Beginning where IG, inc. (aka Ian) left off, the past two weekends have been some of the most fun racing all season. Gotta' love midwest criterium racing...90 min maximum of work per day!
So the past two weekends, I was able to do 7 races in 10 days...the perfect preparation for Nature Valley Grand Prix. The final day of Quad Cities weekend was a dead flat figure eight, which doesn't exactly bode well for us smaller guys. It's better to have a more physically demanding course to sap the energy from the competition, and finish by hitting them hard in the sprint. Unfortunately, the last day wasn't such, and too many guys had fresh legs leading to a crash infested finale.
Tulsa is one of the most fun places in America...an amazing underground bike community is the driving force behind great rides and an even better weekend of racing known as Tulsa Tough. Three days of criterium racing, each day with its own unique vibe. The first day, a twilight criterium, was its usually fast pace but was unusually safe...probably because the city of Tulsa did an amazing job of repaving the roads 3 days before the race. The second day had a small climb, which passes right by the Soundpony, a bar which attracts only the best, most outlandish beer-drinking cycling fans (aka the American Hooligan). (Stop in and see Josh Gifford, the owner of the Soundpony. Tell him he's a hero.) And the final day had a very steep climb (aka cry baby hill) which covered half the course, and the fans (manly the same Soundpony hooligans from the night before) were actually asked by the race promoter to party their asses off and pinch the road giving the racers only about 5 feet from side-to-side to pass. My body was telling me I had a 1% survival rate to finish the race, but that 1% prevailed, because who quits when you are being cheered on by the best fans, EVER?!
They don't call it Tulsa Tough for nothing, because it's almost impossible to bring home the bacon when you're riding solo. Each race I was super aggressive following and bridging to very powerful breakaways, but too many full-sized teams were active and unsettled without the formation of large leadout trains and bunch finishes. (At least it wasn't the Toyota-United show this year.) In the end, although I only finished in the money (15th place) the final day, the Ciclismo jersey did what it does best...race aggressive and make some other people suffer.
Coming up the team has Nature Valley Grand Prix. Stay tuned for more rider incite on the blog...
Thanks for reading,
Danger (aka Phil Mann)
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