brickhouseracing

Tuesday was the 1st annual Spring Front Porch Grand Opening Cookout. I can’t think of a better way to spend a post-bike-ride evening…

Why do Krystal, Molly, and I look pissed off? No idea. If you’re quick-witted & whatnot, comment with a caption for this photo.

AKA- You mean to tell me I’m good at climbing?

It was off to McMinnville, TN this weekend for the Highland Rim Omnium.

RR
It was a tough one. About 15 miles into the 55 mile race, there was a ~3 mile long climb. The first 15 miles sucked because noone wanted to take a decent pull, so we ended up slinky-ing all the way up to base of the climb. Once we hit the climb, Debbie Milne (of course) got away from most of the pack, which was stringing out along the grade. One rider, a tiny Trek 19 rider named Flavia, stayed on her wheel until the last pitch, when Debbie looked over her shoulder and took off as if she were leaving flat ground. I passed a lot of people going up the hill and ended up in a chase group of 5. We immediately organized a rotating paceline and took off. It was to no avail, though. After chasing hard for most of the course, we descended back off of the plateau and headed towards the finish line to sprint for 2nd place. Luckily, I’d tried to help Kirsten Sass at GC Chattanooga, so when it came time for the sprint, she gave me an exceptional leadout, and I was able to pull off a (2nd place) win.

TT
The TT started on the base of the decent we’d navigated earlier in the day at the end of the RR. Notice I say ON the base. Not AT, not JUST BEFORE, but ON the actual climb itself. No fun! It was 2.3 miles of 7-8% grade. Much to my surprise, for the first mile, I actually felt pretty good. I was keeping my speed around 10-12 mph (my usual sustained-climb speeds are around 7-8mph). The next mile was tough. I tried my best to stay over 9mph, but saw 8 and 8.5 more than a couple of times. When I hit 2 miles, I emptied what was left in the tank. I shifted off of the 26, stood up, and gave it what for until the course leveled off near the finish, when I continued to accelerate. I ended up with a time of 14 minutes flat. It was good enough for 2nd place behind Flavia, who finished 13:49. It was also good enough to finish ahead of all of my former (male) teammates from Memphis Velo

Ok, so I can climb? Sheesh, I never knew!

Crit
Let’s just say the crit was no fun. I got to the course early and rode for a while. Partially because I wanted to stretch my legs, but also because it was a pretty technical course. To make matters worse, the wind was blowing between 15-20mph. I felt OK until the officials announced that our race would be re-scheduled for an hour later so that the women’s fields could be combined. This gave the wind time to pick up even more as the day grew warmer. By the time we started the race, it was sustained over ~20mph, but with added gusts to around 30mph. It was enough to blow straw bales, barrels, and port-o-potties over.
I was slightly unnerved before the race when I hit a gust of wind in a turn that nearly knocked me over. I ended up having issues with that turn several times during the race as I tried to take it as fast as possible while avoiding other riders that were being thrown around. There was also a turn on course that followed a long, downhill, tailwind stretch. The turn on its own would have been tricky, but throw in a gust of crosswind as you exit, and you get two wrecks (one wreck was actually the result of a pedal strike, but still…) Later in the race, Jamie, at MTB gal from Vantaggio (who is turning out to be a great roadie), got off of the front. In a repeat of the GC Chatt crit, I was unable to stay on her wheel (hmm… maybe her ponytail generates headwind…) Debbie Milne, however, made the jump, and the two left a small group of us to chase. During the chase, someone rubbed my rear wheel as I tried to power up through the disorganized pack on the start/finish stretch. I’m not sure who all was in the wreck, but I know I didn’t see Kirsten Sass on the finishers’ list
It was down to a group of 3 of us (me, Flavia, and Lauren- Debbie’s teammate) with only a couple of laps to go. On the last lap, Lauren rode around Flavia and I with the intention of helping me out (she already had the cat 4 1st place finish in the bag, so she didn’t mind getting in the wind). As I went for her wheel, Flavia rode up next to me & put a handlebar in my thigh. Intentional or not, it worked, and I backed off. In my surprise/nerves, I managed to NOT get on her wheel, and started to fall back from the couple. I finished just behind them in a “stunning” 17 mph sprint into what I think was the hardest gust of headwind that hit the course during the 25 minute race. Though I was a bit disappointed with 4th place, my finish kept me in 1st place for the omnium points, which made things a bit better.

I was glad just to make it through. I hope all of the people involved in my rear-wheel pileup are OK. Especially if Kirsten was involved… I hope it didn’t remove any more of her freckles like the wreck we were in last year did.

Next stop, more climbing @ Tour of Arkansas!

Photos for the crits can be found (as usual) at Ryan’s blog

Here’s one of my favorites from after the crit:

Nothing beats jewelry for your woman’s birthday. She’ll likely react just like I did when Ryan gave me this gorgeous chromoly steel piece by a famous designer named SRAM. It’s a lightweight, durable, and highly-sought after design.

Check it out-

She won all three crits last weekend. Here’s a shot of her + her champagne after the last one:

I came across some extra MSGP photos on the internets. Here are a few (mixed in with some that Ryan took):

I’m smack in the middle of a week off of teaching, so I’ve been working on some home improvements- mainly the front porch. It was formerly a storage area, and I wanted to make it into a decent place to relax.

First, I had to fix both of my screen doors. The dogs had taken the liberty to convert them into doggie doors:

First, I pulled the trim off of the lower half of the door:

Next, I pulled the old screen off:

Then, I cut it off behind the middle trim piece and stapled the bottom of the old screen down:

I measured the hole and cut a piece to match:

I stapled the new screen on and replaced the trim, and VIOLA…

The dogs aren’t too happy, but I like it 

Oh yeah, and I put some plants into a weird hanging thing on my porch:

Since my Roswell race wasn’t until Sunday afternoon, I decided I’d stick around Sunday night and venture out to Mt. Cheaha in the morning for a little climbing. Sunday morning was the Mount Cheaha Challenge Century, and I figured that I’d ride part of the course since the roads would still be marked.

I ended up parking on top of Mt Cheaha (highest point in Alabama!) and riding down the mountain and back. Just over 31 miles total. It was a nice ride- very rolling down and back with some very steep (thankfully not incredibly long) pitches. The longest climb was the last 3 miles on the way back. It wasn’t as steep as some of the other grades, though, so it wasn’t too hard to navigate.

You can go to Mapmyride for the route and elevation profile by clicking here

Here’s a camera-phone photo from one of the scenic overlooks:

Hopefully, first of many

The Sunny King crit on Saturday didn’t go so well. After a rushed warmup…

I lined up with the likes of Tina Pic and Laura Van Gilder (as well as a host of other very talented, very experienced teams).

The start was hectic. I was in the middle of the pack, and the girl in the front/right of me couldn’t get clipped in, and I ended up shoving her out of the way with my elbow. This got me stuck on the back of the pack from the beginning.

From there, it didn’t get much better. In the back, I kept getting behind women that were falling off and letting gaps form. To make matters worse, there were big primes given out on the first few laps, so the field would surge up the slight hill to the finish line on every lap. After about 20 minutes, I ended up not being able to move up further into the pack and, by that time, was not able to cover the next gap that opened up in front of me.

SO, I got pulled. Probably not the first time that someone’s been pulled in their first NRC crit, but very disappointing, nonetheless. I felt like I’d let my team and team manager down.

For more photos of the women’s pro 1/2 race and the men’s 2/3 race, check out Ryan’s Blog

Thankfully, Sunday was better. The Roswell course was a bit more technical. I got a much better start, and I was actually able to move up in the field and hold better position for a about half the race. After the slower riders were pulled, I actually dropped to the back and stayed there for the remainder of the race , ending up 41st place. Sorry, no photos of Roswell yet, but hopefully I can post some of the ones that the team manager took.

I need a lot more practice, and I need to just be more fit in general so that moving up isn’t quite as physically taxing, and I’m able to hold my position more aggressively once I’m up. I plan to ride in a few local men’s cat 3 races to try and be more accustomed to the length/intensity of the NRC races.

I woke up early to get a jump on the bad weather that was being predicted for this afternoon. On the schedule for today- a “tune up” ride of sorts. An hour of easy riding interspersed with a couple of 3 min zone 5 efforts and some small ring sprints.

During breakfast, I checked the weather- a couple of showers scattered across the area, but nothing too bad. When I left the house, no rain, but about 10 minutes later, some on & off showers began. As I progressed, the rain got more persistent- alternating between sprinkles & showers. Once, I found myself making a right turn too fast for the conditions (wet roads + 120psi don’t mix), and managed to fishtail. Good practice, maybe?

I’d completed my two intervals and two sprints when I noticed an odd noise coming from my front tire. I thought I was having some brake rub problems (again), but, upon further inspection, found that something had embedded itself into my tire & the air was slowly (but steadily) leaking out.

No fun!! I decided to limp home instead of fixing it in the rain, which eventually turned into a bit of lightning & a downpour when I was about 2 miles from home. Luckily, I managed to get home about the time the rim started to bottom out.

Tapering- DONE. Next up- two very tough races