South Chicago Bike Race Cat 4
Finished somewhere around 8th out of around 50, not sure I left straight away as it was over 100 degrees and I had to ride 15 miles home and stay rested for today's race. Course was fairly lame, 2 straightaways 0.5 miles each with 2 u turns. Back stretch had a big head wind which made any break difficult. Worked to stay up front and then get swarmed as no one wanted to pull, but went into the last turn third wheel and the guy in front of me braked harder than I expected. Touched wheels a couple times and then didn't have the jump from there to do much damage in the field sprint. Took video but it was so hot my battery drained before the race ended.
Willow Springs Road Race - Illinois Road Championships Cat 4
4 mile course with a 100 foot climb to the finish, 12 times up the hill. Again difficult for a break to form as there was too much recovery time after the hill that led into a downhill and a mile straight that had the centerline rule in place, making it very narrow for moving up in the pack. A 2 man break went for 1 lap. I chased a 3 man break up the hill with 1 lap to go but my quad started to cramp (near 100 again today) so I let up along with other riders and drifted back to the front. Probably made a mistake from there as I got swarmed attempting to not pull at the front as no one else would pull either. This is the problem with zero team organization in these cat 4 races. Tried to move up best I could on the centerline road which led into the hill to the finish. Got boxed in and had nearly 3 wrecks in front of me leading into and up the hill sprint to the finish. Found some space and finally made it to the line around 10th in a full field of around 75.
Really hard to execute any strategy riding without a team in a race where no one else is organizing any moves either.