After a tough weekend with a crash and a hard MTB race, I wasn’t feeling confident going into Memorial Day Weekend. Memorial Day Weekend has three big races in Iowa; Snake Alley, Melon City Crit, and Quad Cities Crit. I took some rest and got feeling better, plus scraped a new front wheel together. I had a few rides that week, and somehow felt really awesome during them.
Friday evening I left Madison with Jon Heile and John Reynders; two team mates. We made the drive down to the team hotel and arrived around midnight. All the guys in the room were asleep, so we asked the front desk for a room key so we didn’t need to wake them. After opening the door, we found that no one was in the room. No worries, we just slept there anyways. Probably one of the best nights sleeps in a hotel ever as we had one huge bed between the two of us.
Now the Snake Alley criterium is known to be a very difficult race, one for the strong men. The actual snake is a short road climb followed by a winding alleyway of cobble stones. The course then goes into a tough and technical decent followed by a few extra turns to make its way back to the start line. The rain began to fall, setting up one epic race.
As the race began I had to make up for a bad start position with my legs, which wasn’t something I wanted to have to do. For the first 2 laps I was passing people left and right, literally. Duck and weave! I was able to make it up to the leading group where most of my KS Team Wisconsin teammates were in. I didn’t want to expend the energy to get up there, but it put into monster mode and I just launched off the front after 3 or 4 laps. To tough climb was perfect for me as I was able to put some time in and lay the pain down. The decent was good for me too as I could either rest up or ride hard, in both cases I was putting time into the chasers. After 10 laps off the front, I was losing ground, and was caught by a small 6 man group containing 2 teammates. Instead of them launching an attack, a younger guy from Garmin Cervelo attacked, and got a sizable gap as I chased. I was able to hold him to less than 5 seconds, with the rest of the group exploding behind us. He had a good go, and put some time into me, but with 2 to go, I was gaining again, I was gaining fast.
I got within just a few seconds, but couldn’t close the gap before the finish. I wish I could have sprinted, but it impossible as I was dead tired. All in all, it was solid finish, and my best result to date on the road. I was really excited.
Melon city was an interesting course with a long downhill with a speed bump at the bottom before turning around and going up the other side of the hill. I sat in a little as I could fell the fatigue in my legs, but was holding my own in the pack. One guy went off the front mid race and our team didn’t really know until it was too late. I gave it a good dig with 1 to go, and actually closed it down pretty close, but blew up before the line and got caught; ended up way back. But it was good, I made the race hard.
Finally Quad cities! This is a pretty big race, with a cool figure 8 shaped course, lots of corners. I thought it would be good being technical, but even with MTB experience; I can still only corner so fast. I made my way into a break of 5-7 guys, but the teamwork just wasn’t there. I’m sure my team was back in the pack blocking, but I was a bit frustrated by the guys in the break sitting too much. We were pulled back and caught; so I sat in and rested up for more fun. John Heile went off the front to chase and bridge a solo rider who was really strong. He didn’t catch him, but snagged a second. Kelby grabbed up the field sprint for 3rd. I was back a bit as I messed up the sprint, but I was still in the money.
Overall I have to say that I had a successful weekend. I was certainly the strongest man at Snake alley, but didn’t play it right. I have had some up and downs this road season, but I’m keeping it in perspective. This is my first year on the road, and to be honest it shows. I have some more to talk about, but I’ll save it for next time. Currently I’m looking forward to the Subaru Cup from WORS, should be a balst as always. I am also easing up on the racing, focusing on MTB more, and getting ready for collegiate MTB season in the fall.
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