Kenosha Crit. #2, March 21-10

Ah, number 2 race for me for the new season. I seem much better getting that first one out of the way last week. Organized that is, I went out the night before with one of my team mates and had a few brews. I was out later than normal, and had to sleep by myself. My wife went out with her sister and stayed the night by her.

Anyways lets get to the race. I was feeling a bit tired, not well rested and had put in a lot more miles and rides this past week. I had two team mates with me at this race Rick, and Brian. Rick's first race of the year on a new bike.

The plan was to sit in and hopefully have a finished field sprint. Rick mentioned while warming up that he may do something stupid, like go for a solo break but not really go for it. Just to keep the legs warm was his theory. Race started pretty mellow for a lap and then a solo man went on a break. He stayed in sight and never went anywhere. At this point Brian was pulling in the head wind and a low tempo and then I would pull in the tail wind. Just for fun I started to ramp it way up, looking as if I was going for a break away. I would just blast a little while get a gap and then sit up. I did that for two laps, on the second lap of doing that a Wheel & Sprocket rider (Jeff) looked at me and said do you want to go and I said no. He kept going and then shortly after one of my team mates (Rick) went after him and caught him, but then had 5 seconds on us or so. Brian and I stayed at the front controlling the pace. There were a couple of bridge attempts made by others but Brian and I would stick with it and wait for it to slow up and then get in front and tempo it again. We did let solo men go for it just not any groups.

Three laps to go I found myself in the front again and I didn't want to be their. Someone passed my with two laps to go and I stayed on his wheel for that lap. Then on the bell lap Brian came around and I went on his wheel and he ramped it up stringing out the field. He was flying, and I was loving it, but when he went through the last corner he pinched me off into the curb and I had to hesitate a bit which stopped any momentum and managed to get 10th. Brian finished 13th, and Rick finished 3rd. A job well done!

Next weekend will be at Blackhawk farms in South Beloit with some more team mates. See once what we can't do their. Later!