New Years day ride
We’ve had a great ending to 2011 with a very mild autumn and early winter. Our weekly Saturday group rides have been going out every week from the shop at 8am and are a steady 20 riders or so. As indicated in our email newsletter we alternate between flat and hilly, but keep the rides consistently to around 3 hours. This is perfect training for the off season and a chance to improve upon your group riding and paceline skills. Plus the group will help motivate to get you out on those cold days when you otherwise wouldn’t be riding.
- If you plan on sprinting for a town line do it in a safe manor no need to have some big stupid pile up and call for help.
- It’s not a race so please don’t try to prove anything
- Stronger riders should be making a better effort to help the weaker rider on hill.
- Stronger riders need to set a steady even pace.
- All riders-stay out of road, three abreast riding is not cool we just look like a bunch of idiots.
- If we are climbing there is absolutely no need to pass anyone, either give them a push to close the gap of help them back on on the downhill.
- Make sure to eat and drink as needed. If you bonk or have poor performance because you didn’t do one of these things you may be subject to being left behind.
- Single file out when appropriate. If we can ride two abreast and fit in the breakdown lane great if we can’t then single out.
- Pay attention. The groups have been rather large this year. It’s okay to talk but you need to be looking ahead while doing it. Save eye contact for the parking lot. Multi rider crashes are prohibited on the ride.
Here are the GPS and profiles of a hilly ride and a flat ride. Come join us!
This is a profile from a flat ride
This is a profile from a hilly ride
In the last coach’s corner we talked about keeping fitness in the Fall and recovering from your race season. In the overall scheme of training the next big step that I mentioned last time was to talk about is goal setting for the upcoming season.
Let’s start with a definition of a goal and maybe a few synonyms to help you get to where you need to be. A GOAL is an end one strives to attain. GOALis the purpose for your actions. Some synonyms that are relevant would be a destination, objective, mission or target. Before you keep reading take a minute to understand and absorb that goals bring purpose to your training, goals are the answer to “Why am I doing this?”.
- Are you thinking?
- Absorbing?
- Thinking some more?
- Wrapping you mind around the idea?
- Picturing a goal?
- Getting excited about training with purpose?
Great now that you took that time let’s look atgoal setting Good goals should be ones that you have control over, are within your grasp and appeal to you on a deep emotional level that will that will give you the stamina to reach them. Okay let’s break the above down a little more.
Control – A goal needs to be about you not someone or something else that you have no control over. Example – “My goal is to beat Joe in a sprint.” does not work as well as ” My goal is to bring my top speed in a sprint from 28 mph to 31 mph.”
Within your grasp – If you have spent any time on a bike you know that for most people small improvements require a lot of hard work and dedication. So you have to plan on setting goals that are attainable given your situation. ” My goal is to win the Purgatory road race in the 3s” may not be very attainable if you are a cat 4, have no time to train and were dropped at the same race last year.
Finally the goal needs to appeal to you on a deep emotional level – simply put if a goal does not meet some deep inner desire it will be seemingly unattainable even if it is within your control and attainable. You simply will lack the drive needed to get where you want to be. So if you goal is “Be the first person to the top of the hill on the local group ride.”. You will not make a extra effort to do it simply because deep down you know that even if you did get to the top of the hill first you will not feel rewarded. Now get some paper and a pen and write some goals!
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So I have been been racing the last few cross races of the season and this weekend I went to the DAS Cross up in Dayville CT. Not a long drive up around 50 minutes or so and a fun course. Definitely make the drive next year if you want to try out cross and Don puts on a cross training series in the fall if a mid week ride is more your style..prizes were great to beer and power bars. Plus to top it all off FREE entry for bike shop employees!
The course is more old school then the new wide open verge type races that have gained in popularity in New England…relatively narrow course and small sections of single track sprinkled in throughout the course. A steep run up with a fast entry is a real highlight along with the covered bridge that you go through out there. This time they also had two single barrier dismounts. The second one being hard because there were a lot of roots on the remount that made it nearly impossible to get into the pedals clipped in while taking a short rooty decent. Don’t fret there was plenty of flat fast riding and my favorite…a sand pit through a volley ball court.
I did my usual warm up, a run around the course and then I even put in a few laps around to check it out. Small group on the line for today 11 guys. We had a uneventful start with no crashes and a group of five riders made the first lap together. This group was experienced enough to make a real race of it for me. Since the course is tight passing can be difficult especially if you are not the kind of explosive rider needed with short open sections found here. A few of the passes I made were nothing but making a opportunity of someone else’s mistake such as hitting some local fauna or someone missing a turn. By the third lap I was out front and riding my steady pace.
Now watching a race like this can seem pretty boring because everyone settles in to their own pace and are separated by some distance, there is no bumping shoulders or crafty passes to watch. For the rider it is a different experience, you are tense because either your are chasing or are trying to stay ahead of your closest competitor. Any mistakes can prove disastrous in a close race so you are very focused on riding your best. So if you are watching your friends or family out there and it seems boring be certain that for them the race is really capturing a 100% of their attention and focus. For me this is the best part of racing, your mind is free of it’s day to day burdens of work, family or other thoughts. Try it sometime!
I had a few close calls with the front wheel washing out after the covered bridge, tripping on the dismount for the big run up and the course becoming slick as the sun melted the frozen ground. I really couldn’t afford any major mistakes since second place was not far away and would certainly catch me if I fell. Luckily enough I was able to finish it off in the lead and feel good about my effort.
Post race included picking up the loot and talking with the other rides about how their races went, the challenges of the course and generally socializing with other people who have my interests. The post race part of the day cannot be under estimated for it’s fun factor. Get out there and hit those events! Amos
Plymouth Festival of Cross, Course 2, 11/13/11 – Ben Bardwell
Sunday it was back to Plymouth High School for day three of cross racing this
week for me. On the drive home I reflected on what hard men stage racers really
are as I was cracked after three days of comparable short cross races
Sunday was much warmer and just a shade less windy than Saturday but the
wind was certainly still a factor. The course was not too different than Saturdays
with some sections reused, a few run in reverse, more windy grass, and two short
sand pits.
I got to the start line and enjoyed a front row call up again. My legs felt a lot
better than I had anticipated so my hopes were high for the day. I had an
inauspicious start when I slipped out of my pedal at the whistle. This put me on my
back foot a bit but I entered the woods in the lead group. As we excited the woods
the future winner had built a bit of a gap on a group of 3 of us. I encouraged my
mates in the chase group to work to bring him back but they were not interested.
Today’s lap was a bit longer and as we rolled through with three to go my Corner
Cycle buddy from the day before worked his way up to us and we took off chasing
the leader. We did catch up and we both pulled through but after the barriers
previous leader in the Bikes Not Bombs kit attacked and dropped me but took the
Corner Cycle Rider with him. Two previous days of racing in my legs caught up with
me and I could not chase back on. First one and then a second chasing rider soon
caught me. As we rolled through with one to go I locked onto the wheel of the
second guy to catch me and hoped to save some energy to try to get around him and
maybe catch the rider in third. This all was playing out ok until I had a bobble in the
sand heading into the finish. I rolled through for 5th maybe 2 seconds back. Lessons
from today are the following. My cross “stage race” was fun, and good training, but I
my performance was certainly compromised by day three. I need to work on my
sand technique. This is the third race in the last few weeks where an issue in the
sand impacted my race. Guess maybe I will be spending some time at the beach this
week. Time to sign off, put up my weary legs, and start thinking about next
weekend.
Plymouth Festival of Cross Course 1, 11/12/11 – By Ben Barwell
After a great day of racing in Falmouth at Eco Cross it was a short drive to the
north to Plymouth High School South for a Saturday and Sunday double header of
old school New England cross racing at it best. The B race at Plymouth was a 2-3-4
so I decided to race down, as some might say, and mix it up with some of my old
buddies from the Cat 3 field who proved to be as fast as I remembered them.
Saturday dawned clear and really windy, and the wind would play a bigger
factor in this race than any other cross race in recent memory for me. I got to the
school and got in a few laps to recon the course. It was a pretty good mix of wide-
open grass sections the seemed to all be upwind contrasted with close to an equal
amount of technical rooted woods sections. The course was fairy dry and offered
good grip so Typhoons were the call of the day.
While it was not announced in the race flier they lined us up by
Crossresults.com ranking, which was a nice surprise and gave me a front row call
up. The whistle blew and I had a mediocre start sending me off the pavement and
into the woods about 5th wheel. After some gravel road and another short woods
sectioned that excited with a short but tricky run/ ride up it was out into the wind
on the grass. I moved up to 2nd wheel and after a bit grew concerned the pace was
too slow to string the race out and get us away from the main field before the next
woods section. I went to the front and attacked a bit to see what would happen.
Well two other guys stayed glued to my wheel but we did start to put some distance
on the rest of the field. This pattern kept up for a while with my attacking on the
grassy sections and losing a bit in the woods where I am a bit weaker technically.
The lead was swapped several times as we made a few halfhearted attempts at
working together. Finally with roughly 3 laps to go a guy in a Corner Cycle kit pulled
through whom I did not recognize. I took a quick look over my shoulder and
realized two things, this guy had bridged up from pretty far back and we had gapped
my earlier front group companions. I locked onto his wheel and we had a quick
chat. We settled into a fairly orderly rotation for the next two laps and built a nice
little gap on the rest of the field. About half way through the last lap the Corner
Cycle rider gapped me just a bit prior to a woods section. I was not super concerned
at that point as I thought I could catch back on in the next grassy, windy sector but
coming out of the woods on a longer climb I had a miss shift and ended up having to
run most of the climb. This did two things, it gave the Corner Cycle rider a gap I
couldn’t close and allowed one guy from the chase group to ride up to me putting
me under a bit of pressure. I got out of the woods and drilled it on the grass into the
wind, thankfully I was able to drop the chaser who had ridden up to me but I could
not close the gap to the winner. I rolled through for 2nd around 10 seconds back and
third was maybe 10 seconds behind me.
It was a fun race and a really hard effort. It was certainly different to race for
40 minutes again instead of 60. Just when you really start to hurt the race is over.
In reflection I took two lessons away from the race. First keep you head about you
and don’t change how you do things when pressed. My miss shift cost me a chance
to fight for the win and nearly put me into third place. Second, stay out of the wind!
Those early long pulls I took into the wind with guys riding my wheel likely came
back to haunt me later in the race when I got dropped by the winner. Now on to
day three of cross for the week.
Cheshire Cross, Cat 1-3, 11/19/11 – By Ben Bardwell
Up and down that is what comes to mind when I describe the course in
Cheshire. The course featured one long run up followed by a fast and sketchy
descent through the woods to another moderate climb followed by a really fast and
apparently loose but actually grippy descent to a muddy bridge crossing leading to
an epic ride-able climb. You then descended to a grass section broken up by a set of
barriers, an annoying sand section and then a greasy off camber section leading to
some flat fast grass taking you through the finish area. After a pre-ride first
impressions suggested a fairly fast tread was appropriate and most guys hit the
starting line with grifos of some sort. I was concerned with traction on the long
steep dirt climb in the woods and the greasy of camber section. In the end I was
happy to have the added traction, as I was able to ride more than one line up the
long dirt climb.
We had a group of around 25 at the line for the start of the 1-2-3 race and
with no staging I felt lucky to wiggle my way to a front row start. The start was
about 100 meters leading to a 180-degree turn onto the main course. The whistle
blew and for the second race in a row I missed my pedal, which put me several
riders further back than I wanted to be. I got going and tried to hold my own to the
run up where I knew there would be a bottleneck. As we got the top of the run up a
lead group had moved pretty far up the road and I was slightly mired by some
slower guys through the woods. Once we got out of the woods and onto the grass I
was able to work my way through a few more guys and settle in to ride my race.
There was a pretty good gap to the next guy in front of me and I had a decent gap to
the guy behind me, cyclocross TT time. With maybe 4 to go I realized the guy
behind me was making up some distance on me. A bobble through a tight sand
section allowed him to close the gap and he immediately attacked and gained a bit of
a gap. I had a feeling he could not sustain the pace so I rode steady and after a half
lap or so I reeled him in and made the pass. This seemed to break his spirit and he
quickly went backwards. Now around 2 laps to go it looked like I was making a
small amount of progress on the rider ahead. I had a goal and I thought enough time
to accomplish it. Coming out of the woods my rear tire felt a bit odd but not terrible
so. I made the call to ride past the pit, which ended up being a bad move. 100
meters later it was clear I had a puncture. I now had half a lap to ride on a rear flat.
I did my best to keep a balance between fast pace and not crashing out hoping to
nurse it to the pit and stay in front of the guy behind me. The rider behind me
closed the gap on the fast grass section leading to the second pit entrance. I entered
the pit and made the bike switch and I was passed as I excited. My legs were pretty
cooked from the effort riding the flat but I hoped to grab his wheel and try to come
around him after I was able to recover a bit. I got a couple of breaths on the descent
after the run up and gained a bit more on the descent to the bridge. We booth
bobbled on the bridge a bit and I was right on his wheel headed to the long ride up.
I really wanted to lead in to the climb so I made an aggressive pass and gained a bit
of a gap by the top of the climb. The other guy closed that gap down the descent to
the grass and was locked on my wheel. I was pretty nervous he would ride my
wheel through the whole fast section leading to the finish line and come around me
at the line. I knew I was strong on that section and there was enough wind that if I
could get a decent gap before the finish I could probably hold him off. When we hit
the flat section I attacked with all I had and put my head down and went for it. I
kept expecting to see the guy come around me but I snuck a look under my arm at
20 meters from the line and saw no one. In the end I closed the gap to the guy in
front down to 5 seconds and gained 5 seconds on the guy behind me. The effort was
good for 9th place for the day.
The terrain in this race stretched my skills for sure with the gnarly descents
in the woods and while I generally don’t like that kind of course I had a lot of fun. I
also appreciated all the cheering from the mob of people who lined the dirt climb. I
also really appreciated the few friendly pats on the rump I received going up that
darn hill. Finally I learned that if a tire feels weird. DON’T pass the pit. That is it for
now. Next stop the CT State Champs.
Hop Brook Cross-Ct State Champs, Cat1-3, 11/20/11- By Ben Barwell
Sunday morning dawned sunny and warm as I made the drive to Hop Brook
Lake for the CT State Cross Championships. Who would have thought you could
race in a short sleeve skinsuit in November in New England but the 60 degree temps
made it the call of the day. I got in a quick recon lap and saw that today would be a
lot different than the race the day before. This course was all about power, long
pavement sections, long soft grass sections, and a really long beach section. I was
super stoked for this race.
We had a small group of 16 guys but I knew several of them and knew it
would be a dogfight for the win. Finally I had a good start and was second wheel out
of the starting chute. I went to the front and ramped it up curious to see what would
happen. It was now two of us with a decent gap. Around two laps in two more
riders joined us at the front and it really became a slugfest with several lead changes
over the next few laps. At 4 laps to go the eventual winner attacked and popped me
off the back of the group. A half lap later I saw third place drift back a bit so I hoped
I could work my way up to there. By now first and second had a large gap on us. At
two laps to go I was feeling pretty flat and 5th place passed me. I grabbed his wheel
but he gapped me on a loose off camber section. I tried to ride steady and hoped to
catch him, as it was the same rider who passed me the day before and then blew up.
300 meters later I came back up on him and it looked like he had had a mechanical
as I went by. As I took the bell for the last lap I was struggling to stay in front on the
new fifth place rider. He made the pass just after the barriers and again I tried to
stay on his wheel but I just did not have the legs to do it and he quickly had a big
gap. He kept going and passed fourth place was well. Good on him for having such
good legs so late in the race. I ended up 5th, a decent result, but the surprise of the
day was when I was called up on the loudspeaker to pick up a medal. To my
surprise my finish was good enough to be crowned 30-34 CT State Champion for
2011.
In review I was happy with the way I rode the race. I started well after two
races with bad starts. I also rode the sand well and found that a slightly different
technique worked quite well there. You might argue that I spent two much time at
the front of the race but I wanted to be in the lead group and I accomplished this for
half the race. It would have been great to have the legs to hold onto 4th but it just
was not to be today. I will sign off until next weekend with the next stop on the tour
being Sterling, MA.
Baystate Cross Day 2, UCI Elite Men, 11/27/11
Sunday’s race at Chocksett Middle School moved up to a UCI Cat 2 from
yesterday’s NRC race but it was essentially the same group lining up to rip around
another of Tom Steven’s special creations. Sunday was a bit cooler and the air was
certainly damp with fog in the morning. This made the whole course just a little bit
slicker than the day before. Today’s course also had less open sections, a longer
section in the woods. There were also two sets of stairs and a set of uphill barriers.
I had another good draw and ended up with a third row call up. We did
another full lap of the cinder track and then it was into a 90-degree left-hander into
a set of stairs onto a greasy off camber section. I was quite pleased with the
company I was in when we hit the stairs and despite sore legs in the morning and a
poor nights sleep I was feeling really good. After the first lap I had settled in with a
group ahead and behind and I was pretty happy with my choice of Rhinos for tread,
as the corners were a bit greasy and loose. Probably the funniest moment of the
race happened with 4 to go when Colin Reuter (mechanical took him out early) was
rabidly encouraging me to catch his roommate who was just up the road. I for some
reason let my wind wonder to a reply to his cheering and it took me three tries to
get back on my bike after the stairs. Lesson learned, don’t talk to spectators.
Seriously though the botched remount did rattle me a bit and allowed the chase
group of three behind me to gain a little bit. I took a breath and brought my mind
back to the task at hand and reminded myself to stay smooth and ride hard. I was
mildly worried about the group behind me as I was riding alone and they were a
group of three. Luckily by two laps to go the group had broken up with one rider
maybe 10 seconds back. With 1.5 laps to go I finally caught Colin’s roommate when
he slipped on an off camber downhill. I had a sizeable but not insurmountable gap
to the rider in the BMC kit ahead of me so I had my goal for the end of the race. Try
as I might I could not close down the 10 second gap to the BMC rider and I rolled
through the line for 24th.
I had a few take aways from this weekend. First I was really stoked to have
this finish in a UCI race against the group who was racing. Second, I am coming into
decent form. I beat a lot of guys who I was not even close to two three weeks ago. I
did a pretty big block of racing over the last 4 weeks including a three-day weekend
three weeks ago and those efforts are paying off. Finally after two weekends of
smaller local races I was reminded how lucky we are to have the Verge Series and
the Shimano NE Pro CX Series. The people who run these events really put on
amazing races and we should all say thanks to them when we can.
Baystate Cross Day 1, Elite Men, 11/26/11
Chocksett Middle School in Sterling, MA is the venue for the double-header
weekend of Baystate Cyclocross. It had been two years and multiple upgrades since
I raced here last but I remembered it as two courses I really enjoyed. The
unseasonable weather of last weekend was repeated and Saturday was sunny and in
the 60s even by the 3pm race time for the Elite men with very little wind. Tom
Stevens did not disappoint with a super fun course of mostly slightly slick grass and
one grueling run-up, a tricky set of sort of down hill barriers, a fast half lap on the
cinder running track, and a greasy but short run / ride up.
A group of 36 men lined up at 3pm. I had a good starting draw and ended up
with a third row call up. The start was a full lap and a half of the cinder track and
then a set of S turns leading us into the short run/ ride up and then straight into the
run up. The group stayed pretty much together during the lap of the running track
and there was the expected chaos when we hit the muddy uphill leading to the run
up. We were all off our bikes and there was a good jam up but I stayed hard right
and came out of it in decent shape. The race strung out a bit after the run-up and I
settled in. I took stock of where I was and was quite happy with where I was sitting.
After a lap I lost 2 or 3 guys who had been caught up in the run-up pileup. After that
I had a pretty good gap on the guys behind and in front of me. With two laps to go I
realized the two guys behind me (Colin Reuter and a French Canadian Rider) who
had been holding steady had closed the gap quite a bit and where right on my heels.
The French Canadian took a big pull and closed the gap as we entered the running
track. He sat on my wheel for an instant but I sat up a bit and forced him to pull
through. I then locked onto their wheel. I commented to Colin something about just
beginning to race at two to go as they closed the gap to me really quickly. His reply
was unintelligible. I rode at the back of the group for a quarter lap and when we hit
a shorter straight section a put in the best attack I could muster. The French
Canadian rider followed my move and then countered getting a decent gap but Colin
was dropped. A short while later we rolled through for one to go and I could see the
French Canadian moving away but I could also see I was making ground on an
Embrocation rider. I put my head down and did everything I could to close the gap.
As we entered the false flat gravel section leading to the running track I had gotten
to the wheel of Adam Sullivan, the Embrocation rider. I road his wheel to the
running track and with 75m to go I opened up my sprint and was able to come
around him to finish up 25 the last spot in the money. Reflecting on the race I was
fairly happy with my finish as I felt I road hard the whole race, didn’t make too many
technical mistakes and, I beat a bunch of guys who have in the past finished in front
of me.