PorkchopWI

As usual the race was a make-or-break at the first hill -- a steep, shortest hill -- about 6 miles into the course.

I dug and got it up it OK, but as I expected I ended up watching the lead pack (and a few breakaway riders) fade into the distance in front of me while a smaller pack of riders formed behind me, including teammates Julie, Andrea Potyondy-Smith and David Goetzinger.

Our group hung together for the next 21 miles over the rolling hills that make up the course. About half way through I dropped a chain while shifting the front derailleur about half way up a climb, got off to fix it, and spent about a mile or so riding solo back into the group.

Julie stayed in contention for the win with Andrea until the last descent where she fell off. I rode her back into the group on a similar descent earlier in the race, but figured by this we (read that to mean I) were not going to get back into the group if I went back to get her, so I left her (yeah, yeah, booo, hiss...LOL).

While Julie can get up hills OK, she doesn't get down them very well. this is the third or fourth race this season where she has lost a shot at the overall win on a descent. Something to work on for next season.

Anyway, Andrea was the women’s overall winner and Julie finished second. Overall I was 45th , but still faster than last year (by my records anyway, and those can be suspect sometimes).

All around a good day. We’ll be back in Madison next week for a shortened (10.5 miles) Kirke Vei TT. Julie has signed up to ride a stock bike (no aero enhancements) and I may do the same. It’s one of the few times where a stock class is offered and it might be fun to try something a little different.

Saw this on the front page of the paper today.

Thought maybe they were writing about Julie’s season, but it turned out to be about swimming and a dude named Mike.

For the past three years we’ve bumped down to the Belleville road race, a flat 20ish-mile course just south of Madison. It’s a fun, well run, event on nice roads and Saturday was no different.

This is a race where I’m able to hang with, or be at, the front with the leaders. I went to the front early on a few times and bridged over to a two-man break (this is a career first) at one point about eight miles into the race that was swiftly swallowed back up by the peloton.

Those are the kinds of things I don't get a lot of chances to do in other races, and I gotta admit it’s pretty darn fun. The leaders were a mix of guys from Mad City Velo, a few singles from other teams, and unattached guys (at least based on jerseys they were wearing). It seems like a pretty good group of riders and everyone stayed upright.

I picked up a few spots on the run into the finish, and was pretty close to piping the guy in front of me at the line but no dice. Sixth place, a race and career best finish (I was 22nd in this race in 2006 and 11th in 2007). I also took sixth earliest this year at the Willard Friendly Century, but we’ll call this one the “official” career best race.

The finish was good enough for first in my age group. So here’s a rarity captured on "film."

 A few other photos from the day can be found in the photo album on the upper right side of this page.

Julie didn't fare as well, flatting about 12 miles. She was helped by a passing cyclist (who wasn't racing) and got under power again after an undetermined amount of time. She was determined to finish the event and did so, finishing “DFL” -- Dead Freaking Last.

Tough break for her, but you gotta give her props for finishing.

She did much better in the 5K running race finsihing second overall for women, about 15 to 20 seconds behind the winner. This is the second year she's been second in the 5K run.

Off to Mauston next week, a hilly course that should suit Julie well and will probably leave me suffering. We’ll see just how fast we can get going on some of the descents.

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Well, as you have surmised by now there’s no bike video this week.

Realx, kick back and enjoy a different type of racing -- American Le Mans Series action at Road America near Elkhart Lake, Wisc. The video was shot Thursday (test day) after I got done doing a full days work down there.

I didn't really realize it until I was trackside, but seeing these cars and drivers on TV really doesn't do them justice. They’re really pretty cool to see in person. As you can tell from the video, access for fans is pretty open too.

We opted to ride the two-person time trial -- 50 miles -- after hearing repeated horror stories of crashes in the main race. After all, the last turn is called Amen Corner. The fact there are two churches there undoubtedly plays a role in that, but so does the fact it’s a hard left after a fast section of Wisconsin 63.

Anyway, we rolled out in the time trial and set a nice pace in the low to middle 20 mph range and had a nice rhythm of changes going (each taking about 45 seconds on the front making a nice air hole for the other to draft of) for about the first 20 miles.

We then hit the road from hell around Cable, Lake Owen Drive. This is, without a doubt, the worst piece of road I have raced on. Rutted, uneven, cracked, potholed, you name it. It’s a 10+ miles of rollers under a shady canopy too, making it hard to see all the potential pitfalls in your way.

It was rough enough that as a matter of self-preservation I got off the aero bars on the descents for better control over the jostling terrain. We lost a lot of time on this section yo-yoing and were both glad when it was over and we were back on smooth pavement where we could set up a steady rhythm again.

We finished 7th of 11 in the mixed two-person TT in our age classification, a result I that was dissipointing since I felt like we rode a pretty decent race - other than the Lake Owen section. But as is the case in life, there’s always somebody faster, smarter, better looking...

We had fun on the race course, and will make a decision at some point in the off season if we’ll go back. If we do, it will be riding the 35-mile road race they offer as it avoids Lake Owen Drive. I wouldn’t pay to race that again.

Video from the event can be found here:

Results can be found here: http://www.itiming.com/html/raceresults.php?year=2008&EventId=423&eventype=0

For the second week in a row, one of our friends went down in an accident in the Firehouse. He suffered some serious shoulder injuries and he was taken to the hospital in Ashland and later airlifted UW Madison. Sounds like he has a long recovery in front of him, but will be mobile again. http://www.wisport.org/forum/index.php?topic=393.0

Next week we’re headed to Belleville, a small town near Madison, for a fast little 22-mile road race. This was the race where I spent time off the front for the first time in 2006 and finished 11th there last year.

Hopefully it will be the place were I finally get a RR result I’m happy with this year.

Julie will return to defend her best of both title (bike race and 5K run).

After putting in strong finish lat year (10th), I was hoping for the same in 2008.

Those hopes ended after about 20 minutes when I found myself off the back of the main group on the second climb. Hmmm. And only 40-or-so more miles to ride.

I got caught in no-man’s-land working with a pair of guys and took a look behind me to see a few team members a little ways back. Figuring it was Julie and Andrea, I decided I was better off doing work for teammates than people I didn't know and dropped back.

Another teammate, Gerry Hansen, was also in the group and we set about the task of finishing off the next 40 miles as quickly as possible while limiting the amount of work Julie and Andrea would have to do. That meant a lot of time on the front.

We eventually picked up Kyle Schmidt , so there were five Big Ring Flyers in the group which held together until the end.

Julie and Andrea sprinted for the overall women’s win with Andrea taking top honors. Bean Linzmeyer, another team members, finished third, so we had a nice sweep of the podium with Big Ring women.

It may not be a bad thing I missed the break early in the race. A late crash took out six or eight riders in the front pack (including one of our riders, Jim Frame), and sent most home with some combination of road rash, slings, or broken bones and broken bikes.

Even our group saw some carnage with a rider going down after he touched the wheel in front of him. He went home with a broken collar bone . That happened right in front of Julie and she calmly took evasive action, barely moving to avoid hitting the guy. 

I will post results when they are available.

Video from the event can found here:

Next week Julie and I are riding a 50-mile two-person-team time trial in Grandview, Wisc. at the Firehouse 50. This event is apparently one of the Meccas of road racing for Wisc./Minn. We’ll see what the hype is all about.

Based on stories from people who have done it in the past, we opted not to do the road race due to the amount of carnage this race allegedly produces each year. I’d rather not write off the rest of my season due to injury for one race -- but even in just about any event anything can happen and nothing’s guaranteed, even in a TT.

Terrain-wise, the Blue Mounds Classic may be the hardest road race I’ve done with about 2,775 feet of climbing over 24.5 miles -- but I had a blast.

(Course profile)

I was chucked off the back of the lead groups (plural) that formed on the first climb, but I was fine with that as my expectations on a super-hilly course like this didn’t including finishing anywhere near the leaders.

I spent part of the first lap riding by myself , picking off a few guys at the start of the second lap and shortly after that picking up a couple other guys in a small group (including teammate David Goetzinger) that I worked with during the second half of the race, doing a lot of tempo riding. 

I found the climbs challenging in spots, but they were surmountable and actually it was sort of fun to suffer on the long and steep sections. The longest climb of the day was to the finish and was about four miles long. The grade was pretty gradual so it was not at all like climbing Mounds Road at Alpe Bl’Buze (which is long and steep).

I finished with an average speed of about 18.3 mph (for comparison, at a flatter road race my average will hang between 23 and 25 mph) and noticed my descent speed topped out at 47.5 mph.

But the BIG news of the day was Julie winning her first race of the season. Blue Mounds features a women’s start and Julie and few others made the last-minuet switch from the men’s field to the women’s start.

While Julie got beat to the top of the first climb (and the $60 gift certificate that went with it), she was able to breakaway from the rest of the women’s field at the top of that climb and stayed away to win the race. Even at the end of the four mile climb to the finish line, she showed no signs of suffering.

I finished in 1:19:55 while Julie came home in 1:21:37. Hmm, that's getting too close for comfort in an RR.

PRELIMINARY results can be found here: http://www.wisport.org/BMC08Prelims.pdf 

Video can be found here. Thanks to Richard Alderman and Darryl Mataya who shot the race actrion, and Julie who did the montage at the end.

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The season rolls on next week to northwestern Wisconsin with the 47-mile road race at Mellen. This is probably my favorite event of the year and I’ve done pretty well there the last two years (tied for tenth in 2007), so I’m aiming for a repeat of that effort this year.

We’ll see what happens!