Monthly Archives: June 2010

Hey everyone,

The final day of Fort Davis began at 5:30 AM when I woke up to get breakfast. Dalton and Varela would start later in the day so they got to sleep in for about another hour. After getting ready, I walked over to the main building where the race officials kept the spare wheels to look at the results from the previous day’s races. It turns out that I got 36th, which wasn’t great but fell into my expectations. Dalton got 4th in the Men’s 3 and Varela got 2nd in the Men’s 4, putting both of them at about a minute and a half down on their respective GC’s. With a good effort, both of them had a chance of taking the GC.

At breakfast I had scrambled eggs, potatoes, a biscuit, bacon, and some sausage. I made sure to eat a lot in order to have enough energy to be competitive at today’s stage. I would be going over the same hill climb as that of the first stage so I had to keep my expectations realistic. Thus, I simply aimed to go further than I did last time without getting dropped, so I wanted to make it over the first two tough gradients with the pack.

After breakfast I headed back to the cabin to get dressed. I brought along three gel shots and a power bar to eat at breakfast, hoping to get about 1,000 calories in before start time. Luckily, today’s stage would start right outside of Prude Ranch so I wouldn’t have to do any riding in order to get there. As soon as I got ready I headed out to the gate to sign in.

Mt. Locke looms in the distance, we had to climb over it during the race…

It turns out that a handful of riders called it quits but most of the peloton remained intact from the previous day. The weather was somewhat cold at the mid 50’s so I decided to bring my arm warmers with me to stay warm. To my dismay, the guy I had talked to yesterday had abandoned after the time trial, and I hoped he would stick around for the road race. After the start the race went at a more sensible pace than that of the day before. Most of the riders knew that we would have a hard time getting over the first climb so we didn’t have any attacks on the rollers, giving me an opportunity to conserve my energy.

I made sure to stay in the front of the pack to keep out of trouble, I maintained 4th-10th position in the pack to make sure I didn’t have to do too much work, and the ride to the climb went by smoothly, and I felt much better in comparison to the day before. I saw that John Guidry, the guy who finished right in front of me on the previous day’s hill climb and passed me in the time trial, also positioned himself near the front. I knew from the previous day’s results that I would probably be able to keep up with him on the climbs so I made sure to stick around him (it turns out that he’s a much better flat rider, scoring good results in the early season races). As soon as we hit the climb the pace went up rapidly, however. I made the selection after the first upward gradient and knew I could do at least one more. When we hit the first false flat (a false flat is a section of land that still goes upward, albeit at a lower gradient) I looked behind me and saw that a couple of riders dropped back which made me feel somewhat good about myself. The second gradient was tough, but I still managed to hang on at mid pack for the next false flat. What really killed me was the third upward gradient. As soon as we hit the slope John started to fall backward and I fell with him. After I started seeing other people pass us I decided to pass him and try to catch on to the back. I made it back to the front of the peloton, but my effort was too much, and I waved to the others to get past me.

I saw a guy from TCU pass me up and I knew I had beaten him at Tunis, so I made sure to keep him in sight for the rest of the race. After taking some time to catch my breath, I caught a group of two riders, but dropped one of them immediately. The other rider and I took turns pacing each other until we caught another rider, and one other rider from Texas Tech caught up with us.

After we reached the summit of the climb I hammered our group forward in order to gain some time on the short descent. In doing so, I dropped one of the riders and the three of us who remained took turns pacing. We went through a series of steep rollers and hit a long descent at 50mph. The Tech guy was a fantastic descender but the other guy who was with us couldn’t handle very well and I ended up lagging behind him because I didn’t want to pass him up. When we hit the bottom we caught up to the Tech guy and the rider who was with me apologized for descending slowly. Soon afterward we caught the TCU rider.

We saw another Tech rider ahead of us, so the Tech rider lifted the pace to catch his teammate and dropped the three of us. The TCU rider then dropped us. We took turns pacing each other until we hit the halfway mark at which we had to turn around. After the turn around point the guy I was with dropped me and I found myself alone for about the next five miles, after which I was caught by a group of three riders and we took turns pacing each other. We dropped one of them before we hit the main descent at which one of the riders in our group took a daredevil descent to the bottom. We were going faster than 50mph and I got dropped on the way down.

Fortunately I saw the TCU guy about a mile in front of me and I made it my goal to catch him before the finish. I was caught by a group of about five riders and a man in a neutral support vehicle was following us. Every now and then he passed us and pulled over to the should and started yelling at us to catch the guy in front of us (the TCU guy). Right before Heartbreak Hill, the finishing climb, we saw the TCU rider in our sights so I decided to attack the group and after riding past the TCU guy, I sprinted up the hill and finished ahead of my group.

The P/1 bunch sprint.

After the race I went back to the Cabin, grabbed a soda and drove back to the finish line to pick Dalton and Varela when they finished. I got to see the endings of the rest of the Men’s races, the P/1, Category 2, Category 3, and Category 4. The Pro/1 pack was very impressive and they finished as a group. When I saw the Cat 3 pack coming over the horizon I got out of my van to watch the finish. I saw Dalton in the group so I cheered him on in the bunch sprint. He ended up getting 10th in the Road Race and 6th in the GC.

The Cat 3 bunch sprint.

After meeting up with Dalton we waited for Varela at the line. Unfortunately Varela blew up near the end of the race and finished 20 minutes back. Considering that he got 2nd on the first two stages, however, I would say that he had a good race. When I checked the results I ended up getting 24th on the Road Race and 28th out of 50 starters in the GC, moving up about ten places. I can’t really say much about how well I did other than that I’m improving, but I still have a long way to go. I had a great three days out in west Texas and the experience was very good for my development as a cyclist.

Daniel crosses the line.

Clay and Daniel taking a breather after the race.

One last photo before heading home.

For photos of my adventure, click on the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038340&id=1529070024&l=72bb6381a7

Hey everyone,

I haven’t updated in more than a month so I won’t have the most accurate race report available. The second stage of Fort Davis Hammerfest consisted of a short 16 mile out and back time trial on the outskirts of town. The course went uphill for the first half into a headwind, then downhill for the second half with a tailwind. The start times would go in reverse order of the general classification, so the riders who finished last during the hill climb would go first at the time trial.

Meanwhile, after the hill climb, Clay, Daniel, and I rested for about an hour at the cabin before heading out to lunch. We stopped by a local deli and got a few sandwiches, while Clay got a salad for himself. The 17% gradient at the hill climb certainly took a beating out of our legs, and the four hour interlude between the two stages gave us a small respite before we had to go full blast for the TT. For those of you who aren’t familiar with time trials, time trials test the athlete’s ability to go nearly all-out at a heart rate slightly below lactate threshold for an extended period of time without the benefit of drafting behind anything. Strong riders who can push through the wind and sustain a large power output tend to do well during time trials, while lighter riders may get pushed around by the wind and may not have the ability to generate enough power. Knowing this, I knew I would have a disadvantage to the larger riders during this stage. Equipment would play a role, too, since the wind would favor those who had time trial bikes made especially for these types of stages. As a new rider, I did not at the time, and currently still do not own a time trial bike, but I plan on getting one eventually. Riding the stage with a standard road bike would probably put me behind 5-7 minutes on the stage. Nevertheless, I told myself that I would just have to try my hardest.

Dalton's Cervelo P2 TT Bike.

After lunch, we headed back to the cabin to let Clay and Daniel prepare their TT bikes. Clay had recently gotten a fit on his new Cervelo P2, a bike from a company that has a good reputation for aerodynamic bikes, while Daniel had a Blue T-14. Daniel also brought along a 100mm deep section front wheel along, but he feared that the cross winds wouldn’t allow him to ride with it, since they might’ve blown him over. For those of you unfamiliar with bike equipment, a 100m rim means that the depth of the rim is 100mm. Cross winds will alter the handling of the TT bike since the increased surface area of the front wheel will create a greater amount of wind resistance to a cross-wind, adversely affecting handling (you’d get blown sideways).

Varela's Blue T-14.

You can notice from the pictures that TT bikes have different handlebars. If you look closely enough, and compare the handlebars to those of a standard roadbike, you should also notice that the handlebars are in a much lower position as well. This allows the rider to obtain a good aerodynamic position on his bicycle, since wind resistance plays a large role in the force a cyclist must overcome.

After we got the TT bikes ready, we headed out to the other side of town to the race course. As soon as we stepped out of the van we could feel the strong winds blowing against us. I held out Daniel’s Blackwell wheel in front of me to see how it would move in the wind – it moved like a sail, so Daniel opted for a shallow rimmed wheel instead. After we looked at the start times, we saw that Clay would go first, Daniel second, and I last. We took out the equipment and Clay warmed up on his trainer, while I sat in the van and waited for my start time to come up.

The waiting area for the stage.

After Clay and Daniel started, I used the trainer to warm up myself. My legs felt dead tired from the hill climb earlier in the day, but I knew I would need to put in a hard effort to keep up with everyone else. In a little less than an hour, Clay came back and told me that he put in a hard effort into his ride, and had hopes of taking the stage. A few minutes later Daniel came back and told me he had passed five people, but unfortunately got passed himself by the leader of the GC, putting him further behind. However, with Daniel’s strong ride, he would likely remain in second place and in contention for the overall GC.

Varela in his skinsuit.

When my start time came up, we lined up in reverse order of the GC. There were about fifteen people in front of me, and I would be starting in the first third of the start order. Fortunately, most of the people came without TT bikes so the race would mostly be fair. However, I did see a few riders decked out with TT bikes and they would definitely have an advantage. Why would Cat 5 riders have $2,000-$10,000 bikes just for time trials? It could be the case that some of them came from triathlons and were new to road racing, or maybe they had TT bikes for some other reason. I had my own clip-on aerobars but I’ve never ridden with them so I decided not to use them.

Dalton warming up.

As soon as I started I could feel the crosswind blowing my bike to the left so I had to try to keep myself upright lest I be blown over. So, I kept my hands on the hoods of my levers instead of in the drops, which in retrospect I should have kept in the drops as to maintain an aero position. Before I made the first left hand turn into the headwind I happened to be passed by my 30-second man…he would go on to have a respectable ride.

A rider on the course.

Even though the wind was blowing at 25mph into my face, I was able to maintain 16mph and I decided to keep the rhythm until the u-turn. Looking back, I probably could have done 17 or even 18, but since it was my second time trial, I hadn’t yet fine-tuned my pacing for these types of races. Anyway, after about a mile I saw another rider over the horizon and I used him as a carrot. At first I thought it was the rider who caught me, so I didn’t think I would catch him. However, as I got closer it appeared to be my 90-second man and I passed him easily. As soon as I passed him I saw another rider on the horizon and it seemed that he was going even slower than the rider I passed, so I passed him about a minute later. After that, I immediately saw another rider so I paced myself to catch him before the tailwind, as I knew that I would probably lose a lot of time in the tailwind.

As we took the roundabout at the u-turn, I passed my third rider…so I knew that I at least wasn’t in last place! At the halfway point I had been passed by one rider with aerobars, and I passed three riders, which exceeded my expectations (my goal was to pass one). The wind was so strong that I was able to ride at about 34 mph on the way back! I maxed out my gears and was spinning at a cadence of about 100 so I really couldn’t go any faster (my max gear was 53/12. Immediately I knew I would lose time to those who had higher gear setups, such as 50/11, 53/11, or even 55/11 on TT bikes.

On the way back I was flying, but the riders on TT bikes were flying even faster, and I got passed by four more riders on the way back…all on TT bikes. I was puzzled at first, but after a little thought the situation became clear. Air resistance increases exponentially with the velocity of the rider. Therefore, at higher speeds (such as in the tailwind), the aerodynamic benefits of aero equipment are much greater. Anyways, I didn’t get passed by any riders on normal bikes, to my relief. One of the positive things about the race is that I recorded my fastest ever solo 16-mile effort at 19 mph. The only bad thing about the race is that I stayed in the hoods the whole time and I could have done better if I had stayed in the drops. However, I know that I am getting better through looking at my data. Thus, so far I seem to be on track.

After the stage I was a little giddy that I actually passed a person, though a little dismayed at getting passed. I talked to one of the guys who finished near me on the Hill Climb and he told me that he had also gotten passed by all the riders on TT bikes, to his astonishment. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t show up at tomorrow’s road race. After I said goodbye, we drove back to the cabin to clean ourselves up before dinner.

For dinner we ate at a place called The Chuck Wagon, and I got a full barbecue plate with brisket, roasted chicken, sausage, ribs, Texas toast, and fries. It had to have had more than 2,000 calories in it. However, it was the best barbecue that I have ever had and it was rich and smoky in flavor. After eating dinner we went back to the Cabin, hit the hay, and awaited the results that would be posted the following morning.