Author
Calvin Smythe on May 5, 2008
Race name: Baraboo/Vernon Hills Criterium Race date: Monday, May 5, 2008
2 Days, 2 races, 2 flats, 2 hard, great days in the saddle.
The morning of the Baraboo Road Race was an exciting morning, woke up at 4 to catch a ride to Baraboo, WI with Chris Sherpitis. Drove 3.5 hours through winding Wisconsin rural roads, and arrived 1 hours before our race.
The race was even more exciting, the frist of two laps was ridden at a pretty chill pace. No true attacks, no hard riding to spit people off the back. At first I was curious as to why this was, turns out you don't have to race this course fast to race it hard. So many hills, such beautiful hills, cracked people's legs before they even started the climb. I was feeling good, I wasn't just hanging with the pack, I was trying to strike up conversation with other riders who seemed worried about the hardships to come.
I started the second lap with a flat tire right at the start/finish line. Telling the officials I was not dropping, I started to fix my tire when Chris road up behind me popped his wheel off and gave it to me. in about 10 seconds, I was given a push and off I went like a man possessed to catch the leaders. 15 mile story short, I caught all but 8.
Sunday's criterium was a short race, 35 min +2 laps. My thoughts were "I can stay off for 15 miles, I know it." So that's what I tried to do. I jumped from the pack on the second lap, and the pack bridged up to me, jumped the 4th lap, was caught. Jumped roughly 6-8 mored times, and was caught every time. I resigned myself to domestique the last three laps, chasing down a break that was threatening to stay away to the end. I'm not so dissappointed with this race, since I attacked so much (No matter how bone headed that might have been) and John Dugas finished second which I hope was partially because of my attacking, and chasing breaks.
Side note: that second flat happend at 10:05 am, the start time for the 4/5 event. Much thanks to Peter Allen, he had a spare wheel and allowed me to race with that wheel. It's good having team mates like this. Without them, I would have had a DNF, and a DNS, that would not have been fun at all.