Made a kind of late decision to head down to Boulder yesterday for the North Boulder Park Crit, but I'm glad we went down. Great weather, big fields, and a pretty fun course.
Course was a big square, but the 3rd leg of the square had an S-turn in it, a 90˚ right followed by a 90˚ left. The finishing straight was pretty long, with a slight rise at the far end, just after the start/finish. Corner 1 took us back down the hill, corner 2 was into an alley (with concrete drive-way style bump at the beginning and all), corner 3 out of the alley (another bump), then the S turn, then the last 90˚ left into the finish. It was a pretty safe course on the front, a very annoying course if you ended up at the back, because the corners in and out of the alley scared people enough that the whiplash was huge.
I race the Cat 2 race first, with teammate Brett. We were outnumbered by the Rocky Mountain team, they had maybe 6 guys. Tactics were weird - RM kept sending individual guys up the road, nobody would chase, then eventually me or one other strong guy would get fed up and pull it back in half a lap. I bridged up to the solo guys a couple different times but nothing ever stuck. Actually, usually I would catch up the guy and he would fall off almost immediately. I had no interest in hanging out solo so I sat up every time that happened.
I guess the surges me and this other guy were putting in were hurting people at the back, because we whittled our field down from 35-40 or so to 16. With 6 to go, I found myself on the front again in the alley, and decided to just accelerate and see what happened. Ended up bringing 2 guys with me, then 2 more bridged up so we had 5. We had the right combination, including a RM guy, so the pack just sat up I think. I took a really hard full-lap pull and extended our lead out to 15 seconds or so. After that we just starting messing around, nobody else wanted to pull. Coming into the finish straight with 3 to go, RM guy managed to crash himself right in front of me. Two guys who were in front of him hit it (bastards) but I caught back on by the top of the finish straight, with one guy in tow. Down to 4. Stayed that way until one to go, when one guy popped off (no idea how, we were going sooo slooooow). The one other strong guy attacked in the alley, the Velonews guy followed, and I grabbed 3rd wheel. Perfect. Too bad Velonews guy managed to also crash himself! Coming out of the alley, no idea how he did it. He was riding R-Sys wheels and the front one just exploded, not sure if that was a result of the crash or a cause though.
Anyway, the guy in 1st looked back and saw he had a huge gap, since I had to slam on my brakes to avoid death, and gunned it. I essentially had to start my sprint at that point, maybe 600m out, but I had no choice. Made it across about half of the gap (which was maybe 80m at the final corner) but couldn't get all the way back. Bummer, I would have taken the sprint no problem. Still, 2nd is good for a bunch of upgrade points, and 75 bucks. Plus, I won a prime and got a bunch of lemonade and a Cateye computer! Coolio.
I had about 30 minutes to chill before the Pro/1/2 race. Many big names, tons of fast dudes. Long story short, I didn't have the kick to stay up front and the back was brutal with the whip. 100% sprint out of both the final corner (and the whole way along the finish straight) as well as corner 2 into the alley. I eventually pulled myself out of a combination of fatigue, frustration, and noting that I had already lasted longer than a bunch of guys I know who think they are hot shit, and who hadn't raced already. My work there was done :)
Megan raced after the 3's, in the women's Pro/1/2/3. Brutal! I think she probably was one of the top 2 or 3 3's, but when Mara Abott, Meridith Miller, etc show up its not quite fair. She ended up 20th overall, out of over 40 women, and beat A LOT of 1's and 2's. Megan is kind of a freak of nature though - if I trained as much as she does, I would be a shitty cat 4 I think. Yet she manages to hang with the pros for more than half the race. And she said it wasn't the speed that was getting her, it was the corners. So we just need to work on technique and she'll be right in the mix! (this is me being proud :) )
Monday, May 18, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Day 3, Ride 2
Ride #2 for today, hit up the mtb again with Erick, Aaron and Megan. Good times! Got to go fast some, go slow some, play around some, just have a good time. I really like doing these two-a-day workouts, with the second one being on my mtb. It just doesn't feel like training when I'm on dirt. I need to hit up some other trails in the area though, I've done all these a million times.
I let Erick borrow my squishy bike, since he needs all the help he can get on the technical stuff (sorry Erick, 'tis true) so I rocked out on my hardtail, which has little tiny short track tires on it and an old '06 SID. Plus, very short flat bars. It's like riding a road bike on dirt. A little scary in the corners, but still fun. Good for learning to drift I guess!
Total ride time was a little under 2 hrs, so I ended up with about 5 hrs for the day. Tomorrow I'll be riding to get cinnamon buns in the morning, then going to some graduation parties, then I'll try to hop on my mtb again in the afternoon/evening. If I don't, no big deal. I've decided to race tomorrow at the North Boulder Park crit since there is a cat 2 only race, so I have a good shot at getting some more upgrade points.
At the top of the Blue Sky loop:
I let Erick borrow my squishy bike, since he needs all the help he can get on the technical stuff (sorry Erick, 'tis true) so I rocked out on my hardtail, which has little tiny short track tires on it and an old '06 SID. Plus, very short flat bars. It's like riding a road bike on dirt. A little scary in the corners, but still fun. Good for learning to drift I guess!
Total ride time was a little under 2 hrs, so I ended up with about 5 hrs for the day. Tomorrow I'll be riding to get cinnamon buns in the morning, then going to some graduation parties, then I'll try to hop on my mtb again in the afternoon/evening. If I don't, no big deal. I've decided to race tomorrow at the North Boulder Park crit since there is a cat 2 only race, so I have a good shot at getting some more upgrade points.
At the top of the Blue Sky loop:
Re-Base Camp - Days 1-3
Since we only had two road races throughout the entire collegiate season (all the rest were cancelled), I decided that I needed to do some "re-base" miles after nationals, to get some volume in before the longer races of the summer. So that's what this re-base camp is all about - volume.
Day 1:
Met up with Erick, Dan L, Rose, John, and Raphael at Moby at 9am. Proceeded to head to the base of the Poudre, where the wind suddenly changed from 5-10mph to 30-40. What fun! It took us about 1:35 just to get to the Stove Prarie turn, so we ended up just heading up Stove Prarie, then up the backside of Rist, then down and back into town. Legs felt great, and I did a bunch of pulling into the headwind, all at 260-280w. Perfect SST work. Erick and I climbed up to Stove Prarie at 290-320w (took about 22 minutes) and then up Rist at 290-300. So, lots of time near threshold! Not exactly what I was going for, but since we had to cut the days a bit short (I actually had to go to work) it was fine. Ended up with a bit over 3 hrs, 60 miles, and a hell of a lot of climbing.
Day 2:
Headed out at 8am, nobody showed up at Moby. Not surprising, everyone has just finished up school and the idea of waking up that early when there is no class to go to probably doesn't sound too appealing. Anyway, I set off solo. Felt a bit weird from the start - stomach was churning, heart rate wasn't responding. Legs felt fine, but there was something wrong elsewhere. Felt like overtraining actually, but there is no way that was the cause since I took so much time easy before Nats. Perhaps my body just isn't used to riding that early in the day? Long story short I cut the ride pretty short. No sense in punishing myself when there is obviously something wrong.
To hit my volume goal for the day I organized a little mtb group ride in the evening. Met up with Nico, Adam, Jon, Mike, and Dan Z. TONS of fun! I love mountain biking. Felt good too, I was just cruising up the climbs and dropping everyone but Jon, who looked like he was suffering a bit. The weird feeling from the morning was gone.
We rode across the dams, then back to Lory and up Timber Trail. Such a sick trail! I love it. Headed back, and ended up with about 3 hrs total ride time. So with the shorter ride in the morning, not half bad.
Finishing up the ride, a couple minutes after sunset. Nobody made it up the rock stairs today:
Day 3:
Just finished up the first ride of the day. Met up with Zack Shriver, brother of Matt Shriver, FLC's coach, at Moby at 8am. No CSU dudebros again. Alas. Headed over to Rist, climbed Rist, went down the backside, came back up the backside, went down the frontside, went over the dams, came home. Total ride time: a bit over 3 hrs.
I'm going to hit up the MTB tonight and see if I can get another 3 hrs in. I need a 6 hr day today! Then tomorrow will be a bit shorter, race on sunday, and finish it off with two hard days early next week. Originally I was going to ride through next wednesday, but I think I'm going to need 3 days to recovery from this block before the Ironhorse, or I'll get even more owned.
Day 1:
Met up with Erick, Dan L, Rose, John, and Raphael at Moby at 9am. Proceeded to head to the base of the Poudre, where the wind suddenly changed from 5-10mph to 30-40. What fun! It took us about 1:35 just to get to the Stove Prarie turn, so we ended up just heading up Stove Prarie, then up the backside of Rist, then down and back into town. Legs felt great, and I did a bunch of pulling into the headwind, all at 260-280w. Perfect SST work. Erick and I climbed up to Stove Prarie at 290-320w (took about 22 minutes) and then up Rist at 290-300. So, lots of time near threshold! Not exactly what I was going for, but since we had to cut the days a bit short (I actually had to go to work) it was fine. Ended up with a bit over 3 hrs, 60 miles, and a hell of a lot of climbing.
Day 2:
Headed out at 8am, nobody showed up at Moby. Not surprising, everyone has just finished up school and the idea of waking up that early when there is no class to go to probably doesn't sound too appealing. Anyway, I set off solo. Felt a bit weird from the start - stomach was churning, heart rate wasn't responding. Legs felt fine, but there was something wrong elsewhere. Felt like overtraining actually, but there is no way that was the cause since I took so much time easy before Nats. Perhaps my body just isn't used to riding that early in the day? Long story short I cut the ride pretty short. No sense in punishing myself when there is obviously something wrong.
To hit my volume goal for the day I organized a little mtb group ride in the evening. Met up with Nico, Adam, Jon, Mike, and Dan Z. TONS of fun! I love mountain biking. Felt good too, I was just cruising up the climbs and dropping everyone but Jon, who looked like he was suffering a bit. The weird feeling from the morning was gone.
We rode across the dams, then back to Lory and up Timber Trail. Such a sick trail! I love it. Headed back, and ended up with about 3 hrs total ride time. So with the shorter ride in the morning, not half bad.
Finishing up the ride, a couple minutes after sunset. Nobody made it up the rock stairs today:
Day 3:
Just finished up the first ride of the day. Met up with Zack Shriver, brother of Matt Shriver, FLC's coach, at Moby at 8am. No CSU dudebros again. Alas. Headed over to Rist, climbed Rist, went down the backside, came back up the backside, went down the frontside, went over the dams, came home. Total ride time: a bit over 3 hrs.
I'm going to hit up the MTB tonight and see if I can get another 3 hrs in. I need a 6 hr day today! Then tomorrow will be a bit shorter, race on sunday, and finish it off with two hard days early next week. Originally I was going to ride through next wednesday, but I think I'm going to need 3 days to recovery from this block before the Ironhorse, or I'll get even more owned.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
I know there are some people who follow this blog who do not know be personally, or follow me on facebook or twitter. Ok maybe its only like 4 people but whatever. For anyone who cares, I'm on twitter @caleyfretz. Follow me!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Win #3
Conference finals this weekend, held in Utah. I didn't race here last year (we only sent like 6 people I think) but I'm glad I made the trek this year. Crit course was really fun, essentially a big square lollipop with a nice kicker up to the finish. The original RR course had to be changed due to snow, so we ended up doing a circuit race around a motor speedway that actually ended up being pretty fun.
We started with a TTT saturday morning, in the rain. It was pretty miserable. We are still trying to figure out who will be on the nationals TTT squad so I sat out this time and went with our "B" squad for the day. Ended up getting 5th or something, though I'm pretty sure I could have ITT'ed it faster than we went. Oh well.
Photo of the start (not our start, but you can see what the conditions were like):
After the TTT we had a pretty long wait for our crit, which didn't start until 7pm. Erick, Alex and I had to go to the conference meeting to discuss mountain season and such, then we went straight over to the crit course to unload all the bikes and get our area set up. After that we filled the back of the trailer with blankets and stuff and took a nap. There was a lot of giggling going on.
It was still raining for the first few crits, and pretty cold. Our team rode well in every race, being
aggressive but not stupid. Luke spent more than half of his crit off the front but was swallowed up with a few minutes to go. Our B women came in 2nd and 3rd behind another CU girl who should not be in B's. John hung on to a fast men's B race for a long time before popping near the end. Tirrel won the women's A, with Julia in 3rd and Megan somewhere in the top 10 (she finished with the field, not sure exactly where.) I could tell Megan was stressing about her presentation all weekend but she definitely didn't let it effect her in the races! She did great and I think she's going to do really well at nationals, even if she doesn't believe me. I always feels super proud of her when she goes off the front or something :)
Just in time for the Women's A race the clouds parted a bit and the rain stopped. By the time we started an hour later the sun was actually making an appearance. I still didn't trust that the rain would stay away for our whole race so I dressed warmer than I needed to.
Our tactics for the race were pretty simple - be aggressive, make attacks, and get someone off the front with 2-3 laps to go. From the very first lap the attacks started, aided by the climb which made it easy to get a little gap with some extra effort. We sent guys off over and over, definitely controlling the race. I got in a couple breaks, mostly with one or two other guys but they never wanted to work with me (I think I have a bit of a target on my back now).
With about 6 laps to go, Adam got up the road with a Utah guy named Mitch who I know from mountain bike racing. He's on the u23 national team, very very strong. It looked like a good move so I attacked right after the downhill and dove into a set of right/left/left corners, coming out with a 50m gap. I finished bridging by the next time we went up the climb, and told Adam to put in one big effort and then get back to the field. He did and our gap increased to about 15 seconds. Mitch and I traded even pulls for the next lap or so before I saw Fuzzy and a FLC guy coming up behind us. That allowed me to sit in a bit - Mitch would pull through the downhill about halfway through the backstretch and I would only have to pull the second half of the lollipop head and up the climb.
With 3 laps to go Fuzzy got swept up so it was back to even pulls. At this point Fort Lewis began charging HARD, we could see them with 4 or 5 guys on the front hauling ass. Our gap started to come down. I took a hard pull on the downhill with 2 to go and Mitch took an equally hard pull before the climb, and then attacked me on the climb with one to go. I stuck to him relatively easily, and pulled around to head back down the hill. At this point we could see FLC coming up the hill as we were going down it, meaning we had about 8 seconds. I took a big pull back down the hill and then forced him to come through. Thankfully he's a mountain biker and actually did so. I sat on him for the remainder of the last lap, checking behind to see if I needed to attack to stay away to the finish. Coming around the last corner we still have a lead of 60-80m or so, so I knew I could sit in until the climb.
I waited until Mitch started his sprint about 1/3 of the way up, and then popped around him and gave it everything. I came over the top, did a quick check behind and saw I had a nice gap, and came across the line with my arms up. First time I've done that this season! Last two I forgot to celebrate :)
By the finish the field was just a few meters behind us, charging hard. Dan got boxed in and Zack almost got killed by Cody (the same guy who crashed me at CU) so they ended up taking 2nd and 4th in the field. Not a bad showing!
Whew, this post is already really long so I'm going to try to keep the road race recap nice and short:
First lap, lots of attacks. Eventually one with the right mix of teams got up the road - we had two guys, FLC had Ian, CU had someone, Airforce had a guy, etc. Mesa and DU were the only teams to miss out. The break worked well together and built up a nice lead, even though Mesa and DU were chasing hard, and were pretty organized.
We waited around until the two chasing teams burned themselves, about 5 laps out of 8. Then we started attacking. One at a time, two at a time, we threw in probably 20 attacks on one lap. Finally Trevor, Erick and Yardin from FLC got off the front. They had a 20 second or so gap coming through the start finish. I attacked, bringing Cody from FLC with me. We traded pulls until we got about 3/4 of the way across the gap. I then attacked him (while pulling, he was bugging me that much) and bridged the rest of the way up the group. Hurt like hell! Cody got up there about 3 minutes later.
Cody was watching me like a hawk, so Trevor made an attack and brough Yardin with him. We just sat. Those two go a ways up the road, then with about 1k to go Erick attacked. Cody continuted to just watch me. He made a half-assed chase and I just sat on him. Erick got away easy, and I sprinted by Cody at the finish. Dan Lionberg won out of the front group, and Fuzzy got 6th I think after leading Dan out. Basically, we dominated everyone and filled up the top 10. Behind us the field splintered and Zack and Gary both put in really good rides.
Though we didn't win the conference as a team, we did win a bunch of individual championships. Dan won the Men's A Conference Championship, I was 2nd. Tirrel won the Women's A, Julia was 2nd. Luke won the Men's C I think (or at least top 3). Overall a good end to a really fun season, though I would have taken some better weather :)
We started with a TTT saturday morning, in the rain. It was pretty miserable. We are still trying to figure out who will be on the nationals TTT squad so I sat out this time and went with our "B" squad for the day. Ended up getting 5th or something, though I'm pretty sure I could have ITT'ed it faster than we went. Oh well.
Photo of the start (not our start, but you can see what the conditions were like):
After the TTT we had a pretty long wait for our crit, which didn't start until 7pm. Erick, Alex and I had to go to the conference meeting to discuss mountain season and such, then we went straight over to the crit course to unload all the bikes and get our area set up. After that we filled the back of the trailer with blankets and stuff and took a nap. There was a lot of giggling going on.
It was still raining for the first few crits, and pretty cold. Our team rode well in every race, being
aggressive but not stupid. Luke spent more than half of his crit off the front but was swallowed up with a few minutes to go. Our B women came in 2nd and 3rd behind another CU girl who should not be in B's. John hung on to a fast men's B race for a long time before popping near the end. Tirrel won the women's A, with Julia in 3rd and Megan somewhere in the top 10 (she finished with the field, not sure exactly where.) I could tell Megan was stressing about her presentation all weekend but she definitely didn't let it effect her in the races! She did great and I think she's going to do really well at nationals, even if she doesn't believe me. I always feels super proud of her when she goes off the front or something :)Just in time for the Women's A race the clouds parted a bit and the rain stopped. By the time we started an hour later the sun was actually making an appearance. I still didn't trust that the rain would stay away for our whole race so I dressed warmer than I needed to.
Our tactics for the race were pretty simple - be aggressive, make attacks, and get someone off the front with 2-3 laps to go. From the very first lap the attacks started, aided by the climb which made it easy to get a little gap with some extra effort. We sent guys off over and over, definitely controlling the race. I got in a couple breaks, mostly with one or two other guys but they never wanted to work with me (I think I have a bit of a target on my back now).
With about 6 laps to go, Adam got up the road with a Utah guy named Mitch who I know from mountain bike racing. He's on the u23 national team, very very strong. It looked like a good move so I attacked right after the downhill and dove into a set of right/left/left corners, coming out with a 50m gap. I finished bridging by the next time we went up the climb, and told Adam to put in one big effort and then get back to the field. He did and our gap increased to about 15 seconds. Mitch and I traded even pulls for the next lap or so before I saw Fuzzy and a FLC guy coming up behind us. That allowed me to sit in a bit - Mitch would pull through the downhill about halfway through the backstretch and I would only have to pull the second half of the lollipop head and up the climb.
With 3 laps to go Fuzzy got swept up so it was back to even pulls. At this point Fort Lewis began charging HARD, we could see them with 4 or 5 guys on the front hauling ass. Our gap started to come down. I took a hard pull on the downhill with 2 to go and Mitch took an equally hard pull before the climb, and then attacked me on the climb with one to go. I stuck to him relatively easily, and pulled around to head back down the hill. At this point we could see FLC coming up the hill as we were going down it, meaning we had about 8 seconds. I took a big pull back down the hill and then forced him to come through. Thankfully he's a mountain biker and actually did so. I sat on him for the remainder of the last lap, checking behind to see if I needed to attack to stay away to the finish. Coming around the last corner we still have a lead of 60-80m or so, so I knew I could sit in until the climb.
I waited until Mitch started his sprint about 1/3 of the way up, and then popped around him and gave it everything. I came over the top, did a quick check behind and saw I had a nice gap, and came across the line with my arms up. First time I've done that this season! Last two I forgot to celebrate :)
By the finish the field was just a few meters behind us, charging hard. Dan got boxed in and Zack almost got killed by Cody (the same guy who crashed me at CU) so they ended up taking 2nd and 4th in the field. Not a bad showing!
Whew, this post is already really long so I'm going to try to keep the road race recap nice and short:
First lap, lots of attacks. Eventually one with the right mix of teams got up the road - we had two guys, FLC had Ian, CU had someone, Airforce had a guy, etc. Mesa and DU were the only teams to miss out. The break worked well together and built up a nice lead, even though Mesa and DU were chasing hard, and were pretty organized.
We waited around until the two chasing teams burned themselves, about 5 laps out of 8. Then we started attacking. One at a time, two at a time, we threw in probably 20 attacks on one lap. Finally Trevor, Erick and Yardin from FLC got off the front. They had a 20 second or so gap coming through the start finish. I attacked, bringing Cody from FLC with me. We traded pulls until we got about 3/4 of the way across the gap. I then attacked him (while pulling, he was bugging me that much) and bridged the rest of the way up the group. Hurt like hell! Cody got up there about 3 minutes later.
Cody was watching me like a hawk, so Trevor made an attack and brough Yardin with him. We just sat. Those two go a ways up the road, then with about 1k to go Erick attacked. Cody continuted to just watch me. He made a half-assed chase and I just sat on him. Erick got away easy, and I sprinted by Cody at the finish. Dan Lionberg won out of the front group, and Fuzzy got 6th I think after leading Dan out. Basically, we dominated everyone and filled up the top 10. Behind us the field splintered and Zack and Gary both put in really good rides.
Though we didn't win the conference as a team, we did win a bunch of individual championships. Dan won the Men's A Conference Championship, I was 2nd. Tirrel won the Women's A, Julia was 2nd. Luke won the Men's C I think (or at least top 3). Overall a good end to a really fun season, though I would have taken some better weather :)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Airforce Road Race
2nd win of the season for me today. Men's A US Airforce road race, five 12 mile laps wit a 3 mile climb in each. Apparently similar to the '86 worlds course, but I wouldn't know since I was -2 year old then. Finish was perfect for me - a 300m kicker with the line at the top.
We sent Erick off the front early, about half a lap in, which took the pressure off the rest of us for the first 3 laps. He flatted (but was riding tubs so rode into the start/finish) and we finally caught him at the end of the 3rd lap. He got a new wheel and jumped in. Once we hit the climb again things started to get fast, and we shelled most of the remaining group, down from about 40 to maybe 20 by the end of the 4th lap. I rode consistently in the top 5, keeping an eye on the other dangerous guys, and was very comfortable with the pace. We hit the hill on the 5th lap pretty hard, totally strung out on the lower more gradual section. Airforce's strong guy had all of his teammates waste themselves on the lower section of the climb. Now idea why, but I was fine with it because it kept everything organized.
When we hit the first real pitch CU threw in a couple of attacks, but they were all marked quickly. We flew up the first section of the climb, dropping our numbers down to 10-15. The short rollers before the finish each saw attacks, but nothing went anywhere. At the top of the last downhill I tucked in behind Dan L and told him to keep me in the top 5. The finish was at the top of a decent kicker, maybe 3-400m, following a long downhill and then steady flat. Nobody wanted to work in the run-up, so it was slow and sketchy. I would much rather a long line of guys. Too bad Airforce had already wasted themselves and only Trevor was left. At the bottom, the guys on the front started the sprint. My teammate moved around them about halfway up, but I had been pinched out by two CU guys, forcing me to actually brake mid climb. I got out from around them, re-accelerated, and chased after the two in the lead (my teammate and one Jesse D from FLC). Caught them with 100m to go, passed them quickly and came over the top with a 10m gap.
No photos, sadly. Felt great though. I'm very confident for nationals now, which is in 3 weeks. Utah next weekend also has a lot of climbing, so it will be another good test. Tonight I'm hitting up the New Belgium Short Track again, which is by far my favorite workout of the week.
We sent Erick off the front early, about half a lap in, which took the pressure off the rest of us for the first 3 laps. He flatted (but was riding tubs so rode into the start/finish) and we finally caught him at the end of the 3rd lap. He got a new wheel and jumped in. Once we hit the climb again things started to get fast, and we shelled most of the remaining group, down from about 40 to maybe 20 by the end of the 4th lap. I rode consistently in the top 5, keeping an eye on the other dangerous guys, and was very comfortable with the pace. We hit the hill on the 5th lap pretty hard, totally strung out on the lower more gradual section. Airforce's strong guy had all of his teammates waste themselves on the lower section of the climb. Now idea why, but I was fine with it because it kept everything organized.
When we hit the first real pitch CU threw in a couple of attacks, but they were all marked quickly. We flew up the first section of the climb, dropping our numbers down to 10-15. The short rollers before the finish each saw attacks, but nothing went anywhere. At the top of the last downhill I tucked in behind Dan L and told him to keep me in the top 5. The finish was at the top of a decent kicker, maybe 3-400m, following a long downhill and then steady flat. Nobody wanted to work in the run-up, so it was slow and sketchy. I would much rather a long line of guys. Too bad Airforce had already wasted themselves and only Trevor was left. At the bottom, the guys on the front started the sprint. My teammate moved around them about halfway up, but I had been pinched out by two CU guys, forcing me to actually brake mid climb. I got out from around them, re-accelerated, and chased after the two in the lead (my teammate and one Jesse D from FLC). Caught them with 100m to go, passed them quickly and came over the top with a 10m gap.
No photos, sadly. Felt great though. I'm very confident for nationals now, which is in 3 weeks. Utah next weekend also has a lot of climbing, so it will be another good test. Tonight I'm hitting up the New Belgium Short Track again, which is by far my favorite workout of the week.
Monday, April 13, 2009
V is for Very wet Victory
Completely abysmal weather in Durango this weekend for the Squawker Classic. TTT was scheduled for Saturday morning, but we woke up to torrential rain, which turned to snow, so they had to cancel. Snow stopped around 10, had melted by 11 (thanks to some more rain) when the first crits started. Some random sunny moments warmed us up a bit during the day, but they were always interspersed with more snow, sleet, and rain. I think the women's B race was almost all dry, but every other race had at least one squall come through.
Men's A's were at 2:20. At 2:00, it was sunny and beautiful. By 2:10, it was raining, and by 2:15 is was snowing again. Back to rain for the start. Stopped after 10 minutes or so, but we couldn't even tell because of all the road spray. About 35 minutes in, we got some sleet which stung like hell on the downhill. That lasted about 5 minutes, and we had drizzle the rest of the race.
Course was great. Same as last year, with one steep but short climb up an alley a 6 other corners in a L shape. Didn't ride with the power meter but last year it caused a 800-900w spike every lap. Fun!
Spent most of the race trying to get a break to stick. Ended up on a few good ones, including one with one guy from every major team represented, but for some reason nobody wanted to work. Our field of 40something was slowly whittled down. I think 22 finished.
Two laps to go, a Fort Lewis rider gets a small gap. CU chases, I follow. CU pulls half way across the gap, and I finish it off. Sit up a bit, go back to 3rd wheel at the start of the last lap. Very fast. Walker Savidge was on the front, Ben Sontag second wheel, me third. Couldn't be more perfect. The two guys wind it up, with Savidge pulling off at the base of the climb (not sure who he thought he was leading out, Sontagg and I are not his teammates). Sontag took off on the climb, and I followed. I look back at the top and we have a gap of 20m or so. Sontag guns it down the backstretch, and I come around him in the last corner with 200m to go. Perfect leadout! I ended up taking the win by about two bike lengths, for my first collegiate win of the season! yay :)
Some photos:
Sunday didn't end up with any victories, sadly. The A's did 9 laps of a 6 miles course, with a 1 mile climb every lap. A relatively good course for me, but I could tell from the first climb that I didn't have great legs. I just didn't have any kick.
I stayed near the front for the first few laps, until Erick got off the front. He built his lead up to a minute or so, and stayed out front until 2 laps to go, when we caught him on the climb. I spent the whole middle of the race blocking for Erick. Fort Lewis and CU didn't seem to worried, and kept the gap between 25 seconds and a minute.
After catching Erick, Sonntag put the hammer down and split the group for good. I was nearly knocked off the road by a swerving FLC rider at the base of the climb and lost 30m or so, which I had to make up. Came over the top about 10m back, dug deep and tacked onto the back of the group, which was down to about 10-15 guys. FLC and CU each had 5 or 6, I was all alone with an airforce guy. Both big teams sent numerous guys off the front, and airforce and I had to chase. We got worked over really bad. We hit the climb the last time and my legs started to crack. Repeated calls to the engine room for more power were left unanswered, and I slid backwards in the front group, eventually coming across the line in 8th. Not horrible, but not exactly what I was hoping for.
Next weekend is Airforce, with another good road race, and dumb parking lot crit, and a fun hilly TTT. Then we have Conference in Utah, a week off, and then Nationals! woohoo :)
Men's A's were at 2:20. At 2:00, it was sunny and beautiful. By 2:10, it was raining, and by 2:15 is was snowing again. Back to rain for the start. Stopped after 10 minutes or so, but we couldn't even tell because of all the road spray. About 35 minutes in, we got some sleet which stung like hell on the downhill. That lasted about 5 minutes, and we had drizzle the rest of the race.
Course was great. Same as last year, with one steep but short climb up an alley a 6 other corners in a L shape. Didn't ride with the power meter but last year it caused a 800-900w spike every lap. Fun!
Spent most of the race trying to get a break to stick. Ended up on a few good ones, including one with one guy from every major team represented, but for some reason nobody wanted to work. Our field of 40something was slowly whittled down. I think 22 finished.
Two laps to go, a Fort Lewis rider gets a small gap. CU chases, I follow. CU pulls half way across the gap, and I finish it off. Sit up a bit, go back to 3rd wheel at the start of the last lap. Very fast. Walker Savidge was on the front, Ben Sontag second wheel, me third. Couldn't be more perfect. The two guys wind it up, with Savidge pulling off at the base of the climb (not sure who he thought he was leading out, Sontagg and I are not his teammates). Sontag took off on the climb, and I followed. I look back at the top and we have a gap of 20m or so. Sontag guns it down the backstretch, and I come around him in the last corner with 200m to go. Perfect leadout! I ended up taking the win by about two bike lengths, for my first collegiate win of the season! yay :)
Some photos:
Sunday didn't end up with any victories, sadly. The A's did 9 laps of a 6 miles course, with a 1 mile climb every lap. A relatively good course for me, but I could tell from the first climb that I didn't have great legs. I just didn't have any kick.
I stayed near the front for the first few laps, until Erick got off the front. He built his lead up to a minute or so, and stayed out front until 2 laps to go, when we caught him on the climb. I spent the whole middle of the race blocking for Erick. Fort Lewis and CU didn't seem to worried, and kept the gap between 25 seconds and a minute.
After catching Erick, Sonntag put the hammer down and split the group for good. I was nearly knocked off the road by a swerving FLC rider at the base of the climb and lost 30m or so, which I had to make up. Came over the top about 10m back, dug deep and tacked onto the back of the group, which was down to about 10-15 guys. FLC and CU each had 5 or 6, I was all alone with an airforce guy. Both big teams sent numerous guys off the front, and airforce and I had to chase. We got worked over really bad. We hit the climb the last time and my legs started to crack. Repeated calls to the engine room for more power were left unanswered, and I slid backwards in the front group, eventually coming across the line in 8th. Not horrible, but not exactly what I was hoping for.
Next weekend is Airforce, with another good road race, and dumb parking lot crit, and a fun hilly TTT. Then we have Conference in Utah, a week off, and then Nationals! woohoo :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
