Roger Millikan Memorial Criterium, 2011

Okay, I'm biased since this is my club's race, but it's always a good one. I don't know about other parts of the country, but in here in SoCal attendance is way up for the second consecutive year. The 4s and 5s both filled up in pre-registration. That's one hundred in each (two Cat5 races of 50). The P12 race had 83 pre-entries, and more were signing up all morning. The 35s and 45s were over a hundred each. Since 50+ included Cat5 racers it was limited to 75 and that filled in pre-reg. I think we may have made some money, credit to Greg Mathes and Ed Keck who steered the event.

My lackluster performance continues with a tenth place finish in 55+ and no primes. Just didn't feel as good as at Mothballs and my efforts came up short. This weeks' screw up was going on a 50 mile easy spin the day before. Not my routine before a race, but I've been trying to get my weight down and thought I could burn some calories and "rest" at the same time. Nothing is free. My warm-up was a little sub-par as well. There's this idea that I can warm up during the first few laps and then catch my breath and that way have relatively more energy at the finish. The fact is that this year's 55+ had the same average speed as the 2008 event's 50+ category. There are a few teams that keep the pace crisp in order to make the opposition really earn their success.

I will now digress into old-fogey musing about the fact that we used to have something called "off-season". I have some nostalgia for that. Casual rides, no set schedule, gain some weight. I'm going to blame Lance Armstrong and Chris Carmichael for killing that in the late 90s. Armstrong rolled over Jan Ullrich, who was favored by many experts to dominate the TdF, precisely because of good time management. Ullrich would gain 10 kilos and hit the clubs while Lance was measuring the mass of carbs in every meal, weight training and prepping perfectly for the following year. In the old days we were indoctrinated that if you got fit too early (back then, that meant "March") you'd be burned out by the time the important races were on. Oh well.

My thanks to Greg Mathes, my teammate who not only put in a lot of work running the race, but chased and helped catch a break with two to go. God only knows how far down the finish I'd have been with the first five places spoken for at the sprint. Just a word to those older guys who are new to racing: Just because Cat5s are allowed to race with all masters over 50, doesn't make it a good idea. You may even have the fitness to hang in, but the near-crash on the corner at the bottom on the final lap illustrates why we have Cat5-only races. The guys who led the pack into that corner have hundreds of races under their belts, some over a thousand. Maybe a technical course like RM ain't the place for newbies to mix it up with them. Try some flat-and-four-corner action first.

Tubular Troubles, a Problem Solved

Ever spend $75 plus labor to get a nice sew-up glued on to your wheel and then get a slow leak the second time out? I have. Luckily, an old buddy of mine will fix it for $15-20, depending on the tire. However, I wanted  to try to solve the problem using tire sealant. The first cut was Vittoria Pit Stop. You can find it for $10-15, depending on the source and quantity purchased. I'm afraid I may have misused it, so I'll withhold judgement. There are "instructions" on the can which consist of pictures only. A little cryptic. There is a video on youtube by Trisports and then if you read the commentary someone basically yells at them for doing it wrong, stating the can must be held upright. The only controversy is whether the device should be held upright or upside down. Bikesport Michigan is a big proponent and they have an article which indicates upright (at least going by the photos, they don't explicitly say). This jives with what's on the can. A local MTB mechanic swears it should be upside down.

So here's what I did. Started it upright and concluded that the liquid was not being delivered. Pulled it out momentarily and changed to upside down which instantly shot the liquid out and made a mess around the stem. Note that I needed a valve extender as my valve stem is only 10mm exposed, enough to pump the tire but not to push the Pit Stop canister on. I now suspect that if you stayed with the upright position that the liquid would get delivered near the end of the process. If anybody out there has used it successfully, please let me know what you did. This didn't seal the tire, but a little of the liquid was still in the device.

I then purchased a 16oz bottle of Stan's Notubes. Way more than I'll ever use. They also sell an injector (ten bucks), but I used an industrial syringe (free for me from a friend, but $1 each in boxes of 12) to put 10ml of the stuff in the tube after removing the valve core. Then I inflated the tire (Veloflex Criterium) to 120 psi and spun it around to distribute the stuff. I've heard of people using as much as 30ml in road tires (twice that in MTB) and maybe some of the Vittoria stuff was left behind, so there may have been 20+ ml of latex present. I re-inflated the tire twice more and it ultimately held. If you know where the hole is then this process is easier, you can just rotate the tire until the hole is down and the liquid runs out and seals. After wiping up some excess it was obvious that there's more to this than just latex, there's some very fine powdery stuff which probably facilitates sealing. 

In any case, I'll get the chance to try again since I'm going to be buying a wheel and tire from a friend who just doesn't want to fiddle with tubulars any more. The tire has a slow leak so I'll get another shot at repair. This time I'll just go with Notubes and try to get some independent confirmation on how to use Vittoria Pit Stop and then post again. By the way, I'll never again purchase a tubular unless its valve core is removable, and may consider adding some Notubes when it's mounted to prevent flats. Also, anyone out there who's used a similar Tufo product, please comment.

Mothballs Criterium, 2011

This is a traditional early season criterium in Goleta. It is a one kilometer "D" shaped course and normally the only dicey part is the last corner. There's a manhole cover in the middle of the final turn, which leads onto a bend. Things straighten out about 200m from the finish. I wish I could give some solid advice about the course, but it was a liquid day. Our event (55/60+) began in a driving rain. Guys I saw warming up in the parking lot 15 minutes earlier with numbers pinned were already in their cars on the way home. I kept at or near the front for three laps just to avoid drowning. I was doing fine hanging onto Dale Luedtke and Witold Czulak in prep for the finish. The rain had let up and now the only problem was the sun reflecting off the pavement going in to the final corner.

On the backstretch on the last lap a guy in a Time jersey took a flier. The correct response would have been swinging out and snagging his wheel, but I didn't react soon enough. As we approached the last turn Luedtke took off like a shot and frankly I didn't feel I would be safe entering the last corner that fast. He was right, I was wrong and dropped a couple of places while six guys shot off the front. I recovered well enough and with Harold Schneider on my wheel closed on the front group and passed one. Harold won the 60+, I got sixth in 55+.

It's interesting, the 60s have pegged me as their sled-dog. At the first CBR crit one surfed in on my wheel and passed me for third. This is actually very useful, it doesn't hamper me from doing better with positioning, but gives my opposition one more body to beat before they get to me. Now if Craig would get healthy, maybe we can accomplish something this year.

Poor College Kid's RR

This is a thiry-four mile out-and-back course near Los Olivos. It's a nice bike ride, but kind of a so-so road racing course. There are two real problems with it. One is the start/finish area generally. The course is totally open to traffic, parking area is dirt and so is the staging area for the racers. The other issue is the fact that the road is just too narrow, period. You start with about six miles mostly uphill, culminating in a minor climb. Even in the 55+ pack there were enough riders that moving up was nearly impossible during this phase. This is followed by a fast descent with a bumpy right-hand bend.

I'd be happier if not for that fact that I flatted at about mile eight. I was under no pressure and felt much better than last week until I sensed a certain softness in my rear tire. I had wheels in the follow vehicle so I raised my hand and pulled over. I have to say the guys did as well as could be expected. Here's a tip: don't be the first guy to put your wheels in the follow car. It took about a minute to fish them out. At this point I made the decision to chase. Since this was not the TdF, the follow car didn't let me draft and no teammates (since I had none in the event) slammed on their brakes to come back and help. I was chasing because this race was part of my training. I could have removed my number and cruised back, saving energy for the Mothballs Criterium the next day. I felt that I needed the work and I also wanted to gauge how well I could do in a crit the day after a road race.

Of course I couldn't catch back on and after about ten minutes I relaxed and waited for a group of six chasers which formed behind. Two of them helped and we made good time, but at the turnaround it was clear we weren't going to catch. The fast downhill is a nasty, if short, climb on the return. Only one guy stayed with me going up that and he fell off the pace on the way in. I went over the finish steering around a semi which was essentially parked there. Still I was eighteenth, which made me think others had mechanicals as well.

I have to say I wonder if I'll do this one next year. On the plus side the UCSB club which puts this on does a terrific job organizing and running the event. But the fact that there is only one lane available, including at the finish, makes this really dicey for any sizable pack. In particular the 3s had a nasty crash at their finish. I saw a video taken from a bike around tenth place and really didn't see anywhere he could have improved his position from about three miles out! Since my flat was really a slow leak I don't think I'd park in the main area, but rather find a place off the road coming into the general area.