shovelhd

Nice win and a nicer gesture, RacerEx.

MDcatV

not ugly, just character building. that was a hard race.

badhat

the break from the gun was really just supposed to be a warmup for me. it wasnt CU,
it was cressey from psimet, whos probably the strongest sprinter in cat3 this year, and petrowski from prima, who's a new 3 i raced with last year whos a pretty impressive a strongman/climber type (finished 8th at gila). between those two being just stong, aggressive mofos and me being one of the best TTer in the race yesterday, there was no way they were gonna give us an inch. heh.

cressey jumped right from the guy and we followed him, i didnt really think much of it, but it did sorta play out the way the whole day played out, and this isnt me pointing fingers cuz i think i did it too, but nobody really committed to their attacks for long enough to make them stick.

every break attempt i got in, we'd drill it for like 1-3 minutes and turn around, not see as much gap as we wanted, and give up. a day like that, flat and windy, we really needed a few more people and a bit more of a committment, and a little tactical savvy: tight fast echelon and gutter anyone who tried to sit in. 10-15 minutes of that sort of coordinated effort coulda made all the difference.

JohnKScott

Pish posh! I like reading both the winning and the non-winning reports. I can learn from both.

VT Biker

The thing about Nick Cressey is he races with a toothpick, which he alternates from holding it in his mouth to putting it in his bib-short legs for when he wants it again. I am not sure what the deal is with the toothpick, but on a training ride I asked him about the risk of inhaling a sharp wood object. He seemed unfazed by that concern.

He told me his goal this year was to break Tom Danielson's record on Lookout Mountain. He has about two minutes to improve to do that. Has never owned a car, does not have a license, and had ridden his bike his entire life. Interesting guy. However, the front range will be losing him soon, as he is moving back East in August.

badhat

ha ha thats hilarious, the toothpick thing.

hes an oddball for sure. ive raced with him a fair amount but cant say i've ever really chatted with him off bike. seems like a good dude though.

sorry to hear he's leaving. hes definitely a fun guy to race with and keeps it lively and has good instincts. the fact that he found his way to the front of the traffic jam saturday when a lot of the other good finishers got mucked up says it all.

Psimet2001 

I ran a race this weekend. The Chicago community came out and supported it. I don't think it lost money. I will be able to cut a check back to the community as well as Big Brothers Big Sisters of McHenry County. Win-Win. Now...back to wheels.

2005trek1200

Damn, i cant believe you broke even. way to make it happen boss. My legs were at Uni-Hill, but my heart was at FRG on sunday..

chicagogal

Glad to hear that it worked out for you. The weather was terrible yesterday, and when I opted to train indoors instead of race, I was kinda worried about you/FRG. Glad to hear that there are tougher chicago-area cyclist than me who braved the elements to race. I am kinda sad that I missed it. I like hills.

graphs

I was there too! You were in the M3 group, yeah? I was just behind you in the Elite 4 group.

I was feeling pretty great but had a mechanical issue just after the first climb (chain started rubbing like crazy on the front derailleur). Had to stop and get off my bike to bend my FD back and then spent the next 20k or so just killing myself to bridge up to the peloton. It was easily the hardest effort I've ever done in a bike race but totally worth it because I made it back and managed to recover enough to hang on for 6th place. Pretty proud of myself for keeping on even though catching up seemed hopeless.

rbart, will you be at Nith River?

mattm

Wenatchee Omnium race report: DFL, DNF, DNS (tt, crit, rr)

Teh suck.

But I'll live to fight another day..

Hida Yanra

Wenatchee -

TT- Hard
Crit - Fantastic
RR - Expected

I'm tired of the team leaving blood in the sheets when we check out of hotels at SRs...
this weekend was yet another.

rbart4506

Nice work bridging back in! With the wind that must have been killer...I know that when we were heading back towards the start finish we were clicking along in the 40-50km\h range...Going out was a different story

Yup, heading to Nith....I think the only O-Cup I'll miss is the Windsor crit...Not going to drive 4 hours to get my ass spit out the back after 30mins...I think there's a local Master's race I'll do that weekend instead...

graphs

Yeah, I don't know if I'll make that one either. Mostly focussing on just road races this year, though I'll probably do the Toronto Crit and maybe the Nationals crit now that it's moved to the CHIN picnic.

Say hi if you get a chance! I'll be in a Darkhorse Flyers jersey on a grey + red Cervelo.

VT Biker

He wants to eventually turn pro, and I really hope he get the opportunity. He is quite a talent and a decent guy. I really hope he gets his chance in the next few years. It is a tough haul to get the attention of some of the domestic pro-level teams.

Funny story - he was telling me about his cross season last year as a 4. Raced three times on an old steel cross bike. The third race was the State championships. He started dead last due to the lottery for selecting the placings, in 80-something position. Ended up 3rd.

aham23

actually, the weather wasnt a factor at all. great day of racing and excellent job PSIMET & team. later.

forrest_m

Matt - sorry to hear it didn't go well. Did you crash? I have a perverse liking for that crit, even though the course is maybe the scariest of the year (downhill into a corner with a huge manhole right in the middle of the best line and a giant loading dock sticking into the course on the outside)...

Ian - does "expected" mean "faded somewhere in the middle of the huge climb?" That's what always happens to me, anyway. That race is more of a mass-start hill climb than your typical RR anyway...

Hida Yanra

ironically, matt is typically the king of placing really well in crits...
I have always hated crits, but I really loved that one... it was grand (it helped that I rode fantastically)

Last year I was a climber extraordinaire, horrible at TTs&crits. This year I haven't been training, and while I am always there when the select group forms and rolls away, I don't have the climbing power to be there for the long climbs ... I've got 25', 30' of climbing, I get popped a bit before the fast descent. death either way. On both the WW rolling loop (2010's Friday course) & Wenatchee's course (usual beating stick) the length of the climbs are just more than my legs can handle right now.
I think I'm out for Enumclaw - no need to spend the gas/hotel/food money to find out that I can top 10 the TT, ride top 10 wheels the whole way in the crit, make.and.then.lose the select group in the RR.

time to ride track, ride crits, and think about the circuit races at the end of the year.

chicagogal

Was it windy?

mattm

I wish doing well in crits was "not working" - I would say it's more about knowing when to work and when not to.. and also about being in the right position so that you do less work than the other guy.

To clarify, it was super wet/had just started raining when we went off, and 10 mins into the crit I hit corner 3 too hard and my front wheel just washed out.. I think it was on a paint strip/cross walk. As far as wrecks go it was pretty tame, kinda like sliding into second base except this was on concrete - though a few others guys went down too.. (sorry!)

Took a free lap and got back in - with bleeding leg/elbow, and obviously a tad shaken - and going into turn one, I felt like my wheels weren't sticking to the road, at all. That or my steering wasn't working, it felt like I was trying to steer into the turn but the bike was only slightly going that way.. not a good feeling in a rainy crit.

So coming into turn two (down the 5% grade), I couldn't hold my line (as they say) and I ended up taking it waaaay wide, drifting so far out to the left that I actually ran into/skimmed the wall! (but didn't actually go down a second time, for the record!). My left glove has three holes in it where my knuckles ground into the concrete wall, as well as my knuckles/arm... it was a miracle I didn't go down that time! I left some skin in Wenatchee this weekend, that's for sure.

After that I'd had enough and just pulled out. Which was best as my derailleur & hanger were bent out of alignment anyway, also why I DNSd the RR the next day.

That's racing, I guess. Sometimes it's not so much fun, but it will make the fun times that much more enjoyable..

Coming from a 3rd place at Seward on Thursday to a crash/DNF on Saturday, is quite the roller coaster!!

I've never been scared of rainy crits but I can feel it creeping on... trying to fight off that fear and just roll with it, but with the figure-8 course at the 'Claw this weekend I'm hesitant to get back in there... we'll see.

Hida Yanra

there - sanitized my posts, eh?
;-)

heal up soon!

Psimet2001 

Not really a factor. That climb is sheltered and the descent wasn't bad. I think there was only 1 maybe 2 minor crashes all day. We never shut down the course for a wreck.

There was no rain. Everyone who was at Monsters on Saturday said we came out better by far as far as the weather was concerned.

chicagogal

Glad to hear that!!! Of course, now I really feel like I should have come out and raced, and am regretting my decision not to. It was raining here, and very windy, and very cold, such that I ended up training indoors. Racing would have been 1000X more fun!

jjgli02

I was in Downers Grove for a wedding and I was missing my series race in ohio so I decided to sign up for and race your crit.
I was incredibly impressed by how well supported the race was (especially compared to what I'm used to).
I came from 80 degrees and sunny in Cincinnati so neither me nor my fiancee had warm clothes. She actually got to hang in the ambulance by start/finish to keep warm.
The course was awesome! I definitely should have placed better than mid-pack though, being that a typical hill around here gains 3 times the elevation as the ski hill. Things did seriously splinter up that hill. I had fun though no matter so thanks for a fun race!

(btw I was the guy in orange and blue asking you about results after the 5 race)

carlosflanders

Hugo Road Race. Masters 4s.

Amazing how a change in wind direction can turn a hard event into a non-race. Slow? I almost fell off my unicycle!

Only 2-3 of the 70 starters came with any intention of racing. I attacked half a dozen times. A couple others had a go, but the wind was too much. 4-5 organised riders would have blown the race to smithereens.

It was much like as reported above in the other cats, but slower and more clustery.

60+ masters 4s with 80 miles in their legs barrelling down to a sprint finish is a truly scary experience. I wish I had known that the centerline was going to be ignored for the day. Would have saved me the trouble of trying to race.

Anyway, nothing much happened for 76.5 miles. With 2k to go about 30 riders of mixed ability jumped the yellow line and fought it out for the finish. Most of those 30 blew up in the last few hundred yards.

Teamwork for the day consisted of slowing the race whenever possible and jumping the centerline en masse near the end. The few who fought hard into the wind to keep a good position for the finish were shown up to be fools.

Positives: I didn't die, but had a few near death experiences. My legs felt amazing at the end. I was ready for another 80 miles as I coasted across. Only drank 1 bottle.