Winfield Weekend

Quick little description of this weekend's races:

1) Saturday, Twilight Crit. Bunch of moves go, nothing sticks. They ring the bell one lap too early, when I'm mid pack recovering. Brett and I are stuck in no-mans land, not present in the leadout for Josh. Negative happy about that. Josh gets second, and the team gets several more minor placings.

2) Sunday, ABR Nats Crit: Help launch the moves that end up sticking. That's cool. Sit in, try to make sense of what Julie is telling us, because we simply can't hear her. Brett determines that the White brothers are about to lap, so we mosey towards the back of the field. We convince the non-Ryan Knapp and Mike Sherer Alderfer-Bergen gents to do the same. Together we pull our dudes up to the front. Get to work keeping the pace high enough to discourage any would-be last lap heroics. Isaac Neff (A-B) and Steve Spencer (ABD/GG) come back from the second break/chase group, which has splintered. John is still up the road with Dewey Dickey and others.

I'm at the back of the 5 man rotation, when, heading into the hill, the pace slows and we are immediately swarmed. Steve and Ryan White save my ass, and keep Rob near the front. Random last lap attacks go off, nothing gains any ground, Ryan kills it over the top of the hill, down the hill, and around the corner. Rob comes home in 1st, Ryan in 5th, and John in 10th. I'm somewhere in the mid-40s. And, oddly, I'm fine with that. For now, at least.

Next up: Tour de Winghaven in the STL.

The image you see is not doctored in any way. It is a frame taken from video of a bike race near the Mexico-US border.

A drunk driver apparently fell asleep at the wheel, running into the racers. One man is dead, several more severely injured.

Please, throw one up to the big man upstairs for the victims, and their families.

Hills = good, pan flat = bad.

That semi-sentence could serve as a short but very accurate description of how my racing abilities pan out.

This past weekend, at Melon City, I was able to bring not one, not two, but three teammates from the back third of the field to the top 10-15 in one trip up the hill, in the last 10 laps of the race. The last time up, I was going so fast that I almost ran into the back of the new break that was forming, and had to hit the brakes to keep from running into the back of Rob or Ryan. I'll take that.

At Quad Cities, the furthest I moved up was roughly halfway through the field, only to get caught in a crash, bounce off the "cage", and barely make it back onto the tail end of the field.

I don't know what it is. I have the physical ability. I'm fast enough to move up and through the field. Hell, on a long enough straight (a couple blocks, really), I can just blow by half the field in one effort, even if we're going 30+. There's just some thing, probably a mental barrier, that prevents me from either seeing the gaps or taking them like some people I see, who move through the field with ease. Perhaps it's the two wicked crashes I've experienced in the last two years that have sent me to the hospital. Maybe I'm just not experienced enough yet. Whatever it is, though, I'm getting frustrated.

However, this weekend's courses, particularly Saturday's Twilight Criterium, will be good for me. The home crowd, familiar course, and the fact that it is a difficult course will hopefully help me break out of the funk I'm in at the moment.

Monsters and Madison

So the Monsters/Wheels on Willy Weekend started out well enough. John went from the gun, I covered 3 guys bridging and sat on it until we got to John, and then Josh did the same. Three guys out of 8 or 9, with one Josh Carter and one John Meyers, is like having twice that many guys, particularly in a local race like this. John can take it from a long way out, and Josh can smoke the field if it comes back together.

Well, as it turns out, people decided to stop working smoothly, efficiently, and most importantly, quickly when Josh arrived. Apparently nobody wants to drag him around, even if he's working. And, I can't say I blame them.Unless you manage to get away clean, odds are certainly against you beating him in a heads up sprint.

So, when people stopped cooperating, John, now semi-fresh, took off again, solo. Josh and I resumed our places at the rear of the chase group, although I was obligated to monitor the front to keep Clark Priebe from sneaking off with other would-be miscreants.

Eventually, we were caught by the chasing field, and it was time to block and chase. Brett, Josh, Rob and I did this well enough for John to not only stay away, but to keep pulling away for the duration of the race. Obviously John was the main factor in that, but we did a damn good job of preventing an organized chase from forming.

The last couple of laps were painful. Lots, and I mean many + Priebe, tried to take fliers. My race was effectively finished when Priebe launched a last ditch effort at the start of the last lap, and I not only caught him, but put a lot of other would-be attackers in the hurt box, simply by making them chase me down. Josh, Brett and Rob, meanwhile, were safe in the field, ready for the field sprint.

End results, John and Josh, 1st and 2nd, as Mr. Carter blew the doors off the field in the last 150m. I rolled it in for something in the mid-40s.

Madison didn't turn out so well for me. Technically, I ended up with a better result, but in terms of the work I was able to do for the team, it was a bad day. I lost a contact right when I was in a position to help, and as such, had to give ground through every corner, and fight my way back up, every time up the home stretch hill.

There were some wrecks I managed to dodge, and lap traffic (what were they still doing out there???) I was able to avoid, but otherwise, it was a pretty boring race for me. Pretty hard, but lacking in action. Sprinted home in a not-so-stellar 28th place.

John got 2nd out of the break, and Josh took 2nd in the sprint for 7th, a pretty good day. I opted out of the money, as my performance was both ineffective and not deserving of any reward. I quite literally did nothing but ride a bike in a rectangle for an hour.

Next up: Winfield Twilight. I'm going for the V in the Cat2/3 race, then working for the big boys in the Pro/1/2 race.

Damn you , tailwind.

Very, very rarely will you hear a cyclist complain about a tailwind. Matter of fact, I've never heard anyone complain about a tailwind, provided they don't ride back into a headwind.

Well, get ready for a shock, ladies and gents. History is being made as I write this.

As some of you know, I'm partial to doing group rides once or so a week, to get some sort of speed/intensity in my training. Tempo, recovery or 20min intervals can only be fun for so long, before I have to mix it up a bit. All work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy; that sort of thing.

Today, I had pretty low expectations for anyone showing up to ride in a group of any sort. There was a pretty wicked looking storm rolling in from the southwest, and I can't say I blame anyone for trying to avoid that. If I had a life and something that might be more entertaining than riding my bike, I probably would have skipped it too.

But, I don't, so I didn't. I took off from Glen Ellyn at 5:20pm CST, heading in a westerly direction. Make it out of Glen Ellyn and Wheaton without swearing at a single automobile/driver. This odd twist should have told me something was amiss. I get to Winfield, aka The Hood, and stop by the house to grab a granola bar. My mom does her usual, "I think you should take the night off. It looks pretty bad out there." Which was in turn followed by my dad with, "Oh just leave him alone, Sharon."

So, I depart. Re-warm up heading out of the neighborhood, zip up the jacket due to a brisk breeze. Get to the Winfield Road/Geneva Road intersection, a T in which I can just roll right through on the sidewalk/shoulder. Strap the PT computer down, hit some buttons, and hit the gas. Felt good, felt smooth, felt fast. Get to the Prince Crossing intersection a bit...umm...ahead of schedule. Take the turn, and soon enough, I'm going 30mph...uphill. As stated previously, normally I appreciate a good hearty tailwind. Chicks dig speed and all that.

Unfortunately, there is only a certain amount of good, navigable, non-stop road around here. Usually around 18min worth. If one is doing a 20min effort, this means one would have to stop and turn around or find some other means of adding time onto the tail end. However, with a 20mph+ tailwind, your average speed rises...significantly. Particularly when you are on a personal best run (wattage-wise).

Long story short, I end up with the most powerful 14.5min of my life, with a sub-par, in comparison, 5min tacked on to the back. I've always had a hard time getting back into rhythm, and today was no exception. I then turn around again, and head in the direction of Bartlett High School for the group ride. Which no one showed up for today.

And then, it started to rain. It was a long, lonely, cold and SLOW slog back to GE, with some laps around the Lake tacked on to meet the quota for the day.