Recently in Cycling Category

Last night was my first ride on the new saddle.  The Bontrager Inform RL.  Needless to say it was awesome!  No numbness, no sore spots under my sit bones.  I was able to make the Pungo Loop without having to constantly stand and shift in the saddle. This is the second Bontrager product to go on to my bike.  The first was the Bontrager Fit VR “Mini Drop” handle bars.  They were originally designed for women, but as short as I am they worked perfectly.  So that’s two times that Bontrager has been able to solve fit problems for me on the bike! 

We were riding this Saturday and the person that I was riding with asked if I had done any upgrades on my bike.  That got me to thinking….What has been done to my bike?

I started with the Felt F5C which was a pretty nice bike.  First came a set of Ksyrium SSC SL wheels.  The next upgrade was the Bontrager Fit VR bars.  Several saddles swaps.  Then, I moved up to Campagnolo Chorus from Shimano Ultegra/105.  Now the Bontrager Inform RL Saddle.  The only things on the bike that are original are the seat post, forks, and frame.  So, in the end I have ended up spending almost $3000 for my  ride in it’s current state.  Next time around I think I will start with the frame and build up from there to get what I want in the beginning!  Then again who would have thought that two years ago when I bought the bike I would still be riding it.

What a weekend! Amber and I left Friday night to head up to my "ex-"in laws house for the weekend.  The plan was to spend some time with my son who is staying with them for the summer and get in a bike race. I say "ex-" in laws because they are ex, the marriage that made them my in laws is over, but despite that fact we are still as close as ever. They are the best people! 

Anyways.... the drive up was uneventful and we got there around 10:30 on Friday night. Anyone that has left the Hampton Roads area on a Friday afternoon knows uneventful isn't something that happens very often. There was NO backup at the tunnel, no backup where the super-intelligent traffic engineers had five lanes narrow down to two, and the rest of the trip up 64 was smooth sailing!

6:00 AM Saturday morning came around all to fast after tossing, turning, and having an all around lousy night of sleep. I was dragging! I managed to drag my butt out the door and get three kids and gear packed in to the RAV4 by 7:15 AM.  We got up to Hagerstown around 8:00 which gave me plenty of time to warm up and get myself stressed out about the hills and turn 2. 

The start time finally came and we were off. We made the first left turn going in to the steepest of the two climbs. Made the slight veer off to the right at the top of the hill, then dropped in to the "nasty turn".  There it was the first wreck of the day. It was on the first turn of the first lap of the first race! Wow.... a lot of firsts! The rider in front of me went in to the turn to fast and had his back wheel slide out.  I hopped to the side and some how made it around him.

This "nasty turn" was a very hard left turn coming off of a slight down hill. The turn could have been fast but there was a strange drop off going in to it.  It was one of the spots on the course that I was worried about. Throughout my warm up I was focused on coming up with the best route through without loosing momentum while giving myself the most room to move if other riders lost control.  Coming out of the turn in was a slight down hill with another left turn at the bottom.  Next was a small climb up then a wide 90 left turn that put you in to a headwind heading back to the start/finish line.

After seeing the wreck in the "nasty turn" in the first lap I was really focused and over stressed, but after several laps I managed to settle down.  I became very comfortable with the Cat 5 group I was riding with. They were very stable and seemed to be in control of their bikes.  That is something that doesn't always happen in a Cat 5 race.  I also realized that I was really was really enjoying the course.

The scenery was great and the fact that it was more technical than a flat oval was awesome. I was surprised how fast the racers were too. It seemed that the average pace was faster than that of our races here in VACA land. The hill climbs and the more technical layout of the course broke up the monotony that I find comes from running the same oval and wide turns over and over again.

30 minutes and many laps later I crossed the finish line somewhere in the excess of 34 miles per hour to place 5th. I was supposed to have a first place finish but it seems that the Long "crew" and Matt that were officiating didn't want to believe me when I told them that it didn't matter what the camera and their lap counting sheets said it was me that came across the line first. That aside it was a great race.

Kudos goes to the promoters and everyone else that put on this race. They picked out an awesome course and did a great job with the all of the preparations. The course was well marked, police and course marshals did an AWESOME job keeping it clean and clear, and the officials crew was top notch.  I even saw one of the police officers come out in to the course to pick up a piece of trash! 

The only complaint was that Joe Jefferson guy... he sure does have a mouth on him.... he was doing nothing but talking trash about people and playing awful music. They need to ban him from those MABRA races. Maybe then we can get him down here for some of the VACA events! :)
This was one of my most favorite cycling events so far!

The rest of the day Saturday was spent wandering around Shepherdstown, WV and swimming with my family.  Shepherdstown is a small college town with an artsy flair.  There are a lot of unique shops scattered along the historic main street section.  One thing that always amazes me there is how friendly and welcoming everyone is.  The first place we hit was Lost Dog Coffee shop.  They have a killer selection of loose tea and whole bean coffee.  They also make a great cup of coffee.  Lost Dog also has a nice display of local artwork on display.  Now that we had our caffeine fix we continued up the street and came across a bike shop called Shepherdstown Pedal and Paddle.  The shop was run by a nice guy that even gave my son, Devon, a t-shirt and I didnt even buy anything!  He had a good selection of mountain bikes and some other really nice gear and took the time to just chat with us.  He seemed to be very knowledgeable about the bikes and the area's trails and resources.  One thing that they do is Segway tours, next time I am up there and have more time I am going to have to try that.  Luckily for my wallet on this trip there wasn't too much in the road bike department and the cylco-cross bike that he had was a little too big for me. 
Sunday morning we were pulled from our slumber by the scents of a wonderful breakfast.  Eggs, lots of fresh fruit, sausage gravy, and buckwheat pancakes. We all dug in only to have Amber start having an familiar itching feeling in her mouth. The same one she gets after ingesting walnuts, which she is highly allergic to. We scrambled to find her benadryl.  She took a dose and we hit the road.  The swelling and itching proceeded to get worse, and she even broke out in hives. Two more doses of benadryl and the symptoms finally started to subside. We now know she's allergic to buckwheat in addition to pecans and walnuts.  Hopefully we dont find anything else!  The rest of the ride home was much like the ride up.... minimal traffic and a nice steady speed.
Now I am home, exhausted, and ready to crack in to a nice bottle of Petrus Golden Tripel Ale!

Here is a link to the consolidated results from the Hagerstown Criterium Challenge:

http://www.bikecvcc.com/avc/Events/2008/hagcrit_2008/2008%20Hagerstown%20Challenge%20Criterium%20Results.html

Last night I did a great workout... Spinervals Suffer-O-Rama.  Well, that is if your definition of great is cramping legs at the end of the ride and stiff legs the next morning.  Even with the pain it was fun in a sado-masochistic sort of way.  The weather was perfect and I was excited to get out riding for the first time in a couple of days.  I fired up the iPod to a good hard rock playlist and rode out through the neighborhood at a steady hard pace.  At the turn on to New Bridge Rd it was time to fire up the video and start the real workout.   In this particular video there are several hard 100% effort sets as well as some hard tempo ones.  My legs SCREAMING were screaming even after the first set.  The Suffer-O-Rama work out took me all the way out to Creeds and of course ended there leaving me to struggle all the way home with wasted legs.

I am very happy with the motivation that the combination of music for a warm up and the Spinervals video has been given me on my interval days.  It breaks up the monotony and Coach Troy yelling over your shoulder as you hammer out that effort is a big help at getting the most out of every second of each sets.  It is amazing how much more difficult the workout seems to be on the road than on the trainer!  Especially when it's hard efforts in to a steady 7 to 8 mph wind.  In a couple of weeks I will find out if all the hard work is helping when I race in the Hagerstown Criterium Challenge.  Who knows maybe I will even place well.

The Wounded Warrior Unity Tour:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Hello, “NAME REMOVED TO PROTECT THE HORRIBLY GUILTY!”,

Thanks for agreeing to help spread the word on this.

For the VA Cycling and BikeBeat websites:

"What:  2nd Annual Wounded Warrior Unity Tour
Who:  Armed Forces Cycling Association
When:  Saturday and Sunday, 27 and 28 September, 2008, 8am start with pre-ride briefings and registration starting at 6:30am

Where:  Day 1 = Fort Eustis to Fort AP Hill /// Day 2 = Fort AP Hill to Walter Reed Medical Center
Why:  To support our Wounded Soldiers
How:  Detailed ride/registration info and points of contact are available at www.afca.us/events/events.html"

Thank you for your consideration regarding this most worthwhile event.

Very Respectfully,
”NAME REMOVED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT”
Peninsula Bicycling Association
Killer Bees
United States Air Force (Retired)

This sounds like it would be a great opportunity to get out and show support for those wounded in the line of duty.

So…. I am contemplating doing the Hagerstown Challenge Crit on July 12th.  We were planning a trip up to that area to visit my son anyways, and what better way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday morning?  I haven’t been to Hagerstown, MD for years and I can’t really remember the downtown area that well. 

I have heard that those racers up North don’t know how to ride and I guess it should be up to me to go up there and single handedly teach them the proper racing form. Ok, that was me being sarcastic!

Does anyone have any opinions of that course and what it is like to race?  I really don’t want to make the hour trip up there to Hagerstown from where we will be to race on a course that is nothing but a crash fest.

Josh Goyet has made a post to his blog about his frustration with the successful promotion of races in the area.  His frustrations have led him, and his wife, to start thinking about the promoting a racing series in our area.  To do so we need to show him and his potential sponsors our interest and support for the race series.

I for one would participate in a Va Beach Wheelman race series especially if it meant some crits on more challenging courses.  Oh… how about a road race!

Head over to his blog and post a comment to show your interest and support!

http://firebike.blogspot.com/2008/06/little-pissed.html

Riding the Pace Line

Prologue

A pace line is a group of riders who trade off the lead to share the effort of riding in front so that the other riders can rest in the draft that is created. Some of the benefits of a pace line are safety, efficiency, and speed. Pace lines that lack discipline can be annoying and even dangerous.