Indy Stage Race - First Win of the Year!

Slattery giving the 'one-armed victory salute' after winning the Ft. Ben Stage Park Road Race on Sunday!

The big news from last weekend was Mike Slattery taking the win at the Ft. Ben RR on a hot Sunday afternoon. With about 20 min left in the race, Mike help ignite the winning break of 5 riders, and out-sprinted his breakaway companions to take the 'W.' But first, lets take a look at the first stage of the Indy Stage Race - Saturday morning's Eagle Creek Fast Crit.

As the name of this crit applies, it a very fast race - a dead flat course that has no turns, just one big circle. This race traditionally ends in a big pack sprint, but Romain gave it a good effort in a break with two other riders - the three of them were able to get a gap on the pack, and hold it for about 5 laps. The break had the horsepower to stay away, and probably would have if it had included one rider from Sustainable Energy. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and the SE were forced to do the dirty work - go to the front of the pack and ride like hell to pull the break back (which they did). Following the norm, the race ended in a wild pack sprint. Kramer had our top placing at 11th.


Romain in the break.


CJ looking fast on his new ride.


Kramer leading the pack

Saturday afternoon was the Eagle Creek Time Trial (Stage 2). Romain earned a podium spot with a strong 3rd place finish

Romain and Kramer at the TT


That brings us to Sunday's Ft. Ben Road Race. We had an excellent showing of teamwork and intelligent racing on Sunday - there were a number of small breaks throughout the race, and we had a rider in every one of them. Having a rider in a break takes all the pressure off the rest of the team, and forces those teams who do not have riders in the break to either try and pull the break back, or try and send someone up the road to bridge up to the break (at which point we would also send a rider, who would do nothing but sit on the other guy's wheel - if he ends up bridging the gap, we'll have a second rider in the break, who essentially got a 'free ride' up the break). With about 20 min left in the race, Slattery launched a perfectly timed counter attack (right when the pack caught a small break). Four other riders quickly responded, and the five were off. Slattery attacked on the final downhill (a twisty, technical section that rides like a roller coaster) and held on for the victory!


Yancey leading at the crest of the hill


Kramer and Romain leading the pack.


Slattery nearing the finish line, with 'eyes on the prize!'

Bloomington Critermium & Zionsville Grand Prix

Bloomington Crit (Indiana State Criterium) - looking back to last month at the Indiana State Road Race, we had ridden a good, smart race for 61 miles. The problem? The race was 63 miles. In the last two miles, Reed (sitting top 5) flatted, and Yancey and Jolivette (top 15) were suffering from extreme cramping. In the end, the best we could muster was a 26th. Well, things did not turn out much better at the state crit. Held along the frequently visited bars are restaurants on Kirkwood Ave, this crit is fairly technical L-shaped course. The last four corners are tight, and are often the location of end-of-the-race carnage (i.e, crashes). Heck, a few yrs ago, in an attempt to miss a wreck in the last lap, I nearly took out an entire wedding party getting their pictures taken at the church in the last turn! Romain and Slattery were both gunning for a great finish going into the last lap, only to have Romain, sitting in the top 5, hit the pavement, and Slattery getting caught up in the pile of spandex, carbon, skin, and asphalt. It was not to be.

Zionsville Grand Prix - Ironic that the Brickyard 400 was taking place on the same day as the Zionsiville Grand Prix, a classic 4-corner crit course with the start/finish straightaway held along the brick-paved Main Street. Kramer and Yancey, not know for their sprinting abilities, spent most of the race trying to help establish a break. With 10 laps to go, three guys got a quick gap coming out of the last turn. Yancey spend two laps at the front trying to bridge, but instead pulled the pack up to the group of 3, setting things up for a sprint finish (not to our liking). Both finished mid-pack.

Some pictures from both Bloomington & Zionsville, for your viewing pleasure.

Romain leading the pack in Bloomington (Kneewarmers in July?!? Yea, it was kinda chilly.)

Slattery dropping the hammer!



Kramer - coming right at ya!



Yancey in Zionsville

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.

O'Fallon Grand Prix

Behind the eight ball a bit on the race reports. Here is a recap from O'Fallon Grand Prix from May 3oth.:
Yancey, Reed, and Kramer head west to O'Fallon, IL (located just east of St.Louis) for the O'Fallon Grand Prix - a 68 mile road race along the rolling hills of the Mississippi valley. Before I get into the details of the race, I want to give props to the folks in O'Fallon for putting on a such a great race - extremely well organized, attentive course volunteers at every corner, excellent course (23 mile loop, which we did 3 times, that had 1000 feet of climbing per lap, 22 turns, and a 50mph decent, per lap.), and even a goodie bag for each racer. We'll definitely be going back next year, and highly recommend this race.

First lap was fast and furious with a number of small attacks, but no one having any luck in getting away: Yancey was off the front with a few other riders for a short period of time, and Reed put in a handful of attacks in hope of establishing a break. Things calmed down a bit during our second lap, with the pack maintaining a pretty consistent pace for the next 23 miles. Just as we started our third and final lap, Reed launched a solo attack, and immediately got a small gap (2o seconds) which he maintained for the next 3 miles or so. 4 riders then bridged up to him, and and solidified a five rider break. Over the next 18 miles, the break would eventually dwindle down to just two (Reed and a rider from Burnham Racing out of Chicago), with the remaining riders being absorbed by the pack, which had been dwindled down to just 17 riders (40 started the race). Reed hung on for a very impressive 2nd place finish (You the man Russ!!!), and Yancey rolled in within the pack, which finished about 1 minute down from the two man break. Kramer fell victim to the heat and intensity during the the last lap, but stuck it out to finish the race. A real race of attrition, with 1/4 of the starters DNF'ing. Great racing, and a great result for Reed!

Eagle Creek Traditional Crit

Unfortunately, not a lot of good news to report from last weekends Eagle Creek Traditional Crit, so I'll keep things short and sweet. A group of 8 riders escaped off the front about 25 min or so into the race - we had no representation in the break, and waited way to long before trying to chase it down. There were a number of very strong riders in the break, and working well together, they established a quick gap which they held for the remaining 45 min of the race. No excuse for us to not have had a least one rider in the break....definitely not our day to shine.

Props to Slattery for riding strong in the 1/2/3 race later in the afternoon - we just got to teach him that he doesn't need to always lead out the final sprint :-) Drew and Yancey also did double duty, but didn't quite have the legs to finish out the second race.

This weekend we'll be heading down south for some crit racing in Lousville, KY. That is assuming that it eventually will stop raining. If not, we'll have to resort to racing paddleboats down the White River Canal. Geez...

A few pic's from Eagle Creek for your viewing pleasure: