The wheels fall off.....

I don't know why it happens at this time of year... But every year, around June, I hit a complete form slump.

Its not from lack of training, i have been fairly consistent, but at the weekend criterium I just suffered like a dog. I'm racing up a grade/category now, and felt fine for the first 5 laps, then a break went away and I spent an entire lap on the front dragging the chase group back up to the leaders. This did 2 things, it completely destroyed the chase group and it also burnt a sizable match from me. So now here we were 4 in the break and working fairly well.

The pace was pretty fast, and a stiff westerly was blowing which was not doing any favours to the legs. With 4 laps to go and after a big turn at the front, I just faded. I couldn't hold a wheel any longer and I wasn't motivated and not in the right mental frame to put myself in the hurt box. I also knew that I wasn't the strongest so I just soft pedalled and watched them roll away from me.

The next day was our club hill time trial champs. I set a low 14minute time 2 years back, and felt that even with the sting of the prior days racing in my legs, I would be able to match - if not better - my previous time.

Boy was I wrong.

I ended up coming in close to a minute slower. Its not that I felt bad up the climb, on the contrary, I actually felt ok. I had to really watch the powertap to keep the effort constant, but for some reason I was just slow!!

So how do i tackle it? How do I get back `on form`. I think I have to go back to basics. Lots of Z1 training to build up the base. And some specific interval training sprinkled in between. I think I may be doing too much intensity work and am just rolling around on very fatigued legs.

Another issue is where I want to go as a rider. My problem is I love hills, I love criteriums, road races, time trials (and I'm tinkering with getting a track bike!).. I can't be great at all of them. Due to my size, I'll never be leading people up hill climbs, even though this is one part of cycling I truly love, but completely suck at.

My strengths are in criterium racing and potentially I think I could do ok time trialling. So why not focus on these and hopefully the rest of my cycling may improve too?

More Keira More?

22.50, a paltry 10 seconds better than last week.

Tried a different tactic of holding 300w for the first 1km where it is 10% and not try to blow up too much. Certainly felt like it worked, but the time suggests not by much.

The other test was to hold a easier gear at a higher cadence. Felt a lot better than grinding a bigger gear - but simply - I need to increase my FTP and lose KG's to get up this puppy faster.

Managed to do 2 repeats today, the first all out, the second @ FTP. More work on aerobic endurance and a focus to drop some pounds in the coming months...

MAP + Keira

My MAP hasn't changed - punched out an identical 380w to my last MAP.

Tried to see if my Mt Keira PB would fall this morning. I was on my heavy bike which is around 3kg heavier than the race bike. I managed a 23 minute flat time which is on par to my best time this year.. My NP was 333w which was quite high thou around 25 watts more than usual.

I wonder by how much those 3kgs of bike slowed me down? My wattage was certainly up... I wonder if the weight and extra watts cancelled each other out :)

Wheres the Watts?

There really isn't any thing spectacular to report on this front. I learnt very quickly to be ultra conservative on these rides. With an average of 5 hours in the saddle each day, my average power on climbs was only around 250w. Caution had to prevail as the mountains can bite back very hard!

The only day I threw caution to the wind was up the Mortirolo where the NP went up to 272w.

Will be interesting to see if the altitude and large volume block improves my cycling in the future... I'll guess we'll have to wait and see!

Back - Part V

Day 5 saw us challenge the infamous Mortirolo. Lance Armstrong said it was the hardest climb he's ever done. Its hard to argue any differently.

A point that needs to be made about these rides. You really have no choice but to get over these climbs. There is no flat way home. There is no sag wagon. This removes the soft options of  stopping half way after you've had enough. You simply have to suffer.

Day 5 was a day of suffering. The Mortirolo averages 10% over 12km. With very very  long ramps of 16%. I was fortunate to be feeling strong so was able to tap out a decent pace. For a comparison the lead group averaged 11km/hr up the Mortirolo, we averaged 8km/hr it was nice to see the pro's suffering like us!

Made it to the summit in 3rd spot behind Lazye and our Ex-Pro tour guide with a time of 1hr 28min. The last finisher scaled the climb in 2.5hrs!

The Mortirolo is a nicely paved goat track.
The Pantani memorial was very touching, and located smack bang in the middle of the 16% gradient. Right where he would have loved to launch an attack.
Relief!
The obligatory photo snap.
Just one of the many funny road paint marks littered on the way up!

Back - Part IV

Day 4 saw us do a single climb up the Gavia. With its summit at 2652 metres it is one of the highest in Italy just behind Stelvio. The climb is about 16km with the first 4km flat. The road then pitches up to its average gradient of 8% with plenty of long ramps at 14-18%!

You certainly could notice the thin air at altitude, although not debilitating I'd hate to be trying to race up this climb!

Around 4 km from the summit was a 800m tunnel which was not internally lit. We had no lights on our bikes so were riding in total darkness, felt very weird and the mind started to play games a little bit.

The Lazye climbing machine made it look all so easy.
This was the Gavia on the day the Giro passed through. The Gavia is completely enveloped in a cloud. It was a miserable day up there for the riders as it rained and the temperature was close to 0 degrees.
The snowline in the Italian Alps is at 2000 metres at the moment. We got to see a lot of snow!
You can just make out the road way way down below. The Gavia's backdrop was the most dramatic of all the climbs we did.
I highly recommend the Speck and Cheese panini at the top of the summit. There is no ski resort at the top of the Gavia, so the single shop at the summit caters mainly for cyclists and has a great memorabilia section and amazing photos of when the Giro passed over the Gavia.

Back - Part III

Day three saw us move from our hotel in Bolzano to our next base in Ponte de Legno located around 120km away. We elected to ride instead of taking the bus... mainly to avoid being bus sick, again...

This saw us take in 2 decent climbs. The first was the Passo del Mendola 10km @ 6% gradient. Then a gradual downhill for 50km before the start of the Passo del Tonale a monster in its own right with an average of 4% over 40km!!!!!

The after noon temperatures cooked us reaching over 30 degrees for most of the final climb. I felt  pretty strong and out of the 15 riders that start this ride only 6 finished.. So i was pretty pleased to survive the day.

Beautiful rolling orchids were littered everywhere on the climb through Mendola.

Self-Portrait
Insanely beautiful vistas dulled the pain.

Halfway. Over the Mendola and on our way to Tonale!

At the top of Tonale with `LazyE`, the climbing machine.

Back - Part II

Day two took in two awesome climbs. The Passo del San Pellegrino and the fearsome Marmolada. Our route took us around 100 km and once over the San Pellegrino (800m climbing) the only way back to the hotel was either to retrace our steps over the Pellegrino or get over the huge Marmolada!

All started reasonably well, however a lack of nutrition kicked us in the butt when we finally got to the climb of La Marmolada. Like most climbs in italy - it starts fairly easy with ramps of around 4-6% the end ramps are always way above 10% in this case 15% for the last 2-3km or so. This climb kicked my butt like no other. It took 3 cans of coke and some hearty ham and cheese panini's to get over this climb... 

The red blob in the distance should have checked into the starting house pictured for a bit of advice and reflection prior to starting the Marmolada... I now know why it is at the foot of the climb!!!

The start of the Marmolada is deceptively flat.
Extreme beauty masks the pain about to unfold

Ski lifts and snow... and the obligatory cyclist pushing his bike up the Marmolada... for some it was the only option of getting home..

Back - Part I

Well i'm back!

Had a blast to say the least. Those mountain passes we both ecstasy and misery all wrapped up in one. In total 500km with 12000 metres of climbs in 6 days. Here are some pictures and comments of my journey!

Our first day was based in the northern city of Bolzano which provided us access to the first 3 mountain stages. Including the first won by Emmanuelle Sella up the Pampeago. We did a 90km circuit that took in the passo del santalucia followed by rolling hills to the base of the final climb which was around 8km at an average of 10% with the last 2km being at 16%!! Tough way to start the trip - but this was just the tip of the iceberg!

Check out the gradient. May be hard to appreciate from the photo but your staring down 16%

The crowd went nuts for Sella - the road up the final climb looked like this pretty much the whole way up! More crazy days to follow!