Winfield ABR Championship Criterium, Winfield, IL, August 14, 2011

With yesterday’s DNF embarrassment still painful in my mind, I drove back over to Winfield for the second race of the weekend. I was worried about how today’s hill would feel after my weakness on yesterday’s incline. However, the hill on this course is quite different.

The course is a big rectangle. Shortly after leaving the start/finish there is a left turn, followed a block later by the long straightaway up the 2-step hill. There is a bit of flat before the road tilts upward, so the momentum gained along that section is almost enough to get you over the first section. Then there is a brief flat followed by the steep “kicker” at the top. Then there is a left-hand turn into a block-long downhill (with some horrible pavement, I might add), followed by one more left hand turn into the long downhill to the start/finish.

Only about 25 riders rolled to the line for the Cat 4 race, and this has been a disturbing trend all season. Turnout for many of the races over these past few months has been down from the last few years. The blogs and boards are all a-twitter with speculation as to why this is, and there appear to be no easy answers.

After the usual instructions we took off for 35 minutes plus 3 laps. I had no teammates in my field, but my brother Kev was on the sidelines cheering me on. Throughout the race he did a complete circuit of the course, so each lap I heard his encouragement at different points.

For most of the race, I felt good. I was managing the hill with few problems, and had no difficulty regaining ground any time I found myself too far back for comfort. There were some attacks on the hill, but none of them got away, and I was able to cover all of them. I always made sure to be near the front of the field, since the acceleration coming off of the hill was always intense. Before I knew it, the lap counter was already showing that we were 15 minutes in.

I shook out the legs and sipped my Gatorade every chance I could to keep the tank topped off. I kept a close eye on the lap cards, and soon we hit the 30 minute mark. I told myself that I just had to hang on for 5 more laps.

As we came across the line with 2 laps to go, I was at the very front of the field and still feeling pretty relaxed. Kev shouted his encouragement, and I was feeling good enough that I even smiled and stuck out my tongue at him. So far, so good.

Or so I thought. We had lowered the pace quite a bit, and in hindsight this was a big mistake. As we entered came out of turn two and were facing the hill, we were probably only somewhere in the low 20s. As soon as the gradient increased, several riders launched a vicious assault. When I stood up on the pedals to match their acceleration, it was as if someone hit an “off” switch somewhere deep in side of me. My heart rate redlined and my legs turned to mush. I struggled my way to the top of the hill, going in reverse of what everyone else was doing. My only hope was to be able to grab back onto the peloton on the downhill. But it wasn’t to be.

Despite my best efforts, I ended up riding the last lap alone, picking off one rider on the final downhill to snag 22nd out of 23 finishers. I was not happy to have ridden so well for 97% of the race only to have it fall completely apart during the last 3%. But I took some consolation that I had recovered a little bit of dignity after the previous day’s DNF.

And, all in all, it was a good weekend for the Bicycle Heaven crew. David Pratt won the Cat 5 races both days, and on Sunday Hal took 2nd in the 40+ Cat 4, Andy Kerr was 3rd in the 50+, Peter Kelly and Eric Christ took 7th and 8th in the Cat 3, and Andy Swims snagged 8th in the 30+.

Winfield Twilight Criterium, Winfield, IL, August 13, 2011

Today was the first of two races put on by ABD this weekend in Winfield. I hadn’t participated in this race since the 2009 edition, and faithful readers will recall that it had kicked my butt. I wish I could say that this year was different. I also wish that I was a multi-millionaire living on a private island in the San Juan Islands. But some things just aren’t in the cards…

How was the course? Well, to plagiarize my own report from 2009, it is a mile-long loop raced counter-clockwise through a residential neighborhood. As soon as you left the start/finish and rounded the first sweeping left-hand curve you were faced with a 300 meter climb that topped out at 6.2%. From there it was all downhill…at the top of the hill was a left-hand turn followed by a few technical left and right turns.

Rider turnout for the Cat 4 race was incredibly weak. Only about 22 riders rolled to the line for 30 minutes plus 3 laps, and when the whistle blew we took off at a brisk pace. Hal was my only Bicycle Heaven teammate in the field. I was near the front of the field the first time up the hill. Of course, there was mad acceleration turning off of the hill, and I found myself losing ground. The pack strung out, but bunched up again the 2nd time up the hill. Already my legs were starting to sing, and not in a good way. They were singing like Yoko Ono.

Well, the long and short of it is that at 8 minutes I was gassed, at 10 minutes in I was gapped, and at 20 minutes in I was lapped. The official didn’t pull me, and I soldiered on for another 10 minutes. At that point, the rain started up again. In hindsight I should have just sucked it up and finished the race, but I have seen too many crashes caused by miscellaneous detritus (i.e. lapped riders) on the course. Today, I was a piece of that detritus. So as I came across the line after 30 minutes, I eyeballed the official and made the throat-cutting “I’m done” motion. DNF.

I had hoped for better, but I knew that the next day would be a chance to redeem myself.