Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen RR this past weekend. Super course with some good climbing. Great organizers, volunteers, and communication. I will absolutely go back for this one. I had been on the course a couple of times before, but just for training.

I don't understand why Kansas really doesn't have any spring road races - most everything around here is less than 50 miles. Since many racers are willing to travel 2-4 hours to get to races, I would imagine we would all stay in KC if there was a decent spring RR series here?

Anyway, I digress; Kent Woermann, Greg Lohr, and Eric Finks (+ Lindsey) headed down in Eric's truck with trailer on Saturday morning to pre-ride the course. Thanks Eric for driving! Kent and I did the 1/2 race while Greg and Eric racing in the 3s. The weather was awesome all weekend. Sunny and in the 70s both days.

The racing was really aggressive from the start. There were about 40 guys in the race and lots of strong riders in the field. Mercy was the largest team there and Tradewind was the most aggressive, which was not surprising. I tried to get into some breaks on the first two laps but really spent too much energy doing this. Brian Jenson, Joe Schmalz, and a Park Place rider ended up getting away on the second lap and had a pretty good gap by the end of the second lap.

I ended up cramping up on the third time up the Hell's Kitchen climb and had to fall back into a chase group. Fortunately, we were able to get back up to the main field (none of my doing) just prior to one of the big descents on the day. Everything came together shortly after and the racing started to get aggressive again. I knew the writing was on the wall but tried to just hang with the group as long as I could. Up the last climb I was in a serious world of hurt as the cramping was now in both legs. Once over the top I did catch on to the very back end of a small group and we had a nice cool down to the finish line.

I also hit 55mph on a descent which may be my new PR for top speed.


Definitely a fun time, next race is the NWA Spring Classic this weekend.