I took this photo Sunday morning before I checked out of the Days Inn. It was a little dark, so a tripod would have been nice to make it a little clearer, but you get the idea…
Cleveland Race Weekend
I went to Cleveland, TN (just on the other side of Chattanooga) to chase some TBRA points and to do some course recon for the River Gorge omnium that’s in Chattanooga in a couple of weeks. Learning experience ensued…
Saturday- Criterium
So only 4 of us showed up. When the race started, I waited a few laps before attacking (the course was sketchy- one corner was a <90degree turn that included a mystery oil slick that had been taking riders out in every field up until my race). When I did attack, only 1 other was able to stay with me (Mary Mayhew). After a couple of laps of putting time between us & the other two, we play “let’s make a deal” and decide to work together until the last turn of the last lap-Â I figured it would be an OK move since I wanted good legs for the Sunday TT, and I also planned on doing some climbing as well.
Fast forward half an hour- Mary attacks coming out of the next to last turn rather than waiting for the last turn as we’d agreed. I get gapped and can’t cover before the finish. I get 2nd place and very pissed off at myself for being a weenie and making a deal in the first place. I was mildly annoyed at Mary as well, but I feel that I’m more to blame for putting myself in that situation to begin with. It should have been a work-my-ass-off solo finish, but I tried to take the easy way out & got burned.
Sunday- TT
At the state TT, Mary beat me by 8 seconds, last week at Allanti, I beat her by a fraction of a second. Sunday, she shows up with a sweet TT rig/disk/etc. (read- a few second’s worth of aero equipment). I was still feeling confident, but I can’t deny that our past close finishes were in the back of my mind somewhere.
I felt good warming up, and once I was on course, hit a good rhythm. If you’ve ever watched footage of The Tour, you’ve likely heard the phrase “Pedaling in Anger” from Phil Ligget. If you are wondering what this means, just search for a photo of me in this time trial (not sure if one exists, but you get the idea). It’s the first time trial that I’ve really rocked since I got my TT bike. I ended up turning a 34:14 for the 14 mile, rolling course (which would have placed me well in most of the men’s fields). I felt somewhat redeemed…
After waiting for a couple of hours for the results & payout, I joined up with a couple of the Velo Vixens (and a few others) and headed back to Chattanooga to pre-ride the River Gorge road race course. It’s gonna be tough, but it should be a fun race this year (as long as I can make it up the final climb before I finish singing “99 bottle of beer on the wall” in my head to keep tempo).
Another reason to shop at Ibex
Not only is Ibex wool wonderful, their customer service is awesome!
I ordered some arm warmers back in June, only to find that they were too big. I sent them back to exchange them for a small, but somehow I left the return address off of the return form (I guess I was assuming that if they’d sent it to me, then they’d know where to send it back).
Well, the replacements were sent to the only address they had in their system- my former apartment. I realized today that I hadn’t received the replacements (I hadn’t been thinking about winter clothes because it’s been hot). I emailed them, and figured out what happened. Even though I was the one that screwed up- they’re sending small arm warmers to me (at the correct address) anyway.
You guys rock.
SRAM Hoods
When I put the white saddle on my bike, I immediately decided that the black hoods would have to go. Luckily, SRAM sells both red and white bartape/hood combo packs. For now, I’m just going to stick to the hoods…
Grrrr…
From the Allanti State Championship Road Race (visit Bart Nave Photography for more race photos)…
Allanti Crit Photos
Today’s Headline:
Girl at Bike Race Scales Bridge and Throws Bike off the Top
Well, I thought about it, but then I would have been copying this guy, who was wandering around on Nashville’s Gateway Bridge with a bible and a bottle of water during our races Sunday morning.
My race was not so spectacular. After getting 3rd in the Saturday afternoon time trial (behind Kirsten Sass and Debbie Milne), all I could do was hope to place well enough to hold on to 2nd in the omnium. However, sprinting for too many primes would be my downfall. There were 4 offered, and I went all-out for all of them (losing each to Debbie). By the 4th one, Debbie countered her own attack and dropped the rest of the field (including me). We actually had a pretty good chase going, but as soon as the officials gave us the “3 to go” sign, everyone sat up, and Debbie’s 11ty-billionth solo victory was in the books.
How’d I finish? Well, I’d done 4 all-out sprints already, so of course, I didn’t have a whole lot left in the tank and ended up finishing 3rd in the pack and dropping me to 3rd overall in the omnium. I keep telling myself that I can’t expect to be kicking a ton of ass at the end of a couple of pretty tough weeks of training, but it doesn’t make poor racing strategy any easier to swallow. However, a 24oz Fat Tire at Mellow Mushroom does help a little :)
Ryan raced a couple of hours later with several of his teammates. They were all pretty tired from their 60 mile race the previous day, and a 3-man break (not including any of the Memphis Velo guys) stayed away, leaving Ryan in the pack to sprint (though he did make a couple of valiant efforts to get away from the group when it looked as though they were going to quit chasing).
I’ll post some photos soon!
State Championship Road Race
I’m pretty tired, so I’ll keep this brief-
Debbie got away from the field about 1/2way through the 1st of two RR laps. I was chasing with a couple of other girls who didn’t seem too concerned with catching The Milne since she wasn’t from TN (so she wasn’t a threat to the championship jersey). So, I threw in a little attack on a little hill and got away from them. The course was tough, and the temp was over 90, but I managed to stay away for the remainder of the race (though I never caught Debbie).
I was 2nd overall & won the State Championship. It would have been nice to not get beaten so badly, but considering I am training through this race (over 200 miles for the week), I can’t be too suprised that I couldn’t keep up with her attack. It’s aight- I get a nice, new TN state champ jersey for my troubles :)
The plot thickens…
I’m not sure how many local racers read this (other than Lauren!), but I figured I’d clue readers in on how the state RR championship/Allanti omnium is shaping up for the weekend…
Here are the current omnium entrants:
| Womens 1/2/3/4 Overall | top | |
| Kailin | Acheson | Team Reliant Bank/Harpeth Bicycles |
| Carol | Farmer | Velo Vixens Cycling Club |
| Mary | Mayhew | SCO/Bike Zoo |
| Debbie | Milne | ProBikeCycling |
| Lisa | Starmer | Team Reliant Bank/Harpeth Bicycles |
| Andrea | Wilson | Team Kenda Tire |
You’ll notice that Debbie Milne is going to be there. She and I have been swapping wins this season, although hers are usually more of a beatdown, and mine are a little bit more luck :)Â The last time we raced, she and Lauren kicked my butt all over the place (in my home town, no less), so I’m hoping to dish out a little revenge on Saturday!
Other riders of note:
Though she’s not listed in the overall competition, Kirsten Sass, who dished out her own beatdown at the State TT, is signed up for the Allanti TT. She told me last weekend that she was still on the fence about the road race, but that she wasn’t riding in any more crits for a while since she had some big triathlons coming up. I hope she decides to come out & suffer with us as we chase Debbie over the hills.
Also, worth a quick mention is Mary Mayhew. She is ahead of me in the TBRA BAR points at the moment, but since the powers that be changed the points calculations to even the road for those of us that don’t attend all of the TBRA races, I should be able to catch up with her in the next few race weekends.
I’m feeling much better about this weekend than for the Memphis race. My training volume has been high, but it’s helped me drop a couple of pounds and get acclimated to the heat & humidity. See you all on the road!
Product Review: Zipp Vuka Base and Clip-on Aerobars
Now that I’ve had a chance to use these, I figured I’d let everyone know that they’re generally as kick as much ass as you’d expect out of anything from Zipp.
I am very impressed by the base bars- they have a fat, grippy section in the middle for the aero extensions to clamp onto. I also like how the base angles downward ever-so-slightly (as opposed to making you choose between either straight across or angled steeply downward). The outer grips are also comfortable for riding since they’re fat & sort of hand-shaped.
The clip-on extensions are infinitely adjustable and the bend is just right to keep your wrists comfortable. I’ve also sweated on the elbow pads like crazy and they’ve yet to become stinky :)
The SRAM shifters & brake levers are nice, and the carbon ties everything together. The shifters are a new style that don’t rotate as far down as the current style, making it easier to pull the lever back up if it’s ever all the way down.
The verdict- get it now! You can’t go wrong with Zipp/SRAM.