Snake Alley and Quad Cities 2011

Tammy and I drove down to Burlington Iowa Saturday morning. We left at 5am and actually had a pleasant drive down.

We arrived at Snake Alley around 10am and I immediately picked up my registration packet. I said, if it is raining that I wasn't going to do the race, well guess what? It was raining while warming up and guess what? I still raced, I should have stuck with my gut feeling and not have raced.

On the first lap I was clipped in right away and was the first one up the "snake" and was finally being passed on the finishing straight. Second lap I was getting gapped already but feeling ok and then on the descent at the bottom of the hill on the right hand corner I crashed! I may have done a rookie move, but at the time felt like I was making the right decision. I didn't want to hit the manhole cover so I was going to use a parking lot to slow down and get back in it, but I didn't see the fence that they had up and I hit the fence and tumble into the parking lot. It happened right by the medic's so I was able to get cleaned up right away. I opted to DNF the race. I thought I had broke my pinky finger, but turns out to be sprained.

Sunday, I skipped racing and hung out with my wife who is sick and having terrible coughing symptoms.

Monday, Quad Cities was in the 90's, I thought this is going to be a hot race. I took two bottles with me, one was my hammer for drinking and the other was ice water for dumping over my head. At one point during the race I was on Travis, my team mate and I told him I was there. He told me to follow him through turn two and he brought me up to top 10 or so. That was awesome, but it did hurt a bit, but it is going to when the pack is going that fast. With 5 laps to go I was a bit far back in the group and needed to move up. I made my move with 2 to go and started moving up, but didn't move up far enough, I should have kept going, but it is easy to say when it is all over with. I managed to squeek out 13th place, not the top 5 I was hoping for, but I did place better this year than last year.

Most important this is that I had fun and I am ok.

Next up, finishing my yard on Sunday and maybe racing Fitchburg on Saturday.

Past/Present/Future

Past: I have been sick for a week, actually felt it in my throat on Monday the 16th. I had a cough that really hurt and then it moved to head. Being sick made me change my "plan" a bit. No racing this past weekend, but I did get some yard work done, but still have a lot to do yet. If the rain on Saturday would have held off, we could have done the whole yard, but instead we are only about half done with the yard. One side is graded and seeded along with half of the front yard. Still need to get the back and the other side of the house. What is done so far does look nice. Sunday one of my team mates wanted to go for a ride, so I thought that would be a good idea and the weather was beautiful. It was in the low 80's with a south west wind. He wanted an easier ride and I was good with that. We rode from West Bend to Sussex and hung out at the bicycle races and saw another friend who also rode form West Bend. We rode back together getting about 60 miles total, but nothing hard. Yesterday I felt a little better and went for another easy ride meeting up with my brother in putting in two hours total.

Present: I feel much better today and having an off day from training will be nice.

Future: This weekend Tammy and I are going with the Heller's to Snake Alley and Quad Cities. Travis and I are only doing two races this year down there. We will get a recovery day in between the two races. Hoping the weather will be good and that we will be strong and have decent results. Me personally am hoping to finish the Snake this year and really shooting for a top 5 at Quad Cities. Competition is really tough, but I do have a little more experience this year.

Wheels on Willy

Wheels on Willy I believe is held in Madison, but there is road construction this year and they held the race in Fitchburg. I have been on this same course last year and it is wide open turns and very fast. The weather was in the upper 50's and very windy (wind gust around 40mph).

I car pooled with team mate Travis and his family and he was doing two races Cat. 3 and P1,2,3. I decided to race with him also, my first double of the year. I have been racing the M1,2,3 class and this was going to be a hard day.

Category 3 race was full of break away attempts, and that is all they were attempts, nothing stayed away and on the final lap I was bit further back than I would have liked, but managed to pass many racers to the finish.

P1,2,3 race was VERY FAST from the word go and I was dropped about 25 minutes in, I kept going though not to hard waiting for the field to lap me and then jump back in. I was able to stay with the field again up until the last lap when I was shelled again. Oh well, I will take it as a good training day and hoping that some good will come out of this butt whopping.

Off topic a little bit, on Saturday I did a little motor pacing. I had my brother drive my car and I followed him. This was our first time doing this and I think with some more experience this could be a good thing.

Later

Muskego Criterium

Muskego Criterium was held in Muskego Park. This was a 1.1 mile loop w/100 feet of climbing per lap. I did the M1,2,3 race with my coach, who I also car pooled with. Weather was cool, cloudy, but hey at least it was dry. Well, it did sprinkle a little bit on and off, but not hard enough to make you wet at all.

After a decent warm up I took a one lap warm up. I have ridden this course before, but it is still nice to just go through it once to see if there are any holes or cracks to worry about. Also good to feel out the wind direction.

My goal for this race was to do better than Whitnall. I did a really good job staying out of the wind and following safe wheels. Everyone rode safe and smooth, the climb was a bit slower than I would have thought, but that was ok with me. On the last lap I was a bit far back in the field and passed quit a few people on the finishing hill. I managed to still have some left in the tank, so bad positioning by me. I managed to finish 16th, so that was a lot better than Whitnall Park, so job well done.

Hopefully I will be going down to Monster of Midway with Travis on Saturday for a criterium their. But, I may have to help out with the yard on Saturday. I have topsoil, but need to pcik out the rocks and spread the topsoil and plant grass. We are still trying to figure out what we want to do for our patio. Maybe be able to race on Sunday if I can't race on Saturday.

Going with the flow, and we will see what happens.

Later

Criterium Practice

Last night was the first Criterium practice that myself and Jim organized. Weather was less than pleasant for sure. It was about 40 degrees and we had some sleet/hail also from time to time. The course is short, held behind Piggly Wiggly and by Stocky's. It is a perfect location with very little traffic. It is very flat with a little roller, we ran it counter clockwise and the finish was at the top of the roller. There were 12 of us and ranged from rookie's to Category 3's. We did 3, 3 laps of tempo and then 3 laps live racing. There were some tactics that were dealt and people playing their strengths. I had a lot of fun and looking forward to doing it again May 17th.

Brian and I finished the night by eating at Stocky's!

I would like to thank everyone for coming out and participating! Please invite friends and lets grow this event!

Later