District Cycling

It’s been a tough month or two.  As with most, training was up then down and hopefully back up again in anticipation for the Giro di Coppi.  A full field is expected of course, but the consensus has sounded much like “eh, I’m going, but whatever.”  I’m sure this isn’t entirely the case, and I’d sure like to hear that there are some serious competitors for the Giro.  Personally I can’t wait, been training hard and have even managed to lose some weight in anticipation of hills.  I’ll have more on this in the next day or so.

Being originally from Utah, I still have some friends out there.  I know that the Tour of Utah has been a decent stage race.  Utah, much like it’s more popular counterpart: Colorado, is a rough and tough place to race.  The mountains are big, long and coupled with the high altitude and super dry air can prove to be tough to even the hardest of pros.  Having grown up there racing Mountain Bikes and competing in Snowboarding, I know all too well.  

I recently heard from my friend Clark who lives near the opening stage of the Tour of Utah.  Much like our CSC Invitational, the Tour of Utah invites some major teams such as Rock Racing, Garmin/Chipotle, Toyota-Untited, BMC and others.  Clark and a friend went out that morning to cheer on the crowd, but with an additional thought.  His friend dressed like El Diablo, and in true pro-cycling style, ran along the riders with his pitchfork in hand.  Awesome.  Clark also gave me some insight to the race and with it, what I felt were words of encouragement:

I‘ve done this pass a ton of times and knew it hurt but never thought the pros would struggle as much as they did. We were positioned on a steep section near the end of a long climb and the field was totally ripped apart. Tyler Hamilton went by and was rocking like crazy. The Rock Racing car that went by had the coolest graphics swag on it. The race organizers came up the pass before the riders and handed out cow bells to all of us lining the road.  We shook the crap out of those suckers as the riders rode by hoping to inspire them to push through the last 300m to the top, but it didn’t seem to energize their screaming legs, lungs or tickers. Watching the pros suffer up close like that was actually very encouraging for some reason.  It was nice to know that even super human Pros suffer like dogs too.

I know it’s not a local race, but being from Utah, it was cool to hear about it.  It’s also nice to know that no matter how good you are, it still hurts.  Ride on….just watch out for the Diablo!

NDN LUV

So at the mention of the Today Show’s coverage of Kristen Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and Velodrome events coming up, I found myself intrigued by the content of the show.  They’ve got some great insight to the Olympics right now.  That’s my preface to the real content here.  I was watching today and Matt Lauer was talking about the great Michael Phelps and his record wins.  The discussion included his agent who was discussing his contribution to swimming and how there would be more interest in swimming because of him.  In contrast there was an “analyst” to counter the point.  So he says “I don’t think that Phelps will do anything for the sport of swimming other than create some interest with the Olympics.  Golf in the US is flat despite Tiger Woods’ accomplishments and Lance Armstrong has done nothing for cycling.”  That statement made little sense to me.  Although I don’t think Lance Armstrong has gotten every American off their butts and out on a bike, I don’t think anyone could contest his contribution to Cycling.  Anyone that I know that began Cycling in the last 8 or so years can’t help but to mention Lance as part of the contributing factor to their interest in the sport.  I guess I’m just ranting at this point, but regardless of our sport’s quiet involvement, there is a stronger and stronger following.  I’m always a fan of analysts doing their research before they make a blanket statement that is uninformed and off the cuff.  

NDN LUV

In the mist of summer craziness (vacations and such), I have managed to neglect things here just a tad.  I’m working on it.  Among that, I did have a small article done at LocalCyclist.com.  You can see the piece here: 

http://www.localcyclist.com/2008/08/spotlight-district-cycling/

Now that I am a Cat 4, I have to consider upping my training.  I am excited to participate in the Giro di Coppi for my first true Cat 4 race, but realize the difficulty of the race and the field.  So I have been working towards intensifying my training.  The race itself is 50 miles, and as far as road races go, this one is going to hurt.

So in my training I have been putting in some long days.  Last Friday I had the opportunity to go out with my coach who had a great course for me.  I told him I was in and ready for anything.  Needless to say, it was a tough day.  In fact, it was the day I almost cracked wide open.  For the first time in my amateur cycling career I reached a point where I almost quit riding.  It was an important moment for me, but one that put things in perspective for me. 

I vaguely remember the salesman of my first bike referring to a hill in our neighborhood that was so hard that he would reach a point where he would stop pedaling, get off his bike and walk the rest of the way.  My thought with that, even at 50 lbs more than what I currently am, I would never do that.  The hill he is referring to is one that certain members of our team uses for training, and although it’s a tough hill, it’s not that horrible.  It’s certainly not that bad in relation to the hateful hill my coach took me on.  Even with the nice trees and cool breeze, it smelled like broken dreams to me.

For some reason Coach likes to take me on these back roads.  Roads that I refer to as the “you might die at the hand of a big redneck truck” roads.  Narrow, no shoulder, lots of turns.  I don’t mind it, really, except that I am not familiar with this particular track.  I do notice a number of hills, but I’m holding well and even keeping a good and hard pace.  Coach pulls up to me and says, after this decent, there is a big hill…save your legs for it and get into a pace.  Sound advice.  So we hit the base of the hill, and I hunker down for a nice pace.  After a bit I begin to think about how much this sucks and how long this seems to be.  I know it’s my head, but I continue forward and think about my pedal rotation instead.  I begin to notice my legs are beginning to get a bit weak.  Not like a hunger based weakness, but one steeped in fatigue.  We had a good 40 miles up to this point with some hard pushes.  I push this out of my mind and continue.  I know this whole time that Coach is right behind me.  He sees me falter and yells, keep it going, keep it going.  He is training for his own race and I know he’s working for himself here.  I sit up and say, that’s all I have.  My legs are spent, tight, fatigued and mad at me.  Coach speeds past me continuing with his tirade of positive reinforcement.  I hang on enough to keep him in sight.  I’m a little mad.  He’s out of the saddle while encouraging me while speeding past, while I am about to give up.  For the first time since being on my bike, I want to quit.  I actually want to get off my bike, and walk the rest of the way.  This hill sucks.

As I reach the crest of the hill, I realize I barely made it.  Coach is ahead of me by a bit, but he’s still in view.  I manage to catch up with him but I hang back.  I didn’t quit, but I felt like I wanted to.  I didn’t say it, but it was in my head.  I rode in the back recovering, but also to keep to myself for a moment and mentally get myself back together

I’d like to think that this is what will be needed for the Giro di Coppi.  I haven’t looked at the course yet, but have heard that it’s a rough and tough one.  I can’t wait to hurt.  I can’t wait to smell the fresh sent of lost hope and broken dreams.  

NDN LUV

I know this is out and about on the web (and for DC-ites, on the MABRA Google message board), but I wanted to put this up.  I don’t know what it is, but for some reason there is so much aggression towards two wheeled warriors.  I use that term because it’s pretty much what we have to be to make it on the road these days.  Stay safe, ya’ll!

NDN LUV

Well, I’m at the beach for a week with my family for vacation.  I brought my bike, of course.  I had illusions of grandeur in thinking that I would easily put forth some long hard rides.  So, it begs the question: How long does it take to forget how miserable it is to ride in one straight line in crazy humidity and heat with headwinds?  Since I go on vacation with my family to the same place every year, it’s safe to say that it takes one year to forget.  The first day here I set out (on Sunday) and found that my legs got tired pretty fast.  I didn’t shift gears and my speed didn’t fluctuate much at all over the next hour and a half.  I was sweating a ridiculous amount and putting forth what I felt like was a lot of effort for minimal return.  I suppose time will tell.  I can tell you that I got up to 30 miles per hour on my own steam at one point.  I would have felt pretty good about myself….had I not been doing it in a tail wind!  After the Time Trial, I’m feeling a bit “not strong.”  Such is life.  If I do the Giro di Coppi in September, I’ve got some time to get my crap together.  I think I’ll go try to work the short sleeve tan line off my arm.  I look like I’m walking around the beach in a t-shirt…except I’m not wearing a t-shirt!

NDN LUV

Is it just me, or does Danny Pate of Garmin/Chipotle look like that guy from Short Circuit?

NDN LUV

I participated in the Nature’s Path/3Sport Time Trial on Saturday.  All of this happened because of the big Giro di Coppi cancellation.  As was the case with a lot of weekend warriors, we do our best to train for races that are coming.  Having to lose the Giro di Coppi messed up my schedule.  So, I decided to roll with the TT in the Richmond suburbs.  My initial thought about doing this had a lot to do with the Triathlon Relay I did the weekend before.  I did the bike leg of the Tri with my sister and brother-in-laws and managed a decent time.  Granted I did the race in my neighborhood and knew exactly where everything was, but my confidence was high.  I have borrowed a TT bike from our team owner/manager and although I haven’t spent a ton of time on it, I felt I had it dialed in.  Coming from this Tri the weekend before, I figured I’d be ok.

Much of this confidence began to wane the night before.  I had spent the week on the TT bike, but still felt like it hurt.  I just upgraded to a Cat 4 as well, so I knew I had a chance to really get into the pain cave (thanks for that one Adam), but still felt I should be ok.  My fears were confirmed when we pulled up.  I’ve never seen so many sexy assed bikes in my life.  Everything you could imagine was there, not to mention the thousands of dollars in Zipp wheels humming around the parking lot.  It was actually kind of silly.  How can all these guys have this much money for this genre of cycling that happens even less frequently than a road race?  Then it dawned on me: this is probably all these particular guys do.  There wasn’t a huge mix of Road Racers.  Don’t ask me how I know, I just do.  There were a few state champ jerseys and, wait, what was that?  A Puerto Rican championship jersey?  What the hell!  I kept telling myself, I’m sure he’s not a Cat 4.  There was also a lot of Nature’s Path/3Sport jerseys…wait, scratch that, skin suits.  The bike I’m on isn’t that bad, but it’s also not the Cervélo P3C with a Zipp 808 on the front and a Zipp Carbon Disc wheel on the back.  We may only be talking about seconds of time deference (but doubt it…it’s more likely much more than that) but no one considers the intimidation factor.  Press on.

So I get a nice warm up.  I’m feeling ok, if not a little hot.  All the trainer positions were in the shade, and my 6′4″ frame barely hides behind the shadow of the SUV we drove down.  I know my start time is twenty-five minutes after nine, so I’m just pluggin along.  When the time gets closer I move to the start area.  As I pull up, they call my number.  It’s at this point that I notice that I’m strangely calm.  I’ve practiced as much as I can (but not nearly enough to feel secure) but I’ve got the calm that I get just before a road race.  I take this as a good sign.  When I pull up I’m disappointed to see that there will be no holding of seat posts for this TT.  This creates an awkward lull for most as they try to take off, clip in and not get frantic.  They count down to ten and I’m off.  I clip in fine, but feel bad for the guy who just went ahead of me who had trouble.  I get going and I am thinking to myself, “Ok…just breath and settle in.”  When I catch up to the guy 30 seconds ahead of me within the first minute or two I know that I may have gone out too fast.  ”Whatever,” I tell myself.  As I come around the first turn, I remember that this is a hilly course.  One of the descriptions mentions a decent, but luckily this was not the case at all.  There are, however, hills….as in UP.  I pushed though as best I could.  As I have mentioned before, I have a decent hammer stroke on the pedals, but by mile 8 I notice a pain in a place that I have not yet felt.  I have muscles in my legs that I didn’t know I had.  The heat is getting to me a bit, but I push that aside and try to stay in the aero position.  

At mile 8, I look down at my computer.  I push some buttons to check the distance and I see the magical number 8 only to find myself annoyed.  I can’t believe it’s only been 8 miles because I am exhausted.  I can tell how exhausted when I begin to be passed by one of those disc wheels.  I know he’s coming by the deep whir sound following each rotation.  I don’t care though.  I’m pissed that I feel like I’ve done far more than what my computer reads.  The aero position hurts, especially in the taint region.  For those of you not familiar with the taint, I have linked the word taint with the Wikipedia definition (for those of you with a sensitive disposition, proceed with caution.  For those of you who don’t care, enjoy!  I don’t feel like explaining it here.).    I counted being passed 6 times by what I can only describe as very pro-looking fellows.  I also passed about 6 people, but can honestly say that these guys looked to be in more misery than myself.  As I’m moving along I convince myself that comfort at this stage is most important.  For the first time since I began racing, I actually want to quit.  I won’t, because that’s just not how I roll, but it’s in my head.  Instead I sit in the horns of the TT bike because it’s as close as I am going to get to a position I am accustomed to.  I push further still.  

The point where I know I’m really struggling is when I begin to get chills.  I am wearing a Rudy TT helmet, and ventilation is less than that of my Giro RR helmet.  I bring this up because my only reason for getting chills must have something to do with the heat.  Getting chills in 90+ degree weather with silly amounts of humidity doesn’t spell out “good” to me.  I keep on.

I manage to make it to the finish.  I pushed across the line.  I couldn’t stand up very well because the bars are too close to my knees and I already hit them (and have bruises to prove it).  So I just pushed my legs as hard as they could go to get across the line.  I kept going all the way to the car.  I didn’t want to cool down, I didn’t want to do anything but throw the bike across the parking lot.  I knew it was my worst showing yet.  Perhaps I expect a lot of myself, but I just couldn’t let myself down.  Needless to say, I placed 2nd to last in my category.  I was disappointed in my performance and am committed to working on this genre over the winter to do something next season.  

My only solace in all this was something I noticed when I went to BikeReg.com to check the times.  The front page had an odd ad for a bike centered site.  Look on the right.  Do we fit that demographic?  I’m confused.

NDN LUV

I’m the slowest poster ever.  Thought this was cool none the less.

NDN LUV

So I had the opportunity to do Greenbelt this week.  I wasn’t planning on it, but the cancellation of Giro di Coppi kind of messed up my schedule.  When I went to get my number, I was called out for sandbaggin.  Maybe I am.  Some weeks I’m strong and some I’m not.

I am officially, as of last night, a Cat 4.  I’ve known this was happening sooner or later, but I figured that since I had a teammate in the C race, I’d go anyway.  The unfortunate thing is that there were some other sandbaggers as well, and some seriously shady riding.  The field was a full and a bit punchy.  My original plan was to stay near the front, but the first few laps were a bit quicker than anyone realized.  The biggest complaint I had was the gross abuse of the centerline rule.  Ultimately the guy who won used that abuse to get away enough for a sprint.  He said he didn’t but there is a whole field that says he did.  

My whole race started a bit shady, to be honest.  I forgot my gloves, which messes up my bike racing chi.  It was hot.  Hot day + no gloves = slippery handlebars.  Generally I like to be on the left, and hugging the centerline.  One particular lap I was doing just that when a guy with a team that will remain nameless shouts “on your left!”  What?  I was pissed at this point and said “how the f*** are you on my left?”  He got mad, ultimately, because we went ahead and boxed him out.  The right turn was shady as guys were taking the turn wide and quickly shooting back into the middle of the road, and thus, in the middle of the pack.  I’m actually surprised there wasn’t a crash as a result of that little jem of a move.  By the end of the race, I just didn’t care.  I stuck in there for a respectable placement, but didn’t care enough to make any moves.  Perhaps it was the energy that went into self preservation that stole my thunder.  

After the race, I did get to chance to interview the CycleLife gals who are out tearing it up.  I’ll transcribe the interview along with including it in my seemingly non-existent Podcast.  I also have an extremely interesting interview with Lance Lacy that I’ll be putting up soon.  Everyone in the Cat 4’s will be happy to know that Lance has gotten his upgrade, so he can quit sandbaggin’ the Cat 4’s with his hammer-like strength.  

Sandbagging is the word of the day.

With the carpet that is the Giro di Coppi being pulled out from those of us who have been training for it, I’m at a loss.  As a result, I’m headed to Richmond for the Natures Path/3 Sports Time Trial.  I did a triathlon relay this weekend (blog coming) and did the bike leg.  I walked away with a respectable time.  When I got the news about the Giro, I decided I needed to do something.  So I’m off to do my first Time Trial.  Unfortunately for me I just upgraded and will hangin with the 4’s.  The fact is, I still have weight to lose.  That said, my strength is in my hammer.  I’m banking on that for this time trial.

So Ricardo Ricco got busted for Doping this morning.  What a douche.  To be honest, I’ve never really like him.  It’s times like these that I’m ok with Versus’ whole Take Back the Tour campaign.

NDN LUV