Tour of Atlanta 2009

May 22nd to 25th was the Tour of Atlanta, a 4 day, 7 stage race. I did the last 5 of the 7 stages of the race (Saturday to Monday). My family and I chose to do this race instead of Dragons challenge this year because of so many racing opportunities in Georgia, and a hilly, "epic" T.O.A RR.

Stage 3: 10:35 am., on Saturday May 23rd, cat. 4/5 U35, 3o minutes long

I lined up for the start of this short crit after a long warmup to see a pretty small 20 rider field. The race started pretty fast, but I held a pretty good position. After what seemed like a couple of minutes, they announced 5 to go.

With 1 lap to go, I bridged up to a recently formed 2-man break on the course's short, steep hill. I passed both the riders, who had sat up, and just went medium when I looked back and realized that they, as well as the pack, didn't follow me. I decided to go for it. I sped around the course while the dropped breakaway riders blocked the field on a one-lane section. On a long, strait downhill my gap fell, but I kept going and went around the last corner at 32 mph. The last 300 or so meters the gap fell to a second, but at the line I held off the field to take my first ever category 4 win!

Stage 4: 3:00 p.m., on Saturday May 23rd, Cat. 4/5 U35, 30 minutes long

The 23 rider pack started and I soon realized I was a marked rider. I wasn't in a great position for a lot of the race, tried 2 breakaways unsuccessfully, and sprinted to 7th at the end.

Stage 5: 10:35 a.m., on Sunday May 24th, cat. 4/5 U35, 30 minutes long

I lined up to the start of my second day of racing along with a 25 or so rider field. After the start I had a little trouble clipping in and fell to 1oth, reminiscent of the days when I would nearly get dropped at the start of every race because I couldn't clip in.

Another short race where I had good tactics and felt strong; I followed a couple of short-lived breaks but didn't start any myself until 5 to go, when I counter attacked after the field had been chasing hard for at least a lap. Nobody responded, and I built up to a 10 second gap, out of the peloton's sight at times. I thought I had a chance to hold it to the finish until 2.5 laps to go, when my advantage went down a bit on the course's long downhill as I had no one to help me pull.

With 1 3/4 laps to go I was caught and went to the back of the pack. I tried to survive and got 1oth at the line.

Stage 6: 3:00 p.m., on Sunday May 24th, cat. 4/5 U35, 30 minutes long

I was hoping to conserve myself in this race after being so aggressive in the last one. I chased down a few breaks, but never was in the wind for much more than 15 seconds. For much of the race I was top 8, and I went into the last corner 4th or 5th wheel, right behind the guy who turned out to be the winner. But going into the bend my right foot unclipped and I almost crashed and went straight to the back. I finished 20th or so, 3 people away from the rear of the group.

So going into the final stage, the "epic" T.O.A RR, after 4 previous stages, only 1 yielded good results. But I had to be pleased, because I did win stage III, and for 3 of the races I had good tactics.

Stage 7: 9:25 a.m., Monday May 25th, Cat. 4/5 U35, 45 miles long

Prior to the last stage I was excited about the 2 lap course, which had 2 hills with 500 feet of elevation gain and numerous other "walls" per lap, held on undulating, sometimes very poor quality roads. The best thing was that the Race finished atop the biggest climb, which was also the biggest hill on the route.

The race started with a 5 mile neutral start for the 39 rider pack, but after it was over the attacks came thick and fast. I got in most of them just by holding the wheel in front of me. Usually the break was caught before I had to pull, but if not I dropped back a couple of bike lengths or bluffed exhaustion. I was in a bad position once during the race, on the first lap during the first half of a roughly 3 mile stretch of road with huge potholes, gravel, sand, sticks, and short but wearing climbs one after the other. It was easy to move up on the roads that resembled the ones in the hilly classics. I rode past the splintering group to the top 10, and stayed there.

The first time up the big climb, I conserved energy and went from 1oth at the bottom to 3rd at the top, while another strong rider powered up the 2nd half of the climb and won the prestigious KOM.

In the last lap the group was mainly single file from the difficulty of the climbs, and I stayed in the top 10 easily because of that. Going into the finishing climb, I was in 1oth, but was on the wheel of the wrong person, and was boxed in as he fell back to 2oth. I thought my race was over, but got around him and moved up to 3rd pretty easily. At the time the rider who won the KOM a lap ago had broken away, but I bided my time on 3rd wheel while the rider in 2nd pulled towards the leader and the finish line. When we got close to the lone leader halfway through the hill, I attacked. I caught and passed the rider who had broken away, and looked back at the field, which was 5 or so seconds behind. I held it on a short downhill with 200 meters to go, then powered up the final part of the climb to take the victory. Congratulations to everyone in the cat. 4/5 U35 race for their very strong performances.

And that's the end of a great weekend in Atlanta. I got great race experience, some victories, and 12 points over the weekend, which bring by total to 24, enough to cat. up to a 3!

Here are some pictures.

Stage 3


Bridging up to the breakaway with 1 to go



Finish


Podium
stage 4

Stage 5
3 lap solo breakaway

Stage 6

Stage 7
Half way through 2nd lap

The finish

Race Report: Historic Downtown Wake Forest Crit

Yesterday was the 2nd annual Downtown Wake Forest Crit, my team-sponsored event for the last 2 years. I raced in the Juniors 15-18 (15-16) and cat. 4 categories, at 9:35 and 11:35, respectively. I was excited to race, especially because there was a hill on the course. It wasn't long and could always be taken in the big ring, but it was steep and tired out the field. After the crest of the hill there was about 200 meters downhill to the finish.

Once I had warmed up, I got to the start line of yet another monsoon like race (15-18 race) and saw about 8 or 10 riders, including 2 of my teammates, Micheal and Craig, and a strong looking rider I had never seen before. The race started fast in the first 2 circuits and I was just hanging on. After that it slowed down a bit, and there was a preme. The one unidentified rider took it by a lot. Craig and Micheal put in some very strong attacks, with the other teammate and myself blocking, but every time the mystery rider chased it down with little help. Then there was another preme, and once again the unknown rider took it. After some hard chasing, the 4 of us were all together.

On the last lap, knowing I'd lose to the unidentified guy in a sprint, I attacked on the courses hill. Although the hill was short, its steep grade yielded me a bike length gap with 200 meters to go. I attempted to sprint the last part to the finish, but he came around me in the last 20 feet, and then beat me by 12 inches, so I got 2nd (1st 15-16). I was disappointed at first, but felt better when I learned the guy was a cat. 2, as well as the fact that I got 50 dollars!

Congratulations to all of my team, especially to my younger brother, Cooper, in the 10-12 race, to Timothy Dean for being competitive in the cat. 5's, to William and Louis Guillen for their excellent rides in the 10-14 group, to Barny Baxter and Alan Hart in the very hard masters race, to Micheal for a great solo breakaway and strong finish in the 15-18's, and to Craig, who really sacrificed himself for Micheal and I in the older Jrs. category. He must have attacked 10 times!

Next (1.5 hrs later) was the 4 race. A field of about 20 people were there, and the race started fast like the Jrs. race, with Micheal, Justin, a junior on C4, and other riders tearing apart the field. I felt kind of bad at first, but eventually felt stronger. After that, there was a preme, followed by numerous attacks and counter-attacks.

When the race was halfway thru, I started feeling good and looked around. At the time we were going hard from chasing some attacks, and by peoples faces and gasping for air I could tell they were tired.

The next time we went over the hill, the group was going slow and I attacked near the top. I accelerated over the crest and noticed the field wasn't responding. A lap later my gap was still healthy, but a strong headwind on the backside cut my advantage in half and I was caught right where I had attacked 2 laps ago.

After that, a rider from the Virginia Tech team attacked. Nobody responded to this accelaration either, and I was feeling strong so I hopped on his wheel. He pulled for at least half a lap, but when it was my turn I couldn't pull thru. We were caught, once again, just after the hill at the start finish line.

I took some time to recover after that, and almost lost the race when I found myself in the back group of a field split. Thankfully the pack regouped pretty quickly and I found myself in contention again, with 3 laps to go.

At 2 to go there was a flurry of attacks, and although I don't quite remember my exact position, I think I was in 5th to 8th. At one to go there were still splits in the strung out pack. Around the 2nd to last corner, right before the start of the hill, I was in 3rd or 4th, or maybe even 5th. I sprinted up the hill on the inside, and moved into 2nd. The rider in the lead, the one from Virginia Tech, had a decent gap on me that remained from the 2nd corner, and in the next 7 seconds to the line he just increased it, but I held on for 2nd, my best finish in an official cat. 4 race ever! I also got 80 dollars (130 for the day), a great race experience, and some points! I am starting to think that my goal of catting up is within reach!

Once again, good job to my whole team for racing great and putting on this race. Next weekend, Lord-willing I'll be going to the Tour of Atlanta, close to Atlanta, Georgia, were I can do 9 races in 3 days, including a road race with a 500 foot climb. Hopefully I'll only get closer to or even get enough points to upgrade there.

Here are some Historic Downtown Wake Forest Crit photos. (Double click on them to see them larger.)

Juniors 10-14 race

Juniors 15-18

Cat. 4 race Masters

Pro 1 2

cat. 3

Podiums

National 2009 Date and Courses

Today I went to the USA cycling website to check on the JR. Nationals info, which until recently hadn't been shown yet. When I saw the TT and Crit course I was pretty pleased, although I still don't know why the course designing people never put hills any bigger than 300 feet on the RR route.

Tuesday, July 28th is the RR, Friday July 31st is the TT, and Saturday August 1st is the crit.
The distances for all the races, including mine, are a lot longer than usual, which is good for me.

RR is 46.5 miles on a really short course (USA cycling calls it a circuit race), with a 150 plus foot climb over 3/4 of a mile (about 4.3 percent average grade), with a steep-looking start and finish on it at grades of at least 8 percent.

For the 2nd consecutive year, the Time Trial has the biggest elevation changes, at least in the u16 categories, with a very consistent 800 or 900 foot climb over 6.5 miles (average grade of about 2 to 2.5 percent), on a nearly 15 mile long, out-and-back course. I like the route, but at the same time, the organizers could have so easily included a climb that big or bigger on the RR course.

The crit for the 15-16 category is 25 kilometers, or 15.5 miles, the only race that is of an average length, which is too bad, as I like a crit that is a race of attrition. I'm assuming the course is flat, since there's no topography map to go with it.

The link is at http://www.usacycling.org/events/2009/JrU23EliteRoadNats/

Friday Training Ride

This Friday my family and I went to Charlotte. My Dad and I were going to ride the course of the recent May 2nd Dilworth crit, a race I couldn't go to, while the rest of my family were at a park in the center of the race course.

While we were at the course, we did a 45 minute long crit simulation workout around it, racing the last 15 minutes of the workout. Although we had to stop a couple of times because of an intersection on the course, we got in a good workout and I barely beat my Dad at the end.

After that I rode a while longer to get in 2 hours. I went hard a couple more times, then cooled down.

Today I downloaded my Powermeter on the Cycling Peaks WKO software. I am really liking the software and recommend it to anyone who has a power meter. On the software you can highlight any given section of the ride with ease and view your peak power output for any length of time.

Entire workout (131 watts):
Duration: 2:01:19 (2:03:31)
Work: 948 kJ
TSS: 139.8 (intensity factor 0.835)
Norm Power: 174
VI: 1.32
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 35.132 mi

The Norm Power Item is probably my favorite feature of WKO. It is a great training tool because it shows exactly how intense your workout is, no matter how steady or sporadic it was. When used in conjunction with the length of your workout, it creates a precise guage of how hard you worked, called training stress score (TSS). TSS is a much more exact way to measure work than Kilojoules (KJ), mainly because it uses NP * time instead of Average power * time. TSS is based on doing an hour long TT at threshold, which is worth 100 TSS points. For me, a TSS score of more than 110 is usually hard work.

Here is a 30 minute section of the crit sim workout. Look at all the lower power outputs and even complete stops because of traffic and other varibles. Notice the relatively low average wattage (178 watts). Thanks to Cycling Peaks WKO's N.P. feature, however, I can clearly see the normalized power of 196 watts and know that I put in a good workout and am riding well.

Peak 30min (178 watts):
Duration: 30:04 (30:12)
Work: 320 kJ
TSS: 44.4 (intensity factor 0.942)
Norm Power: 196
VI: 1.1
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 10.401 mi

Race Report: Downtown Sanford Crit

Yesterday I did the Downtown Sanford crit. Last year I did this race, too, and got 25th in the 4/5 race. This year, however, my goal was to be competitive in the 4/5 and 3/4 races, held back to back.


Extremely hot temperatures in the 90's made for hard racing, but nonetheless there were about 50 people in the cat. 4/5 race. The race started good, and I didn't start getting that hot until 10 minutes in, when the 2 water bottles I poured over myself prerace evaporated.


Early in the race I attacked, but I wasn't feeling strong enough to get much of a gap and stayed away for only1/2 a lap. The heat seemed to really prevent me from getting away, and also impaired my ability to recover after my effort.


The race was fast after that, 24.9 avg. mph. with a decent hill, and I was in a bad position for a couple of laps after my attack. I rounded the last corner in a much worse position than I had hoped for, sprinted for the line and got 11th.


After that I went to rollout, rode 2 laps and lined up for the start of the 3/4 race. I had some grapes, a gu, and got two fresh bottles for the race, one to drink and one to pour on my head.


I was hoping that the race would start easily, but then the announcer said, before the race even started, "Preme on the next lap!", so I just tried to hang on. But I was feeling a lot better than I expected, although still not good enough to go with a large breakaway that got away somewhere around lap 3.


I was moving to the front when somone on the other side of the pack made an attempt to bridge up to the leaders. I got right onto their wheel without much difficulty, and we caught the breakaway. Unfortunately, so did the rest of the pack, but at least I was now in a good position.


After that I just fought to stay near the front. There were so many attacks and breaks during the race I couldn't keep track of them all, but somehow the 3/4's was almost easier; faster but smoother.


With a lap to go I was in a good position, I think 6th in the pack. After that I did a bad job of anticipating surges and holding my position, but I think now I have isolated that as my main weakness and will try to improve on it. Going into the last corner, I was definitely in the top 13, and then sprinted and got 12th out of almost 50 riders, which I was pretty happy about.


All in all, I was happy with how I recovered for the 3/4 race, how I was in a good position during most of the race, and that I learned how I can improve. I got a 25 dollar gift card too, for being the 3rd best cat. 4 in the race. Congratulations all my teamates, especially to Barney Baxter and Kirk Port in the Masters Tour De Moore Race on Saturday, and also to Terry Huss in the Pro 1/2 race Yesterday. Nice job to Mike Raynor, 2nd and Craig Stewart, 3rd, in the 15-18 race.


During the 40 minute long cat. 4/5 race, I averaged 24.9mph., and then 25.8 for the 3/4's.

Here's some photos from the Downtown Sanford crit...







After the Race with Sam Adamy, Mike Ventola, and AJ Shipley