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.

Fayetteville Stage Race

I apologize that I've been lazy in posting race reports but I'm going to try to catch up this week.

I'll start with the Fayetteville Stage race on March 20-21st. This was a late addition to the race calendar but for me it was an opportunity for redemption. Last year I tried the standard TT specialist strategy of sitting in through the first road stage Saturday morning so as to save energy for the afternoon TT. I had adjusted my TT position right before the weekend and it was my first attempt at a short, rolling TT course. The TT was an absolute disaster. Instead of making time, I lost time. This put me in the unfamiliar position of having to make time on the Sunday road race. Sunday was fast and I promptly broke a spoke on my rear wheel, tried to chase back on but failed, and DNF'd.

So back to this year's race and my quest for redemption. The weather forecast called for rain and some wind but I was hopeful it would hold off till near the end of the race. The race was three 23 mile laps. I started the race in a good position near the front of the peleton and held it till mile 20 when my rear wheel went flat. I pulled a quick wheel change and started chasing and my front wheel went flat. Another wheel change and I was chasing furiously but quickly realizing that I needed to find some help or my overall chances were over. 10 miles miles later, no help to be found and the heavens opened. The temperature went from 65 to about 48 with wind and rain. Apparently I wasn't the only guy getting flats as I passed 10-15 racers on the side of the road waiting for wheel changes. The 3rd lap started with guys dropping out due to the cold and wet but I still felt good. Two guys who had flatted caught back up with me and I tried to jump in to try to get back to the main group but my body started shutting down. I dropped off and about mile 55 my body heat disappeared and I could barely drag myself to the finish. With about 2 miles to go my front went flat and I slowly rolled across the finish line shivering and soaking wet. I found out later the windchill was 38 at the finish. Thankfully a racer who had dropped out picked me up at the finish and drove me back to town. I was so cold when I got back to the RV that they put me straight into the shower and afterwards it took 2 hours of wearing all my clothes and huddling under a blanket to get warm. I was ready to go home my body felt so beat from the exposure but I was talked into trying the TT before I went. Of the approximately 85 starters in Stage 1, only about 45 finished.

I headed out to the TT course with temps in the 40s and the wind gusting up to 35 mph. I went off and it was a difficult ride with the hills and the gusting wind preventing any kind of rhythm but I still managed a decent ride to pull 11th in the TT. Even with a good ride I was still 20 minutes down in the overall and I decided to go home and give my shattered body a rest versus trying to battle it out on Sunday. This race remains my nemesis and I can't imagine what it has for me next year.

TT's and Crits - Love and Hate

Last Saturday was the first TT of the season, the Cronometro in Manor. I managed to finish my TT bike a few days before and I haven't really done any TT work in the past 4 months so I was a little rusty. It was supposed to be a rolling 12 mile course but after reviewing the elevation profile online it didn't look that bad. The supposed "biting" hill looked fairly mild. This race was an age-based race as opposed to a normal category-based race so my group was made up of Pro, Cat 1s and Cat 2s with a few of us Cat 3 or lower mixed in.

I headed up to Manor on Saturday but got around a little late. I had about 15-20 minutes of warm-up and then headed to the start ramp. The course started with a slight rolling descent and a tailwind. I quickly settled in and started to remember what a TT felt like but had the nagging thought that I was probably going to hard at the start since I haven't been training for this effort. I continued to feel strong as I made the right turn and encountered the rolling portion of the course. I came around a bend and saw the "biting" hill in the distance and it looked steeper then I thought but not so long I couldn't get out of the saddle and power over it. I arrived at the hill and started to climb. About 2/3s up I realized it was longer and steeper then expected and I should have dropped to my small ring and spun over it instead of standing up in the big ring and powering over it. I finally made it over but not without taking some spark out of my legs and tried to settle back into a rhythm. I couldn't find the power for a while and I was soon caught by Pat McCarty (a Pro) and later near the finish by Aaron Hill (a Cat 1). I finished with 27:42 which was 7th in my age group (that was almost all Pro's or Cat 1's ahead of me including the State TT record holder) and 17th out of about 120 overall. Not a bad result for the first TT of the season. Looking forward to the next one.... I love TT's!!!

Sunday, after getting up at 4:30 am after daylight savings switched to get my beautiful wife to the airport, I groggily headed to the local University Crit for the Open race. Historically I don't like criterium s. They are typically short loops run over an hour which gets very repetitive and dull. They also tend to have a lot of tight corners which leads to bumping and sometimes crashing. Every season I tell myself to go out there, I'll be fine, my bike handling has improved, and I'll settle in but I always find myself hating them. This race I had a good warm-up but a crash in a prior race put doubts in my mind and as soon as the race started, I was second guessing all the corners which caused me to drop back and off the group very quickly. Within the first 15 minutes of the start I was done and pulled from the course before I was lapped. The reality is that my riding strengths don't lend themselves to success in crits and the possible cost (ugly crashes) simply is not worth the very slim (it would have to be a miracle) chance of a good result. So I have my annual crit out of the way to confirm I hate them and I will stick to my circuit, road, TT, or cross racing. I think that's enough...... I hate crits!!

Friday - Ode to Jens

Courtesy Ben Cooper on the Texas Tailwind Blog...enjoy!

1) Jens Voigt doesn't read books, he simply attacks until the books relent and tell him everything he wants to know.

2) Waldo cannot be found because Jens dropped him on a hill training ride...up K2.

3) Jens doesn't spin or mash pedals, he kicks them into submission.

4) Voigt puts the "laughter" in "manslaughter".

5) If you are a UCI ProTour rider and you Google "Jens Voigt", the only result you get back is, "it's not too late to take up kickball Fred."

6) Jens was a math prodigy in German elementary school, putting "Attack!" in every blank answer space on all his test. It would be the wrong answer for everyone else, but Jens is able to solve any problem by attacking.

7) Jens' testicles are bald because hair doesn't grow on a mixture ot titanium, brass, steel, and cold, hard granite.

8) Jack was nimble, Jack was quick and Jens drove him to quit racing bikes and become an ice dancing commentator on the Lifetime Channel.

9) If Jens Voigt was a country, his principle exports would be pain, agony, and suffering.

10) If Jens Voigt was a planet, he's be the World of Hurt.

11) Jens Voigt doesn't have a shadow because he dropped it repeatedly until it retired, climbing back into the Saxo Bank team car and claiming a stomach ailment.

12) Jens Voigt once challenged Lace to a "Who has more testicles" contest....Jens won with five.

13) When you open a can of whoop-ass, Jens Voigt jumps out and attacks.

14) Jens Voigt believes it's not butter.

15) Jens Voigt can eat just one.

16) The first time man split the atom was when the atom tried to hold Jens Voigt's wheel, but it cracked.

17) Jen Voigt doesn't complain about what suffering does to him. Suffering constantly complains about getting picked on by Jens Voigt.

18) Jens Voigt can start a fire by rubbing to mud puddles together.

19) Guns kill a couple dozen people every day. Jens Voigt kills 150.

20) Jens Voigt nullified the periodic table of the elemnts because he doesn't believe in any element, other than the element of suprise.

21) Jens's tears are so tough that they could cure cancer. Too bad Jens never cries.

Thursday - Jens Voigt Overcoming -

The clips that made him a legend......