Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Go Alissa !

Nice race report from friend, training partner and honorary Aussie, Alissa Maglaty. It describes her experiences racing in the company of Anna Meares et al in Colorado Springs at the US Grand Prix of Sprinting last week. She is also raising funds to race the 2011 Elite Track Nationals in LA next month. Help her if you can.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Masters National Track Championships - part two: Match sprints and Team pursuit

Day 4 of the Championships was match sprint day for me. The format was for everyone to ride a flying 200m to provide a time for seeding riders for the match sprint pairings. The top 16 riders then pair up with 1v16, 2v15, 3v14, etc. in a knockout format leaving two riders to fight it out for gold.

Of course, we debated endlessly about gearing (duh). At Alpenrose, my bestest flying 200 was 13.34s in a 92 inch gear which translates into an average cadence of 128 rpm. Looking at past results, it appeared that a time in the mid 12 secs would be needed to get through to the last 16. This meant that I either had to SPIN significantly faster in the 92 inch gear, or UP the gear to a quad-busting 96 inches and maintain a cadence of 125-128 rpm.

Seeing as I had nothing to lose, I installed the monster 96.4 incher (50/14). Monster for me, anyway.

This daring act shrieked "Go Big or Go Home".

The next crucial decisions were; which line to take and where to jump. Since every track has different banking, size and geometry of corners, length of straight, the line one takes from the 200m line to the finish line is not necessarily the shortest. This was to be determined by watching the other riders. Pushing such a big gear also required an earlier jump because it would take longer to get up to the maximum speed. Scorchio speed had to be reached just prior to the 200m line because once timing starts you want to maintain that speed as long as humanly (or inhumanly) possible.

We worked out the 'line-age' and 'jump-age' by carefully watching the racers ahead of us.

OK, got it. Locked in.

(modesty is set aside for the time being)

So how did it go..?..........following the wind-up, I got out of the saddle and mashed furiously exactly where I wanted to - about 100m before the start. By 200m out I could not spin any faster (perfect) and sat down and buried it, taking care to carve a good, efficient line.

Even managed to 'throw' the bike at the line.

Those 200m were bashed out in 12.41 secs at an average speed of 58 kph.

Holy handle-bar-tape - I had smashed my PR by an ENTIRE SECOND.

I love, love, love this track.

When the dust had settled my time was the 14th fastest time catapaulting me like a demented gymnast into the last 16. Does this mean that I am the 14th fastest 45-49 yo male over 200m in the 50 states of the Union?

Hells yeah!


(back to normal modesty levels now)

My 14th became 13th when the top sprinter pulled-out. As 13th seed I was to ride against the 4th seed. His name..........Brian Abers, who happens to be my track coach, National track champion (twice) and first reserve for the 92 Barcelona Olympic US track team.

Umm.....ok.

I drew pole position, which meant that the first position was mine - commonly regarded as a disadvantage. We were to complete two laps of the track with first across the line the winner. I had geared down to 94 inches for quicker acceleration.

Whether positioned first or second, match sprints are all about 'controlling' the other rider, so that one can jump at the most advantageous time.

I lead out and angled up the bank at about 10 kph keeping him pinned against the rail....watching....watching......watching. This lazy pace continued until mid-way between turns 3 and 4 on the first lap.

At this point, sensing that he was a little boxed-in..................I JUMPED !

Immediately, 3 bike lengths opened up between us. My arse was out of the saddle going balls-out trying to keep him far enough back so as not to ride in my considerable slipsteam. By turn 3 he had pulled along my outside and we were neck and neck. By the time we had been expelled from turn 4, like Barbara Streisand, he had nosed ahead.

I rode as hard as I could to the line but he bested me by about a wheel, according to my oxygen-deprived brain.

While being disappointed at losing, I was pleased about how the race unfolded with the well-timed jump and the anaerobic push to the line.

Couldn't have done it any better.

There is some consolation in that.

BA continued to ride strongly to finish 3rd in the competition. CD also rode very well to collect 4th place and a spot on the podium on the 40-44 age category.

After another rest day, day 6 brought the team pursuits. Besides myself, we had CD, BK and a strong all-rounder from Seattle, MH. In this event, the teams raced for 9 laps (4000m) in a time trial format. The sprint bars were swapped out for aero bars. Each rider would 'pull' for a half or full lap and then seamlessly angle uptrack and return to the rear of the paceline thus conserving energy for a couple of laps until another turn at the front was required. This rotation of riders kept the pace high - between 45 and 50 kph for the 4K. Only three riders need finish allowing a gassed rider to 'retire' if need be. There was some debate as to whom this might be, with several of the sprinters on the team 'generously' volunteering to pull out early. Smooth exchanges and good communication are essential for setting a fast time. We practiced a little for an hour or so before the event. All seemed well in the warm-up/practice.

I was the lead-out guy responsible for getting up to speed in a smooth but not beserk manner. Too fast and the riders behind would struggle to 'tuck in' expending unnecessary energy, too slow and we would pile up.

The race was alot of fun - a bit like a 5 min Tedderval session. At one point BK, who was ahead of me, ramped up the pace and dangled off the front for a lap or so until he slowed and came back. This had little impact on or final position and we finished in 5m11s, good enough for 7th in the 30+ race. No medal but not too shabby considering that we had not really practiced and two of us had never ridden a team pursuit.

So...................between the Abers training group, we had collected 4 medals including Gold to BA himself.

Personally, I had a fantastic time having smashed all my PRs and scoring a podium slot.

Who would have thought?

A fat, 40-something, academic who had not ridden a bike in anger until 3 years ago could compete at this level. Wonders will never cease.

Onwards............

2011 National Masters track Champs - Part one: it's business time!

The Trexlertown track, near Allentown PA,  is 333m 'round and gorgeously smooth as a big bag of smooth things. The straights are about the same length as my home track (Alpenrose) but the turns are wide, sweeping arcs that seem to go forever.

The day before the event started it bucketed down preventing any close inpection of the track itself. We arrived early the next morning to get some track time in and practice the lines for the turns. Unlike our home track where one has to actually 'turn' into the turns, no real turing is necessary and the tendency for Portlanders is to over-react and risk ending up on the apron. This was going to take some getting used to.

On a 80-something degree humid morning my kilo (1000m) time-trial was an early event on the program and I was the first rider off. The bikes were weighed (>6.8 kg) and checked for geometry (aero bars not too long) just prior to start. The low hum of hacksaws filled the air as the occasional rider was obliged to shorten his bars to become race legal.

With new wheels (Corsa Concept, 88mm rims) and a smooth track I upped the gearage to 49/14 (94 in). The race was over pretty quickly with nearly 2 secs taken of my PR to 1:17 to finish 12th overall. Some of my lines were a bit wobbly, which I put down to the new, deep wheels and not being so used to the track. Due to the fact that violent post-race coughing did NOT occur I probably could have gone faster - though the humidity may have reduced the lung scorching. The languid week in Florida dealing with the space mice prior to come to T-town probably did me no favors either. Still, I was delighted to carve so much time out of my Alpenrose PR.

Tuesday was the 3K pursuit and team sprint day for me. There was some anxiety about my saddle position. It was only about 2cm set back from the bottom bracket, and the rules require a 5cm set-back. The loop-hole is a 'morphological exemption' where if your knee cannot project forward of the bottom bracket. Fortunately, due to my short-arsed femurs I was given an exemption. We had a loaner saddle from a LBS in case the officials ruled against me.

My 3K was late in the day, 77 heats away. As you can imagine, this took ALL day and the 'morning' session finished at 5:30. My race was about 4:30. The race went well and I chipped 5 secs or so off my PR to finish in 4:06.8 in a 92 inch gear. Felt better about this race than the kilo and 'left' more on the track.

Ex-HVer MS has been racing fantastically well and won gold in her pursuit and a 4th in the scratch race the night before. Good on her.

The evening session when all the Team Sprints were to be contested was pushed back to 7pm. I teamed with my roomies CD and BK of Brihop in the 30+ race (since BK is 30-something). Since I had ridden a hard 3K 'bout 3 hours previously I got the lead out position and would only have to complete one 333m lap. My sole job was to get the other two up to speed as quickly as possible and then pull off gracefully at the start finish line. CD was to complete 2 laps and BK was to bring it home. Well, it all went pretty well. I stomped on my 94 inch gear, dropped them briefly but they caught back on and delivered them back round to the start at 50kph. We recorded a time of 1:11 which was good enough for 5th place and the podium. Holy crap! - we had won a medal at a National Championship!!!!! BA won gold in the 40+ team sprint.

Day 3 of the meet was a rest day for me with the match sprints ahead on day 4 and the 4K team pursuit on day 6. It had been a very good Championship for me so far.....what was to come ?