UCI Amateur World Road Cycling Championship Report
David Rowlands
1 Sept 14
Background.
Good performances over the last few years, large personal satisfaction from the sport, and unfinished sport goals from the duathlon days cut short by need for income and shift of energy to career, I decided to do my best at World Amateur Road champs. I raced in Trento, Italy last year: a mountainous course with 3000m vertical over 115 km. finished 4 th place after riding back to contention after being taken down in a crash on the final descent before the final 21 km climb.
BikeNZ has 10 wildcard selections for UCI amateurs and they use results at National Club Champs for selection. So first goal was to win or at least place well in that, which I did. I started training for WCs in late Jan after Sept-Dec off seasons and focusing energy on a large research project. Autumn season started slowly, with only getting some form around Easter and Nationals. After a win in
Benchmark for Armstrong Subaru team week after Nationals, I was still in the dark from BikeNZ on selection, which to be honest makes planning professional and personal life difficult. I my view,
BikeNZ should use a more open selection criteria, especially considering rider history, form, and that it is 100% funded by the rider. Most riders (85%) ride in team kit, so UCI open qualification (top 25% in qualifier events) lets in almost anyone reasonable. Nevertheless, the Amateur Worlds is a tough event – a big step up in field quality, M40-44 probably similar to top domestic open races minus the pros. BikeNZ came through early June with selection, which makes it official, but in reality, overkill considering above relatively easy entry criteria for most Europeans and other countries with qualifers. BikeNZ – lend us a hand and let us know earlier please.
Winter is not for bike riding
I had work overseas on several projects late May-June, so road about 3-4 days a week when could and did a few long hard rides. But, I came back to NZ exhausted with jet lag and heavy workload– hit me hardest ever. The cold weather and darkness is tough too. So for 5 weeks I sat on the fence.
Caught the classic throat infection – brought home by French interns spreading the lurgy. Went very glandular and kept it right until World champs, with several relapses. My immune systems is hammered. Cold weather is hard on the body.
Second winter training experience. Recommendation: only do endurance riding and possibly sprints outside; the rest keep warm and healthy and train indoors. Loose more from getting sick, than gain from outdoor riding. Consider sunbed sessions (vit D).
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So, very little riding done in early-mid July. Started back on the indoor bike, mid July and a few riders outside. Had lost a lot of condition, but legs fresh. Changed back to old Bonts and a few other things, which were problematic.
Decision to go.
I finally need a pep talk. Form was still OK from Autumn efforts and life is short. End July Talked to
Silas Cullen – Smartcoaching (awesome coach). Silas advised 4 weeks of high volume (20-25 h/wk) and I will be ok. Everything was lined up: accommodation, essential work support, racing build up plan, personal motivation. I just had to make the decision to commit the $8000. So if you wonder why I drive a rusty 1994 Nissan wagon….blame the bike riding. Others also said I needed to back off work to free up time to train and rest (it didn’t happen – still the standard 55-65 h weeks all July – team was on a mission ), but did focus and get in 10 days of good training before left.
Booked Singapore Airlines 5 d before leaving (50kg baggage limit with Gold Status, and I needed every kg of it). A great airline; now better than AirNZ in my opinion, who have fallen off the ranking due to their poor international connections e.g. 18 h layovers in Asia and using non star alliance partners – AirNZ, sort it out loyalty=loyalty. Booked rental car ex. Milan.
Arrival.
Andrew Meo of MeoGP Directorship fame, was awesome and put me up in Crema, Milan for 3 nights including a race. THANKS ANDREW – you are a legend!
On Sat we raced in an Amateur race in the Udace league. 77 masters riders. Was very fast. Lots of attacks. I made 2 breaks, which got caught, then finally bridged across with another rider to the final selection. Boxed in on the last 250 m to go to the line. Lesson which I picked up on for future races and World Champs – best to be assertive an attack decisively and early; well at least be on the right wheel and on the outside (e.g. Cancellara tour of Flanders). Was a dog leg corner, then 150m to go, so had to be 1-3 wheel or jump like Cavendish. Hot weather. Rocket Espresso co. Great coffee. Good for a jet lag race and good form to start with. 5.5 h out to and up Stevino climb behind Bergamo in
Sunday. So a good 10.5 h weekend.
Then on Monday, drove to Annecy. Kindly put up by Ang, Silas, Isobella, and Julian Cullan. Much cooler in France, and remained 16-22oC range for test of trip, except Slovenia which was hotter.
Next day left for Geneva to pick up Dr. Blair Lesley to get to Doucier for start of Amateur Tour l’Ain.
Logistics substantial. http://www.tourdelain.com/
Tour l’Ain
4 stages over 4 days. Amateurs ride in the morning and pros (UCI 2.1) in afternoon. Probably the best tour have ever ridden in terms of course, organisation, terrain, and outcome. A great bunch of riders. Competition similar to open tours in NZ. Full road closures and technical courses with good balance of short, long (12 km!) climbs, rolling, flat terrain, crosswinds.
Results: http://www.votrecourse.com/resultat-tour-de-l-ain-cyclo-688.html
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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152317023292683&set=pcb.10152317029107683&t ype=1&theater
Report: (apologise for the very ego-centric first person writing style)
So first stage started on Wed. Raining raining… cold 16oC. 90 riders mainly from France, Belgium,
UK, and 20-30 day riders. A break went about 20 km in. Then I got in another of about 12 riders. We rode together. I can’t remember details now, but it split in the crosswinds and I finished 5th 51 sec down on the leader (Masters 40-44 World cyclocross champ Lionel Genthon: the sit on or attack tactic man).
Stage 2 was flat and no rain except a shower. I took off for a solo thinking they were running sprint ace and hoping for others to come across. Whoops, organisers said in French they cancelled sprint ace competition and GC and KOM only. So riding sole from about 25 to about 70 km. Finaly 3 came across. But not strong enough to ride to 160 km finish. So came back together with 50 km to go. At
35km to go another break went. Stayed in bunch. We changed direction and found some rain and crosswinds. Yellow attacked in x-wind. I found a gap on outside and jumped across. A Belgium rider came across. We then bridged to the break with Yellow working. I attacked as soon as we caught the front fortunately as we hit a road overbridge and formed a group of 3 (2 Belgian guys including
Mathias Delameilleure, who is very strong). We rode away. Mathias punctured with 10km to go – urgh!. I attacked the other Belgain rider with 2 km to go, then won solo to take yellow. Held 33 sec on the Lionel.
Next day was big climbs in the Jura. It was very hard.
I had to dig really deep, which as perfect toughening up for the Worlds. Lots of splits and regroups.
Lost the front on the first 12km climb, but we dragged it back along the false flats. Rained steadily all day. Cold. Technical narrow wet fast descents. Tires at 110 psi (rate Vittoria SR tubes 24mm for grip and Enve blocks for Zipps – perfect breaking control in dry and wet)) Diego van Looy (Belgain) and
Kenny Neilson (Belgain also) and one other guy road off at about 70km of the 130 km. the last big climb and descent – Cat 1 Col de Menthieres – 9 km at 6-8%, the rest of the split (about 8-10 riders) climbed tempo, until an attack, which I jumped on. Dig very very very deep, so deep I can’t remember the climb – just the cluster and bottom of my lungs. Rode compact cranks, which allowed
90 rpm and a relatively flat block (27-11), so had legs for the flats and descent. Cadence is the key.
Finished 3rd after a battle with Lionel the cyclocross champ after he descended very fast and caught me. Held 2nd with 18 sec behind yellow (van Looy) and 33 s up on Third. Was a brutal stage. Talking
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to van Looy later and said peak 4 min power 450 W…. at 62 kg. Mine is about that, but 77 kg! do the math!
Last day. They accommodated us (I booked in the logistic package, which was on the whole very good fun and good value) in an old ski lodge. Poor beds and low quality food this night. So recovery was bad as it can get minus having a party all night. So started feeling terrible. I almost pulled out on the first of 7, 3-4 cat climbs.
But thought “keep riding for the training”. I recovered on the bike by eating (3 bars!), drinking and staying in the bunch. This worked as I kept out of sight of the other contenders and they forgot about me or something!. rode on the front a lot. Breaks went with 70-60km to go and eventually a group of 6 went away who were down on GC. Then a dangerous break went with Lionel and I went across – mainly to keep the peloton together, but they didn’t chase. 5 Belgians came across and we caught the escapees. Lionel went to the back and did no work, so I was expecting to be attacked later. I rode him off the back of the bunch to piss off his strategy and he sprinted back on and forced him to roll. I kept the pace on, but careful not to take too much wind. Yes, the attacks came in the last 10 km, but by then was ready. Mainly success though due to the honest and hard riding by the
Belgian crew – these guys are real men of cycling. Rode in to win the tour! How things change in a stage from totally grovelling nearly pulling out and sucking to the back of peloton, to being able to bridge to breaks and defend and sprint near the end of a stage.
Was pleasantly delighted with the surprise win.
Recuperation and the delicate art of peaking.
So next stop was 10 d in Anncey recuperating and doing final sessions. I am a major fan of Greg
Lemond’s training programmes, so generally following the principles. So, Sunday was a day off and
Mon-Thurs was easy short rides. Easy like 20-27 kph spins at 90-110 bpm. Loved it. Did a pile of work and sleeping in. Fri was a test ride, 7 sprints and a tempo climb up Seminoz. 3 h. felt pretty good.
FFC Crits
So wanted some more racing - at $1000 a race, one makes the most of it. Ultimate in specificity for the perfect sharpening. Italy was too much of a mission. Silas helped me get in to some Cat2-3 crits in St Symphorain cur Cloise and Montrond les Bains, both w of Lyon. [ Note for interested in racing in France – I had an International license, but FFC requires you to get BikeNZ to write to them to confirm you are eligible to race in France to get on the list of approved international riders. See webpage. Or get an FFC license. Need to speak French…All sorted day before]. St Sympho. Started
1830 h. Was 45 x 1.8km; basically: up-flat-down-flat 45 times! 45 hill reps and sprint primes – perfect
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sharpening! I won the primes overall and 2 nd in final sprint (did a flier at 2 km to go, but died and just didn’t have enough to kick again in final bunch sprint, but enough to hold second. 195 euros prize money was handy. Meet Richard Lawson from CHCH at the race – he is riding very well for a team in France,
So then drove to hotel in St Etienne – 11pm! Slept in till 10 am, then 2 h brunch. Work for 3 h, then off to Montrond. Typical French – no signage, so basically drive around until find some haybails and other cars with racing bikes… sign in from 1 h before start. This crit was 2.6 km block. Pan flat.
[One thing I had problems with all travels was a buckled Zipp. Ricardo trued it in NZ before left and it was fine in Italy. However, in transportation in the Tour l’Ain, It received a 3-4 mm buckle. It was riding fine in practice. I thought about leaving it buckled as carbon fiber wheels and spoke tension are really fickle. Gut feeling was to leave it, but residual over-responsibility/OCD personality trait urged me to get it fixed! Also I was riding campag clusters – which were performing just fine, albeit with a little nudge, but no problems. But, again OCD….! I went ahead and brought a Shimano feehub body… totally unnecessary in the end.]
So, back to Montrond. Was riding this for training…. Rode with Richard quite a bit. Breaks went and got reeled in. One seemed to stick. So I headed off to chase it down. Brought a few riders with me.
Richard was in the break I think I recal. Anyway 5 of us got away at about 50 km of 85 km. We powered it at 44-52 kph and pulled out to about 1 min lead, which we held to 30 sec at the finish. I won from Richard in the sprint by about 1 cm! http://www.veloracingnews.com/article-un-all-black-a-montrond-les-bains-124436803.html
Back to Annecy Sat late. 4.5 h easy Sunday. Day off Mon. Tues easy 2 h. Wed a few accellerations (5-
6) and one tempo climb 2 h, then drive 9.5 h to Slovenia. Thurs, 2 h easy over the last 30k m of the course, Fri 90 min easy. Sat 2 x 5 min threshold (was riding at 45-48 kph….hummmm),4 sprints. Rear
Zipp Wheel was rubbing. [Silas’ mechanic was away, so we took Zipp to Metabikes…. They mechanic dished the wheel over to the left leaving only 2-3 mn from the frame – OMG….incompetent possibly.
So I went to a shop in Ljubljana. Spoked to a good mechanic and he check the hub to see if that was issue, but not – definitely had been dished right over in attempt to true. He said leave it and hope for the best….]
I also after much trial and error and adjustment, decided to use my new Bont shoes as were stiffer and more comfortable. However, down side was not fully neuromuscular compliant compared with old shoes, so took the gamble on performance over history. Tried to also get as much bed rest as possible, but not as much as aimed for (12 h/d – John Walker and Migual Indurain – you got to lie down!), so I reckon was still slightly underrested on race morning.
World Amateur Road Champs. Ljubljana, Slovenia 31 Aug 14.
Course was basically flat - 5 km hill at 4.5% at 29 km - undulating and descent – 7 km climb at 6-8% at 82 km - downhill – 60 km flat and rolling to finish. 158.2 km. http://www.gis.si/maraton-franja/#activity/franja_velika/1
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Strategy was to ride top 20 wheels but just stay out of trouble before second climb. At base of climb go to near front and follow any splits. On other side, get in the front groups, then go with and/or initiate attacks to narrow down competition to small selection.
More or less, this is EXACTLY what happened, so riding the perfect race. The only possible place I may have made a mistake was riding the climb too hard- it was always going to need at least 6 riders to ride away. However, getting over the climb first meant I made the split, but did dig very deep at that point in the race, which may have knocked a little juice out of the legs.
M40-44 caught M35-39 on the first climb, so UCI still don’t have the race format right. Anyway, they let the bunches merge. We also rode past the slower 20-29 riders, but they were asked to drop back.
The story starts from the base of the 7 km climb – it’s about as long as Rimutaka hill and similar gradient. I rode it at full pace in 39-19/25 depending on grade and attack status. The 11-28 was not a great cluster – too many teeth jump. Will sell it off.
A few attacks went at the bottom but got dragged in. The current World Champ – Antonio Borelli – a tonne of respect, put on the gas – sustained power and surges. I stuck on his wheel like glue. Held on and we rode off the front until 1.5 km to top, then saw a bunch of 7-8 riders behind, so decided to ease up as was close to blowing up. The experience confirmed I would not have won last year as
Borelli too strong on the hills, but probably would have podiumed had not been in the crash.
A bunch of 11 or so formed on the descent and we rode together hard until the feed station at 131 km. I took a drink bottle and 5 others did too, but we were soon 200 m behind, which was about near the end of my bridging range!! No one drove it, so I took off at full sprint effort taking only one other with me. That could have been the race. Thought went into my mind (thanks Peter Murphy:
“you will need to burn some candles – and there certainly were some burnt there). So got on, just, to make 5 x M40-44 riders and 2 x M35-39 riders. This split continued the fast pace (44-48 kph) until about 15 km to go, when I lead over an overbridge. As I was drifting to the back, the big attack came from Igor Kopse, the former 35-39 world champs 2013 and 2 nd in the ITT (18 km in 21 min av.. 429
W!). No one chased, so again sprinted off to chase – prerace plan was to run on instinct and to defend in the last 20 km, so this is what I did, although possibly working with the others to drag him might have worked too but experience suggests that can lead to problems and best to look after oneself. I made contact, sat for about 15 sec way over VO2max or whatever, then got flicked through, which I did as thought two men away = great shot at winning. Another rider came across and we drilled it at 100% (50-55 kph) to form the decisive split. Podium all good. I was at full effort and holding off cramps, but in a good position. Tucking down as low as possible and minimising time at front without showing weakness to the other guys. At about 8 km to go we eased to lapping at 47-
48 kph, so still fast, but permitted some recovery to regain some PCr stores, I presume. It was very hard racing, but I was going to jump on any attack and ready myself for counter if it required and the last 200m. Thought “this is it; it is hard and this is what it takes to in the World Champs, focus; right here right now, the moment, wait and be patient, conserve energy and position for the sprint….”
At about 5-6km out – Boom!! Rear Zipp exploded. Broken spoke and wheel unridable. Wheel car was behind the chase group. Was so pissed off, swore etc. Got a replacement and rolled in for 5 th . A rather emotional few days after… So much work, so much investment, in the moment in time. Lost a
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guaranteed podium and shot at the win. A week later, I am still very disappointed. It is a substantial challenge to get to the Worlds and to have the kind of form to be in a position to win it.
Post-analysis
Lesson: never ride important bike races on old wheels with patch up true jobs from unknown quality mechanics. Period. Just don’t ride old wheels. What is old with high performance gear (2 years??).
Would have been better to have left it buckled.. But that’s not it – I have a pair of Zipps from 2001 still going. It is the specific nature of each wheel. I lost B grade TNL tour in 1995 when in the split going over Wongamoa Hill with Brian Fowler, Ewan McMaster etc and only B grade rider. Boom spoke snap. That wheel was a custom build light weight. Lesson 2: trust instinct. Lesson 3: (if can afford it), buy new wheelset for big races and have shoes and set up sorted at least 10-12 weeks prior to allow for neural adaptation. It’s a challenge. I work full time – just finding time to train is hard enough. Physios, mechanics, busy shop owners, 2-3 week order turn arounds, money… it’s hard going. Major sacrifices. With all the travel though – never know how gear was treated. Beginning to think hard boxes are way to go with wheels, but have bag and weight restrictions… and practicalities of hauling 50 kg of stuff around. Money and technology and other resources (time) definitely contribute to preparedness for racing. It’s an expensive sport and champions have a lot of luck, a lot of help, or leave no stones unturned. Don’t compromise on kit. Or forget it and take up beer and renovating rental properties – same principles in beer and investments though!
However, sometimes, shit happens (could have been a puncture on a nail). But the frustration, is that I made a decision that might have affected the outcome. Nevertheless, UCI should have a neutral wheel bike or car following the leaders … in this case even a 1 min wheel change I still would have held 3 rd place.
All up, I had an incredible trip. I am very tired now. A tour and 3 crits, and Worlds – perfect build up?. So, at this stage I am tentatively interested in next year, but the other options of local racing, tour new Cali/southland are races I have never done. If things line up, starting planning with work, projects, staffing, organising other commitments for another go – but is it worth it? Next year, is northern Denmark (Ahlborg) – crosswinds and rollers. Perhaps not totally as good a course as this year for me, but again, all about preparedness for the course (strength, endurance, and sprints) and race strategy to be there when it matters, and to pull out the instinctive bridge when needed, attack if legs have it, and be ready to rip.
For me, the sport is about the complete body-mind-machine-environment-competitor interface. A state of total concentration, planning, reading competition, calibrating energy resource availability, finding friends to help on your way, and threats, enemies, and backstabbers. Road racing is a beautiful microcosm of life and human behaviour. Because of this, possibly the greatest endurance sport invented.
Supplements.
Would be wrong not to practice what research and teach. So this year I took evidence-based medicine:
-B-Alanine. (Chronic)
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-Dairy protein. For recovery after hard training. Otherwise, as healthy diet as possible based on red meat, fish, vegetables, whole grain cereals, nuts and fruits, dairy and coffee.
-0.8:1.0 fructose:maltodextrin sports drink for racing, and afternoon/evening loading for races
>100km. Our lab shown 2-3% improved power with this blend over other blends. Training: doesn’t matter, generally Powerbar endurance products. In fact, train fasted, on water, and solids for as long as can manage to harden up metabolism, “delayed recovery to promote adaptation”. e.g. Saunas after training, no feeding or drink until later. The harder you make it on the body in training, the better the adaptive stimuli. The key is to not expose body to stress that is maladaptive (cold weather and rain, work and other life stress, lack of sleep, alcohol, poor diet).
-Caffeine. 3 mg/kg every 2 h. I start with one coffee and no other fluid on race day – too much and have to pee. Then continue during race about 50 mg/h. also, have started not drinking in the morning – it’s terrible having full bladder. If well hydrated day before, body is OK with fluid taken during. Need to plan fluid intake according to heat stress and feed stations, if any.
-Paraceutamol (Acetaminophen). 250-500 mg before, and about 250-500 mg/h. Recent studies suggest about 2% gain in power with 3 x 500 mg over 2 h (I re. (don’t use for training as candidate to attenuate inflammatory stress adaptations)
-total carbs during racing about 70-90 g/h, and certain good to top up prior to the hammer going down. Bars, gels and drink (10-11% ie more concentrated). I have a good gut, but do need some fluid with the solids. All Fructose/maltodextrin blends.
Thank you
Massey University –for special and annual leave. The racing is “leisure” and an important experience in trialling what teach and research into practice.
Silas Cullen for the last min coaching (www.smartcoaching.co.nz) help, friendship, and getting me into the FFC races (love your French dude!)
Silas and Ang (Annecy), Slim and the Meo crew (Crema) for the beds, the Belgian hammers in Tour l’Ain, Blair Lesley for great roommate and French interpretation (honestly in France, one needs to speak French), Sabina and Robert (Airbnb apartment).
Paul, Shane, Ricardo, Mike at Capital cycles for the BMC, servicing and general patience will my last min bike demands – thanks guys – makes a big difference.
PNP Cycling Club – The best club in NZ. For performance grant support and the camaraderie and friendship.
All the cyclists and close friends and family who contribute through mutual suffering and for the words of support and wisdom, which I very much take in: Mum, Dad, Jo Goudie, Pete Murphy, Andy
Hagen, Chris Stevenson, Steve Stannard, Joe Cooper, Dan Wal-jetski, Steve Chapman, Deirdre
Johnson, Marco Renall, Ash Sparks, Dave Wallace, Nic Adams, Tristan Thomas, Stu Houltham,
David Bailey, Trent Stellingwerf, Eric Zaltas, Jorge Sandoval….there’s more!
So, it’s back to the monastery for another year.
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David Rowlands.
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