Racing What's Up

I've completed two races recently. One was Beat the Clock at the track - a tune up race for Masters' States next week. The other was the Benecia TT.


Beat the Clock TT


I decided to do the 1km and 2km only this year, so as to really focus on my distance, and not pound my body into the ground too much. So, I showed up a bit late and did my warmup on the trainer. The 1km was up first. I started on the back stretch. The holder and I were not getting along. He would not hold me how I asked and then told me to relax....but I wasn't comfortable, so how can I relax? Anyway, I finally got off and had a good, hard effort - a nice warmup for the 2km. I only finished a couple seconds faster than last year at this distance.

The next race was the 2km. I was on the front stretch this time, and had a good holder. I had a much better start. I floated right and got my efforts in the right places. The only problem was that I did 7 laps instead of 6, because they messed up the lap cards. And, when you're that blown, you can't really remember if you heard the final lap bell, or if that was just ringing in your head....Anyway, I finished 12 seconds better than the prior year, and 7 seconds faster than my time from States last year. So, great progress at the 2km distance!


Benecia TT

The Benecia TT was on my birthday - what better way to earn a fancy birthday dinner? We went out in the morning. It was cold! It was quite foggy with winds around 20-30 steady and gustier than that at times. Fortunately, the clouds broke up a bit during my warmup, so I wasn't under-dressed for the rest of the day.

I was the first to start in the W35+, so the rabbit for everyone else. I had a great start and was cruising...holding some back for the return trip. The only issue was that any time I came around a bend and the wind shifted from side to quartering, it was difficult to keep my bike in a straight line. The descents were terrifying. I think I spent most of this race not in the aero position. The good news is that I made it almost to the turnaround at mile 6 before Maryann L. caught me. She is the national record holder for 50+ this year. I thought for sure she would catch me within 5 minutes. So, it was a small victory! In the end, I finished 50 seconds slower than last year (not a surprise given the winds and my upright positioning). I think in the future, I will choose to go Merckxx in this race if it is that windy! I did finish in the money with a $10 prize. Woot!

                                                                                                                                                                                     

Ellsworth COefficient - Coming soon to a TT near me!

I was super-excited to find out that Ellsworth was going to sponsor the Velo Bellas. There are two huge reasons I was thrilled to hear the news.

1. I knew they were developing a TT bike. As I have sort of honed in on TT as the thing I like to do most, I was excited about the prospect of owning a proper TT bike. I have been riding on a franken-bike-a-saurus Trek Y-foil that was highly modified to get me in the TT position. The fit is quite a lot of compromise, and the bike is a little too flexy for the shorter, harder efforts of cycling TTs. It would be great for something like and Ironman where fatigue would come into play....but for 15k, 20k, 30k and 40k races, it's just not the right thing. I knew that Ellsworth would do their homework and come up with a great design for their new TT machine.

2. I LOVE that Ellsworth is about doing quality craftsmanship and innovation, right here in the USA. I think part of the reason that our economy is in the pooper is that we've lost the craftsman spirit in this country and no longer make things of value and quality. We like cheap, imported stuff that has almost become disposable. We need more companies like Ellsworth - with a passion for making beautiful, functional, durable machines; using sustainable business practices; which also provide good jobs for folks who like to make stuff.

So, I put in my order as soon as I could. The frame just arrived last week, and now I'm ready to build it up (I mean, supervise while Rick builds it up!). Here is the latest official beauty shot that you'll have to enjoy until I get mine done up and photographed.  You can read more about the bike here: http://www.ellsworthbikes.com/bikes/road/

Here's my planned build:
1. Campy Chorus 53/39 crank (I like the really narrow Q-factor of the older Campy cranks)
2 . Campy Record bar end shifters 10 spd.
3. Tekro carbon brake levers
4. Profile carbon aero bars on aluminum base bar
5. Ultegra derailleurs
6. SRAM casette (using JTEK shiftmate to adjust cable pull - this way all racing bikes have the same wheels for interchangeability)
7. Nimble tri-spoke carbon wheels
8. Ultegra brake calipers
9. Koolstop brake pads
10. Ellsworth COefficient size small TT frame, integrated headset, fork, and seatpost

Sattley TT - One more race report before re-visiting Germany

I definitely felt ready for Sattley, the NorCal/Nevada district championship race, this year. I wasn't sure I was going to be ready, as I came back from Germany so sick just about a month ago. But, as I ground into my final tune-up workout on Thursday, I was definitely ready. My intervals were strong and smooth, and my perception of the effort was comfortable.

Early Saturday, we got up and did my pre-race ride - mostly easy with a few speed efforts thrown in. Then, we packed up Kermit the Toaster and headed east. We made a small diversion in Ripon for my cousin's wedding at my aunt and uncle's house. It was about 95 degrees out at noon, and a challenge not to over-bake in the sun. The ceremony was short and sweet. We drank lots of water, carbo loaded on the cake, wished them well, and headed on for Truckee. This year, we stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites, which was quite nice, and breakfast started at 6....perfect! We dined at a brewing company for dinner, which was good. I went for the 8 oz beer, as I didn't want to overdo it before my race. Rick compensated for my lack of beer with 2 pints of a Belgian style ale.

Sunday, we rolled out of bed at 5:30 after a marginal night's sleep. There had been some drunken revelers in the hallway around 2 am. Ugh! But, I felt relatively good. I had a shower and headed down to tank up on the breakfast. I also took a yogurt and banana for a 2nd breakfast, as my race was after 11 am.

I got a full, 1 hour warmup in and felt good. The weather was warm, but not too warm, and the winds were light. Also, I'd heard the expansion cracks in the highway had been re-paved, so that was cause for celebration.

I got a good start, and the first half of the race was pretty fast, with a light, quartering tailwind. There were still some expansion cracks in the middle of the course, but nothing like last year. I turned around about a minute slower than I wanted, but well ahead of last year's pace. The second half of the race was purely mental, as I tried to block out some chafing on my saddle. I probably lost some focus with my constant re-adjustment. But, I definitely was putting it all out there, with copious snool developing in the last 1/4 of the race.

In the end, I rolled through in 3rd place, about 2:27 better than last year. I was happy with my result, and met my goals for the race. My next TT will be Benicia, and I will be making the debut of my new TT rig - the Ellsworth Coefficient and also a skinsuit for the first time in 2 years. Look out! I'll be tearing it up out there.

We interrupt this trip report with a race report

Yeah, you thought I had given up racing, right? It's been so long since anything resembling a race report. I'm afraid that I was a bit distracted by vacation and the protracted flu virus that I came home with. So, I missed out on the Calavares TT.

In any case, Sunday morning was the Dunlap TT, which I'd done twice before. It's a 30km (previously 34km) TT, and a good warmup for the longer effort of the Sattley TT (40km) this coming weekend, which is the district/state championship. We got there 2 hours ahead, and had plenty of time. It was quite warm, which I was worried about, because my body still thought it was Winter.

Anyway, I kept my feet up while eating second breakfast (race at 11:30 means you have to eat twice). At 10:25, I got on the trainer for a warmup. I had a good warmup and forced myself to go hard a little. That was difficult given the heat, but I was glad I did it. At 11:20, I got off, hit the port-o-let, got my ice-cold camelback under the jersey, helmet on, and my soigneir took my bike out to the road to avoid goathead thorns.

The only difference this year was that we had a start ramp. That was pretty cool, because I could start in cruising gear instead of a couple gears down. I had a good start and then headed on to the course. The winds were slightly off from normal, but close. The only thing was that we never really had a dead-head or dead-tail wind, which evened out the pace and effort a little bit. The first leg, I forced myself to hold back. Then, it was on to the mostly-head-wind, longest 2nd leg. I was doing pretty well on focusing until my camelback started to slither out the bottom of my jersey. So, the next couple miles were spent trying to get it situated where it would stay put. My speed definitely dropped below what it should have been. After the next turn, I caught my 1-minute man, but was also passed by my 30 second and one-minute chasers a bit before the turn. I had expected to be caught by both, however. During the 3rd leg, my camelback finally got situated on my belly. Fine, it wasn't going anywhere, but I was also hitting it with every pedal stroke. I kept telling myself I felt too good, that I needed to go harder. I finally ratcheted it up a few notches in the final 2-3 km after the last turn. I was going significantly faster and still not blowing up. I guess I need to push a bit harder, overall. I felt MUCH worse last year, and was happy I felt well despite the heat this year. Anyway, in the end, I finished in the upper 54 minute range - just under 55 (don't have official time yet). But, I was 56:36 last year, so still a significant improvement.

I felt good about nutrition and warmup. Next week, I will work on equipment and pacing just a bit higher. No camelback next week! I'm looking forward to the beautiful Sattley course.

May 5, Wednesday - Colder and Blusterier - Brrrr

Today we woke up to even colder and more blustery weather than yesterday! We left the Sonnen after an adequate breakfast. It was drizzling when we left. We headed out of town on a bicycle route that dead-ended into a tunnel project - after much cx-ing in mud and gravel. So, we rolled back to Schleingen and headed the general direction we wanted and eventually picked up the cycle route.

We braced ourselves against the howling winds and times were only rolling 6-8 mph and 13 if we could get a wind break. We set our lunch stop to Breisach. We ate at a pizzeria/italian bistro. It was busy with business lunches - from the French and German sides. Lunch was quite affordable and included salad and tiramisu. I had a vegetable and legume lasagne and Rick had linguine vongole.

I shivered as we unlocked the bikes to resume our journey. We then hopped on the River route toward Sasbach. It was about 17 km and not so bad by the river due to the trees providing a wind break - even though we were on dirt and gravel.

We ended the day at the Gasthaus Lowen for 57 E with breakfast. Dinner, for me, was an omelette with mushrooms and pommes frites. We shared a full bottle of Reisling from Sasbach. Our bikes got to hang out in a garage/storage room. And, the rooms were bigger and more modern than I was expecting from the price and the look of the building from the outside. After dinner, we had a nice chat with a couple from Frankfurt who apparently come each year on a wine-tasting vacation. They were very nice and apologized for the terrible weather - saying it was certainly not normal for this time of year.

May 4, Tuesday, The Wicked Wind of the North (Sea)

Today our goal was simply to "get north of Basel". We got through Basel in 1.5 hours with minimal frustration.

Skies were clearing following the rain of the prior two days. It was quite cool, however. We had a good breakfast and warm jackets to keep us.

Once north of Basel, the bike path along the Rhine was under construction. We did a little cyclocross and then decided to head back over to the road route north. The road route was pleasant despite the howling winds. We headed through a small town called Efingen-Kirchen. It was cute and cozy. It was about 11:30 am, and we decided to do the 20km to Schleingen before stopping for lunch, as we were not quite hungry yet.

As we turned out of Efingen-Kirchen, we pointed straight uphill at ~15% for the next 6-7 miles, rambling through vineyards, apple and cherry orchards. It was a mix of dirt and very narrow paved roads - Germany national route #13. We were pointing straight into a north wind, which made the hills even more demoralizing. At some point, it started blowing rain, too. So, we decided to eat lunch and call it a day when we got to Schleingen. We lunched at a cafe called Heitzman. We'd seen a couple of them along the way. It was a reasonable 10 Euro for 2 large coffees, 2 sandwiches and a pastry.

We spotted a hotel/restaurant "Gasthaus Sonne", which looked nice. No one was around, however, so we stopped in the parking lot to asses our options. We had a young boy yell down at us. He then came down to help us. He was the son of the owners. We arranged to take their one available room for 73 Euros including breakfast.  We also arranged to stay for dinner at 7:00.

Dinner was fantastic! Frau Grimm came and introduced herself and chatted a bit. We told her that her son had done quite well with his English skills. We had a 1/2 liter of a local rose wine, which was good. We also had the "Menu 1" feast with pork loin topped in mushroom gravy, white asparagus, tomatoes, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, spetzel noodles and croquettes (fried potato goodness). It was the best German-style meal I've had.

Gasthous Sonne was another good find in a small town - highly recommended if you are in the area.

May 3, Monday - "Automowers" and Gas Station Bistros

I had a long winter's nap from 8:30 pm until 6:30 am. There's nothing like 10 hours sleep to beat the jet lag. We had breakfast at 7:00 - an AMAZING breakfast (it should have been at 25 CHF per person!).

I had croissant, danish, apricot preserves, raw honey, orange and passion fruit juice, eggs, yogurt, fresh fruit, muesli and coffee. By 9:00 we were off on the bikes!

We thought it might be hard to navigate ot of town. But, it was very easy to get to Rumlang and then Oberglatt, which had a cool, modern bell tower on the church. Then, we picked up Swiss national bike route 29, which was easy to follow.  It was cold in the morning, but the sun peeked out here and there.

We intersected route 60 and joined that north-westward. The off-road (meaning paved, but separated from the cars) cycling infrastructure was amazing. We only had a couple blind crossings at roundabouts, but started to get used to it.

Lunch was in Koblenz (the Swiss version), where we stopped at a pizza/pasta place. We had bruschetta and pesto pasta - yum! We joined route 2 heading directly west and almost completely off the road and rambled through the rolling mustard fields and vineyards. We enjoyed several varieties of lilacs in bloom - all with their sweet fragrance. We also enjoyed the regular billboards advertising the "Automower". Apparently, it is like a Roomba for your lawn. Seems like there might be a market for that here in the USA, no? Of course, it might supplant the driving mower market, which is dominated by John Deere.

We decided Rhinefelden was about far enough for the day (nearing 100k, or 60 miles). We tried a hotel right on the Rhine in a cute town center. It was 195 Euro, so we decided to push on. In a small suburb, Herten, we found a business/industrial hotel for 90 Euro and decided to call it a day (as rain was starting to fall lightly). We only had 23 Euro in cash that I had scammed off my dad before we left. And, we weren't sure what the dining scene or ATM scene was within walking distance. And, the hotel restaurant was not open. So, we hit the "Bistro" attached to the gas station next to the hotel. We were just hoping we could A) purchase dinner for less than 23 Euro, or B) pay with credit card. It turned out A was the only option. So, we had to be strategic. We both had the baked lasagne at 5.70 each and a small beer at 2.30 each, meaning we came in just below our Euro threshold - probably could have had a salad, too. Phew! And, much to my surprise, the gas station bistro wasn't all that bad...the lasagne was, in fact, tasty with 60+ miles in my legs.

We took a short walk after dinner and located the ATM machine in town, at which point we loaded up on enough cash to not put ourselves in that situation again. Upon returning to the hotel, we resisted the urge to buy WeiB Wein or Rot Wein from the vending machine near our room.