February 2008

The results for the Snelling RR have been posted and they tell a grim tale. Holy abandonment, batman, many of the fields racing after noon had less than 50% of the field complete the race. My field, with about 45 guys starting, had 21 finishers. The wind was relentless and the results speak of the damage.

But my relief at having so much company last weekend may be short lived. My ‘lesson #1′ from last weekend was that the mens 45+ open field was tough and perhaps I should avoid that group. Yesterday I looked back at the registration pages for my next two races, the Menlo Park Grand Prix and the Bariani RR. I am registered in the 55+ open field, but the talent is deep and those fields alone will be brutal. But in both events the 55+ men race with the 45+ men but are picked separately. So for the next two races I will have to ignore ‘lesson #1′ and try to hang tough. Uggh! The race after that, the Rondee von Brisbeen Highlands Circuit race, has me lining up with the Elite 5 guys. Will have to see how that goes.

And while on the subject of the Menlo Park Grand Prix (MPGP) I find the prize list for the Elite 5 men rather interesting: “Adoration and Kisses”. I am a big fan of adoration, and a bigger fan of kisses. So …. are these kisses along the line of the “8 inches from the cheek air kiss” that Levi got from the Rock Racing podium girl after stage 3 of the 2008 Tour of California, or like Adrien Brody macking on Halle Berry at the Oscars? Might be interesting to sign up for that field and work to get on the podium to find out.

Yesterday as I was preparing to get off CalTrain train 231 at Hillsdale station a bike next to mine caught my attention. It was not some uber-cool high zoot affair, not some hip fixie, it was a standard *Mart type MTB. It was not the bike that caught my eye, it was the price tag, still attached, that showed this bike cost the princely sum of $29.95! The mind boggles at how a geared bike with all the parts and pieces can be built, shipped half-way around the world, and sold for a profit at that price point. I am all for affordable, but there is a lot to be said for making objects with sufficient quality to be able to withstand some use and still function for a number of years. Not so sure you will get that in a sub $30 bike.

The wife and I joined the NCNCA Tour de Farmland this weekend, competing in the 2008 edition of the Snelling Road Race. Wonderful bouquet of manure, soil from a newly planted orchard washed onto the course, and winds to die for, or rather to die from. I learned some valuable lessons that I need to keep in mind as the season progresses.

• Lesson #1: Just because you can does not mean you should. I registered for the Masters 45+ race, an ‘open’ field. That means a lot of seasoned Cat 1’s and 2’s wanting to chew up each other and any newbie who deigns to try to enter the ranks. When two guys started talking at the start line of having competed against each other since 1979 I knew I was in trouble. Perhaps a nice 35+ 4/5 field would have been better.
• Lesson #2: Check the equipment carefully multiple times. I knew I was trying hard, too hard. Turns out that the skewer on the Williams wheel got opened a bit when removed from the trainer and the wheel had moved enough to be rubbing slightly on the inside of the left chainstay. Enough forms of resistance out there without adding more.
• Lesson #3: Just because you should does not mean you can. I wanted to stay in the front third of the pack for much of the race, and even thought I might be able to do some attacking on the last lap, try a few things, get some experience mixing it up. Yeah, right.
• Lesson #4: Know when enough is enough. This one I got mostly right.

A bit about the race. By the time my field started, at 12:35 or so, the wind was howling and there were occasional light sprinkles. I almost got taken out twice in the neutral promenade by guys doing digital lateral moves; fortunately I was on my toes and responded to keep safe. Perhaps it is the early season jitters, but I chose this field in the hopes it would be a safe group. Would have been ironic to have been taken out before the race really started. At the end of the three and a half mile promenade the field was anxious and starting to throttle up when Mike H. on the moto pulled us to a halt. Another field was completing a circuit of the course and we had to wait for them to clear. When the other pack was over that first little hill Mike let the dogs out and the race was on. It was a screamer from the gun; these seasoned vets realized they had the tailwind and were ready to use it. I was not ready for a launch like that and almost got thrown off the back. I grabbed the wheel of a VOS guy and held on for life then went around to the right. But the pack was holding tight on the right side of the road and there was no room to move up into a safer position. The next time I was almost thrown off I grabbed the same wheel then spun around to the left since the entire left lane was open. I was quickly up into the front third and feeling better. Just as I tucked into the pack another VOS guy came screaming past my left shoulder launching the first attack of the day and about 4 or 5 others tried to join in. The pack wanted none of that and responded, leaving the field strung out single file. We slowed down a bit as we hit the feed zone climb; my odometer read a meager 32.5 when I shifted down as my momentum started to slow a bit on the climb. So much for a nice leisurely day.

I held on to the pack in various positions, mostly towards the back, through most of the first 12 mile lap. Much easier to hold on once we turned head first into that wind on Los Cerritos. No anemometer with me, but I will wager that puppy was blowing 15-20MPH steady with gusts doubling that number. On my pre-ride of the course on Friday I had done an easy 28-30MPH on the stretch from the barn to crossing of the canal. During the race the pack was fighting for 15-20MPH speeds. Holy gust, batman! In those couple of rollers leading to the turn onto that butt numbing torture device known as Figmond Rd. I got spat out for the final time. The wind was a bit much for me to claw back on without some help, and the others spat out with me were not in a mood to play the cooperate game. The VOS guy I had used on the front stretch to launch myself back in was done; he got a ride to the finish line. An LGBRC guy was not interested, and next time I saw him he was driving up to the finish line area, apparently having abandoned and gone back for the car. The Monterey Bay guy that almost took me out on the promenade was off and wanted to use my wheel but not return the favor. We played the game with him taking my wheel, not wanting to come around so I would drop him, then he would attach to a group from another field and pass me, get dropped, float back to my wheel, then I would drop him, over and over again through lap 2. Lap 3 was a nice solo ride.

I had mused on abandoning at the end of lap 2, but decided to try to finish. On lap 3, especially on the windy backside of the course, I carefully considered the pros/cons of finishing.

• I would have a number next to my name in results rather than a DNF (con) [BTW, why are DNS's listed before DNF's in VeloPromo results?]
• I would likely be wet, looking at the rain pouring down just east of the course (con)
• The Wife would sit around being cold for an extra 40 min or so (con)
• We would spend more time driving in the dark in pouring rain (con)

Hmmm, not many pro’s and a lot of con’s. The decision was made and at the end of the lap I turned left towards town and the park instead of to the right. No regrets, except maybe that I did not make the decision sooner. More battles to come, no sense in getting brutalized once the die has been cast and I am not in the mix any longer.

Before my race I had spent the majority of my time and effort helping The Wife and her team get out for their race. Then after some initial preps for my own battle and some chatting with Panda and Mr. Man, who had parked next to our toaster, I rode over to the finish line to cheer on the Women’s 4 field at the end of their race. Major props to them for going out and battling it out. The Wife did the full race even with her lungs still mucked up from the flu, Dana toughed it out with some disease in the works, and Tanya rode with a saddle that had slipped and was becoming a bit too friendly. Way to go ladies! And Lala finished strong letting out a major whoop and a holler as she crossed the line.

Pics from the day can be found over at the gallery.

Busy week. Some of us had to work yesterday which left us out of some of the fun, such as going to Santa Rosa to welcome the Tour of California riders finish Stage 1 after watching what was, by all accounts, a kick butt NRC women’s crit before that. Props to all the local women who went out and mixed it up in the crit. And congratulations to Brooke Miller, who keeps showing she has a tremendous sprint. And it was great to see her excitement at the finish (about all Versus showed of the race … come on Versus, show us more!).

I just finished watching, on the nice Adobe Tracker, the end of Stage 2 of the ToC with Boonen taking the win and Cipo giving hope to all the 35+ riders. Nice finish. I was watching, in part, to get myself mentally prepared for the rain that might visit us during Snelling this weekend. Bad enough that I have to mix it up in an open category, but to do it in miserable weather will take some psyching myself up for the pain.

Saturday I did the San Jose to Gilroy loop with ‘the club‘, flying the new colors. CheFlandria and her hunny were there and she gifted me a bag of delicious cookies before we started to fuel me on the ride. Then she fed us her Lemon Gnash pie at the end of the ride, too. Yum! (I love lemon flavored things). The ride was supposed to be at a moderate pace, but there were times when it was a bit above that. The first half I spent a bit too much time near the front, but there was a guy flying a Tibco jersey who spent even more time doing pulls. When we finally had time for intros I found that he was Curtis, the PT guy who does the bike fits for Tibco. Nice guy, and he seems to be able to do really long pulls which were appreciated by all. After the ride it was time to return home and care for The Wife who was coming down with a flu.

We did get out to see the ToC prologue on Sunday, but did not spend as much time there as we originally planned due to The Wife’s illness. We got ourselves insinuated near the finish where the crowds were much larger than near the start line. Not a lot of action, as one would expect from an Individual Time Trial. Qualitatively, there was a very noticeable difference between the speed of Cancellara and all the rest of the riders. I joked with The Wife that she needed to find his secret and consume a portion before her next TT.

My original plan for this week had me riding to the top of Mt. Hamilton tomorrow to watch the ToC cross this landmark local peak. But given that I will be taking Friday off to prep for Snelling I will once again be watching the race on-line. Tune in and enjoy, folks. A bunch of nice climbs to be had tomorrow: Del Puerto Canyon, San Antonio Valley Rd., Mt. Hamilton, and Sierra Rd. Even with the long flat section back to downtown San Jose the peleton should be stretched out and perhaps we will have a few guys miss the time cut.

Levi Leipheimer is running an on-line petition campaign to try to get ASO to let the Astana team ride in this year’s Tour de France (TdF). Great marketing job, will probably make Levi a few bucks through t-shirt sales, give the Astana organization a rallying cry, but in the end it is all fluff and will not affect this year’s TdF.

Levi’s public premise in launching the drive is that the public reason ASO gave for excluding Astana, the past sins of doping by the former team under that sponsorship, is unjust. To quote Levi:

“I’m drawing attention to the fact that this decision by the ASO is completely arbitrary and unjust. I had nothing to do with Astana prior to joining the team this year. There are many other teams with tainted pasts that haven’t changed management or structure like the new Astana has, yet Astana is singled out and excluded.”

But one has to be naive to believe that smokescreen of a reason put forth by ASO. The ban has nothing to do with the sins of Vinokourov, Kashechkin and friends, but rather with the situation with members of the current team Astana. I believe that the underlying reasons are many, but one of the biggest is the almost certain presence of one Alberto Contador on an Astana squad at the TdF if the team were included. The Italian Olympic Committee, CONI, believes that Contador was implicated in the now infamous Operación Puerto scandal even though he was absolved by the Spanish system. CONI has threatened to investigate and to bar any implicated rider from racing in Italy, and that becomes the rub. Stage 16 of this year’s TdF briefly enters Italy and ASO is fearful that if Contador is in the peleton at that point that the Italian authorities will block his entry or, worse, detain him. And that would be a monumental public relations disaster for ASO, which is one of the biggest reasons that Astana has been banned for the year. Without an ironclad guaranty from Astana that they would withhold Contador, or a guaranty from CONI that they would let Contador pass through on that day, the easiest way around the problem was to ban the team. Crisis averted.

So vote for Levi if you must. But be certain that it is meaningless.

I must apologize to the fellow members of TUA (Team UnAttached). I have sold out. Agreed to pimp some products, act as a billboard, wear the colors of an organized club. I have the kits in hand, will be flying the colors next time I hit the road. I will be out in south San Jose someplace tomorrow, and around the Tour of California prologue on Sunday; look for an old man as a poseur wearing the kit and shout out if you see me.

I am riding the full commute from home to the office, 22 miles by the lowland route, on the fixed gear commuter bike twice a week. This is a change from the normal bike-train-bike commute which has 4.75 mile 2.25 mile biking segments, i.e., a warmup and a cooldown with no real intensity. At first I tried to do some structured training, but the insanely large number or traffic control devices made that strategy difficult to implement. A true PITA when your 90 seconds into a planned 5 minute or 10 minute interval and a stop light turns red in front of you. So for now I am trying to develop a regimen that employs fartlek methodologies. No, that is not something that happens after eating too many legumes for dinner; it is a somewhat less structured, free flowing way to stress the aerobic and anaerobic systems developed by a Swedish coach, Gösta Holmér, for cross-country runners. Not sure of the results, yet, but it less stressful mentally than the angst over the interrupted intervals. When the days get longer and I can loop more into the hills I will go back to some more structured rides on the commute.

And while we are talking of things coming out of Scandanavia, today’s RoadBikeRider e-zine carries a short bit on the results of some research by a Danish group. Here is the essence of that study:

It was found that exercise and drinking alcohol each had an independent beneficial effect on the heart. Mainly, an increase in good cholesterol (HDL) and the removal of fatty deposits created by bad cholesterol (LDL) in blood vessel walls.

The study also determined that drinking and exercise combine to have a greater health benefit than either alone. The Danish researchers defined four categories and found that . . .

• people who never drink and don’t exercise had the highest riskof heart disease.
• people who never drink but do exercise had a 30% lower risk.
• people who drink moderately but never exercise had a 30% lower risk.
• people who drink moderately and exercise had a 50% lower risk.

Now, before you swap your Endurox for a 6-pack of Pabst, here are the caveats:

A research team spokesman, Dr. Morten Gronbaek of Denmark’s National Institute of Public Health, says the benefits of alcohol don’t kick in until you’re at the age — 45 to 50 — where heart disease becomes an appreciable risk.

Since I am above the age at which this benefit kicks in I suppose I should start keeping a couple of cold ones in the refrigerator at work for recovery after these commute/training sessions.

After a few weeks of rainy and cold it was nice to get out and enjoy some nice weather this past weekend, with thoughts of spring starting to swirl through my mind. Saturday I had planned on racing the ‘Ride the World Cup #3‘ (RTWC#3) event at Hellyer, but with the early start and a social obligation I could only miss at great personal risk I knew it was not in the cards. So time for plan ‘B’. The Wife had an obligation to take the team out for a workout at a time that was close to the earliest acceptable time we could leave the social gathering, so I took her to the meeting spot and then took off on my own three hour temp ride along the peninsula. Or what was supposed to be three hours.

I never was a good boy scout; when the parents forced me to participate I used it as a vehicle for creating mischief rather than advancing rank. But I did learn that one should be prepared for most exigencies that have a high finite probability of occurrence. About a half hour into my tempo ride I came across a cyclist walking his bike along the road, far from any facilities. He had a flat tire, the result he said of taking a trip through the brush to avoid a driver who tried to left hook him. And he had nothing with him except a sorry excuse for a pump. I had one spare tube, a patch kit, tire levers, and some CO₂ and hate to see someone relegated to walking miles in bike shoes. So I switched in my good tube for his bad and patched up his to carry as a spare. Once I got him on his way I was able to return to a slightly abbreviated and interrupted version of the tempo ride I had planned. But that was OK; the legs were still a bit trashed from weight work on Thursday and intervals on Friday, and being out in dry weather with temps in the high 60’s was reason to enjoy whatever time I could get outdoors.

The Wife’s coaching plan had her doing 3 hours on Sunday with a 20 minute ‘effort’ each hour. I decided to tag along. The weather was a bit cooler than Saturday, but sunny skies prevailed. I led The Wife out on the warmup, a nice long suburban slog. I was enjoying the fields of mustard and all the Magnolias in full bloom and was hoping The Wife could marvel in them, too, but she complained that she was too concentrated on staying on my wheel to look. Personally, I would have sat up and enjoyed the sights first, then worked at getting back on the wheel, but that is my preference and not hers. Her first effort took us to the top of Mt. Eden, where the roadside jonquils near the entrance to Cooper-Garrod winery were all in bloom. The signs that spring will come are bursting forth, and I took at least a few seconds to marvel in that. I was not concentrating on my speed or the time, or rather I could not concentrate on my speed or time. My cycle-computer had stopped providing data, and I assumed that the battery in the skewer/sensor had died. While I believe in being prepared that does not extend to carrying CR-2032 batteries with me so I opted to ignore the device and just ride.

We pedaled southward to Los Gatos and up over Kennedy, then turned around to retrace much of our path back on the homeward trip. When we passed CheFlandria and her hunny heading the other way on Los Gatos Blvd The Wife decided to flip a U-turn to catch up with them and thank CheFlandria for the sample box of goodies she delivered on Thursday. A few pleasantries later and we were forming  a nice paceline for the northbound trip. At first the two ladies were doing most of the work, then the guys took over. The Wife says I am the reason it all fell apart.  She claims it was my continuation of the pace as we rode on Prospect just west of Saratoga-Sunnyvale, the part where the grade slants up just a tad, that caused her and CheFlandria to throw in the towel and opt for a more moderate paced ride. Sorry ladies! It was a great ‘train’ while it lasted.

At home I was thrust back into maintenance mode. Clean the drive-trains of the bikes, trim some trees, clean up some stuff in the garage. All necessary, all too long postponed due to the weather. No excuses now. I did find that the cycle-computer going out was not due to a dead battery, it was due to a missing battery. Somehow the battery cover came off the sensor and both the cover and the battery are now somewhere on the road in Stevens Canyon or on the road up Mt. Eden. I had to order a replacement cover, which I hope will be here by mid-week.  And for dinner I tried something new. I made a baked version of the sweet potatoes fries that The Wife fell in love with last summer in Canada. What a great weekend!

I could spend quite a bit of time next week rubbing elbows with the high-priced spread, the pro riders and media folks who will be in town for the Tour of California.  To date, the invites have included:

• An evening with Phil Liggett at Testarossa winery on Wed., Feb 13th
• A get together featuring Levi, Horner, and Ekimov on Thu., Feb 14th
• A get together with Team High Road at Cubberly in Palo Alto on Fri., Feb 15th

But why?  I can think of dozens of better uses of my time:  time with The Wife, my own workouts to get ready for Snelling, cleaning and tuning the bikes, fixing the French doors in our bedroom, working on taxes, listing all the extra bike parts on Craigslist or whatever, and the list is much longer.  Guess I am not into the culture of celebrity.

This weekend I was going to start an aggressive push to get ready for the Snelling Road Race in less than three weeks. Saturday I was scheduled to race at the Hellyer Velodrome in the ‘Ride the World Cup #3‘ (RTWC#3) event, then race the Early Bird #5 Crit today after the clinic session, using the time before the clinic to interview potential teams. So much for plans; I was 0 for 2 in doing the races, and 0 for 3 in interviewing the teams I had put on my short list.

Saturday morning dawned grey and blustery, but there was a message from Hooptie that the track was dry and they were hoping to get through the event before the rain came. I sent The Wife out for her workout  while I got my stuff ready for the race and did the Saturday morning chores. Small storm cells kept passing over us as they  headed southward towards Hellyer. No cancellation message as I finalized preps and ate lunch with The Wife, who had returned a bit over-cooled from her ride. I was about ready to do a self-cancellation, figuring that by the time I got to the track and warmed up the rain would be upon the ‘drome, when the message came that the event was postponed for a week. That left me to do some roller training in the garage for the afternoon before heading to The City for dinner with friends. The drive to and from The City was in heavy rain and high winds, not a good sign for the Sunday crits.

First thing Sunday morning I checked the National Weather Service radar for the region; one small storm cell was just passing over, then it was all clear as far as the local radar reached. We ate, packed the Toaster, and drove to Fremont. As soon as we finished setting up the tent for The Wife’s team participation in ‘Meet the Teams’ the skies opened. The rain continued on and off all morning, leaving the course wet and resulting in all clinic participants getting a good dose of road slime all over themselves and their bikes. That included The Wife and myself.  I returned to the tent at the end of my clinic session to find the ladies packing to leave, and giving me the option of 1) staying and doing my race an hour later under what was likely to be rainy, sloppy conditions, or 2) go out to lunch with a group of lovely young women. I may not be the brightest bulb, but that is one easy decision. The food was great.

Perhaps the one week postponement of the Meet the Teams was the cause, but none of the three teams I wanted to talk to made it to the event. Very few teams were there, in fact. FFBC gave a half-hearted recruiting pitch while offering pancakes (which I could not eat - they contained oats), but Fremont is a bit out of my geographic range these days. Team Oakland, way out of the geographic target area, had a tent but it seemed to be used as a shelter rather than a recruiting platform. Roaring Mouse, another team out of the geographically preferred area, was recruiting but not a good choice for me. There was another team, one that gave the hard sell,  and I am looking at a bit more. Some good points about that group, but the team is based way out of my preferred area. Decisions, decisions. And of course there is still the TUA (Team UnAttached) option on the table.

So much for using this weekend as a kickstart towards Snelling. If the weatherman is correct I should be able to get a couple of good training rides this week then do RTWC#3 next Saturday. Not many weekends left to get progress before the main event.