DXchulo

Hey John, are those your pics on Pez? I was just looking at those and I thought the name looked familiar.

Frunkin

2 of my teammates got taken out today on the last lap of the race. One is still in the hospital. Ugh. It's gonna be a long week.

John Wilke

Yes! Thanks for noticing! I'm also in Velonews. I've been told that once my stuff is seen in Cycling News, then I've made the big time. I got some shots of Hayden Godfrey (Subway) today, but I think he's Kiwi, not Ozzy.

John Wilke

An average number of crashes today I'd say. One big one in the 4/5's right at the finish line (have photos) plus a big one in the FINAL SPRINT of the Pro race. (have photos).

Oh, Recursive went MIA during the 3's today. I spoke with him before, seemed up and motivated, saw him racing, but went missing after that final crash. Never saw him afterwards which we usually do.

John Wilke

NO! Cripes, I'm eating my sandwich while sitting on a curb and shooting with the other hand as it is! I would like to get a 4G wireless connection though, so I can upload photos while driving home. THAT would be so Graham Watson.

Frunkin

I heard Cole was doing some pavement surfing, but he's feeling good enough to update his facebook so I'm assuming he's not too beat up.

John Wilke

Going through the photos now. Someone video taped it on a Flip camera. Watch for that to appear somewhere.

dave342

Yeah I saw him racing yesterday up until the last lap. Somebody said there was a crash around one of the corners (I think it was Frunkin) and I did not see him cross the line or afterwards.

recursive

I am fine. My rear wheel had a wobble after running over someone's head. I left ASAP to make it to a shop where I could get it trued so I can race today.

DXchulo

That is awesome. Congrats!

John Wilke

So, today in Appleton I ran back to my car just before the Pro race to get some water, and guess who parked right behind me? Hayden Godfrey! (Google him, my computer is so infected with this virus, I can't do nothing. He's a former World CHampion on the track, from New Zealand) So I said "Good luck Hayden!" He was kind of shocked, like 'someone here knows me??' "Oh! Cheers mate!." That made my day.

John Wilke

Oh ... I thought he was World Champion at some point. I mean, Tilford was!

https://www.velobios.com/riders.colavita2007.godfrey.htm

It was still cool though.

dave342

Raced masters 4/5 today at Elkhart Lake today. Nice race course, smooth.

Ran into SmokinMiles today. Was looking for more of the Psimet Racing Team but did not find anybody else.

And of course John W. was there doing the pictures.

ColorChange

So wanted to do that race. How'd it go? Race reports please. Smokin?

SmokinMiles

I had such a great time even though I sucked!!! haha I couldn't get clipped in at the start. It's always a comedy of errors for me at the beginning. I'm still just so new to the racing and then I get super nervous at the start and stupid stuff happens that never happens at any other time. So I was immediately off the back and chasing to catch on with someone. After a couple of laps a couple of other groups were off the back and I got in with them so it wasn't so bad.

All that aside, I LOVED RIDING AT ROAD AMERICA!!!! It was just so much fun. Really a good course to race on....some interesting rises/hills and sweeping turns that were way fun. I love the way they staged us on the track the way they do the cars and started us every few minutes. Found it very funny that after the announcer started the first group he said, "That is probably the quietest start I've ever heard at Road America" A couple of girls standing by me didn't get that so I had to explain. I keep trying to remember that they were just born in, like, 1990. I don't think they had the faintest idea that they were at a venue where cars regularly raced. I seriously feel like I'm on planet Stupid at least 50% of my life....I digress.

I said "Nascar raced here this past weekend" When I said Nascar, they moved away from me a bit. haha Probably thought I was gonna pull out a PBR from my bottle holder or something....show em my...

On our final lap, the group I was with sprinted up that final hill together. The rest of them weren't going to and I said, "oh, come on, let's make it interesting....we paid $43 to torture ourselves on this last hill" and by the 6th time we came up, it seemed that much steeper. I was yelling, "come on, this is 20th place on the line here!"

Really glad I showed up though because their goal was to get 30 Cat3/4 women in each race this ToAD and we had exactly 30.

So nice to see Dave342...wish I could have stayed longer afterwards but I had to zoom back to Chicago.

I'm sure I probably saw Wilke because I saw every person taking pictures even those with little digital cameras. I just wasn't sure which one was him. I'd like to get to chat with him in person especially now that I know he's a grammarian along with being a great photographer Also, was passed by another PSIMET ride that I was embarrassed to not know....possibly the new guy on our team or someone I hadn't met.

Oh....it was also very cool that the first group of guys....I think the 4/5 group but not sure caught us right before the sprint up the final hill.....cool that we sprinted into the pits by the way......and we got to see the leaders of that group battle it out for the finish.

Weather was perfect ....light winds that we encountered on the downhills. Great venue. Cyclists whine more than any sport that I've ever been around but it is really fun hanging out and observing it all.

I'd like to make the Greenbush race this week. If anyone wants to go, it's Thursday. I'm thinking of making a day trip of it. Might not happen but I'd love to ride it.

truckstop

Heh! That's exactly what I said the first time I ever spectated a bicycle race. It was at Blackhawk Farms. I've done countless laps at both BHF and RA on a motorcycle, and am used to races starting with motors nearly bouncing of of rev limiters that the eerie silence and only the clicking of cleats into pedals as noise was really disconcerting. Nice to know the track was well received.

FYI I looked at the course map for Greenbush, and if you've never been through there, unless they fixed stuff in the last two weeks, there's a section that's really pretty and twisty and rolling hills, but the pavement is really chewed up there. At least that's what it looked like from a motorbike. (It's the Kettle Moraine Dr. segment.)

SmokinMiles

Ok.....also, forgot one other detail on my RA adventure. In years of racing and pinning on bib numbers, yesterday at RA my bib number was my birth year! I was 1963! A first. I'm keeping it for sure.

SmokinMiles

Thanks for the heads up. Will be hard to preride it since it's such a long loop but I'll be on the lookout.

John Wilke

As soon as the Pro 1/2 race wrapped up, three large semis rolled up onto pit road ... one full of Ferraris ... so it wasn't quiet for very long.

John Wilke

When you see a fat old dude with a camera as big as your head ... that's me.

John Wilke

Verizon 3G/4G network installed on my laptop. Now I can post photos from trackside - anywhere.

MJH2

In non-TOAD news, the Geneva Superweek race has been approved and finalised. Come on out and race!

As for TOAD, can anybody explain the reason for the nasty wreck in the 3's race yesterday? Didn't seem to make any sense at all to me.

nixternal

AWESOME! I didn't get to make it to the meeting last night. I found out through a friend though who is on the Geneva council that the reason some of the stores were upset is that a recent taping in Geneva for a TV show had downtown locked up pretty good, especially by the river. So because of that, I now know the guy from Geneva on the Bachelorette makes it to the family dates now

Oh my, I just gave out way to much information about myself. Don't make fun of me because I watch that show!

Frunkin

The guy just clipped wheels. He was two wheels ahead of me and luckily I went right as he crashed left and I was by before anybody else went down. Did you get caught up in it?

Frunkin

Also CyclingNews !!!