Fitchburg - Always Pray to the Cycling Gods Before and After Race

July 3, 2009 – 4:37 pm

Stage 1: Time Trail

Attendees: Radu and Michael

Weather: Rain bouncing from hard to harder. Stiff breeze on the way back. Humid!

Course: 8.7 miles or 14.3 KM (for Radu). Out and back course. Mostly rolling. Fast out and a hillier back. Typical New England rodes which required picking different lines every few feet

Race: I usually make sure that I am extra early for races but for some reason I was running around at the last second. I was using a different wheel on the trainer and when I put on my disc wheel, I paniced. It was time. As I ride to the start they are calling my name to start and my back wheel slipped out of position and starting rubbing. Crap! Dismounted and someone helped me tighten it up. Stayed calm and came to ramp with 20 seconds to go. Now I am very inexperienced with people holding me for a start, but this guy was great and that really helped to let me focus. I had a very strong ride. Felt good in my legs maybe better than normal. BIG PROBLEM was I could not see. My glasses were so fogged up from the first second that I had to keep my head up too high and turned to the right to look out a crack in the helmet. Luckily I knew the road but it still cost me a little time. Averaged 25mph and finished 17th. Not bad but was hoping for top 10. Only missed by like 25 seconds if that.

Stage 2: Circuit Race

Weather: Sun - Oh my Fricking God - It does exist

Course: 3.1 circuit 8 times around. Fairly flat except for a nasty little hill climb of about 400 meters of which 200 meters are about 4-5% but then another 200 meters of about 10%. It hurts but oh so good!

Race: I knew the trick to this race was to be either in a break or top 10 coming into the hard right of the hill. Plan was to try to break or form a break with 3 to go once the field was softened up. Couldn’t click in to start for about a mile (new clips). Moved up right away on first lap and never left the top 20-25 or so (remember it fluctuates alot on this type of course). Anywho there was a point sprint with 3 to go. Great! Didn’t care to win but wanted to break when everyone naturally slows down on the hill. But…as I make my way to 4th wheel the field is neutralized to let the Juniors pass us. Damm those guys! 4 minutes caused by heart rate to go from 170 to 70. Then right at the bottom of the hill they resume the race to sprint up the hill and that HURT big time. I am too old for that stuff. Time for plan B - recover for a lap and attack with 1 to go. I stay in the front away from the slowpokes who caught up on the neutral. We come into the backstretch to the hill and I am psyched. Maybe 4th wheel and ready to go and then it happens….Asshole comes up on left and cuts right into the guy in front of me and takes out his wheel. He goes down at almost 40mph and takes out the whole right side. Very very bad crash. Now it is hard to slow down. I can’t go right into the crash nor left as people were charging. I unclip, brace my body and think cyclocross. Jump the wheel and worse case land on side. Miracle happens and his wheel bounces up into the air from the ground and moves two inches over and I make it by. However, at this point my legs cramped up and my head nearly exploded from after effect or survival. However, not wanted to lose spots on GC I do my best to clip in and sprint for the line to catch the back of the pack full of the guys who were all behind me before the crash. I think I will get the same time and maintain GC position. Looking for top 10 so tomorrow is key.

By Brent Wetters | Posted in race report | Comments (0)

“a little mechanical…”

June 30, 2009 – 8:23 pm

On today’s installment of the Mark Nicholson Smack Down we had 6 riders at the start. One we lost somewhere around the first sprint point. We waited up, but were pretty sure he must have missed a turn. Hoping he made it back ok. After the top of Tourtellot Hill (where I was feeling pretty good about myself, having won the sprint against Nate and Aaron), Geoff came by with pretty intense pace (he seems to do that to pay us little guys back for making him hurt on the climbs). Nate and Aaron had hooked up with Geoff. I was coming around Naveen to try to bridge. That’s when I saw it. A dog had me in its sights and was charging full speed into the road. My speedometer had been reading about 30 or so a few seconds before. CRACK. The unmistakable sound of cracking carbon fiber. I don’t want to look back. Aaron had a similar feeling. We were sure we were going to find blood and protruding bones. I was somewhat relieved to hear Naveen screaming obscenities, but only somewhat. The woman who owned the dog came out, and luckily she was an EMT. After fairly thorough testing, it seemed that Naveen had not suffered any broken bones. His hip was still clearly hurting when we left, but he was able to stand with assistance and the woman drove him home to Attleboro. Still waiting to hear how he is, and I’ll post an update as soon as I do. Shit, that was scary. But, if you’re wondering what a Giant Carbon Frame looks like after hitting a dog at 30 mph, wonder no more.

06-30-09_1848

06-30-09_1854

By Brent Wetters | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (6)

Pictures

June 29, 2009 – 10:24 pm

These are from the Smack Down two weeks ago.

This is why I generally don't allow pictures of myself wearing a helmet.
This is why I generally don't allow pictures of myself wearing a helmet.
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Curtis
Curtis
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Syl
Syl
Mark G
Mark G
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Marcus
Marcus
By Brent Wetters | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Okemo

June 28, 2009 – 11:47 am

I went back to Okemo this year (last year’s report can be seen here) unsure what to expect. My overall training volume has been much lower (something about being a new father…) and I know that I am slower relative to other riders on the team. Finishing DFL in a men’s B collegiate road race didn’t do much to boost my confidence either. But, my sense of riding Mount Tom back in March was that I did better than I did last summer at the peak of my summer training schedule. So I had figured I would finish Okemo within 2 minutes either way, and couldn’t decide what would be better. If I finished 2 minutes faster, then I would know that I was still improving, albeit at a slower pace relative to my teammates. If I finished 2 minutes slower, I’d have confirmation that I had lost a bit of speed from last year, and I’d know that I could, with a more regular training schedule, get that form back. What actually happened? I finished 7 seconds faster than last year. Add in the fact that the first 2 miles were noticeably faster than last year and my time is all but identical. So who knows what that means. I guess I’m in a holding pattern. I haven’t dropped much form, but I also haven’t improved a whole lot either.

The race was pretty uneventful for me. Once the climb started, I took it fairly easy on the opening 14% gradient section. A lot of riders went up the road. I decided I’d rather catch riders than be caught so I hoped riding the bottom section easier would help me in the end. I did catch a few riders before the top and I did get passed by a couple more, but after the opening section it looked like probably 20 or so riders up the road. And that’s about how many finished in front of me. I tried my best to ride my own tempo and not be screwed up by others. At around the 1 mile point I was riding with some kid in a national champion’s jersey, who had clearly never been a national champion. He was way over-geared, but I couldn’t quite shake him. This was mostly due to the fact that he had clearly watched way too many TdF stages. Everytime I or anyone else seemed ready to overtake him he would thrash all over his bike and try to accelerate to catch a wheel or attack. He lasted longer than I expected doing this, but eventually he was weaving all over the road, sounded like he was about to have a heart attack, and finally unclipped and stopped. Never saw him again. I’m pretty sure he finished at least 5-10 minutes back on me. As with last year, I probably could have done with some easier gears, but it probably would have had little effect on my overall performance. On to Ascutney!

By Brent Wetters | Posted in race report | Comments (1)

Housitonic Hills - Notice the “S” in Hills - See Course Description

June 21, 2009 – 7:17 pm

Weather: 65 degrees, cloudy, threatening rain (although never did) and 100% humid

Course: 2 loops of 27 miles each. Course profiles can be deceiving. Since it looks like 3 hills each lap and there is something like 6400 feet of climbing. In truth, there are so many hills I lost count. The start is up a 1.5mile climb in neutral followed by twisting downhill into one section of climbs which included no less than 10 seperate hill sections with a couple of them in the very nasty gradiant area followed by a bombing downhill with a sharp left up another couple hills to the KOM section and that is like mile 18 and 45. At this point it gets easier into a bombing flat and downhill finish with a short .5km climb to the finish.

Attendees: Michael (No one else crazy enough to drive so far to suffer)

Race: I raced in the 3/4 race and there were some familiar faces. I had to drive my wife to the airport at 6:15 and barely made the start with no warm up. I even had a broken cleat which thankfully I had extra shoes to change into with minutes before the start. The start was neutral for exactly 9 minutes. Climbing up such a steep hill at such a slow pace with no warm up was awful and with the humidity, I was already so wet I had to change out my glasses. Honestly, the hardest part of the course is the fast downhills on wet roads. I HATE THEM especially in a big field. I hung until the killer hill section on lap 1 like a lot of guys and then just kept pushing with various people. We got passed by Cat 4 at the start of the second lap and I was so bumming since I had no problem hanging in eventhough I couldn’t draft in the field. Oh well, I shouldn’t have hurt myself so much working out yesterday in order to prove a point on my TT bike. I regreted it when I needed to be fresh today.

On to Fitchburg!

By msbcpacfp | Posted in race report | Comments (0)

Mark Nicholson

June 12, 2009 – 8:44 pm

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It is with a heavy heart that I’d like Mark’s friends on the team and the Brown cycling community to know that he passed away on wednesday at his families home in Syracuse. Most didn’t know how sick he was, because he refused to let it control his life. The day before he went into the hospital he was killing it in the front of the pack during his weekly bike ride.
This tuesday we’ll ride in his memory. Meeting at Faunce at 515 and then at Depasqual square at 530. We’re doing this to celebrate Mark and the love and passion he brought with him. So this ride will be known as the Mark Nicholson Smack Down.

By markgreve | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Connecticut Stage Race Part II - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

June 1, 2009 – 6:45 am

Weather: 65 degrees, partly sunny and rained twice on the top of the same hill while the sun was out.

Location: The Berkshires: Now my knowledge of the Berkshires is Lee, Lenox, the Snobby Places. I never realized that there is a poor blue collar demographic. Well, there is big time. All the Bars were packed with cars in the afternoon and the Churches in the morning. Never saw one convenience store, fast food franchise or even a gas station in 91 miles of racing.

Course: Two loops. One of 50 miles. The second of 40. The loops only shared at most 10 miles of the same roads and of course they were uphill.

You know the saying “Fast downhill leads must mean a slow uphill”. Then you get the point. Hit 49mph on a downhill and climbed a couple uphills at 8mph. Hardest part of the course was the uphills from mile 42 to about mile 70.

Goal for the race at a minimum was to survive with the peleton for the first loop. There was a cut off at the end of the loop that if you were 5 minutes or more back then you were pulled.

Warm Up: Woke up, got dressed, rode to the start. Are you crazy?

Race: Felt very good. Wasn’t let the intimidation factor play today. Stayed in the first third to half. Never took the opportunity to move to front because the wind was wicked stiff. Had no intention of working in a 91 mile race. Roads were okay for the most part although there were some sketchy parts even when going downhill. Uphills were easy except for slowing a little too much and the downhills were fast. Kept looking for the sweet spot inside the group while avoiding a couple very sketchy riders who were worse than the Cat 4’s. As time passed, I was psyched. I marked my other Cat 4 participants and stayed near them. We were booking and I figured I would be home early. Except…………….

Mistake: I forgot the FEED ZONE rule. Which is if you have nothing stay as far away as possible. Now I knew exactly which mile marker it was and I had my Garmin tracking the course. I looked down and I saw 3.5 miles more to go but…going downhill the time passes FAST.Unlike the second feed zone which had a 1K sign this one only had a mark on the ground on a very fast downhill. Never saw it. By the time I realized it I was on the right and just figured out why Johnny Bold had moved very very far to the left. Ok..I start to slow down. Guy on my left asks to get in so I pick up a little to let him in behind me and BOOM! A guy had stopped in the feed zone right in front of me and I ran right up into him and toppled over. Tried to quickly remount. Had to stop again when I realized my Powertap had fallen off. Lost a bottle but said forget it. Pelaton was about 30 seconds up the road and moving to catch a break. I kicked it big time to catch up. For the next 20 minutes I set a personal best for average power but it didn’t help. There was too many hills at this point, no help to work with and lots of wind. I finished the first loop about a minute or two back but I wasn’t going to quit. However, I did the second loop by myself and I think psychologically bummed. In retrospect, if only I know I would have stayed with the group for awhile longer. I know delusion of staying the whole time but if only…..

Good experience. Challenging courses. Very warm community for the bikers. Well worth considering for next year. There aren’t many stage races around and this one is very good.

By Brent Wetters | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Connecticut Stage Race, Day 1

May 31, 2009 – 8:14 am

I am writing this at 7am Sunday before getting ready to drive back to the race:

Attendees: Michael in Masters and Joshua Parker from Brown in Cat 4

Weather: Pefect 60’s mostly sunny. Although as I sit here I did get burned somehow although I was outdoors for maybe an hour of riding. Shocking!

Getting There: About a 2.25 hour drive from either Providence or Boston. when I got to the area I almost hit a deer with the van. I knew that was a sign of something. Thank god I took the van since it was awesome to be able to hang out comfortably between races.

First Race was an 8 mile TT: My mistake was not previewing the course. It was out and back also. Started with a short down followed by a steep punchy climb, then down to another slight climb and back down again. Now at mile 2.5 or so there was a long long long false flat. This was the killer which I wasn’t ready for. The lactic acid built up quick here and I was passed by my 30 sec guy. On top of that the wind picked up in my face at this point. I was hurting for a good .5 of a mile until I could work it out of my legs. After the turnaround it was mostly a fast downhill with one decent climb back. I felt like I was flying In the end I was passed by my minute and half guy also. He was really flying. I finished at 20:07. Not great but not awful considering my lack of time on the TT bike and not seeing the course. Having said that, I think winning would be a couple years off since Johnny Bold won my category at 17:04 which was a minute fastest then the next highest guy.

Second Race was a 25 mile circuit couse of 3.1 miles each. Course was challenging with hills and two tight turns in a triangle shape. My goal was to hang in until the end. Legs felt ok from the morning. The course was extremly fast on the downhills and slowed too much on the ups. I know I was a little intimidated by the quality of the field and stayed too far back for most of the race. However for the first 5 laps I was proud to stay with the field. But…..Lap 6 picked up pace big time. The field strung out and the guys in front of me started to get unglued which became worse when we took a very sharp turn on the backside. I lost the safety of the field and got dropped. Bummer since the field never escaped that far ahead of us. The best part was I didn’t finish last. Phew!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay Tuned for the story of today. 91 miles up up up into the Berkshires. I have heard the couse is very very challenging with something like a 7 mile climb up the Butternut Ski Slope. Cross your fingers for me to come home and write again.

By Brent Wetters | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Syl’s Race Report: WINNER Cat 2 ROOT 66 WINSTED WOODS MTB XC

May 19, 2009 – 9:12 am

 
http://www.flickr. com/photos/ mtarbox20/ 3540981366/ sizes/l/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ mtarbox20/ 3540170393/ sizes/l/

 

Race Report: Winsted Woods, Root 66 Mtb, Race 3

I’ll start w/ the important information: I freaking won!!! (Cat 2, 40 to even older age group) And beat the guy, who took me by 5 seconds last race, by 4 minutes…

Jeff placed second in his age group, though really the guy who won should have been racing the next class up.

Curtis thought he came in third in Cat 1 (and would have been second if it had not been for an uncooperative root!)

The rest really doesn’t matter that much…

Here are the details anyways:

This course is known for the amount of climbing involved. Mike calls it the mini mt snow race, while Jeff did the math and calculated that it was 2/3 climbing, with 1/3 down. The start of the course shot out of a parking lot into a small field and climbed up this fire road which was muddy, slippery, rocky, and rooty. An awful way to start, as w/in a 100 yards of the race, you are already redlining and gasping for air. The course then twisted up the side of hill on some more slippery single track w/ lots of criss-crossing roots and rocks. Back down on a super fast loose rock fire road, and back up the hillon a fire road w/ good traction. Just as it flattened and you thought you were done, it pointed back up steeply for some extra pain. Flat again, w/ some slippery single track sections and then up again on a fire road in the woods and then continued up through a field (with quite a nice view at the top). Then w/in down some slippery twisty single track which w/in 3 mins spit you back out at the start area. After all that climbing it seemed unbelievable that you could be all the way back down in such a short time and distance. 3 laps for Jeff and I, and I think Curtis had the pleasure of doing 4. (Btw, Curtis, did you race w/ your gps? Do you know what the climbing total was per lap?)

Jeff and I got there again w/ some time to spare to make sure we got in a proper warm up. We did a partial ride of the course and got that proper warm up in. Then we just stood around in the cold and waited as the race was delayed by ½ hr. Just long enough to cool all the way back down again. I had to line up at the back of the group and when we went off tried to fight my way to the front as I wanted to make sure that unlike last race, there were not going to be a couple of guys taking off w/ out me realizing they were doing so. As we hit the fire road climb, I was in tenth and we were grouping together. The moment the mud started, people in front started to dab and hesitate and I quickly found myself (after Jeff and I had found during the warm up, a good line through a rocky mud pit) in 4th place. I was starting to hit my max w/ this short climb and decided to just settle there and recover. As the course turned to single track, the guys in front kept on loosing traction over the roots and rocks while I was not (thank you Schwable Rocket Rons and stan!!!). This was allowing me to ride steady and soon found myself recovered and pushing into second place. After rubbing tires w/ the guy in front a couple of times (the guy who beat last race), I decided it would behoove me to be in front so I could read the terrain better and pick my lines more carefully. Just as I was thinking this, I dabbed, and found myself back in fourth. I quickly passed the group and when I glanced back, realized they were falling back quickly. I decided there I would try to really brake away and disappear from sight. By the end of the long fire road climb I was by myself. At the end of the second lap, as I had tried to keep my pace high, I thought I was going to bust. So I started my third lap telling myself to ride smart, not make any stupid mistakes, and of all things not to flat. During the race I was experiencing a flash back as at the last race, I thought I was in first place for a while to only find out a couple of guys had gotten away. Since this was the same scenario again, I talked myself out of thinking I was first, though I had been much more careful to monitor the front this time. When I crossed the finish line, there seemed to be no one from my age group there. Second place came in four minutes after…

Who's number 1? MTB XC CAT 2 Sylvain Loize Refunds Now/Casters

Who's number 1? MTB XC CAT 2 Sylvain Loize Refunds Now/Casters

syl

By Michael | Posted in race report | Comments (1)

Michael’s Sterling Report

May 9, 2009 – 7:22 pm

Attendees: Gewilli, Mark, Radu, Aaron,Tony, Nate and me (Marcus went for the lazy man’s race in the afternoon)

Weather: Cloudy and Humid as heck. Couldn’t wear regular cycling glasses without them fogging up. Good decision in hindsight

Course: 2 Mile Neutral from staging up the start/finish climb with 4 loops of 7.6 miles. Start/Finish climb is steep but short and then drops to about 8% to finish. However, after that there is a short downhill into another fairly steep uphill under the highway. Roads were typical sketchy New England types but with room to move around. More downhills and uphills then I had previously remembered. Hard turn into Route 12 was shorter than I remembered also but was so wide that it allowed alot of bunching up of the pack from behind.

Race: First three laps were fairly uneventful. Tony took a flyer on the first lap for a short time. Mark, Radu and I were in the top 30 for the first couple of laps. Climbed the hill in my big ring every time. Originally was going to practice in small ring to see what happened but felt comfortable and was moving up about 3-7 spots each time. Never went to the front since I never felt strong enough to survive into the wind and the field was fairly fast which didn’t lend a lot of time to recover. All of the other climbs I thought were slow and easily moved up whenever I wanted to. Downhills were fast and I tended to stay back off the wheel in front due to the conditions of the road. Coming into the start of lap 4, I was about 30 back and although I was passing on the uphill, I noticed a little tightness in my calf. Moved up at that point to start preserving position but this was difficult to do since there was too many spots to pass and no team was killing themselves off the front. Last lap I was a little gassed after cresting the start/finish hill but kept calm and moved up back into position on the second part of the climb. Held tight around 10-15 for the downhill trying not to work and stay fresh (as much as possible :-) ). We turned onto Route 12 and of course the whole world tried to come to the front. I stayed on the right which lent itself to being out of the nice wind coming and had more room since everyone else went wide. Saw Aaron coming up with Nate and put Aaron in front and told him to push it into the front (It was my only chance). Told him to TT it since it was only 1.25 miles to the finish. I followed his wheel up the hill and down but he couldn’t hold it so I got Nate to go to the front of me, hoping Radu was behind (which he wasn’t). Nate pulled off before the riser leaving me in front coming up the riser before the start/finish hill. Tried for about 10 seconds into the wind, and couldn’t pull it anymore. Looked down and saw 450 on my Powertap which wasn’t a good sign. At that point the field jumped on the inside and mostly on the outside. I couldn’t jump on anyone’s wheel at that point. I was done. At this point the field was probably less than 40 guys if that but the three of us were cooked and Radu come around. He thinks maybe top 15. Interestingly, the wheels I was pegging for the finish didn’t come in the top places since they got pushed back in the jockeying for position. However, as a team we did probably our best effort ever. Maybe something to build on.

If nothing else I was a lot stronger than this time last year when I died on lap 4 so that is the only strong point out of the race. Still have time till my season usually starts.
Michael

By msbcpacfp | Posted in race report | Comments (0)