Spin in the park sounds nice.

John, if you come i'll bring your beaver.....tail mudflap. Ha. Had you there for a second.

Let's meet 6PM @ GAP.

i'd be down

interested in a power hour?

done - 6pm GAP

eric: can i stop by at 5:50 and drop my bag at your house?

Sure

I'm in. Bring the flap Jeff!

I want to do practice some 300m sprints if anyone is up.

Hey all, that was super paceline session tonight, the catch and repeat was kind of brutal. Sorry I had to jet. Saw Vollbach on my way home heading into the fray.

I have to mention, damn McKay, your acceleration is off the freak'n charts!
We could setup an unbeatable train around that sprint. Any idea what kind of wattage you're cranking out?

And yes please on the tail guard Jeff.

Ah, that was a challenging session for me.... brutal is appropriate... but fun! I don't know about the watts on the high end, what kind of wattage is good for sprinting? but in february i was struggling to kick my threshold up to 275 for an hour. not sure if i have made any improvement since then. going to floyd tomorrow?

You want to measure you're 5/10/30 second wattage. I think 2400 would do the trick!
Nah, anything 1000+ is going to be mighty effective—when Tom Boonen gives it full gas in a sprint, he can put out 1600 Watts at 110 rpm.
Chris Hoy is approx. 2400w and 92kg (26.09w/kg).
No Floyd tomorrow. In green jersey for Prospect Sunday.

this might be a dumb question, but when you calculate Watts/Kg do you include bike weight? I would assume in a sprint it doesn't really matter but if you are talking about climbing it makes a significant difference, no?

you guys got me interested in this:

assuming 165lbs (I might be more like 160 but I don't have a scale)

5 seconds: 1120 watts (14.96 watts/kg)
10 seconds: 1023 watts (13.66 watts/kg)
20 seconds: 918 watts (12.26 watts/kg)
30 seconds: 758 watts (10.12 watts/kg)

What is interesting is that my 5-10 second wattage has remained pretty steady or even dropped a tiny bit since march, but my 20-30 second power is steadily climbing. That is a good sign.

Good point, my google facts are a def a little sketchy. Hoy weighs 92kg; bmx bike maybe +7kg.
I think his max ever is actually just a smidge under 2500, perhaps it's a mere 25w/kg'ish. Dunno.

Interesting listen here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/audio/2006/nov/10/thepowerofone1002?INTCMP=SRCH

Those are healthy, healthy numbers Mike.

Posted By: John MalcolmsonThose are healthy, healthy numbers Mike.

the 20 second power peak was trying to get around your leadout at FBF. So i'm guessing your raw sprit numbers are right there if not higher...maybe not in watts/kg though

Ok here we go:

It all comes down to this. The big one. For all the marbles. If I'm reading the results correctly, all I need to do is beat Graham. Lance is a non-factor as even with a win he can't make up the ground on us.

http://wsunited.org/Roubaix Race Series Overall.xls

I'm not sure what happens in the case of a tie. Places 6-10 are all 1 point so we need to figure that out.

Who is in? Then let's talk strategy. Last week Graham made the mistake of working too hard to make a break happen and paid for it in the sprint. I'm pretty confident we can beat him in a sprint even if he is fresh, but the sprinters are getting better and better at sitting in and waiting.

Mike

@perlberg. Typically with a tie in points, the win goes to the person with the most top placings, or...whoever places highest in the last race. You have three 10-point placings, he has 2. Either way, I feel like if you beat Graham, you win. But that's just my opinion. Check with the organizers to be sure.

I'm in. Tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it until I keel over or get distratcted by a plate of cheese scones.

(If we make sure Setanta don't put any tasty, baked cheese nibbles anywhere on the course I'll be OK.)

cheese: the downfall of many a great man

i'm in for this - hoping to go on Attack duty int he second half unless Mike wants me for his chaperone/helper donkey

two weeks ago, we executed a perfect strategy:

- bring enough guys so that we can have someone attacking/off the front at all times

- mark Graham like mad (and keep Mike near him at all times)

- setup properly for the sprint: deliver Mike close to the front before the last turn (turn of death)

I'm down.

As I was sitting on Graham the whole race last time, I noticed a couple of things. He floated back a few times before the "turn of death" (where I love the people not following the general curve of the group and try to make a 100 degree turn, or whatever it is, on the inside and basically t-bone-ing the pack where there is zero room. nice) after doing harder efforts on the second side where we had the wind. Mike was much farther up with group with help, WDC, etc.

I don't know how to communicate this without alerting Graham, but if you would have attacked with some guys right after the turn, I'm pretty sure you would have had a decent chance of forming a break without Graham in it. I know it's sketchy there, but if you can take a quick look-see and find out if he's in the vicinity before the turn, it might be a good idea. I have a feeling people are going to be all over everything and this will be a field sprint. In which case, I'll go to the front and make it as hard as possible on the second straight before the death curve before peeling off.

To add to the strategery...

If it comes down to a sprint, make sure there's a sweeper from Kissena on Mike's wheel going into the sprint. This person's task is to make sure neither Graham nor anyone else drafts Mike in the final 500 meters. When Mike starts to sprint, this person can stand on the pedals, but allows mike to get a gap and prevents anyone from drafting him at the start of the sprint.

I'm in for Thursday too. If it comes down to a field sprint, should we plan to wind things up on the left side, before hitting the last turn? That way we can go a little wide and avoid the sh-tstorm undoubtedly brewing at the inside corner. Besides, that corner collects gravel so not only is it tight, but slippery too.

cheese scone om nom nom

I wish I could be there.
Kick ass

Another tip for Thursday...if you can afford the manpower, there should be someone with Perlberg at all times, should he have a mechanical. Preferably of similar size/pedal set-up. Although, I will tell you that for some reason Keith's campy 10 speed shifted better than my own Shimano set up when I borrowed his wheel at Grant's Tomb this year.

And if you look around are in the bunch, don't see Mike around or up front, drop back and get ready to TTT him back to the field.

Fortunately, they have a free lap rule for the beginning of the race, so no TTTing needed unless I flat towards the end.

I'm in for this one if work doesn't prevent me. I would love nothing more than to work so hard I get dropped.

By the way I ride a 55cm frame, 10 speed Shimano/SRAM cassette, Look Keo pedals (not compatible with Shimano cleats -- sorry Mike, if I give you my bike, you'll have to wear my shoes!).

Posted By: Marc BertuccoAlthough, I will tell you that for some reason Keith's campy 10 speed shifted better than my own Shimano set up when I borrowed his wheel at Grant's Tomb this year.

I have a shimano 10 wheel on a Campy 10 setup right now. The 11 to 12 shifting is a little bit less than perfect, but other than that it's just fine. Crazy!

My rusty self is in for tomorrow. No promises, other than trying hard, huffing and puffing, grimacing, etc....

So if Graham and Mike both finish out of the points .. then Mike wins the series because he has three victories ? Is that correct ? Can we confirm.

If so then we as a team don't need to do anything other than follow Graham. If a break goes - then let it. Setanta will have to chase it down to keep Graham in contention. Eventually they will wear themselves out and Graham may have to do the chasing himself.

This means that Graham will be at worst isolated in the finale or maybe minus a few 'matches' and hence a lot easier to beat. Especially if Mike and all of us haven't done anything heroic all evening so we are fresher.