Tuesday Nighter Road Clean-Up, Saturday, October 13, 9am

Yep, you heard it right: Fall Clean-Up for the "Nighter"! We're planning on giving the traditional "Tuesday Nighter" a little face lift.

City of Austin/Travis County recently cut & trimmed a bunch of trees & bushes along our favorite Tuesday Night course. Only problem is: there's tons of trash left and right along Thaxton Rd, Old Lockhart Rd, and Nuckols Crossing Rd. on the 9mile loop.

If you care about riding in South East Austin, and like to ride along "green roads" please come out or share this with your friends. This coming weekend is no CycloCross Race, no MTB Race, and no Road Race happening in Texas - and it's off-season! (Okay, it's ACL weekend but you can go later).

When: Saturday, October 13, 9am (plan on 2hrs or so)

Where: traditional Tuesday Nighter starting point on Thaxton Rd and Alum Rock Dr, Austin, TX (Map here: http://bit.ly/UMY3qV)

What to bring: some solid shoes and good attitude! If you drive out, carpool and bring your pick-up truck.

We'll provide some heavy duty trash bags and gloves. Some refreshments, too. You can ride your bike out, too but make sure to bring a lock or even better, take your commuter bike.

Any questions? Email me stefanrothe81 at gmail dot com

See you Saturday morning!

Note: in the case of rain, we'll postpone for another weekend in the Fall/Winter and post something on the www in advance.

Elite Track Omnium Nationals

Whenever USA Cycling announced last Fall to hold the Omnium Nationals separate from the regular US Track Nationals and at the brand new, 250m Giordana Velodrome in Rock Hill I knew I'm going! At least I was planning on. I just had to take care of one thing: get that blue passport in time. And it came; 3 weeks before I rode for the first time on the smooth concrete of Rock Hill's newest cycling track I was standing in San Antonio giving the oath and getting my US citizenship. Just in time.

Giordana Velodrome, Rock Hill, SC

It's been a while that I raced track so I knew I had to put in some work to get my form just right in time for the two-day, 6-event race. You never forget riding fixed gear and turning left, but the leg speed, high cadence, and accelerations is something you need to train if you want to get on that podium. And I did. Quite a bit. I went out many times doing multiple 4:40-5min efforts on S. Mopac here in Austin, trying to hold 400W on the road bike in a 92-96inch gear. Followed by a all-out flying Kilo. Couple that with a few moto-pacing sessions behind the car driven by Jen P. The local Thursday Crit, the Driveway, was another key component of my preparation. Lots of hard crit racing stuffed in 50-60minutes attempting to just go hard and setting new 20min wattage and TSS records. But most importantly, it was hitting the boards at the Superdrome in Frisco a few times, doing the local Friday night race, and some specific Flying Lap and Pursuit practice. Tim Goodwin gave me some sprint advice, whereas Suzie Tignor Goodwin made me chase her on her moto on the track. I also ventured to Houston to the Alkek Velodrome twice, never haven't raced there before all those years I lived in Texas. It's a a bit of a rough track but great for practicing and it sure helped doing some timed events there.

Omnium started with the 250m Flying Lap, a combination of skill and leg speed. I'm not a sprinter but with a good enough, fast lead-out I can sprint pretty okay. Riding on the track the day before and finding the line helped for sure. I ended up 5th w/ a 14.7 which I was happy with since I expected this to be my hardest challenge. Kovalcik, a former bike messenger from Protland, OR won easily with a 14.2.

In the evening we started with the Points Race and I was looking forward to it. 120laps is 40laps shorter from the format they do at Nationals or what I used to do back home but still, 30K is a good fit for an endurance guy like me. I was conservative early on and stayed busy keeping track of what's going on in the race. There was a time board but no intermediate results or standings were displayed. So you try to pay attention to the announcer and keep an eye on who's off the front and who's got a lap or not. That's the great thing about the mass start events, besides the physical strength and fitness you need to be on top of things in terms of tactics and knowing what's happening in your race. A guy from Chicago (Liam) ended up taking 2laps and I went with him once about half-way through. We were sitting 1st (him) and 2nd (me) after that. He had 17 or so more points. I was good with 2nd and just made sure nobody is trying to leap-frog me. After the Points, I was sitting 2nd to Kovalcik. The Elimination race was going to be a fast drag-race to the line, with 1 rider being pulled every other lap. I was sitting by the blue line, just making sure to make it to the last 2 or 3 riders. Everything went according to plan until it got down to Kovalcik and Dan Holt (Type 1). Both have a good kick, which I couldn't answer and I ended up 3rd. Still 2nd Overall, a few points behind Kovalcik. Day 1 was in the books.

Scratch Final (That's Wes Jerman's Speedsuit!)

Having teammates in the Omnium does not help too much but it was good to have some Texas folks around. Andrew Armstrong and Jake Boone (both of RBM, Dallas) were racing, too and we had some fun in our stall and it was great having someone around to give you splits for the Pursuit which started Day 2, the final day of Nationals. I knew this was going to be a event where I could make up some points on the current leader, Kovalcik, who's a much better sprinter than me. Since we were leading 1-2, we were seeded in the last IP heat. Liam of XXX Racing from Chicago had set a fastest time so far, a 4:46, pretty quick on that outside track. It's been a while that I did a true 4K effort on the track (besides the training on the road bike w/ the power meter) but I found my legs pretty quick and mainly 18's to come in 2nd with a 4:51, 7sec quicker than Kovalcik. 6seconds faster would have given me one less point in the Omnium and tie for first but that wasn't in the bag. It came down to the Scratch and Kilo later that evening. Fun Fact: Both Liam and I rode FELT TK2 alloy bikes to 1st and 2nd in the Individual Pursuit. Same goes for the Points race the night before, the FELT alloy bikes went 1-2, too. It is or is not about the bike I guess!?!

Pursuit. Thanks to Greg Saxon for the Assos Speedsuit :-)

The 60 (?)-lap Scratch is kind of a hit or miss - especially when it's an Omnium. If you mess up and finish 15th then you're Overall hopes are gone pretty quick. If you do well, you can stay at the very top. It was a fast race with lot of attacks but the race got tactical very quick. Holt was 3rd Overall and Kovalcik's teammate was not far behind. So we all chased each other down a few times and also Liam (the guy who won the Pursuit & Points) tried to get away; so did Holt who looked like to win w/ 10 laps to go but he got brought back. I did what I could and rolled in 8th in the field sprint won by Andy Crater. Still 2nd, a good cushion to 3rd, but the Overall was pretty much gone by now where Kovalcik had a 4 or 5pt lead now. Having the Kilo TT last, takes away a bit of pressure because you don't have a mass-start race to worry about for the last event. You just have to be motivated to do one last HARD effort against the clock and be done with it. I never went quicker than 1:13 on wood or concrete in the past and I saw some quick sub 1:10 times while warming-up. I thought I'd really have to dig deep to make sure I stay "on track" for Silver and not get leap-frogged by someone because of a messy Kilo. The Kilo was done in heats again and Kovalcik and I did the last heat again. I went as fast as I could and it was a painful minute and change but I surprised myself with a 1:10 which was good enough for 5th, secured 2nd place and a 3sec PR for this endurance guy.

There was no way I could have beaten a on-form Zach Kovalcik. So very happy with 2nd place in my first Elite Nationals. USADA intentionally picked the Top3 from the Kilo and I was happy to save some time and get out of there. But then they realized they made a mistake and needed the Top3 Overall so I had no time to pack my stuff together. My chaperon was like: "Let's go upstairs." Okay. Upon arrival, USAC guy said, "No, let's do podium first." Okay, down again in the elevator. Yes, you take the elevator down to the tunnel. Pretty cool with some tired legs. Finally, after the podium it was back upstairs and let USADA do it's thing. It was a short night, with packing all my stuff together, and we got up really early to drop off some wheels etc. at 24hr FedEx, return rental car at the airport, and get to the Terminal for flying back to Dallas. My Accelerade powder almost got confiscated by TSA, but they finally figured it wasn't 'coca' after they did some testing right there in front of me.

final podium (Holt, Urbanski, Kovalcik, me, Donoghue)

Special thanks to Thad Fischer, a good friend of and former DS of mine for making the Giordana Velodrome a reality and hosting a great Omnium Elite Track Nationals there.

Tulsa Tough #7

An "original Okie" - teamate & superman/dad Chad Cagle is kinda big here in Tulsa

Another Tulsa Tough in the books! Since the first time Chris and the guys in Tulsa put on that race in 2006 I've been coming back every year. The 7th time now for me. And it gets better every year. The competition, the crowd, the support/involvement of the local community, and - of course - the payout.

We (Team Tulsa Tough) had an "Tulsa alumni" racing with us - Alex Welch - for some extra horsepower to support Chad and Jason in their quest for results in the sprints. Both those two did well all weekend, never finishing outside the Top 15 each day, and Chad getting 6th in the P/1 Omnium with Jason in 9th.

Mat during the "fireworks" on Friday Night At Blue Dome District © Cycling Illustrated

My task was to help out where I can and especially Saturday evening Mat & I were needed to help bring back a late break. For Chad and Jason but also because our ex-teammate Brad Huff was "a bit alone" at that point and I like see him doing well. We could do a bit of damage control and rotated for a few short laps before Jelly Belly & Optum took over. Chad got Top 10 again (9th I think) and Jason 15th. It ended up being a longer night again with a visit at the Brady Tavern for post-race dinner and a visit to the Soundpony - a must on a Saturday night in Tulsa if you're a cyclist and a Tulsa Tough is happening!

Brady Village Crit, with Huff in tow - © Cycling Illustrated

Soundpony - packed as always during Tulsa Tough

Sunday's race is the last and the hardest day of racing of the weekend. Besides the Stillwater Crit at Nature Valley GP probably the hardest Crit you can do on the NRC circuit. On that course, it's maybe 90% about fitness and 10% of getting in the right break at the right time. I usually go well, or really bad. 2010 I got 4th and my best NRC result to that point. Last year I was out long solo & chasing primes and such but ultimately called it a day on top of "Cry Baby Hill" before the race was over. This year was nothing special in performance...I waited 5 or 6 laps before I moved up to the front and found a good break-away partner in Eric Marcotte. We started riding well together for 3 or 4 laps and quickly established a 10, 15second gap. But I had to dig pretty deep going up "the hill" while he seemed to be smiling. Not sure what was going on but I realized I can't stand that pace on the hill much longer without "overheating". I had a okay Diesel that day, just no "Turbo". Eric seemed to have both as he ended up winning the race after getting caught by the field on the last lap and still won the sprint easily ahead of Ken Hanson and Brad Huff.

Chad and Jason both finished in the Top 15 again and Mat & I rolled in together with what was left from the "field". 75minutes equals 37(!) times going up Cry Baby Hill. It was hard. But you didn't really feel the pain because the thousand (?) people on the hill make so much noise that you kind of riding through there in "trance". It was getting out of control. Riding in the middle of the pack gives you some "safety" in terms of riding straight and not having to dodge 45year-old fathers in speedos, with blonde fake curly hair holding baby dolls. Or other grown man in cheerleader's outfit. Or Wonder Woman. It was good fun, though and I never felt "endangered" by the crowds. Most of them are cyclists or know about cycling and are aware of the fact that we're trying to ride a straight line up a hill and need some space to do so. The water hand-ups', water hoses, etc. were very welcomed for sure. I lost out on any big primes this time around BUT the folks are getting creative and while there's no more cash KOM on the hill anymore I was able to snag a dozen dollar bills from a number of "fans" who offered them in a "variety of places"...hand, mouth (?), back pockets, and others...

All in all, a great party again and I think I'm safe to say that a crowd like this on Cry Baby Hill is something I haven't seen anywhere else in the World before. I might have seen more people standing on the roadside or watching a Crit. But the way those fans get behind the race and into is amazing. There was some planning on going beforehand, even a stage was built days before on top of the hill to accommodate a live band. And the creativity of the crowd when it comes to outfits is great, too. Check out some of the best action shots here and in the below video by Keith Walberg (husband of Catherine Walberg, who races for the Tulsa Tough Women's Team).

Crowds on Cry Baby Hill

"Go Random Stranger! Go!"

And I thought it "stung a bit"... "smiling is his game face" I was told. Congrats to Marcotte on a stellar ride on Cry Baby Hill.

Back in Wichita Falls & OKC Crits

with "Pops" and Sheri before the ride at TCC

Thursday TCC Ride in WF

at the MSU Cycling statue just outside the Admin building on campus. Good memories leaving here for some punishing group rides with Mark Ernsting and the boys (and girls).

Mt. Scott in Wichita Mountains is always worth a stop.

Blurry finish at OKC ProAm Classic. 4th place, again :-(

My first Relay - CapTexTri in Austin

Olympic Relay - Overall Win with Scott Dill (l) and Jeff Shelton (r)

Monster Energy vs. Red Bull 1:0

Heath "Heathy" Blackgrove fueled by Monster Energy got the better of me at the end of a hot & hard Glickman Crit on Saturday. The (sugar free) Red Bull lost this battle by a few inches... Thanks to Dan Apgar for the picture, though :-)

Back in Ft. Davis and riding in El Paso

After skipping the "Hammerfest" last year to go to Utah's Tour of the Depot (and having to deal with snow!) we went back down to South West Texas for another edition of the 'highest' TXBRA race of the year - held at 5000-6800ft.

Friday evening spin with Bicycles Outback ;-)

Long-time promoter David Ham handed the race over to Holland Racing recently and Andrew changed the format up a bit, making it a 11mile TT up to the Observatory, a afternoon road race and another road race Sunday (that was the plan at least).

The P/1/2 race was a bit slim with only 19 guys, but still it hurt enough going up to McDonald Observatory in the TT. Pacing yourself was the key here, as it was just man/woman vs. time. I was lucky to have some guys in front of me to keep me motivated in ~40min of uphill-tt-mode. It was enough to win but just by 5seconds as Kiwi Ryan Wills (THSJ) rode a perfect TT, too and Kiwi Logan Hutchings (THSJ) took 3rd 1:30 back.

TrainingPeaks File here

This made for a fun road race in the afternoon since it was basically me vs. 4 THSJ boys but all I had to do was just to follow Wills and watch out who's going and who's not. Phil (SS) took off early with another THSJ guy and Troy Dunton so that worked perfect. Everyone just rode steady Tempo up the hill and it didn't really shake up much. We were maybe 10-15guys coming over the first pass. From there it was pretty negative racing since nobody would ride and the only time I had to jump was when Logs or Ryan went. Once we made the turn-around to go back towards Ft. Davis the air got a bit "sticky" and you could feel the smoke actually. Phil still had 3minutes or so but was no GC threat. A few other guys were dangling in between. There was one major climb, maybe 1.5-2K long and I went all-out up it and only Wills and Mario Arroyave were on my wheel. We started riding, but Wills wouldn't pull through. Just Mario and me. I didn't had to ride since I was leading but what should I do? Sit up and wait so the group re-groups and Wills has 2 teammates to work me over and let Phil get gain more and more time and take over GC? OR ride it with Mario and Wills and make sure we stay in sight of the leaders on the road but risk getting jumped by Wills and if he just gains 5seconds on me I shuffle down to 2nd GC. I decided for the latter, rode hard with Mario and Wills was sitting on for the majority. He tried jumping me probably 3-5times on the flats / rollers and Mario got dropped. I was able to respond every time, though. Once we got some guys who were in no-man's land he still refused to work (don't blame him, though) and that gave Logan and a few others time to catch us on the descent. THSJ attacked left and right - even on the downhills but I felt good and was able to respond. "Heartbreak Hill" - our finish line - was close so we all just sprinted for 3rd place and I just made sure I finish ahead of Wills, which I did. So all good for the day.

Unfortunately the wildfires in the area got worse as the weekend went on and the officials had to call the final stage on Sunday (73miles) which was a major bummer. The smoke was just too dangerous and all Emergency vehicles/sherriff's in the area where busy dealing with evacuating the Davis Mountain Resort etc. With the race canceled, there was no stage 3 and I ended up winning. Never had that happen before to walk away with a GC without racing the last day/stage. Kind of weird. I sure wish we could have raced and get in another 3 1/2hrs of hard work on the bike in before heading further West to New Mexico.

fires in the distance

Friday evening fire/smoke looking from Prude Ranch West

I drove to El Paso in the morning to get out of the already thin smoky air and ended up riding there for a few hours there. It's been a while (6years) that I rode a bike in ELP but it was actually not too bad at all. TransMountain Rd into the Franklin Mountain State Park is the place to go for some climbing and I did a loop from the East to the West over the 5280ft Pass back down towards I-10 (10-13min of descending at 30-40mph!) and the Valley and then back to town via HW85/Paisano Dr along the Rio Grande. That was actually quite interesting. You can throw a rock to Mexico from the sidewalk. There's some high fencing everywhere and every 1/2mile a border patrol car. People (on the other side) are hanging out at the river, listening to music (loud) and kids are playing in the Rio Grande river. There's a small road (Anapra Rd) which actually crosses the Rio Grande and you can ride your bike over and you're pretty much in Mexico. I stopped by the "Camino Real" - a historic site/point which settlers/travelers used back in the 16-19th century to cross from the Gulf of Mexico towards the Pacific or just to settle in the (now) New Mexico area since it was the lowest (elevation) of crossing the Rockies to go West.

riding up Transmountain Rd East to West

view from above, looking South

view for the 10minute descent heading down to I-10

Rio Grande looking from Tejas to Mexico

view to Mexico right from HW 85

Active Recovery Day - Installing Garage Door Openers

I found two long afternoons over the last weekend to do some project around the house I had on my to-do-list for a long time: installing a garage door opener. The house didn't come with one but to my luck the majority of the wiring was already in place behind the drywall and over the ceiling. So the only thing missing was the actual opener, some brackets to install it, and a few switches/buttons to hook it up. I felt like I did a 6hr ride after being on my feet for hours. It was worth it, though. The wife sure likes it. Just pushing buttons now!

Step 1: Chamberlain Belt Drive which was on sale at LOWE's

Step 2: garage pre-install, aluminum door with standard spring for manual opening/closing

Step 3: lots of assembling to do!

Step 4: Chamberlain uses a standard 1/8" track chain lock to hold the belt drive together. Who would have thought?

Step 5: install wall bracket for front end of belt guide

Step 6: support for door bracket

Step 7: door bracket installed

Step 8: You can have a helper...or just use the ladder + cooler to position the opener!

Step 9: ceiling mounts installed, angled/custom metal brackets added, opener hangs!

Step 10: just he wiring left now

Step 11: installing wall mount for opener /light switch

Step 12: safety sensors need wiring + installation on door tracks

Step 13: installed and connected, just need to hide the wires and for "cleaner" look

Step 14: angled L-shaped extension installed, this will give the "lift" to the door

Step 15: that was the easiest part...outside door keypad for remote entry

Step 16: The American Dream! push-to-open

Step 17: done!

 

yet another Walburg Classic & Pace Bend Road Race

Historically, the Walburg Classic and Pace Bend Road Race in the Austin area have been the season opener for road racing in Texas. Deep fields in the Pro/1 race with a good bunch of riders from Texas and out-of-state make for a challenging weekend in late February. Besides a smaller “training” race in Dallas the other weekend, it’s also the first time we get to race together as a team in the new season.

Walburg, a small rural town just 45 min North of Austin, has some unique characteristics when it comes to bike racing. The town supports the event year after year and the race is held on open farm land where the winds are usually 20+mph and make for a very hard race – in the P/1′s as well as the Cat 5 race. Riders getting dropped in the “gutter” or simply lose contact to the peloton because of the strong cross winds. None of the this year, though as the big American flag was not moving an inch when I rolled into town at 7am (why do we have to race so early?). It would make for a fast race I thought, and more tactical than usual as the wind usually made a natural selection of its own by the time the P/1 peloton completed 3 laps of a rolling 24 mile circuit.

The plan was simple: get into any break which looks promising and in case it really comes down to a field sprint – rather unlikely on this course – be ready to lead out Chad and Jason who can do well in that long false flat uphill drag to the finish line. Besides those two sprinters, we had Mat, Jay, and myself in the race. Before I got serious about moving up and seeing the front of the race I had a little “moment” where I looked down and saw that my rear wheel was not sitting 100% straight in the frame. Almost rubbing my tubular on the chainstay. I thought: “No, not now!”. I had Mat check it while he rode behind me and he just said, “yeah, it’s close.” Not wanting to risk any mechanical failure down the road, I decided to use a lull moment in the peloton (we were only going 17-18mph) to ride to the front of the field, just to abruptly stop on the right side in a driveway. I checked my rear wheel, aligned quickly straight, hopped back on my steed and carried on…chasing the field for 30-45 seconds but they weren’t going fast and Jay was sitting at the back of the field “watching” me, making sure someone is there to help in case I need it. That got my heart rate up a bit and I put in a nice effort. I was warmed-up now. Sure enough, a bit after the last right turn towards the S/F line (about 8 miles out) some of the “serious” attacks came and the 2nd one I jumped with ended up being “the move” of the day. Elbowz Racing, who seemed to have a dozen (ok, only 10) guys in the race were there with 2004 Olympian Heath Blackgrove and Joseph Schmalz, then Austin’s Dave Wenger, David Arteaga from Dallas, and myself. And we just started rotating. Everyone. Pushing down the pedals, not saying much, trying to stay away from a field which was slowly, slowly disappearing in our rear. We were going fast. No wind meant we were able to take longer pulls, maintaining 27 mph for most of the ride. It sure felt fast. I knew I had to pace myself if I wanted to stay where I was, since I know my form is not nowhere near to my top that time of the year. 80 mile road races are rough on me in mid-February. I started to be more conservative and just rolled through rather than really pull. Heath and Joseph were riding super strong, so did Wenger. I thought that my teammates might push a bit in the field because for a while we were hovering at just 40 seconds ahead of the peloton and I knew that we had a better chance of winning with our two sprinters Chad & Jason in the field. It was a tough call..you want to have 1 out of 5 or roll the dice and have the whole field sprint for it and hope your sprinters “take care” of it. Turns out we kept gaining and gaining on the field and – as I expected – Heath + Joseph took matters in their own hand and simply rode away from Dave Wenger, me & David. I couldn’t jump, that “snap” wasn’t there – yet. I rode the last 3 miles together with David all the way to the finish while Dave was able to sneak away and rolled in 3rd. I was next over the line for 4th place and the field came in just a minute later. Jason & Chad went a little bit early in the sprint for the lower places and probably were not as motivated sprinting for a 6th place rather than a win and finished in the main field. Overall, we came away with a hard-fought 4th place and I sure was tired after that one. From the years I’ve done Walburg (6 or 7 times) this was one of the harder ones – maybe not in the field, but being in the break for 50 miles sure was a “rough day at the office”. But it was enjoyable at the same time and our race time was the fastest I remember – 2hrs 46min for the 72 miles. Note: Youngster Jacob White ended up 6th after winning the field sprint in the Cat 2 race.

Walburg P/1 break-away (photo: Michael Harris)

Sunday’s Pace Bend Road Race has been traditionally a “sprinters paradise”: a rolling, 6 mile loop on super smooth roads in a beautiful Park just off Lake Travis West of Austin. The “climbs” are more hills and don’t last more than 10-15 seconds when you go up them in your big ring. So, unless you’re totally out of shape (which Cat 1 racers usually are not) it’s hard to get dropped on that course. That makes for some interesting race dynamics as the teams with sprinters (i.e. Elbowz: Marcotte, Super Squadra: Wikoff, our Tulsa Tough: Chad & Jason, and others) are hoping for a field sprint and the rest of the peloton is trying to “shake things up”. Mat and Jay took turns early in the race to “animate” things a bit and Mat made it into the most promising break of the day while Jason, Chad, and myself rode within our limits in the field, conserving energy and waiting for the last two laps which were going to be  faster/harder than the previous 13. Team Elbowz was throwing everything for a field sprint  so they rode their race, on the front, controlling things and slowly reeling in the break of 3 or 4 guys. Mat came back from that move with 3 laps to go and I could sense this is going to be nail biter…the remaining break of 3 had 50 seconds with 1 lap/6 miles to go but Elbowz was riding solid tempo on the front, stringing out the field single-file. Chad and Jason were siting 20-25th wheel while I “surfed” behind the blue & white train of Elbowz right next to Chann McRae who decided it was time to do a bike race again. With 3 miles to go we could see the remains of the break. I was working a bit harder but was still in control of things. The little “stinger” hill with 1 mile to go was going to be a decisive place I thought and I figured I’ll give it a try because A) I could derail the blue & white lead-out train and B) maybe draw out a few strong “finisseurs”  for the last kilometer or so. When I looked back 10 seconds later I saw Chann was on my wheel but we had no real gap and Marcotte still had two guys left “to burn” before we entered the final right turn to the finish. As I had hoped, Jason & Chad made the small split, too and while I was slowly going backwards both of them came around me and Chad settled into 3rd or 4th wheel. That’s all I saw. Nobody behind me but a dozen guys ahead of me in the last 200 meters. Chad came close, but not close enough and ended up 3rd. After 80 miles of racing and a few hard laps at the end we got on the podium…just two steps short.  Jason Waddell rolled in 10th and me 13th. Still, we raced our bikes today and everyone did their share of the work and we can’t complain to walk away with a 3rd and 4th place in the first big race weekend here in Texas. 8 month of racing yet to come!

Mat Ankney Pace Bend break-away (photo: J.A. Hicks)

Chad Cagle (center) finishing 3rd in tight Pace Bend sprint finish (photo: Lee McDaniel)

Frost Yer Fanny Du at Texas Motor Speedway

Coming off a solid off-season which also included a bit of running I decided to take Jack Weiss invitation to do the Frost Yer Fanny Duathlon February 19th. Like the name implies, it was a chilly 40 something degrees on race day but - comparing to the conditions back in November when I won the Duathlon hosted at Texas Motor Speedway - there was almost zero wind on Sunday morning.

The race was also the USAT SWM Region's Championship so the entry list featured a few more heavy hitters (obviously, great runners!) and I knew it would be tough to try to "repeat" on that course. Run #1 (2miles) was painful as usual and I just tried to pace myself and follow a good "draft" around the inner track of Texas Motor Speedway. I thought I was about a minute behind entering T1 and felt somewhat comfortable getting on the bike, which was going to be my 2nd ride on it. Big thanks to Austin Tri-Cyclist which is my bike sponsor for this year with some sweet Cervelo gear. Since there was barely any wind I felt fast and kept catching and passing guys who started ahead of me, including the 40+ wave athletes who started 2min ahead my age group (30+). The only thing I "kind of forgot" was the fact that the young guns (29 and under) started 2min behind us. So coming first into T2 I was just a little bit worried about a strong runner, Patrick Schuster, who came into T2 just 30seconds later than me. Little did I know that he actually started 2minutes ahead of me and was no threat for the Overall. SO I thought: "Oh sh#%, that guy is going to run me down"! My legs felt jello and my feet were cold & numb I could barely feel them hitting the tarmac with every step. It was painful. Somehow I managed to hold him off and came in at 1:00:45 which was more than 2minutes faster than back in November at Brenda's Du. Turns out, it wasn't enough to actually win the Overall as two guys (William Huffman and Michael Wilkinson) who started 2minutes behind me did MUCH faster runs (10:03 vs. my two equal 11:52 splits). Pretty amazing. While I still got my AG win it was a bit of a bummer to miss out on the USAT Regional Championships by less than 40seconds in an hour event.

Again, special thanks to Jack Weiss of Iron Head Productions for a great race and Austin Tri-Cyclist for equipping this roadie with the fastest TT rig out there - Cervelo's P4!

 The P4 claims fastest bike of the day! weird number placement, I know. I make fun of it, too...

a bit pre-mature celebration here, since the "young guns" who started 2min behind me got me by 40seconds in the Overall. Lesson learned.