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From cyclists to race cars, the motion of an object is determined by the sum of the forces acting on it. Those forces have both strength and direction and they can be observed and measured to predict future motion. Watch how an aeronautics engineer works with Newton’s three Laws of Motion to test the best posture and helmet for a cyclist in a wind tunnel.
Sunday morning started much like Saturday, early. Neal and I left the house right at 5:30AM to get to the criterium course held in Hampton Park next to the Citadel in Charleston, SC. We stopped, got coffee and headed down I17. There was a full moon and it seemed like we were going to drive right up to. One of the coolest moon sets I’ve seen.
We managed to get the Start/Finish Truss and stage set up in record time. The SC Criterium Championship is held on a flat course with two real turns. It’s a super fast 1 mile course.
It’s been a long season so far. I don’t know if I’m in good shape or not. I participated in the Charlotte MotorSpeedway Time Trial on June 9, 2010 in the Category 3 group. I got to the track early enough to register, get a start time assigned, and then have a solid warm up. I don’t like riding a trainer so I warmed up on the small track inside the big track. I immediately noticed two things….people warming up on TT bikes not using their aero bars (which I can’t understand) and the wind. It was pretty obvious that we had a big headwind going all the way down the home stretch between turn number 4 and turn number 1. It was the most wind I had experienced in the 3 years that I’ve been doing the TT.
The 2012 Dillworth Criterium was my first road race of the year. Dillworth isn’t one of my favorite courses. I find it to be a challenging course with a long, steady climb on the front stretch, plus it’s usually the my first road race of the year so my body isn’t used to the effort required in a criterium.
My race started at 2. I arrived a little early to catch the end of the Cat 4/5 race to see my friend Mike Levine finish up. After that, I rode my bike around for about 20 minutes to get the legs going.
April 15, 2012 was the inaugural NODA Criterium held in NODA (North Davidson) in Charlotte, NC. Since I had raced the Dillworth Criterium the day before, I slept in and did somethings around the house before heading down to NODA.
I arrived about 45 minutes before my race, got dressed and found Mike Levine of Mills-Levine. We warmed up for about 20 minutes. MIke had raced the 4/5 race and was going to race the 3/4 race. This would be our first chance to race together. The course in NODA is super fun. it has 6 turns and is a fast course with a long uphill drag on the back of the course.