Monthly Archives: April 2010

Hey everyone,

This is a race report of Ronde von Manda, which was held the day after Manor. The race was mainly characterized by the intense winds which would shatter the peloton. At the end of Manor, I had asked the rider with whom I had ridden at both the Driveway Crit and Manor if he would be racing Manda the day after. He said that he probably wouldn’t ride the next day as the current day was hard enough, and the following day would be even harder. He gave me a fist bump for encouragement and then went his own way. It wasn’t until I arrived at the Manda course that I realized what he was talking about…

One of the main differences between Manor and Manda is that the Manor race went through a fairly wooded area and the wind wasn’t too bad to ride through. However, with Manor, the race was held on an open field with no protection from the wind. I realized how strong it was the moment I stepped out of my car at the course. When I tried to open the door to get my gear, it closed immediately and I had to prop it open with a weight. Likewise, my teammate Daniel told me that when he tried to get out of the car, the door slammed shut on him and he had to go out the other way. Thus, today would present a new challenge: the wind was forcasted to gust between 25 and 35mph so it would be intense.

When I arrived at the starting line I noticed that the field was significantly reduced from that of the day before. About 50 riders started Manor, whereas today there were only about 25, and perhaps only 5 riders, including me, had raced at Manor the day before. As we waited for the start, Mark Heady, one of the riders with whom I worked at Manor, rolled up to his teammates after he had finished the 4/5 race. He looked utterly exhausted and recognized me from the day before and wished me luck. Before we started, the race official said that the winds were so strong that they would surely split us apart into echelons, and went on to explain the usual rules with bicycle racing.

When we started, we could immediately feel the pressure put on by the crosswinds. Most of the riders in my pack were inexperienced Cat 5 riders, so we didn’t know how to properly form an echelon. Thus, we pretty much strung out in a single file line and I found myself completely exposed to the crosswind. One of the guys who wanted to gain pack position came up next to me so I found some shelter against the wind. However, he had so much difficulty in controlling his bike he was weaving back and forth like a drunkard, which made me extremely nervous while riding next to him. I had learned earlier that he was responsible for one of the crashes the day before, which didn’t add to my confidence.

I dropped back behind him to find a better rider to ride with, but the pace was so relentless at the front that I couldn’t hold the wheel, and I dropped back in the crosswind after the fifth mile. I can’t really say much about the rest of the race except that I rode it entirely alone. I saw another rider in front of me but at some point of the race he disappeared and I never caught up. The wind was definitely the most intense wind I’ve ever ridden against but I know I’ll face something similar in the future so I’ll have to learn to cope with it the next time. I was quite exhausted from the race before so I suppose that I simply haven’t developed the level of endurance to race multiple days in a row, as well as ride for long periods of time against the wind. I had learned later on that the race officials in the follow car would give the pack tips on how to form echelons, but since I wasn’t there at the time I guessed I missed out on a crucial lesson.

Since I had paid my race entry fee, I felt like I might as well have made the best of it and decided to turn the race into a 38 mile workout, rather than quit. so I trudged my way until the end of the course, where I was caught by a pack of professional riders, of which contained former Texas Cycling member Peter Carey, who now rides for the Bahati Foundation, a professional team.

So, it turns out I finished last out of the finishers. The good news is that a handful of riders abandoned the course, so I suppose I get a leg up on them, morally. However, there aren’t really any good things I can say about this race, other than the fact that I mainly rode it to work on my endurance and gain experience from racing. As for the things I did badly, I couldn’t find a good position in the crosswind, and I just didn’t have enough energy to keep up with the pack. When I finished I saw Ken receiving medical attention from a crash. He wasn’t seriously injured, but he received a lot of nasty road rash and was bleeding quite a bit, and his bib shorts looked as if they were torn beyond repair. He told me he had got stuck in a crack in the road and couldn’t get out, and then fell over. He had a very good top-10 result at Manor and I’m sure had he not fallen over that he would have gotten a very good result at Manda as well. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a very good day for Texas Cycling as Hogan, Day, Dalton, Varela, and Dodson all abandoned the race. Kearns stuck it out and got 12th in the Mens’ 3/4, while Carey had a very good result and finished 4th in the Pro Competition. Hammerfest race report coming up next…

Carey stayed in the break for 4th place. Photo courtesy of Velossimo Racing.

Hey everyone,

This is a race report of Ronde von Manor, a single-day race hosted by Velossimo Racing on the 27th of March. It’s been a while since I last posted, so my memory is kind of hazy with this one. My participation in this race was pretty much on a whim, especially since the Texas State collegiate race, which would have coincided with this race, was canceled the week before. This was the first USCF race that I’ve participated in besides the Driveway series, so this would be a pretty good way to test myself against the more serious racers participating in the Texas Cup and regional competitions.

The race was held at J. Lorraine Ghost Town

I entered the race as a Category 5 rider, which is the lowest possible level rider you can be at these races. In order to move up to Category 4, you need at least 10 mass-start races, but most people chose to move up after they’ve done reasonably well in Category 5. When I was at the Texas Cycling meeting a couple of days prior to the race, my teammate Ken said that in his experience, all of the Category 5 races started out really fast, slowed down in the middle, and then picked up speed towards the end. So he told me that if I felt like I was hurting during the beginning, all I had to say to myself was “just a little longer, just a little longer…” and eventually the pace would slow down so I could take a breather.

The P/1/2 pack contained Peter Carey.

So, on Saturday morning I headed out towards Manor and arrived a little later than I would have like, 15 minutes before the start line. When they called out the Cat 5 field, I lined up and scoped out the riders. I was very surprised at the equipment they had, as I seemed to be the only rider who wasn’t riding on a $5000 all-carbon bike with deep-rimmed wheels. Thus, I was a little intimidated but I would have to learn how to keep up nonetheless. The race officials told us the usual rules, such as no crossing the center line, and what to do if we needed mechanical service. Then, the race was off. The field was neutral for maybe a couple of miles but the pace picked up quickly. I would say that once we hit the fourth mile, the field was going very fast, about 28 mph.

Riding in the pack was incredibly intense. For the most part, I was in the rear and it was very hectic as the pack kept speeding up and slowing down for some strange reason, and at one point of the ride I even had to unclip my pedals since we came to a full stop. Also, the pack always accelerated through each turn in order to lose inexperienced riders. I managed to stay in contact through each turn, thanks to the practice I had at the Driveway the Thursday before.

After about 5 or 6 miles we hit a small hill and everybody seemed to be in a rush to get over it and drop a few riders. A couple of riders were dropping back so I just maneuvered out of their way and stayed in contact. I could tell that there were a lot of riders that were very inexperienced, and they couldn’t handle their bikes smoothly so I was a little nervous riding next to them, in case they bumped into me. Anyways, after we finished riding up the hill we turned right into a crosswind, so I made sure that I was on the right side of the pack. We took another right-hand turn to the finishing straight on the lap, which was mostly downhill. The front of the pack must have been charging downhill as I recorded speeds of over 40 mph easily, and I wasn’t even pedaling on my bike on the way down a not-too-steep slope.

I finished the first lap without any problem, and the pack seemed to take it easy the second time through. We crested up the hill a second time, but a few riders crashed which caused a split in the peloton. I reacted by accelerating hard and I inadvertently ended up at the front of the pack exposed to the crosswind. Since it was as crosswind, riders started being aggressive and every time someone tried to break away the pack chased them down hard. In my opinion that was NOT smart racing. If you let a few riders get away instead of chasing them down, you’ll save a lot of energy. Plus, we would soon hit a downhill section and a tailwind so it would be very easy to catch them then. I think maybe 5 or so riders tried to break away successively and I think we were going about 24 mph into a crosswind, and since I was on the left side of the pack this time I was completely exposed. I suddenly ran out of steam and dropped from the front to the back, and then off the back.

It was at this point that I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch back on. After about 5 miles of riding solo, I saw a couple of stragglers behind me and I sat up to wait for them to catch me. As soon as they caught up, we formed a paceline and we tried to catch up to another guy riding solo about 15 seconds in front of us. As soon as I saw the gap closing, I upped the tempo until we caught him. Unfortunately one of the guys in my group couldn’t hold the pace and he dropped back. Incidentally, the new guy we caught happened to be the same guy I ended up with at the Driveway! What a coincidence. We worked together for the rest of the race taking turns pacing each other. When we crested the hill we saw a spectator dressed in a Death costume, which I found mildly amusing.

I dropped the two riders on the climb unintentionally so I waited for them to catch back up to me as I didn’t want to finish the race alone. It was then that I realized I would probably be able to beat the two riders once we headed to the finish line. The rest of the race was uneventful and consisted of us taking turns in the front. When we reached the downhill we called the alliance off as we would be trying to beat each other at the line. The Driveway guy opened up the the sprint, so I responded, but at the finish line I saw a whole group of guys walking their bikes and I was quite perplexed and I didn’t want to hit them while I was sprinting, so when I was dashing down the street I yelled, “watch out!” and easily outsprinted the other two riders.

It turned out that in the sprint to the line, there was a huge crash and maybe 10 or so riders went down. I don’t think it affected my placing as I think there’s a rule saying that if you go down at the line you’re accredited the same time as the bunch you finished with. There happened to be several crashes that day. I witnessed one of them, but I heard a more serious crash happened off the front soon after I dropped back where three riders went down, one breaking his femur and another breaking his hip…since the crash happened near where I was riding in the pack, I’m kind of glad I got dropped as I didn’t get involved, but it would have been a valuable lesson had I witnessed it. As for the things I did badly I think I shouldn’t have overreacted at the time of the first crash to catch back on, and I should have positioned myself properly on the right side of the pack as we headed into a crosswind. Positioning makes a HUGE difference in the amount of energy you’ll spend and it just takes a little bit of mental calculation. Furthermore, I probably shouldn’t have spent so much time in the back of the pack and probably should have stayed in the front. As for the things that I did well, I stayed in contact for a longer period of time then at DFW, and I recorded the fastest ever 33 miles I’ve ever done at 20.2 mph, which was only slightly slower than that of the Criterium, but over a much longer distance. The pack riders recorded 23mph and I heard from another rider that it was a harder than usual Cat 5 race. Personally, I would have only expected 21 mph from the Cat 5 pack, and 23 mph is kind of ridiculous given that we’re beginner racers…that just goes to show how seriously they take bike riding here in Austin. Anyways, I had fun and I was looking forward to the race the next day…

Mens' 3/4 pack containing Dalton, Hogan, and Varela