Practice 4/1/11

All,

Brian at EP/BC has offered to check the basic fit of our athletes on their bikes (saddle, bars, cleats, etc). In order to do this, if possible, we need to arrive earlier. Please reply and let me know if you can arrive at the shop between 6p and 7p. I'd still like to start practice at 7p, as normal, so the earlier we can start the kids rotating through working with Brian, the better (just remember that the shop doesn't close until 6p). If we still need to rotate kids through during practice, that's ok. 

Thanks, and make sure you thank Brian when you get a chance. As some of you know, he is professionally certified through Specialized's Body Geometry fitting school. Fit is super important to minimize the risk of repetitive injury and imbalances, and also to maximize PERFORMANCE (insert YouTube video here)!! This is a great service for our athletes to take advantage of.

 

Also, the team kits came in, but I'm working on ironing out an issue with the manufacturing. I'll give you more info tomorrow.

 

Hope to see you all tomorrow.

 

Bryan

First race of the season: RIR Crit

Congrats to Jared and Corbin for their first race of the year, at the Richmond International Raceway Crit. They finished in 12th and 13th, respectively. It was a cold, windy morning for the boys, but there were no mishaps, and they finished well. It was also a fun day of watching the races, as we all stuck around until the end of the day. Below, are the race reports from each of the athletes.
Jared:
"I rode my first race on Sunday March 20 at Richmond  International raceway. It was windy and cold when the race started at 9:00AM. There were about 25 kids 10-18 yrs. old in the race. I started at an easy pace to get a feel for it. Then after 1 lap I started to go a little bit harder and began to pass other riders. The older age group was going too fast to keep up with. After about twenty minutes, I started to get a little, but no one passed me. On the last 2 laps the other riders started to catch up. On the last lap they caught up to me and a few riders past me at the finish. I learned a lot and I had fun racing. I’m looking forward to my next race in April."

Corbin:  

"The RIR crit race was a very fun and good experience. Right when they said "Go", I took off and used a lot of energy not knowing how hard the rest of the race would be. Around 8 laps to go, I was really hurting and nobody in the back would let you draft them. At one lap to go, I put out all the energy I had left and sprinted almost the whole track. After the race was over, I placed 13th out of 18. The RIR crit was very fun."

Our next race will be the Chantilly Crit on 4/16.

Junior Gear Restrictions

The information below is directly from USAC. Please take the time to read over it. We need to start making sure that our athlete's bikes are legal, and will pass the 26 foot roll-out test. We'll get this done over the next couple practices. If a bike has a 53 tooth front ring, it won't be possible to block enough gears in the back, and may require switching to a compact crank with a smaller chain ring.

Junior Gear Restrictions: Is your race bike legal?

Junior gearing can be a surprise to young athletes trying the sport of cycling for the first time. The young athlete attending his first USA Cycling-sanctioned event may be shocked to find his bicycle considered illegal. Parents may also wonder why this is so, especially when they have paid a lot of money for a bicycle they were told was race-ready. The main purpose of junior gear restrictions is to help the young rider develop a good pedal cadence and to avoid injury. Junior gear restrictions also level the playing field for developing juniors who may be at a disadvantage against rivals who possess physical advantages such as height and power. The test to see if a race bike is legal or not is called the "rollout method" or simply "junior rollout," which is the distance a bike travels backward in a straight line through one full pedal revolution when the bicycle is in its largest gear. The junior gear restriction for road events is 26 feet (7.93 meters).
To calculate how far a bike will travel relative to its gears, USAC suggests gear ratios with respect to race age and discipline. The gear limit for a rider is determined by the age of the rider and the discipline, and applies in all events in that discipline.
There is no restriction for cyclo-cross. For road and track the limits are:
Road
17-18: 7.93 meters (26’)(52x14)
15-16: “
13-14: “
10-12: “
Track
17-18: Unrestricted
15-16: 6.78 meters (22'3")(48x15)
13-14: 6.36 meters (20'10.5")(48x16)
10-12: 6.00 meters (19’8”)(48x17)
Note that the gear ratios listed are merely suggestions – the distance rolled out is the governing standard.
Race officials will usually provide a courtesy gear check prior to the start of a junior race but ultimately it is the gear check immediately after the junior race that determines whether a junior's bicycle is legal or not.
The official checks a junior's bicycle's gears not by counting the number of teeth on the largest chain ring and smallest cassette cog, but by rolling the bicycle backward in a straight line for 26 feet. If the bicycle travels 26 feet or less when rolled backward one full pedal revolution, the bicycle is legal. If the bicycle rolls past 26 feet, the rider is disqualified for not complying with the junior gear restriction.
Ultimately it is the athlete's responsibility to make sure his bicycle is compliant with junior gear restrictions. The purpose of the courtesy check is to offer the junior the opportunity to block their gears prior to competing in his event. Note that blocked gearing is not permitted at USAC National Championship and UCI events. Depending upon the rear derailleur's stop limits and rear cassette cog combination, there is no guarantee that a bicycle with blocked gearing can be made legal, since it all comes down to the distance traveled in the largest accessible gear. Blocking means adjusting the rear derailleur's high stop limit screw to prevent the chain from going to a small rear cassette cog.
It is also important to note that not all cycling tires have the same diameter, which can give a bicycle a rollout distance different than the distance provided by the gear recommendation.
Junior riders need to roll out their bicycles on their own prior to attending a USAC-sanctioned event to determine whether they will be compliant with the rules.

Weekend of 3/12

Yesterday's outdoor ride went well. We had a few tipovers (which is normal), and a puncture, but all was well! We worked on some drafting type stuff, and the weather was great.

 

I'm not sure that we'll use the Rt.9 bikepath for future outdoor training rides. There's just too many intersections, it's hard to maintain any kind of pace. Not only that, but the path is FAR from being flat!! The hills also made it hard to get into a routine. Last time we practiced outdoors, we used War Admiral Blvd. in Bardane, and it worked really well, so maybe we'll target that area again next time.

 

Thanks to all the adults that came to ride also: Mindy, Paul, Matt and Sarah. With the warmer weather coming, hopefully we'll be able to get outdoors more and more.

 

Our first race is this Sunday, 3/20. It looks like Corbin and Jared are the only two going, so we'll provide a report of the race once we get back. This should be our furthest race, and I'm working on the registration for the Chantilly Crit. As soon as I hear back with some more information, I'll pass it along.

 

Today, I received more requests for t-shirts from some of the Panhandle Pedalers. If anybody would like to order more, let me know, and I'll consider placing another order if we get enough. Same price, $18.

March Racing on TV

Here's a lineup for March racing on TV.

March 6-13: Paris-Nice (Versus)
March 9-15: Tirreno-Adriatico (Universal Sports)
March 19: Milan-San Remo (Universal Sports)
March 23-27: UCI Track World Championships (Universal Sports)
March 26-27: Criterium International (Versus)

Enjoy!