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."

Off road cycling

The other night i was chatting online with a friend of mine and we were sharing funny ride stories. Both of our stories happened in the same area and reliving my story still made me laugh so i thought i'd share it here.

For those who don't know my whole cycling history here's a real quick cliff notes version. Caught the cycling bug freshman year of high school (88). raced for 3 years. went to college. stopped doing anything active. got married. had kids. woke up one day and realized i was over 300lbs. in the fall of 2002 i dug my centurion lemans back out and started riding. that's when this story takes place.

that fall i started riding a 10 mile out and back course that was mostly on a bike trail but also included a big hill out of the river valley. at this point i was wearing tennis shoes and using toe clips. i had bike shorts but i would put regular shorts over them. on top i would wear a 3x tshirt.

on this particular day on my way back home it started raining. actually it was a downpour. because of the rain i decided to try a shortcut thru a residential neighborhood. i never had gone this way before but in my head it seemed shorter.

what this route did was instead of just one hill it took me over many. by this time I'm completely soaked and the water is just running down the streets. I get to the top of a hill and start down the other side. looking ahead i see that at the bottom of this hill is a sharp right turn. there's no other way to go. about half way down this hill i realize that my brakes are doing absolutely nothing.

when i reach the bottom of the hill i decide there's no way to make the turn so i just keep going straight. fortunately there are no curbs and i just miss a fence. so now I'm in somebody's yard. at some point i get both feet out of the toe clips and i am literally skiing thru their yard, both feet on the ground, bike still under me. I finally come to a complete stop, almost at the very back of their yard. I sheepishly turn the bike around, walk back to the road, and continue home. As far as i know nobody saw me but i can't imagine how funny that looked.

The red dot's on the pic show my "progress."

New Favorite Sport

So I found my new favorite offseason sport. It's crit racing on ice. now i just gotta figure out where to train for this.

It's been a while since i've posted anything so i'll give a couple updates.

Training: It's been a winter of starts and stops. Just when i seem to kick off my training something seems to happen that interrupts. I had started another study at gatorade which included 2 straight weeks of doing 1 1/2hrs at their lab. All was going well until i went to take a stress test and my blood pressure measured really high. That along with the rash i had gotten from the industrial cleaner they use to clean the showers at my work, was enough to boot me off the study. I'm still not sure what the bp thing was since it wasn't that high before or even 1 hour after the test but what can i do? I get to go back in a couple weeks and try again. More and more i'm realizing to try and really start my training program before i can get outside and ride is not really going to work. I'm doing weights, skating, and riding the trainer in the basement just trying to keep overall fitness and I'm doing a much better job than last year.

Ice Rink: The rink has been a disaster so far. Because of the dog putting a million holes in it, plus neighbor kids not being able to stay off it i was praying for a total thaw. Well i got it! So this past satuday i spent 6 hours on my hands and knees, covering every square inch of the liner. I used a whole roll of patch tape and still missed some. Fortunately i got some glue that works under water and i think patched most of the other holes. It's now flooded and we are having a good freeze. I think we should be ok in a couple of days.

Finally check out this. I'm sorry but doing a 100 miles on your rollers is nuts. What makes it even crazier is what time he started riding.

Crazy Crash

Check out the video of this crash at the Melbourne Cup on Wheels U18 race. Apparently everybody walked away from this.

ABC News AU

Update: Video w/interview

Rink is Open!!!! /google calendar / cyclocross

warning: this post is pretty scatterbrained

We all skated on the rink for the first time yesterday! The surface is not very good and we're supposed to get a 1/2 inch ice storm today so i have no idea what that's going to do to the rink but considering the pain with the dog and everthing i'm very thankfull that we can now skate.

About a week ago i discovered google calendar and it's changing my life. I'm in the process of putting my whole training schedule into it. I'm finding it very flexible and great to use. The best thing about it is i can put all the different areas of my life on it's own calendar. Work, family, training, and whatever else i can think up of to fill my days. I can view all or just one at a time. Now if they would just provide a free syncing application like yahoo does i could automaticly import my work calander instead of having to do it the manual way every couple of days.

Cyclocross. I'm now dreaming of getting a cyclocross bike. It's gonna be a single speed and on the cheap but i would like to have that to ride in the winter and do a race or two on. I still am pretty sure i will really suck at cyclocross but it would be fun.

I guess that's it for now.

Hockey!!

As I did last year during the winter, this blog will drift towards the subject of hockey from time to time. I setup our backyard rink at the end of last week and all was perfect until the puppy from next door decided to try and cross the ice on saturday. Long story short is i had to drain the rink, found 20+ holes in the liner that i patched and after all that and refilling the rink it's still leaking. It's not as bad so hopefully it can all freeze and we'll be able to skate.

While watching my new favorite channel, the NHL Network, i saw a piece on Zdeno Chara. He now plays for the Boston Bruins but is also an avid cyclist. In this clip he talks about going to the Tour and riding some of the climbs.

World Aids Day

Today is World Aids Day. As a cycling community let's do our part and make a difference. Please go to the World Bicycle Relief website and make a donation.

check out this video

New Cycling Term

So i came up with a new cycling term the other day. Actually I was listening to the local sports radio station and they were talking about the chicago bulls and how one player had a great game and had gotten a bunch of rebounds. They refered to him as pogo, as in pogo stick.

As soon as they uttered that word I laughed out loud because it is the perfect description of some riders. There's one in particular that when he gets going out of the saddle or tries to animate a race there's no other word to describe his technique as well as the sound his bike makes. Pogo.

The perfect example of this was during the first fall fling crit. All of a sudden i hear this noise from behind and without even looking i think to myself, i wonder if that is rider x. sure enough he comes bounding past me in a way that's best described as somebody riding a pogo stick. left, right, left, right, and i swear to god he's actually bouncing.

so the tip for the day is don't be a pogo.

Rocky to be sanctioned

Found this on the onion today. This just makes you ask if they need to investigate kevin constner for his performances in American Flyers.

Rocky II, III, IV Decisions Overturned After Stallone Caught With Performance-Enhancing Drugs

PHILDELPHIA— "The only way to make so much physical progress in three to five minutes is to use anabolic steroids," sports medicine expert Bruce Thurman said.

Short Update

The back is getting better. I was able to do a 3 hour endurance paced ride this week without any nerve pain down the left leg during or after. Yippee. The lower back still gets tired and I wouldn't think of doing any high intensity stuff but since the season's over, i don't have too.

So it's more easy rides and lots of back exercises. I'm gonna have abs of steel when this is all over. :)

RC

Carpenter Park Cross pics

Yesterday i took my oldest son ryon out to the carpenter park cross race to watch a couple of races and we had a blast. It was great to see some friends and hang and be able to take some pictures and watch other people suffer instead of suffering myself. you can see the albums here.

Saturday i slept in and skipped the harper ride in favor of going out by myself later in the day. The weather was beautiful and i decided to test my back a little bit. right away while on river road i was passed by a car who kept doing the speed limit which meant i had a nice little motor paced interval for a few minutes. that was followed by my pushing myself up the little climbs that are my barrington hills loop.

Long story short is that later that afternoon i was feeling pretty stiff. I really can't ride like that yet. Oh well.

RC

Back update

I've finally gotten back on the bike which is good. After the fall fling road race i didn't even think of getting back on the bike until this past saturday morning. I rode for less than an hour on the bike path by my house. Took it real easy. Yesterday i rode for about an hour taking pictures and just having a good time on the bike. Today i rode for 1 1/4hrs and felt ok. Each ride i'm picking up the pace a little and it's getting better but i'm still a way from feeling normal.

This episode has been the worst one i've had in a while. Back in july when this happend at the Proving Grounds RR, i was racing again 4 days later. After a week and a half this time around there's no way i'd be racing. The main thing this does to me is affect my flexiblity in my left leg/hip. When i lay flat on my back i can raise my straightened right leg off the floor as far as i want. The left leg i can't even get past 30 degrees off the ground.

So thursday i have my first physical therapy appointment. I found a sports therapy place 1.5 miles from my house so i'm happy about that. I definately have something to do this off season. Fix the back. I'll keep posting updates.

RC

10.06.07 - Fall Fling RR

So yet another race has me scratching my head wondering what the heck happened. After doing too much in the front half of the crit last week i was determined to do as little as possible and just hang in the back for as much of the race as possible. I also had a couple of cat 3 guys that i wanted to keep my eye on and try to stay with as much as possible. Our 1/2/3 race was 6 laps of an 8.1 mile circuit out in the farm wasteland that is west of rockford. No real hills but plenty of little rollers to keep you occupied. The main feature is the wind. Coming strong out of the south.

Lap 1: After turn one someone up front starts to drill it and we get all strung out. Somewhere during this time the rider in front of me hits a rut and almost goes down. I thought my race was going to be over in less than 5 minutes. The rest of the lap is uneventful.

Lap 2: Even more uneventful than the first. Almost downright boring until after turn 4. On the stretch with a massive cross wind from the left somebody up front throws it down and we are off. At some point i check back and i don't really see anybody left behind me so i'm thinking, this is it. I have to make this group or i'm done. So i ride like mad to stay in the group and i make it. But now i'm trashed.

Lap 3: I hang on thru the first half of the lap and start to struggle on one of the hills when one of the abd elite guys give's me a little push and puts me back on the group. Then i hear move up the side. So with his coaching i move up and almost get to the front of the group just in time to watch another attack go and the group chase. That's when i get popped. I'm toast. As the lap continues i catch a rider and we get caught by a couple but none of us really stay together.

Lap 4: I notice a small group of riders coming up from behind me and i wait for them thinking at least i can finish with these guys. There's a couple of 3's and we're together for a while until one of them picks the pace up and i'm off the back. That's ok, here comes a bigger group of 3's that i can ride home with. I sit on the back for a while and the bang, i'm off the back again.

Lap 5, 6: I ride by myself. Trashed. I finish but have no idea how far down. Pretty disappointing. What seems crazy to me is that i have the power to make that initial move but then i'm toast and then i can't stay with guys who popped way before i did. I gotta figure that one out.

This turned out to be the final race of the season. I intended to race on sunday but my herniated disc in my back flared up sunday morning so that was it. I guess i'm gonna really have to figure out this back think. I can go pummel myself on the bike for 50 miles but i can't play catch with the kids for 5 minutes. Very frustrating.

That's it for now.

Transfer news

That's right. I am switching teams for next year. I will be moving over to Project 5. Below is the contents of the email i sent to the abd squad thanking them for the last 3 years.

Thanks ABD!



This season was my 3rd year on abd and you guys have been great. The team has been a great place for me to enter back into racing. With that said I want to let you all (ok, the few who know me) know that i am moving over to project 5 for next year. The main reason is just location. I live in algonquin and never get to train with anybody from abd. I almost never get to take advantage of any bootcamps, workouts, or even the shops. For the last year and a half i have been able to train regularly with the guys from project 5 and it just makes a lot more sense for me to join them.There are so many people who have made the last 3 years a ton of fun for me. When i started racing again after a 15 year break i never thought it would be this fun or go as well as it has for me. I'm gonna screw up now and miss some names but i'd like to mention some people. mike e, mary, scott ligocki, ben springer, alex sharon (who's still listed as a 4 on our roster), steve parrish, pete hill, and all the 3's that were on abd last year and are now on get a grip.Thanks for all the support, camaraderie, tips, and friendship you all have given over the past couple of years. Keep doing what you're doing and have a great year next year.

09.30.07 - Fall Fling Criterium #1

So yet again i found myself taking pictures of the finish of the race i entered. I'm still ticked off at myself for dropping out but it wasn't before i totally tanked myself.

I went into this crit wanting to help out the team. I figured i'd try to do what i could so i stayed at the front early. John, Josh, and Jeff did their part by constantly jumping into breaks and steve and i would try to sit on the front and disrupt whatever was going on as far as a chase.

About 30 minutes in I had drifted back in the field a little and decided to move up the right side. Just as i was almost to the front an attack went from the left side and since i was the only abd rider there at that moment i decided to go with the break. I ended up in a group of 5 or 6 and we actually made a nice little gap. I made a couple of tactical mistakes by not making a guy or 2 pull thru.

Then jeff or john (not sure who) bridged up to our group and then kept going. I was happy cause then i had a reason no to take any more pulls. By this time i had been riding at my max for far too long. From the start of the race my heartrate was pretty high and during the whole breakaway i knew the end was coming sooner or later.

Finally the field caught us and i sat as long as i could at the front while we still had a solo rider off the front but then i started to drift back thru the field. I was done. I ended up getting dropped and then spun a couple of easy laps until i was about to get lapped by the field and then i dropped out.

Not the result i was looking for but i was still happy to be active during the first half of the race. I spent way too much time unshielded on the hill with the massive headwind we had so i'm gonna have to make sure i ride smarter next week.

Here's a couple of pics of the finish.

8.18.07 - Downers Grove 3/4

Well we made the trek down to downers grove again this year. I love this race mainly for sentimental reasons. I grew up just a couple of towns over so i am very familiar with the area. I remember going to the first ever downers grove criterium and getting pictures of guys from the 7/11 team with my Kodak disc camera.

This year was the 3rd year that i have raced downers grove. every year it seemed like the rain would threaten but it would always blow over. not this year. Just as i started to warm up on my trainer in the parking lot the rain started. As i made my way to the start i was hoping for a good result. After having disappointments all thru july and early august i wanted to do well. I was able to get a good start position on the line, being in the second row, and hoped to start the race off well. Problem was i got behind perhaps the worst pedal clicker in the whole field. I was clipped in right away and this guy in front of me was having a ton of trouble. If i don't get clicked in right away i'll turn over another pedal stroke with the other leg and then try again. Did this guy do this? No. He kept trying to click in while coming to an almost complete stop and then have to veer sharply to the right to keep himself upright. By the time i got to the first turn i was already 30 riders back. Crazy thing about this race is that's where i finished. Along the way i'd try to make up spots on the straights but because of the rain we would slow so much that by the time we were thru the turn i'd be in the same spot again. About half way thru the race going thru turn 1 there was a crash off to my right. A xxx rider went down and I had to go way wide to avoid him. I almost ended up over the curve but held it up and made it thru. On the last lap there were consecutive crashes in turns 5 & 6. Somebody slid out on turn five and was sliding backwards on his butt and that looked like that would be all until just about the time he came to a stop another rider endowed over him. Then on the very next turn a Get a Grip rider slid out on that turn and i watched him slide 15' or so on his hind side. I've never fallen like that in the rain but it gives the impression of going down a water slide. The final lap came and i finished 30th. Not what I wanted but i stayed upright under sketchy conditions so i'm happy. Now i'm taking a break this week and then start preparing for the fall fling. How much time? So before the race started there was a big debate between the riders and officials about how long our race was supposed to be. These races are already ridiculously short and the website had listed the race as 30min + 1 lap. Well according to the officials, and they won, the race was 20 min + 1 lap. When the race was done my heart rate monitor said 19:30. So not only was the race not the as advertised 30 + 1 lap, it wasn't even 20 minutes. What's even more interesting is that when you look at the posted results, the finishing time is 22:35. I polled a few other riders and they had total times similar to mine. Oh well i'm already rethinking my august 08 schedule. I'll probably skip the elk grove and downers races and do the races surrounding them.

Tour of Elk Grove Village (30+)

The photo above may be just a little bit misleading but it made up for a crummy race for me so let the excuses begin. I kept saying before the race that the only difference between me and my family was that i paid $28 to watch this race. As happens every year and will happen again next year if schedules don't change, the week leading up to the Tour of Elk Grove is one of the busiest weeks i have all year at work. The week ends with me average 5 hours of sleep wed - friday nights. Don't feel to sorry for me cause even though i'm working a ton, i'm having the time of my life. It's our biggest conference of the year and this year the band we had was one of the best collections of chicago area musicians that has been put together in a long time. Probably the best collection of talent i've ever had the pleasure of mixing. Then to top that off I actually got to mix Krik Franklin on sat. morning even though he brought his own audio guy. Since i was working saturday my only option was to race on sunday. Last year that was the 3/4 race but no such luck this year. It would be the 30+ and a stacked 30+ field at that. Based on how i did last year (feeling great even though work was crazy) i preregistered for the 30+ race. Come saturday night i was not feeling good at all. Very tired. When the alarm went off on sunday morning i would have shut it off if I hadn't preregistered. The alarm had woken me out of a very deep sleep and my body was screaming "I'm not done yet!!" After arriving in Elk Grove and suiting up i knew i was in trouble. I had zero energy. Once the race started i was in the middle to rear of the pack. I could not move up and while the legs started to warm up, once we got to the higher intensities i had nothing. I eventually got dropped on the long straight and that's when i noticed that my left crank arm bolt was coming loose. I'd love to say that the crank came loose so that's why i went to the pit and lost a ton of time but no, i got dropped first. The pit crew tightened it for me and helped me get going again but now i was a good minute back so i decided to practice cornering for a while. Eventually there was a group of 4 of us trying to finish out the race. Then 3 then 2. Me and Tim Henry. Just as i had settled into working as hard as i could to finish the race we came up to the finish line to see an official in the middle of the road pulling us off. For whatever reason i decided to raise my arms in a mock victory salute as i crossed the line. I had no idea that my wife was right there and she got a picture of it. So if you know Tim and see him, ask him what he's gonna do with his $500. So it's time to push the reset button and get ready for downers on Saturday. Overall i do feel pretty good so the plan is to take good care of myself this week and have a good showing at downers. See you next time.

Funny Superweek Moments

In thinking back over the three superweek races i did there are a couple of funny things that come to mind that didn't make it into my race reports.

Bullseye!
While riding thru the feedzone at the proving grounds i watched as a rider in front of me and on the left side of the road decided it would be better to throw his bottle all the way across the road to the right side instead of just dropping it to his left. Did he throw it in a nice high arch? No. He saw an opening and threw a line drive right thru the field and bullseye, right into the crotch of some poor unsuspecting guy trying to hand up water bottles. I didn't realize required feed zone equipment included athletic supporters.

Crit racing meets PBR
I think it was during the last half on the Evanston crit. I had drifted back a little and we had just gone thru turn 2. Up ahead i hear someone yelling expletives and i look up and did not expect to see what i saw. Right in the middle of the field was a guy who was having problems with his water bottle cage. My impression was that it had broke. So what did he do? What any sensible rider would do while riding in the middle of the bunch at 25mph during a crit. He unclipped his right foot and started kicking his water bottle cage. All that was left was for him to do was put 1 arm up in the air and all the rest of us could start counting to 8.

Would you like stitches to go with your staples?
After getting all patched up from my crash at Kenosha i stood up to climb out of the back of the medic truck. What do I do? Slam my head on the top of the door. Fortunately no stitches were needed for that.

Message Delivered

Found this on the velonews photo contest page. What a great shot.

Kenosh Crit seals dissappointing Superweek

Kenosha is always one of my favorite crits and this year i was hoping to do well. A goal I had for this years superweek was to show myself that i can be competitive at the Cat 3 level during superweek. After withdrawing from the Proving Grounds race with back spasms and then feeling good but wasting too much energy at Evanston I really wanted to shoot for a top 10 at Kenosha.

Seeing that I have been the only abd cat 3 at all of superweek i figured I would have to conserve as much energy thru out the race to put myslef in a good position for the final. The pace didn't seem near as high as evanston was and for the most part i did a pretty good job of not doing much. A few times i found myself at the front when i didn't want to and ended up pulling back a break or two but overall i was feeling pretty good.

The race had seemed pretty smooth with no mishaps. Turn 1 was nice and smooth since it had been repaired since last year. For the most part i was taking the inside of turn 1. Every time i would check the inside behind me to see if anybody was trying to bomb the corner and then go thru it.

What happened next is just my best recollection of it. Everything happened so fast that I don't exactly know but I was pretty sure i had the line into the inside of turn 1 when all of a sudden i got bumped and was going down. I never saw it coming. I don't remember crossing a wheel. Nothing. All i know is i was going down. I remember being down on the pavement and judging by the marks on my back and having my head bounce off the pavement a few times i got hit by a rider or 2.

After the the storm was over i was actually surprised it wasn't worse. I guess i expected to really get plowed into while down on the pavement but that didn't seem to happen. I picked myself and my bike up and moved over to the side of the road. Looking down at my leg i had road rash all over and also on my elbow. I actually contemplated trying to jump back in until someone handed my the rear strap of my helmet. That is when i became aware of the sensation on the back of my head.

I made my way over to the first aid station. The good news was that i was able to move everything and knew nothing was torn, separated, or broken. On the way to the station i was asked if i was ok and i said i thought so but thought i had a cut on the back of my head. That was followed by a "duuuude!" comment so i figured it was a doosey.

The tally was 2 staples in the back of my head, road rash on my right leg, thigh, and elbow. I'll spare you pictures.

All in all i came out very fortunate. Not so lucky was Ed Amstutz of team xxx. It was pretty obvious that he broke his collar bone. I have not heard officially what his injuries were but it didn't seem good. It's really unfortunate since he was 2nd overall for superweek.

I don't want to be bitter about this but from talking to people who saw this go down it seems i was more or less just taken out with the person causing the accident talking smack about it later. All i can say is that your actions took out a very good rider in Ed. All for 1 lame position in a turn in the middle of the field. Stupid.

I've never claimed to be the worlds best bike handler but I don't think i did anything wrong. If it's shown to me that i did then fine but i really don't think that is the case. Still i feel really bad that someone like Ed sustained an injury like he did.

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Grand Prix of Cycling

First off, kudos to everyone involved in putting on this race. I knew that the location of downtown Evanston would be fun but the organizers did a great job of running this race. There were tons of people and the atmosphere was great. This will definitely be on my calandar in the coming years.

Well after barely being able to get around on Thursday the back started to relax on friday and saturday. Sunday morning i woke up with some stiffness but mowing the lawn seemed to help loosen it up so i made the decision to race. We packed the van and loaded up the kids and grandparents and made our way to evanston.

They had us all park in a parking garage which was kind of fun but weird. There was plenty of room so you could take up a couple of spaces. One for your car and one for your bike. I ran down and registered and then went back to the van to change and warm up. The weird part was because you were in a parking garage you didn't see too many other cyclist except those right around you.

After warming up my back felt really good. There was no tightness or pain so i was really encouraged. I put on my jersey and went to grab my cycling gloves and then realized i had 2 left hand gloves and no right so i went sans gloves. I then made my way to the start finish which meant i got to do something that i always wanted to do as a kid but would get in trouble for. Ride the bike in a parking garage.

The evanston course is a .9 mile loop with 6 turns. After the start it features 4 quick turns in succession and in talking with some friends before the race it seemed a great course for a breakaway to stick. The thought being you get a great jump before the first turn and just hammer thru the rest of the turns and you are out of sight. Watching the 40+ race before ours it seemed true since a break of 6 or 7 riders stayed off the front and won.

Our race was 45 laps or 40 miles. Our plan was to try to put something together with somewhere in the low 30's to go. The only problem was that the speed of the field was too fast. From the start there was breakaway attempt after attempt but nothing stuck. Even when the big teams in the race were well represented in the break the pace of the field never dropped too much.

For most of the race i tried to stay in the front half of the field and was pretty successful. Probably about half way thru i started feeling my back. It was getting tired. With maybe 12 laps to go i found myself on the front when a move went. I went with it but again it didn't stick. Now it seem pretty clear that it was going to be a field sprint. I remember working my way back towards the front with about 6 to go but then i slipped back and after that i couldn't move up more than a couple of spots. My back was hurting more and more and when that happens you loose a lot of your power when you have to accelerate out of the corners.

So it was i found myself towards the back of the field on the last lap. Coming out of the last turn I tried to sprint and gained a few spots by the finish line. Considering my day on wed. i'm happy with how the race went. I'm taking today off the bike to nurse the back a little and then will try to resume training this week for friday's race in Kenosha.

When it was over we had covered 40 miles in just 1 hour and 27 minutes. That's an average speed of 27mph. I think that is the fasted crit i've raced so far.

Here are a couple of vids from our race.

See you next time.

07.18.07 - Proving Grounds Cat 3

The above video is one I shot of the final sprint of my race. Long story short is back on tuesday morning i woke up with a little twinge in my back. Wednesday morning it was almost gone but as it got closer to race time it started getting tighter and tighter. The race started with me hoping that riding would loosen the back up. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I survived 3 laps of six, but on the fourth lap i couldn't stand up anymore on the climbs. I had no way to get any power onto the pedals. By the time i came around to the start finish area i barely could get up the hill so I dropped out 2/3 of the way thru. This was pretty disappointing since i was really planning on doing well for this race. Now i'm just hoping that the drugs do their job and my back is good enough for sundays crit in evanston.

Ready for Proving Grounds

Well my first targeted race is just a couple days away. We now get to see where i'm really at with my fitness.

A couple of weeks ago my family went camping up by the Proving Grounds course and I got out and rode a couple of laps. I brought my camera and ended up taking 94 pictures. You can see them here if you'd like.

Busted

There's a section of road along the Fox River, apporiately called River Rd., where i've wondered if i could actually get somebody busted for speeding. The speed limit used to be 25 and then 35 but this year they've made the whole stretch of road 25mph. Depending on the wind, you can get up to 25 without a whole lot of effort. Now if I'm riding at 25-30 mph if someone is going to pass me they can easily get up to 40mph which means if the timing is right a member of algonquin's finest is going to pull them over.

Last thursday my friend Tim and I were riding down River Rd. We weren't hammering really hard or anything but we were going at a pretty good pace when a mini van passed us. We thought nothing of it until around the corner coming the other way was the aformentioned Algonquin's finest. He abrubtly slowed down and proceeded to make a uturn right in the middle of this 2 lane rd. In the process we had to come to a complete stop since he was blocking the whole rd.

After we passed the pulled over minivan i turned to tim and said, "I think we had something to do with that." I'm not gloating or anything but it was just a little bit funny.

FRG 06.24.07

The course for the Fox River Grove Cycling Classic is a great course...that is for the 14 other skinny riders in the cat 3 race who had a good 20 lbs on me. I realisticly have no chance in this race but after doing it this year i can't wait till next.

There is not more than 200m of straight road at any point during the 1.13 mile loop which makes this race very fun and interesting. The pain starts immediately. Just 100m from the start/finish line you enter turn 1 and beging the climb up Violet Ave. The first 200m of the 300m climb is a twisting banked road that must have an average grade of 15-17%. You don't even think of sitting down during this part. The remaining 100m or so is more or less a stairstep with a false flat leading into a 12%? climb the rest of the way.

At the top you enter turn 2 and begin the free fall back down a twisting, wide, newer residential street with a left turn at the bottom. While very fast this turn is really smooth and leads you onto another winding street into turn 3. More winding road with a little bit of an uphill into turn 4 which leads you back down to the start finish area.

Seeing that this course is only 6 miles from my house i've trained on this course several times. My goal was to try and ride the climb as smart as i could and stay in the main group as long as possible. I knew once things really got going i wouldn't be able to match the skinny climbers in the bunch so i tried to conserve whenever possible.

Laps 1 and 2 were just fine. I put myself as up front as much as i could at the bottom of the climb and rode my own pace up the first half of the climb. If a gap occured i was able to bridge it back on the not so steep, top part of the climb.

On lap 3 near disaster struck. I got stuck on the inside of turn 1 and as we headed up the climb i got bumped off the road onto the shoulder which consisted of 2 1/2" rocks. I had to stop and almost get off the bike. Then I had to remount and restart on the steepest part of the climb. By this time everybody was well up the road. I was pretty mad cause I did not want to get dropped like this. Fortunately I was able to not lose too much time and found my way back into the main group at the bottome of the descent.

Get a Grip(GAG), a team from chicago, had 5 or 6 riders in the field so on the second lap they sent a rider off the front. I think 1 other rider went with him and then the field settled down with the rest of the GAG riders controlling the field. I was totally fine with this cause that meant the pace would slow down.

This went on for several laps. Each time up the climb the gap i lost became a little bit longer and the longer it would take me to catch back on during the flat section. I knew the end was near.

About half way thru the race people finally got tired of just racing for 2nd place and the attacks came. This is where i got off the bus and said goodbye to the main field. A rider attacked on the climb and by the time i got to the top the field was gone. Now i was just riding by myself.

I contemplated dropping out but soon talked myself out of that. I thought, "how often do i get to fly down a descent with a good turn at the bottom. If nothing else just practice your descending skills."

After a couple laps on my own i started to see 1 rider and then a second rider up ahead. Each time up the climb I was gaining ground on them. Eventually I caught both and there was a group of 3 of us fighting it out for what would be 10th place.

Every time up the hill I would drop one rider and then the other but not enough that they couldn't get back on during the descent. So finally on the last lap I attacked the 2 and almost immedaiately heard one declare he was done. That left 2 of us.

I got a decent gap over the remaining rider but it wasn't enough to stay away. Between turns 3 & 4 he caught me and after leading him thru turn 4 he sprinted around me for 10th place, leaving me 11th.

All in all i had a lot of fun. It was one of the hardest races i've done but i really enjoyed it. Catching the 2 riders and making a little mini race out of it helped me along. I never thought I would be the one attacking on a climb like that even if it was for 10th place.

Can't wait till next year.

Fox River Grove Cycling Challenge

For anybody interested here's the details for the race on sunday.

I will be racing the Cat 3 race at 2pm.

Here's a map.









There is parking just south of the course at the the jewel or dominicks, i can't remember exactly what store but they run a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the course.

Also if you would like some more info click the link to the left under upcoming races. At the bottom of that page is some printed directions on how to get there.

Would love to see you there.

Ron

Rant

In the tradition of Dave Zabriski's peloton interviews I will begin the post with one. While this isn't word for word this is the best as i remember it.

Rider 1: Who's the damn moron who keeps leading the field into traffic!
Rider 2: That would be me.
Rider 1: You can't lead a group of 60 riders into traffic!
Rider 2: Hmphh...It's only 40.

What led to this nice little interview was possible the dumbest group ride i have ever been a part of. For nearly 3 years now i have taken part in a ride, named after a local community college, that occurs on a saturday morning in the northwest suburbs of a big midwestern city that is located on a big lake.

Since last year i have been commenting on how this ride is getting choppier and choppier as it grows. Now before i rant i will make the disclaimer that at times i have done stupid stuff too but this was nuts. Let me give you some examples.

Incident 1: Just before a busy intersection is a right turn followed by a short downhill into the intersection. The road we cross is a busy road and most of the time we have to stop. While most of us are slowing down one joker decides to prove his agility and sprint to the intersection. In the process he nearly hits a pothole and almost takes a rider out trying to avoid the hole. My response: "Can we stop racing for stop signs?&#!"

Incident 2: The next major road crossing people at the front of the field start crossing the road with an oncoming truck coming from the left. We had to yell stop to some riders who were just assuming that beacuse the first rider went, the other 50+ riders could cross too. Finally cars from both directions stopped so we all could cross safely.

Incident 3: Just before the next major road crossing (notice a pattern here) we have a sprint to the stop ahead sign. That was all fine and fairly clean but then we have to turn onto a busy street with no shoulder for 500m to get to the next road. It is a blind corner to the left because of trees. So the first rider to arrive(rider 2 in interview above) just turns onto the road without stopping. I'm maybe 15 feet behind him. He doesn't say anything, doesn't call out car left so I'm assuming (my mistake) that nothing is coming from the left. When i reach the intersection there is a pickup truck pulling a trailer coming down the hill. Immediately i yell truck left! Now i'm getting pissed. "Rider 2" put a whole bunch of people in danger.

(Insert rider inteview above at this point)

Incident 4: Same rider from incident 1 while going up a hill almost takes a teammate out. This is when i notice the guy is listening to his ipod!

So in 1 hour there were 4 incidents where people could have gotten seriously hurt all because of stupidity.

I usually peel off from the ride after the hills and that's what i did this morning. I haven't heard yet but i'm waiting to hear of a crash or two.

I don't know what needs to be done but i'm getting tired of it. I'm honestly am really starting to see why so many people drive by and yell at cyclist to get off the road. When we ride like this it does no good.

And for the love of God, DON'T BRING YOUR IPOD TO A GROUP RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!

So instead of being able to write a nice post about how great it was to see a friend recovering from an injury at the ride, how i enjoyed the sprint, or how i felt good on the hills, i'm writing about this crap.

I think i'm done but i'm still steaming.

Hoping next week is better...

First Ride of Freedom

To continue with blogging about things that happend a week ago, last monday my middle son, Nathan, rode his bike for the first time without training wheels. It was an awesome experience. For whatever reason i don't remember too much about Ryon's first time mostly because he did it on his own. Ryon did it during the winter and rode down the cleared sidewalk and used the snow banks to crash into.

Nathan kept putting off his first attempt. I think it was all in his head. It's weird cause he's the risk taker, the climber, the crazy one. But for some reason he was pretty apprehensive about the bike thing.

We did a few tries in the morning that involved me getting him on the bike and running behind him with my hand under the saddle keeping him upright. It was clear he truly didn't understand the physics of it. He would lean way to one side and stop pedaling. After a few tries we decided to take a break. I could tell he was starting to get it though.

Later in the afternoon we went out to try again. This time on the second try I let go and he was on his own. About 7 or 8 more runs insued. The joy on his face was incredible. It was amazing. It reminded me how much fun riding a bike is and what freedom it brings. Nathan has now caught the feeling of Delirium.

One of the best moments is when half way down the hill he would ask me to let go and i would say that I let go way at the top and he would just giggle with delight.

What a day!

Winfield ABR 30+ Criterium Championship - 06.03.07

It was with threatening skys that this years Winfield Masters 30/40+ ABR National Criterium Championship got underway. It had been a day of isolated thunderstorms and although it looked like we might get dumped on we didn’t and we raced on dry roads.

I went into this race feeling good about my form and wanting to see if I would have the problems keeping the wheel in front of me like I did at monsters. My guess is that I wouldn’t seeing that this is not a completely flat crit like monsters and I wasn’t coming off on of the longest training weeks I had ever done like I was at Monsters.

Tactically I didn’t want to miss the big break like I did last year. The pack more or less split last year and if it happened again I wanted to be ready for it. So the plan was to just take it easy, ride smart, and try to be ready when it happened.

That’s basically how it happened except for the fact that I chickened out.

Lately I’ve been reading the blog reports of Mark Swartzendruber. He likes to rag on Team Mack and their race tactics. I find it funny since I’m not on mack but after reading his description about the 40+ race at Monsters you will get a good idea of what it was like in this race.

Basically from the start there were attacks. One or 2 riders would go with HeadsMACK barking out a command to somebody to grab a wheel. This went on for the first few laps. At one point a pretty good sized group jumped so I jumped too but it was all brought back. The 2 riders broke free. One Mack and one Met Life. Something told me right away that I was watching the race leave us. You had a representative from the 2 largest teams in the race off the front and immediately our pace lowered. At the bottom of the hill I heard someone yell that the gap was 10 seconds. At the top of the hill it was 20 seconds. I knew this was the race, I wanted to join them…but I was too chicken.

It was earlier in the race than I wanted to make a move and the move was smaller then I wanted to be a part of. I decided to stay put and watch the break ride away from us hoping that at some point a group of riders would want to chase this thing down but it soon became evident that we were all just riding for 3rd place overall.

Now the thing about this race is that there are actually 2 fields racing together and there are 2 championship jerseys at stake. One for the 30+ and one for the 40+. What I didn’t realize is that both riders in the breakaway were 40+. If I could have joined them* and stayed with them I would have won the 30+ race even if I had finish 3rd.

I spent the rest of the race trying to stay in the front half of the filed and saving myself for the sprint. There was one point where it looked like a few of us had a gap but that quickly ended as nobody, including me, wanted to do any real work. Once that failed I sat back and waited.

Things really start to heat up for the last couple of laps. Guys start really fighting for position and you really have to work hard to maintain your position. This is where I really have a lot to learn. I have to form to be there at the end but I lose a bunch of places in the last couple turns before the final sprint. To me this is the greatest difference between racing cat ¾ and Masters racing.

Long story short, I had a good sprint but I was already back 20 places or more out of the last turn so I made up a few. I was hoping I made top 20 but wasn’t sure. Then I heard the pa announce state that 5 of the top 6 were 40+. Since the podium was 5 deep that made me stick around for a while. I ended up finishing 16th overall but was in 6th place for the 30+ field. Last year I was 11th so I was very happy. I missed the podium by one place. Next year this race is mine!!

Thanks for reading.

*This is assuming i could have broken free from the field, bridged up the the 2, and then stayed with them for the remainder of the race. It's nice to think that's possible but not sure what reality is yet.