guiltypleasure

the crit was intense! only an hour long in a "L" shape in downtown minneapolis at 745. thousands of people out to watch (perhaps as many as 15,000 spectators! we all got good starts and were in the front third of the 100 plus field. the course had a long finishing straight, perhaps three or four blocks long. make a right hand turn and go two blocks. right hand turn and go one block. make another right hand turn onto a walkway (about a lane wide) for a block and then left for two or three blocks. right turn for one block and you're back on the finishing straight. the turn onto the walkway was the killer. the sidewalk on the opposite side actually came toward us, making the turn tighter than ninety degrees. all the rain from earlier in the evening was dried up, although there was the threat of rain at any point. some of the pavement was smooth, but most of it was horrendous. there was a manhole that must have been three or four inches below grade. i hit that a couple times. thought my fork might just snap. the start was fast and frantic. most crits settle in pretty quick but this race was a frantic dash for the front. in the first 5 or more laps had the riders 3 or 4 wide (there was barely enough room for 4 riders in the walkway area) because the competition for position was so tough. things settle down to being one or two wide and it was feeling pretty nice. all of us were near the front and near each other, so things were looking good. unfortunately, i flatted after about 15 minutes. it was a bit creepy actually, because it was a slow leak and the tire was just getting soft. on one turn my rear wheel just sorta slid through. i thought "hmm...that was weird". it did it again even more on the next and i realized i had a flat. one more corner and i probably would have just lost the rear wheel all together. i got a change easily enough, but i was pushed in near the back. that was my undoing. the pace picked up and i was getting screwed by the surging. i couldn't easily move up either. for a while, i was riding behind a guy who was i thought was cornering awfully strangely. eventually, i realized that he was actually intentionally riding like a jackass: he was trying to gap me. i think i had put him in the ditch on thursday on accident. that's what happens when you open a gap in the side winds, jackass. later in that race he'd pushed off me and yelled something when i was totally screwed. anyway, on the finishing stretch my portion of the pack was doing a solid 33 mph every time. i was ok for a while, but i finally just kinda hit a wall. i was still ok though and i knew i'd finish with the pack, but i didn't have any jump to get to the front (or i'd have used it already) and i certainly wasn't sprinting. but then there was a crash in front of me with 8 or so laps to go and i was gapped off. again. damn. i worked hard and closed the gap but with about 5 to go, i just couldn't take the surging any more and gapped off to do the last couple on my own. there was a huge crash at the front of the field and the whole pack was blown wide open. dustin went down and got a bit torn up. he was able to get back in though. tom finished with the front group while owen and dustin were in the second. adam used his free lap after the first crash and was pushed back into the pack. in the results, the field was scattered all over the place. in the end, the average speed was 31 mph. that's pretty fast.

the crit shook up the race standing quite a bit, as most of the contenders went down. the promoters also screwed up and showed the field "two laps to go" twice, so the sprint was all messed up. the navigators rider who won did so by sprinting for the true last lap and then holding his gap when he realized that they were just then ringing the bell for the last lap. ha! (results, pictures)

the road race today was 102 miles with quite a lot more hills than the first day, although mostly short punchy stuff. the pack started off really slow. like, so slow it made me nervous because the whole group was so bunched up. maybe 5 miles in, an endeavor rider attacked and warranted nary a peep from the powers. there was a real attack, which was shut down pretty quick. a few miles later, a mcguire rider attacked and i decided to follow. what the heck, right? might as well see what happens and get some ink for the team. i bridged to that guy quickly and pulled through a few times but the wind was killer. and so was his pace. i was getting drilled. we hit a 1 mile climb and he jumped me. a monex guy came through as i went over the top and i jumped onto him. we had a bit of a side wind and i sat on him. he wanted me to pull but i just didn't quite have the juice. after a few rollers he jumped me too and i tried to follow but just couldn't. he caught the first two guys and i dangled a bit. i kept the pace up and had some two minutes on the field. that was in the side wind section. eventually, i looked back and i could see the echelons coming. the pack was already blown to bits. the first group came by far too fast for me to jump onto. i worked super hard to stay with a group of four that was chasing that group but it was too dysfunctional and i was seeing too much wind and i blew. i got into the second group, which contained tom. i was in there a while, but somehow kept getting pushed out into the wind and was finally gapped. i just couldn't get tucked in. i dropped back to the third group with dustin and was in there a while too, but again, just kept getting gapped. guys would punch it on the rollers and i was under a lot of pressure. i eventually fell out of that group and got into the next, where i rode for quite a while. guys were riding like morons though and really screwing each other over, only to their ultimate detriment. i got a decent group which absolutely drilled it. we were still doing 28 mph in the side winds. man, it was killing me. adam and owen were behind me. owen had been pushed into a ditch. at one point, the side wind was so strong, i was barely able to keep the bike upright. i saw one guy waaaay down in the ditch. i'd not be surprised if the wind blew him straight off. this all happened by 40 miles into the race. we pushed in hard for quite a ways. he did a dirt/gravel section, and as we were leaving it, we saw another group or riders on the road we were turning onto. i was pleased to see owen and adam in this group. they apparently took the shortest route rather than the race route. ha! we rode to the feed zone pretty easy, although there were a few attacks by a couple of morons. the feed zones were at 22 miles and 72 miles. the first was too soon to need one and the last was pretty late. we were all totally dehydrated by that point. i stopped to get a bunch of bottles and our group powered away from me in the side winds. i was pushing it, but they were really pushing it. i could see them totally strung across the lane. the webcor van came by and drafted me briefly and then dropped me. he pulled a couple of webcor guys up to the group and then came back for me. i grabbed on and he railed me up the group. we hit 50 mph. i was scared. really scared. i could barely hold onto my bike! he was surging and not going in that straight of a line and it was super sketchy. got me on though, which was nice. we got to the finishing circuit and they took our numbers. we'll get a pro rated time. we weren't actually all that far off the time of the main group. they had only done one or so lap when we were arriving. dustin and tom were both in that group. we don't know what their placings were, but it looked like tom might have gotten top 15. it was a good ride by both of those guys.

in a surreal development, there were several weddings at churches right at the finish line. they were doing photos on the steps while the crowd was at the barricades, watching the finish. crazy. see pictures at cyclingnews.com

for my part, i started to feel the top end coming back from being sick after tri-peaks. (apparently a number of riders were sick after tri-peaks, according to the some of the guys i met at tri-peaks and saw at chipotle). the first thing a rider loses is that ability to ride over their AT. sometimes, i call that my "dig", or the ability to dig and suffer. i didn't have any dig last night, which was why i couldn't handle the surges. today i found my dig today trying to stay on the echelons. i plan to go back to where i was before i was sick and keep building that, which is what tops off your fitness for a peak.

the course was an hour and a half drive from our housing. when we got back, they had burrito makings for us. and margaritas. ah yeah. now the guys are playing motocross on XBOX. right on.