S-S-S-Superweek

Some bulletins:

I have a dog now, a 10-month old black lab named Princess. boo. I refrain from calling her by her name as much as possible. My dad and I have taken to calling her sweetie. She is one.

Check out www.wicycling.org for my race results for the last few weeks. Or Finn's blog for the UWW RR race report...

I figured I had better update or discontinue before I head to bed tonight. I chose the former...

Tonight is the second night of superweek, 2 races down possibly fourteen to go. As Noonan would say, I'm bagging it a bit as a 4, but hey there's a steel gunnar/waterford frame with an alpha Q carbon fork for the omnium winner so... Finn I just might be riding steel by next year, and yeah it'd be painted silver white and blue, mostly just silver. Maybe even throw SRAM's new superb grouppo on it... That's what I'm shooting for anyway that and the cat. 3 state TT and crit. None the less,


Day 1: Menasha, Otto Grunski Classic

the course was a triangle with two hairpins and a gentle bend in the middle. The finishing straight was on the second short leg before the long back stretch, which would become crucial to my race finish. The 4/5 field was pretty small for opening day, only 26 racers. There were a variety of attacks and everyone was too squierrely for anything to stick. Two accidents happened in opposing hairpins, one kid a pretty fast Endeavor jr. named Mitch ended up in the turn 1 barriers and he taco'ed his dad's zipp 404. oops. The second crash happened with about 4 left to go which kind of strung out the peloton. I was sitting about 7th and all of the sudden I was pulling. I pulled the last lap and a half. Sitting third into the final corner before the gentle wide turn I lost my line and went wide which left two guys off the front, 2 more filled the gap and they started to get in and out of their saddles, I got back into 3rd wheel and then poof everyone was gone. I was there pulling in the last 450 meters. We had a tailwind for the finish and that makes the sprint a lot shorter in a way, the finish comes up quicker. At 400 meters I jumped and everyone covered me I looked back twice to see if anyone was coming around but they were just hanging on. My rear wheel left the pavement on a bump around the gentle corner but I kept it down and my cadence up. I ended up sprinting for 400 meters and winning by a clean bike lenght. Brian Hertzberg, 3rd, and Andrew from Endeavor 2nd just rode my wheel but couldnt get by me. This bodes well for my form as Hertzberg and I have duked it out in friendly sprints 3 or 4 times. If I can hold him, I don't think I'll have any problems other than positioning and crashing and we all know those damn cat 5's...

Today: Manitowoc First National Bank Classic

Today's course was a .7 mile rectangle with a healthly tail/cross wind. The finishing straight and turn 1 were in the wind the other two sections were tail. We had 4 lanes to work with so most of the cornering was pedaled through. I did not plan on racing today but decided I would just take it easy (which never happens, again the Noonan easy training ride syndrome). I fake attacked no less than 4 times and worked way harder in the closing laps than I wanted to. Dallas Fowler of Chronometro brokeaway at a little after the halfway point. I must say the peloton is full of lazy lazy bitches. About 8 of us were working the soloist had anywhere between 15 seconds to 1:00 on us. Christ we just couldnt organize and the stronger riders were getting tired. Two guys bridged up at about 12 laps to go, I was sitting right behind them and I let them go. Dumb mistake. When I attacked it was to liven up the bunch and get them to chase. No such luck. Everyone else let them roll off... I couldnt find a rhythm to get off the front and we came within 5 seconds of catching. A guy from VeloTek jumped on 2 laps to go and managed to dangle between the bunch and the break. And again I ended up working 1 and 1/2 laps until some guy tried to jump around me on the tailwind section. I hung on and rested up enough to sprint for 200 meters and take 5th on the day, 1st in the field sprint. Just disgusting and frustrating that we couldn't work together to bring it back. That and as one guy asked me in the race, "how many matches do you have?" It's a good question, I need to keep the accountant happy, not go on so many attacks (Finn).

Tomorrow is Alpine Valley, a lot of the stronger guys were masters age and will not be there tomorrow. Today's winner Dallas is sitting just two points down on me, I sit in first with 36 points. He soloed for at least 15 miles today. Hopefully I can crush him in the short power hills tomorrow.
Tuesday is the 2nd RR at the Proving Grounds. Wednesday is Whitnall Park RR which is more like a circuit. All three are double points so I need to be there. Thursday just might be a rest day...or a hang at the back of the pack and just take whatever points come on the day.

Goddam this omnium series for 16 days is just the best thing ever. Time for a cool bath and 10 hrs of sleep. First an MET2 Shake...