The Gila Monster is Calling

T - 2 days until Gila.  Driving down tomorrow at 5am, 1st road race starts Wednesday.  Myself, Chad and Jaymes will be competing in the 2s.

Haystack TT and Air Force Road Race recap

Last weekend was the Haystack TT (12.something mile time trial in north Boulder) and the Air Force Road Race (65ish mile road race near Co Springs).  Here's the quick recap.

Check out Dejan Smaic's photos from the event here.  My TT photo

I did the Haystack TT on Saturday in the rain with a time of 23min 41sec. It was sprinkling at the start, then started to come down pretty heavy as the "race" went on.  I felt good on the bike and put in what I felt like was a solid effort, but I'm still towards the bottom of the P12 field.  I did manage to beat every team time trial team in the cat 4s and cat 3s.

The Air Force Road Race on Sunday was brutally hard starting on the 2nd lap. The field got shredded on the second lap from 60+ riders to about 10 in the main bunch plus 5 who got away early. I got gapped on the major climb on the second lap, then formed a chase group of around 15 guys. We worked together for the rest of the race and on the last lap, I couldn't hold the pace, so gradually slipped back. I think I finished about a minute behind the chase group time, so I was somewhere around 30th. I'm not sure what happened to Ian, but he was with us on the 2nd lap before the peloton exploded. Jayson was in our chase group as well and attacked our group on the climb and got away. He must have finished around 16th or so and looked really strong.

benchmark

I've got a pretty good idea what my LT power is after today's workout.  I did a 15min warmup, feeling great, then did a 1hr workout aiming for 337W.  Well, after about 15 minutes, I was still feeling excellent, so I decided to push the pace.  I ended up averaging 346W average at 172bpm average for 1 hour.  I watched part of the 2009 Paris Roubaix as well.  I think that's my best 1hr power ever, so I'm feeling good going into the Gila in a week and a half.  My weight is 181lbs. (I weighed myself after the session), so my 1hr power to weight ratio is 4.21 W/kg.  Not bad.  I wish I was 10 pounds lighter, but I'm not.

bikes for sale

Time for some spring cleaning.  I'm selling two of my bikes that I rarely ride anymore.  They are both in great condition and I haven't raced on either.  Size 56cm on both.

Specialized Tricross Expert with SRAM Rival/Force.  Carbon/aluminum frame, carbon crank, carbon fork (and steer tube), carbon seatpost.  $1,400

Redline Conquest with Shimano 105 (10 speed).  Aluminum frame, Roval Pave SL wheelset, FSA Gossamer crank.  $700

Tour of the Depot stage 3 recap

109 miles, + 4,500ft of climbing + 50mph constant wind from south = a very, very hard day in the saddle.

Chad arrived at the start for the last stage today for what was supposed to be a 93 mile race.  There were massive winds from the south at about 50mph that nearly ripped the car door off when Chad got out of the car.  The wind was so bad, in fact, that the race director decided to cut the race short from 93 miles to 76 miles to avoid us echelon-ing across the road on the return leg.

Anyway, the first 20 miles of the race had the wind a pretty much 45 degree angle from the left, meaning the race was strung out and guttered for about an hour.  There were some strong surges and those in the back of the pack in the gutter had some gaps and were dropped pretty quickly.  About 45 minutes into the race, there was a really strong 3-4 minute surge.  I was on the rivet hanging on to the front group of about 15 and the peloton split into 3 groups.  The 2nd group caught up, but Chad was caught out in the back group and did not regain contact.

There were a group of 6 or so up the road and the peloton was shredded from 60 starters to about 30-40 going into the first 8 mile, 1,500ft climb.  I lost contact with the pack about 2 miles from the top and went over the top about a minute back.  Me and two others worked together over the descent and the flats in the headwind for the next 10-15 miles, picked up guys that got popped until our group was about 7-8 and working well together.  We were about 1-2 minutes behind the peloton for about 30 miles and finally caught them before the decisive 1,800ft climb.

Unfortunately, when we caught the peloton, we shortly found out that we missed the turn.  The entire peloton missed one of the 3 turns.  It wasn't a small error either.  We missed the turn by 11 MILES.  So, seeing as hour we tacked about an hour detour and an extra 22 miles, the race was pretty much over.  We all worked together to get home.  I got popped on the big climb early on, but it really didn't matter and I wasn't pushing it, just trying to survive home.  Apparrently, we picked up two other groups of 3-4 each that had missed the other turns!  One group went out to some army depot and we ran into them while they were on some road not even on the map.  The last group we caught said they missed a turn too.

All in all, it was a great workout, but a major sufferfest.  Only 29 of 62 riders finished the race and my cyclometer read 109 miles and 5 1/2 hours.  At the turns everyone missed, there were no signs or course marshalls.  Pretty disappointing, but hey, I finished 23rd overall and if I wasn't so aggressive in the circuit race, I would have finished in the pack and been 17th overall.  The GC time is really a crapshoot because some people did 100+ mile day, some did mid 90 mile day, etc.  Kinda depends on where you went wrong on the cours.  Ah well.  Chad made it most of the way and pretty much to the base of the final climb before packing it in.  We ate some food in town, then left around 3pm from SLC and got back to Boulder around 11pm last night.

Tour of the Depot Stage 1 and 2 recap

Chad and I finished the first 2 stages today. The TT went pretty well. It's a gradual climb for a few miles, then mostly descending for the rest of the TT. The winner finished in 18:30ish while Chad and I ended up at 19:55 and 20:01 respectively. Chad is a little under the weather and may have been able to go faster. I actually ran off the road on one of the tight turns into some gravel. I kept the bike up, but lost a bit of time. Overall, the TT was really fun. I spun out of my 55x11 on the descent, so we were clearly haulin'.

The 40 mile circuit race this afternoon was pretty boring and disappointing for me. It's a 5 mile loop with pretty steady gradual climbing, then the same descending. The first few laps were pretty hot. There were bonus time sprints at lap 2 and 5. I went for the 2nd lap sprint bonus, but the field was extremely fast and somewhat out-of-control, so I sat up with 300 meters to go. The 4th through 6th laps were pretty boring. I attacked the pack about 6 times during these few laps, but the same team would chase me down every time and wouldn't let anything get away. Most of the racers were content with a pedestrian pace, but my legs were feeling really good and wanted to make the race interesting. Anyway, on my last attack, I tried extra hard and when they chased me back I couldn't recover in time and got dropped from the pack. I chased for the rest of the race and got a good TT workout in, but it was over. I probably finished 5-6 minutes back.

Chad made some crucial moves during the last couple laps when the pace really picked up and did well to stick with the lead pack. Chad is sitting around 25th on GC and I was 30th after the TT, but I'm probably last now. Tomorrow is a big 90+ mile race with two 10 mile 6-9% climbs, so we're going to get our money's worth there. I'm pretty wasted now but Chad is feeling good, so we'll see if we can move the GC up tomorrow. Chad is only about 1min 30sec down on GC, so anything could happen.

Oreminer's Classic Criterium race report 4/4/10

I raced the USAC Oreminer's Classic P-1-2 race yesterday.  Pretty fun race.  The course is a 1.2km loop with no technical requirements at all.  It's on a hill, so half the lap is a gradual climb, half is a gradual descent.

The field was pretty big.  Definitely manageable since the course is so wide and open.  I felt pretty good for the whole race, but I spent a lot of time at the back of the pack (which is bad).  I won a prime half-way through the race for a sports massage.  The prime bell sounded and I attacked up the left side of the group at the start/finish.  There was a response, but it was delayed and it wasn't serious.  I stayed away to take the prime, while a group of 8-10 came blowing past me after the start/finish with a gap on the main field.  They stayed away for a little while, but were reeled back.

There was a group of 3 or 4 that went away early in the race and stayed away.  I think they were well represented because I tried to bridge once and a Rio guy just sucked my wheel and didn't pull around.  I don't have many matches to burn, so the attacks really cause me to struggle and recover at the back before returning to the mid-front of the pack.  Meh, I try, but I'm really not a threat.

Overall, a fun safe race.  I missed the Koppenberg race on Saturday, so it was good to get out and get some training in at race speed.  Our average speed for the 1hr 15min race was 26.7mph per my cyclometer.  Next weekend is Depot.  I feel pretty good, but I don't feel like I have the speed or fitness to contest the P-1-2 races thus far.  We'll see how Depot goes, but I'm looking forward to some stage race fun.