Friday, May 4, 2012

Cobb Park 4/29


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I must really be digging this racing action.  Little habits are changing and forming like spending the evening carb loading for the morning's race.  I even decided to spend the night at my sister's house in the south 'burbs on Saturday night so I would only have a 40 min drive to Kankakee on Sunday allowing me to sleep in for an extra hour.  The only bummer with that was no carpool with the team.  Unlike last week I got to the race early enough to ride the course before the start time.  The criterium was set up great with a long stretch along the Kankakee River and then through side streets of a historic homes district, with some tight 90° turns, a dog leg, and a nice sloping curve that was uber fun.  Besides overdressing for the race I felt great going into the start.  If last week taught me anything it was to stay with the lead right out of the gate so I stuck to it this time too.  The tempo really picked up after lap 7 and one of the tighter turns I tried to pedal through and struck my inside pedal on the pavement.  It was never more evident that I was surrounded by five racers at speed.  The sloping turn became more and more fun with every revolution.  If you found yourself on the inside corner you could really lean into it and pedal out of the turn and gain a ton of ground.  I did this the second to last lap and it shot me to the front five competitors.  It was the key to a nice finish.  With that in mind, I don't know what happened on the last lap 'cause I ended up on the outside and took the turn wide for the final sprint.  As I got on it I saw a top ten finish slipping away and gave out a rebel yell as I pedaled.  I do believe that war cry freaked out some other riders.  In fact teammate Mike H. the only other Half Acre rider in the pack told me so.  Not a big deal for me, you should hear me on the crux of a climb.  I'm nothing but grunts.  No harm no foul it kept me in the top ten at 9th and quite possibly encouraged Mike to get away from me fast.  He came away with 7th.  Two Half Acre riders making up the top ten.  I like the way that looks.

I stuck around for the women's race to cheer on the Half Acre ladies.  They put a great race together and I like cheering.  The race made for some great photos too.





1 comment:

Theresa said...

I think you're discovering a new talent, Tommy. I'm in awe, considering the most bike riding I do is 20 minutes on my (rather sweet) 3-speed city bike.