AZ State Crit Champs..NON-state champ race

The last couple of days have been awesome. We made an attempt at a Crit on Saturday (see last post for details) and yesterday we made it to the second one, and had an absolute blast. This isn't tough to do, as bike racing s a beautiful sport and every race is different and exciting. Yes, triathlon is awesome too, but bike racing has such a level of complexity, both in strategy and the manner in which energy is used, that it's like playing chess while trying to squeeze every last bit of power out of your legs.

This race was special, because my good friend Matt decided 10 minutes before the race that he was going to jump in and experience bike racing for the first time. He had his doubts about his ability to stay with the group, but I had total faith in him and knew that if he just played it safe, he'd finish with the group, but more importantly, keep the rubber side down. (not crash)

The race was a smashing success, as Matt not only finished with the group, but did the bulk of the work and managed to single handedly split the pack with 2k to go. This would have set up great for me, to attack and take the victory, but I had somehow let myself get distracted and had miscounted the laps. I feel terrible that I let his hard work go to waste, it really was perfect timing. I've never raced with a teammate in a race though, so lesson learned. Thinking that we had 2 to go, I came across the line in 14th wheel (roughly) and to my dismay, the lap board showed 1 to go. Damn. I put in a strong push to move toward the front, but just as I did, the racer in third wheel (where I should have been) made a very strong attack and got off the front. I sprinted to the front of the line, took the third-to-last turn, and sprinted again, hoping to close the gap to the leader, who had at that point, been joined by one other rider. Unfortunately, there was only 400 to go, and while I had gapped the rest of the field by a comfortable distance, I was closing the gap to the two leaders too slowly, and only managed to make it across the line in third.

I've always had a problem with counting in races. I miscounted a 200 backstroke once (8 lengths of a pool). I get so caught up in racing my opponents that I lose track of time (or rather conjure up my own timeline) and mistimed my final effort. No problem though, Matt and I finished out the weekend with 160 miles of riding, $40 in prize money, and a phenomenal start to our two-week training camp in Phoenix. And YEAH-it's sunny every dang day :)

*when I find some pictures from the race, I'll put 'em up*

The Ride.

Yesterday was an adventure marked by tradgedy, overcoming of obstacles, commitment to a goal, and the making of a great memory. I rode with Matt Curbeau, who many of you already know. He's a stellar guy, and an aspires to be a professional triathlete. At our morning wifi session, I was busy booking airfare for my pro debut, so check out Matt's write-up and enjoy :) Www.turbeaucurbeau.wordpress.com "Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it" -Lou Holtz

Quick King's Valley Road Race recap

King's valley is a very small town not far from Philomath, Oregon. It is a beautiful place, and the race organizers put on an excellent event. I wish I could have had a better result, but I made some tactical errors, had some bad luck, and came in at the back of the main group. As a triathlete, I don't really need to be involved in a sprint; I'm trying to get race experience and there's no sprint finish into T2. That being said, I don't think I could've mustered much of a sprint anyway :) I was pretty blown.

Race Timeline

-First few miles sat comfortably, talked to racers in the peloton
-Mile 5 got a front flat. Quick change thanks to great race support
-Mile 15-ish finally caught back on to the group
-Mile 22, 25, 28 covered attacks by prominent players
-Mile 42, 43 made attacks of my own in the crosswind
-Mile 54 made my final attack, got a gap, but blew up monumentally with 600 to go
     *At the end of all this I discovered my cycling computer was off and when I thought I was attacking with   1      mile to go, I actually had 2.5 miles to go.

I feel like I probably could have held my final move if I hadn't had to bridge back after the flat, and then made 5 significant efforts to cover moves and make attacks. If I had been a bit more patient, I would have had more gas in the tank for the final move. The winning move.

Lesson learned, had fun, got stronger. Mission accomplished. Podium would have been a bonus :)

Zipp 303 Wrap-Up

Yesterday I finally returned the set of Zipp 303 carbon
clinchers that I've been borrowing from Athletes Lounge. I've taken a little longer than I had hoped to get a follow up post with my impressions of the wheels, so while I'm waiting for TurboTax to update so I can e-file my taxes, I thought I would make up for lost time.


Quick Facts on the 303's (From Zipp website)

Total Weight	1498g
Tire Bead Inside to Inside	16.25mm
Brake Track Top	25.14mm
Brake Track Bottom	27.57mm
Recommended Tire Width	23-32mm
Max recommended rider weight	225lbs

My setup:
Bike: Cervelo S2
Tires: Vittoria Rubino Pro Slicks I do most of my summer riding on these. One of the cheapest, most durable tire options out there that actually rolls fairly well. (I was definitely happy with this choice, as I was flat-free on the gravel, and both of my spare wheels got used by other riders, and that set of Rubinos went un-punctured as well!)
Brake Pads :Swissstop carbon (yellow) on Ultegra 6700 calipers.

Speed
These wheels are fast. They roll phenomenally well and handle nicely in crosswinds, largely due to the new Firecrest" shape. I felt that they caught a little more wind than I had anticipated, but I think this is due to the extra spokes that the 303 has. (18 Front, 24 Rear) as opposed to the 404 (16 front, 20 rear) Still, the wheels were predictable in the wind, and seemed to track smoothly.

Durability
Obviously, I can't comment on the long-term durability of the wheels, but I must say that while I had them, I put them through the hardest conditions one could encounter. I rode on chip seal mostly, did a hard run on several miles of rocky dirt road, and of course, 15 miles of large-chunk gravel road while racing. You would never know it. The wheels appear brand new and are completely true. This is after all, what they were designed for. Those extra spokes make for an incredibly solid ride, and you would be hard-pressed to do much damage without taking a hammer to the rim.

Handling/ Ride Quality
Carbon clinchers present an advantage over normal clinchers not only because they look ten times better, but because they are lighter rims. This means that these wheels spin up super fast and feel great when climbing. I loved stomping on the pedals to accelerate because it felt like the bike was actually floating above the ground.
The cornering may be the only drawback on the 303's and it is a small one at that. For those who prefer an ultra-stiff wheel for cornering, this might not be your best option. I noticed a stiffness difference between these and my Easton Ea90's, but honestly, it wasn't as significant as I had thought. I probably wouldn't use these in a crit, but any other application, they can handle with ease. I didn't notice too much of a comfort benefit or loss during my test, but I tend to feel every bit of road vibration because of my Cervelo S2 frameset anyway. (harsh ride)

User-Friendliness
The carbon clincher design is very appealing to many people, because not only does it make changing tires for different race conditions very easy, but you can also train full-time on these wheels if you choose. Zipp skewers are pretty simple and easy to use. There is an appropriate amount of force required to tighten one to a safe tension. Zipp freehub bodies tend to be pretty sturdy, and are the products of high quality machining, so swapping cassettes is a relatively easy.

SO WHAT?
At the end of the day, the 303's are an amazing wheelset. If you could only buy one wheelset, to use for everything, these would be the ones. This is a wheel you could run fat tires on for training, and not be frustrated in crosswinds, but then throw on some race tires and tear it up in a breakaway. To quote Ferris Bueller, "If you have the means, I highly recommend picking some up".
                  ..Or head down to ALounge and demo the set that I used :)