WestLake Crit: Learning to Sprint

Tonight I finally made it out to a Westlake Crit training race. I had always wanted to go but found stupid reasons not to go before. I have to admit, my confidence in racing was really low. I'm doing real road races and also moving up a class in Mountain Biking. I should be ramping up my fitness and I should be feeling good, I've done everything right, but my first two races ended in complete failure. I got dropped from the field on the first couple laps each time, leaving me with nothing to show for it. So there were a couple weeks where I couldn't bring myself to go race. It tore me apart to do this and I hated that I had got to this point. I had glimpses of greatness on some of my training rides, won a bunch sprint with the Summit Freewheelers and had some good moments but when it came to race day, I had nothing.

So today I decided to hell with it, I'm going. I packed up and on the way there my wheel flies off my roof rack and bounces down rush hour traffic on 77 north. Luckily it bounces into the median and not into traffic, wheel is ok and the wheel carriers will be used no more. I arrive at the race and just as I'm signing in, a familiar white car pulls in. Now I'm freaking out, I haven't seen this person since spring break and there's still bad feelings. I decide to not let this person ruin my race, I was going to ride my race.

My main goal is to finish this race. I just wanted to ride smart and be at the finish with the group. It's also a mixed field of the lowest three categories (I'm in the lowest) so I know there will be some fast people in it. We start off and I make my way to the front, safest place to be, and easiest to react to moves by other riders. My big problem has always been cornering, I have never felt confident in my cornering but today with new tires on, it was a huge difference. I didn't have to brake going into the corner and I was pushing hard in each corner and came nowhere near pushing the tires past their grip threshold. With that problem solved I was able to stay near the front the entire race, only going to the back once to rest after a sprint.

A couple laps in the primes started. For those who don't know, primes are races within the race. Every couple laps the bell is rung and a prize is displayed. Whoever crosses the line first on the next lap wins the prize. There were no breakaways in the race today so every prime was a sprint. The perfect chance for me to work on my sprinting. I decided to have some fun and go for every prime. In total I sprinted for 7 primes today. I won one, and finished in second in 3 or four. One I lost by only a wheel length at the line. Each one I was topped out at 30 mph, and my fastest was 34.6 mph which is a new personal best for me. Overall, I was very pleased with my showing. At one point the pace was slowing and I was feeling good, and I decided to try for a break, so off the front I went, it didn't last long, but it was worth a shot. Then a couple laps later, that unnamed person took a chance and went for a breakaway. If it stuck I wasn't going to let them get away with it, so I quickly jumped on their wheel and followed them till we got reeled back in.

After having to add another lap because a car slowed us down right before the start finish line, we came around for the final sprint. At this point I had burnt all my matches and there was no way I was going to be able to sprint for the win. I ended up midpack but I'm ok with that. I finished in the pack and that was my goal. I also did a lot of sprint practice and I think I really animated the race. I got a lot of comments on my race and the big one was that I was a sprinter. Who thought the skinny climber could hold his own in a sprint. I had an inkling but I'm glad I got to test my legs. The important part is I had a ton of fun. I'll be there next week.

Thanks for Bike Authority, Camba, Rudy Project, Kenda Tires, Crank Brothers, and Ritchey products for supporting me in my racing.

How to Win the Polka Dot Jersey

So I've been thinking about how I climb recently. Last year I mainly climbed standing up. It cam from riding a lot of short steep hills, and also poor fit. I was to far back so I wasn't over the pedals, blah blah blah, Doesn't matter the specifics but needless to say the proper fit has changed my riding style so that I can do things I couldn't before. Thanks to Mike at Performance in Green for that.

Well, this year I've been trying out new things and watching races on tv and youtube seeing how I can better myself. Trying to figure out how they got away. I've come to three different versions of winning a Polka Dot Jersey.

1) The Contador (aka uphill sprint)
The first one is best exemplified by Alberto Contador, and Armstrong (in his heyday). For those keeping track that is the first time I mentioned Armstrong in a blog post. What this consists of is waiting till the last moment and standing up and sprinting to the top of the climb, much like a final sprint. The goal is to get enough of a gap on the followers and then either keep lengthening that gap or just not letting it close. The benefit of this style is you can surprise the other riders and if they aren't watching it can be easy to close that gap. It's best to do this when you see your other competitors tiring and won't be able to respond. The downside of this tactic is you go past your anaerobic very quickly and if you can't get away it gives the other riders a chance to attack while you recover. This is probably my used tactic and does work if you can get going fast. Here's Alberto Contador attacking on Verbier. It's a textbook example.



2)The Spartacus (upping the cadence)
This one is a little more sly. All it involves is upping the cadence, thus upping your speed until you pull away from the other rider. The beauty of this one, unlike the uphill sprint, is that you don't show your cards before hand. Stay seated pick an easy lower gear than normal, wait for your moment and just spin up. I've done it where the other rider didn't even know I attacked, the next thing he know I was 50 feet up the hill and by then I was gone. The beauty of this one is that you stay aerobic so if it doesn't work you aren't in the red zone as bad. Fabian Cancellara used this tactic to win this years Tour of Flanders on the Kappelmur. Watch the video below about 1:14 in they hit the climb and watch the gap he gets in a short amount of time.



3) The Cadel (uphill grind)
Ok so this one isn't an attack, per se. All it is is just keeping the pace high enough so that your competitors drop off the back. It's that simple. No videos of this because there's really nothing much to watch on this one.

Hope you enjoyed reading this. Up next is a review of the Cannondale Cross bike I wont from OMBC, and the transformation of my ratty white Fixed gear into something I want to ride.

Sorry for the delay in postings but no one reads this anyway

Well I've been very lazy with updating my blog. It's been a crazy couple of months. A lot has kept me from the blog but likely in the last month it hasn't been personal reasons but an abundance of training. I've been riding a lot lately and for the first part of the month I was not progressing well, but finally my form has finally been coming back. I've done two races so far but neither went my way. I'm immersing myself in the roadie scene and it's been paying dividends in my form in general. It's just a different style of racing. I'm using road riding as a good training tool for the power series in the fall and then cross season and I hope all the miles I do know will pay off in the end. I knew I needed to peak later in the season so I've been taking a slow buildup this year and it seems to be working. Well that's all for now, I have more ideas to write about but I'm tired and I have a ride at Medina in the morning then an 8 hour work day and then after that I'm going to see Neesayer with my dad. So I need to go to bed.

My trip to the National Bike Summit in Washington DC

Last week I was lucky to attend the National Bike Summit (NBS) in Washington D.C. as a representative of CAMBA and IMBA. It was an amazing opportunity to be a part of the cycling movement on the national stage. First, I should explain what the National Bike Summit is. For three days people who believe in the importance of the bicycle converged on the nation’s capitol to lobby for more bicycle friendly laws and initiatives. Everyone from advocacy representatives (like me), bike store owners, and industry representatives from all across the country came together for one goal, to promote cycling.
The first day was just a precursor to what was to come ahead. The main highlight of the day was the first timers meeting. Being my first time at the summit I attended this meeting which was an introduction to what was to come. With a brief primer on how to talk to the representatives to best get your message across. The goal for the first two days was to prep us for the third day where we would meet with senators and congressmen from our own state. I must admit it was overwhelming on the first day, though I knew that my love of the sport of mountain biking would make it easy to get my message across.
The second day started with a large opening ceremony where, Google announced its new biking directions on its map tool. After the meeting we broke off into the first of three break-out sessions. I choose to follow the IMBA path and take the three seminars. The first was titled, Best Practices in Youth Cycling. It was an introduction to how to best get youth involved in cycling. It covered topics on Youth Races, how to introduce kids in the sport of mountain biking and how to foster the love of the sport. It was informative because to help grow this sport and keep this sport going we have to introduce youth into the sport.
The second course was Growing Mountain Bike Participation. This session was the most informative as it was aimed at an introduction about how IMBA and local clubs can work together to grow the sport. It was nice to hear about the options that IMBA provides the help local clubs to make it easier on the local clubs. After this session we broke for lunch where I was able to meet Gary Fisher and talk to him shortly, I got a chance to tell him my story of how I got into the sport, he was very gracious and it was nice to meet such a legend in our sport. The third session was Cycling Tracks to Pump Tracks. This discussed linking cycling paths (towpaths, bike lanes) and mountain biking trails so that a seamless system exists. It was interesting to hear of plans of cities across the country linking a biking community into one system.
The last day was the big day, a full day on Capitol Hill. I arrived briskly at 7 in the morning on the hill, grabbed a quick breakfast and stepped into my first meeting at 8:30 with Senator Sherrod Brown. Over the course of the day I met with six different members of congress, some out of our area as backups for their constitutes but most were from our district where I was able to push our agenda and make sure congress knew how important our cause is. Overall, it was a great experience and I learned a lot and I can’t wait to go back next year.

Kicking the Bucket...uhh list? Colorado Ride!

I got to finally check off one of my goals in my bicycling bucket list. I when I say bucket list, I have not idea what I'm actually talking about, because I never really wanted to watch two old men courting in a movie. One of the things that I have been dreaming about for the longest time is to get onto a climb of epic proportions. The valley has some good climbs, but they always seem to make up for being so short that they go straight up. I wanted to climb a grade that seemed to go on forever.

Well on a recent trip to Colorado I finally got to mark that off the list. I flew out there for Valentines Day to see Sara and before our valentines dinner we did what only a cycling couple could enjoy and decided to go for a bike ride. She had her bike there, with all her new presents from me, and I rented a Trek 1.2 from University Cycles in Boulder. Our route was a simple one, mainly two roads, the start of the ride was beautiful, 40 degrees and sunny, but with a heavy headwind. I pulled from the start and allowed Sara to save same energy. The climb started immediately but at first is was quite shallow. We climbed about three miles until we hit Sugerloaf road and that's where the fun began, it steepened up to stretches of 10% grade and a ton of switchbacks. After about half a mile it leveled out and Sara I climbed another 12 miles to above the tree line where it was cold and snowy. In all we climbed 3500+ feet over 15 miles. I gotta say I felt good and was pleasantly surprised. I wasn't sure how I would handle altitude and not riding outside on a bike for a month before this but I felt really good.

The descent on the other hand was not as fun. The bike I was riding had a horrible speed wobble where anytime when I got up to speed the bike shook beneath me. Add that to the fact that I was not properly dressed for the descent, which made me freeze enough to stop every two miles or so to warm up. Luckily, towards the bottom the road straightened out and I warmed up enough to really open up and get some good speeds going. With a straight road, slight downhill and a tailwind, Sara and I were cruising along at about 30 mph. We ended up back at University Cycles, turned in my bike and then grab a sub. Really happy with the ride and the weekend. I'm so lucky to have had this opportunity and Sara in my life.

Winter Training and Scheduling

Not much exciting has been going on. A lot of indoor training work outs. I have been working on my 2010 race schedule. I figured this year going in with a clear cut schedule of where I'm going to race and what races I want to peak for is going to help my training a lot. There's still wiggle room on some of the training races. I'm sure there will be races that will pop up that I didn't plan on racing but I will just be in the mood or I'll find out about it during the season. There will also be races that I can't make whether it be prior commitments or just overworked. It appears that march through July will be spent mainly on the road bike, then in August I will switch over my focus to mountain bike for the power series in september and then after that I will transition over to cyclocross.

The other news is I get a bike fitting this week, it was much needed because I was going by feel and now I'm properly tuned into the bike. I can already feel the difference in the amount of power I can put down. The bad news on this is I went to move the fit from my road bike to my mountain bike and it clearly was to small for me. The seatpost was an inch over the max seatpost point. So it looks like to race on a hardtail I'll be buying a new frame. Though I'll probably hold back on this until later in the season as the my full suspension bike fits into the new fit.

Well that's it for now I'm sure the updates will be coming soon.

Couple Products

Well Sara left for Colorado this morning, so while I bide my time waiting for my trip out to see her in a month I'm going to have a good amount of free time on my hands. It's truly an awesome opportunity for her and I'm so happy for her but on the same token I'm going to miss her. But if you want to hit up a ride with me let me know. It will help me keep my mind occupied.

I did want to bring up two products that I feel need mentioning. They both are great products that I have found no faults and have worked flawlessly. The first is RoadID's. I got myself and Sara one as a Christmas presents this year. It's a great present not only for them but for your piece of mind. Knowing that your loved one will get proper medical attention and you will be notified will save you a lot of grief when your loved one is out on the trail. And since Sara will be in a new state it makes me feel better that there's still a connection to home when she's out riding. You can tell a lot of though went into the design with a watch-like clasp, which a 5 dollar bill can be folded and slid into so if you ever have to buy extra water, food so you can make it home after a bonk or a bribe for a farmer so you can borrow their tools to get your bike working again. I picked the red band for both of us, as it would be most visible, but a nice neutral color like black and you could wear the id all the time, so your always protected. A product I think every cyclist should wear if not for their own safety but for the piece of mind of their loved ones.

The second product is DZ Nuts. This is a Chamois cream which is made by David Zabriske of Team Garmin Transitions. Mid summer during the heaviest of my training and riding I developed a saddle sore. No other products or anything I did stopped it. I switched over to DZ nuts and in a week it had subsided. It's European styled so it has the cooling effect of Vapor Rub, but after some getting used to you won't want to put anything else on your nether regions. Since I switched I haven't had another saddle sore. Another selling point is everything is made from natural materials.I highly recommend this product, as it's made by one of my favorite riders, but also because it works. With news stories coming out that there will be a womens version, embrocation and leg shaving cream I'll be looking forward to check out the new products. Remember David Z only wants the best and so do I. Make sure you check out the video section on the website