Arrived to the race at 1:30 (race time was 2pm) and had to rush. I had about 3 minutes of warm-up and it was time to head to the start. All the big guns were present minus Billy Jones and Andy Crater (and a handfull of others). There was a nice climb on the finishing stretch which I have named “The Detonator”; fast downhill with a tight right turn and then back towards the finish. I made the early move with Chris Halverson, Jim Moore, one of the Chicago Polish riders (29 yr old beast) and one Great Dane rider. We rolled for a few laps at full throttle and I eventually blew. At this time, Denny Yunk was on his way up and joined the break. Talking with Halverson after the race, he said he was beyond red-lined at the same time I came unglued. I figured the best thing was to get back in the field and try to recover knowing that Voigt and the LAPT crew would be working hard to bring back the break.

I forgot to mention that good riders were dropping like flies within the first 5 laps of this race. REALLY HARD racing! Phil Godkin was out early and others. My group was now 16+ man chase group including Voigt, Van Susteren, Todd Miller, Pete Coons and a lot of horsepower. Many attempts were made to get up the road and nothing worked for anyone. After several attempts on my part to push the pace and escape, it finally worked with about 7 laps to go. I rolled with Andrew Kerr (Village) and we chased after Joe Shanahan (IS Corp)who had been solo for a couple of laps. Andrew and I kept the throttle open and lapped the field but never quite got to Joe. I ended up beating him in the sprint for 7th place. All things considered, I’m pretty happy. I’ll be asleep by 10pm tonight and ready to break some legs tomorrow.

Another year brings about another Quad cities run. I typically only do the Rock Island race but since we had a hotel for Saturday night…I thought why not try Melon city. Well let me tell you; I’m no fan of Melons…the fruit or the course! Enough said about that.

Beer, Olive Garden, hot tub and a little drag racing. All signs that the recovery process is beginning. We started the day with overcast skies and pretty cool temps. The day before had pretty thick air and was fairly warm. I don’t think that I have ever done this race and not crashed. This year would prove no different. The rain began right at the start of our race. 76 began and I swear we shed 5 per lap in crashes. I was doing okay, due to good starting position, and then it happened. The rider in front of me washed out and I was watching my front wheel roll up on his laid out front wheel. I was already in the mindset that I was going to crash and I was determined to get back in. I got the bike checked out real quick and I hopped back in. It took a minute to get re-adjusted but I got settled in and got back to work. At the 5 to go point I decided I had to stay in the top 7 no matter what. 2 guys were well away but this race pays well and deep. That’s pretty much how it went until the last lap. The rain had stopped by this point and most of the course was kind of drying. With the exception of turns 7 and 8. I started to ramp up the speed coming out of 6 and was moving along the outside going through 7, when one of the front guys peeled to the outside and right in my path. I had to tap the brakes and make a risky out of the saddle charge through a wet turn 8 just to pull in my glorious 15th place. I think 35 finished. I’m actually okay with it I guess. The race was at 29mph for quite a while towards the end and it was a challenging day. The road rash wasn’t too terrible on the ride home. I’ve come to expect it now.

Bright and early Saturday morning, Sasha and I packed up and headed to the University of Chicago campus for the Monsters of the Midway criterium. Monsters of the Midway is one of the few races during the year which holds more than two women’s races; they had a women’s 4/5, 3/4, and 1/2/3 race, along with a couple masters races with separate payouts mixed into these races.  And also since the women’s category 3’s most often have to race with the pro/1/2s, Sasha and I were eager to get into a race with girls more our match, despite the early race time of 8:50am.  The race started with about 20 girls on the line, which is a respectable sized field for us.   I was feeling strong and had planned on being on any attacks that were made, and Sasha and I decided that if there were any primes, I would give her a leadout.  Not too far into the race, I was able to pick out two girls to keep an eye on.  I felt strong and was successful at chasing down all the attacks.  With about 3-4 laps to go, the two girls I had previously made note of attacked and got away from the field.  I attacked to bridge up to them, was unsuccessful at closing the gap, but created a significant gap between myself and the field and was confident that I could hold them off for the last 2.5 laps to secure a 3rd place finish, also thanks to Sasha for doing some blocking for me!  Sasha finished up 8th in the field sprint.   We were very happy with how the race ended up, except that they didn’t give us any primes!  Not to end the day too soon, I also did the women’s 1/2/3s later that afternoon, just to see how I would do.  Unlike last year when I was in shape to race 2-3 races per weekend, this year I have only been doing about one race per weekend.  I was already very tired going into the second race, and Devon Haskell took off even before the first corner and broke the field of 6 up into a group of 3, and the rest of us straggling behind by ourselves.  Not to much longer and everyone was by themselves, luckily the officials decided to shorten our race from 50 minutes to 30, since we all had a feeling that the race would turn into a time trial since we didn’t really have a field.  I finished last, but looking at the numbers, I felt pretty good.  Overall it was a great day in Chicago!

Well my first WCA race is under my belt. A bit late in the season but for those that know me it’s a little earlier than usual since I’m usually just warming up in June. The La Crosse race was done very well and what a great area! Lots of cool stores and a park on the river….it would be a great race to take your families next year and maybe spend Saturday night.

So I started with the Masters 1/2/3 with a field of 60 but a lot of the big guns were not in town, such as Billy Jones, John Voigt, Phil Godkin but there were also some strong men like Van Susteren, Halverson and lots of Minnesota guys. It was a pretty hard race but honestly, my Cat 3 race in Georgia may have been tougher. Those cats in the South can really throw down.

So I start out near the back and get myself comfy before gettining in the mix. It was a fairly clean race so it went fast and I eventually got positioned about mid pack. Normally a danger zone but it was early on and I felt okay with it. Don’t disregard instinct in a race. I hung there until I saw guys starting to fatigue, 15 to 20 minutes into the race, and then started hanging in the top 15 or 20. There weren’t too many attempts off the front since we were averaging 1:30 lap times, I later heard an average of 27mph.

I decided early in this race to not pay too much attention to lap cards. Sometimes I find I get too mentally tied up with them and not focused enough on reading the race so before I knew it there were 2 laps to go and I was sitting in 4th place. I held that for the last lap and then made a brief, costly error. remember my comment on instinct? I know how the pack can swarm after many years of experience but what I have to re-learn every year is how to hold position while it happens. It may be one of the hardest things in a criterium. I sensed it coming but thought we were carrying enough speed into turns 1 and 2 to hold it off, well I was wrong. About 4 guys came around either side and just like that I’m 12th. On the back stretch, into the headwind I couldn’t make up much ground without blowing my wad for the sprint so I decided to take my chances and stay there. I eventually finished 15th on the day…a little disappointed but gaining confidience. This is only my second week in the big ring after all.

Holding position for the last couple of laps in a crit are an art form. It doesn’t take brut strength but it does take some mental focus and some grit in the shorts. The best advice I’ve ever received on the subject was from Steve Sevener in my first year of racing. He told me to get in the top 3 and as soon as 1 guy comes around you get on his wheel regardless. If there’s someone on his wheel hang on for a minute. You may have to share it for a minute and it hurts but eventually the first guy will fall in line and then all of a sudden you have the draft and you haven’t lost a spot. Do that over and over until the swarms stop and you win. See you all tonight.