Two-wheeled (and other) misadventures

I know, I know, but Beijing doesn’t allow alliteration.

Check out this video of 17-year-old Taylor Phinney powering to a new junior world record in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit (basically a time trial) at LA’s velodrome:

The kid is flying. He is the product of good genes, son of Davis Phinney, the 7-Eleven team sprinter who remains the United States winningest bike racer, and Connie Carpenter-Phinney, a teenage Olympic speed skater turned collegiate national champion rower turned gold medalist bike racer.

The younger Phinney has already been tapped to ride in the upcoming summer Olympics, so more gold may be forthcoming for this family.

Wish we had a track like that around here or anywhere near here.

I want to do it again. As part of the Langley Speedway Challenge on Sunday, I rode in a multiple-race track omnium in the morning. I had a blast even though my results were just okay. Thanks Fat Frogs Racing, which organized the race.

I set up the Langster with 54×16 gearing and hoped for the best. (Photo from Trevor Weiland’s gallery.) The event kicked off with a 200-meter flying start time trial. A slight rain fell and I approached the start line conservatively, worried that the race track might be a little slick. My rear wheel skipped out twice and I posted one of the slower times in our group of nine. That was followed by a 10-lap scratch race. I made the first selection into a group of five, but only finished 4th.

Next up was the keirin - which involves being paced behind a scooter that drops off with a lap to go, followed by an all-out sprint the line. They lined us up in reverse order of our race numbers, so I was stuck toward the back. I creeped up on the outside and got a good jump when the scooter dropped and pushed all the way to eke out third. The mystery race, which could be anything from two to 10 laps, came next - just wait for the bell and go. I think I got another 4th there.

Then came miss-and-out, where the last guy across the line each lap gets pulled until there’s three left to race. This is perhaps the most tactical race and, oops, I messed up big time and was the second pulled. I had all kinds of sprint left in the legs and just miscounted the guys around me. Embarassing too, because some of my Tripower people had started to show.

I made up for it some in the keirin final, where I started third by virtue of my earlier finish. I had to bust a gut to get around the UVA racer who started in front of me and score second. At least it paid out $20! The Hilton racer who took most of the events went home with $120. Dang.

By the end of the morning I’d run at least 15 long, hard intervals through my legs, but I still had another race to go - the Cat 4 just four hours away. Fortunately the sun wasn’t too bad and the other races were fun to watch. Michele brought the girls over even though she was sick. Kevin shot us:

Ellie even raced the junior race, her first this season. She didn’t seem to into it until about halfway through the race when she perked up and really started pushing. In what was the largest junior girls field I’ve seen, she finished 8th and I’m proud of her.

Ellie enjoyed herself even more because she got to hang out with Sara, the daughter of one of my Tripower teammates, while I raced.

My race wasn’t pretty. It started superfast. We went almost 30mph for 10 laps but finally settled down. About midway through the officials rang the bell for a $100 prime and I shot out of the group immediately, hoping I could get a gap and discourage chasers. Two came after me and I’m told it took them half a lap to catch me, then they sat on until the line where one came around me and took it by about a wheel. Bummer. I was really gassed after that. Thankfully my teammate John nursed me back into the pack and I rested on his wheel for a while. Even though I was tired, I was hoping for a good result. The final laps got real sketchy. Still I was well positioned going into the bell lap but got pushed outside on the first turn and a bunch of people came inside me. I jumped back inside just as the winning move shot around the outside and I was done, I had little left and don’t really believe in sprinting for 15th place. I think I finished in 19th.

The crit was fun, but the track racing was a blast. I’d like to do it again soon. I wish we could get a monthly series going. I’d do it. Unfortunately, I can’t make tomorrow’s GFTL race, where there will be some track racing. Ellie’s and Millie’s first swim meet is in the morning and I don’t want to miss it.

The past week or so has been more than a bit nuts. Last week was the last week of school for Ellie and Millie and both had graduation events - El from elementary school and Mil from pre-K. I’m working on a video for those that Michele and I shot with our new video camera - a Canon FS-100 - which uses flash memory and is quite tiny. We’ve been quite satisfied so far, but will need to get an external hard drive for the Mac because the videos gobble memory.

On Father’s Day, I had a full day of racing at Langley Speedway, including a track omnium in the morning and my Cat 4 race race in the afternoon and El also raced the juniors. Unfortunately Michele was ill overnight and spent most of the day in bed. She’s only now starting to feel better.

She’s been extraordinarily busy what with the end of school, the start-up of the summer club swim team for which she’s one of the organizers and just managing three kids. I really am blessed.

We’re also fortunate that she can even stay at home. It isn’t easy - we’re falling behind a little more every month, but it’s only a little and I believe it’s manageable. If it weren’t for the biking, we’d probably be ahead of the game, but then I’d have gone off my rocker. It really keeps me sane, centered and healthy.

Look for the video and more on Sunday’s racing soon.

Kevin Dillard shot the VA State Crit Cat 4 race (and others) at the Sportsplex on Saturday. The results are posted at his DemonCats.com. He documented my failed breakaway with the Evolution racer.

Team Tripower - my team - put on another great race for the Virginia Senior Championship Crit in Saturday’s searing heat at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex, otherwise known as the Scorchplex when the mercury rises. And rise it did. Saturday’s 101 degree broke a record in Norfolk and the thermometer at the race course easily hit 98.

This photo from BJ about sums up my race:

It was a dog of a day and I dogged the race, finishing third from last, due mostly to having been in a two-man breakaway from 8 laps to go until we were caught as the bell lap began. It was so hot my heart rate was through the roof for much of the race. Early on, as I rode near the front, it pounded out 180 beats per minute. I dropped back to sit in a bit and it took almost 10 minutes to settle down to a more reasonable 150 beats for the pace being set. As the race progressed, I slowly worked my way back to the front, glued to the wheel of my teammate John. He gives good draft.

The officials finally posted the laps to go at nine just as I moved back into the front six or so riders. As we rolled around that lap, a rider from Evolution started creeping off the front as one of his teammates and two riders from another Northern Virginia team soft-pedaled at the front. As we came around, the guy was suddenly 100 meters up the road and no one was doing anything, so I jumped to bridge. It took me too long to get across, almost a whole lap, but once I did we had about a 10 second lead. He and I switched pulls at 25-26mph, but I just didn’t have a lot in my legs, so he did more work. Every now and then the group would surge, but we stayed ahead and I even started to feel hopeful. Wrong. On the second to last lap the pace behind us went up and we were caught as we crossed the start/finish for the bell lap. I tried to latch on, but my heart maxed out at 195 beats per minute and I was done.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If it had worked…

It worked for Jerry, who powered off the front of the Cat 5 field and solo’d for victory. It worked for Sally and Annette who lead a four-woman break that lapped the ladies’ field before Silly crushed them all with her whithering sprint. It worked for Tim who launched a solo chase in the masters race than scored him a great 2nd place. And it worked for Bender, who muscled a five-man breakaway in the Cat 3 and dusted them with his scorching sprint. And it might have worked for Crazy, if he hadn’t eaten too late and puked during his six-man break and then crossed wheels with someone and crashed. Still he finished solid 7th.

All in all, it was a good day for Tripower; to be cornballish, we brought the heat.

Ellie and Millie were both in the spring musical show at their elementary school last week.

Ellie started playing the cello this year and the strings class opened the show.

Millie’s pre-K class came up early in the show. She cracked herself up early on, but soon pulled it together and found her voice.

Fortunately, I was able to get off work early to see my girls.

As promised, here are some pics from Danbo’s Billy-Roubaix, a 70-mile Memorial Day epic that I rode not feeling all too well and paid for, as I expected.

We started out eight strong, including Dan, Kevin, Jerry, McMike, Sally, Blair, Jimmy and myself.

Jerry was rolling along the roadside, playing in the gravel when he kicked up a rock that flew into Mike’s rear wheel and busted out a spoke.

He and Sally turned back, then after a nasty stretch of gravel Blair went his own way too. Then we were five.

We rolled some sweet gravel roads in New Kent, but every time the hammer went down, I rolled off the back. I couldn’t get my heart rate over 150 without feeling nauseous. Jerry, meanwhile, was tearing it up.

Jimmy had some flat troubles - three in fact. Riding the last stretch of dirt road I was feeling pretty good about my decision to ride my road bike when suddenly my rear tube went soft, not 100 meters from the end of the dirt.

We then saw a sign.

Thank goodness our finish wasn’t that far away - just 10 miles maybe, including the notorious KOA climb. Ouch. Dan punched it on the descent, then Jimmy roared up the climb, leaving me gasping in the back. I plodded the last few miles back to Wallers Mill.

Everybody was spent.

Good time even though I wasn’t myself. Looking forward to the 4th of July ride and next year’s Billy-Roubaix.

It’s been a while since I posted and I have all the usual excuses: I’ve been sick, I’ve been busy and I haven’t had much to say.

I got sick on my birthday and I’m not a good sick person. It makes me grumpy. Every day I think I feel better but the nausea just keeps coming back. Hopefully this will pass soon.

Despite not feeling well, I spent much of the weekend at the Beach Sportsplex watching Ellie’s ACN select squad play in a soccer tournament. Ellie scored the first goal in the second game on Saturday, which her team went on to win. Unfortunately that was their only win. They lost their first game to a tough West Virginia squad. On Sunday, they played a Charlottesville team close through much of the first half of the semifinals before the wheels came off. They wound up losing 0-2. The team looks great for moments. Wish we could string all those moments together for a full game.

On Monday, I probably didn’t do the smartest thing. I drove to Williamsburg and rode 70 miles with some friends in the long-planned Billy-Roubaix. Probably set my recovery back. More on the ride a little later.

1) Don’t put the mountain bike away for two months between races and expect to race well.

2) Don’t start a race feeling real hungry.

3) Don’t roll wet roots like you do when they’re dry.

4) Don’t destroy your bike.

The second race this spring at Camp Hilbert was nothing short of a disaster for me. I hadn’t ridden the old K2 since the first race back on March 9, so my MTB-specific handling and conditioning were absent.

Even though I ate like I normally do pre-race, including a peanut-butter-and-jelly and a banana about 90 minutes prior, I started to feel real hungry about 30 minutes before the start. I should have eaten something else, but I didn’t. I felt hungry and empty throughout the race.

Still I started well enough, getting good positioning as IF rider Jeff Herrick disappeared ahead of us. However, I quickly bobbled several little technicalities, slowing Scott Ramsay behind me. He got by and rode away to ultimately finish third. I hooked up with Kevin and we rolled along for a bit, but along the creekside I took a line across some big roots that I clean when dry. Not this time. The bike slipped out and I slammed my shoulder into a tree. The chain jammed down, so it took me a minute to get rolling again. When I did, my left thumb was throbbing. It hurt throughout the rest of the race. I think I hyperextended it. (Feels better today.)

However nothing hurt quite like just not feeling good on the bike and watching the other classes start to come through me. I ultimately finished dead last in my vet expert group and my lap times were slow enough to place me well down in the sport vet class I was winning two years ago. No excuses. My form just wasn’t there. I need to work to get it back.

But first I need a new mountain bike. The seat tube of my long-serving K2 frame cracked near where the rear shock attaches. Noticed it after the race. That’s the second frame I’ve cracked in a year.

Thanks again to Marc Junkerman and his RunRideRace for putting on a great race. Wish I’d kept my running up so I could do the duathlon he’s got coming up in two weeks (presuming I had a bike to do it on).

Team means not getting left behind even when you arrive late to the group ride.

I headed out to the Tuesday night World Championships in Great Bridge after dropping a job candidate off at the airport. The traffic on Interstate 64 was bad enough that I arrived at the starting point just as the group rolled out. As I parked I noticed that Bill, Tim, Kevin and Laura from Tripower, plus Chris from Fat Frogs waited for me. I changed as quickly as possible, but it still took me four or five minutes to get myself together before we rolled out.

Our warm-up last maybe a half mile, then we were rolling at 23-24. We didn’t take any shortcuts, but we started catching stragglers on Long Ridge Road and even had the lead group in our sights, though well ahead on the cutover to Head of River. We amped the pace to 26-27 out Head of River. Each time I pulled through, I hammered as best I could (if they waited for me, I ought to work my butt off to get them back to the lead group). After each pull I had to really hump to remain in the paceline. We caught the lead group on Blackwater and moved straight to the front.

As we turned off Blackwater, Tim punched it to 29 with me on his wheel. I was hypoxic, but I held on… briefly. I couldn’t pull through so Kevin did with Bill on his wheel. There was no one behind them. Tim bridged, but I just couldn’t do it. I looked back to see Laura and two other riders about 100 meters back, so I waited and jumped on with them. We kept them in sight, chasing hard for a while at 27. Laura and I even shed the other two riders, but we lost sight of the escaping trio after the turn on to Indian Creek.

I was spent. My pulls slowed to 22-23-24 as we passed Northwest River Park. Laura, who recently upgraded to Cat 2, remained strong. Not long after the turn onto Cedarville, the chasing duo caught back on us and we rolled all the way home, but I was dying. I haven’t been so fried in a while. In the end I averaged 24.5mph for 36 miles. Ouch.

Turns out one of the twosome Laura and I rode with was Jason Lloyd, a triathlete and former teammate from my Port Norfolk Bike days. We were surprised to recognize each other after the ride.

I want to thank Bill, Tim, Kevin, Laura and Chris for waiting. That really is what a team is all about.