St. Cloud Stage Race Recap

I know I'm just a little insane to do the stage race 2 days after getting back from 6 days of riding in the French Alps. Some might even say I have an addiction? My excuse was Jordan wanted to race, and since I'm there, I might as well race too.

Jordan experienced his toughest competition yet against MNJRC newcomer Aaron Shaw, age 14. In the road race, Aaron dropped Jordan and won, with Jordan coming in second, Nora Bengal 3rd, and Jake Mittlestedt 4th. Just a few short hours after the road race, Jordan won the TT, beating Aaron (who rode stock) by almost 30 seconds. Jake was 3rd. This tied Aaron and Jordan for the omnium, which meant who ever won the crit won the overall omnium.

Momma Carla came up Sunday to watch the Crit, and brought along sister Maren and her friend. You'll see Carla occasionally at the races, but it was a rare chance to meet my 14 year old daughter Maren. We rewarded her patronage with a spectator medal.

I asked Jordan not to ride the front, and save a little for the sprint. The older and younger juniors all started together, but it had just started to rain. A few laps into the race, Cody Scott and Aaron crashed in a corner, and Jordan narrowly missed going down with them. Cody and Aaron were scraped up a bit, but OK. They both took a free lap, and got back into the race. At this point 2 older juniors were off the front, and Jordan was with Aaron, Cody, Alex Meyer, and Nora Bengal.

With a couple laps to go, Aaron attacked hard, and got a gap on the others. Jordan was forced to chase. He clawed his way back up to Aaron, and dropped the rest of the group in the process. At the bell, it was clear it would be a 2-up sprint between them. They came out of the last corner together, and sprinted side by side all the way to the line. It was so close, but Aaron won, just a half a wheel in front of Jordan. Wow.

Jordan was upset at first because he wanted to win so bad. But then Aimee Bagley and I helped him understand what he had accomplished. It was by far, the hardest race he had ever done, and he rode so hard, he dropped the other older juniors. Once he put that into perspective, he was all smiles. He and Aaron, along with the other juniors, hung out a lot this weekend, and really got to know each other. They've become good friends in a very short time. It's such a great experience for Jordan.



As for my race, my legs were definitely tired, but not as bad as I thought they would be. I struggled a bit in the road race when the pace amped up in the tailwind sections. The mountains sapped the speed out of my legs, and I was almost dropped every time we hit that section of the course. Pete Maxwell was on fire, and kept attacking over and over. For the road race, the Masters 35+ were combined with the Cat 1/2's, which made for complicated racing, especially for an omnium stage race. I ended up 7th in the Masters 35+ road race.

In the afternoon, I was able to scramble to a 2nd place in the TT, well short of Charlie Jacobs, who beat everyone except Doug Swanson. Binkowski was 3rd in the TT. This put me in 1st place in the omnium, just 1 point ahead of Jacobs, and 8 points ahead of Binkowski.

My strategy for the crit was to stay up front, and stay out of trouble. The legs were better than in the road race, but it was really hard to stay in the top 5. Every lap, I'd lose a couple spots, and have to claw my way back. I chased a couple moves off the front, figuring it would come down to a field sprint. Pete Maxwell drilled it for the last couple laps, and I got caught way out of position on the last lap. I moved up a little in the sprint down the final straight, but there just wasn't much room to get through. I ended up 11th. Charlie Jacobs won convincingly, which sealed his overall victory in the ominum as well. Charlie, as well as Maxwell, have definitely got some form right now.

Fortunately, because of my strong performance in the TT, I was able to salvage 3rd place in the omnium. Steve Cragle's 3rd place in the RR and Crit, balanced out his modest performance in the TT, leap frogging him all the way up to second in the omnium. Brent Binkowski ended up 4th, and my teammate Paul Rennert rounded out the top 5. Nice Job by all.

In the Cat 1/2's Marcotte won the Road Race and the Crit, but rode stock in the TT. This gave him 3rd in the omnium behind Doug Swanson, 1st, and Timmer, 2nd. Koeneman was 4th, and Hanna 5th.

In the Cat 3's, Michael Woell dominated by winning the TT, Crit, and omnium, after missing the break in the road race. P-slim (aka. Patrick Horrigan) had a fine showing, with a close second in the Crit, combined with winning the RR field sprint for 5th, to give him 2nd overall in the omnium.

I'm skipping riding Monday evening, and going boating. See, I have balance in my life, really. See you all at the Dog on Wednesday.