Caught this gem in the 2/3 race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buIeUrlHCb0

(Al Barouh at 0:18 on the left)

Junior's or 2/3 race... or both?

You've got to pedal through those corners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhN9wfKrNzI

See if you can spot Al or Marc.

Those kids can really motor.

@Vlad. Videos are great. People were asking about you at Cielo. How many more weeks?

Hubbard making it look easy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL0r_qGnpNw

dstokes said:

@Vlad. Videos are great. People were asking about you at Cielo. How many more weeks?

A whole bunch more. I can almost get my elbow to 90 degrees. Physical therapy hurts like a bitch too; only 11 weeks left. If things go well, you'll see me back out there in mid/late September.

Just in time for'cross!

Vids are great! Really excited for next year!!!

great vids....i love the guy yelling "RACE YER FUCKING BIKE!" in the third video you posted.....

Been quiet on results, but finishing today was a good thing and not being knocked down for a third day was a plus. Lots of getting sustained speed in will be a good thing to bring home. My favorite race from the past, Schlitz park is our closing race and one to leave hanging it all out. All of us could stand to get out of NYC and take some great experience away from these races with a different feel. Keeps you on your toes and reinvigorates what you lave about racing. I want to see more of us out here next year!

Sheboygan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZLJJ3isGMY

(Dan on his way to finishing, Al on his way to 10,and Alessandro on his way to the black and white cow jesey)

I would have gone but for school being extended. It sounds like a good thing to shoot for next year.

danielhubbard said:

Been quiet on results, but finishing today was a good thing and not being knocked down for a third day was a plus. Lots of getting sustained speed in will be a good thing to bring home. My favorite race from the past, Schlitz park is our closing race and one to leave hanging it all out. All of us could stand to get out of NYC and take some great experience away from these races with a different feel. Keeps you on your toes and reinvigorates what you lave about racing. I want to see more of us out here next year!

So, I was out in the wilds of Western Illinois for a while and had nothing but the "E" (short for Eegads, this network is slow) network on my ipad, hence the lack of reports from me.

Sunday's race in Waukesha was, for me a good one. Hot as sin. Extremely technical course, and I had Sarah and Peter cheering me on. When I arrived on site, I had a momentary freak out as I saw the distinctive neon orange helmet of Hubbs tearing around the course. Turns out, he decided to give the Master 3/4 race a spin and while he look comfortable when I was watching, by the time I was in my kit and rolling to the start of the 2/3 race, he had succumbed to the heat of the day, plus yesterday's injuries. Racing these crits day after day after day is no joke.

After a so-so start, I was extra motivated to finish this bad boy, so when guys in front of me were popping and dropping like shriveled up flies, I hammered past them to catch back onto the group. I look up at one point, hoping the misery would come to an end soon to see 18 laps to go. I just don't know how I'm going to make it that long.

So I start breaking the course down to it's individual parts. Survive each part, and the laps will take care of themselves. Crashes on every corner, three in one lap alone, somehow, I manage to avoid them all. Despite my near universal praise of "midwestern crit racers," there are far too many jamokes who can't handle those turns. I'm nailing the turns, then finding big beefy guys to hide behind on the straightaways. This race reminds me of a workout I do where I go 30 seconds on, then 30 seconds not really off, for like 8 minutes at a time. I'm pretty good at this workout. I just need a few seconds of rest each section of the course before I'm ready to hammer again. I also know where I have to dig and find a good wind blocker. This course embarrased me last year, and I was having none of it this year. It took me a few laps of sphincter clenching corning to get truly comfortable doing what I had to do, but once I did, things were good...well, as good as they were going to get for me.

I HAVE TO handle those turns, because I'm not strong enough to do 38+ intervals this half of the race. The next time I look up it's 8 to go, and I start to think..."hey, am I going to finish my first race this year?" Then with 3 to go, and there's one last gap that I can't quite close. A few guys jump around me as I keep it steady. In the closing three laps, I'm passing all kinds of guys who have blown up. Peter will never learn about quitting from me. I get bell lap and finish this bad-boy and I'm happy.

Today, Milwaukee's Schlitz Park, was host to yet another hard course. This one featured a 9% big ring climb and screaming fast descent that sent the aromatic and screeching howl of carbon rims breaking into the air. Right, Left, Right 120 degree turn into curving esses, followed by a left-right chicane onto the straight away, right into the climb again.

Another poor start, with no warm-up, making "coach" Marc extremely irritated with "racer" Marc. I hit the climb with cold legs at the back of the pack and they are screaming. I managed to hang onto the pack for a few laps though as I'm making up time in the fast descending turning bits. Hubbs is up ahead.

The field is getting shredded, my legs are warming up ever so slightly and I'm pulling guys back. Eventually I see Hubbs on the climb. I'm with a small group at this point and as I pass Daniel, I encourage him to jump on. I keep moving as hard as I can without blowing sky high. Big guy passes me after the climb and pulls on the 1 block long flat stretch before the descents into hell. I don't leave enough room in between us as we bomb down the first descent, I'm quickly riding up his rear derailure and I have to lock up my rear wheel at 35+ mph. My rear end skips and slides and I somehow manage to keep it upright.

Never again. I'm taking the lead on this technical bits. We motor for another laps or so, before the officials, Belgian style, give us the "1 lap to go"  signal. Sweet. They are going to pull us, but they are going to let us sprint for the extremely minor placings. I'll take it. I pull through on the climb and gas up just a bit, then a bit more. I've got a gap. I've still got the flat stretch before the descent, but if I can keep my gap there, there is no way they will come around me on the last 1/3 of the course. I keep the power down and get to the first drop with a sense of cautious relief. I finish in front of my little group with little difficulty.

Of course, unlike Al B. who toughed it out and looked comfortable most of the race for the entire race, I just did but a fraction of it. So, yeah, if I could do that giffy thing I'd post the one that said:

"cool story, bro."

The reason why I have written so much about so little, in some ways is to try and paint a picture of awesomeness that are these crits. After the race, most of the NYC contingent were on their way to the airport. It was fun being out there with my NYC brothers...especially since all my old racing teammates and friends from the midwest seem to have largely disappeared.

In the pro race, at Schiltz Park, the field got shredded early. Mengoni's Eugene and Cesar, who had been rock solid all week (with Cesar on the verge of at least one really nice top 15 finish, before he inexplicably sat up with 5 laps to go at Shorewood), got spit out, I don't know....6 laps into this race? I watched the first 3 or so laps, then took a port-a-john break and came back and it looked like 1/3 of the field was gone.

Racers and spectators from the Harlem Crit would recognized some of the architects of this destruction as the bearded "euros" from T-town. At least one of the German Team Rudy Project guys was in a 7 rider break that stayed away all day, with the lead three, including Bissel's Frank Pipp lapping the field on the last lap and taking the win. Texas Road House had a guy in the move, as did Mountain Khakis. Both riders had teammates keeping an eye on the field. Myerson looked comfortable in the front group. I gotta believe it was one of his better race days on the bike, given how hard this course was. I broke up with him on Twitter, so I'll never know but...that's what I think.

Early lap times were 1:36, but by half way, lap times had slowed considerably to 1:44-ish.

Quite a difference in racing dynamics from when UNH was running the show. This course was extremely breakaway friendly, but I sort of have a feeling that they could have shut the move down if they wanted to. Alas...

I didn't race, but I watched just about every one I could. This was an amazing experience. What I learned is that YOU SIMPLY CAN NOT GET RACING LIKE THIS IN NYC. It's worth every single fucking penny and minute of your time, even if you only race for 10 of them before getting pulled.

This was eye opening. It's next level stuff. For me, bike racing got real.

NYC racing definitely has it's place and there are amazing things about it. But I totally agree with Vlad. Here's a thought for you guys to consider. Many of you travel to Cali and places elsewhere for beautiful weather and long climbs in the spring. Maybe instead you do your pre-Battenkill training "stay-cation" style by saving up some hall passes for double long days on the weekend, a "sick day" at work mid-week, etc. Then use your vacation time to race/train experience Milwaukee and ToAD.

I mean, I know many of you are just not fond of crit racing, and I get that. But if you think you might "enjoy" yourself, then there is no better and more economical way to get a lot of high level crit racing done in one week. The bike handling "lessons" you will learn day after day will pay back dividends when it comes to cross racing season.

But if you are not especially fond of watching Pros race, well, then...this trip idea may not be for you either. But it may be! Something to chew on anyway...

I will try next year if I can. Make it my focus instead of Somerville.

Yeah, the Somerville crit is a little like that hot chick who you finally get to kiss and then you realize she does this weird thing where she opens her mouth wide but retracts her tongue, and then you ask if you should not use your tongue and she's all like, "no, you are doing it fine" and then you are like internal monologue "yeah, I know I am doing it fine..."

Marc Bertucco said:

Yeah, the Somerville crit is a little like that hot chick who you finally get to kiss and then you realize she does this weird thing where she opens her mouth wide but retracts her tongue, and then you ask if you should not use your tongue and she's all like, "no, you are doing it fine" and then you are like internal monologue "yeah, I know I am doing it fine..."

Marc for the dark-horse win in the "completely unexpected and vaguely inappropriate analogy..."

Marc I'd love to do this but to be candid I'm not about to sign up for a week of crit racing when my crit skills are still at the novice level.

@Jules, that type of thinking doesn't stop new racers from doing Battenkill, Tour of the Catskills, etc.. nor should it stop them from racing crits in Wisconsin. Alpine Hill and Bradley/Tweed don't mean shit upstate.

The tour of America's Dairylands offers 4/5 races and 35+ 3/4 races. They make it easy for novices to race, but that doesn't mean the races are easy. IMO, there's no such thing as an easy crit, but that's besides the point. Oh, and you get to race on the same courses that the big boys (and girls) do, on the same day, which means that, after you've done your race, you can learn from the Pros... every day, rain or shine! That's something that's pretty hard to get out here.

Practice, practice, practice. Race, race, race. That's how it goes. Sac up and test yourself. Racing in NYC has its perks, but out there lies a whole world of amazing racing to explore.

Hmmmm (scratches chin...)

Jules said:

Marc for the dark-horse win in the "completely unexpected and vaguely inappropriate analogy..."

Which is exactly how I would describe kissing her..."completely unexpected and vaguely inappropriate." Sorry, this disturbed thinking is what happens when I'm in my hometown, driving past those old familiar places from ye olden tymes.

Back in the saddle for Downer Avenue, which is one of the best crits anywhere anytime. The neighborhood is positively posh, with tree lined streets homes that look like they could be administrative buildings at a small fancy pants liberal arts college, a corner filled with septegenarians sitting in folding chairs with enormous red wine glasses, a ton of food/craft beer options, a local church with a mini carnival for the kids, and oh yeah, a deceptively challenging bike race.

I managed to win the race to the start line, but got slowed up by a portly official who blew the start whistle whilst standing in the road. Still managed to hold onto front third pack position for some time before I got into trouble on the windy straightaways. Then things got interesting. I was OTB, but kept motoring, because this is how I do. We got the standard pre-race instruction "you may be pulled by the officials..." and I expected after a few laps of me trying in vain to match the pack's pace on a windy course with 4 turns only, that I would be yanked.

Ahead of me by 3/4 of a straightaway there were two dudes who were also dropped. New goal. Catch those mother-humpers. Lap after lap, they inched closer and closer. Lap after lap, they let me stay in. I was cranking a big gear to cope with the serious head/crosswind on the home stretch. My normally ugly mug was even uglier as my mouth was agap. "Shut up legs, shut up legs, shut up legs." Thoughts of pedaling supplesse were surplanted with shoulder rocking, knee cap busting big gear dieseling. And then it happened, I passed one guy, then another. Neither could or chose to stay on my wheel. 5 laps solo, then a guy who I had dropped earlier comes back to me. We work together, I'm waiting for the whistle from the official. WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO PULL US?

Then the pace car passes...surely now. No? Okay, crit rules say, jump back in you sissy girl and get your game back on. And so I did. I was literally riding in a gutter, because I didn't want to cause a wreck in the faster moving pack. As all the riders passed, I jumped onto the back of the pack (yikes, this is where I got into trouble in the first place) and after 7 basically solo laps (1:50-ish laps), I was back in the fold with 12 to go.

I adjusted my technique a bit. Wide sweeping corners I hammered out of the saddle, so I was glued to someones wheel as we hit the windy homestretch, where I would recover. Again, supplesse was out the window and I got out of the saddle to hammer through a particularly tricky 145 degree right hand turn with nasty pavement in all the wrong places. One lap I totally clipped my speedplay while pedaling...of course I kept it upright, bros!

With about 5 laps to go, the field started to shred some more, and the rear end of the peloton was exploding and dropping off all over the place. I didn't have the top end juice to bridge those gaps, but I kept the diesel going and finished this bad boy with a group of 6 or 7 just a bit of the rear of the peloton.

The moral of this story is two-fold:

1. Downer Avenue is an awesome race, awesome venue, awesomeness you must experience.
2. In the musical stylings of Kate Bush, "Don't give up." I got in 50 minutes of fast hard crit racing and will be the better for it in future races, today, and beyond.
   

I didn't stay and watch the whole Pro 1/2 race, but true to form, there was an insane crowd preme in between turns 1 and 2. They had a line taped on the ground, a scaffolding with a GIANT cow bell, and insane crowds. How much was the preme?

Six large. Not $600, mind you.

Six THOUSAND dollars. $6000. Six grand. That's right. One race. One lap. One rider.

Marc these are great to read.  Time for you to train seriously I think...

Last report until next year's push where I point out to the crit-phobes of the club that ToAD also includes three days of actual road racing too, including one on the famous Road America auto racing track and another that has, I heard, a 3-mile climb in it.

Wauwatosa...East Tosa to be extremely specific. Final day. No more chances. Time to rock. Before the show starts, I would like everyone to imagine what a four corner crit might look like that would see the 120-rider cat 2/3 field reduced to 50 after say 35 minutes of a 50 minute race. Sounds impossible, right? Well, I'm here to tell you that it happened.

Another delightful back of the pack start. No worries, I got to the race plenty early and my legs were warmed up properly and ready to go. But how does over 1/2 the field get dropped from a 4 corner almost square crit? Let's discuss, because this shit is interesting.

The home stretch is a big ring slog. Wide road, wavy bumpy asphalt on the left, smoother on the right, but no one goes there because this crit is all right turns. Turn one goes from wide road to narrow residential street, except there's a business on the corner, that has a big driveway so the entry to the turn is a foot or so wider. Excellent. I take the wide, long way around, and keep my speed up.

Turn two is the killer. Narrow approach, narrow exit, 3-5% descent to set up for turn 3. No room for 120 riders. I'm practically doing a track stand trying to get around the corner, while the first 15 riders are rocketing down the hill setting up to carve through turn 3.

Turn three is again, narrow approach and fast coming off the descent, to narrow exit, exacerbated by squiggly tar strips in the road. More bunching as the guys sprinting down the hill to try and catch the front of the pack after the turn two traffic jam.

Turn four is narrow to wide, no problem here, per say, except we're on the home stretch and the only place to possibly move up and guys are drilling it single file here lap after lap after lap.

My position is not terrible, but not great for the early laps of this race. I'm not getting passed by many folks, just the odd "inside inside outside outside" jamoke who I let through rather than take us both out. And yet, about 12 laps in, I look behind me and see that I'm one of the last guys. Crap. My sister who was watching said we were shedding mad riders from the get-go. This is where one of my favorite pieces of crit racing advice comes into play. "If you are not moving forward, you are moving backwards."

Despite being fairly comfortable riding here for the time being, I know this cannot last. Soon guys are popping and dropping in front of me. And so the race for me becomes a game of bridging gaps. I'm losing track of how many extra sprints I'm doing because I'm stuck amongst the squad of worst tail-gunners you have ever met.

For those of you who don't know this "secret" and temporary technique for surviving a few laps of a hard crit until you can move yourself up into better position, it basically goes like this.

You are at the back of the pack, and rather than stay glued to the wheel in front of you as you approach a tight turn where the field is braking and bunching hard, you leave a little breathing room, about 2 bike lengths open between you and the field. This way, you can keep your hands off the brakes, go through the turn at a higher speed and find yourself right back in the mix for the next straight-away.

So, there were about 6 guys in front of me who must have read about tail-gunning in the back of a "So you wanna be a pro?" magazine or something, because when I saw the field in front of them strung out, single and double file, and them leaving space between, I was like "double doh! Oh shit!" C'mon fellas, this technique only works if the field is slowing/bunching in front of you. If it's strung out, you ain't going to do anyone any favors by letting a gap open.

So, yeah, another interval or two for me as the back of the pack geniuses seemed intent on ruining my day. 5 laps in a row, on two parts of the course, I was closing stupid gaps, twice a lap, in addition to the normal, having to hammer out of the corners. It was brutal. Eventually, my legs gave out.

But I kept cranking...and yup, you guessed it, I would pass dudes (including the same young rider who I mentioned in my first post who was trying to game the system), some would jump on my wheel, others would not. One more tough beefy guy joins are group and is killing it up the hill. The official gives us a 1 lap to go signal (suh weet, we get to sprint for a placing despite being dropped from the main group!) and a couple of us dig deep to catch his wheel.

We don't latch on until the straight away before turn 4. Up the homestretch, big guy is clearly itching to sprint, he starts to wind it up, but he's no match for the only weapon I've got these days. Leg speed and snap. He and the others stay on the wavy bumpy right side. I pedal an extra meter or two, by going wide right to get separation and create some confusion (should they continue on their own path, or try to grab my wheel?)...

TOO LATE. I'm gone. Long gone. They never had a chance. 62nd place is all mine [cue pathetic maniacal laughter]!

So there you have it. That's how a 4-corner crit can halve a field in 25 minutes or less. I cannot wait until next year!

Premature maybe... But I just decided I'm gonna use a week of my vacation time for this. Boom