Brent, Erik and I raced the Rubber City Criterium in Akron, Ohio last Saturday. The course was a challenging up and down 1.2 mile loop, with a 40 mph descent and a long slog uphill to the finish. Fifteen minutes in to the hour long race I experienced a first in a race; the police stopped the race because a spectator sitting on a 100 ft. high bridge that went over the race course was threatening to jump. Thankfully they got there in time, no one jumped and we are able to resume racing. On restart, the race quickly split up, I ended up in a 4 man break with ex teammate Jeremy Grimm, Matt Weeks and Shawn Adams from Carbon Racing. I was able to come off of Matt’s wheel and hold off Jeremy in the sprint for the win (barely). -Paul Martin
We spent some time in Columbus at the Garrett Wonders Roadrace. Here is a photo tour courtesy of Picasa user Consider Biking. Enjoy. You can also find more at Veloarts.com.
A few of use went down to the New Belgium Mass Avenue Criterium last weekend, here is how it turned out. Christ Uberti 2nd, Eric Young 1st, and Kirk Albers 3rd.
Panther p/b Competitive Cyclist notched another victory this past weekend as Kirk Albers won the 75-mile road race. You can read the full article and interview by John Bassetti at Vindy.com.
(Paul Martin takes 3rd at the Tour of the Valley time trial. )
(Kirk Albers claimed the top spot of the podium after the 75-mile road race.)
After a tough week of racing up in Minnesoooooooota I took some rest for a couple days back home before it was off again to Cincinnati for some big team races, including the USACrits race Hyde Park Blast on Saturday.
Friday was the first year race in Madeira, Ohio. This was the first twilight crit of the year for myself and the course ran along the main boulevard of Madeira. Pretty much the entire Panther team was in attendance, so we had some high expectations. The course was very much on the technical side, with two 180 turns and a technical back side of the course the entire pack was single file for a majority of the race.
Our Panthers were on the attack the entire race, causing the field to shrink considerably until the race was neutralized halfway through for a nasty crash caused by a deflating finishing banner. Since the race was so technical the powers that be, namely Aerocat and Mountain Khakis’, kept a pretty tight lid on any potential escapee’s. With about 10 to go Vince and our Andy Clarke drilled really hard at the front to bring back the breakaway at about 4 to go. From then on it was sticking your neck out and risking life and limb for 8 more hairpin turns. Paul brought me up to the front with 2 to go, in the final hairpin we got swarmed, but I slotted in at 6th wheel which seemed like a good place to be for the final 500 meters or so. However, those last 500 meters were pretty much spent cornering and I only managed to pass one lead-out man in the second to last finishing straight for 5th place.
Saturday was going to be another dark race, not starting until 8:30 and running for an hour and a half. The Hyde Park race was also a USA Crits series race, which meant big money. The weekend of hairpins continued with a not so dramatic 180 just after the Start/Finish. Aside from that the course was basically two long drags with a trip up a dark narrow alleyway. To start off, the race was hot, and fast. Within a few minutes there was a large field split with an elite group at the front, which thankfully contained nearly the entire Panther team. We were again very very aggressive, present in every move, or at least chasing it. Attacks and counter attacks went all race, until Andy Moskal got into a large group late in the race that got a good 20 seconds. However, as the sun went down and the dark alleyway got to be completely pitch black, the margin began to shrink. The Panther train got to the front with 3 to go, just as the breakaway was getting caught, and totally smashed it, keeping the other teams off until the final straight. My sprinting confidence was a little low and I waited to follow some wheels on the long finishing stretch. With about 100 meters to go two guys ahead of me just smashed into each other taking each other down, I did a little drifting and only managed to get tagged in the shin. I managed to sneak through and roll in 3rd, Paul also avoided the crash to come in 5th.
The first three stages of Nature Valley are in the books and let me say, all two or so hours of racing we’ve done have been “epic.” The first stage was Wednesday morning, a 6-mile time-trial. The course went out for about 2.5 miles on a flat road, looped back, then finished at the top of a hill a little over a half-mile in length. Having the hill at the end made the race a little tricky, I think the key to a fast time was making sure you had enough gas left to storm the hill because that was where you could potentially lose the most time if you blew up. Paul Martin put in an impressive ride for 21st place, earning him the green jersey for the best amateur rider.
An interesting feature of this time-trial was that only mass-start-legal or “regular” road bikes were allowed – no aero bars and no disc wheels allowed. The goal, according to the promoters, was to keep the logistics reasonable for the smaller teams. For our small team having to transport 6 extra bikes to the race would have been an expensive nightmare so I’m certainly glad for the rule, I hope it catches on! Somewhat surprisingly the winning time was only 24 seconds slower than last year. A few guys made small pads on the tops of their bars to rest their forearms on, I saw the officials ask a guy to remove a shoelace connecting his brake hoods that he was apparently going to hold on to, and the KBS team rode TT bikes refitted with standard road bars and shifters. United Healthcare was apparently complaining about this (mostly because Scott Zwizanski of Kelly beat Rory Southerland of UHC) but I don’t really see a problem with it. Really as long as the bikes follow the rules – which they did – it’s not any different than riding a Ridley Noah or an aero Cervelo road bike. Remember Ivan Dominguez riding a Fuji TT frame when he was on Toyota-United? In fact, it could have even been a slight disadvantage to the Kelly riders as they effectively ended up riding road bikes with heavier frames and extra-low handlebars. This of course brought up an interesting debate on weather or not time-trial-specific bikes should exist at all in road racing. Not all of us agreed on this one so all I’ll say here is that I think they shouldn’t.
The second stage was on Wednesday night, a crit in downtown St. Paul. It’s difficult to describe how hard a crit like this is, with such a big and strong field, but I will say that I was unceremoniously dropped with about 10 laps to go. On the bright side, Paul defended his jersey and as a spectator for the last 10 laps I got to see some great riding by Ryan Knapp. Ryan was held up by a crash in the penultimate lap and denied a chance at a really good finish but was mixing it up at the front when it mattered the most and really looked like he belonged there.
Stage three was an evening road race starting in the rural town of Cannon Falls, scheduled to be 66 miles. However, after around 18 miles of windy racing were were waved to the side of the road by the officials and sent back to town because of a tornado warning! Not very many people took this very seriously, especially since heading back into town meant heading directly into black skies and what appeared to be a storm. We later found out that a record number of tornadoes (35!!!) touched down across Minnesota so it was definitely a good thing the race was canceled. On the way into town we passed the United Healthcare team RV, a stark contrast to our arrangements which included my old VW Jetta that I had driven all the way from Ohio:
You may be wondering what else we’ve been up to, what with only about 2:15 of total racing in the books for the first half of the race. Well, for starters the six of us are split into pairs and staying in host housing: I personally may never understand why people invite bike racers into their homes but we’re very grateful to Sarah, Tara, and “Skibby” for their hospitality. Host housing is great because it allows us to meet interesting people, learn a little bit about the area we’re visiting, and it means that we don’t have to get up early and scramble off to try to get to McDonalds before breakfast closes.
While not racing, popular activities have included sitting by the pool and excessive use of the social networking service “Twitter.” We’ve also gotten to see some of the local sites, including a bike shop/cafe called One on One Studios (http://www.oneononebike.com/ ) which was highly recommended by a number of people. It was definitely worth the trip and if you’re ever in Minneapolis we highly recommend stopping by. The shop has some cool bikes on display (including a lot of single-speed mountain bikes) and a great cafe but perhaps the coolest part is a huge “bike junkyard” in the basement:
There’s everything down there from POS dumpster bikes in heaps to vintage Eddy Merckx frames, most for sale on some kind of barter system where you can apparently build your own bike and attempt to name your own price.
It’s not all fun and games though, I would compare down time during a stage race to procrastinating on big projects in college: You can distract yourself temporarily but the race always looms in the background. We’ve got another evening crit coming up and then a 95-mile road race that’s supposed to be full of steep climbs so it’ll be back to business soon enough.
This past Sunday (6/13) was the Ohio state road racing championship. The race is typically held on a course near Dayton that isn’t particularly exciting but typifies riding in Ohio in the summer: Flat and narrow farm roads, excessive humidity, one minor hill, and a somewhat sketchy descent. The race was 7 laps for a total of 90 miles so at least the heat and humidity would be a factor. A good group of Panther riders showed up (we are after all technically based in Ohio) so our chances for a result looked good. I was worried that with such a strong Panther presence the field would race negatively so I started things off right by attacking as soon as the race started. Two riders joined me and we were off:
We were out of sight quickly and then not a whole lot happened. Lisa Martin did a nice job in the feed zone, I probably wouldn’t have finished at all if she hadn’t been there every lap. Eventually the Huntington Bank rider succumbed to the humidity, and with around two laps to go and a 4 or 5 minute gap Paul Martin bridged up all by himself. This would be a big deal if Paul didn’t do it so often, I think he’s bridged a giant gap solo in just about every Ohio race I’ve done with him. That sealed up the top two spots and left the rest of our team to fight for the remaining places. Kirk Albers stormed away with a late-race attack for 4th and Andy Moskal outsprinted what was left of the field for 5th. Reigning Ohio time trial champion Andy Clarke (have to plug the sponsor, right?) was an impressive 12th. All in all a successful day for the team. Also, as you can see from this great podium picture, Paul and I look ridiculous and apparently have really gross veins on our shins:
The Joe Martin Stage Race is the hometown race for the Arkansas team members. We’ve raced it since we were category 3 racers and have worked our way up the ranks, usually crediting Joe Martin on our upgrade resume to USA Cycling. This year we maxed out with the eight allotted riders. Noah Singer, Kris French, Zach Spinhirne-Martin, Wade Wolfenbarger, Ryan Knapp, Chris Uberti, Dan Campbell and guest rider Troy Wells filled the roster.
The four day race includes a 2.6 mile opening hill climb prologue, a 110 mile stage, a 92 miles stage, then the 90 minute crit on the final day. I ended up posting my best time and the team’s best in the TT, a 9:02. I was closely followed by my teammates Dan, Wade and Troy. Zach missed his start which gave him a time in the 15 minute window. Luckily for him, they didn’t hold true to the time-cut rule of 125% of the winner’s time and he started the next morning, legally.
Friday’s 110 mile stage was fast and hilly. It had 5,400 feet of climbing and for the first 66 miles our average speed was 27.8 mph. On one of the descents I found myself behind Floyd (yes, that one) and witnessed something truly incredible. He has the smallest descending tuck known to man. I swear I’ve never seen someone get any lower. His entire chest on his TT, his knees damn near above his head. From toes to head I bet he was 24” high. I gave him compliments at the time, and he opened up to conversation immediately. Speaking of, I think he is the only guy in the entire peloton to willingly have a conversation on the bike. Just about everyone else out there is so in the zone, and into their own team alone they can’t spare a few words. Not Floyd. He’s always willing to chat, and a pleasure doper (updated 5/20/10) to chat with.
A break was up the road for the 2nd half of the race so our trip up Mt. Gaylor made the 6 mile rolling climb more tolerable than usual. It was steady tempo, and a strong headwind also helped to keep it at bay. The break eventually finished just 25 seconds ahead of our main pack, down from their three minute gap 25 miles earlier.
Day three was the 92 mile lolly pop style road course. Head out 11 miles, do three laps of the 23 mile loop then we head back to Fayetteville. Again, there is a steep climb each lap that usually knocks guys off the back. Last year I was dropped here, and had to abandon the race. For 2010 I was sitting in the top 10 at the top of the climb, what a difference a year makes. Zach had an untimely flat and never caught back on. Kris was also put under pressure and had to abandon. The rest of us survived what I consider one of the diciest final five miles in bike racing, to finish with the front group. At 50 MPH the downhill sprint finish is a quick one to say the least. The most dangerous part is maneuvering around the guys who have completed their leadout and are falling back. You come up on them at nearly twice the speed, and surrounded by other riders.
Sunday’s crit course is known for being one of the hardest on the NRC calendar. The course was made even more difficult this year when they added four more turns, for a total of twelve 90 degree turns. With no time cut in the TT this year, many more people started the crit than ever before. It was a race to hold on as long as possible. After 45 minutes you were given a pro-rated time for the finish. If you did not finish before that cut-off, it is considered a DNF for the entire week. From lap number one there were crashes every lap after. Broken collar bones took out guys from Bissell, Ouch-Bahati Foundation, and United-Health just to name a few. Wade from our team also fell victim to one of the corners as shown in the video below. He was able to walk away with no major injuries, but wasn’t able to finish the day. The rest of us made it at least to the 45 minute mark and were given a time for the crit and completed the week at last. Also, check out the street art that Lucky Mortenson and his wife chalked up the night before the race. Pretty cool, thanks ya’ll.
To top things off, as if nearly 300 miles in 4 days wasn’t enough, some of the guys motor-paced both to and from the race each day.
"3pm start time and located in Oxford, Mississippi makes for 117 degree heat index!"
-Zach Spinhirne-Martin before the road race at The Oxford Endurance weekend.
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