Catching up on Kenosha

I will report on my Burnham results soon. Basically 2 pack finishes and plenty of gas left over. I was amazed with my form and now I have some more confidence to go with it.

I am trying to catch up on a backlog of reporting though. So....first things first...2 weeks ago at Kenosha. I was hoping to race this race, but I was laid off the Thursday before and spending $ on racing seemed somehow less important. MJH2 and JF were going up there though and I love being a superfan so I thought I would tag along and help out.

Turns out it was a lot of fun just going and prepping bikes, bottles, etc. grabbing jackets, yelling to the field time splits, etc.

The big news was the win though. That's right....win. Turns out JF was racing 5's. ABR was running both 4's and 5's together but decided to score them separately. Whatever...

This was JF's first race so I was starting to give him the whole "you're going to pop - don't let it discourage you" speach when it dawned on me that he's probably one of the most natural cyclists I have ever ridden with at this level. He's constantly exceeding my expectations so I decided I would just tell him to stay close to the front if he could, but stay out of the wind. Don't chase any breaks just go for the sprint. (did I mention he melted my trainer doing a quick sprint on my powertap. He took it easy and I stopped him when I smelled it burning, but the PT said something just shy of 1500W). Oh....and try not to hit the deck.

So I sat back and watched and took pictures. Fun.

MJH2 lined up in the 4's

JF in the red arm warmers hanging in the cat 5 starting group

"You guys are 4/5's so that means you suck. Try not to kill each other -kthx" (MJH2 is thinking "I paid for this?")"Rider'sReadyGO!!"

JF - Whatta ya doin on the FRONT!!!????

Our man J-Dub taking snappy snaps again. Check out his site and buy some pics to help support him. I would if I had an income right now...

So there was a break of 3 guys who got away and had quite a bit of time on the pack. I knew they were gone and the pack would come down to the sprint. I saw MJH2 lead JF off the front going into turn 1 of the last lap. They were hauling and I knew this was going to be good....then I saw JF come up the final straight way the freak in front of everyone.

HUGE gap. so big he just soft pedaled over the line. See for yourself.


So where was MJH2??? Well....I end up walking down the front straight to find him...


Turns out he had led out JF so hard and fast that when they came around the last corner they encountered some lapped traffic on the race line. It was hit the lapped traffic, JF or go into the grass. He chose the grass. He took one for the team and will most likely never let JF forget it. One thing is for sure...if we could ever get coordinated enough we could have a hell of a leadout. With even just the 3 of us we could rip up 1.5-2 laps of just about any race.

Although JF came in 4th overall the first 3 guys were Cat 4's so JF actually won the Cat 5's race that day. It won't be his last. In fact he's gotten medals in 3 of his first 4 races so far. There's a word for that. Awesome.