Hey everyone,
My season opener began last Saturday at 5:45 A.M. My teammate, Brian O’Donnell, woke up Erique – one of our friends racing for Bicycle World – and me to go eat breakfast before our races. The forecast was 100% chance of rain all day with a high of 46° F. With that information, I could only think of one thing: no way.
Stage One – Criterium
After breakfast, I spent an hour or so warming up on the trainer inside my hotel room. Erique and Brian came back from their race and gave me a brief reconnaissance of the course: six 90° turns, puddles at every corner, and potholes everywhere within a .6 mile loop. Erique, who had forgotten to bring his shoes to the race, managed to stay in contact with the group on his tennis shoes and, as a mountain biker hilariously went over obstacles on purpose to make things exciting for the people behind him. By the time I left the hotel the rain started pouring down heavily and I arrived at the staging area soaked. I met up with my teammate Said before the start to discuss our strategy and he told me that he would try to ride it out as long as he could. I rode a couple laps before the start and I decided that the course, especially the downhill left-hand turn, posed a safety hazard to both me and my expensive bicycle. If you don’t believe me, here’s what happened at the 2010 MSU Collegiate Criterium.
The four of us brought 6 bikes.
As soon as we started the race, the riders in front jumped the gun and the peloton immediately shattered into chase groups. I tried a couple of laps and I ended up in a chase group of five riders. We collectively decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to keep going, so we sat up and waited until the official pulled us out of the race. I stood around and watched Said, who ended up in a mid-field chase group, complete a handful of laps until he himself got pulled from the race. We met up with Doug Baysinger afterward and he told us that he had a really hard time with the course, even when it was dry last year. He told me that he would just pedal slowly until the official pulled him out (you have to start each stage to continue with the stage race). It felt nice that I wasn’t the only person with that opinion. Now I don’t feel like such a wimp.
Noah Williams races the Cat 2 crit – photo by Lee McDaniel Photography
Stage Two – Time Trial
The second stage consisted of a 7-mile route along highway 337 with three climbs and about 200 ft of elevation gain. I normally don’t feel enthusiastic about time trials but this was the first time I would have detailed statistics such as heart rate and power which I could use as a reference tool. I rode the time trial like I did with my long intervals, trying to maintain 165-170 bpm and around 220-250 watts of power.
Power v.s. HR v.s. Elevation
You can see from the data that I tried way too hard at the beginning – I put in 400 watts for the first minute or so, and this is a very common mistake for young cyclists to make and now the data has confirmed that I’ve also made this mistake – you can see that as the time went on, I struggled to maintain my heart rate and had a started easier I would’ve had more energy for the finish. Anyway – the TT was disappointing as usual – I beat a couple of riders but I really felt disappointed because there was no indication of any improvement over the off-season whatsoever. After Said and I finished the TT, we rode back to the start in the heavy downpour – and by the time we got back we were both shivering like crazy. It felt so much better after we got back to the hotel. Later on we were informed that after the Cat 4 riders finished, the officials cancelled the rest of the day’s races due to hazardous weather conditions.
We used the heater to dry our clothes after each stage
Stage Three – Road Race
I didn’t have any lofty ambitions for the Road Race on Sunday – I just didn’t want to get dropped like I did at all the other races last year so my goal as usual was to not get dropped. Brian encouraged me to aim higher so I said if I managed to stay in contact I would go for the sprint. We all woke up at 5, and headed out to the start. Brian and Erique would start at 7:15 AM and I would start at 8:00 AM. I looked at my thermometer and while the dry weather looked encouraging – the temperature did not – 39° F. After signing in, I sat in Said’s truck in order to stay warm and I didn’t even warm up. I waited until 10 minutes before the start to get ready so I wouldn’t have to stand around outside.
A few miles into the race, I noticed two things – the zipper on one of my shoe covers had become undone so the cover would be flapping around the whole time, and part of my left cleat broke off so I would definitely not be competing for the sprint if I made it to the finish. The pace was easy – we cruised at around 20 mph below 200 watts. Once we reached the first KOM (King of the Mountains), the pace picked up dramatically as there was a prize for the person who made it over the hill first. I struggled to keep up but I didn’t have trouble staying in contact with the pack. After we crested the summit, the peloton accelerated quickly as we wanted to solidify our lead over any dropped riders.
After the KOM and a false flat, the race went downhill for the rest of the lap – no one tried breaking away and we were hitting speeds over 40mph. I became really nervous and it was hard for me to keep my cool while going that fast. I kept a distance of a couple meters from the back and easily regained contact at the end of the first lap.
A couple of riders broke away at the beginning of the second lap. At first, we tried to chase them down, but after some futile attempts to reel them back in, we decided to let them go until we caught them shortly before the second KOM. This time it was especially tough – I was breathing really hard and I nearly blew it! I kept telling myself to keep going. I barely managed to hold on to the wheel of the last rider of the pack and it took so much effort to crank out those last few pedal strokes before the top of the climb. After we crested the summit, rider after rider attacked immediately and I didn’t even get a chance to catch my breath. The section in between the KOM and the downhill portion was a false flat and that dealt a blow to me psychologically as I wanted to take a break so badly. As the attacks continued the peloton would surge and I would lose 5 m or so to the last wheel, but I kept clawing back and I kept telling myself not to give up and to stay in contact at all costs. Even on the downhill portion riders kept trying to break away. As I matched the accelerations I didn’t even pay attention to how I should be handling the bike and I had no problem going down the hill – it’s weird how you sometimes do things better when you don’t think about it.
Anyway it became clear that it was going to be a sprint finish. The pack was so dense that I couldn’t even see the 1 km sign and the only cue I got was when the pack surged toward the finish. I couldn’t contest the sprint because I had broken my left cleat earlier, so I just latched onto the wheel in front of me and hung on to the finish. To my surprise, during the sprint riders dropped like flies and I finished in 20th place out of 55 without sprinting, in the front half of the pack. Said finished somewhere near me, as I had barely passed him before the line.
This was my first indication this year that I’ve been improving. At 2011’s season opener at Walburg, I dropped after 5 minutes, and subsequently dropped during every single race except for Gonzales. This time I stayed in contact and my legs still feel fresh after the off-season. I’m hoping that there’s still plenty of room to expand and I’m really excited for the rest of the season.
I learned a lot of things in this race, in particular:
1. “The difference between getting dropped completely and staying in contact easily might be as little as holding 20 watts for 10 more seconds.” – Someone told me this after I had dropped during Ronde von Manda my rookie season. It wasn’t until now that I realized he was telling the truth. Take a look at the diagram below of the road race. I’ve divided the chart into two rectangles that contain the interval between the KOM and the finish of each lap. You can see from the relative maxima that I tried much harder on the second lap than on the first:
Data from the Road Race
However, you can see that the peaks don’t last very long in terms of duration. I really had to just maintain 600-800 watts in really short bursts – and this is one reason why interval training is so important.
2. When you’re hurting, others are too. Before the finish, I had no idea that the others were hurting. They gave no indication of pain during the KOM and it looked so easy to them that it was intimidating. It wasn’t until the finish when those riders were dropping like crazy that I realized they were even more tired than I was. I think this stresses the importance that you need to keep going, even when you think you’re at the limit.
3. If you don’t stay in the front, you can’t contest the sprint. What I mean is that you have to be in a top 10 position before the 1 km mark. When I was a Cat 5, I was able to sprint from the back of a 50-man pack and finish 3rd at Chappell Hill. I did the same thing at Fort Hood when I sprinted from the back and wound up 7th. You can’t do this in Cat 4 anymore. Everyone there has decent sprinting ability and the jockeying for position on the run-in to the finish is a lot more aggressive. People aren’t as willing to give up their position because they know how important it is, so you have to fight for it.
Teammate Data
My teammates sent me some data today and it’s very interesting. Here’s Brian’s profile from the TT:
Brian's TT Data
You can see that his heart rate was higher all around – this might be due to him being able to maintain a higher heart rate for a longer period of time or biological differences. Anyhow, he took it relatively conservatively at the beginning and on the downhill sections and that allowed him to put in the effort he needed on the final climb. You can see the rest of his data here.
Here’s his data from the Road Race:
Brian's RR Data
From here you can see how much harder the Cat 3 race was compared to Cat 4. He averaged 23.1 mph as opposed to 22.7 for me, and his HR stayed in the higher bands for longer periods of time. You can see the rest of his data here.
Here’s Said’s Road Race data. He’s one of my teammates in Cat 4:
Said's RR Data
Now this is interesting because Said and I raced together. I should probably find a way to get the axes to line up but it looks like we have similar data in terms of averages. My heart rate looks a lot more erratic because I kept falling off the back.
I had a lot of fun this weekend! I think the trip was totally worth it. I’ve got Walburg tentatively lined up for next weekend, so we’ll see how that goes.
PS: – I failed at my reading goals from last week. I made it most of the way with the Actuarial material but none of the way with Algebra. More on that later.