BikeFest thru saturday

Fridays crit was, as expected, another awesome event. The cat 3 race fielded between 35 and 40 racers from Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. The race was pretty hard and we lost about half of the field before the end. My goal from the start was to get into anything that looked threatening and if the race came to the line together to hit the base of the hill in first and try to hold it to the end. I ended up hitting the hill in 3rd and finishing in 4th after getting passed by 1 half way up.

Saturdays race was the State Championship road race and was the typical sbf 55 mile race which starts by climbing the mountain. The race stayed together for the first 20 miles on the way out and once we turned at gwinn the attacks started coming. A bunch of attempts were sucked back in and eventually a decent one of 3 started drifting up the road. The break sat anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute ahead of the peleton and was well represented by the 3 largest teams. The break managed to hold it to the end, big props for that, and took 1,2,3 leaving the field to vie for 4th place. I took 6th in the sprint for a 9th overall.

Tomorrow is the circuit race, 4 laps around presque isle's hilly loop. I have no idea where i stand overall... 5th maybe? Tomorrows race update to follow.

Holding off the rain

Saturday after work I quickly drove an hour south to a small town called Winfield. I was going to try the ABD directed Winfield Twilight criterium. The atmosphere right away was better than most races. The course was nothing like a monsters or vernon hills but included a nice gradual climb of maybe 5% followed by many tight 90's decending into a left hand turn to the finishing straight. I think this course is what my body was built for: a crit, technical and with a repetitive annoying hill thrown in for good measure. The catagories were split up a bit different than usual and the field was 2/3 combined.

We had 5 get a grip guys in all, chip, chris k, chad, dave and myself. to spare the boring race details, i missed a prime by a couple of feet because i race wayyyy too conservative. and i was alone for 2 laps, with about 7 to go and couldnt hold as fruend and janowiak came by when i was drifting back towards the pack. i coasted across in 11th of a field of 46 and considering the field i wasnt too upset.

afterwards at the top of the hill a bunch of houses were grilling out with food for the racers, i had a couple hot dogs, pasta salad, a cupcake it was pretty neat and made the $35 entry fee well worth it. after doing this race and experiencing the course and atmosphere i would definitely put this race into my top ten... that list coming soon.

heres a shot of the p/1/2 field and the tents at the top of the hill

it never ends with our state

here is the new plate, available in july: