Great Egyptian Omnium

This was the first weekend in a while that I had raced. After a few less than steller performances in my opinion I needed something to get me on track. I decided to start paying a coach. I have had one of my very good friends helping me for the last few years. He is a very successful businessman with a big family and he just didn't have as much time as he used to to help me. He started to use this coach earlier in the year and gave him some great reviews. I thought if this coach is good enough for my old coach then he has to be good enough for me.

So three weeks ago we started working together. It has been a lot of hard work but I think I am already seeing a lot of improvements. This weekend really helped me to see that.

The Great Egyptian Omnium is a 3 stage race over 2 days in Ciro, IL. It is an amazing race that is completely embraced by the local community. Stage one was an 80 mile road race and us lowly cat 3 racers were thrown in with the cat 1s and 2s. At first I thought this was going to suck, but it was actually pretty fun, hard, but fun. I enjoyed it because there was a lot to think about while racing for four + hours. Most of the race was just surviving. The 1s and 2s were beating up on each other, one of our guys was off the front, the rest of our team just road the waves of guys trying to take off.

The course was pretty great. It was hard enough to keep things interesting, but not hard enough that it was what was going to kick everyone's ass. There were only a couple climbs, and none were too long, nor were they too steep. The roads were great, and those people we met on the roads were so friendly.

For most of the race I tried to stay near our protected rider Keith. Early in the race we were both feeling pretty shitty. But Keith has been working so hard for so long to get ready for this weekend that I tried hard to keep his spirits up and him in the race. I kept telling him that we just had to survive the race. As long as we were there at the end we were going to do well. Keith's wife Emily came and did us both a solid with handing up our food, water, and ice during the race. Doing hand ups is not an easy thing for new people, I consider myself new at this so I was about as nervous as Emily was I think. The last time I did hand ups with a musette bag I crashed. But she was flawless, the bags were always there, full of water and ice. We also got a great spot in the feed zone so it was easy to get to her.

As the race wore on there were only 3s and a couple 2s left in the pack. Jeremy Bock from cat 2 from Dog Fish lead us around the course after his teammate went on the break with one of our cat 2s. Our cat 2 Mark was just chilling in the pack getting a few miles in his legs. Towards the last lap a couple guys in our race started to try and break away. The problem was these guys always tried at the worst times. They were always pretty easy to bring back but just kind of annoying. The one rider from Athlete Forward tried maybe 20 times to get away. I have to give it to the kid, he had heart. I heard he was from a mountain bike background and just doesn't have the feel for the road yet. He will be a guy we watch out for though as he gets a hang of it. With the miles ticking down the cramps in my legs started to multiply. It was hard to eat enough without overdoing it with the heat. I decided to error on the side of too little food, this might have lead to me not having enough minerals in my muscles but I never cramped too bad at the wrong time. As long as I was able to stay in the saddle I could work certain muscles and stay way from the tired ones. Getting closer to the finish I took a spot in the lead of the group and tried to hold a steady tempo and slowly bring up the speed. The problem was we probably didn't finish quite to Keith's strengths and he was having cramping problems like me and could not stand to sprint. He went a farther out than I thought he was going to and didn't go hard enough As we hit the final climb to the finish with 200 meters Keith blew up. I tried to hold my speed and finish as strong as I could. I ended up passing Keith getting 5th and Keith getting 7th. This wasn't the best finish we really had hoped for but Keith was still in striking distance and his strength the TT was up next.

All of us cleaned up our team stuff and Mark, Bj, and I went to get some food. Keith and his wife enjoyed the fine food in Creal, IL. They had a pretty neat set-up for the race with a bunch of people selling stuff, and even a dunk tank. I again was pretty behind not really thinking out how long it took to change over parts on my road and TT bikes. Bj was awesome and did a lot of work to help me get ready. He got my ice, filled my water, and even fixed my helmet with I ripped the straps out. I rolled up to the start with about 2 min to go which was awesome! I hate standing in line for a TT and I hate standing in the heat even more. I did't really look at the course profile nor did I drive it before hand. So I had no idea what to expect. I was surprised that we started on and uphill! Note to self, check that crap out next time! So there was some pretty good climbing for a TT in my opinion. Nothing like a pro race or anything, but I think it was more than maybe the hilly Hermann TT? I thought that doing a 7 mile TT was going to be easy, but after a hard 80 doing 7 more all out sucked A$$! Talking with my new coach before the race he gave me a target to shoot for wattage wise. This made things a bit easier when hitting the uphills allowing me to meter out my effort a bit more. When I began to catch my 2 minute man I decided that I would just try to get a bit closer by the finish and not worry about beating him. I wasn't racing for the win more of just training. It helped me to keep my speed up though as I was really hurting for some motivation. I finished the little over 7 mile course in 18:33 min with a dropped chain. This was good enough to put me in 5th place again. Keith did much better even after having to make a quick wheel change only minutes before he went off due to a flat. He came in with an 18:12 putting him into second for the TT. This also brought him up into a tie for 3rd in the GC.

The next day Mike was going to come down to help out in the cat 3 crit. As we were waiting for the race to start Bj and I watched our cat 4 teammate Rob race in the cat 4 race. He looked super strong and  never in trouble. The bad thing was he never looked like he was in the correct spot of the peleton either. When he finished he was telling us how easy the race was and that he was just too far back for the sprint. After further discusion we talked him into racing the Masters race later in the day and worked out a plan for him to race with. Instead of worrying about about racing other people's weaknesses, we told him about racing to his strengths. He was able to take his considerable strength and solo'd away to a victory. It was awesome seeing him go and see that no one in the pack even had a chance!

After Rob's race the 3s were up. I said something about Keith doing something similar to what Rob did, and we talked about taking points from other riders and trying to get Keith as many points as we could. There were preem points that were being offered on 3 separate laps going out 3 places. The first preem seemed to come pretty quickly and Keith was not ready. Luckily Mike and I were at the front so Mike lead me out and I took first adding 3 points to my tally but more important taking away 3 from the guys beating Keith. Mike also stuck in there and took 3rd steeling 1 point. As we came up to the 2nd preem lap I actually made a mistake and lead it out a lap too early. But it turned out to be a happy accident as Guitar Lab also thought we were going for points and sent all 3 of their guys sprinting for nothing. Keith was paying attention this time though and yelled that it was the next lap as he flew by me. At first I thought crap I blew it, but then I though, shoot I can do that again, no problem. This time I got it right leading Keith out, again he went earlier than I thought he was going to go but after he went we never caught him again.

Mike and I started working to block the rest of the pack from chasing Keith down. For the most part it was really easy. I think most of the attempts were fake attempts to try and get others to chase Keith down. We would simply just sit on the front and ride slow. Anyone at any time could have ridden around us, but when everyone is tired no one wants to chase. While Keith was off we still raced for preems to keep his competitors from getting more points on him. Then as we neared the end of the race we actually got a little help from the Guitar Lab guys as one went to the front and tried to keep the speed up. I think he was a little tired though because we didn't quite make it all the way. This caused me to get a swamped and lose Mike's wheel. I was really mad at myself for that. I was sitting in a perfect spot 3rd wheel and now I was more than 10 guys back! I tried to keep looking for an opening to  shoot to the front and it opened about 300 yards from the line. The gutter on the inside of the road all of a sudden opened and I took off. As I hit the front of the field everyone else was jumping. I had a slight stutter when I rider jumped into my line, but I was back on the gas quickly. I had a pretty good gap but I started to wain and two riders on my left started gaining on me. When we threw our bikes at the line I knew I had missed it. At first I was bummed until I saw one of the other riders was my teammate Mike! Now I was pumped! We ended up Keith 1st, Mike in 3rd, and me in 4th. So close to a podium sweep, but we were all still really happy. Keith's win ended up catapulting him into 1st place in GC. We were really looking good for the day. With such a good thing going I decided to sign up for the final race of the day, the cat 123.

Mark and Bj wanted Mike and I to just try and go with anything that tried to get off the front of the race. We were also supposed to make sure to watch for guys going for preems that they didn't keep on rolling. As we went through for our first preem we just made sure to keep the race together. A few turns later a rider from Off the Front jumped off the front. I was close so I jumped on his wheel. My job was to just sit on his wheel and get dragged around the course. He made one really long pull and then asked me to come around. I shook my head and told him I wasn't going to pull. He wasn't very happy but he kept on going. After more than a lap we were gaining time, and I started to pull through. We quickly got into a pattern of when to trade off pulls. As the laps counted off it seemed to get hotter and hotter. For a long time we were pulling away and I thought for a little bit that maybe we were gonna make it. With about 8 laps to go I started to see Gateway Harley pulling on the front. I tried to put in some hard pulls but I was hurting. I was out of water and the heat was really getting to me. With 5 laps to go we rolled through for a preem, I wasn't even trying for the preems during the race as I was not in the 1,2 GC at all. When we went through however I heard cheering quite close behind us. Then the pack was there and what little gas I had left in the tank went fast. I tried to hang on the back for a short bit but I was empty. I rolled back around to our tent and dunked my head in the ice cooler. With my break having been brought back a few other strong attacks went but were not successful. With 2 to go though a strong flyer went off the front and Mike and Bj had to put it all out there to pull the break back enough for Mark to sprint. He had a very strong go of it and came out of the bunch in 2nd place. Another great race for the team.

I had so much fun this last weekend and really look forward to going back next year. The people down in Cairo, IL were so nice and the organization putting on the race did a great job. I hope they grow over the next few years to have a huge even that brings in riders from all over.

I'm getting close! I was #370 Mike is #380.

Team Sky has made a mistake

Watching the Tour this week I think the the British team Sky has made a huge mistake with their team. The goal of the team was to alway be a mostly British team that won the Tour de France with a British rider within 5 years. They found that rider in Bradley Wiggins, who at the time of the team's creation was contracted with Garmin. Bradley is an amazing rider and I think will be a Tour winner at some point. I don't think this is the year though. The mistake I think they made was to have too many big goals, too many amazing riders, and no one with the balls to say "we can't do it all". There was a time when a team could dominate the Tour and win multiple jerseys. I think that time has past. There are so many good teams, and each one has one goal when they come. Some are to win the GC, some to win the green jersey, some want to win stages, and others just want to get into break aways every day. Each one is dedicated to one goal though, and all nine riders work towards that goal. Sky started the year saying they were going to race for both the Yellow and Green jerseys. These are the most prestiges jersey in the race, so there are multipel teams going for the same thing. The catch is the entire team is going for one or the other. Then as the race neared, Sky's world champion Mark Cavendish and "best sprinter in the world" said he no longer was going to target the green jersey. A jersey he had won the year before after chasing it for at least 3 years. Why would he do that? I believe that his directors realized the same thing I was saying, and they could only win one jersey. So Cav was going to be hunting stage wins, and have to do it on his own. WHAAAA!???

So now a team, who I would be large amounts of money, had promised Cav a go at the green jersey again. Was not going to allow him to do that, and if he wanted to win stages he was going to have to do it without a lead-out train. Basically they just spit in the eye of the World Champion. This is all my opinion and speculation, but this is what I think happened. Cav only came to Sky because his former team, the best team in the world, HTC Highroad/Columbia, folded last year when it's sponsors pulled out just because. While at HTC he was given all the tools needed to do nothing short of dominate the pro ranks winning no less than 20 stages in the Tour de France in the last four years. He road the greatest bike in the world, a Specialized McLaren Venge, had a lead-out train second to non, and a management team that wasn't afraid to lay it all on the line. The great thing about Cav as well, was if you took him to the line he would win 99 time out of 100. I am sure his teammates were always willing to turn themselves inside out to get him there.

So now team Sky has gone to the biggest, most important race of the year with 9 riders, 8 of which are riding to get Bradley to the race win, and Cav is on his own. Already they are at a disadvantage. Cav cannot climb well enough to help Brad in the mountains. I don't think I have ever seen Cav do much work on the front to pull a break back, I am sure he can but I have just never seen him.

Now Sky has lost a rider already due to injury, they have allowed Cav to get caught up in big crashes because he has to fight his way through the bunch, and I am guessing Cav is wondering what the hell he is doing with Sky if they don't give a shit enough to give the best sprinter in the world and world champ a lead-out.

Today Sky did try and take Cav to the line but they did not have the fire power to get him all the way and were swamped. They were built to climb, not power on the front for 25 kilometers. I know these guys are all super strong but when they are going up against a team like Loto who was built to take Greipel to the line and maybe into the green jersey, they have no chance.

I think Sky didn't think things through when they went after Cav, and maybe Cav was a little nieve to think a team could do both. But I don't see him being there for another year if things don't look like they are going to change. To me it has always seemed strange. I know that is sort of a strange thing to say when I don't personally know any of these people. But sometimes things just don't seem right. And even though Cav is a Brit, and grew up with most of these guys, he just doesn't seem to fit. What do I know though?

Dream team, or too many cooks?

ToAD Schlitz Park Milwaukee WI

Schlitz park is located on the northern park of Milwaukee just south of Brewer's hill. The area is a mix of old and new as it was once the location of the Schlitz brewing company, and is now owned by a group who develops and manages the property. It has an amazing view of downtown and there are some really nice new homes mixed in with some great historic buildings.

The course is less than one mile with a steep climb every lap and a steep technical downhill to follow. The uphill section is two blocks long with the first block being the steeper section at 9 percent. The downhill section was just a bit tricky with the first left turn of course having a manhole cover in the middle of the turn as well as some choppy pavement. After that was a quick right hand turn that continued sweeping right and then a chicane of left than right, also horrible pavement, into a short 150 meter sprint to the line. The line was also only about 200 meters from the right hand turn to the uphill.

I started at the front again for this race as I knew the hill would hurt those too far back, and the downhill section would create gaps that would have to be crossed if too far back. The first time up the hill was the only time I used my small chain ring in the race. After that we were sprinting up the climb in the big ring every time. Most of the time up the hill I made sure I wasn't following anyone to make sure I didn't get stuck behind a slow rider. This also allowed me to move up in the pack at first and then sag back into a good spot on the second half of the climb.

The hill was of course the spot most of the attacks came. I think I made it easier on myself accelerating early on the hill so that I was already at a good speed when the group began chasing. I never had enough power to go with any of the attacks and was always happy to be able to hang with the group. I was mostly lucky that not much ever happened at the top of the course this year. It allowed me to get my heart rate down, sometimes move up to a better postion, and get ready for the downhill section. The downhill was where I was able to make some good passes. I am a small guy and corner very well. I know I scare some people with how I can turn, but this is just a tool in my bag that not many other people have. The best place to make up some spots was going around the long right hand turn going into the chicane before the start finish line. Most guys didn't take good lines thought the first part of the turn and then began setting up for the chicane far too early. This made it easy on most laps to pick up some spots.

With somewhere around 15 laps to go the big attack happened and we were full gas, times 10, for 3 or 4 laps and I was barely hanging on for dear life. A couple times up the hill I didn't know if I would be able hang on and once I had to use the downhill section to get back in contact. That last time when I needed the downhill the break was caught and we slowed to a more manageable speed for me. For a few laps however I was on the back of the pack, now down to maybe 20 guys.

I was getting ready for the last lap now. I knew it was going to be a huge dig up the hill and those who survived would get a chance to sprint for the finish. As we turned into the hill I hit the gas, pedal to the medal, and was able to hold my position. As we hit the second part of the climb I sagged a lot however and had to sprint again to hold the tail of the pack. I am sure most of the guys were tired at this point so we slowed a bit on top and I was able to recover, and as we hit the downhill section I was feeling stronger again. Everyone was taking to corners pretty fast now so there was no way to move up until we exited the chicane and I hit the afterburners only making up one spot though. It was still a good result for me. 17th overall and 2nd out of the cat 3s. I was really happy with the sprint too hitting around 37 miles per hour after such a hard race.

Going into the next day I was pretty pumped and feeling strong. Turns out it sucked! I crashed 3 miles into a 50 mile road race and that was it for me, day over, nothing to see here, move on. O well, that is racing.

ToAD Greenbush RR

All I figured on Greenbush was it was going to be hard. I had never raced a road race against category 2 riders, but I assumed it was going to be faster than I had done before. The course was on a 10 mile loop that from the course bible said there was no real climbing on the course. Unless you read the written description. This was my saving grace as I decided to change my gearing choice and that almost  saved my race.

The course ended up having a lot of obstacles that would test just about every different type of rider. There were short climbs that taken at "normal" pace would have been fine, but taken at mach 10 like we did, they were very hard. Rolling hills, wind, rough road that seemed to act like Roubaix road. There were long sweeping downhill sections, and fast flats where we road flat out.

Most of the time I like to ride up near the front to lessen the accelerations and changes that happen in the race. But I thought I would try to ride near the back this time and try to use more draft. Boy this was a mistake! There were 80 riders in the race, the most I have ever been in a road race with. This caused the accelerations and decelerations hurt. Instead of being able to roll up rollers and take momentum into hills I would almost have to stop halfway up because of riders in front of me and then sprint to the top. Very quickly I determined my first thought of hanging at the back was not going to work so I started to move to the front. There are a few good ways to move to the front. You want to do it while using as little energy as possible. Moving up the gutters in road races is pretty normal. Guys try to do it when the pack slows for some reason or following another rider who wants to move up in as well. I have also been working on a skill that I had seen a very good sprinter do once in a youtube video. He was able to time gaps in the group and move up without ever hitting the wind. There were a few places in the race that I was able to do this. It was pretty fun but I wanted to make sure I was really careful and not too aggressive. I really didn't want to overlap someones wheel and take people down. The last way that I move up effectively is on downhill sections. Like turning, people get a little timid going down hill, and even more so going downhill with turns.

About halfway around the first lap I was able to get to the front of the group and this was a big help to me in saving some energy. As the race went on we got into a pretty predictable routine. Sprint up any uphill section, attack, attack, attack, rest a min, attack, another hill, and repeat. Being near the front helped a bit but it didn't save me from still having to do a lot of work to get up the hills, and I was never able to hold my position going up the hills. I would sag pretty well and then have to work my way back up again. On lap 4 things changed and the routine was thrown out. Riders started attacking where we had previously been resting and I was getting stretched off the back. I had to burn a big match to hold on and this was not a good thing. As we neared the part of the course where most of the climbing happened I was in a bad spot, position wise, and physically. I needed to be more towards the front so that I could sag a bit as we climbed, but I didn't have much energy left to get up the climbs let alone sprint up the side to get to the front of the group. As we flew up the first climb I dug deep to hold my position. On the way down I took a line on the side of the road and made it up to the front of the pack. That was good, the bad was we were hitting the hardest climb on the course. A two tier climb which like I said before, wasn't very long, we just hit it so fast it hurt bad. I made it up the first part of the climb okay, but as we hit the second part I was just about empty. My only hope was I stay close enough to catch on the downhill. It was long and winding, both could help me. But as I crested the top of the climb the group only got faster. My only hope was that I could get in a good tuck and catch them by the bottom. I didn't think about it quick enough but at the bottom of the hill we took a left onto a very rough road with a hard cross wind. It was like a mile of Paris-Roubaix. If I wasn't in the pack before this I could kiss the race good bye. When I finally caught I didn't realize that a rider from another race was mixed into the group and this allowed a gap to open. Once I noticed it was too late and my last match was burnt trying to grab the back of the pack. It was not to be. The race was just too fast for me, and my day was done. I rolled around to the start line and pulled the plug.

I was pretty bummed about my performance in this race. I think it was more a mental mistake and mental weakness rather than physical. I allowed myself to get too far back and instead of pushing it just a bit harder I relaxed and was dropped. With Shlitz Park coming up the next day I wasn't feeling great about how I was going to do.