Quick summary
Awesome weekend hanging out with friends in Athens. Perhaps the highlight of my weekend was being there to see Mark Fisher win the amateur finals race in a crazy solo move. I was also very happy with how I was able to stay near the front in the pro race and even attack to take a $100 prime late in the race. With two laps to go, a couple guys crashed in front of me of me going into turn 1. As soon as I hit the brakes to try to stop, the guy behind me plowed into me at pretty much full speed — popping me up into the air and then landing ironically on him, his bike and unfortunately for my right knee, his pedal (or my own headset). Initially, I thought I had shattered my knee b/c the pain/shock was so great that I was almost paralyzed to even try to move to unstraddle my bike. Somehow after untangling everything I still had one foot on the left side of my bike and the other foot on the right side of my bike. So I’m standing there trying to figure out whether I can still get back on my bike when the field starts to come down the stretch again. I knew at this point there was no way to even ride in easy so I scrambled off the course just before the remnants of the field came barrelling into turn 1 again with one lap to go. Disappointing finish to an otherwise great weekend! On Sunday, I partially redeemed the weekend by discovering a new Cat 2 climb for Alabama (Campington Ridge) on what was supposed to be a 120 mile ride home via Mount Cheaha. Instead, I got to climb Cheaha in a thunderstorm full of lightning and then descend it in a thunderstorm downpour. By the time I made it to Talledega, finishing the ride wasn’t even on the menu any more — but a hot coffee and supersonic breakfast burrito while waiting for Kristine to come pick me up definitely was!
The videos
Well, as it turns out my camera bounced off my handlebars in Turn 2 fairly early in the race … I think it may have been the second or third lap. Some kind soul found it for me and turned it into Ashley Travieso. So assuming that the camera card wasn’t broken by the impact, then I should have videos to post of the scrum, call-ups, and first one or two laps. I’m picking up the camera from Ashley at the Sandy Springs race on Sunday so I’ll probably have those videos posted by Sunday night or Monday morning!
The data
Athens Twilight Pro/1 2013 59th place, crash 2 to go Lap Time Mi. AvgPow MaxPow HR RPM MPH 1 1:27 0.6 299 888 154 83 25.7 2 1:19 0.6 293 791 167 82 26.2 3 1:17 0.6 256 815 169 79 27.5 4 1:19 0.6 264 824 168 80 27 5 1:15 0.6 246 877 167 81 27.6 6 1:14 0.6 259 851 170 84 27.7 7 1:12 0.6 239 736 173 84 28.6 8 1:13 0.6 258 862 174 80 28 9 1:20 0.6 245 807 174 83 25.3 10 1:17 0.6 272 849 173 81 26.8 11 1:17 0.6 246 880 176 79 27.3 12 1:20 0.6 254 862 174 77 26 13 1:14 0.6 246 847 176 81 27.8 14 1:16 0.6 274 868 177 81 27.6 15 1:12 0.6 269 896 178 83 29.2 16 1:19 0.6 207 856 175 79 26.8 17 1:21 0.6 250 855 170 84 26.1 18 1:14 0.6 262 833 172 84 27.6 19 1:21 0.6 224 827 175 78 26.3 20 1:19 0.6 248 820 172 83 26.9 21 1:16 0.6 243 838 173 79 27.6 22 1:16 0.6 269 851 175 82 27.7 23 1:12 0.6 232 929 178 78 29.1 24 1:20 0.6 257 826 172 80 26.5 25 1:18 0.6 251 859 178 76 26.6 26 1:16 0.6 244 771 176 80 27.9 27 1:15 0.6 244 824 173 79 28.3 28 1:14 0.6 270 788 173 82 28.5 29 1:11 0.6 249 781 177 80 29.8 30 1:13 0.6 239 892 175 78 29 31 1:17 0.6 241 832 176 74 27.4 32 1:20 0.6 231 723 172 81 26.4 33 1:15 0.6 241 868 173 83 27.9 34 1:12 0.6 241 835 176 79 28.5 35 1:12 0.6 239 789 174 81 28.9 36 1:18 0.6 242 865 170 74 27 37 1:17 0.6 243 829 174 79 27.2 38 1:14 0.6 240 829 174 81 28.2 39 1:15 0.6 232 781 172 83 27.7 40 1:21 0.6 286 796 178 81 25.9 41 1:13 0.6 266 854 180 80 28.7 42 1:14 0.6 244 868 175 78 28.2 43 1:16 0.6 243 879 172 80 27.8 44 1:16 0.6 242 821 170 80 27.5 45 1:17 0.6 236 801 170 82 27.3 46 1:15 0.6 250 797 170 80 27.7 47 1:15 0.6 221 769 171 79 28.4 48 1:15 0.6 257 770 170 81 28 49 1:16 0.6 244 795 172 84 28.1 50 1:14 0.6 246 767 171 86 29 51 1:13 0.6 249 807 170 81 29.3 52 1:16 0.6 224 731 169 82 28.3 53 1:15 0.6 261 793 167 80 28.4 54 1:15 0.6 252 788 174 78 28.4 55 1:16 0.6 248 745 172 81 27.5 56 1:25 0.6 216 783 166 78 24.9 57 1:18 0.6 234 763 164 79 27.1 58 1:15 0.6 226 783 163 80 27.8 59 1:18 0.6 243 837 159 79 27.1 60 1:17 0.6 253 776 167 77 27.3 61 1:12 0.6 255 808 170 83 29.4 62 1:21 0.6 255 745 172 79 26.1 63 1:19 0.6 234 711 169 79 26.5 64 1:16 0.6 286 716 168 80 28 65 1:18 0.6 221 727 170 80 26.9 66 1:25 0.6 216 617 161 81 24.8 67 1:11 0.6 418 741 172 82 29 68 1:24 0.6 262 548 183 84 25 69 1:16 0.6 242 750 175 83 27.7 70 1:19 0.6 261 732 168 82 27.1 71 1:18 0.6 269 772 173 79 27.1 72,73 2:34 1.2 241 734 171 80 27.4 74-76 4:00 1.8 265 819 175 80 26.7 77 1:20 0.6 277 794 179 81 26.7
Towards the end of the lap data with rain moving in, apparently my GPS couldn’t keep up with the turns anymore and my auto-lap feature wasn’t kicking in correctly. Looking at the data, it may be that my crash was actually with 3 laps to go (2.75 laps).
Athens Twilight 2013 Pro/1 – Heartrate zone summary
Athens Twilight 2013 Pro/1 – Annotated heartrate plot (click to enlarge)
Athens Twilight 2013 Pro/1 critical power curve
The detailed report
Athens Twilight is a race like no other in the country. From the atmosphere of thousands and thousands of people lining the entire course several rows deep, to the pre-race scrum fighting for position before the race even starts, to the super fast course, to the uncertainty of how the race itself could play out in any number of dramatically different scenarios. After racing it for seven years in a row now, I think I’ve figured out what makes the course so amazingly fast — the fact that turn 1 is so slow. What this does is it causes everyone from the back of the pack to have to accelerate really hard up the hill to keep from having gaps open up. Yet the course is so wide coming across the top of the hill that there are plenty of people with lots of momentum to slingshot past the guys at the front causing the guys at the front to respond and pick up their speed behind the new guys who are trying to attack or go off the front. And that new faster speed is easily carried through the wide turn #3. Heading into turn #4 you are coasting, so you have a chance to recover and then hit it really hard again through the start/finish. This process repeats itself enough times and pretty soon you are averaging over 30mph per lap.
I had a really great start in this year’s race on the second row, and I held good position towards the front third of the group until a crash coming out of Turn #1 at the very front of the field caused a pile-up. I could see guys pulling up behind it and getting ready to head back to the pit, but I also could see a way around the mess so I opted to just keep riding since there were no gaps I could see. Going up the hill out of turn #2, I was in a bit of a panic b/c I could see a front group of about 25 riders had separated itself from maybe the next 50 or so of us — and I was near the very back of this group. Fortunately, some heavy hitters were not in that front 25 so our group was able to catch back up before the end of that lap.
In the chaos of the crash and remerging of the groups, a few riders slipped away and formed a dangerous looking break. Predator missed the move, though, and after 15-20 laps of steady chasing they brought it back. A few laps later, a three man move including eventual winner Kevin Mullervy (Champion/NoTubes), Carlos Alzate (UHC), and Frank Travieso (Mountain Khakis) escaped and quickly got a good gap on the field. Predator went to the front again to chase, but they couldn’t get any help from anyone else. During these laps, I was slowly working my way back up towards the front. Then with maybe 16 or 17 laps to go, I was in good position and the pace of the field let up at the front so I thought about attacking up the hill with no real race objective other than to be off the front for Kristine. I realized it would be better to wait for a prime, though, and on the very next lap they rang the bell for a $100 field prime. The pace slowed again just a bit across the top and I took that opportunity to launch an attack to go for the prime.
I imagined the whole time I was attacking that I was just pulling the field with me or at least one or two other riders who would come around to take the prime, so I sprinted hard all the way to the line not realizing that I had escaped cleanly and had maybe a 5 second gap by the line. I was cooked from the effort, though, so I sat up, recovered, and waited for the field. I slotted back in at the front of the field and spent the next 12 laps attacking up the outside on the hill to keep from getting passed by the field and then slotting back in behind UHC through the start/finish. This was taking its toll on me but I was maintaining good position until 3 laps to go heading into Turn 3 when the pace eased up a bit on the downhill and I wasn’t close enough to the barriers so a whole slew of people came around me on the outside. I tapped the brakes feeling squeezed by the people on the inside and lost even more positions. I think I probably went from top 15 back down to top 30 by the start/finish line. Shortly after the start/finish line heading into turn #1, there was a big pile-up on the ground in front of me, and as I hit my brakes to try to stop before running into it, the guy behind me plowed into me from behind propelling me up into the air a bit and then ironically landing on top of him as he came sliding by me on the ground.
Side note – I’ve now crashed five times at Athens Twilight after racing it for 7 years. Out of those five times, my body has only hit the ground twice – once in 2007 when I landed on my butt in the straight section between Turn #3 and Turn #4 when somebody went too far outside hit the curb and bounced back into the group taking down a number of riders (including me) and then once in 2011 when I landed hard on my wrist in a very similar wreck to this year’s except going through Turn #1 instead of heading into it. The other three wrecks (two more in 2007, I had three wrecks that year, and one in either 2008 or 2009) have all involved me landing on top of other people already on the ground!
My first thought was get back up and try to tack back onto the riders who were still streaming by those of us caught up in the wreck. But my bike was so tangled up in two other rider’s bikes that it took a few seconds to even get the bikes untangled. By this point, the field was gone. Also, it was about that time I realized must have cracked my knee really hard on something (pedal, headset) as it was bleeding and hurting quite a bit. In fact, the location of the pain paralyzed me for a few seconds as I was afraid to move or bend my leg thinking that I had done some serious damage to my knee and would end up crumpling back to the ground if I tried to move. As I looked back to the start/finish I could see the lead moto and knew that the field was coming soon so this forced me to try to move and I found that I could move my knee without any additional pain. I climbed through the fence as spectators grabbed my bike and pulled it into the beer tent. Turning down numerous offers for beers, ambulances, and other forms of assistance, I was able to take my bike and ride it through the crowd to the start/finish line where Chad was interviewing the winner, Kevin.
Even having to pull out with three to go, I still ended up 59th as many of the nearly 100 starters had already abandoned the race earlier. So I’m happy to not have to put a DNF in my results! Kristine related to me later that the race for first was an intriguing one with Kevin attacking the break with six to go and Frank and Carlos hesistating to chase. This gave Kevin enough room to solo it in from six to go. Carlos ended up outsprinting Frank for 2nd with Frank rounding out the podium in 3rd. All-in-all I think it was a good race for me being in good position so late in the race and then just a bit of bad luck with two to go. C’est la vie – can’t wait until next year!!!!!
Alabama’s newest Cat 2 climb – Bain’s Gap to Campington Ridge
On the way home I had Kristine drop me off on the old Fort Mclellan property so I could ride a new Cat 2 climb and then bike almost 120 miles home via Mount Cheaha. Along the way I saw a really cool wild turkey run across the road, and a long black snake, and then I got absolutely soaked in a thunderstorm on the top of Mt Cheaha – quite scary with all the lightning – and a huge downpour on the descent down into Talladega. By the time I made it to Talladega, I was ready to be done riding so I called Kristine to come pick me up. I got some cool pics that I’ve posted in the gallery below.
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