Sherman Park -- Crash, Boom, Bang

On Saturday, Tony C., Case H. and I went down to compete in the Sherman Park Crit in the masters 4/5, 30+/40+. The day started off with perfect 75 degree temps and the course is an 1 1/2 car lane, 1mile, oval/circle that is sheltered in the middle of a city park.

As safety zealot, I choose to do this race as the course looked safe (no hard turns) and it was a Master's Race, so it had the right ingredients to be a good race...

It was well organized and run on time and at the start looked like a full field (70-ish riders). My plan this race was going to be simply to sit-in and enjoy life in the peleton and cover moves where necessary.

The course was littered with small imperfections in the road and the starter did a good job at informing people to be careful and hold their lines when approaching these imperfections while in the peleton. I'm not sure if guys were paying attention to this important announcement, and the starter may as well been whistling in the wind as no one heeded his advice. The race was dangerous in the peleton as everyone was swerving and moving to avoid these minor imperfections...it was crazy.

I should have known better and moved to attack off the front to avoid these moves in the back...

Crash. 10 minutes into the ride, 1 knucklehead in front of me tried to swerve in the middle of the peleton and hit the guy on his left. Both go down. Me, moving at 25+ mph with no where to go, and despite my best efforts to "protect my front wheel" smacks into one of the guys on the ground. Next thing I know, I remember seeing a few stars and awake on my back on my bike. I was probably out for a few seconds, but have no recollection of hitting the pavement or how I got there.

My big mistake was not collecting myself. I immediately got to my feet, looked down to make sure all body parts were still in tact. I put my chain back on and my brain screamed "GO"! So after the peleton I chased. (Doh! I should have stopped to get my free lap, but I think that i was still in shock of crashing and couldn't believe that it happened to me!)

After a number of laps by myself in hopeless desperation to catch the group, my shoulder started hurting. I looked back and realized that I had ripped my Jersey and with a nasty bloody gash on my shoulder. I've never quit a race and decided that I would ride on and at least make a good workout of the time remaining. Eventually, the peleton caught me and passed me. I snuck onto to back to catch a breath.

Boom. In front of me to the left was another nasty crash. I moved right and narrowly avoided this crash. Geez, guys be careful... I remember thinking.

Bang. As I moved right to avoid the previous crash, 10 feet in front of me was yet ANOTHER crash. Swerving further right and onto the grass, I escaped the third crash of the day, coming to a complete stop.

I hit the gas and caught back onto the rear of the peleton just to finish the race, and since I was lapped, my place didn't matter, but this was ridiculous in the number of crashes. Frankly, I thought Master's races were intended for people that have raced before. I can guarantee that MANY of today's riders had no idea how to behave in a peleton and shouldn't have been in this masters race.

That being said, this is bike racing and it happens (though it shouldn't!). My helmet was cracked (as I landed on my head), jersey torn, and my gash was 1/2 inch away from my collar bone (whew! and least I'll live to fight the battle another day). There were, however, a number of guys that were banged up from this race including the older guy from Albertos (a very nice guy that many of us have raced with in the past) whom they needed to call an ambulance for. I hope he is okay.

The good news of the day, Tony won a prim -- a fancy pair of socks which I'm sure he'll be donning soon. Nice work Tony.

Hope you guys did much better at Horribly Hilly!

Spring Prairie Pictures Posted

I finally posted the Spring Prairie pictures. Check them out. Big thank you to Bossonline for such an great web-site. What a great way to share stuff and communicate. Thanks BossOnline, what a great sponsor!!!!

Picture/Movie Day -- June 28th

Before the season escapes us, let's plan for a picture day on June 28th capturing as many Tower Riders as possible. Please be prepared to show-off your Tower Kit! As well Pat Dillon's son, Christopher, will also be filming us for part of the ride and will construct a short video clip for the website with music and action shots!

Hope you'll be there to obtain your 5 seconds of fame!

Team Work Pays again -- 3rd, 6th at Spring Prairie

7 Tower Members showed up to do battle in Spring Prarie. After a few passing orange/red blobs on the radar, the cat 4/5 race was delayed by a half hour and only ran 5 out of the prescribed 6 laps. By the start of the race, the rain had thankfully passed.

For those of you who have not raced at Spring Prairie before, the course is run on smooth country roads and is a 6.5 mile square with one big/steep hill (think the wall at bluff x 4) along with a few rollers. There were some teams well represented with XXX having over 13 riders registered and I noticed other strong riders present including Peter Strittmatter from XXX and Chris Padfield from Pegasus, among others.

The first lap was uneventful with the group staying together. … On this course, the hill was a big seperator and upon our first trip up, the peleton was quickly strung out. I was in the middle of the pack (got stuck behind some slow moving traffic) and noted that I had to work hard in the flat after the hill to get back toward the front. Frankly, I was surprised that the lead guys didn't keep high tempo after the hill to string the field out. I figured this would a great spot to launch a future attack.

One of the highlights was that in the SECOND lap, our Non-WI peleton passed the Cheeseheads who had a 5 minute head start – so much for their state championship. Upon the second trip up the hill, I was 10th-ish but there were two guys who opened a huge gap in the flats after the hill, including Peter from XXX. I kicked it into full gear and finally caught the first two guys by the first turn. I dragged one with me and the four of us decided that we had good representation to make a run to the finish.

Doug Braun and Mark Misicko did an awesome job keeping control of the peleton and allowed the four of us to gain a good gap on the field. Thanks Doug and Mark! We were a well organized break with each guy taking equal turns in a nice paceline. It felt like a solid, hard Saturday Tempo ride, but was great to be away with at least 3 other guys in a race.

By the third lap, we were out of sight of the peleton and held a steady pace. We agreed that we wouldn't drop each other and that we would let the final hill decide the winner.

On the last lap, a smile started to creep over my face as I realized that we would not be caught and was finally part of a breakaway that succeeded! Keeping a high tempo we hit the hill for the last time (finish line 100 yards beyond the hill) and I was last up the hill, but was able sprint for a 3rd place finish.

Doug was second to finish in the peleton for a 6th place overall; I didn’t see the places of everyone else, but Ed E., Pat D., Mark M., Case H., and Don H. also had good days on the bike. Ed E. had (another) race flat but still finished strong. So a very respectable day for the Tower!

Most importantly, it was great to be with the Tower crew and everyone rode a safe and smart race. My hats off again to the Tower guys in the peleton for covering any bridge attempts and letting the breakaway go. Good team work pays again!!

Spring Prairie Update

Seven Tower Racers and an affiliate member (My wife Karin) braved the rainy weather forecast and headed up to Wisconsin for the race on Sunday. As we got close to the course it wasn't looking good. There was a line of thunderstorms coming hard and fast from the West. The parking lot (farmers field) was a swamp, if Ed and I didn't have four wheel drive we may not have gotten out. Just as we pulled in the rain hit and hit hard. The racers that were out on the course came in on their own because of the thunder/lightning and torrential rain. But after one more wave of rain they were off to finish their race and we got rolling about 45 minutes late at 12:45.

There is a neutral/rolling start here taking you from the parking lot up the first hill. It would have been nice if the pace car would have controlled the pace up that hill every lap because after the second time up it (6.5 mile laps) I realized that I need to lose another 10-15 pounds. I got gaped off the back, by just a fraction, and in bike racing that's all it takes. So I ended up in a group of 6 or 7 which made the remainder of the race more manageable. After the 6th, one neutral and five times up that hill, it was nice to see the finish line. Didn't see my results but I had to have finished somewhere between 30th-40th range.

My wife Karin came along yelling encouragement which you will have to trust me helped quite a bit. She also got some great pictures which will make it onto the web-site soon.

Turns out that Jim got into a breakaway on either lap 3 or 4 and stayed away thanks to some blocking assistance from Doug and Mark. Jim did some blocking work for Doug down in Indiana so he was returning the favor. Both Doug and Mark looked very strong and were at or near the front the whole race. Ed E. flatted and jumped back in a lap down. He was able to chase me and my group down and hearing his voice and having him with me in my chase group motivated me to work harder than I may have otherwise. Ed looked strong and would have been with the lead riders without that bad luck.

So your probably wondering, come on cut to the chase. Jim ended up on the podium in third, Doug was sixth, I didn't see where Mark finished. Case and Pat finished after me. We only had a little rain during the race and we were all glad we did the race. It was wet in places but the way the couse is laid out there are no high speed corners. Let's all try to plan on doing this race next year. It was tough, but what a great course. Maybe the calender will be kinder to Tom, Fran, Tony, Terry, and Dr. Phil next year. They all would have done well on this course.

Stay tuned because I will post or Pat will post for me some great pictures that my wife took. The best ones of the group that I have seen to date.

Sherman Park Criterium

I know that many are riding in the Horrible Hilly on Saturday, June 14th. For those who are not, I am interested in racing in the Sherman Park crit on Saturday. This race is put on by the XXX team and is held in Chicago. The race I would enter would be the Cat 4/5 40+ which begins at 9:30 am. Let me know if anyone else is interested.

Matteson Returns June 10th & Illinois State Road Race

The Tuesday evening criterium races start up again (for 3-weeks) June 10th. See Chicago Bike Racing web site for details.

Also saw that there will be an Illinois State Road race championship Aug 23rd but the location is yet to be determined.

Those that have not done a race yet the Matteson series is the perfect place to start. The B race is not that fast, 22 mph avg. speed depending upon who shows up. It is a safe low key way to introduce yourself to racing. Anyone that can hang in the Saturday ride would do well in the B race. The B race field size was 15 riders when I did it last, this may grow as the weather is nicer. Race with the A's if you want simulate what a fast cat 4 race is like. It is probably faster than a hard cat 4 race.