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.