Badger State Games

This weekend was Badger State Games, in Madison. The mt.bike was at 2:00pm and the crit was at 4:15pm. I wasn't sure which race I was going to do until Saturday. My parents came down and were looking at some houses with us. That was really good and I think we found one that we are going to try to hook up with.
So on Sunday as they were heading home they stopped into Madison and watch some racing. It was super hot and majorly HUMID!! The field was surprisingly small, only about 30 guys in the Cat. 4-5 race. We took off for the 20 lap race. Right off the start some guys attached and their teammates took the front to block. I wasn't going to loose the race during the first few laps. I would pull to the front up the pace and then the teammates would come around and sit up. One time I ended up attacking, soloing up to the break, we stayed off for about 1 lap after I made the bridge then got pulled back in. In short with-in the first 8 laps I pulled in 3 of the breaks by my self. I was a little worried that I was working too hard but I think it was good that I pulled stuff in quickly, I think this physiced out the rest of the field and from laps 10-17 things were pretty calm. I was doing major recover knowing that things would get crazy at the end. Surprisingly no one really attacked too hard for during laps 17-19. Then on the last lap a group of 3 guys went hard about 1/4 way in. They got off the front but didn't look like they were going to stay. I watched them for another 1/4 lap and then I knew I had to go if I was going to make the podium. With 1/2 lap to go I opened up the reserves. They seen me coming and took off also. Because I was soloing I could take the final corner faster and caught the group there. The rest of the field was coming really hard at this point and my legs were burning like I have never felt! The final stretch was about 400 meters (about 1/4 mile). The break away stood up and started sprinting, I didn't think I could do it but I shifted to a big gear and started looking for one more sprint in my legs. A few others from the main pack sprinted early and came up on us hard, now we were a group of 7 and I was last. I knew I had worked too hard to let it go. I was pushing and got around two guys, then in a last ditch effort I swung out around two others about 20 ft. from the finish with enough speed to get just 1/2 a wheel up on him!! It was a really good sprint, I think it was the first time I was able to make a finish sprint stick so that was exciting! I will look around for some pics on line and post what I can find.