Skull Valley Road Race

The Skull Valley Road Race this past weekend in Prescott was a great close to the road racing season in Arizona. Technically speaking there is still a crit and a couple time trials. But they surely can’t compare for location or quality of the course.

Although I haven’t ridden every course on the calendar, Skull Valley is easily one of the best. Located just outside of Prescott the scenery and terrain is a beautiful sample of Northern Arizona. The course itself is mostly a mix of short rollers and power climbs. One longer climb just after the turn around however is long enough to decide the race if a strong group finds the motivation. Otherwise a false flat uphill set up a punchy uphill sprint finish.

The one weakness of the race was a low turnout this year. Its a shame when a parking lot crit in Phoenix can draw a larger crowd than a spectacular course. Its hard to know what role gas prices or placement on the calender might play in the turnout. Or whether racers just need a kick in the ass. But this is one race worth the extra effort.

I brought the camera out for the pre-ride on Saturday to capture some of the fun.

Back to front Elliot, Brent (skittles), and “Fast” Bryan getting ready.

Fast Bryan poses with the Draft “ass” Master Rack.

The course starts with a mellow downhill perfect for the self portrait attempts (Mike).

Will and I doing our best Euro-peloton impression.

Will

Aggress double paceline.

Fast

Skit

“Slow” Brian and Elliot.

Slow Brian

Will

 

Fast

Fast looking back.

Will and Mike

And a bunch of group shots in front of the kind of place that you can only find in Westerns and places like Skull Valley.

We clearly rocked it in the pre-ride, so how about the race?

In Cat 3 we went 4, 5,6 with Fast Bryan, Mike, and Slow Brian. Skit and Elliot had solid rides in Cat 4 finishing in the pack. And Will represented in the Cat 5s as well. Overall, good results and great weekend.

Quick Spin: Powertap 2.4 SL (wireless)

A little over year ago I promised myself that if I made it to Cat 3 I would get a power-meter. I did manage to squeeze out the last couple points necessary to upgrade to Cat 3. But then intern year happened and I began the No Plan Training Plan. And again I put off the powermeter. Somehow spending a thousand dollars on a training device when I wasn’t exactly training seemed a bit excessive. But now with intern year over its time to say goodbye No Plan Training Plan and hello Powertap 2.4 SL wireless.

The review can be summed up as Very Nice. 

Starting with the wireless part. It works. Put wheel on bike, mount computer. Really its that simple. No wires nothing. Transmission has been consistent so far. Time will tell about the durability. In the mean time is the cost of wireless worth it? Well you have the option of throwing the computer in your pocket if you don’t want to look at it… (seriously that was part of the sales pitch). The real sales pitch could have stopped with you own a road bike, your vain, you don’t want wires. According to one local shop they don’t bother stocking the wired versions anymore. So if your looking for a deal keep an eye out for the wired version that’s been sitting on the shelf too long. The other legitimate point is wires are at risk of getting snagged. Ok. But really no wires just looks better.

What else? Previous concerns seem to be non-issues so far. I’ve heard of people needing to use a separate heart rate monitor with older Powertaps. So far the coded heart rate monitor works.   It has performed on par with coded Polar monitors, only occasionally picking up interference from a flapping jersey on fast descents. I also managed to get caught in a some short but fairly heavy rain and had no issues. I’m not sure if the same would be true over the course of and East coast winter but in the South West you’re probably ok.

Weaknesses are relatively minor.

I assume that the SL stands for super light or something like that. Its not. My bike is no danger of hitting the UCI weight limit so the weight penalty is a consideration for races with long climbs. Early in the season I would probably keep it on regardless to gather data to set training goals. But for target races later in the season I would probably leave it home if serious climbing was involved.

The price is another relative issue (enough for me to troll ebay for a good deal). Sure compared to a new bike or carbon fiber wheels your probably going benefit more from the Powertap. On the other hand the SL 2.4 wireless does little to bring costs down to something reasonable for many enthusiasts. So much for popularity bringing the price down any time soon.

Finally, the latest software is ok but Cycling Peaks is so far ahead that there is still not much reason to bother with the disk in the box.

That’s all I have for now. Look for follow up posts about the process of building up the wheel and observations of training with power v.s. heart rate monitor.

Mila the Commuter Bike

Gas prices, global warming, and the economic/mortgage crisis have pushed bike commuting closer to mainstream acceptance. Manufacturers have jumped all over this trend unleashing a blitz of Commuters, Fixies, and Cruizers. Walk into most shops and you will find slick designs that are legitimately lust-worthy. A true working man’s (person’s) bike however, should be anything but desirable. At least on the surface.     

While I can’t say that I learned this lesson the hard-way, I was basically expecting my commuter to get stolen. But walking home after working 13 hours on a Saturday taking care of Tucson’s sickest kids still felt like a bit of a slap in the face.

I built up my old commuter bike while I was in Med School back in Nashville. My commute was fairly long and hilly. I also had a fairly safe place to lock up my bike. So I found a reasonable closeout cyclocross frame, threw on some Ebaycomponents, and finished it off with an abused but fairly decent wheelsetthat I had sitting around. Aside from the brakes that basically didn’t work (I used V-brakes withroad levers without the problem solver things that increase the cable pull), and a head set that required a fair amount of play for the steering not to be sticky, it served its purpose well and was well worth the investment.

But when I moved to Tucson to start residency I knew the bike was a little too nice. Tucson is a well known cycling hotspot. It is one of 6 cities to be awarded Goldstatus by the League of American Bicyclists. Unfortunately, the popularity of stealing bikes seems to be just as high as riding them. Depsite the effort to crack down on bicycle theft Tucson still ranks 5th in the nation for worst bike theft.And thefts around UMC are a particular problem. So when I got out after dark one Saturday I half-expected my bike to be gone. Sure enough, it was.

I don’t really have the energy to launch an effort to hunt down the thief. So I’m not offering a reward or looking for leads.

Instead I just want to introduce my new commuter, Mila. She is a 1970s Fuji “Special Racer.” Seriously, it says special racer on the down tube. She’s basically perfect for my new commutes. Mainly because she’s old, looks beaten up, and only cost me $75. The lugged steel frame and fat tires do go along way to smooth out the rough patches of road. And, aside from the bar tape and tires the components are completely original and still function reasonably well.

The one problem with the “new” ride is the weight. These old things are incredibly heavy. So its a good thing that central Tucson is almost completely flat. And on the upside my road bike suddenly feels a lot lighter.

This introduction begins the story of Mila the Commuter Bike.

p.s. If you happen to find a great deal on a used Redline cyclocross bike two words of advice. One, initiate braking way earlier than you think you need to. Otherwise you will find yourself squeezing the levers into the bar tape as you fail to stop for the ________ (stop light, turn, car that pulled out in front of you etc.)
Two, watch your speed on the downhills. The slop in the headset causes the bike to shimmy a bit as the speed picks up wich combined with the brake thing can lead to some interesting experiences.

Aggress Goes to Prison Camp

With the summer heat setting in, myself and 2/3 of the Bri(y)ans decided to break out the mountain bikes to mix things up a bit. We parked just below Molino Basin to loosen up the legs a little.

For some reason I always get a kick out of taking these on the bike shots…

Then we hopped on the trail and headed up to Prison Camp.

The trail has some up and down but its mostly up (or down on the way back). The are some rocky spots with some steep loose climbs. Overall though, the trail is very ride-able going up and a blast coming back down.

As you go up the leg grabbing brush gives way to open grassy stuff punctuated by the occasional tree.

At the top of Prison Camp we crossed the road to pick up the Bug Spring Trail.

“Fast” Byan scrambles up an early climb.

“I” Brian muscles his way up.

 

We didn’t go all the way up Bug Spring. But this ride was more about enjoying the views and recharging the batteries anyways.

Quick Spin: Hutchinson Road Tubeless Conversion by Stan’s

Collectively, we have missed the boat on this one. Road tubeless tires have been available from Hutchinson long enough for Cyclingnews to give them 5 yellow jerseys,  wait a year and a half, and then write a follow up wondering why they are still an uncommon site. It was actually this follow up article that brought them back to my attention at a serendipitous time. My last set of racing tires happen to be starting to show some casing through the tread and my less-than-compliant road bike has not been getting on well with Tucson’s incredibly crappy roads. Then I checked the Stan’s site and his conversion kit happen to be on sale.

It takes only about 5 minutes on a rough road to understand that eventually Road Tubeless will be just as universally accepted as their Mountain Bike counter part. No, they won’t make you wonder if little elves magically repaved all the roads. But they will let you relax and pedal through patches of rough pavement that previously made you get out of the saddle.

The other claims of less rolling resistance, better cornering grip, and slower air loss with punctures are all an added bonus if they are true. We’ll get to those a bit later.

First lets deal with the road tubeless skepticism.

If you’re waiting for me to throw these tires on a scale you should probably stop reading and get tubulars. According to Hutchinson’s numbers they should actually be fairly comparable to a regular clincher tube combo. My side by side heft test leads me to believe their numbers are a little optimistic but not a deal-breaker. These tires will not be mistken for hill climb tires. But according ot the lead engineer, from one of the companies responsible for starting the whole sub-1000 gram road wheelset craze, is that uberlight road wheels are ”just hype.” Also, if your biggest concern is getting up the climbs Hutchinson does offer up their Atom tire.

Another fair complaint is that the tires drop air pressure by about 10 psi over 24 hrs. Nothing that would cause a problem over the course of a ride but not great either.

So what about all this need super-special rim, user unfriendliness, tube wont fit inside talk from Michelin and Mavic? Mehh. I used a regular old Bontrager Race light wheel set and the Stan’s kit. The first order of business was getting one bead on the rim and stuffing a tube inside. Suprise suprise, it was no harder than a regular tire. The second bead went on with a little more difficulty, but no worse than other brand new tires. Getting the bead back off required a tire lever but was not difficult. The tire lever did not ruin the bead. After pulling out the tube I popped the bead back on and tried to air them up with a floor pump. It didn’t work. But after adding a little soapy water to the bead they seat easily with a couple brisk pumps. Out on the road a squirt from a water bottle and CO2 cartridge should also do the trick (but why would that even be necessary as presumably you would just stick a tire in there in the case of a flat). As for tires blowing off at high speed, I’ve descended Gates Pass, the lower portions of Mnt Lemmon, and survived the State Champs Course without incident. I do admit that a tubeless specific rim would give some extra peace of mind.

With the skeptics appeased lets deal with the hype. 

Less rolling resistance. On rough roads the difference is obvious, as long as you are running less pressure than regular clinchers. Dropping about 10 psi works fairly well. The limiting factor here would be not dropping so much pressure that the tires get squirmy in corners. Once the road smooths out their is no perceivable difference. Consider that a minor victory if you ride rough roads or have reason to run a lower pressure on smooth roads.

Improved cornering grip. No idea on this one. The ability to push bicycle tires to their limit safely is not within my level of skill. Given that my everyday ride pressure is now at my usual crit pressure I don’t have reason to believe that they will not grip a bit better. But again I’m not risking my skin to find out.

Slower air loss with a puncture. This one is hard to buy into. If you get a cut the Stan’s isn’t going to be able to hold any significant pressure. And while the casing is much more substantial than a regular clincher, a hole is still a hole and air will go through it. Getting less flats overall is plausible with the beefier casing. And with tiny punctures you might get lucky. But I’m still not leaving home without a spare tube just yet.

My final take is that Hutchinson Fusion 2 Road Tubeless is not a 5 out of 5 tire just yet. They still give up a significant weight penalty to tubulars and are in no danger of closing the gap any time soon. They do however offer a superior ride to traditional clinchers at a comparable weight and with no real loss of convenience. It seems that the existence of traditional clinchers will start to get difficult to justify.  

 

 

 

AZ Road Race Championships

In 4 days Cyclists in Arizona will throw down for the State Championship.

Really all that needs to be said is that this ugly thing makes its return:

Racers got a preview of the course during the Copper Valley stage race.

The opening climb is just difficult enough to let people know if they have winning legs or not. Savy teams will take advantage of this information to adjust leadership and tactics before the final climb makes its selections. The stretch between the climbs is on a flat open road so only Herculian efforts will yield a meaningful gap. And while its obvious that you need to climb well to be in contention, the flat run to the finish may suprise some people as a small group sprint will likely to determine the final podium. Whatever happens, this course will ensure that anyone who comes out on top is a true champion.

 

 

Chocolate Milk and Gun Fights

We stopped at the the mobile station at Bear Canyon filling up on drinks after having just come down from Mount Lemmon. I was savoring my chocolate milk as the guys started to roll out. Then the cop cars started flying by. Two then two more. Then four more. And another one and two more. “That’s gotta be an officer shot.” Then two more. The fire department EMS. Another car.  I think there were over 20 cars.  http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/241754 It looks like the officers is in really bad shape.

Tucson Mountain Park

 

The Tucson Mountain Park is the place to go for classic dessert trails. Riding out here runs a gamut of different terrain; Packed swooping single track, square-edged rock strewn smash and bang type stuff, and loose square-edged DO OR DO NOT step down stwitchbacks, with some hike-a-bike scattered in. The riding however isn’t the biggest challenge for the uninitiated. Its actually, just picking out a route and following it. The park is littered with trails the loop and split and connect. The possible variations seem endless. If your in the mood to just go out and ride a loop and not think about where your going these trails may not be the best option.

I started my ride on the South side from the Sarasota Blvd parking area. Its kind of sad to see the development going on out there they did include a nice trail-head parking lot. 

 

Heading south toward Cat Mtn the trail is a packed single track with great rock formations to the left.

 

Turning left in to the park up Starr pass Trail, its time to put the city behind you.

 

Shortly after climbing into the pass the terrain changes, with a mix of rough “slick rock” and square edged stuff.

Head north out of the pass and you find instant seclusion. This shot looks back to the pass.

Now you start to really get into it. The trail tilts up gets rocky and the ride becomes a scramble to find traction and maintian forward momentum.

Of course now you’ve earned the drop back down. Descending in the rough stuff is all about keeping the front tire moving. Better to get a little loose than go over the bars.

These boulders are way more impressive in person, couldn’t quite throw my bike up there to give you a sense of scale.

The trail then dumps you back out on the south border of the park. The flowing singletrack gave me a chance to practice snapping pics while riding. Not a bad shot considering I’m holding the camera with one hand and just pointing it in the general direction I want. For reference the ridge to the right is the where the John Krein Trail climbs up along.

 

Again more impressive in person, but the saddle up a head is where the Yetman Trail goes up and over. The shot does not illustrate the climbing involved.

 

 

But first some some more on the bike shots. This self portrait wasn’t too bad either once photoshop rotated it about ten degrees.

This is my tire in motion… ummm?

And a little bit more traversing on the mellow stuff untill we get to…

The base of the saddle, shortly after this spot the trail heads uppward and the surface decomposes into loose gravel mixed with sharp stairsteps that are not always ridable.

Over the top pick up the Golden Gate trail and you come down this sweetness.

In addtion to the views, Gates Pass Trail has a suprising flow to it considering how technical it actually is. 

The trail hugs the mountian mixing traverses with fast step downs and switch backs.

I’m discovering that my habit of being chroinically late does have the benefit of the dramatic lighting as the sun starts to dip.

After that last shot I was having too much fun to stop untill I was all the way out to Kinney road, looking back up the trail. Across the road Golden Gate turns into Prospector’s Trail. The name comes from, no suprise, the prospector’s that dug the mines in this area.

I got adventurous and hung a left off Prospector’s trail on to a barely marked path that faded into this. There is a trail in here somewhere…

Ah here it is. 

Mashing through overgrown trail lets you savor the unlikelyness of where a bicycle can take you…

 

…and rewards you with treats like this.

 

Of course the price of these images was riding back to the car in the dark on the side of a sketchy road.

This whole is one of the mines in the area. It goes straight down and goes far deeper than my flash reaches.

 

In the mine area the trail opens up into double track that can be fun to just bomb down in a mindless youthfull way.

And another mine. Visible courtesy of photoshop digital brightening. Of course I’ll have to head back out here to cover the other 101 variations out here. Consider this a bit of a post in progress. 

 

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Truck v.s. Average Guy at Pima and Alvernon, Marginalization

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Its never the kind of email or phone call that you want to get. But this morning I found out one of my teamates got hit by a truck that turned in to him near Pima and Alvernon. Fortunately my teamate is ok, his cerevelo is not. Also, in this case the driver was issued a citation but only after witnesses where brought in to corroborate the story.

Anyone who is reading this post has probably been hit or knows somebody who’s been hit. The fact that the Ride of Silence even exists illustrates the significance of the problem.

What to do about it?

One option is to rant about Cyclists v.s. the World (true in a lot of ways).

But consisder this interesting concept that I recently saw applied to cycling; Marginalization. I can’t remember where I saw it so I appologize to whoever I’m stealing from. But the concept goes something like this; by identifying yourself too strongly as a cyclist you open yourself up to be marginalized and dismissed by regular people. In this case, it appears that the officer possibly thought of my teamate as a cyclist i.e. not a regular person but somebody doing something different. This perception may cloud the view of the obvious reality; a person got hit by a truck.

Taking Marginalization into account, one might encourage the perception that you as a cyclist are not realy a cyclist but some regular person. You are not cycling but doing a regular activity that any regular person might do. As an average person you expect that your average community should be safe enough to do regular type activities that any reugular person might do. And if something does go wrong, you weren’t doing anything out of the ordinary, so like any regular person doing things that any regular person might do, you expect your rights to be protected.

The challenge then becomes going up to your co-worker and asking them if they heard about the latest stage of the Giro. When they say no, give them a look like they are some kind of weirdo, go ranting about the regular guy you know who got hit by a truck, and then invite them out for the Ride of Silence.

 sortadvocate

The Biggest Sports Medicine Break-Through Ever.

I honestly don’t think that the Headline is an overstatement. It might actually be an understatement.

From their website, Team Type 1 states their goal is “…to prove that by using the tools provided to manage diabetes, exercise and healthy living, a person with diabetes can do the same as a normal person– only better.”

I’m late on this story in a way. Its been out there for a while. Yet after all this time I have not heard any statement from the cycling or national press, or from the medical community, that indicates an awareness of how huge the implications of the above statement are.

What finally grabbed my attention is in this latest blog post. In it, Type 1 co-founder Joe Eldridge is quoted as saying “I can get my blood sugar right where I need it for exercise and that greatly improves how I perform,” ”The FreeStyle Navigator is also great for predicting night time hypoglycemia. I am finally able to sleep and not worry about a low after a hard days exercise. I know if I start to go low, an alarm will go off and I can pop a few Dex 4 and be back on track.”

That quote led me to reaxamine their mission statement “…to prove that by using the tools provided to manage diabetes medicine, exercise and healthy living, a person with diabetes can do the same as a normal person– only better than a normal person.”

To me its clear why this lead, consciously or subconsciously, has been buried, Doping.

Let me clarify that I am NOT implying that they are doping. Nor do I have any desire to be the next Michelle Ferrari. But I can’t help but feel that the black and white spin on doping is a sham created by ego and an perpetuated for tabloid headlines (8th paragraph) at the expense rather than protection of good sport with reprecutions that extend well beyond the finish line.

For those of you with some physiology background you may have already put together what I’m saying. But if not, a little background on insulin and sugar. Diabetes (type I) is a serious but relatively straight-forward disease. Normaly when you eat the following occurs; sugar levels in your blood rise, your body senses the sugar, insulin is released, insulin stimulates your body to absorb and store the sugar, sugar levels in your blood come back down and all is well. In diabetes (type I) your body has no or very little insulin so sugar levels rise, and rise, and rise. This is bad. But even worse is that without insulin your body can’t absorb the sugar so that, while literally peeing sugar water, your body effectively goes into starvation mode. This is very bad.

To apply this process to sports I will use an example of two athletes getting ready for a race. Athlete 1 sits in a chair to keep himself fresh and slams carbs to fuel up. Athlete 2 hops on the trainer and builds up to a short burst of high intensity while sipping a sports drink. They get to the start line. Athlete 1′s body sensed a mega-dose of sugar so it released a mega-dose of insulin. Athelete 2′s body sensed a moderate dose of sugar and wanted to release a moderate dose of insulin but the exertion of intense warm-up supressed the insulin response.

Then the race starts with an early break-away. Athletes 1 and 2 start to bridge up. Athlete 1 is super fresh and feels greats sprinting in chase. But then the insulin begins to kick in driving down the blood sugar level, the sports drink is thought uneccessary, and the bridging effort finishes off the tanking blood sugar.  The brain deprived of sugar shuts down the motor and Athlete 1 pops and goes backward. Athlete 2 starts out with less kick. But with a little sports drink, and a suppressed insulin response, blood sugar levels stay up, the focus and effort are maintained, and Athlete 2 makes the break.

Now lets add Athlete 3 a type 1 diabetic. They warm up but not with the same effort necessary to suppress the insulin response and slam a bunch of carbs carbs. Yet Athlete 3 starts fresher with no worries of tanking becuase they adjusted their insulin dosing apropriately. Athlete 3 rides past the break winning a water bottle for taking the opening lap prime.

The example is obvioulsy oversimplified. Also, while the continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pump are good I am skeptical that they are superior to the good old fashion pancreas (that little critter under your stomach that makes insulin).

But eventually the technology will get there. So what do you do? Do you ban diabetics because they have an unfair advantage?

Or,

Does the good that athletes like Elridge can do for diabetics by helping develop medical technology far outweigh our collective need for fairness and the medias hunt to blot out the scourge of doping in our little sport.

Which brings us to our Headline. Is curing diabetes the biggest sports medicine break-through ever?

Nope.

 The break-through is the point that Type - 1makes. Medicine enhancing sports performance does not have to be evil doping. Instead, we now have a clear illustration of the health of the greater community being improved secondary to the development of technology through enhancement of sports performance in athletes, to the same as a normal people – only better.     

 

sortadvocate