GCGP Day 2 – Gwinnett Civic Center Criterium

Tough race tonight. Team Type 1 again played it perfectly taking 1st and 2nd with Dan Holt and Alexey Schmidt. Here is how it played out. There was an early break that got a good gap, but I think it was missing TT1 so I was pretty sure it would all come back together, which it did.

Then it gets a little fuzzy but Dan made it into the next move along with Stephen Hirsch (UHC/707) and one other guy (maybe Tim Henry from Litespeed/BMW). This move quickly got a good gap until Mike Stone (Hincapie Devo) went to the front and started to bring it back pretty much single handed. After three or four hard laps he sat up and no one else took up the chase. The gap to the break quickly ballooned to close to a minute – in fact I figured we were going to get lapped.

But then the attacking started. Primary instigators were Mike and myself, but there was also a guy with a black kit and national champ markings on his sleeves (from a different country) who attacked several times. We could never get enough separation in a chase group to escape the field.

Then at the perfect moment when an attack was coming back, Alexey rolled off the front of our group with one other rider. It was a thing of beauty to watch as nobody could respond quick enough. There was a chase again led by Mike but the gap was too big. The break must have been getting tired b/c the two quickly crossed the gap to the leaders making a lead group of six.

The gap from our field to the leaders had come way down to only 15 seconds, but then it was only three laps to go. I found myself on Oneal Samuels wheel, a great sprinter from UHC/707, with two to go and followed him to the very front of the field by one to go. Another rider came around and led out the sprint, but Oneal hopped onto his wheel with me still attached to his wheel. And that is how we finished in the field sprint coming around the other rider by the line. It was only good for tenth in the race, though, as two other riders must have been b/t us and the break of six.

My power meter is still broken, so now power data from the race – but I can tell you it was hard!

Huntsville Omnium Day 2 – Wrapup

Summary – 2nd in the masters 35+ criterium, 3rd in the pro/1/2/3/4 combined criterium, plus 5 points on a bonus points prime gave me just enough to tie Beth Hollingsworth (Velocity Pro Cycles) in the overall, combined omnium. With the tiebreaker being the time trial time, I ended up winning the tie breaker to take 2nd in the omnium behind Chris Brown (Litespeed – BMW).

Masters 35+ criterium – this race started out fast, so fast that the field split at least once before the first prime. The field was back together by the first prime, but I wasn’t in good position to go for it. A couple laps later, however, there was another prime that I thought was for a bouquet of roses. In a field full of masters, I thought that this would be hotly contested (to bring home to give to our wives) so I jumped really, really hard on the inside on the short flat stretch before the final turn. I was sheltered from the cross-wind by the pack when I attacked and then when I made the turn I had a strong tailwind. It turns out that I jumped hard enough that nobody else contested the prime, and I had opened nearly a 10 second gap by the time I won the prime — (unfortunately, after the race, I found out that it was a gift certificate to a restaurant named Rosie’s).

About halfway through the next lap, I looked back and saw Chris Brown closing in fast bridging the gap by himself. When he got close, I jumped back up to speed and together we worked to try to fend off a chase group of 5 riders that had split off of the blown apart field. We worked together well, but the gap stayed at just a few seconds for several laps. Then finally after several really hard laps, the gap started to increase by a second or two every lap so that it eventually got out to 20 seconds. But then it started coming down again — by 5 seconds in a single lap to take our gap back down to 15 seconds. Then, the next lap it was down to 13 seconds. Fortunately, by this point we only had five laps to go in the race. So we turned on the gas one last time and held it to the end where Chris took the sprint.

Monte Sano – climbing
The Rapha Rising climbing competition had also begun today so I headed out after the masters race to do some climbing. I ended up breaking a spoke at the bottom of Monte Sano, turning around and getting my spare wheel, before doing the climb again. It was a long, steady, gradual climb but my legs were tired and I needed to rest for my the pro/1/2/3/4 combined crit later in the day so I only did the climb once. I’m in a deep hole for the climbing competition right now, but I am hoping to make up ground by Wednesday.

Pro/1/2/3/4 combined criterium
One of the unique things about the Huntsville omnium is that it is combined over all the categories. And to finish the combined omnium off, there is a combined Pro/1/2/3/4 criterium for the last race of the day. By the start at 2:00 – it was very hot – well over 100 degF in the sun on the start line. Combine that with the humidity that somehow hadn’t burned off from the morning, yet, and it was going to be a sweltering race that I wasn’t sure I could finish.

On the start line, as the race official said “go”, they also rang the bell for the race’s points prime – 10 pts, 5 pts, and 5 pts for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I was on the front row so I thought about just taking off and going for it from the gun — especially since Chris had started farther back. But I also knew that it would be a long race and that if I won the prime, I stood a very good chance of not being able to finish the race at all. So I hung back in 2nd and 3rd position as a couple riders drove the pace pretty hard anyway. I started the sprint for the prime, but Chris was able to come around me just before the line. I figured that the race was over and that Christian Parrett (Global Bike) and maybe one or two riders would bridge up to us for the break. But instead, the field came back together.

Shortly after that, Christian began a series of attacks that eventually saw him get away solo. Chris’s teammate Anders got away in a chase group of 3. But one of the riders got shelled making it a chase group of two. Our average pace in the field slowed way down as there would be an attack and then when the attack was chased down the pace really dropped. After only 20 minutes into the race, Christian lapped the field which was down to less than 10 riders by this point – but the chase group of two still hadn’t caught us. So Christian went immediately to the front and began driving the pace. He very slowly started extending the gap on the chase group (we had been getting splits to the chase group behind us). At one point the gap from the chase group to the back of the field was only 20 seconds.

I had won a couple field primes during this time, but then while Christian was driving the front they announced a $230 giro helmet prime. I need a new helmet, so I went really hard for this one. Will Fyfe (Birmingham Bicycle Company), however, just got me at the line. Our effort for the prime, however, shelled some more riders from the group and later when Chris attacked I was able to go with him. He was in an awkward position because he couldn’t work too hard or we would catch his teammate. At the same time, though, it was safer to be off the front then contesting the field sprint. So we settled into a rhythm that looked like would keep us in front of the field but behind the chase group of two.

The chase group had been out front for a long time in the hot conditions so we ended up catching them with about 5 laps to go. This put four of us working together to stay in front of the field. In one of the corners, I felt my rear wheel slide a bit. It felt like I had a flat tire. But I bounced on it and it didn’t seem to be bulging out too much so I kept on going. By three laps to go, though, the tire was rolling on the faster corners. I went to the front to drive the pace so that hopefully I would have enough time to get a wheel from the pit and stay in front of the field since there was no more free laps. But in the end I decided to just risk it since it seemed to have enough air to not be rolling on every corner. Fortunately, the sprint at the finish didn’t start in earnest until after the last corner and I was able to give it max effort up the hill to finish just behind Chris for 3rd place. Here is a picture I got right after the race – I’m guessing that the slow leak had taken it down to maybe 40 psi by the end.

All the data
With five separate races this weekend, I have gobs and gobs of data. So I’ve highlighted what I consider the most interesting data and then put the rest into a gallery. First, I set three new power records this weekend … the first was during the masters road race over the range from 17″ (916 watts) to 20″ (878 watts). The second was during the time trial over the range from 1’07″ (607 watts) to 1’30″ (545 watts). And the final power record was during the P/1/2/3/4 combined crit (probably sprinting for either the points prime at the beginning of the race or the giro helmet prime) over the range from 2″ (1107 watts) to 16″ (930 watts).

New power record set during the Masters 35+ road race.
New power record set during the 1K time trial.
New power record set during the P/1/2/3/4 combined crit.

The next two most interesting data items are the heartrate plot and summary for the Pro/1/2 road race Saturday morning. This was a particularly difficult race to start out the weekend with!
Pro/1/2 road race heartrate summary
Pro/1/2 heartrate and power plot (power smoothed with 30second smoothing filter)

The time trial power plot is interesting … speed data is from GPS, but it looks like there is a second in the middle where my Garmin dropped the power reading right around the time that the GPS-based speed was getting goofy. I wonder if it was because the Garmin was devoting more processing power to trying to pin the GPS signal and dropped the power reading. I stayed big chainring the entire time trial and never stopped standing so my power should never have dropped to zero.
Heartrate plot for the timetrial

Finally, here is my lap data from the two criteriums on Sunday.

MASTERS 35+ criterium - 2nd place
Lap	Time	AvgPow	NormPow	MaxPow	AvgHR	Avg Spd
1	1:47	234	205	725	138	23.6
2	1:38	197	176	626	144	25.6
3	1:38	197	169	528	142	25.4
4	1:38	215	186	668	145	25.8
5	1:39	188	155	636	150	25.3
6	1:38	220	204	664	149	25.7
7	1:38	267	238	1092	146	25.6
8	1:31	323	268	647	170	27.6
9	1:27	364	319	1067	167	28.5
10	1:29	333	281	775	180	26.6
11	1:32	306	259	594	179	26.9
12	1:34	299	251	610	177	26.4
13	1:30	299	243	624	178	25.8
14	1:31	281	229	718	178	25.9
15	1:36	291	242	643	179	25.8
16	1:38	286	242	546	179	25.4
17	1:36	267	231	577	176	25.4
18	1:40	268	223	539	176	25
19	1:39	268	229	536	174	25.2
20	1:34	290	239	548	176	26.1
21	1:35	281	235	639	176	26.2
22	1:31	269	212	499	176	25.8
23	1:31	287	234	699	177	26.1
24	1:33	284	225	571	176	26.8
25	1:34	263	222	600	174	26.4
26	1:36	270	224	696	173	26.2
27	1:34	234	194	613	172	25.1
28	1:42	252	226	759	165	24.3

Pro/1/2/3/4 combined criterium - 3rd place
Lap	Time	AvgPow	NormPow	MaxPow	AvgHR	Avg Spd
1	1:37	398	321	1108	151	26.6
2	1:28	326	265	801	171	27.8
3	1:28	344	297	1086	170	26
4	1:30	341	282	1039	171	25.9
5	1:31	262	232	1033	176	25.3
6	1:36	234	202	673	165	26
7	1:40	214	181	784	162	24.8
8	1:38	166	146	451	158	23.7
9	1:49	168	149	773	150	23
10	1:44	216	190	931	152	23.9
11	1:46	254	253	968	151	23.5
12	1:37	247	198	780	168	24.2
13	1:25	361	303	1110	171	27.7
14	1:43	238	205	918	171	22.8
15	1:26	270	240	897	170	26.5
16	1:40	241	208	793	168	23
17	1:46	212	187	933	158	23.8
18	1:47	186	167	722	157	23.3
19	1:42	218	192	951	153	23
20	1:36	205	184	645	162	23.8
21	1:33	232	192	910	156	25.2
22	1:31	222	182	568	156	25.3
23	1:33	213	176	775	156	24.9
24	1:39	220	186	662	156	25.1
25	1:33	221	184	674	155	24.9
26	1:37	284	253	1125	154	25.6
27	1:36	230	193	623	165	23.9
28	1:30	405	378	1044	168	27.9
29	1:28	289	239	627	181	26.5
30	1:29	274	222	619	179	26.3
31	1:32	292	238	654	178	25.1
32	1:32	243	200	630	176	25
33	1:34	283	235	899	171	24.7
34	1:33	274	230	862	174	24.8
35	1:33	348	292	1111	177	24.8

And here is a gallery of all the data and photos from the race weekend… organized by race.

Saturday P/1/2 road race heartrate summary

Saturday P/1/2 road race – heartrate plot

Saturday P/1/2 road race – critical power curve

Saturday M35+ road race heartrate summary

Saturday M35+ road race – heartrate plot

New power record set during the Masters 35+ road race.

Saturday time trial heartrate summary

Saturday TT – heartrate plot

New power record set during the 1K time trial

Saturday Time Trial – pedal force vs pedal velocity

Sunday M35+ criterium heartrate summary

Sunday M35+ Criterium – heartrate plot

Sunday M35+ criterium – critical power curve

Sunday M35+ Criterium – pedal force vs pedal velocity

Sunday P/1/2/3/4 criterium heartrate summary

Sunday P/1/2/3/4 Criterium – heartrate plot

New power record set during the P/1/2/3/4 combined crit.

Sunday P/1/2/3/4 Criterium – pedal force vs pedal velocity

Driving by the Huntsville space and rocket center

State park sign at the start of Bankhead Highway

Another state park sign at the start of Bankhead Highway

Observatory at the top of Monte Sano

Informational sign at the Monte Sano overlook

View from the Monte Sano overlook

Historic Monte Sano railway

View looking towards downtown Huntsville from the top of Monte Sano

I guess Bankhead highway must have been named after her!

Squishy rear tire shortly after the end of the race

Out west – days 19, 20, 21 – Tulsa Tough Race Report

Watching the Friday night fireworks as the pacecar zooms by near the end of the race

Friday, Blue Dome Criterium, 38th
This was a great kick-off race for the weekend of racing at Tulsa Tough. I didn’t know how my legs would feel after a 750 mile drive on the heels of two days of HC climbing in Los Alamos. But it turns out they felt really great. I didn’t anticipate how early our Pro/1 field would try to line up for the start immediately following the 1/2 race — so I ended up starting near the very back of the field. The figure-eight course was super fast, but not very hard. You could always carry your speed through each corner – and because the race never really slowed down much it was hard to pass anyone since there would always be a corner coming up. Eventually I figured out that the short stretch of road between turns 4 and 5 was the spot to pass – but as I found out on the next to last lap, it put you in a bad spot for turn #6. I was moving up really well from near the back of the field to the top 30 or so when I got cut off on turn #6 having to slam on the brakes to avoid colliding with the rider coming from outside to inside on that corner. I lost 10 spots immediately and a lot of momentum going into the final lap. The last lap was so fast that there wasn’t much passing. I ended up getting 38th. The best part of the race, though, was the fireworks (literally) from a nearby baseball game that started with 15 minutes left in our race lasting until the next to last lap. It was a really psychedelic experience as the fireworks were in plain view in front of us on two stretches of the course. Plus they were so loud that you didn’t hear the normal sounds of a bike race. I was disappointed with my result, but the race was very fast and fun, and I knew my legs felt great for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday, Brady Village Criterium, 25th
Josiah and Analise both raced the kids race with Josiah cruising to a 2nd place finish in the 6 and under category. The video below is of Josiah getting 2nd in the kids race. Analise had a rough start, but finished strong in the 7 and older category.

Josiah shows off his 2nd place medal, and Analise shows off her ribbon

Our race was an L-shaped course starting out very flat with two quick lefts. Then after a long straightaway, the course had its only righthand turn followed by a long uphill. This hill was lined with tons of people from nearby restaurants and bars. Then we turned left to continue up a frontage road next to an interstate overpass. People climbed way up on the concrete to watch the race and scream/cheer for us. Then we turned left to fly down the hill into the final turn. Even with a very strong headwind, the hill was steep enough that we went screaming through the last turn fast every lap. I started towards the middle of the field and fought hard to stay there eventually moving up to 25th by the end.

Sunday, Cry-baby Hill Criterium, 32nd
This was the marquee event of the weekend and has to rank as one of the coolest criterium experiences ever. The long 10% hill on the course was lined with so many people packed in so tightly that it felt like what I would imagine riding a grand tour climb through throngs of people would be like. On some laps, you could only fit two or three riders at a time together through the people spraying water with garden hoses, super-soakers, and water bottles. I started at the back again after getting lost on my warm-up. I only had a few minutes to find water, find and kiss Kristine, and make it to the start line. Then there was a somewhat lengthy call-up so I actually had a little more time than I anticipated. In any case, I was at the very back.

The course started out flat along the Arkansas River before narrowing from four lanes to a one lane off-ramp at the base of Cry Baby Hill. The average gradient for the climb is about 10% with half the climb on the off-ramp, and the other half once you make the righthand turn onto W 13th St. This is where it got really crowded with so many people yelling and screaming and many of them dressed up in different costumes. Super-soakers, water bottles, garden hoses were all used to douse us with water, which was really important because the race temp was well into the 90s. Imagine an Athens Twilight crowd on a narrow road without any barriers separating the crowd from the racers – it was absolutely awesome.

Once you crested the climb, you went down a short steep hill to a cross steep with a hump across the middle. On the first lap when we were flying, I caught air on the hump accidentally. Then the road kicked back up again for the turn onto S Galveston Ave which took you down a steep hill into a 110 degree turn back onto the start/finish stretch. This is when you were hit with a huge tailwind, which meant that the corner wasn’t too bad because the tailwind made it possible to get back up to speed quickly/easily rather than trying to risk carrying a crazy amount of speed through the corner.

Josiah making the most of a small sand pit next to turn 3 (don’t worry, this was a very slow uphill corner)
Kristine got this video of the downhill corner of the first lap of our race (Pro/1) -

I felt really good on the hill and passed people every lap. I would continue to pass people on the downhill into the 110 degree turn. I would then hold my position well until just before the turn to go up the hill, where I would usually get passed by several people every lap. Rinse and repeat and this meant that I very, very slowly worked my way from the back of the field to the front. Just before two laps to go, I surged one more time and moved into the top 20 – but then on the flat stretch leading into the hill, there was a big swarm of people up either side and I lost a lot of positions. I started passing people again on the climb, but the damage was done as I was maybe 40 riders back by this point. I continued passing riders everywhere I could, but I only ended up 32nd. Still, this was an Athens Twilight style race that you were happy to finish. Next year, I will be more aggressive on the flat stretch going into the hill so that I don’t lose so many positions each lap.

Coming out of turn 3

Here is all my power and heartrate data from the three races:

Tulsa Tough Friday – Blue Dome Criterium

Tulsa Tough Saturday – Brady Village Criterium

Tulsa Tough Sunday – Cry Baby Hill Criterium

Tulsa Tough Friday – Blue Dome Criterium

Tulsa Tough Saturday – Brady Village Criterium

Tulsa Tough Sunday – Cry Baby Hill Criterium

Tulsa Tough Friday – Blue Dome Criterium – Pedal Force / Pedal Velocity

Tulsa Tough Saturday – Brady Village Criterium – Pedal Force / Pedal Velocity

Tulsa Tough Sunday – Cry Baby Hill Criterium – Pedal Force / Pedal Velocity

Tulsa Tough Friday – Blue Dome Criterium – Power Map

Tulsa Tough Saturday – Brady Village Criterium – Power Map

Tulsa Tough Sunday – Cry Baby Hill Criterium – Power Map

LAP DATA / SPLITS

DAY 1, FRIDAY BLUE DOME CRITERIUM
Lap	Time	Avg Pow	Max Pow	HR	MPH
1	01:37	304	901	155	25.5
2	01:23	255	897	164	28.3
3	01:21	309	923	167	29.5
4	01:20	302	911	171	29.4
5	01:19	311	959	173	30.3
6	01:16	292	888	174	31.1
7	01:20	266	883	171	30.2
8	01:20	266	835	169	29.9
9	01:18	304	914	171	30.7
10	01:21	290	705	172	29.2
11	01:24	263	952	169	28.2
12	01:27	267	857	168	27.6
13	01:24	280	792	168	28.7
14	01:20	286	752	167	30
15	01:27	232	728	161	27.8
16	01:21	283	775	161	29.9
17	01:26	256	898	164	28
18	01:22	274	769	165	29.4
19	01:22	298	919	166	29.5
20	01:20	261	939	165	30
21	01:21	247	675	164	29.8
22	01:22	284	878	163	29.5
23	01:21	280	744	168	29.1
24	01:23	233	708	163	28.9
25	01:19	292	844	164	30.1
26	01:21	248	779	166	29.3
27	01:20	307	880	168	29.6
28	01:22	253	963	167	28.8
29	01:23	275	862	167	29
30	01:19	283	744	169	29.9
31	01:21	275	841	171	29.4
32	01:24	261	936	167	28.2
33	01:20	291	841	170	29.6
34	01:21	276	843	172	29
35	01:21	318	959	177	29.4
36	01:21	293	973	176	29.6
37	01:19	284	981	179	30.7
38	01:18	294	870	180	30.8
39	01:19	304	907	185	30.2
40	01:19	328	940	184	30.1
41	01:18	356	976	187	30.9
42	01:14	363	765	190	32.2

DAY 2, SATURDAY BRADY VILLAGE CRITERIUM
Lap	Time	Avg Pow	Max Pow	HR	MPH
1	01:57	295	880	151	26.1
2	01:42	287	839	166	29.1
3	01:43	270	888	168	28.3
4	01:40	246	958	164	29.4
5	01:44	262	821	165	28.2
6	01:41	279	894	170	28.9
7	01:41	257	913	170	29.5
8	01:37	300	909	170	30.3
9	01:46	262	814	172	27.9
10	01:42	279	990	170	29.3
11	01:38	296	998	178	29.7
12	01:39	263	976	175	30.1
13	01:41	270	949	173	29.4
14	01:41	275	941	173	29.5
15	01:42	242	773	174	29.1
16	01:42	245	768	165	29.3
17	01:42	263	853	170	28.8
18	01:43	275	876	173	28.7
19	01:45	268	796	171	27.9
20	01:44	278	937	171	28.3
21	01:42	235	826	169	29
22	01:43	254	890	170	29
23	01:45	266	735	169	28.5
24	01:43	259	767	171	28.6
25	01:40	260	781	172	29.7
26	01:43	275	805	172	28.8
27	01:43	261	716	170	29
28	01:44	250	729	170	28.5
29	01:47	237	892	173	27.7
30	01:46	263	912	171	27.9
31	01:44	244	737	171	28.6
32	01:46	256	754	172	28.3
33	01:47	278	868	173	27.4
34	01:46	247	773	173	27.9
35	01:42	270	862	172	29.2
36	01:41	266	864	176	29.4
37	01:40	284	888	178	29.8
38	01:46	273	884	175	28.1
39	01:43	263	821	175	28.7
40	01:43	291	882	180	29.2
41	01:44	281	860	181	28.6
42	01:41	287	880	181	29.3
43	01:44	248	901	181	28.2
44	01:43	272	806	181	28.4
45	01:47	274	954	183	27.7
46	01:42	297	927	189	28.9
47	01:37	379	990	193	30.3

DAY 3, SUNDAY CRY BABY HILL CRITERIUM
Lap	Time	Avg Pow	Max Pow	HR	MPH
1	02:09	310	847	152	23.7
2	01:53	279	826	163	26.1
3	01:56	259	909	163	25.5
4	01:52	267	819	165	26.7
5	01:54	280	907	166	25.8
6	01:57	279	928	173	25.3
7	02:06	222	803	165	23.4
8	01:56	262	784	165	25.1
9	01:56	265	960	167	25.4
10	01:50	318	1042	176	26.9
11	01:53	314	928	180	25.7
12	02:05	261	818	170	24
13	01:55	263	879	173	25.3
14	02:03	218	755	170	24
15	02:04	233	891	167	24
16	02:00	249	705	168	24.9
17	01:57	252	926	170	25.5
18	02:01	250	873	171	24.7
19	01:58	227	783	171	25.3
20	02:03	226	805	166	24
21	02:03	223	679	168	24.4
22	02:04	246	758	166	23.8
23	01:57	266	816	173	25
24	02:05	238	877	165	23.8
25	01:56	257	815	173	25.6
26	02:04	225	870	167	23.8
27	02:04	243	729	168	24
28	01:58	264	785	174	24.6
29	02:09	221	760	167	22.8
30	02:01	248	801	169	24.3
31	02:03	237	739	171	24
32	02:04	252	768	170	23.7
33	02:01	247	912	173	24.1
34	01:57	279	855	174	25.4
35	02:00	259	879	174	24.3
36	01:56	273	931	178	25.6
37	01:43	373	1041	188	28.3

Highland Rim Classic – Day 1

Sometimes it’s more about the adventure than the race (although the race was really good, too). Today was a day like that – from the long drive on beautiful country roads to the climb that I wanted to do on my warm-up taking a bit longer than expected leaving me less than 5 minutes to refill water bottles and shoot over to the line before the start. So, I’ve included some pictures and video from the drive up and the festivities surrounding the race.

About the race – Chris Brown (Litespeed-BMW) took the win solo lapping the field along the way, and I came out on the losing end of a photo finish sprint for 2nd place to a very strong 16 year old – Stephen Bassett (Texas Roadhouse). I missed Chris’s move and spent a few laps chasing just a couple seconds behind him but I couldn’t close the gap and nearly blew up in the process. I eventually sat up and waited for the field. In the end game, there were five of us left to sprint it out. I attacked hard going into the next to last turn and held it until the finish … well, exactly two inches before the finish.

I hit an all-time new record max HR of 199 in the final sprint … here is all the data:

McMinnville Crit power and heartrate data

Lap	Avg Spd		Avg Pow	Avg HR	Time
1	23.3mi/h	 388W	 162bpm	0:01:04
2	24.9mi/h	 221W	 173bpm	0:01:00
3	23.7mi/h	 197W	 168bpm	0:01:03
4	23.3mi/h	 227W	 166bpm	0:01:04
5	25.3mi/h	 315W	 168bpm	0:00:59
6	28.2mi/h	 441W	 185bpm	0:00:53
7	27.1mi/h	 310W	 191bpm	0:00:55
8	26.2mi/h	 324W	 189bpm	0:00:57
9	25.3mi/h	 295W	 188bpm	0:00:59
10	24.5mi/h	 254W	 182bpm	0:01:01
11	24.9mi/h	 269W	 180bpm	0:01:00
12	25.3mi/h	 251W	 179bpm	0:00:59
13	24.5mi/h	 250W	 178bpm	0:01:01
14	26.6mi/h	 251W	 178bpm	0:00:56
15	24.5mi/h	 256W	 178bpm	0:01:01
16	24.9mi/h	 265W	 180bpm	0:01:00
17	25.7mi/h	 258W	 182bpm	0:00:58
18	25.3mi/h	 221W	 181bpm	0:00:59
19	24.9mi/h	 228W	 179bpm	0:01:00
20	24.1mi/h	 212W	 177bpm	0:01:02
21	24.5mi/h	 269W	 176bpm	0:01:01
22	25.7mi/h	 295W	 181bpm	0:00:58
23	24.9mi/h	 301W	 182bpm	0:01:00
24	24.1mi/h	 170W	 183bpm	0:01:02
25	27.6mi/h	 478W	 188bpm	0:00:54
26	27.6mi/h	 362W	 194bpm	0:00:54
27	26.6mi/h	 353W	 195bpm	0:00:56
28	23.0mi/h	 208W	 190bpm	0:01:05
29	22.6mi/h	 262W	 178bpm	0:01:06
30	23.7mi/h	 188W	 173bpm	0:01:03
31	24.1mi/h	 270W	 171bpm	0:01:02
32	24.1mi/h	 215W	 174bpm	0:01:02
33	23.3mi/h	 262W	 173bpm	0:01:04
34	24.5mi/h	 218W	 175bpm	0:01:01
35	25.3mi/h	 243W	 178bpm	0:00:59
36	23.3mi/h	 227W	 177bpm	0:01:04
37	24.5mi/h	 255W	 177bpm	0:01:01
38	23.7mi/h	 232W	 180bpm	0:01:03
39	24.5mi/h	 268W	 182bpm	0:01:01
40	22.3mi/h	 208W	 180bpm	0:01:07
41	21.9mi/h	 213W	 176bpm	0:01:08
42	24.5mi/h	 320W	 176bpm	0:01:01
43	26.2mi/h	 321W	 188bpm	0:00:57
44	24.9mi/h	 295W	 192bpm	0:01:00
45	24.1mi/h	 273W	 188bpm	0:01:02
46	21.3mi/h	 211W	 182bpm	0:01:10
47	22.6mi/h	 229W	 175bpm	0:01:06
48	24.1mi/h	 262W	 177bpm	0:01:02
49	24.1mi/h	 251W	 181bpm	0:01:02
50	23.3mi/h	 251W	 178bpm	0:01:04
51	24.1mi/h	 227W	 177bpm	0:01:02
52	23.7mi/h	 229W	 179bpm	0:01:03
53	23.0mi/h	 216W	 177bpm	0:01:05
54	24.1mi/h	 293W	 177bpm	0:01:02
55	23.0mi/h	 196W	 183bpm	0:01:05
56	23.0mi/h	 217W	 175bpm	0:01:05
57	25.3mi/h	 341W	 180bpm	0:00:59
58	23.0mi/h	 287W	 188bpm	0:01:05
59	29.3mi/h	 492W	 193bpm	0:00:51

Here’s videos and pics from the drive-up.

Band playing as part of the festival:

Driving past the huntsville space and rocket center:

Fog coming off the Warrior River just north of Birmingham

Rockets at the rocket center – one is standing, the other is inside the building separated into its stages

Auction near the Tennessee border

Auction near the Tennessee border

Cheap gas!

Band playing while riders warm-up

Athens Twilight 2012 vs Sunny King 2012 power and heartrate data

Well, the results are in, and below is this year’s side-by-side comparison of two very popular pro criteriums (Sunny King and Athens Terrapin Twilight). I still don’t know how to decide which race is harder … so y’all look at the data and make some comments about how you interpret it. Thanks! This year’s races were held on back-to-back weekends with Sunny King held in Anniston, Alabama on Saturday, April 21st at 7:30PM and Athens Twilight held in Athens, Georgia on Saturday, April 28th at 9:00PM.

Summary Data

		Sunny King	Athens Twilight
Time		1:30:14		1:41:19
Distance	41.6 mi.	47.6 mi.
Avg Speed	27.7 mph	28.2 mph
Max Speed	36 mph		36 mph
Avg HR		176		174
Max HR		187		189
Avg Power	269		245
Max Power	1013		1088
Placing		26th		20th

Heartrate Zones

		Sunny King	Athens Twilight
Zone 5 (175+)	0:58:45		0:54:04
Zone 4 (155+)	0:31:15		0:46:50

Some notes about the data … first, it was really windy for this year’s Sunny King criterium, which partially explains the higher power / lower average speed. But a bigger factor in the Watts vs Speed differences between the races is that in Athens you have a long stretch of the course where you rest … from the downhill going into Turn 3 all the way through Turn 4. The only place to rest on the Sunny King course is about 3 or 4 seconds as you brake hard into Turn #3.

Here are the power maps … note that for the Sunny King race there is a lot more time to warm up on the course so a lot of the purple lines are from my warm-up laps.

2012 Sunny King Criterium – Pro men power map (click to enlarge)

2012 Athens Terrapin Twilight Criterium – Pro men power map (click to enlarge)

Here is a side-by-side on the lap data for the two races showing avg power, max power, and avg heartrate. Sunny King is on a slightly longer course so there is only 60 laps as compared to 80 laps for the Athens Twilight race.

	Avg power	Max power	Avg heartrate	
Lap	Sunny	Athens	Sunny	Athens	Sunny	Athens
1	367	330	897	820	159	168
2	317	267	948	827	173	172
3	279	270	839	975	173	173
4	236	305	767	851	172	177
5	282	257	970	895	174	178
6	316	256	900	845	177	176
7	272	234	855	890	179	173
8	303	243	1013	919	180	173
9	238	258	934	891	179	174
10	268	231	822	860	175	176
11	253	272	917	873	176	178
12	260	271	804	918	176	179
13	271	284	820	931	177	179
14	282	250	928	821	180	182
15	265	249	814	973	177	179
16	289	280	853	917	177	180
17	246	234	780	901	179	179
18	276	268	879	876	175	179
19	256	261	874	884	174	179
20	326	236	935	934	180	179
21	260	249	884	903	180	179
22	252	262	945	864	176	178
23	251	234	717	897	175	177
24	256	262	807	896	177	179
25	246	244	852	920	177	178
26	289	256	916	976	178	178
27	291	238	872	903	179	177
28	295	226	827	790	179	175
29	250	216	870	794	178	175
30	272	235	882	706	174	175
31	274	239	898	885	175	176
32	249	253	910	875	176	177
33	250	260	679	900	176	178
34	252	247	735	933	172	177
35	233	218	821	885	170	176
36	265	257	897	883	175	172
37	240	232	869	842	169	178
38	247	232	855	881	171	172
39	274	222	896	832	174	173
40	260	241	657	856	175	172
41	258	262	789	930	171	176
42	261	228	893	820	175	176
43	276	224	900	800	176	171
44	259	215	812	862	174	169
45	242	267	900	775	174	172
46	251	244	825	755	174	174
47	242	229	793	817	175	169
48	247	214	744	851	171	169
49	266	191	720	813	176	171
50	276	246	880	821	176	166
51	238	225	744	775	178	170
52	294	251	873	868	179	171
53	269	240	819	844	178	170
54	253	259	825	802	178	172
55	246	214	788	816	174	171
56	277	280	791	842	177	171
57	278	325	886	971	179	181
58	264	202	965	783	177	174
59	322	243	867	701	181	169
60	330	212	744	743	185	170
61		224		852		167
62		232		816		169
63		244		832		173
64		245		885		173
65		261		731		172
66		232		827		172
67		238		876		173
68		244		846		173
69		239		854		174
70		212		817		173
71		236		879		172
72		253		875		174
73		243		812		176
74		261		782		174
75		280		865		175
76		254		919		178
77		226		827		176
78		284		850		176
79		276		922		180
80		363		1088		184