Fox River Grove Cat 3

(otherwise known as how many laps can Ron hang on)

I don't know what it is about my attraction to doing races i have no business doing. Back as a cat 5 i decided i had to do snake alley. doing the 30+ there as a 5 took care of that sickness, but racing FRG again this year has not cured my addiction to this race. i already can't wait till next year.

As was last year my only goal in this race is to try and finish with whatever is left of the main field. This race is basically in my front yard and the experience makes me wish every race could be like this. Being able to wake up in the morning, get the kit on, and ride over to the race course, register, ride back home and hang out with the family is awesome. Then to be able to pin on the number, get suited up again and ride over to the course for a warmup, do the race, and then ride home for a cool down is awesome!

As we lined up for the start the official warned us that severe weather was moving in and they might have to shorten our race. all i was thinking was that i hope my family didn't hear that since the van was about a mile away and nobody brought umbrellas. the race started and we were off and i had a great start. clipped in right away and was the first one at the base of the climb which was my plan for every lap of this race. The bottom half of this hill is pretty steep and then it levels off a bit on the second half. my plan was to be as close to the front at the bottom and ride my own pace up the first half, drifting thru the pack and then picking up the pace on the second half where i can take more advantage of my power.

for 8 laps this worked. the pack would surge on the bottom half of the hill and i would even go off the back a couple of times but would be able to claw my way back on the second half of the climb, even getting up to the front of the field before the top sometimes. the 8th time up the hill i got gapped pretty good on the bottom half but was able to catch back on on the descent but i knew the inevitable was coming. sure enough the 9th time up the hill i got dropped for good. around this time was when the thought went thru my head, "i think this is the last time i'm doing this race."

but then it starts to get fun again cause after riding a couple laps by myself i started catching other dropped riders and each time i'm thinking, that's one place higher. so with a 3 or 4 laps to go i catch a wdt rider and we keep playing leapfrog with each other. at the bottom of the hill he would drop to his easiest gear and staying seated would just ride away from me, but by the top of the hill i would be back on his wheel. after a couple times up the hill like this i finally dropped him. with one lap to go i had Timothy Hermanas (trek/vitamin water) in my sights. he was just crawling up the hill and i was coming up but when he saw me coming he picked his speed up. we finished the rest of the lap with me sucking his wheel and imagining how i will jump by him in the sprint. we took the last corner and immediately he jumped. even though i took the inside line i still couldn't come around him and for the second straight year i lost a 2up sprint for 10th place.

So with this race i think i've climbed that hill close to 70 times this year. each time i've gone to train there i've timed my laps and the race was no different. I know i'm a nerd but when you have no chance of winning you think of other things to do. I just wanted to see how the race pace compared to my training rides on this course. So here are the lap times for me.

Laps: 13
Total Time: 39:37
Distance: 24.11km
Lap1 - 2:47*
Lap 2 - 2:47*
Lap 3 - 3:00
Lap 4 - 3:03
Lap 5 - 2:47
Lap 6 - 3:01
Lap 7 - 3:03
Lap 8 - 3:05
Lap 9 - 3:16**
Lap 10 - 3:17**
Lap 11 - 3:14
Lap 12 - 3:10
Lap 13 - 3:07

*time is split from total time of both laps. (forgot to press the lap button after 1st lap)
**ditto
**lap 9 is when i got dropped

i am working on a video compilation of our race. it will be a 2 camera shoot (ha) once i get the files from the second camera.

so show up next year. this is a great race and it would be awesome to see more people out there. if i can get my 200lb carcass up there you can too!