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A Win!!!!

Yes the cook family had a win at Batavia. In the 9-10 kids race Ryon took off from the gun and never looked back. Way to go buddy!!!! Maybe someday dad can stand on the podium.

As far as my race went it was pretty miserable. I lasted about 40minutes before i got dropped on the hill. I finished out the race but ended up getting lapped twice. This was pretty disappointing considering how i've been flying this spring but i'm blaming it on the big weekend i had a with the family and was pretty tired by the time monday came around. Now i'm just hoping my form is back for next weekend.

Kenosha Business Park Crit - Cat 1,2,3/30+ (fully updated)

Tim and i showed up for this crit. I choose to do this over vernon hills because we have friends that live very close to the course and it gives the kids something to do during the races. Because of this i also decided to double up for the day and do 2 races. The fields were small but the wind and the calibur of riders made this a hard but fun day for me. I had a great week leading up to this and the the morning of the legs felt great.

Cat 1,2,3 Race
Because of the small fields and the wind factor i figured that once a group got away it wouldn't be coming back. For the first few laps there were a couple of attacks but nothing that really stuck. Eventually a Gear Grinder guy and Andy Crater of Wheel and Sprocket attacked and got a gap. I'm not entirely excatly what happened but i was at the front of the field when this happened and when i looked back there was only another Wheel and Sprocket rider on my wheel and then a gap back to the field.

I knew that the W&S guy would be no help bridging but i decided to go for it. After a lap or so we came up to the start finish and the 2 breakaway riders saw that we were going to bridge so they sat up and waited for us. We then had a break of four the rest of the race. 2 W&S riders, the Gear Grinder guy and me. From the time we joined the break the W&S rider i brought didn't take any pulls. From that point on i knew the best i could hope for was 3rd or 4th. And when the W&S and GG guys were talking i knew i was in for it. Sure enough there were a few attacks from both teams. A couple times they gapped me a little but not enough to drop me and i got back on.

Since i haven't found my sprint yet this year i knew most likely i would be 4th and sure enough even though i had the 4th wheel coming around the last turn they all just stood up and left me but i got 4th so i'm happy. Now i have to go work on my sprint.

See the video below for a "Roncentrik" account of the race. Also check out the commentary by the kids. Watch out phil and paul.

30+

The 30+ race had even fewer riders than the 1,2,3 race did but it still was a lot of fun. For the first half lap the pace was quite possibly the slowest I’ve ever experienced in a race. But about halfway into the lap a Colavita guy launched what seemed like a vicious attack since our pace was so slow and that got things going. When stuff settled down there were 4 guys off the front and eventually only 1, Doug Peterson (WDT) was left. Doug was eventually caught but after resting in the field with us another attack went and Doug went with it again. This time it was Andy Crater, Rob Springer (Wheel & Sprocket) and Doug. That was the break of the race and they stayed away.

So the field was 7 or 8 of us but eventually whittled down to 4. Tim and I (P5), a Wheel & Sprocket, and Don Lowe of Team Mack. Our group went through various stages of trying to pull the break back and just messing around. At some point it switched to the four of us fighting for 4th place.

Since we had 2 guys in the group I wanted to do everything I could to get Tim the field sprint. With about 7 or 8 laps to go I got popped from the group. I think it was actually Tim that accelerated and it dropped me. I looked at the time and said ok, I can ride out the last 15 minutes. I didn’t go too hard but I kept my pace up and after a couple of laps I realized that I was actually closing back in on the group. They were starting to play games with each other and slowing down so eventually I was able to get back on.

Once I rejoined the group tim gave me a pat on the back and then pushed me on and I made a little acceleration off the front which tim made the other guys chase down. As we neared the end I knew the best way I could help tim was to try a couple attacks and make the others chase. So with one lap to go I first attacked before turn 1. After a bit I was brought back in. Then as turn 3 approached I was 4th wheel and planned to do what I didn’t do in the 123 race. Going into turn 3 the W&S rider surged and like before I was gapped a bit. But also like before not long after they ran out of steam and I came back up and just kept going. By turn 4 I was cooked and as we went up the final straight I was able to watch tim catch and then pass the W&S guy and win the sprint.

It was such a blast to be able to work some team tactics and actually have success doing it. That’s why I joined this team.


30+ field sprint.

Harvard Time Trial

The time trial world is an interesting one. A world i'm not really a part of. Where else can you finish 3rd in the cat 3's race but would have been 8th in the 4/5 category. Weird.

All i can say is that i had fun but i am not about to start focusing on time trials. It was cold on sunday but by my 9:25 start time it wasn't too bad. There was a good wind coming from the south west which because of the course layout, meant that most of the course featured a headwind or a cross wind of some kind.

On the way out all you could muster was 22 or 23mph. It was tough. I held out pretty good but by the last 5k i couldn't keep my heartrate up and just couldn't keep digging that hard. It was nice to "podium" but if you look at the results there were a lot of riders in front of me.

I do say it was kind of fun to pass guys on full TT bikes with disc wheels on my road bike.

I finished with a time of 50:52 for the 33.3k.

Next up is Kenosha this weekend. It's lookin like i'm gonna attempt to double up and do 2 races. I've never done this before but i want to give it a try. It should be interesting.