Category: Cycling

Time for the first road race of the season and a return to the rain shadow of Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula. This race is a 12 mile loop on rolling country roads with a slight uphill finish. The Cat 3 race is 5 laps (60 miles) which we ended up averaging 24 mph over 2 1/2 hours (a fair bit faster than I would have done the 100k SIR Populaire in which was on the same day) . It’s a very different style of riding from Randonneuring as the pace varies much more with various surges and attacks throughout the race as compared with the steady tempo riding which is much easier on your body. That said the benefit of the peloton and drafting in a pack meant I only had a normalized power average of 214W.

All the teams park and set up their tents in a field beside the course and there is always a great buzz leading up to the race as racers get ready.

We had 6 team mates in the race itself (of a field of 47) and had loosely defined roles to follow during the race itself. Kyle and Aaron were the designated sprinters for the race and were just going to conserve energy until the end. Zach, Hani, Jim and myself were to cover breaks and help out with lead outs at the end.

The team came through and had a great race, Zach and Hani reeled in a troublesome break pretty much singlehanded over the penultimate lap and it ended up in a bunch sprint. I felt comfortable with my positioning and led out Aaron on my wheel into the 1K to go sign. He then jumped over to another rider going past and carried on to finish 3rd. Kyle had picked a different wheel on the right hand side and ran out of road to come around him but finished with a fine 2nd place by half a wheel.

My fitness felt fine during the race but my left leg had been threatening to cramp up for the last 3 laps despite downing two bottles of Scratch (electrolytes). I think they need to adjust a bit to the surges of racing again. I’m going to try drinking some Pedialyte before next weekends race and see if that helps. I had to shut down my sprint over the last 200m so that my leg wouldn’t seize up completely and rolled in for 16th place.

The lads; Aaron on the left (3rd place) and Kyle on the right (2nd place).

Some shots from the race (I’m the only blue helmet if you want to play “Where’s James” in the pack shots)

The Icebreaker Time Trial in Auburn, WA is the traditional kick off to the Pacific NW racing season. It’s a good early season fitness test and an opportunity to see friends on other teams that you may not have seen since last year. It’s a 10 mile flat TT on country roads (5 miles out, turnaround and return the same way) with riders going off at 30 second intervals. This means you always have both a target up ahead to try to chase down and/or someone bearing down on you from behind to keep you motivated.

I decided this year to view it as an opportunity to do an FTP test on my regular road bike as I wanted to try holding a specific power target with my power meter for the duration. This meant that I wouldn’t be as fast as I would be on a dedicated TT bike but would have more useful data to check my fitness level. (I wasn’t going to be in contention at this level, Masters Cat 1/2/3, regardless of what type of bike I rode in any case).

In this regard the Time Trial was a success, I was aiming to average 280w over the 10 miles and ended up averaging 279w. According to Strava this brings my current FTP estimate to 270w (or 3.5W/KG). My target for this year is to get my FTP up to 290 W and drop 10 pounds which will get me to the 4.0 W/KG number which I think I’ll need to be truly competitive at the Cat 3 level. That said it’s just a number and I’ve certainly won races in the past against people with higher FTPs than me.

This year we caught a break in the variable weather that had been with us all week and had near perfect conditions.

I drove down with a car load of supporters; my mum, Ashley and the boys. Susan was away for the weekend and Caitlin opted out for a quiet day at home.

My team were out in force and we had the tent set up for our warm-up.

Then it was off to the start for a 9:26 start time.

I caught the rider ahead of me a couple miles in to the time trial but was in turn caught by the rider behind me shortly after the turnaround.

And then ~26 minutes later it was all over

A great start to the season and such fun to have Ashley, my mum and the boys along to experience it with me.

It’s been a while since I last wrote anything for this blog so a brief catch up is in order. Over the past three years I’ve focussed more on road racing rather than ultra events.

I’m now a Cat 3 on the road and in addition to road racing this year am planning to give track racing a try as well.

Here’s a summary of my 2016 Cycling highlights.

I went in to the year with a goal of getting in the bulk of my riding before the schools broke out for the summer. I had sketched out a balance of randonneuring and racing objectives and intermingled those through the spring.

Randonneuring

The Cascade 1200 is a 770 mile loop around Washington with 37,500 ft of climbing.

This was my first 1200 since PBP in 2011 though I’d done a one way 1000k out to Glacier National Park last year. I’ve been focussing on road racing this year and haven’t put in nearly as much time in the saddle with most of my races being less than 2 hours long. I’d done one fast 400k a couple months ago but that was the extent of my randoneuring this year prior to this ride.

So this was going to be a bit of an experiment in how much shorter intense efforts could carry over to longer rides.

I also did a lot less planning going into this ride than previous ones. Normally I have set time targets for the controls but this year I had a much looser plan to simply ride in daylight and maximize my time off the bike at the overnight controls. The finish time didn’t matter to me in contrast to our Charley Miller ride at PBP.

Day One (Monroe to Carson, 223 miles, 12,300 ft)

88 of us set out from Monroe for the first leg down to Carson, 223 miles away. The group stayed mostly together for the first hour or so until we hit the first incline and then things naturally spread out. The lead group got smaller as we rode on through Issaquah and down through Enumclaw to Randle. By the time we hit Randle, 140 miles in to the ride, there were 6 of us left (Chris, Mick, Nigel, Del, Ryan and myself). Bob and Ed had fallen off the pace a bit about 30 miles previously. We had a brief break in the sun enjoying some cold drinks and an ice-cream and then it was off for the 2 main climbs of the day, Elk Pass and Old Mans Pass, both significant 6-10% pitch extended climbs.

I stuck with the group for 10 more miles until the road started to pitch up at the right turn after the Colonial Campground and then decided that I better conserve a bit more energy for the next 3 days. Still 150 miles averaging 20mph was a good way to start.

I spun up Elk Pass by myself enjoying the views and stopping to take some photos.

The descent was great down the other side and I caught up with the others just as they were about to leave Northwoods, the control on the other side. They carried on as I wanted to get some cold drinks ahead of the next climb.

This was my first time up Old Mans Pass from this direction and again I just spun up it easily and then enjoyed the twisty descent on the other side through wooded roads. Then it was a fast flat ride into Carson Hot Springs resort, our overnight control. I got there just before 8pm and quickly showered, enjoyed a great 20 minute massage from Lyn Gill that loosened out my neck and shoulders, got some food and was in bed by 10 in the room that Chris, Mick, Bob and I were sharing.

Day Two (Carson to Ephrata, 229 miles, 10,400 ft)

We got up at 5am for a 5:40am departure and rolled out along the Columbia river. Great views and we got to chat briefly with various groups of people who had started out ahead of us as we passed them. After about 40 miles of averaging over 20 mph again Bob and I decided to call it quits from the Mick/Chris/Nigel express and to ride at an easier pace.

The temperature kept rising as we started some serious climbing, long exposed climbs followed by sharp descents only to climb right back up immediately. We rode with Jan, Hugh and Mark for a while along this stretch. The heat and climbing took it’s toll on the field with several riders DNFing at Bickleton. Joe and Jesse (who showed up at various locations throughout the ride) were a welcome sight when we stopped to refill up our water. The store here had also opened as well due to the prospect of so many potential customers as a change from a normally quiet Sunday. Bob and I enjoyed a nice sandwich out of the heat and the shop owner turned on a floor fan to blast me with cooling air. It was tough to head back out into the heat.

By the time we reached Sunnyside a stop into Burger King was in order to refuel and have more cold drinks. Then it was back on the road to Vernita (an oasis in the middle of nowhere). I was feeling pretty slow in the heat on this stretch but knew from past experience that once it starts cooling off I normally come around pretty quickly. We rode with Asta and two guys from the east coast along this stretch. Then it was up and over the Rattlesnake hills to the manned control at Mattawa. I stretched out in the setting sun on the pavement in front of the fire station to relax a bit before out final 50 miles of the day.

This was the only stretch that we ended up riding partially at night over the four days as we’d spent a lot of time off the bike cooling down during the heat of the day. Time well spent to avoid heat exhaustion in my mind. Eventually rolled into Ephrata a little after midnight. Shower, food and bed.

Day 3 (Ephrata to Mazama, 144 miles, 8000 ft)

This was going to be a shorter day so we opted to get a full nights sleep. Ended up getting up at 7:30 and rolling out at 8:30. The first stretch was on familiar roads from NWCrank with a long gradual climb out of Ephrata and then down into the Grand Coulee and a climb up to Farmers. Farmers is a little community hall in the middle of nowhere that is a great respite from the heat. More familiar SIR volunteers providing support here and a chance for another sandwich.

The Farmer to Marlott stretch was a mixture of plateau riding (fortunately with favorable winds) and then a descent down to Bridgeport (more cold drinks).

Then on to Marlott with stops every 15 miles or so for cold drinks. Bill was set up in Marlott ahead of the main climb of the day up Loup Loup pass. Enjoyed some more cold drinks and a popsicle and then set off to start the 13 mile climb. Bob got another flat on this stretch (his second of the ride) but he made short work of fixing it. You do realize just how hot it is once you stop moving and stand exposed in the sun. Still mid 90s in the late afternoon.

The climb up Loup Loup took a while. We caught up with Terry Lentz who was helping another rider change a tire and Bob took off with him up the hill. I did my own thing up to the top, nearly losing the contents of my stomach two miles from the summit when I ate a handful of peanuts and promptly had to spit out half of them. The heat had got to me and that was it for me and food for the rest of the day’s riding while I let my stomach sort itself out.

Caught up with Bob at the bottom of the descent were he was waiting for me and we rode in the rest of the gradual ascent to the overnight in Mazama (after a short break for more water). Rode with Terry and Louise for a bit on this stretch before we separated to ride at our own paces.

Got into Mazama a bit before 9 and sorted out a room for Bob and I and then hung out outside the hotel with some food for a bit before heading to bed. We declined Mick’s offer of a 3:30am start and stuck with our sleeping in strategy for a later departure.

Day 4 (Mazama to Monroe, 174 miles, 6750 ft )

Got up at 5 for breakfast and a 6am roll out. The day started straight away with a major climb up Washington Pass. It was drizzling a bit which was a nice contrast to the heat of the previous days. This is a great climb, nothing to steep and great views and switchbacks at the top. I felt I’d overdone my sugar intake the previous day with the number of cold sodas I’d drunk so today was going to be real food only and no soda. This ended up working much better and my stomach felt fine for the day.

We rolled over Washington Pass and then down and up the Rainy Pass follow-on bump before starting the 30 mile descent on the other side. There was a SIR rest stop on the descent which was a welcome respite from the cold and a chance to drink some hot chocolate before heading down again. My layers worked out fine and even in short fingered gloves I was OK.

Once we reached Marblemount I had a huge plate of Chicken Teriyaki at a restaurant which was very Rando friendly. Fast, friendly service and tasty food. Carried on to the Big Rock cafe and another sit-down meal, this time a bowl of Clam chowder hit the spot. We’d hooked up with Tyler by this point and he rode in with Bob and I. We also rode some of this with Phil, a fellow 508’er, who was now riding a jerry rigged single speed after his derailler gave out.

Familiar roads and along the Centennial Trail for the last 50 miles in to Monroe. At one stretch along the trail we came up to a family riding with their 6 year old. His first day on a bike with gears. He had a blast riding in our draft for about 5 miles, proudly saying how he was beating us all. At one point we picked up the pace a little but next thing we know he was tearing up to us again having chased us down. We parted ways once we reached the rest rooms on the trail, he of course was straight over to the adjoining playground to burn off more energy.

I tested my legs a little coming into Monroe from Snohomish to see what was left in them. They held up well and could still hold 24-25 mph for an extended pull comfortably. Then it was a case of rolling into the finish hotel, handing in our cards and getting our medals before heading home to the family.

Postscript

Another good ride (though at times during the second day I was saying never again).

The main take away for me again was how important it is to get nutrition correct during these rides. I ate to much sugary food and drinks on the first couple days which threw off the balance in my stomach until I got it sorted out again on the fourth day. It’s a lot more fun to ride when you’re not feeling sick.

I definitely should have had more saddle time before a ride of this length. My legs were fine but by the fourth day my saddle was not feeling to comfortable.

The extended time off the bike each night worked out really well, allowing me to recover well ahead of the next day.

Having good riding companions like Bob (and Chris and Mick on the first couple days) makes the miles go by much faster, mentally and physically.

The great support throughout the ride by all the volunteers makes all the difference. There were various people, Joe, Jesse, Bill to name a few who seemed to show up each day in different locations with a friendly word and helping hand.