Greenbush and Beyond

A few more photos:
Patrick (In Team Extreme blue) owning the podium at Sheboygan:

Luring them to the booth:

Don't know if you can see, but there is a cover band rocking out right behind the tent. Prime real estate:

One for the sponsors:

I'm constantly impressed by this series of racing and I don't think I've mentioned it enough. The courses they have are incredible, the announcers are great, and they have started every single race on time down to the minute. The results are posted almost immediately after the race and I haven't heard a single complaint from any other racer. That would be a feat just for a single race, but to have put on 8 so far and not had a single foul-up... well thats just short of miraculous. I know its a long way to come to race and that most people have jobs or something, but if you race bikes you should come check out this series next year.

But what was I saying about incredible courses? Well, Greenbush takes the cake. A ten mile loop, it rolls out on a ~3% grade on a shaded road through a park, then has a rolling exposed section with some wind to mix things up and a few fast, sweeping, banked turns and then it goes through forest again over a set of short power climbs (nothing more than a minute or so) and some really fun fast descents. The finish was on a downhill after two short punchy climbs.

I am pretty much cooked by now from so much racing and when the early break went I didn't even consider trying to make it. I was focussed on drinking enough to finish the race. Fred did a yeoman service today. He's still a bit achy from his crash at Elkhorn and instead spending a day relaxing by the pool and spinning his legs he came out and did hand-ups during the race for me and some of the Rio guys. It wasn't as hot as Fond du Lac, but it was still damn hot, and without getting feeds there's just no way you'd finish a race like this. Hero for the day: Fred!

We caught the break with 2 or 3 to go (I can't even remember) and when it came back 4 more people got away, including Sheldon. I should have gone, but I just wasn't sure the legs could take the effort. Long story short: they stayed away and the group stayed together for the bunch sprint. I went hard on the last climb and had good position, but I was a bit out of it and instead of taking off over the summit I tagged onto the wheel of a guy who's been sprinting really well, but we were too far back. I saw Ben Raby run some guy totally off the road, which was exciting, and then it was all over and I was pissed. Its hard to ride 80 miles and then screw things up in the last 300 meters. Oh well. I got 11th, which ain't bad and kept me in 6th overall. I've had a few finishes where I could have done better, but to be sitting 6th having been racing all by myself ain't too shabby.

We went to Brat Fest 2009, but I was too tired to rock out. Its been a long time since I've seen a party like that. An incredible spread of food, booze and beer and, being the midwest, a whole host of treats all made with bacon, including chocolate covered bacon and bacon cookies. God Bless you Midwest.

My butt is so sore from all this racing that I might just have to attack out of that saddle for the rest of the weekend. I'll let you know how that turns out.