Colorado

Winter break is usually the time when I head to Vail, CO to ski with the family, but this year was different. We heard from my dad's parents, who live in Monument near Colorado Springs, that the Vail resort hadn't gotten very much snow at all. Only about 19 inches of base had accumulated on the mountain, compared to 41 inches last year. Though I was a little bummed out about not being able to ski, I realized this might be the chance to ride some of the best roads in Colorado, something my dad and I have always talked about. After all, we didn't need to bring all that ski gear with us on the trip, which opened up a couple spots on top of the car for bikes.

We eventually make it to my grandparents house in Monument, CO, and already I'm itching to ride. Unfortunately all the snow that wasn't falling in the mountains was instead being dumped all over the Springs, Denver, Boulder, etc. I took this as an opportunity for a mini break in my training and some snow activities. First I tried out the cross country skis, which are kind of tricky to handle with their narrow width, then traded them for snowshoes. My dad, brother, and I even headed to the golf course and hiked around for a few miles. This is when I really started to notice the altitude effect on exercise. I would describe it as getting only half a breath's worth of oxygen for each breath you take, kind of like hyperventilation. Sounds fun right!

After four days of waiting for the snow to melt a little we finally had the chance to ride. Garden of the Gods was our best bet for clear roads, and we managed to get in about an hour of riding in the area. The next couple of days I stayed near Monument, but there was still some nice riding to offer in small towns like Palmer Lake and Perry Park.

Garden of the Gods^

Papa Sills heading into Palmer Lake^

The Tuesday after Christmas was our chance to do some real Colorado climbing. My dad and I mapped out a couple routes and headed to the best cycling city of all, Boulder. According to Map My Ride's classification, we were going to do something like two Cat. 2 climbs and a Cat 4 in 20 miles for an elevation profile that looks like a mountain stage of the Tour. No big deal. It was his idea actually.

After the first steep climb up Linden road we started to reconsider our original plan that had over 2500 feet of climbing. However, that little devil on your shoulder that always says, "come on you, don't be a whimp" obligated us to push on. The climb of Lee Hill road was more gradual than Linden and I got the chance to snap a good picture of the amazing scenery. Dad took a rest and got a cool action shot as well.

Lee Hill road, about 3.5 miles at 5.6%^

Wednesday was my last chance to ride, so I decided to get a ride down to Colorado Springs and see what last bit of climbing I could muster. I planned out a route with a Cat. 1 climb to Crystal Park (once again, this is according to Map My Ride, not sure if that is comparable to a TDF Cat. 1 but it definitely means it's going to hurt!) and a Cat. 3 climb to Cave of the Winds. I started up the road to Crystal Park only to reach a road block a mile into the ascent. There was this lady at a booth that said it was a private, gated community. Laaaame. So no Cat. 1 climb, but I still had Cave of the Winds to do. I rode through the quaint historic downtown of Manitou Springs and found myself on the climb, much steeper than I expected with multiple hairpins. To make things worse, the climb was on an exposed ridge with little cover to the strong winds. I was literally crawling up at 50 rpm in my 39X27, but eventually I made it up.

How's that for a hairpin turn^

IN CONCLUSION, I have to say that riding in Colorado for the first time was just as hard and thrilling as expected. Hopefully I can come back someday and squeeze in some training along with the skiing and Christmas stuff. I really don't know how the pros were able to ride such difficult climbs at over 10,000 feet altitude in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (much too long of a name).

Being the start of the new year, it seems fitting to make one of my resolutions to be more blog posts. I'm extremely thankful for all of the support I get, I want to let people know how things are going as I chase my goal of becoming a pro cyclist. So, I pinky-swear to update regularly, especially since I have a good feeling about this next season. I didn't want to say anything too soon but I think it's safe to say things are coming along well for the new team I've gotten on board with, Astellas Oncology powered by ABD. I am going to be racing with some pretty darn good bike riders and I'm hoping I can step up and help the team win some major races. More on that later.

Purdue Cross race @ Marian

I started out well in the top ten through the first lap

"Yeah, you guys wish you had tennis shoes!"

I really needed clipless pedals actually

To make any cross course tougher,

just add ridiculously off-camber switchbacks

Planet Adventure did an awesome job with our/Marian's race, and we're hoping to work with them on a big criterium event around the Purdue stadium to celebrate the 30th anniversary of our cycling club.

So basically what happened is I started out in the top ten, then fell down to 4th from last due to cramping, lack of handling skills, etc. It was something I had to do, and unlike the mountain bike race awhile ago, I raced A's. The funny thing is that I upgraded from C's in the cyclocross category on the spot as I was registering. My race resume, uploaded from a borrowed iPhone, was as follows:

flk;ng;oainrvml

USA Cycling of course realized this was a most sufficient resume, and approval was granted. If only this worked for the road season...

Greetings from the President

Of the Purdue cycling club that is. It's been busy but I've enjoyed the role so far, without too many setbacks. I don't have to worry about social security or the economy, so that's a plus. I do however get the privilege of organizing meetings, events, etc. Recently we ran our annual fall Purdue mountain bike race weekend. As for the event organization aspect, let me summarize: race mistakenly gets cancelled... un-cancelled and signing of papers begins... meet with University who say they need to "verify a treeline" on our course... morning of race day, screw the treeline and put the course through it... everybody enjoys some great racing.

Cracking a joke. I was too busy reconstructing our tent truss to notice

The cross-country course was looking too mountain-bike technical for me, but I did decide to race the short track the next day. This was going to be my first ever mountain bike race, and just as I had done for my only two cyclocross races, I rounded up my tennis shoes and some platform pedals. Now, according to collegiate rules, new racers must start their first race in the 'C' category. That's right, a road 'A' rider has to start out in the C's. I wasn't complaining though, plus I think without clip-in pedals I would've gotten roasted in the A's. The race was fun, I rode as hard as I could from the gun and lapped all but one rider. That was enough to get me my first

mountain bike win. Next time I don't think they'll let me ride any category except A's.

Post-race, and it's time to put in our clothing order with Hincapie. Not with George Hincapie silly, with the sportswear company! Anyway, my roommate Matt Hohn came up with a sweet alteration to the past year's jersey, check it out:

Julian and Sam displaying our super cool bib shorts

The shorts are the same as last year except the back panel is black instead of Gold. As you can see, the jersey is basically the same with inverted colors. Interested in getting one of our kits? Order here: https://sites.google.com/site/purduecyclingclub/clothing

Other things that I've been involved with are things like free bike tune-ups for the Boiler Green Initiative day, where we got to fix lots of squeaky brakes and rusty derailleurs, and lending bikes to Habitat for Humanity to use in the Hilly Hundred, who returned one of our bikes with handlebars twisted in all 3 dimensions. That's alright though, it'll get twisted back with a hard sprint or two...not.

This is also the first year I've been living off campus. Our own cycling club house, the "Bike Haus", has been passed down for several years now, and it was my turn to settle in. I get to live with four awesome guys who are passionate about cycling, the club, and most importantly, school. Two of my roommates are mechanics too, so it can't get any better! Well, that's all for now. Time for me to get ready for winter hibernation and wait for next year.

Where have I been?

Well, it's been awhile since my last post. I've been pretty busy, unfortunately too busy to race at all in July. After Nationals, I took a week off and then started my "highly-anticipated" corn pollinating job. I was working full time and on the weekends, hence the no racing. Basically I went around and put bags on all the corn's private parts, then the next day took the bags off and self-pollinated each corn stalk. This went on for about two and a half weeks, and though it sounds laborious, it actually wasn't that bad. So the end of July rolls around and I complete my job, then hit the airport and I'm off to Vermont for a family vacation. It was a ton of fun and just the rest from the humidity that I needed. There were many activities and I was even able to get rid of my cycling tanlines.

Once I returned from Vermont, I was eager to race again, and just in time for our team's own race weekend in Winfield. I had been training hard all of July and was hoping to do well, or at least put in a good performance for my team. It turns out that I would have to settle with a good performance. Not racing at all for a month and a half took it's toll on me, but I was able to do my best to help Freund get the win on Saturday and McVey get the win on Sunday.

Saturday's twilight crit was all out from the gun. With a small field and rainy conditions(it hailed during the previous race!) I knew it would be a day for the breakaway. I was able to take the crowd prime at 1.5 laps in, then I continued my attack and was soon joined by Wayne Simon, Andy Crater, and Ryan. We were working well together until Crater decided to try on what seemed like every other lap. Being more of a sprinter than Ryan, I took the role of chasing down every single attack from Crater.

It would take a huge toll on me but I was still hanging on. Though The we were motoring along at a good pace, the field managed to come back to us with 10 to go. Ryan, Crater, and Wayne would again attack off the front, and I found myself in a chase group with Bryan and Ben. If only I had the legs it would've been perfect, but I couldn't handle it anymore and dropped off. I finished the race in 8th place with a little sprint ahead of Luke Seemann. As long as ABD got the win, it didn't matter to me, and with Ryan's win and other high placings, we had racked up a good amount of dough to split up.

Sunday's race started out almost the same way. We had a larger field this time, being a Cat 1/2/3 race with separate placings for the 3's. A few laps in, Ben counter-attacked off the front of a small group, and after looking back to see a sizable gap back to the bunch, I decided to attack and join him. Not to my surprise, Wayne Simon and Andy Crater both bridged up, along with Cory Hickman from the Scarletfire Racing team. Just like the day before, Crater wasn't helping the breakaway much with his constant accelerations. After we were caught, I slipped back in the group and let my teammates cover some moves, hoping to save myself in case of another dangerous move or a sprint at the end. Unfortunately I had made a big mistake before the race even started: I didn't bring enough water. I was starting to cramp up with about 15 laps to go, and even after a not-so-legal bottle hand up from my dad I was still feeling the efforts from the day before. Knowing that I wasn't going to be able to stand up and sprint, I tried my best to lead out Konrad. He lost my wheel with a lap to go, but was still able to pull off third place in the 3's. While all this was going on, at the front of the race Bryan had attacked from a lead group with about 16 laps to go. Having Ben and Ryan in the lead group to block for him, Bryan time trialed his was to an awesome win.

Bryan on his way to a dominating win!

These were some of my last races of the year and I have to now look ahead to life at Purdue. I have the privilege of running the Purdue Cycling Club this year as the new president, which I'm pretty excited about. It's going to be a super busy year for me, but I don't think my passion for racing will fade at all.

A Hot Week in Georgia: Road Nationals

My trip down to Augusta, GA this year for U23 Road Nationals was an absolutely awesome trip. We didn't have a full team for Nationals but I ended up going down with my teammate Ben Damhoff, his girlfriend Molly, Jessi Prinner, and Jessi's parents. Two vehicles were required to get the party on the road, so we stuffed six bikes in one large van while Jessi and her parents drove alongside us in their own car. I'll keep the wordiness to a minimum as I try to describe this mess of a trip in a single blog post. Here goes nothing.

Tuesday

Agenda: Bust down to Georgia in 12 hours

As expected, the drive down was as much as we could handle in one day. Molly had the great idea of playing a game, and so I thought I might as well play along. I was thinking of some sort of sign game or "I Spy" or something like that, but no... Molly's "game" would soon put us in grave danger. She instructed us to weave in and out of the roadway reflectors that separated the lanes without touching them, while Ben tried to avoid the surrounding traffic. I couldn't take this terror any longer, and thinking fast I blasted the radio to distract Ben from Molly's voice, and soon he was able to regain focus to stop playing the game. That was the last suggestion we took from Molly for the remainder of the week. Other than that bit of trauma, the trip was rather boring of course.

Wednesday

Agenda: Preview TT course and pick up racing packets

The TT course would prove to be the most scenic race course of the weekend. Starting just inside the South Carolina border, it crossed over a huge dam into Georgia, through rolling hills surrounded by forest, then made a u-turn to come back and finish at the end of the dam. Ben, Jessi, Jessi's father, and myself all set out to take a look. I wasn't planning on racing the time trial, but I needed to get a ride in anyway as my first race wasn't until Friday. We went off at an easy pace and Ben and Jessi made a few hard efforts to get ready for their time trials the next day. While they were riding a little longer than an hour, I stopped and took the opportunity to snag some photos:

Jessi decided to try out some motorpacing and rode the course once more, and in the meantime Ben and I rode down a remote road on the other side of the dam. We found a small boat ramp and took off our shoes to wade in the refreshing water. We even took out some chairs to sit in the water and enjoyed the view of the massive dam that spanned the state border.

No one else knew about our relaxing hideout

Packet pick-up didn't go as smoothly. After Ben and I picked up up our packets and race numbers, we got in a long line to get Ben's TT bike checked out. This is not a mandatory check, but it's a good idea to check the night before to make sure the bike meets measurement regulations. Being a tall rider with a large bike, it was the dimensions that would force us to make some silly modifications to his bike. To make a long story short we had to add foam strips to his handlebars which were "too thin" and violated the maximum ratio of a 3:1 airfoil, and we also had to move his bars back a few centimeters. What made it ridiculous is that Ben had checked his bike at two NRC time trials previously this spring with no problems. At least we didn't have to saw off part of his frame, like some riders had to do to their $10,000 Specialized bikes. That was enough frustration for one night, and Ben needed to get some rest for his race the next day at noon.

Thursday

Agenda: Ben and Jessi's time trials/Tune-up ride

Once we got the the race, and before I did anything else, I took Ben's bike up the the officials to have it checked once more. We hadn't met up with Jessi and her parents the night before, so I also took her bike to get checked. Luckily there was no need to add any foam strips to her frame. While Jessi was warming up for her time trial at 10, I set out for a short ride with some leg-opener efforts . I took a scenic route along the South Carolina border and put in a few short intervals, then made it back in time to see Jessi finish her race. She clocked in a very good time in her field, enough to take third place! As with most good time trialists, she said that it was extremely painful and not fun at all, the signs of what a time trial should feel like if you do it right. Next up was the start of Ben's race. I rode over to the starting tent and what do you know, the ridiculous officials say that he needs to move his TT bars back even further. Ben kept his cool though and quickly adjusted his position a couple minutes before the start. Off he went, and 39 minutes later we saw him post up a time that was fast enough for second place. This was great news, but there were still many elite riders still to go. At the end of the day, Ben's time put him in the 20th spot, a very respectable result at Nationals.

Friday

Agenda: Downtown crit

We arrived to the downtown venue a few hours before Ben's race and decided to walk the course first. It was sort of a letdown with the backside of the course littered with glass, sand, and numerous potholes, and most of the businesses on the homestretch closed down. The course was literally in the heart of the ghetto of Augusta. There wasn't very much parking so we ended up on the side of a busy street under a tree, with complementary background noise of locals trading for cigarettes and blasting hardcore rap. The 95-degree heat took its toll on Ben during his race, however he did put in a great effort. About a third of the way through his 80 kilometer race a break of about nine riders went up the road and quickly got 20 seconds. Ben seized the opportunity and made a monster bridge to the break on the home stretch. Unfortunately Ben lost one of his bottles when it popped out on a bump in the road, and he decided it was best to drop out instead of risk becoming seriously dehydrated.

Luckily my race was later in the day when the temperature had dropped almost ten degrees. The U23 crit started out somewhat fast, but the course was open enough that I was able to make some major moves up towards the front. I had bad position in the beginning but within several laps I was up there with the Garmin and Livestrong boys who were dictating the race.

Somewhere in the back there

In the first three laps a break of about eight had gone, so there were still many riders at the front that were putting in the work to try to bring that group back. I was feeling good, so I took a couple pulls at the front and maintained my position. During the closing laps I tried my best to stay near the front, but once again I fell victim to the large swarm of riders that always bunch up at the end of almost any crit. I found myself about 25 spots back, then on the backstretch of the last lap, a Livestrong rider in front of me just plain sat up and let all the other riders get away. I was forced to go around him and lead out the rest of the pack, and in the end I was able to hang on for 31st place. Not what I was hoping for, but not that bad either considering the circumstances I was in.

Jessi's race was a bit of a mess actually. A huge storm rolled in just as the women were about to start, and the officials made the decision to cut down there race from 47 laps to 20 laps. By the time I got changed out of my cycling clothes it was already 5 to go, but the wind and rain was coming in even faster. Jessi was able to battle it out for a place mid-pack as the race ended in a massive bunch sprint, and then as if on cue, the rain started pouring down. Chris Uberti from Panther had met up with us earlier that day, and after he joined Ben, Molly and I for a quick dinner, we headed back to the Motel 6. Living in Greenville, SC, Chris was able to drive to the crit that day in about an hour, but we liked the company and he stayed in my room at the hotel for the next two nights. I told him he had to help feed me the next day though and also be my personal mechanic/soungier/servant.

Saturday

Agenda: U23 Road Race

For my U23 road race, Ben was nice enough to let me borrow his super cool prototype Bontrager wheels. I would find out that the 38mm carbon tubulars would help tremendously over the 14 mile hilly course, which I would circle 7 times for 102 miles. It was going to be another hot day with temperatures climbing over 100 degrees. I rolled up to the start line towards the back, and after we started a lot of the riders were very jumpy and nervous. A few miles in we had to pass through this barricade (did I forget to mention this course was in the Fort Gordon army base?) and a rider in front of me got too close to the side, nailing a post which sent his bike into the pack. Just like the crit the day before, I avoided a crash by narrowly missing his bike, but this time I bumped hard into the rider on my other side. I slammed down onto my top tube as my feet unclipped, skidding a few feet before I was able to put my foot down. I almost lost balance but was able to just barely stay on my feet. I quickly remounted and started to chase through the caravan back onto the field. It wasn't more than five minutes since I had gotten back into the field that there was another crash right in front of me. I'm not sure what happened but I was caught behind a huge pileup and was forced into a grassy ditch. I stayed on my bike and struggled to make my way back onto the road, then began chasing the field through the caravan. It was a familiar scenario for me.

By this time, about 40 riders had escaped off the front of the field in various breakaways, so I had no choice but to sit back and conserve energy for the next 90 miles. Each 40 minute lap, I was taking two bottles and an ice sock (pantyhose filled with ice and stuffed in the back of your jersey), which seemed to be working for me. The longer I rode, the smaller our group got as riders became overwhelmed by the heat. I could see it in their faces that the heat was hurting a lot of guys, and many also fell victim to cramping. Surprisingly, I was feeling absolutely great. Usually in long road races I start to cramp up between 60-80 miles in, but this time I didn't cramp up at all the entire race. With three laps to go I started to take cokes instead of gatorade, and my attention to how much I was eating and drinking started to pay off. A lap to go and the main field had dwindled to about 25 riders until we caught another 15-20 riders that had fallen off the pace of the breakaways. I was feeling on top of the world as I took a few pulls at the front of the group. It was amazing being there in the mix so far into the race alongside pros from all over the country, and I'm sure they were wondering who I was. With three miles to go there was an attack of four guys, but unfortunately I was boxed in at the time, so I had no choice but to watch them ride away and focus on the sprint of the remaining field. Coming into the last kilometer I was third wheel as a Livestrong rider ramped it up to lead out his teammate on the finishing climb. The Livestrong rider in front of me attacked on the climb with about 500 meters to go, and I dug deep to stay on his wheel. Around the last turn with 200 meters to go he looked back to see if he had a gap on the field, but I was right there, with Josh Berry from RealCyclist on my wheel. I opened up the sprint and had enough to hold off the field for 26th place. It was a great result for me, as I was originally hoping to just finish the race regardless of my placing. Even though it was only 26th place, it felt good to beat all the pros and Cat 1's in my group after 100 blazing hot miles.

Sunday

Agenda: Ben and Jessi's Road Race

Ben and Chris needed to get plenty of rest for their big race, and with Jessi's race starting early in the morning we got their in time to see her finish. Strangely her race stayed intact almost the entire time without much attacking until the last lap. We got there with a lap to go and Jessi was sitting well in the pack, thinking mostly about surviving through an unfortunate cold she had gotten. She toughed it out though and rolled in for a top 40 placing after a group of about five riders escaped to contest the win. Her race finished just in time for the midday temperatures to reach towards 100 degrees, but by this time we were used to it, right? Ben’s field started onto the course for a fairly quick first lap, while Molly and I drove down to get a good spot in the feed zone. The first time through a group of a dozen riders got off the front to dangle in the range of 45-60 seconds range, a move that didn’t seem too dangerous at the time. Just like in my race, Ben and Chris were taking one to two bottles per lap plus an ice sock. The cooling methods were working well for Chris, but then a flat at the top of the feed zone and an extremely long wheel change by the neutral mechanic forced him to chase for the next lap and a half. It wasn’t looking too good for Chris, and the next lap around he dropped off by our car and helped us with feeding Ben. Ben stayed calm and was slowly making his way up in the pack, waiting for the inevitable catch of the break and counter attack. That move would never come and for some reason every rider decided to ride as defensively as possible, keeping the group intact. He had no choice but to save energy for the final sprint up the finishing climb. The result for him was 24^th place, which wasn’t at all bad considering how many riders started. We had hope for the big win or podium spot, but what could he do against 200+ riders that were too afraid to make an attack. A callout from Dave Towle of the top 24 was a nice consolation though.

Monday

Agenda: Back to the Midwest

There isn’t much to say about the drive home, so whatever.

It had been a long week for all of us, even those that didn’t race, and we were eager to get home. Nationals was a great experience overall, and a chance to ride against different riders from all over the country and put in a noticeable result for yourself. I was hoping for a better result in the crit, but I still couldn’t believe my own abilities to survive the road race as well as I did. I’m anxious to get another chance at Nationals next year to see if I can place even higher.

TOAD (not the amphibian)

Not much happened for me in terms of good results after Champaign, just some very tough racing at the Quad Cities races, the IL State Road Race, and the Tour of Galena. My teammate Ben did great though, and I was happy to help him get some big wins. Check out his reports here.

This last weekend was the start of the Tour of America's Dairyland, basically 9-10 days of ridiculously fast criteriums with a road race and a time trial. I only raced the second and third crits, Thiensville on Friday and the Giro d' Grafton on Saturday. Thursday night as I was getting things ready for the next day, I was surprised to see on the race flyer that there was a Cat 2/3 race a few hours before the Pro 1/2 race at six. I realized that this would be a good opportunity for me to get a result and some upgrade points, so I planned for doing both races.

The 2/3 race wasn't all that easy, not that it was fast, but it was constant accelerating as riders were moving up and chopping corners like children with knives. Seriously, it was a scary "chop-fest". I tried to stay out of trouble and avoid the numerous crashes, while at the same time trying to conserve energy for the Pro race later in the day. A tricky balancing act indeed. It seemed to work out though as I started the last lap third wheel in a pack that for the most part had stuck together for the entire race. Out of the last corner I was second wheel with 200 meters to go. It took me nearly the entire 200 meters, but I was able to come around and cross the line first for my second win of the season!

Just what I wanted, the prestigious Cow winner's jersey

Next up was the Pro race, and I knew that it would be tough for me after already riding two and a half hours. Surprisingly, I actually felt really good for the first half of the race. I didn't feel under pressure from the pace, I was able to move up, and I started to believe I might be able to put in another good result on the same day. Just as I expected though, I started to feel my legs aching and cramping with about 15 laps to go. I drank more Gatorade, tried to stay seated in the corners to save my quads, and stayed calm. I slowly started to move up and was looking at being in the top 20 with a few laps to go, until a large crash set me back. I narrowly missed an Aerocat rider's head who fell in front of me, and once I was clear I saw that I had lost about another 15 spots. In the end I managed a top 40 place, but to be honest I was just glad to finish. That was 75 miles of crit racing in one day.

The next day I decided to skip the 2/3 race, hoping that by saving my legs I might be able to put in a good result in the Pro 1/2 race, which paid money 30 deep. I didn't count on the fact that it would be a constant, somewhat helpless struggle to get to the front of the race when I started towards the back. The whole race I was trying to move up here and there, but the pace was just fast enough and there were enough riders moving up in the same spots I was that I seemed to be stuck in one spot. The constant sprinting out of the corners started to wear on me and I was hoping to get the race over with.

According to my power file, I was doing

a 1000+ watt sprint almost every lap

With about 10 laps to go I was still around 40-50 places back, and I had almost given up hope of getting to the front. I made a few more moves but this only got me a handful of spots and I was still way too far back. Then Bryan came to my rescue and we flew up to the front, leading the pack 1-2 with four laps to go. Coming down the home stretch I was still on Bryan's wheel as I started to sense a swarm of riders coming around on both sides. I scooted around Bryan and rode alongside three Kenda riders and a Mountain Khakis rider in about sixth place. I still had a good chance of staying up there, but I made the mistake of feeling content with where I was. If I had the chance to redo the race, I would've moved up to second or third wheel, anticipating what would soon be a ton of riders swarming to the front. However I did not do that, and I found myself back about 30 spots with two laps to go. My last chance was to follow Jonny Cantwell's wheel, who was right in front of me. I figured if I was boxed in that far back, I might as well be on the wheel of one of the best crit racers in the world. My second mistake was leaving Cantwell's wheel to try and get back on Bryan's wheel as he went up the inside of one of the corners for a second leadout, only to get squeezed by the pack diving to the side. I ended up finishing with another top 40. It was a close, nail-biting finale, but the fact that I was there and had the chance to get a good result is a morale-booster for me. I learned a lot that race about moving up, and I'm excited to see how I'll do at the U23 National Criterium Championship next weekend. It'll be a fun, hot week in Georgia.

Tour de Champaign

Before I can even talk about the racing I first have to give a huge thanks to Mark Swartzendruber for organizing another great year for the Tour de Champaign. He really does know how to put on a good event. Even though the turnout wasn't as good as the last two years, I still think it was a great weekend with some hard racing. This year I thought the courses were awesome, and in my opinion they were the best courses we've had so far. Seriously, for anyone that decides to skip the Tour de Champaign next year, they're missing out on some of the best crit racing in the midwest.

So here's how it played out on Saturday. We had three guys racing for ABD including myself, Ben Damhoff, and Bryan McVey, against a field of about 30 riders. There was definitely some firepower with 5-6 Nuvo guys, Josh Carter, and Dave Williams of Bissell lining up at the start. This next bit might sound like I attacked and completely destroyed the field, but it's actually a little different than that. I was front row at the line and when the whistle blew, I kind of sprinted to the front and took the first two turns fast. What I was really trying to do was be in the top 5 guys those first couple of laps, as it was a pretty technical course with five turns in half a mile. In reality I ended up soloing off the front the next three laps, taking all the corners at crazy speeds, until eventually I saw Jonathan Jacob of Nuvo bridging up to me. By the time we got together and started taking pulls, we had about 15 seconds on the field. Jonathan was pulling through like a madman and it was all I could do just to hang on. I think I was pulling about half a lap for every 2-3 laps he would pull. We were pulling ahead and soon had 25 seconds, then 30, then we were about to lap the field. It was clear that Jonathan could have done this on his own, so in all fairness I said to him, "I'll let you take the win, no need to attack. I promise I won't contest the sprint, just let me get second." He nodded and this gave me some relief knowing that he wasn't going to try to attack me (if I had taken equal pulls with him, I'm pretty sure I would've dropped myself).

^One of the few laps I pulled

^One of the many laps he pulled

So we lap the field and soon learn that Dave Williams broke away and is about 20 seconds behind the field with Jeff Schroetlin trying to hold him back. Even with Schroetlin, who's also on Nuvo, trying to slow him down and just sit on, Williams was still gaining ground. I told my teammates to get to the front and keep the pace high, along with Jonathan's teammates who had the same idea. Eventually we make it to the final lap without letting Dave Williams catch us, and I slip back in the bunch to take second. When the race was over I was more than happy with second place. Jonathan was obviously much stronger than me and he deserved the win.

The next day was not so great. After registering, warming up and getting to the start line on time, the officials had to make the executive decision to cancel both the Cat 3 and the Cat 1/2 race due to some strong thunderstorms that were coming our way and a three-hour tornado watch. It's a shame that the Tour de Champaign had to end that way, not being able to put on the final races on what I thought was one of the coolest courses I've ever seen. Well, maybe next year.

Ben looking focused before Sunday's race got cancelled