Downers Grove Cat 3

I know i'm late with this report but it's a lot easier to write a report quickly when you have a great race but when you suck it up it's not as fun so i'll make this short. After Elk Grove i was so fired up because of how good i felt. That following week was real busy at work featuring several days of 4:15am alarms and long nights. After that we spent 3 nights in galena which was a blast but i of course brought the bike and woke up early so i could get some riding in before the family woke up. Though i tried to take it easy there isn't more than a 1/4 mile of flat road around galena so it was lots of hills. By 9pm every night i was wasted.

I was back home Wednesday and tried to take it easy thurs and friday. The legs were feeling better by sat. so i was hoping to have another great race like i did at elk grove. Well from the start it wasn't good. I got lined up on the 3rd or 4th row which in itself was fine except for the fact i was all the way against the barriers on the right and directly behind the crosswalk where there were still a ton of riders on the sidewalk waiting to get on. I think everybody thought they would have us roll up to the line before starting but no. The whistle blew immediately followed by a chorus of "we're starting already?" I had another horrible clip in and by the time i was entering turn 1 the leaders were going into turn 2.

So i thought to myself, not ideal but i'll just have to work to move up a little each lap and work my way towards the front. I can do this...not so much. it became clear to me that i was destined to be riding the back half of the field for the race. Try as i might i couldn't do anything. About half way thru the race my back started tightening up and i got a side stitch. I haven't had one of those since high school! Almost got dropped off the back but then with about 5 laps to go finally started feeling a little better.

With 3 to go coming into turn 8 somebody a couple of riders ahead of me went into the haybales. The rider in front of me started to brake hard and go wide as well and i thought i was going to go down. Somehow i stayed up and ended up doing a track stand with i think Ben Demong from abd laying on the ground right in front of me looking up at me. I somehow was able to inch around his head and squeeze between him and another rider that was flying thru the corner from behind and got going again. Now i was way off the back and I remember thinking to myself at least i have an excuse for such a bad race now. I ended up 72nd.

I was glad i had to work on sunday cause i felt horrible. i would have been even more useless on sunday. I've taken this whole week really easy and will also do the same next week. At this time of year i have to be careful. Too much stress on the body/back and it shuts down. I'm gonna try and recoup and make a little push for the fall fling tt and maybe a crit. It would be fun to somehow bookend the season with a tt win.

Tour of Elk Grove Village - Masters 3/4: 52nd never felt so good!

photo by jill henry

Wow! Alot has happend in the week leading up to this race. If you want to just read about the actual race skip down to the actual race report. But to hear the rest of the story keep reading.

As i said in my last post the week started with me finding a crack in my trusty ol cannondale caad4 frame on monday. i still haven't had time to process this loss and a memorial post will come but i was scrambling. I've learned the hard way that something always seems to happen when i preregister so i usually don't but of course i was already registered for the Masters 3/4 race. By wed. night, thanks to Tom Sena, I was able to borrow a Felt so i could at least ride but there was no way i was going to race that bike for fear of crashing it. I would have ridden the whole race 50 feet off the back.

So after calling all the shops i knew, sending out emails to the team and anyone else i knew, I was able to aquire an 06 Madone 5.2 frame for a very nice price (thanks Karl!). Because i trusted who it came from i bought it sight unseen. I was told it wasn't ridden very much but when it was delivered to my house Sat it looked brand new. beautiful.

Early sat. morning i had stripped the Cannondale frame. After lunch i went to the pool with the family. Then about 3pm i was able to start building the Trek. At about 4pm i went to mount the brakes and found that the nuts i had to mount them with were to short for the front and the rear brakes. I started calling all the trek dealers i could think of and not until i called Village Cyclesport did i get the answer i was hoping for. I talked to Brian and he said they had the bolts and that they closed in 45min. I threw the brakes and the frame in the trunk of my car and made the 45min trip in 30 min. once inside Brian helped me get the right nuts and i was back in the car on my way to church to meet my family that i had abandonded so quickly.

After getting home from church and putting kids to bed i resumed assembling the bike. This included "borrowing" the front deralier from the borrowed Felt since mine was a clamp on and i needed a braze on. At around 11:30pm i called it a night. I had the bike together and had ridden it up and down the block a few times (another complete story in itself since it involved a neighbors call to 911 and 4 police cars on our street) to make sure that everything was ok and decided to go to bed.

The following morning was actually quite normal for a race morning. Got up, ate, packed, and headed out.

The Actual Race Report

We came into this race pretty confident. Tim had placed 2nd last week at Chicago and we were again going to have a pretty decent number of riders in this race. Personally i was ready to try something. In almost every race this year i've been on the front and responded to an attack and then once i'm in it i've held back cause i wanted to save myself. I went in to this race thinking that if i go, i'm gonna give it everything. We had plenty of other teammates to respond if i failed.

So the race starts and right away there's a prime. While i didn't contend for the prime i stayed at the front and kept myself in a great position where i could see tim easily grab the prime. Sometime on the next lap or 2 Andy Powel took a flyer. After 1 or 2 more primes were called i found tim and told him, that after the next prime i was gonna give it a go. So now they call the $100 prime and the pace picks up. I keep my place towards the front of the field and just follow wheels. Staying towards the front but trying not to spend too much energy. As soon as we come up to the line i nail it. There were probably 5 or 6 guys who had fought for the prime that i had to go around but after that i was off.

My intent was to catch the field napping right after a prime since usually everyone takes it easy for a bit after the prime sprint. That plan was good for about 5 seconds until they announced that this was going to be another prime lap. Actually when i heard this i wasn't too happy. My intention was to go for the win or at least make the other teams work, not the prime. I figured that attacking right after a prime would give me a bit of an advantage while the field recovered and tried to figure out where i went. So much for that.

Even so i still was able to get quite a sizeable gap. I didn't hear how much the prime was for but as i completed the lap i knew i won it and kept going. As i came back by the start finish i heard the announcer say $200 and a smile crossed my face.

Finishing lap 2 of my breakaway there were 2 laps remaining in the race. In my head i was saying "ok, i'm half way there. 2 laps down, 2 to go." But the field had woken up and were closing in. I saw that a couple guys were trying to bridge but they didn't have that much of a lead over the field and sure enough after almost 2 1/2 laps on my own, i was caught. But again the beauty of having a great strong team is that as soon as i was caught, Kevin blasted up the left side and attacked.

As i drifted back thru the field i wanted to make sure and finish with the main group. For the last lap and a half the conversation in my head was, "yeah you can move up, no you're shot." On the last lap I was near the back of the field but as we came thru turn 2, the only right turn, i shot up the left side and before the next turn made it to the front. I started to get excited about being able to say i placed and did a solo break but as everybody ramped it up for the final 500m i found that i had nothing left. As i came up on 200m to go i heard the race announcer saying "Project 5" and i knew tim had won. I clapped and pumped my fist as i crossed the line in 52nd place. 52nd never felt so good.

I can't think of a race where i've had more fun or a race where a team has done such a great job. It's been fun watching the videos cause in every one of them you hear the announcer say, "Project 5."