My Dad and Dina also raced the TT. Both picked up about three minutes over their previous times on this course. Dad finished 11th, while Dina won the Merckx Women! Just getting her blood sugar levels halfway leveled out has started to make a difference in how she feels on the bike.
The following weekend I took a few more rest days. I had a lot of things to do and still felt tired, so I stayed off the bike and worked on the to-do list. I had wanted to go see Slayer and Lamb of God play a show in Nashville that weekend, but couldn't find any reasonably priced tickets. About an hour before the show, a friend called with an extra ticket and I was able to go. Slayer is about to stop touring so it was cool to see them play. Other thrash metal legends, Testament and Anthrax, started the show. It was a fun time, even though some real weirdos come out to watch Slayer. See a video of one of their songs here. If the music doesn't blow up all your senses, the visual effects will. I've seen buildings on fire that didn't have as many flames as Slayer.
Boxing up peppers as part of the to-do list.
Lamb Of God on stage in Nashville
photo by Lamb of God
Race #8 of the Music City Crits Series came next on the following Wednesday. I was back to full training load this week. I had a good night too, finding some good legs on the kidney bean course and taking a prime in the middle of the race. I used the same move that got me a prime a few weeks before, rolling the outside through the chicane and then holding everyone off in the sprint. The prime was a cash prime, paying out the same amount as winning the race. Score!
A break of four got away about 15 minutes into what ended up being a 50-minute race. One rider flatted out of the race, leaving three up the road. Those three eventually lapped the field just after halfway. I was expecting to get popped after my effort to get the prime, but I was able to hang on quite comfortably tonight. I was quickly going off the front again. I made several hard efforts to establish another break, but ended up missing several small splits of two and three riders. They ended up forming a group of seven that would stay away the rest of the race.
Pro/1/2/3 race at Music City Crits Race #8
Me on the front going hard
At six laps to go, it was obvious they were gone so I shifted gears toward the finish. Justin Lowe was looking strong and had no teammates so I offered up my services to him for the finish. I did everything I could to control things for him. He's not the fastest sprinter so I knew I needed to have him right at the front on the final lap so he wouldn't have to accelerate so much. But he fell off my wheel on the final lap. I just kept it going all the way to the line and ended up taking 2nd in the sprint, giving me 12th on the day. I was really happy with that considering how some of my crits have ended this year. It feels like my legs are finally coming around, just in time for the DINO finals coming up on the weekend.
I rested a little at the end of the week. It rained a lot leading into the weekend so we chose to road ride early Saturday morning rather than try for a likely muddy pre-ride at Southwestway Park in Indianapolis. The finals of the DINO Mountain Bike Series were again held in Indy, as has become the tradition the past several years. It's a fun, fast course with several challenging areas and excellent spectating. It's not my favorite place as I feel it is much more oriented toward power riders than those with skills, but I also don't hate the place. I have raced here several times so missing the pre-ride was no big deal for me or Dina.
We had extra time to drive up since we weren't in a hurry to get in a pre-ride. We detoured a bit from our normal route to see some waterfalls. There are very few in the state of Indiana. Cataract Falls in located in the Cataract Falls State Recreation Area in the tiny town of Cataract, which is a little northwest of Bloomington. The park features two waterfalls, Upper and Lower Cataract Falls, along with an old covered bridge that spans Mill Creek. Both parts of the falls are easily accessed by short walks so we were not there very long to check out the whole park. The water level was high and the creek rather muddy from all the recent rainfall. The falls were probably much bigger than normal.
Covered bridge over Mill Creek at the entrance to the Cataract Falls State Recreation Area.
Inside the covered bridge
Small drop that starts the Upper Cataract Falls
Main portion of Upper Cataract Falls
Further down Mill Creek
Lower Cataract Falls
Names engraved in the rocks around the lower falls.
Flowers along the short trail at the lower falls.
Looking downstream from the top of Lower Cataract Falls.
Video: Cataract Falls
We always stay with Shannon's cousin Sarah when we come to Indy. She has moved since our last trip here. This time a bit closer to the park. She rents out a room in a house owned by a couple she knows from church. They were kind enough to not only let us stay, but gave us the entire downstairs room where they have a sweet movie set-up. We might have used the TV a bit that night before setting up camp in the floor on our sleeping mats.
Sunday arrived with beautiful weather. It was a cooler morning with clear skies. The course had dried quite a bit overnight with most of it being in perfect condition. I did most of my warm-up on the road, then jumped into the woods to check the dirt about 15 minutes before the start. I rode the last section of the loop and wanted to push a few corners to see how the tires were hooking up and see if I needed to make any air pressure adjustments. It's something I do at just about every race. After the first section of pushing the turns, the trail went across an open grassy area where the trail had cut a trench down into the ground. The side of the trench makes for a perfect berm. As I pushed into the left-handed berm, I went a bit high with the front tire and went over the berm. The grass was still a bit damp and I lost traction immediately. The front tire slide out and I went down hard on my left side. My shoulder and hip plowed the berm. My first thought was that I had hurt my shoulder. I got up and walked off the hip soreness. After a minute or two the shoulder felt ok and I realized it wasn't hurt. Then I noticed a big ache in my finger. The bars twisted up when I impacted the berm and my fingers on my right hand got wrapped up in the shifter and brake lever. It popped my index finger, exactly the same way as last year when I broke it at a gas station on the way home from our trip to Utah.
Before I could get out of the woods, the finger was swollen and getting very sore. I had about 10 minutes until the start so there was little time to do anything about it. Shannon taped my first two fingers together with the only tape we had, which was kinesiotape. It worked, but kinesiotape is a flexible tape. Something stiff would have worked much better. I took two pain relievers and lined up. It wasn't the ideal start to the day, but the race wasn't even underway yet so no reason to be pouting.
Elite start
photo by MoFlo Photography
The goal for the day was a solid ride and score enough points to secure third place in the series, which I was holding by a few points coming into the day. We had 13 riders on the start line for four laps of the 6.2-mile course. I had a crappy start, hitting the first turn in last. I picked off three riders out of the turn, but then lost two spots before we made it to the singletrack. I started the first climb in 12th. I saw my max heart rate for the whole day this first time up Mann Hill. I gave all I had, but still lost 20 seconds to the group ahead. I stayed in 12th the rest of lap 1. The finger was sore on the descents, but I was able to brake and shift without any pain. On lap 2, the jarring on the opening descent really hurt as my finger was more sore, but I made it down.
Anthony Slowinski with the hole shot
Me near the back on the start
Airing it out on the first descent
photo by MoFlo Photography
Dina descending the flow trail off Mann Hill
photo by MoFlo Photography
Dina on lap 1
Chris Bowman leading a group onto lap 2
Me starting lap 2
Another great shot on one of the jumps
Photo by MoFlo Photography
Bowman still leading this group on the climb halfway through lap 2
Dina on lap 2. I see a little air beneath those tires!
photo by MoFlo Photography
I moved into 11th early in lap 2. Two riders were with me most of the lap. I would gap them in the more technical sections, but they would catch back up to me on the power stretches and climbs. I just felt like a slug on the climbs today. The final technical section was long enough for me to get rid of the two riders behind me and bridge to 10th. I grabbed that spot and was within 10 seconds of 9th starting lap 3, but then I started to fade. Traffic was bad the second half of lap 3 and I was caught again by two riders behind me. Both were able to pass me in the traffic mayhem and then got away from me. I was 12th the rest of the race. I ended up being the last finisher in Elite and got beat by many Experts today. I just got my butt kicked. The finger really hurt on that same descent each lap, but otherwise it was not an issue. I just got smoked. I was not expecting that at all as I felt so good this week and even this morning, but that is the way the year has gone. The poor finish also cost my third in the series. I didn't even get fourth, but rather dropped all the way down to fifth. It was a disaster of a day. I was over 7 minutes off the guys I normally battle with at DINO races. Rick Mezo took the overall title for the series in Elite as he was definitely the most consistent rider this year.
I have no idea why my finger hurt on this descent...
photo by MoFlo Photography
Rocking the DINO champ jersey and that #1 plate
photo by MoFlo Photography
Leaders on lap 3
Me looking not-so-good behind this Marian University rider.
Dina starts her last lap.
Frank Martin
Dina smiling way too much for the third time up this hill.
Video: Shannon's race footage from Southwestway
Video: More video from Dave Merritt
Dina had a better race than I did. She had a stacked field and is still working to figure out her blood sugar with these longer events. She ended up ninth in a tough field. She was pretty happy with that and took third in the series. Lily Peck was the series champion in Expert Women.
A couple of nights later it was back to the Fairgrounds Speedway for Race #11 of Music City Crits. With the finals coming just two days before Gateway Cup next week, this would be my final round of the series for the year. We were on the original 180 course this week. My legs were sluggish, still a bit tired from Sunday's race at Indy. The accelerations out of the 180-degree turns were particularly hard tonight. I got gapped several times early on and had to chase the entire backstretch to get back on. The first time it was purely my fault the gap occurred. The next two times it was due to people in front of me letting a gap open up. Three hard chases in a row popped me. I wasn't blown up though, just gapped too much to close it.
Women on course at MCC Race #11.
Dina on the front early and smiling because I'm yelling for her to get off the front. She thought I was kidding...
Dina
photo by Eric Renshaw
photo by Eric Renshaw
The product of riding on the front.
Nearing the end of the Women's race. Dina ended up 11th.
I caught two other riders that had been dropped and we worked well together for several laps. I felt great and was doing two pulls to their one. We eventually got lapped and then all hell broke loose again with hard accelerations. I made three laps again and was caught behind gaps again, eventually popping for the same reason as the first time. This time they pulled me from the race. I ended up 19th even being a lap down and out after 34 minutes. There was hardly anybody left in the group at the end of this one. It was a disappointing way to end my Music City Crits season. I really wanted to have a good ride as I feel like most of this year has been suffering on the back of the group and getting pulled before the finish.
On the start line of the Pro/1/2/3 race
photo by Eric Renshaw
Strung out under the lights
Jason Tatum laying down some hurt
My group of three off the back
That does it for this post. In the next one, it'll be on to the Gateway Cup to wrap up the biggest part of my 2018 season. Thanks for reading!
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