Mike's Bike Blog

By all indications the course favored the climbers and all the chatter on the TXBRA.org Forum reinforced this. The storyline was that the fields would get strung out in the first 10 miles on the hills. However, this was not the story that was written on Saturday. The only field to get any break up was the P12. All the other races stayed together.

As I was getting ready I talked with Scott Dalhover (AT&T Brain and Spine) about the Cat 4 race and he said nothing was getting away and for me to just sit in. If I felt good I might be able to give a go about 7 miles out at the Iraqi village. He kept telling me to sit in and not to do any work, the same exact insider info I got from Peter). He said if he heard that I was up front doing any pulling he would punch me.

On the way out we had a small headwind, enough to keep everything together. In anticipation for the hills I switched out to a 11x26, but at the rate we went up the hills it was not needed.  In the race the pack climbed the hills at a slow and steady pace. In fact the entire race was this way, there was really no part where there was an all out effort, nobody went up the road and with the downhills anything that did get up the road was easily brought back.

With about 13-15 miles to go there were 2 up the road, #529 and a UT rider. Since I had been sitting in all day I felt really good and thought this would be a good time to see if I could bridge up to them and see if we could get a break going. Me and the Sun and Ski rider made a go of it, but as we were closing in on the 2 I looked back and saw that we were just pulling the entire pack along so I shut down my effort.

I'm not sure how many were in the final group, but it was big at least 30 guys, we started with 60+ I believe. This made for a jam packed field sprint. My second plan was to go on the hill leading up to the finish. I found myself third or fourth row back in the middle and I couldn't maneuver to the right or left so I was at the mercy of those in front of me to clear a way for the final sprint. The winning lead out came up from the left but I was still boxed in. At the 200 meter flag the rider to my left lost control and went right into me. I had to bend over and with my shoulder protect my  handle bars. With the guy leaning against me I bumped into the rider on my right a little as I was still holding up the other guy. Luckily there was a little crack of daylight that opened up to the right. I shot through it just as the guy on my left hit the ground.

There was still chaos and carnage in the lead out group as I tried to close the gap to them. Not sure exactly what happened but after the fact I heard one rider was pushed and he ended up doing a face plant into the dirt. His teammate was yelling as we wound up the sprint for the line.

In the end I placed 10th and was able to stay upright, by far my best placing in a race this year. Andy Webb (Simpler-Webb) who rode up to Copperas Cove with me placed 13th in the race. It was a great finish to my inagural season of racing. Now I can't wait till February when the season starts again.

One of the ideas I was kicking around for the weekend was to get up to Copperas Cove and pre ride the State Road Race Championship course. Well Sunday morning Chuck sent out a tweet that he was thinking about riding the course. He was closely monitoring the weather patterns and was confident that it would be clear in Copperas Cove by the time we got there.

I met up with Chuck, Scott, and Tim, all really strong Cat 4 racers for AT&T in Cedar Park and we packed the bikes up and headed out in the rain and drizzle. Just as weatherman Chuck had predicted the clouds were starting to part the closer we got to our destination.

The course is outside of Copperas Cove on Ft. Hood and is considered "open range". Meaning not only is there livestock roaming freely, but also the military regularly shoots artillery over the road! Luckily for us there were no cows on the road and no sounds of mortar or AK47 gun fire, but the Iraqi village was interesting scenery. The course particulars: there's about 2900 feet of climbing on the 33 mile loop. I rode the course with a 11x23 cassette and was OK. For the race I'll opt for something a little taller though, I have a 12x25, but Peter from Southwest Cycle Sport hooked me up with a 11x26. With as many descents and the few flats I think the 11 will be beneficial as I was spinning out the 11 on several sections as it was.

The course definitely favors climbers, the talk after the ride was the predictions that nobody over 170 pounds would win any of the races and the climbers weighing in below 150 would probably take the win. Hopefully I can drop 3 pounds by Saturday to have a chance at 170. I do have a couple plans for the race, not sure how it will play out with 75 other racers in the field. My goal is to be in the front group as everyone gets strung out on the hills. Word is the promoter is looking for more follow vehicles to help SAG people in.

This should be fun!

Due to the recent rain my game plan going into today's Chappell Hill Bank Classic Road Race was to show up and hopefully the rain would keep the other 49 riders in my category away. At the very least it would dwindle the numbers down and hopefully then I could out sprint everybody at the finish. Of course the weather in Chappell Hill didn't cooperate, as the start approached the sun was coming out and there was very little signs of the rain the days prior. With that plan out the window I'd have to saddle up and go with the plan B.

Plan B was to stay up near the front and see what happens between the last 20 to 5 miles. My main goal was to finish ahead of the wheel truck. Let me get to the meat of this post, what mistakes I made and in the process hopefully it will detail the race.

Mistakes:
1. Didn't hydrate properly: I brought 3 bottles. 1 bottle of Heed (Strawberry), 1 bottle of Perpetuem (Cafe Latte) and 1 bottle of water in my jersey pocket. I also had Endurolytes for electrolye replacement. The plan was to start with the bottle of Heed to get me thru the first hour. At the 1 hour mark take the Endurolytes. The next hour I'd consume the Perpetuem, that should get me pretty close to the finish and if I needed more to drink I would drink the water.

This has worked for me on other races and group rides, but like a dote I got caught up in the race and didn't finish the 1st bottle till around the 1 hour 30 minute mark. I also forgot the Endurolytes until it was too late. At about the 1:45 point as I was countering an attack my left quad started to cramp. Luckily I caught onto the back of the group and was able to sit in and take my Endurolytes. A few miles later I felt fine and thought the worse was behind me.

2. I did too much work at the front. When I was walking my wheels up to the wheel pit before the stop I ran into Scott Dalhover(AT&T/Brain & Spine). He gave me some pointers on the course and some good advice. He said to stay near the front but don't do too much work, he pointed out that the guys that are doing the work early usually don't finish there. He also said I should try to break away somewhere on the last lap.

As it turns out I think I did too much work as I was up front the first 45 miles. I took my share of pulls. There were a few guys that wouldn't pull through at all. They got chastised for their lack of work but still just sat in. I did try to let Bike Barn pull me around as best I can. They had the highest number of riders in the field and seemed to be the most organized. I don't think this was a big mistake I was able to stay with all attacks and gave it a shot at the end.

3. Missed the winning break. I stayed with any attacks and attempts as not to get left out. I especially paid attention whenever a Bike Barn rider would initiate the attack as I knew they were working for someone, I just wasn't sure who they had designated to watch for. Around mile 30 a rider got away and had a 1 minute lead. I tried to initiate a few attacks to see about bridging the gap but I couldn't get anybody to go with me and found a little head wind, more than what I wanted to attempt solo. After one attempt a Bike Barn rider went and he had the legs to get up to the guy who was soloing. I'm pretty sure he caught him. As I saw him go I knew that I missed my opportunity. With the 2 off the front the paced slowed down a bit as Bike Barn wasn't going to pull the pack up to their breakaway rider. It was soon after this point that my quad cramped.

With 5 miles left I felt pretty good and had a decision to make, I could sit in and go for the pack finish and if I was lucky get in the top 10. The other possibility was to leave it all on the course and see if I could go for 3rd place and maybe even catch the 2 that had the minute lead on us. I moved up as the front was still not putting out a hard effort so I easily got to the front. I then stepped on the gas as best I could.

I didn't get the gap that I was hoping for and as I looked back the front of the pack was just a few seconds back. Then it happened, my left leg was in a total knot. It was like my cub scout was practicing his knot tying on my leg. My hamstring felt like it was twisted around my leg, my quad and calf muscle seized up. I was quickly engulfed by the pack and spit out the back. I couldn't apply any power. Everyone dangled just in front of me. The next few miles was absolutely painful, the rollers that I was able to power up with no problems in the big ring had regulated me to shifting down to my 39 and gingerly crawl up. I tried to stand up on one and that was no help, everything started to tighten up, even the arch of my foot was getting into the action.

Luckily I was able to fight through it and maintain 22 mph through the ordeal, but the grandiose notion of a podium finish was dashed. The wheel truck behind me was breathing mercilessly down my neck. The roar of the engine kept me going. I had to push on to stay in front of it. When I got my second wind I started making up time and passed 4 or 5 guys that were getting spit off the back as the pack geared up for the finish.

This was by far my best race to date. I could have sat in and probably made it all the way with the pack, but where's the fun and glory in that. A lot of guys were doing that already, I wanted to give it a shot, lay it all out there. Now I know, I just didn't have it today, but more importantly I learned a hard and painful lesson.  More importantly though I feel really good with my number pinning . In past races the numbers have been too loose and flopping in the wind or a corner came unpinned. At registration I snuck off with an extra 4 pins and used them on each of the numbers. The extra pins might weight me down a little but the added aerodynamics of not having floppy numbers makes up for it.

In day 9 of my VO2 Max training program called for either a criterium (crit) or fartlek (a form of conditioning which puts stress mainly on the aerobic energy system due to the continuous nature of this exercise). I haven't made it out to the Driveway Series Crit at all this season to race myself. I figured this was as good of a time to get back out as any.

It was a hot one out there, at the 6:10pm start time for the Cat 4/5 it was 104 degrees. I was a little apprehensive about the course they were running today. The City Course (pictured below) has 9 turns in .8 miles. The sharpest turn is turn 3 over by the house, I believe it was described as 120 degree turn. I'd heard from a few seasoned veterans  that called it a hard course because of all the turns and no long straight aways to get back up to speed and/or recover from the hard sprint out of the corners. The course fit nicely into the overall goal for my workout.

At the start the starter was going over the rules, he pointed out that unlike most races that due to the nature of the course with all it's turns that they would be pulling riders. I guess the last time they ran this particular course there were several pile ups and crashes. From the get go we were moving. The first 10 minutes I averaged 24.3 mph. It was around this time that on turn 8 I almost went down! I'm not sure exactly what happened, but my rear tire started to go out from under me and I thought I heard metal scraping. I thought I might have layed the bike too far into the turn. In any event I was able to keep the bike up, but I think the guy behind me clipped my back wheel on the corner. No sooner had I started to get back up to speed then there was an actual crash in the pack that sent 2 riders screeching to the pavement as they came out of turn 9. This forced me to slow and go around the carnage just as I was catching back on. At least I had the long straight away to work my way back up. For the next lap or so I was tentative around the corners because at the time I wasn't sure what happened if my tire slipped or what. It wasn't until after the race that it finally dawned on me that I might have been clipped. I base that theory on the comment from the guy directly behind me after I got out of the fishtail he said "Man that was scary", he just might have been scared I was going to go down right in front of him, but based on no marks on my skewer I'm pretty sure I was clipped by him.

For the next 5 minutes I teetered on the back trying desperately to work my way back up to a better position. It seemed I could make progress after turn 3, 5 and 9 but any gains would be quickly erased. What would make it even harder was there would be little gaps starting to form at the back where the very back on the pack was starting to lose contact with the main group. Unfortunately, I was in the back of this back pack and I was fighting desperately to get passed them. This constant battle finally took its toll on me and with a fizzle I was off the back. I continued to claw my way around the track, picking up and pulling a few others that were relieved of the pack status as well. I was cooked however and fading fast. At the 20 minute mark the officials directed me and my 2 comrades to hit the showers.

I am disappointed that I didn't get to finish the race, but in hindsight what I should have done was pulled over at the official tent when they flagged us off and asked to take my lap. Not sure if they would have allowed it or not, but if so got back on and tried to stay with the group as they came around, it appeared we still had 1/2 a lap before we would have been caught. Right after we were pulled guys were getting shelled left and right from the pack.

From a workout standpoint it met the goal of working out my aerobic energy system.    Other positives to take away from the race:

• I didn't crash
• I averaged 24.3 mph and was able to stay with the pack for the 1st 15 minutes. Far better than the other time I raced a crit.
• Until I popped the first 14.5 minutes didn't seem overly difficult and were manageable.
• Even when I was popped I averaged 22.8 mph
• The corners didn't pose a problem from a bike handling standpoint. I was quite pleased with that aspect and I quickly bounced back from my near miss.

I had a good time and I'd like to get out for at least one more race before fall hits and there's no more driveway races till next spring.

FunFar stages a bi weekly time trial on an 8 mile course down MoPac. Tonight was the first time for me to throw my wheels into the hat. It was a little on the windy side and very hot, 95 degrees. Lucky for me the Bike Noob showed up and gave me advice and pointed me in the right direction on getting my chip and explained the concept of riding over the mats. I was glad to have the seasoned time trial veteran to lead me through the process.

My plan going in was to break the 8 mile course into 4 segments of 2 miles each. The first 2 miles I wanted to start out at a conservative pace and ratchet it up every 2 miles. Having not done the route before the closest I could compare it to is a 20 minute threshold interval. Whenever I do these 20 minute tests I go out too hot and struggle the last 5 minutes.

There was one problem, I failed to set up the distance to be displayed on my Garmin for the lap! I knew the first 2 miles point was around Escarpment Road. The best I could do was keep an eye on my watts and speed. I figured the 1/2 way point was the turnaround point and I would just try to keep my speed as consistent as possible and hope for the best.

On the first 2 mile stretch I had a carrot to chase, the rider who started 20-30 seconds before me was in my sights. After I passed him I felt relieved that I wouldn't be last. I was worried about the turnaround point as you have to cross the 2 lanes. I could see some other riders up the road make the crossing early instead of waiting till you get at the turn and have to negotiate the cars making the turn at the light. With no cars behind me I moved over into the shoulder on the left side of the road. When I made the turn I came in a little too fast and almost came into the head on traffic. I'll have to be more careful with that turn.

Coming back in I just kept an eye on my speed, I knew I needed to be around 24 mph to have a 20 minute time. I passed 2 more riders but I don't think they were doing the time trial as they were riding side by side chatting. When I saw the finish line I turned it up another notch and caught another Time Trialist on the hill leading up to the finish line.

My official time was 20:35:55 and averaged 23.3mph. How did I do with my pacing?

Mile 0-2
Time: 5:17
Avg Watts: 300
Speed: 22.8

Mile 2-4
Time: 5:32
Avg Watts: 288
Speed: 21.7

Mile 4-6
Time: 4:53
Avg Watts: 264
Speed: 24.6

Mile 6-8
Time:  4:57
Avg Watts: 305
Speed: 25

I'm not sure if my pacing was very good when my ending watts were the same as the beginning watts. Next time I might try to not go so soft of miles 2-4. I think I was way to conservative on this hilly section. Bottom line I had fun and it gives me a benchmark to cut my time down by 36 seconds. I passed 2 riders on full on time trial bikes with skin suits and aero helmets. I felt good about that plus I was not passed by anybody.

Me warming up at the Veloway, photo courtesy of the Bike Noob.

On Saturday I competed in the 2nd Annual 100 Miles of Nowhere. The race the brainchild of Elden, the Fat Cyclist, is a 100 mile race on your trainer. For the 2nd Annual event Fatty lined up some great swag from the sponsors. Entry fee was $75 which $50 of it went to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Thursday was packet pickup for me as the package from Twin Six arrived. The swag included 2 team Slipstream camelbak water bottles, DZNuts, CarboRocket, Clif ShotBlocks, a saddle bag, a Pro Bar and the event Tshirt.

The concept is to ride your trainer for 100 miles, but since cheating is allowed I opted to do it on a 1 mile loop near my house. When I was explaining the concept to Jennifer she thought I was crazy. Not so much riding 100 miles, that's nothing, but doing it on a 1 mile loop. She thought for sure I wouldn't be able to do it, that I'd get bored as the miles dragged on. To be honest I had some doubts as well. I thought there would be a good chance I'd only get about 3 or 4 hours before I'd crack.

The plan going into it was after every 10 laps to go down the hill that is just off the main course and come back up. The down and up is 1 mile as well and would get me 220 feet of climbing each time. After 25 miles I would change directions to mix it up a little. The main course has 2 small rollers, nothing you have to get out of the saddle on in fact I stay in my big ring the entire loop and most times in a 14T cog. The longer of the bumps is about 1/4 mile long. The other other one is much shorter and a bit steeper. In most situations these wouldn't even register on anybodies radar, but after 100 laps the ascent adds up.

When I parked at the course and got out to get everything unpacked and ready a vulture was perched on the light pole where I'd parked. I thought for sure this was not a good sign. After the 1st lap the buzzard flew off, I guess he figured he would check in on me later.  Normally when I ride I don't bring along music, I don't like to ride with headphones. For this event I made an exception since I would be on a low traffic route. I only plugged in the right earbud in leaving the left open to listen for traffic.

It was a great morning to be out and there were a lot of walkers, joggers and cyclists out on the route. Most were going the opposite direction than me, I guess because I consider the counterclockwise direction to be easier. After passing one particular jogger for about the 20th time she gave me the funniest look as it finally donned on her that I was the same biker to have been passing her for the past hour. On my next time through I was going to stop and ask her for directions, but she ended her workout and I didn't see her again.

As the time rolled on I was feeling great and the worry with boredom was a non issue. I felt great the entire time. I brought 4 bottles of Hammer Perpetuem and kept one on the bike and the others resting in the cooler. Having cool bottles when needed sure was nice. I didn't use the products from the swag since I didn't know how they would sit with me and didn't want to risk any surprises. I also consumed 3 6oz cans of V8, Hammer Gel (Raspberry), and a granola bar. I did use the Camelbak bottles. Let me tell you, I'm going to switch to these bottles, they are so nice. I was a bit surprised when I first reached for one though. I didn't realize the concept to them I raised the bottle to my mouth and gave it a squeeze. My normal bottles nothing would come out, I'd have to put my mouth to the nipple and suck to get any water out. You can imagine my surprise as a gush of water shot out and ricocheted off my tonsils and down my throat. I was sold and fell in love with these bottles.

I only made 4 or 5 pitstops the entire time. They were short, long enough to pick up a new bottle or take in some other calories. The longest one was when I slathered on sunscreen. In all it looks like my total pitstop time was 22 minutes. At the 85 mile point I started calculating my time left and saw that I was close to my season goal of a Sub 5 hour century, my previous fastest time is 5'20". To get in at a sub 5 hour time I'd have to kick it up to 23 MPH and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold that pace this late. I wish I would have been better attentive to my pace to begin with, but I was too worried about getting through without the boredom that I didn't regulate my speed better. In fact I got into the ride so much that at the 60 mile mark I totally forgot to do my hill circuit. The wind was picking up so I abandoned doing the hill till the end and would shoot for a hill finish.

A few fans came out to cheer me on from their front porches, at least that's what I told myself each time I passed them. One older gentleman sitting in his rocking chair yells out, around lap 85 "where you going?" I replied "Nowhere".  Now that I think about it having all the joggers and other cyclists out on the route helped, it kept the monotony down to a minimum. I wish the other riders were going the same direction I was, when I was going the same direction as someone I could tell it motivated me to keep my speed up. I would work harder to pass them. Unfortunately, they only did a few laps and would be gone.

As soon as it began the 100 miles was behind me. It really did go by really fast. I finished in 5 hours 10 minutes (5'32" total duration). My fastest century to date! 6 times up the hill plus the gradual hills to the route added up to 3364.8 feet of climbing. I won all 6 KOM sprints. I averaged 19.44 mph. I reached 39.7 on the decent down the hill.

The family ride was slated for a 10am start time, but before we could leave Ethan had an 8:30 am soccer game. I had the bikes all packed up early that morning so all we had to do was swing by the house to pick up the cooler and head up to Bertram. I had expected to be a little late. By the time we got to Bertram and got the bikes all unloaded it was 10:35 and I wasn't sure where exactly we were suppose to go. We rolled over to the park where the start was to happen and I asked the volunteers at the rest stop where we were suppose to go.  I got some lip about missing it and some guy in full kit and no kids started spouting off about him being done in 40 minutes. I didn't see any kids with him so he must have hammered it for 40 minutes, I wasn't impressed. So I restated that I just needed to know which way we were suppose to go, we didn't need to do it with everybody else and we were quite content to tackle it on our own.

With the basic directions we headed out. I hooked the trail-a-bike up to the old Fuji and pulled Zeb along. Jack rode up front with me while Ethan and Jennifer brought up the rear. We would regroup every once in a while to let Jennifer and Ethan catch back on and to eat our snack bars. There was a downhill in particular I could hear screaming coming from the back. On the uphill opposite of the decent we stopped to look back and see what carnage lay behind us. It turns out Ethan was having a blast on the decent and was yelling approval and not screams of bloody murder, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. Once we got going up the hill Jack said let's race. He accelerated up the hill, Zeb and me really had to work to catch him. I got a kick out of his move and was impressed at the speed he was holding up the hill.

With one mile left I heard the pssst of air being violently released from my rear tire. There was one slight problem, I had forgot to move my saddle bag from the Orbea to the Fuji in my haste to get going, so I had no way to repair my tire. Like a good teammate Jennifer said for me to take her bike and ride back to Bertram and get the car while they waited. We cut the ride a mile short but nobody seemed to mind too much. Ethan was happy he was tired from his soccer game to begin with so he didn't have any objections. The only one that grumbled about cutting the ride short was Zeb.

After I got the bikes packed up I got the Orbea out. The family took off in the car while I headed back to Bertram to catch the Dillo route back to Liberty Hill. For the next hour I pushed hard and hammered up the hills. I caught up with a guy in Velossimo kit and we rode together. There was a group of 10 riders working together that we were trying to catch. We were somewhat disorganized, neither of us drafting off of each other. On one uphill I got caught behind a pack of slower riders and he put a 7-9 second gap on me . After me pushing a high power threshold for an hour I eased up a bit and was content to let him keep the gap.

As we were getting closer to Liberty Hill I was slowly catching him again. He looked back, I wasn't sure if it was "the look" or what. I was expecting him to take off as I approached, but he said he sure could use a pull. So I let him catch on and pulled him. My plan was to turn right on 179 and head back to Cedar Park instead of going left into Liberty Hill. I didn't want to leave the guy out there, he would have been ok as the way into Liberty Hill had a tailwind. I did pull him 1/2 way to Liberty Hill before turning around and heading home.

The family had a great time and I really like how the family ride is handled with registration. Registration is $15 for the adult and kids ride free. I wasn't expecting a tshirt for Jennifer and me, but only the kids. As it turns out at packet pick up they said the parents got tshirts too! The registration model is great for an entire family to particate in the event.

The cat 4/5 race had a 8:05 am start time so I got up at 5 am, had a bowl of cereal and got everything ready and was out the door by 6:30. Manda was a short 31 miles from my house so I got there at 7am. It was pretty cold Sunday morning, I was not looking forward to getting out of the car let alone putting on my jersey. This was definitely an arm and leg warmer day. The only knock on the weather the entire day was how chilly it was in the morning. The weather completely cooperated, there was no wind, it was a perfect day to race a bike.

After getting my numbers pinned on I set out to try to get warmed up. As I was warming up on Manda Carlson Road I passed a rider going the opposite direction and it looked like a  Bike Barn kit. I do a double take and the rider does the same and says "Mike?". It was none other than Enrique, we both had our eyes out for each other and happened to spot each other out. We chatted a bit about the Saturday race at Belterra, I didn't participate but Enrique did.

At the start of the race the pace was set at about 22 mph and then it kicked up well above 24 mph as we entered the first of sharp right turns. What compounded this was right before one of the turns there was a rough patch of road. I was middle pack at this point and there was a big uplift in the road where the bridge met the road. This was a pinch flat waiting to happen, I couldn't move either direction to avoid it, the best I could do was bunny hop it, which I did, but I lost my water bottle in the process. The bottle will surely be missed as it had a gel bot top. I wasn't the only one to lose their bottle, a few riders ahead lost theirs as well. From this point on the pace just went up and in the back was not the place to be and the pack was strung out from that point on.

I caught on with a couple other riders and for the next 3 laps we would pick up more and more people. Whenever it was my turn I made sure to try to push the pace, I didn't just want to settle into a "let's just finish" mode", I wanted to keep the pace high and so I did. I tried to take longer pulls as well. I would get a bit of a rest when I'd fall back into the end of the paceline and a few riders would slow it down to 19 - 20 mph so that gave me ample time to catch my breath. We worked well together as a group, however there was one guy that made me nervous and I usually found myself right behind him. He would let a bike length or two gap get between him and the rider directly infront of him. This made me nervous as we were running the risk of losing contact with the front of our group. On a few occasions I would go around him and take his spot. He was persistent though I don't think he got dropped from our group till the very end.

On the last lap we came upon a group of 5 or 6 riders, we slowed as everybody chatted. I didn't want to wait and looking at this group there were some strong riders in it. So I didn't want to slow and get them integrated into our group so onward I pressed. Now our group was about 9 strong and it looked like the stronger of the other group had caught on so I knew the sprint to the end would be even more difficult. How did I know this group had some strong riders? Mainly by the fact that one of them was Scott (AT&T/Brain and Spine) that I ride with regularly with. I stuck to my plan of pressing the pace whenever it was my turn, but given we had 9 guys in our group that gave most everybody time to recover. Not sure if a better tactic would have been to sit in a bit and conserve for the end.

With 1 mile left I just got done with my pull at the front and moved to the side for the next rider to pull through, but there was nobody there. I looked back and I had a gap of a few bike lengths. I just got back at my pace and figured it was now or never. Not a few seconds later Scott and one other rider blew past me, I knew I had no chance to catch on and with a mile left I'd probably burn up. Then 2 more went past and I could feel the surge of the rest of the group. I hunkered down and tried my best to catch the other 2 and fend off the advances of everybody else. By the time we hit the 1K mark I had a good lead on the group, but I could never quite reel in the others. Not sure if my tactic of pushing the pace paid off, I know the final group besides the 4 that initially got away from me around the 1 mile left mark were able to stay away and had enough gas, but it would appear the rest of my riding companions might not have had enough in the tank to finish strong.

I'm not sure where I ended up placing, but from a power production it was my best race effort to date. Even considering I had the benefit of riding in a group I managed a normalized power of 273 watts, TSS of 159.4 and IF of .95 for the effort in 1'45" (38 miles).

The Fayetteville Stage Race was my first time at a stage race and as part of it was my first time in a time trial. I was looking forward to this race that took place in the small town of Fayetteville TX, population 283. Stage 1 was a 46 mile road race. Everything was going as planned, I was riding mid pack. I was really trying to stay up front as the yo yo effect was really in effect. The course is rolling, there is really only one hill to speak of, at least one where you have to shift down to the small ring, but the flow of the race was very much slow and go. There was constant breaking, there was a lot of joking in the peloton about this being a MS 150 training ride as we were only going about 18 mph then around the corners we'd kick it up to 24 then slow down. This constant slow and go was starting to take a bit of a toll on my legs. They were losing their freshness a lot faster than what I was hoping.

A few riders ahead of me I hear a blow out. I start to slow and then it happens. Bikes are up in the air, bodies are sliding across the pavement. Riders over the top of the fallen riders, guys going into the ditch. It was a major pileup, later I heard one guy broke his wrist and totaled his bike. As the skin was still scraping on the road the front of the group hears this and starts to hammer it. I slowly navigate through the carnage and really have to hammer it to catch on. It takes about a mile to make it back to the front group. At this point I'm pretty much spent, we approach the end of lap one and I go to stand to power up the hill and there's nothing there. My quads are aching and stiffen up, I have to sit back down, but I'm starting to get shot out of the back of the pack. My calf was starting to cramp up as well, in my effort to get back on I hadn't been hydrating properly and it left me vulnerable to cramping. As we make the turn and head into the wind the follow car passes me and I'm stuck out on my own. It was just me and the wind on this long stretch, but as I made the turn another rider caught up to me. We rode together along the back stretch, we didn't work together too much, not as much as what we should have. On one of the rollers as we crested I went for my water bottle and he kicked it in a little. I didn't have anything left in the legs to bridge the gap. For the remaining of the race he dangled out in front of me along with a few other riders that we came across, but I just couldn't bridge the gap to catch them.

Time Trial
Later in the day, 5 hours to be exact, was my start time for the time trial. The rider in front of me was one of the crashed out riders for the road race, so there was a dead spot. I was a little disappointed as I would have liked to of possible had the rabbit dangling in front of me to push me a bit. Waiting on the line there were some high dollar time trial rigs. Guys were decked out in skin suits and aero helmets. I was one of the few guys riding their road bike and those that were riding their road rigs had them outfitted with aero bars. The course for the time trial was again rolling but only 6.6 miles long. My goal was to ride between 280 - 300 watts for the effort, I was also hoping for a time between 18-19 minutes. I just didn't have the power in my legs, I averaged only 274 watts and in the end my time was 19:54. I also had the goal of not to get passed by more than 2 riders. As it were I was passed by 2 people, the guy that started directly behind me and one other rider, both on full time trial bikes with aero helmets, the whole works. The second rider that went by me, #511, John Bullock ended up winning the Time Trial, but also won the GC as well.

Photo courtesy of http://emoiselle.smugmug.com/

Stage 3

On Sunday I woke up and my legs felt fine so I made banana, apple sauce, orange Heed with Chai whey pancakes. Then I made the drive back out to Fayetteville for the 3rd and final stage. Stage 3 was 3 laps for a total of 49 miles. At the start line I was somehow positioned at the very front. The first section through town is neutral, we roll out at a slow pace, make a left and once we cross the train tracks the race is on. This morning the lead car missed the left hand turn out of town. Chaos and mayham ensued, luckily it was short lived. We all turned left and stopped short of the train tracks. The lead car showed up on the other side of the tracks and we took off. I again was up at the front and wanted to stay as close to the action as possible. Not only was I at the front of the pack, I took some pulls at the front as well. The only problem was when I would pull off nobody would let me back in. There seemed to be about 4 to 5 riders that would pull but getting a spot back in line was hard as the main pack was right behind us and wouldn't let you in. I had to fight a bit to get back in and you didn't want to be stranded out in the headwind after taking a pull. For the first 1/2 of the race I was up at the front till a hill before the feedzone. I was on the far right, right up against the shoulder when the rider right in front of me stands to ascend the hill, but he is only slowing down. I can't get around him in time and pretty much the entire field goes around us. I lost my placement and now found myself at the back of the pack fighting to stay on. Once again before the finishing of lap 1 the back of the pack started to get strung out. There was probably about 15 of us that was getting dropped, I worked my way up in this group and gave an effort to bridge up along with 5 others. I saw that I wasn't making enough ground on the main group and looked back to see there were 3 others starting to work together. I slowed up for this group of 3 and caught on. We worked well together and had our race group insight, but the junior race was between us and our race leaders. We were neutralized till the juniors got to the top of the hill where the hot spot was for time bonuses. Once we got to the top we formed our echelon again and within a few minutes caught back on. It was a thing of beauty to get back on, thanks to Mac Hooke (Texas A&M), Austin Throop (Texas A&M) and Trey Flores (UH Cougar Cycling/Sugar Cycles) we worked great together. Looking back at it instead of getting integrated into the pack we should have made our way to the front and continued on. As soon as we got on our race was neutralized for a little bit, not sure what for if there was another Junior race ahead of us or what. The break was nice, but a little too short for what I needed. I think if the 4 of us would have stuck together  when the race started again we could have put the hurt on. I'm not sure if I would have been able to hang with them, but I do notice I seem to be able to handle the constant effort like riding in an echelon better than the stop and go of the peloton. Not sure what it is about the area but the road right turn onto 2503 is my own personal Bermuda triangle as I got dropped at this point each time.

The 3rd and final lap was no different. So once again I was alone on 1291 heading into the wind and again I could see the string of riders in front of me. This time I made it a goal to catch at least one of them. Every time I'd seem to make a little progress the wind would whip up and I'd be blown back. I really closed the gap on the big hill. It took almost the entire stretch but I caught the 2 riders in front of me. As I caught on I asked what they were doing a straight paceline or an echelon. They really weren't organized, one guy seemed to be pulling his teammate the entire time. Not even a minute later I took my turn at the front, I didn't get much time to recuperate. I pull off to the side to let the next guy go and the guy in the back tells his teammate to go on that he had nothing left. His teammate tells him he's not going to leave him. Once again it's my turn to pull and I figure at the pace they were going at I was better off going at my own pace if they couldn't keep up, plus I wasn't getting much of a time off. I put my head down and slogged through the wind, I could feel they right on my wheel. We made the left at Lone Oak and got out of the head wind, I pulled off to let them take a turn pulling but there was only 1 guy. He said his teammate dropped out. He than proceeds to kick it up a gear and leave me. Glad I could pull you through the wind. <UPDATE> I later caught up to the rider, but didn't slow down for him to catch on.</UPDATE> On the back half before the feed zone one other rider came blasting by me, we rode at a good pace, but I also knew at this point I wouldn't be able to keep up 22-28 mph the rest of the way in. I backed off a little and let him go. I passed a few riders here and there on my way back to the finish. The worse part of the ride was the 3 miles back to the start/parking area, my feet hurt and my legs were mush.

In the end I finished 36 out of 50, I was 20 minutes back from the overall winner. It was a great time and I look forward to races further in the year when I have the conditioning and stamina to ride an entire race at 24+ mph.

Photo courtesy of http://emoiselle.smugmug.com/

No I don't have mystic powers nor a crystal ball to foresee the future, so how can I give a ride report for a ride that isn't going to happen till this Saturday? The Spokes 'N Spurs was suppose to be last Saturday (03/14/2009), but due to rain in the week muddy conditions out at the ranch made the organizers postpone the ride till the 21st. This change wasn't going to bode well for us as I have the Fayetteville stage race that weekend. The Spokes 'N Spurs ride was going to be Ethan's first event ride, he was going to be doing the 6 mile route and Jack was going to try his legs on the 14 mile route.  The boys were looking forward to the ride and were bummed to learn that I couldn't do it the 21st thus they wouldn't be able to ride it. Jack and Ethan are both off from school this week for spring break so on Wednesday I took the day off and we decided to drive up to the Spirit Reins Ranch in Liberty Hill and have our own Spokes 'N Spurs ride.

Jennifer joined in on the fun and brought her bike to ride with Ethan on the 6 mile route and they were the first to depart. Jack and I quickly caught up to them and passed them. I was quite surprised at the pace Jack was pushing. We averaged about 11 MPH for the first 1/2 of the ride. The only drawback to the 14 mile route is the time on RR 1869.

The time on 1869 is short, but it is a heavily traveled road for a country rode. Plus there really isn't a shoulder, so I was a bit nervous to be taking Jack on it. We got through it and the couple cars that did pass us gave us plenty of room.

Around the 1/2 way point Jack encountered a steep roller and wasn't in the proper gearing for it. He got a 1/3 of the way up and couldn't push any more. I had him coast back down and shift to an easier gear and he was able to make it up with no problem the second time. We were about an hour into it and we stopped to consume the bars we brought along for the needed fuel to keep us going. As we were eating I got the phone call from Jennifer that her and Ethan were done.

The last 1/2 was a bit more challenging for Jack as the rollers seemed to be taking a toll on his legs. Our speed dropped down to 8 mph, which I expected the average would be anyway. The constant question every few miles of "how far have we gone?" was replaced with "how many more miles?", plus the frequency went up.

In the 3 mile home stretch we stopped one last time to see the longhorns and the buffalo while Jack ate the rest of his bar. We finished up at 2'06" total time, including breaks. I estimated it would take us around 2 hours. Jack put in the most miles he'd ever done in a day with 14.5 miles.

It wasn't the "official" Spokes 'N Spurs but everyone had a great time and feel like they earned the T-shirt. Both boys said they had a good time and Jennifer said she did too. Ethan is planning on doing a 10 mile ride next. Jack's next distance will be 20 miles and hopefully Jennifer will sign up for the Rookie Tri. I need to see about getting Jennifer a T-shirt as well, she earned it.