Before I get back to the articles on Recon Work I thought I would cover a topic that one of my readers is interested in, drafting. I have not done a tips article in quite sometime so I feel a bit overdue.

Drafting is the process of riding behind someone in an effort to recover and or share the work.

When drafting one or more people do not I repeat do not Half Wheel! Half Wheeling is described as when a rider in a draft allows their front wheel to overlap the rear wheel of the rider in front of them. This is going to lead to a wreck and you may take someone with you in the process. Maybe not today but eventually you are going to go down by practicing such bad riding etiquette. Heads up for all you new racers out there. If you half wheel and the guy in front of you sweeps into your wheel he is not at fault you are. More experienced riders will check there 6 (Look behind them) before making a line change. Inexperienced/tired riders do not do this.

Why do riders half wheel in the first place? I have two thoughts on this. In the pro ranks there is a reason for doing this in cross wind scenarios. In the case of cross winds pros will form an echelon pace line and the best spot in the line may cause a pro rider to half wheel. What do I mean by the best spot in the pace line? When riding in a pace line an experienced rider will quickly recognize where the best spot is because they feel that they are not having to work as hard to maintain speed in the pace line.

The other explanation I have to why inexperienced riders half wheel is that they are not paying attention nor are they confident enough yet to be drafting in a pace line. Who’s responsibility is it to point out half wheeling? ANYONE in the group or pace line. If you see it call it out, nicely. The other tip that I learned that helped me immensely was to NEVER look down or at the back of the rider in front of you. For one thing it isn’t safe and for another the spot right behind someone in the draft may not be the best. Instead look just over the shoulder of the rider in front of you. You want to see what is going on towards the front of the pace line or group to see what is going on. Remeber in any riding situation concerning groups all ways have an escape route!

In order to get the “Free Speed” from drafting you are going to need to practice drafting, bike handling and relaxation.

When riding in the draft there are 2 constants to remember. The closer you are to the rider in front of you the less work you have to do and wind shifts constantly. Be prepared to move about in the draft trying to find the optimal location to hide from the wind. As far as bike handling goes we are talking about making subtle movements on the bike to control position and speed. This means no wheel steering of the bike and no grabbing of brakes. Instead use your hips, shoulders and elbows to make fine adjustments to steer the bike. Instead of using your brakes anticipate what is going on in front of you and soft pedal “DO NOT COAST” or even sit up in the saddle and pull out of the line to catch wind in your chest to slow down. The relaxation part comes with time. If you find yourself completely racked with nerves because you are not use to riding so close at speed and tight confines I have to recomendations. Don’t give up keep coming back. It won’t get easier to do but you will eventulaly come to find that drafting is one of the most amazing things you can learn to do in a group ride. The other is to practice in the off season. How in the world do you practice drafting in the off season? Well you start riding the rollers.

Rollers are a type of trainer that has little resistance “kind of like drafting” requires you to balance the bike because you are not locked in and has a narrow width for your bike to ride on. Not only did a winter of riding the rollers do wonders for my group riding anxiety it made me a more efficient cyclist.

Good luck and be safe when practicing. Remember drafting equals free speed!

Wow what a great course! Other than some rough patches and a bit of road debris I really liked this course.

Got in a warm up lap with a teammate before the Masters race and then met up with everybody under the trees. This was one of the hottest races I have been in. While the entire course was covered by trees I think I remember seeing the temp at 95F. Went out with all of my teammates for another warm up lap with the rest of the 4/5s. The warm up lap was hairier than the race itself! Lots of squirrely line changes on the back half of the course through the switchbacks. I think this did quite a bit to wreck the confidence of what appeared to be a larger than normal field of unattached CAT 5s and citizens.

The race started with out incident and the pace wasn’t insane for a change. We aren’t gone for long before we climb the first hill. Several of us used the opportunity to move up the field as the hills on this course are not steep or stepped. Got in with teammates and we moved up without incident and continued through the down hill switchbacks. I quickly noticed that while we had all of the road to our selves very few were taking advantage of the inside line straight though each corner. One of our future teammates noticed as well and cut swath through the inside line. We had another mild climb and then down hill through another set of switch backs. This time I took the inside lines and cleared 8-10 riders in what felt like 30′. It was wild to move up effortlessly.

Pace picked up a bit in the final hill and the stretch through the start finish. Pace picked up again as we headed through the start finish again. This time I struggled a bit on the second time up the hill only to hear a teammate giving me grief about drifting back. Thanks Matt!  We get to the top and this time I make a conscious effort to take every tight inside line to move back to the front. I remember catching back up to teammates and thinking “I wish I could recover just a bit faster”.

Pace picks back up as soon as we hit the approach to the start finish. As we pass through again I notice we are bunched up pretty tight going into the corner leading to the climb. I decide this time to set up left when I had been able to carry more momentum in the middle. Glad I did! We had hardly begun the climb when I see a road cone get knocked over and hear a wreck unfold. Two riders went down when they ran into each other because of half wheeling. One of the guys slid a into the peleton and me and a teammate just cleared it.

I took one moment to relive a wreck I had earlier in the year and lost momentum (Damn). At this point I lost the peleton and was not happy about it. Caught another rider who fell off the pace and used him to launch myself up the road. I did this one more time and caught on with one more rider and thought we might actually catch back on when we saw the peleton clear a corner in the switchbacks. Just when we saw them the guy I was working with just gave up! We recovered a bit and we got caught by one of the guys from the wreck and I grabbed his wheel and we hit a blistering tempo to finish maybe 15-20 seconds behind the peleton.

Did I say it was hot?

Lessons learned:

• Drink alot of water before a hot race.
• Take more fluids with you on a hot race even if it is short
• Take the inside line to clear the peleton
• Drink fluids on the climb once the first 1/3 of the climb has passed
• DO NOT HALF WHEEL
• Do not slow down when trying to clear a wreck
• Take what anyone says in the peleton with a grain of salt
  • Someone one was giving bad directions that almost took riders of course
• Listen to teammates first everyone else second

In my previous post I covered the topic of prepping for an upcoming event or race. Actually most of the article was specific for a competitive cyclist but don’t be fooled. Many of these tips can be used to master mind your next fastest century. In this article I am going to cover a few more important topics to consider before I circle back to the last article that will be a complete scenario for a Faux Race/Event!

The last article covered your competition and terrain but what about weather and in ride nutrition? Lets dig a bit deeper…

• Checking up on the weather – Bad weather always looks worse through a window.
• Are you eating enough – Running on empty?

Just like in the previous article I am asking two very simple questions. When looking at these two deceptively simple questions you will soon discover that there is quite a bit to be understood before comfortably answering these questions. One caveat I am not a nutritionist and the suggestions I give you that have worked for me for me may not work for you. Consult with a Dr. or a Nutritionist before trying.

Bad weather always looks worse through a window.

Prior to heading out for a ride I check just to see what the temp will be to start, finish, rain chances and wind speed. Pretty simple to do just check the zip code of the area you are riding in on your favorite weather channel or web site. But when you are riding in an event or a race you may want to look into your weather a bit deeper.

• Check the hourly details of the time you are expected to race or ride
  • You may find out that ride will start cool and heat up or start dry and finish wet
  • Don’t forget if you race or are a brevet rider it going to rain on you sooner or later so you need to train in wet conditions too.
• What is the humidity and dew point
  • Those of us who live in the southern portions of the US know that higher humidity is OK but once the Dew Point climbs above 65% it can get down right nasty hot.
  • When the weather turn hot humid you must consume more fluids than you are accustomed to.
• What is the wind speed and direction
  • I rarely worry about wind speed and direction from weather stations but I do watch for it on the open road.
  • Look at which way trees, flags, grass or other vegetation is blowing
  • If plants are blowing towards you it’s a head wind – get in the drops
  • If plants are blowing away from you it’s a tail with  – Sit up like a sail
  • If plants are blowing from the left get to the right of the road
  • If plants are blowing from the right get as close that is safe to the center line (Do not risk your safety on open roads)
• Check the radar map
  • I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have checked the weather and found there were no storms predicted then looked at the live radar map to find Super Cells tracking straight for my ride.
• You can even check on the UV Index and Air Quality
  • If you find the UV index is high DO NOT FORGET SUNSCREEN!
  • If you are like several cyclists I know and have asthma and air quality is low DO NOT FORGET TO BRING YOUR INHALER!

Running on Empty?

Nutrition is an often overlooked aspect of competitive and event cycling, nutrition timing even more so. I am not a great eater by any stretch of the imagination but I have learned some hard and fast rules that have kept me out of the bonk zone in many a race and event ride.

• Drink up to 2 Liters of water a day especially three days leading up to the event or race.
• Eat primarily carbs the 3 days leading up to the event or race. (Or you can follow a carb loading protocol)
• Eat 3-2.5 hours before you are expected to ride/race (You should start a race/ride a little hungry)
• Eat only gels on hot or ultra intense rides/races (Easier to digest plus not a choking hazard)
• Drink only water during races lasting an hour or less unless you didn’t eat enough before the race
• Drink sports drink mix for races rides lasting an hour or longer
• Drink before thirsty (The best timing method I have found is to take a sip/small draw off a bike bottle every 5 minutes)
• Eat before you are hungry (Depending on the heat I may take down a gel every 30-45 minutes or a gel between races)
• As soon as you are done with your event you need to start your recovery by eating/drinking carb rich fuels (I like chocolate milk once I have cooled down)

I was going to cut this series short and give you the final recon of a Faux Race in this post but I thought I needed to cover the last two key elements of a successful race or event recon. I am excited about writing the last part in this series as this is something I have always wanted to cover in skill camps and discussions with new teammates.

Until then watch for foul weather and drink lots of water.

Part 1, Part 3