***Registration has been closed pending approval of our race application and permit. A minor bureaucratic snafu. Apologies.***

September 4, 2010
HELD UNDER USA CYCLING PERMIT
RACE HELD RAIN OR SHINE
MILKY WAY PARK, HARVARD, IL

Only the above listed race is permitted and sanctioned by USA Cycling. No other races or activities at the event are sanctioned by USA Cycling.

Registration

Register on-line at www.bikereg.com.
Adults On line Pre Reg on or before Aug 31 $35.00 Day of Reg: $45.00
Masters 60+ and Juniors Pre Reg on or before Aug 31 $20.00 Day of Reg: $30.00
On line Registration closes August 31th at midnight

Only On-Line and Day of Event Registration is available.
A second race is $15

Race Day Registration opens at 7:30 A.M. and closes at 10:00 AM. First rider off at 9:00 AM
Start order based on pre-registered entries. Specific start time requests accommodated.
Start times will be sent by e-mail to pre-registered riders.

Course

30 km on the well known Harvard out and back big dipper course (20km for Juniors and Seniors).

Location

Register at Milky Way Park near the corner of Lawrence and Brink St. (Rt. 173) Starting gate is just south of 173 on Flat Iron Rd.

Rules

All USA Cycling rules apply. Helmets are required at all times while riding your bike at the race site. 20K event distance applies to all juniors and age classes for Women age 60+, and Men ages 60+.

Prizes

Categories and Age Groups listed below with three or more entries will compete for State Championship Jerseys and/or Medals. You must hold an annual USAC license to be eligible for a championship jersey. The Promoter and IL Cycling Association reserve the right to modify categories based on participation.

Cash Prizes for Overall Fastest Riders Male and Female: 1st: $100, 2nd $75, 3rd $50.

Longmarker awards for riders posting faster times than in 2009 at the North Branch Time Trial.

North Branch's time trialing squad has quietly been posting consistent results in the American Bicycle Racing time trial series.

On June 26, 2010 three members medalled at the 40 KM test promoted by Team Apache in Paw Paw, IL.

Jack Arnolde racing in Cat 4 finished second. John Hoffman racing in Masters 40 placed 5th and also set a new club record for the distance. New member Brad Moore, training for Ironman Louisville, placed second in Masters 50 and also established a new club record.

Podium placings and new club records have been a regular occurence this season. Hoffman established a new club record in the 33 km distance and Jack Arnold also posted a club best in an early spring 10 mile test.

Club records have been updated and can be viewed in the Race Results section of the Members Only Forum.

Matt Samples has proven that he can race without crashing by taking 1st place in the combined Cat 4/5 Masters race at this past weekend's crit at Wonder Lake. He also finished second in the Cat 4 only heat. Congratulations Matt!

Cat 3 rider Ed Hernandez recovering from a lingering knee energy also raced. It looks like he may soon be getting support as soon as Matt upgrades.

Full results here- Wonder Lake Crit

Pop Goes The…


Whitnall was a solid indicator that the climbing form was in place for the WI classic season. You know the formula, 1) find a local park; 2) find a hill on that local park; 3) run a circuit race (AKA crit) on said course; 4) arrange for rain on race day. Whitnall was held in terrible weather, which led to an unfortunate close encounter with the asphalt. After that race, I decided that I was going to lay off races in the rain. Thought was that I don’t paid enough (okay, I don’t get paid a dime) to risk showing up for work on Monday on crutches. The deciding factor was the rain status at the point of registration. If the tears are falling from the sky before I plunk down the moolah, then it’s a no go. Well, the clouds were threatening on the morning of Muskego, but there wasn’t any rain falling down…yet.

There I am walking back from the registration table trying to remember if numbers go on the left or right sides. All of a sudden, that first drop hits me square on the head and a steady rain starts to fall. Great… the formula for a WI classic race is in effect rain and I’ve already thrown my money on the table. Wet shoes, wet socks, wet chamois suck when you’re standing at the start line waiting for the official to blow that whistle. At least, I had the promise of a hard hour of racing as final conditioning for the upcoming Monsters of the Midway. Well, let’s work on staying upright this week, okay?

For those that haven’t raced this course, Muskego is generally similar to Whitnall, except that Whitnall’s 3 tiered climb is condensed into one stretch at Muskego and the final 30 feet usually packs a wallop. Sure enough, Muskego maintained its status as a race of attrition as riders started to fade a few laps into the crit. The signs are unmistakable. First, the hips start rocking, then the shoulders start rocking, then those same shoulders start sloping forward, then you just sit up and throw in the towel. Lap after lap, riders were popping on that short 30 feet stretch from the finish line to the top of the climb. I was doing my best to move up in the pack and avoid those popping riders. Suddenly, I felt my hips start to rock, but I managed to make it to the top with the pack and moved through the field on the downhill stretch. The next time up the hill, my hips started rocking earlier than before and then my shoulders got into the rocking motion- I still made it up the hill with the group and moved through the field. This next climb was going to be the critical test.

Climb starts and hips start rocking…
Half way up climb and shoulders start rocking…
Three quarters of the way up the climb and the shoulders start sloping forward…
I get a few pedal strokes from the top and I just sat up in the saddle and threw in the towel.
Five laps to go and my legs just popped from under me…

Now, my goal for this race immediately changed and I was committed to holding off the pack for five laps. Yeah, I much prefer to hold off a pack for a race win rather than getting lapped, but it was the hand dealt to me by the Cycling Gods, and I couldn’t much complain. I spent most of the week in DC for business drinking wine and loading up on calories. Life is full of both sweet and sour- this sour situation definitely hurt as I pushed the sore muscles to ignore the lactic acid and push myself up the hills to limit time losses to the field. All the efforts paid off as I soloed in behind the field as spectators were walking away oblivious to the fact that I gave it my all to finish on the lead lap.

Hey, I didn’t crash. I gave it my all. I had fun. That’s a good day of racing…

Can't Get 'Nuff of a Free Thing

Whitnall was back for 2010!!! That news came to me like a burst of good news a few months ago. You see, Whitnall profile with a 3 step staircase is a perfect match to my strengths, but the event was cancelled this year. With great excitement, I prereg'ed for this event (1st Cat 3 rider to do so) without checking the weather forecast. Oh, Mother Nature, you suck worse than showing up to the Lake Forest METRA station early Sunday morning to find there's no Mafia ride that day. The skies were pouring buckets as I debated the merits of using the car's heating AC in place of a warm-up on the bike. No dice, so I rolled out in a drizzle that progressed into a full rain by the start of our race.

I was coming off an R&R week, so I figured that a key early strategy would be to ease into progressively harder efforts on the staircase climb and hope that no one launched a successful early attack. Well, attacks took place, but they weren't successful, so goal #1 was solid until PSSTTTTTT. Crap! Flat rear tire just as we're about to make that right turn into the 1st hill. The next 5min became an intense cross training workout as I proceeded to sprint up the hill backwards in the wet grass. I did remember to stay calm and shift into the 53x12 before changing out the rear wheel. Unfortunately, I didn't even think about all the crud that lodged into my cleats during my slip and slide sprint up the hill. Let's review a good restart fundamentals following a free lap restart.

1) Stay calm.
2) Ensure that you're in the correct gear to accelerate up to field speed.
3) Get ready for 2 painful laps as your body reacclimates to the race pace.

Hold up. There’s a 2a) step that became clear to me as the race official pushed me off to the main field.

2a) Clip in.

All that crud in the pedals made it close to impossible to clip in, but I finally managed to coerce the cleats into the Speedplays and punish the legs with a harsh acceleration back to the field’s pace. Two laps in and I was finally grooving along with the field and moving up well towards the front. I decided to stay over to the right as I crest the first of the three steps and slot in behind a rider one back from the front of the pack (let’s call this guy Joe). Suddenly, I look over and the rider to Joe’s right swings over to the left and just clips Joe’s front wheel. You all know that horrific sound of overlap wheels. Up until I started bike racing, I thought the sound of William Hung singing anything at all was the most horrific sound I’ve ever heard, but now the sound of overlapped wheels has assumed the top podium. Overlapped wheels are the true test of a riders skill ability. In fact, USA Cycling should give you 20 upgrade points to Cat 3 if you demonstrate that you could save overlapped wheels without going down. Well, that guy in front of me would have been deducted 200 upgrade points. That dude panicked so bad that he almost immediate went down right in front of me.

“This crap is going to hurt in three, two, one… BANG!!!”

Amazing how everything seems to slow down when your mind realizes that you’re about to get smashed into asphalt. I did my best Superman impersonation as I went flying through the air over the bars. My bike basically did a perfect track stance as I nailed the sprawled bike in front of me. During the slo mo phase, I knew to pull back my hands and roll onto my back. The left knee took some damage as I rolled to a halt. Okay, loyal readers, what’s the first thing that goes through the mind of any racers post crash?

Is it “Am I okay”? Wrong!!!
Is it “Did I tear any clothing”? Hell no!!!
Is it “Where’s that SOB that wrecked me out”? Hey, this wasn’t the Dana Point crit…
Is it “Is my bike okay?” Bingo. And thankfully, the bike was unscatched.

I immediately jumped back on the bike and rolled into the pit for my second free lap of the race. Listen, it has been many years since I’ve taken a free lap, so I figured that I was due a double dipping during Whitnall. Once again, the first two laps sucked after the adrenaline wore off while we waited for the field to come back around. A break had formed right at the time of my crash (in fact, that break likely led that guy’s questionable decision to swing left right into the wheel of the rider in front of me), so the main field was content to feign interest in chasing the break while dreaming of dry clothes and heated car interiors. With a banged up knee, I was definitely okay finishing in the pack and considering that a moral victory.

Did I have the legs for a solid result had I not crashed and flatted? Sure.
Was it cool to finish in the field after flatting and crashing? Definitely.
Was I struggling just to finish in the field last year? Unfortunately yes.
Am I happy with Whitnall 2010? Absolutely!!!

It’s all good…