Stages 3 + 4

Chicago. I'm here, and really having a nice time on and off the bike. The legs and mind are starting to settle in for the long haul of this crit madness. Following the same algorithm everyday, eating the same foods, settling. It's nice. I feel like I could race everyday. I'm going to keep this one short...

Stage 3: Olympia Fields, IL

hi

Every stage so far has been further south than the one that preceded. This was way south, about 45 minutes south of south chicag. These things happen. The course was obviously put on to promote what looked like an in-progress housing development. There were plenty of nice-looking empty houses around. A little lake, and new pavement that wasn't quite finished yet. Which is where we were slated to race. I got there a bit late, and while in the parking lot a guy came and mentioned that there'd be a "rider-only meeting". Hmm. In short, the officials deemed the course unsafe for racing, and were polling the riders to see if they wanted to cancel. I was indifferent. It was a nice course...turn 3 was a bit of an odd one, but nothing we hadn't done 2049 times before. We raced a shortened 60k race. Points and all that were normal, as was the purse. I don't like shortening these things. Longer races=more fatigue=safer finales. Anyhow, we raced, I felt swell. Put in a couple moves but nothing stuck. Since that really hapless attack that stuck on day 1 i've been reluctant to give it full gas in one of them. I didn't get up the road, but a pretty serious move got 1/2 a lap at one point. I chased, a few others chased. The gap stabilized, and started to come down....

Then a guy 3 wheels up from me crashed badly in the aforementioned corner....caution flags, red lights, race stoppage....the whole bit. In short, the crash gave the break a huge boost, and by the time they "officially" neutralized the race, they were 3/4 of a lap up. Gah. Dumb. In 30 minutes, we were off again. They gave the break 3/4 of a lap, of course...and with the big rest interval they had it was pretty much game over. Then without warning (my fault, probably), I hear the bell..."one to go!". Gahhh. I was mid-pack recovering from a little move earlier. It really hadn't even been 10 mins since the restart! I blasted through every corner throwing elbows moving up in droves, and brought it in for 21st on the stage. Well in the money....but zero omnium points (those are 20 deep). An odd day, all around.

Stage 4: Richton Park, IL

The furthest south the tour goes. Interesting little town with wayyyyy too many mosquitos. Good field again, cool course. 4 corners, but not really. The straightaways all had bends in them, and the pavement looked cool. We start. Again, legs felt allright. They've been super. My limiting factor, however, has been the ffffin saddle area....it's getting rough, not gonna lie. Might have to take a day off just to recover down there. Lots of chamois cream today, but still hard to sit properly. The course....ahhh...easily the hardest day so far. I don't know why, but it wasn't smooth at all. No dynamic, no rhythm, and more brakes on this day than on all the other days combined. Annoying. The first 50k were rough for me. Then I slowly started to settle in, and the endurance bit took over. Had no idea how many were up the road, who was up the road, whether they had lapped...zero. No one really knew exactly. Some said 10, some said 20. If it was 20, we'd only be sprinting for 5 $ spots and zero points. So I wasn't too motivated for the sprint. Still, the legs came around, I threw myself in whatever holes opened up, and finished up 15th on the day. The official figure for the break was 10 riders. Major props to perennial "sit in and sprint" guy Justin Williams (R&R) for getting up the road and lapping the field. Never seen him attack, let alone lap the field. Bravo, guy.


***If anyone has links to any photos, send some links my way. There isn't much out there.