Racing

Updated to include some pictures. I may do this as more become available.

Here's a write up of this past weekend's Men's B races that I did for the UW cycling team. I'll just post it as it was sent out over the listserv.

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Disclaimer: This is lengthy. Read if you're interested in details about last weekend's races at Depauw. Not all details I mention are of consequence. Those which are are not necessarily entertaining. Those which aren't might not be comprehensible to anyone but me.

Above all, skip if you are annoyed by excessive punctuation marks.

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MWCCC Spring 2008, Depauw Race Weekend.

With Charlie's early week promises of moderate temperatures and less ice in the golden lands of Greencastle, IN, the UW squad headed southeast on Friday afternoon with a hearty fleet of (if I recall) 24 riders and about the same number of bicycles.

I say "about" in this instance because, to paraphrase Winne the Pooh, you never can tell with bikes.

I will not speak much of the good times of the weekend. Of Eric Bean and his shenanigans Of just how beautiful it was to see brown, dead grass instead of piles of dirty, icy snow. Of Bryan Fosler being chased by a pit bull. Of Hildebrand and I, lost in the backwoods of Indiana and finding our way back by riding toward the sun. Or of the grin it put on my face to see how excited people were to be racing again. To be out there, giving it so hard we were cramped, cross eyed, and drooling. To be out there testing our metal, frying our nerves, and holding a line after a brutal winter on the trainer.

I won't tell you much about the pure and simple joy of getting a hug from Steve Scholzen. Or of man-crushes in general.

I won't tell you about those things because they might not make sense here and now. They only make sense at the Greencastle Inn. Hovering around the coffee pot. Making power plays for the last sugar cookie. Piling wheels into white minivans. And crossing your fingers as Jon Cook slides into the driver's seat and gives you a cool and (superficially) reassuring nod of his head.

For now, I'll just give you the low down on the races that I was in this weekend. For now I'll just hope that I get to catch up with you next time.

Depauw Road Race, 3/1/2008:

Here's a picture stolen from Mary Coats of me and Jon Cook in queue waiting for the race officials to line us up.



The UW Men's B crew was well represented at DePauw with a few upgrades from last season's Men's C category (myself, Darren Corrao, and Patrick Heath), a couple of fresh faces attached to strong legs (Jon Heile and James Pradun), and some wiley vet's (Charlie Brummitt, Jon Cook, Bryan Fosler, and Nicholas Frye) thrown in for good measure.

I want to tell you something about myself right now:

I find breakaways very sexy. Dead sexy, if you must know. And who doesn't want to be sexy? Not this guy. That's another thing about me you'd do well to remember.

Cook and I had been talking for a couple of weeks about trying to make a break happen during the road race. And we lined up at the front of the field ready to take a shot at glory if we possibly could. After the whistle, I found myself in a pretty good position at the front of the pack with Cook and James Pradun, and I steeled my nerves for the attacks that would surely come.

Not five minutes into the race, James went hard and flew by me on the left. Could this be our shot? I squashed the doubts about my legs, my fitness, and the hills that would come, and drilled it to hop on his wheel. We traded pulls for a bit in hopes of ditching the pack and making a run for it.

Sadly, my legs weren't having it and neither was the field. I looked over my shoulder to ask James how we were doing. He shook his head and I saw the rest of the group gunning for us. I did not see Nick Frye leading the charge. That made me happy for a second.

A theme in my life is that periods of such elation are generally short lived.

When my focus turned back to the road before me, I saw that it was quickly disappearing as we approached a curve. In hopes of minimizing impact on the field, I opted to ride out the line over sketchily cutting into James', which found me momentarily in the soft mud of a ditch watching the field ride by me. For the next couple of minutes, I was in the unenviable position of having to chase down the pack solo after attempting a break.

After a solid effort for a minute or so, I latched onto a wheel only to realize it was the wheel of rider popping off of the back and not capable of giving much up for a chase. I gunned it again for the field and found another wheel. I repeated this thrice.

Fortunately, the pace of the main field cooled as we approached the first of the short climbs and I reconnected--somewhat bleary eyed--with the group. I sat in at the back for a lap until my vision became non blurred and I could form a coherent thought again. Cook and Pradun were up front and doing a good job of holding nice positions in the field. The rest of our squad was strewn about the pack and doing what we could to stay clear of the one sketchy guy ("it won't fall off the bike, I swear") that wasn't me.

Half-hearted attacks went off every now again and were repeatedly reeled in. The pace stayed fairly manageable, and, as things stabilized, we all made our way toward the front and took turns in the rotation. Patrick Heath, who gets a shout out for a stellar return to form after being forced to sit out most of the 2007 season with a broken wrist, had to juke a bit to avoid a crash, various riders launched some attacks from the wrong side of the yellow line, and Brummitt put in move to get to the front during the last lap, but otherwise, things stayed quiet in the field until the last 4km or so as riders took stabs at glory and the pace in the pack switched from full on to full off at the drop of a hat.

The field seemed to open up for the sprint pretty early. Stoked to actually be in the field for a sprint, I got caught up in the moment, pretended I was Fabian Cancellara, ditched the wheel in front of me, and put out a max effort with way, way too far to go. When I took stock of the situation, felt the wind in my face, and saw the finish line an unmanageable distance away, I realized that I'd made a foolish move and so tried to get back on a wheel. By that point we had 300m to go and the patient riders blew by me as I cruised in for 18th in the field. Cook finished the sprint a couple of spots ahead of me at 16. Pradun scored our points for the day with 13th place, and Heile, Brummitt, and Corrao all rode solid and crossed the line at 24, 25, and 31 respectively.

I think we all agreed that we rode fairly well as a team, especially considering how difficult it's been to actually get outside, put on miles, and remember how to *ride* a bicycle. Big ups to the whole squad on hanging in for the road race, especially to Cook and Pradun for looking respectable out there with generally smart, aware, and heads up riding.

Depauw University Criterium, 3/2/2008

The same 9 UW riders lined up in the Men's B field for Sunday's Criterium. Flat, 4 corners, one sketchy pothole, and some brutal winds made Sunday's race a bit more exciting.

It was fast and aggressive with riders drilling it up a very slight incline out of the final corner on every lap and repeated attacks from the field. The pace trimmed a field of probably 40-45 down to 20 riders by the half way point, and we continued the game of attack, chase, recover for the rest of the race. Cook found his way into a promising 2 man break (and ultimately victorious solo) but suffered after being dealt a hard pull into the headwind and came back to the field. Pradun was again riding very well and seemed to go off the front a time or two--once sticking for a bit--and ultimately coming back to the group. I made a solo bridge to a Purdue rider off the front with about 8 laps to go, but both of us died in the headwind.

Everyone in the field regrouped and was content to cool the collective jets for the last 5 laps. And then moves started as soon as we heard the bell for the final lap. The field drilled it through the first corner. A 4 man break that had potential got off as we moved through the 2nd turn. They ultimately were overtaken when one of the riders crashed due to unknown circumstances.

Cook, Pradun, and I sat in decent position toward the front of the field through the back half of the course as we approached the lone pothole on the 3rd corner.

Frye jumped into a move that was going up the left hand side of the field on the tight inside of the pothole and I yelled for him to give it hell as we went came up on the close of the race. I lost my position as the field responded to Frye's move and had to fight hard through the third and final corners. Everyone drilled it up the final incline. I didn't have much left for the sprint and rolled in 17th across the line. Frye's move paid off with points and a 9th place finish, and Pradun and Cook hung on during the final slug fest for 12th, 13th, and a couple more points in the conference standings.

Again, I thought the UW Men's B riders worked well together covering breaks, looking out for each other, and communicating to ensure that the race went as smoothly and safely as possible for everyone involved.

All told, it was a good weekend, and I look forward to working with all of these guys through the rest of the season.

Big props to everyone that raced for the UW this weekend. None of these are my stories to tell, but we had a lot of solid new riders in the Men's D and C categories. Fan favorites Elicia Hildebrand and Mary Coats represented well in the Women's A field. And Steve Scholzen, Peter Schmid, and Eric Bean all scored big points (both conference and man crush) by riding in epic breaks to finish well on both days. Despite missing the Ohio State RR and having Saturday's Men's A points discounted, I believe we managed to move up to second overall in the conference and first for points awarded to A's riders.

To close, I'll echo Jon Cook and give Dallas Fowler a pat on the back for getting us hooked up with some snappy new kits and for being an all around sweet dude to boot. So give Dallas some love next time you see him.

See you next weekend.

J

And man, it sure was nice to see 71 degrees Fahrenheit again.

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I'm trying to work on a more personal assessment of mistakes I made and what potential strengths I saw in my race so that I can kick it up a notch in the future. Some are obvious (wait for the sprint and don't ever leave the road), some were surprising (I actually made ground on the field during climbs, had good power during hard efforts, I felt like I had enough snap to try getting into breakaways instead of just sitting in the pack), and some I've had trouble with for awhile (get to the front and learn to corner with confidence).

But that assessment may take awhile.

In sum, I'm very happy with the way the races went. Sure, I didn't win. I didn't even place in the points. But both days, we started off with probably 40-45 riders in a Cat 3/4 field and finished with about 30 in the RR and 20 in the crit. Both days I comfortably rode with the race leaders in that group. And after having struggled so much to even *finish* races in the Men's C field last year, I consider this a lot of progress.

I really needed that. Had I gone out and promptly been dropped this weekend, I would have found it very difficult to feel that all of this training has been worthwhile. Now, I'm happy to continue with the plan because it seems to have worked to some extent.

Next weekends races are at Mizzou and Lindenwood University. CES isn't Lindenwood in your stomping grounds? If you feel like checking us out in spandex, give me a shout.