Just got back from the Iowa City Road Race and Criterium. It’s nearly 2 am. I’ve been tick bit, bee stung and feral cat mauled since my last update. Actually, most of that stuff happened in the last two days. I have only raced one day(Sea Otter) since Redlands. That has to be an all time record low number of race days in the month of April. I’m going to make this short, since it’s so late and I haven’t downloaded any pictures. This is only for the early Monday morning crowd.

Saturday was good. A 65 miles road race in the Mennonite area Southwest of Iowa City. It was a 13 mile loop, beautiful, rolling hills and pretty breezy. And the wind was the key. 4 of us from the HRRC/Trek Team started the race. The 2nd lap, we put it in the gutter and there was only 8 riders left. The 4 of us all made the split. It got back together 13 miles later and we did it again and then there were just 6 left, all 4 of us. Two Grand Performance riders from Minneapolis. Anyway, Bill Stolte, Brian Jensen and myself ended riding the last lap together. Shad had the worst duty of riding in with the Grand Performance duo we had shelled. I was completely seized up and sat on the last while. My punishment for that was having to win. I was morally against it, but rationalized it intellectually because I had to suffer the most to get to the finish line. That really doesn’t have anything to do with who should win, but it was the best I could come up with at the time.

Sunday was the Old Capitol Criterium in downtown Iowa City. Super 1 km course. One downhill and a big ring climb with lots of corners. It was super windy and 92 degrees, which made it pretty difficult. I was somewhat “recovered” from the efforts the day before and felt better today. But that didn’t really matter because we had already won before the race started. There was nothing that anyone was going to be able to do to stop Brian from getting away and lapping the field. 100 times out of 100 that was going to happen. And it did. But, Brian had to do abunch of work obviously. He got around in about 30 laps and then things began to heat up for 2nd. The field was pretty pitiful from the heat and efforts. Eventually, with about 7 laps to go I got away in a group of 5, with Brian being the engine. He gave me a good leadout to the last corner and I won the sprint for 2nd, with Jeremy Sartain, Grand Performance, getting the last podium slot.

Both the races were good courses for us and the results showed. Mark and the gang from Iowa City put on 2 super fun, high quality races. Thanks.

Now it just two weeks until the next objective, Joe Martin Stage Race NRC. I can’t say that I’m so thrilled with the season since Redlands. I was bitten by a feral cat on Friday. Long story, I had her kittens that turned out to be too young to feed themselves, so I decided to go catch her. I put on a Carhart jacket and welding gloves, but that wasn’t enough. She bit through the gloves and into my hand. I didn’t think it was a big deal until I got home and looked it up on the internet. Cat bites and scatches aren’t good, but especially are very bad if you don’t have a spleen. Which I don’t (ruptured falling from a tree when I was 6). So, I went to emergency med and got my 3rd round of antibiotics in a month. 10 days of Augmentin. That is nearly 2/3 of the month of April taking antibiotics. That can’t be good, unless your Todd Wells.

When I was on the Specialized MTB Team with Todd, he took antibiotics like most people take vitamines. Didn’t seem to slow him down too much. Anyway, I hate antibiotics and they slow me down alot. At least mentally.

I always used to answer the ? what is the hardest thing about being a Professional bike racer with – racing when you not going good or sick. I have to stick with that. It sucks. There has to be something about the sport that isn’t great. Small price to pay.

Iowa City Road Race Official Results

Sr. Men Pro/1/2

1 Stephen Tilford 47 TOPEKA KS Heartland Road Racing Club
2 Brian Jensen 31 LAWRENCE KS Heartland Road Racing Club
3 William Stolte 37 TOPEKA KS Heartland Road Racing Club
4 Peter Hanna 34 ST. LOUIS PARK MN Bianchi/Grand Performance
5 Eric Marcotte 27 MINNEAPOLIS MN Bianchi/Grand Performance
6 Shadd Smith 36 OVERLAND PARK KS MRRC
7 Brian Eppen Iowa City IA Iowa City Cycling Club
8 Chris Spence 41 OMAHA NE Team Kaos Cycling
9 Cody McCullough 37 SIOUX CITY IA Poweraide/Independent
10 Jeremy Sartain 33 ST PAUL MN Bianchi/Grand Performance

Joe Martin Stage Race is in a couple days. I haven’t been looking forward to it much because I’ve been feeling so crummy. But, even if I was riding super good, it’s hard to look forward to a race that has all the best Pro Teams there with twice as many riders as the rest of the field. With Toyota and Healthnet and others, bringing 10 guys, it turns the race into a training weekend for guys like me. Actually, it turns the race into a training ride for virtually the whole field, even the race eventual race winner. Most likely the race will be won by whoever wins the 2.5 mile uphill TT. But, last year, Healthnet kept the race together for field sprints in both road races and the criterium, so Gord won it on time bonuses. Two hard road races and a super technical criterium stage race won on time bonuses. Fun.

It is a shame that the people at USAC can’t address the problem and restrict Teams from only being able to enter 6 riders in each NRC race. It would help encourage offensive racing and help alleviate the huge difference between the “PRO” teams with big budgets and the local teams.

I, as a rider, would personally hate going to a race with 9 teammates racing. It would be embarrassing if we lost and very unrewarding when we won. So, at least two or three PRO teams racing Joe Martin are going to be embarrassed.

Tri Peaks, the next weekend is even worse. Healthnet has brought 14 or so there the last two years. Sorry for being so negative, but when it’s in you own backyard, it seems more important. But, like I said before, should make for some good expensive training.