Tour De Grandview

The first lap was hair-raising: people skidding all over and seeing a guy t-bone the end of one of the barriers right in front of me. I decided that life was better off the front even if I was suffering. Did a solo flier for half a lap, got caught by a strung out front group, sat up, somebody counterattacked and 3 of us got away. We shed one guy in the break and John Mintern from North Hills Velo in Pittsburgh and I worked steady to increase the gap. I thought for sure we were caught once as I saw the chasing main group maybe 10 seconds behind and almost sat up. John said lets keep going, did a huge pull, and the gap started increasing again and we stayed away until the end. I haven't worked on my sprints for a few weeks and the results showed :-(

Thanks for all the help guys, setting tempo up front and blocking up the field, although Joe B. took the term to extremes maybe for rolling a tire and going down while on the front.

Tough person of the week award goes to Katherine G. Gotta give her mad props for being the only member of our team to race in the street sprints. She beat out some of the pros and finished in the loot.

EDIT: ok ok, jeeze, shout out to Larry also for giving me water and buying me cheese hotdogs at BOB's BOBcat boosters after the race. Got to meet the BOB himself and he told me to come to BOBfest later on in the summer . . . sure to be a fun time.

This race was only 25 miles, but felt like 100. I loved sitting at the start for 45 minutes while the officials were tracking down some pace cars. By the delay I am assuming that they just went and bought new ones. This helped my warm up, and made the first lap feel great... The 2nd lap consisted of Rich and I chasing back on because of a wreck, I hope Joe B. is ok. This is about the time that Stubna decided he was done playing around and launched off the front...later Mike. I was still in shock from the previous laps, so it took me a lap to get it together, and get my butt to the front. Finally I was able to sit on the front and let Mike ride away...I don't know if it mattered to much though. The lead group was ~20 riders for the last 2 laps as we had shelled the remaining riders (started with 67). This is about the time I noticed my bike was feeling squirrely and I heard a noise, so I thought it was a spoke...nope loose headset. This made the corners lovely, but I lived.

This was a tough and fast course, so I guess I should be happy to finish with the lead group since it was a deep 3/4 field, but the girlie seems to think I am bad mood bob. You have to love being really really competitive, it always makes for a good ride home. Overall, this is my first year, so I learned alot and this definetly helped the bike handling skills. Stubna = FREAK 1 and Lewis = FREAK 2....great ride

Tough course. I knew I would pay for it, racing as a 5 last week and then upgrading, and racing with the 3's this week. That kind of thing is only possible if your name is Mike Stubna, GOOD JOB today Mike.

The forecast for tomorrow is more pain.

Very tough race. Too bad I'm not good with hills. The officials were very unorganized with the order in which they pulled those off the back (notice that I didn't say lapped riders). More women would have had a chance to stay in if the men PROs wouldn't have been racing at the same time. The two races should have been separated.

Wow. This was my first experience in a Pro-I-II-III field. It was more than 40 women, at least 3/4 of whom we think were pros. The start was fast, and as usual I was quickly at the back of the field. I must learn to be more aggressive, regardless of the level of the competition. Within the first mile I had an elbow thrown at me. Golly, what was that for? Then it was my turn to try to move up in the field. Into the turns we went, down the cool descent. I made my mistake on Elmwood, that short, steep hill. I shifted the front to my small chainring, but I completely forgot I was in my 11 in the back. That climb hurt, and I was too worried about the shift to try to get a lower gear. I wasted energy chasing back on, and the heartrate was soaring.

I got popped again on the long gradual climb, but worked back on. That next time up the steep hill I chose too small a gear, and that popped me for good, though Bike Source’s Michelle and I worked together briefly to try to chase back on, before I told her I was done. Despite that, I almost caught the tail of the train going down First when 3 women missed the turn. I was happy that Kelly and Katherine were still with the field at least. The officials let me stay out there one more lap. Sorry, folks, that I couldn’t represent our jersey better. Now I know what to expect; and next year, I expect my fitness to be much better. I’m even psyched to try the street sprints. Katherine, you were great!

This race was a rush with all the spectators and the cheering. The kids on the hill were priceless, shouting at me to catch the field. I had to try, for them. I also loved how many times I heard my name called by my friends and teammates on the sidelines. Thanks--that, too, gave me motivation when my legs were feeling like lead so early in the race. You know that best LT of mine, 164 bpm? I spent 26 of my 30 race minutes well above it, and clocked a 177 bmp average. The amazing part was, no asthma attack, as much as my lungs were burning from the effort! This is the first time this season it was the legs that failed me before the lungs. Perhaps the extra hit of the albuterol did it, or maybe the current allergy med I’m sampling. Time will tell.

Finally, congrats to all the SHC folks who raced this weekend, and our elites who are recovering from Tour of Ohio.

Upgraded to a Cat 3 this week, but it felt more like an upgrade from a Cat 4 to a Cat 1 with this race. My heart wasn’t in it as it should’ve been because I was super nervous due to the following: a) largest women’s field I’ve ever been in, b) Pro Women’s teams consuming most of the field, and c) the most technical (and rather long) course I’ve done yet. I knew I’d have to stay at least in the middle of the field to have any chance. Knew that, but didn’t do that, because I didn’t think it was a good idea for a first-year-rider, with not-so-good cornering skills, to be chillin in the middle of the Pro field.

I felt great, but just got frustrated with the accordion effect at every of the many corners. So after about 3.5 laps, I started to drift off the back and really didn’t fight too hard to get back on. From then on, I decided to take advantage of the open roads and practice my cornering. I caught up to a girl and worked with her for a few laps until she pulled off (probably because they were telling us to retire, which I did not hear and/or did not want to hear). After I lost her, Krystal from Saturn caught up to me and we worked together, staying in as long as we possible could, until an official finally got in our way and made us stop. It was a good time. And the SH & company cheering squads throughout the course were a big help. Hopefully I won’t be as intimated next year.

I was finally excited about racing. I knew we'd have a good turnout of SH riders, including Stubna, and racing in front of a home town crowd always provides extra motivation.

The 3/4 race started off on a sour note when they held us at the line for at least 30minutes while they waited for a pace car to arrive for the masters race, which was to be on the course the same time as the 3/4s.

Once underway, the pace was high, but I was able to work my way to the front and hold my place on the short, steep climb. When Mike took off on lap 2?, I made my way to the front to discourage formation of a paceline to pull him back. On lap three, I was sitting third wheel going into the final turn before the long straightaway to the start/finish when my rear tire blew out and I went down hard on my bum. My race was over.

On the plus side, Stubna stayed away and finished 2nd; Rich took 4th. I didn't suffer any major road rash (a miracle), though I do have some pretty tender ribs on my left side. The bike is fine, except for the Tufo, tubie/clincher,which, upon inspection, revealed the cause of the crash - a failed valve-tube attachment.

Very dissapointing way to end the day, but I'm actually looking forward to crit season. How sick is that?

Spent two long days burning in the sun watching my team. Gave Mike my water bottle at the start of the race. Does he mention my name? Noooo. It's all about Mike, what about me?