Superweek - Whitefish Bay Criterium

Team Extreme had a great showing at the finale for Superweek, the Whitefish Bay Criterium. We brought 9 riders to the starting line and really made our presence known throughout the race. 60+ riders started the race but I am unsure of how many dropped out or were lapped due the high speeds mashed out. 24.9 mph was the average speed for the 45 minute race.

I started the race not knowing how well I would be able to race because my legs felt horrible. The start wasn’t great for me either. I lined up slightly late and was in the back 1/3 of the group. Two riders in front of me couldn’t get clipped in and we were quickly passed by the remaining riders. For 6 laps I sprinted out of every corner and worked my way up to the front. There is way too much “slinky-ing” going on when you are in the back of the pack. Up front though I was able to pedal and hold speed through the corners.

A group of 4 riders, including one of my teammates, went on a break and were able to pull away quite a bit when I rider underestimated his speed into the first corner and slid out. Once the breakaway group had a good gap, myself and two other teammate sat on the front to try to slow the field down. Finally everyone else in the peloton figured it out. Attacks came left and right to try to reel in the breakaway. One of my teammates and I covered every attempt to catch the break and we managed to help keep the breakaway out on their own. Unfortunately, our teammate in the breakaway didn’t have enough gas at the end to try for the win and finished 4th. Going into the last lap I was sitting 5th wheel knowing that I would make my move just before the 2nd to last corner. A good friend of mine moved up on my left and I assumed he was going to go for the sprint early so I jumped onto his wheel. He went to the front and sat up. I couldn’t believe it because he set me up perfectly. I sprinted up the left side of the field and flew through the corner. I sprinted as hard as I could to increase the gap I had on the field. Through the final turn I hit the afterburners… Looking back with 50 meters to go I saw that I had a sizable gap on the field and sat up knowing that I had won the field sprint to finish 5th. To my dismay, the officials thought that I was a lapped rider because I was so far in front of the field. I had to protest the results to make sure I got the 5th place I’d earned.

I’m super happy with my performance and now know that when my legs feel bad, I will most likely have a phenomenal race.
Next up: Tour of Elk Grove on Saturday, August 1st. Should be fun because I will be in the Chicago area and will have my sister and brother-in-law who live down there watching the race. Can’t wait!

Superweek - Lakefront Road Race

Superweek brought out one of the best circuit courses and dusted it off for the 2009 series. The Lakefront Road Race long course has not been utilized in years but the directors decided that this year would be a great time to bring it back. It was a great course with two short but steep climbs, one technical decent, and another wicked-fast decent down Lincoln Memorial Drive. Awesome!

Typical of Superweek races, the Cat 4/5 race did not start on time, 35 minutes late to be precise. The master’s race starting just before us staged a protest that was not well received by either the directors or other racers waiting to go. The late start was due to the fact that the streets were not closed off completely until 5 to 10 minutes before the proposed starting times. No barriers were set up and it only created a mess for the organizers and riders.

Once started though it was great, even with the light rain that fell and made the roads “icy” due to the oil lifting off the tarmac. Riders repeatedly went down on the technical decent, trying to push the limit but they all paid for it. I managed to stay clear of two crashes where riders slide out in front of me. No breakaways were able to stick due to the long stretch to the finish line in which speeds easily reached 35 mph and all who were out front were pulled in like they were standing still. I felt good throughout the race but did notice on the last climb that my legs were getting a little burn-out. I’m guessing I am getting a little tired with the long season… After the final climb I was sitting about 25th and started the long stretch to the finish by moving up the left side. Tyson Beck came screaming around me and I jump to catch his wheel. As I did so, a teammate of mine (who planned with Tyson to have him give my teammate a lead-out) jumped to grab Tyson’s wheel, which in turn slammed me into the gutter. He had no clue I was there and most likely didn’t care who was on the wheel. I was pretty mad at the time being that I almost ate curb and then was hung out to dry in the wind. I pedaled into the wind with anger and managed to get into the slipstream at about 30th place. I made some aggressive moves through the field to move up positions but with 100 meters before the line when we launched out sprint, a crash went down in front of me and I had to kill the sprint and smash the breaks. Good thing I replaced the break pads two nights before! I went around the crashed rider as he was sliding across the tarmac and easy pedaled through the finish. I ended up 15th on the day and in the money so I got half of my entry fee back. Hopefully the check doesn’t bounce though! (Another Superweek problem). I wasn’t the happiest camper with the end results but that’s racing. Going to give the Whitefish Bay Criterium a shot on Sunday. It will be super-fast being that it is the last race for the Superweek series but I will have a full team of support and we will have the Blue-Train rocking it!

Greenwood Road Race - Wisport

The racing season is starting to slow down a bit with only races primarily on the weekends. Once July is over, the racing is going to dramatically decrease. Not looking forward to the end of the year as I have been having a blast and finishing well consistently. Saturday was no different… a blast. Greenwood, WI was site of the 38 mile Greenwood Dairy Days Road Race which proved to be a sprinters stage. All the big guns in the sprinters classification came out and really drove the pace throughout the race. A breakaway shot ahead of the peloton very early in the race and never looked back. Two of the regions best time trialists got away and no matter how hard we worked to pull them back, they kept their distance. Wind played a slight factor in the reluctance of the peloton to chase because no one wanted to go to the front to work with the headwind. The race is primarily flat with a few rolling hills in the last 8 miles of the race. I had a rider that repeatedly would pass me on the left at the bottom of the hill to pull in front of me, and not being a good climber, went straight to the back again. This annoying move that was continued multiple times finally pushed the right button and I got a little hot under the collar. I charged around the rider on the next hill, moved to the front and preceded to continue pushing the pace to shell out some of the weaker riders. I worked hard to try to bring the time gap down between the peloton and the breakaway but only gained a little ground. Going into the last 2 miles which are all downhill the big guns came to the front and drove the pace over 35 mph for a 1.5 miles prior to the final corner. I was hurting and suffering to try to stay on and fell off into a smaller group about 20 meters off the group in front. I found a wheel, sat in, rested and then shot off like a canon going for the sprint. I was able to pass 4 riders before the line and came in a respectable 13^th place. Not bad for trying to keep up with the sprinters who were gunning for one another. Too bad this type of racing isn’t earlier in the year, would have been very beneficial because the pace of these races are much higher than that of the WCA events. More sprint intervals for me to become faster. Sprint intervals = pain…

Omro Cycling Classic

I found out the hard way that back-to-back road races are a lot harder than back-to-back criteriums. The morning after the Whitewater road race I drove up to Omro for the 4^th annual Omro Cycling Classic. This race is part of the Wisport series and was an open category race that really made for a lot of fun… and pain… and misery. The field was 112 strong (remember open category) and I’m glad I was able to line up at the front. A number of Pro/1/2 riders came out for the race and I knew from the start it was going to be fast. The race started out easy but quickly turned into repeated attacks and pace changes to cover those attacks. I sat near the front of the field as the attacks didn’t get to far out to worry about them getting away. A Brone’s team member and two other riders went for another attack and I made the choice to go with them on the 2^nd lap of the 17 mile loop. I picked the right attack to go with as we were able to break away from the peloton for a good 13 miles. We were caught at the start of the hills and I was already seriously suffering. We held our break averaging 27 mph and I was gassed when the road pitched up. I managed to hang on in the middle of the field the rest of the way. Going into the final two corners (both very tight) I was behind a rider who had a wide-open line to the front on the outside going into the second-to-last corner. I shouted at him to pull up but he wouldn’t go. I had no room to go around and was boxed in. To make matters worse, this same guy braked into the last corner. Two words… race over. After making the final corner it was a push to catch as many in front of me. Only made up 5 places and finished 20^th. The legs sure hurt and still do… I will need some recovery miles on Monday and Tuesday. We’ll see how next weekend goes with the uphill finish at the Greenwood road race.

UW-Whitewater Road Race

The picture may be a little fuzzy but you get the point! It's a win! What a great day to have a race, 4th of July, light winds, warm temps, and sunny skies. Okay it was cloudy, but still a great day to race; however I felt as though I left my legs at home. The 4/5 race started out slowly especially as riders made their way up the climb on the first lap. Not too much excitement throughout the race however 5 other riders and I tried to organize a break on the climb during the 4th lap. It failed miserably as no one would pull through on the false-flat section of the climb and our gap was quickly brought back. The break attempt helped to bring my legs back and I could feel a bit of snap in them again. The course only had one long climb and then downhill the rest of the way which made keeping a break real difficult. We managed to drop a number of riders on the 5th lap but the field was still fairly large. I sat on the back of the field for the last two laps and didn’t move to the front until the long downhill section. Going into the finishing stretch (which was long) our pace kicked up in the low 30s. Everyone was working for position when two riders crossed wheels and caused a small pile-up with 400 meters to go. Three riders took off for the sprint early and gave me the perfect lead out. I came out of the saddle for my sprint with 150 meters to go and killed it to the line. Finally after 20 races this year I was able to pull off a win.