Yesterday I did the Burlington Road Race, which is a 104 mile, yes that is 104 mile, road race that starts at 3:15 in Burlington Iowa and goes up to Grandview, does a short criterium-like circuit and heads back south.  I’ve raced this race a lot of times, but it used to be in the 80 mile range, then 90’s, now triple digits.

I was a little apprehensive before the start of the race.  This is the one year anniversary of breaking my hip and I really haven’t raced on the road since then.  I did a short training criterium a couple weeks ago in Texas, but other than that, this is the first real road race back.  I can’t believe that is the case.  If you would have told me a year ago that I wouldn’t be racing on the road for another year, I would have told you that you are crazy.  Shows you how much control I have of my life.

Anyway, it really is a good race for me to get in some miles.  The course is really flat, not dead flat, but nearly so.  It goes up 52 miles north and then heads back south 52 miles.  There were somewhere close to 80 guys at the start.  At least my number was 80 and I just registered when I got there.

The race started out pretty quickly.  Not hard quick, but just plain fast.  We had a mild tailwind from the south, so we were cruising over 30, sometimes up to the upper 30’s, most of the way to the turn around.  But, about 10 miles for the turn around, a couple guys got free.

Then a couple more and a couple more.  I really wasn’t keeping track, but I knew there were at least 7, maybe 10 off the front.  When we did the turn around, I timed the 2 leaders and they were at about 3:30 minutes.

That didn’t really concern me.  I was there for the race miles, not to participate much in the race.  But that didn’t work out.

After about 15 miles on the way back, maybe 70 ish miles in, there was a slight hill and it started splitting up some.  I realized that the field was much weaker than I’d thought.  I knew this because I know how I’m riding and I had no problem making the front split on the small hill.

But, we got caught pretty quickly and then it was none stop attacks.  I decided to follow every move.  I’ve ridden this race a lot of times and I know how it goes.  Eventually a group gets away on the way back and then the field just sits up and rides in.  I didn’t want to just ride in, my butt would get too sore from pedaling too easy.

So, I made split after split.  I really wasn’t paying any attention who was bringing the moves back.  I just kept going with the next move.  Finally, after maybe 5 attempts, two guys rolled and then I jumped with two riders, one which was Chad Hartley.

We rode up to the front two, so that made 5.  We sort of got into a rotation and next thing I know, Chris Winn, from Colorado, a good rider, is all of a sudden in our rotation.  He made a big effort bridging up to us.

We got rotating, but by the time we got together, we were probably 5 minutes behind the leaders.  The front couple groups had gotten together and there was virtually no chance of catching them.

We all rode pretty much even, a couple of us pulling a little more than the others, but okay smooth.  The problem was, or one of the problems was the race was advertised as 95 miles and some guys thought that was how far we were racing.  I looked at my Garmin at the turn around and knew it was going to be 104.  I told a Texas Roadhouse kid that and he said it was 95.  I told him it was 104, but I’m not sure he really believed me.

So, we started messing around maybe 8 miles out.  Chad had started sitting on, something about an asthma attack.  I was happy just being off the front and was trying to pull whenever there was a gap opening up.  Eventually, a group was coming from behind and we were all pretty much enemies, or at least were riding like it.

Luckily for us, it was nearly to the end of the race.  We saw 3 more riders ahead maybe 2 miles from the finish.  Chad came thru and did a huge pull at over 30 mph.  We all started rotating again, I guess because to catch the 3 guys ahead, but it also kept the 6 guys behind, behind.

Close to the end, there a short hill about a mile from the finish, then it levels out for maybe 800 meters and then a 500 meter downhill to the finish.  I jumped before the hill, then someone else attacked going up and we caught the 3 guys ahead.  Right when it flattens out, the group from behind was catching us.  I was planning on just starting on Chad and trying to stay there. He is much faster than me, especially in a downhill sprint.  And I really didn’t care all that much about the place, other than I didn’t want to be last.

But, luckily for me, a guy from the group behind put in a huge jump and got a run at us from behind, with maybe 300 meters to go on the flat.  I jumped and no one followed.  I took me nearly to the top of the hill, but I caught him and just sat nearly to the finish.  It wasn’t hard coming around.  I finished 8th, which was fine.  I had no expectations. I got a little lucky.

Last year I had way better form and finished way back. Toms Skujns, the Hincapie kid that was leading the Tour of California last week, won this race last year.

I am a little surprised how well I felt the last 20 miles or so.  A lot better than the first 85.  I think it was because the temperature cooled off a little.  At the start it was in the lower 80’s, but then some clouds moved in and at the finish it was in the mid 60’s.  I guess I can produce more power in the 60’s now than the 80’s.  Whatever the reason, I am happy about the day.

Today is Snake Alley Criterium.  18 or 20 laps up a brick hill.  I’ve won the race a couple times, but there is virtually zero percent chance of that today.  Daniel Holloway is going to win the race today, unless the sun explodes, or maybe his bike.  Hopefully neither of those things happen. He won last year, with  Toms Skujns finishing 2nd.   Toms isn’t here this year.  I’ll be happy finishing and feeling okay.

I’m not really sure how to warm up properly for the race.  I didn’t sleep much last night.  It is so easy to be all jazzed up when a race finishes later in the evening.   I didn’t feel good yesterday for 80 miles.  I don’t think that will be my warm up, but you never know.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Yesterday was Snake Alley Criterium.  I’ve been doing this race for a long time, for close to 20 years.  The race really hasn’t changed at all during that time.  It is the same course and same vibe as it always has been.

The course is less than a mile around and is pretty much up hill and downhill, with a little respite of flats breaking it up.  The main feature is a switch back climb on brick.  It is hard.  Then you bomb down a 3 corner descent, a little flat and then back up the hill.

I’ve won the race a couple times, but haven’t really been in contention recently.  And that was the case again today.  I was okay, but not good.

There were some new guys here today that didn’t race the 104 mile road race yesterday.  Some of the Hincapie kids that did the Tour of California, plus Logan Owen who also did the ToC. There were over 120 riders starting the race, so the race to the start of “the Snake” is important.

The race started fast, as always.  I’m usually one of the first guys up the hill, but was going to try to start easier this year since I have some question marks about form.

I got a little gapped off from the front group on the 2nd lap, but got reattached pretty quickly.  I actually didn’t feel too bad the first 12 laps.  The race is only 20 laps, 18 miles, but it seems like a lot more than that.

There was a lot of attacks, but nobody seemed that interested in trying to put in  a real effort. With about 8 laps to go, there was a split and I ended up on the bad side of it.  10 or 11 riders got off the front and I was in a group of about the same size.  I was feeling alright, but not good enough to bridge the small gap.  We were just 10 seconds off the back of the front group what seemed like forever.

My biggest problem was the heat.  When the sun came out from behind the clouds, I seemed to overheat almost instantly.   When the sun was under the clouds, I was good, but when it would out, I was terrible.  Well, not terrible, but not good.

I didn’t really see what happened off the front.  I guess that Chris Uberti and Chris Winn, the rider I was with in the road race on Friday, rode off the front and had a really, really close sprint. Like nearly tied.  Uberti ended up winning over Winn.  It is nice that guys I race against a lot are the guys winning hard races like this.  This is considering that a bunch of new guys that had ridden the Tour of California, that didn’t race the day before, showed up.  Guess my Daniel Holloway pick from yesterday was wrong.  I talked to him after the race and he said that it was a little too punchy for him and he felt he was behind where he was last year.  He says that after winning 4 out of 5 Speed Week races.

I pretty much fell apart with a couple laps to go.  I was racing for 11th, but ended up 19th.  I didn’t really care about the result.  I tried hard, but pooped out.  If I would have been just a tad better, or it would have been a tad cooler, I might have finished in the top 5 or so.   Might have, that is really just a would have/could have deal.  I finished 19th.

I was a little tired riding before the race.  I haven’t raced on the road for pretty much a year, so I was sort of beat from the race on Friday night.  I was doing a lot of work on Friday, mainly because I am trying to use these races to get some form.  Most of these guys have raced lots, like over 20 days, or maybe a lot more, this year.  You can still count my race days on one hand.

You know, I think I finished 19th last year too.  And I was in much better shape.  Weird.  I think I might have tried harder this year.  I think the field was better this year than last, so it was a better result, I guess.

I can’t complain.  I got to ride the whole distance and could have been much worse.  I got 20 intense efforts in and am not worse for wear.

In an interesting turn of events, the Drapac UCI team, from Australia, who just finished the Tour of California, raced the event, then someone protested and the officals booted them out of the results. I think only two of them finished, but it was weird.  My stance is that if they are enforcing that rule, that at UCI Continental Team can’t race local races, then they shouldn’t have let them start. And if they do let them start, then their results count.  My real stance is that the rule is stupid. UCI pros should be able to race any race they want and restricting them is just plain wrong.  I would welcome Alberto Contador at Snake Alley, if he would choose to come.

Today is a criterium in Muscatine Iowa.  It is a nice course with a hill in Weed Park.  It is a really good race to ride just about as hard as you want.  Sitting in is pretty easy, but riding at the front, or off the front is hard.  It is supposed to rain all day in Muscatine, but I think I’m going to go race anyway.  I’ve done this race in the rain and it is fairly safe.  Just two corners that are tight and the rest is pretty wide open.  If it is really sketchy, I can always stop.

The start of the race.  It is a drag being at the back early.