My first race back in MI was a Thursday Waterford Worlds with Alan. We were outnumbered by a 15+ Wolverine squad, but we were constantly on the attack. We each got in numerous breaks and then Alan was up the road after a prime with 5 minutes to go and managed to get the win, niiiiice!
Then there were 2 big money crits in IL, Tour de Champaign and the Urbana Grand Prix. The first day was a fast course and we were going pretty good until there was a nasty pile up in a corner with people bunching into each other. I managed to bunny hop a rider and the curb to save myself but popped out my shoulder in the process. I finished the race, but my nerves went downhill and I kept losing my position in the turns trying to be safe. The next day was a cool course with a bunch of turns and a U-turn before the finish. It was kind of like a cyclocross race and I was loving the course and feeling great until there was a crash right in front of me in the U-turn. I had to go wide to avoid it and almost turn around again before accelerating. Looking back, I should've taken a free lap, but I was confident in my ability to get back on. Though as soon as I made contact again, another crash happened right in front of me in the U-turn and after getting gapped again before getting a chance to recover I just couldn't close it again.. one day I will learn to use free laps... Anyway, we still had 3 guys who didn't get gapped off and they managed to seal the deal to get Rolf the win so it was all good!
Myself, Alan, Jeremy, Rolf, Cory, and Ryan.
I also raced Frankenmuth. It was an ok sized field, but the racing was rather boring since I was solo. I would put in some attacks and people would chase me, but then they would just sit up and let random people roll off the front easy and that's how the 2 lead breaks happened. So MI racing hasn't really changed at all, oh well.. I was pretty upset with the way the race was going so I was constantly attacking in the last lap. I went out with 10k to go with a San Jose rider and we had a pretty small gap for the last few money spots. We were going pretty hard, but I was on the verge of cramping so I couldn't drive it like I would have liked to. Was carrying 3 bottles, but still ran out of water before the last lap, bummer. We ended up getting caught with about 1k to go and I had nothing left for the sprint, also a bummer.
This past weekend I headed down to KY for the Tour of the Red River Gorge stage race. It featured an ITT and a 50 mile RR and a 92 mile RR with 9k of climbing. The TT went ok for me, there's still a lot for me to improve on in that discipline. The first RR was pretty sweet, our team was on the offensive with a full squad and so we were constantly attacking and countering the entire day to see what we could do. Our main goal was to finish Rolf up as high as possible in the overall and he managed to get in the break that stuck and finish 2nd on the day. I was tailing the Texas Roadhouse leadout train from the field and managed to get 11th. Sunday was probably one of the coolest road races I've ever done. The course featured multiple massive climbs (which I loved) which were followed by massive descents (which I detested) I managed to make it up in the top 2 groups in most of the climbs depending on my starting position, but then I would end up getting dropped in almost all of the descents (not my thing, especially when it's raining). We set up Rolf to launch an attack on the last major climb which totally shattered the field. A group of 10 rolled away and then there was nothing left of the pack. I was only a little bit behind the leaders, but they started grouping and hitting the following rollers hard and I couldn't close the gap. Grouped up with some people who caught me in the descent, but none of them seemed interested in chasing and I didn't want to drag them all around so I rolled in at 13th. It was a good weekend for the team though, Rolf ended up 3rd overall in the omnium and earned the title of the KY State Road Champion.
Drove back to MI
Drove to Cleveland to get my new frame and build it up
Didn't quite finish building the bike before attempting to do a local race
Drove back to MI
Finally some rest time
Mt. Pleasant this weekend, possibly a Nas-Track on friday. Finally, some drives under 3 hours :)
I also raced Frankenmuth. It was an ok sized field, but the racing was rather boring since I was solo. I would put in some attacks and people would chase me, but then they would just sit up and let random people roll off the front easy and that's how the 2 lead breaks happened. So MI racing hasn't really changed at all, oh well.. I was pretty upset with the way the race was going so I was constantly attacking in the last lap. I went out with 10k to go with a San Jose rider and we had a pretty small gap for the last few money spots. We were going pretty hard, but I was on the verge of cramping so I couldn't drive it like I would have liked to. Was carrying 3 bottles, but still ran out of water before the last lap, bummer. We ended up getting caught with about 1k to go and I had nothing left for the sprint, also a bummer.
This past weekend I headed down to KY for the Tour of the Red River Gorge stage race. It featured an ITT and a 50 mile RR and a 92 mile RR with 9k of climbing. The TT went ok for me, there's still a lot for me to improve on in that discipline. The first RR was pretty sweet, our team was on the offensive with a full squad and so we were constantly attacking and countering the entire day to see what we could do. Our main goal was to finish Rolf up as high as possible in the overall and he managed to get in the break that stuck and finish 2nd on the day. I was tailing the Texas Roadhouse leadout train from the field and managed to get 11th. Sunday was probably one of the coolest road races I've ever done. The course featured multiple massive climbs (which I loved) which were followed by massive descents (which I detested) I managed to make it up in the top 2 groups in most of the climbs depending on my starting position, but then I would end up getting dropped in almost all of the descents (not my thing, especially when it's raining). We set up Rolf to launch an attack on the last major climb which totally shattered the field. A group of 10 rolled away and then there was nothing left of the pack. I was only a little bit behind the leaders, but they started grouping and hitting the following rollers hard and I couldn't close the gap. Grouped up with some people who caught me in the descent, but none of them seemed interested in chasing and I didn't want to drag them all around so I rolled in at 13th. It was a good weekend for the team though, Rolf ended up 3rd overall in the omnium and earned the title of the KY State Road Champion.
Drove back to MI
Drove to Cleveland to get my new frame and build it up
Didn't quite finish building the bike before attempting to do a local race
Drove back to MI
Finally some rest time
Mt. Pleasant this weekend, possibly a Nas-Track on friday. Finally, some drives under 3 hours :)
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