Superweek’s trip to west suburban Bensenville saw a return to another "interesting" course that finished on a relatively winding bike path. Luckily, the promoters had worked with the Bensenville authorities and the path had been widened and was freshly paved. Still, the exiting and especially the entering turns were a bit tricky because they had to go over a slight lip and some fresh patching.
In the Cat 4 race, Joe Bippus earned his first win, outsprinting Nate Iden (SpiderMonkey) after leading out from a long way out. The excitement we all felt was tempered somewhat by the serious crash of 3rd place finisher, James Scott, who swerved off the path and became entangled in the metal barriers lining the finishing straight. Thankfully, it appears that he will be ok. The barriers were removed and then our race, the Cat 4/5 30+ finally got underway.
Not surprisingly, the group was a bit cautious starting out, and the race followed the usual script — a few attacks, but nothing stuck. Coming into the final lap, I had pretty good position, probably 6th wheel. Unfortunately, the rider leading slid out in the last, tricky corner. Luckily, everyone got through safely, but I braked too much and lost several spots, finishing only 9th out of 31 starters.
We returned to the same course the next day and were pleasantly surprised to see that the final corner had been repaved, making the entrance on to the bike path much smoother. I was determined to be more active in this race and tried several hard digs, but all they accomplished was to string out the pack for a few hundred meters. I did, however, set season bests for 5" and 1′ power, suggesting that all those attack intervals and sprints have been working.
On the last lap, I failed to be aggressive enough and lost my position, winding up near the back of the group going in to turn 2. Attempting to make up for my lapse, I gunned it coming out of the turn, so hard in fact that my rear wheel skipped, putting my heart in my mouth and I’m sure scaring the crap out of the guys behind me. I jumped hard and managed to get to the head of the group, but two riders were already away, so although I was technically 3rd wheel, all I really did was give a nice long leadout for everyone else. When people starting passing me on both sides, I sat up and rolled in for 11th, not a great way to finish a race in which I felt really good.
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