Spitting into the Wind

Jim sent me these... more photos of Cherry Pie as so on as AWfoSho gets them off his camera...

TK, tired of going in circles with a break of nine up the road, decided to test his fitness. He launched with seven to go and took a Kelly Benefits rider with him.

With two to go TK's break mate flatted and sent him off solo with a, "Good luck, dude!" muttered in a thick French-Canadian accent.

alas, the hungry pack swarmed TK with just meters to go in the race for the tenth spot. I think TK hung on for a top-twenty spot. The DBC Elite guys put four (TK, Judd Van Sickle, Phil Mooney, and Joe Iannarelli) inside the top-twenty of a hundred plus rider field.

Cherry Pie... Making sense of it all

With ten dbcjrt athletes competing in no fewer than seven races over the course of eight hours Cherry Pie made for a long day... but, I think I've made sense of most of it.

There were four pies and every podium place imagineable... first, second, third, third again. There was deep diggin' and gutsy riding... and it was fun!

I'm impressed with our win in the 13/14's, and with our podiums in the 10-12, 15/16 and 17/18 races, but it is boring to write about things that are expected. If you want the gory details of victory and glory I'm sure that you can read about it here shortly...

what I want to brag about is the unexpected... Kelbster hanging with the lead group of the 13/14's, even while giving up a year and a half to them, all in an effort to serve pie to AWfoSho... -or- Karch turning 150 plus rpm on the downhill while clinging desperately to the hind quarters of the lead group... -or- Robby, in his first-ever junior race, finishing with the lead group of 15/16's... -or- the smile on Torey's face as he recalled moments of joy and ecstasy in the first chase group-- the thrill of the hunt... -or- the grim determination on AJ's mug as he realized that bike racing hurts... -or- the lap that Brian got to race with his pops... -or- the utter disappointment TK must have felt after being gobbled up by the p/1/2 field 20 meters from the line after 5 or 6 laps in the wind... -or- the battle against tears AWfoSho waged as he watched his teammates doing battle without him...

those are moments that make junior bike racing what it is... gotta love winning, but gotta love each kid's personal victories just as much...

This much I know...

Karch, Kelbster, Alex, Tapinator, Robby, Torey, AJ, El Gigante, Brian, and TK raced their bikes today... got a few pies for their toils.

Tales of bravado and other doings just as soon as I sort it all out...

Looks Familiar

AWfoSho doesn't have the nappy bald head or the tat on his bicep, but everything else looks pretty much the same... same sling, same bandage, same road rash on the shoulder...

I figure that AWfoSho is about a week behind Maggie, so he should be sitting on the trainer soon. This evening he told me he may be up for the exercise bike in the gym tomorrow afternoon... big fat padded seat that will allow him to sit up without putting any stress on the shoulder.
Photo courtesy of Megan Backstedt via Velonews.com

AWfoSho Update

Alex is safely out of surgery. It took six screws, but everything is back in place and the doc is happy with the results. Alex is pretty groggy right now and not talking much, but he did say, "Aah, that's nice!" as the nurse injected a syringe full of morphine into the IV line.

He'll be at the hospital overnight, home sometime around noon tomorrow.

While a few of the boys were up in Chico...

...Robby was riding dirt locally. Doing us proud with a win in the junior class at the MTB Challenge.

WTG, Robby...

Under the Knife

First off, thanks to all of you that sent kind words. Alex appreciates every one of them.

Saw the orthopedic surgeon today... special thanks to Dr Steve Nowicki of DBC Masters fame for his quick referral. The orthopedist actually called me before I even got my sub plans finished this morning... Took a few more films, including some of AWfoSho's elbow because it was showing symptoms of breakage, but thankfully they turned out negative.

The diagnosis... a displaced clavicular fracture. AWfoSho must be special because they are calling his a butterfly break, which means that the bone actually shattered into four pieces, two of them resembling the wings of a butterfly.

The treatment... permanent hardware--plates and screws, I guess they can't pin a butterfly break. Alex is scheduled for surgery at 1:30 tomorrow which means I have to write sub plans for two more days. I was proud of the kidlet. He asked the doc all the right questions about risks and anesthesia, and post-op treatment, and recovery, and how soon he can be back on his bike, and how many times the doc had done the surgery, etc, etc... I kinda just sat and watched.

And, on a more joyful note... TK put everybody under the knife at Paskenta yesterday. I didn't get a chance to brag about him what with all the hubbub last night. The boy is a beast right now. He and AWfoSho would have been a pretty wicked 1-2 punch in p/1/2 ranks, not to mention the junior 17/18 races... Maybe later in the Spring. You can find pics of TK and the rest of the DBC Elite Team tearing Paskenta apart here.

Tell Me Again Why I Let My Kidlets Race Bikes

2/3/2008

7/14/2007

6/13/2006

6/12/2004

Bike Racing 101: Knowing Your Place

So, you wanna be a bike racer?

Let's assume you've been to the Early Birds and ridden in largish packs on group rides. You know how to draft, can pull through even in an echelon, and can hang even when the pace picks up to, say, this-hurts-a-bit on the speed-o-meter. Now you've got to figure out how to win...

The first thing you need to know if you want to win bike races is just where you fit into the group. Are you all choc full of fast twitch fibers that allow you to accelerate like a bat out of hell? Are you a slow twitch type that takes two months to get up to speed but can go like a freight train once you are there? Somewhere in between? Are you willing to sit elbow to elbow with Racer X at thirty miles an hour as things get twitchy towards the end of a race, or are you more likely to back down a bit and slide in behind him?

The answer to all of the above along with many more answers to many more questions will determine just how you race your bike. You don't have to accelerate like a rocket-sled-on-rails to be able to win a crit, nor do you have to be able to sit in the wind for hours to win a road race (although those attributes help, just a little). It is more improtant to know yourself as a rider.

Most beginning racers are scared of the front. I've watched time and again as 30 riders will come to the line together, everyone of them thinking they are gonna win the sprint. Unless you are absolutley sure that you are one of the fastest sprinters in the group (and I mean sure), you have no business coming to the line with 30 other guys. Instead, you need to do all that you can to break up the race into a more manageable group. That means riding aggressively until you are sure that you are the fastest finisher left.

Case in point: TK is by no means a fast twitch guy, especially if he is riding junior gears. But, he manages to win his share of crits in a season (usually the domain of the sprinter) because he doesn't wait until the last two laps to try to win. He is aggressive from the gun, riding to eliminate others chances to win. Each attack and subsequent attack narrows the field more and more until either he knows he can win in the sprint or he is solo off the front and has broken the will of the group to chase. While it is more complicated than this, and teamwork is invloved, TK used this tactic to win in the 2/3 race at Apple Pie, at Cal-Aggie in the juniors, at Land Park again in the juniors, and to take the GC at Valley of the Sun in 2007.

Say you are a sprinter. You still don't have a free ride to the finish. If everybody in the group knows you are the fastest finisher (and they should if they are worth their salt as a bike racer) that means everybody will be working to make sure that you are not in the group that comes to the line together. The sprinter's job is to read the race (more on this in Bike Racing 201) and make sure that he is in every significant move. In a nutshell, make sure that nothing goes up the road without you that has the possibity of staying away.

Case in point: When AWfoSho won his first state championship in the crit he did so because he managed to insert himself in a move with the two strongest riders in the race, Jake Allen and Collin Samaan. AWfoSho was by no means as strong as either rider, but he was faster than both of them in the finish. Jake and Collin repeatedly attacked eachother, dropping AWfoSho each time, but they wouldn't push home the advantage because they couldn't drop eachother. AWfoSho clawed tooth and nail to fight his way back to them each time. He was completely cooked when the three came to the line together, but he had more fast twitch then both of them and used it to his advantage. He had the fastest finish out of all the riders in the race, but he had to give everything he had to be able to use it.

Above are some over simplified examples, but the first rule to bike racing is to know yourself. Race according to your strength and race aggressively and that first win is sure to come.

What's the plan?

Saturday: 3.5 hours with lotsa ME and SFR. It's supposed to rain in the afternoon so I imagine the kidlets will wake me up early.

Sunday: Paskenta... Staz, El Gigante, AWfoSho, and TK are planning on grinding out the 100 miles with most of the DBC Elite Team. We're gonna drag the radios out even if we look like a bunch of Fred's just so TK and AWfoSho can log some air time (read: practice) all mic'd up with the rest of the Elite Team. It's supposed to rain all day in Chico so I'm thankful that I've been requested to drive support. That way I can be yelling into the radio all toasty warm in the car while the kidlets suffer like drowned rats. Hopefully nobody will flat. That way the closest I'll come to getting wet is when I roll the window down to hand up a bottle.

I know what I'm doing all weekend. I'm hoping that many of the other kidlets will be down in Fremont grabbing hold of a last dosing of experience before the real thing kicks off at Cherry Pie next weekend.

Speaking of Cherry Pie... looks like 50 or so ankle biters are reg'd for the 15/16-17/18 race. some familiar names, but lotsa new faces too. I've got an inkling as to how this one is gonna turn out, but I'ma gonna keep me thoughts to meself for the time being. As for the younger young'ns, I see Dishes is all set to do battle, but rumor has it that Karch has plans to turn the cranks in anger as does Kelbster. I've got my pick for this race too, but will withold its secret as well. Gotta say I'm looking forward to seeing how all the DBCJRT kidlets do in the adult races... good test of the early season form.

Speak up... let me know what your plans are. Riding? Racing? Couchin' it watching good commercials on Sunday?