Century record at Livestrong Challenge Davis

I haven’t posted here in a while, except for cross-posting Beat the Clock stuff, simply because there was nothing of note to post. I wasn’t really racing due to a few oral surgeries followed by a few mishaps that included getting stung by a bee IN the eye and breaking two toes sleepwalking into a door (I wish I had a better story for that incident!). Until yesterday, when I not just broke but completely obliterated my previous century record. Peter Tapscott, Andrew Valko and myself rode the Livestrong Challenge Davis in 4:17 ride time and a total of 4:24:49 total time (according to my Powertap)! It was “only” 97 miles, so not quite a century, and nearly dead flat, but windy enough so that you needed to be able to output a decent amount of Watts.

Andrew’s report is here, but he is way too kind to me. I managed to take a single millisecond pull at my sprinting power right at the start, the rest of the way I was hanging on for dear life to Andrew’s and Peter’s monster-pulls at or above threshold, according to my Powertap, sprinting a whopping 50 minutes above threshold. But, let’s start from the beginning.

Before the ride I was grumpily complaining to the BTC team that the new tracking app they introduced this year at the Livestrong Challenge was just plain stupid because then people will go into race mode and do all sorts of stupid things like running red lights, and that any sort of chip timing will only be reasonable if they provide the same police support and rolling road closures like they do at Gran Fondos or Marathons (that’s what Fondos are called in the German speaking part of Europe) — not to be confused with the so-called Fondos here in the US, which are simply renamed regular centuries. Well, I admit I was completely wrong this time. The CHP/police support was nothing short of awesome and I regretted the whole way that I threw the tracking chip into the trash before the start.

The BTC Team – from left to right: Jan Mock, Peter Tapscott, Patt Baenen-Tapscott, Carole Sykes, Libby Rouan, Carola Berger, Lisa Hern, Kim Boester, Debra Paulsen, David Paulsen; and Trudee Gardner, who rode with us in form of a very un-aerodynamic tag on Carola’s bike

But now to the ride itself. The 100 milers went off first, but Peter Tapscott and I missed the staging due to some breakfast delivery complications. Thankfully, Peter is more resourceful (and American) than me, because we snuck into the front line-up somewhere we shouldn’t have. It’d make more sense, esp. with the new tracking, to stage people according to expected speed, not according to other criteria. In any case, we followed a half dozen or so Team Fatty members in the front group who led the riders out of Davis, with a CHP officer in her car in front. At the outskirts of Davis, the pace picked up, Peter and I were still in the top 5 or so. Then, 3-4 miles into the ride, a Team Fatty triathlete, who we’d later get to know as Andrew Valko, put in a monster pull which only Peter could follow. I thought that I didn’t want to get dropped by Peter in the first few miles and bridged up. As soon as my cross-eyedness allowed, I looked around, and there was nobody anywhere near us. Mrs. CHP stepped on the gas, as did we, and poof — there we were, like one of those breakaway groups you see on TV in the Grand Tours, with our very own CHP escort. Except better, cause none of us had to do a Hoogerland, Mrs. CHP knew how to drive. I was barely hanging on as we had a 28mph average in the first hour.

We continued at the same speed, and picked up another CHP escort on his motorbike about a third into the ride. The two CHP officers led us safely all the way. Unfortunately I was too cross-eyed and brain-dead to get names or car/bike numbers, but we owe you a beer or two (when you’re off duty)! We beat the lunch crew to the 50-mile stop, they were just pouring water into the containers as we arrived. After the mid-way stop, we did not stop at all anymore. On the only 3-minute elevation of the day I went backwards really fast, but luckily, Peter had just ingested a Honey Stinger, which kicked in and he gave me a Madison-throw up the hill.

This is what happens when you feed Peter some Honey Stingers: He motors away on a climb at 30mph nearly dropping his two breakaway mates and then performs dance moves at the finish because he still has too much energy. (They should have a warning label on these things!)

As mentioned repeatedly above, I was barely hanging on to these maniacs, and was cursing my “brilliant” idea of putting the tag “We ride for Trudee” on my bike. This tag must’ve cost me quite a few watts, especially since my Powertap file looked precisely like a 4+ hour crit, not like a usually more steady-state century ride, and therefore every millimeter of aerodynamic savings counted. I was glad I had put on my race wheelset.

“We ride for Trudee”.

We passed the 20 miles to go sign at roughly the same time we flew by BTC team member Libby and then the rest of the BTC team, who were riding the 100k distance. This sign inspired Peter and Andrew to kick it up a notch and ride 30+ mph instead of a mere 28, all the while I was praying for either the finish or a ginormous headwind so I’d be able to hang on till the end. Somehow I made it, but if there’s a pic of me crossing the finish line, I bet I strongly resemble a character fresh out of a Stephen King zombie movie.

Thanks to Andrew and Peter for not dropping me and pulling me all the way! I promise, I won’t sleepwalk into doors anymore so I can actually train for next year and will hopefully be able to contribute something to the effort. And many thanks to the police officers and the many volunteers who made this event as awesome as it was!!

Song of the Smurfs and other Fred-deterrents

On the occasion of my latest organized century+ ride, the Mt. Shasta Super century, I want to share 3 of my pet-peeves that really go on my nerves. Nothing expresses more explicitly that you are a Fred than the 3 items listed below. A “Fred” in the 2nd sense described in the wiki-entry, i.e. a hopeless wannabe who goes on everybody’s nerves — and I’m NOT talking about enthusiastic amateurs possibly suffering from obsessive compulsive color-coordination (and therefore perhaps involuntarily looking “pro”), since I’m one such myself.

• You grab somebody’s wheel who you don’t know without asking or giving any notice whatsoever at all

  This is the cycling equivalent of walking up to somebody in the grocery store checkout lane, planting yourself within less than half an inch of your target, and then breathing down that poor person’s neck, moving even closer when your target tries to escape. If you think there’s nothing wrong with that, I’d like to refer you to Miss Manners.

  Now that we’ve established that grabbing an unknown person’s wheel is just plain rude, what should you do if you just don’t want to ride alone? Join a club. You don’t have to race to be a club-member, there are plenty of clubs with non-racing members out there, and plenty of clubs whose members don’t race at all but who love company on long and short, mellow and fast rides. And there are a lot of rides all over the country/world which are either open to everybody, not just club members, or semi-organized show-and-go.

  I personally do some club rides over the weekend, but I prefer to do my serious training alone. And when I’m on my way to or from intervals, the last thing I want to worry about is somebody on my wheel, because then I need to start pointing out obstacles, avoid breaking too abruptly etc. I do not want you on my wheel in those situations, because after my intervals I’m too tired to worry about somebody else, that’s why I choose to train alone.

  For the victims of said Freds, I’d like to recommend starting to sing. Preferably loud, and preferably false. Experience has shown that the Song of the Smurfs is particularly effective in this regard.

• You just bought a Thor Hushovd or Georgia Bronzini replica jersey, or worse, the whole outfit plus matching bike, and wear the whole thing every day on your rides

  I find this almost as offensive as the previous item (aside from the fact that washing the outfit after every ride might be a good idea…). Because these people who earned their World or National stripes worked very hard for the right to wear this outfit, and I think the privilege to wear these stripes/outfits should remain with those who earned it. If every Tom, Fred, and Harry, Jane, Wilma and Mary wears some outfit with world or national stripes, that totally devalues it to those who actually earned it.

  Now, does that mean you should throw the rainbow jersey you just bought into the trash? Absolutely not. The proper way to use your favorite cycling inspiration’s outfit is illustrated in the picture below.
  

  

  Proper use of autographed jersey

  
  Get the jersey autographed by your cycling hero (and if you’re as lucky as me, you get a deep meaningful sentence along with the autograph which takes you several years to fully understand), hang it on the wall next to your bike. And next time you don’t feel like doing your hell repeats or heatervals (© CFB, all rights reserved), think about how many intervals your inspiration had to do to earn that gold medal.

  And if you happen to wear a striped outfit that you earned, above I’m just referring to the poseurs -in that case I’d like to get your autograph if I don’t have it already.

• You blow full speed through a red light or stop sign, without looking

  While the odds are high, that Darwin’s theory will prevent your genes from being passed on to potential offspring fairly quickly, which doesn’t particularly concern me, you give all cyclists a bad name. Which concerns me directly. I’m not talking about slowly rolling through a stop sign, which is even legal in some places. I’m talking about blowing through at full speed, cause you can’t really keep up with whoever you are stalking and want to get ahead (see item 1 above), or for whatever other silly reason you feel the rules of the road don’t apply to you. As I said, that gives all cyclists a bad name. And for those of you who don’t believe in Darwin and his theory – God has given you brakes, so use them.

Livestrong Challenge Davis: Live commentary by Lill Phigget and Rob Boll

Reverse-Us was live at the Livestrong Challenge Davis, Lill Phigget and Rob Boll provided commentary of the action.

[Tweedeledee tweedeledum…]

Rob Boll: Welcome to the Livestrong Challenge Davis, the premiere cycling event in the US. What an incredible atmosphere as over 1400 riders prepare to take on this challenging race.

Lill Phigget: We are here live at the start in this incredible town, where the race is about to get underway. And Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong leads them out from the start line with an incredible sprint as he rolls down the start ramp!

Rob Boll: Team Fatty immediately takes the lead and completely blocks the road rolling along at tremendous speeds up to 5 miles per hour. Team Beat the Clock is frantically fighting for position behind them.

Lill Phigget: Watch out for cancer survivor Liz Benishin of Team Beat the Clock, as she expertly squeezes through spaces that are not even there.

Rob Boll: And the first break has formed. A group of 8 riders has gone clear of the peloton.

Lill Phigget: I see Liz Benishin in this group, as well as her Beat the Clock teammate Sue Walker, no wait, Carola Berger, and 2 riders of Team Cedaron. Other important riders are in this group as well whose names I cannot remember at the moment.

Rob Boll: Can they stay ahead of the charging peloton led by Team Fatty? We will find out when we come back after the break.

[Tweedeledee tweedeledum…]

Lill Phigget: We are now 35 miles into the race. The break of 8 riders has caught the lead group who was led out by Lance Armstrong just before the first categorized climb of the day. The lead group is now 9 riders strong as some of the leaders have turned off onto the 70-mile route.

Rob Boll: Two climbers of Team Livestrong and Team 28 as well as 3 others whose names I cannot remember at the moment have gone clear.

Lill Phigget: Team Cedaron and Team Beat the Clock look like they are in serious trouble. They are unable to follow the acceleration as the leaders remain cool as cucumbers on the climb.

Rob Boll: True, but the chase group reminds me more of molten Tzatziki…

Lill Phigget: Can they catch up on the descent? We will find out when we come back after the break.

[Tweedeledee tweedeledum…]

Lill Phigget: We are now 60 miles into the race. The lead group of 5 have disappeared up the road, as a chase group of 2 riders each of Team Celeron and Team Beat the Clock are struggling up the hors category climb of the day.

Rob Boll: The chase group seems to have lost their climbing legs completely, as they make their way up the climb like a horde of suffocating walrus.

Lill Phigget: Oh no, a gravely serious mechanical for Carola Berger!!! It seems her jersey zipper broke off. This puts a serious dent in Team Beat the Clock’s ambitions.

Rob Boll: She is now standing sparsely clad at the side of the road. Mechanics gather frantically around her as she motions her team leader Liz Benishin to go on without her.

Lill Phigget: Can they catch back on to the lead group? We will find out when we come back after the break.

[Tweedeledee tweedeledum…]

Lill Phigget: Sorry, we missed the finish of the lead group as we were chatting with Livestrong representatives in the Michelob beer tent. The chase group is coming in as we speak.

Rob Boll: And here comes Sue Walker, Sue is pounding on the pedals with her last breath. Sueeee Waaaalker is crossing the finish line in 6th place. 6th place for Sue Walker!!! Suuueee Walker!!!! What an incredible finish for Suuueeee Waaalker!!!

Lill Phigget: I thought that was Carola Berger.

Rob Boll: My notes say Sue Walker.

Lill Phigget: Who wrote your notes?

Rob Boll: I don’t know.

Lill Phigget: Sure looked like Carola Berger to me. No wonder she looked a bit gobsmacked as she crossed the finish line. In any case, here comes Team Cedaron closely followed by Liz Benishin. Team Fatty is nowhere to be seen.

Rob Boll: Goooo Liiiiz!

Lill Phigget: This concludes our live coverage from the Livestrong Challenge Davis presented by Reverse-Us. What an incredible day! Join us for our live coverage at the Ride for the Roses. Until then, see you in the beer tent.

Rob Boll: Drink responsibly.

[Tweedeledee tweedeledum…]