Reports by:

• Tim
• Carl
• Brad
• Brian J.

Category: Masters 45+
Result: Flatted

All for those who didn't go here's a brief recap.

Good:

• Weather was awesome.
• 723 entered (a record).
• I saw lots of old friends.
• We had a pretty good contingent: Brian, Carl, Bob, Brad, me and best of all Garry! I didn't even know he was riding yet and didn't see him on the planned participants. If there was anybody else from the team I didn't see them.
• Brian, Bob, Garry and Brad finished.

I blew out my front tire on the second lap on a sharp edged hold near the shoulder which I didn't see as I was riding beside someone. It launched me off on the shoulder but I stayed up. I actually rode like 2 miles back to the start finish on a totally flat front on a really bumpy road, but it's EZ on a sew up. I got another wheel from Garry and then joined Brad for the final lap.

Ugly:

Carl lost air in his front tire went around one of the left handers and went down. It looked a lot like a collarbone.

Final Notes:

Snelling was a lot different than I remembered. I actually had fun as I can do rollers pretty well. I'm pretty sure I would have made it to the end. I don't know how if I would have been in the sprint, but the guy that got 9th in front of me at Cherry Pie, got 4th at Snelling. Oh well, maybe next year, but I doubt the weather will ever be as good. The other thing worth noting was although they patched the big holes the ride along the last two roads on each loop were brutal. My back still hurts! I ran light wheels with tubulars which greatly helped up the rollers. I was shocked to get a pinch flat because I didn't think you could on a sew-up because of the way they are sewn all the way around. Then again it was a nasy sharp edge I hit. I had 120psi in the tire, maybe I need more. Oh well... I hope Carl's collarbone isn't broken or at least that he gets well fast!

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Category: Masters?
Result: Crash - broken collar bone!

Well from Tim's race report I am still part of the "ugly" description. I did break my collar bone on Sat.

I would like to thank Garry and Brian J. for helping me out on Sat., helping me get cleaned up and back to the cars and back to home. The cause of my crash does seam to be from a front tire going down and going into a corner with some sand on the road and sliding out without any time to recover. Along with the collar bone I have some road rash and a bruised hip. I took my bike to the Eden Bike trauma center for evaluation and treatment.

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Category: Masters 45+
Result: Off the back

Snelling was my fifth race of the year, and there were some upsides -- and downsides. First, the plusses: It was enjoyable to have a M45+ teammate out there, Tim, to share the experience. That made the drive there and back enjoyable, and the racing more fun too. It was great to see a good FFBC contingent for the afternoon racing (Brian, Carl, Tim, and moi) and Garry raced in the morning. Being the true "directeur sportiff," he stayed for the afternoon racing session and cheered us on at each lap....way, way beyond the call of duty!!! And last but certainly not least, the weather was warm and clear....perhaps the best I've ever seen in my 6 or so tours of duty at Snelling.

Now onto the downside. Over the past few weeks I've noticed some deterioration in my cycling cadence and speed. I saw that for the Mt. Diablo training ride and some other rides where I've felt unduly fatigued. A few weeks back, prior to my Tahoe ski trip, i believe i had over-trained as I became sick with some of the classic symptons of over-training. But it could have had contributions from stress.

There is no doubt that weight training can slow down the legs. I'm doing Joe Friel's program using his book "The Cyclist's Training Bible." I had completed phase 1 called "Anatomical Adaptation, which is basically doing light weights with many reps (20-30). Then moved into a modified version of the "Maximum Strength" phase 2, "heavy weights, low reps (4-10)" -- i'm still building up to the heaver loads as Friel suggests -- and have been doing that for several weeks. There's also a phase 3 (Power Endurance) and 4 (Muscular Endurance) that i haven't gotten into yet.

I'm hitting all the work-outs suggested, twice a week: squats, leg press, seated row, back extension, bench press, dead lift (with machine), heel raise, knee extension (quads), leg curl, lat pull. I'm doing different forms of the squats....free weights and Smith machine. I add in dips and my ab-slider routine. I also just started something Kirk Lutz showed me, one legged squats, putting one foot behind on a chair for balance, and squatting with or without dumbbells on the other leg. While I'm convinced that this weight-training program will pay dividends for later in the season, it's killing me right now for racing. Perhaps i've erred and started all this too late (mid-to-late january).

I just read the importance of doing a spin with light resistance at a cadence of 90 or higher for 10 to 20 minutes after lifting.....this is to help re-align your fast-twitch muscle memory with fast movement. It seems logical to spin afterward, but i've only done it on an ad-hoc basis. It will now happen every time.

Ok, back to Snelling. For whatever reason, it never came together, and the race wasn't even that fast -- each of the EB's had been much faster in the first 30 minutes of racing. Maybe I was put off by a ridiculously slow, arcane, moronic registration (and I had pre-registered)*, or the 30 minute delay of race. Still, I got in a good 50 mile effort, and despite ending up time-trialing most of the distance, averaged a bit more than 20mph. I'm glad I attended and the most important thing was, had fun.

So, will have to wait for the weight-training to get to the point where it is not interfering with racing. But, will that ever happen? Is it truly possible to race well, and to weight-train? I would be curious to hear about other's experiences in trying to accommodate weight-training with racing, and if you have any secrets, tips, suggestions.

P.S.

Velo Promo, you SUCK in handling registration....what were you thinking!? You know the fields have been huge everywhere, the weather is forecast to be perfect, yet you have just 3-4 people handling afternoon reg, with no signage designating Cats and/or pre-reg, for the largest Snelling fields ever? Then you lost many pre-reg's, including at first mine, but I found it by grabbing the worker's list and looking for name myself (we know of 5 people with lost reg). And guess what.....your looney system didn't even alphabetize the pre-reg names, they were all in random order!! Your workers had race numbers scattered everywhere, they were all working on top of one another. And you lost Brian's reg forcing him to race in a different group from teammate Carl. What's the point of pre-regging??? Come on guys, registration is NOT rocket science!!!!! The only guy who had his act together was Ken Hernandez....but unfortunately, he was handling only the Pro 1/2's. Ok, end of rant. Maybe i am pissed after all for not racing well..........

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Category: Masters 35+
Result: Mid-pack

I had a great time this year at the Snelling Road race. I raced in the overflow master 35+ 4/5. There was 48 racers. I placed 12th, with a 8th place finish in the field sprint. There was apparently a small breakaway group we didn't catch. Congratulations to Darryl Smith with Wheels of Thunder. He won! Ziggy you remember this guy. He loaned you his helmet last year at Cherry Pie. Smile!

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