2009

Has been a dud.

At least as far as bike racing is concerned, and by association, this blog. Also the advent of twitters and facebooks and all kinds of other distractions really make it a bummer that I haven't written in this space for that long. It actually feels very foreign and strange to be typing up something this freely in this space. Weird, but enjoyable.

Usually after a lapse in writing I try to fill in the gap to make the racing stories more seamless. Well, the last race I did was.......[been a long while]......it was the CBR race in long beach. Might have been the first week of July, which would be my first July in Los Angeles since 2004. The story I've been telling people is this: I had good form going after a nice base and build period in the winter. February rolled around and I was flying. Finished 4th in that crit on February 8th. Then, two days later, that car smashed me up, off the bike for 6 weeks. Unlucky. Somehow though, I rode back into killer form and finished 17th ($450) at the Dana Point NRC. Swell. After that things got awry, at least in hindsight. I didn't know it at the time. The day before San Luis Rey was the Bario Logan Crit. I attacked and attacked, missed the break, tried and tried to bridge to the break, but failed. Money was 20 deep, and 8 were up the road. I was confident in getting 9th out of the group. Followed Chris Demarchi all through the final lap, and he gave me a picture-perfect leadout to easily get first out of the group. I finished 19th. In 200 meters, 10 people passed me. That's never happened to me in a sprint, in any category, in any race. No matter how spent I was. I chalked it up as an anomaly.

Next day was the San Luis Rey RR. Finished 13th I think. Felt swell. Wheel was broken, no sweat. After that it wasn't the same. Sprint legs were absent, even in group rides. Lost the will to ride. External factors contributed as well, but it felt like it was a physical thing. I skipped rose bowls, and morning group rides. Bleh. Raced though. Got my clock cleaned at long beach. Managed to get into one break with Ivan Dominguez and got dropped....out of the breakaway (never happened either)...and was pack fodder at the end. Ouch. Did another LB crit two weeks later, and same thing. Took a week off the bike. No motivation to return.

So that's the story. I really don't know what to pin it on. Too old? No motivation? Amazing girlfriend that I happily spend lots of time with? Did I try to regain form too quickly after the accident? There's really no way to know. For now, though, I'm enjoying the bike and have some semblance of form and might do that final CBR on the first week of September. I'll try to bring the A-game to that one. I did a 180k ride yesterday, felt like mush at the end, but I was happy to get out there. Also, I think I've lost weight since I've let off the training for a bit. Odd. Appetite has gone down considerably.

Ok, I realize this isn't much of an entry, but it'll hopefully get the ball rolling. To anyone who's still reading, thanks for checking up....and some blog-exclusive photos:

Glued up a dreamy Veloflex Criterium Tub. Dream Dream Dream. I won't race it, however.

Accidental Shot

Lots and Lots of Koi Babies

Health: I has it.

<3

Fargo Street

Beach day with beee!

Throwback to the Ardeche. Note the fig tree. :]

Hi O

I've done four races since I last wrote. Four races, two weekends. Took a few races off. One was Ontario. I don't do Ontario, and the other reason I haven't been racing/training much lately is that I've finally undergone the pond construction/expansion. Quite a lot of work, and still plenty of work left ahead.

What compelled me to finally write? A really odd sequence of racing. Two days, two really bizarre and unnecessary last lap crashes in the P/1/2. Saturday we had the classic Barry Woolfe Grand Prix. Never done well at this course, never liked it, but it's local, so I'll always line up for it. Anyhow...nice field of 100 or on the start line. Felt okay. Got into one or two promising breaks, but with Tony Cruz and Bahati still in the field and without representation in the breaks, I knew we'd go nowhere...so never really went full gas. Still picked up a preem, though. Oh, and this race was a P/1/2/3....which I think changes the dynamic quite a bit. LaGrange fielded a billion riders, per usual. Anyhow, fast forward to the last lap. Field is together, I'm about 10th wheel coming through the bell. Bahati is just ahead. We rounded the first (of 4) corner cleanly, and about 20 meters later, I was ducking to avoid a rear wheel 10 feet in the air heading straight for my head. The epicenter of the crash was a good 5 meters to my left, but kept getting closer, faster, domino-style. Crashes happen...but at the front of a race? That's irregular. Can't even remember the last race in which that happened. I kept it upright, and put in a sprint. Saw Bahati was also in the wind just ahead of me. He had a bit of help, and managed to get back up to the unscathed portion of the peleton, about 10 guys. I put my head down, and assumed the race was over. Looked back and saw a second peleton sprinting like mad to catch...at this point I put the hammer down, and brought it in for 12th. $ went 15 deep, so a nice consolation, I guess. That's 5 $-placings in a row. Still without a nice result, however.

So with that irregularity out of the way, I lined up for the CBR Long Beach Crit. I actually love the course. Love that you can see the entire course, and gauge gaps just by sight. The pavement is not smooth, but is predictable, and the wind makes it interesting for sure. The 100k races we used to have here were classic, and definitely more up to my abilities. The shorter distance is still fun, however, and less frustrating if/when you miss the break. Same guys as yesterday, but instead of Bahati, we had Freddy Rodriguez. Giro Stage Winner. I'm not a fan of his (is anyone?), but it was a pretty nice field. Big thank you to CBR for comping my entry fee. Totally unexpected, but they were just getting me back for helping a bit at a race earlier this season. Thanks! So we lined up, nothing going. Calm first lap. Then....free...for....all. Attack after relentless attack. I'd put out 600w jumps out for a minute, and see people chasing and getting the peleton back up to me. Sergio Hernandez put out lots more attacks, and eventually (after 80 minutes of attacking) got clear with Tony Cruz, game over. They would go 1-2 with Sergio getting a well deserved win. LaGrange, the classy bunch that they are, didn't put a SINGLE rider on the front to chase the break down. They had ten guys line up. Really fcking annoying. To compound that annoyance, some of my attacks would be brought back by bum racers who don't even have teammates instead of forcing LaGrange to chase. So annoying when people don't know how to race.

Well, thanks to LaGrange's failure, we were racing for 3rd. Last lap comes, and just like the previous day, i'm in decent position. perhaps 8th wheel. Turn 1, solid. Turn 2, okay. The pace was nice and high, and the jostling wasn't too bad. Turn three was a bit slower than I liked. Teammate Armin came to me after turn three and said, "GET ON, outside, GO." Instinctively, I said no. I had a good line on the inside, and a good wheel (Rudy from Liquid) to follow. Right after I turned him down, there was a bit of a swarm. I got out of it on the inside, and got a great entrance into the final turn. $#@%#%#$#. Bikes, bodies, brakes, and cuss words in large doses. I kept it upright, but had plenty of contact. I bunny hopped Rudy Napolitano, and ran over his bike. Thought i'd eat it for sure, but kept it upright. First time out of the top 20 all year. Annoying. An SC Velo rider who was unnecessarily fighting me for Sterling Magnell's wheel (who was wearing a Major Motion kit on the day) earlier, and had words ("it's my teammate", was on the ground and bloodied. I'm a total asshole, but at that instance I felt no pity. Karma comes 'round, I thought. I feel badly now, and hope the guy is doing well. But let's avoid stupidity in the future. I really hope some photog (there were plenty at both races) caught the crash sequence. I'd love to see it.

That's all I got. Will look for photos. Apologies for the tone, but it's really annoying to have races end this way. So much better to finish off the front...gah.

Here's a power file of the CBR Monday race. Flat four corner course. Check out the power (green line) variance!


Ouch.

Mark It, Dude

Hey Hey.

Took a little road trip down to south county this weekend. OC county. On the way down, I said "if there are no catastrophic crashes or mechanical mishaps, I should finish in the top 20." 20, you see, is the magic number for non-pro local scenesters like myself in NRC criteriums. Finishing inside 20th place gets you a piece of that NRC-mandated massive prize list. Finish outside it, and you've wasted a $50 entry for nothing...and on that note, I can't believe the time I broke my frame with 200m to go and still finished 17th at Manhattan Beach '05.

Check me out! Blue links and everything. This blog is going places, looks like. So. Dana Point. I did it last year and had a blast. It was the first race where I found some good legs and got the bike dialed in. This year's been very different. Every time I've pinned a number, the legs have been great. I didn't feel too well in the first race of the year, but squeezed out a top 20 just following wheels. Then the car smashed me up, and I think I actually lost weight during that 3 week vaccance. Got destroyed and demotivated by Lance that one day out, and now the good legs are back. Fun stuff.

Dana Point:

Big Purse, Big Field. And not the typical "2nd race for $10 extra" masters pack fill big field, either. Kelly Benefits came out. Bahati had a couple teammates. Floyd Landis and a couple of his guys (who aren't really crit riders), and the Colavita guys in force as well. The "team from the west side with a bottomless budget" fielded a ton of guys, perhaps 10? I was happy to find out that Waylon from my team is a cat 1. Swelllll. Cat 1 and pro-class mtb downhiller. Quite the combo. I sneaked up to the second line behind the call ups. It was a pretty quick start. No anthems, no sponsor speeches. Nice and concise. "Riders start at the whistle..."

go.

A dull race, really. My only objective was to get in that top 20. No fireworks, no rosebowl-style attacks up the back side, no prime slanging, nothing. Just sit in the vacuum for 90 minutes, and take the good legs to the leadout trains once 5 to go sounds, and then follow the really fast and narrow vacuum to a $ spot. That's what happened. I finished 17th. Woo. Not really that stoked on it, but it obviously could have been much worse. The jockeying started before lap cards were even out! Madness. Lots of people were clipping the barrier, clipping out after going into a turn too hot, skidding, chopping, everything. Crit racing at its finest. I love this course for it. Floyd Landis actually opened up the sketch riding proceedings on about the 3rd lap when he took turn 2 too hot. Fun stuff. Anyhow, 5 to go, I took a long swig of what was left of my bottle, and started to strategize. Found that Paul Che was doing the same thing, and just rode near him 'till we were near Bahati and co. A futile break was off. Got caught with 3 to go. Into the bell lap, a Bissel rider smashed into the barrier with me on his wheel. He didn't go down, but...full brakes, followed by full gas (and a couple matches...[nice pun!]), and I was back in position. Tony Cruz chopped me pretty good into turn 5. "Ok, tony, go." No thanks was given, of course. Then I sprinted hard between 5 and 6 to try to get a nice spot into the final sprint. Got the nice spot, but there was no sprint. I sprinted around only a couple guys with dead legs for the finish. Maybe it's a good thing I don't have an SRM right now? Woulda been some hideous sprint data...but I am $400 closer now.

:]

Salut!

No photos of the race, but here's one of Wilson from yesterday's ride.

Post #216

I feel like I should have done a "200th post special" but that ship sailed several months ago, looks like. This blog's been around for a while now, and I keep writing in it, but the frequency is starting to dip. I guess it's a product of less racing, more distractions, and too many different communications channels (twitter, facebook, gmail). Ah well! Here's another entry.

This seasons results so far:

16th-CBR Crit #1 Long Beach
18th-Poor College Kids RR
4th-CBR Crit #2 Dominguez
13th-CBR Crit #5 Dominguez
14th-Devil's Punchbowl RR
7th-Chuck Pontius Crit

Not stellar, but definitely not bad. It's come to a point in crit racing where, regardless of form, I can put myself into the mix. It's almost May, and I've only done 6 races. I think I have to go back to cat 5 days to have that low a frequency, but yeah...getting rear ended does weird things. Anyhow, a few races to report on.

The 13th place at CBR #5 was pretty nice. I think it's times like these where all the base training pays off. 3 weeks off the bike, 3 weeks of suffering on the bike, and just like that: good form is back. The race was swell, put myself into a couple good moves. A huge break snuck off the front with 4 to go, and I took 2nd in the bunch (behind Demarchi) for 13th. Nice! If there was no break, top-5 was certainly a possibility.

Next we've got Devil's Punchbowl. The reason I found motivation for this one was my new (used) bike. No, I didn't get a cent from insurance yet, so I've been wheeling and dealing old bike stuff to try to get a new frame. I had the BB30 Cannondale cranks as a foundation, some Sram stuff, and most importantly, a sweet set of reynolds carbon tubulars waiting to go on a shimano/sram equipped bike. As luck would have it, I found a local guy selling an older Six13 in my size for an incredible deal. Fire-saled some stuff, scrounged up some cash, and picked it up.


In a word......DREAMY....and if you factor in the cost and condition and fit, well...there aren't any words. I've always been a light-bike junkie, but am well aware that dropping 50g off your bike isn't going to lead to any performance gain. However...going from 20lbs to 14 and change? That's a huge huge difference. Happy to say I destroyed the 40+ crew fromt the Barry Ride on it's maiden voyage on a Thursday morning a few weeks ago. I'm a jerk, I know. Still hurts not to have a powermeter. I still look down instinctively from time to time. I wish wish wish I could do a 20 minute test one of these days. Gah.

So. 6lbs off the bike and pretty decent form led me to take the start at Devil's Punchbowl. I think I DNF'd here my last two starts, and only really cracked the top 20 once in the lower cats. Tough course, espcially when it's cold and C-Walk sets pace on the first lap. It looked like it'd be more of the same this time, but with a twist. Most of the local only-come-out-to-hilly-road-races scenesters were out in force, but so was Monsieur Floyd Landis!!! Pretty cool to race with the guy, and even cooler because with a guy like that there, everyone waits for him to make a move...and he didn't. At least not at first. Walker attacked, and we sat. Conversation pace the whole way up the climb. Floyd drilled it the second time up, and I barely clung to the back of the peleton over the top of the climb. Hard stuff. 3rd time up I got shelled early, but had some pretty good company in Thurlow Rogers and Brandon Gritters. We caught up to the group right as the descent ended. 4th time was a breeze, with the break gone out of sight. Landis dropped out on this lap. 5th lap, I was shelled. In short, I was annoyed that our peleton/groupetto was moving slowly, yet the guy up front still put us all in the gutter at 8mph on the climb. Mixed some words, and set pace myself, only to pop off quickly and roll in for 14th. Saw Josh Webster get road rashed pretty good on the final corner. Unlucky. He was riding well up until that point. This was also the first race I ever used a compact gear. 34/50 up front, 11-21 in back. Perfect! But i'll never need that much gear (on the low end) for any race this year. I'm back on 53/39 again.


And...........the crit the next day. Chuck Pontius. The finest of the office park criteriums. Shady, a couple small rises, slight wind. Good stuff. I felt springy. Attacked off the gun, and surprise, I was actually marked. Let off a bit, then attacked again from turn 2 right into the gutter. I looked back and there was a solid gap. Put the head down, came through the start finish to the nice sound of a preme bell. Head down, I rolled through for the preme, and sat up. Lots of attacks, and two more premes later, I was back in the bunch. I broke a spoke on my front wheel at some point, and with the caliper QR, was able to roll it without much rub (pretty good considering it's a 16 spoke wheel). A serious break with some fast guys got up the road. I thought they'd be gone, but these guys in green jerseys were pretty motivated to bridge up. So after some driving...I looked back and it was about 10 of us with a solid gap, and the break in sight. We got to the break, 5 to go sounded, and we were already coming up on the back of the field. Weird. There were no games in the break, just solid pace setting. Last lap...saw a window to attack on the inside just before turn 3. Didn't. A guy did, and won. I kept it pretty timid with the broken spoke up front, and rolled in for 7th. Can't complain. But I've got a feeling a W ain't too far off.

Dana Point GP NRC sunday! $15,000! I'll see uz der.

Hi

Let's finish off that last entry, huh? One month old race report....which happily isn't my last. From February 10th, last month:

Small field. CBR. I'd say 95% of the 50 or so riders there were masters racers who had raced at least one other race that day. I was fresh. So, from the gun, click click click, and gone. And gone we stayed the entire 90 minutes. I was solo on the first lap, joined by two others after that, who I wasn't too thrilled to have. And then, almost like clockwork, Sergio Hernandez (rock) bridged up. Woo. A nice quartet. And funny, I think we were the only U30 riders in the race to begin with. I assumed the role of the "jerk who makes sure the breakaway is riding properly". Worked swell. From what I remember, I had only one bottle, and did the lion's share to keep the break going. Dumb of me, but the legs were up to it. I think the gap stayed at 45 ticks the whole time just about. Ah well. Sergio faked some "cramps" during the last 20 minutes or so, and took weaker and shorter pulls. He read the race correctly, and was better hydrated. He was kind enough to tell me when/where he'd attack but I couldn't go with it, and he won easily. I cramped a bit on the last lap, and coasted in for 4th on the day. Right o...GREAT legs, but i'd crash two days later and have to rebuild. Oh, tip of the hat to my two teammates (Waylon + Fritz) who shut things down in the pack pretty nicely.

ME.

I am well. Big, big thank you to the scene and all who've wished me well in my recovery. Everything is healing up. I go to therapy 3 times a week, and am in the process of hopefully getting some expedited reimbursement for the bike. I really do hope to get it all sorted soon. I've been doing some long (5+) rides to get the fitness going again. Best place for long ones? The coast. Went out saturday with Ben, James, and Stoney. Usual suspects. After an hour or so, we were cruising down San Vincente to get to PCH when Mike Ward (semi-scenester guitar wiz mustache bike rider guy) rode by. "Hey hey, how you goin Mike?" He was with a couple acquaintances of his and, though the group was bigger than I liked, we all decided to head down the coast for some climbing together. Oddly, one guy on a Trek just hogged up the front on PCH and wasn't going fast at all, ah well. Don't know him too well so just went with it. I chatted him a bit from time to time when I got reshuffled to the front. This was my view for most of that segment...

After a gentle cruise on PCH, we turned right onto Latigo. The guy held his own pretty well. I'd been off the bike for a couple weeks, so couldn't blast off and TT off the front. You know how it is with people you're not sure about...particularly in season...you test each other. He crushed all. On his "easy day". He was kind enough to stop up top for a regroup. Wouldn't get off his phone for a chat though...busy guy.

Okok. I guess my little game is over 'cause I really don't know what else to write. I rode with Lance Armstrong for 4 hours or so. My favorite part was being glued to his wheel going down Rock Store. He's smooth, but he certainly wasn't going balls out by any means. We passed a moto together as well. I'm not "Lance fan #1" but I won't forget it. I chatted him up more than the other mortals, but not to the point of annoyance, as far as I know:

Me: What's your weight like these days?
LA: Right now, 165. If i'm 160 by the time the Giro starts i'll be stoked.

Me: Carbon bars? I thought you were a Deda alu-guy?
LA: [looks at bars] Oh yeah, these? Guess so. Bontrager something. Trek owns me.

Me: Milan San Remo!
LA: Hahh...yeah. I hope I make it through alive. That place, that course, the fans - insane.

Me: What's with the shoes? I like 'em.
LA: Me too! Best $100,000 shoes you can buy!

That's as far as the verbatim quotes I can give here. There were other tidbits. He told me his french is terrible and that he doesn't care to improve it anymore. I told him that there's a finish stage in Aubenas in this year's tour. Told him it's the absolute finest village he'll ever see. "Huh?". Good stuff. No one outside of Aubenas shares that opinion or even knows the place exists.

My impression of the guy? Of his non-public chamois/helmet/bike persona? He's a bike racer. He sprints for city limit signs, goes tempo on climbs (which for most is threshold +++), cracks jokes, and checks out babes walking on the roadside when cruising around. Just like we all do. The guy's ridden bikes with presidents, won the biggest bike race in the world in front of billions of onlookers, and is perhaps the most well known athlete in the world. I wasn't expecting my words to blow his mind in any way or offer him even slight mental stimulation - i'm just another bike racer. That said, each time I had a chat with him, it was clear that he wasn't too interested in what I was saying. I may as well have been a reporter or some guy that won a contest to hang out with him for 2 seconds. He knows how to handle it, and he's quite efficient about it. And honest, that's absolutely fine. Wouldn't expect anything else, and if I had his palmares, I'd be the same way. That said, it was a great ride. Having a 12-23 is a terrible terrible gear choice for climbing Latigo and F#@$%#$^ Piuma. I hadn't hurt that bad in a while. The agony of that gear selection will forever accompany my memory of this ride. :]

Back to racing soon! Thanks again for the kind words and support. They've really helped.

Impromptu Off-Season

On monday night I was pretty tired. One of those nights where you're sitting in bed about to sleep, but just as you're about to slip into dreamland, you remember you had something to do. Merde. The sleep sensation can never be the same if I got up. I had to shower still. I decided not to. Procrastinated it away 'till after the next morning's recovery ride.

It's now wednesday night. I still haven't showered.  I can't yet.  My hair is at this terminal level of oiliness so I don't really mind it anymore. I have a couple stitches, a massive bruise on my left shoulder, several contusions, a never-ending headache, and..........that bike. What the hell happened? To be honest, I still don't know exactly, but am slowly putting the pieces together...

Tuesday and Thursday is the Barry ride. 8:30 start in and around la crescenta, and it starts right in Griffith Park. It gets me up in the morning, and is usually a gateway to other rides like the Pomona loop I do or an interval session up Big T or as happened this tuesday, a mellow social ride up the crest to talk about sunday's race. The four of us didn't turn right on Chevy Chase to continue with the Barry group.  Instead we went straight to head up the crest. Like we've done millions of tuesdays before. We reached the intersection of Foothill and Verdugo, where we turned right, again, just as we'd done countless times prior. My memory stops there.

I vaguely remember regaining consciousness because of the sudden pull of the stretcher as I was put up into the ambulance. "Yo, Keith? We didn't even run a red light, man. How'd this happen??" I allegedly repeated 3 or 4 variants of that statement...maybe with a couple expletives (which generally isn't my style at all). Then the memory got hazy again. What was a 15 minute ride in the ambulance only registered as 30 seconds. I remember asking the medics lots of questions. "Is this a good sign?" "How long had I been out?" "Have you seen anyone with my ailments before?" This is what I think I asked, anyway. It was probably indecipherable, because I mumble even when i'm healthy and sober.

We got to the hospital. Lots of waiting. It's really funny trying to recreate it now. I thought I was all there, but it's all pretty hazy to me still. I had lots of x-rays. An IV was put in at some point. "When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?" "huh?" Boom...tetanus shot is in. Pains, but not really. It was just my head that ached then. The hospital seemed busy. Everything had a long wait, and there were babies and adults crying and moaning. I reached in and saw that I had my iphone still! Woo. Snapped up some phots...



My upper body was pretty well (and i think unnecessarily) restrained the whole time prior to X-Rays. So leaned over and snapped a couple. That head brace came off immediately after the X-Rays. That second picture...ahhh...my current pride and joy. You could stick a dime in there, piggy-bank style, and not see it again. They gave me these "custom" super-wide stiches over there because of the risk of infection if they closed it. I really don't know what pierced me there...a sprocket? Pedal? Hmm.

So with that, the formalities of the hospital scene played out. A Sherrif from the scene came to get my statement. "Yeah man, the guy that hit you? He was born in 1920. He has insurance. AAA." "89 years old?!" "88". Geezus! I chatted him a bit.  I told him that I had no idea what happened.  The last thing I remembered was turning right onto Foothill Blvd.  He gave me a card which I lost (where am I supposed to put it, really?) My mom came in, tear explosion. Told her I was fine, and I was. I don't know if they gave me pain killers or if it was adrenaline, but I had no issues then. Just wanted to get out. After 6 hours in that place, I signed a bunch of stuff and got out.

The pieces so far: an 88 year old guy in a brand new Lexus SUV just barely buzzed the 3 guys who were riding 10-15 meters behind me. At this point it just seemed like a guy trying to intimidate cyclists and flex some idiot muscle, you know the type, dime a dozen in LA. Also at this point, I was slowing down to stop at a red left turn light to begin climbing the crest. The guy didn't screetch the tires, didn't swerve, didn't even brake. Just smashed his front-right quarter into me, I flew to the right, landed on (and shattered) my helmet, and the guy, still oblivious, ran over the bike (square over my srm, too), and finally stopped. He was understandably flustered by everything and couldn't be questioned properly as I understand it. Gah. I think that's about all i've got for now. In a mountain of legal and medical headache now, and got some doctors to see tomorrow.

No broken bones!

I can walk!

I live!

Wear your helmets please!

(sunday's race report when my wrist heals a bit more)

Bowie

Class guy, David. He's been in my head for days. Perhaps it's the rain. I'll hear a chord or two from other songs and think, "hey, there's a bowie song that has that..." Every song has that. But Bowie's been flowing out my brain. No complaints here. Put your raygun to this blog entry yeah. First off, head over to brentbookwalter.blogspot.com . Brent is just a kid from the Big Mitt who's down racing the Tour of Qatar. Better blog entries i've never come across.

I've been a bum this week. I tried to do a threshold test on wednesday. Lasted 8 minutes (of 20), turned home, and felt like shite the rest of the day, and today. Unlucky...so i'm just taking it easy for a bit. The rain definitely helps with the laziness. I'm not racing Boulevard, nor the crit the next day. Going CBR. Slump breaker I hope. And finally, your hasty SUPER late race report:

Poor College Kids RR


Vintage! But I look exactly the same in both, somehow. Even in the same position relative to the race (first -or almost first- in the second group). Tip of the hat to the photographer (Goodman Graphic) of the second one for bringing out the "former soviet bloc crusher" look in me. The race! It was a positive one, even though the legs and the composition of the field made it seem like it wouldn't be so. To start, PLENTY of Team Type 1 guys, and a smattering of ProTour guys (allright, just 3), and most all the local scenesters. Nice field. $25 entry, $250 purse. Beautiful course (reminded me of the theme to Huel Howser's Show)...and the kicker? 80 degrees, no wind. Perfect.

We lined up. Right on time, 11am start. A small group got off, and got a gap. We were going 6mph, so no big deal. I vaguely remembered the course from the time I did it years ago (the above photo...I think I was a cat 4?). One hill, out and back course, so that same hill, twice. Things got shuffled on the first ascent (which is more mellow than the return trip), and a group containing a ton of Team Type 1 guys was gone. Plenty of favorites still in the peleton, though, and I felt fine. So on the return, I was right up front. I knew something would go. Sergio Hernandez hit it hard, with C-Walk in tow. The race was happening right in front of me, but I didn't change my rythm. Should have...but I was already red lined, and didn't want to risk complete collapse. Dumb strategy, ah well.

So of course, the race was done. 17 or so up the road. 10 of them from the same team. Slightly hurt peleton behind. Last climb of the day, I went up to my old teammate John McKeen. "It'll go at the climb, a little group will get away. My legs are shite, but if you got it, get to the front and go to town." He uttered a "yeah right" after I'd said I don't have the legs. And......yeah. I made the little front group along with John. I HATE those guys. The guys that lay out the verbal "safety nets" before and during races. Really, i'm not one of them usually, so John, i'm sorry for being a tool. So...about 8 of us crested the top. I knew I could outsprint everyone in this group, though Rudy (formerly of Rock) might have been even money against me. Minor placings, but hey, it's a sprint. After a couple kilometers of what was probably the worst paceline ever, the 1k to go sounded. I was last wheel in the break, focusing on Rudy....and the yellow line that meant instant DQ. Two guys jumped with something like 800 meters to go. Blah. I reacted slowly, and brought them back. Rudy was to my left...At 200 I started the sprint, basically on the yellow line, so he had to pass around and to the right to get it. I took that side of the sprint, but totally lost sight of another guy with legs to my right, and he took it. Ironically, Rudy was DQ'd for yellow line violation...gah. 18th on the day. That's the dull late race report.


And on a final note, i'd like to say that though 18th ain't that swell, i'm secretly very happy to have finished in front of every rider on that "team from the west side with the french-sounding name". I wasn't mal-treated in any way, and am friends with most of the riders on the team, but....you know how it is. I plan on doing this in every race. Just a touch of motivation...

Smashed Up

Hey Hey.

The season started already, look at that. Race numbers and wattage are recession proof, at least. Let me fire off a race report then go to the meaningless pulps. The first one of the year was the CBR Long Beach Race. AKA: CBR BAR #1. Happy to see the purse was at $1000. Still a swell time. To give the readers outside of the SoCal scene an idea of what a "hapless local way-early-season crit" is like in socal, here's a quick sample of the 100+ starters....

R Bahatski-Current US Crit Champ
Justin Williams-Current U23 Crit Champ
Brad Huff-Former US Elite/Pro Crit Champ, Nutter
Tony Cruz-Former US Crit Champ


There were others, but hey: 4 super crit riders. Was surprised with Huff showing up (he's from the midwest). Turns out Jelly Belly has a training camp nearby. Nice. I'm really begining to love our scene, though. Everyone knows each other, everyone's gotten into a fight/argument/crack with someone at somepoint, and it's cool. Under the bridge, always. I can trust the wheels i'm around, and have a swell time while I'm out there with that in mind.

On that note...I think the peleton is a bit more civil now in contrast to the pre-internet decades. This occured to me as I scolded an older guy (40+) for for aggressively trying to grab a wheel while caught out of the echelon in the gutter on the back side with 60 minutes of racing still to go. I say "scolded" but was polite in every regard. I got a sarcastic "THANKS COACH" in response, which, given the lack of f-bombs, confirms that I was in fact polite in my approach. Fact is, with 60 minutes left, if a guy wants the wheel in front of me, just ask or signal or at the very least, gently and predictably slide into place. This guy wasn't having it. He swung out, then in a "either i'm crashing everyone or getting that wheel" kind of move swung back into the paceline and got the wheel, setting off a chain reaction of braking and swearing behind. More annoying than dangerous, but i'd rather neither. None of the aforementioned guys do this stuff. If they did, EVERYONE would know. People blog. People facebook. There are photographers, videos, text messages. Point is, as racers and people, we're infinitely more networked now than before, and nothing but good comes out as a result. Reps spread REAL quick. A lot less of the "traditional" elbowing and chopping and diving (and whatever inane stuff that old-schoolers think is part of crit racing) very much still is, but not with 60 minutes to go. Not ever. Not in any race. Save it for the bell lap, dudes. Or I call you out. Let's make crit racing classy.

Hmm...sorry for that paragraph. I guess the pulp made it to the middle instead of the end. The race. Lots of fast dudes, but it's January. Also...I should mention...I've got a new sponsor, at least for the time being. I'm riding for Armin Rahm's team: Sixtumed Cycling. Big thanks to him for helping out. The kit you saw me race in was last year's. New kit coming, I think. Anyhow, we lined up. Everyone's there save for the SoCalCycling team. I think there's some kind of rift between the higher ups, but eh. These things happen. Like i'd mentioned a few entries ago, teams look smaller, more color in the peleton, and really tough to pick a winner from the bunch. Now, this would be my first race of the season, yes? Since the vast majority of the 1/2 peleton is 30+, it was the 2nd or even 3rd race of the season (and of the day) for lots of those guys. So a bit less "special" for them than for me, but eh...these things happen, too.

The race was hard. The cross wind on the backside hurt, closing gaps in the gutter hurt, being caught out of position between turns 2 and 3 hurt. Regretably, I wasn't close enough to the front to write about all the happs in the race. I kept it mellow in the middle. The legs have no snap yet, so I'm limited with what I can go with. Brad Huff had plenty of snap though. He jumped at every lull and countered or bridged up to what seemed like any break that formed. At some point, a break got a steady gap of 15 seconds. I jumped in pursuit. This is what a jump in pursuit looks like...

(3% smoothing)

...when you fail. Power goes up, speed goes up. Gap is established....thennnnn after a few minutes you realize it isn't gonna happen. A guy bridged up to me and was motoring nicely, but we were shut down. Funny though, it took me quite a while to recover from what looks like a pretty meager effort on paper (screen). That effort was at the midpoint. The pace slowed after I got back to the peleton, and the break's gap grew. Then it shrunk. Then 5 to go sounded and it was still clear. 3 to go I was in pretty good company with Cruz, Paul Che, and a couple rock dudes alongside...so thought we were sprinting for 9th. I'm still not sure what we were sprinting for as I didn't check the results. Bell lap, Che jumped right before the last corner. I responded with what little snap the legs had. He was gone, but while behind him, we passed a blob of riders in the middle of turn 4. No idea who/what. I think bahati was among them? Odd. Rolled in with one of the waves of a real tattered sprint. Tough one. Will update when I find out how I did. Outside the top 20 I think. Tip of the hat to Sergio Hernandez for winning it.

Na-Na-Notorious

He is! He is!

A little B.I.G tribute up there. The film comes out next week I think. Expectations are high...hopefully the emotional investment pans out. ME. Hi. Base training has wrapped up. Socal folk know how shite the weather was a couple weeks ago, so I didn't get in the full 25/28/30 hour weeks in for the second phase...more like 18/20/26. It'll have to do. Physiologically, it isn't gonna hurt me...my "base" is there from playing the bike game for so many years, but I'll be missing that "pat myself on the back" feeling from doing those massive weeks. Tant pis! Photos...we need some...


Ahh...the koi enjoying the rain from a few weeks back. Remember when I said I was going to make the pond bigger during my time off the bike? Nope. Didn't happen. Crafty combination of laziness and work got in the way. However, a friend of mine said, "hey, I got fish and need to get rid of them," so ironically, the population doubled while the pond (which was too small for my original fish) stayed the same. I've upped the filtration (there are three filters and two pumps), so they'll be fine 'till mid-spring. Gonna have to give away at least half...any blog readers with koi ponds?

Ahhh...here's another...


The story? A small group of us were riding down PCH a few weeks back. I ran into even-bigger-than-me bike racer Anthony Galvan. "Hey man, how's it goin?" and then I turned to acknowledge the other two guys he was with, just to be polite. Hot damn. I wasn't shy at all "is that Danilo DiLuca?" Yup. It was. Although it was a base ride in the middle of one of my bigger weeks, all bets were off as we turned right to go up Topanga. He was pretty mellow. He spoke spanish (or understood it), so we chatted a bit. Talked about his Amstel Gold win, talked about the Giro he won. Cunego, Simoni, his '09 season. Good stuff. Good guy. Then we got to Fernwood. Ouch. Suddenly I was on 400W for 5 minutes. Hadn't even hit 300 in months. I was the first to crack (sprinting to the front of the group to take photos like these didn't help the situation:




So I got shelled after about 10 minutes. To my surprise, he waited up top for everyone to catch up. Piss break. More chats. More photos. Class guy that di-luke. Would have loved to descend with him, but they were dropping back down to PCH...so said goodbye, and that was that. Also, DiLuca does not ride with a spare tube or food in his pockets...only huge doses of style. Of all the people i've met in my life, he speaks the least english. Rural french hillbillies included. It has it's charm...

Hmmm...what else. This entry has been in draft format for weeks. Time to drive it to a close and publish it. I did my first thurlow simi ride yesterday. Brutal, but nice. The wind makes those rolling rides better for me. Wouldn't it be funny if some out-of-town guy did the ride one of these days and didn't know who Thurlow was? It'd be surreal. "Who IS this old guy that keeps rippin?" "or am I going really poorly?". He's crushing. I think the group was down to 15 or so by the time 7-minute came by. Also, a guy in front of me crashed on mullholland. Classy.


The new [old] bike...mannnnnnnnn it fits nice. I don't know if it's because i'm on tubulars or if the 58 'dale fits better than the 57 it replaced, but i've been bombing descents and corners like a riot. So much fun. Finally flatted my rear tubular on a ride a couple weeks ago (Seal Beach Bike Path). Total repair time: 5 minutes! That includes the time to pump with my tiny mini pump. I replaced the $40 Conti Gatorskin Tub (which barely got 1500 miles) with a $12 Vittoria Rally. TWELVE dollars. Are there clinchers for that cheap? The tire looks class:


And so far, after 500k, it's help up pretty nice. It's round and true. Easy to mount (compared to Conti) and holds pressure well. Did simi at 120psi. Rough at some points, but $12. I've got the training tire thing down for life. I used to ride the Michelin Karbon ($30/each), and they'd go forever, but yeah. The wheels have held up well, except, ironically, the hubs. Had to get the rear serviced. The kitty? I was looking after her this week. Alice. She gives me mean stares when I don't leave to train early enough...so she's nice to have around. And we leave with this:


One of MANY noodle/pasta dishes incinerated over the last couple months...

Unlucky...

The CAAD7 is dead.

Not sure how it happened, really. This is actually the 3rd Caad7 Si frame i've cracked. Not necessarily 'cause they're prone to cracking, but each of the frames had in excess of 30,000 miles before letting go. The worst was when the dropout broke on one at the end of manhattan beach in '06. Oddly, not one of them broke as a [direct] result of a crash. One was broken in the chainstay, the aforementioned dropout, and this one a quarter of the way down the downtube. Weird. The first two I was able to warranty, but seeing how I'm not the original owner of this one, nor do I know who is, it looks unlikely. It was a good one. The 7s are special. The last to have a horizontal top tube. Dreamy. Back to this one...



Also dead, my training.....this week. The forecast has been nutso. I don't have a trainer, so I've just been doing my 6 mile commute (3 x 3) in the wet icy cold to work and back. I was supposed to get 25 hours in this week, not gonna happen. So...just going to "reboot" base and switch it to a 12 week programme. Going back to 15 hours, then 18, 22, 10, etc...Hopefully the weather will cooperate. I'm not unmotivated, but certainly not motivated enough to ride a trainer (which I don't have....it's socal, man!) for hours like that or get in icy rain. Sucks.