I Totally Dropped Max Plaxton

So it was a couple weeks ago, a few of us trackies are cruising home after a night of speed (Don Gill, aka The Immortal, was out) on the Goose, and suddenly our little pack is overtaken by a couple dozen MTB riders - flyin' by!!

Unwilling to let the knobbies rule the trail, i jump in, and there's a bunch of familiar faces (hi Jon and Scotty!) As we're approaching the trestle bridge, Plaxton is up near the front with me, and he says 'hey vegan, how about a lead-out' pointing to the dude who had broken off the front.

I'm like 'sure', and i cruise over and start to build up the speed. I bridge to the dude, look back, and everyone's gone! Ha! I dropped Max Plaxton!! Booya!!

Actually, i don't know what happened, i've heard some excuses (Max was sick, Max is allergic to vegans, Max can't see the color green), but regardless i spun out his wheels! WOOT!

(Just kidding, i know i wouldn't have a snowballs chance in the suns corona in competing with that monster, still, an entertaining blog entry. =)

In other news, my sprint training is coming along nicely (i've mainly been working on my sprinting power the last few weeks, and for the next month), getting a bit more speed in the legs.. I'm also taking creatine now, to see if it can make any difference. It's apparently one of the few things the body doesn't really produce a lot of, and most people get it from eating flesh, so i've been deprived the last 17+yrs, so i've been adding 5g per day the last few days and will give it a month or two to see if i can get an extra kick.

In the Gear Report, i'm still love love LOVING my Argon18 track bike. Damn it's fine. I've got the Specialized Tritip saddle for it, and it is SUPER COMFY. It's got a nice padded nose, so sitting up there is totally fine (unlike the Toupe saddle, which is HARSH near the tip.)

I've also picked up a Specialized/HED3 trispoke front wheel that's a clincher, and using a (Immortal recommended) Veloflex Record tire, as it's got some of the lowest rolling resistance of any tire out there, and it feels quite fine.

On the road bike i'm using Maxxis Courcheval tires that have a cool strip of orange. They're quite comfy and feel very racy, and i'm pretty happy with 'em:

From 2008-04-24 - ...

The OA Victoria racing team is doing very well. On the track, Emile and i are sitting in the top two positions overall, and are consistently the top finishers in races. In the Victoria Cycling League, we're also sitting comfortably near the top, tho my results are due mainly to track performances. ;)

Riders Kevin and Casey are riding well and finishing constantly in the Top 10 in the B races, as these guys learn to mix it up in their first seasons of road racing. Gillian is exceptionally strong, taking the 3/4 Women's events at Race the Ridge, winning all three stages (and as a Cat4 rider, now Cat3 of course!) Emile also finished well in this, with a highlight 6th in the TT, and 9th overall in the Men's Cat3 field. Sam Smith, triathlete, also took 80th (17th in his age group) at the Wildflower Ironman, fantastic effort there. =)

That's aboot it for now, this coming week is Omnium Week at the track, and i'll be going for the gold there. Monday is a Flying 200m, 500m ITT and 5k Scratch Race. Thursday will have the Pursuits and Points race - wish me luck!

OA Vic Duathlon and OBB Crit

Wow, super-busy weekend!

On Saturday was the First Annual OrganicAthlete Victoria Track and Trail Sprint Duathlon. Say that once fast. ;)

This is the first event organized by our group, and i thought it was tremendous success! The only low point was that there were very few participants, but otherwise it went smashingly. You can read my event report here. (No, i didn't race it, since it was a duathlon! Dave don't run. Or dance.) I did MC the event, which was pretty fun. There are also photos of the event from the first link.

Sunday had a race on my favorite crit course, OBB organized another Windsor Park crit. Can it be more perfect? It's just a few blocks from my house, has wonderful corners which you can generally pedal through, and is PANCAKE FLAT! Love it!!!

I hadn't ridden at all Saturday, so i wasn't feeling particularly spicy, but i got in with the A's, and rode a strong race. Sat in most of the time, about 20mins to go, there were some big attacks, and at the time i was a bit further back in the pack, so had to do some work to keep it together, and i stayed in. Felt good and strong, tho after that bigger efforts reminded me my breakfast was still in my stomach (why was the race so early!!)

I felt quite confident in the bunch, had no problems keeping whatever wheel i wanted, or taking a wheel. I guess those Keirins have helped in this respect. ;)

I was near the front almost the entire race - it's where i'd go if i were feeling tired, since there's very little yo-yoing there. I positioned myself well with 4 laps to go. With 2 to go, Emile shot off, and i smiled. I turned to Bob Cameron and said 'hey, he rode a 5'06 4km Pursuit yesterday', Bob cursed and picked up the pace. ;)

Emile thought he'd won the race, but we both missed that two riders (Hugh and Alistar) had snuck away when we were further back, and they were goooone. Still, a valiant effort on his part to get away and stay away. I finished 9th in the charging pack, sitting in and not sprinting, and 12th in the end. I believe there were close to 20 starters.

In the B race, Kevin and Gillian (OA Vic's newest racer!) rode very well! Last year Kevin had a very hard time with this course, but was totally in the pack this year. Same with Gill. They both finished strong, 5th for Gill and 7th for Kevin. (Technically 1st for Gill in the Women's field, and 6th for Kevin.) Nice riding!!

Hugh has a nice account of the race from the front. I should mention Don Gillmore started the race, but about halfway though had a technical with his chain. Needless to say, after this warm-up, he destroyed the competition in the BC Masters race in the afternoon.

Click here for all the photos i've collected, a few select ones below:

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And here's my PowerTap output for the crit:

From PowerTapFiles

That's about all for now sports fans!

Do the Madison - Burnaby Race Report

I survived the Burnaby MayDays spring challenge, splinter-free!

Three days and four sessions, with about 12 races total, and almost all were Madisons. I paired up with Victoria OA teammate Emile, who was pretty new to Madisons, let alone racing in Burnaby. Needless to say, the first night was pretty rough, and tho both of us were as fit as anyone else there, a series of missed exchanges and other mishaps resulted in us being about 9 laps down the first night.

However, as the weekend progressed, we improved our team skills, and finished 14 laps down from the leaders (2nd was 4 laps, 3rd was 5 laps, and the next two teams 6 laps down) so had we the practice we have now, we would have been competitive.

As a testament of our strengths, there were two 'individual' events, a Madison Flying 200m where we got 3rd or 4th, and a Handicap Scratch race, where Emile nipped me at the line, but we finished 3rd and 4th.

There were two individual bunch races, a Scratch where i finished 11th (i forget where Emile was, but in the Top 5 i believe), and a Miss'n'Out where i dropped out first, E finished around 7th i believe. I chose to slack in the M'nO thinking there was a Points race, but it got dropped from the schedule. =(

I was pretty choked by the lack of individual events, in hindsight i would have chosen to race as a 'B' instead -- they had mostly bunch races, and they were very exciting, and a fast field with the top Juniors and Women in Canada. Not to mention they got to race twice as much, since they had qualifiers for each event due to huge numbers.

It was cool to see all my Burnaby pals, and meet some of the Ontario folks - it looks like track new-comer Lisa Perlmutter is going to be a very strong track racer, some suggested a la Gina Grain. (No pressure!)

My photos located here, with a slideshow below, and click here, here and here for Roland's.


Also have more RideCam shots (up to 16!) - click here for local action.

A quick note on my Argon18 track bike: LOVE IT!!! It fits me SO WELL, and feels solid and fast, i'm totally stoked to be riding it, i couldn't be happier.

Noisy out!

From 2008-05-13 - ...

Off to Burnaby!

Hey there sports fans, been busy in weekly racing and training, but my season is progressing quite nicely, you can read some of my race reports here on the OA blog. Locally, finishing consistently at the top, a couple weeks ago Emile and i played the field, finishing 1st & 2nd respectively. Last night at the VCL Points Race, we couldn't keep the speedy Bob Cameron down, but at least finished 2nd & 3rd. In the league scoring, this puts us in 3rd & 5th overall in the Victoria Cycling League, and 1st & 3rd on the track - woot!

Today i'm off to Burnaby for a huge suffer-fest. I'm still a month away from being in full race mode, so this'll be a good kick in the pants. Emile and i will be racing in the Madisons, and there are 14 races in four sessions over three days...this is gonna be intense.

I'll try and get some race reports up while i'm there, more soon!