It's called "littering"

Last week, at the SLR road race, I witnessed a rider pitching his empty gel packet on the last lap after the feed zone. And it’s not the only time. I’ve seen this practice on club rides, fun rides, whatever. And the only thing I can think is….WTF!!? Stop watching TV! You are NOT in the Pro Tour. There is word for your action and it’s called “littering”.

What….you think just cause you’re out there, on a full carbon bike, wearing pretty spandex, putting out a lousy 265w avg, that you are somehow exempt from codes of conduct taught to you in grade school…? Think again! And just because they do that shit in the pro races doesn’t make it o.k. There is no paid clean up crew from the race organizer. Local club level races employ volunteers to pick up after your ass. So while you’re back at the pit area checking out the scoreboard for your 39th place finish, somebody has to sweep the course for your crap…? Think not.

Not that it’s any different but I see this shit on club rides as well. It’s a simple 2 sec maneuver to stash away your trash. If you can’t manage this AND not get dropped….do the otherwise clean roads a favor and choose the later. Some of you might be concerned about getting your kit a little sticky. And to that I say be more concerned about you not washing your gear after every ride and perhaps your general lack of hygiene. Seriously people!

Littering sucks! Don’t do it.

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One riders perspective - Dana Point GP '09

We started with 6 and ended with 3. And that was pretty much the ratio of starters to finishers for the overall Cat 4 race at the Dana Point GP this year. Lining up near the front at the start, I looked back at the sea of riders and wonder to myself how 130 mildly experienced racers were going to navigate through the streets of Dana Point 3,4,5 abreast for the next 40 or so minutes. Well...we didn't. Not even 10 min into the race....carnage! We lost 2 guys in that turn 1 crash. Not their fault...just one of those wrong place, wrong time situations. Things would settled down for a few laps then more carnage. As sounds of brakes squeal and frames crunch there was always a slight surge in the peloton as someone from the back yells "GO, GO!!". Nothing like a little adrenaline to bring out the killer instinct.

Near the front of the pack things were a lot less hectic. Still had to protect your line from the occasional "[comin' in hot] on your inside!!"....? So, one thing I learn this race; don't call out 'inside'. It's kind of silly, really. You want the line...take it....assuming you can make it stick. Do it quick and do it clean. Shouting out 'inside' is like saying "hey, i would like to take your line by riding slightly over my head and probably drift on the exit and push you wide.....so how about it?".

Before the race would be done, there would be a few more pile-ups on the exit of corners including one at the final turn of the race. Can't say it wasn't a spirited race. Despite the havoc, I think most would agree that Dana Point is a great venue.

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LA Circuit Race - March 29, 2009

I don't know which race was easier...LA Circuit or Long Beach crit :)

This course was a simply layout. Two U-turns, out and back. One direction had massive head winds just like last year which put the peloton to a screaming halt as no one wanted to take point. After turn 2, the tail wind got the peloton screaming past 33 mph.

Here's a typical lap for the whole race. Heading down to turn 1 at 30+ then everyone starts screaming "slowing, breaking, hold your lines everyone" as we approach the U-turn. After the turn, the nervous-nellies gets out of their seats for a quick interval sprint out of the turn. If you take the outside line, you can carry speed and power it with the peloton. There were a lot of guys that were down right sloppy out of the saddle. Stay clear from these guys. So everyone is speeding along either hammering or out of their saddle after turn one. Then it all comes to a grinding halt when people soon realize that they don't want to take the lead with the massive head wind. And when I say grinding halt, I mean everyone hits the brakes and you often have to take evasive maneuvers to avoid the guy in front. I would say we were going at 15-16 mph at this point. If you stay in the middle, you're coasting and checking out the hotties on the side lines like I was doing. I even kept telling Nguyen to check them out but he was too focused. This goes on pass the start/finish near the middle then it picks up again then as you approach turn 2, everyone starts screaming "slowing, breaking, hold your lines everyone" as we approach the U-turn. After the turn you are either hammering or out of your seat for the fast train down the straight. Every time I looked down, I saw 32 mph. The max was 35mph. Approaching turn 1, repeat the process.

On the last lap there was a crash in front on the headwind section and I barely avoided it. Seth got tied up and had to brake to a stop. I had to bridge the gap hard to stay with the peloton. Then caught up to them and started setting up for the final turn. Throughout the whole race I took the outside line which gave me a good drive on the exit. But I see a lot of the fast guys going past on the inside line so I tried to cover them and took a compromise middle line. Bad move! The guy in front of me was so slow around the turn and at this point I couldn't move around him on either side until we were upright. I lost all momentum and even slowed Nguyen down as he was yelling at me to take off. Nguyen past me on the sprint to the finish and got 32nd place.

A pornstar beat us all and won the race. I'm serious! I was chatting with him since he parked next to us and immediately recognized the face. So if you want to be faster you need to have more sex. He's seems like a really nice guy too. Google his screen name "Pat Myne". His wife was hot too.

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Tour De Murrieta

The Curse of Murrieta:

So here it is....

I originally thought that LA circuit was going to be this past weekend so i rearranged my work schedule so i could revenge LA Circuit. But then we noticed it was two weeks later (and i am going to be out of town). So Juan suggested I do the Tour of Murrieta circuit stage instead. I looked at the course at the time and said, "no way!" Six turns in 3.5 mile laps! That did not sound like "my course"! But then Dominguez Hills came along and I had so much fun... so i had the bug. Sign me up, what ever it is!So Sunday March 15th comes along and I'm the sole Descartes representative racing, but psyched for my team support cheering me on. There was about 20 girls at the finish. Not many eyes on the girls since 5 minutes after the Cat 4 womens rolled out, the Pro Men 1/2 were scheduled to go off. There were some big names/teams (see Steve's blog). And I can now say I officially raced at the same time on the same course as Floyd Landis and many others! That was about the only highlight of the race.

As we roll out this young thin girl takes off and initially sets a good pace. I think wow, this is going to be challenging for 10 laps and 35 miles. However that didnt last long, as the first lap was by far our fastest lap. I heard the announcer say our first lap was faster than the 1/2/3's first lap earlier that day. But after everyone got the lay of the course, the breaks were applied as no one wanted to do any work. There was quite a bit of wind, so hearing my teammates in my ear telling me to just be patient and sit in, I did just that for about 5 laps. But it was scary back there! Cat 4 is truly beginners and although I am a beginner, i am not used to riding with other beginners. There were so many squirrelly, shady riders and I had to have my guard up every second which was mentally draining. After almost geting taken out by a blonde Ranchos girl for the umpteenth time, i said forget this, I am moving to the front. As it was, i hadnt exhausted much energy thus far. Turned out there was only 3 girls willing to do any work, myself, a colnalgo kit and the crazy girl that ended my race. So at one point the Colnago girl says to me, "F this, want to just break away?" I was all in! So we took off (I think this was on the 6th lap) We got about 100 yards away and the motorcycle cop comes tearing by to slow us up in preparation for the Pro guys to pass. Shit, there goes that effort. Once they were by and our neutral zone was lifted, Colnago and I decide to try it again. It was the perfect place. Long road with rolling risers and a couple big gear climbs that we could get some gain on over some of the weaker girls. As we approach one of these climbs, cruising along... there seems to be chaos on the crest of the hill... A crash in the Pro race. Again... another waisted effort. Will we ever be able to break, Colnago asks. I suggest, lets conserve until we get to that straight away again the next lap. She agrees and we decided it wise to try to get a third girl on board and although the girl we thought of proved to be squirrelly on several occasions, she seemed relatively strong and was willing to put some work in up front. She also talked a good game throughout the race like she was quite the veteran rider. So I told Colnago that i'd talk to her as she had become friendly with me in the race earlier on. Just before the last turn approaching the start/finish line on the 6th lap I tried to tell the squirelly girl our plan. Her name was Rebecca btw. The two of us were up front (as the pics Steve posted showed) and she swirved into to me, almost causing me to go down, but i recovered and pulled ahead of here to gain my composure and get the F away from her. However she came up to me again, I think on my right side and before I knew what happened I was on the ground. I noticed my face/teeth hurting first and I saw the blood on my glove. Did this really happen?!? I was so pissed! As I walked my bike back to the medical tent (about 100 long yards way) I noticed my wrist was starting to hurt as well. Anyway, race was over for me. Just 3 laps to go and my race, possibly my season, possibly my racing career was over. This was my biggest fear, but certainly didnt expect it to happen on a straight away in the front of the pack!!

There was a dentist and an orthopod Dr on the scene that took care of me as well as Steve, Suzie and Juan. Thanks again guys!

As Juan raced back to SD to take me to Kaiser, I was one the phone with several of the Dr's and the PA that was on call that I work with. By the time I got there the on call MD was waiting for me with Xrays ordered and they had already put a call into my dentist. They also had the OR on hold and ready if needed. Its good to be in the business when it comes to being a patient yourself. Within an hour or two of my arrival I had multiple xrays, a head CT (I cracked my helmet and clearly had face trauma) and a wrist MRI. Impressive!

I think everyone knows the rest.... 3 broken teeth, small broken bone in wrist but worse off several sprained ligaments that landed me in a long arm cast that prevents rotation of my wrist. In this for about 4 weeks. Off the bike for 6-8 :-(

Anyway, as I was headed to the hospital, I was on the phone with Courtney and Murphy and they said if they had known I was planning on doing that race, they never would have let me. There is a curse on that course. Last year 2 girls on DeWalt got pretty badly hurt (collar bone and knee- ended their season), the year before Courtney crashed and broke her collarbone and required surgery (which however is how she met her husband Dr Murphy), and the year before that Dafna crashed and got hurt pretty bad as well. And now me!!So beware the curse of Murrieta!!!

Will I race again you ask? I'd like to think so, but I know for damn sure I dont want to go through this again! So we'll have to see.

Thanks again for everyone's well wishes and support!
-Julie

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Long Beach Crit #2

"Dude this race was easy!"

I enjoyed this race a lot. Perfectly flat even for my harsh standards. I knew that my pre-season training hasn't been up to par, and I was going to bail on this race. But since Eddie, Seth, and Julie signed up, they twisted my arm. Even Dave signed up as a last minute walk on the morning of the race.

I was nervous all morning was well expecting to get dropped due to my lack of training, but I knew I had to get a real race in just to keep fresh. At the start, the pace was surprisingly calm and I stayed upper mid pack to keep the peloton covered. I was expecting attacks during the early stages but it never really happened. No one really attacked and if they did, it was covered. I gotta tell you, it's good seeing teammates in the peloton even if just to see a familiar face.

Overall the pace was never super fast. This probably contributed to the sketchiness of the race. There were 2 crashes in the race and two riders even crossed the cone markers on one turn and almost hit Suzie and Brenda, who was taking pictures. I stayed on the outside because I could get a better exit on the corners. I noticed Dave was mostly inside towards the middle. He even commented to me "Dude...get in the middle with me, it's cake!" I even experimented on the outside passing guys between the corners and realized that it did take a bit of effort so I would need to back off and wait until the final laps. I pretty much sat in the entire race and conserved. I know not a big effort, but oh well.

The race went by fast because the next thing I heard was 5 laps to go. Immediately I knew that I would finish. Eddie, Seth, and even Dave tried their hands up front attacking on the closing laps (way to go!). I started to move up on lap 4 and stayed on the outside so that I can rail the corners on the closing lap. Coming up to the final bell lap I was on the outside after the start and finish line and was getting ready for the pace to pick up. The next thing I saw in the middle was bikes flipping everywhere. I immediately knew that a Descartes rider was involved and knew it was either Dave or Eddie. Even through all the bikes and bodies falling over, I could see a red and black bike and even saw a quick glance of the Descartes sticker. I had to make 2 evasive maneuvers to avoid multiple riders scrambling to get out of the way. After that, the lead pack was too far ahead and Seth and I cruised to the finish. We found out that both Dave and Eddie was involved. Dave had a deep cut on his fingers but it wasn't really bleeding that much so I said don't bother going to the emergency room..."you don't need stitches for that scrape" LOL I think riders were bunched up trying to set up for turn one, which caused the crash. Both Eddie and Dave were caught avoiding it.

Eddie and Seth did the 3/4 30 plus race later and that race had 4 crashes!!!

Julie's first crit was strong. In fact she was so strong that she was caught up front several times. We were trying to tell her to hang back but she felt obliged to set the pace. On the last lap, she was actually in the lead within the pack at the start/finish. Ayeeeee not where you want to be but chalk this one up for experience. She better than we did in 12th place. Julie is super strong and we all think that she can beat a lot of the cat4 and even some 3 girls. Just need to ride smart the next race but congrats on her first crit!

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Team Saxo Bank TT Warmup Routine at ToC

This is a shot of Jason Mcartney's TT warmup routine. He's 181cm (5'11" for us Yanks) and weighs in at 70kg (154lbs). From the numbers, his threshold is probably well into the 400s. Gotta go and see if we can even get close and survive that routine.

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Riding with Team Type 1

I just got home on a training ride from the Red Trolley Crit. I got a chance to ride home part way with Team Type 1! One of their racers, Phil Southerland, gestured for me to join in their 7-men peleton. I rode with them from Vista Sorrento/Lusk to the San Dieguito/El Camino split. I had intended on riding San Dieguito but bailed since they were also doing it. Would have loved to been able to hang with them but I had a tough time as is keeping up on Vista Sorrento, especially with Phil chatting it up. I could barely breath (not to mention chat) and having to pump out 370+ watts up Vista Sorrento! Luckily for me, they "chilled" on El Camino to Del Mar Heights. They're here for the week training for ToC. Pretty cool to be able to say "I've ridden with the pros!!!" :P

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Bouldevard Training Ride...and some road rage

The Blvd course is pretty good. Fast on the descents with some really good switch back sweepers. Think of the fast section of Palomar but down hill on a wide clean road....for 10 miles! You need to enjoy that decent because then it's followed by 10 miles of climbing. The roads are less decent except for the shoulders, which are filled with cracks, gutters, crud, tar, and some glass. We ended up riding with a Swamis guy and another guy from a local team. So much for chill ride...

For the majority of the ride, you can use the road since you see very little cars. Of the entire 22 mile loop, I counted 5 cars that passed us. So based on this percentage, I can say that 1 in 5 cars or 20% of the drivers are assholes. Coming back to the last 1 mile to the parking lot, we are on a straight highway portion of road with the crappy shoulder. I was in the back and I can hear a fast car coming up behind us. We were all traveling single file and hugging the white line. Any more to the right and we would have been in the crack that ran along side the road, which would not be good to get your front wheel in. So the car speeds up and leans on his horn while simultaneously buzzing us at high speed at well over 60 miles an hour. Bear in mind that the road was totally empty ahead and behind us, except for this tool. He passed us at less than two feet from our bars at that rate of speed.

So by the time we got back to the parking lot, we see that guy's truck parked at the convenience store where we are all parked. The Swamis and other guy went ahead a few minutes ahead of us because we were waiting for Brenda and Nguyen. When we got to the parking area, they asked if that guy buzzed us because he apparently buzzed them too. They also had a few words with the driver.

It was a waste of time and obviously our explanation of his driving skills did not sink through his thick head. If it wasn't for the Unicef logo on our kits, I would have dropped kicked the guy but I had to remind myself that "we are doing it for the kids" :) We were coming in to refill water for Seth, but after this, we all were fed up and didn't want to do another loop.

So my first taste of the Blvd course is 1) awesome loop and 2) 20% of the drivers are jerks around there. But the other 80% are really nice. They always gave me plenty of room when I was in no-man's land climbing and suffering.

So after the ride will I do the Blvd race? I WILL RACE IT...if I can put a triple to my compact crank ;)

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