Wells Ave B Race - 3/22/09

March racing at Wells Ave will always be at the mercy of unpredictable New England weather. In 2008, March races were held every weekend but with temperatures were in the 30’s. In 2007, snowstorms cancelled at least two of the races. 2009 is off to a great start. 3/15 saw temps reach 50°F for the B race, with it topping out around 60°F after the race. Yesterday wasn’t quite as warm, but March temps in the 40’s aren’t too bad. The sun even poked out after the race to make for a nice post-race ride. If this keeps up I will be spoiled for future races. Ken and Tim met up at my place before the race, and we headed out at 8 AM (yeah it was colder then) for Ken to make the 9 AM C race. For some reason Tim thought it was a good idea to leave South Carolina at noon on Saturday, drive until reaching Boston at 3 AM, and then riding to Wells Ave in freezing temperatures just 5 hours later. Lunatic!

Enough about the weather. The turnout this week looked pretty good again, although maybe not quite as good as the week before. The B race looked to be somewhere around 50 racers, and the A race was more. I raced the B race again this week so that I could see more of the front of the race. Also, my legs were totally destroyed from squeezing in as many miles as possible this week. Maybe I did the B’s again because I’m afraid and didn’t want to race against the heavy hitters in the A race, who knows.

Right from the gun a break of two went off the front. People do this basically every race, and I normally don’t think much of it, but this time it contained Leo Desforges. If anyone could make it work I figured it would be him. But on our first lap coming around the start/finish, with the two dangling off the front, the prime bell rings and off we go. Everyone has fresh legs and feels good 3 minutes into a race so the pace surged. The field swelled up wide as everyone fought to be at the front and it looked to be a very aggressive sprint. I had started casually on the very back and was way too far out of position to go for this early prime. This early prime shut down the break quickly.

After a couple of laps I went from feeling “badly” to “eh” and I moved up for playtime at the front. The prime bell rang again while I was sitting in 15th position, so I got ready to duke it out. Coming over the little riser and down the back stretch we got a little swarmed and I drifted back a few spots. As we came up the finishing straight I was too far back to contend, but I moved up behind the guys that were sprinting hoping to get launched into a break. A couple of us tried to force the pace on turn 2 after the prime, but we didn’t make a real attack, and just strung things out a bit instead.

10 laps in or so Leo worked his way to the front and attacked in turn 3. Nick Mashburn (CB) was on the front and chased him down. Leo’s teammate Matt D’Allessio (sp?) came to the front to slow things down. CB also had people on the front that looked like they’d shut down the field. I wasn’t far back at the time and decided to chase down the break before it got too far away. It didn’t matter much to me if I bridged up or pulled the entire field, and I just smoothly ramped up the power to 500W average for the next minute. I knew someone had my wheel, but it wasn’t until we made contact with Leo and Nick that someone yelled out that we had a gap and that we should try to make it work.

After bridging my legs hurt pretty badly, and I was really hoping to take a short break. As soon as we made contact someone yelled at me to pull through, which I did, and then someone said we needed to pull through harder. Ouch. I started having serious regrets about getting into the break. It didn’t matter much though, after taking just a few pulls and being away for less than 2 laps we were caught. Our average speed while staying away was right around 27 mph and it seemed like the field must’ve stepped up pretty quickly to shut us down.

That breakaway attempt really hurt me and to make thing worse the prime bell rang on the next lap just before I got caught. My legs were on fire as the field caught me coming over the riser on turn 2. I was being overtaken at a huge speed differential and was afraid for a second that I might be dropped. Luckily it was much easier to accelerate once we got on the downhill back stretch and I hopped back on.

For pretty much the rest of the race I was in a world of hurt. Even sitting in didn’t feel good. I tried moving up a few times but I rarely found myself in the front half of the field. Any effort even remotely above threshold made my legs scream. It wasn’t a cramping issue, just an evenly distributed burning sensation throughout my legs. I could keep up with every little surge, it just didn’t feel good at all. Normally breathing is more of an issue for me, but I think this week’s high volume of training made my legs the limiting factor for a change.

A good-sized break of 8 riders or so stayed away for most of the mid-race laps, and I wanted to chase it down, but it contained my teammate Stefan. That just added to my list of excuses to sit in and not do any work.

At 5 to go I was trying to figure out a plan for the remainder of the race. I didn’t want to just roll through the finish without doing anything. I figured there might be a prime with 3 or 4 to go and that I could try for that. Instead I decided to try a Robbie Mcewen sprint for the finish in which I would remain completely hidden from the wind until the last possible minute and pray for a sprinting lane to open up. There was no way I had the legs to hold out on the front and then contest the finish. I put myself about 10 wheels back with 3 or 4 to go.

We came around for the bell lap and I was around 15-20 wheels back on the mid-right side. I figured this was way too far back to have any realistic chance at the finish. Coming up the riser on turn 2 Geoff Martin (NEBC) came out of nowhere to lead out the race. He cranked away on the back straightaway giving all his power to the wind, but where I was sitting it was only 200W of effort. This effort prevented any substantial swarming and I think it may have fatigued the racers that were at the front.

Coming out of turn 4 the finish line came into site, and the sprint was on. Several racers immediately pushed to the outside of the turn desperately searching for an open lane. I was still on the mid- to right side of the road with 15 wheels or more in front of me. Learning from my mistake last week, I stayed seated and in the drops just holding the surging wheel in front of me. It didn’t take long for those surging wheels to start blowing up with more than half the length of the straight away to go. When they blew up their speed decreased significantly, and I actually had to brake to avoid running into their back wheels. Luckily a small hole opened up that gave me a clear lane. For the first time today my legs felt fantastic and I was able to sprint strongly. My sprinting muscles didn’t feel the least bit fatigued. With a perfectly clear road ahead of me I was passing racers rapidly and it wasn’t long before I came up beside the leaders. The line was right there, I threw my bike alongside Scott Glowa (CB), but I came up just short. Two more pedal strokes might have done it.

I was a little bummed to see that the official results had me in 4th place, and I’m almost positive that’s not right. It looked like there may have been some confusion amongst the officials regarding my position because I was originally marked in 5th place, crossed off, and moved up to 4th. Oh well. Either way I was happy with the result.

My Powertap had the average speed for the race at 24.7 mph with the first half being slightly faster than the second half. Power for the race was 252W/211W (average/normalized), lower than last week because I was tired and sat in a ton. Sitting in the majority of the second half of the race yielded a NP of 232W. My finishing effort was 800W for the final 25s with a peak of 1,150W. After the race Tim, Ken and I did 2 hours at 80%. I’m beat today.

Wells Ave B Race - 3/15/09

My 2009 racing season officially kicked off of Sunday at Wells Ave. The weather could not have been much better for March 15th, 45 degrees at 10 AM and not a cloud in sight. Temperatures rose into the 60’s for afternoon riding. Dressing appropriately was challenging because it was 35°F or so when I left my house to ride down. I ended up taking 2 sets of gloves and socks, as well as a bunch of extra warmers. My pockets were stuffed full of extra clothing for the afternoon ride.

With the weather being nearly perfect, it was a great turnout. When we showed up the ‘C’ race was on its bell lap, and the field looked to be around 50 racers. I entered the ‘B’ race, and NEBC had good numbers there with Colby in from Boulder, Brain, Ian, Les, Stephan, and myself all the mix. Lots of other strong riders were there including Leo Desforges, Ben Regan, Jordan Winkler, and a bunch of Cambridge Bicycles guys. There were a number of other strong looking guys working the front that I didn’t recognize, and also some college racers that have great early season fitness. Total starters may have been as high as 75. It seemed like we fast forwarded right to May or June.

Right from the gun the pace was fast. Nothing insane, but it seemed like people were a little more motivated to race hard than usual in March. We went on to average 25.1 mph for the day which is the fastest pure B race I’ve done at Wells including all months of the year. There were a few break attacks right from the gun, but nothing that would ever stick. CB was playing their usual role at the front controlling attacks.

The first prime bell rang just 3 or 4 laps in (out of 30). I was in the front third or so riding next to Colby, and offered him a leadout. We moved up the outside coming around turn two, and by the beginning of turn 3 we were at the front. I drove on the best I could, taking my heart rate up near maximum (196/201) before pulling off shortly after coming onto the finishing straightaway. That’s really too short of a leadout for Wells. With the slightly uphill finish and a bit of a headwind today, I think the ideal leadout would go to 150m-200m out. Colby fought for the finish but I think we effectively just led out some other guys. That straightaway is deceptively long.

After a relatively short rest I was feeling OK but I was motivated to work some more so I went back to the front. Within a lap or two, as if it were on que, the prime bell rang again. Colby came up along side me, offered me a leadout, and brought me straight to the front. As we were coming up the side of the field, a smaller racer tried to squeeze in onto Colby’s wheel when I was obviously right there. I gave him my elbow and I think he got the hint that taking Colby’s wheel was not going to work. Anyways, Colby towed me to the front, and moving down the back straight hill I barely had to pedal. Coming out of turn 4 we were still on the front. I came around Colby way too early, trying to sprint the length of the straight away like he had on the prime before. I thought that I might be able to get an early gap by sprinting out of the saddle early, and trying to hold on. After 25 seconds of fighting the wind I blew up about 50-100m short of the line and was overtaken for the prime. It ended up being a 750W, 30 second effort, bring my heart rate back up around maximum.

By this point we were only about 10 laps into the 30 lap race and I had been working on the front about as hard as I could. Normalized power for this part of the race was just under 300W, which is a big effort for me based on last year’s data. I was also really feeling it from the prime lap, and recovering was pretty painful. Before I knew it the half way prime had come and gone and it was not until 10 or 12 to go that I finally felt OK enough to go play at the front some more.

Pretty soon after moving back to the front another prime bell rang. I was only 5 wheels back or so at this point, but I definitely did not feel good. I figured I would give it what I could given my lucky positioning. Coming around turn 4 I had moved up to third wheel or so, and the thought entered my head that Colby probably thinks I feel good because I’m at the front. Within seconds of that thought, Colby comes screaming around me and tells me to get on his wheel. He must’ve had a 5mph speed differential over me and it was crippling just to accelerate into his draft. Had my legs been stronger it would have been a killer leadout, as he blew up right around 200m before the line. Instead I winced in pain, unable to go around him. My heart rate wasn’t running high and I wasn’t having any problems breathing, my muscles were just burning.
With the end of the race less than 10 laps out, I retreated to shelter to give my legs a break so that I could make some sort of useful move at the finish. I rested for 5 laps or so, and with 4 to go I was back in the front 10 racers. Once again, the prime bell rang just after I returned to the front with 3 laps to go. I had no interest in chasing this one down, and tried to conserve as much energy as I could while maintaining a good position. An army of CB racers popped up for this prime and drove the pace. It wasn’t clear to me what their strategy was exactly, but a group of three were given a small gap of a few seconds. The group looked strong and it looked like they would stay away for the prime, but traffic slowed things up and we sort of neutralized, although the pace stayed relatively fast.

As we came across the finish line with two to go, Leo and Colby attacked off the front. I was on Colby’s wheel, but decided to sit up and make someone else work because a) I didn’t want to pull the field up to them and b) I obviously wasn’t strong enough to make that move work. CB was still all over the front, but they may have been a little tired from the prime lap and the attack quickly built up a sizeable gap. A Quad Cycles racer that was near the front saw the move and bridged up making it a three-man break.

The three-man break hovered about 5-10 seconds off of the front as we came to the finishing straight before the bell lap. It looked like it would be close at the finish. I was loving my situation, being positioned 5 wheels back with a man in the move. Work was being done at the front to keep the break within reach but then we hit traffic and everyone was forced to sit up. The break was allowed to keep it’s gap, but when the bell did not ring going over the line they gave it up.
We spent what should have been the final lap neutralized, and this was the easiest lap of the race. My heart rate was lower on this lap than any other point. The field swelled and racers filled up the entire width of the road. I went from having a good position to being completely boxed into the middle. It seemed like we were heading to a bloodbath.

As we came around turn 4 there was no traffic, and the race went live again. With everyone benefiting from a little additional rest, the pace really picked up to right around the 30mph mark. Coming through turn 1 I accelerated and really cranked up the turn 2 hill to gain position. I found the wheel of Ben Regan about 5 or 10 wheels back from the front. It was the perfect position because Ben went on to win the sprint, but I had to hurt myself to get there. Coming out of turn 4 the sprint began, but my legs betrayed me and seized up. I maintained enough pressure on the pedals to hold my position and avoid trouble, and ended up crossing the line in about 7th place with Colby right in front of me.

I was pretty happy with the race and my fitness felt solid, but my legs definitely did not have good snap in them today. In sprints I could barely top 1,000W and my muscles felt really broken down by the finish. I did a ski race on Saturday that had my calves feeling destroyed on Sunday morning. It also may be that I’m just not used to the violent efforts of a crit race right now.

I can’t include a screenshot of the Powertap data for this race because my laptop is on the fritz and can’t connect to the internet. The race data looked something like this:

Duration: 1:00:14
Norm Power: 267W
Avg Power: 213W
Avg Speed: 25.1 mph
Avg. HR: 170 bpm

It was interesting to look at normalized power for different parts of the race. During the first 10 laps when I was at the front NP was almost exactly 300W. During the next 10 laps when I rested it was down to 220W. For the last 10 laps it was higher again, around 280W. When I was at the front I still wasn’t doing a TON of work, so this goes to show the difference between resting in the pack and fighting at the front.

Nothing like an extra long race report for the first race of the season. At least I didn’t include what kind of food I ate.