Spicing up the forum today with a pure cycling race report. The race was a over a week ago, but just got a few pics up. More interesting that way, right?

Race prep for this started on Thursday - 2 days prior to the event - with a quick perusal of Chicago Bike Racing. Just reading up on the happenings around the Chi bike scene for the previous week, I happened upon a posting for upcoming races. One happened to be the O'Fallon Grand Prix, a race I had looked at prior in the year, but passed up because it was near St. Louis, a 4+ hour drive from Chicago. However, looking at it this time, I realized that the timing and location was absolutely perfect. I was going to be 10 miles from the race start that day anyway to attend a wedding with my GF. How perfect is that? I immediately call her up and ask for details of the wedding. Ceremony at 2pm, she wants to be there by 1:30. Okay, no problem. The race starts at 11:30... um, well, the 45 mile 4/5 race is out, so I'll have to settle for the 5's at only 22.5mi (one lap of a 22.5 mile loop). I head on over to Bike Reg to sign up. It's now 12:38 pm, and registration closed at 12:30. D***! Immediately email the race director and get a reply within the hour that there are 3 spots left and to get in touch with him quickly to have him input my info. Done, I'm registered for the race, and glad I have another reason to make the trip...

Fortunately, my parents live right off the highway on the way to the race, so after a Doves concert Friday night, my GF and I head out from Chicago at 11pm for the 100 mile drive to my parents'. We get in a little after midnight, chat with the folks for a few, and turn in around 1 am, setting an alarm for 5 (only a 3 hour drive, and should get us there in time for registration at 10 and a good warm-up). Wake up Saturday morning at 6:30, and after an hour of the GF getting ready we're on the road by 7:30. Right... cutting this a bit close, but that's pretty normal for me. The drive down takes us through a storm for most of the way, but clear skies abound when we pull into O'Fallon. I get registered, pin up the numbers, toss on my jersey and pull out my new Cinelli Xperience crit bike for it's first race, and head out to the start line with 10 minutes to spare. Or so I thought.

The starts have been delayed about 20 minutes. Um... okay, we're cutting things a bit closer for the wedding, but I'm a TT'er. I'll just have to sit on the front and keep the pace high so we don't spend too much time out there. Get the race briefing, no racing through the neutral zone at the start (much nicer than the melee you get at the start of a crit with everyone sprinting into the first corner) and can start up at the sign for the race start. I'm eyeing the competition and immediately single out a Verison rider. Solis frame, EC90 cranks, EC90 SLX tubulars, way too tan for Illinois in May. He looks to be someone who doesn't belong in CAT5 other than he just hasn't been racing USAC for long. The gun goes off and we pedal away from the line. A guy in Disco jersey, unpadded lycra shorts, and running shoes takes the early lead and I'm more than happy to tuck in behind him through the neutral zone. Only problem is, there's no obvious sign, so we leave him out there for about a mile. At that point, after a quick chat with Verison guy about how he likes the EC90 cranks (super sexy) and when we wanted to attack, we picked up the pace a bit and string out the group. We're rolling along at 27 mph with a slight crosswind and Disco pops out the back within 30 seconds. I stay at the front for the next mile, alternating with Verison. We come to a left hander after 2.5 miles and I decide to see what sort of acceleration the group has. I lead into the corner and hammer out like I'm in a crit. Verison comes with and we're ahead 50 m in 10 sec. Hmm... it's still well too early to attack, but it's nice knowing I'm focusing on the right guy.

Verison and I trade off the pace making for the next 5 miles until we miss a right hander. Hard to do with the turns all marked by volunteers waving neon balloons in the direction you're supposed to go. After turning around and latching back onto the end, we sit in for the next 5, hanging out as pack fill and slowly moving my way up to 3rd wheel:

The pack lets one guy solo off the front for a couple miles, keeping him around 10 sec and letting him burn his legs off on the hills. We reel him back in with 9 miles to go. I'm now sitting second wheel and chatting with the leader, letting him know that whenever he wants to relax, let me know and I'll come around a pull for a while more. He doesn't seem keen on relinquishing the lead, and I'm not going to complain about my position, so I sit tight, waiting for the decisive break. 13 miles in, a rider goes. I jump onto his wheel and Verison is on mine. We build up a gap of about 15 m and Verison comes around around me. "You ready to go?" "A bit earlier than I wanted, but sure." We counter attack and are away, pedaling like mad up a 1/4 mile hill. 25m, 40m, 75m. We're working well together, taking 60 sec pulls for the next 3 miles and build up a lead of about 45 sec:

We keep up the attack and hit a flat section into a 25 mph headwind. My turn to take the pace setting and I can't get around him. He didn't attack me, just sort of pulled away slowly until I was alone in second, 150m back with 3 miles to go. I switch to the drops, move up the nose of my saddle (not comfortable on a SLR) and hammer as much as I can to catch back up, but I just can't seem to gain any ground into the wind. With 2 km left, I start to bring back a little distance, and think he's starting to break. Turns out he was just going uphill, and I down, so I may have closed to 75m, but was still 15 sec back. I crest the hill and he's gone. I glance over my shoulder and can see the chase group coming fast. Less than a mile to go... c'mon legs. Don't lock up now!

With 1 km left, there's a killer hill. Short at 500m long, but averaging 13%, and topping out at 19%. Halfway up I look back and see the chasers just starting to climb. Still have 150 m on them with a fast, open slight downhill finish. If I can reach the top, I'll stay away. Legs burning, HR topping 190, I hit the summit with the same margin, look up and see Verison taking the win 300m up the road. Well, at least I held on for 2nd and a spot on the podium. Too bad I only have 20 minutes to clean up, change into my suit and get out to the church, a short 20 min drive away. No podium picture, sadly, but I got some quality frozen custard for recovery.

Total race time: 58:50, 22.9 mph. 967' climbing.