John Roden King

Our own John Roden was named 2007 Duathlon champion for the Score This Multisport Series in the Duathlon discipline!

Oct 27- Kelso Ontario Halloween Cyclocross

Report from John Roden

Nothing like a nice 1pm start time for a family friendly race. We still were hurrying to make our 9.30 departure deadline, but made it across the border and off to the Kelso Conservation area with not too much time to spare. After some jabbering in the parking lot, I went for a lap with Dan Staffo, decided the course was pretty hard, did another lap and confirmed this and
went back to the car to do some last minute tire pressure adjusting (downward due to wet grass).

This was a classic hard course that would favor a real climber hard man type, short laps of under 6 minutes with a nasty stairstep climb that most riders opted to run. I had kind of a lousy start but decided that this racewould really grind people down and had no regrets about sitting in 12th. or so for a while. The hill took a toll and with what looked to be a 10 lap race in store, I settled in and tried to just ride fast and move up. Some of the people I passed blew up, other stayed with me for a while but fizzled over time and by the end I was ready to barf and get off the bike, in roughly that order. The kids and dog all had a blast on what turned out to
be another really nice late fall day in Canada. I still feel like barfing 6 hours later, so it must have been all I had in the tank.

Money went 5 deep, I knew before I even looked at the sheet that I would be 6th. I just had a feeling... Now with the weak US dollar, it would be nice to win an envelope of that pink money with pictures of waterfowl and pond hockey, but not today. Dan was hanging tough in a loaded masters race and finished in the top 10.

Valley Park Cyclocross

Post from John Roden
September 23, 2007
Hamilton, Ontario

As the leaves outside have started to change a bit, the time for some cyclocross plotting and planning has finally come to my little basement workshop in the cupboard under the stairs. After the little children are safely ahead and given their special requests for just the right blend of water in the sippy cup, the serious work of mixing up draft of special potion in my sticky tubular glue cauldron has arrived. Working slowly, and with the aid of a J.W. Dundees pale ale, I smeared up a sticky mess and stuck another set of sketchy tires onto some fairly deplorable rims for another season on the cross pitch. Unsticking a pencil from my forehead, I emerged with all of my equipment in top form for another season on the circled square, marveling yet again at all the abuse a Mavic rim can withstand while still remaining sort of round.

Sunday was a perfect day for a road race, with bright skies and wall to wall sunshine. Dismal,grey and snow flecked trails were but a memory from seasons gone by. The course was dusty and fast with a few odd barriers and a lot of turns. On the starter's whistle we were off for another season, everything going smoothly for the first hundred feet until a rider went over the bars right next to me, taking out the center of the pack. No mind, I was safely ensconced right toward the front and all was well. After a few more turns, some hapless rider tried passing to the inside and slid out, taking my wheels out from under me, pushing me back a couple places. I sat in what was turning into a group of sorts until I followed suit and crashed on one of the turns, sliding out my front wheel. I was to crash once more during the race (sliding out my back wheel to keep symetrical-like) and make a slew of mistakes to lose dribs and drabs of time to end up 7th. for the day. Kevin Mahoney also flew the flag for an excellent master 1 race. All considered, not a great opening day but good to get all those mistakes out of the way, hopefully. After a welcome back into the U.S. at the Peace Bridge, we were back home safe and sound with a few new bumps and bruises to start the new season off right.

For all photos go HERE.

Ontario Provincial Time Trial Championships & Danfoth Fall Fllolic Duathlon

Report from John Roden

September 8 / 9 2007

Saturday Race-Ontario Provincial Time Trail Championships - Wellandport, Ontario

The whole master plan for the weekend included doing the 40K tt up in Ontario, zipping over to Niagara falls for some tacky tourist fun, re-crossing the border and getting some free camping on lake Ontario before jumping in a sprint Duathlon. The whole plan went out the window once we realized the kids were utterly exhausted and camping would only decant more gasoline on the fire, so we made a day trip of the TT.
Arriving more or less on time for the race, we were greeted with a bit of a breeze and pretty hot and oppressive temperatures. There were over 200 riders in the event, which is a great turnout. The race was well organized and my high-noon start time was right on target. I decided to try stuffing a little camelback under my speed suit to have more water during the event, giving me kind of a hunchback look.

I didn't feel great warming up, but what are you going to do. The course was gently rolling to flat with a crosswind the whole way. I was really wishing for a disk, a fact which I mentioned to my wife while making excuses after the race. She noted that it's always one more expensive thing that I need to buy, just one last little gizmo, which while true was not relevant to the need for a disk wheel today.

In any event, it was slow on the way out and quite a bit faster coming back.
The interface between my body and the saddle was in searing pain the last 20 minutes, which detracted from the fun. For some reason, the course was mis measured and a little long, I averaged just over 26 mph and back-figuring my time would have been a low 57, not exactly setting the world on fire but not awful either. I'm amazed that people ride these at 30 mph, would take more than a disk to make that happen...

We drove to Niagara Falls down Lundy's Lane past all the porn shops and strip clubs and by the time we arrived the kids were starting to melt down, so we headed for home, making for kind of a dull outing, but that's life sometimes.




Sunday Race Danfoth Fall Frolic Duathlon - Barker, NY Day two of my weekend of racing dawned cold and rainy. The race was up on Lake Ontario and by the time I arrived it was blowing up in sheets of rain and maybe 58 degrees. With the storm overnight, the lake turned over and the water temp was in the low 50's, so the swim was canceled and everyone was doing a duathlon, which was fine with me. The first run was short, maybe 1.6 miles and I just kind of chugged along, finishing maybe 10th. or so in my wave, which was full of old folks like myself. The bike was mostly out and back, with the "out" portion straight into a raging gale. I chugged along in the low 20's until the turn around, then dropped it down in the 11 for the return journey, still shaking my head that people can ride 30 mph without a monsoon storm pushing them along. My legs felt like dirt from riding the time trial the day before, but that's life. The second 5K run was dreadful, I did not drop any places but my injured leg was telling me in no uncertain terms that duathlon season is simply over, which is fine. In any event, I was able to win the race, but it wasn't pretty and no pictures as the family had zero interest in a day out in the rain in the middle of nowhere.

Geulp Lake Duathlon

Report from John Roden
September 1: Guelph Lake Duathlon, Guelph Lake Ontario

We pointed the caravan north this weekend for the Guelph Lake Duathlon in Ontario, Canada. Things started off a little disorganized as I thought the race was on Sunday, like they usually are and realized kind of late in the week that it was on Saturday, so we had to shuffle things around a little and well I was hoping for that extra day of recovery from my repeated attempts to pound some more speed into my recalcitrant legs, but no mind. We camped out right at the park where the race was held. The race attracted maybe 700 people total, with 160 in the duathlon, which is pretty big around here.

I rode right to the start from our campsite after making a double batch of waffles and blowing the circuit breaker a few times trying to also run to coffee pot, which is why they call it roughing it in any event. I arrived a little late, but got all setup and jogged around a little before and tried to stretch my banged up legs. The first run was 2K, which is really short and painful and I managed to finish in about 20 something place, not a great start to the morning. The bike went really well, 30K of gentle rolling hills with lots of people spread all over the course. I was passing people like mad and by the last 10K things were pretty quiet and spread out. In any event, I had a nice bike ride, the one pro triathlete who won the triathlon was faster, but I was second fastest, which I'll take.

I got off the bike and parked next to another dutahlete, I asked him if we were leading and he reported another runner was already ahead of us and said "nice ride" to which I thanked him, while silently doing my sums on the odds of beating him in a 7K run after he soaked me for two minutes in a 2K run.
So, off we went and I dropped a place before we left the transition.

The last 7K run was just awful, I managed to drop to 6th. place by degrees, making a consummate mistake in the last K of not knowing the finish circuit and attempting to kick to catch 4th. without realizing I had a K to run after we passed by the finish line aaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggghhhhhhh. So I dropped a couple in the last circuit while I was utterly blown from my bone-headed and futile attempt at a sprint.

This running hangs like a giant stone around my neck, but I will continue to work on it. After two nights of camping, we packed it in, the kids were pooped and so were mom and dad...

This first picture is funny, I'm trying to figure out who is coming up behind me and if they are in my race or a triathloner, it was a long day out there...