Supplies in place for the Turk who arrives today!
First some bike Racing. 4.5 mile loop (clockwise) along Lake Michigan just outside downtown Milwaukee.
Fast course. 9 laps (scheduled for 10 but started 30 minutes late d/t cars sneaking onto the course.) My 5 min peak power was the last mile of lap 7 when I tried to pull back the break, then struggled to stay on when we hit the first hill after my effort.
Closer view of the upper loop of the course. Left (uphill) up Ravine Rd. 150 degree Right turn onto North Lake Park Rd. >90 degree Right turn onto N Lincoln Memorial Dr.
Here is where I became sure that Rob had a hand the course design. The middle 200m of N Lake Park Road is an 8 foot wide path! Imagine 60 guys racing on roads diving into an 8 foot wide path 9 laps in a row? Arguably Heinous!!
After the race we hit one of the Lake Michigan Beaches in Kenosha.
I'd say Terri looks happy to be here!
Fun circuit race today. Lake Front venue in eastern Milwaukee. 2 short climbs, 4.5 miles, scheduled for 10 laps, we ended up doing 9. We lined up on time at 9am, then stood at the start finish for 30 minutes held up by a couple of cars which had snuck onto the closed course! Being a masters racer after about 20 minutes my bladder got the best of me and I ducked out to get rid of some water before the actual start.
I lined up for the masters race today since it was earlier than the 3s (9am vs 1130) and Terri was flying into Milwaukee at noon. The masters racers have all been a bit faster than the 3 races, but today the masters were scheduled for 40 miles whereas the 3s were scheduled for 70 miles! Since it was 80 degrees at 9am and 90 by 11am I was happy to start and finish earlier and race shorter!!
The course was really nice. Short steep climb 200m from the start/finish, thru the woods, hairpin decreasing radius chicane steep downhill, 1 mile flat then 1/4 mile steep climb thru the woods, 150 degree turn, 200m of goat path then back onto the main road for 1.5 miles.
It is nice to see a couple of familiar faces in the peleton – Eric Warnsman and Will Ross from Austin. I noticed that Will had placed 2nd the past 2 days and told him I would help him if I could today. At the end of the 7th/9 laps there was a group of 4 up the road, only 20 seconds. I did a hard 1 mile pull bring the gap down to 10 seconds (I had planned to extend the effort another 200m to the base of the first climb, but I got stung by a bee on my inner left leg right at the start/finish banner, so I sat up to sort that out. Over the top of the climb Will jumped but couldn’t get all the way across to the break.
Eric took advantage of a lull on the flat part of the course at the end of the 8th/9 laps and got into a 4 man chase group. This was swallowed up a half lap later. Will asked me if I had anything left to get him to the front in the finale, I put him in the front at the base of the last climb, but we drifted back to mid pack and I didn’t recover well from the climb so I never could get back around him in the last 1.5 miles of flat going into the finish line. The course wasn’t terribly selective and we arrived there with like 65 of the 75 starters so there was alot of squirrelly near misses in the last 500m. I ended up 47th, Will ended up 32nd, so alot of help I was.
Terri and I ate nice sushi for lunch then had a nice time on the beach. Chicago Dogs and Italian beef for dinner then off to the movies. Went to see Inception tonight. Good flick, not as good as The Book of Eli in my opinion, but that’s my taste.
The race tomorrow is in Racine, about 20 minutes from our hotel and the following day is in Kenosha, 5 blocks from our hotel. Good chance of rain each day, so that should make it interesting.
Stay tuned!!
