Last Road Race of the Season

At the last minute, I rearranged my last weekend planned racing schedule. I was monitoring the Master’s State Time Trial registration and thought I had until Friday 12:30pm to sign up. Guess what? The pre-registration only dead line was at Friday 12:30am. No big deal as the course was way too hilly for me anyway and I probably subconsciously didn’t sign up on purpose. Only pain in the ass was I put my TT bars on my bike for nothing! I also changed plans and raced in a 44 mile, 35+ circuit race on Sunday vs. a crit.

There were 3 of us in the circuit race. As a team, we were pretty aggressive and covered every move that went up the road. Tom was able to get into the break/split that eventually stayed away. I took 2nd in the ensuing field sprint, but really didn’t care since all the spots were up the road. With 1 lap to go, I told Mike I wasn’t going to sprint. Of course I found myself up front on Mike’s wheel and sprinted for the last time of the 2008 season.

Someone in the race had a helmet camera on. It was pointed backwards and took pictures every 3 seconds. Below are a couple that I’m in. Check out some of the other photos on his site at http://www.hussey.smugmug.com/gallery/5978676_uXP4F#373263683_zBfF3

Hurricane Wreaks my Weekend Plans!

The remnants of Hurricane Hanna messed up all my plans for racing last weekend. They cancelled the Phillipsburg Crit on Thursday. That left me with thinking about doing a TT on Sunday. On Friday, the TT got postponed. The TT was set to go off on Sunday but the fear was there would be too much debris on the roads. That left me with plan C, a hilly ass Road Race. The only good thing about the RR is it was ~ 40 minutes from home. I usually don’t bother showing up to a race where the flyer says there is a 1.5km climb in it and then some rollers. What was I supposed to do? Not race (yeah right). The rains and winds didn't start until late Saturday so at least I got a ride in outside on Saturday!

I line up for the 40+ start and the officials say, at the top there is a KOM sprint. Shit. What the Hell am I doing at a race not only with hills, but a KOM! The was 7 laps of a 10km circuit for a total of 70km. My goal was to make it to the top of the climbs with the pack for the 1st two laps. Guess what? I made my goal and was just gapped off at the top of the second climb on the second lap. I chased like Hell, but 20 feet became 50 feet became 100 feet and so on! I solo for a couple laps and a group of 3 riders catch up to me. I do a few laps with them and that’s that. I guess I’m happy that I made my goal and got a good work out in. Maybe for next year I should work on my climbing (or not).

The Streak Ends...

Going into last weekend's races, I managed to grab 5 top 10's in a row. That streak ended!

I don't know why I raced on Sunday. I've said this before and will say it again, I won't be coming back to that race! Sure the roads are in rough shape, but it is a Crit course and that doesn't really bother me. What really bothers me, is that the Cat 3 race was only 12 miles long! That's what, Cat 5 distance? Races this short, to me, means the promoter is more concerned with getting as many fields as possible to rake in the cash!

Sunday I raced in the 35+ race at Basking Ridge. Another short race; only 15 miles. I like this course though. 1 mile in length with 5 turns including a chicane and a power hill. Unfortunately, the P/1/2/3 field was just before ours and paid out $2,000. That means the 35+ race was stacked with those guys doubling up. I was in the front the 1st 5 laps and even tried to get in a break, but that was it. I went back and played tail gunner for the rest of the race.

I love this coming Saturday's course, but the prediction is for the remnants of Hurricane Hanna should be hitting us. Heavy rain and gusty winds. I heard anywhere from 5 inches of rain with 60 mph gusts...

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...

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.