Mud, meet Power

So what do you do when you purchase two older wired SRMs (stone axes as my teammate calls them, virtually indestructible), a SRAM for the road bike and a entry level Amateur for the TT bike, but suddenly a teammate hooks you up with a FSA SRM? Well, I put the FSA on the road bike so I have the flexibility to run it compact or standard and moved the SRAM to the TT bike.

Now I have this Amateur SRM with no home.....

What's this? 46t and 38t chainrings showed up in the mail???

Now the solution seems obvious.....We have a cyclocross SRM!!!!

Bring on the mud!!!!

At first thought, putting an SRM on the cycloX bike seemed like overkill. B as I considered the situation, I use my cycloX bike for commuting throughout the year. This can mean in a given week anywhere from 30-70% of my miles can be on my cycloX bike. The ability to see my power numbers and better regulate the work I do on my commutes far outweighed the small amount I could resale the extra SRM for. So now I'm pimping with power on 3 bikes including the cycloX. I'm sure there will be more to come once cross season starts.

My Dream

Owning a Pegoretti is one of my dreams. This man is a legend.

http://www.nowness.com/day/2010/5/5/601/frame-of-mind#share

Here is a link to a preview of a short video about him.

(caution: contains some explicit language)

Next Chapter in Power

I took the weekend off due to my wife's graduation and to catch up on some missed sleep. My other reason for the time off was my project of switching from my PowerTap which I sold to a teammate and going with some older wired SRMs. The downside is that I don't have the Garmin (which I kept to use for on the cross bike) and all the info it provides and I have to deal with wires. The upside is having the durability and consistency of the SRM system and having power during my races.

So I worked most of the weekend and the road bike was a pretty easy set up and I quickly had power going. The TT bike was a lot more difficult to get the sensor in a position that would read from the crank and it wasn't till Sunday afternoon and lots of Internet research and emails to other guys that use SRMs that I finally had the TT bike set up. When I went back to calibrate the road bike all of a sudden I didn't have power any more. After completely taking apart the system on the road bike a couple of times and doing multiple test I still couldn't figure out why I couldn't get power. Finally after checking the TT bike again I realized I had accidentally changed the display on the head unit and the road bike had been working all along but I just hadn't realized it. More then a little frustrating but a lesson learned. I'm onto the next chapter of working with power and an looking forward to being able to see how my racing develops, especially the TTs.

I'll try to get some updated pictures of the bikes in race setup soon.

Learning to Say No

Sometimes less is more. We can get so caught up in quantity that we often loose sight of the diminishing benefit. This often holds true for documentaries, graduation speeches, vacation photos, and maybe this post. I've had a hard time convincing myself of this when it comes to training. I still find myself subconsciously thinking resting is synonymous with quitting. I think it goes back to my youth when I tried to make up for any lack of talent by working harder then everyone else and the habit is hard to break.

This past Saturday I went into the ride with tired legs but still couldn't convince myself to hold back from the early fireworks and actually won the first "intermediate sprint" with some personal best power numbers. Soon after there was a small mushroom cloud and I was done. Thankfully I had the sense to call it a day and go home versus trying to gut it out and then I actually took today off as well. My body says "thanks" while my mind says "wimp". Can the same drive that makes me successful also holding me back? As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I hope I learn how to say "no" at the right times and appreciate the quality over striving for quantity.

Fleche-Wallone & Pinotti

Great write-up by VeloNews.com on Marco Pinotti's races and power data for the last 3 years in the Fleche-Wallone. What is most interesting is his power data versus his placing and the inverted relationship.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/04/news/three-years’-of-fleche-wallone-power-data-from-marco-pinotti_112848

Spring Classics

The 3 big Spring Classics in my opinion are Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix.

Last weekend was Tour of Flanders and Spartacus had shown in an earlier semi-classic that he was on some fine form. Tour of Flanders started with Saxo-Bank controlling the race till the decisive splits begin. Cancellara had bike trouble and did two very fast changes, first onto the spare bike and then later back to the race bike. Eventually going alone with current Belgian national champion and former world champion Tom Boonen. Spartacus eventually makes his move in the video below and goes on to win in dominating fashion.

Paris-Roubaix is this Sunday and it will be interesting to see if anyone has the form to defeat Cancellara. Roubaix is a brutal race and the parcours may decide that it is not his day which may be the only chance his competition has.

Ronde von Manor/Manda

Last weekend was the Ronde von Manor/Manda races. Ronde von Manor was on Saturday and Ronde von Manda was Sunday.

The Ronde von Manor course was 5 laps of the Cronometro TT course from a couple of weeks ago. I had 3 teammates with me, Jesse, Alec, and our new Minnesota transport Jason. The course was rolling with the one punchy climb that messed up my TT ride in the Cronometro. I wanted to make sure I stayed up near the front to make sure that if separation occurred over the climb I would be able to go with it. The first three laps were a series of attacks that JPB managed to put a rider in most of but nothing stuck. At the end of lap 3 a very active Mirage rider attacked yet again. The pace was getting frantic and I wanted to get control again and force some other guys to do some work so I talked the San Jose rider at the front not to bring him back. This worked through the rest of the 3rd lap and then Jason joined me at the front but nobody wanted to work including a Team Lifesize rider who refused to pull through at any point but sat on the front and disrupted any rhythm. After Jason did a pull but nobody would help and they kept putting him in the wind, I managed to get the Team Lifesize rider on the front. The Mirage rider was still up the road but in sight so when the Team Lifesize rider reached for his bottle to get a drink I attacked him hard. He didn't chase and I bridged up to the Mirage rider. We worked together halfway through the fourth lap but he was tired from being off the front (my point in sticking him out there) and I had done to much work throughout the race and we were caught a little while after the punchy climb. Going into the last lap a PACC and San Jose riders attacked. I knew at this point a breakaway wasn't likely and I'm a weak sprinter compared to my teammates so I went to the front and did a long pull to get the peleton close enough to the two break riders that they gave up. My legs were feeling the effort but I started to recover just as the entire field was neutralized and stopped as the P12 field caught and overtook us. As we sat there I could feel my legs locking up. I drank everything I had on me but when we restarted and the pace heated up as we approached the finish I couldn't stand up and could barely pedal hard without cramps seizing my legs. I finished with a pack finish and unfortunately none of the other guys were able to unleash a sprint.

Ronde von Manda was a pancake flat course but twenty mph winds made it incredibly difficult. The race started with a short headwind section followed by a right turn to a crosswind from the left. Everyone was riding in the gutter and poor positioning on my part put me near the back of the pack. I struggled to jump around riders that couldn't hold the pace till a crash created a sizable gap to the field. I chased through the rest of the crosswind portion and into the tailwind portion tailwind of the course. The field wasn't taking a break and kept the pace high and I couldn't quite close the gap. As we neared another right turn to the crosswind from the left section, the moto ref rolled up next to me and told me I should close the gap down before we got to the crosswind section or I probably wouldn't be able to close it down. "Thanks Captain Obvious!!" I couldn't respond but the comment did anger me enough to give it an extra push and get on right before the turn. I quickly decided I wasn't taking another chance sitting near the back. The field was sitting on the center line but the crosswind had a slight tailwind with it so I went up the left side of the field till I was near the front. I then worked my way over to the front right side of the field where I was perfectly protected from the wind. I stayed here through the headwind section and did very little work. My body felt great going into the second lap. As we turned right into the first crosswind section the field strung out in the gutter again. I used my cyclocross skills and rode up the right side of the field in the broken road/grass gutter behind a UT rider. We were both moving up till the UT rider dropped his front wheel in a crack and went down across the road. There was no place to go and I ran into the sprawled rider and went over the bars. Fortunately I was able to angle my fall towards the grass and managed to walk away with only minor road rash and some bruising. Unfortunately, Alec was right behind me and crashed as well ending the race for both of us.

This was the last weekend of racing for several weeks. Now is time to get some rest, focus on some quality training, and enjoy the Spring Classics.