Upcoming Races

We have a pretty full slate of upcoming races from now till Labor Day, with nearly all of them here in Central Indiana. Tis the season for late summer crit action!

July 18 - Bloomington Grand Prix (Indiana State Crit)
July 26 - 11th Annual Zionsville Grand Prix
Aug 8 - Eagle Creek Fast Crit & TT
Aug 9 - Ft. Benjamin Harrison Circuit Race
Aug 15 - Mass Ave. Criterium
Aug 22 - Marion Classic Criterium (Indiana's first NRC race!)
Aug 23 - Village of West Clay Classic
Sept 4-7 - Gateway Cup (St. Louis, MO)
Sept 5 - The Reid Hospital Depot District Twilight Criterium

Parkview Cycling Classic, Tour de Champaign, Tour of the Valley

Last weekend we had guys racing in three different races in three different states. Yancey and Romain headed up to Ft. Wayne for the inaugural Parkview Cycling Classic - a downtown crit that circled the recently built Parkview Field (minor-league baseball stadium). Nice size field with around 45 riders, and good course with one gradual climb (a city-block in length) and 6 turns. The Neither of us were have particularly a great day of racing, and both finished mid-pack

Slattery and Jolivette raced Sunday at the Tour of Champaign, a downtown crit in Champaign, IL. Both riders managed to miss a number of wrecks in the last few laps, and Slattery managed to finish in the money, with a 13th place finish. Jolivette finished safely in the pack.

Kramer headed west to Cleveland, OH for the Tour of the Valley - a TT, RR, and two crits held over three days. Don't yet have the details on how things went, but I'm sure Drew represented well.

Indiana State Road Race

We kicked the month of June off with the Indiana State Road Race, which for the second consecutive year was held in Fishers. The course for the day consisted of 9 laps on a 7 mile circuit through rural eastern Hamilton County - a flat course, with one very short, but rather steep hill. We had nearly the whole team in attendance (Slattery was away in Ireland), and were confident of our chances of some high placings amongst the 77 riders that lined up at the start. On the first lap, Reed successfully ignited a break of 4-5 riders, who quickly got a 1-2 minute gap on the field. With a teammate up the road, the rest of us positioned ourselves at the front of the pack, to ensure that we could easily respond to any attacks. The break eventually got caught about halfway through the race (kudos to the Gray Goat team, who missed the break, and put a number of thier riders on the front of the pack to do a majority of the work in bringing the break back) and all indications were that things would end in drag-race sprint to the finish (long straightaway leading to the finish line). With about 2.5 miles till the finish, we were well positioned for the upcoming sprint, with Reed and Jolivette both sitting in the top 10, and Yancey, Romain, and Kramer not far behind. But, our good fortunes quickly reversed - Jolivette and Yancey were both struck with debilitating cramps going up the small climb before the finishing straight, knocking them both to the back of the back. Then, Reed flatted less than a mile from the finish. Kramer ended up as our top finisher, coming across in 26th place. Disappointing to see is all ride a strong race for 60+ miles, and have so much bad luck in the last three miles. But, that's bike racing.