Melon City Criterium

After the previous two days of racing, my legs were toast. I got up and they were aching like no other. Good thing I had the day to rest. Bethany and I got up and went to HyVee for breakfast. That was an experience. We both ordered egg white omelette's, and it was so funny, the kid at the register had no idea what we meant. The female chef actually had to come out after a couple minutes and confirm our order. It was really tasty none-the-less, but come on. While we were there, the tornado sirens went off and it started to get really bad out. We drove back to Chad's house, and in the nick of time, the winds started to really pick up and it was nearly black out at 10am. We hunkered down for the rest of the day. The races were postponed 2hr and so I wasn't going to race until 6pm instead of 4 as originally scheduled.

On to race time, my legs really hadn't felt much better since the morning. Vince, Chad, and I were the representatives from American Equity. At the start line, I didn't know what to expect, I had placed well here in the lower categories before (2nd, 4th), but from the previous two days, it was evident, the racing is much different. The gun went off and from the get go, we were single file. The speed bump at the bottom didn't seem to phase everyone, and it was a sprint up the hill each of the 40 laps. That really started to wear on my legs, and I was seeing stars and cross-eyed from about lap 10 or so to the finish, pure survival mode. The laps couldn't tick down fast enough, but I could see the peloton getting thinner and thinner, which meant I was doing what many couldn't. With 2 laps to go heading down the hill towards the speed bump, a Grand Performance rider looked back and hit the curb, sending himself flying and a couple other guys into the grass. I saw Jerod (Zealous) go flying over a bike and hit his shoulder pretty hard. Turns out that the bike he went over was my other buddy Sarge (Decorah boy). What a horrible way to end the race, why would you look back when going 35+mph down a hill? But glad to see everyone was alright for the most part...Never a good sign with the sound of crashing carbon.

On to the last lap, I was gassed so bad that the downhill was hurting, and I popped off the back on the final climb up the hill. Ended up as 4th Iowan in the race, and got a few Iowa Cup points for the team. Overall, a fun weekend, but really puts into perspective just how hard Pro/Cat 1 riders can race who aren't from Iowa. Still a lot of work to be done in order to be able to perform with these riders, but I am still young and focused. Read Chad's blog to get another view point of a Cat2 racer dealing with regional pro riders....a few good points!

Next up, will be an omnium event with the American Equity boys next weekend in Illinois. Looks like a hilly TT, a brutally hilly RR and a flat Crit.