On Bicycles, and.... what else is there?

Results were posted today for the 2013 Devil Mountain Double Century. I was 14th. I thus met all of my goals: don't bonk, finish strongly, finish in under 14 hours, place top 20. I tend to focus on things which went wrong, but it's important to also embrace what went right, so to not forget them and relapse the next time. Some things which worked well for me at the Devil Mountain Double, as well as some things which worked out okay but could be improved: I'd checked the weather report and specific weather station data. I knew it would be chilly in the valley, warm on Diablo summit, hot in Livermore, temperate in San Jose, and no rain. This affected how I dressed on the start and what I left at the Morgan Territory rest stop to be sent back to the start. I stayed in the Marriott instead of trying to head out morning-of. The Marriott was fine, the staff were super-courteous and helpful, I slept well and was in no rush in the morning. Had I carpooled with someone i...

Fear is a good thing. Going into Devil Mountain Double I was uncertain of my fitness. I'd really not done anything even half the difficulty of this ride, so it was hard to be able to say I was prepared. Indeed had I not run into promoter Scott Halverson on the summit of Mount Diablo a few months ago, where I told him I'd not recently done the ride due to it being relatively early in the year for such monumental difficulty and I wasn't ever adequately prepared, he recommended to stop worrying and ride it anyway. So I took his advice. Getting there was fun. I went home from work, got my stuff together, then rode my bike to BART. BART was pretty full due to baseball and basketball games in Oakland, but I was able to stand with my bike at the "bike priority" spot on my car. Once in Dublin, I rode the bike lane on the obscenely freeway-like Dublin Blvd where someone tossed a lighter at me from a moving car (not sure why -- it bounced off the spokes of my fron...

I previously described a heuristic but fairly comprehensive bike power-speed model. This was based on trying to model speed directly from course features, rather than going through power, since riders typically don't ride at a constant power, although that represents a physiological constraint. The model assumes riders have a given cruising speed on flat roads (I assumed 30 kph), a theoretical maximum rate of vertical ascent (I assumed 1300 m/hr), and a safety-limited rate of descending (I assumed 14 m/sec = 50.4 kph based on conditions on these courses; perhaps this was slightly low). I assumed a rate of fatigue of 0.5%/hour, which affects climbing rate (directly) and speed on the flats (1/2 as much). The model further assumes riders lose distance versus time when they turn: 40 meters per radian of cornering at max descending speed, much less when cornering slower (proportional to speed squared). I have compared this model to actual rider data and it seems to match fairly wel...

Back in January I proposed that road grades tended to follow cosine-squared probability distributions with the maximum grade as a parameter. Different roads could then be characterized by their maximum design grade. The choice of cosine-squared over the Gaussian which would be suggested by the Central Limit Theorem was because roads aren't random, they're designed, and designers impose a maximum grade beyond which the probability is exactly zero. This was important because I had proposed a heuristic speed formula for how long it takes a cyclist to ride a given road, and even for the rapid attenuation of probabilities associated with a Gaussian distribution, the cycling time would have been dominated by pathologically steep grades. Using cosine-squared this issue went away. Anyway, I got curious as to how the Devil Mountain Double course compared with the Terrible Two course in that regard. Which is steeper, and do both tend to follow the superposition-of-cosine-squared p...

Early in my cycling life I developed a criterion: compared to what you can do without any particular care such as tapering or pacing or careful nutrition, you can in one day go up to twice as far as you can in one day, and as far as you can normally go in a week, whichever is less, assuming on the long ride you do these things (tapering, pacing, and careful nutrition). This principle, established in a state of youthful enthusiasm, seems ambitious, but I've never been able to disprove it, even if I've often doubted it as I've gotten older. For example, for doubles, I don't have confidence in my fitness unless I've done at least 200 km in a day, and ridden back-to-back 100 milers without issue. These criteria are obviously stricter than my earlier ones. In March I did Murphy Mack's "Spring Classic", advertised at 100 miles but revealed the day before to be 117. At that time, it was obvious I wasn't ready for such a ride at the race pace the lead...

I'm getting ready for the Devil Mountain Double, and it's a good time to review GPS options for the ride. Back before Strava, GPS was a bit of fluff for rides like this, but the social networking + power analysis + segment timing of Strava provides so much value I wouldn't consider skipping GPS today. The following are the strengths and weaknesses of the various GPS options available to me: Garmin Edge 500: Mine had the tabs snap off on me, so using it would require putting it in my jersey pocket. But I can borrow Cara's for the day. Battery life is likely adequate: it should last the double century if I start with a full charge. I will make sure auto-pause is on to limit battery consumption during rest stops (which will be minimal, but every bit counts). Smart sampling is unavailable due to the power meter (and I wouldn't use it anyway). It's light: only 58 grams without the mount, 66 grams with the mount. It's compact: mounted on my stem it won...

A week ago I mailed my check and entry form for the Devil Mountain Double . I ask myself: what have I done? riding Patterson Pass in 2000 The first time I did this ride in 2000 ( ride report ). That year I froze on the Diablo descent, bonked on San Antonio Valley Road, was saved by a cup of soup at Crothers, recovered remarkably, then managed to grind out Sierra Road, Calavera, Palomares, Crow Canyon, and finally Norris Canyon to finish. Just finishing was enough. The second time I went in with a bit too much confidence and rode strongly to the base of Mines Road, where I was suffering badly. Low on energy and deterred by reports of hail from the summit of Mount Hamilton up ahead, I turned back, finishing the day with 150 miles with major climbing but with only a DNF to show for it. That was 2002.... a long, long time ago. Every year I note its approach. Every year I know I must return: to get it right, to prove I can ride smartly, finish strongly. Time really doesn't mat...

As I rapidly descended Panoramic Highway toward Highway 1 from Mount Tamalpais with my Roaring Mouse teammates, I passed by some sticks on the side of the road. Suddenly something hit my foot. That didn't feel like a stick... I felt my pockets and nothing seemed loose, so perhaps it had been a stick after all. Seconds later one of the riders behind me shouted "computer!" And then I knew. My Garmin had fallen. A quick look at my stem confirmed it: the bracket was empty, a white sliver of a plastic tab the only remaining sign of my Edge 500. Fortunately after a bit of searching we were able to find and retrieve the computer. Honestly I was as worried about losing the ride's data as I was about the computer itself. A quick inspection showed the problem: the plastic tabs on the back had sheared off. Indeed one of the tabs had already come off during a previous ride. But the one remaining tab seemed enough to hold it in place. I'd taken to using a piece o...

After replacing it's long-time weight-weenie favorite, The Addict, with the aero-optimized Foil, Scott has finally returned the cutting-edge Addict frame to its lineup. This was first revealed at yesterday's Tour of Flanders , the bike ridden with some success by the IAM team who placed sixth with Henrich Haussler. However, that was just a prototype. It wasn't until today the production model was leaked. The following is the press-release, which was sent to me by one of my extensive list of industry contacts. click photo for larger resolution Here's the text of the press release: Scott USA, 01Apr2013: Scott Sports, the cycling world's engineering leader, today announced the launch of the 2014 Addict Ultra Limited frameset. Building on the legendary Addict, the Addict Ultra Limited makes the lightest even lighter (with a world record effective mass[*] of 599.9 grams for 54cm) while maintaining optimal stiffness, comfort, responsiveness, acceleration, and a...