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The Synergy Time Trial was on Saturday and I was going out there to protect my first place standings on the Cat 3 ROY competition. I knew that I would lose time to Tyler Olsen and David Jones, as they are both stronger in the TT than I am. During the St. Peter TT, my position was very uncomfortable. So I played with my bike and flipped my seat post around and pushed the seat foward all the way and was 100% more comfortable. I believed that this would help me quiet a bit in being able to produce a decent TT.

The course for the TT was out in Withrow, MN and I had done it before about 5 plus years ago. It was rolling hills and always had wind on the course. At least it was sunny, not too humid, and the winds were light. I went off early in the order of riders and my goal was to conserve on the first lap and up the effort on the second lap. The first 1/3 of the course was fast as the wind was with you, as I turned into the wind, I definitely felt my efforts increase and I tried to temper them so as not to burn out to fast. As I turned south, the combination of hills and wind made it difficult to find a comfortable position and gear on the bike. I had to constantly take my hands off of my clip on handlebars to shift. I knew that everytime I did this I lost a bit of time. Turning back towards the finish line on lap one, I was with the wind again and really felt that I was flying again. Lap two was a repeat of lap one efforts, but the wind felt as if it had gotten stronger. The effort coming south again hurt more, however there were more riders on the course to focus on.

I place 6th in the race and limited my losses in the ROY competition as Tyler placed 4th and David 3rd, keeping my 1st place in ROY safe for the moment. I averaged 25 MPH for the effort and did not get passed by anyone in my field, and only got passed once by a Cat 1/2 racer.

Sunday was the Hopkins Crit, one of my favorite races during the year. The crit is located in Downtown Hopkins, only 15 minutes from my home. The crowds tend to be a bit bigger, my family can come out and watch, and the fields are always a bit larger. My goal for the day was to simply finish ahead of Tyler and David, as I needed to earn some points to pad my lead in the ROY standings. When I got to the race, I was unsure if I would have any teammates to work with or if I would be riding on my own. Lucky for me I ended up with 4 teammates, Taylor, Greg, Brady, and Jeff. We all agreed on a plan, I poined out who was dangerous and who I needed to beat, and then we put the plan in motion.

Right from the start, the team was great in chasing down risky breaks, keeping me out of the wind and overall keeping the pace high. I was able to sit in and watch the race unfold. We had some new faces to the 3/4’s field and some sketchy riders. After the second lap, someone blew a tire in a corner and took a few guys down. I was constantly having to put my hands on other riders to push them out of my way. Some guys simply think they can barge their way into a wheel. Not the case!

After one of the Prime sprints, I noticed that Tyler had gone for the sprint and just then David rolled up on my outside. I went by him and said “Let’s Work” and we created a small gap on the field. A few riders bridged up to us and we stayed out front for a few laps, but eventually we were brought back. Eitherway, it made the group work harder while I did not expend too much energy.

With 7 laps to go, we put our plan in motion and all 4 of my teammates hit the front of the peleton. They rotated in front of me taking turns pulling us along, allowing me to stay 100% protected. In the process, we strung out the field and that forced guys to get a bit aggressive. 2 crashes occured behind us, but we kept our heads down the pace high. With 3 laps to go, Nick and Adam from Flanders moved up on our inside trying to disrupt our nice lead out train. Eventually Nick succeeded in pushing us of our lines and coming into the last lap, it was everyone for themselves. I jumped and slotted in at about 4th or 5th wheel back.

Coming into the final corner, I took the inside line and Don and Adam took the outside lines. As the sprint started my only tactical error was not jumping around Don to grab Adam’s wheel. Instead I let Don in and sat on his wheel thinking I could slingshot around both of them. About 150M from the line I started to jump around Don, but Adam was already too far in front to catch. As we approached the line, Don and I both threw our bikes and landed 3rd as he took 2nd.

After the race, I found out that Tyler had crashed and actually broke his frame. That is a huge shame as Tyler has been riding really well, plus you hate to see anyone break a frame. David came in 13th, so I ended up accomplishing my goals of beating both Tyler and David. I have to give a huge THANK YOU to my team as I have never experienced a team pulling off a well orchestrated run to the line. With a bit more practice together, I think we could become very competitive and threatening in the field. Two more ROY races to go, and I keep my fingers crossed that my luck and fitness continue.

Originally I had not planned to race this race due to family commitments, but a last minute change freed me up and off I went. I raced Cat 3’s again and the usual suspects where there with Tyler Olson and Jordan Cullen. A newer racer to me that is going well is Nigel Kinney, a mechanic at Gear West. SPBRC had a few riders there and were intent on making the race hard with a rider going off ASAP from the start. I hovered around the front and put in a few digs on the group to keep the pace high. The course was rolling, but nothing that was definitive for a selection and the winds were quiet. The first lap was fast, but the second really slowed down once we hit the back section. Jordan kept making small acceleration to pull out riders or to try to tire legs of his competitors. However, nothing really seemed to make a difference. One thing I did notice was that Tyler Olson who is usually upfront covering every gap, was much more reserved and seemed to be saving himself for the finish.

Coming into the 3rd lap we were all together again. I kept waiting for attacks to come, but nothing really did. A few accelerations, but all was brought back quickly. Coming into the last steep hill before the finish, Jeff Anderson rolled up to the front and I got on his wheel. I kept yelling at him to keep the pace high with an thought of trying to go on the hill and hold unitl the finish. However, as soon as I made the jump around Jeff about 1/2 way up the hill, I noticed that everyone was just sitting on my wheel. So I eased off and just rode tempo through the remainder of the hill. Things got a bit swarmy as we neared the final turn and Jeff made one more move to string things out before the turn coming through on my right and literally shoving me out of the way so he could get through. I jumped and ended up sitting 3rd wheel with Nigel coming through the turn on the inside. As we made it around the turn and the accelerations came, my legs were dead. This is the 3rd race in a week where I felt my legs did not have the required snap to finish strong. I rolled in a dissapointing 8th on the day.

I felt kinda crappy after the race and by Monday had the Stomach flu. My legs as a whole are fried and I have decided to take the week off from racing. This is mentally really hard for me as my instinct is to be out there riding hard, but the goal for this week is easy training and manage the diet. I hope to be back to racing next Tuesday at the State Fair Crits.

My goal in this race was to make it a hard race. I decided to attack from the gun, which I did and then spend the first 3 laps out front on my own. I had a racer bridge up on lap two and help for about a lap then he fell off pace. Shortly after, the main group had made up enough ground to catch me. But the precedent was set and racers kept going off the front to make the pace hard. A few laps later, I took another dig and went off for another lap. From there, my teammates Jeff and Brady took several flyers off the front keeping the pace high.

The course was a great one with only two sharp corners and a small rise on the back of the course. We also had full use of the roads and no traffic, which is unusual for any race. The avg. speed was 26.7 mph and matched that of the 1/2/3 race which was cool. The Bike Throw Racing team brought 4 or 5 of their guys to the race and with the likes of Don and Frye, I knew which wheels I wanted to follow. With about 10 laps to go I slipped onto Frye’s wheel and just sat there.

As the front changed a bit, Frye would drift back and then move up. I was able to keep on his wheel and not give up my position. As we got down to the last 5 laps, Frye got his team to the front to keep the pace high. With 2 to go, it looked like Frye’s team would control the front right up until the last corner of the race. That is until my teammate Cobra miscalculated the laps and went for the sprint with 2 to go stringing out the group and breaking up the rhythm of Frye’s lead out train. Ben launched to chase down Bryan and a Flanders guy and Frye chased their wheels. Cobra was pretty pissed when he realized he went for the sprint 1 lap to early…

As we entered the last corner, Frye started to open up his sprint and we dragged to the line for about 300m. Someone came between Frye and I and I over shifted and my chain started to skip. I shifted again and got my traction to take second. I was pretty psyched with that after being out front and on the front the whole race.

I was pretty psyched for today’s road race. Birchwood always puts on a great race with a neutral feed support. This makes the race so much nicer, knowing you can get water on each lap.

The course this year was full of punch hills, but the key sections were the 3 dirt roads we traversed. The first section was somewhere around 2 – 3 miles long, the second was steep and very soft gravel for about 1.5 miles, and the last was maybe a half a mile, but it came less than a half kilometer from the finish.

We were set to do 6 laps, 72 miles. Our field was small, just 11 at the start line. The weather was humid, but not too hot. The clouds were covering the sun and it looked like it could rain.

The first lap rolled out relatively easy. As we neared the first section of gravel road, it ramped up as we fought for position entering the 1st section. I was sitting about 4th position and Jordan was killing the pace stringing us out. The roads were a lot more sketchy than last week when I pre-road them. It look liked they had been graded, which made the dirt softer and there were sections that just seemed to swallow your wheels. My rear wheel was fish tailing all over the place. Making the gravel section very nerve racking.

As we existed the first gravel section, we looked back and had shed the field down to eight of us. As we hit the next section, one rider flatted and another got caught behind and was trailing us. The six of us soldiered on, but as we left the last section we eased up a bit, as no one really wanted to pull.

Each lap, you could tell riders were getting a bit more tired. The gravel sections were always hard and we seemed to regroup on the paved sections. Two stragglers caught back on to us and pretty much were were eight guys until the 4th lap.

On the 4th lap, the rain came down making the dirt roads muddy. This also made it hard to see, so the glasses came off and then the dirt immediately got into your eyes.

Coming through the feed zone on the 5th lap, Jordan attacked. I bridged and pulled through. For awhile Jordan drifted back and I was on my own. I was not pushing too hard, but figured I would make the bunch catch me, hoping to soften some legs. Jordan then bridged up to to me, and we worked together for a few miles, hoping to make it to the gravel section alone, where we figured we would be gone for good. Unfortunately we got pulled back about a mile before the gravel started. 1/2 way through the gravel section on the 5th lap, our official told us this would be our last lap as lightening and thunder was all over the sky.

When we found out our course was shortened we were about 5 miles from the finish, with the hardest section of gravel left. I moved into second position behind Jordan entering this section and just put my eyes on his rear wheel and stayed close.

As we got back onto the pavement, just 2 or so miles out there were only 4 of us left. We hit it hard entering the last kilometer and as we entered the finish straight I was sitting 3rd position. About 300m out Jordan jumped, then I jumped. I came around him with about 200m to go and powered through to the finish for the win. I looked back and I had a great gap of maybe 25 – 50m, but was too tired to raise my hands over the finish line.

Even though our overall field was small and the course shortened by a lap, I was happy with my win today. So far this year it has been a 4th, 9th, 3rd, and a 1st.