Weekend Summary

My blog has become an addendum to BikeBoy's. He covers all our happenings, includes pictures and does it all with superior quality.

Allen Park Crit
We spent most of the day with the crew at the race. Our whole family came with James, Abby and myself racing. Maria is on crutches and Jean was selling baked goods to raise funds for MS.

James and Alexey dazzled us with an entertaining junior race. They had a plan, executed it and lapped the 15-18 field. It really boiled down to two breaks. James sprung Alexey who formed up with Rudy Peterson. Later, James got away with a Maple Leaf rider. The problem for James was his breakaway partner had no interest in working with him. He sat on his wheel the whole time. James slowed then attacked but he just couldn't shake him. It was a good learning experience for him. He'll see this kid again and I think the the wheel sucking will make a re-appearance. I hope Aldo hears about this so he can straighten him out. If he makes that move too much, he can forget about anyone working with him in the future. He'll either reform or sit in the pack.

James got pipped at the line for 4th place. Alexey out sprinted Rudy for first. Overall, I thought they worked well together and got results.

I raced the 45+ and cat 3. I managed to get in a four man break in the 45+ that stayed away. We lapped most of the field except for a break that included two of my team mates. They entered their bell lap just as we hit the finishing straight. Our alliance held until the last lap when Terry Bandstra attacked. I jumped onto his wheel but he let up. From that point on I was on the front and I just let up. No one wanted to go so I was content to slow the pace and wait. It seemed that things were really lining up because I felt fresh and I would take the inside line on the last turn. The turn came and went and I jumped into the sprint and won! It is always a gas to win a race, even a practice race so this was nice.

The 35+ race came next so I laid down and drank fluids until I had to go to the "Honey Bucket". (No small feat by the way. It took considerable effort to get enough fluids down to make that happen.) The cat 3 race was fast and furious as every race has been this year. There were a few breaks but nothing has stuck this year with regard to criteriums. I was off for a lap or two with Chris Aten, a Maple Leaf and one other dude. We got reeled in pretty quickly. I wasn't very confident that I would be able to finish well. I have sort of a bad track record when doing two crits especially when the first one was a cooker. The second race usually ends up in some fabulous muscle cramps. I was cramping at the end but only when I stood up, so, I didn't jump or sprint. My goal was to help with the lead out. We couldn't get together so I grabbed Eric Hinderager and led him to the finish. It was a very long lead out for my tired legs but I gave him every last bit in the tank. It was good enough to get him around the last turn to the finish in 2nd place. It was at this point that an adjacent rider had his foot come out of his pedal and swerve disrupting Eric's sprint. He ended up taking 5th but after looking at the video, things might have looked different if the pedal thing didn't happen. Oh well, that's bike racing. Our team fared well with Giff finishing 7th and Chris in 10th. That means we had two riders in the money!