ToAD Waukesha Carl Zach Classic

Day three of the Tour of America's Dairyland was going to be tough with the most technical of the series so far. The roads were the worst so far with cracks, bumps, and man hole covers everywhere. The road were also very narrow for a couple of stretches and just a few hundred yards from the start line there was a turn that was very close to 180 degrees. After that we flew up a narrow side street that was very bumpy and in the middle of the next turn was a crack going parallel to our direction. This ended up causing quite a few accidents though out the race. After that right hand turn was a nice wide open road on nice pavement but that seemed to be the windiest spot on the course so most of the time we were lined out and sprinting to stay in contact if you were too far back. Then it was a left and a two rights with the second to last right being downhill, wide, and decent pavement. After this you flew through a long sweeping right turn but it was some of the worst pavement on the course.

Every lap the race was to the first turn. We sprinted through the finish line and everyone was working hard to get a good spot to go through the turn. Most times we went through 3 or 4 wide and then it was a sprint again to try and stretch the field out. If you were too far back you were going to be hurting bad very quickly!

I finally got smart and got a start position on front line of the field. I knew I was still going to have to fight hard to stay on the front but getting a good start would at least help me save a little energy for later. Like every other day we started fast, this time though there was a team on the front blocking most of the field and two of their team members were riding off the front. After only two turns I found myself between those two riders and the rest of the field so I decided I would try to go for the break. I made it up to the two riders and quickly we were joined by another very strong rider, Hogan Sills. I actually thought this might work, I also thought that if it did this was going to be a hard race. After 2 or 3 laps off the front though we were realed back in. Almost as soon as we were back in the pack more riders were trying to go off. The speed never slowed and this hurt. I wanted a chance to catch my breath but in these races you either had the fitness and the speed and accelerations didn't bother you, or you were me and they did.

I had planned on not going for any preems during any more of the races, instead focusing on placing high in the finish. But for one preem I was placed just too high in the field, and I had a great shot at the line to not go for it. I took a small $20 preem and man did I pay for it. For the rest of the race I was trying to get back on terms with the rhythm of the race. As the race neared the end the speed kept increasing, attacks kept launching, and crashes started happening. For the most part I think the crashes at this race happened because of the course conditions, and what appeared to be riders with too high of air pressure in their tires. I saw a few examples of guys who slid out but saved it in turns that were not that fast or hard. That is why I think they had their tires pumped up too much. There were only two crashes that effected me however. The first was with 2 laps to go. A rider went down on turn two right in front of me from hitting the parallel crack in the road at the wrong angle. I was able to get by him but had to scrub speed and take a wide turn. This caused me to have to chase very hard to try and get back in touch with the rest of the field. Then with one lap to go a large crash happened in turn one taking out most of the leaders of the race. I actually was far enough back that I had a very easy time getting though the crash. The way this crash effected me though was it moved me way up in the standings. I am not sure where I would have finished but it looked like there were about 10 guys on the ground when I went by. It is hard to tell though when you are deprived of oxygen and just wanting to make it to the end.

I ended up 17th overall and 4th in cat 3. Not a bad day over all. I was really excited that my family was able to come and watch. They brought a grill and we cooked fish and burgers. Good day.

ToAD Grafton

The second day of ToAD was looking to be another great day for racing. The weather had cooled off a bit and I was feeling pretty good. The course was even more technical this day, and there was a slight uphill that was about 1 block long. Going into the finishing stretch was a very hard over 90 degree turn into one of the longest finishing straights I have ever seen.

My uncle Kurt and cousin Eli were able to come with me to this race so I was hoping to show them a good time. We got there and just happened to set up on a turn that had a huge party on the other side of the street from us. This one house had put up small bleachers, hired a band, had matching lederhosen and green hats on. Every time the race came around the cheered so loud and banged these noise makers. It was super cool! The race organizers actually asked them to help with corner control because they were having trouble keeping people off the street there. These people did a great job with it. They even got to ride in the pace car for a while for their help.

So my race was going off at 2pm again. My plan was to sit in with good positioning and try to get some upgrade points. I knew that everyone would be watching Brian Ellison but just in case I was going to keep an eye on him too. I got a pretty crappy starting spot again so the first couple laps were really tough. I had to really work hard to move up into position but once there the race was fairly easy. I always made sure I was following the surges, making up spots in the corners, not getting stuck behind slower riders on the hill, and trying to be quick out of the last turn so as not having to jump as hard. On the preem laps I just made sure to anticipate the attacks and stay near the front in case a large group got up the road.

Everything stayed together for the most part throughout the race. There was a little bit of bumping but nothing that I would consider dangerous. That changed however as we neared the end of the race. The speed increased dramatically, and everyone wanted to be at the front now. This was where I was now having trouble holding my position. To be able to keep moving up I needed to stay near the side of the pack, but this also put me into the wind. Also guys were really starting to make more dangerous moves, jumping to the side from deep in the pack. Maybe I let this slow me down in some spots and it cost me some positions, but I was trying to not let it bother me. The only crash I remember happening though was on the second to last lap going up the hill on the course. It happened behind me so I don't really know what happened. The place that I was sure a crash was going to happen was at the tight final turn. Going through the turn was quite a bit of tar, and each time over it you could feel a slight wiggle from your tires. I just knew someone was going to hit that turn really hard and take a lot of people out. Luckily it didn't happen though, and the sprint was clean and fast. I however was too far back to make any real showing and placed 22nd. Not quite my goal, but a good safe fast race. 27mph average with a hill wasn't bad for me, maybe the fastest race I had been in to date.

My uncle, cousin, and I stuck around to watch the rest of the races over the afternoon. We had a lot of fun, and my uncle was amazed at the speed and skill of the Pro1/2 racers. He had such a good time he called up my aunt and convinced her and her family to come out and watch the next day of racing in Waukesha. I was pretty pumped they were going to come out and support me. Just had to make sure I made it worth their wile.

This was the party across the street from where we set up. I bet it went on late into the night.

ToAD East Troy Classic

I have been up in Wisconsin racing at the Tour of America's Dairyland. It is a great series put on up here over the last few years, and it only seems to be getting bigger and better. Last year I only did a few races and fell in love with the event. Each town really gets into the whole scene and it feels like a party every day.

The first race in the series for the cat 2/3 men was in East Troy, WI. It was a great little town and had a very technical and short course. I arrived with plenty of time to check things out, get signed up, set up my new Quantum Mesa Cycles tent in someone's front yard, (The local people are super nice) and get ready for my race at 2pm.

My fitness has been a little off so I didn't really know what to expect. All the races I have do in 2/3s this year have been very tough. The only thing really helping me here was the course was flat, but with all the turns, and how short it was it could still have been very tough if I hung out in the back too long. I got a crappy starting position at the back and then I had the worst clip in I have ever had in a race. I think we were around turn 1 and 2 before I finally got my cleat in. The race was really fast from the start. There are a lot of very strong 2s and 3s and they seem to like to put the hurt to the rest of us from the gun. Once I was able to move up to the top 5-10 places though the race got pretty easy for me. I just  concentrated on cycling back up a few riders if someone passed me, always thinking "If I'm not moving up, I am moving back." There were a few early breaks that tried to go, and I think I went with one, but nothing early really had any chance. Also I was really trying to concentrate on saving as much energy as I could to sprint. That is my goal for the week, to sprint well every day. 

With about 15 min to go Brian Ellison from the Cutting Crew went up the road and he was gone, quick! In just a couple laps he had 25 seconds on us, and I didn't feel like we slowed down at all. Another strong rider from RACC tried to ride up to him, but once he started to get out of sight KS Energy started to ride more at the front and pulled him back. I feel like my mistake I made in the race happened with about 5 laps to go. They rang the bell for a preem and I tried to go for it with 4 corners to go, I never checked to see if I had anyone with me until coming around the last turn, and even then I tried to out power the guy to the line. All that did was take even more energy and now when I jumped back into the pack I was 20 places off the front and we were going faster and faster. I was only able to move up a few spots by the end and finished 16th, one out of the money. Grrrrrr.

The positive I took from the race was that I was well within myself for most of the race. The negative is I still need to think more, especially when I am racing so many riders that are better than me. I want to think that I am a smart rider, so I have to start riding like one, one of these days.

The new tent, people have been digging it!

Pretty sunset as I drove from STL to Chicago Thursday night

O'Fallon Grand Prix weekend

So last weekend was so tough for me I was thinking I was going to take the weekend off. Most of my friends just laughed at me. Turns out they know me pretty well. I raced every day, and it all went pretty well.

Friday was the first running of the OGP's time trial course. It was a great course. I have only ever done an out and back TT. This was more of a lolly pop, or a butcher knife shape maybe. It was also rolling, not as bad of climbs as Hermann but there was one that almost cooked me late in the race. As I had only ridden for 45 min this week, just finished building my TT bike earlier in the day, and had planned on not racing at all, I was going to take it easy-ish. I wanted to keep my power just around my FTP which for a 13 mile race was a little low. Chris and I met at Mesa and drove over to get ready. This was Chris' first TT attempt ever and I was thinking he was going to crush just about everyone. Chris' specialty is going fast and hard for a long time. A friend of the shop had even lent him his bike. Chris and I set up our new team tent and trainers. As would happen with a new bike, I had a horrible warm up. I was having to fix something just about every couple minutes, shifting, computer, position. So I was just going to "wing it". Chris and another teammate Jason went off about 20 and 30 min before I did. Jason came in just as I was heading to the start and he gave me some great intel on the course.

I started great and was able to keep myself in check not pushing it too hard. I set my computer to just show me my power, time, and heart rate. I figured this would just keep me pushing long and hard. (that's what she said) Around half way I spotted a rider up the road and this gave me a great carrot to go after. It almost cooked me going up the course's only hard climb trying to close the last few yards I had to the rider. Once I was to the top I reminded myself to back down to a steady wattage and tried to recover as best I could in a TT. I finally hit a good enough downhill section that I coasted for a few seconds. This might have cost me 3rd place but if I hadn't rested I might have blown it also.

I finished with what I thought was a great time for me, 30:29 over the 13.1 mile course. As I got back to the car Chris was really unhappy though. Turns out a volunteer on the course was reading a book and did not tell him where to go at one of the turns. Chris kept on going down the road for a ways before he realized what had happened. It was too late though and his race was over. Now I know all about volunteers, I use tons of them. The gymnastics meet I put on uses hundreds of them. But being a volunteer doesn't mean you don't do your job. If you don't want to do the job, don't volunteer. In my opinion they should have refunded Chris' money.

The next day was the OGP road race and IL state road race. The course isn't too tough, nothing like Hermann or Ste Genevieve, but still there was nothing close to the turn out as at Hillsboro. You would think that for the chance at a state title more boys from Chicago would want to come down. Those that did made for a good race however. The title was contested over 70 miles of twisting winding roads in some of the hottest weather we have had so far this year. With a race of this difficulty we needed a lot of support, and boy did we get it. All of Mike's family, Brian's girlfriend Cece came out to hand us all (8) water, food, and ice. Without their help we would have gone all of twenty miles and burned up. For real they made it all possible. Our plan was to get Mike to the line first and the best way to do that was in a sprint. So pulling on the front all day was in order. This was my kind of ride! We were also lucky to have our new cat 3 and cat 4 state road race champ Grant Erhard riding with us. He was very much needed and flexed his muscles plenty working for the team. We all worked together perfectly and stepped in for others when they were tired. I wasn't able to ride in with the team, I burned all my matches keeping thing close for Mike. But when I was gone the rest of the guys were there to pick things up. The rest of the guys were able to get things lined up for Mike and Jason Murphy powered Mike all the way to the line. The one snaffu was Mike wasn't able to sprint around Jason. Yeah Jason is that strong! Jason ended up winning the race and Mike took 3rd in IL. Jason was pretty upset at himself, he thought he had screwed up by being too strong.....umm nope. Mike was super happy with how the team had worked and we were so pumped for the win and 2 guys in the top 10!

The last day of the series was the OGP crit, a ten turn course in downtown O'Fallon. They made a small change to the course that I think made it much better, and safer. The team goal was similar to the O'Fallon Cup race about a month ago.  All I asked the guys was I wanted to sprint sometime during the race. So just a few laps in they called a preem and I was one rider behind Mike getting ready to jump. There was one very fast rider in front of me from Rhythm Racing. I thought it was a good test to see how my working on my sprint was coming along. As we came around the final turn Mike started to pick it up and I was able to get a very good jump and was almost able to beat the Rhythm guy to the line, but it wasn't to be. Later in the race I was able to pick up a Helmet preem with the help of Mike again. As the race progressed things got tough with guys trying hard to jump off the front again and again. Our team was pretty tired and we weren't able to put in as hard of breaks as we wanted, but we were able to make a lot of the other riders and teams work and tire themselves out. As the end of the race came closer things were getting sketchier and I didn't have the gas to get to the front to help the guys so I sat up with 4 turns to go and soft pedaled back in. We finished up great though with Wulff taking 2nd and Mike coming in 5th.

Murphy and I were feeling pretty cooked and Mike wanted to spend time with his kids and family on Father's day, so Wulff was the only one to jump in the last race of the day with Bj and Mark.

The Pro 123 was stacked with some strong teams. Our guys were going to have a tough race. Right away the teams were on the attack and things split quickly. Watching the race we were pretty pumped that Wulff made the selection of 9 or so guys. Every team had at least 1 guy in the break, most had two even 3 maybe, I can't really remember. Only a few laps after the break happened though I think Devin jumped and got a split. This really hurt our man in the break a Dog Fish rider, and a Harley rider. All three fell off the pace but Wulff and the Harley rider were working hard to catch back on. A lap or so later however the Harley rider was able to use Wulff to shoot himself back up to the break and Wulff was spent. That was the race. With all the teams in the break there was nothing our guys could do. Not that they didn't try though. Mark and Bj both gave a shot or ten at bridging up to the front. With all the racing in their legs from yesterday, Bj 70 miles in a break, Mark working hard for 2nd in IL in the RR! They just weren't able to make it.

The end of the race was a bunch sprint for the break group. Casey from Dog Fish took the win, but the crazy thing I saw was a Harley rider went down at the last turn. I don't know what happend but he jumped up grabbed his bike, threw it on his shoulder, and ran all the way to the finish beating the rest of the pack! That was awesome!

In all it was a great weekend for the team again. We are really gelling well and we are only getting stronger. This next weekend I am heading up to Wisconsin for ToAD. I am spending 7 days there and wish I could go the whole time but my brother-in-law is getting married so to central Illinois I will go.

My new TT bike, I like it!

Resting Hard

This is the longest I have taken off of a bike by choice that I can remember. It is only the third day but it feels like a week. I don't know what it is about days that I don't ride, but they seem to last forever. My work schedule has changed for the next 8 weeks as well so that has thrown me off big time. Most of the information that I have studied about training says that resting is as important, if not more important than training itself. If you are not rested enough to do your next workout, then you will not get the full benefit from it. I think it is hard for people like myself though. We see improvement form hard work and believe that more hard work will bring more improvement. I watch the pros racing on television and I want to catch them, and it is hard to remind myself that the only way to get better sometimes, is to not do anything at all.

Tomorrow I will get back on the bike and roll around Forest Park for and hour with Katie and then I will race this weekend and see how it goes. It could be an even worse race than last weekend, or I could be just fine, I really have no idea right now. With all the work I have done trying to track and predict my fitness, I think I am nowhere closer than I was three years ago. Sort of frustrating. At least the guys that I have been helping are getting better. I have always been a better coach than an athlete....

Who crashes in a road race!? This guy......

OOO yeah I did, and to top that, I did it to myself! I never worry about crashing in road races. One, there are never enough people in road races except maybe Hillsboro Roubaix, and two most the courses are pretty straight. Well the team headed down to Sainte Genevieve for the Missouri state road race. It is held on a great course with varying terrain and a few very hard climbs. Not to mention it is always hot and the wind can be a huge pain.

My history with this race is not very good. Pretty much every other year I suck really bad. So this year was one of those years. We had a large team and I thought it was our best opportunity to win this race. The race started very hard and fast for my liking with guys trying hard to get a break going. We had 4 guys covering those attempts, and when one stuck we had a man in it. Goal number one achieved. When a hard effort or it could have been an attack (I was sucking wind at the back at this point so it was hard to see) when up the first big climb on the course another one of our riders struck out in an attempt to link up with the lead group. He was still chasing by the time we hit the second hill on the course. This was when my race ended, or at least I would not see the pack again. From what I was told our no man's land rider never made it. Our team therefore just sat on the front riding tempo as no one else would. Then our plan sort of fell apart as our rider from the break was dropped. That meant the team had to start drivin the pace. It was a long hard effort and they were able to pull back everyone except one rider with what I was told about 6 or so miles to go.

Once the team caught most of the break we started losing more riders from exhaustion. We were down to maybe 4 riders to chase the final rider with mostly downhill and tail wind remaining in the race. The guys put everything they had into brining back the lone rider but we came up 200 meters short. Our champ from last week Jason Murphy still was able to take a great 2nd place. But it was still less than we had all hoped for.

So back to my stupid self crashing. I had decided that even though I was dropped less than a third into the race I was going to finish. So I was going to need a feed. My amazing wife is always a big help in these races and always feeds us guys. She was there and ready for my when I finally appeared around bend. I dropped my bottles and reached for the bag she had out hanging. As soon as I grabbed it I was on the ground. I don't really know what happened but I think the bottles swung back and hit me and at the same time I was hit with a good cross wind from the other side. This just flipped me right on my side. I rolled over as Katie was running up to help me and we both said "what happened?" to each other. She got me back on my feet and off I went to finish another 35 mile loop on my own to think about how much I sucked today.

I'm not too sure about why I was so bad on Sunday. From looking at all my training data I look like I should be fine. But it is all still an art to reading this stuff. I might have been a little sick. I started having this problem with my molars the other day. If I shook my head or hit my feet too hard they would hurt. Someone told me today that happens to them when they have a sinus infection. I'm not stuffed up, but I have been having a lot of drainage again. So maybe it's that. I am going to take it easy for the next couple days and maybe just race once this weekend instead of racing the 3 days I had planned. I am planning on racing 8 days in a row starting next Friday. So I want to make sure I am ready for that.

Feed zones can be dangerous places. At least I was on my own and didn't take anyone else out.

Glencoe Grand Prix, Hellbender Road Race, great weekend.

This weekend was another busy one for me and the Quantum Mesa Cycles. On tap was the Lake Bluff Twilight Crit, the Glencoe Grand Prix which was the IL state crit championships, and the Hellbender Omnium in Rolla, MO.

I was not able to participate in the Twilight crit, but a big group of guys left early Friday morning to make it up. From what I was told it was a tight course with narrow roads and a large field. A few of the guys raced in Cat 123 race and two then jumped into the Masters 30+. Jason Wulff placed best out of the team in the 123, but had a tough spill in the 30+ and suffered the rest of the weekend from it.

I had work responsibilities on Friday night so I wasn't able to leave St Louis until after 9pm. I drove to my parents house west of Chicago which left me with just over and hour to the race in Glencoe, IL the next day. I could have made it all the way there, but I didn't want to happen to wake up the guys as I got in after 1am. The next morning I was supposed to meet the guys for breakfast but being tired the night before I set my alarm for 7pm, not am, and overslept. Not a good start to the day but I had time to get out there and meet them for our morning ride before we raced at 2:30pm. The race was a strange one for a state championship, as it was a Cat 2/3 and they were awarding both jerseys in the same race. The first 2 from IL would win a jersey, and the frist 3 from IL would win one as well. This could have made for some interesting racing, but none of our possible scenarios really happened so although the race was very hard physically, tactically it was pretty straight forward.

The goal was to race for both Mike Rickey (Cat 3) and Mark French (Cat 2). We planned to keep our team up in the front (we had 8 men line up), and be ready to do whatever our two leaders needed. Easier said than done. Glencoe is a great course in the middle of an affluent northern suburb of Chicago. The streets are average in terms of width, with great pavement. What makes the course great are the turns. They are fast and many. Then with the number of riders signed up you have to be fit, attentive, have no fear of blasting through turn after turn, and be a bit lucky to make it though the race. Our entire team was able to get a very good starting position on the line, this was the first win in a battle scheduled to last about an hour. As we lined up we were pointing out rider after rider to each other that we needed to watch for. There were more than I could remember, so I picked a few that I knew were strong and I hoped none of the rest ever figured in.

Well we started FAST, like o my god I hope we slow down soon fast. I swear to god I wanted to quit about ten minutes into the race and never though I was going to be able to last. My saving grace is my ability to corner on rails and take advantage of others fear and or inexperience with the course. I was able to get to the front and started watching for moves that would try to go up the road. We were supposed to latch onto anything and weigh it down. Very quickly this had me well into the red zone and looking for help. Just then I saw BJ Keane and Eric Finks (AKA Finkszilla) This allowed my to get just a few moments of rest, but if I rested too long I was afraid that I would drop back too far in the field and have to use up a "match" to make it back up where I needed to be. 

The entire race was marred with crashes in just about every corner. There were two pits on the course and just about every lap there were multiple riders jumping back into the race following their free lap, which is allowed after a crash or mechanical. It helps to ride at the front of a race as it leaves fewer riders in front of you who could crash, and generally the riders at the front have a cleaner line through turns and down the road. This didn't stop some riders from taking themselves and others out of the race. Our protected rider Mark French had to do some quick thinking and jump up a curb into someone's yard and then back over another curb to avoid a crash and then get back into the race. Like I have said before, most of the riders that were crashing were from stupid riding, and from guys who just don't seem to know how to handle their own power and speed on a bike. I guess some people look at it as a good problem to have, but not me.

Somewhere around the halfway point I believe a very strong and dangerous (one we were watching) rider exploded off the front. Our Cat 2 rider Mark had talked briefly about maybe going with a move like this, but Mark knows his body and knew he had the pop to get a good result in this race. But no where near the engine to hang with a powerful rider like Nick Ramirez. Nick wasn't going to go down easy and we chased hard and long to pull back his lead. This was one of the many moments durning the race where I thought it was all over for me. After every corner was a huge acceleration that didn't end until the next corner, even if you were at the front of the race. I don't know how anyone behind where I was riding could have handled that extreme accordion effect over and over, and I expect there were many riders who were popped because of it.

The next thing I knew we had only 3 laps to go, I was still near the front, and BJ, Mark, and I were still very much in the race. It was sad that we were not able to keep more guys in the race, but everyone has bad days, and many of our guys have been doing a huge amount of racing. We had finally pulled back Mr. Ramirez and his teammate, I believe, Tim Speciale made his move. With only a lap to go this was a scary move for our team and I didn't think I would be able to do anything to help. Then I saw BJ moving Mark up through the pack and I though "We are saved", then BJ pulled the plug and swung off to the left. He had given everything and could do no more. At the same time something strange happened. No one wanted to throw away their chance at a win and everyone sat up hoping someone else would chase down Tim. This saved me, and might be just the thing Mark needed. I quickly moved up the left side of the road after turn one and started yelling Mark's name. At first I though I heard him say "NO" as in wait to go to the front, I though, what the hell do you mean no, we got to go! Then I understood him, he was screaming GO, GO, GO! And off I went. I don't know where Mark slotted in but what he needed was the pack to string out to give him a shot. Similarly to last years race a rider from another team raced me to the front of the pack and took the lead. I don't know who he was, just that he had been at or near the front for most of the race and this was good for me. The pack flew through turn two and three, and the rider in front of me started to slow down. I began loudly pleading with him to keep driving, but he was having none of it. So going into the downhill turn 4 I took the lead and lit my final "match". I was hoping to be able to drive the pack to the final turn but really didn't think it was going to happen, but I had nothing to lose, and a State Championship for my team, to gain. Turning up the small hill on the course I stood up and kept the pressure on. I expected to be swarmed as we climbed but I guess I was able to hold the speed high enough for everyone as I lead onto the corses false flat and into turn 6. Then the power meter numbers started to drop quickly and I heard Mark yell for everything that I had. I tried to stand and give it a go but I was running on empty and quickly sat back down and shook my head trying to signal I was spent. Then I was swarmed on both sides with Mark going by somewhere around 5th or 6th I believe. I was pretty hypoxic though and it could have been 20th, I have no idea. I barley grabbed onto the back of the pack and tried to ride it in for a decent finish. Going into the 8th and final turn I saw Mark take a very aggressive inside line, the only problem was he wasn't in his normal 1st or 2nd position going through that turn. I figured I had failed and we missed out on the Jersey again.

We got lucky though, Mark was able to take 4th place in the field sprint, and as it so happens all the riders that beat him were from out of the state. That meant that Mark was the IL state crit champ, and Quantum Mesa Cycles had done it! We were so excited it was funny, like a bunch of little kids winning a baseball game or something. It was as exciting and gratifying as my level 9s winning their state championship in gymnastics earlier in the year. Mark was so happy he took paid for our dinner that night. After that we all had a 6+ hour drive back home. It wouldn't be such a big deal normally, but the next day I was going to drive down to Rolla, MO to help another teammate win a weekend stage race and more rest is always good. That was not meant to be however as I had to be up at 6 the next morning to drive our phenom Cat 4 to his race at 9 am. Whatever, my wife lives on 4 hours of sleep a day, so can I, right?

Hellbender is a weekend of racing in Rolla, MO. A great little town an hour and a half southwest of St. Louis. The crit is held on a technical course with amazing pavement. It is fast and fun. Jason Murphy was the only 3 that was able to go, and we had Grant (said Cat 4) doing the 4/5. Jason did a great job racing on his own and taking second in the race. He was first in the omnium however, as he had taken points in mid race preems. So as we were finishing up north of Chicago, Jason was killing it down south. When we got the news of his great performance it made the day even better! 

We had a plan for the race that we wanted to try out and it worked to perfection. We took the first part of the race pretty easy as there were a lot of miles to cover and we are only 3's not Pros. The plan was to heat things up going into the second lap of what could be described as a lolly-pop course. As we were getting closer to the planned launch point I actually had to ask one of our guys to push back his attack because I was afraid if he went when we originally planned I would get dropped. I felt great on the course but on the two climbs we had done so far in the race I struggled. I have not put in many miles as of late and I was mighty tired from the preceding day's race and drive. It worked out great though. Chris put in the first attack and was followed by 3 or 4 other riders. Too big really for such a small field as ours. Then Eric launched, and Chris and I did our best to hold off the followers but there were too many and they were still to fresh. Eric was back in the pack but things started to speed up. This was good for us. Another rider road off the front and Chris put in a good steady effort to keep the speed high and slowly reeled him back in. With only a few feet to go till we caught Eric launched another tremendous attack. This one was explosive and we were in great position to stall the pack's chase. One other rider was able to go with Eric (Finkszilla). This was helpful as he was a teammate of a rider right behind Jason in the GC. So their team, Big Shark, started to ride at the front doing some of the blocking duties. It wasn't long however till Eric's break-mate couldn't hold his wheel and Eric again attacked. The field started to get nervous about him being out there and there were a myriad of efforts to chase him down. All were pretty much snuffed out by Chris and I. It was a lot of fun jumping onto the wheels of chasers and foiling their efforts to pull back our teammate. As we neared the KOM on the couse I was feeling good, but I knew I could never make it over the climb with the group. I talked with Chris a bit telling him to try and just keep up what we had been doing. I figured if we made it to the KOM and didn't see Eric that he was going to take the day. A 40 mile solo break away would have been the most epic, amazing, Finkszillaisk thing I had ever seen. As I was shot straight out the back of the pack going up the hill it was all I could think of.

Alas it was not to be. As I and a couple other riders who had been dropped rolled back into the last stretch I could see a lone rider up the road. When he stood to keep up his pace I could tell it was the brave Finkszilla. When we reached him I almost hugged him from my bike, telling him how amazed I was with him. Then he told me how he had tried to attack the field at least 2 more times before he could go no more. It almost brought a tear to my eye! Thomas Vockler would have been proud. When Eric and I rolled to the finish line we saw Chris and Jason. Jason had great big smile on his face. We had done it, and he was so thankful for what we had done. I was so happy he had won! It makes all the hard work so worth it! Chris had done exactly what he needed to do. He used his amazing diesle engine and powered Jason at the front of the pack for 6 miles, up the final climb and into the final turn. No easy feet at all! Jason, so thankful for the work, rewarded us with a great sprint victory. 

I had such a great time this weekend that I know it is all worth it. This is why I race on a team, so that I can share something with others. Being part of something more than just myself. Next weekend is Ste Genevive, the MO state RR. I think we might have a good shot.

The guys getting loaded up for a weekend of winning races

At Glencoe, getting everything dialed in.

Jason Wulff (AKA Booty, AKA Bootylicious, AKA Hot Muffin) had a tough day before Glencoe, but that didn't stop him from saddling up and giving it a go.

Mark was letting us listen to his music selection, it's really bad. Good thing he is good at racing.

I think this proves that. You don't have to be first, just the first from Illinois.

Top step baby!

Murphy gets the top step for winning the race and the omnium. 3rd place must not know proper podium etiquette, one arm dude. 

Dude got a sweet new bike rack for the win, like Connolly says, "That thing is no joke!"