Tour of Elk Grove
4th August 2008 by brtoone
Posted by Brian Toone
Category 1/2 Stage Race
August 2-3, 2008
Elk Grove Village, Illinois
Summary for the weekend: 15th place (Stage 1), 18th place (Stage 2), 17th place overall for the GC. The top 8 places on GC were people who had gotten any time bonuses at all for either stage and then the rest of us were tied for time so they broke the ties by adding your placings together from the two days.
Stage 1 was a fast, flat race with lots of crashes. I was in a couple of ill-fated moves, and it certainly looked like we were heading for a field sprint. I fought for good position most of the race but somehow managed to be at the wrong place for all the time bonus sprints and primes. Towards the last two laps, I made sure to attack up the side any time the pace slowed just to keep my position in the group. Also in the last two laps a move got away right after a $500 late race prime. I was in the front and watched it go thinking there was no way it would stay away — well, it must have had just the right composition because the field didn’t chase right away and the group of four just barely managed to stay away to the end. Meanwhile, back in the pack I was fighting for position and attacked hard up the right-hand side just as there was a surge. We reached the technical part of the course (four 90 degree turns in a row) and the pace was close to 30 mph going into the first corner, accelerated hard out of each corner but still lost some positions in each of the corners so that I had slid back into maybe the top 20 or 25. Coming out of the last corner, I jumped as hard as I could and was making up some ground on the lefthand side in the sprint when the main body of the sprint moved left and the lefthand curb appeared to move to the right (maybe not but that’s what it felt like). The sprint was very umm physical with bouncing and bumping – 50 meters from the line, I got hit from the left and from the right at the same time but luckily we all stayed upright and I came across the line 11th in the sprint, 15th for the race (with the 4 guys from the break finishing just ahead of the sprint).
Stage 2 was an 80k criterium (50 miles) on a longish course (1.7 miles) with a sharp 180 degree turn at one end, and yet we still averaged close to 27.5 mph for the race just like Saturday’s race. Saturday’s race (stage 1) was also 80k, but was run on a longer version of the same course by extending our route on Elk Grove Blvd before making a 180 degree turn at a different intersection. I was much more active in this race considering how fresh I felt at the end of Saturday’s race, and nearly grabbed a $200 prime. I was also in several failed breaks, including one that lasted for a lap and a half or so. I fought hard for good position at the end of the race, attacking up the side anytime I moved back farther than the top 10. Unfortunately, I ran out of water with 4 laps (6.8 miles) to go and I had been rationing water even before running out. I was fine until the last lap when I started to cramp. I had to coast at a couple critical moments and try to relax as best as I could and that cost me a few places. Managed 18th in the field sprint. Definitely great training for positioning in these fast, crazy field sprints.
Read the full details with power/heartrate data on my personal blog: Stage 1, Stage 2