Tuesday Night Crits, Matteson, IL, June 23, 2009

It seems to me that one of the definitions of "insanity" should be "racing one's bike for two hours when the heat index is over 100 degrees." Be that as it may, I made the long drive from Elburn to Matteson to meet up with Kev, Chris, and John for the summer-long series known as the Tuesday Night Crits.

I had last ridden these races two weeks ago when the weather was a bit more favorable. At that time, my sole WFR teammate was Derek. As is par for the course, we did three races that night...a 15k, a 30k, and another 15k. All in all, things went well for me. I almost got shed off the back of the pack 8 laps into the 1st 15k race, but managed to catch back on and finish with the field. I did get blown off after 20 laps of the 30k race. I ground it out alone until the field caught me with 3 laps to go. Since these are training crits, it is perfectly legit (and encouraged) to rejoin the field...so rejoin I did, and rode in with the field. Surprisingly, I felt much better in the 3rd race...again, I only finished mid-field, but felt comfortable and was never once in fear of getting popped.

Tonight saw the usual three races. On account of the heat, however, the 2nd race was reduced to 20k (again, sandwiched by two 15k races). In every race I had a similar experience to Cobb Park. That is, for the most part I felt strong and relaxed, managed to ride at the front for almost the entirety of each race, but then had no gas left in the tank to do anything but watch helplessly on the final lap as waves of riders surged around me to contest the sprint. With the exception of the last race of the night, when I think I managed to land a top-ten finish, mid-field finishes were all I could manage. The lesson that I'm taking from this is that, for as much fun as it is to ride up at the front, perhaps I need to also drop back at times to rest up within the safety of the peloton, move back up to the front with 3-4 laps to go, and then sprint like hell.

Despite a high temp of 91.4 and 66% humidity (thus sayeth my Garmin), the heat really only seemed brutal when we stopped riding. I have found that in the heat (no pun intended) of battle I tend not to notice the temperature anyway. The wind generated by moving 25-30 mph helped to keep things cooler, but when we were stopped at the line in between races was when the sweat really started pouring. Still, I managed to stay pretty well hydrated (going through 6 bottles in the course of a few hours, including warm-up and cool-down) and never got "the chills" like I had started to at Cobb Park.

I think that the heat did make me lose my cool (OK, that time the pun was intended) mid-way through the final race. We were flying at close to 30 mph, my legs were screaming at me, and my heart was redlining (I maxed out at 191). Kev was on my wheel, and a group of about 5 riders started to put a gap on the field. I was a few wheel lengths behind and heard Kev shout "close that gap, get on their wheels!" He was being a good teammate and giving me encouragement and in return I loudly blew up "if I could, I would!" Or something like that...my memory is a little fuzzy. Despite my temporary disbelief in my abilities, however, I did manage to grab onto some wheels and catch onto the group. So there is my mea culpa...sorry, Kev!

When all was said and done we had put in 33 miles of racing, averaging close to 25 mph. Weather permitting, I'll be doing these races again next Tuesday. Then my next "official" races are Superweek...I'm now registered for the Masters 30+ 4/5 races at Blue Island, Richton Park, Arlington Heights, and Bensenville.

See you at the races!