#ciclowerks

2018 Mohican 100

Ana-Maria Bogatan and Joanne Beattie competed in the Mohican 100 this past weekend in Loudonville, Ohio.  Ana-Maria had a great race, managing to keep things rubber-side down despite the slippery and muddy conditions.  Ana-Maria completed the 100 KM course with over 2,000 meters of climbing, in 8 hours and 20 minutes.

Joanne Beattie was very excited to earn a position on the podium.  She finished in second place in the 100 Mile Women’s Open race after over 3,000 meters of climbing and 10 hours and 13 minutes in the saddle!

The race began with a slow, neutral mass start through downtown Loudonville, with six hundred racers being funneled from a 2-lane wide peloton to a single lane, in order to pass through bridge construction.  From there, the group started to spread out throughout the first 7.5km of hilly road climbs before being constricted again when the course turned into a steep single-track climb.  This was the start of a continuous 25 kilometers of flowing, narrow trails through the Mohican Forest, with the pace being limited by the long train of riders ahead.  Joanne rode straight through Aid Station 1 at the 33km mark, in order to get ahead of the large group that had been limiting her speed in the first section of the race and to create a gap between herself and 2 other female competitors that were close behind.  From there, she was able to start passing riders in the single-track as there were larger gaps between them, enabling her to pick up the pace, making the next section of single track more fun to ride.

The rest of the course had a mix of challenges including a steep downhill section with water bars across the trail, stream crossings, a suspension bridge, a hike-a-bike hill and thick, tire-sucking mud.

The level of volunteer support at each of the Aid Stations was very impressive.  Drop bags were allowed at 2 of the Aid Stations where volunteers radioed in race numbers as riders went by.  A volunteer was waiting at the aid station with riders drop bags in hand, ready to help with anything from filling water bottles to lubricating chains.  Fellow riders on the course were also generally quite courteous and willing to offer assistance.

Angela Wins a Leadville Qualifier!

Steve Bauer Classic O-Cup

Since I had missed the last couple road O-Cup races, I was determined to try to get some upgrade points at the Steve Bauer classic.  I had ridden the course a couple times before and had discussed strategy with a few local Group1 guys. The M2 race would complete six 12.5km laps. Since the race ended with a 2k climb on Effingham Road that maxed out at 20% grade, I felt like my best shot at a good result would be to be off the front of the race for a couple laps before the finish. That would allow me to climb at my own (relatively reasonable, a.k.a. “slow”) pace and build my gap on the flats. I had done a few hard TT efforts during training rides in the past couple weeks, so I was hoping that I could survive off the front of the M2 field for part of the race.

So my plan for the race was to sit in and use as little energy as possible until it was time to get up the road. My goal was to attack the field on the flat section of the course in the crosswind with either 1.5 (18k) or 2.5 (30k) laps left in the race. The race started fine with a nice easy downhill. Midweek had the biggest team in the race, with 4 or 5 racers, and one of their riders (Richard Westwood) rolled off the front after only a couple kms. I remember saying to another racer that anyone that attacks this early won’t make it, but the rest of the Midweek team did a good job shutting down any chases over the next couple kms. The gap ended up stretching out and was likely around 20 or 30 seconds after 4 or 5 km. I wasn’t planning on trying anything this early in the race, but since I didn’t have any teammates in the race, I felt that if I got up the road with the Midweek rider, I would by default gain four Midweek teammates that would help make sure that the break stuck. So approx. 5k into the race, I rolled up near the front in the crosswind and attacked (looking back, it’s funny how I changed my perspective from “the break is doomed” to “I want to be in this break” in only 2 or 3 km of riding). No one from the M2 field made a serious effort to follow me, so I quickly bridged across the gap to the leading rider.  I rolled up next to Richard and asked him how he was feeling – he replied “good”, so I asked him if he was ‘ready for this’ and he replied “yes”. I liked both of those answers. He asked me how I felt and I told him that “I wanted to rip this race apart”. So with 70k left to race, we were off in a two-person break.

We worked well together, taking relatively even pulls. We worked hard for the first couple laps to extend the gap out to about 90 seconds, then settled into our rhythm. I tried to keep our pace in the low 40s on the flats and take it easy up the climb on Effingham (headwind). I knew that past M2 races only averaged around 37 km/h, so we were riding a reasonable pace. My goal was to keep my average power around 300W, since I felt I could hold that for 2 hours. The laps seemed to tick off without much excitement. We were out of sight of the rest of the M2 field, so it felt more like a steady training ride than a race most of the time. I got a few rough time splits from Phil Sheffield and Rob Daniels at the start/finish and we were holding our gap fairly steady between 1:00 and 1:40, although I found it VERY frustrating that over the course of the race we didn’t get any splits from the race officials. As each lap was finished, I felt more and more confident that we would survive.

With one lap remaining, a rider from Tecky Kids (Chris Herten) bridged across to us at the top of the Effingham climb. He definitely looked to have more energy than Richard and I, since we had almost 60k of break riding in our legs at that point, but I felt like the new energy could help us to the finish. I spent less time on the front on the last lap, but I was still trying to hold my pulls between 300 and 320W. I didn’t want us to get caught so close to the finish (this has happened to me several times). Once we swung onto Effingham for the last time, I lead up the first couple rollers, then Chris came through to take over pulling.  This was good for me, since Effingham Road was all headwind leading into the last steep pitch to the finish. With the pack completely out of sight, the podium would be decided among the three of us.

I felt that if I followed wheels up the climb, the best finish I could expect would be 2nd. I seemed stronger up the climbs than Richard (Midweek) while in the break, but with Chris (Tecky Kids) being relatively fresh, it seemed that the win would likely be his unless I changed the dynamics of the finish. It was worth losing 2nd to try to get 1st (what would Igor say if I didn’t try). I knew I couldn’t wait until the steep part of the climb since power-to-weight (never my friend) would be working against any attack I tried. So I attacked as hard as I could (sadly less than 1000W at this point in the race) at the base of the climb before it really ramped up. I had a small gap for maybe 20 seconds until it got really steep, when Chris rode past, with Richard drafting behind. I didn’t have the energy to jump on as they passed, so I checked behind me to confirm the pack was still out of sight, and I was resigned to 3rd.

It was quite the adventure being in a 70k break (in a 74k race), but the race generally worked out as I had planned. I was disappointed to be 3rd after the effort I put into the race, but if someone told me a week ago that I would get 3rd at THIS race, I would have been ecstatic, so I need to keep things in perspective. A podium in a race with this much climbing is (almost) as good as a win for me.

Final stats: avg. power for the 70k break - 302W, weighted average for the entire race 310W.

Trevor

Epic Performances at the Epic 8 Hour

The team had a great showing at the Spring Epic 8 Hour held at Mansfield last Saturday.  Plenty of podium finishes to fill the team treasure chest with some more precious medals!

In the 4 Person Open (Avg. 40s) category, Pedal Harder’s James Barker, Andrew Nicholas, Tom Kasprzyk along with Robert Conley took the silver medal.  They fought hard all day, completing 17 laps and ending with only a 3 minute gap behind the first place team.

Valerie Flower and her husband Dave Labancz also took silver in the 2 Person Mixed category.  They completed 15 laps of the approx. 9km course.

The biggest victory of the day goes to Angela Webster who was crowned Fastest Solo Woman!  Angela pedaled harder than the competition all day long, completing 14 laps in under 8 hours and taking the gold medal in the Solo Female category! Following closely behind was her teammate, Joanne Beattie, who hammered out 13 laps.  Special thanks goes to Curtis Webster and Shelly McKee for supporting Angela and Joanne throughout a hard days work in the saddle.

Steaming Nostril and Runny Nose

It was a tough day in the saddle for those that competed in Cycle Waterloo’s Steaming Nostril race this past weekend.

Trevor Beattie wasn’t planning to compete this year until he was “gently” persuaded by fellow team mate Igor Dragoslavic to work for him to try to bring Igor to the podium.  Things were going according to plan with Trevor and Igor in the same group of riders at the top of the gruelling climb out of St. Jacob’s. Trevor took long pulls to help Igor preserve his strength for the finish until Trevor got taken out by a rider that crashed in front of him on the GtoG rail trail.  Despite this unfortunate turn of events, Igor was still well poised to earn a medal in the male 50-59 category, and he would have, had he not mistaken the parking lot for the finish line!  Igor realized his error too late and was passed by the rider in pursuit. In the end, Igor finished 4th in his category, 2 seconds behind 3rd place.

The women were pedalling hard with both Shelly McKee and Joanne Beattie taking positions on the podium!  Shelly won her entry at the WCC Spring Social and decided to go for it! Shelly drew on her many previous years of experience, diligently preparing her body and soul for what the 44.6km Runny Nose course would dish out to her.  Using her Fat Bike as her weapon of choice, Shelly braved the wind and the tire-sucking mud in the farmer’s field earning 3rd place in the Female Fat Bike category.

Elgar Vaivars and Joanne Beattie lined up side-by-side at the start line.  Both riders were slowed down by a competitor that crashed in front of them as they passed under the start/finish banner.  This mishap did not hold Elgar back as he still managed a top ten finish in the 60-69 age category.

Joanne was pleased to catch the wheel of team mate Rolie Springall as he passed by on the way out of St. Jacob’s.  Rolie pulled Joanne up to the group ahead and worked to help bridge that group up to the next group up the road.  The pace surged and Joanne was not able to hold on, sadly spending the majority of the race working as a group of 1 or 2.  However, Joanne still finished strong, earning enough medals to share: 4th Place Female Overall, 3rd Place Masters Female and 2nd Place Female 40-49.