For the first time in way too many years I am home on Memorial Day weekend - and I'm loving it! I decided to race close to home this year and am happy to have made that choice. Too many years of Quad Cities high drama has burned my brain. I headed to Wood Dale for the first of 3 weekend races specifically for masters racers (30 years old or older). I did the men's 50+ race this morning and ended up finishing with the field (10th) but it was a good race - and fun!
I'd say there were at least 20 guys on the start line (update: 35) and lots of them are very strong, smart racers - some current and former national and state champions, so it was definitely going to be hard (fine with me!). Things stayed together the first 20min or so with the occasional move getting sucked back in and then following a prime a break of 5 exceptional boys got a gap and held it - Tom Doughty, Wayne Simon, Fabio Orlandi, Andy Kerr and Stuart Grinnell. Old. Man. Strength. Indeed....
Unfortunately I was on the wrong side of the road and boxed in when the separation happened or I suspect I might have been able to make it up to them - though surely dead on arrival, hanging on by the skin of my teeth and quite likely shelled at some point later on. When it was clear that they were away for good I decided that the field sprint was my next order of business so I just sort of stayed near the front, pulled from time to time and waited. The break came through us with somewhere between 5 and 10min to go and all the guys in the field started to co-mingle and screw things up. I wish they'd just let the break go through us - it would have made things much more simple.
I was mistakenly under the impression that the break and the field would finish on separate laps, since the break was up a lap. Guess not. I had no idea we were all finishing together and therefore didn't sprint at the end or I surely could have finished better. It didn't matter - they were only paying out 3 places but I always like a solid sprint finish for a crit, so I was sort of bummed to not have that chance. C'est la vie I guess. I don't know who ultimately won but I have to give a huge shout of congrats and 'well done!' to the break - Tom, Andy, Stu, Wayne and Fabio - impressive work, freakin' animals....
I may or may not race tomorrow and if I do, it will likely be the women's event as I'm planning to do the 50+ men's race on Monday so I'd like to have decent legs for that. MetLifeGuy will be back so I'll have a teammate to support. Either way I'll be happy because at last I get to sleep in my own bed on Memorial Day weekend. If I happen to find any photos from today, I'll post them later.
I'd say there were at least 20 guys on the start line (update: 35) and lots of them are very strong, smart racers - some current and former national and state champions, so it was definitely going to be hard (fine with me!). Things stayed together the first 20min or so with the occasional move getting sucked back in and then following a prime a break of 5 exceptional boys got a gap and held it - Tom Doughty, Wayne Simon, Fabio Orlandi, Andy Kerr and Stuart Grinnell. Old. Man. Strength. Indeed....
Unfortunately I was on the wrong side of the road and boxed in when the separation happened or I suspect I might have been able to make it up to them - though surely dead on arrival, hanging on by the skin of my teeth and quite likely shelled at some point later on. When it was clear that they were away for good I decided that the field sprint was my next order of business so I just sort of stayed near the front, pulled from time to time and waited. The break came through us with somewhere between 5 and 10min to go and all the guys in the field started to co-mingle and screw things up. I wish they'd just let the break go through us - it would have made things much more simple.
I was mistakenly under the impression that the break and the field would finish on separate laps, since the break was up a lap. Guess not. I had no idea we were all finishing together and therefore didn't sprint at the end or I surely could have finished better. It didn't matter - they were only paying out 3 places but I always like a solid sprint finish for a crit, so I was sort of bummed to not have that chance. C'est la vie I guess. I don't know who ultimately won but I have to give a huge shout of congrats and 'well done!' to the break - Tom, Andy, Stu, Wayne and Fabio - impressive work, freakin' animals....
I may or may not race tomorrow and if I do, it will likely be the women's event as I'm planning to do the 50+ men's race on Monday so I'd like to have decent legs for that. MetLifeGuy will be back so I'll have a teammate to support. Either way I'll be happy because at last I get to sleep in my own bed on Memorial Day weekend. If I happen to find any photos from today, I'll post them later.
