Posted by britcpower on April 25, 2013
When I fitted the Continental Speed tires back in August 2012 I had concerns that the casing wasn’t going to be very durable. After a 1050 miles of roads and gravel trails they still are holding up really well as can be seen from the pictures below. I like these tires so much I am putting them on my geared cross bike too.
Front:
Continental Speed Front (1050 Miles)
Rear:
Continental Speed Rear after 1050 miles.
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Posted by britcpower on February 17, 2013
I don’t as a rule ride Criteriums or Circuit races unless they are part of stage race. The Coppertown Circuit race course will be used in the Top Sport Stage race so I rode it for valuable experience. I actually really enjoyed the course which consisted of a fun blast through Copperopolis town center followed by a rolling out and back section on Little John road. It was not a particularly hard circuit in terms of climbing but there was a cool crosswind on the Little John section which made it a little more difficult.
My wife was racing too so we stayed the night in Copperopolis with our dogs. This didn’t work out so good as one of our dogs was unsettled by the strange surroundings and she wouldn’t settle. I ended up with about an hours sleep and a stinking headache in the morning. At least it was quite cold (around 45 degrees) when I raced at 9am so the cool air refreshed me somewhat.
My race was dominated by some pretty large teams so the tactics seemed to consist of riders constantly attacking followed by team mates blocking before a rival team attacked then it all came back together. It was quite frustrating being a rider without team mates so I made several attacks just for the h*ll of it. I found that I was not going very well and on the windy section there was no way I was going to stay away by myself. I tried to go with a few breaks but none of them were successful and I thought it was going to end up in a bunch sprint.
On the last lap two riders got away and I decided not to chase this break and of course it stayed away. At one point one of the teammates of the riders put in an awesome attack and I thought we were going to bridge across but when he saw me he sat up. I had no intention of going for the sprint so I attacked with 2KM to go but was caught at 1K and ended up coming in with the rather small lead bunch. At least I got a good workout.
It was a safe race but a little frustrating and it didn’t really make me want to go back to short course racing. There were some really strong and fast riders in the group (I was not one of them) and they worked the team thing really well. My “Specialized Allez Race” handled the town center bit really well which is what i expected for a crit bike. Even though I didn’t have any team mates in the race it was nice to have other team Fremont members shouting me on through the town center and it made my day.
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Posted by britcpower on February 16, 2013
The first 10 mile TT of the year is always a bit of a shock to the system. Figuring out the correct pacing is a challenge and it usually puts a real stress on your lungs. Traditionally my first Canada Road TT of the year results in a terrible performance and a hacking cough. In recent years I have not ridden my race bike for the first event, in order to take some of the pressure off, but with the Madera stage race looming I needed some seat time on my Trek TTX
I moth balled my TT bike last September after the Esparto TT and only tried it out for 20 miles on Sunday prior to this event. The bike felt good but the TT position called upon some different muscles and the narrow aero bars felt a bit scary at speed. I opted to ride a dual HED3 setup for BTC as the forecast was for extremely light winds so I thought there wouldn’t be much of a speed hit compared to the disk and I would shave some weight for the uphill return leg.
Race day morning was very cold but, as forecast, there was virtually no wind. When I raced the average temperature was around 40 degrees which was hard work on both the lungs and legs. I rode the event without reference to any pacing aid (pulse or power) and just concentrated on getting back my TT pacing feel.
I was a terrible coward when it came to the down hills and at over 30MPH I didn’t feel very safe on the TT bars so I ended up riding on the cowhorns. It didn’t really seem to hurt my speed too much but I need to get a lot more practice on the Trek before my next TT. Despite many reviews stating how wonderfully stable the Trek TTX is I do not find that to be the case. Perhaps my position is just slightly too far forward or I am simply not a very good bike handler on narrow aero bars.
My legs were burning a bit on the way out but I seemed to be able to keep a pretty fast pace going on the up hills. Even the dreaded rise before the turn wasn’t too bad although it still hurt. I passed and caught one rider on the way out but other that that the course seemed eerily quiet. I didn’t seem to be able to get into my TT zone at all and I always felt over or under geared.
The return leg is always a lot harder as it is generally up hill and I concentrated on pushing hard on the up hill bits but not so hard that I would blow up. I also tried to spin up the rises rather than mash. I caught another couple of riders just before the last nasty little up hill mile to the finish and was determined not to blow up. Even though my pacing was good it was still depressing to see my average speed ebb away but I kept the effort constant right up to the line where I caught two more riders.
I finished in 23m57s and without badly beaten up lungs. I was initially unhappy with my race as it felt slow to me but after seeing my time I was happy. I think Canada road is a course that does benefit from some wind (hopefully tail wind back) but it was nice to race in still conditions. I was even happier to find that I got in the top 10 especially considering the quality of the riders out there.
Results: 16th February 2012 BTC 10 Mile TT (Canada Road)– Solo Men
My Non Recumbent personal best for the Canada Road course is 23m32s which I did in July of last year (71f). This was slap bang in the middle of my really good TT form and in much warmer weather. I am really happy to get within 25 seconds of my p.b. in February.
I don’t know how accurate “Bike Calculator” is but if you put in my numbers for Saturday, keep power as a fixed value and then change the outside temperature from 41f to 71f it reckons that my effort was equivalent to a 23m31s TT. Interesting stuff !
I need to get a huge amount of TT bike seat time in between now and March 9th so I am in with a chance for the Madera TT.
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Posted by britcpower on February 9, 2013
Number 43
For the 2013 edition of the Mega Monster Enduro I shifted back to a road bike rather than my preferred recumbent. I am on a training program that means I have had to moth ball the recumbents for a while. My chosen steed was my trusty Lemond Titanium. It isn’t the fastest bike in my stable but it is comfy on the long haul.
Lemond Titanium
The mega monster enduro is a course that has 5000ft of climbing but it is still a course where aerodynamics play a factor. I decided not to bother with fancy wheels but fitted some mini TT bars to help on the inevitable hard headwind bits. I did a short test ride on the bars and they felt pretty comfortable but for the event they didn’t really work out for me.
My Lemond has a pretty long top tube and stem which is good for aerodynamics but put me in a less than ideal position on the TT bars. The seat position is also set well back of the bottom bracket which means my hip angle wasn’t very good either. During the Monster I found that my hips got uncomfortable whilst on the TT bars and my arms and neck actually felt a little uncomfortable too. When I did my 20 mile test on the bars last week I didn’t notice this so much but on the bumpy roads of the Paicines course I found myself only able to use them for about a mile at a time.
Mini TT Bars
On race day the weather was really cold (for California) and on the way down I passed many frosty fields and iced up cars. The actual temperature when I arrived was just above 30 degrees. The cold weather meant big lines for the Porta Potty and I had to wait for 20 minutes in the cold to use the facilities. I decided that there was absolutely no point in warming up before the race.
Miles 0 to 32:
I started the course with a plan to keep my pulse between 140-160 if possible and to see what happened. The first 10 miles were cold but I felt ok other than my nose constantly dripping from the cold air. I felt good on the Bear Valley Climb and set a personal best whilst still keeping my pulse below 166bpm. I caught quite a few riders over the next few miles and just passed a fast looking triathlete before the fun descent down to the Bitterwater checkpoint. Up until this point the winds had been pretty light with the only wind seeming to be areo-dynamic drag. As I hit the long fast straight down to the checkpoint I was blasted by a nasty cold cross/headwind that was pretty unpleasant. The triathlete took advantage of his full TT setup and blasted away from me especially as I couldn’t really take advantage of my TT bars.
I arrived at the first checkpoint at mile 32 and stopped only long enough to give my number and then set off on what I hoped would be a fast run into the 50 mile turn. My time was 1h38m which put me in 8th place and exactly the same time as I did it in the rain on my recumbent in 2012.
Miles 32 to 51:
The next few miles were harder than I was expecting and some of the downhills that are usually really fast were hampered by a cold headwind. I was really wishing I was on my recumbent on this bit. As I hit the rolling 5 miles to the turn I was starting to feel pretty tired and fed up but I always feel bad on this section so I wasn’t concerned. It felt like a headwind, which is unusual for this bit, and I was passed by a team of two riders who seemed to be enjoying themselves more than I was.
I got to the 51 mile checkpoint in 54 minutes which put my total time around 2h30m but I was only 10th fastest on this section. I was 5 minutes slower than my recumbent time last year which wasn’t a great surprise. Due to the cold I had only drank one bottle to this point but I filled up so that I would have two full bottles for the return leg. I had also been neglecting my food a bit as I had only had two Cliff Gel blocks in first 50 miles. The cold had made the Shot Blocks pretty hard and difficult to chew especially as I couldn’t breathe properly through my constantly running nose.
Miles 51 to 70:
I was pleased to find that there was a bit of a tailwind at the start of the return leg and I took advantage of it to try to eat a peanut butter and jelly Bonk Breaker. The cold had made the bonk breaker pretty hard and difficult to eat and I struggled to get it down. It blocked up my mouth and was generally unpleasant. I normally really like Bonk Breakers but for this ride it turned out to be a mistake. I would have been much better off with real food.
I was making good progress up until the climb at mile 64 where the course turned back into the wind and my legs started to cramp. From this point up until Bitterwater at mile 70 my legs started to feel really bad but I soldiered on. I got to Bitterwater in 1h02m (9th place for this segment). By comparison it only took me 43 minutes to do this on the recumbent last year which is a huge difference for a mainly up hill leg. My legs felt extremely fatigued and I wasnt looking forward to the next climb.
Miles 70 to 102:
As I set off on the climb for the final leg I was having all sorts of leg problems and was on the cusp of cramping even though there was a nice tailwind. I pretty much blew up from this point on-wards and the cold wind really got to me. I had given up in the mini TT bars as they exasperated the cramping and I had given up all though of a good time. The actual climbing sections were a relief as even though they were hard on the legs there was little to no wind. The section from mile 80 to the bear valley descent around mile 90 was horrible and I went through the negotiating routine that will be familiar to any endurance athletes. Just one more mile and I will take a drink, just get to the top of this hill and I will go down on the drops etc etc. Around mile 90 I dropped my bottle and when I stopped to pick it up I got a nasty twinge of cramp in my legs, feet and hands and I seriously considered just sitting down by the side of the road and having a very long rest. I noticed at this point that my constantly dripping nose was making a real mess of my top tube and my nice new team kit.
Snotty Top Tube
While I was feeling sorry for myself I was passed by the team of two riders, that I last saw at the rest stop at mile 51, and this gave me renewed determination to continue. I ate a bunch of Shotblocks and drank a big swig of Perpeteum and set off on the final 11 miles to the finish. The combination of rough roads and a troublesome cold headwind made this rolling section very nasty. I was pretty much in limp home mode at this point and the rolling hills felt like mountains. If you look at the course profile you would think this section was pretty much down hill but it didn’t feel like it. I was so happy to finally get to the finish but I was a beaten man. My time for the final leg was an appalling 1h54m which was 12th fastest. I was shocked to see that this time was actually 8 minutes faster than I did on my recumbent last year (the first climbing section and bad weather must really have hurt the recumbent time)
Comparison of my 2012 vs 2013 efforts
| Section | 2012 Recumbent | 2013 Lemond |
| 0-32 | 1H38m0s | 1h38m10s |
| 32-51 | 0h:49m0s | 0h54m30s |
| 0- 51 | 2h27m0s | 2h32m40s |
| 51-70 | 0h43m0s | 1h02m30s |
| 70 -102 | 2h02m45s | 1h54m10s |
| 51 -102 | 2h45m45s | 2h56m40s |
| Overall | 5h12m45s | 5h29m20s |
My overall position was 8th place in the solo category which I was actually really pleased with but I was nearly 15 minutes slower than my recumbent time from 2012.
Results:
http://megamonster.lowkeyhillclimbs.com/2013/results.html
Next Year Back to a recumbent !
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Posted by britcpower on February 5, 2013
I often wonder why I enter races as I always get stressed out the week before and it is rare I get good night’s sleep. By race day I am usually a nervous wreck complete with various strange ailments and maladies that miraculously disappear after the event. Knights Ferry Road Race was no exception and it was made especially troublesome for me by being the first race of the season. I had entered it just for training, or at least that was what I had told myself, so really there should have been no pressure at all. I thought it would be good practice for the Warnerville TT and TOP SPORT stage race which both use the same course.
Course: 13.5 mile out and back course (27 miles total) that will start at the Intersection of Warnerville Road/Willms road. Race will start heading North on Willms. Finish will be in the opposite direction of 2011 on top of same climb, this eliminates the turnaround 1 mile from finish. Turnarounds are narrow, if you cannot make a 180 turn on a narrow road start practicing or stay home
For 2013 I am racing with my old team (Team Fremont) and for the Masters 45+ 4 I had a very strong team mate in the shape of John Lem. We were completely outnumbered by other large teams so it was going to be a challenge to work the tactics in our favor.
The race started off fairly briskly with the Cushman & Wakefield Racing team dominating the proceedings up front. The referee was rigidly enforcing the center line rule so this meant that the group could be no more than 3-4 riders wide. It was very difficult to make your way up the peleton to get near the front, which is where I like to be, but I ended up stuck in the middle. When we hit the first 180 turn I was absolutely amazed how slow people were taking it and by the time I got round I was probably about 200m behind the leaders and had to put in a hard chase.
After the turn the C&W riders were driving hard on the front and we were flying along with a cross tailwind. Our group managed to catch and pass the two groups that set off in front of us so we were not hanging about. At the next 180 turn I made sure I was near the front and witnessed a C &W rider making a break for it. As soon as he went his entire team drifted back and the pace dropped a lot. I found myself sat in third position behind two strong riders who both did a really long pull as no-one wanted to put their nose into the wind. Eventually I had to do some work on the front myself but this fortunately put me in a good place for the climb that would be our finish hill on the next lap.
I was near the front for the 180 degree turn so I didn’t have to put in a chase but I wished the leaders had put the hammer down here as it could have split the field. On the climb I sat alongside the leader and we climbed at a pretty fast tempo but not enough to do much damage. I wasn’t prepared to try to sit in to the finish so over the top 6 of us worked hard to try to split up the field but no-one really wanted to commit. Eventually two riders attacked when I was on the front and we just let them go (big mistake as one of the riders won).
I made a huge tactical error in that as i pulled off the front I allowed myself to get pushed back down through the pack so that when we hit the final 180 turn I was near the back again with John. There was absolutely no way either of us could get through to the front on this final leg without crossing the line. I was very frustrated but somewhat consoled that it was just a training race for me. When we hit 1K to go and the final climb to the finish people started sprinting and a few gaps opened up so I went for it. I picked my way through all the riders on the climb but several times had the door slammed and I had to brake hard (almost to a stop). With about 300 to go I finally got a clear view of the front and could see the leaders about 100m in front of me. I sprinted hard and caught a few guys and by the finish I had closed to within about 20 feet off the winner.
I finished in 5th place and my team mate was 9th which was a great result when you considered how badly boxed in we were at the end. The winner John Marengo deserves a big pat on the back for his efforts and well judged attack. All in all it was a fun race and the standard of riding was nothing to complain about. The only crash we had was a rider who got sent to the back by the referee for a center line violation. He looked OK at the end.
Results:
| 1 | 407.90 | John Marengo | Fair Oaks, CA | 371699 | 376 | Team City – Sacramento | ||
| 2 | 410.98 | Kenneth Cluff | Oakland, CA | 335500 | 356 | East Bay Velo Club | ||
| 3 | 414.06 | Tom Luttrell | San Francisco, CA | 235966 | 375 | Divine Electric Norcal | ||
| 4 | 417.14 | Robert Leever | Citrus Heights, CA | 267651 | 372 | Team Bicycles Plus/Sierra Nevada | ||
| 5 | 420.23 | Mark King | Livermore, CA | 136967 | 369 | Team Fremont / FFBC pb Chipotle | ||
| 6 | 423.31 | David Dalton | Danville, CA | 287122 | 357 | Kovarus / Wells Fargo | ||
| 7 | 426.39 | greg fales | Orangevale, CA | 275788 | 360 | Team Bicycles Plus/Sierra Nevada | ||
| 8 | 429.47 | William Nolan | Carmichael, CA | 196197 | 382 | Team City | ||
| 9 | 432.55 | John Lem | Milpitas, CA | 364839 | 373 | Team Fremont / FFBC pb Chipotle | ||
| 10 | 435.63 | Peter Krogh | Nevada City, CA | 177339 | 370 | SHO-AIR/SERT |
Garmin Stats:
Distance: 59 Miles
Av Speed: 21.8MPH
Climbing: 2013ft
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Posted by britcpower on January 31, 2013
My 2013 road racing machine is a 2013 Specialized Allez race. A nice birthday present and it rides good and is only about 1/2 pound heavier than my Carbon Tarmac. In my new team colors too.
13 Allez Race
All Black but for the Ritchey Bars and stem. Trying to get a matching red seatpost but they are back ordered.
A splash of red
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Posted by britcpower on January 27, 2013
My Salsa Chili con Crosso
“I’ve put together an impromptu 100 mile Paris-Roubaix inspired road event this Sunday that I’m calling the Tainthammer 100. There is a 62 mile (metric) option too. You need base miles damnit!
It’s all rough pavement, dirt roads and patched blacktop though farmlands and wildlife preserves. The route is entertaining and it’s free of washboard on the dirt sections. You’ll see, about, one million ducks during the ride. The roads are all very low traffic. It starts and ends in Patterson, CA which is on the 5 just east of Livermore. There is less than 500ft of climbing on the entire 100 mile route.
I’ll have two aid stations on course and there are two places to get water aside from that plus a couple of small towns with Quik-e-Marts. The metric option is great for people with less experience and we shuttle you ahead to the start for that so you may or may not see the 100 mile riders depending on well they organize their pace lines. If they organize it’ll be interesting to see if they pass you before the finish, which could well happen.
Murphy Mack “
With a sales pitch like that who could refuse?
At the start with Murphy explaining the route
I have just come of a real hard block of training and I was feeling pretty fatigued for Sunday’s ride. According to my coaching program I was supposed to do a 3H30m ride with only two 20 minute FTP level sessions. The “Tainthammer” really didn’t fit the profile, weighing in at probably closer to 6 hours, but I wasn’t expecting a hammerfest so I thought I would be ok. I decided to use 28mm Continental 4 season tires on my cross bike rather than proper cross tires as the balance seemed to tip in favor of the road side of the equation. I ran them at 85PSI to help avoid pinch flats but this turned out to be too hard and I was bouncing around all over the place on the rough stuff.
Fuel Stop
Only about 8 people turned up for the event and three of those were on road bikes with a similar tire setup to mine. I am really bad at remembering names so people will be referred to by their bike (actual names appear in the Strava KOM page). From a few miles into the event it became clear that these guys were serious and we were soon flying along in a 25MPH+ rotating paceline which was made more challenging by having to avoid the potholes in the road. This was a group of really strong riders and a couple of them in particular could really put down the hammer when they hit the front. I was feeling tired from yesterday’s HOP ride but I was hoping that the miles would loosen my legs up a bit by the time we hit the first dirt section.
Dirt Section number 1 was a short affair that had some pretty muddy bits that I managed to get crossed up in and immediately regretted my tire choice. I ride on dirt roads a lot but nearly always on my own and I was unhappy at how hard it was to avoid stuff and pick a good line when you are following wheels. We pretty much all stayed together through this section although we did temporarily lose Jonathon on the Cannondale CAAD10. Jonathon was testing out some product and kept sprinting off and then disappearing for short periods. We also encountered our first loose dogs of the day which was to become a reoccurring issue.
Dirt section 1 marked a dramatic degradation in the road surface and we were now well and truly into the rough stuff. The pace seemed to pick up even more and I started to have a few concerns as my legs were not feeling any better. Dirt section 2 was a sand road (Atwater – Jordan Golden Mile) and I immediately got into major difficulties. The other riders seems to be able to skate over the crust of the sand but I hit several soft sections and nearly went down a few times as my wheels dug in. I was in real difficulties and the group just disappeared with the exception of one unfortunate rider who had stopped to pick up his bottle. This sand road seemed to go on forever and by the time I hit the end of it the group was almost out of sight. As I got out of the dirt Murphy suggested a short cut for me and the other rider and we worked together to try to catch back on. I think the next section should have been called dog alley as we were chased by an endless number of pooches. There were a couple of sections of road here that it was hard to tell if you were on dirt or asphalt as they had paved it with half inch rocks (really nasty stuff). I asked my colleague (Allan I think his name was) if his specialized Roubaix was working on this stuff and he just laughed. Even with the shortcut we didn’t manage to catch the group until the first feed zone at mile 30 something. It became pretty clear to me that if you got dropped today there was not going to be anybody waiting for you. I was a little concerned at the number of matches I had burned in the chase and was seriously considering abandoning before we got too far away from the start. My legs still were not feeling any better and the wind seemed to be picking up. I felt a little better after eating some stuff at the feed zone so decided I was going to keep going. The section after the feed had a pretty good tailwind and we were really cranking along. The legs were not feeling too bad and other than the big efforts I had to put in after every junction or really rough bit I began to feel I might actually be able to hang on.
Atwater – Jordan Golden Mile :
http://app.strava.com/segments/3349865
|
Rank |
Name |
Speed |
HR |
Power |
Time |
| 1 | peter chang | 19.1mi/h | - | 147W | 3:07 |
| 2 | Rob Manchester | 18.8mi/h | 171bpm | 146W | 3:10 |
| 3 | jon b | 18.5mi/h | - | 228W | 3:13 |
| 4 | Patrick Kitto | 18.2mi/h | 167bpm | 127W | 3:16 |
| 4 | Craig Chaney | 18.2mi/h | 130bpm | 198W | 3:16 |
| 6 | jonathan krier-tran | 18.0mi/h | 168bpm | 245W | 3:18 |
| 7 | Patrick Herlihy | 17.4mi/h | 153bpm | 188W | 3:25 |
| 8 | Allan Sherlock | 16.3mi/h | 152bpm | 105W | 3:39 |
| 9 | Mark King | 13.1mi/h | 142bpm | 127W | 4:32 |
At the first fuel stop
The next dirt section I hit at speed and went into some washboard that nearly shook my eyes out the sockets. It was a pretty hard packed gravel base so my tires coped ok although things got interesting in the muddy section near the end. On this section I started to notice a few cracks opening up in the group as it was difficult to draft effectively and dodge all the big holes. I kept up OK but it was followed by our first real extended taste of Patterson’s mighty winds. The next section was pretty fast (27MPH+) until we hit the headwind and then it became really hard and really bumpy again. We had a nice echelon working into the wind but every time I pulled through I felt just a little bit worse. It was quite a relief when we hit the next dirt section “The spiked levee” as the mud was actually smoother than the roads we had just been riding on. Dirt seemed to be the trigger to put the hammer down and pretty quickly the group split in two. I found myself in the front group and had to work hard in the dirt paceline into the wind which took quite a lot out of me. It was a huge relief to get back on normal roads with a tailwind as we made our way to the final fuel stop and the beginning of the hammer. We managed to catch up with the three ladies on this section and one of them (Chava) joined us on the paceline to fuel stop 2.
Spiked Levee:
http://app.strava.com/segments/3337751
|
Rank |
Name |
Speed |
HR |
Power |
Time |
| 1 | Craig Chaney | 17.8mi/h | 144bpm | 189W | 10:46 |
| 2 | Patrick Kitto | 17.7mi/h | 164bpm | 138W | 10:48 |
| 3 | peter chang | 17.7mi/h | - | 113W | 10:49 |
| 4 | Rob Manchester | 17.6mi/h | 171bpm | 137W | 10:50 |
| 5 | Mark King | 17.6mi/h | 160bpm | 208W | 10:51 |
| 6 | jon b | 16.1mi/h | - | 168W | 11:52 |
| 7 | Allan Sherlock | 16.1mi/h | 151bpm | 90W | 11:54 |
| 8 | jonathan krier-tran | 14.3mi/h | 146bpm | 152W | 13:24 |
| 9 | Patrick Herlihy | 11.4mi/h | 152bpm | 102W | 16:44 |
| 10 | Chava Kronenberg | 8.9mi/h | - | 93W | 21:32 |
| 11 | Emily McLanahan | 8.9mi/h | - | 43W | 21:33 |
Murphy was joking at the second feed (mile 70 something) that what we had done up to now was just a warm up and the real ride was just beginning. Ahead of us was the 10 mile long rough dirt road through the Wildfowl reserve that was known as the “Tainthammer” and to make matters worse it would be accompanied by a nasty cross headwind. I was mentally a bit drained by this prospect and was getting pretty fed up of dodging potholes and the cold wind. I dropped a few PSI out of the Continentals (not enough really) and set off with trepidation on the final push.
Start of the Tainthammer…just follow the telegraph poles !
The pace was immediately fast and it was a complete nightmare trying to draft and dodge the holes and really rough bits. After a mile or so I dropped off the leaders and just concentrated on finding my path through the misery. Apparently there were lots of wildfowl to view on this section but all I could see was the 10 feet in front of me as I tried to find the smoothest line. The wind was also pretty relentless on this bit. A couple of riders dropped off the back and I ended up riding with “Allan Roubaix” from the earlier chase but only for a while before a particularly rough section split us up. I caught the super strong guy (Rob) on the road bike who did not seem to be enjoying the rough road at all but eventually I sort of blew up and drifted back to my own pace. I was mentally a lot easier to ride on your own but physically more demanding. My cranks had developed and annoying creak that was driving me mad and my brain was fried.
The tainthammer :
http://app.strava.com/segments/3334544
|
Rank |
Name |
Speed |
HR |
Power |
Time |
| 1 | peter chang | 15.4mi/h | - | 81W | 38:26 |
| 2 | Craig Chaney | 15.3mi/h | 151bpm | 140W | 38:31 |
| 3 | Patrick Kitto | 15.3mi/h | 158bpm | 96W | 38:41 |
| 4 | jonathan krier-tran | 14.6mi/h | 150bpm | 153W | 40:23 |
| 5 | Rob Manchester | 14.6mi/h | 154bpm | 87W | 40:28 |
| 5 | Allan Sherlock | 14.6mi/h | 143bpm | 74W | 40:28 |
| 7 | Mark King | 14.3mi/h | 153bpm | 139W | 41:13 |
| 8 | jon b | 13.7mi/h | - | 127W | 43:09 |
| 9 | Chava Kronenberg | 10.9mi/h | - | 79W | 54:15 |
| 10 | Emily McLanahan | 10.9mi/h | - | 37W | 54:17 |
The “Tainthammer” eventually came to an end and it was time to fight the winds all the way to the finish. I could see 3 riders about 500m in front of me and knew there was the tall British Guy behind (john B) so I went into time trial mode to try to catch the group. John put in some really strong pulls in the morning miles so I expected him to catch me. I eventually gave up the chase as my legs were beginning to cramp and waited for my British compatriot. He was still going strong and I drafted him for a few miles before we caught up with “Allan Roubaix”. I pulled through a few times but each time I did I ended up getting dropped off the back and had to time trial on my own to get back on. I was not feeling good at all at this point. I didn’t feel like I had the bonk it was just a general feeling of extreme fatigue. The last 20 miles were horrible, I felt crap and my legs were on the cusp of cramping every time I put in a little too much effort. My left ankle started to hurt, as result of my near fall on the sand, and the creaking from my crank was driving me mad. Fortunately our little group of five riders worked together (I was past being much use as an engine at this point and felt bad about drafting so much but it was all about survival and not knowing the way home.) and the miles ticked ever so slowly by. The fast road bike guy (Rob) put in an absolute stellar and very long pull in over the last few miles and dragged us to all to the finish. I was a tired and broken man but happy to have survived the 110 miles. I don’t know if it was coincidence but 4 of the five riders in our group were on road tires.
Murphy Mack’s event was truly epic and I enjoyed the company of some really hard core riders today. The support was excellent with two vehicles just ahead of us for most of the day and the refreshments were spot on.
Strava Data:
http://app.strava.com/activities/38903344#
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Posted by britcpower on December 31, 2012
Total miles : 8688.94
Total climbing : 351596ft
Racing results:
February:
March:
April:
May:
June:
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
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Posted by britcpower on December 29, 2012
A long time ago in the late 80′s or perhaps early 90′s I rode for a Hull based team called “Team Mirage”. Our team was fortunate to pick up a sponsor who arranged for us to have actual Pro Team quality team kit by a Belgian company called “Decca“. I still have two short sleeve jerseys that went through a few seasons of road racing in British Weather and many mountain bike events and they are still in incredible condition. I also got a nylon fronted, quilted inside, winter training jacket that I still wear to this day.
I get some stick from team mates for wearing this old relic but for winter rides I haven’t yet found a jacket that matches it’s warmth and breath-ability. For a jacket that has seen 20 winters it is still my favorite item of cycling clothing and I really do not know what I will do when it eventually falls apart.
Morgan Territories on a cold winters day with my favorite “Team Mirage” jacket.
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Posted by britcpower on December 27, 2012
We had a nice ride out to the county line on Mines Road today. It was pretty cold above 2000ft and we had the dubious pleasure of a cold headwind all the way home.
Sandra Climbing Mines Road
There was a lot of evidence of flooding and landslides on the road after the heavy rains over Christmas. The little bridge by the county line was obviously under water a few days ago judging by the huge driftwood (bike stand). The water level must have been at least 8 foot higher than today !
Bike using river debris as a stand
It was surprising just how cold it was at the county line (approx 2500 feet) so that is why we are both dressed up like it was Siberia.
Me and Sandra
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