The Colavita Domination

Two weekends ago (yes, I'm a little behind), my team scored our first win of the season at the Boulder Larimer Road Race, with Ryan Cole taking the sprint in the lead group of 15 or so.
The race was a strange one for me. The preceding couple days, I had been feeling a little flat, and on race day, while I normally do pretty well in windy situations, I just didn't have the energy to battle for position at the front. I ended up getting dropped four times during the race, but for whatever reason, I was able to catch back on with the main group the first three times. In the mean time, Steve, Hamilton, Cole, and Mark were doing well up front. It was a great feeling having teammates up the road, because I was not obligated to work as hard to chase.
Halfway through the fourth lap, Steve had a mishap with a broken spoke, and in a great show of teamwork, Mark stopped and gave Steve his wheel. Impressively, Steve rode back up to me (in a chase group), and then soloed back up to the main group, once again allowing me to sit in a bit. From what I am told, Hamilton and Steve pushed the pace to the finish, laying the groundwork for Cole to light his rocket boosters and sprint for the win.
A little ways back, I felt like I was racing for 50th place, and aparently, so did some other guys in my group. They started congratulating each other on a good ride, and talked about crossing the line together. Not everyone shared this sentiment, and after giving the group fair warning that I was still racing, I attacked. My engine sputtered a few meters from the line, and I got passed by one guy who decided to follow me. Turns out I placed 21st, which I was very pleased with considering the way I was feeling, and that there were 92 guys in the race. As soon as one of my teammates told me we had won, I couldn't keep a smile off my face.

This past Sunday was the Boulder Beer Road Race. I didn't attend, but from what my teammates told me, it was another windy race. Steve and Hamilton once again showed the peloton the meaning of pain (and teamwork), and while a lone rider snuck off the front for the win, Cole was in position to once again win the group sprint. Two podiums in two weeks--pretty stellar.

My preparation for the Tour of the Gila (which starts in 8.5 days) is going in full swing. Today will be the last day of a pretty tough block of training, and the next week will be spent resting and getting a little time on my time trial setup. This race is one of my favorites, and the anticipation is killing me.

More mud

If you haven't got your mud fix yet, here it is.
http://www.velonews.com/race/mtn/articles/9750.0.html
Because I was busy taking my bike apart down to the bearings after my race, I didn't get to watch the Pro short track races. This article covers these races, and even has a link to a video clip of World Champ Gunn-Rita getting a face full of mud courtesy of one of those mud holes I mentioned in my other post. Somehow there is a sick sense of gratification in watching a rider of that caliber go down--possibly because of the realization that I was not exaggerating the difficulty of the race.

When I wasn't racing, I was...

Checking out the huge vendor expo, and talking to sponsors/potential sponsors. With the rest of my free time, I hung out in Monterey and saw the sights. More on that later.
While browsing the expo area, I saw the new Sram road grouppos. They both look awesome, and the shifting is revolutionary (though I know it will take some time to get used to it). I think Shimano and Campy will have some stiff competition, and I for one am sold on the Sram stuff. I even got to talk to the designer of the Sram mountain bike trigger shifters for a little while. Cool guy.

(Left)The Sram neutral support bikes.

To be fair, I also checked out the new Shimano XTR prototypes. Shimano seems to be going in the right direction, though I think I'll stick with my twist shifters.
One thing that really stood out to me, were these wheels from a company called Industry Nine. They are a small company just breaking into the wheel market, and they have a pretty unique product. They use aluminum spokes that thread directly into the hubs they make. There are no nipples at either end. Because of the use of aluminum in their spokes and hubs, they can anodize them in all kinds of colors, and can even do fades for some really flashy wheels. They are only making mountain bike wheels now, but should have road wheels next year.
I had a little free time before I caught my flight home on Monday, so I decided to check out the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. I've never visited it in all the times I've been to Sea Otter, so this was a must. It was the most amazing, high-tech, expensive looking museum-type place I've ever been to.
Above, Sea Otters in Monterey Bay hang out in Kelp forests to eat clams. Left, a view of a Kelp forest from below the water.
It's amazing how relaxing it is to watch fish. I stood mesmerized in front of several of the tanks watching fish, jellyfish, sharks, and other animals just going about their daily business. In one of the tanks, was a Sunfish (see below). This is one wierd looking fish, and also a big one. If I curled into a ball, it would be bigger than me. There were also Tuna in the tank that were even bigger than the sunfish!
I'll leave you with one last picture. This is a early morning shot from the Monterey Peninsula (near Pebble Beach) looking back towards Laguna Seca. Monterey is such a beautiful place. I'll miss her until next year.

Sea Otter Classic Recap

First off, sorry to all those who were eagerly awaiting news from this weekend's racing. After my last posting, things got crazy, and I basically only had time to eat, sleep, race, and clean my bike, clean my bike, and once again clean my bike. Yes, it was that muddy. The short track course just had no hope of drying out because it was pretty obvious that the ground was fully saturated, and the water wasn't going anywhere. Almost the entire course had about 6 inches of high water content mud (didn't stick much to anything, but was like trying to ride through chocolate pudding). Then of course there were the "holes", that you couldn't always anticipate, and would gobble up your wheel if you tried to ride through them. I've scanned in some pictures from the Monterey newspaper, as I did not really get any racing pictures (when I was with my bike, I was either racing it or washing it). These pictures are not just the highlights (or lowlights), but are very indicative of how the entire race went for every rider. I managed to not have any spectacular crashes, but did manage to slide out twice in corners. Possibly the most amazing thing about the short track race was that I went through a complete set of disc brake pads in about 20 minutes (I didn't even use my brakes very much!). This made for an expensive race, though I was glad I didn't do any major damage to my bike. Because I got behind a guy who slid out in the first corner of the race, I was immediately at the back of the race, and never moved up very far. My name is not on the results list, so I don't know my exact position.

The cross country race on Sunday was a whole new experience for me. Besides being essentially an all new course for the first time in the six years that I have done Sea Otter, this was the biggest Semi-Pro field that I have competed in (75 starters, I believe). When the race hit the first single track section, I was about mid pack, and that's about where I finished (33rd).
We were greeted at the start line with a slight drizzle, which followed us for most of the 3 hour, 38 mile race. The first lap was quite fun as the course was pretty tacky and fast, and the group was keeping a high pace. Bikes were working well, until towards the end of the lap where the mud pits were waiting to gobble up our bikes. I made the decision to ride through all the pits, which in the short term netted me a lot of passes. However, the mud collecting on my bike took its toll on my drivetrain, and later on in the lap, and at the start of the second lap, I began to have some serious chainsuck problems. It got to the point where my chain was trying to jam into my chainstay on every hill (the course was very rolly), causing me to lose all momentum, and most times causing me to get off my bike. This began to take its toll on me mentally, as I was starting to lose all hope of a good finish. To cap things off, I got caught by the Pro Women just a couple miles into the second lap. The only other time I've gotten caught was last year in the last mile of the race--after riding a whole lap with a nasty bonk. That said, this year, because of the high UCI ranking for the cross country, many of the top World Cup racers came to California for the race. The rider to pass me first? None other than multiple World Champion Gunn-Rita Dahle. She was flying! Then came Sabine Spitz. Shortly after passing me, she had chain problems, and I passed her back. Not wanting to make Velonews for being the guy to cost her the race, I pushed it hard through the single track. Inevitably, she was breathing down my neck, and I let her by as soon as I could. I must say that instead of being bummed by getting passed by girls, I was honored to be riding (albeit briefly) with these world class athletes.
With the constant drizzle that had been with us for the first part of the race, came mud everywhere on the second lap. What once was tacky, was now slick and wet. After having my chainsuck problems for a good while, I finally figured that if stayed in my small ring, I would be ok. Half way through the second lap, I started catching the back end of the Pro Men's field, and suprisingly, rode up on Cody Peterson. We chatted a little while, and it turns out that due to chainsuck he was stuck in his big ring.
Coming up to the final climb, the first American women caught up to me (Sue Haywood, and Mary McConneloug, along with Jimena Florit and Katernia Nash (formerly Hanusova)). After gapping me a bit, I caught back up to Mary, and rode into the finish with her. All in all, I had a fun time, but only wish I had figured out my chainsuck solution a lot earlier.
Check out my next post where I will talk about what went on when I wasn't sleeping, eating, racing, or washing my bike. There'll be pictures too.

Sea Otter Classic--First 24 hours

I arrived in Monterey yesterday without any mishaps. I was hoping to go preride the Sea Otter cross country and/or short track course, but since it has been raining the entire last week, there is deep, nasty mud everywhere. This whole rain thing is kind of funny, because since I have been here (yesterday and today), it has been nothing but nice weather. The mud is drying up pretty quickly (from what I can tell), and I did ride the first few miles of the XC yesterday, and plan to do the whole course today.
The XC course is going to be completely different for me (dispite doing this race the past five years), because they are running it backwards this year, and are incorperating a lot of new trails. From what I have seen of the course, it looks like it will favor my five inch travel bike more than the courses of past, as there are a lot of very fast, somewhat technical decents at the start. It should be fun.
I'm about to be kicked off my computer here at the Monterey public library. I'll try to post each day to let you know how the racing is going, depending on if I can find computer access, of course. I'll be adding pictures when I get back to Colorado.

It's Starting To Come Together

This past Sunday was the Koppenburg road circuit race, an annual favorite of mine. The race is a 5.5 mile circuit (multiple laps), with almost half of that distance on dirt roads. Traditionally, the race is all but decided in the first 2.5 miles or so, where the first time up "the climb"--a short 17% grade dirt climb, basically wide enough for two riders side by side--becomes a bottle-neck that allows the riders smart/fortunate enough to be in front, to create a break from the rest of the group. In this iteration of the race there were 20-30 mph winds, along with an absence of the usual potholes in the road on the leadup to the climb. This allowed a much larger group to stay together at the front of the race, and the final groups weren't formed until at least the third time up the climb (out of 6 ascents).
I stayed in good position, though at one point I got caught at the back of the group when four riders slipped off the front. For some reason most of our group was not motivated to chase, and after a couple individual attacks and attempts to jump to the front group, my group was down to four. The chase was on, and while we came very close at one point, we never caught the front four. Amazingly, a 5280 rider (junior program for TIAA/CREF) soloed and caught my group, and then attacked us and almost caught the front group by himself. I was able to drop the rest of the guys in my group the last time up the climb, and crossed the line in sixth place--less than a minute down from the winner. I am very satisfied with my performance, considering my digestive problems of last week, though I am still disappointed that I missed the winning break.
My team (Colavita Olive Oil/Cooking Light) had a strong showing at the race, with seven riders. My teammate Steve was in the next group behind mine, and made sure that his group did not catch mine. Steve was able to beat most of the guys in his group, and came across the finish in eleventh place.
Next weekend, I'll be heading out to California for the Sea Otter Classic. I'll be competing in the mountain bike Short Track XC race on Saturday, and the XC on Sunday. This will be my first mountain bike race of the season (my latest start in the last five years). I've only had my race bike together for less than two weeks (see pictures), but have it pretty dialed. I'm looking forward to seeing how a 5 inch travel full suspension bike will do in the short and intense Short Track races this season.