Tour of KC day 1and2

Preface

Aside from the fun times I am having here in Kansas City, I have been completing (somewhat) the end of a very long racing campaign. This year was my first year in the P12 category. Other than Rouge Roubaix '06 in Baton Rouge, LA, I have only used my racing license to compete in the great state of Texas. This year, however, arter upgrading to a 1, and feeling like I had achieved my goal for the year, I decided to take a little journey into the bigger arena of competitive cycling. I have been racing since the end of January 08 and have only missed one Texas race while working a 45hr a week bike messenger job. It's important that I consider these things when I look at the results of the last five weekends. They are pretty horrible on paper. Each one for me is a personal experience with a thousand fighting echoes that still reside in my mind and tremor like aftershocks through my body.
It's Saturday night and tomorrow is the last day of racing before I go home to Austin and go back to work as a courier and spend the rest of my time fixing my body with yoga and Barton Springs. But before that, let's race report...


Day1
Friday night crit was on a roller coaster course in a pretty seedy area of KC. Steep downhill, hard right, up again, another right, flat straightaway to another right, very open descent, curving right, punchy uphill to start/finish. Carlos attacked from the beginning and got a gap immediately. A few others joined and the break was established.
That morning, Carlos had finally gotten the bolt on his chainring replaced, but his small ring was so bent that he still dropped his chain when he was riding in it. During warmup he could not get his small ring to not drop his chain so he decided he would have to do the entire race in his big ring with only an 11-21 cassette. ouch.
Stefan Rothe attacked the field on the left and I had a slow reaction on the right. Stefan had a much better jump but I still had a good gap on the field while Brian Jensen sat on the front. No one was gonna let him go, so I decided I would try and bridge up to Stefan. It didn't work out for me and when the field caught me I jumped in to recover. I could never recover and got dropped about two laps later, making about 25 minutes of the race.
I had been feeling real good during warmup and for the first 15 minutes thought I could make a big impact on the outcome of the race. Then one move and I'm unable to recover and getting dropped. Weird. I rolled over to the start/finish where Mel is and I'm gettin dizzy. Even weirder. Later that night, I'm super achy and then I sleep tons. For 25 min of racing?
Carlos' break gets reshuffled a few times and he misses the winning move of three that includes Jensen, Rothe and some 42yr old. Jensen attacks with two to go finishes solo. Rothe and his partner work together until the last lap when the 42yr old drops Rothe. Carlos gets 4th in the field sprint for 7th.

Day2
Woke up to rain.
Mel and I go have coffee and buy me a cycling cap at Volker. There is a guy in there with his girlfriend and she is wearing what is no doubt a typical prom dress. He askes me if I have a minute. I reply yes but I don't work here.
Carlos' new problem is his cleat is almost completely stripped and if his foot cocks to either direction just a millimeter, he comes out of his pedal. Today's course was tough with a nice little climb, switchback descent, some mud on a very fast curved section and a steep climb about 1k from the finish. I had nothing today, so I was nothing. For the first few laps I stayed near the front, out of trouble. I was feeling so tired but tried to tell myself that other's were probably tired too. With 11 of 18 laps to go Jensen got away with a few others. Up the climb, through the start finish, Carlos looked around to see if anyone could help. I went to the front and punched it up the small climb to keep the pace high. Afterwards, I just focused on recovering, so not to get dropped. After the switchback, there was an odd angled right turn that always fed to a strung out, hang onto the wheel in front of you, section. I did not want to lose connection as I was already in fear of getting dropped after my effort. The rider in front of me braked too hard (i thought) on this odd angled turn and I jumped on the inside to avoid too big a gap opening. He got offended, overcorrected and then we both got gapped. He sat on my wheel as I struggled to get back on to the field and then attacked me when I was used up. That was the race for me. Jensen won again out of a three man break that included Brad Huff and a very young kid. Carlos came in next, first out of the chase group.

Who said this had to be all about racing bikes?

some fishing...

maintaining friendships...

and meeting new and exciting people.

before the end

Kansas is becoming the best part of this trip. I almost decided to go home after Elk Grove but decided to slug it out just one more weekend. Besides, Mel was coming to Kansas to hang out after she finished summer school.

I call this place home right now. Carlos and I have the place to ourselves, aside from the construction workers during the day. There is no tv and no internet, so we sleep ALOT. There is one sauce pan, a tortilla warmer and some cups. The other day I made chicken with brown rice and a salad. I felt like newlyweds.

Mel comes into town and takes me underwear shopping. Im still blushing

Mel in the clouds

couldn't help myself. seriously this window was asking for this

On Tuesday Carlos and I go to LatteLand for my never ending quest for that perfect espresso. This place was in the plaza, very close to where we were and the espresso was the best I've had since leaving Austin. Carlos' bike was missing a very important bolt in his crank so I asked the barrista where we could find a bike shop. She sent us to a shop her boyfriend was working, Volker Bicycles. Here we met the owners, Britton, his wife, Melissa, and their 8mo old Boston Terrier, Cooper. Britton ordered the part and then took Carlos and I riding through the hilly terrain of Kansas City. We scoped out the courses for Friday and Saturday's race. They both look pretty tough. That's all for now. I've already been to two other coffee houses today, Broadway, no wi-fi (boo) and now at Mildred's. Going out with a bang this weekend!!

tour of elk grove

After Superweek Carlos and I stayed one more night with our host, Steve. He sent us off the next day with another cookout and a guitar, two blow up mattresses, a towel holder and eddie bauer duffel bag. Steve is selling his house and really wants to move to South Carolina (Good luck Steve).
Carlos and I arrive in Elmhurst, IL Tues evening and are greeted by our new host, Bob. We stay in the basement again and Bob takes us riding the first two days. The third day Carlos and I ride the same route we went on the day before and we get soaked in a rain storm. I felt pretty lucky we didn't get carried away by a tornado but there were flooded streets and downed tree limbs. It was pretty crazy.


On Wednesday, I take the train to downtown Chicago and do some sightseeing along with catching The Dark Knight. I finish my excursion with a sunset and wine.

check out the cig in this guys hand

Tour of Elk Grove was another bomb shell for me. For the weekend, we stayed at an extended stay and were joined by Jorge Alvarado of Khala/LaGrange and Christian Helmig of Metro/VW. Both these guys were riding great all weekend and fun guys to share a tiny hotel room with. I felt great but could never manage to get my grip at the front. Once, on Saturday, when Carlos was in a break up the road I tried to jump across and instead brought the field with me. Carlos saw this and got pretty pissed at me. There were a lot of crashes. One crash, at the front of the field, occurred when two guys started taking swings at each other and one guy crashed and took out those around him. I avoided all the pavement kisses but felt this is what I did the entire race, avoid crashes. I finished in the field at a solid 39th. Carlos won the field sprint for 5th.
On Sunday the field was down from 100+ guys to 85. I felt better but really never could assert myself at the front. I pretty much just sat in the middle and finished there too. Carlos won the field sprint again but one guy had managed to sneak away.
Feeling a little discouraged, Carlos and I headed to Kansas City on Monday. We arrived around 9pm in a real nice neighborhood. We are staying in a house that is being renovated and owned by my friend's parents. It's empty and under construction but we have everything we need. This weekend is the Tour of Kansas City and then I head home. I stretched last night and realized my knee was still a little jacked from crashing on the last day of Superweek. It's a little weird to demand so much from my body but be blind to some of the subtleties of my workings.

Superweek Fine

Hung out to dry

This is where Steve, our host works. The butcher shop is very old and similar to what it looked like when it open almost a century ago.

This is Steve. He has been a great host. The last three nights when we come home, after racing, he has made dinner which has included grilled tuna, tenderloin, sausage, braut, pork chops, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes......Im forgetting something.

This is where Steve smokes out

Steve wanted me to see what would happen to Carlos if he didn't make the podium

Friday night was the Chase Food Folks and Spokes in Kenosha, WI. This was to be the first of the last three races for the series and things were getting pretty tight in the hunt for the overall. There were also some challenges still being made for the sprint jersey. Riders like Jonathan Page and Ryan Roth had made their debut in the final week of the series and really made the racing a little bit faster if not harder. I needed to help Carlos make sure that riders trying to close the gap in the sprint competition were not able to. The field was stacked and I started near the back. About thirty of 100 laps I was just at the back end of the front group when my front wheel slipped while turning on the white crosswalk paint. I thought I flatted and sat up. I soon realized that I was not flat and would not get a free lap. I managed to grab on to the back of the 150+ field and nearly got dropped. The rest of the race was a slow progression of trying to get back up to the front. At 8 to go I made it to the front and was in the first ten riders. The pressure went up and I kept giving up my wheel and two laps later was about 25 from the front. With 3 to go a crash caused a split and I was right behind it. I chased but the field was motoring towards the finish and so I crossed the line half a lap down.

The Great Downer Avenue Bike Race in Milwaukee was described to me as the most exciting race of the series. The fans, the money and the field were all supposed to be top notch. It lived up to the hype. A $7000 prime lap with 12 laps to go kept the pace high until it was handed out. The fans lined every available space on the course and the field was close to 200 riders. All I can say about this night is that I survived. I finally made it on the results sheet at 50th place (woohoo!) and had a feeling at the end of the night like I had been free falling the whole evening.
Carlos finally moved up to 3rd overall and 1st best amateur when Adrian Gerrits of Khala LaGrange, the rider in front of him, touched wheels in the final lead out and went down. This was not the ideal way for Carlos to move up, but thats racing.
The Whitefish Bay Classic in Whitefish Bay, WI would be the final showdown. The field size had been reduced to about 75 because of the Chicago Crit which offered a better payout and shorter race. Tyler had decided to take a ride back to Texas after Downer Ave so we were now four strong. With only a few points above 4th overall, we were completely focused on keeping Carlos out of trouble and on the podium at the end of the night. A break of seven riders got away but things were going pretty well. Of the entire series, I felt like I had the best legs on this night. About 35 laps in I stood up to accelerate through a turn. My right had slipped on my hood as I lunged all my weight forward and I went right over my bars. I had no time to react but its weird to know as I was crashing that I was going to crash and that I was in the middle of a bike race. About six guys went down with me but I think I was the worst hit. I was so pissed. I couldn't believe that I had been responsible for such a stupid crash, especially since I had been feeling so good. My bike looked terrible. Bent derraileur, torn cable and housing, bent shifters, wheels rubbing, etc. I thought this would be it for me, there was no way I could ride this bike. But I wasn't going to go out like that. If it had not been the last night, I probably would have taken my bloodied body and broken bike to the nearest pub and had been a numb drunk before the finish. I had made friends with the SRAM mechanic and wanted to see if I could pull it off one more time. I went to the pit and told him that I could not ride my bike after crashing. He sighed, set up a neutral bike and three laps after crashing, I was back in the race on a sweet ass Orca with Zipp 404s. I started near the front and attacked up to a break. We were caught and then I went for a prime. It was not to be but about five laps later I was set up (i thought) perfectly for another prime. I got nipped at the line. The race blew up after this into three, maybe four groups. I was gassed and thought that would be it for me, but I had all the overall contenders in my group, so after three laps of chasing we got reattached. With six to go, Adrian (lost 3rd overall to Carlos the night before) attacked and got clear with a few others. Carlos and Barry started to bridge up and I got to the front to police. There was a lull in the field which helped Carlos' effort and then Bahati decided to chase it down. I sat on his wheel for about three laps as he strung out the field in pursuit. It was like motopacing. He finally sat up with three to go. Carlos made it up to the break and outsprinted Adrian to secure his 3rd overall and 1st amateur. I finished 40th (movin up!!)

My bike is not dead. The SRAM mechanic fixed it while I bled all over the course. I missed the awards ceremony cause it hurt to undress. Me and a bottle of Jameson made out last night. It kept me pain free until about six this morning. I cannot really say for sure what I am going to take away from this experience. I will not try now, except maybe to say that I will sacrifice whatever I can and dig deeper into myself until there is no more me.

Rest Day

On Tuesday we raced here in Cedarburg. Andrew woke up sick and decided to cut his superweek campaign short and flew back home the next day. You will be missed, Andrew. Steve hasn't been the same. Being able to roll to the end of the block to get to the race was a nice change. The course (on left) was pretty simple on paper but the first turn had a few wrecks before things got settled. I went down in one of them when I came around the corner and someone was going over the curb to the left. I stayed in my drops and just tried to make sense of the chaos. Suddenly, an opening in front of me was really two riders that I hit and fell right on top of. Very soft landing, but a bit awkward with the bodies and bikes tangled up with each other. I took my free lap and jumped back in. The second turn was also a dicey one cause the course would go from a wide boulevard to a narrow neighborhood road. Everyone would bottleneck. The next turn had an indented manhole right on the preferred line. You could go over it but risked broken carbon after several times. By about thirty laps in everyone knew what to expect, but at the start, everyone was still trying to establish order and these nuances to the course were like paying toll booths on the freeway.
I made it to the front several times past fifty laps in. At this point guys were making big efforts to get away. The front would string out during the chase and then like a snowball on impact, fragment in anticipation of another move. I tried my best to ride in the wake and not let any danger moves go. But they all seemed like danger moves to me! With about 15 to go I realized I would finish my first race in a while, a huge accomplishment for me. I hung on and got through the pain by reciting lyrics and telling myself I would do "just one more lap," thanks willis.
After the race I met the kid I fell on, Logan. I apologized for falling on him but told him it was a soft landing. He is 18 and just coming back from being sick all year. He is a little pudgy, but it was not my intention to point this out to him, but he did.

Whitnall Park Road Race
Held in the Boerner Botanical Gardens in Hales Corner, Carlos and I almost didn't make the start when I got us lost (Missing Andrew already for his integrated gps mentality). The excitement of the previous race kept me awake all night. Seriously, I guess I was so tweaked from the exercition, I finally stopped trying to sleep around 3am and just listened to music until the Alpe d Huez stage started. I got two hours of sleep (9-10 and 1130-1230) before the race. The temps were up, there was a power climb every two miles, and we arrived 30 minutes before the start, so I was not expecting to even finish. Before Andrew left, he had been performing like a 1st lieutenant for Carlos. In Cedarburg, Tyler assumed this role. In Hales Corner, after 8 of 27 laps it would be my turn. I chased, got into moves and initiated breaks. The field caught the break with six to go. I attacked with a rider from the colombian national team. We were caught and Carlos countered. Khala LaGrange organized a chase cause their rider is barely beating Carlos in the amateur points. They brought it back and up the hill with two to go I attacked again and got a gap. Rock Racing chased me down and then it was lights out. Carlos got fifth, moved up in the overall to maybe 7th and is looking set to win the best amateur.
I'm taking today off then racing the last three days of superweek.
I had a big cup of wine last night and then slept hard.

Holy Hill

Holy Hill in Hartford was the first road race of Superweek. Ten laps on an eight mile course was reduced to eight laps when the start was delayed an hour. As I was warming up I realized my bars kept slipping since my crash cause they were cracked. No problem, few days before I made friends with the SRAM mechanic for this very reason. New Orbea Orca with Zipp 404s, oh yeah!! Only thing was I had never ridden, let alone raced, sram shifters.
I found the road race exactly what I needed. Plenty of time to recover and not so much fighting for position. I even bridged up to a very short lived break at the start of the second lap. At about two to go Carlos started floating back through the field and I asked if he was ok. "No! Wait for me."
That's what I'm here for I thought.
He changed bikes with Barry and I drilled it back up to reconnect with the peloton. I was pretty gassed and then noticed my neutral bike's stem had shifted a few degrees so that my handle bars and my front wheel were no longer aligned. The course was sketchy and there was no room for bike mechanicals on the mind so I pulled the plug. Later, Carlos thanked me for the help.

After driving to North Shore to visit Wheels and Sprocket to replace my bars, I returned to our host house where Steve, the butcher, had bbq'd four types of braut (apple braut was the best, no joke!), tenderloin and made pie. Little dinner, wine and pie, I felt like the day was a success.

"keep pedaling hard and staying strong in your mind. Mind is everything."
-ms mercedes orten

"the test of one's principles is his willingness to suffer for them, and the test of this willingness-the only test-is actual suffering."
-John Barth "The Floating Opera"

"...I can see the end is the begining,
so I'm not racing, I'm just sprinting.
Cause I dont want to finish.
They diminsh, I replenish....
That's how u let the beat build, bitch!
and the beat goes boom!
ba boom! ba boom!"
-lil wayne "Let the Beat Build"

the well and the lighthouse

where does the water end and the sky begin?

Mandatory day off. Barry texted me this morning as CSC unleashed on the yellow jersey. He wanted me to take a day off and spin easy so I could be fresh for the road race. Pedaled to Port Washington via the Ozaukee Interurban bike trail. Today was about rest, but one result I needed reminding of was that my bike still takes me places I have never been.