This report originally filed at Hogan’s Heroes
Hogan Sills

This year our team got the chance to host midwest regionals, and I think it’s safe to say we did a pretty darn good job. Thanks to a lot of help from everyone and especially our main-man Joey we pulled off a great weekend of racing, starting with a TTT and road race Saturday, then ending with a super tough crit on Sunday.

TTT (Course: 7 miles, flat)



Men’s A TTT podium

With the fast pace we were holding at SIU before Joey’s flat, we knew we could put down a very fast time. Pre-TTT went off smoothly in terms of getting the aero postitions right with the equipment and a little warm-up, except Naveen almost missed the start after deciding to ride off within two minutes because he needed to “open his legs some more”. Luckily he rolled up with only 15 or so seconds to spare. So we started off pretty fast, in fact we dropped Naveen within the first mile. Not as planned, but we couldn’t wait for him, so Joey, Chris and I trudged on and ended up finishing third, just 4 seconds behind Lindsey Wilson. Slightly disappointing, but still a great time.



Road Race (Course: 7.5 miles, 9 laps, two tough hills)

The plan was to always have at least one of our guys in the break. We also considered a leadout for Chris if it all stayed together, which we thought it might with the flat straight sections. Turns out I ended up making a strong attack to bridge to a break, with Will Nowak on my wheel, and riding away with the 8-man break for the remaining 50+ miles. I probably wasn’t the best guy to go in such an early break with my “distance problem” but I made sure to drink plenty, eat plenty, coke later on, yatta-yatta-yatta, same thing as Hillsboro. I tried my best in the sprint but ended up getting 7th. Still, that was my best result for a collegiate road race yet.



Crit (Course: 1 km, steep uphill finishing stretch)



Doing my best to slow down the chase



The chase group sprint finish

Man this course sucked. Not that it wasn’t a cool course, around Ross-Ade Stadium, right behind my dorm…definitely a fun course. But it didn’t help that the basically the entire time it was raining. The first couple of laps were all-out, and starting a little ways back I had to jump around plenty of guys to get up to the front group. Chris Uberti made a nice attack early on with Leibovitz and after dropping him ended up staying away. I did my best to slow down the chase form Lindsey Wilson (and Marian after Leibovitz dropped back). At one point he got up to 50 seconds on us, about 30 seconds from lapping us, when one of the Lindsey Wilson riders fainted at the side of the road, forcing the race to stop as the ambulance needed to get in. This was good for me actually, I took on another bottle, and talked to some friends that braved the wet weather to watch me suffer. After Chris got his 50-second head start, we began racing again and I began blocking again. Once he lapped us, I slipped back a little bit and started to think about my own sprint. I was feeling pretty good as I went through the last turn third wheel and jammed up the hill. I couldn’t get around Matt Brandt or Greg Christian though, and finished the race with another fine 4th place. Hats off to Chris, what a way to win your last collegiate race in dominating fashion.

What has been going on since Brown County Road Race?

Wow, the spring is flying by and I can’t believe it’s almost May. Well, after the Brown County Road race I decided to do my first crit up at Marian University at the end of March. The course was more of a circuit race than a crit but still a great venue. Surprisingly, there was a large field of about 70 riders. I raced aggressively early and covered moves, but I flatted my rear tire early on. Because of the long course it took me a while to get back to the pit, and as soon as I got back into the race I made it into the winning break. There were two Kenda riders, two Panther riders, Eric Hamilton and Greg Strock. We worked together and almost lapped the field but due to the tactics of the break we ended up staying back. There was some confusion in the break and Greg capitalized on it by jumping away at the end with about 800 meters to go. I would have thought that Kenda or Panther would chase him down, but they didn’t. I jumped early for the sprint but was passed before the line by Chad B from Kenda so I ended up third on the day.

After a couple more weeks of training it was time for Hillsboro- a cool but hard race.  In previous years I’d never finished in the lead group before, but I’ve trained harder than ever so my goal was to make it into that group. As a team-designated “protected rider” I spent most of the day sitting in the pack and trying to stay out of trouble; however early on I was taken out and was forced to ride into a ditch. Luckily, Hogan and Luca were right there to drag me back up to the pack. On the last lap it was time for me to move to the front and get ready for splits. Ryan, Hogan and I all managed to make the last few splits and headed towards the final circuit with a large lead group (probably the biggest finishing group ever at Hillsboro). At this time I was no longer racing but rather trying to hold on for dear life as I was pretty much in the hurt locker.  I managed to tuck in behind the Panther onslaught towards the finish (they started with 12 riders), and at the end mustered up a sixth place finish.

After Hillsboro, my dad and I ventured south to the Yucatan Peninsula to do some salt water fly fishing. We had a wonderful time and caught a bunch of fish, but it’s good to be back in the states and back on the bike. Next up for me is coaching my women’s team at the Little 500 this Friday, and after that I’ll be headed to the Fat and Skinny Tire festival for some more racing before Joe Martin the following week.

Until next time,
Mike

Originally posted at Rhyme & Reason

Mark and I made it to the hotel first only to get dibs on the best room we ((I)Thanks IIT) had reserved, the King Suite at the Holiday Inn in Howell, MI. It actually was not half bad – the hotel did look rather new though.

I was not sure what to think or expect about the road race on Saturday which consisted of a 4.4 mile loop with a 1.2 mile section of dirt road and my field doing 13 laps. After making it through the dirt section initially I decided that it was not going to be fun repeating that multiple times with the field. I saw Scott Rosenfield (Northwestern) about to make a move 2ish miles into the race and I proceeded to follow. We made it up to a Lindsey Wilson rider then were joined by Greg Christian (MSU) — then a few others joined a little later in the race including Will Nowak, which was awesome to see after he had been out a while with his IT band.

We continued to work together for a while until a little more than two to go an attack went off on a slight kicker on the back side and I didn’t have the speed to match it anymore. I continued to do the last two laps myself, holding my own luckily…I rolled in for 6th which I was fairly happy about.

Sundays Crit was hosted by University of Michigan in an Industrial park with two 90 degree corners and two sweepers. It was fairly fast at the beginning the proceeded to slow down after the winning break rolled off the front. It did not play out very well and the sprint got a little chaotic at the end and I am not sure how I ended up but nothing notable.

PS: Go check out Bells Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo Michigan.

It’s too bad my in-race tactics at Hillsboro didn’t go as well as my pre-race tactics because I was in the first row on the start line…

The feeling at the start of the race was like the feeling you get when you woke up as a kid expecting to have a snow day, but the storm never developed. Basically it was a pretty boring race for the first lap or two which meant some pretty sketchy riding. We were checking our brakes a lot and trying to stay up right as 125 of us jammed down an 8′ wide road.  

The race heated up a little bit towards the end of the first lap [28 miles per lap] and two riders went off the front.  One was Ben Damhoff (Geargrinder) and the other was Kip Spaude (ISCorp), but at first I thought it was a Texas Roadhouse rider and not an IScorp rider.  Nonetheless, I was happy to sit in and wait for the chase. Things started to heat up again near the end of our second lap and I was near the front of the action. I pulled through after an attack that took us into a tailwind and when I turned back I saw I had a 25 meter gap and was rolling away from the field.  I immediately thought “wow, I have a gap, what should I do?”.  So I figured since Texas RoadHouse had the largest team (12 riders) and wouldn’t be organizing a chase with a rider up the road, there could be a chance I actually bridge to the two leaders– small yes, but a chance.  

Once I got going I was thinking, “man if this doesn’t work or even kinda work, Ebert is going to kill me.” About 15 miles later I caught Kip, who had been dropped by Damhoff, and realized that it was an IScorp rider and not a TRH rider. My hopes sank but I pressed on, thinking that if I could get to Damhoff then we still may have a chance. Kip’s was hurting and I quickly dropped him and set off in pursuit. About 5 miles later I was 30 seconds from Damhoff, but then with about 15 miles left in the race I turn around to see the field. They rolled up on both of us and pretty soon the attacks started again.  My legs were still able to respond and I went with a few moves, however nothing was able to stick.  I tried to give it another go on the feed climb but my legs were not having it.  The next climb was “el fin” and you could count me out of the field sprint. I could only cheer on Sherer and Hogan.  

I hoped I learned my lesson and will try something different next time. The team rode well, especially for the first race of the season.

Fast forward a week and I was a little conflicted going into the Leland race after my impatient tactical decision at Hillsboro. I wanted to resist the urge to do the same thing here, but John Meyers (on the advice of Swartzendruber) said that if there was a crosswind he wanted to try to put everyone in the gutter from the gun. I respect John and Mark and was immediately sold on this maneuver (although it really wasn’t that tough of a sell after watching Sparticus tear it up at Roubaix).

        Due to a miscalculation in drive time, I arrived to the race 2.5 hours early, which is more pre-race time than I gave myself at all of the Superweek races combined last year. Never the less I was there and it was windy and cold.  The cold was almost welcomed because this meant I wouldn’t need as much water and the wind would most likely splinter the race.  Before the race John, Steve Broglio (Verizon Masters) and I talked about what we wanted to do.  John wanted to put everyone in the gutter from the gun, Steve thought we should wait a lap, and I really didn’t care.  We really didn’t make a final decision but we rolled to the start line knowing that we would try the team TT from the gun or early into the second lap.  

        The race started and there was an immediate crosswind.  A couple of people got a little frisky but nothing crazy happened.  We took a quick left into a tailwind and I noticed John go to the front where Steve was so I followed. We then jogged right into a long stretch of crosswind. I went to the front with John and gave him my best “it’s time” nod. He got the memo and we stuck everyone into the gutter (centerline) and kept the gas on. When I looked back we had about a 25 second gap (I later learned Steve was two wheels back and got gapped off). The field chased hard and we went full gas the entire first lap.  We finally established the break sometime during the second lap but for whatever reason we never really stopped going hard.  For me it was the headwind on the gravel roads that just made me angry.  It’s like when someone pushes you, your instinct is to push back. I was stomping on the pedals in anger through those sections. Our efforts paid off and we traveled most of the 77 miles alone to the finish line. It was fun and we had some time to talk about med school, tell jokes, share snacks and comment on other riders as they refused to give us an inch on the gravel roads. It was a blast and I’m looking forward to doing it again some time.

Until then,
Ryan

(Originally posted at nucycling.blogspot.com)

So, one might ask, what the hell happened to me?

First, for an appropriate analogy, more or less, watch this video:

http://www.cervelo.com/en_us/testteam/video-documentary/

Basically, I echo all of Haussler’s sentiments.

For those unaware, I have injured my IT band and haven’t been able to race since the DePauw race weekend four weeks ago. I originally agitated my leg at the Lindsey Wilson road race. Even though I was able to win the time trial; that effort, combined with nearly 80 miles in the hills, was simply more than my legs, being only accustomed to the flats of Evanston up to that point, could take. I made the break in the next day’s crit, but my leg was already beginning to act up, even then. I tried to ride early in that week, but my knee hurt, so I rested and stretched, and assumed I would be good to go at the Depauw road race. I wasn’t, and the 50 mile race in 40 degree rain really did my leg in, and I was in a lot of pain after the race. I skipped the next day’s crit and took that week off the bike. In the meantime, I saw the doctor, who gave me some stretching and strengthening exercises.
The next week was our spring break trip, and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me from riding. Sadly, I wasn’t able to kill it with Scott and Ian, but instead was resigned to riding by myself or with Axie and Hannah, who were also injured at the time. When we returned to campus to start the spring term, my leg was better, but still not ready for any hard efforts, so I again took a whole week off. Since that time, I have been riding, but only as hard as my leg will allow. I was upset to have to miss Marian and then again miss racing at Hillsboro/ OSU this weekend.

My leg is improving, but it is taking much longer than I would have liked. It is a pretty frustrating injury, on many levels. When I ride, I can spin lightly, but the pain starts up if I really try to hammer down with my left leg. I keep hoping that I will get on the bike and be able to ride as I usually would, pounding on the pedals and going (somewhat) fast, but this hasn’t happened yet. In addition, after so much time off, even if I am able to come back, my goal of performing well at collegiate nationals has been derailed, as I don’t think it is possible for me to regain nearly the form I would need by then. And lastly, as Heinrich says, “I miss being out there, with the guys…” It’s not fun to miss racing with a team that I take ownership in, having seen almost all of our riders start out as complete beginners, and progress to the point that they are at now. I miss watching them race, and hanging out with everybody before and after the races. I also miss racing, and riding hard and fast, and just partaking in the friendly banter of the Men’s A field.

I know when we are at races every weekend, we often wonder why we do it. When we wake up at 5 A.M. to go sit in the cold rain, we think, why don’t we just stop racing, and just become normal? Sleep in on the weekends, and not punish ourselves with this crazy bike racing stuff?

Well, having done that for two weeks, I can safely say that I don’t like the “normal life”. When I woke up at 9 AM today and got a text telling me that Tommy won the Men’s D race (!), I was super stoked for Tommy, and the team, and also extremely upset that I wasn’t there to be a part of it.

Anyways, I hope to be back out racing as soon as possible, and I’m trying everything in my power to get better. If anyone has any tips or suggestions with how to deal with this injury, please let me know. After all of this time off, I just want to get healthy and fast again.

I will end with a Haussler quote:

“I just wanna come back next year and absolutely kill ‘em, and that’s what I’m gonna do.”