Lining up for the start of the Masters 35+, the guys (Tom, JD, Dan, Paul, Lupe, and I) looked pretty good in our new black Hincapie kits, along with our squeaky clean new Trek Madones (except for Dan’s, which is filthy).  We had 6 Leadout riders in the race, and our plan was to animate the race and be aggressive.  Things started out calm, as the old-timers sometimes take a while to get properly warmed up.

After a few laps around the technical 8-corner course, the riders decided it was time for business.  The attacks started flying – a rider would go off the front, only to be reeled back in by the peloton.  Then another one would go.  It was rapid fire, with nothing lasting very long.  Leadout was present and accounted for each time.  Tom got into a nice move, as did I, only to be dragged back to the peloton.  Dan was planning to sit back and wait for the sprint, but, after seeing all the fun the rest of us were having, decided to blast off the front too – and away he went – taking Jason Hess (Coulee Region Youth Cycling) with him.  They got a 10 second gap, and every rider that went to the front to chase had a Leadout rider on his wheel.  The chasing continued for a while, but the time gap kept increasing, and it was startling to look like the race-winning move had been made.

With 4 laps to go, Dave Baar (East Hills) decided to try and bridge, and took off up the road after them.  Once Dave broke free, the field sat up.  I was in the middle of the peloton, and instead of slowing, I moved right, rolled past the rest of the field, and pushed the pedals as hard as I could.  Dave was probably 5-10 seconds in front of me and I went into TT mode trying to catch him.  From the side of the road, I heard Geoff yell “BURY IT!”, but I had already turned the wick up as high as it’d go.  My legs were burning with fatigue, but if I could just….go….a…little…faster….Dave seemed so close.  In the final three laps I chased with everything I had, but couldn’t catch up and ultimately rode to the finish in 4^th place.  Dan ended up finishing 2^nd, Lupe 7^th, Tom 10^th, JD 12^th, and Paul 16^th.  It was a ton of fun racing with such a great group of guys.

Thanks to everybody at the Queens Day Criterium for putting on a great race!

Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything and I figured the first race of 2013 would be a good place to start back up. Barry Roubaix is one of my favorite races as it fits my style of riding pretty well.  I love to race on gravel and the hills are big but nothing that will completely destroy me.  I, of course, went with the Superfly instead of a cyclocross bike as I feel much more comfortable on it and the only place it is a disadvantage is in a sprint (but there is no way this will come down to a group sprint).  I was also using the brand new Bontrager RXL MTB wheels that are even sweeter than the old RXL.  At the start of the race things went off pretty much as expected.  Easy roll on pavement through town and the fireworks begin as soon as we hit gravel.  The pace on the gravel was crazy at times and dodging the pot holes and ice at 25mph was the perfect way to reduce the front group.  Every time we went through a crappy section it seemed like we lost 2-3 riders either to crashes or simply b/c they couldn’t hang on.  I knew the first 25 miles were the hardest and simply wanted to be in the front group after “the wall”.   As it turns out “the wall” was the deciding factor.  That is pretty much where Anderson and Lindine got there gap and left us for good.  It didn’t help that we turned left with the 36 milers when we were supposed to turn right.  That was all two guys like that needed.  It is questionable if we would have caught them anyway as they appeared to be the two strongest guys, but missing the turn was the nail in the coffin.  The lead group was down to 15-20 guys and people were trying to get off the front but there was no organized effort to pull the two leaders back.  I must admit to doing very little and only giving an effort a few times, hoping for attrition to play its part and some sort of small group sprint.  We rolled the rest of the race with Mike Simonson probably being the most active and trying to get off the front, living up to his Simonster nickname.  Although Jordan Wakeley was on the front the most he wasn’t putting in big efforts to get away.  We had 3 Bissells in the group and they did their job of sitting in and enjoying having someone off the front.  As we joined the 36 mile route the chaos began.  We were ramping up the speed for the finish and weaving all over the road trying to avoid the slower riders.  It was actually kinda fun but really scary also.   Now flash back to my statement about the MTB and here we are bringing 15 guys to the line and sprinting for a very respectable 3rd place, and my mountain bike felt a bit under geared.  I felt like I was in decent position but as we approached the last corner I just didn’t have the top end speed and rolled across in 10th place.  Much praise to Mike Anderson and Justine Lindine for their great rides and awesome times.  Also, Jordan Diekema and Robert Foshag put on a good show sprinting for 3rd and 4th.  I can’t say I was disappointed with my result, although I feel I should have done better with it coming down to a sprint.  Lupe led in the second chase group a couple minutes later in dominating fashion attacking into the last corner and coasting to the line, for our second top 25 result.  The other guys all had exciting stories of icy roads, pot holes and dropped bottles, making this a very memorable race.  It is shaping up to be a fun season already.

Dan K

Winter in Michigan can be rough.  After one of the best winters in memory last year, at least for riding, this winter has been tough.  We have had cold temperatures, dealt with some wicked snow/ice storms, and saw our roads thaw and freeze until they turn into an slippery mess that can bring down even the most experienced cyclist.  So while some riders still take to the streets others find solace and fitness by riding in basements, living room, and some times their local bike shops on a trainer.  To keep everyone motivated and focused on riding their bikes fast during the cold months Bryan came up with the great idea to pit as many of the club guys against each other as possible in a 20 minute power test and the rider with the highest watts/kg got to leave with the bragging rights.  To make it more entertaining each club guy that wanted to was also assigned a rider from the team roster to answer any questions whether it was training, racing, or what chamois cream to use(hint Soigneur is where it is at).

The first two rounds happened in December and January with Mike Vandenberg and John Nesburg fighting tooth and nail to put out numbers much higher than expected.  Nothing wrong with that except we all know they better show us what they can do when they pin on numbers this summer.  For this last test before outdoor rides become a norm and the tests change we decided it wasn’t highest power to weight, but the largest percentage of improvement that would take home the bacon.  In this case up for grabs was a gift certificate to West Michigan Bike, not only do they sponsor us, but they let us set up 10-15 trainers and sweat all over their sales floor once a month.  Caleb Williams was armed with a little more wattage and a few less kilo’s and as one of the first riders to test blew away his previous numbers.  It made everyone ride that much harder, and rider after rider rode themselves cross eyed chasing his double digit improvement only to fall short.  Don Kring almost tested on his rollers but after a tire blowout got spooked and switched to a trainer, leaving everyone a little bummed to miss watching him bounce around at his limit.   Mike again posted the biggest watts/kg number but couldn’t come close to Caleb’s big improvement.  Our final rider was Tim Duflo, armed with a new fit on his bike after the last fit, he was ready to rock and his numbers immediately alerted everyone to a big improvement.  It came down the final minutes and a trip to the scale as we all sat around the calculator only to see him fall just short of Caleb.  It did give us great bookends to the night and everyone left excited to see so much improvement in themselves and in their teammates.

Of course not everyone rides inside and Part 2 will be a sordid tale about what happens when eight grown men invade a Kentucky cabin for a long weekend in search of hard rides, long miles, and some rest and relaxation from everyday life.