Singlespeed A Palooza 2012

I almost skipped SSAP this year.  I was registered and all but I did a cost analyst of buying gas to drive to NY, vs. registering for Massasoit, and begging Fearless Leader for a ride and splitting travel expenses with him.  Plus with most of the Northeast's singlespeed heavy hitters in NY...

Then I remembered Fabian races singlespeed.  I bet he's going to SSAP!  In fact he was and would be delighted to drive my cheap ass to the race.

After I randomly changed our meeting spot 3 times we were on our way.

We line up, Mike blows an air horn and we're off on a 4 mile gravel road prologue.

There's some jockeying for position, and the real contenders take to the front.

I am not one of them.  I'm sort of in the front of "the rest".
At one point on the first lap there was a guy on my tail in the singletrack asking to pass.  I'm not feeling super, so I get over to the right as far as I can trying to be a nice guy...and put myself into a bush.  My tailgater and another guy pass as I pull myself out of the rough.

Now I'm settling into a group of 4 with the two guys who passed, and a guy on a Green Custom rigid.

Lurking close by is Thierry Blanchet.

I'm not having fun.  I want to quit.

There are two sharp, brutes of climbs and I get rid of all but Green Custom (or so I thought).

Then we get to the fireroads.

Green Custom, Terry, and a guy from Bicycle Tech pass.

I want to quit.

I'm going to quit.

We go through the start finish and I forget to quit.

In the singletrack I get on Thierry's wheel, and I think I must be annoying him, because he gives me the line.

I get up to Green Custom's wheel.  I'm starting to have fun.

That's what this is all about, right?

I pass him, and as the trail points down he asks to go to the front.  After my foray into the foliage, I tell him I'll get over as far as I can, but you've got to make it happen.  Before he can do anything we are at brute #1.

I grind up it and get a little gap.

After brute #2 I'm alone.

Trying to stay on it, and enjoy the singletrack.

Then comes the fireroads...

I enter the fireroads alone.  There is a long, gradual climb.  Climb is good, right?

Wrong!

It's not steep enough for any power / weight advantage I have to be effective but I'm not strong enough to stay seated.

Thierry is.  He passes me, and with all the love in my heart, I tell him he sucks.

I throw everything I have at getting to his wheel and getting to the singletrack ahead of him.

Success!  I turn in before him.

I'm totally gassed and he passes me back; failure.

Then two guys I haven't seen all day catch and pass me (Chris Michaloski and Jeff O'Hara).  There are a couple of more climbs before the finish, but I got nothing left, and just hope no one else can get by.

No one does and I finish 19th.

My goal was to be in the top 20%.  This puts me at the top 27%.

Oh well.

I'm glad I didn't DNF, because the singletrack was really fun.

I just really suck at all the fireroad stuff.

Some one who doesn't suck at all is The Harmonizer who gets the big W.

must be due to his coach

Now go read about Doug's adventures.

I went for a road ride today.

I averaged just over 18 mph.

"Big deal" you say "my grandmother can average 18 mph".
Very true.  I've heard your grandma was, ah, "fast".

But James was on the ride too...on his singlespeed...with the same gear he ran at Winding Trails.


The idea was to do some motor-pacing.
But my motorcycle is broken.
So I rode my road bike.
I was going to ride my fixed gear.  I'm glad I chose the regular road bike; I don't think I would have been able to stay in front of him on the fixed!


Does Unibet have a line on Singlespeed-a-palooza?

I ate the candy,

so I really didn't have any choice but to do the ride
 


I really wasn't in the mood, but as usual, I was glad I did.

The Price

Cleaned up the aftermath of Winding Trails last night.
I had to free up a chain put away wet, bleed my brakes front and rear, and replace all my brake pads.
About $40 in parts.  If I brought it to a bike shop, I could be looking at an additional $64 in labor (which seems fair as it took me about an hour to get Blü2 back up to shape).

Yeah, brake pads wear out, but because of the particulars of racing, a set of pads that might last most of the season, will be toast in 2 hours.  If you just go for a ride in the rain you can tailor your ride to trails that are best suited for the conditions like rocky ridges or areas that are firmly bedded in and drain well.  But in a race you are riding whatever trail is taped off, no matter the condition.

When you add those costs to the entry fee we're up to $124 to get to ride my bike in the rain for 2 hours.
(okay only $60 because of my mad skillz).

I could say the generous prize Berlin Bike provided offset the cost a bit, but that money must go to appease the powers that be.

There may be divine wisdom in pulling the plug and cutting your losses short.

What's the forecast for Sunday?

Winding Trails 2012, or be careful what you wish for

I wished for rain.
I knew the competition would be tough and I hoped foul weather might give me an edge.
When I left my house it was just starting to lightly rain.  It seemed so insignificant that I wore my nice shorts.
It was WT after all, which even in the wet isn't very bad, so what's the harm?

On my warm up the trails were awesome.   The moisture starved earth was really soaking it up giving the trails a fine tack.

The line up was one of the most efficient I've seen, without riders jockeying around to get into the right group or the need for the officials to ask everyone to move back.

Even so waiting 8 minutes after the Pros taking off was freezing.

The rain had picked up.
Not a down pour, but steady.

We have a good size group, 14 the official says.
Chris blows the whistle and we take off.   James, Josh Wilcox, and Todd Bowden quickly open a gap.
I'm leading the rest.
We are packed tight; there is no gap going back to like tenth place.
About 3/4 through the first lap we catch out first 40-49 rider.
I call out "on your left" and jokingly add "and block those guys"
Jake yells "I heard that"!
To emphasis his good hearing he blasts past me on the next fireroad like he has a motor hidden in his bottom bracket.  I think he's going to catch the leading 3.
I get that sense of doom and failure; oh well fifth isn't so bad.
Then Chris LaSalle passes me, but he's not opening up the gap that Jake did and we go through the start finish close.

As we get to the next singletrack section we begin to catch more 40-49s.  This brings Jake back to us a bit.
On one of the few climbs on course I do what little men do; I attack.
I pass Chris, and the guys we caught and now have Jake in my sights.
On the next fireroad section I'm able to pass him before the singletrack.

He, Chris, Kerry and Royce are right behind me.
I'm not opening anything up.

Near the end of the lap there is some singletrack that is progressively getting sketchier.  We catch another guy and I think he might have slowed the train down because as I get to the run up I realize I've got a little breathing room.
(Fabian was on top of it cheering and he would have cheered for Jake too if he was close).

The third lap things are getting soupy.  Usually WT is pretty fast even in the rain, but they cut some new singletrack to make the course more interesting which is turning into a fine loamy slurry.
I'm trying to stay seated and remind myself I've got the skills to handle this slop.
I catch more back markers, which is always fun, and think I'm in the clear.  But as the trail turns back on itself I see Kerry all too close behind.

Keep cool and keep the power on.
The conditions are really getting dreadful.
Going down a hill with an off camber turn at the bottom I pull my rear brake lever.
Nothing happens.
When it's sloppy I use the rear brake alot for control.  Guess I'll have to use something else...like my foot.  I remind myself conditions are just as shitty for everyone else and try and keep it upright.
I do and cross the finish line where James is waiting (covered head to toe in mud).

He won!  Josh got second.
I ask what about Todd?
"He hit a tree and messed up his knee".
Bummer.
Not the way I want to get on the podium, but as "they" say "that's racing".
(doesn't make it any better).

Kerry comes in less than 30 seconds behind me and Royce was less than a minute back.

If Todd had finished, I assume ahead of me since he was up with James and Josh, I would have tied my best result at WT.  Due to his misfortune, this was my best result here.

Good day for Createx / Benidorm with James and I on the SS podium, Josh E and Jay G on the 30-39 (2nd and 3rd) and solid results from Craig TJ and Miles E(7th, 10th and 4th respectively).
I don't know how our riders from the other CATs did, as this is all about ME.

 My choice to wear my race shorts, the shorts I'm not allowed to train in that I've only worn twice; they ripped when dismounting for the run-up on lap 2!  Just barely grazed the saddle and ripped!

Thanks to Berlin Bike for their generous support, Winding Trails, and Jim and Johnathan for all their hard work,


Sorry for the crappy camera phone pictures but here's the SS podium

and here is the artistically enhanced 30-39 podium (Due to Jay's absence)

Home Sweet Home

An easy spin was what was on the agenda for the day.  Just go out and spin for a couple of hours to keep the legs feeling fresh for the race tomorrow.

Eat my breakfast, drank my coffee and headed over to the Res.

As I'm riding on a trail, an interior ridge parallel to the Metacomet that I've only once seen anyone else on (if they were not with me), I looked around at the natural beauty of the oasis so close to home and actually said out loud "I love this place".

I've been riding here for 19 years, sometime 4 or 5 times a week and never get sick of it.

At work, I get excited about production efficiency; how can I best schedule production to meet demand with the minimal amount of redundancy?
Riding the Res has a similar vibe for me.  How can I connect and knit together the trails to get the ride I want out of it with a minimal of re-riding trails?

Shortly after my epiphany, I ran into Dave C who actually expressed a somewhat opposite and lackluster opinion to our common ground.  "You're in and out in an hour, hour fifteen"  he exclaimed "and it's just this" he motioned to the wide, over used trail we met on that used to be the main route, but now is simply a connector for me.

I guess it can be "just this", a safe easy navigable trail that you can buzz through quickly after work.  But the two decades exploring I've done here have netted me so much more.

If you're nice I'll share.

Bring it on!!!