MY CYCLING HERO IN DOWN! Jens Voigt crashed so hard at 70kph. Get well soon so I have a reason to watch professional cycling once more.
I'm beginning this month with a great deal of racing in the legs. I feel like I hoped this time in the schedule(completed 19 races and training races to date). I'm using the lull in the calendar this month to rebuild and recharge in an effort to race into mid Aug. I plan to pull the plug no matter what at that point. Doing different training has been welcome, but an occasional afternoon nap is the biggest treat(I think I've had 4).
I missed my intensity days this week and concentrated on a bunch of E miles instead. Today was a good test for the legs, opening them without much structure. I wanted a ride about two hours and that challenged mostly my tempo, but also the Vo2 and PC systems. It was my first solo hammer ride and I was a bit unsure what I was getting into. I dealt with a wind from the west, which only hit me on the small axis of my route. I varied the cadences from 75-85rpms and felt quite taxed above or below that within in minutes.
I attacked the hills and managed to accelerate over and off the tops. Dirt yard hill(coming back from Rozelle) proved to be a real challenge, as I ran out of steam about 30 meters from the top, but still got into my rhythm quickly. Great ride and the 1st ride where my body really hurt afterward. 46 miles in 2:06:25
I enjoyed a nice E ride with Steve, Ben, and Scott. Scott is a funny guy! Punchy New England...Gotta love it. The ride was about 2 easy hours tooling through the old Airport Loop. I was the last one up every hill, every time. No worries. We did run into Joe out there. Hope he and Twister had fun in Roanoke racing today.
ReplyDeleteI'm taking the 4th off completely. Well, I am hurting my body with food and drink. It was yummy and guilt-free! Ken-Dead Guy Ale- was not behaved either.
Every so often the team is actually able to get together and put on a great ride.There is a reason why we control the variables with it being a team ride. Yesterday was one such day. We broke into two groups of five(quite scientific-"You guys up the road are one group"). Each team was quite diverse in strengths and perspective, but there was ample opportunity to be a leader and follower.
ReplyDeleteThe ride gave us chances to see different breaks and to judge whether it was a good match-up. Often we were forced to do work that had to be done, like pulling a rider or group of riders up to the break, knowing you we going to be jumped. No one had the ability to just ride everyone into the ground.
The biggest surprises came from seeing how equally able every rider was. We rarely had to wait for dropped riders, in fact, there were not dropped riders, which kept the flow where we wanted. Here are some of the highlights I recall. Seeing Ken out-numbered in several breaks and still getting the best of it. Ed sprinting for victory when others were popping, Dre attacking the largest hill with confidence you cannnot teach, Jinks drifted off the front to go it alone, or Steve attacking at the very best time. There was more, but the point is, we know what the heck we are doing out there and rides like that solidify our year-long plan of growth, fitness, and mutual understanding. Jack and Joe are seeing this from the inside out and have the abilities and desire to grow with us.
In the dead of winter, when we do a sprint, I remember how much it hurts and how E rides freeze us to the bone. But in a ride like today, we fully realize the hard work that went into our training/racing. Nobody was a weak-link. I really enjoyed the day.
FRAKING RIGHT, SO SAY WE ALL. My favorite was watching your head spin around waiting for someone to attack. You looked like Linda Blair in Exorcist.
ReplyDeleteGreat summary on a great day of training!!!
ReplyDeleteso say JEFF the Iron Man
Tweet? Twitter me @bikebill33
ReplyDeleteTried to TT practice today, but the viral meds I'm on are killing me. I'll try again in a few more days.
ReplyDeleteI think Astana did everything today NOT to get the yellow jersey. If that's a fact, they played it really close. Now Saxo has to hold control of the race. Johan is a clever director.
Your nuts, and I'm not talking about your viral problem. No yellow jersey by hundreds of a second is not possible to manage.
ReplyDeleteI think Lance wanted yellow one last time, knowing that he may lose it to Alberto when things go uphill. Then again, he may just want to win on Ventoux, "the one that got (or was given) away"
ReplyDeleteI was in Richmond with the family to visit the in-laws and got to look at the course for the TNP TT. Nothing flat and the 2nd and 4th sections are the worst with varied terrain. Spinning into it and powering out for some hills without a decent right after. Powering over(even standing) on the ones that have a quick decent after, using gravity to get a break. I did one lap at low tempo in 42 min. and 2nd lap full on in 37(no aero equipment at all-still sick).
ReplyDeleteI went today for another battery of tests. Blood, urine, hemmocult. I hope they figure out more about my crazy virus.
Sunday looks like rain. I'm trying to race, but if I can't get the legs rolling by the end of 10 miles, I'm going to fight another day.
Who would have thought...? Not only did I finish around top 20, but felt great!
ReplyDeleteAll of the mid-atlantic top teams were there: Batley, Richmond Pro, Type1, Clean Currents etc. The day was windy and the course rolling. I never felt like there was a place where I could not move into. There was a huge push to get a break to go and stick. So many failed attempts kept the pressure on in the field. At one point I saw Greg aka YoungGun, moving out of the front of the field and I was all smiles. Jinks was pack-surfing as he does so well and then went to the front to help pull back a 3-man. All that gave me hope and confidence. Then the real action happened for me. Dave Fuentes, who the night before lapped the PRO field in an NRC race in PA, jumped out of the middle of the field and went on one of his famous attacks. I was in the back and saw it going so I jumped after, without passengers, and in two minutes, bridged up to HIM. We then traded a few pulls and caught a 3-man where he had a teammate. He immediately attacked out and I was glued to his wheel and we were way off the front. Rich Pro countered us a bit later and the famished pack swallowed us whole.
This was the kind of activity we did in the race. My best move came and ended in a little over a lap. The winning break was away at 40 seconds and I came up to Greg(4th wheel) and said I was just going up to try to help pull back the break. I was pulling hard and finally looked over my shoulder for help and I had ridden(not attacked at all) off the front, so I gave it the cold steel and tried to get to the break. I tried to settle into a rhythym, but that was difficult not the stay near VO2. Meanwhile, guys were trying to get across to me from the field and Greg was right on their every move. They would flick him through and he would just smile and they would give up. I was getting time hacks from the guys on the PA who said I had halfed the distance to 20 secs when the pack consumed me again. More time off the front, and again. Greg and I were pretty far back for the sprint, but I could care less about the sprint. The sprint began and some pulled the plug in the middle, some dodged, and we picked our way up. Yes, Greg even used his 11 or 12-It was that fast. Don't really care how we finished, but all three of us finished well. Read me at Twitter to find out about my dehydration. Now I'm racing Tues. at Bryan Park and the TNP TT on Sat!
@bikebill33
Boss you looked good today. Sorry I didn't have the team kit. Can I pay the penance with Red Stripes?
ReplyDeleteRace report? Bueller, Bueller, anyone, anyone?
ReplyDeleteI've not been this absolutly exhusted in my life. 6 hour field trips to battlefields with 11 kids. Me- bus driver(stress about that responsibility) tour guide(bee stings, ticks, poison ivy) and so much more.
ReplyDeleteRace report- we(YoungGun, Jinks)started as three of 12 cat 1,2s to chase 38 cat3s, who had a 30 second head start. Only five riders pulled that group, and 3 were BWR cat 3s. What a bunch a people who shirk real work and training. How did they get to wear that "pro" hat anyway? I was yelling unkind crap-talk the entire night, mostly out of frustration. All of the weak 3s were allowed to stay in the group because of a lack of inactivity or interest to do work. The dog-pile sprinted home and the three of us left with skin on.
Jink and Greg got off the front wonderfully. I got off and nobody would work and they sure as heck did not want a break to go. I jumped out(Greg blocking) with a Team Type1 only to see him throw his bike for a $2 prime. What a joke, so I went it alone for 3/4 of a lap before the vacuum sucked me in. BORING! I came home with energy to spare, which makes me wonder why I spent the gas money in the 1st place. Looking forward to Sat.s interesting TT.
Here it goes...I'll try hard to elucidate my frustrations with Tues. race and with cycling in general. Someone somewhere at sometime decided to write a little catchy advice to cyclists and entitled their idea "tactics 101". It was then interpreted, regurgitated, and applied over a decade. Here's what you get...selfish riders and a dangerous finale. "Please go on!?"
ReplyDeleteThe tacticians(who NEVER got into a break in their life) said simply, "riders need to conserve until the pivotal moments in the race." "Conserve, conserve conserve..." In our minds, THAT moment is in the sprint only. So now we have a boring, uneventful race, where everyone is "conserving" and a sprint where every single rider is well rested and thinks he can win it all. Result is a boring and dangerous situation that does not have to be.
To me, there is a degree of decision-making that is tactical, but also needs WAR to sort out who will win. Yes, that includes a smart rider too. Chuck Hutch is smart, skilled, and strong. He should be winning races. When I saw a cat1 shirking his pull to "conserve", I don't call that race smarts, but rather a shirker. As long as our team is one who takes the work on the chin, who cares about all the others.
Safety, spirit, and grit.
I agree, and I would add that the types of races we encounter (terrain, length, etc.) simply compounds the issue. Maybe things would be different if there were a few 200k classics around.
ReplyDeleteBill, You know I agree! I had a gap from 2002 to 2009 of not racing. In 2002, I was beating a lot of the guys that are winning 1,2,3 races. In 2002, if we got in a break and there were five riders from three teams, we never shirked (unless gassed). We had teammates blocking, and we worked our asses off. Lapping the feild happened more often than not because guys worked togather regardless of shop affiliation. Nowadays it seems like WE roadies have gotten so snobish that we are snobs in our own clique. Regarding Whiley's comment; 200 k classics, ugh. let's give it a go. Last comment (this post), it seems as though local VA racers Cat 1-4, think they are vieing for a "Call up to the bigs." Last I checked, Astana's scouts aren't hitting the Bryant Park training crit for the next up and comer.
ReplyDeleteToday was a day that I hoped to do well. I'm not really great with slow-twitch, so I hoped to use a good combo, of Steve's pacing strategy and power on a rolling course. I felt like I was never into a great rhythym, but that's the course. I caught 8 riders throughout and was not passed. I reckon I was going well. First place and fifth overall. Now I have to head out to the flatlands for the next two TTs. Guess I woun't pull the plug on the season quite yet.
ReplyDeleteGreat job Bill and your send off upon the return home was well played and long over due. "So you had a bad day"
ReplyDeleteSome days on the bike are totally worth mentioning. I missed the scheduled ride Sunday due to spiritual obligations, but was still going out in the afternoon. Steve sent me a text and we went out for a nice ride in the back roads of Stafford to Belle Plains. The weather was beautiful, route relatively traffic free(rare luxury), and the conversation(as always) upbeat and interesting.
ReplyDeleteMy legs felt pretty stiff from the race Sat., but opened up quickly. Next thing we knew we were just sailing along in high/low tempo. Neither of us had a computer with any feedback-just old-school feel. That really opened up the limitations and we just rode. Except for the bee sting down my jersey, it was one of the best rides I've been on in years. Oh, and we did 34 miles in 1:40.
OH JENS... Why did it happen to you?
ReplyDeleteHTFU! Says Jens
ReplyDeleteIts nice to be important but its even more important to be nice . . . . thats what my grandma always said . . . . anyways good luck witht the TT boss . . .
ReplyDelete"Critin' to Better TTs" That's going to be my new book title. It will discuss how the major fitness gains from being in a crit can help strengthen the TT and how the TTs can do the same for the crits. I've slowly seen my LT drop over the last 6 weeks and that's what has to happen as I spend most of my training and racing with higher levels VO2 workouts. They say you can't have both, but for the last 4 weeks, I have done both. I'm sure that overlap of slow and fast twitch is begining to separate. For the third TT in a row, I have logged personal bests in those events. I have some ideas why. I was racing home to the finish at 32+ mph. I would have done better there if I had a 54 tooth cog(as it was, I could not hold a 100+rpm cadence in the 11cog.)The wind was really swirling to the front and that wore me down. Two different times, I had to spin up the legs to get out of the rut.
ReplyDeleteI had a great day with my teammates, shared bodily functions, saw Jeff's healing body, and sweated a gallon. I experimented with the "ice-sock" down my spine and all 4 of us had times within a minute and a half of each other. Good times.
WELL! What a difference two days makes. On Sunday I posted my best time on the PLT ever(2nd place). I was asking myself "what gives?" My health has been a major issue over the last 4 weeks and I know I'm not at 100%(98 perhaps). Today I go in for a lymph node biopsy(groin/arm). What happened last night at the Crits was almost expected. I was awful! My body choose my 25th race of the year to decide to sleep this one off. Bottom line was that everyone else had one more gear than I did.
ReplyDeleteThe group was by far the most competitive I've seen outside this years Working Man's Classic(5 Rich. Pro, Jeff Brandon, Mason, Dan, 2 guys I've never seen who spoke an Eastern Block language(tidewater perhaps), etc). The race began pretty quick and I knew(as I was near the front) the legs were not awaking before the first turn. I struggled in the single file, of the likes I've never seen before. Most of the laps were single file until the "coast" to the long uphill turn. Based on the riders around me, I could see that I wasn't doing so well. And it was so incredibly HOT. I fought hard for two or three wheels and would not have the strength to keep the position. See, at the velocity dictated, it was not speed that held you on, but strength(will, legs, arms, and lungs). The only will I had was the first four letters of my name. At one pause in the action, I got a wheel up to the front with 4 to go and I tried so hard to hold it but I would loose four wheels a lap and trickled in in the middle of the 50+ rider field. I really wanted to drop out about once a lap, but finished. I am tired and I think that's fine. No bitterness. 2 more races and I'll rest well before the cross season.
So what happened at the front of the race? From where I was, 200 meters from the front, I could not see a thing! I could only tell you whether the guy directly in front of me cleaned his cluster or not. I heard a break got away early. Oh well.
My easy spin ride ended up being a great one as I won a drink from Steve. Yes, it poured and I was loving it-minus the tornado warning. Warm water spray and a front wheel that drank it up like Willie Nelson on the 4th. Ahh good times.
ReplyDeleteI went to the shop to test ride a Scott CR1. I(as was Dre and Tom) was shocked that it was set up similar to my Seven. A few tweaks and I was off around town for a 30 min ride.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I noticed was the awesome reach for my hand with the new Shimano shifters. The frame gobbled up the road chatter way better than the 7. It sprinted straight and smooth. On the Amelia St hill I was amazed at how engaged the pedal stroke was and how much "give" my 7 has. It felt as though the entire motion around was forward propulsion. I had to take it back right then and there before I send a letter to Santa. Two thumbs up!!!
Bill!!!!
ReplyDeleteHelp me please.
Power tap and no program to follow. What will I do. Also, wanted to catch up a little.
Good luck this weekend.