Sechs Minuten Renner

Winding down

2008-08-06T20:46:00.003-04:00

As the season wraps up I find myself struggling to keep up with younger or more motivated racers. These signs were apparent several years ago when I was warming up for the McClane Road Race and some unknown racer in goggles and helmets approached me and asked, "Mr. Kogure, how are you doing?" Who the hell would call me "Mr. Kogure?" Of course, it turned out to be an ex-student of mine whom I had taught when he was a freshman.

So despite all the stories of, "back in 19... I was racing against blah blah blah" I guess I have to admit I'm really now a masters racer and it's good to see the younger riders moving up in the sport. Out here at the Mellowdrome, it's great to see two fierce competitors Grayson Brookshire and Jordan Marhanka battling it out over the course of the Summer. As with all juniors, who can predict what they'll be doing when they reach manhood, but I'm sure that this summer will be remembered by them forever.

Image of the night: Jordan Marhanka leading out the final sprint in the points race. Hey, isn't that a sprinters lane violation? Refs?

Sprinting

2008-07-11T08:46:00.002-04:00

Last night I came and watched a great sprint tournament at the mellowdrome. So this is just a reminder that there are currently some great discussions about sprinting:

Link(FGF forum)

Clay Worthington's Sprint Tactic Presentations

Going home

2008-07-07T10:05:00.010-04:00

Drowning our sorrows in Detroit

Ok, we actually stopped at a nice comfortable Holiday Inn and caught the end of the Tour stage. Before anyone gets too worried, I'm fully functional. In fact, my first thoughts after dragging myself off the track were, "okay, no broken bones. Still have all my teeth. Have to get back in relieve Josh."

Until someone came up to me and said, "Gen, take your hand and put it over your cut and hold your lip in place."

Hold your lip in place?

So you can guess I won't be entering any beauty contests soon.

So the cumulative toll of World War 3:

9 Spectacular Incidents.
1 bent frame
A pile of wheels
20 Riders "collected"
2 Riders collected by KO.
1 Rider collected by TKO, deemed unfit to continue after receiving repeated blows to the head.

A shattered front

More casualties of Battle Bloomer Hills

That being said, the racing was great and Dale Hughes and all the volunteers put on a great show. A live band, great announcing, and a really nice party at his house that made everyone feel welcome and comfortable.

And please excuse this song, but it's dedicated to all the riders who've raced on the other side of the pond, or those who've dreamed of it. Nothing better than cheesy europop!

Thanks to Josh Reddoch for all the photos. If you click on them you can get a bigger detailed view and some of the detail is pretty fascinating. Thanks to Danny and Ruggy for their advice, the Speedfix guys for being good guys, and Nancy for the host housing.

All In: Landis style...

2008-07-07T01:09:00.029-04:00

Quiet boards under the sun

Schwinn Paramounts

Elite National Criterium Champion, relaxed off the bike but a killer on it.

Dale Hughes, promotor/track director who keeps the riders in line. His wife Christine is a great announcer who keeps the crowd well informed and excited about the racing.

Patching the track

Today's plan was classic Reddoch style: go from the gun and put tremendous pressure on our opponents until something gave. However, before our race we had a couple of miss-and-outs to finish before the madison. We rode those competently, with Josh capturing a 4th while I fought to a 2nd. Frankly, the miss-and-out was a lot harder and more fatiguing for me today since I didn't have Josh in my heat to control the pace.

Riding second wheel in the miss-and-out

So Josh hit them hard and hit them fast, and within 5 laps we had detonated the field and gained a half lap with one team following. And then this happened.

Well, at least Josh finished the race and we only slipped to fourth.

Getting past the first day jitters

2008-07-05T23:17:00.012-04:00

The second day went much better than the first. Josh rode the pole in the miss-and-out to 8th place,while I miscounted the laps and ended up 3rd. It was a little frustrating because having sat in the draft for most of the race, I was obviously much fresher than my opponents at the end of the race, but somehow my brain went out-of-phase in their pull "every other lap" format.

The madison also went much better and we ended up 3rd out of nine teams. This was a much welcome result after yesterday's shelling.

Here are some sounds of the Rochester Hills velodrome posted on NPR.
Link
It really reminds me of the sounds of an old wooden roller coaster.

Some madison chaos

A view from the infield

A view of the framework

Justin Williams of Rock Racing/National Team. Aka C.Thunder. C.Thunder was paired up with W.Lightning. You can guess what C and W stand for....

C.Thunder got some ribbing from his mates for his team issue socks. Notice the L and R.

Just the facts?

2008-07-05T09:24:00.013-04:00

It was kind of an auspicious beginning when a rider from our seeding TT came sliding down the track during the start of our 4 lap seeding event. Josh managed to avoid the crash but I can't imagine our time was that good. In the madison qualifier we were clearly out of our depth -- we were quickly caught behind one crash and repeatedly gapped off the back until we lost a lap. When we jumped back in we felt much better about things but this pretty much relegated us to the A consolation finals.

On a brighter note I managed a third in the 1 mile scratch race but it really wasn't the best of races. I got caught out of an attack, chased back on, and was gassed and could only hang on for the finish. But that's racing.

Gen sulking after the race.

Gen also didn't do so well in his fight with Scully the golden retriever.

One of the cooler things was watching Adrian Hegevary and Dan Harm: you could see how experienced they were from riding the European 6-day circuit. These days you see lots of teams taking trips to Europe but these guys are a throwback to the days when racers traveled by trains and slept on couches going from race to race.

The second qualifying heat was pretty quick. The picture is blurred because as you approach the speed of light, cameras have a hard time picking up the images.

Daniel Holloway and Ben Barsi-Rhyne were also very impressive, in addition to a couple of Juniors, Danny Heeley and Justin Williams who were riding in the National team kit. If they keep it up, I think the future of endurance track cycling here will be all right.

Under the tent... Daniel Holloway explaining his secret Madison techniques, "If done properly, no can defend!"

7/3 Update

2008-07-03T23:54:00.019-04:00

After a quick cup of coffee we were soon on the road up to Michael Moore Territory. We rolled through the city of Detroit past the refinery fires, GM plants, past 8 Mile road, and headed towards Rochester Hills.

Flint Michigan.

The Bridge to Canada: just in case we need medical care.

After arriving at Bloomer Park Josh and I did some secret training before our competitors arrived.

Secret training

The track itself was beautiful -- an all weather wooden 200m track -- and it was wonderful to hear the rumbling of the wooden boards as the bikes moved around the track.

Can you see the beautiful track?

At 48 degrees in the corners the track is steep and the G-force compresses you through the turn. That doesn't sit well with my out of the saddle sprinting but I'll cope. The radius of the turn is also so sharp that you really can't see that far ahead if you're looking straight ahead.

"Gimme a rope so I can climb this thing Batman style."

Morning 7/3

2008-07-03T09:14:00.002-04:00

Like many bike racers if I don't get this:

I feel like this:

On the road

2008-07-03T00:02:00.010-04:00

The Lowmobile was loaded up with our bikes, gear, and a quiver of assorted Cane Creek wheels and off we went: first stop Toledo, Ohio, to crash at John Card's house, a friend of Josh from the Cane Creek elite Ohio Cross team.

Cincinnati, an old industrial city rising from the banks of the Ohio River.

After Cincinatti we ran into Jesus.

The Lowmobile headed into the impending 3 day storm...

photos by Josh

Gen and Josh's Big Adventure

2008-07-02T07:42:00.005-04:00

(Note this is not Bloomer Park but an image from velocitybicycles.com)

So it begins. We're actually taking a road trip up to Michigan to race a 3-Day International Madison event on one of those steep 200m wooden tracks, one of those steep tracks that you can stand on the infield and touch the track. With help from the CTCA and some start money from the organizers I don't want to make a bad showing, but I have to admit I've been having some "bad racing dreams", kind of like when I was a Cat 4 back in the late 80's. You know those dreams where you can't find your cycling shoes or you're trying to find the start line as you hear your race going off. Mind you the last time I did a real serious Madison was with Bob Muzzy and my memories are of me coming in way too slow. After the race he seemed pretty non-plussed but he must have been thinking, "you idiot...."

Now my apprehension isn't helped by looking at the list of competitors: local hot shots from various tracks around the country, names I actually recognize. At the top of the list (since I know them), is Ben Barsi-Rhyne and Daniel Holloway. My memory of Holloway is as a young kid screaming into the gravelly infield at Hellyer at full tilt, everyone jumping out of the way, his rear wheel fish tailing in a full lock skid until he came to a stop inches from us, all the while with a big grin on his face. We also rode a team pursuit together with Dave McCook. We dropped our first rider, who was on drop bars, in the first kilo. Otherwise all I can remember is hanging on for dear life and taking only half lap pulls in the last half while someone on the infield kept on shouting 22-9, 23, etc... In my memory, we finished with a 4:47 but Farid corrected me as it being a 4:41. Wow, was that really me? Anyways, it was nice because we beat the always good "Larry Nolan super team" that he cobbles together every year using local TT-all stars. Holloway has gone on to become elite Crit Champion, numerous wins on the road (just won a stage in the Tour of Pennsylvania), and took a silver in the Pan Am points race.

So now I'm sipping my coffee and am about to go pick up Josh. Keep you updated!

The report from Indiana

2008-06-29T15:14:00.003-04:00

Background: Darin's back in Indiana at his old stomping grounds. Apparently the registration for a hugely poplular night time fun ride is held at the velodrome at the same time during the track racing.

I met up with Don Walker, at the track, last night. He took your wheels to give to Brooke, because she was racing somewhere else yesterday. He seemed like a pretty nice guy. He also took a bunch fliers and your business cards. He wanted to know if you sent any swag, I told him no, but I said you might be able to help him out sometime later.

I ended up placing second in the kerin (with a real motor and qualifying), first in the miss-n-out (pulled the old neutral lap attack), and got third in the points race (won the last sprint). Thousands of people were there watching, most were bike geeks who didn't know the first thing about racing, and they thought I had won the points race by winning the final sprint. It's pretty cool when there is a line of people around the track and they start banging on the boards and cheering. I jumped from the chase group to the break, in the Pt's race,and the crowd was yelling and when I made contact they started cheering, banging, yelling (good stuff).

The best part of the racing was that I was racing against a bunch of kids half my age. I beat one of them in the final sprint and he asked me how old I was, I told him 43, and he made some comment about hoping he could go that fast when he's that age. (I turned my head, spit, and thought, "hell kid you can't go that fast now. What makes you think you'll get faster as you get older?")

Jordan didn't have any Jr racing to do, but they let him sit on the back of the women field. He also got to do a 500 exhibition, and got the crowd cheering and banging on the boards during his lap and a half. He rode a 47 flat. He did go 1 second faster than the last time, but he did swim all day before we went. He could have gone better if he were more rested.

I had Bill racing in our kit, and racing on Gens deep rims. Jordan rode a a set of the clincher carbons, and I did my normal set up. I had all of the wheels on display and I tried to get the announcer to mention CC as much as I could.

All in all it was a pretty fun night and I got to see a lot of people I haven't seen or raced with in a long time. I also won $150! Racing seems a lot harder when there is cash on the line. L8R.

2008-06-27T11:54:00.001-04:00

Here's a link to a slideshow of photos from last Tuesday. Racing flat track style in Asheville
Link

Who took these damn pictures anyway?

2008-06-25T09:51:00.011-04:00

Gen: Hey Josh, don't ride thru this puddle.

Josh: You're crazy! I can't believe nobody can see you doing that.

Gen: Hey Darin, you're sprinting pretty fast tonight.

Darin: Behold my awesomeness.

Great Stuff!

2008-06-18T11:07:00.002-04:00

Some great stuff being posted on fixed gear fever by Clay Worthington. There's a new coaching section that covers standing starts and does a great dissection of Chris Hoy. There's also a section on sprint tactics and terminology. It really articulates and describes all the things we've been doing for years, yet in America this knowledge is gained through experience or handed down by word of mouth. It's great to finally see it in writing. Link to articles

Things we probably shouldn't do.

2008-06-06T16:43:00.003-04:00

Today was the last day of school and during our closing luncheon we had a drawing for a gift certificate at a local steakhouse. Now being a "goody two shoes" I live my life imagining mischief, so on my ticket I wrote "Seymour Butz",ala Bart Simpson, egged on by my colleague who thought it was funny and had probably made a career of getting other people in trouble. In my mind, writing "Seymour Butz" gave me the vicarious thrill of imagining the hilarity if it was actually chosen: with none of the consequences of course. If anything, it was kind of like being a kid and throwing a rock at a wasps nest. You're curious and excited about what might happen but you don't really want to hit that thing.

I have to admit, some part of me wanted that ticket to be pulled. I even folded the ticket in a zig zag pattern. Why? so it wouldn't stick to the other tickets and it would also take up more space.

Now a story like this can only lead to one conclusion. To my mortification,
the self appointed curmudgeon of the math department, Ms. Morgan, was handed a familiarly folded ticket. A knot formed in my stomache, my forehead fell to the table and I cringed in absolute embarrassment as Ms. Morgan slowly read,

"See-more Buttz? There's no Seymore who works at this school. Ok, who's the clown!"

Amidst the snickers and laughter, Ms. Morgan (who was also an ex-police officer) eyes scanned the room until she spotted me cowering.

"Gen? You? I don't believe this. See this is what I have to work with!"

Things I learned today:

1) I would probably make a pretty poor criminal
2) According to Ms. Morgan, I am a dead man.
3) Don't throw a stone at a wasps nest unless you're prepared to be called Seymour or Butts for the rest of the day.

Not going so good... But nice pics from Jim

2008-05-28T17:50:00.006-04:00

Chasing Twilight

Chris Kamm,

"You must be this tall to ride the Madison!"

mediocrity!

2008-05-22T21:42:00.001-04:00

thanks racerhead. I love bikesnob.

Friday 5/23

2008-05-22T21:03:00.003-04:00

Gotta put in a plug for my wife's band

One of the supporters of the Cane Creek cycling team, Dehlia Low, is playing at the Black Mountain Center of the Arts as part of the Musical Heritage series. 7:30-9:30. Check it out if you're into Bluegrass or want to support a sponsor of cycling.

7:30-9:30
25 West State St Black Mountain, NC 28711 828/669-0930
$10

Now it's kinda been fun watching my wife's band and everything associated with the bluegrass music scene. My wife will come back from a jam session and tell me how so and so was playing too fast or how someone kept on calling songs that no one wanted to play.... We always have a chuckle about how similar it is to a group ride where someone's always riding too hard or taking us on some absurd route. Where ever you go, there you are!

Why I'd rather be Risi than Zulle.

2008-05-18T20:53:00.004-04:00

Crank up the volume and take in the atmosphere. You can't even see the racing in the 1st video, but that's not what it's about...
Video 1

This video sums up what I loved about racing in Europe. It has it all: trick mechanic work, unabashed old world sensibility of techno with polka/oompah, Alu Shamal wheels: if I were twenty again I'd want to be a sechs Tages Renner.
Video 2

Sprint lessons 5/13

2008-05-16T17:45:00.010-04:00

Rumor has it there are tensions on the ECD team...j/k

Like a fighter pilot diving out of the sun, Reddoch is about to bounce them from 5 O'clock....

The third race in the Mellowdrome Cup series made me reflect on some of the things we've been working on this season, specifically all the undergear work we did in the preseason.

Even though banging out a big gear can feel great during a race, as endurance racers many of our longer races involve repeated accelerations in which being able to quickly turn a lighter gear is really helpful. Those of you who race against Darin might have noticed his uncanny ability to match any acceleration: it's really difficult to jump around him on the back straight since he can instantly whip up the gear and ride you around the turn. Some of it's probably genetic, but he also spent time in the Spring and Winter training in lower gears and lots of work behind a motor. It also fits with his style: you rarely see a big attack from him but he fights for every sprint. Beginners take note!

Gaming the sprint. How wide can you go?

Running a lighter gear on Tuesday also helps us incorporate some fun sprint strategies. Typically during a sprint, I'd make a run on the back straight and Darin would accelerate to the lead with me on his hip. Any riders who wanted to come around had to come around 3 wide, and we'd get on the throttle in a very controlled fashion if anyone got close. The light gear also makes it easier to float your legs and makes a last second roll on a little easier.

ps thanks again to Jim White for the great photos!

Festival of Speed, race report

2008-05-11T17:02:00.007-04:00

Well went down to the Festival of Speed in Atlanta and had one of those moments. As I sat glued to the tail of a string of riders in the points race, my bike bucking and rolling to the undulations of each concrete slab, I had one of those "what the hell I am I doing" feelings.
Back in the day I would sometimes have those moments when someone was killing it on a climb, but it was rare to have that happen on the flats -- and if it did you'd know that you were getting the snot pounded out of you. I guess the shorter events went ok. I rode a pretty uninspired scratch heat but rode a conservative race to 2nd in the scratch repechage. It would have been nice to see how I fared in the other shorter events, but honestly, I don't think I had the guns today.

It was great watching the other race well though -- Robin jumped into a great move in the snowball, Annette was always tactically sharp, and Leslie quick as usual.

Jason was awesome in the points race: after attacking for some early points in the points race he faded to the back. But he then had the courage and strength to attack for the final sprint and ended up finishing 2nd.

Aaron was nailing it all evening and you could see his confidence growing race by race. I'm pretty sure he took 2nd or 3rd in the point a lap and he also finished 2nd in the miss and out. It's great watching Aaron learn to be proactive in his racing rather than waiting for things to happen.

Of course, the damper on the evening was the big crash in the women's race which took Jeanne to hospital. From the infield, it looked like someone blew out a tire and fell, causing a chain of events. One woman crashed into the rail and Jeanne ran over a fallen rider that sent her cartwheeling down the track. It was really one of those unfortunate incidents that sometimes happens in racing. Get well soon Jeanne!

Jeanne's Hurts.

2008-05-11T13:14:00.002-04:00

I think I speak for the Asheville clan, but I'd like to publicly thank the people at Dick Lane for taking care of us after Jeanne's crash. She's relatively okay, she broke her collarbone, and I'm sure she has a bunch of scrapes and bruises, but nothing that time won't heal. Special thanks to Steve Hill and the medically trained racers / staff who took care of her until the paramedics arrived. The organizers were also very helpful, concerned, and made sure of the logistics of getting our group to the hospital. Ted, you were great too. Last of all, anyone who's been involved in this sport for a long time knows the daunting task of going to an emergency room in a strange city far from home and Jeanne couldn't have had any better team mates than Annette and Robin to take care of her.

A question of gearing

2008-05-08T17:46:00.005-04:00

Now that we're part way into the season, many of us start tinkering with our gearing in attempt to become competitive or comfortable. I can't tell you what gear to run, but there are some general guidelines that you might want to keep in mind. Once you find a good gear, you can pretty much do any event in that gear, but many of us make fine adjustments according to the event. For myself, I pretty much go up or down 1 tooth on the front, and very rarely do I ever change my gearing more than 2 teeth from my standard 51 x 15. So if you are into trying to maximize your performance, here are my suggestions for the following track events:
Scratch -- Bigger or standard. Most scratch races are run at the shorter non-Championship distances and end in one big sprint. Longer scratch races might be ridden more aggressively and could justify a standard gear. I think Greg Henderson won some stripes by getting away in a lighter gear.

Points Race -- Standard. Riding a big gear in a points race will kill your legs, especially if it's ridden at championship distances or against aggressive opponents. The sprints are fast, but not terminally fast, and you need to be able to respond to repeated accelerations.

Miss-and-Out -- Smaller. Repeated surges at 90%. When you lose a sprint in a miss-and-out, it's either because you are boxed or your legs are fried from the accelerations: not because your top speed isn't high enough.

Unknown Distance -- Bigger or standard. These things are never very long, and it's like a scratch race. If you're going to gamble and take off, you might be able to justify a standard gear.

Snowball, Tempo or point a lap -- Standard. Sometimes you sprint. Sometimes you have to get away. Somehow these races never end up being terminally fast -- if a rider gets away people tend to cruise and if riders go for sprints there's a lot of sitting up if you can't take the win.

Keirin -- Really big. The sprint starts off fast and you have to be able to light it up from a long way out.

These are just some general guidelines that you have to modify according to your strategy, style, quality of the field, weather conditions, etc. Back in my old Norcal stomping grounds, I remember chugging along the Walking man sprint in a 53x11 while my buddy Robert Ford turning his 52x15 like buzz saws or Matt Sarna in his 51x15 (where did he get his 51?)

Of course, if you suck you suck and fiddling with your gears is an act of desperation. And if you're going good, you can ride any gear you want and everything works!

At the Ring of Fire opener, Lisska!!!!

2008-05-07T21:53:00.004-04:00

Kevin was, as we used to say in Switzerland, "Super!" tonight. He repeatedly stretched the B's to the breaking point until he got away with Chris Otahal(Youngblood) for the win. Kudos to Chris for riding to a strong second place, and I think we saw the return of Youngblood himself for a minor placing. Kevin, however, wasn't done: he jumped right into the A's and was soon mixing it up at the front for points and disrespecting the local hotshots. Two thirds through the race, just as it was getting pretty broken up, Kevin and Chris Emory (Biowheels), took off after a break and then proceeded to lap the field. They couldn't overcome Adam Rey (Industry Nine), but Chris took 2nd and Kevin 3rd. Kevin had some legs, but I can't say enough about Chris -- he was taking some hard pulls at the front but he still had enough throttle to hit out us Cane Creek boys ganging up on him has been teaching him how to suffer....

Some pics from Racing 4/29

2008-05-03T08:23:00.005-04:00

You can tell we aren't racing in California

"Greater height you must have if triple toe loop is to effective be"

4/15 Season Opener

2008-04-17T23:11:00.006-04:00

Darin Marhanka, Casting a long shadow

The season opener was a good night of racing for our team. Last years leader, Marhanka, was dependably ruthless -- he won the the miss-and-out, gave Erskine a good run in the scratch for 2nd, and then secured his win while making me look good in the points race (and a 2nd overall for me). Josh was great in the miss-and-out, he just kept it pinned, and he and Kevin were just throwing it down all night -- I don't think our opponents ever had the opportunity to mount a serious attack all night (hell, it kept me cracked the whole night. It was a decent field. We knew we couldn't let Sperry or Langford have any rope, Darin would take care of Erskinewhich should be getting better when Joey or Jacob show up, and once Jason joins us I'm sure the racing will be even faster. I was also exceptionally impressed by last years B group champion, Chris Emory -- expect him to take some coups in the races to come.

B's -- Probably the fastest B's race I've seen in a long time. Everyone riding nose to tail, on the rivet. Gideon Stitt (Clemson), Chris Otahall (Young Blood), and Aaron Renner (Velosports) in a savage knife fight, with young gun Gideon the last man standing. These guys are all legitimate A's and the other B's should be proud of their performance: they definitely didn't roll over and everyone raced hard.

C's -- Several years back when I was looking at places we might relocate to, I remember looking at the Mellowdrome website several years back and thinking to myself, "gosh, I'd feel self-conscious riding in a skin suit and my carbon wheels at that track..." Well, times have changed -- the C's look fast and ride fast -- none of this timid riding for them. Maybe we should get them a bumper sticker that says, "when in doubt, attack" Marshall Hance from Probikes was unbeatable in a sprint, but OJ from Carolina Fatz was quick and strong for second. And of course we all cheered Lesli Meadows (Velosports?) to a 3rd place finish.

Results of 2008 season

Housing Development Theory

2008-04-05T09:30:00.002-04:00

I was on a great ride out near Fletcher during Spring break and we got around to chatting about housing developments and subdivisions. Scott from ABRC told me a great theory made by his wife, "Housing developments are named after the things that were destroyed to make the development"

So the next time you see a sign like "Willow Springs" or "Mountain Laurel", think about what used to be there....

Gross Brittania

2008-03-31T18:27:00.001-04:00

2008 Worlds clips.
List created by Aeniii from FGF

Asheville Bike Plan

2008-03-24T19:35:00.005-04:00

For those of you in the dark about local goings on, Asheville has adopted a bike plan. Due to my natural sophistication and knowledge of international transportational infrastructure, I will be applying for a position as a bike planner. The following are some images culled from the internet that are sterling examples of traffic engineering tha:

Signage courtesy of Kafka Constructions.

The Japanese model.

The Darwinian model.

Only Bike Geeks

2008-03-22T17:50:00.003-04:00

What's this? Any guesses?

Ah, now I see.

Well, what's so special about a stupid wheelbarrow? Well, if you look closely I added a wooden cross brace to the legs. The only problem was I could only find a couple of metric bolts and no nuts to attach the brace. But what's this at the bottom of my parts box? An SRP titanium bolt kit for a 1st generation Dura Ace dual pivot brakeset.

So I self proclaim myself as the first person to have titanium bits on a wheelbarrow. Until some tells me that, "Soviet diamond miners used all titanium wheelbarrows during the Cold War."

:)

The Marhankas

2008-03-22T17:28:00.006-04:00

So today I'm wheeling my bike into the bathroom (I'm from the city: old habits die hard) and little Gordie Marhanka spies my cyclocomputer and asks me how fast I've gone on my bike. Now Gordie Marhanka is probably about 11 years old and has been casing out my cyclocomputer and asking me questions about it. You could see the gears turning in his head "...If I save up my allowance for a couple of months and add it to my birthday money, I could get my Dad to take me to WalMart for a shiny new speedometer..." Like most boys, he's obviously interested in gadgets and data like max speed and lap times.

"Oh, I don't know. I've probably seen 41 or 42 on this thing.", I respond.

Gordie looks me in the eye, "Well my Dad goes 50 when he motorpaces. He motorpaces twice a week."

Unbelievable. Even the little Marhanka is trying to get into my head. I wanted to respond, "Oh yeah, you little brat: I drink two beers a day. So there!"

In all seriousness, it's great to see little Marhankas and Brookshires tearing around the track. I think it's great that were going to have a separate race night for Juniors, Masters, and Women.

The Nutter Index

2008-03-19T18:00:00.003-04:00

Photo courtesy of Jim White

Despite the temperature being in the upper 20's and threatening snow, I headed down to the track a couple of Saturdays ago. I didn't expect anyone else to be there, but lo and behold, I ran into Jim White and my team mate, Josh Reddoch. Despite some snow flurries we put in some laps and even when we left, Jim was still putting in the laps. Now, I like Jim, but he's definitely a nutter -- as is proven by his truck. Coming from Berkeley, I had long ago formed a theory which I call the "nutter index" which is correlated with the bumper stickers on your car. Pretty much, the more stickers you have, the nuttier you are. Now that doesn't mean that you can't be nutty if you don't have stickers (like myself), but having excessive stickers is definitely a sign of sickness.

Nutter Index:

Each bumper sticker = 1 pt.

Any sticker with the words mother or earth = +2 pt

Public Radio sticker = +1 pt

Any sticker referencing prayer, guns, or the civil war = +2 pt

Any "I brake for..." = +2 pt

Baby on board or Honor Student signage = +3 pt

Gore / Lieberman sticker = +3 pt
W 04 = +3 pt
Nader = + 5 pt
Ron Paul sticker = + 10 pt (I have strong Libertarian tendencies, but as a sane Libertarian I know that Libertarian fantasy lands don't work. I think it's time to resurrect the "In your guts, you know he's nuts" slogan)

Any "Euro" oval sticker = -3 pt (these are just trendy)
Raiders or Packers sticker = +1 pt
Any ribbon = +1 pt
Any rainbow = +2 pt

So what's your nutter index?

Why I'm a math teacher.

2008-03-10T21:00:00.002-04:00

Link

Dehlia Low

2008-03-09T18:16:00.008-04:00

Dehlia Low is a local bluegrass band that has been getting some of their songs played on WNCW. They're local musicians: one trains horses, another works at Eliada, another works as a teacher in Hendersonville. If you click on the player below, you can hear "Yellow Mountain", a song that is titled after the golden chestnut trees that used to cover many of our hills before the Chestnut blight that ended the American Chestnut. Every once in a while, people discover an isolated tree or grove that has somehow been bypassed by the blight, a remnant of our history that is lost forever.

So what does this have to do with Cane Creek-Masi? Well, the lead singer is also my wife (who used to be a pretty handy cyclist), and Dehlia Low is one of the sponsors of our team next year. They're entered in a contest for a chance to play at the Orange Peel and if you like what you hear, you can vote for them. It takes a couple of minutes because they send you a confirmation e-mail which you have to click on, but they'd really love it if you'd vote for them in the Bluegrass category.

Tire rant.

2008-03-09T16:05:00.003-04:00

This year we're really lucky to get a tire sponsor, Continental, and I've been really impressed by their new rubber compound -- "black chili". The "gummi" is super sticky and is an improvement on last year's compound: I think as a general rule in road / track cycling, softer compounds are better than hard. This isn't necessarily true off-road where tire squirm and knob stiffness are a factor, nor is it true in motorsports in which heat cycling, track temperature, and tire wear must also be taken into consideration.

Even though it's a bit more expensive, I only train on racing tires. If that little extra grip can save me from crash a year, it's worth it to me. Other things I do to increase grip is run a lower tire pressure (on the road) 6-7.5atm / 90-115psi. It boggles my mind when people run 120-170psi -- who wants more rolling resistance and lower corner speed? I once won a fairly big crit by sprinting from 300m out and leading it into the last corner. I'm convinced I won it on agility -- I was running Michelin Pro Grips at 95psi, I only weigh 135lb, and this allowed me to take the corner faster and also get back on the gas before everyone else.

One nice thing these days is that there are many great clinchers out there and if you look at the studies, the best clinchers perform just as well,if not beat,the best tubulars in terms of rolling resistance. However, I think tubulars still have an edge on clinchers for grip, and their much better clinchers in a blow out. I've been able to ride out a front blowout at 56kph in a scratch race--and I sure was glad I was on my tubies.

The Lance Armstrong method of team building.

2008-03-03T18:55:00.003-05:00

If you can't beat them, buy them! If you haven't noticed already, Darin is a new aquisition on our team and has been sporting Cane Creek kit and a Masi bike this year. Last year he was almost unbeatable at our track: I only barely managed to beat him one evening with my entire team slaying themselves to keep me in contention. Truthfully, he's kind of a scary character -- one of those brutes who should have been born a Belgie and spent a life in kermesses to keep out of the coal mines. I'll never forget the points race last year in which I made the split with Darin and Steve Sperry and I decided to take one of the sprints. After taking the points, Darin, with a scowl and a glare, declared, "I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY." He then proceeded to mete out his punishment, which was the cycling equivalent of dragging me behind his truck for several miles before repeatedly running me over several times.

So it's pretty nice to have him as a team mate this year. Of course, we had to make sure that he would fit in with the team so he went through a rigorous interview process that asked him the important questions, such as, "Are you a drama queen? Are you currently sleeping with any members of our team? Do you promise not to talk about wattage or quote Joe Friel? How do you feel about crashing purposefully to get a free lap?"

I think he'll fit right in.

Watching Tape (view at your own risk)

2008-02-19T19:38:00.003-05:00

One of the elements neglected in cycling tactics is watching tape: a time honored tradition in American sports. By studying tape, you can detect the "tells" that signal the weaknesses of your opponents weaknesses. For example, Andy Hampsten would always get out of the saddle several times when he was in a bad patch, just before he would blow spectacularly.

This year our team is carefully analyzing tape from last years competitions to glean more information about our competitors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugGdk3UEbJg

In addition, it is important to gain a cultural perspective on your opponents. For example, if you want to defeat a Japanese rider, it might benefit to read up on the code of Bushido. Our team is studying the following video extensively to gain insight on some of our opponents who sport a faux English accent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkIVvjZc9Y

When is 90 gear inches not 90 gear inches?

2008-02-05T20:43:00.000-05:00

Being a track racer, my opinion has been that 90 inches is 90 inches, regardless of how you achieve it. Yes, getting a gear using more total teeth is better for durability as you distribute the wear over more teeth, but for all practical purposes how you achieve that gear has little to do with how a bike rides. However, I recently ran into a fascinating calculatorthat on the street how you achieve gear inches is not the same. This table is a "skid patch" calculator.

In essence, certain gear combinations are less than ideal because it creates very few "skid patches" and all the wear is concentrated on certain place on the tire. For example, a gear of 45x15 yields only 1 skid patch because 45 is divisible by 15: every time your legs are in a position to skid the rear wheel, the same contact patch is contact with the road since the wheel will make exactly 3 rotations for every full turn of the crank. Who would have thunk?

Pre-season comparisons

2008-01-29T17:59:00.000-05:00

This year I have decided to aim high and compare myself with Andrew Erskine (can't compare myself with Darin since he's gonna be my team mate...) Right now, I feel pretty good about how I stack up against one of the local top dogs 1. Stamina:
Erskine works for a living. Kogure teaches high school kids.
Advantage -- Kogure
2. Speed:
Erskine and Jason Sprouse have a moped. Kogure has a Ninja.
Advantage -- Kogure

3. Psychological edge:
Erskine is nick named the "Welsh Rabbit". Ooooh, really scary. Kogure is called "Panther". Granted that "Panther" reminds me of an Austin Powers impression, I like it better than my last nick name, "the Kamikaze Kid". This was given to me after a crit by one of the Eisentraut brothers after I decided that the best way to move up along the gutter was to "ratchet" my pedals so I wouldn't hit the curb.
Advantage -- Kogure

4. Political alliances:
Erskine is cool as a cucumber, kind of like a laconic hero from a Dick Francis novel. Kogure is more like Joey, he babbles a lot. Growing up, my friends noted that I was full of propaganda: during a game of Risk, I stated, "Your armies are attacking my population!" Only 10% of what I say is worth anything, but fortunately, the country bumpkins haven't figured it out yet.
Advantage -- Kogure

5. Intangibles -- Drinking ability -- Erskine is from Great Britain. He's also an ex-rugby player. Kogure weighs 135lb and is, if you've noticed, Asian.
Advantage -- Erskine

6. Tactical acumen:
Erskine -- who needs tactics when you can ride a 1:10 kilo and it sounds like you can rip the rear tire off your wheel? Kogure -- "I'll split the prize money with you if you let me win. By the way, your shoe laces are untied...." Kogure's favorite tricks include: handing someone an empty bottle when they ask you to share some water, knocking the bottles out of the hands of the feeders from opposing teams, saying things like, "look at how small I am. Do you think I can sprint???"
Advantage -- Kogure

At 5-1, it's going to be a great year for me. Of course, if Andrew disagrees we can always discuss it over a pint at the Westville Pub.

Cheers!

Track Tidbits

2008-01-19T17:20:00.000-05:00

Looking out at the snow and the wet roads, I can only follow the world of track cycling through the internet. Fixed Gear Fever has been providing live coverage. You have to click on "Currently Covering__________" under the Cane Creek logo and you can get the current blow-by-blow.I have to say, Taylor Phinney has been quite the story: when was the last time an American been competitive in the pursuit? Maybe I'm blinded by his illustrious heritage, but 19-year-old Taylor reminds me of that breed of rider we haven't seen in a while, those strong fast riders who can ride both the road and track. Riders like Rebecca Twigg, Connie Carpenter, Steve Hegg, Frank McCarthy, Chris Huber, Bostick, Nitz... Mini-Phinney won't ever win the Tour but he's on his way to becoming a great racer. A 4:26 in his 3rd ever track race? You've got to be kidding.

New hand position from the current World Cup Leader in the Points Race.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Not to be out done, I am currently practicing a new more aerodynamic position:

Note: Next year I will be wearing a new lid, aka, my aerodynamic anti-Begemann device.

Is your house for sale?

2008-01-15T19:17:00.000-05:00

Just the other day, our friend Stacy was standing in front of her house when a gentleman came up to her and asked if her house was for sale.

"You mean this house?"

"Yeah, you have a sign in front of it."

THE SIGN

"Ummmm... It's not a for sale sign"

At which point the man flung out his hands with an expression of exasperation as if to ask her "If it's not for sale, why do you have a sign in front of your house." -- and stalked off in a huff.

Later on that night Stacy's room mate, after hearing the story, wondered, "Man, I wonder what he thinks during election time... The whole town is for sale!"

Now I'm not sure if I chuckled or cried when I heard this story, but it does explain why so many of my students want to "go to collage."

Well, I better go learn some students!

150 rpm

2008-01-11T23:39:00.000-05:00

It's been kind of interesting following the thread on Fixed Gear Fever regarding rpm and sprinting. Hill and Singleton basically argue for the importance of developing a supple pedal stroke with lots of snap, with the target being about 150 rpm for pure sprinters. Which means that pure sprinters are turning a pretty light gear relative to what you would use on the road. According to them, track sprints are about big brutes riding with elegance and finesse. Pretty interesting.

Given that I'm really not a track sprinter, it never hurts to train my spin so I'm back on the rollers doing 30 second sprints at 57-70 kph, which roughly works out to about 150-185 rpm. One thing I don't understand are track riders who pound out the hours on wind trainers -- good for fitness and easy to use, but in my opinion, really limit your ability to get better by teaching you to pedal dirty (that's a Japaneseim). All that winter work just to learn how to go slower... Not that some erg work isn't bad, but rollers are way better for what I'm doing these days.

The most active track in the US (track pictures courtesy of Jim White)

2008-01-08T19:06:00.000-05:00

Brrrrrr. Okay, this was actually couple days before the following pictures.

Twenty six riders!

Please do not take the high line or drink the kool aid...

Happy New year!
rumors have it that I've been picked up by Rock Racing!!!

Cane Creek track wheels: 1 year review

2007-12-31T10:35:00.000-05:00

Production Cane Creek Endurance 85 wheels
At the beginning of last year Josh from Cane Creek lent me a set of prototype deep rims: the wheels that eventually evolved into their Endurance 50 and 85 track wheel. Aside from a properly fitted bike, wheels are the best place to spend money to buy speed. I was one of the first riders to regularly ride deep rims, starting with a pair of Zipp 440s in 1993. I've also ridden Shamals, Gipiemme, Spinergy Rev -x, and trispokes. I've also ridden Sugino, Hed, Araya, and Campagnolo disk wheels.

At my level, a good deep rim wheelset can probably buy you a second in the kilo, 4-5 seconds in a pursuit, and a bike length in every sprint. Every rider in a National level race will be on aero wheels, and on the road all those Wasser Tragers on the front of a flat race will be sporting the latest wheels from their sponsors.

Cane Creek Wheels, Endurance 50 and 85:

Carbon is not designed for bicycle hooks...

Plusses
Durability -- 1 year of hard riding and abuse and these things are completely true with no evidence of cracking in the carbon or bulging at the spoke holes. I've over pressured the tires, hung them upside down, and gone off road. The innovative high flange straight pull hub design makes a high tension well triangulated wheel that is stiff as a board while minimizing the stress on the spokes.

Bearing Quality -- Some of the nicest bearings around. Silky smooth bearings that feel like needle bearings off of a Dura Ace pedal. The axle just spins without that heavy draggy sealed feeling.

Handling and Stiffness -- These wheels handle great in fast hard high-G turns. They also handle surprisingly well in crosswinds. Contrast this to my Specialized Trispoke which can't track straight unless there's no wind yaw and also can't turn in and pushes in high-G turn.

Weight -- These wheels are surprisingly light and even feel lighter than the static weight might indicate. You can argue whether light weight really helps acceleration or not, but it feels good and low rotational weight can't hurt. The production 85mm rim is slated to be around 550g, which is about the same weight as a Mavic Open Pro rim (the measured weight of an Open Pro rim usually varies between 470-600g, depending on the length of the production run)

The rim bed is specially curved for a secure connection with narrow tubulars.
Other nice features -- These rims are track specific and the rim bed curvature is engineered for narrower tubular tires. I've never rolled a tire, but it used to drive me crazy when I'd see a gap in the glue between the rim and the base tape.

You can also get them tied and soldered. It's debatable whether that adds to the stiffness, but a tied and soldered wheel will let you finish a race without drama if you break a spoke.

The bearings on this space station will allow it to spin forever.

Minuses:
Colored hubs? Futuristic Deep Space 9 design? My dad and I have a running joke, "Car must be Toyota, Beer must be Sapporo, TV must be Sony." -- a take off on the older American male who only drives an Oldsmobile. I personally believe Sun Tour Superbe Pro highflange hubs to be the pinnacle of aesthetic achievement. I'm a retro grouch at heart -- I keep copies of old Bridgestone catalogs and Rivendell readers hidden under my Velo News. (Quiz: many of my shallow drop bars are 1" shorter on the right side. Why?)

That being said, Josh popped up with a new set of polished 85s after I commented on annodized hubs :) Wow, I should complain about my sponsors more often...

Weapon of Choice

2007-12-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

My new Masi Coltello. 43cm c-c frame, 52cm top tube

It's important to have the right tools and to pay attention to the details. A Ritchey adjustable stem to get negative rise. The massive bladed down tube and the top tube come together into a short head tube allowing a low position to be achieved by smaller riders. Bars are Nitto B125 shallow drops -- the bend favored by many endurance riders.

Stainless steel dropout let you change your wheels without worrying about your drop outs getting destroyed over the course of a season.

Other features:
The Fizik Aliante saddle is essential for long races.
Ritchey seat pin with set back -- gotta have set back for aesthetic balance.
Superbe Pro and Sugino 75 drive train. Classic standbys.

New House, can't post

2007-07-21T07:18:00.000-04:00

Been way to busy with a new house. I almost feel like an adult at the age of 37. Of course, I keep on forgetting my age as soon as I hop on a bike and start acting like some dumb 18 year old (sorry 18 year olds). I have mellowed a little in my older age -- it's hard to believe that my nickname on my team used to be "Irish Gen". It was an inside joke -- there used to be a rider on O-foto/ Lombardi's in Norcal we all called "Irish James". Irish James favored himself as an enforcer and used to get in on-the-bike fights. Imagine little old me yelling and throwing elbows at guys like Blue Light. Take no prisoners!. Talk about stupid. These days I'm having way too much fun to be a jerk.

Be back in a week, but if I have time I'll get stuff up on the French Broad Classic

Open Air Kino

2007-07-17T15:24:00.000-04:00

One thing I really like about Europe is that during the summer so many things happen outside and it's just part of summer living.I really enjoy eating outside in cafes under a big umbrella and going to festivals and concerts. Last Saturday I went to the "Walk in Theater", held outside the Westville pub in the parking lot. It reminded me of summer outdoor movies in Switzerland. The Walk in Theater was well attended (I would guess about 500+ people) and it brought out many families. Bring your own folding chairs and blankets, but you can buy ice cream, pop corn, and drinks. If you haven't gone, I encourage you to check it out, and if you have gone, it's probably good to be reminded that there are fun things going on outside of the daily routine. It's a little bit of Cinema Paradiso in our own West Asheville. I think my next stop will be Shakespeare in the park.

This year's banner

2007-07-15T13:22:00.001-04:00

Well it looks like the GC chances for Vino this year are rapidly fading, but let's hope he can animate the race and continue to bring excitement to the tour. My friend told me that he read that he had 30 stitches to his knee after his crash...What a great ride by the chicken, though, a classic Rasmussen move. Attack midway through the race while the GC favorites are watching each other, bridge up to the break, and suddenly one of the best climbers in the peloton is five minutes clear of the field. I wonder if he can contend for GC? Out of the contenders, I'd have to say Menchov, Sastre, Moreau, and Valverde look like possibilities, but each one has a big question mark. Moreau always has a bad day,Menchov and Sastre are just way too steady, and Valverde -- can he time trial? Wow, it's still wide open.

A slow evening, but family night at the Rumble.

2007-07-12T12:58:00.000-04:00

One thing I enjoy about the RoR series is the family atmosphere and the presence of kids.

(Start of the kids race)

There's also a fiercely fought junior and women's race too.

(Yes, we've all been there)

(Ummmm, Lesli, what are you doing?)

(The Brookshire clan cheering on Grayson to 2nd place against the big kids)

(Sara and Robin battling it out in a sprint)

Women Juniors
1st Lesli Meadows..............1st Parker Lee
2nd Sarah Alholm...............2nd Grayson Brookshire
3rd Robin Blankenbaker.........3rd Blake Reiser
4th Bonnie Bloom...............4th William Mills

(Nervous tension before the race, except for Dr. Jim)

The B's looked pretty quick tonight with many riders plying the pressure and testing the field. I didn't get any pics, but Ray confirmed tuesday nights good form by taking the win with a searing final sprint. Ron Henninger followed up last weeks win with some aggressive riding and a fine 2nd place.

1st Ray Van Dohlen
2nd Ron Henninger
3rd Brad Miller
4th Kevin Bray
5th Walker Turlington

The A's. My objective tonight was to get some work in the legs and ride some tempo. It was a slow night as was evidenced by the fact that I could actually get to the front and set a little pace. Hugh Moran and Bob Wright rolled off early and took the well deserved top two spots. The usual fast guys fought it out for the remaining points, with Joey "I hate double points" Coddington getting the short end of the stick tonight.

(Hugh Moran and Bob Wright on the way to lapping the field)

Jacob "Are you guys sprinting or what? "McGahey

"Look, I'm actually taking a pull"

"Like, you don't like, totally expect me to pull like all the laps like totally..."

Masters:
Rostand "Vinokourov" Smith: One man rides alone, into the wind

Thank goodness, the end!

Mellowdrome Cup 7/10

2007-07-11T17:10:00.000-04:00

Rostand (Muffin Man) Smith

With threatening rain we saw reduced fields last night, but it was still a fine night of racing and we saw some new faces at the front of the field. The C races were raced aggressively and the field fractured repeatedly under the pressure of the Probikes team. They've been a great presence in the past several races and I hope they continue to expand their presence.

In the B's Chris Otahall (Youngblood) battled with Chris Bryson (Biowheels) all night, with Biowheels taking the win. George Riedesel took a fine win in the Keirin showcasing his experience and skill. Otahall will be joining the A's next race -- welcome to the club! If you guys didn't already know, there's a VIP lounge for the A's where they offer complimentary drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and free massages. To get in tell Annette Kamm, "I'm going to attack on the 7th lap" When she gives you a puzzled look, you then respond with "the bloody moon rises at midnight" then she'll let you into the secret A lounge!

The Madison:
Despite Smith-Barney being absent, racing's never easy. Stepping in to fill their shoes was Sean Young and Kevin Bray (ECD) for the win, Josh Reddoch and myself for 2nd, and Aaron Renner and John Derry for 3rd. I cracked myself pretty hard trying to gap the ECD team and I really began to feel over geared midway through the race. Kevin and Sean have come a long way and are looking really on sync. Hopefully, we'll see more Madison teams in the future: maybe we'll become the Madison capitol of the US...

A's:
The story of the night was really my team mate Ray Van Dohlen, because he was willing to open it up and seize the opportunity that was there. In the scratch race, he took off with Aaron Renner (ECD) and took second. In the Bavarian win-and-out, he also took second without any of his team mates (us) helping him. I was totally focused on winning and I fully admit that my tactics would have allowed our rivals to take second as long as I won. However, Ray took the matters in his own hands and took a great 2nd place in the Bavarian Win-and-Out.

Now, I won the final race of the evening, the points race, and the overall because I had two team mates, Matt and Kevin working for me. They led me out for the sprints, slowed the pack when I was dropped, set tempo when I needed to recover, and generally kept Scott Langford (Smith-Barney) and Aaron Renner from winning the race. All I had to do was ace the sprints, which I can do because my legs have "good sensations". My power needs work, but the kick is there when I decide to hit out. Because Ray isn't the fastest or the strongest on the team, he had to look out for himself with a little help from Josh, and he just seized the opportunity with a late race attack that secured his 2nd place for the evening. I'm just thrilled that my mates did great in setting me up for the evening, but I'm also impressed with how Ray just seized the opportunities when they were there.

1st Me (Cane Creek/Masi)
2nd Ray Van Dohlen (Cane Creek/Masi)
3rd Kevin Lisska (Cane Creek/Masi)
4th Scott Langford (Smith-Barny)
5th Matt Dinsmore (Cane Creek/Masi)

My Dave Zabriskie story

2007-07-07T07:30:00.000-04:00

(The banner on my house a couple of years ago during the Tour)

Several years ago I had decent form and I could go pull for pull with some of the best racers in the Bay Area. In fact, on training rides, it was a matter of pride that I would out pull everyone except my friend Tim (That was the pecking order. And yes, I sometimes feel guilty for what we subjected the other riders on our ride).

Well one day I was at the Alameda Twilight Criterium just throwing it down and I got away at the midpoint of the race. My companions were one of those strong but a little too full of themselves Cat 3s and a gangly looking rider in an amateurish looking jersey that read "SRM".

Soon we were just flying along and the Cat 3 guy's just hanging on by his fingernails. The SRM guy was going pull for pull with me and I'm digging deeper and deeper since there was no way I was going to let anyone out roll me on the flats, and I'm thinking, "who the hell is this guy?" Well the speed kept going faster and faster (I remember looking down and seeing 50,51, 52... kph) until I finally just gave in. Soon the SRM rider was out pulling me by a little, then 2-1, then finally 3-1. The SRM rider lead the final 2 laps and did the pro thing by leading out the sprint and I did the non-pro thing by kicking past him.

I received my post-race congratulations but I knew what had really happened. After the race my friend Simon ESSl, who distributed SRM in the US, introduced me to the SRM rider. It was of course, Dave Zabriskie, traveling sub-rosa without his US Postal kit. So that was my brush with Dave Z, and I can now claim that I once beat him in a race.

The best part of the story was when the strong Cat 3 guy came up to him and goes, "Man, you're really strong but you need to learn some tactics. If you didn't pull so much, you could've won the race!"

And Dave Z responds, "Yeah, I'll try to remember that next time..."

So I've been a Zabriskie fan ever since.

Why I will not be doing the Tour this year.

2007-07-06T08:45:00.001-04:00

I had always dreamed of doing the Tour clean and in the early days of CBS and ESPN it wasn't an impossible task.However, in the years of OLN (now versus), things changed.

At first, it wasn't so bad: I could do several stages without any "help". By the time we got to the mountains, however, I was usually a wreck. Waking up at 4:00 am day after day to listen to Phil, Paul, and "Tour day France" is impossible without help.

Initially, I started with a little coffee. But on those long mountain stages, it's hard to stay up so I had to resort to a dark french roast. But then after a full pot your stomache would be upset so you'd have to take some peptobismol. Eventually, a team mate of mine introduced me to "Pot Japanese"

"Pot Japanese" is a powerful concoction that consists of Peets coffee, ground up decongestant (pseudoephedrine), No Doz, and sake. Perfect for staying alert without feeling jittery and you just feel like superman -- watch a 6 hour alpine stage? No problem.

However, even with help, at the end of 3 weeks I was a ghost of my former self and my wife has finally put her foot down.

"I will no longer go to the coffee shop to buy your coffee. They're starting to look at me funny over there. Any gendarme would find a pound-a-day suspicious."

So this year I have decided not to subscribe to cable and I will not be doing the Tour de France. I may however, follow it on the internet, with my cat Birillo sitting on my lap.

Link of the day:

2007-07-05T11:45:00.000-04:00

This is a link to a german bikeshop with some great pictures and history of Keirin. I really like the old pictures of womens' keirin in post war Japan. As in many wars, the home front was built upon the backs of women and the post-war period was a time of new opportunities for women, even in a patriarchal society. http://www.keirinberlin.de/Keirin_Racing_En.html

New track records!

2007-07-04T08:15:00.000-04:00

The astute observer will notice several unusual things in this photograph.

An eye for detail will notice that the rider in the foreground has a number that is unpinned in one corner. This would account for his poor ride last night.

Notice the three Cane Creek-Masi riders on the fence talking to the agent in the Health-Net jersey -- one of them will be riding for the Green Machine next year.

Notice also that Rostand is holding a glass bottle and the two riders sitting on the track. They have all just taken a swig from the bottle which is filled with Carolina Moonshine.

Marilyn and John are apprehensively watching Andrew accept his medal as he is about to break out into the Welsh national anthem, which sounds like a cross between a Scottish bagpipe and Jabba the Hut.

"Sydd mewn swyddau braidd ymhobman...."

(Watch +.5 seconds. No Booties, +1.5 seconds)

Last night on a cool but windy evening, two track records were broken over the course of an hour. In an impressive ride Bill Short broke Andrew Erskine's record for the kilometer TT with a time of 1:11.5. Bill held the new track record for about, let's say 10 minutes, as Andrew responded with a time of 1:11.4. And this was on a windy night. To put those times into perspective, a 1:11.4 kilo is an average speed of 50.24 kph or about 31.5 mph. Remember, this is from a standing start where your speed is zero. If you think, "hey, that's easy. I can hit 31.5 mph in a sprint", I encourage you to time yourself over 2 laps here.

In another fine recording setting performance the Smith Barney (Kurt Begemann, Chris Ernst, Jason Sprouse, and Andrew Erskine) broke the team pursuit record with a time of 4:49. All this on a windy night. Let's expect some fireworks come the State Championships and Nationals!

All pictures courtesy of Jim White

More about Keirin and Keirin culture

2007-07-03T15:34:00.000-04:00

Pictured: My friend Yamagishi on rollers. The white stars on his pants indicate that he is an "S" class rider. A double white stripe indicates an "A" class while a a single white stripe "B"

A while ago we went over the various Keirin strategies Senko, makuri, and sashi (or Oikomi for a less regional term). George has pointed out that there are some good diary entries from Ben Kersten on www.cyclingnews.com who is doing international Keirin racing in Japan.

First, to dispel a common western misconception, Keirin is pronounced "kay-rin", not "Key-rin". "Key-rin" is a mythical animal (like a pegasus) that is also a brand of beer.

Second, Keirin racing isn't a respected part of Japanese society. If you are in Japan and you ask hotel concierge that you would like to enjoy some keirin racing, you might as well ask them where the local tough man contest is and while they're at it, where's the nearest titty bar. Keirin racing is all about gambling, not bike racing, and the typical Keirin spectator is a male middle-aged gambling addict. Because gambling is involved, Keirin racing takes place on all weather tracks which have a surface similar to very fine grit sand paper. Some of the worst road rash I ever got was on a Japanese track when I tried a flying 200 on an unglued front tire.

Japanese Keirin racing is different from international rules in several ways. First and foremost, there is no motorized pacer / derny under Japanese rules. The race is paced by a paid rider who is not part of the race. In addition, the pacing is done at a lower speed, probably
closer to 25mph than the 28-30 we see here. Even though Keirin racers are not officially part of a team, Japanese Keirin is very team oriented: riders from the same region will often band together and form alliances. To do well as a senko/leadout rider, it is important to have a good makuri/sweeper who will impede the opponents from coming around.

So how do you become a keirin racer?
If you are a foreigner, you might be invited if you are a very good world cup/championship sprinter.

If you're Japanese they hold a test once a year. If you can ride a 1:10 kilo, you're basically in. They also have a flying 200m test but it isn't considered as important as the kilo. They only accept riders until the age of 25?, and there is also an academic test which shows that you're not an idiot. There's also a family back ground check -- if your great-grand uncle Yoshi was a Yakuza flunky, you're not going to get into Keirin school, even with a 1:03.

Japanese cycling culture, like most of Japanese sports culture, is rigidly hierarchical and involves disciplining and hazing of new riders. Younger riders commonly do the laundry, serve food, and are basically at the beck and call of their seniors.

Back in 1992, I was recruited to do a TTT with riders from Nihon Daigaku (Japan University), a sports school that prided itself for being basically a Keirin feeder school. During dinner in the dorms, I was seated next to my team mates who were the senior riders of the university. During dinner I was unable to pour my own drinks or serve myself any food as the younger riders waited on me hand and foot and refused to allow me to do anything for myself. This was quite a shock from my Americanized perspective. Later on I learned that Japan University was famous for
that type of behavior: a friend told me a story in which a young rider was ordered to buy sake in the middle of the night after all the liquor stores were closed. This poor kid eventually managed to wake up the owners of a mom and pop liquor store and somehow managed to convince them to sell him a bottle of sake. When he got back and presented the bottle, his seniors asked him, "Well, where's the change?"

It's within this kind of culture that a rider will spend a year in Keirin school learning to race bikes. One supposed training practice involves setting up rollers side-by-side with a sheet hanging between them. The riders then attempt to knock off the rider on the other sides of the sheet. Other famous drills are dragging a car tire behind your bike during road training--and forced motorpacing. Forced motorpacing involves being towed by a rope behind a motorcycle. If the speed is too fast for the rider, there is a modified brake lever that can release the rope before a crash occurs.

After a year of keirin school riders are placed into the lowest of the S, A, and B classes, each of which is also subdivided into categories of S1, S2, A1, A2, etc. If you do well, you move up in rank, while if you have too many bad races in a year, you move down in rank. The number of categories has changed over the years, but in general there have been about 4000 keirin racers in Japan. Since there are about a hundred new keirin racers a year, the lowest ranking racers are forced into retirement each year.

Keirin racing has fostered the development of tracks in Japan and crazy to think that there are over 50 velodromes in a country the size of California. I would actually guess that there are close to 75-100, since non-Keirin certified velodromes aren't officially listed. The fact that there are 4000 pro bike racers while in the US we probably only have 50 real pros is also amazing. Inconceivable!

A foray into the sauna: Festival of Speed #2

2007-07-01T19:16:00.000-04:00

Matt and Ron are SERIOUS. They mean business!
Well it's been over half a year since I had traveled to a race and I decided to partake in the Ashevillian raiding party into Atlanta. A large contingent went south to contest the festival of speed, and like an invading Mongol army, we brought along wives, children, yurts made by EZ up (okay canopies). Okay, women raced too.

Theme of the day: Heat!

Trying to stay cool under Ray's canopy. All his oxen have died he only has his children and wife left.

Matt Dinsmore swore he would never leave Asheville after the point-a-lap

Other cool things: Huge fields!

Mens Cat 3/4. And there were 5 riders behind me as I took the picture.

Count the number of women on the rail. Matt, stop trying to be in every picture!

Oh yeah, the racing was pretty good too, and we won some battles out there but we're really not sure Atlanta is worth conquering...

Women:
Snowball
4th --Robin Pace 5th --Lesli Meadows, 6th--Sarah Alhome
Miss-and-out
2nd--Lesli Meadows, 6th Robin Pace, 10th-- Sarah Alhome
Lesli decided not to contest the finish after one of her competitors crashed on the final lap.

Men cat 3/4
Points Race
2nd -- Matt Dinsmore, 11th --Ray Van Dohlen, 12th --- Kevin Bray

Point a lap
1st Matt Dinsmore
Despite being on a steep track for the first time, Matt rode to 2nd in the omium...

Miss-and-out
3rd-- Ray Van Dohlen, 5th-- Kevin Bray, 9th-- Ron Heninger, 12th-- Sean Young

Match Sprint: Ron Heninger riding to a 3rd place finish over Kevin Bray (4th)

Other inspiring performances: Darin Marhanke (pictured) and Kurt Begemann won a $300 prime in the madison. Sean Young did a gritty chase in the madison to get back to the main field. Crazy.

Andrew Erskine took 2nd in the Pro/1/2 Unknown distance, 3rd in the snowball, 8th overall. This was after being pulled in the miss-and-out even though there were at least 2 riders behind him.

There were other riders from Asheville there, (Doug, Jeanne, et al.) but I missed there results...

My results would have been better if I had been on this thing, a derny, used in motorpaced races. But I still had a ball and I even got to meet an old racing aquaintance, Dean Haraguchi. At one point at San Jose, there were four Japanese-American racers: Dean, myself, Gary, and Keish.
"Are you Gary Yokota?"
"Nope, I'm Gen"

We might not have conquered Atlanta, but they can have their sweltering heat and humidity...

Until round 3, ciao!

Kurt needs more clients like this:

2007-06-28T09:08:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv0l2tQRIks (found on FGF)

Rumble on the River 6/27

2007-06-27T22:06:00.000-04:00

Should I stay or should I go? After digging deep on Tuesday and then being on cloud nine until 2 in the morning (they accepted the offer on the house! that's why I looked like some Socal cell phone tool telling my agent to offer this and offer that in between the races), I was dragging my heels about racing tonight. But since I don't have dedication or a training program, I decided I had to be back in the saddle: I think I've got some decent speed but my power is less than adequate for the attacking style I have historically employed.

~6:30 Watchin the B's race as I cruise the apron and the 2 Kevins are slugging it out. Second to last sprint looks DICEY! Glad I'm not in there. Honestly, I have a hard time watching races -- seeing team mates or people I know ride shoulder to shoulder is way too nerve wracking. Of course, I'm completely unfazed by all the stupid crap I do.... Last sprint: Ron Henninger just over powers everyone with 600m to go with a team mate on his wheel. Impressive....

I always enjoy the camaraderie at the start, and once you become an old hand there's none of that signature tense posturing and awkwardness of the cat 3's and 4's. Andrew leads us on our neutral lap and soon we're strung out.

"I thought it was kind of early for that guy to go on the first lap of a sixty lap race, but I guess not."
Gary Oldsby

Well Jason Sprouse just opened up a gap and took a baseball bat and whacked all us pretenders. I remember going for the first sprint and then realizing "there's someone up ahead?" that can't be possible with the speeds we're going! And he stayed out there for 30? 40 laps?

With 30 to go a group formed off the front, and since I wasn't getting the plum points anyway, I decided to try to help bring it back. Got to the front, pulled for a lap, and then got shuffled to the back since no one would let me in. Darn, I hate it when you don't have the respect of these whipper snappers. I just wanted to help and take another turn at the front! Well, I was probably going so slow that they thought I was blocking....

We finally reeled them all in, but I was gassed and my tires were glued to the beton. Hope I didn't gap too many riders off the back with my repeated jumps back to the group -- the other day we were laughing about Matt Koschara doing it on purpose -- "punching tickets" I wasn't doing it on purpose, I promise!

Jason Sprouse broke our legs and took a well deserved win, and Andrew Erskine confirmed his sprinting prowess by taking a well deserved second. You've got to respect those guys who don't beat on their chest but are just deadly. Chris Ernst seized 3rd by virtue of his brilliant final sprint, Joey Coddington was fourth, and Jacob McGahey was 5th.

Another fine Wednesday night, and good times were had by, well at least 5 of the riders!

Hot rumor: Instead of using a motor, Andrew is using Jason Sprouse as his derny. So I guess Jason gets his 40k work and Andrew goes blasting around him ever several laps.

gen, greedy for power.

Fire Fly

2007-06-27T21:24:00.000-04:00

Sitting on my porch, I watch the fire flies in the thick green underbrush across the street. I think they're really called lightning bugs, but I remember as a small child wandering through groves of bamboo and open fields, laughing and chasing these elusive glowing lights that flitted just beyond my reaching hands. For many years, fire flies disappeared in Japan, and it is only now that they are starting to be seen again. People derisively complain about some scarlet bellied salamander or the invisible spotted owl halting the wheels of progress, but I do not want to live in a world without fire flies.

Mellowdrome Cup 6/26

2007-06-26T23:47:00.000-04:00

A cool night on the river saw some new faces at the track. You'll have to excuse the results: I'm terrible with names and it's all in the eye of the beholder anyways.

C Group
1) Alex, lastnamenotavailable (Pro Bikes)
2) Marshal Hance (Pro Bikes)
3) ? (I can't remember)

These Probike guys were relentless at the front of the field, just throwing themselves off of the front at every opportunity. If they keep it up, they should soon reinforce the thin B group. It was also great to see the women dishing it out despite also doing their own races tonight. I think Jeanne managed to come in 5th? Special kudos to Rostand for continuing to religiously train and compete following his 2 year anniversary.

B Group
1) Guy in red who came all the way from the coast.
2) Chris Otahall, (Youngblood Bicycles)
3) Bill? Youngblood Haske?, (Youngblood Bicycles)

Guy in red was pretty unstoppable tonight. His excellent sprint with great power kept the rest of the field on the defensive most of the night. However, Chris went toe-to-toe with him the whole night but fell a little short in the end. Youngblood also made an impressive last ditch attack in the points race that showcased his class and sense of timing.

Women's Group
1) Nancy Lux (BMW-Bianchi)
2) Annette Kamm (ECD)
3) Sarah Alholm (AWCT)
4) Bonnie Bloom (Youngblood Bicycles)
5) Jeanne Hurtz (ECD)
6) Vello Bella (sorry forgot your name. Katherine?)

They all deserve stars (or maybe they're seeing stars) for doing 6 races tonight. Annette was looking quick tonight and Sarah was even leading out some of the sprints in the men's races. I loved watching the Keirin: Nancy took the motor and wound it up from over 500m to go -- true Japanese senko style. Third in line, Annette made her move on the back straight but got ridden around on the outside. Meanwhile, Sarah defended second wheel, tucked in behind Nancy, and hit out of turn 4 for a photo finish, with Nancy holding on by a nose. Keirin is fun to watch. Next race I'll be out there with a chalk board and the latest line, and I'll be covering the bets.
Nancy 3 to 2 favorite.....

Madison: Composite teams tonight
1) Darren Marhanke, Kurt Begemann, George Riedesel (We're da kings!)
2) Sean Young, Aaron Renner, Chris Kamm (Watch out Smith Barney)
3) Gen Kogure, Ray Van Dohlen, Bill McBee (Hey we tried and we're getting better)

A Group
1) Gen Kogure (Cane Creek/Masi)
2) Darren Marhanke (Smith Barney)
3) Jacob McGahey (Trek)
4) Kevin Lisska (Cane Creek/Masi)

I somehow managed to win the scratch, take 3rd in the miss-and-out, and I also won the points race. Actually, it wasn't "somehow win"-- I was out classed by my opponents but I had Ray, Kevin , and Matt all just slaying themselves for me. Sometimes, it all just clicks: they were covering the breaks, snagging points, towing me around, and giving me great lead outs. When I got in trouble off the pace, Ray and Matt were there to bring me back. Matt launched a great attack in the scratch that forced my opponents to chase.
"Go Matt. Now!"
"Ray, bring me back!"

And Kevin just drilled it for the final sprint of the night and dumped me off with 200m to go.
"Now Kevin1 go! go! go!"

As good as Darren is, our team out teamed their team tonight. And Jacob, well he had no team. So I had to win: I had a special cheering section of Erwin HS teachers, and I couldn't let my team down after ordering them around all night.

Remember, if I forgot your placing, didn't notice your exploit, or got the results wrong, or misspelled your name, it's because I don't like you and not because it's 1 in the morning and I'm tired but I still have that warm fuzzy feeling that won't let me sleep.

Hopelessly Romantic

2007-06-26T23:19:00.000-04:00

In the day we sweat it out on the streets, of a runaway American dream. At night we ride through mansions of glory, in our suicide machines. Sprung from cages on highway 9, chrome wheel fuel injected stepping out over the line...

I somehow always come back to these lines because I'm a hopeless romantic, and cruising the cool West Asheville night on my trusty beater the song simmers underneath my consciousness and breath. I think what I like most about racing isn't the thrill of battle but the quiet moments following a race -- tooling through the backstreets on the way to the din of the Westville pub for a burger and a PBR. Or perhaps the quiet before a race driving through the early morning dark of the California central valley, headed for a nowhere town, population 500, with only the company of long haul truckers and ghostly white buses carrying immigrants to some field, some where. My generation is the generation of irony, but I prefer dreams and a little sentimentality.

Criterium Cornering

2007-06-25T10:31:00.000-04:00

Barring aberrations in road surface, most riders who have been racing know that the optimum line is the standard out-in-out line (normal apex). There are, however, two variations that are commonly used by good crit racers.

The late apex:
Because a late apex is a little slower and flatter than a normal line, the late apex allows you to change your line during the corner and during the exit. This could allow you to turn underneath a rider taking a normal criterium line. In addition, the late apex gives a little better vision and allows you to see more of a corner than a normal line. A late apex is also excellent for chicanes and quick left-right turns as it sets you up on the correct side for the following corner.

The Early Apex:
The early apex is a dangerous move with the potential to send a rider to the corner. It requires the rider to turn hard late in the corner and it can rarely be taken at the same speeds as a late or normal apex. Many beginners inadvertently apex early because they are afraid to wait on the outside until the proper moment.

The early apex is most useful as a defensive tool. Quite often, just before a corner an opponent will pull up hard on the inside a nose ahead of your wheel. At best, they will take your position, at worst they will send you to the curb. By initiating an early turn, you can block the hard inside move and keep your opponents from getting underneath before you enter the corner.

How to lean a bike in a criterium
There are 3 styles of leaning a bike in a corner -- pushing the bike down with the body upright, bike and body leaned together, and keeping the bike more upright while the body is cantilevered into the inside of the turn. Functionally, all three techniques are the same in a well surfaced corner as the center of gravity is essentially the same for all three techniques, but each technique has it's advantages and disadvantages.

Pushing the bike down
Davis Phinney advocated this technique. Dave McCook is darn good at this too. Pushing the bike down has some really nice advantages.
1) It's easier to countersteer and change your line midcorner if you 're on top of the bike and the bike is underneath you.
2) You can sometimes pick your bike up if your front end begins to slide.

The disadvantage is pedal strike if you don't stand the bike up near the exit.

Keeping the bike upright
It allows you to pedal sooner coming out of a corner.

The neutral position
Probably the best compromise. Allows you to pedal through some parts of corners and offers good control.

Sliding the bike in a criterium
At high speeds, and especially on coarse surfaces, sliding a bike in a fast criterium is not uncommon. One key is to distribute the fore-aft weight distribution so that both wheels slide or skip at the same time. So what happens if only one wheel starts to slide?

Rear wheel slide:
Stay loose. Not as catastrophic as a front end slide. Hopefully the rear end hooks up and regains traction. Try to transfer more weight to the front.

Front wheel slide:
DO NOT STEER INTO A SKID. A bicycle is not a car. In a left hand turn, if the front end washes out, steering to the right will countersteer you into the ground. The proper response is to stand the bike up by turning the bars further to the left.

Of course, not sliding the bike is best of all, and sliding can be minnimized by staying loose on the bike (your arms, legs, and body is the best suspension) and running appropriate tire pressures (6-7.5 bar)

So those are some of the things I do in crits. Not big secrets but maybe some things you won't learn from Joe Friel or some other training guru. Happy hunting!

Advanced Sprint Techniques, part 3

2007-06-23T08:04:00.000-04:00

It's easy to talk about moving up in a sprint, but what are some of the techniques a sprinter can use to move up in a pack or maintain their position? One of the givens is that a good pack handler will keep a firm grip on the bars while keeping the shoulders and elbows relaxed -- bumping and jostling is fairly common in elite level sprint finishes. However, one topic that is not often discussed is the issue of space control.

A good sprinter will often employ subtle techniques to control his space within the pack. Here some common techniques

1) Ride physically wide. Riding with your elbows out will gain you at least 6" per side.

2) Constantly adjust your position to control your opponents bars. Controlling the bars is achieved by being in front of your opponent. This allows you to match your more stable areas of your body, such as your hips, thighs, and side, against his bars which are his control inputs. Hips will always beat the bars. In a crit, if someones trying to take your wheel a common defensive maneuver is to momentarily leave the draft and accelerate to gain positional advantage on the rider trying to rob your wheel. This is especially true in corners -- if you let a rider get a nose in front of you, you've pretty much lost that position.

At the elite level, positional advantage is pretty much understood and riders will often concede a position before physical contact occurs. One easy way to pick out a newly upgraded rider is when he refuses to concede a losing position and then starts yelling when contact occurs.

3) Take a little wind to keep your position. Suppose you're in 2nd wheel and the lead out is stalling in turn 2. If you pull the trigger, you have a long 350m sprint. If you stay, someone is going to lead a line of riders around and trap you in the sprinters lane. If you can't go from 350, the solution is tor ride a "half-draft": stay behind the lead out but ride on the outside. This forces the others to ride wide and it will leave you space to match the jump from behind. Riding a half draft is also an important road sprinters technique.

Now, some "dirty secrets" of sprinting:

1) Ride a wide line during a road sprint. Many sprinters will purposely "snake" their line. Even though a rider might be only 2 feet wide, a snaking line can often take 5-6 feet of space. These riders can be really hard to pass. It's debatable if that can really be called a straight line, but it's hard for the refs to call. A variation of this is a subtle drift or aiming for the corner of the finish line.

2) Pushing a rider. Pushing a rider on the hip doesn't work that well. One dirty alternative is to put your hand on their hips, wrap your fingers around their iliac crest (pelvis/hip bone) and sling yourself while pushing off. This move is much more subtle than a blatant jersey pull. I've only done this once during a race when I was getting pushed towards the curb. And yes, I felt terrible about it and I apologized after the race. Sorry Vincent Gee.

3) Head lean / elbow. Sometimes a well placed head lean can make an opposing sprinter hesitate. In addition, if you can get your head or elbow in front of your opponents arm, you will go forward while they go backwards.

4) Control the back of the elbow. Pushing someones elbow or forearm from the side is only marginally effective. Planting an elbow or shoulder behind the elbow generates enormous leverage and will force the opponent to turn the bars. I learned this first hand from Ken Carpenter in a rinky dink crit series. He took offense at me passing him in a corner (hey I had the moment) and he plowed my elbow from behind 2 corners later. It lifted my bike, I lost about ten positions, and I Was totally dumbfounded, "what the hell was that?" Now I don't suggest that people go knocking their opponents out of the way, but it is good to know if someone gets behind your elbow, you're in a pretty bad spot.

Next week, criterium cornering techniques....

Advanced Sprint Techniques, part 2

2007-06-20T11:24:00.000-04:00

Many training books will tell you how to train your sprint, but there is very little instruction on how to position yourself for the sprint. Sprinting is a combination of brains and brawn, and there are specific things you can so that you can actually "be near the front"

On Saturday, Kurt noted that once the sprint is engaged Maybe only the top five guys are in contention. Barring an arm chair ride behind a quick lead out, how do you get into the top five?

First and foremost, there are almost always 2 sprints in every race. When I was a cat 4, Mike Prime, who was a very crafty rider, explained to me, "There are always 2 sprints in a race, the first is to gain position, and the second is the sprint itself". At an elite or NRC level criterium, this positioning sprint could even happen 5 or 6 laps before the finish if some team is strong enough to take control of the finish. If the pack hesitates, it could happen 200 before the last corner. Either way, this positioning sprint is often more important than the final sprint itself.

At the Mellowdrome, I think that the most effective place to start the first sprint is on the home straight on the bell lap. Obviously, you can afford to wait a little longer the closer you are to the front, but I've come to believe that coming over the top on turns 1 and 2 on our track is too difficult -- the line is way too long, the speed is too fast at that point, and there is often a fierce crosswind. In most cases, it's much better to position yourself on the straight and then get tucked in behind someone for the turns.

The final sprint, then, pretty much occurs coming out of turn 2 and halfway down the straight. Sprinting at the Mellowdrome pretty much favors the modern sprinter with a long powerful sprint, someone like Petacchi or Boonen. Ideally, you would take the lead by the end of the straight and power it to the line. It doesn't seem to favor the classic sprinters with devastating jump, riders like De Wilde or Van Poppel.

So the main lesson of the day? Pull the trigger twice, not just once, if you want to be in contention. Now do I always pull the trigger twice? Naw. I get lazy, I get confused, I get tired, etc... That's why for 6th place I'm invincible...

(to be continued)

Advanced Sprint Techniques, part 1

2007-06-18T12:11:00.000-04:00

For those of you who were there on Saturday, Kurt gave a pretty nice run down on some of the things experienced riders are doing to keep a step ahead of their opponents. Here's a quick summary with some extras added in:

Lead outs, 2 options:
1) Lead out gently pulls out of the sprinters lane before the 200m to go. Advantages are that this impedes the riders behind and allows the sprinter the shortest line. The disadvantage is that this type of lead out can only be done by really fast riders. If it's a slow lead out or the leadout goes for too long, both riders riders will be covered up by the 200m mark. If it's a one sprint race, I wouldn't mind if my leadout pulled off half way down the back straight.

2) Lead out rides the tightest line and stays there to allow the sprinter to pass as closely as possible. It's not as pretty or devastating as a well executed pull off, but it's a little harder for things to go south. Additionally, this is the only kind of lead out allowed if you are trying to get your rider closer than the 200m mark.

Line selection in a sprint:
This is a huge secret. The best way to win a sprint isn't necessarily the shortest line. An experienced sprinter will often ride the outside edge of the sprinters lane in turns 3 and 4. Is this slower? Yes, but it also forces the rider trying to make the pass take an even longer line. I would guess that if the lead rider moves to the right 2 feet, the passing rider rider will react by moving up track 3 feet. The lead rider then dives turn 4 taking a short line while the passing rider is left up high.

Now there are some problems with riding a wide line: it does allow riders who are 2 or 3 back a better opportunity to close. As long as you're not dying, though, they should be out of contention anyways. If you are dying, I wouldn't choose the wide line -- the 2nd rider will pass you anyways and you're reducing your chance of holding off the other riders coming out of turn 4.

Advanced variation of the wide line, the flick:
Sometimes you'll see an experienced rider ride a tight line and then they'll flick their bike to the outside when they feel the pressure of the pass. This momentary flick can induce the passing rider to let up a few pedal strokes or perhaps go really wide. I don't really recommend this technique since it's easy to pop out of the sprinters lane (DQ) if you haven't practiced. Additionally, there aren't that many riders I'd feel comfortable doing this to -- flick the wrong rider and you'll send them 6 feet up track with a subsequent chain reaction behind. I'm not advocating that everyone should start practicing this technique, but you should be aware that if you travel to some tracks this is fairly common.

(to be continued)

All your bases are belongs to us

2007-06-15T11:52:00.000-04:00

Ugggh. I was woken up at 3AM to juggling noises Juggling noises are a bad thing in our household because it means that little T, our cat, is juggling something, usually some small mammal. This wouldn't be so bad if he were catching mice, but more often than not, he is importing animals into the house for his own amusement. Last year he decided to do a catch-and-release with a chipmunk. I ended up chasing the chipmunk with a broomstick until it hid in the closet. Later on that day my mother-in-law, Jana, came over and during lunch I started telling her my morning adventures. For some strange reason, my wife started kicking me under the table and my mother-in-law turned pale and stopped talking. How was I to know that Jana had rodent phobia? I spent the next hour trying to root out the chipmunk while little T looked on bemusedly.

According to current scientific theory, cats, unlike dogs, aren't domesticated animals in the conventional sense. Dogs, for example, came to live with humans when hunters captured wild cubs and raised them in domestication. On the other hand, cats are theorized to be "social parasites". Cats probably started by hanging around human settlements, eating all the critters that were attracted by agriculture. Because we tolerated them they soon moved in, and before you know it they started eating our food, sitting on our couches, sleeping in our beds, and now countless hours of human productivity are spent scratching their heads.

So the point? I'm just glad cats aren't as big as dogs.

Race Report: Rollin' on the River 6/13

2007-06-14T18:45:00.000-04:00

Despite the afternoon showers and the pared down schedule, we got a great night of early summer racing. It was great to see kids out racing bikes: perhaps we could get more of them out in the future... How about some little Van Dolens? Sometimes, it's these little small things that turn into something more. thanks Clark!

B Race:
I felt kind of bad for the C, Junior, and women riders because they had to ride with the Bs tonight. The story, of course, was shaped by the two Kevins, Kevin "the Juggernaut" Lisska (Cane Creek-Masi), and Kevin "Speedman" Bray (ECD), the current points leader. If you've been following the track scene at all, Kevin Lisska has tons of power and has just dieseled away from the field several times this season. Kevin Bray, however, has really notched up his speed and he looked untouchable in the sprints at the first ROR.

True to form, in the second half Lisska separated himself from the rest and he relentlessly drove the break and scooped up the points. Despite concerted efforts by Sean (ECD) and Bray from behind, Lisska was able to hold the pack off to the finish. In a cagy move, Ray Van Dohlen bridged up to the break and even took the final sprint. I have to say though, if ECD had one more rider (Aaron?), things could have turned out very differently. Final Results:

1. Kevin Lisska
2. Ray Van Dohlen
3. Kevin Bray

Kudos to all the women, C's, and Juniors for racing with these thugs. Also Special kudos to Chris Otahall (Youngblood) for finishing 4th. I know that the B-field on track nights is a little thin, but maybe we should start a petition for his upgrade. No justice, no peace!

Now, I don't mean any offense, but the two Kevins don't really look like bike racers. You know , they kind of look more like they belong in the Ultimate Fighting Championships. Maybe at the end of the season if they're close on points we can decide it in a mixed martial arts contest. "Two men enter, one man leaves!"

A race:
I see red people. As in a legion of Smith-Barney riders. And they did a great job of keeping Erskine protected -- if it wasn't Jason setting tempo or Kurt leading him out, there was always someone to step in their shoes. Nevertheless it was a good competitive race -- the Ryobi team didn't cede an inch to Smith-Barney, Applegate was always willing to throw it down, and Joey was as fast as ever. In the end, in a stunning reversal of fortune, Josh Whitmore (Ryobi) took the final sprint and the race.

Some notes:

We all know that Joey likes to talk, but I'd like to say that it's pretty impressive that he doesn't have any team mates but he can position himself for the sprint time after time. Go Joey!

Is there some rule stating that you have to be 6' 5" and 225 lb to be on the Ryobi team? At one point when I was on the verge of getting shelled I was thinking, "Must not be beat by triathlete...." Seriously, they laid the wood down and took 1st, 5th, 6th (that's three triathletes). That's good riding. Time for me to commit hara kiri.

I took 7th after cheesing Applegate in a sprint. Seriously, it was a nice evening where I started to get my swagger back. At one point I followed Erskine for second and I felt that I could have taken him if I wanted. I also felt that with the right position, I could have taken that last sprint. All of this is, of course, delusional, but it's a good sign for a sprinter when you get home and you tell your story to your wife and she tells you, "Well don't we sound cocky tonight!"

Best quote of the night:
Josh Whitmore (to Joey) "This time I'm going to stick around and make sure you don't talk the refs out of my win!"

Results:
1 Josh Whitmore (Ryobi)
2 Joey Coddington (Kane bicycles)
3 Andrew Erskine (Smith-Barney)
7 Me!

PS, if you want a factual blow by blow of what happened in the races, write it yourself (hint hint. I'm getting tired of writing and I will gladly publish stories, pictures, etc..)

PPS I always feel like I neglect the masters -- I'll make it up to you some time.

Gives me chills...

2007-06-14T18:27:00.000-04:00

I don't know who the photographer is, but he has some riveting images from the track.
http://www.keirinberlin.de/Keirin_Gallery.html

Race Report: Madison / l'americaine 6-12-07

2007-06-13T11:29:00.000-04:00

To the uninitiated observer, the Madison looks like a cross between tag team wrestling, hockey, and riding through a swarm of bees. For experienced Madison fans, it still looks the same but it sure looks better after a couple of dark beers amidst the cacophony of some Europop. The rules are quite simple: it's best described as a tag team points race in which you are allowed to tag out with a team mate when you get tired.

The Race
As we got ready for the start, Kurt came to us and requested us to just roll for a while so that we could make a proper race of it. Since we were all tired that sounded like a good plan, and at the start everything was great. We were all just rolling along "doo deee dooo deeee dooo" having a ball for the first couple of laps until the ECD team of Kevin, Aaron, and Sean decided to attack and everything went all to hell. Apparently, "rolling along" wasn't in their vocabulary; perhaps Bluelight interpreted "let's roll" as "let's break some legs" in police lingo.

So Kevin, Sean, and Aaron are just killing it at the front, and there's just complete carnage behind. Darrin (Smith Barney) is getting thrown into another rider, and we're just missing exchanges like crazy. So I'm trying to follow at close to 50k, and my relief is coming down the track like he's on one of those little "Rascal" scooters for elderly people. At that point all I could think of was a cautionary tale parents tell their children about a kid who stuck his hand out the car window and when they came out of the tunnel the hand was gone....

Smith Barney (Kurt, Darrin, and guest star Bill) eventually came back and seized control but ECD rode a great race for a well deserved 2nd place. Josh (Hero of West Asheville) got us back on even terms with a massive chase but it was too late to make a dent on our massive points deficit. At least we salvaged some pride -- Ray, Josh, and I got some decent exchanges in the end. The pink team of Chris, Jean, and Jim? also settled down and looked pretty good at the end.

After the race we considered filing a protest claiming that we had a season guarantee for the perpetual first loser trophy -- it's a life size trophy in the shape of an overweight Jan Ullrich holding up a bratwurst in one hand and a strudel in the other -- but we decided to be satisfied with our copper colored Mellowdrowne medals instead...

Weather Secrets Revealed

2007-06-12T22:25:00.000-04:00

The bad thing about the proliferation of websitesthat predict the weather is that I am now constantly checking the current weather conditions. Gone are the days when you loaded up the car, drove 3 hours, and sat grimly at the listening to the patter of rain bouncing off of the windows.

So how do they come up with these predictions of 60% chance of light showers? Is there some super algorithm that takes into account barometric pressure, temperature, wind conditions, and humidity? The answer is actually much more simple: a large part of weather prediction is just an examination of historic data. In the past, how often did it rain when the current meteorological conditions match the conditions today. Simple.

Now there is a caveat to this elegant piece of information: this is classified under the category of a "Gen fact". Whenever I start to smugly pontificate on a subject of which I have dubious knowledge, my wife will raise her eyebrows and ask, "is that a Gen fact?" Now I have to admit I've had a couple of doozers, and usually I'm not the one who ends up looking stupid. My best one was the time that I got it in my head that the post office was recycling used ink cartridges. So I sent my poor mom with all these used ink cartridges to the post office. You can imagine the face of the clerk as my unsuspecting mom plunked down a bag of ink cartridges on the counter and announced that she had brought them for recycling. Boy was my mom mad at me....
To this day every time I say something off kilter my mom will ask me, "this isn't like your ink cartridge idea right?"

So maybe some meteorologist who worked for the Air Force will correct me, but that's my story on the weather, and I'm sticking with it.

Faces at the track: Kurt Begemann

2007-06-09T13:01:00.000-04:00

I'll be posting up some interviews of the characters at our track. Who better to start with than our track director, Kurt Begemann.

Short Interview: Kurt Begeman

G: So let me get a little back ground info from you first. When did you first move here from Australia?

Kurt: I'm actually from Zimbabwe.

G: Okaaaay. "Zimbabwe" then. Is that kind of close to Sydney or Perth?

Kurt: Not really. You've got the wrong continent.

G: Well, what I really wanted to know was if you ever had to deal with koalas running onto the track while you were riding.

Kurt: Dude, there are no koalas in Africa.

G: Kangaroos?

Kurt: No.

G: Ok, whatever. Let's move on to your childhood. Despite your funny accent, you seem to speak English pretty good. Did you learn it as a teenager?

Kurt: You do understand that there are countries other than the States that speak English.

G: Yes, I know. Places like New York, Texas, Florida. They are all countries that speak English.

Kurt: Can we talk about bikes?

Profile: Kurt Begemann

Height: 5' 9"

Weight: 155

Age: 37

Started racing at: I started BMX at age 9. Track at 18.

Best kilo: 1:11

The hardest race I've ever done is:
Grand Raid Crystalp. It's a huge point-to-point mountain bike race in Switzerland. It's about 125 miles, crosses some huge passes and 6 alpine valleys, and it has close to 3000 competitors.

Biggest Win:
Zimbabwe National Road Championship, 1991

Guiness or Chianti?
Chianti

Floyd or WADA?
Floyd

Stuey or Robbie?
Stuey

Country or Western?
(grins and shakes head) Metal

165 or 170?
165

Any unusual talents or experiences?
Well, I do know how to use both hands to... Let's scratch that. I can ride a unicycle. (After some prodding, "come on Kurt, tell him!") I also worked as a roadie for some 80's bands.

Such as?
Rod Stewart. Iron Maiden. Bon Jovi. AC-DC. Bryan Adams. Ozzy Osbourne. Bryan Adams. (Rattles off bunch more)

Could you sing a song for me? I'd like to hear that Rod Stewart song that goes, "If you want my body and you think I'm sexy, come on sugar let me know."
No.

Kurt, thanks for being a good sport. It would be great if you could e-mail me some pictures from this so called "Zimbabwe". I'm kind of looking for an action shot of you riding next to kangaroo or something.

Continuing Track Education

2007-06-09T07:51:00.000-04:00

So I've posted several new videos to the right.

Video 1: British Team Pursuit. Just beautiful.

Video 2: LA World Cup. Watch the crazy open track practice on a 250. Some of the most dangerous track riding I've done was in Japan during open track sessions in National competitions. 4 or 5 team pursuit teams practicing, sprinters doing flying 200s, and maybe 50 or so others in a line or scattered about.... It's a reminder that we're kind of loose on protocol here but you MUST stick to each track's rules if you want to stay safe...

This clip also has good footage of riders warming up on the infield. One thing I think we can improve on here is the warm up at our track. At every track I've been to, riders will roll around on road bikes or use a pair of rollers before their events. There's a good thread on warming up started by World Champion Gordon Singleton on Fixed Gear Fever regarding warmups. If I weren't such a clown these days, I'd warm up...

Video 3: Ignore the silly interview. Some nice team pursuit starts and a little match sprint excitement, some nice tactical maneuvering before getting down to business.

More track science: gearing shouldn't make a difference but it does.

2007-06-06T17:08:00.000-04:00

Many track riders are notorious for being finicky and secretive about their gearing. During competition, it's not unknown for mechanics to keep an athletes bike covered to keep the gearing on the bikes secret from their competitors. Choosing the right gear is a function of rider fitness and style, track conditions, and expected race patterns. In a fast 40k points race, choose too light of a gear and you will be barely able to follow. Choose to big of a gear and you might be out the back after contesting only one sprint.

Many beginning track bikes in the US are geared with a 49x15, a nominal 88 gear inches. Most experienced endurance track riders would consider this on the small side and might complain about feeling "spun out" in an extended chase or fast race.

On the other hand, a gear of 52x15, a nominal 93.6 inches, would be considered a pretty big gear, good for the finish of a scratch race but perhaps not so great for a choppy points race with repeated surges or a miss and out.

So how different is it to turn an 88 compared to a 93.6? In terms of perception, most riders would claim the difference is night and day: an 88 feels like spinning and a 93.6 feels like pushing. However, when you actually measure how many pedal strokes it takes to cover 1 lap on our 500m track, the 88 inch gear takes about 71 pedal strokes. So the difference between spinning an 88 versus pushing a 93.6 comes down to 4 pedal strokes spread out over a 500m lap. Go figure.

A birthday

2007-06-04T18:51:00.000-04:00

Seven years ago on a balmy fall evening, we were sitting on the front steps of Steve's house. That morning we had all been excited, one of our cycling friends was about to contest the last race in 4 race series and stood to sweep the entire thing. I didn't know her that well, other than rides from the local cafe and dinner parties in our circle of friends, but we were a tight knit group -- some riders from Cal, some from Oakland, and she was dating one of us and we quickly accepted her into our community.

On that day, friends and family flew in from all over to watch her race, but the race didn't go well for her as she was caught in an early lap crash. Nevertheless, after an extended chase she made it back to the front with 4 laps to go, and with 1 lap to go she led the pack up the hill.

She never made it down that hill that day, and as racers streamed across the finish, her friends and family slowly realized that she had not crossed the finish line, and as loved ones do, ran to find her.

She had been living at Steve's house, so that evening we all sat on Steve's steps, lit some candles, sipped on some beers, and thought about her, friends, and family.

Today would have been her 31st birthday. I'm not sure why I'm writing this -- perhaps because if stories aren't told they are forgotten. Perhaps, because sometimes cycling brings people together -- people who normally wouldn't have shared anything in common. I often joke that cyclists aren't known for their good character, but I've met some wonderful people on the bike, and she was one of those good people who you couldn't believe was a great cyclist.

So happy birthday and we'll think friends and family as you would have wanted us to.

Mellowdrome News Flash: Match Sprint with a Superhero

2007-06-03T16:06:00.000-04:00

Throughout my so called cycling career, I've had the opportunity to ride with some great champions, some heroes, and some not so heroes. To drop a few names, I've raced against riders like Hamilton, Zabriskie, Bugno, Herve, Richard, Rominger, Frischknecht, and others. On Saturday afternoon, however, I was able to ride with a real superhero

photos courtesy of Matt Dinsmore

Track strategy: Secrets of the Miss-and-Out

2007-06-02T19:29:00.000-04:00

Scott from fixed gear fever once exhorted us to "stop the conspiracy". He was talking about the lack of communication between the different track communities across the US (and internationally) I don't think he was specifically talking about track technique per se, but I have found very little published information about the track and advice is often given as precious drops of pearls by wizened track coaches. So I feel kind of funny sharing what I've learned so that all of you can easily see what I'm doing, but here goes. I'll also post it on the track info to the right.

Track racing secrets revealed, how to ride the miss-and-out.

One of the hardest events for new riders to master is the Miss-and-Out, also known as the elimination or the Devil Take the Hindmost. Before talking about the three primary strategies that I have picked up (and if you know more please tell me and I'll add it), there are certain basic things you must remember.

A) You must know how many riders there are in a field. Before the start make sure you know how many riders are at the rail. How many times have I heard people say, "I didn't know there were only six riders left..." Always keep track of how many riders are left: you shouldn't have to look back to figure that out.

B) The inside back is bad. Repeat this mantra -- no inside back. no inside back. Always avoid the temptation to move up on the inside even if a gap opens up on the inside. Invariably, if you take the inside you will get boxed and not even get to sprint. If you find yourself trapped on the inside, don't just follow everybody -- you have to actively sit up and back yourself out to the outside so that you won't get pulled. Remember, fight the tempation of the inside!

C) Despite a sprint every lap, the miss-and-out is just as much an endurance event as a sprint event. Run a light gear -- you don't have to win the sprints, you just have to avoid being last and it's usually run at a medium pace with lots of little accelerations. If you make it to the end, everyone's pretty blown so a big gear doesn't help much anyways.

D) You don't have to be first across the line. Just not last. Saving energy is good.

Now that we have that out of the way, here are some of the strategies decent miss and out riders use:

1) Ride from the pole. This is a good strategy for road riders with good endurance. Get to the front and pull at a relatively hard pace. Usually, everyone will be content to sit on for most of the lap and will only start coming around in turns 3 and 4. As you feel the pressure on the outside, accelerate just enough to keep from getting covered up. Even though you do not have the advantage of riding in the draft, it doesn't use that much more energy than constantly fighting for position and sprinting every lap.

2) Ride second wheel. This is probably the most energy conservative strategy but requires good bike handling skills. Ride behind the pole sitter but a bit on the outside on the shoulder. This allows you to get a half draft. Everytime you feel pressure, accelerate just enough to keep from getting covered and then slip back into second wheel after the line. Be prepared to be aggressive and have contact if the riders from behind try to box you and shuffle you to the back.

3) Play the devil. Ride near the back and sprint every lap and just do enough to be second to last. Never take the inside and be willing to pin someone on the inside. The reason why you ride the back is primarily for vision (seeing where everyone is going) and to keep from getting pinned yourself.

Riding a good miss and out requires some flexibility and some ability to improvise. Be prepared to switch between tactics during a race, and always be prepared for someone to do something totally unexpected and screw up everything. And of course, team tactics add a whole another dimension.

Enjoy!

Cap'n Hook McMillan takes out Gary.

2007-06-01T17:02:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday's racing was overshadowed by Cap'n Hook

McMillan taking out the rising young star of the Cane Creek - Masi team, Gary Maltby. In the second race of the night during a chase, Cap'n Hook went up track and then came down hard as Gary was pulling through, resulting in predictable consequences. As Gary writhed in agony, Cap'n Hook then threw Gary's bike onto the infield. After the race the Cap'n was overheard saying,

"I ain't going to take no tatooed b***h fronting me in my house. Besides, I've heard that Blue Ridge Bone and Joint isn't doing too well recently so I decided send some referrals their way..."

Cane Creek-Masi members then had to be led away by Kevin and Marilyn as they were going for their chain whips. Josh was quoted as saying, "If ABRC wants to start s**t, they better be ready to bring it. We're gonna make T-town look like a tea party dawg."

On a serious (and actually truthful note, since I hope you don't really believe that things actually happened as written above: Gary just ran into the wheel {edited}), our team, and especially Gary and Mat (Gary's room mate), were very grateful by the way everyone responded to Tuesdays accident. According to Mat, Gary's okay but his collarbone is broken into 4 pieces. Ron arranged for a quick consultation at AB and J, and Gary should get patched up soon. They were also really really impressed that Kurt Begemann showed up at the emergency room after working promoting the race and also racing it himself. I think all of us appreciate how Kurt demands the best from all of us and is genuinely concerned for our well being.

Keirin terms: sashi, makuri, and senko

2007-05-30T21:26:00.000-04:00

Last week I explained the "sashi" which can be translated to "a stab", a maneuver in which a rider comes off the wheels at the last second, usually after turn 4. The second type of keirin rider is prefers a "makuri (or to come around). Launching a powerful sprint from behind, the makuri is a longer sprint that balances power and speed. Riders who are skilled in the makuri are often skilled bike handlers who must endure fierce contact by the riders on the inside who attempt to take the riders up the track.

However, modern Keirin tends to favor the "senko" or "lead out" rider. These riders posess incredible amounts of power and hit the front very early, often 500-750m from the finish. Even though a good senko rider is incredibly fast, he also relies on the carnage behind. Anytime someone tries to come around, the rider in second position will often lift them up the track to protect his position. It's pretty normal for the riders behind to expend most of their energy banging into each other and allow the senko rider to win. One of the best modern senko riders, Yoshioka, can be seen in the video in the right.

Strange Track Science

2007-05-30T06:50:00.000-04:00

Here's a question for you?

Question: How much farther does a rider have to travel if they ride in the middle of the sprinters lane (let's say 1 foot out) instead of on the measurement line?

This is actually a very good middle school or high school math problem. Usually, people then respond with, "well, it depends on the size of the track." The answer is counterinuitive: it is always 6.28 feet per lap regardless of the size of the track. Try it yourself: figure out the circumference of a a circle with a radius of 6 vs 7. Then try it on a circle with a radius of 100 vs 101. C = 2*pi*r It's always the same.

What does it mean for us? Well, if you ride 1 foot out in the kilo on our 500m monstrosity, you are losing 12 1/2 feet by the finish. In the 4k pursuit, it's about 50ft.

Question 2: What interesting things happen to a bike and it's speed in a corner?

Well, the first interesting thing is that the effective gearing on a bike drops as the bike leans over resulting in an increase in rpm. Since the contact patch moves to the shoulder of a tire, the distance between the hub and the contact patch is reduced, hence a smaller radius. This effect is pretty marginal on a bicycle compared to a motorcycle in which the contact patch really moves closer to the axis of rotation.

More significantly, a bicycle will go faster through a turn than on a straight. Because of a bicycle's lean, the center of gravity will move to the inside of the path taken by the wheels.

Why is this important? If a rider is traveling at 50kph on the straights, the rider's center of gravity will also travel 50kph. Because the center of gravity is traveling a shorter line than the wheels the effective speed at the wheel is greater than 50kph.

The faster you go, the more you lean, the shorter the line for the center of mass, and more speed at the wheel. In addition, taller riders, who have a higher center of gravity, actually travel even shorter lines since center of gravity goes even further to the inside. It's just not fair!

Self proclaimed: first Japanese person at the Ramp Festival

2007-05-25T21:46:00.000-04:00

When you can't play on two wheels go to the ramp festival! My kids gave me a parting viral gift so last weekend I decided to skip the ride with my mates and ended up at the Ramp Festival in Whitetop, Virginia.

"Please park your horse here"

"That's the ramp in the middle"

Whitetop is on the way to Mount Rogers and is located along a super fun twisty forest road. Tried to forget that I wasn't out on a bicycle but that ended as we went through Damascus, a quaint town along the Appalachian trail and the Virginia Creeper. Apparently, renting bicycles for a ride down Mount Rogers is a big industry here and there were tons of rental shops and shuttle vans for the adventurous bicycle traveler. According to my wife, I looked like a little kid with my face pressed up against the window. Ooooh bicycles. Ooooooh motorcycles...

"Stacy and Anya chawing down on ramps."

"Virginia size barbecue"

For those of you who don't know, ramps are a scallion like plant that have a flavorful pungent bulb with garlic like pungency. The ramp is celebrated in a gathering of music, dance, and of course, eating. One of the highlights of the day is the ramp eating contest, in which the contestants try to stuff themselves with as many ramps as possible in three minutes. Talking to a local elementary school teacher, she told me that you could smell the ramps for a couple of days coming out of the pores of the kids who took part in the junior ramp eating contest.

"trying to keep the ramps down"

Of course, Stacy and Anya didn't just come down for the ramps -- they came to see the Whitetop Mountain Band -- a real Appalachian old time band. Asheville is a great place to hear great bluegrass and old time music and there so many hot pickers in the area, but you sometimes have to find out of the way places to hear the raw mountain sounds of traditional Appalachian music.

"The last waltz"

For those of you interested in Appalachian music I'd check out some of the places along the Crooked Road, "Virginia's Music Heritage Trail". It's quite a sight the first time you walk into the harsh fluorescent lights of the Floyd Country Store on a balmy friday night, musicians just hammering away with sweat pouring from their brows, wizened septugenarians and teenagers in their fancy best, clogging away, clackety clack, clackety clack, clackety clack. Standing room only!

"Anya and Stacy Hanging out with the Whitetop Mountain Band"

"Serious picking with Spence (white cap)"

Many of us in Asheville are transplants, but it doesn't mean that we can't appreciate the some of the cultural things around us. Remember that the next time you presented a choice between going to the Dave Matthews Band or savoring a delectable local delicacy at some local festival. Go ramps!

NJS

2007-05-24T20:27:00.001-04:00

Left: Faint NJS stamping on stem. Many fixed gear afficionados covet the NJS stampingon special track parts from Japan. NJS stands for the Nihon Jitensha Shinkokai, basically the Japan cycling association. Even though the markings are construed by many as a mark of quality or approval for Keirin racing, the origins of NJS standards stem from post WWII protectionism. In order to nurture fledgling bike and component manufactures after the war, NJS standards were instituted to keep Japanese bikes and parts in use despite European and American competition. In fact, Campagnolo has made NJS track parts but has discontinued manufacture because the cost of registering and "testing" under NJS standards was prohibitively expensive.

On a side note, we should appreciate that we are under the auspices of USA cycling. If you think the feds are bad, it's unbelievable in Japan. In the Japanese system, all the federations are run by affiliated with the government, and they are headed by bureacrats that know absolutely nothing about cycling. Retiring politicians are often rewarded with plum jobs as executives of these organizations and draw a lucrative salary with basically no work and plenty of perks.

Any slightly major race wouldn't be complete without 20-100 officials and dignitaries present doing nothing but carousing or offering patronizing and useless advice. I got to experience this first hand at the Southern Japan championship when I was selected to represent our district. The District rep gave us our instructions for our team: I was to lead an attack with 2 of our better riders on the third lap and we were to team time trial to the finish. Of course this was the same kind of wrongheaded thinking that got Japan into trouble during the war:

"Lieutenant Kogure. You will lead a special attack squadron and decimate the American strike force at Midway..."

Needless to say we actually managed to win the race, but only after meeting in secret without our handlers / coaches. So next time you feel like complaining about how the racing is run remember that you could be assigned to 12:00 AM laundry duty the night before a race. (to be continued)

Race Results: High times at the Mellowdrome

2007-05-22T20:53:00.001-04:00

Photo Caption: Gary in the team sprint. Feeling crappy today so I did the River Ride instead of the track. Joey told me how horrible hippies are... and after the ride I stopped by the track to see how everyone fared. Partial results only since everything is reconstructed from my fantasy world -- sorry masters and 4th place losers!

Open Men, Individual Pursuit

Andrew Erskine Smith Barney 5:11
Kurt Begemann Smith Barney 5:13
Josh Reddoch Cane Creek-Masi 5:14

I was really impressed by Kurt's ride. He just has that experienced rider form and he looks great on the bike. He doesn't look like he's going hard but he's deceptively fast. He made up 3 seconds on my team mate in the last lap. I doubt that he's training like he used to, but his experience makes up for a lot.

Women 500m

Marilyn (sp?)the SRO
Jean Hurtz

I hope to see some good women's racing action this year. Marilyn in just starting on the track but she was a championship track and field athlete. Jean's no slouch and Marilyn beat her by a blink of an eye. Check back next week for the knock down rematch.

Team Sprint

Smith Barney (Andrew, Kurt, Scott) 1:49
Cane Creek-Masi (Gary, Josh, Matt) 1:51
ABRC (Aaron, Alan, and Rostin ) 1:57

Like usual this was the most entertaining race of the night. My photo is a recreation of Gary's start -- yes Gary actually does look like a stick figure. Anyways, Gary took off like he had seen Jerry Falwell's ghost and proceeded to drop his team mates. They only caught on after chasing for half a lap.

Aaron also had a crazy sub 33 second lap. To put that into perspective that's on pace for a 1:06 kilo. At the Mellowdrome! Of course it's really not fair because his last name is Renner -- I think that it's worth at least a couple of seconds -- Renner means "Racer" in German.

Until next time...

Time To WOMAN UP!

2007-05-19T21:06:00.000-04:00

I think it would be incredibly fun if the women were to have their own races and fields during the Tuesday night track races. So on May 29th, Kurt has offered (and please correct me if I'm mistaken) the Women their own fields if they can get 6 or more riders. I know that few if any of us really race for the prizes, but I'm willing to put up the following as a prize list if we can get a women's field:

1 pair of brand new Mavic Open pro rims.
1 pair of brand new cycling shorts.

In addition, Josh from Cane Creek has also agreed to donate some small prizes -- perhaps everybody can walk away with something....

If it doesn't happen on the 29th, perhaps it can happen at the next mass start night. Maybe someday there will be a women's race every race night....

Steel Bike Profile

2007-05-19T08:10:00.001-04:00

My second bike is an old Mercier constructed from the venerable Reynolds 531 tube set. Back when riders would choose their frames based on the ride qualities of different steels, Reynolds 531 was considered one of the most reliable mainstays of the peloton. In fact Reynolds had several different versions of 531 depending on its application.

My bike was originally owned by Robert Ford, also known as the Jamaican Rocket. He once raced against Michael Hubner and was also the Jamaican National Champion. Robert was known for his brilliant "sashikomi". In Keirin racing, "sashi" type riders are the brilliant riders who can come off a wheel at the last moment with incredible acceleration.

This bike then passed down to Robert Kurosawa, also known as Pineapple Bob. Pineapple Bob was a long time poster boy for the now defunct American arm of Bridgestone and a long time fixture of the nascent Bay Area cyclocross scene. His sense of humor is expressed on the down tube: he replaced the original seals with Fiorucci, which I think made funky Italian raised shoes....

This bike has now been put to use by my wife for commuting and tooling around in the Mellowdrome. It's not a fancy bike or anything, but it's delightful that each bike can have a history and story that makes them important to our lives.

Restaurant review: Taqueria Gonzalez

2007-05-16T21:44:00.000-04:00

I'm the world's expert on food because I'm from the Bay Area. Seriously, Asheville has some real good Mexican food and it's NOT Urban Burrito or Salsa's. Urban Burrito isn't bad, but it's serving a Californian style burrito. Salsa's is really really good, with fresh ingredients and wonderful flavors, but it's not Mexican.

Asheville's Mexican secret: Taqueria Gonzalez
Location: Haywood Road, next to Pastabilities

First, a warning -- they don't speak English here and they don't have a menu. Taqueria Gonzalez is the right half of a Mexican market, and they are one of the rare places that serves real Mexican food. It's not Tex-Mex and it's also not Alice Waters style Cal-Mex either. They make their own corn tortillas, salsas (in non-gringo spicyness levels), horchata, and on the weekends Nopales (cactus): everything is served in a no nonsense decor. Don't expect to eat your food in a faux hacienda and don't be surprised to be the only non-Latino there.

My favorites: Sopes or tacos Al Pastor. Al Pastor is a pork barbecue marinated cooked in a tangy rich barbecue sauce. I also love their huge Caldo (soup) with posole, a thick stew that has chicken and corn and served with a stack of tortillas. The chicken is incredibly tender, fatty, and rich and the flavor of the soup is reminiscent of the Mexican food I've had in Northern New Mexico.

Spanish primers when ordering (and I don't speak Spanish):

"Yo quiero" = I would like
"platos" = plate
"para aqui" = for here
"para llevar?" sp? = to go

un = 1
dos = 2
tres = 3

Types of toppings:
carnitas = roast pork
carne asada = roast beef
pollo = chicken
al pastor = barbecue pork
cabesas = head (warning)
menudo = tripe (warning)
posole = corn
maresco = sea food

What to order:
caldo = soup
tamal = tamale
tacos = tacos
sopes = a tostada like dish heaped meat, beans, and lettuce.

It's a little initmidating but be adventursome: point and do the best you can. If they frown you're probably trying to order tripe or something. In the words of my favorite food writer: "Check it out!"

8 seconds in the team pursuit.

2007-05-12T21:47:00.000-04:00

8 seconds in the team pursuit. We lost to Kurt's goons "Smith Barney" by 8 seconds. 8 Seconds is an eternity on the track. That's about a quarter lap. Okay, I like the goons but 8 seconds is a lot....

On a side note -- Sean, Aaron, and John rode a 5:20 with 3 guys. That's pretty darn good for 3 guys in the swirling wind.