Tour of the Catskills - Forum Archive

Ryan J

Aug 06, 2012 at 10:32 PM

@ dstokes — shimming a bar-end plug by wrapping it in electrical tape works a treat.

Love it

"tape"

Malcolmson's one-stop solution for all bike and apparel problems.

(Also, for the record, I do wrap all my bar ends in electrical tape to tighten them up.)

Jeff Owens

Aug 06, 2012 at 10:41 PM

Just leave a little more bartape off the end of the bars to tuck in and most plugs, cinelli, fizik, work fine.

JohnMalcolmson

Aug 06, 2012 at 11:12 PM

@ Ryan

kieranleahy

Aug 09, 2012 at 09:00 PM

@Jules and everyone, very impressed, congrats - that sounds brutal. Long drawn out suffering + climbing + heat = some of the reasons I took up track racing!

I came 2nd in the team sprint in the Irish track nationals at the weekend btw, riding with guys for my designated "international team", Cycling Pursuits. Faster than last year and beaten by a team with a full time rider in it (he trains at the UCI centre in Switzerland). There was some controversy though - the winning team broke the changeover rules really badly in their ride (the same rule which saw two teams DSQ-ed in the women's Olympic finals last week, including the Brits). We appealed but the commissaire turned it down - basically he bottled it due to the fact the winning team also happened to be the home track team! (not that I'm cynical or anything).

I was 4th in the keirin final too - annoying as I was 2nd in the first round, won my semi-final and was feeling suitably deranged for the final as a result. It wasn't to be though - I ran out of gas badly in the final 200m, partly because of being undergeared. The worst part was my school boy error in moving up the track coming out of the final bend which allowed someone to come by me on the inside, which is what lost me the bronze. Grrr.

I was also cajoled into riding the team pursuit. The first time I had ridden one since approx 1867. Hilariously, we came 4th, missing out on a medal by 4 secs. I think this says more about the standard of team pursuiting in Ireland than anything else!

I felt in good shape though and am hoping to carry some of this form to get some glory for Kissena in the State Champs...

eragot

Aug 09, 2012 at 10:25 PM

Nice job.

JohnMalcolmson

Aug 09, 2012 at 10:36 PM

Huge results Kieran!

Would love to see you smash a park race.

mperlberg

Aug 09, 2012 at 10:51 PM

That is awesome. I will echo johns sentiments, I'd love to set up a sprint finish in a park race for you.

kieranleahy

Aug 10, 2012 at 03:13 PM

Thanks guys, I'd love to smash the end of a park race - I'd just need to get through the rest of the race first, ha. Once the State Champs are done I'm going to focus on getting some all round fitness back - my base is a little scanty at the moment. I'd also need to learn how to corner again. When are the last park races of the season here?

JoshuaC

Aug 10, 2012 at 03:33 PM

kieranleahy - the Prospect Park races will dry up for the season soon, I think August is it.

There is a Sunday race series at FBF for a while though - the "graveyard" series . It started the first Sunday in August, and will go to the end of October.

mperlberg

Aug 10, 2012 at 04:28 PM

There will be 2-4 Sept / Oct park races I think.

Jules

Aug 10, 2012 at 07:12 PM

Overall the trip was fun, but the racing sucked.

Headed into this race I was 50/50. My racing season began this year with Grant's Tomb and by the Sunday prior I was feeling a little burnt out.

I discussed my concerns with Max, and we decided to wait until Wednesday morning to make any decisions; and true to prediction despite feeling quite flat monday and tuesday, wednesday rolled around and my legs were felling spry.

"Lets go" I said, and we agreed that Fun would be at the top of the list.

Later that day both kids got sick with colds. Lisa & I looked at each other and did the "5-7 days gestation for an average cold" math; I might just make it through unscathed.

Thursday rolled around and we packed up the kids, bikes, rental disk wheel, kit and sundry stage racing gear and headed over Manhattan to pick up Derek.

...

Jules

Aug 10, 2012 at 07:12 PM

Prologue

After a nice night's sleep we signed in and set up "camp" in the shade where it was "only" 92 degrees. 100% humidity be damned, I was warming up with a bucket of ice (thanks Lisa!) next to me.

I didn't get the full 90 minutes I'd planned for because I forgot a trainer skewer so I had to borrow both a trainer and a skewer from the dad of a Junior rider who was warming up on rollers next to me.

In conversation he said this flyweight kid (120 pounds maybe) would do "about 350" watts for the 12 mile time trial. Ugh, I felt old.

My target was 290 - I've been having a hard time getting any good watts on my tt bike so I figured I'd go out around 280 and ramp it up at the halfway point.

I got to the start, put a bag of ice in my skinsuit and clipped in. 3...2...1... boom!

I kept it in the cage for the first 2 minutes, mindful not to go out too hard like I did last year, and before long I was sailing on that long downhill to the turnaround. Water from the ice bag was streaming down from my back onto my chest and legs. I could feel that I was going fast - so I tried not to worry about power - just rolling that gear and staying fast - and fast I was. For the first half I averaged 27 mph with only 260 watts to do it.

"Great" I thought, "All the more for the return trip..." but it was not to be. Out of ice and with the temperature at 100 degrees I was powering down like a dying Terminator. I clawed and scratched and fought to keep rolling but the return trip into town was a sad, sad affair. I took the only right-hand corner wide (Thanks JP) and passed someone on the little riser, then a hard left onto the final straightaway - the same stretch of road that is the finishing stretch for the Hunter Mountain race - I was out of the saddle in the big ring for the final hill and when it leveled off I got aero again, pushing the pedals with all my might.

I finished 6 seconds slower than last year, but much farther back on GC. Despite passing several people I was 1:30 back on GC in 17th place.

Race song going through my head on infinite loop was "5 little ducks" my son's favorite.

Pros:

I didn't freak out when the watts weren't there

I was much more relaxed about the whole pre-race ritual than in previous years/races

Cons:
Didn't do very well overall

Didn't hit target wattage

"Little things" not as under control as usual (trainer skewer, ice bucket)

Jules

Aug 10, 2012 at 07:13 PM

Road Race 1

I awoke feeling fine; legs were good and I had time for a nice breakfast with the kids, pinned my numbers and rolled out towards the start looking for Peter. I ran into Erin Koff and chatted a bit with him while sitting in the shade as we all waited for the various fields to go off ahead of us. As one field rolled quietly away from the starting line someone in the back hollered, "That's the move!" and everyone laughed.

Soon enough Peter joined us and we chatted a bit about nerves, descents and the stage ahead.

It was (again) 90 degrees and close to 100% humidity. Within 15 minutes of the start it was 95 degrees and within 40 it was 100.

We all rolled along without incident - on the first hill there was a brief clash of bars and just ahead of me I saw someone stop; his rear derailleur had been torn off. As we rode past I heard him scream in frustration, and I felt for him. Not fair.

At the base of the very first climb - about 15 minutes in the guys in the front drilled it. I was top 5 or 10 at the time and I played what I thought was the best move, sag climbing a bit so that I'd come over the top of the hills in about 20th but still attached, so I didn't burn all my matches - but I stayed in contact should a split happen. There were 3 "serious" peaks in the first hour with about 1700 feet of climbing - Peter and I both joked that we'd both beaten our Prologue wattages for twice the time...

Somewhere in this first hour there was a pretty big split - 30 of us got away and continued to drill it. I was working hard to stay top 10 so I couldn't tell if Peter was there, but I wasn't confident enough to drop back and look for him. Just before the first big descent we let up (I still don't know why) and we were caught.

I am delighted report that the downhill was no big deal at all. 1300 feet of descending in less than 5 miles with a peak speed over 50 mph... Last year I pre-rode these descents with a belly full of terror, and I'd fretted about them for weeks ahead of time - this year I just stayed cool, stayed at the front and stayed off the brakes more than most.

Peter hasn't changed a bit since we raced together in 2009; he's a rolling one-motivation-machine; flying along at 50mph he's chattering calm encouragement, grinning from ear to ear.

"Grab that top tube with your knees like it's trying to kick you in the balls" he'd say whenever things leveled out. How can you not have fun with that?

Things were going well; I'd stuck it out through the first selections and my instincts had been sound - when my legs started to hurt I'd say to myself "if you're hurting they must be hurting more" and almost always the pack had slowed just moments after I said that to myself.

Once we got to the "bottom" of the ride for the day we rode along with things fairly social and watched the temperatures climb. I ate & drank my nutrition, salt, etc like clockwork but worried nonetheless. My plan had been for the forecast 82 degree high, not the 104 we saw less than two hours in.

Jules

Aug 10, 2012 at 07:14 PM

I chatted with Norm's buddy from the KSR - his Waffles & Dinges hammer head friend who had with Norm smashed the flat run-in to the final KSR climb. He told me that his ride with Norm that day was the highlight of his season - better even than the 3 man break he "stuck" in Central Park.

We hit the final feed zone at about the 2.5 hour mark, with temperatures still around 104. I took on 2 bottles of water in case Peter needed one, but again I was sticking like glue in the top 10 or 15 and I didn't dare drop back for fear of getting stuck there at the bottom of the Devil's Kitchen climb.

I drank it, ate my last bit of food and braced myself for the battle about 5 miles out from the bottom of DK.

When we hit it was less dramatic than in year's past. People didn't swerve as much, we all just seemed to "power down" I struggled, slowed, continued, stood, slowed. According to my computer I managed to endure about 20 minutes of 104 degree temps and put out just under 250 watts before I...just...slowed...too...much... and had to walk. TO WALK. TO WALK!

I was pretty destroyed; guys I normally can drop like bad habits were riding past me, and I could only lean over my bars and try not to fall down. Slowly I began to walk to the side of the road. I took off my shoes and began to walk.

I walked for about 10 minutes, waved off a gentlemanly photographer and then eventually remounted, regrouped and fought my way to the top where I worked with random dudes until I finally met up with Marc Anderson from Velocity (Ryan's good buddy:P) and we worked together really well, just as eager as possible to be done with the stage.

We rolled over the finish line side by side, grateful to one another to have helped shorten the suffering. Peter was there, my family, and Derek who - god BLESS HIS SOUL somehow go a giant pile of grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate milk.

After a great deal of time I collected myself and dragged my dejected self home to mope, and nap. I'd come to the race hoping to crack top 10 and instead I'd lost like 15 minutes on the day and WALKED the "Kitchen"

My right foot was killing me - it must've swollen in the heat and gotten pinched inside my shoe. Lisa thought it might have been broken but in retrospect it was just a form of self-inflicted crush injury.

I decided not the race the next day.

Out of 106 starters less than 75 made the time cut (or finished) the DK stage.

Out of 106 starters only 61 finished under the time cut the next day.

Later when I saw the temperature charts I didn't feel nearly so bad - but I beat myself up pretty badly before that.

Pros:

Descents were totally under control

Stayed top 10 for almost the entire race, until DK

Made the initial selection without too much trouble

Each time I started to hurt I'd say to myself, "these guys must be getting tired" and like clockwork they'd back off

Ate & drank my race nutrition plan to a T: including last food 4-5 miles out from DK, getting an extra bottle in the feed

Woke up the morning of the race feeling pretty good

Cons:
Total meltdown in the heat

WALKED DK

Race nutrition plan was "just enough" with no wiggle room for extra time or heat

Didn't adjust my nutrition plan at all when I saw 90's instead of 80's temp

Some kind of weird foot injury - swelling, pain - stress fracture?

Overall I'm glad I went; humility is good, as are reminders that even the best laid plans can go amiss. It was not a glorious end to my road season but it was a definitive one. I can put a very clear flag on the calendar and say HERE was the last day. Beyond this I regroup and prepare for Cross - where races are COLD

Jules

Aug 10, 2012 at 07:15 PM

@ Kieran: Chapeau! Very impressive - will throw my hand up as well in the "would love to lead you out to the finale of a park race someday"

Marc Bertucco

Aug 11, 2012 at 10:11 PM

Why I will likely never do a race like Catskills ever again in the Pro 1/2 category:

I think there's a fine line between epic course and ridiculous. I'm not sure where Catskills is on the spectrum, but looking over the Pro 1/2 final GC there are some alarming results. To borrow a phrase from JP's earlier posting on the Mengoni Grand Prix page, here are basically full-time semi pro bike racers with mad cash/equipment support from their teams and here are there results:

18th place Dan Chabanov...18th Dan, 18th in a regional climbing stage race? Jesus.
29th place Gavi Epstein...Gavi "Used to ride for Garmin" Epstein. Fuck me.
40th place John Loehner...John "Used to be a team Saturn pro" Loehner. Christ.

Jules

Aug 11, 2012 at 11:00 PM

@ Marc it's hard to use this year's results as a measuring stick.

The heat was unbelievable - that said the field was insanely strong - the guy who won the DK stage was (is) literally a phenom - former 1500m runner only a year and a half into bike racing he rode in alone over a minute ahead of the field.

I heard second-hand that Dan C spent about 40 minutes planning to never ride his bike again on Saturday.

kieranleahy

Aug 12, 2012 at 09:50 PM

@Jules - that sounds so tough! Least you can rest easy now your season is over. Thanks for the lead out offer. Am looking forward to getting some miles in over the fall / winter, maybe after then I will be in good enough aerobic shape to handle a a race longer than 1km!

Peter Bysshe

Aug 13, 2012 at 09:11 PM

photo bombing?

that's my best Ivan Basso look!

http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Ivan+Basso/2011+USA+Pro+Cycling+Challenge+Day+6/J9z9hIL5A_0

I probably looked like I was smiling as I slowly inched up Devils Kitchen the following day while practicing nearly a dozen "track stands" to fight off the very real possibility of having to walk. Brutal heat conditions and epic power numbers for the first half hour out of the gate . . . was not smiling then.

I was however, definitely smiling on Sunday 1. To still be able to turn the pedals 2. Because nothing beats screaming down hill at 50+mph . . . except doing it in the driving rain! . . Suffering in bad weather makes us all feel that much more alive in the end.

Despite Jules' very shrewd decision to not race Sunday, he was there for me in spirit. Going into Sunday 24th in the GC and 7 minutes back, I shifted my mindset to count the day of racing as my first day towards training for Battenkill 2013 where Jules will most certainly be back with a vengeance.

Time to lube up the CX machines for some short burst lung bleeding.

Jules

May 08, 2013 at 12:58 PM

Breaking news:

2013 TOC:

"So the verdict is in: Stage 1 will be an individual TT on an out-and-back course with a moderate climb. Up, then down. No TT bikes or aerobars allowed."

Ryan J

May 08, 2013 at 01:17 PM

Love it.

Adam

May 08, 2013 at 01:29 PM

Yyyyeeeeeeeeesssssssssss!!!!!

Jules

May 08, 2013 at 01:33 PM

I smell a Cat 3 contingent assembling...

Mark Clifford

May 08, 2013 at 01:43 PM

seriously, what the fuck is that?

catskills.JPG

Jules

May 08, 2013 at 01:44 PM

Mark Clifford said:

seriously, what the fuck is that?

That is the "Devil's Kitchen"

It'll put hair on your chest, trust me.

Ryan J

May 08, 2013 at 01:50 PM

I haven't done this for two years and it wasn't on my calendar this year. But this is partly because for the last couple years not many Kissenas have gone. I'd go if others want to.

Jules

May 08, 2013 at 01:51 PM

If my knee holds up and my form comes around I'll seriously consider it.

Adam

May 08, 2013 at 02:08 PM

If Jules' info is correct, mass start gear only, I'm a definite. My biggest gripe with this race is that you were always rewarded for having a TT bike (for the flat TT). Not fair. If they level the playing field, as Jules suggested, this race will be great. Sorry not great, fair. That stupid hill is not 'great'

@Ryan, most of your most recent statement was erroneous. You did do it two years ago, with me and half the club. Last year there were 4 Kissenas there.

Jules

May 08, 2013 at 02:12 PM

@Adam I don't think there is an "if" there. This seems clear cut - and is corroborated on at the TOC website.

TOC.jpg

Adam

May 08, 2013 at 02:16 PM

Ha ha.

Check out those mo'fo switchbacks on the TT course (bottom of page)!! Definitely not flat.

https://www.bikereg.com/Net/18431