Leadout Racing » Collegiate Racing

UW Madison Criterium (4/19/09)

Leadout Racing — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:20:07 +0000

Sunday was the day for one of my favorite races on the collegiate calendar, the UW Madison Crit. They hold this four corner crit around the state capitol building. It was a fast and nervous course last year (averaged almost 26 mph in Men’s C), but there were tons of people who came out to see the race. The weather was a pretty nasty overcast and 45 degrees F when we got there, which was not pleasant after Saturday’s 75 and sun. The forecasted rain held off for all the categories leading up the Men’s A race. My teammate Eric broke away with two other riders in the Men’s B race, and stayed away from a very fast field and his breakaway companions in the end for the win. By the time my start time came it was looking like rain was imminent. I rolled up to the line to see a good sized field of about 50 riders. The attacks started from the gun and did not stop for the whole 75 minute race. About 7 laps in I punctured my rear wheel. We were going almost 30 coming into a turn and I was in the middle of the peloton. I put my hand up and yelled flat, which to my surprise actually worked! I started fishtailing while trying to slow down and slightly turn so I didn’t run into the curb. Luckily there was a cross walk and I hopped up onto the side walk and was able to stop. After a quick wheel change I was back in on the next lap. About 2 laps later there was a huge crash which caused a big split in the field. I was able to avoid it and make it across the gap to the group ahead. At this point the rain started pouring to the point where there was standing water in the turns. My teammate Sean went down twice during the race along with many others. Luckily I stayed upright throughout the race and made it into a smaller chase group of the main breakaway. I took the sprint from our group for what I thought was about 12^th place.

-Nick

UW Milwaukee Road Race (4/18/09)

Leadout Racing — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:05:48 +0000

This past Saturday was the UW Milwaukee Road Race in Greenbush, WI. They held the race out in the Kettle Moraine State Park which was very hilly and quiet, which made for a great course. It was my second race in the Men’s A category, and my first ever 80 mile road race. Thankfully the weather was a gorgeous 70-75 degrees and sunny all day. The race started off fairly calm for the first three or four miles and then the hammer dropped. There were a flurry of attacks and counter attacks for the next 10-15 miles until the right combination of people were away. This ended up shredding the field by over half by the 40 mile mark. The weather began to heat up and I ended up drinking 7 bottles during the race, which meant we got some good practice navigating through the craziness of a feed zone. After coming through the feed at mile 70, someone skipped it all together and tried to attack into the first major crosswind section. This caused a big split amongst those who were left and really hurt the legs. After catching the break, it was a nervous run in to the finish with everyone looking at each other wondering who was going next. There are two big hills within a quarter mile of the finish, followed by a false flat and then downhill sprint. My teammate Sean and I followed a group of 4 others up the climb. We had a good gap and I knew we were in the right place. Sean had a gap of about 15 feet on the other 4 in our group over the last hill, so I took the lead of the pace line behind him and started to soft pedal. The other guys figured this out pretty quick, but it gave Sean a nice gap for the downhill sprint. He ended up winning the field sprint for 5^th place, and I came in with the four others chasing him for 10^th place.

-Nick

MSU/UofM Results

Leadout Racing — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:03:31 +0000

This past weekend was the road race at MSU and then a Crit and TT at UofM.

Nick Fochtman took the road race victory by attacking on the very 1st lap and he stayed away the entire race almost entirely on his own, he was only joined near the end by a Purdue rider who he easily took the the win from. I started my sprint too early and ended up 4th overall.

Today was a hilly crit course at UofM and nothing was able to get away and in the final sprint I was able to take 1st, and Nick was in the top 10

Peter