Brentani’s Cycling Blog

Last night I received word from Keith that he had tried out my climbing circuit. Unfortunately, the bridge over 146 on Wilbur road has gone from “under construction” to “completely gone.” As a result, Keith had to detour several miles around, to get back to the start of Wilbur Hill. He stopped his timer when he got to the missing bridge (25:50) and started again when he got to the base of Wilbur. He finished in an astonishing 48:20. He didn’t go hard during the detour, so he got a bit of a rest before Wilbur. Normally you’re still hurting from Cullen when you get to Wilbur, so some extra recovery time must have helped a bit. But nevertheless, 25:50 was already almost 2 minutes faster than Aaron and I had managed a couple weeks ago at that point. 48:20 almost exactly 4 minutes faster than our finishing time, going as fast as we could, and almost 6 faster than my fastest solo time. Anyway, that guy is FAST, but we already knew that.

However, since the bridge does not seem like it will be fixed any time soon, I needed to come up with a new route to use as a benchmark. I have my Greenville Loop, but it’s not really conducive to an all-out effort because it starts from my house, without much warm up. In the end, I managed to find a route that is very similar to the old one in terms of distance and terrain. Since my meeting this morning was cancelled, I decided to go out and give it a crack, even though it is hot as balls out there. It starts and ends at the exact same place, the top of Whipple. Instead of turning on Limerock, however, you continue up Ridge to Capron. From there, you head up 104 to Brayton Road. Do a quick loop up Brayton and back down Rogler Farm and then cut over to Burlingame. I added a quick loop on some mostly flat roads down Tarklin and back to Mann School, and then down Swan. Then up Walter Carey, down Mountaindale and back to Whipple. The tough hills are, in order of appearance (brentacol ratings in parenthases): Capron (139), Brayton (94), Burlingame (181), Walter Carey (88), Whipple (102). The garmin puts total climbing about 100 feet more than the old circuit, in exactly the same distance, 17.1 miles.

Here’s a google map.

In the end, I’d say this route is harder than the original. The hills all rate a bit higher. Burlingame is similar to Wilbur, but harder. Capron rates pretty highly at 139, though it doesn’t really seem that much harder than something like Cullen. Brayton is steep, but short. Walter Carey is deceptively hard. I think the 88 is lower than it would be if the map didn’t average out some of the steep gradients. The gradient is very inconsistent the whole way up and there are two (very short sections) that I would peg at just over 20%, but they really hurt, especially because they come so late in the ride. It’s also a much nicer ride, because it eliminates all the difficult road crossings. It also gets rid of the scary descent down Breakneck Hill. The descents on the new route are safer and faster, which is a big bonus. Today’s finishing time was 58:46 or 17.4 mph. I expect to beat that by quite a bit next time I try it, when I know the course, and it’s not so hot. I really wasn’t pushing that hard most of the time. Bringing the time down to the 53 range will almost certainly be more difficult than it was on the previous loop, and I expect even Keith to have difficulty posting a sub-50 time, but he’ll probably prove me wrong.

For anyone following my benchmarks on the climbing circuit, you’ll know that 52:18 is a personal record by a pretty comfortable margine. My most recent attempt, the first with the Garmin, was 54:00 on the nose. That, in turn was about 15 seconds shy of my best ever time. But here’s the thing: today’s ride was a two-up TT with Aaron. So shaving a mere 1:30 off my best time, with the help of someone who is one of the best time-trialists on our team, and (currently anyway) about as good as I am on the climbs was not the blistering pace I was hoping for. We were both hoping to finish just under 50 minutes, and we were well off that, even if you use the moving time, which was 51:49. (Average speed was 19.7; average moving speed was 19.9.)

But all the same, I like what this says about the strength of my previous solo runs. Especially because we picked up almost all of the advantage before we hit Cullen Hill Road. At the base of Cullen, we had somewhere in the order of 1:30-1:45 over the 54:00 minute run, and that’s almost exactly where we finished. We managed to bring it up over 2:00 minutes on the descent after Wilbur Hill, but lost most of that when we were stopped at the light at 116. When we turned onto 116, I took a long pull, and when I moved over to let Aaron take over, I realized he wasn’t on my wheel. He had had a chain issue just after the turn and was fighting to get back. I slowed up a little until he was back on my wheel and managed a pretty hard pull up the small hill on 116. I usually use the little ring for that hill, but today cranked it out in the big ring. After that, we went down Harris. Aaron took one pull, and then I went as fast as I could for the second part of the descent, back to Route 7. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I descended that. We then had a little over 2:00 minutes advantage again. On the final stretch, Aaron took the lead, telling me to go all out on Whipple, and not to wait for him. Unfortunately, we were already almost there, but Aaron had still managed to cook himself, so I was on my own for all of Whipple. I apparently climbed it slower than I had my previous time, because the advantage dipped back to only 1:45 or so by the top. Aaron finished a few seconds back.

A fun experiment in any case. Here’s the Garmin Readout.

A couple things to catch up on:

Tuesday. Only four of us showed up for the Smack Down (me, aaron, curtis s., and syl) so we decided to mix things up a bit. Instead of the usual route, we went north and did my climbing circuit. I was not terribly surprised, but happy nonetheless, that we were only able to post a time of 58 minutes and change. My most recent time was 54:00 going solo. Aaron is going to try to beat it sometime soon riding solo now that he knows the route. I expect he’ll beat my time pretty easily. We’re pretty close to each other on the climbs, and he’s definitely a faster descender and better time-trialist. But it will be interesting nonetheless. Rundown on the hills: I won Cullen Hill. Aaron, Syl and I finished Wilbur all together, with Curtis just behind. Aaron put in a huge attack at the bottom of Whipple, Curtis clawed him back, with me in tow, I dropped Curtis, Aaron recovered and came out of nowhere to take the hill, followed by Syl after I cracked.

The bit of info that everyone, or at least Khalid, has been waiting for, the verdict on running a force rear derailleur with Campy shifters: no problem. I made the switch 2 nights ago, but didn’t shorten the chain enough. I took the bike into Caster’s to have them shorten the chain and true the new open pro wheel. They were more than a little skeptical, and noted that it shifted “ok” in the lower gears, but the top 3 or so were a little off. When I got home I took the bike for a spin around the block and noted the same thing. not great. Nothing too horrible, but somewhat disappointing all the same. But I wasn’t going to make a final verdict until I had ridden it under real riding conditions. I put it back on the stand and played with the adjustment. This morning I went out and did my Greenville Loop. No problems whatsoever. Shifts perfectly. On the stand, I had a little trouble getting it into the 28, but that might have more to do with the limit stops anyway. Since I didn’t need the 28 out riding, I’m not sure if that’s resolved or not. To answer a Khalid’s other questions about the Force RD, 1. compact crank + 11-28 cassette is right about at the limit of the system’s capacity, so using the Force RD with a compact and a mountain cassette isn’t going to work. moreover, you really couldn’t go any bigger than a 28 without the derailleur jamming into the cassette in the back either. I just barely squeaked out beating my best time for the route, as well.

Equinox race report from Saturday, Aug. 7 is coming…

here are some pictures of Jude’s new bike, as painted by Brian at Circle A! Completely adorable, if I do say so myself. And this was also the test run for the colors for my new bike. And I have to say I’m very happy with the combination. Especially combined with the green Chris King headset and bottom bracket.

In other news, last night’s smack down was a little disappointing. Stayed at the front for the first sprint, but didn’t contest. Second sprint I was well placed and put in a pretty big attack at the start of the hill. I had a sizable gap at the crest, but Aaron caught me at the 150 meter to go mark. He rolled up next to me and slowed down. Not sure what he was doing as asked if he wasn’t contesting it, or what. He sped up a bit and took it. After the line, he said he was waiting so we could drag-race to the line. What he didn’t realize was that I had put everything into getting as much of a gap on the hill as possible, so if he had anything for a sprint he was going to beat me. Tourtellot Hill…I really wanted to win this one, since the only time I’ve lost it all year was to Keith Kelley and there’s no shame in that. I attacked about 1/2 way up the hill, but Aaron had made sure to be latched to my wheel and he brought Syl and Dave Kellogg back with him. No one passed, as I hoped they would, so I waited a bit and jumped again, but once they caught up I was spent. Too bad.

Another day, another Smack Down. Today’s installment featured Aaron, Mark G., Syl, Kirk, Brendan H., IndyFab Mark, and Curtis S. Kirk put in a monster pull on Greenville Ave. which signaled to me right from the start that he was a much stronger rider than he had been the last time we rode (sometime last year, I think). I’ve ridden with Brendan H. before, but don’t know too much about his riding strengths. I think he’s a cat 3, and a strong sprinter. I stayed out of trouble going up Austin, and opted not to try going for the sprint point right at the top of the hill (I don’t want to get too predictable…) The pace was pretty mellow until about 150 meters to go, at which point things were crowded and I didn’t really want to be involved in a sketchy sprint. The group broke up with Mark G. or Brendan (?) taking the sprint.

Syl and I were in the next group chasing down the fast descent to the next sprint point. Once the risers started, Mark and Brendan had a sizable lead. Aaron and Curtis arrived from behind, and we were all together except Mark headed for the steep section. I was badly boxed in and had to wait around as we caught Brendan. Just as we hit the top of the hill, I finally saw an opening, and saw that Mark was not moving very fast up ahead with another 150 meters of flat to the line. And everyone else in the group seemed to be cooked. I gave it everything I had and went screaming by Mark just before the line. That was a fun victory.

Next sprint, I gave a half-hearted attempt to go around Syl, but Aaron launched another attack simultaneously and I didn’t have the strength to contest it.

Tourtellot Hill. Moderate pace from the start (thanks to the fact that Keith wasn’t here today). I was second wheel behind Syl at the start, which seemed like a good place to be. As he started slowing and looking to get off the front, Aaron came up on the left. He later admitted to intentionally boxing me in. as more accelerations started at the front, I had no way to get up there. In the end, I had to wait for everyone to go by and I was at the back of the pack. Meanwhile, a gap had opened up and Aaron and Syl had 2 or 3 bike lengths on the rest of us. I swung to the left and came by Mark. I had some legs, so I spun it up and flew by everyone. I shocked myself a bit at how well I felt cruising at a ~20mph pace up the hill. I came by Aaron and Syl at full speed and they never had a chance to grab the wheel. At this point I saw the 400m to go. I finally started feeling my legs when I hit the 8-10% kicker right at the end, but was pretty confident everyone else would have some difficulty there too. So, 2 out of 4 sprints again. That seems to be my limit.

It’s been a while since I’ve done my northern hill loop that I use as my benchmark ride. The last time was back in March, when I set a time of 56:58. This also means I haven’t ridden this loop since I got the new Garmin. Given that I had been having good form at Smack Downs and have generally been feeling good about my condition, I had high hopes for day. I was hoping to beat my previous best time. In the end, it didn’t happen. But on second thought, beating that time would have been pretty remarkable. I posted 53:45 during the 2 week break between Okemo and Ascutney and was almost certainly at the peak of my form last year. So, given that, I’m pretty happy to have fallen short by only 15 seconds. And really, 15 seconds is within range that any number of factors could account for the difference. And now that I have a Garmin course on my computer, I should be able to beat it, because the Virtual Partner feature does wonders for improving your time on a set course. I’ll probably do one tough/long ride tomorrow morning, and then I’ll start a taper for Whiteface on June 19.

Oh, and here’s my Garmin read-out. The extra 5 seconds was caused by not getting the time stopped right away, but I did hit the intersection at the top of Whipple right at 54:00.

After two consecutive decent showings at the Mark Nicholson Smack Down Ride, I was feeling pretty good going into today’s ride. This was the one-year anniversary of the last time Mark led this ride, a ride I unfortunately missed. There were just five of us today, including Mark on his bitching new 953 Circle A. Also present was Keith, an Irishman who I’ve only ridden with one other time. (That time was at the first Mark Nicholson Memorial Smack Down after Mark died. I do remember some discussion about him being strong, but I was dead tired that day from riding the course earlier in the day to paint the route, and was nowhere near the font.) Anyway, at the start, Keith was talking about having three knee surgeries in the last year and having “little or no power for things like sprints.” Great, he shouldn’t be a huge factor in the sprints….(keep in mind, this guy doesn’t even race!)

Pace was a little higher on Greenville, and Mark got to be the sacrificial lamb going up Austin. He set a tough pace, but we were all holding on just fine at the top, while he was clearly winded. I figured, what the hell…worked for me last week, why not go for the sprint. I hit it harder this week than the previous time, and opened up a big gap. Except Keith was glued to my wheel. He has a bad knee, right? Doesn’t like accelerations, right? Gun it again. Still there. Well, I can still try the same method as last week: let him take a pull and try another sprint for the line. I ease up to let him pull through. He kicks it, and passes me like a freight train. Jesus. Not even a chance to grab his wheel. I rolled across the sprint point easily in second. Next sprint, Keith also rides away from me and everyone else.

The third sprint point, up to the penultimate roller before the top of Douglas Hook, Keith also takes that, and powers away from us up to the crest. I managed to dig deep to catch his wheel before the top and drop the rest, but still. Then Mark flies by on the descent. I saw a max speed of 42 for me, which is higher than I usually hit there. Keith bridged up to Mark with no problem at all, which is supposed to be where Mark would usually just ride away.

Tourtellot Hill. Keith turned the screws right at the bottom. He dropped everyone off his wheel, except me, but I was only barely hanging on. About 1/2 way up, I was watching gaps open up and having increasing difficulty closing them down. Then he seemed to slow a bit. Probably due to the delirium caused by the speed, I thought we were almost to the top. I tried an attack. I was barely around him when I realized: 1. we hadn’t even hit the 400m to go mark, and 2, he was counter-attacking. Never saw him again. Syl was coming up hard behind and passed me. I kept my tempo as high as possible and when I saw Syl slow down, I sprinted for the line and took second place by a wheel.

Keith rode on the front almost the entire way home from that point, dropping all of us at various points and making us all hurt. Meanwhile, he barely seemed to notice.

The funny part is that Keith doesn’t even race. I tried to convince him to enter into some hillclimbs. He’s a little nervous about pack riding, and definitely wants to avoid crits. A race like Tokeneke would suit him pretty well. Especially if he entered the 5 race, he’d almost certainly crush the field on the finishing climb. He could probably just ride away at the start line and cruise to the end. I’d guess he could also post a top-10 finish at something like Ascutney. His riding style reminds me of Khalid, in fact. Almost the same body type, which is tall and freakishly thin, and able to generate massive power with a very, very fluid pedaling style. He’s also apparently a fan of this blog and BRENTACOL so feel free to suggest races he should try.

After the smackdown 2 weeks ago I really had no cause to have crappy expectations for today’s ride, but I kind of did anyway. The cold I was just “getting over” last time was still lingering 2 weeks later (in the form of coughing up thick phlegm all morning), and my rides yesterday and the day before were a little less that stellar. But at the start of the ride, the group consisted of Casey, Aaron, Curtis S., Another RFN rider who I can never remember his name, Syl, and Dave Kellog. Not having ridden with Dave, I didn’t know what to expect. I found out later he’s a wicked fast local masters racer, but he was also taking it easy today, so he wasn’t much of a factor. Just as we rolled away from De Pasquale, I noticed a blue Quick-Step jersey, which turned out not, in fact, to be Tom Boonen, but Evan. Then part-way down the bike path we picked up the Dash guy (can’t remember his name either…rides a cross bike with road tires, and has been very strong in past weeks).

As usual, pace was high on Greenville, but nothing that put anyone into any difficulty. Austin was a different story. Evan was on the front almost from the beginning, and he pushed the pace. A lot. I felt under pressure, but when Evan pulled off near the top, he was definitely not feeling so great. That’s my experience on Austin as well. Any time I really push the pace, I always expect to drop people, but actually look back to find everyone smiling and chatting away. It’s just not steep enough to dislodge people, but it is certainly hard enough to blow yourself up.

Now, as a bit of an aside, I had made it my goal to win the first sprint on this route sometime this summer. I’ve won the second sprint once (after numerous failed attempts) and the KOM on Tourtellot Hill a couple times, but the first one has always eluded me. 1. It comes close to the top of Austin, but not close enough. Almost a mile from the top of the hill. And Austin isn’t steep enough to launch a serious break. 2. The finish for the sprint is actually somewhat downhill after a sketchy bend in the road, and I don’t want anything to do with that shit. So figuring out how to win this one was going to be a bit tough.

After the hill I was about 3rd or 4th wheel. People were already getting a bit nervous about positioning for the sprint, so I quickly found myself second wheel behind Syl. What the hell. I gunned it, still about a mile from the line, and opened up a pretty serious gap. Don’t look back, just keep a smooth and maintainable cadence. Don’t look back. Shit. I’m caught. I mumble something about “oh well, worth a try” and look back to see that it’s actually only Casey, and the others are way back. I let Casey pull through, and the gap stays pretty big. I see the line, and I’ve recovered a bit from my initial burst and give it everything I have. Casey later told me he was a little surprised how hard I came around him.

Next sprint? Not so much. I hung on for a while, but eventually most of the others were up the road. Aaron, the other RFN guy and I kept a pretty steady paceline and still had them almost in our sites at the top of Douglas Hook. Regrouped in Chepachet. Syl, who was feeling a bit off today came in shortly after, giving me some extra time to recover.

Tourtellot Hill. I really didn’t have ambitions for this hill today, since I had gotten the first sprint and I didn’t want to put myself in danger of being dropped during the last section. But the pace was moderate for the first half, and I was beginning to think we’d just roll it up to the top without sprinting. Then other RFN guy made a half-hearted move, followed by Aaron, who made a much more sizable attack. I knew 2 things about Aaron’s attack: 1. He would put in a concerted effort and it wouldn’t fizzle out right away, and 2. he wouldn’t push me into the red. I followed his wheel and happily noted we had a gap. Under 400m to go, where I attacked last time. Wait just a bit. Jumped for the line and took it pretty easily.

I guess the moral of this story is I actually have some form, which feels good! And Whiteface is still a month away.

Today, gewilli announced that he was going to stay with the group and he wasn’t going to get dropped on the Smack Down Ride. Positive thinking only. None of this “I’m gonna get dropped by the skinny guys on Austin and roll it in solo for the rest of the ride.” I commented that “if he did get dropped, he wouldn’t have to ride alone, ’cause I haven’t ridden for over a week and I’m just getting over a cold.” On the bike path out of town, I even made sure to tell Greve that if I got shelled on one of the first sprints, they shouldn’t wait because I wasn’t going to push myself. How’d it actually shake out? Read on…

10 riders showed up. Many of them very strong. Casey is a cat 3 and a great climber. Evan from the RISD team has proven himself to be one of the strongest riders in the last few Smack Downs. Gewilli, Aaron, Curtis S., a couple Brown riders and two new Refunds now riders rounded out the group. It was pretty usual fare after we left the bike path and hit Greenville Ave. Greve set the pace on the gradual uphill, and I was second wheel. When he pulled off, I took a quick pull to save some energy. When we got to Austin, I was third wheel behind Aaron and Casey. Aaron is coming off of his running season, and so, while he could maintain a steady pace for hours, doesn’t really have much in the way of acceleration and climbing ability this time of year. His pace was nice and comfortable. When he pulled off, Casey wound it up a bit, but not enough to bother me. He thought it was harder than it was, and when he hit the top, he was surprised to see most of the group still hanging on.

The first sprint is about 1 mile after the top, and somehow I ended up in front. I wasn’t contesting the sprint, but I didn’t want the sprint, which is sketchy on a good day, to start at 18-20 mph, so eventually I kicked the pace up to 25-30 just so I’d have a chance of staying near the front after the sprint. Casey and Evan duked that one out, and I’m not sure who won, but we regrouped in time for the second sprint up Nicholson Hill. This is where the group usually falls apart, and today was no exception. Casey and Evan were first over the line again, and there were 3 or four people between me and them, and a the rest scattered behind. The rollers after the hill are what usually do me in on this ride, so I found a wheel and tried to hold on. Eventually I realized I was stronger than the wheel I was holding and bridged up to Casey and Evan. There were then 4-5 of us heading into the third sprint. Again, Casey and Evan went up the road, but not by much. At the crest of Douglas Hook, I wasn’t too far off the front. Guess who comes up on my right? Gewilli. Positive thinking pays off. Going down Douglas Hook, I can’t hold on to Gewilli and was spinning my 50-13. (I never bothered changing my 13-29 from last weekend, because I figured I’d be on my own by this point anyway!)

I was feeling a bit cooked by the bottom, and was thankful for the regroup point in Chepachet. Everything back together, we headed for Tourtellot Hill. I was now thinking I had a chance to actually contest this one. Turning onto the road, Gewilli and I were on the front. He was happy to set the pace, because it kept him from having to deal with accelerations. Me? I would have much preferred to sit on Casey or Evan’s wheel, to see if I had anything left at the top to make a jump for the line. Oh well. 400m to go, I could see Gewilli starting to fade. I think the group expected us both to pull off. Gewilli moved to the left. I gunned it and opened up a gap. To my surprise, no one seemed to be able to follow. Casey later reported that his shoulder had started bothering him (from a recent crash) and I’m not sure what happened to Evan. In any case, I still had a sizable lead at the top. Chalk one up for negative thinking.

The rest of the ride (mostly downhill) was a bit of a struggle at times, but I hung in there in spite of being close to getting dropped a couple times. Great ride, in any case.

Today was my first ride outdoors on the Circle A of the season. The weather could not be nicer: right about 70 degrees and sunny. This was also my first ride in shorts of the season. I decided to get myself a benchmark on my usual hill loop. I knew, based on my speed and the gears that felt comfortable on the hills, that the time was not going to be my best ever. But it beat my time from a year ago by almost 2 minutes. Given that I usually post my best times on this loop somewhere around mid-summer, I’d say 56:58 is pretty good. Additionally, I had pretty bad luck on intersections and had to stop for close to 1 minute total waiting for cars and lights. If I had been able to cruise through those intersections (which I think I do more often than not), that would have lowered my total time to about 56:00. AND, my front derailleur (or maybe it was the shifter…I’m just headed out to investigate) crapped out just before the final long downhill section and I was stuck in my little ring for the rest of the ride. That probably didn’t make a huge difference, but I might have been able to shave off a few more seconds if I had really been able to crank that section.