Yeah, right. A tough D-grade crit. Riiiight. Well after 2x 1st places in a row I was hungry for a 2nd place this time and did a lot more work at the front. And this time I’ll show you the pictures. If you are using Firefox this will work fine, but MS Internet Explorer usually goes haywire and wrecks my layout. Well I use Firefox and I don’t care.Firstly, my spreadsheet view of the race data. Basically I took the ibike data from the .csv file and poured it into my own spreadsheet. It gives me max power, average power, mean, average minus zeros, average in power bands, max watts/kilogram, VAM, average and max speed, average and max inclination… I think you get the picture. The normalisation is my own formula (changed once again – it’s an evolving beast).

OK, yes, 31.1kmh is a slow average. There was headwind down the short straight and a 4.5% hill each 2km lap, though. It was the slowest of my 3 ‘comeback’ races, but I did more work, too. Average was 155W but if you discount the zeroes (ie drafting, coasting) it was 170W. If you believe in my new normalisation formula it was 234, a dubious measure but the highest race figure so far (at least I can agree with that, it felt like the biggest effort).

The sprint was again in 2 parts: the attack up the hill was the Wattage peak, followed by a slowish downhill sprint into a headwind. I lacked punch and when I caught the breeze I stagnated… but held onto 2nd, anyway.

Yeah, right. A tough D-grade crit. Riiiight. Well after 2x 1st places in a row I was hungry for a 2nd place this time and did a lot more work at the front. And this time I’ll show you the pictures. If you are using Firefox this will work fine, but MS Internet Explorer usually goes haywire and wrecks my layout. Well I use Firefox and I don’t care.Firstly, my spreadsheet view of the race data. Basically I took the ibike data from the .csv file and poured it into my own spreadsheet. It gives me max power, average power, mean, average minus zeros, average in power bands, max watts/kilogram, VAM, average and max speed, average and max inclination… I think you get the picture. The normalisation is my own formula (changed once again – it’s an evolving beast).

OK, yes, 31.1kmh is a slow average. There was headwind down the short straight and a 4.5% hill each 2km lap, though. It was the slowest of my 3 ‘comeback’ races, but I did more work, too. Average was 155W but if you discount the zeroes (ie drafting, coasting) it was 170W. If you believe in my new normalisation formula it was 234, a dubious measure but the highest race figure so far (at least I can agree with that, it felt like the biggest effort).

The sprint was again in 2 parts: the attack up the hill was the Wattage peak, followed by a slowish downhill sprint into a headwind. I lacked punch and when I caught the breeze I stagnated… but held onto 2nd, anyway.

I managed to win the local crit again – yes folks, D-grade. Well I had to work at it! I had to avoid falling (one rider down as a faster grade caught us on a corner – nasty!) and I had to watch for breaks (just one semi-serious attempt, easily caught). And I had to patiently wait for the impetuous youngster to start the sprint.

More importantly it gave me more race data. So I can confirm that last week’s 1400W burst was indeed an error on the ibike’s part, as expected. I’ll show you the data later but every lap we went over a small hill, and each lap the hill got steeper. Or so the ibike thought. When ‘corrected’ it’s still a 900W effort (bridging a last-lap gap). This week’s data is much more consistent and the peak power a more miserly 800W. I was careful not to expend too much energy in short bursts, rather I anticipated accelerations and smoothly bridged. Each lap the hill registered between 300 and 5ooW effort and 42% of the race was above 200W. If you trust the ibike, of course!

It’s a slightly downhill sprint so although I briefly hit 55kmh the power was just on 600W.

I have upgraded to ibike firware v1.16. I always reset after a ride and do a re-tilt when changing bikes. I have a battery of coast-down data to tap into a well. It’s not perfect, it certainly goes awry when the barometer is moving around, and if you lift the bars or otherwise drastically alter your weight distribution during a ride then it can generate some flaky figures… but it works well enough to be a great tool for the data junkie on a budget.

I managed to win the local crit again – yes folks, D-grade. Well I had to work at it! I had to avoid falling (one rider down as a faster grade caught us on a corner – nasty!) and I had to watch for breaks (just one semi-serious attempt, easily caught). And I had to patiently wait for the impetuous youngster to start the sprint.

More importantly it gave me more race data. So I can confirm that last week’s 1400W burst was indeed an error on the ibike’s part, as expected. I’ll show you the data later but every lap we went over a small hill, and each lap the hill got steeper. Or so the ibike thought. When ‘corrected’ it’s still a 900W effort (bridging a last-lap gap). This week’s data is much more consistent and the peak power a more miserly 800W. I was careful not to expend too much energy in short bursts, rather I anticipated accelerations and smoothly bridged. Each lap the hill registered between 300 and 5ooW effort and 42% of the race was above 200W. If you trust the ibike, of course!

It’s a slightly downhill sprint so although I briefly hit 55kmh the power was just on 600W.

I have upgraded to ibike firware v1.16. I always reset after a ride and do a re-tilt when changing bikes. I have a battery of coast-down data to tap into a well. It’s not perfect, it certainly goes awry when the barometer is moving around, and if you lift the bars or otherwise drastically alter your weight distribution during a ride then it can generate some flaky figures… but it works well enough to be a great tool for the data junkie on a budget.

A win is nothing without data, eh?

OK, D-grade crits at the CCCC are short – 30mins plus a lap (another 2km, so about 16-17km). We start with the “D1″ kids and drop ‘em off after 2 or 3 laps, so we start slow, slow but then speed up. It was 32 degrees Celsius off the tar at 6pm – hot. And the wind was 30kmh from the NE. I was on the Felt F-50.

I dump my ibike data into a spreadsheet, so it comes out like this:

Max power is peak power. With the ibike it’s susceptible to lifting wheels, and the combination of pulling up on the bars on an 8% hill during a max effort bridge to the attacker probably distorted the real power… so let’s say it was 1,000W anyway, if not 1,400.

The all-up average treats coasting as part of the race, hence Av (all) is just 104W but (Average (>0W) removes all zeroes... which is more ‘real’. 151W still sounds low – but we did start slow!!

That’s my own normalisation formula, by the way, and definitely a WIP. As a relative measure it gives me a way to judge between efforts. It emphasises the middle over the high-end of the power output range and tries to indicate real effort – all soft-pedalling or coasting is removed and we are looking at just the real “training” load, but I haven’t yet perfected a way to recognise effort over time… so short rides are favoured over long ones. I’m working on it.

This breaks-down the power into steps. I can see that 43% of my race was coasting or drafting (0-100W). When training I seek to minimise this figure, to actively eliminate those slack periods, In a race I take full advantage of these “rests”.

You can also see that there were only a few 600W+ efforts, and the 300 and 400W steps represent the once-per-lap climbs. Knowing all of this allows me to finetune my training to meet my race needs, although C-grade may well be more “attacking” and both the averages and the peaks will be higher (and more frequent in terms of peaks).

The VAM is useless – not enough hills! But the 50.53kmh peak velocity in the sprint in useful. The 25kmh average is misleading as it covers 20km – warm-up, race and cool-down. The race itself averaged 32kmh (slow, I know, don’t rub it in).

A win is nothing without data, eh?

OK, D-grade crits at the CCCC are short – 30mins plus a lap (another 2km, so about 16-17km). We start with the “D1″ kids and drop ‘em off after 2 or 3 laps, so we start slow, slow but then speed up. It was 32 degrees Celsius off the tar at 6pm – hot. And the wind was 30kmh from the NE. I was on the Felt F-50.

I dump my ibike data into a spreadsheet, so it comes out like this:

Max power is peak power. With the ibike it’s susceptible to lifting wheels, and the combination of pulling up on the bars on an 8% hill during a max effort bridge to the attacker probably distorted the real power… so let’s say it was 1,000W anyway, if not 1,400.

The all-up average treats coasting as part of the race, hence Av (all) is just 104W but (Average (>0W) removes all zeroes... which is more ‘real’. 151W still sounds low – but we did start slow!!

That’s my own normalisation formula, by the way, and definitely a WIP. As a relative measure it gives me a way to judge between efforts. It emphasises the middle over the high-end of the power output range and tries to indicate real effort – all soft-pedalling or coasting is removed and we are looking at just the real “training” load, but I haven’t yet perfected a way to recognise effort over time… so short rides are favoured over long ones. I’m working on it.

This breaks-down the power into steps. I can see that 43% of my race was coasting or drafting (0-100W). When training I seek to minimise this figure, to actively eliminate those slack periods, In a race I take full advantage of these “rests”.

You can also see that there were only a few 600W+ efforts, and the 300 and 400W steps represent the once-per-lap climbs. Knowing all of this allows me to finetune my training to meet my race needs, although C-grade may well be more “attacking” and both the averages and the peaks will be higher (and more frequent in terms of peaks).

The VAM is useless – not enough hills! But the 50.53kmh peak velocity in the sprint in useful. The 25kmh average is misleading as it covers 20km – warm-up, race and cool-down. The race itself averaged 32kmh (slow, I know, don’t rub it in).

Yes folks, after 250,000km over about 35 years of riding, at 50 years of age and after suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune I actually chalked up another win. Trust me, a win in a D-grade crit is as good as A-grade when you are 50 and only manage 100km road kilometres in a good week!

It’s also nice to explain how and why. Firstly, I haven’t been well or consistent in my recent training so…

1. I took it easy
2. I warmed up
3. I made sure I gritted my teeth only when absolutely necessary
4. When ready I had a few digs to see how my body would react (and see how the others were going)
5. I found I could manage 350-400W up the short climb once every 2km lap and recover in time for the 36-40kmh slight 1km climb, even when leading the bunch
6. However I was hitting 175-180bpm and feeling stretched (192pbm is my upper limit)
7. So I took every breather I could
8. But I let no-one get away
9. I stayed up front (easy after the first third of the race as we were down to just 4 in the lead bunch)
10. I was vigilant
11. I anticipated attacks up the long straight and the final, crucial attack up the steepest part of the last hill
12. I used 1400W (probably lifted the front wheel – let’s say 1,000W) in one burst on the 8% hill to get on the right wheel
13. I stayed on that wheel and they (thanks Arron) towed me over the top and down to the finish straight
14. I waited and waited and then crept over my lead out just before the line (500W into a headwind but down a 4% hill)
15. And threw the bike to pass him for the win – just.

If I could sum it up, applicable in all grades – don’t get dropped, save your energy for when it matters, get on the right wheel and come off the wheel at the right time. Easy, eh?

Yes folks, after 250,000km over about 35 years of riding, at 50 years of age and after suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune I actually chalked up another win. Trust me, a win in a D-grade crit is as good as A-grade when you are 50 and only manage 100km road kilometres in a good week!

It’s also nice to explain how and why. Firstly, I haven’t been well or consistent in my recent training so…

1. I took it easy
2. I warmed up
3. I made sure I gritted my teeth only when absolutely necessary
4. When ready I had a few digs to see how my body would react (and see how the others were going)
5. I found I could manage 350-400W up the short climb once every 2km lap and recover in time for the 36-40kmh slight 1km climb, even when leading the bunch
6. However I was hitting 175-180bpm and feeling stretched (192pbm is my upper limit)
7. So I took every breather I could
8. But I let no-one get away
9. I stayed up front (easy after the first third of the race as we were down to just 4 in the lead bunch)
10. I was vigilant
11. I anticipated attacks up the long straight and the final, crucial attack up the steepest part of the last hill
12. I used 1400W (probably lifted the front wheel – let’s say 1,000W) in one burst on the 8% hill to get on the right wheel
13. I stayed on that wheel and they (thanks Arron) towed me over the top and down to the finish straight
14. I waited and waited and then crept over my lead out just before the line (500W into a headwind but down a 4% hill)
15. And threw the bike to pass him for the win – just.

If I could sum it up, applicable in all grades – don’t get dropped, save your energy for when it matters, get on the right wheel and come off the wheel at the right time. Easy, eh?

Renshaw won the big race of the day but (being parochial and all) Central Coast CC rider Dale Scarfe has had a great win and jointly leads the support races at the Bay series. There’s a nice shot on the Cyclingnews.com site of Dale winning, too: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2007/jan07/bayseries07/index.php?id=bayseries072/DSC_0379

Looks like he won by the throw!

Renshaw won the big race of the day but (being parochial and all) Central Coast CC rider Dale Scarfe has had a great win and jointly leads the support races at the Bay series. There’s a nice shot on the Cyclingnews.com site of Dale winning, too: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2007/jan07/bayseries07/index.php?id=bayseries072/DSC_0379

Looks like he won by the throw!

Folks, I have updated the CCCC Adcock park track records. Via Paul Craft. So blame him for any errors!

Folks, I have updated the CCCC Adcock park track records. Via Paul Craft. So blame him for any errors!