Team Stories
After a week of living it up in nyc and late nights around town, i felt like superman. Since master's track natz at TTown was only a short drive from manhattan, i decided to race guys my age.
Won the 30-39 pts race. Lapped the field and won it in style. Check out the kung fu pose.
-Steve Pelaez
A while back, Matt won the omnium at Get Ready For Summer:
By lapping the field, Steve is a National Champion in the Master's Points Race:
Team MK Cycles, our Sister Race Team in Zimbabwe, received their team kits in the most recent Africa container shipment. The kits came just in time for the Zimbabwe National Race in Harare, where the gentlemen of MK Cycles put in a great showing. Out of a field of fifty competitors, Pk placed 7th and Nkulumo placed 3rd.
Due to this performance, Nkulumo has been drafted to represent Zimbabwe at the All-Africa Games on the Zimbabwe National Team. The team, also known as the Zimbabwe Cycling Federation, first entered the international scene following team member Timothy Jones' successful run on the European and African racing circuits in the 1990s, and more recently, groundbreaking Zimbabwean mountain bike racer Antipas Kwari's participation in the 2008 Olympics. Nkulumo is very excited to go to Harare for accreditation this weekend, and he's thrilled to join such a prestigious African team.
Congratulations to Team MK Cycles and to Nkulumo and Pk! They're Zimbabwe National champions today, and are Olympic hopefuls of tomorrow!
I posted this photo on facebook yesterday with this caption “Nice, but I’d rather have my Cannondale SuperSix HiMod2.”
After all the crashes at today’s Burlingame P12 crit, I feel more strongly about the above statement. There’s no other bike I’d ride besides the Cannondale SuperSix HiMod. Let me explain why:
When I asked my son what makes a bike fast, he said "The rider!" He' smart beyond his 7 years and is so right. Prior to racing the my SuperSix HiMod, I was racing the new Ridley Noah. It was claimed to be the fastest bike. Undoubtedly in the wind tunnel, it probably is the fastest. But in the real world test, there's nothing faster than the SuperSix HiMod. Why, well simply because I feel so at ease and comfortable on this bike. I've never ridden a bike that I've felt so confident in hitting the tightest, fastest turns. It floats over every bump like it has shox. I'm so relaxed on it that I'm essentially saving all my energy and focusing it to drive the bike faster and faster, no energy is wasted. Everything is channeled to simply and completely railing the turns and blitzing the straightaways.
Real World Example:
During the P12 race at Burlingame today, I was smiling throughout the race thinking how awesome it is to ride this bike. I felt as though I had an unfair advantage over the field, lucky me. With 3 laps to go, I was unfortunately involved in a collision. Another rider and I basically hit each others bars while sprinting at over 30+mph. I was jerked forward and ended up straddling the toptube of my bike with my left leg unclipped. The bike's steering upfront was so solid, I was easily able to regain my balance, get back on the saddle, clip back in, and resume the race in motion. Unfortunately, the other rider lost control of his bike and ended up crashing hard. I honestly think the only difference between us was the bike and I can confidently say that my Cannondale Supersix HiMod saved me from a really bad accident.
Oh yeah, when I regained my balanced, I made it back to the front thanks to the help of super leadout hardman, Shawn. I still managed to get 6th despite sprinting with my brakes on because of a broken front wheel. I was so at ease on the bike that I didn't even realize that my front wheel was broken (broken spokes) until after the finish when I pulled over.
I usually do not like using the word love with material things. But with this bike, I'll make an exception. I love my Cannondale Supersix HiMod. Quite simply, it's the best bike I've ever ridden!
-Steve Paleaz
Below is a recap of my time racing in each stage of the Tour of America’s Dairyland throughout southeast Milwaukee. I tried to include highlights, the lessons I learned as a developing Cat 3 rider, Garmin/Strave data, and photos from each race. This report is not only for you as a reader to live vicariously through my trip, but to help me reflect and ___ my experiences. I hope you enjoy. Last year I had intentions to race in the Tour of America’s Dairyland, but decided to call the trip off as my chronic tendonitis was flaring up. At the start of this 2011 season when putting my calendar together, it was one of the first events to go up. Despite numerous cases of tendonitis, illness, and work, I was determined to go to Wisconsin this year. ToAD is 11 stages long but the 2-3s don’t race in the first stage making ours only 10. Each stage is one day after the other with no rest days in between. Prior to racing Toad, the largest number of consecutive days I had raced has only been three at the 2010 Madera and Top Sport Stage Races. My fitness was nowhere near where I wanted it to be going into ToAD, but I figured Racing as a Cat 3 in a major Cat 2-3 stage race would still be an excellent experience and what better way to get back into shape.
I flew into Milwakee the night before the first stage and arrived at the airport around 2am. After an hour of late flights and locked luggage containers, I was informed that they had lost my carbon Reynolds tubulars and that they had no idea where they were. No problem, I brought my Mavic clinchers so would be still be able to race the next day. The wheels arrived just before the second stage.
Pre-Lesson of the Stage:Pack your race wheels with your bike and plan for the worst.
June 17th: Thiensville, WIThiensville Extreme Ski & Bike Cycling Classic The first stage of the tour went off in Theisville which was only a mile from Ben’s family’s house in Meqon where I was staying. The race started out fast with riders from all over ready to show their strength. After the race I found out that for many of the riders in the area, this was the start of their season. This was more than obvious during the race as we had about 8 crashes due to pedal strikes, blown tires, diving corners, or good old fashioned overlapping wheels. Crashfest, warzone, minefield, death march, call it what you want, this was by the far the most dangerous crit I had ever done. ¾ of the way through the race several riders in front of me went down and bikes went flying through the air. I carefully feathered my brakes, ducked a rear wheel flying over my head, dodged a rider sliding across the pavement, and came to a stop. I turned around, entered the pit, and got back into the race. It is important to note that I feathered my brakes and did not grab handfuls which can not only cause you to blow a tire or skid and crash yourself, but can cause riders behind you not expecting this sudden declaration to crash into you. With about 5 laps to go, there was a prime announced for a $350 and a solo rider dangling off the front of the pack for the past couple laps. I launched my sprint coming into the final turn thinking the solo leader would die out but he had paced himself and I was unable to close the gap getting second. I settled back into the field and positioned for the sprint. I had decent positioning coming into the finishing stretch but my side cramped up and I faded to 22nd. Lesson of the Stage: Always take your free lap, even if you don’t actually crash. It might look like the field is right there, but they aren’t (this lesson will appear again in Stage 5 at Schlitz Park). Oh and make sure to ease into those brakes.
June 18th: Grafton, WIGiro d' Grafton - USA Crits I forgot to press start on my Garmin before the race but it was a 20 or so mile crit for around 50 minutes: http://www.tourofamericasdairyland.com/images/maps/grafton_crit.jpg Ben had arrived in Wisconsin and was going to race the next four days with me. I was stoked to have a teammate and especially someone like Ben to escort me through the field and around the course. We decided to commute the 45 minutes down to the race which made for a great warmup (remember that part for later on in the series).
Same as yesterday, it was a pretty fast race but riders rode much safer than the day before. I was able to sit on Ben’s wheel as he navigated me through the pack keeping me covered and rested for the sprint. My legs felt awesome and I was sitting top 5 with only 6 laps to go. On the following lap I took a bad line on the outside of a turn and got guttered picking up something in my front tire and getting a flat going into lap 5. I safely exited the peloton and uncertain what lap it was, I grabbed my bike and started sprinting for the wheel pit asking spectators what lap it was. As I approached the pit someone yelled “ I don’t know why you are running, there is only 5 laps left!” Great. Legs screaming for a sprint, I sat on the curb ineligible to reenter the race. DNF.
Lesson of the Stage:Having an experienced teammate protect and escort you through a race is invaluable. Staying sheltered on a wheel through the wind and accelerations will keep you fresh.
June 19th: Waukesha, WI Carl Zach Cycling Classic In short, the weather was super humid, the race was fast, and my legs were junk. My lack of fitness was starting to show, especially on this course with a wide open straight away into a decent kicker. The race featured an awesome off camber sweeper but besides that, I was chasing and sucking wind the entire time. I avoided a few crashes but similar to the first race on the final lap I got a mass cramp in my side and finished somewhere with the field…………. Lesson of the Stage: Some days you just don’t have it. Accept it, help it develop you as a rider, and start thinking about the next race. June 20th: Greenbush, WI Greenbush Road Race After three days of crit racing, I was ready to show my true strength in a road race several mini climbs. Ben and I joked and caught up with fellow NCNCA cyclists while other riders warmed up on their trainers. Sitting at the start finish, Ben and I made friends with a team of guys from Iowa City racing for World of Bikes/Bikes to You. Their team had a friendly dynamic similar to TMB and Ben made the observation that I already had the haircut to join their squad. We started out the road race with a pace a little higher than I would have preferred but after a while, the field settled down and we were able to enjoy a bit of the beautiful Greenbush countryside. On every kicker, I found myself inadvertently making my way to the front of the field passing riders with ease. With several laps still to go, I caged the elephant and took cover in the field to plot my attack. With a lap and a half to go, I went to the front of the field and stood on the pedals, pushing the field to an uncomfortable pace and pulling stronger riders from the woodwork. Before I had the chance, a rider from ___ launched his attack and I covered his wheel. As he faded I put in another dig and found two BTY I had met earlier on my wheel. I looked back to see the elastic breaking and daylight forming between the field and our group so I put my head down and went all in to TT mode. For the next few miles I dug as hard as I could taking turns with the two other riders and risks on the descent. Unfortunately the RR was worth double points in the GC so there would be leash given from larger teams LS and IS Corp. I looked back to see the entire field stretched back single file chasing us. It was a pretty cool site to see but extremely disappointing as there was only one lap left and my matchbook was feeling light. I faded to the back of the pack, caught up with Ben and made my way back into the field for the finish. I was catching a ride back up to the front via a Ritte rider but he unfortunately broke a spoke sending me into the bottom third of the pack. The race only had the right side of the road until the finishing sprint so I had to fight my way through the field and unfortunately ran out of road stricken with terrible positioning for the sprint. As we came into the final turn, several riders jumped out of the field crossing the double yellow line. The moto official laid on the horn but the riders ignored it flying up the outside to the front of the field. Riders began to respond verbally and physically attempting to follow their wheels. I sat back and watched the mayhem starting my sprint on the legal side of the road and picking off multiple gassed riders on the minor pitch to the finish. I rolled past the finish to chat and cooldown with the BTY team. As we came back to the finish I spotted several groups of riders standing with their bikes making hand questers. They were protesting the finish and if the official was able to catch any rider’s numbers, there would probably be some center line violations and riders would be relegated. Sure enough as I looked over the results, several riders that had finished in the top 15 had dropped to the bottom of the list. Lesson(s) of the Stage: Listen to the officials and follow the rules, don’t get relegated. Also, try to get into a break with representation from larger teams. Your motor against six dedicated pawns doesn’t give you the best chances. June 21st: Milwaukee, WI Schlitz Park Criterium Ben and I showed up to the race with about 15 minutes before the race start. I quickly got my number, pinned it at the portos, did one lap and few openers at the start finish, and sat at the back of the group for the start. This was a super, super technical course with a couple block kicker right at the start, to a few blocks of flat wide open, to a super technical descent: sharp right-left turn chicane(with a manhole in the apex), to a right turn sweeper to another left right chicane to the open finishing stretch. It had been raining all morning the course was damp to make things even sketchier. Add zero warmup and starting dead last to the mix, top it off with a crash mid-pack, and serve the rider with burnt legs, heart pounding, and ticket punched. After the crash happened mid-pack, I made the stupid decision to keep riding with other riders even though we were already dangling, rather than taking my free lap (Stage Lesson 1). With the field just up the rode I buried myself thinking I could catch the field on the descent. In reality the gap was only expanding and I sat solo in the wind and got caught behind dropped riders on the descent without a confident wheel to follow. Frustrated and tired I pulled out of the race. BIG MISTAKE. Not only did I get dropped from my first crit, but I also wasn’t placed. Even though he had been dropped and was several riders behind me, Ben continued riding, was eventually pulled from the field and scored ___. Had I continued riding I would have been eventually pulled and scored_____________. However I did get a to partake in a beautiful 45 minute group ride with Ben and two other dropped riders of the Schlitz park waterfront. Now it is important to note that I am not advocating riding around in circles for 45 minutes solo dying a thousand deaths at a single day crit for outside of 20th place. Hell outside of 10th place or even 5th place hardly counts for much. Pull out, go on a group ride, and try again next weekend. If you wanna “get your money’s worth” or “gain the fitness” or make that personal victory at a crit, have fun. DNF. Lesson of the Stage: If you are caught behind a crash, always head to the pit and take your free lap unless an official directly tells you to chase. June 22nd: Ripon, WI Ripon Time Trial Disappointed from the disaster that was Schlitz Park, I didn’t come into the TT with very high hopes. Shawn had to take the TT as a rest day for me but I decided to do it anyway since Schlitz wasn’t much of a workout. I hitched a ride with the BTY team up north to Ripon so had a cool opportunity to exchange stories and knowledge from racing on different parts of the states. The night before I surveyed the course and uploaded the route to my Garmin 500 so I had some sort of rabbit to chase and indicator of my remaining time in the pain cave to gauge my efforts. The course wasn’t anything super technical with a few small climbs and several long straightaways. The description of the course indicated a technical sprint to the finish though as did the map. I put on my skinsuit and rode the first couple miles of the course to get a warmup and an idea of the wind direction. I rolled up to the line with only three riders ahead of me in the staging area. Right on time. I quickly caught my 2 or 3 minute man so knew I doing alright. I had a BTY rider in front of him so spent the entire race slowly trying to chip away at the gap to him knowing he was in good shape. 2/3 of the way through the TT I passed another rider and almost had the BTY rider in front of me before one of the climbs so was confident I had put in a good TT. In the finishing downhill technical stretch of the race I was tired but had paced myself well. I confidently railed the downhill sprinting out of the turns. Coming into one of the 90 degree turns a course marshall was yelling at me to slow down. Sorry buddy, door of the hurt locker is locked shut. (I later found out a rider had overcooked the turn before me and went down.) Back into town now and a few turns later I was emptying the last few drops in the tank and sprinting over the line. Content with my TT I went on a cooldown ride with the BTY team and watched a few of them jump in a pond. We rode back and sat down to knock down a couple chocolate milks when I heard what sounded like my name over the loud speaker. Was I that tired from the TT? Had I drank too many chocolate milks? They went on the loud speaker again calling me to the podium and I dropped my chocolate milk on the ground, hopped on my bike, and rode over to the podium. Turns out my effort landed me the 2nd place step on the podium in the TT. 1st place had crushed me by ___ seconds and I had beaten 3rd place by ____ seconds so didn’t go from content to stoked to what if I had drilled the downhill that much faster. The Time Trial was worth double points in the GC so previously without a point in the bank, I was now sitting 17th in the GC with a bag of coffee in one hand and check in the other. Those points I gave up at Schlitz park were beginning to look that much more valuable. Lesson of the Stage: Basically I paced myself well. I went hard on the climbs and on the straightaways always riding inside my threshold. I am by no means the calculator that is Steve O’Mara is and probably would have had the same result without a computer but when I asked Ben Stern about how to do well in the TT, and he told me to keep a consistent high cadence with a big gear. A year ago when I asked him how he won the Madera TT, he told me he was a human metronome. Makes sense now. June 23rd: Sheboygan, WI Sheboygan Harbor Centre Bike Race Feeling saucy and strong from the Time Trial the day before, I was ready to take another shot at this crit thing. I did my morning recovery ride, exchanged a couple supportive text messages from Ben, ate some food, dropped the tire pressure 10psi and headed over the 3 blocks to the course for a warm up and reg. While I was eating the clouds had cracked open and the rain was coming down in large bulbous drops. This was my element. Growing up in Portland, I sometimes joke that I was born in the rain. Aside from the post ride cleanup, riding in the rain has never seemed to bother me and I had found gave me a bit of an advantage of my competitors. Last year I placed 3rd as a Cat 4 in a breakaway at the rainy Brisbeen Crit (Rainier got first and which I still hold against him) and do a large amount of training during the rainy bay area months. Unfortunately, the rain made this four corner crit downright dangerous. Fresh white crosswalk paint made for oil slicks on every turn causing multiple riders to go down what seemed like every lap. My rear wheel lost traction several times on turn one but I soon discovered taking the turn super tight actually avoided a lot of the paint creating a much safer line. Although frustrated that I kept loosing positioning due to riders sliding out, I moved up in the pack and sat 4th wheel. The next lap a KS rider in front of me lost his rear wheel in turn one. In slow motion his bike flew one direction while he slid across the wet pavement in front of me. I grabbed brake to avoid destroying him which caused my rear wheel to change direction and rotation quickly putting me elbow and hip first to the tarmac. I jumped got back up, check my person, checked the bike, and headed to the pit for reentry into the race. The mechanic pulled my lever back into position and sent me back into the field. At this point I was rattled from the crash and lost confidence in my cornering. Legs were locked up for the sprint and I rolled across the line at the back of the pack. After finished I checked my wounds and watched the carnage that was the walking wounded carrying their mangled wheels and bent shifters back to their team car. I ended up placing ____ which scored me two more points and moved me up to tied for 14th overall with two other riders. Lesson of the Stage: I have read a few articles arguing weather dropping tire pressure for wet pavement will do anything for you but I am not a true believer that the increased rolling resistance is well worth the traction. While I dropped 10psi from my original pressure in my tires, the BTY riders went as low as 80 and stated that although they felt sloppy in the sprint, they never lost traction in the turns. June 24th: Fond du Lac, WI Fond du Lac Gran Prix After having a great TT but feeling dead in almost all of the sprints so far besides at ___ where I flatted out, I called Shawn to put together a plan for the remaining three days in the series. Shawn reminded me of my fitness prior to starting the tour, that I was a 3 racing in a major 2-3 series, and that I had just raced seven days in a row. Still, I wasn’t feeling fatigued and didn’t feel the same comfort and fitness I had felt previously in the year. I gave him a quick recap of each race and we discovered that it was at the races where I got a proper warmup in, I was feeling the best. Who would have thought! With a new prerace warmup in my pocket and a few words of encouragement, I was ready to tear it up again. Arriving in Fond du Lac with just under 2 hours before the race started gave me no excuse to not get in a proper warmup. Looking for a parking spot I asked a female police officer if she knew of any nonmetered parking in the area. She responded “_________”. Parked and kitted up, I took it to the streets glued to my computer for the Shawn special. I rolled up to the line warmed up and early for a proper starting position. My legs were feeling great so I spent the entire day riding like a champion sitting top 5 merging into accelerations and slowing the pace when a BTY rider would go off the front. I sat 3rd coming into a $75 prime so decided to test the legs but quickly turned off the burners as a Papa John’s rider came from behind smoking all three of us. I sat back in my place and took shelter for the sprint. Things got aggressive going into the final two turns but I held decent position sitting top 10 for the long sprint. Unfortunately although my legs were feeling much better than previous stages, the experienced Cat 2 sprinters were feeling better and I faded to 15th over the line. Walked away with a check and a few more points in the bank holding 14th in the GC. Lesson of the Stage: Riding near the front of the pack can be much more efficient than anywhere else in the peloton. Not only is it usually safer, but controlling the pace and having time to merge with accelerations allows for a much more consistent riding and less undulations. Stage 9: Downer Now confident in my fitness and racing abilities, I was ready to tear it up and move up in the GC. Back down in Meqon, it was under an hours ride to the course in Downer. Although fairly simple, I mapped out the commute down and uploaded the route to my Garmin 500 as to not get lost before my ace. After a successful commute down I surveyed the course and went out for my Shawn special. My legs felt alright but I had a bit trouble getting my heart rate up at first. It might have been from the longer commute. The course was pretty flat with a few long straightaways and one sharp sweeper in the middle of the course. Ben told me not to brake in this turn as although it was sharp, it was wide enough to rail. Unfortunately the crawling pace and terrible line of the peloton forced us to make a sharp last minute turn instead. After a decent result the day before in Fondy, I decided to try and hover near the front again. It was a little more difficult this time around with heavy attacks and swarming in the straightaways. Coming into the finishing lap I had decent positions but all went to hell when the front of field decided they were all poised to win and sat up to rest for the sprint. This caused uproar in the field and there was a massive shift in the peloton putting out of contention for the sprint. As the field in front of me gave up any chances or even contenting the sprint, I started to poach wheels from riders and hitched a massive free ride up to the front with a BTY rider. Better positioning now but things bottlenecked in the last turn and I lost several places. I jumped on what looked like a good when for the sprint but he faded fast and I was stuck sprinting in the wind for 11th. Best result so far outside of the TT but still not a good representation of my fitness. I made my way to the recovery tent to suck down some tasty chocolate milk and waited for results to be posted. Once they went up, I noticed my name wasn’t on the results. I knew I had done well and didn’t think I had done anything to take me out of contention so disputed the results with an official and they went through the camera footage again. For those of you non bike racer folk, you get a 15 minute window to dispute results before they are made official. If results are reposted, as they were in this case, then the 15 minutes is reset. Walked away with yet another check and bumped up a place to 13th in the GC. Lesson(s) of the Stage: Always check results, especially in a stage race. I normally could care less if I finished outside of top 10 but this this case it meant valuable points. Another thing to note is to identify strong riders and teams early in the series. They are usually solid wheels in the peloton and set you up for a good result. Stage 10: Madison After nine straight days of racing and two solid days in a row, my legs were raging for a victory. My confidence was high and fitness higher. I felt zero fatigue from the previous nine days and stood tall as my fellow competitors hobbled and whined of sore muscles. The weather was scorching but not even the sungod_______ himself could have slowed me down. As the crit went around the capitol in Madison, the surrounding roads around weren’t that great for a warmup. I found the Cycleops tent and posted up on a trainer next to a Ritte rider I had chatted with a few times at earlier stages. I spun and drank water for a good 20 minutes before starting my Shawn Special. Heart Rate was looking good and legs felt better. 15 minutes before the scheduled race start I rolled around sidewalks lining the course getting an idea for the elevation and lines the masters racers riders were taking. The pavement was of decent quality and roads were fairly wide. The course was a basic four corner crit with a quick downhill to a quick uphill on a short finishing stretch. The course suited my climbing abilities and sprint, sit, sprint style perfectly. Any Tuesday Night Park regulars will attest to my ability to stomp up a climb and continue to keep a high pace before sprinting. I found a drinking fountain outside the capital, soaked my head, and headed over to the start line. Everyone jokes that there is the race before the race to get good positioning. Riders line up in a row after the barriers clipped in with an easy gear waiting for the follow car from the previous race to go by so they can jockey for a good position on the starting line. This is something I hadn’t experienced much until I came out to Wisconsin but I also found these races to be much more full throttle from the gun making navigating the field a little more difficult early in a race. My flawless warmup and timing landed me a solid starting position and for the first few laps of the crit, my legs the best they had all week. As I sat spinning up the climb, riders dropped behind me panting and throwing their machines underneath them. Several attacks went off but Dissapointing Final day at ToAD. Legs felt the best they had all week and the course was perfect for me. Conserved the whole race and sat top 10 on the final hill, two riders in front of me ran out of gas, and went into each other. Finished 22nd and dropped down a spot to 14th in GC.
While I don't really ride my bike in many other places, it sure seems like we're spoiled here in the Bay Area. Four out of five out-of-towners will confirm this. Nowadays, most of the hills I ride are in Marin county. Before this, I lived a few miles down south on the peninsula. I would regularly train on Old la Honda and King's Mountain and all of the gorgeous roads between the bay and the ocean, pretty much all of which lead up to Skyline.
A couple weeks ago I had a weekend day off with no race on tap (whoa!), so I decided to drive down and ride my favorite roads. Yes, I drove a truck somewhere to ride my bike. It was worth it.
First, I buried myself up my absolute favorite climb ever, Old la Honda. I set a personal record and finally managed sub-eighteen minutes. I then flew down 84, took a detour over Pescadero Creek Rd. and Stage Rd. (the same route of a certain state championship road race), and rode up 1. I hit the best pre-Tunitas road, Lobitos Creek, and then settled into a (slow) rhythm up Tunitas Creek Rd. Here's a video of about .75% of that climb. Try to spot the red flowers on the right.
-Ryan
Was there rain..yesWas I catching flies..yes Do I know how to pin on my number..no Did I crash..yes Is there a Rainier shaped hole in a perfectly manicured square hedge..yes
Could I have had a softer landing..no Did I get back in the race with a bloody nose and covered in leaves..yes Did I win..no Did I get sixth..yes Was the National Amateur Criterium champion racing..yes Was the National Professional Criterium champion racing..yes Are these photos by David Cheung rad..yes
More photos HERE.
Check out Tyler, Hank, and the rest of Team Mike's Bikes featured in Capo's new custom cycling apparel video:
This guy fooled me again:
The weatherman said it would be dry and warm and (surprise surprise) it rained for the entirety of the P12 race. The course was pretty safe, however, there was one corner where racers, myself included, were inadvertently sliding. Everyone seemed to take the corners cautiously, hopefully everyone stayed upright. Fifteen minutes into the race, the peloton split in half, Ben Stern and I were in the back half wondering if it was going to come back together. I was confused didn't know how we all ended up back here and whether or not it was going to come back together. People kept attacking and moving solo across to the front group. I got worried and moved across, Ben did the same. Eventually I think most of the racers from the back group rejoined? Lots of attacking and it was hard to see who was who in the rain. With 19 laps to go, I had momentum coming through the group so I kept rolling off the front. No one went with me, and I chuckled to myself that no one ever does (probably for a good reason). I stayed ahead for three laps, and fortunately the announcers threw a cash prime at me. That was nice! That prime may have caused a stir because a group of 6 bridged to me. We worked together but then the group doubled in size. Racers started attacking, and three got away with maybe 9 laps remaining that included John Wilk, Evan Huffman, the district crit champ, and one other. The rest of us were marking each other pretty hard, but I got away from them with 6 laps to go. It took me one and a half laps to bridge the fifteen second gap to the three leaders. We all took our turns, Huffman was taking huge pulls. The four of us sprinted for the win and with fingers frozen and tires slipping I got second!
what: 55cm Colnago vip2000 Series, Ritchey Carbon fork, dura ace 7700 cranks, shimano brakes, cushy black Terry saddle with cutout, white carbon fiber handlebars under new black cushy griptape, shimano shifters, a stem 12cm or longer, black electric tape covering logo on the seat tubewhen: last night, 05/31/11 where: Oakland: Glen Ave between Linda and 41st Street
Please, Please Please if anyone seeing this bike please contact me. Thank you. 5102076385
Quick recap of my race yesterday: I had been looking forward to this race for a few weeks. I even did some course reconnaissance last weekend which definitely helped out.
After the neutral lead out motorcycle gave us the signal to begin racing a quick but comfortable pace was established up the first 10 or so miles of the climb. After two, quick descents we were at the base of the "real climb" which I believe is about 7 miles to the summit.
My first goal was to win the KOM (King of the mountain), just to see where my climbing abilities stacked up against the field. After about a mile or so up the climb the selection began and the field was stringing out a bit. With what I'm guessing was about 4 or 5 miles to go to the summit I decided to get up front and push the pace. Soon after that I had just two left on my wheel. With about 400 meters to go to the summit I attacked my break mates and got the KOM. I regrouped with my two break mates and we began the descent. We had a decent gap. The ride down the other side was fast. Lots of U-turns and hairpins. I quickly got dropped on the way down by one of the riders but was able to chase back up to him after the descent. We were still three riders, one of which was a San Jose junior (Adrien Costa) standing approx 4 feet tall and weighing maybe 65 pounds. The kid is strong but because he is so small it wasn't much of a benefit to us to have him in the group. We were holding a good tempo and the moto ref told us we had 2:20 on the 5 man chase. With approx 30 miles to go our break mate faded and it was just the junior and me.
I felt alright and was able to ride with a nice rhythm for the remaining 30. The last 20 miles of the course were really windy which made it more challenging. Felt like I was towing this little junior most of the way but felt comfortable about going to the line with him. I waited till the 200m and sprinted to the line. I can't believe our break stuck.
It was a great time yesterday. The course was really challenging and the scenery was beautiful. Props to Adrien Costa. The kid is a stud.
-Daniel Velasco
Nice Racing this weekend. Looks like the team was firing on all fronts (track, road, crit).
Talbot – wins the GRFS#4 Omnium Track (taking the scratch and points wins along the way)
Daniel – wins Mt. Hamilton. Awesome ride.
Ranier – 2nd at Folsom in a break in the rain. Great ride.
And I’m sure there are a lot teammates to thank too. Nice work boys.
I’m off this weekend and just logging in the miles on strava. Just upload 30K feet of climbing. So cool using Strava. Never really cared how much I climbed in the past but with the bike store competition, I’m gonna make sure I log all my miles.
http://app.strava.com/athletes/steve-pelaez-38
Good Luck at the Memorial Crit. Ride well as a team. I’ll join in again the next 2 weeks.
-Steve
Panoche Pass: 1) climb with tailwind 2) descend with tailwind 3) crosswind 4) climb and descend 5) turn around 6) climb and descend 7) crosswind 8) climb with headwind 9) descend with headwind 10) flat finish
Second place finisher Nate English started attacking viciously as soon as we started the climb. After his first attack my thoughts were, "Why am I in this race?!" There was no way I was going to attempt to get into a break with 65 miles, the entirety of the race, to go. Fortunately after a few such moves the group shut down and he and five others, including my teammate Steve O'Mara, got a big lead. After the descent they were basically out of sight. We lost a couple people while in echelon in the crosswind section. A Webcor rider came out of the breakaway so those dudes began to drive a chase. Steve came back to the group. The second time through the crosswind, our group drove hard into the wind in echelon, I heard someone say our average was 28 mi/hr. That sounded fast so I remembered it.. The group was drilling it! The wind made it hard pretty much wherever you were, we lost a couple more people. A Webcor rider and Robert Amatelli (how is this guy not on a team?!) were dumping everything into the chase in the headwind climb, hats off to them. Feeling guilty, I took a few pulls in the wind but felt silly pulling everyone along, seems how I wasn't even sure I would be able to finish the race, so I dropped back into the group. I started cramping going over the last portions of the climb. The original break stayed away. Our chase group sprinted for fourth place and I was beat by four. 8th place.
-Rainier
It's our very own Col du Pantoll, because the term 'hammerfest' is just so overused these days. Join Team Mike's Bikes for this challenging and fast-paced group ride. We leave the Sausalito shop at six, roll out to Muir Beach, head North to Stinson, climb up the ridge to Pantoll, head South on Shoreline to Mill Valley and back to Sausalito.
This ride will be CHP escorted on May 26th and on the first Thursday of every month.
Last Thursday had a great turnout featuring a police escort with perfect weather.
For more Team Mike's Bikes led and other group rides, check out Mike's Bikes group ride directory: http://mikesbikes.com/articles/group-ride-directory-pg108.htm
A couple days ago Steve O. sent out his thoughts on training and peaking in the sport of cycling to the team. Here is some a little insight to some of the conversation that goes out on our team list from a guy that just a few weeks ago took the crown stage at the Tour of the Gila (like a boss). - Hank
If you’re really going for a true peak, you’ll feel like you’re losing fitness in the process, particularly in parts of the taper. And to be fair, in some ways you are. The basic trade is you lose some aerobic fitness as you rest and focus on workouts with modest, but targeted efforts to sharpen the higher end stuff.
I’ve seen a lot of guys, myself included, freak out about this feeling of lethargy
and loss of fitness and then throw in some ill-conceived extra workload. You need to know these feelings are going to come and commit to the taper. Assuming you got in a decent base and the race(s) you’re targeting aren’t stupidly long for you, losing a little aerobic fitness doesn’t matter and is far outweighed by the benefits of the increases you’ll see in the higher end stuff. We all know that’s where the racing really happens, unless you’re trying to “win” double centuries or something.
From there, you can hit your target race and still not have a great day. There’s lots of chance in our sport. If you want to continue the peak through subsequent weekends, you need to stay on the peak program. Another common problem I see with people is after trying a peak for a week or two, they basically get back into fairly regular training and then are disappointed they’re not peaked the following weeks.
Again, you need to commit. If you have goals later in the season that you feel you need to start training for again, then you need to do that. For instance, if you’re peaking too long in May, you are missing valuable training time for races you may care about in July or even August. It’s a trade off. But if you’re at a point where your season is basically done, or you have a high priority race the next week of two, there is no reason to add back volume aside from maintaining that sculpted beach body. You need to stick with the low-volume peak program.
Different people will have different ideal lengths of taper/peak periods. I discovered through some unintended post-season fitness in college that my ideal taper/peak period is fairly long. This led to some solid performances in the team beer mile and indoor roller challenge, but not in the n/a, target races in the weeks prior. But I now know I like a long taper followed by several weeks of peak/racing at the end of the season.
-Steve
I got a chance to talk to Ted King a lot during the ride on Tuesday. When I asked him about what races he fancies where he’ll get his own chances for glory. His answer gives good insight to a true domestique/team player.
“I’m not a great climber, or a great sprinter. Most of my chances at actually winning are pretty slim. But what I’m good at is riding at 350 watts for hours on end and when I train, I train so that I can do that really really well.”
So do you motor pace a lot?
“Sometimes, but not really since my job role doesn’t really require the need for top end speed. The racing itself usually helps enough to get my speed.”
Here’s what I’ve intuited from this conversation:
1. Identify your strengths and do it to the best of your ability
2. Train those strengths so that it can help the team. For instance, if you plan on giving a good leadout, make sure you train your anaerobic system and muscular endurance a lot. You need to be able to hold a good speed for a long time in the wind. But you don’t need to have a high top end so there’s minimal need to hit the neuromuscular system.
3. Again as a leadout rider it makes more sense that you hold back on climbing a lot or even working on top end speed. Train specifically to the efforts that are required of you to be successful. Likewise, if you’re a climber riding a bunch of crits with crit specific teammates, then focus on speed and technique drills rather than hills all the time. Same goes for the sprinter who loves to train the speed drills, work on your climbing if you want to help a climber.
4. We can’t train every energy system maximally each week, so it’s important to identify what systems to train prior to the identified races and what energy systems to train to support the success of the team.
5. I’d rather be great at 1 thing rather than just be packfill at many things.
-Steve
Instead of writing race reports, Keven just lets other racers bike cams do the talking:
Congrats Keven!
Got 10th in the P12 and won a prime. The day started off with my kids bake sale at Bay to Breakers. Good thing no nudist came up to buy the cookies, but as usual there were lots of them. Then afterwards I took my daughter to her ballet recital, where I quickly caught some zzzs before the night time race. Basically, the SV race had the same fast racers from Cat’s Hill but the results were completely reversed from the day before. It was a sprinters race – fast and dangerous. We avg 29.5mph with a top speed of 39mph. It was dangerous b/c it was dark and you just couldn’t see. At the speeds we were going it was almost impossible to make a break stick so I simply just floated the race and took 1 prime just to open up the legs before the final few laps. With 6 to go, the Cal Giant train of 10+ riders simply strung out the field to control the race and lead out Reaney. It was awesome to watch, but it sucked for the rest of us solo sprinters who were left fighting to get Reaney’s wheel. Usually, I prefer to sneak in the last moment kinda like how you merge from Fell st. to the Octavia 101 exit – best to NOT signal and wait til the last moment to get in. But since it was really dangerous, it was safer to just ride top 10 for the final few laps, but the downside is I burnt a lot of energy doing this. I just kept hopping wheels (move up 5 spots, lose 4 spots) In the end, I lost my position on the backside/darkside of the course, and never got into position for the win. I passed a few riders riders who faded in the final run in. But the real sprint was going into turn 3, then you simply hold your position from there for the most part. BTW, too many riders just take too many risk. In the end, I’m happy to drive home with $100 + prime + plus my life since too many riders are taking too many risk (not worth it). That was yet another nervous twilight race.
All in all, I’m glad to kick off the racing with the team and I’m looking forward to racing more with all. Seems like we have some up and coming riders that will be helpful in the 12 races. The more teammates the better the odds, just ask CalGiant, who regularly stacks the fields with at least 10 riders. Odds are usually in their favor.
PS. I love the kit. I feel like the Dark Night wearing it (esp. during SV twilight) and have had a lot of compliments on it. Best,
-Steve
