More Fast and Furious...

OK, so it looks like the last two weeks where not a fluke...

I only did two races in the A's tonight. The first was a 30 lap scratch, skipped the Elimination in the middle and then a 5x10 Points.

There was an "increase" in the fast people out this week, Bukcosky and Caves where back. Chaddock and Carleton where there again. So the consensus was that there would be some fast racing.

And yes... very fast. The 30 lap Scratch averaged 49.1 kph. The 5x10 Points slightly slower. After a slow start, the last 40 laps averaged 48.5 kph.

I didn't get a very good warm up so at the start of the scratch I just jumped to the front and gave it a little kick to see who would follow.. they didn't so I took about 6-7 laps at speed and then when they started to reel me in sat up and let them catch me... Great way to get the muscles and heart up to speed . And if they are going to let you get a nice warmup in ... no reason not to :-)

Mostly sat at the back for the next 10-12 laps... Then worked my way up through the rotation. Arriving towards the front with just about 3 to go. At that point our group was about a third of a lap behind the leaders, Chaddock, Buckosky and Sidic... I jumped and bridged to them. Chaddock jumped. I stayed with Buckosky and Sidic. With 1 lap to go I moved to the blue and fought to get over Sidic, taking a narrow 3rd at the line. Hit 800+ watts in the jump, 502 watts average for the last 572 meters, 54.1 kph...


The last race was a 5x10... I was mostly hanging on for the first 10-20 laps... Too busy to go to the front while everyone jockeying for position. I was able to get to the front group, Chaddock, Caves, Jones and Denis and follow around for the 3rd and 4th sprints... but in both cases there was just no getting over anyone to get points.. Nice solid 5th both times... Hit 58 in the 3rd sprint!


Chaddock sprinted with two others for the 4th and just kept going. Leaving four of us for the last 10 laps. I worked in the rotation and ended up nicely positioned, arriving at the front with 3 and a half laps to go. Jumped and got a very nice gap, carried it through to the finish to take 2nd in the final sprint. Unfortunately that didn't quite get me to 5th... :-(

But still I thought it was a very nice effort. And just like last week, finished both races strong and could I think easily have carried through for another 10 laps.

Whats really bizarre is that my CTL has dropped significantly. Had it up to about 85 for the Whister Fondo and now its down to about 50... Can't for the life of me get up to speed or do an effort outside... End up doing L2/L3 recovery rides when I get out on the weekends... But the track workouts and races feel easy. Perceived effort is not that high. Speed is up, power is ok.. Endurance on the track is great.

I've been doing the Wednesday Structured workout, usually followed by a 10-20 minute fast pace line workout in the Buckosky 42kph workout... This week I also did the Tuesday morning workout.

Also back to the Computrainer and the winter racing with the Computrainer Race League. Last week it was the 10k TT opener.. Was about 4 seconds faster than last year.. But the front derailleur cable snapped just before I started, so I was stuck in the small ring.. Probably could have done it about 10-15 seconds faster taking advantage of the "hills" to go fast in the 53x11.

BVC Friday NIght racing - B Group 2nd in scratch

Well the Computrainer and weekly track interval sessions seem to be paying off.

Last night we had three races in the B Group. Elimination and then a 4x5 points race. It was a huge 21 rider start, and I just didn't really get going in the Elimination. And the 4x5 just started with an immediate acceleration to +50kmph, before I could get my heart rate up and my legs moving I was spit out the back :-) Just for fun I jumped back in and managed to stay between the breakaway riders and the rest of the field till the end of the race...

The last race was a 40 lap scratch. Much more my type of race. Started easy and built up speed. Just stayed at the back of the big field as attrition worked to my favor. Was near the front with about 14 laps to go.. David Stevens and Adam Barlev jumped off the front, I followed and got on their wheel. We had about 12 laps to go with almost a half lap gap. We took half lap pulls staying well off the front. With two laps to go we jockeyed about a bit. With David Stevens getting the best position behind and above while I was leading out (bad planning on my part...) I moved him up track by going to the blue. He went, I followed. I almost got it at the line, missed by a few centimeters.

Final sprint was about 25 seconds, 600 watts average, speed started at 43kmh, hit 59.4 and averaged 51.6.. Still not quite back to my best results last winter. But definitely an improvement of the dismal and best forgotten 2009 Fall series :-)

There was a bad crash in our first B race. With Scott Jutson, Jasmin Glasser and a couple of other people going down hard coming out of turn one. Almost taking out some bystanders as they slid across the Cote d'azur. Email from Scott today say's he is in hospital waiting to get a pin or plate for a broken collarbone. Sounds similar to my break two years ago.

BVC Friday Racing - A/B again arghhh...

Another Friday nights racing spent chasing the A's...

Three races with 5 A's and 12(?) B's... Stewart Bowmer actually managed to get a 5th in the Elimination race... 

Other than that it was a shutout... Us B's might as well not have started the races... We certainly didn't affect the outcomes...

This chart shows the 5x10 points race we finished with... I averaged 47km/h... and I was lapped at least twice by the A's... I did manage to get onto them for about 20 laps when they lapped me the first time... Almost even got a 4th in one of the sprints... My best race of the night :-(

Anyway, overall it didn't affect the B's overall points... So it looks like Ben Cowburn will take 1st overall for the series. I'll take second. Anthony King third.

So now it's a couple of weeks off the bike.. I'm hoping to get up to Whistler and try out the new Peak-2-Peak Gondola. My son Ryan was up there today for the opening. He was skiing Whistler and went over to Blackcomb for a coffee and was back in 30 minutes... He says it is an incredible ride...  4.4km in length with 3km in the unsupported center span. You are 400m above the valley floor in the middle. Apparantly 2 of the 26 Gonodolas will have glass bottoms.. :-)

In April 1975 I ski-toured with a small party from the current Blackcomb lodge location to Whistler via what is called the Hortsman Traverse... took us 10 days... Now it's 11 minutes... 

BVC Friday Night - Kierins zip, Scratch 1st

Kierins and a 20 Lap Scratch...

Thought a smaller gear, 51x15 might be appropriate for the Kierin... it wasn't.. spun out chasing Anselmo and Scott around the last half lap... Cadence about 139, speed just over 60. Scott about 4 bike lengths ahead, Anselmo at least that much and a bit more in front of Scott ( think I was just rounding turn four when Anselmo was crossing the finish line). Note to self, leave the 51x14 on next time...

Made up for it in the 20 lap scratch race. Normally I don't do well in a short scratch... I stayed at or near the front from the beginning. first on the rail, first aound for the neutral lap, instead of moving to back, just drop back a few riders and get a shoulder draft just above the red. When possible find a hole and drop in.

Fast paced... except for one slightly slower lap. Average speed for 15 laps about 48km/h. Anthony King then jumped with about 4.5 to go and I managed to get onto his wheel. Followed him around until the bell rang. Went over to easily get 1st.

Finished the night trying out the 52x14. Still feels sluggish. Up to a point as I move the size up I can spin lower to push out whatever watts are required for a specific speed. But too high and I can't quite get on top of it and get to an appropriate speed. Instead of spinning too high, spinning too low. It felt better tonight than the last time I tried (about a month ago). Might be interesting to try in a Friday night race. Especially if I can get a bit more strength into my legs.