National Road Race – Blue Mound
Whew. Tough race at the road race. Hot. A cat 3 climb at the end of each lap plus six times up a steep hill in the middle of the course plus a final finishing climb only a couple hundred feet short of a cat 2 climb. This should have been a dream course for me, but it wasn’t happening. I’m a few pounds above my ideal racing weight right now so that doesn’t make for great climbing. Still, I’m happy to have stuck it out and finished 90th out of 200 people with over 100 people DNF’ing.
We started out up on top of Blue Mound which rises 1000 feet from the valley floors with amazing views. The official kept us neutral on the long four or five mile descent, which made for a crazy amount of braking on the way down with at least one tire explosion from overheating. Once the race was on I had already lost a lot of positions and with 200 riders in the field — even with a rolling enclosure — made it challenging to try to move around. Our field was so large that when we hit the bottom of any steep hill, the guys at the back (including me) had to come to a complete stop before proceeding forward up the hill.
I had a 39×28 so it wasn’t too hard to start spinning again up the steep slopes, but I still feel like it was quite an advantage to be at the front and start the climb at 15 mph instead of being at the back and starting the climbs at 0mph. I made it up the 2.5 mile end-of-the-lap climb (cat 3) the first time still connected to the back of the field – but just barely. After flying across the top flatter section trying to keep up with the front of the field already charging down the descent was crazy hard. Pretty much the same story the second time up the climb, but this time the elastic snapped somewhere in front of me and there were about 20 or 30 of us who had to chase back on the descent and through the valley. We finally made the juncture with the back of the field after chasing in the caravan for quite a while right before the start of the third time up the climb. It turns out I had a great view for the race-winning move as I could see the attack stringing out the front of the field while the rest of us were still bunching up going into the steep part of the climb. I was at the very back and pretty much cooked but it didn’t matter b/c huge gaps opened up in the back of the field as many people started to drop out of the race.
I continued a steady hard effort and found myself with another group that swelled to maybe 20 riders at its largest, but people started coming off our group as the heat started to get to people. I was really struggling, too, and amazed how hard it felt to be going so slow with such little wattage (well under 300 watts) on the climbs. We eventually caught Brendan Sullivan and Johnny Brizzard who had survived in the field longer than I had. After two more laps, our group had shrunk to just seven riders. I wasn’t sure how many people would be left in the race, and I was hoping it was maybe as few as 50 people so I went hard on the final climb coming in 2nd behind Brendan Sullivan out of our 7 man group which pretty much exploded at the bottom of the hill. It turns out, though, that enough people had stuck it out that our efforts were for 89th and 90th places with only 99 people finishing and 101 people DNFing.
National Criterium – Madison Capitol Building
My confidence level after six disappointing races (including the five races at the end of Dairyland the week before) was pretty low heading into the crit. Still, I had done really well on this course before (9th place in the final stage of the 2011 tour of america’s dairyland) so I was hoping for a good result. I started out towards the front and then slid backwards gradually. I think I never made it farther than 3/4 of the way towards the back of the 150 rider field, but it was hard to tell. I didn’t think the race was too hard, but it was still tough to move around until people started to get tired. Then you could move up fairly easily coming out of the last turn as people slowed down after drilling it up the hill into the turn. I used this strategy to move from about mid-pack with 3 laps to go all the way into 38th place by the time it was all said and done. Definitely my best result of the two weeks in Wisconsin, but as I detail below with some of my favorite instagram pictures the trip was a fun family vacation despite mediocre race results. Plus, I was happy to race with the best amateur racers in the country and spend a week exploring Madison – I ended up riding 441 miles for the seven days I was in Madison!
Also, a big shout-out to racers from the southeast … Nathan Brown (Memphis) and Ty Magner (Georgia) both took home national championships. Brendan Cornett did well in the crit (9th place). Andy Scarano, David Guttenplan, Winston David, Brendan Sullivan, and a bunch of other people from the southeast were all up there racing and had good results … way to represent!
Annotated heartrate data from both days
National road race – heartrate zone summary
National road race – Blue Mounds course – heartrate/power data annotated (click to enlarge)
National criterium – heartrate zone summary
National criterium – Madison Capitol building course – heartrate/power data annotated (click to enlarge)
National criterium – Madison Capitol course power map (click to enlarge)
2013 National Criterium Lap data ... auto-lap missed a few laps as indicated Lap Time AvgPow MaxPow HR RPM MPH 1 1:25 326 838 151 86 26 2 1:18 292 806 167 84 27.5 3 1:16 297 828 171 84 28.8 4 1:17 292 774 173 83 28.9 5 1:12 284 844 173 82 29.9 6 1:15 280 864 175 83 29.7 7 1:11 258 892 174 80 30.6 8 1:16 238 825 173 79 28.8 9 1:14 250 831 173 78 29.3 10 1:17 259 830 172 79 28.9 11-12 2:27 268 888 176 79 29.8 13 1:11 283 718 179 81 29.9 14 1:15 274 835 178 81 29.3 15-16 2:29 264 943 177 78 29.7 17 1:13 255 827 176 75 29.9 18 1:16 241 768 178 79 28.8 19 1:19 241 821 173 82 27.6 20 1:19 259 836 174 78 27.5 21 1:17 231 810 176 73 28.1 22-24 3:44 260 884 178 76 29.4 25 1:16 237 787 177 77 28.7 26-28 3:51 246 867 177 76 28.4 29 1:23 249 773 177 78 25.7 30-32 3:48 243 820 177 76 29 33 1:11 265 693 176 77 30.4 34-35 2:20 293 815 181 79 31.1 36 1:17 231 937 180 72 27.9 37-38 2:32 249 756 178 80 28.2 39 1:12 259 778 179 74 30.2 40 1:15 221 715 176 76 29.1 41 1:14 249 773 177 77 28.9 42 1:17 243 809 175 75 27.4 43-44 2:24 249 790 177 74 29.8 45 1:18 246 777 178 73 27.9 46 1:17 240 885 178 76 27.7 47 1:14 235 546 179 79 28.3 48 1:12 242 653 177 79 29.7 49 1:15 226 744 175 72 28.4 50 1:13 264 646 175 77 28.6 51 1:14 204 648 175 73 28.7 52 1:14 215 757 170 72 28.6 53 1:13 247 794 178 76 28.4 54 1:13 263 775 176 78 28.7 55 1:17 231 794 176 79 27.4 56 1:15 252 730 178 79 28 57 1:14 242 758 177 77 28.5 58 1:15 224 805 177 77 28.1 59 1:14 216 873 174 76 28.3 60 1:14 242 919 169 76 28.6 61 1:11 249 778 178 73 30.1 62 1:10 255 821 178 74 30.1 63 1:11 245 914 177 73 29.4 64 1:19 211 688 178 78 26.6 65 1:17 243 729 172 75 27.5 66 1:15 209 716 170 75 28.4 67 1:13 239 679 171 74 29 68 1:17 214 770 169 71 27.1 69 1:14 232 690 174 72 28.6 70 1:12 231 741 173 72 29.2 71 1:11 244 923 178 73 30 72 1:14 227 805 177 73 28.4 73 1:18 252 833 181 80 27.4 74 1:17 242 736 183 73 27.5 75 1:16 213 718 178 75 27.8 76 1:12 256 721 175 76 29.2 77 1:14 224 759 180 75 28.4 78 1:16 248 783 182 74 27.9 79 1:14 295 855 185 77 28.8 80 1:08 348 921 189 74 31.6
iBike data from the road race … this was recorded on Wednesday before the race when I pre-rode a lap of the course with Jimmy Schurman.
iBike climb and gradient data for part of the nationals blue mounds road race course (click to enlarge)
Me with Josiah and Analise after our cool-down lap riding the course together.
Our cool-down lap … Analise and Josiah are on the far right of the picture behind me.
Between turns 3 and 4 climbing the hill (I’m towards the left of the pic)
Just before the start of the race – 150 cat 1s ready to take off
A little bit of bike path, a little bit of alley, a little bit of climbing, and a whole lot of awesome warming up for #roadnats criterium in Madison WI
One of my favorite pics from the trip – Analise and Josiah crossing a creek
Josiah had to wrestle @ktoone for the packers horse – Ella’s Deli
Me and Josiah after the road race
Quintessential Wisconsin country-side and rolling hills
Spent a lot of time at the Holiday Inn waterpark
The Blue Mounds finishing hills
Awesome bike paths in Madison
Exploring UW-Madison
Got a chance to ride with my friend Lennie who happened to be up there on a day-trip
Celebrating 10 awesome years together
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