Well, the last weekend was probably the last collegiate weekend I'll ever get to race, which was surprisingly sad.

FIrst up was the TTT.

I was worried about this one, because I wasn't permitted to bring my TT bike. We were fortunate enough to have team vans from Penn State to drive (wow! Who would've thought?), but this meant that space was tight. For instance, we had to get 8-9 bikes in the back of our van, which was difficult, to say the least. Long and short was that I had to do this TTT on my road bike, with no clip on aero bars, in my road position. On the plus side, we had Griffen Weiler, notable triathlete.

Things were looking good when Vermont (the team that finished one second behind John Gleaves and myself at Beanpot) showed up late to their start, and lost about 45 seconds off the start line. We also had a great rabbit to chase, since they ended up only starting 15 seconds in front of us (which made for a rather hectic start).

I felt so-so during this one, but was still able to put in some big-ish pulls. At the end, John Gleaves rockets up the last hill, and only I'm able to follow. He gets us to the top, and I wait for a second for Griffen to catch back on, then blow myself up so that John and Griffen can stop the clock for us. We end up winning by a comfortable margin - I'm thrilled that we were able to win all the TTTs. This was my main goal for the year, so I was already happy with the weekend.

Crit - really fun, broke away early, shut it down late, John wins, Slim's a terrible sport

RR - I was just beat for this race. I’m not sure why I was so tired, but I was exhausted. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stick with this race long term, so I just sat in. Eventually, the pace was so slow I just attacked for fun to try to get the speed up a little bit (we were going about 15 mph on even ground).


More to come here...

Well, I decided to go to Beanpot after all. It's an 8 hour drive, but since this is was my one and only chance to do the race, I really felt like I should suck it up and make the drive anyway.

And I'm glad I did.

First event - TTT. The forecast was for a high of 48 (something like 32 in the morning) and raining (70% chance). What we got instead was 65 degree weather, and enough sun that I heard multiple people tell Chris Ruhl that he was going to get a nasty sunburn no matter how much sunscreen he put on.

The TTT went okay. We dropped off two guys in the first 2 miles, but John Gleaves and I were able to power home. Thankfully, he was feeling good, because I wasn't able to pull much more than 1/2 the time, with the way I was feeling. Fortunately, we ended up winning, but only by .7 seconds. This has me concerned, because their C sandbagger, Slim, is probably going to get a beatdown with the mandatory upgrade bat, which will speed up their TTT. But we've got Griffin Weiler coming to Easterns. He's got a full aero rig, and has been consistently between myself and Ryan in the ITTs, which seems to suggest that he'll add some serious horsepower to the team. I really want a TTT win at Easterns.

And I found out that Rachel Sutton rules. Since the directions to each and every Beanpot race were truly, awfully, terrible, she got lost. Jessica Kutz, who was slated to race in the Women's B race, looked sure not to arrive on time. As Rachel finally found the race parking lot, she noticed the Women's B field was lining up to start. Just as it looked like Jessica would have to sit this one out (and miss one of only two races that she drove 16 hours for, due to terrible directions), Rachel pulls her car in front of the field, and parks it as Jessica unloads her bike, gets her gear on, etc. Even though the race officials were yelling at her, Rachel stood her ground, got Jessica in the race, and got out of the way. What a champ. Plus, Jess went on to get 2nd in that race. Bravo.

As far as our road race, I was feeling pretty tired from our two man TTT. John apparently was as well, since he dropped off after a couple laps of the road race. I was fortunate enough to chase back on, when I promptly attacked. It was my first legitimate breakaway of the year, and I thought it had a great chance of succeeding. It came back in 3/4 of a lap though, and I'm not sure why. I'm a little worried that it came back so quickly. I heard UVM worked as a team to pull us back, which would explain it, I suppose, except that John and I held the UVM team off in the TTT, and there were 4 in the break. Perhaps I was just tired.

In any event, I didn't have a lot left after the TTT and my breakaway, so I just sat in the back of the field as the sprint started. I got a front row seat to a spectacular crash tha ballooned out from one side of the road to the other. After waiting on it, I decided to start a sprint anyway, and I ended up 5th with not a lot of effort. Maybe everyone was just tired. The sad thing is that I probably could've gone harder in the sprint, I just didn't think I was even in it.

The sad thing was that one of our D riders, Felix, managed to crash pretty badly in the road race. His helmet was completely, and utterly destroyed. He got pretty banged up, which everyone was sad to see. He's consistently enthusiastic about everyone's races, and we'll miss having him around at Easterns.

Check out the helmet. Ouch


(picture courtesy of Matt Gross)

The crit the next day was tailored for me to do poorly. Extremely technical, 6 turn course with very rough pavement in the only places you can put the power down. It was all about position, which is the worst thing for me. Immediately, there was about a 40 second gap to the field, which I spent the first 15 of 35 laps closing. When I finally got it closed down, I was so tired that I almost pulled myself out of the race. But I stuck in there, and managed a 16th, 1 placing out of points. Oh well. This was probably the hardest crit I've ever done. I'm sure it was easier for folks near the front, but in the back, it sucked big time.

Unfortunately, the winner also took down my teammate, Chris DeCarlo, who suffered a bit of road rash and some severe annoyance at being taken out by a senseless move. He's okay, but the crash really disrupted his ability to stay in the finale, I think.

Army is usually a big hill-fest for the whole weekend, which only suits me so well. Fortunately, the hugest hills were replaced this year, which helped a great deal.

Our TTT went quite well - I felt very strong, and pulled for around 75% of the time. This got a bit tiring, since it was significantly longer and hillier than the TTTs we usually do (15+ miles on a very hilly course). John and Chris were able to hang in, and we managed to take first by around 21 seconds. This was extremely exciting to me - if we're able to work together more smoothly as a team, we should be able to knock quite a bit of time off of these. I'd really like to win each and every TTT we enter, which just means Beanpot and Easterns.

Circuit race was terrible pavement, and went only okay (12th). I was still pretty tired from the long TTT, so I mostly just sat in. Chris DeCarlo did great, however, and managed to pull out a 2nd place. He seems to enjoy the uphill bunch gallops, as he tied for 4th in the crit on Sunday.

On Sunday, we had an uphill ITT. This should be terrible for me, but I love solo TT efforts, so I cranked as hard as I could. I ended up setting a 10 minute wattage record at 399 (good for me), and a 4th place in Men's B. Not terrible, but I definitely could've gone faster if I hadn't been trying to keep my watts down and had just gone off of perceived effort. Watching wattage keeps me from blowing up early, however, which I appreciate. Additionally, Chris got 6th, and Ryan 9th, so we scored a fair amount of points.

Finally, there was the crit. After 3 events, I was a bit tired and just sat in. Which is too bad, because I felt okay. I just kept getting bored with going round and round, and couldn't motivate myself to move up. This is a new record for lowest average wattage for me. Teh boring, for sure.

Now I can finally get geared up for the SVVC and Central Penn time trials each month...

I cannot decide whether or not to go to Boston's ECCC race, Beanpot. I've never been, and it sounds awesome, but it's an 8 hour drive each way.

More details forthcoming, but in general:

1) The road race really sucked for me. Things at work have been extremely stressful (I'm quitting to get a job elsewhere), and that took its toll on my road race. I was exhausted, with terrible legs the whole time. It might have had something to do with the speed ride, but really it's more likely to be that I'm a big guy and not a great climber, I was stressed beyond belief (10 on a scale from 1 to 10), and I'm a terrible descender and expend a lot of energy to catch back on the bottom of descents. I was able to stay right by the front group through the first lap, but was continually chasing at 5-10 seconds back. Both guys I was chasing with got back on, but I lost contact on a descent. The second lap was ridiculously hard for me, and indicates that even if I had caught back on, I would've been too tired to do anything anyway.

2) The ITT was okay - I ended up pushing way, way too much power in the first minute (500 watt average), and then hurting for the next few minutes and only pulling 300 watts. I had a carbon front wheel but not carbon specific pads, which meant I was relying pretty much solely on my rear brake. Unfortunately, as I was going around the turn, my rear brake cable snapped, which cost me 4-5 seconds. This turned out to be significant, since I ended up in third place by 9 seconds (10 seconds off of first). I really wanted to win this, and I was definitely capable, but it just didn't work out. Oh well.

3) The crit went quite badly. I got a back row start again, which put me totally out of it from the gun. Game over. I wasn't feeling great anyway, but I definitely could've hung on for a top 10, I think. What a great course though! Technical, with fast sections, it ended up being quite a bit of fun.

Looking forward to more TT's this year though - I plan to do as many as possible while I'm still in State College.

Pictures here.

The weekend looked like it was going to be typical nasty Pennsylvania March weather. Sure enough, as we left Saturday morning, it started to pour. And pour. And pour.

So bad, in fact, that the 15 mile loop for the road race was shortened to a .8 mile crit in torrential rain. Words barely do the course justice, but I'll try.

It was a four corner crit. First corner was downhill, with standing water. Not bad, but worth watching carefully. Second corner was fine (slightly uphill, no standing water). There was a gradual uphill, then a medium, steep downhill, INTO HALF OF A ROAD. That's right - downhill 90 degree corner where we only had 2 lanes of a four lane road. There was only a soft mesh divider between traffic and racers.

Better yet was the unassuming 4th corner. With a manhole cover right at the apex of the turn, it was an unreal crash-fest. During the B race, my wife stood at this corner for about 1/2 the race. She counted 18 crashes, started to feel sick watching the carnage, and left. I have no idea how many people went down at this turn total over the course of the race. Some racers reported a crash in their small group each and every time they went into the turn.

Unfortunately, the race was dominated by the line-up for me. I lined up absolutely last in a field of more than 80 riders. It strung out very quickly, so I was never actually in the race.

This was probably the fastest race I've ever been in. I set all sorts of personal power records. My FTP is around 316, but my normalized power, over 20 minutes in this race, was 393! That's the most encouraging thing I've seen all year. If my FTP is anywhere around 393 * .95 now, I'm going to be really, really excited. Anyone have any idea how legitimate normalized power is?

For those who care, my power file is attached here.

StClair_Luke_3_8_2008

Sunday was a lot nicer. Sort of. It was 32 degrees, with a 25-35 mph wind.

As we got warmed up (sort of), I started to get really excited about the race. Time trials are my favorite part of cycling. Something about going as hard as you can and trying to hold it as long as you can appeals to me. Being a bigger guy, I get a natural advantage as well, which I appreciate. TTs are something I've spent the last 9 months working on, and its gone from being a serious, serious weakness to something I'm reasonably good at (say, midway through the A field). We got rolling down the first downhill, and I stupidly let about 3-4 bike length gap open up as we took a hard right hand turn at the bottom of the hill. Just not comfortable on the TT bike yet this year. I got back on quickly, and we proceeded to crank out what felt like a slow TTT. There was a lot of wind, and the pace kept slipping down. I'm sure that the complete and total lack of aero gear amongst the rest of the team didn't help here. At the end, I accidentally picked up the pace too quickly on the final hill, and dropped everyone off the back. Fortunately, two of the other B riders jumped back on, and we finished at least reasonably quickly. Turns out, we won, by around 15 seconds! By far, this was the best part of the weekend for me.

As for the circuit race: I rode at the front after the first 2 laps. John Gleaves got away with a small group that he was able to sit on for second. I stayed back and blocked well, for the first time ever (got to lead the field for about 3-5 minutes straight, doing 180 watts). I felt great, never really in trouble, even for a bit, and kept wishing someone else would up the pace. I'm glad it worked out the way it did though, since we put 3 people in points (2nd, 8th, 12th). Our best team showing so far, for sure.

More importantly, I hope that this will be a turnaround for me. Instead of hanging out at the back, I feel like I have the confidence to corner more aggressively and push myself forward in the pack. I know I'm strong enough to be at the front, and I'm slowing getting more confident in my ability to physically move up there.

Check out the photos here.

For those of you that care, here's a video of the infamous fourth corner of the crit. Notice the traffic between the third and fourth turns.

Power files for the TTT, circuit are here
lukestclair-phillycircuit2008
lukestclair-phillyttt2008

Well, the second day of the Rutgers weekend went okay...

I couldn't get to the front of the pack at all. With 60+ riders and a yellow line rule with narrow roads, I just didn't have much opportunity. And I'm a sissy.

Consequently, I did a lot of chasing back on, as riders got spit out of the apparently fast-moving pack. To be honest, I felt more bored than tired during this one. Perhaps some day I'll learn how to fight through a pack.

In any event, my planned sprint from back to front of the pack was quickly derailed when a couple riders went down in front of me in a very spectacular, bikes-flying sort of crash. While it was pretty impressive to watch, it totally ended my sprint.

Oh well.

All in all, a fun, but disappointing (for Men's B) weekend. Perhaps Philly will go better, but huge field sizes don't bode well for me.

Pictures here.

First ECCC weekend! And great weather. Getting into Piscataway, NJ, was terrible though.

A 4 hour drive turned into a fear-inducing 7.5 hour epic for me. I couldn't believe how icy/snowy it was.

Once we got to the ITT though, the weather was great - mid 40's and above. Unfortunately, the ITT was cut short yet again (thanks Rutgers), so we just had 2.4 miles to distinguish ourselves from each other. I ground it out way, way too much (not enough spinning), but felt great. I just couldn't bring any aerobic power to bear, with cadences so slow. Still, I got 6th, which was good enough for the second best Penn State time of the day.

Sadly though, my tubular wheel flatted - I'm not looking forward to changing that. Somehow, I was unlucky enough to put a cut in a tire that retails for $90 in the first 10 miles of riding it. I'm having trouble letting it go.

The crit was particularly exciting for me. As usual, I started in the back, and kept having to close down gaps in the field. I simply couldn't seem to move up. As people got tired, however, I managed to charge up the sides of the field, and eventually worked my way on to the front.

Once I got there, a kid from UVM attacked the field into a headwind, and I stupidly watched him go. About 60 seconds later, I decided it'd be a good ida for me to go too. Unfortunately, the field wasn't interested in letting me get as big a gap as the UVM guy had, and I was working against the most ferocious headwind I've ever seen in a race. I stayed between the field and the leader for the last 2.5 laps, and got caught with about 600m to go.




Sad, but this is the strongest I've ever felt. Maybe not the most fit/capable, but certainly the strongest.

Pictures here.

I'm getting extremely excited about the ECCC season coming up. We're going to have an extremely strong Men's A/B team this year, with Alex Pratt, Ryan Smolko, Griffin Weiler (super strong triathlete), Chris Thompson, Gerry (whom I'm just getting to know), and others in the B's alone.

If the weather ever improves in Central PA, we'll be out having a great time on the bike again.