June 19 - Carroll County RR

June 27 - Cedar Point RR, IL RR Championships

Sorry it has been so long, but until last weekend beyond the training crits that have seen some pretty impressive Wheel Fast Racing performances, I've not had an "official" race since April. So, after a very long layoff I made my return with a 61.5 mile road race. Lanark, IL - Illinois is no longer flat by the time you reach this corner of the state. And, with the Mississippi looming no more than probably 20 miles away, it wouldn't get any easier than the roll out of town.

With the Peoria races going on, turnout for the categories was weak, but pretty good in Masters. 7 of us rolled out together Cat's 1-4 and Masters 30. We went up and down the rolling hills with a bit of a tailwind and I felt pretty good. I knew that large hills loomed, but for now it was a gorgeous day (low 70s) to be on a bicycle. When we turned into the crosswind I made a mistake that saw me get shelled. Two echelons formed, one consisting of the 2 Cat 1/2 riders and instinctively I rode across the gap to it. Only to realize that I wasted a ton of gas going across and as soon as the road pitched up, off the back I went. Bob from ABR in the pace car for the Masters drove up, told me that group was close and essentially to wait up. With the lower numbers, mixing fields was encouraged. So it was with a lot of relief that probably 30 riders arrived on the scene. I slotted in and spent the next 20 miles rolling easily with the Masters field.

We hit the Mississippi and turned onto an 8' bike path that was completely shrouded in trees. It looked like something out of a Euro classic. We crashed through the trees for several miles, up and over several wooden bridges and appeared in Savanna. I grabbed a bottle in the feed knowing that it was still going to be 23 miles of hills till the finish. As we exited town the road rose up dramatically and on the probably 8-10% grade, I waved goodbye to the masters. So, here I was with 23 miles to go, alone. But, as I said, it was a beautiful day for a ride.

I plugged on, up down, up down, through just beautiful country on probably the best road course I've been on. Then came Mt. Carroll. As I entered town I discovered that we climbed up to the main square with its Civil War Memorial and cobbled streets. The brutal 2 block climb followed by cobbles was tough, but I knew I was in the home stretch. The next 10 miles were hard, but I struggled through and arrived with a time of 3'20" and 5th place in my category out of ... well ... ok ... I was 5th of 5, but I finished!

The organizers provided a pasta dinner and had a raffle for the riders afterwards. This is really a great course and I encourage everybody to think about coming out for it in '05.

After that, I flew to Florida and drove to Alabama, finally touching my bike on Thursday's team ride where 6 of us rode in a light sprinkle for 35 miles. Saturday was the Riverwalk ride and then came Cedar Point.

After a 52 mile outing on Saturday I felt a little fatigued, but not overly so. It was that feeling you get after back-back-back races that usually goes away once the race gets going. I spun a bunch during my warm-up and did a couple of efforts to get the heart going. 72 Cat 4/5 riders lined up to contest the IL RR Championships. I was the only guy flying the Blue & Yellow of Wheel Fast, looking at Triple X with probably 8 riders and SCW with another good turnout. After instructions, we set off on a cloudy but 75 degree day for 4 laps of about 9+ miles.

The first 4 miles were pretty gentle, then we do a steep twisting descent to the river followed by an incredibly tight 70o turn. I sat in and then we hit the descent. 72 guys on the brakes left the unmistable smell of brake pads in the air. The speeds were over 30 and it was a mess. The first guys through the turn hit the accelerator and it strung out. I was doing close to 30 and sadly anaerobic as I reintegrated at the base of the hill, probably 500 meters of 8-10% out of the river valley. I put it in the 39x23 and cranked up. I had a little gap to the field at the top, but immediately went to the big ring and ramped it up. I passed the feed where Duncan & Pam cheered me on and I quickly hit the back of the field and recovered. The remainder was mostly flat farm roads. We did get a section of fresh pea-gravel which was a little scary, but everybody cruised through ok.

We came through and I saw Kim at the S/F. She cheered me on and off we went for lap two. Coming off the descent a Vision Quest rider (the team Robbie Ventura coaches) decided to grab my line as we exited. I'd set up to grab a Triple X wheel and he tried to take it. Both of us ended up tapping the brakes and missing the wheel. Great job! So, I had to chase back to the group knowing that in a few seconds the road would pitch back up. I got gapped on the climb and started looking for guys to try to chase with. We quickly assembled a group of 7, but we were all close to our redline. We worked at chasing, but we didn't have a good flow. One SCW rider on a 60cm red Pinarello would hit the front and accelerate a few mph, causing everybody to have to string out on his wheel. Big Red seemed to want to TT after the field, but we were better served by everybody taking quick fast pulls. Ugh. At one point he put in a mile or better. Nobody would pull through.

We kept chasing and picking up the occasional straggler. We made a pact on Lap 3 to regroup at the top of the climb. That worked well, let everybody climb within themselves, and then once we regrouped, off we went. At 1 to go, I tossed my empty bottle to Kim and we set off encouraged knowing that we only had one more ascent left. Again we agreed to leave no man behind, but we mostly climbed as a group, glad that this was it. My legs were empty. After the hill the pace picked up a little, but the group hung together. About a mile out from the finish the tempo picked up. I was second wheel and when the first acceleration came, I stayed there. We were now strung out and going hard. While I gave every last ounce on the way to the line, I only managed 4th out of our group. I rolled back to Kim to discover that we were only about 2 minutes behind the field. Not bad. I was utterly spent, though.

Average speed about 22mph - average HR of 165.

Overall, I was pleased. The race went as well as I could have hoped. I've not done much climbing so I didn't expect a miracle on the climb. I went as hard as I could and I'm ok with that.

The Tippecanoe Stage Race was a wonderful production with a circuit race, TT and RR in 2 days. Read about it here!

Catch the start of the season at UW Parkside

Read about the 2003 Downers Grove Sports Grand Prix on the US Pro Criterium course.

Read about my adventures at Super Week - The International Cycling Classic.

To read previous entries, visit The Race Archives