Bring Some Wisconsin in your Suitcase

Not exactly what I mean, but certainly something on my packing list.

Week number 2 of the MWCCC collegiate road season stopped in Greencastle, IN for Depauw. The general hope of MWCCC racing is that despite it starting in March, we begin racing in the south and move north as it gets warmer. Well, it doesn’t always work like that. This weekend was a prime example.

Projected temps were in the low to mid 30s all weekend and snow was a possibility. It ended up being low to mid 30s and snow, all the time. It was cold on Saturday morning, but they had the fire house which served as the base open for people to stay warm in. Took full advantage of this and basically took everything out of the car and set up in the fire house. As for the racing, it was basically flat for 8 miles a loop, 9 laps. First 3 laps were fast, nothing could get away as teams would constantly be chasing down moves they didn’t like. This made it tough for the small 2 man UW squad of skip and I to get away. But eventually a group got away without us in it. Skip pulled it back in an awesome display of strength, and they like a doofus, I missed the next move. Skip managed to get into a chase group and I was able to bridge to that group. We were  both tired and came out with a 8^th and 11^th. Not bad, but I know I was looking for more from myself or at least helping skip more.

But putting that behind me was easy because the next day was a crit. It was a flat crit, hopefully a place where I could do something. But again, the racing was fast and things didn’t seem to separate much until a group without one of us got away. I tried pulling it back closer as skip was feeling tired. I pulled it in from 30secs to about 15secs, but again, nobody would let anything off the front and we eventually gave in. Skip managed to form a chase group and I sprinted from the group for 11^th. Again, not bad, but we were both looking for more.

But the big story of the weekend was the weather for sure. Showing up Saturday with a clear sky and cold temps was not too scary. The sentiment on days such as that is that it a day for the hard men. But I can’t think of too many hard man classics where snow fell. That’s right, half way through the race the snow was falling thick and fast. Nothing was able to stick to the road, but man it was intense. Moving 35-45kph through low visibility snow on a bike is thrilling. I felt tough, and I have to praise the tough Wisconsin club people giving feeds, can’t be fun to sit out in the snow like that. When I find some pictures, I'll add them in.

I’ve got 2 weekends off racing and then 2 weekends on spring break. Then it’s back to some racing to get myself into racing shape before the MTB season starts. Looking forward to hitting it hard!