Race Report: NC State

[whoops, since I’m racing tomorrow, I should probably post last weekend’s report]

Well, I wish I could say I started off the season this past weekend, but realistically, it was an exercise in frustration that reminded me a lot of last collegiate season. Mostly because, as John Zaccone so eloquently put it, “Well Flo, I guess that was our last collegiate race.”

Didn’t race Saturday. A barrage of emails Friday night confirmed we’d definitely have a race, then that we might, then that the race was delayed, then that they were all on, then that they would make a decision at 6 a.m. And the decision was to cancel the race, so we went on a nice group ride around Jordan Lake on beautiful, snow free roads. Sunday we showed up to the January Nats course to find ice everywhere. Despite an hour delay, we rolled out at 9 a.m. to a balmy 24 degrees. Oh, and they combined out field with Collegiate A. Sean said something about being near the start, and then there were attacks in the neutral zone and it was all kind of a blur. Nick and I followed attacks along with a few Haymarket guys because we all had guys in the early break. Going from no warm up to gunning it at my first race of the season proved to be a bit much, so after a lap and a half I was popped. I caught up with a few other people in a similar situation and soon had a group of six chasing hard, constantly about a minute down on the field. They pulled us going into the last lap, along with anyone else off the back, and I finished 27th out of 60something. Or something like that. Someone told me they had been scoring pulled riders backwards. We watched the other races, all of them collegiate and public combined. Kat from American wrecked hard in a turn that hadn’t been swept at all, snapped her handlebar in half, caved in her helmet, and was promptly ushered to the hospital, along with a few other girls.

So, in summary, it was a terrible race weekend. But tomorrow it will be in the 60s in Greenville, and although I’ve only been there a few times, Donaldson Center is one of my favorite circuit courses ever. Start of the season, take two.

My baby sister will be jumping at NC High School Indoor Track States tomorrow, where she very well might set a new high school record in high jump… a record she almost beat her first year in middle school. Good luck Libb!

time trial rules, college and UCI

Cervelo gets a one minute penalty for pushing in a TT. This seems sort of odd. In track, there is an entire event dedicated to one rider physically throwing his teammate. Ok, I guess this isn’t just a TT rule, as one rider can’t push another, teammate or not, in any circumstance, but come on, I don’t know how many times I’ve had friendly and hostile pushes and pulls in races. A one minute penalty after a TTT in a short, flat stage race? Better luck next year.

In response to the new rule that TT specific equipment has been banned from collegiate races, here is an email I sent to the collegiate director, Jeffrey Hansen:

I’d like to comment on a few concerns I have regarding aero equipment in road races. As a bit of background, I have raced as an A in mountain, road, and cyclocross for Appalachian State for the last three years.

Aero bars: Aero bars are a fairly inexpensive piece of equipment and add no further travel costs, two of the major concerns inspiring the rules. To that end, as an A rider, I will continue to ride in an aerodynamic position on my road bike, whether there are aero bars present or not – with my forearms resting on the tops of my handlebars and my hands dangling out in front. I use sram so there are no cables for me to grasp. This is a rather dangerous position and it could be avoided with the use of clip on aero bars.

Cost: Despite the rules, riders will continue to attempt to bend of break them. For example, it would be easy to conceive that a rider would purchase a Cervelo Soloist frame and whatever other aerodynamic but mass start legal parts possible in order to create a road bike/time trial bike that will fit within the rules yet still give the rider an advantage. In a way, these rulings have the opposite intended effect: I still own aero equipment, as do the vast majority of my competitors in the ACCC Men’s A field, and this rule effectively de-values our equipment, as we can no longer get as much use out of it. While I feel these rulings are great for the B, C, D, and E/Intro riders, the A rider is racing at the highest level of collegiate competition. The added cost is simply a result of racing at a high level – and again, while this is only my anecdotal experience, most A riders already own aero equipment.

Competition: An A rider, by definition, must be a category 1, 2, or 3 rider, and in my experience, most are category 1 and 2 riders. Most compete outside of the collegiate realm, as well. And, hopefully, most riders will continue to race outside of college. Time trial riding and team time trial riding, on an aero bike, in an aero position, with aero equipment, is a vital part of the rider’s development, especially if he or she plans to race at a higher level or in stage races or omniums where there is almost always a time trial component, and the competitors haven’t been restricted on their equipment in the past. I feel collegiate cycling’s greatest advantage is its developmental nature, allowing riders to race with a team, consistently, in a way he or she might not have access to otherwise.

Thanks for your consideration. Again, I propose that these rules not be applied to A riders. And, at the very least, for safety sake, please allow A riders to use clip on aero bars.

Needless to say, I think this new rule is ridiculous. But hey, developmental programs are all about handicapping, right?

if you’ve hit puberty, you’ll never be a ProTour rider

In a VeloNews interview, Vinokourov said, in reference to Alberto Contador, that “He’s only 27 and until he’s 32-33, he can [be] competitive on the bike because he began racing very late, at 15, so he’s still fresh.”

What a great insight into US cycling versus European cycling. I didn’t even know about bicycle racing when I was 15.

If you’ve read some of my other posts, you know I have a sort of love/hate thing for Vino. Well, that’s not going to end any time soon, because he’s able to, in the same quote, come off as rather intelligent and also prove that he’s still a complete dumbass.

“That’s just an excuse (Bruyneel) used to leave for the other team. He used my name, my image. He had one more year of contract with the team and the Kazakhs had no problem that he could continue.”

Well played. I still don’t understand how breach of contract is so prevalent in professional cycling.

“Why shouldn’t I be able to come back to the team that was in part created for me? Why didn’t Johan want me? I didn’t choose this road, but I never understood why Lance could race at Astana and not me.”

You didn’t choose this road? Seriously? You tripped into a bunch of bloog bags and IVs at the start of your training and then managed to trip back into that same bunch of bloog bags and IVs right before the tour???

This post’s image-stealing style courtesy of Nello.

source

a long december

The weather has destroyed my will to ride. Last year, I’d logged well over 100 hours on the bike by this point. This year I’m a few minutes shy of 35. It’s actually working out well, though. I spent a good bit of time talking with Sean, going over last year, identify strengths and weaknesses, developing goals, and applying all this to my training specifically to meet my goals. Instead of as much mediocre training as possible, I’m adopting relatively small amounts of high-quality training. I don’t need to put in a massive base with six plus hour rides; my longest race is four, and even those will be few and far between. I also don’t need to work on my aerobic system too much. Anyone who’s raced a crit with me knows I should probably focus on my anaerobic capacity. I’ve spent several days riding in Wilkesboro, which has been great. I’ve even ridden the trainer a handful of times… which is still more than I’ve ever ridden the trainer in a single season (not counting the hours spent in the Human Performance lab for the Quercetin trials). And races start in January now, with the chance to race twice, three, even four or five times a week from February to September.

I like training, don’t get me wrong, but I love racing. That’s why I do this whole silly bicycle thing. January Nats is tomorrow and will sort of kick things off, followed by NC State, Spring Training series, and then the “classics”: Rouge Roubaix, Blythewood Roubaix, Boone Roubaix, Harris Roubaix, anyone want to go to Battenkill?, take it easy for a week, then lather, rinse, repeat. And the best training for racing is racing, no? One of the best tips I’ve heard in regards to training is this: until you’ve dialed in the perfect training plan for you, take one aspect and do something totally different for a year. Last year was the year of high volume. This will be the year of specificity.

Here goes nothing.

need another reason to hate Ricco?

In response to his girlfriend testing positive in a control for CERA, Riccardo Ricco had this to say:

“When I was found positive, I confessed everything. I was honest. I hope she does the same. People know I don’t like her racing, you can imagine what I think about her taking anything. Cycling isn’t for women, it hurts too much.”

Spoken like a true gentleman.

Does anyone else find it irresponsible that, with the demands professional cycling places on one’s time, energy, and body, Vania Rossi is racing and training – quite obviously at a high level, as she recently finished second in Italy’s cyclocross national championship – with a six month old child?

Source: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ricco-denies-involvement-in-his-girlfriends-epo-cera-positive

What will you be doing January 2013?

I’m not one for planning ahead, but I can say with almost full certainty I’ll be in Louisville, Kentucky, watching Cyclocross Worlds. A. W. E. S. O. M. E.

Cycling News article
VeloNews article

Tim, Noah, Fawley… clear your calendars.

Team Metro-Reprographics p/b awholebunchasponsors

Looks cool, very ’07-’08 App State-eque. Lots of black and gray and white all over, so hopefully a lack of distinction will make us distinct. Training is going well. I’m doing the opposite of last year. Instead of 20 hour weeks December through March, I’m just making the most of my time. I’m fairly certain five hour rides in Boone during the winter actually reduce your fitness. Instead it’s lots of 2ish hour rides full of tempo and threshold. Mostly because I had the foresight to move to an apartment on top of Deck Hill which, at best, involves a 20 minute climb up around 1,200 feet, half of it being gravel. Who knows if it’ll work? Human athletic performance is pretty much a matter of how much white (or black) is in your wardrobe and how well you avoid things like bread, exposing your skin to the elements, proper embrocation rituals, and shaving the night before a race. First half of the season will be long races with dirt roads and start races, second half will be stupidfast crits.

In other news, I might be done with Speedplay. The knee will be the deciding factor, and I realize this is an issue I’m running in to only because I’m a bike shop employee, but trying to order their pedals is prohibitively difficult, especially since I’ve placed an order, oh, I don’t know, five times now and they still don’t have a confirmed order for me. Dura Ace it is.

Unless THESE actually end up being cool.

In other other news, Noah might have actually updated his blog. Smart money is that it’s light on content and heavy on stolen pictures.

controversial

I won’t hide, I’ll come right out and say it: I’m still a Vinokourov fan.

Alright, he doped. That was wrong. Duh. I think we can all agree on that. But this is what I like, doping aside:

1.) Astana exists entirely because of him. The Kazakh governement amassed all sorts of resources to create a team around him. And yes, the team became an entirely different entity once the Bruyneel/Armstrong conglomeration swept in and “saved the day” (psyke!) but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s the man that created the team.

2.) No ammount of testosterone, EPO, CERA, blood doping, etc. helps you recover from a bad wreck.

Homeboy is still clearly riding that TT on a stiched up elbow, and when he came back after the wreck to stage wins despite ripping the stiches out of his knee every stage, well, the extra blood may have helped the lungs and the legs with the effort, but he still gets points for effort, eh?

3.) He just doesn’t care. On the one hand it means he’s a cocky, unreprentant doper who really shouldn’t be returning to the peloton. But unlike some of the prima donnas of the cycling world…

Is that a front derailleur in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

….he is ignoring the critics, the controversy, and the fact that any non-Kazakh cycling fan hates him and he says “I’m going to race for Astana. Period. No further questions.” Yeah, he’s a doper, and he obviously doesn’t care that he doped or got caught, but with as much complaining as professional cyclists do, it’s nice to see one shut up, put his head down, and get back to (drug enhanced) work.

And hey, at least he served his time for doping. Not to suggest that other past or present Astana team members have doped during their past or present careers. So Vino, yes, you’re ruining cycling. But at least you’re doing it with style.