Saturday, May 14, 2011

Monsters of the Midway 1-2-3 Race

I rolled out of bed at like 11:30 in South Bend, packed up my stuff for the summer and drove straight to U of Chicago for the Monster's race.  It was 75 and sunny when I left Indiana, and it was 40 and raining when I got to U of C.  The field was way smaller than last year.  I think last year we had like 70 guys in this race...today there were only 25.  I suspect a lot of people got scared off by the weather.  Too bad, since the organizers did a great job putting this thing together.

A few moves tried to go early.  I chased a little bit here and there.  The main move got away like 20 minutes into the race.  Guys were sitting up and letting bridge attempts go at will.  I hit the front and cleaned up all the chase moves so it was just a 4 man break.  One guy crashed or flatted, so it was down to three.  Even though they ended up getting 30 seconds on us, I knew there was a chance we'd get them if they slowed down too much at the end.  My teammate Tony took a few pulls, and did a great job hanging in there even though he already raced.  With 15 to go, Chris Padfield hit the front and did a great job...he pulled for over ten laps and shelled a bunch of guys from the chase group.  With one to go he was still pulling.  I was sort of getting complacent on his wheel though, since two guys attacked with 400 meters to go and got a small gap.  I decided to try and jump onto the group.  That took a lot out of me and so I had to settle for seventh.  We caught the break on the line.

Tomorrow is Fox River Grove, a race VERY ill suited to me.  But it's important to get out of your comfort zone and do a race where you know you'll get your butt kicked.  It builds character, it's good for fitness, and its kind of fun to do something other than a normal flat crit.  So I'm looking forward to it, even though I guarantee I'll embarrass myself.