Nature Valley started today. Having abit of a computer access problem so I’ll update more later. The weather is cool here in Minneapolis. Barely in the 70’s. Tom Zirbel, Bissell, won the TT this morning. 6 miles finishing on a 800 meter climb. I sucked. I generallly suck at Time Trialing now that everyone has time trial bikes. I swore last year I was going to get one. I almost did last week. I felt pretty good, just went pretty slow. Zirbel recovered pretty well from his big effort in Philly on Sunday. He beat Rory Sutherland, Ouch, by 13 seconds.

The St. Paul Criterium was tonight. Bissell had 6 riders finish in the top 12 in the time trial, so the race was destined to be a field sprint. The course was 1 km with one side having a slight climb and the start/finish stretch downhill. There were a zillion man hole covers that were recessed. It was stupid dangerous. Not because of the road surface. Mainly because of the way that Bissell was setting tempo at the front. They were only riding the inside of the course and swinging out for each corner at the last minute, jacking up the riders behind. A 4 rider break stayed away until the last lap. Colivita did a crazy fast leadout the last km and Haedo won. The front of the field shattered. I thought I was in pretty good position, but got tangled up and shuffled back. I had a bunch of juice still on the last lap, but the front of the field split. I was just trying to reconnect to the front and ended up 10th. There were huge gaps, but I’m sure the officials will score the field with one time. The average speed was pretty fast. I had something in the high 28 mph range at the end. Pretty quick considering how many times a lap you had to be fully on the brakes. It was starting to rattle a fair amount of guys. I was okay with it. That was just how it was going to be.

Tomorrow, the Cannon Falls Road Race doesn’t start until 5 pm. It’s less than 70 miles, so it will be a field sprint again. There won’t be any real bike racing until the last hour on Saturday in Mankato. The finishing circuit there is very hard and it will decide the GC.

I rode to the time trial and criterium and back, so it was a good mileage day. Not sure what I’m getting the mileage for other than I like riding my bike in new places.

Cannon Falls road race is a 55 mile loop out in the country. You turn onto a 1 km gravel section and then a screaming descent into Cannon Falls. From there you proceed to do 6 laps of a 2 mile circuit with lots of tight corners. The finish is up a slight hill for the last 300 meters. Pretty hard sprint. Historically there has be a ton of wind on the course. Not today. It was pretty calm and around 75 degrees. Good racing temperatures. That being said, it was destined to be a field sprint. Which it was. Nothing much got away. There was a little bike racing the last 5 miles before the gravel. Alot of the time we were just cruising along at over 35 mph. Nothing much is going to stay away at those speeds. I made a pretty good move and hit the gravel in 2nd position. Tim Johnson and another Ouch guy were 3rd and 4th. I punched it over the top and tucked on the rough descent. At the bottom, there is a sharp off camber 90 degree corner. I came up on the motorcycle official like he was standing still. He gunned it, but nearly knocked me down in the corner. I only had a 100 meters or so and sat up. The circuits were chaotic as usually. Lots of people trying to control the front and everyone else trying to move up. The last lap, I was in pretty good position considering the mayheim. I got up to somewhere in the top 20 in the last km. I made a pretty good move to the final downhill, but got taken out wide in the last real corner. That was enough to put me out into the wind sprinting to reconnect to the front of the field with 300 meteres to go. I was hoping it was going to ease up some, but it didn’t. I made a half hearted attempt to sprint and bagged it with 100 meters to go. But, the remainder of the field was so blown that no one passed me even though I was barely pedaling. I finished 16th. Whatever. Colivita was 1-2 on the stage. They have the leadout situation down to perfection. The speed is so fast the last km, that it’s nearly impossible to move up. Tommorow is another night time criterium in the Uptown area of Minneapolis. It should be pretty exciting. A awesome crowd will be there. Then the racing really begins with Mankato Road Race and Stillwater Criterium on the weekend. It should be pretty interesting seeing whether Ouch or Bissell comes out on top. Each of those teams has at least 3 guys in the top ten. I’d put my money on Ouch, but you never know. It’s bike racing.