Welcome! This blog is intended to be a repository for a variety of cycling-related information and observations. To provide a little background about me, I have been training and racing road bicycles since 1998, and training with a variety of power meters since 2006.

Racing the 2009 Tour de Ephrata

I am a USAC certified Level 3 Cycling Coach as well as a licensed race official and road racer. My goal as a coach is to provide sound, evidence-based training plans & advice to three groups:

1. Individuals who are relatively new to the concept of racing and are interested in trying a structured training approach to develop race fitness;
2. Self-coached individuals desiring guidance regarding their current training plan from an experienced source.
3. Individuals who primarily engage in recreational cycling but are interested in preparing for a major cycling event, such as a century or charity ride, and wish to achieve better cycling-specific fitness.
4. Cyclists, both racing and recreational, who are interested in learning about training and/or racing with a power meter.

I hope that the information posted here is useful to my visitors. If you are interested in more information about my coaching services, please feel free to contact me at jordan@jwweb.com.

Racing season is in full swing this month, and I’m happy to report that I’ve won the last 3 time trials I’ve competed in. The neatest part about winning, outside of the satisfaction of being at the peak of my fitness right now, is the cool schwag you accumulate when you win. So far this season I’ve picked up $75 in cash, $55 worth of gift cards (Chipotle, Bike Beat, and Best Buy), a double wheel bag, $12 worth of Fiorucci sandwich meat, a bicycle pump, and a couple of odds and ends.

This week’s race was a 2-man team time trial out in Smithfield, VA. i was riding with my new teammate Jack. Jack and I live about 2.5 hours away from each other, so not only did we not train for the event together, we have never even ridden together (he wasn’t on the team yet when we had our team camp). Still, it was a good pairing. We split the pulls into 5 minute segments at first – I pulled for 3 minutes, and Jack for 2. Once Jack got a feel for the pace, and indicated he could do slightly longer pulls, we set up 4 min / 3 min rotations. Then towards the last 8 miles or so, we each did 1 mile then came off.

We were riding in the Merckx category, because Jack doesn’t have a TT bike. He brought an aero helmet, and I loaned him an old Mavic Cosmic front wheel and my Open Pro with a wheel cover (the rules for the Merckx were no aero bars and regular drop handlebars – but no restrictions on wheels and helmets). I wore my Giro helmet and ran my H3 front and 808 rear. Just to make the bike fully mass-start legal, I took the cover off the 808.

I’d like to think that most of the time was a product of the hard work we did – I averaged about 330W each pull (lower than I had hoped, but I couldn’t shift down into the 12 cog, and I’d put in 720 TSS over the last 5 days), but we put over 7 minutes into the second-place team. Comparing our ride to the full-on TT gear group, we would have been 6th, onyl about 4.5 minutes behind the winners. Serious confidence-builder. Makes me certain that I need to work on my position on the TT bike to regain some of the power I’m losing, but it’s also reassuring to know that even with the power loss, I’m gaining about 1.5 mph in speed.

I learned a lot from racing the Fort Lee Criterium today. After looking at the corners, which were full of potholes, gouges, and manhole covers, I went into the race with the goal of getting on the front and out of danger, at least until I could get a feel for how the pack was handling themselves. So I went hard from the gun, averaging 350 watts for the first 6 laps. While I at the front, I practiced what the front group did to the rest of us at the Ephrata RR – slowing into the tight corners, then sprinting out of them, so as to accordion the field and make them suffer. This had the effect of shelling out quite a few folks, I think.

Then I settled into the front group, doing some work, marking some break attempts, and trying to get away with a few groups here and there. I got suckered into a couple primes, which was a mistake, since I burned some matches for nothing, really. I don’t exactly know why I go for the primes, except that, unless I get in a break, I’m probably not going to be sprinting for the money places, so I might as well get some cash by being opportunistic. Usually, though, I just waste energy only to get pipped. In fact, my second attempt cost me dearly, and I micro-blew (not to be confused with micro-brew, which is a good thing) and dangled off the back for nearly 5 laps.

Psychologically, I was ready to call it a day, but then my “inner coach” yelled me back to my senses. I grit my teeth managed to chase back to the field, although by this time a 2-man break had gotten away. From there I actually found fresh legs, and was in the front group again as we approached 3 to go. Then at 2 to go, they rang the bell for the Chipotle Burrito Prime! As we came around the corner, I could see that the front of the group wasn’t really going for it, so Banzai!! I uncorked it, attacked, and won the prime!

At first I sat up to celebrate my free burrito, but then I realized I had a decent gap, so I went for it! Unfortunately, I got caught on the far side of the course, but it was an awesome race! Perhaps had I kept my head down and really gone for it after the prime, I might have enjoyed a better result than 17th, but I’m happy with my racing overall.