It's July!

That means it's Tour de France time!! Oddly enough, I realized I care a great deal more about this international biking spectacle than than pretty much any other sporting event at this point... Baseball? Meh. Basketball? Ha. Football? The Packers, that's about it... Don't get me wrong, I still consider myself a 'fan' of all of these sports, but be it for whatever reason, I'm finding pro cycling to be where it's at as far as my interests are these days.
So going into this year's tour, the level of competition and number of possible GC winners, was making it look like this could be one of the best tours ever!
And now we're only a week in, but it seems we're down to only a two horse race. Contador and Schleck. With all the other GC riders either crashed out, getting hurt, or not having the legs they were supposed to have, here we are, not that epic anymore...
Furthermore, Lance Armstrong's chances for his eighth tour victory, anti-climatictally came to an end after a terrible stage 8 where he crashed three times, and gave up eleven minutes to the leaders... This scenario really does sadden me. Bad luck took him out of contention. It's just really too bad. That's all you can say. But that's the sport I guess. I just sincerely hope now, that with time, this 'comeback' of his doesn't tarnish everything he's accomplished. Oh well. Lance is still my hero. I know every time I get on a bike, and every time a peddle turns, he will be the one I'm trying to emulate, and that will never change.

JULY 11th-Pewaukee Triathlon
So if you hadn't heard (it was all over the news) Pewaukee lake was closed for a couple weeks due to unsafe levels of E. Coli... Thanks impart to massive amounts of sewage being dumped into the lake... Lucky us, bacteria was back down to "safe levels" come the day before the tri, so RACE ON... hahaha, seriously?
Well anyway, claiming the first two waves were the 'elite' waves, I still didn't get to be in the first wave, but got to start 30 seconds back in the second wave... Swim underway. Trying not to think about the little bacteria trying to give me explosive diarrhea, I actually found the swim going very well. This is one race where you actually have to swim 99.9% of the swim leg. Running won't work here, as once out of the sandy area, sea weed takes over everything, and it gets deep too. But anyway, the water was nice and warm (sewage tends to be) and there was little to no wake, and I actually had a really good swim.
Onto the bike! Made a change with bike leading into this race. Looking for some more speed, I swapped out the super-light, pseudo-aero 40mm Lew wheels, for my little heavier, more aero 60mm Hed wheels. Only a 15 mile course around the perimeter of the lake, I was looking to crush the bike leg. Unfortunately, I didn't feel great out on the road. It seemed like I was never really able to push hard, or hold a strong effort for more than a short while. So I needed content myself with spinning out each gear, and taking risks through turns. Funny instance: totally zoned out riding down a long, straight frontage road. Next thing I knew I was off the shoulder riding in the gravel... haha. I didn't correct immediately because I probably would have crashed coming back onto the road, but rode the gravel for a good 50ft, dodged a cone, and then bunny-hopped back up onto the road... Yeah, I'm good. But with not feeling that strong, pulled out a 22.6mph avg. Not too shabby.
Running out of the transition area, past the beach, I was confused to see that they were indeed still starting waves of people?! WIth over 1200 people, and a short bike, I guess that'll happen. Still caught me off guard though... About a mile into the run, the E. Coli hit me. Ok it wasn't E. Coli, but all at once, my breakfast and the last nights dinner no longer wanted to be inside me. So similar to a N. Carolina experience I had, I had to do everything I could do to not make a mess of my shorts... But, it made me run fast at least, haha. And what is usually a 3.1 mile run, ended up being about a 3.25 miler for me, as I ran straight through the finish line and straight to the bathrooms...
Not believing I did that well, I packed up my stuff and was on my way. Turns out I got 3rd in my agegroup and 40th overall. 3rd in my agegroup of 88!? wow. (and 40th of 1200 for that matter) So I guess I'll see if I can have that trophy mailed??
So, pretty good race for really not feelin' it.
Interestingly: a little research showed me that with my 9th, 5th, 2nd, and now 3rd place finishes in my age group over the races I've done in the 5 star series, I'm on track to, in fact, win my age group. And promisingly, Oshkosh is my next and final 5star race, a race that I crushed last year. This year, August the 8th, it's ON. I'm absolutely going for it. First place age group, top 10 overall. YES you should come and watch, I'd like that.

Racin' through the month

I realized that this last month I've done quite a bit of racing. May 30th: Wausau WORS race, June 6th: Green Bay triathlon, June 13th: Sunburst WORS race, June 19th: High Cliff triathlon, June 25th: Fond du Lac Grand Prix Criterium, and lastly June 27th: Mt. Morris WORS race. Three different disciplines of cycling, three different kinds of racing in one month, cool.
I've already previously touched on the first three races I listed, so what's there to say about the rest of the month?

High Cliff triathlon- This was the first race I've ever done for the fourth time. By last year I already had a pretty good game plan going into it, how to race it smart, where to conserve and where to push. But this year I had the legs to really put the plan into action. Very windy day out there. Had big swells, whitecaps, the whole shebang for the swim. Luckily, the water was pretty pathetically shallow throughout. I could have run the entire thing... But, after running for a while, decided my legs were getting tired, so it was time to swim then, gotta save those babies for the bike after all. Onto the bike, climbing the High Cliff right away. In the little ring, just spinning up it as to not blow up early, and to wake my legs up for the abuse ahead. (Yes, spinning up the hill instead of all-out attacking it is something I learned through trial and error over my last few races here) Felt like I was flying out on the road. The tail-wind helped that, but I pushed as hard as I could when that wind was with me to make the most of it. Coming back into the wind, sun at my back, I tucked down as low as possible, and tried to get super slippery to slice through the wind. My shadow in front of me helped me monitor how tightly tucked I was. Almost a 23mph average over 21 miles with a large hill and a strong wind, I'll take as a successful bike leg. The run hurt, as it does at High Cliff. They send you right back up the hill fresh out of transition. Ouch. But after everything, a good, heck, a great day was had. I finished 2nd in my agegroup and 24th overall.
Fond du Lac Grand Prix- Part of the Tour of America's Dairyland series, this was the first and only race of the series I did. I've had some issues when it comes to criterium racing. Be it the fact that I've got hang ups about going through turns at speed with people around me, or that pavement hurts, or that I'd tend to get popped off the back the first time the road pitched up, this was going to be interesting. Thankfully, in the two years since the last criterium I participated in, cyclocross has helped my turning with others issues, I've encountered the ground once or twice, it still hurt, but mind over matter, and I'll try to avoid it. And as for popping off the back, my motor has grown exponentially since then, and a bonus, this course is flat as a pancake. Race underway, I'm sitting in the peloton, taking it all in, hearing cheers around the course, experiencing what road racing is actually like. Learned I much prefer the inside line through the turns, learned other people don't carry enough damn speed through the turns, and though I actually enjoyed the heck out of those 50 minutes of pain, I've got a lot to learn, but certainly do see more criteriums in my future. As for results, I totally succeeded in my two goals going in, stay in the pack, and keep the rubber side down. I finished at the rear of the main pack in 30th, but an extremely positive feeling 30th.
Subaru Cup, Mt. Morris- The plan was to race the cross country race on Saturday, and see how I can hang against Comp riders who I'd be directly racing against per UCI rules (combining sport and comp). But as plans tend to go array, I found myself with no bike Saturday morning, and thus unable to race... (bike had no brakes, bike went to shop to get brakes, bike was not being easily fixed, bike was to be picked up the next morning on the way to the race, bike was unavailable for pickup...) Thankfully WORS was nice enough to switch my registration over from the XC course to the short course the next day. So I played spectator Saturday, which was awesome considering this weekend of races was on the pro schedule, and therefore we got to see all the pros in action. Simply amazing to see these guys & girls earning there money out there. Really put me on a mt. biking high!
Race day- The short course consisted of a short hammerfest of only around 15-20 minutes of all-out pain around a short loop. I had a really good start, jumped off the line and was near the front for about a lap, but then other riders showed me why they were a category above me, and I slowly but surely, worked my way further and further back. Then if that wasn't bad enough, last turn of the last lap, I got taken out by a guy who came out into my line. Down I went, sliding on my arm and arse. So that sucked. Big time road rash (off-road rash I guess).
But a day can be salvaged. During the pro men's race, I found myself spectating next to a certain Heather Irmiger (pro mt. biker, member of Subaru/Trek team, national champion, and hottie) who was cooling down on a trainer and watching the race. And what do yah know, I ended up talking racing with her for most of the race, awesome! And then who should walk up into the conversation, but fellow Subaru/Trek teammate, and hottie herself, Willow Koerber. After talking with them for a bit, even then got to meet and talk to the one and only Katie Compton! Katie Compton being the multi-time national champion in cyclocross, and probably soon to be WORLD champion as well. AND I got to meet and greet another one of my cyclocross heros, multi-time national champion, 6'6" Ryan Trebon. So though sore and bleeding, I went away from that event totally happy and totally star-struck. How many other professional sporting events can you go to and just hang out with and shoot the proverbial shit with the athletes after the event? Awesome, cycling is AWESOME.