Brad Huff upset the UHC Blue Train and won the National Criterium Championships yesterday. He came around the final corner in 3rd and handily smoked John Murphy and  Luke Keough to win the race.

In my opinion, Brad is the fastest guy at the end of the race that is currently racing domestically here.   He is just unbelievable.

My sprint has deteriorated the last couple years.  Mainly through injury.  But even before then, I wouldn’t start a sprint on Brad’s wheel because when he jumped, I lost enough space that I was riding in the wind.  He is just too fast to follow.  Especially if it is downhill.

I’ve known Brad for a long time.  I think the first time he was on my radar screen was when I was racing the Missouri State Criterium Championships in Jefferson CIty and someone said that a guy that had finished on the podium at Criterium Nationals in Downer’s Grove was racing there.  That was probably 10-15 years ago.  I think he was riding for Mercy?  He didn’t make such an impression that day, but has many times since.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the guy do incredible rides.  Rides that don’t seem to be in his repertoire, but he has them hidden away for specific instances.

A while ago, I was in a break in Superweek with Brian Jensen, who was riding for Jelly Belly, and Brad, who I think was riding for TIAA-Cref, but don’t hold me to that.  It was at Whitnall Park and it is a couple mile circuit with a big hill.  Early on, Brad says he’s just along for the ride.  That it was between Brian and I for the win.  Then Brad proceeds to pull like crazy for the next 1 1/2 hours. Brian was going super that year, and was winning the series overall.  I was riding okay too.  I ended up winning and was trying to figure out why Brad was pulling so hard only to get third.

The next day, I think, was Brewer’s Hill Criterium.  A course that you wouldn’t think would suit Brad’s abilities.  Straight up a climb and down a descent.  Repeat.  Brad, and Brian, both made the break again.   There were a lot of Euro guys there that year and they had a couple guys in the move too.  Anyway, virtually the whole race, Brad was alone.

He would soft pedal up the climb, go hard over the top, bomb the descent and the final two corners just in time to reattach for 200 meters, just to get “dropped” at the bottom of the climb again.  It was that way for nearly 100 kms.

The break went around to lap us, but Brad wasn’t on.  I wondered why the other guys didn’t jsut go to the front and kill it, because it was obvious, at least to me, that Brad would win the race if he caught back on. He could win the race just on his cornering ability.  But they didn’t and he did.  He won, virtually riding a time trial the whole day.   I think Brad was just training the day before when I won.

I rode with Brad, last fall,  in Richmond, at the World Road Championships.  He came down with the guys from Rapha and was just hanging.  He was sort of down and out, saying that he had lost his contract with Optum (Rally).  I had raced with him at Labor Day in St. Louis and had seen his results in a couple hard criteriums on the East coast.  His worst day out East was 2nd, I believe. Anyway, I found it hard to believe that Jonas was going to let him loose.   Maybe if they quit sending him to Utah and the Pro Challenge in Colorado, his talents could be better ultilized?   I’m thinking Jonas is pretty pleased now that they worked it out.

Here’s his quote from after the race yesterday.

“They actually sat up into the last corner,” Huff said of the UHC lead-out as Keough and Murphy set up for their sprints. “But I was savvy enough and I knew their tricks, so I jumped around them and I got to their last three guys, and then out of the corner it was just kind of luck and leg speed.”

A little luck and leg speed.  Yep, that is an understatement for sure.  He is the fastest guy in the peloton and can make his own way to the finish, with extra energy to still sprint.  Pretty amazing.   Brad is a local boy, from Springfield Missouri.  Glad to see him get rewarded for his abilities, perseverance and effort.  Congratulations!

Brad and I after the Tour of Lawrence Criterium a few years ago. Sometimes Brad can come across as sort of a goofball, but his is just a nice guy having fun doing what he loves.

Tucker was pretty pooped out from hanging at the MTB race yesterday.

Today I’m driving to Arkansas for the Joe Martin Stage race, which starts tomorrow. Catherine is going with me.  We’re doing a couple detours on the way through Lawrence and then again through Kansas CIty.

I’m racing the 1/2 race there.  This will be the first time I’ve ever done that.  I don’t have enough guys on my team to race the Pro 1 race and I didn’t have any luck finding a slot on a team to “guest ride”.  It still might work out?    I was planning on doing the 1/2 race a few years ago, but fell on the time trial descent, going 47, warming up, and separated my shoulder.  I hope to have better luck this year.

You know the weird part is that the 1/2 race is going to be much harder than the Pro race.  It is going to be more of a bicycle race, not a hillclimb, then tempo session.  I think I would do better in the Pro race than the 1/2 race.  I don’t have many race days so far this year and am racing to get fitness.  But the 1/2 race is going to be racing each day, a full on free-for-all,which is going to be fairly exhausting.  Funny how that is.

Anyway, the next few days should be interesting. I like racing around Fayetteville.  I’ve been going there for close to 40 years.  That is nuts.  I did the race the first time in 1979.  I finished 2nd in the hillclimb to John Howard, who was on the ’76 Olympic team and was a cycling god. That really gave me motivation to continue the sport.

I’ve never won the race overall.  I finished 2nd a couple time, but it was never really on my radar screen.  It has really grown into a National caliber event.  One of the best races of the season. Bruce Dunn is the promoter now.  He races and looks after the riders.  Those are always the best promoters.

Joe Martin was racing the race then.  I knew Joe pretty well. He and his wife Nancy.  I saw Nancy a few years ago at the race.  She looks great, as she always has.  She is a very smart woman.

Okay, of course, I’ll let you know how it goes.  Better get packed up.

Joe Martin on the left, with Eddy Merckx in the center. Pretty cool photo.

I’ve been taking Tucker out to the country. He has evolved from chasing butterflies to birds. So, he really is a bird dog.