Rain : Grayslake; Heat : Glenco

Grayslake Cycling Challenge (Cat 4), 8/8/09
Race #33

???/40ish

Not much to say. I didn’t think I’d be able to race here on Friday afternoon. By Friday night I was making arrangements. Sweet. I was off the bike for a few days and this would be a good opener for Sunday's races

T1 Report: Nothing unusual. Things were looking very good.

Nice course. Jason K. (Burnham Racing) & the ICC had the ship running tight. Weather sucked. I had a good day until the final lap. I allowed myself to drift back a bit too far with 4 to go and so I desperately needed to make up ground. So, in the bell lap I made some aggressive moves. And it cost me. As I was passing on the outside of the lane just before we hit turn three I knew as I was entering the turn that I was not going to make it. So, I bunny hopped the curb, rode the grass and got back on the tarmac without a problem other than being off the back. So I chase. I almost caught a few riders dangling. Almost. Too bad, I felt good that race.

Glenco Grand Prix, 8/9/09

I’ve got to say thank you to the organizers of the Glenco Grand Prix. They did a great job ensuring that, despite the heat, they were as well prepared as could be. The water and cookies for racers was super nice and sooooooooo much appreciated. So was one number for two races...I hate needless pinning.

T1 Report: Well, BGs were fine. Thought I suffered a stupid thing that, luckily, a past flash of genius carried me through. I forgot to refill my pump before I left the house. Shit. Luckily I long ago decided to keep an extra insulin pen in my backpack. So, I was able to manage the sugars well enough with several shots throughout the day. Actually, I did the 4s race without my pump; this was the first time I raced without it. Felt good. Sugars were stable, though because the pen was low I didn’t eat anything between races. This played a part in my fatigue, though I had some HEED to keep my legs going. Not satisfying but functional.

Masters 4/5
Race #34

7th/60???

Great race. Great environment. Great course. And the organizers lived up to their title, it was super efficient: we only needed ONE number for our different category races! And to top it off, I had a lot of fun in this one.

I missed this race last year and was mildly disappointed that we didn’t need to ride through the “Amen Corner” for this race. Too bad, because I could have used another 100m headed into the finish. This was the most active race all year so a special thanks goes to MS Racing for keeping the racing interesting. This was obviously a target race for the team as there was, what, 5 or 6 riders in the field. One or another of their riders was off the front for the whole race and so the field was active. I took it easy for the first half of the race and in the second I started to participate. I chased down a break, only half way, and Tony (Beverly Bike-Vee Pack) finished the job. (Nice work, Tony!) I think it was Mike (xXx-Athletico) who attacked I chased on and two MS racers went along and we became a break of 4 (or it was the MS racer that went and I chased on—either way, someone went and I chased on.) Mike pulled off and the two MS racers did not do much work as a team—one pulled, the other didn’t. I’m sitting third wheel wondering why the guy sitting second wheel doesn’t pull through or why the lead rider doesn’t pull off. Then it dawns on me! Ah Ha!!! He’s “the guy.” I’m thinking this is great: two MS racers, one of whom is “the guy” so the other must be the dedicated workhorse and their team will block; an xXx’er, and his team will block; and me…we can actually make this thing stick! After about one lap or so and the MS guy is still on the front I revise my evaluation. They don’t want it to happen. He does not want his guy to pull and waste his juice. I should have attacked then and there; at least Mike would have come along. At least there would have been three doing some kind of work rather than just one. Tactics. Hmmm. I’ve no idea how much of a gap we had on the field but we’re caught with two to go. Now, I’m on “the guy’s” wheel…second wheel. Yes, he must pull with two to go. Nice. I’m sitting and waiting for the jump. The bell rings, we exit turn one…he turns around and gives me and everyone else “the look”…and then attacks. Hard. I chase for 5 seconds and need to reevaluate my actions very quickly. Game over. I pulled aside and slid in about 5th wheel going into the final turn. We exit the final turn and a rider wobbles a bit, turning wider than I expected…so I grab some breaks. I restart my sprint and finish 7th. The wheel I was on made it on the podium. Damn. Cookies are crumbling all around me. Seems to be my modus operandi: sitting one wheel too far back at the start of the sprint.

Category 4
Race #35

11th/50???

Holy crap was it hot. It felt way hotter than the master's race. I felt bad for the cat 3s. Seems like the 3 o’clock hour was the hottest.

I felt ok at the start. I wished I had some ice in my bottle and water (not heed) so I could dump some on my head through the race. Mental note: check. Race started. More heat. Two or three laps in I started feeling like doggy doo. I heard Dean and Vanessa, and someone else, cheering my name and felt encouraged to hang on. I think Rob (Bike Heaven) was telling me to move up. (Really. Jesus, don’t you know its hot?!?!?!) I really just hung on. Four guys escaped and no one was interested in chasing. I was totally fine with that. With three to go I started to feel optimistic, not at my chances of a strong finish, but of finishing the race. The bell lap; someone crashed at the Amen Corner, I was behind it but not put out too badly. I sprinted for 11th. Went to the Gatorade tent and got some ice for my head and neck and some water and couldn’t imagine eating one of those cookies. Though, I did later. They were amazingly good. I should have gotten more.

It was great to have my parents out for this one. The masters race was a good show where even my father picked up on some of tactics behind the action. He even gave me advice.

My wheel; my responsibility.

This sequence captures the most terrifying moment of my Elk Grove weekend. My wife's uncle, Efrian Martinez, who saved our wedding pics because the "real" photographer sucked balls, was on point once again. Thanks Efrain!

So, there is a break off the front. I rotate through and pull. The next rider pulls in front of me before he passes my bike. He bumps my bars and almost touches my wheel (I grabbed the brakes.) No big deal. We keep riding. I should have given him more room than I did because once he's on the front the pace slows a lot. At the time, I'm not sure if he is purposely slowing the field or if he is just tired. Anyway, I coast...but clearly don't slow down fast enough. We cross wheels but I'm leaning the wrong way. I grab the breaks, hold my breath, and pull as hard as I can on the bars. It looks super dramatic--more dramatic than I remember it being. I'm mean, it happened in like 1 second.

In the first photo, at that exact moment, I am thinking...this is it...crash time. But luckily no one was to my right when my wheel came free and I shot off to the right side. I look back to see how bad I almost made everything, and seeing no seriously shaken riders. They may have thought that I was just pulling way away like some crazy people like to do to "get the hell off the front." So there was some yelling. I don't care. I'm feeling really, really lucky. I get my right foot clipped back in and slide back into the field and count my lucky stars. Lesson learned.





whew...

Elk Grove

Tour of Elk Grove (cat 4), 8/1/09
Race #32

4/75

(my dad took this photo of the finish with a bit less than 150m to go. Nice work, Dad!)

Man, I really liked this course. It was challenging with the fairly tight turns and the loooooong finish—right up my alley. The guys who finished 1st and 2nd in our race were definitely strongest today. That does not happen too often.

Type 1 report: not perfect, but not bad either. The worst part was forgetting my bag with my bottles of water…I had one bottle all morning. Not smart, but not a disaster for a 35 min race.

My RPE for this race was way higher than others. The accelerations hurt every time. With the rain and after the first crash no one wanted to take those corners too fast so instead we took them too slow. Or it was my piss poor short warm up that left the legs burning.

Teammate Jordan Ross led me out to finish 2nd in the field sprint, 4th overall, and Jordan was able to hang on for 10th. It was very tight in those final 200m. At the line I was ½ wheel off 3rd and ½ wheel in front of 5th. It was nice to have a good wheel in that finish because of all the jockeying and the length—I didn’t need to fight for one, I just needed to decide when to go. When I went I had to change lanes from the right side, up through the middle, then on the left side—ah! finally I had an open lane! So I went. My chain slipped and I wound up slightly over geared but never mind that, in just a few seconds I was gasping past the finish.

The overall race was tough. Once again, I started in the back of the field; someday I hope to lean how to get a good starting spot on the line (I better just follow Jordan, he seems to know how to do it.). Anyway, we get started and sprint out of every turn, even up front. It was really taxing. Once the rain started the course became very slick and there were a bunch of crashes. I was almost involved in one that had nothing to do with rain or turns. In chasing the break that got away ½ way through the race, I rotated through the front and another rider (I don’t remember anything about him) had trouble coming around me and when he did he hit my bars with his hips and I had to brake, then he just died or purposely killed the pace and I was suddenly overlapped and leaning the wrong way. When I came free of his wheel he was moving left and I was leaning to my right and--I thought, for sure, that my time had come…race over. But I slammed the brakes and escaped with just loosing my balance and, luckily, not taking out anyone else. In retrospect, this was a perfect case of “my wheel; my responsibility.” I was too close to him, though if he didn’t have the mustard to pull through good sense says that he should not have rotated through. After the brief shouting (not by me-I was still in shock) I jumped back in, mid pack. This whole thing sucked because it happened right in front of my entire family too (they were 50m past the finish). As my wife has been reminding me all day, I was much closer to a DNF than 3rd place, by a long shot. She’s right. Anyway, it was a short race and difficult and I’m happy with my result.

I got to hear some good news for our team. Right now we have 1 cat 3. Next season we hope to have 4. That is very good news because Spidermonkeys have been great this year as a development race team for new riders, we’ve got a few kinks to work out but we’re doing a decent job growing the racer population in Chicago. Now we will have several more mid cat racers to challenge and lead the new cats. And as Bryan Merrill said, teamwork and race plans only work well when you have a few riders at the same fitness level. Well, now we will and that will be fun.

Soldier Field Series, 7/29/09
Race #31

8-9/50

What a race. I know the threes will admit that it isn't much better but...I can't wait to upgrade.