I'm Back!

I’m back from Superweek! The drive back yesterday was, thankfully, uneventful. It only took me 12 hours this time (that includes 2 pit stops and a little time lost for construction). I hit Chicago at 6:30am local time; no traffic and no time lost. Long drives like these make me thankful I have satellite radio.

They aren’t kidding when they call these ‘Elite’ Masters races. My body feels like it has been run over by a MAC truck. Once again, we had ex-Olympians and ex-National TT champions in our fields. The fields, from what I can remember, where bigger than last year (but that could just be my old age setting in). We had 50 – 70 racers every day; not bad for a Masters 40+ race! My average placing was in the 30’s. My best placing was 33rd. A little disappointing, as I wanted to get in the money at least once. A break of various sizes got away every day and the racing was on the very aggressive side.

The majority of the racers were Cat 2’s with a handful of Cat 1’s. Looking at a couple of the results;

7/22 – Cedarsburg Crit. This was the hardest crit of the series. The race started with over 60 racers and by the 2nd lap, less than 25 where left up front. This race was either up hill or down hill. Needless to say, I was not one of the racers up front. I was placed 35th (7th place Cat 3). The 1st placed Cat 3 was in 15th place.

7/26 – Downer Grove Crit (all categories for the 1st time raced on the same course as the Pro’s). This one was roughly shaped like a Triangle. We must have dropped at least a third of the field. 16 x Cat 3’s placed (I was the 8th placed Cat 3 for 33rd overall). There were 23 placed Cat 2’s and 8 placed Cat 1s.

Superweek - Made it Out!

I drove out to Milwaukee yesterday to race in the 40+ (Cat 1/2/3 only) series at Superweek. I’ve been coming out to do at least a week of racing, if not more, for the last 8 out of 9 years. If one is ambitious enough, they can race in 16 straight days. For some reason, I love making the trip and enjoy racing in this series. I guess it goes back to my first year coming out. I was a Cat 4 and was impressed with the way they treated every field, the quality of the competition and just had a ton of fun racing. The second year I came out, I was a Cat 3 and won a 70 mile hilly Road Race further endearing me to the series. I’ve made the trip with teammates. I’ve met new friends and have even stayed with their families. I’ve come out by myself; just like last year, I’m solo this year. I even found out Trish was pregnant with Alex while I was at Superweek. Another bonus is there are a lot of good brewpubs in the area!

I left my house at 5am and planned on hitting Chicago before ‘rush’ hour. It took me just under 10.5 hours to Chicago (~750 miles) which was ~2:30pm local time. No matter what time you hit Chicago you will sit in traffic. I only lost about 1 hour sitting still; very frustrating after sitting in the car so long and only having a short distance left. Unfortunately, there is no way around Chicago. I stop by a beer store to stock up and then headed to the Hotel to check-in. Total time to Hotel room was ~13 hours (not too bad considering the traffic and beer stop). Distance was 850 miles. I only stopped twice on the way to fill up with gas and run in for a pit stop. That packed cooler with sandwiches and drinks really came in handy. I view any stoppage on the way as a ‘waste’ of time.

It was a pretty uneventful ride over. I was only almost run off the road once by a truck driver who was reading something while driving. Somewhere in the middle of Ohio, a construction pickup quickly pulled over to the right up ahead. The working looked left and ran across the road. Problem was, he ran in front of me and the car that was on my right. We both had to lock up our brakes to avoid making him road kill. Idiot worker…this was not even in a construction zone.
Racing starts today and looking outside it’s raining. Timing wise, I may get lucky and the rain my stop by noon. If not, I’ll just be careful and keep my mind on the Brew Pubs I plan on hitting afterwards…

Mullica Road Race

Today I raced in the Cat 3 only field at the Ronde Van Mullica in NJ. Usually this race finishes in a downhill sprint. This year, the direction was not only reversed, but it was on a different course. If you look at the course below, you can see the long drag (at least 3 miles) to the slightly up hill finish. We raced 50 miles; 5 x 10 mile loops.

Usually in races this long, I'm not too worried about early breaks getting up the road. Guess what happened today? 7 riders break just after the 1st lap. They eventually shed 2 riders, but 5 stayed away for the rest of the race. I tried a few times to help bring it back, but with no team mates and no one pulling through after my turn, I give up and wait for the sprint. I get seriously boxed in the middle of the pack with 200m to go. I break, slide out to the left and re-start my sprint. I pass a crap load of racers and end up 4th in the pack for 9th overall (and they paid 10 deep).

Ignore the 'square' by the start finish line; that's where I warmed up and cooled down.

4th of July Racing

It was a busy weekend of racing for me!

Friday I did the US Bicycling Hall of Frame 'Crit'. The flyer stated this was a .9 mile flat criterium with small grades. Yeah right; not only wasn't it flat, it was 1.5 miles long. The course was 3/4 of the way up hill into a 40 mph downhill into a chicane into the finish and repeat. Not what I expected (you know me and flat courses!). I had more of an issue breathing though. The air was thick and I just couldn't catch my breath. I finished, but off the main pack.

Saturday I raced the Emrick Blvd crit (40+ field). What a difference a day makes! I felt great and did a lot of work trying to get in breaks, etc. Of course the break that stayed went up the road as I came back to 'rest'. I ended up taking 4th in the field sprint but out of the top 10.

Power file from Emrick Crit

Sunday I raced a circuit race with, for me, a decent sized hill. I was going to do a flatter Cat 3 crit, but Mike wanted to do the circuit race so I met him there for the 40+ race. I was happy to finish and feel good even though my legs were very sore from the previous couple of days.