R1b

It's not all about cycling:

I had myself haplotyped through the National Geographic's Genographic project. As a male, I can have my Y chromosome tested and it will tell me what my ancestral father's geographic origin is, my father's father's father's father, etc. Pretty amazing. Note that this isn't an admixture test: it doesn't tell me if I'm half Irish or half Indian. In fact, I could be 15/16 European but my ancestral father could be from Africa and my test would come back as only African.

To go a little deeper, we ARE all from Africa, that's borne out by these tests, it's just a question of when we left. You find out which 'out of Africa' route you're ancestral father took.

So, to get to me. My haplotype is R1B. Turns out that my ancestral father ended up in Spain during the last Ice Age (around 15K years ago), and probably migrated to England once it became habitable again at 13K years ago. I say 'probably' cause it can't discern when exactly my ancestors moved there, though there are more tests to find out my 'subclade' giving more definition on the migration pattern. If I turn out to be R1b1c7 for example then I'll know that I was part of the original post Ice Age migration to the specter ed isle. In fact, they moved there so long ago that it wasn't even an island at the time. They just walked from Spain to Ipswitch.

In a word: I'm Basque. In a way...

I was born in England by the way, as were all my known relatives, if you're wondering why I'm assuming the early migration to the UK. The ale must have been good already.

I'm reading a really great book on this whole thing, that really gets technical on what's know archaeologically, linguistically, and genetically. The basic thesis being: neither the Vikings, nor the Anglo Saxons, wiped out all my ancesters that already inhabited the island when the invaded. The gene makeup is largely as it was 13K years ago. Rather they had large cultural effects, but didn't kill everybody. My ancestral father was probably there before all the later invasions. I'm the original briton, probably speaking something related to Basque, then moving to something related to Welsh, then lastly taking on English after the Anglo Saxon invasions.

Better go out and get my subclade testing next.

You can also do Mitochondrial testing to find out about your ancestral mother. In fact, for women, that's the only test you can do. My wife had it done and, surprise surprise, she's western european. Doesn't seem like you can get the same detail from the mtDNA test.

a nice day out.

Burlingame 35+ race. This was raced back to back with the p1/2 field, and I couldn't decide if I should take one more seriously than the other? Must admit that getting finishes in the p1/2 races are more important to me these days. I mean, why not be a cat 1 rider? Sounds good doesn't it? 35+ races are tough and satisfying but those officials just won't give me any points for it. Most, if not all, the guys winning the 35+ races have been 1's for a long time, so they have nothing to prove.

Anyway, the race started quickly enough, but was pretty managable. I can't remember if there were some breaks early on, nothing dangerous. On the first or second prime, I went to the front with half a lap to go and drilled it hard, just to see what would happen. I drug out an AMD and Big Bosch with me, before you know it we had a gap. Should have gone harder cause we let on six other riders for an overly big 9 man break, including LeBerge. I'm learning that I don't HAVE to work for a break that isn't working for me, but the lesson wasn't finished cause that's work I did. Neither AMD rider was working much, and even Bosch wasn't pulling his normal monstrous pace. There was an unattached rider in red that was working hard, and me. Bosch also counts even at 75% power. The rest weren't doing much.

We got close to being caught near the end, with the break under 10 seconds. I hear from the sidelines though that the chase wasn't working well. I didn't know this, and continued to work hard to keep the pace high. AMD didn't really need to work since they had others back in the pack.

With 500 or 600 yards to go I tried to gap the other riders which at least shed two or three riders, but the rest were able to take advantage and pass me with 50 yards left leaving me in sixth. I should have been more patient, but that would have meant settling for second or third behind sprint man LeBerge.

Next time I'm going to attack the break hard in a situation like that. If I can't get away, I'll sit on and let it get caught and try to reshuffle so as to loose the Berge, or at least make them work. I WILL figure this stuff out.

More on the p1/2 later.

Game on...

Team was on task yesterday at Burlingame. Great day, Mike H brought out the TeamOakland tent, Justin brought out the game, Masters 4's brought the plan.

Congrats to Stephen and the Master's 4 team, they had control in the last five laps, not sure how the Pen Velo sprinter got ahead of Stephen. Will wait for the report.

Really fun, glad I showed up early to see the early race, OK... so I missed the 7:30 am 4's but that was a bridge too far. Saw the 1/2 win in the 3's, great tactics by John and Justin.

The Master's 35+ was fun, though I really need to learn to sit on or up in breaks that aren't going my way. P/1/2 was good, some crashes, but I learnt to surf a sprint finish pretty well in that field finally.

POO ride

The 'Port of Oakland' Ride is on Tuesdays, I guess it's obvious where... it's a good crit simulation with 40 to 60 riders. The loop is 2.4 miles, usually we do 10 laps or so until time is up. Fast, good mix of riders. I've been measuring the speeds:

Here are the numbers from tonight June 19th. I think the wind was really up cause the average was a lot lower but the max was still high
Avg Max
24.4 34.6
26.5 36.4
26.9 31.4
26.8 35.7
25.8 36.1
26.5 33.1
25.1 32.0
25.8 33.0
25.7 31.3

There was this great moment: the first break went in the first lap or two with me, Haydn, Jimbei, Lombardi, Maury caught on. We went a lap and got partly caught at the end of the headwind section. Things fragmented, Maury attacked, I went, there was confusion, and Chad and Phil came by hard (I think that was the 36.4 mph max) and I had to work hard to get on their wheel and Hadyn caught on a quarter mile later. That was the winning move. Haydn, Chad, and I were able to settle into a good rotation and that was it. I love the attack, counterattack. Nice stuff....

old guys bring it

I was saying in my Pescadero report about being an old guy in the p1/2 race. Related, can't help but notice the results from the TT Championships yesterday. http://www.ncnca.org/road/2007/tt07.html

Who had the fastest time overall? Hutchinson, at 40. Who had the second fastest time overall, Kevin Metcalfe, in the 45+ category! Brian Bosch was 3rd in the 35+. p1/2 best was only fourth overall.

What is it about cycling that allows old guys to hang out longer. Think it's partly that the relatively injury-free, low impact sport allows you to just keep upping your mileage to compensate. Whereas with running, my previous sport, as you get older you are able to run less total mileage. That's a double hit, since you fitness goes down as your fitness per mileage is also going down.

With cycling your fitness per total mileage may get hit, but you just re up your miles and 'voila!'...

Pescando para puntos

Pescadero Coastal Classic RR: a race I've done every year (meaning third time). Funny, cause first I did the 2 lap version, then the 3 lap version, and on Saturday did the 4 lap version. I like the long RRs so definitley planned on this one. In addition, they were picking the 2's separately, which is a mixed blessing as I will show later. It was my first p/1/2 RR, about 60 starting riders.

There were a handful of pros out there which was intimidating: I didn't know who Barry Wickes was, but he sounded and looked scary. 6'4" maybe, 200 pounds, national Cyclocross champion. Also there were Roman Kilun, Jamiel, a BMC and a Rock Racing rider (Kevin Klein). There were almost ten CalGiant riders, five BPG, no other real team presence.

First time around was pretty tame. Briggs and a BPG rider went off the front from the gun, getting up to 2.5 minutes on us, but noone seemed concerned. This being my longest RR ever, was determined to conserve, reaching back to my Cat 4 roots. I've learned to be aggressive in the p/1/2 Crits, but until I knew more about my legs at 100+ miles....

First time over Haskins, Roman and others are laughing and joking on the climb. Now, I didn't think it was hard, but I wasn't cracking jokes either. I was happy to get a pass. Second time over Stage Rd, I experienced my first real peloton bathroom break. The call went out, everyone stopped (except for some skeptical 2's) and took a piss. Really nice and civil I thought...

Then comes second time over Haskin's. I'm not a numbers guys so I can't give you much data, but man it was painful, much faster. I was dangling off the back of the main group of 15 riders or so, just stuck in there. We didn't gap a second group of 15 enough though, and they back on, so not sure I needed to kill myself so much, but that's easy to say in retrospect. I'm glad I was safely in there.

The attacks third time up 84 were much more furious. Briggs had already been caught (I saw him in the follow vehicle!), but another CalGiant and Chris Swan were up the road. A group of six got away to chase early on 84, with two CalGiants sitting on. I thought now was a good time for an effort, so I decided to bridge. Managed to get on without too much work. Break was Ted Huang, Rock Racing guy, some others. I didn't think it looked great though with so many sitting on. Turned out to work out well though: we took Haskin's relatively easy, got caught at the top, and caught the two man break, but the Peloton had to hit the climb hard while I was rested.

Last time around and I'm not feeling the miles as badly as I had thought I might. Another two man break. This time its Lieto (CalGiant, 7th at Mt Hood overall) and Barry Wicks. Chasing seemed a little anemic, the pack seeming to settle into a race for third. Roman tried, but couldn't get away. I have to admit I was starting to race the other 2's, not the whole group. But given that there weren't enough 2's to make points, not sure that was a good idea. Should have just raced the whole group, and now that I have a race under the belt, I will next time.

There was a lot of anxiety leading up to the finishing climb on Haskin's. There were 10 2's left in the group, and another 15 p/1's. I decided to just sit on the back and watch this time. Patience, patience. I could see Doran (ClifBar) working to stay fourth wheel or so. Was watching three Chris's: Coble, Swan, and Phipps (usually in Masters) all looking dangerous. They were all more relaxed further back.

Quickly enough a group of five with Roman hit the bottom hard and gapped the next group. I was in the back of that next group of ten or so, but was feeling good, and just slowly passed on the right trying to avoid Kevin Klein who kept veering over. With 1K to go, it was Doran, looking taxed from being at the front, Chris Swan and Coble in front of me. I surged by them all in the saddle, taking Swan and Coble with me. Chris Swan beat us in the 3's last year, and I expected him to haul off again, but he couldn't do it. I was hoping to gap, and pushed a little harder, but still had Coble on my wheel. I got out of the saddle and tried to punch but found there was little left. Christian from BPG fell off the group ahead and was veering across the road. I had to go around him, which put me level with Coble, and I couldn't punch more and he got ahead of me at the line.

Happy to be 8th overall, and 2nd in the 2's. Next time, no more race within a race against the 2's! Probably won't count for points, if they demand 60 starting 2's.

Chava and Phipps died early on in the last climb, which I didn't expect. Evan Picket, Stanford rider in his first p1/2 race looked really good in the race. He won EMC in an impressive solo break last week.

I'm sure I was the only one in the last group AND had a teenager in the feed zone. Too bad that doesn't count for anything...

getting mentored (getting schooled)

So I learnt some lessons from two masters at the EMC crit yesterday: Steve Reaney (CalGiant, won both Salinas and Memorial Day) and Larry Nolan (you all know him already).

As I was covering an attack in the 35+ race yesterday, dragging the pack with me as I am wont to do, Reaney looks over his shoulder shaking his head in disgust. He sits up, yells at me: "you've been doing that to me all year, and that's why your races end in shit!" Well, I am not good at yelling back, and I was thinking he had a point. I skulked back to the rear of the peloton to think about this for a while. The next one that I covered (with Reaney and Nolan in it) I really did try to sprint first and then settle in for a bridging effort, and you know what? It worked. Bridged up last and off we went, not to be caught. Did have to shake a Disco rider trying to cover me. Was able to apply lesson later in the p1/2 race (read below).

I talked to Steve after the race, he apologized for being particularly surly about it, and explained his POV. I guess it makes perfect sense now, but he was pointing out that I was doing a disservice to both of us cause he and I both lose a break opportunity by dragging everyone around with me. Whereas if I'm able to do it on my own the chances of a successful break are magnified. Really it's about having the confidence that you can do the bridge on your own or with one or two others, whereas in the past I've felt the need to take more people with me to help me get up there.

Other lesson was from Larry. With ten minutes left in the race he announces he's not going to work anymore. Well, we had a pretty good gap, but it wasn't 'that' good. Definitely could have been reeled in still. It's the game of chicken, who has what motivations to make it stick, who has a backup plan. I figure I'm pretty good to have in there until I learn to not work a whole bunch and then get taken in the end. Larry later pointed out that he has no reason to work much: if we get caught then DiscoveryAMD can just take LeBerge out of the pocket and win it anyway. If I get caught... we had already lapped James like three times so he wasn't going to be helping out.

Actually Larry also taught us how to work that last lap, by winning it. I waited on Reaney to try to bridge me up but he didn't and I cooked myself to get back on.

So it's true that I sometimes work more than my share in the break but in a lot of cases I don't have a choice unless we have a winning sprinter back there, or I'm willing to risk getting caught (I'm not, never will be I guess).