Racing - How to Get Out of the Wind

One of the great mysteries of cycling is the whole draft thing. When I tell the uninitiated that drafting is important, they look at me like I sprouted a third eye or something. An easy "proof" is to point out that racing cyclists tend to group together. I also point out that although the speeds are different, NASCAR racers group together for the same reason - drafting.

I then point out that about three quarters of a rider's energy goes into overcoming wind resistance. A long time ago someone calculated that on the moon, with 1/6 the gravity and no wind resistance, a cyclist could theoretically go over 2000 mph. I haven't confirmed that but it doesn't seem unreasonable, and the article had all the math in it. Of course there's no mention of what a slightly unbalanced wheel will feel like at 2000 mph but, remember, it was all theoretical.

Cyclists, when riding, are by default moving forward. This causes an immediate headwind relative to the rider. If you are riding 10 mph, you have a 10 mph headwind to overcome.

Since the air is rarely still, the rider needs to factor in the current wind direction and speed. You can do a lot of force vector analysis to calculate exactly how hard the wind will hit you and from what direction, but by the time you have done the calculations, something would have changed - your speed, the wind speed, or direction of travel.

There's a much quicker, easier, and more adaptable way to calculate perceived wind direction. I favor this type of calculation, the intuitive type, versus the "proof and theorems" type.

For me, intuition is easier and better than proofs. I lack some of the expert knowledge to prove things, but I can observe and deduce behavior through intuition.

For example, I had a long discussion with a physics type person at work one day about the benefits of deep profile rims (he noticed my wheels when I brought my bike in). I explained to him that, at 30 mph, the tire on the ground, unless you're skidding, is going 0 mph. The hub is traveling at 30 mph. And finally the top of the tire is going 60 mph.

Since air resistance increases exponentially, the lower part of the wheel (going 0-30 mph) is relatively insignificant. However the upper portion (30-60 mph) is quite important. A deep profile rim removes spokes from the ~55 mph speed wind and drops them into the 40-45 mph speed winds.

This is extremely significant for a vehicle that puts out, say, 200 watts on average, and peaks at 1000-1500 watts (two horsepower since each HP is 746 watts).

But I had no "proof" about my wheel thing. It was all intuitive. Being one that needs proof, the physics type person went home, did all the vector analysis, and announced, the next day, that indeed this was the case.

I could do an "Intuition > Proof" but it's not always true so I can't. I believe, for example, that thunder is caused by clouds kissing - it's easily observed during a thunderstorm. But I have no proof.

Anyway, finding shelter behind another rider is not always easy. Just ride behind the other guy, right?

Wrong.

This only works if you're riding into a direct headwind or no wind at all. But if there's just a touch of crosswind, you really should be to one side or the other. Even at insanely high speeds (200+ mph), NASCAR drivers stagger their line just a bit. Cyclists, with their lower self-induced 20-30 mph headwinds, will usually sit offset to the next rider. But how far?

Ah, now we get into the temple's secrets.

I told the following to the guy who'd eventually be one of my groomsmen, obviously a very good friend of mine. At the time he was 15 or so, all distracted with girls, and couldn't focus on some of the things I told him about bike racing. So I tried to relate everything to girls so that he would both focus and remember.

He, too, had a difficult time figuring out where the wind came from. Since it's relative to your speed (i.e. a 20 mph wind perpendicular to your direction of movement when you're going 20 mph feels like it's coming from a 45 degree angle, not 90), you need to figure out wind relative to you at the speed at which you're riding/racing.

Easiest way to do this is to look forward and turn your head left and right. You'll hear the wind change as the air hits your ears at a different angle.

Now here's the key, this is what I told him. You'll never forget, and in fact I get some of the guys telling me, at random windy races, "I never forgot what you said about how to tell where the wind is coming from".

When you feel a gentle, perpendicular breath into (not across) one ear, just like your girlfriend does when she's playing naughty, then that ear is facing the wind. Therefore you know that's where you want to put something to block the wind, probably another rider.

The confirmation is that there is no girl at the other ear. If both ears are getting something, either you're really lucky or you're not facing one ear to the wind - you're probably looking into the wind, and both ears are getting a piece of it.

Since perceived wind direction (takes into account your riding speed) and actual wind direction differ, you cannot base your shelter needs just by walking around the course and saying "Okay, wind is from the right here, then the left after we turn". However, if you guess at how fast you're going to race and how hard the wind is blowing, you can make a pretty good guess at where to sit relative to the other racers.

Keep in mind that shelter at one point of the course may result in being in the wind on a different part. You'll need to decide where shelter is most important and work backwards from there. So say the worst wind at on course (I'm thinking of Plainville, CT) is a crosswind from the right on the backstretch once the tall reed stuff goes away. You want to be on the left then. But that means that unless you do some fancy wheel work, you'll need to be on the left going into the backstretch, and maybe the wind hits you from the left on the main stretch. So is the wind worse on the main stretch? Do you have time to move over so you have protection in both spots? How comfortable are you at moving from one side of the group (or a rider) to the other without making anyone leery of what you're doing?

Here's the key. If you move around correctly, no one will notice you doing it. I did it all race long at Plainville the last time I was there and no one really realized what I was doing. Maybe one or two did but they don't read my blog or BikeForums.

My race consisted of being more right at the start/finish, turning, moving to the left for that short straight, right as we beared right (and there are those tall reeds to the right), then moving to the left for the back stretch once the lawns start (since the reality is that in a crosswind you draft just one rider, I'm really on the left of one rider, but perhaps 2 from the right side of the field). Then I went to the right before the last turn, then got into the middle for the first part of the main stretch. I moved right to set up for the first turn. On maybe one lap I experimented by going to different spots to see if the wind had changed and it hadn't.

When you're sheltered, it's harder to use the girlfriend method. So you'll need to figure out your shelter pattern before you get sheltered.

Best would be looking around while you do a few warmup laps - no one in the way, easy to get into the wind if you want. Your speeds are artificially low but you can adjust for this as long as you understand the prevalent wind directions. In other words, if your ear tells you to shelter at 8 o'clock (left rear of someone) at 20 mph, at 30 mph it'll be further back (maybe 7 o'clock).

Second best is sitting up and turning your head while you're racing - your head end up above everyone. Well I don't do this too often because I'm too short, but most others can use this method.

Third best is to do it while at the back. You can move from side to side at the back, figure out which side is harder, and avoid it at that part of the course. I do this most frequently, especially since, if I'm at the back, I'm a bit tired. And looking for every bit of shelter possible.

Worst is to get on the wind side of the pack and realize that your side to the outside of the pack is being pummeled with wind. No one wants to let you in so you're stuck out there. Best thing to do is wait for someone to move over on you or to slow down until you find an open spot (i.e. someone not paying attention and leaving a gap).

The latter can be fatal to a race. Unless you have an excellent reason for being in the wind, it's better to sacrifice position to get shelter. I've sacrificed position to gain shelter with 500 meters to go and then gone on to win the race.

Moving up on the outside (i.e. in the wind) is usually a sign of a combination of things:
1. Rider is uncomfortable riding through the middle of a field (#1 reason, in my opinion, and extremely unfortunate since this is a key racing bit of knowledge to have)
2. Rider made an error in scheduling when to move up, and is a bit panicked. Decides prodigal use of energy is worth moving up. Can lead to premature detonation.
3. Rider is so fit that using that much excess energy is really nothing. Kind of like someone who has millions and millions of dollars debating whether to get the $200 shorts or the $205 shorts. Not an issue in that particular race but at some point the racer will end up in faster races and then fall under reason #1 or #2.

Now if in the race this weekend I see a bunch of heads popping up like meerkats and looking around then I know that people have been reading this post.

(Picture stolen from allposters.com since I couldn't link to it through Blogger)

Racing - Licenses Through The Ages

So someone commented on the color on the licenses, and I had just been poking through some of my "Bike Memoribilia" stuff. In there somewhere was a precious Campagnolo plastic bag (maybe cables came in it - it's big enough for a sheet of paper to sit in it) with a bunch of my licenses in it.

So, in the spirit of things, I pulled out a bunch of them. I skipped some boring ones. And it seems like my very first one is too precious for my bike memoribilia box - it might be (i.e. I hope it is) in my main "memoribilia" box. I found a slew of training diaries but I figure pictures of daily planners wouldn't be too thrilling.

Excerpts, though, might be interesting. I'll post them at some other time.

Back to licenses. So, starting at the beginning...

First off, since I always carried my license, and they were printed for a long, long time on regular (well, slightly thicker) paper, they became my scrap paper when I needed to write something down. So as not to intrude on some long forgotten people's lives, I've taken the liberty of using a primitive program to black out my scribbles.

By the way, if you click on the picture, you get a much, much bigger version. You can actually read things on the license.

So, to start things off, my oldest license not in my main memorabilia box - 1985. They came in a standard license/credit card size thing but they folded over. Inevitably the two halves separated unless you were very, very careful.

I was very, very careful with this one. And it's in two pieces.

The outside:

The right side is the "front", the left side the "rear"

The inside - the meat of the license.

Note I'm a Cat 4. Yep, me. A 4.

At first my number, 25664, was pretty high. I mean, numbers were issued in order, so I was the 25, 664th person to get a license after the American Bicycle League became the United States Cycling Federation. I may be old but I didn't even know about the ABL until someone told me that's what the USCF used to be. Low numbers were in the 4 digits, and the guy who got me racing was like 10,000-something.

Back then there were no 5s. Just "Citizen" racers. Then someone sued someone and bingo, you had to buy a One Day License to race. But this was in the primitive days. In fact we had virtually no helmet rule. You had to wear a "helmet" but nothing defined what a helmet was, other than something more than a cycling cap. I never wore a hairnet (like the Italians in Breaking Away) but I did wear a Brancale helmet (which I'll dig up) which was absolutely useless except to keep my hair in place.

By the way you can see that I wrote my address on the license. My address in the Fall of 1985. Until then I had lived in the same place in Connecticut for about 7 years, so I wrote down my first new address in forever.

Fast forward 5 years to 1990. Some of you were born by then :)

The outside looks the same:

This is still in one piece, barely. Upgrade blanks on the back now. Note they are still blank.

Here's why - I was already a 3. More miscellaneous notes and such, all blacked out to protect the names of the innocent. Note I wrote some things down - Cat 1 is national level, Cat 4 is beginner - I think I was explaining it to someone, using the only scrap paper I had - my license.

The reason I wanted to fast forward 5 years is the time between them was a disasterous time for the USCF (eventually to become USA Cycling).

First off, they went to stupid big license. Hard to tell in the picture but I'll do a "compare and contrast" picture below. Suffice it to say that they were too big to fit in your wallet. I guess too many people were washing their small licenses.

Enormous license. Upgrade sticker. Yeah!

I want to boast about the upgrade sticker so please bear with me. I was a first year Senior, had three years of racing under my belt. I'd won my last race as a Junior (collegiate, but, hey, it was a win). The training series back then were at New Britain, a points race format, one that favors those in shape.

And in college, I was in shape.

I was on academic probation by the fall of 1986, but, hey, there's a price to pay.

Anyway, on that race. I won the first sprint, by accident, because the UCONN cycling team's coach told me not to go for the first sprint, just follow the guys in case someone took off after the sprint. I followed wheels, did a little jump, and passed everyone.

Oops.

So then, to be fair, I decided to actually go for the next one.

And won it.

So the next time, so as not to be totally unfair, I took off at the bell, trying to blow myself up before the line.

But I got to the line first anyway.

Finally two guys took off right after that sprint, and although we let them dangle for a while, I caught them 10 feet after the line. I didn't win the sprint.

One more sprint, a teammate led me out, and I notched up another sprint win. In fact, he returned to racing about 5 or 6 years ago in the area. I don't think he remembers leading me out though, but I'll have to ask him.

The final sprint was coming up and my coach was yelling exactly who to watch, how many points he had, and I didn't know what he was saying. I mean, come on, what could I comprehend in the tenth of a second I had to hear what he was yelling? I figured I'd do as well as I could and that would be my race.

I won that final sprint.

I stopped immediately, turned around, and asked the officials.

"Did I win the race???"

One of them laughed.

"You won all but one sprint and you don't think you won?"

Well, I wasn't sure, to be honest. But it seemed illogical when he put it that way.

The same official said he was upgrading me that day, got out his stickers, and stuck one on my license.

I never dominated a race like that ever in my life again. In my eternal optimism I made a list like Greg Lemond, modestly peaking at doing Corestates in Philly. I never got past "Win State Road Race".

Let's get back to the licenses, shall we?

Here's the "compare and contrast" shot:

Three years of enormous licenses. There are four licenses, yes, but the right two are the same year. I misplaced the bottom right one and got the top right one as a replacement. Then found the original one.

To give you an idea of the scale of these suckers, I put my 2007 license on top. Even if you folded the big ones over, you couldn't stick it in your wallet.

Some of the things that happened in those days that didn't seem to make sense include...

First, helmets that passed ANSI became mandatory (in 1986). You'll note that the green license has a Monarch sticker on it. I took it off my helmet and stuck it on my license. You had to bring your helmet to registration to prove you weren't going to race in a hairnet. I guess checking at the line didn't count (?).

Second, you had to prove you belonged to a club. So I stapled my club membership card to my license. Coincidentally they were green so it matched.

Third, unattached fees were insane. So I got my license fixed so I wouldn't have to pay these huge unattached fees.

Fourth, if you belonged to a club (they didn't differentiate between clubs and teams) and the club didn't hold a race, you could still be a club. You just couldn't race in any kind of "kit". So in 1988 (?) I raced in a plain blue jersey because we didn't hold a race in 1987. Bummer.

I wish they did that now. We'd have a lot more races.

So anyway, sometime after 1990 they returned to small licenses. Everyone said, "Well it's about time, whose dumb idea were the large licenses anyway?" I'm sure people started washing their licenses by accident too.

In their infinite wisdom, the USCF issued plastic cards, sort of like what you have now. Here's one (and I'm pretty sure I washed it a few times):

Look carefully at my Category

But with mountain bike racing such a hot thing, and no categories in mountain biking, the USCF decided to follow mountain bike naming protocols.

In other words, Beginner, Intermediate, Sport, and Expert. Yeah, take a look at that license.

Suddenly, instead of a Cat 3, I was an Intermediate. Or was I a Sport? I never remembered.

I felt this was terrible. I still wanted to be a Cat 2, and now, if I got upgraded, I'd be, what, an Expert? It seemed to devalue Cat 2s because in NORBA upgrades were on (lack of) honor. In other words, if you wanted, you could be an Expert mountain bike racer. Or a Beginner. No biggie. You could change from one race to another, on a whim, be whatever you wanted.

Lots of grumbling again. And finally the licenses became a bit more normal. In 1995:

There was one thing though.

At some point the licenses became 12 month deals. So if you got your license in March, it was good until next March.

But say you got it March 31. Shouldn't you be okay until April 1? So, just to be sure, the USCF gave you an extra month. So a March license would be good until the following April.

I got my first license with this 13 month thing in a January. My license would be good until February. The following year, I got my license in February, and it expired in March.

Since I think long term sometimes, I decided that when my license expired in August or September, I'd think about whether or not I wanted to race between then and next March, and if not, I'd skip renewing a year.

You know, one of these long term benefits of racing with the USCF. Buy 8 years, get one free.

Yeah, so I did that. And I got inundated with a bunch of "You didn't renew this year, we miss you" kind of things. I was thinking, "Hey, I'm just taking a short break. Lay off me."

So I didn't renew until the following year.

And that was the year that they went to the "B" license numbers. And I didn't get a low number because I was trying to save, what, like $36? The long term "Buy 8, get 1 free" license deal. And I lost my low, low number.

Arg.

In fact, my license number now, 31337, is higher than my old one, 25664. So I'm more of a noob than I was before, sort of. I guess it's always good to have some humility. So now there are guys out there who say, "Oh, I must have started racing before him - he has a higher number than me."

Sigh.

Bethel Spring Series - Circuit de Francis J Clarke recap

So Sunday was the last of the Bethel Spring Series for 2008. It's always a good day for a bunch of reasons.

First off, and this is especially true this year, the weekends come back to me. Although it's always been a two day thing, Saturdays for me were much busier than in previous years, mainly because I don't live in the area anymore.

Second, I get to give away a lot of stuff. I don't get very involved with a lot of the organizational stuff anymore, but somehow I'm still the guy actually presenting things to people. I feel like a politician, smiling, shaking hands, but it's a good thing. I said this a few times yesterday but I love giving stuff away, I love giving prizes and such to people. You can't help but feel good doing it.

Third, I get my yearly monkey off my back. Bethel has always been a huge focus for me racing-wise. For many, many years, given the choice of literally peaking for Bethel or trying to peak for some other event, I've always chosen Bethel. Obviously the finish there works for me.

But it's more than that.

The way my vacation days used to work, I had to use whatever I was going to use by the end of March. So I'd find myself with my annual allotment of days pretty much unused in January and February (since I can't take days while Bethel is going on). This is perfect for peaking in March and April, and therefore I'd spend 3 or 4 weeks in the first two months of the year doing massive training camps, riding myself into whatever fitness I could find out on the roads of Florida and California.

And, of course, I had long ago promised my mom that I'd win a Series for her. I did, in 2005, but I've always wanted to back up that overall with another one. I haven't been able to do it.

The day was a lot busier than normal. The last Bethel always has more chatting with the racers, more friends, and oftentimes my family visiting. Plus, with awards presentations done after each race, I had to track down guys before they left.

Because of this, even though I wanted to warm up for a decent amount of time (in my head I realized my promoting responsibilities would preclude me from starting the P123 race), I got my standard fare. Change, get on bike, ride maybe a lap or two.

For once I was nervous. I spoke with a long time racer and I told him I was nervous. He smiled.

"Good to feel nervous after all these years, right?"

He should know. When I met him in the late 80s he was already a well established and powerful racer. I'm sure it's hard for him to get nervous for a race, just like me, but when you feel good and you really want something, you get nervous.

The race started off pretty easy since I was near the front, but after 10 or so laps, the pace started hotting up a bit, the wind picked up, and suddenly we started getting hit by a chilling rain. I'd pumped up my tires a lot and they were slipping significantly on the hill when I stood. I started imagining sprinting up the hill then suddenly taking myself out with a lurid power slide.

Not good.

My Atomic Balm'ed legs turned bright red, my core dumping heat energy into them to keep them warm. My muscles were starting to twinge a bit and my mind started playing tricks on me. Then, as I started thinking this was a "situation" (like problems are called "issues"), the rain stopped, the sun came out, and everything worked again.

Of course this meant the same for everyone else and so guys were launching attack after attack. I moved up to try and see what was going on, a bunch of guys launched, and my teammate Mike, who had just done a huge turn, went off after them. I couldn't go any faster and slid backwards in the field.

Eventually one of these efforts took Mike off the front, tagging along in a group containing a GC threat, and it seemed that they'd stay away to the finish. What I didn't realize is that they were fifteen seconds ahead, not fifty, and all sorts of guys were trying to bridge up to them. I just thought the front of the field was splintering, not that we were about to catch the break.

One of the guys was the Leader, and my goal today was to win and beat him. With a break (I thought) fifty seconds up the road, and at least 8-10 guys splintering off the front of the field led by the hard working Leader, I was getting nothing.

Nonetheless I followed the front end of what I thought was the remainder of the field, waited for a lane to open up (right side), and launched my sprint. Dry roads, no tire slip, and I went scurrying up the hill. I managed to jump past a little group of racers veering left to the left-side apex as I went a bit more right. Then, to follow the curving road, I went along my traditional yellow line sprint lane. I started coming around two guys side by side on the left curb when one of them suddenly turned into me, hitting my back wheel. I felt that zzzzzzzp! as his front tire hit my rear tire, then silence as the bike fell away, and then the sickening crunch of bike and pavement.

I soft pedaled the rest of the way to the line (about 20 feet), took some unimportant pack fodder spot, stopped on the curb, and after catching my breath, turned around to see if the guy was okay. He was except for the fact that he was sitting on the ground.

So my race was down the tubes, no placing, and gobs and gobs of guys finishing in front of me, maybe 20 guys.

Then a glimmer of hope.

The guy tied with me in points said I finished in front of him. The Leader, it seemed, didn't score points. So if they didn't score, who did?

Well, ends up the long time racer, the one who thought it was good to be nervous after all these years, made the break, hung around a bit, then took off and won on his own.

The front of the group, splintering off the front? That was the break almost getting reeled in by the field. In fact there are shots of me in the same bit of real estate as the break guys at the finish.

I got 7th. That meant one point.

More hope.

Then it was all dashed. The day's winner had already scored a couple points earlier in the Series and he knocked me off the podium.

Ah well. To win the 3-4s at Bethel I've always thought you can only miss a high score on one week. I didn't score for two, scored poorly in two, and so to try and be in the overall wasn't meant to be.

When I was adding up team points though, a weird thing happened. Our team tied the Leader (he was the only one on his team to score points, and in fact I believe he did all his racing with no teammates) in points, but because we scored six points on the last race, our team took the prize.

Hey now.

I watched the Pro-1-2-3 race. A couple guys from Calyon-Credite Agricole showed up, including a very long time Bethel Spring Series racer, the ever friendly and powerful Mike Norton (the pro, not the Cat 3 promoter or the Masters racer - there are three Mike Nortons who have raced here, once in the same year, even the same day). He popped up suddenly, said hi, I noticed his Calyon team "apres wear" (or was it before wear?), and we chatted a bit.

I favored him to win of course. He won one year by literally leading the field for the last lap, riding everyone off his wheel, and crossing the line on his own. And he brought with him a silent, smiling pro, the kind of guy that then proceeds to rip your legs off one muscle group at a time with the same benevolent smile on his face.

The finale looked like Mike (Norton, not my teammate) started to dish out some serious softening up. Ends up, speaking with Mike Fraysee, that smiling silent pro was something of a sprinter. So Norton tried to pummel the field, simulating 80k of racing in 5 or 6 minutes, so that the sprinter could finish the job.

But before they got there, with a couple laps left, there was the sound of a gunshot.

Calyon rider, smile erased off his face, walked his bike back from the first stretch. His tire bead had failed, kevlar threads everywhere, and his tire had blow off his rim.

So, with the pro ringer threat eliminated from the race, the field settled back into its normal battle lines. And when it came down to the sprint, it was, incredibly, a dead heat. A bunch of people looked at the finish line tape and they all agreed.

Dead heat.

After some debate we decided to award equal points to the the two riders, and the third place rider was third overall too, so the finish seemed appropriate.

We did some final awards presentations, I handed out as many envelopes as I could, and called it a day. I didn't help pack up very much, a bit zonked, but, to be honest, probably no more zonked than anyone else. The four of us left headed out for some food before we went our separate ways. At the burger joint Sycamore we ran into a bunch of other racers, said more hi's and bye's, and then sat down to eat.

The four of us, ends up, have all gone to UCONN. Well two of them are going right now, and the other guy and myself were there 10 and 20 years ago. We talked about the old days, the new days, and I felt lucky to have gone when I did.

After swapping vehicles (I leave the van at my dad's) and taking all the stuff I need to ride at home (and worried about forgetting something significant - two weeks ago I forgot my training kit - pump, bag, etc), I set off in my much smaller, much lighter, much lower car, stuffed to the gills with bike stuff.

On the way home I played a bunch of 80s music, my UCONN music. Music combined with situations always makes me wistful, flooding me with long lost memories, and the long drive home was no exception.

My perceived value of "stuff" determined what I unpacked. Unwilling to make more than one trip from the car, I took my bike, race wheels, laptop bag, and food. Everything else stayed in the car.

I opened the screen door, fumbled for a second for my keys. The front door opened, the missus smiling. She'd had a very, very long day, much longer than mine, but she still managed to raise that smile, to open the door when I got home.

Another year, another Bethel.

Bethel Spring Series - Circuit de Francis J Clarke

Cat 5 Race 1 Name Team
1 Mike Festa Unattached
2 Gregory Henry Unattached
3 Rishabh Phukan Wesleyan University - Cardinal Velo
4 Bart McDonough Target Training
5 Alec Bernard Staples Bike Club
6 Logan Piepmeier Wesleyan University - Cardinal Velo
7 Jeremy Weemhoff Unattached
8 Frank DeLio Unattached
9 Pierre Vittori Unattached
10 Carlos Fonseca Unattached
11 Edward Novak Yorktown Cycles
12 Geert Mol Unattached
13 Mark Underwood Yorktown Cycles
14 Gregory McCoy Unattached
15 Jerome Jousse Unattached
16 Scott Gibson Unattached
17 Pat Bisesto Bethel Cycle
18 George Jones Unattached
19 David Juneau Tokeneke / Team Mossman
20 Frank Priest Westwood Velo

Cat 5 Race 2 (Points for Overall in this race only)
1 Guido Wollmann Unattached
2 Andrew Nasca Bikeway
3 Denis Adiletti Bethel Cycle
4 Brian Amen Unattached
5 Brendan Delamere Unattached
6 Evan Thomas1 Unattached
7 Frank O'Reilly Unattached
8 Hank Osborn Unattached
9 Thomas Thornton Target Training
10 John Ercolani Cycle Fitness Cycling Club
11 Michael Colabella Connecticut Coast Cycling
12 Will Regan Unattached
13 Mark Sullivan Unattached
14 Kyle Herlihy Unattached
15 Alex Salazar H V V C
16 Esteban Sequera Unattached
17 Jim Reid Bethel Cycle
18 Herman Tola Cafeteros
19 Justin Tyberg Bethel Cycle

Cat 4 Name Team
1 Christopher Thomas Cycle Center Racing
2 eugene doherty Team DC Racing
3 Anthony Santomassimo Stage 1
4 Brian Kelley Pawling Cycle & Sport
5 Anthony Troiano Unattached
6 Lee Davis Pawling Cycle & Sport
7 Chuck Litty Bethel Cycle
8 Rick Magee Bethel Cycle
9 Eduardo Atehortua Cafeteros Cycling Club
10 John Romano Bethel Cycle
11 Patrick Dietz DKNY / Signature Cycles
12 Pedro Sanchez DC Racing / Danny's Cycles
13 Jay Vincent Cycle Center Racing
14 Carey Jackson Yonce Unattached
15 Steven Suto Bethel Cycle
16 Andrew Kalter Connecticut Coast
17 LYLE BARON PEDDELARS PARADISE CYCLING TEAM
18 Peter Frenzilli Unattached
19 tom siano Dannys Cycles
20 Patrick Dietz DKNY / Signature Cycles

Juniors Name Team
1 Kyle Foley ACT
2 Ryan Storm Target Training
3 Max Kaplan Colavita Racing
4 Leon Lyakovetsky Connecticut Coast
5 Andy Gallagher Liberty Cycle

Women Name Team
1 Andrea Myers Team Kenda Tire
2 Ann Marie Miller Metro Sanchez
3 Maria Quiroga CRCA / Radical Media
4 Amanda Braverman Cycle Center Racing
5 Dale Malkames USI
6 Elena Leznik CRCA
7 Peta Takai CRCA / Avenue A Razorfish
8 Michelle Faurot Connecticut Coast Cycling
9 Stacey Smith CT Coast Cycling
10 ELIZABETH WEEMHOFF Unattached
11 Lisa Force CRAC / Comedy Central
12 Nancy Ford USI
13 Audrey Friedrichsen Scott Unattached
14 Rebecca Hussey Bethel Cycle Sport Club
15 Rebecca Koh CRAC / Comedy Central
16 Maria Vlasak Connecticut Coast Cycling
17 Catlin McVarish Connecticut Coast Cycling

Masters 40+ Name Team
1 Robert Lattanzi CRCA / Sid's Cannondale
2 Max Lippolis Target Training
3 John Funk Cycle Fitness
4 Morgan Stebbins CRCA/Sids-Cannondale
5 Abdul Kabia Target Training
6 Rich Foley Clinton Cycling Club
7 Brian Wolf Bethel Cycle Sport
8 Wayne Kirk Mystic Velo Club
9 Christopher DiMattio Bethel Cycle Sport
10 Jim Escobar Honeywell
11 #N/A #N/A #N/A
12 #N/A #N/A #N/A
13 Randy Kirk Cycle Center Racing
14 Donald LaBonte Main Line Cycling
15 Eduardo Atehortua Cafeteros Cycling Club
16 #N/A #N/A #N/A
17 Max Viega Target Training
18 Jay Vincent Cycle Center Racing
19 Rick Spear Target Training
20 Scott Loring Unattached

Cat 3/4 Name Team
1 Stephen Gray Bethel Cycle Sport
2 Joe Straub Signature Cycles/ DKNY
3 Mike Andrews Connecticut Coast Cycling
4 Christopher Chaput Affinity Cycles
5 Joseph Regan Bethel Cycle Sport
6 Kim Riseth Jonathan Adler Racing
7 Akira Sato Connecticut Coast
8 Juan Pimentel CRCA / Global Locate
9 Vinicius Tavares CRCA
10 Antony Slokar CRCA/Jonathan Adler Racing
11 John Morales cafeteros cycling club
12 Patrick Dietz DKNY / Signature Cycles
13 Brian Kelley Pawling Cycle & Sport
14 #N/A #N/A #N/A
15 Peter Hurst Connecticut Coast Cycling
16 Jeffery Ferraro Greater Hartford Cycling Club
17 Glenn Babikian Signature Cycles/ DKNY
18 Jim Escobar Honeywell
19 Salvatore Abbruzzese CRCA / Blue Ribbon
20 Andreas Runggatscher DKNY Signature Cycles

Pro/1/2/3 Name Team
1 * Jacob Hacker Unattached
1* Anthony Alessio Stage 1
3 Stephan Badger TARGETRAINING
4 Christopher Fisher Unattached
5 Chad Butts Champion Systems
6 Ernest Tautkus Exodus Road Racing
7 James Thomas Breaking Away Bicycles
8 Bret Arthurs Evolution Cycling
9 Stephen Gray Bethel Cycle Sport
10 Robert Marcinko Connecticut Coast Cycling
11 peter petrillo CVC/Subaru of New England
12 John-Paul Kaminski Connecticut Coast Cycling
13 Ron Fantano Sommerville Sports
14 Christopher Pile CRCA / Remax
15 Monte Frank Zephyr
16 Matthew Baldwin TARGETRAINING
17 Kim Riseth Jonathan Adler Racing
18 Connor Sallee CRCA JrDev/Orbea
19 Michael Norton Caylon Pro Cycling
20 Christopher Kohnle CCNS / Pdeal Power

Bethel Spring Series - pre- Circuit de Francis J Clarke

This week seems a little more under control than last week. I feel less tired, a little more inspired. I did notice (well, the missus did) that I have a bunch of typos in some of the last few posts. One post in particular was terrible - I was typing on the laptop, my hand resting on the touch pad thing, then suddenly things went insane. I tried to undo stuff but I think I undid too much. I'll have to go back and try and reconstruct things. The problem is that once I write something it's hard for me to write it again. Like fingerprints - no two writing sessions are the same.

This week I finally got all the trophies and medals. I've been calling and calling the place, trying to get a hold of them, and kept getting busy signals and stuff. Finally, worried they were out of business, I looked them up to see if they were still around. Ends up I had the wrong number in my phone - apparently I put in the wrong number with my new phone. So I finally got to order everything.

A few years ago I went to pick up everything the day before the race and they were closed (!). No warning, no nothing, so I was stuck. Luckily this year they called me and told me they'd be closed Saturday so I made the trek down there Friday, during most of rush hour, to get the trophies. I am glad to say they are safe in my car right now.

As usual I pray for "not bad" weather, and if it looks "not bad", then I pray for good weather. I think the weather gods found favor with Plainville because they've been blessed with temperatures over 60 degrees - in contrast, at Bethel, we've barely hit the 50s. I'm thinking that next year the Series should shift about one week later, try to hit the third weekend of April. This way there might be a chance of people leaving with new or newly reinforced tan lines, not just windburnt faces and runny noses.

As for Sunday, it should be an exciting day, based on the overall standings.

For a few folks the races are simply a formality. Race, get the jersey, pictures taken, stuff like that. This includes two absolutely dominating performances by Zachary Staszak (Pawling Cycle and Sport) in the Cat 4s and Anne Marie Miller (CRCA/Sanchez Metro) in the women's race. I mentioned to Zachary that, with 21 points to the second rider's 6, he really didn't need to win the April 6th race. Obligingly he let a break go and took the field sprint for second - his fourth field sprint win here. Nice to be so strong!

I told Anne Marie that her 21 to 14 point lead meant she needed to gain some points, ideally three more than the second overall racer, to assure her of the overall. She handily took the win, sealing up that competition. As I mentioned to someone a little later, "We could have just let her keep the jersey." Same goes for Zachary too.

For the 5s it's a bit tighter. Andrew Nasca (Bikeway) leads Dennis Adiletti (Bethel Cycle) 21 to 18 - a mere 3 points. Sitting just behind at 16 points is James Rothwell (Unattached). With 10, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points for the top seven placers, the race could easily go to any of them.

The Juniors also have a bit of racing to do. Kyle Foley (Cuevas/ACT) has a 7 point margin on his competition, Paul Lynch (CL Noonan/Coast to Coast), and a 9 point lead on Leon Lyakovesky (CT Coast Cycling). A win would assure Foley of an overall, but just scoring 4 points (4th place) would still net him the leader's jersey.

In the Masters 40+ race it looks like a showdown between two teams, the incredibly powerful CRCA/Sids-Cannondale team (with overall leader Robert Lattanzi and third placed Morgan Stebbins) and Bethel Cycle (with second placed Stephen Gray). With Gray 9 points down on Lattanzi, Gray would have to win and Lattanzi place 7th or worse for Gray to win. However, Stebbins poses a serious threat to Gray's second place overall. If either of those two falter, a slew of racers from the reinforced-for-2008 CCC/Keltic Construction/Zanes Cycles could step up, as could John Funk from Cycle Fitness.

The 3-4 race looks about the same, a leader with two pursuers neck-to-neck. David Freifelder (Westwood Velo/Trade Management) has a close to unassailable lead with 18 points. Yours truly (CT Coast Cycling) and Salvatore Abbruzzese (Blue Ribbon) are tied in second with 10 points a piece, and then there are a bunch of strong riders all within shooting distance of the podium.

I think the Pro-1-2-3 race is by far the most exciting. Only 5 points separate the top 6 racers overall. Appropriately only one racer, Jacob Hacker (Unattached), has placed in three races. His tenacious points chasing has kept him in the lead with 12 points, a low points tally for a leader so late in the Series. This means a number of different racers have won or placed in the top 3 - and those spots, this Sunday, are worth 10, 7, and 5 points. In this close game, those are huge numbers. With threats from both field sprinters and break specialists, it should be a rip snorting race.

I hope that I can honor everyone with a smoothly run race.

A few notes on podiums and such.

First, I'd like to get all the top racers together after each race to verify all placings. And, if everyone agrees, we'll take podium pictures immediately after each race. I don't want to ask the 5s to wait around for 5 hours or something like that. Eventually, I promise, these will go up somewhere on the internet and you can show them to your friends and family.

Second, the overall winners will receive gift certificates from Bethel Cycle. Even if you live in Belarus, it's okay - you can go online and buy from them. Not like the gift certificates I won at races 20 years ago - they're still sitting in my bike memorabilia box.

Third, overall podium finishers will receive trophies and cash prizes and get nice pictures taken. IMPORTANT NOTE - we pay beyond the podium for the 3-4s and P-1-2-3s - so please, check with us if you are in, say, the top 5 or so. I thought it was fun to track down folks and surprise them with an envelope but I wouldn't get everyone, so I'm telling everyone now.

Finally, remember, it's just a bike race. Race hard, race fair, and smile and shake hands after the race. Keep the racing on the course because we're all in this together when we're off the course.

Good luck to all the racers that race tomorrow!

Racing - Category > Age

When I first started racing I felt totally lost. A couple enthusiastic racer types helped me find my way, getting me enough information to get a license, join a local club, and get out there and training. It's difficult to realize the magnitude of the undertaking, especially in those "postage stamp mail" days, at least until I get hit by some of the most innocuous questions.

"Do I need to bring my own number to the race?"
"Do I need a license?"

And some of the more standard and just as ubiquitous ones.

"I'm a Junior/Master and I'd like to race the Junior/Master race."
"I'm sorry, your license says you're a Cat 5. You can't enter the Junior/Master race here at Bethel. All Cat 5s have to race the Cat 5s."
"But I'm a Junior/Master!"

You, in USA Cycling's eyes, exist at three levels. Well, four. The first is whether you exist at all, i.e. you paid them money. Once you pay them money, you are broken down into the following:

Male or Female
Age
Category

You are a sum of all those parts. All of those parts must be taken into account when you enter a race.

Your gender rules the roost. If you are Male, you belong to an exclusive group that cannot enter other gender's bike races. In other words you cannot enter Female (Women's) races. Unless you're a he-she, but then that gets really complicated, and I still wonder how that guy entered the women's race at Fitchburg, but that's a whole different story altogether, and I'll have to think about that one at some other time.

For the sake of argument though, let's say most people are either male or female. XY or XX chromosomes.

Next is your age. If you are 18 or over, you cannot enter a Junior race. If you are under 30, you cannot enter Masters races. The latter depends on the Masters race's age range - a 40+ race allows riders 40 and over to enter, a 55+ allows 55 year olds and older, etc.

Since gender rules the roost, a woman 20 years younger than the race's range can enter a Masters race. A 35 year old woman can enter a 55+ men's race.

Finally your Category. With a gender exception (since gender rules the roost), you cannot race outside your category.

A Category 1 racer (aka "Cat 1") cannot enter a Cat 3 race. A Cat 5 cannot enter a Cat 4 race.

A mixed race allows multiple categories to enter - a Pro-1-2-3 lets Pros, Cat 1s, Cat 2s, and Cat 3s to compete together. A Cat 3-4 race allows Cat 3s and 4s to enter.

An age graded race (i.e. Juniors or Masters), unless specified otherwise, is open to all categories. However many promoters do not allow Cat 5s to enter age graded races.

Women, since gender rules the roost, can enter a race one category easier than their actual category. This means a Cat 4 Woman can enter a Cat 5 Men's race.

It seems pretty easy right? I mean my explanation was a bit complicated because I named exceptions. But think of your sex, age, and category. It's pretty clear which races you can enter.

Or perhaps not. It took me a lot of courage, as a Junior, to enter a Senior race. I was absolutely deathly afraid that all these grown men would pummel the little shrimp into the ground. Instead I won the race, taking all five or six primes as well, and suddenly I wasn't so intimidated.

Although I'd like to take credit for this performance, it's really, at that time a soon-to-be-pro, Frank McCormack who should take the bow. After racing against him in the Junior race, well, my expectations were extremely high in the Senior Men's Cat 4 race.

The Junior race, as it ends up, was a lot harder than the Cat 4 race. This was because of the following Rule of Thumb:

Category > Age

Your ability to race a bike is usually reflected in your category. Your age has nothing to do with it.

If you are a Junior, i.e. you haven't e, it doesn't matter one iota unless you're under, say, 15 or 16 years old. Gear limits, now required of Juniors regardless of the race's age, would handicap them in downhill sprints, any race with very long descents, or a massive tailwind section.

However, your Category is absolutely critical.

Are you a Junior who is a Category 5? Or a Junior who is a Category 1?

Those two creatures are miles and worlds apart.

A Junior Cat 1, if properly upgraded (i.e. actually deserves to be a Cat 1) will be able to race comfortably in a Pro-1-2 race. Maybe not for 100 miles, but definitely for a short 50 mile crit.

The same Junior, the Cat 1, can enter a 12 mile Bethel Spring Series race.

Which do you think will determine how fast the race is? The fact that he's a Junior? Or the fact that he's a Cat 1 racer?

Yeah, you got it.

It doesn't matter how old you are if you can drop the proverbial hammer on the bike.

This goes for those old guys too.

Too often I hear, "Oh, I'm too old to race."
"Really?" I reply. "How old are you?"
"40." (Or 45 or 50 or 55 or whatever.)
"Oh, that's funny. I got slaughtered by a 57 year old last year in a big race I wanted to win. And a 52 year old beat me in another one held at the same course."

Then the person, obviously having given up on living life, says "Oh, but..." and comes up with a different excuse.

Yeah, whatever.

The guys winning the Cat 3 races in the summer are often much older than you might think. Logic figures it should be some kid in college, arranges his schedule so he can train 2 hard days a week, race both weekend days, and works so he can train whenever he needs to in the summer, well, he should be winning races, right?

No.

Okay, some do. And they rapidly go through the ranks and become a 2. But many, many top 10 Cat 3s are 40 years old or over. A bunch of them are over 50. And they still place in the money in the 3s.

This is because Category > Age.

Equipment - Atomic Balm

With Winter breathing its last gasps and temperatures rising accordingly, it's getting to that "in between" time. The time when you don't know if you should wear tights or knickers or, the best debate of all, shorts.

Debating on shorts is the best because there are two things that mark the beginning of the nice season. One is the first ride in shorts. The other is the first ride in shorts where you feel warm air rushing past your legs.

I cheated and did both of these out in California, but with the bitterly cold March temperatures (mostly anyway) I've pretty much forgotten what a nice, sunny, 75 degree day feels like, so I'm back on track. No more weather jet-lag, so to speak.

Yesterday it was 57 degrees, sunny, and not too windy. I felt a bit chilly just hanging around the apartment because I hadn't eaten my normal tons and tons of food. So when it was time to go for a spin, I started that ubiquitous debate. Tights or knickers. Knickers or shorts.

Knickers won because it seemed too warm for my super-heavy-duty tights. But when I went to put them on, I realized my bag of 55 degree weather gear (knickers, a thin baselayer, some other stuff I can't remember) was missing.

So shorts it was.

This meant I had to put on virtual knickers. The Balm.

Ah, the Balm.

I discovered the Balm in college in the late 80s. When I first used it, my legs burned so bad that I didn't use it for a long, long time. Then, at some chilly race where I didn't bring my tights, I used the Balm. And haven't stopped.

The current Balm is a weak replacement for the original stuff. The first tub I owned had red lettering, was considered Medium or Mild strength, and had 0.5% turpentine.

Turpentine.

As I learned from my dad, turpentine is a solvent. A solvent is really good at dissolving something and letting it through permeable barriers.

In the case of the red lettered Atomic Balm, the turpentine would allow the rest of the Balm to penetrate deep into your skin, bringing all its various heating powers literally deeper into your body.

I guess at some point someone decided it wasn't good to have people rubbing turpentine into their skin so the ingredient disappeared. It didn't help that once the stuff was under your skin, you literally could not clean it off. My legs would burn for the whole day after a Balm race.

Alas my tub eventually went empty and I had to buy another one. No turpentine, to my disappointment. I actually contemplated adding in turpentine, can you believe that?

Actually, you probably can.

Anyway, no turpentine meant putting more on. I bought the Medium strength stuff, blue lettering. The Balm doesn't remove the tub's lettering like the turpentine version did.

I did buy the Hot level, but it's like jalapenos (once I eat one I lose my sense of taste) - too hot to be comfortable, no benefit. Medium Balm is like how much wasabi I use with my sushi - tons - but I can still taste other things after I eat it. Comfy hot, not painfully so.

To use the Balm, you should have the following:
1. Atomic Balm, Medium. Mild for sensitive skin folks.
2. Access to a bathroom with running water and lots of soap. Barring this, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a couple towels. I can go through a small bottle of rubbing alcohol in 3 or 4 Balm sessions, and I use at least one towel for each one.
3. The ability to endure feeling like you just got rug burns all over your legs (this is after the ride, not before).
4. DO NOT SHAVE YOUR LEGS in the 12-24 hours prior to applying Balm, unless you are a total masochist.

The procedure for Balm usage follows below.

First, put your shorts and socks on. You don't want errant Balm ending up on sensitive parts of your body. I once made the mistake of putting on shorts, then Balm, then going outside and thinking I want knickers. I went back inside, took the shorts off, and put the knickers on.

In the process I slid the knickers along my Balmed legs. I finished dressing before the heat hit. At that moment I hated all the bib stuff I was wearing - it was like someone lit my privates on fire.

Needless to say I was late for the ride.

So, first, put your shorts on. Socks too, just in case.

Balm is like thick Vaseline that makes you hot. Note shaved legs - hairy legs and Balm don't mix. I used three servings of the above amount for my two legs. One for each, then one split between them "just in case"

Then, after you open the tub and take in the beautiful aroma, scoop some Balm out. I get two finger's worth for each leg. Since the stuff doesn't come off too easily, I try not to use both hands. My left hand, in this case, is the Balm hand. This is because I can't take pictures with my left hand.

Smear on leg. It looks like and feels like automotive axle grease. About as tenacious as well. But a lot hotter.

Next, smear the stuff on your leg. Focus on the front. You want to put as little as possible behind your knee simply because when you pedal, it naturally concentrates the Balm into the crevice created when you bend your knee. If you slather on the Balm back there it feels like someone is running a machete across that area after 15 minutes of pedaling. And feels like that until you wipe it off.

Second leg. Note rolled down socks. This is about when your eyes water a little.

Once you get some Balm on your legs, start spreading it around. I focus on getting good, even coverage. I try and get the stuff on my knees, shins, calves, thighs. I put less on my hamstrings since they're out of the wind and get kind of hot kind of quickly.

As an added benefit, Balm will moisturize dry skin nicely.

Even coverage. And an instant tan, kind of.

Once you finish putting the stuff on, roll down the top of your shorts, roll up your socks (if applicable), and make sure your legs have an even heat sensation. Any cold spots will be extremely cold later. Just skip the back of your knees - a very, very light coating there.

Wash your hands with soap and water or rub them clean with rubbing alcohol and a towel. Now you're ready to either put on the rest of your gear or, if you already have (usually I have), you can go for a ride.

In this case, I wore the following, bottom up, for a 55-57 degree sunny and not windy day:

Booties
Shoes
Socks
Shorts

SS jersey (base)
LS thick jersey (outer)
windvest, unzipped (my shoulders were a bit cool)
winter level head cover
vented helmet (not taped - I probably could have used the taped helmet with a cap but I wanted to cover my ears)
Long finger windproof gloves

I protect my core temperature and my head. My legs I let fend for themselves - if my core is hot, my legs will be able to draw off some of that heat energy. Instead of using my head to cool off my body, I make my legs do it. This way I have less material constricting my legs, the muscles and tendons are still warm, and, well, it looks very pro.

As soon as I started out I swapped for short finger gloves. I didn't need to conserve that much core heat.

Once you finish, you need to wipe off the Balm using rubbing alcohol or scrub the stuff off in the shower.

If you are using a shower, even luke warm water will burn like molten lava when it hits your Balm'ed legs. Work through it (because you know it's not burning you) and get the stuff off. Your legs will stay pleasantly hot but you'll lose the molten lava feeling. When your legs feel sort of clean (it'll feel a bit Vaseline-y) you're done.

Now you have to wait for 3-4 hours for your legs to suddenly cool. In my case, yesterday, it took 3 hours. Sitting at dinner, suddenly my legs cooled down, kind of like they suddenly exhaled and said "Enough is enough."

Note: this stuff smells somethin' powerful. So if you are in an area where things smell nice or should smell nice, put the Balm on somewhere else. The smell lingers for a day or so, more if it's in an enclosed place.

A final warning. Do not discuss this product in an airport. I'd refer to it as "heat rub".

"Dude, I'm at the security check point so I can't talk long. No, I checked my bike gear. I just have my shoes, Balm, laptop, and my SRM head. I can't wait until.. hey, what are you doing?? Why are you pointing a gun at me?? What do you mean shut up?? I didn't say BOMB, I said Ball-M!! Hey dude, I gotta go, I'll call you back later."

Okay, if you do, just be aware of any potential consequences.

Equipment - Nokons

Nokons...

They make aluminum cable housing kits for bikes.

It seems the main goal on a bike is to replace steel with lighter material - carbon fiber, titanium, aluminum, even ceramics. One overlooked steel thing is your cable housing, and although I pooh-poohed the Nokons at first, I'm now a convert.

I like Nokons for a few reasons.

One, they are lighter.

Two, ONCE used them when they were riding the lightest bikes around. Well, I thought they were the lightest bikes around. Plus their bikes just looked sooo cool.

Three, the derailleur housing simply cannot explode like normal housing. When I put my bike in the car, I need to turn the bars all the way to one side. Normal housing doesn't like this and protests by exploding after about two months. I tried my first Nokons after my 3rd normal housing blew up. Nokons last, well, they last until I take them off.

The disadvantage is that the shifting takes more time to dial in. Not a problem unless you fiddle with the bike the day before the race.

A minor one is that electrical tape takes the finish off right away (when you peel the tape off). Then they corrode and get that white powdery coating on them.

The cables are thinner than the Campy ones so use the Nokon supplied ones (or similar diameter ones). I decided to mix and match some silver pieces into the black ones to make things more interesting - I have a total of 3 sets of silver (I bought 2, so did another guy, and he didn't like the way things shifted with them so he gave the derailleur pieces to me). I have one brake+derailleur set on my old primary bike. When I took apart my backup for the bars and stem, I also stole the Nokons from the backup as well.

My front derailleur cable's housing was wearing through. With the shifting starting to deteriorate (I had to kick the front derailleur a few times to get it to shift), I decided it'd be too risky to use at the next race.

Tomorrow.

I had my ace mechanics work on the bike. They spotted something unusual and took great care to make sure my bike wouldn't be affected by it.

Tiger and Lilly (left and right), both intent on something.

It must have moved. Nokon box is in front of them, the Nokon cables in front of Lilly.

I slaved over the cables, housing, and tape for probably two hours. It didn't help that all my extra parts were downstairs, my bike toolbox started in the car, and my normal toolbox remained downstairs the whole time.

Ultimately I got it almost all the way done. As I mentioned before, one of the things I had to skip was doing the handlebar tape - with all my electrical tape in the van, 2 hours away, I left the housing dangling that evening.

The rear, where I went a bit nuts with the silver and black.

I used all black up front. The front derailleur is all aluminum, right up to the shift lever.

The rear derailleur has the cheater steel housing in use, the one supplied by Nokon. They save themselves about 6 inches of the more expensive aluminum pieces by using the cheater piece under the tape. My small bike lets me use almost the full set of aluminum bits. If you have a taller bike, you'll have to use both cheater pieces or buy the extender set.

A better view of the rear. It's obvious which gears I used when I trained today.

Nokons require more than normal cable tension to set up the derailleur. My standard trick is to put it on the second cog (12T, next to the 11T, for me), pull the cable "taut", and tighten the anchor bolt. The cable will stretch enough to let it drop down into the first cog. If it doesn't, just yank on the cable under the downtube like you're trying to play Bill the Cat's tongue. Works on violins to fine tune cable tension, works on bikes too.

After that I fiddle with the barrel adjuster to get it nice.

I didn't check it with the race wheels, which I now know are just a bit off. But things worked out okay in the end. My front derailleur shifted perfectly. Actually, I shifted it into the big ring before the race and left it there, so it worked perfectly before and after my race. And the rear derailleur was manageable, not hindering me in the least.

So, if you constantly have to turn your bars way to one side to fit it inside a car/vehicle, Nokons are great. They lose a bit of weight too but I didn't feel like weighing anything so I don't know exactly what effect they had.

Probably a lot less than the tasty dinner I had tonight.

Bethel Spring Series - Criterium de Bethel Recap

Some of you might have noticed that I didn't do a "Pre-Criterium de Bethel" bit. This is because, as it sometimes happens, getting ready for Sunday became a somewhat disorganized and behind-schedule affair.

In California I'd noticed that my derailleur cable housing was rubbing through where it hit the front brake, and earlier this week it started shifting a bit weird. Worried about the possibility of the cable going, I decided to break out a set of Nokons and install them.

This would also let me replace the tape on the bars, portions of which were starting to wear through. Very unprofessional, this bar tape wearing through, so it had to be changed. Bike washed too, drivetrain wasn't gleaming at all and the sticky sugary drink stuff on the frame wasn't looking too pro either.

In addition there were a bunch of normal things to do for a Bethel - charge the radios, wash the jerseys (stuck myself pretty deep with an open pin on one of the jerseys), cook food, gather my bike gear, ride a bit (30 minutes at 130 watts... pitiful I know), and pack the car. Then I got to my dad's place near Bethel, unpacked the car into the van, and went to sleep. No blog nothing.

In all this hustle and bustle a few things happened. First I realized my good electrical tape was in the van. At my dad's. And my bike was with me. At the apartment. So I did everything but wrap the bars - that would have to wait until race day.

On race day I went to get my knickers. It was about that time that I realized I had forgotten my "50 degree weather" bag which contained my knickers, favorite base layer, and some other "mid-chill" stuff.

The promotion aspect of the race went smoothly this week. We had an extra official - a third pair of eyes and ears is a good thing. We had two extra full time marshals, saving me the headache of finding people from race to race. And, since there was no major sweeping to be done, I sat at the registration table for a bit. It made it feel more like I was helping promote a race, not doing infrastructure maintenance for the town of Bethel.

I guess all this helped because I had a decent race. I rolled to the line without a warm up (but with handlebar tape nicely wrapped, a clean frame, and a gleaming drivetrain lubed with some ceramic lube that gets black as midnight in about 3 seconds), one of my friends asking me, "Did you get to warm up at all?" I had to shake my head no in response. I finally learned, after a quarter century of racing, that if I get my heart rate up to about my exploding point (160 bpm or so) in my warm up, I just bought myself about 90 minutes of "I feel good" riding. Since I was at 105 or something this didn't happen. Therefore I needed to ease into things.

The team went in with a more easy going attitude, no real strategy, but with no one but me gunning for a place, the strong guys were trying to help me out. The plan was pretty straight forward. Keep things together. Keep things fast at the end. And let me do what I need to do. If I need a hand in the last lap or two, have someone there "just in case".

Another racer, a friendly rival at Bethel but a strong ally in any other race, approached me and told me that his team didn't want moves to get away, and that they would ride to keep things together.

Good friends are hard to find, you know?

Early in the race, as usual, a number of guys tried to launch a race winning "the pack forgot about us" move. I went to move up to maybe see if I could launch a chase. Since I was virtually at the back of the field, I planned on moving up for a lap, figuring out from where to launch, and then launching. In order to move up I went up the hill using a bit more power than usual. A little too much.

My short effort moved me right past the front of the field.

Since it's kind of dumb to use energy like that without something to show for it, I kept going. I figured someone would chase, maybe even a few people, and if the field let us meander up the road, hey, great.

I'm on the hoods. This means I'm not serious. I'm looking for others to see if anyone else wants to make it serious.


Okay, now I'm serious, even if no one's around. Peering around Turn One to catch a glimpse of my quarry.

Wattage and speed tells a different story. I almost doubled my normal effort on the second half of the hill and I went about 5-7 mph faster. I did a nice, steady effort down the first stretch, realized I wasn't going to make it, and with about 50 feet separating me from the two man break, I started debating with myself. Should I go? Or should I sit up?

Since it was the fifth lap of the race, I sat up, tried to catch my breath, and had two chances to sit on - the first when a small group went by me, the second when the field caught me. Luckily I was okay and I managed to recover.

The overall leader is a powerful rider. After taking the lead in the second week (he won), the other teams made him chase everything down in the third week of racing. That backfired as he rode away from the field while doing a big pull - and he won again.

Yesterday, once again, the other teams (mine included) let him pull back some breaks. I was afraid he'd ride away from the field again but some other racers beat him to the punch. With less than 10 laps to go, two riders dangled just out of sight, off the front. They'd steadily built a decent lead, grabbing 5 seconds here, 2 seconds there, and going from a "We can bring it back" 15 seconds to a "Now what?" 30 seconds.

Finally someone decided enough was enough. He went to the front and did a monster pull, and I mean monster. It came close to detonating the field. Actually, it did detonate the field. But when the debris landed back on the road, it was all together again.

I had been closer to the back of the field than the front when it happened. I thought that this was it, someone went for the whole enchilada. The first 15 or so racers huddled together like a comet streaking away, and the rest of the field resembled its broken up tail. I saw three distinct gaps in the 15 spots ahead of me, and when the guy in front of me hesitated as the rider in front detonated, I screamed, "GO!"

Hesitation gone, the guy closed the 10 foot gap, then the guys in front of him closed their gaps, and so on and so forth until half a lap later, we were technically in contact with the front of the field again.

I looked to see if the Leader had flown the coop - no, he was sitting near the front (at the front?), doing a steady pull.

Suddenly Mike appeared at my side, face red, looking a little winded.

"I think I brought them back. I said F it, I'm not letting them go so I went as hard as I could. I think they're coming back now."

Oh.

So that's Mike when he pedals in anger. No wonder he rode me off his wheel, accidental like, when he was trying to lead me out. My SRM data shows he did a monster 32 mph pull for most of the lap.

Anyway, the two guys were still dangling up there. And then suddenly the field slowed so much it was like we'd stopped. We didn't go much faster than 12 mph up the hill and averaged less than 24 mph for a couple laps.

I, of course, like this, so I rested and recovered, getting ready for the big effort. Nothing like getting psyched up for the sprint. The only thing was that such a slow down could have been the field giving up on the two man break. But mine was not to worry about them, it was simply to sprint the sprint.

Mike went towards the front again, to keep things kinda strung out, and I steadily rode through the field to get into about 25-30 places back at the bell. I saw another blogger SOC move up the side a bit and I realized from his line and his pedaling that he meant to move up a bit more. Obligingly I moved onto his wheel.

He pulled into the shelter of the field about 15 guys back, I moved past him to slot in perhaps 10 back from the front.

The guys at the front were moving left more than right, perhaps trying to prevent too many racers from sitting in on the left side, but more realistically they were just trying to pull off and everyone just followed them.

Mike made his final appearance here, doing a pull to string things out, and then I lost sight of him. The speed started ramping up and the head of the race went single file. Some guy blew and came backwards - I went curbside to pass him and used that effort to move up a bit at the same time. When I slotted back in I found myself about 5 spots back from the Leader. Guys had moved up on the left side too, so I'm not sure if I was in the top 10 at that point.

We went past my jump point, well past it, and then people started sprinting, cutting left towards the apex of the left bend. I thought it'd bottleneck there so I went right, slicing through the line of racers to find some clear, open road. I went as hard as I could, my legs slowly turning a too-big gear. I could see it now - I lead out the sprint and get swarmed at the line.

I saw the eventual second place rider fade. Suddenly I felt a glimmer of hope.

Where. Is. The. Line.

I tried to find the finish line, my head poking up so I could focus on the white line. I really should get my glasses tightened up.

The "my glasses need tightening" look.

Then, my legs exhausted, my senses telling me no one was to my immediate right or left, I threw the bike early, reaching for the line.

Early bike throw due to tired legs.

Then, so I could breathe, I hauled my body back onto the bike so I could get around the corner without falling over.

It looks like I sprinted through the line but I'm just trying to get my butt back onto the saddle.

I rolled around, guys congratulating me on my win. Field sprint win, I thought, and I said so. A father/son pair disagreed - they were quite certain it was for the win win though, and I checked.

Mike had brought the break back.

I'd won the race.

Booyah!

(A million thanks to Bob Griffith for taking the above shots)

Bethel Spring Series - Criterium de Bethel Results

Results posted as they are available...

Sorry I copy/pasted the wrong M40, 3-4, and P123 initially. Corrected now.

Cat 5, Race 1, 13 laps, 28 racers
1 Brian Amen Unattached
2 Brendan Delamere Unattached
3 Frank O'Reilly Unattached
4 Frank DeLio Unattached
5 Thomas Thornton Target Training
6 John Ercolani Cycle Fitness Cycling Club
7 Andrew Lawson Laurel
8 Carlos Fonseca Unattached
9 Gregory McCoy Unattached
10 Marc Gagliano Unattached
11 Justin Tyberg Bethel Cycle
12 Vinnie DeFrancesco CVC/Subaru of New England
13 Michael Colabella Connecticut Coast Cycling
14 Jim Reid Bethel Cycle
15 Nicholas Bartow Unattached
16 John Meyer Cycle Fitness Cycling Club
17 Frank Navoae Unattached
18 peter Muckell Unattached
19 Anthony Petrillo Unattached
20 Vincent Longo Unattached

Cat 5, Race 2, 13 laps, 27 racers
1 Jonathan Nash Pawling Cycle & Sport
2 Denis Adiletti Bethel Cycle
3 Andrew Nasca Unattached
4 Hernan Tola Unattached
5 Perkins Miller Unattached
6 Esteban Sequera Unattached
7 Michael Buchanan DC Racing/Danny's Cycles
8 Hank Osborn Unattached
9 Edward Novak Yorktown Cycles
10 Alex Salazar Unattached
11 Gregory Henry Unattached
12 Guido Wollmann Unattached
13 michael dimson Yorktown Cycles
14 Ron Schildge Cyclonauts Racers
15 David Corr Berkeley Bicycle Club
16 Geert Mol Unattached
17 Alec Bernard Staples Bike Club
18 Showky Kaldawy Unattached
19 Logan Piepmeier Wesleyan University - Cardinal Velo
20 Mark Sullivan Unattached

Cat 4, 22 laps, 44:54 (solo break), 44:57 (field), 49? racers
1 Christopher Thomas Cycle Center Racing 249
2 Zachary Staszak Pawling Cycle & Sport 244
3 Rick Magee Bethel Cycle 210
4 Pedro Sanchez DC Racing / Danny's Cycles 232
5 Chuck Litty Bethel Cycle Sport Club 228
6 Brian Kelley Pawling Cycle & Sport 230
7 Justin Kane CCC/Keltic Construction/Zanes 214
8 Anthony Troiano Unattached 209
9 John Romano Bethel Cycle Sport Club 246
10 eugene doherty Team DC Racing 204
11 Douglas Allen Signature Cycles/DKNY 222
12 Jay Vincent Cycle Center Racing 213
13 #N/A #N/A #N/A ?
14 Roger Billharz HVVC 247
15 Steven Suto Bethel Cyle Sport 250
16 James Mernin CRCA 227
17 Eduardo Atehortua Cafeteros Cycling Club 201
18 Donald Hard HVVC 223
19 Adam Ritter Stage 1 234
20 LYLE BARON PEDDELARS PARADISE CYCLING TEAM 202

Womens, 22 laps, 49:40, 27 racers
1 Ann Marie Miller CRCA Sanchez Metro
2 Maria Quiroga CRCA/Radical Media
3 Stacey Jensen Kissena
4 Haley Beann Rocky Mounts
5 Dale Malkames USI
6 Andrea Meyers Team Kenda Tire
7 Elena Leznik CRCA/Radical Media
8 Amanda Braverman Cycle Center
9 Mimi Boyle Unattached
10 Nancy Ford USI
11 Cheryl Wolf Bethel Cycle Sport
12 Caitlin McNarish Connecticut Coast
13 Audrey Friedrichsen Scott Unattached
14 Kathryn Douglas CCNS / Pedal Power
15 Rebecca Koh CRCA / Comedy Central
16 Maria Dumoulin Unattached
17 Ann Marie Donovan CRCA/Razorfish
18 Lisa Force CRCA / Comedy Central
19 Stephanie Busloff CRCA / Avenue A | Razorfish Cycling
20 Kristin Lotito Unattached
20 Lauren Zucker CRCA / Avenue A | Razorfish Cycling


Masters 40+ Name Team
1 Robert Lattanzi CRCA Sids Cannondale
2 Aaron Wolfe CRCA
3 John Funk Cycle Fitness
4 Mike Allaire Target Training
5 Morgan Stebbins CRCA/Sids-Cannondale
6 Scott Bodin Target Training
7 Horacio Ahumada cafeteros cycling club
8 Rich Foley CCC/Keltic Const/Zanes cycles
9 John Morgan Clinton Cycling Club
10 Maximino Veiga Fastar
11 Christopher DiMattio Bethel Cycle Sport
12 Brian Wolf Bethel Cycle Sport
13 Rick Spear Target Training
14 Rogelio Frutos Zephyr
15 Jay Vincent Cycle Center Racing
16 Miguel Torres Jr Laurel Bicycle Club
17 Jim Escobar Honeywell
18 John Romano Bethel Cycle Sport Club
19 Mario Smith Unattached
20 Steven Suto Bethel Cyle Sport

Cat 3/4 Name Team
1 Akira Sato Connecticut Coast
2 Filip Capala Capala Brothers
3 vinicius tavares Century Road Club Association
4 colin prensky CRCA/Sanchez-Metro
5 David Freifelder Westwood Velo
6 John Morales cafeteros cycling club
7 Christopher DiMattio Bethel Cycle Sport
8 Sam Dodge Stage One Cycling
9 Aaron Wolfe CRCA
10 Glenn Babikian Signature Cycles/ DKNY
11 Connor Sallee CRCA
12 Graham Lang CRCA
13 Maison Chen Unattached
14 Salvatore Abbruzzese Blue Ribbon
15 Johan Koserius Fiordifrutta
16 Don Catlin Tokeneke
17 Jeffery Ferraro Greater Hartford Cycling Club
18 Peter Bertolini CCC/Keltic Const./Zanes Cycles
19 Christopher Adams Cheshire Cycle Racing
20 Jim Escobar Honeywell


Pro/1/2/3 Name Team
1 Anthony Alessio Stage One Cycling
2 Stephan Badger TARGETRAINING
3 John - Paul Kaminski Connecticut Coast
4 Christopher Fisher Unattached
5 Jacob Hacker Unattached
6 Salvatore DiVetta Sommerville Sports
7 Brent Arthurs Evolution Cycling Club
8 Monte Frank Zepher Cycling
9 David Freifelder Westwood Velo
10 Kyle Foley Cuevas/ACT
11 Chris Crowell Stage One Cycling
12 Rich Foley CCC/Keltic Const/Zanes cycles
13 Bryan Zieroff Stage One Cycling
14 Scott Bodin Target Training
15 peter petrillo CVC/Subaru of New England
16 Hunter Pronovost CCNS / Pedal Power
17 Craig Luekens Fastar
18 eric merrill ccc/keltic const./zanes cycles
19 Ron Fantano Sommerville Sports
20 Aliaksandr Bialiauski CCB