New in 2009

I could not be more psyched about racing on BikeReg.com / Joe's Garage / Independent Fabrications this year. That's that. Fantastic people and the best of sponsors, based right here in New England. Feels like home. Now to race the bike fast.

Bedford Cross - Sept 13

There is nothing quite like a race to jolt one into cross season! You can roll around on the cross bike but it's just not the same. Hard to know what to expect emerging from over a month of training without racing, then the always-chaotic/tiring first week of the school year. Sustainability across the board, and zipping out to Bedford and my other life was a key step in the quest for balance. Weather was HOT; course was a dry grassy slog. According to others, the slog is my specialty, so I was supposed to be psyched for this course. Hopes of anonymity dashed at the line with Mo, Sara B-Z, a fair number of ringers! Holeshot off the line (evidently I can clip in even after switching back to Time from Crank Brothers) and leading then following Mo but AYA then my seat was coming off. Many thanks to JD and Matt Roy for help in the pit (left-hand bike change in the first race of the year!?), new bike but then AYA my handlebar was loose, so another left-hand bike change. Inexcusable equipment laziness, but point of race 1 is to blow out the cobwebs and eliminate glitches. I clawed my way back into 5th but definitely tired by the end, though closing a bit. Smoothness needed but hopeful about the legs and season. Mo rocked, and Anna/Anns were well-represented on the podium, taking 3 of top 5 spots. Way to go name. Photo courtesy Brad Jurga. Next up, Suckerbrook Cross.

And September!

Eeking in just under the one-month-between-posts limit. Much to report! Transition time as I moved, started a new job, got a haircut... My brother returned from his e$%# ("epic" is now under quarantine) two-month canoe trip on Alaska's Yukon river so I no longer need to worry about him disappearing into the Bering Sea. Big news is I am teaching again, hoping I can successfully integrate environmental science, biology, and public health into a tip-top high school's curriculum and ethos while sustaining a strong racing life and making the most of the academic calendar's opportunity for expeditions and adventure. The pace of life is high, but whose isn't and ideas and energy and people should carry me through. Grad school felt like a lot of absorbing, now it's time to see what I can do. You run what you brung. New Haven was surprisingly great, but I am so happy to be back in the Boston area again.

August Update

Quick update before I go pedaling, to end the blogging neglect! After Cascade and Nationals I wanted to rest and retool, return to the root of biking joy. Enjoyed some epic rides in the Berkshires with friends, including the famed Greylock Century loop, featuring the repaved climb (awesome except the rumble strips) and the spectacular roads of the Deerfield Randonee. Tinkering with my bike fit and saddle position had reached a point of disaster and confusion, so I immersed myself in the project of setting that straight, compulsively coming to understand bike geometry - the interratationships of tube lengths and angles and stem lengths etc - and learn the tricks for measuring various essential measures of fit. Curse those crooked old floors! By necessity, I suddenly had to conduct some bike tinkering myself, and lo and behold in spite of my ridiculous mechanical inexperience I seem to have absorbed a lot by osmosis. One project was prepping the cross bike for Deerfield's 25 and 27% grades on dirt roads. I had to chalk up the hours - no days - of time invested as a crucial investment in my summer goal of learning more about bike repair. In spite of Leonard Zinn, it's still unclear whether or not the SRAM 9-sp XO mountain derailleur will work with Red shifters, because in principle the hallmark of each is that they are both 1-to-1 in ration of cable pull. At any rate, the eventual set-up was the 10sp SRAM bike with a hand-crafted 10sp 12-30 cassette, masterminded by Bob of College St. Cycles. It consisted of the big plates from my 9sp mountain cassette and the little ones from my 10sp road cassette, with 10sp road spacers inserted. And it turns out the Force derailleur works fine with a 30, in spite of the published max of 28. It's also August, which of course means we are now allowed to think about cross! In other news, a friend is searching for a speedy woman cyclist to compete in the bike leg of the legendary Berkshires event, the Josh Billings RunAground triathlon, Sunday Sept 13. Zip me an email if you're interested.

Bend Rocks, Junior Racing, and Cross Natz Recon

Last post I promise. Waiting for my red-eye here at the Redmond airport where after meticulous weight-reducing packing to get the double bike bag to 58 lbs (still 8lbs over - tough when the double Pika weighs in at 22...) and even a trip to Fed-Ex my bags didn't even get weighed! First to the Deschutes River with its trails and volcanic rocks, then we went to Bend's Old Mill District to watch the Junior Nationals crits and scout the 2009 Cross Nationals Course. As if the $8000 bikes ridden by 12-year-olds in Friday's time trial were not enough to turn me off on junior racing, holy cow - I could have made tip-top mockumentary a la Best in Show of the ridiculous parents at the course today. The pushiness, the screaming, the excess, the competitiveness - it was revolting. I could not understand how the officials could tolerate this! I compare this admittedly snapshot image of junior racing with collegiate racing and it just does not compare. The comraderie and spirit of collegiate, with people racing junker bikes and with time trials run "cannibal" style to minimize the ability to buy time trial speed - now that is the purity of cycling. That said, it was fun watching the 13-14 year old races (shutting out parental shouting, or laughing at it). One interesting aspect was that some riders are literally twice as big as others in the same field! Most importantly, the venue was the same as the 2009 cross nationals venue. Hard to say much given that we might have snow or icy ruts or mud but the venue looks awesome, with less elevation gain than in Kansas, though I am sure it can be found. The crit course could form the basis of the paved start-finish stretch. Some photos included.

Bye Bye Bend

Got to pack the bikes. Bend is sort of a paradise (note urban riverfront), but after two weeks I come away thinking there's no way I could live here. East Coast is a pain in the neck but I like it. Psyched to get home, rainy and cold as it is. Last night Nils (the man behind the camera) and I went walking downtown, out for some food then stumbled upon this antique car show. Those ratty shorts of mine are getting trashed. Seems kind of metaphoric.

Nationals Time Trial - Roastarama

The 35k Nationals time trial course included the 15-mile out-and-back up and down Skyliner Drive (the Cascade TT course), plus an additional 6-mile rolling loop. Once again temperatures were in the 90s. I'd spent the week practicing going fast on the descent - I really wasn't sure why I felt so ill-at-ease on this - but I felt like a runaway truck with failed brakes just waiting for the escape ramp on the highway. I'd figured it out that if over 2 miles I went 30 instead of 40mph I would lose 1 minute. I picked this because the math was easy and it's an exaggeration since speeds were actually higher but that's a lot of time! The extra loop was good, rollers and corners and smooth fast pavement compared to Skyliner's cracked and bumpy surface. I considered the course in thirds: strong and patient on the climb (just try not to lose too much time), attack that descent (make up some time), then fly through the fast loop (best section here). Seemed like a good plan...
I warmed up riding around, having ridden in the morning and not wanting to overheat. Doused myself in water and zipped up the torture implement of my black skinsuit. I had Kori Seehafer - a very solid time trialist - chasing me at 30 seconds. Seemed to be going fine, roasting aside. I caught my 30-second person and Kori caught me about 6.5 miles in - but after the turnaround she disappeared. Just after the turnaround there was a kicker to climb and my labored ascent of that might have been an indication of things coming apart. But I went much better than at Cascade down the descent, caught a few people, and entered the loop. I was barely hanging on, smoke coming out my ears, never finding that smooth powerful feeling. Finished and wow I got killed. I came in 4:38 back of the winner Jessica Phillips. Kori got 7th. I was 2:28 behind, which to me indicates that I went out to hard because I should have lost the most time on the first section, since it was my weakest link and since it was the slowest section of the course, one-third of the distance but much more than one-third of the time. But instead I lost less than one-third of the time there. Just another way of saying I combusted. Or that Kori is a very smart pacer, which she is. Less good ride than at Cascade, relative to others. Ah well. Evie Stevens missed out on the jersey by one-second. AY. Awesome and a small heartbreak I imagine. WOW for her though!!!! Alison Powers finished third. Suffice it to say people are riding FAST. Pictured: At the line, offical telling me about his Polish last name. Entering the loop - the still photograph conveys the labored effort remarkably well. What will I do without photographer Nils?

Nationals Road Race Notes

Bit more about the road race since I made some mistakes and since I find the race interesting... The final finish was: Meredith, Chrissy, Kristen, Amy, then Kori (not Kat). As it turns out, the group launched to Kori before the feedzone climb (not on the second steep climb). I think Kristen (solo) followed Chrissy (VAC) and then Meredith (TIBCO) followed Amy (Webcor). At that point team racing came into play: Meredith was sitting on the break, with her powerful team stacked with sprinters Brooke Miller, Kat Carrol, and Lauren Tamayo, not to mention powerful all-arounder Amber Rais, waiting in the field. Kristen deemed this break her best chance for a result, racing without teammates and not a sprinter herself, so she drove it in spite of Meredith sitting on. Webcor, with only three (albeit very good) riders, was in a similar place, Amy-in-a-break a better shot than a bunch sprint. Chrissy was likely VAC's best chance, and also contributed to the work. But evidently when Meredith attacked, neither of the other four (including Kori after her long break) had the legs to respond. Meredith sealed the deal for TIBCO. I definitely had some underdog sentiment going during Cascade, rooting for Webcor agains the TIBCO assault, but Meredith is a very deserving champion. She's a terrific team rider who for a long time has been the engine behind the glorious results of others.

Nationals Road Race

Once again I'm writing more as a journalist than a participant with a great story to tell. Hum... I did not believe I could make the selection so I went in with an all-or-nothing strategy of making an early break in the hope that the field would misjudge and give it too long a leash. I was alarmed to learn at the start that there would be no neutral feeding and was all the more recklessly inclined. OK my fault for assuming but come on - for an $85 dollar entry fee and a 110k race with temps forecast in the mid-90s!?! Rolled off the front at mile 1 and we had a nice group for a second - Nicky Wangsgard (Colavita), Brooke Miller (Tibco), and Sam Schneider (TT1) (pictured) - but then some actual contenders like Andrea Dvorak appeared and that was that. I sat in for a while then attacked around mile five. Three riders bridged up - Tibco plus Liza Rachetto plus another Value Act plus TT1. We got it rolling and lasted to the top of the feed zone climb at mile 11. I got gapped up the Archie Briggs climb at mile 17, chased back on, but it wasn't looking too good. Lap 2 the field was not going that fast but I was not going fast either up that feed zone climb. Up Archie Briggs I came off the back and hate to say it but sort of gave up. With the TT tomorrow I entered the race unsure if I would finish - but it's sort of a self-fulfilling negative prophesy that doesn't sit well. There really wasn't any point in flogging myself for 50th, but it's easy to second guess and ask "well, maybe if I had sat in I could have made it." Because as it turns out..... the uber-climbers did not kill it like they needed to to whittle the field done and the final standings came out of a group of almost 50 riders! My old coach Tom Stevens once gave me this salient piece of advice, that when I was strongest on the hills, even if I did not want to get away it paid to make others suffer by going hard. I would have expected this from Mara Abbot, the strongest climber and racing without teammates. Evie, also riding alone, seemed to be shadowing Mara. The two of them could have really put the hurt on the field. Following on twitter from the host house, seems like Robin Farina, then Amber Rais spent some quality time off the front solo, the field chilling, then after the catch Kori Seehafer launched a powerful attack. In the middle of the second climb on the final lap, Meredith Miller (TIBCO), Amy Dombroski (Webcor), Kristen Lasasso (Independent/Mellow Mushroom), and Chrissy Ruiter (VAC) launched off the front of the field. They caught Seehafer. Within 5k to go, Meredith attacked and got a good gap. Meanwhile, it seems that Mara Abbot launched across with Evie Stevens and Kat Carrol. Meredith Miller 1st, Ruiter 2nd, Lasasso 3rd, Seehafer 4th, and Carrol 5th. Dombroski wins U-23! Way to go Lasasso!

Nationals Road Race Preview

Tomorrow brings the 111k Nationals road race consisting of four laps of the final stage of Cascade - technical with two notable hills per lap, positioning at a premium. We start at 8:30am so it won't be in the 90s until the end of the race. Nationals tends to play out as either full-out-hard or conservative-to-point-of-slowness, and everyone wants to win so teams fall apart, especially with no race caravan and no directors. What's going to happen on this tough but non-climber course with a flat finish? Are the powerhouse teams going to ride for a leader, or suffer infighting? We shall see! I'm guessing Mara Abbot is the strongest on those hills. If she wants to win she needs to get to work fast whittling the group down to a manageable size and getting rid of all sprinter-climbers. If not, riders like Shelly Olds, Kori Seehafer, Alison Powers, Meredith Miller, or Cat Carroll will rule the day at the finish. Never count out Katheryn Mattis and her Webcor crew - they rode hard for Evie last week but this week is totally different. Evie's no longer an unknown and will be marked heavily. Can she ride away again? Will a tip-top climber (Evie? Lasasso?) cling to Mara's wheel over the hill and win in the sprint? Will the teams muster a chase or will individuals hesitate to work? For me the writing is unfortunately pretty much on the wall that I won't make the selection on the hill when the attacks really go down - will see what I can do!

Cascade 6 - My World is Flat

Stage 6 brought the most exciting course of the week, a rolling circuit with some tough hills and little recovery. A break went early with Lipsmackers rider Kirsty Broun, challenging Tina Pic's green jersey (pictured). I could just sit in and float in the field. I felt solid and smooth -best of the week - good with positioning and on the hills. The break reshuffled early in lap 2 and this time Lipsmackers had missed out. They drove it into the Archie Briggs climb in an attempt to launch a rider across. In spite of excellent positioning I got dropped. For once rather than back off early then claw my way back I held on then blew up right at the top. I pretty much rode the perfect race for me, I just wasn't strong enough at that one critical moment. So I am pleased and not pleased - pleased to put together a good race, not pleased my fitness was not good enough to make that selection. The frustrating part is that I am not unfit, I just have a flat fitness that is not well-suited to road racing. I need that extra gear asap, or it's really time to switch sports. This is wearing on me. At the front, lap 3 was a slugfest. Value Act's Kristin McGrath soloed from 1k to win; Evelyn kept the jersey, and my teammate Marisa sealed her GC in spite of having her wheel taken out in the final roundabout. Cascade is a great race - Northeasterners take note!

Cascade 5 - How Many Laps to Go?

Felt like death in the morning but went out for a ride and caught up with the TT1 men thanks to much-missed former New Haven resident Chris Jones. Sat in their excellent draft around Sunday's challenging circuit race course and got the legs ready. Crit was a very long rectangle, raced aggressively by TIBCO and others but rather conducive to a field sprint. I was in the mix a bit and generally had a lot of fun and felt good on those flats. Timing was CONFUSING to say the least, a 50-minute race with time clock counting down and lap cards counting up - until the last two laps when they started going up - and I basically had no idea when the finish was, and neither did our tip-top sprinter Tiffany (shown in picture with me). Silly on us but race could take a lesson from cross with the lap cards. Junior Coryn Rivera won! One more chance today - a very challenging technical circuit with two tough hills followed by false flats rather than restorative descents. If I position well I think I can make it, but when the climbers go on these it will be super hard. Race is 3 loops / 50 miles and I expect such a slugfest I don't even know that there will be pause enough for a break of total non-threats like me to slip off the front.