Johnston Green Days Crit

Self proclaimed as the safest crit in Iowa, well unless it is raining and I am racing. The course is .7 miles with 2 180 degree corners on each end. Started out on the front line, and there was a break of 2 riders, and we just let them go, knowing we would catch them eventually, and by about lap 3 we had them back into the pack and then the fun of taking pulls started, it seemed nobody wanted to be on the front going into the headwind, so we would take turns for the most part. About lap 5 was the first prem and I was set up 3rd wheel coming into the corner at that end of the course and it was about a 100 yards to the line from there, came out of the corner and shot around the other 2 guys to take that one pretty much uncontested. 3 laps later there was another prem, and again I came into the corner about 3rd maybe 4th wheel, and another guy was going for it, I came around him just at the last little bit and beat him to the line with a throw of the bike by about 4 inches. Sat in to recover for the next few laps in about 5th place, ended up getting rid of the glasses because by that time it was raining, and spots on the glasses aren't any good, so another prem comes up with 4 laps to go and I was gonna go for that one as well, make it 3 for 3, but I went into the corner a little to fast and the back wheel came out faster than I could react and I was on the ground, got up as fast as I could and kinda checked for damage and tried to get back on, but by then the group was gone, and I was just gonna have to ride the last 3 laps solo, and try and pick up guys as I went. Picked off a few and ended up in 11th place out of 21, so overall not too bad, but would have liked to see how I would have done if I didn't crash. Next time I will make sure to not worry about the prems and go for the good finish, but I was getting greedy and that got the best of me. Only a little scrape on the left leg, nothing serious, but more of a hurt ego since this race was to determine if I was ready to upgrade to a Cat 4, and I didn't get the results I wanted due to a stupid move on my part. Pics will be up later tonight.

Night the Oval in the Gazette paper

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080614/SPORTS/775155329/1056

New Bike

Guess I never posted on here about what happened to my bike, but coming home from Melon City my bike decided it didn't want to be attatched to the car anymore and come off the rack at 70 mph. Frame was dented pretty good, and the fork sustained enough damage that I didn't feel safe riding and racing it, so a replacement had to be found.

Here are the pics of the old bike http://picasaweb.google.com/KASKSnoop/BrokenBike

And here is the new ride

And 2 with my racing wheelset

Picked up the frame and for for a very sweet deal on ebay, and was able to swap everything over without much hassle. Have only ridden it once so far, but plan on putting some miles on it this weekend as the weather is supposed to get nicer.

Night at the Oval 6-3-08

Going into this week I knew I wouldn't do as good as previous weeks for a few reasons. One being I was on my Sulry cross bike since I haven't gotten my replacement road bike after mine fell off the rack last weekend coming home from Melon City, and I was oncall for work this past week, so no riding for me, except an hour on the rollers which wasn't enough. First race was a 10 lap scratch race which I did try and throw in an attack after about 4 laps which was enough to get 6 of us off the front of the group, but hurt so much I couldn't get on to the next attack that came just a few laps later, coming into the last lap I just kinda sat up and rolled across the line in 6th place. Next was a 9 lap points race, basically every 3 laps is for points, so you go for a few easy and them sprint, legs were finally feeling better so I was able to be out on the front for all the sprints and came in 2nd overall in that one. Next was a win and out 4 lap race, basically who ever wins the lap is out, so one guy went on the 1st lap, and I tried to go with him, but lost him just past the half way mark around the lap, so I just sat up and waited for the next group on the track and tried to hang with them but just fell off the back and settled for 4th place winning the last lap. Next the seperated us into age group and had a young vs. old race where you do 4 laps and your time is based on the last lap from the time the first person crosses the line starting the lap and ending when the first person again crosses the line at the end. We worked out a plan where we would go for it coming out of the last corner to get up to speed and work in a paceline and have 4 of us pulling the last lap for 1/4 of the lap and then breaking off, worked out perfectly we did the 1/2 mile lap in 55 seconds, then we watched the old guys have a go at it, and they were very unorganized, and we ended up winning by over 3 seconds. Then onto everyone favorite, the granny gear race, which was not in my favor tonight since I was running a 32-25, needless to say I was in the back of the pack, just couldn't spin any faster. And for the final race we did a big gear race, got started pretty good, but for some reason my wheel slipped out of my chainstay, so I had to stop and put my wheel back in right, so I rode the lap by myself, need to find out how that happened so it doesn't again. Overall a good night, got 3rd in the Cat 5's, can't wait till next time when I have my new bike, should be better.

NatO