Syracuse Race Weekend

I'mo let Schillinger give the blow-by-blow account, cuz he's so much better at that than any of us are.
I'll just post the pics I have.
Results are here.

-dg

Greetings from atop Mont Royal, Montreal!

...which I used for hill repeats since this city is so damn flat.

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throwing down.

first off, last wednesday I signed Pete up for open mike night at the lark tavern. suprised yet composed, he went on to perform at roughly 1:30 am. At this point I had been in or near the bar from roughly 2pm when my last final of the semester ended until then. each performer got two songs. Here's what I remember: Pete started to sing, then stopped, then apologized and said this was the first time he had used a microphone. Then he sang half of one of the most fantastic songs ever, Jeruselum by Dan Bern. Google/itunes it now. He stopped halfway through, anfd everyone clapped. Then he sang the second half. Everyone clapped again. Then a large man made Pete get off the stage. amazing.

we pedaled bikes at some point too. rock on.

weekend minicamp

Here are the results of TT Saturday. The conditions were not ideal because of the wind:

May 12, 2007
3 laps of the State Office Campus
Strong breeze, clear, 62-65 degrees

Coach Chris parked the truck at the start/finish and played tunes to take our minds off the lactic acid haze.

Nice job by all. I saw Pete finish and he was moving pretty fast. Mackenzie and Curtis were putting in some really good efforts as well.

Following the TT, Chris setup a crit course with some cones in the lot we ride through during cross practice. After several laps of hard riding we were all ready to call it a day. The crit practice was really sweet (high quality workout and good skills training) and we plan to do that again in the future.

Sunday we rolled out around 8:45 from lot H to find some hills. Steve took us on a nice route of about 50 miles with plenty of climbing. The weather was perfect and the hills were tough.

recovery ride

I want one.

monkey vs robot

Ok, this may be the best song of all time and a video to boot. Pete and Eric played the song for me the other day at the Willett. It's great for time trialing. Enjoy and laugh your as_ off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_QsCXm1vrk

Here is a quote from Schillinger after watching it, "we should stop racing bikes and just work on being as sweet as that video was"

the bushes.

its not that hard to make yourself throw up. Just go to a McBurnie run sprint work out and try and win every sprint. For reference, the array of bushes next to parking lot H provide pretty decent cover this time of year.

I visited them during a thunderdome event last fall, and found that with the leaves on the ground rather then the branches there wasn't so much protection from view. This time the leaves were there, providing much needed cover.

If you don't want the people roller blading or the chick walking her dog to see you barfing in spandex, or barfing in any other clothing for that matter, check out the bushes at parking lot H!

out.

Office sprinting

Nine riders and Coach Chris at the Office Campus working leading out and setting up sprints. It was very helpful to have Chris there to direct the practice. Chris was delayed and we attempted to self-organize but things really got going when he showed up.

The basic setup went as follows: two groups of three; two leadout and one sprinter, two riders were designated as pack filler, one rider was the spoiler, and Chris was on bike alongside. (I think that totals ten.) We went for one sprint per lap on the backside after the small incline followed by full regroup. Chris selected a different sprinter for each lap out of the two groups of three. From my viewpoint the best leadout was from Pete with Danny on the wheel for the sprint. Also from my view, the best I-don't-need-any-leadout sprint is still Schillinger. (By the way, if you want to beat him be ready to puke because the effort forced him to miss one lap to release a Cliff bar.)

If this group stays together we will definitely be a force at road races and crits. For now we are doing some things well but we do have plenty to practice and improve.

Jiminy Peak Tomorrow.

Jiminy goes off tomorrow at 11:25. Its one of the longest running races in New England. I guess that makes it prestigious. If you want a preview of the pain check out the map and elevation profile here. We have a solid group going and hopefully we'll be able to play out some tactics to control the final a little bit. With 125 people going into a 1 k uphill sprint control is a relative concept. The simplest way to run control is by putting it in the big ring and going as fast as you can.

Well there I go giving away team strategy to anyone who stumbles across the blog. Watch out, CBRC will be using the big ring and going as fast as they can tomorrow.

out.

Race report: Palmer

Executive summary: gnats. Lots of 'em.

Expatiation: Protein-enhanced air made breathing more nourishing, thanks to bazillions of gnats hanging in the air. Barry had a few in his nose. I had some in my eyes, lungs, ears. Yum.
Oh--and the race went ok too. CBRC Cat 4 team set a pretty fast pace right at the front with Phil going hard enough to cause us all to wonder "what's up with the going hard, Phil?" It almost worked, though. You could tell people were getting a little psyched out and wondering what the plan was. Turns out Phil just felt like running hot and staying away from Brakey McCrashy and his buds in the main field. My favorite part of the race was when we came to the sand-strewn turn under the bridge and there was no marshall in sight. Which would have been fine if the moto pace had not totally dropped us and been completely out of sight. We turned the corner into a round-about and really pissed off the peloton before Phil figured out which way to go. Luckily he was right.

He led for half of the first lap and I barely had to pull at all. Barry was in there too, hammering away until the pace on the climbs was too much. Then I noticed a couple of guys from Boston Velo talking quietly and smelled an attack forming. I was right (for a change) and got to sneak in behind them as they shot up the right gutter and off the front. They traded hard pulls and I refused to work at all. Then they blew up and the rest of the field caught us, but we stayed together for the rest of the race. Little breaks here and there but nobody really wanted to repeat that move.

Several near-crashes and at least one doozie right behind me. An unmistakable "clack" of a frame hitting the ground and racers going "ooh!" And there was that incredible blowout that sounded like a .357 going off right next to you. A guy in front of me had to brake so hard to avoid a Fred drifting in on him that his rear wheel lifted off the ground. I thanked him for such a nice recovery. At one point I was checking to see if there was a hole on my left to slip into to pass a yo-yo-ing wheel and I drifted to the right, running a hairy-legged hard-man on an ancient Richard Sachs off into the grass. He was totally cool about it and just said "ON YOUR RIGHT!!" I felt so bad I gave him a long pull and we re-joined the front group.

In the end, I learned a lot but my placing was shit. I got 28th, but with the same time as 1st place because it was a big-ass group sprint. For once I didn't get out-gunned at the finish, but out-smarted. By the time the sprint started I was already red-lined and was just slow on the draw. Once I realized that "this is it", there were already five or six bike-lengths (at least) between me and the top 5 and it was over before I got started.

Phil ended up in the second group, in 43rd place and Barry came in just behind him in 50th. So going by the numbers it was not much of an eventful day, but I have this gut feeling that it was one of my more productive races so far. And I'm indebted to Phil and Barry for allowing me to rest so much early on. I stayed pretty fresh and didn't feel like I was at the mercy of the peloton, but actually launched and answered several attacks. I'm also just getting much more confortable in the tight quarters of the middle of the pack--historically the thing that freaks me out the most. Jenny Ives had an awesome race, though she was too humble to admit it. 20th place after launching an extended break that lasted, probably, half her race. I'll let her summarize that one, though, as I only have it second-hand.

In preparation for Jiminy Peak, I could definitely stand to work on sprinting. I totally had these guys on the climbs, no problem. They, however, had me with even less difficulty in the sprints.

Phil and Barry might want to weigh in in case I have mischaracterized any part of this through the subjective filter of my drug-addled memory. Sausage and peppers grinder at the deli was the perfect recovery meal when combined with three Hefeweizens when I got home, by the way.

Sorry I couldn't join on the ride tonight. Got held up at work late and rode home via Font Grove/Krumkill, mashing out all my job-related frustrations through the cranks, in the dark. Ready to race this weekend.

-deegee