Superweek - The Homewood International Cycling Classic

Homewood is a new Superweek location for 2010. I was especially psyched about this because my hometown, Thornton, is situated immediately east of Homewood. I was able to ride to the race venue from my parents' house 3mi away. The course was excellent - 8 turns, completely flat, running through downtown. Some of the pavement was bumpy but not too bad and there was a nice headwind to deal with on the long backstretch between turns 4 and 5.

We got underway with maybe 30 starters. I didn't count how many of us there were so I could be wrong on that but the field wasn't huge which was nice - it made for much smoother cornering in tight spots. Stacy and I were pretty active early on with a few short stints off the front and some work to bring in a couple of early flyers. A break of 3 managed to get away at some point and build an 18-20sec gap. I was tremendously frustrated that everyone seemed pretty content to just let it go. I and maybe 3 or 4 others worked to bring the gap down to 8sec and then everyone sat up and let it go back out with about 10 laps to go. Negative. Even more negative were the riders who literally tailgunned the entire race and then suddenly appeared in the front with 2 laps to go.

As things started to get twitchy in the last two laps I worked very hard to keep decent position. I lost a bunch in turn 6 but was patient, moved up before the last turn, was able to hit it up the left side and finish 3rd in a close field sprint. Not the way I wanted things to turn out - I really wanted to haul that break back in - but not a bad way to finish a long crit. Unfortunately, Stacy hit the fencing on the last lap and lost some skin. She's going to be okay and she rode like a champ - I love racing with her and she learns more every time. The ride back to Thornton was a little wet but there were Chips Ahoy cookies waiting there for me which made it all okay in the end.

Up next is Evanston next Sunday for sure. Maybe something else before then but who knows - trying to balance work and life right now and with good reason, work and life are winning. And I'm totally okay with that!

Thanks so much for reading. If any photos surface, I'll be sure to post them.

Tour de Villas - Bow Wow Wow!!

The brilliant plan for the day involved riding 15mi to Des Plaines, doing two crits (women open and men 50+) then riding home. I'd not slept well the night before and wasn't feeling the love when I rolled out but once I got moving things seemed to open up a little. I connected with my teammate Stacy beforehand for some pre-race planning, got a good warm up and hit the line for the women's race nervous as hell. There were (I think) about 20-25 starters with Alberto's and Project 5 having strong representation with multiple riders. Not sure why but I'm an absolute anxious wreck before small local races. Lots of pressure for no good reason, I guess.

The course was simple enough - one big oval, no turns just curves, a long sprint, lots of bumpy pavement and a face full of headwind on the back stretch. I was tickled to see Channel 7's Paul Meincke doing some color commentary at the start/finish - a celebrity!! I wanted to be patient but just couldn't stand the parade-speed of the group so I attacked early. In fact, Stacy and I attacked and counter attacked repeatedly but weren't able to escape thanks to the wind. I didn't count how many times we tried to break things up but it was absurd mostly because we'd get hauled back in and everyone would sit up, look at each other and go 13mph. Frustrating and negative for sure.

I think I was away for 2 laps or so at one point but with 2 to go it was clear that we were setting up for a field sprint. Stacy did an awesome job of ramping up the speed on the last lap. I was sitting in third position, jumped hard and waaaay early but managed to take the win with Stacy coming across 4th - a great showing for the Bulldogs!! Special thanks to Stacy who kept the pace high at the end - she did it perfectly and still secured a strong finish, nice work!

The men's race was surprisingly not very animated most likely because a lot of the guys were doing multiple races. We rolled with 31 starters - Stacy and I were just planning to do some motor pacing. I executed an early 'glory' attack that got me off the front for a couple laps but that was brought back in just in time for Mark Shay to hit it and spend a fair amount of time alone off the front. Of course when Mark was caught (idiot that I am) I countered and ended up spending probably another 6 laps alone in the wind, dying a slow death and thinking to myself, "how the hell are you going to ride home after this, fool?" Sure enough, I was sucked in with 1/2 a lap to go. I stayed near the front and found a hole which enabled me to punch through for a 4th place finish - I think. I left before final results were posted and it's possible that one of the guys ahead of me was 55+, which would leave me in 3rd. Regardless, I worked very hard and had a lot of fun on a beautiful sunny day. Interestingly, I was stung by a bee during my second solo stint. It was a little swollen and itchy but as I sit here and type my ankle and foot are now freakishly edematous and sort of gross looking...

UPDATE: I did indeed finish 3rd in the men's race. Very cool....

Quote of the Day from Bill Cassidy: "Next time you're alone and coming through the start/finish on the last lap, go faster if you don't want to get caught."

I did ride home and probably ended up getting back faster than I would have if I'd driven there. Shower, lunch and good company for some HD TdF occupied the rest of the afternoon. Big thanks to Project 5 for organizing a great event on short notice - you guys did a super job!

And yes, I am still at the zoo.....no estimate on when that will change.