Ride The World Cup 10/18

Mouse crew 2 at Hellyer
Originally uploaded by renroublard

I finally made it back to the track yesterday, after having missed August and September events due to late season mishaps. The occasion for off-season racing was the Ride the World fundraiser for Shelley Olds' trip to the Manchester World Cup event. It was also a tune up event, and a bunch of As turned out to help her train, including local national-level pros Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell's GC leader) and Dan Holloway (Garmin's up-and-coming track and crit star). 

Cathy took a bunch of photos with my Canon 40D DSLR camera that I got recently for race photography. On Flickr here.

The main events were scratch and points races, with an unusual Madison team sprint event mixed in for the sprinters. I raced Bs. Felt good enough even after doing my first (light) weight training session the night before. But I raced the scratch race all wrong, as many people pointed out afterwards that it looked like I towed the pack around most of the race. I put in 4 or 5 attacks, but from too far up, so the strong guys had me marked. It wasn't until the second half of the race that I figured out which guys to mark. Almost got a breakaway formed with one guy with around 10 to go, but he didn't really want to work. Good news is that Jake (my teammate and Shelley's brother) got 3rd. A couple lessons from this, especially that scratch and points racing dynamics are quite different. I hadn't done a scratch race since June. 

The points race went much better. I changed my plan when they only put 20 laps on the board, instead of the 40 laps scheduled. Running out of time, I guess. Old plan was to be opportunistic to start, then commit in the middle. New plan was to go for the first sprint, since there were only 4. 

The first sprint worked out gloriously. I attacked from the back with around 3 laps to go and opened up a big gap immediately, as the pack hesitated. Paced myself to get the full points, then slowed to regroup on the next lap. The next strongest two guys attacked with 3 to go for #2. I hesitated a bit and they got a 30m gap before Jake and I got a good response going. The gap maxed at ~70m and they picked up the second sprint, while Jake and I worked team-pursuit-style to shut it down a lap or 2 after #2. That gave us time to regroup and for me to recover, then I attacked with a lap to go before #3 and got passed just at the line to get 2nd. This had three of us tied for first with 10 points each. I knew it was close but wasn't 100% where I stood. 

Then I messed up the tactics. With it so close, I should have played it more conservatively and used my sprint. Instead, I had it in my head to attack again, like I had all day (not sure why, I can sprint after all). I stayed at the back, feinted on the high side with 3 to go, saw them respond, then sat in until just under 2 to go. I let a gap open up off the back, accelerated into it and dropped down track. Had a good gap and didn't get caught until turn 4 (400m to go). I could have pulled off and probably gotten back on, but I figured I'd lead it out for Jake and kept it going. The guys sprinted at 250m to go. 

Result: Third overall. Fun race. It's interesting to race aggressively, rather than sitting in waiting for sprints like I tended to do in season. I'd put on a slightly bigger chainring (49t for 88in) so for the first time in a while I felt like I wasn't undergeared. 

Leopard bike demo report

I drove Liam and I down to Half Moon Bay this afternoon for the Leopard Cycles demo session. Met up with Scott, then Ammon and Ben arrived with Dan Connelly (WebCor) from the Low Key Hill Climb.

The Leopard guys were very friendly and informative. There was the owner, marketing guy, and mechanic there and they helped get us all on M1 demo bikes. Importantly, they really worked to get us fit decently on the demo bikes, measuring against existing bikes (or in my case, measurements I'd taken from my bike) and moving components to dial in the fit pretty well, for a representative test. They were very generious with their time, spending 2 hours with us until we ran out of questions and testing to do.

From my testing, the Leopard M1 rode great, with many of the ride characteristics I've enjoyed about my Scott CR-1: quick-handling geometry, stiff, and smooth. Leopard HQ is a few blocks from the popular Half Moon Bay marina restaurants, so the roads weren't too busy and Maverick's hill just around the corner was a great way to put the bikes to the test, both going up and coming down.

What excites me the most about the Leopards is how cool they look. The Joe's custom paint jobs are distinctive, especially the translucent paint over the carbon weave, and the Leopard tube shapes are interesting. The M1 is the most aggressive looking, with varying tube shapes and a rear wheel cut-out. The M1SL has rounder tubes, but still has some unique shaping to keep it from being as generic looking as my Scott. Both the M1 and M1SL have a nice rear-brake cable routing method, with the cable running in a recessed space under the top tube.

The M1 and M1SL bikes are light. With relatively heavy (~1700gr) wheels, a SRAM Red-equipped M1SL weighed in at under 15lbs, no pedals. Some of the other Mice were weighing other bikes, so might be able to say better what other configurations were coming in at.

Besides the road bikes, they had a slick TT rig and a pro-looking cross bike. Ben tried out both and could comment on those.

It was well worth the trip. I'm now definitely leaning towards getting at a Leopard road bike to replace my crashed-out Scott.

Frame Pic w/ translucent blue paint: 

Absenteeism, the Season's End, and 2009 bikes

I've really gotten a track record of skipping events I've signed up for. Last week, I skipped the Mt Tam hill climb because I had a bit of a cold and my lungs didn't feel so hot. I also skipped today's Calaveras Road 10-mile TT, again for a medical reason.

It's funny that I still got a time for Mt. Tam: 52:47. I don't know if someone else got my number (the event was sold out) or what. It's not the time I'd have expected to put up. I actually emailed the organizer asking for them to remove or correct it. 

All this comes after that string of missed races due to crashes. I was actually feeling quite good early this week, after a long Sunday ride and a fairly intense Tuesday morning Polo Fields group ride. It'd have been funny to come back on form right after the end of the season. No worries about that now, as I'm going to take this weekend really easy. 

An exciting part of winter prep is getting new equipment. I've been working on using the team deal with Beyond Fabrications to get a TT bike and 50mm carbon aero wheels with PowerTap rear hub. I was originally thinking of TT bike, race wheels, and road bike as separate purchases (retail price on the wheels and PT hub costs more than many bikes), but the Beyond deal was good enough that I can get both the TT bike and wheels without feeling like I'm splurging much (and given I'd been saving for 2009 upgrades). 

I'm expecting to go down at pick up the bike on Sunday. Here's a pic:

For the wheels, I'm getting the 50mm-deep rims (much less deep than the picture), so I can use them in road races as well as TTs. Unlike some teammates, I'm getting clincher rims, since I don't understand the practicality of tubulars in long local road races, where follow cars are few and far between. Waiting to get picked up is no fun compared to the alternative of changing a tube and riding to the finish. Tubulars make more sense on the track, where it's not hard to have a spare wheel on hand. 

I still haven't quite settled how I'll replace my Scott road bike (busted up by the car incident). The Scott crash replacement deal on the frame is still an OK way to go, but Ben's got me pretty jazzed about Leopard Cycles, with the likelihood of a few teammates going in and getting a custom Roaring Mouse paint job. 

I'd looked at Leopard earlier in the year, when I won a $350 off coupon as a prime, and what impressed me were the paint jobs, especially the sections with translucent paint over carbon fiber. Given that most high-end carbon bikes are manufactured in the same place in Taiwan, the difference between frames are in the design (tube shape, geometry), materials (choice of more or less expensive carbon weave) and paint job. Most bikes don't look all that interesting, usually because they have one base coat, plus a bunch of decals. I'm sure the Roaring Mouse scheme will be pretty interesting, even if it's a lot of yellow. I'd probably get Leopard's M1SL frame for the clean lines and light weight.

Clinic canceled

Doh! The Advanced Tactics and Skills clinic on Oct 11 & 12 is canceled. Apparently there were just a few signups, a huge drop from previous years when it had sold out. 

Too bad. I was really looking forward to learning something. And grabbing 5 easy upgrade points. :)