Dirt Crit 5

What a fast and fun race to be had last night. The web is a buzz about how many showed up: 50 in the A race, 89 in the B race, I have no clue on the C race but I'm sure it was huge. When I left the park there were cars lined up and down the road, I think it's possible this event may exceed the parks capacity one day.

The start was very cool with a long sprint to a u-turn then another sprint to the trail. I was about 12th or so into the trail as we snaked our way through the tapped section to the creek crossing by the road. As we hit the right hand turn into the single track Merli Jr. biffs it and clogs the hole for a moment creating a gap between us and those up the trail.

As far as I could tell Plock and Mathews, possible McCarthy are off the front then the chase group of Tom, Bob, Zdenek, Zack, Paul, Jay and more?.

Scott O and I get away first and eventually catch the chase group. I move up in this group behind Tom and Bob who are 1st and 2nd wheel. They played a game of slow down speed up for a few laps, I assume due to teammate Chris being up the trail, so I would pull to the front trying keep the pace up to minimize additional riders catching back on.

It was hard to tell who was still in the group, who had dropped and who had made up group to join is. With 4 or so laps to go I was leading into the start finish area hearing a spectator say third was just up the trail.

With one lap to go the group looked like this.
Gino, Tom, Me, Scott, Zack and more...


Photo stolen from Retro Skin Suite Man

We get to the straight root section before the creek, Tom pulls around Greg, I follow and we are now 1st and 2nd wheel. We hit the left turn that leads to the creek, Tom begins to slide out then over the bars he goes into the creek (hope you are OK). He was nice enough to fall to the left so I could keep a straight line through the creek.

At this point I peg it as hard through the creek on to the final leg to the finish line. Surprised, I see McCarthy just ahead, I pass but he ends up passing me back as I took a turn to wide just before the final straight section to the finish. He held this position as we flew through the finish.

If the spectator information was good, that puts me in 4th on the night. But will have to wait for Ralph and his crew to post official results. They have their work cut out from them for sure.


So the legs felt good but did the power numbers match?. You bet, best numbers I've had during this 5 race series.

Yellow line Dirt Crit 1

Dotted Line Dirt Crit 5



Power Analysis
Conditions: Perfect
Placing: 4th?
Weight 137 lbs
Avg Speed: 17. 4
Distance: 10.14 miles
Average Watts: 247w
Normalized Power: 259w
Max Power: 830w
Mean Max 5-secs: 766w
Mean Max 10-secs: 689w
Mean Max 20-secs: 505w
Mean Max 30-sec: 492w
Mean Max 1-mins: 329w
Mean Max 2-mins: 308w
Mean Max 5-mins: 270w
Mean Max 10-min: 258w
Mean Max 20-mins: 251w
Mean Max 30-mins: 346w
Kilojoules: 517kj
TSS: 53.7
IF: 0.959

Race to race comparison. Click to make larger.

49 days till cross!

52 days

Are you ready?

If not, watch this!

U.S. gran prix of cyclocross from Jim Fryer/BrakeThrough Media on Vimeo.

Hermann Hilly TT Test Run

MTB race cancelled today, no big deal, I liked being able to sleep in and stick close to home. Plus I've been wanting to do a test run for the Hermann Hilly TT coming up Aug 22nd. (FYI: Pre-Registration only) today was a good day for it.

Local Mesa rider Jose joined me and after a good warm up we were off. Jose had hit it hard yesterday so his game plan was to sit in.

On paper the course is perfect; 30 mile loop, all right hand turns and a closed start/finish area in a great location, the Hermann High School. The school is super clean, well taken care of and in near new condition.

The start is flat for just under a mile beofre it tilts up for the next 1.3 miles. Nothing too steep but if you take off hard on this hill you may pay for it later in the race. After that the rest of Hwy 19 is a smooth with really not that much of any noticeable elevation changes.

From Hwy 19 you turn right on to F. There has been alot of work done to the road this year, patch work mostly. It's a little bumpy after being on the smoothness of 19, but not bad. Elevation changes start to become more punchy as you approach Hwy J.

From Hwy F you turn right on to Hwy J. Hwy J could be a leg killer if you have gone out to hard. The road is super smooth and rolling. So much so that first few hills you can almost coast half way up with your momentum from the hill before. But that is short lived as some longer punchy hills start to come into view.

Still on Hwy J 23 miles in you get an awesome long down hill to rest up a bit before the final few miles. The down hill is followed by a small stretch of flatness as you approach Hwy 100. This intersection has a Yield sign, merging right onto super smooth Hwy 100 is a breeze, good line of sight for any traffic to you may encounter.

Here is where some meat and potatoes come in to play; saved the best for last. If you have paced your self right you'll feel it for sure but should have no issues. If you spiked your watts one too many times on the hills behind you, these will pack a punch and you may curse them. But keep in mind none of the hills are super Tour of Hermann crazy so anyone will be able to get up and over them.

The course finally lets up for a flat stretch back into town for one more right hand turn into the school where you can finally let up and relax.

Here is my GARMIN data from this ride.

Power Demands today.

You can see where the hills start to spike the power during the last half of the loop.

Dirt Crit 4

This week the Tour is over, next week Dirt Crits come to an end. I am going to be going through same major with drawl, may need some medication.

Last night had some ups and downs. The good part was seeing some "best" power numbers for the dirt crits this year. They were in the 2 min and under range. The bad was the 10, 20 and 30 min power numbers suffered a bit. I hit a bad spot feeling the heat at one point in the race, but recovered and finished strong.

These guys took the hole shot, I tried to get into that group but my start was just not strong enough.
Pirtle Eric
Matthews John
Ploch Chris
Rivers John
Bock Jeremy
Arnold Bob
McCarthy Dan
Geroge Rick

I hit my bad spot of the race and saw these guys pass me
Ogilvie Scott
Sandknop Greg
Hafner Zack
Palecek Zdenek

Then came
Neis Dave
Black Drew

I tucked in behind Drew and Dave as Drew pulled us back to Zdenek. The next few laps we were flying as Drew set a hard steady pace. There was a draft to be had so I took some time to recover.

With two laps to go Zdenek moved to take the lead and soon after I took 2nd wheel as we gaped Drew and Dave. With one to go we started to catch Rick George. My last lap game plan was to move ahead of Zdenek just before the creek crossing, power through the creek and set a high pace to the end. It worked as I came around Zdenek but he stayed close, took a better line around the telephone pole turn by the road near the end and moved ahead. We did catch Rick at the end only to see Zdenek nearly taking out his team mate by the creek crossing where the chain link fence keeps you from dropping into the creek. It was harry and a bit of a risky move for a Thursday night cirt. I slowed up at this point and soft pedaled in from there.

Fun night for sure, ended p 12th or 13th.

56 days til cross!


Power Analysis
Conditions: Perfect
Placing: 12th or 13th
Weight 137 lbs
Avg Speed: 17.5 (fastest average speed so far)
Distance: 10.25 miles
Average Watts: 225w
Normalized Power: 237w
Max Power: 788w
Mean Max 5-secs: 736w
Mean Max 10-secs: 628w
Mean Max 20-secs: 491w
Mean Max 30-sec: 425w
Mean Max 1-mins: 340w
Mean Max 2-mins: 302w
Mean Max 5-mins: 269w
Mean Max 10-min: 251
Mean Max 20-mins: 234w
Mean Max 30-mins: 226w
Kilojoules: 473kj
TSS: 44.9
IF: 0.877

Power Demands of a Dirt Crit

Data from Dirt Crit 3
Fast dry course

It's interesting to see the power demands of a Dirt Crit primarily because DC's are as close to cross as you can get in July.

Spikes all over the place.

Power Distribution by watts

Power by training zone taking zeros out.

Cool new feature of WKO is the multi range analysis. I'm able to pull out the crit data and campare them to each other. The numerical data is more useful to me then the graphs. This one really shows if improvements are being made.

Another good graph to check form and fitness is the power curve. This one looks at dirt crit 1 vs dirt crit 3. Conditions can play a part but the dirt crit 3 line staying above the dirt crit 1 line the majority of the time is a good thing and what I hope to see.

Improving speed is not just about power numbers, somtimes seeing your self in action you can pick out ways to speed up, I think I found some from this video.

Dirt Crit #3 from bob arnold on Vimeo.

See you Thursday!

62 days til cross!

Dirt Crit 3

Another great turnout tonight despite 90+ degree weather. I count close to 50 A racers driving to the hole.

Had a good race tonight. Only draw back was I missed the lead group by just a hair, poor start was the reason for that.

Regardless it was an awesome race with big efforts. Came in 6th or 7th, will have to wait till Ralph posts the final results. Will add more race details on Friday and was near Bob at the end, so there may be race video.




Power Analysis
Conditions: Perfect
Placing: 6th or 7th
Weight 137 lbs
Time: 0:29:00 (PT fell off due to near crash with 1.5 laps to go, race was longer than 29 min)
Avg Speed: 16.8
Distance: 8.15 miles
Average Watts: 241w
Normalized Power: 249w
Max Power: 790w
Mean Max 5-secs: 732w
Mean Max 10-secs: 512w
Mean Max 20-secs: 429w
Mean Max 30-sec: 362w
Mean Max 1-mins: 322w
Mean Max 2-mins: 291w
Mean Max 5-mins: 274w
Mean Max 20-mins: 248w
Mean Max 30-mins: 235w
Kilojoules: 416kj
TSS: 41.1
IF: 922

Through tonight PMC Chart - tonight I did enjoy top 5 - 20 min and 30 min power averages for the year. Temp on Friday then spend a few days in rest mode.

omba caramba report

Not much to report about yesterdays race. The good news was team mate Mark crushed it yesterday with the overall win, he even had to take time to fix a flat. Well done Mark!

Had I known the characteristics of this trail I would have opted to stay home for for a long gravel ride. I'm not a fan of super rocky with an overwhelming onslaught of turns and twists. Spanish lake in two weeks is the type of trail I really like, and the dirt crits.

I did one lap, did not want to do another, packed it up and headed home.

Next up Thursday night Dirt Crit.

Cross in 68 days!

Out of Comfort Zone - Dirt Crit 2

Always good to have this co-pilot join me.




Threat of rain all day long, it had to finally let loose sometime and it did right before the A race.
So a warm up in the rain on a slippery hard packed trail was in order. Out of my comfort zone but determined to make the best of it while working on getting better in conditions like this.

After a few pre laps



Race went surprisingly well. I did not not try to start with the lead group today, rather I elected to settle in about 3/4 of the way back in the filed of 45.

As the laps went on the conditions got better and I started to get in a good rhythm moving my way up.




Even had sprint to the line for 15th on the day.



Not near as fast or as hard an effort as last week, average speed was 1.0 mph slower.

Springfield is next on Sunday.

Power Analysis
Conditions: Rain, wet, slippery
Placing: 15th
Weight 137lbs
Time: 0:37:10
Avg Speed: 15.7
Distance: 13.97 miles
Average Watts: 216w
Normalized Power: 230w
Max Power: 796w
Mean Max 5-secs: 708w
Mean Max 10-secs: 552w
Mean Max 20-secs: 446w
Mean Max 30-sec: 357w
Mean Max 1-mins: 324w
Mean Max 2-mins: 297w
Mean Max 5-mins: 272w
Mean Max 20-mins: 223w
Mean Max 30-mins: 218w
Kilojoules: 482kj
TSS: 44.9
IF: .852

Hermann Hilly TT

Registration Opens today

Dirt Crit 1

Almost as anticipated as cross is the Thursday Night Dirt Crits. Ralph and his crew put on a great event and were rewarded with a huge turnout last night for the first of a 5 race series followed by a Sunday final in Aug.. The numbers visually looked strong, my guess 150 total riders.

Shaun and Christo, the two South African transplants, from Hermann loaded up with me for an early arrival. Good parking and pre-riding is always in order.

Nice sized field for the A race, 36!
Race gets started with an all out sprint to the first turn only a 100 yards away. I’m in a good spot as we approach and try to power slide around the corner, slid out and I go down. I get heckled with “Dang it Yielding, way to go” from many, get back on the bike and move on. This genius move cost me a chance to be with the lead group as Chris, Dan, John M, John R and Bob motor on. This is such a fast race it’s hard if not impossible to gain much ground when you make a mistake.

Soon I find myself with Tom A, Dan Mc and Scott O racing for 6th. We had a nice pace going and were flying around corners. Not sure how long into the race it was but I cut a corner really short and caught a branch. This threw me forward and down to the ground fast! I was on the tail end of our 4 man group so thankfully it did not impact them any. I got up quick, checked things over and off I went but those guys were gone.

I was in no man’s land for awhile then Drew came into view from the rear, he caught and kept going. Drew is riding well for sure and we’ve had our matches this year, I think we are now even 2 -2. Next chaser to catch me was Greg, I held his wheel for a lap then began to poop out so away he goes too.


Stu and Doug were next to chase closing the gap, a hard effort on the last lap kept them at bay to cross the line 11th.

That was one fun race from start to finish.

Power Analysis
Placing: 11th
Weight 138lbs (62kg)
Time: 0:49:96
Distance: 13.97 miles
Average Watts: 227w
Normalized Power: 236w
Max Power: 826w
Mean Max 5-secs: 671w
Mean Max 10-secs: 540w
Mean Max 20-secs: 408w
Mean Max 30-sec: 368w
Mean Max 1-mins: 323w
Mean Max 2-mins: 289w
Mean Max 5-mins: 251w
Mean Max 20-mins: 240w
Mean Max 30-mins: 233w
Kilojoules: 679kj
TSS: 63.4
IF: .874

These number don’t mean that much right now, the fun part will be to compare them to each other over the next 5 weeks.

Full List of Results

1 Chris Ploch DRJ 574
2 Daniel Miller Team Seagal 575
3 John Matthews DRJ 584
4 John Rines Big Shark/Pfoodman 595
5 Bob Arnold DRJ 571
6 Tom Albert DRJ 562
7 Dan McCarthy 599
8 Scott Ogilvie Dogfish 578
9 Drew Black Mesa Cycles 583
10 Greg Santknop Team Seagal 597
11 Jeff Yielding Revolution 565
12 Stu Robson Ghisallo 588
13 Douglas Davis Gateway 587
14 John Peiffer Ghisallo 579
15 Dan Young Big Shark/Pfoodman 566
16 Dave Neis Bike Surgeon 570
17 Todd Holtmann Ghisallo 568
18 Paul Krewet DRJ 585
19 Kevin Koch DRJ 569
20 Jeremie Meitz Big Shark/Pfoodman 564
21 Peat Henry Team Free Awesome 576
22 Scott Mortimer DRJ 572
23 Pete Goode
24 Craig Thrasher Big Shark/Pfoodman 596
25 Bob Crow Dogfish 563
26 Craig Hoeflinger 573
27 Matt Grothoff Team Seagal 567
28 James Nelson Big Shark/Pfoodman 591
29 Ryan Lemmon Mesa Cycles 589
30 Mark Hasler 582
31 Mark Bauer DRJ 586
32 Patrick Gribbon Ghisallo 593
33 Dave Smith Hub 594
DNF Ralph Pfremmer Big Shark/Pfoodman 598
DNF Rock Wamsley Hub 592
DNF Matt Struckman Big Shark/Pfoodman 561