Superior is the town right next to Louisville where we live
and hosts a 3 day Omnium cycling race which uses many of the same roads as the
great Coors Classic bike race from the 80’s featured in the film American
Flyers. I signed up for al three races
the Friday time trial, Sat criterium, and the Sun Road race along with a great
showing from our team.
TT – It was really nice to prepare for this race at home and
ride right over after work and race. The
race went okay I started first for the CAT 3’s and no one passed me, but the
guy who won only came in 30 sec or so after me and he had started about 2
minutes back. The course was very hilly
for a TT, I think I could have used a road bike with about the same
results. I was rethinking my morning 50
min run and Wed. weight session during this race as the legs were just not all
there, but I am not resting for this race and should feel better by Sunday for
the RR. I ended up 7th in the
TT, not too bad for tired legs I guess.
7th place CAT 3
Dist – 6.3
Time - 16:12.8
MPH – 23.3
NP – n/a
Crit – I spent most of Saturday with the family and getting
things done around the house, the CAT 3 start was last at 4:30. Problem was the afternoon was cold and rainy,
I road over to the race again watched the 35 + race and tried to warm up a bit
for only my second crit race ever. It
was 45 degrees and started to rain harder, so I found a tent to wait out the
start of our race. Looks like the first
few laps will be warm up now. By the
time we were set to start it was only raining slightly and the sun looked like
it may come out, but the course was very wet still. If you are not familiar with cycling a
criterium race is a short loop usually less than a mile long that you go around
and around for 60 minutes in this case.
I started near the back and my goal was only to stick with the pack and
not loose too much ground in the points race.
There were many falls since the corners were pretty slick, I was soaked
to the bone, and my feet were sopping wet from all the puddles we had to ride
through. The race was fast by crit
standards and the course was pretty nice with an uphill finish. I followed each sprint and when the pace slowed
I picked it up quickly as I knew I needed to tire these guys out if I wanted
any chance at good position in the end.
I never took any of the bell laps, but with three laps to go I found
myself in the lead. I kept out front
till 2 to go then I made my move. I just
stayed on the gas all the way till the end, took the last corner much faster
than I wanted to, and sprinted to the line uphill. I could hear everyone cheering so I knew the
pack was close, I just kept my head down and drove all the way in. I got very lucky because they caught me, and
it was a photo finish. I took the win by
only inches. After the race I was
pleased to see Shanon and Corrie at there very excited from the close finish, I
was sure they were not coming due to the weather. She even got some pics and a short video, but
it kind of makes it look like I lost the sprint.
1st place CAT 3
Dist – 20.18
Time – 52.01
MPH – 23.3
NP – 362
RR – The last race of the weekend was the biggest point race
and the longest race, it consisted of a 4 loop course around Superior and past
of the old Coors Classic routes. I was
expecting to do pretty well with a lot of climbing and another steep uphill
finish. I was 2nd at this
point in the Omnium points race and thought I could be in the running for 1st. The plan for this RR was to sit in for the
first two laps get to know the course then push the pace on the last two laps
and hopefully split up the pack for the uphill finish. Well it did not really go that way at
all. I had some mechanical issues which
caused my bike to get a violent shimmy at about 45 mph at the exact same
section of road on every single lap. I
had to slow to the point of loosing the pack each lap and play catch up until
the climbs started. I was thinking about
pulling out because it was very dangerous to ride my bike when it was acting
like this at high speed. But choose to
stick it out, I ended up loosing a ton of energy chasing the group over the
course of the whole RR. The last lap I
caught them a little quicker, and pulled out front to try and see what I could
do. I lead the last few miles before the
climb to the finish started, but once on the hill I did not have much left to
stop guys from coming up behind me. I
ended up 29th in the RR, and decided that a new frame is in order
here ASAP. The shimmy situation is
caused my a multitude of factors, but the main one being a perfect set of
scenarios, bike fame/fork, bike size, seat height, wheel selection, riger
weight, wind, and road surface to set it
off. In this case it was the road
surface that set it off, but I am not willing to take the chance again, it was
a very scary situation to be in during a race.
Anyway I lost what was supposed to be a good RR and fell down in the
Omnium points race, but its bike racing and these things happen.
29th place CAT 3
Dist – 55.18
Time – 2:27:11
MPH – 22.5
NP - 309
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