Williams cycling wheels season report

In 2009 we were fortunate enough to receive a discount for excellent lightweight, durable, ceramic-bearing wheels from Williams Cycling. Here is a report of our team's top ten results while on Williams wheels. Nice job!

Racer - Category - Wheelset
Event	Date	Place
Eric Dupuis - Cat 4 - Williams system 19
Garden Creek Gap	5/16/2009	6
1000 Warriors	8/22/2009	10
Liam O'Donnell - Cat 5 - Williams system 30
Tour of the Depot stage 3	4/12/2009	9
Tour of the Depot overall	4/12/2009	8
Sugarhouse criterium	5/23/2009	3
High Uintas stage 2	6/21/2009	8
High Uintas stage 3	6/21/2009	4
Harvest moon criterium	9/26/2009	3
Stephen Rogers - Cat 5 - Williams system 30
Tour of the Depot stage 3	4/12/2009	7
Tour of the Depot overall	4/12/2009	7
Adam Taylor - Cat 5 - Williams system 38
Tour de Park City	8/1/2009	3
1000 Warriors	8/22/2009	10
LOTOJA	9/12/2009	8

24 hours of Moab course video...

Here is a video of the course so that we know what to expect is we decide to do it in the future.

Following Ryan...

We had a good turn out for City Creek this morning. Travis, Ryan, Todd C., Kerry, Kerry's friend, John, and Rogers showed up for a fun ride with good weather and plenty of laughs....until Ryan put the hammer down! Watch the first couple of minutes of this video to see how it felt. I will give you a hint...I wasn't Lance.

Salt to Saint Relay 2009

Salt to Saint 2009

It reminded me a lot of the slumber parties I had with my friends in my youth, or the scout campouts with all the guys in my ward. It was a fun and crazy cycling marathon. We stayed a wake all night long laughing, joking, mocking, eating junk food, drinking cokes, telling stories, and doing many individual time trials.

This was supposed to be a team relay race of 385 miles from Salt Lake to St. George. It ended up being a fun ride of about 398 miles. Because of the accident in American Fork canyon during the 1000 Warrior ride, the permits needed to make this a sanctioned event became impossible to get in the time leading up to the ride. So the organizers decided to just hand out maps for the remaining teams that wanted to do it as a fun ride. It was scheduled to start Friday at noon and go all night. We were told that some other teams decided to leave a little earlier. We decided to leave at noon.

As we prepared to leave Jerry Bergosh showed up and sent us off with a cheer. The four team members were Adam, Brent, Stan, and Rogers. Stan started the first leg and had to ride from Liberty Park to the foot of Suncrest. We decided to split the Suncrest climb up into two sections so that we didn’t destroy anyone’s legs too early. I took the first leg of Suncrest and Adam took the hard section at the top and took us over and all the way out to Saratoga. I then took a 20 mile leg on the back side of Utah Lake with Stan working with me on the last ten miles. Then Brent continued on to Payson with Stan going with him the first 10 miles. We decided to break Mt. Nebo into 3 legs with Adam, Brent, and I taking turns. We made it over the top and Brent took us down while there was still daylight.

At Nephi I took over again, but we were starting to lose day light and it was time for the lights and reflective clothing. An unfortunate side effect of the reflective clothing for me was that it messed up my heart rate monitor and speedometer. The rest of the guys were in the truck and were following me when all of sudden they disappeared. Later I found out they stopped at a Burger King because the earlier stop at Subway just wasn’t enough, or was Burger King, because later we hit McDonald’s too. For the next 150 miles or so after Nephi it felt like we were almost always going slightly uphill except for a few small descents. We rotated about every hour. Adam had to swerve to miss a large rattle snake on the side of the road. As the night progressed and our tiredness increased, talk of Jackalopes, crop circles, and strange people(Aliens?) on the side of the road crept into our increasingly funny comments. We had to explain to a Highway Patrol what we were doing. I am not sure we even knew what we were doing. The roads were almost completely empty from midnight to about 6 a.m.

Between about 3:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. we hit freezing conditions with the thermometer hitting as low as 27 degrees. I shook for 40 minutes after my leg and my toes screamed obscenities at me while they defrosted. Finally we had a long section of downhill to Mt. Carmel Junction. Stan took most of the climb up to Zions Canyon and illegally rode through the long tunnel where he claims the truck sounded like a tank chasing him.

We learned all sorts of trivia about the Sun from our very own Solar Encyclopedia, Stan. It turns out that if you give that guy 400 milligrams of caffeine and deprive him of sleep there is no stopping him.

Brent took us down Zions Canyon and I finished the last leg into St. George. We finished 398 miles in 21 hours and 11 minutes which is about 18.8 miles an hour average. We celebrated by eating at Denny’s and kicking back in a hot tub. It was a blast to spend the night with such awesome team mates. It will be an experience I will always remember, but it was sooo nice to lay my head on a pillow and finally get a few hours of shut eye.

Sanpete Road Race 2009

I started off by riding up to the ride with Higgins and Brent which is much more entertaining than driving it alone. We got a little frustrated with how slow the packet pick up line was moving. They finally just started handing out the numbers to everyone which was super nice. I was a little worried because I was still carrying 4 extra pounds from my vacation and had been sick during the week and I could still feel some junk in my lungs and was coughing every once in a while.

The race got off to a bang, literally! They shot off a canon, which sent the heart rate of John Ward up by 40 beats per minute. The pace was fast from the start. At about mile 9 or 10 we started climbing a little and Dwayne decided it would be nice to split the peloton, so he hit the climb hard. We lost John, Higgins, and Travis and about 20 other cat. 5's as they were spit out the back. I slipped to the back of the remaining peloton and was on the verge of becoming a casualty myself. I even saw Adam slide back a lot which surprised me.

The remaining peloton regrouped and we started trying to implement our team tactics. On a few occasions we grouped up front and tried to let Adam go. The peloton kept chasing him down. Liam, Brent, and I also tried but the peloton wouldn't let us go. It felt great to go to the front as a team and then block for another team mate and draft off of the chasers. Mentally I felt like we belonged at the front. I didn't feel like a small fish in a big pond anymore, I felt like a team of sharks in a small pond. At mile 40 we caught the cat. 4's who had started 5 minutes ahead of us. That really felt great.

We hit the water stop with the cat. 4 group and it was kind of a mess. I knew it was going to be a mess so I sprinted up the road to be get my water bottle first. I then slowed down to wait for my group. Alot of cat 4's came flying by with one cat 5 in their group. We regrouped with all the cat 4's in front of us now and the cat 5's behind. We knew that 1 cat 5 was in the cat 4 group and he rode the rest of the way with them and won the cat 5's.

Shortly after the water stop when we were regrouping I heard the sound of a flat tire and looked over and it was Liam. He was bummed. He only needed a couple of points to take over 1 place in the cat. 5 points standing. The thought crossed my mind that if he had the same pedals I could just trade bikes with him. It never crossed my mind until after the race when he brought up that we could have traded wheels with him. Sorry Liam!

Shortly after some other guy went off the front and the leaders in the peloton said to let him go alone. Another guy chased him down and that put two guys out front. After they got a small lead, another guy tried to bridge the gap and Brent got on his wheel along with two other guys which made a chase group of 4 or 5. They chased for a couple of miles and finally absorbed them. They now had 5 or 6 guys working together and had a good lead on the peloton of about 200 yards or so. They lead for about 5 miles. They had a reasonable chance of going all the way because of the mix in the break away many of the fast guys in the peloton weren't going to chase them down. Unfortunately they hit a bad section of road which made it impossible to rotate and they were caught by the peloton.

At about mile 60 I was hanging out at the back of the peloton and feeling pretty tired. I tried to stand up at one point and I felt a twinge of a cramp go through my leg. I quickly sat back down. I knew that I was in trouble at that point. Every time I tried to pedal hard I could feel twinges of cramps. With 3 miles to go at mile 64 we went up a little grade and I couldn't put enough pressure on the pedals to stay with the peloton and was dropped. I was easily with in reach of them if I could put any real pressure on the pedals. For the next two miles I dangled off the back by 50 to 100 yards with the fear that I was going to have an all out cramp attack.

Then I could see the peloton slow down because the cat. 4 peloton was only 30 seconds in front of them. I rejoined the peloton with 1k to go and then the sprint started. I knew that if I stood up that I would immediately cramp, so I just paced myself in easy with Dwayne, who wasn't even trying at this point.

We finished 67 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes. That is 24.35 miles an hour. Wow! We beat the cat. 4's best time by about 5 minutes and the peloton slowed up for them on a few occasions.

Liam came across about 10 minutes later, which is amazing considering he had to fix a flat and probably didn't have many riders to draft off of. John, Higgins, and Travis came in about 10 minutes behind Liam. They averaged about 22 miles an hour which is also very good.

Racing rule 1: Don't do anymore work than you need to.

Thanx to Zazoosh at the Tour de Park City we can enhance our education of this rule by reviewing some action shots.

Here we see Adam dragging the whole Cat 5 group:


Here's Rogers dragging his own group back to the front of Cat 5:


Here's Dean...dragging a Cat 3 group along...


Ok...did anyone listen to this rule so well explained by Coach Nate at Hakenya?

Ah, here's the star pupil - Good job Mason! Let the others suffer!


You know I kid. I almost wish I took part in this suffer fest with you. Maybe next year. Nice job to all of you, you look good out there. Here are a few more nice shots:

Adam
Rogers
Brent
Higgins
Mason
Dean

Heroes rule the day at the Tour de Park City

The Tour de Park City is quickly becoming a premier distance road race in Utah. It has a few advantages over Legendary races like Lotoja. For one, it is a circular course so the need for your own sag support, hotel room, and traveling is diminished. The rest stops were awesome this year. They were well placed and efficient this year. The course also has a lot more climbing than Lotoja which makes it better(and more painful) for splitting up the peloton.

I signed up in the Cat. 5's. I felt really intimidated because they combined the Cat. 5's with the 4's. It was by far the biggest group I have ever ridden with. There must have been 100 in the combined group. It was nice to see other BCC members in the group. I saw Mason, Higgins, Freddie, Adam, and Brent.

Our group started off at a fast pace. I positioned myself at the back and I could see on occasion that Adam and Brent were near the front. With the lingering painful memory of last years Tour on my mind I made a concerted effort to drink and eat plenty to postpone the "Bonk" as long as possible. With all the fluid intake I needed to pee badly, but at the same time I didn't want to lose the peloton. Right at the point that I couldn't take it anymore the whole peloton stopped in unison and took a nature break just like the Tour de France. Then at the first water stop no one attacked this year. Everyone slowed down, got their water, and regrouped with out too many problems. The pace was faster than last year and going up Chalk Creek we started to shed some riders from our group. There were a few times when my heart rate got a little high on some of the steeper sections of that canyon. The 50 mile water stop also went pretty well with no real attacks and lots of riders taking nature breaks. The story changed once we arrived at the 5 mile dirt road section. The attacks started and the peloton split. It was dangerous lots of flat tires and a few wrecks. By the time we hit the paved road again, I could see the peloton up the road with 20 to 30 riders left in it. Behind was the remants spread out all over the road. We slowly started gathering a few riders together over the next few miles to mount a formidable chase group. We chased for about 15 miles at a furious pace. I was worried that I had used up too much energy too early in such a long race. We reeled them in by mile 75. Then about mile 80 the pace slowed down. The peloton had roughly 40 left in it at this point. I could see Brent, Adam and Freddie up front still. At about mile 85 Adam went up front to push the pace a little but no one from the peloton got on his wheel. He just kept on riding away from the peloton. It wasn't planned, but he kept going. Finally the attacks started. One guy in particular wanted to bridge the gap up to Adam, but he didn't want to do it alone. Brent bravely employed the blocking strategy to protect Adam. He would get on the guys wheel but refuse to pull, so the guy would just give up. The guy made many attempts with all of them being foiled by Brent. When Brent wasn't foiling the attacks he was getting on the front of the peloton and then slowing the pace down. He was the ultimate teammate. Of course that used up alot of his energy and about mile 100 he drifted to the back of the peloton where I said hi to him for the first time in 4 hours 40 minutes. We finished the first 100 miles with 4850 ft of climbing in 4 hours 40 minutes. That was a lot faster than the previous year. Brent and I reached the water stop at mile 106, at the foot of the Uintah mountains together only 5 seconds behind the peloton. We grabbed our musettes and started to eat and drink. We made our way up to the peloton, buy it was short lived. The grade started to kick up and the peloton started riding off. Riders were being spit out the back all over the mountain side. It is about a 20 mile stretch of climbing between the water stops. I was riding alone and suffering but realized I was feeling a lot better than last year. Adam later said that the survivors in the peloton didn't catch him until near the top of Bald Mountain. What a Stud! I made it to the top and got some water. I started descending alone and was hoping a group would come along that I could ride with, but no such luck. about 10 miles down I decided to stop for a nature break, and when i turned around a group went flying by. I was disappointed that I missed that opportunity. I continued down alone until about two miles from kamas where a group of 3 caught me and I finally got to draft even if it was only a couple of miles. The climbs between Kamas and Park City are painful and hot. Just when you think you are done climbing and start to fly down hill you are presented with another climb. I was in survival mode for most of the last 25 miles, which was better than last year where I spent the better part of 75 miles in survival mode. I finished in a great time for me. I was about 55 minutes faster than last year. Adam and Freddie were already finished. Adam placed 3rd in the Cat 5's with a time of 8:33(roughly). I got 13th with a time of 9:00. Brent came in 14th with a time of 9:03. I didn't get the times of the other BCC members.

Chalk Creek Drag Race

First of all, congrats to Peter who won his division. He is the official state champion in the 55+ Category. Ryan also did well in the Cat 5's. Travis and Matt also represented the team in that division.

In the Masters 35+B division, it was a drag race. The peloton finished over 9 minutes faster than the Cat. 5's from 2008, and my personal time was almost 13 minutes faster than last years. I started off by trying to just hang on the back as long as I could. Last year I was spanked and left for dead on the 3rd hard hill and expected to only hang on a little longer this year. I secretly hoped the 35B division would be slightly easier than the Cat. 5's were. I was wrong, they actually beat the best cat. 5 2009 time by about 3 minutes. I could see Adam and Eric smartly hanging on the front and actually chasing down a few attacks. Brent seemed to be positioning himself in the middle. Part way up the canyon on a difficult hill the pace kicked up and my heart rate monitor started mocking me as I began slide off the back. I dug in deep and managed to hang on. Brent later said that we had split the peloton at that point and lost half of it. I hadn't noticed in all the pain. I was excited to still be in the lead group and tried to recover. At that point Adam and Eric were still up front, with Brent and I hanging on the back. I remembered from last year that at the turn around point the road kicked up and the pack attacked. So I decided to see if I could slide up to the front. About that time I hear a big snapping noise and a tirade of four letter words. It was Eric. His chain had decided to snap and save him some pain. The peloton started braking and swerving to miss him and I got pushed to the back again. At the turn around point there was a massive slow down whiched caused me to come to a complete stop at the back. Unfortunately the riders at the front attacked and I was left trying to re-snap in my shoes and get moving again. I could see Brent about 1/2 block ahead of me and the peloton about 1/2 block ahead of him. He must have had to stop also on the turn around. I put it in my highest gear and shifted my heart into 95% mode. I wasn't making up any ground and I was beginning to think my lungs were going to burst out of my chest. after about a mile two guys caught me and I hopped in their draft to catch my breath. We worked together to catch Brent, who I believe was holding up a little to wait for us. Then Brent and I worked like dogs for 10 more miles to reel in the peloton. I have never been more proud of my meager cycling skills than I was in that moment. I threw my hands up in the air as if I had just won a stage in the Tour de France. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to recuperate a little. As I started to feel good again, It dawned on me that I had probably used up way to much energy to really be effective up the final climb in a sprint, but I felt I needed to do something. So with 2 miles to go I moved up to the front. I said hi to Adam and attacked off the front. I created a gap and tried to settle into a rhythm. I only lasted about 30 seconds and the peloton reeled me in. I was starting to be absorbed by the peloton when I remembered that they were probably tired too, and with the image of Andy Shleck in my mind I just attacked again. I was quickly brought back to reality when my heart rate monitor texted, "You are NOT Andy!!!". At that point we were making the final turn and Adam had moved into first place and we only had to climb about 1/3 of a mile to the finish. I was ceremoniously dropped to the back. Brent said he downed a gel with about 8 miles to go that helped him finish strong in the sprint. Adam ended up drifting back some. I think he was trying to use the race to lose weight and probably didn't have the requisite carbs in his system. Even though I didn't place well, I felt successful with a faster time than last year, an awesome chase with Brent to catch the peloton, and two attacks at the end. And that is on top of losing 8 pounds or so last week. The 8 pounds that I had gained the month before. Do I dare to do the Tour de Park City next week. It was so painful last year that I don't know yet.

RMR tonight

Tonight was a decent turnout for BCC Racing at RMR. Brent, Liam, Jeremy and me (Eric) participated in the C flite while Stan made sure the cement wall on the drag strip stayed upright.

I have to say it was really nice to be in a pack with people from the same team as me. I don't mean to take anything away from my Category 4 team mates Steve M. and Dean C. but our race schedules don't seem to match up much so our Category 4 presence is usually quite slim. Having four of us in the pack together was cool.

Tonight's race course was slightly modified taking away what I believe to be the worst corner at the north west end of the course. This is usually a sharp left turn with a fence post that reaches out to get you, quickly followed by two massive sunken grids or manholes on the pavement to the right. Today's course used the northern most drag strip and took a wider turn...much better in my opinion.

I feel the team did well overall. It was Jeremy's very first criterium and he managed to stay in the pack for the majority of the race which is awesome, given the fact that pack riding in tight corners is quite intimidating. Most of us have to participate in a few criteriums to finally stick with the pack to the end. Brent did the best out of the group, finishing close to the bunch sprint. Liam and I flatted; I borrowed Stan's rear wheel and got back in, Liam changed his tube and got back in as well I believe.

What did the other participants think? What did it look like from Stan-I-will-never-race-a-crit's point of view?

Garden Creek Gap 2009

This race is located in Idaho, so I had to get up pretty early and drive a few hours. The course is a 25 mile loop that we had to do twice. Each lap starts with 18 miles of down hill or flats, which then turns into 7 miles of climbing back to the start/finish line. I signed up in the Masters 35+ B group, with two of my team mates. Everything started off great. I dropped back to the back of the peloton, since I am not really comfortable riding in the middle of 30-50 cyclists. I tried to relax and draft as much as possible. The speed was rather high for the first 18 miles, averaging around 26 miles an hour. It was nice to have a new heart rate monitor to see how the old ticker was holding up. We started climbing back to the start/finish line, when the fast guys started attacking and putting the pressure on. The peloton began to split apart. My heart rate monitor began touching the mid 170’s and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sustain this type of effort much longer. I managed to get on the back tire of one of my team mates, Eric. I just tried to hang on. There was a group of 4 riders who had broke away and created a 15 second gap on us. We were in the chase group with 5 of us still together. Looking back after reaching the top of the climb I could see we had dropped the peloton by about 30 seconds or so, which included our other team mate and my person hero from last year, Adam. After recovering and decending a little, we organized our chase group of 5 and reeled in the breakaway. I was suffering pretty bad, but ecstatic to be in a breakaway for the first time in my life. I guess being a few pounds lighter than last year has really helped. There were nine of us the breakaway, and they agreed to organize and work together to stay ahead of the chasing peloton. Looking back I couldn’t see them, but someone said they could. We started rotating and working together. After about 20 minutes of that I decided to just try and hang on the back. I was suffering and I didn’t see the urgency to fight off a peloton that wasn’t too close and who contained riders who we just dropped and most likely could drop again going up the 7 mile climb. At the 43 mile point we hit the climb again. It didn’t take long for our group to splinter. Unfortunately I was the first casualty off the back. I could see 2 or 3 guys off the front, with a group of 5 or 6 riders, which contained my team mate Eric, and then me. I was bonking quickly and my speed was dropping. Did I not eat enough? It was a hot day, was I dehydrated? What ever it was, I was slowing a lot. With about 3 miles to go, the first rider from the peloton caught me. I was happy to see that it was Adam. He was our teams most valuable rider last year and an inspiration for having lost 180 pounds at one point. He rode along side me for a little bit and said some encouraging words that I had trouble comprehending through the suffering I was feeling. After a few more seconds he continued up the climb. A few more guys from the peloton caught and passed me. I was in survival mode. I just wanted to finish or get a flat and have an excuse for quitting. I finished in 14th place, but I felt like a champion for the first 43 miles of the race. It was a great race and a lot of fun. Eric ended up in 7th place and Adam in 9th in our Category.

Peter from our club got 1st place in the 55+ Category. Congrats to him and congrats to all our other club members.

Antelope Island RR

Travis' report: Guys I don't think I've been so cold on any of my winter rides! It was just a cold wet day. The race was a cool route and they had more support cars than any other race I can think of but it was just cold & wet. And cold. We were all eating road salt & brine shrimp from the causeway so I don't think there was any chance of cramping up.

We were supposed to go around the loop 3 times and then out to the ranch & back to the finish. My first time around the loop one of the volunteers told us to turn right too the ranch so I thought that was part of the loop. by the time I made it around the loop and to the ranch the second time I had about 48 miles so I was screwed. I ended up riding alone most of the way for a total of 61 miles. I got home, warmed up, and took a nap for the rest of the afternoon. Maybe next year will be better. :)

Higgins & Liam did much better. Liam got a late start but got a chance to race with the Cat3's for a while. Higgins kept up pretty well on the loops before heading out to the ranch. I'll let them give the rest of their report.

Here's Higgins kicking some butt in the rain: http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/203010471

Here's me on my solo tour of the island: http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/203010597

Liam's Report: The Antelope Island race was one of the most miserable sports related event that I have ever participated in. You missed nothing if you didn't go. I thought the route was interesting and deceptively hard, but it was organized poorly. The sand and salt in the road was really nasty, there were an unusually high number of flats during the race. The lap system around the island caused a great amount of confusion. I think the weather conditions were actually on the brink of being dangerous to the well-being of the riders, if it had been much colder I could have been in a lot of trouble.

Stephen's report: Cold, wet and miserable, and that was the good part. Liam later suggested that a kick in the nuts would have been a fair trade, but at least that wouldn't have lasted 2 hours. :-) The warmup ride across the causeway was too slow to warm up properly, I should have just ridden off the front and at least stayed warm, lesson learned. As it was I was soaked and shivering within 3 minutes, and I just got colder until we reached the island. It was hard to shift and brake because my hands were so cold, and my rims were so wet. The downhill curves by the beach were treacherous and scary. The race organization was terrible, with someone erroneously telling Liam he couldn't race the causeway to catch his pack, when I did exactly the same thing 10 seconds later (but I was out of touch with Liam by then). Plus someone telling Travis to turn too early.

However, we likely could have avoided the race confusion by getting there early enough to sit (and soak and freeze) in the pack before the start, assuming they gave instructions on the route. We arrived about 30 minutes before the start, but with the long walk to registration and gearing up in the rain, that wasn't enough time. We left the new IHC hospital at 7:00 and got to the race at 7:50 for a start time of 8:25, we really should have started 1/2 hour earlier. Again, lesson learned. As for the race itself, I managed almost 2 of the 3 loops before I was dropped by the lead pack on the rollers. A couple guys caught me after that, one of whom faded after another 20 miles, and the other I rode with (see photo) and beat me up the final hill. I'd love to see the results but they don't have Cat 5 posted on the UCA site.

News Flash: Army Depot attacked

Hundreds of cyclist decended upon the Tooele army depot this weekend to fight for bragging rights and suffer with fellow soldiers. There were 3 major battles. The first one was "The battle of TRUTH." 8.7 miles of solo sufferfest up and down the outskirts of Tooele. The troops from BCC Racing gave it their best shot. Eric, Liam, and Rogers finished with identical times of about 24:08. Don't be fooled by Liams time on the results page. He missed his start by about a minute. We teased him a little for that. Higgins was very nervous for some bet he had going with Todd. Mason, John Ward, and Higgins all finished well. The cat 5 winners time would have beat all the cat 4's and put him in 6th place in the cat 3's. We all gathered together in Eric's military baracks after the race to lick our wounds and tell battle stories.

The second battle was a 20 mile curcuit race for the cat. 5's and 25 for the cat 4's. Each lap was 5 miles long, with 3 miles up hill and only 2 down. Something is wrong with that math. Our troops all survived the first lap and second laps. On the third lap the enemy injured John on the climb. On the last lap it was "NO GUTS, NO GLORY TIME". Rogers and Liam attacked to try and bridge up the Pro Mt. Biker who had a lead on the peloton. They made the gap. Higgins fell a little short in his attempt. Liam and Rogers were both red lining at that point and only were able to do a couple rotations with the fast guy and then they fell victim and were swallowed up by the peloton and spit out the back, high fiving each other for at least trying. Eric did a fantastic job in the cat. 4's were he finished with the peloton at a higher average pace then the cat. 5's. Go Eric.

The Easter battle was a 49 mile loop of the Tooele valley. After the 2 mile neutral start the battle heated up. John made a valient effort for about 16 miles before being being dropped. Mr. Higgins or Mr. I need to adjust my caveman nuts got spit out a couple of miles later. John and Higgins later hooked up where they worked together. They tried to come to an agreement of who would finish first, but in the end John out sprinted the svelt Higgins to the line. Liam and Rogers managed to hang with the main group for the full distance, which was a goal accomplished for both of them. They both almost got dropped a few times, but hung in there. Eric is the Most Valuable Sufferer of the War. He managed to hang onto the peloton in the cat. 4 group who rode the course 7 minutes faster then the cat. 5 group. And thanks for the trailer hang out too. It's nice to have a place to hang at the race. Congrats to all, and to all a good Easter.


Erics stage one
My first stage race ever starts with a nine mile individual time trial. I was excited due to my desire to get into stage racing and time trialing.The excitement had me at heart rate zone 2 - 2.5 as I was waiting to start my time trial. The start box was way cool; it is a great help to start down that ramp and get going immediately. Power output at the start: 597 watts.The excitement ended at approximately 1.3 miles when I got passed by the 30 second person behind me. I hadn't reached the F@#$# climb yet, damn. That's ok, maybe that one guy is just ridiculously strong. I still see my 30 second guy, maybe I can catch him. I didn't.I got passed by 3 or 4 people before it was over. I averaged 21.6 mph, 218 watts for 24 minutes. That yielded me nearly last place, 4 minutes behind the leader. Ouch.

Erics stage two
The second part of the day includes a 25 mile circuit race over a 5 mile circuit. One word: Brutal.Of course the first lap everyone is just trying to get rid of the weaker riders. It worked; I believe approximately 1/3 of the group went away. Second lap and third laps are just as tough, with the fourth and fifth laps turning out to be a bit more relaxed. What that means in power is the first three laps I hit 335-355 watts to stick to the group, where the last two I got away with under 233-282. Heart rate wise that translates to hitting the 190s vs staying under 184. See pretty graphs at Garmin Connect.The finish was nuts. I reached 41.7 miles per hour which earned me a 13th place. Yeah, I can see why so many people like sprinting, what a rush!I still don't know the difference between a circuit and a criterium, but I'm about to look it up. Effort wise there is simply no difference.

Erics stage three
Stage 3 - 49 miles in 2 hours and 6 minutes with 24 of my newest friends. Average speed 23.5 miles per hour, and yes, a sufferfest for me. After the race I talked to one of the Ski Utah guys that has been Cat 4 for a year, and he said this was a pretty relaxed pace.I like neutral racing. We spent two miles in town going through a few traffic signals at a nice friendly pace. I really wanted to stick to that pace for much longer but my new buddies didn't agree. As soon as the flag person passed by at the end of the neutral zone the pack took off like a bullet. The stats show a jump from 12 to 22 mph right at the 2 mile point. Soon after we averaged over 30 mph for over 5 miles as we were racing a train. Fun. This portion of the race was interesting. As I was moving up the pack to avoid getting dropped I ended up right up front and did a pull at ridiculous speeds. I pulled for 30 seconds or so and moved off, which started an actual structured rotation with the 5-10 front guys. We did a few minutes of this and it broke down because the majority of the group wasn't participating.I had over 8 "match burning" events just trying to stick to the group including hitting over 40 miles per hour twice. End result: the whole group, I mean everyone, together at the end for a 40 mph bunch sprint. Serious fun.

Please add comments and/or pictures to this post)

Lap Around the Oquirrhs, 108 mi Saturday

Depending on the direction of the wind we will start toward the South or the North to arrange a tail wind through the Tooele Valley. It would make the ride much more enjoyable. In the Salt Lake Valley there is at least a little terrain to deflect the wind a little. Kerry says he knows the way.

This is a fast A-pace ride. I'm hoping some of BCC Racing will be looking for a ride this weekend. If you ride for a different team, or you're a BCC Member, or found this ride on the web, come out and hang tough for 6 hours. Minimal stops, high average speed, but supposedly moderate climbing.

Not only is this completely self-supported, it won't be an official club ride, because of the short time frame. Ride at your own risk. !!! TWO tubes, TWO bottles, PLENTY of nutrition required. !!!

Bingham Library at the corner of 90th South and 4800 West, Saturday 3/14/09 11:00am

Be there or be square.

Stephen Higgins 801-608-0861 stephen at twigsinourhair.com

Sunday morning Church of Pain training ride…

Ride Cancelled because of Cold

If I learned anything in my first year of racing, I learned that the race is usually won on the hills. I raced in about 5 races last year and was dropped off the back of the peloton in every one of them on a hill, except one, where I bonked at mile 95 for lack of carbs and fluids. So my goal this year is to improve my climbing. Nothing felt worse than to see the peloton slip away as I was gasping for air, and feeling the painful effects of lactic acid overload through out my body. So I am going to have to make some changes to achieve my goal. For one thing, I will need to get my weight under my last year low of 189. Secondly, if I can keep from getting laid off, I will need to purchase some lighter wheels from our new wheel sponsor Williams Wheels. Lastly, I will need to do some hard hill intervals. So if there are any gluttons for pain and improvement, I will be doing a Sunday morning boot camp of hill intervals on March 8th, at 9:00 AM. Check your clocks because I believe its day light savings time that day. This is not for the faint of heart or really out of shape. This one is going to hurt. We will meet at the top of the hill at the corner of 2300 E. Bengal blvd.(approx. 7600 S.). We will do about a 2.40 mile loop as a warm up and then hit the hill hard. At the top we will go slow, regroup, and try to recover as we go around the loop again. I plan on doing it 6 times. You get extra points if you throw up at the top. If you have any health problems or are not in really good shape, then you can do the interval a lot slower. The total mileage will be about 14 miles. If there are any ride leaders who are going to come could you try and get it put on the calendar. Thanks.

2009 East canyon road race details

The 2009 East canyon road race details are available at http://www.sports-am.com/events/index575.htm. This is the second race on the team's official list.

Personally, this was a 55-ish mile individual time trial last year. Don't do that.

Team meeting Feb 18th (RSVP)

We will have a team meeting Wednesday, Feb 18th at 7pm at Rocky Mountain Pizza. Our sponsor Capital Confidence Advisors is kicking in for some pizza and soda, thanks Todd!!! (No buffet this time, we are going end by 8:30.) Yes, I knows this conflicts with the In-n-Out Burger Road Trip, we did the best we could to balance time for everyone to make room in their schedule for this meeting, with the need to get the team kit order processed for delivery by East Canyon RR.




Please RSVP to (JTodd.Anderson "at" lfg.com) if you can make it to the team meeting, we are trying to plan for the food. Thanks in advance.


Rocky Mountain Pizza Company
3977 South Wasatch Blvd
Salt Lake City, UT 84124
(801) 272-9888

The shorter topic is collecting your information and orders for team kits. More information on this to come from Randy Miller who has graciously become not only the Fashion Guru but also the Recording Secretary to collect all our info, and the Treasurer to collect all our dues and also handle the money for the team kits. Thanks, Randy !!! Randy will be sending out kit info by email, PLAN TO ORDER kits by this meeting if you need them.

The longer topic is training. The Lactic Acid Gang met yesterday at Todd’s office, finalized our approach to training this year. Thanks, Bill and Elton !!! Bill will present our outline for training this year, which involves the topics of lactate threshold and power testing, heart rate monitors and power meters, heart rate zones, using SuperSeries rides and weekly rides for specific training goals, coaching, and peaking for various races. :-)

Tour of the Depot details available

What was the Tooele valley stage race or Triple valley stage race is now the Tour of the Depot.

The Tour of the Depot web site has been updated with this year's race details. This is the first race on BCC Racing's focus list. Details at http://www.triplevalley.com/