Great Lakes - Downer's Grove

Day 1.

Good times:

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc54/biffbradford/cycling/August%2016%20Downers%20Grove/dg7956.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc54/biffbradford/cycling/August%2016%20Downers%20Grove/dg8068.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc54/biffbradford/cycling/August%2016%20Downers%20Grove/dg8104.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc54/biffbradford/cycling/August%2016%20Downers%20Grove/dg8106.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc54/biffbradford/cycling/August%2016%20Downers%20Grove/dg8107.jpg

Yeah, I botched the final sprint, but I'm sure 10 other guys got it.

I just love #4.

Doubt I'll make it down there by 8am tomorrow, but I am going.

:D

I was there all weekend and it was great!!!!!! Talent galore, I can only hope to be 1/4 asw good as even the amatures.

Who wants to attack? Matt does... and nobody else.

When did you join a team? How'd you do? Where's the report? Come on, I'm dying over here. I can't ride, and I need a fix...even if I have to read about someone else's ride/race. :(

Who wants to attack? Matt does... and nobody else.

HAHA...NICE! That's it. Stopping by at lunch today to pick up a kit. (I was already planning to).

When did you join a team? How'd you do? Where's the report? Come on, I'm dying over here. I can't ride, and I need a fix...even if I have to read about someone else's ride/race. :(

Hey,

I joined Bicycle Heaven because I heard Psimet was going to... I joined last Tuesday. Riding with those guys can only make me stronger (one of their riders was 12th in the Cat 1 race).

I don't have the energy right now for a full report, so here are the basics (keep in mind, it was my last Cat 5 race, so wanted to try some stuff I normally wouldn't):

We had (I think) a full field of 50 to line up at the start. I got there early and made sure I was in the front row. We get no instruction from the official, and we're off. I managed to get my quickest clip-in ever. It was magical. Incredible. A hall-of-fame caliber clip-in. Right like that, I'm off by my lonesome up the short incline and around the first turn. Run down into turn two, and I'm still out front. Between turns two and three is a long increasing uphill that turns into a nasty little incline between turns 3 and 4. As we approach turn 3, I start to soft pedal hoping somebody comes around. The field pulls up to me around turn 3. We go around turn 4 to a long, quick downhill and some guy I've seen at several races rolls by on the right side. Another "regular" rider pulls up, and we have a little chit-chat. We decided it wasn't worth chasing. A couple other riders pull by, and I'm sitting about 4th for the rest of that lap... the rider who pulled off the front goes nowhere.

Lap Two, we're bunched up and I'm about 5th through the s/f. As we ride up the incline to turn 3, people are getting a little antsy but nobody is doing anything. We approach the sharp incline, and the guys sitting first and second seem to pause (or slow a little bit). Looked like a good point to attack, so I did. I hammered it around the outside of the incline thinking that if I can get a gap to the downhill, I could pull out a decent gap. As I do, I hear one rider yell "outside" but nobody at the front seems to care. According to plan, I've probably got 5 seconds on the field by the time I hit the bottom of the hill.

Having never been that far off the front, I wasn't quite sure what to do. All I know is that I heard the announcers calling my name, and I thought that was pretty darn cool. So, I put the hammer down. I know that when I crossed s/f the next time through the field was just coming out of turn 8, so I had probably opened up a 10 second gap. It was so cool!

I powered through that lap as best I could. I'm a sprinter by nature... a time trialist by no means. I kept looking back and thinking to myself, "how the h**l am I going to keep up this pace for the next 15 minutes?" Then it hit me... I couldn't breathe. My legs were burning bad. My nose was running... and the field was catching me. This hurt!

I managed to cross the s/f line solo again (where are the primes when I'm in front?) About a half lap later, I sat up and waited for the field... that's where the picture was from.

Having nearly killed myself and not knowing if I'd have enough in me to even finish the stupid race, I drifted to the back of the pack and hung on for a few laps. Then I started feeling better... time to move back up!

I managed to move back up through the pack to the front. Not the front 1/3. The very front. I suppose it was the 3rd time I was basically riding without any help. I managed to slide back to 4th, or so as they stopped counting up in time and, instead, shifted the board to "laps left". As we came around s/f and they announced "4 laps left", it was time to go again.

This time I launched on the gradual incline for start/finish, hoping to get another rider or two. That plan worked out great... except for the part about attracting help. I was out front for a few corners before I started dying (again). Burning legs... running nose... can't breathe... time to quit being an idiot and drift back to the field.

I drifted all the way to the back, and almost off the back. I was hurting. I thought really hard about just packing it in and calling it a day. By the time we crossed for one lap to go, I knew I was in trouble. The pack surged and I just kept telling myself "push down on the pedals and you'll get there." Somehow I managed to not only get dropped, but move up to 15th (on the downhill... sometimes it doesn't suck weighing almost 200 lbs). I would have moved up a couple more, but I had to make an evasive move (at, probably, around 40 mph) to avoid a rogue water-bottle that somebody had dropped.

At this point, my oxygen deprived melon is begging the bicycle gods for a clean line through the dangerous turns 7 and 8... hoping for a pack finish. The bicycle gods answered and I not only got through 7 and 8 clean, but didn't lose any positions. Had I raced to my strengths and waited for this moment, I think I could have had a shot at the podium.

Since I made a late, foolish attack that put me in bad position, though, I felt like soft-pedaling it up the s/f straight and taking my pack finish. I have a real hard time watching people sprint away, though, and the competitor in me tried to throw more energy into the pedals. I sprinted as best I could. I picked off 4 guys and got passed by none, taking an 11th place finish.

All-in-all, not my smartest race. Also not my best finish. It was, however, the most fun I've ever had in a bicycle race.

As an aside, I spent the whole weekend out there and watched almost every race. For anybody who doesn't really know about Downers Grove, or hasn't been there, I'd HIGHLY suggest spending at least a day there next year. It was really a great time.

Great report! Sounds like they just milked the race until the last few laps. Must have been pretty frustrating, or confusing. At least now you'll have a team member to trade pulls with, or keep the pack away from you;)