ironclm's world

RR: 05/21/08 Track - Wednesday Night Races

Tuesdays are points or scratch races (think of a crit on the track) Wednesday nights are a mix of races and you can do all or any of them. Last night there were four different races, so you race some, watch some, race again, watch, repeat. Categories are A, B and C and you self-select. I'm a C.

* C group started with 15 riders with a couple of the guys who probably should be riding in the B group. Around 6 or 7 gals in the Cs, including my teammate Ashley. Her husband Jeff raced with the Bs.

* Sunny to start, but chilly and really windy.  Once the sun goes down, it can get cold. Riding under the lights takes some getting used to.

* My goals for the night: Try something new; learn what I could; work on increasing my cadence (since I was/am running only 81 gear inches). Teammate Nole had said previously, "Going any smaller than 82 will make sure you get dropped every time the speed goes up." No kidding.

Races were: Chariot, Win and Out, Tempo, Miss and Out

Chariot: Just like in Ben Hur--line up and drag race one time around the track. You have a holder who gives you a push and you must hold your line past the finish line, but then you can drop down (like in the 400 on the running track). I was in the first heat (6 of us) and Jeff was my holder. "Give me a push, but not too hard since I'm not used to it."  Well, I need to work on starts as I was last off the line and then played catch up the whole way. Didn't catch up. Last.  Consolation final: Ditto.  Area to improve: Work on starts.

Win and Out: Roll out and after a lap or two (or three? or five? I forget), they ring the bell and the next person across the line wins and is out. Next lap, another bell and the first person across the line is second. Another lap and the first person across the line is third. The rest are fourth through whatever. I was whatever. (81 inches!)

Tempo: 10 laps. Roll out and on turn 4 they ring the bell and thereafter, every lap has sprint points, 2 points for the first one across the line, 1 point for the second person across the line. It turned into a 9.5 lap full out sprint. I got no points. Damn those 81 inches!

Miss and Out: Hey, a race I've actually done! By this time the numbers had dwindled to 8 in the C group as it was dark and still windy and cold (like we were putting on jackets in between races). For the M&O, you roll out and after a couple of laps, they ring the bell and starting on the next time across the finish line, the LAST person over the line has their number called and is out of the race and you keep going until there are only 3 people left and then it's one more lap to determine 1st, 2nd and 3rd. We rolled out and on the bell, I moved up on the outside to the top 3-4 people and was able to stay mid-pack for the first "out" lap. Yea, I wasn't first out (aka LAST)!!! Second lap, I got passed going into turn 3 and tried to count people ahead of me and then the shadows were confusing so I thought there was one more person behind me and Ashley, but no one was, and Ashley was just ahead of me at the line, so I was out.

A very fun night and I'm swapping out chain rings and adding back some inches for racing. I'm putting on a 17 cog, so I'll have two choices (you can flip the wheel around to use the 15 or the 17 cog), one for training and working on cadence and then one to not get spit out quite so fast! I'll give that a try on Saturday at another "Learn to Race" training session.

Sweet Ride!

Super Dave's new track ride. I want!!

Guru Test Ride -- Report

The Guru bus was parked in the Presidio and the guys from Bespoke Cycles were there and they'd set up test rides on Guru bikes. They had tri bikes and road bikes and since I love my tri bike, I rode a road bike, the Geneo. Carbon, Dura Ace, Reynolds wheels. http://www.gurubikes.com/...wroom/road/geneo.php

The bike was nice and stiff and it would be a very nice bike for crits! I took it out for about 45 minutes, doing some climbing in the Presidio and then some sprinting along Lincoln Boulevard. I'd like to test it again on a flat crit-type course back to back with my steel Cervelo Prodigy. But it was a nice ride. And it could come in pink.....

Spent another 30 minutes shooting the breeze with the Bespoke Cycle boys (Stef, Aaron, Ari) and Adam from Guru. Fun afternoon.

RR: EBC Crit

Women 3s and 4s
40 minutes, field of approximately 40, 6 Mice gals
Flat "egg-shaped" course--start/finish to a wide curve, then straight to a right turn, straight to another wide, sweeping curve, straight to a second corner, mostly straight with a "wiggle" back to the s/f, less than a mile.

Things didn't quite work out how I had planned.

Line up and I was in the second row middle. The whistle blew and I got a decent start, but still in the back. I like to watch and get an idea of how people are riding. Not so good by a number of gals! Lots of jerking back and forth, especially heading in to a corner. Either at the end of the first or second lap I saw Ashley on the inside and told her, "Ash, get out of the inside and move to the outside". About 90 seconds later...big crash....on the inside. Luckily Ash and I rode through it, though teammate Marissa got taken down, but got back in on the next lap.

The speed was kind of fast and I got popped off the back after about 6 laps and finally caught up to a Davis gal and got on her wheel, then we picked up a Left Coast gal who pulled me and her (though we dropped the Davis gal) around until we got lapped, then I stayed on for another couple of laps and fell off again and rode it in solo, riding hard all the way. Let's just say, I got a lot of track sprinting practice in. Coming out of every turn 3, I'd get out of the saddle and sprint. At least the crowd was entertained, which was good since I knew a ton of people there.

My avg. speed for 40 minutes was 21.5 mph which is ok considering I rode about half of it solo. My max speed was 28 mph. That's moving for not having a downhill! I wasn't very happy after the race and thanks to Neil H. for letting me vent last night. He was lucky enough to get my pissy email. Need to work on leg speed and that change of pace. More track time!

Oh yeah, teammate Bergen won.

RR: Low-Key Time Trials

Yesterday afternoon was another of the "Low-Key Time Trials" at the velodrome. I'd missed the first one, so I was looking forward to going and getting some baseline times. Since the TTs didn't start until 1:30 and we couldn't get on the track until noon, I picked up Nole and we headed down to Los Gatos to the Cat's Hill Crit. I got to watch the guys race the 4s race which was fun. Post-race...a bite to eat and then off to the track.

There was an hour and a half warm-up time, then the TTs would start. You paid per TT, so you could do as few or as many as you wanted. I was going to do the 200, 500 and 3K, but later switched from the 3K to the 2K (since the 2K is what the women do at the state championships). I'd done one timed 200 about a month ago, but never the 500 or the 2K.

I did the "Gio-approved" warm up, which consisted of 20 minutes at easy pace, then gradually picked it up and ended up with 5x150 hard efforts. Off the bike to get some fluids, hit the bathroom, check the time and back on the bike for another 10 minutes, ending up with 2x100 really hard.

Matt read off the start list for the 200 and I was second on the list but the guy who was first didn't want to go first as he'd never done it before, so I told Matt I'd go first. We were discussing the line to take coming off turn 2 and he said get on the bike and follow him and we'd roll around and he'd show me. Perfect! I'd been dropping down too fast instead of heading straight for turn 3, so that was very helpful. The 200 is from a flying start so you take off and roll around the rail (up at the top) for 2 lap, picking up speed each lap so by the last time going into turn 2, you want to be near your max once you cross the 200 start line. I hit a good line and kept the bike in the sprinter's lane but I'd swapped out chain rings and was riding smaller gearing (86 v. 81 inches), so my leg speed isn't there. Crossed the line in 15.25. Not so happy with that since the other 200 I did was 14.89. But after everyone had slow times, I didn't feel so bad. Though I do need to work on leg speed and spinning a lot faster. I want to be down in the low 14s or even high 13s.

The good thing about going first is that you can watch everyone else, especially people like Nole, John Simmons and Gio, and see the kind of lines they take and how they start and all that. Very helpful.

Next was the 500 which is a standing start on the backside of the track. Standing starts take some getting used to! I was slow out of the start but got up to speed and again, didn't have the leg speed to go as fast as I think I could have. But, I got a benchmark time...49.42. Not so happy with that though. I need to get that down to the low 40s.

I got a little break since the kilo was next, but then it was time to get back on the bike and hit the warm up circle since I was fourth to go in the 2K. I picked Gio's brain on how to ride the 2K--you don't want to go out too fast and die by lap 3, but too slow and you'll have too much left at the end (race is 6 laps). I am well known for going too hard early, so I tried to dial it back a bit the first couple of laps. Again, you start from a standing start and I think I got off the line a little better this time. First lap, controlled, second lap, controlled, third lap a bit from the cotton trees that was flying all over the area flew up my nose and made me cough. Great! Fourth lap pick it up, fifth lap, think I can maintain or pick it up a bit. Sixth lap...I'm sure I held back too much as I think this was my fastest lap, though Matt messed up my splits and only got the first three (38-standing start; 33, 34) Total of 3:27.32. Want to get that down to the 3:10-15 range.

Sat around in the sun and watched everyone ride and about 4PM we packed up and headed back to SF. I got some ideas for training and gearing and got to ride fast in the sunshine and warm air. A pretty great day.

RR: Wente Crit

A nice flat crit, but out in Livermore (East Bay, where I did most of my IMH training), it would be hot and with a 2:50 PM start time, windy. Women's 4 and Women +45 combined field, picked separately. Cool, I'll enter the +45 race! Racing against my age group instead of a bunch of young gals. I forgot that many/most(?) would have loads more experience than me. So I was going to get a butt kicking.

Having such a late start kind of throws the entire day off. I slept in (3.5 hours later than normal!), goofed around the house, ate, thought about packing up, read email instead, and finally headed out to Livermore about 12:30. Made good time and got out there and found teammate Marissa, who was just spectating, and talked to her and got a course recon from Team Oakland Anthony. Went to pick up my number and found out they were running 15-20 minutes late. Found teammates Kate, Ashley and Jeff and talked to them. Kate would be in the field, in the 4s race. Near the ned of the women's 1-2-3 race there was a crash and their race was stopped for a good amount of time. It was finally re-started with 3 laps to go and on the last lap at the last turn, another crash. They closed the course again, so the men's +35 race was late starting and was shortened. We finally got to the line over an hour late, which kind of messes up your nutrition and all that. Oh well.

Goal: keep the rubber side down; finish; don't get lapped or pulled.

I lined up in the second row to start and yet again I couldn't get clipped in fast. Sprinted to the back of the bunch. There were 8 in the +45 field and maybe 20 or more in the 4s. The course was nice--flat, with nice wide corners and broad streets (industrial area backing up to a shopping center), no turns too sharp and one chicane on the back side. Headwind on the long mostly straight (one little bend) along the start/finish stretch, and one very slight rise about 100 yards before the finish line. So slight that you wouldn't feel it except the headwind made it more noticeable.

After yesterday's session at the track, I wasn't sure how my legs would feel (especially since my calves went into full on cramping last night), but they felt OK. OMG--the problem was a little higher!!! I didn't know if I could sit on my saddle. A pox on Felt for that saddle they put on the track bike. I am going to email SuperDave at Felt about that. I've ridden 112 miles in the aero position so many times and never had issues like that. TMI? Anyway, the pain in the crotch kept me from thinking about the pain in the legs.

The first few laps were at a decent pace and I sat in the back checking out how people were taking the corners. With the more experienced gals in the field, it wasn't too bad, though later, there were a couple of gals who were moving way too much laterally. After a few laps, I decided to go up to the front and did a big pull for about half the lap, then moved back. After that, the pace picked up some and I stayed to the side or the back (still can't get right into the middle of it) and they called out 5 to go. I figured that I could suffer for 5 more laps and moved up a little. With 3 to go, I went to the front and picked it up again and stayed in the front for the entire lap. I wasn't sure if it was a prime lap since it seemed they were ringing the bell a lot (or maybe I was delirious), but if it was a prime lap, I was going to stay out in front. I did, but it wasn't. Oh well, it was fun to be in the front.

Two laps to go, there was a surge about halfway through the lap and we dropped some people and I was just hanging on (28 mph on my computer). Then there was another surge and I got dropped with about 1.25 laps to go (just before the last turn and also, Kate says her computer read 31 mph at this point). I saw another gal close behind me (Reno team and in the +45s), so I worked with her on the last lap but we couldn't get back to the group. We traded off pulls and on the last turn coming in to the straight before the finish and into the headwind, she got behind me and I thought there is no way I am going to lead her out and let her sprint by me at the finish. So I just kept increasing my pace and near the line she got as far as my hip but I buried myself and did my best Zabel (in the glory years) imitation and beat her by a good half bike length.

6th place

And come to find out, the gal who won the +45s is a Cat. 2 and another gal is a Cat. 3, so I feel pretty good about how I rode. Though I missed out on winning WINE by one place. I think if I'd been further up in the pack when it surged, I'd have been able to stick with it longer. Something to work on.

As Kate said, today's pace was way faster than the Madera crit, but I felt a lot better today, both physically and mentally (able to suffer longer).

Next weekend: TRACK TRACK TRACK.

Day At The Track

Yesterday was a double session at the track. I went to the beginner's session in the morning since I hadn't been to the track for a few weeks and I need the time on the track. There was a different supervisor yesterday and his session included all drills and no real racing. But we did some very hard efforts. Really good session.

There were about 30 people total, including a group from Berkeley High School, and the majority were pretty new to the track (including a big group of first-timers). But there were a few people who have been there many times and a couple of folks that I recognized, so I rode some with them. Those of us with bikes started warming up on our own, and once everyone got organized, we did a 30 lap warm-up, but somehow, people couldn't count, so maybe we did 30 laps and maybe 25 or maybe 40. Next we did some 100 meter jumps, both sitting and standing. We also did some 1K efforts and some other hard efforts that I can't remember.

One one hard effort, we were riding in groups of 3 and you took off from the rail and sprinted down to the sprinter's lane, going over the top (to the right) of anyone riding slower. On the track, if you are finishing an effort, hold your line until it's safe to move up (right). And if you are coming up on someone, you shout "Stay", which means they need to hold their line since you are approaching from the back and will go around them. Well, we had our three and I was in third position and we were coming up on two high school guys and one started moving up the track out of the sprinters lane, into our path! "STAY" "STAY" "STAY" "HOLD YOUR LINE!!!!!!!!!!!" "Jesus Christ--what the hell!" The other kid was up high and above the stayers line, things were getting crowded, so I went under the gal in 2nd and the high school kid in the sprinters lane finally figured it out and moved back down, so crisis averted. But the heart rates went skyrocketing! After that, I took a little break for some lunch.

The afternoon session was a "Get Ready To Race" session, for people new to racing on the velodrome (that would definitely be me). There were 18 of us there, including some gals from the Proman team who were there to get some work in. We started with a 25 lap warm up and I lasted a little over 20 laps until I popped off the back. I really wish I had a speedo on my track bike and knew how fast we were going. But then again, maybe not. After the warm up we divided up into groups of 6 and did more rotating paceline work and then some 5 lappers where we rode in a group and tried to move around. Didn't really like that too much as I still am not too comfortable being close to someone I don't know and not have any brakes.

Again in groups of 6, we rolled out fairly easy and when Matt blew the whistle, you sprinted until he blew the whistle again. Well, a couple of the guys in my group had questionable bike control with their bikes fishtailing all over the place. But this was a good drill.

We later did a drill where we were in groups of three and second tries to ride up the inside of first and bump them to move them up track. I could take the bumping (being #1 position), but moving up and trying to bump someone (#2 position)...couldn't do it. All was fine until bike messenger girl comes up and hooks me and about put us both on the ground. End of that drill. I told Supervisor Matt, "I'm a sprinter and I'll stick to the 200 and 500, thanks."

The last thing we did was a 10 lap scratch race (like a crit on the track). I had no intention of getting in the middle of the bunch of guys who were a bit sketchy, so I stayed at the back with my teammate Mateo. The pace was controlled for 5 laps, then the last 5 laps were wide open. Again, I'd like to know what the speed was cause it was pretty fast. For the last 5 laps, Mateo and I rode our own race and coming out of the the last turn he said, "GO GO GO" and I came around him in a perfect leadout and sprinted to the finish. Very fun!

It was perfect weather (sunny, 80s) and no wind in the morning with the breeze kicking up in the afternoon. I figure I got about 2 solid hours of riding in, most at intensity, and got to work on my tan. My legs felt good. My saddle on the track bike is killing me so I definitely need a new saddle. I also need to learn to spin more so Mateo loaned me a 45 chain ring (which comes out to 81 gear inches, down from 86.4.) I'll test it out this week on the rollers.

The drive back to the City was fast with no traffic issues and I took the opportunity to go check out the new bike shop and show the boys the new track bike (and have Stef swap out the chain rings and show me how to do it). Their new place is coming along and should be open in the next couple of weeks. I'm very excited for them!

Bespoke Cycles

RR: Madera Stage Race

Three races over two days. This would be a first.
Saturday: 40 minute crit in the morning; 10 mile time trial in the afternoon
Sunday: 51 mile road race

Crap, this stage racing is hard! But I had a very fun weekend and will be back next year with much better fitness. I am definitely down in fitness over the past three months due to work interfering with training (how dare they!)

Saturday: Crit with a 10:40 AM start, though they were running late. Got there early and saw the start of the men's 4 race and then went to warm up. Woo--pretty darned hot already! Started out OK and the skill level of the riders here was much better than at Menlo. This was only my third real crit race (not counting first EB training races or the aborted Santa Cruz sick-fest last weekend), so I'm still figuring it all out. Not to mention trust issues of having other people that I don't know ride around me. Anyway.

Went to the front a few of the early laps and otherwise just stayed near the middle on the side. Until there was a 26 mph spurt and I got dropped along with a Dolce gal and then I lost her and with about 4 or 5 laps to go, I got pulled. Dolce and VG Sarah got pulled on the next lap. Had to finish to move on, but being pulled is the same as finishing, so it was on to the time trial in the afternoon.

TT: I had a 2:35 PM start time, when the heat kicked up (high of 90F) and the wind picked up. Ten miles, three cross/headwinds and the last leg mostly a cross wind. Where was the tail wind??? Had the Pink Rocket TT bike and a HED3d disk, though I've not been on the TT bike since early August, except for a 45 minute ride at the Polo Field earlier last week. But I love that bike, though lack of time in the aero position was telling. Probably rode too hard the first couple of miles, but put in a good effort. My computer said 31:30 and 21.1 mph avg. so I'm happy with that. Another 20 minutes of cool down and then it was back to town and on the way, Ben and I decided to hit the shop for a 6-pack of Coronas and go watch the rest of the P12 crit. Fun to see a couple of friends race and watch the different tactics.

Saturday night I had a massive headache--from the heat? Dehydration (don't think so)? I spent way too much time out at the TT site (middle of no where in an apple orchard) but had been in the shade a lot of the time. Got the shakes and was in the bed around 7:30 PM and no dinner. Not sure I could have kept it down if I'd had something.

Sunday: Road race. Damn, it was hot out there! By 9:00 AM I was sweating just standing around.

W4s---field of 26 (which is more than double of the past few years, I guess); 3 laps, 51 miles; high of 93F. Yes, 93F.

Neutral roll-out about 3 miles. Goal was for Daniela to win the RR.

Roll-out was nice and mellow, about 18 mph. We get to the corner and make the turn and some gal from Velo Bella goes up the road. I'm at the very back of the pack since I still wasn't feeling so good. Had a little something for breakfast, but felt nauseous all morning and wasn't feeling the love. But I actually felt less nauseous once we got riding and my legs felt good.

So the VB gal goes up the road and I ride up the inside to Kate and ask her what she wants to do. Move up from mid-pack towards the front. OK. So we go up to the front. Everyone up front is saying let the VB go up the road, no worries (VB gal is more built like me than a skinny climber type). I see Daniela riding at the front of the group so I move up and tell her to get behind me and tuck in. Shortly after that VB gal starts putting on time on the group and is going away down the road so everyone gets a little nervous and after a little discussion, let's chase down VB gal. So I pop it in the biggest gear I have and take off and do a massive pull and catch her with the rest of the group behind me. Huge effort, but FUN (wish I had a power meter for times like that)! My computer says 32 mph max speed. FRIGGEN AWESOME! I love speed.

I tuck in behind VB gal and she looks back and I smile at her, "Hello", and she makes the grimace face. I spend the next 4-5 miles sitting on her wheel as she stays right in the front. One of the gals from the red/white Testarossa team comes up and says, "What a monster pull! Thanks!" We make the turn onto the crappy road before the pave' road and I start to not feel so good. Turn onto the pave' and I throw up and lose the pack and am feeling not so good, so I suffer solo over the rollers and finally get to the feed zone where Ben is with the truck and I call it a day.

Post-race: Still not feeling so good, but a Diet Pepsi and some salty chips help some. Then speeding 90 mph through the desert with the radio/iPod cranked, grooving first to Fresno's FOX radio (classic rock!) and then to PIRATE radio, and finally to David Gray, watching the mountains get closer and closer and the terrain turn to sand and Joshua trees, well, I feel much better. I love the desert and I'm now spending a week in the high desert to run and ride and sleep and drink wine and sit in the hot tub and just chill. Those gals better watch out at Wente in two weeks!

Day at the Track and Team Skills Session

Yesterday I headed down to the velodrome with teammate Jay for the beginner session. We met up with two other teammates plus about 20-25 others. It was the third ride on the new bike and we are still messing with the fit, so I was, "well, we'll see how it goes". We also planned on staying for the afternoon racing, so it was going to be a long day. Luckily, it was a perfect weather day--temps in the mid-70s, sunny, a little breeze later.

For the beginner session, we started out with groups of about 8, combining pure beginners with some of us who had been there a few times. We did a warm up doing a rotating pace line. The new bike felt OK. The new saddle didn't feel OK. But things got better as we went on. We did some other group riding (I forget exactly what), then Matt (track supervisor) said we were going to do timed 200s. YES!! The 200 is one of the races that I want to race at Masters' Nationals in September, so I've been wanting to get a baseline time. For the 200, you have a rolling start and there is some technique to it. I got a decent start and kept a good line and came across the line in 14.89. I guess that sub-15 seconds is all right. And considering that this was the first time I'd ever done this, I'm pretty happy with it. After some easy spinning, we did a smaller group scratch practice race (like a crit on the track). I didn't ride that too hard since we still had the afternoon session to go. A little lunch and chatting with people and then it was time to start thinking about the afternoon's races.

Teammate Gio showed up for the afternoon session and he took us through a warm up and gave us a lot of good advice (THANKS GIO). Racing at the track is by category, but instead of the number system like the road, it's A, B and C. I would be a beginner--a C.

The first race was the keirin. The Cs were divided into 3 heats of 6-7 people each. You all take off from a standing start (with a holder--and who was mine, but Neil H!), following a motorcycle who started at 15 mph and went up to 20 mph then faster for about 3 (4, 5?? I forget) laps, then the moto pulls off on the back side and it's a lap and a half sprint to the finish. Top two of each heat went straight to the finals, #3 and 4 went to the rep ride to try to get to the final. Over 4th place, you're out. I was in heat 2 with 5 or 6 guys. The laps behind the moto were fine, but then he sped up and I got gapped and couldn't get back on the group and ended up last in the heat. I think I have a little too big gearing for right now, so I'll have to look into that.

The next race was scratch race and all the Cs grouped together to do 15 laps (3 miles). We were off and the racing was pretty fast from the start. I lasted about three laps and then got gaped big time and did another couple of solo laps and dropped out. My legs were a bit tired, but like Gio said for the keirin, I didn't commit. He's right.

After that race, I asked Gio what I should do for the miss-and-out (group starts together and after a lap, for each lap thereafter, the last person over the line is out of the race. When they get down to the final three people, it's a two lap sprint to the line. Gio said get to the front and stay there. OK. But, easier said than done. It was a mass start off the rail and on the back side, I went to the front and stayed there. For about a lap and a half (or two and a half? I forget). But as they say, "If you aren't moving up, you are moving back." I got blocked in on the inside and ended up last one across and therefore, out of the race. My legs were pretty tired by then, so I watched the Bs and As miss-and-out races to see the strategy and then changed clothes and didn't race the last race, the points race.

I had about two hours of riding and a good test of the new bike. I'm still getting comfortable on it, but hopefully each time will be a little better.

Today was the women's race team skills session. We met up in Windsor (Sonoma County--Vineman country) and there were 15 of us and one coach. We went over basic bike skills, cornering, emergency stops, no hands riding, side-by-side riding through corners, lots of fun stuff. After a lunch break, we headed out on the roads to do some paceline work, then a 2-mile hill climb (and I wasn't last!), then a beautiful descent of that same hill. We rode back to the original meeting place, put the bikes up, changed and then had a training and nutrition session. All in all, a very beneficial day.

The New Kid

Felt TK2

SIZES (cm): 700c x 52 / 54 / 56 / 58 / 60
COLOR: Semi Matte Black
WEIGHT: 15.69 lbs. (56cm)

FRAME:
Felt 7005 Superlite smooth welded custom-butted aluminum frame with wishbone seat stays. Externally relieved integrated head tube, machined bottom bracket, aero cut-away seat tube with bulge butted down tube, Forged and CNC machined dropouts with stainless steel inserts.

FORK:
Felt Airfoil Carbon Fiber straight-blade track fork with alloy steer tube with brake hole

DRIVETRAIN:
Sugino Black 75 Track Crank with 3/32” 48T Chainring & 3/32” Dura Ace 15t Rear Cog

WHEELSET:
Alex DA28 Double-Wall all black Aero Rims and DT Doubled Butted Champion Spokes
Felt Precision Sealed-Bearing Track Hubs with Flip-Flop Rear Hub
Vittoria Rubino Pro Slick Tires

COMPONENTS:
Deda Pista Oversized Aluminum Track Handlebar[REPLACED WITH ROAD BAR]
Felt 1.1 3D-Forged Stem [REPLACED WITH RITCHEY STEM, shorter]
Felt 1.2 Saddle with Carbon Injected Base and CRMO rails
Felt 3.2 Bladed Carbon Fiber Seatpost

Matt & Kristy

Our community is devastated at yesterday's loss of two wonderful people, Matt Peterson & Kristy Gough. I wanted to take a moment to thank every person who has taken the time to share their support in this difficult time

- the flood of kind words has been overwhelming but also wonderful. Thank you all, and please keep them coming.

At the request of Matt's family, we've established a website where you can post your thoughts, prayers & rememberances of Matt. A memorial service will be held later this week in the bay area - details also to be posted on this website.

http://rememberingmatt.blogspot.com

Our thoughts are also with Kristy's family and friends today, as well as those of the other cyclists struck down on the road yesterday. It was one of those days we wish we could forget.

Dave Parrish

Roaring Mouse Cycles

RR: Tri Flow Menlo Park Crit

Tri Flow Menlo Park Crit
Women's 4s +35 (combined field with W4s)
45 minutes

First of all, a big thanks to Lorri for putting on the race and a huge thanks to all the volunteers!

A much bigger field today (40 total?) than the Early Bird crit and a number of gals who were doing their first race. There were also quite a few gals that I recognized from the Early Birds and Snelling and a couple of tri gals turned roadie from Dolce Vita that I know. The Mice had nine of us racing. A Z-team gal came up to me in the line up to say hi and that she remembered me from the EBs and I had a good wheel so could she work with me. Ok, but I just hope to hang with the pack! I lined up in the second row and the speed was high from the get-go. It got strung out pretty fast but I could see Bev, Marissa, Rebecca and Mo all ahead of me. Ashley was right behind me on my wheel. I wasn't sure where Katy, Kate, or Emily were at. The first few laps, I was midway back on and on the side just kind of seeing who was doing what. I really don't like to be in the pack until I can see who is there and how they are riding so I can stay away from the people who look a little sketchy. Not that I am master cyclist, but I've been told have a good (steady) wheel. The course was a 1K rectangle, four right turns with a couple of spots of bad pavement, but these spots were coned off. It was FLAT FLAT FLAT. I like that! Unfortunately, there was lots of slowing down and breaking through the turns and not pedaling through and some people bouncing around the bot dots instead of just riding over them.

There was a crash early on and I saw it coming in the turn, ahead and to the left of me. A gal went jumpy in the corner, her back wheel fishtailed, took down the gal on her left and another gal (Ashley was in this group). No real harm, but Ashley was out. I stayed inside and got around it.

A few laps later, I'm riding about midway back and on the left side and a gal I know who has a lot of race experience is next to me and says, "There are too many sketchy riders here." Famous last words. The next corner I'm on the left side near the curb coming through the turn and you could hear the start of a crash. All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye a bike and rider are doing an endo through the air and the gal is screaming. I see the bike (and gal) headed for me and think, "SHIT! This might not be pretty."

Luckily (for me), she hits the ground, but the bike keeps coming so I stick my right forearm out and the wheel or pedal or something hits my forearm. I was thinking, "Hit the arm, don't get caught up in my wheel!" There was no one right in front of me so I hammer the pedals as hard as I could go, move as close to the curb as possible, and ride out of the mess, albeit with a sore arm, never looking back. Thank god for the sprint drills we do at the track and I've been doing them on my own at the Polo Field! I think I was the last one to get through, or if not, the others couldn't bridge up. I got gapped a bit so I'm riding like hell and chasing and Michael is on the microphone saying, "Look at number 243 trying to get back on the group." He later figured out it was me or Katy told him, then I got my name called every lap which made me ride harder. Put Hernando on the mic at track Nationals and I swear I'll podium every race. ;-)

It was then past the Men Mice who were at corner one and they are cheering, then corner two where Katy, Marja and someone else (Mateo? Team Oakland Ant?) are cheering and the pack is just.so.so.so.tantilizingly.close but I can't catch them. DAMN! Take a quick rest and try again. And again. And again. It took me three laps to finally catch a straggler (a gal doing her very first race) who was dying, so I tell her what to do (get on my wheel, here, now you lead, Ok, I'll lead) and she and I paceline a bit and we FINALLY catch back on to the front pack. This was good since shortly thereafter, the race was neutralized and then stopped for 15 minutes for the ambulance to come in and take away one or two gals.

After the 15 minutes (where we rode around easy but still got cooled down), they restarted the race they called everyone who had been in that front group up and we were sent off ahead of the second group. On the restart we had 5 laps to go. The first lap was warp speed (or it seemed like it) and I hung on, then hung on again for the next lap and then towards the end of that lap, moved up to the front of the pack. On the next lap on the backside, a Metromint gal attacked and I just couldn't go with it and ended up dangling off the back for half a lap and then popped. I rode the final two laps as a very hard time trial since there was no way in hell that I wanted the second pack to catch me. Again, I got called out by Hernando and got cheers from the crowd and that made me keep up the hard riding. I kept telling myself, "This is just a really long pursuit workout. It will be good for the track!" I crossed the finish line and didn't get caught by the second pack. Goal accomplished. My rubber side stayed down. Second goal accomplished.

Teammate Marissa won the race and teammate Bev was 4th in the 4s race. Susan and Kelly from Dolce Vita were on the podium for the +35s (Susan won!) and I ended up 9th, so I'm happy with that. I am much happier about how I rode in this race than I was about the Snelling race. I still need to work on that change of speed/intensity and do a better warm up. Things are looking up for track season!

Snelling Road Race

Snelling Road Race
Snelling, CA (Central California)
40s and WINDY, threatening rain, but only a few sprinkles
Women's 4, 38 miles
Teammates: Bergen, Bev, Daniella, Ashley, Emily Mc, Mo and me in group A; Jessica, Emily M., Rebecca in group B.

This would be my first cycling road race and I was more than a little nervous as I really had no idea of what to expect. They call the course "flat" but it's not. Well, flat for Northern California. There were lots of rollers, some flats, some good roads, one really bumpy road and just crazy wind. I know where to go the next time I'm training for Kona!

The start is a neutral rollout for about 1.5 miles or so including the first set of hills. I'd told Ben that I thought I'd get dropped on that set of hills. We took off behind the motorcycle and the pace was mellow, but once we got out of town, it picked up. During the roll-out we were limited to the right lane, but once we got onto the course proper, the roads were basically closed (a little bit of local traffic) and we could take the entire road. Once we got onto the course, it went warp speed--we were flying! At this point, I was having fun. Of course later I realized that during this stretch we had a huge tailwind! Up the next set of rollers and I'm still in the pack! We pass the feed zone and up that big hill and I'm still in the pack!! Though I had to hammer it to stay with it. We'd already shedded some people off and with the right/left turns after the hill, I was able to catch back on. But then about a quarter mile later, it was another hill and that's when I lost contact and the pack went down the road. There were two gals who'd fallen off the pack in front of me and some behind and I rode as hard as I could to catch up with the first gal. We then caught up with the second gal and then Emily caught up with us and we were four. We picked up another gal so we had five people. Three of us were riding pretty well together, but the other two weren't.

Once we turned onto the road heading east, the wind was coming from about 2:00, so we pulled a pretty nice echelon. Another turn to the south and full-on head wind. When we'd done the pre-ride a couple of weeks ago, the wind wasn't too bad, so this was a surprise. Along this road there's another big hill and on the first lap, the five of us got split up. The two who wouldn't work with us got a gap and Emily and I dropped red jersey gal so the two of us continued to work together. We turned onto the bumpy road which was also pretty windy, then another turn and past the finish line and start the second loop.

On the second loop, red-jersey gal (Monica from Code 3) caught up with us and after introductions, we started a nice little pace line. Still windy and it was starting to tick me off. Plus, I got the bad attitude--if we weren't in the break, why bother!! We started to get passed by different groups of men and got passed by the break of gals from the B group who had started 5 minutes after us. The three of us caught up to one of the two gals who we'd been with earlier and asked her if she wanted on, but she didn't so we left her.

Third lap--I was ready to be finished. Wind, wind, wind. My hands and fingers were frozen (even with long-sleeved gloves!) and I didn't eat enough since I'd not really had a chance to try to get the food out of my pocket and trying to get all my calories from drink doesn't work. Plus, not enough time on the bike in the past two months and I really need to work on my power/weight ratio. We finally got to the last 1K and I was in no mood to try to sprint the last few hundred UPHILL meters. I mean, who cares when you are down the field?

So, first road race is in the books. It was ok and doing more of them will do me good. Maybe if there was a flat race in 80F temps! I didn't love it like I did cyclocross (I loved the first cross race I did, LOVED it). The good: Sticking with the pack about three more sets of hills than I thought I would. The bad: Not mentally staying with it the entire race.

The Mice did great--Bergen won, Bev was 2nd and Daniella was top 6. They didn't have results for more than that, so I have no idea where I placed. It was great to see so many Mice out racing. The guys also had a great race and then there were the uber-supporters--Ren, Katy and Allie, Eduardo, Jeff and Dane. They were fantastic--out in the cold for a couple of hours. Thanks guys!

Next up: Back to the track next Saturday!!

Riding in the Central Valley

So, I'm doing my first cycling road race in two weeks and it will be a pretty big women's field. In fact, they've added a second women's 4 field (50 + 13 so far). Since we have probably 12 gals racing, we decided to head out today to pre-ride the course. There were 8 gals and Ben and Kevin. Ben raced here last year and is the team's Road Manager, so was very helpful.

Snelling is out in the Central Valley--home to almond trees, cattle and bees. It's also a solid 2-2.5 hour drive from SF. The Snelling race is also listed as a "flat" course. Yeah, right. From the race flyer: "Course: An 11.7 mile loop of narrow country roads northwest of Snelling, start ing with a promenade from the Park, via J-59, Emma and Montgomery Streets. Several small hills, several sharp turns, excellent to fair pavement. Course is closed to oncoming traffic, both lanes available." The Women 4s race 3 laps, plus the lead out, about 38 miles total.

We got out there around 10:45 and parked and got changed and the bikes out and were on the road by 11:!5. The start is through town and neutralized until we get out of town, heading towards the loop. There were a number of big rollers here and I guess this is where people start to hammer. Great. The road then flattens out and then more rollers and flat and rollers. Get the picture? The roads were decent, but there were lots of places with dirt and sand in the road and in at least one place, the sand was pretty deep. I rode through it the first time and got a little rear wheel shimmy in the sand. I didn't ride though it the second or third lap!

On one stretch of the road that Ben called the cobbles (since it is chip seal and pretty rough) we rode past a house and a dog comes running out barking. He got all the way across the road and started going down the line and I pulled out my water bottle full of Clif drink and when he got to me, I gave him a squirt, square in the face. That shut him up and sent him back to the house. And everyone was impressed with my water bottle aim!

The first lap we rode controlled, just checking out the course. After a short regroup at the end of the first lap, it was decided that the second lap would be ridden a little harder. Three of us got off the front and I was taking longer pulls at the front since it was nice and flat. A little windy, but my preferred kind of course. When we got to the rollers, I popped off the back, and lost that group. I also got stung by a bee in the back of the arm which stung and itched the rest of that lap. Ben flatted somewhere along here so I stopped for him and then when Jessica and Kevin caught up, Jessica and I took off. I told her, "let's make them work to catch us", so I rode pretty up tempo with her on my wheel. They never did catch us before the end of the loop.

Another regroup and the third lap was ridden easy. The wind had kicked up a bit, but nothing too bad. And, I did the entire ride in shirt sleeves and shorts. Gotta love California!! And this course would be perfect for Kansas 70.3 training!!

45 miles in 3 hours.

The ride was followed by Mexican food in Modesto. And, I bought gas for $2.97/gallon!!
A good day overall!

A 3B Day

Bikes, boys, beer.

Today was trip number two to the velodrome for the beginner's training session. There are four different people who put on the sessions, one week per month, and they all run the sessions just a bit differently. Lindy and Jake, two of the people we rode with a lot last Saturday, were there again. Also there were my teammates Eduardo and his 11 year old son Christian. Since the weather was much better today, there were lots of people there. Note to self: Leave early to be one of the first to arrive to get the bike you want. I got there a little late and was stuck with a bike that was the right size, but with a stem that was way too long so I was seriously stretched out and that position gave me saddle issues too. I think my own track bike is on the horizon.....

We did the standard 40 lap warm up, but with that many people, it quickly became a mess. There were too many people who would get to the front of the paceline and hit the gas. After the warm up, we did 4-5 man pursuit. The purpose of the pursuit exercise was to learn to ride on a wheel and pull off and get back on the paceline correctly. Well, the first two groups started and bust out hammering and blew their groups apart, which pretty much defeated the purpose of the exercise. I rode with Jake and Lindy and another and we kept together pretty well. After a few times of this, it was on to something else.

I don't remember everything that we did, but my favorite was the 200 meter sprint drills. You come off the rail and just hammer. Well, not quite. The exercise we did was two people roll out from the back straight and ride one lap, picking up speed until you hit the 200 meter mark, then you drop down to the sprint lane and ride like hell, the back person trying to come around and pass the front rider. Then get back in line and switch places the next time. Fun!!

We also did the elbow and shoulder bumping drill and then we tried pushing our partner from their hip, similar to what you do in a Madison race. I was fine being pushed, but I need a lot of work trying to push.

This week we also did the Australian pursuit--where everyone starts on a different light pole and on the whistle everyone goes and tries to catch the person in front of them and not be passed by the person behind. I did much better this week and made it an entire lap and I was thisclosetopassing the guy in front of me when we both got passed by one of the gals who was a very strong rider.

After the session ended, I rode another 15-20 minutes, then turned the bike back in, changed, had a bite to eat and sat in the grass on the infield with some of my teammates who were there to race.

It was nice and sunny and warm, very different from last weekend! This afternoon there was a race fundraiser to send some folks to Europe to race some UCI races, so the racing was fast and serious, but a nice mellow vibe too. They had music and a BBQ going and a keg and a nice crowd. There was the A's scratch race, then points races for the C's, B's and then A's. Each group had quite a few people, with some people racing 2 or 3 times!

A perfect day.

RR: Early Bird Crit (the REAL race)

Today was the first real crit. The other three had been training races and they would let you sit out a lap and go back in and they didn't keep track of the placings nor were any points on hand to be taken, so today was the real deal. I wasn't sure how my legs would feel since I went to the velodrome yesterday. There was also a mentoring session prior to the race and that was a good warmup since we did some single paceline and double paceline work, then we did the threaded paceline drill--two pacelines and then someone goes up the middle from the back to the front and you just keep rotating through. Then, we broke off into smaller groups and two people went off the front and one by one, the rest of the group hit the gas and tried to bridge to the breakaway. Good finish to the session to be ready to start the race.

Early Bird Crit 02/03/08
Women's 4s
23 starters
6 Mice

No splitting the group into two races, which they'd done 3 of the 4 times, so my friend Kristy (pro triathlete) started with us. She is definitely the best in the field and will likely be upgrading to a 3 soon. The course was a +1 mile loop with 3 corners and one sweeping curve; wet roads; lots of BOT dots; cold and overcast with some rain.

I was in the second row and got a decent start. Almost immediately the group split into two with about 9-10 breaking away from the rest. And I made that break!! I was pretty jacked about that. The pace ramped up and since my computer isn't working, I had no clue how fast we were going. 22 or 23? After one lap, it started to rain. Oh great. After about 3.5 laps, I was starting to fall off the back a little and there was a bit of a gap which grew. Mentor Larry, Mr. Masters' National and World kick-ass rider, said to get up there. So I did. But damn, that was hard and I was definitely working way hard—over threshold. After another lap and a half I fell off again and couldn't get back on. Though I know that I'm still holding on to that "hold back a little on the bike since the run comes after" mentality. I'm working on that. That front group split again, so I'd have liked to been able to hang a little longer.

But instead, I was in no-man's land as I couldn't see the group behind at all. I sat up and then saw teammate Rebecca and waited for her. We rode together and I told her we had three options--ride like hell to try and catch the front group which probably wouldn't happen; ride together steady in no-man's land; or sit up and wait for the following group. We did the last. When they came by, we jumped on and stuck with them for the rest of the race. They were working pretty well together but there was a little twitchiness at times. The stretch between turn one and turn two had a cross wind and we were in sort of an echelon and I was on the front and the gal on my right hip all of a sudden hit my leg/hip with her hand/handlebar! WTF?????? I kept riding and luckily, she didn't go down. No harm, no foul. Though my HR did jack up.

We finally got the 5 laps to go word and then it was just a matter of holding on to the end. On the last lap I ended up at the front of the group on the backside after turn two and got a little gap. The mentor next to me told me I had a gap (which I kind of knew already...just a feeling) and I held steady and he said, "The gap is growing. I'm not sure what you want to do with it." Well, the way he said it and to see just what I could do, I decided to pick it up and take off. I knew that I'd probably stay ahead up to the last sweeping curve, which hits straight into the wind. And that's what happened. They caught me about 20 yards after the curve and I could see the finish line, but had no sprint left after the velodrome on Saturday and the first part of the race. I ended up in 14th place and 4th across the line in that second group.

The Mice took 2nd, 5th, 6th, 11th (I think), 14th, 15th or 16th and 19th, so a good day. And, for most of us, it was our first official race! We all had mud all over our faces, but big smiles.

So, the first official one is in the books. I had fun, kept the rubber side down and got called a sandbagger by one of the mentors (he said I should have stuck with the first group). And, I learned a lot. Our first road race is 3 weeks from yesterday. Just a little nervous about that!

A Trip to the Velodrome

I went to the velodrome about 5 years ago and it was so fun. But, it's an hour away and trying to fit it in with triathlon training didn't work too well. Fast forward to this year and I decided that I wanted to go back and try it again. Especially since Masters Nationals will be at that velodrome in September and I want to race then.

The forecast for Saturday was rain, but in the morning when I got up, it wasn't raining, but it was COLD (like 39F in San Jose). I got down there and teammates Jeff and Ashley were there, plus about 12 other people. Most had some experience but there were a few with limited experience. We got signed in, got the rental bikes and then went over some rules of the track and what the different lines on the track were for. Everyone was freezing so we got started and did a 40 lap warmup which was a rotating paceline, starting out easy, but ramping it up every 10 laps, with 10 to go supposed to be hard, 5 to go really hamming and the last lap as hard as you could go. (Five laps to the mile) I felt pretty good and everyone stayed together until about 10 laps to go and I got gapped and off the back and shortly thereafter, the whole paceline split apart and we all finished at our own speed.

About riding the bikes..they are fixed gear bikes with no brakes. What that means is that you have to constantly pedal and if you stop, the cranks keep moving and about rip your legs off! You really only do that once. It also makes getting started and then stopped quite the adventure since you can't clip in, coast and clip in the other leg. It's clip in and try to clip in the other foot as the pedal is going around. Stopping is just as fun--you slow way down and unclip one foot and when you are going real slow, you can actually use your quads in the still-clipped in leg and stop the bike and step down.

After the warm up and catching our breath, we spit up into smaller groups and did some paceline work and then some "follow the leader" going up and down the embankments and getting a feel of how different areas of the track felt. To slow down on the track, you just move up.

Once people starting feeling better on the bikes, we did some races, which was fun. There were three gals with limited or no experience (me, Ashley and a gal named Lindy), two experienced gals who race and were very helpful, then 10 guys, most with experience and two who were really good. I don't remember all the races we did, but the first was a 10 lap race (3-man pursuit, I think). It was really hard to try and go hard for 10 laps. I liked the 1-2 lap races!

The other thing that was really tricky was starting from the rail. You go to the top of the wall and you are clipped in and hold on to the rail and start from a dead stop, pushing yourself off the wall. Hmmm. This will take a lot of practice. I was slow getting off the wall every time and it's a little nerve wracking to push yourself off, head the bike down the track and then grab the other handlebar.

Another race we did was the Italian pursuit. We had 4 people and you all start together and the first person does one lap and peels off, then the next person peels off after two laps, the third after three and the last person ends up riding four laps against the other fourth person. I volunteered to go first. ha

There were some others and we did some races more than once and mixed up teams and then we did some sprint drills. We rode around in groups of 4 and instead of a paceline, we rode 4 abreast and when the whistle was blown we had to sprint until he blew it again. And some sprints were up out of the saddle (and you're down in your drops), and other sprints were seated. Plus, the length of the sprint varied.

The last race we did was the Australian pursuit. There are 32 light poles at the track and we were each sent to a different light pole, via a handicap system. When the whistle was blown, you went as hard as you could until someone passed you, then you were out. Well, I got a really slow start off the wall and got caught by the fastest guy pretty quick. Actually all three of us gals got caught pretty fast. But that race was fun. Once that was finished, it was about time to go, so we packed up and that was it.

You need three Saturday beginner sessions before you can race, so I need two more. I'm thinking about going next Saturday as there are races in the afternoon, so it will be fun and beneficial to watch some real races. I can't wait!

RR: Early Bird #4

I've been off the bike for a week and had total rest for 5 days (like my friend Katy said, "That's like a month for normal people"), so I was feeling pretty good and raring to go. Except for the rain. And except for waking up pretty congested. Phone call to the gal I was going to ride down with--go, don't go, go, don't go. She decided not to go. Except the rain quit. So I called Katy to see if she was still going. She called Emily and called me back and said they were going. Peer pressure. OK, I'll go. (Though coffee, the electric blanket and a book sounded really good.)

The mentoring session was supposed to be learning how to move up in the pack (which I wanted to learn) and then how to chase down a break with rotating pacelines (which is what I did last week with two other gals). So the first timers went off as a separate group and the rest of us all rolled out together. We finally got organized into a double paceline and rode about 30 minutes like that, ramping up the pace right from the start. I hadn't gotten any real warm up and I was still congested and all of a sudden, I couldn't breathe. [Note to self--leave asthma inhaler in bike helmet bag so I always have it.] Legs felt good, lungs felt bad. I joined up with the first timer group, who by this time was riding in a group at a more moderate pace (and seemed more organized). One hour riding during the mentoring.

A quick trip to the bathroom, drop off my jacket, down a Gu and water and ride over to the start for the practice race. There were only two Mice gals besides me since a few people did the mentoring but decided not to race. My plan was to ride for a bit to see how I felt and then either continue or drop. We started out easy for a couple of laps and I stayed up in the top 10, but there was overlap gal and twitchies 1, 2 and 3 and then someone picked it up and I stayed up in the front bunch for a few laps, then on the back side turn, it was like someone hit the brakes and the pace started to see-saw and then a couple of people attacked and I started to cough up a lung and dropped off the back and rode two laps with a couple of mentors then dropped after 20 minutes since I couldn't breathe. A total of 80 minutes pretty hard riding.

One teammate ended up crossing the line first and the other teammate was the first across in the second pack. Good day for the Mice!

Next week, it's for real. Points and everything!

A Mini Break

So after a number of people told me that I needed a break, since I hadn't really had one, I've taken 5 days totally off training. Since 4 of the 5 days coincided with rain and really cold temperatures, I wasn't too sad about it. Plus, some change at work means a lot more work for me right now, but that's OK since it will mean more happiness and less stress for me in the long run. And I get overtime and overtime is a good thing. Do I hear a new track bike in the future???

Monday was a holiday, but I went to the pool and swam and lifted and ran a little and also worked about 6 hours. Tuesday I worked about 10 hours. Wednesday the weather was horrible, so another day off training and just work and then relax in the evening. Thursday was more of the same. Friday I did get to the pool to coach the swim squad that morning, but it rained all day and night so I hopped on the first bus home and was in for the evening.

They'd projected rain for the entire weekend (like from Thursday through Tuesday), so I planned to work some today. I didn't set the alarm and woke up after 7:00 AM, which is like most people sleeping until 10 or 11 AM. Had coffee and breakfast and noticed that it wasn't raining, but I got ready and headed in to work. Of course, it didn't rain all day. It's now about 9:30 PM and it just started raining. No, it's pouring. Great. We are supposed to be doing the training crit tomorrow morning. We'll see about that.

This weekend was supposed to have been the race team training weekend. I was going to go, but then the work thing came up and I had to bail, but with the weather, the weekend got cancelled/postponed, since there were calling for severe weather up in Lake County. Good idea. So instead, we had a team tactics meeting late this afternoon. It was a lot of fun and pretty interesting and the pizza and beer made it even better! We ended up with about 20 people there and I got to meet some people I hadn't met and got to know a few others better. I'm amped about the upcoming season and our first race. The first road race is only 4 weeks from today!! Tomorrow it's back to training. As Ben said tonight, "The season starts now."

Time to do the anti-rain dance for tomorrow!

RR: Early Bird #3

This week at the crit training the mentoring session was going to cover double pacelines, then smaller groups of rotating pacelines. Last would be a demonstration of what to do if you accidently touch wheels. I picked up Katy and Allie and then we picked up teammate Jessica and drove down towards Fremont. It was cold (high 40s) and a bit cloudy leaving the City. About Redwood City I suddenly realized, the road is wet. Why is that? Then it got cloudier and cloudier and it started misting. Oh no! A crit in the rain? With beginning riders????? Hmmm. Might have to rethink this one. But, we got over to Fremont and no rain, but the streets were still wet.

They divided us into three groups for the mentoring (after some announcements and the wheel-touching demo). I should have worn my jacket as I was getting really cold. Our group (everyone who had been there just once before) started out and did a number of laps, finally sorting out the double pace line. It went pretty smoothly, but there was still a lot of not knowing how to go through the corners. After a bit we divided our group into smaller groups and practiced rotating pace lines of 4-5 people. Lots of work needed on this. Thirty minutes of riding during the mentoring, then it was time to race.

Quite a few gals decided not to race, but we still had a pretty good group. Again they pulled out people who had raced 10 times or more and that group had 8 or so gals, including my friend Kristy who can hammer the bike and four of our Roaring Mouse gals. About a minute or so later the rest of us started. There were 15 or 20 of us, I'm guessing, including four more Mice.

At the start I couldn't get clipped in so had to hustle up to the pack. Luckily there were riding slow (for a crit) and stayed that way for the first 3-4 laps. There were four or five gals who kept rotating the lead with each other, two abreast, and I sat in right behind them. Perfect place I thought. After that little warm up, someone picked up the pace and that's when they started cutting the corners and pinching people out and some people started to get a little sketchy. Then someone really amped up the pace and we were doing about 23-24 mph. I saw that it was only a little more than 15 minutes into the race and thought, do I really want to blast myself for 30 or more minutes when I couldn't feel my feet and I was coughing a bit and my nose was running and draining into my throat? No. So I slid to the side and eased off the back and watched the group go away. Later you could hear the "boom!" of people blowing up all over the place.

I knew that initial surge had dropped some folks, so I soft pedaled and looked back and saw...mentors! Hmmm, where was everyone else? Aha, here comes Jessica, my teammate. It was her first ever bike race and she was doing great. I told her to hop on my wheel and we started swapping the lead back and forth, getting tips from our two personal mentors. We were riding at a steady clip (18-19 mph I'm guessing), but not hard enough that I was out of breath, so I chatted with the mentors. A couple of laps and you heard that boom and on the windy straight I could see Mouse Barbara riding solo along the side, so we picked it up a bit and grabbed Barbara, and now we were three Mice with three mentors. We spent the rest of the time doing a rotating paceline and with one-to-one mentors, we got lots of good on-the-bike lessons and tips. After 40 minutes, we were finished. A very good learning experience, lots of fun.

Post-race, 12 of the Mice went to lunch and talked bikes and stuff. A totally fun day.

LARPD CX Overall Standings 2007 Women C

9/1/07 9/8/07 9/15/07 10/20/07 12/8/07 12/22/07 12/29/07 SUBTTL

1 APP Dana Katz 0 50 50 0 50 0 0 150
2 204300 Cathy Morgan 25 18 0 18 0 50 35 146
3 255738 Theresa Castia 9 14 35 10 25 25 18 136
4 1-Day Katerine Butler 0 0 0 35 0 0 50 85
5 85634 Becky Brain 0 0 0 25 35 0 0 60
6 254179 Jenny Feix 50 0 0 0 0 0 0 50
7 254251 Kim Wik 0 0 0 50 0 0 0 50
8 1-Day Amy LaPierre 18 25 0 0 0 0 0 43
9 203765 Lauren Haughey 35 0 0 0 0 0 0 35
10 APP Marissa Axell 0 35 0 0 0 0 0 35
11 254437 Jasmin Parsons 0 0 0 0 0 35 0 35
12 1-Day Katy Jossy 10 12 0 9 0 0 0 31
13 APP Stacy Holz 14 0 0 12 0 0 0 26
14 132871 Yvette Crockell 0 0 0 0 0 0 25 25
15 255734 Carla Cosentino 0 0 0 14 0 0 0 14
16 1-Day Veronica Lentfer 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 12
17 1-Day Margaret Baumgner 0 0 0 dq 0 0 0 0

Why I Love Cyclocross, Reason #487

So, we are standing around after the race today and a dude walks by with a beer in his hand and another(opened) beer in his pocket which was foaming a bit due to his walking around. Katy says, "Hey, your pocket is foaming." Dude says, "Want a beer?" Heck ya! Gotta love cyclocross!!

I MADE CYCLINGNEWS.COM!!!!!!

Look clear at the bottom of the page.   ;-)

http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=cross/2007/dec07/baycross075

That makes my day!