USGP Madison - Day 1

Fall has arrived in Wisconsin. A few weeks back, it seemed like it in KC, but muggy has returned in our neck of the woods. Friday was a very scenic drive from KC to Sun Prairie, WI. There was a very strong tailwind the whole drive east, so after Des Moines, I made great time and got great mileage as well.

I arrived early enough to get in a good hour on the course Friday with Andy Lucas (360 Racing). Things looked good, the course had some rough spots but things got smoother as we went.

Race day, it was a chilly morning, maybe 50 degrees, but also some wind, and very dry air. The warmup was one of the first rides I've done in awhile where I was not even sweating.

I set up shop with the Lincoln crew: Nate Woodman, TK, MOD, Jeff, and Randy. Thanks guys!

I didn't feel mentally sharp this morning for whatever reason. I kind of drifted around the course, then staged. Last year, Nate Woodman and I started in the 7th row for this race and worked up to 4th & 5th. This year, I was in the 2nd row, which I thought would be much better. After receiving final instructions, we waited eagerly for the gun.

BANG!

Wow, bad start. I probably was 20th or worse off the pavement. Why? I don't really know - I think the guy in front of me and to my right were the slowest starters in the group. (I was mistakenly thinking someone on a custom frame would go gangbusters - nope, I lapped him later on.)

Anyway, even so, I somehow was not in race mode until we got over the barriers and saw how strung out the field was already. I suddenly got super aggressive - which is not how I usually race, but it worked - I was moving up well. Nate and Troy told me that I was going by people like they were in slow motion.

At some point, I heard over the speakers that Mark Parmelee was at the front. Not good - he won both of the 2/3 races here last year. By the end of the second lap, I had moved into 2nd and was closing within 10 seconds of Mark. After this I would bring back 1-2 seconds per lap, at most. With one to go - Mark still had 5-6 seconds, and we were getting into lapped traffic, so i was hard to stay full gas if you got trapped behind someone.

At the end, that's how it ended up, I finished 5 seconds back for second