Archive for February, 2011

California Racing In Such A Winter’s Month (by Aki)

Feb 28, 2011 in Uncategorized
First crit of the season, the Red Trolley Criterium, M35+ in the very competitive Southern California (San Diego) area. It took place in Mira Mesa, the “Top Gun” area of San Diego. To illustrate just how “Top Gun” the area is, the registration desk was at the intersection of Viper Way and Top Gun Street.

The San Diego area has a LOT of really good Masters racers. The list of racers sound like a roll call of the 1984 Olympic team. Local masters racers include Thurlow Rogers, Greg Demegen, and Steve Hegg, all of them still extremely strong. Steve Hegg was in the M35+ race; I saw Thurlow Rogers watching; Greg Demegen I didn’t see.

I had my new Tsunami frame for this race, built with most of the old Tsunami parts. I ran non-aero wide rim clinchers. The new Tsunami’s biggest change was the very short 39 cm chainstays, compared to the old stays at the normal 40.5 cm. With my very long 56.5 cm top tube and the steep 75.5 degree seat tube I had too much weight on the front end of the original Tsunami. This caused the rear to step out a bit in hard corners; the shorter chainstays should put a stop to that.

I also got some aero stuff on the frame, but thinking about it realistically it’s more for looks and ease of cleaning rather than performance enhancement. Nonetheless the downtube and seat tube are aero shaped, there’s a seat tube cut out for the rear wheel, and the cables run, for the most part, inside the frame.

In preparation for the race I stripped the bike of bottles (I’ll be running a CamelBak as part of my “aero” setup) and the seat bag. Otherwise the bike remained the same as in training.

The weather really cooperated – it was about 80 degrees, clear and sunny. Last year it was a bit chilly, to the point where I debated using knickers, but no such debate today. I used the RaceBak jersey (with integrated CamelBak bladder) and a jersey on top of that. The race resembled a hard Cat 3 race until 6 to go, fast but manageable. Like the hill at Bethel I was hitting 800 or so watts every lap, with the rest of the lap easy enough that I averaged under 200 watts overall. For me that’s a hard race, 200 watts.

At 6 to go, though, the pace went through the roof as one team in particular really punched it. I got ejected out the back after a couple laps, did a lap on my own, and then watched the finish of the race from the sidelines. Hegg, it seems, blew his reserves getting across to the break – he trailed the break at 200 meters to go, a few meters behind the break, a few meters in front of the field.

Of course I can’t say much – I sat on the sidewalk watching the final bits of the race.

Overall it was a great day, a great race.

(To compare last year’s race with this year’s, be sure to check out the following posts, Ed.)

2010 Cat 3s:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2010/02/racing-red-trolley-crit.html

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The Marco Island Nature Ride (by Bob K)

Feb 14, 2011 in General

On Wednesday, 1/26/11, I was preparing for my morning bicycle ride from the Hilton on Marco Island Florida. It was cloudy as the sun was trying to break out. The roads were wet from the heavy rain the night before. I climbed on my bike at 8:00am and headed out. I was hoping the predicted rain would not dampen my ride.

I had my loop from the previous day and headed towards the Goodland Bridge. On my first ride, I met and rode with a local cyclist that lived on Goodland. He gave me a tour of Goodland which included his family’s cycling history. On our ride back I asked him about Marco Key. He explained the key’s history of being a nature preserve. He wanted to show me the key so we headed around the gate. He gave me the tour which included mangroves, wildlife, and the beautiful homes.

I had decided to do the same key loop because of its beauty, but I never expected to experience what was about to happen. I turned into the key and waved to the security guard at the gate. It was now around 8:30am. I am not exactly sure where on Whiskey Creek Drive the sighting occurred. I think it was before the bridge. I rode around a slight bend in the road and noticed something walking from the mangrove on the left side of the road. It was crossing the road about 50 yards ahead of me. I was rolling at 18 mph and I was approaching the cat quickly. My mind started racing with thoughts. What is it? It’s a cat. A very large cat. It stopped in the middle of the road and turned and faced me. Now I am about 10 yards from the cat. What should I do? Slowing down, I decided I better stop. When I applied my brakes the noise seemed to startle the cat. He turns and confidently walked back into the mangrove from where he started.

At this point I realized what I had just experienced. It was a panther! It stood about three feet tall from ground to top of back. It was long and sleek with a smaller head than I would expect. As it stared at me, I remember more of a gray coloring to the face. At this point the adrenaline was kicking in. As I rolled past the spot the panther was already out of sight. But then again he or she was probably watching me. I continued to ride up the road, finding it hard to believe what had just happened. I had just seen one the 100 panthers still remaining in Florida.

The start of this event began while we were being driven from Fort Meyers airport to Marco Island for vacation. We asked the driver about the cat crossing signs. He explained to my wife, daughter and me about the endangered species. How they are nocturnal and rarely seen. My daughter asked if they were aggressive toward people. He replied in his 10 years here, he never heard of an attack on a person. I now can confirm that he was right. I was luckily not the first reported attack. All this occurred in a matter of 30 seconds, but will have a lifetime to tell this experience.

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