Doping In Sport

You'll note I called this doping in sport, and not doping in cycling. Sports, in general, have had this issue thrust in their face recently, but it's not a new problem. The solutions are not going to be quick, and they are not going to be cheap.

Recently I had a discussion on bikejournal where one particular poster posted the idea of "who care? Let 'em dope. It doesn't affect me." I'd like to first address that issue.

What drives us to watch sport? In my own life I've found that it's the possibility of of seeing a human being lift themselves up to overcome. One of my all-time favorite movies, Vision Quest, has a scene where the wrestling hero, Louden, is wondering why his friend, a short-order cook, would take time off of work to come watch him - after all, it's just a wrestling match, and it's only 5 minutes! His friends reply says it all. He tells him that it's not the time, but what happens in that time. That sometimes an athlete lifts himself above a challenge and excels, and when he does that it lifts everybody that's watching it. Doping cheapens that. Suddenly it's not the human spirit over-coming, it's drugs.

Additionally, younger athletes look to those at higher levels for inspiration and direction in sport. If they're using it influences younger kids to use.

Who cares? I do.

Doping, and other forms of cheating, is not some recent discovery. In the late 70's and early 1980's it became a joke that the women competing for the Soviet Union could beat most of the men competing because they LOOKED like men. EVERYBODY knew that the Soviet's were using. This created the thought that anybody who could beat them must also be using. Evelyn Ashford ran into this when she beat the Soviet women (and later won the gold medal in the 100m sprint at the 1984 Olympics). The saying went, if she was able to beat the "shemales" she must be using herself.

It's common knowledge in cycling, especially the Tour de France, that there have been cheats. Everything from hitching a ride, to using amphetamines. Although it was well known there were cheats, there was a general belief amongst competitors that you could win clean. That all began to change in the mid 1980's. And, not just in the cycling world.

The Soviets dominated almost every sport at the Olympics. Women's sports, especially, were made a joke. I remember watching women's swimming events and being amazed at the masculine features of these swimmers. Initially Soviet dominance was credited with the fact that these athletes were able to train full-time - they were basically professionals but still credited as being amatuers. That story didn't last long.

Soon it became policy for everybody else to use some form of doping. Until just after the 1984 Olympics the practice of blood doping (removing your own blood and later tranfusing it back to you) was NOT illegal. It was policy within the USCF that you blood doped. I find it incredulous that a single cyclist on the 1984 team would even attempt to try and convince the public that he didn't blood dope.

The real problem that developed was that athletes started to believe that the only way to win was to dope. If everybody else is doing it, you're only levelling the playing field, right? I recently read the story of two Olympians in the 1970's. They were friends, one from the Soviet Bloc, the other from the US. They traded victories and records. Before they competed at the Olympics they got together to discuss their training. One told the other what drugs he was using. "Sounds like the program I'm on." was his reply. One won gold, the other silver.

One of the best articles I've read on doping in sport is a recent article (from which I pulled the above story) in RUNNING TIMES - a running magazine. It's in the Jan/Feb 2008 issue and is called "Protect The Innocent."

The bottom line to busting doping in sport is to create the biological passports that cycling teams like Slipstream and Team High Road are putting together, and that now the UCI is promoting. There is no way that testing is ever going to catch all the cheats. There will always be a new drug that can't be identified. (To this day there is not a test that can realiabley detect transfusing your own blood, though one is in the works.) Testing, by it's very nature, will always be one step behind the dopers. However, by creating a profile of an athlete it is possible to detect changes in their physiology that are sudden and enexplainable. The kinds of results that doping creates. Now you're not testing for a specific drug, but the physiological changes a drug is creating.

It also eliminates the ability of an athlete to challenge a test. The fact is the equipment used to run these tests is VERY complicated, and very sensitive. To get accurate readings it requires exact protocols to be followed. I've spoken with people who work on these things and all that I've spoken to say clearly that if the protocols aren't followed exactly the results can't be trusted. Guilty athletes rely on this to create doubt. Innocent athletes could get rail-roaded if these protocols aren't followed. A passport provides an avenue for an athlete to prove his innocence. In an ideal world he shouldn't have to. Everyone should be competing for the love of sport and honor - in the real world we know there are cheats, and the only way to catch them and level the playing field for those who are competing clean is to use the passport.

Doping is a complex problem. It's going to require complex solutions to get rid of it. The only solution I've seen that I would have any faith in is the passport. Is it perfect? Not a chance. There will be some who slip through the cracks - but combined with testing (note: I'm not advocating eliminating testing.) it will make it more difficult for athletes to dope.

The fact is: we KNOW of dopers who were NEVER caught by testing. I'm absolutely convinced that the only people who get caught doping are those who are stupid or who make mistakes. (The case of Tyler Hamilton and Perriero come to mind.)

Dopers suck. Let's get rid of them and return sport to that place where we can all be inspired by amazing performances.

Friday sufferring

Well, it looks like computrainer problems are completely resolved. GREAT! Friday is my scheduled T-max interval day. wooohooo!

I had a few problems at the beginning - but they weren't the same kind of troubles. Looks like someone was messing around with me bike and the cadence magnet and pickup were moved. One of my kids is gonna be in trouble. A little frustrating to have to mess around with that, but it's done and off I went for my T-max.

I had changed the interval session slightly - increased the wattage on the recovery space by 25 watts, and decreased the interval wattage by 20 watts. My reasoning was that I haven't been able to keep the cadence up during the intervals, and that's one of the areas that I'm working on - so, I figured a slightly lower interval wattage would lead to higher cadence. I was right.

I was only able to do 3 of the intervals instead of the scheduled 6 due to some time issues (amazing how much having to mess around with equipment before a ride can eat into available time!)

I was able to keep my average cadence at 95 and kept the interval cadence over 90. That's a huge improvement. So, my intervals wattage was 300 watts even. 2.5 minutes at 300 watts. I was definitely working, but even at that, my max HR only got to 175, so I know I had more to go.

Later today Steve and I are hoping to be able to get a T-max test in for him.

TO THE PAIN!!

Computrainer frustrations

A short post this go round - I'm getting really frustrated with my computrainer - well, not really my computrainer, but my computer.

For the last few rides - for about a week - every time I get to 30 minutes or so the computer loses the connection with the computrainer and my ride program is effectively over. I've been chatting with Computrainer about (their customer service is fantastic!) but as far as we can tell, something, somewhere, has been changed on my computer and it's making the program do wacko things.

Hopefully the changes I made tonight will allow me to go for a full ride tomorrow morning. As it is, I've just been getting warmed up when it goes Kapute!

Friday Night Thoughts

My son and two of his friends are currently downstairs watching Mr. Bean. This means that I will be awake, upstairs, waiting for the show to end (it's not cool for Dad to be down there watching it with them, ya know.) and then driving 'em all home. So, I decided I'd blog a little.

The last couple of days I've done something I wasn't going to do - I've posted a few times to Bikejournal. I guess I really can't keep my mouth shut!

A few things that I've seen re-emphasized to me lately. I'm seeing more and more intolerance. Especially in the anonymous world of the internet - but not just there.

Yesterday morning Mitt Romney was basically forced to give a speech on religous tolerance and freedom. Being a bit of a student of politics I found his thoughts and comments especially uplifting. He didn't get into trying to defend his faith in terms of doctrine. He simply emphasized the founding fathers conviction that freedom of religion, faith, and values contribute to freedom in a general sense. I've recorded his speech so I can make my kids watch it - though I know that's not going to help any. Anyway, here's some links to the speech:

Part I


Part II


Part III


Part IV


Back to my original train of thought. I posted on the low carb weight loss thread at bikejournal because I was getting tired of the intolerant expressions that were creaping up there. As much as I try to stay out of the way of some of this stuff, I really do believe the saying of "all that's needed for evil to triumph is for good men to sit idly by." - so I posted.

Time Trialing

Tomorrow my TT bike will be ready to go. I probably won't actually get it picked up until Tuesday - so pics will be a few more days - but here's what I've got.

I have been riding a GURU trilite bike, but last year at a Provincial ITT 40km race my bike didn't pass inspection - I couldn't get the seat moved far enough back to meet UCI regulations. I made some adjustments, and I can now make it work, but I decided that eventually I was going to do something different.

Then one day last month, as I was doing my usual searches on ebay I found a Specialized Transition from 2006 that was for sale and coming up in a couple of hours, and at only $150. No, it's not the unbelievable machine that the 2008 Transition is, but the 2008 runs $8500. I decided to follow this bike, and if it went cheap enough I was gonna jump on it. I ended up getting the frame for $400.05 plus $70 shipping.

I then picked up a Renn 575 disc clincher wheel with rubber, cassette and skewer for $400.

As I started swapping components over I decided that I wanted more adjustability than what my Oval Concept A700 bars allowed, so I picked up a T2 base bar and mounted my T2+ clip ons onto it.

As I started putting things together I realized I really didn't want to have to fish the cables through the internal routing - so I took the bike into Ascent Cycle and asked them to put it together for me. I picked up a new chain and cables from them, too.

So, the finished bike will have: Dura Ace 7700 Front der and rear der, Dura Ace 7800 bar end shifters, Ultegra 6600 cassette, Ultegra 6500 brake calipers, and some inexpensive Tektro brake levers. I'll be running my Roval Rapide Star front wheel (the stuff I've been reading says that it's faster than the Specialized 3 spoke wheel is) and my Renn disc. I'll need to pick up some new rubber - as I want to put 20 mm tires on 'em.

I've also picked up a new TT helmet - a Giro Advantage 2.

One of the best articles I've ever read on aerodynamics and equipment can be found at http://home.hia.no/~stephens/aero.htm It's written in every day language and allows you to make some good predictions of what kinds of times your equipment will save you.

One of the big surprises I found was that slower riders actually benefit more in time saved than a faster rider does from some equipment changes. However, the biggest single factor is rider position, specifically, getting the back flat.

This year I really want to break one hour for 40km. An "excellent" body position with my current wattage output should be able to get me there. Of course, I'm going to be working on increasing my wattage output. Right now I'm able to hold about 225watts for an hour. (That's average wattage for an hour - with the hills there's points where I jump up well over 300 for brief periods.)

Me and my computrainer begin our December program tomorrow morning. In the words of Monty Python... TO THE PAIN!

Riding in each State

A couple of years ago I decided that I wanted to ride my bike in each state - and see where it went from there. Yet, I've never actually sat down and made a list that I could update as I went along. So, I've decided to make this entry my list, at least for now. I'll try and add more details as I work my way through my journal. This post will definitely be a continually updated one!

Arizona - Nov/07 El Tour de Tucson
Arkansas - BJ First Union 2004
California - Death Valley Double March 2006
Colorado - Triple Bypass 2007
Idaho - Far too many to mention
Illionois - BJ Reunion 2006
Montana - Tailwinds N/S Tour 2004
New Mexico - BJ First Union trip 2004
Oklahoma - BJ First Union 2004
Texas - HHH 2005 & 2006
Utah - SLC century and Alpine Loop, And Zion's Century, St. George (amongst others.)
Wyoming - Tailwinds N/S Tour 2004

Outside of the US I've ridden in Queensland, Australia and British Columbia

I also thought I'd keep a list of organized rides I've done, but will not include here the races I've done in Alberta.

HHH 2005 & 2006
SLC 2005, 2006, & 2007
El Tour de Tucson 2007
Zion's Century 2005
Death Valley Double Spring 2006
Bike Journal First Union 2004
Bike Journal Reunion pre-ride 2005
Bike Journal Reunion 2006
Triple Bypass 2007

Well, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. As I go through my journals, I'm sure more will come to mind.

Planning Next Year's Rides / Races

I won't have my Alberta Bicycle Association racing schedule for a few more months, but I've been doing a little planning and this is what I'm tentatively looking at for 2008 trips, and why.

April - Tour of Phoenix. This is purely to go fast and see if I can qualify for Platinum at El Tour of Tucson for next year.

May - Salt Lake City Century. This ride is flat, and actually a little boring after having done it time and time again. BUT, it's close enough to Bart that he'll be able to ride it with us, so we'll go down and see just how fast of a century we can turn in there. To make it really fun, we'll probably ride the Alpine Loop the day before like we did last year. That one's great - lots of scenic, tough climbs (and this time of the year, closed roads on a big chunk of the climb!)

June - Elk Horn Classic. This one is Oregon. It's a 4 stage, 3 day race. First day is 80 miles of relative flat, second day is a ITT of 10 miles in the morning, and a crit in the afternoon, third day is a 100 mile mountain stage.

July - something going on in Colorado...

August - still open. Could bring a return to HHH

September - the possibility exists that I can be talked into doing the LOTJA - Logan, Utah To Jackson, Wyoming. 200 miles of racing fun through the mountains.

October - no plans

November - El Tour de Tucson.

I'll update this as things start to come together, but that's the tentative plans at this point.

EL Tour de Tucson

John, Sheri, and I left Cardston about 3 or 4 hours late (thanx John) on Tuesday - and then began the journey south. We arrived in Cedar City, Utah at about 5am and woke Bart up so we could get what we euphamistically referred to as "sleep." It was a long drive, but an Ipod loaded with 3,000 some odd songs makes for some great "name that tune" moments.

Wed John, Bart, and I went for a ride. Boy, did I feel rotten! It was 18 miles of climbing (about 4,000 feet. From a starting altitude of 6,000 feet and finishing at 10,000 feet.) I don't know if I've ever felt that rotten on a ride before. I was seriously concerned whether or not I was going to be able to even finish the TDT, never mind my original goal of sub 5 hours. The descent down was frightening. Not because of the speeds, but because of the cold. Once the sun went down there the temps dropped fast. At one point Bart checked his thermometer and it was about 35F. I had sweated aLOT on the climb, as I was really suffering. (I won't go into the details, but the stats were really ugly.) I was shaking so hard that I had to stop because I was scared I couldn't keep the handlebars straight anymore. Finally I got cold enough that I stopped shaking and continued the dash for daylight. Took me awhile to warm up when we got back to Bart's, but I was okay. (Hot chocolate never tasted so good!!) It felt like a tough ride to me, and I pointed out that it sure felt tougher than the climb to Brian's Head had - Bart and John told me it wasn't, and that my thinking so was all because I wasn't feeling good.

Lesson learned so far?? Well, John and I simply didn't have much time to train for this ride. Our longest, most recent ride was Triple Bypass in July. The longest ride I did since then was I did one tailwinds ride into Lethbridge of about 2 hours. I just checked my journal, and I only did 3 other rides outside - and for the last 2 months John and I have managed 3-4 computrainer rides a week. Fortunately, we were doing T-max interval rides 2 times / week, so the intensity was high. We're hoping that it's gonna be enough, but after the ride with Bart I'm having serious doubts. Bart and John tried to convince me that it was just the travel and lack of sleep, but I'm really wondering.

Thursday we travelled to Phoenix. John's sister lives there, so we crashed at her house. I didn't sleep very well (it was very hot in their basement, and I was very uncomfortable.) - I think I finally fell asleep about 6:30 or 7am. Not a good start. Because of that we didn't get up in time to head over to JulieB's place to ride with everybody and share in RaleighDon's pie.

We jammed down to Tucson and headed straight for the convention centre. While getting our stuff there we ran into Z'man and chatted for a few minutes before he headed back to get his bike and deal with the Trek guys on it.

RustyRoadie knows us well, as he was able to walk right over to where he figured we'd be setup and find us. He lead us over to where the rest of the Bikejournal gang was gathering, and we went over and chatted for abit. Was good to meet a few new faces and a few old friends. I finally got to meet FastEddie (and he IS fast, as he proved at the TdT ride.)

Finally off to bed - and now, the actual RIDE REPORT.

John and I got up early - but not early enough to be right at the front of the Gold group! We actually got to the line about 4:45 and were probably 100 feet back. Saw RustyRoadie a litte further back.

I was just wearing my arm warmers and leg warmers - so it was a little chilly at the beginning. The start finally came and we were off! The start was FAST. I could see that there were alot of people in this group that shouldn't have been, and that there would be some crashes. I made a mental note to stay alert.

I saw DecafBeanBoy, and he let me know when we were getting close to the first Wash - for those who haven't done this ride before, this is not a simple creek crossing like I was originally led to believe. This is a "pick up your bike - don't ride it or push it along, as flats are VERY common along here - and carry it for what will feel like 20 miles (it's really only 19)

At the end of it my cleats were packed pretty solidly with sand. It meant I spent the next mile pounding my foot onto the pedal and trying to get it to clip in. Finally got both of them clipped in and continued to hammer. I had cleat covers, but somehow they got lost. Speedplay's don't do well in sand.

I got onto a quick paceline - more like a pack. Probably close to 200 riders in it. We were moving pretty quick and I was enjoying the ride. I saw FastEddie with this group. Ol' FastEddie was doing more than his share of pulling up front, and I made my way up to give him a hand. I made a couple of pulls, and felt pretty good - then I'm not sure where everybody went to....

First hint of trouble happened around mile 15 or so - don't remember for sure. My calve muscles started to cramp. I continued through and the cramping eased up, but I should've taken the warning and done something about it.

Suddenly we were at the second Wash. This one was worse. Forced single file. I heard lots of flats going off all around me. I was grateful for the advice I'd recieved earlier from an experienced TDT rider, "Do NOT, under any circumstances, think that you can ride this stuff - even if you manage to stay up with the deep sand, you'll end up with a flat tire. It's just not worth the risk." I saw that time and again.

I laughed when I saw the "wall" I'd been warned about. I didn't check what the actual grade was, but it couldn't have been more than about 12% for maybe a couple of hundred feet. Nothing that killed me.

A little later, while climbing a short little rise I felt my quads cramp - HARD. And then all strength left me. I knew right away what had happened, and I was very mad at myself. I was hitting the wall. I hadn't had anything to eat yet. 75 or 80 miles into it, and I hadn't eaten anything. Yes, I'd polished off a full gatorade bottle, but no food.

This was my first attempt at doing a century riding straight through, and so the first time that I really needed to concentrate on eating. Normally I just eat something at each rest stop. In this case there was no rest stops for me. I was hammering. "Was" being the operative word.

I pounded back some gel - I have no idea how much. I washed it down with more gatorade - and I crested the hill to see FastEddie pounding away at the front of the group and knew there was no way I was catching back onto this one. I looked behind me... oh oh. There wasn't anybody back there. I slowed. Finally after 6 or 7 miles of pounding along on my own another paceline came by - I jumped on, felt rejuvinated, and on the next downhill found myself coasting up to the front. Suddenly I was at the head of the paceline at the base of a hill. I decided to see what was in the legs and pounded up this short 2-3% grade. We crested and I started to drop back. Pants of "nice pull" invigorated me again. I hung on for awhile longer - and then the cramps hit me again.

With 25 miles left to go, we headed back into the wind. As another paceline came by me this guy calls out, "jump on, don't get dropped here, it's into the wind the rest of the way." I tried to jump on - I stood and up and felt my legs spasm hard - it almost threw me off the bike. Somehow I managed to get on for a little while. I soon fell off, though. I checked the time, checked my average speed, checked the miles left, and realized that if somehow I could pick it back up I could still make 5 hours but it would be close.

My speed dropped. Another paceline went by me and I couldn't even manage to catch it. I was really struggling to hold anything close to a decent pace.

At mile 100 and change I realized that I would be able to get close - maybe within 6 or 7 minutes, but I was not going to break 5 hours, so the next rest stop I went by I stopped and fuelled up. I dumped a couple of water bottles on my legs to help cool them off, and hopefully get the cramping to stop. It seemed to help. Another paceline came by and I managed to get on. I even gained enough strength to help pull a few times. But, I was cooked and I knew it. At this point it was just about finishing - and finally I did.

My time was 5:17 - I had about 10 minutes of stopped time at the one rest stop. I learned alot about eating on the bike and what I need to do for rides like this. I wished I'd have gotten it through my head earlier, but at least it's there now! I also need to find a way to do longer training rides - and definitely need more time on the bike!

I don't know if I'll be going back next year, but I will go back. I found the support at this ride incredible. EVERY intersection was manned by police. People lined the streets and really made the riders feel like they were wanted there. In discussing it afterwards with John and Sheri they agreed that there was amazing difference between riding the Salt Lake City Century and the TDT - and it's in the way we were treated by the organizers. I'll be sending a letter to the TdT and letting them know how much it was appreciated, and that because of that I'll be back.

El Tour Prep

Well, tomorrow we leave for El Tour de Tucson. Originally my wife was going to join me for the trip, and I was looking forward to a little get-away with her to someplace warm, but she's decided that she needs to stay at home with the kids.

We're hoping to be out of here by noon tomorrow. We'll see whether that actually happens or not - you never know with John!!

Our schedule will have us blasting through Montana, Idaho, and northern Utah in one fast-paced trip. We'll stop in Cedar city for a little sleeps, and then a ride with Bartman on Wed. We'll stay the night with Bart, and then Thurs head for Phoenix. We'll spend Thurs night there, then head for Tucson on Fri - sleep in the parking lot Fri night, race Saturday - head back to Phoenix Sat night, and at least as far as Cedar City Sunday. We'll be home late Monday night.

Both John and I have been limited in our training time - no long rides. We've been doing high intensity work, and I've seen my average wattage for an hour climb by 23 watts. Will it be enough? Guess we're going to find out. I know that this kind of training is what John and I need to do for our crit racing next season. We've also decided to do the Elkhorn Classic stage race in June - that will mean some tough racing!

I'm still way overweight - weightloss keeps taking a back seat to other things. I'm hoping that I'm on the right track again, and that I'll actually be able to take off and keep off the weight. Fortunately there's not a lot of climbing on the TdT route, so my weight shouldn't hurt me too much.

Khan's football

Well, the Oct 26 game was a good game and our kids fought hard. We came out of it with a win against McCoy from Medicine Hat. So off they went to the next round - the quarter finals. We'd be playing a team from Okotoks, the Foothills Falcons.

Our boys had some injuries to deal with, so all week my son was learning plays and a new position. I was excited for him, as he was learning the Full Back position, and it's where I really feel like he should be playing.

Okotoks had scouted us pretty good and they marched the ball against us pretty badly in the first quarter. Our Defensive Coach turned to my son and said, "I'm pulling you out of full Back and putting you on the D-line - now go stop them!" And he did. I'm sure there were other changes that took place at the same time, but from the time my son started playing d-line we were able to stop some huge 3rd downs and made some good progress. Turned out to be a very good quality game. Yes, some REALLY bad reffing (The head ref actually came over to the sidelines for a call and said, "Cheap shot to the back" as his call.) With less than 2 minutes left in the game we were down by 2 touchdowns. With one minute left we were down by one touchdown. We went for an on-side kick, but weren't able to complete it (really tough to do when your kicker is down with a dislocated knee!) So, the season is over. It was exciting. It was an amazing lift from previous years. The future bodes well for this program. A big thank-you to our new coaching staff.

Catching up... again.

It's amazing how busy life gets. I really do need to make this a regular "must do" 'cuase to try and go back and remember the emotion and details of things that have happened 2 months ago is difficult.

Since I last posted 2 of my sons have been playing football and one volleyball. (I think he's decided that next year he's gonna play football too.) My oldest, Khan, was making a huge impact in the games he played in - and then got injured pretty badly. He was diagnosed with a torn rotater cuff, and so I began the research of what we were going to need to do. We were able to witness a miracle when just a few weeks later he fully recovered. Last week I let him play in his first game back, and tonight his team makes an appearance in round one of the playoffs.

Brady, my other football son, is doing great. He still plays like he wants to be Khan, but he's developing his own style, and is playing different positions now (he used to insist on being on the line - like his big brother.) He's made a couple of big receptions, and some big hits as a defensive back.

Michael has had fun playing volleyball, but kind of likes the idea of being a Barfuss twin playing football with his brother.

There - that's my boys all caught up. Keisha is doing ballet.

Me: Well, the weight loss has been slow to say the least. I would go weeks without getting on the bike. Life just seemed to be moving in high speed and I wasn't making time for myself. No more.

This last week I made the committment that I'd be going to El Tour de Tucson. And if I'm going to do it, I wanted to Platinum. (complete the 109 miles in under 5 hours) That will be difficult, but it is doable. John and I have been working hard. We won't be able to put in the kind of long rides we'd like to, so we're working hard at intervals and high-spin on the rollers. I have managed the occassional trip into Lethbridge for a couple of hours at a shot - and a couple of weeks ago did a 100km ride into Leth (out to Leavitt first) I felt good and was able to really lay it down during sections I'd previously had difficulty with. I hammered up every hill and recovered on the way down.

The weight has finally started to come off a little - but would definitely do better if I didn't succomb to snacks as easy. I don't understand why I've had such a hard time saying no to crap food lately. 3 years ago I did pretty good. I need to find the internal discipline re: eating again. Hopefully this week is the beginning of that.

Up, up, and away!

Last year I never got out to do Logan's pass even once. This year I hadn't done it, either. So, yesterday John and I headed out to ride Logan's Pass. His wife, Sheri, decided to join us. We were planning on riding both sides, she was just going to do one.

We drove down to Sunrise campground and unloaded. Off we went. The wind was howling - but never from the same direction. Great. We stopped for a couple of pics at the bottom - and then John and I left Sheri and began to ride in ernest. John set a pretty good pace, and I dropped back a bit to get a pic. I guess I shouldn't have done that, 'cause shortly after John decided to do a little interval and hammmered away. We were coming up on a corner and as he hit I saw him rise and just knew what he was gonna do. We kicked the pace from 14km/hr all the way up to 25, and I saw him glance back a couple of times to see where I was. Dirty rotten scoundrel! He's not supposed to do this kind of crap until later!

I kept the gap the same, but couldn't close it. Then I settled in to recover. John gradually pulled away from me. A few times as we came around the corner the wind changed direction and where I'd expected a bit of a tailwind I ended up with a full-on head wind! Climbing grades of 7-12% is tough enough, throw in headwinds of 40km/hr and it gets ugly. There were places I was standing and hammering in the granny just to keep going.

I got a kick out of watching some of the tourists faces as they went by, amazed that anybody would want to do this!

Near the top, about 3km away, I came around a corner and saw a guy standing in the middle of the road, taking pics. I realized that he was taking a pic of me and decided to give him something exciting to photograph. I stood up and kicked it up a few notches. When I went by him I was doing 20km/hr on a 8% grade. (Of course, my HR was at 185) He waved and cheered me on.

I went hard, and when I hit the top I'd lost about 5 minutes to John. I told him there was no way I was going to do the other side today. In checking his HR - his max HR was only 163. I'm in terrible shape!! We hung around at the top for about 20 minutes, and then headed down to meet Sheri and ride with her back up. About 3km down we caught up to her and flipped around. She pushed it hard and made it to the top for the first time ever. Good job Sheri!!

We took some pics of Sheri at the top, and then just as we were getting ready to head out, a cyclist came up from the other side. I went over to talk to him, guessing that he was from Great Falls - turns out he was and we chatted for a couple of minutes and then I turned and headed back. I'll probably see Ron at the Belt Omnium next year, as he's planning on doing it as well. John and Sheri had already left.

Now the fun part - descending! Scary today because of the wicked cross winds, but also a whole lotta fun 'cause I can further develop my descending skills. I caught up to a motorbike and drafted off of him for a bit, as there wasn't any room to get around him, finally hit a section I could pass in, and laid it down, went around him and 3 other cars - that was fun!! (I always love the looks I get when I pass cars coming down a mtn pass.) I caught John and Sheri and we zipped down the rest of the mtn. John and I would stop, wait for Sheri to go by, then chase her down, get ahead, and repeat. Was a whole lotta fun, and we got to meet and chat with some interesting people at the pull outs while we waited for Sheri.

Near the bottom John was up ahead of me, and there was a BMW SUV between us, the BWM couldn't get around John (he was doing 60km/hr in a 40km/hr zone) and I just sat off of his bumper. Finally he got to a point where he could pass and accelerated to go around John - I laid it down and managed to stay in his draft all the way around John, and for a few hundred yards after that - then he laid it down and took off. No matter, our parking lot was right there (I almost missed it!)

Finally, we got to the bottom and this guy in a truck pulls into the parking lot where we're at and drives over to us, rolls the window down and says, "you guys were WAY over the speedlimit!" - I shout back, "Every chance I get!" He smiles and gives us the thumbs up and pulls away. Speed limit was 45mph, there were a few places I got up to 50, but it wasn't particularly fast because of the cross winds (I was on the brakes a whole lot more than I'd have liked.)

In looking at my data afterwards I see that I spent pretty much the entire climb in zones 4 and 5. Hit 180+ many, many times. Maxed at 185 5 times. I've really gotta get doing more intervals and riding more regularly. I haven't been on the bike since the triathlon in Ft McLeod a week ago. That's not good.

School starts this week, so I'm hoping that I can get into a better routine and get some good training miles in every day. If not on a bike, then by running. I've gotta get this weight off!

Some guys never learn

Guys like me, of course. In July I went into a triathlon having only been in the water twice before, and having run a total of about 10km before the event. It hurt, I wasn't particularly fast, and I wanted to be better prepared for the next one in August.

August 18th. I seriously considered bowing out of this one 'cause I wasn't ready. I had done even less than I did for the Magrath one! I hadn't been in the water once since Magrath. I hadn't run once since Magrath. And my biking time was, well - I think I got out once /week. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting very big things from this one. I decided to do it anyway for 2 reasons. One, I'd already paid the non-refundable entrance fee and figured if I was gonna pay to suffer I was gonna get my money's worth. And two, my twin boys were entered and there was no way I was gonna bow out in front of them.

The scheduling was set up so that I should be able to be done before they started and so I'd get to watch all of their race. I was looking forward to that!

As we were lining up for our start times at the pool I chatted with the others whose expected swim times were close to mine. I was gonna be sharing a lane with a lady who looked pretty out of shape (look who's talking, right?), but she mentioned that she'd completed a half marathon the week before. At least she'd been running!

Finally we hit the water. I konw I'm not going to be able to hammer through this, so I've decided to alternate one length front crawl with one length breast stroke. My lane partner slowly starts to pull ahead of me. (Her name is Dawn.) I see Dawn get out of the water and figure she'd got about 4 lengths on me. I guess I must have lost count, 'cause suddenly there's the kickboard in the water in front of me and my counter is yelling "last lap" - I turn and go hard for the last lap. I'm a little surprised at how much strength I feel I have. I should work at this swimming thing... I'm out of the water in just over 38 minutes. 1500 meters in 38 minutes. Winning time was 20 minutes.

My transition goes pretty good, and I'm off and on the bike. I look down at my HR and am surprised to see it so high so quickly. Oh well, it's nowhere near the red zone right now, so I stay down in the bars and pound it out. 5 km out I catch up to Dawn and pass her. Now the climbing. I can see lots of guys in front of me. One of the really nice things about staggered swim starts is that there's always rabbits in front of me to chase on the bike. I really pour it on during the climbs.

This bike course is really hilly. There's one particularly brutal climb of about 3 km averaging 7% with kicks up to 10%. On a TT bike it REALLY hurts. But, I'm reeling in lots of folks because of it. I can see one of my Headwinds bike club buddies up ahead. His name is Don and he's a good guy - at Magrath he did just the sprint, and then for the last km or so of the run came down to pace me in. I pass him just before the turn around. He had about 6 minutes on me out of the water, so I've made up good time.

After the turn around I want to recover a little - so I ease off slightly. Don comes around me, and as he goes by mockingly calls out, "hey, slacker! Give too much to catch me?" That's all it takes. We're at the bottom of a hill and I stand and hammer hard. I pass him and start pushing for every second I can find. There's more people in front and I start reeling them in, too. I'm feeling pretty good on the bike, and know I'm making up lots of time - good thing, 'cause I know I'm gonna need this gap on the run.

I finally hit the transition area again. My bike computer says 1:11 - not a bad time for this 40km. Later I learn that there were only 4 guys faster than me on the bike - and all 4 of them placed 1,2,3,4 overall. My official time is 1:17 - a total of about 6 minutes of transition time.

The first kilometer of the run was extremely painful. Both calf muscles were cramping badly. I got to the water station a km 1 and took up after cup of water and dumped it on my calves. Cramping went away and I was off. My goad is just a 10km/hr average, as I know I pretty much suck at running. This 10k will make about 30km total running for the year. I used to really enjoy running, and there was a time I turned in 40 minutes 10k's regularly.

I finish lap 1 (5km0 and see Don coming up not too far behind me, I call out to him and we share a bit of a laugh. He catches me at the 6km mark and settles in beside me. What a guy! He's gonna pace me the rest of the way in. We are chatting, which is kind of amazing that I can talk this freely, as my HR is over 170 with a couple of jumps in the mid 170's. With 1.5km to go a friend doing the sprint distance passes us. He chastises us for talking too much and not running hard enough - my HR is at 179.

With 1km to go Don says, "ok, we'll hold this pace 'til the corner, and then kick it up for the final straight away." I agree and when we turn the corner we speed up - it's a bit of a down-hill. With a little over a block to go he kicks it up again - I tell him to go ahead, my HR is at 182 and I don't feel I have anything left. He takes off for the finish. With 100m left I feel that maybe I can close it up, and push myself to sprint hard. I hit 19.8km/hr, and my HR goes to 186, but I catch Don at the line and we cross together. My run time comes in at 59:46 - just under the one hour mark. I broke 3 hours by about 5 minutes.

There's so much room for improvement in the swimming and running that I really think it's possible for me to break 2:45 next year. Just getting strong enough to swim front crawl the whole 1.5km will shave a few minutes off. Transition is another area I know I can shave a couple of minutes off. And, finally, the run. I know I can get my run time down to the 50 minute range. This is the single greatest area I can improve in.

Tales of pain

Friday night was a difficult night. My twin boys and I were out for a ride with the Headwinds Cycling Club (our racing club) and Brady had taken off with the fast group into a headwind. Him and John were holding the front - I stayed back for awhile with Michael - I THOUGHT Michael had slowed down to stay with the slow group (he doesn't like to go as fast yet) but had actually been dropped. He was really upset about that (it was supposed to be a no-drop ride.) I had gone up to check on Brady (a bridge that took considerable effort.) Anyway, there was a group of 9 or 10 of running a double paceline. Brady was #2 in line on John's wheel. John stopped pedaling for a second, Brady wasn't paying attention and hit wheels. Almost recovered, but not quite. Went down, I was at the back of the line and got to be the last one to pile in and go down. I ended up with some minor scratches and a little road rash.

Fortunately, one of our riders is a doctor (and an ER doc at that.) He did a quick assessment, and it was readily apparant that one of our number was hurt pretty bad. We decided to have the doc and injured rider hitch hike to the ER to get things going rather than wait for someone to show up (all of our family was 30-50km away, and most were in an area that had no cell coverage.)

They crossed to the other side of the hiway and waited for a ride - nobody stopped. This is on one of the busiest hiways in Alberta (#2 between Lethbridge and Calgary) and a long weekend - there was lots of traffic. Finally I got fed -up with nobody stopping, so I walked across to the other side of the hiway, stood in the middle of the road and started waving my arms.

Amazing - somebody stopped. Asked them if they could run these two into the hospital for me, they said yes, and off they went.

I went back over to check on everyone else - most were okay, bikes were a little scraped (wheels were really out of true) I told everybody that could ride, to take off and head back, we'd wait for someone to come get us. That left me and Brady out on the hiway in the sun. I tried to keep him in the shade of my shadow as much as possible. It gave us time to talk and reflect a little.

The injured rider turned out to have a broken elbow, and Brady's got some pretty bad road rash. What was worse was the night's sleep I got - or rather, didn't get. What I kept seeing in my mind last night was what COULD have happened. Brady, after he went down, rolled out of the way of the rest of the bikes - into the lane of traffic. We were on a busy double-lane hiway (with a nice wide shoulder) - if there'd been a car coming when he rolled out he'd have been killed.

It's amazing how when it's just been me cycling I've never worried about all the things that can go wrong - but now that my kids are out there... it really bothered me Friday night. He was in a fair bit of pain, and we'll changing dressing regularly for the next few days, but he's going to be okay. I've tried REALLY hard not to scare him, don't want it to take him away from cycling, but at the same time, I don't want him to ever roll into traffic lanes again!

That was crash number one.

Next up - Hill climb time trial in Calgary. Now, you might ask, exactly how does one have a crash on hill climb??

John and I were warming up on the hill - it's 1.3km long, and averages just under 10%. Most of it is 8-9% with a short kick up to 15%. The hill is at the park known as "Canada Olympic Park" - it's where the 1988 Olympic bobsled run was held - and it still is the main site for Canada's Olympians to train on. There's ski jumping and skiing on the hill, too.

Anyway, the route down was to take the bobsled path - this is a path that follows the bobsled run so that spectators can line the bobsled run. It's not really a good route for cycling, and everybody was warned at the top to be very careful, it was steep and there was gravel on it. (What they didn't add is that there's some stairs that planks had been put on to allow our bikes to travel.) No problem if you go slow...

John was making his way down, and behind him he hears this older guy yelling "Go, Go!!!" - and son is in front totally out of control. Kid goes flying. Somehow he hits John while flying through the air - John doesn't know what part of the kids bike hit him, but he's got some cuts and bruises to prove he got hit! John jumps off the path and heads down the grass slope (he still keeps thinking he's Lance Armstrong sometimes...)

Anyway - I was really beginning to woner if I ever wanted to be on John's wheel again...

We did the hill climb, and John beat me by 21 seconds. I finished just shy of 6 minutes (something like 5:50) I couldn't walk - I couldn't pedal. I had a hard time getting off the bike to lay down for a minute. My whole body hurt. I definitely did all I could, it just wasn't enough. To put just how slow I was into perspective, the course record was tied that night at 3:19 Of course, maybe the fact that the next day John and I were racing in a crit that turns out to be the Alberta Provincial Crit championships and so all the best racers from the whole province are there might have something to do with our poor showing...

Which brings up the next event. Provincial Crit Championships. John and I had planned at the beginning of the year to race alot of crits. Actually, to do alot of racing period! Yet... it just didn't happen. So we choose, in our infinitely optomistic way, to race our first crit of the year at the Provincial championships.

Because we're such super-dedicated and hard-training guys, the night before we went out for BBQ (btw, we found a place that has BBQ every bit as good as the best Texas BBQ we had down in Texas!) and then went to the hotel to have a not-so-good nights sleep. During our strategy planning over dinner we finally admitted to ourselves that we were going to get our butts kicked the next day. John decided that he was gonna go out in a blaze of glory... might be a blaze the intensity of a flash bulb, and for about as long, but it would be glory! I decided I was gonna try and hang with the pack for the finish.

Before the race things just didn't seem to be coming together for me. Took me forever to get ready - finally got onto the course to see what it was like. The course consisted of 1km. 100m from the start finish is the first corner - a right hadn 90 - at the end of the long straightaway. No doubt this corner will have some crashes - and the organizers knew it, as it was REALLY well padded. Up to a 45 degree corner, then up a little hill. Not much of a hill, but I knew that at crit speeds, and with a few laps, that hill would be the deciding point. At the top of the hill, a sharp 90 RH turn onto some of the worst pavement I've ever been on. Frost heaves, potholes, the whole works. Only 2 fast lines - hard inside, or really wide. Anything in between would risk throwing you off the bike. A quick 45 RH, followed by a 90 LT (again, really rough road, and the best line is only one bike width wide on the inside.) a 90 RH, another 90RH takes you back onto the finishing straight.

I do an extra lap - bad idea, as they're lining up and I end up at the back. That's okay, the announce the first lap will be a nuetral lap, and then as we cross the start/finish it'll be race on. Race will be for 30 minutes plus 5. Off we go. I'm relaxing, pounding back my gel that was half down my mouth when we started. I guess I should have realized that neutral does not mean slow. By the time we get onto the straightaway we're doing over 45km/hr. Then the racing started.

I'm hanging in the back third, trying to work my way up the group. I know I've gotta get further up, or I'll miss the big accelerations. Second lap and as we crest the hill the pace accelerates a HUGE amount - I'm still on the hill as I see... yup, you guessed it, my team mate Johnny burning his whole match book. He blasted off the hill and opened up a 20 foot gap - looked back and dropped the hammer. By the time he hit the finishing straight he was cooking with a good gap. The announcer was announcing that there was an early breakaway and it was john from the Headwinds... he was getting his glory. By the time we hit the hill again the pack had reeled him in and he was cooked. As I passed him I yelled "get on, let's keep this thing going!" He held my wheel for a lap or two, but he was done. A couple more laps and he was pulled. I didn't know that, didn't know where he was until I went by the finish line and here "go Robbie!!"

I get dropped - not by much, I'm just off the back. It's lap 9. I don't want to get dropped. I put everything in and just as we hit the hill on lap 10 I've gotten back on. In checking my stats later, lap 10 has an average HR of 176, with a max of 179 - I was throwing pretty much everything I had at it.

I'm struggling to recover - I burned alot of matches getting back on. As we hit the finishing straight of lap 11 the speed ramps back up again, and I can't hold it. I needed more recovery. I get dropped. Unknown to me, there's been a group of 3 go off the front.

Lap 12 - I go by the finish line - hey, don't they ever change that "time left" sign?? I'm suffering. I'm not far off the pack, they're only a couple of hundred yards in front of me, just around the corner - I might get 'em yet! An official steps out onto the road in front of me just before the corner waving me to slow down... there's been a crash in the corner. I find out later some guy blew a tire out in the corner and took down the front 5 or 6 guys. (minus the 3 on the break.) That little slow-down to get around the carnage costs me - takes me a bit to get back up to speed (I like that corner, as I had been diving hard into it and taking it at 42-45km/hr.) This turned out to be the decisive event of the race. That slowed the pack in general down enough that the 3 escapees stayed away.

I hammered as best I could, picking up pack-fodder drop-offs along the way trying to get them to work with me to survive to the end, maybe bridge back up. Most were way too cooked. 3 guys hung with me and we tried to work together. Eventually there was only 5 minutes left before the final 5 laps and we all realized we weren't going to make it back to the pack. Now it was about survival. That cost us 2 of our number.

The two of us tried to stay away. We heard the motorcycle behind us - saw it on the hill - and hammered for everything we were worth to stay away for one more lap. But, alas, the 3 breakaways caught us and we got pulled - only 2 minutes more and we'd have gotten to the final 5 laps.

My average hr for the race was 174, with a max of 179 (which I saw on two laps - 10 and 14) My average speed was 39.5km/hr. I couldn't hardly breathe. I couldn't walk. I was in pain.

Now that was fun!

Maybe I should train for this stuff

When I sat down to develop my goals this year I had some pretty high hopes as to what I’d accomplish physical fitness-wise.

I’d planned on riding lots of hills and getting in lots of miles so that I could put some hurt on the Kitty at TBP – that didn’t work out.

I planned on losing 35lbs – that hasn’t happened.

I planned on running 5km 3 times / week – up to yesterday I’d run a TOTAL of 10km

I’d planned on swimming 1km 3 times / week – up to yesterday I’d been in a pool 3 times, and swam a total of 2.5km

The reason why I’d wanted to do the running and swimming was two-fold. One, I figured the extra cross-training would really help with the weight loss, and TWO, I was going to be entering a couple of triathalons this year.

Yesterday was the first. Open Water swim of 1.5km, Bike of 40km, and 10km run. (Olympic distance) I probably should have bowed out and done the sprint distance or something. I really wasn’t ready for this. However, I’d been giving the sprint distance friends of mine a rough time about not doing the Olympic. Guess I kind of hoped myself on that one.

My oldest boy kept me up until 1am Friday night – and even then I slept terribly. Not a good start. Up at 6am to get ready. It was hard rolling out of bed, but I managed. Unfortunately, it meant I was not thinking really sharp. I’d pay for that later.

Loaded my bike and gear (and this time I remember to grab my water bottle from the freezer. I’d put it in just before bed.) and headed out the door.

20 minutes down the road I remember I’ve forgotten my cleat covers. Normally not a big deal, but there’s a section between the swim transition area and where you can mount the bike that’s all sand and dirt for about 100 yrds. Speedplay pedals don’t do well in that crap. I called my wife and asked her to bring them for me. I called her a few minutes later when I remembered I’d forgotten a towel, too.

A little further and I realize I forgot to have any breakfast.

Got T1 set up, picked up my timing chip, etc. and then headed for T2 (the transition areas are 26km apart.) That’s where I realize that I don’t have any gels or powerbars or anything with me. Oh well, at least I’ve got some Gatorade, and it’s only going to be around 3 hrs…

Finally, it’s time, but my wife hasn’t gotten here yet. Oh well, no towel, no cleat covers. I’ll have to deal with it. I try to stay at the back at the start, as I know I’m not going to be fast in the water and don’t want to get kicked too much. No wind (how often does that happen in this country?!) so the water is like glass. One guy hits the water at the front and strikes out so fast that those on the shore can’t believe it. He ends up doing the swim in 17:46 I finish the swim in 36 minutes.

Bike time, my turn to shine. I drop the hammer. I’m trying to break the one hour mark on this one. Closest I’ve come in the past has been 1:08 for a 40km ITT (and that was a cycling TT, no swimming or running.) JohnnyE goes by me and calls out “catch ‘em in the hills!” I make sure that on the hills I really lay it down, and I catch lots of riders in the first 12km. They may have gotten out of the water before me, but I’ll be running before them! (and then I fully expect them to pass me on the run.)

At about the 15km mark I start catching and passing a lot of Sprint participants. Here is where I see my wife. She’s hanging out the window of the van, ringing a cow bell for me as I go by. I smile. Always amazes me how good it feels to have family watching, or friends cheering.

This is dangerous. The sprint participants typically are riding mtn bikes and wearing ipods They don’t hear me calling “on your left” and are swerving all over the road. It forces me out of the aero bars a lot. At the 20km mark there’s a 13% hill of about ¾ of a kilometre, and then a 90 degree left turn onto the main highway. Traffic is backed up most of the way down the hill, and I start passing vehicles on the left. Get to the intersection, hammer across into the main traffic lane and catch the eye of the SUV driver who turned at the same time as me and signal to move over to the shoulder. He gives me lots of room and I’m back down in the aero bars. 20 more km. I reach down for my water bottle and pop the lid to grab a drink.

You know, it’s not a good idea to freeze Gatorade in an insulated bottle unless you’re going to be out on the road for hours and hours and have more than one bottle with you. I squeezed as much liquid/Gatorade slush as I could into my mouth.

I’m in town now. I’ve conserved some energy on one of the big descents (where some people were hammering at 80km/hr, I held back and only did 65 and just coasted.) I’ve held 45km/hr across the flats. I’m close to the one hour mark. I hit the hard right hand turn that loops back on itself as I enter town – and get hit smack in the face by a headwind. Not a stiff one, about 15km/hr, but man, at this point it’s tough to hold speed. I hold speed through all the corners, leaning my TT bike hard. At one point I hit a little gravel in a corner and think I may have over-cooked this one and going down, but I stay up. The final stretch and I can hear my daughter ringing that cow bell from a block away. I smile some more, and sprint hard for the line.

As I approach the dismount area I’m coming up on another rider. I unclip my right leg, swing it over so that when I hit the dismount line I can start running. (or walking in the bike cleat way.) The guy in front of me hits the dismount line and locks ‘em up and swerves into the middle of the lane (he was on the far left.) I lock ‘em up. I feel the rear will lifting. The left hand crank hits my thigh on the way up, but I’m unclipped from it. I start running and save the bike from endoing. Sheesh! I hit the stop button on my bike computer. (The official times have all the transition times added to the bike.) My bike time is just under 1:03.

Now the run. I start out of the transition zone and immediately my calf muscles start cramping. Looks like I’ve pushed the bike a bit harder than I should’ve. Oh well, this should ease up. The first couple of hundred yards of the run are always the worst, right?

1km into the run and my calves are still cramping. Not full on cramps, just right there on the twitching edge where you know it could drop you to your knees at any time. I push on. I’m slow. I check my computer and I’m only doing 9km/hr, but I’m managing to keep my HR around 159.

2km and the cramping has eased, but my legs are tired. I can’t get any speed up. I try to increase the cadence, but my legs just won’t go. I tell myself just 8 more to go – and then I get passed by the first of many Olympic distance runners.

3km – a friend and organizer of the Fort McLeod triathalon catches me. I managed to kick up the cadence a bit to hang with him for a km before he runs off into the distance. HR is now mid 160’s.

Just before the turn around there’s a long hill of about 1km. I get passed by yet another Olympic distance participant at the bottom, but see my friend up ahead walking the hill. I figure if I can keep a good pace up the hill that I’ll catch him before the turn around.

Somehow, I manage to do just that – but my HR is over 170 now. As we turn around there’s a water station there and we walk through it while downing some Gatorade and water. I’m double-fisting the Gatorade in a hope of stopping the bonk and cramps from getting me. Off we go.

At km 6.5 my friend backs off. I’m on my own again. His pacing has really helped me to kick the speed up – I’ve managed 12km/hr for the last couple of k’s.

I get passed by some more folks.

8km – 2 to go. Holy cow this hurts! My body wants to walk. I won’t let it. Speed is down to 9km/hr again. I get passed by some people.

Less than a kilometre left. A member of our local cycling club who did the Sprint has walked down to the bottom of the hill, he crosses the road and starts running beside me, pacing me along, encouraging me – and then I hear that cow bell again. My daughter is yelling “there’s my Daddy!!” and ringing it as hard as she can. My wife and the twin boys are there beside her cheering. I start climbing this last hill.

Someone is a masochist, putting this hill here. It hurts. It’s not long, only a couple of hundred yards, but it’s fairly steep. I continue to speed up. I’m in my version of a full-out sprint now – only a couple of hundred yards left. People are cheering. I can hear JohnnyE screaming my name, one of my son’s has tried to pace me in for the last few hundred yards, but I drop him (revenge for his dropping me on a cycling hill climb.) As I cross the line they announce my name and I glance at the official clock – 2:51:10 A new personal best.

My running time was over an hour (1:06) I hurt all over. I know that’s only going to get worse over the next 24 hours. I enjoy the moment of being a finisher and chatting with my friends. Some people come up to congradulate me and they make a big deal out of my finish – I guess nobody can believe the fat guy did it.

I end up 15 of 26 men, 22 of 40 total. Right in the middle of the pack. Within a couple of minutes of moving up 6 or 7 spots. Lots of room to improve on the running, just need to do some of that stuff. Maybe I should do that before the next one I’ve got scheduled for the middle of August.

It's Not About The Truth

Recently there’s been a great deal of press and turmoil regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports – cycling in particular. A couple of year’s ago a journalist by the name of David Walsh wrote a book called LA Confidential. A book purportedly about Lance Armstrong’s alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. That book was never translated into English – and I don’t read French, so I never got to read the material first hand. Lance Armstrong has been fighting a number of allegations ever since his 1999 TDF victory. Coyle does a good job addressing some of this in “Lance Armstrong’s War.”

Last year Floyd Landis won the TDF – well, kind of. He won, but was later accused of failing a drug test for testosterone. David Walsh now had a much more willing market for his accusations, and released the book “From Lance to Floyd”. I will tell you right now, that I have some issues with Walsh’s writing style, his bias’ and his documentation of his accusations. On the positive side – he does use good punctuation. – oh, and he tells some interesting stories. But, more on all of that later.

My intent as I began reading this book was to offer my opinion on just this book. However, at the same time, I began reading Floyd Landis’ book, “Positively False” – it was an interesting weekend of reading! In order to really understand what both of these writers are saying about doping in cycling, I felt like it was necessary to start earlier, and cover a little wider subject matter. My intent here is not to be documenting everything I say. To put it simply, I don’t have the time to go back and find all of the specific references to what I’m saying. I hope I can provide enough information that the reader can check it out himself with a quick google search. I’m writing most of this “off the cuff”.

The first issue to determine is to decide what constitutes doping. David Walsh deals with this issue – kind of. He takes a very puritanical view. Here’s the two extremes as I see it.

First is the position of Dr. Michelle Ferrari (a much-vilified sports doctor. His story is fascinating, and if you ever get a chance to read it you’ll learn a great deal about endurance sports in general and the medical science that has grown around it.) Dr. Ferrari came out publicly and said that basically, if it wasn’t specifically illegal, or couldn’t be tested for, that it was legal. He said this in relation to rEPO. At the time rEPO could not be tested for.

On the other extreme sits Walsh claiming that there is a moral ground, and that anything that enhances performance artificially should be against the rules.

The problem with this position is this: what about B12 shots? It’s a vitamin, it’s something that’s been proven to increase performace, it is NOT illegal, and it used commonly at virtually every level of sport. Yet, you could not eat enough, or even take enough pills of B12 to do any good. Definitely not a “natural” process, as you have to take a shot to make it effective – but it’s not dangerous (the body will just eliminate any excess.)

What about sleeping in an altitude tent? The UCI has made some noise about banning that – so what about going to live and train in Colorado (at altitude)?

The question is not as clear-cut as some would want us to believe. I take the position somewhere in the middle. I’m not in favor of the use of drugs such as rEPO, but I have no problem with a guy sleeping in an altitude tent. I have no problem with guys in the tour hooking themselves up to IV’s to rehydrate, but am strongly opposed to blending in some chemicals with it. I have no problems with B12 shots, but would be opposed to amphetamines.

But do I have the right to impose my moral values as to what’s right / wrong on others? In simple terms, I believe we have to have an organization that will make the determination as to what is legal and what is not. Anything within those rules is allowed. So, in some sense, I fall on Dr. Ferrari’s side (with the exception of the ability to test for it. If it’s illegal to use it, then morally, it doesn’t matter whether you get caught or not.)

Okay, there’s my position.

When I first started reading Walsh’s book I sat-down with a highlighter and pen to make notes as I went along. I eventually gave up. I will try and summarize my general impressions along with a few specific examples.

Walsh makes some very good points occasionally, and even backs some of them up with what I would describe as compelling testimony – but then doesn’t tell the other side of the story. He conveniently either completely forgets to tell the other side, or makes a very concerted effort to minimize it. Unless the reader was already familiar with the details of the situation, you’d have a difficult time getting an accurate picture.

As an example: The testimony of Betty Andreau. (and, to some extent, Frankie) Simply put, the story goes like this:

Lance Armstrong is in hospital being treated for his cancer. Lance and 5 or 6 of his friends are in a room together when 2 doctors walk in. Betty was going to leave, but Lance said to stay. During that conversation Betty alleges that the doctors asked Lance if he’d ever used performance enhancing drugs and Lance admitted to using rEPO, steroids, etc. (she names them all specifically.) Frankie backs up some of this story. However, there is NO RECORD of it in the medical reports. I’ve yet to meet a doctor who didn’t record stuff like that. The other people in the room give conflicting reports of what was said. There are plausible explanations on record in court (this whole incident became very public after a lawsuit that Lance eventually won – but that’s another story.)

I, personally, believe that Lance used rEPO and other performance enhancing products. The most damning evidence against Lance, in my opinion, is not cloak and dagger stuff – it’s that the explanations for his change in performance between pre-cancer and post-cancer do not meet scrutiny. Things like the claimed 20lb weight loss. While his body composition definitely changed, you can see that in pictures, his actual weight, as recorded, fluctuated just 2 lbs.

In the case of Lance, there’s a really obvious point that Walsh makes in regards to his testing – none of the testing Lance took showed his cancer. It should have. There’s only a couple of explanations for it not: 1) Lance was doping and was using masking agents to hide that – and those agents also masked the fact that he had cancer. Or 2) The tests are deeply flawed. Walsh actually does a pretty good job explaining this issue.

Another indicator of drug use: look at the average speeds for the tour – they took a huge jump in one year, and have remained high. Interestingly, this year, when I suspect everybody’s scared to be using anything, the average speeds have come way down. There are days that are actual recovery days.

My issue with Walsh is that his view is tainted, and he doesn’t seem to want to tell the whole story. My assumption is that he believes that Lance and all the other athletes have had plenty of opportunity to get their side of the story out and his objective is to tell the other side. All fine and well, but that’s not how he portrays the book – he portrays it as the complete story. It’s not.

I really did enjoy some of the behind the scenes peekes that he gives us into professional cycling. That, specifically, was one of the really interesting things I found in Floyd’s book, as well.

Flipping over to Floyd’s book for a minute: I particularly enjoyed his inside look at the way US Postal worked, and the reasons why he left. I’d always wondered about that. Things like not being given a TT bike to practice on, etc. really emphasized that US Postal really was ALL ABOUT LANCE. I understand much better why he left, and can honestly say I’d have left, too. In Walsh’s book he makes a pretty strong accusation of Floyd’s blood doping – but then the only evidence he supplies is a IM transcript. Admittedly, it’s an interesting read, but is only a conversation between two riders discussing a rumour they heard and not disclosing the sources of that rumour. (Read some more on that at http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2006/interviews/?id=jonathan_vaughters06

I appreciated Floyd’s candor on what he got paid, and the other details of professional cycling that we’ve never really heard. Even Michael Barry’s “Inside the Postal Bus” never came close to revealing the kinds of details that Floyd does.

My conclusion on Walsh’s book – he’s done a lot of work researching it, but many of his witnesses are of questionable believability. Lots of innuendo, but not enough documentation. Too often he leads with “undisclosed sources” or such things. That’s not good enough. A reader not familiar with the background and details of doping in cycling would definitely be persuaded that all cyclists are doping. I don’t believe all are doing it, but I do believe it has been rampant in the pro peleton’s. Walsh’s book isn’t so much about tracking down the truth as it of getting his story out and slapping Lance back. He quotes his own writing a fair bit. (You’ll read comments like, “one of the author’s of LA Confidential said…”)

What can be done to clean up cycling? My thoughts are pretty clear on this, and on the surface it seems pretty easy, but the politics and money of cycling will make it very difficult.

1) The UCI must become a CYCLISTS union. It must be there for the cyclists. In his book Positively False Floyd talks about the politics of even getting pay he was owed. This organization must put the riders interests first.

2) WADA must become a standardizing organization. They must be absolutely strict in the enforcement of their rules – including those about confidentiality. They must establish firm standards as to what constitutes a positive test that is observed across the board by all WADA approved labs, and they must eliminate the stupid rules from within the organisation like not allowing WADA employees or WADA approved lab employees to testify on behalf of an athlete. Virtually all of the experts work either directly or indirectly for WADA, so if they’re not allowed to testify… you can see where this is going. This is the organization I referred to earlier that must make the determination as to what constitutes doping. It must be fair, it must be transparent.

3) Teams must be made more responsible. The recent signings of the athletes and the demand that trainers / coaches sign a contract guaranteeing that they won’t be involved in doping, and if they are, will forfeit a year’s salary, is a step in the right direction. It is useless if WADA doesn’t become an organization the athletes can trust – and I would suggest that WADA and the UCI should be signing a similar agreement.

4) In-house testing. Doping will always be ahead of the testers. That’s the nature of it. The only way to get ahead of the dopers is to be developing physiological profiles. Deviations from those profiles would indicate something is going on – that means either a new, legitimate response to new training, or doping. Programs similar to what Team Slipstream, T-mobile, and Credit Agricole are running go a long ways in this direction. I’d like to see these kinds of testing programs institutionalized and run by the UCI (the RIDERS union.)

Some have indicated that we should just let them do whatever they want. My problem with this is two-fold.

1) When an athlete does something incredible, for a moment he lifts every person watching it just a little higher. In the movie “Vision Quest” there’s a scene where Lowler is talking with his friend and he explains this very concept so well. When that inspirational feat is tainted by being accomplished by the use of drugs, it negates that lifting-up. Floyd’s stage 17 is a case in point. What a gutsy, inspirational move. But if he did it because of the use of drugs, how does that lift me?
2) The most important thing to me – my kids are looking up to some of these athletes and while I don’t expect them to be the moral compass of my kids lives – how can they dream of accomplishing great things when all they see is guys accomplishing great things by using drugs.

I do believe that most of the amazing cycling performances for the past 10 years have been tainted in one way or another. I still find them great to watch, I just watch them without that “wow, did you see that” factor. I don’t believe Floyd used drugs specifically in stage 17, but I do believe he has used. In fact, I’m convinced of it. Just as I’m convinced that Lance didn’t do it all on his own.

The recent press and investigations is not about searching for the truth. It’s about selling newspapers, books, and protecting individual positions that some leaders of organizations have taken. The Dick Pound’s of the world are not about helping to clean up sport – they’re all about reading their name in tomorrow’s papers. For a good look at the bias’ that sports reporters have had on this issue, I refer you to http://boulderreport.bicycling.com/2007/06/looking-for-the.html

That’s it – for now. I will probably update and add, edit this entry over the next few months. I will try to document the additions and edits. I just want to use this as an ongoing research paper. I welcome any questions or critiques.

EDIT: Wow, that didn't take long! One of the stories in Walsh's book that seemed very tabloidish to me was the story of a pro cyclist who had asked a friend to transport some shoes over to Italy for him - while packing the friend opened the box and found blood products. He dumped them out, and confronted the cyclist in Italy. Big blow up. In the book - NO names. Then, today, the names get released ... and the cyclist is Rasmussen! Wow. Details of the story can be found at http://www.velonews.com/tour2007/news/articles/12851.0.html

Doped Up Pros

Well, tomorrow is the BIG day. The day that we finally (hopefully?) hear all of the evidence in Floyd Landis' doping scandal. So, who cares? I do, for a number of reasons. One, I like to be able to compare myself to the pros. If I ride a mtn that they've raced on, it shows me just how good these guys are - but if they're doing it doped up, what's that telling me? Two, the impact that drugged pro athletes have on our kids is significant.

Recently on bikejournal there's been a fair bit of discussion about dopoing and how guys are doing it and how it's being tracked. I don't even pretend in my dreams to understand all of the biological information out there. I have been following this a fair bit, though, and thought it might be a good idea to put some of my thoughts in one place.

First: I am against doping. Some are calling for legalizing it - let 'em do whatever they want. I want my kids to be able to strive for better performance without thinking they need to be using something in order to get better.

I recently had this discussion with my 15 yr old son. He's a football player and a very good one at that (recently selected to the Provincial All-star game and will be playing a week from tomorrow.) I also suspect he'll be starting on his High School football team as a freshman next year. He's strong, and he's fast - and wants to improve. He was asking about performance enhancing things he could take - like steroids, etc. Fortunately, we have a pretty good relationship and we were able to discuss it and he was willing to listen to what I had to say about it.

Second: I am convinced that there will always be a new designer drug or process that is designed specifically to get around the existing tests. We've seen it in cycling for decades. A new test comes out to catch people using a particular drug, and soon there's nobody getting caught for it anymore. Not that they're not using it anymore, they've just discovered a way to get around the testing. The only way I believe you can ever be 100% sure that someone is clean is to develop a physiological profile like what Team Slipstream has put into place. Here they're not testing for specific drugs, but building a profile that if there are significant changes or deviations from trends would indicate that something is being used. Won't tell you what, will just tell you SOMETHING is going on.

When someone is busted for it drug use, then I think it should be a permanent ban. One time, no second chances. Make the penalty so severe it's not worth the risk.

WADA needs to standardize what is a positive and what is a negative. Currently every lab has their own standards of what they'd call a positive and what would be classified as a negative result. An example of this is Floyd Landis' recent results. Those exact same results (not even questioning the accuracy of the equipment used) in a California lab (which is WADA certified) would all have come out negative. Yet out of this particular French lab, there's a positive result.

The process for hearing re: drug use in sports needs to be more open and fair. Confidentiality MUST be observed by those in control of organizations (not like Dick Pound's rants.) If the structure is percieved to be biased, there's no way the public will ever trust the results. And, bottom line, it's the public, us fans, that get hurt the most when these drug scandals develop.

I have a lot more thoughts on this issue - and maybe sometime I'll go through and copy all of the posts I've made over at Bikejournal into one post here so that it's all in one place.

I HOPE Floyd is innocent. I believe that Floyd should be cut a break on this one because of all of the mistakes that have been made in the processing of his samples, but I have my doubts as to whether or not he's really clean.

A Tale of Two Tailwinds

My poor little Jetta needed some work done (maintanace stuff like timing belt, brakes, glow plugs, etc.) and the car needed to be in Lethbridge Monday morning by 8am. Rather than getting up at 6 and missing getting in a ride, I had Steve follow me into Lethbridge Sunday night, we dropped the car off - and then on Monday would be able to do a tailwinds ride into Lethbridge to get it!

We left Cardston a little later than planned, so it was going to have to be a quick ride in. Fortunately, the winds were co-operating. We jumped onto the Prarie Schooner and off we went. First check point was to be Magrath - 44 km away.

Up and down coulees, flying along. We hit Magrath in just over an hour (1:01) and an average speed of 42.7km/hr.

I felt strong. After a few minutes of warming up I felt like I could really go. The most dramatic moment to me on this ride was when we went through Pot Hole Coulee just East of Magrath. On the decent I'd let Steve get a couple of hundred feet on me, as we started climbing I started working my way through the gears. As I went by him I glanced down at my computer - I was pounding out a cadence of 103 (standing) and was going at 52.1km/hr. I felt like I was dancing onthe pedals and that I was "chainless" - what a thrill! What a feeling of freedom. I'm super motivated to get my weight down and my power up so that I can feel that on long climbs (this one is only half a km long.)

Then we hit the hard part - the last 23km of this ride is north, a straight cross-wind. I did most of the pulling, I was just feeling good. But holding 30km/hr was a tough slog. We hit Lethbridge in just under two hours, and made it across town to the dealership in a total of 2:13 or something like that.

It was great to be on the bike for more than an hour or hour and half. This was my longest ride of the year. This month will have some seious mileage in it - especially given our little adventure in a little over a week to Salt Lake City (back to back centuries.)

Tues morning I did a little recovery ride with Bart and Chico - NOT! Chico kept the pace high all the way out - Bart and I turned around at Leavitt, Chico hammered on to Mtn View. We had a nice little 37km/hr tailwind ride back, that was a nice recovery!

Tues evening I get the great idea of another Tailwinds ride! I call John and Steve (Bart had to work) and we get my wife to run us out to Waterton for a repeat of mine and Steve's tailwind ride a week or so ago.

I realized right away as we crossed the bridge and it wasn't singing to us that there was no way this was going to be a tailwinds ride! In fact, the wind had switched and was coming out of the South - we had a cross-wind of 35km/hr most of the way. Made for some hard sloggin'! Steve was feeling pretty good, and often mentioned feeling chainless. John was able to generate some pretty impressive power on some of the roller climbs. I just held on and hoped my legs would last long enough to stay with them. My legs felt heavy, and fighting the wind was really taking it's toll on them. Definitely not the Tailwinds ride I had envisioned! Oh well, I was on my bike - can't get any better than that!

This morning was supposed to be a hill climbing ride (South Hill repeates) but there was just no way my legs were ready for that, so I stayed in bed.

I feel like I'm getting some good miles in. I'm liking the performance of my Tarmac, but it's also taking some getting used to the new position.

The frame is considerably smaller than my last frame - and it has changed my position significantly. Muscles are working at different angles. In some ways I feel like I'm in terrible shape 'cause my legs are hurting in ways and places I'm not familiar with. However, the bike fits me better. I feel like I can handle the bike better - I have more confidence in what I can make it do. High speed decents are comfortable (I've only been up to just over 80 km/hr on it so far), and climbing is stiff and responsive. I do notice some of the road buzz more than I did on the Devinci. That's to be expected with a frame this much smaller and stiffer. (and lighter!) It would be great to be able to afford a Tarmac and a Rubaix - but given that I like to race, and I love the performance, the Tarmac is the bike for me! In a couple of years I may try to convince my wife to let me add a Rubaix to the Stable, but I'm very happy with the Tarmac!

Because I've been getting the feel of the Tarmac, my TT bike has been left hanging in the garage. I do need to make a point of getting out on it again sometime next week, but right now I'm really loving riding the Tarmac. I'd also like to put on my Zipp 404's to see how the Tarmac performs with them.

My new Ride

I just realized that I haven't posted anything at all about my new Specialized Tarmac S-works!

My wife and I ended up flying to California to get it - as the bike shop there was the only one I could find anywhere in Canada or the US that could get me what I wanted in my size. As it turns out, if other bike shops had known what they were doing they could've got it for me. It all worked out good, though. Melanie and I were able to get away for a couple of days without the kids and really enjoyed ourselves. I've realized that I really need to make a point of taking off with her on a regular basis - even if it's just to Calgary - to get away from things for a few days and spend time with just us.

Back to the bike. It's a Tarmac S-works in size 49cm. Fits like a glove! SRAM Force equipped, and came with the Roval Wheels. I swapped out the Barmac stem/handlebars and went with the FSA K-wing bars and an FSA stem. I've also taken off the Roval wheels (currently for sale on ebay) and replaced them with Neuvation R28 SL3's. Using speedplay pedals, and riding on Conti GP4000 tires. Bike, with pedals, one water bottle cage, and all the mounting hardware for my Edge305 weighs 15.12 lbs. I'm looking at buying some Sprint 350 wheels to lighten it up another 200grams - that'll make it a real machine for Triple Bypass!! I'm also looking for the compact spider and rings to make the crankset a compact for that ride. I suspect I'll lose some more weight off the bike with that move. (Now to get the engine lightened up!)

I've loved riding the bike! It's fast, and comfy. I've still got lots to get used to with it, as my position has changed and I'm using different muscles now, but I'm really happy with it. I've got almost 700km on it in the last week since I bought it.

The original Roval wheels are fast - they just are pretty expensive and I've decided to sell them on ebay. If I get what I want out of them I'll have enough to have paid for the Neuvation's and a disc wheel for my TT bike and my Sprint 350's. Can't beat that! (And I'll still have my Zipp 404 tubulars!)

Which brings up my other new ride - my TT bike. It's a Guru with carbon seat stays. I've got it largely equipped with Dura Ace, but there's a few 105 parts on it. I'd like to get a 10spd bar end shifter for it so that I can run 10spd on it, that would mean less hassle with cassette changes and stuff. I've only ridden the bike once - a quick trip out to Leavitt and back - but the bike feels quick.

Tailwinds ride 29 April

As written by my riding buddy, BowWow

Yesterday Mrs. Rob drove us 45 km into a stiff headwind, to the gates of Waterton National Park. There Rob and I disembarked the Robstermobile, thanked Mrs. Rob profusely, and leapt upon our carbon steeds for a True Tailwinds ride.

The wind was howling off the lake, my legs were howling at me to get spinning. I stood on the pedals without cranking, and was blown up to 4 km/h almost instantly. This was gonna be a goodun! We headed out, squirming to get settled in the saddles, working out the accumulated desk-jockey kinks in the backs. The road ahead bode well for us as we crossed the Shrieking Bridge. Rob commented that the car folks never hear that song...

Speed comes quickly when you have a nice tailwind. We soon were cruising at well over 40 km/h, looking at the big ring/smaller cogs before even getting warmed up. The rising road felt like a descent, the rollers rolled under our wheels, the wind roared it's impotent wrath at our backs.

Glancing to the south we were stunned by the glory of the snow-glazed ridge rising in Rocky majesty just across the US line. The grasslands in the foreground were an interesting mix of intense green rising inexorably through the brown remnants of last summer's graze. Rounding a rising corner we noticed three elk staring intently at us across the road. Not quite sure what to do, they started, then stopped again, wide-eyed at the humans. We called to them, asking why they were so far out of the park, and wondering where the other 997 were. They jumped, and headed into the sheltering brush.

Cresting the ridge then dropping into the river bottom, we both sprinted with the wind at our backs. Rob led out, pulling to 75 km/h. I glanced past him and instantly hit the pedals, spinning up to well over 120 rpm. I knew we had enough room to make 80 before the bridge. 83.5 to be exact! As I blew past Rob he jumped onto my wheel and we shot across the bridge without even noticing the expansion joints. Ain't carbon grand!

The climbs floated by, the flats became 50 k runs, the descents went to over 70. We "exceeded the speed limit" through Mountain View, crested the ridge past the Beazer turnoff and gave our mighty steeds their heads over the rollers and into the Leavitt valley. Rob let me get a good lead as we headed to the base of Monson's hill, then blew by me halfway up. I managed my pace well, keeping the effort under control, and crested without blowing up (still climbing way slow, but that'll come...), and held 21 over the top.

Rob mentioned running chainless - not today for me, but that'll come soon enough this season. And we both could have used that 11 tooth cog often on this ride!

We dropped over the edge of Tracey's hill and I took the pull (I do that on the descents...), and we rocketed around the final turn. Two quick rollers and one sign sprint (I caught Rob napping - hee hee!!!!), a very fast +50 k along the false flat, and we were into town and home.

It seems like the past couple of years of cycling have been focussed on fitness. Slogging into the headwinds, doing hill repeats, hammering the dark winter away on the rollers.

Yesterday was simply joy. The joy is back!

Racing Again

Race Report from May 1, Tuesday night series.

Finally! First race of the year for me. I knew I was out of racing shape, and knew this was gonna hurt - but the best way to get into racing shape is to race, so here we go...

Group is small - more on that later.

The course is relatively flat with some long rollers of 2-3%. I only got about 15 minutes of warm-up time in, so I'm hoping for a slow start to the day. Race is only 33.42 kms long tonight, so my guess is that we'll stay together until the turn-around and then the attacks will come, we'll end up with 3 or 4 guys up the road and everybody else schlacked off the back.

Off we go. Pace is slow - only 28km/hr. Phil (by far the strongest rider of our club) and I are chatting off the back. BowWow is up front, and before we hit the first hill kicks the pace up a little and gets a bit of a gap. Only one guy reacts, and he grabs his wheel. Phil and I continue chatting, and as the hill tilts up a little, we reel 'em back in. Pace slows again to the 28km/hr range.

Down the backside - and then we begin the second climb - I'm feeling pretty good and start thinking about making a break, just to see if they'll let me go. I start moving up to the front, and then Phil moves up ahead of me, and then Roy (another REALLY strong rider) - I take 3rd wheel, and Phil kicks the pace up - we're now doing 32km/hr, still a nice leisurely stroll. I don't know where my head is at this point, but I obviousely was NOT thinking - I'm still in the small ring.

Phil suddenly surges about half-way up the hill. Roy doesn't respond at all and there's suddenly a gap of 15 feet. I jump and try to grab Phil's wheel. Instantly I'm spun out - that's where I realize I'm still little ring. We crest and I shift big ring and really hammer down the back side. (At this point we're only 3km into the race!) I do a quick check behind me and see that I've got about 200 yrds of gap - I'm in no-man's land by myself. Only one choice, gotta catch Phil.

I settle in to a hard TT - my HR is pounding at 177 as I hit the 3rd climb - this is where I know I've got to bridge the last 50 feet or so, or it ain't gonna happen. I accelerate up the hill - I'm within 4 feet of Phil before we hit the top. I start to ease off a bit to recover (my HR is pounding away at 185) - Phil turns, sees me, smiles - I swear he gives me "the look", he says he didn't - and then sprints over the top and drops me like a rock. That's all I'll see of Phil for the rest of the race.

As I crest I check over my shoulder - there doesn't seem to be a chase taking place yet - there's at least 300 yrds back to the closest riders. I drop my pace slightly to recover on the down-side and settle in to fighting the wind on my own. Suddenly there's Roy pounding past me! Where did he come from? I'm not getting dropped again today! I sprint up to his wheel, recover, and we start working a pretty good 2man rotation to try and pull Phil back.

We hit the turn-around, and realize that we've had a wee bit of a tail/cross-wind on the way out, now it's a nice little headwind. Hey, that might give us a chance to reel Phil in! We up the effort.

Half-way back we run into the rest of the group. Apparantly the reason our start had such small numbers is some guys didn't understand where the start was at and were camped out at "the other start" waiting for us. They turned around and joined Roy and I - suddenly there's 4 of us together (we dropped the others pretty quickly.) Fresh legs to pull us in? Hmmmmm

One of the guys with us blasts off the front - what's that about? He can't win, he's already out of the race. We decide to chase him down. There's a young guy with us that is pretty strong, and Roy and I decide to let him do his share of pulling. We don't seem to be making any ground up on our little break-away guy. Then the jockeying begins for the sprint. We're still 4 km away!

We hit the the long down-hill and the pace is up to 55km/hr, straight into the wind. Problem is, I'm running a 12/27 cassette and with my legs being tired, spinning at 106 is getting a little tiring. I'm barely holding Roy's wheel. Finally at the bottom I realize that official 3rd is as good as I'm gonna get today - Roy is WAY too strong for me today. Roy and I start chatting and he says he wants to clip this young guy at the line, I told him I'll try and give him a good lead out. We're closing into the finish fast, despite it being a slight up-hill into the wind. (We're still clipping along at 40km/hr.) So, I grab the young guys wheel and wait for the right moment. I've never done a lead-out in a race before, so really don't know how far out to go from, I"m usually waiting for someone else to make the move first.

The young guy reaches over to grab his water bottle and I decide it's a great time to let her rip, I look back and nod to Roy and go. As I go by the young guy I glance back, Roy's on my wheel - I look up the road... OH NO! I've gone WAAAAAAAAY too early. I'm still a good 700m away from the line. Oh well, I'm committed now!

I hammer away as best I can, glance back and see that I've got about 30 foot gap... is it possible? I try and find some more oomp for the last 300m. Suddenly Roy and the young guy are there. With less than 75m to go the jump - I try to catch a wheel, but there's nothing left in the tank.

And that is how the first race of the season ends for me, limping across the line totally spent and having made just about every mistake in the book. What a great night!!

So, Rob, Have you Met....

Ride report from May 2 with Steve.

BowWow and I decide to get in an after-work spin this evening, and meet at 5:30 for a ride we expect will be around 50 minutes. The first half of the ride will be into a headwind, but the second half will be a beautiful tailwind!

We meet at BowWow's house, and off we go - only to turn around 'cause I asked BowWow if he had now decided to go lidless on his rides. On the way back a car burns into the intersection and almost takes him out... better get that lid on in a hurry!

Finally we're off. up hill to the end of the street, then turn to head out to the highway. The highway is beautiful. New pavement last year - two lanes and a wide shoulder, and traffic that even with one lane would seem like there wasn't any. We're headed out to Leavitt. The Reserve is on our right, town limits on the left. We're riding the dividing line between two different worlds. We're just spinning along at about 25km/hr, nothing even remotely strenous, and chatting. Enjoying just being out on the bike. We're doing more of that again since our tailwind ride of last Saturday.

BowWow turns to me and asks, "So, Rob, have you met the new German Sheppard out here yet?"

"Yup," I reply, "I've gotten to know him up close and personal."

Just as I finish saying that we hear a rustling in the grass and I catch a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye. BOOM! I'm off, sprinting hard. BowWow's laughing - this dog runs right by him and is chasing me hard. Suddenly I hear, "Get him! Hurry boy, catch him!"

Yeah, thanx BowWow, like this mutt needs any more encouragement.

By this time I'm pounding away at 45km/hr, and this dog is closing. BowWow is laughing so hard he can't even encourage the dog anymore. Finally Eddie gives up and then it's my turn... 'cause bait is riding towards Eddie! Suddenly BowWow is a little less concerned about how funny I looked.

Unfortunately, the mutt was tired out and never even gave BowWow a scare. I looked down at my HR monitor and I'm sure it had just dropped back down to 200 something. We couldn't pedal for the next couple of kilometers 'cause we were laughing so hard - what made it really funny? It wasn't the German Sheppard, but this little mutt that has been running out by us for years. He's never caught anyone, but always gives a good chase.

Thanx again, BowWow, for a great ride.