Trek the Tower

Betty and El Guapo ham it up before the 2010 Trek the Tower. All smiles here, but that soon changes to the Death Mask!





Are you ready to take on the Tower? 40 floors, 870 steps, and 633 feet into the sky, First National Tower is the tallest building between Chicago and Denver. Get your feet ready and your heart pumping to Trek up the Tower.







Velocistas,


While you were all tucked in and sleeping away Saturday morning, Veloers Betty "Crash" Cook and El Guapo were out cross-training by doing the annual Trek The Tower.

You know, sprinting up 40 stories to the top of the First National Building? Oh, behave!

Ok, maybe not sprinting. Maybe not even going fast, but we did it nonetheless.

And good results! Betty smokes it for a 10 min, 41 second outburst. The worst (or best) part was she wasn't even breathing heavy at the end. I guess its all the xc skiing she's been doing lately, eh?


El Guapo decides to try it for the 1st time too after Betty throws down the fitness gauntlet. Plus, it's another thing they can read over my cold, shriveled corpse at my eulogy. Yeah, something like Simone saying "My dad was a fitness fool. I remember one year when he decides it would be fun to hike up 40 stories of stairs. Rest in peace, you foolish old man, it's no wonder your heart exploded during this latest escapade." (whatever it is that finally does me in).


Hey, who's complaining? Just stuff my cremated remains into the downtube of my De Rosa and put it on your mantle piece (if permissible), or the attic and hand it down thru the generations.

Anyway, back to the Trek the Tower. Pardon my ramblings, it goes with the age.

But, speaking of age, El Guapo churns his way to 1st place in the 50-59 age group, out of 69 total old farts. And dines on quite a few young whippersnappers too, by finishing 9th overall out of 1100+ racers in a time of 5 min, 32 seconds.

Oh but for a few seconds more, could have moved up to 6th overall. Guess I should have picked up the pace the last few flights. Frankly, I don't know if that was possible. Sounds good now, a day after the brutality is over.


Recap:


Betty and I arrive early after meeting at Panera's at 615. Downed a little Dark Roast jet fuel. We sign in early, get our numbers, take some photos. Do some stretching and then get in the "elite" line, as Betty has scorched these stairs before and I qualified for "elite" status due to running a 10K in under 50 minutes (40 min/Corp Cup).


We yak it up with some folks in line. Met Sarah "Smiles" B, who turns out to be an ex- Cat 1 bike racer for Penn State, and her dad Andrew, from Alva, OK. Andy gives me some great tips about how to attack the stairs. Sarah and I exchange emails and she may join us for some racing. Hot damn!


We stretch in line, right behind some Rocky Balboa look alike, jogging in place, all dressed in black. I'm super giddy, thanks to glomming the cups of caffiene. Finally, we work our way up to the starting scanner. Betty blasts first, then they launch me 7 seconds later.


I start motoring up the steps, 2 at a time. Catch Betty, who gives me a rebel yell and an adrenaline rush. I decide to keep my head down and not look at floor signs. Use the railings for some additional pull and start passing some folks. The stairs are surprisingly narrow, with just enuf room to pass shoulder to shoulder, but people are pretty courteous about letting faster folks by. I really only had one Clyesdale slow me down.


Finally lift my head up and catch a glimpse of a "27th floor" sign. Still got some juice in the tank and know I can make it now. By 35th floor starting to slow down a wee bit, and by 37 my legs feel like they are cast in cement. I get to 38th and I feel like a Chernobyl reactor about to melt down. I then spaz my way up to 40 and to the finishing scanner. Bring out your dead, bring out your dead!


No idea of my time, but felt like I did pretty good. I knew from a little research that the previous year's 50-59 winner Bob (who finishes 2nd behind me this year), crushed it in 5.50 or something. I had set some pre-race goals of sub-9 minutes, but then had to reevaluate after seeing the winning times from previous race.


I immediately plop down on a chair, and watch some firemen revive some dude that totally collapses in a sprawled heap on the floor. Definitely deep in the red zone for that gladiator. Been there, done that...can you say criterium around the Flatiron a couple of years ago?


Betty and I circle the 40th floor and let the screaming heart rates come down. Everyone up there is hacking up lung oysters due to something; the effort, the altitude change, the dust in the stairwell, whatever.


We finally board the elevator for the ride down to 1. Gather up some loot, cool shirt, free Whole Foods drinks and parfaits, then plop our sorry buns down at a table and try to equilibreate.
See some old buds from the Y, Vince, Dan, Ellie, Sarah our new bike bud, etc.


The results get posted. We wait in line and approach the results. Totally shocked and awed by my 9th place result. Oh, baby, I think what I'm supposed to say is "Good night now" or "unbeevable". (for you Romey fans). I had told some close friends that I planned on winning my age group, but that was bull talk from a one-eyed fatman. (Fill your hand, Ned! I aim to kill you right here and now or take you into to hang at Judge Parker's convenience. What'll it be?")


BC and I vacate the premises @ 930ish for the return trip to Panera's and some web surfing and Java. Never occurred to me there would be the award ceremony at 11 to stick around for. My YMCA spinning buddy Howie Halperin organizes the Trek the Tower event, so he'll surprise me on Monday night with my "award."


Afterthought: ugly, gasping raw throat choking, but no sore legs today. Good event for bikers to demonstrate their superiority to all those other sports disciplines like running, etc. Might do it again next year, but maybe I won't.


Here are the official results from the Trek the Tower website:

http://www.onlineraceresults.com/event/view_event.php?event_id=4570


Trek up the Tower
February 20, 2010 - Omaha, Nebraska

Overall Individual Results

Place Name City Age Sex Div/Tot Finish
===== ===================== ================= === === ======== =======
1 IVAN MARSH ASHLAND NE 35 M 1/157 4:31
2 RYAN WOLF OMAHA NE 27 M 1/156 4:58
3 GERALD KUBIAK OMAHA NE 35 M 2/157 5:08
4 JEFF MARSHALL OMAHA NE 48 M 1/124 5:15
5 BRIAN WANDZILAK LINCOLN NE 29 M 2/156 5:16
6 LEE MARTIN OMAHA NE 26 M 3/156 5:28
7 BRYAN WITT OMAHA NE 24 M 4/156 5:30
8 KELLY HALVERSON OMAHA NE 29 M 5/156 5:31
9 PETER DURYEA OMAHA NE 52 M 1/69 5:32
10 BENJAMIN GERBER OMAHA NE 24 M 6/156 5:32

MALE AWARDS


********** OVERALL RESULTS FOR MALE RACE ***********
1 IVAN MARSH 35 ASHLAND NE 4:31
2 RYAN WOLF 27 OMAHA NE 4:58
3 GERALD KUBIAK 35 OMAHA NE 5:08

********** TOP MASTER FOR MALE RACE ***********
1 JEFF MARSHALL 48 OMAHA NE 5:15

AGE 18 - 29
1 BRIAN WANDZILAK 29 LINCOLN NE 5:16
2 LEE MARTIN 26 OMAHA NE 5:28
3 BRYAN WITT 24 OMAHA NE 5:30

AGE 30 - 39
1 HENRY KINGHAM 38 OMAHA NE 5:33
2 CHARLES SMITH 35 OMAHA NE 5:43
3 BRIAN RONK 36 COUNCIL BLUFFS IA 5:45

AGE 40 - 49
1 JEFF MADDOX 41 NEBRASKA CITY NE 5:43
2 DAVID SEEVERS 42 GRETNA NE 6:02
3 DAVID FITCH 41 COUNCIL BLUFFS IA 6:03

AGE 50 - 59
1 PETER DURYEA 52 OMAHA NE 5:32
2 BOB HENCHAL JR 56 OMAHA NE 5:56
3 KEITH DOWELL 55 LAWRENCE KS 6:14

Snow Ride

Took the mtb out for a ride on the Keystone and Big Papio trails before they were cleared. 3-5 inches of power-sucking snow everywhere. It took 90 minutes to complete 11 miles. Here's why:

VO2 testing

Reminder!

Veloers and other esteemed guests,

If you didn't have a chance to do this before, you might want to consider doing it now before we get all wrapped up in the race season. My pal, Dr. Kirk Peck, top dawg at the Creighton University Physical Therapy Department, is putting together another VO2 testing regimen. He wants to test elite bicyclists and compare the results to elite runners.

This isn't the fully aspirated version, but involves a 1.5 mile full-out run, and 3 sub-max tests; indoor cycling, walking and jogging. Bottom line, the results turn out to be eerily similar to the full-blown V02 test.

Some of us did it last year. Fred was off the charts, and others tested well compared to elite runners and age groupings.

If you are interested in doing this, contact me at pduryea at cox dot net. I'll get you hooked up with Kirk. The testing should be coming soon, February or beginning of March.

Nebraska Cycling Assn. Meeting

President Ryan Feagan enterains the crowd with geek data from last year's cycling events and the survey sent out to Nebraska racers.

Six Velo Veloce riders met for the beginning of the year Nebraska Cycling Association's kick-off meeting. Gene, Andy, Ted, Randy, Rusty and El Guapo journeyed to Whole Foods in Omaha for this well-attended event. Dandy pizza was available to enjoy during the presentation by Prez Ryan. Many topics were discussed, MTB and road racing, race sizes, age categories, rider-of-the-year calculations, etc. Plus we elected new officers for the upcoming year.

Going from memory here, but Ryan was reelected President, John Spay from Norfolk was VP, Cheryl Gerkins Officials Coordinator, Craig Harding Treasurer, John Lefler Secretary and Kevin Burke Upgrade Coordinator. Good crew! If the crowd size was a good indicator, interest is growing in Nebraska racing.

The next evening, Gene, Andy and El Guapo went to the Waiting Room and snarfed pizza (again) and watched the Greatest Story Ever Told with about 50 other cyclists. This movie was about Eddie Merckx in the 74 Giro de Italia, winning for his 5 consecutive title.

Hope to organize a team ride soon. Looks like some above 30F temps are just around the corner. I'm ready!

None of this weeny spinning stuff

Duryea, I'm calling you out! Man up! This indoor stuff is for weenies. Ride outside with insane people like me (yes, that is an icicle on my chin):

Winter Training: Part 1

Check out back, left row...who's that grinch? Why it's Veloer Genius Ray hitting El Guapo's S/SW Y spin class. Look out for big things from Gamma Ray next year...he's prepping early!

El Guapo donned his goofy Christmas attire for Saturday's par-tay! Click on pix to enlarge.

Yes, you look closely and you can see I even wore my Scooby Doo boxer shorts. My S/SW spin class held our xmas party after last week's class. I even burned a blues Christmas CD special for the occasion. Party consisted of egg nog (no rum), bagels, cream cheese and coffee.

Spin passes are always available for my Velo pals or esteemed bike acquaintences. Just let me know if you wanna come do a class, I'll save you a bike. Saturday class is 8 AM at S/SW (132nd and Center) or 615 PM Monday evening at Maple Y (75th and Maple).

Guaranteed fat burner and calorie shedder. Class is 45 minutes long to really cheezy 70s and 80s music. Seated and standing climbs, likewise for runs, with some lifts and isolations mixed in. Usually followed by Panera's coffee on Saddle Creek & Dodge, with mucho ebay surfing for biking parts and what-not. Huge, huge, huge. Let's git-r-done!

Jingle Cross Mud

Peanut butter mud was the rule of the day at Jingle Cross. Friday night was wild. 25 lined up in my 45+ race at dusk. By the end of the race, it was completely dark and we were racing under the lights. I didn't preview the course because I would have had to wash my bike before the race-I figured that it wouldn't make that much difference anyway. Had a decent warmup, though.

The 3.5 km course consisted of a lot of flat riding, with some muddy stretches mixed in, and two nasty freaking climbs, both unridable. The first was the climb up Mt. Krumpet, which was really difficult-100 ft elevation change running through sticky, gooey mud to the top, then a greasy off-camber descent with two hairpins. The other was a short rise that turned into an unpleasant greasy run-up, with an equally greasy descent into the area between the bluffs and the livestock pens, which was wet sticky mud.

We lined up in the grid and they said we'll start in 30 seconds. I reached down to adjust my shoe buckle, and the start bell rang, so I was in 20th place instantly. Marvelous. I though it was disaster. I chased hard, but didn't seem to make up much ground. Then we got to the run-up to the top of Krumpet. I must have passed 10-12 guys on that climb-it helps to have some natural running talent. I ran the descent as well. With the fading light, finding your line was really difficult. If I had a chance to spend a bit of time practicing it, I probably could have ridden it, but that didn't happen. So I ran it every time and ended up passing people riding their bikes. Every time up the hill I made up huge amounts of time, so that by the last lap I had worked myself back to 7th, then passed Scott Fleming and Dan Hansen on the climb to move into 5th. I almost caught John Meehan for 4th, only a couple of seconds ahead of me; if I had an average start, I would have definitely been 4th and been in the running for the podium.

No such luck Saturday. Bottom of my shoes got wet, so I slipped and could not clip in at the start, thus relegated to the back of the pack again. The Krumpet run-up took a different path and was a freaking mess. The descent was through the crappy mud we ran up on Friday. Dropped a chain on first lap, and stopped three times to clean out my brakes/fork/seat stays so that the wheels would actually rotate-mud would be mixed with grass on the run-up and create an adobe brick in two places on your bike. Lost at least 1.5 minutes with the stops to fix the bike. Horrible day, ended up 9th out of 20 starters.

Deanna and I managed to get a case of bad food poisoning from Chipotle burritos that evening, so no racing on Sunday. That's it, I'm done for the year. For the 14 races this fall: 1 DNF, 3 firsts, 2 seconds, 2 thirds, 3 fourths, 1 fifth and 2 ninth places. A very good season, to say the least.

Some excellent photos here, in particular, the womens 4 race, which was the highlight of the weekend for the male racers.

The end is nigh...

...if this exists.

Lincoln CX

As the only racer from the team, I tried to give us decent representation. Both days I was racing master's 40+ (having upgraded to cat 2 last week, I didn't see much point in racing the open class-maybe next year). Day 1 went well. It was a very strong field, with half of the racers from KC, and many of the better ones making the trip. Had the best start I've ever had in a cross race, and stayed with the leaders. After 2 laps, things started shaking out. Tom Price started to pull away from the field (how shocking-he only just won the 45+ at the USGP Mercer Cup in NJ last weekend), Steve Songer was about 15 seconds behind, and I was another 5-10 behind Steve, with his teammate Andy Lucas sitting on my wheel (Andy's been injured and had a sub-par fall, which is why I could keep up). Team tactics normally don't play a role in cx, but occasionally they do, and this was one of those times. I got no help from Andy to catch Steve, so I tried mightily to do it on my own. Got closer a couple of times, but never quite close enough to close it. As I expected, Andy jumped me at the beginning of the bell lap, got a 3-5 second gap, and stayed away for third, while I ended up fourth. Nonetheless, I was happy with the result-it showed that I can hang with the fast masters and compete for podium spots in KC.

Today was just as much fun. Troy, Craig and company came up with another great variant of the course-quite hard, but really fun to ride, flowing beautifully. Another excellent start, I slotted into the front, and had only one person jump ahead, Josh Taylor up from KC. Jim Winklepleck, Dan Hansen and Kevin Burke were on my tail. After the third lap, I dropped the three behind me and yo-yoed between 1 second and 5 seconds behind Josh. Finally with two to go, I saw that he was tiring, so I made a significant effort to latch on at the beginning of the bell lap, and caught his wheel. Just as we were moving off the pavement, I surged and dropped him, opening a 5 second gap. To make it more interesting, with about 1/3 of a lap to go, I had my back tire wash out on a technical section and lost my momentum, so he closed the gap. I didn't feel too bad, so I was pretty sure that I could take him in a sprint. On a tight off-camber S, he tried a risky pass, got by me, but went in too hot and ended up in the tape. I took off and won by about 5 seconds. I hate winning that way, but we both had bobbles in the end taking chances, so things evened out, I guess. BTW, Josh is a real class act and it was great racing against him (see his account here). So a 1st and a 4th this weekend against pretty good competition, and the masters state cx championship. It was a good weekend.

Altoona Cross

Had a math conference in DM today, so I figured I would kill two birds with one stone-IA CX Championships were just 20 minutes away in Altoona (what a great name for a town-you couldn't make one up that good). Cut out of the last talk in time to head over and race the cat 3 men.

The course was really nice-90 % grass, with gravel, pavement, a couple of nice climbs, plenty of turns for accelerations-just what a cross course should be. The only thing missing was a little sand or mud. I think that some courses, especially in KC, tend to get too cute or mountain-bikey--it would be nice if a few promoters would take lessons from the Altoona guys. Anyway, got off to a decent start, then proceeded to struggle badly for the first two laps. I figured out that I was too cold, both from the weather and from insufficient warm-up, so bringing a trainer is critical for some of these late season races. After the first lap and a half, I was in 8th (out of 10-a very disappointing turnout for a state championship). Once I got warm, things started to go well. Over the last two laps of the race I went from 6th to 3rd, which was pretty sweet, especially picking off the guy in 3rd during the last half lap, who had a 10-15 second lead on me beginning the last lap. The crowd at the top of the boarded run-up was loud and really plastered, doing beer hand-ups and setting out dollar primes sticking out of empties on the ground (I tried to grab one but missed). Looked and sounded like they had been knocking them back since the first race 3 hours earlier.

I was pleased with the race, since I beat some of the guys that beat me at Spooky Cross, and felt quite comfortable during the last half. If the race had gone on for a couple more laps, it would have been interesting to see how I would have placed, but I'm not complaining. Ten races so far this fall, on the podium in 6 of them (2x1st, 2x2nd, 2x3rd), in the money for 8 of them (previous plus 2x4th), one DNF because of a rolled tire, and the other was an open race for training after my main event. Good times.

Spooky Cross in Dead Moines

What a mess. A very difficult wheel-sucking course, bad lines throughout the race, two stupid bobbles on barriers, and a lack of aggression on the one fast downhill doomed my efforts today-ended up 4th in cat 3. Well, everyday can't be excellent, so why am I complaining? Some pics-first is me post race, second is Craig Schmidt racing the 4s:

Boulevard Cup

Excellent day for Nebraskans in KC. Sydney Brown won the open womens race, Craig Schmidt won the master 40+ cat 4 race (23 riders-heck of a number for that class-great job Craig!), and I won the cat 3 race. Had another terrible start, but not as bad as Saturday. At the beginning of the third lap I had worked up to the front 5 riders. We got onto the finishing stretch, 300m paved, with the wind at our backs. The group sat up, and sensing it was a good moment to go, I put in the 46x12 and dropped the group. I opened up a gap of 5 seconds, extended it to 10, and maintained that over the chasers (which eventually whittled down to one guy) over the next three laps to win. A huge thanks to the guys from Nebraska-Nate, Troy, Craig, Mark-who were screaming for me the whole way. What a huge difference that makes, 'cuz you don't want to let them down by being a weenie.

Good CX day

Capital Cup in Topeka went well. Rather than racing Masters, I opted for cat 3 in the hope of scoring some upgrade points to move up to cat 2. 21 cyclists toed the line at the start. After a crappy, crappy start which landed me in 17th place after 500 meters, I gradually picked my way through the field over the next 40 minutes and finished in 2nd place, about 20 seconds behind the winner. A curious race for me with no decisive moment-just a long grind gradually catching everyone then dropping them. The course is very much a power rider/roadie course, with few technical bits and a lot of "drill it as hard as you can" grass sections. Two successive boarded run-ups on the same hill were entertaining: dismount, run up, remount, ride down, dismount, run up. The second time up was not fun.

There were a number of Nebraska riders there. Vaughn Pierce and Rich Anderson were in my race and rode well; Mark Savery, Troy Krause, Nate Woodman and Matt Tillinghast raced well in 1/2/3, with Troy finishing with a great result against the deep KC comp, on the podium in 4th; Craig Schmidt had a great result in cat 4 masters, finishing 2rd. Sydney Brown won the womens open race.

Tomorrow is the Boulevard Cup in KC, which will probably have a stronger and much larger field. Should be interesting.

Fred crushes competition at World Senior Games in Utah

Fred loaded with gold and bronze hardware, what a haul!

Here's what Fred had to say about his recent adventures at the Huntsman World Senior Games:

Dear Friends,

It's been a whirlwind of racing lately. After finishing 8th in the Duathlon Worlds Championships in Concord, NC, it was a two-day drive home. Then three days at home, and off again on another two-day drive to St George, UT for the Huntsman World Senior Games (HWSG) Oct 5-9. HWSG involves two weeks of sporting events catered to senior 50+ with 27 sports to pick from. I was joined by my wife, Jody, and our youngest daughter, Chrissy. Participation each year is typically around 9,000. Over its 23 year history, athletes have been represented from 60 different countries. It's a beautiful drive, but winds were gusting to over 50 MPH when we arrived on Sunday. Monday was check-in and a mandatory cyclist meeting in the evening to go over the rules and regs. The cycling competition involves a total of four consecutive, brutal events. Each race awards 6 places per 5-year age group, in three Divisions (all annual licensed riders are considered Division I). In addition to nice medals and ribbons awarded six deep, points are awarded for each event. At the end, top riders are awarded their coveted HWSG Yellow Jersey.

STAGE 1: Tuesday morning was in the low 50's (as it was every morning). The winds had subsided for the 5K Hill Climb up Snow Canyon with a 900' gain. Riders were sent off 30-seconds apart in this timed event. As most riders, I decided to ride my road bike. I rode a 13:15, and not only won the gold for 55+, but had the fastest time of all age groups by a full minute. The brutality of this course takes its toll. The climb has 10% and 11% grades and it's all uphill with no breaks in the terrain. If that doesn't get to you, then the dry, cold air that burns the lungs has most of us coughing and hacking long after the event is finished.

OPENING CEREMONIES: Tuesday evening was the Opening Ceremonies mirroring the pomp and circumstance you see at the opening of the Olympic Games! The HWSG really puts on a spectacular program at the Dixie College stadium. Athletes parade in by their sport in alphabetical order. They have hundreds of dancers, singers, performers, etc. They feature flag-bearers for all 60 countries that have participated over the years. Three skydivers land on the field, one bearing a huge USA flag as they make perfect landings. They include keynote speakers and one of the most spectacular fireworks displays at the conclusion.

STAGE 2: Wednesday was the 40K Time Trial (race against the clock) near the entrance to Zion NP, a very hilly and unforgiving course with virtually no flat sections. It's a fulltime effort with riders again being set off in 30-second increments in this race against the clock. You're also sharing the road with high speed traffic, which fortunately was fairly light. I finished with a 55:01 (26.5 MPH ave), and again won gold for 55+. I also set a new course record for 55+ (by 21 sec), and had the 3rd fastest time of the day (one of the Canadian 60+ riders had a better time!).

Stage 3: Thursday afternoon was a 45 min Criterium (mass start lap race) in St George. They combined the 55-59 and 60-64 groups of riders for my race. By this time I was a marked man, and so had difficulty making a successful breakaway despite numerous attempts. I thought the 60+ riders were more aggressive! I won all three premes (special prizes given to the first rider across the line - these are awarded with the ringing of a bell on random laps). Probably not a smart thing to do, as I should have been conserving my energy, but riders were staying glued to my wheel so I just decided to go for it to see what would happen! The finish came down to a mass sprint finish. I accelerated enough near the last turn to be the first rider into the turn. It was a long, two block run to the finish and I poured it on early. At the last few seconds I got passed by two others in my age group (not to mention several of the 60+ riders). The guy that won gold in 55+ was from Barbados, who had literally sat in the very back of the pack the entire race, and never did an ounce of work in the pack! I thought he had been dropped, but he came flying by! I ended up with the Bronze, but still had the overall points lead.

STAGE 4: Friday AM was the final event, a 37 mi Road Race with lots of rollers and several long, challenging hills and descents. About halfway through the course is what officials refer to as "The Wall" - a 1.1 mile climb that hits 11% grade. There are also a number of unprotected cattle guards that must be crossed. Towards the end of this course, you actually descend the same 5K portion that you had raced up during the Hill Climb on Tuesday. The pace was relatively slow, as everyone was feeling the past 3 days effort, and were conserving their energy for what would become the "race" at the base of "The Wall". I accelerated hard at the base of "The Wall" and slowly pulled ahead. Near the top, I had a 20-30 second lead, but to my dismay there was still a huge pack of around 40 riders staying together! A 50+ rider joined me after the top and I motored for the next three miles to the Highway while he essentially drafted me. We started working together for the next 12 miles on the Highway. We could see the ever growing pack getting closer to us at times. We maintained a 30-40 second lead, and felt that if we could make it to the top of the Snow Canyon descent, we'd be home, as that portion had a tailwind which would make for an extra fast descent! Well, we later discovered that although our pace had not slowed, the sharks in the pack had tasted blood, and a pursing group of around 15 riders engulfed us just before the descent!

A lot of these guys are from mountain states, so fast descents down twisty-curvy hills are nothing new to them. For me, it was like descending the 1/2 mile downhill towards Dodge Park on the Wednesday night Trek ride. Despite my bike computer hitting 44 MPH, I started to fade, but rejoined the pack towards the bottom with less than 3 miles to go. Every year cyclists go the hospital due to bad crashes on this stage. The only fatality in this event occurred in 1998 when a senior died from complications after crashing on this very descent. It became a sprint-fest again, and I ended placing 3rd for another Bronze medal. But I had retained my lead to win the yellow Jersey!

BANQUET: That evening the HWSG puts on a great dinner buffet and Awards Banquet when the overall Championship Jerseys are awarded. It was an honor to receive this coveted jersey and inspirational to have participated in all the events surrounded by so many gifted and energetic seniors, up to the age of 80+.

Fred Galata
Velo Veloce Cycling Club

Cross Report

Last few weeks have been productive for both me and the club. I finished third in the KC Cross Cup Mens 50+. I would have done better but managed to crash twice, once with nasty road rash, that cost me the first two podium spots. Last week was the Capital Cup in DM. I snagged first in 45+, and whined to myself about not racing cat 3 open (my original intent). If I had, I would have ended up at least third, and probably better since I shut it down for the last few laps.

Today, at Omaha Cyclocross Weekend, the race we promote, Ted won the cat 4 race, Pete finished third in the masters race, and I finished second in the cat 3/4 race. Hope to have photos up tomorrow of the winners and of the race.

Mr America at the World Dualthon Championship

I recently competed in the Duathlon UTI World Championships in Concord, NC (near Charlotte) featuring over 1,000 athletes from 20 countries. Identical to Nationals, it would be a 10K run + 40K bike + 5K run. Competition ranged from the Elites to Age Groupers. After winning the Duathlon Nationals this past April, I qualified for this Worlds event and was invited to become a member of TEAM USA to represent the USA at Worlds which took place last Saturday (Sept 26) at the Lowes Motor Speedway. This was an opportunity of a lfetime, as Worlds rotates countries every year. Last year they were in Italy, and in Australia in 2007. It was a long 2-day drive of 1,260 miles each way, and we camped out in a mini-motorhome at the Speedway.

The weather was warm and quite humid the first few days. The first day was spent getting registered, checking out the expo, running portions of the course, and participating in the opening ceremonies at the Speedway. The second day was full with a TEAM USA meeting, tour of the bike course, and photo session at the Speedway. It was imperative to know the running and biking courses, as they involved a total of over 130 total turns! All the runs were on the same 5K loop (with over 20 tunrs per loop), and the biking covered two loops of a 12 mile circuit (with 35 turns per loop). Unfortunately, it rained during the entire event, and with all the turns would make for a slippery race and likely not produce record times. The race venue had athletes starting in waves and running and finishing on the NASCAR Speedway track, with courses on the actual tarmac as well as on roads around the area which were mostly hilly, to my surprise.

The Opening Ceremonies were cool, whereby athletes from each country paraded in front of the crowd on the Speedway. We were furnished special "parade uniforms" (TEAM USA sport shirt, hat, socks, etc.)that we wore, and were required to race with special TEAM USA race clothing that featured "USA" with each athlete's last name in bold letters. The ceremony ended with several sky-divers landing with a huge USA flag, and NASCAR pit crews provided wheel change demos (those guys are FAST)..

All 50+ males started together on the Speedway start line as the rain started again on Saturday, mid-afternoon. Bikes had to checked in the previous day, so they'd been out all night in the rain! Successive large groups followed in 10-min intervals. The Elites had finished just before my race. When the gun went off, it wasn't long before the lead runners were starting to disappear from sight - some truely world-class athletes from many countries. It wasn't long before the younger runners started to catch the 50+ runners, and some areas of the course got a bit crowded. I ran 41:04 for my 10K and finished intact. I was hoping to make up considerable time on the bike, but knew it would be a challenge with the numerous turns and continuous rain. The cycling portion had been shortened to 11 miles per loop due to conditions on the Z-Max Dragway, which was to my disadvantage!. It was imperative not to crash in the turns, so I had to ride relatively conservative. After every turn, I found myself sprinting to gain momentum. This effort, in addtion to runnung a 10K, started some cramping in my calves. But I caught a second wind in the final 5K and finished strong.

I ended up placing 8th overall, and posted the 2nd fastest bike portion (only the overall winner had a faster bike portion), and no one else passed me on the bike! The offical results show my bike average at 24.8 MPH, but they apparently didn't take into consideration the shortening of the distance. My computer showed 22.2 MPH. The first place 60-year old caught me with a mile to go (Steve Ruckert). We had finished together at Nationals in April to win our age-groups, and now he was on his way to a Worlds title. We exchanged a few words and encouraged one another to the finish. This helped me finish just a few seonds ahead of the 9th place runner.

It was really cool to be able to ride one lap of the 1-1/2 mile NASCAR track per bike loop. The track and entire area covered a huge chunk of real estate with seating for close to 200,000 NASCAR fans. Virtually all the top finishers in my field had recently turned 55, but at age 58, I consider myself thankful for the good helath and vitality to compete in various masters events, and this Worlds event was just frosting on the cake. Found out that the husband of the couple from Canada that camped next to us was the guy in 55+ that posted the 36:53 10K (Bill Wheeler), which earned him a Bronze medal. There were 38 competitors that qualified in the 55+ of which 35 finished the race. I later heard that there were a number of crashes, and spouses, friends and relatives cringed whenever they heard ambulances in the distance. The rain continued heavily after the event and throughout the night. Depsite the fact that we wore ankle timing chips, officials had difficulty scoring the race. Results were still not available at the post race party at the Embass Suites, and did not get posted until 1:30 AM the next day! Unfortunately, they only go 3 deep on awards, so I felt bad for the Italian and Irishman who had traveled so far.

Top Ten 55+ Age Group finishers:
1 - USA
2 - Norway
3 - Canada
4 - Italy
5 - Ireland
6-10 - USA

Here's a link for more info. http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php#racetop

Next I will be competing in the World Senior Games in St George , UT with four days of competivive cycle racing from Oct 6-9. See you on the road!

Fred Galata

September 19, 2009 – Nebraska State Road Race

A great day for the stripes.

Perfect race day weather for this large field of 68 riders. The anxiety of such a large group was apparent with the frequent screams of “SLOWING”, the bumping, even the nervous attitude of the guy that kept returning to my front wheel like a bad sock in the dryer. For purposes of this write up, I will refer to him as “White T-Shirt”. Those who rode will immediately recognize him by this description. He was the first rider in a race I have witnessed experiencing self-inflicted road rage.

Master Yoda (Pete) provided very good pre-race advice regarding positioning in the peloton. As any old Jedi warrior would, I followed exactly. The first lap was more avoiding trouble, than positioning (Garmin refers to avg speed at 23mph). Lap two provided the opportunity to put a little pressure on the heavy breathers (the ones doing most of the screaming, and yes…that included White T-Shirt). When Lap three arrived, which seemed quite early, it was clear which riders were important to keep in your perimeter. With only one real breakaway, it seemed difficult to get any partners to contribute to a chase. The best opportunity was when, wearing the stripes, Ted Lechnowski came by me valiantly in a very fast pace (too fast to react for me). He did stretch ahead, only to be unfortunately pulled in prior to the last turn off of the loop. Next time I will ready to assist.

At the final turn in, I decided it was time to deplete the fuel from the latest powergel I consumed. I jumped out of the seat on the turn and cranked the pedals like never before. Success! This positioned me well in the front group (where I witnessed a very intentional Cat 4 girl-girl shoulder bump…mean), then on the final approach to the finish line I found a gap on the right side of the bunched front runners and let the tiger stripes work their magic. Sixth place overall (my best finish), and actually won the old guy group (40+) at a mere age of 47.
Congratulations to Pete for his terrific finish and 1st place ranking in his group, and Connor Randalman for the same in the Junior category. Stripes has a terrific road season. Thanks for the great year.

El Guapo sprinting for the finish line in the Cat 4 race. Not exactly a caven-dish fin-ish.

Race report for State Road Race Championship at Branched Oak, September 19, 2009

El Guapo, Sir Troy of Perry, Ted the Menace Lechnowski and young Connor Randleman all sported the stripes at the race. I'll let Troy and Connor contribute their own writeups, but congrats to all for taking state titles. Connor takes the gold in Juniors, Troy crushes his opponents (by Krom) in Cat 5 40+, and El Guapo is teh best of the old goats.

My race was 60 miles. Twenty-four Cat 4 racers of all ages circled Branched Oak 5 laps. There were a couple of ill-fated break away attempts, but the pack wasn't going to let anyone get away. I think only two of the 24 actually faded before the mass sprint at the finish. I spent most of the race yakking with my pals. Chased down one break away with Brady Murphy and Dan Ertz.

So the plan was to be ready for the sprint. Felt strong, thru the hills leading up to the final turn. Had to scrub a bunch of speed at the final turn, but found myself in about 6th position coming out of the corner. Decided to open up the throttles to the old diesel a couple of hundred yards out. Caught most of the racers napping and found myself on the front as we approached the finish. In the last 50 yards or so, saw two guys beat me to the line. Finished in 5th, but that was debatable.

Didn't really matter, since 2nd through 5th are all LOSERS. Congrats to the winner Brandon Fenster. I'd love to try it again and maybe suck a little more wheel leading up to the finish line. Probably launched a little too soon.

Oh well. I did take the state crown for 50+. All the the little packets of Geritol, errr....Gu, must have helped out during the race. Nice to compete against the young studs and not get dusted. Always wanted a state road race crown, so I guess I can check that off the bucket list, but it would have been nice to win the whole enchilada.

Ran the Corporate Cup the next day. First time I ever raced a 10K. Finished in 40.54. Not bad considering I was a little gassed from this road race, plus I cramped up at the 4mile mark and had to slow down a little. At least I know now that at sub 40 10K is doable. New goal!!

Time to call the road season toast. Can you say cyclocross??

Thanks to all for a great season. Velo Veloce did great as a team. Thanks teammates!

Fred gets ready to fire up the turbo out in SanFran, California. Congrats on great results!!
Team Xtreme,

We've been back almost a week now and I'm finally getting an email to you about the National Senior Olympic Games in the San Francisco bay area that several of you have been asking about. The Games are held every other year by a new host city. We got a new ISP at home which was just activated the other day and I've been busy getting caught up at the office, so here are the results.

It was a long three day drive to San Mateo. No option to fly with 2 bikes and lots of wheelsets. One of the race officials had previously told me in an email to "rest assured, it never rains here this time of year". The morning of the first road race (20K) stated with light rain. but it mostly dried up by race start. All 4 races were held on the same 6-mile course which was closed to traffic and consisted on some nice rollers, some long and but not overly steep. IMHO, the courses were not challenging enough to break up the large pack until the VERY END where the course climbed nearly 200-ft in less than a 1/2 mile. I predicted that there would be crashes at the base of the hill after a fast downhill just before a sharp left hand turn up the start of the big S-bend hill. Everyone, especially the sprinters, were trying to be the first into the turn. About 10 riders were ahead of me when a crash occurred on my far right. It became a slugfest of lactic acid and I finished 5th overall, barely catching the 4th place rider at the line by inches. The winner was from Washington state.

The 40K RR the next day was pretty much the same, except it was much more spirited. They started the 50-54 pack 1-min ahead of us, and as we came down the big-s-bend downhill in a neutral rollout, and then turned right onto the course, we had to stop. There was already a nasty crash in the 50-54 race. Three riders were down and 1 had to exit the race. Once we restarted, the attacks began. I threw in a few attacks myself, and chased down everything that broke. There was one attack that we all rested from, when two riders snuck off the front. They didn't attack, they just slowly rode off the front. Nobody reacted, and next thing they had a nice gap. Found out later that one of the lead riders in our group, who had won the 20K, was essentially "blocking" for another Washington rider in the breakaway. Although I make several concerted efforts with other riders to reel them in, there was not enough sustained effort to catch them. The majority of riders just sucked wheel. Despite the pace, virtually the entire pack remained intact. So I rode hard down the final downhill, and was the first rider in the pack to make the turn at the base of the climb. Several riders passed me but I was able to pass a few and finished 5th again - another "podium finish".

Two days rest, then the 5K and 10K TT's were held on the same course - 5K in the AM, 10K in the early PM. They had hired a professional co. to score the races. They used a nice start ramp and riders were required to fasten transponders to their front wheel for all 4 races for "instant and accurate timing and results". Well, officials didn't know that the city had recently installed wires under the road which messed up the timing devices so they had to score it manually. They were accurate, but we were not provided the results of the 5K until AFTER the 10K was completed!

I ended up with the Silver medal in the 5K, riding a 6:52 at an average pace of 27.1 MPH. When I swept all 4 events with Gold 2 years ago in Louisville, KY, I had set a new 55+ age-group distance record then with a 7:11, so although I bettered my time by 0:19, I got beat by 9 secs this year. The good news was that I had beat the Washington St guy (who had won the 20K RR) by LESS than a second! Scott Sifferman from Missouri won the Gold. Fourth place was just 3 secs back, and 5th was 10 secs back.

Then things really started to heat up. Temps reached 95-100. The winds calmed and there was an air inversion where the air quality turns bad. Riders were hacking and getting dehydrated. Plus the waiting around for hours in the heat for the results was not helping. The 10K started as scheduled. Had I known the results of the 5K I might have changed wheels. But I finished 3rd in the 10K (14:28) with Bronze, getting beat out of Silver by just 1 sec by the Washington guy who I had beat out in the 5K. Scott won the Gold again. The 4th place rider behind me was just 2 secs back (he had placed 2nd in the 40K breakaway), and 5th place was just 3 secs back! Overall for all riders 50+, I had finished 4th in the 5K and 5th in the 10K. It was also amazing to see the winners of both of the 60+ and 65+ age groups ride sub 15:00 in the 10K TT.

In general, the competition was very keen. The only guys that rode better than I were essentially the new 55 year olds that were new to the age group. The NSGA put on a nice BBQ the evening of the last event. Other Omaha riders included Team Kaos riders Suzanne Wilson (2 podium finishes), Gary Schmidt (2 - 8th places), and Doug Semisch and Steve Kramer. Jody and I spent the next 3 days hiking in Yosemite where temps hit 98 in the Valley. Six days of driving round-trip was a bit much, but a great experience overall.

- Fred Galata

Crits and Bits

Pic: Pedro votes two thumbs up for TT review.

Day 3 recap: For some odd reason, the Men's 45+ Cat 4 omnium was based only on the road race and TT events, not the crit too. Ahh, that's sad.....NOT. You know how I hate crits. So, I finished the omnium in third place based on my 1st place TT and 9th place RR. Cashed in some more hardware (3rd place bronze medal for overall...real cool) and a big ass jar of GU2 powder for swag.

The Crit: I told myself the goal was to finish and NOT WRECK, since the crit didn't count towards anything omnium-wise and it was unlikely I would compete for 1st, 2nd or 3rd in the crit. I finished 18th out of 27, but the race was marred with accidents. Two unlucky souls got carted off on stretchers into the ambulance and straight to the hospital. Do not pass GO and do not collect Primes. Poor guys. The previous race also had a junior wipe out in the same exact location and fracture her clavicle...sound familiar Speed Queen??

So, great weekend of racing. Lots of hardware and swag. Lots of props from the Colorado riders for a flatlander coming in and ruling the TT. Heard some guys behind me in the neutral RR rollout say "some dude from Nebraska won the TT. We Googled him last night." Guess they were worried about me in the RR too.

Sitting in Estes Park drinking coffee at Long' Peak Coffee Haus. Gonna do Trail Ridge Road tomorrow for FUN! (12,189 ft.). See ya back in the 'hood soon! Adios!