Chris Swan

Last week was Mt hood, and as always, it was a great field and great racing.  It started off with the prologue.  It was short and sweet, but not as short as last years crazy sprint in down town Portland.  This year it was back to the old course in hood river up to panorama point.  This day was all about getting the legs ready for the rest of the week for me, so race prep was just cruising around and enjoying the scenery of orchards and mountains.

The next day, Cooper Spur Circuit race, was taken more seriously in my race prep.  This course has to be one of the most deceivingly difficult races ever created.  You look at it, and even after riding it, it doesn’t seem like too much.  It seems mostly flattish until you get to the climb up to cooper spur, which isn’t really that steep, then the descent down the other side, repeat.  Unfortunately, that mostly flattish is all false flat uphill, where you don’t really get to coast unless you want to loose about 29 places and soon be off the back, and its actually steeper than it looks, so get out of that big ring because it really isn’t doing any good.  Then you get to the turn off to head the final few kilometers to cooper spur, and that’s where the hill is noticeably steep.  Then you get about ten minutes of downhill to recover before you start the ascent again.  Since Hood was not an NRC this year, it wasn’t as hard as past years, and aside from not being far enough to the front for the last few k, I think I rode pretty well.  The last lap was all about position into the final climb, and all the teams were lining up, leaving me fighting for position.  I had a descent position, but not quite far enough up the field to get around all the gaps opening up on the final climb.  oops.

The TT was as epic as ever, this year it was WINDY as can be.  For those that don’t know this TT course, its pretty much the best time trial ever created by human intelligence.  It starts out in The Dalles, heads into the gorge along cliffs, then up a twisty climb, on a plateau for a while, then descends down the hill into mosier, and then goes onto a rails to trails bike path that includes some more climbing, and a tunnel.  Add to that a fast down hill finish to really make you feel fast, and you have the greatest time trial ever created.   Unfortunately, I wasn’t really feeling it on this day, and decided it would be best to ride some tempo and save a little in the tank for the next few days.  But being in the race, I kept on having a battle between “Save it for tomorrow” and “I’m here, so I might as well ride hard”.  All the while, I was enjoying the course way too much to really be time trialing anyways, so it was a nice kinda hard ride for me, and besides, I needed to give the guys behind me someone to catch.

The Wy’East Road Race was nice, it started out with a fast descent where we must have been going around 50mph.  Over a small climb and down the hour long descent into eastern Oregon.  I don’t think there are many courses that have as much down hill as this one.  There wasn’t much that happened during the race.  But there was a huge crash, a big pile up on a small down hill sweeping turn.  only about 20 riders made it past it, everyone else was either on the ground or at a stand still behind the crash.  I was pretty happy to squeeze past this one, and barely made it through a gap between a bike and a guard rail.  The whole pack took it easy, had a pee break and let everyone get back together.  The real racing wasn’t until the climb started anyways, so there was no need to make everyone chase after hitting the pave.  The final climb was epic, but seemed a little easier and shorter than past years.  Seems that training business is paying off.  I was pretty bummed when the guy in front of me crossed wheels and crashed.  It was right in front of me, I didn’t have any time to react and I rode over his bike, also crashing.  I’m pretty sure I rode over his chain rings, judging by the odd triangular cut in my tire.  Got a new wheel and hoped back on to race some more.  I was relieved to see Kennett being a super team mate, waiting for me just behind the caravan to help me get back in the race.  Couldn’t ask for a better team mate.  After a few minutes of Kennett and I riding together, we were back in peloton and back in the game.  There was an attack when we turned onto 35, I was feeling good and at the front so I hoped on it to see what my legs could do and vie for a top spot today.  I hung on to the effort most of the way up the hill, but I finally cracked from the leaders when we hit the turn off into mount hood meadows.  Cracked may be an understatement, since I went from top 6 to top 46.  I got passed by just about every one in the last 2k.  Maybe next year Ill be able to hold them off

The Down town crit is in no shortage of turns and hills.  The down hill corkscrew/shikane(how is that spelled anyways??)/180 is always fun.  I felt pretty good still, and was excited for the crit.  Unfortunately, midway through, some guy radically changed his line in the corner, which bumped the guy to his left out a little, I think he crossed wheels at that point(maybe not) but whatever happened he preceded to fall onto my front wheel…Ive done a lot of bumping practice, but I’m not really sure how to handle someone falling onto your front wheel.  Needless to say, I went down as well and was part of a big pile up.  I went to the pit to get back in the race, but discovered my shifter was broken.  I had the mechanics try to fix it, but it wasn’t going to be able to be repaired there.  That was pretty much the end of my race.  Aw well, better luck next year.

Willamette was canceled due to lack of riders filling up the fields and the promoters were not able to cover the costs as a result unfortunately.  But Karey and I were going to get our racing in one way or another, so we decided to head up to do the Deschuttes River Valley TT festival.  It was a lot of cool courses for time trialing.  They had it all-climbs, flats, wind, descents.  Good times.  The riding there was nice, and the wind was pretty incredible.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to fly my kite, but I did get pushed around a fair bit from the wind.  I don’t think Ive ever ridden in stronger wind than this weekends.

The 48 mile time trial was a first, it was a lot of fun actually, and kind of has me thinking about doing some other ultra endurance time trials.  Ill have to look into it sometime this year, maybe the ring of fire at the end of the season would be fun.

Eugene roubaix was fun.  Its always nice to race on roads I train on all the time, and a little weird, it feels a little more relaxed when you see already know every crack in the road thats coming up.  The Roubaix had a good turn out and some beautiful weather.  Mark Blackwelder was off the front from the get go, staying out of reach of the surging peloton.  There were a few attacks and some moves, but nothing really stuck untill going into the 2nd to last lap, when Rob English made an attack going over the hill.  Bannick, Beardsley, Hosmer and myself chased after him and got the gap.  At the crest of the next hill on crow we had caught blackwelder and were in a smooth running pace line.  That was really the best part of the whole race, that everyone got up the road and started working together immediately.  It seems theres a lot of races where things get up the road, but one or two idiots just sit there, or are clogging up the pace line.  I hate that.  For those that do that, why do you do that?  If your just going to sit on, then dont even bother getting of the front, when theres an attack just go to the back of the pack, its a better place for that sort of  thing.  And dont give me that “Im tired” Business, Blackwelder was off from the getgo, and when we caught up to him he jumped right in and did his share of the work (great ride man).  Any ways, so we all worked together to make a fast and smooth pace line, and it was fun.  It came down to a sprint in the end and I won.  VerNice!

That night after the race we drove down to Ashland to stay with Zach Winters at his moms place, where he cooked up some sweet potatoes and chard.  It was amazing.  We got to sleep in the next day since our race wasn’t until the afternoon, so we took our time in the morning and made a little coffee and pastry stop at a cafe after eating some delicious oats with fruit.  The race was WARM.  Feels good to finally get out and race in just shorts and bibs.  Kennett and I were hoping to go 1,2 in the race, but things didn’t quite work out that way.  In order to establish a break one of us was going to have to put down the hammer to string it out and give the other one of us the chance to get away.  Since I won the day before, it was my turn to do some damage and start swinging the hammer.  I made an attack on a short steep hill counting on some chasing, which happened.  Things were strung out nicely and guys were having to breath a little, but this was just the prelude.  kennett came up and helped me ride a bit of tempo on the flats before the final pitch where our move was to take place.  Going into the short finishing hill I started drilling it again and things were strung out a lot and starting to break apart, then Kennett made the attack near the top, taking Paul Boucier with him.  After he made the attack I sat up a bit to help slow down any chasers and get the gap open.  It worked perfectly, heading into the descent there was a gap and everyone was too tired to chase hard or get organized immediatly and they were able to maintain the gap and catch the lone rider up the road who rode off earlier in the lap.  Kenji and I sat in the pack and blocked a bit, letting Therapeutic Associates do the work on the front.  Eventually Kennett and Paul dropped their 3rd accomplice on the final lap, opening up the final podium spot to the field.  Kenji did a great job of helping me keep the front controlled so we could make sure to take the field sprint, and keep the time gap good for our man in the break.  Meanwhile kennett was riding strong and taking the win off the front.  In the final kilometers leading to the finish kenji was keeping me at the front, until it was the final climb when it was time for me to get the job done.  Mission accomplished.

So someone asked OBRA about some good rides in klamath, so I figured I would post some of my bread and butter rides when Im training in Klamath Falls, there are some pretty good rides down there, just make sure you bring enough water and food because you will be in the middle of nowhere half the time:
1hr small hill: ride out lake shore drive to hwy 140, turn left, follow to 66, turn left.  Follow under the 97 over pass, turn left onto green springs, follow it back to town.  this stretch of 140 has a really wide shoulder and is pretty good.

2 hrs and flat Follow the bike path out to Olene, its pretty nice.  Go through Olene on 140, and turn right to cross the river, then turn right again onto crystal springs, turn left onto hill rd, follow untill Dehlinger and turn right.  Follow it across the intersection after a few miles when it turns into cross rd, follow this untill Tingley Ln, turn right, follow to 140, turn left onto 140.  It has a wide shoulder and is pretty safe, follow this to greensprings Dr, turn right and go back to town.

3hrs: Head out hwy 66 to keno, when you get to a fork, go left to stay on 66 and go through keno, then you have 2 options:

Lots of climbing (steep): Here you can either turn left on the Hammecker mtn access road (Chase mtn Rd), roads a little rough, but a huge climb up to 6590 ft, 10 miles of climbing and takes around an hr to climb if your chillin.  Then turn around and descend back down to the bottom and turn back. 50 miles.
Or:
Some climbing (mostly not very steep): Ride past hammecker mtn(chase Mtn rd) road after you go through keno and stay on 66 riding along the Klamath river, down the straight descent to topsy reservoir, then turn right onto keno access road after crossing the reservoir.  Follow this untill Spencer creek rd, turn right onto this road, follow this to clover creek and turn right again, follow this back to keno and go straight back to Klamath-loops about 50 miles and takes about 3 hours.

Or ride out and back on 66, a couple of good climbs 2+ hrs

6 hrs: Keno access road goes all the way to howard prarie, if you want a long ride go there and come back to klamath dead indian mem. to clover creek, itll be about 6 hours and 95 miles.

There arent many bad roads to ride on, just stay off of 97 all the time, and 140 most of the time except for the short conectors.

There are some Mtn rides too, but Ive only explored a little bit on my cross bike.  A lot of fun is to take a cross bike and hit up all the forest service roads.  Just don’t get lost…

Heres a little video of Derek and I having some fun at the crit course, filmed and edited by Ivar.

Enjoy!

Man, its been a while since Ive written.   This is due to the workload that the end of the term brought, where it became eat, sleep ride, school do homework…Which really isn’t much different than what I do the rest of the term, but there was less snippets of time to waste.  I have to say, it was really nice being able to come home from a race and not have to do homework in the evening.  Anyways to the action:
-banana 1, it was dry to start with, but raining at the end and cold.  I also missed the break.  oops.  Took 3rd in the field sprint, wasn’t quite positioned well enough, Aaron Sanders took a well deserved win when he attacked the break and destroyed it.

Banana 2-postponed a week due to snow, which was good for me because I was sick so I wasn’t going to race this weekend anyways, and my race fee didn’t go to waste.  The next week, when the race took place, was wet and cold from start to finish.  Once again, missed the break.  took 9th in the race…again… two weeks in row.  Evan Elken took the win today, when he attacked his only break away mate Paul Boucier a bit from the finish, good work Evan.

Banana3-After working the UO race all day the day before, it was nice to be able to race my bike, and was a good reminder as to how much work goes into putting one of these on, I haven’t worked a race for a while, so working it was good in that it reminded me how much promoters and volunteers put into putting on an event-make sure you thank them, and don’t be a jerk when talking to them about something you may be unhappy about during the race.  Anyways, woke up early, and was happy to see it wasn’t  raining for once during the race.  The race had a lot of attacks and was pretty aggressive most of the time.  At about 3 k away from the finish, I went off with Paul Boucier and some other dude, Paul and I tried to stay away, but it didnt work, and the pack caught us with 50 meters to the line.  To the person sitting me and Pauls wheel – would have been nice if you could have pulled (at least once) rather than just sitting on and attacking at 250 meters, maybe we could have stuck it…   >:-(    thats an angry face…Jacob Rathe took the win from the field, and his team mates took 2nd and 3rd, nice job, although I gotta admit, I wasn’t happy to see you coming around me so close to the finish.

And now with the term over, Ill have some good time to train this week, hopefully the weather is nice!!

So its been about a week since Sublime Sublimity Circuit and Jack Frost.  Sublime was a great course, some good short climbs and an always changing terrain.  It quickly turned into a race of attrition, with going hard on the climbs, but whenever it wasn’t up hill, I found myself on the front doing about 75 watts with no one wanting to work(or in the pack, doing 45 watts) Definitely a race of pain and recover.  Even Plews wanted non of that, and eventually went off on his own to keep a steady pain through out the course doing a solo break away that stuck until the end, great job man.  The final few miles into the finish for the pack were pretty slow, with no one wanting to do the work for the other 8 or so that were left in the lead group.  I was on the front keeping an easy pace waiting for someone to move or until we hit the final sprint distance up the short steep hill.  As soon as we got to the final hill I hit the gas, and the hill seemed to disappear beneath me.  nearing the line, I didn’t see anyone in my peripherals, so I looked around and had a good lead on the other guys, looks like trainings been paying off.

The next day was Jack Frost TT.  I thought this would be an especially good race for me now to test my steady state power and see what kind of improvements Ive made over the winter.  Last year my TT seemed to be my Achilles heal, so I made sure to train to make it faster.  Before the TT we drove up and warmed up, when I ran into Quinn and rode around with him a little before the race started.  The weather wasn’t too bad, pretty dry for the most part, looks like I lucked out the whole weekend as far as weather.  Once I got to the line, I saw that I had Josh Liberles in front of me, and Aaron Sander in front of him, so I knew Id have some good carrots to hold my attention.  I think I went out just a little to fast, and gained some time on Josh, but in the second half he really threw down the hammer and I gave it all back, but all in all I put down a good time and felt a lot better than the in TTs from last year, so I passed the Test.  As usual, Super TT beast Seth Hosmer threw down an unbreakable time for the day…except for a fully covered recumbent, but Id like to see what Seth could do in one of those…actually, you better not try it Seth, it might break apart due to the air friction caused by the high speed as a satellite does as it enters the earths atmosphere…But in all seriousness, great ride Seth.

So today was cherry pie.  The first race of the year.  I woke up to see bits of clear sky to the west, and it looked like the rain was moving away, so my excitement for the race instantly doubled.  There’s just something about having nice weather for the first race, rainy epic races are great, but for the first race its nice to have good weather.  Drove up to the race with nearly recovered from being sick Karey, and Mike.  I was looking forward to the race to see how I felt and see how my trainings been paying off, and was looking forward to working for my team mate Kennett, who needs to get upgraded so the two of us can work together at the NRCs.  The race was faster than cherry pies in the past, with attacks going most of the race.  It was really good to see the level of racing getting higher, and to see teams doing a good job of working together, and not just a bunch of guys hammering for no reason.  I felt good in the race, especially for February.  Guess training this year is paying off, and I cant wait to see how races feel in a couple more months.

It was our goal to keep kennett up front and out of the wind, and to keep the break aways under control.  We had Brian and myself to keep things under control, and we were looking good as a team(well not matching yet, but we were riding well together at least).  Things were going great and according to plan, then after going up to a break to keep it from getting away, my front wheel went flat.  I got off and started to take off the wheel, really angry that a brand new tire got a flat, and on perfectly smooth road no less.  I got my wheel change, which was pretty quick for a local race(Good job follow car!!) I hopped on my bike and resumed chase.  Counting the time gap I had about 40 seconds to close.  Beautiful.  Then the pack rounded a corner, and from the distance I could see it was strung out going pretty fast.  More beautiful.  I kept the gas on and kept on taking time gaps to the back of the field, and was gaining about 2 seconds per minute from my chase.  About 20 minutes later, at the base of the climb, I caught back on.  I was happy to be on, but after a 20 minute TT, wasn’t looking forward to the surge up the extra large roller.  It wasn’t as painful as I was prepared for it to be, so that was a welcome relief.  On the down hill I began moving forward to get back to a useful position.  Once I was back on the front I continued to play domestique, and tried to cover as many of the moves as possible, but with the cross wind being more evident than the first lap, and the general pack flow, it was a little more difficult to not get sucked back to the middle of the pack.  It pretty soon became pretty evident that it was going to come down to a field sprint, so with kennett on my wheel, I tried to keep the two of us connected at the front.  We were in a nice little pocket in a pretty good position when we were getting close to the last mile.  Jacob and Joel were OTF with a little gap on the field, I was a little nervous that it would stay, but was pretty confident it would come back just in time for us to take the win.  At the right time, I moved to the front with kennett on my wheel and slowly ramped up the pace to try to bring in the 2 guys OTF and put kennett in the sweet spot.  I caught Joel just before the corner, and gave my last few pedal strokes to send kennett up the hill.  Once he swung past me I sat up to slow the riders behind him, and help him get a gap on the field.  He almost caught Jacob, with only a couple of feet from the win.  We didn’t win, but we played our cards well, and we took 2nd as a result of the good team work.

If there was ever a week to test the will to train, it was last week.  Lots of school work, lots of miles, and only a week to cram it all into.  But somehow it all came together with another great week of training and I managed to do pretty well in my classes for the week too.  But a few things helped, like having some great weather to get out in, that always seems to make the time on the bike quicker, both in how fast it goes by, and the actual amount of time it takes to go out ride and come back.  None of the feet dragging when its time for a 5 hour ride in rain, or the extra time of peeling off wet cycling clothes, cleaning the bike, recovering from the weather as well as the ride.  A day of training in nasty weather always seems to take about 30% or more out of your post ride energy.

After making it through last week, this week feels like there’s a lot of extra time to get stuff done.  That’s the one good thing about being busy, it some how extracts more time hidden in the day.  When the busy time period is done, there’s about 6 more hours of time to fill in the day that wasn’t there before the busy period…Mysterious…  Now since Ive found that magical 6 hours, turning my days into 30 hr days instead of 24, I’m proposing an addition to my training hours, perhaps 3 more hours of training, and 3 more hours of sleep to balance it out.  This should make a typical Saturday include over 10 hours of sleep, and somewhere around 9 hours of training.  Things have never looked better!

Well its the end of a long, slow rest week.  I got some nice time off the bike, but unfortunately with all the school and time catching up on bike maintenance(polishing my frame, cleaning the chain, building a new wheel etc…), it didn’t equate to more hours of free time that I usually discover in a rest week.  But as usual, I did a little exploring to break the routine, checked out the dead end roads to find out just how far they went until it dead ended, and checked out some new roads outside of my usual training grounds and loops.  Not to mention getting chased down by some new dogs.  Another plus to the shorter rides this week, was the smaller window if time it takes to get out and back without getting rained on.  I managed to fit my rides perfectly in between the rain passing through.  Amazing! But all in all, this has to be the busiest rest week I’ve had, speaking of which, time to stop procrastinating and get back to homework, before another big week of training starts.