davefoley.com - bike racing
Ok, this is ancient and needs to be updated, badly...
Bicycle road racing is alive and well in New England, and once again I am a part of it. I did not do any USCF open races between 1998 and 2003. In 2004, I got my feet wet again and reaquainted my self with the faces in the Master 35 peloton. I didn't turn 35 until 1996, so I never really raced competitively in this group, as I was already backing way off at that time. I got in the money a few times in 1997, but I was not fit and only raced a very limited schedule. This year (2005) my racing age is 44, so it is my last year in this group. The good news is that while I was away, the 45+ group has grown to be perhaps the largest field at local races, so I have a lot to look forward to next year.
There are guys in the 35+ now who have known since they were juniors. Yikes! Back then the 35+ field was known as the "Vets" the 45+ group as "Masters" and the then tiny 55+ group got the distinguished "Grand Masters" label. In the early 90's, New England racing was controlled by our new USCF District Rep Tom Vinson. Tom had replaced Charlie Smith when Charlie decided he had had enough. Charlie was a real rider's rep, very friendly and approachable. Tom on the other hand seemed to enjoy his authority, and was a walking, talking rulebook. In those days, the district rep was in charge of upgrading riders, and Tom did not upgrade too many, especially from 3 to 2. The result was that after a few years of his tenure, cat 3 fields would fill so early that you had to pre-register 3 weeks before the event just to get in. Rare was the Caat 3 race with less than a 100 rider field.
The problem with this was that most races were not long enough or hard enough to break up the field. This problem existed throughout American racing, but I think it was probably worse in New England than most places. It is fine to start 175 riders in the Tour of Flanders, as the race is so hard that you will never see more than a quarter of them coming to the finish line at once. Of course, this didn't happen in our races, and everything always came down to a field sprint. The same riders always won the sprints, and there were very few upgrades. Many of the field sprinters who did move up found that while they may have been fast, they were not strong enough to hang with the 2's, and soon downgraded back. The numbers in the Pro 1-2 field subsequently dwindled, and to this day the fields in the top category at local races never fill up.
In the midst of this, me and my non-existent sprint looked longingly at the Veteran's field, with its manageable field sizes, strong teams, and tactical racing. It sure would be great to get in a race with a field size that was appropriate for the difficulty of the race.
Fast forward to 2005 though, and the 3's have all grown up. The Master's fields are now the perfect size, with 60-80 riders even in the 45+ most weeks. Ironically, there is now such a dearth of Cat 3's that most promoters combine them with the 4's. Yet junior racing gets more attention than the 3's. I will never understand this. The USCF should represent the majority of its members, not the fringe groups. Stop pretending to be something that you are not. Promote the sport as it IS, not how you dream of it being. If the feds would just support all the clubs and promoters, and provide real assistance with race promotion, then everything else would take care of itself. More good races = more people being exposed to the sport = more talent entering bike races = no need to spend millions trying to find the next Greg LeMond.
Other ramblings on bike racing:
Equipment - WTF? I am amazed at the array of equipment that is not only available, but popular. I am not even sure what a bike has to cost to be top of the line anymore. One of the big catalog-whorehouses has a two-page spread of handlebars, and there are several models costing over $150. The matching stems for these carbon creations run almost the same amount. This is alarming to me. Why $150 handlebars? They're lighter! OK, now from what I see, the heaviest bars on the market weigh around 350 grams. Three hundred fifty grams. The bars I have cost around $35 and have lasted quite a while. So if I dig deep and spend $200 for the lightest bars on the market, I will reduce the weight of my rig by about the same amount as I would if I stopped to take a piss. Hmmmmm.
Coaching - Several years ago I read that we would know that bicycle racing had arrived as more than a fringe sport when there were cycling coaches found in the yellow pages. Well, we don't use the yellow pages much anymore, but a quick search of their replacement, the internet, reveals that there is no shortage of cycling coaches anymore. It is hard to tell how many of them are actually making a living, and I doubt very much that their number is anywhere near that of golf or tennis pros, but there surely are a lot more coaches then there were 15 years ago.
So do you need a coach? Ask yourself, what for? To tell you that you don't train enough? Or to tell you that if you trained 25 hours a week, like a pro, you could win Masters races? Wow, I did not know that. The going rate for internet coaching seems to be between $50 and $200 a month. Maybe I am cynical (OK, I am), but for that kind of money, you could get a massage (or two or three), or even better, work less and train more. Now, if your coach is really knowledgeable, and he/she gives you personal attention, and maybe even helps you work out a training plan that fits the reality you live in, well it might not be so bad. Certainly a better deal than $200 handlebars. I can hear you now though, saying "But Dave, I have more money than I know what to do with, and with a coach, I get the motivation to go out and train." Ok, forget I said anything; my sense tells me that you picked the wrong sport anyway.
Now before all the coaches in the audience form an angry mob and storm my castle, let me give you all a big hug and say that I respect what you are doing, and I don't want to put you out of business. The marketplace has a way of taking care of these things in the long run anyway. If you provide value, real or perceived, to your clients, and operate as a respectable business, then you will do fine, no matter what drivel appears here. If you are just taking a Cat I training program out of some book and selling it to unsuspecting Masters, along with advice to buy a Power Meter, then good luck to you. Which brings us to the next big topic in cycling...
The Power Meter - In the 20 years that I have been riding a bike, nothing has created as much hype and excitment about training as the advent of the power meter. In case you haven't heard, training without one of these $1000 gems is a complete waste of time. In fact, every cyclist who has come before us, even Eddy Mercxx, had it all wrong. "Ride lots." OK Chumley, good luck to you. There is only one thing that you need to know about power meters - YOU NEED ONE! How else is your coach going to know what you really did for training? The way you feel has nothing to do with the way you really feel, and the human brain is no match for an uncalibrated load cell and a couple of microchips. If your Central Nervous System can be trusted, then why is it so nervous? How do you know that it is not a freedom-hating terrorist? You don't, do you?
There is really only one choice. After buying a completely carbon/unobtanium racing bike to go under you overweight ass, if you have any cash left, run out and score one of these two pound setups, bolt it on, and make sure you never train without it. Watts and data are all that matter!
Training and Racing in Southeastern Massachusetts.
Other
Dave's TT times Various events over the years. No Power Meter data though...
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