Cone Azalia Road Race

The time had come for my first Cat 4 road race as Cone Azalia, located just outside of Milan, MI.  was finally here. The race, put on by the Ann Arbor Velo Club, is a somewhat unique road race featuring around 4 miles of dirt roads within its 10.1 mile course. As a cat 4 we'd be doing 3 laps around the course in a clockwise direction for a total of right around 30.3 miles. The course was flat, but holy cow was it windy. A Strava gps track and elevation profile (which looks deceiving, but note the scale) of the course can be seen below:

The race started quickly as everyone was trying to be in a good position going into the first section of dirt road. We crossed over the railroad tracks, hit the dirt, and the race was on. The field probably resembled an amoeba rather than a neatly organized peloton as everyone worked to dodge the big potholes that could put an end to your race in an instant. Bottles were flying out of cages and littering the road, which created yet another obstacle to maneuver around. Unfortunately I lost one of my water bottles about 2 miles in, but I didn't exactly have time to stop and pick it up.

Eventually the first dirt road came to an end as we took a right onto Cone road, which was paved. We had a nice tailwind here so we were going properly quick until we reached the next dirt road and said goodbye to the pavement. After some loose dirt, a left turn, and a plethora of potholes we were back on the pavement once again heading north.

At this point I had been working quite hard to stay with the lead group, which was down to around 10-15 riders. I was keeping an eye on my heart rate and noticed that it was around 190 and not going down. My legs echoed this sentiment as they eventually made it clear to my brain that it was break time. I had to let the lead group go and wait to be caught by the next group to come through.

After a short bit two guys caught up to me and we started a rotating paceline after turning right to head eastbound (into the brisk headwind) towards the start/finish line. Shortly after crossing the line we were caught by the group behind us and came together to form a chase group of around 10ish I think.

After turning back onto the dirt Zack went to the front and started splitting the chase group apart. I just couldn't keep up and got discarded out the back with a few others. We would stay in our little group for a while until once again my legs gave up on the section heading north. The crosswind made it hard to draft well and another guy and I got left behind. The two of us worked together, taking turns into the wind as we finished the second lap. After the finish line he started accelerating and I just didn't have it, so I let him go. Time to ride by myself in a race. T'was not fun.

Eventually a group of 4 came up from behind. I grabbed onto their wheels as they passed. We shortly picked up the other guy that I had been riding with previously. After the turn onto the loose dirt we dropped one guy and were left with a group of 5 that would stick together for the rest of the race.

As we were making our way towards the finish line I was kind of hoping that we weren't going to sprint for the finish. The sprint would be for 20th, not exactly prestigious. However, as we hit 1k to go it was pretty obvious that a sprint was about to happen. No one would let the guy pulling off the front as he weaved all over the road trying to get someone to pull through. As the 200m to go sign came I saw two guys start the sprint on my left. I jumped on their wheels and started my sprint. I passed them pretty easily and ended up taking the sprint by a pretty comfortable margin. This locked me into 20th place. Results below:

 

Overall I was content with how the race ended up. Obviously I would have preferred to do better, but beating 50% of the field in my first Cat 4 race isn't too bad. That being said, I definitely have some work to do!

Ann Arbor Spring Training Series 4-28

Another Sunday meant it was time for another installment of the Ann Arbor Velo Club's Spring Training Series. The venue and course was the same as the previous week, but unfortunately the weather was not so cooperative. Rain, and lots of it, was the story of the day. On top of that it was cold, which is not exactly fun weather to race a crit in.

This week I'd be doing the cat 3/4 race followed (kind of) by the cat 1/2/3/4 race. I decided to skip out on the cat 4/5 race that I won the week prior.

The 3/4 race got started with a bang as two guys attacked right at the start of the race. I was staying with them at first, but eventually I had to let them go as my legs weren't ready for that kind of effort quite yet. The miserable weather lead to us not really warming up well enough since we didn't want to be out in the cold rain any longer than we had to.

As I let them go I thought, "Hmm, this is only the first lap. We'll catch them for sure in a few laps." Nope. They were gone and we'd never see them again for the rest of the race. With them gone, the race was now for 3rd.

A new addition for this week's races was some free stuff given to those who won the primes. Giving all of the stuff to the two guys in the break would have been boring, so they decided to make them field primes instead (yay). After a few laps the bell rang, which meant that whoever came across the finish line first on the next lap would win the prime. I decided to sprint for it and ended up getting a free roll of bar tape for my efforts. Winning stuff for racing is great.

After the prime lap the field settled back in as we slogged our way through the rain. About half way through the race I had to take off my sunglasses since they were so covered in water that I could no longer see out of them.

It was a long time until the next prime laps came. Just about as long as possible actually since there were 3 in a row, then the final lap. All of that prime madness allowed 3 more guys to get off the front. So going into the final lap there were 2 guys in the winning break, 3 guys in a "chase" group, and then the field (which I was in.)

As the final lap was ending we wound up for one last sprint to the line. It was kind of anti-climactic since the sprint was for 6th place, but oh well. I won the field sprint, got my 6th place (full results below), and started getting ready for the 1/2/3/4 race.

Well, the 1/2/3/4 race didn't last long for me. My legs were pretty tired and frankly I was about done with riding in circles in the rain. After two laps I was struggling to stay on the back of the pack so I just decided to call it a day. Another hour of hanging on for dear life in the rain didn't sound like fun, so I DNF'd and grabbed a burger courtesy of the AAVC guys. Also, shout-out to Patrick for giving Danny and I a lift home as riding home in the rain would have been a terrible experience.

Ann Arbor Spring Training Series 4-21

With the collegiate season over now its time to start focusing on the summer USAC season. The season kind of got underway this last weekend with the Ann Arbor Velo Club's Spring Training Series. I say kind of since they were more of a training race than anything official, but it was nice to race with some non-collegiate guys.  To make things better my parents came down to watch.

The course for the day's events was a 1km-ish football shaped course with a little bit of elevation change just before the finish line. Strava gps overlay shown below. We traveled the course clockwise.

 

The plan was to race twice on Sunday with a category 4/5 race immediately followed by a 3/4 race. The 4/5 race was 20 mins + 3 laps and the 3/4 race was 30 mins + 5 laps. Unfortunately there was only about a 5 minute break between the races so I was feeling pretty tired as the second race got underway.

The 4/5's race was first and got underway shortly after the race director's spiel. My gameplan was to stay towards the front of the pack without necessarily being on the front. I did a pretty good job of that, taking a few short pulls here and there. Trying to start a break was frowned upon in this training race, so the pack stayed together right up until the final sprint. I made sure I was in good position while going down the back stretch so I could be positioned well for the turn and final sprint to come.  

As we came out of the turn I was up towards the front with only a few guys in front of me. It was sprinting time with the finish line in sight just on top of the hill. I really started going hard and moved my way to the front. Eventually there was no one in front of me and it was just a matter of making it to the finish line without getting caught from behind. Eventually I crossed the line and took home my second race of the season.

  

I had a limited amount of time before the 3/4 race started so I did the best I could to recover. I didn't have long though, so I scarfed down a gel and lined up for the next race. Eventually we were off racing again.

I was feeling pretty tired as we started out so my goal was to just sit in for a while and try to get my legs back. After a while I had recovered enough to feel comfortable cruising around the course at race pace. I was feeling pretty good actually until the last lap came around. 

We kicked the pace up a bit, which I didn't think was much of a problem as I was hanging in the pack just fine. However, after we took the final turn the legs went full zub-zub. I was in decent position for the sprint, but my legs just said "NO!" as I tried to make them go. Oh well, I was satisfied with winning the 4/5 race and staying in the pack for the 3/4 race. I sat up, got passed by everyone in the main field, and crossed the line in 21st.

 

 

Notre Dame Criterium

After Saturday's race we made the trek northward to South Bend for the criterium that would be held at Notre Dame on Sunday. The crit would also be the final collegiate race of the season as Wisconsin's race weekend had to be cancelled due to some course conflicts.

It was nice to get to the hotel early enough to have time to just hang out and make a run to the holy grail of the south that is Chick-Fil-A. With our stomach's full of chicken sammich and waffle fries we got to bed early.

Notre Dame's course was pretty cool since it was located in a down-town-ish area of South Bend. Other than that there was nothing spectacular about it. The road wasn't exactly smooth, there were some awkwardly placed manhole covers in the turns, and I'm just not a big fan of South Bend. One great thing about it though was the presence of cafes right along the course. A gps overlay of the course, courtesy of Zack's Strava account, can be seen below. We headed counter clockwise around the route, so we made all left turns.

As far as races go this one was pretty uneventful. No breakaways ever had much of a chance of succeeding. Some guys sprinted for the primes (and celebrated gaudily after taking them), but that was about all of the excitement that the race had. Well, I guess the general sketchyness of some of the riders should be noted. I'd say I witnessed more squirelly riding in this race than any other race this year, even the D's, but no one crashed so yay go us for keeping it on 2 wheels the whole time.

I spent the majority of the race just sitting in and letting everyone pull me around the course. I was content to let this go on until a few laps left when I needed to start moving forward if I was going to have any chance at contesting for the sprint finish.

Just sittin' on Zack's wheel. Photo by David Villegas

Eventually the last lap came and everyone tried making moves in the section going southbound. This caused for a hairy couple of turns at the bottom of the course before heading back north for the final sprint. I ended up being a little too far back when we came out of the last turn so my chances at winning the sprint were done. I did what I could in the final sprint and ended up crossing the line in 7th. Results of the top 25 shown below:

After the race we hit up a cafe for some hot dogs, orange soda, and copious amounts of Jelly Belly's. It was nice to be able to sit inside out of the wind and cold air while watching the rest of the day's races.

All in all it was a pretty solid weekend of racing. It's sad that my first collegiate racing season came to an end so quickly. In hindsight I'm quite pleased with the way that it turned out. Going into the season with absolutely no race experience I had no idea what to expect. However, it ended up being everything I could hope for and more. I won my 3rd race ever at DePauw, achieved my goal of upgrading to C's, and finished the year with 4 straight top 10 finishes in C's.

The good news is that the season is really just beginning and now its time to move onto the USAC racing that the summer will bring.

Purdue Universtiy Road Race

With the Team Time Trial over with it was time to start focusing on the afternoon's Road Race. The wind was not letting up at all and it actually felt like it was getting a little bit colder. Due to these factors we stayed huddled in the car until we absolutely had to get out to go warm up. Eventually the time came and we had to go brave the elements to get ready to race.

The course would consist of a roughly 10 mile loop with one notable climb and descent per lap. As in the TTT the wind would play a huge roll in deciding the outcome of the race as it was blowing quite strongly towards the east. The course is shown below:

 

The race started and we headed right into the headwind. The field down to a crawl as the guys at the front had to plow through the brutal wind. Eventually we made the right turn to get out of the headwind, but the crosswind was still a factor that we had to deal with. To make things worse there were some huge potholes in the road that caused some sketchyness throughout the field. Next up was another right turn that treated us with the gift of a tailwind. Thanks to the tailwind we were able to cruise around 30mph through this stretch. The field was sticking together for the most part throughout the first lap. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and we had to take another right and head south. The wind wasn't as noticeable through the next part of the course, but it would soon rear its ugly head again as we took the right turn back towards the finish line. As if the headwind wasn't enough there was a tough little climb that lead up to the finish with the finish line coming right at the top of the hill. 

After the first lap the field was still together for the most part. The second lap, however, would bring a lot more action. As we took the turn into the tailwind Zack and a few other guys attacked. They ended up getting away in a group of 5, but the damage that they did to the field was substantial. The field exploded into a bunch of groups with about 5-10 riders each. The race suddenly got way tougher.

At the time of the split I was in what was probably the 3rd group of around 8 guys. I was content to let the break go, but we had to catch the 2nd chase group. Luckily all of the guys around me had the same thought and we worked together to close the gap. We were able to catch the 2nd group during the climb up to the finish line to form a bigger group of around 15ish guys.

"Team Gravitas" finishing the 2nd lap. Photo by Andy Jessop

 The break was still a good ways up the road as we forged our way through the headwind and crosswind. As it did on the 2nd lap, the tailwind was about to cause the field to go boom. Some guys attacked off the front and I quickly realized that this had the potential to be a decisive move. I went with them and we quickly opened up a gap on the rest of the field behind us. After the dust settled we had a group of 5 riders with a nice little gap over the rest of the field. Meanwhile the break away of 5 were out of sight down the road.

After a mile or so the group of 5 was down to a group of 3 as two guys went solo off the front of our chase group. My legs weren't up to chasing them down at the moment, so we let them go in the hopes of catching them before the finish. Now our primary goal was to not let the group behind us catch back up.

As we hit the bottom of the finishing climb the group of 2 that broke away was just ahead of us. Unfortunately the group chasing us was also right behind us. Everyone was emptying whatever they had left in the tank. I was able to ride away from the 2 guys that I had been with previously, but unfortunately not all was well. As we neared the top of the climb I saw one of the guys from the group behind us flying up the road. As he passed I let out a , "Noooooooo." as my legs went zub-zub in the attempt to stay ahead of him. He flew right on by me with probably 50 meters left to the finish line. Fortunately that was the only damage that was done and I got over the finish line without anyone else passing me. I ended up coming across the line in 9th, which I was quite happy with given the circumstances of the race.

After the race it was time to watch the rest of the day's races and get ready for the trip to South Bend to get ready for Notre Dame's criterium.

Purdue University Team Time Trial

Unfortunately word came down last week that Wisconsin had to cancel their race weekend. As a fallout of this we lost a week of racing and Regionals got shifted to be a week earlier. Due to this Regionals would be held at Purdue/Notre Dame rather than Wisconsin. Also, it means that we lost a weekend of collegiate racing :( .

The weekend's racing would be split up between two different schools with Saturday's Road Race and Team Time Trial being held at Purdue and Sunday's Criterium being held at Notre Dame. (Obligatory Purdon't and Notre Damn reference inserted here.) We arrived at our Super 8 on Friday night and immediately went to bed to get ready for the early morning that was to come. Our TTT start time was 8:08 AM and the course was at least 20 min away, so we had to get up nice and early. TTT start times ended up getting delayed a half hour, which was nice since it allowed us to be warm while sitting in the car for a bit longer.

The TTT course consisted of a 10 mile "lollipop" course with one sizeable hill right at the beginning/end. The biggest factor of the race was definitely the wind. There was a very strong wind at our backs on the way out towards the turn around point. Unfortunately every rose (tailwind) has its thorn (headwind) and the way back towards the finish line was really tough.

A profile of the course

Our start time eventually came and the official gave us the signal to get started. We started off right into the tailwind and wasted no time getting up to speed. At some point during the first downhill I looked down at my computer and saw that we were doing right about 40 mph. Unfortunately during this descent we lost Kevin and it was just Zack and I left to suffer through the remaining 8 miles. We kept the pace as high as we could since we knew we had to take advantage of the tailwind. And that we did. According to Strava we averaged a little over 28mph on the east bound portion of the course.

Unfortunately we eventually had to turn around and face the wind. Once we did the pace noticeably dropped and every pedal stroke became somewhat of a chore. However, just up the road we could see a team with blue numbers which meant that it was one of our Men's C competitors. Putting them in our cross hairs and trying to reel them in helped us forget about the wind a little bit.

Going into the wind, pain faces on. Photo by Andy Jessop

 As we got a little bit closer we realized that it was Notre Dame that we were closing in on. They started a whole minute ahead of us, so by catching them we knew that we were doing fairly well. As we reached the base of the climb we were right up next to them. Unfortunately my legs were feeling the pain and I wasn't able to climb fast enough for us to pass them and Zack had to slow down a bit to wait for me. 

After we crested the climb we got back up to speed for the finishing stretch of the race. We eventually crossed the line and the suffering was over. Our final time was 25 mins 24 seconds which worked out to an average speed of right around 23 mph. All that was left to do now was wait for the results. We knew we had beaten Notre Dame nice and properly, but we had no idea how the other teams had done.

After a little bit the wait was over and the results were posted. We won!

We didn't have much time to celebrate though as the road race was scheduled to start at 10:30.

Michigan Criterium (Hurray Home Race)

The day had finally arrived! It was time for our home race! Its hard to believe that its already been a year since I was the guy that no one knew (besides John) who had never ridden a road bike yet randomly volunteered to help out at the road bike race. It was fun to watch and all, but this time around I would be able to get in on the action.

Our race was a criterium and was held on Varsity Drive and Highland Drive. We were scheduled to do 30 mins + 3 laps which ended up being right around 13.5 miles. Course map shown below. Exciting looking square eh?

As a whole the majority of the race was pretty uneventful. The guy from DePaul who won on Saturday tried  to attack and get away a few times throughout the race, but he was unsuccessful as the field quickly chased down all attacks. We dropped a few guys here and there, but for the most part we just cruised around the course a whole bunch of times (although the guys who actually did work on the front might not consider it "cruising".)

With a few laps left it was time for some action. Zack went to the front and gave us a nice pull to get us onto the final lap. Just as we took the turn to head East on Varsity Justin went to the front and started what would be an attempt to lead us out into the finish line and set us up well for the final sprint. At first this was working flawlessly. The field was getting way stretched out and most of the Michigan guys were set up really well for the final sprint. However, as we made the turn onto Highland Drive things quickly went downhill.

Justin had fully fired up that diesel engine of his and we were cooking at around 34 mph going into the corner. Not surprisingly, that would turn out to be a wee bit quick. Justin said that he could feel his rear wheel sliding out from underneath him so he wisely aborted the mission of turning and did what he could to keep things upright. Unfortunately not everyone was so lucky.

I was sitting right on the wheel of a guy from Wisconsin when suddenly his wheels went out from underneath him and next thing you know he was sliding across the road on his side. Since he was just a few feet in front of me when this happened I had to quickly take evasive action. My choices were to either try to bunny hop over him (terrible idea) or to jump the curb, ride through a yard, ride through a parking lot, and get back onto the road while trying to lose as few spots as possible. Unsurprisingly I opted for the latter choice as did a few guys that were right behind me.

I ended up losing a few spots and any chance I had at contesting the sprint, but I'm not at all upset since the alternative could have been much worse. I'll gladly take losing a few spots in a race than having to sit here all covered in road rash and bandages while typing this. I saw the Wisconsin guy after the race and the state of his legs did not look fun in the slightest. Plenty of bloody road rash from hip to ankle with a pretty nicely destroyed set of bib shorts.

Anyways I managed to get back into the race and pass a few guys before the finish. After it was all said and done I rolled across the finish line in 9th. Below are the results from the top 20.

 

On the schedule for this weekend is a race weekend with a road race at Purdue on Saturday and a crit at Notre Dame on Sunday.

Michigan State Road Race

Another Saturday meant it was time for the beginning of another collegiate race weekend. For the first time this year I was able to sleep in my own bed the night before a race. That was great despite having to wake up bright and early to make the drive over to East Lansing(-ish. More like Lainsburg) for Michigan State's Road Race. As soon as we got there we realized that we were in for a cold and windy day.

Michigan State's course was interesting as about half of it was on dirt roads. Unfortunately the wind was oriented in a way that meant you were either on dirt or riding into a strong head/crosswind the whole time. The map below shows the race course. Round Lake Road and Upton Road were paved while Cutler Road and Babcock Road were both dirt. We traveled the course clockwise while making all right turns. The C's field would be doing 3 laps which came out at right around 26 miles.

 As we rolled up to the start line one thing became quite apparent; the field size was going to be small. Right around 20 riders rolled up to the start line with only 14 of us making it to the finish line without dropping out of the race. The officials blew the whistle and we were underway.

We started out going right into a brisk cross/headwind combination. After realizing that I was on the back of the field I decided to take some action and move up towards the front right before we made the right hand turn onto Upton Road. After turning the corner I kind of forgot it was windy and tried to attack off the front. Unfortunately after I attacked I turned around and no one was there with me. Also, I realized I had made a blunder as I was going straight into a headwind and there is no way I would be able to stay away. I sat up and waited for the field to catch up rather than wasting a bunch of energy for nothing.

Eventually the field caught up and Zack and I pulled the field along for a bit. After a little while we made the turn onto dirt for the first time. It was nice to get out of the headwind, but the dirt road with sand, gravel, and potholes strewn about required an extra bit of focus. Zack and I, along with a few others, took our turns working at the front through the first section of the dirt. Next up was the turn onto Babcock road which would prove to be quite eventful.

Just before the decisive move of the race. Photo by Adam Kaye

Shortly after turning onto Babcock road the pack started making moves. I was on the front while a guy from DePaul and Justin (from Michigan) attacked. Seeing that Justin was about to get into a break away I slowed down a bit in an attempt to block everyone from different teams behind me from being able to get into the break with Justin and the other guy.

Fortunately the break was able open up a nice gap on the field. Now it was teamwork time. Zack and Tim moved to the front of the pack to set the pace. Their goal was to slow the pace of the pack down enough so that Justin and the DePaul guy could open up a bigger gap. The plan worked flawlessly and the break was gone.

As we passed the finish line for the first time we got some encouragement from our coach Kurt who told us that our blocking strategy was working. Nothing too eventful happened in the second lap, although we did lose a few guys off the back while going into the headwind. After passing the finish line after the second lap our coach told us that the break was completely out of reach (mission accomplished) and the race was now for 3rd place.

It took quite a long time for the guys in the field from other schools to realize what we were up to. I was next to a few of the guys as they said, "Hey, Michigan has a guy in the break. They aren't going to want to do any work to bring them back!" After that they tried attacking us to bring the pace up, but it was completely in vain as the break was long gone.

The race was winding down and we were on the final stretch of dirt on Babcock road. I could see the final turn onto pavement coming so I wanted to move to the front in an effort to not get boxed in. As I passed Tim I told him to grab my wheel. Unfortunately his wheels managed to find a pothole right as we swung out behind me and he went down.

It was about this point when my strategy turned to mush.  I went to the front for the final stretch towards the finish, which isn't the best move as drafting someone would have saved energy. I was getting antsy and ended up starting my sprint WAYYYY too early. I should have waited a couple hundred more meters since the finish was uphill, into the wind, and about 100 meters farther down the road than I thought it was. I ended up burning out way before the finish line and getting passed by everyone that was left in the group. Oh well, it was still good enough to get me 7th in the race and make it 3 top tens for Michigan.

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After the race it was time to relax, get some lunch with my parents, and watch the rest of the day's races. After everyone was done we loaded up the van's and headed back to Ann Arbor to get ready for Sunday's race - Our home criterium!

Marian University USAC Race

With the morning's collegiate race over with it was time to focus our efforts on getting ready for the afternoon USAC 4/5 race. The difference between collegiate and USAC is that anyone with a cycling license can race USAC while only college students can race in the collegiate races. USAC is based off 5 categories with 5 being for new folks and 1 being for those who are properly quick on the bike. Since I'm new to racing I'm currently a cat 5 rider, but I'll be cat 4 by the end of April as the upgrade requirements are only to finish 10 races. Saturday's race would consist of a conglomerate of cat 5 and cat 4 riders of all ages.

As I mentioned in the collegiate post, the USAC and collegiate races couldn't have been any more different despite sharing the same exact course.

Sun's Out Guns Out, hurray for warmth. Photo by Zack Benet

The race started just as the other had besides the fact that the USAC field was 75 people deep while the collegiate field was only 41. We got underway and all was mostly well for the first lap or so. One thing was apparent though; my legs were not as excited to race as my mind was. The big field size and my lack of focus lead to me getting boxed into a slowly moving pack at the beginning of the second lap. By the time I could get out from behind those guys the leaders had put a pretty decent chunk of road between themselves and my group. A guy from IU and I agreed to work together to catch back up to the main group. We gritted our teeth and hammered for about 3/4 of a lap to catch back on.

Just as we caught the main group word came from an official that the race had been neutralized. There had been quite a nasty crash in the finishing stretch on the first lap that required the officials to shut down that portion of the course to clean things (ie blood all over the road) up. As a result the field had to be re-routed through the parking lot to do another lap at low speed before the race would get restarted. I was quite frustrated as I had just burned a lot of the relatively low amount of strength I had left just to catch back on and it ended up being all for naught as the race was stopped. Oh well.

Eventually the race got back underway and the officials decided that we'd have two laps left. Essentially a green-white-checker finish. Not thinking, I picked a spot towards the inside on the restart and immediately got boxed in again as the leaders created a little gap. By the time I worked my way back to the outside they were gone up the road again. I worked with some other guys who were in a similar situation to try to claw our way back to the front. Along 30th Street I managed to hit a pretty sizable traffic cone head on as it was placed a little further inside than all the others. For a moment I was sure that I was about to get to know the pavement better, but the cone harmlessly slid out of the way and I was able to keep things upright.

As we crossed the line with 1 to go we still had quite a bit of work to do in order to catch up since the turns through campus strung out the field and let a gap open. I joined up with 2 other guys and we gave it our all to catch back on. At the top of the 30th Street hill the leaders were probably no more than 50 meters ahead of us, but my legs had gone zub zub and I didn't have anything left. I flicked my elbow to try to get someone to pull through and lead us back to the pack, but alas no one was there to save me. Knowing my hope at a good finish was toast I kind of relaxed through the campus turns and down through the downhill. As we hit the final stretch I passed 3-4 guys in a final sprint effort before cruising through the line. After checking the results it was determined that I came across the line in 46th out of 75 total riders and 14th out of 25 cat 5 riders. A disappointment as I know my legs are capable of much better, but a learning experience nonetheless. 

In hindsight that was probably my worst race yet as far as strategy and positioning went. My lack of focus was most likely due to resting on my laurels from a good finish in the morning and DePauw as well as my legs being tired. However, I think if I would have just positioned myself well and stuck with the lead group then my legs wouldn't have been much of an issue as I would have been drafting rather than chasing the whole race. The big field and wide range of rider abilities led to small gaps opening that I was getting stuck behind. People always say "stay at the front" and today I really learned why. A valuable lesson that I'll remember from here on out for sure.

Next up on the schedule is a pair of races in Michigan (yay!). On Saturday we'll be heading to East Lansing for Michigan State's home road race consisting of about 50% dirt roads. Sunday brings us back to Ann Arbor as we host our home criterium.

Marian University Collegiate Race

It had been a while since our last race at DePauw, but we got back in the action last weekend as we headed to Marian University in Indianapolis for a pair of races on Saturday. The day would consist of two races: one collegiate race in the morning and one USAC race in the afternoon. Despite being on the same course these two races ended up being quite different, but I'll get into those details later.

After getting a 1st and 2nd place finish at DePauw in the D category I decided it was time to upgrade to C's, so Marian would be my first C's race. Michigan ended up being quite well represented in C's as we had a total of 6 guys at the start line. After the usual lecture about rules and whatnot the official sounded the gun (they actually had a starting pistol, felt pretty official I suppose) and we were off.

The race would consist of ~30 minutes on the roughly 2.5 mile loop shown below. We ended up doing racing 5 laps, or about 12.5 miles. 30th Street contained a quick little climb before turning onto Cold Spring Rd and taking a series of quick turns through Marian's campus. After leaving campus there was a decent downhill that we got going quite quickly down before taking a sweeping right back towards the finish line. The campus turns really strung out the field every lap which resulted in having to go quite hard on the downhill and through the finish line to regroup with the field.

It was pretty neat rolling out of the starting line and seeing teammates around, so that was cool. However, as soon as we got through the first corner the feeling of "oh I have teammates this is nice" turned into "oh man the pace is quite a lot faster than D's". Gone were the easy first few laps of the D's races when no one wanted to pull so we would meander around at like 15mph.

Everything was going pretty well and the pack was more or less sticking together for the first bit of the race. Unfortunately Zack got a flat so we were down to 5 Michigan teammates. A couple laps in we had our first substantial moment of the race as there was quite a crash around the area labeled "Golf Course Entrance" on the map. I don't really know what caused it since that was the smoothest and least challenging part of the course. The crash happened probably 4-5 guys in front of me so I was able to react in time to avoid it and come out just fine. It sounded pretty nasty though as all the carbon and metal hit the ground. We're pretty sure we heard a tubular explode in quite spectacular fashion as well.

Coming through the finish line mid-race. Photo by Zack Benet

With the wreck avoided it was back to business. As the last lap came around all of the Michigan guys were in pretty good position. We even had a nice little moment along the back stretch by the golf course when we were all lined up in a row until some Notre Dame rider came and spoiled our fun. After that we started putting that teamwork to good use as we started taking pulls on the front to try to deliver our team to the line towards the front of the pack. I made my way to the front and started my pull just after the turn onto Cold Spring Rd. I was hoping to get myself in good position before the turns on campus as that would really stretch out the pack. I stayed at the front for a little bit until Tim came flying by me. After that I grabbed a wheel and tried to get ready for what was about to go down.

After exiting campus we made the final left onto the downhill. I was getting quite tired at this point, but the 200 meters to go sign was near so I had to dig deeper. The finish line was in sight and I had an opportunity to grab a top 10 finish in my first C's race. I was sprinting towards the line as someone yelled out "On your right", so naturally I looked right only to hear someone come by on my left. Somehow my chain also dropped in this motion so I was left to coast into the line without being to pedal. I only got passed by probably 1 or 2 guys while helplessly rolling forward, so the damage could have been much worse.

After all was said and done I crossed the line in 11th out of 41. I was quite happy with this result especially since we had three Michigan guys grab top 10 spots. It would have been cool to have 4 in the top 10, but at the end of the day the difference between 9th or 10th and 11th is pretty insignificant.

 

After the race it was time to relax, get something to eat, and watch the rest of the collegiate races while getting ready for our afternoon race.

They Survived the Maiden Voyage

Tonight I put the quality of my build job to the test as I took my new wheels out for their maiden voyage. I must say they passed with flying colors! The feeling of rolling on wheels that you built yourself is amazing, not to mention the fact that they are wayyy lighter than my old set of wheels.

Here she is after returning:

 

Next up is a double dose of circuit racing on Saturday at Marian University. In the morning we'll have our MWCCC Men's C's collegiate race in the morning followed by a USAC Cat 4/5's race in the afternoon.

And They're Done!

I put in a bit of a marathon effort last night to get these buggers ready to roll.

They took me a little bit longer than I'd like since I made a few really dumb lacing mistakes, but alas they're put together. I wanted to have them ready for today (Thursday) so I could put a good ride on them before the weekend. I want make sure they're good to go and to catch any detentioning issues as the spokes settle in before the race since a race isn't exactly a good place to be trying new things.

They've given me a pretty nice sense of accomplishment though. Wheels are one part that most people are scared to touch in fear of messing something up, so it was cool to build some from a pile of parts. Pretty crazy that a bunch of weak, bendy spokes can come together to build something that can haul my big self around.

Here's to hoping they don't explode on me during tonight's training ride!

Reinventing the Wheel

Well now that Gravitas Libertas is all pretty it appears that its time for the next step in making her a more respectable race bike. That means time for new wheels!

But I couldn't just buy some, no, that would be too easy (and expensive). Instead I'm building them myself with parts from Bike Hub Store.

 

Hopefully they'll be done soon, but I'm not going to rush it since I want them done right.  

Makeover Complete!

She lives! After some issues getting the headset good to go (we put it in upside down) I was finally ready to get her all put back together today. Everything went fairly smoothly considering it was my first time adjusting a rear derailleur from scratch as well as replacing shifter cables. Here she is in all her glory:

 

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Everything was working in tip top shape on tonight's ride so it appears that I put everything together correctly. A $4 eBay special blue seatpost collar was supposed to add some extra flair, but its way too lightly colored (almost aqua) and doesn't match the blue spacers and chainring bolts at all. Oh well, I still love it and I'm so happy its not red anymore.

Gravitas Libertas is Getting a Makeover

The steed is getting a bit of a makeover. What was once this:

 

Is currently looking like this:

 

Thanks to Julian at Bean's Best Restoration the frame is stripped down to the raw aluminum following a media blast treatment. She's getting a nice once over with the steel wool and will come out looking nice and shiny. The left chainstay (at the bottom of the picture) has already gotten  the steel wool treatment and is noticeably better looking.

Don't worry, I'll post an update after it gets all prettied up.

Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?

New kits!

 

 We just got our new kits from Jakroo and they are looking pretty fresh. Nice and comfy too. Definitely can't wait to rock the new kits at Marian on March 30th in my first C's race.

To the Victor Go the Spoils

During the winter trainer sessions Coach Kurt debuted his system of rewarding us for winning races. And those rewards were none other than cheap sunglasses! It's a bit hokey, but nevertheless is a fun little something for doing well.

I won the road race at DePauw, so last week at our Tuesday interval training I was able to collect my prize. Here they are in all their glory:

GEORGIA! Spring Break Training Part 3

After Thursday's effort many of us were debating just taking the day off on Friday to get some recovery in our legs. However, the weather had other plans as the brilliantly warm and sunny day lured us back out to the roads to get in one more ride before we headed back to the frigid lands of the north.

Friday:


After sleeping in and debating whether or not we wanted to ride the weather ultimately won us over. With temps in the 60's we just could not pass down the opportunity to get out in just shorts and a short sleeve jersey. Sun's Out, Guns Out was the mantra of Friday's ride. After all, gotta get a jump start on those razor sharp tan lines that we'll be sporting during the summer. Gotta obey rule number 7 you know. We wanted to take it easy, but ended up keeping a pretty nice pace throughout the ride. The legs were definitely sore and quite tired, but the gorgeous weather made it easy to momentarily forget about that and just enjoy the ride.


Friday's ride would prove to be the last of the trip as we had to get out of town early on Saturday morning in order to make it back to the homeland Ann Arbor at a reasonable hour. Despite necessary pit stops at Chic-Fil-A (first visit in 5 years, absolutely delicious), McDonald's (shamrock shakes!), and Taco Bell (Doritos tacos) we were able to get back to Michigan before it got too late.


Overall I had an absolutely great time on the trip. Sure moments of it seemed like they were terrible (I'm looking at you Hogpen ascent), but those moments of difficulty were met with rewards of accomplishment at the top. In hindsight I would have liked to climb Brasstown (highest point in Georgia) and do the 6 gap, but It just didn't happen this year. I guess I'll just have to come back next year better prepared and have another go at the mountains.

GEORGIA! Spring Break Training Part 2

Wednesday:
Wednesday would prove to be the toughest day of the week due to a multitude of reasons. Most notable was the weather, which was cold with temps in the low 30's and wind chills in the low 20's. And that was in town, the tops of the mountains were even colder and covered in snow. Next off my derailleurs got all gummed up with something that also got cold and very viscous so my shifting was pretty much restricted to my 6 or so easiest gears. That was fine for climbing, but I couldn't keep up at all on the descents. And to top it all off my legs were tired and not interested in riding which made everything that much harder. Wednesday was definitely an exercise in  mental toughness.

The route was the same as Monday's 3 gap ride except in the opposite direction. Unfortunately this meant we didn't get the fun Unicoi descent and we had to climb up the steep side of Hogpen. At the top of Unicoi I was really tempted to just turn around and call it a day, but the guys convinced me to keep pressing on. Next up was Jack's which was even easier going the opposite direction (probably the easiest gap of the trip.) After descending Jack's it was time for the big one: Hogpen. The climb was only about 2.4 miles, but holy cow was it steep as about 1,200 feet of climbing were packed into those 2.4 miles . A tough headwind on one of the final sections didn't help either as I struggled my way to the top. Those 2.4 miles took me 33 minutes to climb while I averaged a blazing speed of 4.2 mph.

I thought my struggles were finally over as I reached the top, but unfortunately I was mistaken. Less than a mile into the nearly 7 mile descent I heard a weird popping noise. I figured it was nothing, but a few seconds later John yelled to me that I had broken a spoke. Sure enough I looked down and my rim was wobbling all over the place. Thankfully my 32 spoke rear wheel was strong enough to still be rideable, but I took it easy the rest of the way home just in case. Eventually I made it back to the cabin and began the task of putting 3,000 calories back into my body so I could be ready to go for Thursday. John saved the day and let me borrow his spare rear wheel for the rest of the week so I didn't have to miss a beat.

Thursday:

Wednesday may have been the most mentally difficult day of the trip, but Thursday was definitely the most physically difficult. The plan was to meet up with the guys from Michigan State's team since they were staying somewhat close to us. However, they got impatient as we rode around 20 miles out of the way to meet up with them and they left without us. Oh well, we weren't going to let that spoil our ride and we pressed on towards Neels Gap.

Neels actually ended up being my favorite climb of the trip. It was long at almost 7 miles, but it wasn't overly steep with about 1,500ft of climbing, the roads were nice, it was scenic, and overall just an enjoyable experience. And better yet there was a store at the top to load up on goodies (aka candy) to help us get through the rest of the trip.

We decided to push the pace while descending Neels which unfortunately made us miss our turn towards Wolfpen Gap by about 2 miles. After backtracking we made the turn onto the creatively named Wolfpen Gap Road and started our way up the hill. Wolfpen was pretty cool too as it was really windy and mostly situated in a forest so there was tons of stuff to look at. Wolfpen lasted for about 3 miles and included around 1,100 feet of climbing. The descent off Wolfpen was cool too as it was also windy and all of the turns were banked nicely. We had to be careful as there was gravel here and there on the road, but overall it was fun.

Next up was Woody Gap which was over with pretty quickly with only one really steep section presenting a challenge. The descent off Woody was also a blast as it seemed like we were riding downhill forever (5.5 miles). At the bottom we stopped at another cool little store and bought more supplies (more candy!!!). Unfortunately we had another 20 or so miles of backtracking to do in order to get back to Helen since our failed MSU rendezvous took us so far out of the way.

We made it back to Helen where the group split up. A few of our really strong (read: crazy) guys decided to go tackle 3 more gaps to complete the infamous 6 gap while 3 more of us decided to call it a day and ride back to the cabin. When it was all said and done the 3 guys who went back ended up riding a total of 85 miles with 8,000 feet of climbing. Good for over 4,500 calories! The other guys ended doing about 120 miles with around 12,000 feet of climbing. Crazy!

Despite being tough, Thursday's ride was definitely rewarding. We were dead tired afterwards and spent the rest of the day not doing much of anything besides eating.

GEORGIA! Spring Break Training Part 1

After the races at DePauw we loaded the cars back up and started the trek down to Georgia for our Spring Break training camp in Helen, GA. After stops for some awesome BBQ and coffee in Tennessee we arrived at our cabin in Georgia pretty late so we were content to just go to bed to prepare for the copious amounts of riding bikes up mountains that the week would bring. My report from the trip is going to have to come in 3 parts since apparently I can only include 2 Strava logs per post.

Monday:
Morning came all too soon and it was time to get down to business (after a quick run to the store for groceries). We hit the road around 1:30 pm to go find out what this whole mountain thing was all about with our first 3 gap ride of the week. A gap is essentially another word for mountain peak. After a quick trip through "downtown" Helen to get to the base of the climb we got things started with our first gap of the day: Hogpen Gap. This would prove to be the hardest of the day by far. Hogpen is about 7 miles long with a vertical elevation change of nearly 2,000 feet. Needless to say it was rather difficult to tote my big body up that hill. Once we got to the top it was time for fun though as we had quite a descent coming. Going down Hogpen I hit the fastest speed I ever have on a bike as my computer told me I was going 54 mph. Strava was a little less optimistic at 52.7 mph, but either way it was properly fast.

After Hogpen we refilled water bottles before heading towards the Jack's Gap, our second gap of the ride. Jack's was a lot more manageable with it standing at 4.1 miles long with 850 feet of elevation change. After regrouping at the top of Jack's it was time for another descent before hitting our last big climb of the day in the Unicoi Gap. Unicoi was pretty easy in comparison to Hogpen as well as it was about 2.3 miles with 750 feet of elevation change. The descent off Unicoi was an absolute blast though. Probably my favorite of the trip. Following that we regrouped in Helen and headed back to the cabin for the night where we proceeded to feast in order to replenish the roughly 3,000 calories we burned in the day's 58 miles of riding.

Tuesday:
The weather took a turn for the worse on Tuesday as rain was in the forecast. We didn't feel like pushing our luck in the mountains (and we were tired) so we opted to go for a much flatter ride instead. The weather was still dry when we headed out at noon, but that quickly changed as it started raining. It still made for a good ride though as we were able to get a nice 30 miles in without having to climb over any mountains.

DePauw University Criterium

With Saturday's win in the books it was time to shift my focus towards Sunday's criterium. After another breakfast of waffles and bad coffee we headed out to the course. As we arrived we encountered a bit of a difficulty; the course was dusted with snow. Packs of riders pushing it through corners and snow don't exactly mix well, so the race organizers got to work and dispatched a team of leaf blower toting guys to clear off the track. This took a while, so the start of the D crit got pushed back from the scheduled 9 AM to around 9:30. Unfortunately I didn't get this memo so I was all warmed up and ready to go at 9. It wasn't the end of the world though as I just rode around trying to keep warm and limber until we were told to line up at the start line.

The race got underway and thankfully we skipped the stage of pointless meandering that was present at the beginning of Saturday's road race. I was feeling pretty good and worked to stay in the top 5 or so as to stay clear of the chaos that is a D's field in a crit. After a few laps a guy from ODU (Ohio Dominican? I'm not sure, I just know that he had a sweet Bianchi) went off the front on a solo break. The field wasn't really too eager to chase him down right away so he was able to stay away for 2ish laps before a guy from Illinois-Chicago freaked out and insisted that we chase him down immediately. I found his urgency quite funny since there is no way that the ODU guy was going to stay away the whole race, but I was more than content to just sit there and let him and his teammates chase down the break while towing the field behind them.

After the UIC guys pulled the solo break in I looked back and noticed that about 2/3 of the field was gone. We somehow managed to drop most of the field without really going that hard or making any attempts to get away. No complaints though as I was now pretty much guaranteed a top 20 finish. I just hung out at the back of the group now as most of the sketchier riders were gone and I didn't really feel like doing any work. We had a few prime laps mixed in there, but since the reward for getting them is essentially nothing I didn't waste any energy going for them.

Before I knew it the 4 laps to go sign came up. I was still just content to sit in for a few more laps as the pack got more tense. John was yelling at me to move up in the field (which I probably should have), but I didn't feel like working quite yet. Memories of being at the front and getting boxed in at the Lindsey Wilson crit were still there so I made sure to avoid putting myself back into that situation. As the one lap to go sign came up I started making my move.

As we hit the backstretch I started moving up the field until I was at the front with 2 turns to go. I stayed there as we went through the little uphill section and through the turn onto the home stretch. I started thinking that I might make it two wins in a row when suddenly a guy from Case Western Reserve University jumped out from behind me and went early on the final sprint in a bit of strategy that would pay off for him. I started my sprint a little later with the slim hope of running him down before the finish line. Really though, I was just racing to save 2nd place. I wasn't able to catch him, but I was able to hold off the rest of the field and cross the line in second. And to make things better 2 guys from MSU finished in the top 10 as well, so the state of Michigan made up almost 1/3 of the top 10! Top 25 results shown below:

Needless to say I was pretty happy with a second place finish in a field of 40ish guys. That combined with Saturday's win definitely made it a successful weekend by all accounts.

This weekend also marked the end of my career in D's as I have since upgraded to C's! I can't wait to race with all of my teammates in C's as we can potentially field a team of 8ish guys and pull all sorts of strategy to get our guys on the podium. I'll be making my C's debut on March 30 at Marian University. Due to the setup of the Marian race having both a collegiate and USAC race back to back I'll also be racing with my teammates in the USAC Cat 4/5 race the same day.

Well that wraps up the weekend of racing at DePauw. Next up was a trip south to Georgia. I'll be writing an entry for that trip so check back soon!

DePauw University Road Race

The weekend of March 2nd brought forth the second race weekend of the Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference season. The weekend's races would be held at DePauw (Yes, its DePauw and not DePaul) University in Greencastle, Indiana. I'm going to split up the weekend's two races into two separate entries as to not present you guys with a massive wall of text that would surely be met with some serious tl;dr since it was quite an eventful weekend.

As soon as classes got out on Friday the team loaded up the cars and set forth on the journey from Ann Arbor to our hotel in Indiana. We eventually arrived, feasted on the obligatory Friday pre-race Subway, and settled into our hotel for the night since my Men's D's race started bright and early at 8:30 AM. Thankfully our hotel had a continental breakfast with those nifty waffle makers and coffee so we were able to get up and moving in time for the race.

The race course consisted of three laps of 8 miles each around a small lake without a whole lot of elevation changes per lap. The lack of climbing made this race suit me and my large self a whole lot better than the road race at Lindsey Wilson. The temperature on Saturday was pretty darn cold as it stayed put in the high 20's/low 30's. This could have been somewhat of an advantage for us from the northern schools since we were used to it, but I doubt it really made a difference.

After a talk from the race director the race got underway heading counter clockwise around the lake. No one was in any kind of hurry though as we plodded around at about 15mph. It was kind of comical how slow we were going for a while as everyone was just hanging out and having a nice chat in the peloton. After a few miles of this I had gotten bored of it and decided to spice things up a bit. After cresting one of the short climbs I attacked and went off the front of the pack. The field reacted quickly and caught me within a few minutes, but a message was sent and the race was underway.

After attacking off the front and getting caught I decided to just hang out in the pack for the remainder of the first lap to save some energy. I stayed there for about half of the second lap too before trying to go off the front again. I didn't get away this time either, but that doesn't mean my attack wasn't successful. Upon catching me an Indiana guy launched a counter attack. I quickly caught up to him, towing some of the field behind me. As soon as we caught him a few other guys attacked yet again. He got caught too, but these three consecutive attacks blew apart the field and narrowed the lead group down to about 20 guys from the original 60ish.

We crossed the line a second time and started on our way for lap 3. Things started getting tense as everyone was trying to position themselves well for the inevitable final sprint. I worked to make sure that I was not going to get boxed in and ensure that I was near the front. As we hit the last 1k or so I started moving up on the left to get into good position. With about 500 meters to go I heard the terrible anthem of the "Dangerous D's" as bikes and riders hit the ground (and metal guardrails) behind me. I was careful to not let their crash distract me as the finish line was just ahead. With just under 200 meters left I was on the front and started sprinting for the finish line. I really didn't want to get caught from behind so I locked in on that finish line and just kept the legs spinning. Eventually that line came and I crossed it.

I won! I sat down, thew my hands up in some sort of probably uncoordinated looking celebration, and went to meet my teammates as they congratulated me. After a phone calls with my coach and parents it finally started sinking in that I had won a race in only my third try. Sure it was only D's, but it was still great for morale and confidence. After last week's 27th I had not really expected to win a race any time soon, but alas it happened. The top 25 can be seen below:

After watching the rest of the day's races (shout out to John for getting 2nd in B's) we headed back to our hotel, went out for dinner at some Mexican place with great shrimp tacos, floated in the pool for a bit, and settled in for bed.

As I was trying to fall asleep I was hoping that Saturday's success would carry over to Sunday. *Spoiler alert* It did

Lindsey Wilson College Race Report

Last weekend was my first experience with road racing and holy cow it was such a good time. I had raced mountain bikes a few times over the last year and plenty of BMX in my younger days, but those races were a far cry from what I was about to experience on the road.

Our journey started on Friday (Feb 22) in the afternoon when we loaded up the cars and headed out for our roughly 7 hour journey down to Columbia, Kentucky. The ride down went pretty well despite stopping at the world's busiest Subway somewhere in Ohio and some random sketchy gas station in the middle of nowhere Kentucky. After passing into the Central Time Zone (which would cause some confusion all weekend) we arrived at a decent hour and got around for bed to get ready for all of the racing that would happen on Saturday.

Saturday started bright and early as our start time for the Team Time Trial was at 8:07 AM. We got there early, signed in, and got our race numbers that we would use for the rest of the weekend (and collegiate season until category upgrades.) This was my first time pinning on a number, so I guess that was kind of a neat experience. Thanks to Zack and Kevin for the pro-tips about crumpling up the number and using some  pinning techniques so the numbers didn't flap in the wind quite so much. Despite a somewhat rushed warm up the Michigan Men's C TTTTeam did pretty solidly. We even beat Wisconsin's B team. After the TTT we headed to McDonald's/Subway (a common theme on the weekend) to refuel for the afternoon's road race.

Next up was my first mass start road race which just so happened to boast a field of over 70 riders. All of us were in the Men's D Category, which means that most of us didn't have much, if any, experience racing. Men's D's carries a reputation for being a crash factory, so I was a little nervous as things got underway. Sure enough the reputation proved itself to be true as two riders crashed right in front of me less than a mile into the race. I quickly took evasive action and rode through the nearby grass/ditch on the side of the road. I was able to come out unscathed, but I had to sprint to get back up to the leaders. A feeling of tension was present in the peloton as everyone knew the first big climb of the day was coming. It finally arrived and we pushed the pace pretty hard to get up it. Eventually we reached the top and settled back in to our previous pace. The race was smooth sailing for a while as everyone stuck together and we took the next two climbs at a much easier pace. But this was just the calm before the storm as everyone had the final climb on their mind. As we made the turn onto the final road, about 20 miles into the race, the guys at the front started pushing the pace. Riders continued to get dropped off the back as we came ever closer to the climb. Unfortunately that climb would spell my doom as the guys at the front left me in the dust when my legs gave up. I slowly struggled up the hill by myself, watching the leaders ride off into the distance. I finished the climb and rolled across the finish line with and end result of 27th out of 72. I'd have preferred to do a little better, but I'm still content as it was my first race and a tough course. We headed back to the cabin and proceeded to eat everything we could find before heading to McDonald's to borrow some WiFi. Eventually we headed back and went to bed to get rested up for Sunday's criterium.

I was a mix of excited and terrified on the way to the crit on Sunday. On one hand I had heard from everyone how much fun crits were. On the other hand John provided the insight of ,"...everyone in Ds will most likely crash and suffer horrific injuries." While there was some joking involved there, the message still went through that this could be potentially dangerous. My nerves settled a bit as we took our warm up laps and rolled up to the line to get our talking to from the race officials. After listening to their mini-lecture we were off and racing. It didn't take long for some of the D riders to lose control as one guy went off the course in the very first turn. We settled into our groove quickly though. The race went along at a pace around 22mph with the group staying together for the most part as attacks off the front got brought back really quickly. After 3-4 laps we started lapping some of the dropped riders that would get pulled from the race. Everything was going well until a Notre Dame rider lost concentration for a few seconds and ended up slamming off the pavement and off into the grass. I still don't know how he managed to crash in the middle of the pack and not take out anyone with him, but we definitely got lucky there. About 15 minutes into the 30min race I decided to lead a lap just for poops and giggles. Eventually the officials started holding up signs that counted down the laps. As the numbers got lower the tension in the field started getting higher. As the 1 lap to go sign came up I was feeling good and sitting in 3rd right on the wheel of the guy in front of me. Everything was going well until we hit the backstretch and the guy in front got tired and sat up. In hindsight I should have reacted better and much quicker, but I didn't and quickly had riders passing me on both sides. I couldn't find a way to get out and ended up losing a bunch of spots. I eventually was able to grab a new wheel, but it was too late and I was too far back. As we made the final turn and headed towards the finish line I tried to sprint back up towards the front, but it was too much too late and I crossed the line in 13th out of around 60. I was happy with the finish considering it was my 2nd race and first crit and learned a good lesson in final lap strategy in the process. It definitely left me hungry to train harder and get some more race experience.

Overall I had an absolute blast and can't wait to race again. Next up is a trip to DePauw University in Greencastle, IN next weekend. As soon as the races get over on Sunday we'll be heading down to Helen, GA for some spring break training.

Getting Started

Hello everyone.

I'm starting this blog as a way to keep a record of my experiences as I venture deeper into the world of bike racing. Most of the content here will probably be race reports, however I plan to post some other goodies here and there as I see fit. Essentially this will be a place that allows me to share my thoughts and experiences in cycling without ramming content down all of the uninterested folks' throats on other social media outlets.

So yep, there's my introduction. Some real content should be coming soon as I'll post a race recap from my first weekend of road racing at Lindsey Wilson College last weekend quite soon.