Bikes and Code

There are two major climbs that are accessible easily from Vancouver, Cypress and Seymour. Both are well into the epic climb category that actually compares favorably with some of the ‘real’ climbs of the grand tours. Both are in the 12-13km in length range, Cypress averages 5% and Seymour is closer to 7%. Up until today I had not ridden either of them.

The Chicks Cycling Club hosted what is best described as a mass start time trial up Cypress today. How could I say no to that? I did my research on the course and decided that at a steady grade of 5% my cassette that was currently on the bike was going to be suitable. Extended stretches of 7-8% would have led me to switching cassettes for better climbing.

It turns out that you should not believe the Internet.

My measurements of the race showed that there were a couple of false flats totalling something like 2km over the course of the race. This means that instead of 700m of gain over 12km, it was more like 700m of gain over 10km. Uh oh. So when it was all said and done, the average grade of the real part of the climb was about 7% with smaller portions reaching 8-10%. So I totally had the wrong gearing. That said, I’m not trying to say gearing had anything to do with my slowness. That’s all in the legs.

The announcements before the race made it clear that this was not a road race, despite the mass start and that it was a time trial so treat it like one. In a TT, the idea is to keep a steady effort the entire way as that’s the fastest way. So we roll out and a bunch of the guys at the front were sort of looking around. Uh, guys? It’s a TIME TRIAL. So I just settled into my pace and pulled the slackers for the first km or so until they actually started racing at which point I was promptly dropped. I did what I wanted to though, kept my heart rate pretty much pegged in the high 170 range for the thing, which was pretty much my goal.

All in all, I’m glad I did the race, coming down that hill afterwards was awesome. Don’t think a hill climb TT is really going to help my most common race of the year though, flat industrial park crits. Ah well.

As I race cyclocross, my riding season ends up being quite long. My last race of the year is generally in late November or early December depending on the exact schedule. I like to take some time off at the end of the season, I find it’s great mentally and helps with getting the focus back for the next year of riding. The downside of this is that while lots of riders are starting up with the base training for the next year, I am happily sitting on my hiney enjoying winter treats.

But by the time January rolls around, I am itching to get back on the bike, which is a great situation to be in. In the wintertime in Canada, this means a large number of hours indoors on the trainer which is far from the most exciting way to get into shape. Fortunately, it is offset somewhat by the better part of a month of fairly sedentary lifestyle so I can approach it with some enthusiasm. So January is my month to ramp up some volume and get some hours in, followed by starting to ride a bit harder in February and March.

I’ve got a few goals and things that I want to do this year. I want to do more road racing this year than I did last year. An injury took me out of commission for a month or so in June which kind of did a number on my 2008 road season. Fortunately, it appears I have tons of choice for grassroots level racing in Vancouver. I’ll start the season off by doing a couple of the Team Escape Velocity Spring Series races. Later in the year, Escape Velocity also holds a series of Tuesday night races, which sounds awesome. I haven’t yet found out about any sort of regular time trial series, but I would expect that there is one somewhere in Vancouver.

I will also be doing a couple of endurance mountain bike races this year. I intend on racing the BC Bike Race in 2010, which means I have to get back into the mountain biking somewhat seriously. So far, I’m likely going to be riding the Salty Dog, but beyond that I have not made too many plans.

Cyclocross is a long ways away, but there is a series in Vancouver and thus I will be racing it.

Of course, this is all theoretical at this point. All I really know is that I intend to continue to get faster and hopefully actually be competitive within the next, oh, decade.

The traditional last race of the OBC Eastern Ontario Cyclocross Series is at Mooney’s Bay in Ottawa. A gigantic (to the gravitationally challenged) hill dominates the park while most of the rest of the park is fairly flat. Being the last race of the year, in Ottawa, in late November, early December, there is also often snow.

Last year, there was about a foot and a half and I took the path of cowardice and stayed at home. It seemed a good idea at the time, but a couple of months later, I found myself regretting it. Races like that are the stuff legends are made of. At the very least, they make decent war stories to tell and re-tell. I made a vow to myself that if there was a snowy race this year, I would definitely do it.

If I haven’t mentioned it in the past, I am a fair weather cyclist for the most part. I feel no shame in admitting this. I do not gain enjoyment from going out for a long ride in the rain. Even in the summer, if the weather is terrible, I am more likely to ride on the trainer for an hour or two than go outside. This is mostly pragmatic. My wrenching abilities are horrific and I have a general lack of manual dexterity. Bad weather almost always means you have to spend more time re-greasing and cleaning all sorts of fun parts of the bike. Since I like my gear to be at least in decent shape, I feel that the wiser course of action is generally to keep my bike out of the worst of the rain and it will generally last longer.

The point of this is that as a fair weather cyclist, I spent my few training hours in the last week or so indoors. Not outdoors in the snow. And in previous years, when I wasn’t going to ride in the snow anyhow, well, I didn’t ride in the snow. Today, there was somewhere between 6 and 10 cm of snow on the ground, this was far more than I had ever ridden in. This snow covered the entire course, save for a couple of very short sections in the parking lots.

I was able to come to the following conclusion: riding in snow is very difficult.

That is, of course, when you can ride. Much of the first lap was spent running. Later laps riding the entire thing was in order, but still. The bike does not go where you point it. If you get off balance slightly, the bike washes out from underneath you. You can actually go pretty good when you are on the hard pack snow in the middle of the course, but if you veer off that 4 inch wide trail, watch out. In terms of time, one section that I was clearing in about 45 seconds when I stayed on the little packed down bit took me nearly two minutes when I slid off of it. In hindsight I should have just stopped and put the bike back on the narrow bit, rather than try to ride back onto the hard-pack ridge, but at the time I was in pain and not thinking too terribly clearly.

Ah well. Last race of the season. I have some epic blisters on my hands from something, my lower back is basically locked up from all the pulling and pushing trying to mash the bike through the deeper bits of snow. But the bike is cleaner than it was before I started, so that’s good. I used some good old MEC brand cold weather chain oil and there is still a nice thin film of the stuff, so that’s awesome. I’ll just have to pull apart a few other bits of the bike, regrease everything and let it collect dust for a couple of months.

Probably my last OBC Cross race as well. Though if we end up coming out this way some fall, I will without question bring my cross bike out to enjoy the series again.