iBike and Garmin GPS wireless now integrated

I'm still testing the iBike, but it's almost 1 year on and I'm still happy. I'm prompted to write this by an ibike announcement - they now have some new firmware that allows the iBike wireless model (the one I don't have) to integrate wirelessly with the Garmin GPS-enabled devices. So you end up with location and power on the one sweet load of data. Beautiful. I can imagine it - and it looks fantastic - but I'll pretend I don't really need it for now. But if you are buying a new one, go wireless!

Just to update you, the v1.16 firmware has extended battery life enormously, by around 2x at least. Winter will be a truer test (it's just gone autumn here), but I suspect that battery life is no longer an issue.

And of course don't believe the latest issue of Ride magazine, which still believes that ibike is for moving bikes only, not for stationary trainers. In fact there are a number of pre-calculated and approved indoor trainers for which the ibike is individually mapped and (apparently, as I haven't tested it yet - another reason to go wireless I guess) works. Check it out at ibike: We’re taking it off the streets with the new iBike Pro Indoor Trainer. This purchasable iBike Pro firmware upgrade, used in conjunction with the iBike Wireless Heart Rate mount, makes it possible to use the iBike Pro to measure power on commonly available indoor trainers. Please include your iBike Pro serial number in the Special Instructions section of your ordering screen when you place your order as the firmware is secured for your individual iBike. Available 11/15/07.

Short takes on early season racing

• Cadel Evans had this to say to CyclingNews on his Paris-Nice ambitions: Evans reckons he might be at 75 percent of his best condition right now. "Ask me again after the stage up the Ventoux," he said. So this is really a pre-Tour de France test for him. Even without pressure he might give it a go. The past two winners of Paris-Nice, Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador have finished in yellow on the Champs-Élysées after that... with different fortunes later on.
• David Millar on his Paris-Nice and his Slipstream team ambitions:Millar began the Paris-Nice on Sunday with two clear objectives in mind. "The goal is to be on the podium on GC and win the prologue," he said in the lead up to the race. While the second of those targets didn't work out, with the rider finishing 12th in the time trial in Amilly, he was relatively positive about his ride afterwards. "There are few things worse than having a chrono performance compromised because of the weather," he said on the Slipstream team website, referring to the day's rain. "Considering I was one of the last to go before it started drying out more, I'm satisfied with my result. Trent [Lowe] and Danny [Pate] did great rides and Trent put considerable time on the other climbers."
• And for something completely different try this short piece on climbing technique, including some insights from Chechu Rubiera (via PezCyclingNews):Climbing is either one of your strengths or a “painful annoyance” to be dealt with on the way to the finish where you may be able to utilize your sprint (assuming you have some strength left). How many times have you heard a sprinter say they just need to get over a climb and get to the finish line with the main group? Or a climber says, I have to get away from the sprinters on the climb so I have a chance to win the race.
  

Bad weather mars shortened Paris-Nice stage

It's hard enough just racing without the weather competing for attention as well. Bad weather. Wind and rain. Lots of wind and rain. Still, Gert Steegmans got through OK and took the win. Thor still leads and the top 15 looks like this (via CN):
1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 2.26.55
2 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Quick Step 0.06
3 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 0.12
4 Karsten Kroon (Ned) Team CSC
5 Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Team Milram 0.17
6 Trent Lowe (Aus) Slipstream Chipotle - H30 0.18
7 David Millar (GBr) Slipstream Chipotle - H30 0.20
8 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Quick Step 0.21
9 Luis León Sánchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.22
10 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Silence-Lotto 0.24
11 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Team Milram 0.25
12 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux
13 Enrico Franzoi (Ita) Liquigas 0.26
14 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Crédit Agricole
15 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Rabobank

Full ASO results here.

The winner had this to say (from the ASO site):Yes. I thought 10 kms to take some of my clothes off, which was a good choice ; When a sprint is a little uphill, every gram can count. In Belgium we’re used to cold and rain but it was really hard today. I was a little lucky, but it’s mission accomplished. One or two other stages might finish in sprints but the rest is probably too hard. The Ventoux will just be a nice leisurely ride for me.

Nice to see Lowe and Millar still up there and equally good to see Sanchez and Gerrans coming through. Flecha and Van Summeren have crept up as well. It's worth noting that the field spilt in the bad weather and inevitable crashes, forcing riders like Evans and Voigt to lose time. No confirmation yet on who has fallen or dropped from the race, however Brad McGee is currently not figuring in the results. (Update: ASO reports he came in at 42nd place.) It will be interesting to see these riders climb back up the GC... if they can.

Paris to Nice - Thunder God Thor leads race to the sun

It's a cliche but it's true; Paris-Nice really is the early-season race to the spring sun. And in the prologue it duly rained, but only enough to send the leader-board skewiff. Big powerful sprinter Thor Hushovd took 1st, which wasn't so surprising, as he got a nearly-dry run. The biggest surprise was Markel Irizar taking 2nd with a great TT during an early dry run. Luck plus talent almost pulled off a big surprise. And it was good to see McGee take 4th.

The top 15 looks like this (and especially take note of the Slipstream riders!):
Results:
1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 5.28
2 Markel Irizar (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0.04
3 Stefan Schumacher (Ger) Gerolsteiner 0.05
4 Bradley McGee (Aus) Team CSC
5 William Bonnet (Fra) Crédit Agricole 0.06
6 Danny Pate (USA) Slipstream Chipotle - H30
7 Leonardo Bertagnolli (Ita) Liquigas 0.07
8 Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Team Milram 0.08
9 Karsten Kroon (Ned) Team CSC
10 Trent Lowe (Aus) Slipstream Chipotle - H30 0.09
11 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC 0.11
12 David Millar (GBr) Slipstream Chipotle - H30
13 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Quick Step 0.12
14 Alberto Losada (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
15 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas

Slipstream have done a great job to load the top 15 with some talented TTers. Whilst some will fall back, watch Lowe and Millar hold position during the week. If they can keep with the early breaks then both will be in with a great chance at a top GC result.
There's more at CN:Already a winner of the prologue of the Tour de France – 2006 in Strasbourg – Thor Hushovd was the only rider able to beat the performance of Euskaltel-Euskadi' Markel Irizar, who was close to creating a huge surprise in the inaugural 4.6-kilometre time trial of Paris-Nice in Amilly. The 30 year-old Norwegian took the yellow leader's jersey with four seconds over the Spaniard and five over German Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) .

And Pez will eventually have a story here.

Racing round up

It's early season, so what's it matter?

• Leipheimer won the Tour of California again, but it's so early in the year it only means he has to peak again later... but for what, when Astana won't be in Le Tour?
• Evans has some climbing form but again it's too early to really know what this will mean. He could be on a new level, or it could mean nothing
  
• McEwen isn't figuring in the sprints, but he had a fall too. He started slow in Australia, too and has been lying low. Does this mean he's getting old and slow or is he just planning to peak later in the year?
• O'Grady fell again but he seems to be coming back from last year's pain
• Haven't seen much of Mick Rogers
• Brownie is taking a few podium places and the occasional win but not setting the world on fire, but JJ Haedo looks hot in Spain: Team CSC's Juan José Haedo took his second European win of the season on stage three of the Vuelta a Murcia, taking out the bunch sprint on the 146 kilometre stage from Puerto Lumbreras to San Pedro del Pinatar. The Argentinian winner of last Sunday's Classica Almeria finished ahead of Koldo Fernández ( Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Grame Brown (Rabobank).
  
• Pettachi and Boonen are their usual selves in these early-season romps
  
• Luke Roberts took a stage in SA:Team Kuota-Senges' Luke Roberts won stage three, and a strong second place by Austrian champion Christian Pfannberger enabled the Barloworld rider to strengthen his hold on the pink leader's jersey. Belgian National Team rider Dominique Cornu finished in third for the day.

It's really too early to say what it all means. Although Petacchi and Boonen look good to battle out a few sprints, with Haedo, Brown and Freire up there as well, the usual cast and crew are ready to join in the fray, too, like Bettini. Especially in an Olympic year. Roll on Milan-San Remo...

Brown wins and leads in Murcia

If you can recall those wild days of the Commonwealth Bank Classic you may recall Brownie taking enthusiastic liberties in the sprint. Well he's a seasoned European campaigner now... Rabobank sprinter Graeme Brown took his second of this season in the opening stage of the Tour of Murcia on Tuesday. The 28-year-old Australian easily bested Euskaltel-Euskadi fast man Koldo Fernández and 22-year-old Spaniard Aitor Perez (Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo) on the 197.3 kilometre stage from San Pedro del Pinatar to Lorca. By taking the first stage, he also donned the leader's jersey.

Rabobank team manager Frans Maassen was pleased with the team's win after Brown and team-mate Oscar Freire botched the finale of the Clasica de Almeria on Sunday and were denied victory by CSC's JJ Haedo. "It is a nice revenge for Sunday," said Maassen, who also was impressed with Brown's finish on a tough stage. "The course was not as difficult as indicated by the course profile, but it was still extremely tricky. Graeme would not have been able to do this two years ago. Now he knows how to ride up a hill and he is also a master in riding in echelons, which was very useful today because of the hard winds."

Both Valverde and Contador are in this race, BTW. So expect to see them stay close to the lead.

Evans takes win on day 2

You train your heart out but can't be sure until race-day. You hold back and start easy in a multi-stage race with good team support. The first day goes OK so you take a few of your teammates into an early break. It's a tough day and you work hard, but then you see a chance to win, so you go for it. Well it's really a personal fantasy of mine to be race-fit straight out of the box, yet it seems to be do-able if Cadel is any guide.

Last year's Tour de France runner-up, Cadel Evans, has taken an early season victory after winning the second stage of the 54th Vuelta a Andalucía. His win in just his second day of competition this year, proves the 31 year-old Australian's training during the off-season was not hampered by the many commitments he had with various charities and other functions. It also indicates that his preparation is right on schedule as for his assault on the 2008 Tour de France where he is a noted favourite after Astana's non selection, which leaves last year's first and third placed riders, Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer out of the coming edition.

It's hard not to be impressed with SuperMario

AT 41 it's cool to come back. Heck, if he works on it a bit he could be World Champ on the right circuit..
Team-mate Paco Wrolich set up the sprint for Haussler, but he admitted to having been very impressed by another sprinter, Mario Cipollini. "His comeback is more than perfect. Despite stars like Bettini, Boonen, Leipheimer or Hincapie, he is the absolute hero of this Tour. I take my hat off to him for his performance, that he can still ride like this at age 41. Nobody would ever have believed it! He is a star, which cycling very much needs right now." It was that "star allure" which most impressed Austrian Bernhard Kohl. "The entrance of his Rock & Republic Racing Team was really very cool. The team arrived in Rolls Royces, and were accompanied by a lot of promotion girls. 'Super Mario' appeared at the start with four bodyguards, all in black."

London invests in cycling

Go London. Frankly, whilst I love cars I'm realistic enough to realise that they take up too much space and are out of step and scale with both the people they are meant to serve and the environment we live in. There should be a better balance struck between the use of private cars and the alternatives, like public transport, walking and cycling. For our health and well being if not for the planet's survival we have to act soon to reclaim the streets for people, not over-subsidised, over-weight machines. (And yes, we subsidise car production, distribution and use to an enormous extent, far more so than for any other manufactured good. If you think that's not so, try reducing the subsidies and protections for car manufacturing, petrol refining or road building and see who squeals - you'll find a lot of people are addicted to the free cash we dole out to the car industry in the name of "freedom to move". So 'Go London!'
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said: “The aim of this programme is nothing short of a cycling and walking transformation in London. We will spend something like £500 million over the next decade on cycling - the biggest investment in cycling in London’s history, which will mean that thousands more Londoners can cycle in confidence, on routes that take them quickly and safely to where they want to go. “The cycle hire scheme in Paris has proved a huge success, and I have now instructed Transport for London to work with the London boroughs and interested parties to develop and implement a bike hire scheme in central London, accessible to all Londoners. By ensuring that Londoners have easy access to bikes in the centre of the capital, as well as making our city a safer and more enjoyable place to cycle, we will build upon London’s leading position as the only major world city to have achieved a switch from private car use to public transport, cycling and walking.

I don't know why, it just is...

I don't know why, but I didn't get interested in the Tour Down Under 2008. OK, I watched the last stage live and enjoyed it, but somehow - and promising sprinter Andre Greipel won it overall BTW - it just didn't get me in, not in that stage-by-stage build-of-tension kind of way. Lack of decent race-splitting hills, perhaps? Same guy winning - seemingly - every day? I may have well been watching Big Tom clean up, as always, in a small, rich desert nation somewhere.

But the lesser-ranked Tour de Langkawi in Malaysis is a different kettle of fish. The sprinters are under the hammer already. Stage 1 - a 19-man break succeeds, only to see Sprick step away 3km from the line to grab the stage and the overall. Stage 2 saw a 2-man break, a pursuit, a likely catch foiled and another split winning the day with Jeremy Hunt taking the win. Well it seems pretty lively to me.

More on the dope that dopes dope with...

From Dopage du Jour:

erythropoiesis is essentially the production of red blood cells, and the more you have of those babies the better your oxygen transport capacity

erythropoietin or EPO is the substance that triggers production of red blood cells - the more EPO you have the more red blood cells are triggered to mature in the bone marrow

EPO production is normally in your kidneys but lately pharmaceutical companies have built factories to make it as well, for medicinal reasons only, of course

Thyroid hormones, thyroid-stimulating hormone, adrenal cortical steroids (like glucocorticosteroids or Prednisone) , adrenocorticotrophic hormone, and human growth hormone (HGH) all promote erythropoietin formation, which again means more red blood cells in your blood; however before you all rush off to secure illegal supplies of banned substances let's note that the side-effects of these substances on otherwise healthy people will vary from catastrophic to dangerous, and in fact...

Very high doses of steroid hormones (whatever that means - 50-60mg/day, perhaps of a cortico-steroid?) "seem" to inhibit erythropoiesis, which is to say lower your red cell production and release - and is thus not very good for your bike riding, is it?

Click on that text to go to the full article.

Stretching, massage and other time wasters

OK, I'm being a bit difficult here but there's actually little to be said for stretching and massage, at least in the context of fit, well adjusted bodies playing sport. Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor of anything, medical or otherwise, but I ride and I have an opinion based on both practice and research. Let's start with stretching.

Unless you have a lack of flexibility, relative to the range of motion required, what are you trying to achieve by stretching? A warm-up? Why not just ride easily and gradually bring yourself up to speed? In this way you warm up exactly the muscles you need to engage in the activity. Why indeed would you stretch cold muscles and tendons, and thus risk injury? Or perhaps you want to cool down. It seems odd that an activity that is used to 'warm-up' is also used to cool down. In fact why not just ride slower and gradually bring yourself to a cooler state?

If you do have a lack of flexibility then sure, work on what the problem may be with targeted stretches. get advice from a physio on exactly what to do and help to avoid injury.

Which brings me to massage. OK, the pros do it so it must be good. Well maybe it is but where's the evidence? Go on, take a look at the literature. It certainly doesn't seem to hurt, but at best it simply feels good and may act to help convince you that it is good; and thus convinced you may ride better next time. So it's in the mind, not the body. And plenty of riders do swear that they feel better after a massage, so it works for them. But physiologically the effects are so minimal as to be... non-existent. Or not measurable. When you think about it, why would a trained athlete not have an efficient circulatory system? Why would toxins and other waste-products from exercise not be pumped away swiftly from major working muscles like those in the legs? Why would waste linger longer in an athlete, somehow pooling in key areas of great vascular development? Now a non-athlete with fluid retention or some other circulatory problem I could understand, but a highly-trained sports person? I'm open to the evidence, I just haven't seen any that convinces.

ibike crit overview - with pics

Yeah, ok, it's D-grade but every race is as hard as you make it, or as hard as that guy who should go up a grade makes it, anyway. So here are some pics to show you what the new ibike2 software is like... Straight below is an overview of the new data display. You get a detailed data summary on the top left, now including some aero values you can plug into other software for comparison, or to take away and tweak. You also get a useful tool for analysing the data, setting barometric pressure and adjusting your 'coast-down' values post-ride. So you can load old rides and update the ibike values, for example, if you have adjusted 'em. It gives you more control over the results. The blue area is the crit last week. The rest is pre-race warmup and post-race cool-down. Top-most graph is power in Watts. Next is speed, then elevation and last of all slope. You can see from elevation that there's a hill each lap... and you can move the cursor to any point and get power, speed and elevation data at that point.
And this is the power peak in close up. Along the bottom of the display you see the data on the cursor: 752W, 35.9kmh, 3.8% slope. If you run those numbers through your calculator (plus weight, temp, barometer, elevation, headwind, all available from the ibike) you'll verify that's pretty darn close. The only real problem is when you hit the 'go' button too hard on a climb and lift the front wheel. You can easily turn 3.8 degrees into 4.5, or more, and get a huge - and inaccurate - power reading. But you can fix that any number of ways, too. Especially if you ride the same hill a few times and know the slope doesn't exceed 4.5%, for example.
Last for today - this is a closeup on the velocity peak. Speed maxed out in the sprint at a lowly 49.1km/h, best so far being over 55kmh, but it was into a headwind this time, and I managed to pick the wrong wheel to follow, too. So I ended up in front too early. Still, you can see the power peak on the hill just prior to the downhill sprint - basically where the last attack went. We continued at good speed until the 90 degree left turn but power is down because I'm on a wheel and we are dropping elevation. Someone starts the sprint, I chase, catch and get marooned. Ooops. You can see the sprint power is 529W and the wind has increased markedly after the left-turn.

True, it doesn't tell you anything that you couldn't have worked out anyway, but it puts it right in your face -up in lights. 3 races documented so far and I know how critical that hill is - it's where most attacks start, especially on the last lap. I can see exactly what power I need to generate to match those attacks, and I can see how important it is to stay calm, hang onto a wheel and don't go too early in the sprint, especially if it's windy! And I can take this data away, find a similar hill and practice putting out 700W+ intervals. I could tailor a 'crit simulation' session around this data and see what works. I may find that those steep, medium-power intervals don't help me in crits and that I need to do more snappy, higher power efforts over shorter distances. And so on.

You can do it by feel, or you can buy a power meter and 'prove' your theories. It's up to you.

Worked hard for a tough 2nd place

Yeah, right. A tough D-grade crit. Riiiight. Well after 2x 1st places in a row I was hungry for a 2nd place this time and did a lot more work at the front. And this time I'll show you the pictures. If you are using Firefox this will work fine, but MS Internet Explorer usually goes haywire and wrecks my layout. Well I use Firefox and I don't care.Firstly, my spreadsheet view of the race data. Basically I took the ibike data from the .csv file and poured it into my own spreadsheet. It gives me max power, average power, mean, average minus zeros, average in power bands, max watts/kilogram, VAM, average and max speed, average and max inclination... I think you get the picture. The normalisation is my own formula (changed once again - it's an evolving beast).

OK, yes, 31.1kmh is a slow average. There was headwind down the short straight and a 4.5% hill each 2km lap, though. It was the slowest of my 3 'comeback' races, but I did more work, too. Average was 155W but if you discount the zeroes (ie drafting, coasting) it was 170W. If you believe in my new normalisation formula it was 234, a dubious measure but the highest race figure so far (at least I can agree with that, it felt like the biggest effort).

The sprint was again in 2 parts: the attack up the hill was the Wattage peak, followed by a slowish downhill sprint into a headwind. I lacked punch and when I caught the breeze I stagnated... but held onto 2nd, anyway.

Riders who also run

I'm not sure why, but plenty of riders are turning to running, especially after retirement from pro cycling. Is it a fear of incipient osteoporosis? The lure of a new challenge? Less time-consuming? Or is running just easier? (I doubt the latter.) Anyway, here are some more... starting with Rabo's Michael Boogerd:Meanwhile, he is still staying athletically involved. He plans to run the Rotterdam marathon on April 13, as preparation for the RopaRun, a three day event from Paris to Rotterdam which raises money for charity. "It is for a good cause, and now that I have stopped racing I still need do something to keep my condition on a good level," Boogerd said. "I now try to run an hour each day. It does me good. Later this year, I want to run the New York marathon." His training partner is Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel, who ran the New York marathon in 2007. "I asked him and Michael was enthusiastic," she said. "After my cycling career, I found running to be a new sport where I feel good. I think that running will also be good for Michael."

And Armstrong, of course: Lance Armstrong will continue his post-retirement marathon career by competing in the Boston Marathon on April 21, the race organisers announced Thursday. Armstrong qualified after finishing the New York City Marathon in 2007, bettering his previous year's effort with a finishing time of two hours 46 minutes and 43 seconds. The seven time Tour de France champion was well under the Boston Marathon's qualifying time for his 35-to-39 age group of three hours 15 minutes.

Yeah OK, another win

I managed to win the local crit again - yes folks, D-grade. Well I had to work at it! I had to avoid falling (one rider down as a faster grade caught us on a corner - nasty!) and I had to watch for breaks (just one semi-serious attempt, easily caught). And I had to patiently wait for the impetuous youngster to start the sprint.

More importantly it gave me more race data. So I can confirm that last week's 1400W burst was indeed an error on the ibike's part, as expected. I'll show you the data later but every lap we went over a small hill, and each lap the hill got steeper. Or so the ibike thought. When 'corrected' it's still a 900W effort (bridging a last-lap gap). This week's data is much more consistent and the peak power a more miserly 800W. I was careful not to expend too much energy in short bursts, rather I anticipated accelerations and smoothly bridged. Each lap the hill registered between 300 and 5ooW effort and 42% of the race was above 200W. If you trust the ibike, of course!

It's a slightly downhill sprint so although I briefly hit 55kmh the power was just on 600W.

I have upgraded to ibike firware v1.16. I always reset after a ride and do a re-tilt when changing bikes. I have a battery of coast-down data to tap into a well. It's not perfect, it certainly goes awry when the barometer is moving around, and if you lift the bars or otherwise drastically alter your weight distribution during a ride then it can generate some flaky figures... but it works well enough to be a great tool for the data junkie on a budget.

the race data, of course

A win is nothing without data, eh?

OK, D-grade crits at the CCCC are short - 30mins plus a lap (another 2km, so about 16-17km). We start with the "D1" kids and drop 'em off after 2 or 3 laps, so we start slow, slow but then speed up. It was 32 degrees Celsius off the tar at 6pm - hot. And the wind was 30kmh from the NE. I was on the Felt F-50.

I dump my ibike data into a spreadsheet, so it comes out like this:

MAX power	1447W
MEDIAN	68.5W
AV (all)	104W

AVERAGE (>0W)

151W

TRIMMEAN (10%)

88W

Normalised

296W

Max power is peak power. With the ibike it's susceptible to lifting wheels, and the combination of pulling up on the bars on an 8% hill during a max effort bridge to the attacker probably distorted the real power... so let's say it was 1,000W anyway, if not 1,400.

The all-up average treats coasting as part of the race, hence Av (all) is just 104W but (Average (>0W) removes all zeroes... which is more 'real'. 151W still sounds low - but we did start slow!!

That's my own normalisation formula, by the way, and definitely a WIP. As a relative measure it gives me a way to judge between efforts. It emphasises the middle over the high-end of the power output range and tries to indicate real effort - all soft-pedalling or coasting is removed and we are looking at just the real "training" load, but I haven't yet perfected a way to recognise effort over time... so short rides are favoured over long ones. I'm working on it.

600-700W	0.15%
500-600W	0.46%
400-500W	2.49%
300-400W	7.02%
200-300W	12.57%
100-200W	32.88%
0-100W	43.51%

This breaks-down the power into steps. I can see that 43% of my race was coasting or drafting (0-100W). When training I seek to minimise this figure, to actively eliminate those slack periods, In a race I take full advantage of these "rests".

You can also see that there were only a few 600W+ efforts, and the 300 and 400W steps represent the once-per-lap climbs. Knowing all of this allows me to finetune my training to meet my race needs, although C-grade may well be more "attacking" and both the averages and the peaks will be higher (and more frequent in terms of peaks).

695	VAM (max)/hr
10.5	Slope % (max)
-0.44	Slope % (average)
32	ALTITUDE (max)
50.53	VELOCITY (max)
25.0	VELOCITY (average)

The VAM is useless - not enough hills! But the 50.53kmh peak velocity in the sprint in useful. The 25kmh average is misleading as it covers 20km - warm-up, race and cool-down. The race itself averaged 32kmh (slow, I know, don't rub it in).

A win is a win is a win...

Yes folks, after 250,000km over about 35 years of riding, at 50 years of age and after suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune I actually chalked up another win. Trust me, a win in a D-grade crit is as good as A-grade when you are 50 and only manage 100km road kilometres in a good week!

It's also nice to explain how and why. Firstly, I haven't been well or consistent in my recent training so...

1. I took it easy
2. I warmed up
   
3. I made sure I gritted my teeth only when absolutely necessary
4. When ready I had a few digs to see how my body would react (and see how the others were going)
5. I found I could manage 350-400W up the short climb once every 2km lap and recover in time for the 36-40kmh slight 1km climb, even when leading the bunch
6. However I was hitting 175-180bpm and feeling stretched (192pbm is my upper limit)
   
7. So I took every breather I could
8. But I let no-one get away
9. I stayed up front (easy after the first third of the race as we were down to just 4 in the lead bunch)
10. I was vigilant
11. I anticipated attacks up the long straight and the final, crucial attack up the steepest part of the last hill
12. I used 1400W (probably lifted the front wheel - let's say 1,000W) in one burst on the 8% hill to get on the right wheel
13. I stayed on that wheel and they (thanks Arron) towed me over the top and down to the finish straight
14. I waited and waited and then crept over my lead out just before the line (500W into a headwind but down a 4% hill)
    
15. And threw the bike to pass him for the win - just.

If I could sum it up, applicable in all grades - don't get dropped, save your energy for when it matters, get on the right wheel and come off the wheel at the right time. Easy, eh?

Whitewashed at Cronulla

I must keep a tally of these fortunate riders who win their final pro races to end their careers on a fairytale high. It's very un-Australian to do it, though. Real Aussies make a duck in their last innings, like Bradman. Anyway, Whitey's done it and I missed it 'cause I had a commitment to my almost-9 year old daughter and her latest ballet performance. Such is life (another Aussie tradition, look it up.)

But my non-attendance won't stop me saying 'well done'. I've never knowingly raced or ridden with Matt White (maybe I was at the back of a training bunch once or twice) but he's been part of the local scenery for yonks. Whilst I'm impressed with Matt's career and his final win I do have to say it amuses me to see riders take out these heart-stopping finales. I always think of the tour-Tour crits and the shenanigans that go on to please the crowd (what, you mean they aren't for real?). And interestingly this was not just Matt's last win as a pro, he's also very much a local to the district. So it's a win all round. A good news story when cycling's got some much-needed but rare local commercial TV coverage. But whatever really went on during that final breakaway, the trick here is to look real. And to me, from what I did see, it was convincing.

From Cyclingnews.com: Australian Matt White (Discovery Channel) has ended his professional career on the highest of notes, taking victory at the Cronulla International Grand Prix an event staged in Sydney's Sutherland Shire, home to White and many other professional cyclists. The victory on his home's shores served to bookend White's career. The 33 year-old claimed his first major win at the Under 17 Road Team Time Trial component of the 1990 Australian Titles in Western Australia.

Peter Milostic snatches Peter McDonald's ATTA NSW record

Worth posting in full, this is a significant local TT record for Sydney and Central Coast riders... from the Impact Cycling forum: Peter Milostic snatches Peter McDonald’s ATTA NSW record On the first Sunday of every month, ATTA NSW conducts Time Trials at the famous Calga circuit. On the 4th of November Peter Milostic turned up to attack Peter McDonald’s impressive sub 1 hour record for the undulating 43km course. Unfortunately the gods of time trialing did not smile on the Penrith rider as he punctured in the last 5km and limped in with a notably impressive time of 1hour 1min and 33 seconds. One month later on the first Sunday of December Milostic returned, determined to crack the seemingly unbreakable record. This time he left nothing to chance bringing his wife with spare wheels, spare bike and his coach Mick Chapman, with laptop and lactate testing kits. Peter signed on as number 58 giving him over an hour of warm up which he did on the rollers. Many of the ATTA regulars heads were turning as the high pitched whirr of yet another of Peter’s intensive intervals echoed over the otherwise relaxed start area. For many years (2003- 2007) the ATTA 43km record has been the domain of three Sydney riders Adam Conquest (Randwick Botany CC), David Rae (Marconi CC) and Tom Brooks (Parramatta CC). The trio regularly upped each other, collecting the ATTA $100 prize for any new record. That was until May 2007 when Peter McDonald (FRF NSWIS) turned up to Calga fresh off an impressive ride in the Canberra tour where he came 2nd in the TT and wore the leader’s jersey for one day. Peter smashed Adam Conquest’s record time of 1hr 02 min 11 sec by 2 minutes 17 seconds setting the seemingly unbreakable time of 59:54. Milostic started his mission at 8:58am under a patchy sky with a slight North /Easterly and an ambient temperature of 20 degrees. He was almost poetic on his outward journey powering over every climb in his aerodynamic time trial position. He hit the Somersby turnaround in an amazing sub 29 minute time, which was significantly faster than McDonald’s record time. The plan started to go pear shaped towards the end of his return trip and he was spotted struggling over the notorious Blood Hill however, once over the killer climb, Milostic recomposed himself quickly and powered home to stop the clock at 59 minutes and 34 seconds. The presentation of the ATTA record trophy and $100 cash was conducted by Chris Greeves in front of gob smacked ATTA riders who applauded loudly for the new champion. Within moments of Peter crossing the line an ATTA official was SMS’ing Peter McDonald to inform him of his broken record. In a post presentation interview Milostic expressed his pleasure of beating the record and his intentions of using the event for the coming months to gauge his performance. He was excited at the prospect of a duel between him and McDonald in lowering this prestigious record. December was also the first week of the new “Personal Best (PB) ride Scheme” whereby after a rider establishes 2 rides on the same course, any rider who betters their PB will be rewarded with a free entry for the next calendar event. Results have been kept on a data base for every event since mid 2005. You can find out your PB at the ATTA NSW start line. ATTA NSW conducts Time Trials on the first Sunday of each month rain,hail or shine. http://www.atta.asn.au/