Elite Men's Crit Nationals

Sorry all that we've not posted in awhile... I am new to this posting thing and didn't know how to get it on here. Anyway, here are some of my thoughts from a few weeks back (post Elite Crit Natinoals)...

Another crazy weekend of bike racing and telling stories.
It all started Friday night when Andy and Paul landed in Chicago. Once they picked up the rental car, they started to drive to my uncle and aunt's place but noticed they were on a tollway and didn't have any cash. After looking at the budget map, they were able to take the last exit off the toll road, probably crossing all 5 lanes of traffic to do so and ended up at the house a few hours later. Once Elizabeth and I arrived, Paul and I went for a short spin around some nature preserve. Dinner consisted of homemade pasta sauce, pasta, bread and New Belgium beer that Andy bought. He went to get some band aids, got lost, and showed up a little later than we expected with a case of beer. Dinner lasted about 3 hours and was a great time of drinking, eating and telling stories.

Saturday we chilled until the 7pm Pro Am race. We had a great breakfast of eggs, fruit, bagels and coffee. We had a little leftover pasta before we raced. All went pretty well as Paul and I raced well and stayed up and in the race. It finished in a bunch sprint and Paul was the first amateur to cross the line. After the race we spent about 30 minutes trying to find a Chipotle and had to resort to a local Mexican place, which was very good but no 5lb burrito. We made it back around 11 and crashed.

Sunday we woke up and ate some more eggs, bagels and fruit. It was a hot day with some wind coming from the west. Enough to made a difference. All went well as I started out coving a lot of moves and finding my self in some great breaks. The plan was to watch Roadhouse and Berries and if they were in a break we were in a break. I went off a 4-5 lap solo effort hoping someone would bridge up and no one did. Ended up in a break going for a $100 when Roadhouse and Berries kept it going after the line and I couldn't catch on. I waited for a couple of other guys and we still couldn't catch them and that looked like the race, but they were caught with about 8 laps to go. I was out of energy at this point and Paul started to mix it up in the front. He had great placement and finished in the top 10! He finished 8th, which was our goal for the race.

We stayed to watch the pro race and then headed home. It was cool to watch the race and how it worked itself out. Elizabeth and I drove past the Chipotle on our way out of town. We made it home around 1:30am and Paul and Andy stayed one more night before they left in the morning.

All and all it was a great weekend of racing, eating, and chillin out in Chicago.

Rolf