windier than they were expecting and wanted to get back in the car. I told them once we got going we'd quickly warm up.

After some brief bike safety tips from the Austin Cycling Association we had a full sheriff escort out of town. We were positioned at the front and were directly behind the Sheriff. As we got out of town Ethan started slowing down. He was quickly falling behind I dropped back to him to see what was going on. We started to get passed and the next thing I realize when I looked up Jack and the Sheriff were out of sight. I finally coaxed Ethan to pick up the pace and on the first hill he finally did, catching at least a few of the people that passed us. When we came to the first turn I saw the Sheriff's car and thought he was directing traffic as we had to make a left turn, then I saw a group of riders and a rider down and it was none other than Jack.

Apparently he took the turn too fast and too wide and crashed into the ditch. He was holding his leg. He had some scratches on the outside of his leg from where he went down, a bruise on his inside right leg where he probably hit the top tube and his shorts were littered with stickers and cactus. He didn't go down on the road surface he found a nice cactus patch to cushion his fall.

He has a high Jens factor as he stood up and we picked the cactus and stickers off his butt and he got back on the bike to finish off the Dillo. We kept it at a reasonable pace and told him to wait for us if he gets too far ahead.  After a mile or so he said he was 100% and I asked him and Ethan if we should kick it up a little and try to catch some of the riders that passed us that we could see in the distance. They responded with a resounding yes. We formed a paceline and brought our speed up. We caught a group of riders as they were pulling into a rest stop. After catching our breath and a shot of water we pushed on.

Ethan was riding Jack's mountain bike as it has a triple and figured he would be able to tackle any of the hills we would encounter better with it than his 1x6. I think he was thankful on the last hill to have the granny gear. He was pleased with himself when he got to the top that he made it.

We made it back without incident and the boys said they had a good time, even Jack. In fact Jack was quite happy and was proud to have his first crash. If you're going to ride and race bikes crashing is part of it. I was proud of his attitude about it, instead of giving up and not wanting to ride anymore he came to the realization that crashing can happen and not to fear it. We talked about it on the way home and came up with a plan that we'd work on his cornering more on his road bike.

The Armadillo was great again this year and can't wait to do it again next year, although the boys are starting to outgrow the 6 mile distance. I know Jack has and by next year Ethan will have as well. With the amount of riding Zeb has been doing lately he will be ready for tackling the longer distances as well. After dinner Zeb and I go out for a 3-4 mile ride so the 6 miles is well within his reach.