Best and Worst Races of the season

This past weekend i skipped out on collegiate racing to do my first Time Trial of the year. On saturday i went to Waterford to do the circuit race. Last season i had a good result there and hoped to better that this year. Unfortunatly i got a chest cold and the weather was the worst possible conditions to race a bike in with winds, rain and a temp of about 33degrees. I raced aggressivley but just didn't have much top end and had trouble breathing. I ended up finishing up in the pack with a less than impressive performance. The next day on Sunday, i went to the Fisk Knob TT to test out my new TT bike and new disk. I was a little hesitant since my chest was still hurting and i could feel the pressure. I decided to do the race anyways. The course is a rolling T shaped 17mile race. With high winds and 2 turn arounds it would prove to be a tough course. I got a good warm up and started strong. At the 10mile mark i looked down at my computer and i had been racing for 20minutes. I have never averaged 30mph in any TT for any decent length of distance. I was pretty stoked but a little worried about going too hard too early. I ended up winning the overall. I was very happy with the result and with the race. I am looking forward to the next TT with some more confidence.

Ohio University and Ohio State

Last weekend we had our second weekend of Collegiate racing at Ohio Univ. and Ohio State. The Ohio University course was amazing, with a ton of climbing and some nice scenery. They have some serious climbs in southeast ohio, i was really impressed with how hard they were. We destroyed the field one lap into the 3lap race. Unfortunatly on lap 2 a Purdue rider made a dumb mistake and tried to attack through a gap that wasn't there at the front of the field on a decent. He took out the front of the field and we had some pretty nice carnage. Broken bikes, bars, wheels and forks were everywhere. About 15riders went down, about 6 of us got it the worst. I didn't end up hurting myslef too bad, but my bike was lauched about 20ft and i had a hard time even finding it in all the turmoil. By the time i got a new wheel it had been more than 10min and the race was long gone for use. The really shitty part is that he took down 5 of the best 8riders in the field that day, including Hans Arnesen from IU, Jaimie Kimberly from Illinois, Tim Swain from Ohio and myslef. After we got back to the starting area, and the concluded Hans threw the Pudue crash causer in the ditch and we all gathered around to let him know what an idiot he was for racing like he did. I'm pretty sure he won't do that again. The next day we had a crit in Columbus. This was an extremely fast 4corner cit. I spent the day in breakaways, trying to get off the front and getting prime points. I had a second crash of the weekend when an IU rider clipped a pedal in front of me in a corner. I went down, bent my wheel and tore off my bottle cage. After i got my chain back on and made it to the wheel pit, i got my spare and was back in the race with about 8min to go. I immediately went back to the front and began racing on pure addrenalin and rage. Nobody likes to go down, and i think it kind of fuels my racing energy when i do in a crit. The race came down to a field sprint and i managed a 4th place again. All in all, it could have been a better weekend but the crit was redemption for getting crashed out of the road race.

Depauw Weekend

This past weekend, WMU Cycling had their first weekend of racing for the season. Sat was a 45mile rolling road race outside of Indianapolis. I was under orders from my coach to take it easy and observe the race without attacking and make and easy start to my season. This was a little frustrating for me considering how i usually like to be very aggressive and get up the road. I ended up finishing in the field for 18th place. A little frustrated but not a bad first day of racing. Sunday's race was a 70min crit on a tight course. I raced this race very aggressively and ended up in a breakaway of 7. We ended up lapping the field in about 25min. It was a very hard breakaway especially for the second race of the year. I think we were all suffering like dogs and were relieved to catch the field. With some late attacks i ended up off the front again with 4 of the original breakaway riders. Jon Swain from Marion escaped and i made the mistake of leading out the sprint thinking in could hold off Jake Rytlewski from Marion and Hans Arnsen from IU came around me so i had to settle for 4th on the day, but still decent form for the first weekend of the year. More to come from next week at Ohio.