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......

Wednesday - Jens Voigt, The Introduction

Bonnie Ford's article after Jen's horrific crash in the 2009 Tour de France.

A great piece that embodies the admiration felt for him throughout the cycling community.

Tuesday - Jens Voigt Week

Jens Voigt has been a successful rider, finished 2nd on the Paris-Nice Prologue on Sunday. If you see his results (I know it's Wikipedia but it will do....) he has had a successful career but he is more legendary (not famous) then Lance, Contador, Boonen, or any other big name. Most of his legend is not due to his wins but his persona, indomitable spirit, and crazy breakaways. He has also been an outspoken advocate for clean racing. I'm dedicating this week to Jens, the cycling culture's version of Chuck Norris. A man who's legend has become bigger then life.....

Bike Christmas

This is the time of year when it's what I like to call Bike Christmas. My employer gives nice health incentives each year that have gone a long way towards funding my bike habit. Each year when this extra cash flow comes in it starts a series of buying new parts and selling old parts on eBay. This buying and selling of parts on eBay has become a trade that I can execute with such efficiency that it allows me to continually upgrade with little to no cost and sometimes I even come out with extra money.

This year I completed the following swaps:

I sold my Garmin Edge 705 and bought a Powertap mentioned earlier in an earlier entry.

I sold the Powertap computer since navigating on it was like trying to communicate in Morse code and bought the new Garmin Edge 500. (Love the Edge 500 so far!! Will write more once I have some more time with it)

I purchased DT Swiss 240 hubs to upgrade the cheap no-name hubs on my race wheels.

I sold my Ritchey Hammerhead TT bars and purchsed 3T Ventus TT bars and the Selle San Marco Zoncolan TT saddle as part of the TT bike overhaul. (Here is a sneak peak of what will be part of the TT bike makeover. A full write up will come once it is complete)

In Over My Head

So my first race back after my layoff was Lago Vista. Lago is a race run on the rolling terrain near Lake Travis and is the same course Saturday (6 mile loop) and Sunday (4 mile loop). This race was also a Cat 2/3 race meaning there was a lot more talent then the normal Cat 3 race.

Saturday started off decently well. I did my best to hang in the pack hoping to finish with the main group. Each lap was successively harder as riders tried to break off the front as we climbed up the rolling front side of the course and then it would start to come back together as we plunged down the back side of the course. I managed to hang on for 8 of the 11 laps despite my front derailleur randomly ghost shifting into the small ring. It turns out that my derailleur was coming loose but fortunately hung on as long as it did. My day finished with 40+ miles raced at an average of a little over 24 mph. Not bad for my first race back but in this field I was a little over matched.

Sunday I wasn't sure how my body would come back from the hard effort of Saturday. The field was slightly smaller (closer to 70 instead of 90 on Saturday) but the winds were brutal. Most of the course had a cross wind of 20-25 mph coming off the lake. The winds quickly destroyed the field and I came off after 3 of the 14 laps. The next several laps in I was in a group of 5 till lap 5 when we went down the long descent in which we would reach speeds of 45-50 mph. As I started to come back up I noticed something wasn't right. My handlebars had rotated down as I had my hands on the hoods instead of in the drops on a descent. Not knowing how loose the bars were I decided not to chance going over them if they decided to continue rotating on the next decent and called it a day. I was less pleased with the short day on Sunday but only about 30% of the starters were still in the lead group and it was shedding riders with regularity.

The best part of the weekend was that it felt good to be on the bike and racing again. I didn't realize how burned out I was before my break and now that I've been refreshed it's amazing how much more fun racing is. Joining the Cat 3 field promises to be extremely challenging and this looks like a learning year but I'm looking forward to continuing to race. Even if I am in over my head more often then not......

Handlebars after the race......

What they should look like....