FRG 06.24.07

The course for the Fox River Grove Cycling Classic is a great course...that is for the 14 other skinny riders in the cat 3 race who had a good 20 lbs on me. I realisticly have no chance in this race but after doing it this year i can't wait till next.

There is not more than 200m of straight road at any point during the 1.13 mile loop which makes this race very fun and interesting. The pain starts immediately. Just 100m from the start/finish line you enter turn 1 and beging the climb up Violet Ave. The first 200m of the 300m climb is a twisting banked road that must have an average grade of 15-17%. You don't even think of sitting down during this part. The remaining 100m or so is more or less a stairstep with a false flat leading into a 12%? climb the rest of the way.

At the top you enter turn 2 and begin the free fall back down a twisting, wide, newer residential street with a left turn at the bottom. While very fast this turn is really smooth and leads you onto another winding street into turn 3. More winding road with a little bit of an uphill into turn 4 which leads you back down to the start finish area.

Seeing that this course is only 6 miles from my house i've trained on this course several times. My goal was to try and ride the climb as smart as i could and stay in the main group as long as possible. I knew once things really got going i wouldn't be able to match the skinny climbers in the bunch so i tried to conserve whenever possible.

Laps 1 and 2 were just fine. I put myself as up front as much as i could at the bottom of the climb and rode my own pace up the first half of the climb. If a gap occured i was able to bridge it back on the not so steep, top part of the climb.

On lap 3 near disaster struck. I got stuck on the inside of turn 1 and as we headed up the climb i got bumped off the road onto the shoulder which consisted of 2 1/2" rocks. I had to stop and almost get off the bike. Then I had to remount and restart on the steepest part of the climb. By this time everybody was well up the road. I was pretty mad cause I did not want to get dropped like this. Fortunately I was able to not lose too much time and found my way back into the main group at the bottome of the descent.

Get a Grip(GAG), a team from chicago, had 5 or 6 riders in the field so on the second lap they sent a rider off the front. I think 1 other rider went with him and then the field settled down with the rest of the GAG riders controlling the field. I was totally fine with this cause that meant the pace would slow down.

This went on for several laps. Each time up the climb the gap i lost became a little bit longer and the longer it would take me to catch back on during the flat section. I knew the end was near.

About half way thru the race people finally got tired of just racing for 2nd place and the attacks came. This is where i got off the bus and said goodbye to the main field. A rider attacked on the climb and by the time i got to the top the field was gone. Now i was just riding by myself.

I contemplated dropping out but soon talked myself out of that. I thought, "how often do i get to fly down a descent with a good turn at the bottom. If nothing else just practice your descending skills."

After a couple laps on my own i started to see 1 rider and then a second rider up ahead. Each time up the climb I was gaining ground on them. Eventually I caught both and there was a group of 3 of us fighting it out for what would be 10th place.

Every time up the hill I would drop one rider and then the other but not enough that they couldn't get back on during the descent. So finally on the last lap I attacked the 2 and almost immedaiately heard one declare he was done. That left 2 of us.

I got a decent gap over the remaining rider but it wasn't enough to stay away. Between turns 3 & 4 he caught me and after leading him thru turn 4 he sprinted around me for 10th place, leaving me 11th.

All in all i had a lot of fun. It was one of the hardest races i've done but i really enjoyed it. Catching the 2 riders and making a little mini race out of it helped me along. I never thought I would be the one attacking on a climb like that even if it was for 10th place.

Can't wait till next year.

Fox River Grove Cycling Challenge

For anybody interested here's the details for the race on sunday.

I will be racing the Cat 3 race at 2pm.

Here's a map.









There is parking just south of the course at the the jewel or dominicks, i can't remember exactly what store but they run a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the course.

Also if you would like some more info click the link to the left under upcoming races. At the bottom of that page is some printed directions on how to get there.

Would love to see you there.

Ron

Rant

In the tradition of Dave Zabriski's peloton interviews I will begin the post with one. While this isn't word for word this is the best as i remember it.

Rider 1: Who's the damn moron who keeps leading the field into traffic!
Rider 2: That would be me.
Rider 1: You can't lead a group of 60 riders into traffic!
Rider 2: Hmphh...It's only 40.

What led to this nice little interview was possible the dumbest group ride i have ever been a part of. For nearly 3 years now i have taken part in a ride, named after a local community college, that occurs on a saturday morning in the northwest suburbs of a big midwestern city that is located on a big lake.

Since last year i have been commenting on how this ride is getting choppier and choppier as it grows. Now before i rant i will make the disclaimer that at times i have done stupid stuff too but this was nuts. Let me give you some examples.

Incident 1: Just before a busy intersection is a right turn followed by a short downhill into the intersection. The road we cross is a busy road and most of the time we have to stop. While most of us are slowing down one joker decides to prove his agility and sprint to the intersection. In the process he nearly hits a pothole and almost takes a rider out trying to avoid the hole. My response: "Can we stop racing for stop signs?&#!"

Incident 2: The next major road crossing people at the front of the field start crossing the road with an oncoming truck coming from the left. We had to yell stop to some riders who were just assuming that beacuse the first rider went, the other 50+ riders could cross too. Finally cars from both directions stopped so we all could cross safely.

Incident 3: Just before the next major road crossing (notice a pattern here) we have a sprint to the stop ahead sign. That was all fine and fairly clean but then we have to turn onto a busy street with no shoulder for 500m to get to the next road. It is a blind corner to the left because of trees. So the first rider to arrive(rider 2 in interview above) just turns onto the road without stopping. I'm maybe 15 feet behind him. He doesn't say anything, doesn't call out car left so I'm assuming (my mistake) that nothing is coming from the left. When i reach the intersection there is a pickup truck pulling a trailer coming down the hill. Immediately i yell truck left! Now i'm getting pissed. "Rider 2" put a whole bunch of people in danger.

(Insert rider inteview above at this point)

Incident 4: Same rider from incident 1 while going up a hill almost takes a teammate out. This is when i notice the guy is listening to his ipod!

So in 1 hour there were 4 incidents where people could have gotten seriously hurt all because of stupidity.

I usually peel off from the ride after the hills and that's what i did this morning. I haven't heard yet but i'm waiting to hear of a crash or two.

I don't know what needs to be done but i'm getting tired of it. I'm honestly am really starting to see why so many people drive by and yell at cyclist to get off the road. When we ride like this it does no good.

And for the love of God, DON'T BRING YOUR IPOD TO A GROUP RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!

So instead of being able to write a nice post about how great it was to see a friend recovering from an injury at the ride, how i enjoyed the sprint, or how i felt good on the hills, i'm writing about this crap.

I think i'm done but i'm still steaming.

Hoping next week is better...

First Ride of Freedom

To continue with blogging about things that happend a week ago, last monday my middle son, Nathan, rode his bike for the first time without training wheels. It was an awesome experience. For whatever reason i don't remember too much about Ryon's first time mostly because he did it on his own. Ryon did it during the winter and rode down the cleared sidewalk and used the snow banks to crash into.

Nathan kept putting off his first attempt. I think it was all in his head. It's weird cause he's the risk taker, the climber, the crazy one. But for some reason he was pretty apprehensive about the bike thing.

We did a few tries in the morning that involved me getting him on the bike and running behind him with my hand under the saddle keeping him upright. It was clear he truly didn't understand the physics of it. He would lean way to one side and stop pedaling. After a few tries we decided to take a break. I could tell he was starting to get it though.

Later in the afternoon we went out to try again. This time on the second try I let go and he was on his own. About 7 or 8 more runs insued. The joy on his face was incredible. It was amazing. It reminded me how much fun riding a bike is and what freedom it brings. Nathan has now caught the feeling of Delirium.

One of the best moments is when half way down the hill he would ask me to let go and i would say that I let go way at the top and he would just giggle with delight.

What a day!

Winfield ABR 30+ Criterium Championship - 06.03.07

It was with threatening skys that this years Winfield Masters 30/40+ ABR National Criterium Championship got underway. It had been a day of isolated thunderstorms and although it looked like we might get dumped on we didn’t and we raced on dry roads.

I went into this race feeling good about my form and wanting to see if I would have the problems keeping the wheel in front of me like I did at monsters. My guess is that I wouldn’t seeing that this is not a completely flat crit like monsters and I wasn’t coming off on of the longest training weeks I had ever done like I was at Monsters.

Tactically I didn’t want to miss the big break like I did last year. The pack more or less split last year and if it happened again I wanted to be ready for it. So the plan was to just take it easy, ride smart, and try to be ready when it happened.

That’s basically how it happened except for the fact that I chickened out.

Lately I’ve been reading the blog reports of Mark Swartzendruber. He likes to rag on Team Mack and their race tactics. I find it funny since I’m not on mack but after reading his description about the 40+ race at Monsters you will get a good idea of what it was like in this race.

Basically from the start there were attacks. One or 2 riders would go with HeadsMACK barking out a command to somebody to grab a wheel. This went on for the first few laps. At one point a pretty good sized group jumped so I jumped too but it was all brought back. The 2 riders broke free. One Mack and one Met Life. Something told me right away that I was watching the race leave us. You had a representative from the 2 largest teams in the race off the front and immediately our pace lowered. At the bottom of the hill I heard someone yell that the gap was 10 seconds. At the top of the hill it was 20 seconds. I knew this was the race, I wanted to join them…but I was too chicken.

It was earlier in the race than I wanted to make a move and the move was smaller then I wanted to be a part of. I decided to stay put and watch the break ride away from us hoping that at some point a group of riders would want to chase this thing down but it soon became evident that we were all just riding for 3rd place overall.

Now the thing about this race is that there are actually 2 fields racing together and there are 2 championship jerseys at stake. One for the 30+ and one for the 40+. What I didn’t realize is that both riders in the breakaway were 40+. If I could have joined them* and stayed with them I would have won the 30+ race even if I had finish 3rd.

I spent the rest of the race trying to stay in the front half of the filed and saving myself for the sprint. There was one point where it looked like a few of us had a gap but that quickly ended as nobody, including me, wanted to do any real work. Once that failed I sat back and waited.

Things really start to heat up for the last couple of laps. Guys start really fighting for position and you really have to work hard to maintain your position. This is where I really have a lot to learn. I have to form to be there at the end but I lose a bunch of places in the last couple turns before the final sprint. To me this is the greatest difference between racing cat ¾ and Masters racing.

Long story short, I had a good sprint but I was already back 20 places or more out of the last turn so I made up a few. I was hoping I made top 20 but wasn’t sure. Then I heard the pa announce state that 5 of the top 6 were 40+. Since the podium was 5 deep that made me stick around for a while. I ended up finishing 16th overall but was in 6th place for the 30+ field. Last year I was 11th so I was very happy. I missed the podium by one place. Next year this race is mine!!

Thanks for reading.

*This is assuming i could have broken free from the field, bridged up the the 2, and then stayed with them for the remainder of the race. It's nice to think that's possible but not sure what reality is yet.