Sunny King Criterium and Foothills Road Race reports

Josiah ready to race the kids race and me ready to warm-up for the pro race
Sunny King Criterium
This is a tough criterium for smaller guys like me – the hill on the course isn’t steep enough to take advantage of power to weight ratio. Similarly, the downhill is shallow enough that you have to work to keep the wheel in front of you. Making it even worse this year was a stiff headwind on the downhill and strong tailwind on the uphill. Still, this is one of my favorite crits because it is practically a home race (Anniston is about an hour away from my home in Birmingham). Chad Andrews (totalcyclist) does a great job of announcing the crit and getting the crowd pumped up so the energy in the air is palpable.

Kenda Pro Cycling dominated this third stop on the National Criterium Calendar pretty much from start to finish. Phil Gaimon (Kenda) got away on the first or second lap with an Exergy rider. Eventually Phil dropped the Exergy rider and solidered on alone. He swept up three primes in the process and was away for a lot of laps. Mountain Khakis did a lot of the chasing, and the pace was steadier and a bit easier than previous years. Still, I was struggling a bit because I was too far back in the field and the slingshot effect of this course was particularly bad coming out of turn 4 with a bit of a crosswind before the tailwind up the hill. So basically the guys at the front of the pack were flying up the hill with a tailwind while those at the back were still trying to accelerate out of the corner with a nasty crosswind.

My wife observed that the back of the race was getting closer and closer to me – i.e., I was maintaining my position but more and more people behind me were getting gapped off or dropping out. Eventually, though, I was able to move up to maybe the front third of what was left of the field. With 10 laps to go, I worked hard to maintain my position. With two or three laps to go (I lost count) I noticed that I was maybe in the top 40. Kenda, Mountain Khakis, and Exergy were all battling with their leadout trains. I knew that riders from the train would be peeling off when their turn was done so I figured I was pretty good to move up into the top 30 by the end. Our field was strung out single file flying around the course. I would be looking intently at the wheel in front of me to stay as close as possible when out of the corner of my eye a rider coming off the front. It was amazing to see them rocketing backwards as we went by at maybe 20mph faster than they were going with their job for the day done.

On the last lap, unfortunately, people immediately in front of me also started giving up. I had to come around several riders who lost the wheel in front of them. I ended up catching a few more riders in the final sprint to finish 26th. I was pleased to finish in the top 30 in a really hard race. Up ahead of me, Isaac Howe (Kenda) came out of the final corner 2nd wheel and took the sprint for the win.

By the end of the race the temp had dropped down into the 50s with a howling wind – it was very cold on the “cool-down” lap. This was Kristine and Josiah watching the race:

Josiah and Kristine bundled up watching the race.

Sunny King Criterium data

			Power (watts)
Lap	Time	Mile	Avg	Max	HR	Spd (mph)
1	01:38	0.7	367	897	159	25.4
2	01:28	0.7	317	948	173	28.3
3	01:28	0.7	279	839	173	27.9
4	01:28	0.7	236	767	172	27.8
5	01:27	0.7	282	970	174	28.6
6	01:27	0.7	316	900	177	28
7	01:27	0.7	272	855	179	28.3
8	01:26	0.7	303	1013	180	28.6
9	01:28	0.7	238	934	179	28
10	01:30	0.7	268	822	175	27.5
11	01:30	0.7	253	917	176	27.2
12	01:34	0.7	260	804	176	26.3
13	01:29	0.7	271	820	177	27.6
14	01:29	0.7	282	928	180	27.8
15	01:29	0.7	265	814	177	27.5
16	01:27	0.7	289	853	177	28
17	01:28	0.7	246	780	179	27.8
18	01:31	0.7	276	879	175	26.9
19	01:31	0.7	256	874	174	26.9
20	01:26	0.7	326	935	180	28.5
21	01:28	0.7	260	884	180	28.3
22	01:28	0.7	252	945	176	27.8
23	01:30	0.7	251	717	175	27.6
24	01:30	0.7	256	807	177	27
25	01:28	0.7	246	852	177	27.7
26	01:28	0.7	289	916	178	28
27	01:26	0.7	291	872	179	28.8
28	01:26	0.7	295	827	179	28.5
29	01:30	0.7	250	870	178	27.6
30	01:34	0.7	272	882	174	27.4
31	01:28	0.7	274	898	175	28.2
32	01:29	0.7	249	910	176	27.5
33	01:31	0.7	250	679	176	27
34	01:32	0.7	252	735	172	26.6
35	01:34	0.7	233	821	170	26.5
36	01:28	0.7	265	897	175	27.8
37	01:34	0.7	240	869	169	26.5
38	01:31	0.7	247	855	171	27
39	01:28	0.7	274	896	174	28.2
40	01:28	0.7	260	657	175	28
41	01:34	0.7	258	789	171	26.2
42	01:27	0.7	261	893	175	28.1
43	01:28	0.7	276	900	176	27.9
44	01:29	0.7	259	812	174	27.6
45	01:31	0.7	242	900	174	27
46	01:29	0.7	251	825	174	27.7
47	01:29	0.7	242	793	175	27.8
48	01:32	0.7	247	744	171	26.7
49	01:26	0.7	266	720	176	28.6
50	01:29	0.7	276	880	176	27.7
51	01:29	0.7	238	744	178	28
52	01:32	0.7	294	873	179	26.9
53	01:31	0.7	269	819	178	27.1
54	01:33	0.7	253	825	178	26.8
55	01:30	0.7	246	788	174	27.4
56	01:28	0.7	277	791	177	28
57	01:26	0.7	278	886	179	29
58	01:25	0.7	264	965	177	29
59	01:24	0.7	322	867	181	29.6
60	01:23	0.7	330	744	185	29.6

Heartrate summary – look at all the time in zone 5!

Annotated Sunny King pro criterium heartrate/power plot. Power shown has 30second smoothing filter applied (click to enlarge)

Foothills Road Race
This was my “target” race for the weekend – I was hoping to be in the top 10. I ended up missing an early move and a later move. So on the third of four Cat 4 climbs of the day, I attacked and got away solo chasing a group of about 10 riders up the road with all major teams represented. I was fighting a head/crosswind early on, but then had a nice tail/crosswind until late in the race. I kept the field completely out of sight for a long time. Once I made the left turn onto the rougher road to start heading towards the final climb, I was now faced with a strong head/crosswind again. I quickly lost time, and the field caught me at the base of the last climb. I gave it one more burst to try and stay with the group over the top, but even with a friendly push from fellow Alabamian Mike Olheiser (Competitive Cyclist) I couldn’t keep up. My legs were done. I ended up coming in with a small group a couple minutes back of the field sprint.

Strava map and statistics for my nearly 30 mile solo chase effort (click to enlarge)

Heartrate summary – zone 4 must have been feeling left out after yesterday’s crit.

Foothills Road Race annotated heartrate and power data (30 second smoothing) – click to enlarge.

Mississippi Gran Prix Day 1

Quick Summary
My teammate Pat Allison (check out his video from the Friday night crit) took 2nd with a super long sprint only getting caught at the line by Mat Davis (Team L’asport) who took the win. I came in a few spots behind for 6th, and my other teammate in the race (Justin Bynum) finished a strong 10th. Along the way I snagged three primes and Pat got a fourth prime. Great team race!

The Details
This criterium is probably my favorite event of the whole weekend of racing. It’s always fun to race a downtown criterium, and this one has an active train track that borders the course. Two trains went through at pretty high speed during warm-up, and one train came through after the race. Also, the only race of the evening is our Category 1/2/3 race so once the course is blocked off at about 6PM, you can warm up on the course for close to an hour. Plus, the race finishes in the dark so that takes an already fast course and makes it feel even faster.

On the first prime lap, I attacked hard out of the third corner of the six corner course and held it all the way to the line to take the $50 prime. This effort took a lot out of me, so I slid way back in the field before starting to move up again. Later in the race, I had moved into position towards the front again when they rang the bell for another prime. I attacked hard in the same spot as the first prime and held it again to the line. After this prime, we had a good break with Mat Davis and one or two other riders. After about 1/2 lap, Jake Brewer (Herring Gas) bridged up to us and we started rolling. But there was still too much firepower left in the field and we were brought back after a few laps.

Pat covered the next few moves and ended up taking a $50 prime and just missing out on another one. I worked to maintain position near the front as we got closer to the finish. With four laps to go, the organizers rang the bell for another prime and I was in good position coming out of turn 2 so I hit it hard and was able to hold it all the way to the line. I slid way back after this, but was able to work my way back up to near the front on the last lap when I saw Pat take a flyer coming out of turn 2. This strung out everything in front and gaps were opening up as panic set in. Mat Davis was chasing Pat and Woody Boudreaux (Herring Gas) was chasing Mat. Mat ended up catching Pat right before the line. Pat held on for 2nd, and Woody came in third. I came into the fourth turn passing people but got chopped and lost quite a bit of momentum. I was able to hit it hard again though and pass a few more people to take 6th. Justin rode a smart race and finished a few spots behind for 10th.

The Data

Dist:       26.40 mi (0:58:58)
Energy:    1004.6 kJ
Cals Burn:  960.4 kcal
Braking:     -5.8 kJ (-0.6%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  284.0   960  W
Aero        0  212.8   788  W
Rolling     9   34.7    44  W
Gravity  -601   -0.6   414  W
Speed     6.7   26.9  33.7  mi/h
Wind      0.0   20.1  38.5  mi/h
Elev      306    326   343  ft
Slope    -5.7  -0.01   4.7  %
Caden       4   78.9   106  rpm
HR        127  175.3   198  bpm
NP:342W IF:1.23 TSS:149 VI:1.20
CdA: 0.342 m^2; Crr: 0.0039
168 lbs; 4/13/2012 6:41 PM
73 degF; 1013 mbar

Criterium heartrate data (click to enlarge)

Lap 1	0.7mi	25.5mi/h	306 watts	160 bpm	0:01:38	
Lap 2	0.7mi	28.8mi/h	316 watts	168 bpm	0:01:27	
Lap 3	0.7mi	28.1mi/h	358 watts	177 bpm	0:01:29	
Lap 4	0.7mi	26.3mi/h	217 watts	177 bpm	0:01:35	
Lap 5	0.7mi	26.9mi/h	213 watts	164 bpm	0:01:33	
Lap 6	0.7mi	28.8mi/h	255 watts	166 bpm	0:01:27	
Lap 7	0.7mi	28.4mi/h	316 watts	171 bpm	0:01:28	
Lap 8	0.7mi	30.1mi/h	406 watts	188 bpm	0:01:23	prime lap
Lap 9	0.7mi	26.6mi/h	316 watts	192 bpm	0:01:34	
Lap 10	0.7mi	26.3mi/h	248 watts	183 bpm	0:01:35	
Lap 11	0.7mi	27.5mi/h	205 watts	170 bpm	0:01:31	
Lap 12	0.7mi	27.5mi/h	244 watts	170 bpm	0:01:31	
Lap 13	0.7mi	26.3mi/h	237 watts	174 bpm	0:01:35	
Lap 14	0.7mi	28.8mi/h	270 watts	171 bpm	0:01:27	
Lap 15	0.7mi	26.1mi/h	257 watts	179 bpm	0:01:36	
Lap 16	0.7mi	26.3mi/h	234 watts	178 bpm	0:01:35	
Lap 17	0.7mi	26.9mi/h	239 watts	169 bpm	0:01:33	
Lap 18	0.7mi	27.5mi/h	275 watts	175 bpm	0:01:31	
Lap 19	0.7mi	27.2mi/h	259 watts	177 bpm	0:01:32	
Lap 20	0.7mi	26.9mi/h	230 watts	176 bpm	0:01:33	
Lap 21	0.7mi	27.5mi/h	284 watts	174 bpm	0:01:31	
Lap 22	0.7mi	26.6mi/h	256 watts	178 bpm	0:01:34	prime lap
Lap 23	0.7mi	26.6mi/h	330 watts	178 bpm	0:01:34	
Lap 24	0.7mi	27.2mi/h	238 watts	178 bpm	0:01:32	
Lap 25	0.7mi	26.3mi/h	210 watts	172 bpm	0:01:35	
Lap 26	0.7mi	26.9mi/h	311 watts	168 bpm	0:01:33	
Lap 27	0.7mi	26.3mi/h	253 watts	176 bpm	0:01:35	
Lap 28	0.7mi	28.8mi/h	315 watts	177 bpm	0:01:27	
Lap 29	0.7mi	27.2mi/h	315 watts	187 bpm	0:01:32	
Lap 30	0.7mi	25.0mi/h	257 watts	180 bpm	0:01:40	
Lap 31	0.6mi	26.6mi/h	176 watts	171 bpm	0:01:34	
Lap 32	0.7mi	25.8mi/h	225 watts	169 bpm	0:01:37	
Lap 33	0.7mi	26.9mi/h	244 watts	169 bpm	0:01:33	
Lap 34	0.7mi	26.6mi/h	227 watts	170 bpm	0:01:34	
Lap 35	0.7mi	30.1mi/h	421 watts	176 bpm	0:01:23	prime lap
Lap 36	0.7mi	25.5mi/h	227 watts	184 bpm	0:01:38	
Lap 37	0.7mi	27.5mi/h	286 watts	180 bpm	0:01:31	
Lap 38	0.7mi	29.1mi/h	398 watts	186 bpm	0:01:26	

Dothan Cityfest 2012

Race summary
17th place after missing the winning break of 8. Kenda, Mountain Khakis, UHC-Georgia, Team Coco’s, and Rosetti brought their top crit riders. Frank Travieso (Team Coco’s) won the race from the breakaway by attacking on the last lap and holding on until the end. Emile Abraham (Rosetti) took the sprint from the rest of the break for 2nd with Brendan Cornett (Locos) taking an impressive 3rd to round out the podium after bridging up to the break by himself. Kenda and Mountain Khakis also had riders in the break so they were not chasing. Andy Crater (Cleveland Clinic) tried to bridge across twice late in the race and could not quite close the gap. I tried to go with several early moves thinking that an early break would stick. It seemed that the race was too fast for any breaks to stick. I started sliding backwards after a 20 minute section with a heartrate average of 182 bpm (several beats above threshold) that started 10 minutes into the race. I recovered after a few laps, but unfortunately the winning break went at this point. I tried three different times to bridge across and/or get a chase group started, but the field brought the move back fairly quick each time. Then as the laps ticked down I switched tactics to try and position well for the field sprint and I was happy with how the field sprint played out as it felt a lot like the last couple laps of the Sunny King criterium which is coming up in a couple weeks. I ended up 9th in the field sprint for 17th in the race.

The data
No powertap data for the race, as I had a loose spoke on my rear powertap wheel and switched to my light climbing wheels (2006 Bontrager 3X Lite) which are still pretty good for crits b/c they accelerate so easily. Still, I raced with my iBike and merged the iBike data with my Garmin heartrate data to obtain the annotated polar graph shown below. The iBike graph shows where I was drafting pretty clearly.

Annotated heartrate summary (two new yearly heartrate records so far this year – most time in Zone 5 for a race and highest max heartrate of 195bpm)

Heartrate and ibike power plot annotated (click to enlarge)

Annotated ibike data (click to enlarge)

Finally, here are some pics and videos that Kristine got. The picture after the videos is my favorite … looking for the magic entrance into the side of the building

Analise and Josiah look for the magic entrance into the side of a building while scootering in the parking lot

Tour de Tuscaloosa Power Data

First, before the power data – here’s a video that my wife got of the Pro/1/2 criterium finish Saturday night where I got 5th in the race, 4th in the field sprint.

And now for the data – first the summary data, splits, and HR/Power graph for the criterium and the road race.

2012 Tour de Tuscaloosa Criterium Pro/1/2 lap splits
				Power				
Lap	Time	Miles	Avg	xPow	Max	HR	MPH
1	2:58	1.2	245	259	871	155	25.2
2	2:53	1.2	291	286	879	164	25.7
3	2:41	1.2	353	385	996	176	27.8
4	2:53	1.3	324	331	821	180	26
5	2:59	1.3	305	313	997	175	25.2
6	2:47	1.3	223	229	814	167	27
7	2:45	1.2	284	303	941	174	27.4
8	2:54	1.2	274	285	840	170	25.7
9	2:50	1.2	269	294	856	174	26.2
10	2:53	1.3	282	310	932	172	26.1
11	2:56	1.2	310	382	877	175	25.5
12	3:01	1.2	267	288	831	177	24.8
13	3:04	1.2	208	221	720	160	24.3
14	2:54	1.2	218	233	736	159	25.6
15	2:58	1.2	232	229	727	163	25.2
16	2:48	1.2	262	271	790	170	26.5
17	2:57	1.3	248	254	920	167	25.5
18	2:36	1.2	353	352	925	179	28.8
Total	52:01	22.5	274	312	997	170	26

Annotated heartrate and power data from Saturday’s Pro/1/2 criterium (click to enlarge)

2012 Tour de Tuscaloosa Road Race Pro/1/2 lap splits
				Power				
Lap	Time	Miles	Avg	xPow	Max	HR	MPH
1	22:04	9.6	274	305	963	161	26.1
2	21:41	9.6	262	281	801	157	26.6
3	21:45	9.6	292	310	808	166	26.5
4	22:35	9.6	254	273	641	155	25.6
5	23:17	9.6	257	276	604	153	24.8
6	23:28	9.6	254	268	697	152	24.5
7	18:41	8.0	313	332	950	166	25.8
Total	2:34:57	66.1	270	295	963	158	25.6

Annotated heartrate and power data for the road race (click to enlarge)

Now for the detailed data graphs and plots … first the critical power curves for both the criterium and the road race. I tied one power record in the criterium, and I set three new personal power records for the road race as indicated on the graphs.

Pro/1/2 criterium critical power curve (click to enlarge)

Pro/1/2 road race critical power curve (click to enlarge)

Here are the pedal force / pedal velocity graphs which highlight the different amount of force being applied to the pedals at different cadences.

Pro/1/2 criterium pedal force vs pedal velocity (click to enlarge)

Pro/1/2 road race pedal force vs pedal velocity (click to enlarge)

And finally here are the power maps for the two courses:

Pro/1/2 criterium power map (click to enlarge)

Pro/1/2 road race power map (click to enlarge)

Tour de Tuscaloosa Criterium

Criterium race summary
First criterium of the year – fast, strong field – happy with a top 5 finish. I went with a good break on the second or third lap, but I was outnumbered with some really good sprinters – I believe Andy Crater, Emile Abraham, and Frank Travieso were all in this break so I wasn’t very committed to it knowing that I wouldn’t stand a chance in the sprint against those guys. When we got caught, my teammate Pat Allison launched himself into the next move. A couple laps later, they were caught just as Joey Rosskopf (Team Type I Sanofi) and Oscar Clark (United Healthcare of Georgia) slipped away in a perfectly timed attack. I missed the move, but I was near enough to the front by the bottom of the hill to attack to try to bridge. This didn’t work as I never got a good gap and just ended up pulling the field for the last third of a lap. On the next lap, Frank Travieso (Team Coco’s) attacked hard and got a gap solo. I attacked and bridged up to him right as we caught Johnny Brizzard (Subaru) who had also been off the front chasing. We were closing in on the leaders, but the field was closing in on us so we gave up the chase. At this point, I was pretty cooked and slid to the back part of the field with maybe 6 or 7 long laps left in the race. When I saw three laps to go, I started moving up and made it up close to the front by the bottom of the hill on the last lap. Frank Travieso launched like a missile at the bottom of the hill – which then detonated the field as everyone panicked to try to catch him. I ended up in good position by the top of the hill but still maybe 10 riders back from the front. I swung out a little left and attacked to move up. A second or two later, three riders moved over in front of me to start their sprint before the second to last turn. I immediately latched onto this mini-train and came around the last two turns in 4th position in the field and ended up passing one rider to take 5th for the race – with Joey up the road taking a solo win and Frank just ahead of the field taking 2nd. My teammate Pat Allison came in just behind me for 6th. Kristine did some amazing cheering and got a good video of the finish and some from earlier in the race – will post these tomorrow after the road race.