Whitnall Park Spring Classic

The alarm rang early, the gear was packed, i brewed some coffee and then we went racing. Dan, Bryan and myself ventured up to Hales Corners, Wisconsin to do a little bike racing today. I would provide a course description, but I prefer to leave that to the expert. (If it wasn't for the outstanding preview i am not sure i would have dragged myself out of bed this morning)

When the week started the idea of racing my bike this weekend sounded awful, i had a disappointing race the weekend before; mainly due to user error. But then the weekend preview came out on Chicagobikeracing.com, and Dan and Bryan stated chatting about a Saturday trip to Wisconsin, and the next thing i know i was racing today.

Before the race Bryan insisted that our plan for the first couple laps should be to sit in, relax and then formulate a strategy to attack this course. With 80 feet of climbing a lap it would be important to conserve our legs for a final push towards the line. However, as the race started (I had a terrible clip-in again today, thanks for asking) Bryan charged to the front, with bryan driving a medium pace I took the opportunity to go off the front, not with any sort of vigor but enough to open up the legs and erase the nerves.

It is very important to mention the weather today, the weather happened to be a important factor in today's race. It was cold (about 7 degree Celsius) with a rain shower that picked up in intensity as the race neared its conclusion. In order to deal with the wet and cold conditions Dan and I decided to layer on the Mad Alchemy embrocation that Bryan had brought with him (thanks Mike Shea). Embrocation is fun, if you've never given it a try i highly recommend it, its the gift that keeps on giving (or burning).

Okay enough about embrocation back to racing. After my little leg opener the field settled in. I made a point to care more about my position in the pack today, and for the first couple laps i made sure to sit near the front (not on the front there is a big difference) to avoid any nonsense that that was sure to happen in the back of the 4/5 pack, there was a crash at some point but i cant provide any details (it was behind me). I stayed in the top 20 for most of the day and avoided my tendency to slide to the back of the pack for no reason; great success, but would it pay off?

All the attacks (i don't remember many) were chased down, and with 4 laps to go it was time to figure out how to make a statement today. Its at this point I made sure to find my way to the back of my teammates wheels, its just more comfortable to race wheel to wheel with your training buddies. I knew that I should stick like glue to the back of bryan's wheel, he would be able to take me to the promise land. As we charged through the start finish the the bell rang and it was go time, last lap, time to HTFU. We jockeyed for position on the down hill side of the the course, I was sitting top ten as we entered the final turn into the first of three uphill sections. The attacks started up the first hill, I mashed my gears to stay glued to the bryan's wheel through the first and second hill, at this point i am pretty sure a gap of about 5 or 6 riders was established. As we crested the final hill I turned the pedals with everything i had in order to maintain contact with the group. The group remained together as we came down the hill and the sprint began. I was sitting on bryan's wheel but i couldn't come over the top, Kaleb of IS Corp took the sprint ahead of Bryan. I rolled across 4th, my best result in quite some time. The car ride home was fun (got to love when Journey comes on the radio, right?), its always good to come away from a race with two top 5's and (hopefully a couple of upgrade points).

The course was awesome the repeated hill climbs really took it out me today, registration was smooth and the races were on time, thanks to Team Wisconsin for putting on a fantastic event.

Next week, its time for Vernon Hills, lets hope we can have some more results.