Delirium

Treepow

2012-01-02T10:37:00.000-06:00

Good to be racing!

2011-11-09T18:26:00.001-06:00

This past sunday i took part in my first race since july. All i can say is that it's good to be back. In May my back flared up on me and though i limped thru racing until July i called it quits after superweek. After taking a good month off I started riding again and finally in the middle of October I was able to start doing some cyclocross specific training. I'm nowhere near i'd like to be fitness wise but cyclocross is just too fun to miss.

New Bars on the Cross Bike

2011-09-16T10:59:00.001-05:00

Long story short is that my back has been messed up since may. Raced a bit thru July then called it quits. I've been riding again now for a few weeks but it's all easy endurance paced riding until i can do that pain free.

About a month ago i dropped the chain on my road bike and it sucked my derailleur into my rear wheel. Shredded the derailleur as well as bent the dropout/hanger. I'm sitting on the frame for a bit before i send it back to Trek to have the dropout replaced.

Since then i've been riding my cross bike. When i built the cross bike last year i threw my old road bars on it that were 42cm. My road bike is now a 44cm bars and i always felt a little cramped with the 42cm bars.

This week i bought a 44cm wide handle bars and i can't believe how much better it feels. Now the cross bike feels like my bike. Now i'm really loving this bike.

Also i grabbed some Forte Grip-Tec Handlebar Tape. This was the first time i've used this stuff and i have to say it's gotta be the easiest tape installation i've ever done. Great tape to work with and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. It's quite comfy as well. We'll see how it's durability is.

Fox River Grove

2011-05-26T10:57:00.000-05:00

Thankful to be alive.

2011-04-04T12:48:00.003-05:00

This past weekend we took a mini family vacation to Galena. As always the bike came with and the plan was to get a couple rides in on the course for the Tour of Galena RR. In later posts I'll profile the climbs on the loop and I'll also have a review of the Sea Sucker Talon+ bike rack I recently purchased but this post is about how I feel very blessed to be writing this right now.

Saturday morning I woke up to clear skis. It had been overcast and rainy and Friday I actually got sleeted on so this was a welcome change. I headed out from our hotel at about 6:35am for the 20min or so ride from the hotel to the southernmost part of the course.

When I left the hotel it was twilight as the sun wasn't above the horizon yet. I had 2 white flashing lights on the handlebars and two flashing red lights on the rear of the bike. By the time I made it to Gulliford road and started the climb the sun was above the horizon. I went over the climb and descended down to Stagecoach road.

Stagecoach is a road I don't like to be on too much because there isn't much of a shoulder and it's the main road heading East out of town. Traffic isn't that heavy but speeds are high and you do have to be careful. The sun was on the horizon at my back and looking back it was blinding but it was behind me so I wasn't too concerned but was very aware that any oncoming traffic might not see me.

From Gulliford rd Stagecoach takes a soft right curve then straightens out for about 1km. I had just entered this part and was hugging the shoulder as close as I could. I heard what sounded like a pickup coming up from behind so I steadied myself and waited for the truck to pass.

What happened next took only about 1.5 seconds. The first clue that I had that this wasn't going to be a normal pass was that startling feeling you get when someone buzzes you. You know they are coming but unless you have done a head swivel to check if they are giving you space, the proximity of their front bumper to you as it enters your peripheral vision startles you. I didn't even get to complete the thought of "damn that bumper is.." then WACK! The trucks mirror tags me on the back. The sound was loud.

Somehow by the grace of God i didn't go down. Then to my surprise the driver of the pickup just keeps going. He did not even adjust his path or tap the breaks. Just kept on driving. Completely stunned I came to a stop and quickly checked myself out. Other than feeling like I had just been slapped really hard on my back I seemed fine. Then I started taking tabs on the truck. All white large pickup, maybe early 2000's. I don't think it was a dual rear tires but it was large, with large black extended mirrors.

As the truck disappeared around the next curve I continued into town. Once in town I did a couple loops looking for the pickup but didn't see one. I then went to the county courthouse and talked to an officer there who took some details down but said that it was a county sheriff's deputy that needed to interview me but he was in East Dubuque dealing with overnight vandalism. Long story short, I finished my ride of the RR circuit and rode back to my hotel. A little while later a Deputy met me at the hotel and filed a report.

This photo shows the exact point where i was hit. The orange line on the graph is my cadence. I stopped pedaling the moment i got hit. The blue line is my speed.

Will anything come of this? I don't know. I just wanted this on record so if it happens again there will be a history recorded.

Could I have done anything different? Well I actually had a GoPro camera on the bike but it was off because I was saving it for some of the climbs later in the ride. I had the blinky lights going and was in colorful clothing so I don't think I could have been better prepared. I was as close to the shoulder as possible as well.

Being that there was no oncoming traffic I'm pretty certain that the driver was either impaired or that this was deliberate. I just can't believe that he didn't see me before or after.

Location:Galena, IL

Getting reacquainted with the road bike

2011-03-10T21:19:00.001-06:00

Tonight I rode the road bike for the first time since I think October. I've been using the cross bike for trainer rides all this time and switching back to the road bike was a bit of a shock.

I've yet to get an outdoor ride in yet but hopefully that all changes tomorrow.

Quick Update 2011 season

2011-02-27T12:15:00.005-06:00

I have just completed a 3 week base period training block that has to be the best one i've ever had this time of year. I was able to make my hours all 3 weeks with almost all of the time being indoors on the trainer and rollers. It's getting a bit mind numbing but it's awesome to have friends over for the early sat. am long rides. Makes the time go faster.

I had been afraid to compare to last year since i feel i haven't been as driven as i was at this time last year but the good news is that i'm a little ahead of this same time last year so i'm excited about that.

After hearing about all the exciting things happening in the midwest this fall for cyclocross i've decided to make a somewhat focused run at cyclocross this fall so the current plan is to build up for Superweek in July and then reset for the fall.

I've also gotten myself into another Gatorade Study that i'll be doing the month of April. If you'd like to get in on the study check out Provident Clinical Research's website to get signed up.

That's all for now.

ChiCrossCup_4b

2010-11-08T11:00:00.000-06:00

Cyclists needed for Study

2010-10-22T10:43:00.002-05:00

Gatorade is conducting a study for which they need cyclists. If interested contact Provident Clinical Research at the numbers above. Provident is doing the initial screening process for this study. They are only taking applicants thru next week so hurry.

Bandit Cross 10.21.10 5:30pm

2010-10-20T12:31:00.003-05:00

View Larger Map

Course is on other side of lake from parking lot.

Carpenter Park Cyclocross Race

2010-10-19T22:31:00.003-05:00

Here's some photo's and vids from my race on sunday.

Video of the whoops. I roll thru at about 50 sec. in.

This is the same sequence in photos.

Why I love Galena

2010-10-19T11:07:00.006-05:00

I spent this past weekend in Galena and this time i brought a video camera. Armed with the Flip video HD Ultra and 2 little tripod mounts i set out to make a video of my favorite road in Galena. Here is the finished product.

Cycling up S. Clark Ln - Galena, IL from Ron Cook on Vimeo.

This is the first time i've done anything like this and i learned a couple things. First don't do this in the early morning hours. The shadows are cool but it changes really fast so you see the differences between the clips. Also the Flip Ultra doesn't have image stabilization so the helmet cam shots are a little shakey. Also it does something a little weird if you zoom in. It didn't seem to focus as well. Unfortunately i didn't catch this till after the fact.

The Garmin connect file for this is here. (for some reason imbedding the garmin file doesn't work) If you play it you can see how many times i went back and forth on the hill to do this. The hill is the east side of the loop starting at the south and going till about half way up north to Wachter Rd.

After seeing the video maybe you might understand why i love Galena and would buy a place there if i could. Can anyone say spring training camp?

Superweek 2010 - Better late than never?

2010-08-04T16:11:00.004-05:00

I've been too busy to sit down and write about my superweek races but i'm finally getting to it albeit almost 2 months late. First of all i would agree with Druber's assessment of Superweek this year. While entry fee's are as expensive as they get around these parts, especially if you don't preregister like me, but things seemed to be run a lot better this year. I did a total of 5 races and i loved every single course. The only course issue was the Willow Springs RR course. It seemed to me it was a bit too dangerous for a weekday morning. There was a lot of traffic in the oncoming lanes and then there was the Fed Ex Truck (more on that later) For the most part races were on schedule and there were good safe courses. Results were timely and it seems that payouts were good(not that i know from personal experience)

Anyway on to the racing. This year for the first time I raced the Masters 35+. I went into Superweek thinking i'd flip back and forth between the Masters and Cat 3 but after the first couple of races i decided to stick with the Masters.

Richton Park Criterium 7.12.10
I spent the most part of this race trying to cover moves and get in a break. Missed the actual break that got away and ended up paying for my efforts at the end. Tried a little move with less that 2 to go but got nowhere and ended up last in the field.

Willow Springs Road Race 7.13.10
This course was a lot of fun. Like i said before it felt pretty dangerous at times with all the oncoming traffic. The craziest bit was when a Fed Ex truck turned onto the course right in front of the 2 man breakaway and they had to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid the truck. As the field got to turn 1 the truck was sitting there not knowing where to go. Fortunately people guided the truck around the median so it could get off the course but it was a little goofy.

As far as the race i felt good the whole race. Every time up the climb i kept having my cassette slip and couldn't figure out what the deal was. I had just replaced the rear derailer cable so i tried adjusting the tension but it just didn't seem like it was doing anything to help.

Since it seemed that i really didn't have any sprint to mention i figured i would try to get into some sort of move. I realized that on the section before turn 3 i would get a lot of momentum and figured i could try to make a move there. unfortunately for me on the last lap when i was ready to try i let myself get a little too far back and got boxed in and couldn't do it. I ended up following some wheels and being one of the first guys thru turn 1 at the bottom of the hill but i just don't have the jump to hang with these guys in a sprint yet. Finished towards the back of the field again.

Lake Geneva Criterium 7.14.10
Going into this race i was determined to do nothing but sit on wheels and wait for the sprint. I had spent the last 2 days being too excitable and so i decided to try and play it cool and see what would happen if i was fresher for the end. Plus it was in the upper 90's. Then the race started. Again this was a great course but turn 1 seemed a bit tight to me and i decided i wanted the hole shot into turn 1 for the start. When the whistle blew i had one of the fastest clip in's i've ever had and sprinted for turn 1. i made it first and by the time i got thru turn 2 there were 3 of us off the front. That turned into a 10 lap breakaway to start the race.

After we were brought back i was trashed for a while and at times was just hanging on for dear life at the back. Sometime during this point a move went off the front and the field was left fighting for 6th or 7th place. I actually recovered enough to try to shed the field with a couple of laps to go but was not successful. Finished in the field.

Whitnall Park RR 7.19.10
For real this time i was not going to do too much too early. And this time I actually stuck to it. Finally on the last lap i got off the front with a couple others and thought we just might stick it but it didn't pan out. Finished again at the back of the field.

South Milwaukee Road Race 7.20.10
This was a new course and i loved it. A couple little hills, nice sections thru a park, and a downtown start/finish. Again this time i told myself i would be a good boy and conserve for the end. This time i truly did but confirmed that i don't have a sprint this year. I got myself about 6th wheel thru the last turn before the 300m sprint to the line. I ended up in the low 20's. Some of it was positioning as i got stuck behind a couple guys but i still wasn't passing many myself.

When everything was all said and done i was actually very pleased with my 2010 superweek. I had gotten myself in the best shape that i had been in since high school and felt like i proved to myself that i could race with the Masters. I not going to be winning these anytime soon but this was going to be a great building block for the races in august and i learned a lot as well.

ABD Memorial Day Masters 30+ (day 2)

2010-05-31T13:47:00.004-05:00

I wasn't sure how the legs would respond to the week I had. After the Gatorade sessions Monday - Thursday I took Friday off, and then did a recovery ride on sat.

Sunday I woke up feeling pretty fresh. During the morning at work I started getting that restless feeling in my legs which I'm coming to realize is a very good thing. It's the feeling that they want to do something. I still had a couple sore spots but for the most part they felt good.

As soon as work was done I flew out to my car and made it from S. Barrington to Wood Dale in 20 min flat. I had already changed into my bibs so I was kitted up and registered in no time. I'm gettin pretty efficient at the quick pre race routine.

We knew that with the firepower in the field that there would be a break and we knew which guys to follow. Although I would have liked to wait until later in the race we thought it would go earlier than later. Because of this I tried to follow moves early if they contained the right makeup of teams or riders.

This is where it was awesome to race with tim. He knows everybody a lot better than I do. I was feeling pretty good and was able to stay in the top 10 for the majority of the race.

The race was filled with constant attacks. Never a dull moment. Tim was usually sitting back a few wheels behind me and if there was an attack coming that he felt I should join I'd here, "Ronnie!" from behind me and knew that I should jump.

Unfortunately none of the moves I got in early stuck. What proved to be my undoing was about half way thru the race a group had gotten off the front. I was trying to recover from a previous move so I didn't jump initially. Groups of 2 or 3's kept jumping across and it was turning into a field split so I finally put in a big move and bridged to the group. We still had a gap when I got there but not too long after we were back together and I was now yo-yoing off the back. It must of been at this point that the group of 6 got away. Since I was at the back with my eyeballs rolling up in my head I missed it.

Verizon was blocking at the front and the pace slowed a bit so I was able to get back on and sit in a bit. I looked ahead and saw 2 riders off the front. At this point I thought I was toast. With 4 or 5 laps to go tim dropped back by me and I told him I was cooked. But then I saw 4 to go. I was recovering a bit and I figured everyone else was hurting just as bad as I was so I decided I would attack after the headwind portion with 3 to go and that's what I did. I bridged up to 1 rider and we traded pulls but I could tell I was stronger. After his pull I ramped it up again and then he yelled that if I got him to the line it was mine. Soon after I dropped him and was chasing the 2 remaining riders. I ran out of road before the finish but I held off the field for what I thought was 3rd until my dear wife told me that I was 9th or 10th.

I have to say this was a fun race. The constant attacks and the heat made it hard. One thing I was reminded of was that no matter how bad I feel at the end, remember that everybody else is hurting too. Rest up for a couple minutes then go hard!

Fox River Grove Cycling Challenge Cat 3

2010-05-17T15:36:00.004-05:00

Well i feel like i could just copy and paste my report from 2 years ago. After getting a 1.5hr warmup in because our race was delayed i lined up at the back of the field since i missed the initial lineup. Luckly there was only a couple rows and once we started i was able to move up pretty quickly to be not too far back at the first turn. There were 29 starters this year which is the most i think i've seen in this race. My objective is always to try and play it smart and stick with the lead group as long as i can. About the 6th or 7th time up the hill i started getting gapped on the hill. I was still able to catch back on and then move to the front of the field before or after turn 5 so i was towards the front at the bottom of the hill. I'd try to get in a good rhythm for the bottom half of the hill and not lose too many spots but on the 8th lap i finally came unhitched.

For the final 4 laps it became a game of how many riders can i pick off. Of the riders being dropped it seemed i was able to catch and then gap them on the hill. I dropped an abd rider with a good kick right out of the turn at the top of the hill. Once i made the turn off of the descent he was gone. With 2 to go there was a xxx rider and then a SSC rider in front of me. I eventually caught the SSC guy on the hill and gapped him a bit but once off the descent he was back on my wheel. I went ahead and led the rest of the lap and tried to out sprint him to the line but he was able to come around and nip me right at the line.

I'm a little confused cause the results say a XXX rider placed 11th. I'm pretty sure that's wrong but who knows. Doesn't really matter. Maybe i did drop the SSC and the XXX is the one that came back. There's about 3 different XXX kits out there.

I will say that I felt pretty good about my technique for entering the bottom of the hill. I would drop it to the small ring and almost cross chain all the way to my 11. then i would literally take a pedal stroke or 2 and then shift up a couple cogs, take to more strokes and shift again. This way i was able to maintain momentum the whole time. Problem was i'd run out of cogs and couldn't match the skinny guys pace.

All in all i had a blast. I was hoping to place better since i've placed 11th the last 2 times i've raced this but i realize that the fields have gotten bigger each year and the climbers are coming out in droves.

TrainingPeaks file

Kenosha Business Park Criterium 30+

2010-05-04T12:53:00.003-05:00

Not a lot to report. This race is always lightly attended due to the Vernon Hills race going on at the same time. Because of my work schedule and the Kenosha race schedule being compatible i was able to get up there and race.

There was only 4 of us on the start line. Kevin and I from Project 5, Robert Springer, and Aaron Hampton from Psimet. All of us were fresh except for Aaron who had raced earlier in the day.

This race was basically a chance for Kevin and I to play tactics a bit and try to come out with a win from a 4 man break. After the first few laps Kevin put in a nice little dig that dropped the Psimet rider and then there were 3 of us. We tried a couple of things to gang up on Robert but nothing worked. It ended up being a 3 man sprint which quickly turned into a 2 man sprint since i couldn't match Kevin or Robert. Kevin had the early lead but Robert was able to come around him for the win.

All in all it was an ok race. The course changed from previous years and we actually made a detour thru one of the parking lots. It created 2 extra turns that were over curbs which was a little dicey. It gave me lots of time for practicing trying to go thru those corners without touching the brakes. Something i need to get better at.

Now it's time to get ready for Fox River Grove!!

More Durand Stuff

2010-04-20T12:35:00.005-05:00

Report from another rider in our 3/4 race here.

My favorite quote is...

"Lap 4 was epic. As we round the start finish line to begin the last lap, a big rider (unknown team) takes a flyer and the group lets him go! I don’t think that anyone felt that he was a threat, but we never would see him again. "

Pics here and here (scroll down to Durand Road Race Coverage for the links)

Finally a couple of pics from my iphone.

Durand Road Race Cat 3/4

2010-04-17T22:28:00.004-05:00

Durand RR
Find more Bike Rides in Durand, Wisconsin

Durand, WI is a town about 40min south of Eau Claire, WI where some family live. Every April there is a RR and I always have wanted to try and do this and finally it worked out this year.

The course is a 13.5 mile loop out in farmland. Pretty much none of the course is flat. It's all rolling hills. The long sides of the loop run east-west with the back side having 2 bigger climbs on it. Nothing super steep but by the last time up them I was glad I had my 27 tooth cog.

When I arrived at the race the first thing I noticed was the wind. It was really strong. The forcast said only 13mph but this was way stronger. It was the blow you sideways kind of wind. The wind was coming from the north so it was mostly all cross winds with a nasty headwind on the last 200m climb to the finish line.

On to the race. As i climbed the hill to the start finish I told myself this was going to be the best race ever. I lined up with about 38 other cat 3/4's. The 1/2/3 race departed before us and about 2 min later we took off. I thought that seemed kind of close and sure enough by the first turn we were catching up to the 1/2/3 field. We already had a break off the front and they caught the field but as soon as we turned into the tailwind the 1/2/3's took off and order was restored.

I went in with the mindset of saving myself for at least the first 2 laps and maybe even 3 then maybe try something. I told myself that I came here to place and get some tires. Top 3 got bontrager tires. (more on this later)

Eventually there were 3 guys off the front and our field didn't seem to anxious to reel them in. The wind was brutal and you had to be careful with the gusts. All that considered this was a really smooth race. After 2 laps to go they had a sizeable gap, enough that they were out of sight a lot. Eventually we saw that they had dropped one rider so it was now 2. Somewhere on the second lap my rear hub starts making all this noise. Sounds like it's going to fall off. Turns out my cassette lock ring has stripped the threads and the cassette is loose now but other than making a bunch of noise it was working fine. I never had any issues shifting.

As the 2nd lap is ending I'm getting the idea that right after the start finish and just before turn 1 into the crosswind would be a good place to attack. After the turn there's a nice downhill section. Sure enough at the start of lap 3 couple guys gap the field and start trying to chase so I decide to bridge. I do and there's 3 of us but after trading a few pulls the field brings us back in so at this point I go back and sit in the field and rest up for the last lap.

With 1 1/2 laps to go guys on the front are literally talking about upcoming races. I realize it seems that nobody is interested in bringing the 2 back, who for the most part we can't see anymore. We are just ambling along and I'm thinking that I will make a move at the start finish. As we approach the line to start our last lap a rider jumps so I try to get on his wheel. Moments later I hear people yelling, "not our group" so I sit up thinking great, now everybody knows my plan. No matter, after drifting back to 3rd or 4th wheel I attack just before the turn. Only 13.5 miles to go.

To my shagrin/surprise nobody went with me. Right away I had a nice little gap so I kept going. The gap grew so I kept going. I didn't let myself redline cause there was still 13 miles to go but the gap kept growing. I figured that I'd take advantage of nobody knowing who I was. Before long I was out of sight and I could see I was gaining on the 2 breakaway riders. By the time I got to turn 2 the climbs were really starting to hurt and I still had the 2 biggies left. On every climb I started yelling, "shut up legs!". I crawled up the 2 climbs and could see I still had a big gap to the field. Wasn't much chance of them catching me now.

While I was gaining on the break during the downhill and flat sections I would loose a bunch of time on the climbs. I ended up getting within 20-30 sec but couldn't close it but finished well ahead of the field in 3rd.

After waiting around for results to be posted i got my prize. 1 whole bontrager tire. guess i'll have to go buy a second to match.

Finally Racing

2010-04-15T13:11:00.001-05:00

All I can say is I'm super excited for this weekend. At the start of this year I made it my mission to lose weight and as of Monday I have never weighed less than I do now since I started racing again in 2005. Actually it's been 15-20 years since I was this light.

This is all due to the decision to count calories this year. With all the weight I lost over the last 7 years I never counted calories. I just tried to eat better and also started riding a lot. Last season I found myself working both sat. and sun. again and I didn't know what races I would be able to do. I lost some motivation and as a result never got my weight down to where it normally gets during the summer.

After living thru 1 season of this work schedule I realized I can still race quit a bit so I've entered this season with a ton of motivation to do well. I've gotten real organized with my training and nutrition with the help of Trainingpeaks.com and have found the book "Racing Weight" to be an extremely helpful resource.

So finally after missing my first scheduled race due to the flu I'm finally racing this Sat. up in Durand, WI. Should be fun times. It's a 54 mile road race made up of 4 laps of a 13 mile rolling hills loop.

I can't wait.

Season kick off (or not)

2010-03-29T13:49:00.002-05:00

So saturday was supposed to be the first race of my 2010 season. problem was that i woke up friday morning puking and then the rest of the day just lying around. This was really disappointing because i've been real motivated this spring to do well this year. As a result i'm already below my lowest weight of 2009 and have put in great couple of months of training and was really excited to see how that would translate to an actual race. Oh well. It's looking like my next race will be the Leland Kermesse which will be just a plain old suffer fest for me. I'm toying with the idea of maybe doing the Fraiser TT or seeing if i could sneak up to Madison to do one of the Great Dane crits but most likely the Kermesse would be the next race.

I have found what i think is a great industrial park for practicing cornering or a tuesday night practice crit series location. It's a newer park in carpenterville that i have been checking out the last couple of years. Like many new developments in the economical climate, construction has stalled and the problem in the past was that the paving of the roads wasn't completed. they had just layed down the first layer of pavement so you had the rougher surface with lips at the curbs. When i went over last week i found that the paving has since been completed. The industrial park is only about half built and it seems that a lot of the buildings that are built are still empty. Therefore traffic is light and most of the corners have good visibility so you can see if there are cars.

The loop is exactly 1k. Turns 1, 2, and 3 are sweeping turns with turn 4 being the only real turn. All i'm saying is that i'd love to see a tuesday night crit series here.

Prairie Lakes Industrial Park Crit Course
Find more Bike Rides in Carpentersville, Illinois

2009 Chicago Cross Cup #9 - Woodstock 4B's

2009-11-23T22:04:00.002-06:00

All i can say is that it was very nice to be back racing again. I had been feeling good the last few days and i was feeling like i could have a good day but i knew my form was down after missing a couple weeks while nursing the knee. While i have no ill effects from the knee, while riding the course i knew that this would be a hard one for me. It was a fun, fast course but the short, steep uphills killed me. For whatever reason it felt like i just couldn't go uphill very well. After riding around the course during the 4A race i worked my way back to the start. As i came down a hill at the bottom there was some tall grass and it turned out that although you couldn't see it, there was a ton of water in the grass. I found the only real mud in the whole park and it wasn't even part of the course. I showed up at the start line with shoes and shins covered in mud.

For the start i wanted to be on the right side cause as you went around the baseball diamonds there was a muddy section on the left. As we started i was where i wanted to be but was getting bogged down i ended up on the left side. Luckily when we hit that patch, there was a solid section on the left so it ended up not being an issue. As we enter the woods for the first time i'm in the top 10 or so. I knew i wanted to stay right on this hill cause of the rocks and uneven dirt on the left. Well i was too far over cause i look down and right in front of my wheel is huge root. I slammed on my breaks (sorry Shawn) and of course ended up loosing a couple spots there but i'm still in the front group.

We exit the woods ride the paved path for a bit and then make the turn back into the woods for the fast descent. As we come back out of the woods up the dirt hill for no reason that i saw the rider in front of me slammed on his brakes. (what goes around comes around i guess) I almost came to a complete stop and lost 3 or 4 more spots. By the time we crested the hill there was a gap to the front group and that's the last time i saw them.

After going thru the toilet bowl and over the barriers on the back it seemed like the rest of the race i was on my own. A group of 3 or 4 caught and passed me and then a group of a couple of guys on mtb's passed me. After that i held my own until the last lap.

"Bacon Alley" was where the crowd was and they made this hill really hard by placing a barrier in the middle of it. This was brutal. By the time i would dismount i would almost come to a complete stop and then you had to run up the rest of the hill. No riding this one. Because it was hard and because i wanted to finish as best as i could i wasn't in the mood to take a handup. It was still a blast and the atmosphere was incredible but i wasn't taking anything.

On the last lap i had been passed by a rider before bacon alley but as i came over the top he had dropped his chain and so i was able to get past him. Then as we hit the last downhill sections i was able to pass another rider who had a dropped chain and then was able to hold him off at the line for 21st.

One of my favorite moments was as i was on the downhill section before the start finish line there was a spectator yelling at me as I went by. He actually noticed the uniqueness of my bike. It's an old Cannondale sm500 mtb frame with cross tires on it. As i'm flying by i hear this guy yell something like, "go cannondale!...what is that?!...26"?!..." Cracked me up.

Here's some videos...

2009 Kneegate

2009-11-01T10:08:00.004-06:00

This past Wednesday I met Tim at the Deer Grove Forest Preserve for a lunch ride. I had never been there but heard it was a great place so we got suited up and headed out. About half way into the ride i see a couple sections of puddles ahead and i decided to have some fun and ride thru them. I know that was stupid but what can i say. I get thru the first section ok but the last puddle i hit ends up being a deeper hole than i imagined. Before i know it i'm flying over the bars and flying superman style. My right knee makes impact first and then my left side.

The first thing i remember is thinking that this "trail" was not very soft. it was more like a road underneath some dirt and leaves. I stand up, look down at my knee and blood is flowing from a nice hole in my brand new pearl izumi knee warmers. I do the waddle in circles that you see whenever a rider gets up from a crash and quickly determin that i can put weight on the knee and other than the blood it seems to be ok.

I then notice that not only is the knee bleeding it is also bulging out of the hole in my knee warmer. Tim and i get back on our bikes and start heading back. I'm able to pedal ok and we ride the 25min or so back to our cars. I'm riding gingerly and although there's no internal pain in the knee i now have a softball size lump on top of the knee.

After getting back to work and getting cleaned up, i was hoping the swelling would go down and the knee would stop bleeding but it didn't. I drove myself to the Acute Care Center by my house and got it x-rayed. Thank God nothing was torn or broken. In fact i have almost no pain at all. The Nurse Practitioner was bending, pulling, and twisting my knee and i had no pain or restricted movement. The funny moment was having her call another doctor in basically saying, "you gotta see this."

I ended up walking out of there with a full leg immobilizer walking around like c3po. I was told to wear the brace thru this weekend and i should be fine unless the swelling doesn't go down.

I wore the brace until yesterday. I couldn't take it anymore. walking around like C3PO was messing with my lower back and hips. Now i'm just waiting for the stifness to go away. I'm hoping i can be riding by tuesday. we'll see.

2009 Bartlett Sunrise Park Cross

2009-11-01T10:03:00.003-06:00

This race would be different for me. I knew from the warmup lap it would not be a good day for me. Running over the barriers felt more like walking. I had no snap in my legs. I again had my top 20 or so for the holeshot and passed a couple guys on the first half lap but then that was it. I started getting passed by people and switched into survival mode for myself. I ended up finishing 30th.

The real story of this race is the race for last. There are guys showing up to race who have barely ridden a bike before this fall but that hasn't stopped them. It's been very inspiring and very cool to watch. you can read more here.

Scroll down to the pics and begin reading.

2009 Carpenter Cross 4b race

2009-11-01T09:52:00.002-06:00

I've been ignoring this blog for a while. I've just been busy and updating friends via facebook and twitter. But i will try to play a little catchup here.

On October 18 i entered my first ever official cyclocross race. I've attended the Carpenter Park Cyclocross race the last 2 years and last winter i finally got my hands on a mtb so i've been practicing and learning the techniques of cross and will be entering a couple of races this year.

I lined up with close to 75 other riders. I felt really good on the warmup lap but knowing that i'm on a mtb and having never done a real race before i opted be conservative at the start. I wanted to be up far enough to avoid the logjam in the first turn but didn't want to get in the way of anybody who could actually win this thing.

I ended up in the top 20 into the first turn and was in front of the first crash in the switchbacks that followed. As soon as i could i would pass whoever i could and after about 1/2 a lap i was at the back of a group of 4 or 5.

As we approched the sled hill i was able to pass a couple of them and after the toilet bowl it was Brian Morresey of XXX racing and i. We were together for almost the rest of the race. On the final lap Brian biffed on his remount after the barrier/creek bed combo and i thought that maybe i could drop him but i couldn't. He caught me and soon dropped me. i was gassed and a Pegasus rider caught and passed me as well. I ended up crossing the line in 10th which i was very happy about.

Season Update

2009-08-11T11:41:00.002-05:00

Well i've more or less pulled the plug on this season. I actually wouldn't have done that many more races anyway but the form and fitness is just not there to make it worth spending the entrance fees to ride for 45min to an hour. The adjustment to working both Sat. and Sunday and not knowing what races i would actually be able to do made motivation a difficult thing this year. While i was able to get a good deal of riding in I never really got around to doing the high intensity work i should have. What this meant was that i did ok on the non technical race courses but any time there was a real turn that required a good kick coming out of the turn i would lose a couple spots. That would turn into getting gapped and then dropped.

Now that i've pretty much lived a season in this current work schedule i know how to prepare for next year. I can plan on making a better plan for superweek and will try to capitalize on the races that are close to my area that i can get in before or after work.

It occurred to me this year that my work schedule has change almost every year and it seems to take me half the summer to figure out a good training rhythm to the week. Hopefully things should stay consistant for next year and maybe just maybe i'll be a step ahead next year.

While i'm ending my road season i still will be racing once more this year. I'm am going to enter the Carpenter Cross race in october. This will be my first ever cross race so i'm looking forward to that. I have an old mountian bike that i will be riding. If all goes well i will work to have a real cross bike for next year.

RTOTS Stage 5 - Madeira Beach to Fort de Soto Beach and Back

2009-07-10T12:30:00.004-05:00

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/fl/madeira-beach/305124614845981158"&amp;gt;2009 Ron&amp;amp;#039;s Tour of the Southland - Stage 5 - Madeira Beach to Desoto Beach&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/fl/madeira-beach"&amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Madeira Beach, Florida&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;
6/23/2009
68.88km
2:15:08

This ride will go down as the ride that I consumed the most ounces of liquid per hour. Temps in Florida were in the mid 90’s during the day and the low’s were 80 – 83. The plan was to ride from Madera Beach down along Gulf Boulevard the over to the island that is de Soto Beach. It was 20 miles out then 20 miles back. We had spent the previous day on de Soto Beach and there’s lot’s of great riding along the beach and the road to the beach. I had packed 2 24oz bottles of Gatorade and thought that would be enough for the 40 mile ride. At the half way point I was more than half way thru my second bottle so with about 15 miles to go I stopped at a 7/11 and bought 2 more 20oz bottles of Gatorade. Those were gone by the time I got back to my van. Once the ride was over I finished off the rest of the 64oz bottle for a total of 104 oz for the ride.

RTOTS Stage 4 - Cancelled

2009-07-04T18:15:00.002-05:00

This stage was cancelled due to me not wanting to wake up early. I was on vacation after all.

RTOTS Stage 3 - Hog Pen Gap and Unicoi Gap Loop

2009-06-30T09:38:00.006-05:00

Stage 3 - Hog Pen Gap - Unicoi Gap Loop
6/20/09
86.61km
03:34:37
1590m/5217ft climbing

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ga/hiawassee/649124614755578174"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;2009 Ron&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#039;s Tour of the Southland - Stage 3 - Hog Pen &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Unicoi Gap&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/ga/hiawassee"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Hiawassee, Georgia&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Woke up this morning to thankfully less fog. I was actually able to see some of the beauty around me. This route was the same all the way to Brasstown Bald but instead of climbing it I just kept going. This loop is basically what they call the Scenic Byway loop. It goes by Brasstown Bald and then over Hog Pen Gap down into the town of Helen and then back to Hiawassee over Unicoi Gap.

Brasstown Bald sits right on the county line and as soon as you pass the entrance to Brasstown Bald you cross the county line, and start enjoying the different road surface. Definitely rougher than the other roads but it’s a long straight descent from Brasstown Bald down to Hwy 348. Once on 348 you start climbing back up into the mountains and eventually start the long hard climb up to Hog Pen Gap. This climb was hard. I spent almost all of it in my 27 tooth cog. There’s no 20% stuff like on Brasstown but it’s still long and hard. This climb seems to climb along the side of the mountain and doesn’t have too many switchbacks. Mostly long curvy roads along the side of the mountain. About 500m from the top I noticed one of those road reflectors from the center line had busted and was sitting on the side of the road. I stopped and picked up my official Hog Pen Gap Climb souvenir. The view right at the top isn’t much but just either side of the gap there are turnouts for some beautiful views.

On the descent back down to Helen I finally started feeling comfortable on the descents and was beginning to really have some fun. Not having much experience with stuff like this you soon figure out what a 35mph corner is versus a 15mph corner and how fast you can go thru each on a bike. Once you turn off of 348 and turn on 17 the traffic increases a little and you begin the climb towards Unicoi Gap. This climb is completely different than Hog Pen. I would say it’s a little easier than Hog Pen but a lot more fun because it’s a lot of switchbacks and more mountain like.

On the way up I saw a bunch of cyclist on their sat. morning group ride flying down the other way. All of them were way skinnier than me. Made me think I probably wouldn’t like living here cause almost every route includes a major climb. That would make the group rides not as fun.

Once over Unicoi you make the descent down more switchbacks and sharp turns. After coming off that climb I started running low on fumes. My 2.5hr plan was turning into a 3.5hr plan and I was getting tired. I just had enough water and got back to our campground just as I was about to bonk. Any longer and I would have been in some trouble.

Here's a video of the descent of Hog Pen Gap. Not mine but it gives you a good idea of the fun.

This video is of a motorcycle ride up and over unicoi gap going north, the way i went.

RTOTS - Stage 2 - Brasstown Bald

2009-06-29T09:45:00.009-05:00

Stage 2: Bald Mountain Camping Resort - Brasstown Bald.

57.53km

02:15:24

787m/2582ft of climbing

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ga/hiawassee/958124611829812764"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;2009 Ron&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#039;s Tour of the Southland - Stage 2 - Brasstown Bald&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/ga/hiawassee"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Hiawassee, Georgia&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

After the early morning ride in Kentucky and enjoying some fishing and canoeing at our friends house we got back in the van and headed down for the mountain stages of the RTOTS at Brasstown Bald. It was only a 4.5hr drive so we arrived at the Bald Mountain Camping Resort before dark and moved into our Camping Cabin. In the morning I was a bit bummed to wake up to a ton of fog blanketing the valley but it was still rideable although i wished i had my little flasher light, so I headed out around 6:30am. During the ride I got a couple peaks of the sun and a couple views but the top of Brasstown Bald doesn’t seem to clear of the fog until after 10am.

The route begins with what basically is a descent from the campground down into the town of Hiawassee. The campground is on the east side of the mountain and the road up to Brasstown is on the south side. Once I turned on Owl Creek Road I was on the Tour de Georgia course to Brasstown Bald. Here the roads are never flat and on most of the rolling hills leading up to the main climb I found myself in the small chainring and near my 27 but nothing compares to once the climb to Brasstown Bald starts. The real climbing starts about a mile or so from the entrance to Brasstown bald. It’s marked on the road by paint that someone painted that says “Go George” then “Climb Starts Here X”

The pictures don’t do justice but once you near the curve at the top of the picture the grade really goes up and I found myself in the 27 barely moving. Fortunately once you go around the s curve ahead it starts to level out a bit and even goes downhill as you turn onto highway 180. Once on 180 it’s about a mile of a gradual climb as you arrive at the entrance of Brasstown Bald. Immediately the road kicks up and the climb is on.

The climb up Brasstown is about 3 miles long but only 2.5miles to the parking lot. The last ½ mile is closed to cyclists and is for the shuttle bus that you can ride up to the top from the parking lot. There are mile marker signs along the climb so I started my lap timer at the bottom. Now the whole climb is brutal. There is no break and it just keeps going up and up and up. What was worse in my case was that the top was still fogged in so as I got higher there was no beautiful sights to see. Just the road in front of me.

From the start I was in my 27 tooth cog and never left it. The only thing that changed was my cadence. From what I had read the second mile was the worst and that was very true. That’s where the climb kicks up to 20%. I completed the first mile in 9:22, second in 10:50, and the last ½ mile or so in 4:36 for a total time of 24:48 for the 2.5 miles.

When I hit the second mile and the 20% section I almost died. I litereally was zigging and zagging across the road to stay on the bike and almost falling over cause it was one pedal stroke, followed by and awkward pause, followed by another pedal stroke and another awkward pause. At one point I felt like I was doing the vo2max test on the computrainer and about to stop. There was a curve ahead and I told myself if this doesn’t ease up around this turn I don’t know what I’m going to do. Lucky for me it did ease up and I didn’t have to get off or fall off the bike.

I reached the top at about 7:45am and there was not a single car there. Because of the fog I couldn’t even see the end of the parking lot or the tower above me. What is now my biggest regret is that I was a good boy and obeyed the no bicycles beyond this point sign to go all the way to the top. I don’t think there was a soul there and I could have gone all the way. Maybe next time. I went back later in the day with the family and took all the pics except for the self portraits from the ride.

On the way back i took 180 all the way to 17/75 and then back to the camp. All in all a beautiful ride but very hard on the climb.

The video below is of our drive up Brasstown Bald.

Ron's Tour of the Southland - Stage 1 - Tour de London RR course

2009-06-28T10:36:00.002-05:00

Our family just completed a vacation to Florida. We drove and took our time getting down there so we made stops at some pretty cool locations. I of course took my bike and woke up early a lot of the mornings to take in some great riding. I called this "Ron's Tour of the Southland." It consisted of 7 stages in the states of Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, and Tennesee.

This is the first installment of ride reports.

Stage 1 in London, Kentucky.

67.1km

2:07:33

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ky/london/422124612904125554"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;2009 Ron&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#039;s Tour of the Southland - Stage 1 - Tour de London RR&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/ky/london"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in London, Kentucky&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

One of my wife’s best friends from high school now lives in London, KY. Since it’s generally on the way we decided that the first night we would stay there. Every September, London is the home to the Kentucky State Road Race and Criterium Championships. The road race start/finish is downtown but the course is held on a 40 mile loop out in the country. After driving in circles a little bit I found a great place to park at the high school about a mile from where the ciricuit starts.

What made this ride so enjoyable is that I didn’t need to pull out my route maps once during the whole ride because the course is well marked with route markers painted on the road. I normally spend about 15-20 minutes of my vacation rides stopped looking at maps trying to figure out where I am. This would have been a nightmare because of the many turns of this course and the fact that rural Kentucky seems especially bad at not having street signs at every intersection. Actually it seemed that I should have been doing the route in reverse since the roads seemed to be labeled when I was turning off of them but not when I was getting on.

This course is almost always rolling and turning. There were I think 3 or 4 main climbs but only 1 of them put me in my 27 tooth cog. The rest were about like the Braeburn Rd. climb in Barrington Hills but longer.

After riding this I am calling this my favorite race even though I haven’t raced it. The course is wonderful and would be a blast to race. For all you mountain goats out there this would be especially fun. My guess is the last real climb on this circuit would be my undoing but I still would like to do this. There’s also a crit the same weekend which is pretty flat so it would make for a great weekend of racing. The drive is under 8 hours so why not make a nice weekend of it?

I had never been to this part of Kentucky so this was my first time seeing some of the more rural parts of the south. What I found the most interesting was the number of churches out here. It seemed like there was a church every mile or 2, even way out in the middle of nowhere. Most are Baptist or Pentacostal and ranged from very small church buildings to trailer homes in very poor condition.

You can see the route and pictures at the race website here. One year I am definitely going to be making the trip down there to do these races.

Universal Sports coverage of the Giro

2009-05-15T10:43:00.002-05:00

First off, i'm loving the fact that Universal Sports will be broadcasting the Giro for the next 4 years. How refreshing it is to watch the race without all the extra stuff that Versus interrupts us with. I don't need to see what Lance had for breakfast every day.

Today I was watching stage 6 online and when they went to a commercial break the audio is still live. the link is here. If you skip to 13 minutes into the coverage you hear Scott and Todd making the call to Chris Carmichael and talking about what they will be talking about. The interesting thing to me was that it confirms that they are recording their commentary after the race is over. They talk about that with Chris and tell him not to talk about the ending of the stage. I have noticed more than once that they would "profile" the eventual winner of the stage before he was even in the break of the day. I was trying to figure out if they were just lucky of if they knew already. I guess we now know.

To all you drivers who think no one is watching

2009-05-07T21:04:00.004-05:00

Tonight i wasn't able to make the thursday night barrington ride because i got stuck at work so on the way home i decided to drive part of the route to see if i would run into the group. I got my phone out so i could snap a shot of the group if I saw them. At around 6:25pm i was driving south on Hagers Bend Rd in the opposite direction the group would be coming. Sure enough I see the group ahead. I notice a silver Honda Odyssey passing the group and after it does it starts to weave and it appears to rapidly decrease it's speed a couple of times in front of them. so as they go by i snap a pic.

so to the thin haired white male driver in the grey shirt, think before you act out. someone could have been seriously injured and you would be in a big heap of trouble. it's not worth getting all mad because you had to wait a few seconds to pass a group of fathers, husbands, and overall great guys.

Team World Vision

2009-04-27T09:20:00.002-05:00

For a couple of years now Team World Vision has had a great presence at the Chicago Marathon and i would like to help but running just is not an option for me. Well i found out yesterday that there is a Team World Vision event for us cyclists. It's coming up kind of quick but it's on June 7 for the Udder Century ride in McHenry county. For more info on the ride click here.

Pass the word around. i won't be able to do the ride cause i'll be at work and it's also the same day as the ABR crit championships in winfield but if you know anybody that might be interested please let them know.

If you haven't heard of World Vision their homepage is here. They are a partner of World Bicycle Relief.

Galena Trip

2009-03-26T09:56:00.008-05:00

For the past 3 1/2 days i've been in Galena with the family. It was a great time of just hanging out together and decompressing. On monday and tuesday mornings i was on the bike at the crack of dawn to enjoy the roads this area has to offer. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate as well this time. Monday morning the temps were in the low 40's and it was very windy. The loop i rode is below.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/il/-galena/132123807814375815"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Galena EW Loop&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/il/-galena"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Galena, Illinois&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

One of the highlights of this loop is the gravel section on clark road. It feels like you're riding a part of the Monte Paschi Eroica in Italy.
The winds were really bad. Even on the descents the wind was so strong that it felt like you were on the flat sometimes if it was a headwind. When it was a cross wind you had to work really hard to keep the bike steady. It was pretty draining.

This route also features Blackjack Road which has some pretty killer climbs in it.

On tuesday morning i rode the following route.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/il/-galena/328123807847552608"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Galena East Loop&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/il/-galena"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Galena, Illinois&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

It was about 10 degrees warmer which was nicer but it was still windy and rain was on it's way. Up by Scales Mound on Stagecoach Road is a huge rock that somebody painted all white and the painted "Jesus Saves" in red letters. While i agree with the message it's too bad that somebody thought that they could do a better job at proclaiming the Message better than God's own creation. it's a pretty big eyesore if you ask me.

Once i was back in the Eagle Ridge resort i came across this.

I'm pretty sure i was here last august and there was no falls so this was a surprise. About 5 minutes after this it started raining hard. For the last 20min i got pelted by heavy rain and high winds. Thankfully after a couple minutes it became just a steady rain and nothing to heavy. I got back completely soaked but there was bliss waiting for my bike.

The Bike Spa.

For more pics of some of the roads i was on click here. It's a motorcycle blog with some very nice photos.

Also on monday we went on one of the craziest family bike rides we've been on. Someone at the resort suggested that we ride on the golf cart trails since the courses were closed. We did that and had a ball for about 20min. It's like riding a rollercoaster. Pretty crazy. I was pulling Neil with the tag along and about 15min in said he wanted to come back here again. Then it started raining. We tried to get back as soon as we could but Neils comments turned to, "i don't ever want to do this again."

Cool behind the scenes with Garmin at Montepaschi Eroica

2009-03-19T12:09:00.001-05:00

Montepaschi Eroica - Behind the Scenes with GARMIN Slipstream from Media One Multimedia on Vimeo.

Monte Paschi Eroica 2009

2009-03-10T13:49:00.001-05:00

This is one of my favorite races of the year. Hopefully the coverage will be like that of the other classics but for now watch this.

Monte Paschi Eroica 2009 (1/2)
Uploaded by burnie87

Monte Paschi Eroica 2009 (2/2)
Uploaded by burnie87

Versus

2009-02-17T22:33:00.001-06:00

Versus was just stupid today. Their feedback email address is feedback@versus.com

Tell them how much you liked what they did today.

Gatorade

2009-01-23T11:06:00.000-06:00

Well i'm at it again. I got into another gatorade study, otherwise know as the SRAM order funding project and this morning was the first session. This is a more general study where you run on the treadmill, ride an elliptical, as well as an exercise bike, all for 30min each. This one is almost harder for me then last falls cycling study because of the running aspect. I basically only run if i'm getting paid for it. I can't recall the last time i ran for 30min. I'm talking decades. Last winter i got up to 15min on the treadmill as a warmup for weight lifiting sessions but never 30.

So needless to say i'm "feeling" it right now. It's actually not too bad cause i'm able to "run" at a speed that's just above speed walking so the knees actually did ok. Who knows, maybe this will make me a great cross racer next fall.

What's wrong with me?

2009-01-10T09:44:00.002-06:00

So usually around this time each year a little phenomenon happens. While trying to force myself to do yet another dull ride in the basement on the rollers or the trainer I start thinking about a race next season. It's usually one of my goal races that i want to do well in and i start visualizing the attack and solo win that's going to take place in 2009. This usually marks the mental start of my season. This is when it starts to get easier to wake up early to get an hour in before work.

The problem this year is the race that i'm visualizing. It's the Fox River Grove Cycling Classic. It features one of the toughest climbs found in the chicago land area. It's a race that a 200+lbs guy has no business doing. But here i am treating this thing like an A race. For some stupid reason i love this course and love doing the race and i actually focus on it as one of my goals for the season. I guess i know how most triathletes must feel preparing for your biggest race of the year with the only goal of finishing better than last year.

But i still have to ask what the heck is wrong with me? Why don't i think about a race that's dead flat like Elk Grove? I guess the bottom line is i like hills even though i'm too big to even think about winning any of those races. Before long i'll be doing more laps of the ski hill than i can count.

Offseason update

2008-12-29T23:10:00.004-06:00

It's been a long time since i updated so here's the cliff notes. In october I completed a study at Gatorade that was a great experience. It was hard but i gained a lot of info about myself and it was very interesting. It's looking like i'm going to be doing another one starting in Jan. so hopefully that can help fund some new upgrades to the bike.

Speaking of bikes I have been very blessed by a couple of people who gave me a mountain bike. First i was given an old cignal bike that was heavy but was rideable. I knew it was small for me and after riding it a while it was pretty clear that it wasn't going to be a bike i could really ride well on. Enter friend #2 who one day gives me an old Cannondale SM500 frame that's in great condition and after a couple of weeks of wrenching i have this.

I've been loving it and it adds such a nice alternative to just riding the rollers or the trainer in the basement. I've done a couple of fun snow rides and then today rode what was basically a cross practice at a park near my house using different obstacles as cross barriers. Today's ride also featured a ride of the dirt road that runs up the river valley from River Rd. It's full of ruts and a couple of turns and ever since i first found the road and drove it i wanted to ride it if i ever had a mountain bike. Problem was the 60 degree temps the other day didn't do much to this road as it was more like running up a bobsled run with a bike then an actual ride.

I've started weight training but have taken a break since i'm on a break from work and the gym is at work. I've yet to get an ice skateing session in yet and hopefully will be able to start that up next week.

That's all for now.

Great sports story

2008-12-15T15:23:00.002-06:00

In a world of doping cyclists, pro athletes going to jail, and governors who think they can do whatever they want this story is such a breath of fresh air.

Bike Guitar Hero

2008-11-22T14:21:00.000-06:00

All i can say is crazy.

See more funny videos and Technology Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Unauthorized use of tools

2008-11-05T10:22:00.002-06:00

I came of for a new use for the Park SPA-2 pin spanner last night. It's great for removing a light bulb that has been shattered but the tip of the bulb is still in the socket.

Big Mistake

2008-10-21T22:49:00.002-05:00

Ok. I made a big mistake today. I took my son Ryon and his bike, and myself with my wife's schwinn hybrid and went back to Carpenter Park and rode a few laps of the course. I never should have done that cause i think i'm hooked. I've never ridden cross before and actually before last years Carpenter Park race i had never even been to one. now i'm really gonna have to figure out how to get a cross bike together.

2008 Carpenter Cross

2008-10-20T15:27:00.002-05:00

A lot has been happening since i've last posted. Mainly i've been doing a study at Gatorade every Monday that is pretty intense. I raced the Fall Fling time trial and other than Gatorade just been riding easy every couple of days.

Yesterday i took my dad and my kids to the Carpenter Park Cyclocross race. We had fun watching the 30+, 40+, and 50+ races as well as some of the Cat3 and women's race. The pics are below. enjoy.

Great World Bicycle Relief piece on the Today Show

2008-09-30T10:12:00.001-05:00

Best new bike at interbike

2008-09-26T14:32:00.004-05:00

My pick for the best bike.

Interbike

2008-09-26T11:39:00.006-05:00

I'll try and get a full report done but for now here are some links to my pics and a video.

Cross Vegas pics

Interbike pics

Vegas Bound

2008-09-22T13:37:00.001-05:00

I have arrived in vegas. The first two days will have me wearing my audio engineer hat as i will be touring some of the major theaters here. Tonight starts with the cirque show Love. Wed. And Thursday will be interbike!!!

Gatorade / Interbike

2008-09-16T19:11:00.002-05:00

So a lot has been happening lately. After the body shut down at Downers Grove i took a good couple of weeks off. I still rode but every ride was a recovery ride and i skipped days at a time. it was refreshing and just as i put a little training plan together to make a stab at the Fall Fling, Gatorade called.

I've been doing studies for a couple years now and finally got called for a cycling study. Long story short last week was a really busy week. In the span of 4 days i had a vo2max test, Lactate Threshold test, as well as a stress test. The study is very demanding physically but also a lot of fun. As a result i've totally scrapped my training plans and am just concentrating on this study as it will take me thru the end of october. Because of the requirements of this study i can't exercise at all on sundays (i go in every monday) so the fall fling crits are out. There's still a slight chance that i could do the time trial on the 4th. If it works out for me to do it it would make me happy cause i should have some great form from this stuff.

Also next week i go to Vegas!!!! It's gonna be an awesome trip. I get to see some great shows as well as attend Interbike (thanks Gatorade), the cycling industry trade show. I will definately be writing a post about the trip and have tons of pics of all the latest gear. i will only be there for 1 day of interbike but i will also get to go watch cross-vegas so that will be fun.

Downers Grove Cat 3

2008-08-24T09:58:00.002-05:00

I know i'm late with this report but it's a lot easier to write a report quickly when you have a great race but when you suck it up it's not as fun so i'll make this short. After Elk Grove i was so fired up because of how good i felt. That following week was real busy at work featuring several days of 4:15am alarms and long nights. After that we spent 3 nights in galena which was a blast but i of course brought the bike and woke up early so i could get some riding in before the family woke up. Though i tried to take it easy there isn't more than a 1/4 mile of flat road around galena so it was lots of hills. By 9pm every night i was wasted.

I was back home Wednesday and tried to take it easy thurs and friday. The legs were feeling better by sat. so i was hoping to have another great race like i did at elk grove. Well from the start it wasn't good. I got lined up on the 3rd or 4th row which in itself was fine except for the fact i was all the way against the barriers on the right and directly behind the crosswalk where there were still a ton of riders on the sidewalk waiting to get on. I think everybody thought they would have us roll up to the line before starting but no. The whistle blew immediately followed by a chorus of "we're starting already?" I had another horrible clip in and by the time i was entering turn 1 the leaders were going into turn 2.

So i thought to myself, not ideal but i'll just have to work to move up a little each lap and work my way towards the front. I can do this...not so much. it became clear to me that i was destined to be riding the back half of the field for the race. Try as i might i couldn't do anything. About half way thru the race my back started tightening up and i got a side stitch. I haven't had one of those since high school! Almost got dropped off the back but then with about 5 laps to go finally started feeling a little better.

With 3 to go coming into turn 8 somebody a couple of riders ahead of me went into the haybales. The rider in front of me started to brake hard and go wide as well and i thought i was going to go down. Somehow i stayed up and ended up doing a track stand with i think Ben Demong from abd laying on the ground right in front of me looking up at me. I somehow was able to inch around his head and squeeze between him and another rider that was flying thru the corner from behind and got going again. Now i was way off the back and I remember thinking to myself at least i have an excuse for such a bad race now. I ended up 72nd.

I was glad i had to work on sunday cause i felt horrible. i would have been even more useless on sunday. I've taken this whole week really easy and will also do the same next week. At this time of year i have to be careful. Too much stress on the body/back and it shuts down. I'm gonna try and recoup and make a little push for the fall fling tt and maybe a crit. It would be fun to somehow bookend the season with a tt win.

Tour of Elk Grove Village - Masters 3/4: 52nd never felt so good!

2008-08-04T22:44:00.003-05:00

photo by jill henry

Wow! Alot has happend in the week leading up to this race. If you want to just read about the actual race skip down to the actual race report. But to hear the rest of the story keep reading.

As i said in my last post the week started with me finding a crack in my trusty ol cannondale caad4 frame on monday. i still haven't had time to process this loss and a memorial post will come but i was scrambling. I've learned the hard way that something always seems to happen when i preregister so i usually don't but of course i was already registered for the Masters 3/4 race. By wed. night, thanks to Tom Sena, I was able to borrow a Felt so i could at least ride but there was no way i was going to race that bike for fear of crashing it. I would have ridden the whole race 50 feet off the back.

So after calling all the shops i knew, sending out emails to the team and anyone else i knew, I was able to aquire an 06 Madone 5.2 frame for a very nice price (thanks Karl!). Because i trusted who it came from i bought it sight unseen. I was told it wasn't ridden very much but when it was delivered to my house Sat it looked brand new. beautiful.

Early sat. morning i had stripped the Cannondale frame. After lunch i went to the pool with the family. Then about 3pm i was able to start building the Trek. At about 4pm i went to mount the brakes and found that the nuts i had to mount them with were to short for the front and the rear brakes. I started calling all the trek dealers i could think of and not until i called Village Cyclesport did i get the answer i was hoping for. I talked to Brian and he said they had the bolts and that they closed in 45min. I threw the brakes and the frame in the trunk of my car and made the 45min trip in 30 min. once inside Brian helped me get the right nuts and i was back in the car on my way to church to meet my family that i had abandonded so quickly.

After getting home from church and putting kids to bed i resumed assembling the bike. This included "borrowing" the front deralier from the borrowed Felt since mine was a clamp on and i needed a braze on. At around 11:30pm i called it a night. I had the bike together and had ridden it up and down the block a few times (another complete story in itself since it involved a neighbors call to 911 and 4 police cars on our street) to make sure that everything was ok and decided to go to bed.

The following morning was actually quite normal for a race morning. Got up, ate, packed, and headed out.

The Actual Race Report

We came into this race pretty confident. Tim had placed 2nd last week at Chicago and we were again going to have a pretty decent number of riders in this race. Personally i was ready to try something. In almost every race this year i've been on the front and responded to an attack and then once i'm in it i've held back cause i wanted to save myself. I went in to this race thinking that if i go, i'm gonna give it everything. We had plenty of other teammates to respond if i failed.

So the race starts and right away there's a prime. While i didn't contend for the prime i stayed at the front and kept myself in a great position where i could see tim easily grab the prime. Sometime on the next lap or 2 Andy Powel took a flyer. After 1 or 2 more primes were called i found tim and told him, that after the next prime i was gonna give it a go. So now they call the $100 prime and the pace picks up. I keep my place towards the front of the field and just follow wheels. Staying towards the front but trying not to spend too much energy. As soon as we come up to the line i nail it. There were probably 5 or 6 guys who had fought for the prime that i had to go around but after that i was off.

My intent was to catch the field napping right after a prime since usually everyone takes it easy for a bit after the prime sprint. That plan was good for about 5 seconds until they announced that this was going to be another prime lap. Actually when i heard this i wasn't too happy. My intention was to go for the win or at least make the other teams work, not the prime. I figured that attacking right after a prime would give me a bit of an advantage while the field recovered and tried to figure out where i went. So much for that.

Even so i still was able to get quite a sizeable gap. I didn't hear how much the prime was for but as i completed the lap i knew i won it and kept going. As i came back by the start finish i heard the announcer say $200 and a smile crossed my face.

Finishing lap 2 of my breakaway there were 2 laps remaining in the race. In my head i was saying "ok, i'm half way there. 2 laps down, 2 to go." But the field had woken up and were closing in. I saw that a couple guys were trying to bridge but they didn't have that much of a lead over the field and sure enough after almost 2 1/2 laps on my own, i was caught. But again the beauty of having a great strong team is that as soon as i was caught, Kevin blasted up the left side and attacked.

As i drifted back thru the field i wanted to make sure and finish with the main group. For the last lap and a half the conversation in my head was, "yeah you can move up, no you're shot." On the last lap I was near the back of the field but as we came thru turn 2, the only right turn, i shot up the left side and before the next turn made it to the front. I started to get excited about being able to say i placed and did a solo break but as everybody ramped it up for the final 500m i found that i had nothing left. As i came up on 200m to go i heard the race announcer saying "Project 5" and i knew tim had won. I clapped and pumped my fist as i crossed the line in 52nd place. 52nd never felt so good.

I can't think of a race where i've had more fun or a race where a team has done such a great job. It's been fun watching the videos cause in every one of them you hear the announcer say, "Project 5."

Chicago Crit - thankful i got out alive

2008-07-29T13:32:00.003-05:00

It was awesome to be able to race in grant park again. I don't think there's been a race down there since the late 80's. Project 5 had 8 of us in the 3's field and it was such a blast to race with such a full team. I can't remember the last time i was in a race and every time i turned to look for a teammate i saw one.

I pretty much tried to stay at the front for most of the race. Covered some moves, tried a move or two of my own but nothing was getting away. Our priority was to get Tim in good position so he could start his sprint from 5th or 6th place instead of 20 or 30 back. With about 6 laps to go I asked tim to let me know when he wanted to move up. Before he even was able to respond he saw an opening and took it and left me there sitting mid pack. I rode out the rest of the race in the middle and on the last lap saw that tim was in a good spot and took it easy. You just had the feeling there was going to be a crash and sure enough in the last turn a whole bunch of guys went down. It was kind of in 2 waves. First some went down on the inside and slid to the middle. Then there seemed to be a second or 2 when you thought it was done and then a bunch of other guys went into the barriers on the outside of the turn. I was able to come to almost a complete stop and weave my way thru the carnage and softpedaled into the finish. Tim ended up 2nd so we are all happy with how the race went.

The reason i'm so thankful is not because i survived the crash but because monday night i found a crack in my frame. Right above the derailer hanger there's a crack that travels all around the frame. i had been trying to solve a creaking issue for a couple of days and after an easy recovery ride last night i found it. Big bummer.

Since i'm not one of the guys who has 3 road bikes, a mountian bike, and a cross bike, i'm SOL right now. I'm scrambling to try and put something together before this weekend. Wish me luck. Anybody have a 60cm frame?

My week off

2008-07-26T09:00:00.005-05:00

So i just had a full week off the bike. i went up to the U.P. to a summer camp with my son. it was an incredible time but was a little hard not being able to ride or watch the tour. we had no cell phones, no internet, and no tv.

i did get to ride a little since the camp had hydro bikes. very fun. next year i'll have to bring my pedals, shoes, saddle and seatpost.

they also had a climbing tower that i ran up and down to stretch the legs.

now it's the chicago crit tomorrow. should be a blast. i can't wait.

IL State cat 3 RR to short?

2008-07-18T00:19:00.003-05:00

...then move to Iowa. The cat 3's roadrace is 108 miles.

flyer

cycling update info

Misc. Stuff

2008-07-17T09:49:00.002-05:00

A few random things

mini race report
I raced at bensenville yesterday and it didn't go so well. The heat combined with my ability to always get gapped out of turn 3 combined to get me dropped after 40min so i pulled out. pretty disappointing since that was my only superweek race this year.

tour de france commentary
After waking up and seeing the news of ricco's expulsion from the tour it became apparent to me why they decided to have no time bonus's at the tour this year. It sure makes it easier to reshuffle the standing without having to recalculate time bonuses. i wouldn't expect to see time bonuses back for quite some time.

Get well Jim!
Jim Scott, the same Jim Scott who so kindly lent me a wheel at Wood Dale, was injured on tuesday but thankfully he's going to be ok. Get well soon buddy. Congrats on 3rd!!! For SW to say that there wasn't anybody within 20' of you is insane. The same thing happened at the finish of the 30+ race on wed. they had removed the barriers so the rider was able to keep upright.
I won't even get started on the saftey issues that seem to always come up during superweek every year. maybe that'll be another post sometime.

Interbike

2008-07-09T14:34:00.002-05:00

So it just happens that i will be in vegas during the week of interbike. So does anybody have any way that i can get in to the show and especially the 3 day bike race? I'm just trying to weasel my way in somehow. If you have a way just leave a comment.

thanks!

Wood Dale Cat 3 ABR State Crit

2008-07-07T21:12:00.003-05:00

My race day almost didn't even happen. I've been having some rear wheel trouble and decided not to bring my rear race wheel instead opting for my mavic open pro wheels. After arriving and registering and getting suited up i went out to warmup on the other course that is in this business park. I hadn't been riding for more than 10 minutes when ping, there went a spoke in my rear wheel. I had no spare and had that sinking feeling. I yelled at tim and told him and we headed back to the car to try and find one of our teammates to see if i could bum a wheel. Enter jim scott from apache. he so generously offered me a wheel and we got it all setup with 10 minutes to spare. i guess the stress of that made for a good warmup. So the rest of this report is brought to you by Jim Scott of apache. Thank you jim.

Our plan was to have me try to get into a move during the race and if that didn't stick then i would work as hard as i could to get tim in a good spot for the sprint. I was feeling pretty good and wanted to put some hard efforts in so i stayed near the front and tried to keep an eye on the attacks that went off and eventually placed myself in a couple. I did get in a move sometime between the 2nd 1/4 of the race but that didn't last very long and as soon as we were brought back Tim jumped into a little break and so i sat back and tried to recover. With the heat my heartrate was in the 180's but after a lap or 2 sitting in i got it back down to the 160's. I was still feeling really good when a couple riders attacked and i heard tim yell for me to go so i bridged up to the 2. We rode a couple of laps together and 1 or 2 more guys bridged up to us. Then they called a prime of a box of powergels that i ended up winning but that seemed to kill off the rest of my break partners. I ended up doing another lap or so on my own hoping someone would bridge up to me cause i still had some life in me but didn't want to try the suicide solo break.

Eventually i was caught and i sat in for a couple of laps, trying to find tim but i couldn't find him. as we passed the start/finish i saw him jumping back in after a mechanical. Eventually we got back together and we started working our way back to the front where we stayed for rest of the race. With 2 to go David Reyes from ABD attacked hard and i had the itch to try and go with him but decided against it in favor of keeping tim at the front of the field on the final lap. Everything was good until turn 3 on the last lap. Right in the middle of the turn was where i got swarmed by the field and i lost about 20 places in about 1.5 seconds. When i saw tim up ahead of me i just turned of and softpedaled to the finish. i didn't realize until today when i saw the pictures that David made it thru the last turn before getting caught. What a gutsy effort and it makes me wish i had joined him.

It wasn't the result i wanted but i felt really good about the race i had. I did everything I set out to do and still felt really good even though i put in some hard efforts. i was also able to play the team role and to me that's as much fun as trying to win it yourself.

test

2008-06-28T18:47:00.001-05:00

Just trying this out

Fox River Grove Cat 3

2008-06-25T10:14:00.002-05:00

(otherwise known as how many laps can Ron hang on)

I don't know what it is about my attraction to doing races i have no business doing. Back as a cat 5 i decided i had to do snake alley. doing the 30+ there as a 5 took care of that sickness, but racing FRG again this year has not cured my addiction to this race. i already can't wait till next year.

As was last year my only goal in this race is to try and finish with whatever is left of the main field. This race is basically in my front yard and the experience makes me wish every race could be like this. Being able to wake up in the morning, get the kit on, and ride over to the race course, register, ride back home and hang out with the family is awesome. Then to be able to pin on the number, get suited up again and ride over to the course for a warmup, do the race, and then ride home for a cool down is awesome!

As we lined up for the start the official warned us that severe weather was moving in and they might have to shorten our race. all i was thinking was that i hope my family didn't hear that since the van was about a mile away and nobody brought umbrellas. the race started and we were off and i had a great start. clipped in right away and was the first one at the base of the climb which was my plan for every lap of this race. The bottom half of this hill is pretty steep and then it levels off a bit on the second half. my plan was to be as close to the front at the bottom and ride my own pace up the first half, drifting thru the pack and then picking up the pace on the second half where i can take more advantage of my power.

for 8 laps this worked. the pack would surge on the bottom half of the hill and i would even go off the back a couple of times but would be able to claw my way back on the second half of the climb, even getting up to the front of the field before the top sometimes. the 8th time up the hill i got gapped pretty good on the bottom half but was able to catch back on on the descent but i knew the inevitable was coming. sure enough the 9th time up the hill i got dropped for good. around this time was when the thought went thru my head, "i think this is the last time i'm doing this race."

but then it starts to get fun again cause after riding a couple laps by myself i started catching other dropped riders and each time i'm thinking, that's one place higher. so with a 3 or 4 laps to go i catch a wdt rider and we keep playing leapfrog with each other. at the bottom of the hill he would drop to his easiest gear and staying seated would just ride away from me, but by the top of the hill i would be back on his wheel. after a couple times up the hill like this i finally dropped him. with one lap to go i had Timothy Hermanas (trek/vitamin water) in my sights. he was just crawling up the hill and i was coming up but when he saw me coming he picked his speed up. we finished the rest of the lap with me sucking his wheel and imagining how i will jump by him in the sprint. we took the last corner and immediately he jumped. even though i took the inside line i still couldn't come around him and for the second straight year i lost a 2up sprint for 10th place.

So with this race i think i've climbed that hill close to 70 times this year. each time i've gone to train there i've timed my laps and the race was no different. I know i'm a nerd but when you have no chance of winning you think of other things to do. I just wanted to see how the race pace compared to my training rides on this course. So here are the lap times for me.

Laps: 13
Total Time: 39:37
Distance: 24.11km
Lap1 - 2:47*
Lap 2 - 2:47*
Lap 3 - 3:00
Lap 4 - 3:03
Lap 5 - 2:47
Lap 6 - 3:01
Lap 7 - 3:03
Lap 8 - 3:05
Lap 9 - 3:16**
Lap 10 - 3:17**
Lap 11 - 3:14
Lap 12 - 3:10
Lap 13 - 3:07

*time is split from total time of both laps. (forgot to press the lap button after 1st lap)
**ditto
**lap 9 is when i got dropped

i am working on a video compilation of our race. it will be a 2 camera shoot (ha) once i get the files from the second camera.

so show up next year. this is a great race and it would be awesome to see more people out there. if i can get my 200lb carcass up there you can too!

Tim's Win

2008-06-24T09:26:00.002-05:00

So tim pulled off an awesome win up at grafton on saturday! Pay close attention to the race announcer.

Thanks to Tim Keeley of ABD for the video.

After getting derailed and cut off he somehow came back from the middle of the field to take the win much to the surprise of Matt Smith. You can read Matt's good natured account here.

You know it's a slow news day when...

2008-05-29T20:09:00.001-05:00

this is listed as a "top news" on the dailyherald website.

A Win!!!!

2008-05-27T13:40:00.002-05:00

Yes the cook family had a win at Batavia. In the 9-10 kids race Ryon took off from the gun and never looked back. Way to go buddy!!!! Maybe someday dad can stand on the podium.

As far as my race went it was pretty miserable. I lasted about 40minutes before i got dropped on the hill. I finished out the race but ended up getting lapped twice. This was pretty disappointing considering how i've been flying this spring but i'm blaming it on the big weekend i had a with the family and was pretty tired by the time monday came around. Now i'm just hoping my form is back for next weekend.

Kenosha Business Park Crit - Cat 1,2,3/30+ (fully updated)

2008-05-05T12:52:00.008-05:00

Tim and i showed up for this crit. I choose to do this over vernon hills because we have friends that live very close to the course and it gives the kids something to do during the races. Because of this i also decided to double up for the day and do 2 races. The fields were small but the wind and the calibur of riders made this a hard but fun day for me. I had a great week leading up to this and the the morning of the legs felt great.

Cat 1,2,3 Race
Because of the small fields and the wind factor i figured that once a group got away it wouldn't be coming back. For the first few laps there were a couple of attacks but nothing that really stuck. Eventually a Gear Grinder guy and Andy Crater of Wheel and Sprocket attacked and got a gap. I'm not entirely excatly what happened but i was at the front of the field when this happened and when i looked back there was only another Wheel and Sprocket rider on my wheel and then a gap back to the field.

I knew that the W&S guy would be no help bridging but i decided to go for it. After a lap or so we came up to the start finish and the 2 breakaway riders saw that we were going to bridge so they sat up and waited for us. We then had a break of four the rest of the race. 2 W&S riders, the Gear Grinder guy and me. From the time we joined the break the W&S rider i brought didn't take any pulls. From that point on i knew the best i could hope for was 3rd or 4th. And when the W&S and GG guys were talking i knew i was in for it. Sure enough there were a few attacks from both teams. A couple times they gapped me a little but not enough to drop me and i got back on.

Since i haven't found my sprint yet this year i knew most likely i would be 4th and sure enough even though i had the 4th wheel coming around the last turn they all just stood up and left me but i got 4th so i'm happy. Now i have to go work on my sprint.

See the video below for a "Roncentrik" account of the race. Also check out the commentary by the kids. Watch out phil and paul.

30+

The 30+ race had even fewer riders than the 1,2,3 race did but it still was a lot of fun. For the first half lap the pace was quite possibly the slowest I’ve ever experienced in a race. But about halfway into the lap a Colavita guy launched what seemed like a vicious attack since our pace was so slow and that got things going. When stuff settled down there were 4 guys off the front and eventually only 1, Doug Peterson (WDT) was left. Doug was eventually caught but after resting in the field with us another attack went and Doug went with it again. This time it was Andy Crater, Rob Springer (Wheel & Sprocket) and Doug. That was the break of the race and they stayed away.

So the field was 7 or 8 of us but eventually whittled down to 4. Tim and I (P5), a Wheel & Sprocket, and Don Lowe of Team Mack. Our group went through various stages of trying to pull the break back and just messing around. At some point it switched to the four of us fighting for 4th place.

Since we had 2 guys in the group I wanted to do everything I could to get Tim the field sprint. With about 7 or 8 laps to go I got popped from the group. I think it was actually Tim that accelerated and it dropped me. I looked at the time and said ok, I can ride out the last 15 minutes. I didn’t go too hard but I kept my pace up and after a couple of laps I realized that I was actually closing back in on the group. They were starting to play games with each other and slowing down so eventually I was able to get back on.

Once I rejoined the group tim gave me a pat on the back and then pushed me on and I made a little acceleration off the front which tim made the other guys chase down. As we neared the end I knew the best way I could help tim was to try a couple attacks and make the others chase. So with one lap to go I first attacked before turn 1. After a bit I was brought back in. Then as turn 3 approached I was 4th wheel and planned to do what I didn’t do in the 123 race. Going into turn 3 the W&S rider surged and like before I was gapped a bit. But also like before not long after they ran out of steam and I came back up and just kept going. By turn 4 I was cooked and as we went up the final straight I was able to watch tim catch and then pass the W&S guy and win the sprint.

It was such a blast to be able to work some team tactics and actually have success doing it. That’s why I joined this team.

30+ field sprint.

Harvard Time Trial

2008-05-01T19:49:00.002-05:00

The time trial world is an interesting one. A world i'm not really a part of. Where else can you finish 3rd in the cat 3's race but would have been 8th in the 4/5 category. Weird.

All i can say is that i had fun but i am not about to start focusing on time trials. It was cold on sunday but by my 9:25 start time it wasn't too bad. There was a good wind coming from the south west which because of the course layout, meant that most of the course featured a headwind or a cross wind of some kind.

On the way out all you could muster was 22 or 23mph. It was tough. I held out pretty good but by the last 5k i couldn't keep my heartrate up and just couldn't keep digging that hard. It was nice to "podium" but if you look at the results there were a lot of riders in front of me.

I do say it was kind of fun to pass guys on full TT bikes with disc wheels on my road bike.

I finished with a time of 50:52 for the 33.3k.

Next up is Kenosha this weekend. It's lookin like i'm gonna attempt to double up and do 2 races. I've never done this before but i want to give it a try. It should be interesting.

You know you're a cycling nerd when...

2008-04-18T13:01:00.003-05:00

...your first tanline of the year looks like this.

Spring Super Crit Cat 3/4

2008-04-09T09:50:00.002-05:00

I'll start off by saying what a great job Burnham Racing did to put on this event. It was a very fun course to race on and Burnham did an incredible job from the wealth of information before the race to the quick registration process, to the races being on time.

So being an audio engineer i do have to say one thing. Next year they need to have a speaker aimed at the track. During the race you could not hear anything. Not a single word. The audio system at Blackhawk is for the spectators as you wouldn't hear it anyway in a car or motorcycle but for our races even having just one speaker at the start/finish line aimed at the riders, would have helped out alot. See below.

Leading up to this race i had the best week of training for the year. (read most hours) i took it very easy on saturday so that the legs would be ok for sunday. As it turned out they felt good and i was feeling great on sunday.

Being my first race with Project 5 it was awesome to be racing with the guys and the support i've recieved so far has been amazing. Our plan was to send guys with the early breaks while i try to save myself for the second half of the race. That part worked out great. We had somebody in most of the early attempts and when the real move went Kevin got himself in the break.

I remember at one point when we were coming out of the turn before the s curve and up ahead you could see the 7 guys just exiting the s curve i realized that was the move. I thought about trying to bridge but decided not to since we had someone in the break.

Later in the race when the break was gone there was a an attack that i piggybacked on to. My only purpose was to ride a chase group up to the break if it was possible and if not that was it. I wasn't going to chase my own teammate so i just sat in. Thinking back i should have done at least one pull but i didn't and eventually it fell apart.

Once we were caught the field setteled in for a sprint. I just hung back and didn't really feel like sprinting for 5 spots back of the podium. what i didn't intend to do was totally miss the fact that we were on our final lap. As we went thru the start finish i heard the bell, and saw 1 to go but i looked at my computer and we were only at 48 minutes. I totally convinced myself that this was a prime since you couldn't here anything that was being said. The pace picked up but even going into the last turn it didn't really feel like a final sprint yet. By the time i fully realized it was the last lap it was too late. I blew the opportunity for our team to at least practice a lead out. oh well lesson learned.

The funny thing is i remember hearing somebody remark before our race that in their race they didn't know it was the last lap and I thought what a rookie mistake. how could anyone do that. Well i guess the joke's on me.

So i "officially" finished 28th but there's a big list on riders below me with no placing and i know a few of those finished ahead of me so i'm pretty sure i was out of the top 30.

One observation: The rider who i'll call Muzzin kept yelling goofy things during the race. One time he charged past me in the field yelling, "the break is effin getting away!" in his best Muzzin imitation. Then later he declared the fact that his team had just made their 4th big pull of the race. Well you have 3 times as many riders in the race as the rest of us so you should be doing big pulls was my thought. I just thought it was funny.

Again this race was a ton of fun and a great job was done by Burnham. Way to go guys. Your hard work was very much appreciated by us.

For us Barrington Hills Riders

2008-03-24T23:19:00.003-05:00

While looking at the Village of Barrington Hills website i found the following information. Looks like some of our favorite roads should be safer to ride on this year.

The Cook County Board has approved the lowering of the following speed limits:
Donlea - 40 mph to 35 mph
Bateman - 45 mph to 35 mph
Otis - 40 mph to 35 mph
Brinker - 40 mph to 35 mph
Penny east of Healy - 45 mph to 40 mph
Penny west of Healy to Route 68 - 35 mph

Chicago Criterium - Old School

2008-03-22T17:24:00.009-05:00

With there being a new race this year down in Grant Park it's made me think about the last time i raced down in the city. Also reading some peoples comments on the CBR story about it made me go digging thru my archives and i found some gems. I don't remember even saving this stuff but i have the Chicago Sun Times inserts for both the 1987 and 1988 editions.

The 1987 race was part of a 3 day series that started Friday, Sept. 11 on the Downers Grove course we all know and love. Saturday was a race in Evanston, and Sunday was the Grant Park Circuit. i attended the Downers race and got pictures of andy hampsten and an autograph. Below is the map of all 3 courses.

Above is a recap of the 1987 races from the 1988 edition of the Sun Times insert for the Illinois Criterium Championship.

I raced the 88 crit champ as a junior and as far as i can remember the course was the same as the 1987 race. I don't hardly remember racing but i do remember that day after the race a friend took my bike home and i walked up to north street beach to find my girlfriend and her family who were attending the air and water show. I don't know how i did it without a cell phone but somehow i found them.

I hate icy cross walks

2008-03-12T23:16:00.003-05:00

So today was the first day of the year that i got to commute by bike to work. Daylight savings time is finally here and the money i save by biking to work just gets higher and higher.

Well this morning temps were in the upper 20's and since yesterday was in the 40's there were some sketchy sections. About 1.5 miles from my house in downtown algonuqin, i was on rt31 and turning right on to a side street. I had slowed way down because of the conditions, and was doing everything i could. Things like make the turn before and after the crosswalk. Well as i hit the crosswalk my wheels went right out from underneath me, tyler farrar style, just not as fast. Somehow in the fall I bopped my chin on the pavement. Nothing too bad but it looks like i got in a bar fight with a really short person. After checking my bike out i continued to work very slowly, almost coming to a stop at every corner.

I came out pretty lucky. Scraped up chin, sore thumb and the obligatory small patch of rash on the hip are all i have to show for it. The thumb is the most annoying and i don't even know how that happened since it's the left thumb but i fell to my right.

And now my smiling mug.

Unbelievable

2008-03-08T23:42:00.004-06:00

I entered today's ABD indoor time trial not knowing what to expect. I haven't really turned the pedals in anger yet this year and while i've had a good winter of training I haven't gotten as much bike time as i would have liked. I have never done one of these indoor time trials so i wasn't sure how i would do. Looking at the results of previous tt's i was hoping to get somewhere in the 15min range based on the times of the winners.

Well...i did better. 16 riders go at once in 2 groups of eight. as we started i jumped out to an early lead and just tried to keep my cadence up. it was the rolling course so on every hill i would try to keep the power up and as i got over, i would downshift right away and try not relax too much.

About half way thru the 6.0something mile course the pa announcer started paying attention. by this time i had quite a lead over the other seven riders and in my head i was waiting for one or more of them to start to turn it on and hoping i wouldn't fade too much.

As i got towards the last 2 climbs i knew i would probably win the heat but didn't know how well things were going until i heard things like, "these power numbers are usually what we see from guys like mumford..." Hearing stuff like that drove me on. As i got to the last climb i let it all go and actually cracked 600 watts. I finished with a time of 14:35.8

So the final stats as best as i can remember are...
Time: 14:35.8
Avg Watts: 401 or 402
Max Watts: 600+
Avg HR: 183
Max HR: 193

Not only was this time fast enough to win the cat 3, i set the fastest time for the whole day. What a start to the season. I'm still shaking my head.

I have to thank tim henry for bailing me out of mechanical issues this week. without his help i wouldn't have raced today.

PROJECT 5 ROCKS BABY!!!!!

Sleeping with a smile on my face tonight,

ron

Abode Tour Tracker

2008-02-14T08:51:00.002-06:00

The new version of the Tour of Cal. tour tracker is up to check out. It looks great. check out the full screen option. the layout is much better than last year. Also you have the option of 2 different cameras. Now lets just hope that it actually works during the race. Right now they're streaming MSG as a test.

Waiting for Spring

2008-02-07T23:01:00.000-06:00

Very Interesting

2008-02-05T20:19:00.000-06:00

Well finally somebody said outloud what a lot of us are thinking. If you haven't seen this yet click here. Read the post and then read the comments. very interesting.

The following quote from Betsy Andreu was astounding. The information is nothing new but when you actually sit down and think about this it's insane.

"Lance Armstrong beat all these cyclists who have either admitted to doping,
been implicated or convicted of doping offenses (for purposes of space I will
limit the following cyclists to the 2nd and 3rd place finishers to Lance in the
Tours from 1999-2005): 1999 - Zulle (2nd), Escartin (3rd); 2000 - Ullrich (2nd),
Beloki (3rd); 2001 - Ullrich (2nd), Beloki (3rd); 2002 - Beloki (2nd), Rumsas
(3rd); 2003 - Ullrich (2nd), Vinokourov (3rd); 2004 - Basso (2nd), Ullrich
(3rd); 2005 - Basso (2nd), Ullrich (3rd) Yet, lance beat them all."

Off road cycling

2008-01-30T08:41:00.000-06:00

The other night i was chatting online with a friend of mine and we were sharing funny ride stories. Both of our stories happened in the same area and reliving my story still made me laugh so i thought i'd share it here.

For those who don't know my whole cycling history here's a real quick cliff notes version. Caught the cycling bug freshman year of high school (88). raced for 3 years. went to college. stopped doing anything active. got married. had kids. woke up one day and realized i was over 300lbs. in the fall of 2002 i dug my centurion lemans back out and started riding. that's when this story takes place.

that fall i started riding a 10 mile out and back course that was mostly on a bike trail but also included a big hill out of the river valley. at this point i was wearing tennis shoes and using toe clips. i had bike shorts but i would put regular shorts over them. on top i would wear a 3x tshirt.

on this particular day on my way back home it started raining. actually it was a downpour. because of the rain i decided to try a shortcut thru a residential neighborhood. i never had gone this way before but in my head it seemed shorter.

what this route did was instead of just one hill it took me over many. by this time I'm completely soaked and the water is just running down the streets. I get to the top of a hill and start down the other side. looking ahead i see that at the bottom of this hill is a sharp right turn. there's no other way to go. about half way down this hill i realize that my brakes are doing absolutely nothing.

when i reach the bottom of the hill i decide there's no way to make the turn so i just keep going straight. fortunately there are no curbs and i just miss a fence. so now I'm in somebody's yard. at some point i get both feet out of the toe clips and i am literally skiing thru their yard, both feet on the ground, bike still under me. I finally come to a complete stop, almost at the very back of their yard. I sheepishly turn the bike around, walk back to the road, and continue home. As far as i know nobody saw me but i can't imagine how funny that looked.

The red dot's on the pic show my "progress."

New Favorite Sport

2008-01-16T16:31:00.000-06:00

So I found my new favorite offseason sport. It's crit racing on ice. now i just gotta figure out where to train for this.

2008-01-15T09:05:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since i've posted anything so i'll give a couple updates.

Training: It's been a winter of starts and stops. Just when i seem to kick off my training something seems to happen that interrupts. I had started another study at gatorade which included 2 straight weeks of doing 1 1/2hrs at their lab. All was going well until i went to take a stress test and my blood pressure measured really high. That along with the rash i had gotten from the industrial cleaner they use to clean the showers at my work, was enough to boot me off the study. I'm still not sure what the bp thing was since it wasn't that high before or even 1 hour after the test but what can i do? I get to go back in a couple weeks and try again. More and more i'm realizing to try and really start my training program before i can get outside and ride is not really going to work. I'm doing weights, skating, and riding the trainer in the basement just trying to keep overall fitness and I'm doing a much better job than last year.

Ice Rink: The rink has been a disaster so far. Because of the dog putting a million holes in it, plus neighbor kids not being able to stay off it i was praying for a total thaw. Well i got it! So this past satuday i spent 6 hours on my hands and knees, covering every square inch of the liner. I used a whole roll of patch tape and still missed some. Fortunately i got some glue that works under water and i think patched most of the other holes. It's now flooded and we are having a good freeze. I think we should be ok in a couple of days.

Finally check out this. I'm sorry but doing a 100 miles on your rollers is nuts. What makes it even crazier is what time he started riding.

Crazy Crash

2007-12-19T22:37:00.000-06:00

Check out the video of this crash at the Melbourne Cup on Wheels U18 race. Apparently everybody walked away from this.

ABC News AU

Update: Video w/interview

Rink is Open!!!! /google calendar / cyclocross

2007-12-10T19:19:00.000-06:00

warning: this post is pretty scatterbrained

We all skated on the rink for the first time yesterday! The surface is not very good and we're supposed to get a 1/2 inch ice storm today so i have no idea what that's going to do to the rink but considering the pain with the dog and everthing i'm very thankfull that we can now skate.

About a week ago i discovered google calendar and it's changing my life. I'm in the process of putting my whole training schedule into it. I'm finding it very flexible and great to use. The best thing about it is i can put all the different areas of my life on it's own calendar. Work, family, training, and whatever else i can think up of to fill my days. I can view all or just one at a time. Now if they would just provide a free syncing application like yahoo does i could automaticly import my work calander instead of having to do it the manual way every couple of days.

Cyclocross. I'm now dreaming of getting a cyclocross bike. It's gonna be a single speed and on the cheap but i would like to have that to ride in the winter and do a race or two on. I still am pretty sure i will really suck at cyclocross but it would be fun.

I guess that's it for now.

Hockey!!

2007-12-05T14:00:00.000-06:00

As I did last year during the winter, this blog will drift towards the subject of hockey from time to time. I setup our backyard rink at the end of last week and all was perfect until the puppy from next door decided to try and cross the ice on saturday. Long story short is i had to drain the rink, found 20+ holes in the liner that i patched and after all that and refilling the rink it's still leaking. It's not as bad so hopefully it can all freeze and we'll be able to skate.

While watching my new favorite channel, the NHL Network, i saw a piece on Zdeno Chara. He now plays for the Boston Bruins but is also an avid cyclist. In this clip he talks about going to the Tour and riding some of the climbs.

World Aids Day

2007-12-01T10:23:00.000-06:00

Today is World Aids Day. As a cycling community let's do our part and make a difference. Please go to the World Bicycle Relief website and make a donation.

check out this video

New Cycling Term

2007-11-12T10:34:00.000-06:00

So i came up with a new cycling term the other day. Actually I was listening to the local sports radio station and they were talking about the chicago bulls and how one player had a great game and had gotten a bunch of rebounds. They refered to him as pogo, as in pogo stick.

As soon as they uttered that word I laughed out loud because it is the perfect description of some riders. There's one in particular that when he gets going out of the saddle or tries to animate a race there's no other word to describe his technique as well as the sound his bike makes. Pogo.

The perfect example of this was during the first fall fling crit. All of a sudden i hear this noise from behind and without even looking i think to myself, i wonder if that is rider x. sure enough he comes bounding past me in a way that's best described as somebody riding a pogo stick. left, right, left, right, and i swear to god he's actually bouncing.

so the tip for the day is don't be a pogo.

Rocky to be sanctioned

2007-11-09T12:58:00.000-06:00

Found this on the onion today. This just makes you ask if they need to investigate kevin constner for his performances in American Flyers.

Rocky II, III, IV Decisions Overturned After Stallone Caught With Performance-Enhancing Drugs

PHILDELPHIA— "The only way to make so much physical progress in three to five minutes is to use anabolic steroids," sports medicine expert Bruce Thurman said.

Short Update

2007-11-02T16:35:00.000-05:00

The back is getting better. I was able to do a 3 hour endurance paced ride this week without any nerve pain down the left leg during or after. Yippee. The lower back still gets tired and I wouldn't think of doing any high intensity stuff but since the season's over, i don't have too.

So it's more easy rides and lots of back exercises. I'm gonna have abs of steel when this is all over. :)

RC

Carpenter Park Cross pics

2007-10-22T10:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday i took my oldest son ryon out to the carpenter park cross race to watch a couple of races and we had a blast. It was great to see some friends and hang and be able to take some pictures and watch other people suffer instead of suffering myself. you can see the albums here.

Saturday i slept in and skipped the harper ride in favor of going out by myself later in the day. The weather was beautiful and i decided to test my back a little bit. right away while on river road i was passed by a car who kept doing the speed limit which meant i had a nice little motor paced interval for a few minutes. that was followed by my pushing myself up the little climbs that are my barrington hills loop.

Long story short is that later that afternoon i was feeling pretty stiff. I really can't ride like that yet. Oh well.

RC

Back update

2007-10-16T13:31:00.000-05:00

I've finally gotten back on the bike which is good. After the fall fling road race i didn't even think of getting back on the bike until this past saturday morning. I rode for less than an hour on the bike path by my house. Took it real easy. Yesterday i rode for about an hour taking pictures and just having a good time on the bike. Today i rode for 1 1/4hrs and felt ok. Each ride i'm picking up the pace a little and it's getting better but i'm still a way from feeling normal.

This episode has been the worst one i've had in a while. Back in july when this happend at the Proving Grounds RR, i was racing again 4 days later. After a week and a half this time around there's no way i'd be racing. The main thing this does to me is affect my flexiblity in my left leg/hip. When i lay flat on my back i can raise my straightened right leg off the floor as far as i want. The left leg i can't even get past 30 degrees off the ground.

So thursday i have my first physical therapy appointment. I found a sports therapy place 1.5 miles from my house so i'm happy about that. I definately have something to do this off season. Fix the back. I'll keep posting updates.

RC

10.06.07 - Fall Fling RR

2007-10-09T13:12:00.000-05:00

So yet another race has me scratching my head wondering what the heck happened. After doing too much in the front half of the crit last week i was determined to do as little as possible and just hang in the back for as much of the race as possible. I also had a couple of cat 3 guys that i wanted to keep my eye on and try to stay with as much as possible. Our 1/2/3 race was 6 laps of an 8.1 mile circuit out in the farm wasteland that is west of rockford. No real hills but plenty of little rollers to keep you occupied. The main feature is the wind. Coming strong out of the south.

Lap 1: After turn one someone up front starts to drill it and we get all strung out. Somewhere during this time the rider in front of me hits a rut and almost goes down. I thought my race was going to be over in less than 5 minutes. The rest of the lap is uneventful.

Lap 2: Even more uneventful than the first. Almost downright boring until after turn 4. On the stretch with a massive cross wind from the left somebody up front throws it down and we are off. At some point i check back and i don't really see anybody left behind me so i'm thinking, this is it. I have to make this group or i'm done. So i ride like mad to stay in the group and i make it. But now i'm trashed.

Lap 3: I hang on thru the first half of the lap and start to struggle on one of the hills when one of the abd elite guys give's me a little push and puts me back on the group. Then i hear move up the side. So with his coaching i move up and almost get to the front of the group just in time to watch another attack go and the group chase. That's when i get popped. I'm toast. As the lap continues i catch a rider and we get caught by a couple but none of us really stay together.

Lap 4: I notice a small group of riders coming up from behind me and i wait for them thinking at least i can finish with these guys. There's a couple of 3's and we're together for a while until one of them picks the pace up and i'm off the back. That's ok, here comes a bigger group of 3's that i can ride home with. I sit on the back for a while and the bang, i'm off the back again.

Lap 5, 6: I ride by myself. Trashed. I finish but have no idea how far down. Pretty disappointing. What seems crazy to me is that i have the power to make that initial move but then i'm toast and then i can't stay with guys who popped way before i did. I gotta figure that one out.

This turned out to be the final race of the season. I intended to race on sunday but my herniated disc in my back flared up sunday morning so that was it. I guess i'm gonna really have to figure out this back think. I can go pummel myself on the bike for 50 miles but i can't play catch with the kids for 5 minutes. Very frustrating.

That's it for now.

Transfer news

2007-10-04T16:24:00.000-05:00

That's right. I am switching teams for next year. I will be moving over to Project 5. Below is the contents of the email i sent to the abd squad thanking them for the last 3 years.

Thanks ABD!

This season was my 3rd year on abd and you guys have been great. The team has been a great place for me to enter back into racing. With that said I want to let you all (ok, the few who know me) know that i am moving over to project 5 for next year. The main reason is just location. I live in algonquin and never get to train with anybody from abd. I almost never get to take advantage of any bootcamps, workouts, or even the shops. For the last year and a half i have been able to train regularly with the guys from project 5 and it just makes a lot more sense for me to join them.There are so many people who have made the last 3 years a ton of fun for me. When i started racing again after a 15 year break i never thought it would be this fun or go as well as it has for me. I'm gonna screw up now and miss some names but i'd like to mention some people. mike e, mary, scott ligocki, ben springer, alex sharon (who's still listed as a 4 on our roster), steve parrish, pete hill, and all the 3's that were on abd last year and are now on get a grip.Thanks for all the support, camaraderie, tips, and friendship you all have given over the past couple of years. Keep doing what you're doing and have a great year next year.

09.30.07 - Fall Fling Criterium #1

2007-10-01T15:55:00.000-05:00

So yet again i found myself taking pictures of the finish of the race i entered. I'm still ticked off at myself for dropping out but it wasn't before i totally tanked myself.

I went into this crit wanting to help out the team. I figured i'd try to do what i could so i stayed at the front early. John, Josh, and Jeff did their part by constantly jumping into breaks and steve and i would try to sit on the front and disrupt whatever was going on as far as a chase.

About 30 minutes in I had drifted back in the field a little and decided to move up the right side. Just as i was almost to the front an attack went from the left side and since i was the only abd rider there at that moment i decided to go with the break. I ended up in a group of 5 or 6 and we actually made a nice little gap. I made a couple of tactical mistakes by not making a guy or 2 pull thru.

Then jeff or john (not sure who) bridged up to our group and then kept going. I was happy cause then i had a reason no to take any more pulls. By this time i had been riding at my max for far too long. From the start of the race my heartrate was pretty high and during the whole breakaway i knew the end was coming sooner or later.

Finally the field caught us and i sat as long as i could at the front while we still had a solo rider off the front but then i started to drift back thru the field. I was done. I ended up getting dropped and then spun a couple of easy laps until i was about to get lapped by the field and then i dropped out.

Not the result i was looking for but i was still happy to be active during the first half of the race. I spent way too much time unshielded on the hill with the massive headwind we had so i'm gonna have to make sure i ride smarter next week.

Here's a couple of pics of the finish.

8.18.07 - Downers Grove 3/4

2007-08-21T21:34:00.000-05:00

Well we made the trek down to downers grove again this year. I love this race mainly for sentimental reasons. I grew up just a couple of towns over so i am very familiar with the area. I remember going to the first ever downers grove criterium and getting pictures of guys from the 7/11 team with my Kodak disc camera.

This year was the 3rd year that i have raced downers grove. every year it seemed like the rain would threaten but it would always blow over. not this year. Just as i started to warm up on my trainer in the parking lot the rain started. As i made my way to the start i was hoping for a good result. After having disappointments all thru july and early august i wanted to do well. I was able to get a good start position on the line, being in the second row, and hoped to start the race off well. Problem was i got behind perhaps the worst pedal clicker in the whole field. I was clipped in right away and this guy in front of me was having a ton of trouble. If i don't get clicked in right away i'll turn over another pedal stroke with the other leg and then try again. Did this guy do this? No. He kept trying to click in while coming to an almost complete stop and then have to veer sharply to the right to keep himself upright. By the time i got to the first turn i was already 30 riders back. Crazy thing about this race is that's where i finished. Along the way i'd try to make up spots on the straights but because of the rain we would slow so much that by the time we were thru the turn i'd be in the same spot again. About half way thru the race going thru turn 1 there was a crash off to my right. A xxx rider went down and I had to go way wide to avoid him. I almost ended up over the curve but held it up and made it thru. On the last lap there were consecutive crashes in turns 5 & 6. Somebody slid out on turn five and was sliding backwards on his butt and that looked like that would be all until just about the time he came to a stop another rider endowed over him. Then on the very next turn a Get a Grip rider slid out on that turn and i watched him slide 15' or so on his hind side. I've never fallen like that in the rain but it gives the impression of going down a water slide. The final lap came and i finished 30th. Not what I wanted but i stayed upright under sketchy conditions so i'm happy. Now i'm taking a break this week and then start preparing for the fall fling. How much time? So before the race started there was a big debate between the riders and officials about how long our race was supposed to be. These races are already ridiculously short and the website had listed the race as 30min + 1 lap. Well according to the officials, and they won, the race was 20 min + 1 lap. When the race was done my heart rate monitor said 19:30. So not only was the race not the as advertised 30 + 1 lap, it wasn't even 20 minutes. What's even more interesting is that when you look at the posted results, the finishing time is 22:35. I polled a few other riders and they had total times similar to mine. Oh well i'm already rethinking my august 08 schedule. I'll probably skip the elk grove and downers races and do the races surrounding them.

Tour of Elk Grove Village (30+)

2007-08-13T09:51:00.000-05:00

The photo above may be just a little bit misleading but it made up for a crummy race for me so let the excuses begin. I kept saying before the race that the only difference between me and my family was that i paid $28 to watch this race. As happens every year and will happen again next year if schedules don't change, the week leading up to the Tour of Elk Grove is one of the busiest weeks i have all year at work. The week ends with me average 5 hours of sleep wed - friday nights. Don't feel to sorry for me cause even though i'm working a ton, i'm having the time of my life. It's our biggest conference of the year and this year the band we had was one of the best collections of chicago area musicians that has been put together in a long time. Probably the best collection of talent i've ever had the pleasure of mixing. Then to top that off I actually got to mix Krik Franklin on sat. morning even though he brought his own audio guy. Since i was working saturday my only option was to race on sunday. Last year that was the 3/4 race but no such luck this year. It would be the 30+ and a stacked 30+ field at that. Based on how i did last year (feeling great even though work was crazy) i preregistered for the 30+ race. Come saturday night i was not feeling good at all. Very tired. When the alarm went off on sunday morning i would have shut it off if I hadn't preregistered. The alarm had woken me out of a very deep sleep and my body was screaming "I'm not done yet!!" After arriving in Elk Grove and suiting up i knew i was in trouble. I had zero energy. Once the race started i was in the middle to rear of the pack. I could not move up and while the legs started to warm up, once we got to the higher intensities i had nothing. I eventually got dropped on the long straight and that's when i noticed that my left crank arm bolt was coming loose. I'd love to say that the crank came loose so that's why i went to the pit and lost a ton of time but no, i got dropped first. The pit crew tightened it for me and helped me get going again but now i was a good minute back so i decided to practice cornering for a while. Eventually there was a group of 4 of us trying to finish out the race. Then 3 then 2. Me and Tim Henry. Just as i had settled into working as hard as i could to finish the race we came up to the finish line to see an official in the middle of the road pulling us off. For whatever reason i decided to raise my arms in a mock victory salute as i crossed the line. I had no idea that my wife was right there and she got a picture of it. So if you know Tim and see him, ask him what he's gonna do with his $500. So it's time to push the reset button and get ready for downers on Saturday. Overall i do feel pretty good so the plan is to take good care of myself this week and have a good showing at downers. See you next time.

Funny Superweek Moments

2007-08-01T09:00:00.000-05:00

In thinking back over the three superweek races i did there are a couple of funny things that come to mind that didn't make it into my race reports.

Bullseye!
While riding thru the feedzone at the proving grounds i watched as a rider in front of me and on the left side of the road decided it would be better to throw his bottle all the way across the road to the right side instead of just dropping it to his left. Did he throw it in a nice high arch? No. He saw an opening and threw a line drive right thru the field and bullseye, right into the crotch of some poor unsuspecting guy trying to hand up water bottles. I didn't realize required feed zone equipment included athletic supporters.

Crit racing meets PBR
I think it was during the last half on the Evanston crit. I had drifted back a little and we had just gone thru turn 2. Up ahead i hear someone yelling expletives and i look up and did not expect to see what i saw. Right in the middle of the field was a guy who was having problems with his water bottle cage. My impression was that it had broke. So what did he do? What any sensible rider would do while riding in the middle of the bunch at 25mph during a crit. He unclipped his right foot and started kicking his water bottle cage. All that was left was for him to do was put 1 arm up in the air and all the rest of us could start counting to 8.

Would you like stitches to go with your staples?
After getting all patched up from my crash at Kenosha i stood up to climb out of the back of the medic truck. What do I do? Slam my head on the top of the door. Fortunately no stitches were needed for that.

Message Delivered

2007-07-30T13:46:00.001-05:00

Found this on the velonews photo contest page. What a great shot.

Kenosh Crit seals dissappointing Superweek

2007-07-28T09:29:00.000-05:00

Kenosha is always one of my favorite crits and this year i was hoping to do well. A goal I had for this years superweek was to show myself that i can be competitive at the Cat 3 level during superweek. After withdrawing from the Proving Grounds race with back spasms and then feeling good but wasting too much energy at Evanston I really wanted to shoot for a top 10 at Kenosha.

Seeing that I have been the only abd cat 3 at all of superweek i figured I would have to conserve as much energy thru out the race to put myslef in a good position for the final. The pace didn't seem near as high as evanston was and for the most part i did a pretty good job of not doing much. A few times i found myself at the front when i didn't want to and ended up pulling back a break or two but overall i was feeling pretty good.

The race had seemed pretty smooth with no mishaps. Turn 1 was nice and smooth since it had been repaired since last year. For the most part i was taking the inside of turn 1. Every time i would check the inside behind me to see if anybody was trying to bomb the corner and then go thru it.

What happened next is just my best recollection of it. Everything happened so fast that I don't exactly know but I was pretty sure i had the line into the inside of turn 1 when all of a sudden i got bumped and was going down. I never saw it coming. I don't remember crossing a wheel. Nothing. All i know is i was going down. I remember being down on the pavement and judging by the marks on my back and having my head bounce off the pavement a few times i got hit by a rider or 2.

After the the storm was over i was actually surprised it wasn't worse. I guess i expected to really get plowed into while down on the pavement but that didn't seem to happen. I picked myself and my bike up and moved over to the side of the road. Looking down at my leg i had road rash all over and also on my elbow. I actually contemplated trying to jump back in until someone handed my the rear strap of my helmet. That is when i became aware of the sensation on the back of my head.

I made my way over to the first aid station. The good news was that i was able to move everything and knew nothing was torn, separated, or broken. On the way to the station i was asked if i was ok and i said i thought so but thought i had a cut on the back of my head. That was followed by a "duuuude!" comment so i figured it was a doosey.

The tally was 2 staples in the back of my head, road rash on my right leg, thigh, and elbow. I'll spare you pictures.

All in all i came out very fortunate. Not so lucky was Ed Amstutz of team xxx. It was pretty obvious that he broke his collar bone. I have not heard officially what his injuries were but it didn't seem good. It's really unfortunate since he was 2nd overall for superweek.

I don't want to be bitter about this but from talking to people who saw this go down it seems i was more or less just taken out with the person causing the accident talking smack about it later. All i can say is that your actions took out a very good rider in Ed. All for 1 lame position in a turn in the middle of the field. Stupid.

I've never claimed to be the worlds best bike handler but I don't think i did anything wrong. If it's shown to me that i did then fine but i really don't think that is the case. Still i feel really bad that someone like Ed sustained an injury like he did.

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Grand Prix of Cycling

2007-07-23T11:17:00.000-05:00

First off, kudos to everyone involved in putting on this race. I knew that the location of downtown Evanston would be fun but the organizers did a great job of running this race. There were tons of people and the atmosphere was great. This will definitely be on my calandar in the coming years.

Well after barely being able to get around on Thursday the back started to relax on friday and saturday. Sunday morning i woke up with some stiffness but mowing the lawn seemed to help loosen it up so i made the decision to race. We packed the van and loaded up the kids and grandparents and made our way to evanston.

They had us all park in a parking garage which was kind of fun but weird. There was plenty of room so you could take up a couple of spaces. One for your car and one for your bike. I ran down and registered and then went back to the van to change and warm up. The weird part was because you were in a parking garage you didn't see too many other cyclist except those right around you.

After warming up my back felt really good. There was no tightness or pain so i was really encouraged. I put on my jersey and went to grab my cycling gloves and then realized i had 2 left hand gloves and no right so i went sans gloves. I then made my way to the start finish which meant i got to do something that i always wanted to do as a kid but would get in trouble for. Ride the bike in a parking garage.

The evanston course is a .9 mile loop with 6 turns. After the start it features 4 quick turns in succession and in talking with some friends before the race it seemed a great course for a breakaway to stick. The thought being you get a great jump before the first turn and just hammer thru the rest of the turns and you are out of sight. Watching the 40+ race before ours it seemed true since a break of 6 or 7 riders stayed off the front and won.

Our race was 45 laps or 40 miles. Our plan was to try to put something together with somewhere in the low 30's to go. The only problem was that the speed of the field was too fast. From the start there was breakaway attempt after attempt but nothing stuck. Even when the big teams in the race were well represented in the break the pace of the field never dropped too much.

For most of the race i tried to stay in the front half of the field and was pretty successful. Probably about half way thru i started feeling my back. It was getting tired. With maybe 12 laps to go i found myself on the front when a move went. I went with it but again it didn't stick. Now it seem pretty clear that it was going to be a field sprint. I remember working my way back towards the front with about 6 to go but then i slipped back and after that i couldn't move up more than a couple of spots. My back was hurting more and more and when that happens you loose a lot of your power when you have to accelerate out of the corners.

So it was i found myself towards the back of the field on the last lap. Coming out of the last turn I tried to sprint and gained a few spots by the finish line. Considering my day on wed. i'm happy with how the race went. I'm taking today off the bike to nurse the back a little and then will try to resume training this week for friday's race in Kenosha.

When it was over we had covered 40 miles in just 1 hour and 27 minutes. That's an average speed of 27mph. I think that is the fasted crit i've raced so far.

Here are a couple of vids from our race.

See you next time.

07.18.07 - Proving Grounds Cat 3

2007-07-19T22:04:00.000-05:00

The above video is one I shot of the final sprint of my race. Long story short is back on tuesday morning i woke up with a little twinge in my back. Wednesday morning it was almost gone but as it got closer to race time it started getting tighter and tighter. The race started with me hoping that riding would loosen the back up. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I survived 3 laps of six, but on the fourth lap i couldn't stand up anymore on the climbs. I had no way to get any power onto the pedals. By the time i came around to the start finish area i barely could get up the hill so I dropped out 2/3 of the way thru. This was pretty disappointing since i was really planning on doing well for this race. Now i'm just hoping that the drugs do their job and my back is good enough for sundays crit in evanston.

Ready for Proving Grounds

2007-07-14T14:05:00.001-05:00

Well my first targeted race is just a couple days away. We now get to see where i'm really at with my fitness.

A couple of weeks ago my family went camping up by the Proving Grounds course and I got out and rode a couple of laps. I brought my camera and ended up taking 94 pictures. You can see them here if you'd like.

Busted

2007-07-10T18:45:00.000-05:00

There's a section of road along the Fox River, apporiately called River Rd., where i've wondered if i could actually get somebody busted for speeding. The speed limit used to be 25 and then 35 but this year they've made the whole stretch of road 25mph. Depending on the wind, you can get up to 25 without a whole lot of effort. Now if I'm riding at 25-30 mph if someone is going to pass me they can easily get up to 40mph which means if the timing is right a member of algonquin's finest is going to pull them over.

Last thursday my friend Tim and I were riding down River Rd. We weren't hammering really hard or anything but we were going at a pretty good pace when a mini van passed us. We thought nothing of it until around the corner coming the other way was the aformentioned Algonquin's finest. He abrubtly slowed down and proceeded to make a uturn right in the middle of this 2 lane rd. In the process we had to come to a complete stop since he was blocking the whole rd.

After we passed the pulled over minivan i turned to tim and said, "I think we had something to do with that." I'm not gloating or anything but it was just a little bit funny.

FRG 06.24.07

2007-06-25T23:12:00.000-05:00

The course for the Fox River Grove Cycling Classic is a great course...that is for the 14 other skinny riders in the cat 3 race who had a good 20 lbs on me. I realisticly have no chance in this race but after doing it this year i can't wait till next.

There is not more than 200m of straight road at any point during the 1.13 mile loop which makes this race very fun and interesting. The pain starts immediately. Just 100m from the start/finish line you enter turn 1 and beging the climb up Violet Ave. The first 200m of the 300m climb is a twisting banked road that must have an average grade of 15-17%. You don't even think of sitting down during this part. The remaining 100m or so is more or less a stairstep with a false flat leading into a 12%? climb the rest of the way.

At the top you enter turn 2 and begin the free fall back down a twisting, wide, newer residential street with a left turn at the bottom. While very fast this turn is really smooth and leads you onto another winding street into turn 3. More winding road with a little bit of an uphill into turn 4 which leads you back down to the start finish area.

Seeing that this course is only 6 miles from my house i've trained on this course several times. My goal was to try and ride the climb as smart as i could and stay in the main group as long as possible. I knew once things really got going i wouldn't be able to match the skinny climbers in the bunch so i tried to conserve whenever possible.

Laps 1 and 2 were just fine. I put myself as up front as much as i could at the bottom of the climb and rode my own pace up the first half of the climb. If a gap occured i was able to bridge it back on the not so steep, top part of the climb.

On lap 3 near disaster struck. I got stuck on the inside of turn 1 and as we headed up the climb i got bumped off the road onto the shoulder which consisted of 2 1/2" rocks. I had to stop and almost get off the bike. Then I had to remount and restart on the steepest part of the climb. By this time everybody was well up the road. I was pretty mad cause I did not want to get dropped like this. Fortunately I was able to not lose too much time and found my way back into the main group at the bottome of the descent.

Get a Grip(GAG), a team from chicago, had 5 or 6 riders in the field so on the second lap they sent a rider off the front. I think 1 other rider went with him and then the field settled down with the rest of the GAG riders controlling the field. I was totally fine with this cause that meant the pace would slow down.

This went on for several laps. Each time up the climb the gap i lost became a little bit longer and the longer it would take me to catch back on during the flat section. I knew the end was near.

About half way thru the race people finally got tired of just racing for 2nd place and the attacks came. This is where i got off the bus and said goodbye to the main field. A rider attacked on the climb and by the time i got to the top the field was gone. Now i was just riding by myself.

I contemplated dropping out but soon talked myself out of that. I thought, "how often do i get to fly down a descent with a good turn at the bottom. If nothing else just practice your descending skills."

After a couple laps on my own i started to see 1 rider and then a second rider up ahead. Each time up the climb I was gaining ground on them. Eventually I caught both and there was a group of 3 of us fighting it out for what would be 10th place.

Every time up the hill I would drop one rider and then the other but not enough that they couldn't get back on during the descent. So finally on the last lap I attacked the 2 and almost immedaiately heard one declare he was done. That left 2 of us.

I got a decent gap over the remaining rider but it wasn't enough to stay away. Between turns 3 & 4 he caught me and after leading him thru turn 4 he sprinted around me for 10th place, leaving me 11th.

All in all i had a lot of fun. It was one of the hardest races i've done but i really enjoyed it. Catching the 2 riders and making a little mini race out of it helped me along. I never thought I would be the one attacking on a climb like that even if it was for 10th place.

Can't wait till next year.

Fox River Grove Cycling Challenge

2007-06-20T14:09:00.001-05:00

For anybody interested here's the details for the race on sunday.

I will be racing the Cat 3 race at 2pm.

Here's a map.

There is parking just south of the course at the the jewel or dominicks, i can't remember exactly what store but they run a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the course.

Also if you would like some more info click the link to the left under upcoming races. At the bottom of that page is some printed directions on how to get there.

Would love to see you there.

Ron