Cross Eyed

dblomme
I’ve never been able to clear the blues with alcohol. If anything, it just makes me destructive when I’m in that mood. Riding, and riding hard has always helped clear my mind. The last two weeks have kicked in a good transition. I’ve been mountain biking most every day, finding trails that I forgot were there, and even threw on the squishy shoes and started to run again. One of the cool things about cyclocross which is similar to mountain bike racing, is that on some level, it is more of a solo effort. In a road race or criterium, your other teammates are relying and depending on your effort and smart tactical racing. Cross, not so much. I’ve missed some key races this summer with travel to Europe (not complaining because the trips were awesome), so cross season is going to get a serious punch in the face. I’ve got a couple cross seasons in me and upgraded, so I plan to be ready. We should have a strong team for cross this year - I’m shining up the cowbells and already looking forward to it even though it’s 6 weeks away!

Alterra Coffee Bean Classic at Crystal Ridge

Hot and hot and dust and more dust was the call of the day sitting at the bottom of the Elite start shoot waiting to for Don’s GOOOOOO!!!!!!

Had a good start heading up the right side but the left side seemed to be a mess as all I could hear was complaining and swearing.  Make it to the top and settle in the line on the way down to the first set of singletrack feeling pretty good and keeping a fast pace.  I’ve ridden the singletrack at Crystal Ridge a million times so it’s more or less a good place to recover while those that don’t ride there often tend to slow down given how tight it is.  A few passes on my way to the Alpha Trail until we reach Craters of the Moon which is littered full of rocks, ruts and an occasional piece of junk stinking out.  Make it to the top and hammer again to the next section of singletrack and back out towards the top of the ski hill and the Elite climb which is the steepest of the all the climbs we do but not as long.  One 40 foot section and then a quick cruise along the top to another 10 foot or so quick climb, not as steep.  Make a right and then left down to the switchbacks which are again a bit rocky, rutty, some junk but really uneven.  A couple of sharp fast turns and down into the intestines or “Marty” track as we call it with some really sharp turns that you have to really slow down to.  Make it through that and end up at the bottom of the gravel road which is the climb I hate the most, but it’s a steady climb and you just need to get in a good rhythm.  Climb to the top and the lap.  Repeat 3 more times and 28^th place for the day out of 60+.  That’s good for me J

Sanjay Ganju

Self Portrait

Sometimes when your logging miles you decide that it's a good time to take a self portrait. Then maybe edit a little using Photoshop Express & LEGO Photo (my kids introduced me to LEGO Photo)

Anybody else have a self portrait they want to share?

 

j.cassady

Hot N Tasty

Dblomme
Yeah it’s been hot! But riding, racing and fresh fruit is definitely in season.

Fitchburg "Fast and Furious" Criterium

dblomme
Very fun day of racing as a team in all categories.

Blur

I took a pretty big break from racing this summer.  A whole month.  As relaxing as it sounds, it was actually fairly stressful.  However, all the stress came to an end on June 16th.  After over a year of build up, Calli and I were married in Waunakee.  The ceremony, reception and pretty much everything about it went off really well.  The day we had planned for, for more than a year, was here and gone.

One of the more random parts of the day was during photos.  Teammate, and Waunakee resident, Dirk happened to ride by while we were having pictures taken.  We were at the covered bridge off of Brookside Lane when a few riders were looking to come through.  We stepped out of the way and sure enough, Dirk rolls by!  The photographers had us pretty busy, but he stopped quick to say hi.  Just another great part of our awesome day.

After the month away from racing, I knew that racing at TOAD was going to be a challenge.  I went to Waukesha for the first Sunday of TOAD.  I should have known better, but I didn't get there early enough to take a lap a race or two prior to mine.  I thought it would be no big deal to take a lap prior to the start of my race, especially on a course I had never raced before.  After riding the course, I rolled up to the start line in about the 10th row.  Not good.  As the race started, I was hanging in the pack but finding it hard to move up.  Lots of corners, a big bunch, and some Cat 2s in the mix with the Cat 3s didn't leave much room to move up.  I made a couple of big efforts to try and get to the front, as the acceleration in the pack were starting to take their toll.  However, with about 8 laps left, I just couldn't hang on anymore.  It could have been the hot day, the faster pace, the tough course, the slight hangover, or any combination of those.  I'm sure the month without any real hard efforts didn't do me much good either.

I skipped doing any of the mid-week races (saving some vacation days for a honeymoon later this year).  A wedding on the day of Downer's was not exactly how I wanted to be spending that Saturday, but it was fun.  I was pretty motivated to finish Madison.  I got a second row starting spot and was able to hang towards the front of the pack most race.  Again it was a very fast pace, but I could carry speed through the corners and maintain a position towards the front quarter of the bunch.  I was able to avoid a last lap crash and come in for 24th, a slight improvement on last year's finish.  Not great, but all things considered, I was happy with it.

Getting the fat tires out this weekend for the first MTB race of the season.  Good luck to all of those headed to state crits! 

Trek Midwest Master 3/4 are heating up

Our win at the Fast & Furious crit on Sunday was a great team effort and I tip my hat to my teammates for helping me capture my first road win. The guys did such a great job of helping to keep the break away. Bike racing is so much frick’n fun when the team work happens and it works!  I was getting info from a fan on the guys were working to keep us away and that just fed my desire to suffer and make it work.    Kudo’s to everyone for making it happen. 

Here’s how it went down from my perspective.

I was covering a bridge attempt. The break had several strong guys in it including David Studner.  When we got to the break at corner 1 the guys sat up and looked to be giving up on it.  I jumped it right away just prior to the group being caught and just prior to the head wind section.  I encourage Doug (independent guy who’s been really active in our races) to jump on and he did.  Initially,  it seemed impossible that it would work with just two but I was feeling good and was committed to it.  My confidence was rocked a little when I looked at the lap count and it was only at 7 minutes into the race.   With more than 40 minutes to go, I knew I was going to need my mates in the pack to help me stay away – and boy did they ever.  I tried not to think about how much further but instead focused on resting when Doug was pulling up the home stretch and pushing my pulls into the head wind section.   We sorted out that rotation really quickly since Doug was telling me he was uncertain how much and how long he was going to be able to work with me.   With each time gap report growing slowly and with the time ticking down it became more and more feasible that it was going to work…if I could keep the pressure on.  Doug thought he was going to pop several times but I kept encouraging him to hang in there for one more lap….since that was running through my head over and over…just one more lap.    The toughest section was from  laps 10 to 5 to go.   I rested a little extra around 7 to 5 laps to go thinking that we were going to have to hold off a pack that would be hard for my teammates to control.  We had about 35 seconds at that point.  At 5 to go I worked extra hard on that back stretch and extended my pulls up the home stretch.   At about 3 laps to go Doug told me he was not going to contest the sprint.  Up until then, I really tried not to think about how I was going to muster up something extra to deal with Doug for the win.  I tried to focus solely on being committed to my maximum sustain effort and make the break work was my only priority.  Around 5 to go I started thinking about it. I was not going to leave it to a sprint since I could tell that he was really struggling to hold on and I really don’t know what kind of sprinter I am –  estimating somewhere between mediocre to poor –  certainly inexperienced.  The plan was to jump him after his pull at 2 laps to go just prior to corner.  Actually, I don’t think I had it that well planned out but that would have been the best plan.   

Thanks again,  it felt great to deliver knowing how much abuse and hard work my teammates put out.  

Mike Meteyer

Ps  I wont be trying to bunny hop any more curbs until cross season.   So the header I took after the race to go see my daughter and friends who were cheering for me will not be any sort of post-race tradition.  

Congrats to Mike Meteyer on his win the Masters 3/4 race at the Fitchburg crit!

It was a great team effort, all the way around.
And Mike sealed the deal with the win out of the break.
Awesome!

View from the back - race reports

Jim Merrifield

For not having much to show in terms of results, I can not remember when I worked harder. But hopefully it helped my teammates. The first Saturday in June was the Lake Geneva RR - a gently rolling course thru the country side. The course was not going to thin the field but the winds could make it tough. In the Masters3/4 race, Greg F and Mike M were active early. Greg was off the front late in the first lap (if I recall correctly) when Mike M bridged up to him and much to the surprise of David S, Glen and myself, the pack let him go. So the boys were off to the races. David, Glen and I did our best to disrupt and discourage any attempts to real the boys in. David and Glen were very smooth about getting into the pace line and just not pulling thru. I spend some of the time further back waiting for someone to want to do something and then quite a few times, followed them up. Saw quite a bit of elbow waggling and hand waving up there. Sorry, not pulling thru but thanks for bringing me to the front! At about 3 laps in, one guy bridged up and I hoped that would be enough to let Greg and Mike finally move outta sight and mind but the winds kept them in check and in sight. So we kept throttling back the pack. A few times, I felt I needed to move up, usually on the windy side of the pack, to discourage the boys by half wheeling to lead rider, pinning him to the yellow line and keep the second rider from moving to the head of the line. It worked very well to slow the pack but cost me a lot of energy. With about a lap to go and some boys at the front driving into the head wind and gaining on the break, I decided to play that trick again, hoping that discouraging them just one more time might do the trick. And stayed up there, keeping the dogs in check as long as I could but the break was caught - and I was hosed. If someone had countered, I am not sure if I could have worked back into the pack. But I recovered on the downwind section and fought to stay in good position in the front, hoping to help Glen, David or Greg or Mike if they had any gas let in the tank. Or at least try to soften up the competition by forcing one or two to ride in the wind coming into the final corner. As luck would have it, all but Mike were on the right side of the pack while I was on the left and when I told Mike to get on the wheel, he said he was gassed. So I was kind of a non-factor at the end, wrong place to help but it was a fun race, trying to keep Mike and Greg away.

The next day was the Sussex crit and we (Glen, Patrick, Greg and I) got together before the race to talk about the plan. We would all get to the front with 2 or three to go and then I was to bring us to the front early in the last lap for as long as I could, giving over to Patrick, with Greg then taking Glen to the line. It was another windy day and while it was unlikely that a break was going to go anywhere unless it was 3 - 4 people, I decided I would patrol the front, just in case. A few solo efforts but nothing to speak of. And like clockwork, the boys all got towards the front with the laps winding down. And then sand started to get in the strategy gears. With a couple laps to go, NO ONE wanted to be in the wind and the front started to get crowded. Patrick decided to keep it fast and went to the front but taking the pack into the head wind took its toll. I then took a turn at the front, more to keep from getting swallowed as much as anything, trying to save something for the final go. And then fought to stay close to the front. I could feel there was no leadout in my legs but hoped that I could grab an early wheel up the side and then go strong into the final corner, hopefully bringing Greg and Glen along. I came around the final corner in the top 4 or 5 and then BOOM. Time to move to the side because the only thing that was going to get me up the final climb was knowing my spare wheels were in the pit. Glen however was 4th, getting overtaken just before the line, thanks to Greg bringing him forward. And despite the suffering, another fun race working as a team.

Hot Weather Racing - What Fun!

What a weekend of racing - the Tour of Galena on Saturday and the State RR Championships on Sunday.

First up, the Tour of Galena, a three-stage omnium (6.7 mile hilly prologue time trial on Saturday morning, a hilly road race on Saturday afternoon, and a downtown crit on Sunday) - it is a really nice event and I expect to see more TMT riders there next year! The prologue went well (I finished second), but I could tell just from the morning temp (already about 80 degrees) that the afternoon's road race was going to be brutal! Finishing up the prologue by 9:30 am and the road race not starting until 3 pm made for a long day of sitting around - luckily I happened to park across from the local "air conditioned" library, so I hung out there most of the day catching up on the latest issues of People magazine! Mike M joined me for the road race - race conditions of temps in the low 90s and windy, perfect for racing (note the sarcasm!). Shortly after the gun a Team Mack rider (they had 4-5 guys in the race) and another guy roll off the front, and I decide "why not" and bridge up to them (I thought it might be a good way to get the legs warmed up for later efforts). About 15 minutes later we hit the first moderate hill, and my two break away partners are falling back already, so I decide "what the heck" and decide to motor on without them. I continued to build a significant lead and soon the pack was nowhere to be seen, and since I was catching riders in the categories who started in front of us, I thought that could only help too as they pack would not know where I was. And Mike also was having a nice free ride in the group. Well fast forward to about 10 miles left to race - the heat, wind, and the effort of riding solo for the past 1.5 hours was beginning to take its toll. My right leg was starting to cramp up and my effort was beginning to drop as a result - on one of the steeper hills I actually thought I might have to walk the last 100 meters! Now I was at the point of having to unclip every so often and shake my leg around thinking that will help delay the onset of a cramp (like that will help!). With about 5 miles to go Mike and another guy (who ended up winning the omnium) caught me - my dream of fame and fortune from a solo win quickly faded and now it was survival time! I watch the two of them disappear and I am now hoping my leg does not seize up and leave me laying by the side of the road! Finally, the 500m to go sign, but now I see two Team Mack guys coming up quickly behind me!! I start my one-legged sprint, but get caught by one of the guys at the 200m to go sign and I roll in for fourth. Mike had a good race and finished second and also learned a valuable lesson - preview the finish!

Mike and I then decided that racing in the heat and wind on Saturday was so much fun that why not do it again on Sunday at the State RR Championships! Neither of us were feeling too good about our chances given the fatigue we both were feeling from Saturday's race, but you never know how things will go. Halfway into the first lap Chris Halverson attacks with two other guys, and by the time I bridged up, Chris had already dropped the two of them. The three of us chase for a lap (as the pack is chasing us as well), but we fail to close the gap to Chris and the pack finally catches us. Chris is gone and solos in for victory (he is a beast!). A few attacks from the pack here and there, but Team Velocause (with 8 or so guys) seems to want a pack finish, so nothing gets away and it comes down to a pack sprint up the finishing hill at the end. Wish I could say that Mike and I saved it all for the end and we smoked the field up the hill, but alas that was not the case! The team did have some success: Gordy is the new state champ, Glen finished 4th, and Diane finished 3rd - excellent work!