Jeff Cup 2008 - A Coppi Rider's Perspective

I was more nervous going into this race than I have been in a long time. It was my first road race of the season and likely the first race of the year for most of the 120 other guys in the Cat 4 field. My training had been going well and I was more fit than I have been in the last two seasons, so I was putting some serious pressure on myself to perform well. Finally, my driving companions for the trip to Charlottesville, Jean and Lindsey, were admittedly nervous for their race.
Despite the nerves, the massive field was well-behaved and pretty safe for the most part. I was on the brakes more than necessary at first, but eventually became more comfortable and was able to move forward within the field without difficulty. The first lap went by so quickly that I lost track of where we were, and asked Jason whether we’d gone up the hill. About that time I saw the 1k sign, so it was obvious that we’d passed the hill long ago. I guess I jammed up it with the rest of field without recognizing it as the “big” hill.
The second lap was more of the same. There were some small attempts at breaks, but nothing got more than a few meters gap. Joaquin caused some pain by jamming it up the hill on the second lap. I hit 1100 watts – my highest wattage of the race – in the first five seconds of the climb, re-accelerating after slowing down for the turn at the base of the hill. If you can carry your speed into that turn, like Joaquin did, you can save a match and put the hurt on the field.
I started getting these little cramping spasms in my quads during the third lap. I’m sure I was dehydrated and underfed. I just hoped that the race would end before I succumbed to full lockup. Other than that, the third lap went by smoothly and I was able to move up on the hill without much effort.
The final lap was faster and a little more nervous. The race had not been hard enough to seriously shrink the field (75 finishers were given the same time out of 99 starters). So a lot guys had pent-up energy to burn, but no one was willing to risk trying to get away. The final lap also featured some scary moments with no fewer than 4 cars barely pulled off the road and a rider down on the side of the ride covered in a blanket and a moto-ref, on foot, frantically waving for us to slow down. Not what you want to see a few miles before the finish. Miraculously, the field rolled through these obstacles without mishap. I managed to move into the top 20 before the final turn into the finishing road (the turn is about 1 mile before the finish), along with all of the Coppi boys. But we all paid the price of having to re-accelerate coming out of the turn. It was basically a power-eating drag race from the turn – trying to find wheels, accelerate around exploding riders, and find a way to continue accelerating to the line. I’m still trying analyze where I went wrong, but my current thinking is that I used most of my remaining matches getting back up to speed after the turn and was never able to latch onto a good wheel to carry me forward. Once I was in the wind, I ran out of steam and became one of the exploding riders that everyone had to pass. I probably lost 20 spots by the time the line finally came.
Bottom line: 39th in field of 75 finishers, 99 starters.

Tubular Tire Follow-Up

Call me a hide-bound traditionalist, but I am big fan of tubular tires for racing. After a half-season of ‘cross on clinchers, I switched to tubulars and will never go back. For the road, I’ve always been a tubular man and will likely stay that way.

My experience gluing tubulars for ‘cross, however, has completely changed the way I glue my road tubulars. Flatting one of my tubular race wheels in February and discovering that it had been held on by a woefully inadequate quantity of 3M Fastak, further convinced me to re-glue my race wheels this year.

I recently posted a question about tubular tires on the blog of Ben Oliver, chief race mechanic of Team Bissell. Ben’s blog is a great first-hand report of the “best practices” of pro race mechanic, done in a cool Q&A format.

I asked him: What type of glue do you use, and how do you remove excess glue from the braking surface of carbon rims? I’m just looking for some “best practices” among pro mechanics.

His answer was comprehensive and really helpful. Best of all, he pointed me to one of the few (maybe only) independent scientific studies on the performance of tubular glue on carbon rims.

[The relevant section of the study is found in Part 7 in the online bicycle research articles]

The bottom line? Vittoria Mastik One. That’s nice to hear, especially since it’s consistent with my own research and with the practices of the best mechanic in the DC area, Greg Thomas over at Conte’s in Arlington.

In gluing up my race wheels for this year, I followed the same practices described in my earlier post about gluing ‘cross tubulars. If its’ good enough for ‘cross, with low pressures and lots of shear forces, it’s more than good for road riding, where the tire is held onto the rim predominantly by air pressure.

Drop me a note in the comments, and I’ll send you a copy of the tubular tire study.

Stick of Dynamite! Stick of Dynamite!

Stick of Dynamite! Stick of Dynamite!

This is what General Petraeus yells to exhort his colleagues to push harder during exercise. I like it – it would definitely light a stick under my a$$ if someone yelled that at me during a ‘cross race. Or it might just make me slow down and give them a “WTF” look.

The Runner's World interview of General Petraeus is pretty motivational, particularly the way he looks at athletic competition as a test for certain character traits, including perseverance, resilience, flexibility, and general toughness.

Sex With An Electrocardiogram

From BSNYC on Training With Power

Training With Power

In case you didn’t know, training with power is all the rage. In fact, Joe Friel likens getting a power meter to a person with weak eyesight donning his first pair of glasses. Of course, the reality is that riding with a power meter is more like having sex with an electrocardiogram, in that it takes the fun out of the whole enterprise and buffets you with data you don’t really need. Physical sensation will guide you through your ride the same way it guides you through sex, and if you can’t do either without electronics it’s possible you have a problem that technology by itself may be insufficient to address.

“Sex with an electrocardiogram.” Priceless.

The 80 Kilo Club

I’ve never thought of myself as a big guy. All through high school, college, and law school I thought of myself as skinny, even scrawny – although I stand 6' 3" and weigh ~ 82 kilos. It wasn’t until I started racing bikes that I discovered that I am a big guy, at least by the standards of most successful bike racers and endurance athletes. My relative size became even more apparent when I started training with power. Suddenly everything is expressed in terms of watts/kg – such as the benchmarks for a rider’s VO2max power and functional threshold power in the power profile chart. Clearly, the higher your power/weight ratio is, the better you’ll be at climbing. But the chart neglects an important point for us bigger riders – that on the flats, it’s your power-to-drag ratio that’s much more important. Overcoming air resistance is critical on the flats (and, for that matter, any time you’re going more than about 15 mph), so anytime you can increase your power relative to your coefficient of drag, you’ll have an advantage over a smaller rider with less power relative to their frontal area. And because the differences in frontal area between smaller and larger riders is less than their relative differences in weight, it is possible for a large rider to crush a smaller rider in a headwind or crosswind situation. Just ask Tom Danielson or local rider Bryan Vaughan (who complains about little guys not providing any significant draft in a breakaway).

Given the reality of my situation, I thought it would be fun to start compiling a list of riders - pro and local amateurs - who belong to The 80 Kilo Club. Maybe this list will inspire you big guys to increase that power, get more aero, and crush the little guys. Feel free to add to the list in the comments!

European Pros:
Magnus Backstedt (94 kg)
Tom Boonen (82 kg)

Domestic Pros:
Tom Zirbel (88 kg)

Local Hardmen:
Bryan Vaughan (86kg)
The Unholy Rouleur