Results: Mooresville

The team had 4 riders representing at Mooresville, IN on April 20. Chris Newman started off the early day with 7th in the Cat 5 race. In the Mas 3/4, Craig Johnson rode strongly and jumped away with another rider with 2 to go but was reeled in and finised 6th. In the 3/4 race, Dan Penner and Mark Althouse rode solidly. After a few futile attempts, a good break finally formed and quickly got about 20 secs. Dan made multiple attempts to bridge but was frustrated by teams riding to protect the break. After a couple of visits to the front in the final laps, Dan finished 13th and Mark rolled in at 18th.

See full results here.

Results: Hillsboro-Roubaix

Hogan Sills gained a tough fought 2nd place in the Jrs race at Hillsboro, IL on March 29. Clearly riding strong and aggressively this Spring, Hogan is a rising young rider with great potential.

See full results here.

Race Report: Hillsboro-Roubaix

Well race fans, this past Sunday kicked off the season for Hogan and I. We ventured down to Hillsboro for what has become a hugely popular early season road race. Many of you may have ridden this course. I think it’s a bitch. Long and hilly; narrow, crappy roads and plenty of wind. I also think H-R is loads of fun. It’s the first serious race for many of us and the fields are huge.

Hogan’s Race was only 1 lap (22 miles) and both he and I felt pretty good about his chances. There were 20 riders in his field, which is decent for a junior’s field. Midway though the race a rider from the Baraboo Sharks team attacked. Hogan waited for a response and when none came, he jumped and bridged up, bringing two other riders with him. The foursome then settled in to a nice paceline and pulled away from the field. With two miles remaining the Baraboo Sharks rider attacked again, this time on the feed zone hill. He was able to open a little gap going into the final hill before the finish and Hogan was not sure he could close the gap and still have enough to sprint for the win. So he elected to save his strength and try to out sprint the other two racers for second place. He did just that and picked up a nice trophy and a little cash.

Now for my race, which did not turn out as well. I approached this race as a training race, nothing else. My fitness just isn’t there yet and was I knew I would not be competitive. I viewed the race a chance to dust off the cobwebs, test the legs a little and sharpen my pack riding skills.

I entered the masters 40+ event with a field of 75 riders. The race was 3 laps (66 miles) and I decided I would just ride in the middle to front 1/3 of the pack, to conserve energy. I also decided that I would conserve energy on the hills with a little trick I call "slip sliding". The idea is to start the hill near the front of the peloton and then climb a little slower than the others. At the top of the hill you hopefully have "slipped" back somewhere toward the middle of the pack. Well, on this day, at this race, my slip sliding strategy sucked! I was doing my thing on the last hill of the first lap and a couple of good size gaps opened up that I did not see. I could not close the gaps and now the leaders were getting further up the road. I was getting dropped. I joined three other riders and we spent the next 20 miles fighting to get back on. At one point, all four of us got DQ’d for crossing the center line of the road. On the backside of the course, on a one lane road, there is a sharp left turn at the bottom of a hill. Everyone’s line (peloton included) was the inside left edge. If you carry any speed into the corner (and it is tough not to on a decent) you must take the inside track, or you will run off the road. In retrospect, I think we got flagged (and the peloton did not) because we did not have a pace car in front of us and they considered our move dangerous. Anyway, let it be a lesson to all of us this year. Race organizers are strictly enforcing the center line rule after last year’s mishap in Peoria .

Results: Spring Tune Up

Tony Roth tested his fitness at the Spring Tune Up crit at Auburn, IN on March 30. Intelligent riding and some luck in the critical moves proved very profitable for Tony as he gathered a 1st in the Cat 3 race and managed a 3rd out of a small breakaway in the 35+ event.

See full results here.

Race Report: L’Esprit

A race report from team man Tony Roth....

Caveat: I struggle with race reports. They seldom appear accurate to the other racers involved. I guess that figures, given the constantly-changing point of view generated by a peloton. I have written it as I remember it and based on the unofficial results. I apologize to those who raced for any inaccuracies.

I was lucky enough to have the chance to race this past Saturday in La Grange, KY. It's just a little northeast of Louisville. The race was called the L'Esprit Road Race, I believe after the name of the area through which the 9-mile course wanders. It's a beautiful place, with rolling hills and one fairly shallow climb (maybe like an extended overpass for Central Illinois boys) of a half mile or so. The roads are almost perfect, as is the race organization.

Anyway, I entered the 36-mile cat3/4 race, which I was told by the official had about 60 entrants (there were reportedly roughly the same number in the 1/2/3 race and 100 in the 4/5 race, to give you an idea of the race’s draw). It was sunny and somewhere in the 40’s at the noon-ish start. The race only took 1.5 hours and I pre-rode the course to get familiar with the grades and finishing straight. My coach (That still sounds funny to me. What’s a 38-year-old punk bike racer doing with a coach?) and I agreed that this race would be only about practicing discipline, positioning in the pack, and the final sprint. Staying put in the peloton is not my style, and I have often been way too aggressive for my own good. Most cat3 races finish with a bunch sprint, so dulling the legs with multiple attacks can be a little dumb unless it's related to a team strategy of some sort. Naturally, a break of maybe 6-8 guys went very early. I was not allowed to try to get in it regardless of whether I thought I had the legs. It was really hard to watch it go up the road, knowing without teammates I had to trust other teams to bring it back.

It didn’t come back. It seems there was some real power in the break. At least a couple got dropped from the break, so I think 4 or 5 ended up finishing in the break. So, the way I figured, we were going to be sprinting for about 5th. There were several well-represented teams in the field that did not have a man in the break. No serious efforts to organize a chase ever materialized, though. A few times one team or another would send a couple guys to the front to chase, but the pack never really made a dent in the break’s lead. I pulled through a couple times when I found myself very near the front just to show that I was willing if we could get a chase going. I guess not enough guys cared or had the legs. It’s pretty early to expect a cat3 team to have organized chasing dialed in. Strength, fitness levels and strategies are all over the map at this time of year, I suppose.

I felt pretty comfortable the whole race and was resigned to a field sprint by the middle of the last lap. I had tried to race the whole time in the top 20 or so because it's safer and smoother at the front, as well as easier to follow any attacks. But I found myself about 25th with a couple miles to go and decided to move up on the right, taking a 15-20mph head/crosswind, rather than fight through the pack. The yellow-line rule was in play, so there really wasn't anywhere to go on the left. It was a good lesson to find out how easy it was to move up on the right. I was lucky enough to have the legs Saturday to handle the wind, so it was a really quick trip through no traffic from 25th to the first ten. I slotted in behind a bigger guy on the right gutter and waited. I wanted the right side, despite the wind, because there was a right turn about 200-250m before the finish. I wanted the inside of that turn more than I wanted to take no wind because I figured the inside would be safer and the right side was slightly better protected from the wind once the turn was completed. The big guy gave enough of a draft to make it worth it. I knew from my pre-ride and paying attention each lap that after that turn it was going to be a big headwind and things would slow dramatically. I knew I could not compete well in a headwind sprint that long and told myself to wait as long as possible before taking any wind.
 
Nice plan. Too bad I was not patient enough to enact it or powerful enough to overcome my lack of patience. Things shifted a little just before the right turn, with guys yelling at a couple racers who tried to move up late by ignoring the yellow-line rule. My big “leadout” man moved left in the shift. I moved up into his spot and came through the corner on the inside, finding myself about 3rd now but behind a couple of guys who were smaller than the big draft I had a moment before. It seemed like the last 200m were taking forever, so I jumped (if you can call it that) into the wind and it felt like I nearly stopped moving. I think I stayed fairly even with the first guy. Then big guys came past us on both sides. They had been better-positioned I guess and were certainly stronger finishers than me. I ended up tenth or so in the field sprint, which made me 15th overall (after results were posted but before they became official).
 
I was pretty happy with the day, since I really had no way to know where my fitness was. I have many things to work on. I learned some good things that hopefully I can apply in later races. Great thanks to the race organizers, officials and volunteers. Oh yeah, and thanks to those in the race. It was well-ridden and safe. Very nicely done by all.

Race Results: Proctor Cycling Classic

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Race Results: Carmel Criterium

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Race Results: Memorial Day Weekend Races - 26-29 2006

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See the official results for all races/cats here: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/MemorialDayWeekendBikeRaces/

Race Results: Cobb Park Crit

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Race Results: Cougar Criterium

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