ECCC---Director's Call

Race Report: RPI Tour de Troy 3/4

2011-03-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend I got talked into doing the 3/4 crit at RPI's Tour de Troy. I doubt RPI will ever put on that course again, way too much hostility from the city government, but if anybody does, I highly encourage doing it. Awesome course in a great downtown venue.

The 3/4 was basically a throwaway to let some of the locals race and collegiate guys to do more miles. It was super late in the day (5pm start) and cold (mid to low thirties), so only about a dozen people lined up. I only finished at the back of the lead group, completely unable to match Drexel Tim's breakaway in the closing laps, so nothing amazing to report. It was, however, super ridiculously fun, and the first time in years that I did a race and just plain had a good time. I was also super happy about it because my endurance is actually really high right now but I have not been doing much/any intensity, so I was pleased to hang on to some strong guys even without warming up.

I wanted though to point out three things from the race in hopes that they might be useful to newer racers:

Field Reading

I can't stress enough that being able to read the riders around you is, in my opinion, the most important skill to work on. I spend a lot of time with new racers and they all constantly say things like "I felt strong, but I just got dropped" or "I was riding the corners well, but I just got gapped in the last one." Lots of times, that's actually because the people around you aren't riding well. Especially in a very small group, you need to closely watch the two or three guys in front of you. If they look like they're cracking, you need to get around them so that you don't get caught behind a huge gap when they fall behind. Lately I've mostly tailgunned the back of the field on group rides and what few races I've been doing, and it would never work if I wasn't allocating the vast majority of my mental focus to watching out for this and coming around people as necessary.

Pick Your Battles

Everybody has strengths and weaknesses, and that extends to particular course features. This course, for example, was pretty non-technical, but had 6.5 corners in a kilometer course so they came up fairly quickly. The three middle ones in particular came in rapid left/right/left succession so it warranted some care. I was not able or willing to whip through them quite as fast as the leaders, but after a couple laps it was clear I had a better line on the two closing corners. That freed me from having to really worry about the middle three. I could mentally relax, and I didn't have to jump as hard coming out of them to cover that difference because I'd still be able to move up and be energy neutral for the lap after the next set.

Control the Field

After the first twenty minutes or so of the race, a few riders had dropped behind but everybody else was pretty much doing a nice, pleasant group ride of ~9 or so. Coming off a cold start---too much running around with a last minute crisis at registration---I had finally warmed up and was just hanging out in the back with my friend Maggie, definitely riding slightly above her comfort zone but hanging well with the boys. There weren't any primes planned for the race, but a few spectators offered up cash for some impromptu sprints. As soon as I saw the officials getting out the bell, I knew Maggie and I were screwed. She would almost definitely get dropped if the pace went much higher and I was worried about three things:

Someone would get too jumpy and there'd be a crash.
I'd get dropped and lose contact as the leaders ramped up the pace.
The already tiny field would shatter and we'd all wind up doing boring ass solo TTs in significant wind for the next 20 minutes.

Knowing I would never be able to take the prime around the top guys, instead I focused on the bigger picture of those three concerns and immediately jumped to the front of the field. Most people probably figured it a pointless, stupid effort, attacking way, way too early. Instead though, I intentionally went to the front and tried to raise the pace just enough so that people would hesitate to come around and attack the group. Similarly, by pulling all the way into the sprint I gave a bunch of guys---who would have crushed me anyway---a good leadout, but ensured I was on their wheels coming out of the sprint.

In practice this worked beautifully. By going above my threshold but not spiking it, I protected my own minimal high-intensity energy reserves and made sure that:

I was in front in case someone did crash, and helped prevent that by keeping it calmer.
Made damn sure I was on the leaders' wheels coming out of the sprint in case they kept going and attacked off the prime.
Discouraged anyone from attacking and either getting up the road or causing the group to shatter; in the event, Maggie and I both made it through totally fine and the group stayed together.

All of this was vindicated when another unexpected prime came up a few laps later. Unable to come forward and do the same thing, three things instantly happened:

Some guy in the middle of the group overcooked a corner and crashed.
Half the group got dropped and shattered into TTs.
I barely made the lead selection, but couldn't come forward to match the winning counter attack that come shortly thereafter.

So, a tactic to think about. On the surface it's a stupid move if you're aiming to win, but there is a lot you can do to impose your will on a field if you're willing to put out a little extra effort, like protecting yourself and your "teammate" like I did here.

RIT Team Relay

2010-09-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

True competitors line up for the Team Relay at RIT:

While Northeastern prepares for... Cheez-Nips.

And UNH...

"I guess it's official: UVM's the only team left in the MTB season, and everybody else is just a bunch of people in the same jersey..."

--- a clearly unbiased spectator

Impact

2010-07-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

One of the well known local racers, Rusty Potts, passed away yesterday from a long term illness.

I unfortunately did not know Rusty really at all other than seeing him on rides once in a blue moon. However, I did have one significant interaction with him.

At the end of high school or start of college, he sold me a small stack of random, decent condition bibs and skinsuits at one of the swap meets or such for super cheap, $20 for the pile or something like that. It was pretty clearly not quite what he wanted for them, but also pretty clearly about what 17 year old Joe had to offer.

I was incredibly stoked to have my first sets of clothes with race cut sizing, something besides generic Performance logos, bibs, and---wonder of wonders---skinsuits, for most of which I wouldn't otherwise be ready to shell out for some time. I loved them all so much, I literally rode them to pieces. I have pictures all over of me in those skinsuits because they immediately became my lucky, magic outfits that I wore under my Drexel jersey every weekend my first two years or so of racing, well after they started disintegrating and should have been retired. I did my first race in one, I did my hardest training in one, and I won my first race in one.

It was a very small thing; I'm sure he never thought about it again once he got home. However, it had a huge impact on me and helped push me to where I am in cycling. So, something to think about: You just never know what kind of positive, cascading effect any little help or friendly act is going to have on a new rider.

I'm very sorry about this news and know it's a loss, though I really knew him not at all.

Columbia/Stevens Highlights

2010-03-15T06:27:00.000-07:00

Fairly obviously, everyone is going to come out of this past weekend talking about the weather. Columbia's Grant's Tomb Criterium on Saturday was basically held on the front edge of a hurricane. Things died down just slightly to "mere" tropical storm levels in the middle of the day, but the early morning and late afternoon were brutal. As one telling indicator, we cut off a large section of the course because the wind, channeled and directed by the surrounding buildings, was so strong going into the traditional first turn that Alan A and I could barely stand in place and lines of hard fencing would not stand up or stay in place for any length of time, let alone front wheels track safely as riders made that fast ninety degree left.

Another reliable indicator was the large number of fields that made the new first turn, headed down the back straightaway, and proceeded to come to an almost complete stop due to the headwind, even while sprinting full-bore. For all the Men's D and Men's C racers, a secret tip: If the headwind's that ridiculous, you should probably try to spin up and sprint while seated to stay with the pack; if you're doing a full-up standing sprint in that kind of wind, you're probably catching so much more wind as to complete negate that extra effort... More importantly, it's even more critical than ever in that kind of situation to avoid that effort entirely by maintaining pack position, in this case moving up along the wide, gradually rising home stretch with the tailwind so that you don't get rubberbanded and completely left out in the wind going around Turn 1. Almost every field for the day rapidly shredded to pieces from the combo of having a hard, very rubberband prone first turn and the near impossibility of closing any sort of gap in the following headwind.

By the end of the day things were deteriorating so quickly that we did cut about 15 minutes off the Pro-1-2 race. I don't think they minded; of the 35 brave starters, all but 10 had dropped out by 30 minutes into the race and the leaders were begging for it to be wrapped up. Doing a quick tour around course during the race there was hard fencing blowing around, a good sized tree that had been uprooted in the wind, and marble slab stairs shifting in the waterfall that had formed in the eroded space behind them. Watching the substantial amount of construction fencing along the finishing stretch start making serious motions to take flight and hurl itself into the course, it was time to call it a day.

That said, I think the race went pretty well. There were actually very few crashes throughout the day, and nothing serious unless those riders left without making a note of it. In the morning almost everyone was assuming the race would have to be scrubbed, but I think by changing the course things became not much worse safety-wise than a typical rain soaked race, though probably not "fun" in that headwind despite it making for good racing. Throughout the setup period I kept telling people that conditions were definitely not bad enough to deter collegiate racers, and sure enough every collegiate field had notably diminished but certainly legitimate numbers.

Everyone that left before the Pro-1-2 and got out early probably made a good call though. John Frey, all of the officials, and Caitlin and I all spent an hour and a half to two hours sitting, literally parked with engines off, on various highways around the area due to severe flooding and downed trees along a number of major roads.

Sunday for the new Stevens race was much nicer, and the relatively few teams that didn't come made a distinctly bad call, missing a great day of racing. Other than an intense but literally two minute long downpour during the opening 3/4 race, the weather was very well behaved. Ground conditions were wet, but it was actually pretty comfortable standing around and presumably riding as well.

Having never been to the Empire State Games, I was pleased to see that the FDR Park loop actually makes a really good circuit course. Many people throughout the day remarked that it was their new favorite circuit course, and I have to agree that it looked like a lot of fun to race on. Nice sweeping corners, wide roads, just a few slight rises to warrant a bit of action, and excellent road surface throughout. Field sizes were again solid, especially in light of the previous day's weather, term breaks, and usual Sunday dropoff.

Racing on both days was very good throughout. In the Men's A field, there don't seem to be any terribly dominating early-season riders as has frequently happened in the past. The resultant large mix of riders in contention has really spiced things up. All four of the Men's A races so far have been notably dynamic, with a lot of up and down motion from breakaways and bridging attempts. The finishing breakaways, sprints, and top standings have already seen a good number of riders, a great sign for the racing to come.

All four of the Women's A/B races this year have also seen some great racing. The Columbia race featured a lot of bold moves in the rain as the pack disintegrated in the wind into little clumps strung out along the course and riders made their gambits to move up through the groups. At Stevens we again saw a lot of aggressive, positive racing from all of the ladies, with a good mix of riders trying different breakaway attempts and several concerted bridging and chase attempts. I think it's pretty clear that the minor concern about weird dynamics resulting from having two different standings is not materializing. Watching from the sidelines, it definitely seems that the Women's B racers are out for overall wins and placings, and if they have to take them from the Women's A racers then so much the better. One of these days one of those B women is going to make the perfect move, have a great day, and totally take a race from the Women's As. I'm going to put my early money on Molly from Rutgers for that distinction.

In closing though, for me I think the highlight of the weekend was the Stevens women's squad course marshaling in the early part of Sunday. Due to a few irregularities there was some initial confusion with a co-located running race on course. Although the runners were clear by the time we aimed to start racing, there was a substantial amount of vehicles to get out of their parking lot along the course. The Stevens girls took it all in stride, regulating traffic flow from the exiting runners with an iron fist, literally jumping in front of speeding Subarus and minivans to ensure a clear path for the approaching race every lap around. They did an excellent job, and everybody owes them thanks for taking the heat from angry drivers and keeping our races running.

Rutgers Highlights

2010-03-09T19:19:00.001-08:00

This is a stunning example of how collegiate cycling officially rocks your socks:

With a win in the circuit race and I believe a 2nd place in the TT, Natan apparently did this thing over the winter that I like to think of as "getting fast"...
He's been my man for the 2010 season omnium since last spring's racing ended, so nobody let him slack off! I don't think he stopped grinning, drooling, and absent-mindedly spinning in random patterns around the parking lot for a good twenty minutes after the exciting circuit race win. Full reports from the Men's A and Women's A/B races have been well covered by the fledgling ECCC News Network.

New pre-race, off course Intro clinics also seemed to go extremely well. Here the bulk of the Men's and Women's Intro racers crowd around to listen to some crazy guy talk about cornering:
Double points to Jessica Kutz, one of our A racers and Intro coaches, for sporting the Freeze Thaw vest in the foreground. Started by a handful of PSU riders, Freeze Thaw's either a bike shop in State College focusing on recycled bikes or a mindset, depending on how you look at it.

Speaking of Intro riders, the race report from Shaena Berlin of MIT is well worth reading. If you didn't think there were intense tactics, strategy, and teamwork going on in the Intro categories then you, my friend, are sorely mistaken! I have never put that much thought into a race in my life as the Yale and MIT Intro Women seem to be doing already this season...

A few more photos from the weekend are available in the Flickr gallery.

Focus

2010-03-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

Day 1 of the 2010 ECCC Road Season is in the bag, Day 2 to follow shortly.

I will say that steering the conference over the winter is extremely difficult. It's an awful lot of email, a lot of problems more or less out of your control, a lot of realizing things would be so much better if you just made time to take care of one left-behind task or another. There's no immediate pay off behind all that, and it's difficult to stay focused for months on all the many issues and tasks that need to be addressed without actually seeing what you're working toward.

But, of course, anybody who's ever really thought about training and what it means already knows that. Guiding the conference, promoting a race, training for the season, the most difficult challenge is focus---maintaining discipline and progress even in the face of... Nothing. No reward, no pay back, no return on that investment for extended periods of time. The challenge in training is not spending a few mind numbing hours on the trainer or slogging home in the freezing rain. The challenge is going out and doing it again, and again, and repeating until the season finally hits, and only then possibly being rewarded. The triumph is going out and doing it again.

Jeffrey Hansen asked me a while ago why I think the ECCC comes up with so many initiatives and ideas that generally then spread out nationally. What makes us so successful at continually moving forward?

There are a lot of reasons for that. We have a good base of riders and teams; we have many excellent volunteers, promoters, and team captains; we stress inclusion and improvement above all else; we've built a culture of analysis and innovation; we hold firmly to sheer tenacious perseverence and zealous belief in our own true path. But, I think the main reason we keep moving forward is focus.

We could do more. I could put more time into the conference than I do. We could have more people staffing any number of roles. But we do all right. Most importantly, we never shut down. From season to off season, throughout the year, across the years, all of our volunteers and leaders continually work away at building, developing, improving the conference. Similarly, none of us ever takes our eyes off the trail ahead. No one good event or excellent season ever slows us down for long, that focus immediately bringing us back to what could still be better, what remains to be done.

Like any good racer with a crystal clear vision of their goals and a plan on how to get there, our focus, our drive, is what makes it happen.

Like any good breakaway, there isn't much choice but for the others to follow.

As for the rewards... For those and what they might be, you only had to watch the ECCC's awesome women for a little bit today and see how much happier almost all of them seemed to be. Sometimes you have a good race. Sometimes a lot of people have a good race.

Late January Updates

2010-01-28T00:18:00.001-08:00

Quick updates on things in progress:

At least one flyer is almost ready to go up shortly.
Arthur has started collecting host housing information from promoters, so we hope to start taking applicants in the next couple weeks. Spaces will be given out first come, first served.
John Frey and I ordered this year's number last week; they should be at his house shortly. For the record, this year we ordered some 1100 sets, complementing the one or two hundred or so left over from last year.

Also, the ECCC Winter Planning Meeting is set for February 20th @ Yale in Connecticut! Details to come, but we'll be checking in on road promoters, and having some serious discussions about MTB and CX. Be there!

Race Report: Pickle Run!!!

2010-01-16T21:05:00.000-08:00

For all that missed it, the first Pickle Run of 2010 was amazing! Some of you may see this in the January issue of Runner's World and some other mags, but the Pickle Run is an up and coming Greater Philadelphia-area running race phenomenon started by a Drexel Cycling alum and friends. There are usually several events, but the core one is a prediction race---wherein you guess your time beforehand and are effectively scored on the accuracy of that wildly fabricated time rather than your actual finish---but with a few extras:

A giant pickle roaming around that may or may not give you a hug:
Pickles hidden on course (there are road or trail routes) that give you time bonuses, special prizes, and/or more hugs from the chief pickle.
Hundreds of runners having a great time at a low cost race with solid production values (chip timing, etc).
Prizes consisting entirely of things found languishing in dark basement corners, and, of course, handmade pickle superstars, such as 2008's Pickle Bandit:

To find out how I won that sweet baby, you are strongly encouraged to read the true tale of my 2008 Pickle Run experience. It's effectively the story of my life, in one long race report. In 2009 I couldn't go because Caitlin pushed me into a tree mountain biking and broke my rib. I also miss the February and March races due to ECCC events.

But, on January 16, 2010, I could go! Fantastic!

The weather was super lucky, and hundreds and hundreds of people showed up. I haven't seen a tally yet, but I could believe there were 400 people there; that's as big as the top tier of ECCC races. The start was crazytimes (in a good way), with runners everywhere of all sorts of abilities; it took some definite ducking and diving to get through the crowd! Good showing from the DFTC (Drexel Fat Tire Club---old school Drexel Cycling) as well---seven people from several generations of the team running (plus a friend from work), plus Frank Durso, one of the two Drexel Cycling founders, as the big pickle himself (and co-organizer).

The trail section used this time was great, and a good bit harder than the previous Pickle Run I'd made it to. Fairly tough vertically with a bunch of rollers, and just technical enough, more so than before. Mostly twisty single track, seemed like really good MTB trails. Doug and I definitely dropped a person or two who were not following us technically as quickly but could have held fitness-wise, a good indicator of how interesting the trail was. A few sections actually took real focus, especially a slightly off camber very narrow section along a hillside, and some tight turns with roots on little up and downs. Very doable on sneakers, but actually the first time I've ever found myself wanting dedicated trail running shoes, as I slipped out just ever so slightly on a tight, loose trail kink. Good stuff.

Doug and I in turn also got dusted by a good number of people who straight up outlasted us on the climbs, but otherwise did ok. I think us and my buddy Duc finished right around 30:15 for the (ostensibly) 4.3--4.5 mile course. When we turned into the trail a mile or two in I thought I was *done* as Doug started hotfooting it up the hill in his Vibram 5-Fingers, but fortunately I reeled him right back in over the next section. Confirming Blake's theories though, there was definitely a point near there where I was thinking "Man, maybe I'm running too hard, it would be nice to be able to focus and see the trail better before I fall into this creek..." I also have to say, I was originally going to sandbag and register 36 or 37min as my prediction but then an older gentleman behind me in line said he was putting down 29---game on! Well, game on for maybe 200 meters, before he proceeded to leave my ass behind...

Tim put in a good time in the 5k, coming in around 21min, despite possibly not having run in years... Shrey hung tough on the 4.3m road course for his first running event ever, and seemed stoked even with the pretty mammoth finishing climb---it was big; I was mentally preparing myself in case the trail dumped out at the bottom of it, but it did not (sadly!). Lou, Dom, and Dan also all did well on the trail run, though Lou seemed way more excited by the hot popcorn he got in the finishing chute...

All in all, awesomesauce! There are two more Pickle Runs coming up, in February and March. I'm not sure I'll make them because of ECCC events, but everybody else should be there if not at ECCC shenanigans!

Definite credit to Frank and crew. They've really built up an awesome thing out there. Run the Day's races are some of the most fun sporting events I've ever been to, and I go to an awful lot of really fun events every year (20+ weekends a year). They're exactly how sports should be---totally ridiculous, fun, and hard, with lots of good people.

Projects, Early 2009/12

2009-12-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

When we introduced the ECCC Blogosphere, many prescient commentators (e.g., Ninja Don from Rutgers) obviously but no less astutely noted that a whole lot of blogs would be started up, then quickly fizzle out. That's been true, but I think it also spawned a good number of blogs with real longevity and activity. Mine is not one of them.

However, I've recently decided to put more effort into putting my blog to good use. With the increasing number of people contributing to running the ECCC, we need to do more to direct, organize, and keep track of those contributions. On many levels it would be good to have all that out there where other people can follow along, so I'm going to combine the two and post more up here about what's happening "behind the scenes" in the ECCC.

Recent Projects

Early September to mid November is pretty brutal in the ECCC. Between MTB season, the Local Association/Conference Director/Board of Trustees meeting at USAC, and the ECCC November meeting, it's a long drag. I personally have responded to this by not doing much cycling related in the past few weeks since the fall meeting except crashing my MTB into logs...

That said, things have been happening. Most notably, we had great response to the call for a host housing director. A surprising number of people expressed interest in renewing that important role in the ECCC. For 2010, Arthur Wicks from U Delaware will be stepping up to take charge of that project. Beyond immediately jumping on the call, Arthur had already developed several important thoughts and ideas on that effort. I'm very excited about having him in charge of the ECCC's host housing project this coming season. I think this is a long neglected effort that is going to rebound very quickly, with great impact this spring.

Current Projects

So, this is the current to-do list for the near future:

Arthur

Develop & writeup host housing procedures, forms, timelines

Caitlin

Road flyer requirements
2010 budget
Women's cycling plans

Jake/Bill

CX final scoring

Joe

Road flyer requirements
ECCC state incorporation paperwork
Road permitting notes
ECCC website
ECCC rulebook
Officiating & LA notifications

Maggie

Women's cycling plans
Women's cycling: Website section outline

Steve/Kyle

ECCC news blog/main site integration

Sully

Road flyer requirements
Road Intro curriculum
Team recruitment plans

Growth

2009-05-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

So, that happened. Nine weekends, twenty seven events, seven thousand two hundred and two individual starts (not including TTTs or USAC Road categories). All in all, the season went well.

Perhaps most importantly, I don't think there were too many serious injuries. That's not to say there weren't tragedies, there certainly were, but I'm not aware of any outrageously bad incidents in competition. A number of collar bones, an elbow, some wrists, a pinkie, a few concussions. I could be wrong, but I don't think there was much more serious than that, which, sad to say, is a positive result in this sport. Collecting incident data and improving course review procedures is definitely on the agenda for next year, however.

Beyond that, participation in 2009 was awesome. The chart here plots growth over the last seven years, the only years for which we really have solid data, as charted by rider starts (i.e., as opposed to unique riders). Note that 2007 featured several weekends canceled due to "weather," hence the sudden dip in participation. That dip probably had large effects on 2008, especially when combined with a general slowing in cycling growth (a dulling of the national Lance Effect). It will be interested to see what kind of growth we see next year. One very reasonable theory is that conference growth has substantial lag effects. For example, dropping five days of racing in 2007 meant that 2008 took a substantial hit right off the bat, and had minimal growth from 2006. On the positive side though, given that so many people raced so much this year, what will next year look like? There was a bumper crop of Women's B, Men's D, and Intro racers this year, which could have positive, long term effects for the next few years.

On that note, women's participation by raw numbers was stellar this year. I don't think any race has been close to the ~110 women that raced at Rutgers/Princeton this year. That said, percentages followed a trend of the last two years and were slightly down compared to a few years ago, averaging 20.47% women each weekend in 2009 with a maximum of 24.92%, as opposed to 25% average in 2006 and a 33% maximum. Given that there was not a decline in women's participation, that means we're not growing women's cycling as quickly as men's cycling, and that's something we need to get back on track.

Overall though, growth seemed solid, and we should all be happy. Our biggest races were not quite as big as the 2007 record-setters, but they were close, and all races this year shifted up a scale. Even our smallest weekends are getting close to what was solidly mid-tier not too long ago.

For those interested, statistics from the past few years have been uploaded to the ECCC website, here.

Post-Season Fun

2009-05-04T09:45:00.000-07:00

Obviously a lot happened this weekend, and I have not fully processed anything yet other than ECCC Nationals Qualifications. I will say though that I think it was a fantastic season and this past weekend was a great way to cap it off.

While we're all thinking about how to best express how awesome this season went, two weeks from now several of us from Drexel, Union, and maybe some other schools are planning to race at the Tour of Syracuse. It's pretty low key and we had a good time last year. If anyone is interested in joining the fun, let us know! The weekend is a prologue ITT, road race, and crit for $50. ITT is short and fairly flat. Road race has some solid climbs, but nothing out of hand. Crit is returning to a previously used course (not last year's), which is well known & liked.

For those not going to Nationals, make sure to check out the UMass Orchard Assault going on this weekend!

L'Enfer du Nord

2009-04-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

As usual, the Dartmouth weekend was a stunning success. As I had to explain to several administrators & officials in the weeks leading up to the race, the Dartmouth promoters operate in a kind of stealth mode. You get real worried because the permits & flyer all show up at the last minute, but when you hit the ground on race-day everything's excellently prepared.

We haven't used that road course in a couple years, but it used to be a staple of the ECCC calendar. The finishing climb and opening segments were excellent new additions though, improving the logistics and raising the bar for the racers. Previously we staged in the edges of Hanover and finished in Norwich, the small town the course goes through. Thetford Academy was a much better staging area though, and the finishing climb a great addition. The crit has also been used a number of times over the years, frequently in the rain.

Rolling around behind some of the fields this weekend, I thought a lot about some of the great races I've seen and even been in there. The combination of stiff climbing and long flat section make the road race very tactical, and the crit's a surprisingly technical affair. Some of the most epic Drexel Cycling weekends have been up at Dartmouth.

At one point years ago all of the Drexel mountain bikers---15 or so racers---bought road bikes and started racing both seasons, instantly lifting the road team from a paltry 2 members to a regular group of ~13 racers. It was a big change. We had racers, we had new kits, we had no budget... Certainly not enough to support a good baker's dozen of riders doing all of both the ECCC MTB and road seasons.

Absurdly cheap, starving college students that everybody was, we decided to camp. All year. That works ok for MTB season. Road racing is brutal for camping. It's hard to find sites and the weather can be disastrous, as it chose to be that year. Needless to say, we got into a pattern of basically driving to a race and finding somewhere, anywhere, near the courses to camp, then praying fervently that no one caught serious hypothermia. Fortunately, a few weeks into the season EMS had a large sale so a lot of us stocked up on real winter sleeping bags rather than the layers of blankets and summer, boy scout-type bags we had been using. Only one serious hypothermia problem developed that season.

Rolling up to Dartmouth, we had no idea where we were going to camp. Fortunately, it turns out there's a golf course right on campus so we rolled up, threw down our bags, and slept under the open skies on one of the back holes. Let me tell you, no camp site is more plush than the greens on even modestly kept golf courses. I'm sure we would have been arrested if the police weren't so busy controlling the raging keg party going on a couple holes down.

Waking in the morning was breathtaking with the sunrise coming up over the trees before us, shining in the cool air, its brightness only amplified by the excitement of misdemeanor trespassing. That, however, was not nearly as exciting as driving around town looking for breakfast and sighting one of the Dartmouth racers, super popular that year for her habit of walking around all day in blazingly loud ski racing tights matched up with even louder cowboy boots & hat...

A few years later, we still had a solid ~13 road racers, though we'd graduated to staying in ultra skeazy hotels. That year's Dartmouth trip featured lodging in the Days Inn down the highway, its main feature being the FunDome---a large interior, indoor courtyard packed with dead fake plants, greasy barbecue grills, greasier jacuzzis, lots of broken arcade machines, and even more underage prom night partiers...

Just like this year, the crit was a sloppy, awful mess for good portions of the day. I freely admit swinging way too wide and off into the grass not once but twice on the hairpin downhill-uphill corner by the pond, mud flinging everywhere as I spun wheels trying to get off the grass and sprint back into the field. The second time it didn't happen; my only solace was that Erik, the only other Drexel rider in my races that year, also popped at one point and we finished the crit hand in hand, completely unable to see through all the rain and grit.

The road race was really where the action was though. Erik and I were doing well that year, and really looking for a solid result. Early in our race a few marked riders made a break for it on the first set of rises. Knowing that was the gambit, I booked it through the next two climbs to tack on just before they hit the descent. The break worked pretty well for some time, gaining lots of ground over the next lap or so, but I couldn't hold it and eventually fell off just after the hairpin, legs burning, dieing.

Trudging down the flat stretch, blasted by headwind, I was utterly shattered, completely cracked. When the group came by, I was a goner drifting alongside, no hope of latching on. Then I saw Erik, looked in his eyes, and thought "Save me." He started yelling to get in, made space in the line, gave me some of his bars to replace my devoured supply. The next time through the climbs, drained, I couldn't keep up with the group. Erik and I drifted back with the stragglers over the climb until he looked around, looked at me, and said "Follow me." Drawing on all his better technical skills, me following his lead, we screamed wheel to wheel down the descent, passed recklessly, perilously through the hairpin, flew full speed through the short rise afterward and reattached to the field momentarily.

Regrouping, re-energized, we both pulled through to the front of the group and drilled it together for the remainder of the race, fighting a mammoth, fruitless battle to push the pace through UVM's smothering block and reel in the break. Unsuccessful, it was a still an epic, fantastic race for us, both smiling as we rolled through the line behind the lead cluster putting it out for the field sprint. Like many great races it perfectly encapsulated the true beauty of competitive cycling, seamlessly blending individual effort and team strength.

Postscript: In keeping with the true team spirit among the Drexel crew, Erik sprinted right past me as we coasted across the line, ensuring he got placed just ahead of me. Looking back, all smiling teeth with a big cheesy grin, he almost crashed out of shock when I instantly, intensely let out a string of curses upon his name and honor the likes of which any pirate would be proud. It was so bad, a moment later we turned around and apologized to the officials to ensure I didn't get relegated. They professed not to hear anything, but John Frey, whom we didn't really know at the time, said "Oh man, that was you? I heard that! Sniped you at the line, didn't he? Ha!"

Teamwork

2009-04-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

One of the things I've really enjoyed this season is watching the bounty of team tactics being put into play by a number of schools.

You can see this in lots of places, in big and small actions. An early, clear, simple example was the Men's A crit at Stevens, with Tom Coupe (UNH) waiting until Josh Lipka (UNH) was well clear of the field, devastated by the brutal climb every lap and unable to match Josh's breakaway, before launching his own attack. Josh then visibly took his foot off the gas just long enough for Tom to join him, then the two motored away to an assured 1-2 placing for UNH.

Another was the finale of this weekend's Yale criterium, where no less than 3 different UVM riders gave an excellent, very obvious leadout from several hundred meters out to put Colin Jaskiewicz (UVM) well ahead of all the conference's strongest sprinters and riders in the final push for the line. It seems to have taken the Catamount's Men's A team a while this season to figure themselves out and get some organized team dynamics going, but now that they're on the ball it's a tough group to beat.

Of course, this is hardly the case in the Men's B field, where the UVM squad has seemingly had their act together the whole season. It's sometimes not been clear when they were using real tactics and when they just had so many people in the field it looked like they were doing something smart, particularly when they've struggled to contain breakout riders and some good team dynamics from UPenn, MIT, and a few other teams, but every now and then they really get it together.

My favorite though has been watching the USMA Men's A squad. Between them and Courtney Rehwoldt (USMA) in the Women's A field, they've done an awesome job at holding onto the lead spot in the ECCC Nationals Qualifications for some time now, an impressive feat for a D2 team. A key aspect of the squad is that any member can do really well on any given day, and each also has their own strength---climbing, sprinting, or covering---that complements the others' well.

One of my favorite races to watch so far this season was the Men's A crit at Army, precisely because it both showed off their strengths and the extent to which they all work together as a group. Early, early in the race Derek Merkler (USMA) and Nick Wheeler (USMA) found themselves in a breakaway with Vinny Scalia (UVM) and Chris Redmond (Rutgers). At first I gave it only marginal odds of succeeding, but the break found a good rhythm and held it together with apparently no infighting until the very end of the race, each member putting in the work to make sure it stuck, especially the USMA guys. There have been very few breakaways this season that Derek has not been involved in this year, covering every serious looking move with seemingly limitless energy, and it was great to see this one pay off big for him and Nick.

Just as importantly, back in the field, the other half of the squad immediately adjusted to defend their guys in the break. Steve Pingree (USMA) quickly switched into the cover role, launching out of the field to bring back any counterattacks or bridging attempts. Erik Wilburn (USMA) meanwhile played a cool defensive role, helping with the blocking and trying to conserve some energy to hedge their bets for the field sprint in case the breakaway was brought back.

All in all, I thought it was a fantastic display of teamwork and group dynamics, each sacrificing and switching around roles a little bit to support each other and bring in some big points for the team. I think it's fitting that the team from the USMA are the ones to really pull together some of the best teamwork and coordinated riding seen in the conference recently.

Hopefully as our fields continue to get bigger and faster and teams keep growing in both size and sophistication we'll see more and more of these sort of coordinated efforts, as that's really what makes crits and road races more than just a mass time trial. Impressively, we've already started to see some slight beginnings of riders looking out for teammates in the Intro races. Next up though I believe is the Women's A field, where we're just starting to have some schools in there with enough riders to really work on a team plan. In particular, I think the MIT Women's A squad now has the numbers, the nature, and the consistency to work some team tactics. More to the point, I think they're going to have to if they hope to cover some of the breakout individual riders in that field, and it should be awesome to watch them do so.

Finish Line Safety

2009-03-25T11:30:00.001-07:00

Alright people, another discussion topic: Taking your hands off the bars in sprints. Not acceptable. For example, this is what you should not do:

(photo by ?)

Even if you don't care about those around you, I do not need to receive multiple emails every Monday from Mark Abramson, trying to regulate ECCC finish line safety from the West Coast via finish line photos. I get enough conference email. Chebot, Gurcsik, Whiteman, you're all on notice...

Consequences

2009-03-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly, the majority of officials have never been competitive cyclists. Many don't even ride recreationally. Most got their start because friends or family were or are racers, and they got hooked on the pageantry of cycling, race day logistics puzzles, days in the sun amidst the most beautiful sport.

A key tenant I've been pushing over the last few years is that more racers need to become officials. There are many reasons for this, but one notion is that experienced racers are better equipped to evaluate safety factors. That's not to say by any means that racing experience is necessary to do so or be a good official, but it seems reasonable, modulus some overly gung-ho racers. Without that race experience it's often hard to gauge what racers need and what will work---how far out do they need to know a corner is controlled, how desperately will they avoid that gravel, can they see those lap cards, etc.

But, there are things I've learned that racing experience simply does not provide, and in fact may gloss over. In particular, racers don't generally think about external events and actors. Racers focus on the things they will encounter during their race: Potholes, bumps, sharp corners. They very rarely think about all the things they hopefully never encounter during a race---pedestrians and vehicles being the most troubling---precisely because so many people are working to ensure they don't encounter them.

Any racer can take a quick lap and settle on a corner to worry about that they can't pedal through or take at full speed. Only sharp observers think about mitigating external events, e.g. that doing lap after lap downhill through a blind double s-curve in a heavily trafficked area without total course control would be inviting that sort of external event to happen. Tough corners are problematic; someone may crash, someone may get hurt. That's the nature of the sport. External events are frequently fatal---for the racers if it's a vehicle, for the pedestrians if it's not. That's something to be avoided at all costs.

Unfortunately, those risks are significantly harder to recognize and judge. They're much less obvious than basic course "features" and the probabilities frequently pretty low. As a promoter, official, director, these are always the hardest decisions. No race can cover every possible contingency and no event can put out more than a finite number of marshals, each with only a very finite ability to control the world around them. Every time a road course crosses an unwatched driveway or tiny side street, every time a crit is held somewhere not in the middle of nowhere, we're all taking risks with gravely serious possibilities. Balancing course tradeoffs, evaluating probabilities versus outcomes, all of that is gut wrenching and definitely the deepest, darkest part of race promotion and officiating.

Introduction to the Future

2009-03-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Opening up the 2009 ECCC road season, the Rutgers/Princeton weekend was a huge success all around. Massive turnout, good courses, solid organization, weather more fantastic than anyone has a right to ask for this time of year.

There were two brief, exemplar moments though where it really shined: The first was when we started the Men's Intro field, and 45 riders and 25+ coaches stepped out onto course. We knew the numbers were high from the time trial and congregating everyone a few minutes early, but that put it all into perspective. Mayhem and bedlam unprecedented reigned for just a few seconds as we tried to straighten out the huge mass of riders and coaches. It was beautiful, and I was actually speechless for a few moments as I simultaneously enjoyed the sight and desperately tried to figure out how to organize the whole affair.

The second moment was twenty five minutes later when we called up the Women's Intro field, and the exact same thing happened---40 riders, 25+ coaches, anarchy and disorder. Amazing. To put that in some perspective, that's more ladies in the Intro race than many races---collegiate or otherwise---have in total. Mere icing on an already delicious cake then to start Women's B and have another 50 (!!!) racers show up.

I think the Intro category has become such an integral part of the scene so quickly that it's worth noting the struggle it took to get off the ground. This is only our third season of Intro Category racing, with a single trial event the year before in the 2006 Beanpot. At the conference meeting in the fall of '06, the motion to mandate Intro categories was a knock down, drag down fight matched only by the push to equalize men's and women's points a few year's before---another disruptive, contentious change quickly shown to be the right direction. The debate wandered around and around in circles for an excessively long time, with firmly entrenched camps on both sides. Clocks were pushing 6 or 7 PM by the time that meeting ended.

Major arguments against the category were and are simple:

Racing is supposed to be hard!
We don't have time for this in the schedule.
Teams already do this on their group rides

The first is so insipid, so shortsighted that I won't even go into it.

The second is easy: We are the ECCC. If it's worth doing, we make it happen.

The third is more interesting. The three counter arguments turned out to be perfectly true:

Many riders are still looking for an easy ramp-up into racing, no matter how good the support and guidance from their team.
The bulk of the teams out there are pretty small, and many are in areas without well developed cycling scenes. New riders on moderately sized and big teams or in development oriented, cycling-happy areas (hooray for Philadelphia!) may get that kind of support. But most teams aren't big and aren't in those areas. A quick look through the member database makes clear that the majority of ECCC teams have just a few riders. New racers on those teams are often on their own, and many new teams are made up entirely of new racers with no one to show them the ropes.
Judging from what we see out on the road, most teams aren't actually doing this kind of development, or not hitting all their riders. New racers are frequently intimidated at coming out with older racers, even with those willing to give them guidance and lead clinic-oriented rides, or just aren't ingrained enough in the team to avail themselves of the opportunity. Even teams that do an excellent job with their new members still have riders showing up in the Intro races that are definitely getting something out of the experience.

When the motion to add the category finally came to a vote, it was close. Mark A, myself, and many others had been fighting for the category by tooth and nail over email and in person for days and hours, and in the end vision prevailed by only a few votes. Few better things have ever happened in cycling.

That first season was pretty rough around the edges. A few events stepped it up with full coaching squads, most notably Rutgers, Philly, and the Beanpot, but at an awful lot of races just Mark A and I wound up coaching, with whomever we could harass into coming along, mostly Drexel boys who failed to come up with good excuses. Racer attendance was generally pretty light as well. We were stoked if we got twelve guys and a handful of women. One sad day in awful, freezing, pouring rain, only one Men's Intro rider lined up for the category.

Having so many people participate is then huge vindication of all the effort that went into getting the category off the ground. I am so happy to see so many riders and so many teams---including clubs originally dead set against the idea---make such good use of the category. Even more rewarding is seeing so many people join in to help guide the races. Having so many team coaches break out their bikes, get kitted up, and dispense some hard won wisdom is a great thing. It is also deeply, deeply satisfying to have so many veteran racers ask if they can help out because they think it's a great idea and a fun way for them to contribute back to the conference, emphasis on the latter. Beautiful.

I believe the success of the Intro category has also been a huge development for women's racing. Women's Intro and Women's B fields were both huge this weekend, many of the B racers having been Intro racers last year. There was even a sudden flurry of discussion among the conference about adding a Women's C category. We're not quite there yet, but at long last it's finally on the horizon.

For a wide variety of reasons, many women have a particularly hard time entering the sport. It's even more difficult for them to find experienced racers to ride with and learn from, and with so few categories there are huge imbalances in skill and fitness within each category that make entry even more daunting. No one gets excited about bicycle racing and learns about it quickly when they spend their race riding alone because there isn't really a beginner's category.

The Intro category goes a long way toward addressing that. Ensuring everyone gets some experience riding in a group and learns some skills both improves their enjoyment and gets them up to speed faster---literally, figuratively. This is the same reason why Caitlin and I have taken to hanging in the back of the Women's B field and providing some guidance back there. The faster our newer women racers can pick up skills and the more they enjoy it, the faster field sizes will grow, categories balance out, and women's racing move toward its potential.

Thank you very, very much to everyone that helped work toward that goal this past weekend. We'll see you out there again, every weekend, rain or shine.

The Quiet Before the Storm

2009-03-06T14:17:00.000-08:00

Most of you are already on the road and/or getting ready to get up ridiculously early and hit the road for the season opener at Rutgers. I can tell this even without previous experience because my steady stream of incoming cycling email has tapered off. The quiet before the storm.

It's taken a lot to get to this point. For those that are interested, here are the routine conference topics we spend time on day in/day out:

- Race permitting
- Race schedule revisions
- Race course revisions
- Officiating assignments, season ref selection
- Rider upgrades
- Rules and general questions
- Conference meeting plans, coordinating (thx Yale, Bard!)
- Conference & USAC documentation, website updates
- Assisting other conferences as possible

These are all of the non-routine issues we've spent significant time on lately:

- CD oversight of permitting/flyer release process
- CD/LA summit inefficiencies, nationals presence and meetings/workshops
- Race promoter deposits w/ conferences, required USAC infrastructure
- Field limits and collegiate relationship
- Licensing of riders from foreign universities
- Upgrade mileage requirements for Women's B and Men's D racers
- Waivers/liability for Intro coaches
- Categorization verification, student status checking
- Tightening of prime rules for collegiate crits
- CD oversight of season scoring
- CX Nationals category/experience requirements
- Officiating improvement programs
- Waivers, season numbers
- Nationals date selection
- Nationals quality oversight
- MTB team relay format (e.g., new ECCC format)
- MTB Intro clinics (e.g., new ECCC format)
- Points allocation and division policies for triple-split fields
- Pre-registration policies, esp. for large teams
- Pre-season women's racing clinics
- Aero equipment, esp. nats policy (e.g., draconian new ECCC policies)
- DH timing
- Road Intro curriculum, structure, scheduling
- CX season structure
- CX categorization equivalencies
- Track season structure

Clearly not all critical for tomorrow, but MTB season planning basically started three weeks ago. Track and CX better get moving soon as well to keep those seasons on the up-and-up.

So, that's about were we are. Twelve hours to go before we hit the road, about ten hours of work left to do before we go, and a generator to pick up and PA equipment to drop off on the other side of town. Fortunately the weather forecast is magnificent---when push comes to shove it's standing in the sun with the breeze in your hair, collegiate racing all around, that covers all the other times.

Shepherd

2009-02-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

One of my guys got hurt last night; possibly a broken wrist, though I didn't hear either way today. As is frequently the case, it was stupid. We were playing Thursday night bike polo as usual and Casey the unicyclist, one of our MVPs, bumped into someone else. He took a low speed, simple spill that looked like any of the countless other times someone's tumbled at polo, except then he didn't start playing again. I didn't think much of it, figured he was just beat, until later when we wrapped and I realized he wasn't moving his wrist.

Standing there in our now traditional, emergent little post-game huddle, I thought for a brief moment about my plan for the evening---thirty second ride home, get changed, go jog, shower, hit bed early, say by 11:30. Watching him cradle his arm, it was clear that instead I'd have to figure another hour into there to get my car, drive to home or hospital, and scour for a parking space on my return.

Driving through the city, I thought about the definition I've long since settled on for "captain" in collegiate cycling: The one who makes sure everyone gets home.

I'm not sure when exactly I settled on this definition, but I'm sure it was at one ride or another of many I can think of, ending cold and slow, coasting home with a new rider hopelessly beyond their comfort zone. The night added a new shade to the concept, confirming its embellishment beyond just the racing set. After all, polo is less of a ride and more sheer anarchy, second only to alley catting in bedlam, and "my guys" no longer the team, but rather a motley collection of racers, alumni, and people wholly unacquainted with racing but devoted to polo.

On the Drexel team I think we've been fortunate that there has always been one or two people who wouldn't leave anyone behind, regardless of any disparity in ability. I gather that's not the case on every team, though fortunately it does seem to be that way for a great many.

Hopefully all of our team leaders have that in mind every time they wind up on a ride with fresh recruits. Looking at it from their eyes, that's what will ultimately win a rider their respect and a team a new devotee. Presidents file paperwork. Stars win races. Captains get you home, and that's much more important than training goals, ride plans, or egos.

Two Wheeled Internet

2009-02-04T21:33:00.000-08:00

Directing the ECCC is hard. Stupid hard. Time commitment is one thing; the conference's appetite for hours, seconds, minutes, is voracious and growing, fueled by an unceasing, stupifying, terrifying tidal wave of email and travel.

Much worse though is the endless fighting, arguing, pulling teeth. Promoters you haven't heard from in weeks. Constant unfortunate decisions and unannounced changes from USAC. Staff, officials, riders with deplorable lack of vision, an axe to grind, or simply a bad attitude from somewhere. No matter how much positive energy you put into it, someone's willing to echo back that much and more, negatively. It's insidious, relentless, creeping up as you ride and sucking the life out of every pedal stroke.

So, it's awesome when someone does *something*---takes a positive action, shows some initiative, makes it happen. That's what makes this worthwhile.

Today's special action comes from Steve Hopengarten (Union) and Kyle Bruley (BU). Steve and I have talked for months about pooling and spawning a bunch of ECCC blogs, and Kyle's the talkative sort so he's been on board from "go" as well. Sadly, getting everything up and going has just never made it to the top of my conference to-do list, continually supplanted by something more pressing.

Fortunately, the two of them have decided "Damn that Joe Kopena, we're just gonna do this!" and taken the lead on marshaling the teeming hordes of two-wheeled scribes out there in the ECCC. Check out their new ECCC blog portal at http://ecccblogs.blogspot.com/, as well as their own excellent blogs.

A lot of riders and teams out there have blogs, and this is a great way to bring them all together and move some of our fantastic community online. For teams not running a blog, I highly recommend starting one. They're easy to create, easy to update, and a good way to keep the world informed about race reports, events, and just about anything going on in your team. Done well, it can go a long way to recruiting new riders, hooking up with the local community, building team history and tradition, and showing sponsors what sort of awesome group they're supporting. Check out some of the team blogs already linked to see some excellent examples.

See you out there---thirty days to Rutgers!