IL State cat 3 RR to short?

...then move to Iowa. The cat 3's roadrace is 108 miles.

flyer

cycling update info

Misc. Stuff

A few random things

mini race report
I raced at bensenville yesterday and it didn't go so well. The heat combined with my ability to always get gapped out of turn 3 combined to get me dropped after 40min so i pulled out. pretty disappointing since that was my only superweek race this year.

tour de france commentary
After waking up and seeing the news of ricco's expulsion from the tour it became apparent to me why they decided to have no time bonus's at the tour this year. It sure makes it easier to reshuffle the standing without having to recalculate time bonuses. i wouldn't expect to see time bonuses back for quite some time.


Get well Jim!
Jim Scott, the same Jim Scott who so kindly lent me a wheel at Wood Dale, was injured on tuesday but thankfully he's going to be ok. Get well soon buddy. Congrats on 3rd!!! For SW to say that there wasn't anybody within 20' of you is insane. The same thing happened at the finish of the 30+ race on wed. they had removed the barriers so the rider was able to keep upright.
I won't even get started on the saftey issues that seem to always come up during superweek every year. maybe that'll be another post sometime.

Interbike

So it just happens that i will be in vegas during the week of interbike. So does anybody have any way that i can get in to the show and especially the 3 day bike race? I'm just trying to weasel my way in somehow. If you have a way just leave a comment.

thanks!

Wood Dale Cat 3 ABR State Crit

My race day almost didn't even happen. I've been having some rear wheel trouble and decided not to bring my rear race wheel instead opting for my mavic open pro wheels. After arriving and registering and getting suited up i went out to warmup on the other course that is in this business park. I hadn't been riding for more than 10 minutes when ping, there went a spoke in my rear wheel. I had no spare and had that sinking feeling. I yelled at tim and told him and we headed back to the car to try and find one of our teammates to see if i could bum a wheel. Enter jim scott from apache. he so generously offered me a wheel and we got it all setup with 10 minutes to spare. i guess the stress of that made for a good warmup. So the rest of this report is brought to you by Jim Scott of apache. Thank you jim.

Our plan was to have me try to get into a move during the race and if that didn't stick then i would work as hard as i could to get tim in a good spot for the sprint. I was feeling pretty good and wanted to put some hard efforts in so i stayed near the front and tried to keep an eye on the attacks that went off and eventually placed myself in a couple. I did get in a move sometime between the 2nd 1/4 of the race but that didn't last very long and as soon as we were brought back Tim jumped into a little break and so i sat back and tried to recover. With the heat my heartrate was in the 180's but after a lap or 2 sitting in i got it back down to the 160's. I was still feeling really good when a couple riders attacked and i heard tim yell for me to go so i bridged up to the 2. We rode a couple of laps together and 1 or 2 more guys bridged up to us. Then they called a prime of a box of powergels that i ended up winning but that seemed to kill off the rest of my break partners. I ended up doing another lap or so on my own hoping someone would bridge up to me cause i still had some life in me but didn't want to try the suicide solo break.

Eventually i was caught and i sat in for a couple of laps, trying to find tim but i couldn't find him. as we passed the start/finish i saw him jumping back in after a mechanical. Eventually we got back together and we started working our way back to the front where we stayed for rest of the race. With 2 to go David Reyes from ABD attacked hard and i had the itch to try and go with him but decided against it in favor of keeping tim at the front of the field on the final lap. Everything was good until turn 3 on the last lap. Right in the middle of the turn was where i got swarmed by the field and i lost about 20 places in about 1.5 seconds. When i saw tim up ahead of me i just turned of and softpedaled to the finish. i didn't realize until today when i saw the pictures that David made it thru the last turn before getting caught. What a gutsy effort and it makes me wish i had joined him.

It wasn't the result i wanted but i felt really good about the race i had. I did everything I set out to do and still felt really good even though i put in some hard efforts. i was also able to play the team role and to me that's as much fun as trying to win it yourself.

test

Just trying this out

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!

Tim's Win

So tim pulled off an awesome win up at grafton on saturday! Pay close attention to the race announcer.


Thanks to Tim Keeley of ABD for the video.



After getting derailed and cut off he somehow came back from the middle of the field to take the win much to the surprise of Matt Smith. You can read Matt's good natured account here.

You know it's a slow news day when...

this is listed as a "top news" on the dailyherald website.

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.

You know you're a cycling nerd when...

...your first tanline of the year looks like this.

Spring Super Crit Cat 3/4

I'll start off by saying what a great job Burnham Racing did to put on this event. It was a very fun course to race on and Burnham did an incredible job from the wealth of information before the race to the quick registration process, to the races being on time.

So being an audio engineer i do have to say one thing. Next year they need to have a speaker aimed at the track. During the race you could not hear anything. Not a single word. The audio system at Blackhawk is for the spectators as you wouldn't hear it anyway in a car or motorcycle but for our races even having just one speaker at the start/finish line aimed at the riders, would have helped out alot. See below.

Leading up to this race i had the best week of training for the year. (read most hours) i took it very easy on saturday so that the legs would be ok for sunday. As it turned out they felt good and i was feeling great on sunday.

Being my first race with Project 5 it was awesome to be racing with the guys and the support i've recieved so far has been amazing. Our plan was to send guys with the early breaks while i try to save myself for the second half of the race. That part worked out great. We had somebody in most of the early attempts and when the real move went Kevin got himself in the break.

I remember at one point when we were coming out of the turn before the s curve and up ahead you could see the 7 guys just exiting the s curve i realized that was the move. I thought about trying to bridge but decided not to since we had someone in the break.

Later in the race when the break was gone there was a an attack that i piggybacked on to. My only purpose was to ride a chase group up to the break if it was possible and if not that was it. I wasn't going to chase my own teammate so i just sat in. Thinking back i should have done at least one pull but i didn't and eventually it fell apart.

Once we were caught the field setteled in for a sprint. I just hung back and didn't really feel like sprinting for 5 spots back of the podium. what i didn't intend to do was totally miss the fact that we were on our final lap. As we went thru the start finish i heard the bell, and saw 1 to go but i looked at my computer and we were only at 48 minutes. I totally convinced myself that this was a prime since you couldn't here anything that was being said. The pace picked up but even going into the last turn it didn't really feel like a final sprint yet. By the time i fully realized it was the last lap it was too late. I blew the opportunity for our team to at least practice a lead out. oh well lesson learned.

The funny thing is i remember hearing somebody remark before our race that in their race they didn't know it was the last lap and I thought what a rookie mistake. how could anyone do that. Well i guess the joke's on me.

So i "officially" finished 28th but there's a big list on riders below me with no placing and i know a few of those finished ahead of me so i'm pretty sure i was out of the top 30.

One observation: The rider who i'll call Muzzin kept yelling goofy things during the race. One time he charged past me in the field yelling, "the break is effin getting away!" in his best Muzzin imitation. Then later he declared the fact that his team had just made their 4th big pull of the race. Well you have 3 times as many riders in the race as the rest of us so you should be doing big pulls was my thought. I just thought it was funny.

Again this race was a ton of fun and a great job was done by Burnham. Way to go guys. Your hard work was very much appreciated by us.

For us Barrington Hills Riders

While looking at the Village of Barrington Hills website i found the following information. Looks like some of our favorite roads should be safer to ride on this year.

The Cook County Board has approved the lowering of the following speed limits:
Donlea - 40 mph to 35 mph
Bateman - 45 mph to 35 mph
Otis - 40 mph to 35 mph
Brinker - 40 mph to 35 mph
Penny east of Healy - 45 mph to 40 mph
Penny west of Healy to Route 68 - 35 mph

Chicago Criterium - Old School

With there being a new race this year down in Grant Park it's made me think about the last time i raced down in the city. Also reading some peoples comments on the CBR story about it made me go digging thru my archives and i found some gems. I don't remember even saving this stuff but i have the Chicago Sun Times inserts for both the 1987 and 1988 editions.

The 1987 race was part of a 3 day series that started Friday, Sept. 11 on the Downers Grove course we all know and love. Saturday was a race in Evanston, and Sunday was the Grant Park Circuit. i attended the Downers race and got pictures of andy hampsten and an autograph. Below is the map of all 3 courses.

Above is a recap of the 1987 races from the 1988 edition of the Sun Times insert for the Illinois Criterium Championship.

I raced the 88 crit champ as a junior and as far as i can remember the course was the same as the 1987 race. I don't hardly remember racing but i do remember that day after the race a friend took my bike home and i walked up to north street beach to find my girlfriend and her family who were attending the air and water show. I don't know how i did it without a cell phone but somehow i found them.

I hate icy cross walks

So today was the first day of the year that i got to commute by bike to work. Daylight savings time is finally here and the money i save by biking to work just gets higher and higher.

Well this morning temps were in the upper 20's and since yesterday was in the 40's there were some sketchy sections. About 1.5 miles from my house in downtown algonuqin, i was on rt31 and turning right on to a side street. I had slowed way down because of the conditions, and was doing everything i could. Things like make the turn before and after the crosswalk. Well as i hit the crosswalk my wheels went right out from underneath me, tyler farrar style, just not as fast. Somehow in the fall I bopped my chin on the pavement. Nothing too bad but it looks like i got in a bar fight with a really short person. After checking my bike out i continued to work very slowly, almost coming to a stop at every corner.

I came out pretty lucky. Scraped up chin, sore thumb and the obligatory small patch of rash on the hip are all i have to show for it. The thumb is the most annoying and i don't even know how that happened since it's the left thumb but i fell to my right.

And now my smiling mug.

Unbelievable

I entered today's ABD indoor time trial not knowing what to expect. I haven't really turned the pedals in anger yet this year and while i've had a good winter of training I haven't gotten as much bike time as i would have liked. I have never done one of these indoor time trials so i wasn't sure how i would do. Looking at the results of previous tt's i was hoping to get somewhere in the 15min range based on the times of the winners.

Well...i did better. 16 riders go at once in 2 groups of eight. as we started i jumped out to an early lead and just tried to keep my cadence up. it was the rolling course so on every hill i would try to keep the power up and as i got over, i would downshift right away and try not relax too much.

About half way thru the 6.0something mile course the pa announcer started paying attention. by this time i had quite a lead over the other seven riders and in my head i was waiting for one or more of them to start to turn it on and hoping i wouldn't fade too much.

As i got towards the last 2 climbs i knew i would probably win the heat but didn't know how well things were going until i heard things like, "these power numbers are usually what we see from guys like mumford..." Hearing stuff like that drove me on. As i got to the last climb i let it all go and actually cracked 600 watts. I finished with a time of 14:35.8

So the final stats as best as i can remember are...
Time: 14:35.8
Avg Watts: 401 or 402
Max Watts: 600+
Avg HR: 183
Max HR: 193

Not only was this time fast enough to win the cat 3, i set the fastest time for the whole day. What a start to the season. I'm still shaking my head.

I have to thank tim henry for bailing me out of mechanical issues this week. without his help i wouldn't have raced today.

PROJECT 5 ROCKS BABY!!!!!

Sleeping with a smile on my face tonight,

ron

Abode Tour Tracker

The new version of the Tour of Cal. tour tracker is up to check out. It looks great. check out the full screen option. the layout is much better than last year. Also you have the option of 2 different cameras. Now lets just hope that it actually works during the race. Right now they're streaming MSG as a test.

Waiting for Spring

Very Interesting

Well finally somebody said outloud what a lot of us are thinking. If you haven't seen this yet click here. Read the post and then read the comments. very interesting.

The following quote from Betsy Andreu was astounding. The information is nothing new but when you actually sit down and think about this it's insane.

"Lance Armstrong beat all these cyclists who have either admitted to doping,
been implicated or convicted of doping offenses (for purposes of space I will
limit the following cyclists to the 2nd and 3rd place finishers to Lance in the
Tours from 1999-2005): 1999 - Zulle (2nd), Escartin (3rd); 2000 - Ullrich (2nd),
Beloki (3rd); 2001 - Ullrich (2nd), Beloki (3rd); 2002 - Beloki (2nd), Rumsas
(3rd); 2003 - Ullrich (2nd), Vinokourov (3rd); 2004 - Basso (2nd), Ullrich
(3rd); 2005 - Basso (2nd), Ullrich (3rd) Yet, lance beat them all."