Stranger In A Strange Land

“The human mind’s ability to rationalize its own shortcomings into virtues is unlimited.”  Robert Heinlein

The more I think about it, the more yesterday’s WORS race was like a time trial.  In my previous mountain bike races there was always an easy part, usually a long section of flowy singletrack ridden at a speed that kept me in touch with my competition while allowing me to recover from an earlier effort.  The Sunburst Showdown really had no such section; I was on the gas almost constantly.  But I had a successful race because I can put out that kind of sustained aerobic effort.  Many of my fellow Citizens-class racers can’t, and I think I know why.

I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of my competitors’ training plans, but I suspect many of the guys spend most—if not all—of their saddle time aboard their mountain bikes.  They get lots of those flowy singletrack sections that allow for recovery.  Their efforts are explosive, but relatively short.

Because I train mostly on the road or on the Eisenbahn State Trail, I eat up miles with aerobic efforts that I sustain for long intervals.  A lot of good riders won’t go near the Eisenbahn because it’s an almost pan-flat, almost dead-straight rec trail.  But I recognize its value as a time trial course.  All of my little self-timed TTs to Campbellsport and back might seem silly to some people, but I know they contribute to my physical fitness and to my psychological capacity for suffering.

Seven races into the WORS season, I’ve proven to be a pretty fair mountain bike racer.  The Sunburst Showdown provided a rare opportunity to compare my lap times to those of the Sport, Comp and Elite racers.  At all prior venues my Citizens course was shorter and easier.  At Sunburst all categories raced the same course, just different numbers of laps.  I finished two laps in 1:01:32 … about 30 minutes per lap.  If I can assume I had one more lap in my legs at approximately the same pace, then I would have finished squarely in the middle of the Sport field.  But as I mentioned yesterday, Sunburst was a test of aerobic fitness and not of bike handling skills.  On a more technically challenging course I likely would lose ground to experienced Sport men even if I had superior fitness.

I’m probably not unique but I do think I’m unusual in that I became a mountain bike racer without first becoming a mountain bike rider.  I never go mountain biking just for fun; I ride only in the context of training for an upcoming race.  In that respect my relationship with my mountain bike is different than my relationship with my road and cyclocross bikes.  Through Sunday I had done 115 rides this year, only 34 of which were on the mountain bike.  I look at my 29er as a race-only machine; even when I’m going only as far as Glacial Blue Hills to practice, I transport the bike by car.  The thought of riding it across town, exposing all of its inefficiencies vis-à-vis my other bikes, is distasteful to me.

What am I trying to tell you?  I guess, that I still see myself as an outsider despite modest success in competition and the acceptance of my fellow racers.  I always feel like a cyclist, but one who dabbles rather than specializes.  I’m just good enough at a variety of things for each discipline to be fun, and maybe that’s all I ever will be.  And maybe that’s OK.

2012 Sunburst Showdown

Racers traverse the dusty ski hill at the 2012 Sunburst Showdown in Kewaskum.

Today’s Sunburst Showdown—the seventh race of the WORS mountain biking season—was hard, but I was pretty tough too and earned 3rd Place in the Citizens (Cat 3) 40-49 age group.  Series leader Jim Steig got off to a great start and never looked back, completing two laps on the Kewaskum ski hill in 58:48.4.  Mases “Mo” Movsessian took second in 1:00:59.1.  I finished in 1:01:32.0, followed by Brad Jorsch (1:03:18.4) and Rick Dwyer (1:03:22.6).

Early in the first lap the switchback climb up the south side of the hill separated the contenders from the rest of the field.  And by that time the leaders of the 40-49 group were already working their way through the back end of the 30-39 wave that had started a minute earlier.  One of the 30-39 age groupers went over his handlebar spectacularly on a high-speed gravel descent, his concentration broken when he dropped his water bottle.  I was immediately behind him but avoided bottle, bike and rider.  Reaching the bottom of the hill intact, I moved well through a tedious labyrinth of pine trees and tall prairie grasses.  But Steig was slipping away.  We saw each other briefly as we moved in opposite directions on parallel trails.  He encouraged me to get up to his wheel and I assured him I was trying, but I never made it.  I did, however, dispatch Dwyer at mid-lap.  By the end of the lap I was right on Movsessian’s wheel.

I probably should have passed Mo just before hitting the long switchback climb early in Lap 2.  On one of the wooded switchbacks I lost all my momentum and had to put a foot down.  That little mistake allowed him to open a gap that I just couldn’t close.  But at that moment there was nobody in sight on the hill below me.  I tried to relax and ride my own pace to the summit.  Mo dangled about 30 seconds in front of me for the remainder of the race.  I continued to pick off guys from the 30-39 age group and nobody was catching me from behind.  Back in the labyrinth, I could see that Jorsch had passed Dwyer and was coming after me, but I outclimbed him on the tubing hill and kept a safe gap to the end.

The racecourse was hot, dusty and offered almost no opportunity for rest.  What it lacked in technical singletrack it more than made up for with climbing.  The downhill sections were super fast—too fast to allow a rider to recover.  Flat sections were grassy, often bumpy, and punctuated by numerous sharp turns.  The entire course seemed intent on breaking a rider’s momentum whenever possible.  Today was all about sustaining a high aerobic effort … with occasional anaerobic bursts.  And I got through it better than most of my rivals.

Steig now has 1,356 series points, I have 1,269 and Jorsch has 1,234.  I concede that I can’t catch Steig, who has beaten me in all seven races so far.  Jorsch could catch me from behind but he can’t do it on participation points alone.  He intends to compete in all 12 races and will amass 25 participation points.  Of the five races that remain, I am committed only to the Aug. 26 Reforestation Ramble in Suamico.  A good performance there would replace my 9th Place finish at CamRock and virtually guarantee my 2nd Place standing in the series.  I may do additional races but at this time I am not certain.

Team Extreme’s John Norman—injured on June 2 during the pre-ride at Wausau—returned to the starting grid today and it was good to have him back.  And there were many familiar faces in the crowd as the West Bend cycling community came out to support its friends.  So, it turned into a good race for me, but I sure am glad it’s over.

Bored Of France

Have you ever seen a Tour de France as boring as this year’s edition?  Bradley Wiggins pulled on the yellow jersey 10 days ago and will wear it all the way to Paris unless he suffers a catastrophic failure.  He and his team continue to prove that by following a very cautious—and consequently very dull—strategy there’s no way for someone from another team to win.  Similarly, Peter Sagan has such a stranglehold on the sprinters’ green jersey that he won’t lose it unless he fails to finish the race.  The mountain climbers’ polka dot jersey is up for grabs, but do you really care who grabs it?

As a fellow American, I want Tejay Van Garderen to keep the best young rider’s white jersey, but that competition isn’t what keeps me tuning into the daily TV coverage.  Nor is the insistence of the NBC Sports commentators who continue to promote Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer and Tyler Farrar as somehow still relevant in this year’s Tour.  No, I keep watching in the vain hope that an audacious attack will shake up the general classification.  And realistically, tomorrow’s stage is the last chance for something like that to happen.  I would like to see Wiggins come out of the rest day with nothing in his legs, then for him to be forsaken by treacherous teammate Chris Froome, and finally to be vanquished by repeated attacks from Vincenzo Nibali and Cadel Evans.

It won’t happen.  It will be a sluggish parade of the GC men and probably a victory for a pure climber who gets into a late breakaway.

I hope that in years to come—and there’s no reason not to start in 2013—the organizers of the Tour will do something to make the race more exciting.  I have two immediate suggestions.  First, the team time trial should be a feature of every Tour.  Professional cycling continually promotes itself as a team sport and nowhere can the team dynamic been seen more clearly than in the TTT.  Second, put time bonuses back into the stage finishes.  How many stages of this year’s Tour have ended with all of the GC men simply rolling across the line together?  Yawn.

Never have I looked with such anticipation to the Eneco Tour …

2012 Alterra Coffee Bean Classic

A female competitor finishes the last climb of her race as the Pro/Elite men grind up the gravel to begin a new lap.

A strong effort today resulted in a 3rd Place finish at the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic—race number six of the 12-race Wisconsin Off-Road Series—on the Crystal Ridge ski hill in Franklin.  My success began with good fitness, but also showed the value of good preparation.  I practiced on the trails after work on Friday and again on Saturday afternoon, so on the starting line today I was confident that I could survive the tight, twisty singletrack.  And I felt sure that I could outclimb my rivals, a huge advantage in this race.

The race began with a climb of the grassy ski hill and the Citizens 40-49 field split almost immediately.  Then came a long, flat section—not the sort of place you would expect crashes, but crashes came nonetheless.  I was up with the leaders, unaware of what was happening behind.  Brad Jorsch went down and lost what should have been a much better finish.  By taking 12th Place, Jorsch slipped behind me in the series standings.  Retaking 2nd Place in the series was my top goal today … but I had to finish well to secure it.

Things went well for me in the first section of singletrack, but soon I ran into slower riders from an earlier wave.  It took a while to get around them.  Fortunately for me, the other leaders in my age group were also detained.  We didn’t shake free until the “Craters of the Moon” climb.  Many of the slower riders from the earlier waves were walking the hill.  It’s a little grinder, but I had practiced it and knew where I could shift into a harder gear and still recover before the gravel road.  Once on the gravel road I went into my big chainring and just hammered.  That allowed me to get around a lot of riders before the next section of singletrack.  And there I was challenged, but I did enough to limit the damage and upon returning to the gravel road hammered again to the highest point of the course.  I negotiated the descending ski hill switchbacks carefully, got through a short section of singletrack at the bottom, then emerged into the full fury of a hot sun as I climbed another gravel road parallel to the grassy start.

Lap 1 was behind me.  So, too, were still more riders from the earlier waves, men I passed easily on the hill.  Lap 2 was nearly a carbon copy of Lap 1—I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that my split times were exactly the same.  I knew Ernie Huerta and series leader Jim Steig were still ahead of me, but I didn’t know how far.  All I could do was ride my own race and hope to catch them in sight of the finish.  But it was not to be: Huerta held off Steig up the grassy hill to the finish.  I came in next, 1:04.7 behind.

Steig now has 1,156 series points, I have 1,083 and Jorsch has 1,053.  I haven’t been able to beat Steig all year and the math is not in my favor as I look for ways to win the series title.  I’m 4-2 against Jorsch and will try to extend my advantage next Sunday in the Sunburst Showdown.  I didn’t see his climbing legs today due to his unfortunate crash, but mine were pretty good and in the week to come I will be able to practice at Sunburst on a few occasions.  Sunburst represents a critical point in the season: for most of the men in my category, it will be the seventh race of the season.  The way WORS determines its series champions, each race after the seventh either replaces an earlier one—if your new result is better—or adds 5 participation points to your total.  Steig would have to collapse to lose his lead and he has shown no weakness this season.  For me, taking 2nd Place would be a great way to finish my first year in the series ... and my friendly rivalry with Jorsch could come down to those participation points.  I’d like to build a safe lead before cyclocross season begins, but I may have to defend my WORS standing all the way through the season finale in Sheboygan on October 14.

Apropos Of Nothing

Rémy Di Gregorio

I am not a Bradley Wiggins fan, but I do share his disdain for the sorts of journalists and other commentators who feel compelled to look for doping offenses in every cycling achievement.  There are doping offenses in cycling, of course, and it appears that we have a fresh one today involving Rémy Di Gregorio of Cofidis.  Sad if it’s true: Di Gregorio is a talented young climber in whom the French had high hopes.  But in the wake of controversial remarks made by Wiggins on Sunday, one has to question the motives behind this reference in the story about Di Gregorio:

“In 2007, current Tour de France leader Bradley Wiggins (Sky) was part of the Cofidis team that went home after the 16th stage.”

Yes, and … ?  While that statement is factually true, it’s also true of many other riders not named in the article.  To single out Wiggins just smells of an attempt to discredit him by association.  But we all know how the 6 Degrees of Separation theory works, don’t we?  You would be hard pressed to find a single rider in the professional peloton who has not at least been the teammate of a teammate who had a former teammate who turned out to be a doper.  How far are you willing to take it?  Five years ago, Wiggins had a dirty teammate.  Today that same team—for which Wiggins has not ridden since 2007—has a new doping scandal involving a rider who has never been Wiggins’ teammate.  Implying a connection is bullshit journalism.  If the writer of the article has more information, then let him present it.  Otherwise, let’s stop with the sneering cynicism.

Playing, Fast And Loose

OK, so the New Fane mountain bike trails are not quite this dry.  But they're close.

I am rarely surprised, and still less often pleasantly surprised.  But today exceeded my expectations.  I hadn’t ridden my mountain bike since the WORS race at Eau Claire on June 24.  That’s two full weeks ago.  Making my return to the singletrack today at New Fane, I thought I would be crap.  I thought it would take a couple of practice sessions to get comfortable again, but I was OK from the start.  And on my second lap I was more than OK, finishing in a personal-best 24 minutes.  That’s 2 minutes faster than my previous mark.

Maybe there should be an asterisk next to that record.  On previous occasions I rode solo; today I followed Jeff Wren.  He’s a better mountain biker than I.  We don’t always agree on which line to take—I didn’t set a PR by stealing any secrets from him—but we’re a close match in open terrain.  My desire to stay on his wheel made me push myself harder than I likely would have otherwise.

New Fane hasn’t had a proper rain in weeks and the trails are now very sandy and loose in some places, including a couple of tight corners.  I ride reasonably well in such conditions.  With my roadie background you might expect me to over-correct when I feel the rear tire slipping, but I handle it without panic.  That ability could come into play next Sunday at the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic, on what I expect will be very dry trails at Crystal Ridge in Franklin.  Looks like I’m going to practice there on Friday after work and on Saturday during the official WORS pre-ride.  In the meantime, I will continue to practice close to home—probably a combination of New Fane and Glacial Blue Hills—to keep my handling skills sharp.  I feel fortunate not to have lost anything during the two-week layoff, and now I’m really looking forward to a new week of training.

Getting Back To It

It isn’t like me to go a full week without updating this blog, but here we are.  I followed up last Saturday’s Washington County Bicycle Club ride with a short solo effort on Sunday and a rest day on Monday.  On Tuesday I did a 41-mile road ride but my legs felt like lead.  With no softball on Independence Day, I did another short solo effort and rediscovered a little form.  After something of a slow start on Thursday’s evening group ride, I rode pretty well and had no problems with the extreme heat.  Friday’s effort was another short, punchy solo ride.

All of that set up today’s ride with the Cream City Cycle Club, leaving from UW-Washington County and wandering through Iron Ridge and Mayville.  Just like last Saturday, I used my cyclocross bike to make my ride more challenging.  But this time I opted for my lighter Mavic Aksium wheelset and my 700x25 Continental Gatorskin tires.  The 700x30 cyclocross tires I used last week are now looking pretty worn out.  I didn’t want to risk a puncture on a ride that eventually turned into my first metric century since May 28.  And today’s route included a fair bit of climbing, including Schuster Drive just minutes after the start.

I probably should have gotten on the mountain bike at some point in the last week, but I wanted a break.  I had the week off from work and spent a lot of time just relaxing and enjoying the Tour de France on TV.  This is the first of two periods of “down time” this summer, three-week blocks without racing.  I want to arrive on the starting line of the cyclocross season opener with fresh legs and nothing but enthusiasm.

In the days ahead I need to concentrate on mountain biking.  My next WORS race, the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic, is just a week away.  Being able to climb the ski hill at Crystal Ridge in Franklin will be the biggest key to a successful race, but I can’t afford to overlook the singletrack.  I already have shown that I can outclimb most, if not all, of my series rivals, and no amount of training is going to make me a markedly better climber between now and July 15.  But more practice on singletrack could yield greater confidence and better race results.

Midway Through 2012

Today was a fantastic finish to the first half of the year.  It began with a well-attended Washington County Bicycle Club ride on which I met a couple of new people who rode really well and clearly enjoyed themselves.  Three cyclocross bikes were at the front of the pack today as Jeff Wren, Ian Prust and I turned the ride into a little bit of training for the season that will begin in just 10 weeks.  Smaller chainrings and wider tires made us work harder than our companions on the 40-mile route.

The 'cross bikes get a rest while their riders enjoy post-ride beers at Riverside Brewery & Restaurant in West Bend.

When I got home from the club ride I watched the early rebroadcast of today’s Tour de France prologue.  I had kept myself from learning the winner and was able to enjoy the coverage as if it were live.  Truly live racing came later: I visited Downer Avenue in Milwaukee for today’s stage of the Tour of America’s Dairyland.  It’s always a great time and a great opportunity to see my cycling friends … though some of them struggle to recognize me in street clothes!

The top women racers line up for the start of their 60-minute criterium at Downer Avenue.

In years past I presented you with a midyear statistical breakdown.  It’s kind of neat information, so I’ll share this year’s numbers with you, though the real story of 2012 has been mountain bike racing.  Through June 30 I have covered 2,474 miles in 97 rides for a 25.51 average.  That compares to 1,961 / 70 / 28.01 last year.  I set personal records in January, February and March, taking advantage of an uncommonly mild winter.  My per-ride average is down this year because of mountain biking, but who cares?  I’ve done more rides for more miles with more variety and more intensity.  I have more fitness and the season has been more fun.

We’re halfway through 2012 but I’m not even close to halfway through my racing season.  I will look for additional fitness gains during the first half of July, then apply them to WORS races on July 15 and 22.  August will be a transitional month as I consolidate my position in WORS while refining my cyclocross skills in anticipation of the season opener on September 8.  October, November and December probably will belong exclusively to ’cross.  And to begin 2013?  Well, maybe a little rest will be in order.

Lumpy

If you read this blog regularly, then you should be aware of the 6 p.m. Thursday group ride that leaves from the high school parking lot at the corner of River & Decorah.  There’s a Facebook group devoted to it and you can join to keep up with news about the ride.  It’s not a big crowd, but it’s a good quality crowd.  And the ride itself is not a knock-down, drag-out affair on which the primary objective is to hurt everyone, but it’s good training.  Riders typically cover 30-40 miles at 17-19 mph average—the speed can be much higher at times—and there’s no predetermined route.  Sometimes the whole ride is flat, and sometimes the riders are challenged by a succession of hills.

Tonight’s ride was something between flat and hilly.  We’ll call it “lumpy.”  Here’s the route map (we traveled in a clockwise direction):

And here’s the elevation profile:

I’m sharing these details with you because I want to share the ride with you.  Spread the word and join us.  The ride will continue into mid-September, at which point waning daylight will force us to shut down until next spring.

2012 Red Flint Firecracker

Credit where it's due: Brad Jorsch rode like a rock star. (Nathan Long photo)

Just like the Battle of CamRock one week ago, today’s WORS race left me with mixed emotions.  I’ll get the bad news out of the way first: I have dropped from second place to third place in the series standings.  But I think I can get that spot back, and I’m still looking for a way to be in first place at the end of the season … though the math is against me.

Lowes Creek County Park in Eau Claire was the site of today’s Red Flint Firecracker and the trail network was outstanding.  I thought the inclusion of whoop-de-doos in Lap 1 of the Citizens (Cat 3) race was a questionable choice but I had a strategy to deal with them: get there first, pick my own line and dictate the pace.  A couple of the riders in my 40-49 age group were, effectively, out of the running by the time we reached the whoop-de-doos, but the fast start didn’t shake the men that really matter in the series standings.  Points leader Jim Steig was right behind me, followed by Brad Jorsch, Ernie Huerta, Paul Baltus and Loren Beyer.  When I got a little ragged on the singletrack about halfway through the lap, they all passed me.  I went from first to sixth in the blink of an eye.

Our fast start pulled back many riders from the younger age groups, racers who had started in waves ahead of us.  Picking our way through slower traffic now became an important racing dynamic.  Though I was moving successfully through the field, I soon lost visual contact with my rivals.  That was a bit demoralizing but not completely unexpected on a course with so many tight corners and switchback climbs.  On a few occasions my rivals weren’t in front of me; they were above me.

The lap ended as the singletrack emptied the riders onto a gravel road that took them back to part of the starting chute.  On this section I shifted into the big ring again, pulled back a little time and gulped some badly-needed sports drink.  Lap 2 then deviated from the Lap 1 route by throwing us right back into some singletrack, but not technical singletrack.  I moved through it with a nice rhythm, then hammered on a mix of nordic ski trails and more flowy singletrack.  I knew I was going well but still I didn’t see any of my rivals until the final open hill climb.  There was Beyer, cresting the hill as I was reaching its base.  He had several seconds on me but his body language suggested a fatigue that I wasn’t feeling.  I charged up the hill and passed a pair of younger riders, then followed Beyer through the water station before ripping past him on the last section of open trail.  After a final section of singletrack I emerged on the short finishing straight but there was no reason to sprint.  The only man between me and the finish line was a 30-39 racer whose head start I had already erased.

Steig won the day, but Jorsch was just 0.7 seconds behind!  Then came Huerta at 5.1 seconds, Baltus at 22.5 and me at 29.1.  Yep, the five podium spots were separated by less than half a minute!  Beyer came in 17 seconds later, but almost 2 minutes ahead of Ray Iesalnieks of Eau Claire.  On trails with so many technical features, I thought the Top 10 might be dominated by local riders in the same manner as CamRock last weekend.  But today the top guys in the series were really strong.

With 964 points, Steig continues to lead the series.  Jorsch moved into second place today with 904 points, while I dropped into third with 897.  For me, the season probably comes down to my next three races.  I need to place well in July’s ski hill races—the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic at Crystal Ridge in Franklin, and the Sunburst Showdown in Kewaskum—and I need to dominate the Reforestation Ramble in Suamico on Aug. 26th, a race that I hope to use to replace my 9th Place finish at CamRock.  (Not sure if I'm going to race at the Subaru Cup on Aug. 19 ... we'll see.)