Burnaham SuperCrit and SCW C.O.U.G.A.R. Crit slash Circuit Races

video: Porkchopwi

Burnham Spring SuperCrit:

   It was nice to see everyone Saturday! Seemed kind of weird without those of you that are usually there week in and week out. Well, J and Ginger rode together and left wayy early because their 1st race was at 9:15 and I didn't go until 2, so I was able to take my time a little bit in the morning. I drove up by myself, which was actually kind of nice and peaceful until I started getting bored and thinking. So I started to make myself a little nervous, mostly because I knew I had some form and knew I wouldn't be OTB.

   We toed the line with 68 officially. That's June regional numbers, BIG field for March. I read another racer's description of the SuperCrit which is the best I've seen thus far, "The Burnham SuperCrit is the Milan-Sanremo of Chicago bike racing!". It's on an auto road course for those that have never been there, a narrow one with skinny inside run-offs and decreasing radius turns. According to Garmin each lap is 1.7mi. Wind is always a factor out here because its in the country. I'll cut to the chase, I ran up front all day, to a fault. I was never the needle point but was usually running front 15 or so, often front five. I didn't directly chase down attack attempts but I was always 2nd 3rd or 4th wheel doing so, which is pretty much the same thing. Little did I know we were constantly chasing down the IL Cat 4 State TT Champ trying to get away. Never happened. Apparently from other reports it was a crash fest and super sketchy in the pack with plenty of twitching left and right for no reason. I guess there were 2-3 during the crashes race. 2 on the bell lap, one being the State Time Trial Champ leading out the sprint and managing to crash himself out.

Bell lap:
I enter 5th wheel, good position, did just as Tim told me and started establishing my position with 3-4 to-go. I roll through turn 1 8-10th wheel, not 10m after the turn I hear the sound of metal vs. asphalt. Yup, we drill it....no one even thinking we have 1.5 miles left before the line. I am able to hold the wheels but when we made the final turn and headed down the looong straight there was nothing left from all the time too close to the front. I said "SHUT UP LEGS!", but they had already walked off the job!
Finished 29th of 68 starters.

Ave Sp Race 25.4 mph
Ave Sp Bell lap (final lap) 27.4 mph

C.O.U.G.A.R. SCW Race at Joliet Autobahn:

First off, thanks Mitch and Jim for coming out and John and Cathy for hanging around to watch my race. Can't tell you how big of a difference it makes! Especially on days like Sunday when I wasn't really feeling like racing. I know those can be some of the best days though too!

Sunday was the SCW COUGAR crit more of a circuit but not officially a circuit race. I have yet to remember What COUGAR stands for yet either, Chicago something...dunno. LOVED this course compared to Beloit. Turns were super wide, no squeezebox chicanes, inside run-offs were big and the pavement was awesome all the way around. 1.6mi loop I think. facilities were great and everybody was allowed access to the Members building with food and drink available on site. Definitely will be doing this one again.

Well, I had a much different plan for this day. I'm solo, no chasing will be done by me, no breaking the huge wind on the backside by myself either. I made it very clear that since I did that all day yesterday I wasn't doing it today and I didn't care if anyone got off the front! Sit in, move around and play the chess game against the wind and see how good I could be at staying out of it. Weatherbug was stating a steady 15 blow with gusts to 30 out of the NE. It was correct. I worked my plan. I had several different guys during our warming up on pit row point out the TT Champ from the day before and saying he was the guy to mark. Hmm, maybe, but I'm not chasing him, I did that the day before. And I paid for it. I think a couple guys were hoping I'd police the front again. Nope, not today. I moved up and back here there as I pleased for the most part. SCW had about 5 or 6 guys including Steve. I settled in right behind them most of the time. On the second lap I had the wind and positioning down. I worked it well throughout the race.

Bell lap:
It ramped up just a bit when we crossed the line but chilled a moment knowing we had the wind section still. It started picking up toward the end of the wind about halfway around really took off when we got the tail. I went hard but not hardest yet, SCW juniors jumped and I let them go but started ramping it up, guys were coming by me a couple here and a couple there. No worries, I'm building and we still have a ways to go. 2nd to last turn, guys are dropping anchor by the mulitples, I swing wide to set up for the straight passing the guys that went too early. Final straight the wind was coming from 2 o'clock and I used guys on my right to stair step up the straight and hit top gear when the distance was right.....picked off about 4-6 guys before the line. 

Came across the line 9th, another Top 10 for Project 5 Racing!!!

Ave sp Race: 24.1

And so it begins....

2010 Kenosha 4's Video

Well, yesterday I looked at the weather forecast for Sunday and rain was not on the menu. I really didn't feel like riding the rollers after work on Saturday either. Then, Jerel had mentioned to me about doing the Kenosha crit. I know Kevin is a fan of these Kenosha Crits so I got to thinkin, "hey, I've been putting in some miles since Jan 21st(whos counting), might as well go ride outside and test the legs!" Jerel had a wedding shower to attend Sunday afternoon, so I figured now's as good a time as any to have a look see where the legs are at.

The sun broke through the clouds about 45 min before the start and immediately it started to feel warmer. Brother wind picked up a lot though too. Meh, I'd rather have sun and more wind than cold, no sun, some wind, and damp! Lined up with a couple familiar faces from last season and a SpiderMonkey who was at St. Louis last year. My goal here was simple, just see what the legs got! Ride the race, don't race the race, and see what's in the legs at the end.

Start went pretty standard, tucked in about 6 or 7th wheel going into the first couple turns and the wind and just settled in. I had the fitness to move around wherever I wanted throughout the race which felt good. A couple times I was shuffled through the front of the pack where I just soft peddled when we turned into the STRONG headwind and let a few guys come around and then just jump on their wheel. On the back stretch the wind hit you at about 2 o'clock. Through most of the race the guys up front would actually ride the middle of the road or right third of the road going into the wind on the back section and the wind was blowing from the front right. Provided plenty of room for a right to left echelon, thanks guys! This would not be the case when the pack stuck me out front, I made the left turn onto the back stretch head/cross wind from the right and I proceeded to immediately put it in the gutter on the left. After about 2/3'rds of the way down the stretch a couple guys decided to come around. I just giggled, grabbed a wheel and said thanks!
With about 5 to go we lapped the 5's and then it got sloppy. I stayed up near the front but in the middle of the pack. On the last lap when we hit the wind I planned on moving up through the middle, there had been plenty of space to do that all race. Well, everyone decided they were going to squeeze together this time. I was stuck for a minute. I waited until we turned away from the wind and started wiggling my way up the middle and out side. Starting ramping it up heading into the last turn on the outside, upon exiting the turn right when I about let go everything else I had left, the guy in front of me had to trim speed to keep from curbing it and I lost momentum. I was then forced to ramp it up again but not much real estate to do it. I essentially ended up sprinting to regain lost spots, which I did. I ended up finishing 10th out of maybe 30-35ish starters.

Assessment: I've got work to do but I can run with the front runners and the legs are in a good spot to start the season.

(Photo: Liz Wolfson Kimezich)
(Video Andrew @ www.spidermonkeycycling.com)