Fox River Grove Criterium Race Report

First up, Masters 4/5. I had a plan for this race. Be the first one up the hill and try and get off the front. Being a 20 min. + 2 lap race, a break would have a good chance as the hill would thin the field quickly.

I was able to surge up the hill and get off the front, but never got more than 50m during the first lap, so I decided to pull back in and use my teammates. Dave Janus, Chris and Bob were all racing with me, so I knew we could work together. Over the next lap, I think we thinned the lead group down to 6 people, including Dave and Chris. The three of us started working up front, taking probably 65-70% of the pulls during the race. Dave was a monster, and did a huge pull on the next to last lap. This allowed me to recover, then chase the two guys that took off on the hill going into the last lap. I couldn't catch them, but opened up a gap on the other three behind of about 100m. I crossed the line 3rd, and Chris took 5th (his best placing of the year, great job Chris).

Later, looking at my powerfile, it reinforced how hard this race was. It reminded me a lot of Snake Alley in terms of climbing the hill and then descending as fast as possible.


The next race was the 4/5's, and a few us who raced the Masters jumped immediately into it. I was pretty tired, and figured I'd just try and hang on for a good workout. Fowkes warned us he'd be pulling lapped riders aggressively as there was no race camera and wanted to keep things easy to track. Hmmmm.... Nick and Chris were there, fresh and eager to win, as well as my teammate Calvin, a slug of Cuttin' Crew guys, etc. This race was going to be fast.

Fast it was. I was a good 200m off the leaders by the top of the hill, and by the middle of the first lap, I'd had enough. I coasted into the start/finish and dropped out. No big deal, I'd given it pretty much all I had in the Masters race anyway. Besides, running the 4/5 and Masters 4/5 back-to-back? Whose bright idea was that? And no race camera...? [sigh...] Chris broke away for the solo win, with Nick coming in 4th and Calvin 5th.

Earlier, I watched Jeanette win the Woman's Masters 35+ and Tamara win the 4's, and later saw Ed win the Masters 1/2/3 and Luke take 4th. Later, I learned Peter (who had upgraded to the 3's that morning) took 4th behind Luke, who won. Ed took second in the P/1/2's, and Heidi took 2nd in the Women's 1/2/3. Wow, one hell of a day for xXx.

Despite my displeasure with the scheduling of the 4/5 and Masters 4/5 races, it was a very well run race and a lot of fun. I will definitely be back next year.