Waukesha is a small town west of Milwaukee and the location of the Carl Zach Cycling Classic criterium. Today was the hottest day so far — when we rolled into the parking lot it was 96°F! Heather’s race was first as I was going to race the men’s Pro/1/2 race later on at 6 PM. The course was technical with a series of six 90° corners for the first half that actually rose in elevation ever so slightly. It was so subtle that you didn’t notice the rise until you actually had a descent out of the 7th corner. Then it was a fast sweeping corner to  the long start/finish stretch. By the time Heather started it was 100°. While we were waiting for Heather’s race to start, we hear this loud “POP!” A soda can sitting in the cupholder of a golf cart just exploded! Now you know it’s hot when that happens!

Heather’s race started fast and I could tell she wasn’t feeling good because she was immediately at the back of the field. At one point she was in a group that was even getting dropped! I was worried that she would, but she worked it and got back into the main pack. Her teammates were doing better, usually riding around mid-pack. At some point a group of six riders got clear of the field and the time gap started to consistently grow. With 10 laps to go the gap was around a minute so it looked like the pack was now racing for seventh place. Heather attacked solo with a few laps to go and worked it hard. I was surprised when I saw her off the front as I had discounted today as a “bad” day for her. She managed to hold off the field and get 7th. Not bad considering she almost got dropped in the first five laps!

For me, I knew start position would be critical again so as soon as the category before mine finished, I staged. They had some kid’s races in between, but most of us staging early just stayed up against the barriers and cheered them on. But as with last night, many riders staged from the front so yet again, I started in the middle of the pack. The race started and I clipped in and started pushing it. The first turn was really tight and most of us mid-pack or at the back had to slow to a crawl to get through it. I stayed about the same position for the first few laps while everyone was still figuring out the best lines for the turns. About three laps into it I witnessed a crash right in front of me in turn one, where I saw a rider endo and land backside to a tree…upside-down! Fortunately, they accounted for this being a dangerous turn so there was mattress in front of the tree. Since the rider wasn’t still there when we went around again, I assumed he was OK.

The worst part about this course was actually the 7th corner to the start finish stretch. Since I was near the back of the now dwindling field and with all the tight corners beforehand, the accordion effect was pretty strong. We’d make the turn with the downhill only to have to immediately have to start pedaling to keep up with the strung out field on the start/finish stretch. This was the longest stretch of the whole course and it was always ballistic there. We were doing around 34-36 MPH on it!! So mostly I was just hanging on for dear life and had to consider other places to try and move up.

After thirty minutes I was happy to still be in the pack. The pace never eased up but I started to feel better and that I could continue at this pace. Though it was later in the day, it was still hot and being that this was a 62-mile criterium, they allowed feeding. The problem was that they put the feed zone at the beginning of the start/finish stretch — the fastest section of the whole course! The first time I took a feed from Heather, I moved to the right and slowed down to 30 MPH and was able to get the feed, but in so doing I lost probably 10-20 places. The next time I came through a bottle bumped out of my bottle cage, so I needed another feed right away. Then, when I tried to get the next feed, it was faster and I dropped it. I noticed there were a couple teams feeding on the backside of the course where the speed was much slower…only 25MPH. So the next time around I told Heather to move to the “back” of the course. But she thought I meant move to the back of the feed zone!?! So after attempting to tell her this on the next few laps, I finally had to yell at the top of my lungs, “Go to the top of the HILL!” I guess it’s hard to hear riders when they’re flying by at 35MPH! Then the next time around I saw Heather walking with the cooler towards where I wanted her to go, so I knew my message finally got through. A few laps later she was at the back stretch and I was able to get a leisurely feed, even though we were still going 25MPH.

After an hour my situation was about the same, I was near the back suffering every time we’d wind-up on the start/finish stretch. I just said to myself, “I just need to make it to 90 minutes so I’ll be ready for the Boise Twilight!” Then, after 90-minutes I talked myself into suffering until the finish. At about the 1:45 mark, I found myself finally near the front. One of the international guys, who happened to have the red points jersey, attacked and I got on his wheel. I was pretty happy to be able to react. He stayed at the front but we started to be caught by the pack. I’m glad he didn’t want me to pull through as I don’t think I could have, but I was happy to be there!

We both got swarmed and ended up towards the back of the group. Then, as we came through the start/finish stretch the next lap, the field was all the way to the left-side of the road, heading straight for the spectator barriers! Whoever was leading the pack swerved last minute and the pack almost ran into it. I had to slam on my brakes as did most others and I’m surprised no one went down. We all made it through that event unscathed but now I was truly last-wheel!

Now it was around 10 laps to go and they started announcing cash primes for the field. First it was $50, then for the last 5 laps it was $100. This made things super fast again and every time we came around and they rang the bell for another one I was like, “Stop it already!!!” I just wanted to pace to slow enough so I could try and move up. Unfortunately there was no respite, so coming into the last lap I was near the back when we probably did the fastest lap of the race. A couple riders in front of me quit going hard before the finish so I got gapped off but still finished just off the back of the pack.

I ended up 42nd out of 46 finishers, but of course the results don’t list how many starters there were! Heather and I estimate it must have been around 130. She said that at the beginning of the race a huge group of 30-40 riders got dropped. I’m so glad I suffered at the beginning to stay in the fold. Overall we averaged 26.3MPH for 2 hours and 15 minutes. Not a bad night’s training! Up at the front there was a large break that got off, but they never lapped the field, so in essence we were going as fast as the break.

I have to say that was the hardest race I have ever done. A 62-mile crit with the Pro/1/2’s was pure suffering. It really humbled me in that I can clearly see how much faster I need to get to be competitive in these type fields. I hope that this training will make the Boise Twilight feel like a walk in the park!