2 other days of grove

Ended 17th and 21st on saturday and sunday.  Both days had kind of the same story.  Not enough turning, no one pulling through, lots of speed changes. 

Picture driving down the highway, 10 lanes, with a 90mph speed limit.  You are steady at 90, with 3 cars in front of you.  All of a sudden the first car slows down to 70, and the other 140 cars on either side of you stay at 90mph, there's no way to move over, to get around the slow car, you are just stuck there, until all the cars doing 90 go around you.  Then the 10 lane highway makes a 90 degree turn, and the 10 lanes change to 2 lanes, so by the time you make it to the turn, you are doing 30mph, driving through the corner fitting 10 cars where only 2 cars could fit.  Plus there were lots of crashes and crazy drivers to maneuver through too.

Then you floor it as fast as you can across the next section to get back to the front only to do the same thing over again.

There were definitely many racers stronger than I this year. Some riding the front the whole time, and getting top 10s each day.  After riding the front on Friday, I thought sitting in more would benefit me, but I was wrong.  You have to ride the front and eat wind the whole time, if you want to guarantee a top spot.  It's just the way that racing worked that weekend.  With the wind, and only a couple turns per lap, it was better for you to just ride at the front.

Got 120tpi clement ush and xplor 35 and 40mm tires arriving tomorrow.  $120/pair.  First come first served.

Grove Day 1

It was a wacky race.  Lots of wind.  8 turn figure 8.  Lots of cracks/bumps.  I started at the back, and took a while to get towards the front.

It seemed whoever were riding the front would attack before the corner, then when they get through they would sit up because there was so much wind.  This did not work well for the other 100+ riders trying to stay upright behind them. 


With 3 to go I felt great. Legs were perfect and my heart was barely beating.  There wasn't much attacking as I had hoped, and with 1 to go I was at the front waiting for someone to go.  No one went, so I just rode up there till 3 turns to go, about 1000 meters.  Hoping I wouldn't get swarmed,  I stayed in the wind, but got swarmed anyway and everyone was sprint about 4 wide into the last 2 turns.  I came out of my the last corner in my 11t, as I started my sprint the chain was popping and hopping everywhere, I was passing no one.  I shifted down, but too far, and kept shifting up till I had a good gear.  I got 14th, $10. 

Now we are going to the zoo.

Tallgrass

Made it out for the crit.  Spent 70% off the race off the front with 4 other guys.  Got caught with 7 to go.  Then with 2 to go one of the spokes in my front wheel broke.   I had figured the useful life of those spokes were pretty much over.  I have 2 seasons of cross and 2 seasons of road on them, plus with only 16 spokes and my weight, it was a matter of time. 

One thing is for sure, tubulars are awesome. So much better than carbon clinchers, not just lighter, but way better, faster, stronger. 

I've got some used sets for sale, if you don't want new super wheels.

Ritchey wcs logic 20/24, 50mm,  no tires. $600, sold new for $1900.
  Ritchey wcs logic 20/24, 50mm, 34mm fango cx tires, sold new for $2300, sells now for $700.
bontrager wide rims, 50mm deep, 24/24, c-4 hubs, $500.  Rims lightlyused, spokes/hubs new.
38mm light 1100 gram wheelset, no tires, $500. 

buy mavic, zipp, or continental gatorskin tires for $55 ea. I'll charge you $20/wheel to glue.

Sheehan

I did race last sunday.  The weather was very un-Joe Sheehan Memorial Race like.  This means it was sunny, 60 degrees, and no wind.

The re-routed us through Atchinson, which added a few walls and some scenic rural climbing before we got to the highway.  It was a fun race.

I started off fast, I was in a break away with 2 Smith's.  It was hard keeping the pace up knowing what I had in store.  I got dropped.  Then I got dropped by another 42 year old right before the finish.   Ended up 4th. 

I got really good training in this race.  It was hard and my legs were screaming louder than they have all year.  This makes training harder easier, when you break barriers in races, going harder than you would by yourself, or with your group, then you go back to getting better and it's easier to go hard.  A few more races getting beat up and I might get in better shape than last year. 

Update.

Joe Martin starts today. At at 4pm.   Every year I make plans to make it to this stage race.   I've never made it down there and this is the first year I didn't even make the attempt.  Sheehan is on Sunday. It's the best road race Kansas has hands down.  Gonna be 75 and sunny when we finish the race. Bring your sun screen.

I missed velotek grand prix last weekend too.  Just too much going on and the commitment to race the full weekend from 6am saturday to 1pm sunday wasn't realistic.  Kind of like tallgrass next weekend.  4 hour race starting at 10:30am saturday, then you don't race till 3:30 the next day.  In my world I would race the crit at 5 on saturday, then start the road race at 9 sunday.  Be less than a 24 hour commitment for 2 races, but as my boys are figuring out, we don't actually have our own world. 

My new entertainment comes from Tati in Chicago.   Check out what he is doing.  Click.


I'm at 18th 12-6 today/tomorrow.  I'd love to sell you some $2300 carbon clinchers for $1300, or maybe some $140 tubulars for $75.   How about a 19" $1900 hardtail mountain bike for $900?  Message me if you have money to spend, you will get the best deal.

Bazaar

I raced bazaar on Sunday.  It was a fun race, it usually is.  I ended getting 5th.  We were sprinting for 4th and I got beat. 

The wind is usually the story for Bazaar, 25mph wind headwind going out, historically it's over 35mph.  Half way back the wind died down to maybe 15, which made following the 2 velotek guys and Jay easier.  They were chasing my teammate Blake and 4 other guys who were off the front while me and 2 cycle city guys and Kenny(on junior gears) road along behind them.  With 18 miles to go attacks started and me and Andrew were away for a little while, but eventually coming back the last 8 miles into the wind, there was a group of 8 of us I think, Blake was with us, while 2 cycle city guys and super man cameron rex was up the road.    I crashed with maybe 4 miles to go, we weren't going super fast, so I was able to brush myself off and sprint back up to the group.  The sprint was not my best, but good enough. 

The drive there to Bazaar, we talked about it.  How if you started your sprint 100 meters from the finish into that 30 mph headwind it would be too soon.  Guys were starting at 400 and 1 by 1 they got beat by the wind, even though it was only blowing about 10-15mph. 

My wife raced her first road race.  She didn't win though. She said something about it not being hilly enough for her skills.  Next time.







Here's the song.

FIRE UP THAT SYNTH!

My 12 lb. fixie mountain bike is complete. If you want to see it, it's at 18th.  The magic gear has about 4mm of play, which won't be good to ride on trails.  I'll leave it brakeless as a backwards riding inside shop bike at 18th.  I could use a 36h eno hub, but that would add a 1/2 a pound, and what fun would a 12.5 lb bike be?

Next is a raven 5.0 carbon 29er. Looks amazing in person.  click.   I'm building up with chinese carbon wheels, fox reba rl fork, xx1 crank and 9 speed light xo parts.  Will be 20 lbs with fork, and it will be racing.  If you need some 10 spd. shimano mtb parts, and a fsa bb30 triple crank, say so.

By dribbling he means a soccer ball.

Sagan's last 2km today youtube.com/watch?feature=… Pretty much akin to dribbling past whole team, stopping ball on line & blowing it into net.
— Daniel Friebe (@friebos) April 10, 2013

Who's ready for intervals?  That's 40 all out sprints if you can imagine. 15 seconds is a long time.

First day of "Athens intervals," aka 2 x 20s done 15 seconds sprinting, 15 seconds coasting. #specificity #specificity #specificity
— Adam Myerson (@AdamMyerson) April 3, 2013

I have this $90 jacket for $50 if interested. Just in xl. Vest is available too. The xl fits me perfect, also have a xxl.   Perfect for today.