Mike's Bike Blog

Due to a cub scout camping trip I was only able to race on Sunday. I was signed up for the 35+ 4/5 race. This was the first time I've done this race, I've heard that it is hilly and a tough course. The Sunday race course is 4.5 miles so we did 9 laps of 40 miles of fun.

I sat midpack on the first few laps to get a feel for the course, it wasn't as bad as what I had heard. The finishing hill was the only major hill that required to shift into the small ring. At the start I made note of some of the "heavy hitters", guys that I recognized from Walburg. I made special note of Kevin Kimbell, one of the guys that I rode with trying to bring in the breakaway winning group. I figured if he was able to get away he had the horsepower to make it stick. Low and behold he pulled us around the first 1/2 of the race then started to get a gap. None of the teams seemed to want to bring him in, they would come to the front and then just shut it down. It was like they were all blocking for him, I really questioned if he was on a team just not wearing a team kit. I would later learn that everyone thought he was too strong a rider and couldn't bring him in so they didn't put out the effort.

Brain and Spine would come up and take an extended pull but nobody would pull through. They were the only team to try to get something going. I did pull through on the 7th lap to lend a hand on the hills. On the last lap as we came to the finishing hill I was up front and a lane opened up for me as everyone else was slowing on the hill. I picked up the pace and went for it. I was on the far right side and spectators were lined up alongside the road. A photographer was standing a good 2 or 3 feet into the road with her camera covering her face, I hope she got a good picture of me as I was yelling at her to get out of the way. I used the hill to open a bit of a gap. As I started the uphill section of the course I had a sizable gap. I was hoping I could get through the uphill portion ahead and hopefully hold onto 2nd place. Not sure how much of a lead I had, but after the hills I couldn't see the chase group any longer. Then I hit the headwind and started to feel the effects of riding 5 minutes at vo2max, My speed was faltering, yet I was maintaining my FTP, but it wasn't enough as I looked back and could see the chase group. I knew this was for not and that I would soon be caught. On the turn to the downhill section the chase group reeled me in and I caught on getting ready for the group sprint finish. When I got caught a Brain & Spine rider told me good job and that I almost got away, the chase group really had to hammer it up the last hill to catch me and if for not that last effort I would have been in the clear. I gave it a try, I was on my own for 2.7 miles  holding 117% of my FTP where the first 5 minutes I was only 20 watts below vo2max power.

This was my first group sprint that I was going to contest, in Belterra I was content to sit up and finish with the pack to avoid any Cat 5 crashes. Today, I wanted to give it a go. I was up near the front at the 250m mark. Even up front I was around 15th till the uphill where I figured I could make up placing. On the hill I was able to make up a few positions and I was able to perform a bike throw to jump up to 10th place!

What I did right:

• I was able to pick out the winner
• Got to participate in the sprint finish
• Gave it a go, I don't think my solo had any effect on my overall finish, when it came time for the final sprint I still had adequate power, albeit when I launched my breakaway sprint on the hill I had 100 watts more power. This might have been the difference on a placing or two, who knows. It was worth the try though.
• I wanted to see how the dynamics would be for the chase, whether or not the teams would take charge, I kept expecting someone to lay the hammer down. I got to see firsthand how that dynamics plays out.
• Rode near vo2max for 5 minutes and was able to hold my FTP wattage for nearly 3 minutes after that and still have enough in the tank for the sprint.
• Successfully did a finish line bike throw to get 10th

What I did wrong:

• Even though I picked the winner I didn't ride his wheel to the finish (Expect me to be a part of any break that Kevin gets in any future races we're in together)
• Can work on my finishing sprint

Here's a different twist on my lunch ride as I was heading over to Limecreek Road for a 40 minute SST interval when I'm on Anderson Mill warming up. I started to ratchet up my speed a bit. I shift up to the 53T and start to pick up speed. I'm going about 21 mph when I hear someone shouting at me. I look to my left and there's a big truck with the passenger window rolled down and the driver leaning over to yell at me. My first thought was one of despair as I thought for sure this could escalate into a confrontation. However what he says next leaves me stunned. He says "I'm impressed, you're going over 20 mph, Good Job!"

I gave a little chuckle and tell him thanks as he speeds off. So was this a cyclist in a Bubba truck or a real Bubba who's turning over a new leaf?

I started the morning with a good breakfast of red curry chicken, rice and eggs. The race didn't start till 11:20 so I had more than the 3 hour window to digest and build my glycogen stores. I also got to Walburg, which is only 32 miles from my house with plenty of time to pin on my numbers and warm up. I wanted to ensure I was ready to go from the start so I warmed up for 30 minutes getting about 267 kJ out of my system. Moving forward with other races I think I'm going to employ this warm up strategy of warming up with a 250 - 270 kJ effort. In true Walburg fashion it was pouring rain while I drove over and while I warmed up. However there was hardly any wind, that was something new.

This was probably the biggest field I've ridden with, according to BikeReg there were 84 racers signed up for the race. I'm not sure how many showed up for the start but we were packed in 4 across and plenty deep. From the moment we started to roll my position went from bad to worse. The rain did stop when we started to roll but the roads were still wet and in some sections someone had a little to much fun 4 wheeling their truck in the fields as there was mud tracks across the road. To make matters worse there was one area where the tracks were coming from a barn so guess what, that wasn't mud being kicked up. Anyway the entire first lap I spent at the back of the field just fighting to stay on and riding my breaks. It was a yo yo fest, go a little and then hit the breaks. Finally as we were nearing the end of the first lap guys were starting to get dropped and the field was starting to split. I found myself with a large gap between me and the leaders but I had to navigate my way through the mass of guys. Luckily for me rider #132 started to motor up to the lead group. Another guy grabbed his wheel and I grabbed his. #132 Graciously pulled us both up to the tail end of the lead group. Once we got up there I thanked him for the hard effort of getting us up there.

Not sure how many were in this group, probably 30 guys I vowed to get better positioning so I worked up to mid pack. It was good to see Enrique Varela (NWCC), a frequent commenter here in the main group. The problem with being so far back in the pack there was no way I could try and make it into any breaks. In fact I couldn't even see the breaks happening I was so far back. It wasn't until Enrique made the comment that there goes the winning break, I could see riders and the follow car a good 2 minutes up the road and the pack was not chasing it down. I said we should try to bridge up. He said he'd go if I go. So I threw caution to the wind and started to maneuvered my way up to the front. It took a little bit being so far back but I made my way up and then just took off laying out a blistering 3 minute effort to bridge up to 2 riders from Rockwall Cycling.  Those 3 minutes while trying to get away I was at 125% of FTP.

The 3 of us formed an echelon and picked up a few riders that were getting dropped from the breakaway group. I think at the largest our group got was 5 riders, but guys would get dropped from our group as well. We were getting reports from the motos that we had a 1 minute gap on the field and the breakaway was 1 minute ahead of us. On the final stretch leading into Walburg there was 4 of us. So far I was feeling pretty good, but a couple of my fellow riders were starting to struggle. There was one rider that was really strong and it was causing a problem with our group as he was causing guys to miss their pull as they couldn't pull through. This would leave me to close the gap and fill in so the other could rest and catch back on. This went on for a few miles but it took a toll on me and after I did a double pull nobody pulled through and I needed to recover and the strong rider pulled away. At first I wasn't too worried I thought we would catch him. It was appearing we were cutting into the breakaway group, it looked like we were catching a few riders but it turned out to be the junior field. This was a little demoralizing as we thought we were catching the leaders.

The final word from the moto was the main field had shut down and was not putting out a chasing effort, but there was a small group hot on our tails that had broken off from the main field and were a minute or so back. The 3 of us worked together and again I'd have to take a shorter rest to pull through for someone. Not sure if it was a good idea or not but I did not miss any of my pulls.

On the final 1km climb into Walburg I was hurting, I could feel the burn in my legs as I stood for the final climb. My bold move to ditch the main field paid off as I placed 7th. It looks like I was almost 2 minutes up on the main field and 1:30 behind the winner.

Anybody know how mixed Cat 4/5 fields are scored? Do I get the 3 points for my 7th place finish?

Belterra is a closed course curcuit race in the Belterra subdivison on the outskirts of Austin off of highway 290. Somehow I thought signing up for 2 races would be a good idea. I took advantage of the second race for $10 option as I signed up for the Cat 5 and the 35+ 4/5 race. The Cat 5 race started at 8am for 40 minutes followed up with a 40 minute break before heading out for the 50 minute 4/5 race. My plan for the first race was to just sit in as much as possible and to conserve the legs for the 4/5 race which I suspected would be a lot faster. My goal for the races was to show up and get through them unskathed to get my last 2 races as a Cat 5 racers.

2010 Course
From the start the course goes on a slight uphill and features a larger hill before making a 180 and heading down. So returning back down to the start area is a slight down hill. At the start there's a right turn with a little straight away before a short steep hill where the finish is. Right after the uphill finish is a 2nd 180 degree turn. Don't get me wrong when I say hills, at no time in either of the 2 races did I shift to the small ring, the course is a big ring course.

Cat 5 Race
The race started with around 50 racers on a brisk morning. By the time we reached the big hill at the first 180 turn the pack of 50 was starting to string out a bit. From that point on a group of 20 stayed together. A few riders tried to get away but nothing would stick, as soon as we would get on the downhill stretch heading back it would get chased down. Zach Horne (Austin Cycle Camp) gave a go and attacked on the big hill.  I jumped on his wheel but as we rounded the 180 turn at the top I could see that the entire pack was right there and it would be caught on the down hill section. I shut it down as Zach got a little gap. As I suspected he was caught around the 1KM mark for the lap.

One observation for the race on the uphill section the pace would slow down to 18-20 mph, but on the downhill people would let their carbon wheels spin faster and try to hammer it. I suspect if one would have attacked on the uphill stretch some damage could have been done.  At the very least the pack of 20+ would have been broken up. I contemplated giving it a go but decided to just sit in and conserve as much as I could.

I stuck with my plan and on the last lap just hung in the back staying out of the way as not to get caught up in any crashes. In the end I finished 17th. For this race my average power was 22 watts below my FTP.

Between races I went back to my car, ate a banana and refueled up. I felt pretty good and my average power for the 40 minutes was typical of some of the 40 minute SST intervals I've been doing once a week. I made a huge error between races however. I didn't adequately warm up again before the 4/5 race. All I did was ride down to the staging area, everything felt good so I assumed I was warmed up from the 1st race.

35+ 4/5 Race
I had 3 other Southwest Cycle Sport teammates in this race. Peter told me to stick to his wheel if I got into trouble as I wasn't sure how long my legs would hold up for a 2nd race. From the start I was right on his wheel, but as we left I was already in difficulty and wasn't able to hold his wheel. I soon found myself at the back as we made our way through the 1st 180 turn. Not a good place to be and then the inevitable I was off the back. It took 2 laps to get my legs back and then I had to objectives. To pick off as many riders as I could and to make sure I didn't get lapped.

I slowly made my way through small groups of riders that were dropped from the main pack. There were 2 Shama riders that I caught up to but I couldn't shake them on the downhill section, they go flying by me on the downhill of the big hill and then I'd catch on at some point before the next hill. I'd pass them on the uphill and would pull all the way to the 180 turn back down. We played this game for the remaining laps, we caught and passed several riders. Somewhere along the way a Toyota rider latched on with us. We finished out the race with this route, we even lapped a few riders as well. I am aware that for me to pull on the uphill section which seemed to be into the wind was not a good idea. However I had my reasons, when we would get on the uphill section the pace would slow down, this was allowing the main pack to get miles into us and I did not want to get lapped. So I would move to the front and keep the pace up. In the end I finished 37th. For the 50 minutes I averaged 20 watts below my FTP, the Normalized Power was a few watts above my FTP.

That should conclude my Cat 5 racing as I applied for a Cat 4 upgrade. Not sure how long it takes to get the upgrade, hopefully I'll have it in time for the next race. I'm debating Walburg or Pacebend. When I got home and looked at the power file for the 2 races something caught my eye. The average power for the cat 5 race which I stated was 22 watts below my FTP and falls into the wattage that I hold for 40 minutes for a SST interval the normalized power was a lot higher than what I was expecting. NP was 308 watts, this leads me to believe my FTP has risen.