The Waiting Game

And then there was more waiting . . . I headed out for a ride with Mike Carter yesterday while the sun was shining. The forecast for Saturday was looking grim, so might as well get while the getting was good. As predicted, today is cold and wet, motivation to get out for a ride is pretty low, but we'll get out eventually just to spin the legs out a bit.

St. Johann is full right now, but after the race on Sunday, town will be absolutely dead when everybody splits. Mike and Dave are staying until Tuesday, they will have the run of the town! I just started planning my "vacation" in Munich. I am going to try to head down to Garmisch on Monday and then hit the zoo in Munich on Tuesday since I have seen a good chunk of the city already on my vast walking tours of last year. It will be a nice change of pace to see some new things.

As the trip (and the entire season for that matter) winds down, I am starting to plot and scheme for what comes next. When I get home, I will have to start on thinking about actually finishing some projects started prior to the season. I am looking forward to a couple of days where I don't even look at my bike, pretty easy to do when it is boxed up and out of sight . . .

Day After

Last night's awards ceremony took forever! We watched Mike Carter get his award for winning the Weltpokal race and then got dinner. When we got back a couple hours later, we still had a few groups in front of us. We took turns running to the main square for to go beers and finally at 10:15, we got out trophies and went back to the hotel.

Today we decided to go on a cruiser of a ride, heading north to Kossen and then down to Kufstein to take a look at the fortress overlooking the river. We also rode past the Riedel factory before riding back to town om shme busy roads. We got in about 4 hours on the day and had a lovely coffee stop on one of the lakes. I took a few moments to pack up the TT bike, it had a nice vacation. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, doing laundry and hanging out in general. We all got together for cocktail hour followed by a traditional meal at the Hotel Post. The Kasespatzle was very good and everybody else enjoyed their Wienerschnitzel. One more day of laying low before the last race day of the season.

Worlds TT

The question of "special circumstances" has come from a couple after my brief post just after the TT. I could dig up the link for the UCI rules as to what a bicycle is, but it is as clear as mud and ever changing. The long and short of it in my case (pun intended) is that there is a legal limit for the length of the extensions on aero bars. The limit is 75 cm from the center of the bottom bracket to the end of the extensions, with a morphological exemption allowing up to 80 cm. Mine were 85 cm and I made the decision after getting passed without question last year not to cut them down. They were being strict about it this year. . .

I went through the normal routine for warming up out here with a morning effort to open up, heading up towards Hochfilsen. After that, I had hours of sitting and waiting until my start time at 3:56.30. At 2:30 I headed out to the venue with Mike Carter to roll to the start area for official measurement and getting the nod that although my bars were long they didn't really care. Yeah, this year they cared and weren't letting people start for a variety of violations. I went back and forth with the French UCI official, he asked me to get on the bike and although my position wasn't to any extreme, I wouldn't be able to ride my bike unless the bars were shortened. Unfortunately, my bars are not adjustable and have to be cut (cables included) to shorten them.

I went back to the car and put on my skinsuit while pondering the options for plan B. I rolled back to where Mike was waiting and told him they weren't going to let me ride my bike. Paul Humiston is about my size and he was still hanging out after finishing 6th in his age group. Without much delay, we switched pedals and adjusted his saddle to the correct height and off I went to warm up on a 56 cm Cervelo P3 instead of my 58 cm Felt. The position was ok, but a bit cramped up top. If I brought my hands back at all, I could hit my elbows on my knees. Paul also had a 56T chainring whereas I was used to a 55T. I completed my warm up and went back to the start house. They measured Paul's bike and almost made an issue of the seat post violating the 3:1 rule, but sent me on my way.

I did what I do in TTs, tried to maintain focus, keep passing people what started in front of me, and ramp the effort to max, leaving nothing on the road. I did a little gear hunting because of the 56T but tried to stay comfortable. I went slower than last year and finished 7th. It could have been worse by far. I am not one to freak out simply because something isn't going as planned and expected. I knew there was a chance that something like this might happen because of my decision not to cut my bars. At least I got to ride something and put in a decent effort. Mike Olheiser continued his winning ways, beating last year's winner by .93s. Now we have some time to kick back, relax and get ready to race again in a few days.

Real Quick

They enforced rules, thank you to Paul Humiston for the bike and Andy Grabowski for the quick pedal change and adjustments. I rode Paul's bike to a 25:11, a little slower than last year and probably top 10. My only regret is that it wasn't a real test of my best effort, rather my best effort given the circumstances. It happens . . . more to follow.

TT Prep

Getting ready for the time trial takes a life of its own in a way which seems odd for an event that really doesn't last more than a small fraction of the time here. Hours of thought go into a 23 minute effort. It is kind of cool sharing a place with Mike Olheiser because we both have expectations of strong performances in TT and seeing somebody else's approach is always interesting.

We headed out for the course recon, knowing exactly what we'd see. The course hasn't changed at all except for maybe a few additional bumps in the road. Much will depend on the conditions of the moment for the race. Winds were swirling and conditions at the top of the course were different from the middle which were different from the start area. My approach remains the same as it has been all year and as they say, the hay is in the barn.

There was much discussion and conjecture about which rules and with what degree of strictness the UCI officials would enforce this year. Technically, my bike isn't legal in a few regards. The extensions on the aero bars are too long, beyond what is allowed even with the morphological exception. The UCI also added a much debated rule which puts a 3:1 width/depth to thickness ratio limit on components meaning that wing shaped bars, airfoil shaped seatposts, sculpted tubing on the frame all has to fall within that envelope. Mike went as far as selling his handlebar setup to something that complies. My response to any objections will be, "Uhn I have long arms" and "I don't have enough money to buy new gear with every arbitrary rule change(s) the UCI comes out with each year." If they want to keep me from racing, so be it.

We spent the rest of the day just kicking back and essentially killing time. Mike Carter raced his actual category and tricked them all proper, soloing in for the win, about 15 seconds off the front of what was the lead group. It was a hard earned win and unfortunately the sky opened during the awards ceremony, two groups before his awards. They postponed the rest of the awards until the next day as everybody scurried for shelter from the downpour and 1/4" hail.

Ridin Around

Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night multiple times. I managed a few hours of decent sleep and woke up shortly after 9:00 in time to make some coffee and get ready for the day. There really wasn't much on the agenda but to get out for a ride and eat at some point.

Mike, Dave and I decided to ride towards Kitzbuhel and beyond as we saw fit. We headed straight for Pass Thurn to get in some climbing and after a moments pondering, decided to go over the other side of the pass to see what was there. Mostly, we found that we'd have a pretty steady climb back up to get back to St. Johann. Mike and I had enough for the day and continued towards home while Dave mistakenly headed up to the top of the Kitzbuheler Horn.

Once everybody was safely back at the apartment, we did some grocery shopping and ended up with a free case of beer some how. I had some leftovers still and happily did nothing in the kitchen while Mike cooked. Post dinner, we wandered around a little, I had my gelato portion for the day and got ready to do it all again, only the next day involved a little more serious approach/prep for the TT on Wednesday.

Rad Weltpokal

Day one of racing has come and gone. I went throught the routine of getting my number and making sure all was ready to go before kicking back until race time. About an hour and change before start time, there was a knocking at my door, Mike Olheiser and his brother Dave had arrived.

Mike didn't think he was racing, but I told him he was registered and so he might as well. In under an hour, we got everything up to the room, slammed Mike's bike together, sweet talked the race official into giving us his number even though "Nummerausgabe" was already closed, pinned his numbers on and got to the line with a few minutes to spare.

The race was pretty aggressive from the start as usual and a group of three rolled away on the first lap. As all three were Italians as we'd later find out, the chase never got all that organized. I rolled off with a couple small groups, but nothing worked well enough to stick, even the group of 14 or so that got clear. With conditions being fairly windy, the field shattered completely and a lot of riders dropped out. I started cramping on the third time up the climb and knew I would be doing much of anything after that but riding it in at what ever pace I could manage. I lost contact with the 2nd chase group (Mike was in the first) and noodled in alone.

I didn't think the second group was as big as the results showed, but in any case, I exploded after sticking my nose in the wind early and often. There were only 50 some odd finisher and we started with 100 or so. The purpose of the first race has always been to have some fun, shake off the cobwebs from the day of travel, and open up the legs a bit before the time trial on Wednesday . . . done, done, and done.

After the race we got cleaned up and headed out for some food. It being Sunday and all, none of the grocery stores were open so it was a good opportunity to hit one of the local spots for some traditional Austrian grub. I had a lovely Wienerschnitzel plate and a mixed salad. A beer of two also sounded like a good idea to help flush the legs or something. We wandered around until it was time for awards, Mike collected his trophy for 6th, and the day was done.