Wednesday, July 30, 2014

I won a race on my road bike!!! (Sunflower State Games Crit)

I saw this on last nights ride...


It reminded me to blog. (Funny enough, I was turning right). 

Roughly ten days ago I raced the cat 4 crit at the sunflower state games in Topeka, KS. And I won. For the first time ever, (on road bike at least), after 6 years or racing, I managed to win a race. I can count on one hand the number of races I was close to winning in the past. Only two come to mind. Both were last year. The Stateline road race and the 4/5 race on the last day of Gateway cup. I think I was 6th and 5th. So not that close to winning. 

I was surprised to win. So surprised that part of me was worried it wasn't the last lap and I watched to make sure everyone else didn't keep racing. 

I'll back up and give the play by play... 

We had 20 starters and I felt good from the beginning. I covered one attack from the Boulevard crew but besides that we mostly just rode around in circles. It was a flat rectangle except for a slight 'S' curve on the last corner. The finishing strait was a stiff tailwind. 

Tcpckc (team Colavita Parisi coffee Kansas City) had a great turnout and during the race Mark or James said that Jeret wanted to attack with 3 to go. I was still a little winded from covering the boulevard attack (dude was hauling!) plus I have no power anyway so i shook my head 'no' when Jeret rolled up beside me and tried to convince. 

3 to go seemed to come early and it appeared a group sprint was coming up. I did a wonderful job of being politely aggressive to stay in the front and with 1/2 lap to go I was sitting pretty. 

Before the race started I made a mental note of the tailwind finish. X, my wife, always preached that a long sprint would catch people off guard, so I had this in mind. 

So, on the last lap, as we approached the final turn and the 5 or so guys in front of me seemed to slow for a split
Second and fan out across the road, leaving a perfect opening right in front of me, I decided to go for it. We were maybe 300 to 400 meters from the finish and I was all in. 

The 'S' curve turn almost ruined me when I came in at not the best angle, and had to break, a lot. I stayed cool
And shifted up twice so I wouldn't be over geared after correcting the turn. 

I re-accelerated and the tail wind did it's job. I ended up winning easily. There was no hands up celebration, though. Despite one glance back that made me think I had it I was still convinced someone was going to challenge. But they never did. 

The race was over. I won. About 1 minute later I pulled over and threw up. It was awesome. 

Jeff Unruh was promoting the race and he asked if I was going to blog about it. After I won I told him I had to. He puts on bad a** races. So thanks, Jeff! Sorry it took so long. 

Still more races to go, see you all out there!

Friday, July 18, 2014

Catching up, Tour of Lawrence, Truman Cup, State Line Road Race

It's been busy times around these parts but here's what's been happening on the bike front...

Tour of Lawrence - Campus Circuit:

Started at the back and used a crap ton of energy not getting dropped on the first two laps. Felt like I was under attack almost all race but did manage to move up at the beginning of the last lap... ultimately got dropped as we approached the final climb. Blew up big time and had a terrible result. 

Fun course. Blown opportunity.



Tour of Lawrence - Crit:

Rode around in circles and did a pretty good job making the laps as easy as possible. Was still unable to turn that into a good finish as I ended up 11. One spot out of the money. Not a bad finish but not a good one either, at least compared to what I thought I was capable of. 


Truman Cup Crit

Skipped the 4/5 race in favor of the 3/4. Glad I did. Rode first few laps in top 10 but was using too much energy. Moved to the way back and chilled there till one to go. Felt better all the sudden and moved up big time for a 7th place finish. Very happy with that. 

Plus my awesome wife took this awesome picture. This was corner 1 of the last lap and I was in hyper aggressive move up mode. 


State Line Road Race

Took 6th last year and it's a good course for me. This year I apparently came in dehydrated and lacking endurance b/c after 4 laps of smooth sailing I felt the cramps coming and halfway thru the last lap my right hamstring basically locked up and I had to quit. 

Oh well. 

Didn't take any pictures so here's a random one of my cat from the other day.