What a day!

Jim Merrifield

When last I wrote, I had just finished the Waukesha M3/4 crit. And I was feeling pretty good, strength and fitness-wise. And not as tired as I was after Saturday's race though in many respects, Waukesha was harder. On the way home, I was grappling with the concept of doing the Greenbush road race. Hmmm - if I was to continue to be in contention for the overall series in the 55+ M3/4, I would need to go. And my weight is good so climbing should be OK. But, for better or for worse, reality won out. Missing a day of work was not going to be a happening thing. Too much for me to do. And I had promised friends that I would drive the carpool. And I thought it would be better for me to take an active rest day in rather than beat myself up day after day. So, time to steer my thoughts towards the Schlitz Park crit in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

The day started out good. Looking at the weather forecast, it appeared the thunder showers would not roll thru till about 3, well after my race. Punched in what I thought was the correct address into the GPS and away I go. Somehow, I had it in my head that the race was a little south of 94 instead of a little north. And so that is how what I thought was impossible was achieved - getting lost while using a GPS! I knew the cross streets but kept thinking mistakenly that the race was in the opposite direction of where it was. FINALLY got to the race site 45 minutes before my start time - half an hour later than planned. No opportunity to ride the course (something that is not built into the TOAD planning but which I have been trying to do). Wish I had ridden it! The course looks like the other TOAD crits from a map - a rectangle with a chicane stuck in. Only this one had a left-right-left-right kinda chicane with the first left of the series coming off a significant descent. It had the potential for a fun course if you did not slide on the manhole covers scattered thru the chicanes.

A smallish field lined up - maybe 45 riders with of course the folks vying for the 55+ overall. Two minutes before the start of the race, the skies opened up and it poured. It let off just as the race was started and I honestly do not know if it rained during the race - you know how road spray makes it a moot point anyway. I had decided to ride my alloy wheels rather than my carbon tubies because the gearing on the alloy wheels should let me stay in the big ring up the climb. The trouble was, I had the carbon brake pads on and past experience had shown that my braking was "suspect" with this combo in the rain. Anyway, the gun goes off an it is immediately into the climb - steep and the boys are pushing it. I am mid pack and not feeling bad on the climb but there is a LOT of variation in the confidence people are feeling on the turns and the descent. Some are going backwards and some are charging forward. I am trying to move around those moving backwards while not sure how much I want to test my cornering and braking. And DAMN but those manholes are in BAD places. I am not sure how my brakes are doing so I am not taking the lines I normally would. First time thru the start/finish and it is a LONG line and I am not where I was hoping and I can see the gaps opening. I am still riding OK up the climb but not willing to push thru the corners and after a couple laps find myself with a small group. We are all starting to figure out the lines thru the corners and I feel like the pace is pretty good but it is too late for us - the leaders are up the road. The course starts to dry out a bit and we are passing lapped riders (already?) and catching up to a few who could not hang on the climb. Those manholes continue to look as big as tractor tires, however. I watched a couple guys slide sideways on one coming into the finishing straight. And in the end, finish 20th or so. Wish it had been dry but the sad truth was that my climbing was not quite good enough to be with the lead pack. Still, it was fun, especially the bottom part of the chicane once I dialed it in. And on the drive home, I drove thru a storm that was headed to Milwaukee - hope Eric was done before it hit!

Next up - Fond du Lac on Friday followed by Downers and Madison.

Stage 5 of TOAD - Focal Flame Photography catches Eric

Eric Knuth is not an easy one to catch. He's fast, and currently sitting in 5th place overall in the Tour of America's Dairyland for Masters 1/2/3 45+. Locally, that is a very fast category. The racing continues daily thru the end of the weekend so come check it out.

Focal Flame Photography:
www.focalflame.com
www.focalflame.com/blog
www.facebook.com/focalflame

Tour of America's Dairyland: Waukesha, Master's 1/2/3. It hurt this bad. Ouch!

Tour of America's Dairyland - first 3 races

Jim Merrifield

A couple weeks ago, with the Tour of America's Dairyland (TOAD) fast approaching the legs were showing signs of life. On June 4th, I raced at Fitchburg in the M3/4 and felt pretty good for the first time in a while. I was sliding up the sides easily and even got myself into good position for the last lap. And then turned around and did the M1/2/3 field. I was actually feeling better in that race. My acceleration was OK and because the race was much smoother than the M3/4, I was able to use my energy positively. But it was a hot day, the first hot day of the season, training or racing and started to overheat with 6 or 7 laps to go. A couple more laps and I decided it was a good time to have a hefeweisen (one of my home brews, of course) and watch the races.

Friday, June 17th was the start of the TOAD races out in Thiensville. Last year, I won a 6-pack of race entries to the TOAD series and signed up for the first 3 in the Masters3/4 field. It was a tight twisty course and I knew I needed to get to the front to avoid the whip-sawing. About 70 people were on the starting line and well, they all looked too young but perhaps you know how it is - the older you get, the younger they look. Anyway, even with a good start and being up towards the front, there was a LOT of charging into the corners and then hitting the brakes. I tried to be as smooth as I could but too often, someone would jump in front of me and then hit the brakes. I tried to slide inside or out and often passed them back but eventually decided it would be safer to just chill towards the back half of the pack where I did not have to be charging so often. Besides, I have only so many accelerations in me and that number is not nearly what others in the race have. Of course, that puts me potentially behind any crashes and while there were a few dramatic changes of line that got everyone excited, no one went down in front of me. The big mistake I made was with 4 laps to go, I was too timid. No one wanted to be in the wind but everyone wanted to be the 4th or 5th wheel. That meant that coming into the corners, you had a 3 or 4 people at the front and then everyone else spread out across the road. And those folks had to then sort themselves out going into the corner. I had been watching this for the last few laps and with 4 to go, I knew I should have jumped around the group and gone to the front - and I easily could have - but that would have meant fighting to maintain position for the last 4 laps - something I was not sure I had the fitness to do. So , I decided I would do it NEXT lap. OOPS! Should have known better. The folks at the front decided to ramp it up on the next lap and I did not have the opportunity to jump to the front for the rest of the race. So instead, I was content to keep it smooth and keep my eyes open to avoid any last lap crashes.

Saturday, June 18th was at Grafton. I forgot how much I like that course. In some respects it was like Thiensville with an "S" section but much looser and so one could slide up in the corners easily. But I had a lousy start. Could not get clipped in and found myself at about the back of an 85 or 90 person pack. #%$! Then just as I started to roll, got caught behind a crash. I perhaps should have had the presence of mind to "fall down" and take a free lap but instead chased after coming to essentially a standstill. For the next few laps, I was back in the cheap seats and thougnt I was gonna be dropped. Fortunately, there were others behind me and I rode a few of them as best I could and then started to slide the corners to move up towards the middle of the pack so that I was no longer tail-gunning. Still in survival mode but the precipice was edging away. Then, unexpectedly, I started to feel good! I got out of the saddle, charged up the little ride on the back side and sid through on the inside of the next corner and up towards the front of the pack where Tom Hooyer and David Bloome were. With Tom's help, I stayed up towards the front and thought we were in good position with 1 to go but then got blocked in as a bunch of folks came up the side and had to settle for mid 20s position. And good enough to be the top 55+ finisher.

Sunday, June 19th was a different story. This race was at Waukesha, another technically demanding course. Again starting position was going to be important and when they staged the M3/4 field, I found myself at the back. And thoug I had a good start, I really needed to be up further in the field. There was an off camber turn that had a lot of people hitting the brakes coming into and then accelerating out of to make up for the gap they just opened. They might have that acceleration - not me! After just a few times being stuck behind a couple of the strong, timid types, I was hosed. Off the back. At least I was not the only one and got in a little chase group almost immediately and we rolled thru for the next bunch of laps, picking up a few more stragglers. Amazing how much easier it was when I was not braking into the corners!

And I had to finish. I was in contention for the overall prize in the 55+ group. And despite being off the back, there were other 55+ folks behind me and only one in front. What to do, what to do. With a relatively few number of 55+ folks in the M3/4 field, the overall prize is more a matter of showing up, rather than placing as points are awarded 20 for first, 19 for second, 18 for 3rd and so on. If only 3 55+ folsk show up, finishing 3 laps down still gets you 18 points for the race. Despite this, I decided that it would be stupid for me to race today (Monday) in the road race. Time for a rest day. The Tuesday race will be hard enough being a little rested! And we shall see what we shall see for the rest of the week. At least I am having fun, something I was not so sure of when I was getting dropped unceremoniously in the early season.

TOAD Series - Grafton

Raced Grafton today. The weather turned out to be beautiful and the racing was fun. Raced M3/4 with Jim and Tom. Pat C. called in the morning bumming from bronchitis but stilled showed up with his family to cheer the team on (and eat some great food in Cedarburg post race).
I managed to stay at the front of the pack (89 starters) most of the race and even closed a breakaway. Team Velocause is a strong team who had a lot of guys show up that were riding smart today by sending guys up to attempt a breakaway and then covered most everyone else who tried to bridge.  I missed the one that did end up sticking (hard to guess which one will). For the final sprint, I was in the top 10 of the field going into the last right turn, but the guy just ahead and to the right of me didn't hold his line well and aimed his bike right for the curb forcing us both to hit the brakes way too hard and just miss impact. I watched a flurry of colored jerseys pass me by but still finished alright. Pretty fun race. We'll need a few more teammates in this series to have an impact against the other teams - they're riding strong.
We watched Sanjay rip it up in the 2/3's race, and I heard Jim get called to the podium for an award from the previous race. What did you win Jim?!

If the weather holds out I'll see you in Waukesha tomorrow for more racing.

Where is your next adventure.....get going

Rapha Rides the Victorian Alps from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Practice Crit

Last night, five of us ripped it around the corners for the Madison Tuesday Night Practice Crit.

Wausau WORS Race

Nine Mile has been one of my favorite places to ride since I started mountain biking in high school. I've spent countless hours there during 24 hour races, not to mention the WORS races and some day trips to enjoy the trail system.

I've done one WORS race each of the past few years and I'm hoping to change that this year. That being said, my next one may not come until August. Anyways, Sunday's race was a tough one, as expected. I'm not sure there is much you can do in training to get ready for the start of one of these races. It's full gas until you have to back off. That usually means one really fast lap followed by a lap that hurts...and I was hurting my second lap. A couple of mistakes on my part along with getting caught behind slower riders and making a wrong turn landed me in 4th place in my age group and 23rd overall in Comp. Not too shabby for the lack of mountain bike racing. Hoping to improve on that later this year.

In related news, I carpooled to the race with Dirk. I can confirm that he did indeed take part in his first race of the year and had a great result: 15th in Elite. He was so fast the only picture I could get was right at the finish line. Nice work, Dirk!



m.kamphuis

Tour of America's Dairyland race series

Tour of America's Dairyland or "TOAD" as the cool kids say.
The Trek Midwest Team will be out racing this great series. While all of the races are fun to watch, the last two seem get some of the biggest crowds. For Milwaukee spectators, Saturday June 25th on Downer Ave. is a good one to watch. For Madison viewers, the next day (June 26th) should be another fun one to watch as it is scheduled to race downtown around the state's capitol square.

Stop by to say "hi" and cheer the team on - It's going to be fun!

Tour of America's Dairyland (TOAD)

Masters Racing and Senior Moments

Hard to believe the WCA series is already winding down with only 7 races left - and it's only June! At least we still have a lot of other racing options during June and July, including the Tour of America's Dairyland and Superweek.

A couple recent race reports: Dale and I did the State road race championships 2 weeks ago, as it turns out the only road race on the schedule this year (at least it has a hill!). We had a pretty good size field in the 40+ (about 50 guys), with Enzo's-PSIMET team being the largest team with 4 guys and then several other teams with 2 guys (including our very own Trek Midwest Team). Unfortunately, two guys got away early (one from Enzo and one from ISCorp) and that was all she wrote. Dale and I were pretty much the only ones who came to race (other than the two up the road!), everyone else was content to ride around for two hours and wait for the sprint, only making efforts to chase down any efforts to bridge or attack and make it a race that were initiated by Dale and I. Why do guys show up to race if they are not going to race - after all, it is a bike RACE is it not???

This past weekend, Greg, Dale, and I headed to the Tour of Galena, a two day, three stage race (see Greg's detailed report). Put it on your calendar for next year - great race and nice location. A technical, rolling prologue, a long hilly road race, and a downtown crit, and the town has plenty to do for family whom you "drag" along and places to eat and drink post-race. If you read Greg's report, you know I had a bit of a senior moment - it's a course I couldn't wait for, steep and relatively long (by Midwest standards) hills. Although we pre-rode the course in the car earlier that day, when it came to riding the course, I can only blame my mishap on a "senior moment." We crested one of the climbs and came to an intersection - rather than following the course and heading straight, I somehow thought we had to go right and as I began to head that way I see Dale coming up on my right heading the correct direction. So naturally I run into Dale, somehow manage to jump off my bike mid-crash and land standing up, but my bike hits the deck and the front derailleur shifter is no longer working (I snapped the shifting blade off) and my rear derailleur is bent in, leaving me with just the small chain ring and about 5 working cogs. I try to stay with the group, but imagine trying to keep up with the group on a 50 mph descent and the fast flats that followed while in the small chain ring and pedaling about 300 rpm! So I head back to the car and cheer for the boys from the sidelines. It was still a fun race weekend, and well worth seeing Greg doing his Scottish Erkel imitation (see the picture of his imitation)!

E Knuth