QCW Team Time Trial

Well, I've been looking forward to this event for sometime now and had high hopes for a multiple Darkhorse team (A team, B team etc.) turn out. There was some serious arm twisting the night before at the team meeting (at the Ott Estate) but to no eval. We did have a committed group of four Ott, Hoffman, Dobson, and myself), as well as our newest memeber, Doug Polignano (AKA Dudehorse), who was going to make the trip with us, just to get some quality hang time.

So here's the low down: ten teams registered, most with tricked out TT bikes and helmet's. The new guy's on the block, Team Hungry represented "old school" with all four rocking their normal kits and road bikes (Nice!). On the warm-up, Hoffman called-up Doug from the minors, who stepped admirably in his place. The line up: Ott, Brevoort, Dobson, & Polignano (Tall guy/TT bike, short guy/road bike...).

All I can say for certain is that it hurt really bad! The heat added to the intensity of the event and I think all four us were on the rivet the whole time. We started out of the gate pretty fast and didn't let up too much. Half way in, I think our avg was around 27. I ate too many brats the night before and some of my pulls at the front were pretty sorry.

Chip & Dan came through big time and put in some serious pace setting at the front. Doug's debut was pretty impressive, and all four us stayed together almost to the very end. I say "almost" because, I think I might of had an out of body experience with about 2 miles to go. I was brought back to the world of the living, when Aslan, I mean Chip, started yelling at us to "go-go-go...1 mile left...do it for Narnia!" I was like, "What is he talking about, has this heat and that TT helmet cooked his brain?" Ha! I love it. Anyway, with the finish line in sight, I exploded into a million brett-peices and Chip pulled through with Ott and Dudehorse in tow. Way to finish strong boys!

Well, I had a blast and can't wait to improve on our time and do it again next year. Listed below are the results for the top 3 teams, which can also be seen at http://www.qcw.org/.

7HR Men's 1
Mike Abney
Greg Tombragel
Jim Wilson
Marty McGrory
22:27.0

Darkhorse Racing
Dan Ott
Brett Brevoort
Chip Dobson
Doug Polignano
23:10.0

Team Hungry
Mike Starr
Scott Pardi
Mike Chewning
Andrew Suchocki
23:36.0

Purattacking

Instead of a long narrative, I'm opting for a twitter like blog...So, here it goes: Nick and I signed up for the 2/3's at Pur Tour. We were greated by mild temps, headwind on the down hill, bit of a tail on the backside and a headwind again at the finish. Lots of attacks but nothing gotta way for very long. I wish had more to offer Nick, who was committed to leading me out. We communicated well but I think he'd agree that we were just a little bit too far back at the start of the sprint. Enjoy the pics fella's:

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

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...

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.

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]

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?