Cobb Park
So - riding down in Florida was like it always is - Hot and flat. I did get over 200 miles in that week but then followed it up with a week of near nothing. Between the business and work and supplier shortages on both fronts ...anyway.
Needless to say I was looking at Cobb Park as an opportunity to push my body back into "oh...yeah this is what it's like" mode. I decided to only race the 30+ 4/5 instead of the multiple races I could have done. I got there in time to see the end of the 4's. On their last lap someone washed out in the last real turn before coming down and around to the finish. Our man Joe got taken out but a majority of the guys I was watching made it through.
Joe tore up his hand and was under the impression that he had broken his collarbone....so he decided he was good to race the next race.
The field was a little thinner (in count - not weight) than normal. Can only guess it was because of ToAD action up in Cheeselandia. The wreck in the 4's must have taken out the really sketchy guys because our race went fairly smoothly...mostly. 1 or 2 laps in I was chatting with Bryan Fuller when a Turin rider moved right in the tight left hand turn 2 and caused a chain reaction that ended with Bryan getting pinched on the curb there - going down in slow motion and at low speed. Kind of a, "hey....hold it....wha?....nOOooooo...OOOOumph! <crack, crackThud>".....so I accelerated. It's like instinct.
As I came around I saw Bryan's wife sitting there and was able to yell, "Bryan WENT DOWN!" then realized I should add, "BUT HE's FINE!"
He re-joined after his free lap and we went back to the do-si-do that is midwestern crit racing - riding around and waiting for the sprint to happen. I felt fairly good and chalked it up to an easy crit. Turns out i don't think it ended up being slow it was just that it was fairly smooth. Whomever was missing from that race that is normally there.....you might be the one that's been causing all the problems this season. Just sayin... 
It seemed to be my day to be caught behind wrecks. I saw a few small ones here and there. A guy clipped the curb in that little chicane thingy and went down hard in front of me. Still not sure how I made it around him but I did. Smelled my brakes for a while after that. As we started to ratchet it up in the las 4-5 laps guys started going down with a little more frequency. At one point someone overshot a turn and ended up riding over the grass/sidewalk. typical cat 4/5 stuff.
These little stutters combined with the driving on the front made for some accordion in the last few laps that claimed quite a few victims. I sat up a few times thinking..."this is it" but found I came back. ended up finishing right off the back of the pack. Same place....different week.
Joe nabbed 3rd after getting pinched at the line.
Joe with his payout. Nice.
After that I stuck around to see Scott Knoepke race the Cat3 race. He mentioned to me before that day that there would probably be a break. I was all, "no....not on that course...." shows what I know. There wouldn't be a break in any category I race in but with the 3's Jason K. attacked from the start. I knew Scott wanted to be in a break but he figured he was going to wait until about 30 minutes in before looking for one. This one was Jason though and the field was all black riding on the front. I knew he was going to have to go and catch it or be stuck racing around in the pack.
Sure enough he bridged up a few laps into it and the break was whittled down to 3. I started tracking time splits and was yelling them out. I could see Jason turning his head to hear so I was never really sure how much info was getting to the group or not. A couple of times the field tried to organize a chase - a guy here or there - but nothing was going. Lots of yelling in the pack from what I could hear. Lots of unhappy chasers. Simple numbers though - 2 guys in the break wearing black and the majority of the field....black jerseys. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on when they come through the "fast" section 4-6 wide and sitting up-right with all black jerseys on the front.
Scott in 2nd position in the 3 man break at Cobb Park. Photo: Luke Seeman
Whipple was still in the pack and if it was going to get shut down Whipple would be just the kind of guy to get it done. It seemed like he went after it early but then sat up. Turns out he's been sick all week and just didn't have it in him (get better John). I watched the splits go from :30 down to :25 when they were trying to chase and then they just worked their way up to :40-:50. With about 5-6 laps left when I yelled to the pack they were :50 or so back a couple of guys on the front just sat straight up. They were done. I yelled to the front group that was it and they were in with no chasing - ride smart and have fun and enjoy it.
I had a feeling Jason would launch. I have never watched him race but I am sure there aren't many who want to sprint against Scott - just from sizing him up. It's funny because he actually has a vicious TT motor....and can sprint when he needs to. Sure enough Jason went with a few to go and came in 1st. Scott had a great 3rd and a huge victory. Essentially he is still a brand new cat 3 who is still recovering from his surgery he had early this season.
In late reporting Jeff Bernaeyge nabbed wors race #4 3rd place sport single speed:
Far Left - Jeff Bernaeyge - WORS Race #4 - 3rd Place
Sponsored rider Debbie Dust also nailed a 5th at Grafton Pro 1/2/3 women's race - riding PSIMET 50mm carbon:
Debbie Dust riding PSIMET 50mm to 5th place at Grafton
To wrap up the rest of the updates I have missed recently - Sherman park, etc:
Raviv Wolfe - Wonder Lake - 2nd 4/5 masters, 4th cat 4. **upgraded to a 3**
Tim Speciale - 1st place Wonder Lake Cat 3 - Hells Yes.
Scott Knoepke - 3rd Sherman Park Cat 3, 8th Wonder Lake cat 3
John Low - 7th Wonder Lake Cat 5
Rubber side down. Let's go racing!
Quarq Group Buy
PSIMET, LLC is now officially a Quarq dealer and to celebrate I have opened a Group Buy on Bike Forums. Check it out: http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?268-Group-Buy
Cog passion
As most of you know have been buried to my neck in wheel builds for quite some time. Every spare moment goes towards building and buying parts. E-mail replies are much slower than I would ever accept, etc.....
It is slowly clearing up though. I can see the light for sure. As a result I have started to see something else. It's an unmistakable rediscovery of my passion or the bike. Riding, maintaining, the community and the culture.
Riding is the center of the passion. Being in the saddle. Feeling the wind. Smelling the horrid BO from the college kid 3 up from you who hasn't showered or washed his kit in God knows how long. It's the sound of the tires on the pavement; the gentle resonant hum that comes from the wheels and drivetrain at speed. Climbing a hill with a gentle breeze - full zip jersey un-zipped and flapping.
Cornering. It becomes a rush. You lean, look through the corner, and then there is that moment when you commit. It's a process of giving yourself over from the illusion of control to the reality of the machine and the elements. It's that split second. In that moment I relax. I feel. I ride.
I've gotten into a lot of situations during that moment and I have always been surprised at how quickly my body reacts. I say body because at that point the mind isn't really "thinking". It's simply keeping a steady, monotone like hum going. It's not disengaged just not as in control.
Then you hear that sound. That tire sound. Almost like the sound of a wet paint roller on a wall.
You could hit the deck. You could pedal strike.
Nope....just that clenching as the g-forces wash over you.
Jump and accelerate.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
<cowbell> garble, garble, garble, garble, prime!!
"Was that the prime bell?"
"Don't know. How far are we in?"
"Was it for cake?! Beer?"
"Where's Joe?"
"Who is that off the front? Are his riders blocking?"
"Hey guys! I hear that guy is fast! You better chase him down!" *giggle*
<"INSIDE">
"DUDE!"
<"Hey Rob.">
"Hey man! Haven't seen you in a while. What's wrong man? you know you're in the wrong place if you're near me..."
That moment in the pain. That moment where you feel like you're going to explode.
That rush you feel when you finish up the ride or race. No so much a feeling of accomplishment as much as relief at the removal of the source of suffering.
I realized that I now get nervous at the line - not because of the race, the course, or the competition but because of the anticipation of the pain. No matter what it's going to hurt, and no matter what I will be back for more.
Bob is fine
Got an email tonight from Beverly Bob.
"Hey I met your twin in Florida. By the way, yes I'm ok. I hit the grass. And that is the only way your going to beat me. Lol
Bob"
Bob being Bob
KAWOR Stage 1 – Monsters of the Midway (MoM)
KAWOR - Kick Ass Weekend Of Racing.
This weekend was to shape up to be one of the first big race weekends of the year. I had 3 races already registered and could add another 2 depending on how I felt. I knew I wasn't ready, but what's that adage: "I'll race into shape." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...anyway.
Monsters was shaping up to look good. I was actually feeling strong this week. I had a bit of an unplanned break coming into it and it was enough to help me feel really good. I was kind of looking forward to how I was going to do.
I got there in time to see that Eric Blankenship of the ReCycling Team who said he rolled his tire and dragged his tubular rim across the pavement. Checking it out it dawned on me, "oh yeah, this is the race where there are some seriously fast and hard wrecks. I forgot." That started working in my head. I have had this weird feeling for a long time during races that I have been due to hit the deck. It's strange because when I get that feeling during a race I relax and this calmness comes over me. It doesn't check up my riding at all in fact I think it makes me smoother.
I was on the trainer and warming up - an infrequent occurrence for me but a good thing because if I can actually swing it I do MUCH better. It sucks being old. Anyway - I saw Bob. This would be the great and wonderful Spongebob Beverly Bike Pants Murray. "Beverly Bob". I thought, "Oh, hells yes. I am not in shape, but today....I'm going to kick Bob's ass."
We finally got lined up and ready to go. Same nerves as always. Bob ended up right in front of me and Tony Rienks. I had that opportunity to tell him I was going to kick his ass today. He mentioned something about me being fat. I felt the love for sure. ;)
Race started out like normal. Sketchy and timid like a bunch of kids at prom wondering if they were going to get lucky or just crash and burn. I will have to say I have never seen so much turnover in a race. It was kind of crazy. You can usually say, "if you're not moving up you're moving back", butthis was ridiculous. The front to back and back to front movement was so intense and rapid you could change field position from both extremes 2-3 even 4 times during EVERY lap.
Cat 4 racing around here has kind of turned into what pro racing is with race radios. Everyone has read up what they "should" do via the internet and listening to their now "knowledgeable" elder statesmen on their teams. As a result you end up with a swarming throng of skittish masses constantly moving to the front only to sit up and slow everything down until they get swarmed by the next mass. A lot of people call it negative racing - let's sit around and try to be 10th wheel until the sprint, but it's racing and it's what we have.
Within this mess is a few of us elder guys that are perpetual cat 4 pack fodder that try to offer up some advice here and there to help keep things a little bit safer. I personally was having a ton of fun. I found the race pace fairly easy - although I think we did shed a few guys - and ended up talking the whole race. It's either that or I end up zoning out - turn.shift.accelerate.shift.setup.turn.accelerate.....-which can be a dangerous thing. I started yelling things like, "hey that guy is really fast someone should chase him down" with no target in mind, etc. Fun stuff.
Yes - I hate when people complain about the goings on in a pack of cat 4 or cat 5 racers. Duh...by definition it will be that way. Accept it or upgrade. I have to admit though that at Monsters I was getting a little fed up with the braking before and in the corners. At least one hairy legged rider from a team I won't mention except for their initials "WDT" was changing lines in every corner like some of my customers change their minds on nipple color. Between that and the huge adjustments he was making to small movements in front of him I found myself within personal hygiene proximity to him on more than one occasion. At one point after someone else grabbed a handful of brake in turn 2....seriously...in turn 2 - I finally yelled, "Guys! No one should have to brake in the corners but if you do - grab your brakes like you would a woman - nice and soft". Upon reflection - most of that pack was filled with a lot of young meat. That concept may have still be foreign to them.
With 3 laps left as we came down the front straight and approached turn 1 I made a loud announcement to the pack which was all together - "There's 3 laps left. Everyone is felling really twitchy right now. Ride safe and heads up. This course is known for big wrecks. Let's try to avoid that." - of course in late race oxygen debt this was probably paraphrased.
With two left on the back straight it happened. I could see it about a depth of 8 riders in front of me two guys leaned into each other hard. I don't know if that was the first thing that happened or not, but I heard what sounded like a bunch of, "Arrrrrrrrrgh", "NO!!!", "UUHHHHH!"s followed closely by the sounds of carbon, brakes, tires locking up, carbon hitting aluminum hitting asphalt, etc. It was a slo-motion domino all the way back. I caught the tail end just as I was almost stopped and/or around. Same as Sherman park last year - I saw the last guy in front of me slide more and more my way - ending with me riding over his wheels and going down. I know I didn't hit that hard - so get up and go. I heard a sigh come from somewhere and knew that wasn't going to be good. There was a lot of groaning and bitching like usual. Tony Reinks was down and started to get up and bark orders to everyone proving his elder statesmenship within the cat 4 peloton hierarchy. "If you can get up then get up! Help the others that can get up to get up and get off the road. Get out of the way if you can they are going to be coming around soon." His authority was so commanding I half stopped as I was mounting up to finish to help pull people out of the way. Tony gets the "PSIMET level headed awesomeness award of the day".
As I start to ride away I see the damage immediately - Shifter bent in, saddle pointed up and twisted. I rode the last lap and a half that way....standing. It sucked.
After the race it was a rush as I bent the saddle back, re-leveled it, and pushed the shifter back. I had to adjust the shifting as it was now out of whack as well. Opened the brakes as the cable tension shifted - must have moved the shifter as well. I was ready to go when we got the signal that it was going to be hurry up and wait - there was an ambulance out there. Someone must have broken a collarbone or something. The only good news out of all of that is.....I beat Bob. Even through the wreck. I hope you're OK Bob....but a victory is a victory. I'll take it.
I was shotting the poo with Andrew Zens from Spidermonkey in between races. We were recounting all of the stupid shiz that had just occurred - along with his string of bad luck including the last lap curb-CAAD bending event at Vernon -"Chainring Tatoo on the back" - HOLLAR! It is then it dawned on me we were going back out there....but this time with 5's in tow.
This was going to be the first time I was racing with a bunch of my 5's on the team. I didn't actually see them much during the race though. :( - not sure why- maybe positioning thing. I rode the second race well. Power was lower but the pace seemed a little more driven to string everyone out. What WAS annoying was the myriad of newbs calling out the bump/ditch on the back straight.....every.....f'n......lap. After a few laps I started saying, "AMAZING....IT'S AT EXACTLY THE SAME SPOT IT WAS LAST LAP!" Some others started joining and towards the end there was as much of a chorus of us as there was "bump" callers.
The final lap was looking OK but I was definitely out of position. By the final turn I was too far back to try to do anything for sure, I went and put a few heavy pedal strokes in and then sat up. I know better but I did anyway and watched as I lost 10+ positions to guys who were burning to the end. Meh.
I had other things on my mind - Stage 2 of the KAWOR! - Wheels on Willy. Report on that later...
Friends and Family…
Please forgive me. I no longer call. I no longer write.
I don't spend hours aimlessly posting on bikeforums. I no longer post updates to my blog on a daily basis.
I have been finding that even in normal conversations I can't even keep my attention focused. I am thinking about 3 steps ahead and all of the other stuff I have to do.
Amazingly though I am calm. Satisfied. Chaos must make me happy.
Customers: If you have been waiting on a quote - apologies.
Why the sudden confession of sorts?
.....ugh....
A full build queue....begging for time and attention at every waking moment
300W+Headwind+Gravel=10mph
Leland. Meh. The title says it all.
So....what else is new?
Raviv is off to Gila. He's a hos. No doubt about it.
Scott is recovering from his hernia surgery....by riding. For some reason I feel guilty just thinking about that.
Iowa. There was a race omnium there this last weekend. Being Tim Speciale alma matter he saw fit to head that way and unleash the awesome. He did OK. Got enough points to upgrade. He'll be a 3 now. Raviv isn't far behind.
So Matt Cook - our red-headed 2010 version of Ryan Austin - went along with Tim to Iowa. Now this guy has promise. He's a 5 but carries himself on a bike with that gait of a natural rider. He's made quick progress in a short period of time but it seems his season has been filled with lots of luck. The bad kind.
Let's start at the beginning: Matt, brother of someone near and dear to Speciale, was brought into the sport late last fall. Speciale worked long and hard to cobble together a rig that Cook could throw a leg over and call his own. The result is a hodge-podge of gear that is either completely worn out or cast aside. Every time I get in a line behind him I am waiting for the thing to start dropping pieces. Yet he rides it. Hells yes.
Before Hillsboro Speciale had me order up some decent but cheap tires for Cook to get him through the season. Because Speciale ended up on the PSIMET carbon for Hillsboro he gave Cook the opportunity to ride on his powertap. Last minute tire and tube swap and Cook was cooking with gas.
4 miles in to the 5's race - flat. He spent the rest of the race in the chase truck. I felt bad for him having to go all that way down there to flat in the first 4 miles. On the way back Speciale discovers that there is a hole in the sidewall - Cook must have put the tire lever through it mounting the tire that morning.
Flash forward to last couple of weeks. Every ride Cook goes out on he gets a flat. WTF!? I am not there but keep hearing about it. I'm starting to think I need to watch him replace a tube. Last Tuesday he flats again. Twice. In the same ride. Somethings up but I use it as an opportunity to poke fun at him.
So we go out riding Thursday. Going into a turn - POP! I was behind him and watched it happen. It was an over pressurization failure - tube no longer restrained by the tire for sure. I look it over and nothing. I pull the tube out and it indeed has the telltale longitudinal tears but they are very small. I am careful to keep the tire on and oriented the same as the tube so I can study the sidewall.... it's torn.....
Just then Ryan comes up and says, "hey, his brake in the rear on the right side was rubbing." The tire has a groove worn all along it from where the brake pad had been rubbing on the tire every time he hit the brakes. *sorry Pandora just kicked in with Cake - going the distance* This was pure ball-busting gold. All I could think about was all of the problems he's had with flats and he never once figured out the root cause - tons of tubes, 2 tires...nothing. It was almost like someone had asked him when the last time he changed the oil in his car and he responded with, "you have to change that?" In the end I was just happy we found the root cause and I could be reasonably certain he wasn't going to be affect by flats like he was.
So - with everything working as it should- he set off to Iowa. I got the following text from Speciale after the road race:
"I got nipped at the line and finished 4th...matt got hit by a f*****g..deer"
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaa.
an hour later I got around to asking if he was OK. I guess I just knew he was. I called him later in the day to get his report - "everything was going great then someone yelled 'DEER!' at the same moment I saw something big, brown and furry off to my side. Before I knew what was going on I was on the ground. I f'n hate deer."
"I got right back on the bike and kept racing. I didn't really know where I was or what I was doing for about 10 minutes. Then I dropped my chain twice and got it stuck. Somethings up with the bike. I need a new helmet too."
Tim Speciale and Matt Cook Warming Up. Photo: Katie Cook
Matt's Revenge. Photo:Katie Cook
PSIMET Racing TT Victories
Congrats to PSIMET Sponsored Rider Debbie Dust for winning the Women's Open category at the John Fraser Memorial Time Trial on Sunday while riding some PSIMET 50mm carbon clinchers. not only did she win her category her second run was 3rd fastest as well. She was also the fastest woman of the day!
Her blog report is here:
http://velogoddess1.blogspot.com/2010/04/game-on.html
Results are here:
http://www.ambikerace.com/2010/resuts/JFMTTresults.pdf
Also congrats to Joe Berenyi!! His 4th place in Sunday's TT (1 day after Hillsboro) secured him the overall victory in Cat 4 for the entire series.
http://www.abdcycling.com/results/2010/indoorttseries/overall.pdf
Hillsboro Recap
2nd Place Cat 4 - How Speciale.
....a brick...house.....
Hillsboro. That Southern Illinois early spring getaway. The land of my ancestors...OK...just my mother and her family. I have spent so many nights in hotels in Litchfield I am starting to feel like a local.
Friedman, Knoepke, Tabor and myself all headed down late on Friday. This gave us an opportunity to appreciate the Illinois scenery at dusk and early night. I have found this to be the best time to appreciate this vast expanse of corn and goodness we call home. It makes the driving...uh...yeah.
Scott had hooked us up in a place called something like, "America's Best Country Inn"-ish uh thingy. Upon arrival we were told that it would cost more....because we had 2 in each room. *wha?* The rooms themselves were interesting. Scott made sure I knew that the toilet didn't have "enough Oooomph" to "power down" any "real damage". Nice right? 
To top it off he placed a pleasant thought about the beds, the state of soil on the sheets and that the only people probably using them were old people.....nighty-night!
6:15 came and we made a beeline for the place:
Breakfast. Of. Champions. - L to R Joel Friedman, Matt Cook, Kyle Tabor, Tim Speciale, and Scott Knoepke
Turns out 4 hours before a road race should be perfect timing for a meal...but I should have had something before the start.
I brought some carbon for Speciale to ride. I have been concentrating on riding my powertap, and let's face it I will learn more from that than I will benefit from the carbon at this point...which really means I am waiting for my powertap hubs to come in so that I can build some for me...err....the uh....team....demo....product... yeah.
So once we got to the race I was busy mounting tires, cassette, setting brakes, etc. Kudos to Speciale letting my mess with his setup the morning of a race. Especially since we all knew he would most likely be in contention. I may not race well, but this is my thing....and I do it well.
I got my frequent flyer card punched at the porta-pottys - I have a coffee cup made out of toilet paper as a free gift on the way. We waited....and then waited....and then waited.... I had my cat 5 moment of zen as I was called out by an official for having one of my numbers too high. Luckily Nikki Cyp re-pinned me. It TOTALLY took me back.
Waiting....L-R: Kyle in black helmet behind, Raviv, Me, Joe Berenyi
So...race... Epic Failure. As predicted.
The race started like a cat 5 crit. There was so much nervous energy. The pack started this death cycle between all out and all on the brakes. I know why it happens. I try to not let it bother me...just deal with it but this time it was hard. In a crit it's easier to deal with. Go outside into the wind and get up near the front. Done. In a road race....ugh. Ben Dover.
"got you're whole fist up there doc? Is that a ring?"
I was pegged but felt OK...kind of....I guess... I felt in control but ten out of the blue at about 9 miles in I popped. Instantly and permanently. Usually if I pop I just rapid out the back, recover for a second and then I am back on it. This time it was like slow motion. It took forever to make my way back through the pack and then they hung out in front of me like a carrot for a while. It was sooooo demoralizing.
After review - coach says the following: "The reason you were popped is because your w/kg for aerobic efforts isn't high enough. In other words, you need to lose the 10-15lbs and keep the power, or raise the power by a lot. You know this, but it will help hearing it from me." It's like telling a smoker that lighting up is going to kill him.
Soon after as I was thinking about the rest of the crappy ride to come I hear Richard Lenski come up on me. Myfirst thought was, "what the hell was he doing there?" He said he got put into a ditch early on. He's in great form and really should have been in the mix. I latched on and helped for a few seconds before I realized I was not going to even be able to help him.
I bid him luck and at that time I noticed my man Carlos Flanders - AKA- Colm Flannery walking around on the side of the road. He wrecked last year so my first thought was that he had hit the deck again. Turns out he snapped his chain. I stopped and gave him my multi-tool with a chain tool on it, and reluctantly headed off again.
Soon I ended up in a decent sized group of OTB fodder. There was a junior in there who was fairly strong but was just really doing some iffy stuff. Going to the front and then sitting. Guttering us in the crosswind, etc. finally we all yelled and got a semblance of a line going. We made decent time and before we knew it we were back in town. I was climbing the early rises fairly well - dropping a lot of our group on each one. Then we hit the feed zone and the hill after.
Time for me to lose the extra 10-15. It's killing me. My power is there but the weight has gone up. I watched the group slowly ride away from me on the climb. I got to bomb the hill and bricks at least. That's my favorite parts. I tried to break 50 but fell short. I LOVE flying into that section and block hopping (that's a new PSIMET term for taking a bunny hop that goes for a block at that speed) on to the different pavement sections.
As I came around the finish I was thinking - "30 more miles. alone...in the wind...." when I looked over and say the cat 5 and women's 4 PSIMET crew sitting in the grass enjoying the sun. No brainer. my race was over. Let's enjoy the day. I pulled off and soon saw that Lenski had pulled off as well.
I enjoyed watching everything else unfold. Joel Sprinted to a 6th place finish in the 3's - only to be disqualified for yellow line violations. Scott held his own...literally...he held in his hernia to finish respectfully. amazing really considering how dehydrated and hungry he was as well.
In the 4's finish i got to watch John Whipple win with authority. An amazing job by John for sure. He's an animal in lycra and not long for the 4's as we all knew last fall. I watched 2 others cross the line and then our own Tim Speciale. Turns out the other two were masters racers finishing up and Speciale was second on the 4's. He got a brick. PSIMET was on the podium and it was done on a set of PSIMET carbon. Nice.
A brick to be had.
Apart from my performance it was a great day for PSIMET Racing -
Cat 4 Women:
Crystal louden - 27th <- first race ever! Nice job Crystal!
Cat 5 Men:
Arron Hampton - 6th place <- Nice job Arron!
Matt Cook - flat at mile 4. "DOH!"
Cat 4 Men:
Tim Speciale - 2nd - Brick
Raviv Wolfe - 8th (was originally DNF until we caught it and went back to "protest")
Joe Berenyi - 38th
Kyle Tabor - 40th
Rob Curtis - one of the 26 DNF's ugh.
Cat 3 Men:
Scott Knoepke - 43rd
Hillsboro is coming
This weekend we will all pile into some form of combined transportation and ferry several lycra clad urban wannabes to the land of my ancestors (well....my mothers side at least). We will then attempt to prove to ourselves that we don't totally suck and all that food we ate during the Holidays has been sucessfully converted into hammers to be dropped at will as we stare at the farmlands of Southern Illinois.
Alas - it pains me to have the only real road race of size and importance at such an early time of the season. it sets such a massive tone of failure as you're decimated by the 3-4 rising stars or still peaking cyclo-crossers as their last harrah. At least this year I know I am packing a bucket of suck up front. This will be a long training ride with a bib number on and a high pace to start with. No more. No less.
It will be good to see my people again - along with the opportunity to bask in the glorious sun....before I return to the truing stand - recharged and focused.
Ah.... Hillsboro....meh.