International Cycling Classic (Superweek) Kenosha - Chase Food Folks & Spokes

Superweek was in Kenosha for the Chase Food, Folks and Spokes crit, which is always a fun day!

We saw good representation by Wheelfast with John Mahr, John Wrycza, Chris Hammer and myself flying the blue & yellow, while my brother tagged along in the yellow & red of his Los Gatos Velo Club -Easton/Specialized team. With 5 of us maybe we could muster a decent performance. Thankfully the temps were lower and we actually had an almost-sprinkle during warmups. This may be ok.

We were "warned" at the start about the German exchange students in our field that loved to bump and practiced it back home. The subtle message - these kids would be squirrels, and if you valued your skin, steer clear! We also had a USA Cycling camp going on that placed some riders in our field. This wasn't going to be your average Cat IV crit.

Probably better than 80 riders rolled away from the start and proceeded to ride the opening 10 laps of 50 and about 30 mph. We were out and out flying around the course. Stephen had the early excitement when in Turn 2 he had a rider plow into him, but kept it up and didn't even use the salty language he may occasionally use in a crit. The laps blurred by. It was impossible to move forward or back - we just swept along at a blistering pace.

With the opening moves played out, we relaxed to a more sedate 28 mph in the straights and 20+ mph corners. We were wheel to wheel shoulder to shoulder and if you can't handle close quarters racing, this was not to be your day. It was nuts as we sometimes took fast corners 3 and 4 wide. You had had to be crazy to move up and take chances in the gutters. Occasionally the seas would part and we'd drive forward, but really I just tried to keep Chris and John within a rider with my brother right behind me. Cool.

At the half-way point I knew even at these ridiculous speeds I'd finish barring a wreck or something really hard going. We continued the breakneck speeds, but the legs and heart came 'round and I was going ok. There was only one or two close calls in the corners, but good bike skills and luck helped out and nobody went down.

Finally we ticked into the last 10 laps and if you thought moving up was hard in the first 40 laps, it was now virtually impossible. I tried to stay near crit-guru John W., but even John wasn't able to go up. Man oh Man! As we got the bell I just hung on and blasted through the final turns with my WFR companions close. We rolled home with no great results, but one amazing stat: In 30 miles @ 26mph covering 200 corners not one single rider crashed. Unheard of perhaps in Superweek History, a Cat IV race occured with no bodies on the ground, no crunching of metal, no screams of agony.

In some ways it was a frustrating day - none of us were cooked, we just fell victim to younger guys willing to take more risks and come up with the spoils. More philosophically, though, we survived a tough day in the saddle against a fast field and showed that perhaps our form isn't as far off as we may have suspected. The heart of the season is upon us as we hit the month of August and the 05 season has not seen the last of us.

Monsters of the Midway 05 and Parkside

Some highlights from '04

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