Monster Willys

Tough weekend.

Monsters of the Midway on the campus of University of Chicago. Fast, flat, windy and full of WTF moments. Followed on Sunday by Wheels on Willy racing around the capitol building in Madison, WI. Monsters promised to be my kind of race. Wide open flatland speed.

It ended up being everything I thought it would be. I was concerned I would be in rough shape with all of the flu going around the house, but the Tamiflu must have kicked in because I could kind of actually breathe. Before the start I was looking around thinking "man this is a big 4's field. then I rememebered it was ABR where categories are more of a recommendation than a classification.

I noticed Brian Hague of Tati - the man we marked during Fall Fling and who later lapped the 4's field during that series. I pointed him out to the rider next to me. Imagine my surprise when he said, "Honestly this is my first race. I mean I have raced mtb before but this is like...the real deal isn't it?"

Yeah. It is.

For the second time this season I found I couldn't move around at will but I was hanging at the middle of the pack. The field was OK but there were some weird moves. I am getting sick of the guys who constantly complain about how the squirrells ride ....all form the back of the pack. If you don't like it then go to the front.

Hague took off - turns out it was a prime. I saw him move and yelled out "that's hague off the front.....no one wants to chase the guy who can TT till the cows come home?" Some yahoo turned to me and said something like, "if you don't like it chase him"....so I did.

I filtered up to Mayo from South Chicago Wheelmen and pointed Hague out to him. More to take a break, but in some respects hoping he would chase with me. He was in good form though so I don't blame him for not following. I got on the back of what was probably 3 or 4 total riders working off the front by a tiny bit.

I really just wanted to sit in. It didn't even matter - we were caught within a lap. Namely the prime was over so Hague sat up. The rest of the race was kind of boring.

One dude locked up his brakes in between 1 and 2 and ended up popping his tubular. Silly beginners riding tubulars in a Chicago flat crit. He dumped it into the curb taking at least 1 other down with him. 2 more went down from locking it up in anticipation. They were right in front of me. I made it through...how I do not know. Shame on me for being behind that mess.

A few laps later I was struggling in the wind along the inside on the back stretch when I heard the middle of the pack start yelling. It was followed by the unmistakable sound of someone going down HARD. Nasty. It turned my stomach.

Turned out it was a South Chicago Wheelman. He got messed up. Was on the pavement for a long time. Winding up for the sprint I knew I had nothing but knew I could hang. Saw Mayo again and he was looking to see if we could go. I had nothing. I wanted to go with him but I just didn't have it. Chalk it up to the flu.

I "sprinted" in on the back of the lead pack for 23rd out of 100 ish that started (55 finished).

After JD mixed it up in the 1/2 race we had the cat 5 race. We had a ton of riders in it. It was exciting. Even with all of the fans coming by to see Joel ;) I was able to tell him what I thought about what he should do. He doesn't need that, but it makes me feel good to think maybe it helps :D

Hague was in the group again - racing 4's and 5's.....WRONG. J...I don't care what your explanation is...you don't race 4's and 5's on the same day. Period. None of us did it. Plenty of us could have....just sayin. Listen...it's late. I have to draw a line. I will continue this later, but here's a sneek peak....