CX Worlds: A course of Transitions

The first ever CX (Amateur) Masters Worlds competition held in the USA took place this past January 11-15th in Louisville, KY. The races were well attended by nationally ranked CX racers across and many World champions, such as Steve Tilford, Ned Overend, Gunnar Shogren and Kathy Savary (NH). Only a handful of Canadians and Europeans participated.

My boyfriend, Paul, had traveled with "the crew" from New Jersey to Madison, WI - where they attended Nationals - and had circled down to Louisville, KY arriving at the course early to glean any insights. The report came back:"All is well and the course is dry with a steep fly-over... fast, with one technical section". Well...this all changed in a matter of hours because the weather changed. In cross, the weather can affect everything from your tire selection, to your warm up plan - and to a greater extent your entire race strategy. The race started on Wednesday with the qualifying races for the men. At some point shortly thereafter, it started to rain - and since the race promoters thought it was a good idea to set up the course in a flood plain - it was pretty awful. Weds eve the temperatures dropped and Thursday is was cold - and it started to snow. Thursday eve it got even colder and then the course froze. So you're thinking "So what? This is what cross is about "Just do it". Here's what made CX World the most exciting race ever: The course froze such that every tire track made a criss-cross of tire tracks making it impossible to take the normal lines. It was now not only a race of fitness, but a race of technical skill and just basic luck. Friday the 13th, the first day of finals, became a very difficult day for many riders. This was a Worlds competition and no one was going to hold back. The start was a long 200+ yd paved section with a transition on to choppy terrain. To summarize, I saw more crashes that day than I've seen all year. When I pre-rode the course that day, my heart sank. It was so difficult that I sincerely believed, if I finished my race on Sunday, I would be darn lucky. Many of my friends raced Saturday when the conditions became even worse as the sun created a glaze on top of the frozen ruts. The only thing that could make it worse is if it snowed again. I kept practicing, re-riding the tricky sections several times until I wasn't apprehensive in my approach.

Although it snowed the morning of my race, I was actually feeling quite good - somehow, my tires were handling the conditions well. At the line up, you usually know who is who - but in this case, there was no qualifier and you had to have done your homework. All I knew was Walker & Walberg (both Cat 1) were duking it out for the title as they did at Nat's the week before. Walberg was the favored rider and would probably win. I had a good start and was pretty excited because I was toward the front and had made a safe transition from the tarmac through the choppy section. Catherine Walberg got the hole shot. Karen Trip flew by me as she's done in every New England race. Before the barriers I had caught up with Catherine Walberg and she barked "NOT HERE!" She was probably right, it wasn't the best place to pass...but then again, this was Worlds. All decided in a mili-second, I let her go. Unfortunately for her, frozen ruts didn't suit her well and at the next big turn she and her bike landed miles apart. I kept the pressure on and rode "clean" the rest race. My friends & Paul were all there - giving me encouragement. Elated to finish, I crossed the line 7th in the World.

Photos: Top: Local, Todd Bowden (EXPO) finsished 4th in the men's 40-44 field.
Middle: Amanda & Karen Tripp at the finish. Everyone gets a medal!
Bottom: The "run up"

Greylock TT well attended by CCRT

By Karen Franzen:
My season's goal was to be a BUMPS Ironman, completing all 9 races in the series. Still having a bit of a competitive nature left in these old bones, I sometimes forgot my goal and found myself dwelling on slower times and finishes that weren't what I had hoped for. An older gentleman, one who has received numerous BUMPS Ironman plaques, made a comment to me early in the season along the lines of "there's a reason not too many do all of them...." I'm starting to learn why. Although they are short, they do take a toll and I am now only one more race away from getting that goal. Soooooo God willing and the creeks in VT don't rise anymore, I hope to tackle App Gap in October and then hit my "playtime"....

Okay-back to the races. Burke Mountain is considered by many the toughest in the series, average of 14% with a "wall" of about 1/4 mile or so that is between 20-22%. I did it last year and learned a lot about the climb & the area and couldn't wait to get back. Only this year, I stayed the whole weekend and brought my mt. bike as well because there are over 100 miles of trails there in the Northeast Kingdom trail system and a lot of dirt roads so I spent the day after the race be-bopping all over the place. I will have that one on my calendar next year as well and plan to do the same thing by staying the weekend. Love the area and am getting to know more of the back roads and such.... also found a great B&B so all's good. As far as the race, I bettered my time by about 1 1/2 minutes and did make the podium for my division with 3rd place. Was happy with that weekend and loved taking the time away.

Greylock was this past weekend, only a week between races. I didn't THINK it would have made too much of a difference but in hindsight, I guess it did. Felt good, had a blast staying at Bascomb Lodge with team mates and new & not-so-new friends. Went into the warm up feeling good, plenty of time even though I did have to change a flat & rim tape but no problems. Got to the line, had a nice surprise that one of the women I was concerned about, who was supposed to start right after me, didn't show..... hmmmmmmm..... my little competitive gears start to turn.... get into the race and am staying in the ranges as much as I can.

The first part of this one is pretty tough and did go WAY above on my wattage but that's to be expected with how steep it is on that part. Settled in and decided to check out what my HR was doing on my PowerTap.... stupid, stupid, stupid. I've done this before and should've have known NOT to do this in a race situation.... my finger slipped and I ended starting a new interval and lost my current data. It's still there, and all I have to do is merge it when I down load it but during the race, I had no idea what my time was now or accurate distance, nadda! SOOOOO settle in and try to do the best I can to keep in in the ranges and guess at my time.

I ended up over a full minute slower from last year and didn't make the podium like I did last year BUT that's okay now. Having a chance to go out on the Airline Trail for 3 hours on this glorious afternoon put everything into perspective for me, so here goes:

I was blessed with 2 wonderful racing & riding weekends in a row. How cool is that? I got to know a bunch of people a whole lot better after spending some great time together this past weekend. I was inspired by my friends as the challenged themselves and overcame their own personal struggles and doubts, kicking it up a notch when they thought they couldn't & finishing when they thought they couldn't. That was an amazing thing to be part of and is what I feel sets this team apart from many of the others. We all go out there and give it our all and for me, it was wonderful to have been able to be a part of it.... and oh, yeah.... the food was pretty darn good, too! # KF

Results:
http://www.nohobikeclub.org/nccwp/?general=greylock-hillclimb-results-2011

Lynn Cochrane wins Silver at NE Regional Crit Championship

Podium smiles: Lynn Cochrane & Denise Mitchell-Dignum

By Lynn Cochrane:

The dead flat track at Ninigret Park, RI, where this race takes place was a welcome antidote to the vertiginous heights of the Mt. Greylock TT. Racing Saturday's TT with (or, more precisely, behind) many others from our team may not be the best prep for a crit, but with winter ahead, packing in as much racing as possible is imperative.

Sunday's women's crit race comprised ages 30-54. Unsurpisingly, the pack split in half before the end of the first lap, and never regouped. I raced with about 5-7 other women close to my own age, including three from Mystic Velo who are great women, and great competitors. The younger bunch were off having their own race. Those of us in the slower group averaged about 20 miles per hour, not too bad for such a windy place. In fact, it seemed at times that the wind was blowing strongly from both the East and the West.

For almost the entire race, our group of 6-7 racers were in a long pace line which sometimes bunched up at corners. I tried, not always successfully, to huddle in the middle to stay away from the wind. Although my legs were feeling pretty normal, I wasn't sure how long they would last after Saturday's hill climb.

The three MVC women consistently stuck with a strategy of dominating the three front spots of the paceline. Every lap or so, the third MVC racer in the line would surge ahead and take over for the first MVC racer, allowing the tired person to drop back just one or two spots. Consequently, I and the other two women were usually at the rear, and MVC ended up doing the vast majority of the pulling. We three non-MVC racers did pull for a lap or two, but not nearly as much as the others. Is that fair? Should I and the others have tried harder to take the front for more laps to share the workload or should I have allowed MVC to wear themselves out if they wanted to dominate the front three spots of the line? Had there been more CCRT racers, I know I would have pulled more, but I was a loner. (I can hear some of you out there saying, "Let other teams knock themselves out if they want to.") Anyway, I would be very interested to hear some feedback from wiser and more experienced racers.

This pattern played itself out for about 11 of the 15 laps or so of the race - at one point, the three leading racers lapped us, and we pushed harder to keep up with them for about three laps, but it was tough. There were no mid-race breakaways, we were all pretty evenly matched, and the three MVC women had raced the New England TT yesterday in RI, so maybe they weren't feeling that springy themselves.

You could sense things heating up during the last lap and I wondered what MVC planned to do- meanwhile, I was planning my own positioning, edging to the right of the now bunched up paceline, waiting until we all pulled through the last left hand corner to stomp on the pedals and make a beeline down the last straightaway to the finish. I felt like I was ahead, and could not see or hear anyone behind me, until I was about 30 feet from the line and heard a moan of exertion behind me, so I just stepped on it as hard as I could. My wheel crossed the white line mere millimeters ahead of the other racer - I won 3rd place by 5 100ths of a second. Due to the 1st place racer, who was with the faster group, being from New York, we New Englanders were bumped up a notch, and I was given the silver medal for the 50+, and 8th overall. Denise Mitchell-Dignum of MVC took the bronze. The rest of our group came in after, but very close.

Afterwards, I joined two MVC racers for a bit while they talked about the pulling issue. They were not of one mind about whether they caused the problem by dominating the front of the line or whether I and the other racers should have, in the cause of good sportsmanship, unilaterally stepped up our efforts to take more pulls. I promised them I'd help out more at the Jamestown Classic on 10/10. Anyone care to join me there? #

Newtons Revenge Report: Franzen Conquers the Big "Rock Pile"

Once in a while we coin a term that sticks. Mt. Washington, has been nick-named the "rock pile". I kinda like that...it makes it less scary in your mind. So keep that in mind if you attempt the most challenging climbs anywhere in the U.S. - "It's just a big rock pile".

By Karen Franzen:

Bob-you were 100% right, great weather for the pre ride, expect "challenging" weather on race day. Truer words have never been spoken. Nice at the base but the top had been covered in mist all morning and wasn't about to change anytime soon. What looks like mist from below was actually cold WINDY mist.... my lens of my glasses on my right eye not only misted up but FROZE so I was not able to see out of that eye. I actually did better just closing that eye while I rode. Wind gusts averaging around 20-30 with gusts over 50 made it a bit tricky. Nice when it was a tail wind but HELL as a headwind. After the dirt section we hit the "mist" and visibility went from bad to worse. The final mile I tried to stay with a guy from Stage 5 team just so I could figure out where to go. Sometimes it was sooo thick I could barley make out the lines on the road! While I was coming to the final right with a sharp left to the "wall" at the end, I took my left hand off the handlebars to wipe some water that dripped down my left lens (the only one I could almost see out of) and promptly start to fall over, slow motion of course.... had to get around the corner, hop back on and ride over the line.

Then to try to find Dan. I couldn't even see 10 feet in front of me but was able to locate him and that was a very good thing. Lots of others weren't so lucky to find their rides that quick. MANY were wondering around shivering in their bike clothes wrapped in the PolarTec blankets we all got.

I learned a few things: keep pedaling even if you can't see... NEVER take your hands off the bars! I know now to take my glasses off as soon as I hit the mist on that mountain. Couldn't see anyway so wasn't much different than being blind like I am with out the glasses.

Proper warm up was key, even though we all stood on the line for quite a while before the cannon blew (yes- no starting gun or bell or whistle... a CANNON).

I saw a couple women I wanted to try to stay with, did pretty good until hitting the dirt section, keeping them in sight and sometimes getting right on their wheels. I was starting to cramp though so cut back and decided to stay with in some saner ranges on the PowerTap. At that point, we had a great tailwind but I knew it was going to be awful as soon as we hit the hairpin to the right and sure enough, smack dab into the headwind with gusts that were whipping me around pretty good. Started cramping in the quads so tried to adjust my pedal stroke, the cramping in the quads eased but then started in the hamstrings.... and that's pretty much how the rest of it went to the finish. Thank GOD my legs didn't cramp up completely. I know the cold damp conditions were the major problem there as that's been what has happened to me over the last few years. My legs don't like the cold damp & working hard all at the same time.

Not sure how I place over all but came pretty close to my goal time of 1:30 with finishing time of 1:37:54. Happy with that. Had a great turkey dinner post race (yes, I said TURKEY DINNER), Dan loved that! Then hung out for awards and low and behold, I ended up with 3rd for my division. Pretty cool as I thought I was about 5th or so but with them lumping a bunch of the master fields together, it was tough to
tell who was in my age group.

More CCRT podium finishes

Daria Vander Veer placed 2nd in her division (and 7th overall) at the 4th Annual Stamford KIC IT Triathlon last weekend and Jason Renaud gets the CT silver at Keith Berger Crit in the Juniors division. Below are their stories:

KIC IT Tri: (by Daria Vander Veer)
I have to compliment race director Beth Shluger on pulling off a logistically challenging event smack in the heart of downtown Stamford. Huge post-race party and lots of happy participants. The main things I enjoyed were the absolutely flawless swim conditions; dead flat calm, waters a lovely cool (not cold) temp, no jellyfish. Heck, there wasn’t even any seaweed! Ended up 2nd in my age group, about 1:00 behind the winner, thanks to the woman I told you about who gave me a “lift” through miles 3-5 with her beautiful tempo that happened to match mine (and her slightly greater speed). How often do you get such a perfect draft on the run? Although getting up at 3:30am hurt, I am glad I went.

Keith Berger Crit (by Jason Renaud)

This was the first time I ever did this race, so I wasn’t sure what to expect having never even ridden this course before. The junior field was 14 riders, which was not that bad of a junior turn out compared to other races I have done with just one or 2 juniors. I thought that this criterium would follow the same rhythm of criteriums I had participated in at Rentschler Field, but I was most wrong! As soon the whistle blew the field was blow apart as attacks came from the left and the right of the field. The Bay Hill Capital/ CLNoonan team was the most represented team in the race, having 3 (or 4?) riders from that team out there, and they were certainly the causes of the early chaos as they were the primary attackers, leaving the rest of the field scrambling for positions against the onslaught. After lap 2 the chaotic mess had let a breakaway of 2 riders to slip away, and the main field began a pace line in an attempt to pull them back. The main field also split as the younger and/ or more tired riders fell off the back, leaving a 6-man pace line. The paceline happened for the rest of the race until the final lap, with sporadic attacks and accelerations from the 2 Bay Hill Capital. CLNoonan riders that remained with the field. And the breakaway of 2 guys actually lapped the entire field!!! Which was the most impressive junior racing I have seen to date. They ended up taking the 1st and 2nd spots for the race, leaving the field to duke it out for 3rd place in a field sprint. At the beginning of this race I was completely caught off guard at the intensity and speed, and I paid for that dearly. It was very challenging until I just found my rhythm and stuck with that the rest of the race. The accelerations throughout the race with also very taxing, and I think that if I had warmed up better before the race I would have been able to respond to those attacks better. I have never been all that great at sprinting, so that showed near the end when I lost some ground during the field sprint and ended up taking 6th (or 7th?, I am not quite sure). So all in all, it was a great race, and other than my sprinting during the field sprint at the end of the race I am pleased with my performance and look forward to doing it again next year!

Whiteface Hill TT Report & video

The weekend was great, primarily because I had two great teammates with me and we enjoyed every moment of our weekend which was filled with much more than the race. Lynn did fantastic for her first hill TT (as we knew she would!), placing 7^th in her category and Karen was right up there at 6^th.

The race was intense for me. I had marked it an A priority race back in December and I’m thankful all my training stars aligned: 2^nd place in my category and 7^th overall.

Below is my mile-by-mile recount.

Forty women of all abilities are lined up at the start. Marti Shea and Kristin Gohr, both Pro hill climb specialists, are present and take their places in the center front. They are both gracious supporters of the rest of us “wanna-be’s”, but are arch rivals and I notice don't acknowledge each other. Marti empties her one water bottle to half full (are you kidding me?!) Kristin backs her bike in at the center and Karen & I both glance at each other - jaw dropped. It appears Kristin has dropped another 5 lbs. Both women are expected to finish the race somewhere around and astonishing 50 minutes. I am shooting to beat my personal best of 1:11 and according to Dan Jansen’s power-to-weight calculator I could potentially finish at 1:06:32.

With five minutes and counting, I was having a mental melt down second guessing what gear to start in. I nervously re-adjust at the line. Mile 1: I make it over the first hump with the lead group. Marti & Kristin are quickly fading into the distance. Paula T and I are with our Canadian “carrot”, Domonique Codere, - but not for long - she clicks down and takes off. Paula T follows, but I know better and hold back. I’m already going into the red zone and there’s a fine line between letting someone motivate you and allowing someone to set your pace. Mile 2: Paul T has fallen back and some dude walks out in the road and asks us where the men are “or are we just that good”. I don’t have one ounce of energy to laugh or reply, but Paula lets him know the men start 5 minutes back. We pass the toll both and catch Sylvie (Canadian carrot #2). Now the three of us are playing cat & mouse. Sylvie lets me pass. Mile 3: I’m settling in and my time is where I want to be - “Just gotta keep it going” I tell myself. Sylvie clicks down and takes off. The lead men fly by like we are standing still but somehow manage to eek out messages of encouragement as they pass. Then, some young gal that I’ve never seen before passes us. She’s looking way to comfortable. We hit the frost heaves and I joke with her that “This is why they call it the bumps series.” We all chuckle and it helps the pain for two seconds. Mile 4: I’m at 32 minutes. If I can keep this up, I will finish way ahead of my goal. Mile 5: I start to fade and I am not able to stay with Paula — or young thing. Mile 6. This is the point in the race where you don’t want to look up at the summit because not only will it strain your neck, but it finishing seems impossible and sets an undertone of discouragement. I keep my head down and focus all my effort in my spin. Eventually, the road takes a sharp turn left and I glance back. No one. The road flattens now and I put it in the big ring and do a mini TT (and I mean “mini”.) I almost hit a big sinkhole and swerve, narrowly missing it by 2 inches - yikes! Near the top now and the Westerly wind hits quite hard. I look up and Paula T is only 20 feet away – but the grade is much steeper and my legs are starting to go into a full-on seize. I dig just a little deeper and spin just a little bit faster. The crowd is going crazy and their cheers are numbing the pain. I pass Paula. A quick thumbs up to the cameraman and cross the line at 1:07:13.

Afterward, I make a point to tell Paula what a great race she rode and then ride down to the line, just catching a glimpse of Karen, who arrives at top, all smiles. Then I see Lynn coming up to the line – she is super focused and driving hard. Good efforts by all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liL1bVe_B6o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmVC4mkdShQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE2K3jQbuYk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfgLVrnnuuQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Let it rain...we don't care

Photos (top): Men's 4/5 start, in the pouring rain! (bottom) Jeff Scala leading

That's what most racers (apparently) thought last weekend at the Nutmeg Classic Crit.

Recap: Congrats to Christine Poulin who won the CT silver medal - way to go!

Jeff Scala wrote up the following detailed report. Don't be surprised to feel your heart rate increasing as you read on. Good solid effort Jeff - thanks for sharing your insights to make us all more patient racers.

By Jeff Scala:

I did the Nutmeg Classic Criterion last weekend. After some self reflection, I extend my apologies to Karen for being so grumpy after my race. I was full of lactic acid and adrenaline and felt I should / could have done better. Sorry… thanks for your kind words and support.

The weather was terrible. During my warm up I could not decide what I was going to wear during the race. Decided on a long sleeve synthetic shirt with my cycling concepts jersey and shorts. Not sure that was the way to go as we stood around at the starting line longer than planned and cooled off a bit. I race my best when I’m warm, but I never got to the point of being warm that day.

It rained hard on and off for the entire race making seeing difficult. So much water was flying around that my contacts were floating all around. (For those who wear contact you know the feeling.) At one point, I thought I lost them and was riding with one eye closed. Not good for depth perception or peripheral vision.

The group of riders consisted of both cat 5 and 4 so the group was pretty big. The course is pretty fast with mostly fast corners with one moderately tight and one pretty sharp corner. One small short hill. You really had to fight for position and fight to stay in position as the action was very dynamic and it seemed that I always got stuck on the wrong wheel.

The inside line on a few of the corners were very dangerous as there was a few times that I got pinch off by riders not holding their line and apexing the corner. I got pinched three times by the same rider! I yelled at him the 2nd time. Yelled again the 3rd time. He blamed me because I was “making a move in a bad spot”! Go figure… He actually caused a three rider crash which I narrowly missed by inches. He squeezed someone else off, like he did to me. Fortunately no one was hurt. Lesson of the day… be aware of erratic riders at all times!

First prime (lap 5) I moved to the front 5 but did not go for it as I was concerned about a break attempt after the prime. A two rider attach on lap 7. They got a quick 50 yards on the field and were pulling away. One of the riders was from Bethel. Three Bethel riders were now on the front of the peloton. Too obvious as they tried to control the pace. I surged ahead with two other riders to chase them down. When we made our move to cover the attack the rest of the peloton followed along and helped us out. Attack was caught quickly. We are now once again one big happy family.

Second prime on lap 9, Expo Wheelmen and another team surge to the lead the peloton. The pace must have jumped at least 7 mph! The peloton got stretched out. I kept my eye (one eye as the other was closed) on the leaders but sat in trying to conserve my matches and fix my vision... But looking for another attack.

Bell rings again on lap 10… back to back primes. Now we are having fun! I expected someone or team to surge forward. Nothing. The peloton compresses to the full width of the road minimizing maneuvering room. I’m stuck in the middle of the pack. The hill frees up some room and I move forward. I have no intention of contesting the prime just want to be in position to cover any attach following the prime. A couple of riders shoot off the front to easily take the prime. Pace is very fast but nothing crazy. Must be too many miles to go as no attacks following the prime.

Everyone regroups and a few laps go by with some minor surges in speed. Not sure if they were caused by weak attack or just someone pulling harder on the front. Nothing happening. Just missed being caught up in the crash. It was like watching in slow motion as it unfolded in front of me. Someone / team attacks on the crash (not cool but good strategy as there is a lot of confusion following a crash.) The race gets strung out but comes back together within a lap or so.

Four laps to go! Four miles of rain soaked fun. There is a lot of action and movement in the peloton. Once again I find myself behind the wrong wheel and end up in the back of the pack, so I make a strong move to move up to near the front. As I reach the front a few riders attach. I make a split second decision and I go with them. I’m in third position. Lead guy takes a good pull and pulls off front. Second place guy seems reluctant to take his turn on front, but takes a short pull but pace drops a little. My turn on the front. We have about 30 yards on the field which is not much. I take a good hard pull and signal to move off front. Second place guy just sits on my wheel. Signal again and pull to the left, he still sits on my wheel. Signal a third time and waive him around, still sits on my wheel. I decide to sit up and make them work or we drop back to the field. Nothing! I’m pissed for wasting energy so near the end of the race. The peloton comes racing by.

I jump into the pack about mid pack. We hit the bell lap all bunched up. It seems the teams are looking for a bunch sprint. We hit the hill still bunched up at very fast pace. I’m still stuck near the back which is not good at all. The hill frees up some space but the front of the peloton has surged and I’m losing ground. I power up the hill gaining a lot of positions but my race to a top ten finish is over!

I lost my chance at a top ten with 3 laps to go when I went with the attack. Maybe I should have attacked the attack since they didn’t want to work… maybe I should of just put my head down and kept going and let them sit on my wheel… maybe I should have been more patient with three miles to go…. Maybe … maybe… next time.

What I do know is … I made a mistake, but if you don’t try you will never succeed.