State Championships Aren't Decided on Wednesdays

Some might say that the Nebraksa State Championship road and criterium championships were soured by a low turnout among the Cat 1-2-3 field. Yes, that was disappointing. I can imagine even more so for the organizers of the event, Elkhorn Valley Cycling club.

But make no doubt about it. The low turnout was not a reflection of the quality of the races that were put on this past weekend. The Norfolk crew and local race officials deserve accolades for the race they put on. Thank you!

But I still wondered, was the low turnout at a State Championship weekend due to it being hosted (remotely) in Norfolk? At more than two hours by car, Norfolk is just far enough to make one choose between the lesser of two inconveniences: a five hour round trip each day, or in staying overnight. But as a State Championship venue, Norfolk also makes for an ideal location because of its neutrality as its nearly equidistant from Nebraska's most populated areas of Omaha & Lincoln.

Perhaps it was due to a lack of motivated racers in Nebraska? But this is obviously not the case. Last Wednesday night, there were 39 riders on the local Trek Store Omaha ride. No, there's a healthy appetite for racing around here.

Perhaps it's because of us. You and me. Perhaps we roadies simply need to do a better job of recruiting.

Recruiting is simply a matter of asking a non-racer, "When are you going to start racing?"

That's all it took for me. Four years ago, I didn't even own a bike. At the time, running filled that competitive void for me. Sometime later, my brother gave me a very well-used road bike and suggested doing triathlons. Soon, I was joining in on small group rides. Then came the Wednesday Night Worlds (WNW). My bike handling improved tremendously. So did my triathlon bike splits. I soon found myself looking forward to cycling more than running.

But I was still on the fence about racing.

If not for cyclists asking me when I was going to start racing, I may never have moved beyond the WNWs and inked my name on a single-day cat 5 license at the Norfolk Road Race two years ago. I've been all-in ever since.

Like me, did you wonder where the cyclists were this past weekend? It wasn't because of the the race, nor because of the location.

I say it's because of us. Recruiting grows our sport and makes for larger fields in all categories. It may take some time to get the younger riders into more competitive ones, but it's worth the effort. The benefits will be seen in more balanced teams and better competition. And as much as I enjoyed racing with the cat 1-2 field, as a cat 3 racer, I don't belong there. Wouldn't it have been great to see a field of 30, 40, 50! pro-1-2s duke it out for all the glory?

So next time you see that dude in the Pink Floyd jersey who shows up week upon week at your WNW ride, ask him when he's going to start racing for real.

Soon enough, you'll see him frantically pinning his number to his jersey in the parking lot on race day. And when you see this, make sure you go up to them and congratulate them for being there. Chris Spence did that to me. I'll never forget that.

So who's in with me?

There Will Be No Bacon Without Blood

This past Sunday, I joined up with eight others on what's known locally as the Bacon ride. It was my first undertaking of such an event.


Bacon ride participants Jonathan Neve, Mike Miles, Mark Savery & Eric Brunt. Not pictured: James Peters, David Randelman, Chris Goodall, Rafal Doloto

For those not in the know, the bacon ride is a round trip between Omaha and Platte River State Park, where a breakfast buffet complete with salted pig meat awaits. Much of the ride is on gravel and crushed limestone. As a result, most choose to ride cyclocross bikes.

It was a wet morning. A thunderstorm passed through at 4:00 AM, and another was threatening when we pushed off. Fortunately, we missed the storm and only had a few bouts of sprinkles. Still, the ground was soaked. The gravel wasn't too bad, but the crushed limestone was mushy in parts.


James Peters hydrates in Walnut Creek

There were many memorable moments on this ride. One of them was Rafal's crash on an old steel-trussed bridge spanning a swollen country creek.

Remember when Curly the Stooge would step on a wooden plank, only to have it come up and smack him in the face? Well, it was kinda like the inverse of that. As Rafal crossed the bridge, his front wheel neatly slipped into the expansion joint between two wooden planks. The wheel seized instantly. That's bad, especially when you're going about 20 mph, like Rafal was. However, the bike didn't stop moving. No, it continued to rotate around the front hub. Rafal had no time to react as the bike bucked him violently over the handle bars and onto the bridge decking.

Fortunately, both he and his bike were fine.

The same couldn't be said about his bibs:


Rafal's tattered bibs and road rash

I rolled up next to him a few minutes later to check how he was doing. What he said next was verbatim:

There will be no bacon without blood.

Yes! Our man was on a mission, and he was not going to be denied a seat at the Platte River State Park breakfast table that morning. Tattered bibs and road rash seemed to only motivate him more.

But before we got there, there was one more crash. A few miles down the road, Chris Goodall and I were riding and chatting side-by-side. We approached a sketchy corner at Hwy 50 and Hwy 66. As Chris rounded the inside corner, his tires washed out and slid into mine. Both of us went down. Then came a prolonged noise of aluminum scraping over wet concrete.

Remember folks, there will be no bacon without blood.

We were fine. Chris had some minor road rash, but otherwise okay.

The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful. In all, we covered 70 miles of beautiful country field roads, wooden planked bridges and crushed limestone trails.

Most importantly, Rafal got his bacon. In fact we all did, and even got some free high-fives to boot from the Lincoln crew who also rode in.



Good times.

If you haven't done a bacon ride, you really owe it to yourself to do so. I'm not saying that there'll be blood every week. There will certainly be bacon. But who knows? If you're lucky enough, perhaps Rafal will demonstrate how to wedge a front wheel into a bridge expansion joint just for giggles.

Happy Friday, everyone
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Lawns Are For Mowing

While the patch of zoysia I keep on my front yard for my golf short game is still brown, the Kentucky bluegrass has finally starting taking hold. The recent re-seeding and the wet spring has sprouted into lush green that is now ready for mowing.

And yet people are already talking about cyclocross, or "Lawn Racing", as Shim derides it.

Mod got the cyclocross discussion started on Facebook this week:

I've been working on something special for CX season. It's about ready. Full zip, ankle to hip warm up tights

Really, 18 comments on cyclocross and it's not even Memorial Day yet?

Not to be outdone, Bryan Redemske dropped a cx bomb of his own:

Cronus CX built. And now I wait for my new shoes

Did anyone else catch that, or was I the only who detected a note of impatience from Bryan, who, having just built a top-of-the-line cyclocross bike, also has to go through the indignity of waiting for new shoes?

I've got two words for you, Bryan: boo hoo.

Now for goodness sake, can the two of you psychos show some constraint, already? Yes, yes, we all love 'cross. And as much as we're dazzled by your latest bike, shoes and zippy pants, cyclocross season is like four months away.

Oh what's the use. I give in. The truth is that I'm simply green with envy over Bryan's new bike and Mod's new duds. There, I admit it. I'm jealous. Yes, it's a cool bike. Enjoy it, Bryan. I wish I had one.

Oh well, I can probably afford to put in an order for the warm up tights.

Yes, you may even catch me wearing those warm ups on a cool summer morning. On that day, I'll zip up those full length jobbies, walk past the Madone, and choose to take my lawn rig out for a spin



At least for now, lawns are for mowing.

Happy Friday, everyone
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Capital City Crit Cat 3 Men Recap

This past weekend, I raced the Capital City Crit in Lincoln, NE with five other Cat 3 Midwest Cycling Community teammates. We were by far the largest team out there of any race. With a large team like that, you have a lot of cards to play, and we used just about every one of them. In the end, I won the race, teammate Ryan Feagan won the field sprint and our team took both premes. Not a bad day's work.

In fact, it was Ryan Feagan who tweeted about working with the MWCC team pre-race,

and I'm excited to work with a team during a crit! @TrekO_Midtown represent

I couldn't have put it any better. As a newbie to cat 3 racing, I haven't had the opportunity to truly race with a team until now. For any of the cat 4 or 5s out there reading this, it does make a huge difference when you've got teammates working with you. It's almost like having insurance. I had the confidence throughout the race that if each of us did our part, though some of our individual efforts might fail to stick, our team's chance for a successful outcome was very good.

Here's my perspective of how the race went down.

Bryan Redemske (MWCC) drilled it from the whistle for the first couple laps. The field was strung out single-file and I was tail gunner. Then the attacks came. When our team sent Lucas Marshal, Team Kaos/Allegent Health chased him down. Then Kaos launched a counter, and we'd have Bryan Redemske or Matt Tillinghast pull him back.

photo credits: John Peterson, Nebraska Cycling News

Then at some point, it was my turn. I got away right as John Lefler Jr called a preme lap. The jump I got on the peleton gave me a comfortable margin to win that preme and stay away for another lap before being brought back in. But by then, we had Eric O'Brien, Lucas and Ryan Feagan well rested to go off the front once more.

About half way through the race, it was my turn to attack again. With Tillinghast on the front and Redemske third wheel, I just rode away from the peloton. When I was away, I punched it hard for a lap. Again, I was by myself. On the next lap, Nathan Hicks (Team EMU/Zealous) and Logan Evans (Univ North Dakota) bridged. Then came Vaughn Pierce (KAOS/Allegent Health). There was 30 minutes to go. We had a gap of 15 seconds on the peloton. Although none of us were sure at the time, this was the break that was going to stick.

On the final lap, Logan Evans turned on the gas. I jumped on his wheel. We came around the final corner and Logan stood to sprint, but his final burst was to be short lived. The dude just put out some massive wattage pulling us around that last lap and much of the break. In the end, I was able to sling around him and take the line with Pierce and Hicks nipping behind.

celebrating with a victory punch

Ryan Feagan wins field sprint

In retrospect, I ended up where I was in large (if not most) part due to my team. I attacked three times: the preme lap, the successful break and then on the final sprint. In between those efforts, I had the support of my team to help recover the legs, but more importantly, the peace of mind in knowing that if I should fail, there'd be another one of us to fill the void. And on that day, with our collective strength, it could have been any of my teammates.

Thanks goes out to the Lincoln's Bike Pedalers for hosting the races and to John Lefler Jr for calling them. Lefler does a great job keeping it exciting. But most of all, thanks goes out to my MWCC teammates.

Indeed, it was truly good racing with you, buddies!

John Muir; Psalm 23

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
places to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
~John Muir


I shall not want.

I'm given rest in the green pastures



I am led beside the still waters which restores my soul



I am lead down the paths of righteousness for his name's sake




Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life


And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever