Wisconsin Crit School

No, not yet. First a report from this weekend's crit. The race was a 1/2/3. Massive field. Lots of Bearclaws. Spanning all the allowable categories.

It was a swell time. The race was basically the same field as Manhattan Beach the week prior, minus the $20,000 purse, and minus the pressure. It was a nice chance to pin up a number and mix it up with these guys for round two. I like this course. I've done nearly a billion laps on it over the years, but the direction and start/finish placement was recently changed. They switched it back to the old-school on this day, and I was happy for it. Love the little uphill sprint. We lined up...lots of guys:


Took my requisite first lap flyer. I've been doing this lots lately. I think it's basically because I KNOW at some point someones gonna go and string out the bunch. I figure if it's me, at least I know when it's coming. It's worked out pretty nice usually. Never worked though, of course. Jorge from LaGrange caught me, and we did a couple laps together. They rang the prime bell. I let him have it, so long as we can split whatever it was. It was a bottle of facial conditioner. Not much to split...

The race isn't really too interesting from that point. Rode near the front. Watched breaks come and go. The team worked great to shut down threatening moves here and there. Fast forward to just before the bell lap. All our sprinters (3 of us) were right near the front. The vegetable crew was doing their thing, followed by Rock Racing, followed by the Claw kids. I felt spry. Plenty of madness ensued, and I maintained good position into the final corner. I followed Tony Cruz through it. A guy clipped out of his pedal with 200m to go, and that caused a bit of a ripple in the bunch, i went wide right...too wide, and just missed coming around Cruz and a health net for the minor placings. I finished 7th. Teammate Mike got the 2nd-last money spot at 19th.


Yeah, a guy threw his arms up early and lost...and Rasaan let him know about it. Ok, that's that. Wisconsin. I leave really really early tomorrow morning for Chicago. I return on the 30th. Beyond that not much is certain. The first week is going to be the most challenging logistically. That's always the main challenge...it's not the races, it's getting to them. Chicago is gigantic. And there are races in opposite sections of the enormous city. I'm hoping I can ride to as many races as possible. In milwaukee it isn't difficult. We'll see. Legs are good, motivation is good, and it's going to be an interesting bike bum lifestyle excersize. I've amassed so much knowledge in this area over the years, but after UCA's glorious support last year I may have grown a bit soft. It'll come back.