Great Lakes - Tour of Oak Brook - August 23rd Oak Brook, IL

BTW... to hook up tomorrow, I'll be in a Village CycleSport kit. I know MJH2 and will be looking for Psi in the BH kit. I don't know anyone else via screen name.

Also, MJH2, you should carry 4 bottles...just in case I need a third bottle. Team work!!

I'll be there in Spin Doctor Cyclewerks kit ... blue/yellow. I'll be there in the morning for the safety class. Did you guys catch that if you attend the class it counts as a start toward Cat 4?

Also, MJH2, you should carry 4 bottles...just in case I need a third bottle. Team work!!

Consider it done. Anything else I can bring you... maybe a sandwich?


I'll be there, most probably, when registration opens.

I figured as much. I was thinking 3 bottles (one in the jersey)... probably pitching a couple to my fans along the way.

Where did you get that little deal to carry the gel?

I've got a few extra if you want one. I'll bring them along.

So, who wants to be my super domestique? I still take applications and the spot is still open and I'm getting desperate to fill it.

Hey now....I joined a team so I would have an excuse for going out hard and then fading....."I was working for MJH2!"

I'm nervous already.

I need help!

I'm nervous already.

I need help!

You and RJBTrek shamed us all into doing this, man!

Right now Psimet and I could be talking about how we were looking forward to strong finishes in the 5's, and then sitting back to watch you folks slug it out in the "long" race. Instead I'm trying to figure out how to fit an oxygen bottle into my jersey pockets.

And me here with Fed Ex promising my quart of fast acting EPO would be here by today! Stinkin Fed Ex service out of Spain blows. Damn, I can't catch a break. First my video is everywhere, then my EPO doesn't show.

What am I gonna do?


Wait, I know. Since you guys are only doing 8 laps, quick run to the car and put some beers ACROSS the finish line when we're on the last lap. Please note ... ONLY on the last lap, and BEHIND the finish line.

Yeea ... that'll do it.:speedy:

Here is the code:
A=aero
W=weight

OK, I've used a razor blade to take the little nubbies off my tires, A and a little W. Cleaned and waxed the bike, a little A and W. Removed the valve stem caps W and a little A. Reinflated the tires using Helium, W. Filled the frame, stem, fork, and with Helium, W (I had to put tape over any holes but I used light weight tape). Removed my bar tape, I can handle the discomfort for 10 laps, W.

Anything obvious I'm missing?

Here is the code:
A=aero
W=weight

OK, I've used a razor blade to take the little nubbies off my tires, A and a little W. Cleaned and waxed the bike, a little A and W. Removed the valve stem caps W and a little A. Reinflated the tires using Helium, W. Filled the frame, stem, fork, and with Helium, W (I had to put tape over any holes but I used light weight tape). Removed my bar tape, I can handle the discomfort for 10 laps, W.

Anything obvious I'm missing?

Yes...the fact that you have totally lost it.

Even though I will not be joining you guys on Saturday, following this thread is incredibly amusing.

I wish you all a fun and safe race.

You and RJBTrek shamed us all into doing this, man!

Right now Psimet and I could be talking about how we were looking forward to strong finishes in the 5's, and then sitting back to watch you folks slug it out in the "long" race. Instead I'm trying to figure out how to fit an oxygen bottle into my jersey pockets.

Were you not the guy that just applied for a Cat 4 upgrade!?!?!?

Oh yeah, forget the sandwhich and just get an extra face mask and long tube so I can draft AND get the extra oxygen from your tank.

good luck tomorrow biotches.

later.

Ave Caesar, morituri te salutant

good luck today biotches.

later.

+1

Well, that was pretty interesting.

Data Value Unit
Duration 1:02:01
Sampling Rate 1 s
Cycling Efficiency 18.9 %

Number of Heart Beats 10173 beats
Recovery -72 beats
Minimum Heart Rate 102 bpm
Average Heart Rate 164 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate 178 bpm
Standard Deviation 8.3 bpm

Minimum Speed 5.9 mph
Average Speed 24.6 mph
Maximum Speed 38.8 mph
Distance 25.4 miles
Odometer 1189 miles

Minimum Cadence 29 rpm
Average Cadence 99 rpm
Maximum Cadence 145 rpm
Coasting Time 0:18:51 (30.4 %)
Coasting Distance 8.3 miles (32.5 %)

Minimum Altitude 774 ft
Average Altitude 807 ft
Maximum Altitude 850 ft
Ascent 738 ft
Descent 748 ft
VAM 714 ft/h

Minimum Power 2 Watts
Average Power 318 Watts
Average Power (0 W incl.) 206 Watts
Maximum Power 851 Watts
Pedaling Index Average 26 %
Pedaling Index Maximum 98 %
Left Right Balance Average L52 - 48R Left - Right
Left Right Balance Maximum L90 - 10R Left - Right



Here is the fun part. I spent 27.5% of the time with my hr at 90-95% of max, and an additional 13.5% at 95-100%. Can you say anaerobic? I knew you could.

Actually, the hr zone numbers are much worse. This includes my warmups. Yikes!

More later.

Thanks for the coaching Psi.

Ya know when you spend more time in the registration line than racing, there is something wrong. 1hr 30min in the registration line and 45min in the race.

I hit a wall at mile 16. It happened on the first hill when someone in front of me hit the breaks just at the hard part of the hill. I lost momentum and being at that tipping point between hanging-on until recovery in the downhill and breaking, I broke. The effort to re-accelerate on the hill kill me and that was it. It was a good course and I averaged 23.7 mph.

The registration was REALLY BAD. Just as I got to the front, some bonehead asked all cat 4 riders to the front of the line since their race was starting in 10 min. Forget the fact that my race was starting in 11.5 min and the group behind us was starting 2 min after us. I "kindly" explained to those riders that I was not letting any more riders in front since we were all basically in the same group. It worked.

MJH2 - BTW - the guy leading the m4/5 30+ 40+ points, races cat 3 in ABR.

Will I do this next year? Yep. However, next time I will not let MJH2 convince me to go M4/5!!

Ya know when you spend more time in the registration line than racing, there is something wrong. 1hr 30min in the registration line and 45min in the race.

I hit a wall at mile 16. It happened on the first hill when someone in front of me hit the breaks just at the hard part of the hill. I lost momentum and being at that tipping point between hanging-on until recovery in the downhill and breaking, I broke. The effort to re-accelerate on the hill kill me and that was it. It was a good course and I averaged 23.7 mph.

The registration was REALLY BAD. Just as I got to the front, some bonehead asked all cat 4 riders to the front of the line since their race was starting in 10 min. Forget the fact that my race was starting in 11.5 min and the group behind us was starting 2 min after us. I "kindly" explained to those riders that I was not letting any more riders in front since we were all basically in the same group. It worked.

MJH2 - BTW - the guy leading the m4/5 30+ 40+ points, races cat 3 in ABR.

Will I do this next year? Yep. However, next time I will not let MJH2 convince me to go M4/5!!

Ha!

I have very mixed feelings about doint it again. That was some of the most dicey riding I've ever been a part of... And there was a lot of yellow line nonsense.

Atleast, in a crit, if you hit something it's not 2 tons of metal moving right at you!

Speaking of crits, COLORCHANGE, try out a nice 8 turn crit and then check those heart-rate numbers.

And, for those of you who didn't wait around, they had only posted results through the top 19.

What a riot. I mean, this is just plain funny. Crit's must just plain suck! Psi told me it was going to be a peg job from the get go and he wasn't kidding.

Here are the corrected numbers for the race only (but including a short cool down, so even these are slightly understated.)

44.5% 90-95% MHR
21.6% 95-100% MHR

So, 2/3 of the time in the blurry eyed red zone. Isn't that nice.:wtf:

Quite honestly, I didn't know I could do this for an hour.

Mpf... the registration sucked. Horribly. But so did my performance. I pretty much dropped out of in lap 3 with psimet.
No frigging warmup possibility because of standing in line for the f'n registration and then a right side stinging in the gut area which came from going out hard without a warmup.

Will I do it next year? Possibly, but I think the course needs to have the whole street for itself. The yellow line rule after turn 2 was just plain suck.

Meh...really wasn't planning on doing this race and coming out of a really bad virus at the same time. I did what I wanted to do. MJH2, myself, and another teamate just kind of went out to see what was up. We had decided to be in front for the first turn onto Spring Hill.

It worked. I was out front right off the line. MJH2 rode right next to me down York into the "headwind". A couple of times I told him I was blowing up by doing it, but we both held it. We paced the group up the first climbs and our teammate came around on the top of the big one. We blocked like a bunch of xXx'rs, but our teammate was looking for someone else to go with.

So we tried something, it worked, but none of us had the juice to make anything stick (which we pretty much knew going in). After that I just floated back. Started to fall off the back in the home straight on the second lap when RJBTrek yelled at me to grab a wheel and I did. Got me back into the pack - thanks!

Third lap I blew up on Spring. The hills popped me like an over-ripe cherry. I knew it was coming, but hoped I had an extra lap or two. Down the straight I worked up to Scummer and we just shot the crap to the line. We could have caught the pack, but I think both of us wanted our races to be over. It was hot and the long wait and delays before the race had me hurting food wise.

After that I just watched everyone else. MJH2 made it another 2 laps - same as our other teamate. Colorchange did well...like he was always able to. Came in off the back of the pack at the end - loose saddle/seatpost. That's that cheap Cervelo crap for you.

Turns out Alien 2 came in 2nd overall and depending on the age of the guy in front he may have won the 40+ group. He's racing 3's over at ABR so.....:innocent:

As always I am in crap shape, but at least I am in stellar shape compared to last year. I can only hope I can see this much of an improvement again over the next year. Looking forward to more racing.

Just dumped some SERIOUS money on a getaway weekend for the wife for her b-day. Mine is in December. If she understands the depths I went to then I feel a powertap coming on in December...:thumb:....between that and some weight loss.....


.....game on biotches! :thumb:

^^^^ so, not only did you get to race on her weekend, but you may get a powertap out of it too? the force is strong with you i sense. :) later.

So here’s my story.

Got there plenty early, or so I thought. We stood in line for 45 minutes waiting for them to open registration. What a mess. Psi was like first in line and I was a half dozen guys behind him. I still had enough time to get my kit on and warm up. I head back over to the start area to warm up and forget to take my pack off. What a noob!

So, I go do my warm up and ride the course. It looks much better at the turn on spring as it’s cross the yellow OK’d. Wise choice. I head back, noodle around, chat, warm up some more, and wait for “our turn”. Now, we were supposed to start at 9:30. I brought three gels. I down one 30 minutes before the anticipated start. They’re running late but we line up and they give us a free lap around the course as an additional warm up. Fine. I’m down to one water bottle but I should be OK. I get back and down my second gel (planned right before the start). We finish our lap and they delay us again. They offer for us to take yet another lap. No thanks … I don’t want to lose my place at the front and I’m warmed up (and don’t want to get tired).

But, because we’re so late they cut our race 2 laps, 8 instead of 10. By now I’m thirsty, starting to get hungry, and out of water and only have on gel. I run off to pee yet again and we wait some more. Finally we’re off but I should have had two bottles like Psi suggested. As we launch … Psi up front pulling the pack and I’m in the top 10. I’m where I want to be but Psi … is still pulling. This can’t be good.

Pack is fairly tight, pace is OK at around 25 mph. A couple of people were cheating, passing outside the yellow line … low class … but mostly people were decent. The biggest issue in the pack were the sudden slowdowns. Few people would call them out so you’re riding along and all of the sudden have to hit the brakes. I think this is how a small crash at the back started.

Also. The field was large so it was hard to pass, especially where I wanted to. I am a good descender (thanks to my gear and my fat), but passing on spring was way difficult and often even 31st would be blocked. When it wasn’t, I could get back to the front of the pack, otherwise, you struggled to move up through the field and I now understand “if you’re not moving up … you’re moving back”. It really is true.

Cruising along, I get to the front on lap 4. Right to the front pulling … I do not want to be here so I slow up. The whole field slows up and I’m saying “Damn! I don’t want to be pulling, especially on York into the wind”. I do the work for a 1/3 of a lap and finally get to hide going up spring hills. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to rest a little (like I normally did on York – hr dropping to 82-86%) and my hr never dropped below 92% (avg. 94% for that lap). That hurt. Big mistake, that I wouldn’t repeat.

I dropped through the field and tried to rest and “recovered” a little over the next few laps. On the 2nd to last lap or so I crossed the line at the front of the pack, right where I wanted to be. Then, some weirdness started happening. It felt like I was either sweating like a horse or I loaded my drawers. Turns out, my seat was coming loose. This felt really weird and it was a little more difficult to control my bike. It did not add confidence when in a tight pack at 35mph trying to fight for a position. The last lap was really rough and I got kicked off the back on the second climb. I finished a little behind the main pack but they were well in sight (my goal). Right before I cross the line I stand up and give my saddle a wiggle to show Psi and Scummer my rotating seat post trick. What the hell!

I’m satisfied with how I did, but would have done better with more training, much better food/fluid management, and better strategy (not pulling the group). Learned a lot and had a good time. I plan to do more.

Being at the front was so important. After registration I was going back to my car when they announced the race will start in 10min. I got back to my car pinned my number, had a gel and headed back. I did 3 quick laps around the parking lot and was heading to line up when I realized I forgot to put air in my tires (Arrrrg). Got that done and stepped into the line way at the back. The only thing behind me was the pace car for the 50+/60+ race. The first 2 laps were very jerky. I almost ran into the back of the wheel in front of me due to hard braking. The jerkyness caused the rubber-band effect on turns and at the beginning of the hills. Just as ColorChange pointed out, there were few places to pass. On the first lap, 3 or 4 guys wanted to pass on York at the sweeping turn and went over the yellowline. Not sure why the first guy did not see the cars but the next three were in his slipstream and had no clue that they followed a guy into the path of several cars. The cars moved over and slowed as people started yelling "car". The guy in front pulled in quickly and guys in the slipstream now seeing the cars all tried to get back in where there was no room and almost caused a crash. This was bad.

On the first 3 laps, the guys in back were constantly slowed before the hills. This was a killer. I had enough fluid but I could have done better with food. I had gels but forgot to eat at the halfway point.

Always be toward the front. I worked a lot harder than if I was up front.

I have only one question:

WHO WON?

Who's the Illinois State Road Champion???

L to R: MJH2,Colorchange-tucked right behind MJH2's shoulder RR, myself off the front at the start.

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/7640/001iz0.png

Nice team pic !! :thumb:

cool picture. none of you look real happy to be there :).

later.

L to R: MJH2,Colorchange-tucked right behind MJH2's shoulder RR, myself off the front at the start.

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/7640/001iz0.png

That picture almost makes it look like I have an upper body muscle! Sweet!

That race made me bitter for the rest of the weekend. My foolish attempt at a mid-race break (at, about 29 MPH with a tail wind) blew me up and I was unable to recover enough to hang on to the back of the pack. Otherwise, I think I would have had a decent shot at a pack finish. I was so disappointed Sunday I didn't even want to ride.

Psi,

We're famous baby!

http://180pics.smugmug.com/gallery/5804108_eEN9H#359629486_dLF7s

Psi,

We're famous baby!

http://180pics.smugmug.com/gallery/5804108_eEN9H#359629486_dLF7s

Uh, if you need any of those pics (and you're in a bunch) I can pull a string or two with the owner and get them for you.

Uh, if you need any of those pics (and you're in a bunch) I can pull a string or two with the owner and get them for you.

:D - He's got a connection there....


BTW - I'll do all the mechanical work you would ever want if I can get a DVD for the holidays that has all the pictures on it. :D

Psi,

We're famous baby!

http://180pics.smugmug.com/gallery/5804108_eEN9H#359629486_dLF7s

My favorite:

http://180pics.smugmug.com/gallery/5804108_eEN9H#359622200_AQHWq

I am one of only 2 guys already clipped in with head up and pedaling. Should be in a Speedplay add.

Cool. Who is the photog? What's the relationship? I might be able to trade services.

Cool. Who is the photog? What's the relationship? I might be able to trade services.

You said yourself that you couldn't even do that with your own wife anymore....what makes you think you could "trade services" with her? :wtf:

Lone warrior with psimet's pic right behind it.
http://180pics.smugmug.com/gallery/5804108_eEN9H#359605182_wV4hD

Psimet and his "oh face" make me giggle every time. :)

http://180pics.smugmug.com/gallery/5804108_eEN9H#359604892_2mAtw

later.

I have professional photo gear including a 4' epson pro printer. Trading photography services. ;)

Results are up.

http://www.tourofoakbrook.com/Results.pdf

Psi, you got 13th in masters 30+ 4/5

I got 11th masters 40+ 4/5

Pretty pleased for my first race. :)

Yeah...they totally f'd that one up....they even say they are unsure about those results....

In particular they placed me in front of MJH2 - which I was not, and put Scummer dead last....which he was not - he finished same time as me.

hmmm

Should I not be so happy?

The pack finished in front of me and was at most 30 people. Therefore, I assumed a to 20 easily. Am I fubar?

hmmm

Should I not be so happy?

The pack fineshed in front of me and was at most 30 people. Therefore, I assumed a to 20 easily. Am I fubar?

Yeah...total crap shoot. They placed out teamate in front of you and he pulled out with a few laps left. Like with most races the results are just crap. You would have thought that the timing chips would have fixed that, but when the ship distribution was a total mess....this is what you get.

BTW - this is much worse than most races, but all races have scoring/ranking issues. Especially bad at the entry cats because honestly the only ones that care are the ones racing and not winning.

Yeah...they totally f'd that one up....they even say they are unsure about those results....

In particular they placed me in front of MJH2 - which I was not, and put Scummer dead last....which he was not - he finished same time as me.

I'm pissed. MJH2 was just behind me when I finished but they have me at 33rd. They don't even have the chip data. Ok...so the camera quits but what happened to the chip data?

They are complete idiots. I was looking for the chip data at least to get something out of this mess. Finally, they also sent my e-mail address out as part of a mass mail....they should have used the Blind copy (BCC) option and not the "To:". I bet I start getting spam out the rear.

hmmm

Should I not be so happy?

The pack fineshed in front of me and was at most 30 people. Therefore, I assumed a to 20 easily. Am I fubar?

Don't forget that the pack had 30+ and 40+ riders. They seperated the two groups in the results.

My goodness... the results are even worse than the registration. It can really only get better for next year.

My goodness... the results are even worse than the registration. It can really only get better for next year.

True. Pretty bad. The more I look at them the more it sinks in how bad they are. I complained last time when I was placed lower than I should have been, but this (being placed higher) is actually worse IMHO.

Does nothing for me but make me feel like somehow I cheated.

Rob, I have to admit, I was a little surprised/confused when I saw 13th. It's not your fault. They have really screwed this up. Not good at all!