Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Racing Overload

Went to Springfield for their two day affair. Saturday was a new venue in the redeveloped downtown. Fun course.

Our race was dry. We had a small team but figured we would all work for one guy to win and place in the overall for the two days. It was strung out from the start due to the 8 turns. The turns weren't bad, nice and wide, but there were some pavement changes that made things interesting. Of course their was a big wreck in the front straight. I got stopped and then run into from behind. Bent my wheel. Got what I thought was my teammates wheel. Same brand wheel, same brand tire, wrong gearing. 478 and 418 look a lot a like scribbled on not book paper. I got a Jr wheel, which meant Jr gearing. I had a 28-14. It felt like home again on my single speed. Got back in and went to the front some. Then a teammate got a small gap and I sat on and watched people chase. With 2 to go I clipped a pedal and gave my bike a shimmy. That was okay, but the unstable input caused the rear tire on the borrowed Jr wheel to roll of the rim. Sliding I went. No road rash thanks to the miracle that I slide right in the square middle of my chamois. My teammate got 3rd.

Sunday was much better. Avoided the wreck since it was behind me. We pretty planned to setup Trent again. But this time with a leadout. The middle third got slow. At one point I just pedaled off the front and got a gap, but then the cat4 panic set in and they chased like hell and then sat up again. It really slowed down to 21-22 mph so I started pulling half a lap at time. Pull the front side of the course, settle in 2nd or 3rd wheel, recover a half lap, and then pull again next time by the start finish. Just trying to keep the pace up. Did that for several laps. Finally at 3 to go the called a prime. Again the paced slowed so I cruised up and took off again. Didn't quite have the pace to hold it but I did give a primo leadout to a Mesa Jr. That surge setup the single file pace for the last two laps. My two teammates were lined up perfect and sat 5-6 while I was trying to win a prime. Then with 1 to go they were 1-2. coming into the front straight. Ended up 2nd and 4th and we won the overall for the weekend.

Races weren't that hard, but fast and fun. Small fields of about 50. It was good to work for some teammates, but next time I need to be a little more greedy. Won enough to cover entry fees. And it might be worth a pair of bibs not to have road rash all over my rear end. The bent rear wheel kinda sucks though.

Next up (hopefully) is the last round of dirt crits. Next week I'll be up in Chicago for R&R. Maybe Fat Matt can clue me in to the training races and I'll drink some beers while I cheer him on.

1 comment:

Boz said...

Sounds like a good weekend of racing. Luck was on your side if you're skidding on the chamois section of your shorts. Your gearing issues remind me of the first several laps at Tilles when I raced the 4/5 crit in the small chainring. I was spinning like mad and having a total WTF face. Team Mack guy and I were trying to get away and he was asking "what's wrong?" and I didn't know what to say. Totally weird.