2009 State Time Trial Championship course preview

A few days ago I put the bike on the car and headed down to Ellensburg to check out the course for the Washington State Time Trial Championships, which will be held July 12th on a course that winds through the Yakima River Canyon. Since the race announcement describes the course as mostly flat with one short climb in both directions, I thought it would be useful to ride those climbs for myself on my TT bike so that I would know what I'd be in for on race day.

I found my way to the start area and parked at Helen McCabe State Park at the mouth of the canyon. The "park" consists of some undeveloped land owned by the state and a large pond which is a local fishing hole. Having gone to school in Ellensburg for a couple of years, I was not surprised to have very windy conditions for my reconnaissance ride. I changed into my riding clothes, got the bike off the car, and headed out on the course. The course is on a fairly busy, two-lane highway through the Yakima River Canyon. On the weekday afternoon I rode, there was a fair amount of traffic and I can't imagine it will be any quieter on race weekend since the canyon is a very popular recreation area.

The course has a small roller within the first (and last) half mile or so and then flattens out. The pavement is so-so for the first few miles. The roadway was originally sectioned concrete and has been paved and chipsealed over throughout its history. This has left the surface uneven and cracked in spots and there are occasional small potholes as well. It's not really bad, but it will require attention on the part of the rider, especially on the return trip when fatigue is at its greatest. The next several miles are flat with better pavement and unremarkable.....until the climb at mile ten.

The "short climb" is about a kilometer long and on the outbound leg appears to be about 4% or 5%, it is immediately followed by a descent of about the same length. The return leg side of climb is slightly steeper, maybe 6% or so. Both descents are straight forward without any turns to worry about. Since the climb is about two miles from the turnaround, there is effectively about four miles between the two significant sections of climbing in the ride. This should provide some chance to recover.

The wind will likely be the biggest factor on this course. The canyon twists around quite a bit so the wind direction the rider feels will change a lot. In addition, the wind swirls a lot in the canyon. Some places are quite sheltered and others are pretty exposed to the wind. If it is very windy, light riders and those who don't like gusty crosswinds may want to consider their wheel choices carefully.

After previewing the course, I got back to the car and noticed that the parking lot was empty. I started to put my stuff in the trunk and noticed a mosquito on my arm and dispatched him with a swat. She was not alone. I was immediately swarmed by mosquitoes and frantically threw my bike on the car and got out of there as quickly as possible. It appeared there had been a large hatch of mosquitoes at the pond while I was on my ride. I must have had fifteen or twenty bites on each leg in the few minutes it took to get the bike loaded up. I don't envy the race officials who will have to hang out in this area if there is another hatch on race day.

Overall, it will be a challenging course. Personally, I'd prefer it without the hills, but that's just me whining. In a couple weeks we'll see how it rides at race pace.

Methow Valley Tour omnium - Road Race

My goal for today's road race stage of the 2009 Methow Valley Tour omnium was to stay out of trouble and finish with the bunch. Happily, I achieved that goal. It was a beautiful morning for a bike race with clear skies, temps in the 70s and only a little wind. The race for the category 4/5 field consisted of 4 laps of the the 13.5 mile Chewuch loop for a total of 54 miles. Once each lap we passed right through the center of downtown Winthrop.

Like last year, the first lap was pretty mellow. Our field of 70 or so rolled out neutral until we had passed through town and were out on the East Chewuch Road for the first time. When the officials honked their horn signalling us to race, there was no immediate acceleration as usually occurs. The pack continued at a pretty comfortable pace for the rest of the first lap, seemingly in no real hurry. That changed on the second lap.

Coming through town to start our second lap, the pace went up considerably and people began to drop off the back on the hills. I made sure I closed gaps in front of me and stayed in contact. Looking at video my wife shot of our pack each lap as we passed through the finish area, it looks like we lost at least a third of the field that lap.

On lap three, the pace seemed to relax again. Last year, the race became very nervous on lap three culminating in a crash that took down or delayed about half the field. This year, there seemed to me to be less of that. There was one solo attack for about half a lap, but other than that, very little aggression or driving of the pace and very little twitchiness in the pack.

I thought for sure that the pace would elevate again for the final lap and that riders might try their luck at getting off the front. The pace was high as we passed through town, but on the hill leaving town it was only slightly higher than the previous lap and the other hills on the East Chewuch were taken similarly. There were no serious attacks and the bunch seemed resigned to a sprint finish as we headed back in the West Chewuch Road and the final 6 miles or so to the finish.

To this point, I was not aware of any crashes in our field although their had been one or two close calls with the customary skidding and cussing from the involved riders. As we crested one of the final rises a few miles from the finish, I heard a rider go down behind me and off to the other side of the pack from me. I have no idea what happened as I was nearly at the back and the pace was steady at the time. I guess he probably touched wheels with the rider in front of him out of fatigue and loss of concentration.

With the finish approaching rapidly it was clear it was going to be a bunch sprint and I was not going to be a factor in it as I was sitting on at the back. I set my self up towards the right side of the bunch figuring that as people swung across the road at the 200m point, some room to pick up a couple places might appear on the right side. With about 25om to go however, the inevitable happened. Too many people trying to squeeze into too narrow a lane resulted in someone drifting onto the gravel shoulder and taking themselves and at least one other rider down with them. I had to slow to get around the crash and crossed the line at the tail end of the main field in 36th. Still, I had achieved my goal of finishing with the field and staying out of trouble. I had a great day and a great weekend racing my bike on my home roads and look forward to doing it all again here next year.

Methow Valley Tour omnium - TT and Hillclimb

The Time Trial:
(thanks to Kristen Smith and MVSTA for the startline photo)

As I wrote in my post last night, I was pretty excited for this morning's time trial and beginning of the Methow Valley Tour omnium. This weekend's courses are on my home roads and I am very familiar with them. My TT form has been steadily improving this year and I feel like I am going really well right now. Given all these factors, I was optimistic for today's TT and expecting a big result. I usually hover around the top 10 in time trials an felt that now was the time I could step up and bump up a few places and maybe even score a top 5 placing.

The TT course features four significant (at least to me) hills that are usually my undoing. This year I planned to start out a little easier than normal until the base of the first hill and then ramp it up on the hill, recover a bit on the backside and flat section before the second climb and so on. I hoped that by doing this, I could avoid losing big chunks of time on the hills, especially the last one which is followed immediately by a gradually rising false flat that makes it difficult to get back up to speed.

The plan seemed to work well on the outbound leg and the first two hills. I got up and over them pretty quickly and seemed to be on a great ride. The return trip over the hills was less impressive. The first one was passibly okay, but the last one left me crawling along at the top as usual. My 30-second man who I had passed just after the first hill on the outbound leg passed me back. To add insult to injury, he was on a standard road bike with no aero trickery. I comforted myself with the thought that I would get him back before the finish as it was all downhill or flat remaining.

Try as I might though, I was unable to close the gap back to him and trailed him across the line by a few seconds. I congratulated him on his effort and he replied that I had made a great carrot for him. I told him I just die on those hills and he said, "I noticed." I had hoped to turn in a time of around 22:30 which I hoped might put me near that elusive top 5, alas I was only able to go about 22:52. I say "about" because there was a scoring error that added a minute or so to everyone's times. The placings and gaps were all correct, but I'm not sure if the error was exactly one minute or little more or less. My target time would have gotten me 7th, as it was I ended up 10th. Another "hovering" top 10. Related to the size of the field though (72 riders) it is my best TT placing ever, so I'm pretty happy even if frustrated by those freakin' hills!


The Hillclimb:

Speaking of hills, we got to race up a big one this year. Usually the second event of this, and most, omniums is a criterium. In the MV Tour the criterium has been held in Twisp. This year however Twisp has a large street project going on in their downtown that has torn up most of the criterium course. Undaunted, the organizers came up with a great replacement event, a mass-start hill climb. The course starts out with about a 1.25 miles of flat before hitting the steeps in earnest. The next 1.25 miles are about 10% followed by 5 miles of pitches ranging from flat to 10%. All told, the course is about 7.5 miles long and according to the tech guide gains over 1600 feet.

As expected, the pack splintered as soon as we turned onto the climb. Not being a climber (see part 1 of this post), I assumed my customary position drifting off the back and settling into my own rhythm. Being a local really helped out in this event. Many riders rode beyond themselves on the early steeps of the climb trying in vain to stay in contact or chased too hard on the intermittent flat sections and struggled mightily in the late stages of the climb. I rode my pace, picked stragglers off whenever possible, and managed a 44th place finish out of the 72 starters. Truly not a headline worthy finish I know, but given how I usually suffer on this climb in training, I was quite pleased with it. As a bonus, with the points this weekend in each event going 50 places deep, I even added a few points to my weekend total.

I really hope they keep this event in future years instead of a criterium. I suffered like mad, but you can ride a crit anywhere. This hillclimb stage was unique and fun and I think makes this omnium a little more special.

Methow Valley Tour omnium - Ready to GO!

This weekend is my home race, the Methow Valley Tour omnium. It will be on roads I ride all the time and that always makes it a bit more fun. When I laid out my race schedule for the year, this was not a high priority race for me, but now that it is here, I am fired up and ready to race. I rode a strong TT a couple weeks ago at Enumclaw and earlier this week posted a personal best in a local TT held on the same road as tomorrow's TT. I have no idea how the hillclimb will go for me tomorrow afternoon or how Sunday's road race will turn out, but I expect big things of myself tomorrow morning in the TT.