BVC Racing - lots of fast and fun racing!

I'm really enjoying the BVC Friday racing so far this year... Last week I managed to snag a 4th in the 4x10 A Points race. No pretty pictures though as I managed to get to the track without the Ergomo...

Tonight was better. After my usual early out in the opening Elimination race I managed to finish 3rd in the 25 lap Scratch Race and 5th in the 4x10 Points. No mean feat with ten other riders, two of whom are on the National Track Team (Ben Chaddock and Gillian Carelton.)  Overall for points in all three races I was (a distant) fourth behind Ben, Gillian and Bruce Denis. Didn't think that was too shabby a result :-)

This was a fairly fast race averaging 48.8 kph for the last 28 or so laps. With about 15 laps to go I had to make a hard bridge up to Gillian and then we worked to get back up to Ben. Bruce Denis and another rider eventually got up to us but at that point Ben jumped again with Gillian and myself following. Gillian was smart enough to pull up and let me lead the way to the finish line and take the 2nd there.


Getting going in the final 4x10 points race was hard after the 25 lap scratch... was huffing and puffing and seriously thinking of pulling up for the first 5-6 laps... Luckily the group decided to take the first 8-9 laps easy and by the time we got to the sprint my heart rate was back up and the legs where feeling ok again. Again this was a another fast race averaging 47 for close to the entire race. I hung out at the back for the first few sprints and then managed to stay with the (slightly larger) group that split off the front. We eventually lapped the field (although the other group had one less rider so Jeremy scored them down a lap instead of us up a lap.)





Ben Chaddock disappeared off the front with about (I think) 6-7 laps to go... I can't remember seeing him go, just wasn't there anymore... He apparently almost lapped the field. That left Gillian, Bruce, Julian Base and myself. Gillian led out with three to go. I followed to get a (distant) third with Julian and Bruce following. Good enough to get me 5th overall.


Overall the racing is fast so far this year. And very enjoyable. Fast bike, fast wheels. skin suit... and 18 weeks of doing the WTNC's.

Doing the Tuesday nighter's got my 5sec power up about 12%. Still not that high, maybe 920 watts for 5 seconds, but that overall that is letting me get away with pushing the 53x14 99" gear and I think giving me more endurance at the more typical track wattage's (700-800 typical max). Tonight's races where among the fastest I have ever placed in, but neither race was long enough to actually make me feel like I would have to slow down. Still going strong at the finish and could have done another 10 laps at the same pace reasonably easily. So if I can maintain that endurance as we get into longer races I should continue to do well.

And as always every time I move up in gearing I go faster for less perceived effort and do better with more endurance. Hard not to like that! Anyone got a 54 tooth ring I can try?

Back to the Track - Motorpacing in the A-Group

The last few months have been very slack... between work and puppies I was down to about one Computrainer ride a week for most of December...

Anyway, the Winter Track Racing season is back. And again I'm up with the A-Group where it is less embarrassing to get dropped. There I can use the gearing that works for me, 50x14 but it rolls out as about 94" because of the very low profile 28-19 Vittoria Evo Pista CS tubular I use... If I raced with the B's I would have to use a 48x15 and its altogether possible that I'd get dropped just about as often... and that would be embarrassing :-)

The first two weeks where a bit hard. I was on a training wheel because the tubular I glued onto my disk back in October developed a very strange and severe problem early in December. Quite literally the glue holding the tape on to the tubular turned into a greasy sticky substance and the tubular started to roll off the disk! Once I noticed and came off the track and let the air out the tubular just fell off the rim. Leaving the tape firmly glued to the disk!

I finally got around to gluing a new tubular this week. And also decided to bring my old Zipp 3000 tri-spoke out of storage. Previously on my old frame it seemed to develop wheel wobble fairly badly. Worse than other wheels. But I haven't noticed any high speed front wheel wobbles at all since I got the Cervelo T3. So thought it might be time to give it another try.

So tonight it was back with tri-spoke and disk and skinsuit and new booties...

The A-Group did a 40 lap scratch, elimination and 4x10 points. Managed to stay with the field for 20+ laps in the scratch race. And then stayed with the second group when they split off. We got lapped once. That contrasts fairly well with last week on the training wheel where it was stay on for 4-5 laps and then pull up and wait. Then repeat... getting lapped about 5-6 times in a 40 lap race.

The elimination was a bust... pretty hard to accelerate the big gear into the back of the group right off the start. I was the first volunteer.

Had fun in the final 4x10 points race. Nicely warmed up and the field wasn't too fast... Coming around turn two with two laps to go for the first sprint I got gapped slightly behind another rider... with about 4-5 (of 8) riders out front going into the back stretch at about 47kph. Got up and bridged over, only about 10m... but managed to get a good head of speed so just went over the top and dived down.

Now I'll admit at the time I thought that there was only one to go... I was slightly surprised when I came around turn four and saw two laps to go till the sprint. But heck I was sure of two things... first I did have somebody behind me... But second probably only one or two and then a gap... So I just dug in and lead them out.

Anyway, Erik Mulder nipped me at the line, I managed to take a second with Attila very close for third. Since Eric could out sprint me in his sleep I suspect he was being kind to just take me at the line. As far as I could tell there was a 10-20 m gap after Atilla.

The overall numbers where very good. Hit a top speed for 58.5, average 54.9 for 30 seconds or 457 m distance covered (just over two laps!) Average watts about 565 watts for 30 seconds and 464 for 60 seconds...

Of course while it was fun it was also a race ending type sprint... had to pull up and let the main group go around, loosing a lap... But it still managed to get me a 4th overall. So that was OK.

The Zipp 3000 seems to be OK on the P3 frame. No wobble at all tonight or last Wed (had it out to test on Wed for the BVC Structured workout.) I have a Tufo mounted on it. Reasonably good one so hopefully CRR not too bad (I pumped it up to 180 PSI!) Probably I should mount a Vittoria on it. But the Tufo will do for now.

Now just have to move CTL from 26 back up to something reasonable, say 70 or therabouts before Spring Series starts (about seven weeks.) My long term goal for the year is a time under 3:40 for the Whistler Grand Fondo in September. So I have to do longer harder races and rides this year. Haven't decided, but I may do B group races in Spring Series. At least for the flatter courses.

What price a wheel?

It has been a busy month, trying to get hours in on the bike, get back into track shape, and some paying work done :-)

Last night was the 2nd Friday night race of the year. I'm racing with the A group this year so that I can race in my 93" gearing.

What was interesting about was the difference between the last week and last night. A week ago we did a 40 Lap Scratch race and a 4x10 Points race. In both races I was getting spit out the back, then going up to the blue line and when the pack came around jumping back in. Last night we did a 25 Lap Scratch race and a 6x10 Points race. I managed to stay on the pack for the 25 Lap scratch and didn't get lapped in the points until lap 30, and even then was working well with smaller groups who where also down one lap.

Speedwise last night was about the same as last week. But there was something different about last night. Suddenly I was able to stay on the pack, at the back of pack, not working in the rotation. But still much better than last week where I simply couldn't hold on (in many cases couldn't even get on.)

The difference was the rear wheel. Last week I was on a loaner training wheel with some no-name training tire. This week I had my Zipp 900 with a Vittoria Pista EVO CL 22.  Gearing remained unchanged at 50x14 (about 93.6" for the 700x22 Vittoria.)

If you look at the scatter plot on the right, The green and yellow points are from last weeks race. Blue and Red from this week. This is power at speed. And you can see a clear trend for higher speed at most power levels for the red and blue points.

At a guess, between 2-3 kmh for most power levels. An that makes the difference of hanging in at the back and getting spit out.



So what is the price of a wheel? Call it about 2 kilometers per hour. For whatever power output you have you'll be able to go about 2 kmh faster.

Or more pragmatically, something like an extra 50 watts to push around the training wheel at speeds between 46-52. You'll need to produce those extra watts if you want to use the training wheel.

BVC Friday Night racing - A/B

Friday night racing was a little slow ... as in number of people showing up.. I guess there must have been something else happening in Vancouver that night..

Jeremy split the B group in half... Half raced with the A's and the rest with the C's...

So it certainly wasn't a slow night on the track. I was up in the A/B group which was setting a nice pace in all three races. Mostly I was just hanging onto the back for as long as I could then pulling up and waiting for them to come around again :-(

Long night too. 35 Lap Tempo, 4x10 Progressive Points and finished with a 5x10 Points!

Yesterday it was rain, so back onto the Computrainer for my weekly dose of 6x1m L6 and 4x30s L7 intervals..

Today I did my ever favorite Anmore Tour. Not terribly fast but still hard enough. Slightly abridged version today. Usually I head out to the Burrard Thermal Plant, nice ride down and back up, usually with no traffic. Unfortunately the Thermal Plant is deemed to be a high risk target so they have closed the road for the duration of the Olympics.

CTL finally back over 70 as of today... only one week later than last year.

Now if I could just get weight down. I went from 161lbs at the end of last season to 171lbs in about a month. Still around 168lbs.

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 NIght racing - winter series started

Last week was the BVC Maximum Entry weekend series... Total bust up.... I was tired, TSB negative and was racing on my training wheels (mega-spoke mavix with Tufo tubular...) Legs felt like lead pushing a concrete bike around... Only did two races on Saturday... One in the B group and then one with the C's (to get the number of B's down to 20, I was going so slow anyway...) And then I had a flat on the training wheel in the C race so didn't even race on Sunday. Just did the results.

Friday was the first night of the Winter Friday night track series. Felt a lot better... Had the disc back with a new Vittoria tubular.. The B group had a huge turnout, full field of 20 riders Did the first two races, 30 lap scratch and 4x5 Win and Out just cruising using a 52x15 (90.5") gear. Switched to 51x14 (95") for the last race, 4x10 Points. That felt a lot better. Managed to take fourth by taking the second sprint. Same old same old, big jump over the field, push the big gear, get a huge gap with about 3 laps to go. Then just ride it through.

As always, huge difference in racing success once I get back into the big gear. Although it also needs legs that can turn it minimally.

Other than that I have been attempting with some success to push CTL back up with copious amounts of L2/L3 on the Computrainer. From a low of 44 in early December I'm now (today) back to 60.

Spring Series is only about eight weeks away....

BVC Racing, Computrainer

Friday was the last of the fall series... three nice races, Elimination, 30 lap Scratch and 5x10 Points.. not that I was competitive, but probably my best efforts for the last month or two... I was on my training wheel as the disc was at home with a flat. So moved from my typical 50x14 (93.1") to 52x15 (90.4") and that actually felt like a reasonable gearing.

Lungs starting to feel better, GP gave me s stronger puffer, Alvesco, to help get the bronchitis under control. And also some Naproxen for the shoulders (its the next step up from Ibuprofen apparently... still prescription in BC, but OTC in the rest of Canada and US...) So that is letting me get a little more focussed.

Did an easy two hour L2 ride on the Computrainer yesterday (75TSS).

Today an L3/L4 workout today (130TSS). First Adnan's Three minute hill repeats (erg mode, power setting 200 moving to 300 over three minutes, then three minutes at 200, repeat eight times.) I tried to do the L3/L4 efforts at a cadence of 100+ with reasonable success for the first five or six...

Then another 20 minutes of my 2k loop as L4 and then 20 minutes cool down.

Getting things running again

Busy, sick, work, and multiple computer crashes... what a fun month...

The bad news (other than being sick) was my new (July this year) Vista box crashed and burned a couple of weeks ago.. What looked like a bad hard drive turned out after buying a replacement (did you know you can't get 1TB drives anymore... 1.5TB is all of $119CDN though) to be a bad MB. The hard disk controller. Windows Install DVD wouldn't even recognize the new drive to install on it.

But by the time I got the MB replaced the old drives where corrupted enough that Vista wouldn't boot. So I installed Win7 on the new 1.5TB drive... Two weeks Plus later and I'm still looking for things to re-install. I do have most of my old files AND the older stuff from my (still running) WinXP box (prior to July 2009)...

Interestingly, the new 2008 Excel under Vista didn't like my spreadsheet for generating the TSB graphic and PMC chart ... But under Win7 it looks like it may be working again. Not quite working but possibly close enough that I can start generating the PMC chart again.. (TSB was ok).

Between work and reinstalling I also spent another week and a half off the bike in November. Another "cold" and again bronchitis...

And I've been running around to Xmas parties and planning meetings for next years Road Racing...

So CTL is still low.... and I'm still either getting lapped if I race in the A's (last week) or just managing to stay at the back in the B's (this week)...

Anyway, last night I was at the track. B group. Forgot the Ergomo. So est 75TSS for the night.

Today I was back on the Computrainer. My ever favourite 2kloop. Which gives me a nice L3 ride with some small "hills" to sprint on for 20-30 seconds.

BVC Friday - Back to B

It was back to the B group this week. I had been racing in the A's just to get a longer workout and fill in the numbers a bit. But there where record numbers out on Friday (16A, 20B, 16C, 6N) so they didn't need any extra people up there, especially people who wouldn't be able to keep up and would be getting lapped, repeatedly...

Even in the B's the low CTL and negative TSB meant I was just doing my thing at the back of the bus. Fun racing. But no real change to do much with my present state of fitness.

JRA - Exploding derailleurs

Bummer, half way across the Golden Ears Bridge, JRA (Just Riding Along) and all of a sudden the rear wheel skids to an abrupt halt. Upon inspection I see the dérailleur hanging from the chain jammed into the spokes of my training wheel! The hanger broke allowing it to get pulled around the cassette. Fortunately neither of the stays OR the wheel seems to have been damaged. I think just replace the dérailleur and chain ...

Friday night I was back at the track for three hard races with the A's... I'm still really out classed there. I should be racing in the B's.. But the A's seemed to need some more riders to fill things in a bit (pack fodder) and where doing longer races than the B's so I stayed with them to get a better workout. Still bloody embarrassing putting in many many laps off the back ...

I did manage to get some points in the first face. It was a Tempo and for some reason the pack let me jump off the front and take the first five laps... I think they where just being kind and knew that it wouldn't really matter HOW many laps I got... And of course they where right, that got my wind up so I was not even able to hang in with them as they sped by.

BVC Friday NIght - A group - still out the back

More A group racing.... 15 lap Scratch and 4x10 Points race. Not so many of the really fast young guys... but still 10 people. And fast enough. I'm still fairly weak from my month off so pretty much just out the back. Only lapped once in the Points race though :-)

BVC Workout - Whistle Drill, some SST

Last night was two SST hill climbs. Twice up Westwood. About 16 and 17 minutes respectively. Not too bad for coolish day (10C) with winter training tires etc. PB this summer was 15 even. About 130TSS points.

Tonight was BVC Workout. Whistle drill for three sessions. Then 10 minutes at SST, then about 15 minutes SST.

The extended time off has pushed CTL way down (hit about 40)... Now pushing back up. ATL has swung and that is pushing TSB negative. I suspect that the next few weeks I'll not be terribly competitive on Friday nights. Especially if the juniors keep showing up. The B group looks better all the time.

BVC Friday NIght - A group - out the back

So after watching from the sidelines while a nice comfy A group race for the first three weeks... I get out for my first night and think, well A might be ok.. And then Jacob Swingboth and Cody Campbell show up (both National Junior Track Champs...) And me at a very low ebb in training... so out the back was I.

Anyway. I"ll see what the signup is like next week... Dave Kosick is doing well in the B's so maybe that would be a better spot :-)

Back to the track...

Well actually I was back two weeks ago... nice workout, but then at exactly 15 minutes after midnight... the nose felt funny and by 12:30... cold... That has now done what colds always do caused bronchitis to flair up.

But anyway, not infectious, not really sick. So time to get back on the bike. I did an easy L2/L3 ride on the weekend (Ford Road.).

Tonight was the Wednesday BVC Structured Workout. Two sets of groups of four doing four laps tempo and then one sprinting. Then finished with take-a-half lap whistle drill with the group split into two groups of eight.

Finished with about 20 minutes of SST paceline work. Bruce Denis and a couple of other people, doing 42+ kmh workout. Last four-five minutes moving up to 44.

I've missed the first three weeks of the Friday nighters... Will get back out this Friday.

Canadian Track Nationals - Silver

Andy George proved to be the better over 50 go-to-guy yesterday... We had a very small turn out. Only five riders. Three local, one from Vancouver Island and one from Ontario.

Andy had the best pursuit time (2:36 vs 2:41 for me...) Then managed to stay on my wheel for almost the entire 25 lap Scratch race, to take first with me a couple of bike lengths behind..

They shortened the points race to 40 laps (originally billed as 50). It proved to be cat and mouse the entire way. With me on Andy's wheel or him on mine. Early on Dave Kosick gapped us and nobody bothered to track him down. So he took the first two sprints. With Andy and myself duking it out for 2nd and 3rd... I almost got the 3rd sprint with a jump that got a bit of a gap. But Andy got me at the line by about 5-10cm...

It didn't seem to matter if I went first or followed, I couldn't quite match his finish...

Anyway, Silver for the overall. I'll have to work on the sprinting for next year.

No power file for the race as they don't let you use bike computers... :-(

I'll have to add a workout with guestimatted TSS for the day.

BVC Workout - pursuit and L2/L3

Track tonight. Did a 2k practice pursuit in 2:38. Which is pretty good, adding aero helmet, skinsuit etc should get that well under the 2:36 I need for Track Nationals...

Which are only three weeks away... and my chief (I think) competition, Andy George is racking up Gold Medals in the Police Games.. :-(

Finished with a half hour of L2/L3...

Another Tale from the Amazing Coincidences Department.... The 4-Runner has been exhibiting symptoms that some friends diagnosed as probably requiring a new starter... turn the key to start and just a a click, try again and it would work... Gradually getting worse, taking 2, 3 even 4 or 5 tries... Finally today I took it down to the local Toyota dealer for diagnosis and schedule an appointment. Pulling into the parking area in front of the service department I turned it off... To no effect, the starter was permanently engaged... Turn the key back on and the engine started. Turn it off and the starter would keep cranking... Well it just couldn't pick a better spot to fail... I just left it running and let the service guy handle it (he had to disconnect the battery...) Anyway, they will replace starter and hopefully we will regain possession tomorrow.. I'm just glad it failed at the dealership and not while wife was out in Surrey or I was up in Squamish etc..

BVC Friday Racing - playing with the A's again

Three races with the A's tonight... 

First was an Elimination... I don't really mind getting spit out the back in an Elimination... but not even being able to get to the back to get spit out... that's embarassing... Mind you they where going 58km/h... :-)

Next was a 20 Lap Tempo race... I somehow, by mistake, got to the front, third wheel.. And after about 5 laps managed to even get over top of Jeff Ain who after being second wheel for 3 laps had taken 2 at the front... Managed to even stay there for 2 laps!!!!!! At 51km/h... After that I was toast and off the back doing laps at 45km/h... Kirk Obee and (I think) Mike Roethengatter caught me with 2.5 laps to go. Bruce Denis and Mike Laxdale with 2. And the rest of the field (started with 10) all three of them... caught me in the bell lap...

The last race was an Unknown Distance... I was bagged and just hung in at the back... and tried to at least stay reasonably close (on the same straight away) as the finisher's sprinted ... I managed to get up to 61km/h following Julian Base's wheel... but that just got me around the corner and on to the straight away... 

I think next week I'll retire, defeated, and slink back into the B's where I belong for the last two nights of the Winter series..

I have to admit it has been fun... 

BVC Structured Workout - 2 days

Yesterday was motor pacing. today was Whistle drills...

I put on a smallish gear tonight, 51x16 (about 84")... 

Felt like a sewing machine... The Whistle Drill was mostly short sprints and one set of take-a-lap... Which where are  really difficult (well for me) on that small a gear... I found it tough to spin fast enough to get speeds up... 

When I did get speeds up my heart rate went up and I got out of breath quickly... And how humiliating .... "C" racers where out sprinting me :-)

BVC Structured Workout - Team Pursuit Drills

Tonight was Team Pursuit Drills, flying 1km.

Then 1x20 SST and 2x500m TT's.

BVC Friday Racing - 2x1sts

Three races: 20 lap Scratch, Elimination to 5 lap Scratch and 5x10 Points. Finally have the Zipp Disc back with a new Vittoria Pista Evo CS...

I managed a nice lead out to the beginning of the 20 Lap Scratch. I was hoping to pull the speed up to about 48 over 3 laps and then pull up and find an hole about half way back in the group. There was a large number of starters (17 or 18). So I didn't really want to end up at the back in such a short race. Unfortunately there was no good spot to move back in and I ended up at the back. 

Trying to move over the top to get to the front with about five laps to go, I managed to get about half way across when there was a small jump at the front and some less confident riders moved up in front of me and slowed down, making me move up to the rail... By the time I got around we had less than four laps and the small front group (7-8 riders) where almost a half lap away... I managed to bridge over, but just caught onto the back as they got the bell.. No chance of getting any where near the front.

The second race was an Elimination to Five Lap Scratch. Eighteen starters with nine eliminations. I jumped to the front at the beginning and lead the group out with enough speed to keep most people working hard enough to stretch out and not be interested in challenging me for the lead.  

Started at about 47km/h and gradually moved the speed down as we went. Overall did about 14 laps with overall averaged speed of 45.8km/h. With two eliminations to go Stewart Bowner came over me and pushed the speed up to about 48km/h for the next four laps. After the last elimination he waffled a bit moving up track pulling me with him.. Which was not where I wanted to be.  I had to jump under him (apolgies to Anselmo who was below us...) and managed to get a nice gap and carried through for the last three laps to take first.

This started out with me at the back and some of the younger guys pushing the pace into the first sprint... Shortly after that there was a small break away, two people getting off the front. They took the second sprint. I had managed to get gapped (behind the wrong people) so had to do a big effort to bridge up. I did that just after the second sprint hoping that the front group would slow down a bit. 

That worked and I got to the front. Found another rider to work with  and took the first in the next two sprints. The follow on riders managed to catch us about then.  And after some jockeying around Stewart Bowner and I ended up high over the blue with about four laps to go. He jumped. I followed. I almost got over top of him in the last corner, but he is a sprinter and had enough in reserve to take the 1st by a half wheel... (well almost ... at least a tire width or two, Jeremie took a few seconds to think about it before giving it to Stewart...)

But I still had enough points to get 1st overall, 14 points to Bowners 12.

It felt nice to have the Zipp Disc back. It had a flat back in late November and it took me a while to get some tubulars ordered... Decided to try some less expensive Vittoria Pistas, 220 TPI, about $35 Cdn from Probikekit in the UK (free shipping...) Then took a while to get one prepped and glued on.. Then after getting it on the disc, the last step is to pump it up... discovered that the stem was double length and while it "fit" into the disc hole, there was simply no way to get the pump "hash pipe" onto it. So I had to rip that one off.. Very annoying, neither Vittoria or the Probikekit site specified the stem length, so I had just assumed it was the standard length.

Then had to order some of the better Vittoria Pesta Evo CS (about $65Cdn) 290TPI tubulars. Those arrived last week, but too late to get glued on. So tonight was finally back to normal.

Subjectively at least, I think this certainly makes the long endurance type leadouts (like the Elimination tonight) easier. It probably adds a 1km/h to those types of efforts (for the same power output) compared to the training wheel (simple 32 spoke, narrow Mavic rim with mid-range Tufo..) Better aero and better CRR.

Finished the night with 20 minutes L3/SST type effort.