21 posts tagged “pro pedals”

Yesterday our shop hosted the Ronde von Mullica road race.  I need to vent a bit about it.  Knowing the three people who will read this in its entirety, thanks in advance.  The rest of you are excused till next post.

Ronde von Mullica
Near the Pro Pedals shop in Hammonton, we have  a lot of lightly-trafficked roads, and can put on races on courses such as the 10-mile loop we used for the Ronde. Jason, our fearless leader, puts on some great races in the area, and this one was a success overall.

There are some funny things going on lately in New Jersey bicycle racing.  Turnout for races is fairly low.  Normally our races are well-attended, because we put on most of the road races in South Jersey... Some folks don't like criteriums (don't know why!). There were some conflicting events yesterday (e.g., the American Cancer Society had its charity ride), and apparently people are balking at the price of gas and the general cost of getting to races nowadays.  Honestly, I don't quite get it -- gas looks expensive, yes, but what is it?  Maybe a third more than last year?  It might total an exta $10.  Looks worse than it is, I think.

Anyway, six races yesterday.  The first set of three was the Category 3 race, then the Masters 35+ age group, then the Category 5 race.  I marshalled a corner for the first set of races, and got to hang out with Otto, one of my esteemed teammates.  Good time, and a decent morning to be outside.  These races did 5, 5, and 3 laps respectively, for 50, 50, and 30 miles.  Our team had some decent results, including a third place in the Cat 5 after a crash on the last lap.  Keith from Mambos had a nice win in the 35+ I believe.

After a 20-minute or so break, the next set of races was on.  Pro 1/2/3, the 45+, and the Cat 4.  Six, 5, and 4 laps.  I raced the Cat 4. 

Legs, Location, & Luck
This morning I'm developing an algorithm to determine race winningabilityness.  It's going to revolve around the following:  {Legs, Location, Luck}.  I don't know what the exact mix is yet, but yesterday definitely did not have it for me. 

I started the race pretty strong, and tried to keep things moving for the first few laps.  Often in the Cat 4 and Cat 5 races, racers hit it really hard coming up to corners, and then get around the corner and sit up.  This drives me nuts (not that I haven't done it!).  I tried to keep things moving throughout the race, including winding it up a little bit after the corners.  With some help from some strong riders, like one guy from PBR and the eventual race winner from Setanta, the race was generally fast and fluid throughout.  Until it wasn't.  More on that later...

The Pro Pedals squad tries very hard to race as a team, and to keep our teammates in mind.  So we had a couple of times when we had teammates off the front of the race.  At these points, we tried to slow things down a bit in the group so our guy could get away.  I spent a fair amount of time patrolling the front of the group while one of my teammates, Ryan, was really far ahead.  He spent about 2/3rds of a lap off the front, but eventually the group came around my fat ass and pulled back up to him.  It was a good effort though. 

Otto, Richie, James -- nearly every one of our riders in the Cat 4 put in a few digs at the front at one point or another.

On the last lap, I tried to get the front of the group moving again.  Had a lot of help from other teams, including Westwood and Basecamp riders.  Things did move nicely for a while, and we were strung out single-file for a good time.  Moving really fast.  Then we got on the back side of the course, and things got bunchy again.  Unfortunately, I was about four or five rows back in this bunchiness.  The last segment of the course, coming up to the finish line, is about a 3-mile stretch.  It seemed like everyone on the front of the group did not want to work or move, and was just holding the rest of us back.  It seemed like the ones not holding the group back were out over the yellow road line, violating the center-line rule instead.  Sort of nerve-wracking.

The slightly-uphilll finish on this course suits me well, but I was way too far back to help any of my teammates or to get a decent placing for myself.  I ended up 20th in a field of about 55.  Otto gave Jonathan a great lead-out, helping Jon get 3rd place.  I was proud of Jonathan for sitting in during this race.  It's hard to resist being more active, but sometimes we need to have someone fresh at the end. 

Like most weeks, I have the Legs component down.  Just can't figure out the right Location to get a win.  Someday hopefully the Luck component will come along and it will all work out.

We'll Get 'Em Next Week   
And so I'm singing the same song this week that I've been singing nearly all season .... we'll get 'em next week.  I didn't do my best yesterday, but next week I may have a better opportunity in the Mount Holly race.  I believe it's a closed course, which would mean plenty of room to get around the group when I need to.  It would also mean I'll have to come up with a new excuse for next week if I place 20th again!

Still not a bad day for bike riding.  Forty miles, 24 mph average.  I guess in the end, I'm happy that I can keep up in these races, and I enjoy being out there with my teammates.  Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. 

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.

Last night a contingent of Pro Pedals riders went out to the Cycles54 Twilight Series at First Energy Park in Lakewood NJ.  They run two races, the first of which is the category 4/5 race. We had five people in that race, Caleb, Beth, Mike, Ryan, and me.  It was still really hot when we started the 4/5 --  I don't know exactly how hot, but it had been about 100dF yesterday, and relatively high humidity.  I believe there were 29 starters in our race total, including a fairly big representation from Norwood/Peddlers.   The race format a criterium, with an approximately 1-mile lap.  It was to be 45 minutes of racing around the loop, plus 3 additional laps.

The Pro Pedals team talked strategy before the race.  And we all agreed if we didn't win we'd have to shoot ourselves.  We worked like crazy... Everybody got at least a couple of digs in.  Beth got our first attack rolling, then Mike and Ryan shortly after.  Caleb and I kept things moving too.  Somewhere around the 35 minute mark, I went away with a guy from Norwood.  I couldn't hold his wheel but a few laps, so I started to drop back. The guys on my team, probably Norwood too, were doing such a good job blocking for me that I had to sit up for quite a while to get caught by the pack.

I rejoined the group, and we did only a mediocre job at bringing the Norwood dude back, but he cracked at the same time.  He rode very well while he was out there, but got eaten up.

Our team kept up the attacks until the very end, and strung things out nicely.  I put in a very late attack with one lap to go, but it was well-covered by the pack.  No problem. Caleb and Ryan went around me, toting a small group that didn't have a prayer against them.  Caleb came in first with what the spectators said was a furious sprint.  Ryan nailed second, after about a half-lap of hard effort.  Beth and I went 9 and 10, and Mike about 13 or 14, I believe.

My soigneur estimates that about 10 or so of the 29 didn't finish... It was hot, and it was fast.  All told it was about 20 miles of racing, somewhere above 23mph average.

Having won the first event, Caleb is now the series leader.  I wasn't even planning to go back to this race series the next couple of Tuesdays, but now I have to!  Below is a pic of the race leader in his jersey. 

Caleb leaders jersey

The judges have returned their verdict...it's official.  Yesterday's ride with Mr. Mambo & Co. was the best ever.

The Mambos were nice enough to invite me and my teammates on their annual hill-laden slugfest, where they ride a hilly loop from Cherry Hill NJ to Valley Forge.  I live near Cherry Hill.  I don't drive to Valley Forge for fun, let alone trying to ride a bike there. 

The route is chockablock full of hills.  I don't know how big those Pennsylvania hills are...all I know is for somebody like myself, who never rides hills, they looked huge.  Surprisingly, the hills didn't give me that much trouble.  One at the end stuck it to me, but I was pretty well worn out by that point.  I was really surprised at my ability to haul my 200-pound carcass up those hills.

The distance was colossal as well.  97 miles altogether, including my ride to and from the start point.  Averaged about 18 mph (thank God for the downhill sections...).

The weather was beautiful, and I really enjoyed the route.  My chances for 5-hour rides are few and far between (i.e., never), so it was a great opportunity. 

Best of all, I got to ride with a couple of my favorite cyclists, Richie and Captain Ed.

I've got a total of 188.5 miles in my legs this weekend, much  more than I've ever done in a three-day stretch.  Probably more than I've done in a week.  As I told Ed this morning, whatever part of me isn't broken by now should last the rest of the season. 

Well, this weekend was interesting.  The weather continues to amaze me.  I'm really glad that we're having some decent rain from time to time. Not just the periods of drought punctuated by monsoon that have been typical of our screwed-up climate the past few years.  I'm really amazed at how pessimistic people (I?) can be toward the weather though.  Just like last weekend, every report you hear seems to say "start building your ark now."  One of the nice things about bicycling, though, is just an hour or two window of good weather, at just the right time, makes everything okay.  We had good weather for the shop ride on Saturday, and really nice weather for most of the races on Sunday morning.  It rained in the afternoon both days, but it's gotta rain sometime.

Unfortunately I didn't get to race this weekend.  It's really a shame, because this week's race was a criterium, my favorite.  And it was local.  Unfortunately I broke my rear shifter cable early sunday morning.  I tried and tried to fix it... even brought it to the race hoping one of my friends could help out.  And they certainly did try.  No dice, though.  So I sat on the sidelines, cheered, and enjoyed the sun with the ~wife.

[As an aside, how nice is my wife?  Not only goes to these races when I'm in them, but sits through hours of racing with me even when I'm riding the lawnchairs.  And she washes the water bottles.]

So now I've got an acute case of Raceus Interruptus. At least mentally, I built my whole two weeks or so around racing this crit.  I was feeling pretty good this weekend, and even dropped out of the group ride, my favorite activity of the entire week, a little early so I would have some gas left in the proverbial tank on sunday.  Then sunday, I'm sitting on the grass, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and watching ten teammates line up for the cat 4/5 race.  Not what I had expected to be doing this weekend.

Well, at least I didn't stink sitting there.  And as the ~wife sagely pointed out, I could just as well have hit the deck in the first lap of my race.  You never know what's going to happen, and it could have been a lot worse. 

No races for a few weeks, I don't think.  So this week, and this coming weekend, I'll really have to kick my butt to feel like I've earned my dinner.  I'm looking forward to a really hard Pro Pedals ride on saturday, possibly a race on sunday, and a good long ride on the monday holiday. 

PP squirrel 1

PP squirrel 2

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

Evesham group shot

Yesterday my schedule lined up so that I could go to the Greentree executive park for the Thursday night ride.  The group there is really incredible... it's everything from category 1 and 2 racers, to the occasional pro, to cat 4s and 5s, and guys who have probably never raced. 

Last night was probably my fifth or sixth time at Greentree on a Thursday.  Often I take a lot of crap from some of the people who take the whole thing way too seriously... as if it were the world championships.  You're going too fast, you're pulling too strong, hold your line, all this stuff.  And indeed, I need some work in a lot of these areas. 

Last night I got through relatively unscathed, even though I did manage to screw a few people up, I'm sure.  Last night was really one of my worst nights, though.  I was all over the place on the course, didn't corner well, didn't really hold a steady speed. 

Still, I don't despair.  I was thinking about it afterward, and chatting with one of my friends about it...  In a way, it's actually rather nice that I have so much to learn.  I'm still fascinated by bicycling in general and racing in particular.  I have some really good friends and teammates, and I feel lucky that I can learn from them.  Hopefully I can avoid knocking anybody over while I'm learning...

I haz dem.

I'll spare you the pictures (you're welcome).  Still, good news.  Turns out that tattoo aftercare is just about the right formula for healing road rash, too. 

We're in the looks-like-swiss-cheese phase right now, with a decent amount of scabbing and nastiness.  But things are getting a lot better, and the swelling on my hip has gone down quite a bit. 

Now if only I had the bike-handling skills to match...

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.