BCMCA Abbotsford RR

Another fun BCMCA race on my favorite local course... only one "hill" and it is short enough to not really count :-) Total elevation gain something like 40m per lap for nine laps.

Unlike most of the BCMCA races this was not done as Australian pursuit... Two groups everyone up to 54... and everyone 55 and older. So I got to play with the young guys... who kept up a fairly brisk pace of just over 40km/h. About lap four someone got off the front a few hundred yards and a small group jumped away at the top of the small climb to go and catch him (led by Chris Squire and Michel Pelletier..) I was at the back of the group at the time so wasn't there to go with them.

I assumed, wrongly, that the larger group would reel them back in... but we didn't get organized and they kept away for the last two laps... There was no on in my age group (50-54) with them so it wasn't the end of the world for me..

Had a fun sprint at the finish. Another over 50 type and myself moved to the front and led the way through the small rollers to the last turn, I then managed to stay towards the front beating him and finishing about sixth. I remember Anselmo Rossiello and some young guys passing me about half way up. (I think there was about 20-25 riders left in our group at the finish..) The finish sprint is about 300m uphill, about a 3% grade.

This matches pretty much what I did last spring (C group, spring series this year.)

Next week is BCMCA Cedar RR... park and ride from the ferry...

Neaves Road Practice TT's and SFU Barnett L2/L3

Yesterday was practice TT's out at Neaves Road. Far too hot to get power up though. Did five before heading home.

Today headed up SFU. Spinning and L2/L3... Spinning practice along Barnett to Hastings, then climbed SFU from both sides. Then headed back to Port Moody and climbed up Charter Hill, 600m at between 10 and 14% grade.

CTL/ATL have bottomed out (hopefully) at just over 80. Still better than last year where (after tapering for Squamish TT) I ended up about 60.

Three more BCMCA road races to round the season out... Abbotsford, 232Ave course next week, then Nanaimo Cedar and finish with Cobble Hill.

Busy week...

Incredibly busy week at work... still havn't done the laundry from last weekends TT and HC... :-(

Managed to get out (finally) for a short ride yesterday and a longer one today... Anmore Tour, standard length... very hot (for Vancouver, about 28C) so didn't extend it. Also hope to get out tomorrow and Sunday.. so didn't want to kill myself today.

Mt Seymour Challenge

It never rains but pours...

This time figuratively speaking...

Approaching the start line with 3 minutes to go there was the loud bang of a tubular blowing out... mine...

Quick run down to the car, madly swap the spare front wheel in, back to the finish line a half km uphill... started about 2:20 after everyone else.

At least it didn't actually rain on us, the road was wet as it had rained about an hour earlier..

Power felt better, and the adrenalin kicked in a bit... Had to time trial up the entire way. Managed to catch up and pass a few people.

Official time 49 and a bit, but the actual time was 47:12. Not bad, previous time up this year (May 17) was 49:30.

This was on the road bike with climbing cassette, 12x25. Seymour has max grade of just over 7%, so was able to keep the cadence up over 70 almost the entire way.

Even adjusting back Bill Riley beat me by one or two seconds today to take third in our age class (... and about six seconds yesterday... Much better weekend than I had :-) )

Squamish TT - Rain - 53:00

Rain that falleth like the gentle mist NOT...

The Squamish ITT organizers (Escape Velocity) thoughtfully provide a starting house and ramp (actually just the team trailer, but it works well...) And yesterday I was totally soaking wet by the time I was at the bottom of the (1.5m) ramp :-) Total deluge. Followed me out until I was about two thirds of the way to the turn-around and then stopped. Of course by then I was sodden (my clothes, skinsuit, socks, gloves, weighed 4 lbs by the end, yes I weighted them after I got home), couldn't see the Ergomo through the fogged glasses so had little idea about time or pacing, etc etc. The wooden bridge was a tad slippery so slowed down (and sat up) for that.. Just about ran over the marshalls at the turn around when the brakes took a bit to dry out the carbon wheels, so you can't say it was a super fast turn around...

Anyway, 53:00 bang. Or 50 seconds slower than the pre-ride last week.

I'll post a link later in the week once I get the full results into the online google docs year-2-year summary.

Squamish TT - pre-ride 51:56 / 52:10

About a 35 second improvement over last years pre-ride. But I note that this may be a bit short compared to the actual race day start/finish... So call it about 52:10 for that distance. There was a slight wind helping on the trip out and slowing us down for the trip back.



I thought the pacing was a bit better than last year. Saved more for the trip back.

I was all-aero today, including the Zipp disc; except I used a short sleeved skin-suit and I had normal water bottle mounted plus tubular inflator aerosol can mounted next to it (not terribly aero, but visions of 18km walk back to car etc...)


This is what the basic course profile looks like. With the only "steep" bit being the final 2km climb to the finish at just under 1% grade. It does usually end up being the slowest and hardest bit especially as it also has the worst of the chip seal (I thought for sure today I had a flat...) and it always seems to have the worst of the headwind.

SFU Barnett - L2 some L3

Climbed SFU from both sides, mostly L2...

Did Charter Hill (14-16% grade for about 1km) on the way home. L3-L4, low, low, low RPM...

VeloVets Iona 10K TT - 14:02

Vancouver VeloVets 10km ITT today.

Good time.. 14:02. Pavg down slightly at 332 watts. And a fairly windy day. But aero-position is I think improving so time still fairly good.

It looks like the road to Squamish will be open tomorrow. So with luck Michel and I will be able to go and pre-ride on Monday.

The last week has been a bit of a washout... between bad weather (rain for 3-4 days) and other commitments I've only been able to get out and do some minimal training at the track... So it will effectively be a two week taper for the Squamish TT..