18 posts tagged “go team”

Today was a huge day for the Pro Pedals team in the NJ State Road Race Championships.  We had racers in nearly all of the categories, including the Pro/1/2/3, Cat 3, Cat 4, Cat 5, and Women's Cat 4.

The state road race is run on a roughly 18-mile course.  The P123 does 5 laps, the Cat 3 does 4 laps, the Cat 4 does 3 laps, and both the men's Cat 5 and the women's cat 4 do 2 laps each.  It's held in and around Bridgeton NJ.  It was hot as hell today, too, and humid.  A tough day to do that kind of distance.

One of our former teammates, Ryan, won the Pro/1/2/3.  He really deserved it.  It's a very hard race, very long (about 85 miles altogether).

In the Cat 3, a great teammate of mine, Steve, tried to break away toward the end, but was caught by the pack.  An excellent effort by him and the rest of the group.

I raced the Cat 4 with about 7 or 8 other teammates.  A total of about 60 riders started the race, and I'd guess maybe 40 finished.  My good friend Caleb won, and I took third (as I did last year).  It was a great win, and makes Caleb the cat 4 state road race champion for 2008.  Perhaps equally impressive was another teammate, Jonathan, who rode about 25 miles all by his lonesome, way off the front.  We did what we could to help him out and hold the group off, but eventually he got caught.  Still, he had enough strength left to get back on the front of the group and lead us into the finish.  He placed 9th.  Very impressive.  Beast of the Month impressive. 

Overall, we took 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th, and perhaps a couple of pack spots in the Cat 4 race.  I was very happy to see Caleb win.  He's a great rider, and a great guy.  Definitely deserves that win.  I was also very happy for myself to get 3rd again.  I didn't really expect to do great in this race, especially since I've been exhausted this week, and not riding my best.  But the course suits me well, and I was at least a little smarter than normal about my position in the group and my racing overall.

After the cat 3 and 4 races were done, Captain Ed, Caleb, myself, and a couple other sat down to watch the remaining races.  We were talking about the possibilities and who could possibly win the two remaining races -- the Cat 4 Women's and the Cat 5 Men's were still on the road, and we had riders in each.  [We didn't have anyone in the Women's 1/2/3, but we will next year!]

The Men's Cat 5 was next to finish.  Another great rider -- another Ryan -- came cranking up the final hill, and won by a few bikelengths.  A very convincing win.  So two state champions.

But wait... the women's race!  The Women's 1/2/3 came in next, very strung out.  Riders coming in minutes apart.  We clapped for them, and watched the finish, but didn't have any teammates there.  Then a few minutes later, the distinctive Pro Pedals jersey appeared, all alone on the horizon.  Beth (remember Beth?  She's apparently recovered from when I trucked her in April...) had attacked out of the Women's Cat 4 field from 7 miles out... 7 miles before the finish! ... and held off the group to win by at least 75 meters.  A third state championship for the Pro Pedals team today.

An absoultely incredible day of racing for our team.  Probably the best day of Pro Pedals racing that I've taken part in.  I'm so proud to be a part of the team.

PP squirrel 1

PP squirrel 2

No, I did not do this.  Yes, I laughed.  A lot.

Slipstream / Chipotle chief Jonathan Vaughters posted recently about the risk in racing on the team's blog.

To suffer is the currency of racing. To risk life over and over is just a simple rule of the game. Ever think about jumping out of a car at 55 mph in your underwear? That’s what a crash in professional cycling is. The young riders I’ve seen grow up over the last five years all take this elemental part of racing and accept it over and over again: Crashes are a part of the “game.”

Well, my bike will never see 55mph, but the comparison is apt.  Why bother?  I can almost understand it for the pros.  They do get paid (a little) after all.  But what about us dopes who go careening around the office parks of South Jersey at speeds of 35 mph?  All while closer to our competitors than we would ever get to the same guys in any other setting.

After my crash a couple of weeks ago, I had some time to think about all this.  I got rocked pretty hard on April 6th; easily the worst crash that I've ever had (though mine was better than some teammates).  After that, it took a little effort to get back into racing.  Not so much because I was afraid to crash, more because I was afraid to hit the same hip again!  Even one week later, I was pretty much 75% or so there, mentally.  Thing is, I don't know why.  I have very little competitive inclination.  I'm not the fastest bike rider in the world.  I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I do know I could really hurt myself doing this.  For all the time and effort, I may never win a race.  And that will be just fine.  But still... I love to race.  

Today I completed a survey the USA Cycling Federation had on its website.  Two or three questions asked, in a nutshell, why do you ride?  They had a few choices -- competition, commuting, fitness, environment, etc. -- and the perennial "other."  Fun?  What about fun?  

Turns out the primary reason that I ride is because I love it.  It really is that simple.  The biggest reason I race is because I love it.  I really enjoy bicycling, and always have, since I was a wee little momo.  I hope to ride till I die.  [Not to ride to my death, mind you...]  Some day the racing won't be worth the risk to my then-osteoporitic bones.  I'll still take the risk of riding on the road, just as fast as my old man legs will take me.

Longride

This blog is the closest I've ever come to keeping a diary.  Today, I need to write this down so that I can try to remember everything that happened.  It's long, it's boring.  ;-)

Yesterday the cycling team I belong to held its first race of the season.  It's also the first real road race of the season on the New Jersey calendar, and the pre-registered riders numbered 300 -- up to the limit in virtually all fields.  Folks were clearly itching to get out and test their legs.  The race was held on a new circuit in Hammonton NJ.  It's a very nice course, about six miles long, with four right turns.  Three wooden bridges, a couple of little bumps, but mostly a nice course.  The first set of races was  the 35 (years)+ group, the Category 3 riders, and the Category 5 riders.  They were to do seven, seven, and four laps each.  Then the second set of races, about two hours later, was the Pro/ Category 1/2/3 race, the 45+ crowd, and the Category 4 (my race).  I think they did nine and seven laps, respectively, while we did six (or nearly six...see below).

Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate.  It rained quite a bit during the first set of races, and as the ~wife and I stood out on one of the race course corners, helping to marshal traffic, we could hear our teeth chattering at times.  The first three races on the road got a little messy when Mr. Mambo and three others from the 35+ race caught the Cat 5 field and passed them (well done Richie!  Hope you did well...couldn't have been less than fourth!).

A few laps into the first set of races, I put my race gear on and rode up to the start line to get into my own race.  Once on the bike and moving around, the light rain was a lot easier to take.  in fact, I think it stopped  completely for a bit.  I'm always surprised at how little rain annoys me when I'm on the bike.  I was really comfortable on the bike during this race, and the rain didn't bother me a bit till the fifth lap.  Somewhere around the fourth or so lap, we passed the 45+ field, which was a bit of a pain, but other that things seemed to be going smoothly.

And then the trouble started.  In the fifth lap, back side of the course, it just started pouring.  All of a sudden my shoes were soaked -- more than the mild wet that I'd had up to that point.  More like walking around with your feet in fishbowls.  With water and fish.  And some algae.  Every pedal stroke brought an unpleasant squish, and I'm sure I gained two pounds.

Well, what can you do but keep going... and so we did.  We got to the final lap, coming up to the finish, in a headwind and down a mile or so straight.  A slow-motion drag race.  Some guys were moving up, hoping for a win.  Many went too early, and got tired, then got passed.  A couple of my teammates and I, including a couple of my favorite folks, Richie, Caleb, and Beth, were moving up.  Just a few feet from the finish, most of us were just one or two riders back from the front.  A certain top-ten finish, perhaps top five or better!

Then all of a sudden, I heard Beth yelp.  An unpleasant sound I'm hoping to forget.  She went down, I went down right behind her, and Richie behind me.  At least that's what I think happened.  I can remember flying through the air at 30+ mph, and then just seeing sky.  I laid on the ground for a half a minute or so, hoping not to get hit by any cyclists behind me.  Happily everyone steered around me.  Thanks guys!

I picked my head up to look, and Beth and Richie were still on the ground.  Eek.  Not a pretty sight.  Richie eventually made his way to his feet.  Beth was clocked pretty hard, and stayed down a while.  It was ugly.  Beth was helped by EMTs and some of our race organizers.  I understand Richie ended up with some stitches, and I'm sure some road rash.  Beth got a mild concussion and a broken finger, and wasn't left with a lot of memory of the crash.  I got the worst  road rash I've had in my life, a big egg contusion on my hip, and a helmet split down the back where I whacked my head.

All told, no major breaks, no really terrible injuries, though Beth's condition really scared me.  And now I have a really good example of why you should wear a helmet when bicycling.  I'll post the helmet pictures ASAP.  The thing did its job.  Beth probably has an even better example.  I'm sure that one of the three of us would have been dead without helmets. 

Anyway, hopefully I can recover in time for my next race on Sunday the 13th.  At a minimum, I'm going to need a new helmet and a new pair of shorts...  For now, it's gauze pads, ointment, and the indoor trainer!

CIMG1022

Here's a shot, before the nastiness...

Come one, come all!

- Marvel! Hoards of grown men who shave their legs more often than their wives!

- Discover! Find out why it is I have to own seventeen thousand water bottles, each harder to clean than the last!

- Gasp! Watch people risk their physical well-being, skin, and bones for a medal and a free pair of last season's cycling socks!

- Spectate!  Wonder why anyone would be up this early on a weekend morning, let alone standing outside!

That's right kids, it's racing time again.  The training races are over (and not soon enough, with their early-morning trips up the turnpike!).  Now's time to have some real fun.  You know you want to see it for yourself....the pictures are never really good. 

Friends and family, feel free to stop by for a race or two.  The criterium in Evesham on 4/13 is a particularly good choice, as it's closeby, and the laps are short, so you see a lot of racing.  Give me a shout for particular locations and times:

April 6th: Ronde von Mullica, in Hammonton area.  A Pro Pedals race!

April 13th: Trofeo de Evesham (of course).  Greentree Executive Campus.

April 19th: Cherry Blossom race.  Branch Brook Park, Newark (Nurk, not New-Ark).

April 20th: Daniel Harwi Memorial Crit.  Lower Providence, PA.

May 4th: Colts Neck Road Race.  Colts Neck, NJ.

May 18th: Circuito de Evesham.  Greentree again.

And that's about as far out as I can think right now.  Come by, have the ~wife explain to you why all these men wear so much lycra.  Good fun.

Out of bed at 3:00.  On the road by 3:30 to meet the Captain and Jon.  Three of us packed in a minivan, three bikes and more than a little lycra crammed in the back.  Plowing through steady rain on the Turnpike northbound.  Must be racing season again...

Welp, I finally got my first race of the season under my belt.  Today I joined a small team of adventurous Pro Pedals riders up at Branch Brook Park in Newark for an early-season, heck, early-morning, road race.

I did the category 4/5 race first, four laps through the park for about 20 miles.  I didn't do great, but did okay.  Came in 6th out of 17 or so riders.  Probably could have done a little better, but I wasn't really thinking that well.

After that, I lined up again for the 3/4 race.  Being a cat 4 racer is nice because it gives me some flexibility that way.  I started the 3/4 race, and was actually feeling pretty good.  Much bigger group, prolly 35 or more guys.  I was hanging on pretty well, when suddenly my back end starts swishing around.  Flat tire.  Happily was able to control it, didn't hit anyone, and just barely missed hitting the curb on the park road.  Got a third of that race in... about 16 frisky miles.

It's early in the season, much to early for me to panic.  So I calmly picked up the bike, got up on the grass to get out of the way, and walked the half a lap back to the finish line area.  As I'm walking, I realize ... I got two flats!  Now I feel really lucky I didn't crash. 

I'm certain there must be a trophy for most flats.  Just mail it to my house. 

Wow... What an experience.

Today two Pro Pedals teams, four guys each, competed in a team time trial at the Philly Phlyer.  The Philly Phlyer is primarily a collegiate event, and drew young men and women from all over the northeast and mid-atlantic.  Perhaps the best part of the day was seeing all the college racers and their enthusiasm.  The attitude level seemed to be a notch or two down from what we sometimes see at the USCF category races.  Plus, it's just nice to see that younger folks are still interested in the sport of cycling. 

Anyway, back to us old guys.  We fielded two teams.  One good, and one even better.  I was on Team 2, which actually started first.  We waited around quite a while in the 30 degree F temps and 20+ mph winds, as the collegiate racers took their turns on the course.  We got called up to the line in an unexpected hurry, and all of a sudden we were off. 

The course was out from Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park, down a couple of little hills, and up West River Drive to the Philadelphia Art Museum.  There we turned around, went up West River Drive to the Falls Bridge, then back down the drive and back up a little hill to Memorial Hall.

The wind was absolutely brutal today.  Of our team of 4, we dropped one of our guys on the first turnaround... The 30+ mph winds on the Schuylkill River had to be the main cause of that.  At one point, I was dropping back to pull in behind John, and got a terrible sudden cross-wind that blew my front wheel into his rear wheel.  Happily we stayed up... that would have been a big, 420-pound pile of humanity!

The remaining three of us stayed together to the end.  All the teams' times were judged on the second team member to cross the line, so it made sense to work together as much as we could. 

This was my first time trial, and it was a good introduction.  Even though I had no aero gear -- not even clipons, Richie! -- I did pretty okay.  Didn't get dropped, anyway.  I think we would have done even better as a group if the wind hadn't been so bad.  It was fun, anyway, and that's what I'm in it for. 

Our second team did pretty well too, I think.  They started after us, and passed us on the course.  We don't hold it against them.

My team had an informal end-of-season banquet last night.  We had a lot of fun talking about the 2007 cycling season, and how much we enjoy working together as a team.  According to the The Captain's official tally, we had 109 top-10 finishes this past year, which sure seems like a lot to me.  In any case, we had a great time.  We have a great team... just the nicest group of people I've ever known.

I was honored to receive an award for sportsmanship, 2nd place of three of us winning such an award.  Honestly, I'm honored just to be part of the Pro Pedals team.  I was really proud to be given such an award.  Poorly photographed, but here it is, in all its glory!  Now to find a suitable frame...

Sportsmanship

So yesterday was my first day cycling in tights since last winter/spring.  It's a little bit of a tough adjustment given that most of October was in the 70s, 80s, or even 90s.  I enjoy the winter cycling, but the warmer weather is hard to let go of!  Here are some pics of our 78-mile ride a couple weeks ago, when it was still 80 degrees out.

In October?

Oh yeah.  Tomorrow a small but determined group of us is going to Long Island for the (ahem) Tour de Parc.  Or The Captain recently called it, our last gasp at racing for a while.

It's really incredible how the racing calendar just drops off after August.  Very few races all of a sudden.  You could argue this is due to school calendars, the weather, whatever, but we have more races in March and April than in September, I think.  Sort of strange. 

So for the rest of the day, here's my schedule:

1. Obsess over what I'm eating and drinking, as if it will make a difference.
2. Wonder just how much of my brain is being used up by nervous reflexes and the little mouse that makes my legs jump around non-stop.
3. Get that panicked I-can't-breathe feeling thinking of how it would be if I forgot {underwear, my bike, water bottles, etc.}.
4. Worry that I haven't slept all week, and tonight won't be any different.
5. Lather, rinse, repeat.