A big block of racing

I started last week on Saturday with a big block of tough racing. 7 races in 9 days should really put some hair on my chest. My schedule was Hellbender crit, Hellbender road race, ToAD Shlitz Park crit, ToAD Sheboygan crit, ToAD Fon Du Lac crit, Glencoe IL State crit championship, and Webster Groves crit. I was very worried about this amount of racing and if I would even be able to handle it. But I did and I would do it again, and again, it was great!

The Hellbender was a  flat 6 corner L shaped crit course that had small tight but good roads, and a 70+ mile road race with 2 big hard climbs.

There was a small group of only 15 guys starting the crit race and all but 2 were going to be doing the omnium (crit and road race) so a good placing was key. The plan was to sit in, try to go with a break late in the race and if that didn't work help Mark in the sprint. We did a neutral role around the course one time because there were some cars that were moved before the race started. After the one lap things picked up but not too hard. 2 laps in and Jason Wulff from CBC racing just rolled off the front. I thought that the Dog Fish guys up there would easily bring it back but he just kept getting farther and farther. Jason is a big strong rider and I was worried about him getting away for the whole day especially on a tight course like the one we were on. So I jumped totally expecting that the rest of the pack would be on my wheel but they weren't so I was off on a break. I caught Jason in about a quarter mile and started pulling through right away. For those that don't know that is how a break away works. You don't sit in until the race is almost over and you know for sure you are not going to get caught. I am getting pretty tired of getting into breaks where idiots think they can start "saving" themselves right off the start. If you have to "save" yourself, DON'T GO FOR BREAK AWAYS. Now if you are working for someone else and are sitting in so that we don't get away then that is racing. But seeing as I have only met a couple teams that know what they are doing with tactics and they don't live in the STL, sooo pull though. Ok enough with my rant. Jason and I were working really well and right away I felt that we were going to stay away the whole time.Then Trent Donat bridged up to us and our chances went from 75% to there was no way to catch us. After a while Jason started to miss turns and was looking like he wasn't going to be able to hold on. I was a little worried that if we let him sit on that he would recover and that he would be able to beat me to the line. I started to pull through hard to drop him off. (Sorry Jason, no hard feelings I hope, just racing) Once we dropped Jason I was trying to figure out how to beat Trent. That wasn't going to be easy as he is a huge engine. I was going to try and jump him on a technical part of the course but it didn't work and Trent was able to drop me with about half a lap to go. I was just not strong enough. A good second place though and I was not in second for the omnium. Good start to my big racing week.

I will post the road race tomorrow. Gonna be taking a day or two off the bike and try to rest up for Tour of Lawrence.