Lindenwood Crit

With the struggle that was the road race out of the way it was time to focus on my bread and butter, the crit. The weather took a turn for the worse as it hung around the mid 30's with TONS of wind, but the precipitation held off and left us with safe racing conditions.

Lindenwood's crit course was set in downtown St Charles, MO and featured a bunch of cobbles. Even better, there were plenty of coffee shops and restaurants along the course that we could hop into and watch the races without having to be out in the cold and wind.  Course shown below:

The course had 3 corners. The two at the bottom of the screen were nice and fast while the top one was usually much slower as everyone was tired of slogging through the headwind featuring 20+ mph gusts.

The race started pretty uneventfully with everyone just kind of hanging out. Marian quickly grew tired of this and sent two guys up the road. Sadly without teammates I had to just watch them go and hope that someone would work to pull them back. Meanwhile Marian's other riders went to the front to sit up and try to disrupt the chase.
Eventually Lindenwood countered this attack by sending 2 of their guys up the road to chase. Again I just had to watch this go. I got tired of this and put in a little attack coming down the home stretch one lap to bridge up to them. Of course, as soon as I caught them one of their guys sat up and the other attacked again. Good teamwork on their part. So now there were just 3 guys up the road.

Photo by Harvey Elliot

The solo Lindenwood rider eventually blew up and it became apparent that the Marian guys were gone. With less than 10 to go it looked like it was going to end in a field sprint for 3rd. With a few laps to go I started trying to decide who's wheel I was going to try to grab to set up the sprint. I didn't have teammates, so I'd have to try to snatch a leadout from someone else.

I heard some Minnesota guys conspiring so I figured that they'd try to get organized. Coming down the backstretch with 1 to go I gently stole the Minnesota wheel from a Nebraska guy and put myself 3rd wheel. The Minnesota leadout guy hit the backstretch and pulled hard. Things were looking promising at first as no one was coming around, but sadly he blew up before he could get us to the last turn. In hindsight I probably should have seen this coming. He sat up and of course drifted right back into me, getting me boxed in with like 50m to the last corner.

I was able to get myself free and into open air coming around the last corner, but the damage had been done since I was probably in around 12th place exiting the corner. I unleashed my trademark sprint and managed to pass a bunch of guys, but it wasn't enough to catch the Notre Dame and Minnesota guys that would end up 3-4. I crossed the line in 5th. As I was getting ready to cross the line I heard a BANG and then the sound of carbon and pavement. Unfortunately there was a crash back in the field, but luckily I was able to avoid it.

Coming into the finish. Note the mess on the right of the screen in the field.
Photo by Harvey Elliot

Crits are always fun and this was no exception. We grabbed a bite to eat before hitting the road back towards Ann Arbor. Next up is a pair of crits (one collegiate and one USAC) at Case Western in Cleveland!

Lindenwood Road Race

It had seemed like forever since we raced at Lindsey Wilson, so we were eager to get back out there and race at Lindenwood. After a long drive late into the night we finally made it to St Charles, Missouri.

The race had a reputation for being hilly, and the guys in the c/d races confirmed this as I was warming up. I still didn't know the extent of "hilly" but oh boy was I about to find out. 

The B race was slated to be 3 laps of the 21 mile course for a total of about 63 miles. The course map and elevation chart is shown below. You'll probably notice that the finish and start don't match up, but that's a bridge we'll cross a bit later.

The race started off gentle enough with everyone kinda just hanging out until the first climb. This proved to be the calm before the storm. The climb was way steep (avg 8%, but kicked up higher than that) and seemed to go on forever. The leaders opened up a bit of a gap on me, but I was able to catch them quickly after the terrain leveled out. After a bit of meandering through flat land we hit the descent. It was a fun and fast one, but unfortunately I had to ride the brakes all the way down since I was in the field.

After a smaller intermediate climb everyone started preparing for the big one at around 10 miles in. This one was another beast. Unfortunately I wasn't able to hang onto the field and got shelled out the back about half way up the climb. I kept pushing up the climb and eventually it finally ended, but I had some work to do.

I teamed up with a guy from Minnesota and we traded pulls in an effort to catch back on. At first I thought our effort was hopeless, but then a group of 2 came into view up the road. I dropped the Minnesota guy on a descent and bridged up to the Notre Dame and Lindenwood guys that we had seen earlier. Now we formed a group of 3 and kept pushing on, sharing pulls at the front. Eventually another group of 3 became visible up the road and they became our new target. 

A few minutes later we caught the group and formed a group of 6. And alas, the main field was in sight! We had about 2 miles left in the first lap so we inserted ourselves back into the field and accepted the draft. At the finish we discarded our empty bottles and grabbed new ones from our teammates before embarking on the 2nd lap.

The 2nd lap started much like the first with everyone loafing it towards the first climb. About a mile before the first climb I clipped a big rock sitting in the middle of the road. After hitting it I thought, "oh great, that'll probably be a pinch flat." But the climb was coming so I set my mind towards getting over that. I put myself towards the front of the field so I could fall back as we climbed, but it wasn't enough as I quickly got spat out the back with the other big guys. I grouped up with a few Minnesota guys as we suffered towards the top. We finally made it and I sat down. Uh, oh. I felt the rim hit the road. Sure enough, the pinch flat happened. I didn't bring anything to fix a flat so I just sat there till the broom wagon took me back to the start.

All in all I wasn't really too upset. I was probably going to DNF after the 2nd lap anyway since I was out the back and wanted to save some of my legs for the crit. Apparently a bunch of guys thought the same as 14 guys DNF'd out of a total of 34. Over 40% of the field didn't finish the race. Dang.

Oh well, the crit was always going to be the focus of my weekend. We headed back to the hotel before heading out to St Louis to get some frozen custard and check out the arch.

Michigan Cycling - Album Cover Edition.
Photo by Harvey Elliot

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.

.

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 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.

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.