Superweek 2010 - Better late than never?

I've been too busy to sit down and write about my superweek races but i'm finally getting to it albeit almost 2 months late. First of all i would agree with Druber's assessment of Superweek this year. While entry fee's are as expensive as they get around these parts, especially if you don't preregister like me, but things seemed to be run a lot better this year. I did a total of 5 races and i loved every single course. The only course issue was the Willow Springs RR course. It seemed to me it was a bit too dangerous for a weekday morning. There was a lot of traffic in the oncoming lanes and then there was the Fed Ex Truck (more on that later) For the most part races were on schedule and there were good safe courses. Results were timely and it seems that payouts were good(not that i know from personal experience)

Anyway on to the racing. This year for the first time I raced the Masters 35+. I went into Superweek thinking i'd flip back and forth between the Masters and Cat 3 but after the first couple of races i decided to stick with the Masters.

Richton Park Criterium 7.12.10
I spent the most part of this race trying to cover moves and get in a break. Missed the actual break that got away and ended up paying for my efforts at the end. Tried a little move with less that 2 to go but got nowhere and ended up last in the field.

Willow Springs Road Race 7.13.10
This course was a lot of fun. Like i said before it felt pretty dangerous at times with all the oncoming traffic. The craziest bit was when a Fed Ex truck turned onto the course right in front of the 2 man breakaway and they had to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid the truck. As the field got to turn 1 the truck was sitting there not knowing where to go. Fortunately people guided the truck around the median so it could get off the course but it was a little goofy.

As far as the race i felt good the whole race. Every time up the climb i kept having my cassette slip and couldn't figure out what the deal was. I had just replaced the rear derailer cable so i tried adjusting the tension but it just didn't seem like it was doing anything to help.

Since it seemed that i really didn't have any sprint to mention i figured i would try to get into some sort of move. I realized that on the section before turn 3 i would get a lot of momentum and figured i could try to make a move there. unfortunately for me on the last lap when i was ready to try i let myself get a little too far back and got boxed in and couldn't do it. I ended up following some wheels and being one of the first guys thru turn 1 at the bottom of the hill but i just don't have the jump to hang with these guys in a sprint yet. Finished towards the back of the field again.

Lake Geneva Criterium 7.14.10
Going into this race i was determined to do nothing but sit on wheels and wait for the sprint. I had spent the last 2 days being too excitable and so i decided to try and play it cool and see what would happen if i was fresher for the end. Plus it was in the upper 90's. Then the race started. Again this was a great course but turn 1 seemed a bit tight to me and i decided i wanted the hole shot into turn 1 for the start. When the whistle blew i had one of the fastest clip in's i've ever had and sprinted for turn 1. i made it first and by the time i got thru turn 2 there were 3 of us off the front. That turned into a 10 lap breakaway to start the race.

After we were brought back i was trashed for a while and at times was just hanging on for dear life at the back. Sometime during this point a move went off the front and the field was left fighting for 6th or 7th place. I actually recovered enough to try to shed the field with a couple of laps to go but was not successful. Finished in the field.

Whitnall Park RR 7.19.10
For real this time i was not going to do too much too early. And this time I actually stuck to it. Finally on the last lap i got off the front with a couple others and thought we just might stick it but it didn't pan out. Finished again at the back of the field.

South Milwaukee Road Race 7.20.10
This was a new course and i loved it. A couple little hills, nice sections thru a park, and a downtown start/finish. Again this time i told myself i would be a good boy and conserve for the end. This time i truly did but confirmed that i don't have a sprint this year. I got myself about 6th wheel thru the last turn before the 300m sprint to the line. I ended up in the low 20's. Some of it was positioning as i got stuck behind a couple guys but i still wasn't passing many myself.

When everything was all said and done i was actually very pleased with my 2010 superweek. I had gotten myself in the best shape that i had been in since high school and felt like i proved to myself that i could race with the Masters. I not going to be winning these anytime soon but this was going to be a great building block for the races in august and i learned a lot as well.

ABD Memorial Day Masters 30+ (day 2)

I wasn't sure how the legs would respond to the week I had. After the Gatorade sessions Monday - Thursday I took Friday off, and then did a recovery ride on sat.

Sunday I woke up feeling pretty fresh. During the morning at work I started getting that restless feeling in my legs which I'm coming to realize is a very good thing. It's the feeling that they want to do something. I still had a couple sore spots but for the most part they felt good.

As soon as work was done I flew out to my car and made it from S. Barrington to Wood Dale in 20 min flat. I had already changed into my bibs so I was kitted up and registered in no time. I'm gettin pretty efficient at the quick pre race routine.

We knew that with the firepower in the field that there would be a break and we knew which guys to follow. Although I would have liked to wait until later in the race we thought it would go earlier than later. Because of this I tried to follow moves early if they contained the right makeup of teams or riders.

This is where it was awesome to race with tim. He knows everybody a lot better than I do. I was feeling pretty good and was able to stay in the top 10 for the majority of the race.

The race was filled with constant attacks. Never a dull moment. Tim was usually sitting back a few wheels behind me and if there was an attack coming that he felt I should join I'd here, "Ronnie!" from behind me and knew that I should jump.

Unfortunately none of the moves I got in early stuck. What proved to be my undoing was about half way thru the race a group had gotten off the front. I was trying to recover from a previous move so I didn't jump initially. Groups of 2 or 3's kept jumping across and it was turning into a field split so I finally put in a big move and bridged to the group. We still had a gap when I got there but not too long after we were back together and I was now yo-yoing off the back. It must of been at this point that the group of 6 got away. Since I was at the back with my eyeballs rolling up in my head I missed it.

Verizon was blocking at the front and the pace slowed a bit so I was able to get back on and sit in a bit. I looked ahead and saw 2 riders off the front. At this point I thought I was toast. With 4 or 5 laps to go tim dropped back by me and I told him I was cooked. But then I saw 4 to go. I was recovering a bit and I figured everyone else was hurting just as bad as I was so I decided I would attack after the headwind portion with 3 to go and that's what I did. I bridged up to 1 rider and we traded pulls but I could tell I was stronger. After his pull I ramped it up again and then he yelled that if I got him to the line it was mine. Soon after I dropped him and was chasing the 2 remaining riders. I ran out of road before the finish but I held off the field for what I thought was 3rd until my dear wife told me that I was 9th or 10th.

I have to say this was a fun race. The constant attacks and the heat made it hard. One thing I was reminded of was that no matter how bad I feel at the end, remember that everybody else is hurting too. Rest up for a couple minutes then go hard!

Fox River Grove Cycling Challenge Cat 3

Well i feel like i could just copy and paste my report from 2 years ago. After getting a 1.5hr warmup in because our race was delayed i lined up at the back of the field since i missed the initial lineup. Luckly there was only a couple rows and once we started i was able to move up pretty quickly to be not too far back at the first turn. There were 29 starters this year which is the most i think i've seen in this race. My objective is always to try and play it smart and stick with the lead group as long as i can. About the 6th or 7th time up the hill i started getting gapped on the hill. I was still able to catch back on and then move to the front of the field before or after turn 5 so i was towards the front at the bottom of the hill. I'd try to get in a good rhythm for the bottom half of the hill and not lose too many spots but on the 8th lap i finally came unhitched.

For the final 4 laps it became a game of how many riders can i pick off. Of the riders being dropped it seemed i was able to catch and then gap them on the hill. I dropped an abd rider with a good kick right out of the turn at the top of the hill. Once i made the turn off of the descent he was gone. With 2 to go there was a xxx rider and then a SSC rider in front of me. I eventually caught the SSC guy on the hill and gapped him a bit but once off the descent he was back on my wheel. I went ahead and led the rest of the lap and tried to out sprint him to the line but he was able to come around and nip me right at the line.

I'm a little confused cause the results say a XXX rider placed 11th. I'm pretty sure that's wrong but who knows. Doesn't really matter. Maybe i did drop the SSC and the XXX is the one that came back. There's about 3 different XXX kits out there.

I will say that I felt pretty good about my technique for entering the bottom of the hill. I would drop it to the small ring and almost cross chain all the way to my 11. then i would literally take a pedal stroke or 2 and then shift up a couple cogs, take to more strokes and shift again. This way i was able to maintain momentum the whole time. Problem was i'd run out of cogs and couldn't match the skinny guys pace.

All in all i had a blast. I was hoping to place better since i've placed 11th the last 2 times i've raced this but i realize that the fields have gotten bigger each year and the climbers are coming out in droves.

TrainingPeaks file

Kenosha Business Park Criterium 30+

Not a lot to report. This race is always lightly attended due to the Vernon Hills race going on at the same time. Because of my work schedule and the Kenosha race schedule being compatible i was able to get up there and race.

There was only 4 of us on the start line. Kevin and I from Project 5, Robert Springer, and Aaron Hampton from Psimet. All of us were fresh except for Aaron who had raced earlier in the day.

This race was basically a chance for Kevin and I to play tactics a bit and try to come out with a win from a 4 man break. After the first few laps Kevin put in a nice little dig that dropped the Psimet rider and then there were 3 of us. We tried a couple of things to gang up on Robert but nothing worked. It ended up being a 3 man sprint which quickly turned into a 2 man sprint since i couldn't match Kevin or Robert. Kevin had the early lead but Robert was able to come around him for the win.

All in all it was an ok race. The course changed from previous years and we actually made a detour thru one of the parking lots. It created 2 extra turns that were over curbs which was a little dicey. It gave me lots of time for practicing trying to go thru those corners without touching the brakes. Something i need to get better at.

Now it's time to get ready for Fox River Grove!!

More Durand Stuff

Report from another rider in our 3/4 race here.

My favorite quote is...

"Lap 4 was epic. As we round the start finish line to begin the last lap, a big rider (unknown team) takes a flyer and the group lets him go! I don’t think that anyone felt that he was a threat, but we never would see him again. "

Pics here and here (scroll down to Durand Road Race Coverage for the links)

Finally a couple of pics from my iphone.

Durand Road Race Cat 3/4

Durand, WI is a town about 40min south of Eau Claire, WI where some family live. Every April there is a RR and I always have wanted to try and do this and finally it worked out this year.

The course is a 13.5 mile loop out in farmland. Pretty much none of the course is flat. It's all rolling hills. The long sides of the loop run east-west with the back side having 2 bigger climbs on it. Nothing super steep but by the last time up them I was glad I had my 27 tooth cog.

When I arrived at the race the first thing I noticed was the wind. It was really strong. The forcast said only 13mph but this was way stronger. It was the blow you sideways kind of wind. The wind was coming from the north so it was mostly all cross winds with a nasty headwind on the last 200m climb to the finish line.

On to the race. As i climbed the hill to the start finish I told myself this was going to be the best race ever. I lined up with about 38 other cat 3/4's. The 1/2/3 race departed before us and about 2 min later we took off. I thought that seemed kind of close and sure enough by the first turn we were catching up to the 1/2/3 field. We already had a break off the front and they caught the field but as soon as we turned into the tailwind the 1/2/3's took off and order was restored.

I went in with the mindset of saving myself for at least the first 2 laps and maybe even 3 then maybe try something. I told myself that I came here to place and get some tires. Top 3 got bontrager tires. (more on this later)

Eventually there were 3 guys off the front and our field didn't seem to anxious to reel them in. The wind was brutal and you had to be careful with the gusts. All that considered this was a really smooth race. After 2 laps to go they had a sizeable gap, enough that they were out of sight a lot. Eventually we saw that they had dropped one rider so it was now 2. Somewhere on the second lap my rear hub starts making all this noise. Sounds like it's going to fall off. Turns out my cassette lock ring has stripped the threads and the cassette is loose now but other than making a bunch of noise it was working fine. I never had any issues shifting.

As the 2nd lap is ending I'm getting the idea that right after the start finish and just before turn 1 into the crosswind would be a good place to attack. After the turn there's a nice downhill section. Sure enough at the start of lap 3 couple guys gap the field and start trying to chase so I decide to bridge. I do and there's 3 of us but after trading a few pulls the field brings us back in so at this point I go back and sit in the field and rest up for the last lap.

With 1 1/2 laps to go guys on the front are literally talking about upcoming races. I realize it seems that nobody is interested in bringing the 2 back, who for the most part we can't see anymore. We are just ambling along and I'm thinking that I will make a move at the start finish. As we approach the line to start our last lap a rider jumps so I try to get on his wheel. Moments later I hear people yelling, "not our group" so I sit up thinking great, now everybody knows my plan. No matter, after drifting back to 3rd or 4th wheel I attack just before the turn. Only 13.5 miles to go.

To my shagrin/surprise nobody went with me. Right away I had a nice little gap so I kept going. The gap grew so I kept going. I didn't let myself redline cause there was still 13 miles to go but the gap kept growing. I figured that I'd take advantage of nobody knowing who I was. Before long I was out of sight and I could see I was gaining on the 2 breakaway riders. By the time I got to turn 2 the climbs were really starting to hurt and I still had the 2 biggies left. On every climb I started yelling, "shut up legs!". I crawled up the 2 climbs and could see I still had a big gap to the field. Wasn't much chance of them catching me now.

While I was gaining on the break during the downhill and flat sections I would loose a bunch of time on the climbs. I ended up getting within 20-30 sec but couldn't close it but finished well ahead of the field in 3rd.

After waiting around for results to be posted i got my prize. 1 whole bontrager tire. guess i'll have to go buy a second to match.

Finally Racing

All I can say is I'm super excited for this weekend. At the start of this year I made it my mission to lose weight and as of Monday I have never weighed less than I do now since I started racing again in 2005. Actually it's been 15-20 years since I was this light.

This is all due to the decision to count calories this year. With all the weight I lost over the last 7 years I never counted calories. I just tried to eat better and also started riding a lot. Last season I found myself working both sat. and sun. again and I didn't know what races I would be able to do. I lost some motivation and as a result never got my weight down to where it normally gets during the summer.

After living thru 1 season of this work schedule I realized I can still race quit a bit so I've entered this season with a ton of motivation to do well. I've gotten real organized with my training and nutrition with the help of Trainingpeaks.com and have found the book "Racing Weight" to be an extremely helpful resource.

So finally after missing my first scheduled race due to the flu I'm finally racing this Sat. up in Durand, WI. Should be fun times. It's a 54 mile road race made up of 4 laps of a 13 mile rolling hills loop.

I can't wait.

Season kick off (or not)

So saturday was supposed to be the first race of my 2010 season. problem was that i woke up friday morning puking and then the rest of the day just lying around. This was really disappointing because i've been real motivated this spring to do well this year. As a result i'm already below my lowest weight of 2009 and have put in great couple of months of training and was really excited to see how that would translate to an actual race. Oh well. It's looking like my next race will be the Leland Kermesse which will be just a plain old suffer fest for me. I'm toying with the idea of maybe doing the Fraiser TT or seeing if i could sneak up to Madison to do one of the Great Dane crits but most likely the Kermesse would be the next race.

I have found what i think is a great industrial park for practicing cornering or a tuesday night practice crit series location. It's a newer park in carpenterville that i have been checking out the last couple of years. Like many new developments in the economical climate, construction has stalled and the problem in the past was that the paving of the roads wasn't completed. they had just layed down the first layer of pavement so you had the rougher surface with lips at the curbs. When i went over last week i found that the paving has since been completed. The industrial park is only about half built and it seems that a lot of the buildings that are built are still empty. Therefore traffic is light and most of the corners have good visibility so you can see if there are cars.

The loop is exactly 1k. Turns 1, 2, and 3 are sweeping turns with turn 4 being the only real turn. All i'm saying is that i'd love to see a tuesday night crit series here.

2009 Chicago Cross Cup #9 - Woodstock 4B's

All i can say is that it was very nice to be back racing again. I had been feeling good the last few days and i was feeling like i could have a good day but i knew my form was down after missing a couple weeks while nursing the knee. While i have no ill effects from the knee, while riding the course i knew that this would be a hard one for me. It was a fun, fast course but the short, steep uphills killed me. For whatever reason it felt like i just couldn't go uphill very well. After riding around the course during the 4A race i worked my way back to the start. As i came down a hill at the bottom there was some tall grass and it turned out that although you couldn't see it, there was a ton of water in the grass. I found the only real mud in the whole park and it wasn't even part of the course. I showed up at the start line with shoes and shins covered in mud.

For the start i wanted to be on the right side cause as you went around the baseball diamonds there was a muddy section on the left. As we started i was where i wanted to be but was getting bogged down i ended up on the left side. Luckily when we hit that patch, there was a solid section on the left so it ended up not being an issue. As we enter the woods for the first time i'm in the top 10 or so. I knew i wanted to stay right on this hill cause of the rocks and uneven dirt on the left. Well i was too far over cause i look down and right in front of my wheel is huge root. I slammed on my breaks (sorry Shawn) and of course ended up loosing a couple spots there but i'm still in the front group.

We exit the woods ride the paved path for a bit and then make the turn back into the woods for the fast descent. As we come back out of the woods up the dirt hill for no reason that i saw the rider in front of me slammed on his brakes. (what goes around comes around i guess) I almost came to a complete stop and lost 3 or 4 more spots. By the time we crested the hill there was a gap to the front group and that's the last time i saw them.

After going thru the toilet bowl and over the barriers on the back it seemed like the rest of the race i was on my own. A group of 3 or 4 caught and passed me and then a group of a couple of guys on mtb's passed me. After that i held my own until the last lap.

"Bacon Alley" was where the crowd was and they made this hill really hard by placing a barrier in the middle of it. This was brutal. By the time i would dismount i would almost come to a complete stop and then you had to run up the rest of the hill. No riding this one. Because it was hard and because i wanted to finish as best as i could i wasn't in the mood to take a handup. It was still a blast and the atmosphere was incredible but i wasn't taking anything.

On the last lap i had been passed by a rider before bacon alley but as i came over the top he had dropped his chain and so i was able to get past him. Then as we hit the last downhill sections i was able to pass another rider who had a dropped chain and then was able to hold him off at the line for 21st.

One of my favorite moments was as i was on the downhill section before the start finish line there was a spectator yelling at me as I went by. He actually noticed the uniqueness of my bike. It's an old Cannondale sm500 mtb frame with cross tires on it. As i'm flying by i hear this guy yell something like, "go cannondale!...what is that?!...26"?!..." Cracked me up.

Here's some videos...

2009 Kneegate

This past Wednesday I met Tim at the Deer Grove Forest Preserve for a lunch ride. I had never been there but heard it was a great place so we got suited up and headed out. About half way into the ride i see a couple sections of puddles ahead and i decided to have some fun and ride thru them. I know that was stupid but what can i say. I get thru the first section ok but the last puddle i hit ends up being a deeper hole than i imagined. Before i know it i'm flying over the bars and flying superman style. My right knee makes impact first and then my left side.

The first thing i remember is thinking that this "trail" was not very soft. it was more like a road underneath some dirt and leaves. I stand up, look down at my knee and blood is flowing from a nice hole in my brand new pearl izumi knee warmers. I do the waddle in circles that you see whenever a rider gets up from a crash and quickly determin that i can put weight on the knee and other than the blood it seems to be ok.

I then notice that not only is the knee bleeding it is also bulging out of the hole in my knee warmer. Tim and i get back on our bikes and start heading back. I'm able to pedal ok and we ride the 25min or so back to our cars. I'm riding gingerly and although there's no internal pain in the knee i now have a softball size lump on top of the knee.


After getting back to work and getting cleaned up, i was hoping the swelling would go down and the knee would stop bleeding but it didn't. I drove myself to the Acute Care Center by my house and got it x-rayed. Thank God nothing was torn or broken. In fact i have almost no pain at all. The Nurse Practitioner was bending, pulling, and twisting my knee and i had no pain or restricted movement. The funny moment was having her call another doctor in basically saying, "you gotta see this."

I ended up walking out of there with a full leg immobilizer walking around like c3po. I was told to wear the brace thru this weekend and i should be fine unless the swelling doesn't go down.

I wore the brace until yesterday. I couldn't take it anymore. walking around like C3PO was messing with my lower back and hips. Now i'm just waiting for the stifness to go away. I'm hoping i can be riding by tuesday. we'll see.

2009 Bartlett Sunrise Park Cross

This race would be different for me. I knew from the warmup lap it would not be a good day for me. Running over the barriers felt more like walking. I had no snap in my legs. I again had my top 20 or so for the holeshot and passed a couple guys on the first half lap but then that was it. I started getting passed by people and switched into survival mode for myself. I ended up finishing 30th.

The real story of this race is the race for last. There are guys showing up to race who have barely ridden a bike before this fall but that hasn't stopped them. It's been very inspiring and very cool to watch. you can read more here.

Scroll down to the pics and begin reading.

2009 Carpenter Cross 4b race

I've been ignoring this blog for a while. I've just been busy and updating friends via facebook and twitter. But i will try to play a little catchup here.

On October 18 i entered my first ever official cyclocross race. I've attended the Carpenter Park Cyclocross race the last 2 years and last winter i finally got my hands on a mtb so i've been practicing and learning the techniques of cross and will be entering a couple of races this year.

I lined up with close to 75 other riders. I felt really good on the warmup lap but knowing that i'm on a mtb and having never done a real race before i opted be conservative at the start. I wanted to be up far enough to avoid the logjam in the first turn but didn't want to get in the way of anybody who could actually win this thing.

I ended up in the top 20 into the first turn and was in front of the first crash in the switchbacks that followed. As soon as i could i would pass whoever i could and after about 1/2 a lap i was at the back of a group of 4 or 5.

As we approched the sled hill i was able to pass a couple of them and after the toilet bowl it was Brian Morresey of XXX racing and i. We were together for almost the rest of the race. On the final lap Brian biffed on his remount after the barrier/creek bed combo and i thought that maybe i could drop him but i couldn't. He caught me and soon dropped me. i was gassed and a Pegasus rider caught and passed me as well. I ended up crossing the line in 10th which i was very happy about.

Season Update

Well i've more or less pulled the plug on this season. I actually wouldn't have done that many more races anyway but the form and fitness is just not there to make it worth spending the entrance fees to ride for 45min to an hour. The adjustment to working both Sat. and Sunday and not knowing what races i would actually be able to do made motivation a difficult thing this year. While i was able to get a good deal of riding in I never really got around to doing the high intensity work i should have. What this meant was that i did ok on the non technical race courses but any time there was a real turn that required a good kick coming out of the turn i would lose a couple spots. That would turn into getting gapped and then dropped.

Now that i've pretty much lived a season in this current work schedule i know how to prepare for next year. I can plan on making a better plan for superweek and will try to capitalize on the races that are close to my area that i can get in before or after work.

It occurred to me this year that my work schedule has change almost every year and it seems to take me half the summer to figure out a good training rhythm to the week. Hopefully things should stay consistant for next year and maybe just maybe i'll be a step ahead next year.

While i'm ending my road season i still will be racing once more this year. I'm am going to enter the Carpenter Cross race in october. This will be my first ever cross race so i'm looking forward to that. I have an old mountian bike that i will be riding. If all goes well i will work to have a real cross bike for next year.

RTOTS Stage 5 - Madeira Beach to Fort de Soto Beach and Back

6/23/2009
68.88km
2:15:08

This ride will go down as the ride that I consumed the most ounces of liquid per hour. Temps in Florida were in the mid 90’s during the day and the low’s were 80 – 83. The plan was to ride from Madera Beach down along Gulf Boulevard the over to the island that is de Soto Beach. It was 20 miles out then 20 miles back. We had spent the previous day on de Soto Beach and there’s lot’s of great riding along the beach and the road to the beach. I had packed 2 24oz bottles of Gatorade and thought that would be enough for the 40 mile ride. At the half way point I was more than half way thru my second bottle so with about 15 miles to go I stopped at a 7/11 and bought 2 more 20oz bottles of Gatorade. Those were gone by the time I got back to my van. Once the ride was over I finished off the rest of the 64oz bottle for a total of 104 oz for the ride.

RTOTS Stage 4 - Cancelled

This stage was cancelled due to me not wanting to wake up early. I was on vacation after all.

RTOTS Stage 3 - Hog Pen Gap and Unicoi Gap Loop

Stage 3 - Hog Pen Gap - Unicoi Gap Loop
6/20/09
86.61km
03:34:37
1590m/5217ft climbing






Woke up this morning to thankfully less fog. I was actually able to see some of the beauty around me. This route was the same all the way to Brasstown Bald but instead of climbing it I just kept going. This loop is basically what they call the Scenic Byway loop. It goes by Brasstown Bald and then over Hog Pen Gap down into the town of Helen and then back to Hiawassee over Unicoi Gap.

Brasstown Bald sits right on the county line and as soon as you pass the entrance to Brasstown Bald you cross the county line, and start enjoying the different road surface. Definitely rougher than the other roads but it’s a long straight descent from Brasstown Bald down to Hwy 348. Once on 348 you start climbing back up into the mountains and eventually start the long hard climb up to Hog Pen Gap. This climb was hard. I spent almost all of it in my 27 tooth cog. There’s no 20% stuff like on Brasstown but it’s still long and hard. This climb seems to climb along the side of the mountain and doesn’t have too many switchbacks. Mostly long curvy roads along the side of the mountain. About 500m from the top I noticed one of those road reflectors from the center line had busted and was sitting on the side of the road. I stopped and picked up my official Hog Pen Gap Climb souvenir. The view right at the top isn’t much but just either side of the gap there are turnouts for some beautiful views.

On the descent back down to Helen I finally started feeling comfortable on the descents and was beginning to really have some fun. Not having much experience with stuff like this you soon figure out what a 35mph corner is versus a 15mph corner and how fast you can go thru each on a bike. Once you turn off of 348 and turn on 17 the traffic increases a little and you begin the climb towards Unicoi Gap. This climb is completely different than Hog Pen. I would say it’s a little easier than Hog Pen but a lot more fun because it’s a lot of switchbacks and more mountain like.

On the way up I saw a bunch of cyclist on their sat. morning group ride flying down the other way. All of them were way skinnier than me. Made me think I probably wouldn’t like living here cause almost every route includes a major climb. That would make the group rides not as fun.

Once over Unicoi you make the descent down more switchbacks and sharp turns. After coming off that climb I started running low on fumes. My 2.5hr plan was turning into a 3.5hr plan and I was getting tired. I just had enough water and got back to our campground just as I was about to bonk. Any longer and I would have been in some trouble.

Here's a video of the descent of Hog Pen Gap. Not mine but it gives you a good idea of the fun.


This video is of a motorcycle ride up and over unicoi gap going north, the way i went.

RTOTS - Stage 2 - Brasstown Bald

Stage 2: Bald Mountain Camping Resort - Brasstown Bald.

57.53km

02:15:24

787m/2582ft of climbing

After the early morning ride in Kentucky and enjoying some fishing and canoeing at our friends house we got back in the van and headed down for the mountain stages of the RTOTS at Brasstown Bald. It was only a 4.5hr drive so we arrived at the Bald Mountain Camping Resort before dark and moved into our Camping Cabin. In the morning I was a bit bummed to wake up to a ton of fog blanketing the valley but it was still rideable although i wished i had my little flasher light, so I headed out around 6:30am. During the ride I got a couple peaks of the sun and a couple views but the top of Brasstown Bald doesn’t seem to clear of the fog until after 10am.

The route begins with what basically is a descent from the campground down into the town of Hiawassee. The campground is on the east side of the mountain and the road up to Brasstown is on the south side. Once I turned on Owl Creek Road I was on the Tour de Georgia course to Brasstown Bald. Here the roads are never flat and on most of the rolling hills leading up to the main climb I found myself in the small chainring and near my 27 but nothing compares to once the climb to Brasstown Bald starts. The real climbing starts about a mile or so from the entrance to Brasstown bald. It’s marked on the road by paint that someone painted that says “Go George” then “Climb Starts Here X”

The pictures don’t do justice but once you near the curve at the top of the picture the grade really goes up and I found myself in the 27 barely moving. Fortunately once you go around the s curve ahead it starts to level out a bit and even goes downhill as you turn onto highway 180. Once on 180 it’s about a mile of a gradual climb as you arrive at the entrance of Brasstown Bald. Immediately the road kicks up and the climb is on.

The climb up Brasstown is about 3 miles long but only 2.5miles to the parking lot. The last ½ mile is closed to cyclists and is for the shuttle bus that you can ride up to the top from the parking lot. There are mile marker signs along the climb so I started my lap timer at the bottom. Now the whole climb is brutal. There is no break and it just keeps going up and up and up. What was worse in my case was that the top was still fogged in so as I got higher there was no beautiful sights to see. Just the road in front of me.

From the start I was in my 27 tooth cog and never left it. The only thing that changed was my cadence. From what I had read the second mile was the worst and that was very true. That’s where the climb kicks up to 20%. I completed the first mile in 9:22, second in 10:50, and the last ½ mile or so in 4:36 for a total time of 24:48 for the 2.5 miles.

When I hit the second mile and the 20% section I almost died. I litereally was zigging and zagging across the road to stay on the bike and almost falling over cause it was one pedal stroke, followed by and awkward pause, followed by another pedal stroke and another awkward pause. At one point I felt like I was doing the vo2max test on the computrainer and about to stop. There was a curve ahead and I told myself if this doesn’t ease up around this turn I don’t know what I’m going to do. Lucky for me it did ease up and I didn’t have to get off or fall off the bike.

I reached the top at about 7:45am and there was not a single car there. Because of the fog I couldn’t even see the end of the parking lot or the tower above me. What is now my biggest regret is that I was a good boy and obeyed the no bicycles beyond this point sign to go all the way to the top. I don’t think there was a soul there and I could have gone all the way. Maybe next time. I went back later in the day with the family and took all the pics except for the self portraits from the ride.

On the way back i took 180 all the way to 17/75 and then back to the camp. All in all a beautiful ride but very hard on the climb.

The video below is of our drive up Brasstown Bald.

Ron's Tour of the Southland - Stage 1 - Tour de London RR course

Our family just completed a vacation to Florida. We drove and took our time getting down there so we made stops at some pretty cool locations. I of course took my bike and woke up early a lot of the mornings to take in some great riding. I called this "Ron's Tour of the Southland." It consisted of 7 stages in the states of Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, and Tennesee.

This is the first installment of ride reports.

Stage 1 in London, Kentucky.

67.1km

2:07:33

One of my wife’s best friends from high school now lives in London, KY. Since it’s generally on the way we decided that the first night we would stay there. Every September, London is the home to the Kentucky State Road Race and Criterium Championships. The road race start/finish is downtown but the course is held on a 40 mile loop out in the country. After driving in circles a little bit I found a great place to park at the high school about a mile from where the ciricuit starts.

What made this ride so enjoyable is that I didn’t need to pull out my route maps once during the whole ride because the course is well marked with route markers painted on the road. I normally spend about 15-20 minutes of my vacation rides stopped looking at maps trying to figure out where I am. This would have been a nightmare because of the many turns of this course and the fact that rural Kentucky seems especially bad at not having street signs at every intersection. Actually it seemed that I should have been doing the route in reverse since the roads seemed to be labeled when I was turning off of them but not when I was getting on.

This course is almost always rolling and turning. There were I think 3 or 4 main climbs but only 1 of them put me in my 27 tooth cog. The rest were about like the Braeburn Rd. climb in Barrington Hills but longer.

After riding this I am calling this my favorite race even though I haven’t raced it. The course is wonderful and would be a blast to race. For all you mountain goats out there this would be especially fun. My guess is the last real climb on this circuit would be my undoing but I still would like to do this. There’s also a crit the same weekend which is pretty flat so it would make for a great weekend of racing. The drive is under 8 hours so why not make a nice weekend of it?

I had never been to this part of Kentucky so this was my first time seeing some of the more rural parts of the south. What I found the most interesting was the number of churches out here. It seemed like there was a church every mile or 2, even way out in the middle of nowhere. Most are Baptist or Pentacostal and ranged from very small church buildings to trailer homes in very poor condition.

You can see the route and pictures at the race website here. One year I am definitely going to be making the trip down there to do these races.

Universal Sports coverage of the Giro

First off, i'm loving the fact that Universal Sports will be broadcasting the Giro for the next 4 years. How refreshing it is to watch the race without all the extra stuff that Versus interrupts us with. I don't need to see what Lance had for breakfast every day.

Today I was watching stage 6 online and when they went to a commercial break the audio is still live. the link is here. If you skip to 13 minutes into the coverage you hear Scott and Todd making the call to Chris Carmichael and talking about what they will be talking about. The interesting thing to me was that it confirms that they are recording their commentary after the race is over. They talk about that with Chris and tell him not to talk about the ending of the stage. I have noticed more than once that they would "profile" the eventual winner of the stage before he was even in the break of the day. I was trying to figure out if they were just lucky of if they knew already. I guess we now know.

To all you drivers who think no one is watching

Tonight i wasn't able to make the thursday night barrington ride because i got stuck at work so on the way home i decided to drive part of the route to see if i would run into the group. I got my phone out so i could snap a shot of the group if I saw them. At around 6:25pm i was driving south on Hagers Bend Rd in the opposite direction the group would be coming. Sure enough I see the group ahead. I notice a silver Honda Odyssey passing the group and after it does it starts to weave and it appears to rapidly decrease it's speed a couple of times in front of them. so as they go by i snap a pic.

so to the thin haired white male driver in the grey shirt, think before you act out. someone could have been seriously injured and you would be in a big heap of trouble. it's not worth getting all mad because you had to wait a few seconds to pass a group of fathers, husbands, and overall great guys.