Tuesday, July 28, 2009











Thought I would post a few pics from Tour De Burg. Enjoy:

Monday, July 27, 2009

Team Dayton Crit


After a long season of racing, I thought I'd better blog at least one of them. I should also thank Shannon for recaping most of my races in his blogs. Thanks Shannon! You made it easy for me to not blog.

Well, after last years mishap in the race with Chip, costing a trip to the hospital, I was sent back to fight some seious demons on his behalf. With heavy legs from a stout group ride the day before (The Team Nickmaxson-climb fest 2009), I trekked-up I-71 only to find Shannon racing (what the?). I thought he had retired his CAT-4 license for the year? So, instead of warming-up, I watched the tail end of Shannon's race.

At the start line, we had a field of about 30, mostly flush with Team Dayton and some random ex-pro guy (so, I heard). For a majority of the race, with "tired legs," I was a good boy and sat in at the back of the pack and did'nt have a lot of fight in me.

On the third corner (off-camber) going into the last lap, I found myself in the grass and riding cyclocross style, thanks to my own poor line (perhaps?) and some guy drifting a little too far left coming out of the turn. The strong crosswinds didn't help too much either, I suppose. So, I managed to get back on the road and in the pack safely. By that point, it was a pack sprint in a brief up-hill to the finish. I worked hard to pass as many guys as I could. I have to admit though, that I think many had stopped sprinting. I finished 10th place, which turns out to be one place better than last year. I'll take it!

Well, it was a fun race and a good vibe. Not sure who won, just know that Todd Frye finished 3rd. Nice work Todd (who also took a prem early on).

My race report isn't as good as Shannon's but at least I finally posted one. Later...

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Team Dayton criterium

So long, road season. Wrapped it up today with the Team Dayton criterium at the Renaissance Festival grounds in Harveysburg. Sad to say, I hadn't touched my bike since my cool-down lap in Miamisburg last Sunday. And last Sunday I had told at least 17 people that I was done for the road season, I was skipping next weekend and getting ready for CX training. So my expectations were low, and I lived up to them. Sort of.

We rolled out with a small field (17, I think) swollen with about 7 Dayton riders. I took the front at the whistle, ramped it up to a whopping 21, and looked back to see a 100-yard gap. Huh. I pedaled steady for a lap and a half, had stupid thoughts about taking a real dig and seeing how far out I could get, finished warming up, and then welcomed the field back as it slowly made its way to me.

After that, I was one of several other singletons on the defensive as Dayton made attack after attack, most of which we had to take somewhat seriously. I patrolled the front, took digs when I needed to (and sometimes when I didn't -- I was a little tired of my previous strategy of "sitting in until I found a good wheel on the last lap," so I tried to be more active).

With a few to go, a Dayton rider and a NE/COBC rider got off the front, and it started to look serious. I got on the front, and so did Shayne (Abundance). But third wheel was always a Dayton rider, so our turns were short, and the suffering was long. We brought the break most of the way back, but when a surge went to shut it down the rest of the way, I popped, and watched them ride away. And then they slowed down. Oh, man, I can get back on. And I did (with some real help -- thanks Chris), only to get dropped again when the riders began winding it up for the finish. I rolled in off the back, and only learned a bit later that Shayne attacked in turn 3, avoided a crash, and rolled away for the victory, while Bo Sherman took second for the home team. I'm alright with that -- two very good guys I've lined up with a lot this year.

Good times today -- not a great result, but I didn't expect one. Most important, I had fun racing. After Steve G's news this week, I'm very grateful for that opportunity.

Brett represented DH in the 3s, and brought home a very nice tenth place, especially after the hill- and sprint-fest of the MAXtour the day before.

I'm hittin' the beach. Gotta do something about this biker tan.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Tour d' Troyburg Classic ...



... or is that the Classic d'Burgtroy Tour?

Anyway, three races this weekend, two at Troy and one at Miamisburg on Sunday. You understand why I might be a little confused.

First, I lined up for the 40+ Masters race at Troy. Our field was mixed with the 30+, and starting a minute behind us were the 50+. A few laps in, figuring out who was who required a little focus, and a few laps later, the race was over. Well, not quite, but at 12 laps, it was pretty short. Jamie from Abundance kept attacking and attacking -- I did my share of chasing him down, but was always too gassed to help form a break. Jeff Aufdencamp (Olympus) was a real engine in this race, driving the front and chasing down breaks. It came down to a sprint out of the roundabout -- a rider in front of me almost overcooked the turn and I lost some momentum. I got it going enough to finish 5th in the race and 3rd in my field. Oh, and I got a nice Bob Evans giftcard for a prime sprint that I have to admit went largely uncontested.

The 3/4 race a few hours later was a different story. Big field, lots of nervous energy, and for some reason riders who could easily navigate the nine corners in the course couldn't get through the roundabout without swinging too wide, or overlapping wheels, or whatever. A crashfest became carnage when it began to drizzle. The painted strawberries on the road took down a few riders, and after 8 laps (of 20) I came into the roundabout, saw a pileup ahead of me, tried to take evasive action, and before I knew it found myself skidding on my left hip. My bike was fine, I was fine, but I passed on the free lap and headed home. Brett and Chip, who both finished the race upright (nice work, gents!) told me later that the crashes continued, so I have no regrets about that DNF.

Plus, I wanted to turn my attention to Sunday morning's Cat 4 (or as all the promotional materials had it, Cat IV) state championship crit at the Tour d' Burg. This race was good -- I think I was a little focused on cornering after Saturday's crash, and a little uncertain how my body would react to going race-pace for the third separate time in 24 hours, so I wasn't as relaxed as I'd like to have been. It was a pretty tactical race, with a few guys making breaks for it. Mostly Dayton brought things back together for their sprinter Bo Sherman. I rode at or just off the front for a couple laps, partially to test the legs, partially to get the speed up, and partially to give myself the choice of lines in the corners.

With two to go the officials rang the bell for a prime (WTF? a prime with 2 to go? in the state championship race? really?). When we came through for the prime, the bell didn't ring for 1 to go, but I assumed that was because they were catching the prime winner's number. I should've looked at the lap card again, since it apparently still read 2. The next lap was confusion, with riders asking each other how many to go. I was in the "this is the last lap" camp (figuring it was better to sprint twice than not at all), and I got in good position for my sprint. I took off, and then my heart sank as I heard the bell this time around. Okay, do it again -- catch breath, move up, get in line, and be in position before the last two corners. On the backside, I rolled up the single file next to Shayne from Abundance, and nudged my way in front of him, figuring he might not mind being on my wheel and I wanted to be about where he was. Ready to go. Except now the Dayton train was one guy, and he was shot from pulling for two laps. Nobody else wanted to go to the front, certainly not me. So we came around the last corner into the straightaway at a pretty low speed. I expected to get swamped, but instead only Nate Grubbs (UC) went, and went early. Bo followed him, and I followed Bo (still too early I thought).

But it wasn't, and we picked up speed from the slo-mo start down the straightaway. I closed down some ground between myself and Bo, and he closed down ground between himself and Nate, but we hit the line before anything changed.

The family came up for the day: Eamon joined me on the podium, Mairin dominated the kids' parade in a breakaway, throwing elbows and resplendent in her facepaint, and Carole cheered loud and long for me. We caught Brett's Cat III race, which featured a big field and a fast pace -- he did a solid job finishing with the front group in the top 20.

In summary, then: two days, three races, one crash, two thirds, one of which was kind of a fifth, one Bob Evans prime, one state criterium championship bronze medal, no podium girl. (She was there for the earlier races, double-cheek kissing away. Harumph. We got the promoter, sans kisses, thankfully.)
[pictures at Jeffrey's site]

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Plus 1!

More Darkhorses than I knew we had lined up for the 3/4 Ault Park Plus 1 event his past Wednesday: Coach, Tin, C to the A, Quarterbackhorse, BBoy (who got a special haircut just for the event), Kaiser, Matt B, Bad Boy Bill Hoffman (two weeks in a row!), and yours truly.

Over burritos the week before, we had discussed a loose plan: Tin and Bret would be the presprint guides and team lieutenants; CA, Coach, and Bill would drive the front and chase breaks when necessary; Matt would be pure bonus, since he's still getting up in the middle of the night with his new daughter; Dan, Alex, and Shannon would sprint as their legs permitted. Chris, Bill, and Matt weren't there when we decided their roles, but they didn't seem to mind. Wednesday night before the race began, we decided that Alex and I would go for the odd # sprints, and Dan for the evens, including the biggies at #20 & #40.

And as a team we were good, and smooth, and communicated well, and things worked out pretty well overall. Oh, sure, we didn't produce the winner. And we didn't make the podium. But we raced together as a substantial team for the first time all year (and first time ever for me), and we worked our roles. Four Horses scored, led by Dan. By comparison, only the dominant Dayton (who grabbed the first two podium spots) and the cheeky Hungry boys put as many riders on the charts.

And I just gotta say: after forcing myself onto strangers' wheels all spring, it felt damn good to look around, find Tin, or Dan, or Bret, or Bill, or oh-man-do-I-really-have-teammates-to-choose-from?!, and know whoever it was, was going through the pack to get me to the front for my kick.

My favorite moment of the race was lining up behind Tin for a sprint and just as I started my kick, I heard Alex on my wheel yelling "Shannon, GO!"

Don't have to tell me twice.

What a great time. Troy Classic, anyone?

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Ault Park B #5: end of the series

It was a hurly-burly night in the Bs: very tactical as the riders took a look around, measured their chances, double-checked the points totals, and got ready to defend, attack, or survive. I had decided that #1 & 2 were too far off, so I should focus on keeping #3 overall. That meant watching the two guys behind me, one from 7Hills who seemed to have peaked earlier in the series, and one from UC who was coming on strong. Alex was right behind them, and he was aiming to leapfrog at least one and finish in the trophies. The two of us lined up with Matt and the elusive Bill Hoffman. Bill Lorenz called the top five to the front, teased Alex for being #6, and sent us on our way.

I promptly went out and lost the wheel of the UC kid (Nathan) on the first sprint, which he won to close the gap on me to virtually nothing. For the lap #10 sprint I was more assertive, and took third place for four points, and then did it again for two points at lap #15 (which Alex won in his effort to secure fifth place -- more on that below). So going into lap #20 I had pretty much neutralized Nathan's early gains, and just wanted to watch his wheel and pip him if it looked like he might score.

In a young-guys sticking together move, Charlie (Turner, and the series winner) led Nathan from the top of the hill on lap #20 around to the sprint. I tucked in behind Nathan, and when he stood up to go, I did too. It looked like 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for the sprint were already out of reach, but I wanted to be sure, so I stood up to follow Nathan's wheel, and felt something grab my right leg and knock into my bike. Then I heard the sound of riders and bikes going down. I got held up and missed the sprint. I think Nathan grabbed 4th for 2 points, but it wasn't enough to overtake me in the series.

So I came away with a nice functional 3rd-place trophy (this year they engraved metal insulated water bottles instead of wall plaques), a few bucks, and a tire burn on the outside of my right leg. Alex, who did enough to overcome one of the guys ahead of him (and, we thought, slot into fifth place) got blindsided by Andrew from Team Hungry, who racked up 20 points (!) in last night's race alone to emerge from nowhere (15th) to snag fifth in the series.

I'm pretty happy with the series: I was consistent, and sometimes got better results on night when I felt bleh than when I felt like the king of the world. I hated to see the last sprint of the last lap of the last race in the series end with a crash, and that kind of put a damper on things at the end for me. But if all goes as planned, this was my farewell to the B race, and I'm pleased I was able to put up some results.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Hyde Park Blast 4/5

After two hours of sweeping corners and helping set up for the races in 90-plus degree sunshine, I suited up with Kaiserhorse and a bunch (55? 60?) of other riders for the 30-minute 4/5 race. We had callups, but not like I've ever seen -- first went all the teams with 5 or more riders, then a select few presumably based on results, and then the rest of the field in alphabetical order. Somehow, despite throwing down a few decent results this year, I didn't make the cut and ended up with other "S"s near the back of the field.

No worries -- just a little assertive riding and in a few laps I was up where I needed to be: near the front, taking the inside lane through the hairpin (missed two crashes that way), risking the outside line up Shady Lane to secure the inside track on both the turn at the top and the sweeper back onto Erie.

Lather, rinse, repeat.


During the race a few riders attacked -- especially two riders from Ontario who were making a southward bike-racing weekend of it: Michigan on Friday, the Blast on Saturday, and Grandview on Sunday. They made the most of their race, attacking and counterattacking, countering their counters and keeping the field on its toes. Thanks for coming, fellas! 7Hills and Dayton did most of the chasing, which was just fine with me. I stayed out of the wind, watched which wheel I was on, and tried to gauge which moves might be dangerous.

With two to go the pace eased and everyone left up front got ready for the last corner and the final straightaway. Coming out of the square after the hairpin there was one more dodgy move and one more crash, leaving me with some space to make up. It ended up being too much, as a rider from Lexington took a nice win with a clean set of wheels ahead of Dave Steward (7Hills). I managed to make up some ground along Erie and turn what looked like 6th or 7th into 3rd by holding off Geoff Reynolds (Dayton) and Justin Ling (Jeni's Ice Cream). I'm still looking for the lung I left in front of the public library.

The podium setup was sweet, 2johns were rocking the house with good tunes and insightful analysis (exactly why did the 7Hills rider chase down a break with his teammate in it? I asked myself the same question in the middle of the race, but I wasn't going to complain), and the atmosphere was pure summer festival. I rolled home, showered, and came back for some OTR ale and to cheer on Nick, Chris, and Bret in the 3s. Big ups to Tank and Mitch for stellar work putting on a marquee event, and thanks to all my Darkhorse teammates (and friends of Darkhorse) for their hard work making it go so well.

Pictures are up at Jeffrey's site.