Or love success?
As for the Tour of America's Dairyland... well, it may have been the best-run sporting event I’ve ever been to. If anyone out there reading this races bikes you have to come do this series next year. The people running it are not only professional and efficient, they’re also some of the nicest people I’ve met in a long time. I hope TOAD grows to be one of the biggest events on the calendar. Its got all the ingredients: great courses, big crowds, solid pay-outs and the convenience of so many races so close together. I know I’ll be back.
The penultimate race was on the fabled Downer’s Ave course. Basically a big triangle with one tricky corner and a ton of terrible pavement, this course has been hosting races for a long time and drew the biggest crowds by far. Huge street parties rock out along the course all day, and one of them was raising funds for the “UltraPrime”, worth $5800, that they handed out in our race. No, I didn’t win. In fact, I missed the break again, and when rain caused crashes in the last few laps I got caught out and limped in for 24th. While my performance was lame, the night as a whole was awesome. Its one of the few races where the crowds are so big and so loud that you can sense their effect on the racers and the cyclists all go a little nutso. Makes for some sweet racing. We also managed to scoop up some free brews after the race, which always makes things look a little rosier.
Someone printed a big photo of me for their display. I couldn't afford the picture, but I snapped a photo with my phone:
The last race in the series was in Waukesha, about 25 miles east of Milwaukee. This thing was a little L shaped devil with one hairpin and one downhill, off-camber swooper that kept things interesting. I swore before the race that I’d leave it all on the course, but somehow a break of 4 with 2 Geargrinders got off the front in the first 2 laps and stayed away. I can’t get over how some of these teams race out here. If you do the math that’s like all but 8 guys represented in the break, yet the other 60 odd people just sat in and did nothing. I tried to bridge, but people will work just hard enough to chase me down and no harder. The exception was the Champion Porsche team, who did a hard chase, but with only 3 guys they couldn’t make it happen. They announced before the race that they were throwing out a $1000 prime at some point, and they rang they bell with 5 to go. I shot to the front, but the Porsche team had control of the front and they have two solid sprinters, then Bergman, then Hartley, then me. I figured the odds of me getting the prime were slim, but I might be able to attack after the prime and stay away. So I tried. I had a good gap, but I got marked by Nick Clayville of HB (he was only 9 points up on the GC) and we couldn’t make it stick. I tried to get back in it for the sprint, but I was too far back and pretty gassed. I managed to slip in for 20th, the last paying spot. Poor Joe Lewis got 21st for the second race in a row.
A hearty NorCal shoutout to Chris Black who took top spot on the podium in the Masters 1/2/3 race at Waukesha. He’s a fixture of California cycling and a sometime official so a lot of you from the west coast probably know him. Well, he’s been racing strong out in the Midwest against guys decades younger than him, so if you see him tell him congratulations.
I dropped a GC spot to one guy from the break, but ended up in 8th overall. Not too shabby. The only guy ahead of me without a team to support him was Sheldon Deeny of Bissell, so I ain’t complaining. I was so tired from 10 races in 11 days (and a bit bummed by the last results) that I didn’t snap any photos, sorry to say. I did manage to grab a few free brewskies and Fred and I had one last Wisconsin meal before beating feet for Chicago. We did see the strangest thing. Some guy cleaning up the course threw away a perfectly good 6-pack of bud light. You should have seen Fred’s face! He was trying to bite back his anger, but he couldn’t help yelling at the guy about how poor college kids the world over would be outraged. He would have gone dumpster diving, but Tom Schuler was right there.
We said our farewells to Patrick and all the great folks who put on the race and then nabbed a bite to eat with the Hagens Berman guys. They’re pretty good people, all told, but Clayville was drinking some sort of rose or something. I don’t know how I feel about getting beaten by someone who unwinds after a long series of racing with a rose. I guess I need to train harder. Hope to see those guys at Boise and Cascade.
Right now were just logging some miles heading east. Freds gonna go race Fitchburg (an NRC stage race) while I get some much needed R&R. I get to spend some time with my bro and the East Coast fam and I’m excited about that. I never see as much of them as I’d like so this will be a treat. Don’t know how training rides in Central Park are going to go, but I’m hoping the weather is nice and even if the training isn’t great there’ll be some cuties on roller-skates or something. Time will tell.
Headed east on the old Ryan Expressway...
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