Stages Days Bike Races 10 + 11 Yes

Superweek is a long one.

It's going well. The good legs are good still, but the mind is starting to slip. It's getting more and more difficult to psyche myself out to take that start line for the Nth time for yet another 100k of corner after corner of people swearing at each other and guys crashing right around you for seemingly no reason. Ahh, man. Sunday was evanston, and yesterday was a 2.5 hour road race. The road race ended at around 4pm, so I get a full 24 hours to recover before tonight's race. Nothing to do but blog a bit and recharge the glycogen.

Stage 10: Evanston Grand Prix

Back south of the border where i've gone allright so far. Nice to see the hosts from north and south chicag come out. Even if one of the south hosts sent me this blogging motivational poster. Thanks! Ok. So I graciously accepted a ride down south with the LaGrange guys that have been MVPs whenever their car had room for one more...although I'm instantly blamed anytime a break of theirs doesn't stick and am immediately threatened with having to walk home. Hah. Good guys, though.


Evanston. Great course. Technical, but faaast technical, and a really long finishing sprint. Barriers throughout the whole course. LOVE that. After some charming speeches from local community leaders, Eddie got us off. Pretty standard start. Legs were swell after resting the day prior. I was scolded for cornering knee-out Moto GP style through one of the corners in the early going. Not sure if it was in jest though. After hitting a couple sewer holes, something on my bike was rattling. I had a suspicion that it was the rear wheel/cassette. The course had some rough spots, and with each passing lap, the noise got louder and more annoying. It's really difficult to try to diagnose a problem like this while racing. Try it sometime. Anyhow, the problem diagnosed itself. The seat came completely loose. With the A-hole SoCal officials (yes, i said it) it would 1000% result in a DNF. Not so here. The officials of this region are the sweetest classest and most personable around. TIP of the hat to them...and of course to the neutral support fellas. They took care of it, and I got back in. Gah...seat was too far back, but hey. No more rattle.

Sram Support: Tip!
Thanks

Shortly after I rejoined, a guy near the back of the pack crashed in turn 4. Word on the street is that a tubular was rolled. Ah well. Race stopped. I took advantage and went to the pits, got the seat sorted, grabbed some water, bathroom break, all that. All the guys hanging on for dear life were stoked with this stoppage...the guys at the front, not so much. The hang-on for dear life guys of course made their way to the very front of the field during the second round of staging...annoying. About 20 minutes later, we were off. I was near last-wheel during the restart, and had to sift through a sea of riders before seeing the front again. Got there, stayed there. 10 to go sounded. Big primes, big money, crowds are going nuts. I was about 15th wheel, comfortable behind Sterling who was behind Rassan. 6 to go...a guy right near the front crashes. Roll through the start finish, and yes...the race is stopped again. All the guys up front were livid. Seriously? And it reallllllllllly irked me when once again, people from the pack, pushed forward to stage up front. Total mess. The officials eventually agreed to add a few laps to the race to make it 10 laps to go. Eh. Sprinted out of the restart as hard as I could to get back to where I was. Got there before turn 1. The pace was brisk, but not as hard as it should be to make things nice and strung out. 5 to go...surprise surprise...a break of 3 got off with 2 Olympic-class pursuit riders. They got a gap, and the field starting moving nicely in pursuit. 4-3-2...i'm in great position, legs are getting that "feel better and better 'till the bell" feeling again. Bell lap comes, it's dark (it was past 8:30). Awesome crowd vibe. We got on the backside, and I was 3 or 4th wheel. Too easily. Midway between turns 4 and 5 there was a bit of a lull in the pace...and...I attacked. Hard. Went into turn 5 almost too fast, but had a gap! Rounded the final turn first. Just me, 1000's of people, and massive noise from all angles. I didn't dare look back. What a feeling. I didn't know at the time, but the 3 up the road were gone. I thought I was going for the win. That's a long lonnnnng finishing straight. Everything was going so slow even though the speedo says 60km/h. 25 meters to go.....swarmed. The guys around me were going a good 10k/h faster than I was. Still, maintained enough position to finish 18th. Dicey to be going that slow there, but still...one of my most interesting rides this tour. Though I wouldn't have attacked if I knew that the break was gone, and would've likely secured a top-10. Tant pis!

Rounding Turn 5

Stage 11: Holy Hill RR

This stage was neither a road race, nor hilly, and probably not holy. The start was delayed about an hour, and the RR was shortened to 108k. Exactly 2 kilometers shorter than yesterdays extended criterium. The legs and mind didn't want to start this one. We spent the night in Chicago, and thus left at 6am to head back to Milwauk. Didn't get a chance to come back to my host housing, so little chance for proper rest. Massive field. All the teams came, double points on offer here. I have great memories of this road race in previous superweeks, but it was 160+ kms back then. Not 100. Huge difference. The race started off about as smooth as you'd expect a field of 100+ to ride with the yellow-line rule enforced. Gah. A nice group was up the road, and sick of the lameness of the peleton, I tried to bridge...and failed. Again, for the millionth time this superweek, I conceded that the money streak will end today.

Into the bell lap, the legs woke up a bit. A break dangled off the front, and stayed up there somehow. 10 guys. Surprisingly, it stayed up there, and we would be sprinting for 11th. About 30-40 left in the group at this point. The finish was unknown to most of the racers...and different from previous years. I had no idea how long it was, but eh. I rounded the final turn in 2nd wheel. Got pinched on the right side, and lots of swearing with australian accents were thrust at the rider responsible for the pinch. I saw the finish at the top of a small hill, and was 3rd wheel behind 2 kelly-benefits riders. Perfect....but not. They never opened it up. I got a bit boxed in, and finished.....21st.

So two races, two points finishes. Not a boatload of points, but hey.