Between Indy and Crossroads was a good time for being a cycling fan. The Tour de France is on every day and it was actually a good one to watch. There were some exciting stages. Chris Froome was always in command, but he looked vulnerable at times. There were more "off days" for guys when you could see them struggling. I hope that means some of the doping is getting out of the peloton. Nothing has tarnished our sport more than doping. I blame it for many of us riders not being able to find a sponsor. I mean, who really wants to sponsor a sport with so much negative attention surrounding it?
Not only did I keep up with the Tour daily, I also kept up with two of my friends who were racing in some of the toughest events around. Scott McConnell rocked the Tour Divide, a 2745-mile self-supported mountain bike race from Banff, Alberta in Canada to Antelope Wells, NM. The route is gnarly to say the least, crossing multiple climate zones as you pass through the Rocky Mountains. He experienced rain and snow, did some epic climbing, saw some crazy wildlife and met a bunch of new friends. Scott had time to stop and do an interview in Colorado for one of his sponsors, Moots Cycles, whose factory is located just off the race route. See the video here.
Scott McConnell ready for the Tour Divide
Scott out in Wyoming
Scott rocked the race, winning the Singlespeed class and finishing ahead of his goal of 24 days. He finished just under 22 days after riding throughout the last night to stay ahead of his closest competitor. The Divide is one heck of a race. You not only have to have crazy endurance, but you have to navigate and plan on your own. No help from family or friends is allowed, so you have to pack all the items you will need. Congrats Scott! It looked like a heck of a ride and I enjoyed following you every day.
I was also keeping tabs on Carson Beckett, who was up in Pennsylvania for the Mountain Bike National Championships. He had a great week, winning the Junior 15-18 XC National Championship. It stinks because they don't give a jersey to the lesser categories, but Carson still came away with a jersey before the week was out. The final day he also won the Junior Super D National Championship. Great job buddy! It was good to see a Wood-N-Wave rider doing well on the National scene.
Carson on the top step of the Junior Super D podium in his new stars-and-stripes National Champion's jersey
I had originally planned to race the Tennessee State Criterium Championship before Crossroads, but I opted out. The turnout at Tennessee races is too low and I hate it when they don't do any payout simply because they think you will come no matter what since it's a State Championship. That's crap. I think if anything it should pay more! I'm also tired of dealing with the attitudes of the officials that are in Tennessee. I didn't want to get pulled while still in contention like what happened in Cookeville, so I instead got behind the scooter and did some pacing. Shannon is now riding the scooter. She has no prior experience on anything motorized so we have been working mostly on just getting her comfortable with the speed and cornering necessary to pace me.
The first time out, we just rode together. She followed me through one of my hill routes while I did repeats on my favorite climb. The next day we did some pacing. She had difficulty doing 30+ mph through the corners, but it went well overall. I got in a great workout and we didn't crash! We did, however, lose a bolt off the exhaust when we crossed a rough bridge. The scooter got super loud after that. We definitely fit in with the redneck crowd now!
Shannon had the GoPro on her helmet for some of the rides. I'll post the video below once I get time to do a little editing.
The garden is growing nicely. All the hard work is paying off as now we are seeing the vegetables appear. We've had lettuce, kale, arugula and spinach for several weeks. Now we can add cucumbers and green beans to the list of eaten veggies. Shannon has canned many jars of pickles with the cucumbers and dill we have grown. We had some weird shaped cucumbers too. Even had one growing up under the edge of the carport.
Looking at the top half of the garden from the back porch
Green beans climbing the carport supports
Cucumber growing under the carpot
Another oddly-shaped cucumber
Banana peppers, onions, tomatoes and peas are growing, and the morning glories are taking over the house. The property really looks good. We've had just enough rain to keep everything really green and growing well. Enjoy the pics of what we have created on our little piece of home.
Zucchini plant is getting big
Another shot of our growing garden
Morning glories are covering the handrail now
Carrots
Banana Peppers
Morning glories climbing the back porch and up the old antenna
Morning glory flowers are beginning to appear every morning
Morning glories have climb my trellis now on the old swing frame that sits in the side yard
Our first adventure of July was not for a bike race. We traveled to Chicago to be sealed together as a family in the Chicago Temple. We have been planning this for quite a while and it was nice to finally make it happen. It was my first ever time going into the temple and it was a great experience. If you are LDS, you already know how awesome the temple is. If you are not LDS, you are missing out. It's the most peaceful place on Earth. You can't think of any Earthly troubles in there even if you try. It was nice to clear my head for a while and reinforce my feeling to press on with all the things I want in my life.
Chicago Temple (photo taken from LDSChurchTemples.com)
Quite a few of the Toneys were able to attend the sealing
We met up with the Toney clan in Chicago, getting to spend some time with them while also sharing the temple sealing experience with them. We had a lot of free time to just chill. I timed my rest break so that I would not need a bike while on this trip, though I still found a race to do on Sunday afternoon in Homewood, on the south side of town. I wound up not doing the race as it was too late in the afternoon to realistically race. We would have been destroyed getting home so late and then having to work a full week that I knew would be very busy. So, as hard as it was, I said no to the race and we just headed on home.
One cool thing we did while in Chicago was hit up a mall. I'm usually not much for malls and shopping, but it had a Pearl Izumi Factory Outlet Store inside and we racked up on some great deals. Everything was on sale and then we got an extra 20% off for the 4th of July Sale. Shannon and I both go some great jerseys. She also scored a visor for cheap so her face doesn't get fried at the races. I also got some new race gloves and a new trisuit. I practically stole the trisuit, getting a $120 suit for $38! I love Pearl!
Apparently, I had the AC on too high for Shannon's liking on the way home from Chicago. We didn't have a blanket, so she slept under a cover of pillows.
The next weekend was a double race weekend, but this one would again be spent with family. We stayed with Todd and Lyndsy in Muncie, IN for racing on Saturday in Indianapolis and on Sunday in Ft. Wayne. We made the drive up late Friday night after work. Todd was camping in the front yard with a bunch of boy scouts. The late night didn't affect us too much as we had plenty of time to sleep in on Saturday morning. The Indy Criterium wasn't until late in the afternoon and was only an hour drive from Muncie.
Shannon and I went exploring on our bikes for a morning loosen-up-the-legs ride. Todd gave us directions to the Muncie Cardinal Greenway. We rode last time we were in Muncie, which was back in May. We had been within a mile of the greenway and had no idea it was there. In total, the greenway is over 60 miles long. We rode only about 5 miles of it on the north side of Muncie. It was a very nice greenway. Very wide, nice pavement and a lot of other users. In no way was it creepy like some greenways, though I hear it goes through a rough part of Muncie at some point. I ate my first ever mulberry on this ride. It's like a blackberry on a tree! We also found a nice gravel farm road to play on. Don't ask me why riding gravel on a road bike is fun. It just is. Here's a few photos from our ride in Muncie.
A marshy area on the way to the greenway
On the Muncie Cardinal Greenway
Exploring this gravel farm road off the greenway
Shannon getting her first taste of gravel
The Indy Crit was great! It takes place in downtown Indy on a fast, fun course that is great for spectators. There are several awesome background shots as riders pass by some of the city's biggest landmarks like the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument located on the all-brick Monument Circle. Yeah buddy, we got to run over some bricks every lap!
The course was a good one for me. It was almost completely flat with nine turns in 0.95 miles. It was a figure-8 style layout. We began with a short square around a park with three 90-degree left turns before hitting a 90-degree right. It was slightly downhill to turn 5, which dumped you out onto the long backstretch that had a mild headwind blowing up it. The left turn at the end of the stretch transitioned you onto the bricks of Monument Circle. The bricks were fairly smooth. The faster you went, the smoother they were. Turn 7 took you onto the circle right in front of the Monument, with turn 8 taking you off the circle, still riding bricks. There was another long straightaway that was a false flat before the final turn, which was a fast 90-degree right that came just 150 meters before the finish line. The race would definitely be decided before the final turn.
Cat. 3/4 Men come through the Start/Finish
Cat. 3/4
I was pumped, but more nervous than anything before the start. Shannon's Mom and Dad were there watching and I really did not want to have another performance like the crappy one I had in Cookeville. I had a good warm-up on the trainer, jamming to some Avatar to get me ready. One of their songs says "I like when it hurts...let it burn!" That seemed appropriate for today. This race was 75 minutes long. My legs were sure to burn long before the finish came.
Pro/1/2/3 Women on the bricks
The start was a little hectic. We lined up 15 minutes before the scheduled start time. I got on the front row, but after all the call-ups were done I found myself on the third row, which was still a great starting spot with 114 riders on the start line. All of a sudden, the whistle sounded and we were underway! It startled us all as the clock still showed 8 minutes until the start. I hope everyone was there. I had my camera mounted on my stem, but didn't have time to turn it on or reset my Garmin.
Pro/1/2/3 Men during staging
The start was fast, but the course was the reason for most of it. With such a large group I was able to sit 20-30 places back and take full advantage of the draft. I kept my heart rate low and began to work on patience. It is so hard to hold back when you see little attacks going off every lap and you feel good. I felt great right from the start and I knew I could have a good finish if I just raced smart. After a few laps I had time to take a gel and turn on my camera.
Riding the bricks
Early break
The crowd was huge, especially at the junction of the figure-8 where they could see us twice per lap. I rode very well the first 40 minutes, watching the breaks go and then get reeled back in by a group that seemed keen on keeping the bunch together. We were averaging just under 29 mph at halfway and a lot of riders had already been dropped. Dark clouds were starting to roll across the course and it looked as if our perfect race might get spoiled by a rain shower. I started to feel some fatigue at 43 minutes. I dropped back a little to around 50th, but never farther back than that all day. I moved back up by the hour mark, just as a break went up the road with some heavy-hitters in it. I thought about a bridge attempt, but decided to wait it out. The break was eventually caught, just in time for a solo counter-attack by Texas Roadhouse's Adam Leibovitz.
Another shot of turn 2
I'm tucked in the group right in the middle of this shot. Look for the orange, black and white.
Turning onto the bricks
Mom and daughter at the races
Another break
Me in the group on the bricks
The pace was ugly the last 8 laps. I had to fight hard to stay up front. I was cramping in my quads by this point, so I decided to stay seated the rest of the race. I just managed to sneak under a crash in turn 3 with 4 laps to go. The bricks were a bit crazy because as you went by the monument, the road curved slightly and it was easy to get run into the outside of the course where there was a row of big concrete columns staring you in the face. You sure don't want to hit one of those. It's not going to move.
With one to go, Leibovitz was long gone so we were left to scrap for 2nd. I moved into the top 10. My legs were spent, but I put in a seated attack up the right on the backstretch anyway. That put me in 4th going into the bricks. Or so I thought. I was bummed to see a group up the road. They must have slipped away with 2 to go and I had missed them! We caught them before the final turn, but I didn't have the legs to go on by them like I needed to. I followed wheels to the line, losing a few spots in the last corner and sprint because I could not stand up to sprint. Right before the line, both hamstrings locked up and I had to coast across the line to finish 18th. The rain held off and we averaged a blistering 29.0 mph around this course with a lot of turns. I was happy with the result, but mad about cramping. If I could've just held my position at the end I would've been 9th! And I think I have a good enough sprint to pick off a few more. Of course they paid top 15 so I went home empty handed yet again. It was a motivating day though. Just when I thought I didn't know what the heck I was doing with my training, I have a great race that shows I can be competitive in a big Pro/1/2 race.
Shannon made a new friend at the race. Some guy with a bunch of bells kept hanging out near her at the finish line, trying to get into her pictures. He wound up getting in a video doing an awkward pose with his hands full of bells. I think he had one bell for every finger. He even found me after the race for a quick picture. I guess I have a fan now.
Dark clouds in the distance
Leibovitz on his way to a solo win
Me with our new friend, Bell Man
Video: Indy Crit. action. Bell Man makes an appearance near the end of the video.
GoPro Handlebar Cam Highlights. Look for a crash at 12:23 in the video.
After the race we ate sandwiches at Potbelly down on the Monument Circle before parting ways with the fam. The Toneys had to head back to Elkhart, while Shannon and I went back for another night at Todd and Lyndsy's house. We stayed up a little too late watching the Life of Pi movie. It was an interesting movie, but I think I would've done better to get 2 more hours of sleep for recovery than to watch a rather pointless movie. We got to talk with Todd and Lyndsy, who are cool peeps, so it really wasn't wasted time at all.
Monument from Potbelly's
Sunday morning started off with a little church in Muncie, then a drive further north to Ft. Wayne for the Parkview Cycling Festival Criterium. This was our first time going to the Parkview race in Ft. Wayne. The course is just a few blocks away from the site of the Fort4Fitness Twilight Crit. held in May. Like the Twilight course, the Parkview course is tight in the turns and technical with six turns coming in one kilometer. I was really worried about this race after cramping so badly yesterday. My legs were spent! I was going to need some serious recovery to have any legs for this race.
The race venue is the parking lot behind Parkview Field, home of the Ft. Wayne TinCaps baseball team. The stadium was open so we went inside to check out the field. After some wandering around looking for registration, we found the sign-up table inside the stadium. Registration was a ways from the course which was odd, but it was cool that they had it inside the stadium.
Parkview Field
The early races showed that this course would inflict much more pain on riders than the Indy course. It was fast and open. The wind was rocking today and there was nothing in those parking lots to block it. Most of the races turned into single-file trains the entire race with many riders getting dropped as there was just nowhere to hide from the wind. The wind seemed to be everywhere on this L-shaped course. The start/finish stretch was slightly uphill to turn 1, with a massive headwind. The course climbed more to turn 2 with a crosswind coming from the right. Then it was downhill through turns 3 and 4, where you could feel little wind. The corners were close together and narrow so every lap was single-file here. After turn 4 came a flat straight with a slight tailwind, followed by turn 5 and another flat straight, this one with a crosswind from the left. Then turn 6 took you back onto the front stretch for a flat sprint straight into the wind.
Course map from my Garmin GPS
Cat. 3/4 Men in turn 3
Video: Cat. 3/4 Men's finish
The wind was sure to make this a hard day so I did a thorough warm-up on the course. They actually gave us time to get in a warm-up on the course. I also did my hamstring warm-up exercises in the parking garage we had parked in. Nothing like starting your day by getting stared at while you do inch worm exercises on all-fours across a dirty parking garage.
Turnout was low for the Pro/1/2/3 event. The purse was the same as Indy, but we only had 29 riders today instead of the 114 we had yesterday. It was a super fast start. I started on the front row and was quick to follow the wheels to stay up front. I knew the wind would split this group early, so I wanted to stay ahead of the gaps. I hurt myself a little too much the first two laps trying to hold the pace required to stay top 5. I got shuffled back as I tried to recover. As expected, recovery was pretty much impossible. It was a single-file line from front to back of the pack all the way around. It seemed there was no shelter from the wind.
Pro/1/2/3 group ready to go in Ft. Wayne
Video: Pro/1/2/3 Start
Breaking out the black kit today
Guys ahead of me began to blow up on lap 3. Two laps in a row I was stuck behind someone who just sat up coming off turn 6, leaving me with a gap to close on the uphill into the wind. After the second gap closure, my heart was tapping out. I hung on for a lap, then lost contact with the group when there was a big acceleration out of turn 6.
Lots of ouch coming out of turn 6 into the wind
Bissell rider off the front alone
Bissell chasing down their own rider?
All by myself...don't want to be...all by myself. Yeah, I just quoted Avatar and Celine Dion in the same blog.
It was miserable out there by myself, but I kept plugging along with everything my little heart could give me. The officials left me in for a while. Apparently though it was not quite as long as I stayed out there. I got lapped and jumped on the back with all the other riders who had been lapped. I stayed on the back three laps before I heard the whistle from the officials. They hadn't pulled anyone else so I thought maybe they just wanted me to drop out of the group. So I did. The head official was on the back stretch and said that as long as I was riding smart and safe, I could stay in. I rolled back through the finish to a mob of angry officials, blowing whistles and yelling for me to get off the course. I asked the lady at the table if I was pulled and she yelled "Yes! You were out three laps ago!" I calmly tried to tell here that I pulled off when they whistled, but she was not hearing it. I guess I'm supposed to be a mind reader and get off when she's tired of scoring me. We couldn't have a civil conversation as she appeared to be on a power trip, so I just rode away. It's Sunday. I'm not arguing with an idiot on Sunday.
Still by myself as I pass the main entrance to Parkview Field.
The main group rolls into turn 5
I hitched onto the back of the group once they lapped me
Turn 4, the only right-hand turn on the course
I was disappointed to be out so early. I was dropped at 9 minutes and pulled at 19. It sure was a long drive up here to get pulled for no reason. I doubt we will ever come back to this race again after the low turnout and poor attitude of the officials. I was scored a dismal 27th, but I guess that means I beat two people!
Video: First 6 laps of my race as seen through the lens of the GoPro
There were a few good things about today though. My legs recovered very well and were not the problem. It was all heart rate. And now we know not to come back next year. We can spend more time in Muncie bothering Todd and Lyndsy!
After Ft. Wayne, it was time for some relaxing rides to help the legs recover. Like last year, I spent my easy days looking for blackberries. They give you a break in the ride and also provide a tasty snack. I love blackberries and I want to fill the freezer with them this year. Shannon even made me my first ever blackberry cobbler. Yes, that's right. I am from Tennessee and have never had a blackberry cobbler. My Grandma always promised to make me one, but I never could find enough blackberries as a kid. It was nice to finally get a warm slice of cobbler after wanting it for so long.
Crossroads Classic is on the way. I had to do some major planning to get the time off work for this six-day race. Shannon gifted me some PTO and I worked some overtime to ensure I could get the hours covered and still be able to take our Utah vacation in September. It will be a fun set of crits. There should be some fast guys there so I'm sure it will hurt. But hey, I like when it hurts...let it burn!
