Great Lakes - Cobb Park

Hope you racers make it down to Cobb Park tomorrow. Great course along the river and a great vibe. Weather looks as good as it has all year.

And I guarantee the best music at any bike race in the region.

I am there for both races. We'll see you there.

me too. Should be fun--I missed it last year but have heard great things.

good weather too! That will be a nice change of pace!

see you all tomorrow!

Yep yep. I'm down wit it. I know I'm gonna suck, but it's all about having fun.

Ahhhh shiat! Just a call from one of my partners that the SAN from a client went haywire and they need help now. Fuggin A. :( :( I hope I can make it at least to one race.

Oh, and I dreamed last night that all my bikes got stolen out of my car during a bike race. Man oh man. Is that day going to get any worse for me?

Big shout to South Chicago Wheelmen for a superbly organized, affordable and safe event today.
Had lots of fun and will be back next year. In the future, please remember to bring your cloudmaker along.

Cat 4 race summary: We went round in circles, fast for the first 20 minutes, no attacks of note, and XXX won.
Masters 4/5 race summary: We went round in circles, no attacks of note, and XXX won.

Cat 3 race summary: We went round in circles, no attacks of note until XXX and Burnham with 5 to go. XXX won.

Cat 4 summary for me. Went around in circles for 27 min., got dropped and pulled out to save energy.
Masters 4/5 went around in circles and finished with the pack.

Big shout to South Chicago Wheelmen for a superbly organized, affordable and safe event today.
Had lots of fun and will be back next year. In the future, please remember to bring your cloudmaker along.

Cat 4 race summary: We went round in circles, fast for the first 20 minutes, no attacks of note, and XXX won.
Masters 4/5 race summary: We went round in circles, no attacks of note, and XXX won.

That guy was xXx???

Damn.

I liked this race. Actually, any race where you can chill in a park in the shade is automatically a great race for me. Thanks SCW for putting on a good one!

This course was surprisingly more techincal than I expected from a flat .7mile loop. You really needed to be in the top 10-15 around turn two or you risk getting gaped off just enought to watch your entry fee jump into the river. In the 4s I got pinched leading into turn 2 (handful of breaks) and then pinched and boxed in cheading out of it. I figured it out for the masters race though, just a tad too late.

scummer^ I overheard you tell that story to someone...maybe, psimet? Anyway, I was in the Spidermonkey/312 kit...I'll say hi next time!

Hope you racers make it down to Cobb Park tomorrow. Great course along the river and a great vibe. Weather looks as good as it has all year.

And I guarantee the best music at any bike race in the region.

indeed, it was pretty good. :thumb:

indeed, it was pretty good. :thumb:

+1

Additionally the show the spectators in the last turn put up with their music and spectating right from their house was exceptional.

So you were in the 312 jersey... yes, I think I must have been talking with Psi at that point about the speed of the 4 race and I think you were in that group.


Oh, and before I had to leave for work, I was packing up my stuff into the van and a dude from St. Louis was starting chit chat with me and asked me if the Masters 4/5 race is always so fast? I said, yep, that about was normal speed today, hell it even slowed down in the middle of the race, so I was able to recover.
He said in St. Louis the races are more hillier and it took him by surprise that the flat races can be so fast. :thumb:

+1

Oh, and before I had to leave for work, I was packing up my stuff into the van and a dude from St. Louis was starting chit chat with me and asked me if the Masters 4/5 race is always so fast? I said, yep, that about was normal speed today, hell it even slowed down in the middle of the race, so I was able to recover.
He said in St. Louis the races are more hillier and it took him by surprise that the flat races can be so fast. :thumb:

I'd better try some of the St Louis races then. Hills are good.

Weird.. now looking at my data, the Masters 4/5 race was just as fast as the 4 race. I think I just had a weak spot in the 4 race and my mind told me to quit and I obeyed :(
Because in the Masters 4/5 race I was dying at around 27 min as well and I kept going. Damn, based on the data I'm a quitter :( One excuse I have is that the wattage in the cat 4 race was higher than in the Masters 4/5.

Same avg. speed for both races. 24.9mph.

Race Cat 4:
Duration: 24:30
Work: 364 kJ
TSS: 50.3 (intensity factor 1.11)
Norm Power: 272
VI: 1.1
Pw:HR: 15.73%
Pa:HR: 5.31%
Distance: 10.185 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1018 247 watts
Heart Rate: 107 176 168 bpm
Cadence: 35 236 101 rpm
Speed: 12.2 33.7 24.9 mph

Race Masters 4/5:
Duration: 43:23
Work: 578 kJ
TSS: 77.4 (intensity factor 1.035)
Norm Power: 253
VI: 1.14
Pw:HR: 11.09%
Pa:HR: 2.19%
Distance: 17.996 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 968 222 watts
Heart Rate: 107 182 169 bpm
Cadence: 23 244 97 rpm
Speed: 6.9 34.4 24.9 mph

Interesting data.

The masters race was much smoother. Still way too much braking, but nothing compared to what was going on in the cat 4. We were literally crawling through turn 2 in the first race, even with a smaller field. Requiring more acceleration, and work. Could also go to the front to avoid this, but that costs work as well.

Interesting data.

[b]The masters race was much smoother[/]. Still way too much braking, but nothing compared to what was going on in the cat 4. We were literally crawling through turn 2 in the first race, even with a smaller field. Requiring more acceleration, and work. Could also go to the front to avoid this, but that costs work as well.

Pretty amazing how much longer/faster you can ride when it's smooth. I'm getting close to saying I've had enough of the straight 4's races although that wasn't my problem yesterday. It is odd that masters 4/5 races seems to be consistently smoother (and, in many cases, faster) given that the overall experience of the riders is (theoretically, anyway) less experienced.

Flanders, that dialogue in your blog where you're trying to convince guys to work for a break is funny stuff.

cat 4= 4 or 5 primes?

masters 4/5= 1 prime in the 3rd or 4th lap.

That will do it and too many nerves in turn 2.

Yup the primes drove it for sure. I was feeling good in the masters but had a feeling something would go wrong. On the prime lap I was thinking about going for it. I thought I had position. Then as we hit that turn at the top of the hill I saw I was further back than I thought. It would have been fun to try though.

There was a hill on the course?

They should have thrown a couple of primes in the second race towards the end. Might have shook things up a bit. Maybe my abortive break would have been more effective.

Not a hill, but a false flat really.

Speaking of hills - any word out of Fox River Grove? Had I not gone to Manitowoc, I would have gone down for that race.

http://www.xxxracing.org/index.php?/site/reports/sweet-pain-and-dairy-queen/

That ski jump is cool. They don't make you ride to the top of that, do they? :D

does anyone have pics of the finish of the 4/5 masters race?

Wild Card has some pics and a little video from the cat 4 race on the photog's blog. link. (http://rob.ragfield.com/2009/06/cobb-park-crit.html)

glad you all came down. It's a nice little race in a great setting. We've had talks about scheduling it on a different date to get more riders but I like the intimacy of it being small.

Don't know the exact numbers but the turnout was much better than the last few years (which had lots of rain in the forecast)

Don't know if you guys know but you raced right past Gov. George Ryan's house. His house was the big one on the left in that last tight corner, across the street from the people having the big party (they're there every year). Had a nice chat with the Gov a few years ago when he came out to watch some of the racing. Nice guy....wink wink nudge nudge

Working on something very cool for the cross race this year. With a bit of luck it'll get legs. If so, you're gonna love it.

http://velosnaps.wordpress.com/ for pics

THere was another photographer there, his website was something like cylingraceimages.com or something like that, but I haven't been able to find it.

thanks carlos!

http://markkellerimaging.com/f840276101

The other guy is Mark Keller who is on our team. He isn't racing right now so he is shooting everything the team is showing up at. You can find his shots at http://markkellerimaging.com/f331735634

^that's what I was looking for! Mark's very good.