Bates Road Circuit Race (Day 5 – Georgia Cycling Gran Prix)

HOT! Those three letters describe my day yesterday with the air conditioning in my car broken. Here are three temperature graphs from the day.

Drive from Winterville, GA to Newton County outside of Covington, GA!

The Newton County circuit race – the race had some good shade on half the course.

The three and a half hour drive home to Birmingham without air conditioning

Race report
Our race was again combined with the cat 3 race making for a total of 79 riders in the field. My right leg was still tight/sore from cramping hard at the end of the crit on Saturday, so I decided that I would race this race pretty conservatively for at least the first part of the race. I also guessed that with a large field on a rolling course, it would be unlikely for an early move to stay away. I was halfway correct on this because all of the moves (and there were a bunch of them) in the first few laps came back to the group.

Then somewhere around the fifth of twenty-five 1.8 mile laps, a good group got away with John Stowe, Alexey Schmidt (Team Type I), Sabastian Cancio (Aerocat), and a couple other riders. They quickly got a big gap as our pace plummeted in the field. At one point, I was thinking that the break might actually lap us. There was usually one attack on every lap, though, that ramped our pace way up for half a lap before slowing down again. Gavin Landsden (BBC), Jan Kolar (BBC), and me put in a one-two-three attack on one lap that I thought for sure would have gotten something away – but my attack was swallowed by the field on the descent.

I drifted back to the back 1/3rd of the group on the next lap to recover. During the next couple laps, a strong group of riders including TT1, Aerocat, Oneal Samuels, and maybe one or two other riders got away from the field. After about two more laps and our pace had been really high for a long time, I decided that it was probably a good time to get a chase group going with the field probably tired from the conditions and speed. So coming through the start/finish line, I moved up sheltered from the wind to the left of about 30-40 riders strung out single file and then immediately onto the back of an attack with a few riders maybe six or seven? As the field started to catch us after the course’s long downhill, there was another attack on the gradual hill. This is the spot on the course where the field had been slowing down quite a bit, so when that attack went I knew that it had a good chance of sticking. I went with it and worked with about five or six riders to get a gap.

We worked really well together as the third group on the road and were able to pull back the second group on the road after a few laps with only the lead break ahead of us with more than a minute’s advantage. Once the two chase groups merged, I could start to feel my leg giving me problems and knew that my best bet at not getting dropped is if there were no attacks. So rather than sitting on the back, I tried to work hard mashing a big gear when possible to reduce the total number of pedal strokes that my leg had to make. Even though we had a few people who weren’t working in the chase, there was enough people working that we didn’t have any attacks from our chase group until maybe 4 laps to go. From this point to the end, I stopped working to try to save my leg to be able to go with any attacks and try to get a decent finish. Dan Holt and Joey Rosskopf were drilling it at the front of our chase bringing us up to a shattered lead group of about 3 or 4 riders with two riders from the original break (Alexey Schmidt and Sabastian Cancio) still off the front with a 25 second advantage with one lap to go. This worked well for me because the TT1 duo kept the pace high enough that nobody was going to attack and I didn’t have to worry about any sudden accelerations until the sprint at the very end of the race. Even then, I was in great position for the sprint, but decided just to ride wheels to avoid any further damage to my leg. When I was ready to pass a couple people before the line, I got blocked in by one rider on either side who must have had the same idea about 1/2 of a second before me so I lost a couple spots.

Still, I was very happy with the race -

1) My leg was OK enough to not only race, but also attack and make it into the break
2) No cramps at all thanks to the way the race played out and thanks to the person in the feedzone who gave me a bottle with two laps to go
3) Still had a lot left for the sprint
4) Didn’t die from heat exhaustion

You can see how the race played out in the Strava segment data below. I think Lap 7 may have been the lap that had the 1-2-3 attack from Alabama. Lap 10 is probably where I thought to myself that if we kept that pace up, we were probably going to get lapped. Then look at how the speed ramps up over Laps 11, 12, 13. Then Lap 14 is where the third chase group was formed. Lap 19 is probably where we merged with the second group on the road. Then you can see the high speed / low watts for the last couple laps where TT1 was pulling hard to bring us up to the lead group.

NAME   DIST   ELEV  SPEED    POWER     HR      TIME
Lap 1  1.8 mi 85 ft 24.4 mph 209 watts 142 bpm 0:04:26
Lap 2  1.8 mi 85 ft 24.5 mph 176 watts 146 bpm 0:04:24
Lap 3  1.8 mi 85 ft 27.2 mph 233 watts 151 bpm 0:03:58
Lap 4  1.8 mi 85 ft 25.5 mph 212 watts 156 bpm 0:04:14
Lap 5  1.8 mi 85 ft 27.1 mph 252 watts 156 bpm 0:03:59
Lap 6  1.8 mi 85 ft 23.6 mph 192 watts 147 bpm 0:04:34
Lap 7  1.8 mi 85 ft 25.9 mph 297 watts 162 bpm 0:04:10
Lap 8  1.8 mi 85 ft 23.2 mph 179 watts 153 bpm 0:04:39
Lap 9  1.8 mi 85 ft 26.3 mph 267 watts 167 bpm 0:04:06
Lap 10 1.8 mi 85 ft 20.6 mph 119 watts 142 bpm 0:05:14
Lap 11 1.8 mi 85 ft 25.3 mph 199 watts 147 bpm 0:04:16
Lap 12 1.8 mi 85 ft 25.8 mph 214 watts 149 bpm 0:04:11
Lap 13 1.8 mi 85 ft 26.4 mph 217 watts 153 bpm 0:04:05
Lap 14 1.8 mi 85 ft 28.0 mph 290 watts 168 bpm 0:03:51
Lap 15 1.8 mi 85 ft 26.0 mph 252 watts 163 bpm 0:04:09
Lap 16 1.8 mi 85 ft 25.7 mph 260 watts 165 bpm 0:04:12
Lap 17 1.8 mi 85 ft 25.1 mph 234 watts 163 bpm 0:04:18
Lap 18 1.8 mi 85 ft 25.8 mph 223 watts 157 bpm 0:04:11
Lap 19 1.8 mi 85 ft 24.6 mph 230 watts 158 bpm 0:04:23
Lap 20 1.8 mi 85 ft 24.6 mph 212 watts 155 bpm 0:04:23
Lap 21 1.8 mi 85 ft 25.6 mph 228 watts 155 bpm 0:04:13
Lap 22 1.8 mi 85 ft 27.1 mph 247 watts 158 bpm 0:03:59
Lap 23 1.8 mi 85 ft 26.0 mph 226 watts 157 bpm 0:04:09
Lap 24 1.8 mi 85 ft 27.3 mph 239 watts 157 bpm 0:03:57
Lap 25 1.8 mi 85 ft 28.0 mph 304 watts 170 bpm 0:03:51

Here is the link for all of the interactive Strava data – http://app.strava.com/rides/1003919.

You can also see how the race played out in the Strava performance graph below which shows heartrate and power. You can see how much smoother the power output is once we made into the chase group.

Strava performance data annotated (click for larger image)

Golden cheetah performance map annotated (click for larger image)

David Gearhart won the field sprint for 19th with my teammate Justin Bynum a few places behind him to take 1st in the cat 3s to bring home the overall omnium win! I ended up 6th in the omnium. Great racing, great training – next up is the Crossroads Classic August 3rd-7th in North Carolina.

Also, I almost forgot that not only did my AC stop working on the way to the race, my GPS took me on three different dirt roads to get there. At one point, I was convinced the dirt road was about to turn into a 4 wheel drive only road as it turned to what I would call a car’s version of double track … took a couple pics to document the experience but was pretty panicky by the time I hit the double track that I was going to miss the race. I had stayed to watch the end of the Tour de France and only left myself less than 2 hours to get to the race. I arrived at the race at 1:40 for a 2:00PM start, but fortunately they were running a little late. I think we started at about 2:15 or 2:20.

Digby Road – third dirt road of the drive to the start
Gravel/dirt double track – beautiful country!

Huntsville Omnium Day 1

Pro/1/2 road race
I wrote last night that I was hoping to report on more wins this weekend, and I am happy to report that my teammate Pat Allison took the Pro/1/2 road race win this morning. Quick summary of the race – Pat initiated the break by rolling off with Bryant Funston (Marx and Bensdorf) at the start of the second of six 10 mile laps. This was after an initial lap full of breaks, well covered by teammates Mike Lackey, Chris Allison, and Stuart Lamp. Pat and Bryant extended their lead to a minute and a half by the end of the second lap. It was at this point that Will Fyfe (BBC) put in a strong solo move. About a minute or two later, Jake Andrews put in a good attack with one other rider. This was on a long uphill drag. Chris Brown (Litespeed) and a Krystal rider counter attacked as the field caught Jake. I was on Chris’s wheel when he attacked so there was quickly three of us rapidly approaching Will. Will hopped on when we caught him making a chase group of four. We had a good 30 seconds on the field. With a teammate up the road, I limited my work mainly to just pulling through and a couple times skipping rotation. It took more than one complete lap, but eventually we made it up to Pat and Bryant. During this time, however, the field had closed the gap down to 50 seconds at one point. As we sorted out the rotations in the somewhat windy conditions and settled into a good rhythm, the six of us extended the lead back up to 2 minutes. Towards the beginning of the last lap, there was lots of attacking. Our break kept coming back together, though, so eventually we started rotating well again. Then with about 3 miles to go, there was an attack that brought us down to 5 riders. I was hurting from all the attacks that the others in the break had made so I had to change my original plan (to attack a lot in the last few miles) down to one attack with about a mile to go. I figured this would force the other breakaway riders to chase me while Pat could just ride wheels. This worked great and since I was already tired from my attack and had very little chance in the sprint, I went ahead and led out the sprint as well. Pat timed it perfectly to come around for the win. I came in behind Chris and the Krystal rider.

Pro/1/2 road race performance data – Here is the link to the interactive ride data from Strava – http://app.strava.com/rides/952023

Masters 35+ road race
This race started out with Ron Williams (Alabama Masters) taking a solo flyer for pretty much a whole lap. Then after he was caught, he went again with one other rider – Shawn Dobbs (Weber). Not very many people were willing to work so it ended up being Chris Brown (Litespeed), Travis Werts (Sonic), and I rotating through at the front of the group. We were slowly bringing back the gap, but everyone else in the group was along for the free ride. This wasn’t going to work, so Chris attacked hard coming out of the first turn on the course. The two of us quickly had a gap and worked very painfully hard to bridge up to Ron and Shawn by the end of the long straightaway between the first turn and the second turn. At this point, there were only two more laps left in the race and we worked very well together until about 3/4 of the way through the last lap taking our lead up from just 25 seconds when we made the bridge to 2.5 minutes on the last lap. About 3/4 of the way through that lap, Shawn attacked at about the exact same spot I had been planning on attacking. I am glad I didn’t though because in the chase, I cramped up in both legs. Fortunately, the pace slowed down once we caught Shawn, and the cramps subsided. From this point to the end (about 3 miles), I was going to do everything I could to not do any work so that I could maybe have one more burst in the legs for the finishing sprint. This strategy worked well, but it was only good enough for second (barely – see photo) as Chris Brown took the win.

Huntsville Masters 35+ road race performance data from Strava – Here is the link for the interactive ride data – http://app.strava.com/rides/952022

Time trial
This was an interesting time trial at only 1k long. I knew that it would be a short intense effort, but I went out way too hard and cramped in my right leg. So I sat up and soft-pedaled the rest of the race. Unfortunately, I think that is going to cost me a lot in the omnium because the time trial was weighted heavily. I can only hope that enough people didn’t do the time trial for me to still score high enough to have a shot at the overall tomorrow.

Meridian-Cuba Challenge

That’s Meridian, Mississippi and Cuba, Alabama just to clarify. We had a great team race and ended up winning just about all the Cat 3 Bonuses thanks to a strong performance by Mike Lackey, who even managed a strong 6th place finish in the road race in the combined 1/2/3 field. My team worked hard to help me secure 3rd place in the criterium Saturday evening, 3rd place in the road race Sunday morning, and 3rd place in the omnium.

Here is how the races played out:

Saturday Criterium, 65 minutes scheduled (62 minutes actual)

This race got off to a fast start with Stuart hitting out on an early break on the first lap that lasted for a couple laps. Darryl, Wes, Mike, and Sammy were all active covering moves and getting into a few breakaways each time something was reeled in. My opportunity to try a move came 15 minutes into the race, when I attacked going into the quick right-left-right series of turns. Three riders responded immediately and we had a small group of four rolling. Soon more riders bridged up including a couple more Herring Gas riders (bringing their total to 4 riders in the break), Eric Murphy (Myogenesis), Paul Tower (warp9bikes.com), and Ben Gabardi (Hot Tubes). As soon as I realized my situation, I did not want to work with the break. Unfortunately, Herring Gas had enough riders in the break to not only help it stay away but also launch riders off the front of the break. To avoid having to cover or bridge to the small mini-moves that kept on forming, I decided it was best just to roll through at a slower speed whenever I made it to the front in the rotation. So that was the status quo for the next 40 minutes.

I felt great when they flashed “3 laps to go”. Eric was pretty aggressive and tried to get away a couple times. His attacks whittled our break down to just four riders going into the last lap. Brian Rizk (Precision Racing) attacked first going up the hill in the middle of the quick right-left-right. I covered and found myself in second position going into the last corner. I decided to hit out before the corner. I had a bit of a gap coming out of the corner and with a tailwind sprint, I thought I could hold it – but Eric and Bain Foote (Herring) were both able to come around me so I ended up third.

Sunday Road Race, 65 miles

Today’s road race went off really well for us with Mike getting the Cat 3 win. Nickole and Cindy were there to help us in the feedzone. We all communicated well. We put the right man in the break. We sprinted decently — but for all of that we ended up losing the 1/2 race in the last mile. About 250 meters into the race, Wes said that he wanted to attack. I said go for it, and away he went. This attack was covered, but then Darryl counter attacked immediately and was away for a while. When Darryl got brought back, Wes must have been feeling very spritely because he attacked a second time, and we didn’t see him again until 64 miles later.

Clark Butcher (Herring Gas) covered the move from Wes, and the two of them had a steady gap of 2.5 minutes for most of the race including all the way to halfway through the last lap when they still had a 2.5 minute lead. Myogenesis was content to defend Eric’s GC placing, and Eric was happy he didn’t have to cover a bunch of attacks. Warp9 was content to ride a steady tempo keeping the break within remote striking distance, but ultimately it was the late race attacks by Herring that ramped up the pace enough to bring back Wes and Clark with less than 1 mile to go. Paul Tower (warp9bikes.com) launched a strong counterattack covered by Pat Allison and Bain. This got brought back quickly because there wasn’t enough cohesion amongst the three of them. Once they were caught, Paul launched another attack that nobody covered this time. Bain attacked from just over 500 meters and again nobody was covering so I did a short bridge to him, started my sprint at 300 meters and ended up getting passed by Eric Murphy on the line. Paul held on for the win by just a few meters which also meant he overtook me in the GC so I had to settle for 3rd in the race and 3rd overall for the weekend. Still – kudos to Paul for such a strong late race attack. Also, Wes proved that he is a beast of a bike rider driving a break for 64 miles – I believe this is his third race-long break of the year, and all of them have helped lead to wins or high finishes for somebody else on the team … it’s definitely going to be his time to win soon!!!

Heartrate data

2009-08-15 Meridian Criterium

1. My attack to start the break
2. Pace quite a bit easier here
3. Eric’s aggressive attacks with a few laps to go
4. Leading out the sprint

2009-08-16 Cuba Challenge Road Race

2008 River Gorge Downtown Chattanooga and Omnium Wrap-up

Summary: 14th road race, 31st time trial, 11th crit, 17th overall. The fields were pretty large all weekend with somewhere between 75 and 100 riders starting each race (except the time trial). The fields were also stacked with what seemed like most of the top pros based out of the southeast entering this year. So I am happy to have raced well and been a factor in all of the races, but disappointed a little bit with the actual results.

The details: The downtown criterium was another almost race for me. It had been drizzling for a while before the start of our race and it was still lightly raining at our start so I knew that position was going to be a huge factor in this race. I lined up at the spot closest to the front that they would allow and then was still able to squeeze a spot on the front row after all the call-ups. I clipped in first and got off the line first and then eased up a bit to get into anybody’s draft for the first corner. The corner was very slippery and we were going fast so I sorta held my breath and was amazed that nobody (including me) in the front of the group went down on either that or the second corner. I stayed in good position and I think I may have bridged to one small move in the first three laps. I was always at the front, but I couldn’t go with the winning move which was initiated by Matt Winstead (Inferno) on the third lap. He attacked hard and I decided I need to just rest and hope that the move would come back. It didn’t and four of the riders in the initial break were able to stay away all the way to the end. I stayed near the front and went with several good-looking moves, but none of them could even get established to the point where we rotated all the way through before getting caught.

Late in the race, I was in a spot to go for a cash prime, but I could only manage second behind a DLP rider. We had a large gap and one of his teammates was on my wheel so I drilled it again after the prime and the two of us got away. I was cooked though and when the DLP rider came around, all I could do was hang on for the next lap. I pulled through once or twice on the lap after that, but we got caught towards the end of that lap. All of this was with about 5 laps to go in the race. When the pack caught us with three to go, I was tired and slid to about the middle of what was left of the field (only about 50 of the initial 80-90 riders). That’s when my teammate, Darryl Seelhorst, came up beside me and said “Let’s go”. I jumped onto his wheel, and he pulled me forward all the way to the front of the group. I fought for position from that point on but still found myself about 10-15 riders back with 1 to go. John Jacob (Mob Squad) attacked hard up the lefthand side of the road with half a lap to go and I was able to jump onto his wheel and he pulled me up to 5th wheel going into the next-to-last turn. I lost a few positions going into the last turn and then was able to pass a few people in the sprint to get 7th in the sprint which was 11th in the race (with four guys already finished).

As far as the omnium went, it was the perfect storm as the six people who finished in front of me in the crit sprint were all close behind me in the omnium prior to the start of the race, so nearly all of them leap-frogged me in the omnium.

Here’s my heartrate/power data and stats:

2008 River Gorge Downtown Chattanooga Criterium

1. Covering an initial move
2. I suspect Matt Winstead’s move went right about here. Very good lesson for everyone – attack after the pace has been hard for a while, the break is more likely to stick because people are tired and less likely to chase!
3. Bridging to a chase group
4. Bridging (or covering) another chase group
5. The relatively easy middle part of the race
6. Going for the prime and then getting away for a lap and a half
7. The final lap

The stats:
Data Value Unit
Duration 1:01:33
Sampling Rate 1 s
Cycling Efficiency 26.0 %

Energy Expenditure 448 kcal
Minimum Heart Rate 111 bpm
Average Heart Rate 169 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate 189 bpm
Standard Deviation 6.8 bpm

Minimum Speed 6.9 mph
Average Speed 27.2 mph
Maximum Speed 35.7 mph
Distance 27.9 miles

Minimum Cadence 31 rpm
Average Cadence 86 rpm
Maximum Cadence 121 rpm
Coasting Time 0:04:59 (8.1 %)
Coasting Distance 2.2 miles (7.7 %)

Minimum Altitude 525 ft
Average Altitude 541 ft
Maximum Altitude 554 ft

Minimum Power 4 Watts
Average Power 328 Watts
Average Power (0 W incl.) 293 Watts
Maximum Power 812 Watts
Pedaling Index Average 18 %
Pedaling Index Maximum 52 %
Left Right Balance Average L54 – 46R Left – Right
Left Right Balance Maximum L90 – 10R Left – Right