June 3-5: Tri West Omnium

This weekend, the fine folks at Planet Adventure Race bring us a second installment of a 3-day criterium omnium weekend. Racing kicks off Friday evening at Hummel Park in Plainfield. Saturday and Sunday action takes place at Eagle Creek Park, one of largest municipal parks in the United States. Saturday's course utilizes the 'traditional' course (utilized by Dan Daly's Indiana Race Series for many years) - a gently rolling loop through dense woods, with just two real turns. Last year PA introduced us to the Eagle Creek 'contemporary' course, which incorporates a number of tight technical turns. The two courses offer a nice variety - Saturday is more 'wide open, full throttle', while Sunday's course will more tight and technical. Should be a fabulous weekend of racing!

In other race related news, for the past 14+ years, Dan's Indiana Race Series has been affiliated with ABR. Dan recently announced on his website that his crits will now be run under USA Cycling, due to "established infrastructure in place, local and statewide support, and accomplished officials." IMHO, this should be good news for everyone - there will not be races held on conflicting dates, Dan should see bigger turnouts, and racers only have to take out one license. For new racers especially, I think this should also help eliminate confusion regarding upgrade points and race categories. Other promoters should also benefit, as more quality racing in Indiana will hopefully help grow the sport, both by attracting more out-of-town racers, as well as developing more local interest.

Calvin's Challenge 12-hr Bike Race

While most of the team was hitting the TKO 3 day crit series, Jeff Ryan (ultra-endurance racer extraordinaire) and team benefactor John Mead (who is a lawyer with Leeuw Oberlies & Campbell, P.C, one of our sponsors for the past two years) headed east to Ohio to compete in Calvin's Challenge, a 12-hr bike race. The rules are simple: ride as many hours as you can in 12 hrs. Most miles wins.

Jeff pulled through with a solid top 10 age group finish, despite the fact that he had to thrown in the towel hours early due to stomach issues. John took home the big 'W' with a first place finish in his age category! Way to go John!!

Tri Klassic Omnium

The Indy 2011 race season got underway with a bang at the Tri Klassic Omnium, presented by Planet Adventure Race. Nothing like 'knocking the dust off' with a 3-day criterium omnium.Friday night's action took place in Lawrence under the shadows of the former Ft. Benjamin Harrison. A brand new, .6 mile 'L' shaped course on silky smooth pavement. The star of the show for BRD was Jason Mygrant, who spent a good portion of the race off the front in a two man breakway. The dynamic duo got reeled back in by the pack with about 15 min or so left in the race. Mygrant ended up with an 8th place finish, Jolivette and Yancey both finished safely in the pack. Pillar hit pavement early in the race, and Slattery suffered some nasty cramps towards the end of the race.

Mygrant in the two-man break in Lawrence.

Less than 24 hrs later, we heading north to the Village of West Clay (Carmel), which over the past few (4?) years have allowed us to turn their picturesque neighborhood into a great little crit course. As a team, we have traditionally had pretty good results at this race, but not so much this year. Slattery nailed a prime towards the end of the race, and was also our sole top 10 finisher. Jolivette finished with the pack. Yancey (who has 'one-day' race fitness :-), Pillar (still pretty banged up from the previous nights crash), and Romain (who was stuck in traffic and barely made it to the race) will be back to fight another day.

Slattery & Jolivette on the front @ West Clay

Day 3 took us to the heart of Broad Ripple - Indy's funkiest little 'hood with streets lined with bars, restaurants, and boutique shops. For years it's been said that there was no way the Broad Ripple Village Association would ever allow the streets to be closed down for a bike race, but Matt Jourdan and the rest of the PA staff put in a town of work to make this a reality. If only Mother Nature decided to play nice. As if we have not had enough rain already (I believe this past April has been the fourth wettest April ever in central IN) , Sunday saw even more rain. Mygrant and Pillar were our two finishers (17th, 18th)

Jolivette & Slattery decided stay dry and take over pace car duties for the 3's race in Broad Ripple.