This means WORS

Back to back racing, is anything better?  One day a road criterium; next day a mountain bike race.  Two very different styles of bike racing, both awesome though.

This was to be my first WORS race, I know absolutely zero abour WORS racing.  To be honest I know zero about mountain bike racing.  The only thing I really know is to keep my legs rotating around an axis of rotation.  This was also to be my big girl's first race (29'er Rita).  Andy, Jason, Jim, Sam, and I departed fair Milwaukee around 8 am, headed towards Suamico Wisconsin (near Green Bay).   It was a 2-hour drive filled with silly jokes, napping, Skittles, and Taco Johns.

We arrived at the parking lot and unloaded everything.  This is when I noticed my problem.....during the car ride my front brake bolt (one that holds the cable) had fallen out and was lost somewhere along the highway.  Son of a bitch.  Luckily Jim stepped up and let me borrow his bike since he wasn't able to race that day due to a bum shoulder.  I adjusted it as well as best as I could to fit me.  It would work.

We all lined up, it seemed like there were a 100 people or so in our race.  The race started off and was just packed, luckily the first 4 miles or so was wide double-track.  This is where my road skills paid off.  I was zipping along passing people, but still trying to get used to a different bike.  This is when I started doubting myself and my speed.  Mainly because I had no idea how far I had gone, how much was left and I didn't want to burn myself out.  So I decided to slow down a bit and see what was to come.  The first double-track was fast and fun.  Everyone seemed to quickly spread out and clump into little groups.  This is when we hit the first single-track section.  Now it is very clear that I am not good at single-track.  I was caught by a few guys through the single-track section, I still claimed a personal victory of not falling.

We then came out upon another wide double-track section of mud with a light cover of wood chips.  The wood chips did little and it turned into a mud pit of doom.  There were big dips in the mud that you couldn't see that would suck your front wheel down.  This is why 29'ers were created they say fuck you to such things and roll on through.  The main tactic was to not be anyone near this mud because you would most certainly be eating the mud that flew off their wheels. (I ate a lot of mud).

The entire course was two 12.5 mile loops of alternating double-track and single-track and it was awesome.    I kept yo-yoing with a certain group, they would destroy me at the single-track and I would catch up during the double-track.

The first lap I was slower than I should have been, for fear of burning out and my lack of skills.  When I started the second I was still feeling fresh, so I decided to drop it and cook it on the double-track.  This time when I came around to the single-track I felt like my handling skills had improved exponentially.  I braked about 50% less compared the first lap and flew through more of it.  This time no-one caught me and I actually caught a few people.

During one of the more technical sections it began to pour.   This is where wearing glasses is a curse (not sure when it is good yet).  My glasses were rain soaked and slightly fogged, the perfect time to be racing through a technical area.  I tried not to let it get me down.

I also caught my yo-yoing friends and flew passed them.  They never caught me after this point and I was beginning to near the end when I saw some people ahead of me.  I decided to start my sprint early and get the jump on them.  No one chased me and I passed a few people right at the end.   Overall I finished 6th SS, which I was fairly happy with considering I wasn't on my own bike.

From my point of view, mountain biking brings out a wider group of people that are all racing different races.  Some are racing the course, some are racing themselves, and some are racing who ever is front of them.   This diversity makes it a lot of fun, because most people are extremely friendly and helpful if you have questions/problems.

Giro D' Grafton

It has been a little while since I had done a crit...and the last one didn't go so well to say the least.

But much has turned around since then, as far as biking and life is concerned.   I have been excited and feeling good all week.  I have been putting on a quite a few miles since the last crit.

Jason, Teal, and I left early to go up and watch Katy crush it.  Crush she did.  Well done Ms. Katy.

The course was a 5 turn course through downtown Grafton.  Fairly smooth pavement with gentle turns, nothing that should cause any problems.  The only sketchy area was the last corner before the finish line, there is some lines of tar that they use to patch the road and in the heat these get real squishy and make your bike do weird things (false flats, move around, explode).

We had all brought our trainers along to warm-up down by the car.  i was topping off my tires when I hear a dreaded noise....pssshhhhhhhh.  My front tire went flat....I quickly changed but by that point it was getting late so I just went off to ride a little to warm-up.  I wasn't able to get fully warmed-up  by the time the race was going to start, so I just lined up and planned to warm-up on the first couple laps.

The field wasn't very big today, around 40 riders or so.  Almost seems like the exact same crowd that showed up to the State Road Race.  The race kicked off fairly quickly and maintained a fairly high-speed through-out the entirety.  The first 1/3 of the race I sat on the rear of the pack still trying to warm-up and get a feel for the course and my shifting patterns.  Once I felt fully warmed up and figured out what gears to use, I jumped up to the front.  At this point it was time for the 2nd prime of the day.  The first prime was $40, sadly as we came around the 2nd prime was an after-race massage ( I would prefer money).

I thought what the hell, I don't go for primes and I am sitting good for this one, so why not?  As we came along the topside I jumped and one guy followed me.  We still had 1/3 of the race left so I didn't want to burn myself out too bad and it was only a massage.  We both went for it, but I decided to sit-up and let him have it.   At this point I was feeling pretty good and everyone started moving around for final positions.

This is usually when I screw up and lose positions for the end.  I was sitting top 10 with 3 laps to go, when the rear of the pack surged into us and tightly tightly packed everyone in.  I got pushed to the back (I need to work on this more than anything).   It is really hard to work your way back in at this point because the speed of the race has increased quite a bit and you need to save some energy for the final sprint.  As we were coming around the final corner, something happened where someone went down and took out 10 riders or so (Teal included, his golden locks are fine though).  Luckily I didn't go down and dodged a few  bodies and bikes on the ground.  This totally messed up the final sprint and broke everyone up.  Jason (Milwaukee Wild Man) was about 20 ft ahead of me for the final sprint.  A good little carrot to chase, I went for him, but he was rolling strong and finished right ahead of me.  Overall I took 18th for the day.  Not great but another solid mid-pack finish.

This race I actually learned quite a few things.  Sit-in and never pull (or rarely pull) and fight/push for your position for the final sprint.  This is the most crucial part of any crit.

Now to train very very intensely for superweek and to ride mountain bikes for awhile.

State Road Race Video

@4:20 you see me struggling up the hill, this is the point where I had fallen off the back......yeesh glad this race is done for the year.

I get wet without even trying

Currently it is monsoon season in Wisconsin.  Roads are flooded, shoes are wet, brakes don’t work well, biking still fun and time for the Wisconsin State Road Race in Spring Prairie.  A fabled course that houses a monster of a hill that is similar to those written about in …………….

Jason, Teal (matt), Evershed, and I took off from my house around 10 am, no rain yet.  On the drive down, we hit rain.  Rain that made it hard to see while driving and slowed us down.   All our thoughts were “is the race canceled?”  We got to the registration area and it was pouring, everything was muddy but the show must go on (slightly delayed though).  We all registered and went back to the car to get the bikes ready and to put on our kits.

We got the bikes ready and started changing; it started pouring again so we all jumped in the car to change.  It is obvious why people question the homo-eroticism /sexuality of bike racing.  At one point people were changing nakedly (word?)  in my car and pinning each other in compromising positions, all the while the car was steaming up and getting extremely hot.  Ok everyone out and ready to warm–up.
We all were warming up and readying ourselves for the race: to help get everything back on time they took a lap off our race.  Only five laps today.  The split the fields into Wisconsin riders and non-Wisconsin riders; strangely there were quite a few more non-Wisconsin riders.  Our field had approximately 35~40 people in it.  We started off in a neutral staging area about 0.5 mile from the start line, but sadly at the bottom of the fabled hill.

The first lap was slow, no-one wanted to do anything just yet.  It was raining and the roads were wet and people were feeling each other out to see who could handle riding in the wet.  Lately I hadn’t been feeling very strong of a rider, so my goal for the day was just to sit-in the peloton and be a bum.  On the second lap I got a little antsy and jumped to the front of a big downhill section that was fast.  Since I am extremely good at coasting (aka exerting no effort and letting gravity do the work) I was flying down the hills with minimal effort.  I mainly did this so I didn’t have to brake at all sitting in the pack and it’s a good moral booster to be in front at least point in every race.

Ok time to put effort in, so I let the pack catch me and I sat back in.  Around this time we were approaching the hill for the 2nd time.  I rode into sitting near the back of the pack thinking this was a good idea.  I didn’t climb very well and fell off the back about 20 ft.  Luckily on the top side it is flat and then a downhill section, so I was able to jump back in.  The 3rd lap was uneventful until we came around to the hill again.  This time I fell off even more and wasn’t able to jump back on.
Luckily quite a few other riders also fell off the back.  I quickly scanned and evaluated the riders around me and organized us into a chase down pack.  Usually when I do this it fails terribly because the other riders tend to fall further off the back and disappear all-together.   But today was a different story we were working together extremely well and were slowly catching back on.  A few more riders fell of the main pack and our chase down group dropped a few and picked up the new riders.  This is when we picked up Jason.   Our chase down group was me, Jason, a guy from Café Hollander, UW- Whitewater, and an unattached rider.  We were pace lining perfectly, everyone taking pulls to their potential and pulling out when they started slowing.  We were making amazing time and were closing the gap between us and the main pack.

We closed the gap to about 100ft before the hill, most of us decided to sit-up and rest up before the hill, with plans of pursuing after the climb.  Jason attacked up the hill and made it back in the pack on the topside.  We lost the Café Hollander and UW-Whitewater guy, just me and the unattached rider left.  We still were taking rotations and were able to close the gap and rejoin the peloton about 1 mile after the hill.  Only 5 miles left of the race.

I joined the main pack and sat-in with the intent of recovering as much as possible for the hellacious uphill finish.  We were about 1.5 miles from the finish when I decided to make a move and sprinted to the front.  I saw my buddy Addison (solid finisher) and a few of his fellow teammates (all strong riders), I was hoping that they would jump with me and we would be able to break-off the front to finish.  Addison yelled up “Sorry I got nothing”.  Shit, time to sit back-in.  Closer to the finish.
One last straight away to go, a right turn, and then the uphill finish.  I thought about how I wasn’t climbing well that day and decided to make a move again.  I jumped and got a 30 ft gap on the field.  I thought “holy shit that worked,” but the hill was the great equalizer.  Some riders caught me on the climb and I finished 13th overall.  I was very happy with my performance that day.  I successfully fell off the pack, organized a chase group, rejoined, and finished 13th.  This race got me really excited to race road bikes again, and was the motivating factor to start training hard for SuperWeek.

RITA

I have a new girl to ride, her name is Rita


Bianchi Rita 2007, White 29'er carbon fork, On-One midge bars, Cane Creek brakes.

She rides like a dream and is fairly light (23.5 lbs)

So far I have about 50 miles of river trails on her, and am still learning how to mountain bike.  I am going to switch out the current stem and put on a high-rise stem for better control and to push my center of gravity back a bit.

The only other parts I am going to switch out is the current bashguard, gotta have a Ruckus on there.  I am also going to put on a set of Ruckus Cog Collars.