Fall Fling Part 1

This past weekend the Fall Fling began with a crit Saturday and a road race Sunday. The Northwestern team was well represented both days with many new faces. Courtney, Scott, and I raced the crit which was an isolated oval with only one moderate corner. A heavy headwind on the back stretch did keep things interesting. I raced first with the cat 5's. The race was pretty uneventful until a prem let one rider develop a nice break and eventually won. I began the chase with 2 laps to get but was unable to get anyone else to take up the chase on the last lap. The field sprint passed but I managed to stay strong enough for 10th. Courtney raced women's cat 4 and worked well with her competitors to maintain a high pace and keeping a lead group of 5-6 riders. She sprinted for 2nd in the prem and 4th in the finish. Scott raced 1/2/3 but sadly Courtney and I weren't able to stick around and cheer him on.On Sunday the school was very well represented with veterans Hannah, Axie, Will, Ian, and Alex along with new racers Nate and Joe joining Courtney, Scott, and myself. This time the girls raced first with Axie's cat 3 girls racing with the Masters 50+. The race was fast and she did a great job of hanging with those crazy old guys to finish with the pack and the other girls. Hannah and Courtney had some drama in their race with a small crash dropping Courtney from the pack. Luckily no one was injured and Courtney rode hard to get back up to the next 3 laps to get back with the pack.
Will and Scott rode hard in an animated 1/2/3 race in which no large groups remained by the finish. Taking part in a break Will went out to an early lead. That break was caught but Scott took off with the next group. Will battled up to that break and the two of them kept in the mix to the finish with Will getting 4th and Scott just a little bit in back of him. With Ian, Alex, Nate, Joe, and I all racing cat 5 we were well in control of the race from the beginning. Ian and Alex fought hard to bring back the breaks. Nate did an excellent job of maintaining a top position for his first race. Ian had one scary moment when the rider in front of him pushed him off the road. Using his cross skills he kept riding and got right back into the field. I made a break for it on the last lap but no one was able to come with so I was out alone in a strong cross wind. Upon looking back after a stretch and seeing 3 riders on the front working hard to catch me, I decided it was better to sit up and take it easy. Ian, Alex, and Nate stayed with the top riders into the final stretch. I sprinted too early and ran out of gas but Ian and Nate finished in the top 10 of the field sprint. Joe took some time to adjust to racing with a large group but finished strong.

I hope Northwestern can bring an even larger group to the circuit race next Sunday!

Andy K>

CX Bike

So, I'm psyched for the cross cup to start this Sunday (4B represent). And, because no one else seems to be posting to the blog, I thought I'd grace it with some pics of my baby:



I feel like I need to throw some compact bars on this thing...but I'm never in the drops anyway.

Sheared Chainring Bolt

So, I've gotten in the habit of getting on my sweet trainer setup to do some intervals before I eat breakfast. This morning I was mid-sprint and heard a pop from my BB area. I stopped and found that I had straight sheared one of my chainring bolts in half...badass:

Track Win

So, I had to update the blog with a sweet photo of my win at the track:


Suck it, other people. That face is my "I won't be denied" face.

Also, I got 12th in the State Championship RR in part because I took the final turn of the race too quickly and jumped up into the lead at the bottom of the last climb. This was very unintentional, but I was delirious at that point, so I tried to gap people FTW. Unfortunately, I was not strong enough to make that happen, and thus faded and let mad ppl pass me. Needless to say I was pissed. Other than that, Alex, Andrew, and each did really well moving around the pack and marking wheels. Alex and I even got a little gap together for a few moments while we tried to chase down a flyer. Anyway, shit was fast.

Green mountain stage race

This will be, unfortunately, a brief post.

I traveled to Waitsfield, VT over Labor Day weekend to partake in the Pro/1 Green Mountain Stage Race. Friday was a 9K ITT that was Merckx style- meaning that time trial bikes were not allowed (which is good for me, as I don't have a TT frame). It is a pretty fun course, held on super smooth pavement; the first half is uphill and the second half is false flat downhill, so you can really smash it at over 30mph. There was a stiff headwind, so the times were slower than last year. I came in at 15.07, which was good for 35th/130 riders. Not excellent, not bad.

The next day was the rolling 72 mile road race. My plan was to try to get in a break and go for KoM points. Well, I was aggressive enough, but nothing went away, and I didn't succeed in scoring any classification points. The break of the day finally went about 55 miles in, and I wasn't in it. The backside of the course was so fast, though, that it all came back together for the finish. Coming into the last K, I was not in any position to sprint for a good result, so I just focused on crossing the line safely. This wasn't to be, however. A few guys went down right in front of me, and I had nowhere to go. I went down hard on my head and shoulder. I eventually dusted myself off, and rolled across the line, given s.t. and ~90th place on the stage.

My shoulder felt worse and worse that night, and a lingering headache made me fear that I had suffered a concussion. The shoulder was still immobile Sunday morning and led to a D.N.S. by my name in the results. Stage race over. Season over.

Bad way to end the '09 racing campaign, but I'm almost all recovered now, and plan on being in top condition for this fall's Walker Bros. rides!

See you all in one week,

Will

P.S. NU Cycling congratulates Seth Meyer (WCAS '08) on his third place finish in the P/1/2 IL State Championships Road race, making him the new P/1/2 IL State RR champion!

Soldier field and track racing

So, I'll start with the uneventful stuff. Alex and I both went to the last soldier field race and had wheel problems (a flat for me and a rolled tubular for Alex). I ended up in 5th, which I guess was alright. It was dark so the pictures sucked.

Then I went on to do the Chicago Triathlon and finished 7th in the men's 20-24 category out of a lot of dudes. I basically pwned people on the bike and sucked hard on the swim (surprise, surprise). Anyway, the winner of the entire thing was only 7 or so minutes faster, so I might win next year. As you can see, participating was painful to both my body and my dignity:


Anyway, seeking to regain some dignity, I went out to the last night of track racing at Northbrook and straight up won my first bike race! I totally schooled some people to win the first sprint lap of a Danish and take the victory. I later got 3rd in the Belgian win-and-out too. The best part was that the prize for winning the Danish was $12 and a 4 year old Northwestern jersey donated by the Pony Shop. Here's a picture of me putting a little Cavendish on it for effect:


Anyway, I should probably get to sleep because Alex, Andrew, Courtney and I are headed out to blow up the State Champs in Willow Springs in the morning. Respect the jersey.