Today's theme at the nationals road race was much the same as yesterday, lots of fast guys fighting for position, some big attacks, and a big group battle leading into the finish.
The road race course was a 77+ miles crossing the mountain ridge East of Ogden. The first 50 miles consisting of smaller, flatter loops, followed by an amazing descent through a rocky canyon past a waterfall, a long and grinding climb up to 6000 feet of elevation on Ogden Canyon Road, and finally a short descent into the finish.
The first 50 miles of short loops were flat and fast from the start, with several riders attacking to try and get gaps off of the front, only to be pulled back after a while by the bigger, stronger teams including Duke (team time trial and crit champions), Air Force, and Mars Hill.
Finally, after one of the more fun descents I've ever done through a canyon into Ogden, the climbing commenced. As a larger rider, long climbs have never been my strong point, so I knew this might be a rough day for me. Still, I tried to stay near the front and give myself a shot at a good finish. As we neared the final two (and largest) climbs of the day, a couple of riders were still hanging off the front. One the first climb Zach from MIT, one of the stronger riders from the ECCC, went to the front of the pack and put the pedal down, sweeping up the last riders and making life miserable for everyone.
After a short respite, we hit the biggest climb, climbing more than 1400 feet over 4 miles at an average gradient of well over 7 percent. By the end of mile one, it was clear that I had made a poor choice of gearing and wasn't prepared for the steady slopes. I popped off the back of the pack, now down to about 30 riders, and started the slow, lonely grind to the top. At this point, I would like to say thank you to the dozens of awesome people who poured cold water on me, shot me with squirt guns, and yelled encouragement over the next 3 miles of miserable, painful climbing. These things might not sound enjoyable, but when your heart rate is hovering around 200, a blast of cold water can be a life saver.
Anyway, I eventually rolled over the top and began the wide and fast descent back toward the finish line. Fortunately, I had driven the descent by car before the race and had some idea of what I was up against, so I was able to catch several riders in the closing miles. Still, I ended up right near the middle of the pack in 40th place. This was good enough for 19th place on the weekend omnium, which again, was a result beyond my wildest dreams.
To wrap up, once again I'd like to thank all of our awesome sponsors for their support this season. Cutters Bike Shop in Bethlehem once again provided us with some great Specialized gear and lots of top-notch maintenance. My new CycleOps Fluid2 trainer was a huge upgrade from my previous non-existent trainer. Additional support from Barb Turanchik, Doug Strange and Campus Athletics, Rodale/Bicycling Magazine, Around Town Bikes/Rich Adams Custom Frames, and LU Cycling alumna Kiki Schuck helped to keep the team rolling this year and fund our travel. You are all much appreciated!
-Brandon K.
Friday, May 10, 2013
2013 Collegiate Nationals Criterium Recap - Ogden, Utah
After a crazy week of mountain roads, near-crashes, and very FAST racing, I'm happy to be back in PA in one piece. My weekend in Ogden began with the long flight to Utah on Thursday, where I met up with an old friend in Salt Lake City for a late dinner. On Friday, I decided to skip the individual time trial (never my strong suit) but still had a chance to ride for a couple of hours and test my legs at altitude.
Before travelling, I made the mistake of checking the altitude difference between my home in Philly (a massive 36 feet) and the top of Ogden pass, where we would be finishing the road race (over 6000 feet). This difference was very obvious on my warm up ride, which generally consists of "openers" a relatively easy 2.5 hour ride with about four hard 2-minute efforts mixed in. On those short efforts, I was quickly gasping for air, trying to convince myself that my legs were just feeling dead from the flight.
Saturday marked my first day of racing, which consisted of running laps for 75 minutes on the 8-corner, t-shaped criterium course in downtown Ogden. As if riding in my first national race wasn't intimidating enough, looking at some of the amazing team trailers, thousands of dollars of carbon fiber gleaming in the sun, and spotting several "stars and stripes" logos on jerseys indicating that the rider was a former national champion, it was pretty clear that a couple of the other competitors had been doing this a little longer than me. Nonetheless, I was ready to give it my best shot. I found a couple of fellow ECCC riders warming up on the course before my race and got some motivational last words from a few of the guys who had raced at nationals last year: "It's a huge field, plus everybody is fast and motivated and sketchy as hell. If it gets as bad as last year I'm probably going to pull myself." Super.
So I finished my normal pre-race routine of slamming an enormous coffee and eating copious amounts of carbs, got a few last warm up laps, and headed over to staging. This was also my first experience with "call ups," where each rider gets announced before the race and rolls up to the start line. With a pretty big crowd of spectators and hearing "From Lehigh University..." over the loudspeaker, I have to admit I was pretty pumped up for the start of the race. Apparently the other 80+ riders in the field were pumped up too, because the first five laps of the race were insane.
The course proved to be less technical than I thought, with generally good pavement and very wide streets and corners. I quickly realized that this would be a very fast 75 minutes, with our speeds in the straightaways consistently well over 30mph. In bike racing, and especially criteriums, you get used to occasionally making contact with other riders at high speeds - bumping elbows or shoulders in the corners. However, I made more contact in the first five laps of this race than I did in the rest of my season combined. It was a constant battle to stay near the front of the field and there were the usual idiots diving into the inside path on the corners, putting everyone else in danger.
After about 20 minutes of chaos, I started to feel frustrated and claustrophobic, so I decided to move to the front and stretch my legs. I used some of the longer straightaways to move forward, eventually to the front of the pack. One of the first rules of racing bikes is to never use energy unless you have a good reason for it. My reason to be on the front of the race here was to push up the pace, hopefully encouraging some attacks and stretching out the field to keep it more safe and predictable (on a side note, it was also pretty cool to hear my name get mispronounced over the loudspeaker and, I later found out, to get a Twitter shout out from USA Cycling). Luckily, my tactic worked and the first attacks started to go off the front. I was able to drift back to about 20th place and let the bigger teams do the work while I sat in more comfortably.
As the race wore on, several more attacks went up the road and were pulled back. About two-thirds into the race, I could see that the pack was getting smaller as several riders fell off the back and some of the guys around me looked pretty exhausted. I felt ok, so I decided to try my own attack. I saw a strong-looking rider from Western Washington U move make a move, so I followed, stood on the pedals, and jumped as best I could. We got a quick 5-second gap on the field with one other rider and slowly started to pull away. After one lap we were joined by three additional riders, we worked and rotated together fairly well, and the gap started to grow bit by bit. However, once we had reached about 10 seconds, the field seemed to get alarmed and started to chase. After about 3 laps off the front, we were caught. I quickly noticed how exhausted I felt and wondered if the altitude and speed were catching up to me. With about 15 laps to go, I decided to sit in and wait for the sprint.
An important key to finishing a race strong is following a strong, steady wheel. When I drifted back to the pack, I was lucky to find a big rider from Mars Hill College, widely known to be one of the best teams in the country. The rider was sitting about 15th, seemed to be rolling steady with little effort, and had stars and striped on his sleeve. Perfect. I latched on to his wheel and battled like a honey badger to keep it for the last quarter of the race.
The last five laps of the race were even more insane than the first five. There was more bumping and two big crashes in the last two laps. If you haven't heard the sound of carbon fiber slamming across pavement at 30mph, consider yourself lucky. With half a lap to go, we were absolutely flying. I waited for the guy in front of me, who still looked steady, to start moving up...nothing. Quarter lap to go...nothing. Shit. Wrong wheel. I jumped around him on the second to last straightaway, scrambling to find shelter in the top 10 before the sprint, but I had waited too long. I blasted through the last corner and into the wind way too early, was able to pass a couple more riders, but was only able to manage 15th in the end.
I wanted to be disappointed, but I had to put it in perspective. At the start of the season, it was a huge leap to think I would even qualify. Now I had just cracked the top 20 at a national race, I was safe, and I was happy.
-Brandon K
Before travelling, I made the mistake of checking the altitude difference between my home in Philly (a massive 36 feet) and the top of Ogden pass, where we would be finishing the road race (over 6000 feet). This difference was very obvious on my warm up ride, which generally consists of "openers" a relatively easy 2.5 hour ride with about four hard 2-minute efforts mixed in. On those short efforts, I was quickly gasping for air, trying to convince myself that my legs were just feeling dead from the flight.
Saturday marked my first day of racing, which consisted of running laps for 75 minutes on the 8-corner, t-shaped criterium course in downtown Ogden. As if riding in my first national race wasn't intimidating enough, looking at some of the amazing team trailers, thousands of dollars of carbon fiber gleaming in the sun, and spotting several "stars and stripes" logos on jerseys indicating that the rider was a former national champion, it was pretty clear that a couple of the other competitors had been doing this a little longer than me. Nonetheless, I was ready to give it my best shot. I found a couple of fellow ECCC riders warming up on the course before my race and got some motivational last words from a few of the guys who had raced at nationals last year: "It's a huge field, plus everybody is fast and motivated and sketchy as hell. If it gets as bad as last year I'm probably going to pull myself." Super.
So I finished my normal pre-race routine of slamming an enormous coffee and eating copious amounts of carbs, got a few last warm up laps, and headed over to staging. This was also my first experience with "call ups," where each rider gets announced before the race and rolls up to the start line. With a pretty big crowd of spectators and hearing "From Lehigh University..." over the loudspeaker, I have to admit I was pretty pumped up for the start of the race. Apparently the other 80+ riders in the field were pumped up too, because the first five laps of the race were insane.
The course proved to be less technical than I thought, with generally good pavement and very wide streets and corners. I quickly realized that this would be a very fast 75 minutes, with our speeds in the straightaways consistently well over 30mph. In bike racing, and especially criteriums, you get used to occasionally making contact with other riders at high speeds - bumping elbows or shoulders in the corners. However, I made more contact in the first five laps of this race than I did in the rest of my season combined. It was a constant battle to stay near the front of the field and there were the usual idiots diving into the inside path on the corners, putting everyone else in danger.
After about 20 minutes of chaos, I started to feel frustrated and claustrophobic, so I decided to move to the front and stretch my legs. I used some of the longer straightaways to move forward, eventually to the front of the pack. One of the first rules of racing bikes is to never use energy unless you have a good reason for it. My reason to be on the front of the race here was to push up the pace, hopefully encouraging some attacks and stretching out the field to keep it more safe and predictable (on a side note, it was also pretty cool to hear my name get mispronounced over the loudspeaker and, I later found out, to get a Twitter shout out from USA Cycling). Luckily, my tactic worked and the first attacks started to go off the front. I was able to drift back to about 20th place and let the bigger teams do the work while I sat in more comfortably.
As the race wore on, several more attacks went up the road and were pulled back. About two-thirds into the race, I could see that the pack was getting smaller as several riders fell off the back and some of the guys around me looked pretty exhausted. I felt ok, so I decided to try my own attack. I saw a strong-looking rider from Western Washington U move make a move, so I followed, stood on the pedals, and jumped as best I could. We got a quick 5-second gap on the field with one other rider and slowly started to pull away. After one lap we were joined by three additional riders, we worked and rotated together fairly well, and the gap started to grow bit by bit. However, once we had reached about 10 seconds, the field seemed to get alarmed and started to chase. After about 3 laps off the front, we were caught. I quickly noticed how exhausted I felt and wondered if the altitude and speed were catching up to me. With about 15 laps to go, I decided to sit in and wait for the sprint.
An important key to finishing a race strong is following a strong, steady wheel. When I drifted back to the pack, I was lucky to find a big rider from Mars Hill College, widely known to be one of the best teams in the country. The rider was sitting about 15th, seemed to be rolling steady with little effort, and had stars and striped on his sleeve. Perfect. I latched on to his wheel and battled like a honey badger to keep it for the last quarter of the race.
The last five laps of the race were even more insane than the first five. There was more bumping and two big crashes in the last two laps. If you haven't heard the sound of carbon fiber slamming across pavement at 30mph, consider yourself lucky. With half a lap to go, we were absolutely flying. I waited for the guy in front of me, who still looked steady, to start moving up...nothing. Quarter lap to go...nothing. Shit. Wrong wheel. I jumped around him on the second to last straightaway, scrambling to find shelter in the top 10 before the sprint, but I had waited too long. I blasted through the last corner and into the wind way too early, was able to pass a couple more riders, but was only able to manage 15th in the end.
I wanted to be disappointed, but I had to put it in perspective. At the start of the season, it was a huge leap to think I would even qualify. Now I had just cracked the top 20 at a national race, I was safe, and I was happy.
-Brandon K
Thursday, May 9, 2013
From "Drop City" to Collegiate Nationals: A Three-year Journey
So, it's been a long week! On Thursday, May 2 I began my trek to Ogden for the 2013 Collegiate Nationals crit and road race. Looking back, it was an incredible weekend and an amazing year in the ECCC that exceeded my expectations in almost every area. For that, I can't thank my team enough for all of the support and encouragement!
To add a little background, I am a third-year Ph.D. student at Lehigh. When I arrived on campus in 2010, I had owned my cheap, 25-pound road bike (affectionately known as the "yellow hornet" or "old yeller") for a couple of years and competed in exactly ONE cat. 5 road race. In that race, I struggled for the first 30 seconds to clip into my pedals, spent the next 2 minutes chasing onto the pack, got caught behind the only rider in the race slower than myself, and was dropped within the first mile. The next 40 miles were a lonely, windy sufferfest. Not exactly a success story.
When I got to Lehigh, I was also fresh off of a yearlong stint in Tanzania, where I had been teaching for a year. Maybe it was the nicely paved roads, or the idea of meeting some cool new people, but I immediately decided to join the cycling team. From day one, LU Cycling has been an awesome group - quickly showing me the ropes and the routes, teaching me the basics of racing my bike, and welcoming an "old guy" to the team.
I started my first year in the C category, had some early success, and later moved up to the B's where I learned that this wasn't going to be the cakewalk I had hoped for. However, by the end of my second year, I was starting to get the hang of things and topped off my last race in B's by getting third in the conference championship crit last season. After a season and a half in the B's I knew it was time to bite the bullet and move up to Cat A. For that move, I have to give a special shout out to Marten, who was always one step ahead (in terms of experience, fitness, and especially mechanical knowledge) and always there to provide guidance and advice. He also single-handedly built up my entire bike this season in exchange for beers and pizza. What a teammate!
So I came into this season, my third, with low expectations for the A's. In my academic program third year is absolutely the most demanding, so I missed some valuable training time. Marten was coming off of an outstanding cyclocross season, so I thought I might be able to support him in some races and maybe, just MAYBE, sneak into nationals. Instead, Marten decided to take some time to recover from a long cross season and to focus on the Battenkill race, so I was suddenly free to seek some of my own results. I was rewarded with a couple of early top 10's and eventually some top 5's.
So, long story short, here I am at collegiate nationals proudly representing the brown and white. They call cycling a team sport for a reason; I know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for all of the incredible members of my team, from intro's to A's, men and women, freshmen to faculty, and of course, all of our awesome sponsors. THANK YOU ALL and go Mountain Hawks!
-Brandon K.
To add a little background, I am a third-year Ph.D. student at Lehigh. When I arrived on campus in 2010, I had owned my cheap, 25-pound road bike (affectionately known as the "yellow hornet" or "old yeller") for a couple of years and competed in exactly ONE cat. 5 road race. In that race, I struggled for the first 30 seconds to clip into my pedals, spent the next 2 minutes chasing onto the pack, got caught behind the only rider in the race slower than myself, and was dropped within the first mile. The next 40 miles were a lonely, windy sufferfest. Not exactly a success story.
When I got to Lehigh, I was also fresh off of a yearlong stint in Tanzania, where I had been teaching for a year. Maybe it was the nicely paved roads, or the idea of meeting some cool new people, but I immediately decided to join the cycling team. From day one, LU Cycling has been an awesome group - quickly showing me the ropes and the routes, teaching me the basics of racing my bike, and welcoming an "old guy" to the team.
I started my first year in the C category, had some early success, and later moved up to the B's where I learned that this wasn't going to be the cakewalk I had hoped for. However, by the end of my second year, I was starting to get the hang of things and topped off my last race in B's by getting third in the conference championship crit last season. After a season and a half in the B's I knew it was time to bite the bullet and move up to Cat A. For that move, I have to give a special shout out to Marten, who was always one step ahead (in terms of experience, fitness, and especially mechanical knowledge) and always there to provide guidance and advice. He also single-handedly built up my entire bike this season in exchange for beers and pizza. What a teammate!
So I came into this season, my third, with low expectations for the A's. In my academic program third year is absolutely the most demanding, so I missed some valuable training time. Marten was coming off of an outstanding cyclocross season, so I thought I might be able to support him in some races and maybe, just MAYBE, sneak into nationals. Instead, Marten decided to take some time to recover from a long cross season and to focus on the Battenkill race, so I was suddenly free to seek some of my own results. I was rewarded with a couple of early top 10's and eventually some top 5's.
So, long story short, here I am at collegiate nationals proudly representing the brown and white. They call cycling a team sport for a reason; I know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for all of the incredible members of my team, from intro's to A's, men and women, freshmen to faculty, and of course, all of our awesome sponsors. THANK YOU ALL and go Mountain Hawks!
-Brandon K.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
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