3/15/06 Finally, I have a bike. Its been a miserable few weeks without having a bike at all. Fortunately the gym membership came in handy. I was surprised at how much I was used to having a bike around. It was part of my daily routine and not having it around made me a bit irritable. I lucked out and got a brand new crash replacement frame for less than I bought the used back up frame. It was actually in the color I wanted too. This upcoming weekend is the WDCC training camp, I'll be attending for friday, sat, and sun. We'll be doing a lot of riding. On friday, it'll be the east bay hills ( redwood road, pinehurst, orinda and then out to livermore ), Saturday will be the pescadero recon ride. We'll have Matt McNamara of Sterling sports with us to coach us through the course. Sunday its out to the TT course in San Jose and then to the Velodrome. Larry Nolan will be with us at the track. Looking forward to it! Stay tuned!
3/1/06 Man, what is this? Bad Karma or something? The snelling road race was my first race of the season- Here is my race report: I was happy to be back racing after being out of if for so long. My fitness level wasn't where I thought it should be because of my bike equipment problems, but I was nevertheless happy to be back into the swing of things.
I left roseville at 430am ( yawn ) and made the trip out to snelling. I arrived to snelling at around 645 am and the parking lot was empty. Great, I was to have plenty of time to get ready and get my number. I was surprised at how fast the parking lot filled up-it was full at just after 7am.
I was able to get a quick warm up on the trainer to loosen up the legs and I found Rob and Kurt had parked just across from me. It looked to be a good group for the 5''s.
I think we were delayed, but I got to the start early and it was really really cold. I was shivering-my legs and arms would not stop shaking. Paul and a friend from Oregon found me and we chatted a bit. Paul was unsure about strategy as both of us were unsure about our fitness levels. We agreed to see how we felt going into the last lap.
Our field was full at 100 and I noticed a lot of sketchy riding right off the bat. We had a couple of bump-and-grind-near-collisions and a lot of yelling-"Hold your line". I was content to ride at the back for the first couple of laps. I could see that Webcor had a large number and knew that they would be going for a leadout for one of their teammates. I knew one of the webcor guys, he was deaf and was telling me bluntly what their plan was-it was to lead out some guy named Dave and his job was to block at the front and help set the pace. So the first few laps were pretty much uneventful. I was feeling pretty good and was surprised that I didn't need more water from the feedzone. I thought the feedzone was a bit of a joke, It is near impossible to grab a bottle going 25+mph and saw a lot of missed attempts at grabbing bottles.
Going into the 4th lap I made my way to the front and was planning to try and stay there for the remainder of the race. I knew it was especially important to be at the front for the bridge just before the two large rollers. I positioned myself at about 10th wheel, which is perfect for me since I knew I wasn't going to have to do anywork. Onto the flat section just before the feedzone, the bunch was strung out in single file, I could tell that the pace was picking up and position was important now. Webcor was also massing at the front and I was keeping my eye on those folks. We had a near collision in the bunch when the deaf webcor guy, Rory, locked handlebars with some other guy and they almost went down. A good recovery though, but I knew that I had to really watch out now because people are really getting antsy and riding a bit out of control. Going into the last lap, I'm feeling good and holding my position. I take a quick peek around the group and it looks like maybe there are 60 of us left. I don't see Paul and so it looks like I'm the only one. My plan was just to hide behind a webcor train and see if I could muscle my way out. That plan went out the window pretty quickly. On the rough section just before the 1km sign i'm behind utter choas. Two or was it three guys--they just bumped and locked handlebars right in front of me, they do down and i've got nowhere to go-I'm already on the left side of the road-I go down with them. Immediately I'm thinking this is bad because I can't feel my legs. A few seconds later, I realize its just my legs cramping up. I couldn't even control them, all my muscles just contracted. Its a small pilup actually, just four of us. Two are able to ride away. Myself and the other guy we didnt' fare too well. He got a bloody face and was pretty torn up on the arms and legs. I was fine physically but my bike was another story. I don't know how it happened but it seemd that the person behind me ran over my bike in the back. My rear wheel is tacoed and the seatstay is bent. My favorite handlebars snapped in two. It was unbelievable. I couldn't fathom how this could have happend just one week after I got this frame to replace the other one which is still at Giant. That's racing!
Today, I went into city bicycle works to see Gordon and he was nice enough to tear off the cranks and fork from my frame. We're going to see if Specialized has a crash replacement ( or if there is anything they can do--Thanks Gordon!!! ) While there, I bumped into a city bicycle works rider who raced at snelling in my category. He was telling me that there was a break in the middle of the race when the masters passed us. Apparently 8 to 10 guys snuck off on the back ( or middle ) of the masters group. I had no idea. I dont think the others in the bunch knew either. So even if I was at the top 15 like I was, I would have been 25th+.
A bit of a setback, but I'll be back once this equipment issues are taken care of. Excellent job by our cat 5 group. There's a lot of good pictures on our squad at www.ronaldmariano.com
2/17/06 Finally, I get around to posting here. A lot has happened since I last posted. I have changed teams from FFBC to CyclingTraining.com/Arpt. This is a local team here in the Sacramento area, and I have just started to ride with them. They're a bunch of great people and I think I'm going to have a good season riding with them. Heading them is Dirk Manley. He is also the coach for the team. My training didn't really start well. After buying my house in December, I was yo-yoing with training off and on each week. It was really frustrating trying to get into a routine and stay on my training plan. I really do think things happen in three's. First off, my transmission went kaput in my car, and rather than replace the car's transmission, I have decided to donate the POS. Next off, while arriving to my destination for the start of my training ride, I realize I have forgotten my cycling shoes. #$%^&$!!! I drive all the way back home and I decide to do a quick ride around my neighborhood. I should have seen the writing on the wall. It was not to be my day. Less than a mile from my home, I hear this awful noise. I look down and my rear derallieur is hanging down and going into my spokes and slapping down on the seat stay. A trip to the bike store revealed a couple of bent spokes, bent jockey wheels in the derallieur, snapped der.hanger and later a cracked seat stay. This is a carbon fiber seat stay mind you, something that renders it pretty much unridable. Great. While trying to figure out what to do with this sitatuation--I am without bike now--my house catches on fire. I didn't see the fire. It happened inside the walls. I could smell the smoke and I go outside and call 911, and would you believe it, I get put on hold-for a minute! So the fire trucks came, 3 of them! They hack down the wall behind my washer and dryer and find that it was a small electrical fire. It went out by itself. Ugh, what a month I have had. Things are moving along though now. I got the wiring fixed and the wall fixed at no cost. I sold my CX bike and got a Specialized S-works Aluminum ( no carbon here ) for my back up bike. Lastly, I have gotten a replacement vehicle. I have not ridden in a few days, and I am starting to feel irritable. Hopefully this Saturday I'll get my bike together and i'll be back to a stable life! No more horrible fires, cracked carbon fiber and POS transmissions!
A big thanks goes out to Bicycle Planet in Folsom for getting my bikes together. They're awesome over there, Matt and Keith.
Look for some new race reports soon. I have registered for the Snelling Road Race on Sat Feb 25th. It'll be interesting to see how my non-fitness fares. Also, have registered for the NRC-McLane Pacific Road Race. This is a big one.
11/28/05 It looks to me that I usually update this site once a month. Its been super busy in the last month-I just bought a house and going through escrow and all that. Whew, its a lot more work than I thought. I have a great agent though. I'm working with David McCoy who has been awesome to work with. If you ever need an agent this is the guy to see. He works with both the bay area and northern california. After debating for a while, I finally got a new frame and fork. I have been wondering if the top tube in my current bike is too long. After riding my CX bike which is smaller, I decided I wanted to go down a size. I got the frame and boy, its really really light. I got the Giant TCR Advanced in a size small. A friend of mine was over and we weighed the frame and the fork. It tipped the scales at 920 grams for the frame and 290 grams for the fork!! Its just amazing how much lighter my bike will be once its built up. My frame right now is 1235 grams and another 400 or so for the fork. Looking forward to my new bike!
10/26/05 Its been way too long since I last updated. I was beginning to think if it's even worth it to have a website. I was motivated once again when I realized I was not training enough in the off season. Giving me something to write about in a weekly format might help me get back on the bike and get some of those valuable base miles for the upcoming season.
I have some archives from previous posts here if you would like to read a partial list of the races I did last season.
I was really pleased about my performance in the last part of the season. I was finally able to get some good results and my form and fitness were really good. I tweaked my training plan to ride a bit less, but with more intensity. That seemed to do the trick, I was more fresh and ready mentally for the races. Starting with getting a 5th place finish at the San Ardo Road Race-I ended up capping off the season with my first win of the year at the world cycling deaf tryouts in livermore. I have some pictures of that even HERE. Check them out!!
