Bike the Bluff Race Report

Bike the Bluff Criterium

Event:	Bike the Bluff Omnium
Date(s):	June 15-16, 2013
Road Race:	59 miles, 2,200 ft elevation change [Strava segment]
Criterium:	30 minutes, 0.7 mile square [Strava segment]

It's a bit late, but recent El Tour race reports have encouraged me to post this.

Road Race

The pace was pretty light in the beginning, with some surges here and there on the rolling hills and some wind to deal with. I did well moving around in the group, able to close gaps and shift around to find good positions out of the wind. Scenery was great, weather was great, and I felt strong. There was one crash that happened behind me. It sounded pretty gnarly but I talked to the guy afterward and he was alright (just some cuts and road rash). About half way I was already into my second water bottle and was starting to feel a slight cramp in my calf. Hmm, not good. I had thought about taking a 3rd bottle in my jersey pocket but decided against it. Big mistake. With ~30 miles left I only had half a bottle left and a few hill surges later I had cramping in both calves. I pushed on and stayed with the group, fighting the cramps and hoping for the best. The plan was to try to create/join a break around the 50-mile mark (final climb to the finish) with a buddy but he was cramping too and I knew that there was a good chance my legs would seize up if I tried to go too hard. I moved up into 2nd position and held my position there for a mile or so, watching for any moves to jump on to (but sort of hoping no one would go). Then there came an aid station with guys holding out water bottles. Whew!

I moved over, grabbed a bottle, and in the process my legs started cramping bad -- enough so that I dropped back to ~15th place while trying to keep the legs moving and drinking some water. Other guys were in the same low-water situation as I so there were riders scrambling to grab bottles. In all that mess, about 10 guys had pushed forward hard on the climb and were getting some distance from the rest of us who were grabbing bottles. I stopped drinking and went after the front guys, my legs close to seizing up completely. I was able to grab the wheel of a guy and hung with him for a mile or so, getting some water in me and somewhat recovering from the effort to catch back on. The lead group of ~10 was still up ahead. The other guy and I traded pulls and worked hard to try to catch the front guys, but they were pulling away from us. Luckily though, we were pulling away from the rest of the field. We ended up catching a guy from the front group and then then 3 of us traded pulls. With 1 mile left I was starting to think about the final sprint and then one of the guys I was with went hard. It caught me off guard and a slight gap formed. I pushed hard to close the gap and my legs seizing up bad. Dang! I held on with them for the final turn, and even pushed in the sprint but my legs were so cramped up I couldn't put any power into the pedals and couldn't get past them at the line. 12th place. I was pretty bummed because I felt strong and know that I could have done better if I had taken more water. Interestingly, I was 1.5 minutes faster than the 1st place finisher last year... not that that means much though.

Map and Elevation profile for the BTB Road Race

Things I learned. The altitude in Show Low (roughly 6,500 feet) is high enough that dehydration is an issue. I tend to drink a lot of water throughout the day but I definitely needed more for this race. I needed to drink much more pre-race and I should have brought that third bottle in my jersey pocket. The first two-thirds of this race were pretty uneventful -- the action happened on the final climb to the finish (last 10 miles of the race). With wind being a factor it's unlikely early breaks will be successful, so the early part of this race is mostly just about sitting in and conserving energy. When the final climb starts, it's time to set a strong climbing pace (based on known personal power curve values) and hope to get away from the main field. The final couple miles are relatively flat. If solo, a hard time-trial effort to the finish is needed. If in a group, conserving energy for the sprint becomes necessary.

Criterium

My legs were pretty upset with me. My plan at this point was to simply hold on and finish with the main field. At the start whistle, a guy took off right away and no one followed him. I saw the move and thought, "way too early, it's super windy" so I stayed with the pack. He developed about a 30 second gap and stayed there. The pace wasn't super fast, but there were a few times it picked up (for primes) and the field strung out a bit. There was a couple times where I was just barely holding on. I moved around in the pack well and again did a good job of staying out of the wind. At some point the group split and I was able to stay in the front group. Amazingly, the guy that attacked at the start stayed away solo a half lap ahead of the field the entire race (finishing first). Turns out he was the same guy who got 1st place in the road race.

I wasn't feeling great but I wanted to do something. The wifey was watching and taking pictures near the start/finish so when I found myself in good position, the pack was somewhat lazy, and I had a nice opening I went for it. There were 3 laps to go at that point and I pretty much knew that the move wasn't going to stick but figured what the heck. I pushed hard through the start/finish area in a seated sprint and then went fast through corner 1, standing and sprinting hard out of the corner. I sat and pushed hard again, getting as aerodynamic as possible because it was into a strong headwind. I didn't know if anyone had gone with me or not, I was just focusing on putting 100% into the effort. I rounded turn 2, pushed really hard again and looked down under my armpit to see if anyone was with me. One guy went with and was directly on my wheel. Sweet! The wifey has video of part of this and you can hear the announcer say, "That was a quick way to close some time up right there but I do not think they're going to be able to close that gap." I wasn't really trying to reach the guy at the front, I was just trying to get/stay away from the pack.

It felt really good to escape the pack, even if it was just for a moment.

The start of my attack with 3 laps to go

I was pretty cooked at this point so as we came up to turn 3 I signaled for the guy who came with me to come around and take a pull. He did but as soon as I tucked in behind him I could tell he let up. I didn't have enough in the tank to go back around him yet, so I recovered for a minute and then heard the pack behind us. It was over before we even finished a lap. Bummer. I recovered and reintegrated into the group, trying to recover enough to have something left for the group sprint. In the final lap I tried to get in a good position but didn't have much left to move up sufficiently. My legs ached. I was in 7th spot coming into the final corner, couldn't get a good jump and got passed by the racer with the Fuji. 8th place. At least I wasn't cramping. I felt pretty good about my breakaway attempt and a couple guys said it was a strong attack -- that I had put a "hurt" on the rest of the pack. Of course, it put a major hurt on me too.

Things I learned. Pay closer attention to the strong riders. Know who placed well in the road race and watch them in the criterium. Mark guys who would benefit from a breakaway. When I attempted to break free of the pack with 3 laps to go I did so right before the corner turning into a headwind. With a headwind, the pack is at an advantage due to drafting, so it would have been better to attack during a crosswind or tailwind. I should have waited until after turn 2 to make my attack. Another good spot to attack would have been right after a prime (a sort of counter-attack).

I placed 6th overall in the Omnium, so that was pretty cool -- and I know I could have done better without the cramps. I'm very much looking forward to this race next year.

Cody, me, Ryan, and Evan

Strava Premium

If you are considering spending the $59 for one year of Strava premium membership, here is my personal list of reasons to do so.

Note: I am in no way affiliated with Strava, nor have I received any compensation for my opinions. I do, however (as a Premium member) stand to gain by any additional features that Strava may add via financial gains they derive from members I convince to upgrade.

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No Power Meter

If you do not have a power meter, here are the features that I think a cyclist will enjoy most with Premium membership:

Goals. There are two types of goals available: Weekly and Segment. For Weekly Goals, you can set a weekly distance goal (e.g. 150 miles per week) or a weekly time goal (e.g. 6 hours per week) -- but not both. If you achieve your weekly goal a notice is included on the ride that you achieved the goal on, similar to if you had achieved a PR or KOM. You also see a progress bar on your dashboard displaying how close you are to achieving your weekly goal. For Segment Goals, you select any segment you want (or you can create a new segment) and set a time goal for riding that segment (as well as a due date). When you set a segment goal, it notifies everyone who is following you and they are invited to join your goal (if they are Premium too). If you achieve your goal it is again mentioned on the ride like a PR or KOM. Strava will keep track of all your previous goals (whether accomplished or not).

26-minute Segment Goal for Molino Basin

My opinion. 2 / 5 -- I have the distance goal set but don't really pay much attention to it. I have set a couple segment goals (e.g. top of Mt. Lemmon in 2.5 hours), but it didn't really motivate me to go harder than I would have gone anyway. Obtaining a high ranking on the Leaderboard or achieving a Personal Record is sufficient enough motivation for me.

Suffer Score. If you have a heart rate monitor, you can set custom heart rate zones and obtain a value for how much you suffered on a ride. You can also view a chart dispaying how much time you spent in each of your heart rate zones. Additionally, you can sort all of your rides by their Suffer Score to see which ones you suffered most on. There have been some challenges in the past that awarded special prizes for individuals who had the highest Suffer Score on a ride done during the challenge (e.g. Oktoberfest).

My Suffer Score for a ride down to Sonoita

My Opinion. 3 / 5 -- If you don't have a power meter I could see how the Suffer Score could be used to assist in training in lieu of the appropriate value from a power meter: the Total Stress Score (TSS). Additionally, it does feel satisfying to return from a super hard ride and see a nice high Suffer Score with the word "Epic" displayed above it. I suppose one would be motivated to suffer more knowing that it will result in a higher score -- you just need to remember that rest days are important too.

Training Videos. The latest addition to Strava -- the ability to watch Sufferfest videos while training indoors. Currently there are three videos available, but only if you use a smart phone (Android or iPhone). Strava says that it will soon be available on the website, and more videos will be added. The videos that are currently available are:

1. Fight Club -- 58 min, Time Trial
2. Revolver -- 45 min, Speed
3. Rubber Glove -- 58 min, Fitness Test

Strava Sufferfest Training Videos

My Opinion. 2 / 5 -- I haven't used this yet, but will probably try it out. Essentially, you are getting some of the Sufferfest videos for free, but you will have to watch them on your phone (or, in the future, computer). I usually watch recorded stages from professional races or just listen to music when training indoors -- and the majority of my indoor training is Base training, so the Sufferfest videos will likely be completely worthless to me. If you train indoors often, or at least some during a Build period you may find them more useful. I suppose the Fitness Test may be nice, but I would put more stock in a test performed outdoors (like the 30 minute test) than one done indoors on a trainer.

Personal Heatmap. Originally provided by a third-party before Strava closed their API, the personal heatmap provides a map view of your rides with color representing quantity of rides on all the routes you've ridden. Blue indicates a route that you've ridden a couple times and red indicates routes ridden the most. Here is my heatmap from Strava Premium:

Personal Heatmap from Strava (with Premium membership)

My Opinion. 1 / 5 -- This was better before Strava took it over. You had the ability of changing line width, color, and transparency as well as date ranges, activity type, and map display (satellite or map with or without terrain). You can still access this (without Premium membership) with the Strava Multiple Ride Mapper. You'll need to click on "Connect with Strava." It is worth checking out and playing around with, but since it's free the heatmap is not a reason to upgrade to Premium. For comparison, here is my heatmap from the Strava Multiple Ride Mapper:

Strava Multiple Ride Mapper (free)

Filtered Leaderboards. Premium memberships provides the ability to filter leaderboards by age group or weight class. There are six age groups (<24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65+) and six weight classes (<124, 125-149, 150-164, 165-179, 180-199, 200+). You can view any group or class, but if you are not in it, your placing will not be displayed. Obviously, in order to be useful, you must enter your age and weight under your profile settings. The weight class is rider weight and does not include the bicycle weight.

Yes, I selfishly chose a KOM Segment to use for a screenshot

My Opinion. 1 / 5 -- For me, this is completely worthless. When looking at leaderboards I usually only care to see how much power others produced to obtain certain times. By the way, I only consider power values obtained via power meters (not from Strava's power equations, which rely on user-entered rider and bike weights). I suppose if you really want to see how you stack up against others in your age group and/or weight class, this feature is useful -- but I never use it. If Strava added a Race Category sort option, I would probably use that, but only out of curiosity and I wouldn't put much stock in the results. If you really want to know how you compare with other riders, pin a number on your jersey and line up at the start line. It's much more fun than sorting a leaderboard.

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With Power Meter

If you do have a power meter, here are the additional power-related features that I think a cyclist will enjoy most with Premium membership:

Goals. In addition to the Weekly and Segment goals, if you have a power meter you can also set a Power goal. You specify your goal in watts, the time interval for the goal, and a due date. the intervals available are 5, 10, and 30 seconds; 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes; and 1 hour. Estimated power values calculated by Strava (if you don't have a power meter) do not apply.

Setting a Power Goal

My Opinion. 3 / 5 -- Used in conjunction with the Power Curve (described below), setting Power Goals can be somewhat useful. Of course you can set these goals for yourself without purchasing Premium, but you may work harder to achieve the goals if your Strava page displays it. I have set power goals for 5 seconds, 1 minute, and 1 hour and it did add a little bit of extra motivation when I was doing 1-minute Kilo Intervals.

Power Curve. The power curve displays your maximum power output over a duration of time. You can display power as either watts or watts per kilogram (of body weight). You can have 1 or 2 curves displayed with different time spans. For time spans you can select last 6 weeks, a specific year, or a custom date range. I usually have 2 curves displayed, one showing the current year and one showing the previous year. You can click on the curve at any point to view the values as well as click on a link taking you to the ride that it is associated with. If you have set any Power Goals (described above), they will be indicated with red circles on your curve. You also have the ability to show your estimated FTP (though not necessarily as accurate as the FTP test).

My Opinion. 4 / 5 -- The power curve is a great way to analyze the type of rider you are (sprinter, time trialist, etc.). It is also a great way to determine what areas you should work on. You are able to easily gauge progress over time and the graph assists with both race analysis and race preparation. There are free options available to view your Power Curve (like Golden Cheetah), but the one offered by Strava is quickly accessed and easy to use. It would be nice if they added zone shading, but that isn't a huge deal.

Fitness & Freshness. Also known as the Performance Management Chart (PMC). This chart displays your Fitness (or Chronic Training Load, CTL), Fatigue (or Acute Training Load, ATL), and Form (or Training Stress Balance, TSB) over time. Strava refers to Form as Freshness. I will likely discuss (at length) the PMC in a future blog post. In Strava, the PMC can be displayed for the last 6 months, last year, or all-time. The graph will also display Fitness, with Fatigue and Form display being optional. At the bottom, each days Total Stress Score (TSS) is displayed in bar-graph form with links to the associated rides.

My Opinion. 4 / 5 -- The PMC is one of the better analysis tools to use in training (some may argue it's the best). It gives you the ability to taper and peak for races and helps tremendously by providing a visual representation of how high intensity workouts and rest function together to make you a stronger rider. The graph is easy to use and it is helpful having links to rides in the TSS bar graph portion. The major fault of the Strava PMC is the inability to set date-dependant FTP values. During training, your FTP will increase (hopefully). When you change the value of your FTP it should apply to all future rides in your PMC, but with Strava, it applies to all past rides too. This is incorrect and many have asked Strava to fix it. Their response has been that the fix is in the works but it has already been over 7 months since they added the PMC and they've yet to fix it. Again, there are free alternatives for the PMC (Golden Cheetah), but Strava's version is easier to use (but less customizable). It would be nice if they had a custom date range capability. For advanced Tapering and Peaking methods, the use of an Excel spreadsheet proves very useful -- I'll provide more information on that in a future post.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the only feature worth Premium membership if you don't have a power meter is the Suffer Score and I would say it's a pretty weak feature. If you do have a power meter, the main features you'd benefit from are the Power Curve and Performance Management Chart. Those features, however, are available elsewhere for free so they are pretty weak as well.

But....

I consider Strava the best community-based training website available. Others, like Garmin Connect, Map My Ride, and Ride With GPS fall short. There are many areas of Strava that could be significantly improved -- a club page with the ability to display group ride calendars with meeting times for example -- and from what I've seen, Strava is very much willing to roll out new features and updates, showing that they care about what their users request. By purchasing a Premium membership, you are helping support their efforts and will likely benefit from future added features and updates. It would be a shame if Strava became stagnant due to insufficient revenue.

At just about $1 per week, Premium membership isn't much of a financial burden. If you have a power meter, I would definitely recommend at least trying Premium for a year -- if nothing more than to get a feel for how the Power Curve and Performance Management Chart work. If you don't have a power meter, I would say stick with the Free version unless you simply want to support the website's endeavours. To read more about the features and updates that Strava has come out with, visit their Blog. As always, your thoughts regarding Strava and Premium membership are welcome in the comments below.

Insurance for Cyclists

Unfortnately, I never really thought much about insurance before my accident. Hopefully you will never have to deal with this, but in case you do maybe you can learn a bit from my experience and be covered.

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Automobile Insurance

The minimum car insurance requirements in Arizona are $15,000 for medical and $10,000 for property. With the economy being what it is, there are likely a lot of drivers out there with just the bare minimum coverage. If you are hit by a car and the person has just those minimums, you will only get (up to) $10,000 for your bike and (up to) $15,000 for your medical expenses. There are very few instances where a 4,000-lb Isuzu RLL contacting a 20-lb Specialized Allez will be sufficiently covered by the $15,000 minimum medical coverage. Unfortunately, there is also a risk that the driver won't have any insurance at all.

A quick side note. If you get hit by a car, no matter how good you think you feel, call the police, have the accident documented and go see a doctor to get examined. Especially if your helmet touches pavement. You will have a ton of adrenaline from the accident and you won't notice all of the damage that was done to your body. It may take days for you to realize that you've got something wrong, and if you didn't get the accident documented it's too late. Get a CT scan if you hit your head, you may have a concussion. It's much better to be safe than sorry. Don't be a hero and don't feel like you are doing the driver a favor (you aren't) -- report the accident and then get checked by a doc.

Also, if you sustain serious enough injuries or significant property damage, you may benefit from hiring an attorney. I am not a fan of lawyers and am not big on suing anyone, but there are a lot of areas where the expertise of a lawyer will be beneficial to you. For example, knowing what to do if/when the hospital mails you a lien notice. If you are going to hire an attorney, do not talk to the driver's insurance company (let the lawyer communicate with them).

So, what do you do when the driver's insurance won't cover your expenses, either because their coverage is too low, or because they don't have any insurance at all? You can purchase "un-insured motorist" and "under-insured motorist" coverage on your personal car insurance policy. Then, if the person who hit you doesn't have enough insurance to cover your bills your own insurance will kick in. When your insurance is used in these circumstances you won't need to worry about your rates going up -- they won't. To add them to your policy is fairly inexpensive and well worth it if you need it. If you ride a lot in a busy city there is definitely a risk of getting hit -- so it makes a lot of sense to be covered in case that happens.

In my experience (3 days in the hospital, some fractured vertebrate, patellar cartilage damage, and concussion), the medical settlement amount would have been between $100,000 and 150,000. That includes lost wages and pain & suffering which will vary by person and severity of accident. I've been told that typical vehicle-bicycle collisions average around $100,000. Based on that information, I would recommend cyclists carry at least $100,000 of un-insured and $100,000 of under-insurance coverage.

Additionally, you may want to add MedPay coverage, which will directly pay for your medical bills up to the amount you select. If you have a $1,000 medical deductible, you may want to carry the $1,000 MedPay coverage so nothing is out-of-pocket. You do have the option of having your MedPay coverage higher than your deductible, which would mean cash in your pocket, but you aren't trying to make money -- you just want to cover yourself if the unfortunate should happen.

Another quick side note. The law requires that you are not allowed to insure yourself for more than you insure others, meaning if you want $100,000 of under-insured covered you will need to also have at least $100,000 of liability coverage.

For damage to your bike, the insurance company will reimburse MSRP plus sales tax. It is a good idea to keep a record of everything you have, with the date it was purchased and it's MSRP. They may deduct a percent for depreciation (something like 2-3% per year). When they pay you for the damage they then own your bike -- but I've been told that often then never come to claim it, so there is a chance that you will be able to salvage parts off it even after being reimbursed for those parts. You'll probably want to get something in writing from the insurance company stating that they are releasing the property back to you. Keep this in mind when you start buying replacement parts, you may want to hold off to see if you will be given back an item that was not damaged beyond re-use. Since there is a good chance that you will retain the damaged property, you should include everything you can in the claim, even if the damage done was very minor.

I put together a template that you might find useful for documenting your property.

Click here to download the Property Template property-template.xls Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet [20.0 KB]

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Home Owner's Insurance / Renter's Insurance

There are a few instances where your home owner's or renter's insurance will come in to play. Your insurance policy may cover damage from fire, lightning, windstorm, hail, explosion, riot or civil commotion, direct loss from looting, aircarft, vehicles, smoke (if loss is sudden and accidental), vandalism, theft, and falling objects (though damage to the falling object is not included). Your insurance coverage may be different so you'll want to check. I would think the main items you'd want to make sure you have are fire damage and theft coverage. You will also want to check to see what your deductible is and consider lowering it if deemed cost effective.

By the way, the "falling object" coverage will not cover damage to your bike when, during a race, an unfortunate crash results in multiple bikes and bodies falling on it. It is meant to cover falling tree limbs or shade structures. Yeah, I know... bummer. You still need to adhere to the "only race what you can replace" guideline.

You will want to document as much of the property you want covered as possible. Keep all your receipts as proof of purchase and take pictures of everything inlcuding the serial number on your frame. If you no longer have receipts take pictures and write down as much information about the item as you can. The more thorough your documentation the better. In Strava, you can input all of your components to track mileage and time for each -- take advanatage of that feature.

Side note again. You may want to write your persoanl information on a small piece of paper and tape it to the inside of your head tube so it's hidden from the thief but available for verification if you retrieve the bike and they've ground off the serial number. If your bike is stolen, immediately notify the police, send flyers to bike shops all over Arizona, notify all the Play-It-Again Sports style stores, and keep your eyes on Craigslist and Ebay. You can even set up a Google Alert. If you see your bike on Craigslist or Ebay contact the police immediately.

I've received conflicting information regarding property replacement value from home insurance coverage. One source (lawyer) stated that replacement value is MSRP plus sales tax. Another source (insurance agent) says it is "retail cost at time of replacement." In either case, you want to be able to prove that you owned the property and be able to identify manufacturer and model. So don't just take a picture of your bike, get close-up photos of your shifters, derailleurs, etc. For any expensive item (e.g. power meter) you want to have as much proof as possible.

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For more information, BicycleLaw has a good article (click here to view).

Like I said, I hope none of you find yourself in a situation where you need to contact your insurnace agent and hire a lawyer. If you do though, hopefully you will be covered enough that your financial burden is minimal and you can focus solely on recovering and getting back on the road. If you have any questions or if I missed anything feel free to comment below.

New Bike Build: Part 2

Bike Build Part 1	Bike Build Part 2	Bike Build Part 3	Bike Build Part 4

When looking at components, I compared cost, value, quality, weight, function, durability, ergonomics, and aesthetics. With the frameset chosen I had a starting point to use as a sort of gauge. An aero road bike designed to perform well on flats, but not so heavy that it would be a problem on the climbs. Not necessarily an inexpensive frame, but I think arguably one of the better values available. I decided to leave wheels out of this blog post as there are a lot of options available and I felt they were important enough to warrant their own post.

Shifters and Derailleurs

Instead of purchasing a complete groupset, I decided to break out the shifters and derailleurs. I wanted to go with the best value, not necessarily the highest quality. There are other options out there, but the main ones on my radar were:

Campagnolo Super Record* Record* Chorus

Shimano Dura Ace* Ultegra* 105

SRAM Red Force Rival

* Available as mechanical or electronic: EPS (Campagnolo), Di2 (Shimano)

In case you're interested, I left off Campagnolo's Athena, Centaur, and Veloce; Shimano's Tiagra and Sora; and SRAM's Apex; (as well as others). I need to keep this blog posts under 10 pages.

Campagnolo is more expensive than Shimano and SRAM, but if I'm not mistaken does provide the ability to take apart and repair the components. A lot of Campy fans have pointed this out but I personally don't see it as a major selling point. The risk that I'll need to disassemble and replace pieces of a component are pretty minor. It's more likely I'd be buying an entirely new component. Another benefit of Campagnolo is the quality of their components, but both Shimano and SRAM have stepped up to the level that Campy set and it appears to me that they compete well in terms of quality. Campy fans may argue but I feel confident stating that the quality and repairability of Campagnolo does not adequately justify the additional cost. Another benefit of Campagnolo is that, when comparing similar product lines, they tend to be slightly lighter. This is not a rule for all tiers and the weight savings is pretty minor so I am ignoring it.

SRAM is based in the United States (Chicago to be exact), which I like. Unfortunately, they don't have an electronic group available yet and I'm not a fan of their double-tap shifting style. I really like the aesthetics of SRAM's Red groupset but when visiting bike shops I've tried out the SRAM shifters and they felt strange to me -- not sure what it was, may be just that I'm used to Shimano, but they didn't quite fit my hand. Shift style and ergonomics are highly subjective and likely based on past usage bias. For me, I preferred the feel of the Shimano shifters as well as the method of shifting.

SRAM Double Tap Shifter

I know 11-speed setups are talked a lot about right now. I'm just not convinced that it will be a big deal to me, so I'm ignoring it for the most part. I had a 10-speed 53/39 crankset with an 11-25 cassette and it worked very well for me. I've done steep (in excess of 10%) climbs with an 11-28 and still didn't feel like I needed an extra gear. 11-speed will likely become the norm, but right now I don't see a reason to seek it out intentionally.

Another new trend is electronic shifting. Campagnolo has EPS (Electronic Power Shift) and Shimano has Di2 (Digital Integrated Intelligence). Everyone I've talked to who has it says that it is well worth it -- but of course there is some bias there. I've read some so-called unbiased reviews that also claim electronic is the way to go and there do seem to be some good arguments for it. Shifting is easy and precise, chain rub is reduced or eliminated, and cable maintenance is gone. The downsides seem to be price and weight, but could also include repair issues, and of course the dreaded mid-race (or mid-ride) dead battery.

Campagnolo and Shimano both have two options for Di2. The main difference is weight. Here are the weight differences between them (just shifters and derailleurs):

	Campagnolo	Shimano
Super Record / Dura Ace	589 g	604 g
Record / Ultegra	602 g	753 g
Difference	13 g	149 g

The weight difference between Super Record and Record is non-existent. For Shimano, the price difference to go up to Dura Ace is significant at around $1,100, which means you'd be spending $7.33 per gram saved. You'd be better to spend money on lighter handlebars (3T Ergonova Team vs. Pro is $3.28/g) and/or a lighter saddle (Selle Italia Tekno Flow vs. SLS Kit Carbonio Flow is $2.74/g). Those two upgrades together would save you 184 grams and only cost $540. There is a small difference in shifting noise from Dura Ace to Ultegra, and the rear derailleur shifting under heavy (sprinting out of the saddle) loads is described as "clunks" instead of "slides" -- but it's doubtful those differences are worth much. VeloNews has a very nice article comparing Dura Ace and Ultegra Di2 systems (click here to view).

For me, I ruled out Campagnolo completely because the value is relatively low. I'd be paying a lot of extra money for slightly lighter, slightly higher quality, and perhaps slightly more durable components. One could even argue the quality and durability are the same for all three manufacturers. If you're a Campy fan feel free to comment below.

I really wanted to try out electronic shifting, which ruled out SRAM. That, coupled with my dislike for the double-tap shifting and shifter feel has kept me in the Shimano family for this build.

The last choice was easy for me. There is no value in going with Dura Ace Di2 over Ultegra -- not unless you are willing to squeeze every gram out of the build (which I am not). So I chose Ultegra Di2. I searched online for the best deal and ended up finding a very gently used "upgrade kit" (shifters, derailleurs, wiring, and battery) on Ebay at an incredible price. It will be interesting learning how to install an electronic system (coming soon).

Ultegra 6700 Di2

Crankset, Cassette and Chain

Since the crankset, cassette and chain wear much faster than the other components, I like to separate them to determine value. The chain wears the fastest, while the crankset and cassette (in theory) wear at the same rate. With the chain wearing fast, something inexpensive and durable (not lightweight) is desired. I'm willing to deal with some extra weight here and justify it by taking the cost savings and applying it to weight saved on components that last much longer. I've been a fan of the KMC X10.93 chain because it's inexpensive, durable, and has the quick-link. The KMC chain weighs 290 grams vs. Ultegra weighing 272 grams (when comparing 116 links). The cost difference between the two is only about $20, but since I replace my chain every 2,000-2,500 miles (about 4 chains per year) it quickly becomes unworthy of the added cost.

By replacing the chain often, the life of the cassette and chainrings can extend beyond 5,000 miles so weight becomes a little more of an issue. I've been able to go a full year before needing to replace the cassette and chainrings. Since I'm going with Ultegra shifters and derailleurs, and I think the dark gray color that Ultegra offers looks better than the silver when installed on a black bike, I decided to just go with Ultegra for the crankset. For the cassette, I already had an 11-25 model 105 that was going to go on the Allez so I will go ahead and use it on the Noah until it wears out. When it comes time to replace it I will likely switch to Ultegra for the weight savings. Ultegra weighs 35 grams less at a cost of around $0.50/g.

Ultegra 6700 Crankset (dark gray)

Bottom bracket. The Noah frameset has a pressfit 30 (PF30) bottom bracket (46mm diameter and width of 68mm). Using the Ultegra Hollowtech crankset, I will need to install an adapter and there are a couple different options. Wheels makes the least expensive option with two separate cups that fit into the frame. I utilized these on the Allez and I didn't care for them at all. About once a month I would remove the crankset, take out the cups, clean everything, re-grease it, and put it all back together in order to get rid of clicking that would develop when the cups became slightly out of alignment. Shimano has a one-piece adapter but it doesn't look like very good quality and for a few dollars more, Praxis Works has a new option that appears to be very promising.

Praxis Works Conversion Bottom Bracket

Other Components

The other main components are the three areas of contact, the handlebars (and stem), pedals, and saddle. The style of handlebars tends to be subjective and I've been wanting to try out the 3T Ergosum with the flat-ish tops to see how they feel so when Chris at ProBike offered me some for a smoking deal I went for it. I like having the manufacturer's of the handlebars and stem match and I liked the 3T ARX stem I used on the Allez so I'll go with it again, this time using the Team version with the red stripe (matching the black/red color scheme of the bike). The handlebars are the Stealth version (all black) and I thought about going with the black/red there too but thought it might be too much color coordination so I'm going to stick with just black for now. One thing I learned about the Ergosum handlebars is that because of the way they are shaped, you should buy one size larger than you normally would -- so, if like me you use a size 44cm, you would buy a 46cm.

3T Ergonova Team Stealth

3T ARX Team

For pedals, I wanted to stay in the Shimano family. I looked at a couple options here: Dura Ace, Ultegra Carbon, Ultegra, and 105. The weight differences for these models are:

	Weight	Price
Dura Ace	248 g	$400
Ultegra Carbon	260 g	$200
Ultegra	317 g	$200
105	325 g	$110

To go from 105 to Ultegra is $11.25/g but from 105 to Ultegra Carbon is $1.40. To go from Ultegra Carbon to Dura Ace is $16.67/g so this decision was very easy for me, I went with Ultegra Carbon.

Ultegra Carbon Pedals

For the saddle I'm going with the Selle Italia SLR Kit Carbonio Flow. I've tried a Selle San Marco Zoncolan which was alright, a Fizik Arione which was uncomfortable, a Specialized Romin which was alright, and a Selle Italia SLS Flow which I liked most. The SLS is the less expensive option to the SLR, with the SLR weighing 90g less at about $2/g.

A quick side note. I found a great deal at ProBikeKit for this saddle which, coupled with a $15 off coupon code came to around $150. I noticed they were selling like mad on Ebay for over $200 so I ended up buying four saddles and selling three of them on Ebay, effectively making my saddle free. Well, it did take around a 30 minutes of my time to unpack and repack the saddles, print the shipping labels, and put the box in the outgoing mail area of my office.

Selle Italia SLR Kit Carbonio Flow

In Part 3, I will discuss wheels. With an aero road bike, I think deep carbon wheels will look and perform best. I will be looking at aerodynamics, weight, aesthetics, braking performance, cross-wind performance, maintenance, technology, and price.

Bike Build Part 1	Bike Build Part 2	Bike Build Part 3	Bike Build Part 4

Winter

I was asked to say something to her, so I did the best I could. "We're all here mom, we're with you and we aren't leaving. We love you very much." I don't think she could hear me, but her children -- my wife and my sister-in-law -- they could. So I tried to think of something to say that would comfort them. "We're really going to miss you. We'll see you soon." She took one last soft breath and the room went silent. I don't know how long we stood there before the hospice nurse came back in. It seemed, like so much in life, to have been too short. I felt like I should have said so much more.

The death of my mother-in-law hit my wife and me pretty hard. She had been battling Melanoma for a decade so it wasn't necessarily a surprise, but we were not prepared for it. Not at all. What was strange was that it didn't hit us right away. For months we went through the motions of sorting out the funeral arrangements, cleaning up the house, contacting friends and relatives, purchasing airline tickets, dealing with the estate sale, and handling all the tax issues that accompany this sort of thing. Shirley left us on August 1, but it wasn't until Thanksgiving that we fully realized that she was gone. On the day normally spent laughing around her dining table, eating the delicious food she had prepared, and discussing upcoming Christmas plans -- instead of turkey and pie and laughter and joy... instead, we wept.

2012 had marked the 3-year anniversary of her passing, and just like the previous years, it was the holiday season, not August 1, when the remembrance of Shirley's passing was strongest. I remember going for a ride the night of Christmas Eve. My wife was spending some quality time at her father's so I had a couple hours to myself. I had originally planned on riding out River to where it turns into Thornydale and then turning back. But instead I continued up Thornydale to Tangerine, over to Oracle and then back down to River. The detour wasn't added because I wanted more miles, but because I was out there thinking about, and greatly missing my mother-in-law.

River-Tangerine

I remember how cold it was that night. I was wearing a long-sleeved jersey and long-fingered gloves, but I was still cold. It was a quiet night too, with most everyone at home doing the Christmas Eve family thing. I stopped at a church parking lot on Tangerine to text my wife and eat a Clif bar. The service had just ended and so I sat, watching people walk to their cars and drive off. After a few minutes the chill was to my bones. I shivered, put the wrapper in my jersey pocket and rode away, disappointed that the cold weather would likely mean less riding in the coming months. I pedaled hard to get my heart rate back up, and was rewarded with the return of a little bit of warmth.

This morning I sighed when I stepped outside. It's starting to get cold again, and already I can tell that my beautiful wife is thinking about her mom. It will be Thanksgiving soon, and then Christmas, and then New Years -- and I know there will be tears in the near future. We all have seasons in life that are tougher to get through than others. It's difficult when there's nothing much you can do but suffer through it and wait for spring. I wish there were something I could do to fix it, but I can't -- no more than I could make the winter days long and warm. Winter will always have days that are cold and dark and quiet; days that will require arm warmers and toe covers and skull caps. Days that will remind us that a loved one is gone.

But we can still get through it, and we can even have a little bit of warmth in it.


We just need to pedal.

Resources

Most of the content you'll find on my blog comes from personal experience, but a lot of the advice I offer is based on information I've gleaned from books, magazines, and websites. I've created a page to list the resources that I've used over the years and highly recommend if you are looking to learn more about the sport. I receive no compensation for promoting these materials and welcome your suggestions for addition resources to add to my library. If you have a favorite training book, magazine, or blog that you'd like to share please feel free to leave a link in the comments section on that page. If you have your own blog that is cycling-related feel free to promote it there too.

To view the resources I currently have listed (including my thoughts on each book, magazine, and website) you'll find a menu link to the page in the upper right corner, or you can click here.

New Bike Build: Part 1

Bike Build Part 1	Bike Build Part 2	Bike Build Part 3	Bike Build Part 4

There are many factors to consider when purchasing a bike. Manufacturer, material, type, size, color, components, wheels, etc. The first thing I decided was that I wanted to build my new bike up myself instead of purchasing one ready to ride. I won't be able to ride for at least another month, so I have the time to do it and I greatly enjoy figuring out how things go together. Plus, I'm looking forward to the satisfaction of riding something that I had a hand in creating.

The Frameset

Some decisions were made almost immediately. I knew I wanted to try a new manufacturer (previous bike was Specialized). I knew I wanted a carbon fiber frame (previous bike was aluminum).  I knew that I wanted a dark-colored bike (previous bike was white and a constant hassle to keep clean). And I knew I wanted a slightly smaller frame (previous bike was a 58cm). I enjoy climbing Mt. Lemmon, riding the Saturday Shootout, and sprinting for the finish in crits and road races, so a lightweight, aerodynamic, stiff frame would seem to be ideal.

With all the free time I had lying in bed for 2 months, I read dozens of articles looking at the different options available for the latest trend of road bikes: aero. I've heard (and read) a lot of praise for aero road bikes, and I like the idea of having a bike that I can use for (and hopefully obtain good results in) time trials -- without the need of a second, TT-specific bike. The aero road bikes I looked at were the BMC Timemachine, Cervelo S5, Felt AR, Fuji SST, Giant Propel, Ridley Noah, and Scott Foil (I ruled out the Specialized Venge on account of wanting to try a new manufacturer).

Some articles comparing different aero road bikes if you're interested:

• Bicycling Editor's Choice
• Bicycling Buyer's Guide
• Road.cc
• Velo News

Below are some of the options I looked at (with links to reviews of each bike):

BMC Timemachine	Cervelo S5
Felt AR	Fuji SST
Giant Propel	Ridley Noah
Scott Foil

I've always liked the look of the Ridley bikes and out of the aero lineup I definitely preferred the look of the Ridley over the others. The curved top tube, integrated seatmast, and overall "stance" are significantly more appealing to me. Of course this is subjective but there were other, more objective factors that came in to play like the split fork & seat stays, drag-reduction strips on leading edges, and integrated brakes. As an engineer, I think these features -- though admittedly borderline gimmicky -- are pretty cool and set the bike apart from the others. Ridley claims a 20 watt savings at 40kph (25mph) due to their aerodynamic features over a standard road bike. Doesn't seem like much at first but looking at the Shootout segment from Valencia to the bridge, I tend to average 24mph and 240 watts, which means riding the Noah would require just about 10% less energy.

Drag-reduction strip

The Noah comes in three versions: the RS, Pro, and FB (aka "Fast"). The RS is the least expensive, using a heavier carbon layup, and doesn't have the integrated seatmast. The Pro uses a better carbon layup and has the integrated seatmast, but doesn't have the integrated brakes. The FB is the most expensive and includes all the features. The price of the FB was high enough that it was thrown out as a possibility. The integrated seatmast results in better aerodynamics and a cleaner look but could potentially be a resale problem and you want to make sure you get it right when you cut it. The better carbon used in the Pro version, however, was enough to convince me to overlook the drawbacks of the integrated seatmast. Besides, I don't plan on selling this bike any time soon, and I've learned to measure 16 times and cut once. Ridley's sizing is small, medium, large, etc. and the size I was looking for was equivalent to a 56cm, which for Ridley is a medium.

Split fork

With my decision almost finalized I did some more online research specifically geared towards finding the flaws of the Noah. The main issues that I dug up were pretty minor. One was the cost and the other was the frame stiffness. For my build, cost isn't much of an issue because I am looking to buy a 2-year old (but still new) frameset, not a 2014 complete bike fresh off the assembly line. The stiffness issue for me also isn't a bad thing since I desire a stiff frame. In fact, one reviewer rode the Noah Pro on his first set of back-to-back centuries and "didn't feel beaten up afterwards."

Integreated Brakes

I felt very confident that the Ridley Noah Pro was the one to get, but during my final searches I came across a deal on a Noah FB that I couldn't ignore. It turned out that Ridley had just one medium-sized 2-year old Noah FB left in their stock and I had a chance to snag it at a smoking price. I jumped on it. A little over a week later and I'm now the proud owner of a Ridley Noah FB frameset in the team colors (black with red accents).

The latest addition to our family

If you are feeling lucky and wouldn't be opposed to acquiring a brand new, fully-customized 2014 Noah FB, you can enter a free contest at Ridley's website (contest ends February 3).
Click here to enter. Good luck!

In Part 2 I'll be discussing components and wheels. If you'd like to received e-mail updates when new posts are published, enter your e-mail address:

I'm looking forward to the build -- and very much looking forward to the first ride. If you have any questions or suggestions on the build please feel free to comment below.

Bike Build Part 1	Bike Build Part 2	Bike Build Part 3	Bike Build Part 4

The Formidable Four Hundred

A good friend of mine, Jason Smith, just completed a self-prescribed challenge: to ride 400 miles in one week. To set such a difficult challenge and then complete it is quite the feat and I join with many in congratulating him on it. In my own life I enjoy greatly setting goals and seeking to attain them -- not for money, or a prize, or even a pat on the back -- but for the satisfaction of knowing that I was able to fulfill a task that I set out to complete. Even when the challenge is not met I see it as an opportunity to try again, to simply change the due date. Without goals in life we become stagnant, complacent, stuck, discouraged -- we become less than what we were created to be.

Congratulations Jason, I say you deserve a digital finisher's badge, even though it isn't provided by Strava. Wear it proudly and good luck on your next challenge -- I'll join you soon.

From Jason:

The work week 400 is done! I really don’t know how I did it. It was all encompassing to say the least. I was on the bike every day at about 4:30, which meant I was waking up at 3:30. This is no big deal once or twice a week if you give yourself some sleep-in days, and I really like them on week days because of what you can accomplish. It becomes a real big problem after 3 days :-). The hardest part of this challenge is the mental one by far. None of the rides where intense and that was the plan going into it so it wasn’t like the dread of intervals. It became taxing every night when I was dead to the world at 7:30 and still had to be a dad for the next hour. It became hard on day 3 when I thought about how many miles I had left, and it really became tough on Saturday when I almost gave in and slept  until the 6:30 JKG ride time. I just kept telling myself that I had to get on the bike……..just get on the bike and start to pedal. It’s a simple idea but in times like that the warm pillow is screaming at you very loudly. I hate to use the JKG saying in some dramatic inspirational sound-the-music story because to me it works in kind of an opposite way…..I guess…….to me it works in a rather simple way, a close your eyes on the trainer and zone out type of way…….a don’t think about anything and just go type of way……………a less thinking is best kind of thing! That’s what this challenge boiled down to, can I just keep going? It really wasn’t about the pace, It was in fact about the place.

I just kept asking myself “what story will you tell?” Am I going to tell the story of quitting or the one where I made it?

The single best thing I did was to tell people I was doing it. I didn’t do it to impress people, I did it for accountability. I knew if someone was paying attention I wouldn’t want to quit. If this would’ve been some idea that no one knew about, Saturday would have been the end of it!

Thanks for your support my JKG friends, tell you more later, the pillow is calling my name!

The Race Checklist

It's 4:00 a.m. and you're rushing around the house trying to find your helmet, wondering where you're supposed to park when you get there, and asking the wifey if she packed your gloves. You show up late, without enough time to properly warm-up; and while unpacking, you realize that you'll have to pay extra to buy a one-day license because you left your license on the kitchen counter... made worse because you also forgot to bring cash. And your sunglasses.

Luckily, it's just a bad dream -- because you have a list of everything you need, and you packed it last night. Here's a list I've developed that I've found helpful for preparing for races. I also included a download link to a Word file if you'd like to modify/print it out for your own use. If you can think of anything important I should add please let me know in the comments below.

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Race Gear

Bike(s) Computer Heart rate strap Race info / map Jersey(s) Race number(s)

Base layer Pins Spray adhesive Bib shorts Arm warmers Socks

Helmet Shoes Gloves Sunglasses Sunscreen Lip balm

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Nutrition / Hydration During Race

• Water bottles
• Drink mix
• Energy gels
• Shot bloks
• Clif bars

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Maintenance / Emergency

Spare tubes Spare wheels Wheel tags Floor pump Mini pump

Patch kit Tire levers Multi-tool Pedal wrench First-aid kit

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Post Race

Large and small towel Baby wipes Recovery drink mix Food Hat

Jeans T-shirt Underwear Socks Shoes

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Other

Wallet with cash Racing license Photo I.D. Insurance card Pens Spare pins

Chair Magazine Cell phone Camera Toilet paper Rollers or trainer

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Click here to download the Race Checklist race-checklist.doc Microsoft Word Document [28.5 KB]

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