The Highs and Lows of Bike Racing: Memorial Weekend Races, Part 1

Memorial Weekend Bike Racing

Well, this year we decided to deviate from our standard full Quad Cities weekend of Snake Alley, Melon City, and Rock Island. Instead, I opted to race locally at the ABD Masters Memorial weekend in Wood Dale on Saturday, take Sunday off, and race Quad Cities Criterium in Rock Island which is one of my favorite races of the season even though I notoriously have bad luck there. This year was no exception.

ABD Masters Weekend: Saturday, Part 1, "The High!"

I won’t lie, I was a touch nervous going into this race, excited at the same time as well. This was going to be a little bit of a test for my fitness and see how long I can hang. I was racing the 30+ Open, I knew going in there was going to be few serious Mid-West gunslingers on the line. And there were. The likes of Erik Tomlinson (my friend and cat 1) who won it last year, my boy Tim “Quadzilla” Henry from my team, Wayne Simon, Ryan Zook, Scott Pearson….you get the flow.

The course has a small rise out of turn 3 up to turn 4, the last corner, then a downhill run to the line and a big sweeper to head back to turn 3. Fast and very fun course on good road surface, this could easily become a favorite of mine.

Myself, Tim, and Chris Soltis line up for this race. Mitch was there racing the Masters 4s looking like he's been riding a bit, and MIA Andy is no longer MIA, but present and racing. Racing well as he usually does I might add. It was really nice to see those guys.

When you are nervous going into a race, one of the things that helps keep it in check is to have a simple plan, that makes it easier. My plan was to roll in the pack with a little sliding room if I needed it, and finish with this high-powered pack. The radar doesn’t look too hot but I go and get my number anyway, I don’t have issues racing in the rain (in fact I can hold my own pretty well in the rain), just not a big fan of warming up and standing on the line in the rain. I warm up on the north course, just enough to wake the legs up knowing I was headed into 50minutes with some fast guys. On the line we have about 40 of us, give or take. Somewhere between 10-15 minutes in the sky opens up and never stops again. We take off and head around the course, I settle into a spot in the middle. As soon as we hit the line to complete the second lap, BOOM! Here come the attacks. No playin around with these guys. Nothing like the Cat 4 races I am stuck in right now. When these boys attack….ITS AN ATTACK, guys snake all across the road covering and the entire pack goes single file. Not just the first 5-10 guys like the 4s. I was actually able to jump on one attack that came up the opposite gutter so I swung over hard and fast to grab onto it, you never know. I jumped around a few guys that were a little more timid in the wet corners that was necessary for me. They seemed to be ok opening and closing a gap every time through the sweeper. I wasn’t willing to expend the extra energy. I was holding on well, about 40 min into the race I rolled up beside Tim to offer a ride to the front now, because I still didn’t know just how fast this thing was going to get but I knew it was coming soon. Soon as I got next to him, bam, pace goes up and I have to settle in. I could just hear Tim inside his head when I rolled up “OH SNAP, look whos here!” haha

I hang on just fine. We hit the bell lap, I hang in there with pace increase and get a pack finish, actually placed in front of a few guys. Very successful race for me, it gave me a little more confidence that I can hang in 50minute race with a little hill and 27mph ave speed with the some heavy hitters. I think I might have been the only Cat 4 in the race. I’m hard pressed to think of a race that I have had more fun in.

Reagan Crit, Dixon (Masters 4/5)

I’ve done this crit all three years it has been around. This year’s course was almost the same course as the original except just a touch longer in the section that has the small climb, which was extended by a block for 2011. I like this race quite a bit, a little better pavement would be nice, but, all the small town crit roads are starting to show their age and these small towns             don’t have a ton of money to dump on these little side streets, so it is what it is. It’s still fun. Wish more Chicago racers would show up, it’s really not that far. xXx had a large contingent as well as Bike Heaven, Psimet, and Half-Acre. MEADS Bike Shop from Sterling has a team as well now and they had a couple guys with decent fitness in my race. It was nice to see some familiar faces I haven't seen this season yet, or at least since CX ended. 

I worked in the morning so I only had one race option, 35+ 4/5s. We had 30+ something guys line up. I had a plan for the race going in and it wasn’t just to sit in and wait for the end. I made it to the line just as Kenny announced last call for riders…oops. Oh well, whistle blew, I clipped in and moved up to about 5-7^th wheel by turn 2 and the start of the little climb. I had ridden a pre-lap so I had a gauge of what was going hard on the climb and what wasn’t as far as effort goes. We hit it the first lap at a moderate pace single and double file. Pace was decent on the first lap but nothing I would consider fast, just elevated. Soon into the 2^nd  or 3rd lap I took over the point to open up the legs a little and get feel for the corners at speed. After a full lap or so, I settled back in. About that time, one of the MEADS guys came to the front and set pace a bit and tried to sneak off the front a couple times over the course of a few laps. The pack wasn’t really letting it happen and it was keeping the pace high enough to quell any counter attacks for the most part.

After a number of laps of this and a little help from his teammate they finally gave up and settled in. I sensed the pace dropping now, so next time as the pack slowed (quite a bit too) one hill, I swung to the inside of the climb about half way up and hit it, out of the saddle and pretty hard. I stayed on the gas all the way to turn 5 while glancing back a couple times. A half-Acre guy I didn’t know was all over me, which was not a problem. The problem was the entire pack was single file about 3 bike lengths behind him. Not enough separation for us going into the long gradual downhill after the next turn. I let up and just started rolling along, no one would come around…..for awhile and had to slow wayyy down before anyone would come around.

After this, the pace picked up a touch every time up the hill and then settled. It was obvious the pack wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. We had 9 to go next time across the line. I decided to just go back, recover, and wait for it.

Bell Lap:

Pace went up after the hill. Moved up to what I thought might be far enough before turn 7. It would have been too sketchy with all the cracks, divots, bumps, sunken manholes and vents in the apex of the turn to dive into the turn harder. Going into turn 8 (final turn) I take a decent line that should allow me to carry speed and throttle it. But, the guy in front of me decides he wants to move further outside and right into my line, causing pause number one. Instantly I re-direct to his old line inside him. The guy right that he was behind then clips his pedal and bobbles a second, causing pause number two. That was it, the line was 50m after the turn, and top 5 was out of reach now. Hit the gas once more, took two more guys. Rolled across 10^th. All in all, it was a good race for me. Tried some new things, did a few things I set out to do so at the end of the day it was a success, for the most part. You always want to win though.