Iowa Collegiate Road Race

A great day in terms of early season racing in Iowa. Can be anywhere from 30degrees to 60 degrees, and it was on the later! Bethany and I got up and had a great breakfast at my parents house, a quick stop by Starbucks and we were on our way to Sharron Center. This race was on the same course as the Iowa City Road Race is, a loop of 13miles, and we were doing 5 laps for 65 total.

Got to the Mennonite Church and registered, bike all ready to go, and kitted up. UNI had Will Greenwood, Finn Kolsrud, and myself. One thing I have to mention is how low key collegiate racing is. Very loosely but well run by the Iowa group and everyone was just out to have a good time. Definitely makes it fun!

Our Men's A/B group started off with 20 riders. Right away Will shot off the front just looking to play around so it seemed, and we reeled him in after 5-6 miles. Again, he went off the front but this time with Alex Libin (Iowa). This was a strong move and all the guys from KU/Minnesota/North Dakota sat behind us UNI and Iowa guys??? So there went Will and Alex off into the sunset! We tried to help get the other guys to organize a chase so it wouldn't be the most boring 2.5hr of our lives, but they were so hesitant. We played around for the next 3 laps, and all of a sudden we saw Will coming back to the group. DOH! He was not able to hang onto the pace set by Alex and so Finn and I were forced to start working. At the start of the 5th and final lap, the gap was around 2+minutes I think. Finn and I put down some heavy work in the crosswind and tail wind section. Chris Moore and AJ Turner were able to hang on, along with Kevin Severs of ISU and we rolled it pretty hard. I was glad we dropped all the excess baggage. The winds had picked up all day, and the last home stretch was a block headwind into about 15-20mph sustained. We never quite caught Alex who soloed for a great win. Kevin went away unmarked by the Iowa guys and got 2nd. Chris (3rd), Finn (4th), AJ (5th) and myself (6th). I was pretty toasted after the work on the last lap and still have to find my top end power. Overall, feeling really good with endurance so now its time to get the high speed work in! Was a great showing in our first race for UNI and also that the state of Iowa is going to dominate the NCCCC this season!!

*Note: Alex Libin is a Zoom Performance Athlete who I am looking to see have a great result at Collegiate Nationals Triathlon in the upcoming weeks. He is also part of the Iowa Trihawk Team that I coach. This boy is gonna rock!

Results

Criterium this morning! Another good chance to work on leg speed. Trying to get a bit more fitness for Tour of Hermann next week. And still around 1 month away from wanting to be in tip top form!