ToAD - Schlitz Park and Ripon

By writing the race recap in the morning following the race while relaxing before the next one, I have found that it is difficult to get one written before the 6:30 departures for the the early morning races. If you've read any of the other race recaps, you will notice that this has not been my best week of racing in my life. Things started to change for the better for me at Schlitz Park. Chris and I got there pretty early. This turned out to be rather advantageous because we had a chance to pre-ride the course a few times and get acquainted with the hill. After riding the hill a couple of times, we thought that the hill would be rather selective. Following our warm-up, we worked to get near the front at the start. Sure enough, the first lap up the hill blasted the field apart. I worked my way through the carnage of riders blowing up to latch onto a group as far forward as possible. Luckily, I found my new friend Tyler from UW-Whitewater to work with. He, being the better climber, would take the uphills and I, being the better descender, would take the flats and downhills, all in the goal of chasing back onto the leaders of the race. Unfortunately, he wrecked his chain and dropped out of our group. Then I was left with the guy in the overall leaders jersey who was willing to do some work with me and a few passengers. About 10 minutes into the race, I accidentally dropped my bottle, so I had to go the next 40 minutes without liquid on one of the hotter and more humid races. Yippee. I tried a few times to drop my companions on the downhill and flat, but they were good enough climbers and I was running out of gas due to dehydration that I could not get away for long. With a few laps to go, my posse caught and passed Chris. He looked like he was not having the best of days. He said later that he gave up on the hill a few laps in and decided to ride a training ride. On the last lap, my passengers got in front of me before hitting the downhill, which was too technical to safely pass them. With only 100 meters of flat before the finish, I ran out of real estate to get back around them. I took 14th for the day and Chris took 16th. Much better than our previous results.

Chris and I got to Ripon early enough that we were able to pre-ride the whole time trial course. This proved to be helpful in us not being able to blow up on some of the hills along the course. When it was my turn to go, I felt pretty good and started the first climb just like intended. My goal was to rock whatever gear I could maintain 90-95 rpms throughout the course. I was having the time trial of my life, flying past people and getting stronger throughout the course. With .6 miles left, there was a downhill "S"-bend. When Chris and I pre-rode it, it was dry; however, the on-and-off rain had caused this corner to be slipperier and my brakes to not catch. My rear wheel slipped out and I slid across the road on my side. I think that if I would have crossed the double yellow, I could have kept it upright, but that is technically illegal. Thankfully, I was only a little scraped up, but my rear derailleur hanger was bent. So I started the walk back down the hill to the finish line to both finish and send a medic up for the guy who was hurt way more than I was. Once I finished, I headed back to the medic tent to get patched up. I was a little pissed because, as I said a few lines up, I was having the time trial of my life. It took me 35 minutes flat to get to where I crashed, .6 mile from the finish, which with my speed would translate to a low 36 minute time trial and a top 10 finish. As a result of the crash, I finished last in 47:15. Chris crossed the line in 19th in 37:39.7.

We are planning on getting to Sheboygan a little early today, so I can have some time to visit the medic before I kit up and go for my warm-up. It will be nice to get some fresh bandages for my wounds.

Happy Racing!

ToAD - Waukesha and Greenbush

Since I didn't get to posting a result from Waukesha, I will just include it with my post about Greenbush. Due to my desire to let the glue dry some more on my bontragers, the torrential rains upon leaving my house and my quest to not get my expensive bike destroyed at one of the twitchy crits, I decided to race on my Jamis with my training wheels. I knew the course was flat enough that the extra weight would not be much of an issue. I was right in that regard. Chris and I rode close to each other the whole race near the back of the field. Not ideal position, but it was difficult to move up without really blowing a ton of power. We just decided to take it easy near the back and make sure we did not get gapped by someone falling off the pace in front of us. This worked pretty well until halfway through the 7th lap to go when Tyler from UW-Whitewater's team went down in front of me in turn 4. I saw a line to the outside, so I went for it. Unfortunately, so did his sliding/flipping bike and body, so I had to come to a complete stop in the gutter to not hit him or fall myself. As a result, a huge gap was created between myself and the field. Seeing that there were several other gapped people because of the crash, I tried chasing for about 1.5 laps to get back on. With no real progress made, I conceded that I was completely out of contention for the day and started taking it easy (especially around the officials, to try to get yanked). Finally, with about 2 laps to go the official signaled that I could stop, so I asked if he would still score me. Once he answered yes to this, I thanked him and got off the course. Knowing that I was out of contention for today, I did not want to completely blow my legs for Greenbush or the rest of the series. Chris finished with the main field (he was lucky enough to dive inside around the crash and did not lose too much time to the field). He was 29th and I was 44th.

I have only raced two road races prior to the road race in Greenbush. Both were hilly courses and I got gapped early spending the rest of my day chasing. No fun. I knew Greenbush would have some hills, but the big one was mostly a power climbers hill. Since I have dropped the weight, I have actually become a decent climber. Words I never figured that I would utter. My plan for the course was to ride in my little ring as much as possible. As much as possible was defined for me as still in contact with the main field. On the first lap, I was in my little ring for about 60% of the lap and I was steadily moving up the field. Perfect. For some reason, I got away from this mindset a little on lap 2 and drifted back to the back of the main field. At the start of lap 3, I decided to go back to my bread and butter play and spend as much time in the little ring as possible and climbed back to the front end of the main group. As we crossed the start/finish line receiving the sign for 1 lap to go, I was sitting about 15th wheel, feeling fantastic and ready to unleash pain upon the field (who some I could tell were starting to fade and admitted as much) once we got out of the forest. Each lap, the field would slow down exiting the forest because the roads were not overly smooth and they just finished all of the big climbs. I knew that was the time to make the move. I had spent most of the race hoping for a breakaway to form with a K/S Energy guy, a ISCorp guy and a Brazen Dropouts guy (since those were the three largest teams left in the main field and knew a break with that make-up would not likely get chased down). Now that we were on the final lap and that hadn't happened yet, I knew a better shot for a breakaway would be with whichever other solo riders were left in the main field that felt as good as I did (basically like I hadn't worked the whole race). I call myself solo because (as I found out later) Chris had a mechanical early in lap 1 and was in a chase group 10-15 minutes behind the field. After I had assembled a little posse of riders interested in turning the gas on exiting the forest, I heard that great sound of air rushing out of my tire. Flat. Well, crap! Some of the other guys expressed sorrow for me as I pulled to the side to get out of the way and look for our follow car for a spare wheel. In this road race, we had a lead car and a follow car with an official in it. As the follow car pulled up beside me, the official yelled that the neutral support was that way (pointing backwards on the course). I yelled back asking how far, but no response. So I got off to walk backwards on the course to find neutral support. I saw what I was looking for following the Masters 3/4 field. At first, he did not want to hook me up with a wheel, but we were 3-4 miles into a 10 mile lap. I needed either a wheel or a ride to get back to the start line. I told him that I knew I was not in contention any more and that I just wanted to get back to the start/finish line. He gave me a wheel and I set about my solo journey back to the finish. I saw a pack of 4 riders just up the road, so I tried to chase onto them for a little while. I realized that was probably stupid when I did not gain ground and just settled in for a nice long cool down. Once I crossed the line, I found my wheel and started looking for Chris. He crossed about 5-10 minutes after I did. I am not sure what our placement was, but we both realized that we thoroughly enjoy road races.

Now I am resting up and relaxing before the final 6-turn criterium in this race. Throughout this series, I have learned that I am strong in road races and circuit races and that my true-criterium skills need work. Hopefully my luck starts to change, since this has to be about the most unlucky stretch of racing I have ever had (2 flats in 4 races, crashes in the final laps after the free laps in the other 2 right in front of me that have taken me out of contention for anything).

Happy Racing!

ToAD - Grafton

Chris and I arrived early enough to be able to enjoy another nice warm-up for the Giro d' Grafton. This race was not nearly as sketchy as the day prior in Thiensville, with only 1 guy going down. I started the race in much better position than the day before, right behind one of my quickly becoming favorite riders in the group Tristan from Team Mack Racing. The guy in front of us had a hard time clipping, so we lost a little placing, but that was not that big of a deal to me. I was in a place that I was comfortable with, so I was fairly happy with the start of the race.

A few laps in, I had another new experience for me, my rear tire was leaking. Yippee! It took me a couple laps to completely diagnose the issue. With each turn getting scarier, feeling like my tire was going to roll off of my rim. As I slowly lost contact with the field and felt pretty sure I had a flat, I rode to the SRAM Neutral Support to get a new wheel. They fixed me up and I was ready to go! I love those guys! Thanks to the free lap, the officials got me back in the field and I was on my way.

Following the flat, it took me a couple of laps to get comfortable bombing through the corners again. Once I had my confidence back, I started working my way forward. With six to go, I saw Tristan on the front, so I knew I needed to get up there. With four laps to go, I was on the front, but ended up in the back quickly because I was not willing to take some of the chances the guys who remained up there in the corners. It was good to see that I had the power to get up there when I needed to. Staying up there is my new challenge on the technical courses. Unfortunately, I was stuck too far back going into the sprint finish, so I had to just drop in the biggest gear I could spin at a high revolution and pick off as many as I could. I was able to climb back into 28th position, passing a bunch of guys on my way to the line, and Chris took 38th. Better results for me than Thiensville, but still not quite where I need to be.

One positive is that I have felt ready to race each day, but I did not quite have the pop at Grafton that I had at Thiensville. I tweeked my recovery last night to see if I could get my pop back for today in Waukesha. Kari will be racing the Cat 3/4 Women, Chris and I will be mixing it up in the Cat 4/5 Men and Brent will be mixing it up in the Masters Cat 1/2 Men.

Happy Racing!

ToAD - Thiensville

Chris and I got to Thiensville a little earlier than expected. This actually afforded us a little longer warm-up, which is always nice to get the body ready to rock. After our warm-up, we swapped bottles and headed over to the start line. This is when I learned that I did not need to actually bring my own wheels because SRAM Neutral Support had us totally covered (I love those guys!). Lesson learned: Do not need to bring my own spare wheels! Sweet!

Unfortunately, this discovery cut into our pre-race time to ride the course. By the time we finished pre-riding the course, we were on the last line of the almost 80 Cat 4/5 riders. With this being a rather technical course, I knew it would be a challenge to climb back up (never want to stay in yo-yo land). It took a few laps, but I found a good rhythm to move up on the course. Granted, I have no desire to start near the back again. I'd rather be near the front relaxing and have the ability to challenge for something. It is also a safer place to be with all of the twitchy Cat 4/5s. We had at least 5 crashes yesterday: three behind me somewhere, one next to me and one a few riders in front of me. Unfortunately, the one in front of me was on the 2nd to last lap and forced me to go off road to stay up right. The worst part was that I was in the top 20 riders in the field and the crash took me completely out of it. I clawed back on the final lap to finish 44th with the field. Considering how sketchy the field was and that I haven't raced in a month, I was moderately happy with the results. This result may have taken me out of contention for the overall, so I am modifying my goal to chase stage wins more. I was really hoping for a top 10-20 today to help my cause for the overall.

Today, we have Grafton. Feeling pretty good and ready to rock some worlds later! Also, we have Hank joining us to mix things up today!

Happy Racing!

Tour of America's Dairyland

The big race of the season for me, ToAD, has begun with the Pro/1/2s starting in Shorewood last night and the rest of the Amateurs starting today in Thiensville.

Currently, I am sitting/laying on the floor in my apartment, contemplating the race a little, prepping body and bike, and watching a little Psych on Netflix. Yay free month trials!

Time to put all of the indoor work from the winter with Brent and the racing this spring to good use. Good luck to the whole Emerys Crew throughout the week!

If you are interested in watching some good racing, Chris and I will be racing the Cat 4/5s every day (Hank will be joining us on some of them), Brent will be racing every day of the Masters Cat 1/2s, plus the Pro/1/2 fields. I will try to post a race recap daily with some photos, if possible.

Sussex Crit Recap

Following the Chiropractic Crit that saw my rear derailleur fall apart, I spent much of the night pounding ibuprofen to try to ease my back pain. I do not remember hitting the curb with my back, but I must have. I could barely walk, sit, move, do anything for the rest of evening. Late in the evening, Jeff called to see if I was racing Sussex. I said that it would depend on whether or not my back allows me to move and if the storms hold. He considered me basically out, since my back was not sounding good.

When I woke up prior to Sussex, my back was still a little sore, but I could move around and almost touch my toes. (This was a big deal, since I had to hold my back as straight as possible to minimize the pain and could not even get close to touching my knees, let alone toes). What was even more exciting was that the storms looked like they would not interfere with the Cat 4/5 race slot. I decided to go race, but instead of riding to each race, which I prefer, I decided to drive out there. I packed up what I needed and headed to the course.

After registering and pinning on my number, I went for a brief warm-up on the roads. I did not feel like my legs were quite where I wanted them, but it was as good as I could do in the time. Met up with Tom (from Hampshire Cycling) and rode to the start line. The start surprised us since the official just nonchalantly said "go", so off we went.

The race itself was relatively uneventful. The wind was stiff enough and the hill was big enough than no one was able to get away. I tried to take some of Brent's advice and pedaled up the hill in my little ring on every lap outside of the final two. I found that I was able to accelerate through the field, or in the least maintain position, to save my legs for later. With two laps to go, I felt I was in great position. Unfortunately, I lost a bit of my positioning in the final lap and hit the final turn in about 12th position. The guys in front of me got gapped by the leaders going up the hill, so I had to sprint around them, bridge the gap, and continue sprinting towards the finish. Jeff came around at the end to try to give me a lift. I kicked it in another gear and climbed up a few more spots, finishing 7th out of the 35 guys racing. Much better than getting crashed out of the race. I was just a little disappointed that I did not fight for better position going into the final turn, since I had so much gas left in the tank after the race. Oh well. It was a great learning experience and great to ride with Jeff. Normally, I do not have the pleasure of racing with him, but it definitely helped having him in the field to tell me little things throughout the race instead of yelling from the sidelines. He took 9th in the Cat 4/5 and then raced Masters 4/5.

After the race, I drove over to McDonald's to try out one of the tasty chocolate dipped ice cream cones. It looked so good on the billboards. It definitely did not disappoint:


Here is my data from the race and cool down for those interested. Looks like it was just a touch slower than yesterday at 23.8 mph, despite the hill.

Chiropractic Crit Recap

After waking up before the alarm, I began prepping both my and Kari's bikes for the race. We left West Allis at 8am, giving us 2 hours to get to the race before the start of mine. Other than the Kenosha races, I have ridden my bike to and from every race this season. It is something that I relish. I am able to slowly bring my legs up to speed, get a proper warm-up in, not spend too much time standing around waiting, race, and get a good long recovery ride afterwards. That was the plan for today; however, the Big Guy had other ideas. Kari and I met up with Chris at the race site, pinned on numbers, and Chris and I went off to get a little more riding in before the race.

The race start was fairly uneventful. I had a great start and quickly started driving the front edge of the field. As Chris passed me, he said that we should try to string the race out and see what they can handle. We spent the next 10 minutes or so doing just that. I then tucked myself into the field, but I worked hard to stay near the front. I found myself drifting too far back on a couple laps. My definition of too far back is when I had to brake in the turns. When I was properly positioned, I could just coast into the turn and accelerate out of it.

With 5 laps to go, Chris and I both got caught up in the only crash of the day. I saw the rider two guys in front of me go down in turn 2, so I started moving to the guy in front of me's left to try to take the clear line around the mess about to form in front of me. Unfortunately, the guy in front of me also moved left and got caught up with the guy in front of him. Seeing that I was going to go down, I somehow quickly shifted to aim my body to land in the grass. Somehow, I succeeded; however, my rear wheel must have hit something. I heard a pop while I was getting back on my bike, assuming it was a broken spoke. I got back on my bike as quickly as I could to chase back onto the field. Thankfully a few of the other casualties from the crash were also trying to chase back on and not quitting. We eventually formed a little group of four riders, including Chris and myself, charging after the field. As we kept racing through the remaining laps, we kept picking up more riders who were shelled from the main group. With two laps to go, Alex (from Kenosha Velosport) mentioned that my rear was wobbling (stupid broken spoke). I took a few seconds to open my rear brake to make sure that my wheel had clearance.

As we hit the final lap, Chris started to drive the front to break people off of our wheels. Seeing that he was close to gassed, Alex jumped hard. I knew that I needed to catch him, but sprinting to catch back on would just waste what little energy I had left and make it harder for Chris to follow my wheel. As we came out of turn three and into the wind, I was able to pull myself and Chris back onto Alex's wheel. Knowing that he was getting gassed in the wind, my plan was to force Alex to drive me to the line. Unfortunately, Chris came around to try to put in one more effort and crush Alex, but his move only gave Alex a bit of a rest before the sprint (we did not communicate what to do in this case). When Alex jumped with only a few hundred meters from the line, I followed his wheel. As we closed in, I hit the gas and tore around him, taking the sprint for the leftover riders. I crossed the line 29th and Chris took 31st out of the 39 finishers. While I was happy I took the sprint, I was pissed because my legs felt great and I was crashed out of contention. I knew I could have been quite good in the field sprint. Oh well. There's always next time.

After the race, I was riding my bike back to Chris' truck (he graciously agreed to get myself and Kari home, since my bike was out of commission). During this time, my rear derailleur completely snapped in half and broke off the hanger. Instead of a simple broken spoke, I ended up with a pretty devastated bike. Thankfully, this happened at about 15 mph instead of during the race at speeds of 25-30 mph. Here are some photos of the bike, courtesy of Ryan Larson at Emery's: