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Horseshoes and hand grenades - Quad Cities Crit Race Report

Attacking on the inside. Nobody was watching ( yeah right! ;-) )

The race was dominated by the Texas Roadhouse. They had an answer for everything.

Myself and David, even though he is on Priority Health, he is an great dude.

Sheldon doing some work on the front

Me attacking and hoping to get string to snap. It never did though.

Monday's race went as planned until half way through 2 laps to go. Team BISSELL rode the front for the most of the race, only sticking our necks out when we were at risk. I also used the hot spot primes to get the feeling of the sprinting power of the pack. Fortunately, it seemed like it was nothing I couldn't handle. But as luck would have it at 5 laps to go, Texas Roadhouse and the Panthars (the two biggest / strongest teams) each had a guy up the road. Sheldon went to the front and crushed it for two laps hoping to catch them, but there were 3 Roadhouse riders on his wheel blocking for Bergman up the road. I was on the back of the Roadhouse riders comfortably in 5th position. Then once Sheldon came off the Roadhouse crew took an exceptionally wide turn around the back side at two laps to go and riders darted to the inside. Somebody hit me from the inside and knocked me off my line and then I had to decide between going into the curb & pole or hitting the brakes. That decision brought me from 4th wheel back to 40(+). Probably should have just soft attacked to the inside once I knew the pace would slow. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Melon City Race Report' - SPEED BUMP!

Ever been airborn in a criterium? The speed bump was right after the downhill section. We hit it at about 35MPH every lap.

Sitting in the field

Sheldon

Me

Myself and Nate

I need to remind that there is no such thing as an easy win. The thought was that it was probably going to come down to a bunch kick so the plan was to sit in and have me lead out Sheldon up the hill and drop him off at 100 meters to go. However, there was a group of 10 off the front with Derick Graham (BISSELL Elite) and Sheldon was sitting on in a chase group of about 15 with me surfing the front of the peloton. As luck would have it, about 1/3 up the hill, we made contact with both groups, but for all intents and purposes, the sprint had already started and everybody finished about where they started from at the bottom of the hill, sans a few folks that detonated up the hill, causing a little chaos up the climb. Sheldon ended up in the best position at 8th. So as Glen has told me, "there is no such thing as an easy win." Lesson learned today, as I hardly felt like I did anything today.

1-800-FUN-TOWN

Ever dialed 1-800-fun-town? Probably not... but if you do, you'll reach the Frankenmuth chamber of commerce in Frankenmuth Michigan. Quite the Bavarian town. They have a massive Christmas store that is open 365 days per year. Not sure why anybody would be buying a christmas tree stand in May, but apparently there is a market for it. Also, there is the Frankenmuth Road Race that was held this morning.

Seven Team BISSELL riders assembled to try to get to win. It started out a little chilly and a sprinkle of rain (on a side note, Bob got all suited up for the Masters race and after the first drop of rain hit the ground, he deceded not to even start). We ended up getting Nate (BISSELL elite) in a lead break Ben (BISSELL elite) in a following group. Not sure exactly what happened, but Nate ended up in 4th and Ben ended up 7th. Not too happy about the team results but oh well, tomorrow we will be in Iowa for a little redemption. Stay tuned.

Mid-week report

Grattan Speedway was Wednesday evening. Sheldon and I spent the whole time in breaks and attacking hard. Close to the end of the race, Sheldon, myself, and a Priority Health guy were in a break but when the PH guy decided not to roll through, Sheldon attacked. Myself and the PH guy were then reabsorbed into the back and Sheldon stayed away for the remainder of the race for the win. I did a suicide at 2 laps to go while the PH team chased. At about 1k to go, Birdman (GH) started out the leadout train but ended up catching me. Fortunately, Jason (Elite Bissell) won the sprint for second and we also got 3rd, 4th, 5th, and I got 7th. So another good training day for me and good results for the Elite team.

Besides racing, Michigan has been pretty good. Amway had a celebration downtown last night for it's 50th anniversery. So they put on a massive fireworks display that apparently trumped the 4th of July display by 2 fold. It was pretty impressive to say the least.

We are heading out for the races this evening in Eastern Michigan and then it's off to Iowa.