Broken Bike/ Rockford

So after riding my bicycle through a crazy thunderstorm, I noticed that my bottom bracket was moving around inside my frame. I took it to the bike store for a better look, and it turns out there was a crack at the chain stay in the carbon fiber that I should be more concerned with. After talking with Trek for a few weeks they had decided not to warrentee my frame, so I am now without a road bike.


For now I will be sporting my Felt cross bike. I am OK with the change. I have already raced it at Allen Park and Rockford, and I can corner and handle my bike just as well as anyone else in the field. Plus, it looks cooler then my trek which is always the most important thing:


The next bike I buy will most likely be aluminum, considering I can't afford anything else.

In other news, Rockford went alright for me. I finished with the main field and strolled in for an easy 22nd place. Unfortunatley for me I did not realize they were paying to 20, so I should've tried harder that last lap.

Allen Park

Every year at the Allen Park Crit there is a break, and this year was no exception. The break went away with 7 riders about 30 minutes into the race, and unfortunately I was not in it. Because the course was wide open and windy, it made so that a group of this nature could work well together and put some major time into the field. They quickly built up their advantage to over 30 seconds and I knew the race was over. I stopped trying to get into chase groups, nothing was getting off anyway, and went to the back of the pack to chillax for a little while. The race, however, was far from over.

Sitting in the back, I see a chase group of about 8 riders forming off the front of the field and I knew I had to be there. I attacked the field and made way to bridge up to the chase, bringing along some other riders behind me. Three laps later I caught the chase, and was able to sit on while three Lathrup guys pushed the pace on the front. We closed down the gap to the break to about 10 seconds, when the only Saturn of Toledo rider in the break was dropped, causing Jon Card (also Saturn of Toledo) to help with the chase. We eventually caught the 7 riders, lapping the field at the same time, so there was now a group of 20 riders left in the race.

From there on out, everything was in slow motion. I went off in a couple breaks from this group, but everybody was tired and the group eventually brought everything back. It occurred to me at this point that a late breakaway might stick, since the field was tired and unable to follow attacks. So I gave it my best shot, with three laps to go I went solo off the front and put in a decent gap between me and the field. Here is a video of me coming through with one to go, with the field not too far behind:

I was caught right before the final corner of the last lap. Ben (the winner) had it right. Watching this video, he is the guy behind the Bissell master team lead out train, which totally made sense in this situation. I attacked with 3 laps to go. They had 3 guys and plenty of time to reel me back in. I should have either waited a lap with a stronger attack, or waited for the sprint, basing my timing with their team.

I will not be racing for another 2 weeks, so please stay tuned until then.

Rain Rain Go Away

Today was the state road race championships here in good ol' Michigan. There were around 50-60 riders in the field, and our race was 102 miles. Sitting in the staging area, the group was lectured by the referee on a storm that was headed this way. We had a 10:00 start time, so the goal for the day? Beat the storm.

The race started off with an usual supsect, big Ray from Wolverines, going on a solo breakaway. The field surged and backed off several times while he was off the front, closing the gap to about 3 bike lengths. Big Ray, however, just kept on chugging with that engine of his and pulled out to 20 seconds again whenever the field let up. Eventually he was caught and another breakaway went away. That break was pulled back where then yet another breakaway went away. It went like this for pretty much the whole race. People would constantly launch attacks to the break, until the whole field was up there, then somebody else would start the next break. I managed to get into 3 or 4 of this little breakaways, including 1 or 2 promising ones, but nothing slipped away too easily.

On the 4th lap of 6 the field had come together right before the biggest climb of the course. I noticed this and got ready to get in what I thought would be the game-winning breakaway over the top of the climb. 5 riders attacked at the base of the climb, however, and held their gap over the top and increased it from there. I tried attacking away from the field 3 times to get into the break, but too many people were thinking the same thing. When the gap to the break increased to about 30 seconds I gave up my efforts and let it slip away without me. No worries though, the break came back within a half lap and the actual winning break slipped away in a counter of about 7 guys at the start of the 5th lap. The biggest mistake I made today was not being at the front when this break slipped away.

The storm hit us 3 km from the finish at the end of the 5th lap. We rolled in with downpouring rain and lightening, finishing a lap early. One rider on my team, John Ridgon, took advantage of the situation and attacked as the rain got bad. I think he held off for a top 15 finish. Nice! I was sastified with making it home alive, so I took my time, happy with my pack finish. All in all today was more of a learning experience then anything. Today I noticed that the riders who made the break were consistantly on the front the whole race, always attacking the field. I need to be more aggressive on the front and maybe do less work in early parts of the race when a breakaway is not as likely. So stay near the front, yet again, is what I need to be telling myself for upcoming races.

I would like to throw out a special thanks to Kris and Mark for helping out in the feed zone. Without out you guys I would have died of thrist over that long 87 miles!

Until next time,

JZ