Pics from Last Weekend

Some pictures from last weekend's races. The first two are from Sunday's 40+ and the last two are from Saturday's Cat 3/4 race.

Beer and Racing

This weekend there were 2 races held outside of the Allentown Brew Works. How can you go wrong with racing in front of a Brew Pub! They did a great job of closing down a 1 mile crit course in the middle of a busy town (especially on a Saturday). I was expecting a pancake flat crit but there was a power rise on the back side (and everyone knows how I hate anything that even slightly goes up). Typical 4 corner rectangle with a nice straight, slightly downhill, lead-in to the finish.

Saturday was the Cat 3/4 race. 25 laps for 25 miles. I actually didn’t feel that bad on the rise. Sure, I had to sit in the middle or back of the field to make it, but I held in there. I was in about 20th spot coming out of the final turn. Luckily it was a down hill sprint and I had my 11. I go as hard as I can for as long as I can and just kept passing people. I started on the very left, had to wiggle my way into the middle and finally swung right. I ended up in 7th place. Not bad for the position I had in the last turn. Faster sprint as my computer had ~41 mph.

Sunday was the Masters 40+. I tried to stay up front to make and splits but you know the story. I drifted to the back and he split happens immediately. 7 guys up the road and get a shit load of time on us. I took 2nd our field for 9th overall.

After Sunday’s race, I sat outside the brewpub and had a few beers. Nothing like sitting in 90 degree weather drinking a 9% Belgian Tripel and then a 7% Grand Cru!

It’s been one of the best months for top 10s for me; 5 straight and all in the month of August. Hopefully I can keep that up until the end of the season!

Counting my Lucky Stars...

Saturday’s race was nearly my most ‘costly’ race ever. It was a typical crit course with some rough spots. The racecourse corresponded with a huge festival/fair. Turn 1 and 2 were located at the far end of the fair and everyone would stop and watch as the race came by. I guess all the jarring around caused my Garmin mount to have some issues (and honestly, I don’t think I had the zip ties on correctly). Coming around turn 2, I felt something hit my leg and go skidding off into the huge crowd watching. At first I thought it was my water bottle. About a ½ lap later, I looked down and saw my Garmin 705 missing. My heart really jumped! Too late to stop racing and look for it and I figured some kid has it now.

The second after crossing the finish line, I went to the spot where the Garmin flew into the crowd. There was a policeman stationed there to make sure no one wandered onto the course. I asked him if he saw something fly out of the pack. He told me my Garmin hit him on the foot and he initially thought his cell phone had fallen. He also said he took it up to the officials where I promptly claimed it back. There were just some minor scratches on one side and the protective door on the back was missing (Garmin is sending me out a free replacement for the missing door). Other than that, it works just fine.

I’m still counting my lucky stars…

Crazy 8s

Yesterday I raced the 40+ in Burlington NJ. 4 corner course that was ~1.2 miles in length. They shortened the course this year and thankfully the roads where a little smoother too! Not much to say other than I let someone push their way in front of me in the final stretch which caused me to lose my teammates wheel. When I looked up past him, I noticed he opened up a 5+ bike length gap. Game over. Why force your way into a sprint and then pull that crap! I ended up in 8th.

Today I did the Cat 3 at the US Bicycling Hall of Fame Crit. Same course as early this year. When I did this race earlier in the season, I had some 'problems' on the power hill and ended up in the 20s. Today I felt great on the hill. I even got into a break with 10 laps to go. I thought it looked good as it was just me and 2 other riders from the same team (and they had teammates in the field). We were caught with 5 laps to go. After the race, I heard that their own teammates pulled them back (nice). When we were caught, I tried to stay at the front as best I could. I ended up 8th (7th in the field sprint). My 2nd 8th place in 2 days...

Yep, I still Hate TTs!

It's been over a year since I did my last TT and I had this shiny new TT helmet waiting to be broken in, so I decided to do a 16km TT. Flat course (false flats at the most) so at least I won't suffer on any hills! I had 2 goals; beat my best time and not finish last. I completed both goals and finished 7th in the 1/2/3 field (I won't tell you how many were in the field, but I'll give you a hint; I wasn't last). This just reconfirms that I suck at Time Trials. Honestly, even though I'm no good at them, I do enjoy doing the flat ones and believe they are great workouts...

More SW Pictures

I know you wanted to see more pictures of me racing, so here they are (all from the Kenosha race at Superweek);

SW Photos

Some good pics of me at Superweek...