My goal is to capture on video my world from a bicycle, which includes, fun, friends, racing, occasional pain and frequent periods of pure joy! (and share my massive *a-hem* knowledge about cycling)
[Special Note: I have a "Music Player" gadget, 4th down to the right. You may run audio from it or the video as you see fit by pausing the music player or muting the embedded video. Enjoy!]
Hello and here's my condensed analysis of the Missouri State Road Race that was held in Ste. Genevieve on May 23, 2010. The course was 87 miles on a rolling course with a couple of good climbs. Pretty good temperature around 90 degrees, but a large sudden jump from weeks of 50-60 degrees and rainy. The field size was relatively small maybe 35 or so riders, and predominately 3 large teams consisting of Dogfish (largest numbers, and with defending champion), Tradewind (very powerful team), and Mesa.
Several break-a-ways were attempted early. I found (as usual) that whenever I would jump into a break that was allowed to roll away, suddenly this break was pursued quite heavily. This occurred repetitively and without exception.
My main goal was to try to win the State Championship, and not the overall race (I considered it nearly impossible to win against the out-of-state team Tradewind). By my estimation I mainly needed to mark Austin Allison (defending state champion) and his teammate Justin Maciekowicz.
As it turned out, Justin did a long solo suicide (nobody bridged up) attempt and was indeed brought back. Allison escaped into the final break-a-way, which had other riders that I knew where not in contention for the State Championship. The break had the major teams in it and because of team tactics, I could not reasonably pursue. This did not worry me too much for at least 2 reasons. 1., Allison was the defending champion, a young rider and by my estimation a good Missouri Champion, and 2., I thought he might crack in the heat. He is a very fair skinned person.
Guess what...... he did totally crack (sorry Austin)!
So as my chase group road past Allison, who was barely limping along, I then knew that I was racing for the title again. My group had only four riders including Jim Vandeven (he told me he was not from Missouri) Matias Mendigochea (he told me he was not from Missouri) and that left Oreste (Rusty) Pesselato (who told me that HE WAS FROM MISSOURI).
So as we approached the finish, we left the country roads and started making unknown turns into the town finish. We didn't know the roads and the corner marshals were critical for us in making the correct turns.
Unfortunately as we approached the final intersection/corner marshal, we saw the corner marshal STANDING IN THE ROAD (initially) and then as we continued our rapid approach she moved out of the road and pointed LEFT to the street that she was supposed to be securing for us from vehicles!!!!
It turns out that the reason that she was pointing left was to point at a spot in the road that she thought was dangerous. UGGH!
The rest is in the video. Rusty had a mis-shift and I was stuck in my small chainring on the final sprint. No biggie.
Question: who was the first Missourian to cross the line?
This is my debut split screen race video using forward and aft simultaneous running HD Hero cameras.
I absolutely love it. I've never seen a better way to show the action of a bike race. In fact I think it gives the viewer a real immersion into my world from a bicycle.
This new leap for me has set my mind busy at work for new and amazing applications. For example I was considering the fact that the video has dead spots in it, in-between cameras. I could potentially mount the cameras back to back, and place them on top of my helmet. This would eliminate most of the dead spot and would be fantastic for mountain biking or video touring. (I would never want to race with lots of gear riding on top of my helmet). Another idea is setting up a rig with three cameras. My HD Hero camera shoots a 120 degree perspective. So with three cameras I could literally produce a video that has full 360 degree viewing band of my entire moving environment. Another idea is so mind blowing that it will make you crap your diaper! I'm not kidding. It's sooo good that I going to save it for later and reveal it in future video posts.
It has been brought to my attention that my video's audio could benefit from some good music. I more than agree. It has been suggested that I use copyrighted music, tons of people do it and Vimeo seems to allow it. I do not agree on this topic. I am strongly against breaking copyright laws for many reasons. Besides the fact that it is an actual law with actual potential consequences, I have found that it doesn't fly on YouTube. Early on I innocently used a 20 second audio clip without lyrics from The Beastie Boys and YouTube identified my video as potentially having copyrighted material that wasn't mine. YouTube disabled my video. I want good music, but I don't want my videos to be disabled or even worse litigation because I somehow made a couple of bucks using someone else's stuff without permission.
There is a musical audio solution. I thought I would make my own basic music. Using Music Creator software I have produced 6-7 tunes and they are ok. The down side is that they are not fabulous and they take a bit more time than I can manage. I think if I could tap the musical scene here in Columbia I could find lots of good music that could use. For example, my teammate, Justin Craig, is in a band called FDR's Revenge. We talked about this briefly, but I need to keep pursuing him. I literally need to hear the music so I can judge it. I really don't want to put up just anything. The music must add to the video's view-ability, and not make it worse.
I have been told that there are free site's for music download which also allow public use for video embedding?, and (supposedly?) public domain music where copyright issues are not in effect. If anyone can provide me with specific good music that I could use, I would be happy to compensate you for your services. Additionally, HEY GARAGE BANDS!: If you have any music that you think would add to my biking videos, please contact me and I will promote your band with all of my ability. I will give credit in the videos and provide links in my blog for people to purchase your awesome music.
Finally let me get to the race itself. This road race was May 16, 2010 in Newburg, Missouri. This was probably one of the smallest turnouts for a road race that I will end up doing. But don't let this mislead you. The riders who did toe the line are some of the best in the region. Several are highly ranked category one riders. If you don't believe me, just check USA Cycling's Results and rankings. (2009 looks better than 2010, but it's still early).
This was a hilly course and roughly the last hour of a 70 mile road race was in the rain. Both the rain and the hills brought our average speed to just under 25mph.
The most interesting aspect of this was the solo break-a-way by Zack Reed of team Dogfish. With about 25 miles to go Zack left our 6 man group which held his team mate Justin Maciekowicz. Initially I thought this was great. Zack was clearly the best sprinter, and I was hoping that our group would let Zack dangle of the front, burn himself up, and then reel him in somewhat close to the finish. I figured he would be toast for the sprint, and Justin's sprint is manageable. I was sure that my group of riders would pull Zack back in. Based on repeat timetrials, I was evenly matched with Zack by myself, and I had 3 other riders to help me pull in one guy. Justin, of course, would not chase his own team-mate, and was given a free ride.
Well, I was shocked to see Zack slowly disappear out of our sight. I'm still shocked. We were going pretty hard, I thought. For sure the rain did not help or paceline. Also it probably hurt us mentally that Zack had a teammate getting a free ride. I even told my group not to catch Zack too quickly because Justin will simply counter attack and we'll be in a worse position. Zack's the sprinter and Justin's the time trialist. For sure I was trying the hardest to pull Zack back, but I don't know if the others were holding back a little or a lot. (I'm guessing a little).
I should also point out that Zack soloed away after counter-attacking his team-mates attacks. So on the graph below, the "Zack Attack" came immediately after the spike in wattage which was from me chasing his team mate Justin.
After Zack was gone from our sight for several miles before we let off the chase. Eventually Justin tried several attacks during the last few miles, but we all stayed together. The final sprint was unremarkable. Justin lead it out and just managed to cross 1st of our group, followed by me for a 3rd overall. Turns out that Zack put nearly 5 minutes on my group during that last hour of racing. Dude was racing hard, and the rain didn't help us with the chase.
Good job to Zack!
[Update: I have purchased music liscenses for use in my videos from several different artists and I have also added a music player gadget to my blog. It is the 4th gadget down on the right. It allows additional audio choices for viewing videos and/or reading text on this blogsite]
I do occasionally get viewer mail with questions and comments. I truly try to respond to all and some are worth responding to in a blog format so that others may share this information, add to, or even correct my errors (which hopefully aren't too often, but I'm hope I'm called out whenever possible). I strongly encourage audience participation. So let her fly!
So without further to-do, Scott writes:
"I was also hoping to ask you a racing tactical question. I am a former collegiate track and cross country athlete transitioning to cycling. I am still in category five and I notice during our races that jockeying for position in the peloton is a key ability to stay towards the front. We have a lot of guys that will try and take a pull, but die within seconds of being in the wind so the lines are always changing speeds. When I make an attack on the outside it can be hard to get back into a line and back into the draft. Do you have any advice for me on how to get back into a line when I attack on the outside? It seems like the best way to gain position instead of trying to jockey through lines within the peloton which seems to have an element of luck to it."
Congrats Scott, and welcome to a new and strange world of bike racing. I want to say right off that I NEVER encourage anyone to take up the sport of bike racing. I say this because when they crash (and they will eventually), they can NEVER blame me for their misfortune. With that said, if you are like me, nobody can talk you out of experiencing the thrill of bike racing, and therefore it's cool for me to encourage you and others who are equally crazy.
Before I answer your question, I have to tell you that the single best bike racing advice (or survival tactic) that you will ever receive is this....... try not to half wheel. Half wheeling is probably the single biggest cause of bike crashes. This is true even for professional bike racers. Basically half wheeling is when your front wheel crosses the imaginary plane of the rear wheel of the cyclist in front of you. This is especially dangerous when riders are all in close proximity to each other. Sometimes it can't be helped, but you should try to avoid it when posible. If the front rider swerves accidentally or purposely to avoid an obstacle they could sweep your front wheel if it is close by. The lead rider almost never goes down, but the half-wheeler often does and usually thinks it was the other riders fault. Not true...... it's the half wheelers fault.
Now to your question. Staying up near the front of a race is important as follows and in this order: 1. Near the end of the race, as in the last two laps or last two kilometer of a road race, 2. if the race course is technical (lots of turns), 3. if the roads are wet, 4. if the field size is large. Conversely, if these 4 conditions are not present, then it is not necessary to ride near the front. I'm giving you the green light to ride in the back of a small field size on a non-technical course early in a race. Just don't forget to move up during the end of the race so that you are positioned to sprint for the win.
You write, "We have a lot of guys that will try and take a pull, but die within seconds of being in the wind so the lines are always changing speeds." I believe from your description that the lead riders are actually riding correctly. Let me explain. The lead rider is performing the most work. Riders following tightly in his/her draft can travel the same speed but use up to 30% less wattage or energy than that lead rider. Or in other words the lead rider is working up to 30% harder than everyone behind him/her. New racers tend to pull for long stretches and then get dusted in the sprint because they have no gas left for the real race.
Check out my post on the importance of aerodynamics in cycing. The graphics shows you the importance of being aerodynamic and also explains why the lead riders wouldn't want to stay there permanently. Instead, they take a short turn at the front and rotate back into the pack. Smaller groups usually form a rotating chain. Typically a rotating paceline will travel faster than a single individual.
I would suggest copying the riding style of the other riders that you have described and DO NO MORE WORK (aka pulling, aka leading) than the rider who is doing the least work. In other words save your juice for the big finish. Also read my blog post called: Do This and You Will Win.
My last advice for you is to have fun fun fun! Oh yeah, and don't half wheel!
