Ketchup

Another race weekend down. Tour of KC was last weekend. Two Crits, one hot weekend. Good times.

A special thanks for the Webb family for putting me up and handing out large dishes of hospitality over the weekend. It made for a cushy ride between races. Heck, the races were pretty cushy too.

Race 1 went down in down town KC (the Kansas one). And the other featured the Overland Park area. The racing was 65+ competitors deep in each and fairly competitive. Four turns in KC and 7 in Overland Park. Without getting deep into details, it was pretty typical me out front way too much, but I was only trying to create breaks. Every time I did. The break consisted of me and some people but as soon as I wasn't pulling, the pace would slack enough that the peloton would catch back up. So...

That gave me enough info.

Last lap. Sprint first hill. Rail corner. Hit second set of hills harder. Push through the flat then turn it all out 200+ before the final turn. Ended up winning by many seconds.

The next day, after other failed attempts to form a break-away. I decided that it'd have to come down to the last lap. Unfortunately, with three laps left, going into turn 6 (the fastest one on the course - maxed out at 33mph) a rider pedaled (the act of your pedal hitting the ground causing your wheels to slide out from under) right beside me. I managed to lock up my brakes and put my foot down to avoid him. At least 2 others riders went down, one of them went to the hospital and sheered his frame through.

This kinda killed my attack idea. It took me almost a full lap to catch up only to hit the same corner again where riders were still sprawled on the ground. We were forced to slow basically causing a full group for the last lap. I managed to kick everyone off pace but one guy that wanted to break with me 6 laps to go but we decided it was gonna kill us to try.

He got me in the sprint, but it was necessary in order to not end the race in a CF of other riders. - It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if that would have went down.

A good couple of races all in all.

XTerra Triathlon this weekend (shooting a wedding immediately after that). Black Squirrel Tri the following weekend. After that? Dakota 5-0? Nebraska Championship Road Race? Sioux Falls Crit? Who knows.


** Images from the Races. Mostly CAT3s and Pro/1/2. Shooting cycling has flustered me into the orbit of desires for long telephoto lenses and faster shutter speeds. My current equipment does not come close to doing what I would like it to. Not to mention trying to pull double duty of racing and 'working.'

I hope this returns me to the world of blog.

A quick catch up on races since last post:

NE State TT Champ yadda yadda - 1st CAT4

TNT Duathlon - 2nd

Omaha Cycling Weekend

TT - 1st CAT4

Crit - 2nd CAT4

Road Race - 2nd CAT4

RAGBRAI - We are all winners at RAGBRAI

CSG Tri - 8th

Tour of KC Twilight Crit - 1st CAT4

Overland Park Crit - 2nd CAT4

Might be forgetting a race in the midst?