Race Day!

So, today was my first road race of the season.  It was also Daniel's first bike race!  The race was the Great Forest Park Bicycle Race.  It was a beautiful day to be in the park, with the temperature in the 70's and low 80's. 

Daniel and I at his first race!

As for the race, I actually felt really good.  My goals today were #1, not to get dropped and #2, make it through the race without crashing.  Early season criteriums are notorious for sketchy riding and lots of crashes. 

Our team strategy today was to have a couple of us up front attacking and keeping the pace high.  More than anything, we are feeling out working together and taking control of the race from the other teams.  I think that we executed it pretty well.  Brady, Barrett, and I were all at the front for most of the race.  I had a few good digs off the front and we forced some of the other teams to burn their cards and chase us down.  I actually had really good legs today.  This was encouraging, because one of my goals for this road season is to win a race by attacking off the front.  I marked an attack with two laps to go and tried to put something together with the other guys up there.  Ultimately, we got caught and I sat up in the last lap.  I wasn't about to risk it sprinting for 20th place... 

Like I said earlier, early season crits are notorious for crashes.  Unfortunately, two of my teammates went down hard today.  Chris got pushed into the curb and thankfully, landed on soft dirt that broke most of his fall.  Jim was not that lucky.  He got taken out by someone coming across the field and crashed horribly.  He ended up breaking his collarbone and has a partially collapsed lung.  To make matters even worse, he was just coming back from breaking his OTHER collarbone during the first cyclocross race of the season.  Jim is a good friend and a heck of a bike racer when he's healthy, so I feel really bad for him.   Today was a grim reminder that cycling can be a very dangerous sport.

My next race is two weeks away.  It's the dreaded Hillsboro-Roubaix road race.  This is the most popular race in the region and takes place on lots of rugged, crappy farm roads around Hillsboro, IL.  There are also a couple of killer climbs and some cobblestones thrown in for good measure.  I'm predicting a 3 hour sufferfest...  

D.J.