Athens Twilight 2012

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Race summary
If last weekend’s Sunny King criterium was dominated by Kenda, then this weekend’s Athens Twilight Pro Race was quite a show of strength by Team Mountain Khakis. They had riders in just about every move. And then they were still able to set things up in the end for their sprinter Luke Keough, who edged John Murphy (Kenda) on the line with Emile Abraham (Rosetti Devo) rounding out the podium in third. Even the announcers were getting in on the action. I remember rounding turn 2 maybe 30 laps or so into the 80 lap race and Jeff Hopkins (announcing from the back-side of the course) was already saying that Team Mountain Khakis deserved most aggressive team. Kudos to the whole team for quite a performance and the huge win!

I did not do the grid qualifiers so I started at the back of the 130 rider field. A minute or two before they said go, I realized that I should be on the left side of the group so I turned around and rode around to the left side to be ready to take the outside line in Turns 1 and 2. This worked out really well because the guys in front of me clipped in well and we were able to pass a few people within the first few seconds of the race. On the second lap I was still on the outside and was able to shoot up the hill coming out of Turn 2 passing 10-20 riders. I had tons of momentum across the top of the hill, and the group was still going fast enough not to bunch up on the approach to turn 3 – so I was able to carry my momentum all the way down the hill passing another 10-20 riders. I went from the very back of a large field to mid-pack by the end of the 2nd lap. I continued to fight for position moving up every time the pace slowed down even a tiny bit. The extra energy burned to move up was well worth it for the faster lines you could take through the corners.

By the midway point of the race, I had worked my way to nearly the front of the field with a two-man break a few seconds up the road. The front of the field slowed down coming up the hill out of turn 2, and I decided this was my moment to do something in the race whether it worked or not. I attacked hard up the left side with Jeff Hopkins calling out my name over the PA – something along the lines of “and there goes a move from Brian Toone”. Coming across the top of the hill, I could hear Chad Andrews (who was announcing the start/finish line) mention something about “rider from Alabama”. Then going into Turns 3 and 4, I could hear him mention “Toonesfanclub”, which is the twitter handle my wife uses to announce updates during races (see sidebar of tweets to the right). So by the start/finish line I was caught, but I was elated to have at least done something in the race. That is always a goal for this race – not only to finish well, but also to do something in the race. Last year I was able to win a prime. Three years ago I was in a late race break of 10 riders that eventually produced a smaller break (unfortunately without me in it) with the winner Heath Blackgrove.

After getting caught, I fought hard to maintain my position but had slid back to maybe the top 40 riders with 5 laps to go. This worked out well, though, because with 5 laps to go and again with 4 laps to go there was a bunch-up on the hill as the front riders slowed down which meant that those of us a little farther back were able to shoot up the sides. By the final lap I had moved up into the top 20 and maintained that position all the way to the line taking 20th – my best Athens Twilight finish yet … DNF in 1997 and 1998, 48th in 2007, DNF in 2008, 27th in 2009, DNF in 2010, 26th in 2011, and 20th in 2012.

Here is all my data and graphs from this year’s race.

2012 Athens Twilight Lap Data
		    POWER (watts)
Lap	Time	Avg	xPow	Max	HR	Spd
1	01:19	330	292	820	168	27.2
2	01:12	267	228	827	172	29.2
3	01:14	270	236	975	173	28.8
4	01:11	305	261	851	177	30.1
5	01:13	257	228	895	178	29.5
6	01:12	256	226	845	176	30.3
7	01:16	234	212	890	173	27.5
8	01:15	243	219	919	173	28
9	01:18	258	223	891	174	27.2
10	01:18	231	211	860	176	27.6
11	01:18	272	238	873	178	27.3
12	01:13	271	235	918	179	28.6
13	01:11	284	239	931	179	29.8
14	01:10	250	212	821	182	29.6
15	01:14	249	223	973	179	28.7
16	01:10	280	235	917	180	30.1
17	01:13	234	203	901	179	28.8
18	01:11	268	229	876	179	29.3
19	01:15	261	232	884	179	28
20	01:12	236	210	934	179	29
21	01:13	249	216	903	179	28.7
22	01:10	262	230	864	178	29.5
23	01:18	234	214	897	177	27.1
24	01:17	262	238	896	179	27.6
25	01:17	244	215	920	178	27.4
26	01:15	256	224	976	178	27.6
27	01:18	238	218	903	177	27.2
28	01:16	226	203	790	175	27.7
29	01:16	216	190	794	175	27.7
30	01:14	235	199	706	175	28.5
31	01:13	239	209	885	176	28.8
32	01:13	253	220	875	177	28.6
33	01:18	260	235	900	178	27.5
34	01:13	247	223	933	177	29.3
35	01:13	218	198	885	176	28.7
36	01:19	257	234	883	172	27.1
37	01:16	232	205	842	178	27.4
38	01:16	232	200	881	172	27.5
39	01:14	222	195	832	173	29.3
40	01:16	241	210	856	172	27.8
41	01:13	262	223	930	176	28.9
42	01:12	228	200	820	176	30
43	01:19	224	202	800	171	26.9
44	01:21	215	193	862	169	25.8
45	01:14	267	232	775	172	28.3
46	01:15	244	214	755	174	28
47	01:19	229	206	817	169	26.9
48	01:19	214	191	851	169	26.6
49	01:20	191	186	813	171	26.3
50	01:17	246	222	821	166	26.7
51	01:12	225	199	775	170	28.8
52	01:13	251	218	868	171	29.1
53	01:14	240	213	844	170	29.2
54	01:12	259	225	802	172	29.8
55	01:15	214	186	816	171	28
56	01:16	280	228	842	171	27.3
57	01:13	325	280	971	181	28.9
58	01:21	202	170	783	174	25.1
59	01:17	243	213	701	169	27.5
60	01:14	212	190	743	170	27
61	01:19	224	199	852	167	26.8
62	01:14	232	201	816	169	28.6
63	01:12	244	215	832	173	28.8
64	01:15	245	225	885	173	28.4
65	01:14	261	229	731	172	27.7
66	01:14	232	203	827	172	28.2
67	01:11	238	211	876	173	29.6
68	01:16	244	216	846	173	27.8
69	01:17	239	211	854	174	28.1
70	01:14	212	189	817	173	28.9
71	01:15	236	206	879	172	28
72	01:12	253	217	875	174	28.6
73	01:16	243	218	812	176	27.6
74	01:19	261	214	782	174	26.5
75	01:16	280	233	865	175	28.3
76	01:12	254	221	919	178	29.1
77	01:13	226	190	827	176	29
78	01:13	284	236	850	176	29.4
79	01:10	276	233	922	180	29.5
80	01:07	363	304	1088	184	31.5

Heartrate zone summary. 47.6 miles is a long way to race in a crit!

2012 athens twilight heartrate power data (30sec smoothing on power data) – click to enlarge

This was what a pedal force / pedal velocity graph looks like the more “bursts” of power you have. The black dots are from my long-warmup. The red dots are from the race. Click to enlarge.

Comments

3 responses to “Athens Twilight 2012”

  1. chad Avatar
    chad

    thats awesome brian! you are killing it as usual. and if the pedal force graphs werent confusing enough for me, yours takes the cake, haha

  2. bikevcar Avatar

    What stands out most is your heart rate. An average of 174bpm for one hour and 40 minutes. That’s incredible to have maintained that without burning out.

  3. bamaearl Avatar
    bamaearl

    Nice! You remind me of a couple of other guys who raced in Alabama. Seth Poole (Alabama Wheelmen) got three top 20 finishes in Athens and guy Seth beat a few times when Jim rode with SCCC, won in ’88… http://www.athenstwilight.com/history.php

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