Chris Horner and Levi take off...

Here is a video I took while at the finish line in San Jose at today's stage 3 of the Tour of California. Chris and Levi left the main field behind and rode up to the break. Horner ended up 3rd, Levi 2nd and Jens Voigt won the stage...

Chris Horner Bike Repair Stage 2 of Tour of California


Chris is getting his rear derailleur worked on from the Predictor Lotto team car

Chris Horner Video Interview
Here is a video I took of Chris Horner getting interviewed before the first stage of the Tour of California.




For more on the Tour of California and same day race data from the Predictor-Lotto team go to
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/sites/predictor%2Dlotto/

Say hi if you come to the race. I'll be with the Predictor-Lotto guys.
Ciao.
Dirk

I am at the Tour of Califronia this week working with Predictor-Lotto.

Please visit our microsites at the belo link to see the latest race data
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/sites/predictor%2Dlotto/

Off to the races....

Techno Geeks of T-Mobile...

Wouldn't it make sense for a Communications company to hire techies? Why should it be any different when it comes to a communications giant sponsoring a professional cycling team? T-Mobile has somehow sought out the most computer savvy pros in the peleton and the two riders that stand out the most are Adam Hansen and Marco Pinotti. These guys know there stuff and are helping TrainingPeaks immensley with feature ideas and practical knowledge.

Adam and Marco are just a few of the 90+ pro tour riders using Training Peaks and WKO+, just as any Formula One driver would test a new engine for a car company. This is our Formula One testing ground and the ultimate prize is the Tour de France. What proves out here will trickle down the masses and be available to all, just as Honda tests new concepts on the race car track.

For more on Adam Hansen see a recent article on CyclingNews.com:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2007/interviews/?id=adam_hansen07

Adam's personal web site is
http://www.adamhansen.com/index.php



"Also the Nutrition Part on www.trainingpeaks.com has been helping shred off some excess weight very fast! I think every pro should have something like this," Adam Hansen.







Marco is also profiled on Cyclingnews.com and has a diary page at http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2007/diaries/marco/?id=default





Marco's personal web site is


http://cyclingfx.nl/MarcoPinotti/

Two Professional Teams who use Training Peaks will line up at the Tour of California February 18-25th

Tour of California stages:
February 18 - Prologue: San Francisco - Individual time trial = 1.9 km
February 19 - Stage 1: Sausalito - Santa Rosa = 156.3 km
February 20 - Stage 2: Santa Rosa - Sacramento = 187.2 km
February 21 - Stage 3: Stockton - San José = 152.2 km
February 22 - Stage 4: Seaside - San Luis Obispo = 215.2 km
February 23 - Stage 5: Solvang = Einzelzeitfahren = 23.5 km
February 24 - Stage 6: Santa Barbara - Santa Clarita = 169.6 km
February 25 - Stage 7: Long Beach = 124.7 k
m Total: 840.6 km

Predictor-Lotto Roster:

Mario Aerts, Belgium
Bart Dockx, Belgium
Chris Horner, USA
Nick Gates, Australia
Nic Ingels, Belgium
Matthew Lloyd, Australia
Jufre Pou Josep, Spain
Fred Rodriguez, USA


T-Mobile Roster:

Michael Barry, Canada
Gerald Ciloek, Germany
Adam Hansen, Australia
Greg Henderson, New Zealand
Kim Kirhcen, Luxembourg
Aaron Olsen, USA
Jacon Piil, Denmark
Michael Rogers, Australia

Five T-Mobile newcomers will be climbing into the saddle for the start of Sunday’s Tour of California (18.-25. Februar). Celebrating their race debut in magenta colors are American Aaron Olson, Michael Barry from Canada, Adam Hansen (Australia), Dane Jacob Piil as well as the young sprinting star Gerald Ciolek from Cologne. The 8-day challenge along the US west coast will cover a distance of 1,000 km from San Francisco to Long Beach.

For Australian Michael Rogers, three-time time trial World Champion, it will be his first race of the season. New Zealander Greg Henderson and Kim Kirchen from Luxembourg have already had their first taste of racing this season at the Tour of Qatar. The 8-man T-Mobile team will be accompanied by Sporting Manager Brian Holm from Denmark.

Like last year the tour will start with a 3.1 km prologue in San Francisco. Eighteen teams will be racing against the clock from Pier 1 in the harbour district and then on to Telegraph Hill and the finish line at Coit Tower.

The start is a real challenge for the cyclists with differences of 250 meters in height matching moutain climbs.

"The intervals will certainly be greater than the usual city courses”, said Holm. The 44-year-old Dane was there last year with the T-Mobile team during the US tour and knows from his own experience what his riders will be facing.

"If you consider which phase of the season we’re in at the moment then you can’t really talk about a preparation race. Here, you are up against it from the start.”

Nevertheless Brian Holm is optimistic that his team will be able to pull off a stage win. In 2006 T-Mobile Team won two podium wins along the Pacific coast and this time around there is a also good chance of victory in the closing stages.

“With Greg Henderson and Gerald Ciolek we have two sprinting talents in the team, who’ll be able to show their ability on a course like this”, said Holm. In the general classification Holm will be able to rely on the experience of Olson, Piil and Kirchen, who are all “rearing to go”.

USA Cross Country Running Champ's:Culpepper Takes Home Town Race with Fitness and Experience.

[photo from L to R: Alan Culpepper (1st), Jorge Torres (4th place), Adam Goucher (2nd), Dathan Ritzenhein (3rd)]

Feb. 10, Boulder, CO:

Saturday was a gold-medal day for CU running as the top four men at the US Cross Country Championships were all local CU alumni. It isn't my normal routine to attend running events, but this was clearly going to be a special day and I didn't want to miss out. Over 10,000 spectators showed up at the Flatirons Golf Course in Boulder to watch the open men and women showdown.

Local hero Alan Culpepper took the top spot with self control and a well timed late-race attack that left the others chasing runner up slots. Alan showed great self-control as he let Dan Ritzenhein take an early race lead. Soon afterwards Adam Goucher went in pursuit and left Alan behind in a chase group of three. Alan finally made his move with about 4k to go and went blazing past the two leaders "Like a steam train" said Goucher.

Goucher, coached by legendary marathoner Alberto Salazar, gave a great post-race debrief of the days events to Alberto (caught here on video).

Conditions were better than expected after nearly seven weeks of record setting snow fall. The skies opened up early in the week which allowed the grass and dirt surface to harden up just enough for a relatively clean event. However, the conditions were a completely different from what competitors will expect to see next month at the World Cross Country Championships in Mombassa, Kenya. The top six finishers in the US National Championships earned a spot to go to Kenya , but several are expected to forfeit their slot in order to prepare for high-profile marathons and longer range goals such as next summer's Olympics.

Kastor Takes her 8th Championship

Deena Kastor easily won her 8th Cross Country Championship title by separating herself from the rest on lap one of four. She opened up a lead of one-minute over the 8km course and cruised in ahead of Shalane Flanagan.

Interesting Notes:

-Adam Goucher is trained by Alberto Salazar. Alberto talked in a pre-race conference how he allowed Adam to make the choice whether to live and prepare for the Champ's in Boulder, or whether to continue living in Oregon and use artificial altitude to sleep in at night. Adam made the decision to stay in Oregon.

Asked what Alberto would do if artificial altitude chambers are banned and made illegal, Alberto responded that he would make his athletes move to altitude. He said it is that important that to be able to compete on the world stage now you have to train at altitude. This is one of the sacrifices top endurance athletes have to make these days in his opinion.

Adam made weekly trips to train (intensity training) at 4500ft. Alberto also had Adam travel four times to Boulder for weeekend trips so he could simulate the race weekend. However Boulder had so much snow this winter that he had to conduct one of the race simulation training sessions in the 29th street shopping mall parking structure.

-Randy Wilbur, a USOC staff physiologist, presented the day before the race on how exercise enduced asthma will be of great concern for US athletes at the upcoming Beijing Olympics. He said many of the US Olympic teams are screening their athletes ahead of time to see which ones will be affected the most by high pollution levels. Testing different medications and making sure the proper documentation is lined up is a major concern at this point. Teams are also experimenting with portable air filtration systems so athletes can train prior to their events without adverse affects.

Revisiting Mt Evans Power #'s by Request...

I had a request to revisit my Mt Evans race numbers for last year. This is a great topic for this time of year. Whether Mt Evans is your goal or not, this is the time of year to analyze your upcoming races so you have plenty of time to create workouts which will match the expected race stress.

I was asked how much I weighed at Mt Evans last year. I was 75.9kg.
My race time was 2:05 and it was considered a slow year in the pro/1-2 field as we crawled along the first 10 minutes. I only averaged 216 watts for the lower 3 miles.
My avg watts for the race was 248w and 150hr.
My FTP at 5,500ft at that time was ~360w and 178hr.

After the first 10 minutes the pace picked up and I averaged 287w/158HR for 26' until I was dropped and decided to ride at my own pace.

From 7,500ft to 10,000ft I averaged 258watts/165hr
From 10,000-14,000ft I only averaged 222w/160hr

Obviously my power rapidly fell away, while my HR relatively stayed the same. This is a concept introduced to me by my father Joe Friel and he terms this "fall away" as Decoupling, or Pw:HR decoupling.

My Pw:HR decoupling value was for the entire race was 15.7%

Here's how to calulate your Pw:HR decoupling...
1. Divide average power/pace by average heart rate for the first half (pace is probably best measured for this purpose in mph)
2. Divide average power/pace by average heart rate for the second half.
3. Subtract 2nd half product from 1st half product.
4. Divide by 1st half product.

Interesting to note is the decoupling value for each section of the race:
-First easy 10' was -6.2% meaning I gained strength, or became more economical, due to the warm-up effect of an easy pace.
-Fast paced attacking section was 4.39%, I am starting to fade.
-7,500ft - 10,000ft was 2.64% This is lower compared to the previous section because I settled into my own rythm and rode solo.
-10,000-14,000ft was fell away at a wopping 6.34% simply due to the extreme altitude.

The difference between the avg watts of my 10k+ft section (222w for 42') and my first 42' (268w up to 7,700ft) was ~20%.

The mathematic models of pacing are hard to apply to such an extreme race as Mt Evans due to the rapid change in altitude. Power at Lactate Threshold and VO2max both drop as the altitude goes above 5,000ft, as compared to sea level.

This is exactly why you want to live high, train low. It is hard to maximize all systems at high altitudes. The "aerobic ceiling" simply collapses in on you reducing the amount of work your muscles can produce.

Ciao,

Dirk

Michael Barry's Diary: Die Mannschaft

Check out Michael's Diary entry above. He gives a good perspective on how the T-Mobile training camp went and how everyone from the support staff to the riders think and act as a team. It's also good to see the team is giving him every opportunity to prove himself by staying focused on his personal goals with a motivating schedule of races.

Here is Michael and I heading out for a cyclocross ride last week, the day before he headed off to California for his second training camp.