The Sunday course was really cool. And it was dry at the start, so I was pretty excited to get going. Then started raining again mid race. There were wrecks three corners in a row when that happened. I was caught in the third wreck, I think that about 15 people went down in that one. I ran someone's bike over trying to get through and went down again. There were literally bodies and bikes across the whole road.
They neutralized the race, people just kept rolling into the pits from the first two wrecks too. I was in a really bad spot in the restart. I did another lap but I was at the back, and people just kept dropping out, so I had to keep leapfrogging to get back to the group, I ended up just riding along alone for a few laps till they pulled me. I'm still in one piece and I've got most of my skin, so not too bad all things considered.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Tour De Grove pt 1
Back to St. Louis for the Tour De Grove.
Forecasts called for rain all three days. Friday night we got lucky and the rain held off, but it was windy. The Midtown Alley course was a big rectangle of wide open streets, pretty straightforward. Adam, Justin and I were representing St Johns. We all put in little digs here and there, I got in a couple of moves but nothing was getting any leash or sticking at all because of the wind so we sat in for the sprint. I was hoping to lead out Adam in the sprint, but on the last lap things slowed up, I got swarmed and Adam ended up on the front in the wind. In the sprint Adam ended up 11th and I got 5th and Justin finished in the group.
Saturday the rain came and the winds stuck around. We were minus Brian who headed home but added Brian. This course was wet and had some technical corners plus lots of rough pavement and some road obstacles. I went to the front on the first lap and didn't have too much trouble sticking there for most of the race. I heard lots of crashes behind me. There were a lot of guys in the race, 107 according to the officials at the start. So even when I did feel like I was drifting back, I'd check back and see about 40 or 50 guys behind still. Kinda crazy. Anyway, with about 10 minutes left I wasn't paying attention and took a bad line into the 180 corner before the S/F ended up turning on the painted centerline and lost my front wheel, wiping out and breaking my shifter. Dumb. But I didn't get hurt or hurt anyone else so that was good. Thankfully, SRAM Neutral Race Support was on hand to replace my shifter for tomorrow: Another rainy crit.
Forecasts called for rain all three days. Friday night we got lucky and the rain held off, but it was windy. The Midtown Alley course was a big rectangle of wide open streets, pretty straightforward. Adam, Justin and I were representing St Johns. We all put in little digs here and there, I got in a couple of moves but nothing was getting any leash or sticking at all because of the wind so we sat in for the sprint. I was hoping to lead out Adam in the sprint, but on the last lap things slowed up, I got swarmed and Adam ended up on the front in the wind. In the sprint Adam ended up 11th and I got 5th and Justin finished in the group.
Saturday the rain came and the winds stuck around. We were minus Brian who headed home but added Brian. This course was wet and had some technical corners plus lots of rough pavement and some road obstacles. I went to the front on the first lap and didn't have too much trouble sticking there for most of the race. I heard lots of crashes behind me. There were a lot of guys in the race, 107 according to the officials at the start. So even when I did feel like I was drifting back, I'd check back and see about 40 or 50 guys behind still. Kinda crazy. Anyway, with about 10 minutes left I wasn't paying attention and took a bad line into the 180 corner before the S/F ended up turning on the painted centerline and lost my front wheel, wiping out and breaking my shifter. Dumb. But I didn't get hurt or hurt anyone else so that was good. Thankfully, SRAM Neutral Race Support was on hand to replace my shifter for tomorrow: Another rainy crit.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Joe Sheehan Memorial RR
JB and I went the the Joe Sheehan Memorial RR this year to battle the north winds. This race was moved back a couple of weeks from the last few years, where unpredictable April weather plagued the race.
Two years ago, we had rain, sleet, snow, and 20+ mph winds. I won in the Cat 3 race by attacking solo about 20 miles into the race. I attacked only because I was so cold in the group in that I could barely shift or brake. Last year I flatted trying to bridge to Walt Bleser's solo brakeaway, which ended up being the the winning move after Phil Gronniger bridged up.The thing about this race is that with the north winds if you can get a break going on the way out and have it stick through Atchison, it will probably stay away.
We showed up about an hour before the start and registration was a mess. The line was out the door. About 5 minutes before the start they pushed all races back by 15 minutes, whew. The other issue was our wheel vehicle was a small car that was jam packed with wheels. In fact, we were only able to put one set in.
So the race finally started and we had a nice sized group of 25 or so. My early plan was to get into a break after the initial attacks happened. Bill Marshall got away solo early. Then a chase group formed with some of my old teammates Craig Henwood and Cam Rex. I was interested in bridging to this group then jumping up to Bill, but the trouble was that Shadd Smith was in the group and I didn't really want to drag him up to Bill. Bob Cummings was in the group too and he's been riding really strong this year, so I was hoping we could get away together to get up to Bill.
It turns out that both Shadd and I were marked pretty heavily by the rest of the field. Shadd was putting in some little fake surges to keep the group from organizing, and I wanted to counter but if Shadd didn't immediately grab my wheel, someone else did.
We hit some new gravel sections, and Shadd really drove the pace through those. I got through behind him, but several people (including JB) ended up flatting here. It was kind of weird deep gravel with some really big chunks, but everyone seemed to ride it cleanly.
At this point Cam had jumped across to Bill and they were working well together and putting in alot of time to the group. I really wanted to get a whittled down chase group going but everyone was now looking at me or Bob to attack, so no one was really working. Coming out of Atchison, there is a medium length climb, so I punched it and Shadd was the only one that could hold the pace. Not ideal. But the gap to Bill and Cam was over 2 minutes at this point and growing, so it was the time to try to get up there. I just kept it rolling and trying to monitor the chase to see if they were closing the gap to us. In the meantime, I was closing the gap up to Bill and Cam, but not very quickly. In retrospect, I should have eased up a little out of Atchison to let some others come up with us and then spread the work out. As it was, I got to solo TT and drag Shadd in my attempt to catch up.
Anyway, I brought the gap down to about a minute with a couple of miles to go, but it was too little too late. Enough to keep them honest. So Bill won, Cam took 2nd, Shadd sprinted for 3rd, I got 4th. Lots of work for 4th, but money in the bank for CX season, where it's always that hard.
Two years ago, we had rain, sleet, snow, and 20+ mph winds. I won in the Cat 3 race by attacking solo about 20 miles into the race. I attacked only because I was so cold in the group in that I could barely shift or brake. Last year I flatted trying to bridge to Walt Bleser's solo brakeaway, which ended up being the the winning move after Phil Gronniger bridged up.The thing about this race is that with the north winds if you can get a break going on the way out and have it stick through Atchison, it will probably stay away.
We showed up about an hour before the start and registration was a mess. The line was out the door. About 5 minutes before the start they pushed all races back by 15 minutes, whew. The other issue was our wheel vehicle was a small car that was jam packed with wheels. In fact, we were only able to put one set in.
So the race finally started and we had a nice sized group of 25 or so. My early plan was to get into a break after the initial attacks happened. Bill Marshall got away solo early. Then a chase group formed with some of my old teammates Craig Henwood and Cam Rex. I was interested in bridging to this group then jumping up to Bill, but the trouble was that Shadd Smith was in the group and I didn't really want to drag him up to Bill. Bob Cummings was in the group too and he's been riding really strong this year, so I was hoping we could get away together to get up to Bill.
It turns out that both Shadd and I were marked pretty heavily by the rest of the field. Shadd was putting in some little fake surges to keep the group from organizing, and I wanted to counter but if Shadd didn't immediately grab my wheel, someone else did.
We hit some new gravel sections, and Shadd really drove the pace through those. I got through behind him, but several people (including JB) ended up flatting here. It was kind of weird deep gravel with some really big chunks, but everyone seemed to ride it cleanly.
At this point Cam had jumped across to Bill and they were working well together and putting in alot of time to the group. I really wanted to get a whittled down chase group going but everyone was now looking at me or Bob to attack, so no one was really working. Coming out of Atchison, there is a medium length climb, so I punched it and Shadd was the only one that could hold the pace. Not ideal. But the gap to Bill and Cam was over 2 minutes at this point and growing, so it was the time to try to get up there. I just kept it rolling and trying to monitor the chase to see if they were closing the gap to us. In the meantime, I was closing the gap up to Bill and Cam, but not very quickly. In retrospect, I should have eased up a little out of Atchison to let some others come up with us and then spread the work out. As it was, I got to solo TT and drag Shadd in my attempt to catch up.
Anyway, I brought the gap down to about a minute with a couple of miles to go, but it was too little too late. Enough to keep them honest. So Bill won, Cam took 2nd, Shadd sprinted for 3rd, I got 4th. Lots of work for 4th, but money in the bank for CX season, where it's always that hard.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tour Of StL Weekend
Yup, it's Thursday, so i'll keep this brief:
Went to the Tour of St. Louis last weekend with Teammate Brian. We were joined on Sat by Cale and Jim from Springfield, and JB on Sunday.
Sat:
Circuit race - cold and windy. After racing in 90+ degree tempuratures at Hermann, 45 and 20+ mph winds felt really cold. Highlights of the race: I took of at the start like it was a cross race, then I realized it wasn't a cross race. Things got all goofy, and we ended up all missing out on the first split of the group. Then there were some more splits. I ended up in the 2nd chase group racing for 13th. I pulled alot and Jim got a prime and 13th. BB got the other prime. Rough, but still in the $, so I guess that was good.
TT - Had a funky cough and some really irritated eyes from allergys. Still windy, but less cold. I got all aero and rolled to 8th place out of 16. BB was my minute man, and I totally out sprinted him meters before the finish like a real teammate.
Had an excellent team dinner.
Sun:
Had an excellent team breakfast. Then went for a nice AM spin.
Crit - Pretty straightforward course, a big rectangle with some bad pavement on the backside. A bit of wind, but much warmer than the day before. I tried to get into a few good looking moves but nothing stuck. Finally Brad Huff and Joe Schmalz started racing and rode the rest of us off of their wheels. Jim lost a contact and had to sit out a lap. Last lap and all the St. Johns guys were in it. I tried to go drive the pace to setup BB - but ended up getting him all boxed in and put myself a bike length off the front. Oops. Still ended up with 9th, 13th, 14th, 19th.
Looking forward to more in a few weeks!
Went to the Tour of St. Louis last weekend with Teammate Brian. We were joined on Sat by Cale and Jim from Springfield, and JB on Sunday.
Sat:
Circuit race - cold and windy. After racing in 90+ degree tempuratures at Hermann, 45 and 20+ mph winds felt really cold. Highlights of the race: I took of at the start like it was a cross race, then I realized it wasn't a cross race. Things got all goofy, and we ended up all missing out on the first split of the group. Then there were some more splits. I ended up in the 2nd chase group racing for 13th. I pulled alot and Jim got a prime and 13th. BB got the other prime. Rough, but still in the $, so I guess that was good.
TT - Had a funky cough and some really irritated eyes from allergys. Still windy, but less cold. I got all aero and rolled to 8th place out of 16. BB was my minute man, and I totally out sprinted him meters before the finish like a real teammate.
Had an excellent team dinner.
Sun:
Had an excellent team breakfast. Then went for a nice AM spin.
Crit - Pretty straightforward course, a big rectangle with some bad pavement on the backside. A bit of wind, but much warmer than the day before. I tried to get into a few good looking moves but nothing stuck. Finally Brad Huff and Joe Schmalz started racing and rode the rest of us off of their wheels. Jim lost a contact and had to sit out a lap. Last lap and all the St. Johns guys were in it. I tried to go drive the pace to setup BB - but ended up getting him all boxed in and put myself a bike length off the front. Oops. Still ended up with 9th, 13th, 14th, 19th.
Looking forward to more in a few weeks!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Tour of Hermann
Went to Hermann with The Bike Shack crew and teammate Brian. The forecast called for hot conditions (90+ degrees, with wind on Sunday) Race fans may recall the last time we ventured to Hermann, the conditions were epic. This time the weather was excellent but ended up being a factor in the RR. On to the reports:
TT:
A new TT course this year. From the profile, I could tell that the course would suit me better than last year's race, as there was now some elevation change. We got into town on Friday night in time to do early packet pickup and saw promoter Jeff Yeilding who told us to go drive the course so we knew what it was like. Once we saw the course, I was really excited to race it. There were two climbs, one 10% and another 16% that we got to climb on the way out and then again on the way back (I think they were a little less steep on the back side).Overall I felt really good on the TT, I rode a little conservatively on the way out and really had some good sensations in the legs on the way back. I ended up in 3rd overall, 13 seconds back from Justin Maciekowitz and 6 seconds behind Zach Reed.
Crit:
The criterium course is very tough. One big climb, a false flat over the top, a fun, fast descent make this one of my favorites. I was planning on just sitting in for the race and seeing what the other GC guys did, but after a couple of laps Nick Coil had countered some attacks and was off the front solo. The group did not seem terribly motivated to chase so with 8 to go I put in a soft attack at the bottom of the course to try and draw out the other GC riders to pursue Nick. No one came after me so I just went on my own. A couple of laps later I found out I was closing the gap to Nick and that Zack Reed was in chase solo. I had closed the gap to Nick to under 30 seconds, but Zach had caught up to me with 3 to go. I was getting pretty cooked at this point and Zach jumped on the climb and I didn't have the legs to chase. I stayed clear from the rest of the pack but was unable to close the gap to Nick. Zach caught Nick too and jumped him for the win. Another good race for me.
RR:
After the crit I was in 2nd on GC with 6 or 7 guys that could bump me down based on the RR. I decided to play the race very conservatively and see how it went. The tempuratures were already high by the time we started at 10:30. The first lap went pretty good, though I was a little nervous how much water I was going through. I had started with 3 bottles and had one at the feed zone each time, but that didn't end up being enough. Toward the end of the second lap I was starting to feel cramps coming on with hard efforts and after the final climb out of town I was not going very good. I tried to fake it and stick with the group as long as possible, but the writing was on the wall at that point. Each climb there was a surge that put me more into the hurt. Eventually Nick Coil and I both blew up and so we rode around very slowly the rest of the lap. We both had to stop a couple of times to get some more water and abate the cramps. We had almost made it back into town and my legs seized completely. I had to get off the bike for a minute to wait for things to calm back down to make the last couple of miles back in. We both collapsed after the finish, 40+ minutes down on the day - terribly dehydrated. Nick ended up in the hospital on the way home, but is doing fine. The Bike Shack guys took great care of me, peeling me off my bike and making me drink a ton of Gatorade and water which probably helped me from needing the hospital as well.
Overall, I still managed 4th place despite missing out on the points in the RR, so that was good. the support staff for all the races was excellent and all the courses were great. Thanks to Jeff Yielding and the whole Hermann Crew for a great race!
TT:
A new TT course this year. From the profile, I could tell that the course would suit me better than last year's race, as there was now some elevation change. We got into town on Friday night in time to do early packet pickup and saw promoter Jeff Yeilding who told us to go drive the course so we knew what it was like. Once we saw the course, I was really excited to race it. There were two climbs, one 10% and another 16% that we got to climb on the way out and then again on the way back (I think they were a little less steep on the back side).Overall I felt really good on the TT, I rode a little conservatively on the way out and really had some good sensations in the legs on the way back. I ended up in 3rd overall, 13 seconds back from Justin Maciekowitz and 6 seconds behind Zach Reed.
Crit:
The criterium course is very tough. One big climb, a false flat over the top, a fun, fast descent make this one of my favorites. I was planning on just sitting in for the race and seeing what the other GC guys did, but after a couple of laps Nick Coil had countered some attacks and was off the front solo. The group did not seem terribly motivated to chase so with 8 to go I put in a soft attack at the bottom of the course to try and draw out the other GC riders to pursue Nick. No one came after me so I just went on my own. A couple of laps later I found out I was closing the gap to Nick and that Zack Reed was in chase solo. I had closed the gap to Nick to under 30 seconds, but Zach had caught up to me with 3 to go. I was getting pretty cooked at this point and Zach jumped on the climb and I didn't have the legs to chase. I stayed clear from the rest of the pack but was unable to close the gap to Nick. Zach caught Nick too and jumped him for the win. Another good race for me.
RR:
After the crit I was in 2nd on GC with 6 or 7 guys that could bump me down based on the RR. I decided to play the race very conservatively and see how it went. The tempuratures were already high by the time we started at 10:30. The first lap went pretty good, though I was a little nervous how much water I was going through. I had started with 3 bottles and had one at the feed zone each time, but that didn't end up being enough. Toward the end of the second lap I was starting to feel cramps coming on with hard efforts and after the final climb out of town I was not going very good. I tried to fake it and stick with the group as long as possible, but the writing was on the wall at that point. Each climb there was a surge that put me more into the hurt. Eventually Nick Coil and I both blew up and so we rode around very slowly the rest of the lap. We both had to stop a couple of times to get some more water and abate the cramps. We had almost made it back into town and my legs seized completely. I had to get off the bike for a minute to wait for things to calm back down to make the last couple of miles back in. We both collapsed after the finish, 40+ minutes down on the day - terribly dehydrated. Nick ended up in the hospital on the way home, but is doing fine. The Bike Shack guys took great care of me, peeling me off my bike and making me drink a ton of Gatorade and water which probably helped me from needing the hospital as well.
Overall, I still managed 4th place despite missing out on the points in the RR, so that was good. the support staff for all the races was excellent and all the courses were great. Thanks to Jeff Yielding and the whole Hermann Crew for a great race!
Monday, March 28, 2011
NWA Spring Classic
Went back to Arkansas for the NWA race. Originally, the forecast called for 60s and sun, but as the day of the race got closer, the forecast looked less and less sunny. It was 35 at start time and barely got to 40 by the end of the race. Probably the coldest i've been since the sleet of the 2009 Joe Sheehan RR.
Anyway, the race was sort of weird. There were some small attacks on the first lap, but nothing serious. On the second lap a three person break escaped early in the lap, but the Mercy team was the only team that seemed interested in bringing it back. Midway through the last lap the break had over 2 minutes, so everyone sat up and attacks started again. I tried to get into several promising moves but nothing stuck. Bob Cummings got away solo prior to the final little climb before the finish but no one even responded to that attack. Up the last climb I was a little boxed in but got onto Jason Waddle as Kris French had just attacked with Will Gault. All the major players made the move, but I didn't have the legs to go with them. Oddly, just over the top I was able to get composed again so I tried another attempt to get on the chase group, and was within a handful of seconds off, but couldn't close the gap. Just rolled in with the 3rd group on the road for 11th.
Anyway, the race was sort of weird. There were some small attacks on the first lap, but nothing serious. On the second lap a three person break escaped early in the lap, but the Mercy team was the only team that seemed interested in bringing it back. Midway through the last lap the break had over 2 minutes, so everyone sat up and attacks started again. I tried to get into several promising moves but nothing stuck. Bob Cummings got away solo prior to the final little climb before the finish but no one even responded to that attack. Up the last climb I was a little boxed in but got onto Jason Waddle as Kris French had just attacked with Will Gault. All the major players made the move, but I didn't have the legs to go with them. Oddly, just over the top I was able to get composed again so I tried another attempt to get on the chase group, and was within a handful of seconds off, but couldn't close the gap. Just rolled in with the 3rd group on the road for 11th.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
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.
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.
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