Superweek's Second Second

Whew. When I woke up this morning my legs reminded me that I have raced nine consecutive days. Yesterday was the last day of the Masters 30+ series at Superweek. The competition was tough. There were many former pros and national champions in our field. Riders came from over a dozen states.

With three days remaining I was third overall and feeling the toll of all the racing, but I got a second wind for the final two days. Both Saturday in Waukesha, Wisconsin and Sunday in Bensenville, Illinois, I made the winning breakaways. The sprint that was on fire earlier in the week had extinguished. (I think this has as much to do with the borrowed bike I was still on for the second half of the series as it does my legs.) But I still managed to pull off a 3rd and 4th place finish respectively, which brought me up to second overall for the series (which is the same result I had two years ago when I last did this series). In the final race, the person who was in third was only seven points behind me. I marked him closely. We both made the final breakaway of eight. With a lap and a half to go, he attacked and I hopped on his wheel. With me there he slowed down and I prepared for the counter attack that came from his teammate, Robbie Ventura, who was most recently on US Postal. I made the acceleration, but did not have the speed to come around the three riders in front of me in the final straight away.

My friend Andy (from GRJC and U of M days) came and watched the race and hosted me in Chicago last night. Andy and I don’t get to see each other often, but when we do, we always have a good time. There is something very special about friendships that stay strong and real despite considerable time and distance.

I’m driving up to Grand Rapids this morning to see my brother for a day. He and his wife fly out tomorrow to Peru.