Joe Martin 2.0

I posted this write up to the xXx team blog here: http://xxxracing.org/site/reports/joe-martin-2.0

Also, posted below with pictures.

Joe Martin is the race that gets me to do intervals in February when there is 12 inches of snow on the ground.  It’s a huge race with tons of talent at just the right time of year for winter motivation.  I’ve done it twice now; last year was pretty pathetic I was one of the last places in the time trial, lost about 20 minutes each of the two road race days and then got pulled half way through the crit.  This time around would be different I told myself, I knew the courses, had a better idea of the competition and was more motivated.  I set some lofty goals to get myself ready both in terms of power numbers and weight.  Now you think I’m going to tell you that I killed it and crushed those goals, nope I think I missed every single one of them.  That turned out to be ok it gave me something to shoot for and getting most of the way there put me in a solid spot on the starting line.

The race allows teams of up to 8 and so we sent a full squad this year (as did many teams) including our 3 cat 1’s Tyler (here on out Bone Collector), Jake (Big Smokey) and Diesel (I’m not even sure he has a real name).  After those 3 guys leading our team we had Austin (who’s been riding strong in California all winter) and myself who were both part of the team last year and 3 new guys to the 1/2 JM race in Nikos, Fay and Aaron (Baker Soda).  Everybody had different strengths and weaknesses and I think we put together one of the most solid teams at the race.  No superstar sprinter or 120lb climbing TT specialist but overall not a weak link anywhere.

The race takes place down in Fayetteville, Arkansas so via all different methods and over several days we made our way to the Airbnb house that we’d stay in for the race.  We also had Courtney, Katie Sue and Wilfred (when he decided to pay us a visit) in the house so we crammed in pretty tight.  The house could not have been located in a better spot, right downtown, 3 doors down from the crit course and equally as important, a really good coffee shop.  The Time Trial started the race off; it was a new course this year, still at Devil’s Pen state park but going the other direction up from the river and a bit longer at 3 miles.  Essentially 2 miles of switchbacks and elevation gain followed by another mile of rollers at the top.  I was nervous, am I really in better shape than last year? 

You never feel fully prepared when you finally get to the thing you’ve been training for.  We thought Big Smokey would be our best finisher but Baker was a wildcard with all his Tucson riding and maybe myself or one of the other guys could have a surprising result.  When the dust finally settled Big Smokey was our top placed rider in 23rd of the 120 starters.  He was closely followed by Diesel, Bone Collector and then the rest of us.  We were all sort of in the middle, we were solid, not great not horrible but now we knew where everyone stood.  Riders came from all over including a Japanese cycling champion and Columbian and Canadian teams so we knew this wouldn’t be easy.

That night we reviewed the route and profile for stage 2, the 110 mile road race, and came up with the game plan.  The big feature on the 2nd day is Gaylor Mountain, a 10 mile climb that begins at mile 71, its not steep, in fact it only averages 2.9% but after a few hours in the legs it hurts, and it whittles down the field.  After Gaylor, everyone that’s left bombs down the next 30 miles in a fast run in to town.  The finish is tricky though, with about 1K to go there is a left turn then quick right followed by some rollers before a right turn to the uphill finish.  The plan was to put together a lead-out for Jake to try to steal a few seconds in the time bonuses, or at the least with some splits over the final rollers that were certain to happen.  Well now we had our plan at least. 

I was the lucky one that got to sleep on the couch so the next morning I woke up to the warm aroma of Diesel and Big Smokey making coffee with the aeropress, we all sort of fell into different roles, theirs became coffee duty.  We had a long morning before the race so we did all the normal stuff, we ate, worked on bikes (this became my role), drank enough coffee to support a local coffee shop, pinned numbers, etc…  It was nice to be close enough to the start of the race to leave the vehicles and ride over so we rolled over the couple miles to the wal-mart parking lot where the race began.  Finally we could see the competition, in a TT you miss so much because you’re so focused on your race and you’re not all out on the course together. 

So we were off, one thing that makes Joe Martin so cool is what’s called rolling enclosures, a police escort to use the entire road for the whole race.  When there’s oncoming traffic the cops ahead push them off to the side of the road and we got to use all lanes, it makes for a funny feeling when you’re so used to the yellow line rule that many of the smaller races enforce.  There was a feed zone at mile 41 with a 1-2 minute hill where things got fast but other than that the race was pretty chill going into Gaylor.  We lost Baker to a flat around the first feed zone but otherwise we had 7 of 8 guys with us at the base.  Half way into the climb I felt good, surprisingly good.  Fitness was there and I finally knew I’d get over that hump (haha) that burned me so bad last year.  When we finally made it to the top we lost a couple but still had 5, we were headed down for the finish to execute the lead-out.  For me, I didn’t have much in the way of legs especially when things started getting fast at about 10 miles left. 

I could hang but wasn’t able to help beyond that.  It was up to Austin the Bone Collector and Diesel to get Jake where he needed to be.  Austin did his thing getting those guys in position with a couple K left then handed the rains to the Bone Collector and it was a beautiful thing watching him lead Diesel and then Big Smokey through the quick left right corners with the whole peloton in tow.  They dropped Jake off on the top of one of the rollers before the finish to slog it out with whoever else could maintain the pace on the rollers.  There was still a long way to go so we wouldn’t know how it finished until we reached that point ourselves.  It turned out Jake got us our first top 10 of the weekend with a 7th place, and all the sudden we gained the confidence that would come along with making a plan and being able to execute.  It turned out to be a pivotal finish for us because with several riders up towards the front we knew we’d gain time with splits just like in previous years due to the difficulty of the finish.  Due to a crash with about 1k to go they ended up same timing everyone that made it over Gaylor Mountain which was over 60 guys so unfortunately without the time gaps it wouldn’t matter where you placed.  It took what would have been a major GC shakeup and essentially made it so any racing at the finish was unnecessary.  That stung a bit as time gaps would have clearly given us all a big jump in the GC standings. 

Day 3 was an 86 mile road race, a ‘stick’ followed by 3x 23 mile loops.  Last year there were major selections on this day with only about 1/3 of the field going to the line together.  Personally this day was hell; I barely hung on to the group I was with that lost 20 minutes.  Yesterdays race gave me some confidence but I knew today was tougher.  Each lap there is a solid vo2 effort climb which sheds some of the field and most of the rest of the lap is flat or downhill where you can recover if you sit in.  This year the race was a lot chiller and it showed with 80 riders coming to the line, most of the action came in the last 5 miles on the run in where we had a tailwind and were flying to the finish.  It was a constant battle to move up or even just hold position.  There was bumping and some yelling but at this level people are pretty good bike handlers and everyone kept upright.  In the end it was Tyler who took our top spot this time with another top 10.  Every single teammate made it to the finish, I was astonished. 

I was sitting in 53rd, Jake was our best placed rider in 22nd, and we needed a hard day with some real splits or to get in a breakaway to have any chance to move up.  I was finally feeling confident in my abilities this year and felt as good as I had all week.  My legs are funny that way, they need a little warming up, I was ready for hard, actually hoping for it, the crit was the last chance to have a solid placing and as a team the last chance to crack the top 20.  I remember the day well last year, legs were dead, body was dead and all I wanted to do was stick in the race long enough to not be time cut, not the best mental spot to be in.  I was confident this year would be different. 

The crit is 8 corners with a pretty steep climb on the finishing straight with a leg zapping false flat leading into it.  The race was hot from the gun, I learned my lesson last year and stayed in the top 30 wheels at all times, or at least that was the goal.  It was hard there weren’t too many time we’d have an easy lap to look around and I was confident we’d be moving up.  With 5 laps to go I looked back and saw the field had dwindled quite a bit.  On the final lap I came around the second of last corner and was starting to get gassed, my guys passed me, I was happy to see they still had legs for a strong finish.  I gave it everything up to the line, Tyler killed it again taking another top 10.  The field was decimated; only 30 guys made it to the finish line, 5 of them were us.  Tyler’s result made for 3 out of 3 days of top 10 finishes for the team.  In the end Jake jumped 4 spots to 18th giving xXx a top 20 on GC.  Diesel, Tyler, Austin and I all moved up considerably to finish GC the top 40, or top 1/3 of starters.  Fay, Nikos and Baker all had solid results as well finishing their first Joe Martin 1/2 race which is a hard enough task on its own.

The crew we had down there was the best part about the weekend, everyone was selfless both on and off the bike.  I’m looking forward to many more of these adventures as the year goes on, and remember as Diesel always says when in doubt Slap it in the Big dog.

The St. Lunatics

The March 19th weekend was the 2 day St. Louis Omnium which included a Saturday AM time trial followed by a Saturday PM crit and a Sunday crit.
My schedule didn't work out to leave Friday and make it in time for the TT (yeah let's go with that not the fact that tts scare me) so the gf and I drove down Saturday morning and met the other guys (jake, Oboyle, Igor and Wilfred) for lunch. It turns out that both jake and Oboyle had killer TTs getting 5th and a 8th (even with a navigation mishap from Oboyle) setting us up for a possible overall result right from the start.

Saturdays crit was a little longer at 1.3 miles but welcomed as it made a good early season course with mostly wide roads and soft corners. The lap had a bit of elevation including a gradual uphill finish for the last few hundred meters as well as a headwind on the back side that gave the course some nice features. I put in a couple efforts early but nothin hard enough considering everyone was fresh. Jake did the same but with better results in the middle of the race and finally got one of those to stick. He established a break that ended up growing to 7 guys and staying away. Jake took 5th on the day and from there we had our Omnium guy to ride for.

Sunday was another chili morning, it was snowing and wasn't even certain the races would be held but by noon it looked like a completely different day and we had a crit to race. Jake was sitting 3rd in the overall and we knew who we had to keep an eye on. The race was pretty hard but uneventful for a while as nothing really happened until about 8 laps left when O'boyle used that TT power and went off the front solo. At first I think it wasn't respected as so many of those come right back but the longer he was out there the more he had people's attention and after some bridges had a nice group of 6 or 8 guys, nobody on GC. They were out there with a 15 second gap for 3 or 4 laps and it looked like the sprinters may not have their day. With a few laps to go Bissell ratcheted up the pace and the break was caught and the last 3 laps became a fight for positioning. Jake finished an impressive 3rd, personally I was happy with an 18th, time to up the goals going forward though. Based on Hogan (Bissel) winning both crits, the GC shuffled and jake was in a tie in points for the overall... Unfortunatly the tie breaker was Sunday's crit so he'd have to settle for 2nd.

The team is going to be really competitive this year, I'm looking forward to all the bigger races not too far down the road.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Relaunch

First Id like to reintroduce myself, my name is Ben LaForce and I ride for xXx-Athletico Racing based out of Chicago. The team has an ambitious schedule this year so there should be plenty to write about. I have a lot of old posts here I contemplated deleting and starting from scratch but they've been fun to read again so I'm leaving them up. My goal will be to keep consistent posts coming primarily on my training and racing. This weekend I'll be heading down to the St. Louis Omnium with a few teammates, stay tuned...

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.

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!

2nd half of the year

every once in a while i go to the velodrome for intervals, today was as perfect as a day could be.

I've been able to get an awesome first half of the year in (arizona, california, new team) but there's still plenty left. no great results yet to speak of (a couple 4th's) so im hoping that with all the crits coming there will be some good news around the corner. After taking a look at the next few months I've selected some key races and will fill in others as time comes closer. I'm always excited about the august illinois crits but am really looking forward to the 2 tri's planned after that. September is a half ironman in minnesota with my cousin jeff. i still don't swim but as soon as downers grove is over i swear im gonna practice. the other tri im really looking forward to as well, it's the kickapoo dam triathlon which is done by paddling the first leg with a teammate (my dad), then breaking off and riding 14 miles followed by running a 5k. they should provide a good mental break from riding the pizza cutters every day.

taking it easy

and sometimes you just need to go for an easy ride...

Recap sunday

After Saturdays road race Chris and I both knew we had 2 fun days of racing in and realized we had one more in the morning. The thing was it was only going to last about 20 minutes... and it did. The circuit race was 4 laps around presque isle which is exactly 2 miles around. With such a small race in the morning we decided to have a few drinks which led to quite a few more and before you knew it we were both drinking all night long. When morning came we did our regular prep of oatmeal (no coffee this time) and headed over to the race. One of the best things about this whole series was that we could ride to every race in 5 minutes from Garrett's.

Anyways the course consisted a small flat section a big hill and gradual downhill and a couple sharp fast turns into the finish. Going up the hill I attacked and got into a break of 5 which was looking strong for a lap but at that point people stopped rotating and crossing the line for lap 2 we were reabsorbed with the pack. At that point Chris made a brilliant move and attacked, with one other guy he stayed away from the pack for the remaining 2 laps and out muscled his break partner for first. This put an awesome cap on a really fun weekend!!

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:

Duluth Classic 2009

Thursday night, Padfield, Brian and I met at steak and shake where Brian (the guy who doesn’t eat fast food) had just finished off a double bacon cheeseburger and a vanilla milkshake. We loaded up, I feel like we had enough bikes to be a small pro team, 3 of us X 2 bikes each, a roadie and a tt. We drove up to Madison to get a couple hours out of the way before the long drive in the morning.

Friday morning we enjoyed the continental breakfast offered at the econo lodge and went on our way up north. We arrived in Wrenshall, Wisconsin, the site of the time trial, at about 2:30… we didn’t go off until almost 7. We went inside the unmarked building I remembered from last year and saw a couple people from the race stunned to see racers there so early. There were a few others ready to sign in too since they went off at 5:30. They told us to come back later so we went and drove the course to check out what would be dishing the pain for the next 30 some odd minutes. Eventually we got checked in and we chose our camping spot for the next 5 hours. We picked a luxurious parking spot which offered an adjacent grassy area with both sun and shade. I got out the stand and started setting up my tt bike with the power cable and a few other odds and ends I needed to do to get the bike ready as it pretty much hadn’t been ridden since the same race last year. Chris and Brian, much more prepared with their equipment all set to go, laid out and took naps in the sun. As our start times neared we changed and began warming up. Brian was first up, he was on Kevin Corsello’s (G-a-G owner) tt rig, a custom carbon and ti Serotta with 808s and a zip cockpit... lets just say it wasn’t a piece of crap. I was a few minutes later with Tony being my 30 second man I knew it would be a hard challenge to catch anybody. Last of the team was Mr. timetrial himself chris padfield. As expected he lit up the field with the only time sub 37 minutes. Brian was a bit of a wildcard being a mtb’er and came in an incredible 2nd only ~10 seconds behind padfield. I didn’t touch their times but put in a solid effort for just under 39 minutes for 17th place. After the race we drove to our host house, where we stayed with some college girls for free… not a bad deal.



Saturday morning the results were posted from from the tt and it was confirmed we were going to be the target of the others teams attacks as we were holding the 2 top spots. Saturdays race wasn’t a really exciting one. It was 3 laps of 17 miles on a course that didn’t have anything to help separate the field. We patrolled the race really well and let a couple of guys lower on GC sneak away to snag some bonus seconds toward the end. We questioned other teams tactics when we saw numerous downhill attacks which quickly got swallowed up by the field. A racer not far behind padfield put in a good effort and unfortunately took the field sprint and the 10 bonus seconds that came with it, moving him to a dangerously close 7 seconds from Chris. The worst part of the race which we didn’t find out until the results were posted was the 30 second time penalty given to Brian for crossing the center line, we tried to talk to the lady official who posted it but she wasn’t having it, its ok Padfield walked in on her changing. With a big boy stage the next day we went to our favorite burrito union for the 2nd time in two days to refuel. That night we did our usual of compression tights (padfield), elevated legs (brian and I) mixed with lots of relaxing and drinking water.

Sunday was the 2nd most crucial stage of the race (after the time trial of course). It was 5 laps of a 12 mile loop with a 1km leg burner 10% climb that lead to the s/f and rollers throughout most of the rest of the loop.
After the first lap, a break of 3 (lower gc guys) went away on the hill and gained up to 3:30 on the field. The entire race Brian was putting in monster pulls to keep the peloton moving along. The gap slowly decreased with attacks from the group and then the serious work took place when two Brone (2nd on gc) domestiques and both get a grip domestiques (brian and i) worked together to real the group back. Another high gc guy took off as the 3 were down to less than a minute but the 4 at the front quickly shut the group down with 1 lap to go. I turned around for the first time just after the start finish with 1 to go and realized the group that started with over 40 racers was down to about 25. A few other attempts were made on the final lap, 1 of which stuck and worked in our favor as he ate some of the available bonus seconds. The main field crossed in little groups with chris and I in the pack 4 seconds behind the solo guy. Brian, content after all his work, took it easy on the last hill and came in with the next group at 13 seconds. All in all a good stage as some people were finishing 10+ minutes back and Chris retained the jersey to fight another day. For dinner we were looking to carb up. We tried to support the local economy but I guess the local economy took a break as the restaurant was closed. Instead we drove a bit out of town and hit up an olive garden where each waitress was required to wear a topsie turvy with a 4inch hair lift.

The final morning began at 6:30, we left some biciclete wine and a card for our gracious host, Juliana and left with a full car to the criterium in Cloquet, Minnesota. The stage was new from last year. The course had 1 fast and technical turn right after the s/f line and 1 short kicker roughly 150 meters long with a hard right turn at the top that lead into the finish line. The race was so close that there were two guys in contention of the gc that by taking bonus seconds for a top 5 in the crit would win the overall. We let a break go with about 18 laps to go that didn’t consist of one of these guys. With 3 laps to go brian lead up the hill and then chris took off at the top making a run for the stage. The brones team domstiques immediately chased as their guy was close in gc and could win it all with a top 5 finish. Chris was caught with 2 and a half laps to go and immediately the brones leader attacked. While Chris was getting caught Brian and I both yelled to him to hop on the attack but it came from behind and he missed it. I jumped on brones’ wheel as he broke and followed him around for a lap. Immediately brian then went to the front of the pack and gave it everything to close the gap. He did with 1 and a half to go and brones was sufficiently tired. The solo break stayed away and the rest of the group (that didn’t get dropped) came into the line hard and together but neither of the two important gc guys took a spot in the top 5 meaning padfield held on to his gc victory by an incredible 1 second!!



The race could not have been any closer and the last stage was a tough effort that showcased a lot of teamwork. We received a lot of complements for our racing for the 4 days. I was really proud to wear the Get a Grip jersey.

LaRue Denzer LaRue

This past saturdays race was an epic course for sure. 7500 feet of climbing in 48 miles was on tap for the cat 3 race. Unfortunately bikers are pretty big sissies so this awesome/ brutal race only fielded 19. The race was a half lap followed by 2 full laps. I hit a new 5 minute wattage on the half lap then soon after the s/f line had trouble shifting. I couldnt figure it out, eventually my bike skidded me to a stop. I hopped off to check it out and noticed my wheel was out of the drops. My skewer came undone. I tightened it and chased back... but to no avail. I kept the field in my sights nearly to the start/finish line again (20 miles) but could never close the gap. As I crossed the line I looked right and saw tom and derek wathing the race. I was mentally done so I stopped and went and caught up with them. I worked on my bike today. Its ready to rock for duluth.

update on a few things

I'm looking forward to the Denzer race this weekend. The course has been switched up some since last year but it still showcases the monster -leg breaking- climb and a good amount of ups and downs throughout the rest of the lap. Last year I was just happy to finish the race, it was one of my first cat 3 races. There was a small field of maybe only 15 or 17 guys which made for a tough race. This year I've been training much "better" and these past two weeks have been good too, i'm feeling strong, so I think with a little luck and smarts I have a decent chance of getting my first cat 3 podium. Also and this is the best part I can't wait to see all of the marquette guys coming down for the race. Haven't seen them since I left in December so it will be a fun time.

In the "non-bike" related part of my life I got a job as the head of the electrical department at Lowe's. Its a full time position and after not really working for the last 6 months and with the way the economy has been I'm just happy to have a place to go for 40 hrs a week. It should add some structure to things but allow me more freedom too to be able to travel to races easier and soon move into my own place!! ya ya we'll see.

Duluth is only a week away. I got my schedule from Lowe's today and being memorial day weekend of course I'm scheduled. I don't know what to do about this one. I don't want to jeopardize the job but I've paid over $100 for the race. I'm bringing it up tomorrow so I'll know one way or the other by then.

Winona Lake and Vernon Hills

saturday: winona lake road race, great time, nice update HERE by aspen.

sunday: vernon hills, sprint finish. a lot of well represented teams. we raced aggressively but nothing was really given a chance. pack finish.

Iowa City

Just got back from a really fun weekend of racing (rr and crit) in Iowa City with Chris and Aspen. The road race was ~15 miles outside the city in a Mennonite town with horses and carriages. The cat 3 field raced 4 - 13 mile laps on a windy and rolling hills type course. None of the hills proved severe enough to cause a break in the field and it turned out be a rather boring race due to that fact. When the sprint came guys were all over the place and way across the yellow line even though the rule was in effect, Padfield was the only one on our team who could get decent positioning and came across in a respectable 8th place (without cheating his way to good positioning i might add!). aspen and i were caught back in the middle of the pack.

Day 2 was a .8 mile crit with a steep downhill with a somewhat technical 90 degree turn at the bottom followed by a steep big ring climb. The day was pretty windy but the wind was only really felt on a couple short stretches after the climb. A breakaway took place at a smart point just after a prime when most of the field was gassed and no one responded. This was about lap 5 of our total 25 laps and the guy stuck it out to the end with a 30 second gap on the field. Aspen put in a really hard effort for about half a lap trying to break away with one other guy but the field wasnt gonna let anyone else get away and we went to the line together. The team had talked about the finish trying to figure out where best to be and we managed the field sprint pretty well. Aspen pushed really hard the last time after the hill and i couldnt catch his wheel. he rounded the final corner in 2nd and won the field sprint while i rounded it in 4th and took 3rd in the field sprint giving us 2nd and 4th on the day. padfield raced strong all race and had bad luck with a mechanical with only a couple laps to go.

overall im really happy with how the weekend went. we raced hard and are learning each others strengths and weaknesses and learning to race better as a team. the weather was great too, couldnt ask for more! next up winona lake rr and vernon hills gp