Track Season is Winding Down

I'm feeling summer slip away! I can't complain - this has been a pretty decent summer for me. I'm still wired from racing at the track tonight so I figured I'd post as long as I have the energy to burn. The evening started off simple enough with a 15 lap point-a-lap race (the leader of each lap gets 1 point, the rider with the most points at the end is the winner). I sat in until 7 to go then accelerated/rolled off the front and stayed away, accumulating points and winning the race.

That was a nice warm up for the 35 lap Elaine Nekritz Trophy Race, a scratch race where the first rider over the line at the end of 35 laps is the winner. I was feeling lazy (sorry....) and sat in/ sucked wheel/saved my legs for most of the race while the other riders battled it out on the front. Someone offered $1 per lap to the leader of each lap so there was a fair amount of movement at the front to make some money. At one point an Alberto's rider got off the front and everyone pretty much let her go. I decided with 4 to go that she'd been out there long enough so I punched it and caught her in about a half a lap. Predictably the entire field sucked my wheel and then sat up. Ugh. So I let her go when no one pulled through. I'd chased and gotten everyone in position to do something and they did NOTHING. By that point things came down to a field sprint for 2nd, which I took.

I'm very happy for Kristen from Alberto's - she made some pretty bold moves that no one respected. She earned that win and my hat is off to her.

Up next - a nice long weekend and ick....another birthday....

Glencoe Wrap - First Loser!!

First - gotta congratulate my brother Richie and his wife Sandy on the birth of their second daughter, Lindsey Erin. I would be remiss to not mention that her big sister Elise, my Godchild, will be 3 next week (and the author will also be - ugh - a year older...). I further understand from my little brother that Payton, the Puggle, would like to be a star. So I put her on the blog today. Nice underbite...

We could not have had better weather today - perfect in every way. I was feeling good and confident that I would do well today. The course was pretty straightforward - flat and fast with 4 turns, corner 3 being more than 90 degrees and corner 4 a bit tight before a long sprint home. The 1/2/3 field was pretty small without much team representation except for ABD and Alberto's, each with 2 riders. There were a couple of strong sprinters present so I knew my work was cut out for me. We only raced 40min +2 so I was hoping to get away with someone else and get a break to stick but nothing seemed to work. I took a prime along the way, just to test the legs and get a better idea of how to time the final sprint. There were a few small breaks along the way and I worked to keep the pace high after every prime that I didn't contest hoping to wear some other riders down a bit. Things otherwise stayed pretty much together until about 1 1/2 laps to go when Jen Greenberg from XXX-Athletico took a risky flyer that (amazingly) everyone seemed content to let go. On the last lap I decided that I had to chase and in so doing, also decided that I had to straight up win the field sprint since it was obviously too late to catch Jen. I did just that. I am totally happy for Jen - she's a strong rider and deserved to win today.

Thanks to CJ and Bill for swinging by to watch as well as all my Judson buddies that were on hand to race and cheer(thanks Scott!). Way to go Ken Schiffman, Mike Jones, Bill Nedza, Pat McNally, Chris McNally, Dan Rudrud, Troy Henikoff (with Karlen and Addison), Dave Scher, Lou Kuhn, Jerry Ortega, Bob Issac, Brian Kavanaugh and everyone else not listed who raced today. Special thanks to the town of Glencoe and Alberto's for hosting and sponsoring the event in it's inaugural year. I hope the GGP becomes a fixture on the midwest racing calendar for years to come.

As a sidenote - to everyone who did the Accenture Triathlon today - well done!!

Up next: the Elaine Nekritz trophy race at the track on Thursday. I'm ready!!

Rain Rain Rain!!

Well, the plan for today was to go to Ed Rudolph Northbrook Velodrome to race but the insane winds and heavy rain have basically trashed that whole plan. CJ called while on the way home from the Loop to report that she'd just exited an el train that was stopped due to a tree blocking the track. I've been watching the reports on TV while hearing the thunder outside and WOW - there is some serious weather moving through the area right now. I'm sort of bummed too - I was looking forward to racing the Elaine Nekritz Trophy scratch race tonight. I have fantastic legs right now and wanted to improve upon my first place finish in the Cat 4 race last season with a victory in the Pro1/2/3 field. Hopefully it will be rescheduled soon - track season is winding down and we don't have many more opportunities to race before the weather starts changing.

National Criterium Championship - Downers Grove

Oh happy wet, cold, slippery, yucky day...the National Criterium Championship was held in Downers Grove this morning, a mere 25min drive (traffic free, on the way there anyway....) from the city. I'm going to probably leave lots of details out of this report basically because it will end up being long enough without going into the minutia of the day. I felt AMAZING today and was thinking a top 10 finish was definitely something within my reach, if I stayed out of trouble and played my cards right. Warm up was excellent, my brain was connected and I was ready to rock. I knew I had good legs after winning the state points race championship at the track (and also qualified for elite track nationals in the process) on Thursday so this was going to be a good day for me.

Kenda had a great squad with Gina V., Kristin W., Tamyra B., Marni H., and myself representing. Paul and Mike were on hand to see that we were wired and had everything we needed before and after the race - thanks guys!! Imelda was circulating too, keeping things together for us. There had been steady, heavy rain in the area for the last 2 days so I was not surprised when the rain started again right after we got underway. The streets became more and more slippery as things progressed.

Racing got off to a decent start, since I got a spot on the line in the second row - close to the front. I'd have to say there were about 70 in the field but I'm not 100% certain on that. The pace was pretty high with lots of primes being called early on. I stayed near the front and out of trouble (so I thought) until about 7 laps into the 31 lap race. Someone went down in turn 7 and took a few of us with so a trip to the wheel pit and a free lap later I was back in and feeling good. After the halfway point the gnarly crashes started - it was sort of unnerving to see bodies flying over the bars out of the corner of my eye almost every lap.

The size of the field was dramatically shrinking as more and more wrecks happened and riders abandoned. I was very lucky and stayed safe until 2 to go when someone took a bad line through the last corner and overcooked the exit of the turn - taking A LOT of riders out with her, including me. I flew over the bars and onto someone else's bike and my foot was stuck in someone's wheel. When I finally managed to get free of the spokes I realized that the spectators in the corner had taken my bike away and over the crowd control fence so that I couldn't get back on to chase. Now THAT PISSED ME OFF. I had come this far and wanted so badly to at least finish, even if it was dead last. I worked way too hard to be a DNF. My day was over and I was not remotely amused. I understand that the people in the crowd were just trying to help clear things but no one even bothered to ask if I was going to continue.

Later on Carrie Cash from XPLANE-Revolution came over to apologize for causing the crash that ended the race for many of us. I respect her a great deal for that and appreciate that she made the effort to express her apology. She's an excellent athlete and just happened to make a bad move at the wrong time. It doesn't fix the fact that I'm sore and disappointed but it definitely reinforces the fact that she and so many of the other girls that I race with are really gracious, honest and tremendously good people. I guess that's why I can't be terribly angry and why I can look forward to the fact that there is another race next weekend.

Many thanks to my family (Mom, Dad, Aunt and Uncle) who came out to watch. Thanks to Luke Seemann from XXX and chicagobikeracing.com for the lovely shot of me biting it. To Steve, Bill, Donna, CJ and Mary for cheering for Kenda - even though they were soaking wet we could all hear them and appreciate the support. Can't wait to see the pictures!!

Tour of Elk Grove....Hot as Hell and Crashed Again

So the BIG dollar Tour of Elk Grove was held on a sub-par, mundane, ridiculous course in some pretty steamy hot weather today. I am amazed that there aren't more complaints about the course - it's horribly boring and really not all that fun to race on. For such a high-profile event it makes sense to me that the organizer/promoter could be a bit more creative and maybe come up with a better course - one that's worthy of such an amazing prize purse (well, for the pro men at least...). OK, I'll stop whining now - I suppose any chance to race an NRC event withing 20 miles of home is a good thing. The women's pro 1/2 field was small - I think maybe 40 - but the caliber of the riders was amazing. Cheerwine, Value-Act Capital, and Aarons had full squads and HUB, expresscopy.com, Colavita, TIBCO, Priority Health, Advil-Chapstick, Lipton, and TargetTraining also had representation. Every woman on the line was capable of winning today and the racing proved to be fast and aggressive with lots of breaks for the entire 60K.

Kenda had a strong team with Kristin W., Tamyra B., Gina V., and myself lining up in the black and red. Kristin started off with an early attack that she was able to stick for a few laps and picked up a $500 prime along the way before getting sucked back in. Gina worked her tail off to haul in a break and Tam was super aggressive - she bridged to a break and nearly won a prime too! Me? Well....I've been a bit 'off' for the last few days after some dental work and having to deal with some stress and the super hot weather. I suffered a lot in the heat, hung in and yo-yo'ed around in the group but wasn't ever able to really do anything significant until I somehow started feeling good with 2 laps to go. Weird.

On the final lap I was sitting toward the front and actually feeling confident when a little contact happened in front of me that took down Lara Kroepsch from Lipton and a few others as well. I hope Lara is OK - I had to ride over her and her bike... That crash was pretty much screwed up the end of the race for anyone in the vicinity as the peloton pulled away and the remainder of us scratched and clawed our way to a respectable finish. I think I heard 22nd from the reviewing stand. Not a great result but it's better than being road kill.

It was unfortunate but stuff like that happens all the time in racing. We had a fantastic team day and we're all looking forward to Nationals in Downers Grove next weekend. Of note is the fact that Corie, Karen, Greg and Mike were on hand to cheer for us and Paul was around to get us wired up with radios and take care of any problems - thanks so much everyone, it means so much that you took time to be there for us!

That is a pic of Izumi - she's a little devil sometimes but in this shot I caught one of her more 'mellow' moments.

Wowie - Chicago Athlete of the Month for September!

I got a phone call yesterday from Amy Rushlow at Chicago Athlete to inform me that I've been selected as the Athlete of the Month for September! I did a brief interview and the hard copy should be out in a couple weeks. What's coming up: NRC Tour of Elk Grove and the US National Criterium Championship in Downers Grove. Kenda will have good representation at both events which is GREAT. I am ready - and feeling good!

Oh, and I couldn't help but post this pic of my kitty, Gandalf. Such a charming little boy he is!