Archives
|
Tuesday, July 29, 2008SUPER WEEKAdam, Hanson, Jerome, Todd and Tommy went out to Superweek. Here is their reports on the fun and money making. Thursday 7/10 report by Tom Gosselin Thursday morning we left our Ohio based hotel for Chicago, Oak Lawn to be more specific. After a few hours of driving (6 hours actually) we were pulling into the driveway of our host house with Bob Welch. As soon as we rung the doorbell we were greeted by his puggle, moo shoo, leaping up and down in the window. We called Bob and were told he would be there momentarily. A few minutes later we were greeted by a jubilant 6’8 figure. Introductions were made and Bob welcomed us into his home. We divide up sleeping areas and quickly dressed to ride, trying to beat the quickly approaching storm. A quick spin helped us locate the local Starbucks, which would be frequented the next few days. A few laps of the Friday night’s course we quickly raced the impeeding rain. Post ride meant dinner at Leona’s Restaurant. John Hanson challenged our intellect with the table top trivia. Leaving the restaurant20we viewed what looked like the possible end of the earth. An enormous dark black cloud was quickly covering the city. Bob had warned us what the tornado siren sounded like earlier in the day, and we were sure that is what we heard in the distance. A quick trip to Walgreens brought us a new spectacle. A small funnel cloud in the sky had us New Englanders out of the car, camera phone in hand. The fun was quickly over when the rain came and we retreated back to Bob’s house to watch the Tour. Slowly we all retreated to bed for the next days races. - Tommy Friday 7/11: Superweek day 1; Beverly Hills report by Todd Yezefski Friday. The first day of racing. And for the second morning in a row, Adam and I had to wait for our coffee. We sipped on some tea while eating our oatmeal and watching Le Tour, but soon we had to head out for a ride with a mandatory coffee stop. I had looked at a map the night before and planned a nice route to the forest preserve, where I hoped we would find som e bike paths. In a sign of things to come, it took way longer, on way too heavily trafficked roads with way too many potholes, but we finally got to the woods. Of course, when we got there, there was no bike path. There were some nice, smooth, lightly traveled roads, however, off of which were lots of mountain bike trails. Apparently, we were riding on the same roads where the proposed 2016 Olympic Road Race will take place if Chicago gets the nod from the IOC. Let’s just say it wouldn’t be the most selective race… We left the woods and took a straight shot back to the house, with a very necessary stop at Starbucks along the way. Jerome somehow didn’t see us turn into the parking lot, and we received a phone call about half-an-hour later asking us where we were. After some more lazing, we headed down to the race in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago. I’ve done this race once before, and it’s one of my favorite crit courses of all time. Beverly is a beautiful, well kept gem in the South Side, and also home to the singular hill in the city, which is incorporated into the race course. Add some bumpy pavement, nervous riders, and a tight downhill final turn, and you have a race that less than half the field typically finishes. The start of the race was f airly tame, but then things got going with lots of attacks. Being near the front one lap, I tried to bridge up to a break of three riders comprised of Jonny Sundt of Kelly Benefits and two local riders. I quickly caught them and saw that we had a decent gap, so the hammering began. Sundt and I were doing most of the driving, and when the bell started ringing for the primes, we came to an agreement to work with each other and split the money. This worked well until six more riders caught us, and at this point, it was pure racing. My sprint was definitely on, as I picked up some more primes, each of which was followed by a hard attack from Jittery Joe’s Chad Hartley. Darkness was quickly descending as the race started 45 minutes late, but fortunately the race was winding down to the last few laps. I was looking forward to a small group sprint, but things got a little crazy when we caught the twenty or so riders who were left in the main field. Extra teammates and sketchy riders were added into the mix, making for a dicey sprint, and I ended up fourth—tying my other top Superweek result from a few years back. A win would have been nice, but it’s hard to complain about being able to mix it up with some of the best crit racers in the country. Saturday 7/12 Super Week day 2: Blue Island report by Jerome Townsend Today we set the standard for what was to be the outline for the rest of the trip. We woke up, had an AMAZING breakfast of eggs with chorizo cooked by our gracious host Bob Welch, which we ate in front of the tour on the largest TV I have ever watch anything on! Finally we decided to get our butts out of the comfy recliner chairs and go for an AM warm up ride prior to the race. Coffee was about the only thing on most minds and we headed to Starbucks for about an hour till Todd, Adam, and John had their caffeine fix. We then continued our tour of Beverly Hills to return home about 2 hours later after an hour of ride time. We got home in one piece with no flats so the ride was rather relaxing. The race tonight was about 5 miles away and Adam, Tommy, Todd, and John decided to ride again with me driving so that I did not flat my tubulars on the less than perfect road of Oak Lawn. Upon arrival at the course it looked to be a boring 4 corner crit with long WIDE stra ights. It was. After an hour of warm up and extra laps on the course the race was off and for the next 60 miles/laps we raced. It went much like any crit does breaks go they come back. I went for a move about the half way point of the race just as a break was coming back and the race was hard aka the best time to go. I got a decent gap with a member of the Columbian national track team. However, he decided that it would be better if he attacked me and I was brought back rather quickly as was he. The race remained rather hard for the rest of the race because another Columbian was off the front by himself till about 3 to go. Todd put in a monster effort at the front and brought him back going into 3 laps to go. As there was no one off the front any more everybody wanted to be there it turned super sketchy. Because the course was 4 lanes wide and no team possessed the horse power to string the bunch out it was almost possible for everyone to be at the front. In the closing laps I was nearly put into a telephone pole 4 times in two laps and decided to end my struggle at the front and tail-gunned it the rest of the race to finish towards the back. Their were no IF casualties and everyone lived to fight another day. -jt Sunday 7/13 Superweek day 3: Olympia Fields written by Adam Branfman The third race of Superweek was an especially unique day to say the least, and let me tell you why. The day started off just like normal with waking up, watching the Tour, having breakfast, getting a nice coffee shop ride in, coming back home to out host house in Oak Lawn, laundry, lunch, nap, filling of bottles, bike cleaning, packing up the car, and heading to the race site in Olympia Fields. The race parking was in the local Metra commuter railroad parking lot, with a short bicycle ride over to registration. Only two minutes after arriving at the registration table, we see a handful of crashes in the cat 3 race, which isn't necessarily out of the ordinary, except for the fact that we notice the course has been shortened and there is an insane, gale force tailwind on the downhill back stretch leading into a hard right hander. We soon find out that due to exposed manhole covers on one section of the original 1km course, it ahs been shortened to 0.47 miles. We begin to do the math in our head, and we are trying to picture 150 Pro-1-2 riders strung out on a .47 mile course, basically allowing the front of the field to jump o n to th back of the field. A rider meeting is scheduled for 45 mins before race time and we begin to speculate what is going to be done to rectify this unusual situation. Long story short, 30-40 rider decide to call it a day and go home, the 5 of us decide that since we are there, kitted up, and ready to race, we would start and feel it out and if danger reared its head, we would drop out. Hanson raced the front for a good while, putting the serious hurt on the field to try to bring back a break of 4 and brought it within a reasonable distance. Hanson had a great ride, yet dropped out with about 1/3 of the race to go. Todd and Jerome also made some good strong efforts, yet also dropped out because they weren't feeling too hot. Tommy and I stuck it out to the end and I made a big effort with 3 laps to go to get to the front, yet couldn't quite get as far up as I needed to really factor into the sprint. I finished 23rd with a 4 rider break up the road, so still in the money and an ok result. We would live to fight another day in Richton park the following evening. - Adam Monday 7/14 Superweek day 4: Richton Park report by Todd Yezefski Another rider at the Olympia Fields crit mentioned that Richton Park was going to be the same situation—a crit thrown together last minute due to the cancellation of a previously scheduled race. And given then fiasco in Olympia Fields, I wasn’t expecting too much more from Richton Park. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when we arrived at a fully developed, well-lived in community. Not a fantastic setting for a crit, but it was better than Sunday. People from the neighborhood were out watching the race, local town officials were there, and there seemed to be at least some effort put forth by the organizers. The course featured plenty of corners and not many straight roads on a 0.7 mile course, giving us 80 laps of chopping, braking, sprinting, and yelling at sketchy riders. That pretty much summed up the race, with a break of an unknown number of riders lapping the field, rumors of other groups up the road, and no real knowledge from the field of what the race situation was. Whatever, I might as well sprint, I figured. Some final lap heroics, dive-bombing, and avoiding barriers netted me about 15th or so in the field sprint and 23rd overall. While the race wasn’t so hot, we had the highlight of the day still to come—Rainbow Cone!!! This southside staple is a wonder to behold—five bright, colorful flavors of ice cream all packed onto one cone. Orange sherbet, Parker House, pistachio, chocolate, and strawberry somehow blend seamlessly to create a delectable, edible treat. Hanson tried to order a more normal ice cream cone, but I managed to dissuade him by threatening to fire him if he got anything other than a rainbow cone. Apparently Adam and Jerome didn’t get my memo and ordered moose tracks or something lame like that. I was quite disappointed in their choices, but partly blamed myself as team manager for not setting more strict guidelines before we ordered. In fact, I was a sort of lame-o myself and only ordered a small rainbow cone, getting completely shown up by Tommy and his large. An average performance at the race followed up by an even weaker performance at the ice cream shop. Oh well, a trip to my favorite Belgian bar/restaurant, Hopleaf, was in the works for tomorrow night, and I wasn’t going to disappoint. Tuesday 7/15 Rest day report by Adam Branfman We knew we got the day off to a good start when, 2 miles into our rest day bicycle ride I nearly wreck myself and my bike when a killer wasp stung me on the inside of my leg. This was preceeded by an 18 wheeler truck driving head on in the opposite lane laying on the horn for about 14 seconds as he passed us, only to say a very polite good morning and hello we thought. Maybe it was the combination of the wasp, the truck, and the volcano crater sized potholes in the street that got the blood pressure boiling. We safely made it to the oasis of Peet's Coffee in Evanston center for a reality check and meditation session with espresso, cookies, and scones in hand. Master Sargeant Captain Todd urged us to continue on our way with the ultimate goal being the aquarium in downtown Chicago on the waterfront. We cruised the bike path and its beautiful sights which included the Northwestern University campus, the Loyola College library, and several beaches and boardwalks, with just a few unplanned detours to say hi to some of the local bike path walkers and runners who caught our interest. The next stop was for pineapple and strawberry snowcones which only Hanson and I took advantage of. With snowcone in hand, we continued to make our way down the bike path and about 6 hours later we arrived at our final destination, dehydrated, cracked,=2 0thoroughly wrecked, and saddle sored. A mountain dew and Sierra Mist were all we needed, however, to be able to continue on our adventure. U-turn we did, and with the wind at our back we put up the sail and flew back home to Northbrook via the same bike path, with a detour to another bike path along the Metra railroad line. Hanson attempted to motorpace behind the train, but it just wasn't his day. We did, however, put in a huge bridging effort to get up the Todd's solo break up the road, all the while, dropping Jerome who was on his 78th phone call with his girlfriend. Editor's note: this does not include the 96 text messages that he previously exchanged with her in the ten minutes before. A pee break was in order, allowing JT to catch up, and the 5 of us soldiered on to our next stop back in Evanston at Whole Foods for a peanut butter scone, energy drinks, and water. Feeling the pressure of the previously scheduled dinner and beer evening at Hopleaf Bar and Restaurant, Todd led us the rest of the way back home and we arrived safe and sound, 5 hours after we left and with another 55 miles under our chamois'. We had dinner out with good friends and company of Todd at his favorite Belgian bar, Hop leaf, and eventually made our way back home to pass out in the most comfortable sleeping setting all week. Seriously though, we are staying with close friends of Todd in Northbrook who are an amazing family and who cannot do enough for us. Fresh fruit for breakfast, endless c offee, and total relaxation. Can't be beat. Until next time. . . -Adam Wednesday 7/16 Superweek day 5: Bensonville report by Adam Branfman Feeling the effects of yesterday's rest day adventures, we decided to sleep a little later than usual and forego the routine morning bike rideWe made our way up from the basement to a kitchen table, once again, filled with fresh fruit, bread, cereal and lots and lots of coffee. Before heading to the race in Bensonville, we caught up on email, text messages, and phone calls to girlfriends back home. Today's race was in Bensonville, IL, a typical Illinois small town, and the 4-ish corner 1.3 mile race course was partly on residential streets and partly through a playground and park. The temps were scorching somewhere in the 96 degrees region, and the 100 strong field at the start line was ready for action. Rock racing brought a full squad of 9 guys, ready to do some damage with Bahati in the red jersey still and Magnell defending. The course was fun, and once you dialed it in, you could rail the cor ners and come out of them with plenty of speed. Special props to Tommy G, who became a victim of some bad luck when riders in front of him began opening up gaps, decided to call it a day and head to the feed zone. I would not have been able to finish without Tommy's incredible ability to feed me bottles at 32mph, no joke. It was as if he was placing the bottles in my cages himself. The race was 80 laps for everyone except for John Hanson, who snapped his deraileur cable and visited the pit for 4 laps while the SRAM guys fixed his bike. Upon being thrown back into the fray, Hanson assumed a spot at teh front of the field, sat on the Rock Racing leadout and pipped them at the line to win a cash prime. A bit before Hanson's domination of Rock Racing, I went off the front to bridge up to Peter Dawson from Rock Racing who was bridging up to a Colombian National team rider up the road. I made it to Dawson and we traded pulls to bring back the Colombian rider. After one more Roack guy came up to us, I began to sense this could be the winning move of the day with two of the strongest teams well represented. I took some harder pulls, and we rotated for 3 or so laps before the field reeled us in. It was not to be. I hung in the field, recovered, and tail gunned a bit, until it was time to move up for the last few laps. Move up I did, and with a Colombian rider taking a solo win over a minute ahead of the field, I wound up 24th in a chaotic sprint to the line. In the money again, and although not the top 10 we were looking for, it was still a good effort and one that would pay dividends in our final Superweek race the following day in Shorewood. Thursday 7/17 Superweek day 6: Shorewood report by Adam Branfman With a full night's sleep in us, we woke up to another awesome breakfast of fresh fruit, bread, coffee, and fresh air on the backyard porch. Yezefski took us on a short bike ride to the Northbrook Velodrome where we battled it out ninja style with a few hot laps. Jerome sporting the bibs-only look, and me flying with just a windvest on. desperate times call for desperate measures when there are few clean clothes left. We packed up, and hit the road again, this time for Fredonia, WI to our final host house, only for one night, however. After meeting Rob and Shelley, we unloaded the car and headed over to the race in Shorewood, about a mile outside of Milwaukee. You know it's going to be a good evening when, while you are warming up, your host20family calls you over to the pub where they are hanging and the pub owner gives us free drink vouchers for after the race, and the two gorgeous bartenders are called in to take a photo with us. The evening was possibly one of our best races of the week, with everyone laying it out and racing their bikes. Todd scored a second place prime early on behind a Colombian National team rider, Jerome policed the front all nite long, Tommy took a flyer with two to go, and Hanson, raced his face off to bring Todd and myself up to the front when we needed to be. Coming into the last lap, I made a huge surge through the start finish to position myself at about 6th wheel and I'm feeling golden. I get swarmed in two more turns but I'm still ok, because there's a perfect window on the back stretch on which I can move up one last time. I hear Todd flying up the left side, he calls my name, and I make one last surge and then BAM! my door is closed by some jackass merging right into my exit path from the group. That was essentially game over. I was swarmed, the field closed in on me, and in the remaining 1k or so, I try to recover and take some risks to salvage a good finishing spot, only to be sprinting behind someone who unclips his pedal or something and comes to a dead stop 50m from the line as I am making up places in the home straight. Some days just don;t go your way. Todd, however, finished in the money in 12th spot and wins the stud of the nite award.=2 0It was a sick race and one that will go down in the books. Everyone finished, everyone showed their heads at the front, raced their bikes, and most importantly, went to the Village Pub after to enjoy some free alcohol courtesy of the owner. The nite ended witha wild goose chase for Kopps Frozen Custard, but to no avail, we didn't find it, and dragged ourselves back to the house by 12:00AM. A great way to finsh off our midwestern Superweek trip. It kept getting better and better, we raced our hearts out, and had a blast. Can't wait till next year. - Adam
Subscribe to Posts [Atom] |
