Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Wednesday

A bit of bad luck on the Wednesday Ride. Lyons Valley Road was a bit slick coming down from the store break. A couple of temporary "Creek" crossings were forded on the descent. Tammy, Jay, and Janel had pulled off the front and were dropping pretty fast - some training for when Janel heads out to Belgium for some Euro racing.

I was following a ways behind, I'm not the greatest descender and both Janel and Jay are pros. As I came around the last corner I found Janel sitting in the middle of the road, Tammy pulled off to the side, and Jay in the ditch - on her back with her bike lying on top of her. Apparently, Janel's tire washed out on the wet center line and hit the ground bruising her shoulder and hip, Jay missed her by flying into the ditch - breaking her pinkie and smacking her head enough to get a concussion.

That makes three crashes on that section in the past year.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Weak link in the chain...

On the final climb at last week's race I pushed a little too hard and felt some sharp pain in my right knee. Not so much that I pulled up, but enough that I knew that I'd be paying for it the next day. On, Sunday it felt pretty tight, and sore enough that I skipped Sunday's Red Trolley Race - one that I felt pretty strong about.

The first part of last week was filled with some lighter efforts and even the short ride I did this morning brought a little pain. However, I was my Left knee that gave out at work today... I simply turned around to answer a question and pop went my knee.

So, as I write this my left knee has been on ice as I watch Apollo Ono on the short track... At least after two surgeries there's not much left inside the joint to tear.

Broken ribs, a destroyed bike, and now a bum knee... not a good way to begin the year.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Race Report: Boulevard

I wasn't able to ride last year's blizzard edition of the Boulevard Road Race. So, I really, really wanted to do it this year. A quick business trip to Nevada over the last few days as well as somewhat sporadic training, added a few hiccups to my fitness, so going into the race I had somewhat limited, cautious aspirations.

The weather reports all week pointed to a similar forecast as last year, heavy rain with a chance for snow over 4000'. The weather didn't disappoint. The skies opened up Saturday morning, the farther east - the heavier the rain. It was 50 degrees at the start and the rain had dropped to just a drizzle. As I always do, I overdressed a bit; tights, leg & arm warmers, thermal base layer, UA Coldgear shirt, bibs, jersey, helmet liner, cap, double socks and booties, almost double gloved it as well and as it was I needed every bit of it. The game plan was to just do enough work to stay towards the front, but avoid working too hard - hmmm, "the best laid plans...."

The race consists (at least for me) of two 22 mile laps each having around 2000' of climbing. It begins with a series of progressively rising rollers. My plan to start near the front instantly paid off as within the first couple of miles there was a crash just behind me as the group tried to avoid a puddle. Of course in light of the increasingly heavier rain, attempts at puddle avoidance may have been somewhat pointless. After this slight climb the route turns to the west and drops nearly 2000'; rivers of mud and gravel criss-crossing the road. Between the rooster tails of water coming off of bike tires and the winter monsoon falling from the sky I had all the hydration I needed - and my clothes had become absolutely saturated.

Finally, after 9 miles of descending, we took a hard right, crossed the rail road tracks and started climbing - and started to warm up. A few riders tried to go off the front, but were reeled in by the time we hit highway 80. I found myself redlining as the pace ratcheted up and had to slow down a bit, loosing contact with the lead group.

A few of us tried to form a chase group, and pace line back to the leaders, but it kept breaking up. After cresting the climb and heading out for lap number 2 I found myself leap frogging stragglers, until teaming up with Erik from SDBC. We cut the gap to the sharp end of the race to about 200m just before they began the long drop to the rail road tracks for the second time. Erik and I shared the work as we plummeted down through the rain and mud, expecting to see the group around every corner, no such luck.

We picked off a few riders as we climbed back out, but my legs began to feel heavier and heavier. The rain and effort was draining me. I told Erik to go and not wait as I continued to grind out the miles. A rider from Moment Cycles came up from behind and I latched on and tried to match his effort - we caught another Cat 4 rider who jumped in as well (not sure if that's how it's supposed to go). As he let a gap open I was able to jump around and then move to the front and did a mile uphill pull to the finish line. I pulled away from the others a bit towards the end; felt a little bad as the guy from Moment had help me with a long pull earlier in the climb, but I guess I had around 100m on the group by the line.

At the end of the day it was a top 20 finish on a hard, hard day. Considering my lack of fitness for the past week or two and staying in the land of air conditioning, second hand smoke, and fried foods (Vegas) for a few days; I'd say it was an okay finish. At least I know what I need to do for the Omnium.


Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Vegas 2

So, with three days to go before Boulevard, I'm in Vegas on business. No really, it's actually business, a training seminar. So three days of air conditioning and tons of hotel cawfee... not necessarily a recipe for bicycle race performance. You could call it tapering i guess...

Boulevard looks like it's going to be the same as last year, cold and rainy, maybe even snowy again. Should be epic.

Congrats goes to Don, Josh, and Jason's rides up in Santa Barbara last weekend at the Poor College Kid's RR.

Major props to Janel riding for the US National Team at the Tour of Qatar!