Perspective….

Myself, and I’m willing to bet a bunch of other folks at times can find it easy to observe a sport or contest and never comprehend the skill, ability or power that goes into it. 

Be it the Olympics, pro football game, NBA game or MLB game and though there can be spectacular plays -- how many of us put in perspective the immense talent that an athlete is capable of?  Especially when the particular talent on display is hard to quantify, such as on TV.

I came across an article on this year TdF in cyclingnews – that was pretty astonishing to me.  It was an article on a sometimes heard about, moderately popular rider, named Juan Antonio Flecha.  He’s not necessarily the biggest and baddest cat in the cycling world but he mostly gets his respect when it’s due.  Well, if a person hadn’t heard -- he was on a breakaway in Stage 9 of this years TdF, doing an impressive ride until he & another rider got hit by a French TV car ending his opportunity.

Well cyclingnews put out an article on his recorded Power output numbers on that day.  (I believe they use the SRM crank setup as their power meters.)  Therein lay the astonishing reality check for how amazing a top end athlete can be.  Juan Antonio Flecha is about my size, he’s just about 6’ tall & 160lbs.  Now, anyone reading this who’s into power gets this – for those that don’t just put in perspective of how hard an effort you’ve ever done in staying with me (or passing me by) on a bike while we’ve been racing  really, really hard, …..not after I’ve bonked out. 

Here’s the power he produce on his bike during Stage 9 of the 2011 TdF, compared to my best efforts.

	Flecha	Me
Threshold effort – 20minutes --(riding your fastest 20minute Time Trial)	446 watts	345 watts

 

Another example: he can do for 20minutes, what I can do maxing my brains out riding as hard as I can for 3 minutes.  So Juan, if you are kind enough to go at your decent 20minute pace, I can stick with you for 3 minutes before I feel like passing out and dying. 

Think of that the next time you are riding hard or racing to get an even better appreciation of not just the endurance but the power some athletes have.  The human body is an amazing thing.

The above is his short term power.  Long term he can kept up for 5 hrs & 43 minutes….. what I can do for 40minutes.

Lastly, from what one can ascertain in articles and interviews he’s a pretty darn good, head-on-his-shoulders-the-right-way, kind of guy.  To get paid for riding a bike and have this perspective, it’s pretty great.

Details on the power he threw down in Stage 9 before getting bump by the car are here if you want to see them.

So with that perspective…for my clients to know it’s safe for me to say my day job isn’t even remotely close to being in jeopardy.  But for those of you planning on the O2S & Cheq 40 this year… I’m not planning any more than 20 of you to toss down better power than I’m shooting for on either of those days.  And for that matter, as nice as he is I sure hope J.A.F doesn’t show up…….

Chippewa Valley Firecracker

There were fireworks at Sunday’s race alright – right in my legs.  Because about an hour into the race they went POP.  Then for good measure when the legs weren’t working I tried the Superman approach to flying down the trail….

Surprisingly enough I had the gumption to think this day would be different.  Though I didn’t feel all that splendid on the ride down after 8 hours Saturday working on cutting trail for next weekends Mudrutters race.  Once I got on the bike in Eau Claire the legs felt loose…. could have been the almost 90 degree heat by that time however.

Anyways a quick warmup, got to say hi to the Adventure 212 ladies, Di, Michele & Sarah.  Then got my son Marshall over to the kids race.  He did pretty good and had a fun time.  Racing in the 6-7 yr old race, he got 4th with a sweaty smile on his face.   Can’t help but love it. 

At the start line, it appeared to be a smaller field of racer than I ever remember for a Firecracker race, 50 or so.  Couldn’t have gotten to off to a much worse start.  The guy in front of me, who shall remain nameless, falls over before even crossing the start line.  I’m stuck directly behind him as guys go by on the left and right.  So needless to say I’m DFL as racers head into the first corner by 30 yards.  It’s a long race so I don’t panic and just jump as far up as I can over the next mile without burning through too much energy.  Probably land in low 30’s position by the time we enter the single track.

Now regardless my race was bound to go up in flames but the first lap of the 4 lap race was driving me nuts.  A couple guys in front of me were challenged in riding single track with any kind of speed and it didn’t take much time for them to lose contact with the group in front.  Coming from a guy like myself who once the corners start getting tight has his own challenges that’s saying something.  

So needed to bid my time and hope once things opened up I could do some more passing and save it for the remainder of the race.  I did end up passing another 10 guys or so that lap without spending too much energy.  On the start of the 2nd lap it was me, another guy and Jon Lirette.  I thought to myself, “Good, now we should get somewhere with this.”  Well probably half way through that 2nd lap I started to feel taxed in my legs on the harder efforts.  Gee, that’s weird, I haven’t been cooking them in this race so far.   I looked down at my power tap, we were just under an hour in. 

Never a good sign when about 1/3 through a race you start going into the red zone.  On a punchy climb I tried to follow another racers momentum up the hill and my legs blew up altogether.  I honestly thought I was going to have to quit the race right there.   I had absolutely nothing left, it all happened in less than 10minutes. 

I soft pedaled until I could get some kind of comfortable pace going, by that time Nikoli Anikin & John Gatto & 3 others guys came up on me.  I was able to stay with them for awhile and try to draft a bit but on a second trail incline I had to drop back & lost them for good.

So I just cruised around the remainder of the race trying to enjoy it for what it was and get some good single track practice in.  The course at Lowe’s creek is fun and pretty fast.  I have to admit I preferred it a few years back with less single track, not because it wasn’t fun but because it kept the race more open and with more opportunities to pass. 

On the 4th & final lap somewhere along the way air burped out of my front tire, I could tell it was mushy (at the finish I discovered it had only 12 psi vs. the 25psi I started with).  I figured I could work with this.  However on a faster downhill single track section, the tire must have rolled on me because I literal do not know what happened because the next thing I remember is flying through the air like being shot out of cannon.  Over the handlebars downhill with my arms extended.  I gotta admit it caused a degree of anxiety because of the steep hillside I was on and how quickly I was approaching a 14” diameter tree.  After flying why felt like almost 20 feet I skidded on my arms & legs and came to a crumpled up stop against the tree.  I did a quick check to make sure every body part was still attached & working and scrabbled back up the trail to get my bike.  If only a video camera would have caught it, it’d of made good youtube footage.

So I took it down one more notch and finished out the race on the safer side of caution.  Finish 38th out of 52, not exactly the day I would have liked.  Hot day, the powertap recorded temps between 90 & 100 throughout the race.  Some guys pulled out some great races though.  Todd McFadden scored a top 10 with alot of the usual suspects rounding out the top 5.

Next week unfortunately may need to skip the always fun Duluth DirtSpanker due to festivities & reunions in Ashland.  I bummed as I really like that race.  Good luck to all that day.

Racin’ on a MTB PowerTap… why not?

Giddy.  New disc brake Powertaps wheels came in.  The setup was super smooth.  It’ll be great for tracking power output when training off road… but then I got to thinking.  Why not race on it?

All that technology packed into a bigger hub.  It’s bound to be a significant weight penalty….  well…..

Current:

Bontrager XXX lite carbon rear wheel with disc brake tubeless with Caffelatex sealant  – 1590grams.

PowerTap setup:

Stans Crest rim, Sapim CX-Ray Spokes, WB Alloy nipples, Saris PowerTap disc hub tubess with Caffelatex sealant – 1770 grams.

If my mathematical translation from grams to lbs is correct that’s just between 1/3 & 2/5 lb heavier… ridiculously awesome!

So I’ll eat one less bagel before racing that day or carrier 16oz water bottles instead 20 oz water bottles.  Rotating weight is rim & tire, the centering mass doesn’t have the same effect.

Time to put ‘em to use – I might be passing on Miner Revenge this year, but the Chippewa FireCracker might be as good as any to test it at this weekend.  Not to mention Mudrutters or Brownstone later this month.

Must…. have…. more….. POWER!!

Thanks…

Delivery scheduled…. July 6th…

ProXCT – WORS Subaru Cup

Just as the race season feels like it’s getting started before you know it’s half way through… or at least it feels that way.  The tail end of June brought a National level MTB race to the Midwest for a second consecutive year. 

How do you pass on that opportunity?  Well, usually you don’t.  I gotta be honest, it’s always one of those races that tugs on me back & forth about going.  It’s hyped up for what it is, but at a distance I’m less than enamored about driving too.  I traveled so much years ago it probably burnt me out for the next 20years.  Some say it’s a lifestyle and you just roll with it.  I get stuck thinking of all the other stuff I’d prefer to be doing than sitting 8hrs in a car.   So I can’t say it’s ever been my favorite place to travel too, but once there it’s a nice festival atmosphere, lot’s of familiar faces to see and friends to catch up with. 

The race course in my now 3 previous experiences has gotten better each time around as the trails have worn in and improvements made.  The trail itself has a soil content that makes it very smooth in most places interrupted with the normal rocks & tree roots.  Subtract that out & alot of it is pavement smooth versus trails that are more bumpy.  I’ve found some trails are more fun to ride than race and vice versa.  This one has an enjoyable flow, smoothness but also challenging.  I’d give the edge to riding it over racing it but it’s pretty close.

Racing it is just plain tough at times.  Built on the tree laden slopes of a midwest ski hill it makes you work on the climbs and carve the single track on the way down. 

My goals were simple – put in a top 10 finish in the 116 rider line up.  Do-able?  Yes.  Problem. Yes – it’s called 116 racer lineup at he start.  It’s a single track heavy course and even with an attempt to thin things out a 3minute(if that) hill climb to start doesn’t cut it. 

Getting to the start 20minutes early, (if one can believe me – it’s true!)  The closest I got to the front was the 4th/5th row that was lined 10-12 racers wide.  With no further selection, it was simply based on who got there first or could weasel ahead. 

I’d be curious what was the greatest advance made by any racer from starting position to finishing position.  I’m wagering not beyond 15 to 20 places.  So unfortunately, I don’t believe all the best racers really had results indicative of their abilities solely based on the amount of racers that were allowed to start & the course design.  Read a few other blogs, including Tristan S. and you’ll get the same picture of that.

What happened?  I got a reasonable start but 40 racers deep made moving up tough because with the snow fence corraling of the course there simply wasn’t room to pass.  In fact as I stayed to the right side near the edge & close to the barriers -- one guy tried passing hard on my right we had some physical contact, he bumped me a little too hard the first time and that was his mistake because on the next set of contact I put him down & piled up into the snowfence.   Honestly, --- it kinda felt good.   Sorry dude.  At least on a bike course my 6’ 168lb self makes me one of the bigger guys out there.

The 2-3minute climb may have slightly narrowed things down but not really.  There was at least 15 people off the bike waiting to enter the single track when I got there.  I assume the first 15-20 got in without too much problem.  Only even when you got into the single track people were off the bike walking the first 50 yards due to the technical terrain & someone faltering.  The lead obtained by the front guys became pretty much insurmountable at that point.

Didn’t stop me or probably anyone from stilling giving there best effort but didn’t feel like the fairest playing field.  I went to work in the first lap (of four) steadily picking off one & two racers at a time,  perhaps as many as 7 or 8 in that lap.  Lap two was much the same, but I failed to get a water bottle hand off & ran low on water so lap three progress on moving up stalled.  I’d caught up to Jon Lirette at the start of lap 3 but the engine started cough & sputter at that point.  Matt Muraski was racing good and came up on me and passed and later Jon went by me again.  I probably lost another couple positions in that 3rd lap, but was able to re-compose myself for the 4th lap unfortunately, I got held up by alittle by Michael Hemme when he passed me on the climb but couldn’t navigate the single track as well.  I put in a hard charge in the final 300 yards of climbing & descending to distance him but it was too little to late to catch the others I was closing in on.  Good enough for 31st overall in the Category 1 race.  A far cry from the top 10 finish but given the circumstances it wasn’t to be that day.   Certainly better than my 55th place finish in 2010.  Another key to the Suburu Cup course was getting in a pre-ride.  It requires knowing the lines to take through the technical stuff as to not get unnecessarily hung up on it in the race.

Great to see & catch up with friends there, from the SKJ’s, Tyler J. who parked right next to us.  Adventure 212 guys – thanks Darrin, Chris and crew for cheering – I did was to rip your legs off and borrow them for the climbing in the final two laps…

Had fun cheering and yelling for the guys (& girls) in the Pro level races that followed.  Tristan, Brian, Mike, Nate among the other local guys had respectable days and it was fun to see them mix it up. 

Short track race was sold out (at least they were smart to cap that race) so it was back home Saturday night rather than staying for the weekend.  And given the drive it was nice to be home Sunday for some nice R&R. 

Up next a pretty mellow month of July.  Probably the WORS Eau Claire FireCracker and some local races but mostly trying to fine tune the training for the big 6 weeks that start with Ore to Shore in August & end with Chequamegon 40 in Sept.

Finding time first… (subaru cup later..)

….That’d be something awesome.  “Time” just sitting on the side of the road, waiting to be picked up.  Use it when you’re late for a race or even to speed things up like getting a race done faster.  But like just about ever human being I’m in that same boat – more ideas and things to do than time permits.  

Last Saturday’s Chain Drive was a perfect example… I could have really benefited from finding 30minutes of time along side the road on my way to Houghton, MI for the Keweenaw ChainDrive MTB race.  Got up bright & early -- with a less than ideal nights sleep battling restless 2,4,& 6 year olds who think in the middle of the night when they wake up they should come talk to Dad – of the bunch the 4 month old was best?!   What advice could I possible dispense in the wee hours of the night that would profoundly impact their futures?  “Go back to bed” is about all I could come up with.  Real great Dad eh? 

Anyways, the ride over is just under 150miles, race time is 10am.  I jump out the door at 6:40am, feeling there’s plenty of time.  I’ll be there with 45min. to spare, register & warmup.  So why the comment earlier about needing another 30minutes of time?  Well, the problem really didn’t kick in until I’m about 15minutes out of Houghton.  My car clock says 9:08am, my cellphone says…. 10:08am.  That’s when there’s violent warping of sound, light and time in one’s brain – that reverberates out of one’s mouth in a very loud expletive.  You friggin’ Yoopers and that dam Eastern Time zone!!  (Ok, I’m just kidding about the Yoopers thing– it’s the time zone thing I was P.O.’d about).  Suggestion – for those us who believe the Midwest should be in one time zone – drop a quick reminder on registration forms about 10 Eastern, 9 central.  Those 8 extra drops of ink can’t cost that much and would be immensely appreciated by those of us to the West who fail to recall those little details.

So back to the 30minutes?  Well, that’s because the car wasn’t parked, bike unloaded and me off to the race until 10:30am EASTERN.  Giving Brian Matter and all my other friendly racing c0horts that kinda of lead time in a 2hr race – ain’t a good idea.  So I missed out on mixing it up with the top 10 guys, and got to Time Trial – playing catch up from behind.  Wound up crossing the line around 50th place somewhere behind Big Mike W. who’d spied me on the river water crossing so I couldn’t sneak up on him.  All in all, it wasn’t really that bad.  Yes, I crashed twice… really hard.  Even got pinned (me, not the bike) between two trees and couldn’t extract myself for a good 30 seconds.  But the damage could have been much worse for what it was. 

One of the best parts of the day, after racing/riding a really fun course was getting to hang out with everyone afterwards and get to hear their stories of the race and what they’ve been up to.  The McFaddens – congrats to Di on the “W” in the women’s race.  Always enjoy Todd’s insight not to mention a little thanks for the mechanical tip on a front derailleur that had me stumped.  Got to catch up with & meet more of the Adventure 212 crew.  Including Darrin Braun, Sarah, Michelle P.  Brian Matter was his always helpful & friendly self as well – there’s a guy who’s so easy to cheer for (even if he’s beating the hell out of you on the race course) – genuinely nice person and it was great to catch up with him.  Tom Carpenter & crew was around – I swear he seriously had to relish in my “story” as much as anyone.  He’s acutely aware of how close to the wire I pull race time arrival – ask him about the time at Miner Revenge when I’m finishing my warmup only to head full on into the entire field starting up the road…  that’s just one of them.  Mind you though that race started 90 seconds too soon.  I can’t help it, I try to squeeze too much into life.

Without the family along for the trip, I had time to hang out & have some post race party time with Paul Belknap & Curt Cline as my guides.  Stopped in at Caleb Wendel’s  The Bike Shop, (nice place he’s got there) before finally heading to a party.  Wish I could recall or have last names for everyone I met but suffice to say this – alot of people showed up at Tony’s place for food, drinking & shooting guns.  I LOVE THE U.P! 

Though I don’t recommend mixing up race times and blowing off a race alot can be said for a event that carries with it as much fun afterwards as it does during the race.  Thanks again to the dedicated folks that make racing in the U.P. so much fun – just get a congressional act to straighten out the time zone thing though would you, eh?

Cuyuna festival & race…, NBA Finals…, good weekend

Great weekend at the latest creation in Midwest MTB’ing. Cuyuna Lakes Recreational Area in the Crosby/Ironton, MN area.

A bunch of old excavated mining pits. No, it’s not the pits themselves where you ride – as the past decades have filled up with water, but rather the rock & dirt that was pulled out of them, (less the iron ore). All piled up into hills & mini-mountains surrounding the water filled pits. At 200 feet in some spots it wasn’t exactly small hills.

Given some good money to bring in IMBA and a professional crew with trail building & stone smashing machines – you got a very unique trail system. I add some commentary on it later – the pros & cons….

Going into this weekend had a full plate of MTB race choices..

-Wooly Race – St Croix Falls, WI

-Big Ring Classic – Wausau, WI WORS

-Cuyuna Lakes MTB Festival – Crosby, MN

With the hype of Cuyuna trails & the chance for activity for the whole family, the choice was clear. Headed in Friday, got in a late ride at 9pm. Road with the entire family Saturday morning. These trails “purpose built” & wide – no one should be intimidated by the single & 1/2 track as I’d call it. (Yet it’s flow, design & purpose built terrain features can still make it a riot to ride for even a picky expert mtb’er.)

Saturday afternoon after naps at the Ruttgers Bay Lake lodge we headed into the Festival – nice time, good turnout. TT races, Red Bull entertainment, world class stunt bike cyclists, and kids races. Perhaps the kids races where the best of any I’ve been around. The crowd really got into them. Fully viewable races - My oldest Marshall, now 6, raced faster than I ever thought he could & won the 6,7,&8 yr old race. My youngest girl Grace 2 1/2 smoked the 2&3 yr old division on her strider bike – the little boys on trikes & training wheels never had a chance. Strider’s really good way to go with little kids like that.

Crazy part is they even coaxed the Mom’s & Dad’s to race… on their kids bikes – awesome. Marshall’s 20” Scott Scale treated me well nailing down 2nd place, but Kate riding Gracie’s Strider was a different story. Trying to sprint for 2 minutes on little bike like that was damn tough, I’d challenge anyone to try. All in all made for great fun & the crowd really had a good time.

Sunday was the Kryptonite Crusher Cross Country race. I was initially skeptical & probably even scared for the first time ever. Not of the competition but of the trails. Take superfast trails, a loose over hardpack tread surface that makes for alot of tire drift…. built on alot very steep hillside ledges. Toyko drift it too much and it’s a 60 ft drop off that’s going to leave more than a mark.

I thought the turnout was decent for the race with some better top end racers showing up. Dan & Doug Swanson of the Twin Cities, who usually don’t need any introduction on their past decade of regional cycling feats – also it was their family construction business who was contracted to build the trails in Cuyuna, Tom Miller who’s a regular MN MTB series top finisher, Pete O’donnel who races for GT bikes, and Mike Bushey to name a few.

The course wasn’t affording alot of passing even though the “s-track” is wide. The start rolled out about 100 yards & part way up a hill to the first entry of single track. And wouldn’t you know the least known of the Swanson’s racing that day hammered ahead of Doug & co. to get the holeshot. My early game & speed in races certainly has been treating me well but now riding in front of Doug is an experience – some pressure? Nah – just know you better be going like a bat out of hell! I was feeling pretty good & doing my best to rip it up and keep up a hard effort -- the hills & straightaways were feeling great but on the cornering I keep wondering if Doug was going to start laughing at some point as I was sliding this way & that. Probably held the pole position for a mile or more when a birch tree jumped out of corner & met me in an unfriendly way. It allowed Doug & Tom & eventually Pete to get by and me & Mike Bushey to chase.

Highlight of the race? yes & no. You see the race disintegrated half way through – no, not the positions of the racers but the quality of the course markings & directions. Breakdown of course marshalling & markings sent Doug & Pete in different direction, Tom & Mike came to the finish line sooner than the race called for. Doug ran up my backside crashing us on a circular section of the course bitching like crazy about race directions. He was pretty steamed like I’ve never seen him, but at same time can’t blame other racers following what they interpreted the course to be – it was happening for over half the race participants.

I don’t know how the results will finally post but the top 6 should have rolled out as Doug, Pete, Tom, Mike, myself then Dan Swanson. On the womens side it was sorta the same Jenna edging Diana McFadden at the finish but having taken wrong turns in the race.

But on the positive side, the trails as a race course where a delight. They turned my mediocre & questionable trail riding experience the previous day into some extremely fun & challenging racing. You had to stay on your toes (or rather the back of your saddle) & keep the reflex time fast due to the speed; as well as have the skill to know how to hit the corners efficiently.

If the race directors learn from this experience and mend some of the problems future editions of the race will not have the same problems.

Lot's of great friends and acquaintances at the Festival. Kyia Anderson who brings a smile to anyones face with her good conversation and encouragement. The aforementioned Mike Bushey. Doug, Dan & their better halves. Dave "I always forget your last name" from Solon. Di McFadden, Curt & Jenn Cline, Ryan Horkey and many others . Lastly, thanks to the organizers for a first time event you seemed to do your best, it no small amount of work, time and effort. Much appreciation goes out to you.

Other note – can’t help but think that Steve Tilford is a NBA all-star (& now Finals Champion) look alike of non other than Dirk Nowitski. Regardless it’s great to see the Dallas Mavericks win. That the fundamental of teamwork wins the Championship over the greatness of any one, two or three players. I gotta have just one basketball bitch however, the b.s. over LeBron James not scoring enough in the 4th qtr – for crying out loud it’s a team game. If he’s not scoring, it’s not like their team doesn’t get a position. The media can be a bunch of idiots lacking common sense. Besides his career shooting percentage is lower than both of his other two high profile teammates Wade & Bosh. Give me the highest percentage of success & I’ll take it over the hype of someone every single day.