Summer Racing Update (The B-Grade Part)

One of my core reasons for getting back on top of the old blog is to keep you all updated on my racing progress.  In years gone by there hasn’t been much to keep anyone updated about, for the most part I’ve nearly always been pack fodder for whatever grade of racing I’m in, but this season something has clicked.  I’ve dropped 8 or 9 kg, my threshold power has gone up, my resulting power to weight ratio is better than ever, and most importantly, I’ve been getting results on the road.

 

Since work commitments restrict my road racing campaign year in year out, my focus has always been the criterium season (focus might be the wrong word, because until this season, I wouldn’t say I focused on any one aspect of racing, I just rode my bike).  In September of 2009 I bought myself a power meter to train with, which at least bought a bit of meaning to the riding I was doing, but it’s taken a good 12 months to reap the benefits.  In July of 2010 I also built a pretty kick ass crit bike, so when the summer criterium season began, I was all out of excuses, and it was time to start getting a return on my investments.

 

I started the season with a “training” ride in A grade down at St Kilda since inclement weather had delayed the start to the Footscray CC season.  My plan was only to enter B grade, but since I’d only finished work at 4am the previous morning, along with some prodding from some of the Footscray boys, I slept in for another hour and went around in A grade instead.  To my surprise, I survived for more than half the race, which I was pretty happy with since I deliberately sat on the back so as not to get in anybodies way, and there are often some seriously heavy hitters that get around down there on a Sunday morning.

 

From that I took a good deal of confidence in to the first Footscray CC B grade race, which I won pretty convincingly, even if I do say so myself.  I had a plan to follow one of the older sprinters wheels in the later part of the race, since they always seem to find a way through traffic, so when I found Colin Morris’s wheel, I stuck to it like glue, but he decided to have a crack with 2 laps to go, so where he went, I went.  On the bell lap, the 2 of us got a bit tangled with the A grade finish and I lost a bit of momentum as a result.  The way I saw it, I had to give it everything there and then, and when I went, Colin couldn’t come too and I soloed to the finish 100m clear of the chasing bunch.

 

The second race was very nearly a carbon copy of the first.  With a couple of laps to go I found Colin’s wheel, and was set to go until someone else decided they wanted Colin’s wheel as well.  Shoulders, then elbows were exchanged before I clipped the wheel in front and hit the deck, taking a good sized chunk out of my left knee, and a few other riders with me.   The grazed knee didn’t hold me back for too long, but it did take a few weeks to get some confidence back, but when it did, I found myself to be a marked rider, and wasn’t given much leeway by the B grade bunch, which was frustrating to say the least.

[caption id="attachment_116" align="alignleft" width="223" caption="This is what the knee looked like AFTER I'd cleaned it up (and after I'd ridden for an hour home from the race)"][/caption]

 

The first week of December bought the Tour Of Bright, which again, I was talked into by some of the Footscray CC boys (I’m looking at you Treloar), but my racing preparation had been hampered somewhat by my crash and the rubbish weather Melbourne experienced during November, particularly on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings which washed out races.  The last crit before Bright looked like being rained out too, but through some kind of luck we got a start, and with half an hour constituting a race, and dark clouds looming, I attacked from the get go to ensure I got a workout in.  I got tangled with A grade for a few laps until the B grade bunch got going and bought me back, and an break of 3 went up the road not long after.  With rain looking imminent, and having recovered from my first effort, I bridged across to the leaders and we were never caught.  I picked the wrong line down the straight for the sprint and my back wheel got airborne 3 times which spoiled my chance for the win, but I wound up with a well deserved 2^nd.

 

The Tour of Bright deserves a post of it’s own, but that’s probably not gonna happen.  To summarise, it was my first open road race, the first stage race I’d competed in for 3 years and the first road race I’d entered in more than 6 months.  It was far and away the largest bunch I’d ever ridden in (over 110 starters), and there was over 3000 meters of vertical ascent over the 2 road stages.  Just finishing was my goal, finishing in the top half of the field I felt was some kind of achievement.

 

Weather again meant there was very little racing between the Tour of Bright and the Footscray CC Christmas classic, even then the Christmas Classic itself was rescheduled after the original date was rained out.  I hadn’t tried anything in the previous race since I had targeted the Christmas Classic and didn’t want to wind up in A grade ahead of it (sandbagger), and I had some mates already up the road, but I knew my form was good leading in to the race, and I intended on making it my last B grade race regardless of the result.

 

I had a very clear plan of launching an early attack just to see who in the bunch was going to react, followed by a more venomous attack at around the 30 minute mark that was going to break the back of the bunch.  As it happened, I never had to fire the first shot, as there was no shortage of attacks in the opening laps, but what was obvious was that the international rider, Meng, was the strongest in the bunch and was willing to chase anything and everything down.  The constant attacks and ensuing chases were taking their toll on the bunch, and even after only 5 or 10 minutes, the bunch was being strung out and riders were dropping wheels right left and centre.  It was obvious to me that the shelter of the middle of the bunch wasn’t the place to be with all the loose riding going on, so I moved up and couldn’t help myself when attacks went, following the breaks or jumping across the gaps as they appeared.  With Meng being hell bent on bringing back the breaks, I knew many of the attacks weren’t going to stick, but when Meng attacked himself, I had no option but to go with him.  Meng and I spent the remaining 40 minutes of the race off the front, building a half lap gap to the chasing peleton.  I gifted the race to Meng, since he was clearly the stronger of the two of us, and he had done the lion’s share of the work to build our breakaway, and even though I hadn’t left B grade on top, I was happy enough with the 2^nd step of the podium and the fashion in which I earned it.

 

Welcome Back

Having not touched this blog for quite some time, I figured now was as good a time as any to get it going again.  I’m not really one for new years resolutions, but I have kind of resolved to try and stay up to date with the blog in 2011 (once a week can’t be all that hard).  There will be a flurry of activity to begin with, but hopefully I can settle in to some sort of routine as the summer wears on.

 

Yosemite, Part 1

It's about time I issued an update to let everyone know that I've returned from Yosemite alive and well, which considering the recent conditions in the Sierra Nevada, that was no mean feat.  Normally by this time of the year close to all of the park is accessible and most of it's facilities are open, but owing to a very heavy winter snowpack, and unseasonably late winter storms and snowfalls, much of the park, particularly the high country, is still covered in snow.

My original plan was to hike around 55km (and up about 2000m) round trip to Tuolumne Meadows from Yosemite Valley, but since the road to Tuolomne Meadows hadn't been officially opened when I was supposed to leave (it had been plowed, but they were worried warmer weather would cause the 8 foot high walls of snow at the side of the roads collapse as they melted), I had to change my plans, and instead took out a wilderness permit to hike to Merced Lake, which would be between 35 and 40 km round trip, so I also decided to shorten my trip in to the wilderness and spend a few more days in the Valley.  As it happens, that was the first of many good decisions I made for the week, they may not have all been for the right reasons, but I stand by all of my decisions.

My first day of hiking took me along the Merced river and up the Mist trail, past Vernall and Nevada falls, then through Little Yosemite Valley.  My wilderness permit dictated I couldn't spend the night in the established campground in Little Yosemite Valley, so I trudged on with my 40kg pack, and made a decision that I wasn't going to hike any further than I had to with such a load on my back, and I made camp at the first spot my permit allowed, at Moraine Dome.



Without going in to a lot of detail, camping out in the wilderness solo for the first time is quite an experience.  In one 16 hour period I think I learned more about myself than in the past 16 years, and the following day I decided not to press on further to Merced Lake, but to retreat back to the campground at Little Yosemite Valley.  I may have made that decision based on not being all that comfortable being alone in the wilderness, or maybe it was my legs aching from hauling my pack up nearly 1000 metres in elevation in addition to the 12km distance I travelled the day before, but as I said earlier, regardless of my reasoning, it was the right decision, since the Merced river, which the trail I was to take follows, was rising by the hour as warmer temperatures started to melt snow at an accelerated rate.  In some areas of the trail that I had only hiked a day earlier, there was up to a foot of water where it had previously been dry.  Had I stuck with the plan B of hiking to Merced Lake, there would certainly be deep water to navigate, and fast streams to negotiate, not to mention that although Merced Lake is a lot closer than Tuolumne Meadows, it too is also above the snow line.  There's a good  chance that if I ever made it to Merced Lake, I may still be there.

Friday was a day of consolidation as I made the comparatively short and flat hike back to the Little Yosemite Valley campground.  While I had gone off in to the wilderness to find solitude, it was kind of nice to see a few people again to regain some feeling of safety in numbers.  Other than the rising water on the trail, it was a fairly uneventful day.  The short hike gave my legs a chance to recover for my hike to Half Dome on Saturday, but that can wait for part 2.

Quick Update

Hello boys and girls. My apologies for the lack of updates in the past week but the honest truth is I haven't done much that I'd consider interesting to a lot of people, and when I have done something fun and interesting, it comes at the expense of writing a blog. I will also apologize in advance, since come tomorrow (or later today actually) I'll be heading off to Yosemite, so I won't have any form of communications for the next week to 10 days.

To briefly sum up my activities since my last update nearly a week ago, I have :

• Racked up close to 500 k's on the bike


• Visited the Oakley factory (kind of underwhelming even for a fanboi like me, and I didn't spend any money in case anyone was wondering)


• Been back to Newport Beach and found the famous frozen banana stand (again, underwhelming, but I don't know if it was bad chocolate or a bad banana)


• Visited Trestles, another of Southern California's famous surf breaks (and like the banana stand, it took me 2 100km round trip rides to find it)


• Hung out at the Hermosa Beach Fiesta, where somebody who shall remain nameless may have had a bit too much to drink, and someone else wound up with one of the more peculiar tan lines I think I've seen (neither of which could have been me, since I don't drink and my tan lines, while stark and distinctive, I do not consider to be out of the ordinary)


• Had lunch with John, Brad and Eryka on the Oceanside Pier


• Saw a tarantula and rattlesnake out on the road and got photos of neither (the tarantula was scurrying away, but the rattlesnake wasn't going anywhere, it wasn't in the most photogenic state either if you catch my drift)


• Watched unknown hours of what will henceforth be known as train wreck TV, so bad you don't want to look, but so tragic you can't look away (Real Housewives of New Jersey anyone? It's only a matter of time before somebody gets whacked for real on that show)

Like I said earlier, there will be no new updates for a week or so while I'm hiking in Yosemite, but i'll be endeavoring to do things the Ye Olde way with a paper and pencil, which at some point I'll transcribe back into electronic form for your consumption, just don't expect it to happen before I return home on the 14th of June (but I'll do my best to get some photos up before I get back on an aeroplane).

The O.C.

It's been a few days since my last update, so I figure I ought to fill people in on what I've been up to the last few days. I suppose the biggest thing to happen since Saturday was relocating down to Orange County and staying at Brad and Eryka's place in Ladera Ranch. I had earlier planned to stay in LA until Monday and try to catch the final stage of the Tour of California, but with the finale starting and ending in the San Fernando Valley, I pyked and headed down to the OC instead to watch Brad play in the SCAFL Grand Final. In case you're wondering (and most of you probably are), that's the Southern California Australian Football League, which consists of 4 teams that play what could best be described as a condensed version of Aussie Rules, played on a smaller field (which is just whatever is available I guess) and only 9 players a side to keep the game flowing. The league also fields a full 18 man squad in the national tournament, but on Sunday it was the OC Jets taking on the Beachside Sharks for Southern California bragging rights. In blustery conditions, it was the Sharks who won the day with the last kick of the game, leaving Brad's Jets to rue their poor return in front of goal having kicked 13 behinds and only 4 goals.

My mission for Monday was to get back on the bike since I hadn't ridden since Wednesday's climb up Sierra Grade. This gave me an opportunity to explore my new surroundings, and ride some more of the Pacific Coast Highway that I didn't ride on my trip in 2007. The destination I set for myself was Newport Beach, and in particular Balboa Island, which is famous for frozen bananas and The Wedge.



I never did find a chocolate covered frozen banana, leaving me to believe that maybe the banana stand got cancelled along side Arrested Development, which didn't make much sense to me since there's always money in the banana stand. Eryka has assured me though with or without an actual banana stand, frozen bananas are available on Balboa Island, I just wasn't looking in the right spot, so I'll have another crack later in the week. I did manage to find The Wedge, which was working enough to give me an idea of how gnarly that wave can get with a decent swell.

TOC Stage 7 - LA Time Trial

Todays stage of the Tour of California was really the last opportunity for a big GC shake up, combine that with being the only stage in this years race that took place close enough for most Southern Californians to watch the riders go by, and it was always going to be a massive day.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was going to try to get a VIP pass for todays stage since I missed out yesterday.  Brad's significant other, Eryka, entered me in a contest posted by V Australia on twitter during the day on Thursday, while I was staring out a train window between Oakland and LA.  The first I'd actually heard about said contest was when I checked in to my LA hotel late Thursday night and checked my email, where I found an email from V Australia's marketing manager regarding VIP passes for Friday's stage to Big Bear.  I didn't quite know what to make of it, since at that point I hadn't read Eryka's emails explaining she had entered me in a twitter contest, and while I had been given a contact within the Fly V Australia team before leaving for the race, since the rider wasn't on the roster for California, I thought better of making the call.   To cut a long story short, I had to contact the marketing manager for V Australia by 3.30 in the afternoon on Thursday to arrange to have the pass sent to me, I didn't read the email until 9.30 pm on Thursday, I also didn't have any means to get out to Big Bear, since it's around a 2 hour drive from LA, and the road that goes up there was going to be closed most of the day anyway, so I figured my best shot was trying my luck in swapping stages.  I don't know how many phone calls later (but I have every idea they weren't cheap!) I didn't have an answer, so I thought my best bet was to visit the V Australia tent today and play the poor Aussie tourist card.  Again, I was too late, as they had found homes for their allocation of VIP passes for the day, but I did manage to score a couple of bottles (although if you timed it right, just about anybody could have done the same).

On to the racing.  Being a time trial, and being an out and back/circuit type course, there was plenty of opportunities to catch the riders, and since in a TT the riders are all going solo, it's also a great time to pick out the favorites to try and catch some photos.  Since the leaders were going off later in the afternoon I spent the early part of the stage checking out the lifestyle festival (I only bought 2 T-shirts today, and got another for nothing) and the teams compound, where riders were warming up and preparing for their time against the clock.  Conveniently for the riders and spectators alike, this was right near the start chute, so I could bounce between the compound and start line catching riders outside their busses and on the course, but it didn't stop me from missing current world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (although he has had a very disappointing tour to date, but you can't peak for 8 months a year).  My position near the chute was also near a split in the out and back section of the course that headed south towards the LA Coliseum, so for any given rider I had the potential to see them 4 times on the 2 lap circuit.

[caption id="attachment_67" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Although Cav missed the time cut yesterday, he still showed up to keep the sponsors happy"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_69" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Spartacus post race, and Andy Schleck pre race"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_70" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Avid readers of Bikesnob NYC will recognize this man, The Lone Wolf"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_71" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Dave Z evidently likes to warm up wearing a sleeping mask..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_72" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Bjarne Riis, sorting out radios for Andy Schleck"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_73" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Jens warming up prior to his start, his 5th place on the stage catapulted him into the top 5 overall"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_74" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Peter Sagan ahead of his start"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_75" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Michael Rogers warming up"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_77" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Points leader and best young rider Peter Sagan"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_78" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Dave Z dives in to the corner"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_79" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Crowd favorite Levi Leipheimer"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_80" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Captain America, US National TT Champion Dave Zabriske"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_81" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Mick Rogers on a flyer"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_82" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Aussie Rory Sutherland, highest placed non pro tour rider in 5th place overall entering stage 7"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_83" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Michael Rogers on his way to 2nd place on the stage, and securing his yellow jersey"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_84" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Dave Zabriske could only manage 3rd on the stage, losing precious seconds overall to our Mick"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_85" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Mick Rogers, 150 meters to go"][/caption]

At the conclusion of the stage, HTC Columbia were the big winners, with German national TT champion Tony Martin taking out the stage, and Michael Rogers' second place secured valuable seconds over GC rival Dave Zabriske to extend his overall lead to 9 seconds.  Although tomorrows stage includes 4 repeats of the climb on Mullholand Highway, HTC have demonstrated that they are able to defend the jersey, and Rogers has made all the selections the race has created to date.  Well done Mick, and good luck tomorrow.

LA

Ahh, LA, not Lance Armstrong, since he crashed out of the Tour of California yesterday, but Los Angeles.  Yesterday, for the first time on this trip, I got the kind of sensations that I get the biggest kick out of while on holiday, that nervous energy you get when you're put in an unfamiliar situation or environment.

Anyone who knows me probably also knows that this is my 5th trip to California.  My time in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area kind of lacked that bit of excitement, since for the most part everything up there is familiar to me.  I can walk out of a subway station and know which way is north even if the city is surrounded by fog (which it normally is), but downtown LA is a different beast.  The last time I ventured in to downtown Los Angeles was more than 8 years ago, and then, after making one wrong turn out of the subway, Karla and I literally wound up on LA's skid row, not the best place in the world to pull out your map (read: tourist billboard), so I was determined not to let that happen again.

My Journey down from the Bay Area started early in downtown Oakland, and like downtown LA, Oakland isn't well known for it's vibrant culture.  It's not a scary place or anything, just from what I saw of it, there isn't anything particularly redeeming about it, which has me rethinking my travel plans to Yosemite in a few weeks, which would have me stay in Oakland overnight.  Anyways, i was in Oakland to get the Coast Starlight train all the way to LA.  All of the Train journey's I've done in the California up to this point had been nothing if not pleasant (my bus ride to Bakersfield in '07 to catch a connecting train doesn't count), the trains are usually sparsely occupied, so there's ample space, the seats and legroom are closer to business class on an aeroplane (even if it is a plane from 1993), and there is commonly power available in every row of seats to plug in a laptop to make the journey go by that little bit quicker.  The Coast Starlight however, does not have power in the coach class cabins, which was a bit of a buzz kill, what's more, it begins it's journey in Seattle, 24 hours or so before it gets to Oakland, so imagine what the cabin of a jumbo jet looks like after it's made a flight across the Pacific, and you'd have a fair idea of what I was confronted with when I boarded the train.  The train was also apparently pretty full, so I had been allocated a seat next to somebody, which also turned out to be the largest person on board, even by American standards.

Before anyone thinks I'm being judgmental, I'd just like to point out that my blog is as much for me to record my observations as it is for you to read them.  I didn't necessarily have a problem with personal space, since the seats were plenty big enough, and I didn't have any problem with any odour (which considering the guy had been on a train for at least 12 hours was something he could even be congratulated on), what i did have a problem with was heat.  There was an intense heat that radiated from this mans body that made me uncomfortable, it was similar to sitting next to a patio heater on a sunny afternoon, it just wasn't necessary.  The man did suggest that there was a pair of seats a few rows further up the carriage that were allocated to a passenger, but he was spending all his time in the observation car (a carriage with lounge type seating that face the windows, and has windows in the roof as well), so I could move there if I wasn't comfortable, but I couldn't really get up and move seats, since I considered that to be a bit rude, so I stuck it out for a while, knowing that my fall back position was in fact to move to the observation car myself.  I felt bad that my body language had obviously reflected I wasn't overly happy with the seating arrangement, so I did my best to be friendly, and accepted the situation.  After about 20 minutes or so however, the man then suggested that if I didn't want to move a few rows up then he was going to instead, which erased my earlier guilt, since as it happens, he just didn't want to sit next to anybody.  He was very polite about it and I was happy to move since I hadn't been on board long enough to get settled.

The train ride from the Bay Area to LA takes near enough to 12 hours, which sucks when you consider it takes a bit over an hour to fly, and even driving only 5 or 6 hours if you take the most direct route.  What you don't get on the train that you do at airports or in cars is stress.  There doesn't seem to be any hurry on board a train, so all there is to do is relax and take it all in.  While the train lines tend to run through the more downtrodden parts of the towns it passes through, the Coast Starlight spends an a lot of time hugging the coastline or rattling through lush valleys.  I found I didn't miss not having power to run my laptop for the entire journey, since I spent most of my time staring out the windows.  As the day and train rolled on, the scenery kept getting better, and to the credit of the staff on board, the train got cleaner (Oakland had been the first stop after an overnight section of the journey from Seattle after all), so by the time I got off the train in LA, I was content with my choice to travel by rail rather than by air.  My only recommendation to anyone thinking of making the same choice is I think it would be more enjoyable with someone to share it with (that way you don't run the risk of sitting next to anyone who you may not be comfortable with).

With the above ground section of the train ride over with, it was then on to the LA Metro to complete my rail travel for the day.  Contrary to most opinions, LA can be navigated without a car, and they have put a lot of time and money back in to public transport, but since the state of California is pretty much broke, it's unfortunate that it won't continue to grow at the same rate it has since I was here in 2002.  Getting off the subway and returning to street level I was promptly returned to the sensations I had back in 2002, since just like 8 years ago, once I got back above ground I had absolutely no idea where I was, which was kind of exhilarating.  Much of downtown LA was only built to between 10 and 15 stories to minimize risk during the always prevalent earthquakes, which makes it difficult to find any landmark as a point of reference, and as I found out last night, it also makes it difficult for a GPS to get a lock on to any satellites.  By the time my Garmin had a signal, i had found a map, oriented myself, and was headed to my hotel.  For anyone intending to navigate their way downtown, my key pointers are the numbered streets run from east to west, and they are numbered from north to south.  With that little tidbit you should only go in the wrong direction for one block before getting back on track.

Since I couldn't make it out to todays stage of the Tour of California, I instead headed to familiar territory in Hollywood.  While some things are still the same, like the number of tourists, and in turn the wierdo's that they attract, like all those who take it upon themselves to dress up like a movie character and hang out in front of the Chinese Theatre.  In-n-Out Burger on Sunset managed to be the first In-n-Out to ever screw up my order (I didn't want mustard on my burger, blechh) so I guess that was different, what was also different is the amount of new development around the Vine end of Hollywood, which had been neglected for a long time.  Today marked the grand opening of a new Trader Joe's on Vine between Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, so I joined the fun by taking the opportunity to stock up on fruit an Clif Bars for the remainder of my stay in LA county.

[caption id="attachment_62" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Seriously, who else's star on the Walk of Fame did you think I'd find?"][/caption]

Tomorrow I'll spend the day watching the Tour of California stage 7 time trial take over the streets around downtown LA.  With a bit of luck I might get a VIP pass courtesy of V Australia, since I wasn't able to use the passes for stage 6 at Big Bear Lake that somebody who shall presently remain nameless managed to win for me.  That will have to be a story for tomorrow.