Friday Ramblings: Normalcy in the Chaos

Tacks all over the road at Leonardtown. A 56-man breakaway beats the contenders to the line by 13 minutes in the Giro d'Italia. Floyd begs for attention by writing an intriguing e-mail to ESPN. Concurrently, Lance crashes out of the Tour of California.

My bottom bracket started clicking. My bike lags when shifting into bigger cogs.

Yes, the world of cycling has gone NUTS.

In the midst of chaos, though, there is always normalcy. Tonight, at Hains, the usual mayhem provided regularity. Buses riding in the middle of the lane and making u-turns, tri-geeks slaloming through the dotted white lines, PEPCO trucks blocking the road, tourists parking EVERYWHERE, Mrs. SuperDave moto-drafting a soccer mom's minivan.

Like the world, Hains was nuts, which made life a bit less chaotic. Something, at least, was just as it should be.

A bunch of NCVC guys were there, which made me happy. From Cat 1s to Cat 5s, NCVC guys were rolling at the front. Sure, we couldn't figure out when to chase each other down or lead each other out, but Hains is about only two things: speed and ego.

On one lap we had the lineup reversed, with Jeff D. (cat 1) and Paul M. (cat 2) leading me (cat 3) in front of a line of our Cat 4/5 guys. A Squadra Coppi guy ended up taking that sprint over me by a wheel, but man, he deserved it. Paul and Jeff were rollin' quick. Quick is good and safe, but it hurts. Paul made a massive pull after Dickey, and I did my worst, but it wasn't quite enough. Pretty cool to see how they shattered the group, though.

After that lap, even Paul commented on how Jeff just kept clicking to a harder gear until he ran out. Each ker-chunk of the chain dropping into a smaller cog brought a bit more pain to my own legs, but it was nice to know it wasn't just me.

I heard there were some Harley guys in another group about half a lap up, but the group that I was in was fairly lazy. Later on in the evening, too many guys were soft-pedaling the non-sprint side. I hit tempo at the front to keep things moving. Then I would up the pace around the bend to string things out. With some luck, I could pull off to find a teammate to let me back into the front of the line-up, or fill a gap.

I should pass kudos to one Hains regular that never eased up on the DC side. Drake, here's your plug. Great riding tonight.

Drake is recognizeable as one of the only guys in the black kit of Descartes Cycling kit. We give each other a hard time at Hains, and when he said he was pooped tonight, he kept pedaling. Hard. After a whole bunch of laps he tried to say his goodbyes, but I said, "one more, always." He rolled with us for one more. It hurts, Drake, but that is your body getting faster. Break down to build up. At least that's what I tell myself after every sprint lap.

Anyway, tugging the group around on the DC side would waste some energy, but this is practice. I'm never going to feel fresh at the end of a race, so I might as well go into the sprint breathing hard. It seemed that one or two other guys had the same idea. There was a super strong dude in a black and white kit that was really setting a hot-shot pace. I loved it.

There were a bunch of NCVC Cat 4/5 guys riding in the group tonight. I say "4/5" but really they're all Cat 5s, but some just received their upgrades. They were riding like champs, too, because they were riding together. Nick, Andre, Matt, Dennis - well done. It is cool riding with you all, and super cool when you kick my ass.

Two things made my night. One was seeing one of my best friends finally ride his bike again after years of talking about getting back to Hains on evening. Matt G., keep at it. But I digress...

The second moment that made my night was pulling off of the front after a hard tug, and seeing all four of those now-former-Cat-5 NCVC guys leading the group. And then seeing Dennis give a text-book lead-out to Andre through a swarm of folks sprinting. It's neat to see development in action, especially when the progress is obvious.

Oh, and Happy Birthday, Dennis. I think we all owe you a beer or three for the lead-outs. Or maybe we should all chip in and buy you a front brake that does not rub.

Why were our bikes clicking? Were they talking to each other?

Oh well. Back to the sprints. When I was not burning energy by keeping up the pace (and sometimes when I was), I'd actually try to sprint. I call myself a flyer - a long sprinter. I can do better from 400-600 meters because I can hold a high speed better than I can accelerate suddenly in the last 100-200 meters.

I wanted to work on the weakness of this last-moment, head-to-head sprint. Somehow, I kept getting stuck out in the wind way early (habits die hard?), so I had to play my own game. I'm good at it, so it was fun and tough, but not necessarily as productive as I would like.

On one lap Matt set a hard pace early, and then Paul past him. I let Matt back in second wheel to give him some space, and I knew Nick was behind me. Paul's tempo is nothing easy to overcome, so when he pulled off I told Matt to make sure he accelerated, even if it shortened his pull. He played it perfectly by setting a harder tempo, though it stuck me out in the wind early. Whatever, at Hains it's good practice. I dropped low and went all-out, but screwed over Nick, though... whoops.

On another lap later in the night, folks were tired to Paul straight-up pulled the entire sprint-side. I was on his wheel ready to hti the wind, but he didn't let up. With about 400 meters to go he stood up with a last surge. I could barely pass him for the sprint, but nor could anyone else. Holy hell, I got a lesson in speed and a painfully nice lead-out. I owe you one, Paul.

Random thought: What's up with the dude that has the cut-up shorts? I don't care what sort of fashion statement anyone wants to make, but, umm, he can't choose if he wants to ride in the group or not. It's annoying and dangerous. Whatever - at least he gives us someone to chase down.

More kudos: There was a guy and a girl pair of [what looked like] fairweather triathletes rolling with our sprints group tonight, on road bikes. About 30-some miles into my ride, they said, "Last lap... We've already done 34 miles and have to race this weekend." I gave them a hard time about racing, but they were hangin' tough and riding well. Especially her. She was consistenly up front in the sprints. Yeah guys, she was kickin' our asses.

So, what drives some potentially great cyclists from trying our sport? I know we're arrogant, unfriendly, and indifferent to other athletes. I try to combat this by joking with people like them. Yet if it was not obvious to her that she was riding well in a fast group, someone should smack her on the side of the head with a mini-pump and tell her: you need to race bikes. What does it take to get chicks to race bikes? Especially the ones that can't swim or run...

I do not think the sprints were as fast or as difficult as last week, but I averaged 22.1 mph for the first 1:50 of my ride anyway. (I stopped the "lap" after my last sprint.) We would usually ramp up to about 25-26-27 MPH on the DC side and then hit 28-31 MPH on the airport side, but the sprints were only (haha) about 32-35 today. Last week we were hitting 37. Here's the Garmin Data.

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Disclaimer: I did not spell-check this post or edit it for mistakes at all. Oh well, maybe I'll read it again in the morning. Yes, my "Friday Ramblings" are usually written on Thursday nights, so what?

G'night, good morning, good weekend... thanks for reading.