Epidavrus (Επίδαυρος) Road Bike and Triathlon Race (27-28 Sept. 2014)

If there is one word that can describe this event that would be 'magnificent'!
Epidavrus is an ancient historic region located on the east side of Pelloponissus. It was the first time that a major bike and triathlon sports event took place there. Not for one day, but for two. Saturday found athletes with 2 road bike events (35km and 70km), while for Sunday, a sprint Triathlon event (750m-30km-5km) was scheduled both for adults and kids. 400 athletes registered throughout the weekend for these events, which is a large number for the Greek athletic community.

The organizers, municipality of Epidavrus and Smart Solutions Company, did a perfect job with nearly 200 (!) volunteers laid down on the race course to support and secure the event during the weekend. The landscape during the races was just top class - no better place to compete and enjoy a race.

I registered both for the 35km road bike race and the triathlon. It was the first time I had 2 races on my diary within an 18 hours time frame, but I was excited for it!! I hadn't really prepared myself for anything good, but I always enjoy participating in big sports events. And Epidavrus is popular for its world class ancient attractions - that kept busy both me and my friends who came with me as spectators to support me.

 (prior to the start of the Saturday's road bike race)

Fulcrum Racing 5 Road Bike Wheels (2014): TWO broken spokes within 8 months of purchase.

Well, no equipment is perfect and failures can happen to anyone anytime, regardless of how expensive or cheap is the product.

I had my first broken spoke ever about 3 months ago. I have been into cycling since 2010 and I have changed several wheelsets since then: From Alex Rims, into Shimano, into Pro Lite and then into Fulrcum. I bought my first ever Fulcrum wheels in Dec. 2013, after shop's recommendations and friends' suggestions.

But, about 6 months after purchase a Fulcrum rear wheel spoke broke. At the worst place and time: During a 200km Brevet cycle race with about 50km to go when I also had a good ranking (within top 40 out of about 200 cyclists).

I was left in the middle of nowhere with the sun burning on top of my head at 36+ degrees in a very remote location (50km outside Theva, Greece). I was very lucky to have a race support car picking me up, as it was left to the athletes to deal with their emergencies according to race regulations. It was the first time I realised how a broken spoke sounds.. and the flatness your mind receives when it realizes that you no longer can pedal. My rear wheel lost its symmetry. It went into an 'egg' shape. I tried to open the rear break as much as possible, but still nothing. THAT spoke was fatal. I had to quit the race.

After the repair, the bike shop assumed that these things happen to everyone and it's normal. I accepted this.

4 weeks ago and about 2 months after the first ever spoke breakage on the Racing 5 wheels, another spoke on the same rear wheel broke. Again.

My bike fitness test exposed!

Measuring method based on information provided on the well established book by Joe Friel 'The Triathlete's Training Bible' (3rd edition, 2009).

With the help of a friend, the exerted watts on an indoor biker were monitored and the heart beats per minute (bpm) were recorded using my trustful Polar RS300X watch. At the end of the test, I took the data from the paper and I inputted it on an excel spreadsheet to draw the graph that is shown below. The test was performed 2 Feb. 2014.

The threshold is the point where a 'break in the knee" is observed (shown with the red lines on the graph).
This is roughly the point where your body shifts from an aerobic into an anaerobic state.

For your info, my resting heart rate is around 51bpm, while my maximum (running) pulses are 183bmp.
Hence it can be observed that the the maximum HR on the bike is less than the maximum HR on the run (this is to be expected as less muscles are activated during cycling) - this comes in agreement with the findings provided on many textbooks in the subject of sport's science (although I would expect that the bike HRmax should be about 10bmp or so less than the HRmax achieved of the run, perhaps this was influenced from the fact that I had completed some endurance training sessions the days towards the fitness test).

Bike fitness test

It is recommended to repeat such tests every 4-5 weeks or so to assess progress and overlay the results on the same XY graph to compare them with the previous tests. An improvement on the performance is noticed when the most recent line is shifted on the right compared to the previous test. You won't necessarily observe a significant change on the position of the threshold point, otherwise the other data points should shift. For a given effort (watts) a lower bpm is recorded when your fitness has improved.

Execute a fitness test at your own responsibility! Always seek a medical advice before putting yourself under an excessive effort.