More Race Reports

A couple of quick race reports from Darin (with a photo, courtesy of Russ):

Baraboo Sharks Road Race #2 - Race #1 of this weekend was up in the Baraboo area again, this time in Leland. It was a great day with the temps in the 80's. 46 guys started our race in the Masters 4/5. We were sent out 5 minutes behind the juniors and the women were sent out 5 minutes after us. The course was 12 miles in length with a 1.7 mile climb that came about 1 mile after the start, yippee. We did three laps of this course for our race. The race broke apart right away on the first climb and Russ and I were in the first chase group. We got to about 50 yards to the leaders right before the start of the second lap climb. The field got split up again and now I was chase group #3 with two other guys. The entire time we could see the other groups up ahead. The third and last climb split us three apart but we got back together on the back half of the course. I sat in and won the field sprint in our little group of three. I took 14th overall and Russ placed 13th. I suffered a little less than the last Baraboo race but not by much. We watched the rest of the races from the top of the climb, everybody suffered today. Today's race average was 19.7 mph with almost 3000 feet of climbing.

The long climb breaks up the pack

 
Wheels on Willy - Race #2 was the next day in the People's Republic of Madison, the Wheels of Willy crit (I don't know who Willy is or why there is a race named after him). Today it was a cloudy, windy, drizzly 42 degrees out for our 9a.m. start. I pondered in bed about not going, but I got up and went. After my 12 minute warm up I realized that I dressed way too warm and went back to the car to shed some clothes. I jumped on my bike and got to the line and one minute later off we went. I sat in the upper middle of the pack for the first half to let me feel out my legs, they got better as we went. We had 56 guys in the field and things got a little hairy on the not so good pavement in the corners. With two laps to go I moved up to the top 15 and with one left I moved up to the top 10. Going through the second to last corner two guys got tangled up right in front of me and I had to slam on the brakes because I had no where to go except into them or the curb. After I got around them I had lost about 20 spots and almost 10mph, so that was the race for me. I got 24th overall and no WCA points, I should of stayed in bed but I guess I'm a better man for going. Today we averaged 25mph for the race, that might be the fastest average I've ever seen in our category.
 
I now have three weeks with no races so I can ride with all my buddies (Elvis included) and group rides and not have to worry about saving my legs.