The Delmarvelous Criterium

Hello race fans:  This race was actually fun.  Click this to get in the spirit of the event.  I don't have a lot to add to my race video.  I did decide to fade out the audio and put in my musical creation.  Primarily because the chatter noise was so loud and annoying.  Plus, I actually like my little musical piece.  Someone gave me a little encouragement so what the hey, why not. (don't worry, I'm not going to start singing). [Use your inner DJ to select music from the music player on the sidebar and mute it and/or the video's audio icon.]

Ok, so I promised to dish out a little wet weather advice that I have learned over the years.  Here's possibly one the best ones:  In order to dry your shoes quickly use newspapers.  Simply ball the sheets up and fill your shoes up.  The capillary action of the paper will quickly dry your shoes out.  After a few hours pull out the paper and allow to air dry.  What?  You already knew that?  Damn.

How about this little ditty:  Another drying trick was given to me recently by my friend Charles Gentry.  This is good for all sorts of drying needs, including removing water that is trapped in your carbon rims (if you have them).  Charles says, Let the "air out of the tube and get a desiccant pack from Walmart.  Comes in a cup and you take the lid off and put the rim and the frame (oh yeah, bike frames too) in a large trash bag with the open cup of desiccant.  Soon the cup will fill with water and you pour it out.  The desiccant will suck out the moisture out of the air in the bag and in the rims and frame.  This is the easy way.  I raced in Hawaii for 5 years and this is what we did."

It is also important to not fully inflate your race tires, in particular the front.  Instead of the standard 120psi, try 85psi for the front and 95psi for the rear when using tubulars (consult the manufacture's instructions for clinchers).  This is most important on the front tire.  You can slide the rear a bit and usually recover, but you will almost never recover from a front wheel slide.  Where the front wheel goes, so does the bike.  Typically racers take the first corners tentatively and progressively get faster.  The last corners before the finish often have wipe outs. (for information concerning high speed cornering see my post on the topic.)

That leads me to the single most important rule of bike racing and general group riding (rain or no rain).......NEVER HALF WHEEL!  Basically, half wheeling is the potentially dangerous and foolish practice of positioning a bicycle such that a rider's front wheel crosses the plane of the rear wheel of the rider in front of them.  If the front rider swerves suddenly on purpose (say.... to avoid a pot-hole or a dead aardvark) or accidentally (say..... because they noticed some discarded porn in the ditch)  they can sweep the front wheel of a rider that is half wheeling.  Again, as we have already learned:  where the front wheel goes, so does the bike.  Half wheeling is probably the most common cause of bike crashes and is most common when the pack is bunched up and not going very hard. That's one of the reasons why I say that fast races are safe races.  When it is super fast, there is no half wheeling.  And if someone crashes in a corner, they are usually sweep off the course by the pure momentum of their trajectory.  As Martha Stewart says:  "It's a good thing!"

For information concerning biking and racing safe see my post on the topic.

Well, that's enough dude and dudettes.  Enjoy your you know what.  (bicycle)

 To learn about the best video camera in the world for videoing cycling (which is the cameras that I use for my videos) click here.

The Great Forest Park Race 28Mar2010

[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 race fans.  The above video is of the Masters race, which very much speaks for itself.  Cold 45 degrees, very windy and raining.  There was a  crash and happily it was limited to only 2 riders and was as minor as crashes can be.  The most notable point of the crash was that it involved Tracie Smith, who claims he never gets in crashes and only suckie bike handlers crash. (yeah, right! LOL).  I raced very hard on this and most Masters races.  I find that, for me personally, Masters racing is every bit as hard as the Pro I-II races. This is probably because I must do more work, or tend to solo more at full effort.

I did win this race.  Gary Dyer was able to draft me, and did not try to pimp me (let me do all of the work, and him take the money, via popping me for the sprint finish).  I like Gary.  I was his  teammate years ago (St. Louis Cycling Club) when I trying to get on bigger and better teams. 

That reminds me.  The last race I did for St. Louis Cycling Club was at Soulard in the rain.  It started out dry and then started raining.  Soulard is a serious criterium with many corners and isn't hard to crash on even when it's dry.  I was running Specialized tri-spokes both front and rear.  This was around 1995 and these wheels were considered "the bomb".  Presently these wheels are illegal for mass start events due to safety concerns.  Anyway I crashed twice and got 2 free laps twice (I got caught behind a crash as well).  My final crash was in turn 2 and I did not get up for a very long time.  I kept saying, "This is going to stop hurting.  This is going to stop hurting."  I had slide into a concrete curb and chipped the bone on my hip (that's what the x-rays showed).  I was bed ridden for almost a week and done with racing for the season.  From this story there are three or four important points:  1. I've riddend for another team besides CBC, 2. I know and like Gary as a result, 3. I don't like racing in the rain, 4. wheels make a huge difference.

Oh yeah, I also won the Pro I-II race as well!  Unfortunately the battery on my camera failed on the bell lap of the Masters race.  I got a partial recharge between races with my laptop, but still I was only able to video the start of the race (I've ordered spare batteries).  The last 5 laps would have been good. 

I had some really good teammates in that race.  Jonathan Schottler, Jason Ozenberger and Dan Miller.

The race split into a 10 man break-a-way that included me, Schottler...................wait a second......... STOP!  I don't think I want to discuss a race not on video.  If you want to know about the race just look up the results.

Now watch my video first and then go out into the warm sunshine and ride your bicycle.

To learn about the best video camera in the world for videoing cycling (which is the cameras that I use for my videos) click here.