Going up

As of today I'm officially Cat-4 racer. The goal of first 1/2 of 2008 racing season has been achieved.

But, to be absolutely honest, I "cheated" a bit. 

There are three possible ways of upgrading from Cat-5 to Cat-4. One is to enter 10 road events, road races or criteriums. Theoretically, the only thing you need to do is to cross a start line in each of the event and ride 1-2 meters. But that will be uber-cheating. The second way is to enter 5 road events and attend one skill clinic. An approved clinic. And the third way is to enter 5 road events and attend three beginner sessions on velodrome.

IMHO, the second and third ways are cheating. While I agree that second way is focused on a very specific skillset (all clinics do that), I think that a clinic should be additional thing to the rest of the races. There is no competition in clinics, at least there's no real competition. All people go there to improve and learn. They are more cautious. The third way is somewhat cheating. I believe that riding on track is very cool thing. I, personally, like it a lot. There's some competition during the beginners' sessions (like in my last one, where we had several pretty strong guys who were willing to push the pace up and just one beginner, who was immediately separated from the rest of us for his own safety). But it's still not a complete road thing. It's just different.

So, yes, I cheated. I admit. I raced in 8 events, crashed in one of them (surprisingly, that one was not officially counted, so officially I raced only in 7 races). Two of the races were horrible: I DNP'ed, meaning that officials pulled me of the course before the end of the race (and, to my surprise, one of those two got reported as "finished 31st", in other words they didn't actually count my DNP). And I also attended 3 mandatory beginners' sessions at the velodrome.  And, as I said above, I really like riding on track. I still have a very long learning curve ahead of me, but I'm definitely walking this path.

Now since I'm Cat-4, I need to start working on improving my form. Track rides help loosing the fear of a wheel in front of you, so I'll continue that way. Plus, my next race is a really hilly one. Pescadero road race. I want to be able to ride it in good form. And I need to plan the rest of the year. Personal schedule changes should allow me to race almost until the end of September. The goal of this period is to get minimum 10 points that would count towards next upgrade.

Race report: Wente Vineyards road race

Originally when I planned my racing season this race was not on the list. However, after talking to my friend in March I looked at the flyer of the race. And decided to race.

Wente Vineyards racing series consists of two events: road race and criterium. I signed up for road race only -- the same weekend my aikido dojo has an annual performance at Cupertino's Cherry Blossom festival. I love aikido and I just couldn't sacrifice the whole weekend to racing and let my friends show techniques without me :-).

The Elite 5 start was scheduled for 11:30. A bit late, counting that forecast I heard on TV was "low 80s". Don't trust the weatherman! Never! Ever! His main job is to lie to you and get you confused. "Low 80s" were very much mid-to-high 80s at 10:30 when I drove to Livermore. 

Hot! Damn hot! I don't like hot temperatures. I perform better in a moderately warm or even cooler temperatures (no wind, please :-)  ). The parking was pretty parked with the early birds, so I parked about .5 mi from the registration. I took my gear out, assembled the bike and rode to the registration.

First surprise of the day: E5s are scheduled to start at 11:50. The temperature sensor on Ergomo shows 105 F. Ouch! I do believe, though that the sensor is bit overestimating. Ouch, anyway. I took the number and headed back to the car to pin the number and to get last minute drinks. The time is 11:20 and I decided to go for a quick warm up. This is when I thoughts that those extra 20 minutes were good. And they were. I did several laps around improvised parking lot and got my legs spinning. As I said earlier, my crazy work schedule kept me of the bike for the whole week, so this was good thing.

I went to the starting line, listened to the guy who kept calling us 'Cat 4 race" while reading the rules despite all wows that this is "Cat 5". Oh well, I'd love to upgrade :-).

We went of on a whistle. Three laps ahead, somewhat about 50 miles of very hot air. The group started with moderate pace and I'm gladly stayed in the mid of the pack. Police closed some of the intersections and we soft-pedal through them. Until we hit the main climb. The pace picked up. I make quick look around and at least half of the group is gone. We climbed the first climb and folks in front turned the gas on. I was not able to stay and kept going on my own. In 5 or 10 minutes I bridged to a group of 4 or 5 guys who got dropped from the what used to be main group. In a few minutes several guys bridged from the back and we got into paceline, working with each other but not really chasing the remains of the main group. 

As we finished the first lap and got close to the main climb I counted 15 riders in my group. Good! We hit the climb again and the group quickly dissolved and 3 guys rolled away from us. Another group of 5 riders with me in it kept through the climb and continued on. We kept taking pools through the second lap. Somewhere in the middle of the lap I took another portion of "Sports legs" vitamins: the outcome of Sea Otter experience (there's nothing worse than to have no legs at the end of the race). 

Despite the extremely high temperature I felt good. No cramping, the legs worked ok. But I started running out of water. Before going to the starting line I debated with myself on how many bottles of water I want to carry. And (foolishly) opted out of third bottle. I thought that the race has neutral water support. We hit the climb and there's feed zone. All 5 of us started screaming "Neutral support" as we rolled through the feed zone. Dead silence! That was second surprise of the day. No neutral water support. And I don't have water with 20 miles to go. "Water, water" I kept vowing. Finally some girl from the side hanged my a water bottle with very warm water. The bottle was also fill to about 2/3 of capacity. At least something. As we rolled through finish line going to 3rd and final lap I angrily asked "where is neutral support?" I believe one of the women answered "Right here" as she comfortably sat under the big umbrella. But I could be wrong. She did answer something, though.

I started limiting water. 2/3 of the bottle for 20 miles in 105 F is nothing. I consumed couple sips of PowerBar gel and about 1/2 of the bottle with it. That kept me ok for about 13 or 14 miles. Couple guys from our group rolled away from us on descent. I pushed harder on the second climb of the race and established a 1 minute gap. A passing group of Cat4s (real "4s") helped me an bit, since I was able to hand in their slipstream for couple minutes. With 6 miles to go I ran out of water. Completely. I tossed the bottle out and slowed the pace. An official on motorbike came along left side warning about a breakaway from Pro/1/2 and that I should not use them for pooling me to the finish line. I asked about the water in return. We hanged me a water bottle. Regular water bottle. I struggled a bit to open it but finally succeeded. Ahhh, water.

Three miles to go. I rolled passed the starting line and re-joined the group of one Cat4 and one Cat5. I asked them to work together but they didn't want to. OK, fine, but then I'm not polling either. I rolled to the middle of the road as we hit the last climb. The Cat5 had better legs than I and he passed me. OK, no big deal. I sprinted (as much as I could) to the finish line and stopped of the road. No water and no bottle. Oh, yeah, I tossed mine in the feed zone just down the road, I should be able to find them. I got myself together and went to talk to officials about neutral support. the guy who made the announcement at the beginning was there and I talked to him. "Excuse me. Could you show me where neutral water support should be?", - I asked. "For what race?", - he replied. "Ehh, for any. This is neutral support. It should be there for any race". "You know this race doesn't have neutral water support." "What? Why was it advertised in the flyer then?" "Let me take a look", - he said. He opened the printout and the exact wording they had in the flyer was "Feed zone located on blah-blah road". Oops. Feed zone != neutral support. 

"OK", - I said and went down the hill looking for my water bottles. Zilch. I didn't find anything :-). I survived the last three miles without water and came back to the car. Car's sensor was showing 90 F which was probably more accurate reading then Ergomo's. But in the car it was like in the oven. The water in the bottles I left was very hot. But it still was water. 

I consumed my recovery drink, disassembled the bike, changed and took a few minutes for recovery. I was ready to go home.

PS. There are no results yet. I estimate my placing somewhere between 35 and 45. Not bad for that weather.

PSS. This was my last race as Cat 5 (Elite 5). I have 9 races (10 required for upgrade). And I'm not going to race at Cat's Hill. But. Next two weekends I'm planning to spend at the track. This will make me eligible for the upgrade. 

EDIT: I'm officially 29th.

Cat's Hill vs. velodrome :-)

I need to make a decision. Race at Cat's Hill vs. training session on velodrome. Tough choice.

Cat's Hill is in my original "racing schedule" and rated as an "A"-priority race. However, my current work schedule totally ruined my training: last time I was on the bike last Sunday and didn't ride single mile since. VERY bad. This means I'm loosing my form every day. Cat's Hill is not an easy race: that 23% hill is a tough one. However, after that race I should be eligible for upgrade to Elite 4 (Cat 4) -- the goal of first 1/2 of the year.

On the other hand, I could go to the velodrome on the same day. It's fun. And it'll be second training session (three sessions like that count as 5 road races and provide eligibility for upgrade to Elite 4). 

Tough choice :-)

Race report: Sea Otter road race

Sea Otter is a big cycling event in NorCal. May be the biggest in California. Four days of racing, trade and demo show. Lots of fun (as people claim :-) ). Maybe Interbike in Las Vegas is bigger. 

 

The races at Sea Otter include both, road and MTB events. I think there are more MTB events than road, but I could be wrong. There was couple of road events that I was interested in, but I only signed up for one: SRAM Road Race. (The second one was SRAM circuit race, but I hesitated.)

 

The race was held on Friday, April 18 with 3:00pm start for Elite-5 category. I took a day of at the job and tried to get as much rest the day before as I could. I did, however, go to my Thursday aikido class that turned out to be not so good idea: I took a bad fall and landed on my left knee hitting it. Pain. 

 

Sea Otter is held at Laguna Seca Recreational area, at Mazda Racecourse. It's about 1 hour 20 minutes drive from my house. Not far. I packed my racing bag the night before. The knee was noticeable better so I thought that I'll be fine. Bike on the roof, wheel, trainer and racing bag in the trunk, and I headed to the race course.

 

I should say that this was my first attendance of Sea Otter. As I drove close to the racecourse I saw rows and rows of cars of those who attended the racing and the show. The marshals directed me to a parking space a bit away from the raceway. Another problem it was on sand and the road was gravel. I had about 2 hours before the beginning of the race, so I took my racing license and headed to the registration. The temperature sensor was showing 57 F, but with wind it felt a bit cooler. The registration booth was about 10 minutes from the car. A bit of a walk. 

 

I completed release form and got my number and a transmitter. Wow, that's something new. The transmitter goes to left ankle and it'll mark exact time of finish. Cool! The second part was a bag of goodies. Water bottle, Kenda butil tube, bunch of promotional papers. And a walk back to the car :-). 

 

The Sun came out and I debated with myself whether or not I should wear arm and knee warmers. The cautious side of me won and I put warmers on. There was simply no place for warm up: I parked on a side of a hill and, as I said, it was on sand. I waited for a while, assembled the bike, put cycling shoes on and headed to the starting point. Turned out that was a 20 minutes walk.

 

One observation of trade show: Rock Racing booth. Rock Racing is a domestic pro-cycling team that makes a lot of buzz this year. Their owner is a bit of a poser guy (at Amgen Tour of California this year he had a body-guard behind him). And I bet the booth reflects this posing "statement". All booths around had approximately same height, about 9-10 feet. In comparison, Rock Racing booth was at least twice as tall :-). That reminded me of one episode of "The Simpsons" when media circus was rolling in town and all media tracks were relatively small. And then there was Fox News truck. It was three times longer and bigger and was accompanied by "We are the champions" by Queens :-)). Same with Rock Racing. Some people say that they bring fun back to racing. We shall see.

 

So, I went through the trade show grounds and after some searching found the starting point. There were a few guys from Cat 5. We had about 20 minutes before start, so we stood there and chat. After 5 or so minutes a new guy came and said that on a board near registration he saw that 3:00pm start crossed and new time of 4:00pm is published. WT…? We stood there musing if this is a joke or not. Finally, I said that I’m going to talk to officials and headed to the announcers’ booth on the start line. Nobody there knew about the time change. Until they asked some guy from USCF. He looked at me and said: “Yeah, the time of your start has changed. But it won’t be 4:00pm. It’ll be 4:45pm.”

 

WT..? You should have made an announcement!

I rolled back to the guys and told them what I just heard. After couple minutes we decided to go back to the officials and confirm the start time one more time. Yep, 4:45pm, almost two hours. We asked “why?” “Oh, we have this mountain bike event here and they are going to finish here in 30 minutes.” 30 minutes? MTB? The only reason we need this place is to start. Then we go off the track and head to Fort Ort. And our finish line is over there, half-way back to the track. “Could we start now?” “NO!”

 

OK. At this point conversation turned meaningless and I headed back to the car. I sat there, listened to music, made couple phone calls and checked my e-mail (it’s nice to have a 3G-capable phone). 4:15pm. I’m getting ready to go back. And the wind started to pick up. Not good.

 

20 minutes walk back, most of same guys: some folks said they are not going to start this time due to various reasons. OK, good, less competition. Official lead motor showed up and couple of cops on the motorbikes: official escort and rolling closure assistance. Official following vehicle is behind the pack. Cool. Almost TdF :-))).

 

The total length of the course is about 47 miles. It consists of a neutral zone, the loop near Fort Ort (at the beginning of the loop the race officially begins) and hilltop finish about halfway back to the starting point on the track. The loop is hilly, with one good descent before very sharp left turn.

 

Whistle! And off we go. We existed from the track; the guys in front were good about saying “left” or “right” so the rest of the pack could avoid crashes. I was in the front of the pack until the first descent. There I tried to save my position (also we supposed to be neutral at this point, some folks from the back started the attacks), but I was not able to keep up and lost about 20 places. Quick look back and I found that we dropped 10 or 15 people on the uphill and they are chasing us.

 

As soon as we hit the point of official start of the race on the loop, leading motor rolled away as well as one of the cops. And the pack turned the gas on. I stayed with the leading group for almost a lap and then they rolled away. I managed to reconnect with a small pack of dropped riders and organized them into a rotating paceline. This way we kept for another 2 lap. With two more to go my group started loosing the riders. By the end of 4^th lap the group completely dissolved. One of the guys who was with the group rode pretty strong and jumped on his wheel. We kept rotating for about a half of the fifth lap. As we get close to the finish, I attacked on the downhill. Big mistake! I didn’t burn myself, but I haven’t recovered either. I also should point out that at that point I had no idea who many riders are ahead of us. We flu by that sharp left turn and kept going to the finish line. I had about 20 seconds advantage over that guy and I kept pushing the pedals hard. Second big mistake. What I should have done is recover. Because when the road started uphill my legs quit. I pretty much bonked. The last 200 meters were the most embracing 200 meters I ever rode (from my perspective).

 

The official results: I’m 50^th of 75 (but only 60 finished).

 

But as it turned out, the most difficult part of the race was ride to the car. As the Sun went down the temperature dropped sharply and the wind picked up. Even though I had arm and knee warmers on and I put my racing vest, I got really cold. The temperature sensor in the car was showing 47F, but with wind it was probably at least 10 degrees cooler. I quickly put the bike on the roof and then sat in the car for 20 minutes trying to get warm again. As soon as I felt better and stopped shaking I headed home.

I’ll be back for this race next year :-).

Or, almost forgot. This was my first race on new setup. I love DuraAce shifters!

Ergomo, MacOS & Parallels

The bike upgrade is finally complete. I'm not sure about bike weight (I forgot to weigh it before and after the upgrade), but it feels a bit lighter. Good. The guys in the shop had some fun trying to generate as much power as possible. I think one of them actually succeeded: the max power was showing 1925 watts. Wow!

After I got the bike back, I thought this would be a good time to do a test upload of that data to CyclingPeaks WKO+. Well, that's where the fun actually started.

For the past 4 or 5 years my main computer was always a Mac-based system. First it was an old G4 that I acquired from a company I used to work for. Then it was G5. That system is still sitting in one of my closets waiting to be reaped for parts: the logic board (that's how folks at Apple call motherboard) has passed away for unknown reason. And I have no desire to repair it. Last fall an Intel-based MacBook became my main system. I don't do a lot of things that require anything "bigger" than a laptop: I don't play games, I don't work with graphics beyond the point of simply retouching the photos. And laptop gives me enough mobility to work anywhere in and outside the house.

In general MacOS has everything "out-of-the-box" that I need to do what I want. However, there are some programs that simply don't exist for Mac. For these programs I use Parallels Desktop virtual machine (and thinking of converting it to VMware Fusion). One of the programs is CyclingPeaks WKO+. The folks at CyclingPeaks refuse to create native version of WKO+ saying that running the software inside a virtual machine is fine. Yeah, duh! To run the software I either need to buy a computer with Windows or pay for a copy of Windows XP/Vista if I have Mac. WT...? Why do I need another computer if I already have one?

Enough stories! Ergomo came with two cables: a cable with proprietary Ergomo connector on one end and serial (DB-9) interface on the other, and a serial-to-USB adapter. The combination of these two cables connected together looks awkward. Oh, well, I guess folks at Ergomo should realize that most of the modern computers have USB and some actually don't have serial ports anymore. And make a cable that has USB interface. Someday they probably do that. Or not.

I connected everything together and started my Windows XP virtual machine. Once it up and running, I connected USB to it. Parallels found new device without any problems. However, Windows said that it knows nothing about new device: no drivers. OK. http://www.ergomo.net is the answer! I got the latest and greatest drivers and tried installing them. Oops, they don't want to install. Actually, they did install, but Windows still doesn't see new COM-port. Oops. OK, here we go again. Installers prompts to Modify, Repair or Delete the existing set of drivers. Selecting Modify. This time the installer prompted to reboot, a promising sign.

After reboot, Windows recognized the device. Now starting WKO+, clicking "Download data" icon. No luck -- I'm getting timeout. Ah, I forgot, I still have PowerTap set as device type. Changing to ErgomoPro/Spin. Click the icon again. Still timeout.

I tried changing COM-port, tried setting different speeds. No luck. The next day I asked my teammates if they know how to fix the problem. One of the guys suggested searching "Wattage" newsgroup on Google. Doh, I had to think of it myself. A quick search revealed that I may need to reset the Ergomo computer. This is OK with Ergomo: reset does not remove any data from the device. Another post suggested installing a program that enables COM-port's FIFO pipe through a file. I came back home and tried the program first. That didn't work. The program is still considered to be "beta" (also these days status "beta" may simply mean "continuous work in progress"), so this was OK. Then I tried resetting Ergomo computer. Surprise-surprise, it did resolve the problem. The person who posted the suggestion claimed that he had to reset the computer before every download. But I tried couple of times and second time it worked without reset.

So, I could consider the problem "solved". I still cannot, however, upgrade firmware on the device -- the updater program can't communicate with COM-port. I guess I'll need to find a Windows computer, a real one with COM port to do that.

Morning at the track

Today was my first day at the track. Back in October 2007 my friend invited me to the track for the first time, but I sandbagged for a few months. And today it finally happened.

Originally, I planned to go for the first session last Saturday. But then I sacrificed track for a trip to Lake Tahoe. No trips this weekend and I committed to the session on the track.

This was first of three mandatory sessions for beginners. I showed up a bit earlier and enjoyed a chat with regulars :-). Then, training coordinator -- John -- showed up and we went to the registration. Since I don't have a track bike (yet) I needed a bike. I asked for 53-54cm bike, specifically, Bianchi Pista. If/when I get a track bike, Pista would be my first choice, so I wanted to try it. I got a relatively old bike and I think it was 55 cm version, not 53 cm -- I was not able to find a sticker with the size. 

All rental bikes come without pedals. I had my Speedplay Zeros with me. After a short search for the tools, I found 15 mm wrench and installed the pedals. Then the fun begun :-).

A track bike doesn't have freehub (or freewheel) on the rear wheel. This means that when the rear wheel is moving, the pedals are moving too. Old habits sometimes hard to get rid of: on my road bike I usually clip in my left foot, then rotate the left crank 1/4 to 1/3 of the circle and coast before I clip in the right foot. BAD habit, as I learned today. First of all, it costs me a few seconds in the race. Second of all, it's impossible to use this tactic on a track bike. Before I figured out how to clip in I jumped on one leg for a few meters. Finally, I figured it out and clipped in with both feet. The second part of the problem was how to stop: there are no brakes on a track bike. And the pedals are constantly moving. Fun. I did couple laps on a warm up circle before I tried to stop for a first time. It turned out to be not as hard as I imagined: just put some pressure on the pedals to slow down and then keep rolling as slow as possible. Unclip when you feel comfortable and stop.

I got back on the bike second time and started my warm-up routine. After 10-15 minutes John called all of us to the front of the track and explained what we are going to do and what the track is all about. After that he send us for the official warm-up. 40 laps. He said "you have to count 'em". I concentrated on control of the bike and lost count after 15 or 16 laps. Bad. I should be more focused. Anyway, I kept riding until the whistle called us back to the front again.

The next "show" was 6-riders exchange. Two exchanges per lap, two teams on the track at one time. The point of the exercise is to ride as close as comfortable to the rider in front of you. The first rider is pulling for 1/2 lap and then moves up the bank of the track. The rider behind him becomes first rider and the guy, who used to be first, moves all the way to the back of the group. I missed couple "comebacks" from the top of the bank and had to chase the group. First attempt ended after 6 laps. We went to the rest area and watched another groups racing. Then John called us for the second time. This time I was on the wheel and timed my "comebacks" better. The third attempt was a bit worse then second -- I had to chase the group once.

The third exercise was a three-man sprint from the pack. All riders go on the track and ride at steady pace. After whistle a group of three sprints from the front of the pack (exercising as many exchanges as possible) and laps the pack. Those exchanges went better. 

Then we practiced bumping (using shoulders) and pushing in pairs. This was my first time doing this and I asked my partner to go slower, so I feel more comfortable. We went at very reasonable pace and I had my chances to bump, push and being pushed. Pushing was a bit hard to do -- I felt like I'm loosing control of the bike. 

The next exercise was 200 m time trial in pairs. I leaded out on the first attempt and I was pulled on the second attempt. My legs were not there on the second attempt and I wasn't able to even stay on the wheel.

The last exercise (for me) was "miss and out race". At that point I felt fatigued and then led to lasting only 1/2 of the lap. Oh, well.  I'll do better next time :-).

There was also a scratch race but I didn't participate due to time constrains.

Overall it was fun. I guess I need myself a new bike. Track bike.

Some pics of new toys :-)

Ok, here are some pics of Ergomo and new crankset. Everything finally showed up yesterday and I'm going to install it on Tuesday (well, my bike shop will install them -- I don't have all necessary tools to do the job).

	Ergomo computer
	Computer mount
	Bottom bracket (square taper)
	Speed magnet
	Campagnolo Chorus crankset, 2006 year version

The total weight of the setup is 1074 g. I believe My PowerTap wheel alone weighs more than 1200 g. And DuraAce crankset and bottom bracket weigh around 800 g. So, after installing Ergomo I'll shave off almost 1 kg of the bike. Cool!

Update: upgrades

The brifters showed up. And gone back to the post office. Looks like a mailman thought that he can't leave the package in one of the large mailboxes that are available at the complex where I live, or it was something else (perhaps the sender requested delivery confirmation). Anyway, tomorrow I'll have exciting (not!) trip to the local post office.

The next on the list is rear derailleur. It left Phoenix, AZ yesterday. It should take no longer than 2-3 days for it to show up here.

Ergomo will arrive on the 10th. And I'm still watching the auction for Record crankset. It'll arrive (hopefully) by the end of next week (of course, if I win the auction).

Upgrades, sweeeeeeeeet :-)

It seems that spring is an upgrade time for me. Last year I bought myself a new bike, Specialized Tarmac Expert. This year it's a major upgrade time for it (also I did buy and sell a few items for the bike during the whole year).

Here is what's on the list:

1) shifters -- Dura-Ace ST-7801;

2) rear derailleur -- Dura-Ace RD-7800;

3) Ergomo powermeter;

4) crankset -- Campagnolo Record (pre-2007 version).

This also means that I need to sell my bright and shiny Dura-Ace 7800 crankset that I bought only 2 months ago. And my PowerTap wheel will be up for sale after I install Ergomo. Oh, well :-). 

Shifters and derailleur should arrive by the end of this week. Ergomo and crankset will arrive sometime next week.

Pics will follow ;-)

Do I need a blog?

This is one of questions I keep asking myself during the past couple years. Do I really need it? 

Some of my friends have them, other believe that this is some form of exhibitionism. I do read, from time to time, several blogs. I'm not a consistent reader (also lately I found myself somewhat attached to Aki's blog "Sprinter della Casa"; I guess he is talking about things that interest me at this moment: cycling, racing, sprinting, being competitive, etc.) and I don't comment on what people are posting. I just read.

But I never had my own blog. Well, not entirely true. I did start couple of blogs in the past but kept them private. I thought I would track my goals, training and results with those blogs, but it didn't work out. I posted a few times and then stopped. And later wiped the blogs out of existence (question: how long does Google keeps they archives? :-) )

Anyway. After reading some blogs today I thought "why should other share they thoughts with the world and I don't?". So, here I come. First post it is :-).