It has been a year of highs and lows for me and my trip to Superweek could not have personified this more clearly. My first day was the Bucyrus Classic. It was considered a road race even though there were primes. The circuit was just short of 4 miles. I rode near the front and tried to follow moves that seemed dangerous. I found myself in a move with the extremely strong Cantwell of Fly V and one other strong rider. Cantwell was adamant about keeping this move clear and was demanding long pulls from all of us. I was struggling to do my fair share with these guys and luckily the move slowly ballooned to around 13 or 14 riders which allowed more time to recover. We stayed clear and I knew my odds of winning a group sprint were small so I tried an attack after the first hill and managed to scrape together about 15 seconds but it was not to be. I got caught at the base of the last hill. I sat in the group and tried to stay out of the wind and start my sprint as late as possible. I went as hard as I could and managed a top ten finish with 9th. I was extremely satisifed with the result partially because I could never have fathomed a top 10 finish at the fabled Superweek when I picked up a bike 6 years ago. I was on cloud nine.....until I was quite literally knocked off.
The next day was the Hincapie Lake Front Road Race. The course had a decent climb and overall suited me well. However, a break went very early into the 90+ mile race and I know it was the move. I was ok because my friend Mike Sherer was in the move and I did not have the legs quite yet after the previous night's effort. I was forced to be content with waiting and hoping to get into a secondary break. With around 6 laps to go of the 5 mile loop I was beginning to come around and found myself in a smaller group. We were descending the one safe, but fast, downhill on the course. I spotted a down rider 50 meters in front of me and the next thing I know the TT1 rider in front of me is sliding and I knew that it was going to hurt. I went over the bars landing on my head and back and coming to a sudden stop. I was in a lot of pain and my helmet was destroyed, that is two in one year. I was going to attempt the next day's race in Racine but it was cancelled due to tornadoes in the area. The day after I was in no condition to race with the pain in my hip and elbow so I sat on the dock of my friend Caroline's lake house, fished and had a few beers. The next day was the popular Downer's Ave crit so I lined up hoping the legs would come around so that I could compete and possibly squeeze out another result. However, it was not to be. My hip still hurt and to top it off the race was carnage. There were crashes everywhere! They eventually stopped the race and restarted and at that point I called it day hoping to keep what skin I had left.
All in all Superweek was a disappointment. I would have been in far worse spirits had I not managed the one decent result. However, it is always frustrating to travel planning on six days of racing and not even complete 2 entire races. But it is part of the game. I have found that this sport is constant peaks and valleys and being able to pull yourself off the pavement time and time again is what keeps things interesting and challenging. If it was easy everyone would do it. I will continue to line up hoping to finish first no matter how many times I crash and/or get beaten to the finish line because when you are able to get to one of those peaks....it is more than worth all the adversity.
