Thursday, June 24, 2010

Point au Roche TTs

Usually when you talk to the WOE Plattsburgh, NY crew we brag about our riding and some of the awesome courses we have near us, like the Tour de Peru. However, there is also another event many of us look forward to each week to test our strength and gauge where we are at. This event is the Point au Roche TT. Individuals of all abilities come to participate in either the 5, 10, or 25 mile courses (an out and back), along Lake Champlain. From first timers all the way to hardened veterans. Those with absolutely no aero-equipment to individuals decked out with it. Either way it is a lot of fun and a good way to build up your strength. So if you thinks that this might be your cup of tea. Join us every Wednesday night at 6pm at the Point au Roche firehouse.

10 mile course
25 mile course

However, if the course is to far away for you to join us, you can keep tabs on us via the following link. It is usually updated weekly and you can see previous results to see how people are improving. TT results

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Training Weekend

So after it was all said and done, I had rode approximately 201 miles (including my prologue) and climbed around 12,418 ft. However, these figures are under protest by Tim and his legs saying they did more. But, no my friend we all know that Training Peaks and Map My Ride are 100% accurate in all their calculations (.)

The training weekend really started at Ashton’s birthday party, where we started planning which rides we wanted to do. Not to mention also plotted out a wicked fun cyclocross course around his horse farm, just not sure how the electric fence is going to play into all of it. But I imagine it would be a good way to get back at someone that really pisses you off.

Bruce, I believe discussed how he wanted to be reasonable with our riding and not hammer away for the entire weekend. One because he was just getting back on the bike and two our courses were no joke. Better to do all the riding then, blow up and not be able to ride the next day. Unfortunately, Mr. Tim Akers did not receive this memo!!

Our first ride started from the Candyman candy shop in Wilmington, NY and was going to follow some of the Lake Placid Iron Man Course. There were tons of cyclists out training and we left with a simple motto of “let’s get us some triathletes” and we did. We past numerous riders and for those being past it must have been a site to see four guys with matching uniforms fly by. A van actually slowed down to take our picture and then gave us a thumbs up. But the fun would soon end as Tim attacked picking up the pace. Tim would continue to attack throughout the rest of the ride and be checked by at least one of his fellow teammates. I held myself back until we reached our final climb of the day. Bruce pulled me back, but what he didn’t know is that I waited for him to catch up. We still had Whiteface to tackle.

Probably the most memorable quote from the ride came back at the parking lot from Ashton. “ Then out of the heavens....Angels appeared wearing white and green. Descending through the light and yelling..."let's go eat"...taking away all the pain and anguish of 52 hard miles.” We cut the climb of white face a little short seeing it was getting late and we still had a brutal ride the next day.

Saturday started off with us going on a short mountain bike ride, but really I think it was the team trying to kill me. How you might say? Let’s just say the brakes on my bike were not 100% functional. So add that into the mix of me not being comfortable on a mountain bike to begin with…equals one scary ride. At least I wasn’t the one to fall on their backside trying to pop a wheelie…….Bruce.

Afterwards we went back to Ashton’s house to spend the afternoon by the lake and just relax before the Tour de Peru. Tim found this time useful for crushing a huge nap and was lucky we didn’t pull any pranks on him…..or did we.


So at 4pm the Tour de Peru was under way. We set an easy pace at the beginning to get the legs warmed up and then with about a quarter mile to Arnold Hill….it was on. I literally turned to Bruce, smiled, and attacked. Showing Arnold Hill no respect and making sure Tim went into it at a pretty good pace. It was Tim’s first time up Arnold. The rest of the ride was pretty straight forward….attacks, Bruce up every hill first, and just plan old hard riding. But what soon came into play was the new yellow sign sprint. For at every yellow sign someone would gun for it. Ashton probably had the biggest victory tallying up about 6 points in one sprint…..there were like four caution sharp turn signs. And then there was my glorious victory of winning the double arrow T intersection road sign. Meaning if you went straight at the intersection you would be driving into the woods and off the road…yeah figure that one out. Everyone rode well and put in a good effort, I still think Ashton had an aero advantage of only wearing an under armor (he forgot his jersey).

Our final ride was a 70 mile loop. I soon found out that this was not going to be the endurance ride I was planning for. Up on the Rand Hill Road, a fellow rider took off and set the pace around 30 mph, quickly splitting the group. We came back together and continuing the slow climb to the Chazy Lake area. On Chazy Lake road, the attacks came again, and again the group was split. Some of us just didn’t have the legs to check an attack. I know I didn’t. Then came the confusion. I carried my momentum down a fast decent, past the attackers, and completely went by our turn. Meanwhile, Charlie had flatted and things got a little confusing. In the end I stayed behind to wait for Ashton and Charlie and did Dannemora Hill twice looking to see if I could find them. I never did and ended up riding home alone, only to find out that Ashton had made his way back to Beekmantown, via another route, and caught up to Bruce and Tim. So that was my big Opps of the day.

Finally I would like to extend our appreciation to the Momot family for allowing us to use their home as a home base between rides and Kelly for making us breakfast and putting up with us to early in the morning. Thanks again!!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Training Weekend Stats

Day 1:
Distance: 46 miles
Elevation Gain: 4646 ft
(Course map)

Day 2 Morning:
1 hour and 20 minute mountain bike ride around Point au Roche

Day 2 Afternoon:
Distance: 48 miles
Elevation Gain: 3802 ft
(course map)
* I think Training Peaks was missing a few roads we took to get back Peru HS after Burnt Hill, but I think the Mileage and elevation a pretty close to actual ride.

Day 3:
Distance: 67 miles
Elevation Gain: 3970 ft
(Course Map)


Write Up to the training weekend to come...just a little pooped out right now to sit down and write a full length blog post.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

IT HAS BEGUN!!!!!

Yes i know i used the cheesy catch phrase from the Mortal Combat games, but it is about the best title I can come up with for a weekend of such epic proportions. This weekend is the WOE training weekend, which will consist of at least 200 miles of riding and a ridiculous number of feet ascended. There may not be enough food in the Plattsburgh area to replace all the calories in which we are going to burn.

Day 1: A 50 mile or so ride around Wilmington, NY with the epic end of the ride Whiteface Mountain climb at the end...all 8 miles of it.

Day 2: Will consist of a morning recovery ride where we will most likely invade a local diner and fest on pancakes, filling our glycogen stores, and prepping ourselves for the classic Tour de Peru. We will be doing all 70 miles or so of it including: Arnold Hill, Burnt Hill, Big Hill, and Mother Cabrini.

Day 3: There is still a little confusion on to which exact course we want to take on this day, but it may lead us around Chazy Lake and possibly into the Lyon Mountain area.

We also have some fun ideas for shorter rides, such as a TTT, or a mtn bike ride around Point au Roch.

I am sure we will keep everyone posted...like a stamp....on our adventures this weekend and i promise we will try not to get into to much trouble. I already got yelled at today by some lady to get out of the road, during my 40 mile prologue ride.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

It Never Rains, But it Pours

I could go on and on about how this past weekends NYS road and crit championships went. Tell you the play by play of the Saturday ¾ race or Mike and Tim’s races on Sunday. However, I feel as if this post could be made more useful by focusing on another matter.

As we all know Lady Luck has not shined on some of us over these past few months, with crashes during big races, untimely flats, broken frames, seat posts, bones, and mechanical issues. For me this is a concern seeing WOE is not only just a young program, but also a young team in general. Being a leader on many of the teams I have participated on I have seen the discouragement that can be brought about by these circumstances. The feeling of I’m not good enough or why am I not performing as well as everyone else, or just plain old....why me?

But we have to remember we are all, mostly all, young racers, and for some of us our racing careers have only consisted of three months. So naturally we are going to lack experience, the endurance, and some of the know how to win and stay in races. That is just the natural way of the sporting world, unless you are a Peter Sagan.

Most of us are still trying to find out the things that work for us, for example warming-up pre-race, and how we need to handle our bodies during extensive training. So in time it will come. We have some good knowledgeable veterans that are going to led the way and have some very good young talent. A mixture in any sporting world to be considered a dangerous combination. We just need to keep riding and having fun!!!

Some of you already know one of my favorite quotes from Lance Armstrong and not quitting, so let me pass on another. “But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Full Moon Vista Cycling Grand Prix

Memorial Day weekend had a common theme for most WOE riders taking some time to recover and to be with friends or family. However, I did see one WOE rider climb some long gradual hill in the Cranberry Lake region of NY. Kudos to you! But for some of us it was time to start warming up the legs and prepping for the Full Moon Vista Cycling Grand Prix, a three day event.

Three riders made their way down to the Rochester area: Tim, Jeff, and Mike. The trip started out well with me (Jeff) aimlessly running around the Postdam/Cantan area trying to find our beloved Tim Akers. Once I found Tim and everyone was together, we started the long trip. We knew we would be cutting it close, but would make it before the race started. Oh we did indeed make it before the race started. I believe the announcement "one minute to the start of the cat 4/5 race" was the signal for Tim and Mike to get registered in.

Being on time was not a very common theme for us this past weekend. At the second race we showed up 30 minutes to the start of the race, due to a slight GPS error that took us to the Full Moon bike shop and not the race site. So needless to say again our warm-up sucked. Tim did well placing 15th and I think i put in a pretty good effort for my 1st race involving mainly cat 4's placing 29th out of 60+ races. Mike, unfortunately was feeling the affects of a slight cold and a crappy nights sleep (HUGE storm rolled through), so decided to rest.

Probably the most interesting part of the weekend, besides being jumped in the night by a cat, we race #3. Why was it interesting? Well it was absolutely miserable weather. We finally got to a race with an hour before race time and quickly set up camp under a tent and an awning. The course was a little slick with a sketchy downhill that had a small lake at the bottom that could have caused some trouble, but I guess never did. Again Tim did very will placing 6th and I 25th out of 38 riders, because I rode like a scared little sissy girl and pulled up on the down hill portion of the race, causing me to get dropped. Again Mike chose wisely and decided to rest and not catch pneumonia. See we do learn from Tim's mistakes!

http://www.gvccracing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/FMVGP_Men45_Omnium_2010.pdf

All in all it was a fun weekend racing, eating buffulo wings, and meeting the Akers. I can't remember the last time i sat in someone's back yard and did nothing for like 5 hours listing to music and nothing else....well one shenanigan...I think a few of you know what i am talking about...