8.18.07 - Downers Grove 3/4

Well we made the trek down to downers grove again this year. I love this race mainly for sentimental reasons. I grew up just a couple of towns over so i am very familiar with the area. I remember going to the first ever downers grove criterium and getting pictures of guys from the 7/11 team with my Kodak disc camera.

This year was the 3rd year that i have raced downers grove. every year it seemed like the rain would threaten but it would always blow over. not this year. Just as i started to warm up on my trainer in the parking lot the rain started. As i made my way to the start i was hoping for a good result. After having disappointments all thru july and early august i wanted to do well. I was able to get a good start position on the line, being in the second row, and hoped to start the race off well. Problem was i got behind perhaps the worst pedal clicker in the whole field. I was clipped in right away and this guy in front of me was having a ton of trouble. If i don't get clicked in right away i'll turn over another pedal stroke with the other leg and then try again. Did this guy do this? No. He kept trying to click in while coming to an almost complete stop and then have to veer sharply to the right to keep himself upright. By the time i got to the first turn i was already 30 riders back. Crazy thing about this race is that's where i finished. Along the way i'd try to make up spots on the straights but because of the rain we would slow so much that by the time we were thru the turn i'd be in the same spot again. About half way thru the race going thru turn 1 there was a crash off to my right. A xxx rider went down and I had to go way wide to avoid him. I almost ended up over the curve but held it up and made it thru. On the last lap there were consecutive crashes in turns 5 & 6. Somebody slid out on turn five and was sliding backwards on his butt and that looked like that would be all until just about the time he came to a stop another rider endowed over him. Then on the very next turn a Get a Grip rider slid out on that turn and i watched him slide 15' or so on his hind side. I've never fallen like that in the rain but it gives the impression of going down a water slide. The final lap came and i finished 30th. Not what I wanted but i stayed upright under sketchy conditions so i'm happy. Now i'm taking a break this week and then start preparing for the fall fling. How much time? So before the race started there was a big debate between the riders and officials about how long our race was supposed to be. These races are already ridiculously short and the website had listed the race as 30min + 1 lap. Well according to the officials, and they won, the race was 20 min + 1 lap. When the race was done my heart rate monitor said 19:30. So not only was the race not the as advertised 30 + 1 lap, it wasn't even 20 minutes. What's even more interesting is that when you look at the posted results, the finishing time is 22:35. I polled a few other riders and they had total times similar to mine. Oh well i'm already rethinking my august 08 schedule. I'll probably skip the elk grove and downers races and do the races surrounding them.

Tour of Elk Grove Village (30+)

The photo above may be just a little bit misleading but it made up for a crummy race for me so let the excuses begin. I kept saying before the race that the only difference between me and my family was that i paid $28 to watch this race. As happens every year and will happen again next year if schedules don't change, the week leading up to the Tour of Elk Grove is one of the busiest weeks i have all year at work. The week ends with me average 5 hours of sleep wed - friday nights. Don't feel to sorry for me cause even though i'm working a ton, i'm having the time of my life. It's our biggest conference of the year and this year the band we had was one of the best collections of chicago area musicians that has been put together in a long time. Probably the best collection of talent i've ever had the pleasure of mixing. Then to top that off I actually got to mix Krik Franklin on sat. morning even though he brought his own audio guy. Since i was working saturday my only option was to race on sunday. Last year that was the 3/4 race but no such luck this year. It would be the 30+ and a stacked 30+ field at that. Based on how i did last year (feeling great even though work was crazy) i preregistered for the 30+ race. Come saturday night i was not feeling good at all. Very tired. When the alarm went off on sunday morning i would have shut it off if I hadn't preregistered. The alarm had woken me out of a very deep sleep and my body was screaming "I'm not done yet!!" After arriving in Elk Grove and suiting up i knew i was in trouble. I had zero energy. Once the race started i was in the middle to rear of the pack. I could not move up and while the legs started to warm up, once we got to the higher intensities i had nothing. I eventually got dropped on the long straight and that's when i noticed that my left crank arm bolt was coming loose. I'd love to say that the crank came loose so that's why i went to the pit and lost a ton of time but no, i got dropped first. The pit crew tightened it for me and helped me get going again but now i was a good minute back so i decided to practice cornering for a while. Eventually there was a group of 4 of us trying to finish out the race. Then 3 then 2. Me and Tim Henry. Just as i had settled into working as hard as i could to finish the race we came up to the finish line to see an official in the middle of the road pulling us off. For whatever reason i decided to raise my arms in a mock victory salute as i crossed the line. I had no idea that my wife was right there and she got a picture of it. So if you know Tim and see him, ask him what he's gonna do with his $500. So it's time to push the reset button and get ready for downers on Saturday. Overall i do feel pretty good so the plan is to take good care of myself this week and have a good showing at downers. See you next time.

Funny Superweek Moments

In thinking back over the three superweek races i did there are a couple of funny things that come to mind that didn't make it into my race reports.

Bullseye!
While riding thru the feedzone at the proving grounds i watched as a rider in front of me and on the left side of the road decided it would be better to throw his bottle all the way across the road to the right side instead of just dropping it to his left. Did he throw it in a nice high arch? No. He saw an opening and threw a line drive right thru the field and bullseye, right into the crotch of some poor unsuspecting guy trying to hand up water bottles. I didn't realize required feed zone equipment included athletic supporters.

Crit racing meets PBR
I think it was during the last half on the Evanston crit. I had drifted back a little and we had just gone thru turn 2. Up ahead i hear someone yelling expletives and i look up and did not expect to see what i saw. Right in the middle of the field was a guy who was having problems with his water bottle cage. My impression was that it had broke. So what did he do? What any sensible rider would do while riding in the middle of the bunch at 25mph during a crit. He unclipped his right foot and started kicking his water bottle cage. All that was left was for him to do was put 1 arm up in the air and all the rest of us could start counting to 8.

Would you like stitches to go with your staples?
After getting all patched up from my crash at Kenosha i stood up to climb out of the back of the medic truck. What do I do? Slam my head on the top of the door. Fortunately no stitches were needed for that.