TNWC #3

Mrs K and I rolled out early to get a workout in before the crit but there was a train stopped on Beltline Rd so I did my SST interval down Rosewood and past the stadium. Not ideal so I tacked on a bit of time to make up for the stoplights etc. I ended up with 35' at 90-93% and felt OK, not great.

A large turnout tonight which was great and we started off fast. After a few of hard laps everyone sort of sat up and I rolled up to Toby and said "let's go" so off we went and luckily GW and Karl came across to us. We basically just put our heads down and killed it for 20+ minutes. Hard, hard riding. Great job guys!

GW and I gapped Karl and Toby at one point so we slowed down to let them get back on and I told them to just sit on for a few laps to recover. I knew we had a much greater chance of staying away with them pulling through every once in a while than just GW and myself.

With under one lap to go I pulled out the team card and told Karl to take a flyer...that forced GW to chase him down the backstretch into the wind. As soon as he caught him I countered hard but GW still had the juice to close the gap so then I settled on Toby's wheel with GW on mine.

The sun was in a good position so I could watch GW's shadow so when he jumped I was right on him. I came off his wheel pretty fast and he was starting to die--I thought I had it but the fucker looked over and found another gear in the last 50m and held me off by inches. ;-) I guess that's what happens when you have a sub 1k watt sprint. A very fun race. GW is absolutely flying right now.

1. GW
2. Me
3. Toby

TNWC #2

Good race tonight. I did a 30' interval at 93% right before and had really good legs. Away with Gordon, Marc and Gabriel Hipps.

Couple of things... Once the break got formed we tried to do a rotating paceline but in the crosswinds it was pretty inconsistent so without any talk we went back to the 20sec pulls and that worked a lot better. Everyone was riding hard and smooth, a perfect break.

Coming up on 40' I thought it would be close so I slowed the break down to make sure we hit the line at exactly 40' to save us a lap. If you've got a good gap this is worth the seconds lost...and since you rest a bit you can drill the next lap to bring the time back up easily.

Coming into the finish I figured that I was F'd...I was going against the best sprinter in town and one of the strongest TT'ers (& both on the same team!). So into turn 3 I swung way to the side to make those guys do something...MW said he wasn't gonna contest it so I just attacked figuring with the cross tailwind I may be able to hold off GW. That didn't happen. Oh Well.

1. Gordon

2. Me

3. Gabriel Hibbs

Out Like a Lion RR

Bike racing sometimes ain't pretty, it's a battle and you do what you need to do to win.

4 of the OSB team (minus Jay) lined up today along with at least 10+ Carolina Masters (CM) riders and all of their heavy hitters. We were outnumbered and outgunned so at the start line we talked strategy...the plan was to have at least one guy in the early break and to just sit on, work as little as possible and try to get as many of our guys up the road. Not the most diplomatic of plans but we didn't have many options.

This race always has a large field and it's short at 40 miles so it's always GO from the gun. The roads are narrow so you want to be up off the front as soon as possible.

Just after the short neutral section ended a CM guy attacks and gets a gap...I thought it was John P. so I knew I had to be up there so I went across as Robert and Karl worked to shut down the field. It turned out to be Kerry from CM who's known to be a strong sprinter and a good rider but not super dominant like some of their other guys. A strong Mob racing guy also came across so there were 3 of us.

I knew, knew, KNEW that Kerry was just the carrot and was just getting up the road till some of the other CM guys could come across. There was NO WAY that CM was going to let this be the break of the day...so I just sat on. I did no work at all. I didn't pull through once. Our Plan A. To say that the other two guys were pissed was an understatement, HaHa...I got pretty much dog cussed™ for about 3 laps! The Moto comes up...you've got 1:30 to the field. Then...3 chasers at 30" consisting of Charlie Brown, John Patterson and Ladd. Here we go...

Mob guy looks at me and I say "what did you expect was going to happen?" He then stopped yelling at me and now was trying to form some sort of alliance.

I also knew (x3) that once we were caught that the shit would hit the fan in a big way. I was actually pre-attacked before they even made contact and sort of caught Patterson off guard a bit when as he came flying by. We rolled around for 60 sec then Kerry attacks hard and I went to the front and closed it for LL. A flurry of hard ass attacks and Kerry and I were dropped from the break. Adios LL and good luck!

At this point I said to him that we should both work to stay ahead of the field and we did a couple laps trading pulls. Another CM guy ended up bridging up to us and I worked with these 2 to keep our lead over the main field. At one point we only had 30" with 2 laps to go. We rode hard and with great teamwork by Robert and Karl to control things in the field we maintained our lead.

With a couple miles to go the group was nowhere to be seen so I sat on and stopped working but was starting to cramp a bit. Coming into the finish one guy attacked hard and I tried to follow but that effort pretty much finished me off and I came in right after both of them for 7th. In retrospect I should have just picked the guy who I thought I could beat and just sat on him and let the other guy go.

LL went through his own little hell and finished 4th. After all was done we were content with the results as there wasn't much else we could have done today.

Help Wanted

Ladd needs volunteers for his Time Trial on 4/3. It's from 8-12. If you can help out send him an email at ladd.lumpkin@gmail.com . Thanks.

TNWC 3/16

The TNWC is back. One down, 38 to go.

For those who are new to our weekly crit, it's a "training race" so leave the team tactics for the weekend races. This race is all about smashing your friends (& teammates) and getting stronger. Chase everything and attack like mad. If you get dropped, jump back in on the next lap then attack some more. Ride hard then ride harder and get faster.

Tonight we had around 15-20 guys and basically just chased Nick in some form all of the race. He ended up solo for the last few laps and won with "ease" (or not...I hope he suffered like a dog!). I did a 30' interval at 90% of FTP before the crit then just tried to ride, attack and chase as hard as I could (see above). It was a good workout.

1. Nick

2. Wingo

3. Me

Forest Acres Crit

The legs were pretty dead this morning so I rode over to the course to get an extra long warmup. I wasn't expecting much today. A smallish field but the usual strong men were there from Carolina Masters and POA. I figured things would be sorted out in the first few laps.

At the end of lap 1 there was the perfect lull so I attacked at the start finish...mostly because my family and friends were there watching and my thought that I might get shelled later in the race. HaHa. I got a good gap which caused a chase and at the backside climb I was caught and the counters went hard. As people flew by I was looking at who went: 2-CM, 2-POA, Jay-check, LL-check. I knew this break would go the distance so it was time to chill.

John "F-ing" Patterson ended up getting away and solo'd in for the win. Jay got 4th, LL 6th.

What follows is a ridiculously long play by play for 7th place... wtf? I guess I'm bored.

I spent the next few laps sitting second wheel and covering any attacks. I ended up away with a CM and Gordon Stihl. I was rolling through and taking 80% pulls but still doing some work cuz I knew the break was long gone. But that I guess wasn't enough for the CM dude--he started giving me some grief. I truly didn't care at this point so I just shut it down, sat on and let them work. Gordon would try to let a big gap open and get me to close it but...I didn't care!

Keith from CM joined up with us and he's flying right now and a really strong sprinter so I had even less motivation to do any work. My "problem" was that now there were 2 CM riders in our group. After a couple laps of Keith and I sitting on he started attacking hard on the climb. I followed him pretty easily a couple times but once we'd get a gap he'd expect me to work and I was like "nope". Actually I tried to tell him I was tired or something Haha... He got pretty pissed but we're friends and I had invited him to stay with us this weekend. In retrospect I probably should have worked with him to get a big gap on the other guys then sat on him for the last couple laps. He's a hard guy to beat when he's sitting on your wheel.

I think Keith was a little worried about Gordon (I wasn't for some reason). With one to go he let a big gap open (to make Gordon close it) so I attacked the other CM rider but my heart (or legs...or mind) weren't really into it. I just went hard enough to make them chase me. We all were together at the climb so I swung wide to the side to watch Keith then we lined up for the downhill finish.

Crusty had told me to be first through the last turn due to the downhill and tailwind. So right before I was going to launch Keith comes flying by...Shit! I got his wheel just after the turn but it was too late. Even though I went into the race feeling like crap the legs did everything I asked them to do so I'm at least happy with that.

TNWC starts this tuesday at 6:30.

B-R Road Race

Today was the Blythewood road race. I was a little apprehensive cuz I really haven't been training that much and I knew it would be a hard mans race. Plus the wind was howling so there would be nowhere to hide either in a break or the field.

At the start we had some collusion with another team about trying to go from the gun. Jay and LL were gonna go and I was gonna try to make the gap happen from the field. This made for a very hard first lap as there were lots of attacks/counters. The 1st 20' I had a NP of 105%. After things settled down 2 guys managed to slip away and stayed away to the finish. We then were chasing hard at times but the friggin gap kept going up...frustrating but kudos to them. 1st hour of racing had a 98% NP.

The short hard laps took its toll and the field was pretty much whittled down. Jay got away with 2 others in chase #1 then LL and 4 others in chase #2. Once LL was out of sight I just shut it down, rode at the back and then stopped on lap 7 so I could watch the finish and conserve a bit for Sunday. Jay ended up 4th, LL 6th.

I did get some grief from a d-bag about "negative" racing. It's always negative if you miss the break or have no teammates. I do make a point not to actively impede an organized chase but if the field wants to follow me around at 21 mph, so be it. Good job to Toby S. today for chasing solo with half lap pulls...just noone would help him.

Crit tomorrow 11am at Satchel Ford Elementary School off Trenholm Rd. Should be some more fireworks from the gun.

*sniff*

Been sick since I unclipped from the race on Sunday. Bad head cold. I did manage to only drink 1/2 bottle in the race and I was also so dehydrated on Monday that I nearly passed out. I kept seeing all these pretty floaty things for about 3 hrs and spent the day in bed.

I took a couple days off the bike then tonight I got on the velodyne and had a pretty solid workout with good leg sensations. It's all good. I'm off to Utah for some skiing tomorrow but may try to squeeze in an "easy" VO2 workout before the flight.

River falls is this weekend which I'll miss. I will be back for our local Blythewood-Roubaix races the following weekend. The course is good and has been changed. No gravel, No dirt . A couple of tough climbs each lap that WILL be selective. Things you will not see at the finish are sprinters or pack fill. This one's gonna be fun.