Memorial Day Weekend - Frankenmuth/Gaslight

Note to self...remember to use your 11/23 cassette next year at Frankenmuth. Note to self...work harder at your position in those big field crits.

I write these things so that the first thing I see next year as I re-read this post in prep for those races are these little pearls of wisdom.

Frankenmuth was a blast this year. We are still feeling out this field not knowing what is coming next. This year we lined up Zach, Joe, DMO, John Burrows, Scott, Tony and myself. As at every race this year, I liked our team and our chances. This course is 62 miles and pancake flat. The only real feature is the wind as it sweeps across the farm fields.

I had a pre race dilemma whether or not to use my carbon wheels or my powertap. Performance over data. I chose performance and I am glad I did because I found my powertap wheel flattened when I came back to the car. If I would have used it I would have flatted fo' sho'!!

From the start two super strong mountain bikers flew off the front and stayed away for quite some time. They both seemed very strong and were very active most of the race. After that first flurry of activity things settled down. Attacks started coming again on the second lap, I think. It all sort of blurs together but I think it was on the second lap when a couple of little acts of aggression led to a break. I was involved in at least one that looked very promising to me. We six strong riders working together and I thought it had possibilities. Now that I think about it, this may have been the third lap, whatever. Anyway, the field would have none of it and the composition of the break wasn't good enough to overcome their chase.

Before I go any farther I want to honor Joe L.. He admits his endurance is lacking at this point in the season. In spite of this he performed a role on our team that was very helpful for us. He went to the front and attacked over and over again drawing strong riders out of the field and elevating the pace and weakening the field. I love his work ethic and his teamwork. He could hang out in the pack and finish the race but he chooses to be a player and use what he has to impact the race for our team! All I can say is, thank you Joe! As we were racing along at this point I mentioned to one of my team mates that Joe is our MVP in my book to that point in the race. It is hard to order someone to attack knowing they will be burning matches that could help them to a better placing. No one needs to ask Joe. He filled the same role at Gaslight on Monday. That is how you race my friends.

Anyway, there really isn't much more to it. Just like last year the decisive move came on the last lap in the last 10 miles. Jimmy Minema surprised us when he rolled off the front and stayed away. We knew he was strong but we had no idea how strong he was. We went to the front and started working to bring him in. Zach, DMO, myself, Lupe Martinez and a couple of other strong riders working together failed to bring him back. Had I known what I know now, I NEVER, would have let that move go unchallenged. He was all by his lonesome out there after riding 52 miles weathering countless attacks. He must have been struggling, right? One must must also give much credit to his Bissel team mates from Florida Shawn Hebb and Joe Hess. While Jimmy was off the front, his team mates were right there working to obstruct out chase. Even so, our chase should have been more effective. There were moments when I stepped up the pace to something more but I ended up gapping my fellow chasers. I think we all had the mentality that we wouldn't catch the Jimmy so we were looking to preserve some gas for our own attempt at second place.

In the process of chasing we managed to gap the main field. I didn't know this until the end of the race due to our preoccupation with the chase. Kroske was back in that field and he later said we opened up a small gap that they just couldn't close.

On the small hill just before the turn onto the final sprint, I was passed by a few riders. My bad. The finishing straight is downhill and looonnnggg. I was winding out and couldn't even get out of the saddle I was spinning so fast. I was overtaking riders and one, in desperation I think, tried to run me out of road. I yelled at him and motored on. I could see I was gaining on the fourth place rider, one of the Florida Bissel boys. Throwing the bike at the line I missed him by a wheel length taking fifth and $50 for our team.

The speed on the finish was just insane. The second place rider recorded 42 mph on his computer. My computer was in the car. Because I spun out I cursed myself for not putting my 11/23 on for the race. I still think that is a very important move for next year but I was shocked later on when tuning my derailluer to find I couldn't shift down to my 12!! No wonder I spun out so bad.

Somewhere on lap 3 Zach rode up to me and said he didn't think he could hang in there. He not only hung on by he was in the chase at the end and finished 12th!

DMO came to the front just when we needed him. The pack slowed to a crawl on the last lap like it was a track race. He came up and drove the field! He finished just in front of Zach in 11th place. Great job! Tony was up there also driving and attacking to keep the things under control. Scott was suffering with some kind of flu or something but he hung in there. John worked his tail off also but ended up dropped. Overall, I couldn't be prouder of our team. Two of the top four spots were taken by the Florida Bissel boys who really surprised us. Between them, they have an endurance man in Jimmy, a sprinter in Shawn an all arounder in Joe. Pretty formidable but who knew?

Gaslight

After taking Sunday off to enjoy Abby's baptism, we were back on the road Monday with the whole family to enjoy the Tour de Gaslight criterium. I gotta tell you this is an awesome venue with lots of eateries, bars and coffee houses surrounding the course. The major features for the day would be the wind, the field size and the combo 3/4 effect. The wind was just howling out of the northwest making position very important everywhere on the course. I found it very difficult to get myself positioned well early on. Early attacks went off without any response because I was buried behind numerous riders. It was getting frustrating until I realized there was an area of the course that offered a chance to move up on every lap. The wind blew from the left on this stretch and there was a pinch in the course that caused the field to move to the left side of the road. That meant I could move up every lap with a nice wind block. The only problem was that this gave me a difficult line turning onto the finishing straight. If riders overcooked the corner or got forced to the gutter it forced me to slow. If that didn't happen I was in great position because I still had a wind break. I promised myself that I would use this to my advantage if I could on the last few laps.

My team road very aggressively as Joe was mixing it up and even won a prime as did Tony. The Florida Bissel boys were there again as was Larry Warbasse fresh from racing in Belgium. He had at least 2 team mates in Andrew and Taylor. BTW, has Taylor grown or what? Joe was commenting that his rear end is at eye level when riding his wheel.

Anyway, this wasn't a particularly hard race physically but it was a bit of a mental exercise. You had to think about position all the time and the sketchiness was pretty bad. Potty Mouth was there but I only saw him once. He cuts an imposing figure in his pink skin suit. I don't think he recognized me this year thankfully. There were two crashes that I know of one of which happened just after I moved up about 30 places in my favorite spot. I had to wonder if I might have been caught up in that mess had I not made that move.

Coming down to the last three laps I commented to Chris that we had to fight for position for the remainder of the race. We could not let ourselves get swarmed at any point or we might not get back to a competitive position in time. I was focusing so hard to make this happen. It was very hard with the level of competition and the field size. Every one of those 70 riders wanted to be in the first 5 places on the last lap and it was a battle royal to see who would be there. If you were not in that position coming to the the last turn to kite, you could just forget it. The big field would slow and you were out...period. I made it to the last lap holding near the front about 5-10 back. The Bissel boys jumped way early for me. I watched Larry Warbasse launch into a sprint right in front of me with at least 300 meters to go. I had no choice but to do the same. If I didn't get to that turn in a good position I was cooked. Well, I got gapped pretty good by the first 4 riders but held on for 5th place. I got a chance to look back with about 50 meters to go and I felt confident enough to ease off the sprint. Saying I was gassed would be and underestimate. If the race wasn't very hard the 300m sprint was a killer.

Doug Gatto lined up with us and held on to the end in a very fast race. He recorded an average speed of 26.11mph.