Strava:
http://app.strava.com/activities/37472080
Team - Shannon, Todd, Galen and me
Attendees: Vince (solo TT 100) and Gary (solo 50)
Back in November, the prospect of having a team defend the Stagecoach TTT title again was quite grim. Shannon had originally expressed no interest in doing it, Noah was tired of training from his Ironman, Todd indicated he was out as he wouldn't be able to train due to a Boston trip and Vince also indicated he was just not trained up enough to participate at his best. Galen, who was definitely one of the best candidates from our team, had said he may have commitments with his daughter that would prevent him from training and/or fully committing to the race. Hell, even I didn't want to do it originally as I was thinking a solo TT effort might be more enjoyable. It took Shannon to step up and say he was doing it and subsequently picking from the others who indicated they were going as to who will be on his team (Adrian, Galen and me). Todd didn't like the idea of not competing, so he quickly changed his mind and took his rightful place on the team in lieu of Adrian (I'm sure to Adrian's relief). I was waiting for Noah or Vince to want their spot, which I would have gladly forfeited mine to do so, but I wasn't as lucky.
We did get some training miles in together here and there, but the training was definitely more individualized in contrast to our efforts for last year's race. Schedules were more difficult to line up, so everyone did what they could do to get miles in. We had some team outings, but the last full team training event was probably early in December. Still, we all did the best that we could under the circumstances and spent time either riding individually, spinning or getting out with others when possible. In the end, we felt we had a really good chance in once again defending the title.
Now, onto race day....
Galen, Vince, Shannon and Gary stayed in Galen's trailer parked right at the start location, and it was a sweet setup with a shower, heater, and plenty of amenities for comfort. Todd and I stayed in Alpine, but drove out to the race early and were able to get ready and stay warm in the trailer making for probably the most comfortable start in all the 4 times I've done this event. Considering that this year was probably the worst weather conditions (freezing) I've ever experienced in this ride, having the trailer there was BIG! Thanks, Galen!
All of us were worried about doing this ride at these temperatures as this added yet another layer of complexity in preparing for it. While we expected temperatures to possibly reach sub 30, we were "fortunate" that it never got THAT cold. It was still ridiculous starting out at 33 degrees and having an average temperature for the whole ride to be 41, but we all took the necessary measures to not have the coldness be too much of a hindrance. For me, it took having a thick full sleeve compression baselayer, a camelbak sleeveless baselayer, arm warmers, riding pants, our BRCM jersey and bib shorts, full shoe covers, full fingered gloves and a head cover. And given that we opted to use hydration packs this year, we had a minimum of 80 oz of fluids with us as well. Can you say heavy?
I really wanted to have the means to use splits this year and compare our results to last year, so I came up with the brilliant idea of using my Garmin 800's virtual partner feature. What it does is allow me to upload the results from last year, and then have it tell me how far ahead/behind we are this year compared to then. Easy enough, right? Well, I'm not even sure I used it right never having used the feature before. After selecting the course and being presented with the "GO" button, I instead hit start when I started rolling when presented with the automatic notification to do so. Now the virtual partner screen did report time and early on, I believed it was indicating we were ahead of schedule since it said so. Why would it lie, right? I was sharing the information with the other guys, but they didn't really let up despite the data I was sharing them. If so, it would be just a little. After a while, they just started ignoring me because what I was saying just didn't make any sense to them. I didn't want to believe that data was wrong, but when it was saying we were an hour ahead, maybe the other guys were onto something. HAHA. Anyways, never again and I hope I didn't mess up our ride as a result.
Now I could probably talk about the whole ride and describe each mile, but rather than doing so, I'll just talk about the ride as a whole. The ride out felt tough this year, but we did manage to improve over our time last year by over a minute. The way back seemed equally tough and there seemed to be some headwind on some sections that were difficult to push through. Despite this, we all pretty much stayed together with only about 3 or so "GAPS!" being called out. After climbing the final hill, however, I was no longer able to stay with the guys when they amped it up for the final charge down to the finish. It's possible I may have overextended myself a little in the valley, so after trying to keep up on the last hill with the "greater Todd Jacobs" and Shannon leading the charge up, I just didn't have enough and fell off leaving the 3 to finish the race ahead of me. We were still about 10 miles out at the time, but I kept going just in case someone suffered a mechanical or flat in the last stretch. In the end, they finished a couple minutes ahead of me. Unfortunately, our #3 time did not beat the record we set last year. Had the conditions been similar than last year, however, I'm certain we would have annihilated it!
Now onto the controversial topic: the results. On a positive note, our team time did beat the time of a racer that the promoter (in our conversation from the day before) touted as someone capable of beating the solo TT record of 4:37 set by a national champion since he had done this course a couple times with results besting it. That speaks volumes considering the conditions of yesterday's ride. However, we did not get the best TTT time of the day as 2 Descenders "officially" recorded faster times than we did even besting our record from last year. They had a new participant this year, however, by the name of James Wingert (rhymes with ringer coincidentally) who appears to either be a professional racer or at a minimum a CAT 1 after doing some research. He unfortunately did not wear a timing chip and was not able to get an "official" time recorded, but the promoted tried to set an arbitrary time for him since he arrived with the first 2 guys. The promoter awarded the win to them originally, but another team contested the result and couldn't understand how someone without a timing chip could be considered. While we also had questioned among ourselves how the promoter could do so arbitrarily, Vince (who was incognito in yesterday's ride wearing a black jersey for warmth) happened to see them pass him in the race. However, rather than 4 of them passing him in their paceline...there were 7! Vince did jump in their paceline and eventually pulled up beside some of them saying "you guys do realize this is a 4 man team race, don't you?" Ultimately, one of the guys muttered it isn't worth it and broke off. It was because of THIS indiscretion that we too contested the decision with the promoter and shared what we saw. I believe it was enough to have two teams contest the promoter's ruling that should have led to the Descenders team A being DQ'd, but the act of indiscretion hopefully should be addressed as well. We saw something similar last year, so it's a wonder why it seems so important to beat our team with tactics that seem questionable at best. Wasn't a ringer enough? We wouldn't have said anything otherwise.
Here's what the timing company page shows for the TTT:
http://www.ceptiming.com/2013/misc450/13Stagecoach-Teams.txt
I do want to acknowledge what true BAM spirit is with Vince's and Gary's efforts for this event. Vince, who would have stepped up as a backup if it was necessary, came out despite the conditions and the fact that he'd be riding alone and did the whole 100 miles by himself! Gary, who had crashed a few month ago requiring hip surgery, trained up on his own and came out and did the 50 mile route all on his own as well! That is BIG considering he wasn't even able to walk for a while after his accident. The character and conviction of these guys exemplify the true spirit of our team beyond what we did in the race in my opinion. Super kudos to the both of them for coming out and representing!
Thanks again to Todd, Shannon and Galen for letting me participate in the team. You guys are absolutely amazing, and it was an honor to be able to ride with you guys on this ride. Thanks for the beer and food, Shannon...good stuff!
Pictures to follow once I can get them from Gary and/or others who took some. Here's one though of what I call BRCM Cycling heart and soul....
Updated with some of Gary's pictures:
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| Does my butt look big with this hydration pack on? |
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| Let's see...caffeine...check. |
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| Prepping the motor.... |
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| Double TTrouble |
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| As if my head wasn't big enough.... |
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| The man...the machine.... |
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| Hard to be nervous when freezing. |
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| Off 4 of us go... |
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| ...and back with the top 3. |
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| Checking in. |
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| Still representing hours after.... |
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| The most aggressive seating position ever. |
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| How we do |
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| Vince - the Stagecoach Iron Chef |
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| Hosting our BRCM San Diego rider and wife |
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| S-Gary in the house...or trailer that is |
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Chillin'
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The rest of the pictures can be found here (thanks, Gary!):
https://picasaweb.google.com/114303683088857890912/SC2013?authkey=Gv1sRgCMf0teSB84PjYw#
Since you decided to criticize us out in a public forum, I feel its fair to respond. Our team did not draft on any other riders during the entirety of the event, not even for a second. We had to start late, so rode through a lot of traffic. A couple times, riders would try to draft on US, and I had to forcefully tell them to give us space. Maybe your buddy saw us pass another one of the descender teams on the way back. Whatever it was, I assure you it was not a 7-man paceline! As for the timing chip, I accidentally put it down while adding a second layer over my booties before the start. I feel horrible about this because the event was important to my teammates. I'm aware that it is at the discretion of the timing official to DQ a team on this basis. The rules do allow for some flexibility in this regard, and I did in fact ride with the others the entire time. I provided my gps file to show this, the promoter saw us start and finish together, and I had my bracelet marked at the turnaround. That's not really important though. What is important is that you and the other team felt compelled to challenge our results either without knowing the facts, or not caring about them. I'm not sure what is worse: casting judgement on us without knowing us or what really happened, or exploiting a technicality to get us DQ'd. Anyway, hope you feel like champions, and thanks for publicly calling us cheaters!
ReplyDeleteThank you for responding and I assume this is James. Just to clarify, I don't think I ever wrote down the word "cheaters" in my blog. Secondly, this is really not considered a public forum as much as just me writing about our ride as I saw it...a blog. Whether there was any drafting involved or not was not what I indicated at all. I merely indicated that there were 7 in your paceline as he was passed. Now I believe based on your capabilities, James, that the 4 of you very well may have not allowed others to rotate in your paceline, but the mere appearance of indiscretion based on it should have been prevented by your team at all cost. We saw something similar last year, which I also indicated in that event's blog, but it mattered less given we had the best time anyway. I could have mentioned the video that was posted by your team in a cycling forum showing a water bottle being thrown to an awaiting bystander last year as well (outside assistance), but I chose not to bring it up only until now.
DeleteIn any case, James, we are just a bunch of guys who love to ride and compete in these events, but we try to do so without ever doing anything that may be questionable. Hell, we talked about how we would want someone to ride behind us just to film the event, but we chose not to afraid it may be perceived as being inappropriate. It's an honor system type race, and all we want to do is be honorable.
The irony here is that we've met Bob, Oleg and Rick personally and we like them all. We even offered to share beers and food on Saturday, so as fellow riders, we totally respect who they are and what they can do. Their Strava stats are very impressive! We just want to have a race that is free of anything that may be considered controversial at best (i.e. drama). If we lose, we lose, but we will do so gracefully. I'm sorry it didn't work out for your team given the promoter's decision, but let's do it again next year. After the race, we can all hang out and have some drinks all together as it appears this is definitely due. Thanks.
With respect, a blog is indeed a public forum, in which you accused us of breaking the rules. I would like to reiterate that there was never a "7-man paceline" and that we were intensely proactive about getting other riders away from us (I immediately had words with anyone that tried to jump in). You protesting the results is inconsistent with these statements:
ReplyDelete"It's an honor system type race, and all we want to do is be honorable."
"If we lose, we lose, but we will do so gracefully."
Once again, thanks for your comments, James. We'll have to agree to disagree on a few of these topics then as this is additional "drama" that I would prefer to avoid. We'll see you guys next year.
DeleteCheers!