Harpeth Bicycles Racing Team works together on the Harpeth River Ride

Chuck Crouch found this great picture of the team working together as they passed through Franklin, TN on the Harpeth River Ride. One of the greatest joys in cycling is riding in a double paceline with a group of strong riders whose skills you know well and who you trust completely.

Good luck to the guys who are racing in Memphis this weekend. Race reports will be posted after the event. Stay cool.

Chuck Crouch makes sure there isn't a field sprint

On Sunday May 30th the Harpeth Bicycles Racing Team successfully pulled off our first race. After the May 2nd date for the race was flooded out in Nashville’s 1000 year flood, the team rallied together and worked quickly to reschedule for this later date.

If you’ve ever promoted a race, you already know how much goes into making one run smoothly. We had great help from several veteran race promoters from Tristar Cycling, namely Nick Lytle and Jason Tatum who helped with setup and assisted us with running the race from start to finish. Harpeth Bicycles Racing Team President Jay Spiegel had this to say about the race:

People were very nice to say that it was well organized…I wish they felt the reality of if for a little bit. It was controlled chaos.

It might have been, but from the perspective of the racers and participants it couldn’t have run smoother. This says a lot about Jay’s leadership of the event, and the teamwork that everyone displayed. After a brief delay in the morning which caused the first race (Category 5 men’s race) to start ten minutes late the day was run on schedule. The race course was the star of the show; providing a safe, fast course that challenged competitors to give their best.

Many of our teammates who volunteered during the event also raced in it as well. The Cat 5 race had 8 team members scramble to the starting line moments after closing the race course to traffic. During the race, Harpeth was the team to watch as we had the numbers and the tactics to make the other teams pay attention. An early breakaway attempt by Nathan Taylor kept the pace high and the field in chase mode while the rest of the team stayed composed within the pack. Chuck Crouch attacked late in the last lap and put several bike lengths on second place by the time he crossed the finish line with a decisive victory. Harpeth took 4 of the top 10 positions, finishing 1st (Chuck Crouch), 3rd (Jonathan Woody), 4th (Shawn Ewing), and 8th (Chuck Byrge). Everyone raced strong and then jumped right back into volunteer tasks as soon as they finished. Congratulations Chuck and great work team!

Here’s a great video of the Cat 5 race taken by Chuck Byrge’s family.

Our Cat 4 squad had 5 racers start, and just like the Cat 5s they were in control of the race. Very few of the laps were completed without a Harpeth Bicycles jersey on or off the front of the pack. An early break by Mark Horne was brought back in by a prime sprint after staying away for a couple of laps (oh the conflict of being a teammate and race promoter!). Additional breakaway attempts by Brad Wormer and Greg Colby contributed to the high pace of the race and kept everyone strung out until the finish. The Cat 4 squad showed great teamwork throughout and placed tightly together in the final results.

A huge thanks to the TBRA crew as well. Bill Parsons did his magic with the race results (available here) and our officials officiated professionally.

The team’s first race was a success. We are looking forward to the next one (after a break, of course) and we are looking forward to racing as an amazing team in the upcoming races this season. Thanks to everyone who participated, who raced, or who just came out to watch. We would love to hear from you. Leave a comment with thoughts on the race or how we can make the next one even better.

The NashvilleCyclist criterium series gets underway tonight with the first in a hotly contested series of 10 races. Back for it’s sixth season, this series has grown in popularity each year that it has been run.

Last year, Harpeth Bicycles Racing Team member Mark Horne won the men’s Cat 5 championship belt buckle, and former team member Kailin Acheson won the women’s Cat 4 championship tiara. Mark has since upgraded to Cat 4 and will be vying for the title amongst a highly competitive field of local Cat 4 racers.

Harpeth has a strong field of Cat 4 and Cat 5 men this year. The team hopes to be contenders in the individual and Team Omnium categories as the series progresses.

For more details about this race series and details on registration, go to http://nashvillecyclist.com/events/crit-series

The race is officially back on, and will be held on Sunday, May 30th! Registration has been reopened and will stay open until May 28th. Here’s your second chance to sign up if you missed out the first time.

Check the race flyer for more details by going here.

Please stay tuned to your email, check this webpage, the Facebook fan page, or follow harpethracing on Twitter. Or email us at info@harpethracing.com

Thanks,

Harpeth Bicycles Racing Team

Click here to go to the official event page.

Some rides are ill-fated from the start. These are the ones where you left one shoe cover at home, or found a bulge in your tire from a torn casing, or your water bottles leak Perpetuem all over your frame as you drive to the shop. Sometimes you feel like hanging it up before you even turn a pedal.

Other rides start out great and then surprise you with circumstances that challenge your willingness to suffer. You can’t plan for these situations, but these are the rides that you remember as being “epic”.

The team had one such epic a few weeks ago when we were caught by a surprise cold rain 20 miles from the end of the ride. We could have made the decision to ride through it, but it was cold enough that it would have invited hypothermia. Instead we bivouaced at Jonathan’s house south of Leiper’s Fork and got a ride back into town.

The Harpeth Racing team huddles around the gas range for warmth

Now this particular ride would have been considerably more “epic” if we had chosen to continue, but most of us had endured enough of the epic (epic in this case equals rain) and wanted to go home and stand in a hot shower with a cold beverage.

 The season is young. There is much time remaining for suffering.

Read my full report of this ride here: http://www.nathanrtaylor.com/jonathan-saves-the-day/

Jay Spiegel wrote a great followup to the last post on the team message board, so I am re-posting it here. -Nathan

Thanks to Nathan for a great report of our ride yesterday. I’d like to talk a bit about how we watch for each other at team rides. At one point Brad and John got separated by the group on Greenbrier headed toward N Lick Creek. Fortunately it was due to some miscommunication, and not a mechanical or anything like that. So in the end it wasn’t
a big deal.

We joked before the ride that since we are a race team, we don’t bother with cue sheets, and I am completely in favor of avoiding that hassle. (see video below for a funny explanation of why racers don’t use cue sheets. -Nathan)

Part of being a team is taking responsibility for everyone on the ride from the people pulling to the last person in the paceline. We are all responsible for communicating with one another, and knowing who is behind us at all times, and being aware of those who may fall off or get out of sight.

So, I’m asking everyone on the team to avoid passively going along for the ride, and maintaining awareness and practicing communication so that we either arrive together or if we arrive separately, it is planned that way. If you’re on the front, be aware of how your riding affects the group…keep it steady, avoid surges, keep your line straight. If you are in the group, ride steadily, and don’t let gaps develop. If you are on the back and you or someone next to you starts to fall off, let the people immediately in front of you know, and pass it on. Everyone should be aware of who is directly behind them. Also, if someone is off the back because of a turn or something, and you are on the back of the front group, drop back so that the people chasing can get in your draft and pull them up. At the same time, the
front group should ease off if someone is chasing. Unless it’s a race or simulation…

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the Belladium ride if weather permits.

-Jay

Les Wooldridge responded to this on the team message board with a key piece of wisdom:

Jay writes, “If you are on the back and you or someone next to you starts to fall off, let the people immediately in front of you know, and pass it on.”

This will be a challenge for some of you because you’ll think “Man, if I start to fall off the back, the team will think I’m slow, weak, fat, out of shape, blah blah blah…”

Much more important in this situation is safety and as Jay says, communication and responsibility. If someone is falling off, it will be very important for the team to make a decision on what to do with that opportunity. You will usually find that there are almost always some other riders at that time in the ride who want to back it down a notch and will be happy to ride in with you. It doesn’t mean everyone has to slow it down but a discussion should occur and a group decision made.

Lastly, let the person on our team who has never come off the back of a pack step forward… (let me assure all the newer riders that no one will step forward).
-Les

Guys:

If you have not already done so, I would like to put in my $0.02 regarding bike fit.

The shop has a precision Serotta fit bike connected to a computrainer. No doubt you have noticed it.

Those of us who have been with the shop and/or team for a while can attest to the effectiveness of a perfect fit on the bike.

Before my first bike was adjusted according to the fit process I went through, I experienced some back and shoulder pain on a regular basis…riding long was no fun. Riding fast…well an 18 mph average on a 40 mile ride in a group was unheard of. I was always off the back on club rides.

After my fit, I was instantly more comfortable. My leg muscles took a week or two to adjust, and I was immediately faster…immediately. Did I say immediately. Yes, I think I did.

Since then, I have been on two different Serotta frames, and have been refit a couple of times to account for some weight loss and extra agility from cross training.

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that if you have not been through this process and you want to get faster and more comfortable on the bike, that this is THE single best thing you can do. You can get the lightest components and coolest wheels, and those things wont make a dramatic improvement.

On my regular 18 mile training loop, I did good to average 17 solo before. Now, I can average 20 solo on a good day. I have a little more fitness now than I did then, but that is almost an 18% improvement. Now, if I am smart in a peleton, in a road race, my average is usually 22-23.

Ask anyone who has been through the process…especially one like me who was improperly fit by the previous shop I used.

If you are interested, check with any of the guys at the shop for details.

End of pitch…

Jay

This is the final design for our 2010 Harpeth Bicycles Racing Team kit supplied by Louis Garneau.

It’s a great looking design, very classic.

The Harpeth Bicycles Racing Team is slowly coming together for the 2010 season. We currently have 20+ members on the racing team, and several members who are joining the D-Squad.

Over the next few weeks we will be re-launching the team website at this location and moving away from the old site located at http://teamharpethbicycles.blogspot.com/

This site will act as a team blog and web portal for anyone interested in racing in Middle Tennessee.