Monsters of the Midway Criterium, Chicago, IL, May 14, 2011

I have been a little slow in getting this race report posted. The race was, after all, over a week ago. Why the delay, you ask? Well, because the race sucked. And I really have nothing deep about which to write. But if for no other reason than to have a comprehensive record of my season, here’s how it went down…

Why did it suck? For starters, it felt more like late March than mid-May. Skies were cloudy, temps were in the high 40s, and the wind was blustery. I had carpooled into the city with my brother Kev, and while warming up on the trainers we wondered aloud many a time as to why we were putting ourselves through this. Kev has his own reasons for mistrusting this race, having walked away from it two years ago with seven stitches in his upper lip.

As I pedaled away on the trainer, going nowhere, my lungs just didn’t feel all that good. Was it the weather? Was it something in the air? I tried to put it out of my mind, knowing full well that how I feel during a warmup often has no bearing on how I feel during the race.

63 riders had registered for the race, but only 52 rolled to the line. Bryan and Don were with me representing Bicycle Heaven. Kev was the sole Wheelfast rider. As to be expected, there were lots of xXx, Beverly Bike, Spidermonkey, and Rhythm Racing. We took off into the wind for 30 minutes of suffering.

The race was fast from start, as we drilled it down the long straightaways, trying to avoid the brutal cross wind. I just hung out at the back, not able to do anything to improve my lot in life. I would try to move up here and there, but my legs and lungs just weren’t doing what I needed them to be doing, and I never got up to where I wanted to be.

Having been in the “laughing group” at the back of the peloton the whole time I really can’t address what tactics were going on at the front. A couple of prime laps were called here and there. About 3 or 4 laps in I thought that we might slow down and relax for a few laps, but no dice. The front of the field kept hammering away and I just hung on for dear life. Poor Kev got popped and was pulled about 15 minutes in. He did cheer very loudly for me every time I came by, though.

One positive aspect of the race, though, is that for once there were no crashes. In stark contrast to years past, everyone was racing smart and safely. One unattached rider almost went down solo coming out of a turn…I don’t know if he had scraped a pedal or had come unclipped, but to his credit he kept it upright and no one plowed into him.

Sadly, with a mere two laps to go, my hopes of just clinging on for a pack finish were shattered. About halfway through the lap my body firmly said “nope” and the next thing I knew I was spit out the back. The crosswinds were so bad that as soon as you lost the protection of the peloton, you could kiss it goodbye forever. So, with Kev still yelling his encouragements I rode out the remainder of the race alone, finishing about half of a lap down from the field. Which meant that I missed seeing Bryan take 4th in the sprint.

I ended up being placed 29th. The officials “placed” the riders 50 deep, although not all of them finished (as Kev, in 47th, can attest). I also know that I wasn’t DFL out of the “true” finishers, since there were apparently a few groups behind me.

So, it was a disappointing day but there is still a lot of racing to be done. Now that the ABD Wednesday Night Crits at the Pelladrome have started back up, I’ll be hitting as many of those as possible. And I just registered today for the Tour of Galena criterium on Sunday, June 12. Stay posted…

Ronald Reagan Criterium, Dixon, IL, May 7, 2011

The 3rd annual edition of the Ronald Reagan Criterium marked the first time that I had participated in this race. A large part of my prior avoidance of this race was the fact that I knew it had some hills to it. Despite 4 years of training and racing in the Bay Area of California, Stephen and hills (at least at race speeds) simply don’t mix. But after sissying out on the Leland Kermesse, I had some penance to do. So, with a spiffy, newly-redesigned team kit in hand I headed over to Dixon.

The forecast had called for showers and moderate winds at race time, but fortunately the precipitation never materialized. Also, we were relatively well sheltered from the wind in downtown Dixon. Temps were pretty warm, so for the first time this season I rode sans arm and/or leg warmers.

The course was a figure-8 around the downtown area. After making a few right-hand turns we would be faced with a 2-block grinding uphill, with a couple of other, shorter “kicker” inclines before coming around to the start/finish again.

I can honestly say that this was the first race I have been in at which the field was treated to a history lesson at the line. The announcer went on for several minutes about the life story of our 40th president before we received final instructions and were whistled off by the official.

So, with Accept’s “Balls to the Wall” bouncing around in my head (very un-Reaganesque, I might say), I rolled off of the line with 34 other riders for the Masters 30+ 4/5 race. I was the only Bicycle Heaven representative in the field, along with a good showing from Psimet, xXx, Half Acre, Flatlandia, and others.

I was surprised to find myself feeling pretty good the first time going up the hill…and the next time, and the next. I worked really hard to shut the pessimistic “yeah, but just wait until the next time…or the 10th time” thoughts out of my head. As for the rest of the course, there were some rough areas of pavement, but for the most part the corners were wide open and everyone rode pretty safely. There was not (to my knowledge, at least) a single crash in the race. I didn’t even witness any near-misses.

After only 3 or 4 laps of “counting up the time,” the officials started counting down the laps. The first announcement that I remember was “13 to go!” I started using a mental trick that I picked up from my teammate Bryan on a recent training ride of sprint repeats up Johnson’s Mound. As we approached each climb, he had announced “only 4 more times after this one” as opposed to “5 more to go.” Knocking off one number, mentally, actually made a big difference.

The hill continued to feel good, and to my great surprise I was often able to gain position during the course of those two blocks. It was too bad, then, that I would lose any gains on the downhill and on some of the turns. I am well aware that one of my shortcomings is that I am reticent to bomb through corners at full speed, which means that I tend to scrub off bits of speed, which then results in loss of position.

I don’t recall any attacks going off the front, and if they did they didn’t stay away. From my position at the back of the field, it appears that we rode gruppo compatto the whole time. Going up the hill with 2 laps to go, I moved up the left side and got myself into the front third of the peloton. Of course, I failed to hold this position, and as we came around for the bell lap I was too far back again. The last time up the hill still felt relatively OK, but I wasn’t able to gain as much position as I would have liked. And then, after turning into the downhill the big surge started and the rubber band finally snapped. I started to fall back through the field, and in the end I finished dangling by myself, coming across the line about 10 seconds after the pack. I took 20th out of 25 finishers, so I was quite happy to find out that I had not been the lantern rouge.

All told, it was a great day for Bicycle Heaven. Justin took 4th in the 3/4 race, Jim took 13th in the Cat 5 race, and Adam took two primes in a row in the Masters 30+ 1/2/3 race before Patrick took the win with a throw of his bike (before going on to take 5th in the Pro 1/2/3 race). Next weekend is the Monsters of the Midway Criterium at the Midway Plaisance of the University of Chicago. Let’s hope that there will be fewer crashes than in years past…