Superior Morgul Omnium – 5/18-5/20

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 7^th in the TT, not too bad for tired legs I guess.

7^th 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.

1^st 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 2^nd at this point in the Omnium points race and thought I could be in the running for 1^st.  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 29^th 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.

29^th place CAT 3

Dist – 55.18

Time – 2:27:11

MPH – 22.5

NP - 309

Deer Trail RR – 5/6/12

The Deer Trail road race I opted in for after I decided to drop out of the Wildflower triathlon due to some hip issues from running.  Usually the Deer Trail race in eastern CO has terrible conditions including snow and wind in May, this year was the exception with high 60’s and low wind.  I rode over with one of my teammates who was racing the 1/2 race right before our CAT 3 start and gained a lot of knowledge from Bill Campy a veteran in the CO bike racing scene.   We had a few other guys in the CAT 3 race, so we all warmed up together for what was to be a great day.  The Deer Trail course was modified and a little shorter due to bridge construction, but the general 3 loop course was the same.  Our plan was to sit in for the first 2 loop, challenge any breaks, and the hit it hard on the 3^rd loop.  That is pretty much exactly what we did.  Eric Flatted but somehow managed to get a wheel and catch the group again.  There were a few little breaks, but nothing major.  Really the CAT 3 group was riding rather slow for a RR, I was going to try and change that in the last 6 miles.  There was one guy off the front for the last 10 miles or so at about a 2 min gap.  At the last 180 degree turn with about 6 miles to go the group was all together, I knew I could not sprint with some of these guys so I needed to break it up.  I decided we would catch the lone leader, I put in some hard efforts up each hill, let the group catch again and then hit it hard again.  I did that a bunch of times and soon the group was strung out pretty far.  We caught the leader with a mile to go, but at 1 km I was pretty toasted and about 15 guys caught me.  I was able to get Eric up to finish in 3^rd but I got caught in a bunch at the final meters and only managed 11^th place.  I am happy with the race and glad to be the one to pick up the pace at the end for my team, great result at the end of the day.

11^th place CAT 3

Dist – 49.2

Time - 2:02:39

MPH – 22.4

NP – 318

Haystack TT and TTT – 4/21/12

The Haystack TT has become an annual event for me and this year I decided to throw in the TTT as well.  I have never done a Team Time Trial before and we had a great CAT 3 team ready to go so it was a no brainier.  Haystack TT is a 16.5 mile loop in north Boulder, pretty flat except for a few rolling hills.

 The individual time trial went well, I started first for the CAT 3’s and was passed by the guy that started 20 seconds behind me at around mile 6 or so.  Apparently I was not pushing hard enough going with the wind, I let him pass but was ready to hit it hard once we turned back into the wind.  I passed him again only a few miles up the road and he looked like he was hurting already.  I cranked pretty hard all the way through the finish, but only managed to put 12 seconds into the guy behind me, so he ended up taking the win by 8 seconds.  Was a good race but I had to get ready for the TTT in 2 hours.  I ate some lunch and found my team for a little cool down warm up with them.

2^nd place CAT 3

Dist – 16.4

Time – 34:40

MPH – 28.3

NP – 344 watts

Sonic Boom had a great CAT 3 team of 5 guys Andy, Walter, Travis, Eli, and myself.  The way a TTT works is your team gets to work together (draft) and your time stops when the 3^rd guy crosses the line.  There are various ways to strategize your team, ours was to ride the big guys out front with the wind going east, then let everyone pull for short intervals and finish strong.  The squad got out and practiced a few weekdays prior to the race to ensure we knew everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. We started the race with Andy out front myself behind him and Walter, Eli, and Travis behind me.  Andy, Walter, and myself took the pulls with the wind and soon we could already see the two teams ahead of us BRC and Primal.  Once turning south everyone took hard pulls out front keeping the pace very high passing the BRC team very quickly and closing the gap on the other teams ahead of us.  Travis took a hard pull right before an uphill section and soon fell off the back, Eli hit it very hard turning back west and he too fell off the pace.  We were left with Andy, Walter, and myself for the last 5 miles or so, we gave it all we had and made it through the line in first place by over 30 seconds on the 2^nd place team.  I was done after that second time trial in one day, but it was so much fun and a great team to ride with.  We rode the race exactly as planned and could not of asked for anything more, plus we took the win, great job guys really a team effort.

1^st place CAT 3

Dist – 16.4

Time – 33:40

MPH – 28.9

NP – 332 watts