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by Glenn Swan

This summer has seen the usual number of participants in the weekly Tuesday night road races and Thursday night time trials, but the number of racers travelling to the USCF weekend events has been somewhat reduced. Perhaps I've just been going to the wrong events...

Early Races

In early June, some of us supported the efforts of Chuck Dominick and the Syracuse club by attending their Syracuse Criterium. In general the races went well, but our specific experiences were not so good. My teammate, Wayne Luther broke his femur in two places, as well as his collarbone. FLCC master Don Williams avoided that crash by jumping the curb and bonging a large trash barrel before coming to a stop at a good viewing place for the tennis courts...

 I finished second in that event, but more than made up for it by crashing in the Miss-n-out race later in the day, breaking two Zipp carbon wheels and determining that I am indeed still allergic to asphalt.

 Our local riders fared well at the Empire State Games qualifiers, and although I can’t recall each of our qualifiers, I can safely say that our area is well represented as always.

 Don Williams and I ventured to the Tour de Sea Serpent stage race in Western NY and each won our categories. I began to show the form I would need for important upcoming races as I won the TT, the Road Race, and the Criterium. Don was second in his TT, took a high place in the hilly RR and won the overall with a great attack on the final lap of the criterium that allowed him to win the stage solo.

 Fitchburg — I tested my fitness against the greater depth of New England masters racers and found the results encouraging. I didn’t win any stages, but was able to influence the outcome of every stage with solid riding. When the dust cleared, I was second on general classification and my teammate, Morgan Stebbins won the sprinter’s jersey and one stage.

 A typical scenario at that race was for me to move to the front of the pack on any sprint-lap or final lap and lead Morgan up to the front line. With a little under a kilometer to go I would take the lead and go 35mph so that nobody could do anything more than follow the wheel in front of them. This way there could be no surprise attacks or dangerous passing prior to the final 200 meter sprint. Morgan is as fast as anybody in a sprint, so after I shot him around the final turn and into sight of the finish line I could ease up and watch him go by into the open space ahead and win. The other sprinters had to start from behind and couldn’t catch up. The ordinary guys were wasted from just trying to keep up at 30+mph, so the sprint wasn’t quite so crowded or dangerous. I like it like that. I also like sharing Morgan’s prize money...

 Also at Fitchburg were Annette Hanson and Tamara Toselli. Annette had a weekend she would rather forget, getting taken down in crashes twice and showing similar allergic reactions to pavement. Tamara, on the other hand, had an inspiring weekend in the women’s category 4 race, riding solidly all weekend and finishing in the top 10. She was excited by the discovery that when she is not forced to ride with the national level superwomen, she is quite a good rider and can "make things happen" in a race. It’s too bad that we are losing both of these women as they move out of the Ithaca area to follow their careers.

 Nationals

Fitchburg was the final tune-up for my most important goal of the season. As defending champion in the National Time Trial, I wanted to put in a good effort at Talahassee, Florida. I skipped Gloversville and Johnstown in order to make the 1500 mile drive to Florida a little less stressful and tiring, and in fact arrived feeling quite good. I was glad for the A/C in my little car, since the whole east coast was sweltering in 90–100 degree temperatures.

 It was clear that there was going to be no room for errors in preparation for this race. Fitness was not enough. Hydration, electrolyte balance, and careful control of effort would be vital in the hot conditions. I have been using a nutritional plan from Shaklee this season, and although I remain skeptical about all of these diet plans, I found that I felt better drinking "fruit smoothies" that I mixed up with Shaklee stuff, fruit, juice, and ice in my travelling commercial blender (one speed- vaporize!) before and after riding.

 I was lucky that my minute man was a previous national champion and one of my chief competitors, so I would have some indication of how I was going on an otherwise featureless course that passed through 12.5 miles of featureless Florida swampland with no hills and only two slight bends in the road.

 With about 5 miles to go I noticed signs of heat illness (feeling chills and having goosebumps on my arms despite the 95 degree heat), but I knew I had made up time on my rival and I felt that if I concentrated hard enough I could survive anything for those last 10–12 minutes. My heart monitor told me that I was still holding on at the limits of my performance range, and when finally the finish line came into view I let it all hang out.

 That was almost a mistake, since it turned out that you could see the finish from well over a mile away... I saw heart rate numbers higher than my "test-to-destruction" VO2 max testing for the last half mile, but by then my mind had seized complete control of all systems and could have forced a corpse to pedal to the finish. I nearly caught my minute man before the line and the clock read 52:56. I knew it would be good, but how good was the real question.

 After a hard 40K time trial you feel as though someone with pointy toed cowboy boots has been kicking you in the butt and hamstrings. I literally couldn’t walk, and riding around trying to "cool down" was painful, but I was quite mellow, since the more I heard from others, the better my time sounded. It turned out that my closest competition was the minute man I had nearly caught and for another year I get to wear the stars and stripes jersey of the national champion.

 Whatever happens for the rest of the year will be icing on the cake. I had a big goal for the last 12 months and I actually reached it !!!!

 Enchanted Mountain

I drove straight from Florida to the start of the Olean, New York, Enchanted Mountain Stage Race. I joined Ithacans Don Williams, Tom Swensen and Andy Melnychenko for some speed and hills there.

 Andy rode a fast time trial, but missed his start by over a minute, so he gave himself a big handicap. Don won the Master 45+ time trial while riding in a tremendous storm that included lightning, hail and small lakes across the road. My heart monitor quit working on me during warmup, so I "flew blind" and showed that I don’t always need digital feedback, posting a time that would have fared well in the Pro race. Tom Swensen, my physiology mentor did a respectable time that left him wondering what he’s going to have to do to climb back to the level of power and performance that he once enjoyed.

 In the road race, Andy was one of the strong-men, driving the pace on several of the climbs and finding himself driving many of the breakaway attempts. I was busy trying to protect my teammate, Steve Simpson, who was still showing effects of the Florida heat, so I have to admit I wasn’t trying to help Andy motor away in some of the breaks. In the final windy miles, Tom Swensen tried several attacks but was repeatedly reeled in.

 The final short climb to the finish became a deperate chase as a rider who had been sitting in and resting in the final miles played his cards. Andy charged after him and passed him with 100 meters to go. I was close behind, thinking that Andy had worked hard, was one of the strongest riders of the day and certainly deserved the win. But then a little voice in my head said I would never hear the end of it if Andy beat me in the race, so — I dug down deep and sprinted around Andy for the win. Sorry, Andy!

 In the 45+ race, Don Williams thought he had things under control as he reeled in the breakaway group, but found out otherwise — two guys had already escaped from that group and were a couple minutes up the road. He couldn’t close that gap and his chances for overall victory were vaporized, since there wasn’t much time to be regained in the final criterium. He would ride solidly in the crit and maintain his 3rd place.

 In the 35+ criterium, Tom Swensen had a little excitement as he folded his Zipp rear wheel during a little sideways slide in turn three. He skidded to a stop in an impressive demonstration of bikehandling skills. I had a very good view of it, since he had just passed me in the turn moments before. Andy stayed comfortably out of trouble the whole day and finished in the top 5 on general classification due to his strong road race finish. I tried to make it a clean sweep of stages by attacking with 2 laps to go. It looked like I would stay away to the finish, but I chickened out on the final turn, slowing slightly for safety, and a fast moving chase train caught me, with one rider nipping me at the line. Still, 2nd isn’t bad for the stage, and a win on general classification is as good as it gets. The money puts enough gas in the car to get to the next race.