Sheboygan

Just got back from yet another crit. Flat and four corners. It was hot, but not as hot as it had been. Not too much notable except that there was something in the third corner that started causing flats about halfway through. I was right inside the guy who had the first one and, boy howdy, did he go down hard! Then there were a couple more in the same spot throughout the race, right in the turn going fast as hell.

I think all the racing is finally catching up with me and I felt pretty cooked right from the gun. A lot of people in the field were pretty toasted too and you could tell. The whole pack was just dogging it today. So, realizing everyone else was a burnt as I was I figured I'd try an attack, but apparently they had enough left in the tank to stick with me. Nothing stayed away and it came down to a pretty sketchy bunch sprint. I attacked with 3 to go just to get to the front and then settled in not too far back when they caught me. I was towards the front, but not far enough and almost got taken down on the back straight on the last lap. I went left as they fell right. Really lucky. Then it was just elbows, screams and flashes of spandex as people went totally nuts, flatting and flying around like lunatics. I was too far back, again, and I had to hit the breaks and then restart my sprint to get around some numbskulls who sat up. I managed to slot in for 16th. In the money, but pretty mediocre.

Todays highlight came after the race. I've been hanging out and seeing the same people every day at these races, and Fred makes friends faster than anyone I've ever known. So as we were packing up after the race the organizers invited us out to dinner with them. We went to some huge place right on the river and sat outside with them and all the volunteers (like 30 people in all) drinkin beers and yukking it up while the sun set on the river. Jack (the executive director) is a young Cat 2 who's been working his butt off since October to get this thing going. He's awesome, and can really make tracks driving the pace car. Bill is also a big wig organizer and a heck of a nice guy. He keeps asking me when I'm gonna win again. Anywho we all just rocked out for a while, had a great time and then when the bill came they picked up the whole shebang. When you're on the road trying to stretch your budget a great night out is sweet, but a great night out where someone else picks up the tab is about the best thing in the world.

Fred and I also got introduced to Tom Schuler which was sweet. Aside from organizing the race Tom is also the GM for Team Type 1. He strikes me as a guy who's just genuinely fired up about cycling. He's elated that the series is going so well, and when he heard that we were staying with a rider from Team Extreme (a local club of mostly cat 4/5 racers) it put him over the top. He did a training camp for them earlier this year and he was still fired up about all the newer racers making progress in the sport. Very cool. So he invited us over to party at his house tomorrow night for BratFest 2009 and we're definitely going. Too bad we'll still have two days of racing so we won't be able to really show him how to party, but it should be a good time all the same. We'll certainly have earned a few brats after 80 hilly miles in this heat.

I lied. Dinner was nice, but the biggest highlight of the day was Patrick's race (he's the guy we're staying with). He's suffered form some bum luck this series, breaking a shifter during his hometown race and then getting run off the road during the sprint in the RR. Well, today it finally worked out for him. He came flying past us going like a bat out of hell to take the field sprint. There was just one guy up the road so the extreme effort by the Brocket nabbed him a rock solid second place. I think it might have been his first podium as a cat 4 and he was pretty stoked. He should be. He earned it.

I'm going to bed. I'll do my best to get some photos up tomorrow so this blog isn't just a big page of stupid words.

Fred is actually on Twitter (yes, thats like a hundred times worse than blogging) but you should check it out nevertheless. Also, it turns out a few people are actually reading this thing, and to those of you who are and went out of your way to leave a comment or just say you're out there: thanks!