tour of americas dairyland

hey all

the past few days i was up in WI racing the tour of americas dairyland. its a new 10 day series and seems really well run. the 1st stage was awesome. 4x22 mile loops with ~2200 ft of climbing per lap and then a 8% finish climb. i was feeling OK, and making splits on the climb. as the race passed the halfway point, i still had some gas and bridged to some breakaway groups. the race would shatter up the climbs and we would drill it on the flats, but it would still come back together , which was annoying. i eventually rolled in 12th/26 finishers out of 79 starters, so i was pleased considering the caliber of the field (riders from bmc, kbs, bissell, amore...)

the next day was a neat 1.6 mile circuit race with a slight hill. i felt great this day and was very active. i missed the main 2 man breakaway of the day, and worked some to bring it back for my teammate mike, who is sprinting really well. i stayed up front until the final laps, when it started to rain. i fell back because i was tired, and with the rain, i couldnt get back up to the front as the corners were too slick.

saturday was the grafton crit. a cool .8mile crit with another slight hill. i tried to be active at the beginning, but only lasted about halfway through until i started to tire from the previous days. i wasnt much help in the finish, but mike was able to get 9th in the sprint.

a couple of days off for me, and ill be back racing tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. then its home to CT for a while, and fitchburg will be the racing highlight of that trip.

hope all is well, and congrats to our seniors who just graduated!

Sherman Park Post Script

So it's weird that I'm hardly a year out of undergrad and I'm already being called "old school", but, yes, someone indeed called my breakaway with Will this last Saturday "an old school/new school Northwestern combo". Thanks, Will, for posting and not making me sound too crazy slow. For those who weren't there (and even those who were, but just didn't get to see the backside of the course), I've got one simple sentence for you: New School > Old School. Billyboy pulled way more than his share in the break, and I was thanking god every second I wasn't dropped from the front. So, Wildcats, keep this whole new school fastness thing going. It's awesome!

Oh, and this site Chicago Personal Photo took a bunch of pics and put them online. Here's one of the move with Will looking like he's going (to borrow a Jake Rytlewski phrase) "comfortable hard" while I am dying:



Thanks, Will, for making me feel fast like the glory NU days of old. Hopefully this will kick-start a new chapter of fastness...even if I'm old school! ;) Go 'Cats!

P-p-p-pancakes.

When good weather rolls around, occasionally we lose all desire to go fast, and still find ourselves deserving of a pancake reward afterwards. Today was one of those days.

Ten of us came out on this social ride, and in the short miles we put in, we probably broke every traffic rule in the book. We aren't usually reckless, but five abreast at a crawling pace is what tends to happen when everyone wants to talk to everyone else in the group, separately, at least three times.

Walker Brothers pancakes traditionally follows Sunday morning rides when the weather behaves. Food comas are guaranteed every time. Someone mentioned today that the worst part about pancake rides is the two miles home after the meal.

Today was particularly special for me because it was my last ride with the team before my graduation this weekend. I love these guys dearly.

Faye

Cycling Cape Town

Hey guys,

It’s been a while since most of you have heard from me. For the guys who don’t know me, I cycled with the team fall and winter this past year and I just got back from a quarter abroad in South Africa. I managed to do some riding while I was out there and figured I would update everybody on what it was like.

I actually didn’t go abroad with a bike. There were a lot of unknowns in terms of how safe the roads were and how my bike would fare over 10,000 miles of shipping. I just didn’t want to risk it. It took about a week of not riding and seeing the occasional cyclist on the roads for me to start actively looking for a bike. Bike rentals, even the long term ones, are really expensive. I found a decent used bike shop through a contractor doing some development work for our design project. Long story short I managed to get a decent Cannondale for not much money.

One downside of biking in Cape Town is the traffic. For the first few miles of any ride leaving from our neighborhood, you’re dealing with minibus taxis (which obey no traffic rules other than their own), full size trucks, tons of pedestrians, and cars parallel parked everywhere on the streets. You’ve got to pay attention and pray for no flats (high risk of getting mugged if you stop in some of the rougher areas). I wish I had pictures from this area of town, but I didn’t really want to pause and take any on a ride. It’s an amazing change when you make it to the waterfront though. The road gets better and there are other cyclists.

The picture to the right is along a ride I did pretty regularly. The mountains in the background are called the Twelve Apostles. The main road is excellent for riding with almost no potholes – a nice benefit of warm winters. It runs all the way to Cape Point, and is part of the Cape Argus Tour, a huge cycling race that happens every year in March. Tens of thousands attend. I road the 65 mile route once and it alone was worth the flight.

Another training ride I did on occasion was climbing Signal Hill. It’s a bit shorter than Table Mountain, but will make you want to puke your brains out about half way up (or maybe it was just me). At the top, the road settles out for a rolling couple of miles to an overlook where you can see the construction for the 2010 World Cup stadium.

There was another ride which I regret doing only once. Chapmans Peak is closed to cars because of the danger of falling rock from the hills above. This was a blessing in that there was no traffic once you made it to the pass. I went out there on a sunny mid-afternoon and I guess the lack of cars made the baboons a bit more courageous because I saw a couple walking alongside the road. Unfortunately I didn’t bring a camera, but if you ask google what it looks like, here’s what comes up.

I wish I had written this a bit sooner, but things are the same with the quarter system no matter where you are – it’s always crazy busy at the end. I ended up selling my bike through gumtree (a South African version of craigslist) and actually made some money off of it.

I’m back in Cincinnati now, working for GE Aircraft Engines and doing some riding most days after work. For anybody that might be in South Africa in the future, if you feel like you can manage heavy traffic (or figure out a way to avoid it), the rewards are tremendous.

I can’t wait to see you guys in the fall!

James

sherman park and mt pleasant

yoyo everybody

hope summer is off to a good start for everyone. this weekend I raced the xXx sherman park crit on saturday afternoon. it was a field of ~50 with many riders from xxx and the vitaminwater team. the sensations were good from the gun, and i was active trying to get away. eventually, ~20 mins into the race i initiated a move and it just so happened that NU alum seth meyer was on my wheel. with the help of his xxx teammates blocking, we rolled away. i was feeling good and confident that we could take a lap, especially once our gap reached a minute. but, unfortunately we started to tire and were gobbled up after about 45 minutes out there. i was toasted from the effort and rolled in in the bunch

check out seth-meyer.com for his recap. add it to your favorites, along with nucycling.blogspot

saturday was the tour of mt pleasant, michigan. it was a 105 mile rr that i decided to do with 2 of my alderfer bergen teammates on a whim. by this time, i was pretty tired, as i also did a hard 3.5 hr tempo ride friday afternoon. the field was strong with some kenda and bissel pros, as well as a full panther and priority health elite teams. my legs didn't feel good, and i was happy when my teammate brett stewart got in the breakaway that established around mile 10. so then it was slow for a while, then fast, then slow then fast. after brett's breakaway got 6 minutes up on the field, i tried hard to get in a second move around mile 80, but the field wasn't letting us go. again, i was tired, and rolled in in the field.

so two mediocre finishes, but hopefully a lot of fitness gained for the upcoming tour of america's dairyland which starts on thursday, and then the fitchburg stage race in MA on the 4th of july weekend. wish me luck!

Rockin' the River: Dotsero, CO

I love racing in Colorado. That pretty much sums up my feelings after today's 55 mile RR. I raced women's 1,2,3 in a field of about 40 for my new club team, GS Boulder. We rode along the Colorado River for about 25 miles before turing around and riding the same stretch back to the finish. For about half the race we were riding on dirt. Not bad except for a potholed section around mile 18 that made Sheridan look smooth. So many women lost their water bottles it was like a minefield. Luckily no one flatted or crashed. 

I don't know how I placed, but it was a lot better than I anticipated. What with altitude, mountains and fast CO women, I had pretty much reconciled myself to getting dropped and then enjoying a scenic ride through snow covered peaks, but I stayed with the leaders until a vicious hill at mile 23. After the turn around, I got in with a chase group that included NU's own Melanie Wong and we worked to catch the break. For a solid 20 miles, we had a beautiful, speedy pace line organized. We caught the break at mile 47, but some girls got away again almost immediately. My group ended up finishing about a minute after the leaders.

And apparently Lance Armstrong was there. One of the other GS Boulder women saw him and snapped some photos. Next race is in Laramie, WY on the 27 and 28 of June. It's a stage race called the Dead Dog Classic that is going to be epic.

Wish y'all could have been there to race with me! 

Axie

Finals week is over! If you haven't seen NU jerseys on the road for the past few weeks it is because some of us have been pulling all-nighters and sleeping in libraries. Those of us that are in town for the summer will be out on the roads and on area rides, so look for us! Hopefully everyone will be able to get out to some of the uscf races over the summer.

Hot Dog Cookout

Last Friday, members of the team sold hot dogs in an attempt to shore up our budget for the year. I was joined by Faye, Hannah, Axie, and briefly by Josh and Adam. At noon, we parked our borrowed grill next to the sidewalk south of Tech and began catering to the starving hordes of pre-exam week engineers. As one of the first beautiful days in an unusually cool summer, it was the perfect day for a barbeque.

I consider the event a success; not only because we broke even (and then some) but foremost because a good time was apparently had by all. Throughout the three hours that we were in business, volleyballs were lofted and footballs were tossed in the grass behind our table, we were visited by hungry friends (some even clad in hot dog suits), and sales jingles of debatable effectiveness and artistic merit were formulated. Finally, we promoted the presence of the cycling team on campus; many of our patrons weren't aware of our existence beforehand, but all were enthused by it. I'm confident that this is something that we'll be doing again.

The day I discovered chamois butter.

Today was Chicago-based team XXX's three-state ride. The intended route consisted of riding north to Wisconsin, back to Chicago, south to Indiana, and back up to Chicago. It was apparent by mile 20 that the goals of completing the ride were ambitious.

This is the whole route. We NU people started and ended at Northwestern.

Alex Neckar and Aaron Greco accompanied me today. We started out at a no-drop pace typical of XXX's usual Saturday morning rides, with about 50 people. We took a pit-stop at Highland Park (mile 12), and the group split up. We were left with about 25 people going to Wisconsin, and from there the pace really picked up. The group was going anywhere from 22-25mph most of the time, and I was sure they would slow down when people realized how much farther we had to ride. Uh, nope.

At around mile 20, I got caught at a long light, and had to pace back with three very Euro-looking guys. I was just about to shoot myself for getting popped so soon, but we caught up to the group just in time. After that it was smooth going all the way to the state line.

The ride was gorgeous on the way up. Instead of taking dicey Sheridan Rd north, we went west, and looped around the more rural roads of northern Illinois. Few cars, good roads, expansive fields, hay bales, horses, even rolling hills! However, the different route also meant that at any point in the ride, I had absolutely no idea where I was, which was further incentive to stick tightly to the group.

I fell behind the main group a few times, especially when they accelerated on the windy sections, but there were always stragglers around me to help catch back up. I made sure to keep Aaron and Alex in sight, and tried to stay in the front third for buffer in case I fell back. Also, red lights are good to me.

We stopped at mile 50 for an arrival break at a gas station, where chamy butter proceeded to brighten my appreciation for life. Chafing cured, we turned around to go home, keeping the same brisk pace, taking the less-scenic Sheridan all the way down.

The ride back was uneventful, save for a crash in a gnarly turn before Highland Park. Our own Alex took the turn too wide, but graceful as he is, managed to land in the grass, very much like a cat, with not a scrape. Another rider wasn't as lucky but got back on. We three NU riders left the group and rode back ourselves from Highland Park, and Alex and I rewarded our 87 mile day with the best part about cycling: lots of food, with hot sauce of course.

Happy riding,

Faye

Elections

We had a sweet end of the year party at my place the other night. Some good food was eaten and we were able to watch Andrew's sweet documentary (thanks man!) which we will hopefully be able to either post on the website, or at least get a link up to.

And we had elections- congrats to the '09-'10 Cycling Team Exec:

Prez- Will Nowak
Trez/ Secretary/ Webmaster- Hannah Iezzoni (the Hans)
Recruitment Chair- Axie Navas
Sponsorship Chair- Emma Kanig


Next year will kick ass.


- Will