Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Today was one of those perfect days on the bike. Racing a bike is oftentimes a difficult and frustrating endeavor where a couple of hours of hard work and suffering only results in a mid-pack finish. One of the reasons I do time trials is that I control just about everything that happens in my race. There are no team tactics, blocking or positioning issues. My strength is my result; my suffering translates into my win. The downside to time trialing is that the preparation, suffering and either defeat or victory are generally held alone. The one discipline that transcends both the aloneness and the capricious nature of bike racing is the team time trial. In amateur races it usually involves four riders on one team all racing together to set the best time as a team. We race alone against the clock but the effort and pain is shared.

Today was just such a day. Our team colors are blue and white so we sometimes go by the name "The Blue Train." This is especially true when we participate in a team time trial. Over the last two years we've won just about every event we've entered including the State Team Time Trial (TTT) Championship last year. What distinguishes the TTT is that everyone still has to work together. The time for the race is usually taken on the second rider and four guys go a lot faster when everyone is working together. Since we all ride together a lot as a team and we train together over the winter and spring we've learned to ride fast together. There is a trust in the other guys. You know they'll suffer for you just as you suffer for them. You know they'll make you suffer so that you can get better but they'll never hold it against you when they crack you.

Today was maybe the last TTT for the Blue Train. Our primary sponsor, Security Bank, was shut down by the FDIC and sold to another bank. We don't know what our sponsorship prospects are for next year so even though we're pretty committed to racing together, it may be under different colors and in different circumstances and it mostly likely wont be in blue and white kit. It was a sort of bittersweet time as we starting gathering together for this last TTT in the uniforms that have made us respected and just a little feared around the state.

Today Robert, Trey, Jeff and I came together to lay down the law one more time. For me the event started with my typical warm-up. As we gathered, we were loose about the ride. No stress as the trainers were set up and the bikes set to spinning. I felt surprisingly good for a warm-up on a hot, muggy morning with no breeze. As worked my way through the iPod playlist my legs responded to every increase in intensity I asked for. I had rhythm in my head but more importantly, I had it in my heart and legs. As we spun over to the start line I was feeling strong and motivated. After a few instructions and a prayer from Trey, we lined up and got our countdown. I led us out and got us up to speed for the first minute and a quarter. As I pulled off, everyone was in line and looked good. I tucked in at the end of the Train and my teammates took over driving things. Each sat on the front for the time they could hold a high speed and then they too pulled off to let the next in line set the pace. When I got back to the front we were four minutes in and I was beginning to think this was going to be good. We were smooth and fast. I could tell that we were all working at the same level. I wasn't just coasting in the draft and there weren't gaps opening up when I new rider was on the front.

Today we were amazing...maybe the best I've ever seen. We hit the 9 mile mark at 19 minutes. We were rolling at over 28 miles an hour or 46 km/hr. When we hit the second, harder half of the course we didn't unravel either. We kept it together with everyone pulling through. I was on my limit and suffering like a dog but so was everyone else. We were four guys united in a goal and in the sacrifice and suffering it would take to achieve that singular goal. We had caught our 2 minute team at five miles and we caught our 4 minute team at 15. At 17 miles, Trey finally popped but Robert, Jeff and I continued to power along. With one kilometer to go, Jeff finally blew up and Robert and I finished together in exactly 42 minutes. 19.61 miles in 42 minutes gave us a speed of 27.5 mph or 44.5 kph which ain't too bad for a bunch of old guys. Jeff rolled in only 10 seconds later and Trey came in a minute after that.

Today I suffered and it felt good. I haven't hurt after a ride like I did after this one since the State Championship and yet it was so much better in a way. There I was racing for a jersey; here I was racing for my teammates. Several times I thought that I might have to let up or maybe even let go but each time Jeff would pull off the front and turn the train over to me to drive I would somehow find enough strength to pull hard for another 1 minute effort. And when I would pull off to let Robert drive us on and struggle to latch back on at the end of the train I would find the extra something to get me back into the slipstream so that I could recover just a bit until it was my turn again.

Today we won our category and had a former pro who is without a contract for a moment not brought a ringer team we would have won the entire event. We only lost by 42 seconds to the elite ringer team and we crushed the rest of the field, beating our nearest rivals by over two minutes. We were strong in our pain and dominant in our solidarity. Today the Atlanta teams were crushed by a team from the "sticks" of central Georgia that has learned to ride together.

Today was the day the Blue Train left the station for one final trip and I was proud to be on board. Thanks to DHo, Grasshoppa and Stoney for letting come along for the ride. It is a memory that I'll always cherish.

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Monday, July 06, 2009

So le Tour may have proved the old adage about Old Age having more power than Youth today. Armstrong saw the intentions of an old teammate and converted that knowledge into 41 seconds of tactical advantage both against most of the field and his own nominal team leader. That Lance didn't say something over the radio or try to clue in his teammates in some other way speaks either to his subconscious desire to be "The Boss" against or his assumption that everyone gets what he gets so easily now after so many years of riding and working in political circles.

Now in third place, Lance is in a position to take the Malliot Jaune for the first time in four years. I can't believe that he'd keep it past Arcalis but what a story it would make. His team has to beat Saxo Bank and Sparticus by one second for every kilometer in tomorrow's team time trial. Not an easy feat; especially considering that the last time these two teams essentially faced off the time difference over a longer distance was five seconds. Both squads have problems. Saxo Bank has used a lot of energy defending the jersey the last two day and Frank Schelck is banged up. Astana, while clearly the strongest team, is a divided squad and one has to wonder if that will manifest in the race through a crash or a split. I believe that Contador is too strong to get dropped but the Old Age and Treachery might rear its ugly head a bit.

The other two teams everyone is talking about is Columbia-HTR and Garmin-Slipstream and I think they'll both factor into the mix but I don't see them beating Astana. The wild-card team as I see it is Liquigas. No one is talking about them and maybe for good reason but they've got four or five really strong riders and they could make some noise tomorrow.

My prediction is Astana, Columbia, Saxo Bank, Liquigas and Garmin. Rabobank will lose a lot of time and doom Menchov's chances. Whether Silence-Lotto can put in a good enough ride to save Evans' chances in the GC remains to be seen but I could see them losing 90 seconds pretty easily tomorrow. Cervelo will ride well enough to keep Sastre in the mix, even if he's on the outside looking in. Give them sixth overall with a minute lost. Cancellara will still be in yellow tomorrow but only by a handful of seconds.

Thanks for Reading.

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Well, two out of three ain't too bad on my predictions for stage 1. The big loser for the day was Denis Menchov who lost a ton of time on a 20 K stage and will lose a bunch more in the TTT on stage 4 as Rabobank doesn't have the firepower to hang with Astana, Saxo Bank and Garmin-Slipstream. I just don't see him doing the double. Speaking of Astana, four riders in the top 10 is prett impressive and really scary for the other teams. If they can deal with the internal team rivalries it's hard to imagine them losing this race (barring bad luck). They are the odds-on favorite to crush the other teams on stage 4.

One thing to mention is the number of under 26 riders who did really well today. Nibali, Schleck, Krueziger, Martin and relative unknown Coppel rode strong time trials today. I dont know if all of these guys will make it to Paris but I think this bodes well for the future of the race and the sport if these guys will be dueling for the next five to seven years for Grand Tour supremacy. Contador may be the next three or four Tour winner but I won't be too surprised if one of these guys steps up in the next couple of years to challenge him.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the traditional "Sprint Stages". Stage 2 is a pretty hard first full day with a category 3 climb right out of Monaco and three more cat 4 climbs plus a lot of unmarked but hard bits with one of the worst about 15 km from the end of the race. To me it seems like someone who wants to wear the polka dot jersey will definitely try to get a break together since there are a lot of early points available on this stage. If someone can grab most of the mountain points here they might be able to hold the spotty jersey all the way to Barcelona.

Traditionally this is a place where a couple of riders from the smaller French teams try to do something to get some TV time so I expect the same script to play out here. This would be a great place for Moreau to lay a bit of a foundation for a KoM run (and then solidify it on the Girona-Barcelona stage) but the guy who I really think will try to make this go will be Thomas Voeckler. Add to that someone like Auge and maybe a first Tour flier by Nicolas Roche and you have the makings of an interesting break that'll last until the last 20 K or so.

After that it'll all be the sprinters' teams with Quick-Step and Columbia HTC vying to see who can control the leadout. If Cavendish can get over the last climb (and I think he can from his ride at Milan-San Remo), he's got to be the odds on favorite. There's not enough of a climb to open things up for Hushovd or Boonen so I think the pure speed guys are going to have the upper hand. Hence, I predict a Cavendish, Freire, Farrar finish.

We'll see what happens. Thanks for reading.

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Here I am at the last minute for a few predictions for this year's Tour de France. The race is one of the most interesting in years with four past champions racing (Sastre, Contador, Pereiro and Armstrong) and a bevy of strong contenders who have placed on the podium in the past (Kloden, Leipheimer, Evans, and Menchov) plus some new talent in Frank and Andy Schleck, Vandevelde, and Kruziger. There's a good bit of drama as four of the contenders actually ride for the same team which is sometimes a recipe for disaster. As always, the race uncovers who the strongest rider is.

So who do I think will win what?

Green Sprinter's Jersey: Four names here-Mark Cavendish, Thor Hushovd, Tom Boonen and Oscar Freire. THe last three have won the jersey in past tours and Cavendish is the best sprinter on the planet right now. From the looks of it there are some 10-11 stages that a sprinter might have a chance at. Four or five of those are pretty flat and suit Cavendish but the rest require that the rider make it over a few medium size climbs in good shape. Those will suit Freire who is the best guy going up hill of the four. He's the guy I would pick to win the Maillot Vert but his back isn't always so good for a three week race. Still I think it'll go down like this: Freire, Hushovd, Boonen, Cavensih, Farrar.

Polka Dotted Mountain Jersey: This is a real toss up. The guy who's won this the last few years has either been doping or has vanished off the face of the earth. To win this you have to be a guy with climbing talent that's good enough to win the race and either dominate the race or give up your chances to win the whole thing to win this jersey. Usually that points to a climber who doesn't time trial really well. The guy I'd liek to see win this is Christophe Moreau who has finsihed fourth in the Tour once in the past and isn't a bad climber. It's his last Tour and the French need to get something out of this race. The last few years he's made some noise about going for the jersey but has never seemed to give it his all. Maybe this year is his year. Otherwise I see one of the guys from one of the two Spanish teams but I honestly don't know which one. So I'll go with Moreau and leave it at that.

General Classification Yellow Jersey: I could go on and on for paragraphs as to who will win and why but there are two points to make here. First, if you're not on a team that can team time trial then you're going to lose at least a minute on stage four and that's going to be hard to make up. This makes things hard for Evans and Periero who don't have good teams for this discipline. If you don't recover well, then you're going to die in the time trial/Mont Ventoux double at the end of the race which will likely take Vandevelde out due to his recent injuries in the Giro. In between at least one favorite will explode and fall by the wayside and another will crash and end his chances. Having a strong team with several dangerous riders will help tactically but it's the guy who has the best day on the Ventoux who wins the race. By the way, if Armstrong's out of contention and the Astana is strong enough to protect Contador without his, expect Lance to do everything he can to win the Ventoux stage. So here's who I think will win:

1. Contador (really stepping out on a limb here)
2. Andy Schleck
3. Armsrong
4. Sastre
5. Evans

Periero, Frank Schleck, Leipheimer, Kruziger and Kirchen will all finish in the top 10. I don't think VDV will. Astana will win the team competition over Saxo Bank and Columbia-HTC. Cavendish will win three stages.

Today's ITT stage: Astana's sending Lance off early in case the wind comes up so that'll be interesting because it'll give Leipheimer and Contador good time checks to ride against. Miller, Dave Z. and Cancellara will also do good rides here. Hincapie may do well also. I'm going to go Cancellara, Contador, Dave z. as my top three.

We'll see what happens.

Thanks for Reading.

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

While I'm sure that some of my readers will already be sick of the media oversaturation of coverage on the death of the self-proclaimed "King of Pop", I thought I'd write some of my own personal observations as someone who was in high school when the "Thiller" album was first released. The intervening years have dulled the memory of that album for some who are my age and most of those who are too much younger than me never really understood the impact of the album. Instead they only remember the circus freak that Michael Jackson had become. To judge him on the basis of only that would be like judging Elvis only by his later years when he battled drug addiction and a music scene that had largely passed him by rather than by the revolutionary music he created.

Last night I was doing what I occasionally do and going through and giving a listen to the top ten songs on iTunes. For an older guy like me it can be an exercise in frustration, especially when I've moved from pop music into jazz, roots and folk music. Yet, as I sit here now and think back, every single song on the listen owes a huge artistic debt to Michael Jackson and his groundbreaking album, "Thiller", that was released in 1982. Prior to Thiller, African-American music was dying a sad, slow death. It had been consigned to the ghetto of disco where Donna Summer ruled and the niche of funk. Motown was no longer relevant in the American popular music scene as punk and heavy metal bands began to dominate what was the vast wasteland of "Easy-listening" pop. Jackson's first attempt to break that stranglehold, "Off the Wall", was a brilliant album but too rooted in Motown's past to make much of a difference. It sold well but failed to really make a critical mark. When he won no Grammy awards for the album, Jackson apparently went back into the studio to show the critics they had missed the boat. The new album was good but Jackson felt it was missing something. He and producer Quincy Adams knew that it would be another Off the Wall without something. Over the last weekend of recording, Jackson tapped into his anger and the sense of frustration he felt coming from black America in the early 80's and wrote three more songs; "Wanna be Startin' Somehting", "Beat It" and "Billie Jean".

I can honestly say I'll never forget the first time I heard Billie Jean. As a white kid growing up out west I had never, ever heard anything like it. I didn't understand the lyrics at first but I didn't care. It was the beat. Nothing had a beat like that. Nothing. The best word to describe it was propulsive; it propelled the song and the listener along involuntarily. As I think about it now I am still stunned by the power it had. "Beat It" caught a bit of the rage of the streets and "Wanna be..." gave a sense of a young male in a community that wasn't respected but "Billie Jean" was something else. The album saved African-American pop music in this country I think. It gave voice to a new generation of musicians who could now express the rhythm of a different experience. This rhythm hasn't always been well accepted or even well thought out but when I listen to those songs on iTunes, I know where that rhythm got its huge boost.

Too much will be said about Michael Jackson over the next couple of weeks. Some will focus on the circus life and the issues Jackson seemed to have with children and his own lack of a childhood. Some will focus on the cosmetic surgery and the indulgences and excesses of his life. My advice is for you to ignore all of that. To find the soul of the man, go back to his music. Listen to Thiller and hear where the dominant music of today began to come of age. Listen to "Billie Jean" and see if your foot doesn't start to move and you don't feel just a bit like dancing (maybe my Baptist readers should avoid this...). Listen and understand what all the fuss is about and why some feel so strongly about Michael Jackson's death. Most of all, listen and feel his music.

Thanks for Reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

I wasn't going to rant again so quickly after my last rant but another thing has reared it's ugly head.

PC World has an article titled, "The iPhone OS 4.0 Wishlist". The 3.0 operating system for the durn thing has been out a week and they already have a wishlist for 4.0??? Are you kidding me? Tech journalists are like kids at Christmas who get too many toys and play with each one for about 5 minutes before going to the next. You haven't had the toy for more than a week and you already want a new, better one.

I wonder if these guys on the morning after their short honeymoon write articles like, "What we'd like to see in Wife 2.0," or on the day after they bring their first child home from the hospital, "Things we'd love to have in kid #2". Sheesh, what morons.

You have a piece of electronics that was unthinkable twenty years ago, a pipe dream ten years ago and hopeful thinking five years ago. Appreciate it for a couple of months will ya'?

That is all. You may return to what you were doing. Or you can go out and beat your local technology journalist. Whatever works better for you. OF course, I'm joking about that last bit. Mostly.

Thanks for Reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

I haven't done this in a while. I've been trying to be nice and positive and insightful and the like but there comes a time when I just have to rant about something. What's gotten under my skin is what I call the nickle and diming of the American consumer.

What am I talking about here? I'm talking about the practice in some industries, especially the travel industry, to sell a consumer a product or service and then tacking on all sort of little expenses that never seem to be much until they're all added up. The company usually advertises some great price for their service or brags that they haven't raised their prices in tough economic times. It could be a $99 round trip airfare or a $79 room rate. But then they find a way to charge you for every little semi-essential service they can think of. The round trip airfare was $99 but then you add the $15 per bag luggage fee, the fuel surcharge of $10, the ticketing fee of $5 and all the rest and you have a $200 fare to you destination. In the hotel industry it's a internet access fee, a gym usage fee, a parking charge, a pay-up breakfast buffet and your great $79 room is now over $150 per night.

Now, I don't mind if the business decides to use a pay as you go business model. There are a number of reason that might actually benefit a certain group of consumers. What really fries me is that the business usually does everything it can to hide their way of doing things. A hotel will proudly proclaim that it has shuttle service to the airport or high-speed internet access or a gym knowing that most of it's potential customers will assume that since those services are usually provided for free they will not be charged for them at this particular place. Once the room is booked and the customer has arrived, the surprise is sprung. And don't tell me it's in the fine print. That stuff's usually in 6 pt or smaller font tucked in a corner of the ad or shown for such a brief period time that only a person with stop action TV could read it.

Can you imagine if an engineering firm did something like that? They give a presentation to a client that says that they'll create the plans for a bridge or building for a certain fee but hide the fact that they're going to charge a bunch extra for the actual blueprints of the plan on the last page of the proposal in a bunch of legalese. Or what if my college charged tuition and claimed you'd have everything you needed to earn a degree but then required textbooks that you only learned about a week into class or charged a "desk fee" for each class or required you to have an email account but then made you pay a daily fee to access it. Sometimes I worry that things are trending that way in higher education but at least we tell you up front what your fees and tuition are going to be and that your tuition only covers the cost of your classes.

The travel industry is struggling right now and I think that a lot of the anger that consumers feel towards airlines and hotels stem from these practices. I like staying at Holiday Inn Express not because the beds are supposed to be nice or because they have a great breakfast buffet but because I know that I won't be nickle and dimed there. The rate I pay includes everything that the hotel offers-breakfast, internet, gym, pool, phone, etc. Delta would do well to learn this. The more frustration people feel about using their services the less likely they are to make an impulse purchase to take a quick trip somewhere. These folks would do well to remember that it's the details that keep people coming back. Of course your room has to be clean and the flight has to arrive on time but it's the little touches that will keep customers returning. You can kill the goose trying to get the golden egg and that seems to be be what the airline and upscale travel industry don't understand.

OK...I'll be done now. Thanks for Reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Monday, June 08, 2009

For those who keep up with my goings-on over at facebook you've already heard the news but I thought I'd let the other three of you know what's going on and fill in some of the details. As the picture to the right shows, I managed to make it to the top of the podium again and this time it was for a big result. For the last 18 months or so I've had my training set on one goal: to win the Georgia State Time Trial Championship for the second time and the first time in a Master's class. Last year I was coming back to racing after a lengthly lay-off and while I had some good form at times, I wasn't able to hold it all the way out to the October date for the championship. When it was announced that this year's event would be in June I knew I had a good shot at doing well.

Most of my racing this year has been to hone my form and practice the pacing and the like to get ready for the full hour long effort that would be required to win. The Georgia Cup TT series events were perfect as they were all over 18 miles in length and lent themselves for building form. Since I last wrote I had two build-up events. One was an afternoon TT up in Gillsville and the other was a hill TT near Dahlonega. I took second in Gillsville after warming up too hard in the heat and then I won in Dahlonega. The only downside was that I came down with a cold a week before the big race because I overtrained heading into the Dahlonega race.

On a side note, the Dahlonega race has to be the coolest weekend I've ever done. The TT course was epic in that it was swoopy and ran through beautiful countryside. It even beat the Nationals course a few years back out on Antelope Island in Salt Lake a few years back. The circuit course and the road race were run through the Montaluce winery property (how cool is that...we raced on the Mountain of Light) with its Tuscan architecture and short steep climbs. In fact, that was feeling I had for the whole weekend: I felt like I was racing in a sort of mini-Giro d'Italia. I'll go back every year if I can.

So, back to the point. I babied my cold and medicated it into submission while I tapered into race day. We actually raced just over the South Carolina border in order to combine our event with the South Carolina TT Championship. I've raced the course once before but I had forgotten that the roads were pretty "heavy". That means they were rough and sticky in a sense. Not helping things was that it was warm and humid making the air heavy too. In my warm-up I felt good, best in over a month and I did a couple of harder intervals without much suffering.

One thing about a time trial is that it's a mental effort in some ways in as much as it's a physical effort. It takes a certain focus to tell your body to suffer just a certain amount without either letting up or pushing too hard. It's funny how the body will want to do that sometimes; just go really hard and then blow up after about five minutes. This focus is especially hard when you're physically tired or haven't had enough sleep. For me it was an issue because I never sleep really well the night before a big race. So when I got to the start line I tried to keep the butterflies down and focus on the task at hand. At the countdown came I took a big breath and shot out of the start house with a burst. After 100 meters I throttled back to catch my breath and settled into a rhythm. What bothered me at first was that I couldn't get my heart rate up over 160 which meant that my body wasn't going to put out the effort I needed. However, about a mile into the route I hit a highway overpass and that climb took me up to 172 beats per minute which is where it stayed for the next 55 minutes.

Six minutes into the ride I caught the rider who went of thirty seconds before me and I caught my 90 second man at 15 minutes. My minute man was a good rider and it took me almost to the turnaround at 29 minutes to pass him and I caught my 2 minute man almost immediately afterwards. The last rider I caught was my 2:30 man who wasn't going to let me pass without a fight. We dueled back and forth for about 4 miles and 10 minutes. I knew he couldn't keep up with me for the entire trip back as I had already put a lot of time into him just by catching him. Still, by racing me pedal stroke for pedal stroke, he kept me from letting up and forced me to stay focused on being just on my limit through what is traditionally a hard part of the race for me. When he finally blew up and dropped off I was in the last 12 km of the ride and I could smell the barn. I was ticking off 1:27 kilometers at this point and at 5 km to go I started to push myself harder. I had lost an overall podium spot in Gillsville by five seconds and I was determined that I wasn't going to lose something here by that much. At 3 km I went into VO2Max territory and started seeing dead relatives. As I crossed the line I was ready to yak and was completely spent.

Back at my warm-up tent I was sure I hadn't done well enough to win. My time was right around 58:30 and I had expected that I would need to better that by at least two minutes to win. When the results were posted I was shocked to see that not only had I won the 40-44 age group but that I beat all the 35-39 riders and took second overall in the entire Master's field with only Shawn Tyrrell beating my by a mere 12 seconds. Lucky for me he was racing in the 45-49 group which he won.

So I'm this year's state champion for Master's 35-44 which is a huge accomplishment for me. It's what I set out to do 18 months ago and while there were both setbacks and accomplishments along the way, to be here now is still settling in. As I've written before, I never saw myself as an athletic person growing up and through my young adult years. For some reason I bought into that brains vs. brawn thing. To do this is, in some ways, just as big an achievement as earning my doctorate or having a successful marriage after 15 years. It doesn't affect the rest of the world as much or as positively as the other two but it changes who I am in the way I see myself and that's important.

To wrap up I need to thank some people who helped me get here. First of all my wife has put up with a lot of travel and hotel rooms and race tents and training rides to be with me and support me in this part of the journey. She went to Yemassee with me even though she had the cold I gave her and celebrated my win with me. Second I want to thank my Security Bank teammates for encouraging me, being great examples and kicking my ass on the bike over and over so that I could get faster. Maybe now Bill will cut me a little slack. Also, DHo provided good conversation and the pain cave as I was searching to get some good early data. Finally, I want to give a shout out to all my students past and present who cheered and prayed for me throughout the parts of this journey. It was easier because of the community and I hope my victory will inspire all of them to go out and take hold of the opportunities in front of them.

Thanks for Reading. Grace and Peace!

The Physicist   Link Me    |