Memorial Day Weekend Races

I raced the Snake, Melon City, and Quad Cities Crits this weekend. The Snake was one of the worst races of my life. I was never able to recover and I just kept moving backwards after each lap. I finished 20th, 2 spots worse than last year. But what can you do, a bad day is a bad day. Kim however had an amazing race and finished 4th.

Melon city turned out better for me this year than last. I got driven into the curb by another rider last year on the last lap. This year I stayed upright, but the pace was unbelievably high. Lipsmackers + Meredith Miller + Kenda + Alderfer Bergen + Flanders = non-stop pain. I was able to stay with the lead group, but was way in the back on the final ride up the hill. I checked the results after they were final and found that a lapped rider got placed ahead of me. My fault for not checking them sooner, but still peeves me a little.

Not much to say about Monday. I just stayed in the main pack in both races. Participated in the final sprints. Didn't do much, so I didn't get much. I probably won't do this race next year as everyone else I know was on a bar ride to the Amanas.

This was a great weekend of racing. Since I don't do any of the big stage races, this was probably the most talented group of riders I will ever race against. My hat is off to you ladies...you are truly amazing!!!

1, 2, 3, 4, FIF

Since I sold my computer earlier this year, it has been difficult to update this thing as often as I would like. So, here is my Iola recap, as it is long over due. I was so excited leading up to this race, it is surprising that I did not find a way to post sooner, but that's life I guess.

We got up to Iola on Saturday afternoon with plenty of time to register and get a couple of laps in. We registered first and as we came out to get ready to ride we ran into the Eppens. They were on their way to try out the trails. Since we had Maddie Bean with us (and she can be a problem) it took a bit longer than usual to get our gear together to go ride, but we were in no hurry. On top of it all, the wind was HORRIBLE! It was so strong that it actually blew Kyle's bike over several times. Mind you his bike is pretty light, but the wind should not be able to blow it over. Anyway, we got out on the course and did a couple of laps. It had plenty of ups and downs, especially at the beginning, and gradually flattened out a bit and turned into mostly single track. It was going to be a tough race, with lots of suffering, but I felt that I could live up to the challenge.

After our practice laps, we got out tent set up in the campgrounds and went to town for some dinner. Then, we watched as much Off Road to Athens as we could with the battery life Kyle's computer had left and then went to sleep. Maddie spent part of the night in the tent and after having to go potty, she spent the rest of the night in the car. After getting up with her, I had a really hard time trying to go back to sleep, but of course, shortly after I was able to fall back to sleep, Stinky started whining from the car. So, I got up to tend to her.

The morning of the race was great. It was cool, but the wind was gone. I pretty much piddled around until Kyle's race started at 11:30. Then, I started to get myself ready. Kyle ended up 39th over all in the sport class out of 250 people and 6th in his age group (30-34).

As I was warming up, I saw Brian and Kim warming up too. I had been worried the day before that there wasn't going to be a good place to get my heart rate up. Pretty much the first thing you do on that course is go up a HUGE f-ing hill, so I knew I needed to get my heart going pretty good before we started. Fortunately, there were a couple of decent sized hills to climb around the place, so that turned out to not be much of a problem.

We lined up and less than a minute after the Men's Expert race started, we were off. Kim just tore the place up. She was off the front and I never really saw her again. As I was climbing that first hill, I somehow got boxed in and the only way I could get around the fodder was to take this horrendous line on the right through all kinds of crap. It worked in the fact that I got around a bunch of people and was in 6th at the top of the hill, but I had used so much energy, it would several laps before I could compose myself.

After that hill and for the next lap and a half, the battle was on between me and another rider Holly Liske. She would school me on the down hills and through the single track, but I was able to close the gap every time we started to climb. As a said, this went on for a lap and a half when I finally got around her on one of the up hills. She told me good job as I passed and I must have looked like a jerk for not saying it back, but I literally could not speak on account of my lack of oxygen. The fact is she was also doing a great job and I was having a great time racing this closely with her.

At the start of the third lap, it seemed to me that I had settled into 5th place and was just in it for the long haul. Lisa Krayer was 30 seconds up the road, but I only had enough energy to maintain the position I was in and I thought that was the case for Holly behind me as well. Then, out of nowhere, this rider comes flying around me and says "Good job Kim." I look up and she has a number in the 500's and I realize, this is a woman in my race!!! How had I let this happen? Not knowing who this was, I quickly grabbed her wheel and started following her lines. She was amazing in the single track...so good that she eventually pulled away from me. Before then though, she and I chatted. She realized I was not Kim and I learned that her name was Sue. Battle #2 for me at the old Iola was about to begin.

She had pulled away from me enough that she was at the top of the first big hill before I even started it. I had all but assumed she was going to beat me, until we hit the next big hill. This time she was only part of the way up when I started climbing. Then the next hill I was even closer again. Finally, on the last of the monster hills, I not only caught back to her, I passed her. The race was now truly on. I knew she was better than me in the single track, so I had to push every little short climb and work the single track as best as I knew how if I was to stay ahead of her. It seemed to be working until about a mile before the finish when first this kid that was in front of me went down in the middle of the trail and then the leaders from the men's race came up behind me and essentially demanded that I get out of there way. As I did I knew she was closing in on me. As we got to the last tiny bit of single track I rode it faster than I had all day, just hoping it would be enough. As I emerged from the woods, I put my head town and got to the finish as quickly as possible. It turned out that I only beat her by like 13 seconds, but it was enough to take fifth.

Kim won of course, but like 5 minutes over Abby. She caught the back of the Men's Expert field on the first lap. It was an extremely demanding race against some of the most talented women I know. I was a little disappointed for not being closer to the front from the get go, but I raced hard and 5th against this group of women was not easy.

Round 2 for me in the WORS series will be the weekend of June 7th up in Wausau for the Big Ring Classic. Should be fun...I can't wait!

Second year is over!!!!!

My last final was at 1pm today. I needed a 44% to pass and I ended up getting a 90%. It was in my medical ethics class. Apparently, I am an extremely ethical person. :) Girls ride tonight was awesome. We were down a few since the Mayor's ride for Bike to Work week got moved to tonight. I think we will have a better showing next week! 

We leave for Iola Saturday morning...I can't wait! 

and then there was one...

My last final is tomorrow at 1:00. I just finished my second one. I'm going to hit Kim's spin class tonight to try to unwind.

WORS countdown...4 days until Iola!

One down...

and 2 to go!

I just finished my Path final. Pretty sure I scored high enough to pass the class :)

Countdown to Iola...6 days!

Finchford-Roubaix

So, Kyle and I rolled up to Finchford, IA this weekend for a circuit race put on by Bike Tech Racing Club. We have not previously done this race because it has been up against Iowa Cup mountain bike races. Kyle had originally wanted to go to Omaha for a mountain bike race, but when my fork broke, that pretty much dictated where we were going.

We got up there with plenty of time to do a lap around the course. It was 5.5 miles and I was scheduled to do 6 laps while Kyle in the Cat 4s race had 7 laps. The wind of course hit you on the back side, so you had to battle it for like 2 miles right before the finish. There were 6 women in our field, but filled with heavy hitters. Julie from Des Moines with a teammate, Kelli from PRC, and my teammate from last year Anne who now rides for BH. Kathleen also joined us as well even though she had just done the Women's 4 race!

The first 2 laps we just spun. We all took turns at the front...most notable was Julie, who pulled us through the wind section on both those laps. Then, with the start of the 3rd lap, I kinda sped things up a bit. Around the first corner, then with the tail wind, and finally I hit it really hard as we turned the 2nd corner and started up a hill. At this point it was only Kelli, Anne, and me. We decided to start a rotation and that's how we rode for the next 3.5 laps.

Something kinda cooky happened toward the end of our 5th lap. I should say 1st that we were lapped by the lead pack in the cat 4 men's race. They came around us right at the start of the 5th lap. The 3 of us had a short discussion about the fact that they had 7 laps and we had 6, so them lapping us shouldn't change the number of laps that we have. We continued on rotating not thinking much about it. As we made the final turn I could see that the lap counter said 1 so we kept rotating. Then, as we hit the last little hill before the finish, the officials changed the lap counter to say 0, so without saying anything I took off. As I crossed the finish line, I yelled out "are we done?" and one of the officials yelled yes while the other one yelled one more. I held up for the other 2 since they didn't know what the hell I was doing and we eventually decided that they had just made a mistake and we need to do another lap. After about 3 miles into this last lap, a car came around to tell us this was definitely the last lap.

We maintained our rotation until about the 200 meter mark on the hill. I jumped before the other 2 and got the win. I had a lot of fun working with and racing these ladies! I look forward to racing with them again in 2 weeks at the Memorial Weekend Races :)

Next up...you guessed it Iola! Won't hear about the fork until Tuesday, but I am hopeful it will be back before Friday! I also have 3 finals this week, 1st up is Path at 8am tomorrow :( Wish me luck, I would hate to have to repeat my 2nd year!

Only 10 days before Iola...suspension fork crisis

Last night after Kyle and I got done riding a couple laps out at Sugar, part of the dropout on my Magura fork just broke off. It actually just dropped right into my hand. I got a hold of Magura today and they are going to get a new one out on Tuesday, but believe me, I was really sweating this one. If I had to miss the first WORS race, especially after a week of 3 finals, I may have had to hurt someone. Boo to my defective fork, but Yay! for Magura for helping me get to my race!

MTB Race postponed...got my ass kicked on gravel instead

Well, this was suppose to be the 2nd MTB race in the Iowa series Waverly to be exact, but due to rainy weather, it had to be postponed. Two years ago, Kyle and I raced this race in the rain and mud and I swear to God we will never do that again. We came way with broken bikes and broken souls. So we appreciate the promoters postponing.

We decided instead to ride/race to the Amana's with some local folks. It was the first time Kyle and I had attempted this ride and it was as cutthroat as it had been touted to be. There were 4 B road sections mixed in with the gravel sections on the way out. The first had been eaten up and was a total mess. You would be riding along in a rut and suddenly it would end. When I hit one of these I took a header into the ground. Of course things heated up whenever we hit these sections, so staying up with the big dogs was impossible for me. But Kyle and I kept pushing ourselves even when we were off the back and finally getting to the Amana's was a wonderful break.

The Amana's were having Maifest, so there was much drinking and partying going on. This would have been a good time for Kyle and I to get something to eat, but we chose to drink instead. This would come back to bite me especially hard on the way back.

Back on the road, things did not take long to heat up. They got so crazy that Nenninger ended up into the backside of Nick Martin which promptly tacoed Nick's wheel. After all the hub-bub of that, we were off at light speed once again. I held on for a few more miles before the lack of nutrition finally hit me and I just imploded. I spent the rest of the ride home by myself, feeling worthless. I used to feel like this on the bike all the time, but this was a low I had not felt in months if not years. I limped home where Kyle was waiting for me, pretty haggard himself.

Lessons learned: 1) eat! 60-miles on 2 poptarts and 3 beers = disaster, 2) just because someone is on a singlespeed does not mean they will be slower than they usually are :(

The plan for now is to do Finchford on Saturday with finals the week after that.

Countdown to the first WORS race is on: 13 days!