Racing season starts tomorrow. Maybe. The DINO Tune Up is set to kick off at 2 pm. Unfortunately, rain is supposed to start at midnight. So....the event is doubtful as of now.
But, since it is race week and I like going down to the wire on my bike maintenance, I decided to overhaul my race bike this week. So, Tuesday and Wednesday I broke the bike down and cleaned and greased everything. The bike is almost looking new. "Cause that is what you do when the race day forecast calls for lots of rain.
But the problem was the new Deore XT disc brakes I bought to upgrade my existing SLX. Why the upgrade? Well, the XT's are shinier. And I think that was it. Brakes should be a simple thing. Eh, not so much. Here is how it went down.
Wednesday Night: Remove old brakes, inspect old pads...or what remains of old pads. Pat myself on the back for getting new, potentially better brakes (at least shinier) with new brand new pads. Set old brakes aside and work on other parts of the bike.
Thursday Night, approx. 8 pm: Begin to install new brakes. Note that there seems to be a lot of extra cable. Shrug my shoulders and assume things will work out when everything is routed properly.
Thursday Night, approx. 8:20 pm: Something is definitely off. This is way too much cable. Look at box...and front cable is 1000 mm and rear is 1300 mm. Remove front brake and compare to old SLX front brake....wow, quite a bit of difference. The SLX is much shorter. Same with the rear brake.
Thursday Night, approx. 8:30 pm: Try to rationalize to myself that the extra cable doesn't look that bad, that it won't get caught on trail side debris, that my number plate will cover most of it up. Ok, I can live with this.
Thursday Night, approx. 9 pm: What is that liquid around the rear brake mount? Is that mineral oil? Shit, it is. I loosened the wrong thing and some oil escaped. It may have gotten on the rotor and pad.....
Friday Morning, 5:30 am: Test ride the rebuilt bike. All works well. Except for the rear brake. Which doesn't work at all. Contamination? Maybe. And the cabling looks terrible. Sigh.
Friday Evening, 7:45 pm: Time to resolve this. Clean rotors and pads. Still dealing with cabling. Found instructions to shorten the cables, but decide to keep that until another day. But hey, the XT's have new pads...and my SLX's don't need to be bled.
Friday Evening, 8 pm: SLX brakes are re-mounted, with new pads from XT's. Test ride show they work great. Might just keep these on all season. Still have new set of XT's with far too long cables. But they sure are shiny.
So things worked out. My bike is clean and ready to be destroyed by almost two hours of racing in the mud and rain. Unless the race is cancelled in which case I'm watching Game of Thrones all day.
This weekend I participated in my first ever road race, the Eagle Creek Grand Prix at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis. I'll get the less impressive part of the race out of the way first. I came in 40th out of 46 racers in the Cat 4/5 race. Not terribly impressive, right?
Well, the result doesn't tell the whole story.
Race morning was somewhat cold, although the temps were supposed to warm by the afternoon. With the race starting at 10 am, things would remain on the chilly side. Unlike many of my other races, I arrived very early at a little after 8:30 and rode around the park and the course for the next hour or so.
The course itself is pretty basic. A perfect 1 mile paved circle with only a few feet of elevation gain for a total of 45 minutes.
Well before the race was set to start I noticed a few riders starting to line up. I wasn't sure the line procedure, whether there were call ups or a free for all like the DINO races. I continued with my warm up, and at the end of the next lap I saw that most other people had stopped to get on the line. A free for all it was and I was in the back third of the field, although I wasn't terribly concerned by this positioning. As I explained in my previous post, I had no expectations for this race. I need to pick up the intensity of training in the lead up to the DINO season, and instead of intervals, a competitive event seemed like a good alternative for a solid workout, while keeping the race skills fresh.
So, off we went. At first it was an easy pace....which lasted all of 15 seconds. The pack sped up and began a series of fluctuations. Sometimes it would get spread out, but then it would accoridan in to a large mass which spread all the way across the road. I found myself rotating to the front several times where I was in the top 10 or 15 spots, but then I, and others, would drift back as other riders moved forward
In an act of self preservation (for my mtb season and my collarbone), I spent most of my time on the outside line. The course was a circle with a constant drift to the left. At the northern end, there was the closest thing to a corner, where the road took an actual angle. I figured the outside would protect against any crashes on the inside lines, or in the pack as we gradually turned left. Plus I was imagining myself bailing off the road and into the grass and using my wider 35 mm to heroically miss a terrible crash ahead of me. Luckily no one crashed. Things got dicey a few times. For some reason I recall that at 8 minutes in some silliness started. Seemed to be centered around a junior racer from a development team. A lot of shifting of lines, some ill advised braking, and profanity, and things got worked out. A few more of these moments happened during the race, and each time I was ready to bail for the grass. But, everyone stayed upright.
The pace stayed pretty high, although when 5 laps left was announced, there was a definite shiver through the field as the speed grew. The second to last lap things got nuts (from a mtb'er perspective) and the speeds grew up to 30 mph and beyond. I shifted to my fastest gear but still seemed to be going backwards. As we cross the line for the last lap, the pack really kicked into high gear and I was really getting dropped off the back. My gears were maxed out, so I got out of the saddle and got a good several seconds of power which allowed me to almost get in contact with the tail end of the pack.
In the process a rider who had found himself in a poor position in the inside and at the back of the pack all of the sudden dove for a gap on the outside, right in front of me. I saw him coming, but was pinned against the side of the road and tapped my brakes, slowing just enough for him to miss my front wheel, but also allowing the back to continue its charge forward. I rebounded and maxed out at 33 mph, but the back was easily in excess of 35 and so it went on for the final 1/4 lap, and I rolled in a few seconds later. To be fair, that final move by the other rider was not what killed me in the final sprint. I was already on the tail end of the pack, and was not going to match their speed. I do have to wonder if I would have been able to keep up if I wasn't running cyclocross gearing, but that will be a problem to be addressed later.
The race was fun, I got a great workout (basically a long interval), no one crashed, and it was a new thing I could check off of my cycling list of things to do. Will I do another? Probably, but I might save it for early season training. Now it is time to focus on mountain biking.
As a change of pace, I signed up for a road race this weekend. A criterium to be exact. No dirt, no gravel, no mud, no barriers. Just pavement, and 40 other riders all crammed together on a one mile circular course.
Why? Chalk it up to a sense of adventure, a bucket list kind of thing, and because I need a high intensity workout. The intensity of my rides hasn't been all that high so far this year. Yes, there have been long rides, tough hills, and a few races which pushed me to my max. But not so much on the interval front yet. There is still plenty of time. The first DINO race, the "Tune Up" isn't until the 25, but I'm still overdue to kick things into high gear.
So, I figured a 45 minute crit (Cat 4/5 of course) would be a perfect way to jump start the high intensity training, while also keeping the competitive fires stoked between the Barry Roubaix and Tune Up. Expectations for this race? Very little. I'll be riding my cyclocross bike with cross gearing (46/36 up front, 11-28 in back) and 35 mm hybrid slick tires, since I use the bike for commuting and some natural surface riding. The result? A not very fast bike. But that's ok. Plan is to try to stay with the pack, probably on the back, and get in a good workout. Might be a $25 workout, but there is nothing like having other riders in the mix to up the speed and intensity (key word of this post I think).
The Barry Roubaix has become a sort of tradition for me, well at least a tradition since 2013. Like previous years, the weather leading up to the race was
interesting. A mixture of mild and cold weather, with some rain and snow was
all mixed into the
In past years I rode my mountain bike with cross tires.After getting my Cannondale CAADX last fall, I
decided a cross bike would work better speed wise since the course is not so
technical as to require a mountain bike.
This decision got a bit of a wrinkle on Thursday when
organizers announced that Sager Rd. would be back in the race. Sager is a “seasonal”
road, meaning it nothing more than unmaintained two track.The past two years conditions on the road
were dangerous due to ice and snow (perhaps impassable would be the better
word).This year, the road was looking like
this during the week prior to the race,
Photo from Barry Roubaix Facebook Page
Prior to the race being moved to downtown Hastings, the course would take Sager Road at around 5 miles into the race. The video below shows Sager at the 16 minute mark from a race a few years ago.
A bit chaotic. Despite this, I decided to stick with the cross bike plan equipped with a set of Schwalbe Sammy Slicks 35mm, considering the amount of pavement on the course and the packed dirt roads of prior years, these seemed like an ideal compromise between the traction and speed, even with the potential craziness of Sager.
So, back to the weather watch. The two days before the race saw dry weather, with Friday being particularly sunny, although cold. I drove to Hastings to pick up my race packet on Friday, and then onto my Grand Rapids hotel. Once getting settled, I tracked down some local greenways to get a quick ride, the purpose of which was two fold, although seeing the local scenery was not among these. First, my bike had been tuned up the day before, and I needed to make sure it was working well. Second, I had only ridden twice that week, and I needed to get something of a warm up in.
The bike worked well, the legs felt heavy. That evening I dined at the old reliable Noodles and Company and hit the hay. The night was cold and clear and the temperature the next morning was around 15 degrees. The plan was to wear my new Matthews thermal jacket for the race. Once I arrived in Hastings, I did a bit of a warm up, and began to sweat after only 10 minutes. By now the temps had risen to 19 degrees, and with the clear skies, it only promised to get warmer. The jacket was dumped, and I went with double arm warmers and a wind vest. I might be cold for a bit but that wouldn't last long.
I was starting in wave 9, at 10:18, along with the other 30-34 year olds. However, due to large field sizes, the age groups had been divided up. Last year, I was in 30-34 age group. This year, I was in the 32-34 age group. I worked my way up to the front of the group of waiting riders and took stock. Lots of jerseys, most notable being one rider with smiley faces on his jersey that I recalled from last year as beating me. There was also a few Bissell jerseys, a few Stryker CMS, Village Bike Shop, World Bike Relief, and a few others. It was impossible to tell who was actually in my group, so the plan was to stay towards the front at the start and try to stay with the fast guys when we hit gravel/dirt.
The start was paved for the first few miles and fast. We kept in a large group and I stayed near the front, but things spread out and broke apart at a right turn onto the first gravel. This led to the Three Sisters, a series of three increasingly steep climbs.
I quickly discovered the gearing differences between my cross bike and mountain bike. The gravel climbs seemed a bit steeper than normal. Plus, it was very apparent that the course was going to be extremely dry and actually dusty. Plus, it seemed there was more gravel as a result. In past years the course had been hard packed dirt road. Not this time around, and a few times my rear tire slipped on the loose dirt. About a half a dozen fast guys broke away on the on the Sisters, including a Bissell rider, and the rider with the smiley faces on his jersey. I was not able to keep pace.
Somewhere on the Sisters.
Following the Sisters, the course falls into a steady diet of up ups and downs of gravel hills with a few sections of pavement stuck in. It didn't look like I would be able to reach the riders who had broken away following the sisters, Sisters so I settled into a rhytm and rode with a few others from my wave, including a mountain biker from the Village Bike Shop. I spotted a rider with a SRAM jersey up ahead and set about catching and dropping him, although Village remained with me.
In addition to the Village rider, I began to go back and forth with a World Bike Relief racer. Sometimes he would get ahead by a few hundred feet, and I would catch-up and pass, and then he would appear from no where and pass me back. Overall progress was good, and my average speed was higher than last year, sitting right at 18.5 mph.
The next main landmark after the sisters was hitting Gun Lake Road, a long stretch of pavement, with a long climb to boot. Last year, I had set time goals to hit various points in the course. The conditions tossed those out the window in 2014, but this year, I had recalled the Gun Lake goal was 38 minutes. As we took the left turn onto Gun Lake, I looked down and saw that the time was at 36 minutes. So far so good.
Per plan, I pushed hard on Gun Lake, and got past a lot of riders. Village was with me, and WBR was still about as well. Some dicey riding was happening on the climb. There was a Ford Expedition going up the main Gun Lake climb which kept getting stuck in between batches of riders. The driver probably could have been a little more assertive in getting up the road, but on the descent on the other side, some riders began to make moves to pass the Ford on its left, including a tandem which tried to make a move a in the middle of an intersection where the Ford was trying to turn left. Things looked like they could get bad, but the tandem held back at the last minute, got yelled at by a sheriff's deputy, and let the Ford go.
Following that excitement, and the Gun Lake climb, the next big hurdle was Sager Road located at about the 18 mile mark. I dropped back alongside Village and told him he should go ahead, since I figured his mountain bike would be much faster on Sager. Turns out I was right.
The left turn for Sager came up, and he took off. I followed at good speed and passed numerous other riders, but I couldn't match his maneirvability and lost sight of him. Sager was interesting. It was rough, and someone had taken a 4 wheeler or truck down the road when it was wet and we had to pick lines through very deep (some deeper than 1 foot) tire ruts. At one point, I was riding down in between two deep ruts, while on my left and right, others were riding on the outside of the ruts. I was expecting the field to have spread out more than it was, but everyone seemed to be making it down the road well enough. A far cry from the Youtube videos when Sager was at the start of the race.
Sager was only one mile, and then the course took a right onto more gravel, with numerous small climbs and descents, including a few downhill turns which were very loose and one right turn which I hit with too much speed and nearly took out WBR and myself in the process.
The major hurdle in this final half was a climb known as the Wall, a steep climb with a false top, which then curves to climb an additional 50 feet. Again, I maintained a good pace, with WBR about 75 feet ahead. At the crest I kept pushing hard and began to close on WBR over the course of the next few miles. Still no sign of Village. He had really made the most of his advantage on Sager.
Heading into the last ten miles, a strange thing happened. I had made contact with WBR, and then all of the sudden we were in a pack. The CMS/Stryker rider from the start had come from behind to make contact, and I came together with a few other riders who had been at the front of the pack at the start. As we transitioned from gravel to the final pavement run into town we had formed a strong riding pack. It was interesting that the top riders who had been in a group at he beginning had reformed almost the same pack there at the end despite being strung out for most of the race.
Anyway, on the pavement we picked up speed and pushed hard, with everyone rotating on the front. My one concern was some dicey riding from a younger rider in the bunch, perhaps a 11-18 year old or possibly the 19-29 year olds. While we had still been on gravel he had been riding a bit loose and had come close to making contact with some riders. On the final climb before the descent to the finish line he was weaving and getting close again which was rippling through the pack. Some riders were urging everyone to calm down. One rider came up next to me and gestured ahead and commented that things were getting interesting up ahead. Sure enough, not 30 seconds later, the younger rider crossed wheels with the rider in the front, hit his wheel, and both very nearly went down. That killed the momentum as the packed expanded outward in anticipation of a crash (except me, who was right behind them), but both managed to keep it together for run into town.
I should note, that in this final three miles to the finish I made contact with Village. I said hello as my group went charging past his smaller paceline, and in a demonstration of his strength, he hooked onto the pack and came up next to me to say hello. At this point I decided to ask what age group he was in. Turns out, he was 30-31. We weren't even racing each other.
So, we came charging into town with the pack intact, perhaps 10 to 12 in the group. The course takes several hard 90 degree turns which slowed things up, and revealed my lack of road racing experience before the final straightaway at top speed to the finish. I pushed hard and the group began to spread and split, although WBR edged me out, as did Village. Despite this, it was a hell of a race and an exhilarating finish.
My time was 1:58, meeting my goal of a sub two hour time, and beating my previous time by 5 minutes. The weather was much warmer, and I hung around and chatted with some of the other guys in the pack before riding back to my car to change. My plan was to change, grab a bite to eat and check the results to see if I should stick around for the awards. While it was not an explicit goal, I was hoping for a podium spot, especially following last year's 6th place.
Once changed, I went back to the post race party, had a sandwich and waited in line to check results. And to my surprise, I managed a 5th place in my age group. Unofficial goal accomplished, and guess that means I would be hanging around for the awards. Of note, the first place in my age group came in around 1:56, while the next 6 riders, myself included, were all within 3 seconds of each other.
Hooray.
Anyway, I hung around for the awards, and hung around some more. The party is fun, especially if you are there with a team, or are part of the Michigan cycling community. I am neither of those, so things got a little tedious and I began to think about the 5 hour drive home. The award for the 24 mile race were done, and an announcement was made that the 36 mile awards would not happen until sometime after three, so I went back to my car and took a nap. I walked back at three, but they were still doing some 62 mile awards. Then a band got up and started to play. I was getting a bit annoyed with the delay, although from a business perspective it made sense. The 36 mile race has the most participants, and getting all those people to stick around longer to buy food, check out the vendors, and to hang out in town is good for the local economy and the race. But I still had to drive home!
Finally the awards came, and I got to step up to the podium with....one other person, the first place rider in my age group. Apparently the others had left already so we had a lonely, two person podium. But it was still a podium.
[Imagine a podium picture here...I was expecting to find one from the numerous official photographers, but apparently they missed me]
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