Sometimes athletes need some extra work, even elite professional athletes can use a little one on one time to help to dial in their craft. Our new Pro team has shown some good results since the start of the year but they are by no means perfect....yet. The difficulty is brining together a totally new group of guys and asking them to race like a perfectly oiled machine. This is not really a fair ask since our guys live all over the midwest and really only get time all together during races. Sometimes while racing you have to just know what your teammate is going to do, you have to trust in their ability and know that they will be there when they said.
Yesterday Matt, Shane, and I attended the Monsters of the Midway at the University of Chicago. This is a completely flat course on a long wide palisade on the UoChi campus. The road is a pretty tough with lots of cracks and pot holes. If the road was ever improved this would be a unreal super fun course. The condition of the course added a level of difficulty for sure. The level of talent at the race was quite high with 10 Ego Sammy's riders, a similar number of xXx riders, Cole House, Chad Hartley, and a handful of other very strong riders. For the most part our team strives to fight for control of the race but with our low numbers we were going to do as little as possible. This meant we would have to get a bit lucky with our timing but it also meant we could work on our techniques.
Matt, Shane, and I would try to make our way into any moves that showed any real promise and if we were not successful we would lead out Shane for the sprint. Matt works for the Astellas Pro cycling team so he has picked up some great techniques from them this year and we were going to practice them today.
The weather was too darn cold for May so I spent a good hour and a half warming up and trying to work out all the car legs from the night before. We lined up at back of the field and waited for the officials to get everything set. Luckily we did not wait too long and we were on our way in the normal speedy fashion. I took my time making it to the front and rolled off the front with a few moves that looked promising but went nowhere. Finally a move went up the road that looked to be the move and Matt had made it in. Cole House, Chad Hartley, two Ego Sammy's riders and a host of others. The problem was there were just too many guys in there. Once I realized there were too many up the road I should have positioned myself to be ready for the counter that was for sure going to go but hindsight and all. With just a few feet before the break was caught a counter attack was launched out of that by Cole House. That move started with two and swelled to 6 which was the winning number. There was not enough firepower left in the field to bring the move back. So it was time to practice our lead out work. With 7 laps to go we lined up with Matt, myself, and then Shane as our sprinter. Matt had to do his best to stay out of the wind as 7 laps is a LOOONG way to go for one guy, but we also had to position ourselves in a way to not get trapped and left out of position. Matt did a great job getting us around the course and keeping us in position. With one to go our lack of numbers hurt us a bit as we were swarmed by the pack. Shane was telling me we had to go! I found a gap and Shane did a great job to stay glued to my wheel. With only two turns to go Matt made his way back up to me and I jumped on his wheel again. I made a mistake at this point and did not make it through a hole Matt had gone through. This is something I will have to work on, I can't lose that wheel! It took me a few seconds but I was back on Matt's wheel, but Matt had slowed slightly to wait for us. This cost of a bit of speed for the last turn. We improved our position going through turn 3 and into turn 4. Coming out of turn 4 Shane jumped hard and had a lot of speed. He was able to make up a lot of spots and then waited for those in front of him to fade before going again. It was a long sprint, at least 400+ meters long. Shane ended the day 9th over all and 3rd in the field sprint. Sure we love to win, but getting some of our technical goals for the day was a big plus for us.
We all felt much better about the ride this week compared to last weekend at Urbana. Sometimes you need to fail hard to know how to improve.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Urbana Grand Prix
Urbana Grand Prix
Grant Erhard
5/3/15
The forecast was a high of 84 degrees, sun and wind; making for a fun fast race. The course at the Urbana Grand Prix in Urbana, Illinois was mainly through a park with 1.6 miles of winding roads with some small rollers and a slight up hill approximately 200 meters from the finish line. Our team of the day consisted of Nick, Shane, Matt, James and myself. We went into the race with a plan to go for preems, get Shane either in the break of lead him out for the field sprint. With a handful of fast guys we had a few wheels we could follow, and Sammy's P/b EGO with almost 9 guys we wouldn’t have to do a ton of work or so we thought. The race started off kinda of slow I was a bit far back and began moving up while a series of small attacks went as teams started to stretch their legs. A couple of laps went by and a preem was announced so I moved to my spot near the front to be ready if some one jumped. Sure enough about half way through two members of Sammy's jumped and got a small gap. I delayed to be the first to jump on board because we had a long way to go still for the lap and didn’t want to be forced to pull. A couple of random guys jumped but didn’t really commit to the effort and left a gap open. I took my time jumping around these two and gained slowly on the duo. The two Sammy's riders never looked back which allowed me to sneak up on them and at the bottom of the hill going into the finish, I went around them easily and was able to coast through the line. The two went by me committing to the gap so I jumped on board hoping for a free ride. I was not wanting to work with the two Sammy's riders until the gap was set and we weren’t being chased. But they were not on the same page about towing me around and quickly began trying to force me to work. Fighting not to work a rider got away, at the same moment the field was just a few seconds back but wouldn’t finish the chase leaving me and the one other Sammy's rider in the wind. We dangled for a few laps off the front till we were caught. My team went to the front and began chase. With 8 Sammy's riders still in the field they began to block and were doing a very good job doing so. I recovered and moved up to help in the chase. As the lead grew each lap riders began to grow frustrated by Sammy's coordination in blocking. I've always said that when blocking, you know you are doing it right when riders start getting mad. What sucks is that I was on the receiving end of this along with the rest of the field.
My team began to run out of gas in the heat, and Shane was sitting in waiting for the end. I went to the front and began to pull back the solo Sammy's rider. With two or three other riders from various teams working, and the Sammy's wall of bikes at the front, we were able to push the pace to bring back the solo rider, Dustin Morici. Once Dustin was back in the field we only had 2 laps to go. I was feeling rather tiered and began to drop back in the whittled down field; one, to catch my breath, and two, find Shane and move him up. I recovered quickly because the pace had drastically come down as Sammy's was at the front slowly winding up their lead out for their sprinter. I must commend their team coordination, they block well together, then immediately found one another for a lead out; true teamwork. Entering the last lap I was able to find Shane slipping off the back of the field as the heat had taken its toll and he was cramping bad. He told me to leave him so I began moving back up. With 1.5 miles to move up I took my time as the pace was still not very fast. Nearing the front I found a good line out of the wind and was able to coast up to about 8th wheel. With a Astellas Pro cycling rider Hogan Sills sitting 3rd I knew where I wanted to be. Sammy's however had their guy lined up near him and were trying to push everyone away. I pushed back, came underneath their blocks and found myself sitting just to the left of Hogan from Astellas. With about 250 meters left I began to wind my sprint up. But I guess great minds think alike and Hogan went half a second before me and was FAST out the saddle. I dug deep pushing harder and harder pounding over the hill pushing wide to close the door of anyone trying to come over me. But again a half second too late as a rider was able to sneak over the top of me. I kept sprinting and came in for 3rd with no problem.
Todays race was really fun. I went to Urbana to race for my teammates. Even thou things didn’t go as planned I was happy that I could do all the work that I did and still be able to sprint at the end. What this tells me is that as our entire team gets stronger I will be able to help them even more than I had hoped.
Grant Erhard
5/3/15
The forecast was a high of 84 degrees, sun and wind; making for a fun fast race. The course at the Urbana Grand Prix in Urbana, Illinois was mainly through a park with 1.6 miles of winding roads with some small rollers and a slight up hill approximately 200 meters from the finish line. Our team of the day consisted of Nick, Shane, Matt, James and myself. We went into the race with a plan to go for preems, get Shane either in the break of lead him out for the field sprint. With a handful of fast guys we had a few wheels we could follow, and Sammy's P/b EGO with almost 9 guys we wouldn’t have to do a ton of work or so we thought. The race started off kinda of slow I was a bit far back and began moving up while a series of small attacks went as teams started to stretch their legs. A couple of laps went by and a preem was announced so I moved to my spot near the front to be ready if some one jumped. Sure enough about half way through two members of Sammy's jumped and got a small gap. I delayed to be the first to jump on board because we had a long way to go still for the lap and didn’t want to be forced to pull. A couple of random guys jumped but didn’t really commit to the effort and left a gap open. I took my time jumping around these two and gained slowly on the duo. The two Sammy's riders never looked back which allowed me to sneak up on them and at the bottom of the hill going into the finish, I went around them easily and was able to coast through the line. The two went by me committing to the gap so I jumped on board hoping for a free ride. I was not wanting to work with the two Sammy's riders until the gap was set and we weren’t being chased. But they were not on the same page about towing me around and quickly began trying to force me to work. Fighting not to work a rider got away, at the same moment the field was just a few seconds back but wouldn’t finish the chase leaving me and the one other Sammy's rider in the wind. We dangled for a few laps off the front till we were caught. My team went to the front and began chase. With 8 Sammy's riders still in the field they began to block and were doing a very good job doing so. I recovered and moved up to help in the chase. As the lead grew each lap riders began to grow frustrated by Sammy's coordination in blocking. I've always said that when blocking, you know you are doing it right when riders start getting mad. What sucks is that I was on the receiving end of this along with the rest of the field.
My team began to run out of gas in the heat, and Shane was sitting in waiting for the end. I went to the front and began to pull back the solo Sammy's rider. With two or three other riders from various teams working, and the Sammy's wall of bikes at the front, we were able to push the pace to bring back the solo rider, Dustin Morici. Once Dustin was back in the field we only had 2 laps to go. I was feeling rather tiered and began to drop back in the whittled down field; one, to catch my breath, and two, find Shane and move him up. I recovered quickly because the pace had drastically come down as Sammy's was at the front slowly winding up their lead out for their sprinter. I must commend their team coordination, they block well together, then immediately found one another for a lead out; true teamwork. Entering the last lap I was able to find Shane slipping off the back of the field as the heat had taken its toll and he was cramping bad. He told me to leave him so I began moving back up. With 1.5 miles to move up I took my time as the pace was still not very fast. Nearing the front I found a good line out of the wind and was able to coast up to about 8th wheel. With a Astellas Pro cycling rider Hogan Sills sitting 3rd I knew where I wanted to be. Sammy's however had their guy lined up near him and were trying to push everyone away. I pushed back, came underneath their blocks and found myself sitting just to the left of Hogan from Astellas. With about 250 meters left I began to wind my sprint up. But I guess great minds think alike and Hogan went half a second before me and was FAST out the saddle. I dug deep pushing harder and harder pounding over the hill pushing wide to close the door of anyone trying to come over me. But again a half second too late as a rider was able to sneak over the top of me. I kept sprinting and came in for 3rd with no problem.
Todays race was really fun. I went to Urbana to race for my teammates. Even thou things didn’t go as planned I was happy that I could do all the work that I did and still be able to sprint at the end. What this tells me is that as our entire team gets stronger I will be able to help them even more than I had hoped.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Inside Speed Week
Matt Kelley
SBR Quantum Racing domestic rider.
USA Crits SpeedWeek report.
Headphones on and up. Up a little more. Drowning out the screaming techno blaring up and down the street. Dulling the din of caged combatants crashing past in one minute forty second intervals. Ragged guitar smashing gets my eyes seeing red. Bass rhythms regulate the pounding of my heart. Wake me up, shake me up, whip me up. Headphones up.
Fidget with my display settings. Fidget with my shoe settings. Fidget with my gloved fingers. An official is stamping and bellowing a hundred paces in front of me. The setting sun is blinding. The roaring crowd is deafening. The rhythmic hammer fall of my heart matches the beat of a clock counting down to zero. Zero. Zero.
A whistle shrieks and the breath of a hundred sons are suspended for a hundred moments.
My chariot is fire. My blood is foam. My grip is steel. Charging between pools of light and sound I can hear the snorting and cursing of battles waging around me. I can not see but feel my way through the bodies and machines. Elbows and hips and teeth gnash around sharp corners. Money is snatched. More money is snatched. The crowd, drunken, pushes closer to the gates. Eager for blood. Thirsting for the fight. Urging us on with balled fists to go faster, faster, faster still.
The clock inexorably beats toward exhaustion. Courage my heart, we must go on. My teeth are bared. My eyes sting with salt. Fingernails tearing through my gloves. The pain is endurable; my mantra, my religion. The pain is endurable. My collapsing body is strapped to my machine. Every corner is a nightmare. The machine is fighting me, bucking to be unleashed. The enemy surrounding me are ghosts from another time. I'm racing towards the brightest light. I'm sprinting for that golden pool of relief and reward. I reach out with all my heart. Yet still I hear the rejoicing of victor and vicarious. The golden light shepherds me past it's warm embrace. My head bows under the heavy yoke of suffering not yet released.
I cruise through the light, the din of the crowd, the revelry of the victorious. Into the darkness. The cool places. The silence. I listen to my breathing. Ragged and gulping. My body is fire. My heart is coal. Tonight was lost. It will not be my last. Golden light I am coming for you. For now, headphones up. Headphones up.
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