RacenLog September 15, 2007

RacenLog

The road racing season is winding down but there is still a little racing to be done yet.  Be sure to try Cyclocross.  It’s a great chance to bring the family to watch you pedal your heart out.

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Grattan (August 22, 2007)
RTRs (August 22): Joel Bierling (Pack fodder), Nick Christensen (B’s 23rd), Mark Bailey (B’s 3rd)
This was my last time at Grattan for the year so I was hoping for a good race.  I tried to get into a couple breaks but nothing really panned out.  I had checked the weather before I left home and everything looked clear, but a thunderstorm crept up on us and the race was shortened.  Until next year!

Rockford Criterium (August 25, 2007)
RTRs: Joel Bierling (Cat 4 – Pack fodder, 2x prime)
I love the Rockford course.  It’s basically one big hill, and you spend half the course going up and the last half going down.  I quickly discovered last year when I won the Cat 5 race that whoever is in the lead at the top of the hill can pretty much win the lap as long as he keeps pedaling. 

Things got off to a good start, and I won two primes.  I narrowly avoided one crash where the leader took a corner too fast, lost control, and crashed, causing the guy just behind him to do a summersault over him.  I was following right behind but managed to avoid getting caught up in it.  I saw both riders rejoin the race, so they must not have been hurt too badly. Unfortunately, the effort of the two primes took too much out of me, and the final two laps caused me to miss my mark of being first up the hill.  So I finished in the pack in the final sprint, which wasn’t ideal.  But, overall I think it was still a successful race.