Racin' Time!

Tommy being the man, and Scott wearing his bright pink snuggie he just purchased at Wal-Mart. This is our team.

NU Cycling Featured in Daily Northwestern:After 2 days of racing, 14 hours of driving, and 3 hours spent finishing a problem set at the library, this is a photo of my room upon my arrival at my apartment at 2.30AM last Sunday night. But I had just gotten back from the first race of the season, so life was still good!
Picture of me featured in Daily losing sprint- sorry Scott! Thanks to Andy for the cool photo.

Bicycle racing is upon us.

Like the past two weeks of my life, this post will most likely be a scrambled, incoherent mess.

The Murray State weekend now seems long ago, and my memory is hazy, so I won't dwell there. Courtney kicked some major tail in both women's B races thanks to the help of first time racer extraordinaire Yannell, who more than held her own. The Men's D was insane, as their first weekend always is. Crashes were plentiful, and, unfortunately, the object of my bro-mance affection, and badass team mechanic- Tommy Peng- took the brunt of the damage. A cracked frame kept him out of Sunday's crit, but, rest assured, he was back for more this weekend at LWC putting in two crash-free, solid finishes. Ian Murray did what he does, and laid the foundations for his B upgrade, which was recently approved. He will be rockin' the A's in no time, to be sure. Hannah (or the Hans) and Axie had a successful first weekend in the Women's A field, scoring some solid points for Northwestern and strengthening our bid to go to nationals as a team.

Sporting some obnoxious gas station aviator shades, Scott and I were easily the most ridiculous looking riders in the Men's A race, but we were also some of the fastest. In Scott's first ever Men's A race, he only succeeded in making the day long breakaway and pulling its gap to over four minutes at the finish. On top of that, he executed a perfect leadout for his teammate (read: me), but said teammate either botched the sprint, or didn't have the legs, or both, and lost the win by ~1/2 a wheel. See the picture below.

All in all, without a doubt, a great time was had by all.

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This past weekend was hosted by Lindsey Wilson College, and a group of 14 of us made the 7 hour drive, packed into 4 cars. Space was tight, but the sensations were good. Things only improved upon our arrival to the Dreamland Motel, which proved to be just as dreamy as the name would have you believe. The fourteen of us, along with our 16 bikes, squeezed into our three rooms. Before bed though, Scott and Tommy were working crazy hard to prep my time trial bike and the Women's A's wheels for the TT on saturday morning. We got to bed around 1, and got up around 6, but the lack of sleep apparently didn't deter us. I was able to just edge Kip Spaude for the win, with Scott right behind me in fifth. I owe that win completely to Scott and Tommy, so thanks guys! The girls rode fast (this will be a recurring theme), and Andy led the Men's D's with a fourth place finish.

The RR was crazy hard. It was 75 hilly miles, and I don't want to relive it all. In short, I missed the early break, and attacked like the dickens to try to instigate a chase move. I eventually succeeded in this regard, and got away with this crazy fast, UW Platville mystery man, Rob Bush of Marian, Chris Uberti of Purdue, and another strong LWC rider. We were going well, and gaining on the remnants of the breakaway, until around mile 50, when I felt that my legs were not going to be around for the finish. I tried to stretch, and eat, and drink, but I just don't have that endurance this early in the season (again, the time honored tradition of excuse making). An attack ~10 miles from the finish did my in, and I had to slowly roll it in for what would have been 8th place, I believe. I say would have, because I later found out that I was DQed for a yellow line violation. This happened at ~ mile 10, but they let me finish the race without telling me. Oh well, it was a day of good training. Scott soloed away from the field for 15th.

The crit was a short, four corner circuit with one short, steep hill. It played out fairly similarly to the road race. Crazy strong mystery rider (name: Ben Damhoff?) solos away to lap the field by himself. The more sane of us did the same, but in a group- the way breakaways are supposed to work. So there ended up being 6 of us one lap up. I am no Mark Cavenish, and thus tried to get back off the front to avoid a field sprint, but LWC was having none of it. I rolled in somewhere in the top 10 of the field sprint, which resulted in a fourth place finish on the day.

A long drive home, a short sleep, a few classes, and now (as a Weinberger) I am enjoying reading week, which will hopefully provide me with the respite I need to catch up on...everything. Depauw is on tap for this weekend, and we'll be sure to write back and let everyone know how it goes.

Thanks for reading!