Category: Cycling

That’s not dirt on my legs

You allegedly learn something new every day. Today, I learned that it’s really hard to photograph your own legs, especially if you want to show just how bruised they are. That’s right folks - those dark patches all over my thighs are not shadows or dirt smudges. They are evidence of just how determined I was to push myself this weekend to get better at mountain biking. Or, they are evidence that I could really benefit from some pads while I’m learning to crash.

For the record, I cut open my shins twice on the pedals and christened my white bike with splashes of red. 

Race Report: Co-Motion Classic

Editor’s note: The following report was written by my beloved, Nick. Enjoy.

One of the cool things about tandems is once you’re into them, you meet a whole new group of people who are passionate about bike racing, but want to do it on really long bikes. There are enough people around interested in racing tandems that there has been a tandem stage race in Eugene, Oregon for quite a while.

Last weekend, my wife Carry and I made the drive to Eugene for the event. I swear Eugene is further south than it used to be when I was in college, but I digress. Tandem racing is divided into three categories: “A” for teams where both captain and stoker are license-carrying racers, “B” for beginning racers and teams where only one rider races frequently, and “C” for parents and their kids. We were in the “B” category.

We arrived right after packet pickup was closed, but in time for the Friday afternoon social ride out to the area where the “A” field was riding their first stage - a hilly 50-odd mile circuit race. The ride covered some of the beautiful roads around Eugene. We went to bed early and got a good night’s rest for the time trial!

The Time Trial: This 15 mile rectangular course managed to be into a headwind on the way out and the way back. Or so it felt. Tandems are fast, so you always feel like you’re going upwind! We had a solid warm up and rode as hard as we could, but we still managed to finish 5 minutes off the pace of the leaders. 5 minutes in a 15 mile TT. The difference? Some of it was equipment, the fastest teams had deep wheels, aero bars, and pointy helmets, but I suspect most of it was raw power output. Tandems tend to attract pretty big people, and everyone here was really fit, so when a few bikes riden by tall, lean pairs blast by you riding the other end of the cassette from you while your legs are calling for mercy, you have to expect you might not be the GC leader after the TT.

The Criterium: The last time we did the tandem stage race, the crit was our favorite stage. It was cool because all of the stokers were helping the captains know where all the other bikes were and nobody did anything stupid because nobody wants to wreck on a tandem going crit speed, which is faster than a single going crit speed. The course was a very good crit course - smooth streets, wide corners, and a powerful headwind on the back side of the course. This year was different though. We had an excellent start, and we were quite comfortable for the first few laps, hovering near the front of the field. But then the axes came out and the chopping started. After about 5 laps of getting pinched into the curb in corners and having zany-eyed drooling mofos radically alter their lines mid corner (tough to do on such a big bike) we drifted to the back and just sat in. Good thing too, since half way through the race some halfwheeling fool put his front wheel into someone’s rear derailleur and wiped out in the middle of the pack, taking the bike next to them down with them and leaving no way out for the bikes right behind them. Two big bikes down at 30-odd miles per hour and those two bikes got run over by a few more big bikes. I’ve never heard anyone scream in terror during a bike crash before, but I did then. They slid an honest 25-30 feet - you could see the skidmarks. The stoker on the bottom of the pile was pretty badly hurt. She spent the rest of the race sitting on the sidewalk under the supervision of medics. Narsty. We phoned it in at that point. Carry has seen me after a wreck. She didn’t need to be a part of one.

The Road Race: We thought we stood a pretty good shot at redeeming ourselves during the road race. It was 60 miles with two significant climbs and plenty of rolling countryside. It is a terrific road race course. Everything was going well until, halfway through the neutral roll out through Coburg, I realized I had to pee. There would be no neutral pee break. I would race with the pressure within. Our plan was to sit in as much as possible and try to make the selection on the second, much longer climb, hoping that some of the bigger teams might not make the cut and any group that formed would stay away to the finish. It was apparent the plan wouldn’t work when we were gapped on the first climb. We managed to chase back on during the descent (54mph indicated - tandems feel a lot like motorcycles at those speeds) and the field regrouped for the most part. The second climb was longer, much more gradual, but at a relentless pace. After the first few miles, the lead group detached and slowly started to gap the middle of the field. Then the middle of the field started to gap us. We made it over the top with Cole Meckle and his wife Kat. We worked with them all the way to the finish 20 miles later. The mileage was off by 2.7 miles and there were no 1k or 200m signs, so we were both surprised round a blind corner and see the finish. Cole and Kat took the sprint quite easily.

In spite of not leaping to the front of the GC, we had a really good time. The riding in the Willamette valley is incredible, and the atmosphere at a tandem race is really collegial. Everyone remembered us from two years ago and we felt right at home at the Saturday night party.

Interesting notes on the racing:
The fastest time in the TT and the overall winner in the A category was a team riding a Bike Friday tandem. Seriously. The captain was Rob English, one of the framebuilders at Bike Friday and builder of English bicycles, and they absolutely killed it on their goofy 20” wheeled collapsing tandem.

Cucina Fresca had four teams in this race. Two in the “B” category (Cole and Kat, Zquan
Peterson and Kathleen Taylor) as well as two in the “A” category (Jason Williams and Todd Sahl, Neils Thogersen and Jessica Cutler). Todd and Jason won the criterium in fine style and had the most bad-ass set up in the TT. I would love to see some more RCR teams at this race next year. What will it take? I know New Carl has a tandem, and so does MotoEric. Seems we could do this!

Peace, love, and wheelbase,
Nick

Time to Get Dirty

Just in time for my adventures in Hood River this weekend with Sasquatch:

I feel the need…the need for speed!

When the motorcycle peeled off, the racers gutted it out in a 40 mph sprint for glory. The national Kierin champion looked mighty fine leading the pack over the finish line in his stars and stripes kit.

Rules of sport conduct - like laws?

WARNING! Tour de France spoiler below!

Competitive sports, like life, are governed by rules, which competitors agree to abide by. In sailing, the are the Racing Rules of Sailing. In professional baseball, there are the Official Rules.

Like our laws, these rules are designed not only to tell competitors how the game is structured, but also what conduct is appropriate and not appropriate. After watching Mark Renshaw of Columbia-HTC headbutt Julian Dean of Garmin-Transitions at the finish of today’s Stage 11, I wondered if cycling has a similar set of rules - ones that address sprint conduct specifically and give race officials the authority to pull a rider.

In case you missed the incident, the video below should fill you in. Renshaw was running interference for his teammate Mark Cavendish, while Dean was working to clear the path for his teammate Tyler Farrar. Afterward, Tour de France officials pulled Renshaw from the race, reminding riders that “this is a bike race, not a gladiator’s arena.” Skip forward to around 4 minutes to see the action play out:

Turns out someone answered my question about sprint rules, using past race decisions to illustrate the nuances of what UCI Regulation 2.3.036 actually means (just like lawyers would do!). Gotta love it!

The takeaway from this is clearly that the UCI’s rules on the subject are poorly-written and inconsistently enforced. In light of that, did the officials react properly?

On one hand disqualification might be viewed as overly harsh, because sprints are aggressive, unpredictable, and dangerous. It’s the nature of the beast. Renshaw didn’t do a lot of things that would have resulted in relegation alone. He didn’t take his hands off the bars to push or punch Dean. And he didn’t swerve into Julian Dean and take him across the road – which would have put the whole pack in jeopardy.

On the other hand, Tour organizers have limited options for disciplining a lead-out man that would act as a deterrent or penalty. Relegation is irrelevant, because it doesn’t matter where he finishes as long as his teammate wins. Organizers could levy a fine, but fines at the Tour (for feeding when you shouldn’t, hanging on the car, etc.) are pretty much the cost of doing business. And it’s not like you can suspend a rider for one day – like they do in baseball or basketball - or say he has to ride at the back of the pack for the whole stage. So even if disqualification is too harsh for the offense, the other options are essentially meaningless.

Who’s the real loser in all of this? Mark Cavendish. He won today’s stage, but in the process lost the man who has led him to three stage wins this year. He’ll miss Renshaw in the remaining sprint finishes, especially the final one on the Champs Elysees – which Renshaw helped him win last year.