April 21, 2009

Durand RR

This last Saturday I made it over to Durand, WI for the road race. I think it was the first day I rode in short sleeves and shorts, ended up with just a little sunburn and the start of some tan lines. It was a great day for a race and it was fun to see everyone from MN that I don't normally see at a road race in Wisconsin. I'd have to say the MN racers are a little more organized and have a little more team mentality than what I've seen in Wisconsin, cool to see bigger than normal teams warming up together and racing as a team. That does intern make racing solo quite a bit more challenging, but I guess basically it just takes more concentrated effort and smarter racing.
After the coming home from the Hillsboro Roubaix race with my tail between my legs a few weeks ago, Saturday I had much better legs after a easier week of training and that made the racing feel a lot easier. Even with all the teams it seemed there was a lot of watching and waiting, but in the end I was having hydration issues since I only managed to have 3 bottles total for 60 mile race and was starting to cramp pretty bad near the end. I tried to get off the front a few times near the end of the race on some of the climbs where I was feeling somewhat strong, I missed the big move though when a group attacked from the field and I couldn't get on as they came by me on the climb. It did end up coming back before the finish but the before mention hydration issues kept me from having a good sprint which was a bit of a bummer as I found myself in perfect position 200 meters out, but I had to sit down instead of stand up to sprint I was cramping so bad.
I hung around for the crit on Sunday in Madison, but 1/2 an hour before start time it finally decided to start raining so I decided to head for home and call it good enough for one weekend.
Looking forward to a fun hard crit this weekend here in Sheboygan at Evergreen park, it's one of the first races I ever watched about 15 years ago and it's a brutal course, but hopefully one that fits my strengths a little better.

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