andy reagan only the interesting stuff

William and Mary Weekend

Firstly, I didn't crash this past weekend.  So, already more successful than last year! Unfortunately (or, fortunately since there were some crashes later in the race) my chain broke 12 miles into the road race.  I had stood up to climb, felt it snap, and there was nothing I could do but watch it slinky off my derailer and the field move around me up the hill.  I caught a ride back with the wheel truck, and watched other races while waiting for my time trial later in the day.

Right up till the chain broke

I donned the speedsuit and areo-helmet for the TT, but ACCC Conference Director Kevin Long made a "judgement call" and didn't allow aero helmets.  The rules state two things for TT's: gear must be mass-start legal, and that no aero gear is allowed.  But there is no metric by which a helmet, wheel or frame is deemed to be more "aero" than any other in the rule book.  So for the past two years, the rule of mass-start legal has been what we've gone by.  People were allowed to do the time trial with frames and wheels that were much more aerodynamic than my own, and helmets that may have been more aero than my Giro Prolight...but I wasn't allowed to wear my Giro Advantage 2 helmet.  I thought it was a pretty shitty call, because there isn't any metric by which it was controlled, and it was made at the very last minute.  If it's voted into the  rule book that a helmet "can't extend x cm behind the head" then that would have been fine by me, but Kevin was just making things up as he went, IMHO.

Anyway, I dialed it in at an average of 305W (not being able to hold my goal of 330) and finished 13th of 40-some overall. Not too bad, but just out of the points by a few seconds.  Second that I would have had with an aero helmet...but oh well.  Average speed of 22.5mph for the 13 miles.  I averaged more in both the C and B crit on Sunday with really uneven efforts, I just must not be able to push so hard into the pain by myself in the TT.

Warm up, TT, cool down. Looks like a pretty steady effort

The crit on Sunday was super fun, and I felt great.  Even ended up riding most of the Men's B crit, then going for a 30min run.  About 10 minutes into the race, with two people solo out front of the group and the race pretty much strung out, there was a lead group of about 15 including 5 of us from VT.  Jake A got on the front and was going really hard, and I was second wheel so I eased up and let him ride away from the group, thinking that he was strong enough to hold a break and hopefully sprint the finish, I knew he really wanted to do well.  He got about 100m out front before anyone from the group realized I was blocking, and they sprinted after him.  Two guys got out and bridged the gap, while I just tried to cover.  I could see Jake pulling for all he was worth those two guys around, and they opened up a reasonable gap.  I was worried though because I hadn't seen him off the front of that group though.  The four remaining Tech guys in the group did a good job of not going to hard to catch Jake, and not letting anyone get away to bridge solo.  The idea is to keep the pace relaxed when on the front, and if someone else wants to sprint away and catch the lead group, I pull the rest of our group up to him so he will have to pull the whole group up the lead group if he wants to go.  That's blocking, and covering attacks.  It's generally not too hard, since the goal is to go easier on the front, but covering attacks can be tough.  Will did some pretty strong pulling, which I was kinda worried about, but not so hard that we caught Jake.  With 5 laps to go, and Jake a decent ways away, Andy W attacked and got a gap.  The pace of our group went crazy, and the rest went after him.  I sat on the guys chasing Andy, and they did catch him.  I was slightly surprised that Andy couldn't hold the attack, I thought he would.  With two laps to go, we really picked it up and the race was on for the finish.  One lap to go, and I got into great position, third wheel behind two Navy guys.  One was trying to lead the other out...but he was bringin me too! He pulled off for the straightaway sprint, Navy sprinted and I hit it to his right side, sprinting hard by him to the line.

It was awesome to win the sprint, although there were four people out front so I only got 5th, but that didn't matter. Jake got fourth, which was okay but I would've hoped he'd won the sprint for 2nd or 3rd.  Andy W was on my wheel, and came in 7th.  As a team, we really controlled the race, and I think everyone was really happy about it.  I set a new sprint power, at 1422W, nearly two horsepower! And that was in my small ring...

The C Crit, lots of surging! Notice two big spikes near the end, one to cover and attack and the other for the sprint!

Since I felt like I hadn't worked all too hard, I sat in the back of the B crit for as long as I could hang on.  Having started at the very back, I was getting sling shot real bad through the corners, and having to work really hard to get around people getting dropped...so I might have done better had I been in the group to start, but that race really kicked my ass.  Looking at the power data, it appears that I worked just as hard in the C crit as I did in the B, though it didn't feel like it all, that is actually really encouraging since I was actually pretty tired doing that second crit.  Afterwards I went on a run with Andy W and that felt good as well, but boy my legs are tired.

I hung in as long as I could...notice the scale on the left, those peaks are all up above 600

On the way back we stopped at Red Robin, and I got a call from my Dad and found out that he overdid it playing bball, and is okay but in the hospital tonight.  Thinking about him has made it hard to study, but I'm really glad that he is doing okay and may even be coming home tomorrow.  I have a really really tough week, just bad timing...so I'm thinking about going home for the weekend, but I'll see how things go.  Here's a picture for you dad:

we love you, glad that you're okay!

That's all for now, back to studying!!

NCSU Crit

I was excited for the criterium race on Sunday, and it ended up being really fun.  Mark even skipped church to come out, but missed my race by a few minutes.  We rode around campus which was fun, and I got to see the mark-cave.  Unfortunately, NC State meal plans don't work like Tech, so we couldn't eat at the dining hall for lunch.

The course was a super-tight .35mi loop on NCSU Campus, and it was a tight but really fun.  The tight turns allowed those of us who could corner hard to take advantage of our handling skills.  There was an uphill straightaway, and downhill straight into a hard corner, and two very short sections connecting the two.  I lined up front and center, and that ended up being crucial because the first turn was wide enough for about 3, and we had lined up 8 wide.

Determined

When Kevin said go, I didn't wait to clip in my other foot and just pushed on the pedals through the first corner.  I then took a second to clip in, and it was just me and one other guy.  I realized we were already ahead of the group, so I hammered as hard as I could down the hill into the very very fast turn 3.  We took that corner suuuper hard, and I knew that there was no way the field could keep up.  We kept going as hard as our legs would go, and a few people caught on.  The laps only took one minute, and because it was so tight they were pulling lapped riders out of the race.

Three laps in, we'd lapped half the field and they were taken off of the course.  For the next 20 minutes, we sprinted up the hill every lap.  With 10 to go, Kevin realized he had forgotten about primes because he was too busy pulling riders, and we had our first prime.  I sat on the back for the sprint for that prime.  Then with 5 to go, another prime.  Feeling good, I sprinted hard for it and took second. (they had me in third...but I'm stickin with second, I even gave a bike throw! jokingly, though).  We took it easier the next lap, then with three to go, ANOTHER PRIME.  I ended up on the front, and pulled hard down the downhill.  When we came out of the corner onto the uphill, the group sprinted around me for the prime, but I didn't have any sprint in me.

They got a two bike lenght-ish gap, and I wasn't able to make it up with two laps to go...so I finished with a strong sprint, about 100m behind the leaders.  It was a really disappointing finish for me personally, having been in the break (created it?) and not manning up for the last two laps.  We'll see how it goes this coming weekend at William and Mary, I'm feeling good about it.  Oh, forgot to mention I did finish 5th.

Got in a hard brick workout (2x harding, 20min run) with Grayson on Monday, and took today off except for my intramural bball game at night.  Tomorrow, I'm really pumped to get out mountain biking!!