Twilight Criterium aka SECOND PLACE!

Cole Hilton and I headed down for the one and only Eugene Twilight Criterium yesterday evening. My bike survived its trip on the top of the car and all was well. We registered. We warmed up. The race began.

Cole attacked from the gun. I countered it hard on lap 2 and got chased down. I attacked again and stayed away for a few laps. Cole countered it when I came back. Then I was tired and I sat in. I attacked again a while later and got chased down quickly. A few clever counter-attacks along with the Cole/Ivar moves strung it out pretty good, and before long there was a split in the group. I was in the second group, pretty sure that it was all going to come back together.

Cole rolled up next to me, “Is that the winning split?”
I shook my head, “No.”
A few minutes went by, and I started to think otherwise.

I punched it and closed half the gap with David Heritage, but my legs started to putter and I got a little stuck between groups. Cole came up and helped us the rest of the way. Five laps to go. I felt like I was going to throw up. Cole tells me everyone was cross-eyed and mouths-open at this point, and with 3 to go, he told me to attack. No. Not happening. At this point, I feel like I am going to die. Two laps to go. I should attack, but… but… One lap to go. Well, I can’t attack with one lap to go… everybody’ll chase me! So I attack with 750m to go, setting up the leadout for Cole. Hutch’s Junior guy goes around me, so I sit on his wheel through corner and throw down the rest of my guts right as our bikes come back upright. I can see the finish line. It’s right there. I’m so close. So close. It hurts so much. Cole comes around me, awesome! Another guy starts to come around, no no no no no… I don’t want to pedal anymore (even though I should take another half-pedal stroke) so I throw my bike. I look through to see the guy get 2nd… crap.

Cole is an awesome sprinter. I’ve never beat him to a Stop Ahead on flat ground. He got his Cat 3 upgrade at this crit couse because he can freakin’ push it, but he gets shot out the back when the road turns up. After a not-so-hot road season, he downgraded. After my badass 750m leadout that put him 3rd wheel with 200m to go… he really couldn’t not win. (Go easy on him, Kenji)

Seth May let me see the video. I got 2nd. By the bike throw. By less than half a wheel. Miriam took a picture. I’ll put it up when she sends it to me. SO AWESOME!

We came, we rode, and we got the one-two. Well executed. Good bike racing.

Here’s the file. 41min at 25.1mph, 264W avg, 312W norm, nine +1000W bursts (peak 1191), four or five solid attacks, and the best result of my career so far. Second, baby!

Lobster Valley

Friday
6×4″ intervals. Ouch. Climbed Michele- double Ouch.
Sprint with Cole at the end: max 1-sec power 1299w. Won.

Saturday
Fairly easy ride with the OSU crew. Pam snotted on me- groooooss. I got an even better 1-sec power:

Sunday
I’d asked Cole and Jim if they wanted to do Alsea Falls at 9am a few days ago. I changed my mind to 10am (Tour) and sent out an email to the team listserv early Saturday… but they weren’t there at 10, so maybe they couldn’t make it, or maybe they showed up at 9.

I started to switch mentally from group mode to solo mode, but (fortunately) I caught Pete and Gretchen and went to do Lobster Valley with them. It was really, really awesome. The most gruesome part was climbing back up to the Mary’s Peak Rd. turnoff on Hwy34 from Alsea- 11 minutes of straight, 8mph climbing. After 5.5hrs riding and 7hrs in my chamois, I rolled down my driveway with 97 mi on the computer… almost-century.

Alsea Falls

I could barely tear myself from the TdF stage this morning, and consequently I was late for the group ride. Eva was late too. Cole, Brian, Eva, Gordon and I rolled off towards Alsea Falls.

I put together a little video. Warning, the video is very shaky. EDIT: Uh oh, I just realized the music has the F-bomb in it.

Here’s the PowerTap file. Gordon dropped me towards the top of the climb to the Mary’s Peak turnoff after I attacked our little group. I snuck off the front with Eva on the Alsea climb. Eva slipped back. Cole bridged up near the end and I “put the hammer down” and he fell off. We decided to drill it up Hwy 99, but I was tired and Eva was too. We slowed down. Eva made me some Stumptown (delicious) and a tuna sandwich (also delicious) while we watched the end of today’s stage (epic), then some BMX (insane). I rolled home, finishing 74 miles and 4.5 miles in the saddle.

Speaking of saddles, I got some dznuts, and it’s pretty freaking awesome. I put a little on the outside of my feet too- thanks to Fischer for that tip.

Photos

Chipotle burritos!? I bet they’ll make me as fast as Vandevelde!

The 20-min power test today. When I uploaded the file, it said it was 299W, or 4.10 W/kg

Some WKO+ grapfix:

Today’s 20-min power test.

Power Profile

SRAM Rival

What’s one of the tell-tale marks of a n00b cyclist? Changing equipment right before a race, preferably the night before, and definitely without time to test it. Extra points if it’s an important race.

I’m not quite that bad, but I just couldn’t resist- my SRAM Rival kit came in last Wednesday afternoon, so I put it on and rolled around Wednesday night, getting it dialed in. We left Thursday morning for Bend, where I spent some more time tweaking it. I raced on it Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

It worked brilliantly! Fast, easy, smooth, clean, intuitive. The hoods were super comfy. The shifting from the drops was sweet. The shifters make nice clicks both in terms of sound and feel. It’s just freakin’ awesome.

My PowerTap, though… it just hasn’t been putting out enough power .

Swanky Powermeters

Quarq’s power meters have started shipping. The CinQo measures power by replacing the spider in one’s cranks. They’re light at 138g and relatively cheap at $1200. Besides the CinQo, you have to have a computer, but that’s where it gets fun- you can choose between the Garmin 705, the new iBike, or the fancy and open-source Cranium from Quarq. Choosing the iBike Aero has some insanely cool consequences.

So I suppose it’ll be $1700 for a CinQo and a Garmin 705. If I sell my Powertap Pro and Polar CS400 I should be most of the way there, right? Maybe that’ll be next year’s treat.

And Training Resumes.

I had a nice, easy ride on Tuesday. My legs felt a lot better than they did in Bend, which is good, I guess. I went out with the Corvallis Cyclery ride this evening and ended up hammering a bit. I got some good numbers, along with the first freak-out session of my PowerTap (lil’ PowerTap recovered quickly, though). I got a NP20 of 335w (4.59 w/kg) and a NP60 of 293w (4.08 w/kg). There weren’t hard efforts that long in the ride though, so I’m hoping my max NP20 and NP60 are higher than that.

I’m focusing on the Eugene Celebration with a solid 4-week Build period starting next week. After that, I’ll have a Peak week, then it’s time to race. I plan on doing the Mary’s Peak HC for my testing at the end of the rest week, and maybe the High Desert Omnium for some tune up. I’m also going to spend a lot more time on my TT bike doing TT-type stuff. I’d like a TT bike…

There’s a lot of road work going on around Corvallis. All of Pettibone Rd, for example, is loose packed small gravel. It’s ridable, but a little sketchy.

A little more Cascade power analysis

I made up a few Mean Maximal Power curves. The first set of waves from June 1 to July 10. I had a couple really solid rides in there. The second set is from July 11 to 13, during Cascade. There’s a pair of Average Power lines and a pair of Normalized Power lines.

Galen brought up a good point- what if those aren’t maximal efforts? What does this mean? I’m sure the Cascade MMP Curves aren’t maximal all the time, but considering that I got dropped in both road stages, I’d expect my effort to be near-maximal. The efforts that show up on the MMP Curve are likely hanging in the pack, getting dropped from the pack, or riding solo. All of those situations would tend to have high power outputs, I’d guess.

This figure shows the difference in Normalized Power on the MMP Curves. If both MMP Curves are truly maximal (which they probably aren’t), this shows the ‘power loss’ while at Cascade, whatever that means. 60 watts is about 20% of my FTP (300w)… which is huge. Again, I’m not sure what this really means.

One more: the same thing, but for short durations. Time axes in seconds.

Cascade: Day Three

I had a nice ice bath last night before bed. I slept well. After making some bottles up, Jim, Heather and I headed out for the circuit race. My legs felt okay, and better than I expected after getting destroyed up to Mt. Bachelor yesterday. I rolled around for half an hour before the start with a couple little efforts, trying to get my legs to go. They didn’t really want to.

I avoided almost crashing during the rollout today, hooray. It felt like the pace was high from the honk-honk of the Lead car, but maybe my legs were being whiney. I held on fine, then we went down a pretty sweet little descent. The course was cool, but the accordion effect and short rollers put me in some difficulty. I fell off the group a few minutes after the feed zone, around mile 11. Bummer. The rest of my race wasn’t that exciting, except for that continued feeling of not being able to get my legs to turn over very well, regardless of cadence.

Right before the beginning of lap 4, Rick the Official rolled up beside me and told me to go straight through the round-about to the finish, rather than turn right for my last lap. I complied. I finished. I got a pro-rated time of 42 minute behind the leaders. Ouch.

My time put me at 31st of 33 today. Overall I was also 31 of 33, a cool 68 minutes back.

No crashing, adequate hydration and nutrition, and an awesome experience made Cascade totally worthwhile though. Some combination of elevation, heat, South Carolina, fast guys and not being quite strong enough left me off the back for the important parts of the race, but I’m not worried about it. The whole thing was fun. I hope I’ll have some legs to be competitive next year.

So what’s left for the year? I’m looking at Eugene Celebration. Maybe some more Eugene Twilight Crits. Probably the Mary’s Hillclimb. Hopefully some cross. (Anybody got a lead on a cheap-but-good 58cm cross frame?)

Heidi Swift, Chris Horner, and Ivan Stevic are awesome.

Cascade: Day Two

Today was the Cascade Lakes Road Race. It was fun. I almost crashed during the rollout… awesome. The 71 mile stage started with a 2 mi climb- I averaged 310w up it, but the last two minutes were around 360w. Then the fast began. We did 27mph for 4 minutes, then 13 minutes at 37+ mph. There was a little drama (surges, bumping) but no crashes. It was nerve-racking for me.

The feed zones were good. Thanks again, Heather.

I got dropped hardcore with 11 miles to go. I lost 22 minutes, averaging 158w and 164bpm for almost an hour. I could not go, and it was capital-B Bad. I got 35th out of 42. South Carolina + hot + altitude + Cat 3’s = hard. Or Ivar = slow. Or some combination.

dot dot dot

I like Heidi and Sam a lot. And Chris Horner.

…

Power crap:

Spikey

1-min average