Superweek Update, Stages 1-5
Team Nerac/Outdoorlights.com has three riders out here in Wisconsin for ten days, racing in the International Cycling Classic better known as "Superweek." For as long as I've been racing, Superweek's always been at least two weeks long, but apparently at some point it was just a super week. This year is the 37th edition, so that's nothing to laugh at.
I flew in to Chicago Friday morning for the first stage, which was in the Beverly Hills area of the city that evening. My teammate Todd Yezefski lives in Chicago and picked me up at the airport, although his previous engagement with a Cubs/Brewers game (and allegedly a set of twins) that night in Milwaukee would keep him from racing. Dan Holt had just flown from Japan, where his wife is stationed, to Atlanta, and then drove all day to try and make the race. That turned out to be impossible, and probably a bad idea in the first place. So, it was just me on day 1.
As is typical for Superweek, a break went in the first 10 minutes, never to be seen from again. Since most of the races are 100k criteriums, the normal pattern is for the race to start hard, an early break gets away, the field sits up, and the race starts again when the break laps the field. I was riding a new team bike for only the second time, and still trying to get my position set and get comfortable on it in the turns. I felt good, won a $50 prime, and was well positioned in 5th place through the final corner for the field sprint for 8th. Unfortunately, the 3rd rider in the train slid through the turn, got some traction back, and then high-sided at what my computer said was 33 MPH. He took out the rider behind him, I t-boned the both of them, went over the bars, and landed in someone's front lawn. Even worse than losing a result, the crash broke one of my brand new brake levers that had all of three hours of riding on it! Team homeboy and ace mechanic Todd Downs, who build almost all of the Nerac/Outdoorlights.com team bikes at International Bicycle Center in Boston, is also a SRAM neutral support staffer, and was there working the race. He took my bike home and brought it back the next day with a brand new brake lever blade on it. That's just how awesome Todd Downs is.
Here's a picture, ironically from the turn I eventually crashed in:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2006/jul06/superweek06/superweek061/sw06-BH_12
On day 2, we had a long drive from Chicago to the Otto Grunski Time Warner Menasha Classic Criterium (whew!) up in, well, Menasha, WI. We stopped in Milwaukee along the way to meet up with Todd and drop some things off at our host housing. We're staying in an empty condominium that's currently up for sale and being shown regularly, owned by Scott Novogoratz, a local racer and triathlete. It's great to have the place to ourselves, and we're right on the lakefront. The lack of cooking utensils, or even furniture or lights, is certainly making things interesting. We do have wifi, though, so we work at night to the glow of the laptops.
At Menasha, Todd, Dan, and I took turns just rolling with moves, until Todd got away in a really promising selection of four riders, including the race leader Christian Valenzuela of Monex, about 15 minutes into the race. They had established a gap of about 15 seconds when a bad crash in the field neutralized the race. Todd got a chance to catch his breath, and when the race restarted, the break just disappeared up the road, getting to within 10 seconds of lapping the field. Todd said that Valenzuela was blowing, and another rider who was sprinting for the points jersey didn't want to lap, so they dialed it back. Dan and I continued to cover moves, until the European combine of 3 Milram riders and 3 riders from the Danish Glud & Marstrand Horsens team went to front and started to drill it. Eventually, they sprung a single rider, Stefan Adamsson from Milram, who was joined by Frank Trevieso from AEG-Toshiba, as the field was about to explode. In the last 15 laps, the two chasing riders bridged, while Valenzuela and another rider were dropped, and Todd hung tough up front to finish in 4th place. Dan lead me out, and while we were second and third through the final corner, I was only able to manage 9th place in the sprint, for 13th overall. Todd's excellent ride left us all in good spirits, and put him in the top 10 overall, and in the top 5 for the points jersey.
That night, we stayed with a friend of Todd's from Pennsylvania, who lives with his girlfriend in Appleton, WI. They took amazing care of us, including making us a huge pancake breakfast in the morning, as well as doing all our dirty laundry! I never even got that kind of treatment when I still lived at home. It was great.
Day 3 saw us at the Holy Family Memorial 100 in Manitowoc, WI, for another 100k, 4-corner crit. Todd was feeling a little spent after his 2-hour breakaway the night before, but I was finally feeling opened up and really strong. Todd sat back some for the first half of the race, while Dan and I took turns covering moves. A few things looking promising, while some of the less promising moves turned out to be the breaks of the day. I sprinted for a prime about 1/2 way through with Jonathon Clarke of the AIS-Cyclingnews team. While I won the prime, what I hadn't noticed is that we had put a huge gap in the field setting up for the sprint, and we had Jonathon's brother Hilton, who rides for Navigators, in tow, along with a local rider. I intentionally sat up to go back to the field while they pressed on, and to my embarrassment, eventually lapped the field.
If this was horrible enough the first time, I managed to actually do it twice in one night. Late in the race, I covered a move and went clear with Jonathan Clarke again, as well as a rider from Healthnet, AEG-Toshiba, Ben Jacques-Maynes from Sierra Nevada, and another local rider. We were all working well together and quickly had a big gap on the field, when they rang the bell for a $100 prime. The AEG rider attacked the break, we let him go at first, and then all hell broke loose. Jacques-Maynes slung off Clarke to try to go across, Clarke got pissed and went after him, I hung on to Garret Peltonen from Healthnet for dear life, and we rode most of the lap like that. Coming around after the prime, though, it looked like we were all sitting up and regrouping, when all of a sudden Garret gapped me, Ben came back standing still, and Clarke and Garret latched on to Jovanovic from AEG. I don't even know how it happened, but all of a sudden I was with Ben and the other three were gone. I wasn't blown or dropped, per se, I just felt like one minute we were regrouping, and then the next minute there was a gap I didn't open, but couldn't close. It sucked.
In the sprint for 6th, Todd and I tried to ride together and see what we could do, and finished 19th and 21st. Dan hung on for 33rd. It was a slightly frustrating end to a night where there was potential for a much bigger result.
On Day 4, we had the first road race of the series, the Point Beer Alpine Valley Road Race. I had been planning to take one day off of the ten we'll be here racing, and as a sprinter, any 100-mile road race with "alpine valley" in the title seems like a good one to skip. I worked the feed zone while Todd and Dan worked themselves over on the hills and crosswinds of East Troy, WI. The race looked really freaking hard, with groups going away, splitting, coming back, going away, and splitting all over again. Todd and Dan managed to finish with what you'd have to call the field, but since there wasn't a group on the road bigger than 10 riders at that point, they were riding strong just to be there. They were 2nd and 4th in the sprint, for 34th and 36th place. The road races at Superweek go 35 places and have double points, so Todd picked up a few more.
On Day 5, Todd and Dan both took their days off, while I opted for a flatter 100-mile road race at the Hammer Gel MGA Proving Grounds Road Race. I felt good after my day off, and it was clear that a lot of riders were hurting from the day before. I covered a lot of moves early, and actually made a lot of counter-attacks of my own, so I knew I was on a good day. Eventually, a group of 11 got clear on a counter to a move I had just gone with, so I watched it roll away in frustration. Over the course of the next 60 miles or so, various chases and attempts to bridge took place, all to no avail. with 3 laps and 30 miles to go, 3 more riders eventually went away, including Jacob Nielson from Glud & Marstrand Horsens, and Brian Sheedy from Priority Health. One lap later, I covered an attack from Ward Solar over the top of a big roller, and we immediately went clear with a Californian rider from Kahala-LaGrange, this time for good. We got within 15 seconds of the group of 3 in front of us, who eventually dropped the local rider who was with them. Instead of slowing them down, it allowed Nielson and Sheedy to really dig in, and the 4 of us could not close the rest of the gap. I knew at this point, however, that I was the strongest rider out of my group. As we came into the finish and the cat and mouse games began, I was able to cover two attacks from the other riders, before launching my own on the final hill, about 500 meters from the line, to go clear on my own. I finished 12th, only about 5 seconds behind Sheedy and Nielson in front of me. 12th isn't a win, but I felt great about the way it went down, and how strong I was still feeling for the last 20 miles of the 100-mile race.
Tomorrow, Dan and I will head to the Saturn Whitnall Park Road Race, before the criteriums start up again on Thursday. Todd will rejoin us Friday-Sunday. Results and photos are being posted on CyclingNews.com, as well as http://www.internationalcycling.com/results.php .
Team Nerac/Outdoorlights.com has three riders out here in Wisconsin for ten days, racing in the International Cycling Classic better known as "Superweek." For as long as I've been racing, Superweek's always been at least two weeks long, but apparently at some point it was just a super week. This year is the 37th edition, so that's nothing to laugh at.
I flew in to Chicago Friday morning for the first stage, which was in the Beverly Hills area of the city that evening. My teammate Todd Yezefski lives in Chicago and picked me up at the airport, although his previous engagement with a Cubs/Brewers game (and allegedly a set of twins) that night in Milwaukee would keep him from racing. Dan Holt had just flown from Japan, where his wife is stationed, to Atlanta, and then drove all day to try and make the race. That turned out to be impossible, and probably a bad idea in the first place. So, it was just me on day 1.
As is typical for Superweek, a break went in the first 10 minutes, never to be seen from again. Since most of the races are 100k criteriums, the normal pattern is for the race to start hard, an early break gets away, the field sits up, and the race starts again when the break laps the field. I was riding a new team bike for only the second time, and still trying to get my position set and get comfortable on it in the turns. I felt good, won a $50 prime, and was well positioned in 5th place through the final corner for the field sprint for 8th. Unfortunately, the 3rd rider in the train slid through the turn, got some traction back, and then high-sided at what my computer said was 33 MPH. He took out the rider behind him, I t-boned the both of them, went over the bars, and landed in someone's front lawn. Even worse than losing a result, the crash broke one of my brand new brake levers that had all of three hours of riding on it! Team homeboy and ace mechanic Todd Downs, who build almost all of the Nerac/Outdoorlights.com team bikes at International Bicycle Center in Boston, is also a SRAM neutral support staffer, and was there working the race. He took my bike home and brought it back the next day with a brand new brake lever blade on it. That's just how awesome Todd Downs is.
Here's a picture, ironically from the turn I eventually crashed in:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2006/jul06/superweek06/superweek061/sw06-BH_12
On day 2, we had a long drive from Chicago to the Otto Grunski Time Warner Menasha Classic Criterium (whew!) up in, well, Menasha, WI. We stopped in Milwaukee along the way to meet up with Todd and drop some things off at our host housing. We're staying in an empty condominium that's currently up for sale and being shown regularly, owned by Scott Novogoratz, a local racer and triathlete. It's great to have the place to ourselves, and we're right on the lakefront. The lack of cooking utensils, or even furniture or lights, is certainly making things interesting. We do have wifi, though, so we work at night to the glow of the laptops.
At Menasha, Todd, Dan, and I took turns just rolling with moves, until Todd got away in a really promising selection of four riders, including the race leader Christian Valenzuela of Monex, about 15 minutes into the race. They had established a gap of about 15 seconds when a bad crash in the field neutralized the race. Todd got a chance to catch his breath, and when the race restarted, the break just disappeared up the road, getting to within 10 seconds of lapping the field. Todd said that Valenzuela was blowing, and another rider who was sprinting for the points jersey didn't want to lap, so they dialed it back. Dan and I continued to cover moves, until the European combine of 3 Milram riders and 3 riders from the Danish Glud & Marstrand Horsens team went to front and started to drill it. Eventually, they sprung a single rider, Stefan Adamsson from Milram, who was joined by Frank Trevieso from AEG-Toshiba, as the field was about to explode. In the last 15 laps, the two chasing riders bridged, while Valenzuela and another rider were dropped, and Todd hung tough up front to finish in 4th place. Dan lead me out, and while we were second and third through the final corner, I was only able to manage 9th place in the sprint, for 13th overall. Todd's excellent ride left us all in good spirits, and put him in the top 10 overall, and in the top 5 for the points jersey.
That night, we stayed with a friend of Todd's from Pennsylvania, who lives with his girlfriend in Appleton, WI. They took amazing care of us, including making us a huge pancake breakfast in the morning, as well as doing all our dirty laundry! I never even got that kind of treatment when I still lived at home. It was great.
Day 3 saw us at the Holy Family Memorial 100 in Manitowoc, WI, for another 100k, 4-corner crit. Todd was feeling a little spent after his 2-hour breakaway the night before, but I was finally feeling opened up and really strong. Todd sat back some for the first half of the race, while Dan and I took turns covering moves. A few things looking promising, while some of the less promising moves turned out to be the breaks of the day. I sprinted for a prime about 1/2 way through with Jonathon Clarke of the AIS-Cyclingnews team. While I won the prime, what I hadn't noticed is that we had put a huge gap in the field setting up for the sprint, and we had Jonathon's brother Hilton, who rides for Navigators, in tow, along with a local rider. I intentionally sat up to go back to the field while they pressed on, and to my embarrassment, eventually lapped the field.
If this was horrible enough the first time, I managed to actually do it twice in one night. Late in the race, I covered a move and went clear with Jonathan Clarke again, as well as a rider from Healthnet, AEG-Toshiba, Ben Jacques-Maynes from Sierra Nevada, and another local rider. We were all working well together and quickly had a big gap on the field, when they rang the bell for a $100 prime. The AEG rider attacked the break, we let him go at first, and then all hell broke loose. Jacques-Maynes slung off Clarke to try to go across, Clarke got pissed and went after him, I hung on to Garret Peltonen from Healthnet for dear life, and we rode most of the lap like that. Coming around after the prime, though, it looked like we were all sitting up and regrouping, when all of a sudden Garret gapped me, Ben came back standing still, and Clarke and Garret latched on to Jovanovic from AEG. I don't even know how it happened, but all of a sudden I was with Ben and the other three were gone. I wasn't blown or dropped, per se, I just felt like one minute we were regrouping, and then the next minute there was a gap I didn't open, but couldn't close. It sucked.
In the sprint for 6th, Todd and I tried to ride together and see what we could do, and finished 19th and 21st. Dan hung on for 33rd. It was a slightly frustrating end to a night where there was potential for a much bigger result.
On Day 4, we had the first road race of the series, the Point Beer Alpine Valley Road Race. I had been planning to take one day off of the ten we'll be here racing, and as a sprinter, any 100-mile road race with "alpine valley" in the title seems like a good one to skip. I worked the feed zone while Todd and Dan worked themselves over on the hills and crosswinds of East Troy, WI. The race looked really freaking hard, with groups going away, splitting, coming back, going away, and splitting all over again. Todd and Dan managed to finish with what you'd have to call the field, but since there wasn't a group on the road bigger than 10 riders at that point, they were riding strong just to be there. They were 2nd and 4th in the sprint, for 34th and 36th place. The road races at Superweek go 35 places and have double points, so Todd picked up a few more.
On Day 5, Todd and Dan both took their days off, while I opted for a flatter 100-mile road race at the Hammer Gel MGA Proving Grounds Road Race. I felt good after my day off, and it was clear that a lot of riders were hurting from the day before. I covered a lot of moves early, and actually made a lot of counter-attacks of my own, so I knew I was on a good day. Eventually, a group of 11 got clear on a counter to a move I had just gone with, so I watched it roll away in frustration. Over the course of the next 60 miles or so, various chases and attempts to bridge took place, all to no avail. with 3 laps and 30 miles to go, 3 more riders eventually went away, including Jacob Nielson from Glud & Marstrand Horsens, and Brian Sheedy from Priority Health. One lap later, I covered an attack from Ward Solar over the top of a big roller, and we immediately went clear with a Californian rider from Kahala-LaGrange, this time for good. We got within 15 seconds of the group of 3 in front of us, who eventually dropped the local rider who was with them. Instead of slowing them down, it allowed Nielson and Sheedy to really dig in, and the 4 of us could not close the rest of the gap. I knew at this point, however, that I was the strongest rider out of my group. As we came into the finish and the cat and mouse games began, I was able to cover two attacks from the other riders, before launching my own on the final hill, about 500 meters from the line, to go clear on my own. I finished 12th, only about 5 seconds behind Sheedy and Nielson in front of me. 12th isn't a win, but I felt great about the way it went down, and how strong I was still feeling for the last 20 miles of the 100-mile race.
Tomorrow, Dan and I will head to the Saturn Whitnall Park Road Race, before the criteriums start up again on Thursday. Todd will rejoin us Friday-Sunday. Results and photos are being posted on CyclingNews.com, as well as http://www.internationalcycling.com/results.php .
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
and now my eyes hurt a bit.
but i got distracted from that one line about a huge pancake breakfast
I did understand this part:
"although his previous engagement with a Cubs/Brewers game (and allegedly a set of twins) that night in Milwaukee would keep him from racing"
thats kinda funny.
good luck.