Bici Coop Racing

Trans Iowa part III

alanbarton — Thu, 03 May 2012 07:44:12 -0500

Part 3: It’s 3 AM and I am riding my bike.

It was 8:45 PM when we left Checkpoint Bravo at 170 miles into Trans Iowa. Clouds overhead obscured whatever helpful moonlight and stars would have otherwise been out to illuminate the night. On went the lights. I usually run a super bright Ayup headlamp and no bar light. For some reason I am still unsure of I deviated and put the Ayups on the bar with a small AAA lamp on my helmet. The gravel was unimpressive from Checkpoint Bravo to Charlie. There was more “maintained” road with nasty fresh gravel to soak up our energy but the wind was mild and the hills smaller. Fair trade I suppose.

Lee had given me some helpful advice earlier in the day. “Yeah, I’m not thinking about the finish…I just know its 11 AM and I’m riding my bike.” This worked great during the night. I simply noted the time and that I was riding then thought about nothing else. It took a lot of pressure off.

We had a couple interesting incidents with cars in the night on gravel roads. Most required us to simply ride in on the shoulder and let them pass. Some yelled at us. I felt like I was back home in Birmingham and this warmed my heart. Thanks, assholes. Most everyone in the Midwest is helpful and friendly but there was to be a few bad (drunk) apples around. It took longer than I wanted (story of the race, there…) to get to Checkpoint Charlie but I was stoked to arrive. My previous visions of bonfires and Papa John’s were replaced by a dark pavilion next to a church.

This was Checkpoint Charlie. The guys there were super helpful again.

It had no time limit and they had some supplies to get us to the finish.

“Now you guys know there is nothing between here and Grinnell, right?” one of the volunteers asked.

“Yeah, we know,” I told him and quickly asked, “How many are behind us…do we need to save some supplies?”

“There are three guys back there but go ahead and get what you need.”

It was 135 miles to Grinnell from this location which was totally remote. My knee was killing me again, as was Lee’s. Bad thoughts ran through my head and I began the familiar process of filling bottles and Wingnut then stuffing as much food as I could fit in my pockets. They did have some Cokes there which made me very happy at the time. I wanted to call Pete to come get me. I wanted to quit. I think Lee did to some extent also. We had been talking about our knees and both decided it was okay to continue. I deal with hurt knees all day as a therapist and know when one is seriously damaged. Mine just hurt like a mofo. Some hurt I can deal with, or a lot of hurt as it would turn out. I peed on a tree and felt some cold raindrops begin to fall…more rain? Dammit. I was cold, I didn’t want it to rain.

I thought of Pop’s words - “John…you can’t get mad at the weather.”

I put on my shell pants and a synthetic insulated vest, my emergency don’t die in the night gear. Turns out this was mostly for psychological reasons to get me to leave Checkpoint Charlie. A mile down the road I was sweltering and skidded to a halt to remove the vest. It was now past midnight and the reality of our night was setting in. I am usually a spot on night rider and thrive on it but did not feel right. I wasn’t as tired as I was disoriented. My different light setup was playing tricks on my head and fatiguing my eyes, I couldn’t focus on shit and became increasingly dependent on Lee’s ability to read the cue sheets. I was jealous of his headlamp and wishing I used something different. At least the rain had stopped for now.

I got off my bike to pee in a ditch and almost fell into it. What the hell was that?

Back on the bike, we rode more and more loose gravel. Lee was Boy Scout prepared for the night and brought an iPod which I also envied. I don’t remember ANY roads from the night, just vague characteristics of them. They were gravel, very dark, and difficult to find a clean line to ride. I was thankful to have some gels with caffeine with them and looked forward to grabbing one at the top of every hour. I was still falling asleep on the bike, usually on the downhills. I would be going 30 mph down the gravel, fall asleep, wake up and have no idea where I was but still be riding next to Lee. Small miracle we didn’t run into each other or a ditch during the night.

The cows sounded spooky, I guess they would rather moo at night than sleep. There were lots of other animals out there and they creeped me out. A possum ran into the road and Lee swerved to try and hit it. I hallucinated a lot during our night riding. At first I thought there were more animals running out in the road then I noticed a duplicate of Lee riding with us, then a third. Lee thought a pile of straw was valuable timber someone left in the ditch. I wanted daylight bad. I knew I would feel better with some light to ride by.

4 AM came around and it stormed again, pretty hard this time. I got really frustrated trying to put on my rain jacket. My knee was hurting enough by this point if I took a bad pedal stroke I instantly broke out in a sweat. My prayers for relief were answered by a jaunt through a town with a gas station that had some Aleve. The guy inside was mean but the Aleve helped both our knees. We also ran across the group of Adam Boone and Scott with a few others but they left before us.

Finally daylight came around and I was overwhelmed by happiness and we began to do some math on probability of finishing. All we had to do was average 9 MPH and we could make it by the 2 PM cutoff in Grinnell. The possibility of some smoother roads seemed very possible since the ones during the night sucked so much. It never always gets worse, right? Well that is true but sometimes it takes a long ass time to get better and this was the case on Sunday morning. I began to feel better and was riding more hills. We had about a 5 mile section of tailwind around mile 280 which was just glorious.

The more we rode the more hills we had to go up. They were huge, relentless, and often into a headwind. We made it all the way to mile 290 before making a wrong turn. The directions said bear left at so and so road. There was an obvious bear left here with tire tracks but the road sign pointed straight ahead. Lee and I were both dumb and confused here. If in doubt at Trans Iowa FOLLOW THE NAME OF THE ROAD. We followed the tracks for a mile or two and realized it was wrong. Backtracking was disgustingly hard, the road was all loose gravel and was uphill with a headwind (seeing a theme here…). It took quite awhile and instead of having a comfortable 4 hours and 30 minutes to cover 40 miles we were down 4 hours. We still considered this doable and found the correct road. The next issue was food and water. Lee was low. So was I.

I saw a house with a hose and strolled up to knock on the door to ask if I could use the hose when I noticed a very large dog sleeping next to the door. I backed away very slowly while Lee filled up a few bottles. The dog experiences had been mild so far (very friendly chasing, no biting) but I didn’t want to press my luck. The hills continued and we were walking most of them. While cresting a hill Lee said, “I think I’ve hit a wall.”

Hm, this was not good. I know Lee well enough to know if he says something like that he is bad off. I also know he would ask me for help if he needed it. Rather than have a drawn out conversation about his condition I went ahead and left to go by myself to the finish. I also didn’t want to deal with the whole Pete coming to find him then trying to pick me up too thing. I ate my last Clif bar with three hours and thirty miles left in the race. I came to a town and was destroyed when I saw the one freaking gas station in town boarded up. I turned right onto more gravel and began noticing a trend with my directions. Right turns took me south and left took me east…I was going southeast to the finish. This was bad due to the constant headwind…I even rode through a working windfarm in this section! It was really cool to see but reinforced my troubles in my head.

I came up on Chris who I had ridden with Saturday and he said he was done. He gave me a couple pieces of food to last me until the finish. Thanks man! I owe you some beer if I ever see you again! I picked up my pace again to try and make it in by the 2 PM cut. My knee still was killing me in the now constant headwind but that would be over soon. I saw a rider in a yellow jacket which I realized was Scott McConnell. Thank God…a human I could ride with again. I put in a burst of speed to catch him and we settled into a moderate pace. The headwindy sections began to get longer and slowed us down more. I felt like a critical moment of the race was occuring when I realized we had to 18 miles in 90 minutes. Not effin’ likely in the wind. We discussed the now impossibility of making the time cut but both wanted to finish the course.

We slowed down some and chatted the whole way back to Grinnell. It was great, really enjoyed Scott’s company out there. I rode a good bit with his friend Thad at Dirty Kanza last year who was also entertaining. I like Nashville folks just fine I think. We had conceded but Trans Iowa wasn’t done with us yet. It stormed again and the temp dropped. I didn’t care a bit, I was so close to being done. The final kick in the gut was a long, nasty B road 5 miles from the finish. My brain was no longer totally right and I rolled my bike right into the sticky mud like it was a do it yourself car wash. My 20 pound bike now weighed about 40 and I alternated rolling it in a ditch and carrying it until my neck hurt too much. We rode the rest of the course back into Grinnell in a steady rain and finished in 35 hours and 30 minutes. The time cut was 34 hours. Everyone was gone from the finish area but I still felt proud I did the whole course without quitting. The dissapointment of missing the time cut…well, it really didn’t bother me much and still doesn’t. I’ll save the coulda woulda shouldas…everyone has them and they don’t mean much. I tried hard and did my best. If I do it again I learned plenty this year that will help me nab an official finisher spot next time. I think Lee really wants to go back and I will probably go with him. Anyone else from Birmingham in?

After the race I huddled in the floor of an Element belonging to the guys from Nashville who let me have some food. Thanks, you guys were awesome. Pleasure to meet all of you. Pete and Lee showed up a few minutes later. Lee cracked after I left and had Pete come get him after completing 300 miles of the course. Pretty dang good. Lee is a great friend of mine and a tough rider. Glad to have him out there with me all those hours. I hopped into Lee’s truck and was taken aback at the amount of food and beer Pete had sourced while we were racing…partly because I had nowhere to sit and I was freezing my ass off. Amazing the effort he put into helping out a couple lunatics he barely knew race some gravel course for a day and a half.
ShelledRode in to Grinnell like this. B Road tenacity.Wouldn’t be a race without a beer that looks like motor oil.I was done. Things were finally better, they had just stayed worse for a long, long time.

Out of 67 starters, 19 finished by 2 PM, and I think Scott and I were the last two on course.

Final post will be a detailed account of bike, gear, and other stuff I used at Trans Iowa. I left out these details in the first couple posts because I felt it would take away from what really makes Trans Iowa what it is which is all the awesome people involved with it. Stay tuned.

John and Lee's Epic in Iowa continues...

alanbarton — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:22:34 -0500

Part 2: Dude, Where’s My Monstercross?

Within a minute of my 2:30 A.M. alarm going off Saturday morning I was staring at the weather report. Still cold. Still windy. Still suck. Lots of suck. This is what I had planned for and it looked like we were gonna get it. I wolfed down some food and went down to load the bikes up in Lee’s truck. It looked scary outside.
Iowa sky right after sunriseStill very windy and the ground was soaked from an overnight downpour. The windchill was 20 degrees. It really didn’t seem like that many people were present at the start. 100 had registered. 67 were present. Attrition begins early at Trans Iowa.
Last minute fiddling

Wingnut and ah, wingnutsCold wet startLee and I had a tentative agreement to stick together unless it just all went to hell and we got separated or died, that sort of malady. Guitar Ted did a controlled lead out right at 4 A.M. out of Grinnell onto the now mushy gravel roads. I tried to ride smooth and not run into other riders and was shocked at how fast the pace was. I didn’t want to push hard this early but also wanted to make it to Checkpoint Alpha 52 miles down the road by the 9:30 A.M. cutoff. Most of the cutoff times at Trans Iowa are based on a 10 MPH average. That is not a rolling average, it is TOTAL so ya gotta be moving good to make it and not get cut. One minute late and you’re out! GT mentioned he had given us extra time to reach this first check and we were finding out why.

I zoned out watching the lights ahead of and behind me and just sorta pedaled in my own world.

I quickly realized I was by myself so slowed up to wait on Lee and some others to catch me so I wouldn’t be alone in the now down to a pleasant 25 MPH headwind coming from the East. Lee and I were soon joined by a singlespeeder from Kansas named Warren and a few other guys I was not able to introduce myself to. The course has heading straight into the wind and hills were plentiful. I was torn. I felt like I was working too hard in our paceline and a couple guys were absolutely hammering the hills but on the flipside we were still only averaging 10 MPH despite our efforts! I was too scared to let the relative speed and safety of our group pass me by and I guess Lee felt the same. I was choking trying to eat because of the fast pace but knee better than to skip on calories during something like this. It had stopped raining at this point but the damage had been done to the roads. Wet gravel bounced off my glasses from the guy’s tire in front of me but no way I was losing my wind protection. After maybe 10 miles of this frantic pace the group began to splinter and I saw the concerned look on Lee’s face. The pace was too fast. Way too fast. Shit.

Around 20 miles into the course we entered the first B Road of the course. B road are unmaintained dirt roads that turn into a horrible bike sucking mess when wet, think DSG 2009. From past experience I knew better than to ride and gingerly began rolling my bike in the wet ditch along side the road. We got off the hook after a mile and it has back on the road into the wind to head towards Checkpoint Alpha in the small town of Montezuma. Iowa has many small towns and they all look quite similar. My memory is fuzzy of the last miles heading to the first checkpoint but I knew we would make it on time but not by much. The ground had a bunch of loose gravel on it from the county maintainers which wasn’t helping the quest for easy speed. If I was maintaining them I’d be out there with a broom…just sayin’. My legs hurt. My back hurt. I needed to recover some. Lee and I spun along at a more casual pace and pushed the steeper hills. After exactly five hours, we were at Checkpoint Alpha with 30 minutes to spare! At the time, I was too fatigued to be excited about our minor success.

“How ya feelin’ John?” Aaron Gammell asked me. I was now forced to take a look at how shitty I actually felt. I was cold, worried, and fatigued. I felt like I had just ridden the hardest race of my life and had 280 miles to go! My fingers were too cold to open my Ziplocs with the cue sheets in them so my attention turned to restocking at a local C Store. At Trans Iowa, you find your own food…nobody gives it to you. No sag station Oreos or Cheez Its. Same for water. I had a capacity for 150 oz. and filled it all, no telling where the next store would be. I was worried about the feeling in my legs and trying to push away the negative thoughts so I simply pedaled onto the next section of the course. This leg was 120 miles to Checkpoint Bravo. We spent too much time at the C Store and now had exactly 12 hours to get there. Before the race this would have seemed like eons but now…it seemed like a very pressing matter to be dealt with.

Turns out this section was great, my favorite of the course in fact. I met plenty of new people through here, first of which was the guy who puts on the Alamanzo Royal race in Minnesota. He was a strong rider and pulled away on a rare flat section of road. The course was now heading southwesterly through Iowa which meant less headwind! We came up on two geared riders who had a similar pace to us and more importantly, a pleasant demeanor. In a race like Trans Iowa, attitudes are infectious and a rider with a bad one can be deadly to those around him. The two riders were Adam Boone, marketing director for Gu Energy, and his friend Chris. Adam told me he had finished 8th last year and was out with the lead group this year when he decided he lacked the motivation to go for a record pace.

The four of us chatted about everything under the sun… or clouds as it was on this Saturday afternoon. Of course, the promising weather forecast was bullshit. The wind had died down some but it was still present along with a 50 degree high and cloudy, dreary skies. We were having a good time and had a great pace going with smoother, more friendly roads. We came across a fella on a Salsa Vaya from Nashville having a rough mental time of it. “I should have just done the Cohutta 100 again…I’m gonna quit soon,” he remarked.I tried to give him a pep talk partly to boost my own mental state but knew he would be done soon. There was supposed to be another B Road through here but our wonderful tour guide detoured us around it!

I don’t recall what town or what mile it was when a great convenience store opportunity presented itself. We took another too long of a stop but it seemed worth it as I was able to KO an entire gas station pizza and found my favorite candy, a Reese’s Fast Break. The fella on the Vaya and a few others quit here. If you are going to bail at Trans Iowa better to be in a city than a ditch 50 miles from anything. Lee had been complaining about his knee since mile 50 and I was suddenly aware of my right knee as we started pedaling again..

It wasn’t uncomfortable or achy. It fucking hurt.

I was baffled…I’ve had some left knee issues over the years but the right knee is usually the star of the show and now it was wavering. Put some Advil down the hatch and pedaled on. Somewhere along the way we lost Adam and Chris but neither Lee nor myself wanted to commit a chase group and potentially waste energy. We were both bummed about this turn of events but on we went.

Soon enough we came up on the Nashville guys with Scott McConnell, also on a singlespeed. We rode with them briefly but decided their pace was too hot to be sustainable so let them have at it.

The cue sheets were awesome…no wrong turns yet. No flats or mechanicals. Things were going pretty well. Attitudes were positive but our knees continued to degrade. Sharp, intense pain on the inside of my knee which I think was caused by too much seated climbing. Standing climbing and easy spinning was fine but if there was a headwind and I had to pedal it was on fire.

Around 8:30 PM Lee and I cruised in to Checkpoint Bravo with an hour to spare 170 miles into the course. The volunteers there were very helpful and gave us a rundown on the race. Lots of TI vets (read: badasses who have finished this behemoth before) had already dropped and we were somewhere around 25th or 30th place at that time. We got our sheets with directions all the way to the finish back in Grinnell. 157 more miles. Woah. I was low on water but apparently there was a secret location Checkpoint Charlie 30 miles ahead. Our attitudes were lifted by the hope of fresh food and water. It was now dark and the lights went on. I was pumped. Visions of all sorts of greatness at the next checkpoint spun around in my head. I was ready for a bonfire, pizza, some ice cold Coke perhaps. Who knows…they might have music too. I also took a glance at the Garmin. 8500 feet elevation gain so far out of 13,000 feet described in the pre race info.

“Awesome,” I thought out loud, “we have most of the climbing behind us.” This would also turn out to be a figment of my imagination. You have to have some delusions going through your head in the first place to attempt this race.

Gravel crunched as we rolled into the now dark and increasingly ominous Iowa countryside totally unaware of how much difficulty the last half of Trans Iowa had in store for us.

John and Lee are the real deal: Trans Iowa part I

alanbarton — Wed, 02 May 2012 06:46:54 -0500

From John’s blog:

Part 1: The West Wasn’t Won on Salads

Last week at the Sunny King Crit Kyle Campbell posed a question to me that made me pause.

“…so what made you want to do Trans Iowa?” he asked.

This made me think hard and I quickly scurried away to the free beer tent with Tyree to ponder my friend’s question.

I should interject here for those wondering ,”What the hell is Trans Iowa?”

It is an unsupported mountain bike race in rural Iowa on gravel and dirt roads. The course ranges between 320 and 340 miles with a time limit of 33-35 hours most years. It’s hard. Most people don’t finish. It’s dangerous and scary. There is no entry fee. The weather is shitty up there in the spring. Whats not to like?! Here is some info:

Race Website: Trans Iowa Race Page
Race History: Trans Iowa Race History
Race Rules: Trans Iowa Race Rules

I have been fascinated with Trans Iowa for years. Some years a few people finish. Some years nobody finishes. I noticed a vast array of bikes the riders used, everything from road bikes to full suspension 26ers. The thing remaining the same every year(apart from the insane weather) was the way it seemed to change those that participated. The pictures and stories were crazy. I lurked from afar but couldn’t shake my interest in what is one of the hardest bike races in the country if not the world.

The last straw came at last fall’s Chainbuster 9 Hour at Oak Mountain. I was shooting the shit with George Mattison and Lee Neal when they asked me if I was in for Trans Iowa. “Sure,” I replied. It was done. We were going. Sorta.

I waffled on the call right up until the deadline for postcard entries and sent it in with Melissa’s sleepy blessing. The Alabama boys got in with 97 other lunatics. I put in some nasty miles this winter in preparation. Lee did also. George did some then bailed…next year, George? Anyway, the prep. 35 and rainy? I rode. Dark? No problem. Seven hour fixie ride day after food poisoning? Yeah, that happened too. Not one of my better decisions. My coworkers think I am a moron who will refuse a ride home no matter what. They are right. Body and bike were comin’ along just dandy but the logistics were proving to be a real bitch.

The hardest part was finding a support crew. This isn’t your typical support crew at Trans Iowa, the can’t do anything for you except come get you when/if you quit. Eventually Pete Foret stepped up the month before the race and proved to be the best damn support crew we could have asked for. He has my eternal respect and gratitude after this weekend. Great guy, thanks dude.

I wasn’t that nervous leading up to the race, mostly concerned about the weather and my bike/gear setup. The weather I couldn’t do much about. As my Pop once told me with a wry smirk while I glared at the rain, “John, you can’t get mad at the weather!”

Gear setup is a huge deal for this race. Mess it up and you get to think about it for 35 hours best case scenario. Worst case scenario you freeze and get hypothermia or have to hide in a ditch while your crew drives a hundred miles to come look for you…that’s assuming your cell works. I’m an obsessive planner for races and was pretty happy with what I brought. My setup will get it’s own post after all the racin’ stuff is typed.

Pete instantly asserted his road trip dominance by driving us the whole freaking way to Iowa Thursday night in one go. We had the right guy. I slept like crap in the truck and worse in the hotel. Oh well, I considered it practice for all the sleep deprivation yet to come in the race. I woke up with a couple missions on Friday morning in Grinnell, Iowa. I wanted to get my homemade cue sheet holder windproof firstly. Lee bought a premade one which looked burly and I was growing worried about my flimsy piece of shit I spent hours making. The wind was a sustained 30-35 mph which is stronger than I have ever been in. Even getting out of the truck was rough in the wind. A couple office clips later and the holder was better but not real inspiring. My other worry was dogs and Lee’s preparation outdid me again as he showed me the pepper spray he packed. A couple guys at the local shop, Bikes to You, told me not to fret so I followed orders and headed over to the prerace meeting at the Grinnell Steakhouse.

This place was sweet. You get your own meat of choice and grill it on a giant grill inside. I made another bad choice and got chicken…I’m a dumbass. You can cook chicken like a champ and you still have a stupid piece of chicken. I wanted BEEF. As a bumper sticker I had seen earlier in the day read, “The West wasn’t won on salads.” We ate at a table with the Braun bros from Wisconsin who would be leading the event for awhile the next day. After eating Guitar Ted got on with the prerace meeting and we got to see a film by Jeff Frings called 300 Miles Of Gravel, a documentary of last year’s race. Seeing the riders’ condition in the movie was eye opening and I appreciated Guitar Ted’s obvious passion for an event he puts on for free.

300 Miles of Gravel Trailer from Jeff Frings Photography on Vimeo.

Back in the hotel room, Lee and I were pissing around with gear when Pete made an excellent point which proved instrumental in our survival.

“Ya know, you can always take clothes off but you can’t find any extras in an Iowa ditch…”

Fuck it. I packed everything. Weight be damned, it was brutally cold, windy, would likely rain and I wasn’t going to underdress as my bad experience at Southern Cross doing so still weighed heavily on my mind.

I checked the weather one last time before falling asleep.Rainy and 39 degrees at the start with 25mph wind from the East. Saturday afternoon looked better with 55 degrees on the screen and Sunday looked downright pleasant with partly sunny skies and a high of 60. I was skeptical since it still sounded like a small scale hurricane was outside.

The wind buffeted the side of the hotel room and I heard large raindrops began to splat against the window. I was still excited to get on with the race but very aware of what rain would do to the course.

In four hours it would be time to rock and roll.

diybirmingham: Bici Coop’s Annual May Day Hill...

alanbarton — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:17:19 -0500

diybirmingham:

Bici Coop’s Annual May Day Hill Climb »RSVP

Meanwhile in Tuscaloosa...

alanbarton — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 08:02:36 -0500

Boris Simmonds has been training a lot over the winter for road season, he took it to the Tour of Tuscaloosa this past weekend. Here’s his write up.

Enter Road Racing - Tour de Tuscaloosa 2012

Disclaimer: I have not “blogged” in a while, so this is a bit of a novel!

This weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to compete in my first “real” road race, the 6^th Annual Tour de Tuscaloosa. The TDT takes place over two days beginning with a criterium race near downtown T-Town followed by a road race near Lake Lurleen the next morning. Having spent the whole winter on a legitimate fitness plan with Pat Allison’s Lead it Out Cycling, I was more than eager to stretch my legs and see if this whole training plan was legit. With the weather beautiful and race form beginning to develop, this weekend was the perfect chance to learn what road racing is all about. It is about skill, endurance, and strength… it welcomes those with confidence and rewards the few with finesse. Road racing, especially crit racing, is ballsy and is not kind to sissies. Most of all, racing requires you to use your head, a lesson I learned the hard way.

TDT Day 1: Cat 5 Criterium

For those who don’t know already, a criterium is like NASCAR for bicycles…only our “engines” aren’t all stock and many have smaller gas tanks than others. The bikes have no roll cages to keep you safe when you bump against other racers (or objects) and the moment you pop off the back of the peloton, you’re out for good. This means there is a constant drive for individuals to get to the front without actually being at the front. It gets chaotic, but played smart it can be performed easily enough to allow you to go virtually unnoticed until the final meters when you dash out of the group and take the victory for yourself. That is how you win a criterium. The pictures below show how to lose a criterium.

Towing the Cat 5 Crit like a boss/fool.
Putting in another dig at the front near the end of the same lap.

In retrospect I suffered from a complete lack of strategy, false confidence, and plain dumbness. I not only ignored everything that I had learned about riding on the road, but also the advice of my riding companions and what my body was telling me. Perhaps it was pride that made me want to just sit and pull. Whatever the reason, I rode stupid. After the race I was reminded by my good friend Jacob Tubbs that the only time you need to be in front is at the finish. It reminded me of when my dad used to tell me in soccer that all I need to do is put the ball in the goal… but I wanted to dribble around people and pass and slide tackle… this time I finally learned my lesson.

I rode off the start at threshold and did my best to push the pace and match every attack. I was too scared to sit on another wheel to closely as I didn’t trust most the riders in the race yet. I was convinced that every rider in the group was a Cat 5 because they rode once a month. I was also too anxious to move backwards because I felt I could miss the winning breakaway. My reasons for riding the way I did were conflicting and prematurely formed. Thus, in the end, I took a really hard pull into a ruthless headwind for the last lap and missed the jump into the last turn before the sprint, finishing 4^th, just out of the multi-tools (no money L in Cat 5). On the bright side, being up front gave Hanh several chances to get some neat photos, of which I was clearly able to go back and see exactly when attacks were made. Unfortunately, the beef of the race took place after the starting downhill on an exposed flat directly into the headwind and in the short grunt climb that followed. No photos were taken there, but it’s on Strava, so it happened I swear!

TDT Day 2: Cat 5 Road Race

Saturday night I spent the entire drive home to Hoover cursing at myself for making such a novice error in the day’s crit. I really wanted to make an impressive show at my first race, and I did, but in a bad way. So I committed myself to a new plan – become the laziest, most selfish cyclist in the Cat 5 peloton at the road race. I got home and pinned my numbers to my jersey for the day to come, and helped myself to two servings of turkey, marinara sauce, and spaghetti squash with white rice and a fruit smoothie before dozing off…ZZZ…

5:45 AM arrived quickly and I immediately acquainted myself with a bowl of oatmeal and a banana before making my way out to Lake Lurleen for the road race. I arrived with about 30 minutes to spare so I quickly got into my kit and out on the road to warm up and have a gander at the mile-long finishing climb that reminds me of Karl Daly, but with a slight downhill before the finish line. Warmed and ready for a day of sitting in I picked a spot in the front quarter of the race to watch the Pro/1/2’s take off. Our race began with a neutral start into the triple stair-step climb where almost immediately people began to grab brake, surge, or change lines without reason. Once the race began, the pace didn’t change. I think the first lap may have contained an attempt or two to breach the peloton, but from where I sat nothing appeared planned or well executed. In our first turn off of Sam Sutton Road, some fool took off sprinting on the downhill over the rumble pads before sliding out in the turn and nearly taking others with him. Who attacks a downhill into a 90-degree turn with gravel in it? Someone thought it was a fantastic idea!

Our first stroll through the finishing hill was uneventful, but it quickly became apparent that the same top five from yesterday’s criterium would be setting the pace. While my original strategy was to hide in the group, my general disdain for sitting on another novice’s wheel led me to the front where I took rotations regularly. However, if I was in the lead I made sure I was in nothing more than tempo/Z3 pace, and at times sat there in Zone 2 waiting for others to come around. I felt selfish, and lazy, but I knew after yesterday that nothing else would work better. Our second lap around there were some more breakaways, including one from the 3^rd place crit finisher who must have burned everything up in the effort as I don’t recall seeing him near the front after that lap. John Newsome and Kyle Campbell put a lot of time in the front on this and the last lap and so we had some time to chat and play some games. One idea that came up was to push the pace a little on the finishing climb on lap 2 and see if we could trim some of the fat off of the peloton. While a true breakaway group never formed, I heard later than in the effort a good deal of riders did burn too much energy and popped before the stair steps leading into lap 3.

In Lap 3 I grew impatient. I knew I should just sit it, but I began to entertain the idea of taking off on my own. At the base of the first stair step I sprinted up to the false flat generating a small gap…nothing to be proud of, so I sat up and waited for Mr. Newsome of ST3 Cycling to bridge up. Then I remembered something Phillip had told me about attacking right when a group works to bridge to you, so I went again hard on the second step and put a bigger gap…however I didn’t want to start working just yet I sat in and enjoyed the increased pace for a while before the group caught up again. The ride was pretty neutral at this point and even had a few super-slow segments where nobody wanted to take a pull, so when we reached the base of Sam Sutton Hill I gave a hard push and sprinted up and over… looking back I probably had a 20+ second gap that was only growing as I pedaled. I felt I could have led it out to the end there as Sam Sutton Road had lots of good rollers for me to power through; but I was lacking in confidence after the night before and didn’t want to make a mistake so I sat up and enjoyed about a minute of soft pedaling before rejoining the group. Somewhere in this road an older guy launched on a flat but we all jumped on for the free ride and it quickly ended. As we hit the treacherous turn off of Sam Sutton I took my place up front. I stayed at zone 3 somewhere in the low/mid-20’s and waited for the turn onto the finishing climb. To my surprise nobody came around with an attack. We were shaped like Canadian geese with me at the front. I looked back several times nervously waiting for an attack, but I didn’t see any of the faces that had given me trouble the night before. When we turned on to the finishing climb, I flipped a few gears down and just set a steady effort to the top. Kyle Campbell of the NSAT crew led a hard chase behind me up through the false flat but fell off at some point. I think he was the only person to jump on my wheel as I took leave of the peloton, and it came as a surprise to me. I weaved back and forth across the road trying to shake him off my draft… the finish came as a relief and I was glad to have done the day’s race right. My number one goal was to not repeat the crit’s mistakes, and riding smarter paid off. Looking back I got to watch John and Rueben of ST3 take 2^nd and 3^rd at the sprint, giving the Alabama boys a podium sweep. I was glad to keep the Pensacola peeps at bay…the hills may have helped!

At the close of my first road race I was awarded the Alabama Cat 5 State Championship medal and a dinky cyclocomputer, which will join my collection of multi-tools. I got to watch Brian Toone dominate the Pro/1/2 field, including riders like Andy Crater and Frank Travieso by a huge gap. I got to witness the strengths of fellow riders like John Newsome and Kyle Campbell, and I met several new people whom I will continue to race with in the future, God willing.

I have posted the photos Hanh took at the criterium on facebook, but I included this short snapshot of my performance data from Strava. I would have posted my Training Peaks charts if I had a power meter, but without one, I still rely either on my rollers (speed) when training indoors or on Strava’s approximated power (only valid-ish when riding alone, but still not accurate for sure). Regardless, when I compare my efforts this weekend to rides in the past, Strava is suggesting that my threshold power is well over 100 watts from where it was in August of 2011. When I have real numbers from a power meter I will post those (I’m due for a computrainer test, but have too many races this month to do it). For now I have a half-jokingly annotated reason for my race data…some people learn from books, other from advice, and some just have to pee on the electric fence. The evidence is clear that training this winter with Pat has boosted my fitness in a huge way, and I can’t wait to take back some KOM’s from you-know-who, or at least try. But I need to get smarter. Good riding this weekend everyone!

Southern Cross 2012 report wrap up!

alanbarton — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:43:44 -0600

We had a great time this year at Southern Cross. Sam was our best placed rider at 4th place Single speed (26th Overall) followed by Boris, John, Alan, Lee, Zach, Daniel, and Ross. There is some great coverage over on Cylcingdirt as well as reports from Alan, John and Sam. Y’all be good; MTB season starts next week.

That's a wrap for Bamacross for now.

alanbarton — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:15:46 -0600

What a fantastic season. We had a truly fantastic group of people ride with us this year and can’t wait to see the bigger and better things we can do for next year. With 31 podium appearances, 3rd place overall in the team competition and 4 podium positions for individuals in the series Bici brought it this season. None of this would have been possible without our family of riders, friends and fantastic sponsors. Not to forget the madman behind it all, Brent Marshall, making cyclocross THE cycling discipline of Alabama.

This blog won’t be going completely silent though. We have a large contingent racing Southern Cross next month as well as a road and mountain bike team racing through the summer. Lee and John are doing their thing with Trans Iowa and Dirty Kanza and I’m sure they will have some stories to tell. Thanks for following and stick around.

-Vive Bici

Alan

Southern Cross Training by Sam

alanbarton — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:51:32 -0600

Today I decided to go out to Oak Mountain State Park to figure out a good course to train for the Southern CX Race. After looking at Alan Barton’s Strava from last years race I knew this race was more about elevation gain than distance. I also have to give Lee Neal, George Mattison and others a shout out because they used a variation of this to train the last few years. Oak Mountain has some good climbs for cx, especially Pevine road and the boy scout road climb. The red trail fire road would also be great, but it is hard to ride on a cross bike without getting a flat. Anyway, here is basically one lap of what I plan to do for the next few free Sundays before the race. One lap of Southern cx training. I had to work today otherwise I would have done this twice. Now all there is left to do ride and find the right single speed gear ratio. I’m excited to train for and race this race, all I hear are good things.

John K rode the Skyway today and had this to say...

alanbarton — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:47:54 -0600

For those of you not in the know, the Skyway Epic is a section of trail/ forest road in the Talladega National Forest that goes from Sylacauga to Adam’s Gap near Mount Cheaha in Anniston. This will be featured in the Skyway Epic race on May 20. Brent is still figuring out logistics but one can assume if it comes from Brent’s mind it will be wonderful, hard, and feel like getting kicked in the gut a thousand times.

I will not be able to attend the race since me and Melissa will be at the Hangout Music Festival but uh, I still wanted to preride it. Thanks to the facebook Skyway Epic group it was pretty easy to coordinate a ride and amazingly enough everyone showed up plus a few bonus folks.

I should mention it has rained a Costco sized shitload here in Alabama the past few days. Yes, we got wet. Yes, the trail is rideable in the wet and handles water well. More on that in a minute.

We had an awesome group this morning. Boris and I rode out to meet Lee, George, Stewart, Matt, John Newsom, Mike the Cramper, Gavin, Tony Esposito, and JD. Big group of good riders. Big groups are great but with an increase in group size it is common to see an exponential rise in mechanicals and waiting around. We had lots of waiting but only one mechanical.

The rain held off but a thick blanket of fog covered the National Forest. I didn’t take many pictures because we could really only see about 50 feet at any given time. The trail looked great considering all the rain. There were huge puddles and some slick spots on climbs but overall not bad. ZERO peanut butter mud. Awesome.

Coming from the Sylacauga end the trail starts with maybe a 3 mile climb which isn’t bad. I was a bit sad there was so much fog, I’m sure the views are awesome out there. The area has a feel like that of the North Georgia mountains. About 8 miles in, Mike the Cramper rode up and announced his freehub had failed. After closer inspection a gnarled up chain was found and fixed and we were all done with mechanicals for the day!

Around 16 miles in there is a ripping fast downhill that comes out on the road for about 2 miles then climbs again. Mike was now having some cramping issues and went ahead and turned around. Ouch, hope he made it out ok. Not a good area to be in if you feel bad. The downhills are not your typical gravel fare with nasty turns waiting to wash out tires and rub your elbows raw. They require caution of a different sort. Folks with good line picking skills will be rewarded. Those that aren’t paying attention end up in some nasty ruts. Be careful. They are fun in an “Oh shit I’m going to die, but not really” way. The climbs were saturated with water and really took a lot of energy to get up today. This course is ALL climbing. It is hard and deserving of its name.

Singlespeed Course Notes: I used a 32/17 on a 29er out there today and really like it. It felt good everywhere but there are some grunt climbs going Cheaha to Sylacauga. I didn’t walk but really wanted to a few times. If I did the race, I would probably do a 32/16 on a 29er and hope for fast, dry conditions.

Bike Notes: Don’t use a cross bike, terrible idea. I think a 29er with a rigid fork, maybe a front squish would be good. Bring some durable, fast rolling tires and you will be happy.

We reached the turnaround point and I noticed the ride time was 2:12 on Gavin’s GPS. Pretty good I think. Elapsed time was ridiculous due to all the stops but I didn’t mind the breaks. Going back was much tougher. It began misting and I was now soaking wet. Our group for most of the ride ended up being Tony, Gavin, Boris and me with some switching around depending on who was hurting the most.

I was shocked at the amount of climbing in the final ten miles. It was nuts. They were steep and rutted out. Many looked the same and began to play tricks on my mind. I wanted to be back at the car but I was still digging the ride. Soon enough, the Element was in sight! Six hours later, we were back where we started. Soaking wet, exhausted, and smiles all around. Notice all the fog still around.

Done. So Done.

I was a bit surprised by the good legs I had today, being January and all…good omen for Southern Cross I hope. Killer ride today, if you haven’t been out there GO. I’ll be back soon.

LINK to Boris’ Strava data on today’s ride.

Just when you thought we were done, Bamacross returns to Brookside.

alanbarton — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:02:05 -0600

Due to a scheduling mix up Bamacross 9 saw us back in Brookside for the 5th time this season. No worries, with Brent at the helm there was no problem completely flipping the course upside down and all around. The course had features that we had seen before but throw in a lot more turns and a ton of mud you’ve got yourself a completely new course. The turnout was pretty low with road/mtn/lame season coming up and people transitioning into those disciplines but it was a good time none the less. In the first heat Kate lined up for the women’s race while Sam and Zach were all in for the Singlespeed race.

Kate crushing through the mud. Photo Carol Roark York

Sam soloing for the win. Photo Carol Roark York

Zach in the bog. Photo Carol Roark York

Kate had a great ride for another 2nd place finish while Sam rode away from the Singlespeed race with over a minute gap when all was said and done. Great job!

For the Men’s 4 race we had Daniel and Matthew rep the blue and brown. Daniel had a hard fought race, looking really strong through out and was able to net a 4th place finish.

Matthew was able to take off work to get a nice muddy ride in.

Daniel and Kyle in an epic battle for 3rd.

In the final race of the day Jonathan was the sole Cat 2 representative while Alan raced the Cat 3’s. Sam and Zach also lined up in the ‘here for the beer’ category, rocking heavy metal shirts, vests, jeans, and BMX bikes. They were definitely crowd favorites.

Jonathan had a solid ride for 5th in the Elite race. Photo Carol Roark York

Alan on his way to 4th in the Men’s 3 race. Photo Alan Laytham

Zach and Sam getting down. Photo Tommy Honeycutt

Only one race to go in the Bamacross series but don’t worry we’ve got some races on the books during the non cross months that should keep everybody busy.

Until next time.

fuckyeahgirlsandbikes: pedalfar: CX- Before and After (via...

alanbarton — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:02:01 -0600

fuckyeahgirlsandbikes:

pedalfar:

CX- Before and After (via KrisC.)

Mo in the Bici Team issue helmet!

Goodbye Brookside. Bamacross 8.

alanbarton — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:14:35 -0600

So sorry I missed last week’s update from Gadsden. It was a great race and Bici repped hard. Some highlights are Kate’s battle for 3rd place in the women’s race, Thomas’s win in the Men’s 4 in a straight up sprint, and our Junior racer William Hereford nabbing a third place in his race. It was rad.

Moving on to this week’s shenanigans, the fourth and final installment of Brookside this year. The course has been really good all year, this week throwing in mud as an obstacle. Similar to Gadsden, a lot of standing water and rideable mud on the course early on turned into unrideable ruts by the end of the day, forcing riders to run more than ride. This also made for great heckling near the start finish with the nastiest and longest mud pit just a few hundred meters from the line.

The first race of the day saw Sam, J-Rob, Lee, and Zach in the Singlespeed race and Kate in the Women’s elite field. Sam set a super high pace from the gun and rode away to the win, finishing second in both the races that started before him.

Sam on his way to the win. Photo Carol Roark York.

Kate had a phenomenal race in the Women’s Elite race. The long runs suited her well and she was able to stay with Maaike Everts the whole race. With a couple too many bobbles Kate a strong showing in second, her best race all season.

Kate on the final run up of the course. Photo Carol Roark York.

The next race was the Men’s 4 and Junior race which had Thomas, Taylor, and Daniel in the Men’s race and William Hereford in the Juniors. It was a strong day for the guys, Daniel just missed the podium for 4th with Thomas a couple spots back in 6th and Taylor in 7th.

Daniel grabbing a beer in the home stretch. Photo Carol Roark York.

The final race had the Men’s Elite and the Men’s 3 race with David, Travis, and Alan lining up. Alan had his best result of the year with a 3rd place after battling Hardwick Gregg, Jimmy Prentice and Ed Merritt from the gun. Andrew Boyd made his move early and stayed away despite the surges from the chasers. The mixture of sand and mud took its toll on bikes and especially the cleats making it difficult to clip in.

Alan running the mud. Photo Carol Roark York.

Bici Crew heckling the mud runners. Photo Carol Roark York.

That’s it for BAMACROSS for about a month. We’ll hopefully have some fun stuff posted here in the meantime. Brookside, we’ll miss you.

Sloss Cross! Bamacross #6

alanbarton — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:09:53 -0600

By far one of the team’s favorite venues. Not just because it is only 2 miles from the shop but also because our fair city is the backdrop. How rad is that? The first race saw Anna and Kate in the Women’s Elite race and John, Zach, and Lee in the single speed race. Despite losing her chain Kate was able to get her best result yet with second place coming in behind Maike from BBC racing. John was able to pick off George Mattison for third in the single speed race. Zach was having a great race until he fell victim to the course, knocking his knee on a fence post in the 3rd lap.

Kate on her way to the home stretch.

John with the Hole Shot.

Zach before his crash.

The second heat was the Men’s 4 and Juniors race. The usual suspects were in it for us. Taylor, Daniel, and Thomas were all together until Thomas flatted on the cement step up. That left Taylor and Daniel together in the top 10 with Nathan, Jonathan J. and Ben chasing. Taylor and Daniel finished 7th and 8th after battling with Kyle from NSAT. Our lone junior William rocked his race in style in his new Bici jersey!

Taylor leading Daniel and Thomas in front of the Bici tent.

“Stop smiling and race Ben!”

William coming through in his new digs.

The last race of the day was the Men’s Elite and Men’s 3 race. This week was Boris’s debut in the ‘big boy’ race and after hanging on for the first lap he wisely started beer feeds as the field started to leave him. Sam and Jonathan R. were able to snag 2nd and 3rd in the 3 race meaning that they will be joining Boris in the Elite field in Gadsden. Alan survived on the lead lap for 7th and Travis came in 14th place in his debut Cat 3 race. That wasn’t all Travis debuted this weekend as you can see in the following picture.

Daniel Day Lewis or Mario? You decide.

Under the Lights Bamacross 5.

alanbarton — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:37:06 -0600

The Anniston night race is probably my favorite bike race. Not just cross but all of it. The best atmosphere, the biggest crowds, and the fastest fields. Maybe not the best music but that’s all subjective. (Bob Seger- Night Moves for real?) The course was really fast. There was a lot of pack style racing because of all of the wind out there in the flats. A couple of steep climbs and the traditional sand pit were the spots where a lot of the gaps happened.

Bici had a solid crew out there. Zach and Lee rode the Singlespeed while Nathan, Taylor, and Daniel raced the 4’s. Our lone Junior William had a solid ride for 4th in the Junior Boys race. Super stoked to see him come out every week. Kate and Anna repped for us in the Women’s races. Kate was having a great race until she crashed on one of the off camber turns and had some mechanical issues. Anna held down 2nd place in the Women’s 4 race for her first podium of the season. Get em Anna!

We had 6 guys line up for the Men’s 3 race. Sam and Boris were able to hang on for 2nd and 3rd behind one of the Georgia guys meaning Sam brought home the Alabama State Championship. Brap! David, Alan, and Jonathan finished 9th, 10th, and 11th. Ross came in a little bit later feeling the effects of traveling every week for work.

The after party at Mellow Mushroom was a great time with Back 40 Brewing giving out some pints and everyone telling war stories from their race. Great job to Wig, Curtis and the rest of the Anniston crew. Can’t wait to do it next year.

Will Fyfe made cyclocrosshotties! BAMACROSS!...

alanbarton — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:44:07 -0600

Will Fyfe made cyclocrosshotties! BAMACROSS! BRAP!

cyclocrosshotties:

This is totally what I’m doing the next time at a cross race: hanging outside the porta potties and getting pictures with all the stars as exit. Everyone’s gotta go to the bathroom!

USPG Derby City Cup

Photo credit: Theresa O’Fallon

(via USGP Derby City Cup 2011 Photos | Cycling Dirt | Cycling Dirt)

It Ain't Cool, It's Cold... Ice Cold!: NorCal CX Heckling Rules: Early Draft

alanbarton — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:05:19 -0600

It Ain't Cool, It's Cold... Ice Cold!: NorCal CX Heckling Rules: Early Draft:

Bamacrossers Take Note!

its-cold:

1. No touching riders actively racing

2. No throwing, spitting, or discharging objects from a device at riders. Even if you know them.

3. Heckling insults should reply on wit rather than obscenity

4. Foul language is permitted as long as there are no children within an acceptable distance….

Sam's USGP Louisville Report.

alanbarton — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:24:00 -0600

After hearing talk of the USGP in Louisville from fellow Bamacrossers I made the decision to sign up and give it a go. I had to decide on either Cat 3 or single speed and I saw that the single speed field was very small on average compared to cat 3. So single speed it was and I was to be riding in class, Zach Davis let me borrow his demo bike from the shop, a 14 pound Trek Cronus CX Pro set up single speed. This took a little getting used to because the Cronus set up weights about 6 pounds less than my normal single speed set up. Now all that was left was to go.

Friday morning I woke up and rolled out. I got there around 2:30 or 3 and checked into the bed and breakfast where Theresa and I stayed for the weekend. It was in Old Louisville, a really awesome historic neighborhood. I settled in and checked some messages only to see that I had to book it to get to the park to get a pre-ride in. It ended at 4 and I got there at 4:10, but lots of people were still on the course so I got out there and rolled around. The course had everything; sand pits, barriers, steep run ups, a fly over, long bumpy flats and a section that reminded me of a skate park with all of its rollers and fun sweeping turns. As the sun went down I realized it was only about 5 and I didn’t have anything to do until 9:20 when I had to pick up Theresa from the airport. So I called Mike Garner, he told me that he and his family were going to eat at the sports bar where the number pick up was so I joined them. There were a lot of familiar faces there, saw the BBC crew and some faces I’ve only seen in pictures until now. Finally, it was time to pick Theresa. Soon after we hit the hay.

Saturday 5:30AM… BEEP BEEP BEEP! Cyclocross time! I wasn’t sure how crazy parking would be so we got up there extra early. As the sun started to come out I joined 100s of other people to get warmed up on the course. Before I knew it I found myself lining up with 31 other single racers ready to go. I felt comfortable with the size of the field. They check to make sure no one was on a fixed gear and then we were off. It was a long straight paved start. I don’t normally go hard in starts, but this was USGP so I spun the single speed to an almost funny high cadence. By the time we got about half way around the track I found myself sitting in about 7th or 8th. By about the 2nd or 3rd lap I was in 5th and stayed there the rest of the race. I couldn’t see 4th in front of me or 6th behind me so I just kept a pace and finished with 5th. Very happy. After my race I saw the start of the 2/3s start. The field was well over 100 people and I was glad I didn’t get mixed up with that. For the rest of the day I drank beer hung out with some Bamacross folks, a deviled egg and with some of Theresa’s friends who she just happened to run into. They race cross in Nashville and are really cool folks. Later the pros went on. They made every part of the course seem like it was nothing. It was really cool to see all those guys racing in person. As we were leaving that day I noticed they were changing the course… yikes. A few more beers and some pasta later it was time for bed.

Day two, I really wanted to keep sleeping, but I had to get up. Got to the park later, but still had time to pre-ride. The course was very different, much more turns and curves so I was happy. I warmed up a little longer this time, road down the road a ways and came back to the start. And we were off. It was really a lot of the same, except today the guy who got 6th the day before was on a mission to get top 5. He went hard off the start and by the 3rd lap I started catching him in the technical section. I finally passed him. Then with one to go he suddenly passed me on the flats, I think he may have had a harder gearing than me because he was moving faster but didn’t seem to be working as hard. Coming out of the sand pit in a 180 degree turn he went inside then wide and I went wide then to the inside and made my move. I never looked back until I was across the finish line. He had given it all he had because I ended up putting a few seconds on him by the finish. 5th place again. Pumped. The rest of the day was nice. Just hung out and watched the pros. It was really cool to yell at someone like Tim Johnson and them look over at you and give you a nod for cheering them on. The funniest part of the pro race was when Jeremy Powers celebrated way too early on the finish and almost got sprinted past by Todd Wells. I bet they won’t show that on behind the barriers…

Anyway, over all the weekend was amazing. I hope next time more Bamacross folks can make it up there. It’s totally worth it.

anothershittybikeblog: ‎”in soviet russia, the barriers...

alanbarton — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:07:32 -0600

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

anothershittybikeblog:

‎”in soviet russia, the barriers dismount YOU” - Ian

NCCX#5

(via: Billy)

Bamacross #4: A banner day for Bici Coop Racing.

alanbarton — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:53:00 -0600

Yesterday was the 4th race of the Bamacross season and the third time we raced in Brookside. Brent did a great job setting up the course so that it was almost a completely different course than previous editions. TONS of running, a lot of twists and turns and a little more running. The way the course was laid out if one you tried to recover you were going to get gapped. If it was a flat or fast section you better had been full gas. In the first race of the day we had Lee and Zach rolling the single speeds. And Brooke rode as our lone lady taking her first win of the season. Great job Brooke.

Brooke on her way to her first win. Photo : Carol Roark York

Taylor, Daniel, Jonathan, Thomas and Travis repped us in the Men’s 4 race. Thomas had a great start coming through the barriers in the first lap in second position before fading back. Jonathan didn’t have his best start but was stoked to finish after a string of mechanicals and flats knocked him out previous races. Travis decided to take a different approach today and just ride his race and stay upright. It paid off with him coming from the back of the field in the start to finish 9th. Taylor and Daniel both had their best days to date, riding together for most of the race with Taylor finishing 5th and Daniel 6th.

Jonathan making the pass out of the sand. Photo : Carol Roark York

Travis chasing. Photo : Carol Roark York

Daniel after the sand. Photo : Carol Roark York

Taylor hitting the hardest of the run ups. Photo : Carol Roark York

The Men’s 3 race was up next. Sam decided to skip the singlespeed race early to see how he could roll with fresh legs for the hour long 3 race. He CRUSHED it. He attacked in the first lap and stayed away the whole time. Behind Sam, Boris was battling Brad Hood (Mellow Mushroom) for much of the race with Jonathan Robbins just behind. Alan was sitting 5th much of the race but was eventually gapped by Hardwick Gregg and Ed Merritt. Ross was having a great race before a blowout just past the pit ended his race. Boris eventually dropped Brad but was caught by Jonathan in the last lap. Bici finished 1, 2, 3.

Sam didn’t look back. Photo : Carol Roark York

Jonathan on his way to his 2nd place finish. Photo : Carol Roark York

Boris rounded out the podium. Photo : Carol Roark York

Next week is an off week for Bamacross but Bici will be repped in the USGP of Louisville, Georgia Cross in Marietta, and the Chainbuster 9 hour race. Look for updates here.

Cheers!

The much anticipated: Lee Neal at 24 hours of Conyers

alanbarton — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:21:41 -0500

The Dirty Kanza mud fest and my failed attempt at an attempt to complete the TNGA route back in September left me feeling a little bummed. I needed to do a hard race of some sort to help me bounce back so I made a last minute decision to register for 24 Hours of Georgia solo.

I drove over Friday afternoon through some sweet Atlanta rush hour traffic and arrived at Conyers Olympic Parkway to immediately discover that I had made big mistake #1 - a rigid fork. My eyes were as big as pie plates when I saw tape on the left side of the parkway as I drove in. If you aren’t familiar with the Conyers trail, it is basically a loop split into two sections by a paved road. One side is primarily made up of fun singletrack with roots and logs that are pretty negotiable without a suspension fork. The other side is basically this relentless, pound-you-into-submission washboard granite that shows no mercy for foolhardy, rigid retro-grouches. Oh well…it is what it is…and it’s probably gonna suck.

The next morning, Zach and I line up at around 11:00 to see a lot of familiar faces and shake a few hands before we get going. In the first couple of laps I begin to familiarize myself with the trail again and plan my strategy for which hills to ride and which ones to push. Very important in a race that long. I set a good, steady pace and was moving along pretty good until about 2 or 3 hours in. That is when I realized that I had made big mistake #2 - brand new shoes. I had finally destroyed my old shoes beyond repair during the previous week’s ‘cross race and picked up a new pair before I left Birmingham. This proved to be a bigger mistake than the fork. Not only did I already have blinding pain in the balls of my feet, but I had worn a hole in my socks and was rubbing raw blisters against the back of my shoes. Pushing the four steep climbs were unbearable by this time and I was just getting started. I stopped after lap 3 to layer my feet up with two extra pairs of socks to cover the exposed blisters (Zach’s idea. Zach’s always thinking). I can walk again. Crisis averted, but I could already tell that my chances of finishing were going to depend more on my tolerance for pain than my fitness level. Fun times.

Back on the bike, I decide to start putting some laps away while I’m still fresh. I settle into a nice rhythm for the next few hours and into the evening completely oblivious to not only what time it was but how I was actually doing. Sometime around midnight, as I’m approaching the start/finish, I can hear Bruce Dickman’s marathon pipes echoing through the woods saying something about the Singlespeed category being a tight race. Clueless, I pull up to the tent to refill my bottles and Zach informs me that he is dropping out of the race. Bummer. 13 hours is still strong no matter how you slice it. Kudos to the Red One.

I get back on my bike and ride up to the scoring tent past some dirty hippies cranking some live Widespread Panic (a face-melting version of ‘Arlene’). Resisting the urge to dismount, grab a beer, and noodle by the fire, I check the sheets to find out that I’m in third. No backing out now. I’m in it.

Pedaling on through the night, I found myself going back and forth with the guy in fourth and at sometime around 3 or 4 we begin riding together for a while. At one point he tells me that he is going to stop to eat after this lap and mentioned something about his girlfriend and a massage. Time to strategize. Knowing that my new friend is about to make a big mistake, I pretend to have to piss in order let him ride away from me. I check my food/water and decide to stay out for two laps without taking time to refill. I figured that by the time he ate and got his rubdown, I could get at least a half an hour ahead if he even got back on his bike at all. Sure enough, I shine my light over at his campsite a couple of hours later and he is passed out in a chair with his mouth wide open.

With him off my back and second place just out of reach, I was about to settle into a more comfortable pace until I checked the sheets to find a new threat slowly gaining on me. It was still dark and I knew there was a lot of riding left to do. I thought that just by staying out for a couple of more laps he would get the hint and give up. But everytime I checked in when I would ride through, he was still riding. I tried turning faster laps. He would turn faster laps. I even tried putting out the word that I wasn’t stopping for shit, but alas, he just kept going out. By daylight it was clear that this cat was going to make me earn my swag.

With some newfound energy in the morning, I was making better time and started pulling away from fourth. A couple of hazy hours later, I finished my 14th and final lap to clinch 3rd place at around 23 hours and 168 miles. I handed in my chip and waited around to see who had pushed me so hard in the last few hours. Turned out to be a guy John and I had met at Kanza back in June. Small world.

Looking back, this was not the hardest race that I’ve done physically but definitely the most pain that I have ever had to overcome. Between the unavoidable foot pain and the merciless hand/arm beating that I took on those rocks for all of those hours, I don’t think I have ever had to endure that much suffering. “You can’t have the sweet without the sour”, they say…and that podium was definitely sweet.