Cycle Racing

It has become all to easy to commit, maybe over-commit, my time lately. The Wife, Work, house, races, training, track, BPAC, etc., leaves little time for anything else. I have fully committed all Tuesday nights from now through August … to just two (similar) activities. And both are just a couple miles apart just off US 101 in South San Jose.

This week it will be track night at the Hellyer Velodrome. Three or so hours of pain and socializing, courtesy of Larry Nolan, all in hopes that just a little tiny bit of the Nolan magic can rub off on little old me. This month it is all points races, next month scratch races, back to points in July, then scratch again in August. I will be making an appearance every other week through the summer, or at least that is what I have scheduled.

On the Tuesdays I am not at Hellyer I will be a couple miles further south doing the SJBC Tuesday twilight crit. Nice course, but getting a bit too much traffic these days. Of course, some folks do not like the course as much as I do, something to do with that nice little 90 ft or so climb on the east leg. Fun and games. And to make sure I get out to this, I have committed to working registration at them every other week from now until the end of the summer. Of course, the need to get so far south on a work night sort of means I will be working from home on Tuesdays; need to cut that 20 miles of commute down the peninsula from the travel task.

If you are in the area and want to have some good training, join me in the “Tuesday night highway 101 sufferfest”!

When I found out my thumb was broken and that it would be “three and a half to four weeks” before I could do serious riding/racing I was hoping that I would be able to keep my date with the Wente Road Race a bit less than 4 weeks later. As time progressed, and I assessed the amount of pain, I realized that was unrealistic so I looked at the local racing calendar for a ‘comeback race’, one far enough out that I was likely to be able to line up at the start. Panoche Road Race looked good, but that is during the Kern Women’s Stage Race weekend and I have commitments. Berkeley Hills Road Race was an option, but the relevant fields were full. So the fallback option was the EBC Criterium, in Pleasanton, on May 10th …. yesterday.

The week started out fine with racing at the Velodrome, the first real hard intensity on over a month. Then the club’s twilight crit on Tuesday, where I did a two lap (almost 4 mile) time trial at the end. But the rest of the week was tough, and the only riding was the daily commute to the office. I woke up yesterday with legs that were stiff and dead. A feeling that held through the warmup. My original goal for this race was very modest: finish. As I warmed up yesterday morning I wondered if that would be a stretch.

I lined up with the 35+ Cat 4’s yesterday, probably near the oldest guy in the field. Deep breath and we get the start whistle after a very brief set of instructions from Chief Ref Ryan. The course is a simple rectangle with 4 right turns; one sweeper, one a bit rounded, and two tight rights. It was a big field, with 100 registered but only 80 some odd guys taking the start. I held in good for the first couple of laps, but I had lined up on the right at the start, putting me on the inside of the turns, and the field was cutting the corners tight causing a pinch off of riders on that side. I was moving up on the first and third legs (the longer legs) but slipping back in all the turns. I was ready to launch an attack, just to mix it up, on lap 3 but then the president of my club took the front position and started to push the pace; not a good time for an attack. I finally did a small attack on lap 9, following a rider I was sure was heading out up the inside and getting clear off the front going into turn 4. But then I looked back and the other rider was not full committed, my heart rate was pegged (a few beats above my previous high HR), so I knew I was going nowhere fast. Time to sit up, fall back into the middle and get some recovery. I held in mid-pack, tried to move up a couple of times, but almost got taken out a couple of times on the last lap by sketchy riders. In the end I came in with the pack, officially 61st place. I did get one apology from one the riders who almost took me out, but the only thing I got from the other was a snot rocket sent my way. Sheesh! And the unofficial photographer captured me only once, after the race ducking under the caution tape along the sideline. Oh well.

Another two and a half weeks before the next official race, my club’s Memorial Day Crit, and then another crit on the 31st of the month, the Dash for Cash with an insane amount of primes and a $250 bonus for the first person in each race to lap the field. That one will be an wild ride. But mostly it is time to head for the hills and get ready for the rather hilly Pescadero RR in 5 weeks.

Kaboom!

After returning home from the crit I decided that I would ride some more but make it utilitarian. I hooked the Burley trailer to my commuter bike and headed off to do the weekly shopping. As I was crossing a freeway overpass I heard that sound that makes every cyclist cringe: Kaboom! I had a blowout on the rear tire in one of the worst places to deal with it in our area. Not sure what took out the sidewall of the almost new tire (maybe 200 miles max), but it was a nice large slash. I did a boot job, but even with lot of good boot material I could not take the tire about 30PSI without it bulging out and threatening another blowout. It was a nice trip home, mostly a walk.

I had been looking for ways to get out and give my legs and lungs some trial by fire as I start on the comeback trail. The month without really intense efforts has taken its toll and I do not want to embarrass myself too much when I line up for a race. And that will be soon: EBC crit is just 5 days away! Then Alicat mentioned she was racing on Sunday (yesterday) which led me to some head scratching since there was nothing on the NCNCA Road calendar for that date. Then it hit me: yesterday, May 4th, was the third in the ‘Get Ready for Summer’ fundraiser race series at Hellyer Velodrome. A few circles of the track at max heart rate should be a good test, right?

I refitted the Fuji track bike to my proportions (The Wife has been using it while I was laid up) and loaded it, the popup, an extra wheel, and far too many tools into the Toaster and drove south to the track. There was a good crowd, probably 45 or so racers, show up to race for glory or at least a few upgrade points. I threw down my $20 and signed up for the ‘C’ group; not an easy group by any stretch with Sabine, Soni, Beth, Hanan, Jennie, PenVelo Ray, Justin, Ileana, and a collection of the BEER team signed up in that field.

I left the gearing with what The Wife had been using (about 84″) since the winds were roaring at times and I did not want to get caught pushing a big gear into the wind. But I did opt to put the Nimble tri-spoke wheel on the front. Out onto the track for a warmup and a reminder that a wheel with a lot of surface area facing sideways can be a problem. The winds were shifting around, but for a while there was a good crosswind in turns 3 and 4 and that tri-spoke was catching it well. I almost reverted back to the standard 32-spoke low profile wheel but in the end the winds tamed a bit and I got used to handling it. It might not have made me any faster, but at least I looked a bit more impressive.

Keirin: I drew the third heat in the ‘C’ group, then drew 7th position, out of 7, at the line. That put me at the rail and I mused on what I had heard about strategies while trying to eavesdrop on what Mark A. was telling Jennie, who was lined up to my left. The group rode rather conservatively while on the motor; I got 4th wheel and no one tried to come past until just before Peter pulled off. From that point on it was a blur; all I can remember was that I, rather foolishly, allowed myself to get boxed in on the inside and still there were folks who kept coming down into me. I had fourth coming into the last 25m or so, then someone came down into me, again, and I backed off a bit as we came to the line. I need to work on getting better position, establishing it, then getting aggressive (but not too much) when folks try to take my space. Since I was not in the first 4 in the heat I had plenty of time to play holder during the remaining Keirin heats.

Scratch race: Or why I owe Sabine a big apology. Our group of 19 had a short race, just 5K, so I knew that the attacks would start early. The first attack started on the back stretch of the first lap, a bit too early in my opinion, so I took charge and pulled the pack up to the attackers. There were not any serious attempts for the next couple or three laps but then a small group got away. Not sure of everyone in the group but I knew that my former TUA (Team Unattached) mate Beth was included. A lot of chasing ensued but we were not really eating into their lead. Then another group got away, and again I was not sure all the riders in that break but could see that Soni was included;  and Soni has a small stuffed bunny peering out from under her saddle.  That stuffed bunny became my rabbit as I gave chase. I was so focused on the target, and the fact that I was closing in, that I failed to look back. Then I heard ‘pull up’, so I did, and Sabine and one other rider shot past; I had apparently been blocking their chase. Sorry. If I had known we could have joined forces. As it was I was a bit spent from the chase so I just soft-pedaled a bit behind the pair until the last 200m and then tried to sprint past them for the line. Too little, too late, and who cares since we were far enough back that the finish was just practice.

Miss-n-Out: We lined up with 20 riders and I wanted to try to be top 6, at least. I got 4th wheel from the whistle and no one was moving up as we approached the line on the first 3 laps and I got complacent. On about the 4th lap there was a mass movement forward as we approached the line and I realized I was boxed in with no place to go if I needed to in order to survive.  Fortunately there were still folks behind me and it was not my number that got called.   So I jumped, took the lead, and pushed the pace up a tad. And no one contested that decision for a few laps. But when they did it was a majority vote as all but one shot rider past me as we approached the line. I had pulled the train for a while, the survivors were voting me off the island, and I could not find the dang immunity idol (extra gas in the legs) to counter the vote. I believe I was 8th, not as good as I wanted, but I did give it the old college try.

Points Race: One last attempt to redeem myself. Another short race, just 5K with points every 5 laps. I made myself content with staying mid-pack through the first 3 laps of each 5 lap set, then would go over the top towards the front on the 4th lap and try to hang through the sprint lap. But my darn puny quads were no match for the more accomplished sprinters. I was about 6th or 7th on each sprint.

No results, but who cares. It was a lot of fun, and a good test of the body and mind in race situations. Funniest moment of the day was when Sabine was offering me as a sacrifice entrant into the ‘A’ group’s points race. Right! I could see the betting line: how many meters before I got lapped?

It was Tuesday night at Hellyer last night and there were a number of brave souls out getting a good serving of pain in the cold, windy air of southern San Jose. I decided that I would throw my hat in the ring and give it a shot, so I paid my dues and grabbed a rent-a-wreck (The Wife was using the bike I normally ride) for some scratch race circling. Since there was close the stated requirement of women and juniors to hold a separate race for them I got shoved into the ‘B’ group. I had to laugh when Larry Nolan asked if I was racing ‘A’s or ‘B’s; I am more of a ‘C’ anyway, and since it had been a month without hard riding I knew that even the ‘C’s would be a stretch, the ‘A’s someplace in the stratosphere for me at this time.

Larry ran a bit late, so by the time I got the rental bike and did a quick setup there was not much time for a warmup. Then I had to wait through the 30 laps of the first women’s race to get out on the track. Let’s just say that I was out of my league at this time with that group. I could hang most of the time, but when Andreas and a couple of others threw down the gloves the pace went too high for me and I was chasing the tail of dragon. Then there was a LONG time until our next race as the women did a second and ‘A’s their first, and most of us were torn between using the judging stand as a windbreak or breaking it apart to make a fire on the infield. Even riding the warmup circle was not sufficient to generate sufficient heat to keep me warm enough and the lower back started to seize up. Crap, already at a disadvantage then that. I mused on throwing in the towel, but decided to go back out for the second race and see how long I could last. I actually did a bit better the second time. I pulled out after a pull on the front with 5 laps to go; the legs were spent and I knew The Wife was probably becoming a human popsicle while flipping numbers on the lap counter (she was).

Ten days before the next race, the EBC crit. Not sure if the thumb will be where I want it to be. I will give it a tryout this weekend, then a bit better one next Tuesday when I join in the fun of the SJBC Twilight crit in south San Jose. My current plan is to alternate Tuesdays between the track and the Twilight crits for the next 4 months, with every 4th Tuesday being in a recovery week where I will play course marshal rather than race. If you are looking for some Tuesday night fun, come an join in.

I got a flyer in the mail this weekend for the High Uintas Stage Race. We get a lot of flyers advertising century rides, races, and tours, and they usually go straight to the recycle bin. But this one got my attention. A stage race with high altitude climbing …. and all in some of my old stomping grounds! I did my undergraduate work at the U. of Utah, and backpacking in the High Uintas Primitive Area was my escape from the rigors of Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Calculus, Biomechanics, and other such serious topics. Hmm, two days of brutalizing one-self at elevation. Sounds like fun, but this year’s calendar is full so it will have to wait at least another year. I am sure that one of the counter arguments will be that I/we should do the Everest Challenge first, to which I reply: Bring it on!

Not me. Not even close to being retired, semi or otherwise. No, it is my thumb splint, my constant companion of the past 25 days that has been put into semi-retirement. I saw the orthopedic surgeon yesterday who, after taking a couple of photos and doing some poking and prodding, pronounced that the thumb was healing well and it was time to let it out of the splint during ‘normal activities’. He warned I should wear it if I engaged in activities where it was likely I could take an impact to the thumb (if taken literally that is anything for a klutz like me), so I took that to mean that most of the time I can live without that hard plastic shell. Yippee!

Yesterday evening I took a fast 20 mile loop up into the Los Altos Hills to give the thumb a test. Still cannot shift the thumb lever on the right side, so Wente RR is now officially off the table, though unofficially I had been resigned to it being unrealistic for the past 10-12 days. The goal now is to work towards being ready for the EBC crit two weeks from tomorrow (10 May 2008).

Madera Madness

Wow, sometimes by ignoring on-line discussions you miss out on some good cat-fights. There was some real head butting about the Madera Stage race over on the ncncaracing list. Some folks get fairly dogmatic that they have seen the truth and cannot understand when others do not agree. Sheesh. Oh well, hopefully now that the full moon has come and gone that little battle is finished.

Last Saturday I was at a birthday celebration for Mintie Linsey, who finished 3rd in the GC for the Women 4 at Madera, and I was asked when the photos I had taken at Madera would be on-line. Ooops, apologies to Mason and others who have been waiting. I finally retrieved the camera from the bag last night and will now go through them and post some to the gallery RSN (Real Soon Now).

A quick scan of the photos provided some evidence of what I had suspected. Not long after The Wife completed her ITT I noted that the rear wheel was flat. That raised questions about if it was going flat during her event which would have increased rolling resistance. No longer supposition; it is clear that as she crossed the finish the part of the tire beyond the tan sidewall is compressed down and barely visible. The replacement tires will be glued onto those wheels this weekend so The Wife can get accustomed to them before the Women’s Stage Race at Kern in three weeks.

It has been 22 days since I broke my thumb.   What a pain, in many ways.  An opposable thumb on the dominant hand is, pardon the pun, a handy thing.   Using scissors, clippers, knives, pens, pencils, and such has been a chore at best for these three weeks.  I get new x-rays and an assessment on Thursday, and I am ready to get rid of this stinking (literally at times) splint and go back to some version of normality.

One thing that has suffered the past three weeks has been hard, disciplined riding.  I have tried to keep up with my normal commute riding, but I have not done some of the harder, longer commute rides that I did regularly before the break.  The first weekend after the incident I got out to test the waters, so to speak, and felt good.  But the following week was brief, interrupted, and ended with the three days of playing the role of support spouse at Madera.  The only ride that weekend was an easy pre-ride of the TT course.  The past weekend I got out for a hard, tempo ride from San Jose to Gilroy and back, and wanted more on Sunday but the ‘honey-do’ task of cleaning and planting the side yard got priority.  Tomorrow I need to get back into regular rides that mimic some sort of training schedule.

And my racing plan for the year went into the toilet with the minor tipover that resulted in a broken thumb.  I have already missed Madera, the one opportunity for a stage race this year.  This weekend it is almost certain I will miss the Wente Road Race, one of the races best suited to my abilities.  To compensate I have signed up for the EBC crit in mid-May and the ICC Dash for Cash crit later in the month, followed by the Pescadero Road Race in mid-June.  I had not intended to do Pescadero this year; I think I could use some more off-season leg strength work before tackling that brutal course.  But it is what it is.  That gives me about 7 weeks or so to get ready, so expect to see me around some of the local hills doing repeats over the next few weeks.

Glue vs. tape update

The twin sidewall punctures at Madera has given me an opportunity to revisit the glue vs. tape for attaching tubular issue.  Just before Madera I had re-glued the front tire, and taped the rear.  Both tires were firmly attached, not likely there would have been a roll-off.  The front tire came off cleanly; on the rear there was a couple of layers of the tape matrix left that was easy enough to remove.  But, and this will be what pushes me to the glue camp, there was a very tacky, squishy, thick layer of glue material left on the rim after removing the tire and the leftover tape.   I spent last night doing the dirty work of stripping all that nasty leftover glue off the rim.  I will go back to glue for the most part, but will leave some Tufa tape in the toolkit just in case I need to attach a tire in a hurry.

The Wife and I spent a lovely anniversary weekend in beautiful Madera. The plan had been a hers-n-his racing weekend, but I was the party pooper. The doctors had advised against racing, and if there was any doubt a quick loop of the TT course told me that the shaking, rattletrap roads were no place to ride without a good grip with both hands. I hear that the fabled ‘Roubaix’ section of the road race would have been worse, but I will have to take everyone’s word for it since I was not going to get the pleasure of experiencing it. I got to enjoy the festivities from the sidelines, yelling encouragement, heckling occasionally, and providing support. The Wife will be reporting on her own trials and tribulations. She did a better job than she gives herself credit for, and I am sure she will take the lessons from this weekend and carry them forward. She is a tough cookie! A few notes and observations:

• Lots o’equipment needed, including lots o’tools and spares. That course and the weather is brutal on equipment as well as the riders.
• Check everything nightly: after pre-riding the TT course on Friday I did not inspect the tires. At the TT course on Saturday, just before sending The Wife off to her start, I found some glass embedded in the front tire and a slash in the sidewall of the same tire. Good thing I had spare wheels! I had a spare tubular tire and some Tufo tape with me, too, so if I had found the problems on Friday night The Wife could have ridden on the high zoot Nimble wheel rather than my old road bike front wheel.
• Lots o’riders seem clueless on feed zone protocol. Lots o’folks not taking feed were riding along the right edge and blocking those who wanted feed from getting over. If you are not taking feed, move left; if you are, move right. Darned tough to do the water bottle transfer across three rows of moving cyclists! There was way to much frustration and angst from folks not able to get bottles on Sunday.
• When the weatherman says hot, take twice as much fluids with you as you think you will need. Saturday it was clear we would run short so we made a quick dash to the store to pick up a few more gallons.
• Always check with past participants for restaurant recommendations. Shot in the dark picks are more often miss than hit.

Perhaps next year I can give a first-hand account of the racin’.

It appears I will not be doing the scratch race at Hellyer tonight. My track bike has been reconfigured to carry The Wife, but that is a result not the cause. Nope, all pretty stupid.

Yesterday I was riding to work when a dog, a big dog (yellow lab) ran out suddenly in front of me. As I evaded the front wheel dropped off the edge into dirt, the wheel caught, and I went down to the left. I was doing all of maybe 7-10MPH at best. Got a bit of scrape on the left knee. Nothing major. But as the day wore on the right thumb kept swelling, and then turned a nice blue. Just got back from getting some pics taken; fractures (plural) of the distal phalanx. All I can think is the thumb caught on the brake lever as I twisted down.

I am in a splint, icing and medicating to reduce swelling. Then the orthopedist will decide on the next step. Looking like I might be a spectator at Madera. Dang!

On the positive side, the upgrade sticker to put on the license was in this morning’s mail. Not that it matters much since I race open or mixed categories for the most part.

Today was the Rondee von Brisbeen, Stage 2, Brisbane Highlands Circuit Race, perhaps the longest official name of a race on the NCNCA road race schedule. With a name like that, one has to get out and race, right?

A few years ago a group of us would get up early every Tuesday morning and climb Old La Honda Road, our weekly homage to hill suffering, I mean climbing. My friend Josh, one of the prime instigators of the event, once remarked that if, as a teenager, someone had told him he would get up early and leave a warm bed he was sharing with a scantily clad woman to go out and ride a bike he would say they were crazy. That is how I felt this morning as I got up at Oh-dark-thirty to eat breakfast, pack the toaster, and head north, all while The Wife continued to rest peacefully in the bed. And perhaps I should have stayed at home a bit longer; I arrived at registration at 6:30AM, but it did not open until 7:12 AM which did not leave a lot of time for number pinning, warmup, and getting to the line for an 8 AM start. After a few minutes on the trainer for the warmup I decided it was better to check out the course so did three laps of the 1.7 mile course as the main stay of the warmup routine. I was glad I did as it gave me an opportunity to test the corners and check out my gearing choices.

The circuit starts out with a fast downhill, interrupted by a sharp left turn and ending at a sharper right turn, a corner referred to by everyone as ‘the hay bale corner’. Afterwards it is basically all uphill to the start/finish line, a climb of about 140′ (not the 100′ advertised in the race flyer) with grades up to 7.5%. This should be my last race before upgrading, so I decided to try to keep it safe. To whit, I charged from the start to get out in front of the pack for the two tight turns which was probably a good choice for lap 1 since there were a couple of crashes at the left turn. I was successful in staying near the front through lap 1, fell a few spots back on lap two, stayed even on lap 3. Then on lap 4 there seemed to be a collective pause on the climb and I thought it would give me a chance to recover a bit from the hectic pace of the first three. Right. About halfway up the hill someone decided it was time to push it, and it was off to the races. I tried to hang with the leader group, but detached near the top. But I can descend fast, which served me well as I was able to reattach. Only to be dropped again on the climb, this time for good.

I knew there were quite a few folks behind me, but chose the closest two to try to keep pace with the leaders. I lost them on the next time up the hill, one apparently abandoning as I saw him cheering from the sidelines on the next lap. I did the solo flyer until a group of six from behind finally caught up with me. Ahh, I thought, reinforcements. By now visions of being on the podium were long gone and the main goal was to finish without being pulled, a definite possibility since Chief Ref Eric had warned that anyone down by a half lap or more would be yanked. The merry band of seven started fighting to stay alive, noting that we had just 5 laps to go. A rider from Team Bicycle Trip  and I were the strongest on the hills so we pulled everyone up, then did our recovery while tucked in behind the rest on the downhill run. Up and down and up and down we flew. Finally the bell lap which meant that we would not have to suffer the slings and arrows of being pulled and could finish on our own terms. So the group took it down a small notch as we flew down the hill for the last time and back to the uphill run. Note to self: even if you are the strongest climber in the group, do not pull everyone up on the last lap. Yep indeed, as we neared the finish line 5 of my 6 companions flew past me in sprint-to-finish mode and I, having buried my heart rate to the redline, could not follow. Lesson learned.

My cool down was reverse laps on the other side of the road so I could cheer on all my friends in the Women’s 4 field. An interesting perspective, and an opportunity to cheer on many as I passed the splintered parts of that field over and over again. Big congrats to Kimmy who finally felt that podium taste at Menlo Park and charged home for a first place on this tough course.