Boloco Heartbreak Hill Grand Prix

Sunday was the first ever Boloco Heartbreak Hill Grand Prix which was put on by the Metlife Cycling Team. The race was on a 2.6-mile loop starting and finishing in Newton Center and wound its way along some very heavily used roads including both Beacon St. and Commonwealth Ave. I think most people had a common reaction when they saw the proposed course: will they really be able to close down so many intersections and pull this race off? In the end they did but several last minute changes to the course resulted in the master’s and women’s fields being cut which was really too bad, especially for the women who ended up racing with the cat3’s and did not compete for prize money.

The course itself was pretty cool, technical, a good short hill (Heartbreak Hill), and a fast finish. The start and finish line was in Newton Center which was spectator friendly. The course wove its way through some tight roads with several 90-degree turns and a technical chicane section before turning onto Com Ave. Shortly after turning onto Com Ave. the course went up Heartbreak Hill, which was a gradual 1-minute powerclimb on a bike. After cresting the hill the course turned onto a narrow back road that led out to Beacon St. The turn onto Beacon St. was tight and came after a brief downhill, and was more technical than I expected after my pre-race inspection. Beacon St. led down a fast 40+mph downhill with about a half-mile runout to the finish. Yellow line rule was not in effect except for on Beacon St. (the finish). Beacon St. is pretty wide as it is so this wasn’t much of a problem. The last 100m of the race opened up to the entire road.

97 racers started this race and many of the stronger cat4 names were there. As we lined up in the center of town, I looked around wondering how the heck I would have any chance of sneaking into the top 10 (my goal for the race). After last weekend at Nutmeg I vowed to race near the front (or at least not on the very back!) throughout the race in order to give myself a chance. Of course everyone had the same idea and wanted to start at the front. I hate lining up at a bike race like this. If you’re not being an A-hole and squeezing yourself in at the front, you’re going to start at the back. One racer (who’s name I won’t mention) showed up just minutes before the start well after everyone else was in position and squeezed himself in on the front row, right in the center. Moves like this just seem like bad etiquette.

The race finally got underway after at least 10 minutes of waiting on the line for last-minute changes to the course. I had positioned myself in the second row, between two riders on the front line. Luckily, the racer in front of me with Speedplay pedals clicked in right away and was off, and I was able to sneak through and get a good start within in the front 20 racers. The first lap was an insane pace, and the second lap wasn’t much easier. The racers on the front must have been accelerating hard out of the corners in the technical section of the course. Even in the top 20 I was really feeling the accordion effects and I can’t imagine how hard it was on the back. This start quickly reminded me of the Tufts Criterium where I was either doing 600-800W or coasting, nothing in between. Trying to avoid a repeat of that disaster of a race, I made a conscious effort to smooth things out and avoid hard 1,000W sprints coming out of turns (although I still did this twice). I suffered more during the first two laps of this race than I did at any other point, just praying that the pace would eventually ease up. After the first two laps, (~10 mintues) it did.

As the pace calmed down a bit I was able to rest and settle in, but I was overheating pretty badly by the mid point of the race. Doing any work at the front of this race was completely out of the question. Going with the long sleeve skinsuit was a bad decision with the mid-80’s temperatures. I did carry an extra water bottle for cooling and that proved to be a huge relief when I finally used it with about 3 laps to go. Until then I was suffering pretty badly each time we went up Heartbreak Hill. My legs were tired on the climb, but weren’t too bad. I was breathing hard, but not too hard. It was mostly my battle with the heat that was killing me. In my mind I was going to be lucky to finish with the pack, let alone shoot for a top 10 finish.

So with 3 to go I gave myself a shower with my extra water bottle and cooled off significantly. At this point it had been several laps since I had worried about gaining position, and if you’re not moving up, you’re moving back. I was easily 40 wheels back but I felt good now. Gradually I started working on gaining position, moving up a few wheels on the climb, and a few more on the downhill. By the time we came around for the bell lap, I was sitting in around 25 wheels back. Fortunately the course played out such that any break attempts were quickly brought back.

My plan for the last lap was pretty clear in my mind: make sure to have good position through the technical section to ensure that I would start the Heartbreak Hill climb in good position as well. I expected that the last climb would be the hardest part of the race for me, and that I would have to suffer tremendously as the pace picked up on the last lap. I needed to start the climb towards the front to maintain contact with the leaders and have any shot at the finish. It was unlikely that I would be able to climb strong enough to gain position on the finishing lap.

As we came out of the technical section I was in good position for the climb. Much to my surprise, the pace felt mellow going up the hill and there was minimal swarming. Perfect! I did bump tires with a racer in front of me as I got squeezed in and tried to hold my position. Luckily I was able to keep my front wheel under control. As we crested the top of the hill for the last time I was on teammate Bernard Tan’s wheel, and he had a close call of his own locking shoulders with the guy next to him for a few seconds. They both played it cool though and stayed upright.

I was still about 20 wheels back as we came to the tight right hander onto Beacon St. By chance I was on the outside of the turn, and with the pace really heating up for the final sprint, I just wanted to stay upright on this turn. Being on the outside I knew I was in the riskier lane, but I was also in the faster lane. I stayed as far to the outside as I could, and immediately went into sprint mode during as we came out of the turn. The racers at the front were really drilling it, and if I hadn’t powered through the turn a gap surely would have formed. I did overtake a couple racers in front of me who were letting big gaps open up, and I powered my way up to the lead group of 10 racers.

Coming down the Beacon St. hill wasn’t exactly easy, but considering that it was the 1-mile stretch approaching the finish it was extremely easy. Anyone that didn’t have an 11-tooth cog was hating life right about now. Juniors didn’t have a prayer. Our speed reached 45 mph and if you were spun out, you weren’t going to finish well. I was sitting very comfortably about 10 wheels back, practically coasting, as the people at the front of this group were probably totally drilling it. When we hit the flats I came out into the wind for no good reason, considered going for it, but wised up and stayed sheltered for just a little longer. I kept the pressure on the pedals as we came across the flats, just moving from wheel to wheel, being sure to continue moving up nice and smooth.

The finish line came up a lot faster than I expected. As I moved into 6th position I finally got a sense of how the race was playing out for the win, but the finish line was only about 100m up. Ben Liang (Target Training) had launched a super strong sprint coming around Ari Shocket (BHCC) and Colby Ricker (NEBC) who were out of the saddle in full sprint mode. I ramped up my power output just enough to move into 5th place as we crossed the line. It was a very conservative and efficient finish, and I felt like I never really laid it all out on the line, but I was thrilled to finish in 5th.

After playing the race out in my mind a bunch of times and looking at my power data, I’m still not sure which point in the race gave me the chance to be at the front. I’d quote some power numbers for the finishing durations of the race, but they’re all so low that they’re really meaningless. Looking at the results, there are a lot of names that I am surprised did not finish in the top 10 or 20. I would have expected these people to be right there for the finish. The one unique thing in my power data that I noticed was how “spikey” my power output was. My efforts on the last lap were anything but smooth, instead full of light sprinting and coasting. This kind of effort is taxing but doesn’t give high average power over short durations (like in the 1-minute range). Perhaps it was these super spikey efforts that got me to the finish near the front, I’m not really sure. Another theory is that I just stayed out of the wind for the entire race, but then again there must have been a lot of other people to do that as well. Either way, I’ll take the result, $53 is my biggest payday yet.

After the race Erica and I hung out and had beer and pizza at Bob’s Pizzeria in Newton Center while watching the cat3 and Pro/Am race. A lot of very fast riders were in the Pro/Am race and it was a blast to watch. I hope they can bring this race back for next year.

Nutmeg, Wells, and a Century+

Three races at two different locations were on the schedule for this weekend. Saturday morning was the Nutmeg Games in New Britian with both a 4/5 and 4 field. Sunday morning I made a last minute decision to head down to Wells Ave and made it just in time for the A race.

Nutmeg, 4/5 Field

Only 20 starters or so, perhaps due to the early start time of 8 AM. The cat 4 field had something like 70 starters, and I was surprised there weren’t more here. Stayed at Big Time’s in Enfield on Friday night, and we still barely showed up in time for the race at 7:35. At least I didn’t have to get up to make the 2 hour drive from Boston in the morning. We rushed through signup, got dressed, and hopped in the race. Today was the debut for the new “Scorpion Slayers” kits and we were ready to rock.

The course is a 1-mile loop with mostly gentle turns. There’s a little bit of a climb after the back straight, followed by a downhill left-hander leading into a 300m flat to the finish. Other than a little hole on the climb, the pavement is fast and smooth. Both the 4/5 and 4 fields would do 20 laps for 2 miles total.

I spent the first several laps sitting on the back of our 20 man field to warm up a bit and feel out the track. With such a small field the pace was consistently slow, but every time someone tried to make a break everyone would chase it down.

There were three primes in the race. The first two were two-place primes, and the third was winner take all. As we approached the line with 15 to go I moved up from the back, anticipating the prime bell to ring. No such luck. I spent the lap on the front riding hardish tempo and on the next lap, the prime bell rang. I eased up a bit to force people to come around me if they wanted to go faster. Sure enough a rider or two came around and I grabbed a wheel. I sat three wheels back until we crested the short climb, and launched an attack as we approached the downhill left-hander. Coming out of the turn I was out in the front, but at least one rider had been able to snag my wheel. I popped out of the saddle to start an early sprint, but it was just too far to go and I didn’t accomplish much more than provide a lead out. In doing so I reached a new all time high heart rate of 201 bpm. It was a struggle to rejoin the pelican. Big Time missed my initial move but fought hard to overtake the three riders who had latched on and came up just short in the end.

The second prime seemed to come up quickly, and it was a no go for me. I didn’t feel right after that first attempt. Maybe it had to do with my heart rate breaking the 200 barrier, who knows. Big Time was out for blood after missing the move on the first prime and looked like he was positioned perfectly to take the second. I couldn’t see much from back in the field, but he ended up narrowly missing the prime at the line, taking third. Immediately after the prime, Oscar Jimenez (NEBC) and Matthew Spaits (BRC) launched an attack that really strung out the field for 2 additional laps of pain.

Shortly after things settled down, the prime bell rang again with 7 to go. I really wasn’t feeling very strong at this point, and had no intentions of contesting it. However, everyone else must have been suffering even more than me. The rider in front of me slowly moved up along side the pelican as we went down the back straight and continued to move up as we went up the hill. There was no reaction whatsoever by anyone. I held onto his wheel as we came around the downhill turn. With 300m to go he tried the same move that I had attempted on the first lap, coming out of the saddle to sprint. It was not a very explosive effort, and I was able to hold his wheel with ease while staying seated. With 100m to go I came around with a ~80% effort. Another racer that had been on my wheel tried to come around me shortly after, but I was able to turn up the gas to 100% and win the prime. Sprint power wasn’t too crazy at 1030W for 5, but this was enough to take the HR up to 199 from 195 bpm. It’s tough to produce big power when your heart rate is so high.

On the very next lap there was a crash. Coming around the downhill left-hander the pelican was 2 riders wide. I was on Big Time’s wheel on the outside when a junior rider on the inside line lost control of his front wheel. He came shooting to the outside and made hard contact with Big Time’s left shoulder. The weight differential here must’ve been at least 50 or 60 pounds, and this poor junior might as well hit a wall. His bike jumped sideways and he went down hard at 25 mph, laying out directly in front of me. I thought I was done for, but luckily I was able to aim for a line between his body and his bike and bunny hopped almost completely over him. My rear tire got a little tangled up on something, maybe his front wheel. As I went to sprint back into the pelican my rear wheel got loose and I was sure something was wrong. I stopped at the SRAM tent and got taken care of by Merlin.

Coming into the last lap I made sure to be on Matthew Spaits’ wheel. I was sure he was the strongest rider in the field, and I ended up being right. He seemed to have a leadout rider working for him that drove up the pace a bit and kept things single file until the hill. I was sitting third wheel as we went up the hill, but knew that the pace wasn’t fast enough to keep people from swarming for long. A train was coming up the inside of the turn and I freaked. I didn’t want to lose my position. As we crested the top of the hill I attacked on the outside, and Oscar jumped on my wheel. He shouted at me repeatedly “GO JAY GO!” and we got a nice gap. We were doing 31 as we went around the downhill turn. Oscar continued to encourage me to go, and I gave one last effort for just 10 seconds or so before I blew up completely. Oscar came around with nice acceleration, but came up just short at the line, being overtaken by Spaits. After blowing up I couldn’t turn over another pedal stroke and coasted the rest of the way to the finish. We really did have a nice gap, and it took the pelican quite a bit to overtake me. Big Time rolled through in 12^th, right next to me in 13^th.

Nutmeg, 4 Field

The cat 4 race went off right after the 4/5 race, and I felt sick. The sun was beating down hard, my stomach was out of control, and I was doubtful I’d even be able to finish. I lined up at the back of the ~70 man field just hoping to hold on.

Immediately after rolling out it was obvious that the pace would be much quicker than the 4/5 field. We had only averaged 23.0 in the 4/5s, probably due to the small field size. In the 4 field, we would average 25.7. I think a few riders got dumped off the back early on.

During the first 10 laps I was oblivious to what was going on. I just sat on the back doing my best to recover. We were going way faster than the previous race, but sitting in felt effortless. With 10 to go I was feeling a thousand times better and started to move up in the field.

Unfortunately, moving around in a cat4 field of 70 on a course that really isn’t very wide was nearly impossible. There were some very sketchy riders around me, and I definitely didn’t feel comfortable trying to squeeze my way to the front. After 3 or 4 laps of doing what I thought could be called “moving up”, I looked behind me and no one was there. I was still on the rear end of the pelican.

That was pretty much the race for me. I continued to try and move up right to the finish, but the course was just jammed from side to side. In the end I rolled through the finish somewhere in the middle. I was extremely frustrated having gone most the race without making any real effort or really even racing at all. Big Time actually got to touch some wind air at the front of the pelican, but also ended up being stuck for the sprint to the finish. I can’t say I’m a fan of such crowded races. Looking at the power data, this was by far the easiest race of the weekend for me despite being much faster than the 4/5 field. That’s the power of the pelican!

Wells Ave ‘A’ Race – 6/22

Erica was leaving Sunday morning for a work related trip. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do for riding, but I had a craving to race more having screwed up my finish in the Nutmeg 4/5 race and having a meaningless race in the 4 field. There was also a Cervelo event going on at Wells that I wanted to check out. After sleeping in too long, and seeing Erica off, I left the house at 10 AM. I was lucky to make it down to Wells Ave at the end of the B race, where Colby Ricker (NEBC) was delivering some hurt in a 3-man breakaway on a demo Soloist. I signed up for the A Race about 5 minutes before the start.

The Cervelo event looked awesome. They were setting up a ton of riders on absolutely sick bikes (including the SLC-SL) decked out with 2008 Zipp wheelsets. I had mixed feeling about demoing one, not wanting any additional desire to blow ten large on a bicycle that won’t make me any faster than my six13. In the end the lack of time kept me from demoing one.

I’ve never raced a pure ‘A’ race at Wells before. I’ve done the combined A/B race plenty of times, but have always raced with the B’s when given the choice. The BRC racer at registration snickered when I said I was a cat 4, and added that the field was large (60+) and likely to be very fast.

I spent the majority of the race hiding out of the wind. There was a nasty headwind around turn 3 or 4, and every time I thought about shooting for a prime it would change my mind. Coming around turn 3 on the outside of the pelican while trying to move up was brutal, felt like hitting a brick wall. I wasn’t suffering as badly as I expected sitting in, but chasing down primes probably would have killed me so I ended up not contesting any.

There was a women’s prime during the middle of the race. I was wondering if such a thing would even work with a pelican full of dudes constantly attacking, but I think it may have ended up working out. It was as if the pelican went neutral as the women came to the front and duked it out for the prime. Even the lap after the prime stayed relatively slow before we resumed racing speed. This was a pretty sweet break and my heart rate went as low as 138.

With four to go I started gaining position to set up for the finish. It was refreshing to be able to do so after Nutmeg. I got up to the front third of the field and noticed champion sprinter Roy Van Cleef (NEBC) there so I stuck to his wheel. With one to go we were still a good 20 wheels back while moving quickly at 30 mph, and I was starting to think “you going to move up some day Roy?” Normally when I want to move up I look to a side of the pelican to do it. Not Roy. We hit the back stretch and a nice hole opens up right in the middle for him and we moved up to 5 or 10 wheels back, but I did get detached from his wheel. Coming around turns 3 and 4 I stuck to the inside and moved up to get on a two-man Quad Cycles train that was moving fast. With 200m to go the Quad Cycles leadout pulled off and the sprinters were making their moves. I had the pleasure of watching Roy on my left take off with ridiculous acceleration. Truly amazing. I tried to do the same but could barely hit 1000W, something like 75% of my peak sprint power when fresh. Still, I was able to come around a few riders and finish in what I think was 9^th, just a few bike lengths back from the winner. After the race I got to meet Solobreak (see link at right).

After the race I went over the Panera for lunch, had 2 cokes, then met up with Rich (Scorpion Slayers) for a ride. Riding with Rich goes something like this: ride at threshold, ride at threshold, ride more at threshold, totally random attack for 5 minutes, more riding at threshold, totally random downhill sprint, more riding at threshold, repeat. We ended up doing this for 60 miles after the race, bringing me to 106 miles for the day. After 75 miles of riding I was doing 10 minute efforts at 275W, just short of FTP. At mile 93 we had a downhill sprint race (I lost) and I hit 1300W doing so. The ride was relentless.

Charlie Baker Time Trial - 6-18-08

With Longsjo coming up in just another 2 weeks, tonight was one of the last Charlie Baker Time Trials I could use to prepare. Early in the season it was my intention to focus on time trialing and be really dialed in by now. That plan was set back when I crashed and totaled my Orbea back in late April. Instead of focusing on TT positions, I spent more time on dialing in my road position on the new Cannondale. Not until the past 2 weeks have I made any significant efforts to work on my position.

This week was a highly experimental week. The “cookie-cutter” position that I’ve been trying to make work just didn’t seem very fast. In fact, it was hardly any faster than the cannibal position with no aero bars. On the plus side it was comfortable and power output was good. I wanted to go the other direction with my position. I wanted to try a position that was aggressive and very aerodynamic, with no concern for comfort/power output.

Also experimental was the equipment. This was the first week I’ve used all the aero toys which include aero bars, aero helmet, disc wheel (covered open pro), carbon front wheel, skinsuit, and shoe covers.

I was well rested for the time trial, coming off of two recovery days. Weather was 67F and about 50% RH with scattered T-storms in the area. The rest would help my time, and the weather would be about average. Warmup was good including a one hour ride to the race followed by a few VO2 max efforts within 15 minutes of the start.

Excitement got the best of me and I started off too hard, 410W for the first minute, 374W for the first two minutes, well above threshold. Heart rate reached 185 bpm 2 minutes into the race. Threshold HR is about 175-180. I realized this early on and tried to settle into a more sustainable pace. I had a fast 30-second guy (with no aero gear) that may have contributed to my going out too hard.

The racer staged 30 seconds behind me caught and passed me in Carlisle center. I was dragging a bit going up the hill into town center so I imagine he made up a bunch of time on me there. On the downhill out of town I swear he practically stopped pedaling. I was pedaling as easy as 150W at times trying to avoid passing him back. I think this little break may have given me a taste of how nice it would feel to stop pedaling and it was all downhill from there on out.

As we turned onto Monument Road I was really getting sick of racing and my power output went way down, and my frustration way up. I couldn’t get comfortable in the saddle and it seemed like there was no efficient way to pedal. At one point I looked down and was doing only 180 watts. Fading power output left me with a good amount of energy for the finish and made a decent sprint effort to cross the line at 24:16.6 according to my PowerTap (although official time is always slower for some reason). This would be a PR of 43 seconds over my previous best which was set 2 weeks ago.

Average power for the race was a new low for the season, 252 watts. Average heart rate was 180 bpm, a new high, maybe due to good rest. Power decreased over the course of the race, likely due to a combination going out too hard and becoming uncomfortable in the aggressive position. Average power in 5 minute increments looked like this:

First 5-minute block: 323W
Second 5-minute block: 248W
Third 5-minute block: 232W
Fourth 5-minute block: 220W
Fifth 5-minute block: 231W

Seeing the average power dip below 230W for the last 15 minutes of the race was a big shock. On training rides in road bike position I’ve averaged 230W for literally 3 hours. I think shows just how uncomfortable the aggressive position was.

White Mountain Wheels (see link on right) has an Excel spreadsheet that makes for interesting time trial analysis. It requires a several inputs including rider weight, equipment weight, weather conditions, CdA (aerodynamic drag), rolling resistance, power output, and course details. I’ve been using this model to calculate the theoretical CdA of my various time trial positions. I download gps (.hst) files off of motionbased.com for each TT course I want to look at, simplify the courses up into 20 or less segments, and input that into the WMW model. Inputs such as weight and weather conditions are pretty easy to determine. Wind and rolling resistance are a little bit of a wag. Calculations aren’t very sensitive to variations in rolling resistance, although wind calculations are. Wind is probably the largest source of error in the model. For the CBTT, the course is run in a loop and is pretty well protected from wind compared to other courses. This does help minimize the error created by wind. Power output is also easy, I just use the power numbers from the PowerTap. Using this methodology I can somewhat accurately calculate my CdA for various positions. I think it’s better than just comparing power output and speed because it takes weather conditions (air density) into account.

As I said in the second paragraph, the goal for tonight was not to get the fastest time possible, but instead to get the best calculated CdA possible. Assuming that this was the goal, the night was a huge success! Here are the CdA numbers:

The April 17 time trial was a massive disappointment because I had much higher expectations for my first time using the aero bars. In the May 25 time trial I had taken almost a full 90 seconds of the April 17 time with out using any aero equipment! This was largely due to average power increasing from 258W to 285W, but I do think CdA was better in cannibal position than with aero bars. On June 15 I performed some serious testing, doing intervals on the CBTT course with aero gear, including helmet (I got lots of funny looks), and achieved a calculated CdA of only 0.300 (at nearly 300W). This was extremely frustrating. However, after making some aggressive adjustments, I am very pleased to see that my calculated CdA for the June 18 time trial was a whopping 0.230. This value is even better than the benchmark CdA set by White Mountain Wheels for full TT gear of 0.239. Granted power output is suffering severely, but I think this can be fixed by making some minor adjustments to improve comfort. I am very encouraged to finally have achieved what I think is a good aerodynamic position.

Womp, 6/11

Wompatuck Wednesday happened this week, no rain or heat waves to mess things up. Despite being low 90’s in Wellesley during the day, it was down to 78 at Womp for the start of the race. Perfect weather for racing, yet somehow Jess still used it as an excuse not to race this week.

With Jess bailing on us, it was just Rich and I in the race. We were supposed to have matching jerseys for the race, but UPS messed up and couldn’t get our orders delivered on time. At least we’ll have them for next time.

For the first time we actually made the start of a Womp race. Normally we either don’t leave early enough to beat traffic, or have a stupid problem like flatting during warmup. We lined up in the middle of a field that looked to be about 30 (and eventually grew to ~50), and rolled out at a leisurely pace.

My legs were tired today, and I just sat on the back for the first 9 of 25 laps trying to loosen up a bit. Rich hung out there too and we had some good conversation time. After nine laps of doing nothing that even closely resembled racing, we went up to the front to make a tiring and pointless effort.

There were two Bicycle Link riders up the road that had been there for a few laps with a nice little gap of maybe 10 seconds or something. I went off the front and bridged up to that and brought Rich and another rider with me. That was a lot of work, took 660W for 30 seconds and we averaged 31mph. I was tired once we got there, and after catching my breath for a minute and pulling through for one pull I decided break efforts weren’t going to be my thing today. I dropped back to the Pelican to hang out some more.

Not a whole lot else happened for me until the last laps. I didn’t have any interest in trying to get in a breakaway, and it seemed to be hard enough work for today to sit in.

With maybe eight to go a pair of Bicycle Link riders went off the front again. I’m not sure if this was the same pair that was off earlier because there must’ve been 10 or 15 BL guys in the race, but they looked good and grew a sizeable gap pretty quickly. After two or three laps of staying away, a few riders tried to bridge up to their break. I think a racer or two may have even made contact, but all the bridge attempts eventually came back.

Four laps to go and the duo was still off the front with a good margin. I made my way towards the front willing to make some efforts to bring it back together. A team of four or five Bicycle Link guys were at the front that weren’t really riding super slow, but were effective in making it difficult for anyone to take serious pulls. When I got to the front to pull I just slowly rolled off the front and was unsuccessful in closing down the gap. At this point we crossed the line and there were only 2 laps to go. I was sure the break was going to make it now.

After taking a somewhat serious pull I got some shelter in the pelican. My legs felt weak and were cramping slightly. As we approached the one to go sign, I was swarmed on both sides as racers jockeyed for position. I fell back way further than I would have liked. Rich was in a good spot but on the other side of the road and at least five wheels up. Ideally I would have liked to be with him but I couldn’t get there.

Coming up the little rise on the last lap I made a move up the right side to gain position. I might have been able to get with 5 wheels of the front but a blown up rider took my lane. As we made the left hand turn at the top the pace of the pelican went full speed and we strung out single file. I’m not sure who was pulling up there but the pace went to 30+ mph for the remainder of the race. I sprinted around a couple more riders to grab tenth wheel, Rich was maybe five wheels in front of me.

The pace was so high that I began questioning whether or not it was sustainable to the finish. Racers within the single file line were letting gaps open in front of them as they blew up. On the back straight I came around a rider who wasn’t holding his wheel. I saw Rich started to let a gap open in front of him, but he was smart and dug deep to close it.

By the time we got past the sharp left-hander our group of eight had broken away from the pelican, but whoever was leading it out was blowing up. Our group of eight started making slalom turns, at least four of them, as the strong leadout guy was trying to pull off the front and no one else would pull through. We were zig-zagging back and forth from each extreme side of the road. I considered for a brief moment attacking up the side, but I was afraid of tangling up with all the movement and I really don’t think I had the legs to do it anyways.

As we came by the start line our group went haywire. Some of the group was blowing up, and a few sprinted on. I think Rich was first wheel at this point and he was moving fast. I came off of my saddle to try accelerating around the riders that were on their way back, but there wasn’t much left in my legs. I kept the pedals turning at about 500W which was enough to maintain ground but not nearly enough to contest the field sprint.

The two breakaway riders just managed to hold off the sprint, taking first and second. Rich was in third with 50m to go, but just got nipped by a Tony Cycles racer who probably had the most ideal position in the field sprint. Rich ended up 4^th. I passed a rider or two just before line (although they might have given up) and finished 6^th.

Hopefully next time we’ll have our full Womp team there with new kits. Jess, Big Time, make it happen!

Mystic Velo Criterium

The three days prior to the Mystic Velo Criterium were rainy and I didn’t ride much, forcing me into a mini-taper before the race. On both Wednesday and Thursday I tried to get some work done indoors on the trainer, but I just can't seem to get it done there. Power output is terrible relative to perceived effort. All three days turned into easy recovery rides.

I was really looking forward to this race. The field was going to be a good size with about 60 racers pre-reg'd. The flat and twisty Ninigret track seems to suit me well and I always enjoy myself there. This was also my first race of the season using my slick new carbon wheelset and they felt great. I really missed not having PowerTap data for the race, but the PT wheel adds somewhere around three-quarters of a pound to the weight of my bike compared to the carbon rear. It may just be mental but I swear the carbon wheels feel much faster.

NEBC had five in the cat 4 field, including Joe, Oscar, Colby, Bernard, and myself. Since my legs were extra good for today and it was my only race for the weekend, my plan was to spend a little more time than usual at the front. There were a handful of strong riders I wanted to watch for a breakaway opportunity. Guido (the happy German), Paul Miller, two BHCC racers, and Cambridge Bicycles were all threats in my mind.

Right from the start the size of the field was annoying. Everyone seemed to have a different idea of what the right way to take the corners is. Younger inexperienced looking guys were dive bombing the turns on the inside and hitting the brakes hard mid turn. Older more experienced looking racers refused to do so and would weave their way between through the braking riders on the turns sometimes at a significant speed differential. The race did not have a very nice feel to it.

It was announced before the race that there would be one $20 prime during the 22-lap race. I think they ended up ringing the bell on lap 3, maybe lap 4. It was really early on anyways. I would have liked to make an attempt for it, but I was very casual at the start lining up in the back quarter and was way too far back to have a shot.

With about 15 to go Oscar pulled up along side me and said that he wanted to ride around on my wheel. He wasn't enjoying the craziness that was going on mid-pelican and wanted to stay at the front to be safe. I had an interest to expand a bit more energy riding up front anyways, and if I could have a teammate sitting on my wheel, all the better.

From here on out I got one heck of a good workout, never falling back more than five wheels. I grabbed a wheel when I could, but spent a real lot of time out in the wind. In fact, I've ever spent so much time out of the draft.

Not once did I initiate an attack, but I did chase down several. All attacks were fruitless, and no one was able to stay away for more than one lap. The wind was gentle but consistent coming out of the southwest, which meant a headwind on the back straight and a tailwind at the finish. I didn’t expect this wind to keep things together so much, but apparently it was enough.

With three to go, I was feeling really tired. With two to go I was ready to puke, but held it together for another lap at the front. When they rang the finishing bell on the last lap I thought I was going to blow up and considered pulling off to give others a clear shot. I was being swarmed by riders on either side so I grabbed a wheel about 5 or 10 back and hung on for dear life. I wasn’t really sure if Oscar was still on my wheel or not at this point but that was about the only thing that kept me going. With half a lap to go Joe moved up on the inside of the track. We were really strung out at this point and I was able to move to the inside and got on the wheel of who I believed to be Paul Miller. Going through the last turn Miller moved up hard on the inside. I pedaled out of the turn with everything I had moving myself up on the inside as far as about 5^th position before totally blowing up with 100m to go. At this point I could barely turn a pedal over and more or less coasted the last 100m. Joe came around me with tremendous acceleration but got blocked out by another racer shortly after, ruining his shot at a top five finish. After being passed by what felt like the entire pelican, I was happy to find out I was still 14^th across the line. It took me a good 5 minutes after the race to catch my breath. My wee-sized lungs weren’t too happy with my decision to go so deeply anaerobic after (presumably) riding around threshold for most of the race.

So no power data to talk about in this race report. I hate not having my data to look at, it kind of feels like the race never happened. I usually like to look at average power in the crucial time increments leading up to the finish. For this race I’m sure that all average power from 30 minutes down to 2 or 3 minutes would have been relatively high. What would be of most interest is the last minute or two. It’s one thing to practice anaerobic finishing efforts when you’re fully recovered, but to do so starting from a heart rate above 180 is another. It’s this type of effort that you end up hitting your max heart rate and it happens very rarely (at least for me). I’ve never hit within 5 bpm of max heart rate during training. Even during the majority of races I rarely come within 5 bpm of max HR as it takes just the right sequence of events to create that kind of push. It’s this kind of effort that you get to see your true maximum power effort for some duration or another. I’m bummed that I didn’t have the PowerTap wheel on to record it.

Auburn Road Race

The weather for the Auburn Road Race was terrible. Mid-50’s and pouring down rain. At times the rain was coming down so hard it hurt. Motivation to race was low. We had a nice relaxed breakfast in the morning at our motel, and we made several jokes about just driving back home. The rain did ease up from the time we drove from the motel to the start, right up until the start of the race. Once the race started, the rain started. At least it held off long enough to get us going.

The cat 4/5 race was 3 laps, 35 miles, and had 60 starters. The course itself is relatively flat for a road race, but does feature a couple short and steep power climbs that are a little selective. There is also a few sharp 90-degree turns that wouldn’t be a big deal in a crit, but in a rainy road race people slowed way down for them and sprinted out hard. The finish is a long straightaway with a very slight incline that is about a mile long that starts just after a series of steep power climbs. The fastest sprinter to stay intact over the power climbs would probably take the race.

Once again I lined up at the very back of the field. I just can’t seem to get to the start of the race in time to get a decent position. It wasn’t raining yet so I tossed my rain jacket into the bushes and off we went.

First lap pace was slow as slime. Racers were a lot more patient today than at Sunapee, and not once did I see anyone bump each other or lock up a wheel or any of that sketchy stuff. There was one guy who was very vocal about how slowly we were going, and pushed himself into every hole he could find to move up a position or two when we were bunched up. I was pleased to see he ended up dropping off the back on a hill before the end of the first lap. I moved up a few positions from the back during the one or two times on the first lap when we got stretched out, hoping to avoid getting caught behind a split in the field through the power climbs. Coming up the climbs the pace got hard, but was still very manageable. Coming over the finishing straight the pace stayed quick, and it kept anyone that was dropped from rejoining the field.

Coming down the decent after the first lap I ended up behind some nervous descenders that let quite a gap open in front of them. I had to make a big effort to come around and close the gap on the flats before the first power climb. The pace up this first climb ended up being a lot harder than the first lap, and then stayed hard around the sharp corners and into the downhill. Other than the finish, this was the hardest part of the race for me. I think a lot of riders got shelled here because when things finally settled down, I was once again sitting on the end of the pelican.

The rain was on and off at this point, and when it was on, it was really letting loose. The rain was falling so hard at times it hurt. My glasses were fogging up so badly I could hardly see. I kept switching to having my glasses low on my nose so I could look over the tops, but nothing seemed good. I was sitting on the back with a good ten foot buffer to the wheel in front of me. I can’t imagine everyone else could see as little as I could and still ride so close together without crashing. I’m sure I would have taken someone out if I were riding elbow to elbow.

The cold rain was also really draining on my muscles. Towards the end of the second lap and then again in the middle of the last lap the pace got really slow, and my muscles really froze up. It was hard to force my way up the power climbs with such cold muscles and the lactic acid was really building up. I never got in real danger of being dropped but my legs didn’t exactly feel great by any means.

Half way through the last lap I was still sitting on the back. We were bunched up on the narrow course, and the only people that were moving up were violating the yellow line rule. Thoughts began running through my head of just rolling through with a pack finish. Luckily for me, with somewhere around half a lap to go, someone must have attacked out of a corner or something because the pelican stretched double file. I hadn’t done any work to this point and felt great, so I took the opportunity to move up significantly, all the way to about fifth wheel.

So with half a lap to go I was sitting out in the wind but only five wheels back. I felt strong enough to ride on the side of the field, even though it was more work, and kept my good position. I was blocking off the yellow line the best I could to make it difficult for anyone else to move up and the plan seemed to work well. With the power climbs coming up in about a mile, a few of the bigger looking riders started launching attacks and really stretched things out. This forced me to grab a wheel and stay sheltered, but I never came back more than 10 wheels. The attacks didn’t work, and the riders were brought back in before the climbs.

As soon as we hit the climbs the pace went from hard to crazy. Attacks were coming left and right, and I was losing position trying not to blow up on anything stupid. I was hurting after the first pair of camelback climbs, but had a good wheel and was intact about 10 wheels back. Coming up the last rise before the finishing stretch everyone went really crazy, and I felt like I was practically sprinting. There was a crash on the left side near the front, but I was far enough behind it that it didn’t really affect me.

Cresting the top of the climb I was really blowing up, and was sure I was about to get dropped. To my surprise, the ten riders or so that were in front of me practically stopped, and I was able to just maintain contact. They must have hammered up the hill way too hard, because we were crawling along the flat straightaway. I got a good rest in, and all of the sudden felt like a million bucks. Feeling good, I made a move up the left side and was third wheel before I knew it. I could barely see, and thought the finish line was coming up, so I made a big effort up the left side moving up into the wind. At this point I really thought I was going to win, or at least podium, and was full of adrenaline. As I crested what I thought was the last little rise before the finish, I realized I was still a good 300-400m out. I tried to keep pushing my big gear the best I could, but I was totally redlined. As we passed 200m to go, riders begun coming around either side of me. With 50m to go I could barely turn over a pedalstroke and I was being completely swarmed. Two or three riders came around me right at the finish, and I ended up in twelfth. My legs felt more charged with lactic acid than ever before.

I was really happy to finish twelfth, especially in a road race, and am sure I could have done much better if I had timed my finish well. The numbers for the race are a little deceiving due to the cold weather. Finishing power was especially low relative to my perceived effort. I think this may have been the effect of the cold rain. Average heart rate was relatively low in the 150’s, especially given the normalized power of 280W for the entire race. This also may have been due to the cold. Maximum heart rate was 185 bpm. I was almost dropped over the last climb and that usually doesn’t happen unless my heart rate is well into the 190’s. The point is that data analysis is useless because the cold rain obviously had a significant effect and I have no baseline to compare to.

My form really seems to be coming along right now and I’m anxious to get into some more races. On Sunday I did a solo 95-mile ride out and back to Wachusett for hill repeats. I was very happy with my power output on that ride and felt strong even when I got back, able to do 1000W+ sprints still. It’s too bad that there’s not more races on the June calendar.