Boca RR

Freakin burrrr. 40 degrees and windy. 24 mile loop of rollers and 3 good climbs.
Not all to surprising was getting dropped on the wall and having to chase. The pack was small due to the weather and not being a points race so the lead group of 5 stayed away and I chased with three others. It was down to Jason Walker and I in the sprint for 6th in a near track stand. Rolling along at 5mph marking each other and waiting to make a move. I started to jump, he jumped and came around me and I quickly got on him and sprinted in earnest. Opened up a couple lengths at the line and 1350w on frozen legs. It hurt. I looked at the data afterwards and was surprised that I got dropped hard averaging 393w(163lbs) going up the wall. They were just better than I, a lot.
Boca RR :
Duration: 1:04:51
Work: 1079 kJ
TSS: 109.7 (intensity factor 1.008)
Norm Power: 312
Distance: 23.58 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1346 277 watts
Heart rate: 0 68 0 bpm
Cadence: 33 124 93 rpm
Speed: 0 42.9 21.8 mph

UNR 1/2/3 crit Bad jou-jou from the start

Came home to race the UNR crit instead of staying to do Wente crit. The course was changed from last year and not for the better. They added a 120ish degree off camber turn at the bottom of a hill. It was a crash fiesta. I had a close call pre-riding the course before the start and that should have been my first indicator. All told I think there were somewhere around 20 crashes in that corner.

Riding:

Riding aggressive:

Wente Road Race

I learned a valuable lesson today, don't assume feed zone is a neutral feed. I only took two bottles to start the race and after the first lap a teammate asked to borrow some of my water and got dropped shortly after. I wound up race almost 70 miles in warm temps with lots of climbing on slightly more than 1 bottle. Last time up the finish hill I was begging for some water from anyone to no avail. Suck. Lesson learned for next time.

Twilight Series #2 Aircenter crit

With 6 Clover riders in attendance and all of them strong enough to roll off the front and never be seen again I decided to make sure if any of them went off the front to go with them till after the second points prime. Three of the are in the top 5 in points after the first round. I took 2nd in the first points prime and 1st in the second points prime. I got boxed out in the final sprint when a guy didn't hold his line and pushed me wide into the curb. Hard effort and a NP of 315w.

Twilight Series #1 Franktown TT

The points rounds started tonight for the Nevada twilight series with a TT at Franktown. Another cold night like Cold springs but this time there was almost no wind. Course is a rolling loop with one mild climb. A sure sign that race season is in the swing when the super beasts start rolling out and laying down uber fast TT's. I slotted in for 3rd in the A's behind Chad Timmerman and Buckley both master's district TT champs. I was about 40 seconds off the mark but that was after a chain drop on the hill costing me a little time.

In a true display of better riding through science a buddy finished 18th overall with a respectable time but on an amazingly low 200w average. Truly making the best with what he had to work with.

1 110 Michael Buckley A 00:16:44 27.79 0:00:00
2 112 Chad Timmerman A 00:16:47 27.71 0:00:03
3 106 Josh Rennie A 00:17:29 26.60 0:00:45
4 108 Mark Trujillo A 00:17:39 26.35 0:00:55
5 109 Bubba Melcher A 00:17:48 26.12 0:01:04

So Close yet so far. Bye Bye 2 upgrade

Madera Stage Race:
Stage 1 tt:
Felt like crud and the heat was really getting to me. It was a really drastic change coming from low 40's to mid 80's at the start. I had two other teammates in the 3's and I knew one was going to rip up the TT and one wasn't. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. I knocked my power sensor as I was rolling to the start so I didn't have power or cadence just speed. I went out to hard and was sitting on about 30.5 mph on the first leg. I somewhat popped and struggled to hold 26-27 for the rest. As This was a VeloPromo race we wouldn't find out results till 9pm that night but I knew we had at least 2 guys in the top 5.

Stage 2 crit:
Goal was to keep it together and chase/up the pace as needed, wait for the TT results. Pack finish and no gaps.


TT results are in
Teammate in 1st and I'm in 4th on GC

Stage 3 RR: Let the Suck begin!!!!!
All I had to do was finish with the pack to get my GC placing and my points needed for 2 upgrade. I get a flat in the first 10 miles. The third teammate gives up a wheel and I'm off again. Back to the TT position and chase my way back on. Round the corner at about 15 seconds back and hear that familiar sound. PPPSSSSSSSSSSSS. Second rear flat and no wheel support. Bye Bye GC and Points. Only positive was my teammate held on for the GC win.

Cold Springs TT

Primary Goal: Form check before Madera
Secondary Goal: Win

Well I did both but I found out my form sucks and I should have been riding the TT a lot more. The conditions sucked something fierce. Windy, cold and snowing great time to wear as little as possible and drill it as hard as you can. My SRM battery dies cause I forgot to charge it but power was around 330w best I could tell for a time of 15:40.

I skipped racing for this

Stayed home this weekend instead for racing Wards Ferry RR to take it a little easy and get ready for Madera stage race. One thing leads to another and were doing hard efforts up geiger grade and then hitting up the weekly drop ride. A little over four hours later I was home and feeling pooped. It would have been much less effort to go racing.
To top it all off my left knee is now feeling like my right one. Arrg. Tomorrow is the first twilight of the season, Cold Springs TT. It's only a lap and I was going to use it to check my form, now not sure.

Entire workout (214 watts):
Duration: 4:09:55
Work: 3214 kJ
TSS: 354.3 (intensity factor 0.922)
Norm Power: 277
VI: 1.29
Distance: 81.27 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1396 214 watts
Speed: 0 48 19.5 mph

Patience Daniel son.

Should have learned from Mr. Miagi.

Rohne von Brisbeen
Day 1 crit:
Course was right on the water in Brisbane. It was a rather technical course with a 180, couple narrow sections and lots of wind. I tried a couple times to get away since breaks were succeeding all day but nothing doing. I wasn't given any room to roam. Not sure if it was just me or bad timing since other were given a little more freedom on both days. I sat in the group and tried to push the pace as to get rid of some of the pack in the wind. Last lap I was about 5 wheels back coming into the 180 when a rider tried a kamikaze dive and crashed right in front of me. Lost tons of ground and ended 12th.

Day 2 circuit:
Up. Down. Up. Down. Repeat ad nauseum and that is the circuit. Even windier today and I felt really bad while warming up. My legs felt heavy and not willing to go. I think the 4 hours of drivingbetween the trip home and back again might have something to do with that. I told my teammate I was going to try and get a break going since every time I tried to sprint my left calf cramped. I guess I underestimated how I was feeling cause in hindsight if I had enough energy to try 5 efforts in a break I had enough to try one good one up the hill the last time. Live and learn.

Quick data from the srm gave me a NP of 315 for the crit and 325 for the circuit. At least it was good training for Madera in two weeks.