a taste of SoYoCo 2011 goodness

More photos here.

roubaix in super-slow-mo

(FB'ers, click here for video.)

louco com poder

According to CyclingNews, McQuaid and JV have been trading email.

In an email seen by Cyclingnews, McQuaid wrote to Vaughters:

"I have had enough of this High Moral Ground from you and I am refraining myself from writing exactly what I am thinking.

"Enough to inform you that when I have finished with the teams today you will have plenty to "reflect" on and communication will be the furthest thing from your mind!!”

I really wish we had the text of the whole correspondence.

All the same, a preponderance of the evidence over the past few years is that McQuaid is straight loco. And, you know, I'm inclined to agree with him on the radio thing, but it's clear a majority of the riders don't. And the teams sure don't. And given that reality, how can you expect to "lead" when your constituency* so adamantly opposes your policy?

Time to look in the mirror, McQuaid, and make a change...


*It's tricky to pinpoint who McQuaid's "constituency" actually is. I suppose an appropriate parallel might be to say that McQuaid is like a public school board (all of it) and the riders are like the students. It's a shaky metaphor (for a number of reasons), but the point is that McQuaid is NOT directly accountable to the students, but it's still his job to lead them. If he does not have their trust and respect (which it seems clear he does not), then he's failed.

winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Saturday, I won a race. I'm not going to lie: it was awesome.

And now I have to document, because that's what we do.

Fulton Road Race. Fifty-eight starters. Five laps around a 10 mile course for a total of 50 miles. A fair amount of climbing--about 750 ft per lap, most of that over two steeper climbs, the rest over a long false flat / 1-2 percent grade and a few rollers.

Short story: First place after an 18-mile solo break.

(Through the start/finish after lap four--ten miles to go...)

Long story: Things started out chill enough, but then you hit those hills and everybody races, races, races up. After the first time over the climbs you got the sense about 35 percent of the group had fallen behind...but they probably caught back on again...then fell back once more the second time through...

And so it continued until the beginning of lap four. People seemed to realize that the race was now between the folks left riding together and things slowed significantly. There couldn't have been more than 30 riders left in the field. No one up the road, no one pushing the pace.


So about two miles into lap four six to eight of us sat around at the front. Chatting. Playing around. Then Jon came up and took a bit of a pull--sort of stretching his legs--and as we came down and then up from the little valley between a couple rollers I accelerated and rode right away. (I say "accelerated," but it was a real effort.) No one chased. And I can only assume they all just kept dinking around like they were before.

My effort was half-hearted at first. I figured I'd be off the front for a few miles and they'd get motivated and catch me so I didn't want to burn too many matches. But after getting to the top of the first climb and seeing I still had a significant gap I started to push it 100 percent. I was hoping that a couple of guys might bridge up to me, using one of the climbs as a catalyst for their attack--and they appeared to try to do just that--but no one ever got that close.

On the second climb, fourth lap, I could see the advancing hoard maybe 20 seconds behind me and thought they'd easily catch on by the start/finish, but I poured on the gas anyway and after the climb they must have just shut it down (no one wanting to be the one chasing) because going through the start/finish I had 1:30 on the field.

And that's where you begin to think you might just have it--when you get out-of-sight. Out-of-sight, out-of-mind in these sorts of races.

I turned myself inside-out on the last lap. Again, I thought they'd get me just after the second climb--I could see a chasing group of two--but while they seemed to get awfully close on the accent, once the road leveled out I couldn't see them behind me anymore. Later, I found out the two weren't really cooperating and were content merely to stay away from the field and sprint for second. Their loss. :-)

At the 200m mark I knew I had it and sort of just rolled in across the line. Second and third came in maybe 15 seconds behind me...and the field maybe 10 seconds after that.

On the last major climb, which tops out some two miles from the finish, I'm sure Jon could have bridged up to the two chasers. He's good at that sort of thing--plus he said he wanted to. But had he done so he likely would have pulled up others, which may have sped the chase considerably, which then may have caught me. So many thanks to Jon for the smart team racing.

Notes:

* The motorcycle official would occasionally come up to me, get a time split, tell the chasing pack the split, but not me. How lame is that?

* It's funny, Jon and I were trying to talk ourselves into not going on Thursday. I had completely forgotten that I had done this course before, two years ago (Ryan and I finished 11th & 12th), and that it is easily my favorite Lancaster Co. course. I figured this out on the drive there, and then I got all excited about the race. Even if I hadn't done well, it would have been a shame not to have been there--if I'd figured out later what course this actually was I'd been sad to have missed it.

* Rich (Ruoff) puts on an organized race and all, but they really are kind of boring. No announcer (and they had a megaphone there, they could have at least done a little announcing). No podium. No leader's jersey for the series (which I would be wearing; which would be awesome). No real hullabaloo at all. To me, it's that sort of stuff that makes the difference. It's a very inexpensive way of making the race more interesting and endearing for participants. It's how you make just a boring race into an event...into something. Anyway, promoters could be a little (a lot) more creative.

* I don't know how (some) pros have the energy to throw out those exuberant displays of excitement at the finish. I could barely get my hands off the bars for an understated (but heartfelt, believe me) fist pump.

* This is my first non-TT road win since August of 2006. It feels good to win. It's been a long time.

mavic gets a win...

...on it's first go with this wheel. Lucky ducks.



(Facebookers, you'll have to visit the blog to watch the video.)

(Photo from cyclingtips.)

Though, I've got to say, while the video is cool (and who can't help but have a bit of a man-crush on Thor), it doesn't make me any more likely to buy a pair of Mavic hoops.

Ok, carry on...

clever, clever

Yesterday, I was off riding the new Wildcat reroute (the cat's meow) with Aaron. We were bouncing along ok (well, you might say I was stumbling heavily through the gnarly rock gardens as Aaron floated magically over them) when I flatted from a substantial sidewall tear.

As I was grumbling with the prospect of having to put a tube in a tire full of gross sealant while fumbling with a make-shift energy-bar boot, I realized I hadn't brought tire levers. Aaron hadn't either.

So while I'm prepping mentally for the walk out and call to rescue-lady Valerie, Aaron suggests that I use his quick-release lever.

Wow. Major light bulb moment. A quick-release lever doubling as a tire lever! Who knew?

After that moment of realization, I figured my quick release lever was just as good as Aaron's, and so I tried it...BAM: worked perfectly.

How is that I've been riding bikes (w/ quick release levers), getting flats, and fixing flats for nearly two and a half decades and I'm just now learning this trick? It's brilliant! And while I'm tempted to say 'life-changing,' and realizing that might be a bit hyperbolic, I've got to say it's a pretty revolutionary insight. I mean, really, this is right up there...

...

Incidentally, I quickly learned that while a quick-release lever makes a great tire lever, one has to take care to keep track of the nut on the other end through the process or it will no longer serve its primary function--securing a wheel to a bicycle. Because, yes, I lost mine sometime mid-tire-removal/install. In the woods. Among last year's fallen leaves. And a fresh pile of deer poo.

But after an eternity of panicked searching (five minutes), Aaron and I found one spring and one nut...which was enough. So, with energy-bar-wrapper-tire-boot in place, air in tire, and skewer once more secured, we headed home.

Trying to stay warm between laps at the MASS relay on Saturday.

the hard men of spring

There's been some tremendous racing during the past two weeks.

My favorite winners: Gilbert, Evan, and Vockler, in that order.

I mean, Gilbert is just unreal. Did you see this from Stage 5 of the Tirreno-Adriatico?



Or from the Montepasche Strade Bianche a couple of weeks ago?



I love this guy. I mean, Gilbert's becoming more of an odds-on favorite in some of these races than a high-seeded team in the NCAAs!

Then of course there was Evans pulling out a tremendous win in the race leader's jersey in Stage 6 of the Tirreno-Adriatico on his way to the overall:



Awesome.

Interesting (to me) to note that Gilbert seemed to get the better of Ballan in the Montepasche by taking the inside line in the final corner before the finish, whereas Evans gains the advantage over Visconti and Nibali by carrying his momentum through the outside line of two of the final turns.

Finally, Vockler impressed in Paris-Nice by pulling out stellar victories in both Stage 4 and Stage 8.





What a great year of racing so far!

forget the radios, let's ban the tyrants

Generally speaking, I'm in favor of the radio ban in professional cycling. Notably, however, I express that opinion as a fan and an amateur cyclist, which is to say that I don't have any real idea what it's like to live and work in professional cycling.

That said, Pat McQuaid (the president and face of the UCI), is handling the conflict that has arisen from the ban in typical fashion: horribly.

"...the system does not have to adequately represent the interest of the teams and their employees (interests which, by the way, conflict among these two at many times) - or of any other particular stakeholder..."

Really?

Legally, of course McQuaid is right. Practically, however, it's hard to imagine a less enlightened leadership strategy.

I honestly don't know what to think of this (Alexi Grewal's comeback):

His fame is, believe it or not, a little before my time, but from what I remember he worked pretty hard to be known as the biggest jerk in the peloton. Incredible talent; incredible donkey. (Wasn't the "Cannibal" character in American Flyers loosely based on this dude, at least temperament-wise?)

Anyway, my interest is piqued. (And based on this picture alone, scared to death.) Here's to the big 5-o!

what it means to be a competent bicycle racer

Wade of cyclingtipsblog.com made a nice little post the other day linking Maslow's stages of learning with general racing competence. I liked it enough that I thought I'd quote it here.

1. Unconscious Incompetence

   The individual neither understands nor knows how to do something, and does not recognizes the deficit. An example of this might be someone giving racing a crack for the first time. He might be fit but still does not understand how to bike race. The best place to introduce someone to the race environment would be in D-grade.

2. Conscious Incompetence

   Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, he or she does recognize the deficit, without yet addressing it. This would be after a few races getting comfortable in D-grade and then racing in C-grade. This is a pack of cyclists who have a good fitness base but still learning the major details of how to bike race and the skills required. Things are still being learned such as how to roll turns properly, how to corner, where to position yourself.

3. Conscious Competence

   The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires a great deal of consciousness or concentration. Now we’re getting into the B-grade level of racing. Everyone who is good enough to be out there is committed to racing. Many people’s ambition is to make it into A grade but there is still lots experience required to put what has been learned into practice.

4. Unconscious Competence

   The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it becomes “second nature” and can be performed easily (often without concentrating too deeply). He or she may or may not be able to teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned. This should be the skill level of an A-grade cyclist. An A-grade cyclists should know how the game is played, the tactics involved, and not have to second-guess details such as cornering, positioning, attacking, counter-attacking, the direction of the wind, echeloning, holding your line, etc.

The "grades" Wade is referring to are how amateur bike racing is organized in Australia. From what I gather, it's more of a self-policing category system, unlike the more institutional USA Cycling category system here.

I like Wade's application of Maslow's model to cycling. However, I believe a distinction should be made between what I'll call race survival skills and race winning skills. Race survival skills are more or less technical in nature, easier to achieve competence in, and you don't necessarily need to race that much to get there. These include skills such as drafting, pace-lining, echeloning, cornering, holding a wheel when you think you have nothing left to give, how to close a gap, knowing how to eat and drink in the peloton, knowing when to eat and drink to survive the race, and countless other things you just learn by doing a lot of riding with others. Race winning skills are less technical and more nuanced in their application, and are thus harder to learn. These include skills such as positioning, attacking, counter-attacking, when to burn matches and when to save matches, how to race with teammates, how to race without teammates, etc.

[The rest of this post was written with novice to intermediate collegiate cyclists in mind as audience (it gets kind of lecturey), and is posted on the Ship Cycling blog without this explanatory note, in case you were wondering.]

The distinction between these two types of skills is important, I think, because the four levels of bicycle racing competence that Wade describes seem, at first, to map nicely onto the D-A category system in US collegiate racing, where D fields are comprised of novice, USAC Cat 5 riders, and A fields are comprised of elite, USAC Cat 1-3 riders. However, upon reflection, I think the comparison is a more appropriate typology only for race survival skills. Race winning skills, well, that's another matter. While every pro cyclist is likely fully competent in race survival skills, there surely is a great deal of variance in race winning skills (one reason I suspect directors are so adamantly opposed to the elimination of race radios--they want control over in-race tactical decisions because they don't trust their riders' judgment). And I think an argument can be made that some riders are natural racers, which is to say that they seem to have an innate gift for reading a race, attacking at opportune moments, conserving when attacking would bear no fruit, etc. These riders can't really explain how they do it and may be only vaguely aware of the difference between themselves and others in the first place. However, like any skill, no matter the rider's disposition, education and practice can make him or her better, whether that person is the equivalent of a tactical moron or race-reading genius.

Education and practice. With emphasis on the later. Unless you are orders of magnitude more fit than your competitors, wins will not just fall in your lap (and if they do, you're racing below your category). In bicycle racing, to win you have to try to win.

And, in my opinion, that speaks to one of the great ironies of bicycle racing--that those trying hardest to win the race often finish amongst the last in the standings. You see, once a cyclist reaches some standard of competence in race survival skills (and requisite fitness), it's not really that hard to hang on for a top 25 percent placing in any race. Race conservatively, and with minimal effort you'll find that's easy. But to win, you have to be willing to risk colossal defeat. So it would seem that the limiters to winning (if you're counting) include being willing to risk personal pride. And it may be useful, at least from the racer's perspective, to think of a race as having one winner and n-1 losers. No second place. No top 10s. There is just a winner and a lot of unhappy losers.

So that comfortable (and respectable) top 25 percent placing? Screw it. Exhaust your matches winning or lose big trying.

allez Gilbert!

I love how this dude races.


Philippe Gilbert is easily on my top five list of favorite riders. I love how his cycling spidey sense allows him to continually pull victory out of seemingly suicide late-game moves.

Case in point:

Today, stage one of the Volta ao Algarve. According to CyclingNews.com, "Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) won the opening stage of the Volta ao Algarve with a perfectly-timed attack in the final kilometre."

The results tell it all:

1	Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto	4:36:36
2	Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Quickstep Cycling Team	0:00:05
3	André Greipel (Ger) Omega Pharma-Lotto
4	Tyler Farrar (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo
5	Michael Matthews (Aus) Rabobank Cycling Team
6	Baden Cooke (Aus) Saxo Bank Sungard
7	John Degenkolb (Ger) HTC-Highroad
8	Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack
9	Tony Gallopin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne
10	Wout Poels (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team

Look who finished second, third, fourth, and sixth. All of those dudes are BA sprinters...and Gilbert steals a victory out from under their noses.

That's how I want to win races, man. That's how I want to win races...

Ist das ein Wetterchen!

Weather.com says its 52 degrees right now. It's outstanding.

On my walk to work this morning it was warm enough that I had to take my jacket off. Wunderbar!

...

Also on my walk to work... As there was a strong headwind, and my hair was still wet, I got to thinking about high school, when my hair was fairly long, and that my preferred way of drying it was to put my head out the window of my little maroon truck on my way to wherever I was going. Like a dog. And about that enthusiastic about life too.

Oh to be young. You have everything of any value in life...except money and brains.

It's the smell of spring that brings about these sentimentalities. Someone shut me up before I'm forced to punch myself.

2011 tree and farm race

Announcing...

SHIP CYCLING'S SECOND ANNUAL TREE AND FARM RACE

FEBRUARY 19, 9:00 AM

Location: Meet at Southhampton Township Park near Shippensburg.

Description: Forty-nine miles gallivanting around southwestern Cumberland County.

(Click here for an interactive map w/ elevation profile.)

This "race" (we'll probably only end up really racing over the last 5-10 miles or so) is our annual unofficial kickoff to the collegiate season. The ECCC starts its season on the first weekend of March, but since the ACCC generally runs a race on the previous weekend, The Tree and Farm Race goes off on the third weekend of February.

Usually cold, usually windy, sometimes snowy, completing this course is no Sunday stroll. The route offers a survey of wonderful riding southeastern Cumberland County has to offer, with a survey of Mennonite farm lands, Pennsylvania game lands, and the edge of two Pennsylvania state forests.

Unless you plan on never leaving the wheel of someone who knows the course well, you'll want a cue sheet (provided at start) tied to your top tube. The course meanders along all manner of rural farm road, peppered with two sections of loose cinder rail-trail and about a half mile of double-track (if the snow is clear, otherwise we'll take an all-paved detour around these sections), though nothing is too intense for standard 23mm road tires at typical pressure. What with the weather and the terrain, it's our way of giving nod to the spring races across the pond.

And if you're not game for the whole thing, don't worry, the course offers plenty of opportunities to bail and head for the comfort of home or car. (However, packing your own map is recommended.)

The "race" starts at Southampton Township Park. It finishes at the top of Strohm road (the high point of the TNR course) at the "M & M Roofing" sign.

A view of the finish from the rider's perspective. The finish is at the white elbow sign which reads "M & M Roofing."

PAST WINNERS

2010: Jon Marshall (1st), Dr. Goatesauce (2nd), Tim Cusick (3rd) ... limp chicken award (last-placed finisher): Rider Big E.

***IMPORTANT***

We call this a "race," but it's really just a bunch of guys and gals out looking for a good time on a cold Saturday morning. We race, yes, and there's usually a little something fun for the first finishers, but there are no entry fees, no waivers, and therefore no whining if something bad happens to you while on this ride (like you crash and break your carbon frame or someone insults your girlfriend). If you're the kind of person that doesn't play well with others, please don't come. This non-event event is for non-fun-haters only.

For more about Ship Cycling, please visit us on the web.

the price of a little sun...

The price of a little sun is apparently frigid cold. But it's a price I'll gladly pay. Hello sunshine!

Rode this morning for a couple of hours. Had to tackle the sub-20 degree temps with both balaclava and ski goggles. My face still got a little cold on the rapid descent from Big Flat, but otherwise I was fine.

And there was sunshine. Lots of it. But now, as I look out my window, I see it's all clouded up again. Winter in pee-aay stinks.