blog

Tour of Walla Walla 2012 – cat3

First of all, I’d like to thank the team for your full support this weekend. Every one of you (including a spouse!) helped me toward hitting my goal of winning this stage race. All it took from there was me getting my act together and drilling it when it mattered. In my mind, all the training, all the teamwork, all the tactics…it paid off this weekend. Please let me know if I can wash your bike, your dog, your car, or that spot on your back you can’t seem to get..

Stage 1 – a RR with some time bonuses

Plan was to figure out who was a ringer, see how I stacked up on the finish climb. The end of lap 1 had a KOM time bonus and so did the top 3 for the race. I was going to be protected to try and snag these bonuses.

The reality was…there are some STRONG dudes out on the East side. nothing like what we’ve got out here regularly. I tried for the KOM point but failed when a guy sat up in front of me at the line. This pissed me off since I didn’t meet goal #1. Angry, I raged on the front for a while….about half a lap…WAY TOO MUCH, while diesel was yelling at me from the back. They were all trapped and desperately wanted to bitch slap me back into the peloton. I made a huge mistake by pulling the field around, as it took energy out of me in that finish. Connell and Diesel shepherded me around quietly for a while after calling me off. Cemanski was instrumental on that final lap, elbowing his way up the gutter through town to get me to the very front at the base of the climb. He even went beyond his limit and stayed on the front during the start of the climb, dropping me off with a group of hill ninjas. We attacked and counter attacked until the last 800 when that Kaler kid launched a *monstrous* attack off the front. Everyone just melted when they saw that. We launched, but not nearly hard enough to get him. He took that stage and I finished toward the back of that lead group with a weak sauce sprint. I worked too damn hard! arghhhhh 11th in the GC.

Stage 2 – a 30 minute crit in the morning

The plan here was to protect my position, keep me safe, steal some time in the primes, and get me at least a pack finish.

30 minutes is not a long time. In the time you could watch an episode of Robot Chicken, Travis racked up 10 seconds in primetime and I got two seconds. That’s bitchin! because we stole that from the other guys trying to beat me. All the guys kept me safe and we had good communication. This was a scary and fast crit, but we pulled it off. My rear brake was rubbing a bit, so that took some energy from me. I got kinda swamped in the last 2 laps and took 41st overall. Not ideal, but that 2 seconds I won broke me even with the pack time. Now I was 8th in the GC.

Stage 3 – The TT of my life

Knives out. I was going to wreck Tim Smith becase he is fast (that was my plan). The team plan was for me to give the TT absolutely everything I had and I feel as though I did. Todd’s advice on breaking up the TT into 4 sections helped, so did the pre-ride of the course the previous day. I took on the first flat into the wind with death metal ringing in my ears. Then on the hill, I stayed in the aero bars and in the big ring, passing three guys with good speed. For the descent, I just tried to keep the cadence up and the wattage above threshold. A bug flew into my gaping mouth at 40mph and I just screamed in joy. For a bug in the mouth was the most wonderful thing that had happened to me since the start of the TT. It was that miserable for me. Around the corner, I plugged past another guy…kept the cadence up through that last little kicker, took the corner in the drops, and almost got another guy at the line. This was a new record for me. 375w average, good enough for 2nd in cat3 by 4 seconds. (Tim, you jerk!) This would have landed me about 19th in cat1/2. perfect. Now I was 3rd in the GC by 8 seconds!

Stage 4 – 64 miles of fiery hell and running out of water

Travis was up all night strategizing this one and I’m stoked he did this. We developed a tactic with some other guys high in the GC. As usual, tons of kids jumped out in front and put in digs, while we sat in and waited. Kaler, the GC leader found us before the race and asked if we’d play nice on lap 1 and race hard on lap 2. We agreed. Travis put in a killer dig on lap 2 to position me up a hill before the feed zone. Connell and Cemanski were pulling me around the field, keeping me safe, and grabbing water. We all almost got dropped on the first neutral feed zone, as the pack quickly grabbed water and attacked on the descent. We chased like mad to latch back on and did it. The guys were riding super strong and we were burning guys off to get me moved around until that final climb. At the start of lap 2, three guys including Cory went off the front about 40 seconds. We didn’t have enough firepower up front to reel it back and Cory was doing zero work up there. The pack kept the break in check, but never really gained any ground. I screwed up royally by not taking water from Cemanski, who obviously had enough. I ran out at the base of the final climb, which put me on the ropes at the top and I almost popped. almost!

The pack of 21 of us now started infighting, skipping pulls, taking the road 3-wide. It was a cluster#$*@ ‘chase’ and I was saving myself for the sprint. In the last 1k, guys started yelling at eachother to drill it and fought with elbows for position while I sat in the very back. McAllister gave me a gap to shift onto the centerline and I passed about 15 guys in the sprint after the 200m sign. I beat Tim and Kaler (both ahead of me in the GC) but being in that break 10 seconds ahead would have won it for me. I ended up 3rd place in the general classification, which was completely awesome!

I’m impressed by my teammates and their selfless dedication to helping the team succeed. The competition was humbling, to say the least. Speaking of humbling, I’ll be making the move to cat2 this week. Based on my personal goals, my shortened season this year, my fitness, and my support, I believe I’m ready to throw down with these guys and start reporting on what to expect.

Wow!

[results]

Apr 25, 2012 | Categories: news, Race Reports, road | Tags: racereport | 1 Comment »

Super Happy Fun Sequim

Today showed that we could chip away and eventually have someone in a break that sticks. It was a fun little experiment. Cat3 has been tough this season.

Travis, Chad, Connell, and I drove over to Sequim last night to stay in the hotel for a whopping $20 each. The downside? Spooning with a hairy sprinter. Whatever, it’s a team effort from start to finish right? We were snoozin before midnight and up at 7, with Travis nuking a lethal amount of steel cut oats in a huge ice bucket jammed inside a not-so-huge microwave. Four smelly dudes in a hotel room is a good reason to get out and drive 10 minutes to the start line, which we happily did.

The rain was coming down pretty hard, with no end in sight while rolling into Sequim. As we got closer to the race area, the weather got slowly better and eventually turned into broken overcast with no rain. Sweet! Roger was nowhere in sight at the start. He missed the boat, took the late ferry and rolled into the start about .487 seconds before the rollout. We were pumped to see him, rounding us out at 6 guys in the field.

The first two laps were pretty hot with no real fouls or bikes being tangled up, which was good. On the first and second laps I tried to get away but they reeled me and my friends right back in. Right after the bridge on the 3rd lap, everyone started sitting up and eating and drinking, then HSP started drilling it and strung out the field. I was hanging out a little too far back and used this as an opportunity to slip up the right side of the thin peloton of 60 or so. Travis and friends were glad to see me, but I couldn’t stay and chat. The guys drilling it were just now sitting up and nobody was passing so I just kept the ball rolling and punched it off the front, taking about 6 guys with me. A few minutes later, Travis shows up with two other dudes. Now we are about 9 deep in the break and the gap was widening. The paceline formed up and we began taking short pulls for the rest of that 3rd lap.

Our gap was about a minute at the end of the 4th lap and guys were starting to fade. Travis was still in it with me and we had a couple super strong guys, all from different teams. We had a minute and thirty seconds on the peloton during this lap, but people started getting complacent. Some started to skip pulls. One guy flat out raised his hands and declared he was cooked, fading away into the distance.

The 5th lap brought more slower pulls and some easing up on the hills. This got me nervous, so I hammered it on the hills for a minute or two at a time. This effort dropped another guy. Travis was still looking strong and we were beginning to talk about our finish strategy. He was the man and I was going at 500. We approach the finish line to start the final lap and a blue rooster rider who thought it was the end of the race drifts over the centerline. The car honks a bunch, then drives up alongside us and disqualifies him right out of our breakaway. lame!

The official in the follow car pulled alongside again and told us the gap was now 50 seconds. Whoops, that’s not good. 12 miles left, time to concentrate on the pain.

There were 6 of us left and we were all doing pretty good work, until we looked back and witnessed the pack bearing down on us. 30 second gap now. I started whipping the other guys, taking bigger pulls, drilling it on the little hills. We popped another guy on that last rise as I was blacking out in the front.

15 second gap now, coming into that final right turn. We looked back and the pack was chaotic, frantic. Later we learned there was a crash that broke things up a bit. The guys with Travis and I weren’t really drilling it yet with 1k to go. I sneak up the right and take the front, ratcheting up the pace for our finishing sprint. There were two apex guys in this break. That means I can drill it on the front and they don’t chase (solo win) or they can follow me and give Travis the leadout of the century. They chose the latter. I disconnected at about 350 and Travis took it home, winning the sprint by a good margin. The unlucky guy in front of me dropped his chain and unclipped his left foot in the last 50 meters, so I went around him for 4th.

Then we looked back and watched Cemanski rampage across the line to win the field sprint. Zing!

Mar 17, 2012 | Categories: news, Race Reports, road | Tags: racereport | 2 Comments »

Earning your Tegaderm

The cat3 sequim race went pear-shaped quite early on.

I won’t divulge our planned tactics for this race, but I will tell you that staying Friday night in Sequim was a BONUS well worth it. We got up at 7, ate a bit, and were at the start line in 10 minutes. It was way less stressful and kinda fun to wander around Sequim at 11pm. We got to eat pasta, stalk Connell and his date (long story), and get lost in the QFC.

The neutral rollout was kinda funny. 25mph. Yep. The lead car was about 400m in front of us, making the front guys just drill it out of sheer confusion. We had a pretty good idea of who was going to work today, but not when they’d go up the road. We’d take a reactive stance and chill, only chasing what we thought were credible breaks.

We had a 5-lap race. Around lap 3, two guys went up the road. One couldn’t hang and another single rider countered. He made it all the way to the single breakaway rider! Problem was, one of the guys up the road was from HSP and one was bikesale. And take a wild guess who was constantly boat-anchoring the front for the rest of the race.

So that was going well for those two teams.I was on the front going into turn 1 of the final lap and we were told a 15 second gap. Lovely. Cemanski had been drilling it on the front trying to coax people into working. I took a couple hard pulls and Scott did some time out in the wind too. We were working pretty hard, but the handoffs to other teams ended up in people just sitting up and/or not pulling through. When I was up front hammering it, it wasn’t totally clear whether I was supposed to go catch these hooligans or wait. The consensus was to not do too much work. Wait a second. Did an entire peloton of people who don’t want to work just tell me not to work?

OK that might sound bitter, but it’s not. It’s actually kinda funny. It’s good clean fun. Why default to ATTACK when you can default to sit and eat and crash?

And that’s when it all got weird. I was about 20 wheels back on the centerline with about 2 miles to go. A small roller and a right turn remained. When we hit the roller, the front slowed and the riders on the right shoulder surged very quickly, with a number of people following them. In about 4 seconds, someone in the middle of the pack right next to the right-side surging riders swerved across about three front wheels and proceeded to unleash carnage in their wake. I was already looking for a way out before it even happened so I eased into the oncoming (and luckily empty) traffic lane, missing a falling body on my right side by inches. I kept yelling at everyone “GO! Get out of the way! Don’t look at the crash!” so they’d just hold their lines and ride away with bodies and bikes intact. When I had a clear spot around me, I glanced back and saw Travis rag-dolling down the highway, pieces of his helmet flying into the air. Carbon, bodies hitting the ground, people running over each other. What a damn mess.

So that freaked me out. I made the selection here and jumped back in with the slowly accelerating lead group. My head wasn’t in it at this point. Not after watching my friends flesh-pretzling in their carbon bikes at 28.

I followed a guy (in blue I think?) around the final right turn on the inside, thinking he was going pretty good. He was…until he sat up, both hands off the bars, drifting from the center of the lane to the right. And guess where I was now. On the fog stripe. He almost took me out. At this point, I was going insane since half my team had wrecked and we had guys sitting up and wavering all over the road in what was supposed to be the hottest part of the race. I didn’t even contest the sprint, which looked chaotic, sketchy, and disorganized. Heck, everything looks sketch after witnessing supreme carnage!

Get well soon, our fallen Apexers Cemanski, Travis, Chad, and Wild Bill. Speaking of Bill, check out his helmet. wow.

good thing you were wearing that.

I sure do love racing with my team because we really throw in a solid effort in anything we do. It’s a solid way to race, but we need to be a little more deliberate..

nerd data

Mar 10, 2012 | Categories: Race Reports, road | Tags: racereport | Leave A Comment »

The Mason Lake Freight Train

We had a squad of about 7 today at mason lake, which allowed us a ton of flexibility in our planning. Our main plan was to begin to position up front going into the last lap and throw down out front, leadout style. We wanted to reserve energy for a pack finish, which we thought was probable.

Well that all played out…kinda.

The race started off with a weird neutral rollout, where people seemed to be jockeying for position. That wasn’t fun to deal with in a rollout. Here and there, some people were repeatedly sketchy, but I had the sense that the headwinds and all the small rollers contributed to the full-peloton accordions. The race was 5 laps, with the first 4 smelling like nothing other than melting brake pads and carbon. I spent the majority of my time near the back of the peloton, while the rest of the guys stayed near the front. They wanted to be ready for any hijinks going down and not get caught in the mess. This was a good plan, as we reeled in every single/double rider attack easily. Well, except for Will. But I’ll get to that later. Long story short, the teams represented in the peloton did very little work to get away or push the pace. We’d go 14mph up some of the dopey little rollers on the highway. I wanted to gouge my eyes out.

We pass the start/finish, beginning the final lap and we are still pretty strung out. Chad had a puncture early in the race, around the second lap so we were down one guy. Ed took control of the front once we turned onto the highway, with multiple pulls out in the very front. Then Will attacked…solo (go figure). I saw it and immediately had nightmares from last week’s carnage. I kept asking, yelling into the wind,”is anyone going to attack him OR WHAT?” I knew very well how strong he was and that if he hid around a corner just in front of us, the nonworking and mostly complacent peloton wouldn’t care. The anger welled up inside of me. Ed kept hammering it, with us yelling at him to quit gapping us! It was nuts. We were all amped to get this race done with. By the right turn going into the descent, Will had vanished just out of sight but only about 15 seconds ahead. It was something we could catch, but did the rest of Apex know about it?

Turns out, Travis and Cemanski did not know he was still out there. Scott and I did. I don’t think Connell did. So it was confusing to all of us since we really were not communicating that the lead car was most definitely not right in front of us. Anyone with a brain would have figured out that meant we were just a chase group to some guy up the road. Anyway..

Scott jumped out in front after the descent, with the pace picking up. He got a little gap and didn’t know it until looking back. Connell had a brilliant line up the left side which me and Cemanski slithered up in tow. Connell eased up and Cemanski and I drilled it, yelled at Scott to hop in, and started the most massive leadout I’ve ever seen. Travis was already up front when we got there, so he hopped in too. And there we have it. 10 minutes from the finish line and we have 5 guys on the front of the pack. Could we catch Will? Would we stay in control?

Without communicating a single bit, Cemanski and I proceeded to take vomit-inducing 300-500-watt pulls on the very front, rotating in a tight 2-man lead machine. Travis, Scott, and Connell were right on our wheels but I don’t remember the order they were in the whole time since I was blacking out. Cemanski and I were teetering around 30mph for the duration of these pulls, while Travis was absolutely yelling at us “HTFU!!” “Come on! Go! Go! Go!”. Every time I’d melt a bit, Travis would bark at me more, angering me and making me turn the screws just a little more. Nobody was passing us. It was all Apex in the front. It was mayhem. Travis was totally protected behind us, just laughing at how much work we were doing.

Cemanski took a monstrous final pull with about 2k to go and I dragged us into the 1k sign, dispatching Travis about halfway up a small final hill to the finish. He immediately took the helm, pushing past me like I was stopped, dragging all 50 or so riders with him. I saw him disappear with Connell and Scott (all still up front) around that dicey final left turn. They were hauling ass, but the pack was advancing. Cemanski and I faded backwards as everyone charged past us. I was so spent, I barely made it to the finish line.

I didn’t get to see the finish, but it looked like a 4th for Travis and a 5th for Scott! I’ll take it!

After the race, we all stopped and talked, half of us reminding the other half that one person was indeed up the road the whole time. Next race: communication skillz!

RESULTS

Here’s my power file from that last 10 minutes. It was bonkers.

Mar 04, 2012 | Categories: news, Race Reports | Tags: racereport | 2 Comments »

All your base are belong to us

Back on 12/30/11, I got my first metabolic test. This involved putting me on a bike, then pedaling at a steady cadence as they ratchet up the wattage. They do this until I cross my anaerobic threshold. The measurements are taken via heart rate monitor and a facemask that measures inhaled/exhaled oxygen and CO2. By measuring the gasses, we can infer how much fat and carbohydrate I’m metabolizing at any given wattage/heart rate/cadence/time. It’s a very interesting approach to measuring your limits. In my case, I wanted to measure my aerobic base and improve it.

In the December test, my fat utilization at low wattage was terrible, about 40%. This means my aerobic base was practically nonexistent. 60% of my energy at 100 watts was coming from carbohydrates! My threshold heart rate was 157 bpm and my threshold wattage was estimated to be around 320. While this was a good threshold, my body was eating itself up to that point. It was clear that I’d need to focus on base training in order to become a more well-rounded rider. I especially needed this for the longer racing we do in cat3. So I developed a plan.

The goal was to come back and re-test in 6-8 weeks after focusing on base training. I bought a nice trainer that keeps me honest and locks in the wattage range. All I have to do is pedal. One or two times a week, I’d do an hour or two on the trainer. Then on group rides, I’d really focus on that endurance wattage and heart rate. It was really boring sometimes, but the group trainer workouts helped me a bunch. Also, the slower pace on team rides helped me take it all in. I needed that.

The follow-up test

I went in for a test today (3/2/2012) and the results were crazy.

- 90% fat utilization in my lowest power/heart rate zone (up from 40% !)
- 168 bpm heart rate @ my anaerobic threshold
- 360-380 watts @ my anaerobic threshold
- Bonus: V02 max increased to 73.1 ml/kg/min (my weight also decreased 1 kg between test 1 and 2)

So what does this all mean? Well, I sure accomplished my goal…and then some. I jacked up my aerobic base and continued the hard Magnolia hill rides, which maintained my high-end strength. Based on this test and my race performances, my threshold wattage probably lies around 330-340. The 380 is just was was used to make me crack in this test. My physiology points to a pretty good vo2 max as well. Now I have new training zones, both in power and heart rate, which I will overlay on all my planned riding for March and April. My goal is to show up to Walla Walla and crush some souls!

In the end, these are just numbers. I still need to become a smarter and more controlled racer. There is so much to learn. I’m just pumped to get this base training nailed down so I can build and build into the Summer for some fast racing!

Mar 02, 2012 | Categories: Rider Blogs, training | 1 Comment »

riding like savages

I’m pretty sure the last time Apex went over 100 miles in a team-style ride, it was this last Summer during the annual epic ride. Today’s ride was indeed approaching epic proportions, not because of the distance, but the wicked climbing and wide-open road.

Travis and Banko didn’t have fenders, so for everyone behind them (everbody), it was constantly raining. It didn’t matter either. We were all fighting to keep our legs attached to our bodies.

This was a fun ride for me, mostly because I had absolutely no idea where to go. I hadn’t ridden any of these roads or climbs before. I spent most of my time climbing by braille, just going nuts until I ran into a descent, a dog, or a dirt road going down. I had the fancy bike today, so the climbs were fun for me. It’s ‘adventurous’.

Oh wait, nevermind! Before the ride, I promised the whole team that whoever beat me to the top of Cougar would have one fine beer – on me. Well due to my lack of expertise in that particular climb (I overshot the last right turn) SEVEN of you guys beat me to the top and were all waiting there clapping when I showed up. You win this time but it will be the last!! I will make sure to bring a ‘baker’s 6-pack’ along with me next time.

Our group got thinner and thinner as the miles ticked off on the GPS. The pace kicked up when Travis went out on a solo flyer by Ravensdale. I chased and caught him after about 15 minutes of absolutely hammering it. It looked like he was soft-pedaling, but he was in his 53×12 the whole time “working out his hamstrings”. Sheesh. I was working out my gag reflex, fighting off the vomit when he finally let up a bit and let me catch up. We turned the rest of the Ravensdale loop into a nightmare 2-person break and it felt GOOD! So good, we hung a right at kent kangley rd when we should have taken a left. Whoops! That was about a 10-mile mistake.

The ride back was really confusing and stop-n-go with all the lights and stopping to look at the maps. We really had no idea where we were, I’ll admit it. It might have been the fact that we were blacking out with fatigue. We rolled into Leschi on dry streets and lamented the fact that we were riding under a rain cloud for the whole day.

We’ve been gone for 7 hours now. We get back to Leschi and I dive into starbucks. Travis bolts to the grocery store nearby. I bought one of everything (and ate it all) and he comes back with half a roasted chicken and about 32oz of chocolate milk. He downs about half the milk and offers up some chicken for me. We tore into it with our dirty little claws while two girls sitting nearby stared slack-jawed in disgust. It was marvelous. I just wanted to stuff my face with chicken and stare into their eyes, while pointing at the apex logo on my jersey.

Feb 11, 2012 | Categories: news, Rider Blogs, training | Tags: racereport | Leave A Comment »

Apex takes 5 of the top 10 spots in ASK

Apex nailed down 5 of the top 10 spots in this Sunday’s Andy Salmon Kermesse!

Race reports forthcoming..

RESULTS are posted on USA Cycling.

Feb 06, 2012 | Categories: news, Race Reports | Tags: racereport | 1 Comment »

Picture Day!

Cemanski, Alving, and myself drove around taking pics of the team while they suffered. It was a long, hilly ride on a really, really nice day! Here’s the set on flickr.

Feb 04, 2012 | Categories: news | Leave A Comment »

So this weekend was nuts

Yeah. This weekend turned out to be pretty crazy for Apex. It’s so crazy, heck, I think I’ll write a bit about it.

The last week was sunny and in the 40′s here in Seattle. Everyone was romping around on their bikes getting in serious mileage. Meanwhile, I was missing work, sitting at home with a box of tissues in one hand and a keyboard in the other, coughing and blowing my nose for 4 days straight. Then I had the nerve to go out on the Magnolia ride and hack my lungs up as Chris and Pete beat on me. It was a good thing though. The cold’s gone now and I actually did manage to have a good week.

SATURDAY, though. Saturday, January 14th will be one which goes down in the annals of Apex history as one of the wildest ‘training’ days in team history.

Friday night, the rocket ride was cancelled promptly, probably when they looked at the forecast and it said 30 something…raining…snowing..something something. OK so that was out of the question. Not a problem. Our team was going out to do a bit of a learning session for the new guys. Meanwhile, the last cross race of the season (Chiller Cross) was scheduled to go down in Bellingham in the afternoon. Now what do we do? Kurt and I schemed to drive to the cross race, while everyone just went along with the routine and showed up at logboom at 9am.

We showed up in Bellingham a little late due to a couple fender-benders on I-5 where the snow started getting bad. Kurt decided to jump in the deep end and race the ‘A’ race in the afternoon with me. This ended up being a good choice. I placed 2nd and Kurt took 6th out of a field of nine guys. Both of us wiped out on the course, with Kurt taking his first and last wipeout of the season! I went over the bars trying to ride over a dead log and screamed like a little bitch on the way to the ground. The new skinsuits are AWESOME in a million ways, so that was a plus as well. It was a fun course and was totally worth the drive. We celebrated our day with burgers and beer and the obligatory sleepy car ride home.

Here’s the start of the ‘A’ race.

Meanwhile in Seattle, the guys had embarked on a frozen clusterfuck-waiting-to-happen team ride, which ultimately ended up in people being stranded and picked up by random other teammates. It was just too cold. Everyone had to just stop. I was told ‘actual training’ was happening, but it looked to me like they were just trying not to die of exposure.

There were about 49 emails about frozen fingers and people randomly driving around to sweep up wandering Apexers. Thankfully, everyone made it home safely. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how to deal with the upcoming week of snow and ice. How do we commute now? Mountain bikes?!? When I got home, the hose was frozen solid and cracked in my front yard. I was forced to drag my mud-infused cross bike into my house for the bike equivalent of a sponge bath.

Can you guess which gears didn’t shift that well?

aftermath:

But mud wasn’t the only substance preventing our drivetrains from moving. Erik sent this one over:

Yeah that doesn’t look very fun. @#$@!#% hardcore!

Jan 15, 2012 | Categories: news, Race Reports, training | Tags: racereport | Leave A Comment »

Making trainers fun again

Apex is hard at work in garages, rainy steets, and tae-bo studios around Seattle while we get ready for the 2012 race season. As we all know, hours on the trainer aren’t really fun, but you can do a lot to help that. Just throw on a chick flick, get some crappy boxed red wine, and throw your last desktop computer under the front wheel to pretend you’re hill climbing.