Local Racing

Found out last minute that a friend was riding in the Northfield Crit yesterday, so L & I went down to cheer her on. It was a good time and I was happy to be able to support the local racing scene a little bit.

Unfortunately due to schedule issues we only made it down there in time to watch the Women's open race and then we only had time to watch half the men's race that came after but a good time was had and we will be hopefully adding more race attendance to our schedules in the future. I think we are going to miss the Hopkins crit this Sunday, but will definitely be out to the velodrome in 2 weeks (would go next week but I'll be in Chicago instead).

Oh and let's not forget Le Tour begins this Saturday. more to come

Last week on the bike

Considering I wasn't able to even get on a bike until Thursday of this week, I was able to log quite a few miles which is always a good thing.

Thursday I was able to sneak out of work a little early and rode a little longer route along the river road than I usually do during the week and now I know why I don't. From Franklin st until I turned back over the lake street bridge the traffic was ass. I was stuck behind line after line of cars with no option to go around.

Friday I commuted to work and then to a haircut appt which gave me a nice chunk of miles, but Saturday was the big day.

L & I rode a chunk of the grand rounds from our house (Victory and Theo Wirth), then connected to the cedar lake-greenway trail. All in all a 30+ ride and given how rolling Theo Wirth is not bad at all.

Unfortunately Sunday I was only able to get a ride to breakfast in due to many errands needed. Guess there is always next week.

This Week - 67
Season to date - 671

It's crazy but this week I should pass my total for all of last year. I am well on my way to my goal of 1000 and heck maybe even doubling last year.

NVGP pics

Here are a few of the pictures I took at the final stage of the NVGP. If you know the identity of any of the pictured riders please feel free to leave them in the comments (I'm better at naming the protour riders, but I promise to be better next year).

The first couple are looking down and up the hill from where we were waiting. It doesn't do the hill justice but gives a rough idea.

Last week on the bike

Not as many miles as I would have liked but not a bad week this week. Of course when you aren't going on a 40 mile ride it kind of reduces your overall total for the week.

It definitely sucks that you can't enter the cedar lake trail from down by the new stadium site anymore because it means that I end up riding the river road all the time and it's hard to get motivated with the same scenery all the time. I will just need to come up with some new routes I guess.

With the expected inclement weather Tuesday it looks like I won't get out until at least Thursday this week but what do the weathermen know?

Weekly Total - 54
Season Total - 604

NVGP - Stage 6

What an awesome time!!!

The Stillwater Crit was a ton of fun to check out in person and I highly recommend it to everyone next year. We unfortunately missed the women's race as we arrived during the last 15 min but it took 20 min to find parking so that didn't work out so well, but the men's race more than made up for it.

L & I staked out a spot in the shade halfway up Chilkoot hill and waited for the fun to begin (Fun only because we were watching). Unfortunately Nathan O'Neill had to drop out due to illness, but even if he had been there I don't think anything outside of a crash was keeping Ivan Stevic from the yellow jersey at the end of the day.

I was impressed with the number of breaks that tried to get away given the insanity of the hill every lap, but they were all brought back until with just over 1 lap to go Frank Pipp, Darren Lill, and Rory Sutherland went off the front and were able to keep ahead of the peleton on the final sprint up the hill to the finish. It was crazy watching Stevic move up in the pack to ensure no one got enough gap to make a difference in the standings.

Heck just the power the riders had left at the end to "sprint" an 18% grade to the finish is insane. Given the lack of sidewalks, those of us on the hill could practically reach out and touch the riders. This wa a great vantage to watch the strategy even of the riders. You could see the peloton all strung out on the bottom of the hill, but every time they would reform and stretch out across the road and you could see people go from mid pack to the front by moving on the outside. Crazy.

The intensity of the hill had a couple of other affects as well. We saw quite a few chains dropped and luckily enough people knew what was up to give the riders a little send off to get started again and also the large number of riders dropping out after the halfway point.

I will hopefully post some of the pictures I took tomorrow but here is the stage info and final GC standings

Stage 6:
1 Frank Pipp (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis 1.00.09
2 Darren Lill (RSA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team
3 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Health Net p/b Maxxis
4 Phil Zajicek (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team
5 Kirk O'Bee (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis
6 Ivan Stevic (SCG) Toyota - United Pro Cycling Team
7 Cesar Augusto Grajales (Col) The Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling Team 0.07
8 Anthony Colby (USA) Colavita - Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light
9 Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA) Priority Health Cycling Team p/b Bissell 0.10
10 Dan Bowman (USA) Kelly Benefit Strategies - Medifast 0.16

GC results:
1 Ivan Stevic (SCG) Toyota - United Pro Cycling Team 8.35.48
2 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Health Net p/b Maxxis 0.27
3 Kirk O'Bee (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis 0.39
4 Phil Zajicek (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 0.40
5 Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA) Priority Health Cycling Team p/b Bissell 0.41
6 Darren Lill (RSA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 0.45
7 Anthony Colby (USA) Colavita - Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light 0.50
8 Frank Pipp (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis 0.56
9 Cesar Augusto Grajales (Col) The Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling Team 1.02
10 Jeff Louder (USA) Health Net p/b Maxxis 1.25