Photos

The Snake Alley Criterium is one of the most famous races in the Midwest and even in the country. The brutal ascent up off the Mississippi River has crowned many a champion and broken many a spirit over the past 20 years. Over 100 Pro 1/2 riders start the Snake each year and it’s an achievement just to be one of the 25 or 30 finishers after 20 laps. It always seems like the riders who are flying on the Snake are truly unstoppable and those that fall off the pace quickly and continually lose ground.

On Saturday the Ukranian National Champion from Amore e Vita (who took 2nd in Friday’s road race ahead of Will) dominated the Snake ahead of the field. Only one rider could even follow his pace, super tough guy Paul Martin (Panther), and even Martin would eventually fall off his pace and suffer a dropped chain- forcing him to run up the entire length of the Snake- to drop back to 4th.

Behind them Mike Sherer and Ryan Freund rode tough in a group of 20 riders- definitely the biggest “field” the Snake has ever seen. Sherer took a dig at the Snake along with riders like Brian Jennsen (Tailwind) and Bryce Mead (Roadhouse), but no one could build much of a lead or whittle away at the Ukranian’s lead. Ryan Freund confessed he worked often on the flats to make sure that he was on the front and could “sag” climb the Snake each lap.

Will Nowak, who suffered a late pre-race wheel change that only left him with a maximum 23 tooth cog in the rear, was in small group of four behind the field that was the last group to not get pulled and battled it out for the last two money spots. (Will said the gearing definitely didn’t suit his style of riding and he could have used at least a 25).

After Martin’s dropped chain a few riders ultimately succeeded in getting across to him with three to go, and in the closing laps the field that came to the line was fighting for 5th place. Freund rolled across in 13th, Sherer in 17th, and Will finished one out of the money in 26th- probably not the result they were hoping for but results they should all be happy with.

Will Nowak continued his march through May with a strong third place finish in the Burlington Road Race.

Within the first mile of the race Erik Loberg of ISCorp and Matt Brandt of Mesa attacked separately but joined up to build a 4 minute lead. As they came through the feed zone their gap hovered around 2 minutes and Verizon u25 p/b ABD rider Will Nowak had bridged to within 30 seconds. He caught the pair shortly thereafter and then as they headed towards Mediapolis around mile 50 there were joined by Juan Pablo Dotti (Argentina) of Team AeroCat and an unidentified rider Vladimir Starchyk from the Ukraine and riding for Amore e Vita.

Brandt and Loberg fell off the pace on the run in to town and the remaining three riders maintained a gap of 20 seconds as they began the final downhill 500 meters to the finish- a notoriously tricky sprint. Nowak opened the sprint with just over 200 meters to go but the two international riders were quickly on him and both jumped around him with just 50 meters to go with Dotti taking the win and Will finishing third.

Nowak opens the sprint as the field crests the hill behind them. (Click to enlarge)

In the field sprint the group was spread across the road as they barreled toward the finish and Mike Sherer jumped from the middle at almost the exact spot as Will did. In the end only Eric Young of Team Nuvo came around him and Mike held on for a respectable 5th place.

Will throws his bike to the line in a bid for the win in Urbana.

Tour de Champaign

This race started off quick, but we Verizon guys were chilling mostly in the pack just letting everyone chase each other down. I bridged to one threatening move that had all the big teams (Panther, RGF, Texas Roadhouse, Nuvo) but we came back. Soon thereafter, Chris Uberti (a familiar name in these race reports by now) attacked and I followed. We were quickly by my teammate Ryan Freund and riders from Geargrinder and Roadhouse. This move had all the right teams represented in it and after a short period of miscommunication we started working well together. There were some fast finishers in our group, especially after Jeremy Grimm of RGF bridged solo, but I had to be confident that Ryan and I would be strong enough to attack the group and get away.

Our gap grew and grew and I attacked for the crowd prime with 8 to go. I was quickly brought back but Ryan immediately threw down a counter-attack as the group sat up and he was gone. The three remaining riders tried to organize a chase and I did my best to disrupt it. After some strong attacks by Chris and John Grant (Roadhouse), Ryan still had his gap, and I knew he had it locked up. Uberti had been working hard and in the finish came around him for second. Mike Sherer won a blazing field sprint for 5th and it felt great to go 1-2-5 with the Verizon masters and our sponsors watching.

Urbana Grand Prix

This was an absolutely brutal day. 95 degree heat, a half-mile course and a 180º turn with 250 meters to go led to massive attrition in every field of the day, and ours was no different. Although 75 riders started on Saturday only 53 toed the line on Sunday. In our pre-race meeting we likened this race to a flat Snake Alley in that the race would only be at the front with gobs coming off the back, and I worked to stay in the top 10 pretty much the entire race. The pace and the heat took its toll, and in the end the ‘peloton’ was worn down to only 11 riders, of which we had three as Freund and Sherer both made it into the group. The pace and the weather were excruciatingly hot, and my attacks didn’t really go anywhere. It become apparent that this race was going to end in a sprint (or as much of a sprint as you can have .5 mile course with 4 turns and a 180). In the last few laps I took to the front to ensure that no one snuck away from Sherer, but in the end I wasn’t able to hook up with Mike for the sprint and had to go for the win myself. I made it through the final corner in 3rd or 4th wheel, but failed to come around everyone, with John Eisiner (RGF) beating me with a bike throw at the line. Third place Kirk Albers was only inches behind us.

Despite not doubling up on wins it was a great weekend of racing for Verizon u25 pb ABD and Mark Swartzendruber put on a pair of fantastic races. A huge thanks to him for a good weekend, and to all of our sponsors for their support.

Will

Photos

Although 86 guys showed up for Saturday’s Monsters of the Midway, apparently some Chicagoland racers were scared away by Sunday’s tough Fox River Grove race near a ski jump hill. Only 30 guys showed up to race Fox River Grove today, and since we had a nearly full squad the onus was on us to win. [The notable absentee was birthday boy Hogan Sills.]

With only 45 minutes of racing, Brian Dziewa of ABD lit it up from the gun and people were already going out the back. I rode pretty conservatively the first couple of laps, waiting for more and more people to fall off the pace. I was also feeling my efforts from the day before- mainly attacking all race but also the 50 mile round trip commute down to Hyde Park from Evanston.

Fortunately, as more riders went out the back my legs came around somewhat. By about halfway through the contest it was down to Freund, Sherer, myself plus Bryan McVey (Recycling) and some strong XXX dude [Dave Moyer], so we had pretty good odds. I was pretty confident that Mike would have the race locked up if we all went to the line together, but why risk it? The three of us started trading attacks and Ryan made a good dig with 3 or 4 laps to go that stuck for a while. However, a strong move by the XXX rider on the climb brought Ryan back so I hit out hard again. I was able to hold everyone off for the last two laps to win solo. Mike cleaned up 2nd behind for a nice Verizon 1-2.

Hopefully, this race was a sign of things to come with big races at Champaign and then Memorial Day coming up.

A huge thanks to our sponsors as my Madone felt really great on both the climb and descent today, and also thanks to everyone who was out there cheering for us on on the climb.

Will

Today we had almost all hands on deck for the 20th Annual Monsters of the Midway Criterium. The race is a flat, fast 4-corner race held on the University of Chicago campus. John Meyers won this race in 2008 and I actually won it back in 2002.

Going into the day I really only had one objective for the team: get a good workout. It’s already mid May and next week we’ll have some stiff competition at the Tour de Champaign and in two weeks is the Quad Cities weekend, then the Tour of America’s Dairyland kicks off in just over a month.

Fortunately, a field of 86 riders at today’s race helped make sure it was tough- and it was easy to go fast on such a wide open course. I consistently looked down and saw 32 to 34 mph on the back stretch.

We had eight guys in the race including myself- the only one missing was Waylon, who had spent the week training and vacationing in San Diego. The team definitely raced hard and stayed near the front. (From my spot near the back) I looked up to usually see a group of Verizon p/b ABD jerseys near the front. Now, we didn’t race the smartest by always attacking- but again the workout was our primary objective. I did manage to sneak up front a couple of times, but I could immediately tell that my twice a week training regimen wasn’t worth much so I tried to just stay out of the way.

I don’t think there was any breakaway that stayed away for longer than a lap and late in the race I found myself wishing I’d told the guys to back off with 8 or 10 laps to go and start thinking about the leadout. It was going to take a ton of horsepower to properly execute a leadout on such a wide open course, and two of our biggest horses- Will and Ryan- both put in late efforts.

With three and a half laps to go (or maybe even four to go) the XXX guys started a leadout that was pretty fast but also pretty early. They were signaling for more teammates to come help, but it was too late. This was one of the times I found myself at the front and I slotted in behind their train and in front of Meyers.

I had mainly wanted to just help our team organize the leadout since I wasn’t worth much, but after my pitiful pull with two laps to go Meyers came through and the team was still a few riders behind him. John put in a HUGE effort for about a lap, but without a fresh Ryan and Will behind him that Hogan still had almost half a lap to go with Sherer on his wheel and Danny running sweeper. I had pulled out with a lap to go so that I could cut the course and yell at them during the sprint (mainly to move left and protect their inside), but by then I could tell it was going to be tough. Hogan was digging deep and Freund put in an extra effort, but Sherer still had to jump into a light headwind with at least 350 yards to go. Unfortunately, Danny had lost his wheel too so he wasn’t there to help finish off the sprint (I was dreaming of a 1-2 finish) or even just let a little gap open up when Mike jumped. As I watched them stomp towards the line Sherer had a sizeable gap but the long sprint and that light headwind were just enough for a rider from the pack to slip up past Mike in the final 40 meters. (My sincere apologies to the winner that I don’t remember his name or I’d give him some well-earned props. I glanced at the results and hightailed it out of there pretty quickly with the cold weather).

This evening I asked Sherer what his data was for the race and he averaged 350 watts for the whole thing with a sprint that lasted 22 seconds- that’s a pretty long sprint. So, although we didn’t get the win the guys definitely raced hard. Tomorrow we all head out to Fox River Grove for 50 minutes of suffering. I’ll be sitting this one out and working on my cheering skills for Snake Alley- that other race with a hill.

A few semi-related race notes:
- @rsanmarchi and I moved into the city two weeks ago and are loving every minute of it. However, today I learned that I need to give myself at least 15 more minutes than I think I need to get anywhere in the city on a weekend.
- I also learned that living on the second floor means I should give myself 15 minutes on top of that to load up the team car with the tools, extra wheels, first aid kit, POV cameras, MiFi’s, etc…
- I’m also very grateful that I have my own garage so that I don’t have to unload and reload all that stuff for tomorrow.

Ebert