March | 2016 | Steve Tilford

te·na·cious

təˈnāSHəs/

adjective

tending to keep a firm hold of something; clinging or adhering closely.

“a tenacious grip”
- not readily relinquishing a position, principle, or course of action; determined.
  
  “you’re tenacious and you get at the truth”
- persisting in existence; not easily dispelled.
  
  “a tenacious local legend”
Yesterday, down in Oklahoma, at the Tall Chief Road Race, I was tenacious. When I look at the definition above, I can’t really say the first two definitions applied so accurately. I never get a firm-hold of anything and I relinquished a lot of positions throughout the day.The 3rd one is probably the most accurate. I was persisting in existence.

The Tall Chief Race was an effort. We got up at 5 am and were driving before 6. But that really wasn’t early enough. I looked up the distance to the race and Google said 178 miles. But it was closer to 215. That put us close to 30 minutes behind, when we were already cutting it close, like 30 minutes before the race. But, it was fine.

The course is great, a 18 mile loop with a few short climbs. The finish is 400 meters up a road to a dam. The wind was the determining factor. It was really windy at the start and it just kept getting windier. I think it was probably blowing over 40 on the last lap.

Normally I’m good in the wind. But to be good in the wind, you need to be good in general. I don’t think I’m close to good. At least by judging how I reacted when the field went into the gutter. And by responding, I meant anything except going backwards.

The race split time and time again on a particularly gnarly sidewind segment. The road was pretty iffy and the field had no ability to react to getting gutter ridden, other than getting blown to bits. I always tried to swing out to the center before I was completely cooked, but most of these guys haven’t ridden that much in crazy crosswinds, thus they just tried to stay connected in the gutter, which never worked out for them.

At one point in the race, I was in the 3rd group with at least 25 guys up the road. But the wind was so strong I realized that if I could keep my group semi organized, that we would eventually make headway.

It sounds like I was in control, but I really wasn’t. I got lucky that there were a couple real strong guys in my back group. After riding an hour off the back, we rode back up into contention. The front groups had got together and split. With 30 miles left, there were only 3 riders ahead.

With two laps to go, up the finish climb, the remaining field was close to 20, but that was short-lived. I could tell everyone was done. I was feeling a little better, but realized I didn’t have any ability to survive serious gutter riding. The first part of the course had a couple short climbs. But doing a short climb into a 40 mph headwind isn’t so easy. I was riding in a 39 x 28 off my seat barely moving on the last lap.

Guys started attacking and no one was following. After a few attacks, two guys, Rob Bell and Ryan Depree rode up the road. I made a pretty big effort and bridged up. I was hurt. Both Rob and Ryan were killing me in the crosswinds. On the first long tailwind section, Ryan went to the front and did a huge pull, like 2 miles at close to 40 mph. He never even acted like he was swinging off. It really established our break.

I eventually started coming around and just a little later, we caught up with two of the three leaders. It seems Jacob Lasley had shelled those guys and was up the road over a minute. So we had 5 guys with the addition of Janne Hamalainen and Chris Carlson. But Chris’ stint was short lived. He got shelled up the finish climb with one to go.

Oh, I failed to mention that we were racing in primitive conditions. It seems that the state of Oklahoma doesn’t have burning bans when the wind is over 15 mph or so. Because all the surrounding area was burning. The air was thick, which my wussy lungs were hating.

So there were 4 of us. Janne wasn’t big on pulling. He never really is. But he was good and eventually started rotating. I think I convinced him that we were just trying to survive and get to the finish.

I had been sort of cramping for an hour, but on the last lap, it was bad. With 1/2 a lap to go, my left sartorius completely seized. I dropped off the back of the group, trying to get it to release. It didn’t, but I rode thru it and got back on. I think those guys thought I was messing around, so I just went to the front and took a big pull.

On the last sidewind section, about 2 miles out, I took a pull and Rob attacked into the gutter. I was shelled instantly, but kept riding hard. I figured if those guys got back together, they would sit up, which they did. So when I rode up, I attacked, just because. I knew I wasn’t going to be shelling these guys, but I was a little perturbed.

So, we started coming to a stand off. We coasted down to a slow pace, even though I was trying to keep rotating. Luckily for me, there was a group riding up from behind and once everyone realized they were coming, we all worked together the last mile or so.

Coming to the bottom of the climb, Janne went to the front and jumped virtually from the bottom. I instantly shifted into my small ring to just ride to the finish. Janne had a good gap, and even though Rob matched his pace, he was a few bike lengths back and finished 3rd. Ryan was seized and going as slow as me. I made a run at him the last 50 meters to just keep him honest. I didn’t catch him, which I really didn’t plan on anyway.

I have to say that I put a lot of effort into that race. I was not firing good from the start. I somehow need to get my internal energy rhythm reset where I’m riding better on the weekends and not so good during the week. Man, this sport is really hard when it goes this way.

Jacob Lasley was hauling ass. He has been going great for a long time, he just races more locally than a guy with his ability should. He finished in the top 10 at the UCI Cyclocross at Trek and then won Master’s Nationals, so he finally was rewarded for his abilities. He rode away from the field at the 1/2 race at Joe Martin, so I guess there is no reason he couldn’t do it on home turf.

The rest of my van didn’t have such good races. Jack and Bill both didn’t finish. When you get shelled by yourself in a 40 mph crosswind, there really isn’t any other choice. That is except if you’re Catherine.

She got shelled by herself. When she was explaining the scenario, I realized she was on the centerline. I know many of you guys are going to hate this, but I told her she needed to cross the centerline to get a draft. That either way, she wasn’t going to stay in the race, but the centerline rule is subjective. Getting shelled by yourself isn’t. She rode the last two laps, which is 30 miles by herself. I can’t imagine how hard that was. She was just trying to get in the miles, holding out for daylight savings time next week.

Today, my lungs are blown. I’d have to say I’m sick, but after racing in all that smoke, when my lungs were already hurt, might give me a glimmer of non-sickness hope.

I took Tucker out for his longest walk so far last night. We went out for over an hour. He was great. He is super noise sensitive, so all the night noises are all new to him. He got a little scared a few times, but is very trusting in my assurances. An owl was his biggest scare.

I’m going to take him out to Vincent’s land and collect some cow manure today. I’m going to plant a garden today. It is supposed to rain tonight and 3 days this week. It is supposed to be in the 60’s and 70’s the next two weeks. Crazy. You’d think it was spring already, even though it is just early March.

I love handwritten results. Official results here.

And wine for the winner. Rob, Jacob and Janne.

Leaving the race.

Need an oil rig?

We stopped at Beto Junction for a few cinnamon rolls. 2 lbs each.

The area burn map last night.

Tucker travels great. He just goes and lays down when he is pooped.

I am continually surprised how much controversy arises in comment section when I mention someone crossing the yellow line in a bicycle race. I think the rule should be called the centerline rule, but whatever it is called, there seems to differing interpretations of it.

I do understand the guys that think that breaking a rule is breaking a rule. Some people think that crossing the yellow line is akin to doping in the professional ranks. But that isn’t the case.

One thing that really attracted me to the sport initially was that it really isn’t a subjective sport. You start and the first guy to cross the finish line wins. Pretty cut and dry. But there are some rules in the sport, that are subjective.

I know, you are going to say, no, rules aren’t subjective. But, I hope I can explain how this is true and how it is fair.

There isn’t a problem with the yellow line rule. The rule is very important to allow the sport to survive in the environment of our society. Virtually no local or regional road races could occur if this rule wasn’t written down in the USAC rulebook. Whether the rule is enforced or enforceable, that is another situation.

Here’s the deal. Ultimately, the best bicycle race would be on a totally closed road. But only the professionals and sometimes, a very few amateurs, enjoy that “luxury”. The next best thing is a rolling enclosure. That allows the racers the full use of the road, but if or when you aren’t able to stay with the pack, then you have to abide by the centerline rule.

Lastly, there are the rest of the road races. The majority that most of you are racing. These races are the races where the centerline rule comes into play. The rule is –

3B1. Center Line. If a course is not closed to traffic, all competitors must keep to the right of the center line or enforcement line.

Notice the word must in the rule. That is a strong word. Maybe shall would be better? Or even a less strong word than shall. But, it is must. What is weird, I think the original rule had something like you can’t advance positions across the centerline, but that must have been removed a while a go.

In reality, in many races with Cat 1/2’s or professionals, the rule is flexible. The rule is in place for the law enforcement. You might think it is there for safety, but that isn’t the case. The safest race is that where the road is close. The next safest is a rolling enclosure, the next is a race where the yellow line rule isn’t enforced and finally, lastly, a race where the rule is enforced.

You might not believe this, but it is true. You don’t want to be doing a bicycle race with 150 other guys and have oncoming traffic coming at you at 55 mph. Or maybe worse, traffic coming by from behind at 55 mph. When the field is stretched across the road, the oncoming traffic does yield, thus the riders are safer. The oncoming drivers might be pissed a little, but if the lead motorcycle or car does their job properly, they warn the oncoming traffic of the race and no one is really out anything.

Another problem, one lane of a normal two lane road is very narrow for conducting a bigger bicycle race. When there are fields over 75, not to mention 150 riders, riding on half the road is very restrictive. Add just a small amount of wind to the equation, then it is nearly impossible.

So, we’re giving our officials an impossible task. We’ve made a rule that is virtually impossible to enforce in many situations and then asking them to enforce it.

Most officials have raced bicycles before. And most of them understand the situation. They really don’t want to be kicking guys out of a bicycle race. That isn’t good for anyone. So many times, the officials do a lot of threatening, but the race continues.

And here is the real deal. When there is a race where there are going to be blatant centerline violations, causing problems with the traffic and police, then the race either needs to be called or every rule violator needs to be removed from the race. But when this happens, like I stated before, it is nearly impossible to remove all the riders from the race that have broken the rule.

Many time if there is a field of 100 riders, 92 of them are across the centerline. It would be easier telling the guys that aren’t across the centerline that they can keep going than trying to disqualify the rest of the field.

The rule is good. And nearly in every race I’ve done, it has been enforced correctly. I have done 1000’s of road races in my life and probably less than 10 there has been a yellow line situation, where it affected the results. And all of these, it was, what I considered a Nazi official that didn’t understand the dynamics of the sport.

I have been removed from a race once, yes once, for a centerline violation. I was a first year senior (elite) rider and had moved to Austin Texas for the spring. The 2nd road race I doing there, I got in a move with John Howard and David Meyer-Oaks. John was one of the best riders in the country, on Olympic and Nationals teams. David was just a notch less famous, but a great rider, one I knew of too.

I was in a 3 up break, minutes up the road and was happier than I had ever been. I was pulling as hard as I could each and everytime I got to the front. I was expecting to get third, but wanted to do my share.

Tom Boyden, a Texas hardass official, was following our break. We were riding in a wicked sidewind and were nearly side by side, the wind was so strong from the left. All of a sudden, this official, Tom, pulls up and says something like, “number 77, you disqualified, remove yourself from the race”.

We spread across the road and John started talking to Tom. I can remember it now. He said, “Tom, what seems to be the problem.” Tom explains that me/I, #77, had cross the centerline when there was a gust of wind and that I was out of the race. John explained that the conditions were extreme and that he thought that wasn’t fair. I told Tom, (I didn’t really know him then), that I didn’t mean to cross the yellow line and promised I wouldn’t do it again. He told me I was out.

John apologized to me and said that Tom was an asshole and that he would suspend me if I didn’t quit. He said sorry and they rode off. I was devastated.

After the race, John came over and said he felt badly, then invited to me a party he was having that night. It turned out to be alright. The party invitation offset the injustice and made it seem less important.

This is an example of a time where the rule was enforced completely wrong. I’ve been in a few races where the wind is coming so hard from the side that it is nearly impossible staying on one side of the road. Especially with 5-10 guys ahead of you trying to hold their bikes upright.

This situation has been the same every since I started racing bikes. The situation and the remedy. Like I said above, it is an impossible task for an official to enforce this rule fairly. When it rains, it pours in this situation. And it goes across all categories. No one, officials included, is happy when the it arises.

Anyway, people shouldn’t get so worked up with the centerline rule. It works, it really does. There isn’t a problem with it. It works even when the word must isn’t enforced. Bicycle racing is very dynamic. Trying to officiate the sport is a very hard job. The best officials understand racing and do their best to keep the race fair and safe.

Tucker doesn’t mind getting a little muddy.

Steve Tilford

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Monthly Archives: March 2016

Tenacious

Understanding the Yellow Line Rule