Tour of America's Dairyland 2012

The Tour of America's Dairyland race ended last Sunday (7/1/2012). Now that I have had a chance to catch up on work, sleep, and general recovery I feel I'm ready to tell of my experience at America's largest amateur cycling event.  Each race is held around the Milwaukee area, Sheboygan, Fond Du Lac, and Madison Wisconsin. Even if you don’t race, the scenery is wonderful to behold and there are many events going on around the race too, it’s a festival like atmosphere.  Not to mention the temps were  at least 20 degrees cooler than Lincoln Nebraska.

           This was my second year of doing this event and it was just as fun as the last time. Ten days of cycling, 8 criteriums and 2 road races with 60 to 100 racers each day in just the events I participated, Masters 3/4. Each venue had hundreds of spectators cheering on participants in all the races, starting with the juniors all the way to the Pro/1’s.

            

           I had been feeling really good going into this race and was ready to do what I could to improve on last year’s effort.  (11^th overall) The first few days everyone is spry and ready to prove something to the world, and I was one of them. My plan was to not let any breaks get away without me. I positioned myself at the front and would jump on any attack. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same battle plan too and nothing ever got away except for one day which happened to be the road race. Still feeling strong I even attempted a few attacks myself to no avail.

           

          Then it was time for the final sprint. I’m not a sprinter, nor do I pretend to be; however, I will give my best effort to maintain or try to gain positioning. The first race of the series had me finishing 10^th. First time I’ve ever finished in the money. I was having good hopes for the series. My plan was to have a few more of those and finish in the top 10, top 5 if I could finish well in the pack every day.  Rest of the series I would slowly give up positions as I could feel the toll all the races were taking on my legs. I think I did well in keeping my position at the front of the pack (top 10) throughout the race, but always on the last lap I lost my aggression. There were at least three crashes in my race every day this year, this made me edgy. There is nothing like crashing in the middle of a long race series and then having to go home with a busted bike or body.  This happened to several riders this year.

          

         Day 5 was Schlitz Park. This criterium has one huge hill, think Iowa City Cap Crit hill extending 2 blocks, and a very technical descent. I really wanted to do well at this race, but alas it wasn’t meant to happen. My problem is that if I get to the front of a race with a hill in it, I am terrible at pacing myself up a hill. For whatever reason, I treat each time up as a hill sprint. This is what I did the first few laps of the race. Slowly but surely, I got popped off the back. Just as I was finally getting a rhythm and making up a lot of lost ground, the front of the pack was too close to my backside and was pulled from the race. Even though I placed 22^nd, I decided to wallow in my own self-pity for a while and rode over to Lake Michigan. I wanted to take a long ride off a short pier; however, you are not allowed to ride your bicycle on the pier there, so I opted to sit on the rocks for a while. After a while, the cool water was too enticing to ignore and decided to jump in for a bit. Oh boy, that was cold, but it felt so good and seemed to have rejuvenated me a little.

               Rest of the week went fairly well. Wednesday’s road race was not playing nice with me either and decided to just ride it out at a steady tempo.  Frustration was beginning to take hold of me.

               The final two days of racing, Downer Ave and Madison, were finally upon me. Where did the week go? Downer Ave is a touchy race for me; weekend warriors show up with fresh legs and gutsy attitudes, which do not make a good combination for this course, and the road is very rough in several spots.  The second turn is slightly off camber and greater than 90 degrees turning. Riders have a tendency to sprint to the turn, then jamb on the brakes to make the turn, sometimes chopping the corner in front of other riders too. Last year there were three wrecks, this year the tally went up to well over a half dozen.  Thankfully, I was able to avoid all of them. After the final turn it is a long way to the finish line and on the last lap it became apparent as I was trying to hold my position and thinking that it was never going to end.

                Final day in Madison and I’m feeling good and slightly sad that it’s going to be over. This is a simple square course with a nice little kicker of a hill between turns three and four. We arrived in plenty of time to warm up and get some laps in in between races. I mounted my trusty steed and it felt like I had suspension on my saddle. I pull over and notice that the carbon rails on my fizik saddle were snapped between the nose and mounting brackets. Apparently all those chuck holes I had been hitting at Downer Ave caused the rails to give way. Not good. Thankfully, the Team Mack mechanic had a spare saddle I could use. A few minutes later and it was good to go.

                A little over halfway through the race, I saw a friend, Lami, go off on an attack. I got on his wheel and let him know I was there and we were good to go to try and break away. When we came across the line they announced a $50 prime. Lami looked at me and said, “Go!!! It’s yours!” So I went and I didn’t stop, I wanted this. Take it I did and by a considerable gap too. Then I so wanted the pack to catch back up to me so I could get some rest for the final nine laps.

                I tucked myself in and held my own all the way to the finish.  The bonus side was that no one crashed the entire race.

                It took a while for the results to be posted and I couldn’t believe my eyes, but I ended up 5^th overall. It might not seem like much, but to me it was an accomplishment I didn’t think I could make this year. Now the bar has been raised and next year will be another whole new adventure. Hope to see more Nebraska riders out there next year.

                

Tour of America's Dairyland Day 1

Since I didn't get into Leadville this year, I wanted to do an exciting bike race. What could possibly be more exciting than doing 10 straight days of road racing in Wisconsin at the Tour of America's Dairyland? Eight criteriums, one road race, and one time trial. The answer to that resounding question is NOTHING.

I opted to enter the Masters 3/4 field for the entire 10 races. One reason for this decision is that the fields can be as large as 120 riders whereas the Men's 4/5 is limited to 75 riders. You may be asking, does that really make a difference? If you are an adrenaline junkie such as myself, you betcha. Nothing taxes the adrenal gland more than rider wheel to wheel and shoulder to shoulder with other riders at speeds of 25-40 mph on two wheels.

The first of ten races was in the town of Thiensville Wisconsin, a suburb on the northern side of Milwaukee. This course featured six turns, with turns three and four being very short and narrow which made it very technical. There road between turns four and five featured a false flat, with turn six leading into a small downhill to the start/finish.

There were seventy-two riders who lined up for the masters 3/4 race. Once the whistle the race was off to a very quick start which didn't seem to let up. There were some riders who wouldn't hold their lines in the turns and almost made it ugly for a number of riders. Thankfully though everyone kept the rubber side down for this race.

Knowing that there were mostly cat 3 riders in this race, my plan was a simple one. Stay with the pack, second plan was to stay near the front. Halfway through the race four riders broke away from the pack. One of the riders belonged to a team that had 10 riders in the race. That team knew they had to shut down any attempts at bringing the breakaway back, and they did an excellent job of it too. Any time riders would get to the front and begin a hard charge, up from both sides of the field this team would come to the front and shut it down. There was no way we were going to bring them back.

With five laps to go I worked on moving myself up in the pack. Three laps to go and I was in the top 20. Two laps to go everyone was jockeying for position and the pace was extremely high. I pulled from dead inside myself to hang on. People were doing some stupid and dangerous stuff; I was just hoping they wouldn't take anyone out. I didn't have much coming into the finish but I had a respectable finish in my book.

A major goal has been accomplished, I finished with the pack. 47th overall and 23rd in the 35+ age group. I'm definitely looking forward to the next races to see what I can pull off.

It's been a rough year so far with 2 crashes, one of them bad enough to ruin my brand new bike three hours after picking it up. I've been dealing with some serious mental issues about crashing too, which I think I'm almost over. This has made me overly cautious in the pack, especially when riders do stupid stuff. I may go into more detail about that at a later date.

So far, the Tour of America's Dairyland is a great race series to participate in.