The real Carl Dolan post.

Well.. I coould have told you so. For Christ sake when will it stop raining during my races?!!!

Yep.. the race was sketchy. I almost got knocked down on the decent before the right turn. A big guy, I won't give you his name, apparently held too much speed down into the turn when everyone was starting to brake. Yes.. it is in the rain, so his brakes didn't work and gravity was definitely working against him. He came charging down through the pack, rubbing elbows with whoever he could to try to slow down. Luckily most of us, masters have enough experience beneath our belts not to panic. I just held my ground, not leaning into him much, just trying to stay straight and upright, as he continued to barrel forward. Good thing is that he didn't go down and held his position through the turn. Up the hill, he came back up to me and apologized for having no brakes. It's just part of racing in the rain.

Yep, there were attacks by the teams I had named earlier. The only thing I was wrong about was Paul Basler. It wasn't Paul who attacked with Ramon. Apparently there was a last minute registrar...Dave Fuentes of Battley Harley. I didn't notice him as I didn't remember seeing anyone from Battley register. Well, he and Ramon rode off without anyone trying to chase. Of course the Immediate Mortgage - Artemis Elite squad did their job of easing off the pedals letting Ramon roll away. There were a few guys who did some half-hearted chases, including myself. I came around towards the front and of course no one decided to come around me. Ugh. I went for another 50 yards or so and let the pack pass me. We're never going to catch them. The gap increased to about 30 seconds and I knew it was probably it. Just like my original post. I wasn't there and I was recovering from the Dave Osborne's attack. (you just don't know which one of them will be the break as they trade off attacks all of the time.) Funny thing though, was that Dave tried an attack after Ramon was long gone and he actually got away with about 5 other guys. The pack chased him pretty hard and eventually caught them, thanks in part to another Immediate Mortgage teammate and ABRT.

During the whole race it rained, sometimes harder than others. On a few laps, the rain felt like hail. Ouch!! Sometimes I could barely see a few bike lengths in front of me. I knew many times we rode through 5-6 inches of rain on the ground, as my whole wheel was completely underneath the water. I use the 50mm deep aero wheels. The splash sound it makes is pretty cool. WHOOSH with the carbon sound. At times I was wondering if the refs would neutralize us because of the rain. Not! It never happened. By the fourth to the last lap, my body was getting cold and my hands were cramping up. I had to stretch them, but the cramping was definitely coming on and I was worried about my legs as I couldn't really feel them. The 2nd to the last lap I was passed by Ray and I was falling back. I jumped on his wheel, hoping to get a pull up front. I knew by that time, I had to start moving forward or it would be too late. I saw Andrew Hong and immediately jumped on his wheel, he made some great moves moving forward and I tagged along. Well, who would have known, we got to Bo Lee's wheel. I took the train towards the front on the last turn and that's when Bo took off. Andrew apparently faltered a bit going up the hill and I was starting to fade as well. I got boxed in a bit then got around Andrew, however, I could only sprint a short distance before I got tired. I spun but couldn't increase my power. Three or four guys passed me at the line. Oh well. I placed 9th. Oh well. I found out that I took 3rd for the 40+ riders. So I'm not too sad about getting beat at the line as the riders who passed me were 30+ .
Well I quickly went to change to get out of my wet clothes. I was shivering. I finally started warming up a bit and went over to the registration table to find out when the CAT123 race was starting. Well, in about 50 minutes. A sucker for punishment and the fact that my family is away for the weekend, I decided to register. Plus the weather was clear and the roads were looking pretty dry!
The CAT3/4 race had a major crash and I found out that James Palo a fellow BPVC racer was involved. The CAT3/4 race was neutralized for about 20-30 minutes so that an ambulance could arrive. I spoke to James a little later and his bike is okay, he's just got a nice road rash on his hip.

The CAT123 race was finally about to start. As we were standing around waiting, I started feeling raindrops and of course there was a dark looming cloud in front of us. We started off , I made my way forward, expecting attacks to start happening pretty quickly. It was brisk, several teams attacked, the speed was pretty high. The rain started getting harder after a lap. Then there was the wind! A few times the wind almost knocked over the pack. We were having a hard time holding a good line as the wind would swirl. The rain started to downpour. Again the rain started to feel like sleet/hail. I stayed up in the front 20 as much as I could while trying to be protected from the wind. Several laps later, we were neutralized, as the ref said that there was lightening. I rode around trying to keep warm with some of the other riders, then since it seemed like that the race wouldn't start soon and the lightening was getting closer, I ducked under a covered entrance. A Kelly rider and I chatted a bit then he was told on his radio that the race was canceled. I guess that was good, as I was again getting cold.

So as you can see... this year the rain is following me around and I can't stand it! Funny thing is that I'm performing decently in the rain. Something I kept telling others that I wouldn't do. Ride in the rain. Even with my decent placings, I still hate riding in the rain.

I drained the seat tube, took off my headset and drained the downtube before the 2nd race. Now I have to do it all over again at home. I hate doing that. By the way.. What's with the Trek bikes which don't have a centralized way to drain the bike?

I don't know what my next races will be yet. I think I have Daddy duties on the weekend of May 3rd. (Poolesville) as my wife will be away playing with her friends.

I did get a good weekend of riding and racing (except for the rain)

C'est la Vie.

Carl Dolan Race.

Well, it rained again. This is 3 races for me in the rain. 60 degrees in the rain feels like 45 degrees.
Grit in they eyes and teeth. The race started off sketchy, with everyone trying to get in a rhythm. Once that happened that's when the attacks came. Paul Basler, Intermediate Mortgage - Artemis Elite Team, and ABRT decided to trade off attacks and counter attacks. A group gets away finally the pack stops chasing. Of course, I miss the break as I was recovering from the previous attack.

Well.. I would have done the CAT 123 race, however I was too cold and wet to feel like racing. So, I left and went on home. Nothing like racing in the rain again.

Good weekday ride today.

I missed riding this weekend. No real reason, except I couldn't negotiate the pass to go out and ride with the 7am DC Velo Saturday ride nor the 8:30 Sunday Bicycle Place ride.
Monday... well I was lazy and drove in to work, so no riding that day either.
Today though was much different. I rode into work, an easy pace. At noon, I went out with the guys in Arlington for the hill Ride. The ride was decent in size. Of course the usual suspects were there. Simon... from the Thrasher Hill ride, of course let for much of the ride causing pain whenever he could. Harley guys pushing the pace, ABRT, NCVC, and of course Ken Young from DC Velo all contributed. I felt pretty good for most of the ride and even had enough to try to chase Ken down at the end, however no luck, he was long gone by the time I made a move.
I actually left work at a decent time today and rode home. I remembered seeing an email about the Goon ride today, so dropped off my backpack at home and went right out to see if I could catch the ride coming back out of the park. I saw a few young guys on a break going fast. A BPVC guy out there... I recognized him as Kevin Young, one of our juniors who is really riding strong these days and much smarter. In the distance, I saw the rest of the pack chasing, and I jumped in. We climbed Mormon Hill, I sat in till the middle of the hill, a couple guys attacked and started riding away (Adam Fung and Ken Johnson ). I put the hammer down and chased. I gained a bit of ground, but it wasn't enough and they both kept up their pace, so all I was able to do was to chase alone. By the time we were coming up on Beach Drive again the rest of the pack rode past me and I jumped back in. Wow, that was a hard effort. We continued on at a fast pace, I took a couple of pulls, one time the guy in front of me went so hard after he pulled off that I wasn't able to pass him (idiot!) We finally got to the light where I could recover. On we went to the final sprint. Kevin wound up and actually pulled away from me on the sprint. Good job young man! It looks like the camps and Tour de l'Abitibi are really helping.
On our way back, the ride typically is a cool down. Not tonight.. Ken Johnson and Adam Fung were playing around and attacking each other. So it was a spirited ride back.
Anyway, I was able to put in about 60 miles today. And I didn't feel drained, I guess the rides to work is helping, but it's only 9.4 miles each way. (I ride Military Road most of the time when ride to and from work, so my hill riding is getting stronger). I still am missing the longer rides like the Thrasher noon rides which I really liked.
Bottom line, good workout today.

By the way, every time I'm riding with the Battley Harley guys, they really hammer. No wonder these guys are winning the CAT123 races.

Tyson's Corner Circuit Race

I went to bed on Friday night smiling, knowing that I wouldn't be going to race in the rain at Walkersville as I've been checking Weather.com for the past week, plus, I had been closed out of the registration.   

I woke up on Saturday morning, feeling refreshed, and low and behold, the sky was clear and a beautiful blue color.  Well, to say the least, I was a bit pissed.  I didn't get up early enough for the 7:00am ride, if there even was one.  I checked weather.com and it apparently said that Sunday would be the rainy day now.  I wish these weather people would get it right!  Well, I enjoyed the day with my kids in the park.   I think I threw out my arm a bit, pitching to my son. 

Sunday, I woke up to the pitter patter of rain.  Oh, great another race in the rain.  I obviously didn't get enough riding in the wet this year.   I arrived at Tyson's, parked the car under the garage and waited till the start of the 40+ race.    The race started off fairly brisk, and I have to say, I was pretty pleased with everyone's riding skills.  No one was cutting anyone off, everyone was smooth into the corners and there was not alot of slamming on the brakes.  You have to love the masters races :).   Ramon attacked fairly early,  I went on a flyer immediately after that lap, however no one else went with me.  So, I eased off after a lap and let the pack catch me.  Everyone seemed to be in a rythym.  Unfortunately, when I was recovering, Ramon and another rider rode off the front and I didn't get to react.  No one in the pack made an effort to chase the two riders down.  The last couple of laps picked up steam and I made an effort to move from the back towards the front.  I moved forward to somewhere around 15-20th spot, and then after the final turn,  I kicked it in to high gear and sprinted, passing everyone except one other rider and got 4th place.  The last 20 meters burned and I could only muster a lack luster finish, I was waiting for a few to pass me, however luckily they didn't. 

Well there's something to be said for racing in the rain.  Apparently, I do okay at it, however I hate it.  I undress quickly and unfortunately I didn't bring a jacket. I was freezing after race and had to drink a couple of cups of coffee to try to warm up.  That didn't work.   I watched the CAT 4 race then went on home.  

Well, my son recently received an invitation to tryout for the Maryland AAA Hockey team.  This will mean that I might not have to have as much time in the spring as I had originally thought. My wife will have to cut the spring break vacation short and put my son on a flight back home so I can shuttle him to the practices.  I think this is a great opportunity for him to improve his skills, however I am not looking forward to it, should he be accepted on the team.  It's a real comittment for the parents as well as the child.   

Next race???  Poolesville or Ft. Ritchie??  I don't know.. I'll have to get the approval from the family, if there are no soccer games at the same time, which I am pretty sure there are.  Or I might get closed out of Poolesville before I know. 

By the way... Thank you to NCVC on continuing to promote a great race.  It ran very smoothly, even with the rain.  Thanks to all of the officials, police, ambulance personnel, road guards, registration staff, promoters, local government, and others who make this event a safe and fun event year after year. 

Week in recap.

Jeff Cup was miserable, cold, wet and scary. I've been riding a decent amount of hills over the winter, by the way, my first complete winter on the bike. Every year I dismount in the fall and return in the late spring, typically Tysons being my first race. I'm usually suffering at Tysons.
I registered at the last moment on Jeff Cup as every day when I checked weather.com, it said that there was a 40% chance of rain that day. So I delayed... Thursday morning, I checked again and it said that there was only a 10% chance of rain. Wooohoo... I registered with about 20 minutes before it closed. I didn't want to race in the rain. I've done too many rides this winter in the sleet, rain and light snow to know that it's not worth racing in that weather. Well, I was in no luck. As we drove up it started to sleet. We heard pinging on the windshield and then checked accuweather.com on my smartphone...it looked like we were on the edge of some wet stuff. Mostly snow and sleet. By the time we arrived it was coming down harder and in larger chunks. Like many of the others there, my carbon wheels were making a racket, I thought initially I popped a spoke. I was thinking that the race might be cancelled, however it was not the case. The thing which scared me the most was the GS Lancaster rider with the Audi/Cannondale bike.. what a racket those brakes caused! Of course I tried to stay away from that rider as he continued to use his brakes as often as he could on the downhills, around corners, etc... I was just waiting for him to slide out. It was so loud that it caused me to put my brakes on more often just because I was thinking that there might be a reason to do so. Well, after a while I finally tried to get some distance on him, however he continued to be there with me for some reason. I think I finally warmed up by the 3rd lap and felt comfortable, but then we got neutralized because the CAT123's were coming through. Well, nothing like getting cold again. Obviously we were not working too hard compared to those guys. I attacked a couple of times, one time on the hill, however no one came with me, so I let up. Finally at the last 2km the pace picked up tremendously, I was marking Art Brown much of the time, however at this point, his team went to work. One guy moved in on his wheel, and caused me to lose some distance with him, then his train accelerated forward and I couldn't follow as someone slowed down causing me to be caught up in the middle, both sides went around me and I must have dropped back about 20 to 30 riders. I finally was able to get to the right side and started to join the quick pace, it was too late as I saw that I was about 200 meters away from the finish, then I stomped on it, passing someone who I thought would lead me out well, however he didn't have any gas anymore. I was extremely lucky as everyone seemed to move towards the left and get caught up in traffic. Two bike widths was clear on the right where I was making up good placing and ended up an amazing 6th after being about 30th or more back. It's always better to be lucky than good. Art Brown's ABRT team did a great job of protecting him and leading him out for the win.
I was pretty happy about my performance as I was cold wet and felt a bit crampy during the last lap. I wasn't too tired or sore the next day, so obviously riding during the winter helped tremendously.
Monday, I took the day off.
Tuesday, I got out late for the noon Hill ride in Arlington. I didn't see anyone one out there so I did a slower and shorter ride. Plus my derailleurs weren't working well. Probably because of the crap embedded in the moving parts from the rainy ride. I cleaned the bike a bit after Jeff Cup, however probably didn't do it justice.
Wednesday, lukily I commuted in to work.. so I got a little bit of riding in. It was a busy day at work.
Thursday... Pete Lindeman sent out an email about an easier ride than the usual Tuesday ride. I knew it would rain in the afternoon, so luckily I got out and made an effort to go. Well...it could have been a hard ride as Josh Frick and Ken Young showed up.. so did Simon (he usually destroys us on the Wed Thrasher Hill ride), but we chatted a bit on the ride and it was just a nice relaxing tempo ride.
Friday, drove to work and left the bike at home... had a couple glasses of wine and relaxed.
Saturday.. it should rain... so no biking.
Sunday... race day at Tysons. I'll be looking out for Roger Friend, Art Brown, Ramon Benitez, Bryan Vaughn, Bill Gros, and several more. Those guys will be the ones making the moves. We'll see if Roger can ride away again this year.