San Ardo Road Race Report

From last years start.
Photo Credit: www.procyclingphotos.com/san_ardo/2008/men/

Saturday, August 22 found me punching holes in my jersey while sitting on my truck's tail gate in the small Salinas Valley town of San Ardo. I've always had a fondness for this race, maybe because it was the last race I raced back in the 80's when I gave up bicycle racing the first time. In the last 4 years I've been back a few times with this being my first race as a NorCal racer. The irony here is that I figured the drive to San Ardo would be quicker and closer, as it is a NorCal race, and I now live in the NorCal. What a surprise to find out that San Ardo is almost exactly the same distance from our home in the Napa Valley as it was to our previous home in the Antelope Valley of SoCal - around 230 miles away.

I decided to race the Masters' Cat 4/5 race and it was set to go off at 9:05. By 8:00 I was on my bike warming up by riding a part of the race course backwards. I like to get about an hour in for a warm-up and I prefer to ride my bike around the course whenever possible as opposed to attaching my bike to a static trainer. I ended up getting close to 12 miles in before the start of the 47 mile race. As usual, I've got a MapMyRide link and map at the end of this post.

San Ardo's course is a 23.5 mile loop around the farm land of the Salinas Valley. The race organizers always list the race as loops of 21 miles, but my Garmin has always shown each loop to be closer to 24 miles. The race is advertised as flat but it does have a couple of sprinter's hills embedded in the course, and it seemed that most of us dropped to our smaller chain ring on one of the first hills. My Garmin says we climbed a total of 1585 feet in the two laps of 47 miles that made up our race. MapMyRide shows a climb of 912 feet so I'm guessing the real climb data is somewhere between the two - my legs sure felt like the Garmin was the more correct of the two; started feeling some slight cramping in the finishing sprint.

After the usual words about the course from the race official, we were off. You start almost immediately going uphill but it is very gradual. The race starts in town right in front of the high school and heads across a bridge over the Salinas River. It gradually climbs past the feed stop and up the overpass for the crossing of the 101 freeway. 50 guys were listed as starting the race but the final results show several no shows. I looked around the peloton and it seemed like we had close to 50 guys. The pace at this point was pretty easy. I did my usual routine of staying near the front but not trying to stay so close that I had to do any work at the front. In any case, the speed was relaxing as all knew that we would have two laps for this race.

Just before 3 miles the first hill crests out and you level for just a short time and then start a 2nd hill. This one is steeper than the first and it is here that I saw and heard others dropping to their small chain ring, including myself. Compared to a true hill course, these two initial hills are no big deal but by the time you come around them a second time, the hill climbers are attacking and you're driving your bike over them in the big ring - it's good for getting your heart rate up and mine topped out at 175 bpm, which is pretty good as my max is right around 180-181 bpm. After mile 5 you hit the top and start a long decent of about 6 miles, with just a couple of rollers to add excitement as someone will always attack on them. With a course so devoid of hills, sorting can only happen on the big ring rollers and pretty much only on the 2nd lap. At around mile 11.5 you cross a bridge over the Salinas River again and start a gradual ascent that will last all the way to the starting or finishing area. Mile 13 brings another sprinter's hill and is a good spot for someone to make an attack. Lap one though, we went neutral as the Cat 3 leaders started passing our peloton, followed a couple of minutes later by their peloton. I was riding near the front so I missed the crash that occurred during the fracas of the two groups meeting each other. I heard it took several of our guys down but that all got back in the race - thankfully no one hurt. Staying near the front has its advantages in avoiding crashes. It is also helpful because in a flat race like this one, I can respond to any attack that takes place. The downside of staying near the front is that I tend to get over excited and end up pulling the peloton around which I did, way too much, in lap 2.

Lap 1 ends uneventfully, if you don't count the crash, and lap 2 starts with a bang. Immediately the climbers attack on the first 2 hills of the course. I'm still 180lbs+ so I really feel the exertion that's needed to stay with the leaders. As we crest the 2nd hill I'm still there, about 15th from the front. I take a quick look back and think I see most of the group, I couldn't tell if we shelled anybody off the back or not. At this point I rotated on to the front and nobody came around me so it would appear that I would be pulling the peloton for a bit. Actually, rather than work hard, I took this opportunity to just ride at my pace and recover from the hard exertion we had just put in cresting the first hills. After crossing the bridge a second time, guys had finally gotten tired of my 20mph cruise and came around me on the left. The pace immediately went up as we headed for the sprinters hill at mile 13. Boom - off they went and I stayed in my big ring as I jumped out of the saddle and started up the hill. We came over the top and I'm still sitting pretty at around 10th place or so. Somebody next to me asks if we dropped anybody on that surge - I take a quick look back but answer, "dunno." I still couldn't tell if we dropped anybody as the peloton seemed unchanged. This was a strong group of guys for a 4/5 race. We averaged over 22 mph with a top speed of 37 mph so we weren't lolly gagging on this course. Quite the contrary, there were a large number of surges to see if we could break the peloton into manageable groups - very tiring.

Somewhere around mile 40 or so, I stayed with a couple of flyer attempts but nothing too tough, just enough to wear you down a little. At about mile 42 the guys were content to just sit in at around 22 mph and it looked like it was going to be a mass sprint at the finish. Guys began to cheat up and around and crowd the front of the peloton but no one wanted to attack. I had felt a little cramping on the last sprinter's hill so I knew I wasn't in any condition to attack myself and was now a little concerned about my ability to sprint up the small hill, created by the freeway overpass, that marks the finish area. I tried to maintain my position at the front but I kept slipping gradually back to around 15th place as we moved through the town with only 1k to go or so to the finish. It was here something strange happened. We overtook the rear guard of the Cat 3s. Our peloton swallowed them up but rather than move over as the Cat 3s should have done, they increased speed and stayed in the front group of 15. If anything they started blocking our sprint group. I'm still not sure what exactly was going on but I did see one of the young Cat 3s turn completely around on his seat and scream at our guys. He started yelling, our guys started yelling back and it looked like we were in for a nasty crash as we were now only 500m from the finish. I took stock of this and said to myself, I'm not going to make the podium and a crash looks imminent, in point of fact, the cocky Cat 3 guy turned around again just as he hit a bump and almost went down - that was it for me, I backed off the speed and allowed myself to drift to the back of our group. I traded a top 10 or 15th placing for a 22nd place but in any case, it wouldn't be worth the crash if it occurred. Turns out it didn't so I dropped back for nothing. I did throw in the fastest sprint I still had left and made it pass a few guys. I was happy with the place as I felt I worked real hard in this race; staying at the front 90% of the time. Better yet, I had fun and that's pretty much what road racing is all about for me - and I stayed on the bike and off the ground. Check out the results at Velo Promo.

Final data: 46.73 miles in 2hr 06'47" for an average speed of 22.1 mph. Click on the map below for a MapMyRide view of the course.

Idaho's Stop-Sign Solution

Haven't been posting too much lately as I've been getting ready for this Saturday's San Ardo Road Race. But I picked up the September 2009 Bicycling issue and on page 22 read with much interest an article by Bob Mionske. Bob is the author of "Bicycling and the Law" and writes how Idaho handles bicycles and stop signs/red lights. It is exactly the way I've been saying and handling stop signs myself.

For the last 26 years cyclists in Idaho can roll through stop signs - legally. When a cyclist approaches an intersection with a stop sign, the cyclist must slow to a "reasonable speed," but doesn't have to come to a complete stop if there is no opposing traffic. My rides are almost all in rural areas and it seems pretty asinine to come to a complete stop at stop sign controlled intersections when you are clearly not a hazard to other traffic. I've always argued that coming to a complete stop is even dangerous as you now may have to pull out of your cleats or risk being unstable as you try to balance at the intersection. As a pilot of small planes, I like the saying, "out of altitude and air speed" and it applies to bicycles too; in other words, your bike is now too slow to maneuver well and more likely to get into trouble if evasive action is needed. I've even slipped on the street when my cleats make it seem that I've stepped on an ice rink rather than the road service.

As far as red lights are concerned, Idaho allows you to come to a complete stop but then proceed if safe; in other words you can treat the light as if it was a stop sign. A couple of years ago in Santa Cruz, California, I was out stretching my legs with a short ride, as I had the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey to race the next day. I was on the outskirts of town coming up on a left turn controlled by a light. The light was red so I actually stopped but since I didn't see a car within a quarter of a mile of the intersection, I started up again and pedaled through the red light. Immediately I heard a siren go off in the distance, with a loud acceleration of a car's engine - it was a California Highway Patrolman racing up to pull me over with red light and siren. The patrolman kept me on the side of the road for over a half hour before writing me a ticket for not stopping and waiting for the red light to turn green. I never did receive the ticket but that's another story, and another case of me breaking the law...

Calistoga to Pt. Reyes Station

Esmeralda climbing the 300+ steps

What an incredible ride! I had vistas, hills, valleys, rivers, oceans, etc. Once again I was looking for a one-way trip that would provide me with the above, and give my wife and daughter something cool to see when they picked me up - the ride from Calistoga to Pt. Reyes Station is perfect. Not only do you get all the above but you also get a great bakery at the Station as well as the chance to tour Pt. Reyes National Seashore and the 1870 lighthouse situated way out on the point.

The Lighthouse

The ride is a good 58 miles (93 km) long and has challenging climbs and high speed descents. You get to ride through the towns of Santa Rosa and Petaluma , which may not be the high point of your ride, depends on how you like the towns. Hitting all the stop lights in Santa Rosa was kind of a pain but I did like riding through the old town. I had never been to Petaluma before so I did enjoy the trip through town and the right turn onto D street to start the long ride to the South West and eventually the town of Pt. Reyes Station. As usual, you can get all the information, including route directions and elevations from MapMyRide and the download from my Garmin.

Once in Pt. Reyes Station I found a public restroom right next to a small playground that was perfect for changing out of my bike clothes and putting the bike on my wife's car. Then a short walk to a bakery you can't miss - just look for the line coming out the door. The bakery is called Bovine Bakery and I've included a link from a fellow blogger who did a great posting on this wonderful place.

A trip to Pt. Reyes wouldn't be complete without a side trip to the lighthouse constructed in 1870. This is a must see for all lighthouse buffs out there. Here's a link for information on this neat place.

Jade with the 300 steps

The ride took me 3 hours and 18 minutes. I ended up crashing the Marin Century ride as literally hundreds of roadies were on the same road as myself. There also seemed to be some kind of ride coming out of Pt. Reyes Station too. Another huge group of roadies with different kind of numbers on their backs and yet another group with green wrist bands on. I enjoyed all the company on the ride down and was not bothered by any of the traffic that was relatively light. Check out my ride below and enjoy:


Oh, if you have a better way to get there or other variations of this ride, please comment below. I really like to get a locals take on routes. See my trip to Bodega Bay; Mat, of Bodega Bay Cycles commented on a much better route to get me to Bodega Bay from Calistoga.

Photo by Jade

Speed Interval Training

My next race is the San Ardo Road Race on Saturday, August 22. With such a big gap in my racing schedule caused by my relocation to Northern California, I've had a lot of time to work on my endurance and stamina. My workouts of late have been to get a couple of hill climbs (see Howell Mt. Road in my Hills of Napa series) in during the week, followed by long rides on either Saturday or Sunday or both (rides to Davis, Bodega Bay, etc.) So stamina is not an issue right now. What I really need, with a race just 3 weeks away, is sharpening or working on my speed. San Ardo is a pretty much flat course anyway and ends in a slightly uphill sprint. So now is the time to drop some of my threshold workouts/week and replace them with speed.

For the most part I follow Training Peaks workouts as I've been a paying member for several years now. I am also very much a student of Joe Friel and his workouts in both training Peaks and his "Training Bible." But this week I chose a workout from Chris Carmichael, as laid out in the August issue of Bicycle Magazine)see page 42 of that issue for a complete discussion. But here's how I completed the workouts in a nutshell:

Monday: Core Day (I do light weight lifting and stomach/lower back work

Tuesday: Interval Day (Descending Ladder) - 2' hard/2' recover, 1:30' hard/1:30'recover, 1:00' hard/1:00 recover, 45" hard/5 full minutes to recover between sets. I do this workout over my 21 mile circuit around Calistoga.

The above makes one set and after 5 mins. I do another, followed by one more, so I do three sets of the above. Coach Carmichael advises beginners to do only 1 set, intermediates 2, and advanced to do 3. I start each interval by going as hard as I think I can maintain for the full allotment of time for that interval. In other words, as I start the first 2' I ramp up to the highest power I can maintain and not lose power over the complete 2'.

Wednesday: recovery day - I do my usual 21 mile circuit around Calistoga but back off on speed and complete the 21 miles in around 1:07 or so.

Thursday: Interval Day (pure speed) - I alternate between going full out (maximum speed and power) for 30" followed by 30" of recovery. I do 7 of these and then recover over 4 minutes to do the whole thing all over again. It would look like this in my workout journal:

7 X 30" (30" RI) X 2 (with 4' RI between sets)

Carmichael advises that beginners 2 sets of 5, intermediates 3 sets of 5, and advanced 2 sets of 7. Again, I do this over my 21 mile course.

Friday: recovery day (same as Wednesday)

Saturday: Long ride. I like 3 - 5 hours for this ride.

Sunday: Easy ride of around 1.5 - 2.5 hours.

This should get me peaked for San Ardo. I also have a couple of races right after, one just the next week; the Winters Road Race, so I hope to maintain my peak for this race too. The last race is the Henleyville Road Race and it is also the last race of the season (not counting Tour of Tucson in November which is kind of a special thing for me) held on September 19th, and it is a class B race for me so I'll start tailing off on intensity and working on endurance again to prepare for the 109 miles in Tucson.

Calistoga to Bodega Bay

I shot this pic of Bodega Head at the end of my ride...

The variety of the type of rides available to Napa Valley roadies is amazing. On this ride I decided to leave the warm valley behind and head for the cool coast, which is much closer than you think. This Sunday morning I headed both North and West to finish my ride in Bodega Bay, roughly 44 miles (70km) away. I made it a one-way trip as my wife and Jade would meet me at the bay for lunch and a sight seeing trip. Then with the bike safely on the bike rack we would drive North and work our way back home by driving next to the Russian River.

You have a couple of choices on getting over the hills that separate Calistoga with Santa Rosa but I don't recommend most of them. The most direct way is via the Petrified Forest Road all the way down to Calistoga Road as it enters Santa Rosa - this was the route used by stage one in the '09 Tour of California. But the pros had the advantage of a closed route; you don't. The Petrified Forest Road is narrow, steep, and has a lot of traffic that does not want to give up an inch of space, especially to a bicycle rider. With this said, I decided on taking Franz Valley School road to leave the Napa Valley. This road is right off of the Petrified Forest Road as you are leaving Calistoga. You're only on this road for less than a mile and you make a right turn onto Franz Valley School road. You can check out the route, as usual, below via MapMyRide and the data provided by my Garmin Forerunner 305 unit.

Franz Valley School road is the first major climb of two climbs you will face on this trip. I could also do a Napa Valley Hills post on this road. It is a sustained climb of around 2 miles with a grade higher than 7% at times. At just over 9 miles you come to a T-intersection with Franz Valley road, make a left turn and you immediately start the 2nd major climb of the route. You crest this climb at around mile 11 and face a 8%, technical descent for around 1.5 miles - be careful here. I locked up my rear wheel on a nasty right hair-pin turn and almost got myself in trouble. Thank goodness that no car was coming up the road as I needed the whole road to save myself.

You now descend into Santa Rosa and here I took Fulton road to travel South to Highway 12 and the trip West. The 12 has a lot of traffic and you can avoid it by taking a bike path just south of 12. I did take the path after riding the 12 for a short time. I'm not sure I would do it again as the bike path is loaded with recreational riders and people walking their dogs. The path is limited to 15mph and going any faster would be hazardous due to the above mentioned traffic. In the future I would probably stay on 12, where the bike lane is wide and you can keep your speed up all the way into the town of Sebastopol. You now have several miles of light climbing as you leave Sebastopol. The climbing actually surprised me as I figured I would have a gradual descent all the way down to the coast. The grades are light but you will certainly notice them. Your other problem as you get close to the coast is the traffic, so watch out for the huge motor homes that will pass you a foot away!

Eventually you'll see a restaurant with picnic tables on the left side of the road just before you enter the actual town of Bodega Bay. I swung left here and patiently waited for the wife and kid - lunch of fish & chips tasted great and we had an enjoyable trip back home via the Russian River - enjoy.

Napa Valley Hills - Mt. Veeder (Dry Creek Side)

Looking down Dry Creek Road
Photo Credit: http://srcc.memberlodge.com

With my next race still 4 weeks away in August (San Ardo RR) it's time for more travelogues from my weekend long rides. Each day I put in about 21 miles around my town of Calistoga, Ca but the weekends are for the long rides, and I usually want this ride to be hilly.

This ride actually encompasses two climbs listed on Bruce DeBell's web page, "The Hills of Napa Valley" where he lists 17 climbs in the Napa Valley, from the most difficult to the easiest. Mt Veeder, Dry Creek side is #10 on his list and at the top of Dry Creek you do a short climb, Oakville Grade which is #16. This post is the second in my series called Napa Valley Hills - see my first hill, Mt. Howell Road here. And as usual, I've included a MapMyRide map at the bottom of this post; MapMyRide will give you all kinds of data, from Satellite views to full elevation, profile data.

To start this climb, I have to ride almost 25 miles to the town of Napa, located to the South of Calistoga. A long way to go perhaps for a single hill or two but 25 miles on the Silverado Trail is a great ride in itself. After I enter the town of Napa, I've got about 3 miles or so of traversing the town from East to West, and then I turn North onto Dry Creek Road for the start of the climb that will peak out 10 miles closer to Calistoga for my return trip on Ca-29, the road that links all the towns in the Napa Valley.

The climb itself is not that tough. About 4 miles long with over 700' of elevation gain. The road is very scenic however, and under a lot of shade - in short, it's a beautiful ride. The toughest pitch in my book was not even on this road but rather at the top of the road where you make a right turn onto Oakville Grade. This is my 2nd hill of the ride, and though short, a little over a mile, is relatively steep. MapMyRide shows an average of around 4% but I remember pitches of up to 8 - 10% during the short climb. Hang onto your bars when you crest this hill - the downhill is steep and somewhat technical but not too bad. I hit a speed of over 43 mph on the downhill and that's while I was sitting up and feathering the brakes as it was my first time on this road. This descent is Bruce's #1 toughest climb in the Napa Valley going the other way - I've got to check this hill out soon.

That's it for this training ride, around 54.5 miles. Check out the map link below:

Napa Valley Hills - Howell Mt. Road

A view from Howell Mt. Road
Photo Credit: http://wine.appellationamerica.com/images/appellations/features/Craig%20Howell%20web1.jpg

I did a great hill workout today climbing Howell Mt. Road right off the Silverado Trail. There are a lot of great hill workouts in the Napa Valley so I thought I would start a series describing the climbs after I've ridden them. A very good web resource is a page called "Hills of Napa Valley" where author Bruce DeBell lays out his 17 hill rides in the Napa Valley. Howell Mt. Road is #14 on Bruce's list. Bruce does give a very brief description of the ride but not a lot of location information, which could make the ride tough to find for an out of town roadie. I've provided a MapMyRide map that should get you the hill in no time.

You can find the start of this 4.2 mile climb right at the junction of the Silverado Trail just North of the town of St. Helena. St. Helena is located just South of Calistoga. Look for Howell Mt. Road 1.7 miles South of Deer Park Road. The climb is moderate but very scenic (see pic above.) My Garmin showed several pitches above 7% with a total elevation climb of over 1100 feet. I completed the climb, without working too hard, in exactly 23 minutes. This will be my baseline, and I'll now work on lowering that time in future rides. The road is narrow but traffic is very light. The road surface is fair to good. The descent down Deer Park Road is a lot of fun and was also used in stage 1 of the 2009 Tour of California.

Here's my MapMyRide map of the route:

Castello di Amorosa - Calistoga, Ca

Just a quick post to show the cool "12th Century Tuscan castle" on the South side of the valley floor. I took this shot on an early morning ride on the North side of the valley. The castle is a winery, one of many, in the Napa Valley.

Calistoga, California

Photo Credit: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1-KQaSii290/SC8qqNe69TI/AAAAAAAAEZw/9bSARGRzecI/s400/Calistoga.jpg

As of last Thursday, July 2nd, I've been residing in Calistoga, Ca. My move to Northern California almost complete, as I continue to unload boxes and hang pictures on the wall. I went almost two weeks with very little bicycle riding; 5 hours one week, and only 1.5 last week – just too much going on with the move. My wife actually moved the whole house a week before I could leave. I was teaching summer school and it didn't end for me until July 1st. But starting last Sunday, I've hit every day on the bike. I only have time for an hour ride in the morning as I need to be here when my wife leaves for work as Jade is usually still sleeping. But what an hour it is. Days are warm here, with highs in the 80s and low 90s but the mornings are terrific, if not a little too chilly. The last three days have found me pedaling away with temps in the high 40s to low 50s – but the summer is young.

I have found the perfect 20.7 mile loop that takes me clockwise around Calistoga which I complete in around 1 hour and 6 minutes. The scenery is breathtaking, with redwoods and other pines in the hills competing with the grape vineyards on the valley floor. I promise to get my camera out and start taking pictures of the many rides in my new neck of the woods. Yesterday and Monday I was riding by when the “Old Faithful Geyser of California” was erupting. This geyser goes off about every 30 minutes or so, with a 60 feet tall eruption of scalding water and steam – quite a treat.

The picture above, by an unknown photographer, shows the geyser with Mt. St. Helena in the background

The morning ride also goes past a balloon launching site on Lincoln Ave. Here's a few pics of a couple of hot air balloons launching I took back in April when we were first checking out the town:


Another with my 8 year old daughter Jade in the foreground:



Here's my route via MapMyRide:


Though I now ride this loop clockwise as I find less traffic on my side of the road at this hour when most people are heading off to work.

San Diego Epic Ride

As I’m leaving San Diego for Northern California I put in my last Saturday ride with the San Diego Cyclo-Vets a couple of weekends ago. Naturally it turned out to be an epic ride. An epic ride…every roadie has had an epic ride at least once in their cycling career. This is a ride where something happens to make that ride particularly challenging. It could be running out of food and water, getting lost, going much farther than you originally intended, getting rain, hail, snow, etc., on the ride.

On this, my last Saturday ride in San Diego, I got several of the above conditions. The ride started as usual and we made it to the first regrouping point without incident. As we left for the Torrey Pines part of the ride it started raining. Not a downpour just a light rain. It turns out that San Diego roadies hate and fear rain more than most as they are used to 72 degrees 24/7 and 12 months out of the year. Since my primary residence was in the Mojave desert, where we long for rain, it was no big deal for me but the other Cyclo-Vets panicked and wanted to end the ride. After much discussion it was decided to keep riding but alter the ride to head East and North and into the neighboring city of Poway. The idea was that the weather was coming in from the West and by heading East we could avoid it.

This diversion worried many of the riders as they had not been in this direction before. Now myself, the non-native of the group, wasn’t worried a bit because I take this same ride on my own on Sundays. My only problem was that I didn’t eat as much as I usually do for breakfast as I was only expecting a 43 mile ride of various intensity levels. I also carried water and food for a trip of about that length too. Though I was wearing arm warmers I didn’t have leg warmers or any other type of cold weather gear – this is San Diego after all.

Well to make a long story shorter, the ride out to the far point of the ride went without a hitch, with the exception that the weather did not improve but only got worse. We were now climbing the tough pitch up Scripps-Poway Pkwy road and I’m now consuming more calories than I planned on. I’m also cold and wet but realize I only have to ride 12 miles or so and I’m back in a warm apartment with plenty of food. We get to the top of the grade and wait in the drizzle for the tail end of the group to finish the climb – this takes longer than I expected as the last guy had fallen pretty far behind. My teeth even started chattering from the cold and this is San Diego in the early summer. Thank God, the tail end guy comes up and says, “go without me, I’ll be okay.” So off we go down the screaming descent of Scripps-Poway Pkwy road. Somewhere down the descent I realize that I can hardly feel my legs as they are actually getting numb from the wet and cold and I also realize that I’m hungry and I’ve already eaten my one and only power bar and have drank most of my sports drink and water…but I’ve only got 10 miles to go, on what has now become a 50 mile ride instead of 43.

We finish the descent and make the left turn onto Pomerado Rd and the group wants to stop again, this time at a mini-mart for food. I’m real hungry now and pretty short on fluids too so you would think that I would welcome this stop but I get impatient. I’m smelling the barn and have done this ride many time in the past – so I say my goodbyes and take off on my own and figure I’ll be home in less than an hour. Look at my MapMyRide map at the end of this post and you can see what went wrong and how I ended my last San Diego ride in Epic proportions. I should have stayed on Pomerado Rd but for some reason, probably because I was feeling sorry for myself, and had my head down while I was riding, I failed to make the left turn to remain on Pomerado Rd and instead was now heading West on Spring Canyon Road. About 2 miles in, I realize I’ve never seen this particular scenery before and must be going the wrong way. To make matters worse, I took a right turn and realized I have no idea what direction I’m going. The cloud cover and drizzle prevented me from getting any bearings and stupid me, I forget I’m riding with a GPS unit (Garmin Forerunner 205 though I now have the 305) which has the capability of giving me heading information. So I do a U-turn and back track and end up on Scripps Ranch Road and the Scripps Ranch neighborhood. This friggin neighborhood is all vertical and all the roads start with Scripps this or Scripps that. I’m now completely out of food and drink and realize that I loaned my emergency money, the $10 I keep in my bike bag, to my daughter the other day. I grab my cell phone to call my wife and find out that the battery is dead…damn, I’m going to have to stop and ask for help. I find a guy working on his front yard and he kindly tells me how to get back to Pomerado Road but his directions sound like, “take Scripps (fill in other part of name) to Scripps that, turn right on Scripps this, and another right on Scripps that and you’ll be there.

I finally make it back to the apartment, wet and cold. I’ve covered 63 miles and have sat on the bike for 4 hours and 19 minutes. I expected a ride of 43 miles and a total bike time, including regrouping stop points, of around 2 hours 45 minutes. I usually eat a large bowl of oatmeal and drink orange juice before a long ride but since I didn’t expect this, I had only a half bowl of cereal and no juice and didn’t even bother to completely fill one of my water bottles. At least the other bottle had a sports drink in it. I didn’t even bother taking my gel flask as I figured the single power bar and sports drink would be enough. There is a moral in this story somewhere…now I have to spend the next 6 hours moving all the stuff in our apartment into a 16’ truck for the journey back to the Antelope Valley to prepare for our move to the Napa Valley...

Diamond Valley Road Race (NCNCA Masters Championships) - July 25

I've got the SCNCA Masters Championships out of the way - see my earlier post on this race held in Bakersfield - now I'm ready for the NCNCA Masters Championships held in the Sierra foothills, close to the town of Markleeville, California.

By July 2nd, I'll officially be a Northern California resident again, after living in SoCal since 1991. However, my racing license will still show that I'm registered in SoCal and I'm still attached to the San Diego Cyclo-Vets as my club. This means that I can't officially race in any of the masters races but the kind folks of the Alta Alpina Cycling Club have created an open Cat 3/4/5 race to allow racers out of the NorCal zip codes to enter. From the race flyer,

"this category added to allow Category 3/4/5 racers, male, female, juniors the opportunity to race on this classic Eastern Sierra Course. The zip code requirements do not apply."

Click the graphic for a larger image



I'll be living in the Napa County town of Calistoga by then (check out my post on a couple of excellent rides in the Napa, Calistoga area), so the drive to Markleeville will be around 3.5 hours rather than the 6 hours I would be facing if we still lived in the SoCal city of Lancaster or the 9 hours if we were down in our San Diego apartment.

I found this good web site by Steven Hill where he talks about his race in 2005. It has plenty of pictures of the course but better yet, talks about camping, rather than staying in a motel. I'm an avid backpacker who also loves to car camp - this race could allow me to compete as well as take the family on a camping trip to the Eastern Sierras. What's not to like about this.

Below is an estimate of the course that I mapped in MapMyRide:



Scroll down the map and click "view full" to open completely and be sure to check the elevation box to view a profile of the course. Pics from Steve's site show a somewhat scenic but very dry (and hot?) 11 mile course. They talk about two small hills but the elevation, as given by my MapMyRide estimate shows only 1 relatively small grinder type hill.

Here's the link for SportsBaseOnline to get information on the upcoming NCNCA Masters Championships.

SCNCA Masters Championship Results - Bakersfield, CA - Saturday, June 6, 2009

Here's the results from my category, the 50+ group.

You can read the "play by play" of the 50+ race as I called it here.

You can find all the results here: SCNCA Results Page.

SCNCA Masters Championships - Bakersfield, CA

Finally, I've got a race under my belt after having my head bounce off the road in Murrieta. The Southern California Masters' Championships took place in Bakersfield, Ca today and I raced the 50+ group. I took 18th place but I was inches behind a friend of mine who took 11th and I sure didn't see 6 guys between him and me so I'm not sure how they pick the places. The funny thing is, I could have won the damn thing. With about 200 m to go in the 31 mile race, I was right behind 5 guys that were spread out across the road lane. They were not sprinting hard, just cruising in the 24 mph range or so. I assumed that we were a chase group and that others were off the front and that's why they were moving relatively slowly but I looked out to the finish and saw no one - I was sitting in 6th place and I'm a strong sprinter! The only problem was that they were completely blocking the road. In frustration I yelled, "start sprinting or get out of my way!" Instead, they actually slowed down, which slowed me down. I started to look for a way out on the left...bad choice; a gap opened on the far right and a whole bunch of guys went screaming up that side. I was out of altitude and air speed. By the time I spooled up to top speed, really standing on my pedals and driving hard, I had to be content to travel on the groups wheel, leaving the 5 blockers back in the dust. But I'm happy. The last two weeks were very bad training weeks for me as I did a lot of traveling to NorCal and back, which left little time for training. I even gained 5lbs somehow, so I had low expectations going into this race. Now for the play by play - see the map of the course below as outlined by my GPS and MapMyRide...

Bakersfield is 1.5 hours from my home in the Antelope Valley so I was up at 4:15 am and out the door at 5:00. I hitched a ride with Randy, a fellow 50+ rider and the guy that took 11th place. We were the 3rd group on the line at 7:30. The Cat 5 guys were first, followed by the women 35+ group. As I type this into my computer, results have not been posted online. When they come in I'll update this blog with full results and a link to the Kern Wheelmen site that put on the event.

As I'm straddling my bike at the starting line and listening to the pre-race instructions I was gazing at the overcast skies and wondering what the chance of rain was for my event - turns out pretty darn good as a light rain started right after the whistle was blown. It was already cold enough for me to have my arm warmers on; not a usual event for Bakersfield in June. The whistle was blown and off we went. It seemed like about 40 guys or more in my race group of 50+ guys. We headed North up Granite Road at an easy pace. My Garmin was showing a steady 2% grade and nobody seemed in a hurry to "put the hammer down." Since I had been off my bike a lot in the last two weeks I decided to stay near the rear where I wouldn't be tempted to pull the peloton. We also had a 5-7 mph head wind and I wanted to protect myself from that as well. The course was reported to gain about 1500'of elevation over the single 31 mile loop, MapMyRide shows an elevation gain of 1358' - not bad.

We crested a slight rise at around mile 3 and our speed dramatically increased. There was some movement in the group but still no one took a flyer off the front. I was content to hang back and enjoy the 40 mph ride. The steady drizzle had me a little concerned as the road seemed slippery, judging by my back tire sliding out a little in a couple of places. The road was also a little rough and cattle guards make for an interesting diversion. At one point, a calf started to walk into the road right in front of the peloton. That caused a little excitement and the yells chased the calf back off the road and back into the weeds. The descent leveled out at around mile 6 and stayed level until mile 10. This was an area for some attacks but nothing really stuck. I never felt concern but I did have to get out of the saddle a few times and really pick up the pace to avoid any gaping between me and the leading group. I did notice the pace changes were enough to drop a few weaker riders and we haven't even hit the only hill on the course. It was around this time that my heart rate monitor failed. The damn thing had been acting up over the last couple of weeks. I kept assuming it was a battery problem but I'm on my 3rd battery now in 3 weeks so I'm thinking it is time for Bob to upgrade his Forerunner 205 to either a Forerunner 305 or an Edge - now to convince his wife of the great necessity of this device...

At mile 10 the race went vertical - that just sounds good. It really was a much easier course than either Boulevard or the UCLA road course at the Devil's Punch Bowl (see my earlier posts on these races.)The climb was about 5 miles long and switched back and forth up Round Mountain Road. I moved to the back of the group just to keep an eye on everybody as no one was attacking off the front. I really didn't know the course and kept thinking that it must get a lot harder near the top and that's why no one was attacking. With my heart rate monitor out I had to go on feel and my feel was telling me that I was working hard but that I had a lot left if I needed it. Still, guys kept dropping off in front of me and I continually moved up the peloton by attrition. We crested at mile 15 and the real fun stuff started. The descent was about a minus 6% grade with a lot of switchbacks - in short, a technical descent. To make matters more interesting, the rain kept falling and all the riders were fighting the wheel spray from other racers as well. Normally I'm a guy that loves to bomb the descent but I'm still pretty sheepish from my crash so I kept my speed at around 40 mph at the top end and rode pretty loose down the hill as far as my placement next to other riders. As we leveled off at mile 20 I stomped on the pedals and closed the gap with the lead racers. I was feeling so frisky that I even went to the front and took a few pulls. At one time, I ended up with a group of three, 20 m off the front. Had we taken off at that point I think we would have kept the gap and beaten the peloton. At around mile 27 the road began to go up at an easy 1-2% grade. I positioned myself in the top ten and stayed there with less than a quarter of mile to go. Now go back to the top of this post and read how I could have placed in the top 5. But that's bike racing and I sure love it.

Final numbers: 18th out of 40? 30.9 mile loop with 1358' of elevation gain. Average speed of 22.8 mph. 2,128 estimated calories burned. Oh, and the rain completely stopped and the sun came out right after we crossed the finish line - just another beautiful day in Bakersfield, California.

San Diego and Coronado Island

With my next race a few weeks away in Bakersfield I thought it was time for another travelogue. I spend every other weekend in San Diego and on Saturday, I always ride with my club, the San Diego Cyclo-Vets. This ride is intense, loaded with race simulations, so on Sunday I look for a scenic recovery ride. The ride I currently favor is traveling from our apartment, located in the Serra Mesa neighborhood of S.D., to the silver shores of Coronado and the bike path called the Silver Strand. We've got friends in Coronado, so I make it a one way trip and my wife, Esmeralda, is waiting with the family car. The way I've composed the ride, it is 35 to 43 miles depending what you do in Coronado. The shorter ride is straight to our friends house, the longer version is to the end of the strand, ride through town, and stop at the Ferry Landing. I prefer stopping in Coronado, but I've seen others really make it an adventure and ride the Ferry back to San Diego and home.

Here's the shorter version via MapMyRide:


Coronado Island is really not an island. It is connected to "mainland" San Diego at the South end and the Town of Imperial Beach. The North end of the Coronado is connected to San Diego by the Coronado Bay Bridge but bikes are not allowed on this bridge. When I created the MapMyRide route they still had not opened a new extension of bike path that skips riding into Imperial Beach or IB as the locals call it. That part of my ride was not the high point of the route but you don't have to worry about it anymore. Right before mile 29 you pick up a new bike path that will completely avoid IB and take you directly to the Silver Strand.


Star of India

My version of this ride takes you past some pretty cool scenery. It does have some areas that are pretty congested though, so I like to make this ride first thing in the morning. The best views, prior to arriving in Coronado, are riding past Sea World, coming into the harbor area and the tourist attractions of the Star of India, and the USS Midway. You pass under the North end of the bridge and travel South past the Navy base. The route is pretty straight forward but look at it closely. Finding the first bike path can be a little tricky. On my map, it is between mile 23 and mile 24, at the end of 32nd street. It looks like I'm traveling on the 5 freeway but you'll be on a well constructed bike path to the west of I5. You want to cross some water (Sweetwater River) on the Gordy Shields' bridge (A San Diego Cyclo-Vet legend) so head straight for the I5 and avoid what looks like a bike path over water just west of Gordy's bridge.

Enjoy the ride!

I'm Ready

Bouquet Canyon Reservoir
Photo Credit: http://image14.webshots.com/14/5/67/57/159356757VieLLu_fs.jpg

(see other pics below)

I just finished punching the right buttons on my computer and paying for my entry into the Bakersfield Masters' Championships held in Bakersfield, California on Saturday, June 6th. Am I ever ready for this race. I've entered the Masters 50+ category in keeping with my blog's name. My race will be held 7:30 am and will be 31 miles long - check out my previous post for a map of the course.

How do I know I'm ready? I've been tearing up the club scene for a couple of weeks now. Granted, most of the club riders are not racers but you don't have to have a racing license to be a hammerhead on a bike. Last week I was riding with my Cyclo-Vets group on our usual Torry Pines ride and I was easily first to the park, the first race simulation. I was third going up Torry Pines where I'm usually around 7th to 10th, and I was first up the sprinter hill of Carroll Canyon (if you don't count Arnie and Janette on a racing tandem - I still find it hard to beat a 5 time National Champion in the captain's spot on the tandem, with a current pro-racer as his stoker.) I took 4th on the flat sprint at the end of the ride on Kearny Villa road but was actually first in the sprint with my chase group. A group of 3 guys, got off the front and I let them go as I felt they left too early - big mistake, they extended their gap and fought for the "podium" among themselves (and the damn tandem that I think won.) I fought it out with a large chase group, pulled away from the group with two other guys, and out sprinted them at the end.

Yesterday, with my Antelope Valley group, I found myself head to head with Eric, a usually unbeatable climber by me and the rest of our L & 20th group. Follow along with the map at the end of this post. Our first challenge is the small rise at mile 11 or so. This steady 2 mile, 3-5% climb starting at 70th street and topping out at 90th has always been treated by the L & 20th group as our first race simulation. Yesterday's ride was no exception. I easily powered away from Eric and took this first "preme". Not a real challenge, as Eric is not a sprinter and the 70th street hill is very much a sprinter's hill. Roger and Randy, both excellent sprinters, were not on this ride and either one would have given me a tough run. Eric and Roger are both ex-racers but don't let their lack of a current racing license fool anyone - both can dish out the pain in a ride.

The next race simulator starts at mile 19 and finishes at around mile 23. This is Munz Ranch Road and it's steady 6-8% grade is right up Eric's alley. Usually he reaches the top with me a hundred meters back but today (and for the last month actually) he fell behind me quickly and was never a challenge. He made one run at me at around mile 20 or so but I turned up the speed and drove hard up the hill. My current philosophy on hill climbing is that you are better to be the one leading the hill climb and dishing out the hurt rather than just sitting at the receiving end of someone else putting out the pain.

The next challenge came with the 3 Canyon's ride. Look at the map and you'll see 3 spikes right after mile 24 - those are the spikes of the 3 Canyons - San Francisquito Canyon, Spunky Canyon, and Bouquet Canyon. Francisquito, in this direction, is almost all downhill. You do have to crest a short 10-12% section before you crest and Eric is usually all business here. Again, I cranked hard and crested the hill in front and by myself - no challenge detected. We regrouped at the stop sign where we go left and head for Spunky Canyon. As we approached the climb up Spunky, at mile 28, Eric jumped into the lead and began to beat out a high tempo pace. I jumped on his wheel and then I dropped back 5 meters or so and matched his climb rate. He was pushing out the watts and I felt it was all I could do to stay on his tail but I wasn't going to let him get away. I didn't feel I had the power to pass him at this point so I stayed 5 meters back so nobody could say I was wheel sucking and allowing him to pull me up the hill. I have never beaten Eric up this hill in the several years we've been riding Spunky and it was clear from his cadence that he was not going to let me easily have this one. Somewhere around mile 30, with the crest of Spunky at mile 31, Eric increased his tempo in another bid to gap me. My heart rate was now above lactate threshold and was in the high 160's. I know from racing that I can go into the 170's for a short time so I said to myself that it was now my turn to dish out the pain. I accelerated on a steep part of the hill and passed Eric on his left side. I moved my hands as close to my stem as possible and began to drive hard with my legs using as full extension as possible. Eric tried to match my acceleration but with my heart rate passing 172 (my maximum rate is around 180) I began to lengthen my gap over him. With one last bump coming up, I stood on the petals and began to drive at maximum power - I felt great. My heart rate was in the mid 170s but I felt like I could continue this forever. What a strange sensation it is to be operating at near maximum heart rate and feeling good about it - in a few words; I'm ready to race again!

Spunky Canyon
Photo Credit: http://www.ridesaroundla.com/Rides/Spunky.jpg

As we neared the finish of the ride, Eric came up to me and said that he was sorry he didn't offer more competition on this ride. Of course, it was quite the opposite. Without him in the group I would never have pushed myself like I did. Had I been riding alone, I would have pushed hard up the canyons, I always do, but I would have stopped far short of blasting into the 170's as far as heart rate is concerned. In short, I would have worked hard but just put out enough power to feel good about my climbing workout. With Eric present, he turned an average workout into an exceptional one.

Spunky Canyon, South End
Photo Credit: http://www.pashnit.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=78062&d=1219024031


View of Bouquet Canyon Reservoir from looking South on Spunky
Photo Credit: http://lh6.ggpht.com/_dqiper7Fm7g/SDOy8YuVRUI/AAAAAAAAAyY/hvmQeahBLWI/highres_3588590.jpg

3 Canyons is going to be one of the courses I'm going to miss in the Antelope Valley. It has everything you can ask for in a training ride. In two months time I'll have moved on to the Napa Valley and the excellent rides provided by that area. The Antelope Valley is also an excellent place to train though. The draw backs are the extreme temperature in the summer and winter, and the ever present 20 - 40 mph winds in the afternoon (what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.) But in minutes you can be away from the city and riding hard over country roads with only a few cars to cause you any problems. If you get a chance to ride in the Antelope Valley, use my map below and ride the canyons.

SCNCA Road Race Championships

The Golden Empire Classic and SCNCA Road Race Championships are coming up on Saturday and Sunday, June 6 & 7th in Bakersfield, California. I would like to race in both.

Silly me. My last post discussed racing up North in San Jose on May 25th and that this would be my first race back after my accident. Well, I forgot that is the birthday weekend of my youngest child Jade. She'll be turning 8, and though I'm a fanatic when it comes to bicycles, I certainly know what's more important between the two events. So scratch San Jose to Livermore and bring on Bakersfield.

Saturday, June 6th is the Masters' Championships. At the time of this writing, the Kern Wheelmen site has not put up a profile or race map. I did find a race description on their site and created a MapMyRide map, which can be checked out below. Their site does promise a video of the complete course to arrive on May 1st - so I'll look for that. The course is 31 miles and I plan to enter the Men 50+ group that goes off at 7:30am. We only do 1 lap but the course looks challenging, with one good hill and a few rollers tossed in.

On Sunday, June 7th, we have the Elite Championships on the same course. I would like to enter the Men 45+ 3/4/5 group going off at 7:15am. Again it's only 1 lap of 31 miles. Now I've got to talk my family into staying in Bakersfield for a couple of days. No disrespect intended toward the City of Bakersfield, but that might be my hardest sale for the weekend.

Mark Reynolds San Luis Rey Road Cycling Classic

Here I sit in room 214 at Littlerock High School waiting, more patiently than my students, for the bell to ring at 12:13. It's only 11:13 and my kids finished their State mandated STAR testing over an hour ago - just another hour of baby sitting on my side, and another hour (might as well be 100 hours)of socializing on their side. I thought I would put the time to good use (at least use)and post on the next upcoming race on my schedule. I'm still on the fence for this race but I really need to get back in the saddle and put a race behind me after my accident. My wife has to leave race day for Calistoga so my attendance in the race is "up in the air."

The race is for Sunday, May 3rd, and is in honor of Mark Reynolds. Mark was killed by a mountain lion while mountain biking in SoCal.

The race is an 11.6 mile loop (my MapMyRide says around 11.3)with a fair amount of climbing to separate out the riders. I believe I will compete with the Masters 45+ to take advantage of the more experienced racers - didn't help me at Murrieta but let's hope my accident was a fluke.

Here's my MapMyRide with profile:

Napa Valley - Bicycling Paradise

I'm pretty recovered from my bike race injuries but continued headaches made me drop my April lineup of races - the headaches are now over and I'm looking forward to May. Something new has popped up though. My wife is the new school superintendent of the Calistoga Joint Union School District in the beautiful Napa Valley of Northern California. She officially starts July 1st but we recently spent 5 days in Calistoga, and yours truly got a chance to do a couple of rides there. So I thought I would dedicate this post as a travelogue of sorts on the two rides of hundreds that exist in this cool place. Hell, Levi Leipheimer left Montana to look for the best place to train as a pro-rider and found Santa Rosa (right next door to Calistoga)and never left. He's been there 12 years and I believe he has been quoted as saying it is one of the best places to ride in the U.S. I have to agree. In one hour you can ride through redwoods, hit the Pacific Ocean, ride great hills and valleys. So here's a couple of rides that I mapped on MapMyRide.com.

Photo Credit to: Travel4California.Com

The Silverado Trail from Calistoga to Yountville:

Around 40 miles total in this out and back route right down the center of the Napa Valley. It's a fairly flat ride through the vineyards with pretty vistas on all sides of the road. The traffic is fairly heavy but there are wide bike lanes on both sides of the Silverado Trail. I was not alone on this Sunday morning ride as many, many, other roadies were out and about. Here's the link via MayMyride:



You've got options in this ride. You can continue past Yountville and travel down to the city of Napa and come back. You can make it a loop ride by using highway 29, etc. All in all, a 5 star ride.

Photo Credit: © 2007 Solage Hotels & Resorts

Pope Valley Loop:

The 2nd ride, which I did on a Monday morning was perfect. I decided to check out the climbs and ride a big part of the 2009 Tour of California, Stage 1 route (by the way, the Silverado Trail route is also a part of the TOC.) Stage 1 brought the riders from California's Central Valley (the town of Winters) over the mountains and down into the Napa Valley. I rode it backwards, leaving Calistoga, riding up over the hills to the Pope Valley and then deviated from the TOC route because of lack of time, and made it a great loop. Check it out in MapMyRide:



This ride, another 5 star, had almost zero traffic once I cleared off of the Silverado Trail. The climb up to the town of Angwin was tough but harder yet, was the descent down to the Pope Valley. Definitely a technical descent. Later, talking to locals, I was told to use Ink Grade Road which has a better descent. It looks good on the map and I can't wait to get back to Calistoga to give it a try.

I should have a race in May, though the coming move to NorCal may make racing problamatic in the short term. I for sure will have races in late summer, as NorCal has a lot more road races than SoCal. I'm going to write off crits, as I don't want my daughters to see me lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm again.

When you come to the Napa Valley for the wine, make sure you look me up and I'll hook you up with all the rides the Valley has to offer!

My Colnago C40

With my training time curtailed by injuries and the fact that a business trip will knock out my next race (San Diego Omnium) I thought I would do a post on my racing bike. I'm on my spring break so I've got some time.

C40 Frame:

The 2001 frame is beautiful and gets a lot of attention wherever I ride. Handling is great with the Colnago sweeping into turns w/o much thought on my part; the Colnago just seems to sort out the turns why I just watch my line. This is a great bike particularly for racing. It is stiff enough to sprint well and is a great descender. I have done 100 miles or more on the bike without problems.

Strengths:
Light enough to win a mountain stage
Stiff enough for Tour strongmen to sprint on
Great longevity/durability for carbon
Pedigree
Appearance
almost everyone else ISN'T riding one (darn elitist mentality)
Get a used one for less than most new junk costs

Weaknesses:
would prefer 1&1/8 inch fork- but not a big deal.
odd size seatpost (28.0mm) means you need an expensive colnago post (or a Thomson), unless you buy an adapter shim (28.0 to 27.2) allowing you to run whatever post you want.

Thomson Masterpiece Seat Post:

Strengths:
The lightest, strongest, best made, safest, easiest to adjust seatpost BAR NONE!!!!

Weaknesses:
None (Well, a little pricey)

Fizik Arione Seat:

Strengths:
cool looking, light weight, a lot of real estate.

Weaknesses:
Mr. Happy goes to sleep if I'm careless in my positioning.

Gruppo:

I have the Campy Chorus 10 set with some modifications; I dropped the stock crank and installed an ultra torque chorus 10 crank. I did the installation myself and it was much easier than dealing with traditional bottom brackets. The cranks are nice and stiff and I like the beefier bearings you get with the ultra torque.

My old rear derailleur was getting worn out and a friend had a Campy Record RD with less than 500 miles on it. He didn't need it and sold it to me for a song - it took a little time to settle in but now runs great.

Look Keo Pedals:

I have the carbon body with the chromoly spindle. I've used Looks since they were the first to come out with clipless pedals. The Keo's are light and strong but there was an issue about a recall notice; see past post.

Strengths:
Weight, easy to enter and exit and easy to service.

Weaknesses:
Cleats wear pretty fast.

Headset and Fork:

I use a Chris King headset which is just about bullet proof. In fact one of my buddies with years of bicycle mechanic experience said the my bike would crumble eventually around the headset. King makes a great headset - enough said.

My front fork is new (old Look fork destroyed in crash) and is an original Colnago carbon street fork with an alloy steerer tube. I've been riding my time trial bike so I still don't know how this fork will affect my ride. It was tough to find as by bike has a 1" steerer tube with most bikes using 1 1/8" now. Anyway, the Colnago fork does go nicely with the C40 frame so I just have to see how it rides.

Bars and Stem:

My old bar and stem were also wiped in the crash so the new ones are untested but here's what Trek says about:Bontrager's Race X Lite Blade, VR Road Handlebar is light, strong, comfortable, and a great upgrade for your road machine. Its high-compression molded-carbon construction is feathery light, damps road vibrations to fight fatigue and has the most natural shape you have felt in a handlebar.
- Blade refers to the flat and wide top section that distributes hand pressure better and allows for more hand positions.
- VR stands for Variable Radius, and refers to the Lance designed bend that is ergonomic AND was optimally designed for modern shift /brake levers.
- Double cable groove works with Shimano,SRAM and Campy
- No Rider weight restrictions (Like all Bontrager products)
- Compatible with Clip-On Aerobars
- Only 228 grams (42cm) and much stronger and more fatigue resistant than light weight aluminum bars.

I'm using the 44cm bars as I've got pretty wide shoulders. I bought it with a matching stem: Bontrager Race XXX Lite OS Carbon Road Stem. From a review: The Race XX Lite OS is the latest carbon stem from Bontrager, and it their first road-only offering. It's made from high compression moulded uni-directional carbon fibre, with a forged aluminium (and very highly polished) front plate. With the high price it's going to be hard to justify this stem from a value perspective, but the performance is certainly without question second to none. I feel price may not play a factor in the decision to buy this stem though…

Both the bar and the stem were price listed at around $250 each but I got them from the Trek Superstore for around $225 for both - a special they have going right now.

Campy Vonda Wheelset:

I like this set and like the looks of the G3 spoke pattern on the rear. They are strong, and I'm tough on wheels. They run about 1660g which is not too bad for a $600 wheel set. They climb well and spool up okay when sprinting. When replacement time comes I'm thinking about the William system 38s.

Strengths:
Very smooth, sort of aero, faily light, and quite strong.

Weaknesses:
None noted, especially at this price.

For rubber I use Michelin Pro Race 3. If you look at my bike pic you'll see that I have a Pro Race 3 gray on the front and a Pro Race 3 blue on the back. I buy them in pairs and got a good deal on the grays from ebay. I'm one of those that rotate tires. When my rear starts going flat (shape not air holding ability) I take it off and rotate my front to the rear. I usually get around 2400 miles plus on these tires. They're pretty flat resistant for a racing tire, light wt., and really stick to the road during turns.

Well, there it is. I'm sure this post will bore my usual half dozen readers and my wife would only roll her eyes at this post. Of course, she's not one of my half dozen readers!