Tonight's regularly schedule Thursday Night indoor workout at the
Winfield Middle School has been CANCELLED due to the nasty weather.
"The Sarge" himself is creeping home in traffic right now...
1/31/2008
ABD/Gear Grinder Report: Carter Gets Rolling in Texas
Last week I was working in Corpus Christi, TX so last weekend I put my feet in the water and did my first race of the season in Copperas Cove, Texas near Austin on the way home. I'm still weightlifting and have done very little outdoor riding ... basically I'm still in winter training mode.
The race was just a local, barely a prize-list race so I was surprised to encounter a completely full field and approximately 10 pros! The flyer advertised an 83 mile road race, but it turned out to be 95 miles instead. The weather, which is usually very nice at this time of year, was about 40 degrees ... a little colder than I'd have enjoyed. The terrain was a little more hilly than I'd expected too, some of the climbs were 3 miles long.
I was a little antsy and made the first 2-man break; I knew I should not have gone in it as soon as we began. I still worked equally hard as the other rider and we stayed off for a few miles. Then a group of 6 riders slipped off the front. Still relatively early in the race, as I was climbing one of the bigger climbs, I decided to take off my leg warmers ... of course, while I was riding at the back of the group another group of 9 riders pushed themselves off into a chase group. (I always know it's my first race of the year when I make all sorts of rookie mistakes!) Knowing that the race was up the road I decided that I needed to bridge across and get myself back into the race.
I found my opportunity to bridge when there was a big talewind with two consecutive, long climbs. Myself and two pros pushed it in the talewind and took some serious momentum and speed into the climbs and separated ourselves from the bunch. We brought the 1 1/2 minute gap down to about 30 seconds just in a few minutes. The three of us saw that the two groups ahead of us had joined to form one big group. We quickly joined up with them to make a big group of 20. I guess the other guys didn't like the new mix after we joined because as soon as we caught them, they sat up. It took a few miles of us riding very easy for the field to catch us. When the field caught us there were only a total of about 75 riders left ... about 3/4 of the origin field.
There weren't any more moves until about 20 miles to go when 2 guys just noodled off the front. Then another 2 guys noodled off the front to form a chase group. Then the same two pros I'd made the bridge with earlier, myself, and another rider attacked and got away forming a 2nd chase group. Our group caught and left behind the first chase group so that we were the new chase group out on the road, fighting for 3rd-6th. On the last big climb with 7 miles to go one of the guys in my group attacked. We all reacted but there was a limit to my reaction ... and I got popped. I was able to stay close once we got over the top of the climb but I was never able to catch back on. With a flat/downhill the rest of the way to the finish I was able to hold off the field and finish in 6th.
Overall it was cold, hard, and way too early to be racing ... but good to see where I'm at. I'm looking forward to seeing everone this weekend at the Indoor TT!
Josh
The race was just a local, barely a prize-list race so I was surprised to encounter a completely full field and approximately 10 pros! The flyer advertised an 83 mile road race, but it turned out to be 95 miles instead. The weather, which is usually very nice at this time of year, was about 40 degrees ... a little colder than I'd have enjoyed. The terrain was a little more hilly than I'd expected too, some of the climbs were 3 miles long.
I was a little antsy and made the first 2-man break; I knew I should not have gone in it as soon as we began. I still worked equally hard as the other rider and we stayed off for a few miles. Then a group of 6 riders slipped off the front. Still relatively early in the race, as I was climbing one of the bigger climbs, I decided to take off my leg warmers ... of course, while I was riding at the back of the group another group of 9 riders pushed themselves off into a chase group. (I always know it's my first race of the year when I make all sorts of rookie mistakes!) Knowing that the race was up the road I decided that I needed to bridge across and get myself back into the race.
I found my opportunity to bridge when there was a big talewind with two consecutive, long climbs. Myself and two pros pushed it in the talewind and took some serious momentum and speed into the climbs and separated ourselves from the bunch. We brought the 1 1/2 minute gap down to about 30 seconds just in a few minutes. The three of us saw that the two groups ahead of us had joined to form one big group. We quickly joined up with them to make a big group of 20. I guess the other guys didn't like the new mix after we joined because as soon as we caught them, they sat up. It took a few miles of us riding very easy for the field to catch us. When the field caught us there were only a total of about 75 riders left ... about 3/4 of the origin field.
There weren't any more moves until about 20 miles to go when 2 guys just noodled off the front. Then another 2 guys noodled off the front to form a chase group. Then the same two pros I'd made the bridge with earlier, myself, and another rider attacked and got away forming a 2nd chase group. Our group caught and left behind the first chase group so that we were the new chase group out on the road, fighting for 3rd-6th. On the last big climb with 7 miles to go one of the guys in my group attacked. We all reacted but there was a limit to my reaction ... and I got popped. I was able to stay close once we got over the top of the climb but I was never able to catch back on. With a flat/downhill the rest of the way to the finish I was able to hold off the field and finish in 6th.
Overall it was cold, hard, and way too early to be racing ... but good to see where I'm at. I'm looking forward to seeing everone this weekend at the Indoor TT!
Josh
1/30/2008
Indoor TT#2 Photo Gallery
ABD member Lori Miller has posted a slew of photos from the second round of the TT Series on Computrainer's official rolling 10k course. Thanks, Lori!
Go to the gallery
Go to the gallery
1/25/2008
TT#2 Start Times: We've surpassed 200!
It's official, there are now over 200 assigned start times for the 2nd of the Indoor Time Trial Series- 202 to be exact. There are some hot match-ups scheduled for the first shot at the the Rolling 10k course too with two "all Junior" heats, several "sub-15 minute" face-offs, and time-trialist extraordinare Mark Swartzendruber (Lucas Oil) facing off against the ABD/Gear Grinder team members at high Noon!
Day-of-Race registration is still available for slots later in the day (2pm and later). Check the latest start times here.
Day-of-Race registration is still available for slots later in the day (2pm and later). Check the latest start times here.
1/22/2008
ABD Borrego Springs Camp & Photos
This past week several ABD'ers headed out to the warmer temps and sunny skies of Southern California for some early season mileage.
The 2008 cast included: Mike Farrell, Mary Lee Geraghty, Paul Zelewsky, Bill Heun, Ben DeMong, Sarah Tillotson, Mike Ebert and Borrego Springs local "Desert Dan".
The team was able to ride every day and put in 3, 5+ hour days with a total of 20,000 feet of climbing.
A few photos are posted at the ABD Cycling gallery. (or go to Home>Photos in the menu)
The 2008 cast included: Mike Farrell, Mary Lee Geraghty, Paul Zelewsky, Bill Heun, Ben DeMong, Sarah Tillotson, Mike Ebert and Borrego Springs local "Desert Dan".
The team was able to ride every day and put in 3, 5+ hour days with a total of 20,000 feet of climbing.
A few photos are posted at the ABD Cycling gallery. (or go to Home>Photos in the menu)
1/10/2008
Results for ABD Indoor TT Round #1 are Posted!
The 2008 racing season is underway with today's first race of the ABD indoor Time Trial Series. More than 180 riders took on the 10 km flat course and reminded us that early season racing is always exciting!
Preliminary results are posted at www.ABDcycling.com
Thanks to all the participants, the many dedicated volunteers, supporters and sponsors (especially Larry Lorenz from Serfas & Voler) that put in a great effort to start off the season right!
Congratulations to our fastest Men & Women of the day!
1 Prinner, Jessica *ABD *16:40.34
2 Waterstraat, Elizabeth *The Bike Shop* 16:46.78
3 Clay, Jessica *Multisport Madness* 16:50.33
1 Swartzendruber, Mark *Scarletfire Racing* 13:55.15
2 Mumford, Reid *Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast *13:57.26
3 Swartzendruber, Mark *Scarletfire Racing* 14:00.38
Photos of the event are posted at ABD club member Ken Glinka's gallery:
http://gallery.mac.com/kglinka#100074&bgcolor=black
Round #2 of the Indoor Time Trial Series is *Sunday, January 27th *on the ROLLING 10k course! Sign-up at: http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1505834
Preliminary results are posted at www.ABDcycling.com
Thanks to all the participants, the many dedicated volunteers, supporters and sponsors (especially Larry Lorenz from Serfas & Voler) that put in a great effort to start off the season right!
Congratulations to our fastest Men & Women of the day!
1 Prinner, Jessica *ABD *16:40.34
2 Waterstraat, Elizabeth *The Bike Shop* 16:46.78
3 Clay, Jessica *Multisport Madness* 16:50.33
1 Swartzendruber, Mark *Scarletfire Racing* 13:55.15
2 Mumford, Reid *Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast *13:57.26
3 Swartzendruber, Mark *Scarletfire Racing* 14:00.38
Photos of the event are posted at ABD club member Ken Glinka's gallery:
http://gallery.mac.com/kglinka#100074&bgcolor=black
Round #2 of the Indoor Time Trial Series is *Sunday, January 27th *on the ROLLING 10k course! Sign-up at: http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1505834
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
