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Cyclocross smell is in the air!

it's officially autumn.  that time of year when one crisp breeze brings back all the agony/satisfaction of high school xc.   it's intoxication.  and fortunately, it's channeled this year into cyclocross rather than a very restless and guily-feeling off season.

i picked up an old cannondale cx bike from Doug at Big Shark and transferred the road groupo over.  its a rockin' 1x10 with a 39tooth up front.

at herman cross under the lights though, things got off to a bad start.  i was so psyched up for the race that not finishing was a huge disappointment.  I nabbed the holeshot and held on for the first lap, then on the second got passed by a two guys, but kept them within about 5 seconds lead.  on the third lap though, i fumbled the stair climb and ended up dropping my chain outside its chain guard.  sadly, that's a tool and time requiring mechanical not simply a stop and replace type deal.  my race was over.

i was pumped for sunday then, trying to get a little redemption.  My father and i drove down there sunday to find the place underwater.  no race today.


it was a disappointing weekend.  I felt like i had legs and plenty of motive i never got to test.  it was really nice being able to spend time with my parents though.

Tour of StL (Carondolet Park Criterium)

This weekend was both the tour of STL and Collegiate regionals at Purdue. In light of a chemistry exam tonight, i opted for the local crit.

The weather showed all signs of holding off all morning before the noon criterium, but we ended up racing through a couple downpours. This was my first local race of the season and i was really pumped and trusted my fitness (which i have to say, is a nice feeling).

I decided i'd sit in the first 30 minutes as i did not have a teammate in the race and then allow a bit more aggression in the last half. A breakaway got off early and surprisingly, lasted quite sometime. About half way through, the sky just broke loose and it was heavy heavy rain. I couldn't see anything out of my glasses and with them off there as so much debris and spray that i couldn't really see either. that made things interesting.

at the time i was in a sort of chase group, leading the peloton and following the break. no one was organizing to work, but we had just finished an effort and were as close to the break as we'd been all race (10-15 seconds maybe), so i hit it. I figured the rain might slow the peloton down and that the break showed some promise staying away as long as it did. more than anything though, i was restless. I'm not very good at riding conservatively (too impatient). I got away solo and made the gap in about 45 seconds, feeling really strong.

turns out that one more rider was all it took to motivate the peloton though and we were caught in a matter of laps.

i just sat in then mixed it up in the finish, turning out a tenth place result/pack finish.

right over the line though, a gateway rider fell in front of me and i managed to swerve, but others tried to rely on their brakes and ended up hitting the barriers pretty hard as there was no stopping due to the rain.

OSU weekend

truthfully, it came and went. i got dropped in the road race and finished 15th out of 20 or so. that was demoralizing. It had been a rough week at school, but still i was lacking either form or mentality or both.

the criterium went better. i had a couple teammates in the peloton with me and while we really weren't able to organize in time or with enough power to really take control, it was nice having good company. i think i finished 7th behind a two man break. still not a good finish, but i sprinted from the back of the field and found out that i actually had legs. in retrospect i should have gotten myself better placing coming in, but that's that.

this saturday brothers Matt and Ian, strongman Vince, and myself did about an 80 mile hammerfest. We ended up in a tempo level paceline for the entire 4 hours it felt like, or at least until vince broke a shoe. it was the kind of thing that was much more intense than the powertap data would have liked, but my legs felt good and honestly it was a lot of fun.

this weekend is Purdue/Regionals. I'll be training through it, but am still excited. i'm shooting for tempo work tuesday, high volume thursday and just endurance stuff in between.

Herman Century

Well, i've always wanted to do a century ride to Herman and for one reason or another, just never got around to doing it when i was living in washington, mo. So, this easter i decided i would.

ouch.

i ended up following a route that took me up and down what felt like the biggest hills in this part of the country. climbing out of New Haven and Herman a couple times in the same ride is a good experience. i shouldn't really complain though, because i was taking it as easy as i could and zig zagging up the steeper hills (weak, i know).

on the brighter side though i managed the entire ride without bonking and turning out relatively consistent numbers throughout the ride. that was a first for me. Also, i got to see loads of turkey, deer, squirrels, rabbits, etc. There's something that feels amazing about diving down into the bottomlands from the top of a bluffside and then just drilling 27-30 mph through farmlands in the river bottoms. uniquely satisfying feeling. anxious to do it again.

SIU Collegiate Weekend

So saturday and sunday was another collegiate cycling race only this time in Carbondale IL.

Road race saturday was 42 miles of really nice rolling terrain with a couple decent hills for good measure. Really nice course that wound around through national forest land and skirted a lakeside. It reminded me a lot of the rural roads around Washington, MO. Unfortunately the legs were not there for the RR (least not for the hills). I decided to play it patient, and let the decisive breakaway get off within the first couple of miles. that was frustrating. But, the peloton didn't rest and wasn't controlled by teams working for their mates up the road. Instead there were brief periods when we'd organize and chase for about 10 minutes, catch our quarry, then go back to attacking one another. that's all well and good, but we had a breakaway hovering only about 30' - a minute ahead and never organized fully. i got dropped a climb and just rode around for another lap to get some mileage in. I felt like i was riding pretty well, and had okay fitness, i just didn't respond well to the constant on/off riding we were doing. i've got the top end for a handful of meaningful attacks, but not the recovery for one every couple of minutes.

Sunday's criterium was better. It was a very short (1k) and moderately technical (7 turns including a 180) loop around campus. it had a bit of elevation and rain to make things interesting. looking at it, it looked technical enough to support a breakaway effort and i rode the first couple of laps expecting one of the jumps to stick, but the after familiarizing ourselves with the course, the peloton was able to get through everything really fluidly. So i ended up riding in the first 1/3 of the field primarily and found myself in a couple of moves, but nothing meaningful. coming into the finish i was sitting 4th or 5th wheel and ended up slammed into a marian rider by a careless move from someone else. i watched my front tire slide between his shoe and chainrings, the drift back into his rear der. , then out. we were both fine, but i lost a couple places and lost my nerve to mix it up an a field sprint. truthfully though, i had no legs to sprint on, so i don't think i missed out on much. i probably finished top 10 since the race had disintegrated, but i was at the back of the peloton or finishing group.

the slu representation was great though. Saturday we had 13 riders and they took the C race by storm with Hackett bro's taking 2/3, vince 6th (i think), and mike 13th. nice work guys!

Lindenwood Criterium

Lindenwood Collegiate Criterium was a very warm welcome back to competitive cycling for 2010. The race itself was a 1 kilo flat loop with a section of smooth cobblestones and a couple semi-technical turns. The only thing to slow it down was a headwind along the river.

Race Review: I sat in the first 20 minutes, then found myself a couple seconds off the front with another group of 2 riders some 20 seconds up the road. I hit it. it took me a lap and a half to bridge the gap and when i did, i blew up. In retrospect, the move was too early, too reckless, and had my breakway companions attacked me given up the effort, my race would have likely been over.

Sunday though, it worked. My breakaway companions (Nick from Marian and a guy from Indiana whose name i never caught) let me sit on for couple laps and after we began smooth paceline rotations and were able to make significant time on the peloton with the Marian team chasing anything and everything off the front of it.

I was really committed to the breakaway. I had not anticipated a podium finish and when one was potentially in sight, i wanted to make it work. In hindsight, i really didn't have the mentality to win. I was content the minute i was guaranteed a second place finish. Potentially, i could have won the race - although i doubted my legs, i think i was stronger than Nick, my final breakaway companion. i think it was a case of me being primarily competitive with myself, meeting/exceeding my own expectations, then failing to get competitive with other B collegiate racers.

Today i want to win. its probably less feasible, but i want the top spot.