What a season (and it's still not over)

This past weekend I competed in my last criteriums for the year, The (CBR) Razor's Edge State Criterium Championships. Almost needless to say, I didn't win either race that I entered, but at the same time I didn't ride as complete pack fodder.

So far I've paid an entry fee and had a number pinned on my back 67 times (road races, criteriums, and road and track time trials). I will be racing in a few more road time trials before the year is over.

I had two (2) goals at the start of the season: (1) ride a 40 Km time trial in under an hour and (2) finish a weekend race in a winning breakaway (though not necessarily being first overall in the race). I accomplished goal number 1 pretty readily by finishing with an official time of 58 minutes and 30 seconds at the CBR (California Bicycle Racing) Individual Time Trial State Championships. The course for this race is the classic, Southern California, Avenue E route in Lancaster. It's a flat 20 Km out and 20 Km back. I would have been happy with 59 minutes and 59 seconds so my official time made me feel really good. However, just to keep me humble, my personal record was only good for 7th out of 12 competitors in the Masters Men 50-54 age group.

I did not accomplish goal number 2, though with the number of weekend races that I did, I had plenty of opportunity to make it happen. When I set this goal I didn't realize how much the complexion of Masters 50+ races would change because certain, nationally renowned riders would cross the 50 year-old age threshold. The end result was I tried, but I couldn't do it. My only saving grace was finishing in the points in a weekday race field sprint and field sprinting to a bronze one of the California Senior Games road races.

It's been a good year for bicycle racing and cycling, in general, for me.

SoCal Sharrows

About a year ago, Long Beach christened their first sharrows in Belmont Shore on 2nd Street. Now there are sharrows popping up throughout the LA Basin. Dan Gutierrez has photographed many of these installations and shows why all sharrows are not created equal.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56977&id=1574017310

The Promise of a Cycling Lifestyle

(For various reasons I have had several unfinished posts sitting in my queue on Blogger. This is the third of three old posts that I am finally finishing.)

I have been trying to get more involved with bicycle advocacy to promote cycling as a lifestyle; as a way to reduce our use of automobiles as primary transportation. To that end I have been supporting events related to the Long Beach Bicycle Master Plan. I also read the book, Pedaling Revolution, by Jeff Mapes.

Jeff presents a pragmatic view of how we can convert our American car culture into a more bicycle-centric culture that promotes better health, reduces dependence on foreign oil, and improves many aspects of our social structure.

Read the book (please).

Will cycling be safer?

About 1-1/2 years after Dr. Christopher T. Thompson caused two cyclist to smash into the rear of his luxury sedan by slamming on his brakes after passing them on a residential road, Superior Court Judge Scott T. Millington sentenced Thompson to 5 years in prison. There have been a lot of discussions on the internet about the incident, Thompson's trial, his conviction, and his sentencing during this time.

Bob Mionske, an attorney and former pro cyclist, has written the best piece that I have seen to date on the topic. Bob closes his blog entry by writing:

"Clearly, it’s time for some real leadership on making our commons safer for all who use them. Although Judge Millington was speaking directly to Los Angeles when he called for improved protection for cyclists, this isn’t just a Los Angeles issue—it’s an issue everywhere. Is Los Angeles ready to provide that leadership? Is your community ready?"

To me, it's clear that as cyclists, we must work with local and state governments to improve the ability of automobile drivers and cyclists to co-exist on our streets. The city government of my current hometown of Long Beach is very actively trying to improve the city's infrastructure to make this co-existence happen.

I will be doing as much as I can to help.

Sharrows in Long Beach

(For various reasons I have had several unfinished posts sitting in my queue on Blogger. This is the second of three old posts that I am finally finishing.)

Saturday was the official opening of the "sharrows" in Long Beach. Sharrows are green-painted lanes in the right-hand lane of traffic. These lanes denote where cyclists are legally allowed to ride (whether painted or not) per the California vehicle code.

Of course, since most motorists don't know (or maybe even care) about California vehicle code as it applies to cyclists, the sharrows are a great way of showing people where cyclists can legally ride. My main hope is that automobile drivers start to understand cyclists rights and that cyclists using the sharrows obey all traffic laws.

A Crazy Team Time Trial

After failing once again to break the 25 MPH barrier in the Southern California/Nevada District Individual Time Trial Championships, I found myself on the starting line a week later with three teammates (Todd Barker, Greg Page, and Jeff Scanlon) for the Team Time Trial Championships -- 4-men 180+ (cumulative age of riders at least 180 years). It was a very strange race.

The team that started 1 minute ahead of us was led by one of my oldest racing buddies, Craig Jones. (There was a small amount of trash talking right before the start.) The team that was 1 minute behind us was one of the mighty Amgen Masters Team.

We got a nice clean start and we went a couple of hundred yards down the road where we see Craig's team pulled over on the side of the road. It turns out that one of his teammates on a bike with horizontal, track-style dropouts, had his wheel pull to the side -- more on this later. We didn't want to start too hot so we settled into a comfortable pace (for me) and wouldn't you know it, Craig's team comes barreling past us.

A little bit about the course. It is a rectangle with two 6 mile straights and two 2-1/2 mile straights. You start just out of turn 4, do a lap and then finish just before turn 1. You end up with about 23.1 miles.

Before we got to turn 1 (6 miles into the race) a couple more things occur: Jeff, who is usually pretty strong, is already missing turns and having trouble getting back in line and the Amgen team comes flying past us. For the less initiated, flying is faster than barreling.

We get around turn 1 and Jeff, who had ended up on my wheel at that point, completely fell off the back. I called out to the other two to wait and we kind of slowed down but it became obvious within a minute that he was not going to get back on so away we went.

So now we're in 3-man mode and wouldn't you know it, we're catching Craig's team. We get on to the long back straight and we pass them just before a small hill. We get over the hill and they pass us. I think we passed them again but they passed us back pretty quickly. The problem is while we were going at a pretty steady pace, one of their guys is hurting and another is also not so good so they kept going fast then slow. We decided to stay behind them until after turn 3.

The 2-1/2 miles between turns 3 and 4 was pretty eventful. Craig's team seems to recover a bit and they are staying comfortably ahead of us but a team that started 4 minutes behind us passes us and then another Amgen team (with Thurlows Rogers) comes by us in a blur. We get to turn 4 and come out of it pretty well and for some reason, Craig's team is really slow and we almost ride into them.

After that small bit of confusion we all get going with them still in front of us. Something happens to them again, they slow, and my teammate, Todd, swerves to avoid them. I'm second wheel and I just miss Todd. For some reason they pass us again and now I'm getting a little frustrated. It gets to my pull and I take a long and faster pull to get around them. Finally we've passed them for good.

Unfortunately, I'm medium rare at that point and I end up sitting out a pull so I don't blow completely. I take a pull and then sit out another. Fortunately, Greg and Todd take up my slack without too much trouble. From there we're good to go and ride pretty smoothly to the finish.

Oh, and that wheel pulling issue on Craig's team ended up not being completely resolved. They finished just a bit behind us and as we were jawing, we saw that the guy's rear wheel was slightly rubbing the frame again. The adjuster screw had pushed out of his generic, carbon frame.

I was hoping that we could go under 51 minutes since we had done a 51:13 for a 27.0 MPH average last year. Unfortunately we ended up with a 51:46 for 26.7 MPH. Last year we were 3rd out of 11 teams. This year we were 5th out of 7 and we were over 1-1/2 minutes behind 4th.

At least we had fun.

Extreme Riding on Mt. Lemmon

(For various reasons I have had several unfinished posts sitting in my queue on Blogger. This is the first of three old posts that I am finally finishing.)

Epic is becoming one of the great overused words of our time. With so many extreme approaches to sports, people frequently talk or write about their 'epic' adventures. While I am not impervious to hyperbole, I feel that I had a truly epic cycling adventure while we were on vacation in Tucson, AZ. This ride is one that will remained etched in my memory for the rest of my life and it will be difficult for the tale to become embellished because the truth is pretty extreme.

We went to Tucson during Spring Break in mid-April to celebrate my Mother-in-Law's birthday. Since we drove there I was able to bring my bike and I managed to ride every day that we were there.

While looking on the web and inquiring on cycling web forums, I discovered that THE ride in the area is Mt. Lemmon. After balancing family activities against riding time, I reserved Wednesday for my ride up the mountain. However, I was not going to attempt this roughly 60 mile ride with about 6,000 feet of climbing without at least previewing part of the climb.

On Sunday, our first full day in Tucson, I met up with a club and rode the first 12 miles of the climb which got me to an altitude of 4,800 feet and about 2,300 feet of climbing. As an aside, the members of this club were friendly, generally my age, and some were very fast (faster than me at least). What I learned was the climb was pretty comparable to what I've ridden in Southern California. So far, so good.

Monday and Tuesday I got in some good rides in beautiful weather. Little did I know that my luck was not going to last. A weather front was literally blowing through Tucson on Wednesday. The forecast was not promising with high gusty winds. I thought that perhaps I could get up the mountain before the weather got too bad.

As usual (unfortunately), I got a slightly late start. I started rolling about a half hour after I had originally planned. I was glad to have some familiarity with the road from my Sunday ride but as I climbed up past my Sunday turnaround the wind started picking up.

When I left the parking lot at the start the weather was pretty pleasant and I was wearing a short sleeve jersey. As the wind got stronger and the altitude increased, the temperature got colder. Somewhere above 5,000 ft, there was a vista turnout and I took the opportunity to put on arm warmers and take a couple of photos.


As I continued up the wind got worse. The road was twisting around the mountain so that I had the full variety of headwind, tailwind, and cross-wind.

As I climbed I thought that maybe the prudent thing to do would be to turn around. Of course, when it comes to cycling, I'm not good at being prudent. Somewhere around 7,000 ft of altitude I was rounding a sharp corner on a fairly steep grade when the mother of all headwind gusts hit me. It was all I could do to unclip, get my foot down, and brace myself against the wind without falling over. I stood there for what felt like several minutes trying to figure out if I could go forward or if I should just turn around.

Of course, I decided to move forward. The weather really didn't get any better but it wasn't getting worse either. I got to a point where the road started to go downhill and in this case it unfortunately had a strong tailwind. I was desperately trying to control my speed going downhill when I saw this sign and stopped for another photo.

I figured that if I died on the mountain someone would find the camera and see that I'd made it that far.

It turned out to be several more miles of uphill, downhill, and high winds to reach the small town of Summerhaven. The main street through town was like a wind tunnel as I rode past several closed stores and restaurants. I found a general store that was open and I went in for a bit of respite from the wind and to get some hot tea or cocoa.

The woman behind the counter didn't even flinch when I entered. I looked around a bit and got some tea. She asked me where I had started and I told her where while expecting some kind of remark like, "You've got to be kidding." Instead she said something like, "Well, it sure is windy," and went back about her business of re-stocking some shelves.

I also tried calling my wife who was out sightseeing and shopping with my kids and her parents. I got her voice-mail and I made the mistake of leaving a somewhat incoherent message to the effect that the weather was really bad and that I hoped to make back down the mountain safely. Of course riding back down safely was the primary objective, but that wasn't a good thing to say on the phone.

The ride back was slow but not as excruciating as the ride up. I encountered the situation hated by many cyclists where the wind is strong enough that you have to pedal downhill, but that was far better than the couple of downhill sections where the wind was at my back. Fortunately, my brakes were up to the task. What surprised me most was seeing a couple of other riders heading up the mountain as I was going down. I don't think that the wind was dying down.

The last couple of miles down to the shopping center where I parked were fine. The sun was out and the wind at the base of the mountain was tolerable. I went to a coffee place in the shopping center and got a fruit smoothie and a pastry. Spent a few minutes refreshing myself, posing, and contemplating why I do things like this.

My Road Bicycle History

I frequent the web site bikeforums.net. Yesterday, one of the denizens of the forum asked people to post their history of road bike ownership. After spending a fair amount of time remembering and looking at some old bicycle brochures, here's my list beginning at the start of my racing "career." (Note that I bought the bike during the model year listed unless otherwise noted.)

• 1974 Lambert Pro: One of the finest British racing bikes ever built (not). Started out with plastic Simplex rear derailleur, ended up with a Shimano Crane. Eventually put it out of my misery by cracking the head tube. I weighed about 120 lbs soaking wet at the time.

• 1975 Bianchi Specialissima: Purchased in June 1976 and I still have the frame and a couple of original parts on it. It was originally all Campy Nuovo Record. This is probably the bike that I rode the most -- more than 40K miles.

• 1980 Medici Pro Strada: Truly the one bike that I wish I never sold. It was essentially a Masi Gran Criterium as it was built by former Masi builder Gian Simonetti. I put a mix of Shimano and Sun Tour parts on it. It did have a Campy seat clamp bolt on it. This was my first racing-only bike.

• 1984(?) Basso (something-or-other): This was a straight gauge Columbus frame that I built using most of the parts off of the 1975 Bianchi. I built it as a training bike as the Bianchi had seen better days by then.

• 1985 Vitus 979: Built it with a combination of Sun Tour and Galli parts as a race rig. I got it pretty cheap as I was a bike shop employee at the time (don't ask). It was a noodle but I weighed less than 130 lbs. back then so it was bearable for racing.
  

• 1985 Olmo (I-can't-remember): Built it with the same combination of parts as the Vitus used it as a training bike. It was a Columbus SL frame and many will argue that it was a better bike than the Vitus. I won't argue that point. I also got this with a bike shop employee discount. It replaced the Basso.

• 1986 Shogun Kazé: TT funny bike that I eventually rebuilt using most of the parts off of the Vitus. It was my first TT-specific bike. It's still sitting in my garage. Did a few sub 1hr 1 min TTs on it but I could never quite get under 1 hr.
  

• 1988 Serotta Colorado: This was the best steel frame that I have ever owned. =D> Built it with a combination of Shimano Dura Ace and Santé components. It was my first bike with index shifting and I used the Santé derailleurs because my local wrench said that they would work well with the plethora of Sun Tour freewheels that I had (and still have) at the time. He was right. I eventually rebuilt the bike with 2005 Campy Record-8 components -- my first bike with ergo shifting. This replaced the Vitus.

• 1990 Stowe Triad: This bike is still sitting in my garage and I haven't ridden it for ages. For some reason I haven't had any luck selling it and I tried almost everything except ebay. I built the bike with mostly the same parts that I originally had on the Serotta. It still has most of those parts. I have a funny story about Robert Stowe but I'll save it for another time. This bike replaced the Olmo as my training bike.

• 1997 Bianchi Megatube Ti: This was the original Megatube Ti with the large "aero" fabricated and welded downtube. It was my 40th birthday present from my wife. I built it with 1996 Campy Record-8 components. This bike became my "race" bike (I wasn't racing much at the time) and my Serotta moved to the training bike role. More to follow on this frame.

• 2000 Bianchi XL EV2 Al: I bought this frame when I cracked the down tube on the Serotta. I put most of the components from the Serotta on this frame and it became my race bike while the 1997 Bianchi migrated to training bike status. This was when I started racing more seriously again as my kids were starting to get older.

• 2001 Bianchi XL Ti: I got this frame in 2002 as a warranty replacement for the 1997 Bianchi (which developed crack on the seat tube right at the weld for the front derailleur hanger). Put the parts on it from that bike and it was my training bike for a few years. I put Record-10 on it in 2003.

• 2002 Look KG381i: I got this on clearance in 2003 and built it with 2003 Record-10 (skipped 9-speed). This and the subsequent Look KG481SL had the best stock geometry fit of any bike I've owned. It replaced the 2000 Bianchi as my race bike.

• 2000 Quattro Assi Team 2000: I bought this in 2002 as a cheap TT frame (< $500) to replace the Shogun. Built it piece by piece by looking for sales and on ebay for Chorus parts. This is the worst riding bike that I've ever owned, hands down.

• 2005 Look KG481SL: I did a double swap on components when I built this bike. The low mileage parts on the Look KG381i went on this bike and the higher mileage parts from the Bianchi XL Ti went on the other Look. I really liked this bike.

• 2006 Look 565: I got this frame in 2007 as a warranty replacement for the KG381i (which developed corrosion issues at the tube to lug interface). I ended up with the wrong size but rode it about 2,500 miles in about six months as my training bike before I sold it. It rode pretty well but it really shined on descents.

• 2007 Bianchi D2 Crono Carbon: I got a deal on this frame from my LBS that I couldn't refuse. OK, I could have refused it but I was lusting after this frame from the first time that I saw it and I hated the Quattro Assi. I built it with almost all of the parts from the Quattro Assi. I just put new bars and wheels on it. Who said you can't buy a sub 1 hr, 40K TT?
  

• 2007 Serotta Attack: I got this as my 50th birthday present to myself. Built it with 2006 Record-10. I raced on it at the end of 2007 and for all of 2008. I love how this bike rides. It's the best bike I've ever owned and my first custom geometry frame. Towards the end of 2008 I started getting paranoid about racing on this bike. I have never worried about crashing a bike before and I didn't like racing with that thought in the back of my head so I sold the KG481SL (which had rotated to training bike status) and...

• 2009 Cervélo R3: At the end of 2008, I bought my current race rig with 2008 Record-10. I like this thing well enough but the handling doesn't inspire me (yet) -- probably because the Serotta rides so well. Really didn't do the weight weenie thing when I built it but it comes in at 14.6 lbs with heavy Look delta pedals.

That's my road bike history. There are a couple of mountain bikes, track bikes, and other miscellaneous bikes mixed in there but I'll stop here. ;)

My Season To-Date

I guess I don't have to knock on wood any longer. For the past two winters, I've been able to train pretty effectively because I've been able to avoid the dreaded influenza virus. (Note that I get a free flu shot at work every year.) My "lucky" streak finally ended (even though I had flu-like symptoms last summer), when I came down with a strain of the flu while on a business trip in St. Louis in mid-February. At the time I felt fortunate that the symptoms did not involve any significant respiratory distress -- the thing that usually inhibits my riding long after I'm done with the flu.

Unfortunately, this variant of the flu really seemed to sap me all of the early season race fitness that I had built. Of the 14 mass start races that I've entered so far this year, I've failed to finish (DNF) in 5 of them. By comparison I finished 40 out of 45 races last year.

I was encouraged a bit last Tuesday when I was able to throw in a couple of attacks and still stay with the field (after I was caught). I thought that I might have reached a turning point. That optimism was short-lived as I DNF'ed 2 out of 3 races this past weekend.

So have there been any high points?

Well, despite the pretty mediocre results of this past weekend, I did participate in the first Long Beach Bicycle Grand Prix held in the heart of the city. It was a very cool race and I was able to stay and watch the pros in the last race of the day. Also, I ended up competing in 3 races all within a 24 hour period.

I take my small "victories" where I can.

Good Start to the 2009 Cycling Season

It didn't look like I was going to get in a good ride today as I woke up on New Year's Day to a very foggy morning. I don't like to ride in the fog because:

• It's more dangerous with people driving not being able to see you
• I can't see because the fog collects on my prescription glasses
• My bike gets dirty

However, it was New Year's Day and I didn't want to start the year sitting on my butt. So in my best attempt to HTFU, I headed out to meet my club. My intent was to ride 100 Km (62 miles) with a bit of climbing. I stayed with my club as we headed south for about 25 miles and then I continued further south to Laguna Beach. It was still cold (to me) and foggy.

I turned back north and headed up Newport Coast Drive to begin the real climbing for the day. About 1/3 of the way up Newport Coast the sun came out and I completed my climbs up Ridge Park Road (10% grade for a mile) and Spyglass Hill.

After getting back on to PCH and getting into Newport Beach, the fast guys from the annual New Year's Day "melee" ride caught me. I got on to the back of the ride and spent the next 10 miles going 25-30 MPH. I came off the back and rode the final 7 miles home at a saner pace. Regardless, I was happy that I was able to get through those 10 miles with a draft rather than battling the wind alone.

I ended up with 63.9 miles in 3 hours and 41 minutes (riding time) for an average speed of 17.3 MPH. I also managed to eek out 2,270 feet of climbing. All-in-all, a good way to start the year.

I Don't Think This Will Help Lance's Hill Climbing Ability

Through my favorite cycling internet forum, I found a link to a very good sports photographer, Elizabeth Kreutz. Apparently, Ms. Kreutz has access to Lance Armstrong and she has chronicled his return to professional cycling with a series of photographs. Go to her web site and check out photos 21 to 25 under Index => Lance's Comeback.

I don't think that all of that upper body strength is going to help get him up the Alps or Pyrenees.

Why Commute by Bike?

There are a lot of ways that all of us can help save the planet. Here is one.

They're Fixin' the Road

A couple of days ago I was driving to work (late -- long story) and I got stuck in traffic on PCH because of some road work. It looked like they were re-striping the road so the only thing that I really thought about was that it took me 30 minutes to drive 1 mile.

A day later I was riding on the same stretch of road when I noticed that part of the shoulder on the northbound lane was "chewed up" in the way that they normally do when they are going to repave the road. For those of you familiar with the area, this is the stretch of PCH north of 2nd Street / Westminster Blvd up past Loynes Drive.

By coincidence, I found out at a (Long Beach) city forum that CALTRANS decided to repave that section of PCH. My question is, "Why!!!???"

I can think of a lot of other roads of sections of PCH over which CALTRANS has jurisdiction that need repair much more than that section of road. Is this really the best use of our tax dollars? Doesn't California have a significant budget problem?

Of course, this is all water under the proverbial bridge since they already started chewing up the road. I just wish that somehow the would do a better assessment of the roads so that they can set better priorities.

Racing in 2008

So as of the next to last weekend in August I'm pretty much done with mass start races for the year. Not much left on the calendar for me except for some time trials. Here are some of the pertinent stats for the year-to-date:

45 road races / criteriums / circuit races
2 of 45 were road races
20 of 45 were Tuesday evening series races (circuit)
Total of 952 miles
4 DNFs (3 too slow, 1 mechanical)
0 DFL
1-2nd place
1-3rd place
0 primes

7 time trials
Total of 99 miles
0 DNF
0 DFL
3-3rd place (including SoCal District Championship 180+ Team Time Trial)

The year could have gone better but it could also have been worse.

Stats courtesy of my Garmin 305 and SportTracks.

Heavy Medal

So this bicycle racing season has been one of ups and downs. Right now I'm on a big up. This past Saturday was the Southern California / Nevada Cycling Association (SCNCA) Team Time Trial District Championships in Palmdale (Lake Los Angeles). I rode it with three other Lightning Velo members, all of whom were over 40 years old. We were in the 180+ (total age) category and I was the oldest rider on our team. The punch line is, despite some problems on my part, we averaged 27 MPH for roughly 23 miles -- good enough for a bronze medal!

The most satisfying part of the race was that despite not training together as a team beforehand, we rode very smoothly as a team -- no close calls with respect to running into each other. Next on the satisfaction list was beating the 4th place team by 11 seconds. Their team leader is someone who I've known for a long time and we have a "friendly" rivalry that usually includes some smack talk (on his part).

A few days later, on Tuesday, I was at El Dorado Park in Long Beach for the California State Senior Olympics. First and second place in these events qualified you for the 2009 National Senior Games in Palo Alto.

First up was the 5K Individual Time Trial (ITT). I had never raced anything that short and I didn't have a good feel on how to meter my effort. In the end I went out too fast but I still ended up 3rd for my first medal of the games.

Later that day, I did the 40K road race on the standard "Eldo" course. There were 10 of us in the race, eight in the 50-54 age group and two in the 55-59 age group (which included my friend Craig). In my age group there were three members of La Grange, a Los Angeles team, and three members from Peninsula Velo, an northern California team. Things were not looking good.

The race pace at the start was tepid at best. I tried once to speed things up with no luck. My next attempt to get some response from the pack was met with an inadvertently large gap. As I sat up waiting for them to reel me in, my friend Craig and a Peninsula Velo guy came up to me and when they caught me we still had a reasonable gap. So with about 17 miles to go in the race, we put our heads down and stayed away for the rest of the race. We almost lapped the field.

Bell lap and I had second wheel coming out of the last corner which was still about 500 meters from the finish. I decided to try to open a gap on the slight uphill and try to hold it to the finish. Unfortunately, that didn't work and I ended up with 2nd.

So today, Wednesday, started with a 10K ITT. I had high hopes but my legs were too tired from the previous day so I couldn't quite hold a 25 MPH average. I don't know my exact placing but I suspect that it was another bronze. Note that per my computer, the course was short by about 0.3 miles.

The road race was supposed to be 20K but it was also shortened by about 2 miles. We were the last race of the day and the wind had come up (more on the wind later). I had decided to stay with the pack which consisted of 11 50-54 year old racers and 3 55-59 year olds. A half lap into the race a La Grange and a Peninsula Velo racer moved off the front never to be seen again. I know that I could have hooked up with them but I thought that I shouldn't be too greedy with the qualifying spots. The race was the slowest that I've ridden in years. I pulled a whole lap a 22-23 MPH just to get a bit of a workout.

Coming out of the last corner I was last, but I noticed that the guy who had won the previous day was now sprinting off the front of the group going after the bronze. I thought, "hey that's being kind of greedy," so I took off on the left side and fortunately everyone else was single file on the right blocking the wind. I went flying off the front of the group, worked it a bit to catch the guy, sat on his wheel for 20 meters, and then sprinted around him for the bronze.

All in all a pretty good couple of days of racing -- a silver and two bronzes (and maybe another silver or bronze).

[Update: I ended up with a silver in the 50-54 40K road race and bronzes in the 50-54 20K road race, the 5K time trial, and the 10K time trial. Next stop is Palo Alto in 2009.)

From the Back of the Pack: 2008 Mark Reynolds San Luis Rey Road Classic

The short story is I finished for the first time in my last several attempts at this race and I stayed in the peloton longer than I have over the same period of time. Though this doesn't sound like much progress, at my age you have to savor any progress that you make.

I really didn't start the race in a good frame of mind. I've been worrying about getting dropped quickly -- especially after last week's debacle race at Devils Punchbowl. My teammate and I stayed at my parents' house in Murrieta on Saturday night and we got to the start not-so-bright but early at about 6:15 AM. Got ready, warmed up a little, and waited with 65 other riders for the start.

I felt OK on the initial climb up to Old Highway 395. Going over the top I faded to the back but I didn't have a problems on the descent or being right in the peloton after the hard right-hand turn at the bottom of the hill. I was conserving energy on the back side of the course and the we made the very hard right on to climbing section back to the start / finish. I felt pretty good until we got to the 1 Km to the finish sign. I started coming off the back but I was hoping that the pack would slow a bit approaching the steeper climb. I was maybe 50 meters off the back when we crossed start / finish but once we got to the steeper climb I was history.

I stayed within myself back up to Old Highway 395 and just as I got to the top another racer caught me. Cutting to the chase, we ended up working together for the duration of the race. I dropped him (not intentionally as we were finishing the race -- 4 laps) but as we were approaching the finish I realized that he was charging up next to me. We sprinted to the line for next-to-last (56th) and last place. I beat him by inches.

So two weeks in a row with next-to-last finishes (of those who finished). However, after comparing my Garmin data to last year this year is a marked improvements. I take my small victories where I can.

From the Back of the Pack: Some Mediocre Racing

My bicycle racing season started off pretty well and I felt that my training was going reasonably well. However, after a month of vacation and business travel, my most recent races have not gone well. Most recently I competed in the Devil's Punchbowl Road Race (Masters Men 50+) on Saturday, April 26th, and the El Dorado Tuesday Twilight Training Series last night.

Now I'll preface my lack of results at Devils Punchbowl by saying that after competing in two races at the Torrance Criterium on Sunday, April 20th, I did not ride at all until I got on my bike to warm up for the race. This was because of my Boston business trip. After my warm up I felt like I could have a good race. Unfortunately this was not the case. I got dropped on the first climb on the first lap! I was with a couple of other guys over the top of the climb and I worked with them on the big descent. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay with them on the false flat. I ended up finishing alone and was classified 31st out of 32 finishers. I am guessing that about 50 guys started the race.

I had a good (not great) training ride on Sunday and I was hoping for better things at Eldo on Tuesday. Well things didn't go as hoped. I attacked once on the lap leading up to the second prime and for the first time in ages I couldn't get back into the peloton when I got caught. I ended up sitting out a lap and then finished the race sitting at the back. Definitely not satisfying.

I'll see how things go on Sunday at the Mark Reynolds Memorial San Luis Rey Road Race. I'll then decide on whether or not to race the district road championships in Bakersfield. I hate to think this, but I'm not optimistic.

Glass on the Road

I know that this sounds like a trivial subject but I believe that it is a symptom of something more insidious. Of course, I may just be paranoid.

Regardless, the has been an inordinate amount of glass on the roads in SoCal as of late. A couple of weeks ago, my club members had numerous flats on our Saturday Social Ride. Personally, I have been having to swerve around too many patches of freshly broken glass over the past month.

Why do people need to throw bottles out of their cars?

Back in the 1980s, California did not collect deposits on bottles and cans. My cycling friends and I supported the adoption of a state law to start collecting deposits and to establish recycling centers. Of course we supported the proposed law to help the environment, but we also supported it to try to decrease the amount of broken glass on the road.

The first proposition failed to pass in the land of propositions, but the second time it passed. When the law went into effect it really did seem to help. However, over time, the positive effects of the law seemed to diminish. Over the past 10 years or so, there seems to be a cycle of increasing and decreasing amounts of glass on the road. Unfortunately, this latest spate of broken glass seems worse than ever.

What does this mean? I'm not sure. It might be the economy. It might be a declining social consciousness. It might be that people are out to get cyclists. Who knows?

I'm not happy and I'm concerned about the core reason for all of the glass.

Racing with the Old Guys

So here's my race report. This was my first massed start race since last August's Manhattan Beach GP. It was also my first 50+ crit. Anyway I was more nervous than usual and when the race started I realized the I was in the small ring and had a bit of trouble clipping in and shifting to the big ring (nerves?). So I ended up at the back of the pack and fortunately the first lap wasn't too fast. Got settled in and started to try to move up and realized that the back half of the pack was pretty squirrelly. I guess there were a lot of Cat. 5 guys out there. Watched several near crashes. So I was trying to stay on good wheels just to stay safe when we got to 3 to go. Saw someone starting to move up on the left and I jumped on his wheel just as he decided to jump back into the pack. Since I had some momentum I kept going and fortunately, there was someone going on the right. I jumped on his wheel and we caught the 4 guys who were already up the road. Unfortunately, the pack was right on us when we hit the front straight. I got back into the pack and watched the finish since I don't do criterium field sprints.

Managed to stay warm between races and lined up on for the 40+ 1/2/3 race. This race was much faster and I was content to hang at the back and get a workout. Was feeling good for the first 30 minutes but when 5 to go came up I was just hanging on. After getting 4 to go, I was behind this guy who opened a gap and by the time I got around him I was off on the back straight. Saw 3 to go and decided to drop out. Maybe that was a good thing.

Regarding the motorcycle incident, this is what I heard. The was a crash near the exit of turn 2 with 2 to go. A motorcycle cop stopped at the accident and had his bike sticking out in the lane -- apparently to protect the fallen rider. Well with one to go, here comes the pack and a couple of riders ended up creaming the motorcycle. I ended up riding by becuase I didn't see my buddy ride by after the finish and I thought he might have been involved. One guy, who apparently hit the motorcycle was face down on the grass and pretty beat up. He was conscious and talking.

So that was my day. 40 miles total at 26 MPH.

Sub-Freezing Time Trial

The unusually cold temperatures that have caused severe crop damage in California also greeted me and two of my Lightning Velo teammates at the Tom's Farm Time Trial in Corona, CA, on January 14th. Jim Brashear, Pat Baker, and I arrived at the parking lot for registration to find that any moisture on the ground was ice. Jim's vehicle showed a balmy 29 degrees F on its thermometer.

After registering, setting up the bikes, and warming up (to a degree) we made our way to the start line only to find that a water main had broken on an adjacent hillside flooding the road just past the planned start. Officials moved the start down the road but we still had to cross the muddy stream on the road.

I'll just report on my personal result. I wasn't last. :) I was at the end of a string of riders who were within a minute of each other and I was 2 minutes slower than the second place rider. I won't talk about first place.

I wasn't totally disappointed since I was still not 100% health-wise and I hadn't done any time trial training since the summer. Now I have less than 9 months to achieve my goal of a sub 1-hour, 40 Km time trial before I turn 50.

BTW, this was my first race as a 50+ Master.