Wheels on Willy Race Report

The venue for this week’s race was Capital Square in Madison, WI for the Wheels on Willy criterium. I’ve heard a lot over the course of a year about how this was an epic criterium that had to be ridden. The stage for the race is usually not the capital square however due to construction the race was moved.

Sunday turned out to be absolutely perfect for racing with pleasant temps, light winds and sunny conditions. Team Extreme had 4 riders in the cat 4/5 field including Patrick B., Mike H., Dan M. and myself. I rolled up to the starting grid a little late but managed to sneak to the front line all the way on the inside. This proved not to be a great starting spot as I had to sprint to get in a good spot for the first corner. The race was extremely fast from the start and didn’t slow down. We averaged around 25 mph for the race. I managed to stay mid-pack the majority of the race making sure to stay out of trouble. The corners were fast and you had to sprint out of the corner to maintain contact with the leaders. My legs and lungs were burning especially since it was the third day in a row with hard riding. There were not too many attempts at breakaways due to the high pace.

With about 6 laps to go I moved up through the pack to about the 10^th wheel. I noticed two riders going for a breakaway and I thought I would go and see if we could make it stick. After jumping out from behind a number of riders our three man group managed to pull off the front of the field. We were working together fairly well until with 4 laps to go both riders sat on my wheel not willing to work. I sat up and we were immediately swallowed up by the field. Our lead couldn’t have been more than 50 yards by the time we held up, the pace was just too fast. I managed to stay near the front until the second corner on the last lap. Moving around 28 mph downhill into the corner a rider came to my inside just before the corner and slammed on the breaks as he could not make the turn at such a high speed. He basically bottlenecked the corner and the riders on the inside including me had to slow, allowing the outside riders to cruise on past and sprint up the hill. It was an all out effort for myself to remain in the middle of the pack and sprinted to 20^th. That’s the way crit racing goes. At times you have some good luck and doors open up and other times the door is slammed in your face. We’ll see how the next race goes. Next up = Blue Mounds Classic. Anyone looking for some hills? There will be plenty…