AM and PM radar the same. Band of rain and thunder through our area.

Racine Crit Course 0.7 mi hourglass shaped crit, clockwise. No I wasn't all over the road today, guess the Garmin was experiencing the "atmospherics" as Phil Liggett might say.

My data. You can see I made a couple of digs mid race and 3 lap break with 5 to go.

Not exactly "The Look" but I thought the 2 of us had a chance the last 5 laps.

Drove to Geneva, IL to B-H Geneva after the race. Here is Ara behind the counter.

Waco tends the shop when Ara is out.

I'll be happy to be back on the S3 for the last 3 days of Superweek. Thank you Ara and Cervelo!!

Heavy rain today this am.  Turk went for a run in it, at least no thunder.  The rain cleared an hour before my race and the course was dry so we gave ‘er a go.  I did put on my Tubeless Dura Ace wheelset as grip insurance in case the rain returned.

This was the hardest 3 crit I’ve done at Superweek, in my opinion.  We started about 50 riders today.  It was hard from the stop.  I felt better mid race and attacked twice, there was a break of 3 up the road.  I couldn’t get the usual separation and neither of these efforts lasted a lap.  I recovered well and went with 5 to go, 1 guy went with me.  We spent 3 laps off the front and I really thought we would stay away, but it was not to be.

I felt like we were at the point of a Versus cycling video where Paul Sherwin exclaims “Bridge to engine room, send more power!” Except in my case it was “send more talent!!” We were caught with 2 to go and although I gave it my best, 16th was all I could muster.  True B-H, 1 placing out of the money.  At least I avoided the hip surfing MSU racer in the last corner!!

After the race we drove to Geneva, IL to see Ara B-H Geneva.  The shop looks great, the staff is friendly and committed, they are doing a great job.  Terri was impressed.  I cleaned my Felt and put it back in the car as my spare bike, and picked up the S3 with new fork installed.  It will be interesting to see how it feels again, after racing the Felt for a few days!

Today will be really cool, the race is in Kenosha, 5 blocks from out hotel.  My plan is to do the 3 race, but if I get motivated I may do the earlier Masters race too. Time will tell.

Thanx for reading, Hilary!

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!!

Downtown South Milwaukee. Probably the coolest course to date. 2.8 mile circuit, clockwise. A little bit of city racing, a little bit of park racing.

Consistent laps. Fairly easy race. Finish mostly uphill, did not play to my characteristics.

Italian Beef and fries helps recovery for sure.

As does the occaisional ice cream.

Well, I definitely have a cold.  Really just in my head.  Slight sore throat, eyes watering, congested sinuses.  No fever or cough so OK to race.

Much cooler – highs in low 80′s, but very humid so really a wash pre-race compared with prior days.  My cold made me feel like crap, I had a mild headache and really didn’t enjoy the first few laps of today’s 35 mile (12 2.8 mile lap) circuit race.  Breathing OK.  Legs felt lousy first few laps.

Felt better as the race went on and the cooler weather really helped as it felt cool while we were racing.  The first half of the race saw a few attacks, nothing really stuck.  I attacked on the downhill into the climb on around lap 7, got up over the hill and made  a classic mistake.  Two riders came by me, separated from the group and I was a little cooked so I saw how close the group was and didn’t give the extra dig to stay onto these two. Big mistake.  As soon as I was caught the group eased up and the two rolled away, soon to have 10 then 20 seconds.  A small group bridged to them leaving 5 up the road at the finale.

I have learned that the best time to attack is when you are caught!  I should have made the extra effort today, if it didn’t work it would have only been a few seconds more of hard effort which I could have recovered from.  If it did work I would have rolled away with the group that stays away.  Man, if you aren’t going to be strong, you at least have to think and I didn’t think.  I was lazy mentally and physically today.

Oh well, that’s bike racing.  Tomorrow will be much better cuz Terri is flying in!!  The racing will be harder – 40 mile circuit race in Milwaukee with the Masters (the 3s race 70 miles! and later and I want to pick the Turk up from the airport so that works well.) The real drag is that the race is at 9am so I have to get up before 7am for the first time in a couple of weeks!

Tomorrow afternoon Turk and I should be able to hit the Lake Michigan beach here in Kenosha.  The race the next day is in Racine, about 10 miles north, the following day here in Kenosha, so that all works out well.  Ara fixed my bike and I plan to go see him and his mom the night after the Racine race, so I should have the S3 for the last few days of racing.

Funny things from the past two days.  You know I use spray adhesive on my numbers (some might call it lazy, I call it efficient.)  Since I’m now alone up here I now put my number on alone.  Yesterday I put my number on and fortunately noticed in the window of the car that it was upside down, before I rolled over to the race start.  Also fortunately since these races have been circuit races, and a little longer, I have been wearing jersey and shorts instead of skinsuit.  That way I can carry a 3rd water bottle.  I quickly took off the jersey, ripped off the number, resprayed, replaced (right side up this time) and no one was the wiser.

Today I sprayed my number, put it on (right side up) and got ready to race.  Went to grab my car keys out of my pocket and I had placed the number over the pocket with the keys in it!!  Off came the jersey, off came the number, out came the keys, resprayed the number and headed to the start line.

Speaking of bottles. My plan coming into Superweek was to carry 3 bottles each race.  The crits are faster and shorter (1:00 to 1:15) than I had anticipated (I had expected racing around 1:30 as most of the races are 35 miles.)  I quickly figured out that I only needed 2 bottles so I wear a skinsuit for most of the crits.  Doing so much racing, day after day, I figured nutrition, hydration, and recovery were the 3 keys.  With that in mind I carry a bottle of sports drink (HEED) and a 500 calorie bottle of protein drink (Accelerade or Endurox) and drink those during the race.  Lots of sparkling water pre and post race and another 500 cal Accelerade or Endurox bottle immediately post race.  Seems to work OK.  Italian Beef seems to help also…

5 days to go.  Looking forward to the end, but still looking forward to the coming races!

Today's Circuit Race course. 2.1 miles. Counterclockwise. Rolling. Short steep climb then false flat to finish.

I can tell when I'm just riding round and round - ie not attacking and racing - when my peak 5 minute power is in the first five minutes of a race.

Nice German restaurant in Kenosha for dinner. Trivia of the day, Gerhardt was the name of the inventor of the Powertap, around 1998.

Main Course. German Platter. Rouladen, Ham, Knockwurst on kraut, side of Spaetzel

Hillary got a nice pic of Ara and I before a race last week. Why does Ara's team skinsuit make me look fat!?!?

Back into the game today. Not sure what to expect after yesterday’s day of rest.  My motivation is low and my desire to suffer is even lower, so I sat on the back and simply went round and round.  Not a great course for me, kinda hilly, but still I generally will take a dig or two.  On the plus side, my congestion is quite a bit less, and I’m not coughing, so whatever I had is passing.  Ara, unfortunately is getting worse so will not be racing for a few more days.

I’m getting kinda bored on the road.  Really, really looking forward to the Turk getting here in 2 days so we can go to the beach and a movie and hang out.

I scouted out Day 11 course (in South Milwaukee) on my way home.  Pretty cool figure of 8 with some descending and climbing, some park road and some city center road.  My plan is to be much more active, try to get into a break.  It may rain which I would welcome, that always raises the stakes a little.

C ya.

"Relish" Tray

Bruschetta

Gnocchi, my favorite

I feel a little congested and am coughing a bit.  Hopefully just having sympathy symptoms for Ara.  Fingers crossed I will feel better tomorrow am after resting today!

I missed one of the most popular races of Superweek – in Evanston, IL.  Ah well, can’t make ‘em all.

Tomorrow starts 3 days of “Road Races.”  These are actually circuit races with laps ranging from 2-4 miles.  They are all near Milwaukee, about an hour from my hotel.

One thing I haven’t mentioned is entry fees.  Along with everything else we have so good in TX (and maybe forget how good we have it!) our local entry fees are a bargain.  The Tree of Life Crits are $15 and $5 for additional race, Univ Oaks are $22 and the Driveway is $20 for first race, $5 each additional.

The local weekday parking lot crit I did last Wednesday at Soldier’s Field was $35 plus $10 parking.

Superweeks crits are $30-40, plus $3 USAC fee, plus $6 day of race late entry fee, plus $5 if you wanna pay by check or credit card.  No discount for multiple races in the same day, so you will pay $40-$55 per each race.  I’m not complaining, its worth it.  SRAM neutral support, safe, fullly enclosed courses, etc.  I just really appreciate what we have around San Antonio and the price we have it.

Hope you all have a great week, thank you for following!

Today's Race in Downtown Milwaukee. Counterclockwise. 200m climb immediately from start finish.

Tough course for me. Hammer and coast. Over and over.

I think the reason I didn't drop out was that I planned to eat at this Serbian restaurant in South Milwaukee afterwards!!

Serbian Hor d'oveures

Chicken with dumpling soup

One of Kenosha's beaches

Lake Michigan

Tough course for me today.  50 starters, I placed 20th.  I was happy that I lasted the whole race.  Nasty little 200m climb each lap.  Fortunately I didn’t have to pedal for a half lap over the top so I could recover (to do it again and again.)  First 10 laps were kinda funny.  We dropped about 20 guys.  Anyone who was behind me after the climb did not get back on.  I felt like the grim reaper.  I was tempted to drop out, but figured, hey, I’m up here on vacation right?  What else am I gonna do for the next hour?

Super hot again 90+.  Found a nice Serbian restaurant in South Milwaukee using the iPhone Zagat app.  Back to the hotel in Kenosha (c’mon Wednesday, that’s when the Turk gets here!!)  Kenosha is a nice city.  Nice parks, beaches.  Really hopping on the weekends during the summer!

Tomorrow’s race is in Evanston, Il, north of Chicago.  I may or may not go.  Ara had planned on racing buy he is sick so he is gonna wait til Tuesday to race again.  It may rain and if it does I probably shouldn’t go.  My legs are the tightest they have been yet, tonight.

We’ll see.  Have a nice weekend!!

Technical 9 turn 0.7 mile course around Brookfield City Hall. Flat, very windy.

The course was very Joseba Beloski-esque. Lots of soft road tar with the 90+ degree heat. Rear wheels would slip on this - very disconcerting. This is corner 1. 44 lap race and I probably took 44 different lines through it trying to avoid rear wheel slippage!!

Docile 1st half of the race. 1/2 thru I bridged to a 3 man break. When the chase group caught us there were only 12 left from the 50 man field. I went solo for 3 laps, with 9 laps to go. I really should have stayed away but legs and lungs just wouldn't permit it today! Sat in for a few laps then went again with 2 to go.

Ended up 2nd behind the 1 rider who went with me with 2 to go!

She whose name we shall not speak finishing up the Women's P123 race.

Cleaning up from near argy bargy during the womens P123 race. As the wind picked up this section of the barriers came sailing into the women's field like a Chinese Dragon Float. Fortunately no one went down, a couple were held up but regained contact with the group.

SRAM Neutral Support for _all_ categories at all Superweek races. Nice that SRAM is HQ'd in Chicago, eh?

They say you should listen to your body.  I’m not so sure about that anymore.  I set my alarm for 9am today since breakfast closed at 930 and I had to leave around noon.  As usual during this trip I woke up an hour before my alarm. I drank some coffee and sparkling water taking in the TdF on the iPhone (no Versus on the hotel TV.) Went down to breakfast when the maids chased me from the room.

After breakfast I came back to the room and watched the TdF again.  I was so tired, I decided I wasn’t going to race today.  Set my alarm for 1130 and woke up feeling better.  The Cat 3 race was at 2, and the drive was about an hour so I decided to drive up and check things out.  Got some better coffee (first coffee was nasty hotel coffee.)  Found a car wash and rinsed the car off and drove up to Brookfield, WI.

Got there and felt fine, so I kitted up and lined up.  We started about 50 riders,  the course was pretty technical with the 15mph wind, 9 turns, and Beloki-esque soft tar filling in the road cracks and gaps.  The group was really going slow, the early attacks didn’t go anywhere, but guys were dropping out.  I guess the bunch is getting tired after a week of racing.

I took off after a break of 3 midway thru the race and the 4 of us went pretty hard for a few laps.  A group came up to us and turns out there were only a dozen of us left in the race.  No real attacks for a while.  I guess that since the race paid 15 deep most of the riders (maybe not the Canadians) could count to 12 and realized that everyone left was getting paid.  I took a couple of digs and the last one with 2 laps to go stuck and I got 2nd.  Simple as that.  I probably should have won, just didn’t have the confidence to go hard enough chasing down the rider who went with me on the last lap.  Ah well, I’m learning.

All those Driveways, Univ Oaks, Tree of Life crits with alot of ill advised attacks finally kinda paid off.  Of course according to Rob, 2nd place is first loser!!  I’ll hope to do better in the future!

Dinner after the race with her whose name we shall not speak at Panera.  Still hungry tonight at 11pm so ate my “recovery sandwich” Cheese Omelet with Sausage patty on cream cheesed English Muffin.

.

Tomorrow’s course may not be as ideal for me, Schlitz Park in Milwaukee (yes Milwaukee is famous for beer!) Apparently has a nasty little climb in it.  Hopefully I can sleep in a bit – the Masters race is at 12:20 and the 3s race is at 2:40.  My plan (tonight anyhow) is to start the Masters race to get a feel for the course and then give the 3s race a go, again.

Wish me luck.  Have a nice weekend and hope your rides are great.

Cudahy, WI crit course. Clockwise. Top leg descends. Bottom leg climbs. Right Leg rolling. Left leg Flat into headwind.

I think the whole bunch is tired. Slow pace on really fast course. Averaged under 25mph, easily could have been 30. My 5 min max was getting into break in middle of race, the group came together, I went again with the next break, then settled back in and of course then the 4 man break went away and stayed away. Put power in on the last lap too.

Notice the low heart rates and power thru most of the race. Still hit 180 on last lap. The whole group was just kinda taking it easy, like me today, I guess.

If you race hard, you gotta eat good food. Nice sushi restaurant in Kenosha. Tuna Martini appetizer.

Steak and Scallop Hibachi Meal. This should help my recovery for sure.

Now in Best Western Kenosha for the rest of the trip. Overlooking the harbor leading to Lake Michigan.

I forgot to mention the highlight (?lowlight?) of yesterday.  I’ve noticed a noise and clunk in the front end of the S3 recently.   Before the Soldier Field crit I tightened the headset and felt a snap.  The fork seemed loose.  Ara checked it out and said “Dude, you’re not racing tonight.”  Well, those who travel with me know that I’m kinda prepared.  Pulled my spare bike – the Slipstream Felt that JW is now riding, out of the Yukon, threw the race wheels, raised the seat and slammed it back and I was good to go.

Woke up a bit tired this am.  Packed up my stuff, since I go out of town to work for a week each month and pretty much take the same stuff each time this only takes me about 15 minutes.  I pulled the fork out of the S3, called Cervelo and they will ship a replacement to Bicycle-Heaven, Geneva.  So, I should be back on the S3 in a few days!!

It is nice to ride my old bike again.  JW rides a much shorter stem, but that’s no biggie.  I had forgotten how precise Campy shifts.  No problem readjusting to it.  After saying goodbye and thank you to Ara and his mom I headed up to Cudahy, WI (southern sub of Milwaukee) for today’s race.  The Masters race was at 11am, which meant I would have had to A. get out of bed early after a tough tough day yesterday.  B. Started driving thru Chicago around 8am.  Neither was a good idea so I simply planned to do the Cat 3 race at 2pm.  That way I could sleep til 9 or so and start driving around 11am.

The course was fast, the roads were a little spotty, but that simply makes it a bit more technical which I like.  As I mentioned above, the whole group seemed to be taking it easy today.  My plan was to take it easy and sit in.  My legs felt sore for the first few laps, for the first time so far.  We went thru the start/finish after the first lap and 4 guys decided to crash, right in front of me.  I locked it up and slammed into a bike or rider, didn’t crash, got around and the next part of the course was downhill with a corner I could take with momentum so I got back on easily.  I have no idea why the crash happened.  Fortunately we weren’t going too fast so most of the guys got back in I believe.

That was only the 2nd crash I’ve seen in the 8 races I’ve done in 5 days of racing.  The first was also on the 2nd lap of the Cat 3 race, the first day of racing.  It happened on the technical corner, where I was later pushed into the curb finishing my day.  I raced with a Masters racer from Ara’s B-H team in a race a couple of days ago.  He is a 3 but doesn’t do 3 crits, he calls them Cat 3 crashiteriums.  Perhaps he’s right.

I mentioned that Ara crashed in the finale of the road race Wednesday at Willow Springs (10 miles from his house!!) You can watch this YouTube video of the wreck.  Ara is way right, 2nd from the right at the 18 second mark.  The wreck is weird – starts on the Left-Center side of the road and takes out guys on the Right side of the road (where Ara was.)  He’s a little skinned and sore, but the bikes OK…

I’m settled in in Kenosha, WI for the remainder of Superweek.  The remaining races are in Wisconsin and Kenosha is pretty central when you map the races out.  My hotel is right on Lake Michigan so I’m gonna test the water (I imagine its pretty cold.) Terri will really enjoy running on the beach when she joins me next week.  As you can see above, I found a great Sushi restaurant in Kenosha.  I know Terri’s gonna enjoy that also!!

Ara predicts the weekend races to be much harder, so I am gonna “rest” again tomorrow and only do the Cat 3 race.  Nice coffee shop near by, I’ll check that out in the am, and look for a place to wash the Yukon.

Have a good weekend coming up.  I know it’s hot in SA, believe me it’s hot up on the North Coast also!!

Lake Geneva, WI crit course. Clockwise. Fast, safe, uphills and down hills, "cool" breeze from lake.

8 years since we were at Lake Geneva. Stayed there for the nearby Alpine Valley MTB race. That's Nathan on top of the car securing 6 bikes and bags, Foxy shoving stuff into the trunk. Me? Supervising and documenting, natch!

First race of day. 1pm Masters crit. Fast and hard. I got away and almost bridged to the break with 4 laps to go. Yeah, I got caught and passed by 5 guys in the final 100m. Oh, well, at least I'm trying.

2:30pm Cat 3 race. Not as fast or hard. I sat at the back the whole race, cooked from my prior effort.

8pm. Soldier Field 123 crit (part of a local Chicago crit series. Raced with Ara. Fast and hard.

Here's where we raced, 1k lap, in a big parking lot south of Soldier Field. No all those cars were not there during the race!!

Quick update tonight.  It’s nearly midnight and I’m pretty tired.

My original plan today was to leave Ara’s and “move” to a hotel in Kenosha, WI after doing the Lake Geneva, WI races.  The rest of the venues, save 1, are all in Wisconsin.  Well, when I found out there was a local crit in Soldier Field parking lot (Da Bears!!) I just had to incorporate that race into my schedule, so I’m back at Ara’s tonight and will “move out” tomorrow.

It was super hot (mid 90′s) and humid today.  My Masters and 3′s races were back to back, I had about 3 minutes between races.  I found out that I can switch bottles, tear off my number and put my second number on in that 3 minutes.  I use adhesive spray on my numbers, so putting it on solo involves getting it on about 2/3 way, looking in the car window to make sure it is about in the right place, then rolling on the ground to finish the application!!

It’s funny how my plans have changed since I’ve been here.  My overall plan was to “ride” the Masters races (always before the 3′s, usually not immediately before like to day) and “race” the 3s.  Well, the Masters races have been so hard that it turns out that I’ve been “racing” the Masters and “riding” the 3s!

During the last 5 minutes of the 3s race I developed a bad headache (I never get headaches) and after I finished the race I was dead tired.  So tired that I could barely stay awake in the car (I solved that problem by texting   shhhh don’t tell the Turk.)  I texted Ara and said I was heading to the house and not racing Soldier field.  Well after driving for an hour and a half, suddenly I felt better and found my self entering Soldier Field into the car Nav.  Funny what a period of time in air conditioning, a little rest, a recovery drink, and alot of sparkling water can do!

That is like ultra cycling.  Don’t worry about how you feel now, you will feel different in an hour or two.  Maybe better, maybe worse, but definitely different.  Hey, maybe this PACTour stuff is paying off racing after all.

Stay tuned.  Tomorrow’s a “rest day.”  Just one race.