This Sunday was cooler, but it was perfect Cross weather. I made it down to OrrvilleCross for the 3rd race of the series. The course was short and fast. Ray has an excellent description of it on his blog.
I managed to get good starting position in the front row on the far left. I had commented to a Stark Velo rider, J. Leaman I think, that I was surprised he wasn't in the big ring for the start (we had about 50-75 yards of pavement). At the start, he took of HARD and got the hole-shot with me right on his wheel. Tony Marut just managed to stay upright in the start, but really came close to losing it for some reason.
I kept a steep pace for about the first 1/4 - 1/3 of the lap, where I let Tony around me into 2nd place. I held 3rd for a bit, but I soon let some more riders around in the long pavement parking lot section.
I was really starting to hurt early into the 2nd lap. I don't think I'd gotten a good enough warm up in. As I was falling back slightly, I looked back and saw Julie and Pat Miranda starting to gain on me.
At this point, I noticed that I was gaining on the Stark Velo rider who had fallen off of the 2 Orrville riders in front of us. I made a move to get up onto his wheel, at which point he sped up and we worked our way up to the Orrville riders. From here it was a shuffle of positions for the next lap or two.
After a while one of the Orrville riders fell off and it was just the 3 of us. We had kept and increased a large gap on the riders behind us. Through the barriers with 3 laps to go, I got a good deal ahead of the other two. This was good, since there was a strong headwind at this point, but I wasn't thinking I could maintain and increase my gap at this point. The SV rider looked like he had caught up to me as we came to the corner to turn out of the head wind. I was going to say something to him about working away from the Orrville guy, but he must have done too much work to get up to me because he fell off hard as I picked it up.
When I saw that I'd started to get a gap, I hit it harder. Starting the 2nd to last lap, I had a substantial gap. I worked to increase/hold it on the 2nd to last lap, but was more concerned about not making any errors or loosing time.
The bell lap came and there was really no one close in front or behind me. More consistent riding had me finishing out in 4th place overall. The course was 1.4 miles and I maintained a solid 13 - 13.5mph pace turning laps at +/- 6:10min per lap.
Results:
http://orrvillecycling.com/OrrvilleCross.php#results
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
CX practice
We had a fun and productive CX practice last night at Edgewater. Since there was less daylight, we got started on the practice lap promptly at 6:15, but with sunset at around 6:31 we were barely able to get 1/2 an hour of good riding in. Hopefully the start time will get pushed up just a hair for next week, and then the time change on 11/4 will give us a extra hour of CX pleasure.
The course was short and quick this week. No run-ups on the monster hill by the lake and no single track. There was pavement galore spread out over 3 different sections and the only tricky terrain was the loose gravel near the picnic area. There were the usual tight turns, including one particularly nasty switchback from a downhill to uphill around a tree. Rick was having lots of problems following the course at this point, and kept going on the wrong side of the fence as we headed back along the road.
I had an issue with the barrier rope on the practice lap, which was kinda embarrassing. I tripped on the first barrier (tripwire), pulling the stake out. Then my bike hit the 2nd string as I struggled to keep my feet under me and not face plant. After fixing the barriers, I caught back on.
Rick and I definitely got to practice some CX tactics. A rider in a Nat City Points kit (don't know his name) was scrapping it out with us for most of the race. I had first caught up to him on the start of lap 2 and let him pull me through a fast, long, and windy pavement section. Once through the pavement, I attacked hard and caught up to Rick (almost to the point that I would have run into his rear wheel HARD as he was taking a corner). I stayed with Rick and the guy from Nat City was close on my wheel. He would usually attack in the grass section along the road and then we would pass him back around the 2 turns before the barriers. He would then attack again when we were along the road on the other side of the bridge, and we would get him in the turns and up the hill at the end of the lap. We were doing a good job of gapping before the long pavement section, but he always kept creeping back up.
At one point, the Nat City rider did get a really good gap coming toward the end of the 2nd to last lap. We traded positions a couple of time and I sprinted to catch his wheel (with Rick grabbing my wheel) on the fast pavement. We attacked again and probably traded spots as usual, but after crossing the bridge Rick shouted that I had a gap.
I geared down and pushed harder. Meanwhile Rick stayed at the same pace, if not easing up a little. This forced the other rider to attack around him. When he did, Rick counter attacked hard and was able to drop him. He caught up to me right at the finish. I'm not sure how many laps we had got in at this point, but it was getting pretty dark and people had already headed back to the parking lot. I'll take a look at my Polar data to glean some more details later.
The course was short and quick this week. No run-ups on the monster hill by the lake and no single track. There was pavement galore spread out over 3 different sections and the only tricky terrain was the loose gravel near the picnic area. There were the usual tight turns, including one particularly nasty switchback from a downhill to uphill around a tree. Rick was having lots of problems following the course at this point, and kept going on the wrong side of the fence as we headed back along the road.
I had an issue with the barrier rope on the practice lap, which was kinda embarrassing. I tripped on the first barrier (tripwire), pulling the stake out. Then my bike hit the 2nd string as I struggled to keep my feet under me and not face plant. After fixing the barriers, I caught back on.
Rick and I definitely got to practice some CX tactics. A rider in a Nat City Points kit (don't know his name) was scrapping it out with us for most of the race. I had first caught up to him on the start of lap 2 and let him pull me through a fast, long, and windy pavement section. Once through the pavement, I attacked hard and caught up to Rick (almost to the point that I would have run into his rear wheel HARD as he was taking a corner). I stayed with Rick and the guy from Nat City was close on my wheel. He would usually attack in the grass section along the road and then we would pass him back around the 2 turns before the barriers. He would then attack again when we were along the road on the other side of the bridge, and we would get him in the turns and up the hill at the end of the lap. We were doing a good job of gapping before the long pavement section, but he always kept creeping back up.
At one point, the Nat City rider did get a really good gap coming toward the end of the 2nd to last lap. We traded positions a couple of time and I sprinted to catch his wheel (with Rick grabbing my wheel) on the fast pavement. We attacked again and probably traded spots as usual, but after crossing the bridge Rick shouted that I had a gap.
I geared down and pushed harder. Meanwhile Rick stayed at the same pace, if not easing up a little. This forced the other rider to attack around him. When he did, Rick counter attacked hard and was able to drop him. He caught up to me right at the finish. I'm not sure how many laps we had got in at this point, but it was getting pretty dark and people had already headed back to the parking lot. I'll take a look at my Polar data to glean some more details later.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The Best of Cleveland 2007
Be sure to check out Cleveland Magazine's Best of Cleveland 2007 HERE (scroll to the very bottom)
BIKE SHOP
LeBron James loves bicycles. He cross-trains on one, hosts an annual charity ride in Akron and even owns part of Cannondale, which manufactures the bikes that James and his NBA buddies ride during the benefit. Afterward, the 50 black and gold cycles produced for the event are sold through select dealers (for $599). The only place to find the “King James” bike in Cleveland is at Bike Authority in Broadview Heights. (They were allocated six, but you’ll have to wait till next year — they’re already gone.) Yeah, this is the shop where the serious bikers hang out. It hosts its own races, has its own team, and helps sponsor just about every bike event in town. But best of all? The knowledgeable staff treats even novices like, ahem, royalty. www.bikeauthority.com; 7979 Broadview Road, Broadview Heights; (440) 546-9966
BIKE SHOP
LeBron James loves bicycles. He cross-trains on one, hosts an annual charity ride in Akron and even owns part of Cannondale, which manufactures the bikes that James and his NBA buddies ride during the benefit. Afterward, the 50 black and gold cycles produced for the event are sold through select dealers (for $599). The only place to find the “King James” bike in Cleveland is at Bike Authority in Broadview Heights. (They were allocated six, but you’ll have to wait till next year — they’re already gone.) Yeah, this is the shop where the serious bikers hang out. It hosts its own races, has its own team, and helps sponsor just about every bike event in town. But best of all? The knowledgeable staff treats even novices like, ahem, royalty. www.bikeauthority.com; 7979 Broadview Road, Broadview Heights; (440) 546-9966
Sunday, October 21, 2007
SBR Group Ride
The Saturday ride from Bike Authority went really well. We had 5 current members and 3 new members who were able to make it. Dave Steiner and Chris Belowich rode out to BA from the Cleveland Hts. area (into a strong headwind). Fortunately they were sporting their aero Cervelo rides; Chris with Flash Point wheels.
Depending on the weather outlook, we'll try to do another ride in 2 weeks.
Monday, October 15, 2007
ENVIRONMENT
Please see http://www.blogactionday.com/ for lots of good information on how we can save the PLANET.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
Reduce, reuse, recycle
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
SPIN CX practice
This week's CX practice had 3 times the attendance of last week due to the good weather and InterBike being over. The course layout definitely pointed out a weak point for me and for a few other people: bunny hopping. We did a similar course last year where we had to ride over a 4 inch curb. While I don't think I pinch flatted last year, I bashed my rear wheel so hard that I needed to replace my rim. I was running Tufo tubular clinchers at the time an they weren't inflated enough to really protect the rim.
I wanted to run the Tufo's to get some practice on them prior to racing with the set. It seems like they handle a lot looser in the corners and I want to get used to the drift. In hindsight, I should have changed wheelsets and gone with the trusty Ritchie Speedmax rubber. The first warning sign was on the warm up lap, where we went over a really small bump entering the parking lot. I bunny hopped, but not well and my rear tire still hit the bump (hard enough to knock one of my rear disc brake pads out). I had problems with a pad falling out on Sunday (which I didn't notice until we were done with practice). This time I heard the pad hit the black top and was able to back track and get it. Saved spending another $22 for a replacement.
After getting the pad put back in and just missing the start of the practice race, I was able to catch back on the end of the pack and start picking people off. The pace was much higher initially today compared to last week. I was doing well and made it past the point where I'd lost the brake pad (once or twice), when I came to the 2nd spot where a bunny hop was necessary. I again wasn't able to clear my rear wheel properly and immediately heard my tire pop and loose all its air. The rider right behind me made it through, but the person after him also pinch flatted at that point.
We were joined by Matt who had also flatted as we walked back to the parking lot. Here we found Tom Dominic and Matt Weeks who were also changing tires. Derek had also got a mechanical (front flat I think) earlier in the lap, so there were definitely people having issues.
I swapped out the rear wheel and after pouting briefly over the loss of a $50 dollar tire, I caught on to the back of the race. At this point I was just out for a work out and trying to practice technique. However, I still ended up taking two pretty good spills. I think my front tire might have been handling a lot looser than the rear (Ritchie), thus causing cornering issues. In any case I came away unscathed.
Definitely time for me to start practicing bunny hops. I need to be able to clear something bigger than a dixie cup.
I wanted to run the Tufo's to get some practice on them prior to racing with the set. It seems like they handle a lot looser in the corners and I want to get used to the drift. In hindsight, I should have changed wheelsets and gone with the trusty Ritchie Speedmax rubber. The first warning sign was on the warm up lap, where we went over a really small bump entering the parking lot. I bunny hopped, but not well and my rear tire still hit the bump (hard enough to knock one of my rear disc brake pads out). I had problems with a pad falling out on Sunday (which I didn't notice until we were done with practice). This time I heard the pad hit the black top and was able to back track and get it. Saved spending another $22 for a replacement.
After getting the pad put back in and just missing the start of the practice race, I was able to catch back on the end of the pack and start picking people off. The pace was much higher initially today compared to last week. I was doing well and made it past the point where I'd lost the brake pad (once or twice), when I came to the 2nd spot where a bunny hop was necessary. I again wasn't able to clear my rear wheel properly and immediately heard my tire pop and loose all its air. The rider right behind me made it through, but the person after him also pinch flatted at that point.
We were joined by Matt who had also flatted as we walked back to the parking lot. Here we found Tom Dominic and Matt Weeks who were also changing tires. Derek had also got a mechanical (front flat I think) earlier in the lap, so there were definitely people having issues.
I swapped out the rear wheel and after pouting briefly over the loss of a $50 dollar tire, I caught on to the back of the race. At this point I was just out for a work out and trying to practice technique. However, I still ended up taking two pretty good spills. I think my front tire might have been handling a lot looser than the rear (Ritchie), thus causing cornering issues. In any case I came away unscathed.
Definitely time for me to start practicing bunny hops. I need to be able to clear something bigger than a dixie cup.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Awesome CX practice
Kudos to John and Brent for putting on an AWESOME CX practice yesterday morning. Donny doned his PVC barrier sets and we had everything we needed to get the day started off right at 7:30am. The rectangle starts, dismount/mounting, carrying, and barrier drills will really help us out.
Please Vote for Bike Authority on Cleveland's Best Businesses Fox 8 Hot List:
http://myfoxcleveland.cityvoter.com/details.aspx?business=24464
You can view comments here and current standings in the Bike Shop category here.
Please Vote for Bike Authority on Cleveland's Best Businesses Fox 8 Hot List:
http://myfoxcleveland.cityvoter.com/details.aspx?business=24464
You can view comments here and current standings in the Bike Shop category here.
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