Niagara Classic 2012

Phil and I thought we had lined up at the front but as more and more cyclists spread across the full width of the start line, it appeared less and less a favourable start position... until I looked back. Behind us, 100 plus cyclists  occupied as much of the road as I could see. Eventually, they would split the pack into two groups, the Elite 4 group and the Masters 3 group, but the glance back made me thankful for my place on the starting grid. There were 5 of us in this race so, with such a strong presence, we were hoping to use our numbers to our advantage wherever the opportunity presented itself.

The Kurzawinski M3 crew: from left, Dave Berry, Martin Davis, Larry Bradley, Richard Westwood, Phil Hodginkson.

My main objective going into this race was to work for Phil and help him to get the 3 points he needed to be able to upgrade to Master 2. That meant, a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place and he would earn the necessary upgrade points to be promoted. Despite admonishens from the OCA about registering in M2 with the requisite upgrade points, most of the new Masters 2 riders had not earned their right to be there. But Phil was adamant about earning his upgrade and for this I have the greatest respect. Which made my decision to work for him in this race an easy one.

As with every race this year, I went into this race with a game plan in mind. Larry was also able to work this race into his calendar and so with Larry's excellent time trialing abilities and my climbing abilities my thinking went along these lines. Larry would control things from the front for the first 10.3 km of each lap whereupon I would move to the front to control the pace up the 2 km climb, allowing Phil to save his legs for the final climb. As I write this report, I'm even now confounded as to how I could be so naive regarding my game plan when all previous cycle race game plans went out the window as soon as the starting horn started. And so it was with this race.

When the starting horn went off, as per usual, I spent the first several seconds getting clipped in wherein a dozen or more riders went around me. But once I'd gotten clipped in, I moved over to the right shoulder where I could see the rest of my team ahead of me. With some aggressive riding, I was able to move up the right side and was soon up beside Phil and could see Larry and Martin up near the front. We made the turn at corner 1 and Martin and Larry took over the front and kept the pace reasonably high most the way to corner 2. Once we made the turn at corner 2, I became more aggressive about moving up towards the front. Coach had stressed the importance about being at the front going into corner 3 and especially negotiating the double S-bend just prior to corner 3 so I was extra vigilant about making sure I was in the top 5 through this section. In fact, once we made the turn at corner 3, I accelerated and found myself at the front of the pack. A quick look back showed Phil on my wheel so I kept the pace high for the 1.6 km until the base of the climb, intending to maintain a steady pace all the way up the climb where Phil could stay on my wheel and conserve his energy. Apparently, the other 80-10 riders who flew by me at the base of the climb had not subscribed to my game plan. By the time I crossed the start-finish line at the top of the hill, a small gap had formed to the group of 10 or so riders who had made it more quickly to the top of the climb. I closed the distance between myself and that group and humbly settled myself in behind, taking in huge gulps of air as I attempted to recover from the brutal assault on my system that was climb 1 of 5. As I started on lap 2 of 5, I took stock of my situation. It was time to re-evaluate my game plan.

My new and improved game plan for lap 2 had me conserving energy, not just on the 1.6 km stretch prior to the climb but also the 10.3 km before that as well as the 400 m climb itself. But I still wanted to help Phil so when I saw a lone ride break away and gap the peleton with Phil at the front, I rode up beside Phil and asked him if he wanted me to close the gap. Phil didn't seem concerned: "Nah, let him hang out there for awhile," was his response. So, I did but not before taking a decent pull on the front to relieve Phil. But once we made the turn at corner 3, I went back into energy conservation mode.

I continued my strategy of energy management on laps 3 and 4 and the pattern was much the same. For the first 10.3 km, my energy output was very low. It tended to increase significantly for the 1.6 km section leading up to the climb and then became high but sustainable for the 400 m climb itself, aided somewhat by being able to latch onto the steady wheel of JJ Woodley each lap. I did feel somewhat ineffectual as a team mate to Phil but my revised game plan was to "keep my powder dry" until the final lap where I fully expected to be able to devote my full potential in working for Phil. The fact that Larry was spending a lot of time at the front bolstered my decision to save my energy.

Energy expenditure (in Watts) for the first 10.3 km section of each lap, the 1.6 km section leading up to the climb and the 400 m climb itself.

Lap	First 10.3 km	1.6 km leadup	400 m climb
1	177	338	459
2	172	253	443
3	110	276	435
4	116	288	446
5	132	353	462

The table above details my energy expenditure for each lap of the race. A few patterns emerge. Clearly, for the first 10.3 km, the peleton were out for a Sunday ride, for the most part. Apart, from the first two laps where I took a couple of pulls, my energy expenditure during this 10.3 km section was in the low Zone 1 range. My average wattage is typically higher for an easy recovery ride. Things changed once we made the turn at  corner 3. Thereafter, the pace jumps up into high Tempo to Threshold range until the climb where there is a maximal effort well above supra-threshold level. It was my 338 Watt effort during the 1.6 km leadup to the climb, followed by a 459 Watt effort up the climb itself that caused me to revise my race strategy at the start of lap 2; there was no way I could keep that effort up on every lap. And in fact, as you can see from the table, my effort leading up to the climb was much more reasonable on laps 2-4, enabling me to save something for the climb itself. My effort on the last lap over this section is another story.

Going into the last lap, I was fairly pleased with my revised game plan. Larry had done a pretty good job of controlling things at the front where ever he could, thus relieving Phil of some of the burden of that task, so I hadn't been missed there. Furthermore, I had saved a lot of energy by hiding in the pack for much of the race. I was still reasonably close to the front of the peleton and felt confident in my capacity to be able to help Phil on that final lead up to the climb. Leading up to corner 1, the pace quickened somewhat which was to be expected on the final lap. We made the turn at corner 1 and I accelerated in order to defend my position. The pace of the peleton slowed predictably after 400 m or so and quite suddenly a half dozen riders went by me. This wasn't good. I looked for a means of moving back up but I was against the invisible yellow line and for me it was not an option to cheat my way towards the front. We made the turn at corner 2 and again another 6-10 riders raced by me. "No worries," I thought, "I should be able to move up once the peleton strings out approaching the double S-bend." But as we approached the double S-bend, the peleton remained all grouped together; there was no thinning out until the bends itself. I thought a couple of times of taking a risk to move up: once while riding alongside the shoulder, I had a thought to move up along the shoulder itself and during the S-bends I could have risked moving up but both moves would have risked not just my own safety but the safety of others so I held my position and as we exited the second S-bend, I glimpsed Phil up ahead, already making the turn at corner 3. By the time I saw him again, he was already in a small group that had gapped the rest of the peleton. So much for my revised game plan.

From corner 3 until the finish line, it became a strategy of minimizing my losses. Not much of a strategy really as it entailed basically riding as hard as I could to the finish. I thought in the back of my mind that I still might be able to gain a lot of positions back as I had been conserving my energy up until now. But apparently, some of the other riders had been doing that as well. Indeed, the table above shows that I saved my best until last both on the 1.6 km leadup to the climb where I average 353 watts and the 400m climb itself where I averaged 462 watts. For my efforts I was rewarded with a 10th place finish which is not bad I guess but once I had crossed the line, Coach made me feel like I had won the whole thing.

Huge effort at the finish line.

Regarding my objectives for the race, I flopped completely. Chalk it up once again to in-experience. I am learning something every race and I know for next race what to do differently: stay at the front for the whole of the last lap. It is one thing to conserve energy where ever possible but I'm thinking the last lap is the place to use that energy. For the team as a whole, however, we had a pretty decent showing. Phil just missed out on a top-five finish, placing 6th place, but he did take second in the King of the Mountain points. And his girlfriend Jen, took 3rd place of the Elite 3 women. So two podium finishers. In the new sportif category, Marek placed 4th with Wes coming in 9th. I don't know what happened to Stan and Andy in the Masters 1 race. I'll have to get the story some time during the week.

Jen takes 3rd in Women's Elite 3.

Phil takes 2nd in KOM points at Niagara.

Here are the results of the day:

Sportif Men Results - 24.6 km - Average Speed 33.7 km/h

4

205

12099

KRZTON, Marek

9

214

12098

ERENBERG, Wieslaw

Master 3 Men Results - 61.5 km - Average Speed 36.0 km/h

6

34

74360

HODGKINSON, Phill

10

35

74633

WESTWOOD, Richard

24

32

75252

BRADLEY, Larry

55

31

74639

BERRY, David

58

33

74517

DAVIS, Martin

Master 3 Men - KOM Results

2

34

HODGKINSON, Phill

Elite 3 Women Results - 49.2 km - Average Speed 32.5 km/h

3

207

75432

FAWCETTE, Jennifer

Master 1 Men Results - 98.4 km - Average Speed 37.9 km/h

PUL

118

74390

BLAZEK, Stanislav

PUL

119

74412

D`ANGELO, Andy

Springbank Crit 2012

Five O'Clock in the morning was early to have to be up for a race. I've certainly been up that early before for running races and especially triathlons but it had been awhile. It was probably harder on Jon as he often doesn't even get to sleep until much before then. Shortly after 5:30 we had the bikes loaded on the back of the Hyundai and were on our way to London, with a brief stop at Tim's along the way for breakfast and a coffee.

By 7:30 AM, we were at Springbank Park in London, picking up our race numbers with enough time for a few laps around the 2.2 km course to warm up. Martin and Phil had arrived earlier and were already on the course warming up when we arrived. We did our final warm up lap together with Martin and I couldn't help but note that, judging by the sheen on his face, Martin appeared to have been working very hard during his warm up.

My goals going into this race were pretty much the same as for Tour of Bronte: gain more race experience, ride aggressively, help team mates where feasible, and finish with the pack. A fifth goal was to get some good training in. I had done a solid 100k ride with my FMCT buddies the day before, with plenty of Tempo riding, so I was treating this as a training race of sorts with no expectations of a top placing.

Martin and I lined up along the front row of the start line (just below and slightly to the left of the 'A' balloon in the map above) with Jon just behind me. Phil was also on the front of the start line but further to the right. The "gun" went off, and as is becoming a habit, I didn't get clipped in right away during which time at least half the field passed me... again. The same thing happened at Tour of Bronte but there I was able to get back to the front without too much difficulty.  At this race, not so much. There are 2 corners on this course that were tricky. The tight left-hander at corner 1 was one of them and I had to brake going into the first turn, braking hard enough that my rear wheel slid sideways which apparently unnerved Jon a bit. I think he found somebody else's wheel to follow after that. This slow down was followed by a brutal acceleration as the peleton raced onto the fastest part of the course, a sweeping left-hander that descended towards the river. Here, I had to dig extra hard due to the accordion effect which tends to exaggerate deccellerations and accelerations for riders at the back, I thought to myself "this is not where I want to be". With speeds close to 60 kph, this section of the course is very fast but also narrow, making it hard to move up along this section. As if the downhill wasn't enough for pushing up the speed, we had a tail wind all along the section which made the top speed even faster. There was little chance of moving up along the section by the river; the speeds were just too fast and the course too narrow. The uphill at the end of this section was one place where it might be possible to move up but everyone was digging deep at this point so you'd have to burn a lot of matches to try and move up there. The steep uphill is followed by the second tricky corner on the course, a sharp, narrow dog-leg that turns away from the river and begins the return trip towards the start-finish line. From here until the start-finish straight, the course sweeps left, uphill and again I found myself having to dig deep following the predictable slow down at the dog-leg. Just before the start-finish straight is a chicane which is the third tricky place on the course as 50+ riders vied for the best line through the chicane and. again, I was subjected to accordion effect. I managed to get through the chicane successfully but still near the back.

Lap 2 was more of the same. I was at the back and working hard because of it but experience told me that things would begin to settle down in a few laps after which time I should be able to move up. By lap 3, my patience was beginning to run thin and I began to actively look for places to move up. As we sped down the fast, narrow part of the course, I did manage to move up a few and was positioning myself to move up around the sweeping left hander when suddenly the pack slowed quite dramatically. A rider in front and to my left swerved across my line, forcing me to change and just like that I was heading for the curb. Maybe I panicked a little but I have been in enough motor cycle crashes to know that if you're going to fall it's better to do it on your own terms. I braked hard just before the curb, practically dove over the handlebars, and did a rolling Judo roll onto the soft grass, bringing my bike safely along with me and managed to come out of the incident completely unscathed. In hindsight, I could have tried to jump the curve, which I'm sure is something Stan or Coach would have done, but I didn't think that fast and my bike handling skills aren't yet at that level. As I righted my bike at the side of the road, the peleton rode away without me.

For the next lap and a half, I chased the peleton and it wasn't long before I began to pickup some stragglers. The first guy I picked up was a Reynolds Cycle rider and the two of us began to work together. We picked up another couple of riders in short order and about a lap later, I saw Jon who had been dropped from the peleton somewhere before the chicane. I yelled at Jon to jump on as we went by and then we were five. I figured with 5 riders, we should be able to get a decent rotation going and actually entertained some ridiculous illusion of catching back onto the peleton. But our rotation wasn't very organized. Two of the riders had clearly been dropped from the peleton for a reason: they were weak riders and they frequently abstained from taking their turn at the front. This tended to affect the rhythm of our rotation. To make things worse, the Reynolds rider, though strong, wasn't very experienced in echeloning and would frequently pull to hard when it was his turn at the front, instead of easing up, causing the rest of us to have to dig deep to catch on. The end result that, as a group, we disorganized and not really moving that fast. It wasn't long before we were caught and lapped by the peleton. I tried a few more times to get our group organized but in the end determined that I was better off just taking long pulls at the front. After a few such long pulls, there were three of us left: Jon, the Reynolds rider, and me.

With 5 laps to go, I'd had enough with the futile attempts at echeloning and just stayed at the front, put my head down, and went into time trial mode. It wasn't long before I was alone, having lost my 2 remaining companions, including, unfortunately, my son, Jon. I covered the last 5 laps pushing 288 watts at an average of 37.2 kph. Compared to the 41.5 kph at 270 watts I output while with the peleton, I was fighting a losing battle but I'd signed up for a race and was determined to put in a race effort. I finished 6:19 behind the peleton. As it turned out, Jon had slipped off my wheel because of a gap left open by the Reynolds rider but he continued to work hard and finished only a minute or so behind me. I kind of wish now that I'd sat up and waited for him. But one thing I've learned about cycling is you do a lot of second guessing yourself after the fact.

Phil accepts his 4th place prize.

Phil and Martin both each had a good race with Phil taking 4th place of the M3's and Martin coming in 8th spot. After the race, the four of us, Martin, Phil, Jon, and I, compared notes. I expressed my frustration at once again having difficulty during the early laps of the race and received some helpful advice from both Phil and Martin. Martin's advice was to get in a really good warmup. I thought back to the sheen on Martin's face prior to the race and realized that this was advice he himself heeded. And it seemed to be working for him. Phil's advice was to practice clipping in. This definitely is one source of my poor starts and something I'll consider going forward. Phil also mentioned using Speedplay pedals which he finds easier to clip in and this may be something to consider going forward also. There are so many things to learn in cycle racing. Every race is different and many factors can affect one's race outcome.

I didn't do so well at meeting my objectives at this race. I didn't finish with the pack but I did ride aggressively. I didn't exactly help out my team mates though I did help Jon for awhile until dropping him with 5 laps left to go; that part wasn't much help, I'm sure. I did gain more race experience, to be sure and I definitely did get in some good training. Next race is the Niagara Classic, the third O-Cup race in the series where, once again, it will be back to the drawing board.

2012 Tour Of Bronte

Ok, so because Larry's race report pretty much covered what happened during the intermediate race at the Tour of Bronte, I wasn't going to bother finishing mine. But then, Wes had taken to many great photos, I felt I just had to get a few of them in.

I have to confess, I was ambivalent about signing up for this race, especially with much of the course being on gravel, but I signed up anyway realizing I could use the race experience. My objectives going into the race were: finish with the pack, trust in my fitness and ride strong, be a good team mate where ever the opportunity presents itself, and just get more race experience

Originally, this race was to have all the usual categories so I should have been riding in the M3 category but due to low registration, the organizers eliminated the usual categories and instead hosted only 3 categories, a beginner, intermediate, and open race, with the aim of increasing the field size for each race.

I had originally intended to buy some wider 25C tires to ride with a little lower tire pressure than usual to improve traction and handling on the gravel but, as with so many things these days, I never got around to it and so ended up racing on my skinnier 23C tire with the usual 110 psi.

The race didn't start until 12:30, as opposed to the more usual 8:30/9:00 AM start times I've gotten accustomed to, so there was lots of time to get ready. I picked up Larry about 10:15 and we drove down to the west end of Oakville together, found a place to park not too far from the park (I parked offsite to avoid the $16 park entrance fee ), and rode into the park carrying most of our gear on our backs. We arrived at the race site before 11:00, in time to see Coach and Wes setting up the Team Kurzawinski tent. Gotta like having your own tent at the race.

Larry, Coach, and me chilling in front of the Kurzawinski tent, prior to race start.

With plenty of time until the race start, Larry and I registered then went out on the start-finish stretch to warm up. I had learned from last race, Calabogie, the importance of warming up before and not during the race. After the warmup, I lined up along the front with Phil, feeling relaxed and ready to start the race until Phil pointed out that I still had my jacket on. It was too warm a day to be racing with a jacket. "Oh crap," I thought and rode back towards the car to ditch my jacket. Halfway to the car, I ran into Coach and was able to dump the jacket with him. By the time I got back to the start line, pretty much everyone else were lined up and I was stuck at the back. When Coach saw me lined up at the back, he coaxed me into weaseling my way up to the front, on the grass but just off the pavement. I felt a bit cheesy for doing that but at least I was lined up at the start.

Larry and me at the back end of the pack for the start of the race.

When the gun went off, I was slow getting clipped in, and with the fast pace typical of the start of these race, I dropped quickly back through the pack and was soon hanging near the back. But such was the nearly 2 km length of the start stretch that I was able to get reasonably close to the front again before the first turn

Tour Of Bronte Race Course

Our race had between 50 and 60 riders and consisted of 8 laps of the 8 km course for a total of 64 km. The first part of the race course is a nearly 2 km stretch of mostly good pavement. The first turn marks the transition from pavement to gravel so it's one place to watch out for. The next 3 turns on gravel are close together and are tight and slow. Corner 2, in particular, we were warned about as a potentially incident-prone corner. After the first 4 turns, the course is fairly fast, even for gravel until just past the registration area where there is a rather tight left-hand turn with plenty of gravel. My first time through, I took this turn on the inside and ended up bumping elbows with at least one rider. And judging by the verbalizations, a few people were having trouble with traction.. Thereafter, I chose to take this turn more towards the outside where the gravel wasn't as loose. Once past the registration area, there were a couple of tight left handers before the course went back to ashphalt just before the park entrance. The asphalt part of the course mostly consisted of a long out and back from the park entrance down one side of a divided roadway and up the other side until the turn back onto gravel at turn 1.

In front of the registration area, approaching the tight left-hander.

As is becoming a pattern, I struggled the first lap, mostly hanging off the back of the pack. But once my metabolism had gotten up to speed I began to ride more aggressively and closer to the front. By midway through the second lap, I had made my way to the front and was there when Phil made it into a break of four. I eased my pace a little to give the break a chance as did the rider on my right who must also have had a team mate in the break and it was probably a good couple of hundred meters before anyone behind us caught on. By the time other riders began to come around us, the break had a decent enough gap that they were able to stay away.

Having a team mate in the break meant that Larry and I weren't expected to take a turn at the front and for the next 3 or 4 laps, we really didn't have to work that hard. A team Novo rider who was taking turns joked about having to "bump me off". I laughed and just enjoyed my free ride while it lasted.

About lap 5, our free ride ended as came up behind Phil. At the time, I didn't know whether he had fallen off the back of the break or had an incident but it turned out that he had crashed on turn 2 with one other rider in the break and wasn't able to catch back on. Unfortunate because now it meant we had to do some work up front.

Phil trying to catch back onto the break away after crashing in turn 2.

For laps 6 and 7, in an effort to try and close the gap to the break, the peleton was able to get organized, thanks to a couple of more vocal riders, and we got an echelon going along the paved section and we began to make good time. Not everyone took part in the echelon but Larry, Phil, and I all contributed. The problem is that this organization only lasted for the paved section. Once we got to the gravel section, the organization fell apart and the pace slowed considerably. I tried to get something going but just ended up off the front by myself. Clearly, we weren't going to catch the break away group.

I think it was probably midway through lap 7, just after passing the registration area that Phil told me we'd lost Larry. That was unfortunate; he'd been riding strong up until that point and it would have been nice to have him for the run-in to the finish. Towards the end of lap 7, with one lap to go, I rode beside Phil and told him I'd try and "lead him out" for the finish. He replied that we could try that. I made sure to stay up at the front for that last lap and as we came onto the paved section I was in a prime position. I had taken note of a few of the stronger riders in the group and fully expected someone to jump at some point along the finish stretch. The jump came a bit earlier than I expected but I was ready for it. With about maybe 500 meters to go, a Vinybilt rider jumped. I was on his wheel right awa with Phil behind my wheel, both of us perfectly positioned for the sprint finish. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, I swerved for some reason which caused Phil behind me to also swerv and he ended up on the grass, losing his momentum for the sprint. So much for team tactics (sorry Phil!). With about 250 meters to go, a Peterborough Cycling club rider jumped strong but this time I wasn't ready. I tried to get on his wheel but his kick was too strong. ut I didn't give up and kept pushing, gradually closing the gap. Unfortunately, I ran out of road and wasn't able to close in time. I was beaten to the line by a wheel.

Just missed taking 3rd spot but also fortunate to hang onto 4th.

Stan was in the parking lot as I rode in and he asked me how I did. "Fourth place," I said. "No wayyyyyyyyyy," he replied. I didn't think 4th place was a good result as it wasn't a podium position but it turns out prizes were awarded 8-deep for this race so I did end up on the podium after all. Cool!

After the race, Larry and I hung around to watch part of Stan's open race. I thought, our race was fast. Those guys were even faster... and their race was longer. I've got to hand it to those Elite 1/2 and M1 guys, they race at a pretty high level.

Stan, second from left, lined up for the start of the open race.

We stayed for about half of the open race, enjoying the warm spring day and then it was time to leave. All in all, a pretty successful race for me. I finished with the pack, got some valuable race experience, rode aggressively, and was even able to help my team mate get into the break. Maybe there's hope for me yet!

A little clowning around time with my team mate, Larry Bradley.

Calabogie Race Report

Calabogie is a tiny resort town about one hour north-west of Perth, ON. Located on the shores of Calabogie Lake, it boasts some modest downhill ski facilities, a year-round resort, and a race track. Given that the town is  situated in the middle of no-where, I suppose it's a good place to put a race track what with the noise and all. The noise wasn't at all that bad though for the second of eight OCA O-Cup races. A year ago, this was Phil's very first road race so I had heard a lot of good things about the race.

It's about a six hour drive and 420 km from Brampton to Calabogie. Jon and I were up at sunrise, packed, and out of the house by 8:00 AM for the drive to Markham to meet up with the rest of the Kurzawinski crew for a 50k tune-up ride starting at 9:00 AM. It was only 55k but I found the ride to Musselman's Lake, tougher than it should have been. I averaged only 157 watts, which is indeed indicative of a recovery ride effort but, for whatever reason, it was an uncomfortable effort for me. Nevertheless, I got through the ride and by 1:30, following "breakfast" at MacDonald's, we were on our way to Calabogie. By 9:00 PM, after a stop in Belleville for groceries, we arrived at Jockos Beach Resort in Calabogie.

Phil had booked two chalets at the resort. One of the chalets served purely as a sleeping area while the other chalet served also as the communal kitchen, dining, and bicycle cleaning and repair area. Though dinner was served on the late side, it was good. Coach made a salad and some chopped steak, Andy fried some salmon steaks, I made spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce and Jen made herself generally useful with just about everything. Phil brought out some of his Mom's home baked cookies. It was a good team effort. After dinner, Coach made us clean our bikes.

I had some last minute brake pad replacement to do and Jon's rear derailleur needed adjusting so now was a good time to do this. While Coach helped me to change my brake pads, Stan helped Jon with his derailleur adjustment. What should have been simple maintenance tasks quickly turned into a maintenance headache. Testing of my brakes following  pad replacement revealed a frayed rear brake cable. Coach had Stan take a look. The interesting thing about Stan is that, though he undoubtedly knows some really choice Czech curse words, he prefers to curse in English. So there was no mistaking the frustrating Stan was going through as he worked on repairing my brake cable. But eventually he got it working well before turning his full attention to Jon's bike. More cursing. Jon's bike derailleur was just not behaving as it should. "What the ..." Stan was getting frustrated again. And then the source of the problem revealed itself as the rear derailleur cable broke. It had been frayed and close to breaking which was the source of Stan's frustration at being unable to properly adjust it. The next problem was trying to remove the end of the frayed cable from the shifter. It was really jammed in there. More cursing! Eventually, Stan hit on the idea to loosen the rear brake cable and this allowed him access to the frayed cable end. Problem solved, new cable installed and Jon was back in business. I definitely owe Stan a huge thank you for the work he did the night before our race.

The alarm went off far too early on Sunday morning after what turned out to be a rather late Sat night. I got up and stumbled my way over to the next chalet in order to start breakfast going. I entered the "communal" kitchen to find Jen already up and making coffee. Trying not to get too much in her way, I gathered the things I needed to start breakfast and proceeded to make the pancakes and eggs. It wasn't long before Coach arrived to cook the bacon and make sandwiches and after wolfing down some breakfast and coffee, Phil, Jen, Dave, Martin, Jon and I headed over to pickup our numbers for the early race.

Registration went fairly quickly and we were soon on our bikes "warming up" in the parking lot. It became readily apparent that the North by North-West wind was going to be a factor in the race. The wind also made the cold a lot worse than it would have been. After only 2 laps around the parking lot, I went back to the car to keep warm reasoning that I could use the early laps of the race to "warm up". A big influence on my reasoning was my experience from the Good Friday Road Race, two weeks earlier, where I found the pace to be agonizingly slow. Mistake #1.

My experience from the Good Friday Road Race had influenced me more than I realized as it had given me the false impression that I was stronger than I really was. So in the days leading up to race #2, I began to think about how I could use that strength, along with Phil's strength, to forge a "break" from the main peleton. If you think about something long enough, it can seem like reality even if unproven. Such was my mind set going into this race. And, in part at least, it influenced my race decisions. Instead of my focus being on "hiding" from the wind and "keeping my powder dry" so to speak, I rode more aggressively, even testing the waters periodically with a few faux attacks. As it turned out, the dynamics of this race were completely different from that of race #1 and I made a number of mistakes.



Whereas, the race course of Good Friday RR was rectangular and hiding from the wind was easy, this race course was a highly technical 20-turn race course where hiding from the wind would prove to be elusive for all but the most experienced racers. Another major difference was the absence of the yellow line rule. At the Good Friday race, the yellow line rule had the effect of making the road very narrow and not easy to move up. Whereas this course, with its wide open road allowed riders to "move up" almost at will. This made keeping one's place in the peleton extremely difficult. A third major difference was the speed of the peleton in this race vs race #1. In the first race, the average speed was 36.2 kph compared to an average of 39.3 kph for this race. This race was much faster and it felt like it.

Mistake #2 was not making more of an effort to hide from the wind was due in part to the nature of the course, as described above. In part it was due to my being somewhat "gun shy" about merging with the peleton due to my crash during the 1st race. And in part it was due to my being overly aggressive during the early part of the race. Whereas the wind in race #1 wasn't really much of a factor, for this race we had a 25 kph N wind. And because of the many turns throughout the race, you'd have the wind coming from the left at one point and a few hundred meters later it could be coming from the right. Switching from one side to the other wasn't an option at the speeds we were travelling unless one was fortunate enough to be hanging off the back of the peleton (more on this later). This meant that, to hide from the wind, one had to ride in the middle of the peleton, sheltered on both side by other riders. I was not comfortable doing this instead preferring the comparitive safety of one side or the other. But this cost me in terms of not hiding well from the wind. I mentioned how the more experienced riders were able to find shelter even on this difficult course; several times throughout the race I noticed Martin staying up near the front seemingly effortlessly obviously sheltered from the wind. I would have done well to stay on his wheel.

Mistake #3 was being too aggressive from the start. In part this was due to the effort required to stay near the front and "out of trouble". As discussed, the pace was much higher at this race than the 1st. Also, you had riders taking advantage of the wide open road to freely "move up" at will and I found myself frequently having to go into the "red zone" in an effort to stay ahead of these other riders. On top of this, unlike race #1, there were several attempts during this race by other teams in the race to launch a break. On such occasions, the peleton would pick up the pace in order to "shut down" the break, once again requiring an intense effort to stay at the front. And finally, I my mind set of thinking I was stronger than I really am caused me to try a few efforts of my own to test the peleton's resolve and this too wasted precious energy as I took a few forays off the front. Such was the case that by the end of lap 6 of 11, I was feeling like this was turning into a really hard race and there were still 5 laps to go.

It was somewhere around corner 6 of lap 7 that I found myself at the back of the peleton. I had intended merely to take a bit of a breather but found myself quickly at the back. I wasn't in any hurry to work my way back to the front and decided to see what it was like back here. It turned out to be quite a nice place to be. For one thing, it was quite easy to hide from the wind. If the wind was a headwind, I had the whole peleton ahead of me to hide behind, If the wind was from the left, I simply moved to the right corner. If the wind switched to coming from the right, I simply moved over to the left corner. There was a lot of flexibility in hiding from the wind at the back of the peleton. I rode the rest of the lap at the back and conserved my energy. By the end of the lap, I started to feel like some strength was returning but still knew that this was one of those days where I just didn't have the legs. As we rode past the start-finish line though, I thought I heard Coach yelling at me to get moving and I cringed at what he must be thinking with me sitting at the very back.

For the next 3 laps, I sat at the back and had a free ride around the race course. It wasn't until the beginning of the last lap that I began to think about where I might move up for the sprint finish. On previous laps, I'd observed that the long stretch from corner 15 to 17 (see map above) would open up as the peleton tended to cut the corner at 16. This afforded a wide open space on the right where I was confident of being able to muscle my way to the pointy end of the peleton. While it would require burning some energy, I had been conserving energy for the last several laps and felt I had some energy to burn. About halfway through the last lap, I began to plan my attack, moving over to the right hand side of the course inching forward in preparation for my move. I was perhaps a third of the way from the back of the peleton when, just before corner 12, my plan came to a sudden stop. A couple of riders came together and at least one went down on the right hand side of the road directly in front of me. I put on the brakes (which thanks to Stan worked well) and came to a stop just before reaching the downed riders. I was able to stay on my bike, move onto the grass to get around the downed rider, and get going again but, being stuck in 53/12, it took me awhile to get going again and by this time the peleton was well up the road. I gave it a valiant attempt to catch back on, putting out close to 500 watts for over a minute, but it soon became clear that my race was over. In the end, I crossed the line with Dave (who had also got derailled by the crash) in 37th place.

As we crossed the line together, I saw Coach on the ride side just past the finish line. I was feeling pretty dejected, half expecting to get scolded but instead Coach was jumping up and down, excitedly screaming "We won, we won... Phil won!". I couldn't believe it. The winner of the Good Friday Road Race for the past 3 races was in this race and seemed really strong so anyone able to beat him had to be on his game. But Phil had done it. "This almost makes up for my terrible race," I thought. That thought quickly dissipated. No, it was still a terrible race performance. But Phil had won and that made me feel good. Congrats Phil!

Phil times it perfectly for the win.

So, it's back to the school of hard knocks next Sunday for the Tour of Bronte.

Phil accepting his well deserved win.

Good Friday Road Race 2012

The one thing I was leery about going into this race was getting involved in a crash. There had been a lot of chatter on the Canadian Cyclist Forum about the likelihood of a high turnout for this race and the fact that, due to the nice weather we'd had, that many people would have better cycling fitness than usual for this time of year. The worry was that, with the yellow line rule (riders are not permitted to cross the yellow line under any circumstances. Where there is no yellow line, riders must stay on their own half of the road), and field sizes of 100 or more, the race(s) could become dangerous as riders jockey for position, the danger being with this being the first race of the season that participants could be a little out of practice with the intricacies of riding at speed in large packs.

Larry Bradley, Phil Hodgkinson, and I would be racing in the same M3 category so we had discussed ahead of time the importance of lining up close to the start-finish line for the start of the race. After a rather brisk warmup, Jon and I made our way to the start-finish line where we met up with Phil. The Elite 4 category, which was Jon's group, were to start 5 minutes after the M3 category so Jon went back behind the M3 group to line up there. Phil and I took up positions behind a row of CHCH riders who looked to be dominating the front of the grid. I looked around for Larry but he was nowhere to be seen.

Larry lining up for the start of the M3 race.

As we waited for the start of the race, I went over all the instructions Stan had told me: stay on the side opposite the wind and "hide" as much as possible, conserve your energy, stay in the top 10-20 riders in order to "stay out of trouble". Eventually, the gun went off and we were underway. Since the wind was coming from the North, the correct strategy entailed riding close to the yellow line heading West and North but staying close to the shoulder heading East and South. The course was one big rectangle so it would be hard to mix this up.

Given the large contingent of CHCH club riders across the front of the start line, I expected them to control the start of the race but as we quickly got up to speed I found myself stuck behind one CHCH rider who seemed to be quickly slipping backwards. Because I was behind him, this meant that I too quickly slipped backwards through the field. Up ahead, Phil seemed to be having no difficulty staying near the front. It was surprisingly difficult to interject myself into the stream of riders to my left but I was eventually able to do so and soon passed the slower rider in front of me and was able to move up towards where Phil was.

About halfway along the Northbound edge of the course, there is a short but somewhat steep hill. The pace up to this point had been fairly pedestrian so I expected something to happen as we approached the hill. People around me seemed to shift into the small chain ring but otherwise we traversed the hill uneventfully. This small hill is immediately followed by a downhill and then a gentle ride towards 6th concession. The course gets steeper and more difficult once the right turn onto 6th concession is made. I stayed close to the front over this section of the course, close to Phil's wheel, half waiting for someone to attack.

The attack never came. Someone did move up on my left as we made this climb. It turned out to be Larry. As we turned East on 6th concession, I moved over towards the shoulder in order to "hide" from the wind as much as possible. Larry moved up towards the front and was soon leading the peleton. It's funny how "pack mentality" works but once Larry moved to the front, and with Phil and I both in the top 10, I suddenly found myself at the front behind Larry. It was as if the peleton was relegating control of the race to the three of us by right of us having three riders near the front. In retrospect, I think it might not have been a bad idea for the 3 of us to take control of the race but heeding Stan's instructions I dropped back a little and let others pass in front of me. To do so, I actually had to let a bit of a gap open up between me and Larry. Larry continued to pull the peleton for the rest of the lap; it wasn't until we made the turn onto 5th concession towards the start-finish line that other riders came around him.

Me and Phil staying close to the pointy end of the peleton.

In fact, one rider went around Larry quite aggressively and, thinking this was an attack, I jumped, quickly bridged up to the rider who had opened up a gap. I went around the break away rider, to let him know I was there, took a short pull and then flicked my elbow to signal him to come around. When nothing happened, I took a quick look behind me and saw that there were three of us and we had a bit of a gap to the peleton but nobody seemed willing to work to stay away and we were soon all together again.

Once the peleton regrouped, the pace slowed once again. I began to get frustrated. This was not feeling like a race at all. But I took up my place on the leeward side of the peleton and tried to remain patient. We turned North and the pointy end of the peleton were strung out along the yellow line but moving fairly slowly. With the right hand side of the lane fairly clear, other riders quickly moved up the right hand side and maneuvered their way ahead of me.Again I found myself slipping backwards through the field and in frustration I launched an attack up the right hand side of the road. After a couple of hundred metres, I looked back to see that nobody had followed me. Since it was inevitable that the peleton would reel me in, I sat up and waited for them to catch me back up. It didn't take long. Once I was caught, we resumed our agonizingly slow pace.

As we turned East onto the steepest part of the course, things seemed to pick up a little and I thought a couple of riders looked to be making a break but we were all brought back together in short order. In fact, shortly after descending the downhill along this stretch, the commissaire's car went by and put the brakes on our entire field in order to allow the Elite 4 group, who had started 5 minutes behind us, to pass. By the time the Elite 4 group passed by, we were close to Brock road where the course turns South. We made the turn and I dutifully moved towards the shoulder side of the road in order to "hide" from the wind.

Riding Southbound along the shoulder on Brock road, I again found myself slipping backwards through the field as other riders moved up the left side to take up positions ahead of me. Again I became frustrated that the riders ahead of me seemed content to allow this to happen and in frustration I moved onto the shoulder, passed the entire field and continued ahead in another solo attack on the peleton. A few hundred metres later I looked back to see I had opened up a pretty good gap but again nobody had come with me. A short while later I took another look to see that the peleton was reeling me in so again I sat up.

As we turned onto 5th concession once again, several riders appeared to attack but by now I realized they were just making it look good for the crowd of onlookers and these weren't "real" attacks. Once we passed the start-finish line, the slow pace resumed.

On the 3rd and final lap, I decided to try and attack on the gradual climb following the short hill. This section was into a headwind with a slight gradient so I though I might catch the peleton napping but, again, I was soon reeled in and back amongst the peleton.

Across 6th concession, I "sat in" and allowed myself to recover from my most recent "attack effort which, due to the hill involved, had taken my breath away somewhat. As we turned Southbound onto Brock road, the pace seemed to pick up a bit as people began to anticipate the sprint finish and began to jockey for position. Things began to get a little more hectic at this point and on a couple of occasions I felt someone lean against me for several seconds after getting too close. I wasn't too concerned. "Coach" had instructed us on how to handle this. I had my elbows out as Coach had instructed and for the most part the "touching" did not affect me.

It was about halfway along this edge of the course that the pace began to increase quite noticeably. The jockeying for position became more pronounced and I found myself needing to ride somewhat aggressively in order to maintain my position in the front 10. I'm a little unclear what happened next because I seem to have lost memory of a good chunk of it but something happened in front of me. What I do know is that the rider in front of me went down and I think I went over the top of him. The last thing I recall is some notion of going headlong over my handlebars. The next thing I remember was being loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher by paramedics with Jonathan at the rear door of the ambulance looking somewhat concerned.

On the drive to the hospital, the paramedics asked me several questions including what day it was. I was unable to tell them what day it was right way but I was able to correctly provide my home address. My stay in the hospital was short and sweet. I stayed long enough to get a Tetanus shot and a Cat Scan and was then permitted to leave. I still don't know whether or not I suffered a concussion but the scrambled state of my brain all weekend suggests that perhaps I did.

The road won!

So, first race done. Not exactly what I expected. I did everything I was supposed to do but still ended up on the pavement. Such is the nature of bike racing. Next race is Calabogie in 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to it.


Elite 4 Race:

32	163	74632	WESTWOOD, Jon	KURZAWINSKI COACH/ PBNJ.CA	RMU23.4	1h 37' 22"	11' 49"

 M3 Race:

9	260	74360	HODGKINSON, Phill	KURZAWINSKI COACH/ PBNJ.CA	RMMB.3	1h 31' 52"
22	259	75252	BRADLEY, Larry	KURZAWINSKI COACH/ PBNJ.CA	RMMA.3	1h 31' 52"
DNF	261	74633	WESTWOOD, Richard	KURZAWINSKI COACH/ PBNJ.CA	RMMC.3	DNF

Race finish - Phil came ninth.

Guest Blog - Exercise Away the Cancer Blues

Hi all!

I would like to present this guest blog from David Haas, an advocate for cancer patients.

=========================================================

Exercise Away the Cancer Blues

If you are someone who is in the middle of cancer treatment or you have just

recently finished your treatment, you’ll discover that exercise is one of the best
things that you can do for yourself. WebMD states that exercise will, among other
things, improve mood, reduce fatigue and boost your self-confidence. The truth
of the matter is that in many ways, exercise gives you more control over your
own body and a bigger way to take control over your own life. Consider how you
are moving towards your goals and consider what exercise can do to help.

When you are recovering from mesothelioma treatment, you are going to
discover that exercise might be the last thing on your mind. You have had to
deal with many different things in the previous few months, and you will discover
that with all of that going on, you might not be interested in stepping on the
treadmill or going to the gym. The key to this is going to be taking the time to
find an exercise that works for you. This might be a great time to try some kind
of exercise that you have never considered before. For example, consider how
you might enjoy the gentle nature of water aerobics or the simple relaxing fun of
yoga.

Take a moment to think about where you want to be when it comes to exercise.
If you have never exercised before, this is a wonderful time to start. Cancer takes
away a feeling of vital control over your body while exercise gives it back. While
you are dealing with cancer, you find that you are too tired or too worried to do
the things that you love. On the other hand, when you exercise, you are going to
discover that you get some of that old energy back, and on top of that, you get
the endorphins that are going to help you get where you want to go.

What kind of exercise suits you, and how can you find the right type? First, start
by talking with your doctor and learning more about the exercise that will best
suit you. This is something that can make a huge difference when you want to
move forward with your health and your fitness. Consider what your options are
going to be when you want to get in shape after a long time away from the gym.
Remember also that you can work on your fitness at home. Whether you want
a weight machine in your basement or you would like to designate one of your
spaces as a yoga and meditation spot, there are some fabulous choices for you.

Take advantage of the many options that interest you and start your post cancer
workout today!

by David Haas
http://www.blogger.com/profile/08616835462804462281

Post Analysis - Block #3

This blog analyzes my progress through the last of three 6-week Winter training blocks using the same fitness metrics used in blocks 1 and 2. I also evaluate how well I fared on my Winter training objectives. To be honest, I didn't really very motivated even to write this final blog in my Winter training series but for completeness, here it is.

Analysis

Chronic Training Load (CTL) represents a measure of training fitness or, in this case, Cycling fitness to be specific.

Figure #1: Increase in CTL (blue line) over the 6 week period comprising block #3.

Figure 1 shows that CTL during block #3 rose from 94.5 to 103.3, an increase of 8.8 Training Scress Score (TSS) points. As was the case in blocks 1 and 2, this is a rather modest increase compared to the 5 TSS per week increase that frequent posters of the Google Wattage group recommend for ramp rate. But, as discussed in my block #1 post mortem, I was already starting from a comparitively high CTL level so there really hasn't been a lot of head room for me to be able to sustain a high ramp rate. I did, however, have a higher increase in CTL block #3 over block #2 which was also higher than the increase in block #1. It should be noted that my CTL value as of the end of my Winter training period is still about 9 TSS points shy of my peak CTL value of 112 from last season.

Block	initial FTP	increase in CTL
Block #1	260	3
Block #2	270	7.5
Block #3	275	8.8

Table 1: Increase in CTL (measured in terms of TSS points) in blocks 1 to 3.

Table 1 compares the increase in CTL over each of my three training blocks. It shows 3-point, 7.5 point, and 8.8 point increases in CTL for each of blocks #1, #2, and #3, respectively, indicating my increase in training load has been progressive. My Functional Threshold Power (FTP)  used to calculate those TSS points was also raised at the beginning of blocks #2 and #3 (see Table 1). Since FTP determines my training zones, an increase in FTP at the beginning of each block meant having to pedal harder in order to hit my zones. Indeed, I did find the start of blocks 2 and 3 to be hard. But by the end of each of these blocks, my body had adapted nicely to the increased workload.

Zone	Block #1	Block #2	Block #3
Active Recovery	24.2	13.2	9.4
Endurance	49.7	39.3	40.8
Tempo	19.3	28.2	33.9
Threshold	4.2	14.9	14.0
VO2 Max	1.5	2.7	1.1
Anaerobic Capacity	1.1	1.7	0.8

Table 2: Percent time spent in each training zone for blocks 1, 2, and 3.

Table 2 shows my distribution of  effort across training zones for each training block. This shows a slight increase in percentage (5.7 %) spent at Tempo with a little less time spent in Active Recovery. Indeed, the focus of my hard training efforts during block #3 involved lengthening the duration of time spent in the Sweet Spot (high Tempo to low Threshold) and four weeks of this six-week block were very structured towards that end. However, this 3rd block was also interrupted with a two-week stint in Florida where my goal was to simply get a lot of time in the saddle - a training camp of sorts with also a chance to spend some time with my parents. I did manage to accumulate 1,059 km during those 2 weeks with the majority of those kilometers spent in the Endurance to Tempo range. So, in fact, the percent time spent at Threshold during the 4 weeks of structured training in Block #3 would be actually higher than is shown in Table 2.

Figure 2: Total TSS accumulated for each six-week training block.

Figure 2 shows the total TSS accumulated during each six-week training block. What you see is a progressive increase in the training load I was able to absorb from block #1 through to block #3. TSS for block #1 average around 650 TSS per week which or just under 100 TSS/day. In block #2, that increased to an average of 700 TSS per week or 100 TSS/day. Finally, in block #3 I averaged 750 TSS per week or just over 107 TSS/day.

Conclusions

At the start of my Winter training program, I laid out some goals. In particular, I aimed to increase my Functional Threshold Power (FTP) by 30 watts from an estimated 270 watts to 300 watts. I had also a secondary goal to reduce my weight by 5 kg from 75.5 kg to 70 kg. Some dietary objectives that I set for myself included:

• no refined sugars except during training
• no coffee except before a hard or long training session
• reduced wheat intake except in the training window (3 hours before and 3 hours after a hard session)
• 1 beer per week
• no "instant" food - if I haven't prepared it then I can't eat it
• more fruits and vegetables

So how did I fare against my goals? The answer to this question is that I didn't even come close. Though I didn't do a formal test of FTP at the end of block #3, I gave myself an estimate of 280 watts as my FTP based on the tests I had done at the end of block #2 and how I felt in general. Regarding my weight loss goal, I was sort of on track up until Christmas. I had dropped my weight to 74 kg which was a start. But I indulged in Christmas treats and lost focus of my weight goal. I told myself that I didn't really need to drop the weight during my Winter training period and that in fact I might be better served to keep the weight on as I worked on developing more power. But in retrospect, this was a self delusion. I ate more than I needed to (see excellent article by Chris Carmichael on this: Cyclists Eat Too Much ). As for my dietary objectives, they lasted a mere 2 weeks. some of them were clearly unrealistic.  For example, there was no valid reason for me to eliminate coffee and instant foods and to reduce wheat. This was more of a case of jumping on the gluten-sensitivity bandwagon; I'm fairly certain I don't have a gluten sensitivity. There could be a case for reducing refined sugars and pre-processed foods but eliminating them completely proved to be too time intensive to even attempt. I did make a half-hearted attempt at more fruits and vegetables but I could have done a better job of this. As for restricting myself to one beer a week well, given my love for beer, that objective was ludicrous.

What would I do different? I have to say, by the time I left for Florida, I was sick and tired of the trainer. The hours on the trainer required to keep my CTL rising were beginning to take their toll. So what I will likely do next year is to take it easier in the Fall and allow my CTL to drop to a more reasonable starting point and maybe not even begin to do any serious interval work until January. Eighteen weeks of trainer intervals was just too much.

I didn't achieve my Winter training goals, ok, but was my Winter training effective? I'm fairly certain it was. In fact, I feel I've never been stronger on the bike for this time of year and yet I feel I have lots of room to ge stronger as the year progresses. Time will tell whether that's true of not, My first race is this Friday.