WSI Cycling Team

Both the A race and the B race last night at Waterford Hills were very strange.  Maybe it was just me and a couple other guys that I ride with there, but we all agreed that the races were very schizophrenic. The stats on my bike computer showed that we averaged about 24 miles an hour for 1:10 minutes or so, but the feeling I had in my legs was that we were going 30 mph for 10 hours!  The group was very nervous and there were a lot of quick line changes that kept everyone on edge.  We would power up to 30 MPH and then sit up a mile later at 18 MPH.  Based on what Devin and Danny have been reporting, this seems quite typical of a CAT 4 race, but it was more pronounced last night than I remember it at Waterford.

While I was awaiting the race to start, I heard a strange vibration in my bike, but looked at my hub (new power tap hub) and figured it was just the sound from the hub.  I should have looked at my brakes…more on that later. The first 30 minutes were the usual settling into a pace and getting to know each other, some new faces were there from Bay City TCC Racing and a guy from North Carolina (who thought the course was comically flat!) but these fresh faces seemed unusually uncomfortable in a pack, creating over-braking in the turns and wacky line changes over the splits in the cement.

I am loving my new GARMIN and Cycle Ops Power Tap, I get more data than a Formula One Pit crew chief (too bad I cannot fine tune the engine to put out more horse power.)  Power, Cadence, Heart Rate, Distance, Average Speed were all very similar to the last race, which surprised me—as I stated, I thought last night was a huge effort compared to 3 weeks ago.  Or, maybe it is the fact that I continued to hear a hum from my bike and with 10 minutes to go, I loosed my rear brake and realized that it had been rubbing the whole time.  The brake was a little off-center and there was just enough of a wobble in the rear wheel to cause it to rub, even with the brake released.  Unfortunately, I debugged that too late, if I had realized I was having an issue, I could have taken a mechanical lap, but not in the last 10 minutes of the race.  The hum from my bike and fear that my bike was having a mechanical wore on me the whole race and I think made it seem like a larger effort than it obviously was.

It was a pack finish for me and the IPA tasted extra good at the finish.  GO Team WSI-Team Active.  On my way to Bloomer Park to pre-ride the course for Sunday’s race.

Jack Miner

I find it fitting that this is the evening of my 50^th birthday and past due to update my race reports.  It is fitting because cycling keeps one young.  We have all gone for rides with 60 and 70 (some even 80) year old cyclists who are amazing in their fitness and ability.  Seems the older you get on a bike, this also means that your core needs to be engaged the whole race.  I also felt as if I were riding very high and since it was the first time I was on the bike (ever) and it was a race, my bike handling skills suffered even more than usual.  I thought that the most important thing I could do would be to push it as hard as possible on the straight sections and take a little off in the technical sections.  It was a great day, a lot of TAR/WSI team members on the trail and I was able to steal a 9^th place finish.

Tonight was one of the Waterford  Hills Race series road races.  I am looking forward to pulling in the data from my new Garmin bike computer to see what actually happened, but what I felt was a nice 60 minute race on the 1.5 mile course with a small hill and fighting to stay in the first 10 or so places.  There were nearly 40 of us racing tonight and the wind was pretty strong from the south and the race temperature was about 90, ensuring that positioning in the group would be key for the race.  Not very eventful race, I think I finished in the top 20 or 25, but then some knuckle head cut in front of me at the end of the race…putting me on the turf after the race was over.  So much for an injury free race, but a very happy 50^th birthday—especially since my wife and daughter were there to cheer me on.

Happy trails my friends.  Life is better on our bikes.

Jack Miner.

Sunday June 10, 2012 I raced the Ft. Custer Mt. Bike TT.  I saw quite a few  WSI/TAR people and it looked like  great race results from the team.  I raced Sport Single Speed and finished 2nd in that catagory.  The weather was hot (about 90 F) and the trail was dry and not super fast.  Attached are the results.  Notice all the WSI/TAR people.  Good job all.

Custers-RevengeTT Results – 2012 

Keith Wilkinson