Infirmary Mound

Today's race was pretty close, at Infirmary Mound Park in Granville. A welcome change from being in the car forever. Instead of sleeping in, I left the house earlier than usual since Daniel, my teammate, was racing today. I left the house a little bit before 10, gassed up and on my way. I got to the park around 11:30, plenty of time to mingle, watch and warm up.

One word can sum up the course, fast. The course was very dry and flowed very well, and did I say it was fast. You would rip through corners so fast it felt like a crit. I actually had to use the brakes a few time since I would go into the corners way too hot if I didn't.

I was top 5 in Cap City so I got a front row start. I got a really good start again and the front group put a sizable gap on the rest of the field. After about half a lap, I was jettisoned from the lead group. A few people passed me and by a rough count, I was sitting around 10th place. This was my best start and middle section of the race. Unfortunately, disaster struck. I took a u-turn way too fast and the pavement dropped into grass and I rolled my tire. The tire got jammed into the brake and I couldn't roll it back on. I panicked and just shouldered the bike and started to run. However it was a long way to the pit. I came to my senses and let some air out of the tire and popped the tire back on. But now I had a long downhill on a tire with about 10psi and about to come off. I took the downhill gingerly and made my way to the pit to pick up my spare.

However, the spare bike was not without any problems. I am pretty sure that I put in the same amount of air in the tires but it felt a lot lower. It could be because they are different tires and different manufacturers. It took me a lap or two to really get a hang of it and be able to rail the corners. To make things even worse, a few laps later, my right pedal refused to clip in. I really didn't know if it was the pedal, the cleat, or I busted the shoe. But one thing is for sure, its pretty impossible to ride with a Crank Brother's Candy that doesn't clip in. At that point, I really didn't care anymore. I only had 2 laps to go (I got lapped) so I just rode at a moderate pace and finished up.

I guess my equipment finally caught up to me and gave me some troubles. I have been pretty lucky so far except for blowing up a brand new Grifo XS in my second race (which is coming back retubed.)

This week is a taper week so not much training. I will also have to glue some tires, and I thought I was done. Double weekend in Indy next weekend!

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Promotion Cross

OVCX headed over to Lexington, KY this week for the Promotion Cross. The weather was a huge 180 from what it has been lately. Upper 60's/low 70's and dry. It was also quite different from last year where it was cold and windy.

I left the house at 8:30 in the morning and after the 3:30 drive, I arrived at the course. I was able to get a few warm up laps in and found it quite different that what I have been used to. The course was dry, hard and bumpy, no two wheel drifting through the corners this week.

I began with a front row start and with a really good start on the uphill pavement, I found myself in the top 6-7. I looked back and we had a nice gap to the next group. My glory in the front group was short lived as Mitchell Kersting and Rob Kendall were hitting it hard at the front, one-two in the series standings. I found myself in no-man's land and pretty soon some fast back row starters passed me.

Shortly after, I found myself in a group with Chris Nevitt, Ryan Gamm and one other guy. This was a solid group to be in and hung on for a while. I must have gone way too hard at the start and soon found myself gapped out and and riding by myself.

Now it was time to get in a good pace and gut it out to the end. I was hoping to recover a little and be able to push harder but that never came. I got passed by a few people but at about half way, I had found my place. The fast dry course was surprisingly hard on equipment and several people had rolled tires. Mike Kennedy looked like he rolled a tire, Gamm rolled a tire, a Calistoga guy rolled a tire. There were certainly many places on the course where there was hard, fast cornering and I made sure I didn't over cook those corners and risk rolling my tires. Not that I don't have faith in my glue jobs, you just never know what can happen.

I rolled in at 13th, both satisfying and disappointing at the same time. I am slowly improving but have not had my breakout race. I did not feel super hot today and know I can ride harder, but it did not materialize. It could have been the hotter weather and I do seem to ride better when it is colder. It could also have been the spicy foods I ate yesterday. Regardless, I am waiting to break the top 10 in an OVCX race.

Next week is a combined Cap City, OVCX race in Granville. It will be a nice break from driving 400+ miles. I also hope some of my teammates can make it out to race.

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2010 Vittoria XM 320tpi tubular review

Note: I was not paid to do this review, nor did I receive these tires for free for review. I paid with my own money to purchase these tires.

Vittoria is typically not the first name you turn to for cyclocross tires. Most riders will turn to Dugast, FMB, Challenge and Tufo. Vittoria's tread patterns are on par with other offerings but their slick silver/grey rubber and not so supple casings left much to desire.

But that has changed. Vittoria has really stepped up their game this year with the new 320 tpi casing and new black rubber. This is not the first time I have rode Vittoria's new casing. I rode their Corsa Evo CX II during the road season and it was one of the best road tubulars I have ridden. I could only imagine back in the summer what this casing could do for a cyclocross tubular.

The easiest way to tell if a tire is the new 320 tpi casing is by looking at the valve stem. The 48mm red anodized valve stems quickly tell you that its the new casing. I do have mixed feelings about this new valve stem system. The aluminum stem unscrews from the base of the tube. Supposedly, Vittoria is supposed to release longer valve stems to accommodate deeper rims. For the time being, you are to remove the red stem, screw the extender into the tube and screw the red stem into the extender. There are a few downsides to this stem. The valve itself is non-removable. If you break off the nut, then you are screwed. You have to get a new stem and you might have to rip off the tire. Second, since you can't remove the core, how are you to inject stan's if you get a small puncture?

The first thing I noticed when pulling these new tires out of the shipping box is how supple the casing was. No stiff casing that held its shape. The casing is more supple than a standard Challenge tire and from what I have heard, on par with a Dugast. The new rubber is also a highlight. The new rubber is black and very sticky.

After your typical stretch and layers of glue, it was finally time to mount the tires. There really is nothing harder to mount than cyclocross tubulars. Often high end handmade tubulars are hard to get straight. This new XM was as easy as mounting a road tubular. The tires were easy to stretch over on the rim and they went on straight the first time! What? It went on straight the first time? Yup, try that with a Dugast.

I mounted the front as shown above and reversed in the rear for added forward grip. I emailed Vittoria regarding rotating direction and they told me there should be a rotation arrow, which there isn't. Sorry its still a little dirty from this weekend.

It isn't a Vittoria without the 1 foot long tire hot stamp.

Now how does it ride? I had the pleasure of taking it out on two muddy races this past weekend. The first race had about a 1/3 of a lap of mud and the other 2/3 lap ranging from dry to tacky. In a pre-ride, I had both XM's mounted. This tire grips and grips in the mud. You simply can just ride though stuff like it was dry. However once I left the muddy section, I instantly noticed that I was working harder than I should. The lack of a center ridge makes the tire pretty slow on drier ground. I compromised and ran a XM in the rear and Challenge Fango up front.

Sunday's race was a bit muddier. After sliding all over the place with Fango's I threw on the XM's for a test spin. The tires did what they were designed to do and gave me the confidence and grip around the course. I was able to take muddy corners at good speeds, climb up muddy hills and descend with confidence. But once again, on dry sections, I noticed I had to work a little harder. The tread design is more oriented slide through the corners rather than giving absolute cornering grip. Some people may not like this feeling and may be unnerving for beginner riders.

To wrap up, the new Vittoria XM is a great new tire. The advancements of Vittoria's casing and rubber compound puts them back into the game. I'm sure the other two tires in Vittoria's line with the new casing and rubber will preform just as well in their respective uses. The XM tread design is great, especially when it is muddy. However it is strictly a mud tire. It doesn't do so well when it is dry. Another concern is the treads are rather thin and add in the soft rubber, it may wear quick. I would avoid warming up on the road or trainer with this tire.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Price ~$100

Pros: New 320tpi Supple Casing, new sticky rubber, great tread for mud, new valve design

Cons: Rolls slow in dry conditions limiting use other than mud, thin treads may wear quick, new valve design

Cap City Uncle Steve's, OVCX Gun Club Cross

Photo Frans Tan via Facebook
Another weekend of excellent cross racing. This season has been pretty much a total opposite of last season. Out of the 12 races I have done, 7 have been muddy. This is in sharp contrast to 1 muddy race last year. Heavy rains Saturday morning made the courses nice and muddy.

Saturday was the Cap City race at Uncle Steve's in Marysville. Last year, this race was hot, dry and super bumpy. Many people left with bloody, blistered hands and many people this year brought their mountain bikes to try to tame the untameable property of Uncle Steve's. Well the heavy rains did soften up the ground a little bit but still bumpy in some sections.

During my pre-ride, I swapped between my Fangos and my new Vittoria XM. Half the course was fairly dry and the other half wet and muddy. The Fangos did not give me much forward grip in the rear and was spinning out. So I gave the new XMs a try. They hooked up nicely but I noticed on drier sections the tires rolled slow. So for a good compromise, I ran the Fango up front and XM rear.

I had a great start and was in the front group with Matt Weeks, Garth Prosser, Dan Campbell, and Phil Noble. About the second lap I had come off the the group, Matt took off and Garth, dan and Phil battled it out. Ryan Gamm had made his return to racing and I was towing him around for a while. Later on, Gamm attacked me and never looked back. He eventually caught up to Phil and passed him. At around 45 minutes, I was in no man's land with Phil pretty far up the course (but still in view) and no one behind me. So I decided to slow it down a little to try to save up for Sunday. However, this unknown guy had started to creep up on me. So no biggie, I slowed down a little bit too much so I turned it up a notch. With two to go, he really started charging. I had to really turn it back on to hold him off. So much for saving for the next day. He never caught me and I rolled in for 6th, my season best.

I opted to not return to Athens to simply avoid the mess of Halloween and went over to Isaiah's place. I quickly took a shower and we headed over to Qdoba with his girlfriend for dinner. There was a Krispy Kreme next door and upon leaving, the HOT NOW light had turned on. I said we must go there and we did. I had never eaten a hot out of the fryer donut and I have to say it is simply the best donut. It just melts in your mouth. We returned to his place, watched the World Series and went to bed.

I woke up the next morning sore to the core. Pretty much every muscle in my body hurt. Luckily I didn't race until 3:3o so I had plenty of time to get loose, warm up, etc. I left Columbus just before noon and arrived at the race around 1:30. I quicky pre-rode part of the course right before the Elite Masters went off and found that the course was pretty bad. There were two unrideable muddy hills, one forced dismount and run muddy hill and another hill where you could make it up about half the time. This was a real power course. I opted to ride both XMs today since there was a lot of mud. However I probably could have done what I did on Saturday since the course did dry up a little bit as the race progressed.

I had a second row start and had a pretty good start. I was probably in the top 10 for the first lap. But soon after I just blew up and shot out the back. I settled down a bit and motored on. I felt like quitting several times but kept at it. About half way, I creeped up to the next guy on course. I was able to pass and gap him when the course turned muddy. I looked back later on and he was pretty distant. Then half a lap, one lap later, out of the blue he sprinted past me. But no worries, we were going into the muddy section and I just past him back. Soon after he pulled the pin and withdrew. Unfortunately, he withdrew from the past spot in the money.

I kept going at a good tempo. The course was super hard so you really couldn't ride it easy. Soon I saw Chris and used him as my target and motivation. I would gain a little and then lose a little. Two laps to go, I was getting dangerously close to getting lapped. Not wanting this to happen, I picked it up a little. Luckily I was able to cross the finish about 30 seconds in front of the winner and got to do my bonus lap. I wasn't going to catch Chris so I just rode the course pretty easy to finish it up.

DFL 14th place and in the Money! Made $20. I really felt flat and thought i had a pretty bad day. But however looking at the data, I rode harder than I did on Saturday. How is it that I felt like a rock star on sat and put out less power than when I felt horrible today? Next week is only one race so I guess I will find out if I can really ride harder at an OVCX race fresh. Or maybe it's mental?

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USGP Day 2

Not much to say today, I had a horrible race. I had the same number as yesterday so started way back. I had a really good start, probably in the top 15. I held it for a while then started to go backwards. The legs never really turned on and my back was killing me from yesterday. I had taken some ibuprofen before the race and was waiting for it to kick in. Unfortunately, it never did so I had a sore back and couldn't really put down the power. I thought the course was super slow. The ground was moist to be soft enough to just rob all speed. Anyway, ended up 51st.

Rest week coming up so I'll take it easy and recover some and then its Uncle Steve's and Gun Club next weekend.

miles driven: 580

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USGP Day 1

Day one of the USGP Derby City Cup has come to a close. It was a great
day of racing and watching the pros race.

A 10:15 start time ment an early wake up. Adam's place is about 20
minutes from the venue so we planned to leave around 7:40 so we could
get there at 8 to get a few laps on the course.

We got to the course at around 8:15, took the bikes off the roof and
headed on the course. Cat4 men started at 8:30 so we quickly took a
lap. The course had dried out a little bit compared to Friday when I
prerode the course.

Afterwards we went and got our fancy RFID chips and started to warm
up. It seemed to get colder as the minutes past but soon the trainer
had me pretty toasty.

Staging time came along and it was time to freeze standing waiting to
go. My number was 252 and they started at 200. And someone else said
they pulled the top 10 in the series and put them in front. Great a
mid pack start position with 100 guys.

We got rolling and it was a fight to simply not get taken out. I was
able to make it through without crashing, getting crashed, or getting
stuck behind a crash. I rode pretty hard in the first lap to pass as
many people as possible at every moment possible.

I got in a good tempo and started picking off guys that had gone too
hard and blown up. I was at one point close to getting into the front
big group but it was a tall task working alone versus a big group.

I slowed up a bit in the last two laps since there was pretty much no
one ahead of me. I kept the pressure on the pedals so no one would
catch me from behind.

I was able to get a solid 19th place. Sure I would have liked a top 10
but considering my start position, I'm pretty happy. We get new
numbers tomorrow so hopefully we get reshuffled to start in finish
order. Otherwise, I will have to be more agressive in the start to get
up into the front group for a shot at the top 10.

On the other hand We went over to Jackie's parents house and had a
fabulous dinner. I can bet that no one else ate quite as nice as we did.

I'm hoping for some good legs tomorrow

Katsu Tanda

Sent from my iPhone

USGP Preride

I arrived today in Louisville, KY under sunny and blue skys. I had
driven through four hours of rain so nice weather was a welcome change.

When I rolled into the park, there were plenty of people there riding
the course. The Cannondale and Kona trailers were already there though
I did not see any of the riders.

The course is pretty similar to last years course so any one that has
done this race last year should have a good feel for it. There are
some tricky changes in there but should make for exciting racing.

The one thing that was a factor is the sticky mud. Not sure if the
course will dry a little but my bike picked up a lot of mud. My tires
especially packed up on the sides. I may take a bike swap halfway
through if I pickup lots of mud so I can cut down 5 pounds. The mud is
very ridable and isn't super slick, it just sticks. I may have to run
to the store and get spray cooking oil or a can of petrolium jelly to
get less stickage.

I am staying with Adam and Jackie this weekend and they are not too
far from the course. We'll be up early so we can get a preride in
tomorrow before the 4's race.

Report and pictures tomorrow.

Katsu Tanda

Sent from my iPhone