Just to clarify, a "mutant" is actually a good thing, in the small world of bike racing. I first picked up the term "mutant" when reading some of the race reports of one of my friends, Dennis Pedersen - you can read some of those reports at the Santa Cruz County Cycling Club (SCCCC) Race Team Reports here.
So, just what is a "mutant"? Well, it's basically one of those guys that can rip off the legs of his competitors, especially during a longer climb up some mountain. In other words, an especially strong racer that usually makes his peers suffer during a race - and suffer a lot!
Dennis and I have often joked in our race reports about various "mutants" that we have both observed. In fact, two in particular happened to show up for one of our races, at the Giro di San Francisco - you can read my own report here and Dennis' right here.
Those pair of mutants I referred to in my race report are Kevin Metcalfe and Don Langley. Between the two of them, they win a lot of races, to be sure. And Kevin, in particular, is what I'd call a "super-mutant" - he's 46 years old, but you'd think he was fresh out of college - he has quite the racing palmares (that's like your resume in the bike racing world) - just check out Kevin's results over the last dozen years!
Kevin has also participated in the annual Mt Diablo Challenge hillclimb that is held the first Sunday of every October - and has usually placed in the top 2 or 3, with a time of about 47+ minutes - that's averaging more than 13.5 mph up an 11-mile climb that gains about 3400 feet of climbing - amazing!
Also, Kevin just placed 6th in the recent Masters World TT Championships held in Austria - he did the 12.5-mile course that gains 1400 feet in just 25:40, an average speed of 29.0 mph!! And he was only about 30 seconds away from 1st place! That's almost as fast as the pros go when they do time-trials in events like the Tour de France - truly a "super-mutant", as you can see!
As you can tell, I very much admire cyclists like Kevin Metcalfe - I'm only 7 years older than him, but I'm nowhere close to matching his abilities in the mountains - even accounting for my slightly advanced age.
So Kevin's a "mutant" (or, "super-mutant", whatever) - and so it amused me to no end when I happened to come across a race report that he wrote in the AMD Discovery Masters Team blog about a race he did this year - the Patterson Pass Road Race. Kevin normally races in the open 45+ races (meaning open to any category - and it's usually a bunch of Cat 1 and Cat 2 racers, as well as former Pros, who have simply gotten a little older - but not too much slower!). But for the Patterson Pass Road Race, Kevin decided to race with the Pro/1/2 crowd - it's just like the open 45+ crowd, but includes mostly the younger guys (the guys that *will* race in the open 45+ races, once they get old enough - like in 20 years!).
And why was I so amused when reading his race report for the Patterson Pass race? Well, here is a paragraph he wrote near the beginning of his report (you can read his full report right here):
"At the start line there were many Giant Strawberries including pro triathlete Chris Lieto. Also on the line was one of my old Sacramento team mates Mike Sayers and two of his BMC guys. And the usual crowd of mutants bent on making me suffer."
So I just had to laugh to myself - here's a guy that I consider a "super-mutant" - and he's complaining about the guys that *he* considers to be "mutants".
So I guess it's all relative, after all.
But, I'd still like to be known to my peers as a "mutant" one day...
Friday, September 28, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Bikecology, Bob Jackson, and Ron Cooper
Sometimes, it's interesting how your life is actually a lot more intertwined with someone else's life - even though neither one of you realizes it at the time. But more on that later...
I started this blog soon after my friend, Dennis Pedersen, started his blog ( you can read his musings here ). Dennis is one of the few cyclists on my team, the Santa Cruz County Cycling Club (SCCCC), who likes to do road races - the SCCCC is really more of a cyclocross club, judging by their focus on those kinds of races. In fact, Dennis will now be doing a lot his road races for a new team he just joined, The Bicycle Trip. Maybe I'll get a chance to join him one day, after I improve my climbing next year (I'll devote a separate article to this one day).
Although I've only known Dennis for a relatively short time, I've noticed that he and I have a lot in common, mostly bike-related, of course. He started actively racing road bikes in the last two or three years, and I just started racing road again in the last two or three months, although I originally raced road bikes way back in the mid-1970s for a couple of years.
And, Dennis is quite passionate about training and racing, which is something that I've rediscovered in myself these last couple of years (And that is why next year will entail a full racing schedule for me - my wife, Becky, doesn't know that yet - but my passion for bike riding/racing is no secret to her - and she and my kids have started to show a lot more interest in supporting my "bad habit", as they like to think of it)....
So I was reading one of Dennis' recent posts, entitled My Cycling History and was quite amused when I saw him make a reference to a catalog for a bike store that he used to read ( because, as he pointed out, it was all he could afford back in those days! ).
Well, the catalog he mentioned was for a bike store called Bikecology - and it amused me for a very simple reason: I worked there for a couple of years, as a part-time job while putting myself through school at UCLA - and I think I just saw Dennis smile, assuming he's reading it right now (right, Dennis?).
And, I was even more amused when Dennis made a reference to the Bob Jackson bike that he dreamed of owning one day, but was way too expensive for him at the time. Well, we sold Bob Jackson bikes at Bikecology, as well as another English-built custom bike, Ron Cooper. They were both great bikes - and I, too, dreamed of the day when I could afford one of those cool bikes - I had a relatively mid-range Nishiki at the time ( it was all that I could afford, being a poor college student, of course ). Here's a cool link I found that compared these two great bikes: http://www.veloworks.com/roncooper/cooper1976.html.
Well, since I worked as a part-time mechanic at Bikecology, I was presented a unique opportunity one day. One of our customers had ordered a black Ron Cooper frame and when it arrived at our shop ( on Santa Monica Blvd. ), the manager of the shop noticed there was a very minor ding in the top tube of the frame (probably happened after it left England, during shipping to our store). When he showed it to the customer, they didn't like the ding and said they would wait until a replacement frame could be sent from England. The ding was not critical, in terms of the integrity of the frame - it was just a small cosmetic thing.
Now my manager, a really strong cyclist named Manny, knew I was just getting into road racing and asked me if I would be interested in buying the "damaged" frame from him - at a very good discount from the normal wholesale price. Really? Wooooooohooooo!!! I had (barely) enough in my bank account to buy just the frame, which just happened to be the size I needed. And Manny was kind enough to let me build up the bike after work, and even loaned me the money to purchase a lot of the high-end Suntour components I used to outfit my new bike - Campy was just way too expensive!
I was so excited about the prospect of having this incredible racing machine - and promptly went out to train even harder with my racing buddy, Danny Escalzo. He and I had accidentally gotten involved in road racing when we inadvertently joined a famous training ride in the local area - the Sunday Death Ride, which was a lot like any of the big group training rides that happen every weekend here in the Bay Area (like the Spectrum Ride or the Crow's Nest Ride on Saturday mornings).
Danny and I were out for one of our fun Sunday rides, riding from where we lived near UCLA down to Highway 1 (via Sunset Blvd), then turning north on Highway 1 to head up towards Oxnard and back (about a 100 mile ride). After riding for a couple of miles along Highway 1, we were suddenly passed by a huge pack of riders - at least 60 or 70 that day - and quickly hopped onto the back of the pack to ride with them. It turned out to be that famous Sunday Death Ride (which we had never heard about, since we weren't into racing at that point) - and after successfully staying with the pack all the way up to the turnaround point (which was at a little mini-market somewhere near Leo Carrillo State Beach) and then back to Santa Monica, we were invited by a guy named Maury to join his club, the North Hollywood Wheelmen.
So we did. And thus began my passion with racing road bikes - on the coolest racing bike I could ever imagine!
I entered a lot of road races and criteriums with my black Ron Cooper bike back in those fun college days during the mid-1970s. It was a truly magical time and passed all too quickly.
It's too bad I wandered away from the bike racing world after I graduated from UCLA and came up here to the Bay Area to start my career. But, at least I have a chance to enjoy those times once again, racing my new '08 Trek Madone (a black one, no less!) with my new club, Team Santa Cruz ( SCCCC ) - and hopefully, getting to employ some sort of team tactics with Dennis and a few others on both SCCCC and Team Bicycle Trip.
It's so interesting to see how lives become intertwined sometimes...and in the most unexpected ways, too! I hadn't thought about Bikecology and my first real racing bike, that Ron Cooper, for a very long time...
Thanks, Dennis!
I started this blog soon after my friend, Dennis Pedersen, started his blog ( you can read his musings here ). Dennis is one of the few cyclists on my team, the Santa Cruz County Cycling Club (SCCCC), who likes to do road races - the SCCCC is really more of a cyclocross club, judging by their focus on those kinds of races. In fact, Dennis will now be doing a lot his road races for a new team he just joined, The Bicycle Trip. Maybe I'll get a chance to join him one day, after I improve my climbing next year (I'll devote a separate article to this one day).
Although I've only known Dennis for a relatively short time, I've noticed that he and I have a lot in common, mostly bike-related, of course. He started actively racing road bikes in the last two or three years, and I just started racing road again in the last two or three months, although I originally raced road bikes way back in the mid-1970s for a couple of years.
And, Dennis is quite passionate about training and racing, which is something that I've rediscovered in myself these last couple of years (And that is why next year will entail a full racing schedule for me - my wife, Becky, doesn't know that yet - but my passion for bike riding/racing is no secret to her - and she and my kids have started to show a lot more interest in supporting my "bad habit", as they like to think of it)....
So I was reading one of Dennis' recent posts, entitled My Cycling History and was quite amused when I saw him make a reference to a catalog for a bike store that he used to read ( because, as he pointed out, it was all he could afford back in those days! ).
Well, the catalog he mentioned was for a bike store called Bikecology - and it amused me for a very simple reason: I worked there for a couple of years, as a part-time job while putting myself through school at UCLA - and I think I just saw Dennis smile, assuming he's reading it right now (right, Dennis?).
And, I was even more amused when Dennis made a reference to the Bob Jackson bike that he dreamed of owning one day, but was way too expensive for him at the time. Well, we sold Bob Jackson bikes at Bikecology, as well as another English-built custom bike, Ron Cooper. They were both great bikes - and I, too, dreamed of the day when I could afford one of those cool bikes - I had a relatively mid-range Nishiki at the time ( it was all that I could afford, being a poor college student, of course ). Here's a cool link I found that compared these two great bikes: http://www.veloworks.com/roncooper/cooper1976.html.
Well, since I worked as a part-time mechanic at Bikecology, I was presented a unique opportunity one day. One of our customers had ordered a black Ron Cooper frame and when it arrived at our shop ( on Santa Monica Blvd. ), the manager of the shop noticed there was a very minor ding in the top tube of the frame (probably happened after it left England, during shipping to our store). When he showed it to the customer, they didn't like the ding and said they would wait until a replacement frame could be sent from England. The ding was not critical, in terms of the integrity of the frame - it was just a small cosmetic thing.
Now my manager, a really strong cyclist named Manny, knew I was just getting into road racing and asked me if I would be interested in buying the "damaged" frame from him - at a very good discount from the normal wholesale price. Really? Wooooooohooooo!!! I had (barely) enough in my bank account to buy just the frame, which just happened to be the size I needed. And Manny was kind enough to let me build up the bike after work, and even loaned me the money to purchase a lot of the high-end Suntour components I used to outfit my new bike - Campy was just way too expensive!
I was so excited about the prospect of having this incredible racing machine - and promptly went out to train even harder with my racing buddy, Danny Escalzo. He and I had accidentally gotten involved in road racing when we inadvertently joined a famous training ride in the local area - the Sunday Death Ride, which was a lot like any of the big group training rides that happen every weekend here in the Bay Area (like the Spectrum Ride or the Crow's Nest Ride on Saturday mornings).
Danny and I were out for one of our fun Sunday rides, riding from where we lived near UCLA down to Highway 1 (via Sunset Blvd), then turning north on Highway 1 to head up towards Oxnard and back (about a 100 mile ride). After riding for a couple of miles along Highway 1, we were suddenly passed by a huge pack of riders - at least 60 or 70 that day - and quickly hopped onto the back of the pack to ride with them. It turned out to be that famous Sunday Death Ride (which we had never heard about, since we weren't into racing at that point) - and after successfully staying with the pack all the way up to the turnaround point (which was at a little mini-market somewhere near Leo Carrillo State Beach) and then back to Santa Monica, we were invited by a guy named Maury to join his club, the North Hollywood Wheelmen.
So we did. And thus began my passion with racing road bikes - on the coolest racing bike I could ever imagine!
I entered a lot of road races and criteriums with my black Ron Cooper bike back in those fun college days during the mid-1970s. It was a truly magical time and passed all too quickly.
It's too bad I wandered away from the bike racing world after I graduated from UCLA and came up here to the Bay Area to start my career. But, at least I have a chance to enjoy those times once again, racing my new '08 Trek Madone (a black one, no less!) with my new club, Team Santa Cruz ( SCCCC ) - and hopefully, getting to employ some sort of team tactics with Dennis and a few others on both SCCCC and Team Bicycle Trip.
It's so interesting to see how lives become intertwined sometimes...and in the most unexpected ways, too! I hadn't thought about Bikecology and my first real racing bike, that Ron Cooper, for a very long time...
Thanks, Dennis!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Did I Actually Beat These Guys?
From my earlier posts, you might know that I did my first
road race in 30 years a few weeks ago - the San Ardo RR
( you can read about it here ).
One of the things I like to do for my races is scope out
the competition, of course - and with everything getting
blasted out onto the web these days, it's not all that hard
to do if you race bicycles.
Some of the promoters of various races use BikeReg.com or
SportsBaseOnline.com to register the entrants - and both of
those websites allow you to look at a list of all the current
registered cyclists for the different race categories - how
nice!
So, you can look at the list of names in your race, and then
go to usacycling.org to check out their racing palmares.
Having looked at a lot of names over the past few months
( starting about the time I got interested in racing bikes
again ), I happened to become familiar with a number of racers -
not by face, mind you - like everything else on the web these
days, just virtually. And occasionally, I get to actually
meet some of these individuals at the races I'm now starting
to attend ( or the training rides - like those Noon Goon rides
I do out of Palo Alto a few times during the weekdays ).
So I happened to be browsing through the race results for
my San Ardo race ( you can see for yourself here ) and suddenly,
I saw 2 names that popped out at me - Frederick Stamm and
John Novitsky - and I noticed that I had actually placed
ahead of both of those guys! I got 16th, Frederick got 21st,
and John got 26th.
So what's the big deal about that?
Well, first of all, I could have easily placed a lot higher -
top 10 for sure, and top 5 maybe - but I had made a really
dumb tactical error towards the end of the race (duh!).
But more importantly, I had actually beaten both those guys -
and these are guys I had dreamed of one day beating, mostly
because they are both strong riders that regularly do quite
well in road races and hillclimb events - climbing hills is
my one main weakness that I intend to work on this next year -
but these guys can climb quite well, especially considering
that they are about my age (John is 49 and Frederick is 55 -
and I'm 53).
John Novitsky can time-trial really well, too - he beat just
about everybody in the Beat-the-Clock Canada Road time trials
this last year ( check out the results page here ).
And you can check out John's racing palmares and see his
accomplishments in some of the races he's done over the
last few years - impressive!
I got to know Frederick Stamm's name because of the
Low Key Hillclimb Series that was held last year
( it was originally held about 10 or 11 years ago for a
couple of years ) - and Frederick consistently placed quite
well on the hillclimbs - especially considering that he's
55 years old! I plan on doing the climbing series this year -
it's coming up soon! - and I always thought it would be nice
if I could eventually climb as well as Frederick Stamm,
among others.
And he has an impressive racing palmares, too - as you
can see by checking out his racing results over the last few
years. So I thought it would be cool to someday be able to
compete with him in a race.
And now, I see that in my first road race in 30 years, I actually
beat both these guys! - woooohoooo!!!
Now, the San Ardo race didn't exactly play to their strengths -
in fact, one reason I picked that race as my first road race in
30 years was precisely because it wasn't too hilly - just a lot
of rollers and a long flat stretch on the backside of the course.
But still...how cool is that? Maybe I'll have a chance to be more
competitive next year - especially if I get some assistance in my
training from Dennis Pedersen and the new team he just joined,
Bicycle Trip.
I can't wait to see what happens next year with my racing...
road race in 30 years a few weeks ago - the San Ardo RR
( you can read about it here ).
One of the things I like to do for my races is scope out
the competition, of course - and with everything getting
blasted out onto the web these days, it's not all that hard
to do if you race bicycles.
Some of the promoters of various races use BikeReg.com or
SportsBaseOnline.com to register the entrants - and both of
those websites allow you to look at a list of all the current
registered cyclists for the different race categories - how
nice!
So, you can look at the list of names in your race, and then
go to usacycling.org to check out their racing palmares.
Having looked at a lot of names over the past few months
( starting about the time I got interested in racing bikes
again ), I happened to become familiar with a number of racers -
not by face, mind you - like everything else on the web these
days, just virtually. And occasionally, I get to actually
meet some of these individuals at the races I'm now starting
to attend ( or the training rides - like those Noon Goon rides
I do out of Palo Alto a few times during the weekdays ).
So I happened to be browsing through the race results for
my San Ardo race ( you can see for yourself here ) and suddenly,
I saw 2 names that popped out at me - Frederick Stamm and
John Novitsky - and I noticed that I had actually placed
ahead of both of those guys! I got 16th, Frederick got 21st,
and John got 26th.
So what's the big deal about that?
Well, first of all, I could have easily placed a lot higher -
top 10 for sure, and top 5 maybe - but I had made a really
dumb tactical error towards the end of the race (duh!).
But more importantly, I had actually beaten both those guys -
and these are guys I had dreamed of one day beating, mostly
because they are both strong riders that regularly do quite
well in road races and hillclimb events - climbing hills is
my one main weakness that I intend to work on this next year -
but these guys can climb quite well, especially considering
that they are about my age (John is 49 and Frederick is 55 -
and I'm 53).
John Novitsky can time-trial really well, too - he beat just
about everybody in the Beat-the-Clock Canada Road time trials
this last year ( check out the results page here ).
And you can check out John's racing palmares and see his
accomplishments in some of the races he's done over the
last few years - impressive!
I got to know Frederick Stamm's name because of the
Low Key Hillclimb Series that was held last year
( it was originally held about 10 or 11 years ago for a
couple of years ) - and Frederick consistently placed quite
well on the hillclimbs - especially considering that he's
55 years old! I plan on doing the climbing series this year -
it's coming up soon! - and I always thought it would be nice
if I could eventually climb as well as Frederick Stamm,
among others.
And he has an impressive racing palmares, too - as you
can see by checking out his racing results over the last few
years. So I thought it would be cool to someday be able to
compete with him in a race.
And now, I see that in my first road race in 30 years, I actually
beat both these guys! - woooohoooo!!!
Now, the San Ardo race didn't exactly play to their strengths -
in fact, one reason I picked that race as my first road race in
30 years was precisely because it wasn't too hilly - just a lot
of rollers and a long flat stretch on the backside of the course.
But still...how cool is that? Maybe I'll have a chance to be more
competitive next year - especially if I get some assistance in my
training from Dennis Pedersen and the new team he just joined,
Bicycle Trip.
I can't wait to see what happens next year with my racing...
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
I (finally!) Got Dennis His Video Up On YouTube
Several weeks ago, I did the Timpani Criterium (you can check
out my race report for all the gory details) - and I got there early,
mostly to videotape the Cat 4 race, where my teammate,
Dennis Pedersen, was trying to place at least 5th (in order to
upgrade into Cat 3 before the end of this racing season).
Well, Dennis got 2nd place (congrats, Dennis!) - and I told him I
caught it all on videotape - he told me he had never seen himself
racing on video, so I promised to get the video up on YouTube
ASAP.
Then I managed to "misplace" the magic USB cable you need to
pull the video off the camcorder and onto your PC - oops! And,
I got busy with the usual stuff that engulfs your daily life - every
once in awhile, Dennis would query me, "Hey - how about that
video, Steve?" ....uh, any day now, Dennis...
In the meantime, I enlisted the aid of my son, Mitchell, to tape
our Giro di San Francisco crit (you can read the coverage of
that disaster of a race, if you want), as well as my somewhat
comical redemption at the Benicia Town Race (details can be
found here).
Side note: Dennis just sent me an e-mail to a link of some
nice guy that took pictures at our Benicia Town Race - that
picture you see above shows me in my blue SCCCC kit (on the
right side of the photo). I'm even smiling - this was most
likely just before my seatpost slipped down to my top tube
and hampered the rest of my race (but, I finished, anyway!).
Back to my story: I had just about given up finding that
damn cable and was about to buy a new USB cable for the
camcorder when I got lucky and found the missing cable -
wooohooo!! That night, I pulled off the video for that
Timpani crit race - and now, Dennis - here it is, for
posterity's sake:
Timpani Criterium Cat 4 Race on YouTube
And with that, I removed one of those monkeys that's been
riding on my back... :)
I would have pulled off the other videos, too - but our internet
connection really sucked last night - it took an amazingly long
time just to upload that one video. We'll try again tonight for
those other videos...
Enjoy the show, Dennis!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Noon Goon "Race" Report
So here I sit, creating the first entry of my first blog - and I'm
asking myself, "Why would anyone waste their time creating
a blog, knowing full well that virtually nobody will ever read
your awesome insights into all things that constitute your life?"
Okay, so my Mom will probably read my blog - and I'll
probably read it - several times over, just to make sure it is
grammatically correct - but nobody else really cares, right?
I guess this is just one way to record some of the minutia that
consumes your day...maybe my kids will discover this blog
one day, when I'm too old and fragile to communicate with
anyone - and they'll at least get a little glimpse of my life
back in my younger, healthier days!
In my case, that minutia will probably have something to do
with one of my great passions these days, biking! And hence,
you will get to read about the "musings of a cyclotic" - I don't
know what inspired me to think of "cyclotic", but it seemed to
fit, for a variety of reasons.
Today's topic? Gee - could it have anything to do with bikes?
Okay, so one of the things I do these days is train - I got back
into bike racing recently - and it's a total blast! It takes me
back to my college days, when I used to race bikes with a lot of
passion - and some relative success, too!
One of the training rides I do during the weekdays is the Palo Alto
Noon Ride - it leaves from the same spot (Old Page Mill Rd),
at the same time (12:00 Noon), every day during the week,
all year round. I suppose especially nasty weather days might
reduce the number of participants, but most days there will be
anywhere from 10 to 30 cyclists, most of them amateur bike racers
like me, just getting out for a little noon-time training ride - the
rides usually only last about an hour - maybe a little longer on
certain days - but it's a *fast* hour or so. And they are just training
rides, but more often than not, they are really unsanctioned bike
races - and so today, I present to you a typical "race report", so you
can see what consititues one of my typical noon-time training rides...
I'll often refer to my fellow cyclists on these rides as the Noon Goons -
it sounds derogatory, but it's actually an affectionate reference to
a bunch of guys (and gals!) that I truly respect - I think each and
every one of them understands the hard work it takes to reach the
level where you can do one of these rides and survive to the end -
I honestly believe every one of the Noon Goons is a special person,
with that unique understanding of something quite extraordinary -
riding a bike at the extreme physical limits of your abilities. This
blog is probably more a testament to these great cyclists - they're
all winners, in my book - even the ones that inevitably get dropped
at some point during the ride - 'cause you just *know* they're
going to come back again one day - and kick your ass!
==========================================================================
Noon Goon Race - Monday Edition, Palo Alto / Woodside, CA USA, 9/10/2007
Normally, the Monday edition of the Noon Ride out of Palo Alto is
what we like to refer to as a 'recovery ride' - just a bunch of friendly
amateur racers out for a little noon-time spin to help flush out the
lactic acid that built up from the previous weekend's races.
And, in this case, *some* of us had actually raced on the previous
weekend - I, for one, had done the Benicia Town Race just the day
before, on Sunday morning - it was a somewhat hilly crit - not quite
as intense as the Cat's Hill crit, but it did register a respectable
1100 feet of climbing in the 16-mile race - I had done the 35+ 4/5
race, which lasted almost exactly 40 minutes - you can see my race
report here for the gory details:
http://www.santacruzcycling.org/teamsc/2007/racereport/#992007SteveRosen
So the Benicia Town Race was a relatively intense effort for the 40
minutes that it lasted, and Monday's Noon Goon ride *should* have
been a nice, relaxing, 'recovery' ride. And, in fact, that is exactly
how it started out - it wasn't clear that too many people had raced
last weekend - I think only a couple of us had actually raced up at
Benicia - but the Monday ride can go both ways on any given week -
sometimes it's easy and mellow (averaging about 20 mph) - and other
weeks, it gets fast and nasty (averaging more than 22 mph). And you
have to remember, those average speeds include a *very* easy
rollout for the first few miles (down Old Page Mill to Page Mill, then
a right on Arastradero and over to Alpine Rd), as well as a few
'biking stops' at stop signs and signals. In fact, the pack usually rolls
through most of the stop signs in a very responsible manner - and
almost always stops completely at a signal with a red light (though
I've personally witnessed a couple of exceptions - arrgghh!!).
This particular Monday looked like it was going to be one of those
'nice' Mondays - a true recovery ride, with no hard efforts or any
attempts to simulate a real race. It was a fairly large pack, too -
probably about 30 cyclists (normally, Mondays will only have 15 to
20 show up). People were calmly chatting as we rolled down
Old Page Mill to Page Mill, then turned right onto Arastradero
and climbed easily up the Arastradero hills, on our way over to
Alpine Rd.
Sometimes, you can get a hint of things to come, based on how the
Arastradero hills are climbed - and today, it was very mellow, which
I now realize was the calm before the storm!
As we turned onto Alpine Rd, a couple of guys broke off the front
and started hammering their way up to Portola Rd. Now, when this
happens, the pack usually reacts right away and the breakaway gets
chased down within moments - it's very rare - almost never the case -
for a breakaway to take off and stay away for the rest of the ride.
When these two guys broke off the front, the pack just smiled and
said, "Goodbye! - see you next week!" - and continued to roll easily
up Alpine Rd - ah yes, this was going to be a very 'nice' day, indeed!
The pack was saying they didn't care if a couple of hammer-heads
wanted to impress themselves for the next hour or so.
But then something happened - a half dozen others near the front
decided after another mile or so to go for the breakaway duo, who
by now had already turned the corner and were speeding down
Portola Rd - and these 6 or 7 guys *really* put on the hurt,
pushing *very* hard in that last 1/2 mile before you turn right
at Portola Rd.
So, this seemed to be the official beginning of "the race" - it looks
like the first 4 miles from the start area was just a little promenade
zone - we could have had a race motorcycle out in front, keeping us
under control until that decisive moment on Alpine Rd.
Now, it looks like there were 2 camps in the crowd - one camp (like
me) wanted a nice, 'easy' day - and the other camp said, "Race time!
- Let's go!" ... and since I happened to be up near the front of the
pack when this all erupted, I got swept up in the "race" camp - and
we were off! My heartrate quickly shot up to time-trial pace (about
160 bpm) - and then it went into the dreaded "red zone" - about
167 bpm, which I can do for short distances, but not for the next
hour straight!
As we approached the turn at Portola Rd, I saw Yukie Nakamura
of team Tibco blast off from the front - she was going to bridge up to
the breakaway group of 6 or 7 that had already decided to go after
the "dynamic duo" that were well down Portola Rd by that time.
Yukie is a fairly regular participant in the Noon Goon rides - she's a
very strong woman, who mostly does the Cat 1/2/3 women's races
and has been racing for a long time - just check out her racing
palmares:
http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?compid=179928&all=1
Yukie can easily beat me on a hill - she's light and strong - an
excellent strength-to-weight ratio - typical of those little mountain
goats - but she can bridge gaps, too - and she had just blasted off
to catch the group that was chasing the lead duo.
At this point, I had to make a decision - do I fade back and just
hang with the "Let's go easy today" camp - or do I join the race?
Well, before I had made up my mind, my legs made an instantaneous
decision - maybe I just wanted to play a little game and see if I
could bridge up to Yukie, who was well on her way to bridging up
to those 6 or 7 guys that were trying to reel in the initial breakaway.
And suddenly, here I was, sprinting like a madman to catch up to
Yukie, which I did - and then we worked together to latch onto the
main group of 6 or 7 - and then all of us worked real hard (including
me!) to reel in the original breakaway - we were *flying* down
Portola Rd - and when we got those 2 guys in sight, they were dead
ducks - we caught them just before you hit the Portola Rd / Sandhill
Rd split - and as we split off to the left to stay on Portola Rd, we
were all together - about 10 or 12 of us, since another couple of guys
had decided to bridge up to Yukie and I as we joined the 6 or 7 that
we were initially chasing on Portola Rd.
The pace relaxed a little bit as we continued on Portola Rd, past
the Mtn Home split and then over towards Hwy 84 (Woodside Rd) -
I decided to pull the pack up to Woodside Rd and upped the pace
quite a bit as we headed over towards Tripp Rd. Somewhere on
Woodside Rd, before we got to Tripp, a few other guys took over
duties and continued to push a strong pace, right onto Tripp, heading
towards Kings Mtn Rd.
At Kings Mtn, we turned right (as usual) and started to pick up the
pace again as we headed into "The Maze", which is just a few little
country roads (Manuella, Albion, and Olive Hill) that allow you to
wind your way over to Canada Rd without seeing too many cars or
people.
"The Maze" is always an interesting part of the Noon Goon ride, as
there is a traditional sprint up the Albion hill, to where it meets
Olive Hill Rd - this is the first of two traditional sprints on the
regular Noon Goon Monday ride - the other one being the end of
the ride, on Foothill, just before we get back to Page Mill Rd.
As usual, a big surge happened in "The Maze" and everyone sprinted
like wild dogs up Albion - I decided to conserve a little energy and not
contest the sprint - I just followed Yukie up the hill - there were
several guys that were much stronger sprinters on an uphill than
either of us!
The 12 of us (not sure of the exact count, but it was something
like that) were clearly far away from the rest of the pack, who
had obviously decided not to chase us down - or if they were, they
weren't succeeding! Actually, they might have been trying - but
we were pushing a pretty strong pace for most of our ride.
When we got down to Canada Rd and Woodside Rd (where the
infamous Roberts Market is located), we made a rolling 'stop' and
headed up to Whiskey Hill Rd, where the pace stayed fairly mellow -
everyone knew to conserve a little energy for the Sandhill climb -
it's just a 1/2 mile or so - and not very steep - but if you are climbing
it at 18 to 21 mph, it can feel pretty tough! And today was no
exception - the climb up Sandhill started out pretty mellow, but the
pace intensified quite a bit as we got closer to the top (typical in a
race - the surge over the top of a climb).
This is where I experienced something truly fun - I was climbing
okay, but had let a small gap open up as we pushed the speed up to
a 20 mph pace on the hill - I just can't climb quite that strong -
at least not for very long! But suddenly, a "hand of god" came
swooping down from out of the skies and I felt this sudden new
source of energy pushing me up the hill - it was a friendly Cat 1
guy (I'm guessing at his category - I just know he was a lot stronger
than me!) that was shoving me along to close down the gap! What
a rush! I said "Thanks!" and proceeded to quickly close down the
small gap, dragging the Cat 1 guy (and those behind him) with me...
what fun! And what a nice thing to do, too! I suppose he realized
that I was in a little over my head with this group - and he saw that
I had been doing my fair share of the work earlier - so he was just
making sure I stayed in contact with our breakaway group as we
crested Sandhill and started the fun plunge down towards Juniper
Serra.
As we descended down towards Juniper Serra, I had recovered
well enough to lead the group for the last 1/2 mile and into the right
turn onto Alpine Rd (but only for a 1/2 block, since you then turn
left onto Juniper Serra).
When we got onto Juniper Serra, the pace quickly picked up strong
again - and we motored along towards Foothill. At one point, we
had to stop for a red light, which we all did - and then went right
back into "race" mode as we headed for the final sprint, just before
you get to Page Mill Rd.
As we approached the last couple of hundred meters, everyone went
into "sprint" mode, but I decided to just ease up and coast on in -
it had been a fun day, and I was truly toast! No sprint for me today...
And, about 3 or 4 minutes later, the rest of the pack came sprinting
down Foothill - it was fun realizing that I had participated in a
true breakaway group that succeeded to the end of the ride - a rare
thing for the Noon Goon rides! What fun!
Here are some general stats for my ride today:
22.1 mph - Average speed (including our easy rollout and stops)
46.6 mph - Maximum speed (now *that* is pretty darn fast!)
147 bpm - Average heartrate (zone 4.4 for me)
20.24 mi - Distance
1328 ft - Total climbing
54:58 - Total time for the ride - a new record!
Normally, a Monday Noon Goon ride is about 1 hour long - and the
average speed is usually about 20 mph or so. This was a full 5
minutes faster - pretty fast for a Monday ride!
If you want to see just how hard this "race" was today, just check
out my recording of the ride:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3918684
In retrospect, although my legs were asking for a 'recovery' ride,
I'm glad I decided to torture them and go for the 'race' instead -
it was good training, both physically - and mentally!
asking myself, "Why would anyone waste their time creating
a blog, knowing full well that virtually nobody will ever read
your awesome insights into all things that constitute your life?"
Okay, so my Mom will probably read my blog - and I'll
probably read it - several times over, just to make sure it is
grammatically correct - but nobody else really cares, right?
I guess this is just one way to record some of the minutia that
consumes your day...maybe my kids will discover this blog
one day, when I'm too old and fragile to communicate with
anyone - and they'll at least get a little glimpse of my life
back in my younger, healthier days!
In my case, that minutia will probably have something to do
with one of my great passions these days, biking! And hence,
you will get to read about the "musings of a cyclotic" - I don't
know what inspired me to think of "cyclotic", but it seemed to
fit, for a variety of reasons.
Today's topic? Gee - could it have anything to do with bikes?
Okay, so one of the things I do these days is train - I got back
into bike racing recently - and it's a total blast! It takes me
back to my college days, when I used to race bikes with a lot of
passion - and some relative success, too!
One of the training rides I do during the weekdays is the Palo Alto
Noon Ride - it leaves from the same spot (Old Page Mill Rd),
at the same time (12:00 Noon), every day during the week,
all year round. I suppose especially nasty weather days might
reduce the number of participants, but most days there will be
anywhere from 10 to 30 cyclists, most of them amateur bike racers
like me, just getting out for a little noon-time training ride - the
rides usually only last about an hour - maybe a little longer on
certain days - but it's a *fast* hour or so. And they are just training
rides, but more often than not, they are really unsanctioned bike
races - and so today, I present to you a typical "race report", so you
can see what consititues one of my typical noon-time training rides...
I'll often refer to my fellow cyclists on these rides as the Noon Goons -
it sounds derogatory, but it's actually an affectionate reference to
a bunch of guys (and gals!) that I truly respect - I think each and
every one of them understands the hard work it takes to reach the
level where you can do one of these rides and survive to the end -
I honestly believe every one of the Noon Goons is a special person,
with that unique understanding of something quite extraordinary -
riding a bike at the extreme physical limits of your abilities. This
blog is probably more a testament to these great cyclists - they're
all winners, in my book - even the ones that inevitably get dropped
at some point during the ride - 'cause you just *know* they're
going to come back again one day - and kick your ass!
==========================================================================
Noon Goon Race - Monday Edition, Palo Alto / Woodside, CA USA, 9/10/2007
Normally, the Monday edition of the Noon Ride out of Palo Alto is
what we like to refer to as a 'recovery ride' - just a bunch of friendly
amateur racers out for a little noon-time spin to help flush out the
lactic acid that built up from the previous weekend's races.
And, in this case, *some* of us had actually raced on the previous
weekend - I, for one, had done the Benicia Town Race just the day
before, on Sunday morning - it was a somewhat hilly crit - not quite
as intense as the Cat's Hill crit, but it did register a respectable
1100 feet of climbing in the 16-mile race - I had done the 35+ 4/5
race, which lasted almost exactly 40 minutes - you can see my race
report here for the gory details:
http://www.santacruzcycling.org/teamsc/2007/racereport/#992007SteveRosen
So the Benicia Town Race was a relatively intense effort for the 40
minutes that it lasted, and Monday's Noon Goon ride *should* have
been a nice, relaxing, 'recovery' ride. And, in fact, that is exactly
how it started out - it wasn't clear that too many people had raced
last weekend - I think only a couple of us had actually raced up at
Benicia - but the Monday ride can go both ways on any given week -
sometimes it's easy and mellow (averaging about 20 mph) - and other
weeks, it gets fast and nasty (averaging more than 22 mph). And you
have to remember, those average speeds include a *very* easy
rollout for the first few miles (down Old Page Mill to Page Mill, then
a right on Arastradero and over to Alpine Rd), as well as a few
'biking stops' at stop signs and signals. In fact, the pack usually rolls
through most of the stop signs in a very responsible manner - and
almost always stops completely at a signal with a red light (though
I've personally witnessed a couple of exceptions - arrgghh!!).
This particular Monday looked like it was going to be one of those
'nice' Mondays - a true recovery ride, with no hard efforts or any
attempts to simulate a real race. It was a fairly large pack, too -
probably about 30 cyclists (normally, Mondays will only have 15 to
20 show up). People were calmly chatting as we rolled down
Old Page Mill to Page Mill, then turned right onto Arastradero
and climbed easily up the Arastradero hills, on our way over to
Alpine Rd.
Sometimes, you can get a hint of things to come, based on how the
Arastradero hills are climbed - and today, it was very mellow, which
I now realize was the calm before the storm!
As we turned onto Alpine Rd, a couple of guys broke off the front
and started hammering their way up to Portola Rd. Now, when this
happens, the pack usually reacts right away and the breakaway gets
chased down within moments - it's very rare - almost never the case -
for a breakaway to take off and stay away for the rest of the ride.
When these two guys broke off the front, the pack just smiled and
said, "Goodbye! - see you next week!" - and continued to roll easily
up Alpine Rd - ah yes, this was going to be a very 'nice' day, indeed!
The pack was saying they didn't care if a couple of hammer-heads
wanted to impress themselves for the next hour or so.
But then something happened - a half dozen others near the front
decided after another mile or so to go for the breakaway duo, who
by now had already turned the corner and were speeding down
Portola Rd - and these 6 or 7 guys *really* put on the hurt,
pushing *very* hard in that last 1/2 mile before you turn right
at Portola Rd.
So, this seemed to be the official beginning of "the race" - it looks
like the first 4 miles from the start area was just a little promenade
zone - we could have had a race motorcycle out in front, keeping us
under control until that decisive moment on Alpine Rd.
Now, it looks like there were 2 camps in the crowd - one camp (like
me) wanted a nice, 'easy' day - and the other camp said, "Race time!
- Let's go!" ... and since I happened to be up near the front of the
pack when this all erupted, I got swept up in the "race" camp - and
we were off! My heartrate quickly shot up to time-trial pace (about
160 bpm) - and then it went into the dreaded "red zone" - about
167 bpm, which I can do for short distances, but not for the next
hour straight!
As we approached the turn at Portola Rd, I saw Yukie Nakamura
of team Tibco blast off from the front - she was going to bridge up to
the breakaway group of 6 or 7 that had already decided to go after
the "dynamic duo" that were well down Portola Rd by that time.
Yukie is a fairly regular participant in the Noon Goon rides - she's a
very strong woman, who mostly does the Cat 1/2/3 women's races
and has been racing for a long time - just check out her racing
palmares:
http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?compid=179928&all=1
Yukie can easily beat me on a hill - she's light and strong - an
excellent strength-to-weight ratio - typical of those little mountain
goats - but she can bridge gaps, too - and she had just blasted off
to catch the group that was chasing the lead duo.
At this point, I had to make a decision - do I fade back and just
hang with the "Let's go easy today" camp - or do I join the race?
Well, before I had made up my mind, my legs made an instantaneous
decision - maybe I just wanted to play a little game and see if I
could bridge up to Yukie, who was well on her way to bridging up
to those 6 or 7 guys that were trying to reel in the initial breakaway.
And suddenly, here I was, sprinting like a madman to catch up to
Yukie, which I did - and then we worked together to latch onto the
main group of 6 or 7 - and then all of us worked real hard (including
me!) to reel in the original breakaway - we were *flying* down
Portola Rd - and when we got those 2 guys in sight, they were dead
ducks - we caught them just before you hit the Portola Rd / Sandhill
Rd split - and as we split off to the left to stay on Portola Rd, we
were all together - about 10 or 12 of us, since another couple of guys
had decided to bridge up to Yukie and I as we joined the 6 or 7 that
we were initially chasing on Portola Rd.
The pace relaxed a little bit as we continued on Portola Rd, past
the Mtn Home split and then over towards Hwy 84 (Woodside Rd) -
I decided to pull the pack up to Woodside Rd and upped the pace
quite a bit as we headed over towards Tripp Rd. Somewhere on
Woodside Rd, before we got to Tripp, a few other guys took over
duties and continued to push a strong pace, right onto Tripp, heading
towards Kings Mtn Rd.
At Kings Mtn, we turned right (as usual) and started to pick up the
pace again as we headed into "The Maze", which is just a few little
country roads (Manuella, Albion, and Olive Hill) that allow you to
wind your way over to Canada Rd without seeing too many cars or
people.
"The Maze" is always an interesting part of the Noon Goon ride, as
there is a traditional sprint up the Albion hill, to where it meets
Olive Hill Rd - this is the first of two traditional sprints on the
regular Noon Goon Monday ride - the other one being the end of
the ride, on Foothill, just before we get back to Page Mill Rd.
As usual, a big surge happened in "The Maze" and everyone sprinted
like wild dogs up Albion - I decided to conserve a little energy and not
contest the sprint - I just followed Yukie up the hill - there were
several guys that were much stronger sprinters on an uphill than
either of us!
The 12 of us (not sure of the exact count, but it was something
like that) were clearly far away from the rest of the pack, who
had obviously decided not to chase us down - or if they were, they
weren't succeeding! Actually, they might have been trying - but
we were pushing a pretty strong pace for most of our ride.
When we got down to Canada Rd and Woodside Rd (where the
infamous Roberts Market is located), we made a rolling 'stop' and
headed up to Whiskey Hill Rd, where the pace stayed fairly mellow -
everyone knew to conserve a little energy for the Sandhill climb -
it's just a 1/2 mile or so - and not very steep - but if you are climbing
it at 18 to 21 mph, it can feel pretty tough! And today was no
exception - the climb up Sandhill started out pretty mellow, but the
pace intensified quite a bit as we got closer to the top (typical in a
race - the surge over the top of a climb).
This is where I experienced something truly fun - I was climbing
okay, but had let a small gap open up as we pushed the speed up to
a 20 mph pace on the hill - I just can't climb quite that strong -
at least not for very long! But suddenly, a "hand of god" came
swooping down from out of the skies and I felt this sudden new
source of energy pushing me up the hill - it was a friendly Cat 1
guy (I'm guessing at his category - I just know he was a lot stronger
than me!) that was shoving me along to close down the gap! What
a rush! I said "Thanks!" and proceeded to quickly close down the
small gap, dragging the Cat 1 guy (and those behind him) with me...
what fun! And what a nice thing to do, too! I suppose he realized
that I was in a little over my head with this group - and he saw that
I had been doing my fair share of the work earlier - so he was just
making sure I stayed in contact with our breakaway group as we
crested Sandhill and started the fun plunge down towards Juniper
Serra.
As we descended down towards Juniper Serra, I had recovered
well enough to lead the group for the last 1/2 mile and into the right
turn onto Alpine Rd (but only for a 1/2 block, since you then turn
left onto Juniper Serra).
When we got onto Juniper Serra, the pace quickly picked up strong
again - and we motored along towards Foothill. At one point, we
had to stop for a red light, which we all did - and then went right
back into "race" mode as we headed for the final sprint, just before
you get to Page Mill Rd.
As we approached the last couple of hundred meters, everyone went
into "sprint" mode, but I decided to just ease up and coast on in -
it had been a fun day, and I was truly toast! No sprint for me today...
And, about 3 or 4 minutes later, the rest of the pack came sprinting
down Foothill - it was fun realizing that I had participated in a
true breakaway group that succeeded to the end of the ride - a rare
thing for the Noon Goon rides! What fun!
Here are some general stats for my ride today:
22.1 mph - Average speed (including our easy rollout and stops)
46.6 mph - Maximum speed (now *that* is pretty darn fast!)
147 bpm - Average heartrate (zone 4.4 for me)
20.24 mi - Distance
1328 ft - Total climbing
54:58 - Total time for the ride - a new record!
Normally, a Monday Noon Goon ride is about 1 hour long - and the
average speed is usually about 20 mph or so. This was a full 5
minutes faster - pretty fast for a Monday ride!
If you want to see just how hard this "race" was today, just check
out my recording of the ride:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3918684
In retrospect, although my legs were asking for a 'recovery' ride,
I'm glad I decided to torture them and go for the 'race' instead -
it was good training, both physically - and mentally!
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