Race reports, stories, photos (soon), and more

Ciao Amici,

Day 1=Beverly Hills Classic

They've got a neighborhood in Chicago that's actually called "Beverly Hills", and it's actually a pretty afluent community, and they've opened the superweek series each of the last 5 years. Awesome course, huge crowds, big money. We were staying in Elkhorn, Wi...We're about 30 minutes closer to Chicago than Milwaukee....the race flyer directions (from Milwaukee) say "allow at least 3 hours of transit time because of Chicago traffic". We "allowed" for 4. To be safe, you know...

I don't really care to write in detail about what followed. In short, it took almost 4 hours to get to Chicago. We didn't get lost, just ridiculous traffic. Sadly, I saw commuter train after train just passing us by while we were basically stopped, and posters along the way that said "take the metro! It's way better!" (or something like that). I know! I do take the metro! Gahhhh. So...Aram's procrastinating again, nothing new, right? He always makes it just in time. Got there, and racers were already on the start line. Cameron had preregistered, I hadn't. Additionally, I find that I left my helmet at the host house. So I had 5 mins to change, fill out the Superweek paperwork, pay, find a helmet, fill up/mix my bottles, go to the bathroom, and stage. Bit the bullet, didn't start. Couldn't. So that's day one. To those of you who checked the results without my name in it and thought "Shite, Aram DNFed/Crashed/sucked" Cmmmmmmmon, you know I don't play that game. DNS, that's all. I somehow still managed to lead the prestigious "U25 Armenian Vegetarian" classification. I hope to hold the lead to the end. As consolation, I guess by not racing I was able to avoid a gnarly crash 200 meters from the finish. And the primes!!!!! 8 of the last 10 laps had $200 2-place primes, and a prime pretty much every other lap. Total insanity. It definitely hurt not to be racing...but I was able to document it all pretty well. Photos comin.

Day 2: Menasha Criterium

No logistical issues here. Cameron and I met up with fellow SoCal-er Nate Loyal in Milwaukee, and carpooled wayyy up north to Menasha. Got there with a cool hour to hang out, warm up, be scenesters, yeah. Nice times. Oddly, lots more people today. Got a pretty good start position, and was at the front from lap 1. Good pace, tight corners, all that. Then, about 15 laps in, they neutralized the field. Whoa. Bad news: Jeremy Mucha, SoCal local, went down hard in turn 1. Really nice guy, and it was his second crash in as many days. It was intense, and he needed to be stabilized before carting him off. So they stopped the race. Riders litterally parked their bikes and walked off...bathroom breaks, coffee, etc. We restarted 15 minutes later. They gave the break a 15 second gap, which was questionable ('cause they were never neutralized to begin with, and extended their advantage when we slowed). So they were gone, 30, 40, 50 seconds. It's a 2 minute course, max. Ah well. Couple laps later, I put in a little attack through the one gnarly turn (turn 3). Look back...it's the Milram rider Dennis Haueisen, Bobby Lea, and one other guy. They ring the prime bell shortly afterwards, for $20 (why'd they move the decimal point over one spot from yesterday? cmon!). We have a slight gap, maybe 20 meters. We work a bit, but about 200 meters from the line, we're basically just at the front of the main pack, caught. Haueisen was cruising to the line for $20....nope, I came around, just rolling along, and took it myself. I need it more than he does. A couple seconds later, I almost fell off the bike laughing....Haueisen: "You want prim? YOU WANT PRIMMMM???! You must workk!..............FUK YOU!". That will officially be the highlight of the month....getting sworn at (for no reason apparent to me, as we were already caught, AND I initiated the break!!!) by Erik Zabel's teammate! Deutschland!!!

Okay. The rest of the race went allright, too. I picked up two other primes, a meager 2 points for the sprint competition (it's hard with a break up the road), and.......5 laps to go sound. Swell, I felt awesome, of course, and was in pretty good position in the top 20. I was riding near Kayle Leogrande (lagrange) and Bobby Lea (Toyota United) the whole way, and they're usually well positioned, so yeah. 3 laps to go...cramps! Calves and hamstrings. Huh? I don't ever cramp, certainly not at the end of a crit, not ever. So I gave it a little hand massage all around, and it was gone. But every time i'd jump to keep position, it'd come back. Really a strange feeling to have the power, but be restricted because of the cramps...perhaps I didn't drink enough? Anyhow. 2 laps to go, quick massages are taking care of the cramp issues, just 2 laps left. Into turn 2, I did a little jump, and my chain did something wild, and I almost fell off the bike...lost a bunch of spots in the process. Gah. Normally, this would bum me out and i'd lose motivation, but I wasn't phased. Did a weird cramped-up move to get back to where I was. Saw Lea again, so figured it was a good spot. A break of 4 was up the road. So I'd have to be top-21 to get some cash. It looked good as we entered the last lap. Your basic last-lap madness, except it's a lot more controlled near the front. Less chaos. The cramps weren't too bad, and I was able to sprint pretty good to finish 12th in the field, for 16th on the day! I'm psyched. I made $100+ after the primes and finishing money. I can buy that new chain that I need so bad! I'm racing today, too. Should be a daisy.