Memorial Day was the first annual Lakeshore Tech College Crit.  Hopefully it won't be its last.  It was a really nice challenging course and really wasn't a Crit.  I think it was more of a short Circuit Race.  The race took place on the College's loop road which was closed to cars.  There wasn't much flat ground on this race, the back stretch was flat but had a chicane through a gate on it.  So this wasn't a typical race course.  I was thinking about doing two races today, but didn't feel like waking up early to hit the road.  I could have jumped in another race 10 minutes after my first, but said no way after finishing.  When I showed up they were hauling someone away in an ambulance, always a great way to start the racing day off.  There were some very fast corners on this course luckily everyone in my race were good bike handlers.  The Masters race I was in started off pretty chill with a little half lap warmup.  Then things started getting serious.  I think the BRFs started it off first with some breakaways.   People kept trying throughout the race but, I kinda decided that no breakaways were going to stick.  The course was hilly enough but, there was a strong head wind on the back straight which hurt anybodys chances of getting off the front.  There were only nine of us left with three laps to go  and one guy soloed off the front ending up with the win.  I didn't think he was going to stay away because we were slowly reeling him back but he made it.  I had decided on the last lap to be the first through the chicane.  Which I managed to do and I kept riding hard through the next two turns but was caught right after that.  I actually got a stitch in m side so I must have been going about as hard as I could.  I pretty much coasted in after that.  Finished eighth, at least I tried I guess.  It turns out the guy who won was a cat 1 so I don't feel so bad.  Good to see some of the BRFs and Andy Tegge was back tearing it up.  Hopefully I will do a few more road races this summer.  I definitely have the Troutman circled, though with it being a Wisport race the dynamic will completely different.  I looked for race results but couldn't find them.  -Later

Crystal Lake Classic

Not much to say about this race.  I wasn't expecting a lot this year even though I did pretty weel here last year.  I had my hardest back to back training days of the year on Wednesday and Thursday, and was feeling it on Friday.  Rested on Friday and hung out on the lake with my Family most of the day Saturday.  I prerode the course on Saturday and didn't really like the course changes.  I had a really nice long warmup and felt pretty good at the start, so I must have recovered somewhat.   The start for my wave was pretty chill.  I just grabbed a wheel and stuck on it.  He stayed up front for the first couple of corners then I jumped on two other guys that were making a move.  I felt pretty good riding with them and the three of us got a gap going into the singletrack.  We hit the first singletrack climb and they gapped me.  Still too fat I guess.  So I mostly rode by myself the first lap.  Had one washout on the first lap and banged my knee and lost my Bottle.  Luckily my Lovely Wife Christi was ther to do a great job with the handups.  The rain and small hail started the second lap, something I usually enjoy other than wrecking my bike.  I feel like I usually do well in a mud race.  This time the rain washed all my sweat into my eyes.  I rode for half a lap with my eyes burning and hardly able to see.  I ended up stopping and washing my eyes out with water at the second station.  The third lap went better for me as I felt more comfortable on the new course and the corners were tacky.  I ended up 3rd in age and 22nd overall, so not terrible.  My Teammates on the Elite side of things were really tearing it up.  With Jusin finishing 5th overall and Ben in 8th.  I don't think we could have gotten a better weekend even with the storms.  See ya outside...