Fast Times at Tulsa Tough 2011

 We left Oklahoma City bound for Tulsa around 3:30 Friday afternoon. Before I get too far ahead of myself, let me back pedal to Wednesday. A couple of weeks before the Tulsa Tough, I heard that my buddy Dominik Roels was going to be in town to do the Wednesday night after work crit and then the Tulsa Tough.
Dominik was a foreign exchange student here in OKC for a couple of years around 6 or 7 years ago. He went on to race 3 years on the Milram Protour squad before taking a hiatus this season to basically travel the world.
Anyhow, the rumor was correct as he was at our local practice crit on Wednesday night. I guess a lot of guys felt the practice crit was too close to the Tulsa Tough, because the turnout was pretty low compared to the past 2 races. I think there were only 11 or 12 riders in the A group, 6 of which were Team Undiscovered, so we felt like if we couldn't control the race and get the top 3 spots, something was wrong.
After about 20 minutes into the 45 minute race, it was down to 4 riders - 2 of my team mates Rob and Brandon, Dominik, and myself. Dominik isn't in pro level shape right now, but the dude just kept coming back after our non-stop attacks. I think somewhere around 5 laps to go, Rob got away, followed shortly after by Brandon. I thought Dominik was pretty much done and attacked him with 2 laps to go and opened up about a 5 second gap. I tried to bridge to Rob and Brandon, but couldn't quite get there before the terminator came back again surging past me and almost catching Rob and Brandon. In the end, we got 1st, 2nd, and 4th.

Hanging out after the race was over, Dominik was looking for a ride to the Tulsa Tough. I was going up with Rob, and it was kind of an experiment to see if we could get 3 people, 3 bikes, spare wheels and all our gear  inside Rob's Wagon .

1 full vehicle -  Double click any photo to enlarge

It was a tight squeeze, but we did it. No external racks required. It was a fun trip to Tulsa as Rob and I asked a ton of questions about all things bike racing and discussed all kinds of things like what it's like to do a grand tour, how many pro's really dope, preferred bike equipment and so on.
Rob and I had also been talking about last years race and how when we watched the race videos, you barely got a glimpse of us. We didn't seem to be active whatsoever and we were looking to change that. We got to the Blue Dome venue in time to register and get a couple laps in before the cat 3's started. Dominik got registered without any problems. He would be racing the cat 1-2 races with Rob and I all weekend.

We were fortunate again this year to stay with Brian and Carol's friend Ann. Ann lives just a couple of blocks away from the riverside course, so it was only a 2 or 3 mile ride at most to any of the race sites.

So Friday night, the pro women were finishing up and it was finally time for us to race. There's kind of a race before the race to get to the start line in a good position. I secured a decent starting spot on the second row, and within a few minutes, we were racing.  I stayed in a good position around the top 15 or so for the first six corners. I got a good momentum run going down the long downhill backstretch, and found myself in 1st coming out of the last corner!



2nd lap glory on Friday night - Photo by Biff Stephens

 Luckily my buddy Biff got some really cool shots. The effort didn't seem too hard, so I just stayed on the front for a couple of laps.


Still on the front - Friday night - Photo by Biff Stephens

 If you notice the sky in the pictures, the weird look is not a photo effect. Before we started racing, it kind of looked like a big storm might be headed our way. I tried to stay in a decent position throughout the race, I'd say I was usually somewhere between 20th and 50th. I remember watching the lap counter and at 12 laps to go, I thought to myself "when it gets to the single digits, I need to start moving into a good position". The next time I checked it, what I thought would be 9 laps to go turned into 5 laps to go. I guess the race officials shortened the race 5 laps as a big storm was indeed headed our way. It was a pretty crazy scramble at that point, as everybody wanted to move up.
I cant remember if it was 2 or 3 laps to go when it started pouring. I got caught up in the first crash I saw happen. I didn't go down, but I pretty much came to a stop. The rest of the race was total chaos as bikes and bodies were laying all over the course in piles. I finished the race somewhat cautious ending up 28th.

Rob, Dominik and I went for ride Saturday morning on the river trail. Pretty nice. We discussed a plan for the 3 of us to work together. As it turned out, the plan pretty much went out the window as it started raining again shortly after we started racing. A bunch of guys crashed and in the end, most guys quit or got pulled. Only 38 of the over 100 starters finished. The course was a big challenge the whole race because it didn't rain everywhere. The race split in half with a group of about 20 up the road and a chase group of 18 or so that I was in. Eventually with 6 laps to go, we caught the lead group and it was all back together.
With 2 laps to go, I had moved up into the top 15, but coming into the last corner to start the last lap, the guy in front of me got chopped and hit his brakes pretty hard. I got into him and the guy behind me and lost a ton of positions. The race payed 20 deep and I finished 24th. My best finish in the 1/2's at this race, but I really wanted to finish in the money.


About 15 minutes in on Saturday - Big rain drops - Photo by Steve Stewart

Sunday I wanted to try to survive the whole race. Historically, I've never made it further than about halfway at this course. The cry baby hill section is pretty wild to ride through...Good motivation also.





Cry baby hill action - Sunday - Photo by Steve Stewart

 That's me in the middle of the photo #254. Although it didn't seem as hot this year, there were more water hoses shooting mist across the road which was nice.





Cry baby hill - Photo by Andrew Willis

 I was feeling pretty good Sunday. I was just sitting in for the most part trying to save as much energy as possible. Around 20 minutes in, I felt like I was drifting too far back, so I put a pretty hard dig in and got up towards the front. With nobody directly in front of me, I was able to go up the hill as hard as I wanted, which was probably a little too hard because I was on the ropes for the next 20 minutes. I made it to 9 laps to go before I got dropped. Rob was able to stay in the whole race and got 34th.
My cat 3 team mates did well with Brandon getting 9th, 4th, and 4th and Ryan got 14th on Sat and 12th on Sunday. It shouldn't be long before they're racing in the 1/2's.

The weekend overall was one of the funnest race weekends I've had. I learned a lot just following Dominik a few times and seeing how much different his general lines were than mine. I also got some new insight on tire pressure.

It's nice this year to start my summer break and still be motivated to ride a lot and race. I guess that's what happens when you don't try to hit every race possible. I'm already planning out my late road/cyclocross season. I think I'm going to go for a new mileage record this July as well.

May

I guess some good motivation came in May in that we finally got our new team bikes. Cannondale Caad 10's

The bikes ride really nice. Super stiff, but pretty comfortable on longer rides. I like the way they corner a lot. Anyhow, we also got our 2011 kits in mid April, so the total package is complete.

There were a couple of weeks after the racing in April and the races that would start in May, so I wanted to get a good block of riding in to try to get ready for the Tulsa Tough in June. It seemed like the weather changed overnight from needing arm and knee warmers to super hot!

The first event in May was the last of the OKC Velo TT series races. The conditions were not great with it being cold and windy. I ran my slowest time of the three races, but so did everyone else. I ended up with 2nd for the day and 3rd overall in the series.

The following weekend was the state championship team time trial on Saturday and the state criterium championship on Sunday. Rob, Andy and I formed a team and drove up to Hominy Saturday morning to give it a go. We felt like we had a pretty good plan, but once we were actually underway, it got a little sloppy. We ended up getting 3rd overall. The bummer was that we were only 2 seconds behind 2nd place, but we beat 4th place by 10 seconds. We're already planning on doing it again next year. If I'm not mistaken, this was the first year for a state team time trial. It was much more fun than doing the individual 40K state time trial for sure!

Sunday was the state criterium in Sand Springs. Same course as last year...pretty fun, but not as hot.
Jeremy decided to come out of retirement, and race with Rob, Shawn, and me. As we were warming up, we came up with a plan of marking 3 riders we thought would do well, and pretty much just shadow them. It was comical the first 2 laps of the race. The plan got thrown out the window pretty quickly as the Tulsa Tough riders were attacking from the start.

The race was 75 minutes long. I made it for 1 hour before I got dropped from the main field. I guess it's better than last years result, but still pretty disappointing.

The following Wednesday was the after work crit at the Edmond fire training center. The course layout this time was really fun. It was windy and the big hill was left out, so with the challenging corners, it was more of a true crit course. There were probably 25-30 high quality riders in the cat 123 A-race. Brandon and I were the only guys on the team who were able to make it out, and we were looking for a little redemption from the first race. The race started fast and pretty much stayed that way the whole time. In the photo above, this is the initial break that got things started. I had to kill it to bridge up to Brandon and the other 2 riders. Eventually the break grew to 7 riders.

There were a couple of awesome photographers taking pictures. I really like this one. In the end, the race went well for us. I got 2nd and Brandon got 4th. If I would have jumped a few seconds sooner, I'm pretty sure I would have won, but 2nd was good.
The last weekend in May was the Texas state criteriums. There was actually 4 days of racing due to Memorial day, but Rob and I decided to go down and do the Sunday and Monday races.

The weather was hot and the courses were the same both days. Sunday we went clockwise and Monday we went counterclockwise. Sunday was the skill based Texas state championships. There were about 80 or 90 cat 2's in our race. The course basically circled a small college facility. It was actually shaped kind of like a big circle with a little corner cut out, in other words, not very technical. The cat 2 race was 75 minutes long. With the weather being hot and all, it seemed like once we hit the 1 hour point and the lap counter showed 5 laps to go, guys just started popping left and right. Long story short, Rob and I got caught behind 1 too many gaps and found ourselves chasing the last 3 laps what was left of the main field. I think I ended up 27th.

Monday was the age based race. I think there were around 65 riders or so. It was basically 40-49 year olds with Texas state jerseys awarded to 40-44 and 45-49 age groups. There was quite a variety of rider abilities in the race. Most of the race went really well for me. I got in a good break early on. It started out as 4 riders and grew to about 12 riders, then shrunk back down to 6 riders. The break, however, was never really organized. There were a lot of rival teams represented with more than 1 rider from each team, so there was non stop surging and attacking.

We had lapped a lot of the field and were 45 seconds or so ahead of the main field. At 2 laps to go, I put in too hard of an effort on one of my pulls, somebody attacked and I didn't have the legs to jump back on. I thought I could still finish in a money spot as the race payed 7 deep, but the main field caught me with about 300 meters to go. I think I got 20 something place and 11th in my age category. Not what I was hoping for race wise, but some good speed building work to prepare for the Tulsa Tough.

April



It's been a long time since I've updated this, but I'll go ahead and start with what went down in April. Historically, it seems like April is usually the month I tend to peak around. I always want to make it more around May or June, but I guess it depends on how you start the year out training load wise. I definitely did some things differently this year and had some different goals and plans, all of which I'll get into in a different post, but it seemed like I peaked this year in March.



April training plan

 

I guess the first event in April was the Redbud. I thought I was going to have to peel off at some point in the ride to make it to my daughters soccer game, so I rode the ride super aggressive and burned as many matches as possible early on. I ended up riding the whole deal, but I was pretty smoked at the end. It came down to about 10 guys or so, and about all I was able to do was limp in after the last surge to the finish.

The Wednesday crit series has changed a bit and is now called the "Wednesday after work criterium ". They are now held the second Wed. of each month April through August. Anyway, the first race went ok. Not great, but ok I guess. The plan was to sit in for a while and let our cat 3's cover all the early attacks, but the race was only 30 minutes long, so it started super fast and if you weren't active right off the start, you were off the back.

Around 10 or 15 minutes in, Rob and I got into a break with 2 other riders. I was sure it was going to stick, and pretty much put all of my eggs in one basket effort wise. Long story short, the break got caught, and Brady attacked at the right moment and held it for the solo win. Rob got 2nd, I got 4th, and Brandon got 7th. I think there may have been 8 or 9 riders left on the lead lap. A pretty good sized group started, maybe 25 or 30 riders.

The Matrix criteriums in Dallas Tx. were on the 16th and 17th. I went down with Brandon and Lindsey. Pretty fun trip.

Nice weather at the Matrix crits in Dallas

Last year I did the second day only, which I thought was a mistake because it took 15-20 minutes of racing to get used to the speed and fast cornering. The race course is the same both days. Kind of short, mostly flat, 8 corners, and semi narrow roads. The competition in the Pro 1-2 category is pretty tough at this event. I would go as far as saying it's the hardest racing I've ever done. Last year I was only able to last 60 minutes of the 90 minute race before I got pulled from dropping too far off the back.

This year, I barely got registered because the 80 rider cutoff was full by Wednesday! I think I was number 75 or something. Anyhow, the first day went ok. A group of riders broke off early, so it seemed like the main field went a hair slower than normal. I lasted longer than last year making it all the way until the group I was in got pulled with 2 laps to go. I got 51st place Saturday.



Saturday results



Sunday on paper looked better, but only because most of the field got dropped pretty quick. Like as in 10 or 15 minutes. I got a good starting spot in the front row and managed to stay up in the top 20 for a few laps, but the race stayed together for quite a while making it really fast. I got pulled after only about 30 minutes, but I got 35th.



Sunday results

 I was hoping for better results, but the race experience was good getting deeper into the crit season.

The following Saturday was race #2 of the 3 OKC Velo TT series races. I guess the race conditions were fair. Aaron Smathers tweaked my bike fit, and the bike felt a lot better. It's hard to tell this year to last how things compare because the course is a little different, but I ran my fastest time on the current course of 17:02

The weird part about trying to compare is my speed is good and at an all time high (a little over 28mph), but my power output is 5-10% lower than my best runs in the last couple years.

OKC Velo TT #2

There was one last race at the end of the month, but I decided to skip it. There was a lot of racing in May with 4 criteriums and 2 time trials.