Being from Colorado, I was quite intrigued to hear this race climbed to a ski jump. As I drive up, as advertised, I see signs pointing to a ski jump and as I take to the course for some recon, sure enough, there it is. This had to turn out to be a good day.

Despite the winter vibe emanating from that ski jump, however, it was steamy Chicago hot. My kit got soaked with sweat just getting changed in my car.

I have never done this race, but it had been on my radar all year as a goal and I hoped to do well. My race was the Masters 30+ 1,2,3. It was a small but fairly competitive field. For XXX it was me, Ed, Randy, and Luke. Albertos also had a few guys and everyone else was pretty much on their own.

I have to say, that hill is quite steep. Short, but steep.

The first 3/4 of the race was fairly tame. We would hit the climb at a good clip, some would get dropped, but the pace slowed on the descent and people would catch on. There were a few attacks but nothing stuck.

With 3 laps to go, I attacked on the climb and got a gap. This was not the hard part. The hard part was keeping it. Had I drilled it on the decent and flats, like maybe I should have, I probably would have been walking up the climb. I tried to keep a little in reserve, did not open up any more space, and made it fairly easy for the field to eventually catch me on the climb with 2 laps to go. Maybe if I had opened a bigger gap, they would have lost a little incentive to chase. At any rate, I was back in the field, which was now around 8 riders. If nothing else, hopefully it served to weaken one or two riders who chased.

On the ensuing decent, I closed a small gap on an Albertos rider who had slipped away and then we hit the climb for the last time. I think my heart rate was already well over 180 at the bottom and I just couldn't hold the pace. Eventually I rode in for 7th. Ed ended up 2nd, Luke 6th, and Randy 10th. Ed seemed a bit disappointed/frustrated with the 2nd. I wish I had been able to hang on the final climb to give him a lead out, but overall, we had quite a good race. A podium, and none of us out of the top 10.

I was surprisingly cooked after only a 30 minute race, probably partly due to the heat, and opted out of the 3s to head home early and spend the afternoon with the wife.

Overall, the race was awesome. Well organized, well run, great course. It was everything I hoped it would be and I will definitely be back.

I think next for me is the UWW road race then my first foray into Superweek.

P.S. Thanks to the XXX cheering section on the climb. I couldn't tell who all was there, but the encouragement was a big help.