New York State TT, Part 2

Josh's earlier post summed up much of the TT. The course was windy and hilly. It was fast and times, it was slow at times. It was hot. It was painful. To borrow from Francis, I spent over an hour in that "unhappy place" that is the time trial zone. That is, I went to the redline, backed off a click or two, and stayed there. Pushed into the red at the end. Pushed way into the red.

Was my bike fast? Yes. Was I fast? Sorta. Was I happy with my ride? Yes. At the end of the race, I had nothing left. No kick at all. A steady acceleration from the top of the hill at the 5K to go mark to the finish toasted my legs and lungs. I rolled across the finish, my left hammie cramped, and I cooled down by pedaling one-legged for a couple hundred yards.

Some notes:

*There were some super fast folks out there. The quickest time was a little over 55 minutes.
*In our category, Cat 4/5, there were 23 starters.
* Jared finished 5th with a time of 1:03:08.
*Josh finished 6th with a time of 1:03:23.
*Those are smokin' times from OCW's young guns.
*I finished 19th with a time of 1:08:43. (As usual, I was the slowest of the fast guys. While all the racers ahead of (and including) me finished seconds apart, the guy behind me finished about two minutes down.)
*The team time trial was cancelled. That made me very happy.

Dust off your aerobars. We'll be going back next year.

Oswald Cycle Works

Race report

Date: 6/25/06

Race: Owasco Flyer

Distance: 36 miles

I made the trip to Auburn for the second time in 8 days to compete in a bicycle race. The day started out rough when I found myself waking up a half an hour later then I had planned. Fortunately I tend to be anal retentive and planned on leaving a half hour earlier then I need to. This is the only race that I have done more then once so I had a good idea of what I was getting myself into. That is, about 180 people trying to cross the finish line and most of them trying to do it first. Of course I was one of that bunch myself. Last year when I did this race it was my second bike race ever and I placed 20^th. I was disappointed and really felt I should have done better. Yesterday Jimmy called the shop to wish me luck and give me some advice; he said, “ride smart dude”. I knew where I wanted to make my move; it was the first big hill after about ten miles of dead flat and super fast riding. I just stayed five or six guys back from the front until this hill. My place of attack is a place I am going to call chain drop hill. I have so dubbed it because every one is racing through the flats and are in a huge gear. When they hit the hill they have too much torque on their chain so that when they shift down they drop their chains. My chain didn’t drop off so I guess I better buy my mechanic lunch or something. Any way when I got to the hill I knew some people would attack so I made sure I was in every break and gap. The attacks kept on for about three miles and the pack was totally blown apart at this point. A strong team got off the front and opened a gap that I couldn’t bridge. Eventually I found myself in a group of three. We got organized and chased like mad men. Those guys rocked too. We started catching guys that were popping off the back of the lead group. We made sure that we passed them fast enough so they couldn’t grab our wheel. It hurt a lot but the three of us were going together and not slowing down for anybody. Finally our group of three became a group of two. Up to this point I had stayed in the green but I pushed into the red a little too long trying to tack on to the end of the lead group and misjudged the finish. So at the line my sole compadre sprinted and finished before me. He earned it though. I got ninth overall I think, and first in my age group. I would say it was a huge improvement from last year.

Owasco Flyer

Hey!
I am going to the Owasco Flyer road race on sunday. I have room for another person if anybody is interested. just let me know.

Josh

Thursday Night Ride

Good riding tonight boys! As Jimmy would say "it was epic"!

Josh's NYS Time Trial Report

Sunday June 18, 2006

Yesterday Jimmy, Jared, and I traveled to Auburn to compete in the New York State Time Trial. Things were looking up when Jimmy found my house without any difficulty. I was even more impressed by our team car for the day, Jimmy’s Sienna. I found it much more comfortable then my Tempo, I offered to trade him straight up but he wouldn’t go for it. Any way, we were well prepared; we each had an extra set of wheels (just in case), an easy up (supplied by our generous team sponsor), trainers, and enough miscellaneous stuff to supply an army.

The trip was pretty uneventful. We got registered and then drove the course. I can’t speak for the others but my plans for glory went right out the window as we spied the terrain. It was going to be one long suffer fest for sure. When we got to Auburn we set up the Easy-up (which really was easy). We were the only team so well supplied (thanks again Tom). We set up our trainers made last minute adjustments and what not and got busy warming up.

There is nothing much to say about the actual time trial. I rode my bike fast and hard and didn’t see much but pavement and the couple of dudes I passed. I also got to watch some guy pass me and then ride me off his wheel in slow motion. It was so slow it took about ten miles to do it. It just hurt a lot. My one consolation is that it hurt everybody so I wasn’t suffering alone.

Since none of us were New York State residents we weren’t eligible for awards. We all rode well I think in spite of our own personal misgivings and doubts. It was a good time, but it was work without a doubt. Nice job guys!

-Josh

NYS TIME TRIALS

Good luck Jimmy,Josh and Jared at the NYS Time Trials!

Laurel Flyer Road Race Report

June 9th twenty/06

My good friend J. Heverly came down from Pine City, NY to help sweep the Laurel Flyer course with Tom, Sheila, and myself. It stopped raining just long enough for us to sweep and set out some signs. After a strenuous sweeping work out J. and I decided to go for a bite to eat. We rode over to the Bum Steer where we split a half a sub and a couple of beers (most excellent carbs before a race!). Upon returning home we thought it would be best to turn in early, we set up our cots in the garage, J. on one end and me on the other, as not to bother each other with our snoring. However, the acoustics in the garage made J’s snoring sound more like a pack of log cutters with chainsaws. I finally managed to fall asleep, but not for long as the rain on the tin roof hammered along all evening into the early morning.

After 5 hours of not so restful sleep I awoke at 4:30 am on June 10th never to return to dreamland. Around 6am I started a pot of coffee and commenced to eat my pre-race breakfast, while discussing with J how poorly I felt this race was going to turn out. It was cold and damp and I still ached from last week’s endurance event in Ohio. After getting no sympathy from J, I decided to prepare my bike and clothes for the race that I had ahead of me. We arrived around 8:10am at the Airport to give Tom a hand setting up. The weather was gray, cloudy, and extremely windy (perfect conditions for a road race. Ha!)

After sitting in my truck for about 45 minutes I decided it would be a good idea to start warming up, never quite getting warm though. I decided then that this race was going to be longer than I had expected. Finally at the starting point Tom gave the final instructions and we started off rolling down the runway. From this point on the weather no longer mattered. Finally out on the road the groups began to form and I found myself riding about in the middle. This group didn’t seem to be in a big hurry, which was fine with me. A few miles down the road I decided to start putting a little more effort into my ride to keep up with Michelle from VisitPA.com. I tried to keep up with her but she finally broke away leaving me with a smaller group. I stayed with this group mostly through the first lap until the last climb up to the basket shop, where I road with this yellow jersey guy. He was stronger on the climbs but I was catching him on the flats where we took turns pulling for each other.

After the second lap past the basket shop, yellow jersey guy was about 25 yards in front of me, and all I wanted to do was reel him in and beat him to the finish line. Which was much more of a challenge than I had predicted due to a strong head wind, but I was determined to pass and demoralize him. About 1 minute after I passed him my legs were turning to jelly. As I noticed him coming up on my right, I decided this was where I really had to dig deep and put it all out there. IT WORKED! I had no idea where I had finished, only that I had. And that seemed to be the biggest trophy that I had won this year. As it turned out I did better than I thought, placing third in my second road race ever. It was a great race. The Oswald Racing team did well today. Thanks to Tom for putting on a tremendous event under extreme weather conditions. Looking forward to my next race at Jasper.

- E. Franck

Mohican 100 Race Report

Eric Franck and I arrived in Perrysville ,O.H. around 10AM friday morning. It rained all the way out and continued to rain throughout the day so we decided to shack up at the lodge instead of camp. We arose Saturday at 4:30 AM to top off the fuel stores and make any last minute race preperations needed. The race was under way around 7:20 AM. The condition of the course was brutal. The single track was a peanut butter like mud that stuck to everything. It even made my granny gear dissappear as it was caked with mud. The climbs were pretty big for Ohio. The course starts right out with 8 miles of single track and crosses a few roads back into fresh cut single track until you hit aid station 1 (about 25 miles) . I must admit 25 miles felt like 50 after pushing through mud and water. The rest of the course was a mix of double track,fire and dirt roads. The end was back through the 8 miles of single track we started on . It was muddy at 7:30 AM and dry at 6:00 PM. There was a guy that set up a water station and wash station right out of his garage(thanks dude). The times were 1 - 1.5 hrs longer than last year due to the conditions. I came in @ 12:48, 35th in Mens Open and Eric came in 13:32 and 4th in 50+ Men. Overall we agreed that it was an accomplishment to just finish this race. The field was set at 85 riders with 19 DNF's and 9 DNS. If any body is interested in testing the waters at 100 mile racing, I dare you to try this one! www.mohican.net

Jay

Century

Hey!
Do you want to have a good (long) time riding your bike? Maybe you want to drop a few pounds? Or do you just want to hit that personal goal of riding 50 or 100 miles? Maybe you are between races this weekend and just need a good training ride. Or have you been naughty and just need a little punishment? Whatever your reason, join Oswald team members July 9th as they ride 100 miles through Tioga County. There is also a 50-mile (beginner pace) option available. Riders can meet at Oswald Cycle Works anytime after 9:00 am for coffee and donuts. The ride will start at about 10:00 am and will take as long as it takes. The course is challenging but do-able with plenty of opportunities to stop to refuel. You can view the course maps at the links below. See you in July!

http://tinyurl.com/k5muy

http://tinyurl.com/h676a

the start of Eric's new road frame

Here are a few pics of the beginnings of the new road frame I'm building for Eric.


bottom bracket shell and seat tube











bb shell and seat tube in the jig











seatpost binder brazed to the top of the seat tube








seatpost binder after clean-up