Ieal Market WFM Primal Boulder Crit Series 4/25/12

  Every Wednesday night in Boulder during April and May the Ideal Market and Primal put on a crit in a business park across from the IBM building and now having a couple road races under my legs, I decided that it was time to see how I would hold up against these Colorado racers in a criterium.
  Ashton and I drove down to Boulder Tuesday after noon where we stayed up in the mountains with our friends Todd and Liz and I got to take the Madone out for a little climbing. We arrived at their house just as they were getting off work, so I put on a kit jumped on a bike and descended the mountain so I could ride back up with them on their climb back home. From the base of the climb it is a twenty minute ride up to their house including a couple of nasty switchbacks one of which pitches up to 23%. As we approached their street Todd and Liz peeled off and I continued up the mountain. I proceeded to climb for another 40 minutes or so past Bald Mountain scenic area, up to the top of Big Horn Mountain, I reached about 8,500ft and turned around just before the descent to the town of Gold Hill. The climb was breathe taking and the decent back to Todd and Liz's was wicked fast, only taking me about 18 minutes to make it back to the house.
http://connect.garmin.com/course/1091233
  Tuesday evening I changed my Corsa back from its roubaix set-up to my standard road gear with lighter wheels/tires and an 11-23t cassette, Liz cooked us some amazing green curry and we ended the evening with an herbal tea out on the patio. Wednesday afternoon Ashton and I drove down into town, picked up our friends after they got off work and headed out to the race.
  We parked and I went and got registered and started to warm up, which I would have ended up getting plenty of anyway, we all lined up at the start line and the organizer informed us that we were waiting on the medics and that we were to take a neutral lap and then we would start the race, one lap quickly turned into four and finally the ref lined us up for the start. During all of the neutral laps the starting order got shuffled and they decided to send the woman's cat4 race off in front of us, we caught them in the first lap and as we passed we picked up a good number of them into our field.
  This being a criterium I employed my standard crit plan; stay in the top ten riders in the beginning, move into a safe position during the middle and then try to get as close as possible to the front without taking a pull at the end...and that's basically how it went. At about five laps to go my friend Eric on UNC cycling team moved to the front, I tried to get to his wheel to assist him if he wanted to try and make a move,  but another rider came along side me on the outside of the peloton closing my door to get out and I found myself trapped in the group. By 'three to go' I had moved up to fifth wheel and was feeling good, we came around to the first turn again and I got pushed back into the group and that's where I stayed until the end. The sprint started coming out of the third turn in the final lap and I finished a good twenty-some odd places back.
  All in all, I had a lot of fun the course was fast and the pavement was good, everybody there was real friendly and I will definitely be going back to Boulder for more rides and fast crits. 


   

Mead Roubaix Sunday, April 22nd 2012

  After Boulder Roubaix I spent the next two weeks riding in preparation for Mead. Although the riding in Greeley offers very little elevation change, there are a plethora of dirt and sandy gravel roads, so I spent as much of my time on the bike grinding out as many gravel miles as I could and doing hill repeats on the ridge running along the western side of town. I also decided to change my bike up a little for the event, I replaced my race wheels with my heavier training training wheels(Mavic CXP32) with a set of Origin8 armored tires and a 12-26t cassette instead of my regular 11-23t.
  I decided to take Saturday as an additional rest day so instead of riding I cleaned my bike, packed my gear for Mead and actually got to bed a little early. Sunday morning Ashton and I got up early for breakfast and I loaded the car as she got Orson up and ready to go for the day. Around 9a.m. we made the short drive over to Mead and parked at the elementary school, Orson and went to the playground and I picked up my number and got on the trainer.
  I got to the start line a little early and made small talk with some of the other riders while waiting for our race to start, the official called it and we started rolling for our neutral start out of downtown Mead. We hit the open road and the pace picked up a bit but nothing too demanding. Going into the first gravel section I was sitting somewhere in the top ten riders in an attempt to avoid the chaos of being caught in the back on a dirt road. The first dirt section came at a T in the road, the the only course marker at this junction was a single orange parking cone kinda at the corner...I'm not sure about you, but to me a single parking cone sitting at a corner does not give any sort of reference as to which route to take. Apparently I was not the only one who didn't understand this course maker, a couple of other riders thought it was a turn and wiped out in front of me, I swerved around them and continued grinding out the gravel. Unlike the Roubaix at Boulder where the dirt sections were hard packed and relatively smooth, this course the dirt sections were loose, sandy, covered with gravel and washboard sections scattered about.
  Riding through the first gravel section I began to loose position and slip to the back of the the main field
and then eventually off the back of the peloton. Once off the back, I made the turn onto the pavement solo, I was soon caught by one of the riders who went down earlier on the dirt road, we worked together taking short pulls trying to regain contact with the peloton, we picked up a couple of other riders who had fallen off the main field. Our small group worked together at a high pace until I was dropped once again, I rode solo for several minutes until I was caught by Davis Wilkey(who also went down in the wreck earlier) from the Black Sheep Jr. Cycling team. Davis asked if I wanted to work together and do what we could to pick off the stragglers from carnage, so that's just what we did and before we made it around to the start of the second lap we had picked off several other riders on the second gravel section.
  Going into the start of the second lap Davis and myself were still working well together taking good pulls and setting a decent pace. Approaching the gravel again I was taking a pull, the volunteers at the turn were all standing around and not directing riders and I missed the turn, I made a quick 180 and jumped back onto  Davis' wheel. We continued our second lap much in the same manner as our first, taking steady pulls and picking of those who were dropped of the back. Another paved road came and went and we were back onto the gravel in no time. Back in the dirt I couldn't seem to hang onto his wheel anymore and he rode away, about two or three miles later I came across David on the side of the road with a mechanical, he had dropped his chain and so I stopped and waited on him, we continued on together and started our third and final lap.
  At this point I'm not gonna lie, I was starting to wonder if I could hang with him for one more lap or if I were to be doomed to ride my last lap solo. Once through Mead again were back onto the dirt roads, at this point we added a third rider to our group and shortly after I was dropped. I knew I had to make an effort to get back onto a wheel, I got out of the saddle and hammered but by the time I got to the pavement they had already made it to the top of the first set of rollers and I new my fate was sealed. I did indeed finish my last lap solo. Rounding the corner headed south back into Mead I noticed two riders bearing down on me, I made up my mind that I would cross the line on my own and not be caught while doing so, I moved down into the drops and got on the rivet. I crossed the finish line, talked to Davis for a moment met up with Ashton, Orson, Todd and Liz(who rode up to watch the race) and the five of us made our way back to my car. We packed everything up said our goodbyes, Todd and Liz rode their bikes back to Boulder and we made the drive back to Greeley.
  Over all I would not say that I necessarily enjoyed Mead Roubaix as a race but I feel that it made me a stronger rider in the end, the course was hard and technical and I feel that my handling skills definitely helped me out in a couple of the loose sandy corners.

http://connect.garmin.com/course/1089147

Thanks for reading,
-Drew

Keep posted a summary of my first crit in Co. soon to come.  

    

Boulder Roubaix April, 7th 2012

  Friday evening April 6th Ashton and I made the drive down from Greeley for my first road race in Colorado, the 17th Boulder Roubaix, we got into Boulder around 8pm and stopped at the Idea"lly expensive" Market to get a few things for dinner and breakfast. The Ideal Market was hilarious, it was what you would get if you took Whole Foods, Fresh Market and your local hippie heath food shop and merged them into one dimly lit, unorganized, over priced, pets are welcome, and I'm sure shirts and shoes are optional, kinda grocery store. After acquiring our mineral water, pasta, breakfast and almond milk we headed up into the mountains to have dinner/stay the night with our friends Todd and Liz. We had a blast with Todderick and Lizington, it was cold and windy outside so we spent the evening indoors eating sausage (well, faux sausage for me) and hunting for "well hidden" Easter eggs.
  Me being the genies that I am, decided that I needed to work on my bike at 10pm the evening before a race, but I thought to myself...it's just a simple tire change, no problem, go for it...and besides the sealant in my rear tube had begun to congeal and put my rear wheel off balance. With that running through my mind I went to work, putting on a pair of take off Gator Skins and cleaning my drive train....It went something like this, wheel #1 changed tire, the bead proceeded to tear and blow out of the tire...awesome, one tire destroyed and one tube down the drain, good thing I had the original tire on hand. Wheel # 2, my main priority with my rear wheel was simply to get the nasty sealant tube out of it...This also turned into an ordeal, the bead on the new(used) tire held fine however, the tube that I replaced it with did not. I replaced the sealant tube with one of my used tubes that I had checked over, well I guess I didn't check it well enough, it didn't hold air ten minutes. Oh man, I was beginning to get stressed at this point, nine hours until my race starts and I'm fumbling around with tubes and tires instead of getting the rest that I should have been getting, that's when Todd saved the day with some fresh tubes. Wheels being finalized, I laid out my race kit for the morning and we all turned in for bed.
  I woke up early, ate my breakfast and enjoyed a little bit of the chilly mountain air out on the patio over looking the valley. I drove out to the race course only to find that getting to the parking area was a big traffic jam. I got parked and rode my bike up to registration, oh I felt like such a newb, I completely forgot to stop at an ATM and get out cash to rent a timing chip, luckily some one standing in line behind me spotted me the extra couple of bucks that I needed to rent my chip. Between the parking delay and the huge crowd at the registration table I just barely managed to get back to my car, get ready and work my way through the two races lining up behind mine. I got to the start line as the referees were finishing up scanning our chips. No warm up, and on the line literally three minutes before the start, now that's how I like to start a season.
  The race started and already I was in a bad place, at the back of a field of almost 80 riders, legs were tight and cold and the chilly morning air made every breath burn as my heart rate sky rocketed in response to the initial pace right off of the start line. I just kept thinking damn, we still have thirty five more miles and these guys are already killing it. CAT4 did two laps on a course of roughly 50%  hard packed dirt roads and 50% paved country roads, totaling 37 miles with about 1300 feet of climbing.
  The first lap was fast and I had to ride through a ditch on the side of the road to avoid a wreck in one of the corners but I held on to my position in the peloton until about 5k from the start/finish. Leading up to the 2nd dirt section of the lap there was a good false flat about a mile from the turn into the dirt, I started to loose ground and soon found myself alone and chasing. I held a good tempo and chased solo through the start/finish trying to regain contact with the main field before they hit the next paved section. As I passed the feed zone I could hear Ashton, Todd and Liz from the side of the road, hearing them there definitely helped moral and so I continued to chase on. I never regained contact and was about half way through my second lap when I was passed by the leaders of the age group racing behind mine and shortly after that, their chase group that followed. Behind them was a group of several riders comprised of both my race and now the one that had just passed me, I was able to hang on to this mixed group. As we came around to the final dirt section I was feeling good on the climbs and entering the last 200 meters was able to come around to the front of the group and finish solid and after 1:42 I finished in 47th place.
  All in all I felt good after my first race in Colorado, I was able to keep a good pace and the course was a  lot of fun, I feel that my handling skills are becoming one of my strengths and I need to work on my threshold and power output.

http://connect.garmin.com/course/1071763

Tales from Mead Roubaix and  the Boulder Crit series soon to come.

Take care and keep the rubber side down,
-Drew

Yeah, so...

   A few years back I decided decided to try my hand at bicycle racing, during those first two races I quickly became enamored with the sport and I learned that racing bicycles was gonna take a lot more than just showing up with a bike and a shiny spandex race kit.
   Since those humble beginnings I have fielded myself in a decent amount of races, both road and xc as well as a little cyclocross. Sometimes I can manage to keep myself in the peloton and a few times I have found myself on the podium, but for the most part I end up finishing somewhere off the back of my field riding in no-mans land.
  I have created this blog as place for me to archive my race reports, regardless of results, good or bad, epic or lame and whether I kill or get killed..it will all be here.

Coming soon:
A brief summary of my Boulder Roubaix 2012
&
Mead Roubaix 2012