I was totally stoked and overly nervous to be racing in Glencoe today. I finished second there last season, winning the field sprint with a rider off the front at the end. I knew going in that the field was going to be small but that the riders present were all good racers which meant there would be a lot of watching and waiting. The organizer had done a fantastic job of putting together a good prize list for the women's field - I wish there had been more of us on the start line. There was even an in-race points sprint competition for a pair of diamond earrings - not something you see very often. This was a chip timed event so at the end we would know the results within minutes which kept the waiting around to a minimum - nice.
The course in Glencoe is completely flat with 4 corners - the first two being 90 degree lefts, the third slightly more than 90 degrees and the last turn significantly less than 90 degrees before the final home stretch. Last year the pavement was pretty bumpy on the back side of the course but I was pleasantly surprised when taking a pre-race lap to see new pavement from curb to curb - verrry nice. I was so happy to see that my teammate Jessi came up from Urbana to race - seems like we haven't raced together in ages. She was feeling tired but worked really hard at one point to haul in a break that no one else wanted to touch - thanks Jessi!
We rolled from the start of our 50min +2 laps race and things were relatively pedestrian until they rang the bell for either points or a prime - I don't recall exactly. Two or three times along the way a solo rider was off the front for a little while but we pretty much hauled anything back in before too long which basically meant it was going to be a field sprint. It seemed like no one was really in the mood to take any big risks after a while - probably a good thing because I was feeling good and my plan was to counter any move that went late, which nothing did. I wanted to test my legs before the end so I jumped late and got a prime along the way which provided some much needed confidence. I had no desire to sprint for the earrings and basically sat on for all of the point sprints.
In the end I made the error of coming out of the last turn sitting 5th behind a bunch of good sprinters - d'oh! I had decent momentum so I just moved left and drilled it to the line - passing three riders and missing out on first by (literally) .03sec. to Devon Haskell who had exited the final turn sitting in first position. This is definitely a case of 'hindsight is 20/20' because I should have known better than to be so far back at the end. It's disappointing to lose by so little but also encouraging to know that my sprint is strong enough right now to make up a lot of ground if need be. I thought all the time trialing I've been doing would kill my sprint but I guess not - there's still some twitch in there.
I heard later on from the guys who did the two person 50K TT and they all just killed it - way to go Josh, Ted, Dan, Mike, and Jim! Up next for me is criterium nationals in Downers Grove on Sunday followed by the state road race and time trial the two weekends after that with a track event thrown in there too. It's going to be a busy close to August - good thing because I'm starting to feel a little burned out.
As always, thanks for reading. If I get my hands on some pictures I'll be sure to post them later this week. Also - thanks to everyone who was there in Glencoe cheering. I heard you all and I really wish the outcome would have been different but as the old saying goes, 'that's bike racing.'
The course in Glencoe is completely flat with 4 corners - the first two being 90 degree lefts, the third slightly more than 90 degrees and the last turn significantly less than 90 degrees before the final home stretch. Last year the pavement was pretty bumpy on the back side of the course but I was pleasantly surprised when taking a pre-race lap to see new pavement from curb to curb - verrry nice. I was so happy to see that my teammate Jessi came up from Urbana to race - seems like we haven't raced together in ages. She was feeling tired but worked really hard at one point to haul in a break that no one else wanted to touch - thanks Jessi!
We rolled from the start of our 50min +2 laps race and things were relatively pedestrian until they rang the bell for either points or a prime - I don't recall exactly. Two or three times along the way a solo rider was off the front for a little while but we pretty much hauled anything back in before too long which basically meant it was going to be a field sprint. It seemed like no one was really in the mood to take any big risks after a while - probably a good thing because I was feeling good and my plan was to counter any move that went late, which nothing did. I wanted to test my legs before the end so I jumped late and got a prime along the way which provided some much needed confidence. I had no desire to sprint for the earrings and basically sat on for all of the point sprints.
In the end I made the error of coming out of the last turn sitting 5th behind a bunch of good sprinters - d'oh! I had decent momentum so I just moved left and drilled it to the line - passing three riders and missing out on first by (literally) .03sec. to Devon Haskell who had exited the final turn sitting in first position. This is definitely a case of 'hindsight is 20/20' because I should have known better than to be so far back at the end. It's disappointing to lose by so little but also encouraging to know that my sprint is strong enough right now to make up a lot of ground if need be. I thought all the time trialing I've been doing would kill my sprint but I guess not - there's still some twitch in there.
I heard later on from the guys who did the two person 50K TT and they all just killed it - way to go Josh, Ted, Dan, Mike, and Jim! Up next for me is criterium nationals in Downers Grove on Sunday followed by the state road race and time trial the two weekends after that with a track event thrown in there too. It's going to be a busy close to August - good thing because I'm starting to feel a little burned out.
As always, thanks for reading. If I get my hands on some pictures I'll be sure to post them later this week. Also - thanks to everyone who was there in Glencoe cheering. I heard you all and I really wish the outcome would have been different but as the old saying goes, 'that's bike racing.'
