This past week consisted primarily of endurance rides and a threshold test to establish my power zones for the first phase of training. I thought I would do another endurance ride this morning on the trainer, but was coerced out onto the road for a 2 hour and 15 minute spin.

Temps were in the 30s but it was tolerable. I have not been outside on the bike in awhile so I was psyched to be on the road. My compadres (see picture) certainly helped keep my mind off the cold.

I managed to get in 8 hours of training this week with a TSS score of 450. As the weeks progress, I will raise my CTL by 5 or 6 TSS/d and my overall TSS score to around 600+ by mid-February.

(Christian)

This is long, so get comfortable. I love writing these things…usually. Today I definitely do.

For some of us it was a great day, for some it was one mishap after another. As was probably evident form Alberto’s email yesterday, Saturday’s race was boring aside from all the crashes. As usual based on prior years, it made little difference in overall classification. Based on previous years I knew today really made the GC, so I was hoping for big things from the field, and for a hard day with attacks. I wasn’t disappointed.

Alberto was really our only hope, so I wanted to try and do whatever I could to make that happen.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to do much, but figured I might have a few opportunities to do something. Race started once we got on 100. It was a brisk start, but not super fast. Soon into the race I saw Tim Noel pull off the side of the road with what I thought was a flat (more on this later).  I hoped he would make it back on before the KOM came. Route then turned onto 100 over “Duxbury Gap” where the KOM was the same as it usually is for the “normal” circuit course.

Alberto lead the field into the left hand turn, and the group climbed at a hard but not brutal pace. Over the top we descended fast and hit the left hand turn that would take us over the dirt section. The pace on this section was fast as hell, and strung the entire field out into a single file, with gaps opening up along the way. I had to bridge a few to stay on the main pack, and had to work hard the entire way just to stay in. We turned onto a short bridge, then over a section of what they called gravel, but what I would call rocks. This slowed the field, and also took at least one victim, known as Matt’s tire. “Sorry Matt,” was all that I could muster up in my head as I saw him pull over to wait for the wheel vehicle.

The field then took off again, and stayed fast all along route 2 until the hot sprint. It slowed briefly and I went to the front to avoid trouble with the train tracks at the turn onto Cochran Road. After the turn I sat up a bit, and pulled alongside Alberto to get a “lay of the land” and ask him who he was worried about. If you’ve ever tried to hold a conversation with Alberto while he’s riding, you know you stand a better chance of understanding a 3 yr old child. His voice is about as loud as a single cricket chirping at night. This proved a useless conversation, and I told him just to tell me yes or no with whatever went if he wanted me to chase.

Once on Cochran Rd, people got antsy and attacks where happening all over the place. I kept looking for Alberto to see if he wanted to go, but it proved to be too frustrating, so I just started going with any break if the gap got to be too large. This offered me all kinds of opportunities to burry myself for periods of time and bridge up. Fun stuff indeed, but not great for if you plan to climb the gap hard. Regardless, I did it, and loved every minute of it. I have no idea if this made any difference in the end of the race, but I wasn’t willing to find out by not doing it.

Once the race turned onto the climb up Hinesburg-Richmond road I was spent, and drifted to the middle of the field to rest and hydrate a bit.  I was glad the field did not climb this super hard as I might have been sacrificed if it did. After the climb life got much easier as things slowed up as the field headed into a strong South headwind. I needed the rest and the liquids and pounded my water bottles down. Things got really boring, as we were about 2-3 miles from 116 until I saw Alberto ride off the front. He got about 500M on the group before one guy bridged up. Shortly after that another guy did. That was the last we saw of them more or less.

Once on 116 we stayed together as a group, and one guy went off the front to try and bridge the gap – he did it after TT’ing solo for about 5 miles – impressive. We hit the base of Baby Gap and the fun started. I was pretty wiped, but stayed with the main field ~3/4 of the way up baby gap, at which point I got shelled.

By the time I rolled past Burris handing out liquids I must have looked like death warmed over.

From there on up it was just hooking up with one or two or 3 other guys along the way, dropping them, getting dropped, and barely making it to the top. This must have been the slowest I have ever done this climb, but it was worth every minute of slowness, as chasing those attacks was lots of fun.

In the end, Alberto took 3rd for the stage, and IS NUMBER ONE IN THE GC BABY!!!! Burris Logistics-Fit Werx represents my friends! We are leading the GC going into the last day!!!  Alberto will certainly be a Category 2 soon, but for now we still have him in the 3′s, and can enjoy killing ourselves to help him win. Fun fun stuff.

Tim and Matt had tougher days. Tim’s mishap early into the race ended up being a broken rim suffered from hitting a large pothole. He got a wheel from the vehicle, but the reality of catching the field as we hauled ass down 100 to the KOM was nill. He then had the pleasure of discovering he had a slow leak in his rear tire as he climbed over Duxbury, AND that his water bottles had bother jumped out of his cages when he broke his rim. Alas, he struggled on to Richmond, where nobody would hook him up with a spare bottle, and that was the end of his day. A wise move. Matt flatted as previously mentioned, and still managed to finish as he hooked up with a few other guys. This was impressive given the heat/humidity, and the south headwind.

That’s it folks. Now on to tomorrow, where I will certainly prove useless to Alberto in his pursuit of the yellow, but hopefully others (Matt, John) can prove larger allies than I. More to come, stay tuned……

(Alberto)

Here’s how it went down from my perspective:
First of all, I speak quite loudly on my bike.  Christian just has too much wax in his ears.

Second, I took off on the Richmond-Hinesburg Road when the pace was ridiculously slow and I saw that the yellow jersey and the #2 GC rider were boxed in on the right.  I quickly got about 30 seconds and was able to maintain that for about 4-5 miles without exerting too much effort.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain it by myself to the end because of the ferocious headwind and figured either some strong riders further down on the GC would bridge up or at the very least the yellow and #2 would need to spend some energy pulling me in.  Luckily, it was the former and a group of 3 bridged up with 2 guys who had diesel engines on them.

The four of us (and then a fifth who bridged) took even turns pulling into the wind and had 3 minutes by the base of the app gap.  It turns out that I needed every second of it   I don’t know the details but I have to assume that we had some help from Christian, John and the ORS guys to keep the field back and let us get that big of an advantage.  Unfortunately, Matt and Tim were no longer in the field.  Anyway, the two diesel engines (all 190+ pounds of them) quickly fell off the pace on the App Gap, and I pulled the remaining two from Rt 116 all the way to the 2km to go sign.  No joke.  I knew they were both way down on GC so I just wanted to get as much time as possible on the yellow jersey and #2 so I did not care if they passed me at the end.  Well, they passed me gaining about 15-30 seconds (which was very manageable) and I think I ended up about 40+ seconds in front of the #2 GC rider.  I needed 20.  As I said previously, I needed every last bit of that 3 minute advantage

Anyway, this has been a fun weekend…so far.  Tomorrow is going to hurt. (Well we know how tomorrow turned out!)

MB

Race was good, sort of. I expected to get my arse handed to me, and that didn’t completely happen. I definitely got the hard day in I was looking for, and felt better than at Catskills.

It rained from beginning to end. The course was 3 laps on a 22 miles circuit with lots of punchy hard climbs. It’s a great course and makes for a very hard day. The hardest climb is the finishing one- 2.5 miles long at 5%-only because they drill it up that thing the entire time and give you plenty of reasons to implode.

First lap was hard, and the lead group climbed that thing at a ridiculous pace, but I felt good and could stay with them the entire time. We dropped ~1/2 the field after the first lap, but then slowed significantly and most caught back on. The group climbed all climbs on the 2nd lap hard, and I could feel the fatigue in my legs. The 2nd time up the finishing climb I was doing OK, until a few guys attacked at ~1.5-2K from the top where the climb mellows for a brief second (~500-600 M), and I got dropped from the group there because I couldn’t match the acceleration. It was a brilliant move  and it worked on me. I watched the group slowly ride away from me as I reached the top of the climb. I then regrouped with a few other riders and we started to work a paceline to chase back on. I took a hard pull at one point, then tried to drift back right at the base of a short but punchy climb on the 1st side of the loop, and the other 3-4 guys accelerated up that hill. I was too blown to go with them from the pull I took.

So there I was trying to chase back on in a headwind to those guys and the main field. Eventually I caught back on, but I had to kill myself for 2.5 miles. So now I’m back with the front group on the 3rd lap, about a 1/3 of the way through and know that if they really want to go hard I’m screwed, as my legs were giving out on me. There are two punchy hills on the backside of the loop before you get to a screaming descent that precedes the finishing 2.5 mile climb. The first one is short and punchy, the 2nd one longer (~1 – 1.5 miles) and punchy. Between those two was a short descent, that flattens briefly, turns right, then arrives at the 2nd climb I just described. At this right hand turn was a section of recently scarified pavement that you would hit full on, at an angle, and if you didn’t bunny hop it, could take your front wheel out.

I stayed in the group on the first of the two climbs. Going into the descent I slowed before we hit that bad pavement and bunny hopped, but slowed too much, found myself at the back of the group, and had to accelerate hard to catch back on, which took me right into the base of the 2nd longer climb. The group was already accelerating up that climb and I couldn’t stay in contact, too tired from trying to catch back on after the bad road section. I got popped there for good.I finished the last 7 miles with a group of 4-5 other guys, dropping them on the final climb.

All in all I felt pretty good, but just wasn’t able to continue with those repetitive hard surges every lap. They took their toll on me, but it was much much better than Catskills.

Well the dust has settled on another Coupe and I am currently eating and drinking my way out of race weight. Here is my story and I am sticking to it.

The prologue hill climb started on a lovely evening for pain and fresh pavement into Sutton from the border and the start of the climb. A few attacks went with the last reeled in at the base of the climb. The pack strung out as the lead guys ratcheted up the pace until there were 6 guys left at the base of the switchbacks near the top. Three in front made a surge into the switchbacks that I could not follow as I was red-lined but I held my pace and the two left with me faded leaving me to suffer in for fourth. Good enough.

The next morning I had a less then stellar time trial to drop to 7th. Boohoo!

That afternoon we did 3 laps of a circuit with a good but not super steep hill and screaming downhill. 3rd and 5th place on GC went on a break and were reeled in after one lap. 5th place got dropped on the last time up the hill and lost 2-3 minutes and so I moved back up to 6th!

That evening after driving home to be with my honeys, I sat in the coldest bath I could run for 5 minutes to calm my legs. I was still rolling around in bed that night with leg cramps for what felt like the whole night.

The next morning I arrived feeling pretty good for the start of the road race under overcast skies. I tried a couple of breaks and then sat in to conserve for the big hill near the end. Two guys got away. One was caught at the base of the climb and the other halfway up. The steepest pitch was at the base of the climb. I moved to the front so I would not have to make up any gaps. I was pretty close to my max but stayed with the lead guys.

As the climb hit the first shelf the pace eased and a couple of danglers caught back on. With the one from the break we were 11 as we rolled over the top. Foolishly I had not checked the results from yesterdays circuit race and did not know that the guy in 5th had gotten dropped and I had moved up to 6th. When I realized that guy was not in the lead group, I hit the front to keep the pace up and gain as much time in the hopes of moving up on GC.

We rolled into town and finished on a 500 meter big ring uphill. Ouch! 3 guys had jumped clear to get 3 seconds, 3 dropped off and I hung on to the main 5 for same time and 6th on GC. All in all a satisfying race except for missing the camaraderie of my 50+ teammates Bob and Bruce!

On behalf of Impulse CYCLEsport of Shelburne, VT and Fit Werx of Waitsfield, VT, I would like to invite you to participate in the 2011 Prouty Bike Ride. This event is one of the most challenging and rewarding cycling events in the North East. From the Prouty website:

Participants in The Prouty and The Prouty Ultimate come together to celebrate and support the courage of cancer patients and survivors everywhere and to raise money for crucial cancer research and important patient services at this nationally-recognized cancer center. Since 1982, The Prouty has raised more than $9 MM in the fight against cancer.

Please consider joining us for this amazing event. Our goal is to raise at least $5,000 as a team. Information on The Prouty can be located online atwww.theprouty.org. Cycling events include 20, 35, 50, and 100 miles. It is my hope that our team will commit to the 50- or 100-mile events.

As part of our team you qualify for the Fit Werx gives back program and a discounted Fit Werx jersey for the event. With every pre-event purchase made at Fit Werx, Fit Werx will donate three percent (3%) of your pre-tax spending to The Prouty up to $300. You will also be provided a customized training program from Impulse CYCLEsport to get you primed and ready for The Prouty.

The event will be held on Saturday, July 9, 2011. If you would like to join us please email me at impulsecyclesport@gmail.com. You can register as a member of the Impulse CYCLEsport-Fit Werx team on The Prouty website. We would love to have you!

Best regards,

Mike Burris

Director, Impulse CYCLEsport

802.497.4882

Sunday’s morning rain in Vermont gave way to clearing skies during my drive to Saranac Lake. Unfortunately, as soon as I parked at the race venue it started pouring.

Matt and Steve were warming up in the downpour and would soon be racing in it. It was pretty ugly. It seemed to rain pretty hard during their race, but let up a little as our field lined up for the start of the 55+ race.  A few laps in, the skies opened up again. I can’t remember ever racing through that much water. Fortunately, our field rode safely.

With 2 to go I marked the 2 guys I figured would be in the mix for the win. With 1/2 lap remaining, my 2 danger guys plus another and I got a little gap and held it to the line. The good news is I marked the right guys. The bad news is I didn’t execute as I had hoped and finished 4th. Fortunately, 4th place $$ covered my ferry ticket.

By the way, that Impulse CycleSport Jacket is awesome! Pretty water resistant and a real joy to have in cool wet conditions.

So here’s how the 3/4 race went down on Saturday:

It was me and Christian and a few guys from ORR and a group of 50-60 riders.

Lap 1:  Moderate rain.  About 58 or 59 degrees out.  Group stays together with no major action.  Going up the 1 mile climb at the end of the lap, the group drops maybe 5-10 riders.  Respectable pace on the first lap but nothing brutal.  A bunch of Canadians at the front doing the majority of the pulls.  Gotta love those Canadians.

Lap 2:  Lap 2 begins and its pissing rain now.  By the middle of the lap it feels like its 50 degrees or lower.  We’re all freezing.  I can’t hold on to my handlebars without shaking.  I’m questioning our collective sanity.  I mean I have 2 kids and a wife, right?  But at least I had arm warmers.  I have no idea how those without handled the cold.  Even still, it felt like we (or at least I) wasted more energy shivering than actually pedaling.  On the second time up the climb, a group of about 10-12 riders set a good clip up the hill.  Christian and I ended up in a group of about 4-5 riders about 30-45 seconds behind the leaders and spent the next 8 miles trying to latch on.  We did eventually no thanks to some d’bag in our group who would pull through at mach 12, hang out exactly 10 yards in front of the us for 2-3 minutes by himself and simultaneously berate us for not pulling hard enough.  It was the most idoitic display of bike racing that I’ve seen in a long time.  When I say he was a completely d’bag, I am not exaggerating.  We all wanted to punch him, and I think one us (who shall remain nameless almost did).

Lap 3:  After 8 miles, we catch the lead group and now there are about 15-17 of us and its the final time up the 1m climb before the final leg.  Up we go again, and this time about three quarters of the way up, I lose contact.  Christian continues onward, stayed within spitting distance of the leaders, and finally latched on to them (about 3-4 miles later) right before the final 2 mile climb.  I think he ended up in the top 15 with a strong ride.  I on the other hand soft-pedaled it in after being dropped.  I continued and was going to ride to the parking lot instead of heading to the finish when Jared and a group he was in passed by me, so I latched on and made my way onward asking Jared if he wanted to just bail with me on the final climb and go to the parking lot.  “No way.  We’ve come all the way here, haven’t we?”.  Convinced of this logic, I continued albeit at a very slow pace.

At the finish, caught up with Philip who said he finished well.  Some dynamic duo in his field (35+) broke away at mile 1 or 2 and stayed away the entire race.  Unbelievable.

Anyway, off to clean my bicycle.  After yesterday, the desire to ride in the cold again is non-existent.

From the 35+ race…

I signed up for the 35+ field at Wilmington.  The field was combined 35/45 and there were half as many 35s, so I played the odds!

I dressed more conservatively than Alberto with arm/knee warmers, merino wool sleeveless under shirt and wind vest over all.   I have to say I was pretty comfy except for the sloppy feel of wet shoes/gloves and lack of visibility that comes with racing in or after a rain.

On the way out to the circuits,  I sat near the back warming up when two guys jumped off the front staying away!  I could see the heavy hitters that I knew still in the field, but Canadians are always a wild card.

The rest of the field rolled out onto the circuits at a good clip.  There were several jumps but it stayed together into the tough climb.

The pace was high for the first ascent and we were likely down to 15 out of the ~55 starters. The pace eased after the top and numerous guys got back on in the next few miles, likely to pop the next time up the climb. Two more guys jumped away at the start of the third lap. Were they 45s or 35s?

I followed and initiated some jumps but nothing that worked. The last time up the climb, soggy and wet, the pace was at my redline. The climb is like a bigger version of the second Philo climb in TNW and as the slope eased off just like TNW, the lead 6-8 surged and I lost 20 feet. I was clawing my way back to them as a couple of other bigger guys came by me and I latched on and got back to the lead group. Ahhh, just like TNW!

We turned off the circuits heading back to the finish. There were a few jumps but it stayed together until we turned up the Whiteface climb. It splintered very quickly and I stayed with what became the second group of 5 to the finish with leaden legs, in 8^th position. Philp Beliveau

Claude, Matt, Eric, and I made the trip to CT for the Nutmeg State Games Criterium in New Britain.  I was pretty certain the weather conditions would be better than last year, but as Matt drove through the pouring rain in MA, flashbacks of last year’s deluge dampened my spirits.

Matt and I arrived at Walnut Park with time to catch Claude in the 45+ race, see the rain come to an end, and warm up with Eric before our races.  Claude looked strong and aggressive, and made a go at the $100 prime.  I am guessing that the wedding he was attending that afternoon had an open bar, otherwise he would have walked away with the money.  We caught up with Claude minutes after his race to find him already decked out in a suit and tie. We think he had that on under his skin suit.  Nice plan.

Matt, Eric, and I then lined up for the 35+ race, which was about 40 strong.  I was using this as the warm-up for the next two races and had the plan to just sit in unless my legs felt superhuman. They didn’t.  Two guys went balls-to-the-wall right off the whistle, which made for a pretty aggressive start.  Matt made it into a break that had a gap for a bit, but didn’t stick.  Eric went for one of the primes, but placed out of the prizes by the slightest of margins.  Things got a bit twitchy in the last two corners of the race, and Eric was bumped off the course on the final corner.  Matt finished strong at 14th, and I followed at 17th.

After a quick spin around the course, Eric and I lined up for the 30+ race.  Having warm legs, we both felt the race had a pretty mellow start, but that didn’t last long.  Eric and I didn’t see much of each other during the race, and I am not sure how his race unfolded.  I had talked about several scenarios with Matt during our warm-up, but I didn’t have a clear strategy in mind for this race as my head was still spinning from the previous race.  I did make it into the winning break and finished 10th overall.

I spun around the course again and barely made it back to the start/finish for the cat 3 start with Matt (thanks for cutting off my numbers both times).  Matt and I had no time to talk strategy for this race, but that didn’t seem to hold him back.

Matt was strong during the entire race and finished near the front of a very large group.  I was a bit tired at this point, and had several things go wrong. After what I thought was about 5 or 6 laps, I glanced at the lap cards hoping to see a 14.  I was off by a bit.  21.  Apparently the cat 3 race was a 25 miler, unlike the previous two 20 milers.  Not really a big deal, but certainly a kick in the teeth when enduring oxygen debt.  I kept Matt just in front of me, and when what I thought was the final lap came around, I laid it all out there moving up to about 6th wheel.  As we rounded the final corner, I felt like I might finish in the money for this one.  As I began to wind up my sprint, I wondered what everyone else was waiting for.  As I looked down the road, I realized that they were waiting for the bell.  The lap cards read 2.  Damn. Apparently I’m not that good with numbers.

Having almost nothing left in the tank, I did what I could to stay near the front of the group when two or three guys to my front left tangled and quickly found the blacktop moments before the final corner.  I’m not sure where I finished in the group, but I am happy to say that I finished with all the skin I started with.

All in all, it was a great day of racing.  I have some ideas about how I can better race three crits in one day and I am looking forward to hitting Fitchburg with a large BL-FW contingent and tearing those races apart.

Speaking of Fit Werx, I cannot say enough about my recent bike fit.  It was a hard day in the saddle on Saturday, but I have never felt more comfortable (and powerful) sitting on my bike.  Glad to be part of a great team and race with great teammates.  JP