Transportation – “I wish I was wearing a seat belt and crash helmet.”
Posted by Gale Bernhardt Nov 13, 2009Before diving into information about the race, first I’ll tell you a bit about Huatulco [hwa·TOOL·co]. Prior to the trip, I had not heard of Huatulco, located within the state of Oaxaca [wah·HAH·cah]. Huatulco is approximately 150 miles north of the Guatemala border.
Huatulco is one of those coastal cities that have the ocean as a front yard and the mountains in the immediate back yard. It is worth noting that some of best surf waves in Mexico are in this area. Additionally, the Huatulco National Park contains the “most important coral communities of the Mexican Pacific”.
Large portions of the Huatulco resort area are located within an "ecological zone". Good portions of the area is protected from future development and is serviced by modern water and sewage treatment plants so that no waste goes into the pristine bays. Huatulco has been awarded the Green Globe certification, and it is the only resort in Mexico to receive this prestigious award. (Green Globe is the worldwide benchmarking and certification system for the travel and tourism industry across the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental management).
Beautiful beaches and mountains translated to a tough, hilly, technical bike course for elite racers. Most racers were happy that the race organizers planned a relatively flat run. The course was a two-loop swim, eight-loop bike ride and a four-lap run. The women’s race went off at 8:oo am and the men’s race at 10:45. As you can imagine, as the day went on, the temperature went up.
Short videos of the women’s and men’s races can be found on the ITU website.
I traveled to the race to help support the ITU Sport Development Team. The Sport Development program is rooted in Olympic Solidarity. My role is to help athletes with questions on issues such as pacing, nutrition recommendations, pre-race strategies for dealing with the heat and generally giving support to individual athlete goals. The athletes were:
Yuliya Sapunova – Ukraine
Emma Davis – Ireland
Fabienne Aline St. Louis – Mauritius
Leonardo Chacon – Costa Rica
Min Ho Heo – Korea
Medhi Essadiq – Morocco
Michel Gonzalez – Cuba
Race goals varied greatly:
- Complete their first World Cup race
- Place top 20
- Place top 10 to remain on their home country’s funding program
- Place better than at any previous World Cup events
- Podium place
On race day, I am usually found arriving early at the transition area with the rest of the support team (Libby Burrell team leader, Jeff Donaldson bike mechanic and Diana Palmer athletic trainer/medical). I help with all pre-race issues and watch the swim start.
After the swim start I made my way to the hill on the bike course. I’m not sure how long the entire hill was, but the grade on the lower section where I stood had to be at least 15 to 18 percent. (It is similar to the steepest section of Old Stage Hill for those that have done Boulder Peak triathlon.) From that section, the course levels some before it kicks up again to the turn-around island. In the sweeping downhill section, riders were easily going in excess of 50mph. Do this eight times.
It was the hill that took the toll on racers. Athletes running a 39 x 25 had to be out of the saddle and powering up this hill to keep in contact with the pack. If the uphill isn’t enough to crush you, the high speeds on the winding downhill section would. I saw several athletes grabbing brake on that section of the course. Only those with good bike handling skills and a dare-devil need for speed were able to benefit on the downhill.
The women’s lead pack stayed mostly together. It was a different story for the men as Matt Charbot from the U.S.A. made a gutsy move about midway through the bike ride. Other riders tried to make a break, but his stuck. Ruedi Wild from Switzerland saw that the pack was not responding to Charbot’s move, so he broke too. By lap 7 of the bike, Charbot had built his lead to 3 full minutes on the main pack and 2 minutes ahead of Wild.
Equally as impressive, both Charbot and Wild held their leads on the oppressively hot run.
Congratulations to all the athletes that achieved their goals.
What I do as race support is but a small part in the overall scheme of this excellent ITU program. The ITU is coordinating a world-wide effort to grow the sport on multiple levels. This is an enormous task; but it is producing results – measureable results. Kudos to the ITU Sport Development program that is enriching a number of International Federations, their respective athletes and coaches around the world.
Photos:
1) Athletes in the swimming pool at the Las Brisas resort
2) Athletes waiting for the pre-race briefing, left to right: Min Ho Heo, Emma Davis, Fabianne St. Louis, David Bardi (coach), Mehdi Essadiq, Leonardo Chacon, Michel Gonzalez
3) Libby Burrell, ITU Sport Development Director in the foreground with incredible Huatulco shoreline in the background.
Those of you that have been following my blog and recent column know I’ve been doing a “look back at training 20 years ago theme.”
Today’s post featuring “Hotshot Lance Armstrong, Age 16, Plano, Texas” has several key features I’d like to point out:
- Earlier this spring I read a column written about Lance Armstrong where the author claimed that Lance’s VO2max as a young person had never been documented or published. I don’t recall the author or column title now and it’s not really that important; but, the author claimed that Lance's high childhood VO2max was fabricated and later published to give cover to high VO2max numbers posted when Lance was well into his professional cycling career. I knew I had read about his high VO2max when he was a youngster, but I couldn’t find the information anywhere in my files. I finally found it in a 1988 Triathlete magazine column. At age 16, his VO2max was measured at 79.5 (world class) - documented below.
- In the training column I wrote recently, I noted that in the late 1980s people were doing very high volume training schedules. At age 16, Lance was swimming 10,600 meters, cycling 320 miles and running 30 miles in the given sample week training schedule. Doing some rough estimates at 2700 m/hr swimming, 18 mph cycling, and 8 minutes per mile running (all average because not all workouts are done at race pace) I come up with a weekly training volume around 25 hours. This is a big load and is typical for many of today’s professional triathletes.
- “Junior” loves his mom.
- Prize winnings went into a trust account.
- It’s a fun column to read.
(Click on the column to get a larger and more readable view.)
Have a great weekend.
If you find something or someone inspiring, let me know. Drop a comment below.
Ah yes, classic. In the quest for more speed athletes often look to make workouts harder with more drag. In this 1987 product review column, the Para-Shirt is reviewed and priced nicely at $26.95
(You can click on the image to make it larger and more readable.)
What are you using right now, for training and racing, that people will laugh at in 20 years?
Just in case you missed the Seat Leash, find it here.
In my ongoing series of looking back at old issues of Triathlete magazine, I found a column on this new technology called “The Seat Leash”. It provided leverage by keeping the cyclist from sliding backwards on the seat. Apparently the Italians used a similar design at World Championships for cycling.
(February 1988)
I believe the technology was nixed because the governing body for Cycling, UCI, deemed it an unfair advantage and triathlon followed suit. Anyone with more information on that ruling?
I found this old column and thought you’d get a kick out of it. In 1988 Triathlete Magazine picked five athletes to be stars in the upcoming year. They featured this photo of young, 16 years old, Lance Armstrong with a photo caption: "If he can handle the psychological pressure, he may become one of the greatest athletes the sport has ever seen.”
The column goes on to tell that though his sponsorship with McDonalds fell through others came through, including current sponsors Nike and Oakley.
Mental toughness is one of his best, if not his best, asset.
Sometimes, I wish I was brave
Last spring a group of us from Colorado took a trip to Moab, Utah to do some mountain bike riding. From the Front Range of eastern Colorado, a drive to Moab takes some 5.5 to 7 hours depending on which city marks your departure point. So that the entire first day isn’t consumed by driving, many people stop in Grand Junction or Fruita to ride for a few hours before continuing the trek to Moab; which is what we did on our spring trip.
I wish I was stronger
On both ends of the Moab trip, we stopped at a trail head titled “Kokopelli Loop Trails”. While we thought it was a great warm-up day for Moab, on the homeward stop we decided that the Fruita area deserved a trip dedicated to riding the local trails. That trip happened over the Columbus Day weekend.
I wish I could feel no pain
We left the Loveland area at 7:00 am, the temperature was a frosty 18 degrees Fahrenheit, it was snowing and the roads were slick. Though the weather forecasters predicted the storm would be over before we reached Denver, it turned out we had snow and icy conditions well onto the westbound I-70 portion of the trip. An early morning accident at the Eisenhower, Johnson Tunnel rerouted us over Loveland Pass. (Note to skiers, Arapahoe Basin and Loveland Basin have both been making snow and each have one run open.)
I wish I was young
When we arrived at the Kokopelli Loop trailhead, it was 68 degrees Fahrenheit – well worth the 300ish mile trip. We began with Mary’s Loop and headed right to Horsethief Bench. There is some great video of this trail on website by Pete Fagerlin. If you watch the Horsethief Bench video, you’ll get a good idea of what the trail is like. That written, anyone that has ever shot video or even some still shots of mountain bike terrain knows the camera does not do true justice to the difficulty of any given section. To give you another perspective, below is a photo of Scott Ellis and Todd Singiser on the way back up the most technical part of this trail.
I wish I was shy
After a day of playing around on several of the trails in this area, we headed back to Fruita for some excellent food at Fiesta Guadalajara. After filling our guts and rehashing the day, it was back to the hotel to watch several of the videos on Fagerlin’s site and decide the strategy for the next couple of days.
I wish I was honest
On Sunday we popped into the two local Fruita bike shops, “Over the Edge” and “Singletracks”. Both shops were out of the waterproof maps, but we did end up asking one of the people in Singletracks what his recommendation would be. He told us he considers the best area of riding to be the area we visited the previous day. Then, he said if we wanted “rocky, ledgy and more technical” we should visit The Tabeguache Trail system outside of Grand Junction, and ride an area known by locals as “The Lunch Loop”. If we wanted smooth, flowing trails, he suggested we ride the Bookcliffs area, also known as Road 18 Trails and North Fruita Desert Area. We decided to do the tougher trails on Sunday, smooth and flowing on Monday morning before the drive back home.
I wish I was you not I
If you look at a trail map, there are three parking areas for the trail system. Start at the lower trailhead parking lot. If you go back multiple times, explore the higher parking lot areas. We started on the Tabeguache Trail and stayed primarily on that trail, finally connecting to the Gunny trail. There was definitely enough challenge here for us. I was short on photos today, but you can find video of the Gunny loop on Fagerlin’s site.
Sometimes, I wish I was smart
On the final day, we decided to hit the Bookcliff’s area and ride several of the connectors to Joe’s Ridge. After two days of riding, our legs were tired and we decided “smooth and flowing” trails sounded good. Do not assume “smooth and flowing” means mindlessly easy. No. It does not.
I wish I had power
We rode out of the lower trailhead and made our way to Chutes and Ladders. This is a fun trail with shorter, steepish climbs and equally described descents. While the entire trail system is probably smooth sometimes, we found a number of sections deeply rutted from significant rains. The three- to six-inch ruts kept you alert and picking your lines wisely. One false move on a deeply rutted section would grab your front or rear tire. Sometimes the error was recoverable, other times not.
I wish I could lead
After Chutes and Ladders, we headed to Joe’s Ridge. Just as it sounds, the trail runs along the top of a ridgeline. There is not much room for error, should you drift off of the trail. In some sections, there are only inches to spare and in other sections, one to two feet. A tumble down the side of the hill isn’t like falling off of a rocky cliff, but it would be awhile before you stopped rolling. Fagerlin has video of Joe’s Ridge and below is a still shot.
I wish I could change the world
For anyone looking for great singletrack and plenty of options for ride difficulty as well as varying terrain, I’d highly suggest the Fruita area. A couple of good resources include “Fruita Fat Tire Guidebook” and the www.latitude40maps.com “Fruita Grand Junction Colorado Trails Recreation Topo Map.” There are also single-page maps available at the trailheads, if they are in stock.
Let's start over
Let's start over
Note: The italicized sections of the blog are portions of the song “I Feel So” by Box Car Racer, heard at the beginning of the Fagerlin Horsethief Bench video. We felt motivated, and encourage others to do the same, to add our own words after:
I wish I was…
I wish I could…
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