Ride the Ridge launches 2010 Virginia Off Road Series

The 2010 Virginia Off Road Series kicked off with Ride the Ridge hosted by the Blue Ridge School. Over 100 athletes were on the start line for this events largest showing in its 4 year history. Virginia experienced a long and hard winter that had everyone eager to test their skills. The day before and during the event the drizzle, overcast and damp weather would add another element to challenge them.

The Virginia Off Road season kicked off with a little mud and a lot of challenging singletrack

From the starting siren, the masses charged for the chute. The spectators would hang in suspense for about 53 minutes until Nick Waite would charge to complete the fastest lap of the race with Chris Michaels not to far off Nick's wheel. As other athletes filed out of the mucky wilderness, you could see they were fighting more than each other. The climbs are notorious for challenging the best of them. Along with the other scary features in the woods, athletes faces showed Ride the Ridge is no walk in the park.

Waite would eventually take the win with Denelle Grant (Gary Fisher 29er Crew) winning the elite women's race.

Most Categories had their work cut out for them. To some, this race was an event to get a jump on the competition and others were finding where their training lies. Regardless, the folks at the Blue Ridge School put on a great event! Points for all Categories and Teams have been posted on the Virginia Off Road Series website!

Racers wait to take the start beneath the mist-covered Virginia hills

Ride the Ridge was a great sendoff for the 2010 Virginia Off Road Series. With a record attendance, this means the World Bicycle Relief will receive a larger than usual check from the Blue Ridge School. All proceeds went to this great charity. The Virginia Off Road Series is proud to have great races like Ride the Ridge to help contribute to these great charities and to challenge athletes across the state.

Next up Camp Hilbert! All the Categories of the Virginia Off Road Series will be in the ring for points!!!

The leafless trees are a sure sign that spring has not yet sprung but it's never too early for some quality mountain bike racing

This time of year the creek crossings are not only wet, they are very cold

Question: Should I train and race with a heart rate monitor or a power meter? What are the pros and cons?

For mountain bike training, I recommend using a power meter, perceived exertion and a heart rate monitor. The more data you have, the more tools you have at your disposal to measure performance and improve your training.

The Bottom Line

Use a power meter extensively in training to best mimic racing demands, track measured changes in fitness, nail training objectives, and effectively calibrate perceived exertion with reality. Changes in power output give you a direct, objective measure of the effectiveness of your training plan. Heart rate will let you know you are alive.

Direct vs. Indirect

Power (Watts) is a direct measure of exercise intensity, whereas heart rate is an indirect measure of exercise intensity. Heart rate is a response to exercise and other factors (heat, humidity, altitude, diet, caffeine, stimulation, motivation, fatigue, time of day/night).

Crystal Clear vs. Crystal Ball?

Performance is accurately measured with power. Power data is crystal clear. You either produced the watts or you did not. Heart rate data requires guess work to interpret the result due to the many variables included. A crystal ball may be helpful in order to draw real conclusions from heart rate data.

Immediate vs. Time Lagged

Power has an immediate reaction to changes in exercise intensity. Heart rate has a time lag of about 30 seconds in its response to changes in exercise intensity. This makes heart rate a useless pacing tool for efforts of less than 30 seconds and for the first 30 seconds of any longer interval. Heart rate encourages athletes to over-pace at the start of an interval in order to quickly get their heart rate into the target zone. When training with power you can immediately peg the exact goal exercise intensity and train with accuracy.

Here’s an example: The goal in the following workout was to maintain a steady power of 265 Watts. The rider also wore a heart rate strap, so we have both sets of data.



Not only does heart rate lag effort by 30 seconds, it can also creep upward over time. Imagine if this rider didn’t have the benefit of the power readings, and instead attempted to drive HR up to 165bpm in the first few minutes. The result would likely have been an interval ending meltdown about 18 minutes in, and at the very least a drastic reduction in power in the 2nd half of the interval.

Software

There are several software applications available to crunch your power data. They will analyze, interpret and summarize. You can look at how fast and hard you are pedaling with Quadrant Analysis (QA) to see if you are mimicking the demands of racing in your training. You can get a measure of the intensity of a ride (IF), the variability of a ride (VI) and the training stress (TSS) of a ride.

Performance Manager Chart (PMC)

PMC is a valuable tool for mountain bikers. It uses ride TSS scores, averaging them over days and months. Analyzing a single ride is like looking at a single tree in a forest. You get a nice picture of that tree but don’t know where it sits in the forest. The beauty of the PMC is that it tallies up TSS over time to give a bird’s eye view of the forest – or your entire season (or even cycling career). The PMC can be used retroactively to look at scores during times you had personal best performances and during times you thought you should have but didn’t. It can be used for forward planning to target a specific set of scores known to put you in peak form and to time that peak form to land smack bang on race day. The PMC takes much of the guess work out of training, tapering and peaking.

Racing

Whether or not to race with a power meter depends on the priority of your race. In low priority training races, go for the power meter. Race data often uncovers one’s strengths and weaknesses, and can also turn up some surprising finds with regards to race demands. Race files are a powerful piece of the training puzzle.

As an example, using Quadrant Analysis (a feature of WKO+ 3.0) with power meter data from single speed mountain bike races shows a particularly high concentration of power in the VO2max range with cadences below 60. This means pedal forces are much higher on average than when riding with gears. This has led to some novel training methods for single speeders.

Goal events are different. By the time you have reached a fitness peak, all those hours of training with a power meter have worked to “calibrate” your perceived exertion (PE). PE is your best option for pacing goal events. You’ll know what you can do and for how long, and with enough experience, PE alone will guide you to your best results.

Potential drawbacks to mountain bike racing with a power meter

Power meter and heart rate monitors are not 100% reliable. How will you pace the event if your gadget malfunctions?
Power meters are heavier than race-weight wheels or cranks.

The highly variable nature of power production in mountain bike races makes it quite difficult to turn the real time power data into actionable information. Short accelerations and race starts are deep into anaerobic power levels, even for longer endurance events. It is tough to make sense of the numbers without software.
Mountain bike race starts are mayhem. The place for your eyeballs during a race start is on the trail, your surroundings and fellow racers and not on a little monitor screen.

Power meters can even make you slower in a peak race!

More importantly, pacing with a power meter may actually hold you back from a breakthrough performance! On a top priority race day your body should be in peak condition; trained, tapered, fueled, hydrated and ready to go. You should be poised to set records by producing more power and going faster than ever before. Pacing yourself using power numbers established in training may act as a governor on your peak day and could hold you back from a potential record performance.

Post Race Analysis

There is often quite a difference between what you think you did in a race (or, what you tell your coach you did) and what you actually did. Power data tells all! You can learn how to pace races more accurately and how to repeat outstanding performances from the data. Race data is useful in learning how much power you needed to win a certain race and in what pattern that power was created. This type of information is valuable in order to design better training plans and improve future performances.

Without a doubt, train with a power meter. Also, race your lower priority events with the power meter to help objectively assess your strengths and weaknesses, helping you dial in your training for the goal event(s). For peak priority races use your lightweight race equipment and rely on a well calibrated sense of PE to reach new performance heights.

Lynda Wallenfels is a USA Cycling Cat 1 certified cycling coach and pro mountain bike racer. She is owner of LWCoaching.com. She always trains and often races with a power meter.

Intermountain Cup #2: Hurricane, Utah

Written by: Shannon Boffeli
Photos by: Ryan Keating

Another cold and snowy weekend in Salt Lake City led to a bigger than usual turn out for some spring racing in Hurricane, Utah. Temperatures in the 60s greeted racers hoping to unleash the speed stored in their legs after a long winter.

Alex Grant leads Burke Swindlehurst over the slick rock

The Pro fields have been bigger than ever this season and faster some would say. The Hurricane racecourse features a brutal mix of slick rock, flowy singletrack, and power-sapping flats. Despite the dry and dusty conditions the trail held up admirably and produced some fast-paced racing.

The men started in a cloud of dust and dirt. CFR racer Alex Grant had to back off the pace just to see the trail in front of him. Burke Swindlehurst (Team Give), winner of Intermountain Cup #1, got pinched at the start and also fell back in the group of 21 riders.

It didn’t take long for both Grant and Swindlehurst to work their way through the pack and take their designated spots at the front.

The leaders were accompanied by nationally-ranked riders Drew Edsall (Yeti), Trevor Downing (Mafia Racing), and Trevor Simper. For the first of four laps these five rode together. On the opening climb of lap two, Grant made an acceleration. His climbing was enough to dislodge Downing, Edsall, and Simper who ran into mechanical difficulties soon after.

Burke Swindlehurst leads Drew Edsall and Trevor Simper at the end of lap one

From this point on it was a two-person affair. Grant and Swindlehurst battling each other for the top spot on the podium. Swindlehurst started the fireworks with multiple small attacks designed to weaken Grant’s legs and establish a small gap but the Cannondale rider answered.

With just one lap to go Swindlehurst opened the smallest of gaps - just 15 seconds over his challenger. Then his talents as a time trialist kicked in. The Team Give racer put his head down and pushed the pace throughout the final lap finally taking the win by just 19 seconds.

Downing held on for third place followed by Edsall. Kuhl/Specialized rider Thomas Bender turned in a strong effort just passing Chris Holley before the line to take fifth.

Start of the women's race. Lynda Wallenfels (far right) seems to already know she is headed for a win

The women’s race featured a talented group of Utah’s top female mountain bikers. From the start it was 41 year-old Lynda Wallenfels (LW Coaching) charging to the lead. Wallenfels, an ultra-endurance specialist, was determined to start fast and it showed. She quickly went to the front and never looked back. Despite to fast group Wallenfels was able to get clear just after the start.

Left to chase the leader was Mafia racer Kathy Sherwin, Sarah Kaufmann (Roaring Mouse), KC Holley (Gary Fisher 29er Crew), and Jen Hanks (Revolution/Peak Fasteners).

Sherwin and Kaufmann stayed close and took turns challenging each other. Ultimately it would be Sherwin moving clear with Kaufmann not far behind.

The battle for fourth was tight with Hanks and Holley riding wheel to wheel until the end of the second lap when Holley pulled away on the flat leading to the finish. Holley crossed the line just 38 seconds clear of fifth-placed Jen Hanks.

Sarah Kaufmann chases Kathy Sherwin

KC Holley keeps her gap on chaser Jen Hanks

Brian Tolbert grinds it out in the desert of Hurricane

Shannon Boffeli crests a slick rock climb

Results

Pro Men

1, Burke Swindlehurst (Team Give) 1.52.55.
2, Alex Grant (Cannondale Factory Racing) 1.53.16
3, Trevor Downing (Mafia Racing) 1.54.58
4, Drew Edsall (Yeti) 1.55.56
5, Thomas Bender (Kunl/Specialized) 1.57.30
6, Chris Holley (Gary Fisher 29er Crew) 1.57.40
7, Trevor Simper 1.59.08
8, Reed Wycoff (Contender)
9, Jake Pantone (Biker Edge)
10, Greggy Gibson (Racer’s Cycle Service)
11, Daniel Nelson (Racer’s Cycle Service)
12, Brian Tolbert (Kuhl/Specialized)
13, Shannon Boffeli (iRide Adventures/MTBRaceNews.com)
14, Taylor Foss (Kuhl/Specialized)
15, Brent Pontius
16, Charlie Gibson (Felt)
17, Ryan Krusemark (Kuhl/Specialized)
18, Brent Steinberg
19, Mitchell Petersen (Giant)

Pro Women

1, Lynda Wallenfels (LW Coaching) 1.39.48
2, Kathy Sherwin (Mafia Racing) 1.41.55
3, Sarah Kaufmann (Roaring Mouse) 1.44.42
4, KC Holley (Gary Fisher 29er Crew) 1.47.08
5, Jen Hanks (Revolution/Peak Fasteners) 1.47.46
6, Nicole Wangsgard (Rooster’s) 1.49.42
7, Erika Powers (Revolution/Peak Fasteners) 1.52.51
8, Jennelle Kremer (Revolution/Peak Fasteners) 1.59.21