Day Four Longsjo Classic Stage Race

Today was the final of four stages for the race, it was the Criterium and my favorite discipline of racing. The temp on my computer was reading 92 degrees at the start, I knew that would play a factor in the racing for us all.

My plan was to attack at the start and take a chance at getting a small group to the front. I made sure I did a sufficient warmup; I put in an hour solid getting ready and continued to spin right up to we went to the line.

The whistle went off - I went off, it wasn't meant to be though. I didn't get far; it was too predictable and the pack was right there. I sat in for a couple of laps to get myself use to the high effort it takes to sit on the front, it takes a bit more energy than sitting in the pack but it also keeps you in position to seethe moves others make and react quickly.

I figured if I couldn't get away from the group, I would throw some attacks. I prepared to do this immediately after the first sprint points. I went into the line fourth wheel and launched, got away a short distance and others came across but quickly the pack was there too. Others attacked and I jumped to stay with them, I was determined to police the front and either create the winning move or be a part of it. These would not work for any of us, but it wasn't for the lack of trying.

Going into the the last lap, three riders from 545 Velo attacked hard at the front an forced a reaction from Jonny Bold, the series leader (Yellow Jersey), staying attentive at the front paid off, I jumped with them, going through turn 1 & 2 I was now 3rd wheel with a 545 Velo rider, Jonny, then me going down the back stretch. We were going 40+Mph and drive the front hard enough no one could come around us, it stayed strung out heading into turn 3 with Jonny on the front and me second wheel. We exited corner 4 at full speed and at 300 meters to the finish I launched my attack and kicked as hard as I could and drove it down the straight to take the win! It was a great way to wrap up a great four days of racing at the 51st Longsjo Classic Stage Race. I made many new friends and had more support from my family than I could ever possibly expect- they make it possible for me to enjoy this sport. In wrap up I was able to finish in 10th place overall on GC for the series and a payday for my efforts.

Day Three - 51st Longsjo Classic Stage Race

Day Three is here, this is where I've been spending a fair amount of time working on my Time Trialing discipline. I felt OK but wasn't sure how I would do once on course since this is the first time I was going to do a TT after racing hard for two days.

It warmed up quick and our times were starting in reverse order of GC at 11:00AM, I started at 11:15:30AM. I took the time to get ready, ensuring I wouldn't have to rush but so I could stay relaxed a bit and save all of my energy. I knew I would be facing some tough competition given the stacked field we had.

In the start house I was given the countdown 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Beep.......

I was off, a little to hard than I planned but good none the less. I motored up the first hill and settled into my position. About 3 miles in (8.6 total) I peeked down quickly at my heart rate and it was exactly were I wanted it... at about mile 4, just shy of the turn-around point (4.58m) I noticed my power (wattage meter) was dropping a bit but my heart rate was were I wanted it. I was going into a bit of a head wind so I assumed it was nothing.

I hit the turn-around in good form and started making my way back... at about mile 6 I checked again and noticed the same thing as previously. I was putting out everything I could, I just wasn't putting out the power. It was hot, I was drying out, my through was a bit raw and with no water on-board (typical of this distance TT) I just dug deep and motored on. I looked quickly at what I was approaching for time and realized I wasn't going to get the performance I was expecting. I just pushed forward, this was all I could do now.

I hit the finish line and finished with 20:21, ultimately it would place me 12th for the stage, which is good and move me up a spot to 11th in GC. I was definitely a bit challenged today after all the racing - that's the way it goes! On to the Crit tomorrow for the last stage - this will have to be an aggressive race with a break in order for me to move up in GC at all. I have a plan, but will have to see how it plays out tomorrow...

Day Two - 51st Longsjo Classic Stage Race

Day two was very challenging! The weather was great but the heat started to crank up a bit. I had excellent support with Nicole and Taylor (and Connor) in the feed zone making sure I had everything I needed; you can't ask for better support - this doesn't include all the many, many other things they do to support me pre/post race too.

I was sitting in 8th place GC and could have played the safe card and just sat in the group, but I just can't do that, I wanted to move up in GC so I attacked the field 4 or 5 times. A couple of times I thought I would get folks up the road with me and a break would form but it wasn't to be and all the effort went for not. It's always to look back and critique a race and get caught up in saying things like "If I just sat in" or "If I didn't work to pull a break back" but I know what my goal was and I went after it with everything I had. I finished the day in 18th place only 20 seconds back from the winner and in the main group but it would end up costing me 4 places in GC, going from 8th to 12th.

On to day three! Time Trial.

Day One Wrap-up

Great weather and competition were on tap today! The circuit race at the Longsjo Classic is always a tough day of racing. The race is 3.1 miles long with a double kicker hill each lap. This is a super fast course overall and if your not paying attention, you'll find yourself quickly dropped, even on the downhill sections.

My goal today was to stay at the front of the peleton and motor hard up the hill each lap, this is always the safest place to be and with the fast downhill section turning at 90 degrees to the right as you go straight into the hill at about 32mph, you want to be up front. The hill would prove challenging with every couple of laps being a sprint for the Green Jersey.

The race unfolded as typical with many attacks, counter attacks, and bridging attempts. I took a shot at attacking the field with 3 to go. I got a couple is seconds but I would quickly be shut down. With 2 to go, Johny Bold from Corner Cycles and Max from Target Racing were able to gap the field by a couple of seconds and hold it to the finish. I put everything into staying at the front coming into the last corner, this proved to be a good move. We charged up the hill hard, stayed in the big ring and powered with everything I had, I would secure 8th overall and get a few seconds on those behind.

Time to rest and recover for tomorrows race.

Day One - 51st Annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic

Hard to believe day one is already here! Arrived at the hotel last night and picket up my race packet- seemed a bit quieter this year. I took the opportunity to take a ride down to the Time Trial course and pre-ride it. This year is unique in that they changed the format for racing. Instead of opening the stage race with the Time Trial, that moved it back to day 3 following the Circuit and Road Races. This should prove to be both interesting and decisive in the overall standings. It should also serve to shuffle things up a bit since we'll be more tired going into it and unlike the other formats, every racer ha the opportunity to gain time in the field, not just those that make or join a breakaway. I have worked at my TT discipline a bit but have no idea how I will feel when day three shows up ~ so, we will see.

For now, I have the freshly ground Starbucks Columbian Beans brewing in the French Press and a small bowl of Oatmeal with raisins, blueberries, and strawberries on tap. Weather looks to be nice, let's hope we have a good Circuit Race this morning. Here's to Day One and the start of the - 51st Annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic!

Top of Gibralter

Standing on the Top with the Seirra

Figeroa Mt Pic 2

Figeroa Mt pic 1

Old San Marco & Figeroa Mt

Yesterday's trek into the mountains. 8,400' climbing- started the day
at the ocean and headed up up up. Absolutely great riding and epic
views. Cold weather came in at the top of Figeroa and made for a cold
decent for about 30min.

Esau's pic #2

Breakfast @ Esau's Santa Barbara

Hanging out with Cliff having an early breakfast at Esau's a great
little place with surf boards adorning the ceiling. Big ride for
today: Thursday worlds then off to climb Gabraulter Mt. Looks like
another day of 8,500' climbing is in store. Loven it.

1980's Schwinn Project Bike SS

I was at Manchester Cycle talking with Bob the owner and looking at an 1980's lugged steel frame with a set of track wheels on it in the beginning stage of a rebuild. Bob has a few older Schwinn frames from back in the day that he builds into single speeds every now and again. After looking at this frame and rim set I decided I wanted to take a crack at it myself. I started to imagine how it might look with a nice paint job and a mix of new and vintage components. That's all I needed, I took it home and began planning...

When I left the bike shop I had a vintage frameset, stem and a few components

• Wheelset
• Crank and BB
• Bullhorn bar

I new I would be picking up many other parts but I wanted to plan it out a bit and wasn't sure what I would try to get new versus using vintage components. I started looking on the web to see what the Schwinn's of the 80's looked like. They were a little bland, mostly one color frames. I decided to expand my search and find more inspiration - this is probably the most fun aspect of the build, the creative part.

I looked at the fixie scene, you can really find some neat inspiration here! I also looked at vintage balloon tire bikes from a design perspective. I looked at current painters and custom builders as well and was able to draw a broad range of ideas. I have to credit my littlest son Connor with the main theme which I drew from his favorite movie "Cars"... I remember seeing Lightning McQueen when he was painted a burgundy/cream color in the spirit of a vintage corvette. This was it, I was set on this color scheme at least.

I grabbed my pencils and went to work drawing out the concept to use as my guide. I drew about four or five different themes, from solid colors and outlining the lugs to solid bars of cream on the head tube and seat tube, always keeping with the burgundy/cream color scheme.
Final guide drawing


Next I started to consider where to get it painted. I talked to a few folks and decided to look into powder coating. I found that I could get this done for a very reasonable cost. In talking with the guy who does that powder coating, he said it would be a challenge to get the two colors in the manner that I was looking for. I decided I would paint it myself. I've never done this before but I figured I could manage it with a bit of knowledge and the right tools. I have the compressor and the spray guns as well as the lettering brushes (courtesy of my dad), these are easily as old as the frame. Bob would continue to be a valuable resource throughout this build. I picked his brain about the painting process a bit and combined with what I learned on the web, I went down to Lowes to pick up some enamel paint. Rustoleum makes a pro enamel paint in the colors I wanted already mixed, this was a bonus. I pickup up a good charcoal mask, some masking tape and set off to create a home garage paint booth.


With the booth setup, I cleaned the frame, taped it off, hung it up and got to work prepping my tools, thinning the paint out and finally, painting the cream base color.
























With the base color down and a few (3) coats, I taped it off where I wanted to keep the cream color so I could layer on the burgundy.
































With the tape (green) down, I layered on the next color.







































Fast forward on the drying time... some wet sanding with 600 grit paper, hand-painted black bands to mate the two colors and a few clear coat applications after the decals.













After some more research and inspiration, I figured out what I wanted to get for components and began my search on Ebay and with some help again from Bob. Here's what I ended up with:

New Parts:

• Bontrager tires - they're black with a nice white wall, low-key but stylish
• Bontrager white bar tape
• Cane Creek 200TT carbon Time Trial brake levers
• Eighthinch 15MM wrench - Bling factor - fixed to water bottle boss for flip-flop wheel
• Weinmann silver DP18 Deep V flip-flop track wheels - single speed & fixed gear
  
• Origin 8 bullhorn bars
• Origin 8 White carbon bottle cage
  
• Lasco 48T track crank
• 16T freewheel
• 18T fixed gear
• BMX chain

Vintage Parts:

• Campagnolo Record brakes - these are absolutely beautiful
• Selle Italia Leather seat
• "Custom" brand track pedals and cages - new lever strap
• "Custom" brand stem 90cm
• "Custom" brand seatpost
• Suntour downtube levers - as this is a single speed, they're not functional - only there for aesthetics. I didn't want to remove the downtube braze-ons for the shifter so I thought I would put these on there for looks instead of seeing the bare braze-ons.

Other necessaries:

• Vintage Schwinn frame decal - courtesy of Bob @ Manchester Cycle
  
• Reynolds 531 and Campagnolo decal - Ebay - props to a gentlemen in Australia - thanks Mate!
• Vintage Schwinn head tube badge - Ebay - This is the last piece to complete the build, I need to pick up a couple of very small screws to mount. (see pic)

Here are the final pictures. A couple with the bike setup before adding the chain and other final components, then a few of the completed bike.

I learned a lot building this bike. I really like the final product, It came out just as I imagined it and I had a lot of fun doing it. I would definitely do it again and I'm sure I would do an even better job next time as I learned quite a bit in the process.

What's next? There are two things I'd like to try, first and simpler is to build a set of wooden fenders. The second is to build my own lugged steel frame - someday!

As I'm not one with much patience, I enlisted the person who inspired the color scheme to test it out. Since it was too cold outside, we gave it a go round the family room. It doesn't quite fit him yet, but I imagine it will some day. The smile on his face always makes my day!