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:

Back In Action...Cerland Classic

It's finally time to see if all that time on crankin' out intervals on the trainer in a sub-freezing garage was worth it. I sure hope so....

The 2009 racing season finally got underway here in central Indiana on 4/18 at the Ceraland Classic in Columbus, IN - a nice little 70 minute circuit race held on a 1.4 mile rolling loop in Ceraland Park. Our CAT 3 race pretty much went as expected - numerous attacks from riders hoping to initate a small break, but nothing more sucessfully than a couple of guys dangling off the front for a few laps with a gap of less than ten seconds. Things got dicey halfway through the race when a mid-pack wreck sent a number of riders to the asphalt - Romain, who was smack dab in the middle of the rucus, somehow managed to stay upright, despite the fact that his rear break caliber got sheared in half. Yancey took a nice detour through the grass and luckily avoided the carnage. Race ended in a mass pack sprint up the gradual climb to the finish line, with Slattery storming into the top 10 with a 6th place finish. Romain, Yancey, and Reed all finished safetly in the pack.

Russell and Yancey decided to get in little extra racing, and jumped into the 1/2/3 race later in the afternoon. Russ bowed out around the 45 minute mark to make sure he was not late to his daughters birthday party (what a family man!), and Yancey held on for 1 hour until the legs finally gave out. 60 miles of crit racing will do that to you.

Thanks to John Bennett for the photos!


It's 'go' time...


Slattery getting aero.


Yancey displaying pain.


Romain rockin' the half zip.

McCormicks Creek RR

The last week of May and the first couple weeks of June saw no local racing on the calendar, but we've still been putting in plenty of time on the bike - we've been able to get in some long training rides over the weekends, and have gotten our weekly dose of intensity at the Tuesday/Thursday Butler-Hinkle hammer-fest. The Indiana State Road race had originally been scheduled for June 14, but the race had to be rescheduled (new race date is July 19th) due to the thunderstorms that pounded central & southern Indiana the entire weekend.

Myself, MJ, Jolivette, Slattery, and Robison were all up bright and early on June 22 to make the trip down to Spencer, IN to race the McCormick's Creek Road Race, held on a 4 mile circuit with a series of 3 short, back-to-back-to-back climbs you hit every lap. Usually, road races start out kinda slow, as everyone takes the first couple of miles to warm up the legs before the hammer starts to drops - not so with this race. There was no 'casual roll-out' - the attacks started immediately, which resulted in probably half the pack getting dropped in the first two laps. At the start of the second lap, three riders attacked and were able to get a decent gap. I was able to bridge up solo, and catch on just before we hit the 3 climbs. We had gotten a large gap in a very short period of time, but we were not working well together, which usually spells doom for break. Sure enough, we were caught within a few miles. For the rest of the race, the whole team rode a tactically strong race - we were always well positioned riding in the top 1o of the pack, covered any attacks, and pushed to keep the pace high. The only thing we didn't do right was nail the last 200 meters - about 2 miles from the finish, two riders escaped off the front, and Jolivette and I went immediately to the front to reel them back in. We caught them with maybe a half mile to go. Slattery came charging up the right side of the road, yelling at us to grab his wheel. Jolivette and I latched on, and the three of us were sitting top five, hitting is as hard as we could with the pack strung about behind. Things were setup great, but we hit it a bit to hard too early, ran out of gas, and got swarmed by the pack with 200 meters to go. Even though we blew the finish, we had ridden by far our best team race in years. Hopefully, it a sign of good things to come!

Eagle Creek Traditional Crit

Myself, JR, and Slattery were looking super fast in our brand-spankin' new uniforms at the Eagle Creek Traditional Crit on Saturday. This crit is held within Eagle Creek park (as if the name didn't already give that away), and is a one mile loop with a small hill that leads up to the start finish line. We didn't score any impressive results, but the three of us did manage to ride a strong, smart aggressive race. A small break of about four of five riders got a quick gap on the pack about 1/3 way through the hour long race - Hand Center, Mesa Cycles, and MOB squad were all represented, and the horsepower was there to make it stick. I attempted to bridge solo - but was not able to make it across. I did however give a Nebo Ridge rider a free ride up to the break. As soon as I started to fade he jumped around me and easily made it to the break. Next lap around I give it another go, and this time am able to make it up into the break. But, is was all for not, as we were caught about a lap or two later. Everything stayed together up until about 6 or 7 laps to go, when a Hand Center guy just rolled off the front - no one reacted, figuring he would not be able to stay at alone, but the dude went into TT mode and held on for the win. Things kinda gotta dicey in the spring in the end - Myself and JR were both sitting in the top 10 at the base of the climb, but JR got boxed in when he tried to shoot up the outside gap, and the guy directly in front of me pulled out of his pedal about halfway up the climb, swung all the way across the road, and miraculous held it up and avoided a massive pileup.

For a little extra training, I also did the CAT 1/2/3 Crit later in the afternoon, and finish at the back of the pack.

On a side note, big contrats to MJ and Jason, who both skipped the Eagle Creek Crit and instead were in action at the Mission 18 Hour Adventure Race (Versailles State Park), where they scored an awesome 2nd place finish (out of 46 teams)!

Village of Winona Criterium

I was the sole representative of our team at the Village of Winona Criterium, held in the quaint little artsy town of Winona Lake near Warsaw in northern Indiana. With it being a three hour drive from Indy, not too many other Indy riders made it up, but there was a good contingent of riders from Chicago, Michigan, and northern IN. The race was a tight 1/2 mile course through town (and along the shoreline) - rather uneventful race with a number of riders making an attempt to get away, but everyone was pretty determined to not let anything get away. It all ended in a pack sprint, and I was somewhere between first and last - still waiting for my thunderous sprint to kick in. Ha!

Race Recap - Ceraland & Mooresville Criteriums

April 19 - Gray skies, wind, and damp weather welcomed us at our fist race of the season, the Ceraland Classic in Columbus, IN. Advertised as a crit, the course rides more like a short circuit race, as it winds through a gently rolling, 1.4 mile loop through Ceraland Park, a semi-private corporate recreational facility owned by Cummins Inc - overall, a great venue for bike racing.
Unfortunately, we did not start the season of to much of a ' bang' - both races saw numerous attacks, but the fields were determined to not let any breaks get up the road. Both races ended in pack finishes - Jourdan & Romain , both finished safely within in the pack of the Masters 3/4 race, and I repeated the performance in the 3's, also finishing mid-pack.

April 20 - The Mooresville Criterium, another circuit-race like course held within a park setting , is known mostly for the short gradual climb (aka ' the pack splitter') that we tackle each lap. Like yesterday, there were attacks right from the get go - I went with a small four man attack that lasted for about a lap before being absorbed by the pack. We were caught at the top of the climb, and immediately, a counter attack was launched by a Lucas Oil rider. Before we new it, five guys had established a quick gap, and another Lucas Oil rider bridged solo to make the breakaway 6 strong. They put a quick 20 sec gap on the pack that held for a number of laps - we had no one in the break, and made a somewhat unorganized & unsuccessful effort to bring the break back. MOB Squad and Indiana Hand Center were both represented in the break, so their riders in the pack had no reason to do any chasing whatsoever, and after a few laps the gap has blossomed to 45 seconds. At that point, the chase was over - the top six places were safely up the road, and we were stuck racing for 7th place at best. Jourdan, Romain, Chris Jolivette (our newest rider) and myself all unglamorously finished mid-pack. Not the kind of results we were looking for, but it was great to be out racing again!