The 2013 NWA Spring Classic Road Race

 It's amazing how powerful having a positive mental attitude can be, and the racing that went down on the weekend of March 23rd and 24th was a good example of that. It was a good weekend for us. The weather was pretty brutal, but we made the best of it.
There are several different directions or topics I could write about in this post. One thing could be about the tips and tricks we've come up with over the years that are either free or cheep, but will keep you warm and dry(well somewhat), and several other little things you can do to deal with these types of conditions.
Another topic could be about the Guru DFU fit cycle at the shop. The wins just keep piling up from the guys who have been fit on that thing.
A third subject could be about the awesome equipment we've been using so far this year, and another could be about mental toughness and how to develop it and be prepared for racing in the worst possible conditions.

I think trying to cover all of these things at once would be a bit much, so I'm going to focus on the racing itself. I'll be writing separate posts for the other things very soon.

The days before the weekend were calling for pretty grim weather for the weekend. Saturday and Sunday were looking cold, windy and a high possibility of rain and or snow. This may sound stupid, but I've been dreaming about doing a race in the snow for a really long time, and the possibility to actually finally get to do one had me very interested. The first of three OKC Velo time trials was Saturday morning at Lake Overholser. The weather turned out to be not too bad, mostly just cold.

Anyhow, the race went well for me. I had the fastest time of the day.Rob got second just a couple of seconds behind me. Usually Rob and me are pretty close time wise on the flatter courses, but he kills it on the hillier courses. Rob's wife Sarah also won the womens category.

Sunday morning, Rob, Sarah and I carpooled to the NWA road race. At first it looked like we might miss the rain/snow, but as we were getting close to Arkansas, I started to see some flurries. Once we got to the race course, it was light, but it was definitely snowing. The thing was nobody in the car was bummed out. Everybody seemed pretty excited to race in it, which I think made a huge difference in the overall experience.

Rob and me geared up for getting down

19 guys rolling out - only 10 finished

The last race we did was the Tall Chief road race. I didn't write a story about it, but for us, the race was literally over in less than 5 minutes after it started, so we were determined not to make that mistake again.
Our plan was to be very ready at the start and really just go hard all day and get it done quickly. I know that Rob really wanted to get a good win this year, and the NWA race was one that he felt he had a good chance at.
Right from the gun, Rob attacked pretty hard. Within a mile or so, guys were already getting popped off the back of the group. About 10 minutes in the group was mostly back together. Bob Cummings from Kansas attacked and Rob was in a good position to go with him, and that was pretty much it. Once they were given a little gap, I knew they were gone. It's way more fun being one of the guys that gets to sit in the group and police would be chasers, than be one of the guys who doesn't have a rider in the break.

I got out of position and let Jake Lasley of Soundpony get away towards the end of the first lap, but by then it was too late. Rob was already almost 3 minutes up the road and he an Bob are both guys that together would be tough to catch even for a fast group working together.
Things seemed like they might start getting hairy as ice was pretty much forming on everything. It was getting hard to shift gears as ice was coating the cables, derailleurs and cassettes. It seemed like every time I looked around the group kept getting smaller.

Rob's bike coated with ice

Rob ended up out sprinting Bob and got his first win of the year in epic fashion!  What was left of the main field pretty much blew up on the climb a few miles before the finish and I ended up 7th.

After race photo...Smiling even bigger!

My iced up helmet

Sarah's bike

Rob's bike - notice the ice on the shift cables

And on the spokes!

Another fun weekend. Our confidence is going good right now, but believe it or not, I think we can get a lot better as a team. Lots more racing coming up.

How to quickly and easily route Di2 wires

First off a quick tutorial:

I've been pretty fortunate to being exposed to doing a lot of Shimano Di2 installations at the bicycle shop I work at. The popularity of electronic shifting has grown like crazy in the past couple of years, and I predict that within the next few years, it will be on the majority of nice road bikes. There is quite a bit of info out there regarding the installation processes of Di2, but not as much as you would think. I've done at least 100 or so Di2 installs at this point so far, some stock builds and some totally custom, and I thought I would share a few things I've picked up along the way.

Di2 in general is pretty easy to install and set up compared to a standard mechanical derailleur/shift system. The most difficult part of the process is routing the wires through the frame and making everything look really clean. Some bike frames it's a really easy process and others can be a nightmare. I've used several different methods for getting the wires through by taping them to shift cables, using dental floss to pull the wires through ETC.

Earlier this year I came up with an easy to make tool that works really well. It's primarily for the new style 11 speed Dura Ace and the Ultegra Di2 which both use the same smaller type wires.

These are the pieces you need: A standard shift cable, a 5mm brake ferrule, and a  crimp on cable tip.

Cut the closed end off so the cable will slide though it....

Like this.

Slide the ferrule and cable tip over in this order.

Push everything to the end and crimp the tip. 

The plug on the end of the wire fits perfectly into the ferrule....

Like this

At this point it's easy to feed the tool through the frame. In the case of this Cervelo P5, the tool is fed through the opening behind the head tube....

through the down tube and out the bottom bracket.

With the wire plugged into the ferrule, I pull the tool back through the frame.

Super quick and easy. The wire is routed and ready for hook up.

 I've got a complete Di2 conversion scheduled next week on a non Di2 specific bike, so I'll document that process as I do it.

Salt Creek Criterium 2013

The race today went pretty good I guess. Overall on the day, the team did very well, a couple of wins and lots of podiums.

This is just a quick report on the P 1/2 race because that's the one I was involved in. The weather forecast was something like an 80% chance of thunderstorms at noon, which is when our race started. I guess we dodged a bullet because it may have sprinkled a little towards the end of the race, but that's about it.

This race is kind of like a broken record in that it always runs pretty similar. The strongest team (Tulsa Tough) also had the biggest numbers, so we knew the race would be hard. I got into an early break with Levi Baker (Park Place) Jacob White (Tulsa Tough) and Ryan Gabriel (Tulsa Tough). We stayed away for somewhere between 35 and 45 minutes, but it was all for nothing. Well maybe not all for nothing, but the Tulsa Tough guys were not really willing to work effectively in the break. I don't blame them, they raced smart and in the end it worked out well for them, but I used up a lot of energy.

Anyway, Ryan Gabriel got away from us, and we got caught a little while later. Rob ended up getting in a good move and stuck it to the end. Rob ended up 3rd and I worked my way through the field at the end to get 7th. I'm kind of disappointed, but in a way I'm not. The team worked pretty well together today, and I think considering the strength of the field, we did pretty good.

The race tomorrow is going to be and early one + with daylight savings, it may be a little rough. I'm trying to calculate the actual time I have to get up and the time that it's going to really feel like, and it's not looking good.

Salt Creek criterium results 2013

Double click image to enlarge.