So I got off work early to drive up to West Branch for a race anticipated to be one of the most grueling in the state. I didn't really have a place to stay yet, the original plan was to stay in my car. But both Doug and Mark offered a bedroom at the Super 8.
Doug got there first, so I stayed in his room. We woke up at 6:45am, packed up the stuff and met up with the other MCG riders for breakfast. There really wasn't much to eat...it sucked. Then it was off to the course.
Driving up the hill to the finish line was interesting because it made you realize how far away the finish line is, even thought it looked close. Not 2 minutes after arriving, Joe comes up to me and says that we don't have wheel support and wondered if Elisa would want to drive behind us. Once she got to the start area, I asked her and she agreed. We then told all the Cat 3 teams that we had a wheel vehicle and I cleared it with the race organizer.
Before long, the car was loaded up with wheels, the sun was shining and the race was about to start. The race started pretty slow. No one seemed that anxious to get off the front of our 66 mile hilly race. There were a few attempts, but they were all brought back.
At one point, I was riding Andrew Florian's wheel and we just came off of a downhill, so we were moving 30+mph and either we switched townships, or the road commission ran out of money, because the edge of the road we were riding just stopped. I was told someone pointed it out, but neither Florian or I saw it. Andrew successfully stayed on the asphalt as I did not. I went over the 1 inch or so drop and the sidewalls of my tires were rubbing with the road. I don't really remember how I did it, but I got back over the ledge, and kept my bike upright (though at one point my bars were turned about 30 degrees to my bike and I was at 35 degrees with the road). Everyone around me (Bret, Pat, Joe and Colin) was surprised and thankful that I didn't crash. It definitely scared the crap out of me. I decided to stay away from the edge from that point on.
A few miles later we turned and headed South. This section was quite hilly and had a very strong head/cross wind. This was definitely a portion of the course you did NOT want to get dropped or have a mechanical (as if there was a section of this course you WOULD want to lose contact with the group). As luck would have it, while riding in the middle of the group on smooth roads down a hill, as someone attacked, I had a front flat. Luckily we had a wheel car so I had a chance of getting back. I swapped wheels and took off for the peloton. Elisa is new to neutral support and didn't know she should have paced me back. So without the help of the wheel car, in a headwind with the peloton chasing a break, I tried to catch the group...yeah, like that's going to work.
I chased as hard as I could for about 35 minutes and just kept losing ground because I cant power through the wind. I eventually got overtaken by the Masters field and sat at the back of their group until the bottom of the final climb. I was toast. I made it up the climb but had nothing left, with 44 miles left, I dropped out of the race. I rode up and down the hill twice to get some leg work in, and as my group came around the next time, I jumped in the car and drove behind them.
I guess the first time they hit the hill, Mac Brennan put in a nice attack that made a selection of 6 riders that would go on to win the race. Mac would cross the line first, 50 seconds ahead of my teammate Adam York in 2nd place.
While chasing, I had considered quitting this sport. But I know I couldn't do that. So I will train hard and be back at the Tour of Mt. Pleasant ready to win, or help my team win. Hopefully my severe case of bad luck has passed, and lets hope that it isn't contagious.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Das Tour de Frankenmuth
So I went up on Friday night to Birch Run and shared a room at the Holiday Inn with Doug, Derek, Colin and Elisa. We had dinner at Applebees, checked in to our room, unloaded the bags and bikes then sat in the hottub for about a half hour.
6am the alarms (3 of them) went off and it was up and time to race. We loaded up the room and the bikes then made our way to the lobby for breakfast. I brought Nutella from home to put on our bread....delicious.
Once we got to Zehnders for race prep, we realized that there was no wheel support. The Cat 1/2s had a wheel car, and there was one other wheel car that serviced the other 200 riders. Great idea.
It started raining before the start and Joe and I just chilled out in my car away from the water. Luckily it let up and the temperature picked up before the start. Our race started prety slow. I was expecting some attacks from the gun, but our MCG guys and the Priority guys went to the front and set tempo for the first few miles. The corners were still wet, so we were being carfull not to crash.
Despite our best efforts there was a crash. But it was not because of a wet road. At like mile 2 someone overlapped wheels with me then ran into my wheel and went down. I thought I had caused it, but I talked to a few guys and they all said I had held my line and it was not my fault. However, I was sitting in the top 10 of the peloton at the time, so the crash took down 60% of the feild. We all sat up and waited for the group to get back together and the team capitans to take the toll on their teams. We lost Adam York and Colin Snyder to the crash. So we were down to 7 guys. About a mile later, Joe Lekovish flatted and because there was no wheel support, he was out so we were down to 6.
The rest of the frist lap was really easy and pretty laxed. A few guys tried to get away, but we all said no to most of them and pulled them back. Around mile 8 or 9 a break of two riders including Priority's Mac Brennan got away. We let it go because we had plenty of time to pull it back with 51 miles left in the race.
When we came around to the feed zone the first time, I thought I hit a stick, I heard and felt something in my rear wheel. But it stopped and looked fine, so I stayed with the peloton. As we came through the start area, we were strung out in one big line and upon the first corner of the course, I discovered that it was not a stuck. I had broken a spoke. Around the corner, It came loose and got caught in my cassette, so I could't pedal. And with no wheel support, I was out of the race and my team was down to 5 riders after starting with 9 after just one lap.
I went and hung out in the Feed Zone to help my team. Lucky I was there, because on the Cat 4s last lap, a guy in all black dove left in the middle of the peloton causing a HUGE crash. Bike in the air, people down left and right, riders in the ditch...it was bad. Darrell and I went running across the street ro help. Almost everyone was fine. There were 2 riders that were hurt bad, one guy with a broken collarbone. I called 911 to get the ambulance, then stood in the road directing traffic and racers around the rider and the ambulance once it showed up.
After the rider was taken car of, I went to the start line to watch the end of my race. Brennan and his breakaway companion never got pulled in and made it to the line with Mac taking the big W. As the peloton came through, Scott got 9th in the feild sprint and ended in 11th, Mark Bush in 14th.
From talking with other riders, it appeared that just finishing this race was an accomplishment. It is flat, there was no wind. Finishing this course should not have been a feat. But it was. There were also a LOT of mechanicals at the race, and some odd ones at that. I saw a bike missing a saddle, but the rails were still there, just missing the saddle. Alan Antonuk said his cassette fell off when riding. How does that happen? Another rider got out of the saddle while riding and his rear wheel fell out. Odd day.
After all was said and done, I went and had a word with the race organizer. Having no wheel support is not a very wise idea. He said it was becuase they had a lack of personell. Well here are my arguments:
-every feild had a lead vehicle, we dont need lead vehicles. We have course marshalls that can direct us...just like every other race in the state. Take those lead vehicles and put them BEHIND the race, you had enough drivers.
-Every feild should have a car behind the race for safety reasons. Say there is a crach in.....lets say the Cat 4 feild. Say some rider goes off into the ditch and breaks their collarbone. How is a LEAD car going to see that? A FOLLOW car would and moreso, they would have a cell phone to call 911. The rider Darrell and I helped out was lucky that he crashed in the feed zone where there were actually people around. What if he had been knocked unconcious and fell into a ditch in the middle of the course? Who would have seen him?
-"we didnt have enough volunteers" is complete BS. Tri-City cyclists were out racing yesterday. They are instant volunteers. Clubs do not put on races for themselves, they put them on for the STATE. Riders have to make sacrafices, if you are putting on a race, get your friends to volunteer or you should untill every corner is covered and every feild has a follow car.
-I think it should be a rule that every road race requires a follow vehicle for every feild. It annoys me that I paid $35 for registration, $25 for a room, gas money, work off, months of training to get a broken spoke 1 lap into a race, and the organizers are too lazy to have wheel support, so I have to drop out of the race an dont even get a chance to get back in the race.
I know I am being mean to the organizers, I know they did what they could. And I am thankful. I love this race, it is a great course. I will be back next year. But only if they have neutral support for every feild (like last year). It is not a convienience issue I am complaining about, it is a safety issue.
6am the alarms (3 of them) went off and it was up and time to race. We loaded up the room and the bikes then made our way to the lobby for breakfast. I brought Nutella from home to put on our bread....delicious.
Once we got to Zehnders for race prep, we realized that there was no wheel support. The Cat 1/2s had a wheel car, and there was one other wheel car that serviced the other 200 riders. Great idea.
It started raining before the start and Joe and I just chilled out in my car away from the water. Luckily it let up and the temperature picked up before the start. Our race started prety slow. I was expecting some attacks from the gun, but our MCG guys and the Priority guys went to the front and set tempo for the first few miles. The corners were still wet, so we were being carfull not to crash.
Despite our best efforts there was a crash. But it was not because of a wet road. At like mile 2 someone overlapped wheels with me then ran into my wheel and went down. I thought I had caused it, but I talked to a few guys and they all said I had held my line and it was not my fault. However, I was sitting in the top 10 of the peloton at the time, so the crash took down 60% of the feild. We all sat up and waited for the group to get back together and the team capitans to take the toll on their teams. We lost Adam York and Colin Snyder to the crash. So we were down to 7 guys. About a mile later, Joe Lekovish flatted and because there was no wheel support, he was out so we were down to 6.
The rest of the frist lap was really easy and pretty laxed. A few guys tried to get away, but we all said no to most of them and pulled them back. Around mile 8 or 9 a break of two riders including Priority's Mac Brennan got away. We let it go because we had plenty of time to pull it back with 51 miles left in the race.
When we came around to the feed zone the first time, I thought I hit a stick, I heard and felt something in my rear wheel. But it stopped and looked fine, so I stayed with the peloton. As we came through the start area, we were strung out in one big line and upon the first corner of the course, I discovered that it was not a stuck. I had broken a spoke. Around the corner, It came loose and got caught in my cassette, so I could't pedal. And with no wheel support, I was out of the race and my team was down to 5 riders after starting with 9 after just one lap.
I went and hung out in the Feed Zone to help my team. Lucky I was there, because on the Cat 4s last lap, a guy in all black dove left in the middle of the peloton causing a HUGE crash. Bike in the air, people down left and right, riders in the ditch...it was bad. Darrell and I went running across the street ro help. Almost everyone was fine. There were 2 riders that were hurt bad, one guy with a broken collarbone. I called 911 to get the ambulance, then stood in the road directing traffic and racers around the rider and the ambulance once it showed up.
After the rider was taken car of, I went to the start line to watch the end of my race. Brennan and his breakaway companion never got pulled in and made it to the line with Mac taking the big W. As the peloton came through, Scott got 9th in the feild sprint and ended in 11th, Mark Bush in 14th.
From talking with other riders, it appeared that just finishing this race was an accomplishment. It is flat, there was no wind. Finishing this course should not have been a feat. But it was. There were also a LOT of mechanicals at the race, and some odd ones at that. I saw a bike missing a saddle, but the rails were still there, just missing the saddle. Alan Antonuk said his cassette fell off when riding. How does that happen? Another rider got out of the saddle while riding and his rear wheel fell out. Odd day.
After all was said and done, I went and had a word with the race organizer. Having no wheel support is not a very wise idea. He said it was becuase they had a lack of personell. Well here are my arguments:
-every feild had a lead vehicle, we dont need lead vehicles. We have course marshalls that can direct us...just like every other race in the state. Take those lead vehicles and put them BEHIND the race, you had enough drivers.
-Every feild should have a car behind the race for safety reasons. Say there is a crach in.....lets say the Cat 4 feild. Say some rider goes off into the ditch and breaks their collarbone. How is a LEAD car going to see that? A FOLLOW car would and moreso, they would have a cell phone to call 911. The rider Darrell and I helped out was lucky that he crashed in the feed zone where there were actually people around. What if he had been knocked unconcious and fell into a ditch in the middle of the course? Who would have seen him?
-"we didnt have enough volunteers" is complete BS. Tri-City cyclists were out racing yesterday. They are instant volunteers. Clubs do not put on races for themselves, they put them on for the STATE. Riders have to make sacrafices, if you are putting on a race, get your friends to volunteer or you should untill every corner is covered and every feild has a follow car.
-I think it should be a rule that every road race requires a follow vehicle for every feild. It annoys me that I paid $35 for registration, $25 for a room, gas money, work off, months of training to get a broken spoke 1 lap into a race, and the organizers are too lazy to have wheel support, so I have to drop out of the race an dont even get a chance to get back in the race.
I know I am being mean to the organizers, I know they did what they could. And I am thankful. I love this race, it is a great course. I will be back next year. But only if they have neutral support for every feild (like last year). It is not a convienience issue I am complaining about, it is a safety issue.
Monday, May 18, 2009
It's never too late to post...
Sorry all. I have been quite busy lately and as you can see I have neglected my blog.
Anyways, I finished my Sophmore year in college. All As and Bs this semester, just like the last one. I have moved out of the dorm and off campus. I now live in Ann Arbor near the Geddes Cemetary. It is a decent apartment, not amazing, but for $300/month with everything included what do you expect? This fall I will be moving back to Ypsi, but no longer on campus. I will be living in an apartment with a few guys I know from school.
Work has been SLOW lately. All the students went home. Everyone's hours got cut. I went from 40 to 27 and next week I only have 18. The biggest problem is that I have asked for Tuesday and Thursday evening's off for Crit Practice (starting this week) and Waterford Thursday Night Worlds, and they keep scheduling me for Tuesdays. So I am missing the first crit practice, maybe the second, but I'll work it out so I am there for the rest of the season.
Ok, the race reports you guys all care about:
Willow TT - Bike broke the night before, had to use a different one, bad wind, horrible time. Lets not talk about it. One of my worse days on a bike.
STS #4 - Tons of fun. Sunny skies made for great racing in the A feild. I was doing fine and holding my own in the group until my spoke broke, still no one knows how, then I had to get back into the race, which used a lot of energy. Dropped out with 10 minutes left.
Cone - Flatted 15 minutes into the race on the second gravel section. However, our support car had stopped to fix someone elses wheel and was passed by the Masters feild. So when I flatted the car was behind the Masters feild about a mile behind. So I rode a flat tire for about miles until I got it changed and chased hard to try and catch the group, but they were like 2 miles down the road and it wasnt happening. I dropped out and jumped in my car to help pick up riders on the course.
Kensington - Scott put on a great race. Our race was 64 miles long and we were riding or Mark. To make our job easier, York attacked in the opening MILE of the race. A Leadout rider went with him. His Leadout teamates did a great job blocking on the front, and the Priority riders didnt seem eager to chase. Well that breakaway got 3.5 minutes on the feild and York won the race! As I was helping Mark, I used a lot of my energy to keep him out of the wind. He then flatted and refused to take my wheel (he thought there was another teamate behind us, ended up that there wasnt). So I had to chase hard to get back on the peloton, and a lap ana half later, a serious acceleration was put down on the climb and I couldnt maintain contact. So I dropped out.
So I have done 8 races this year including the STS races and Waterford Worlds, and I have 8 DNFs. I really hope I can change that around. Frankenmuth is coming up this weekend. Lets see if we can repeat the victory.
Anyways, I finished my Sophmore year in college. All As and Bs this semester, just like the last one. I have moved out of the dorm and off campus. I now live in Ann Arbor near the Geddes Cemetary. It is a decent apartment, not amazing, but for $300/month with everything included what do you expect? This fall I will be moving back to Ypsi, but no longer on campus. I will be living in an apartment with a few guys I know from school.
Work has been SLOW lately. All the students went home. Everyone's hours got cut. I went from 40 to 27 and next week I only have 18. The biggest problem is that I have asked for Tuesday and Thursday evening's off for Crit Practice (starting this week) and Waterford Thursday Night Worlds, and they keep scheduling me for Tuesdays. So I am missing the first crit practice, maybe the second, but I'll work it out so I am there for the rest of the season.
Ok, the race reports you guys all care about:
Willow TT - Bike broke the night before, had to use a different one, bad wind, horrible time. Lets not talk about it. One of my worse days on a bike.
STS #4 - Tons of fun. Sunny skies made for great racing in the A feild. I was doing fine and holding my own in the group until my spoke broke, still no one knows how, then I had to get back into the race, which used a lot of energy. Dropped out with 10 minutes left.
Cone - Flatted 15 minutes into the race on the second gravel section. However, our support car had stopped to fix someone elses wheel and was passed by the Masters feild. So when I flatted the car was behind the Masters feild about a mile behind. So I rode a flat tire for about miles until I got it changed and chased hard to try and catch the group, but they were like 2 miles down the road and it wasnt happening. I dropped out and jumped in my car to help pick up riders on the course.
Kensington - Scott put on a great race. Our race was 64 miles long and we were riding or Mark. To make our job easier, York attacked in the opening MILE of the race. A Leadout rider went with him. His Leadout teamates did a great job blocking on the front, and the Priority riders didnt seem eager to chase. Well that breakaway got 3.5 minutes on the feild and York won the race! As I was helping Mark, I used a lot of my energy to keep him out of the wind. He then flatted and refused to take my wheel (he thought there was another teamate behind us, ended up that there wasnt). So I had to chase hard to get back on the peloton, and a lap ana half later, a serious acceleration was put down on the climb and I couldnt maintain contact. So I dropped out.
So I have done 8 races this year including the STS races and Waterford Worlds, and I have 8 DNFs. I really hope I can change that around. Frankenmuth is coming up this weekend. Lets see if we can repeat the victory.
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