Promoting - Pre-Pre 2013 Criterium de Bethel

Well it's been a week off from Bethel due to the Easter Sunday break. The Missus and I took a much needed break last weekend from the hurry and scurry of all that's Bethel.

For me a big thing was I threw out my back on the Thursday before Easter Sunday. I'd loaded Junior into the car for one of his two half days of daycare. We put him there to get sick, to socialize, and to give me a break.

As I loaded the car I couldn't help noticing the 180 lbs of Permapatch in the back of the car. It's great stuff, much better than anything I could find in the Bethel area, and I bought a few bags up here for use down at Bethel. It's a plastic based pavement patch, works down below 0 degrees F, and because it sets based on pressure traffic can travel over it as soon as it's on the road. I've been meaning to put some patch down to smooth out some of the rough stuff but I kept forgetting to buy it up here. Unfortunately no one sells it in the Bethel area.

With a person's worth of weight in the trunk of the car I decided to unload the pavement patch allocated for Bethel. When lifting the third 60 lbs bag from the back of the car something popped in my back. I sagged to the garage floor, rested a bit until I could move, dragged the bag over away from the car, and managed to get into the car.

I got Junior to daycare okay but that was it for me for a number of days. On Friday I looked after Junior from the floor of the living room, although by the end of the day I could pick up his 22 lbs mass. I was forced to spectate at Plainville but luckily that allowed me to capture some good shots of friends winning races.

Luckily with no Bethel that weekend I could recover a bit.

For my own riding I did't get on the bike until the following week and even then it was an easy ride. I rode the now-red Tsunami, complete with bar tape, but without the SRM computer or the harness. (I'll do a report on the bike shortly).

Desperate for some training (missing half of my peak winter training really tells) I did another ride a couple days later, exactly a week after my back popped. That time things went better. I spent much of the afternoon working on the SRM stuff, painstakingly wrapping the whole harness with electrical tape. The two wires are separate for some reason and individually they're fragile but taped together it's more durable. I mounted the wire a bit haphazardly on the bike - it looks terrible - and checked out the newly re-batteried PCV. That was fine too.

For a few years I've chosen to get the Bethel Spring Series releases printed - it costs about $20 a week to print them but it costs me $75 in toner every two weeks if I do the printing at home. Plus I'm using up my printer life hand over fist (200-300 pages a week means 1200-1500 pages a Series, plus 1000-1200 blank release forms) and I have to do the hole punching and all that. Much easier to have Staples do the printing. 

Schedule-wise I close pre-reg Thursday so that I have time to download the completed forms and send out the job. To do that and pick them up I want a day extra "just in case". For unexpected things like, well, popping my back.

Therefore on Friday April 5th I headed out to pick up the release forms for this weekend's race, the April 7th one. On the way I saw a brand new Nissan GTR three cars in front of me. I noticed it because it pulled very slowly away from a traffic light at a curving intersection that allowed me to see the car in full. The car directly behind it followed at a respectable distance but the one behind that stayed glued to the bumper of the respectable car.

Being a very deliberate driver (the Missus's term) I followed at a respectable distance from the "glued front bumper" car.

Me, Glued Bumper, Respectable, and finally GTR.

We're going almost 50 mph here.

About 5 minutes later the glued bumper car turned off. Then the respectable distance car left.

This left the GTR in front of me.

I'd been thinking of various things while we followed this very deliberate GTR driver. I thought of when I owned my 350Z. Literally when the recommended break-in mileage rolled over on the odometer I punched the throttle to the floor. I hadn't done that until then so I wasn't ready for the quick redline. About a second after I mashed the throttle to the floor the engine bounced off its rev limiter, the Missus (at that point she was at "girlfriend" status). Not an auspicious start in my life as a 350Z owner.

So although I understand the break in period I thought to myself, "If I had that car I'd be revving it a bit more than that. The heck, it has a crazy launch system, all wheel drive, the thing has massive power and it can put it down. It's probably some old guy who can finally afford a car like that. The thing does 0-60 in 3 seconds and the guy's only going 35 mph in a 35 zone. Jeepers."

Junior was in the car too so, as the lone talking human in the car, naturally I was narrating to him. "Look, it's a GTR! It's a black car! It's a really fast car! It has big tail pipes! A Gee Tee Are! (Letters are important at his age you know.) If we had one we'd be flying in it. It even has a back seat for you!"

Oh the potential.

I opened the windows to listen to the subdued exhaust burble. We finally pulled up behind it at a light. I actually leaned forward to look closer at the tail pipes. I noticed the GTR driver was so distracted he was waving at friends across the intersection - I could see his hand waving a bit through the super dark windows.

I'm continuing my GTR monologue to Junior, describing to him all that I see. Of course he's facing backwards in the car and he can't see out the windows so all he can see is what's there above him in the big sunroof - sky, clouds, the roof rack - while Pops is blabbing away up front.

GTR.

Ring ring. 

The phone rings, forcing my dashcam app to stop. I briefly think "Oh, man, it just automatically saved the last two files, I'll have to remember to delete them. The dashcam app, DailyRoads (for Android), does a save if the phone rings. It's good I suppose if you want to save something just as the phone rings. On the other hand it's a pain to review, trying to figure out why I saved this particular file, then realize, "Oh, wait, that's when the phone rang!" A lot of my dashcam clip reviews are reminders of this call or that call.

Anyway the bluetooth kicks in, my dashcam stops, and my monologue is about to end.

"Hey, it's got to be Mah-Mah calling... waitaminute it's G-Man. What the heck is he calling for, I haven't talked to him since last fall."

G-Man is a Cat 2 on hiatus, he's in some of my clips, good guy, hasn't been racing for a couple years, been busy with life, etc. He lives in the area but we never got around to doing a training ride together, although he used to drop by where I worked now and then.

Me: "Hello?"
G-Man: "Hey is that you behind me?"

I actually looked in the mirror at the car behind me, a bit bewildered.

Then I realized, wait, he said behind him, not behind me.

"Whoa, wait, are you in the GTR?!"
"Yeah", a bit sheepishly.
"No way! I was just telling Junior about the car. OhMyGod that thing is so cool blah blah blah"
"I tried to wave but I don't think you knew I had this car."
"No, you had that STI last time I saw you."
"I got this in the winter."
"Holy smolies, that's awesome blah blah blah blah."
"You know I know you like cars so I was going to drop by one day and show you the car."
"Haha that would have been incredible!"
"We should get lunch one day. We can take my car."
"Okay"
"Okay"

And the light turned green and he went one way and I went another.

Heh. I'll have to tell him about the "old man driving" stuff later.

So yeah, I picked up the release forms, let Junior walk around a bit (he crawled a bit too), and then went to the pet store next door to do some more walking. He likes pictures of cats (go figure!), smiling and babbling when he sees one. The small patch of grass outside was good and it was short enough that I could spot any doggie mines (none visible).

Junior crawling.

At home, when the Missus got done with another long day of tax season stuff, we worked together to set up pre-reg for Sunday's Criterium de Bethel.

Then exhausted we headed to bed.

Saturday I'll load up the car, realistically after the Missus gets home from work. Hopefully I can get the Permapatch into the car without any problems. Then, after heading to the course to do some minor patching - I'll leave what I don't use at the course - I'll head over to my dad's.

Then Sunday it's race day all over again.

Hard to believe it's just three more races. It seemed just yesterday that I was looking at a daunting 7 week race schedule.

How To - SRM PCV Battery Replacement

One of the "drawbacks" of the SRM powermeter system is the lack of "user serviceable batteries". To be technically correct it should say "easily user serviceable batteries". The computer head ("power control") and the cranks ("power meter") are both designed to be serviceable, just not with a nickel to twist off a battery cover. You need a bit more than that to service them.

The Power Control 5 (or PC5 or PCV in Roman numbers, and we'll go by PCV since that's what SRM calls it) falls under this "not so easily serviceable battery" bit.

I have two of them, one that came with the Cannondale's SRM system and one that I came with a used SRM system I bought off of an eBay seller.

When I bought the Cannondale the crank battery died almost immediately. SRM very kindly replaced it under warranty - it was maybe a year old at that point and I hadn't used it anywhere near the 15,000 km that it might last.

Since then I've replaced one crank battery. I went to replace the other but when I checked the battery it was fine - apparently the wiring harness was the culprit.

The PCV (remember that's the computer head) battery worked fine though. It happened to fade just about when I bought the used SRM system so I've been using the second PCV all this time.

Now, with two bikes rolling, each with an SRM power meter on them (the cranks), and with each SRM power meter holding different offset values (some variable you have to program into the PCV), it's easiest to use two separate PCV heads.

(To program the offset you have to do something akin to reprogramming the clock on a cyclometer. You can do it each time you switch bikes but it's sort of a pain. This is why I looked for a used SRM system, not just the cranks.)

Now I need to replace the PCV battery in that original, came-on-the-Cannondale PCV. I put it off until I had a rolling bike, meaning I put it off for a couple years. With the now-red Tsunami finally on the road I ran out of time.

Here's a short pictorial on how I did it. It took about 30 minutes total and if I was better it'd have taken 10 minutes or less. I note how much time it actually took to do the stuff in each picture - the extra time came from me being super careful or checking and rechecking too much or overthinking things.

PCV head, 4 screws removed.

Green "drum" is a stack of batteries.

Time: 1 minutes to remove screws, 1 minute to remove battery from silicone glue stuff.

The PCV has clear glue that was holding the battery in place. I popped the battery out with a small flat blade screwdriver.

The new battery to the right.

I wanted to reuse the wires so I saved them off the old battery, cutting them at the solder points.

Time: 1 minute to cut leads clear of battery.

You'll notice the new battery is shorter than the old one. It doesn't hold as much of a charge but unfortunately the taller original battery isn't readily available. I read of one person that got them custom made for him. He was selling them too but I never got a response to my request for a battery or two. I bought some lower capacity batteries from Mouser Electronics. They'll be good for the 6 or 8 hours data capacity of the PCV.

I bought a few batteries while I was at it. One for this one, one for the other, and one spare. 

New battery soldered.

Time: 2 minutes to solder each end.

I soldered the two wires on, red to positive, black to negative. I did check the battery first to make sure it was putting out 3.7 volts and it was.

The black stuff is brush-on electrical tape. It's great stuff, just brush it on. It's sort of like black tubular glue, consistency-wise, and it dries to a semi-hard state. It doesn't transmit electricity so it insulates the connection. In my case I "painted" the whole end of the battery just to be safe. I'm not sure but I think I got the stuff at Radio Shack.

In the picture above I have not brushed the black/negative wire/connection.

New battery soldered, both ends covered with brush-on electrical tape.

Time: 1 minute to brush both ends with brush-on electrical tape.

I got specks of the brush-on electrical tape on the surface below the PCV (and a bit on my fingertips too).

Battery in place.

Time: 1 minute to reassemble.

I decided to use the brush-on electrical tape as the glue to hold the battery in place. The black gunk was a bit wet when I put the battery into place - the battery didn't move so I figured it was okay.

All set!

I'm holding at an angle because the flash makes the LCD screen look like it's not working right.

It's on the charger, as evidenced by the "+" symbol on the right side of the screen. We'll see how it goes.

The second PCV, still going strong.

Note the different color buttons.

If you look closely at both PCVs you'll see there's some "loop" of "hook and loop" on the sides. This was to hold the PCV on the Cane Creek Speed Bars when I used them. I haven't been strong enough to use them recently so they're sitting on a bookshelf waiting for me to get stronger. I hope to have a better solution when I put the Speed Bars back on the bike.

The download cable, fixed with brush-on electrical tape.

The download cable for the SRMs tend to crack and break at the plug end. This is just like any other power plug that connects to a device - think of a DVD player or a toaster or whatever power cord that has to bend a bit.

With the SRM download cable the black bit is pretty rigid and the white cable is pretty flexible. This leads to a conflict of sorts where the two meet. Inevitably the rigid black plastic cracks and breaks, and shortly after the flexible white cable separates from the black plastic, exposing the wires. Eventually the download cable fails.

This download cable, that I got used with the eBay SRM power system, arrived already cracked. Given a bit of time the cable would have failed. I used the brush-on electrical tape, liberally applying it to the area where I could see the wire innards amongst the cracked black plastic. The download cable works fine and it appears to be plenty durable.

Racing - March 30, 2013 Plainville Sideline Report

So normally a race report involves me racing and reporting about the race. In this case I couldn't race because my back was bothering me. I'd essentially collapsed Thursday - it was awkward because Junior was already in the car, ready to go to day care, and I decided to move some stuff out of the way before we left. That's when I collapsed. It was a bit tricky driving the car to day care but luckily it's just a mile away from the house. I rested for a good half hour in day care with Junior walking all over around me, then I managed to get home.

I spent Friday on the living room floor - the Missus put a pack of diapers on a chair, Junior was playing with a package of wipes, and I spent the day mostly at eye level with Junior. By the evening I could sort of pick him up so my back was getting a bit better. Nonetheless I decided against racing the next day, just to allow my fragile back to strengthen a bit.

Saturday I intentionally left my bike behind because I knew that if I brought it I'd be tempted to race. Instead I brought a camera. Unpacking the car in the parking lot I felt that quiver in my back and I realized that I had to be careful. The stroller helped as I didn't have to carry Junior other than to put him into it and take him out. Any other times I carried Junior I wanted to carry him and felt okay doing it.

I arrived at the course a bit late so I barely got settled before the Cat 3-4 race lined up. With conflicted races the field wasn't that big but the racers there all wanted a piece of the action. The race promised some fireworks.

Lots of Expo red and black.

The race ended up coming down to Expo versus everyone else. Usually "everyone else" gives you bad odds but Expo had a good 40% of the field so the numbers actually favored Expo. In a way I felt sorry for the others. I've been on both sides of the numbers, having lined up with 10 or even 15 teammates in some races, and in other races watching another team line up 10 or 12 teammates (and wondering what I'd do to beat them).

The Expo racers are active for the most part, willing to work, willing to see the wind, so at least it wasn't totally negative.

Moves went from the beginning.

The Expo boys started launching moves right away but the others knew that they couldn't let anything go. Chasing immediately neutralized some of the Expo advantage because there was no gap to exploit. Once a gap formed then the Expo riders in the field would be riding negatively and that would force wedges into the gap between the field and the break.

Junior and one of his babysitters.

Junior spent the race mainly with some very enthusiastic babysitters. He enjoyed his first experience with the grass on the ground and tried to walk on the paved sidewalk. Pops managed to avoid having Junior experience his first skinned knee. Pops isn't ready to deal with that yet.

Promising move.

If you're outnumbered in a field then a good move is to make moves. Inevitably you'll attract a rider or two from the "big team" and then the rest of the team will block, helping you. Biker's Edge racer Eric made such a move, drawing SOC, but the rest of the field brought them back.

Dave trying to launch Stan.

Of course the numerically superior team ought to make moves too. Dave, the team cheerleader, rode in support of the selected leaders for the day. Stan, the overall leader of the Cat 3-4 Series, naturally qualified as a leader. When a move went up the road Dave tried to launch Stan but the others wouldn't let such an obvious move go.

Aha.

Finally the field basically split. In a larger field it'd have been a break, but in this race it was more of a split. It appears that Dave, after doing some work, eased off while sitting towards the front of the group. Everyone else eased off too and suddenly a gap opened. Eric made a good move to join the front and the group immediately started working.

Jeff W, center, after a supreme bridge effort.

Two riders knew the move when they saw it and made supreme efforts to bridge - Jeff W (Devil's Gear) and Jeff M (Expo). Others tried too but they didn't make it. Although Expo's Jeff made it across quickly, having seen the split early on, Jeff W waited until the gap was something like 30 seconds before going clear of the field. The gap was big enough that I didn't bother taking pictures because a solo rider in pain doesn't look impressive - it just looks like a rider off the back.

Of course at some point Jeff W suddenly looked like he was going to bridge and I got so excited I forgot about taking pictures. Oops.

Jeff W at the front

He bridged just before the end of the race so he set about working for his teammate in the break.

Stan

Expo Jeff, biding his time.

As a spectator I couldn't see what happened on the last lap but inevitably an Expo rider crossed the line first, and incredibly it was Jeff. He'd done a perfect race, bridged to the winning move and then waited patiently in the sprint to win.

Expo Jeff winning, barely.

Eric's excellent helmet cam footage below:

It becomes obvious how hard everyone went on that last lap. Jeff W sets it up, Expo Lance drills it for Stan, and then it becomes a free for all. Expo Jeff played it perfectly and the late jump gave him a well earned win.

Junior in the feed zone.

For Junior it was time to eat. The whole event distracted him so much that he didn't fuss for about 3 hours before he wanted to eat (normally it's 90 minutes) and he didn't think about a diaper change until I changed him.

With lunch out of the way it was time for the 4-5 race.

Expo Dave at the front.

With so much focus on the 3-4 race the two Expo riders in the 4-5 race were cooked. Dave and Lance tried to play but they'd given everything in the 3-4 race in support of their teammates.

One active team - Cycling Concepts.

One guy that's been trying solo moves at Plainville and Bethel launched yet another attack with 5 to go. Cycling Concepts Mike is a tall, lanky rider unafraid of the wind.

Another move, this time by Cycling Concepts Mike.

I knew about his 10 lap escapade at Bethel, ended at the bottom of the hill on the last lap. I hoped that he could pull this one off.

Junior wondering if Mike can make it.

Mike at the bell - it looks good.

Mike took the bell with a decent gap but the field really ramped it up. Expo Lance was one guy trying to close the gap hard, a final effort for him on this double race day.

Mike holds off a hard charging field.

Mike managed to hold off the field, throwing his bike as insurance just in case. The picture doesn't do the speed justice - he won by maybe a tenth of a second. Had the race been another 100 meters I think it'd have been a different story.

A better fitting hat.

I worried about Junior and tried to put on one of my caps. It's a bit scary that my hat fits him better than a hat he wore a few months ago.

With this first very sunny race out of the way Junior and I headed home. I wished I could have raced but I also knew that this was the smarter thing to do. I had to be good for Bethel in a promoting way and I couldn't risk that for my own selfish reasons.

Promoting - Tow Vehicle Revisted

On the way home on Sunday I watched some tractor trailers as well as a couple pickups towing small trailers. I thought about my trailer and tow vehicle problem. It's something really occupying my mind when there's room in there next to the 2013 Series.

You probably know this but the current Bethel van, an older 15 passenger Dodge van, is nearing the end of its serviceable life. I started looking for a replacement but then thought that if I was buying a new vehicle I should think long term, not just next year.

This made me think of trailers. 

After some thought, a bunch of feedback, and some more research, I'm pretty set on the trailer idea. I figure it would be 2500 lbs or so, 14-18' long, 6'-7' wide, hopefully close to 6' high inside, maybe 4000 lbs fully loaded with race promotion stuff. I realized I wouldn't need as much gear as I have in the van because some of it would be replaced by the trailer itself. So, for example, I shouldn't need to bring two tents, nor a number of tables, etc. A lot of that stuff could sit in whatever future trailer and the one-off things, like maybe a snow blower, could sit in the tow vehicle.

For the tow vehicle it'll be either a cheap(er) pick up, like a Ford F250 type, or I'll trade in the Golf and get a used Touareg. If I got a pickup it'd sit outside and therefore be somewhat disposable like the van. Those are my two options at this point.

I decided against a big SUV, like an Expedition or Suburban, because it would be a pain to own it based on our house/driveway/garage situation. We wouldn't be able to park it in our garage so it would have to sit outside year round. As it is such a vehicle would be hard to keep in our driveway. If we did decide to garage it our storage bay is not close enough for regular access, and it would force us to keep the trailer outside.

The lack of easy access to the SUV means that we'd need to keep two smaller cars as we do now. The big SUV would replace the van as the "third vehicle", becoming the third vehicle in our array, not a replacement for the Golf or the Jetta Sportswagen.

On the other hand the Touareg, being just 8 inches longer than the Jetta Sportswagen (aka JSW), should fit in our very compact bay, and it should be able to tow 4000 lbs (it's rated at 7000+ lbs). Other than its sister SUV the Porsche Cayenne there are no vehicles I can find that are rated to tow 5000-7000 lbs and is in the same size range as the JSW. A few folks have questioned the size of our garage spot in the sense of "Are you sure it won't fit?"

It's small.

The bay is awfully short - there's about a foot behind the back of the car.

The intrusion from the right is the dining/office room.

I took the picture from the right side bay also, a longer bay but more narrow. On the right side we pull in the Golf, turn the wheel to the right so the tire hits the wall, and the only way to squeeze past the car to get to the stairs is to fold in the side view mirror. Another foot of width and we'd have to NASCAR our way in and out of the vehicle, climbing out of the window onto the hood to get to the steps.

Golf in the right side bay. The right front tire is hitting the wall.

I framed the picture so the left side of the frame is the dining/office wall.

Of course there's the whole idea of being more efficient when we drive around for day to day stuff. Although a full size SUV would be great for towing it wouldn't be great for day to day driving. On bad days we get 35-37 mpg in our two TDis, on the good days they're in the mid-40s, and on great days it's over 50 mpg. We wouldn't use the full size SUV to do long trips because even with a few bikes on the roof of a loaded down JSW we're in the low-mid 30 mpg range, much higher than the 12-15 mpg that we could expect from a large SUV.

To be honest the Touareg wouldn't be much better than a larger SUV. Even at the 25 mpg the diesel version would get with no rack on the roof we'd be getting worse mileage than the JSW with a couple bikes up top. Worse still we wouldn't be getting any benefit from the Touareg versus the JSW in terms of space - it's only inches larger inside, slightly wider, but wouldn't fit an exponential amount more stuff like a full size SUV.

So after all my debating internally I've decided that I should go with a semi-disposable pickup truck, one capable of pulling at least 4000 lbs of trailer. A full size F250-F350 type is rated at some insane 10,000+ lbs towing capacity so that would be fine. Although a crew cab would allow me to carry Junior in the back I think realistically saving money and getting the standard cab will work fine. If I have to run "bulky item errands" I'll have to do it when Junior is under someone else's watch.

Of course what happened on my next ride? This rig passed me.

Pretty much what I've been thinking about - 12-14' trailer, pickup pulling it.

Now to figure out a budget and see if I can do it sooner than later. Although the tow vehicle comes first  the trailer should follow shortly thereafter. I could probably get by without the trailer for a bit but for future race promotion plans the trailer is key.

Racing - 2013 Bethel CDR Gold Race

Sunday I was a bit discombobulated before the start of the race. I really wanted to try the red Tsunami, the one that used to be orange. I rode it on the trainer and decided that if I felt comfortable riding it at the race I'd be okay with not having power or anything - I hadn't installed the SRM wire and I wasn't planning on doing it on race day.

I did wrap the tape though and thereby decided that the levers were in their final-for-now position.

I also test rode the new-to-me wheels which I'll review later, but the important part is that the front is a HED Stinger 7, 75 mm tall, and the rear is a HED Stinger 9, 90 mm tall. Both have the SCT profile, the stability thing that comes from a rounded "peak". The rims look more U shaped than V shaped. I wasn't sure if I wasted a bunch of money buying the wheels but the data seemed to indicate that these U shaped rims should be fast.

Plus they look and sound cool so there was that.

I wanted to use those wheels because my goal this week was to help my teammate Bryan at the front of the race on the last lap. I figured I wouldn't be sprinting up the hill, my main focus would be drilling it on the backstretch. Realistically I knew I wouldn't be able to do much else - I've been struggling just to finish the races this year. I also knew it would be a big ask for me to be at the front on the last lap, but if I could do it I'd bury myself to keep Bryan out of the wind for another 20 seconds.

With that in mind I decided to use the super duper aero wheels. The Stinger 6s, my faithful 60 mm rimmed wheels, stayed in the pits.

I rolled to the start line with those 7/9 wheels but mounted on the black bike. Although I'll race new-to-me wheels off the bat I figured that racing the red bike wouldn't be smart - it would mean its first outdoor ride would be a race. The black bike is a known quantity even if it needs a bit of work. For example I regularly see 1-2 watts when I'm soft pedaling and the freehub body is clicking - that means I'm using that much power just to turn the cranks.

With all my thoughts on what bike, what wheels (the new rear wheel doesn't have a magnet yet), I decided I'd rely on Strava to record my ride. I even started Strava before I rolled out there, with the Record button prominently displayed in the center of my phone.

I forgot about my heart rate strap but again, with Strava, I was just getting speed, distance, and GPS location. The SRM sat on the bars so I thought it'd be nice to have heartrate but whatever, it was all good.

While I waited at the desk I also pinned my numbers.

Because I had to man the registration post I couldn't leave the registration desk until 8 minutes before the start of my race. It meant a quick bathroom break (which I couldn't take before either), changing with all that it entails when it's a chilly race, realizing my HR strap wasn't there (it was in the car), and quickly rolled out to the line. The race started almost immediately after.

I forgot to start Strava.

I even forgot to power on the helmet cam. By the time I did the field was strung out and we were already heading past half a lap into the race.

Just after I turned on the helmet cam. Yeah, oops.

I felt okay at the start. Fresh, of course, since as usual I hadn't warmed up. My legs felt a bit better than they did last week - I had my head better covered, I wasn't freezing cold, and I'd eaten some amount of food during the day. I even moved up into about 20th spot in a few laps. I started thinking optimistically - maybe I could get to the front and drill it to lead out Bryan.

I did notice that the big wheels seemed really fast. I wished I'd had power (meaning the SRM was hooked up) because I felt like I was barely pedaling and the bike just wanted to roll.

Even better the bike didn't feel terrible on the hill. I wondered if the slight weight penalty would be something I'd notice but apparently it's below the cusp for me, at least in the poor condition I have right now. Maybe in a summer race, at the limit, in shape, I might notice something, but here, in cold Bethel, out of shape, I'll only notice coarse differences, not fine ones. Whatever, the bike climbed willingly on the hill and I had fun climbing out of the saddle.

After about 20 minutes though I started to suffer. I know I'm hurting when I look at the lap cards. I hope to see less than 10 to go because that always seems possible. When I looked the first time today it said 22 to go.

Yeah, bad.

My teammate Joel said something to me but I was so out of it I have no idea what he said. I just focused on the wheel in front and told him to move right - I needed him to move over so I could get some more shelter.

Things looked grim.

By 45 minutes into the race I was suffering a lot. Someone let a gap go at some point after Turn One and I had to close it on my own. By the time I did I was cooked and we were halfway down the backstretch. Luckily the field eased that lap going up the hill so I didn't get popped but that was a really close call for me.

The gap I had to close.

Same spot as the first picture - note location of white house.

The gap really hurt me, zapping whatever reserves I'd saved up. My mistake though and I paid the price. As the laps wound down I reminded myself of my goal - to help Bryan out before the sprint so he wouldn't have to do everything himself. I tried to empty the tank so that I'd be near the front at 1 to go.

Unfortunately I couldn't muster the strength to get up there for the bell. I'm good doing a last effort going up the hill but if I did that at the bell I'd blow up at Turn One. Therefore I tried to go hard without exploding myself. This half assed approach got me nothing.

Coming up on the bell... not good.

With everyone flying I had my hands full just maintaining position. I think I only passed riders who'd blown up or had given up. Everyone else seemed keen on doing exactly what I was doing - trying to move up for the sprint.

On the backstretch it looked like one of the teams would get a leadout going up the left side. Although initially balked when the field spread out, a gap opened up again and I waited, hoping they'd drill it. I figured with one effort they could be inside the top 20. At that point I could move up to wherever Bryan sat and help him.

The leadout guy backed off though - I think he blew up before the balk and couldn't get rolling again. I watched the gap go away and realized that I wouldn't be able to get up there for Bryan.

Approaching the hill on the last lap.

Big hole center right. I used it to blast through to the next bunch of riders.

My next hope was to finish behind Bryan. I had faith that he'd be good in the sprint, maybe a top 6 to get in the points. Since every point can be important I hoped that if I could do a good sprint I could place right behind Bryan. If he placed higher up, like 3rd, and I could take one of the places behind him, I'd deny some rival those points.

Bryan, to the left in the red shorts, exploded.

I was too far back anyway but I still had a few pedal strokes left in the tank.

That all went to pot when I saw Bryan exploded and shooting backwards on the left side of the course. When I saw him sit up I also eased - I had no aspirations for myself so it wouldn't do any good to sprint for the line. When I crossed the line I was actually on my hoods, shifting down, looking for a path to the left side so I could turn around and go back to registration. No bike throw, no real pedaling, no nothing.

I couldn't find a path so I did a cool down lap before heading in to the registration area.

SOC and I both managed to "beat" Bryan. Unfortunately our goals were to help him and neither of us made it up there to do so. I likened our result to something like if Bernard Eisel and Mark Renshaw both beat Mark Cavendish to the line for a Tour stage. Beating the leader isn't cause for celebration even if it represented personal triumphs for the two of us (I wasn't sure I'd finish the race and even turned down an offer from someone to bring me to the front).

As it turns out Bryan had had bad legs the whole day and simply didn't have it for the sprint. Last week he won the field sprint on his own. This week, not so good.

At least for me there's a week break. I can do some training to get some hours in - I looked today and I rode just 8 hours in February. That's not enough to get in shape.

I can also get the red bike ready to race, train outdoors on it, get the SRM harness set up, install the magnet on the Stinger 9.

Then I can return to Bethel for the 7th ready to rumble.

Promoting - 2013 Bethel CDR Gold Race

Monday always seems like such a relief during the Bethel Spring Series. It's quiet, the car is (hopefully) unpacked, and there's a few small fixes to make but otherwise the Series is running reasonably well.

This week marks the break for Easter Sunday so for me there's no race to promote this coming weekend. It means that the stuff I usually leave until Thursday, like putting together the deposit for the race or moving some of the stuff inside from the garage, I need to do that sooner, maybe even today or tomorrow.

Yesterday on race day I basically ran out of Leader's Jerseys for one main reason - when I went to do wash at my dad's house the dryer had just broken. Therefore I couldn't do laundry. It was just a minor hiccup in the scheme of things but it meant that the first thing I did after finishing a GC (with just a few errors, still to be fixed) was to do a massive load of laundry. I have one more load to do, more lost and found clothing, or, technically, "Found and Lost" since we usually found it before the owners realized they didn't have it.

Before I headed down there we (the Missus and I) did all the pre-reg work. It's an evening of work, usually on Friday evening after she gets home from work. It's a long day for her (an accountant during tax season), a long one for me (with everything else that I have to get done for the races), so we asked for some help.

Junior helping with pre-reg.

Any errors you know who to see.

Saturday I have to look after Junior until the Missus gets home from work in the early/mid afternoon. I heard from a secret source that the town had swept the course on Friday so I wasn't in too much of a rush to get down to my dad's - I even planned to meet my family at my dad's at 5:30 PM. Normally I'd want to leave as soon as possible so I can check out and clean up the course before heading over to my dad's.

Unfortunately we needed to get some groceries, I needed to get fuel (both of our cars were running on fumes), and I couldn't get some stuff done before I had to leave. As it was I was late - it was 4:30 PM when I left, not 4:00 PM. I wouldn't make it to the house in an hour so after a short call to my brother we shuffled our plans to meet at our normal restaurant hang out at 6 PM. (The family is so regular at the restaurant that when we showed up the first or second week of the Series with Junior in tow and sat at the 8 person table a family sitting near us commented, "I think that's a new baby in that family, I haven't seen it before.")

By the time we got back to my dad's it was late, the dryer was broken, and, with the printer, cables, surge protectors, and all that packed away in the car, I decided to call it a night.

The bikes outside my dad's. Thankfully no snow in the picture this night.

I woke up a bit worried about oversleeping, my usual way of sleeping before a Bethel. I trundled out to the course, unpacked the car by the registration door, moved the van over, and even got some of the van stuff unpacked before other people showed up. With our normal registration person out for the day I needed to take up the slack at the table. Our camera guy would take over the registration laptop while I was doing the clinic or the race.

Things generally went smoothly at registration. A few late registrants, who got in touch with me at some point during Saturday, had to fill out release forms and such since I didn't have all the gear unpacked and set up for most of said Saturday. Even before I left for my dad's house it was all in boxes, staged either in the house or in the garage, and once I got to my dad's it was all in the car and staying there. Otherwise things went well.

We had good marshaling coverage, thanks to all the racers that pitched in and helped. A few riders really put in some time out there and for that I am very thankful. It makes for a safer race - although I carried a radio in the race just in case (turned off for fairness) I never even felt the need to reach for it.

The very cold morning gave way to a bit more palatable afternoon - I actually raced in knickers instead of tights, and I wore two long sleeve layers with a wind vest instead of a long sleeve with a full winter jacket.

After the race we started packing up during the P123 race, trying to get out of there before it got too late. By my watch we were out of there at 4:15 or so, about an hour earlier than the first week. That wasn't bad.

Just before I left.

Note that the red bike's bars have tape on them now.

I headed home, the car's mileage battered by a combination of the wind and the bikes on the roof. Instead of averaging about 40 mpg in the wind, or 43 mpg under better conditions on the same hilly route, the car managed just 36 mpg. Luckily we'd just filled up before I left the house so I was okay.

I got home too late to see Junior as he'd gone to sleep. I came in only after I unpacked the car and set up his car seat - this way I could get us in the car and go if it came to that. He fussed a bit in his crib after I got in the house but I didn't want him getting up to see me so I left the Missus to take care of him.

Of course he woke up at half past midnight and with the Missus working long hours 6 days a week that meant I needed to get up with him. He tried to get his Sunday play time in at that time, finally conking out at 1:15 AM. He'd whimper occasionally until 1:45 AM before waking up again at 6.

Ah yes, back to reality. Three more races and then the craziness ends, at least for the Bethel Spring Series.

Promoting - 2013 Tour de Kirche

I suppose the whole promoting gig started on Friday. The Missus got home from work, Junior went to sleep, and we immediately set about doing the pre-reg books, releases, start lists, etc. We had to double check the "exceptions" (like when I add someone manually) to make sure we had releases for the start list people and that the start list people really should have been on the start list.

Saturday got busier.

In the last 5 or 6 years, since I moved away from the Bethel area, I've driven down the day before the race to my dad's. Since we've had registration indoors, first at Panificio Navona, then now at the Retail Lab, I drove down to do minor set up tasks. Sometimes it's not so minor, like shoveling a few hundred yards of road shoulder clear of snow. Other times it's pretty basic, marking off the lawn or doing a quick drive-around to make sure nothing weird happened since the last time I was there.

The Missus works Saturdays at this time of year, even Sundays, so she normally can't make any races after the first one.

The new wild card for this year is Junior of course. Someone needs to look after him so with the Missus at work Saturdays that means I need to make sure he stays out of trouble. This means waiting until she gets home before heading out towards Bethel.

March 16th was a bit different. I've missed, for eight years, the one official's clinic held each year in the district. Most years the clinic happened to take place while I was training in SoCal. Last year the Missus and I had our hands full with Junior's arrival. This year I decided to make it a priority this year to attend the 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM clinic.

That times range meant that I had to have someone take care of Junior. One of the regular Bethel officials Meg volunteered to take care of him - she'd be bringing another Bethel regular Delaney to the officials' clinic. So I got to the venue at about 8:00 AM with a full day's of distractions packed in a few bags.

Junior hanging out before the clinic.

It ended up going well. Junior behaved himself, spending literally hours in the classroom (the clinic was at a local school) with all the potential new officials. He only really made noise a few times in which case Meg would take him out exploring the rest of the school. He even slept for an hour and a half in the class, waking up with his quiet self-babble, only getting excited when he realized I was there.

After a long day I passed the very reasonable test. My one error had to do with the free lap rule of all things. Never assume, right?

I headed home with Junior, the plan being to leave the Golf with Junior's stuff and take the Jetta. I had to finish packing the race stuff in the Jetta - my bikes were inside still, for example, as were the computers and such. Once packed I headed out... but it was late.

On the way out - this is about 10 minutes from the house.

I wanted to check the course and such but I didn't have time, plus I was exhausted from the long day (Junior wakes up at about 6 AM each day now). I knew tomorrow would be another long day so I made the executive decision to head straight to my dad's house, skipping checking out the course (which would add about an hour driving to the route). I had to stop for dinner - tonight it would be an egg sandwich and a calorie rich muffin.

I kept thinking of things that I might have forgotten. My shoes ("okay they're in my gear bag"), my helmet ("that's in the bag with the clean Leader's Jerseys"), the check book ("in the bag with the official clinic stuff... and it has Junior's log in it, oops"), finish line camera, race permit package ("in the plastic bin... and there it is in the rear view mirror"), etc etc.

My phone kept ringing (during the clinic as well as during the drive down) but I let it go to voicemail. If I took any calls about the race now I'd just forget whatever I promised to do and that's worse than the caller just thinking, "Oh he's not available".

On the way it started to snow.

Arrived at my dad's at about 9 PM. It's snowing.

Once at my dad's I brought in one laptop and my overnight stuff. I had to handle a few last minute questions about the race, mainly about the weather, and posted stuff to the site about the weather. The Missus and I had spent Friday evening prepping pre-reg so that was all set.

Then my brother and I talked, as we usually do, except this time we talked until something like almost 1 AM. I wouldn't recommend this with a 4:30 AM wake up alarm.

Arrive at the course at about 6 AM.

I managed to get to the race okay. I was on that race day adrenaline, my mind racing, thinking of all the things I had to deal with during the day.

The first deal was the ice cold conditions. We had black ice on the course, it was in the low-mid 20s, just bitterly cold. The Cat 5s braved the conditions for the clinic and the race and by the time the clinic finished the last of the ice was covered or gone.

Registration has really smoothed out. The Missus wasn't here for the first time this year but things ran well nonetheless. Our new crew for day-of-registration, Amanda and Joel, did superbly. I helped out here and there but otherwise it was all them. Delaney, as a newly minted official, handled the pre-reg folks perfectly as well.

The camera, too, went better, with Jonathan manning it. As another newly minted official he had a better understanding of the various priorities of an official so that helped.

The marshaling has really improved for this year. We still need help whenever we can get it but the main spots, by the start/finish and Turn One, the hill, and "Turn Two", had good coverage. A lot of racers stepped up and marshaled, getting comp'ed for their race in return.

Unfortunately the Tour de Kirche marked the first anniversary of a tragic crash. Last year Markus Bohler fell in the Cat 3-4 race, succumbing to his injuries early the next morning. VeloNews did an article named Death In The Family about the crash - it was their Editor's story of the year. In respect we had a moment of silence before the Cat 4 race and the Cat 3-4 race.

Rob Kelley of Pawling speaks briefly to the Cat 4 field before their start.

Finish of a silent lap in memory of Markus.

Someone put flowers at the crash site this year.

The Markus Bohler Memorial, in use by spectators as intended.

The cycling community really pulled together after Markus's death, raising funds in New York and New England. Ultimately the fund was used to build the Markus Bohler Memorial at the start/finish area of the Bethel Spring Series. Each week this year people have sat there to watch the races, exactly what the intent was when the Memorial was designed.

The fields were unusually large this week. I was happiest about the Women's race, hitting almost 50 racers.

The Women's field lines up.

The Cat 3-4 race was a massive 120 starters, the most I've ever seen at a Bethel. Three of the five missing starters were my teammates so it was very few people that couldn't make it. The other fields weren't as big so it may not have been a record day overall but it was definitely one of the bigger days. Hard to believe after that day's morning where we had black ice, frozen sand, and snow on everything except the road itself.

We managed to start breaking things down during the P123 race. I had suffered in the 3-4s (finishing 93rd out of 95 finishers) so I was around to help once I recovered a bit. We pack up stuff in the van, trailer, and whatever car I drive.

After receiving two birthday gifts for Junior I headed home.

View to the top right.

View to the top left.

Once we put the rack on the Jetta I've been very aware of the rack whenever I pull into the garage. Every time we go somewhere I stop and look up before I pull in, even if we didn't bring a bike. One day, after I stopped the car outside the garage and craned my head left and right, looking at the obviously empty rack, the Missus asked me what I was doing.

"Practicing."

I got home a little bit before 7 PM. I backed up to the garage, looking at the bikes on the roof and the garage entrance. Yes, I stopped before the garage. I quickly unloaded the race stuff from the car, the Missus putting Junior's seat back in place. Now if we needed to go anywhere with Junior we could - leaving the car packed meant that we only had one car available with a babyseat.

I knew the racers really wanted to see results up, including the GC, so I worked on that before I did anything else. The Missus tried to feed me dinner but I couldn't even feel hungry until I was almost done with the GC and I'd already put up the day's results. Only then did I feel like I could take a shower and relax.

Of course I was so tired I really couldn't do anything. I couldn't stay awake, I couldn't focus, and I could barely read a half dozen pages of a book before the blanket of fatigue covered my face.

I took off my glasses and fell asleep.