Pacific Raceways 8/26/08 - It's a wrap

My last road race of the season! I got there really early and was riding through the gravel area right before the track. As I hit the pavement I was using my right hand to "rub" the gravel out of my tires. In the process of doing my back tire I managed to suck my thumb in between the wheel and my frame, almost jerking me off the bike. That hurt like a mother f@#$er! Nothing like injuring yourself before the race even starts.

We had a HUGE turnout tonight from the Starbucks men' squad. Steve, Vu, Darol, Scott, Charles, Bart, John,Dave and myself...who am I forgetting? Jill also came out for the women's race.

It was point per lap with flat course and I expected a fast race given every one's fitness by now. Dave and John and 1st and 2nd in the bag so our goal was to honestly just have fun. We messed around with some lead outs for the sprint and tried a few small breaks that were not getting away. On one of the sprints I looked over at Brian from Cucina as all the sprinters were blowing by. "No sprints for me tonight" he smiled. I felt pretty much the same way. Long leadouts were OK but my legs didn't have the snap needed to really pin it.

On the last lap we had enough guys that we were literally attacking from the left and the right of the group. It was awesome! Dave ended up 3rd in the final sprint (because he can!).

Rory and Deanna gave out some awesome swag as everyone sat around and BS'd about how fast we must have been going. This series is a real gem and I'm already looking forward to next season.

It's time to start getting dirty.

We want YOU!

Is it that time of year again already? The season is almost over, and what a great one it has been!

Wanna join in on the fun?

http://www.starbuckscycling.org/

Saturday, September 13 @ 9:20am.

Hope to see you there!

2008 Cyclocross Schedule as it stands now

Some of you may know that my team is working to put on a cyclocross race this fall. It's going to be a fund-raiser for Seattle Cancer Care Alliance with all proceeds going towards low-income women undergoing caner treatment. We're still working out the details but stay tuned, because I can tell you we don't do anything half assed so this race is going to ROCK.

We're working around the schedules of the other events right now so I thought it might be helpful for other since a formal calendar hasn't been released yet. I am not responsible for any incorrect information, spelling, wrong URL's or extra marital affairs resulting in it's use:

As you can see, we're looking at Nov 1 or Nov 16. Enjoy!

@^%$*!

OK, to all my Microsoft employed teammates: Are you happy now?
My mac's HD decided to die over the weekend. I actually heard it fail (which is an awful sound). Thank God for backup, but it still doesn't help the hours it's going to take to get all my crap back on this thing!

Santa Cruz Stigmata - It's Alive!

Finally! A shipping debacle put things a little behind schedule, but she's ready to role! This is the first year for Santa Cruz making a cross frame. I've been a huge fan of there mountain bikes so I figured I couldn't go wrong.

Spec'd it out with SRAM Force, the new wet black Ritchey WCS cockpit and a set of Mavic Heliums provided to me by a friend at a generous price...I couldn't wait to get home from work today. The first trip was on the road and I can't believe how stiff and responsive it is. It could almost double as a crit bike.

Tomorrow morning brings the formal initiation at SeaTac. Is it cross season yet?

Pacific Raceways - 8.12.08

Finally a nice warm summer evening of racing! It was the first time back on the Specialized since destroying the shifters at Derby Days. It was a fast and feisty group of cat 4/5's. Lot's of sketchy riding for this late in the season. One guy managed to almost crash going down the front straight-a-way. No idea how he manged to do that, or keep upright. I thought for sure I was going over him.

Chased down a few breaks, got Dave, Steve and Scott to the front for the last uphill to the finish (which I suck at). Dave took 2nd (and probably locked up the series). The end.

Gear Push Time Trial - 8.10.2008

Today Vu, John S., Barbara and I ventured down for the Gear Push TT. This was my second race on the Abici since Tenino. I made the swap to the "straight" aero bars and found that to be a much more comfortable position.

Barb was starting things off with the first start time of the day. Maybe Rory knew something we didn't, because she won the woman's cat 4! (Barb getting in the zone)
I went off 40 minutes later. 2 minutes in I realized my speed sensor didn't start my clock and I wasn't registering. I hit the start button quickly to have some idea of where I was at. At least I had heart rate right? Wrong. A few minutes later the Polar decides to go weird on me, registering a HR of 34 beats per minute, then 203, then 84, then back to 177. I'm guessing I was between 175 and 183 for most of the time. I ended up 13th with a 24:31. My goal was to break 25 minutes so I'm pretty happy with that.

Mr. John Sindel took the opportunity to swap helmets with me since I finished well before him. I know that's why he came in with a 22:50(1), 2nd place in the cat 4 mens! Vu put in an excellent time of 25:27.

If photos are good, than video must be way better...right? Here is John in the last 200K. You can hear the disk making a funny sound (which we later found was it rubbing on the frame)





So we ended the day with a 1st and 2nd for Team Starbucks. Full results can be found here.

Now here is one way to make racing more interesting...

A British ad campaign for Powerade has Olympic athletes doing their sport in the nude because "we wanted to give people the chance to see the real make-up of an athlete and their muscle and power." Ad agency translator = Sex sells, we wanted to "break through" the clutter.

It's not like spandex leaves much to the imagination anyway.

WA State Time Trial - Tenino

This was a day of a lot of first, first time going to Tenino, first time racing my new Abici TT bike and the first time I've done a 40K TT.

Steve, Pete, Vern and I made our way down south. I figured I needed to keep my heart rate steady and near threshold but back it off about 5 beats given the distance. I started out a little faster than I wanted but felt good. It was nice and windy all the way out and then the fun starts will the rollers.

I was amazed at the full range of emotion I went through..."man, I feel GREAT!...uh oh...I'm going to hard...I feel like crap....is this over yet?....ah ha, now I'm getting a second wind!....where the hell is the 1K sign already!?!?!?"

The bike is fast, but I need to make some serious adjustments to my position. The "L" bend bars have got to go and the stem is a little to long. I might have to break down for a new saddle too. Being on the nose of a racing saddle for 18 minutes is OK, 1 hour feels like torture.

I ended up 14th with a time of 1:03:24.29. Getting in the top ten required breaking 1hr (next year). Full results here. HR averaged 171 with avg speed of 21.9. meh.


This is one event where I think you either have it or you don't. You have cat 4/5's going faster than the pro's and masters D racers absolutely setting the course on fire.

Aside from all the pain and suffering, it was a beautiful day for bike racing. We finished off the race with beer and burgers at Scotty B's. Our server was fantastic, I think Steve is going to need therapy...it was a little traumatic for him. :)

Abici Time Machine

Finally got this together. It's a bummer that their are only 2 TT's left in the year but that will give me some time to get the fit sorted out. I'm probably going to switch to straight aero bars but these will work for now.Built it up mostly of stuff I already had, Dura Ace 10spd drivetrain, Rolf Vector Pro wheels, Profile bull horns, etc. Given the deal I got on the frame it's well worth it, but not with some challenges. The frame maker went out of business and this was the last of a custom order for a college team in Oregon. The kids father finally got the frame 6 months later, but it was missing the seatpost clamp and headset. The clamp was seriously over engineered and I finally found a guy in Mesa Arizona that had a few of them custom machined. It took a few months to get things together but it rides great!

We'll see how I do at the state TT tomorrow. :)