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

Out west – day 13 – Barn Burner 104 MTB race

Me and Josiah immediately after the finish

Great race today at the Barn Burner just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. This was by far the hardest race I have ever done – 104 miles of double track forest roads – some very bumpy, some very sandy, some very crazy, all of it a whole lot of fun! I was happy to finish 4th overall, but sad to lose my Garmin Edge 800 with approx. 25,000 miles on it.

Race Details – the dust bowl
It was a Le Mans start, which means you ran to your bikes mounted on bikestands or being held by your support crew. I opted to have Kristine hold my bike so I wouldn’t have to try and extract it from all the bikes jammed together on the bike racks. I ran kinda slowly because I don’t run well and because the terrain had some lava rocks and there were tons of people jostling together. I met Kristine behind the bikestand area, mounted my Garmin and took off running through the grass to get back to the dirt road. By this point dust was everywhere, and I was easily 100-200 riders back.

The first mile of the race was on some dusty, sandy rutted roads so it was really hard to see a good line and you didn’t want to get caught in the deep sand so I could only pass a few people here and there – but as soon as we turned onto the main forest road, the terrain tilted upwards on a long false flat. I passed probably 100 riders through here. At the beginning it was streams of riders that I was passing, but then it has started to break up into small groups – so I started to catch and pass these groups.

Lost water bottle
Right before the lefthand turn onto the next rutted sandy section, I latched onto the back of a fairly large group of maybe 10 riders. It was here that I realized that mountain bike racing requires a lot of trust/faith in the rider immediately in front of you. You are trusting that they are going to take a good line and not crash. This section of the course really emphasized that trust because there was so much dust you couldn’t see the ground in front of you – you could only barely see the wheel of the rider in front of you. It was at this point that I lost a bottle when the road unexpectedly dropped a good 2-3 feet into a rounded rut/hole. I wasn’t expecting it so my weight was forward and I ended up coming out of the hole doing a front wheelie. Luckily the ground was smooth long enough that I could get the rear wheel back down without flipping over the handlebars. Hitting the hole popped out my water bottle so I did the entire first lap on one bottle.

Lost Garmin
Not too long after the front wheelie, the group I was in came out onto another stretch of road which was much harder packed. I went to the front and tried to rally the troops, but I ended up dropping that group and catching one or two more groups until I finally latched onto the back of the lead group. I knew I had reached the front group because there was no more dust in front of this group. This was towards the top of the long gradual descent before the first climb. This part of the course was super fast, and we were absolutely flying single file trusting the rider in front of you to take a good line. For about five minutes, this was my favorite part of the race, but then I felt something hit my knee. I thought it was my only water bottle popping out of the cage so as we are motoring along I’m looking down and doing a double-take to see if it’s my water bottle. It wasn’t, so I continued staring hard at the wheel in front of me following his line. Then I glanced at my handlebars and noticed my Garmin was gone!!! I debated for another 10-15 seconds about turning around or keeping on going. I realized the Garmin was worth too much to just abandon – so I turned around and rode backwards on the course. It had been a couple minutes of fast riding since I had felt something hit my knee (which I assume now must have been my Garmin), so I had to ride back a long ways but I never did see it. It is quite an understatement to say that my motivation was completely gone by this point in the race. I was about to attack the Strava KOM challenge segment hard, and now I not only wasn’t going to be able to do that – I had lost my great position at the front of the race and given the leaders a good 5 minute head start.

The Strava climb (1st climb)
Frustrated at not finding my Garmin, I went flying up the climb that started shortly after the stretch of trail where I couldn’t find my Garmin. It was the more technical of the two climbs on the course, but I didn’t care – I just flew past everyone no matter what line I had to take. By the top of the climb, the race was all blown apart and people were by themselves and no longer in groups.

The rocky technical descent
After the top of the climb, there was a short rolling section followed by the longer, rockier, and more technical of the two major descents. It started out super fast on a mostly clean but a few high speed rocky sections that you could roll over, but then there was a hard left turn on loose dirt that required clipping out for balance that immediately led into some nasty rocky sections that you just had to blow threw as there wasn’t much of a clean line. I went really slow through here on the first lap – getting passed by two riders, the second of which came by probably 10 mph faster just riding over all the big rocks I was trying to avoid. So that is when I learned that you can do that – just bomb over rocks at 30mph – the bike and wheels can handle it these days!

Once I reached the bottom, I continued passing riders all the way to the start of the second climb – the longer, steeper, and less technical stair stepper. In fact, I almost ran right into the back of a small group of three because I had been so intent on catching them that I wasn’t looking for turn signs. I caught them right at the turn and had to slam on the brakes skidding for some distance before stopping just shy of ramming into the last rider. I immediately passed them and continued passing riders all the way up the long climb.

The fast descent that gradually became slower
At the top of the long climb was a super fast steep descent. I didn’t have my Garmin, but it felt like I hit 50mph on this descent on the first lap. There was one clear, clean line between loose gravel/dirt and larger rocks on either side of the foot-wide line, but the line was clear, non-washboardy, and had no rocks in it — on the first lap! I almost wrecked here on the second lap because I tried to take it at the same speed as the first lap, but 1100 riders doing that descent on the first lap had loosened up soil on the clean line and created a bit of washboarding so that it no longer felt safe to go really fast. So each lap of the race, this descent got a bit sketchier and slower for me.

After the steep, sketchy part was a harder packed fast double track that went next to some sort of campground before turning onto the original national forest service road leading back up to the two-way Barn Burner entrance road. I flew through this part catching one or two more riders, and I heard someone yell out “ninth” as I made the turn in towards the barn.

The pit crew
At the end of each lap, you have to dismount your bike and run through the barn. Below is a video of me coming through the barn at the end of my second lap. You can see Analise waving the chain lube that I desperately needed because of all the dust/dirt on the course. My pit crew was just like a Nascar pit crew! Josiah would hold my bike, while Analise would hand me bars/gels/chain lub and Kristine would refill my bottles with gatorade. I would stand there eating and drinking whatever I could get down before Kristine finished with the gatorade. It was so awesome – less than 30 seconds to have two new bottles, a lubed chain, more gels/powerbars, and then off again.

The second, third and fourth laps
On the second lap, I was caught by a rider wearing a green Trek kit and the two of us worked together catching another rider to form a group of three. We worked well together all the way until the second climb where I rode away catching and passing a few more people on the climb finishing the lap in 5th place.

I rode the first half of the third lap alone eventually catching Derek Wilkerson who was in 4th place at the time. We worked well together catching and dropping the third place rider. Derek was a far better descender than me and had to wait for me after the descents. At the end of the third lap, I stopped with my pit crew to refill bottles and gels while Derek had enough to keep going.

I was so tired I figured I would never see him again, but a relay rider came flying by on the long gradual false flat leaving the barn. I hopped on his wheel and dug deep to stay there and soon we had caught up to Derek who tagged onto us making a small group of three. I was digging way too deep, so when we turned onto the dusty long descent I decided to back off and do my best to pace myself to hold onto a top 5 finish. I cramped on the Strava climb, stopped, went easier until I got caught by another relay rider towards the top. I was able to stick with him until the descent, but then he dropped me hard on the descent. I was caught by one more team rider on the section leading into the second climb, and he really lifted my pace again – but he flatted shortly before the start of the climb.

I went up the final climb knowing that I would need to go slow to keep from cramping again, but I continued to pass lapped riders many of whom were walking there bikes up the steep sections of the climb. I was able to solider on in a very easy gear to make it up the climb – but there were definitely sections I was wondering if I was going to have to get off and walk. I kept thinking that at any moment whoever was in 5th place would come cruising by. It didn’t happen though, and I made it up to the top, down the sketchy descent, and then turned on the gas one final time to make it to the finish line. It turns out that I was over 12 minutes ahead of 5th place so I could have taken the finish a little bit easier.

At the finish (as you may be able to tell from the picture at the top), I was exhausted. It took a while to be able to get out more than one or two coherent sentences in a row. I sat on the gatorade jug for quite a while drinking chocolate milk and cokes.

Two final videos before all the pictures – the first is of my finish. Look at Josiah cheering me at the top of the video near the far track, Analise near the turn, and then Kristine filming the video. It was awesome to come through there and see my family cheering me on. Also, there was a cool dirt bike track next to the barn so that the kids could spend the hour and a half between laps riding up and down the jumps and around the berms. Analise is tackling one of the jumps in the second video.

Analise, me, and Josiah after the race
Podium for 30-39 yr old males … 2nd place for me … Ken Chlouber handing out Leadville entries!

Very cold air temp, but the sun warmed everything up well before the start of the race

Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time, so this sunrise was just after 5AM.

Me running to the starting line to warm-up for the Le Mans start

Me and Josiah immediately after the finish

Analise, me, and Josiah after the race

Me and Kristine back at the house

Solar panels powered the event – Kendrick Peak is in the distance. The race course circled the entire mountain.

Josiah got in on the schwag toss at the awards ceremony – getting a cool water bottle. Ken Chlouber got the t-shirt and then gave it to Josiah, who wore it to stay warm!

Dave Wiens (multi-year winner of the Leadville mtb race) handing out medals to some of the later finishers.

Ken Chlouber (Leadville race series founder) and his wife at the start of the awards ceremony

Podium for 30-39 yr old males … 2nd place for me … Ken Chlouber handing out Leadville entries!

Podium, take 2

Belt buckle and entry to Leadville – I’ll take it!

Epic Skyway Epic

Quick summary – 2nd place behind Adam Gaubert from Texas although I did snag the $100 bill for the KOM at the top of one of only eleven Cat 2 climbs (currently) in Alabama. Sometimes the stats don’t do a race justice, but here they are: 60ish miles in just under 4 hours, 8 minutes. I didn’t have a wheel speed sensor so I’m guessing I must have lost satellite a few times to come up under 60 miles. It felt like 100+ miles, though.

Heartrate summary for the skyway epic

2012 Skyway Epic annotated heartrate data

The details – what an amazing job Brent did start to finish with this race. The mass start was creative with all 60+ riders lined up at the end of the boat dock area giving us plenty of room to charge all the way up the entrance area to a grassy cordoned off chute which led into the single track. Adam Gaubert, Jeff Clayton, and Lennie Moon (Team Momentum) entered in the single track in that order. Behind them I believe it was David Darden (BiciCoop), maybe one or two other riders, Ed Merritt (BiciCoop), and then me (Tria Cycling p/b DonohooAuto.com and Infinty Med-i-spa). I was able to keep up no problem through the single track, but Adam and Jeff were destroying the singletrack and had quite a lead by the end.

As soon as we made it out of the singletrack onto the dam, I attacked hard to start to close the gap to the leaders. I passed Lennie and David on the climb after the dam and continued to drive it hard onto Wiregrass Rd (dirt/gravel forest road). After a mile or two, I could see the leaders up ahead and I was closing pretty fast. Once I caught onto the back of them, we entered into a pretty good 3-way rotation going into the bottom of the climb. I took a hard pull and got a gap about 1/3rd of the way up the climb so I drilled it. The climb was long, though, and once we hit the skyway portion of the climb, the road was much rougher and I had problems finding a good line so Adam was closing in on me. Thankfully, the climb leveled out a bit and got smoother shortly before the top so I was able to lock out the front suspension, stand up and give it one more burst to reach the KOM first and grab the $100 bill.

The effort for the KOM really cost me, though, as I was cooked. I stopped to stuff the $100 deep down in my jersey pocket, and Adam flew by me while I was stopped. I got started again and went through the most challenging part of the course at maybe twice the speed that I had gone when I pre-rode the course in February. But Adam continued to put time on me all the way to the turnaround. It looked like he was 30 seconds or so ahead of me by the turnaround. I still had a bottle and a half of gatorade so I just stopped briefly to grab the proof necklace before setting off in pursuit of Adam. I was hoping that I could catch him on the climb so I could follow his line through all the rough sections – but it wasn’t to be. It was awesome as all the outbound racers were shouting encouragement and giving me time splits to Adam. It started out as 30 second time splits, but eventually it went up into the minute or 2 minute range. I believe he had 3 minutes by the bottom of the
descent back down the KOM climb.

I think I kept the gap there until close to the end where he still had 3 minutes at the last aid station. I stopped there to get some cold coke, banana, and water. This was a very important stop because I really couldn’t figure out how to eat or drink during the singletrack sections so I did that last 10 miles with only one or two sips of water. It was in this last singletrack section that Jeff Clayton (Georgia Neurological Institute) came flying up to me out of nowhere. I immediately let him by thinking that I could hop on his wheel and follow his lines. This lasted for LESS THAN 5 SECONDS as I lost it on the very first turn crashing hard. My bars were stuck on the wrong side of the top tube and it took a few seconds to yank them back across the top tube (I’m glad I went with aluminum instead of carbon fiber).

I had already resigned myself to riding as hard as possible to try to finish on the last step of the podium when on the next hill I started to come up on Jeff pretty fast … my first thought was that he must have popped himself trying to distance me, but then I realized that he had a completely flat rear tire. I came around him thinking that he would have no problem stopping to change the tire and then catching back up to me again. So I could never really let up off the pace … but as it turns out, Jeff couldn’t get the tire to hold air so he had to ride in the last several miles on the flat – and yet he still held on for third!

Kristine snagged a few videos … one of me coming out of the final singletrack and another of me finishing a minute or two later and one of Josiah asking if I was in this race … good stuff!

Highland Rim Classic – Day 2

Race summary – 2nd place in the race today to take 2nd place in the omnium. Chris Brown (Litespeed – BMW) took the win again today after emerging together with me in a late 2-man move when the fireworks of the end game began at mile 103 in the first of NINE attacks made over a span of five miles from mile 103 to mile 108. I was lucky to be able to grab and hold Chris’s wheel to the end of the race at mile 113 where he easily took the sprint … this race is officially the longest race I have ever done.

The details – I was sitting 3rd in the omnium behind Stephen Bassett (Texas Roadhouse) and Chris. I knew that the race would be long so I wanted to make it a race of survival. Unfortunately, I did a lot of work on the first of two long laps that probably wore me out more than it did anyone else. I got into an early two man move when I jumped with Jon Hart (Friends of the Great Smokies) a mile or two after the neutral zone. We worked hard drilling it at just below threshold all the way to climb. John came off on the climb, and I knew that I couldn’t hold an 80 mile solo break so I eased up the climb waiting for what was left of the field to catch up.

At this point, our pace really dropped and I was worried of two things: 1) the race taking so long that we would all die of dehydration 2) people getting an easy ride to the finish and then outsprinting me at the end. The first concern was no problem because there was good neutral water support in the feedzone and I was able to get 3 bottles on one lap and 2 bottles on another lap – combined with the 3 bottles I started with made for 8 bottles completely drained by the end. Regarding concern #2, I attacked a couple times hoping to get somebody to go with me to share the work, but ended up riding off the front both times.

The chase – A mile or two after the feedzone, Jon Hart rode off the front again and would eventually amass a maximum lead of 3’30″. Behind him, Chris Brown and I did a lot of the work for the first 15-20 miles of the chase, with Bradley Spears (Sonic) also contributing and the Texas Roadhouse duo making some contributions as well. Two of John’s teammates were able to sit in and rest since they had their teammate up the road. Eventually, once the gap reached 3’30″, the Texas Roadhouse duo started working harder and more frequently — particularly Stephen’s teammate Andrew Dillman who stepped up to do more work while Stephen waited for the climb.

The climb – Chris was on the front leading into the climb and when we turned to go up the steep part, he lifted the pace substantially. We reached the first step of the stair-stepper climb and the pace eased off a bit, but when we reached the next steep part Stephen put in a very hard attack. Chris countered this move lifting the pace again, but by this point we were going fast enough that we were near the top of the Cat 3 climb. I held on, but was really spent by the top of the climb. We ended up losing 1 or 2 from our group and Chris pushed the pace hard across the top to make sure that we stayed away.

The chase, part 2, and the fireworks of the end game – A mile or two after we reached the top, John’s teammate Jeff McGrane attacked and got away solo. Chris, Andrew, Stephen, and I got into a good rotation and after 20 miles of chasing finally caught Jeff. Chris put in a strong attack immediately and then when he was caught, somebody else (it may have been Chris again) attacked again. This ended up shelling Stephen’s teammate Andrew. Five attacks later (it could have been by aliens for all I know considering how delirious I was at the time — but the attacks are clearly visible in the power data), and we had lost Stephen. Then Jeff put in another attack, which Chris countered and that is when we lost Jeff leaving just Chris and me for the 3 mile descent and 2 mile gradual rise to the finish. We traded pace on the descent and stayed away to the finish where Chris took the sprint.

With the ride back to the start at Cumberland Caverns, I ended up with nearly 200K of racing and riding today to cap off a 466 mile week. Tired. Here is all the data!

Heartrate summary

Annotated attacks that comprised the end-game from today’s race … doesn’t include the finishing sprint. Click to enlarge

Annotated plot of heartrate and power (30sec smoothing) – click to enlarge.

We could call this pedal force vs pedal velocity graph “the blob” – click to enlarge

New power records from the road race

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