Iowa City Race Weekend

ROAD RACE - The VAN of DOOM

Over 50 Cat 1,2's lined up for this 52 mile event. The winds were around 20mph at times, which meant the wheels were turning for elite racers planning their tactics.  American Equity had a solid team showing (Lou, Paul, Jeff, Carson, and myself).

The race started off innocently enough, but right after we turned into a cross wind section all hell broke loose... I nearly lost it at that point... and everyone was all strung out... not sure when, but soon after, this happened again... someone was drilling it and not letting up... hmm, who could it be?

The VAN of DOOM:  Steve Tilford (race report), apparently after some deliberation, decided to make the journey up to Iowa City... he brought a van full of heavy hitters.  In fact all four of the guys in the van ended up in the top 5 of this race : 1. Jensen, Brian, - 2. Stolte, William , - 3. Bergman, Adam 4.Coil, Nicholas, - 5. Tilford, Stephen.  Only Adam Bergman wasn't in the Van, but maybe he can car pool with them next year and they can do a top 5 sweep.  Better yet, maybe I can drive down to Kansas and hitch a ride back up with them in hopes of soaking up some of their greatness.  Needless to say, this report would have read much differently had they not made the trip.

So as far as how the race went, two other guys Matias Perret(Iowa City) and Zach Reed (Dogfish) ended up in a 7 man break with the 'guys from the van' that ended up holding on til the end. 

I remember looking up just after the first lap and counting 5 clusters of echelons across the road.  Everyone was forming groups of riders trying to stay as close the leaders as possible.  Eventually, there was a pretty nice chase group of around 20 guys.  All of the American Equity guys were in this group... sweet!  Oh, everyone except for me... crap... This is not where I wanted to be... the group I was in was somewhat demoralized...'working on our tans' as one rider pointed out... my efforts to chase were only frustrating those in the rotation so I eventually resigned the effort.  I would have loved to have been in the chase group, I had plenty of 'chase' in me, but no way of unleashing it.  Sounds like I could have worked with teammates to try and 'save the day'.  Dang.

TIME TRIAL - The Scarlet Letter

No, I didn't have an 'A' sewn into my jersey, rather the letter 'L' was tattooed across my expression... yes, unfortunately, I sort of felt like a loser at this point.  They say that having the Yellow Jersey in the Tour De France gives riders that extra motivation to push their body beyond it's limits to hold onto their lead... well my  bright red 'L' was having the opposite effect.  I very reluctantly lined up to do a 13 mile timed lap.

There really wasn't much of a point in entering the time trial, as I was way too far down in the results to have a chance at the omnium that paid back 5 places.  However, I had already registered and I was really curious just how I would stack up against this field.  This was a 'No Aero Gear' TT... making it as even of a playing field as you get... just pedal your bike as fast as you can for one lap around the course... I couldn't resist finding out the 'truth', whatever that may be... 

Well, I ended up 11 out of 30... not too bad, considering the strength of this field.  Brian Jensen showed us why he was able to gutter the field so effectively during the road race...  he won the TT with a time of 29:14 using his yellow jersey to crush the course... very impressive.  It might make sense to have the TT prior to the Road Race next year, so it is more of a prologue... not sure.

Here are results from the weekend.

CRITERIUM
I really was still down in the dumps Saturday night, but by Sunday morning I had talked myself back up, and was preparing to go to the criterium...  Unfortunately, I backed my self into a corner trying to adjust my rear derailleur and ended up ruining it.  No shifting at all.  I frantically called a team mate for help, but it was too late.  So, I didn't end up racing at the crit, and took my bike to the shop the next day.