Adam's Iron Hill Recap and MORE!

As I’ve said here before, sometimes you’re too busy living life to stop and reflect on it, which is too bad; that’s often when the most exciting or interesting things are happening. Last week I managed to finally win my first race of the season, move into 3rd place overall in the USA Crit Series, pick up another NRC top 10 result, and then win another race the next day! Since I’m trapped on a plane for a few hours, it’s time for a recap.

Last weekend I skipped Fitchburg to head down to the Iron Hill criterium in West Chester, PA. I did this race for the first time last year and was blown away by the awesome crowds, the great local brewery/restaurant at the start/finish line that’s the title sponsor of the event, and the difficulty of the course. On the other hand, I absolutely despise everything about Fitchburg save the criterium, and typically suffer through the other stages for that sweet reward. When Iron Hill turned out to conflict with Fitchburg this year, it was a pretty easy choice for me to drive down to PA, especially since I was doing well in the USA Crit series, of which Iron Hill is a part.

The race was hard, hard, hard, as usual. It’s a 1K, rectangular course, with a long, gradual uphill to the s/f line, and a long, gradual downhill to the crucial 3rd corner. We had a full squad of 8 Time Pro Cycling riders to throw down with, and I was confident in our ability to race for the win in almost any scenario.

In our pre-race meeting, we talked about racing for a field sprint as our best options for both a win and a good result for the USA Crit standings, but that we needed to take our chances covering breakaways, and trying to win from them as well. I named only one rider as someone we had to pay special attention to, and that was Mark Hekman from Toshiba-Santos. Well, if you read the race coverage, you know Mark got away from the field solo in the first 10 laps, and none of my guys were able to get across to him. When he finally had 45 seconds, we put 6 guys on the front to chase, which only seemed to backfire. Stoop, Guttenplan, Frey, Baker, and Soladay drove the front of the race and blew the field to pieces in the process, with barely 40 guys able to even hang on while they drilled it. Hekman was close enough to lapping already to then leapfrog through the groups of guys going backwards as he went forward, and in an amazing display, out-pursuited all 6 of our guys who were chasing. Mark is one of my favorite guys in the peloton, and he couldn’t have earned the win more convincingly. Chapeau to Mark, as they say.

From there, though, we still had to keep our heads up and focus on racing for second. Gut managed to get away late with Travieso from Toshiba and out sprint him for 2nd, while Stoop covered another late counter and out sprinted his group for 7th. Nick Frey came back up after all that work to lead me out for the final two laps, and I was 3rd in the field sprint for 13th place overall. In the end, we turned a bit of a disaster into a great final result, with Gut on the podium for the race, me on the podium for USA Crits, and Stoop in the top three for the U25 standings.

The next day, there was a small criterium in Marlton, NJ, on the way home from West Chester. I was the only pro, but local races are never easy in that case, and I knew the three Battley Harley Davidson riders who had also stuck around would make it even more difficult. It was a 40-mile race, which is rare for a local crit, so I was excited to take advantage of it for training if nothing else.

The course was slightly rolling, with sweeping turns, lots of wind, and a small uphill finish that curved all the way to the line. I tried to sit back and let the race happen, hopefully let people forget I was there so I wasn’t as marked, and bridge across to only the most dangerous moves. It took a full hour before things started sticking, and with about 15 laps to go, I decided to counter something myself.

For the next 15 minutes, I absolutely drove it with 3 other riders, who impressed me with how strong they were able to come through. I was taking full minute turns at about 400 watts, so I knew I was going really well, and that we were going really fast. I was worried about doing too much and putting the other guys in a position where they wouldn’t be able to pull, but every guy gave 100 percent. Without a Battley rider, however, we had our work cut out for us, and we finally came back with only 8 laps to go.

I sat back and tried to recover as much as a I could, and only came back up for the sprint at the last minute, with about 3 laps to go. I didn’t make any aggressive moves, instead just trying to float and take some chances by waiting for other people around me to go up, rather than panic and do it myself. With ½ lap to go, I found myself in 2nd wheel behind Dave Fuentes from Battery, on the front a little too soon. Fortunately another rider tried to attack from there, Fuentes latched on, and I followed. As we came up on the last sweeping bend, I hit out from 3rd wheel, but had to go the long way around the curve and into the wind, only just getting Fuentes at the line for my first win of the season, however small.

I was encouraged by how my legs felt all weekend, and as I mentioned in my last post, I recovered Monday and did a cracking motorpacing session on Tuesday with Dan Vaillancourt while I was up in Portland, Maine, visiting my girlfriend. I kept having to tell Dan “Up! More! Up!,” until at one point he actually had to get in a tuck to get a little more out of his scooter. We were ripping along at almost 35 mph, and I felt like I was floating. Dan said I was going fast, and seemed as excited about it as I was!

Two more days of recovery followed, before flying on Friday to Louisville, KY, for the $15,000 NRC criterium there on Saturday, and another $5000 race nearby on Sunday. Despite what preconception you may have about Kentucky, Louisville totally rocks. They have a really good punk scene there, a ton of places to see music, awesome coffee shops, vegetarian restaurants, great architecture, and a growing, enthusiastic cycling scene. My life is made sweeter by tattooed, punk rock baristas who like to flirt while they foam my soymilk, and there was no shortage of that in Louisville.

We were also lucky enough to be treated like real pros by the race organizer, as well as a few friends I have here in town now. Brian Segal andDoug Roemer are two local racers who answered our call last fall for help in the pits at the USGP round that was here in town, and have now turned into rabid ‘cross riders, and a couple of our biggest fans. I link to their blog “Love The Pain” in the sidebar here, so check it out. Thanks to those guys for taking us on rides, telling us where to eat, running back to our hotel for our spare wheels right before the start of our race, and arranging concubines for the team. No, not really.

I had some problems with my bike when I got it back from the airline, and I didn’t quite have all the tools I needed to get things operational again. Brian took me over to see Aaron at Cycler’s Café, who hung around for an extra hour after work to retrofit a new cable guide under my bottom bracket and replace my shifter cable. The shop was really interesting, as they have a café and burrito bar built into the showroom.

Mike Hewitt is the race organizer for this weekend as well as the Louisville USGP. He helped us out with hotels and entries, and put us up in the Galt House Hotel right downtown. It was a great location, almost too nice a hotel for a bunch of bike racers to hang around. We were able to ride to both races, as well as walk to bars and restaurants. Not that we ever go to bars when we’re at bike races. Especially not the “3rd Street Dive” a few blocks away. Never. Thanks to Mike for taking care of us and making sure we were welcome in Louisville.

As for the racing, we ripped it. It takes half the season for a new team to really click, and we’re finally starting to get it together. Our pre-race meetings are shorter and shorter, and have started to consist of “everyone knows their job today, right?” Saturday’s NRC race was a short, flat, technical, windy course, with a somewhat small field and only a couple of full teams. We were definitely racing to win, and things looked good when we put two riders in a group of 6 that went clear about 1/3rd of the way in.

We lost the plot at bit at some point, however. One of us got popped from the break, while at almost the same moment, a 3rd rider from the Texas Roadhouse team managed to pop across without us. That left Nick Frey up there to fend for himself against those three, as well as an Inferno rider, and Hilton Clarke from Toyota. Back in the field, things had shattered, leaving me as the only other Time rider left. Smartly, Nick started sitting on, until the break finally lapped the field. I piloted him around for the field sprint, and hoped for the best. Nick is a powerhouse – he’s the current U23 National Time Trial Champion, and we call him “Frey-Train,” but he’s only been racing a few years. To have a big, strapping TT guy like him trying to follow a crafty old field sprinter like me is a challenge. I had to pause and pick him back up a few times, but he hung tough. Roadhouse blew the field apart on the last lap with their leadout, and while Nick lost my wheel at that point, he battled back to come on to me going through the final corner. I took a few strokes and then got out of the way, finishing 8th overall while Nick “sprinted” his way to 3rd place with a powerful last hundred meters, still in the saddle, but passing riders all the way to the line. I was impressed.

Sunday was a smaller race, but still with $5000 in prize money, and obviously worth taking seriously. This was about 15 miles out of Louisville, in a “new town” called Norton Commons. It was like a new village was being grown from a seed planted in a field, with all new streets and homes and a downtown shops. Perfect for a criterium, and reminiscent of the “ION Village Smackdown” race in South Carolina that I’ve done in the past.

The boys were pretty motivated to make up for Saturday, and we didn’t miss a move all day long. Nick was impressive again, racing aggressively at the front along with Stoop and Soladay. I tried to fill the gaps and stay active, realizing that I’m riding well enough to be in the breakaway, but not wanting to spend any energy I’d need for the final sprint actually making the breakaway happen.

A number of promising moves went clear, until our “Frey-Train” derailed and put a damper on the attacking mood of the field. Nick managed to hit a pedal in a fast turn, high-sided, and went down hard, rolling both his clincher tires and smacking his head on the pavement. He lay in the road for a few laps, which kind of brought out a group caution flag. Once he was up and about and off the course (and ok in the end), it was a little too late in the race to reapply the pressure needed for a move to jump clear.

Texas Roadhouse had 10 riders left in the field, and sent every one of them to the front to lead out their best sprinter, Chad Burdzilauskas. I had Tom looking after me, trying to ride the back of their train from about 10 laps to go. With 7 to go, Stoop managed to claw his way back to the front, and relieve some pressure on Tom. Stoop was amazing. He took Tom and I about halfway up the 10-rider Roadhouse leadout, and just rode next to their train, in the wind, for about 5 laps. 3 Roadhouse guys finished their pulls and pulled out while Stoop continued to just ride in the wind next to them, keeping Tom and I fresh for the finish.

With about 3 to go, the battle got hot, and Roadhouse started taking up a little more space, bringing Stoop to the curb as they were setting up for turns. That was the sign for Tom to take over, who just banged his way in and made room for both of us. As we hit the last lap, Tom went over the top of the Roadhouse train completely, and we hit the second turn in first and second. Tom knew right away that this was too early to go, but it was better to be on the front than fighting a few guys back. He eased up out of the turn rather than getting excited and going from so far out, and Roadhouse took the bait. Kirk Albers went back over the top of Tom and me full gas with Chad on his wheel, and Tom latched on without difficulty.

We let Roadhouse take the long backstretch in the wind, as well as the last 4 technical corners that lead into the long start/finish stretch. Albers went fast enough that no one was coming up on me and I could be patient, while Tom was just waiting to pounce. Kirk was tiring out of the last left-hand corner, and Chad was forced to go fairly early, into a cross-headwind from the right side. Tom was able to hold his wheel, until I shouted with about 200 meters to go that I was coming through on the left, against the curb, and sheltered from the wind. Tom moved over the let me through and started screaming at me as I came full on to Chad’s wheel. Chad was well positioned against the curb, so I had to go back out into the wind on the right side to come around him. I had enough momentum and legs left at that point, though, that I was able to punch through for a clear win. I could hardly believe I had pulled it off, and paid my teammates back for doing so much work for me in the last laps. I was so blasted from Albers’ ripping last lap, I didn’t have the strength to even get my arms fully up over my head for the victory salute. Tom took me so close to the finish that he was able to coast over the line and still get 6th place!

So now the adventure continues. Today I’m flying from Louisville to Seattle. Wednesday we’ll drive 3 hours up to British Columbia for the Gastown GP in Vancouver, which is the next stop on the USA Crit circuit. There’s another race in Vancouver on Thursday, after which we’ll head back to Seattle for the night before driving 7 more hours to Boise on Friday. Saturday is another USA Crit, the Boise Twilight, where I’m really excited to meet up with my old friend John Foster, and hopefully try to take the lead in the series. Sunday we’ll drive back to Seattle, and finally, fly home on Monday.

If you’re still here, you’re a trooper. As long as this entry is, there’s so much I left out. What beer I drank (La Chouffe on tap at Bistro 31, as well as a local Louisville BBC Bourbon-Barrel Ale and a Delirium Tremens on tap at Ramsi’s), the great double soy latte I had, served with a friendly, flirty smile at Highland Coffee on Bardstown Road, and the amazing breakfast and good coffee we had at Toast on Market Street downtown. If it weren’t for food tourism, waitresses and baristas, make-out parties, text messaging, and phone cam pics, bike racing would be absolutely unbearable.