August

I've been doing a lot of track and road racing this month, with a mountain bike race thrown in there as well.

The Ada State Criterium Championship was near the beginning of August. It was a pretty fast crit. I ended up 15th or so. Bleh.


The NAS-Track Championship was dubbed "the most strategic NAS-TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP EVER!" Unlike the regular season races, Dale let us pick our Madison partners (prom dates). I originally asked Luke to prom, but then he bailed on me because he was able to convince Rippin' Ronnie to come out of retirement. I bawled my eyes out for a few days and moped around the house, wondering why he bailed on me. Was it because I'm fat? Am I not beautiful enough for him?

Well, after a whole bunch of shuffling of prom dates, I eventually paired with Tom Elias. He looked so beautiful in his blue jersey on the special day. Our chemistry clicked and we did some awesome teamwork to defeat Rippin' and Luke and become the NAS-Track champions by a mere three points! (93 to 90)

Then I raced the BTR Park Criterium. The course was really boring (as usual) and the turnout was so small and the dropout rate so large that anyone who finished got money. Track racing is a lot more fun.

Next, I hopped into the first day of the NAS-Track Six Day. There weren't enough "A" riders so Dale paired us with the inferior "AA" riders. Bruce Carlson and I were paired together. He rode his balls off and we ended up in a respectable third place.

I didn't race the rest of the Six Day to prepare for the real race - the UCI Madison Cup in Trexlertown, PA. Luke and I drove out there Thursday for the Friday night races.

Trexlertown is a LOT different from Bloomer. It's a giant venue with grandstands on either side of the track. I counted (estimated) at least 1500 people there watching! Not only were both grandstands full, but the catered VIP area in the center was packed, and the rail was lined three-deep all the way around. The crowd really pumped Luke and I up.

The racing turned out to be really fast and chaotic. The program consisted of 60-lap, 30-lap, and 100-lap Madisons (equivalent in distance to 100, 50, and 166 laps at Bloomer). Considering the competition we were up against, Luke and I didn't really plan on getting many points. Instead, our strategy was to stay on the lead lap. It worked out well and we ended up in 9th place out of 12.

Garmin-Chipotle (Dan Holloway and Colby Pearce) took the win for the night.

(I'm wearing a Wolverine jersey in the Madison pictures because partners have to wear the same jersey. Don't get any ideas, Luke!)

On Sunday, I raced in the Elite category at Pontiac Lake. I rode hard and pulled off an 8th place (out of 11), proving that I still can ride a mountain bike! Yay!

This weekend, I'll be racing at Erie Street (probably) and Cross Creek (definitely). Then I'll race Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor the next week as a warm-up for Collegiate Track Nationals.

Bleh...

Got my butt kicked at the Stony Creek TT today. We'll see how Pontiac goes. It's road and track racing for now, though.

July

Since there weren't any real road races in July, I've focused mainly on track racing.

The NAS-Track UIV 3-day took place on July 4th - 6th. It was, without a doubt, the biggest race of my season. The competition included a whole bunch of riders from the USA U-23 National team, the Broadmark team, and some pretty fast Canadians.

Luke Cavender and I partnered for the weekend. We managed to avoid the crashes and came out in 4th place.




The 3-day really took a lot out of me. I turned myself inside-out trying to stay with the big guns. As a result, I felt really tired for the entire week following the 3-day.

Luckily, I had a family vacation in Canada planned for the week after that. I spent that week doing easier, longer rides past the hundreds of windmills on the Lake Huron shoreline. (Canada's really started to go all out with wind power. The air there is noticeably cleaner.)

I came back to Michigan to do a Sunday individual race at the velodrome and felt horrible. Long rides can be fun, but they really slow down your leg speed and high-intensity endurance. I won the sprints I contested, but I didn't contest many.

Last night, I raced in a NAS-Track Friday night race. Luke and Cruise Bogedin were paired together, so they had a pretty stacked team. I raced with Cody Brown. We missed an exchange after the sprint in the final Madison with 20 to go and a fresh Cruise attacked. Their team eventually took a lap on the field, but I launched off the front of the field right before they made contact. As a result, Cody and I remained on even mileage with Luke and Cruise, earning us an automatic 2nd place, even though points would have put us in 3rd.

Tomorrow I'll be racing in the mountain bike time trial at Stony Creek since there's pretty much nothing else going on around here. I'm looking forward to seeing how my fitness compares to some of the local MTB sceners.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

Tour de Brendan's Scrapes

Here's a brief review of the scrapes I've had this wonderful month of June:


The EMT treats my scrapes earlier this month at the Minnesota Fixed Gear Classic. (There's a video of the crash in a previous post.)

The scrape on my leg from the crash at the Minnesota Fixed Gear Classic.

The scrape on my arm from the crash at the Minnesota Fixed Gear Classic.

The scrape on my left arm from the crash at Rockford.

The scrape on my right arm from the crash at Rockford.

A smaller scrape below my knee from the crash at Rockford. I covered it with a Tegaderm patch.

A bigger scrape above my knee from Rockford. I didn't feel like taking off the gauze, so you'll have to use your imagination.

A scrape on my shoulder from Rockford.

Smaller cuts on my left hand from Rockford.

Smaller cuts on my right hand from Rockford.

The materials I used this morning to change my bandages.

The progress of the scrape on my leg from the Fixed Gear Classic.

So yeah. Forgive my language, but I'm pretty fucking sick of crashing. I've crashed four times since May:

1.) During the road race at collegiate nationals another rider tangled his bars with mine in a left turn. We both went down and my race was pretty much screwed from then. I probably could have avoided the crash if I was a bit looser or if I had been riding closer to the front of the pack.

2.) The next day, at the criterium at collegiate nationals, there was a 6" gap in the the start / finish straight running parallel to our line. Each lap, everyone pretty much had to sideways-bunny-hop it to get around the corner. A rider several places behind me got his wheel caught in it and slid out, causing the guy ahead of him to slide out, causing the guy ahead of him to slide out, causing me to slide out. I seriously thought I had avoided the crash when I heard it happen, but then a rider came sliding into my rear wheel. The officials neutralized the race while one of the crashed riders was stretchered away.

3.) At the Minnesota Fixed Gear Classic, the rider on second wheel overlapped the first rider's wheel as he finished his pull. He slid down the track, taking out my rear wheel and causing Dave Byer to t-bone him.

4.) At Rockford, my front tire went flat in a fast downhill 90 degree left turn, causing me to hit the ground instantly and slide a few feet on the pavement. Eric Forrester happened to be the unlucky rider behind me and also went down.

I had the pleasure of taking the most painful shower of my life yesterday.

I'm hoping I'll be healed enough to ride the 3-day at the velodrome this weekend. It's going to be my biggest race of the season and I've been preparing for it since April.

In other news, Luke and I did well at this week's Nas-Track race. We timed our exchanges perfectly in the two Madisons and ended up winning every sprint as well as the overall. I have a snazzy new Nas-Track hat now.

Ciao. :)

Allen Park Criterium

Well, Allen Park was kind of... meh. The legs weren't feeling strong and I started the race on an empty stomach so I couldn't put out any power. I tried to bridge to a few early breaks with no success. The winning break went off when I was chilling in the back and then the group split up. I ended up just getting in a little pacing workout in the back until I rolled off the front the lap before the promoter pulled us.

My teammate, Bruce, ended up 5th after ripping out a spoke from his rear wheel in the final sprint.

I'm looking forward to some track racing tomorrow and this week as well as the Rockford Criterium. Criteriums in flat office parks (e.g. Allen Park, BTR Park) aren't really my thing.

What I did in Minnesota

I think this video pretty much sums it up:



I'm the second rider to go down (in the blue). The third guy to go down (Dave Byer) completely trashed his front 808.

Blaine for the Weekend

This weekend I will have to forgo my shot at the glory and fame that comes with the Michigan U23 State Championship to venture to Blaine, MN for the Fixed Gear Classic. There are supposed to be some pretty fast riders there, including Roberto Chiappa.

Chiappa has competed against Theo Bos, which means that after racing against him, I will have indirectly competed against Theo Bos.



I feel like I'm famous already.