Racing Update

Four races have come and gone since the last post and the racing has been going strong.  Two weekends ago was the Wheels on Willy criterium which is normally held in Madison, however due to construction the race was moved to a business park in Fitchburg.  I carpooled with one of my teammates whom participated in the 3's and 1/2/3's races with me.  The wide open course offered up fast racing but because of strong winds, no breakaways were able to be established without being reeled in on the backstretch.  In the 3's race I positioned horribly going into the final corner and sprinted from anywhere between 20th to 25th position to finish 6th.  The 300 to 400 meter sprint felt great and was my best sprint of the year.  The 1/2/3's race was also fast and I worked only to survive.  Hanging on I was again able to put in a decent sprint but didn't move up any positions.  26th for a result.

This past weekend offered up two days of racing, the first in Hartland with rainy and wet conditions to being the 3's race.  The field stayed together the entire race.  Any break attempt was quickly stifled.  The race came down to a field sprint, soft of.  Approaching the final wide open corner (and I mean WIDE), the first two riders crossed up wheels and hit the pavement slowing the entire field, except for one...  the person those two were trying to lead out.  It worked for them the wrong way but they got the win.  Myself and another competitor sprinted it out for 2nd place in which I was able to muster out the battle by a few bike lengths.  I didn't even think about racing the 1/2/3's race due to the weather, which ended up to be a wise choice going into Sunday's race in Sussex.

The Sussex course is located in a business park and has a decent climb up to the start/finish on each lap.  The 3's race started as usual with a number of futile attacks by individuals to feel out the field.  After two repeated attacks by one team, I saw an opportunity to jump off the front and start a break (make everyone race my type of race).  I was boxed in but a wide driveway was coming up on the right.  I took the gutter through the driveway and sprint off the front of the field into a strong headwind.  By the time I reached turn 4 I had over 100 meters on the field.  I put my head down and drilled it solo for one lap and then noticed there were 4 chasers coming up to me.  I let up allowing the chasers to catch on and we quickly began working together to further distance ourselves from the field.  Each lap we continued to gain time.  By the final lap our break was down to 4 and had over 1:40 on the field.  At the start of the final lap one guy in the break jumped, none of us reacted and he was off.  I was sitting on the front and being given the hook.  After pulling half the lap I knew no help was coming so I veered to the right quickly and slammed the brakes.  The two went on by and I was able to jump on the back and save some for the finish.  I shit hooked the two up the final corner when it was an all out sprint to the finish.  I was quite tired and pulled of 3rd.  Great result for starting a break solo.
I tried the 1/2/3's race immediately afterward but was completely cooked.  I hammered out 1.5 laps and pulled the plug.  "That was a waste of 10 bucks!"

Great racing though over the last two weekends.  Memorial Day weekend races are upcoming this weekend with Snake Alley (epic) on Saturday and the Quad Cities criterium on Monday.  Two fantastic races.  If you've never heard of Snake Alley, look it up. (www.snakealleycriterium.com)

Doubling Down

Doubling up the races this year will be the theme for me leading up to the Tour of America's Dairyland coming up in mid to late June.  The Matt Wittig Memorial Criterium was help in Muskego Park this last Saturday, on a day that was cool and cloudy but had the sun make an appearance later in the afternoon.  I participated in the 3's and 1/2/3's races in which I went into without much of a game plan.  That's usually never a good idea when going into a race but this wasn't one of my favorite courses and it hasn't treated me well in the past. 

The 3's race started out quickly with numerous attacks coming on the uphill by the start/finish.  About half way through two broke off the front that the field hesitated to chase.  A lap later, two Team Wisconsin riders set themselves up well to send one off the front while blocking those behind from joining the break.  I was one of those unfortunately positioned and all I could do was watch.  Before we knew it, that rider had joined the break and we didn't see them until the race was done.  So it was down to a field sprint for 4th place.  I sat about 15 wheels back going into the final 90 degree corner and allowed those in front to sprint too early.  Passing riders as we neared the line, I engaged my sprint just before the final riser to the line and managed to pass 3 additional riders to finish 6th.  Hey, 3rd in the fields sprint.  I'll take it.

Next up was the 1/2/3's.  There was no slowing down in this race until we finished 75 minutes after we started.  I just sat in the field the entire race using it as a good training ride.  The pace was high and we occasionally had accelerations on every part of the course.  No rest for the wicked.  I wasn't position well at all for the finishing sprint but as we came through the final corner the two riders in front of me both had nothing left.  A gap opened between the leaders and myself and I gave it all I had left to cover.  I caught the field just as they launched their sprint.  With nothing left I sat up and rolled it across the line.  26th.  Good enough for day's work!

This upcoming weekend brings about the opportunity to compete in the Monster's of the Midway in Chicago on Saturday and Wheels on Willy in Madison on Sunday.  Hopefully the weather will hold up, but if it rains, there will be no racing!  Yes, fair weather racing for me.  That's all folks...

Living and Riding

The last few weeks have come and gone like the blink of an eye.  My baby boy William is growing and changing greatly on a daily basis.  We've been getting a lot of great smiles from him which makes every day that much better.  William is up to 9 lbs. and gaining!

Spring is finally starting to come around in terms of the temperature and the good amount of rain and recent sunshine is sure making the grass grow.  I'm going to have to spend some time riding the lawn mower this weekend rather than turning the cranks on the bike.  There's plenty of yard work that needs to be done to clean the yard up from winter including picking up the ridiculous amount of branches that got brought down.  At least I have plenty of firewood and kindling which will make for some great evenings by the fire over the course of the spring, summer, and fall.

Training on the bike has picked up again after a short stint away from riding.  We went to Ohio over Easter to visit some of Amy's family and then I had to travel to Dallas for work for a few days.  All this travel led to a full week off the bike; however, with that bit of a break I feel stronger on the bike than ever this year.  I participated in a criterium practice held by one of my good friends and teammate in West Bend this last Tuesday.  We had about 12 participate and had a great series of short races.  Last weekend I was also able to get in a great 96 mile ride around southeastern Wisconsin joining two rides on Saturday morning and continuing on my own from Holy Hill up to my hometown in Horicon.  5 good hours of time on the bike sure helps with endurance training!

Tomorrow I'll be participating in my first race in almost a month down in Muskego.  Hopefully the rain will hold off otherwise I will hold off the racing until next weekend in Chicago and Madison.  Additionally, I hope gas prices start to recede a bit to make the travel to some races less costly.  A number of races might get cut out of the schedule if the cost to get to the races is more than any of the payouts can cover.  At the end of the day though it should be a fantastic year of racing, especially with my newest fan William coming to the races!

Menomonee Park Criteriums

The Menomonee Park criterium opened the WCA racing schedule with a full day of racing.  The weather was decent and I was looking forward to participating in the first criteriums of the year.  I decided to double-up and compete in the 3’s and 1/2/3’s race to get a good quality workout in.  Doubling-up on races will be a theme for me early on this year to reap the benefits of the harder racing with the 1/2/3’s.  

The Cat 3 race was dominated by the ISCorp team who put about 15 or so riders on the line, far surpassing the numbers of any other team participating.  For that matter, it may have been more than everyone else.  I knew what their plan would be from the start.  And sure enough, right from the start they went.  Attack, get caught, attack again.  This is the theme they ran with and most likely will continue throughout 2011.  No problems there though, Cat 3’s are all about chasing down breaks.  I sat in the majority of the race and decided about 3/4’s the way into the race to liven things up a bit and attack.  I jumped hard coming out of the final corner and opened up a good gap on the field.  Peaking under my arm I saw large chase group coming up quickly.  Knowing I was trying to stay away, I sat up.  Damn, shouldn’t have done that.  Three riders flew past me as the field caught up.  ISCorp was all about attacking but they’ve got no interest in chasing down breaks.  The three man break stayed away until the final corner of the race where it became a field sprint.  I didn’t have much of a sprint and managed to pull off 7^th.

I wasn’t the happiest with myself after the race because I knew if I would have kept the power on during my little escapade I most likely would have been able to help the break stay away and have a great chance of winning.  Whoops.  My mood immediately changed though when I saw my wife and son pulling into the parking lot just before the 1/2/3’s race.  This was William’s first time at a bike race.  Of course he had no clue what was going on, but I went from being upset about the previous race to enthusiastic about the next racing in less than a half a second.  It was great having my wife and son at the race.

I wasn’t expecting to do anything but sit in during the 1/2/3’s race and just move throughout the field to get a feel for racing with the 1’s and 2’s.  The race had a high pace throughout but was very smooth.  My legs were feeling a lot better than they did in the 3’s and I decided to make a go of the race and see how high I’d be able to finish.  Nothing spectacular happened during the race until the last 3 laps when the pace escalated to a point the lungs began burning.  I moved from the middle of the field up to the top 20-25.  On the final lap ISCorp drove a wicked speed and strung the field out.  I jumped at an opportunity to get in the slipstream of the lead riders and dug in for what was sure to be an interesting finish.  Going into the last few roller hills and final corner I was feeling good, sprinted out of the corner and passed 2.  I managed 14^th place for my first attempt at a 1/2/3 race of the year.  Happy with the result, my motivation peaked.  And peaked just in time for… no races until May 7^th.

The next race will most likely be at the criterium in Muskego Park, early May.  There are races over the course of the rest of April but I’ll be diligently training and spending time with family that my wife and I haven’t seen in almost 3 years over Easter.

Next update may be in a week or maybe even two.  In the meantime, keep hammering into the wind.  Or if you prefer, keep the wind to your back.

Hillsboro Roubaix Recap

Saturday, April 2^nd marked the beginning of my 2011 racing season, getting kicked-off with a “classics” type race that featured a bit of paver-block roads in Hillsboro, IL.  The Hillsboro-Roubaix was the race, a 58 mile road race that consisted of small rollers for hills, paver-block, and pot hole stricken roads.  Three friends and I loaded up the van and road-tripped it down to Hillsboro on Friday evening, making the journey in about 5 ½ hours.  After a good night’s sleep we arrived at the course welcomed by clear skies and warm temperatures.  70’s!  Sure felt good when compared to the upper 30’s and low 40’s we are used to here in Wisco this time of the year.

The Cat 3’s race started at 11:10AM.  Brian, Jeramey and I warmed up by rolling through town on the pavers, testing the roads prior to our speedy passes through town during the race.  We decided to roll up to the start line 10 minutes early thinking we’d get a good starting position, but to our dismay everyone was already lined up.  So, we already gave ourselves quite a challenge before the race even started.  The only thing I could think the whole time was, “how am I going to pass over 100 riders jammed into one lane of a two lane highway to make it to the front?”  That question stayed with me for the first 15 miles when I couldn’t find any room to move up.  I made the decision shortly thereafter to go up the right gutter, in the gravel, to pass the majority of the riders.  No guts, no glory!  I managed to negotiate my way multiple times through the loose gravel to eventually make it into the top 30 riders.  The pace closer to the front resembled more of what you’d expect in a race, steady...  That was not the case near the rear end of the field as most were surging repeatedly after having to slam on the brakes because of mushrooming in the field.

As the first lap came to a close, a short but steep kicker of a hill just before the pavers caused some gaps to open within the field.  I was gapped off the main pack with about 6 riders working to chase back on.  After about 2 miles of all out chasing with panic, I caught the lead group as they were beginning to throw down a vicious pace up a hill.  Continuing to use the momentum I built up chasing the group I was able to maintain my speed to match that in which they were going up the hill.  I got lucky that I didn’t soft pedal coming up to the group otherwise I could have waved goodbye to the field for the remainder of the race.

The second lap was an all out suffer-fest.  Continuous attacks came from those up front.  I again made my way through the gravel to move up to mid-pack.  The attacks became more prevalent but I was able to hang onto the back of the main field.  With 5 miles to go, I began cramping and was out of water.  Staying out of the wind I conserved my remaining energy until the final little kicker of a hill into town.  The field attacked immediately as the road pitched upward, I surged along with them and passed 10-15 up the hill.  Going into the third-to-last corner, I changed my line hard to avoid t-boning a rider that over cooked the corner and was re-entering the street.  Not knowing someone was hot on my rear wheel, when I changed lines to save myself, I took the person behind me out.  My apologies to that individual, but that’s racing.  The pavers through town took more casualties as the lead group bombed through town.  Bikes and bodies were littered over the pavers as either the riders lost control of their bikes at 35 mph or an equipment failure caused them to have a face-off with the rough road.  Dodging the road furniture, I latched onto another rider’s wheel that passed me around the 2^nd to last corner.  I sat there, out of the wind, waiting for the spot to launch my final attempt to pick up a few spots.  Around the final corner and onto the straight I opened up my pathetic sprint with 300 meters to go passing 3 or 4 before the throw at the line.  I was relieved to have survived this race.  It was nothing short of tough for me being only my 6^th ride outside for the year.  Happy with finishing, I was even more elated to find out I finished 25^th.  Good enough for who it’s for!  Can’t complain at this point of the year considering where I am at with training and only better results are to come in the future.

Back to the chilly riding here in Wisco and hoping to have some decent weather this next weekend for the Menomonee Park criterium.   These should be good races, barring any accidents that usually are accompanied with this course.  If only the race organizers would switch the direction of the race and take out the hazardous final 90 degree corner that most of us call “the meat grinder”.  I guess as the saying goes, “no guts, no glory!”

New Addition

On March 13, 2011 at 4:29 PM my wife Amy and I were blessed with a handsome baby boy, William Jerome Heller.  William made his debut 4 days before the expected due date and we couldn't have been more happy to have him earlier than expected.  He's 100% healthy and his mom is on the path to recovery.  William has, of course, already been introduced to cycling as he naturally joined us to may of last year's cycling events. 


William is the newest member of our household and is his dad's biggest fan.  We're looking forward to bringing William to cycling events and bringing him up within the Wisconsin cycling community. 

Single Speed Project

I’m not sure what initially brought on the idea to rebuild an old bike but early in February I got the urge to search for an old “fixer-upper”.  Knowing my parents are pack rats when it comes to keeping things, I contacted them in search for a rustic bike that would suit the purposes of taking an old bike and turning it into a single speed.  I was in luck when searching the attic at my parent’s house where my pa and I came across an obviously old and neglected bike.   As I struggled to get the heavy steel bike with bent rims out between the superfluity of boxes, I couldn’t identify the brand of the bike besides the vintage seat that had a small metal tag riveted to the back with “Schwinn” pressed on it.  The bike was repainted sometime decades ago and the original badge or emblem on the frame was non-existent.  All I could go with was the seat tag.

I got the bike home and dismantled the bike down to the bare frame and fork.  I noticed that the serial number was stamped into the head tube and began with the letters "HC".  After scouring the Internet for details on old Schwinn bikes (still not knowing if it was a Schwinn or not), I came across a website that explained how Schwinn used letters at the beginning of their serial numbers to indicate the year and month the bike was made.  Evidently, beginning in 1960 Schwinn began using the two letter system to indicate the year the bike was made.  The first letter designated the year and the second letter designated the month.  Being that my frame’s serial number was HC, I was able to decipher that the bike was an original Schwinn manufactured in 1967 (H) in March (C).  From here I moved on to finding out what the model of the bike was.

While again scouring the Internet, I ran across an old Schwinn advertisement that detailed every model of Schwinn available in 1967.  Being that the bike had all original components, I was able to identify the model by validating the features and specs of the bike against the advertisement.  This vintage Schwinn bike I found in the attic wound up to be a Super Sport.  Sweet, a vintage 1967 Schwinn Super Sport!  A perfect bike to fix up into a single speed.

 

On to the dirty work… the bike needed a lot of upgrades.  I didn’t want to use the original bottom bracket and cranks, so I worked with Karrie at Extreme Ski & Bike to find a bottom bracket conversion kit to allow for the new style of bottom brackets to work with this frame.  Finding the part wasn’t hard, but installing it was another story.  I’ll elaborate.  In 1967, the steel tubes utilized for the frame were punched into the bottom bracket assembly and welded on the outside leaving small lengths of those tubes extending into the bottom bracket housing.  The conversion kit has three bolts running from side to side to keep the parts held in snuggly.  The tubes in the bottom bracket housing restricted the insertion of these bolts through to the other side, so we had to file down the tubes on the inside to allow for the conversion kit to work.  No easy task with only a rat-tail file to use.  We got it to work though and we progressed quickly from there.  We added a Sram Courier GXP Crank, Shimano brakes and some Alex rims for wheels that has a flip-flop hub.  That’s right, I can go fixie if I have the urge!  The rest of the components are basically all original from the brakes to the stem and handle bars.

Next up… paint.  Many hours were spend in the garage sanding down the frame to bare metal.  Many hours…  Next time I’ll just take one somewhere and have it sandblasted (well worth the time and money).  Two and a half days later I had a bare frame ready for primer.  3 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint, and three coats of a clear lacquer were applied over time to the frame and fork.  The painting couldn’t have gone better.  Until… I dropped the fork seconds after applying the final coat of lacquer.  Literally finished with the painting process and the fork went bouncing off the garage floor.  FAIL!  The fork was FUBAR and had to be completely redone.  After another 3 hours of sanding, the painting process was completed over a two day period.  Painting finished!

Finally, the build up process was underway and the parts went on smoothly.  The end result was a fantastic looking single speed bike that was ready for a test ride.  The test ride though has been delayed because of 14 inches of snow that fell immediately and I finished wrapping the bars.  I did however complete a quasi-test ride in my basement, travelling a whole 50 feet from one portion of the basement to the other.  Success!  

The project spanned a 3 week period but was in my mind one of the best projects I’ve done.  I couldn’t be happier with the results.  Look for this vintage single speed cruising around the Washington/Ozaukee county roads come spring and summer.