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fairfax
2006/10/28
a men
dfl

white hill had a fun, small race feel after 3 consecutive weeks of bigger, series races.

after two mellow warmup laps on the tight course, my legs seemed to switch on, and i had some pretty great sensations for a half lap before the ladies came around after their start. a few warm up sprints a bit later out on sir francis drake didn't feel quit as spectacular, but not bad either. good signs for things to come.

only about 15 racers and no singlespeeders in arrears made for a pretty sane start, which was a nice change after last week. it would have been tough to accomodate a big field here with the tight start stretch and course in general. the school grounds were pretty small and they didn't have a lot of real estate to work with. so lots of tight, low speed corners that some folks were struggling with that kept speeds down. definitely a course that rewarded technical grace over brute speed and fitness. this suited me just fine and i actually found myself riding midpack with nick, jay, and evan after a couple laps. guys i haven't been able to touch most races so far. seemed like everyone i rode with crashed in the first 3 laps but i was having no problems.

and with things going so well, on the 3rd or 4th time down the fast bumpy decent after the runup on the back side of the course, PSSSSSHHHHhhhh...! poop! the air was completely gone from my rear tire in about 5 seconds, and i was about as far as i could get from my spare wheels. so i had a nice 5 minute jog around the back half of the course to the pits. a distance i probably would have ridden in about 2 minutes. everyone went by, although i was happily suprised how long it seemed to take for the tail to catch back up to me. i'd really put some time into them.

with at least 3 minutes lost to the next rider and another race tommorrow, i figured there wasn't much use digging too deep to try to catch back up with anyone, so i settled into a nice tempo pace for the second half of the race and got some good technical practice.

not much hope for the tire it seems. it has a 1/4" slash in it that looks too big to try to get to close up with sealant, so it's a write off i think. not suprising given how fast the air evacuated from it. i guess i'm on the clinchers tomorrow. hopefully i can get a new tire glued on this week.

thanks to tom and bjarne who hussled to find me a spare wheel when they saw me running. i got to my own spare before i got back around to them with their's. but i appreciate the effort. it was motivation to not dnf.

and thanks to dave for riding from sf to fairfax even though he only caught the very unspectacular ending.

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posted by <br> at 05:37 PM | permalink | comments (1) | trackbacks (1)

photo: andreas vogel

candlestick point, san francisco
2006/10/22
elite men
37/45 [49 starters]
'mates: funke, aron; brett, rich, and matthias on the blinglespeeds

a chinese wedding banquet saturday night left me well fueled for this race. feeling over-laden was more of a concern, but no matter. the close venue and earlier start made it easier for me to manage nutrition, and i felt spunkier than last week. got a fine warmup and course preview. i'm liking the faster, smoother 'stick compared to past years. pilarcitos' labor towards these ends is not taken for granted by me.

this seemed like the most chaotic start and first lap of the season so far. perhaps due to the extra 10 or so starters. lots of slowdowns in the first lap, just tryed to go with the flow. mistakes were made my many (myself included), and it's all a bit of a blur.

headed out onto the second lap on the approach to the first double berm up and over, i was behind a small group and someone a couple riders up washed out on the first rise. i hoped it would be an opportunity for me to make up some spots, so i got off and ran. got around the downed rider and several others by running up the left side, taking the hairpin sharp, and running up the second rise. sweet, free spots.

i stand by that strategy. unfortunately, my luck ran out there. i was still in a good deal of traffic when i remounted at the top of the second rise, but i remounted with my hands on the tops, no where near my brakes. i was still hard on the left for the descent of the second rise, but there was a rider at the bottom apexing the hard left turn. i didn't have time to get my hands to the brakes, so my options quickly became lay it down, or t-bone the rider at the apex. i layed it down. it was a fairly soft landing on the dried grass. i probably slowed some people down who i had just run around, but no one came down on top of me, so no harm no foul i would think.

i guess some would disagree, as a particular seafoam crustacean let out a snarky comment suggesting that maybe i should go back to the b's. now come on, that's just not helpful! nor warranted, since not a half lap earlier, the same minty malacostraca had stacked and brought aron (at least) to a halt in the, ummm, dodgy tangle. which is why he was slumming it behind my alleged noobishness in the first place. anywho....

i got back on and tried to shake it off. i seemed undamaged, and the bike was functional except my right brake lever had been pushed in about 30 degrees, but it seemed to be working, so i soldiered onward. i think dean from buy-cell offered up some kind words, but i was too preoccupied taking inventory of the damages to respond. i guess i'm not much for the small talk mid race, nothing personal. i should say hello to that guy sometime. we went back and forth a couple times in the next couple laps but eventually i found myself alone time-trialing it.

the rest of the race was pretty uneventful, and i managed to ride fairly cleanly despite the cockeyed lever. it was in a great position for shifting in the drops, but not much else. so i tried to practice riding in the drops. i had one minor washout on the long sweeping grassy corner at the start of the lap just after justin lapped me, but that's because i was trying to follow his line at his speed (oh so briefly) and didn't compensate enough for the traction ramifications of that.

so, i was happy enough with my placing. maybe could have gained a position or two without those two blunders and the ensuing recovery time. the 'stick does get better every year and i enjoyed the challenges of the course even though they got the better of me a couple times. live and learn. the races there get better every year but i can't say i'm upset to only have one race there this season...

thanks to julie for coming out to the race and giving me water. props to funke and the three blinglespeeders for their podium finishes.

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posted by <br> at 01:07 PM | permalink | comments (2) | trackbacks (0)

so, cruising down market street commuting home this evening i heard the first trumpet solo of 'oh come all ye faithful' of the season. halloween's not even here yet! and it's not even dark out when i leave work most days.

when did the 4 seasons become winter, spring, summer, and holidays?

<br> - bah!

posted by <br> at 08:01 PM | permalink | comments (1) | trackbacks (0)

are we?

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posted by <br> at 11:05 AM | permalink | comments (0) | trackbacks (0)

photo: tim brennan
tim makes me look fast!

soquel high school
2006/10/15
a men (amen!)
21/24 [+ a couple dnfs]
'mates: funke, aron, and rick; scott and matthias on the blinglespeeds

i've always struggled with nutrition on the late start times. i had a good breakfast around 9:00, but just ate bananas and convenience energy stuff leading up to the 2:00 race. too high glycemic i think. like last week, i had a clif shot before and during the race, so didn't bonk acutely, just felt generally empty and flat. i did work my way past a couple guys mid race, so my pace wasn't way off. just no kick. a pair of guys (who i beat last week as it turns out) came by me in the last lap duking it out with each other, and i had no answer. my foggy head half thought they were lapping me. i'll be prepared with pb&j on some good whole grain bread in the future. looking forward to racing close to home this week.

i agree with the general consensus that it was a hard course to find a flow on. constantly changing terrain and speed. my back was feeling it at the end. superb race organization and atmosphere though!

i did hold off barry from lapping me for 37 minutes this time. 2 minutes longer than cccx #1!

thanks grey and lauren for the water and cheers

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posted by <br> at 02:23 PM | permalink | comments (1) | trackbacks (0)

photo: tim brennan

hellyer park, san jose
2006/10/08
elite men
27/36 [+ at least 4 dnfs (slackers)]
'mates: funke, aron, and rick; scott and matthias on the blinglespeeds

not a whole lot to say about this one. another hot, dusty, lumpy, bumpy norcal course. i wasn't feeling all that amped to race earlier in the day. the bumps and heat (inducing memories from cccx #1) seemed to contribute to my general malaise.

got a decent warmup and got off the line well enough in front of some people. i seemed to pass a number of guys in the first lap due to errors or traffic. ran around several on the first technical descent down into the trees who were waiting to ride it in traffic. nice. lots of dropped chains and flats all around, but none for me thankfully (knock on wood). isaias and i agreed that the initial pace seemed rather slow, but since i felt like i was in an ok position, i was happy to find my pace and settle in for the long haul rather than push things in the heat. i'm still getting the hang of racing without my hr monitor, and my instincts were telling me not to run too hot this time.

i dug the relatively fast approaches to the flat barriers. even though they did seem rather tall, i was definitely carrying more speed through them than some others around me. i rode a clean race with only one real bobble and no mechanicals. my closest call was with dfl dylan. he passed me on his singlespeed and i was close behind him entering the velodrome when he lost traction on the off camber and his bike slid out from under him. pucker! somehow he managed to lay it down, dismount on the downhill side of his bike, and run down onto the grass. by this time i was also down on the grass and managed to thread the needle between him and his sliding bike only losing a little momentum.

good news mechanically this time. no dropped chains despite all the bumps. i shortened my chain by 2 links, and made sure to never pedal backwards through fast bumps, which i think helps a lot. i also tried to keep tension in the chain as much as possible and practice fast, overgeared riding through the duff. i felt that gave me a slight advantage over others who were spinning too much. good habits that, in the long run, should help minimize the possibility of chain droppage.

i managed to do a clif shot mid race. after feeling depleted at the end of other races, i'd been thinking of having two immediately prerace instead of my usual one. given the velodrome, i decided to try to eat one mid race this time. thankfully i didn't forget to do it. i took it out of my pocket on the first bit of pavement, held it in my mouth entering the velodrome, ripped it open and ate it along the straightaway, and got water from eric to wash it down with on the last bit of pavement back outside the track. i think it really helped me maintain my pace for the duration. thanks eric!

i generally felt my pace was strong, but i just wasn't feeling scrappy to hold wheels and duke it out with people this time. i'm happy enough with my result, and got good technical practice riding the bumps and keeping a cool head, which should all help me go faster later on.

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posted by <br> at 03:32 PM | permalink | comments (2) | trackbacks (0)

photo: julie

fort ord
2006/10/01
elite men
14/18 [14/23 if you count dnfs (slackers)]
'mate: aron

now that's better!

definitely felt much more in the game this week. like i was actually racing again instead of just dragging myself around the course like last week.

julie and i went to the santa cruz mountains for a really nice wedding on saturday. things were civilized and wound down on the early side, so i got to bed at our hotel in santa cruz at a decent hour. slept ok on the strange bed, but the stale air was more annoying. wasn't able to sleep in quite as late as i would have prefered, but did get a good breakfast at zachary's.

i've had good results at this east garrison course. this is where i won my race in the b's last year in very similar cool, overcast conditions. the land this particular course is on has been slated for residential development and this was to be the last bike racing there. i will be sad to see it go despite the general sense of military blight and decay.

we got to the venue fairly early, so i had plenty of time for 4 laps of warmup to figure out some good lines through the sandy bits. i started out in the back, but managed to get around the pile ups on the first barriers and immediately after, so i ended up in a decent position heading onto the dirt. i was on the tail of a decent sized group of midpackers when we got to the sketchy singletrack split. they all took the fast rutted right. i decided that was too many people to follow that way, so i took the curvy left line. my instincts served me well, because someone in that group crashed and a pile up ensued, so i got around a bunch more people for free and shot out into the open field in the top 10. that felt pretty good to come through the first lap in front of a bunch of people. by this point my karma must have been a little out of balance because i dropped my chain after the tree hop in the second lap and lost several of those places.

as i resolved to do last week, i took off my hr monitor and just tried to hold wheels as best i could as the midpackers came back around me, especially on the long open paved straightaway into the wind. i found isaias' wheel a couple laps in. based on our results last week, i thought he'd pull away from me eventually, so i resolved to hold his wheel as long as i could. three strong but comfortable laps of wheel sucking later, i found a firm line up one of the sandy rises and worked my way around him and got a gap, so i just kept going and didn't see him again. i felt (just a little) bad that i couldn't return the favor, but that's racing i guess. i'm sure i'll have an opportunity to pay him back at some point this season.

i spent the third quarter of the race mostly alone reeling in a couple single speeders that went out too hard. i could also see a rocklobster guy up ahead slowly coming back to me. i dropped my chain again coming down the rutted singletrack, and lost another couple seconds, which put me into jay buenaventura's sites. he reeled me in with one lap to go, but i was able to grab his wheel and recover a bit as he came past. i got back around him pretty quickly as we got back onto the dirt, i bet he had some recovering to do himself. i was able to get a decent gap on him through the trails but could sense him rallying and catching back up. i turned on the gas as much as i could, and in the process was also getting the rocklobster guy in my sites. i put my head down for the last long straightaway and gave it all i could to reel him in, but i didn't have quite enough road. jay came on real strong and was nipping at my heels up the last pitch, but he also didn't have quite enough road, and i held him off by less than a length.

whew! much more of the drama that makes bike racing so interesting. good times. now that the legs are coming around i'm feeling better about where i'm at. i'm also recovering better than last week, so signs are good.

i do need to resolve my chain dropping issue, i'd say it cost me a position this week. i wrestled with the sram powerlink a bit last week to try to shorten my chain but got frustrated, put it down, and did't get back to it. i was hoping last week would be the anomaly, but i guess not. so i'll get back to it for sure and put on a new chain if comes to that. only other technical note this week, i dropped my pressure in the flexuseses to 35 psi front / 38 psi rear, and felt the difference. felt like more traction in the loose corners. i think i'll keep them there for a couple more races before going any lower.

thanks to julie for coming down to the race with me, and to lauren, joe, and chris for sticking around after their races to cheer and give me water.

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posted by <br> at 12:29 PM | permalink | comments (5) | trackbacks (0)