Delray Beach Twilight Festival

I know it has been awhile since my last blog post; almost a year, but I have been working on revamping the blog.  I have some big plans this year which will include my first full Ironman.  Since my last Half Marathon race at the beginning of February, I have been training hard to get back into cycling shape.  I have a couple of big races this spring that I would like to compete in. 

My first cycling race this year was last weekend at the Cigar City Criterium Festival in downtown Tampa.  There were amateur races in the morning and they took the top finishers from each category to compete in the amateur finals right before the USA Cycling National Criterium Calendar Pro race.  I was able to qualify for the amateur race and the video above was my attempt to race in the amateur finals. 




This weekend I headed down to Delray to compete in the Delray Beach Twilight Festival.  Last year I competed in the inaugural Delray Beach Twilight and had a blast.  I was only a Cat 5 racer last year and was not eligible to compete in the amateur finals.  This year my goal was to qualify for the amateur finals like at Tampa, but they changed the format of the races and the amateur finals are invite only.  I had to submit my cycling resume and was super excited to get the email stating I was invited to race in the amateur finals this year. 



Delray Beach holds a special place in my heart.  My wife grew up one town north in Boynton Beach and last fall we got married at Veterans Park in Delray Beach and had our reception aboard the Lady Atlantic which docks in the park.  We always enjoy spending time shopping and eating along the Ave in Downtown Delray Beach.        



Before Christmas, I bought a set of used rollers to replace my old bike trainer.  The best way to describe the way it feels to ride on rollers, it is like riding my bike on a sheet of ice. It forces you to keep the pedal strokes smooth and not move the upper body.   I used the set of rollers to warm up for the amateur race.
         

The amateur race was supposed to start at 5pm, but the course was still getting setup.  The start time was pushed back to 5:30, then 5:45.  So much for my warm up.  I rode around the sections of the course that were open to try to keep my legs warmed up.      

After the long delay, the race finally started at 6pm.   I had a decent starting spot but it was wasted when I could not clip into my pedal.  It took three attempts to clip in and I started the race in the last spot, trying to chase down everyone before the first corner.
 

My goal for this race was to not start at the back of the race.  Riding at the back of the pack is the worst.  You have to slow down the most going into the corners and you have to sprint  to catch back up to everyone on the straightaways.  Looking at the GPS data from my Garmin after the race, I was averaging about 30 mph on the long straightaways.
  

I made some attempts to move up, but the pack was in a single file line because of the fast pace of the race

 

My goal was to last longer then the 5 laps from last weekends amateur finals race.  On the 5th lap, I let a small gap open from the rider in front of me and I could not bridge back up.  Since  I was the last person in the pack, I could not let someone pass me and ride their wheel back up to the pack.     

Another 5 lap amateur race in the books.  Not the results I was hoping for but looking at the lap times from the race, I had the same lap times as some of the pros. 



After the race, I met up with Rachel and her family/friends at a restaurant along the Ave.  We were able to sit at a table out front and watch the races go bye.  The best part was the drinks were 3 for 1.  We ended up eating dinner and watched the rest of the races from the restaurant.  



A three person breakaway won the amateur race and an amazing sole breakaway won the women's pro race.  Up next was the USA Cycling National Criterium Calendar men’s Pro race. 


Some of the best USA cycling professional teams showed up including the United Healthcare team with last weekend’s winner, Hilton Clarke.  Watching the men’s pro race was amazing.  The crowd was packed along the railing of the course to just feel the wind generated by the riders flying by at 30+ mph. 

 

The pro race ended up coming down to a field sprint with Hilton Clarke winning the race thanks to a great lead out train from the United Healthcare team.  After the race, we checked out the fitness expo and got some free swag. 

       
We ended up talking with the Sram folks for awhile and they were kind enough to give us some free Sram gear including their Sram trucker hat.  I ended up having a blast during the whole Delray Beach Twilight Festival.  It was great having top USA cyclists race in Florida and I look forward to this race next year.  Maybe next year I will be in the amateur finals for more then 5 laps.

Cigar City Brewing Twilight Criterium

I have been waiting anxiously ever since I  heard the announcement that the first stop of the 2012 USA Cycling National Criterium Series would be Tampa, Florida.  The USA Cycling National Criterium Series brings some of the nations best cyclist to the state of Florida to compete in a high pace criterium race around the streets of downtown Tampa, Florida.  The USA Cycling National Criterium Series is similar to the USA Crit Championship Series that raced during Delray Beach Twilight Festival, but is run by a different organization.  The best part was the ability to race of the same downtown Tampa course as the pros.  My cat 5 race was the last race before the 3k beer run and the amateur finals.  It was nice to have a large crowd to watch and cheer on my race. 



When we arrived in Tampa, it was raining, but luckily the rain stop before my race.  The course dried off some but there were still some wet spots on the course.  Made for some crazy racing.  Because of the popularity of the event, the field was filled with 44 riders and I wanted to start near the front to stay out of trouble. 


 

For the first time ever, a USA cycling official questioned my helmet cam.  Loved the sunglasses the official was wearing.  It is legal for me to wear the helmet cam during the race. It’s a disadvantage to me because of the extra drag caused by having the camera on top of my helmet. 

     
The course was very tight and had a section of brick road like last weekend’s Winter Garden Criterium.  The bricks were not as rough as last weekends race, but the section was going up hill and the exit turn was very dangerous.     


I kept towards the front to stay out of trouble and not have to deal with the slinky effect of riding in the back.  After the first few laps, the field was breaking up into several groups.
 

The front pack kept getting smaller and we started to pass lapped riders left and right.  I was sitting in the second spot when they rang the bell for a $25 prime on the next lap.  The guy on the front tried to take off but I was able to sit on his wheel the whole lap until I tried to out sprint him for the $25.   



I was able to out sprint him, but with only 10 feet before the line, two guys passed me to take the prize away. 

 
During that lap, there was a serious crash coming out of turn 3 that sent a rider to the hospital.  I heard the crash behind me and it sounded horrible.



After the prime sprint, there was only about 12 people left in the lead pack.  Half way through the race, I ended up dropping my water bottle.  The pace started to calm down, but there were still crashes happening left and right.  I narrowly missed a crash in the video below and I heard another load crash that someone collided with the metal barrier. 

With about three laps to go, someone attacked on the brick backstretch that caused the group to chase hard after him.  Going into turn 3, I closed rapidly on the rider in front of me and ended up crashing into the metal barricade to avoid ramming into the back of him.  The video bellow captured the whole crash. 

Luckily, I was not seriously hurt because my bike took most of the force of the crash.  I was able to get right back up and finish the last two laps.  I did not realize it until after I finished the race, but my back brakes were rubbing.

  
Even after the crash, I still finished the race in 9th place.  Because of the fast pace and the tight course, only 10 out of the 42 people that started the race finished on the lead lap.  I was disappointed that I crashed and wished I could have tried to out sprint everyone at the end for the win, but I was happy with another top 10 finish.  The whole experience of racing downtown was amazing and the large crowds cheering everyone on was great.  A special thanks to Tom Couture for taking a ton of excellent photos of the race. 





After the race, we went back to the hotel to shower and assess the damage more.  The side of my bike and shoe were all scraped up from the crash.  I only had a cut on my shin and some scrapes on the back of my leg.     



After a quick shower, we headed back to watch the end of the amateur finals and grabbed some dinner from the food trucks



After the amateur finals, the pros lined up for their race.
 

Some of the best USA cycling teams showed up to race around downtown Tampa. 



The crowds to watch the race showed up too.  The atmosphere around the course was great and got better after drinking a couple of excellent Cigar City Brewing beers.  The pro race was exciting to watch.  They flew around the course at extremely fast speeds. 

There was a breakaway of two riders that were able to get away from the field early.  One of the riders that was on the breakaway is on the very strong United Health Care pro cycling team.  Once the two riders got away, team tactics started to play, and they were able to lap the field quickly. 

The team was able to control the front of the field so nobody else could get away.  There was a small breakaway of four riders but, they just sat off the front of the field the rest of the race.  The race was supposed to last 80 minutes plus 3 laps, but for some reason, they ended the race after only 60 minutes. 

 

After the race, we headed over to Taco Bus for some late night food.  I heard a ton of great stories about Taco Bus, and they did not let us down.  Their burrito was the prefect fix to crave my drunk munchies.  The race was still exciting to watch and the whole day full of events turned out awesome.  It was great having top USA cyclists race in Florida again and I look forward to this race next year.  Maybe next year I will be in the amateur finals.

What is your favorite food after a late night out?

Winter Garden Criterium

The Winter Garden cycling festival kicked off a weekend full of cycling rides and races.  The festival took place around downtown Winter Garden with the criterium race taken place on the brick roads of Winter Garden main street. 



The day started off early with Rachel and I taking our engagement photos by the Cocoa Beach pier where I proposed to her.  Above is a preview of some of the awesome photos Cat took of us.  I was nervous before the photo shoot, but she was outstanding and took some great photos of Rachel and I.  After brunch, we headed over to Winter Garden to race in the Winter Garden Criterium.  There was a ton of activities going on in downtown Winter Garden.  There was a farmers market, charity bike ride, and the winter garden criterium.  A nice change of scenery compared to the typical races that occur in the middle of nowhere in an undeveloped neighborhood. 

         
My race did not start until almost 2pm and the temperature outside was heating up.  I found the only shaded spot in the parking lot to warm up on my trainer.  It just happened to be right next to the dumpster.  I was covered in sweat within a few minutes. 

 
The criterium course was one mile long and half the course was on brick paved roads.  The corners were also in tough shape with some holes in the middle of the turns.  I knew I needed to stay towards the front to make it through the tough sections safe.  The crit race was 40 minutes long. 



I position myself toward the front before the start and it was good since I under estimated how rough the bricks were.  My bike was shaking so much, my water bottle cage shook loose. 

  
I stayed towards the front and even attempted to try a breakaway.  I took a couple pulls on the front to keep the pace up. 

The strategy was to keep the pace up and drop as many people off the back as we can.  

The strategy worked but it almost backed fired on me when I drifted towards the back to rest some and did not realize the last person passed me.  I looked back and there was nobody behind me and I had to chase down the group. 


There were only 11 riders left in the lead pack out of the 21 riders that started the race.  Riding on the bricks was tough and felt like I was going up hill the whole time.  After the race, I found out we were going up hill during the stretch of brick.  Just had to hammer it every lap to get through that section.     


Since the pack was small, I stayed towards the back and tried to recover for the final sprint. 

  
With one lap to go, the pace started to pick up because someone attacked.  I tried to pass someone on the outside going into turn two, when there was almost a crash in front of me.  A rider a few spots up was push wide and had to lockup the brakes to avoid going over the curb.  I had to slam on the breaks to avoid ramming into the back of him.  My tires slid up against the curb and I lost all my momentum.  I used most of my remaining energy to catch back up and was only able to out sprint one person.




I ended up getting 10th place overall in my Cat 5 race.  I was happy with the result of another top 10 finish, but wished I better position going into the last couple of laps.  The average speed for the race was 24 mph, but felt higher because of the bricks.  Click here to check out my GPS data from the race.

                 

After the race, I made sure to rehydrate and recover for the hilly Race of the West 42 mile long road race the next morning. We walked around the various tents around Winter Garden and watched some of the remaining races.

Have you every tried to race or ride a bike on a brick road?

Delray Beach Twilight Festival

I was excited to hear the announcement that the first stop of the 2012 USA Crits Championship Series would be Delray Beach, Florida.  The USA Crits Championship Series brings some of the nations best cyclist to the state of Florida to compete in a high pace crit race around the streets of downtown Delray Beach, Florida. 


Since I will be getting married in Delray next September,  Rachel and I decided to make it a weekend of wedding planning and cycling racing.  The first event was the Doghouse Twilight Grid Qualifiers on Friday night where the pros completed against each other on a 3k time trial on a CompuTrainer to determine the top 8 starting positions for the Saturday evening pro race. 


The first race was the top 8 amateur riders competing against each other for bragging rights and money.  For amateurs, these guys had some power and were able to keep up that power for over 8 minutes.  They had some crazy watts outputs.

                 
Next was the pro finals.  The pros performed the Computrainer course during the day and the top 8 men competed in the finals to determine the staring grid for Saturday night’s pro race.  The intensity and the atmosphere was heating up as they warmed up, luckily the event had a beer garden to keep cool.  The watts outputs were insane for the pro’s with their average power output of 450 watts.  Crazy.

       

During the day on Saturday was the amateur races to qualify for the evening’s amateur final.  Since I am still racing as a Cat 5, I was unable to qualify for the amateur final race.  I was very tempted to upgrade to Cat 4 just to have a chance to qualify, but felt like I needed a couple of more races with better results before I upgraded. 

        
The races were located a few miles from downtown Delray around a couple of office buildings.  The course was wide open and had four easy corners. 


The race was a criterium where we raced around the course for 35 minutes.  The race tempo was not as fast as normal because nobody wanted to be out in front driving up the pace. 


I was getting annoyed by the amount of braking going into the corners.  With the corners wide open, we should not have been constantly braking so hard going into the corners.  There were a couple of attacks, including my solo breakaway attempt that caused the pace to pick up at time.  With about 3 laps to go, a guy was able to solo breakaway and hold off the field for the rest of the race. 

I was able to sprint for a close photo finish for 6th place.  Looking at my Garmin, the pace ended up averaging 24 mph for the 35 minutes.  Another top ten finish this year and if it was not for my crash at the Deleon Springs road race, all my finishes would have been in the top 10.  ` 
         
Later that night, we headed to downtown Delray Beach to watch the amateur and pro races.  We walked around the inside of the 1 kilometer long course once the amateur men started the race.  We stopped by the expo and tried to get a bunch of free stuff.  The race was drawing attention from non cycling fans like the cops that were playing with their radar guns, clocking the cyclist as they went past. 

We found some people I knew at turn 3 and set up camp for the rest of the race.  Turn 3 was were all the action happened at.  The course narrowed coming out of turn 3 and the riders were coming very close to hitting the barriers.    



There was a massive pile up that split the amateur race in half.  I was initially disappointed by the crowd turn out for the race; but once the pros started to race, the streets lining the course started to get packed.     

The pro race was exciting to watch.  They flew around the 1 kilometer course 80 times.  There were a couple of initial attacks that did not last, but there was a three man breakaway that was able to lap the whole field.  Team Mountain Khakis/SmartStop had a guy in the breakaway and used great team race tactics to slow down the peleton.  They were sitting on the front controlling the pace of the peleton and they sat on the wheel of anyone trying to chase down the breakaway. 

We headed to the finish line to watch the sprint finish.  The Mountain Khakis/Smartstop went to the front and pushed the pace for their rider.  The last few laps, they were flying around the course.  They had a great lead out for their teammate that was in the breakaway, and he ended up winning the race.  I ended up having a blast during the whole Delray Beach Twilight Festival.  It was great having top USA cyclist race in Florida and I look forward to this race next year.  Maybe next year I will be in the amateur finals.