Michigan State Time Trial

 June 20th was the Michigan State Time Trial Championship.  Since I missed this race last year because of flooding this my my first time ever doing this race.   The course however I am very familiar with, the distance not.   My category was slatted to do 40k, which is a very unpleasant distance for an individual time trial.  The course was a 20k out and back that you did two laps.  The road was Hines Drive, a fairly scenic road near Detroit.  As usual though the roads were garbage and you had to constantly avoid potholes and cracks in the road.

Before the race started I was already on an off week, Mt Pleasant took a toll on my body and I was still tired.  Then...for the second time this year I forgot to bring my heart rate strap to a time trial.  Oh well, I still gave it the 100% I had left.  The race was hot and hard.  The temp off the road had to be near 100°.  After one lap I wanted to just call it a day, my body hurt and I just wasn't comfortable in my time trial position to make good power.  I still gutted it out though and finished 12th.  Since it was my first 40k I will just write it off as a learning experience, next year I will be ready!  Oh, if you notice they have me 13th on the results.  There is no way the guy in 12th beat me, I will just leave it at that.  There have been far to many timing and scoring errors this year.

Full Results

Mt. Pleasant Recap

Mt. Pleasant weekend was scheduled to be a 60 minute +2 lap criterium Saturday and a 46 mile road race Sunday.  So far the weather this summer has been very warm, this weekend would be no exception.  Saturday my race was schedule to start at 330 PM, kind of nice for a change to have a later start.  The only downside was the sun was beaming down and on the roads the heat index was 90-100°.  The crit started out fast and furious on a .9 mile circuit in downtown Mt. Pleasant.  On the end of the first lap I got caught up near an accident.  Since it caused me to drop to the back I decided to just park there for the next 30 minutes and relax.  With 30 minutes to go I finally started to carve my way through the pack.  However I have to say this race was one of the worst displays of bike handling I have seen.  We would just hammer it on the straights to just sit up and brake in the corners.  These corners didn't need braking. I also felt like that guy in office space and always picked the wrong traffic lanes.  I would work my way up some then get caught in a bad line and lose several spots.   It was frustrating, but I just keep out of the wind and tucked in the pack.  So after 60 minutes there was just two laps to go.  I made my push to work my way through the pack.  On the last lap going into the last corner I was sitting in about 23rd.  Ideally I would have liked a position further up but I felt like I could still sprint out a top ten.   Oh well, non of that mattered because two guys in front of me wrecked.  I had to check up and take an inside line and lost a lot of speed.  I sprinted to the line and settled for 21st, I was a little disappointed.

Sunday was a much different day, since I wasn't happy with the previous day I was very motivated.  Race start was around 1015 AM, and it was overcast but muggy.  Since the race was only 46 miles it was going to be fast.  In the first 10 miles I don't think there was a single time I was going less then 25 MPH and constantly went over 30.  It was a home race for one of my team mates so the goal for the day was to shut down any attacks and try to set him up to get the win.  So I spent a good majority of the time working up front pacing or shutting down attacks.  I even put in three attacks myself.  With 4 miles to go the Michigan challenge leader for our category attacked hard, no one put up a chase.  So I muscled my way up to the front to drive the pace up.  I killed myself for the next two miles, but I shut down his attack.  My work was done so I just cruised to the finish line in the back of the pack.  I placed one spot ahead of the Michigan Challenge leader I shut down.  For my efforts though my team mates finished good in the sprint finish.  We took 1st and 2nd in the Omnium, the only downside is the didn't award anything this year for that.

Next up is the State Time Trial

Crit Full Results
Road Race Full Results

Das Tour of Frankenmuth

Frankenmuth Michigan is a small little Bavarian town, great place to hold a bike race.   My race was a scheduled 65 miles on a circuit just over 16 miles per lap.  Luckily the race started at 8am because the forecast was in the mid 80’s for the day. From the get go the tactic of the day was breakaways.  Attacks were constant throughout the first and second lap.   However it wasn't till near the end of the second lap that a group of three actually got away.  For the most part I relaxed, however at the end of the first lap I managed to choke on my energy bar.  I honestly thought, "hey, I might need to stop and have someone give me the hymlic maneuver."  Ya, it was bad.  I managed to spray it down with water from one of my bottles, however in the process I managed to drop my bottle and get dropped by the pack.   Luckily the pace wasn't fast at the time and I caught up quick.  However, now I needed to conserve water since I was a bottle short.


So back to the breakaway, three riders slipped off the front near the end of the second lap.  Since none of my team mates where in it, and the pack wasn't chasing I decided to hop to the front and turn the screws up.   For the next mile or two I hammered it till the three were back within 10 seconds, then I sat up because my job was done.  Shortly there after 3 more riders from the pack joined the break, including one member from my team.  The six riders quickly built a gap, enough teams were represented so the pack knew that this break wasn't coming back.  The next two laps went fairly quiet with only a few little attacks.  I spent some time on the front trying to slow the pace.  With 6 off the front the sprint was only going to be for 7th.  Heading into town on the last lap I moved up front with my other 4 team mates to try and do a proper sprint train.  My legs just didn't have it though and I sat up and coasted into town.  I finished in the dead back of the pack, but I was still happy since my work earlier helped get my team mate into the break where he ended up finishing 5th.  The heat has also really gotten to me, but my fitness is feeling really good.  Once criterium season comes around I should be in full form.

Hours Training to Date

So how many hours training does it take to race?  Above is my chart so far for this year.   So far I have been on my bike for 139.25 hours and have spent 4.25 hours doing other training activities.  To make matters worse I am probably not getting enough hours.  Guess I have to make due with what time I have with a career and all.

West Branch Recap

The entire week leading up to West Branch I was really excited.  However everything that could have gone wrong Friday did.  In the morning packing I badly pinched a nerve in my back, killing my mobility and leaving me in tons of pain.  I had already paid and signed up to race, so I figured I would give it a shot anyways.   Then driving up to the race I got my first speeding ticket ever.  I wasn’t really driving faster than anyone else.  I just was that unlucky one in the pack.  At least I had a nice place to stay on Houghton Lake nearby.

 

Anyhow putting Friday behind me I tried to be optimistic about Saturday.    On schedule was a 65 mile road race with one crazy finishing hill.  It was a three lap circuit around the surrounding of West Branch.   The morning started out in the 60’s with some scattered rain showers.  For the first 20 miles of the race I felt fairly good.  Spoke to soon maybe, because at mile 21 my back finally gave out on me.  I toughed out another 23 miles, but decided to call it a day and focus on the criterium tomorrow.   I absolutely hate giving up in a race, but I race for fun…and it’s no fun when your back is killing you.

Sunday was a completely different day, I woke up and the sun was blazing.   On tap was a 40 minute criterium near downtown West Branch.  The circuit was about 1 mile long and the roads were in good shape for some very fast racing.   It was much warmer, so my back was feeling better.    Maybe to warm as it was pushing into the mid 80’s at race start, warmest day of the year to date.   Warming up I felt really good.  The race started blazing fast.  My heart rate was idling near 185 bpm.   About 10 minutes in my stomach turned into a giant knot, the heat was really getting to me.  I hung on though.   For most the race I was hanging near the back with two of my team mates.  Everything went wrong though at about minute 26 when one of my team mates started to suffer heat stroke.  As I was about to pass him he kind of bonked to the extreme.  I picked an awful line to try and pass him on the inside and when he bonked I lost my line and had to brake hard.  By the time I got back up to speed the pack was a good clip ahead into a head wind.   I pushed myself really hard and got back on the back, but at the first acceleration I wasn’t recovered yet and got dropped again.    I could have just ridden the last ten minutes out, but at this point I was really disappointed.  Not every weekend pans out like you plan, so I decided to pack it up and enjoy the weather.   

Memorial Day weekend is Das Tour of Frankenmuth.  

Road Race Full Results 

Criterium Full Results 

Bloomer Velodrome MBRA Talent Pool Time Trial

Saturday I decided to finally give the Bloomer Velodrome a try.  Sunday there was going to be a 3k time trial, so in order to race I needed to complete the track 101 course.  The Velodrome is a whole different beast.  Its a 200m oval with corners that have 44° of banking with straights at 14°.  To make matters worse you have to use a track specific bike.  Which is a fixed gear bike,  I hadn't used one of those since I was very...very young.  The first few laps on the bike felt really weird.  All braking is done with your legs, mostly since the bike has no brakes!  Riding on the banking is also very different, if you don't carry enough speed you simply slide down the track.  Cornering can also be a bit complicated because you have to be careful not to hit your peddle on the track on the banking.  Anyways after some coaching and many...many laps I finally got a hang of it all.  In fact I really like being on the track.  I might have to make an effort to get to the track a couple times a month to train. 

 

 So now that I had completed the course I could race Sunday.  A 3k time trial doesn't sound like to much, but how do you gauge it.  I best compared it to the 400 meter, which I did in middle school track and field.  Its just a little to long of a distance to go full throttle the entire time, so you have to find the medium between the red line and what I would do in a normal 20k time trial.  3k is only 15 laps in the velodrome, so I wasn't to worried.  Anyhow for my first time on very tired legs I completed 3k in 4:22.  About 17 seconds a lap.  That was good enough to put me 5th out of 7...low turnout.  However I was only 6 seconds out of 2nd, so if I was rested I could have probably done a lot better.  Anyhow it was fun and I can't wait to hit the track again.  Next weekend is West Branch.  


Full Results

Tour of Kensington Valley / Cone Azalia Spring Classic Recap

First I will start with the Tour of Kensington Valley.  I was really excited about this race since it was my home turf.  I do practically all my training in the area.   However the weather just wasn’t cooperating with my plans for the day.   At race start is was about 45° with scattered showers, occasional hail and winds gusting up to 45mph.  So much for a typical spring day in Michigan, the weather was gorgeous leading up till the weekend to.  At race start I decided to take a chance and leave my aero wheels on, the gusts hadn’t gotten too bad yet.  The early part of the race was ok, I sat patiently in the back taking it easy.  I also was staying in the back due to the fact the wind would work me side to side a lot.  On the 4^th lap though the winds really picked up, heading along the lake the pack got blasted by some massive 40mph+ crosswind gusts.  It really just blasted the pack apart.  My bike was a handful and I could barely keep it upright, by the time I was out of the wind the damage was done.  I was a good distance off the back in a pack of guys that had simply given up.  Since conditions were far from safe I decided to rest for my race the next day and abandon after 36/65 miles.  I hate giving up, but ultimately was the right call for the day. 

ToKV Full Results

 

Sunday was a new day, the rain and storms were gone and the sun was back.  All good right?  Well the weather was still in the 40° range with winds up to 25mph with a super cold wind chill.  Cone Azalia is a race that’s best described as a beast of its own.  My race was scheduled for 50 miles, or 5 laps of 10 miles.   The kicker is that about 4 miles per lap are on some very rough dirt/gravel roads.  About 3 miles of the asphalt are just as rough.   It’s really a giant survival suffer fest, only the strong hearted will make it till the end.   At the start of the race I knew I didn’t have much, I was coming down with a cold from freezing the previous day.  I also missed dinner putting decals on the team trailer.  Oh, and I stayed up to 1am just to watch the Redwings lose.  Off the start line I realized I had zero fast twitch muscle response, so any acceleration was going to be very hard on me.   To make matters worse the race started off in a flurry, my teammate gunned it into the first dirt section near 30mph.  People were flatting all over. I was doing my best to just hang on.  The vibration of my bike was painful, enough to put my right foot asleep.  However I got myself through it, on the next dirt section I wasn’t as lucky.  There was a hard stop and then the field gunned it.  I couldn’t get to speed quickly enough and got dropped.  So I spent the next two miles in the dreaded pain cave.  Hanging just off the back trying to will myself back onto the back of the pack and into the draft.  Oh, was in a bad crosswind that didn’t help much either.  Somehow I did it, so the next lap I took it easy recovering.  

By the end of the second lap I went to the front to pace set some, even attacked off the front some.  I was feeling a lot better.  To my surprise, after the second lap our lead pack was down to 13 people.   The third lap didn’t go so well for me though. I cramped up at the end of the lap and then got dropped on an acceleration.  I spent the last 2 laps riding solo, for my efforts I hung on to a very hard 13^th place.  My lower back and right tricep went out on the 4^th lap.  It felt awful, but I didn’t want to DNF for the second straight day so I just decided to HTFU(google it).   Sunday night and Monday I felt awful.  To make matters worse I got a cold.  Still though I am proud of toughing it out and getting 13^th at maybe the toughest race in Michigan.  Next weekend I am going to try my hand at racing in the velodrome.  It should be fun and a good break from racing on the roads, plus the weather forecast looks good.  

CA Full Results