After twice finishing 7th out of 8 riders, you'd think I'd learn my lesson. But once again I drove to Fort Ord to race on the awesome CCCX XC courses Keith Defiebre sets up there for us. This race was originally to be on April 16th, though even that was a change from the very first schedule. But here we were, over a month later, for the actual race. As before, I raced in the 55+ age group, Category 2.
Our races start at 11:30, and I got there just in time to sign up, get ready, warm up a little, and line up. I really didn't do anything differently this time, so I didn't expect the results to be much different. The weather was gray and chilly, and perhaps that affected the turnout as there were only five riders in my category.
We started in a wave with all Category 2 racers, just separated by age group slightly at the start. We raced up the only paved section, and onto the dirt single track trail just like the previous races. And, just like the previous races, I started out okay, but quickly had to back off to avoid redlining.
As a result, on the first lap several of the other racers in my category passed me. And on lap 2, I think, several more of them passed me on the one long-ish climb of the course. It wasn't all that long, just long enough to tire me out enough. Pretty soon I was riding by myself. Occasionally I'd pass somebody else, then they'd pass me later, usually on the hilly sections.
Still, I felt reasonably good when I crossed the finish line at the end of the 4th and last lap. I had a feeling I was last, but had to rush off to my dad's 94th birthday party and didn't get to verify the results until a few days later when they were posted online. Yes, I was last, 5th out of five. Still that's better than 7th I suppose, haha.
Like usual, I did a little post-race analysis after the results were posted, and unfortunately it showed that my average speed of 12.9 miles/hour was a bit slower than in race #3, though still faster than at race #1 in February. This race was about half an hour shorter than the previous races, and just 19.31 miles with 1,824 ft climbing. So I was a little surprised at being slower since I'm usually faster in shorter races. Maybe it was the cool, windy weather.
The most important thing was that I did have fun, and I really do enjoy these courses. It's fun to be a part of it and I'll try my best to be at the next race, scheduled for Sunday, June 25th... which happens to be my mom's 88th birthday.
After lots of storms caused postponed race dates, I finally got to race again, at the the CCCX XC Race #3. I made a few changes for Race #3, to hopefully improve on my 7th out of 8 racers result from Race #1.
I guess my suffering in Race #1 didn’t deter me from trying again. I skipped Race #2, because it was drizzling in Santa Cruz that day and I don’t enjoy riding in the rain anymore. Though I heard later that the weather ended up being nice for race #2… oh well.
Though I am always cautiously optimistic about the benefits of using better cycling equipment, I never expect the improvements to be noticeable. But enough people and research convinced me to give tubeless tires a try, for a bit less rotational weight and the option of using lower tire pressures for better traction and comfort. While I was at it, I also bought a pair of the S-Works version of my Specialized Fast Track tires that I used at Race #1; they have a higher thread count for a more supple carcass. All of the above should yield better traction while still lowering the rolling resistance… too good to be true?
Plus, I popped some energy gummies at the start line and filled my water bottles with home-made sports drink, to help avoid muscular fatigue at the end of the race. I really suffered from that in Race #1, and my lap times then documented my decline in power very accurately.
One thing I did not do was to train specifically for these races. I just alternate between gym powerlifting workouts and 1-hour bike rides, usually doing one or the other every day of the week with at most one rest day. Oh, and sometimes a weekend mountain-bike ride with friends. For me it is now about staying as healthy and generally fit as a 62-year-old man can, while also having fun.
So, on race day I had a nice breakfast with Margaret, loaded up the car, and set off for Fort Ord. The roads were all cleared of the floods and storm debris, thankfully.
The race start was 11:30 AM for my 55 to 64 age Category 2 race. The turnout was lower than at Race #1, maybe because it was colder and windier. Yeah, this April feels almost like winter. I wore a long-sleeved base layer with knee warmers under my kit, unlike Race #1 where I only added the knee warmers because it was so pleasant. This time the course had shorter laps, so we were racing for five laps instead of four.
After our race start I made a conscious decision not to go too hard, plus my legs felt a bit weak anyway. So I wasn’t at the front of our group when we hit the awesome trails of Fort Ord. My hope was to set more consistent lap times, which would hopefully yield a better final result. The race was much like the last one, with the usual selection that occurs in the first lap. Soon I was riding mostly by myself, occasionally passing, or being passed by, other riders.
I had ridden the new S-Works tires a few times on rides, and my feeling was that they were noticeably better. And that feeling continued in this race. I had less slipping in the turns and loose sections, a smoother ride, and the rolling resistance did feel lower. The trails were perfect, with no mud and just a few sections of damp, loose sand.
Photo: Rick Rasmussen
But even with the better tires and sports drink I still had to slow down and stretch my back as the race progressed. I thought maybe I didn’t lose as much power towards the end of the race, and after I finished the race, and had time to analyze my rough lap times from Strava, the data confirmed that, as my lap times slowed by only 1.5 minutes in Race #3, vs. Race #1 where I slowed by 2.5 minutes (though the shorter laps in Race #3 account for some of that difference). And the other data looked better for Race #3 too:
Race #1
Race #3
Lap 1:
28:04
22:03
Lap 2:
29:45
22:42
Lap 3:
30:26
23:23
Lap 4:
28:03 (short last lap)
23:38
Lap 5:
—
18:30 (short last lap)
Total time:
1:56:18
1:52:27
Total miles:
23.44 miles
24.97 miles
Total elevation gain:
2,306 ft
2,293 ft
Average speed:
12.1 mi/h
13.3 mi/h
I was especially excited to see that my average speed was higher this time. That was promising, and perhaps spoke to my fitness for these races improving? And sports drink? And maybe it also verified what everybody kept telling me about the advantages of tubeless tires?
So, I felt better about this race, and yet my result was exactly the same as for Race #1: 7th out of 8. Haha! But only four of us had done both races, and when I compared myself to the three other riders I was actually closer to all of them than before, and beat one of them.
So I seem to have improved, but most importantly, I had a lot of fun and will be at Race #4, on April 16th.
Most of you probably think of me as a track cyclist. That has certainly been true for the last 10 or more years. So how did I end up astride my new Ibis DV9 hardtail on a beautiful day in Fort Ord, ready to start my first mountain-bike race in 16 years? Well, it's a long story that I won't get into (though you can read the story here), but I was stoked and ready to race on the dirt trails!
My friend and former boss Chris and I had talked each other into racing. Neither one of us had much belief that we'd do well, but racing is exciting and motivates us to stay healthy and fit. Chris and I had ridden at Fort Ord a couple of times recently, and the trails were still so familiar to me after all those years. And the recent rains had left the trails in beautiful shape, without the usual loose dust.
I drove down just in time to sign up, get ready, and reconnoiter a little bit. I was surprised at how many old friends I saw there, including fellow former Team Bicycle Trip team member Jose Luis Hernandez, now a competitor in the Category 2 55+ group I was in. As we lined up for the start of our cross-country race, on the only paved section we'd be on, I got to meet several other competitors and friends.
Chris's 45+ group was lined up just ahead of us, when we started to roll forward. Suddenly, I realized this was the actual start of our race too. Oops! I wasn't the only one caught out, and several other people lagged behind as others raced forward onto the trails. Knowing how important a good start is, I quickly sped past several other riders and hit the dirt.
Keith Defiebre, the CCCX race promoter, had advertised these races as being 4 to 5 miles per lap, with my group racing for four laps. Well, having done no endurance training in many years, I didn't expect to last long. I was right. About halfway into the first lap I could already tell I could not keep up with my competitors, even though I drafted as much as possible. Marcelo, the only competitor I was able to stay with for a while, slowly pulled away from me in spite of my best efforts. Being fast for 250 meters is very different from being fast for 250 minutes.
Soon, as is common in cross-country racing, I found myself riding by myself, or passing or being passed by the same handful of people at various parts of the course. Man, my legs were definitely not happy. While I was breathing heavily, it was really the burning in my legs that was holding me back.
But the course is a blast to ride, and really suits me well. Or would have suited me well if I had trained for it like I had in the past. Lots of small rolling hills, hard packed sand, fun downhills, and very few technical sections, all contributed to a great ride for me. Even though I was enjoying the course, my painful legs and burning lungs forced me to slow down and even stop pedaling to stretch occasionally. At some low moments I even thought I should just drop out of the race. But then I remembered how much I fun I was having and kept going. Right?
On my third lap I noticed a couple of my competitors pass me. I didn't like that, but there wasn't much I could do except watch them ride slowly into the distance. I think they were some of the riders who got confused at the start. On my last lap, I was amazed at how fast the category 1 racers passed me. The only people I passed were a few of the slower juniors and women.
I was able to get an idea of my lap times from Strava, and they showed how I went from 28-minute laps to 30-minute laps during the course of the race. In some ways I was surprised it wasn't worse. My competitors set fairly consistent laps in contrast.
Thankfully, the final finish line soon appeared, and boy was I grateful! My lungs were literally hurting from gasping for breath for just shy of 2 hours. Strangely, my legs recovered pretty quickly. I guess because their potential is so low now, I wasn't able to push them hard enough to cause much damage, even though it felt like I had while racing.
By the way, I had expected about 16 miles of racing, but we ended up doing almost 24 miles, with over 2300 ft of climbing, and I finished 7th out of 8 riders, at 1:57.14, almost 10 minutes behind the winner.
So, I really did have fun, and it was so exciting and great to see old friends again. I'm planning on racing the next CCCX race, on February 26th. Hopefully my legs will have adapted better to this punishment by then!
This year has seen the return of racing to Hellyer Park's velodrome after over a year marked by closures and limited sessions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
I restarted training in November, 2020, with plans to focus on the 2021 Masters Track World Championships. I had raced at the 2017 and 2018 Worlds, and I was looking forward to getting a chance to improve on my results.
Last year's Worlds was to be held in Manchester, England but had been canceled due to COVID-19, not surprisingly. This year's was to be held at the VELO Sports Center near Los Angeles, in Carson City, in October. I figured the pandemic restrictions would be reduced enough to not get in the way by then.
For this season I even hired a new coach, Adey Dent, because my two teammates for the team sprint, Rich Rozzi and Martin Harris, were already coaching with him, and it made sense to have coordinated training. I was able to attend fairly regular advanced training sessions with them at Hellyer on Sunday mornings, plus race in several local races there.
For this year I was completely focused on team sprint, and secondarily the 500 m individual time trial (ITT). Read about these types of racing here. As much as I have enjoyed match sprints in the past, the tournament format is very exhausting and lowers my odds of doing well in the other events, so I've skipped them for now.
Elite Championships, 8/8/2021
A couple of weeks before our Masters Championships we had the Elite Districts, racing against all the young guys. We decided to enter that as a way to get training in official events, with proper holders and timing, in the team sprints, and also our 500 m ITTs. I skipped the match sprints which were on Saturday.
I was a little disappointed with my 500 m ITT (38.46 seconds), which has been consistently slow this year. But then again, my teammates also seem to be a little slower in the 500 m. Maybe we're just getting old? Or maybe it's that I only used my spoked warm-up wheels instead of my faster Zipp racing wheels?
After a restart caused by my right shoe not being clipped in, we were pretty pleased with our team sprint time, 1:11.31, which gave us a silver medal (gold time was an amazing 1:08.9!). Though it was slower than the 1:10.71 we set at a race in July, our time was faster than the 1:10.96 my previous team set in 2016, prior to us winning the National Championships in Colorado Springs, so I was very optimistic about our potential for Worlds.
Then we got a bit of a bombshell dropped on our plans. Worlds was cancelled, due to… COVID-19 restrictions of course. Travel to the U.S. was impossible for many of the foreign racers in any case, so attendance would have been low too.
So then my priority would have to be either Masters Track Nationals, in Pennsylvania, or our local races. Martin announced that he couldn't justify traveling to Nationals, so Rich and I were left with few options but to stay close to home. That meant our District Masters Track Championships were suddenly no longer practice races, but the whole bag of marbles.
Masters Championships, 8/22/2021
For Masters Districts, I again opted to skip the Saturday racing, with match sprints, so I could be more rested for the Sunday timed events. I hauled all my gear, including my Dixie Flyer with Zipp racing wheels mounted with tires suitable for the concrete velodrome at Hellyer, and drove over the hill to San Jose. Turn out is lower than previous years, but still respectable.
For the 500 m in the morning I used 51x14t (98.4") gears. I was up against local legend Larry Nolan, and Erik Salander. Even though my time was only 38.87, I still managed to win gold with that. I feel like my first lap is still pretty good, but two laps is just a little bit far for me at the moment, it seems.
Rich, Martin and I had a little time to rest and prepare for our team sprint. I used 50x14t gears (96.4") as man 1, Rich (man 2) had 98.5", Martin (man 3) used 102.2". My start was decent, and Rich and Martin were never far behind me, with only a small gap opening up behind me for part of my lap. I pulled off and watched Rich lead Martin for lap 2, then Martin finish our race, with a gold medal time of 1:11.72.
Me, Rich and Martin, with our gold medals.
So while my result was 2-for-2, gold in both events (bringing my total District Championships to 13), the numbers were a bit mixed for me.
It seemed a waste of all that training to just call it a season, so we are likely to race in LA a few times. And it will give me a chance to try out the carbon FFWD wheels I bought specifically for the wooden track there, mounted with the ultra-soft tires needed to keep from slipping down the steep, 45-degree banking. LA’s track is always exciting, so that will still be fun.
As I mentioned in my Districts race report, I trained pretty much from right after World's last year through the end of August. I was coached by Sy Shaddox for my weight training (at Santa Cruz Strength, and Jeff Solt for my cycling. I lifted weights three times a week and rode twice a week over the winter, shifting to lifting twice a week and riding three or four times a week starting on May 1st. No breaks at all during those months… luckily I enjoy working out. I also entered a few LAVRA races at the LA track (Carson is just north of downtown Los Angeles) for specific training on the 45-degree banked track with tight turns. I also had Craig at Spokesman Bicycles glue up some sticky Vittoria Pista Speed tires, specifically for use on wooden tracks like the LA velodrome.
This year I was again able to bring my wife, Margaret, with me to Los Angeles. We drove down on Sunday, spent a little time in Disneyland, and had some nice dinners by the ocean too before the racing started at Nationals on Tuesday. Life is short, and I don't want to miss out on living life too. I didn't become a racer to live like a monk.
My first day of racing started on Tuesday morning: Match Sprints in my age group, 55 to 59. I felt very comfortable, and felt barely any nerves at all, a huge contrast to Worlds in 2017, and somewhat in Worlds in 2018, where I had some trepidation about this event. Margaret was there to help me and encourage me.
Qualifying
Warming up for the 200m
(Photo: Margaret P.)
As always, Match Sprint tournaments start out with a timed flying-200m qualifying ride to determine "seeding" of the riders in the tournament. Setting a fast time improves your odds of advancing into each successive round, as the faster qualifiers are usually seeded (matched) against the slower qualifiers.
I selected 99.7 gear inches (48x13t), based on previous luck with this gearing. I had considered renting a front disk wheel, but in the end settled for my usual vintage Zipp 808 front wheel and Zipp 900 rear disk. I did my best to build up speed in the wind-up, just as I had last year at Worlds, to avoid using too much energy. I felt pretty good when I rushed down the banking to start the 200m timed section, and thought I did a decent job of powering through the turns, which is always difficult. But you never know how well you do until you see your time in the results. Fortunately, this year I was able to set another PR (personal record) in my flying 200m, hitting 40 mph max, stopping the clock at 11.877 seconds! That was awesome. I had qualified in 6th place; what a great way to start the week! I then switched to lower 96.4-inch gearing (50x14t), rested, and prepared to do battle in the actual sprints.
1/16 Finals
Lining up against Shon
(Photo: Margaret P.)
For the 1/16 finals I was matched against Shon Halasi, from El Segundo. I knew nothing about him, except that he qualified 13th, at 13.116 seconds. We drew numbers on a tablet, and I drew a "2," meaning that I could start after him, and higher up on the track. At the end of our first very slow lap (out of 3 laps), he slowed way down to force me ahead of him, hoping to gain the benefit of my draft, and ended up stopping completely for a "track stand." He was so focused on getting his balance just right, that I sensed a huge opportunity. I jumped and opened a massive gap, then rode at a tempo pace for 2 laps, hitting just 33.6 mph max for an easy win. I thus advanced to the ⅛ finals.
⅛ Finals
Blocking James in turn 1
(Photo: Margaret P.)
This time I drew a "1" against James Nakae, who qualified just behind me in 7th, with a nice 12.058. We slowly rode along, until he went up-track to the rail, with me following closely next to him. He tried to come around me a few times, but I was always there to block him. After 1-1/2 laps, we entered turn 3 still at a fairly low speed, and I thought I still had him blocked pretty well. However, he took a massive risk and dropped behind and below me, surprising me and missing my rear wheel by just 1 inch according to people who were watching. But he then sprinted all-out down the home straight and into our final lap, with me in hot pursuit in his draft. Coming out of turn 2 in the final lap, I could tell he was tiring and I was able to get next to him in turn 3. And coming out of turn 4 higher up the banking than James I had momentum in my favor and won by about a bike length.
¼ Finals
With the slower riders now out of the race, I was matched against the third-place qualifier, Rich Rozzi, who also happens to be my team-mate in Team Sprint. He qualified with a very nice 11.707 seconds so I knew this race would be difficult, just as it had been for me at our Districts, where he beat me in the semifinals. Because we're also teammates, we shared a space in the track's infield, with his girlfriend and my wife becoming great friends and being supportive of us all. So it was a little awkward for them when we raced against each other. But it's all in good fun, right?
Ride 1:
I drew a "2" against Rich, and went high up the track, forcing the pace higher, and surprised him in turn 3, with over one lap remaining, by riding hard above him, and sprinting quite hard for most of the last lap. But as I neared the finish I sensed him gaining on me, and though I was at 100% by then I lost by a few agonizing inches at the very end. Darn.
Ride 2:
Rich and me rolling up to the start line (Photo: Margaret P.)
This time I started first against Rich. I zigged a little ahead of him, then went high on the back straight to force him ahead of me. His momentum carried him past me at first, but then he slowed way down. I faked a track stand, and when I noticed Rich looking to his left to locate me, I jumped 100% over his right, opening a huge gap, and then went hard for 2-1/2 laps, looking back at him to gauge the effort needed to maintain my lead. But in the end we finished just like our ride 1, as I again lost by inches. I kept wondering: did I go too hard at first? Or should I have gone harder sooner? I'm still not sure, as it's hard to gauge your effort over that long of a sprint. All I know is that I tried to keep ahead of him and it didn't work. So I was now out of the medals. Sigh.
Minor Finals
It's a bummer to be so close to the Gold medal round, only to be demoted to the minor finals where 5th through 8th place are decided in a 4-up race, but such was my lot. The minor finals were held during the evening session, so we had plenty of time to recover from the morning's sprints, where I had raced six times. I must admit, I wasn't that motivated at this point. To me the difference between 5th and 8th didn't seem that significant, so I went into this with a little less energy than usual.
I drew "3." I was up against Bob Francis, starting in 1, Darrell Farlow in 2,and Tim Gaidis in 4. My holder wasn't Jeff like the last few years, and I probably should have coached my holder a little on the best technique for holding. As it was, when the whistle blew the other riders all got a nice push, and that's important in a 4-up race, as these usually end up being at a much higher average speed than 2-up races. I caught up and drafted Tim who was up-track from the others, and blocking Darrell in the pole behind Bob, for a bit, but Darrell started to push, literally, Tim up-track so he could pass, and after some bumping around he surged forward, though a final flick made Tim veer, almost hitting my front wheel just as I started to ride over him… I was pretty much out, and finished behind them. So I finished 8th overall, while Rich finished in 2nd.
Friday, August 29th, Individual Events
For me, this day was for racing my 500m ITT (individual time trial); a standing-start drag race. I used 96.4-inch gearing again and a rented front FFWD disk wheel for better aerodynamics, especially in the second lap. I'd won this event at our Districts, so I thought I had a good chance at a podium finish, and if I could PR I might even win, who knows?
In the start gate for my 500m ITT
(Photo: Margaret P.)
I was the 15th starter out of 18 total. I got up onto the apron with my bike and handed it to the official who clamped it into the starting gate which is connected to the timing system. I strapped into my pedals and focused on the countdown. I tried to channel my anger into the pedals at the "0" tone, and rode my heart out. I clipped a few of the foam pads lining the edge of the track with my left pedal in my careening haste, and thought "I must be doing well." But it's so hard to keep the power up in the tight turns at the LA track, and I caught myself a few times letting the power drop. So I wasn't sure how I had done when I crossed the line, even though I was cautiously optimistic.
I had finished my first lap in 20.926, and finished the two-lap race in a total of 36.610 seconds. Not great, not even as fast as I'd gone at our Districts on a slower track. I was not too happy, but philosophical, as my final 5th place was about what I had expected. Had I equaled my previous PR I'd still only have finished in 3rd place. 5th was still good for a podium appearance and a token Bronze medal. My Team Sprint teammates, Martin Harris and Rich Rozzi, finished 1st and 2nd, which boded well for our Team Sprint chances!
Sunday, September 1, Team Events
I rested thoroughly on Saturday, and had a big pancakes and eggs breakfast to prepare for our 55+ Team Sprint, in the Sunday afternoon session, my priority race for the whole season. Rich, Martin and I had trained for this a lot, but the field was stacked with 24 fast riders from all over the country. I thought we were definitely in the running, though perhaps not the obvious favorites. Margaret and I entered the lap splits from all of the 500m results into a spreadsheet for each 3-man team (most Team Sprint entrants raced the 500m too), to guesstimate how all eight teams compared. I was optimistic, but there was one team that looked really fast on paper, but I thought perhaps their assumed starting-order would hurt them.
After warming up and getting everything ready (I kept the 96.4-inch gearing), we awaited our heat, heat 2 of the 4 heats (they started two teams at a time, from opposite sides of the track), which came at about 2:15 pm. We lined up in our start order, with my bike clamped into the start gate, and Rich above me to my right as our "man 2," and Martin above him as our "man 3," both held up by officials. I focused and breathed along with the countdown timer, and at "0" I went as hard as I could, gapping Rich a little for the first half lap before he came even with my rear wheel. At the end of my lap I came out of turn 4 and shifted slightly above the red line at the top edge of the pole lane, thus allowing Rich to start to sneak past me on my left for a head-start on his lap 2. I swung up-track and breathed while Rich and Martin continued on, close together. So far everything looked good. As Rich pulled off too, Martin looked fast and finished lap 3 strong. It was with great amusement that I heard the announcer say, "New Best Time sets a new best time" ... our team was named "New Best Time" as a fun joke.
Me, with Rich and Martin following, in lap 1 of our Team Sprint
(Photo: Josh Burton)
We watched the other 7 teams do their rides, each time hoping to stay in the lead, and each timed we breathed a sigh of relief as our time held. Until the last heat, when team "Medium Sausage Pizza" beat us by just 0.417 seconds. Argh! I had thought they'd start in a different order, but they were able to stay fairly close together, barely, and eke out the small margin of victory. Oh well, winning Silver ain't bad either, especially given the quality of competition we had faced.
In a post-mortem of our Team Sprint, I saw that while Martin and I both were third-fastest in our respective laps, Rich had ridden the fastest lap 2 of anyone! So I was bummed about not going any faster, but my 20.842-second lap 1 was pretty decent for me, and my best all year, though still not a PR (I had hoped to best my old lap-1 PR of 20.523 from 2017 Worlds). Had I done so, and had Martin been just 0.1 faster, we would have won. But that's Monday-morning quarterbacking, and I will just have to hope that next time I will be able to reach my full potential.
Martin, Rich, and I with our Silver medals (Photo: Margaret P.)
Final Thoughts
So, was I happy with how I had done this year? Partly. I was pretty happy to have set a PR in my flying-200m, for sure, and I thought I rode well during the Match Sprints too. But I won't deny I was disappointed at being somewhat slow in my 500m ITT, and in my Team Sprint lap 1.Still, the season went pretty well for me, even as I got older, and I am certain I am stronger and a faster rider than ever. And I am so happy not to be burned out at the end of this season, unlike some past years. I am looking forward to competing next year, though my plans hinge mostly on where Nationals will be held in 2020. We shall see.
Speaking of the future, I haven’t yet decided what my 2020 season will consist of, but I will restart my weight training next week so I will be as prepared as possible for whatever comes along. My hope is that the 2020 Nationals will be in either LA again, or Colorado Springs. Training for Colorado's track would be simpler as it is so similar to Hellyer, but LA is such an awesome track that I’m OK with either.
Like last year, I trained right through our Districts, using the races that weekend as training and reference points on my training progress. For this season I hired a different strength-training coach, Syon Shaddox, also at Santa Cruz Strength. He did a fabulous job of helping me build strength through the winter and spring, and maintain my full strength from that point on through the present. That's pretty amazing.
On May 1st I shifted my training emphasis from strength-building to on-the-bike training, once again with my trusty Coach, Jeff Solt. One of the interesting, to me anyway, things I've learned from my training is that the less I ride and the more time I spend in the gym the faster I get on the track. Jeff has been trying to teach me that for a long time, so Syon's help has been invaluable to that end.
Saturday, Match Sprints
On the morning of our Sprints (you can read about the various types of track races on the NCVA site), at Hellyer Park's Velodrome in San Jose, I did a nice job of warming up and doing two flying 100m sprints to gauge my legs. Unfortunately, they felt really weak. So I ended up going for 96.4" gearing (50x14t) instead of the 98.4" I had planned on using for our qualifying flying 200m timed runs. It was also a bit windy. And, because my Zipp wheels have tires only suitable for the indoor wooden track in Los Angeles, not on Hellyer's oval concrete track, I only had my warm-up wheels for this.
My flying-200m qualifying run (photo: Jeff Vander Stucken).
Though the defending Champion, for the previous three years, I ended up with a startlingly slow flying-200m qualifying time of 12.54 seconds. I don't remember the last time I was that slow, so that was extremely disappointing. This slow time seeded me as 4th out of the five riders there. That meant I had to start off with a ride against the 5th qualifier, so that the final rounds could be between four riders. Several people commented on my odd choice of wheels, and fortunately Tony Colicchio loaned me his deep dish wheels for the actual races.
So, as the only ride in the semifinals, I rode against Joe Atmore. I drew number 1, so I led the two-lap race out. I did a decent job of holding Joe off, and prevented him from getting a nice run at my draft, and was able to beat him with a nice gap. My goal was to not burn more energy than I had to, and I think I succeeded.
My first ride against Joe Atmore (photo: Jeff Vander Stucken)
For the finals, I was now required to race against the fastest qualifier, Rich Rozzi (also my teammate for the Team Sprints, by the way). Rich had qualified with a very nice 11.91 seconds. So I knew I had my work cut out for me. In our first ride, Rich led the race out, and did a nice job of slowing down when needed to prevent me from getting a gap to run a nice fast run around him. I wasn't able to surprise him, and I probably didn't do a great job of trying to open up a gap. In the end, I tried to come around him on the last lap and was never able to.
In my second ride against Rich I led the race out, bumping his elbows a little, BMX-style (Rich is also a longtime pro BMX racer). I did a very similar job to what he had done, and when I jumped with 3/4 of a lap to go, I did a good job of preventing him from being able to run around me with a surprise attack. Unfortunately, as we came through turns 3 and 4, the exit from turn 4 benefited him more than me, because he was higher on the track, and he beat me by inches at the line. So I was out of the Gold round.
While Rich went on to race against Bill Nighan (2nd qualifier, at 12.07) for the Gold medal, I was racing against Jim Lawrence, of Colorado Springs (3rd qualifier, at 12.3), for the Bronze medal. I didn't know out-of-state residents could compete here, but I guess he was eligible to compete but just couldn't win a State Championship.
Anyway, for the first ride, I led Jim out. It ended very similarly to my ride against Joe. For our second ride, Jim led the race out, and I jumped over him in turn 3 when he slowed too much. I looked back and I had a nice gap because I had surprised him, and I just went pretty hard. As I looked back I saw the gap become huge, and at that point I just slowed down and soft pedaled for half a lap to the finish line. I had noticed that my legs felt better as the morning progressed, but beating a faster qualifier was still somewhat of a surprise, and very welcome. Bronze wasn't my goal, but then again, I didn't really have any goals for our Districts this year.
Sunday, Timed Events
A somewhat unexpected contrast to my Saturday morning warm-up, I felt pretty good on Sunday morning during my warm up. A few minutes before my start, I did a few box jumps onto the podium as part of my warm up too. In fact, my legs felt electric with energy. I know that sounds weird, but it was true. I stuck with my original choice of a 94.5" gear (49x14t) for my 500m Individual Time Trial.
As always, the 500m ITT is from a standing start with the riders being held up while strapped into their bikes. I got a good start after the timer countdown. Pedaling hard through the corners is always a bit of a challenge, but I managed to do so. I even got that tunnel vision that happens when I'm really on it, and noticed my legs completely exploding for the last half lap, so I suspected that I had given 100% when I crossed the finish line.
Yes, my 500m ITT was good, with a PR tying time of 36.23! I won Gold, beating my Team Sprint teammates Martin Harris and Rich Rozzi by several tenths. This definitely made up for my poor Saturday performance, and I was super stoked. Going from a low to a high like this makes racing exciting. Wow. That also asserted my place on our team. I started my training later than they had, so I perhaps had more to prove, and this helped.
Martin Harris, me and Rich Rozzi on the
500m ITT podium (photo: Jeff Vander Stucken)
We had several hours of waiting around in the 86-degree heat for the Team Sprint to start. It's this way every year, and it's kind of draining. Finally though, it was time for us to race. I warmed up on the rollers a little bit, plus on the track with a rolling start for warmup.
Just to add a bit of drama, our former teammate, Bill Nighan, managed to form a team to race against us. Brian Moore, my teammate at Nationals in 2016 (where we won Gold), plus George Miranda, my Team Sprint teammate at Worlds in 2017, joined Bill to race against us.
As we lined up for our Team Sprint start, I felt pretty comfortable. I'm the starter, or man 1. One point in my favor for our start was that my holder didn't prevent me from rolling backward when I prepared for the end of the countdown. As a result, I had a couple of inches to run into to get a head start on the timer. This is not against the rules, as it's not my fault, and I did not cross the start line before the timer finished it's countdown. So I exploded out of the start, gapping Rich, who was followed closely by Martin. It took Rich the entire first lap to catch me, but that gave him a really nice run into lap 2, and Martin stayed close to him the whole time. That was awesome to see, as it is critical for our speed when we go to Nationals. Interestingly, Rich had tired legs on Sunday, while I had the tired legs on Saturday.
So, we ended up with a 1:11.67 time. That was pretty good, especially considering the windy conditions, though still a bit short of my Team Sprint in 2016 of 1:10.96. And we beat Bill's ad hoc team pretty handily, at 1:14.54.
So, Districts was pretty good for me, and yielded me two more Golds for a total of 11 District Championships I've earned over the last few years. Definitely motivating as we lead up to Nationals, in Los Angeles, August 26 through September 1. The field is already stacked, so we will need to be at our best.
Sometimes I wonder why we bother to race. It can be very stressful, and the sacrifices required are huge, not to mention the danger. But I must admit that it can be extremely rewarding, and it motivates me to stay healthy and fit. Setting goals is a great way to stay motivated, and this year my main goal was to improve on my results from Track Worlds last year.
The vibe at the Los Angeles track, actually in Carson, at the Stubhub’s VELO Sports Center on the Dominguez Hills campus, is always special, starting with the fact that it's a world-class wooden indoor track with steep 45-degree banked turns. And for Track Worlds the added excitement, level of commitment, professionalism, and the international field all combine to make it pretty amazing. The entire infield gets jammed with riders and their equipment, separated by barriers into cubes. People are constantly working on their bikes, riding on their rollers, and trying to recover from their hard efforts on the track. Flags from all over the world, and totally unfamiliar kits and languages all are pretty overwhelming, but very cool.
Margaret helping me in the track's infield.
Since Track Worlds is basically book-ended by Margaret's birthday and our wedding anniversary, I brought Margaret with me and we made lots of plans to have fun in between my races. We drove down on Saturday the 6th, and I got to ride on my rollers for a little bit and leave my equipment at the track, in our “Hellyerville” area, which a bunch of us from Northern California shared, including Larry Nolan, Kevin Metcalfe, and many others. We then checked into our hotel and went out to a really nice dinner in Manhattan Beach.
As I mentioned in my race report from Districts, the Team Sprint was my number one priority for the entire season (you can read about the various types of track races on the NCVA site). Team Sprint is a lot like a high school prom dance. Much drama, changing allegiances, officials getting in the way of having fun, etc. On the other hand, it's also a very cool event because the many moving parts are a lot like a beautiful dance.
Early in the year Rich Rozzi, Bill Nighan and I had formed a team, and had started training together too. Unfortunately, that whole plan blew up when Bill left us for another team just before Districts. So much drama, and it was compounded by even more drama. We replaced Bill with Kurt Bickel, but after Districts, Kurt crashed during a training ride and broke a rib. We had to scramble to find a replacement rider, but it was pretty difficult since we only had about a week to do this, and we were all out of local riders to choose from. Fortunately, Facebook allowed us to connect to riders from all over the world, and just a few days before the race we found a replacement rider in Guy Mansio of France. Guy is fast, and specializes as man 3 (Rich and I are better as starters) and he's an 8-time French Champion too. So we were a good match. The UCI rules specifically mentioned that mixed nationality teams were allowed, even if they were not preferred, as we were unable to find any US riders who were registered and available at that time.
Sunday, 10/7: 500 meter Time Trial
Sunday was the first race for me, Rich, and Guy. It was our 500 meter Time Trial (standing start, two laps on LA’s 250-meter track). Since it was not my top priority, I mostly wanted to use it as a test of my fitness and form, and as a way to compare our relative strengths so we could position ourselves optimally for the Team Sprint that would be on Thursday.
For the 500-meter, I used the best equipment I could, including a borrowed front disc wheel. I also had a new helmet, and Spokesman Bicycles skinsuit (by Castelli), and used atypically low 92.6-inch gearing (48x14 teeth) which I had arrived at after experimenting with taller gears in the past. The extra acceleration in the start from the lower gearing seems to more than compensate for any loss at the higher speeds in lap two.
Waiting for my 500 start.
My Coach, Jeff Solt, hadn't arrived yet, but fortunately my good friend and workout buddy, Tony Collichio, was there to help me out. Tony and Margaret made my life a lot easier as I got ready for my run. They carried my bike around and brought me water and anything else I asked for. I'm so lucky to have them. We also made sure my bike got checked in with the UCI officials who check for minimum weight and allowable bike geometry using a special jig that holds the bike against several sliding metal rulers that verify the bike's setup. I felt pretty good and calm as I waited my turn. Soon I was called up to the track's apron, and my bike was locked into the mechanical starting gate that's connected to the electronic timing system. Very cool set up, but one that requires very careful timing by the riders. I strapped into my pedals and followed the countdown of the timer for my start... beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, GO!
My start in the 500 felt pretty good, right out of the starting gate. I pedaled hard, standing up for over half a lap, before I sat down. I felt I was doing my absolute best, but in lap 2 I definitely felt lactic acid accumulate in my legs. Soon I felt like I could barely pedal and when I crossed the finish line it was a relief.
In the pain cave during lap 2 of my 500 (photo: Scott Dworkin).
Once I had cooled down and results were posted, I was a bit disappointed to see that my 36.913-second time was 7/10 slower than last year, and placed me in 11th overall, down from 9th last year. Heck, just 3 weeks earlier I had set a faster time in a training race.
Still, the 500 was not my main priority, and I was more interested in the lap splits of my Team Sprint teammates. They were pretty much what I had expected, and confirmed what we had already decided to do for our Team Sprint start order (me as man 1, Rich as man 2, Guy as man 3).
Here are our lap 1, lap 2, and total times, with the overall results in parentheses:
Rider
Lap 1
Lap 2
Total
Dennis
20.655 (7th)
16.258 (14th)
36.913 (11th)
Guy
20.702 (8th)
15.319 (6th)
36.021 (6th)
Rich
20.984 (9th)
15.463 (7th)
36.448 (8th)
I rode the seventh fastest lap 1 out of all 25 riders, and in the Team Sprint I'd be our man 1, just riding one lap. So all in all, I was pretty happy with my lap 1, though not so happy about my lap 2. And our 8th and 6th overall for Rich and Guy meant that we'd be well-positioned for a high overall finish too. All I needed to do would be to duplicate that lap 1 time for our Team Sprint to come on Thursday in order to put us in contention for the podium. That would be so awesome!
The UCI live streamed the afternoon session races, so you can see video of me in this race (starting around 2:13:30). I even had friends and family rooting for me from back home!
Tuesday, 10/9: Match Sprints
Last year I must admit that I suffered from a lot of stress and anxiety over the Match Sprints. So much so that this year I almost didn't register to compete in them. But winning another gold in Match Sprints at Districts helped convince me to try them again at Worlds. Last year I had slid out on the track during a flying 200 run in a training race, due to slippery tires, and it had unnerved me a bit. We have to ride very slowly in the windup for our flying 200, and those low speeds, combined with the 45-degree banking and slippery wooden surface, make it a little tricky to avoid sliding out. Fortunately, this year I had better wheels and tires and some ideas for how to approach my flying 200 so I could just qualify. Just qualify, that's all I wanted to do, since my time of 12.254 seconds last year wasn't fast enough to qualify for the actual Match Sprints then.
On Tuesday morning, I got on the track to practice approaches for the flying 200. That and riding on the rollers was enough to prepare me. This time I used 98.4-inch gearing (51x14 teeth) for the flying 200, which is a slightly lower gear than I used in the past. I was much more relaxed and confident than I had been last year, so I was not at all (well, not very) intimidated when my turn came to ride. Jeff and Margaret helped me get ready, we submitted the bike for check-in with the UCI officials, and soon I was awaiting my turn on the track’s apron.
Jeff holding for my 200.
Jeff held me up while I strapped into my pedals, and when it was my turn he pushed me up to the rail on the back straight and I was on my own. My wind up this year involved a line my friend Tony Collichio and I had discussed. It was essentially a way to spiral upward on the track to gain altitude gradually rather than trying to ride along the rail the whole time, which would tire me out because I'd have to maintain a higher speed and use more energy powering up the transitions into turns from the straights. Instead, by dropping down the banking in the steepest sections, I was able to use gravity to maintain my speed and build it up. So, on the last lap and a half, I was much more rested than I had been last year, and I was able to use some power out of turn 2 and up into the turn 3 transition, after which I floated a bit into turn 4, then powered for all I was worth down the home straight and into turn 1 and the start of timing at the start of turn 2. Sometimes you can just tell, and because my legs felt like they still had some snap at the finish, I knew I had done well. Coming around on my cooldown lap, the announcer and the huge screen told me that I had: 11.887 seconds; an all-time PR for me! I was beyond stoked!
My time was one of the fastest at that time, but of course the faster riders were mostly still to come. As other riders finished their runs, I moved further down the leaders board and ended up as the 9th place qualifier, out of 12 qualifiers from the 25 competitors. But I qualified this time, while the 13 slower riders went home! Also, because I was 9th, I was not matched against the fastest rider in my first heat.
1/8 Finals:
I would have expected to go up against the 4th qualifier, but for some reason I was up against the 5th qualifier, ironically, Guy Mansio, my new teammate for team sprint! He had qualified with a very fast 11.604.
Start of ride 1 against Guy.
Ride 1: We drew lots for our start positions, and I drew “2” so I would start above Guy, next to the rail. Jeff held me back for a couple of seconds. That allowed me to get a little bit of a gap to Guy. Guy had to lead me out for the first half lap, and I followed slowly behind him, up-track, swerving a bit. But he increased the pace and I had to drop down-track to keep him close enough. He slowed, though, and I was able to go up-track again, and in the lap 2 I went up to the rail in turn 3... that ended being a small mistake, because he was very vigilant and as soon as I committed to that he accelerated, forcing me to chase him down. The gap almost got too big, but on lap 3 I drafted him a bit. This allowed me to run the gap to him on the back straight, but he was too fast and I was only able to reach his rear wheel. I hoped for some energy out of turn 4, but he held me off for the win.
Ride 2: For ride 2 I led Guy out, and I don't remember the ride well enough to give a coherent description. Suffice it to say he was able to pass me in spite of my usual swerving, and he advanced to the 1/4 Finals, while I had to race again, in the “repêchage,” for a chance to to get back into it rather than just being out after one round.
Repêchage: The repêchage is for the losers in the 1/8 finals. So I still had a chance at the medals. In this case it was me against Vladimir Makeev of Russia, and Kenneth “Dean” Todd of Florida. I drew “1,” so I started low on the track. I don't remember this ride very well either, but I won and that's the important thing. These 3-up rides tend to just be a bit of a drag race, with less in the way of tactics.
1/4 Finals:
Since I won the repêchage, I was now the lowest-ranked remaining qualifier. That meant it was now my turn to go up against the fastest qualifier from the previous rounds: Geoff Stoker of Australia. He had qualified with a new age group flying 200 World Record time of 10.917 seconds! Absolutely amazing, but that didn't keep me from wanting to beat him, or at least do my best trying.
Waiting for Ride 1 with Geoff Stoker.
Ride 1: I drew “2” for the start against Geoff, and Coach Jeff helped me up to the rail. When the whistle blew Geoff rolled down toward the apron, while Jeff held me back for a couple of seconds again, to give me a little bit of a gap to Geoff. We slowly rode around the apron although I did zigzag a bit just to keep him on his toes. On the back straight we went right up to the rail and almost did a track stand. But he was apparently not comfortable trying that, and soon we were zigzagging back down toward the apron again. On the home straight we repeated the slow maneuver, with Geoff’s rear tire even sliding a little bit, and we resumed our pace soon enough with him still leading me out. But we did swoop around a little bit in the turns as the pace picked up. I was fairly high on the track in turn 3 just as he started to accelerate into our third and last lap. I quickly dropped down the banking to avoid having him steal away, but he floated a little bit through the home straight, which closed the gap too much for me, and made it harder for me to pass him. In turn 1 I went up-track a bit to try to overtake him on the back straight, and this partially worked, but not nearly enough, and through turns 3 and 4 I was only able to almost get next to his rear wheel with my front wheel. He won by a bike length without burning too much energy. Margaret took video of our ride:
Ride 2: This time I started from first position, and we rode slowly away. Aside from more zig-zagging, we continued this for a while, with me just trying to reduce the gap back to him by slowing and going up track. This continued as the pace picked up, and only on the last lap did he pass me, into turn 3, at which point I relaxed to avoid wasting any more energy racing a rider whose top speed is over 2 mph faster than mine. I was out of the medals. Here's Margaret's video:
Minor Finals:
The Minor Finals decide 5th through 8th place. Our starting positions like usual were decided by drawing lots. I drew “1.” In this case it was a 4-up, with me in the pole at the start, then Guy, Rich, and Bill Nighan at the rail. But Rich had wanted to just go for it from the start, without ever letting up. So for him it would have been better to be in the pole position rather than me. In the end, Bill really went for it first, and because he had a nice drop from the rail he was able to get a lead on everybody. Rich, Guy and I followed behind, but Guy pretty soon went around Bill and Rich, with me following. I tried to box Bill in behind Guy as we came next to him, but I bumped into Bill a couple of times, unintentionally, as he came up track, and that slowed me down a little and allowed Bill to move forward. So we ended up in that order: Guy in 5th, Bill in 6th, me in 7th, and Rich in 8th. Video by Margaret:
So, I didn't advance as far as I could have, but it's unlikely that I could have done much better than I did. Overall I was way ahead of where I had expected to be, and the feeling was exhilarating! I just wish the UCI also live-streamed the morning sessions; Match Sprints are exciting to watch!
Thursday, 10/11: Team Sprint
In addition to the drama I mentioned above, the UCI had more drama in store for us. On Wednesday, literally the day before our race was scheduled, UCI officials inadvertently were alerted to the fact that there were several teams of mixed nationalities. While this is allowed specifically, as mentioned above, it is not preferred and in this case there were enough US riders to form several non composite teams. So, very late in the game, with just a few hours to act, we suddenly had to abandon Guy as our man 3, and instead find a US rider from one of the other composite teams to ride with us. We ended up with Kenneth Todd (Kenneth goes by Dean), who I had beaten in the Match Sprints.
He rode a 21.228 lap 1, and a 37.330 in his 500 m on Sunday. So while he was fast, he was a bit slower than Guy, and not quite as ideal a match since he also is not a man 3. So our new US team had three riders who were all a man 1 or a man 2. No US man 3 specialists could be found. Still, it was better than not racing at all.
Conferring with Rich and Jeff for Team Sprint.
Warming up on the rollers.
Deciding on start positions is part science and part art. You don't want gaps to form during the Team Sprint between riders, so you have to make sure each rider’s strengths are matched to the others. In this case, because Dean had a slightly slower time in the 500 m than Rich and I, we decided it was safest to put him as man 1, while I switched to man 3. I haven't trained to be man 3 either. Not ideal, for any of us, but it was the best compromise with the options we had.
On Thursday morning I spent some time on the rollers, for warm up, and then did a few rolling starts on the track just to get the legs ready. We had over an hour wait before we raced, and I just got on the rollers of couple times to keep the legs awake. After consulting with Jeff, we decided I would stick with tall 98.4-inch gearing. In better circumstances I would have gone substantially lower, riding as man 1.
Me, Rich and Dean for Team Sprint.
When the officials called our names out for the bike check, Jeff and Margaret once again helped me get ready. We got the bike on the UCI’s jig again, while I rested in the chairs there, and soon we were called up to the track to get strapped in for our start. The timing countdown starts when the first bike is put in position in the mechanical starting gate. So it's always best to have that bike set up last. Instead, the assistant for Dean installed the bike in the starting gate before any of us were on the track yet. That gave us very little time to get strapped in on our bikes and get ready for the start. In fact, I heard the official say “15 seconds,” and was flabbergasted. I had only enough time to strap in my right shoe, and the left straps were never tightened for my Team Sprint. Fortunately, it never mattered and we were able to get a clean ride in.
Dean started very nicely, and Rich slotted in right behind him, followed by me. We rode hard, in fact, we rode so hard that even though I was riding in Rich's draft, I worried that I was going to be tired during my solo lap 3. During the 2nd lap exchange, when Rich dropped me off for lap 3, I went below him on the track to gain advantage of the latest rules which allow overlap of bikes in the exchange, and went so low that I nicked a sponge in the exchange area. I don't think it slowed me down, and I accelerated as Rich pulled up track, followed by my rear tire slipping out a bit at the exit of turn 2. But yes, my legs were starting to get tired, and I know it hurt our time.
When the final qualifying results, came in I was disappointed to see how slow my lap 3 had been. Our lap 1 was pretty good (21.116, 7th), followed by Rich's lap 2 (15.059, 2nd!) which was awesome. But my 16.512 lap 3 was only 10th fastest. So my lap 3 ended up costing us at least half a second. Combined with the half second our lap 1 cost us, our 52.688 for 5th place missed qualifying by just over half a second to 4th place's 52.156. We were bummed, knowing that our team had been sabotaged by events out of our control. My best estimate of what our team could have done with Guy as man 3 is about 50.6 seconds (20.6 + 15 + 15 = 50.6). That would have given us 3rd qualifying position, and a real shot at the podium. Still, we did the best with what we had and I'm proud of that.
Thus ended my second visit to the Masters Track Cycling World Championships. Margaret and I got to spend some time in Disneyland and in nice restaurants before driving home on Saturday.
Out of my three events I improved vastly in the Match Sprints, was slightly better in the Team Sprints, and was only slightly slower in the 500, so I think it's safe to say that I met my goal of improving over last year. It is very exciting, and I wish I could do it more, but for the next two years Track Worlds will be held in Manchester, England, and I am not inclined to travel that far.
Instead, my focus next year will be on the 2019 USAC Masters Track National Championships, which it happens will be held in Los Angeles, in August, on this very same awesome track! I'm much more motivated than I was last year after Worlds, so I'm looking forward to this very much! A week off, then I hit the gym hard. Please wish me luck.
