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!"

Moderation is not something I am good at.

I have a head cold again, and it is most likely from racing 5 times in 3 days, and not being completely on top of my fitness. Everyone says that you have to workout to be fit and healthy, but how many people know that you can over do it with working out? And how many people know what over training really looks like, or how to get there?

When I was a gymnast, I don't think our coaches believed there was such a thing as over training. I'm pretty sure we were over trained for most of the season. My last season we had this strength coach how knew how to make you strong. I had never been so strong in my life. I also had never had so much trouble being rested enough for all our competitions. There were meets that I missed strength moves on rings just because I was so tired from lifting extremely heavy weights all week long. That almost cost me my spot on the lineup during the regular season, and finally did at Nationals.

Now I know all about over training. I have a good idea about how to set up my workouts and can see my training scores on my software to see if I have over done it. Well about two weeks ago I over did it. I felt great that week and the training didn't seem like too much. But when the totals were all in front of me I could see I was a little over the threshold. I took the next week very easy except for all the racing, but I had already set in motion things to come. I really put in a lot of extra work that week to try and get some fitness back from a long period off the bike for work. I am not the type of person that can ride twice a week and still kill it in races, I need that work in my legs. But I have always had a problem with moderation. If a little of something is good, more has to be better, right?

I need to learn to be more patient with myself and my training. I do it right with my girls. I never "jump start" a girl's training when they come back from illness or a long period out of the gym. There is always a steady ramp back to fitness. And if that ramp means they are not ready for a competitions then that is how it goes. But in my own case I don't allow myself those things. I don't know why, I don't know what makes me think I am any different than any other athlete. I guess I have always been a smarter coach than an athlete though. I can coach someone to do something in a race or competition, but I rarely ever take my own advice on the same situation. Whatever.

So now I am trying to rest up and get well again. This weekend is a pretty important week for my team and some teammates. I just hope that I am well enough to work for them. Saturday's race is going to be hard and even though I am not trying to win, just being able to hang and do work will be tough. We will have to see, maybe I will finally listen to myself and it will work out.

Rock Island, so close to rocking for me.....

We lined up for our last day of racing this weekend. We planned to race the Cat 3 race and then jump right into the Masters 30+. I had some high hopes for today as the course is pan flat and has 8 turns, just the type of race I like. We were planning on rolling off the front with some breaks to see if anything would stick, if not we were going to meet up with a few laps to go and wind it up for the finish. Right off the bat Jason when to the front and drilled the pace for a few laps. Coming into a right hand turn I just sped up a little and pushed it though the corners not even attacking. I quickly had a good gap and hit a tailwind section. I saw two riders trying to bridge up to me and decided to easy up to let them catch. Now in my opinion when you bridge quickly you go right to the front and get the rotation working. Both riders that bridged had no real team in the race so there was no benefit to them sitting on, they were there to try and win. Instead they sat on though and when one finally did come around he somewhat attacked blowing me and the other rider off his wheel, great, time to sit up and go back to the pack.

The next attack I remember that I paid attention to was when a xxx rider Ryan Fay was off the front. Last year he won this race solo by almost half a lap. I didn't want to work to pull it back as I was still a little tired from my own attempt at a break, but I didn't want to let the race be over then and our team be racing for 2nd. Once again a Jr team was sitting on the front of the race not doing anything. I am fine with blocking if your team is up the road, but not any other time. Also if you have a team their size they should be learning how to throw their weight around and racing as a team. Whatever, another large team soon took over on the front and began pulling Ryan back but not before he was able to get out of sight of us. With a dude as strong as he is, that ins't something that can happen. A few other breaks were attempted throughout the race but nothing that was too dangerous. Most of my time was spent making sure I stayed in good position, looking to see where my teammates were, and planning how we were going to finish.

With a few laps to go another 4 man break that looked like it could make it all the way. The three of us had gotten near each other in preparation for the last few laps and when Jason saw what was up the road and that the pack was slowing, off he went. Eric and I quickly moved to the front and tried to slow the field as much as we could. Jason was able to make it up there but once there, the group sat up and the race came back together. We were all sitting in great position though with 2 or 3 laps to go. There were enough big motors up front that we were holding a pretty good speed and things were looking great. Then it happened, some idiot had to crash in the middle of a straight away, not only that by he had to do it right in front of me. Luckily I was able to weave my way through his body and his tumbling bike, but not before losing all my speed and 20 or more spots. Now I had to sprint just to try and hold that spot, and then jump a large gap up to the lead of the race again. 2 corners later and another idiot crashes in front of me, on a straight away. Again I had to slow to miss him and that was all she wrote. There was one lap to go and there was no way I was making up a block that quickly, and even if I could have I would have had nothing left for the finish.

Finkszilla was still able to save some face and took a payout place in 16th. Jason did another great job placing 6th. Once again he was able to put himself in get position and he has the motor to finish things off. With two corners to go the sprint was opened up and Jason tried to jump wheels and follow the leader into the 2nd to last corner. Once through that turn the speed is so high and the finish so close the placings were just about a done deal. That is one long sprint!

As soon as we finished the 3s race we jumped into the masters race. I didn't know how this was going to work out as I had never done two races back to back of each other. I didn't have any expectations and was looking to get just a little more speed work in the legs. I had found out the hard way the day before that masters racing is nothing to scoff at. Those dudes are fast! It was pretty cool to be riding with guys like Brian Jenson, and curent pro riders. That is until they decide they want to start racing for real and put us wanna be's into the pain cave of despair. I lasted 16 min and once I was dropped I was lapped in something like one lap. Once they lapped my the officials kicked me to the curb, and my weekend was over.

This is one tough weekend of racing. I don't know if I will ever be able to contend here. There are a lot of big hitters that come for the money, and tradition of these prestigious races. I'll keep at it but I have a long way to go.

Next weekend is another big weekend of racing, and just about the whole road team will be riding. First we are heading up to Glencoe, IL for the Glencoe Grand Prix. It is a great course hosted in a very nice neighborhood, and it has a ton of support. Then we are going to haul ass, and bikes, back south down to Rolla, MO to partake in the Hellbender road race. This is a difficult road race with some tough climbs and a lot of miles. It should be a good warmup for the MO state road race the next weekend.

Melon City

The three of us decided to race twice today in the Masters 30+, and the Cat 3 race. It was my first time racing in masters and I really didn't know what to expect. I have always heard that masters racing is very tough, especially for someone who isn't a Cat 1. We were slotted for 14 laps on a 1 mile circuit with only one real turn, a long fast downhill, a LARGE speed bump at the bottom of said hill, a long tough drag up a hill, and a 180 degree turn at the top and about 150 meters to the finish line.

I didn't feel like the race was too tough until a rider attacked up the long drag uphill. I followed the attack and had to work very hard trying to get back on terms with the break. The only thing I hope I ended up doing was keeping things together enough for my teammates Jason and Eric to stay in the race. But once we hit the hill again it was all gone, there was nothing left. I looked over my shoulder as rider blasted past me hoping that there were enough riders that I could catch the back on the pack and hold on, but it was not to be. I decided that I wasn't going to quit and just settled in for the last few laps. It sucked but quitting was not an option today. I was really pretty upset about being dropped. I didn't think that the race had been that hard until it was and that was it. I felt better when I fellow St Louisan told me there were ex-pro racers in the race that put it to us.

Getting ready for the last race I did just about nothing. The last two races I had tried to make sure I warmed up really well so my legs were ready for the efforts. But there was something I remembered from Steve Tilford that when it is warm, warming up is just wasting energy and could cause you to over heat, a problem that I have, and had just the day before. So instead I just road around in some circle to keep the blood in my legs moving and stayed as cool as possible. It seemed to work pretty well.

The Cat 3 race was much bigger than the masters, and it was longer at 18 laps. I had no expectations and only hoped to finish the race. The 3s races this weekend are filled with very young and strong Jr. races. I think this is great! I wish we had more of these kids in the St Louis area to keep the sport going. They are fast as hell but they handle a bike like a noodle. They are all over the place and are very nervous around others. I don't know what their coaches teach them, but they need to work some bike skill work into their workouts. A 16 year old who can go that fast, and push themselves as deep as some of them can, is like giving a Ferrari the the same kid. They can't handle it. It also may help to let these kids ride whatever gearing they want. I read over and over again how low impact riding a bike is, and the only reason I have ever heard is USAC doesn't want to wear out knees. In my experience with knee problems, and I have had a few good ones, this is not a problem at all as long as a kid is fit on a bike properly. Trying to pedal at 130 rpm and going 30+ miles per hour is hard, and causes these kids to wobble all over the place.

Anyways these kids made the race a little more interesting with there sudden movements, and the easy by which they scare. It is kinda funny.

The race was pretty fast, and nothing really got a chance to get away till just a few laps to go. One of the problems with the field chasing the 2 man break down was one of the larger teams in the race, a Jr team decided to sit up even though they had no one in the break. This should be pretty easy for them to know they need to chase. But if their coach, or coaches is only coaching them on being motors with no brains they may not know. Or they race as individuals and not as a team, whatever, the break didn't make it. As we neared the last lap I knew I was in a bad spot, too far back and I was going to either use a match to move up, get lucky to move up, or wind my way between other riders, which isn't too safe while flying downhill at 40+mph. So I hoped to get lucky as I also knew trying to get to the front, or stay at the front going up the final hill might put me out of the spint anyways. Going into the last lap however, my teammate Jason Wulff made a great move up the left side of the road before turn one and put himself in the top 10 at least. It was awesome to watch his pure power shooting him up the side. Then again as we ascended the final hill Jason again showed his great power moving up into better position for the sprint. I didn't go all out up the climb hoping I would be able to sprint once at the top. However this lost me quite a few places and that was it for me. I'm not sure if this was what I needed to try, or if going all out was the way to go? Eric Finks was one of the riders that made up some places on my going up the final climb. It looked like he would be able to get into a good slot for the sprint but was boxed in and then rounding the final 180 turn he hit the curb and went down. Luckily he landed mostly in the grass and compared to his last crash he came out pretty well.

We hung around to watch the men's Pro1/2 race and wow, I have no idea how they do it. First a rider from Bissell Nuvo broke away and had up to a 40 second lead on the field for maybe 25% of the race. Then riders bridged to him, attacked him, and tried to break him, but this rider was able to go time after time and stayed with the front. Finally however the field was able to gobble up that break, but the race was far from over. with somewhere near 150 riders, it was extremely tough for anyone at the back of the field. The slowing into corners, and accelerations out, made every corner a sprint for these guys. Consequently there was a large percentage that were not able to finish the race. I heard it was something like 60%.

There was attack after attack but no one was able to hold on till about 5 laps to go a strong break took off with about 6 riders in it. A lap later one rider, again from Bissell Nuvo attacked this group and had a large gap quickly. I don't know how one does something like this. I would think these guys have to be hurting and then they decide they want to hurt ten times worse. That is the difference between them and me, for now. So this rider was able to hold of the chase group of 5, a rider in between the break and the pack, and the pack. It was amazing to watch and you could see his his amazing power as he hammered on the pedels as he climbed the course's hill.

One of the great things I saw in the last race was the Gateway Harley U23 team and their obvious improvement over last year. These are young, but very strong guys that race against us and it is great to see them really catching their stride.

Tomorrow we are headed to the last race in the weekend's series, in Rock Island. This is a pan flat, like seriously flat 8 corner course. It is fast, technical, and fast....o yeah and fast. We are planning on racing two races again, but the master's race is immediately after the 3 race so we will have to see how that works out. Updates to come.

 This is the bottom of the long, 30-45 sec climb, it hurts.