Burnham crit (circuit)

Ahh the first chance at a uscf race of 2010. The day was great with lots of sunshine, it was about 50 degrees out and there were plenty of racers making the haul to South Beloit for a chance to see where they were at after the always long off season we endure in Chicago. For me as a 3 I had the rare opportunity to race twice first a 50(?) minute cat 3 race and then a 75 minute cat 1/2/3.
The first race was pretty simple tactically. I'm not in great shape but hey its March neither are most other people so I said to myself be extremely aggressive. There were 2 big teams represented and for anyone that knows the scene you probably dont even need me to tell you, XxX and Burnham. My plan was go with every single move that was represented by these two teams and dont chase if any other combination presented itself. This worked well. I got a little tired because nothing stuck so all race long there were a lot of attempts and then we got to 4 laps left with a burnham guy up the road and i said to myself what the heck ive been sitting in for a lap or so and now is as good of time as any to go for it. So I did, and reached the burnham guy pretty quick... he was pretty spent. I asked him "do you want to work?" he said "no man im toast". i didnt take that as an answer and said "come on its only a few laps we can do it". We worked together and the next time accross the line I saw 3 laps to go. Every so often I looked back and saw the pack to see the gap and it was encouraging at one point there were two chasers. These guys would have been perfect because more firepower in the break with less pulling time meant more rest for the sprint. They never caught us but all of the sudden I look back and see my friend Liam from XxX whom I had just spent 5 days in georgia with last month. Within no time he was up to the two of us just a little before we cross the s/f line with one to go. I take a pull and move off, the burnham guy is next up and he pretty much stops (turns out he thought the race was over a lap earlier than it was) and so Liam goes for it leaving me in the dust trying with every ounce of energy and adreniline and everything else I've got to just grab his wheel... no dice. Liam held the ensuing pack to take the beautiful solo victory while I, about 300 meters behind him on the finishing straight was swallowed up by the pack, watching what could have been a first or even a second turn into nothing close. Oh well, it was fun seeing the race from a different point of view. Sitting in to take 5 isnt very rewarding anymore.
In the 1/2/3 race i lined up exhausted. Goal numero uno, stick it out, the whole way, dont do any work... it didnt matter that wouldnt be an option. I did end up sticking it out just fine somehow and with just under one lap to go my rear tire flatted and i usually wouldnt do this but what the hell, i decided to keep going so at 13 miles an hour i rolled around the rest of the lap with a flat and finished the race. March racing in my eyes are for two things, training and to gauge fitness. These races did both quite well.

2010 is here!

VeloNews interviewed me... it will be in the upcoming issue, but as always i've got you guys covered, heres a sneak peak:

VN: so i heard you have a new team?
BL: yes, the recycling team. im pretty excited.
VN: can you tell us a little about the team?
BL: sure... its a first year team with guys coming from all different places. We have James who used to ride for Health Net and Seth who is the current state p/1/2 champion along with some other very strong talent. here check it out for yourself www.recyclingprodevelopment.com
VN: that sounds exciting, how is your training going?
BL: actually not so well. i had a tough time getting on the bike in december with the weather and i have some type of mental block where i can no longer ride in my basement on the trainer.
VN: rough combo for living in illinois.
BL: yeah, but i think things are slowly getting back on track. the first race still isnt for a couple of months so we'll see.
VN: good to hear, anything else on the horizon?
BL: yes actually, in less than two weeks ill be going to georgia with newt and a bunch of xxx guys for some training... i hope i dont hold everyone up. and then the following weekend my own team is having our own camp in kentucky so i will be going there.
VN: very exciting, well thats all i have best of luck to you.
BL: ok. thanks.

killing the blog

too much to keep up with these days so im killing the blog... at least for a while.

Cherry-Roubaix '09

6 of the Chicago boys raced the Cherry-Roubaix races in Traverse city this weekend. Brian and I from get a grip and Newt, Luke, William and Liam from xXx racing. Newt hooked us up with a condo/lodge type place a few miles out of town. The weekend forecast promised lots of showers. Brian and I drove early friday to check out the road race course, of course it was hurricane outside but we gave it a go anyways.
Saturdays race was a 6 corner downtown criterium with a large section of pave. The day was horrible, rain all day long. By the time our race came things were completely soaked, and the day separated the men from boys... the boys stood on the side and watched the men race. The race starts and people get used to taking corners at speed, not brian. Brian comes from a mtb background so hes got the technical skills and made an early break with york and another guy. They held it to the line and Brian took 2nd in the sprint, I got 8th. Chicago took 2nd, 4th, 7th and 8th on the day. Not bad for a field of 35.
Day 2, an epic 5 lap 60 mile course with as much climbing as any sane person could ask for. A break of 4 got up the road after 3 laps containing brian and luke. another lap later a bridge came from a shattered field up the s/f climb and 5 more joined on including myself. This group made it to the finish together (losing brian due to cramping). this was a really disappointing race because the course suited me well but was a little longer than what ive been training for. i havent been putting any long rides in this year especially the last couple months and i could feel it on the final lap. lap 4 i felt as strong as anyone in the break and confident i had a good chance at winning but lap 5 i began really struggling on the climbs and killing myself to stay with the group. By the time we got to the final climb I had nothing left, I told luke he was our only shot... i had nothing. i made it up the climb in 7th a good 15 seconds or so behind the rest of the group.

and thats the season... half ironman under 2 weeks away !!

since last time...

Elk grove was very very hard. I had a 300 watt average for the race after tried many breaks... nothing had a chance. The sprinters owned this race from the start with all the primes offered. I finished by coasting in with the pack. After this one Brian Tim and I watched the domostic pros including flandis and mr. horner duke it out for their 98 mile race as we hung at the tent with beers in hand. I wish somebody told me how much more enjoyable this was than actual racing.

The Downers Grove course suits me fairly well as its not a pancake like so many other crits in the area. I tried for a prime about 15 minutes in and got nipped by inches then after another 15 minutes tried to get into a break but this race was owned by the sprinters too and i coasted across the line in the pack after a sketchy final corner i took it easy up the finish just happy to be upright.

Time to take it easy for a bit and get some swimming and running in so I don't embarrass myself too much for the half ironman and of course so cousin jeff doesn't beat me.

Upgrade pending...

Superweek and Chicago Crit

Last Thursday I tried my hand at another superweek race after the success of the lakefront road race. Athletes can be pretty superstitious, and what the heck I wasn't going to mess with success so I tried to mimic my morning from the lakefront race as much as possible. Breakfast at wildberry, no socks, no sleep, etc... The course was about a 1 mile crit which we did 30 miles of. The series leader (Marc) was at the race and I knew he was one of the key guys to watch if I was going to do well.

The race started and a few laps in Marc took off and I was the only one who went with him. We were away for 10 or 15 seconds only, the field would never let him get away. After about 8 laps a group of 8 got up the road and I saw it was a well represented break so the next lap I took off on the hill dragging a couple guys and we made the bridge. Geoff from leadout took control of the group and got us into a good rotation and gaining time on the peloton (which marc was in). Most of the group worked while some guys sat, we ended up gaining a lot of time on the pack and after dropping a few went to the line with 7. I managed to get myself in the 4th spot coming toward the winding finish line and sprinted first, with no one able to catch on soon enough!

Fast forward to yesterday and we have one of the biggest races of the year, the chicago criterium. This was its 2nd year being run, and my first crack at it. We had 7 get a grippers in a field of over 100. The race was very fast, about 27 mph and with no hard sections to really break up the group. There were a bunch of prime opportunities and even some that rewarded the 2nd guy across the line. I went for a couple and got one of them for $50. No breakaway really had a chance with the field pushing so hard until padfield snuck away with 3 laps to go. Get a grip got to the front in an effort to block and nobody in the field knew what to do or wanted to waste energy doing it.

Eventually burnham and team leadout with some help from others did a hard chase and closed the gap with under a lap to go. Right before the last corner things got tight while I was sitting in 8th or 9th place and a team leadout rider went down, I was immediately behind him slammed on my brakes and rode over his bike and flipped over my handlebars at close to 30mph. Somehow there was no serious damage and even the road rash was pretty minimal. The bike however got smashed hard and the handlebars jackknifed into the top tube on the fall and put a good ding in there. No finish for me, oh well but I got to do the whole race so overall a good experience.

heres an epic photo from ed white http://www.flickr.com/photos/ewwhite/3761347148/sizes/o/

Oh and one more thing, when racing in the city, park somewhere where you can ride to the race because $25 parking garages for a couple hours are no fun.

Unprepared to win

pic by John Wilke

Today I raced the Lakefront Road Race, superweek's 7th race. Usually I'm a little unorganized going into races but today was really over the top. I left my house and 9 and got to the race in plenty of time... so far so good. When I got there I realized I didn't have cash so I had to pay by check, extra fee = $46 to race. I forgot socks so I raced without any (gross), I had a flat front tire so I went to the neutral start to be told like a 5 year old to bring a tube until they finally felt bad enough for me and helped me out. I thought it was a crit so I brought only 2 gels and a skinsuit, and to top it all off I had only 3 hours of sleep. Not too condusive to having a good race... but somehow it worked.

The course was a 2.2 mile lap which we did 23 times totaling 50 miles. It started with a 30 second winding climb then at the top it took a near 180 and was fairly flat with a slight rise to the downhill which was snaking and technical to a 90 at the bottom where the wind hit you in the face for the long finishing straight. The race started off fairly easy with a lot of people attempting to break away but nothing stuck. With 18 laps to go 3 guys got up the road and got themselves a 35 second lead. I knew the break had a chance as nobody was chasing it so the next time on the climb I attacked hoping to get a couple guys to come with to bridge up... nothing. I was in no mans land 10 seconds ahead of the break and still too far to bridge solo. I didn't care anymore so I just went for the break. After 2 laps of chasing, slowly but surely I caught one guy from the break who was just dropped and we worked together for a few pulls. As the 2 leaders were only 10 seconds away on the hill I gave it a good push leaving the guy behind and I soon caught them. After a short rest I jumped in the rotation and the 3 of us worked really well together.

For the 17 remaining laps it was probably as close to sharing an equal workload as you could have asked for. We all knew our strengths and pulled hard on different spots on the course to keep our gap. The peleton got close at one point and after that effort the gap started growing again up to almost 2 minutes. There were attempts off the front but nobody caught us so we went to the line together. I knew I had a decent sprint as long as there wasnt a pure sprinter in the group so I took off at about 150 meters and when I looked up I was the first one accross the line!