Renaissance Park Criterium

The Texas Roadhouse boys were not here today, probably because they were too scared to leave home when they heard that THE Savage Hill Cycling Team Presented by STOCK would be here with Tim Swain, Mike Stubna, and Ryan Gamm….I still can’t believe we didn’t get a Pro Tour birth, it’s a bloody conspiracy…

Hot Day, Small-ish Field, open course, I figured something would stick, which is why I spent a solid 10% of the race OTF (Off-The-Front) like an idiot, I wasn’t going anywhere.

Matson decided one race today wasn’t hard enough and to be in our too, he almost got a prime, but apparently some guy punked him at the line, again, conspiracy…

Swain rode strong as always, and kept it upright which: Macht Mir SpaB, In die Hosen!

Stubna was THE MAN Today, totally led me out the last lap to catch a guy that had been OTF solo for about 5 laps, I felt like the big bully on the playground beating up on the skinny dork when I caught this guy in the last 200 meters…..Actually I have no idea what that’s like, anyway, Stubna is the man

Wish Stubna a good trip in Europe this week, Rumor has it he’s riding from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back in a week! Watch out for the communist Russians, I saw Rocky IV; they do bad things to people over there

I got a Michelob Ultra Jersey for the win from the Sponsors, that’s going to be on eBay so fast the carpets going to come off the floor

Rish and Todd are in France right now, Grimm is healing, Fish has important things to do, Mark is in NC, Nate is MIA, and now Stubna is leaving for Germany tomorrow, this is going to be a lonely month

At least I have Swain.

PS- APPRENTLY it is possible to get sunburn through a Sav Hill Skin suit!!!!????!!!!????!!!!!

Even crit haters like me have to like this one. Dayton Cycling Team does an excellent job putting this on. This year they had a great announcer (his first time according to a team member) and they pulled out all the stops with a podium and pictures of those who placed. Saw lots of happy kids and juniors too.

Cat 3: First lap I broke away with 1 person and we were brought back in at the end of the lap. Mid way through the second lap I launched again. This time the gap was clean and getting wider. I stayed out for the next 5 laps before sitting up and allowing the chase group of 4 to catch me. From here we worked very well together. By the end we had nearly put a lap into the field. Thanks Mitch for telling the announcer who I am --- he and I had an interesting conversation after the race. Apparently I had been beating up on him (the announcer) during the spring in the OVR series. ---Back to the race. With 2 to go I rode off the front accidentally and was brought back half a lap later. On the final lap I ended up being stupid and leading out Andys and the eventual winner (sorry I don't remember your name)

Cat 1,2,3: I was hanging in pretty good and even shocked the field by coming around them to attempt a prime but got beat at the line, after hearing what the prime was for I didn't feel so bad. Note to self, big carbon rims sitting the sun all day and racing twice on very hot pavement will build air pressure in the tires. Apparently to the point where the wheel will skip out on you. I had been doing fine in the group until an ill-timed skip and attack happened which caused me to fall off the back. I got together in a chase of 5. After the dead weight finished his hissy fit (and dropped out) the remaining 4 of us worked well together and nearly caught the field twice only to have an attack thwart our return both times. In the end I thought we were just going to sit up and ride through but when one attacked, we sprinted only 1 of my chasemates beat me to the line.

Thanks to the gang for all your cheering, especially Wendy and Shari.

Not a bad race to do. Although I regret the last turn and I think that some other girls felt the same way. The leader for the last turn was not too skilled and threw our momentum off for the hill to the finish. This meant that most of us had to make up for the slower and unorganized turn as we sprinted to the finish. I only wish that the finish would have been further away. The Savage girls represented the team well. Way to go!

4th in the crit....but I did rock the TT at Cyclist Connection.

The TT was on Trek tricycle and I was up against the time of 38 sec. from a bike messenger. I had good position on the bike and was the most aero, so I crushed the competion with 28 seconds. I believe the video will be on Rick's web page. The messenger was pissed...

A good day in the saddle.

Thanks to Team Dayton for putting on this fun race. It was hot when I was warming up on the course but after we started racing it didn't seem so bad, there was a nice breeze blowing all day.

Put in a bunch of attacks during the entire race just trying to get something to stick. But it seemed like the field was happy to keep reeling people in. The counter attacks from other teams were pretty rare. With 5 laps to go one guy went solo off the front and everybody in the bunch watched everybody else to see who was going to chase. Well nobody did . . . it's weird how group psychology works sometimes. I think everyone was wating for us to chase it since we had been by far the most active all day.

With a few laps to go, Ryan got up the road with one rider and a little later I bridged up with one more to make the chase group of 4. We traded pulls for a little while and then on the last lap I got on the front and gave it everything to reel in the solo guy. Finally caught him at the last corner and Gammer launched from my wheel up the hill to the line, taking the V in a photo finish superman sprint.

It is a great feeling when it all comes together at the end and all the effort you put into teamwork pays off. When things click, the whole is far stronger than the sum of the parts.

See you all in a few weeks when I get back from Germany! Ostensibly the reason I'm going is for a conference but I always end up staying at these things for a day or two. Then I get bored of all the stale math talks and ditch the scene and explore the countryside and stop at all the pubs. Cheers!

PS!!! Ask Ryan about his budding career . . . it's related to clothing but let's just say that it has more to do with what's In die Hosen than the Hosen themselves :-)

Let's begin with the end of the race: {insert your favorite expletive here}! In the last lap, corner 3 (the off-camber with the rippled pavement) I was set up where I wanted to be, ready to attack coming out of the corner. Alas, this year the attack happened going into the corner. The most dangerous corner, and instead of the 1- and 2-wide we'd been doing it, women came up on the inside and forced it 3 wide. I was the outside one who panicked, widened my line, and suddenly realized I was headed off course. I had a moment to correct, and wouldn't have hit anyone, but, nope, the reactions failed me. Off road I went, into that field of tall weeds. Katherine was great, yelling to me: "Keep peddling, keep peddling!" I knew I needed to scrub speed so I could get back onto the pavement without crashing. I succeeded on both counts.

I then wasted what should have been my finshing sprint, chasing back on. I was just making contact with the group at the bottom of the hill. I climbed the hill hard, passing a few riders, but the finish line was too close. By my count, I got 7th, but I wasn't listed on the score sheet at all--Kelly was listed as 7th. Jim did confirm for me that my memory was true, and I had passed her; I had tried to throw my bike for 6th, but Jim said I wasn't anywhere close to that one. I'm so mad at myself because I should have been fighting for a top 3 finish.

The rest of the race: It was a great turnout for women, 18. Dayton was organized, attacking regularly. Savage Hill often responded. Amy did a monster pull late in the race to bridge us up to one; Kelly did a good pull to save me from chasing down something else. My team was helping me--and I blew the finish. Congrats to Katherine for being our highest finisher.

Props to the juniors who came out today, and dealt with race challenges with courage and resolve: Chris M., Jeremy K., and Chet I. Props to all the other Savages out there today.

A little stressful, but not bad for my first dreaded Crit experience. I tried to stay up front to a) to stay out of trouble and get through the corners safely b) help chase things and set the pace. That worked part of the time, but the other part of the time I found myself at the way back….need to work on a happy medium. Tried to get up front for the last 2 corners, wasted some energy trying to get there, and got a little freaked when some women went off the road after the tough corner. My positioning for the sprint was decent, and I felt great physically, but mentally my heart just wasn’t in it. I was simply happy to finish safely. I thought the SHC women worked well together, congrats ladies!

Decided to do the Masters race today to be done early. Should have slept in. Nine guys rolled up to the line at 9am and though a few guys attempted to attack the rather lethargic group, nothing was going to get away today. Oddly, most of the race was ridden at 20mph or less - ho hum! I decided to save my effort for the last lap and attacked into the penultimate turn. Unfortunately, I lost my nerve and instead of just holding my line through the turn, I tapped my rear break and just as the textbooks tell you, I popped up and ended up rolling into the grass. Bye bye peleton (if you can call 9 guys a peleton). I was able to roll back onto the course without incident but it was all over but the swearing by then. My apologies to anyone who had young children near the finish line. I can be a bit of a potty mouth when I do stupid things at the end of a race. Live and learn.

Great day and a great race. Everyone on the team did well. CONGRATS to Gamm on the win. I think you should keep the jersey Ryan, you can use it as a uniform for your night job.

Once again, spent the race telling myself that I really do like crits,yes I do. I still hope that if I keep saying this, that mabe one day it will be true. Nice course, other than the corner with the rough pavement. I just got heat sick about two or three laps into it. At least the dots floating around did not start to sing and dance. It always amazes me that I can finish a race in 80+ temps and be freezing. Hmmm...better hydration next time.

Congrats to all the Savage racers, from the Juniors on up.

Good crit and a nice day. Early on it was apparent Team Dayton was going to be strong. They had a large number of people in the field and did a good job of keeping others from getting away. In the beginning I was able to get off the front alone but without any kind of help decided it was better to drop back and stay with the field. On the second to last lap I hesitated before deciding to try to go with what turned out to be the winning 5 man break of all Dayton riders, lesson learned. Waiting cost me and I ended up spending a lap hung out between the field and the break. Eventually I blew up and was swallowed up by the field.