Sunday, Sunday, Sunday at Kenosha’s Raceway Park

In the words of the wise and insightful, Katy Perry:

’Cause you’re hot then you’re cold
You’re yes then you’re no
You’re in then you’re out
You’re up then you’re down

Aside from the gutter innuendoes to those lyrics (and most Katy Perry lyrics), it is amazing how that chorus so eloquently captures both the whims of Mother Nature and my interest in lining up for this race. Let’s review the last 24 hours worth of climate change in Chicago. Yesterday, kids were running around the neighborhood in shorts and short sleeve t-shirts while cyclists around the city were flashing hairy legs on old, favorite cycling routes (at least cyclists with the luxury of flexible work schedules- a group which yours truly does not belong to). This morning, those same kids were running back indoors with sneakers coated with snow and an appetite for hot chocolate. Twenty-five degree drop in 24 hours- stupid Mother Nature.

So, I’m loading up for the race this morning wondering why in the hell cyclists (or athletes, in general) subjective themselves to the crap that they do on a regular basis. Here it’s 29deg F with the wind chill and I’m considering driving up north of the border to meet up with other fellow lunatics. Damn right, Katy Perry, I am in, then I’m out when it comes to this Kenosha #2. Finally, I decided to suck it up and test out the legs in the Cat 3 field. That turned out to be a great condition since the sun won the battle against the clouds, and the day turned out to be a perfect one for Sunday, Sunday, Sunday at Kenosha’s Raceway Park.

The plan for today was to gauge fitness via the Cat 3 field (instead of the Masters 30+ Big Guns that I raced against last week). My stretch goal was to attack the field for a breakaway attempt, then contest a field sprint if the break attempt wasn’t successful. Flash forward to the 3rd lap into the race- 3 riders are off the front, including a rider from a WI Ski & Bike sponsored team. Well, that Ski & Bike team had 2 other riders left behind in the field and they were perfectly blocking the rest of us monkeys. Actually, it was impressive watching that team work the field over so expertly- kinda reminded me of collegiate racing when we had a coach yelling tactics from the side of the road.

“Ed, you have a rider off the front, move up and block”
“Ed, drop the hammer now.”
“Ed, ride faster. Now, ride faster” – that’s the point when I would throw a bottle his way on the next lap.

Well, the peloton’s pace was very casual, even though we were delivering decent wattage on the back stretch into that damn wind. Right as we reached the base of the back stretch, I thought about my goal and arrive at a fork in the road (figuratively, that is).

The Devil sitting on the right shoulder of my North Branch jersey was yelling: “Dang, that is some tough wind. Why not just sit on these two Ski & Bike riders and stay within your limits until the pack sprint”.

The Angel sitting on the left shoulder of my North Branch jersey was yelling: “C’mon, Alice. Hit it with your purse. Grow a pair and attack right now. This is Kenosha- time to try crazy crap and live to learn the lessons.”
I decided to flick the Devil right off my shoulder before shifting in a huge gear and delivering 1,021W to gap the field on the backside hill into the headwind. I managed a decent gap and got within ten bike lengths of the breakaway.

Unfortunately, the Ski & Bike boys decided to chase me down and no one seemed prepared to help me out in my quest for glory. I opted to sit up and merge back into the field around 5th wheel. Well, the S&B boys decided to ratchet back the effort as soon as I merged into the group and I felt fully recovered within one lap. Right at the base of the hill, I decided to put in another hard pull- more to bridge the field to the riders than to breakaway myself. I ended up pulling hard for one full lap which wasn’t the smartest thing to do (for all you Juniors reading this blog), but then again, my intent today was to smack the legs around with a meat tenderizer and reap the rewards later in the season.

Well, that hard pull really tapped out the legs, so I decided to drift back to the pack and take a lap to recover. You see where this one is going, don’t you? Right as I started to flush the lactic acid out of the legs, there’s another attack off the front and the peloton decides to crank out wattage like it was going out of style. My legs were suffering as I was riding the rivet in an attempt to respond to the violent acceleration. My good friend, Ric Otero, yelled at me to hold his wheel, which I managed to do for a brief second before the elastic snapped into the head wind. Dang, I was cross-eyed and turned my legs inside out with that final effort, so I decided to ease up a bit, then get back to a hard effort.

My guess is that I finished somewhere in the top 15th, but then again, it wasn’t about the results exactly. I could have sit in the entire time and sprinted against the field for a top 5 placing. Overall, I’m damn glad that I listened to the Angel and rode with panache. I was much better off burning several matches rather during the course of the race than waiting to burn a single one in the end of the race. Great affirmation of the winter work!!!